Apparently I’ve Never Played AD&D1

I got a wild idea, this weekend, to run a sample combat for a group of AD&D1 characters (the base four: cleric, fighter, magic-user, thief) against some AD&D1 monsters using strictly all the AD&D1 rules, as written, by-the-book. I knew there were some rules I never used when running an AD&D1 combat, such as weapon speed factors and the weapon vs. AC chart, so I wanted to see how they actually worked in actual game play. But when I started rereading the AD&D1 books (PHB and DMG), with an eye toward running a combat with all the AD&D1 rules, I found that there are a ton of AD&D1 rules I had never used – some I never even knew about (or just don’t remember).

Quite honestly, I am astonished by how much of the AD&D1 rules I’ve never used, or never used completely or correctly. It turns out, in truth, I’ve never really run a fully AD&D1 game. My games could better be described as Basic/Expert D&D with Advanced D&D flavor. I used the AD&D1 ability scores, races, classes, and spells, but the actual game mechanics I used, it seems, were more Basic than Advanced.

I probably shouldn’t be so surprised; after all, I started my D&D career with Basic and Expert D&D. I moved up to Advanced D&D after a year or two. So my base understanding of the game mechanics was from B/ED&D. I guess I never actually read the DMG completely when I was running my AD&D1 campaign. I must have skimmed or skipped the info I assumed I already knew. Or maybe I did read all the rules and choose to ignore the more complicated stuff. I don’t really remember from 10-25 years ago.

For instance:

— I thought surprise was simply “roll a d6: a 1 or 2 means surprised for a round,” with just a couple exceptions, such as the ranger class, or a group of elves in the forest. The actual rules for surprise are much, much more complicated.

— I thought segments were just used to tell how quickly a spell caster could get off his spell in comparison/opposition to another spell caster. The actual rules require some pretty detailed segment tracking for almost all actions, not just spell casting. Including a 2-5 segment delay for a potion to take effect after being drunk.

And the biggest surprise I discovered in the AD&D1 rules:

Players must declare their PCs’ actions “precisely and without delay” prior to rolling initiative.

Seeing this rule absolutely floored me. I’ve seen this rule in Marvel Super Heroes (and I house ruled it out), and I’m currently playing with this rule in a Star Wars d6 game (and I hate it). I had no idea that this rule originated in AD&D1.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com