Category: Old School D&D

The old school D&D category contains many articles about playing and GMing old school D&D. That is, D&D that highlights the styles of playing from the 70s and 80s. It also includes OSR material.

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D&D Monster Intelligence: Stop Playing Them Like Idiots (Unless They Are)

D&D Monster Intelligence Stop Playing Them Like Idiots (Unless They Are)

Here’s the hard truth: if your wolves, orcs, and liches all fight like fearless sacks of hit points until they fall over, you’re not running monsters, you’re running target dummies.

Intelligence is the deciding factor in how a monster acts, reacts, and tries not to die.

Ignore it, and every encounter feels the same. Use it, and suddenly the dungeon feels alive and hostile – in the best possible way.

This is a guide to running monsters by Intelligence.

No theory. No fluff. Just behaviour you can apply at the table.

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My 2-Player D&D Campaign

My 2-Player D&D Campaign

In short: I run a 2-player D&D campaign and find it incredibly fun and rewarding and have noticed much more player buy-in.  

Over the last few weeks I have been running a 2-player Dungeons & Dragons campaign using Old School Essentials (OSE) as the rule set.

I wasn’t sure if so few players would have an impact on the campaign – I mean, most D&D campaigns have 4-6 players.

But it’s been a blast!

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Opportunity Attacks in Old School DnD

Opportunity Attacks in Old School DnD

In short: By using Attacks of Opportunity in your old school or OSR D&D game, you can up the ante in combats – just remember to keep it simple. 

Attacks of Opportunity (or Opportunity Attacks in the more modern parlance) is a rule that was introduced in D&D 3.0, and has been part of Dungeons & Dragons ever since.

Older versions of the game – like Old School Essentials (OSE) and B/X – never had a rule that covered this as it was left completely up to the GM, never even considered, or handled in a different way (long weapons going first in melee combat, is an example in AD&D).

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On The Importance Of Downtime In DnD

On The Importance Of Downtime In DnD

Adventures in Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) are the bread and butter of the game. Adventurers delve into dungeons, explore the wilderness, and navigate cities – all in an effort to become heroes.

Running one adventure after another however, can be overwhelming – for both GM and players.

Characters level up in a matter of days or weeks, and the excitement for the next adventure can dwindle without a space to breathe and reflect on what has already been accomplished.

This is where downtime comes in.

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Book Of Lairs – DnD 2nd Edition

Book Of Lairs – DnD 2nd Edition

The Book of Lairs for the 2nd edition of Dungeons & Dragons came out in 1994 (I still remember buying it in my local gaming store).

It is a series of short encounters (usually 2-3 pages in length) based on a monsters from either the MC3: Monstrous Compendium, Volume Three: Forgotten Realms Appendix (1989) and MC11: Monstrous Compendium, Forgotten Realms Appendix II (1991).

This post has a handy table to help expand on the book, and make it more useful to Gamemasters.

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