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[Let's Read] Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rules, by Tom Moldvay
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<blockquote data-quote="Iosue" data-source="post: 6383320" data-attributes="member: 6680772"><p>Thank you! I do my best.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Mostly the former, but certainly I think the latter plays a part. The game says up front that the rules are just guidelines, you should feel comfortable changing things if you want. I think kids are more apt to take that at face value, and have the time and boundless creativity to do that. Adults, OTOH, probably have more constraints on their time and mental bandwidth, and perhaps are more likely to play closer to the rules.</p><p></p><p>But one reason why I think Moldvay Basic in particular promotes that kind of willingness is that the rules footprint is very light, and almost entirely DM-sided. There aren't a whole lot of moving parts. As a player, you roll your stats and buy your equipment. Beyond that, your interaction with the mechanics of the game are very limited, essentially being rolling for initiative and making to-hit rolls. Maybe rolling for Open Locks and Climb Walls if you're a thief. (Probably also rolling for damage, although this technically isn't RAW.)</p><p></p><p>The rest of the rules in the book are essentially just heuristic structures to help the DM resolve things. The characters listen at a door? The DM can decide what they hear, or roll. The thief hides? The DM can decide he's well enough hidden, or roll. And so on. And most of these systems have to do with exploration, so virtually anything that didn't have to do with exploration depended on the DM to either adjudicate or create their own resolution system for. Further, while some bemoan old D&D's reliance on a number of different resolution systems, this actually gave DMs a toolkit of different kinds of resolutions: percentile dice, segmented percentage rolls (e.g., 2 in 6 chance), bell curves, etc. And Moldvay Basic also makes heavy use of the d6 as a "when in doubt" resolution system. So as you play you get a feel for how these different systems work, and then you can recycle them for your own systems if there's a rule you as DM want but the game doesn't provide.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Iosue, post: 6383320, member: 6680772"] Thank you! I do my best. Mostly the former, but certainly I think the latter plays a part. The game says up front that the rules are just guidelines, you should feel comfortable changing things if you want. I think kids are more apt to take that at face value, and have the time and boundless creativity to do that. Adults, OTOH, probably have more constraints on their time and mental bandwidth, and perhaps are more likely to play closer to the rules. But one reason why I think Moldvay Basic in particular promotes that kind of willingness is that the rules footprint is very light, and almost entirely DM-sided. There aren't a whole lot of moving parts. As a player, you roll your stats and buy your equipment. Beyond that, your interaction with the mechanics of the game are very limited, essentially being rolling for initiative and making to-hit rolls. Maybe rolling for Open Locks and Climb Walls if you're a thief. (Probably also rolling for damage, although this technically isn't RAW.) The rest of the rules in the book are essentially just heuristic structures to help the DM resolve things. The characters listen at a door? The DM can decide what they hear, or roll. The thief hides? The DM can decide he's well enough hidden, or roll. And so on. And most of these systems have to do with exploration, so virtually anything that didn't have to do with exploration depended on the DM to either adjudicate or create their own resolution system for. Further, while some bemoan old D&D's reliance on a number of different resolution systems, this actually gave DMs a toolkit of different kinds of resolutions: percentile dice, segmented percentage rolls (e.g., 2 in 6 chance), bell curves, etc. And Moldvay Basic also makes heavy use of the d6 as a "when in doubt" resolution system. So as you play you get a feel for how these different systems work, and then you can recycle them for your own systems if there's a rule you as DM want but the game doesn't provide. [/QUOTE]
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[Let's Read] Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rules, by Tom Moldvay
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