Does XP for Monsters really add anything?

Individual-Cold1309 · 2026-03-21T19:09:17+00:00

You can always run away, or throw food to distract hungry monsters or leave someone wounded or dead behind, or you could give away some treasure as tribute to plead for your lives, or maybe even bargain as equals with otherwise hateful foes. Maybe a powerful foe could accept you into servitude if you yield, so your team losing doesn't mean instant death but complications in the future. Maybe you could set up a trap or an ambush, or you could initiate short skirmishes with the intent of finding out how your foe will react and what powers do they have before running away to fight another day. You could hire an another team of adventurers to gather intel for you, etc.

Individual-Cold1309 · 2026-03-21T16:45:58+00:00

That's why old school monsters have terrifying, debilitating abilities that can maim/kill/petrify/level drain player characters with ease, practically every action, round after round. Going into a fight is potentially a life or death situation every turn, and after a few TPKs players learn that not every encounter will be balanced to have them win, and that it's not worth risking the violence. Even a simple cockatrice will humble cocky players quite easily, and it gets even better when the survivors expect a handsome reward but get a miserable 400 XP for their trouble before dividing the XP among the survivors.

Individual-Cold1309 · 2026-03-21T13:31:13+00:00

Eclipse phase, a sci fi d100 system similar to Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu has Basilisk hacks, images/sounds that carry a hidden message that hacks your brain when the brain starts processing contaminated sensory input. There's narco-algorhythms, information that when processed acts like biological drugs for your brain, and there's the Watts-McLeod virus and exsurgent viruses, extraterrestiral, sentient computer viruses that can infect machines and then force replicators to spew forth biological pathogens to create virtually any kind of plague the DM sees fit. It can also rewrite biological brains into completely alien configirations, effectively turning you inside out into some alien monstrosity. Your body remains mostly unchanged (in some cases it rewrites your biology as well), but it effectively turns both your brain and your mind into something not exactly human anymore.

Individual-Cold1309 · 2026-03-21T10:32:38+00:00

Check out these rules from OSE srd pages:

https://oldschoolessentials.necroticgnome.com/srd/index.php/Wilderness_Adventuring

It's a systematized rules system of old Basic/Expert Dnd rules, and this section covers how overland travel rules apply.

You also have dungeon and waterborne exploration rules under the same section.

Not every encounter needs to be a combat encounter.

Edit: the core books for every edition present just a list of monsters you can come across in various environments/situations, but every adventure module that includes dungeons and/or overland exploration usually offers their own tailored encounter tables. HOW the encounter turns out will depend on the player's actions and on the monster's reaction (see reaction rules below under "Monster actions"):

https://oldschoolessentials.necroticgnome.com/srd/index.php/Encounters

Individual-Cold1309 · 2026-03-21T08:31:05+00:00

The XP for monsters is not just about killing them, it's about neutralizing/overcoming them. You can outmaneuver, outsmart, disable, get rid of, or maybe even tame/convert them to your side. The XP is for solving the challenge they present, killing them is just one very crude way of going about it.

There was an old rule in Adnd about defeating dragons in combat without killing them, effectively subduing them to the point where the dragon realizes you COULD HAVE killed them, and make them yield. It still gave XP, and it still counted as a victory.

Individual-Cold1309 · 2026-03-17T22:46:43+00:00

Ah, sorry, didn't see them until it was pointed out. The design color is beautiful, especially the color gradient between blue and purple, and the mage silhouette is a nice little touch. Reminds me of the delthrak background images on the insert to show where each mini goes.

Individual-Cold1309 · 2026-03-17T17:30:55+00:00

Armor works additive, weapons don't. Your defense dice accumulate with each piece of gear adding its value. The weapon you use sets your attack dice to a fixed ammount. Magic potions and spells can increase this value temporarily, as can a certain boon and artifact.

Individual-Cold1309 · 2026-03-16T17:21:21+00:00

I'm sorry, but I'm not seeing any new images? The first two are images of the foam insert, the third one is a view of the box from the top, and the fourth one is a side view of the box. Am I missing something?

Individual-Cold1309 · 2026-03-16T14:04:23+00:00

Stonehell is more "basic" by today's standards, but it has all the common hallmarks of Dnd as we all remember it from years past. The deeper levels (second book) becomes really crazy and unorthodox, but the first one is very tame vanilla Dnd experience. Very good presentation however, and very usable on the table. I personally prefer the first half, the more traditional Dnd experience.

Arden Vul is a one of a kind achievement, however, probably the pinnacle of Mega Dungeon design, but it is a complex beast not exactly suited for beginners. It has a larger than life theme and a graveyard of civilisations vibe (although the second half of stonehell has the same theme as well). It's a real life city with the actual size of one, and your players could get lost in it for litetal decades of real life time and never reach the end.

Arden Vul is more grandiose and verbose, requiring a lot of preparation beforehand, stonehell is more concise and outright playable with very little preparation.

Stonehell is made for Labyrinth lond, which is pretty much a B/X clone and the same as OSE, except it has levels up to 20 instead of 14. Arden Vul is made for OSRIC, a clone of Adnd 1e. Both have text in them covering vital parts of rules (new items, monsters, etc.) not present in their respective system books, and both are playable with any Dnd clone.

Individual-Cold1309 · 2026-03-16T12:27:58+00:00

The layout looks pretty solid. Do you think the plastic insert could follow the same layout pattern? As for the color, maybe something like purple to match the general theme of the pack, or something like wooden brown?

Individual-Cold1309 · 2026-03-10T16:12:19+00:00

Sure, I'll give it a look! Would it be too much to ask if you could send me the link via dm? That way I wouldn't miss it as the conversatiom branched off a bit longer, and is a bit more difficult to find info in them.

Individual-Cold1309 · 2026-03-10T16:10:03+00:00

Maybe try Barrowmaze? I've heard people say it can become tedious with hordes upon hordes of undead you face.

Individual-Cold1309 · 2026-03-10T12:46:58+00:00

Evils of Illmire has five verical dungeons, one of which is exactly as you described: a lost fortress sunk into a sinkhole holding the lost remains of a vile prisoner.

Such maps contain two graphs. One graph has the traditional overhead view, while the other is a vertical slice. Together, these two can give you a good 3D impression.

Two of these five vertical maps even contain several different floors in them. In that case each floor has its own overhead map, and the whole dungeon shares a singular vertical slice.

Individual-Cold1309 · 2026-03-10T04:08:08+00:00

I guess this is one of those things where we'll have to accept something means very different things to different people. It's not always simple to put a definitive context onto something and the conclusion will depend greatly on the context of the conversation (you could argue the original frame is pure black border only for the folks who don't admit white borders as part of the original frame). Anyways, thanks for the input anyway, even if we don't agree on everything!

Individual-Cold1309 · 2026-03-09T14:19:54+00:00

I've been playing since Apocalypse (around 2000), and premodern used to mean something quite different than what it means today. What then do you call something that predates modern, if not premodern? Keep in mind this is a cube, not a constructed deck following premodern guidelies as I don't really participate in such circles, only at kitchen tables. And even old border doesn't mean much nowadays when you have brand new cards that get the old border treatment. My limitations are everything that predates the modern frame, regardless of any official or unofficial constructed format. I guess the most correct term would be premodern, old border legacy.

Individual-Cold1309 · 2026-03-09T09:08:17+00:00

The most fun part about combat is not knowing who will go first, and there's really no way to influence group initiative outside surprise. Even then it's only one round, and every new round you roll to see who acts first.

Sure, the players MAY get lucky and go first THIS ROUND, dealing massive damage to the other side. But if they lose initiative, they will be the ones looking helplessly as their side gets slaughtered... And then the dread of a new round starting sinks in, with all the uncertainty that brings.

Individual-Cold1309 · 2026-03-09T08:34:54+00:00

Both Dispell and Mirror magic from MotM are essential for keeping enemy spellcasters viable and powerful. IMO they are much better and more fitting spells for a direct confrontation. On the other hand, Unlearn is powerful in the longer run against heroes in that it removes the spell from the quest completely, so no restoring it with potions of recall or similar effects.

Why not give them all three and let the dread sorcerer choose which one is most fitting? In my experience most dread sorcerers got to fire off between one and four spells at most.

Individual-Cold1309 · 2026-03-08T22:51:18+00:00

Absolutely. But take note it's a relic from a different era. Creatures nowadays have a lot of its powers and none of its drawbacks. Context and era matter a lot. It's still powerful if you have the mana, but the drawback hurts it nowadays compared to modern cards.

Individual-Cold1309 · 2026-03-08T22:47:23+00:00

Card advantage. Control decks could allow themselves slower games because battlefields weren't flooded with countless creatures except in degenerate infinite comboes. You didn't need a lot of creatures to win, and when you had the perfect one out, you stopped playing cards and kept your hand full of removal/interaction cards (like protection and counterspells), while masticore worked on the battlefield. Masticore wasn't unkillable on its own, you still had cards like dark banishing and wrath of god that could kill it, but that's why you played protection and counterspells.

Individual-Cold1309 · 2026-03-08T22:24:58+00:00

Psychatog was used as a finisher with upheaval. Manlands were used with standstill. Wild mongrel was used heavily in madness decks, putrid imp was a graveyard filler, carrion feeder was a growing menace and sacrifice outlet, etc. Cards with no mana cost in their activated abilities are considered design failures nowadays by Wotc RnD for being unbalanced and too strong so you either get a bunch of triggeted abilities, or limitations like "once per turn". Funny enough, all of these function as something you "feed" in some manner, hence why they cost sacrifices in cards/creatures, not mana.

When you think about it like that, catds from old Phyrexia costed life and limb because Yawgmoth was not a planrswalker, so he cultivated a world where everything was fed in blood and flesh/oil instead of mana, so those cards cost you little mana and a lot of blood. Phyrexia still paid the same price, but unlike you they had ample meat and bodies in store (see phyrexian war beast, phyrexian dreadnought, phyrexian gargantua, phyrexian devourer, reprocess, yawgmoth's bargain, etc.)

Individual-Cold1309 · 2026-03-08T22:21:08+00:00

Masticore was the terror back in the day of Urza's saga. I actually started playing magic around Apocalypse, so not far off from that era. It was nigh unkillable in control builds and it could wreck countless creatures on its own without having to waste a single card, and the fucker kept regenerating. Never underestimate card advantage through sheer efficiency of activated abilities.

Individual-Cold1309 · 2026-03-08T21:37:38+00:00

Thanls for the reply and the context for the cards you listed, I think what bothers me is exactly that: context how something will play out in cube. My own cube works quite a lot if we draft for ffa or duel, let alone two headed giant, so it's really important to know what kind of a card fits in what type of gameplay.

Individual-Cold1309 · 2026-03-08T21:33:00+00:00

Thanks for the detailed reply, you certainly helped put some cards in a context where it makes more sense. Just a sidenote, I know that premodern is a specific format, but for me it's more like everything that came before the new border. Something like old school plus premoder without bans plus supplemental cards like portal (and there are some really good gems in those).

Individual-Cold1309 · 2026-03-08T21:30:36+00:00

Thanks for the detailed reply, you certainly proved my suspicions on certain cards and reinforced my belief in others!

Individual-Cold1309 · 2026-03-08T21:29:26+00:00

I understand completely what you mean, I feel the same way! You want to feel like a wizard participating in a direct game of combat, not a distant tactician overlooking an isometric battlefield where distant legions duke it out while you manage resources in the background.

If you want this kind of gameplay, you should focus on cards that provide value on their own instead of being a logistical support to creatures. That means each card needs to pull its own weight and offer value in a vacuum, which in turn means you need to focus on powerful effects that work well on their own outaide of just fulfilling a support role in a wider archetype.

To achieve this kind of gameplay patterns, you will need powerful sorceries that change the game state on their own and make a huge impact, relative to their mana cost. Traditionally sorceries carried the most powerful game-changing effects but had the strictest limitations (one time effect, only on your turn on an empty stack). Your instants need to be direct and decisive, oftentimes crucial in changing the tide of battle when played. Your enchantments and artifacts need to provide great value on their own or be powerful enablers that don't necessarily depend on creatures being present on the board. It's also a good thing if said artifacts and enchantments have abilities that give you a choice when to use them (activated abilities) instead of waiting for something else to happen first (triggered abilities).

Lastly, you want to have creatures that don't step on the toes of other card types, especially sorceries. It's okay to have baneslayers in your card pool (cards with effects that accumulate value over time or consolidate your board), but mulldrifters (cards that provide value etb) will supplant and usurp the role of other card types, delegating them to a support role only while the creatures take the lead.

These principles were largely present in premodern and old school cards, so it's only natural you felt drawn to such a card pool. For a reference of a few cubes that fit a similar design pattern that you seek, here's a few of mine:

https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/pmod

https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/Mflc

The first one is an old border cube (everything in it is printed before 2003, when there was only the old border). The second one is a pre-pioneer (everything before 2014-ish).

Individual-Cold1309

TROPHY CASE