CarlHeyl

Mixed parties.

D&D games today tend to have parties where all the PCs are at the same level. Often the whole party takes an evening to level up.

In earlier times parties were often mixed. Leveling up was done per person based on XP and XP was doled out by the DM at the end of the evening based on PC performance. Players took notes to remind the DM, I killed that troll or I cast that spell trying to maximize XP earned. Also different classes leveled up at different XP so there was almost never an entire party leveling up at the same time. This took a lot of bookkeeping but that's the kind of geeks we were.

Also when a PC was killed the player would roll a new character at level 1. So a party of four could have a level 3 thief, a level 4 fighter, a level 2 wizard, and a level 1 cleric. (Who used to be the best fighter until he died.)

I like this. It adds a certain grittiness to the game and it certainly affects battle tactics. But when I wrote Just Quest as a minimal rules OSR I wrote, "The characters level up on successful completion of a quest". A simple rule for a game designed to be easy to play.

Where do you stand on this? Do you enjoy playing in mixed parties? If you're a DM do you try to keep your parties at about the same level or do you embrace the idea of mixed parties?

We may discuss this on Inspired Unreality Monday night or we may just drink some tea with the Milyagon witch and see what happens next.

Hey, how's things?

I'm going to start an old school B/X game at the FLGS this Saturday.

Sorry for the long absence! I am back!

Yesterday afternoon I ran Caves Of Doom, a Milyagon adventure, at the NEA Game Fest in Jonesboro, Arkansas. The players had a good time finding treasure and managed to leave the Caves Of Doom without killing all the monsters. We still had a half hour of play time left so the Mayor of Milyagon paid the adventurers to go back and clear out the remaining monsters. Magus (pronounced Magoo) showed a predeliction to setting the furniture afire that the monsters were hiding in. Smokey but effective.

Then I played Just Once at the fancy dress gamer party. This is a word game and a guessing game and it's really fun. Recommended.

Just did the Breakfast Club at Tenkar's Tavern. We talked about conventions, movies, and character death. It was a good chat. Craig was recording so I think it will be a podcast.

My six year old son Connor is designing a town and dungeon both named Caldea. The dungeon is directly underneath the town for reasons unknown. Secret entrances to the dungeon can be found throughout the town.

I'm really excited about the next save or die episode.

The restaurant Wendy's has released a table top RPG as a marketing tool. I think this proves we are officially beyond any age of nerdom previously experienced.

126 gamers on Gamer+. They say word of mouth advertising is the best. And that's a good thing because it's all we can afford. Please share Gamer+ with your friends.

I’ve started Running a solo campaign using the 3 little brown books and the Outdoor Survival map. I’ve discovered it’s a fun way to teach myself the original rules of D&D as published in 1974.

I firmly believe in the player's right to screw up the story line. That's life.

Started working on a new general area with rough map for my eventual online Delving Deeper game and I'm struggling to keep up with all the cool ideas I keep having for rumors and such. I'm taking all the cool ideas I've ever wanted to use in a fantasy campaign and putting them all in.

You don't have to go underground to find adventure.

I think I finally have the right idea for the mega dungeon I've always wanted to make.

Will there be a way to watch your game from the Gygax house later?

What is your opinion on race as class?

I help with a local homeschool game group and lately we've been playing Dungeons & Dragons. I feel like there is enough players and interest to start a campaign. The one I have in mind is one where there are five evil chromatic dragons (one of each color) that rule tyrannically over the land. They expect offering from the humans in exchange for not obliterating them. Out of fear of the dragons wrath it is illegal to oppose the dragons plans. PC's would all be a part of an organization that secretly is working against the dragons. I need a good name for that organization that would appeal to kids. Thoughts?

Our D&D game today had a thief with two shrinking potions shrink himself and then sneak into an ogre lair to shrink the ogre with the other potion. It ended up with the shrunken ogre and thief fighting it out on a table top while the rest of the party took out the ogres hobgoblin guards. It was a ton of fun that was completely unsuspected. D&D is neat.

The latest episode of The Crusader is out with a bonus Holmes Basic edition war included.

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-yrmcz-bb0180

Its friday! Finally. Happy Friday everyone! Anyone doing some gaming this weekend? I will be playing some Star Wars d6 this weekend and running Ghostbusters!

Saw the link on another site, figured I'd check it out.

Tabletop gamers needed.

We're here for the entire gaming community, Tabletop, Miniatures, Cards, as well as RPGs. Unfortunately I am poorly qualified to post about games other than RPGs because I, personally, am all about DnD all the time.

So if you play something other than RPGs we need you here. Please join and post about your favorite games. Please promote your Tabletop events. We need your help.