Quote from: Sacrosanct;678854It does make for memorable sessions.  The funny thing is all those people who hate AD&D because of Save or Die (suck)?  You never hear them complain when the same rules apply to the monsters.

I have heard complaints from players who are mainly playing for the detailed tactical combat experience in WOTC editions (and in 2e using Player's Option: Combat & Tactics) complain about save or die affecting their opponents because it can end an encounter too quickly to scratch their tactical combat itch.

Quote from: One Horse Town;678857Hee. :rotfl:

Admittedly I'm not a bandit, but I was in the military.  And I think it's not unreasonable to say that as soon as you start taking fire (or an arrow), the first thing you do is drop and take cover and assess what's going on.

Quote from: Bill;678858Most players love to 'gank' npc enemies.

One of the most fun moments in a dnd game I played in ever was when the pc's beat the snot out of an npc that was essentially a pope or religious church leader. This powerful npc ended up trying to flee out a window and perished in a humilating manner hanging halfway out the window.

It was awesome, becaue the gm did not throw up roadblocks to 'save' this npc.

The biggest one for me is when I ran my group through ToEE a few years back.  I had taken one of the character's backgrounds and pulled an NPC villain out of it.  Just so happened the way the players were playing and interacting with the world, it made it very easy to incorporate him as the main general for Zuggtmoy, but none of the players knew it was him until well into the adventure.  I think by the time they made it down to the fourth level or so.

After going through the entire adventure through several sessions, they finally met him guarding the way to Zuggtmoy.  I even had him using Blackrazor (from White Plume Mountain)  One of the PCs used a rope of entangling in round 1.  I rolled horrible.

Big baddie was done, just like that.

Quote from: Sacrosanct;678863Admittedly I'm not a bandit, but I was in the military.  And I think it's not unreasonable to say that as soon as you start taking fire (or an arrow), the first thing you do is drop and take cover and assess what's going on.



The biggest one for me is when I ran my group through ToEE a few years back.  I had taken one of the character's backgrounds and pulled an NPC villain out of it.  Just so happened the way the players were playing and interacting with the world, it made it very easy to incorporate him as the main general for Zuggtmoy, but none of the players knew it was him until well into the adventure.  I think by the time they made it down to the fourth level or so.

After going through the entire adventure through several sessions, they finally met him guarding the way to Zuggtmoy.  I even had him using Blackrazor (from White Plume Mountain)  One of the PCs used a rope of entangling in round 1.  I rolled horrible.

Big baddie was done, just like that.

Thats a good one

In a 1e game I saw a halfling thief cornered by a 20th level antipaladin with an unholy avenger. The thief had scouted too far from his friends.

First swing of the fight the thief lopped off the antipaladins head with a vorpal shortsword.

I had expected this antipaladin to be a really, really tough challenge.

He lasted 2 seconds. Barely had time to go 'Bwa! Ha! H.....acccck!'

Quote from: Bill;678867Thats a good one

In a 1e game I saw a halfling thief cornered by a 20th level antipaladin with an unholy avenger. The thief had scouted too far from his friends.

First swing of the fight the thief lopped off the antipaladins head with a vorpal shortsword.

I had expected this antipaladin to be a really, really tough challenge.

He lasted 2 seconds. Barely had time to go 'Bwa! Ha! H.....acccck!'

To be fair, it's not just D&D either.  Playing WFRP1e I found myself in an arena with a minotaur as a new character.  I got the first attack and hit. And rolled a 6.

and another 6

and another 6

and another 6

and a 4 or something.  In one hit against the creature that should have wiped the floor with me, I took it out in one punch.

Quote from: Sacrosanct;678869To be fair, it's not just D&D either.  Playing WFRP1e I found myself in an arena with a minotaur as a new character.  I got the first attack and hit. And rolled a 6.

and another 6

and another 6

and another 6

and a 4 or something.  In one hit against the creature that should have wiped the floor with me, I took it out in one punch.

Was that a 1 in 5,184 chance to one hit a minotaur?

I can't recall any details from the mechanics of wfrp. only played it a little bit many years ago.

Quote from: Bill;678871Was that a 1 in 5,184 chance to one hit a minotaur?

I can't recall any details from the mechanics of wfrp. only played it a little bit many years ago.

I don't know the odds, only that I can't ever recall rolling 4 sixes in a row before in more than 30 years of gaming.  The only other "breaking the odds" I've ever done legitimately was when I rolled an 18/00 strength and then rolled a 00 for psionics.

Never did end up actually playing that character though.  Wasted use of beating the odds

Quote from: Sacrosanct;678872I don't know the odds, only that I can't ever recall rolling 4 sixes in a row before in more than 30 years of gaming.  The only other "breaking the odds" I've ever done legitimately was when I rolled an 18/00 strength and then rolled a 00 for psionics.

Never did end up actually playing that character though.  Wasted use of beating the odds

If you roll an 18/00 strength and 100 for Psionics on the same character in
 1E, you officiallay have 'Won' at Dnd.

Quote from: Bill;678873If you roll an 18/00 strength and 100 for Psionics on the same character in
 1E, you officiallay have 'Won' at Dnd.

And it was ADVANCED!!!  

Quote from: Sacrosanct;678863Admittedly I'm not a bandit, but I was in the military.  And I think it's not unreasonable to say that as soon as you start taking fire (or an arrow), the first thing you do is drop and take cover and assess what's going on.

I was laughing at the joke. I don't care about the bun-fight.

Kindred of the east, I spent about five or six sessions building up the Half-Dragon/Half Son of the Evil Bad guy mega-villain only for him to not succeed on a single fucking attack roll....

Quote from: estar;678820Good lord even in wooded hills you can wind up with sight lines of two miles or more. Certainly not in all directions and its constantly changes as you move through the terrain. But it more than plausible and is something I have first hand experience of considering the number of times I drove or hiked through the Allegheny National Forest.

If anybody wants to get a sense of far you can see the next time you are driving and crest a ridge look as far as you can see up the road, then look at your odometer. When you hit that point look at the odometer again to see how far you driven. You will be surprised how far you can see details.

See that section on the left, where there are no trees?  You can see pretty far along that part.  I will now direct your attention to the right where you can't see a goddamn thing because all the fucking trees are in the way.  If you climb up a tree on the top of a hill, you might have a sight line of more than a thousand feet, but again, it's because the fucking trees aren't in your line of sight anymore.  At ground level, there are fucking trees in the way of your line of sight.  Also, in the picture above, there is a gigantic fucking hill right in front of you blocking your line of sight.

Where do you suppose a group of bandits would be hanging out in the above picture?

I can't believe this is literally a matter of not seeing the forest for the trees.

Stormbringer. In the example, the bandits aren't lying in wait. They're finishing up a raid on a caravan. They'd be in the visible area. And the PCs are just walking down the road. I see no huge problem with a 1000-foot encounter distance here necessarily.

Quote from: Imp;678979Stormbringer. In the example, the bandits aren't lying in wait. They're finishing up a raid on a caravan. They'd be in the visible area. And the PCs are just walking down the road. I see no huge problem with a 1000-foot encounter distance here necessarily.

1000 feet is roughly only 300 yards, and that's entirely reasonable unless you were in heavily forested area.  If you're in an open area, 300 yards isn't that far.

To put it into context, the rifle range for the military is out to 300 yards (the farthest range you have to hit in your qualification).  And most ranges I went to weren't just wide open areas.  There were bushes, trees, hills, etc.  That was the point: to replicate an actual environment.  A person is very small at 300 yards, but you can easily see them.

Quote from: Opaopajr;678728It's still before the roll, not after the roll.

No it isn't. It literally says to do this after the roll. The resolution mechanic is essentially roll d20, 1=autofail, 2-19=GM decides, 20=autosucceed.

Here's some nifty photos demonstrating how clear a man holding a giant sign is from up to 1000 ft away. The photos on the left are close ups of the actual photos on the right.