dungeons-and-dragons

  • Unarmed Combat in AD&D: Human versus Ogre

    In my previous post of unarmed combat in AD&D, I discussed the basic mechanisms and gave an example of pummeling. Here is an example regarding grappling human versus ogre. A few years ago, when I was running the Trollopulous Campaign,… Continue reading

  • Unarmed Combat in AD&D: a beast of a different color

    One of the great things about Hal Foster’s seminal Prince Valiant is that from very early on, Foster demonstrates how medieval combat was inextricably entwined with wrestling. The sequence below is one of the earliest examples, Val is losing versus… Continue reading

  • Missing Weapons in AD&D?

    AD&D is pretty famous for having a fairly extensive weapons list, including in particular quite a lot of different types of pole arm. However, a couple of recent videos (here and here) by the esteemable Matt Easton of the YouTube… Continue reading

  • Pancho Villa Weapons for RPGs

    Inspired by this proposal to runs a Pancho Villa Expedition for AD&D/Boot Hill. It seems like if this is to be done, we need stats for the equipment of the time. With information from the articles here and here, here… Continue reading

  • Product Review — Nebulith

    As of this date, I haven’t really done any product reviews. I don’t reckon I’ll be doing many. Unless, discussion of old games is considered a product review. But, nonetheless, I have been considering doing some product reviews despite that… Continue reading

  • AD&D Weapon Optimization

    In an earlier post, I discussed the spear versus the dagger efficacy versus the armors available in AD&D. I also present, more generally, the entire list of weapons and how they’d fare versus a 0-level mercenary soldier in AD&D. Here… Continue reading

  • AD&D Surprise Explained?

    There has been a fair amount of confusion about how surprise is conducted in AD&D 1e. I don’t know why because right there on page 61 of the DMG it says: Surprise is basically self-explanatory. Well then no more need… Continue reading

  • The Philosophy of Random Wilderness Encounters and the Campaign

    This post is inspired by this X post discussing random wilderness encounters. He’s not wrong. But, he’s not right, either. I’ll explain. Plus he’s got this blog post. What he’s talking about is the procedure that is described on p.47… Continue reading

  • AD&D Weapon v. AC Advantages/Disadvantages

    This post is inspired by this video. Though this one pretty much sums up my conclusions pretty well. In summary, Shad’s argument goes like this, when held up next to one another a dagger and a spearhead, despite the variations… Continue reading

  • Racism in Role Playing Games Part 4: AD&D Playable Races

    So we looked at Ogres and Trolls here. And, the humanoid races in general here. But, I’m sure people are most interested in the playable races. Those races have their own racial preferences table. I’m not going to recapitulate the… Continue reading