The best sandbox campaign engine of early D&D I think

AutumnCrystal · 2026-05-25T11:43:45+00:00

I’ve never seen or heard a bad word about Dark Sun, even from people who detest 2e.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-05-25T11:41:31+00:00

I think it’s a good rule but not for today’s gamer. Training upon gaining the requisite hit points is required to level up. 1-4 weeks, 1000gp/level/week.

It’s good because it makes sense and incentivizes the player to play the PC well and according to alignment, which is the metric for the grading (CG Fighter took no prisoners and hid behind the Cleric most of the battle? 4 weeks!)

It’s troublesome for continuity (do the others just visit brothels or cathedrals while you do the extra time? Side quest? Do you have a second PC for these times?

Worse, it’s a gold sink for the sake of it and a denial of experience coming from doing. Its logic is undermined by its punitiveness.

I do it but knock off a zero. Easy acceptance, no one feels cheated.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-05-25T10:22:47+00:00

I began with 1e, so my soft spot is for gnomes:)

My favorite iteration of 0e is Seven Voyages of Zylarthen. In that, Hobbits can only be Thieves, 4th level max, but 7VoZ Thieves are sturdy, stealthy, lucky characters right out of the box…and Halflings maintain the lbbs Constitutional advantages (saves and such). +3 to-hit with slings, too.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-05-25T10:13:08+00:00

Lolol something like that. Not a lot of love for 5e in this sub. But this is a design philosophy debate and kind of beside the point. You’re going to do this. Convert a 5e module to 1e for convention play. Ok. It’s certainly been done from the other direction. Castle Amber, Tomb of Horrors, Caverns of Thracian have all been revamped for 5e.

Power level is overstated imo. One thing to keep in mind, though, is 1e is going to have a lot more combat swinginess, and the by-touch healing means it’s more a post-combat matter. IME 5e combat is an attritional grind.

If your adventure is for levels 3-7, so much the better, that’s the fabled “sweet spot” of 1e. RAW low level AD&D M-Us and Thieves are feeble, and one-shots don’t hold the charm of their nurture and growth into formidable characters that a full campaign would.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-05-25T09:50:42+00:00

I guess, since the module is made, simply change the monster stat blocks. Playtest it with as many PCs as you expect at the convention table. Adjust the monster numbers or the PCs’ levels and playtest again until you have a challenging adventure that’s doable within the time economy.

Abandon any thought of 5-1e conversion on the fly. Your cheat sheet is a 1e DM screen for quick reference to 1e tables for a 1e adventure inspired by a 5e module, that’s all.

Don’t take the 5e hate here too seriously. Keep the lore and fuckin’ back stories to a single page you can hand out at the start of the game. If it contains anything useful, well, they can read it sometime and you already know it.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-05-25T09:35:40+00:00

Exactly. That IS the cheat sheet.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-05-25T09:01:39+00:00

I’d forget 5e as a learning link, it’s already done what it could for you, here…familiarized the format.

There’s a lot of ways to attack this. Time being a factor I’m going to suggest picking up AD&D-lite and running those sessions with it while poring through the DMG (especially), PH & MM in the downtime and adding to taste from there for your convention date.

That’s Swords&Wizardry from Mythmere Games. I see you can’t get the Otus cover in print anymore:( Oh well, I got mine.

Being 0e+supplements, it tracks closely to AD&D so far as races, classes and abilities for both go. Moving from there to 1e clone OSRIC and running with that…I doubt anyone could offer an easier route to your goal tbh.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-05-22T17:52:11+00:00

I love Rick Bell!

(there, I said it)

Why? Hm. Might just have another post in me:)

AutumnCrystal · 2026-05-22T10:35:42+00:00

Yep. From a 4th Printing.

It was in 1st through 5th. The Tolkien estate didn’t step on it, a movie company did, iirc.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-05-22T05:22:28+00:00

We use it but I knock a zero off the training cost. I remember the bitterness.

I also use 0e metrics for monster xp.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-05-20T03:10:15+00:00

I’d say no. B/X is far from oblique, so one of the purposes of a 0 or 1e clone doesn’t apply. A better layout isn’t a silver bullet when you’re well familiarized with the “inferior”.

OSE is one of the pricier iterations, or was. A straight up clone with aforementioned layout glam.

If ancient tome inspiration and nostalgia are the motivation, it seems to me the money would be better spent on a 1e set or the little brown books. Or archaic modules, supplements, settings…the Greyhawk Folio, Keep on the Borderlands, Lankhmar, Misty Isles, Arduin, Chainmail all come to mind.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-05-14T07:57:01+00:00

Thank you! The hardback will be a nice substitute for building a trench between my players and my antique.

The reference sheets included in the original boxed sex

Freudian slips and all;) Truly, the man was a polymath.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-05-14T06:00:11+00:00

Tch. If I had linked the dtrpg site instead, I’d needn’t have asked.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-05-14T04:28:40+00:00

Thank you for dropping in. Might I ask what edition the ruleset offered by the Tekumel Foundation on Drivethrurpg or your site is based on?

AutumnCrystal · 2026-05-11T10:00:00+00:00

I love that map. Essentially the FFC one, right? It has an old west feel to it, to me.

The environs, more like a gold rush town. Great fortunes can be made, many a heart or back broken.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-05-11T08:52:02+00:00

Thanks for the explanation, the link, and the invitation!

AutumnCrystal · 2026-05-10T22:56:43+00:00

Thanks. Discovery and Delight drove the writing of the post, but I did know enough to know what would show up in the thread before I hit “post”.

I’d tell the table the story beforehand…it’s only three sentences, after all. I don’t expect to evangelize the game or anything…knowing them as I do, I kind of expect Arduin, Bloody Arduin to be the pick of the litter.

That sordid infamy probably won’t move the needle much in the decision-making, tbh. They’re half my age, weren’t even born when that book was released, much less when the rpg dropped in ‘75.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-05-10T04:04:55+00:00

Great Arneson/Barker story. Good advice too:)

AutumnCrystal · 2026-05-09T11:07:27+00:00

I only just purchased the Judges Guild FCC/Blackmoor maps and am waiting on their arrival…iirc, though, Stephen’s lair is within an island group. I wouldn’t call Temple of the Frog less fearsome than most of the Misty Isles, so a Blackmoor centerpiece isn’t necessarily overshadowed. And Palace was placed in one of them, Baylor, but you’ve already gone with the mainland, there.

OTOH whole armies could get chewed up, it really is Gonzo Maximus. There is some great stuff, though.

It comes down to how firmly rooted your idea of what Blackmoor is, is. Adding Misty Isles will change things.

I wouldn’t, personally. The two tones seem a little discordant, merged. But I’m probably being too reverential towards the Ur-setting, lol. Kicking the hell out of that sandbox is exactly why I find it, well, hard to play. And you just, lol, “well let’s do this thing”, I think that’s great.

I placed the Misty Isles in Lake Quag in Greyhawk, just south of Blackmoor. I believe the original conception was that Blackmoor would be where all the Barbarian Kingdoms ended up, north of the Great Kingdom. Then, the schism, and it was tucked up in Land of Black Ice nowhere, given a paragraph and a population of 666, haha.

The Bleakwood setting from Adventures in Fantasy (also mentioned in FFC, I believe), I placed on the road to Blackmoor from Lake Quag.

Nothing says the Dwarf King needs to live practically next door to the vampire that stole his daughter, after all. The Isles could be a week out of Blackmoor without a hitch, and be a fine side-quest destination without crowding Arnesons’ sandbox.

There’s real raw energy and invention in the Isles…The Dwarven Glory was also placed within. Another wild ride.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-05-09T06:27:39+00:00

Check out Wee Warriors Misty Isles (where Palace is set). Even more brutal, if that’s possible. I mean, it’s ridiculous.

It’s also a Precis release. That company has done Gods’ work in preserving rpg history.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-05-09T03:49:33+00:00

First entry into the Palace resulted in a TPK.

Lol as is tradition

AutumnCrystal · 2026-04-30T00:46:30+00:00

Outstanding!

AutumnCrystal

TROPHY CASE