I got this as a Christmas present when I was 12. The book of new monsters that came with it fascinated me as a kid- I poured over it again and again for hours. Some really good stuff in there.  

And yeah, it's an illogical "Zoo dungeon" (Maybe even the epitome of illogical zoo-dungeons), but unless your group consists of professional urban planners, Ecology majors, and/or severe anal-retentives 99% of players won't notice or care.

Quote from: Sacrosanct;729109It's adventures like that that make me a bit wary when talking about how in AD&D, the focus on a living world was greater than in 4e.

The over packed and nonsensical "zoo dungeon" was pretty common, both among official TSR modules and 3rd party products.  The whole "living world" thing is much more an OSR re-imagining of the past than how people actually played D&D in the early days.  Except for you guys. You guys were teenage fucking Shakespeares.

In fact, a big appeal (and core marketing) for RuneQuest was how unlike D&D, RQ was a living world where stuff "made sense" more than D&D both in the system and the setting. Of course, this wasn't universally true because plenty of DMs ran D&D as a living world, but certainly the majority of D&D DMs (especially my teen crew of non-Shakespeares) were much more about looting the Dungeon of the Week.

At the end of the day, system doesn't mean too much vs. GM style.

If you are a sandboxy GM, then you run sandboxy campaigns with whatever edition you are playing. If you are Stab & Loot, Rinse & Repeat GM (and that's A+ fucking fine if that's what you and your players enjoy), then that's how your campaigns are going to look, regardless of edition.

Except for 5e, which will save us all, bringing us all together once again.

Amen and kumbaya.

Quote from: Spinachcat;730901Except for you guys. You guys were teenage fucking Shakespeares.

God damn dude.  I wrote something that you basically agree with and you still have to be all insulting about it?

I hope you don't talk to people like this in real life, or no wonder geeks have this reputation for having no social skills...

Quote from: Just Another Snake Cult;730898I got this as a Christmas present when I was 12. The book of new monsters that came with it fascinated me as a kid- I poured over it again and again for hours. Some really good stuff in there.  

And yeah, it's an illogical "Zoo dungeon" (Maybe even the epitome of illogical zoo-dungeons), but unless your group consists of professional urban planners, Ecology majors, and/or severe anal-retentives 99% of players won't notice or care.

Also, veteran dm's will just smooth over or adjust anything that is glaring.

Played through most of the Lesser Caverns now. D&D Next captures AD&D 1E play really well.

I have noticed a boring sameness to some of the caves. Flying foes mix things up, but I plan to put in more varied terrain and more twisting caves and uneven floors. Also, the  PCs have fought mobs in bunches but not spread out groups coming from different directions. I need to mix it up.

One modification I am making is to the trolls and crickets caves. I am expanding the passages out from the troll cave so the trolls can try and spread out and approach any combat with the crickets from different directions.

I am also adding a fifth troll with four arms. He is going to have a level of bard and play a fiddle. The paladin of Apollo in our group should like dueling with this guy.

In D&D Next playtest a 1st level bard can perform to inspire ferocity in allies, adding 1d4 to their damage. The troll may try some Devil Went Down to Georgia.

My hope is this combat will be a confused melee in the dark with trolls popping out of holes in the dark like Aliens. If instead the PCs get the drop on the trolls, the monsters will have to fight unprepared and backed into a corner.

Should work out well.