After sifting through all manner of old rules books, I've seen nothing written about firing missile over or through friendly characters. I find this quite odd, as it's a scenario I see all the time, particularly in dungeons. As an example, a party is walking down a typical 10 ' wide hallway. The front rank is composed of fighters, probably with shields. The second rank may be composed with others with long spears or pole arms. Rules for attacking with these sorts of weapons are fairly clearly explained in most rules. However, what if the second rank is composed of archers, or PCs wishing to throw oil or javelins? Here the rules are unclear. In 3.5, there is a -4 penalty if you draw line of sight through an ally, but that seems quite excessive when the characters are in set ranks.
How are other DMs handling this situation? Currently I'm not placing any penalties on characters firing from the second rank as long as their targets are not in melee. But I have been thinking of placing a -1 or -2 penalty if the front rank is involved in melee, or if the front rank consists of characters that are taller than the second.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Character exceptionalism in AD&D
I've decided to read through the 1e Player's Handbook for the first time in decades. Sure I've looked at it from time to time over the years, and even used the charts and tables, but it's been forever since I've read the fine details.
One of the first interesting things I noticed was this quote in the Character Abilities section.
"The premise of the game is that each player character is above average - at least in some respects-
and has superior potential. Furthermore, it is usually essential to the character's survival to be exceptional (with a rating of 15 or above) in no fewer than two ability characteristics. "
This seems to fly in the face of how much of the OSR views character exceptionalism. Of course 1e is quite a different game from OD&D or B/X. Still, it points out that fairly early in the development of the game, PCs were intended to be special at their creation.
Can't wait to find more interesting stuff like this.
One of the first interesting things I noticed was this quote in the Character Abilities section.
"The premise of the game is that each player character is above average - at least in some respects-
and has superior potential. Furthermore, it is usually essential to the character's survival to be exceptional (with a rating of 15 or above) in no fewer than two ability characteristics. "
This seems to fly in the face of how much of the OSR views character exceptionalism. Of course 1e is quite a different game from OD&D or B/X. Still, it points out that fairly early in the development of the game, PCs were intended to be special at their creation.
Can't wait to find more interesting stuff like this.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)