Tenkar's Tavern: Dungeon Crawling Like It's 1983! (Now With Wilderness Encounter Tables and Goldenrods)

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Dungeon Crawling Like It's 1983! (Now With Wilderness Encounter Tables and Goldenrods)

I'm amazed at the pieces of gaming goodness I'm finding in the old, now 2-piece, Blue Trapper Portfolio.

Apparently I started gaming in February of 1982, as my first character's sheet has that as his creation date. I thought it was back in 1981, but character sheets don't lie (except when it comes to character stats it seems).

Here's another dungeon "One-Sheet", this time labeled "level 2". My God but I was giving away crazy loot for little reason back then. Assuming this stuff was from 1983 (the Wilderness encounter charts match up with the release of the MMII in 1983) I was gaming for a year or so when I made these masterpieces.

Huzzah!

Just as a side note, I apparently have 1 each of the "Goldenrod AD&D Character Sheets" that aren't written on. Master copies, if you will, for my father to take to work and use the job copier. I think I need to scan these up as historical archives.

6 comments:

Jeff RientsJuly 7, 2012 at 12:25 PM
Cool find!
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mbeacomJuly 10, 2012 at 2:51 PM
I have an entire tablet of those character sheets still unused. I liked them too much to use them, wanted to save them for special characters. I think maybe I used one sheet.
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GameDaddyOctober 29, 2012 at 8:59 PM
No Traps? Not even a pit trap...?
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GameDaddyOctober 29, 2012 at 9:00 PM
What, no traps back then? Not even a pit trap...? Otherwise looks really good!!!
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RuprechtOctober 3, 2018 at 3:12 PM
I found a bunch of old character sheet for my players and discovered I had really good eyesight and tiny handwriting back then.
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Vance ANovember 12, 2018 at 12:25 AM
I need scans of those 1e sheets, stat!
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Why "Swords & Wizardry?"

Believe me when I say I have them all in dead tree format. I have OSRIC in full size, trade paperback and the Player's Guide. I have LL and the AEC (and somewhere OEC, but I can't find it at the moment). Obviously I have Basic Fantasy RPG. Actually, I have the whole available line in print. Way too much Castles & Crusades. We all know my love for the DCC RPG. I even have Dark Dungeons in print, the Delving Deeper boxed set, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. BOTH editions of LotFP's Weird Fantasy and some dead tree copies of the Greyhawk Grognards Adventures Dark & Deep

I am so deep in the OSR when I come up for breath it's for the OSR's cousin, Tunnels & Trolls

So, out of all that, why Swords & Wizardry? Why, when I have been running a AD&D 1e / OSRIC campaign in Rappan Athuk am I using Swords & Wizardry and it's variant, Crypts & Things, for the second campaign? (Actually, now running a S&W Complete campaign, soon to be with multiple groups)

Because the shit works.

It's easy for lapsed gamers to pick up and feel like they haven't lost a step. I can house rule it and it doesn't break. It plays so close to the AD&D of my youth and college years (S&W Complete especially) that it continually surprises me. Just much less rules hopping than I remember. (my God but I can run it nearly without the book)

I grab and pick and steal from just about all OSR and Original resources. They seem to fit into S&W with little fuss. It may be the same with LL and the rest, but for me the ease of use fit's my expectations with S&W.

Even the single saving throw. That took me longer to adjust to, but even that seems like a natural to me now. Don't ask me why, it just does. Maybe it's the simplicity of it. At 45 52, simplicity and flexibility while remaining true to the feel of the original is an OSR hat trick for me ;)

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Saturday, July 7, 2012

Dungeon Crawling Like It's 1983! (Now With Wilderness Encounter Tables and Goldenrods)

6 comments:

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