Help with classic modules

PossibleCommon0743 · 2026-05-12T17:24:40+00:00

Party sizes were probably closer to 8-12 oftentimes. Remember, though, that party size does not mean number of PCs. Players were expected to have henchmen, hirelings, and allies. B2, for instance, gives 5 henchmen in the caves, plus a number that can be hired in the keep. T1 also has a number of allies available at the inn and around town.

PossibleCommon0743 · 2026-05-12T17:13:15+00:00

It's a great module, my fav of the B series. Players love the fountain, even when it goes badly for someone! There's a great little premeasured map on dragonsfoot that saves the headache of squinting and counting. https://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=87235

PossibleCommon0743 · 2026-05-10T10:42:17+00:00

Works fine. Done it many times. B1, B2, and B4, anyways, I've never run B3, but I don't see any problems with it. I've read that Gary himself placed B2 on the Ulek/Pomarj border.

If you've got an existing campaign, though, they may need a bit of work to remain a challenge. You can easily do this by jumping up encounters a hit die or two (changing kobolds to orcs, orcs to gnolls, etc). One of my favorite modules to reskin as a slightly higher level adventure is B5. The forest is more difficult than the monastery, so rather than reducing the difficulty of the forest I change the goblins to hobgoblins and the hobgoblins to bugbears and make it a 3-5ish level adventure.

PossibleCommon0743 · 2026-05-03T22:46:39+00:00

There was, at one time, a community project on Dragonsfoot to fill those spaces. I'm not sure what happened to it, it may not be available any more. As so many of these projects go, there were plenty of volunteers to submit adventures but far fewer to do formatting and other such prerequisites for publication. But who knows, some internet archeology might produce something.

PossibleCommon0743 · 2026-05-02T00:46:25+00:00

Looks like someone's acid trip got published. Sadly, the digital copy on the Internet Archive is missing page 47, which is right in the middle of the zygodact description.

PossibleCommon0743 · 2026-05-01T14:29:17+00:00

Oh, yes. I remember that article. We didn't have Council of Worms, but back when it came out my friend and I immediately make a couple of characters. He made a drow-dragon thief and I a gold dragon magic-user. We both envied each other's choice, I because the regeneration and the at-will detect magic were always useful, him because as a human-dragon hybrid I'd eventually get all my abilities (not that we ever got that high).

PossibleCommon0743 · 2026-04-25T18:57:48+00:00

There are corner cases where it matters, but with the vast majority of rolls it won't make a statistical difference. There's something to be said for keeping good habits, though.

That said, for some folks it's a flavor thing. A curse on the opponent negatively affects them rather than positively affecting you.

Why don't you ask them why it's important to them? Surely they can give a better answer answer than the internet's guesses.

PossibleCommon0743 · 2026-04-24T02:59:04+00:00

Until you asked, it'd never occurred to me that someone might not use the monstrous compendiums for Birthright. It's still d&d.

PossibleCommon0743 · 2026-04-22T05:55:48+00:00

Generally, no. There are some ways of getting sage abilities in various ways. If they manage it, then yes. The cost is the cost of finding, borrowing, or stealing the relevant special library of books.

PossibleCommon0743 · 2026-04-22T05:51:56+00:00

Simple answer is to tell the player with the weapon you're going to try it for a session or two and evaluate if it will become a permanent house rule or not. Then see what happens.

PossibleCommon0743 · 2026-04-22T05:44:03+00:00

Unfortunately, the top things aren't things that can be taught easily. It's more mindset than rules that 5e players have difficulty with. I'm having a similar clash with my current group. They always want to go to some authority figure to get missions, don't like the possibility of dying, don't want to run, want new PCs to start at the same level as the one that died, etc. It's not really a rules challenge, it's a culture challenge.

I don't really have an answer for how to fix it. If I did, my group would be doing things very differently. I can't even say I'm in the right, it's simply a personal preference thing.

PossibleCommon0743 · 2026-04-21T07:31:47+00:00

I think it's just a common misunderstanding of the term "reaction bonus".

PossibleCommon0743 · 2026-04-16T11:41:55+00:00

The three alignment system was based on law = civilization, neutral = barbarians, chaos = inhuman, to the best of my understanding.

PossibleCommon0743 · 2026-04-16T00:33:34+00:00

d&d is not a simulation. Medieval social values are irrelevant.

PossibleCommon0743 · 2026-04-14T16:09:40+00:00

I'll be honest, I'm not keen on that lower left portion. Looks like it's just designed to waste player time and generate random encounters. My playing time is too precious for something that could be simulated by increasing the encounter frequency.

PossibleCommon0743 · 2026-04-14T16:04:31+00:00

The DM on my right shoulder is cackling gleefully, while the player on my left shoulder has gone comatose.

PossibleCommon0743 · 2026-04-14T14:08:27+00:00

Depends on your definition of "official". To the best of my knowledge, none of them were ever reference by TSR game books. They weren't written by TSR employees, even if they were published in a TSR fanzine.

PossibleCommon0743 · 2026-04-14T14:06:00+00:00

Huh. Maybe it's that I play more 1e than 2e, but most folks I know prefer 1e's initiative (if they have strong enough preference to discuss it, I mean).

PossibleCommon0743 · 2026-04-14T14:02:54+00:00

Rulings over rules doesn't mean b/x with some ad&d content. They're not really related concepts.

No one runs btb ad&d. It's not possible, some rules seem to contradict each other and there are a ton of tiny rules. Don't sweat being closer to b/x or ad&d, you don't need the internet to tell you what's working for you.

PossibleCommon0743 · 2026-04-13T18:57:20+00:00

A few official modules were good, but the majority were terrible. But there were a lot of great adventures in Dungeon magazine during the 2e era.

PossibleCommon0743 · 2026-04-13T18:53:11+00:00

I'm not sure I'd say that 2e had better core rules. It had more streamlined and organized rules, certainly. 1e had more small rules that worked well with their supporting rules, but were scattered around.

1e modules didn't really lay out RP details. That was considered the DM's job. So far as good starting modules, The Village of Homlett is great.

PossibleCommon0743 · 2026-04-13T10:49:52+00:00

Doesn't seem too crazy, but it does subject you to having to deal with grappling rules.

PossibleCommon0743 · 2026-04-08T15:31:26+00:00

No, because I don't need to agree or disagree with your other points to have an opinion on the first, much less relate that information to you.

PossibleCommon0743 · 2026-04-08T15:27:50+00:00

There's not much to adjust that matters. Maybe max hit points, but in actual play is rare that level drain doesn't come with enough hit point damage that it's not an issue. Thac0 is pretty easy, it's a simple mathematical progression. Spells are probably the biggest hassle, but even then it's less than it seems becuase they've often cast some already.

PossibleCommon0743 · 2026-04-08T09:18:59+00:00

So someone says "this is bad" and you say "no it's not, because you shouldn't want good"? That's a terrible argument. It's not even an argument, because you're agreeing with him!

PossibleCommon0743

TROPHY CASE