Questions tagged [dnd-bx]
For questions about B/X D&D, the pair of Dungeons & Dragons products released in 1981. "B/X" refers to Tom Moldvay's Basic Set and David "Zeb" Cook's Expert Set.
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How intercompatible are B/X and AD&D 1e spells?
What balance issues would/could arise if AD&D spells are transferred into a B/X game?
I'm only considering those spells which don't already exist in B/X and I'm not considering adding in the ...
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What are the differences between Labyrinth Lord and B/X D&D (Moldvay)?
Aside from small things like layout, art, and the exact wording of rules, what are the major differences between the D&D retro-clone Labyrinth Lord and its primary inspiration, the 1981 D&D ...
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Getting Lost in the Caves of Chaos
In the Keep on the Borderlands, the characters can stumble into a...
Which has a spell on it that causes "Direction Confusion". As I understand it, it was assumed that all games would occur in the "...
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What is the typeface or font that is used for the text of the Moldvay Red Box basic D&D set?
I'm trying to find the iconic typeface that was used throughout the interiors of the B/X Moldvay Basic D&D set as well as the blue Expert Set. The publication dates pre-date desktop publishing so ...
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What changes are needed to maintain balance if all classes use the same XP table in BX D&D/OSR?
What balance problems are created by house-ruling B/X D&D (or derivatives) such that all classes advance at the same rate (i.e. they all use the fighter's XP-level table)? What fixes can be ...
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How can I import rules from B/X to D&D 5e to improve play with a large group? [closed]
Background
I am currently running a West Marches style game. In my world there is a particularly troublesome dungeon which certain players are extremely determined to explore. As they are still low ...
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Is this rule in Castle Amber necessary?
The title's vague to avoid spoiling the adventure module Castle Amber (1981).
I am baffled by the following conceit:
(And, yes, that's a pretty big deal, and, yes, that info's buried in the middle ...
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How can this Castle Amber villain be updated?
Just in case, spoilered below is a description of the antagonist from Castle Amber (1981), room 34, the Throne Room:
I'm aware this encounter difficult, but I'm also unsure how to convert this ...
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What is the overview of TSR's Basic editions of D&D? [duplicate]
There are a variety of editions of D&D published by TSR in parallel to AD&D that get collectively called “Basic D&D”, but the overall relationship of the editions to each other — and which ...
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How were PCs expected to survive this encounter in Castle Amber?
Castle Amber (1981)—an adventure for characters levels 3 to 6— contains an encounter in area #34 with…
The spell magic jar mentions only the spell dispel evil as capable of exorcising an invading ...
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Should Castle Amber be renamed Castle Monty Haul?
Castle Amber (1981) seems to offer an excessive amount of treasure for PCs of levels 3 to 6. For example:
I totally get that Castle Amber makes keeping this treasure difficult:
What interests me is ...
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What's equivalent to a wand of paralyzation?
I'm converting to dnd-3.5e a dnd-bx adventure and one magic item found in the adventure is a wand of paralyzation that "projects a cone-shaped ray… 60' long and 30' wide at its end. A creature struck ...
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The Keys on the Borderlands?
In The Keep on the Borderlands (1980) in the Caves of Chaos the doors to rooms 3 and 11 are locked. Does the adventure disclose the location of each door's key? Are there other hard to find keys ...
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What does '#AT' mean in early versions of D&D and AD&D?
In many early D&D and AD&D modules, NPCs, monsters, and other creatures are often listed with an attribute of #AT followed by a number.
What does that mean?
For example, from the AD&D ...
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Is the Number Appearing entry based on the stats of the monsters?
For humanoid monsters in the Basic and Expert sets there is a clear pattern of creatures with the same number of Hit Dice appearing in smaller numbers in random encounters if they have better armor ...
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What are the main differences between Basic red box D&D (any version) and 5e?
I'm getting back into the hobby and I've re-read Moldvay's red book and Cook's Blue book and it's all come back to me.
I've read the question "What are the big differences between the D&D ...
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How well are low level PCs able to defeat high level NPCs in B/X D&D?
For a Basic/Expert game, I want to populate the campaign area with important and influential NPCs, who are doing their things independent of the player's activities. The goal is to have the players ...
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Can I run The Isle of Dread with AD&D?
The D&D module The Isle of Dread is for "Expert D&D", which is the Expert Set.
Are there any differences between the Expert Set rules and the AD&D that would prevent me running The Isle ...
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What colors were the polyhedral dice in Red Box D&D? [closed]
My first Dungeons and Dragons set was in a red box (purchased around 1989 plus or minus a couple of years). The dice that came with it were of multiple colors, some of which I cannot remember. From ...
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Basic, 1st or 2nd edition D&D adventure light on combat [closed]
I've got shedloads of official 1st & 2nd edition adventures - mostly TSR modules and copies of Dungeon and White Dwarf. I haven't read them all, and I haven't read any of them in about 20 years.
...
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How can I acquire free two-player D&D Basic/Expert adventures?
My girlfriend and I have the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rules Set 1, Expert Rule Book, and Game Adventure Book. We're looking for free two-player adventures which we could run by ourselves. We'd ...
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How do multiple attacks by a monster work?
In B/X, monsters have more various attacks. For example, an Owlbear has: 2 claw/1 Bite that deals 1d8 damage each. But how does this work? Can they use one attack per turn or all their attacks in one ...
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When and how many times can a cleric attempt to turn undead?
In Moldvay/Marsh/Cook's B/X D&D:
How many times can a cleric attempt to turn undead per encounter?
When can the cleric do it? Instead of a melee/spell/missile attack or before the encounter ...
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Why do clerics need wisdom?
In basic D&D Clerics' primal Stat is wisdom. But it does not effect neither turn undead nor their spells. So why do they need a high wisdom? Just for the exp bonus?
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In Moldvay's Basic D&D, how much time does it take to do something?
In basic D&D, how long does it take to do an action such as listening to a door, searching for traps, open a door, pickpocket?
A whole turn? A round?
Because 10 minutes is a bit long.
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In Moldvay's Basic D&D, should the Thief roll twice to find a trap?
In Basic D&D, the default way to find a trap is to roll 1d6 and if you get 1 you find it.
But thieves have a special % of finding it: e.g., a first level thief has 10%.
Should we roll this % ...
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Did having a 'Caller' player positively influence the gameplay in Moldvay's Basic D&D?
In the 1980 Basic D&D rules (Gygax and Arneston, Moldvay editing), the following text appears in Part 4: The Adventure:
THE CALLER: One player should be chosen to tell the DM about the plans ...
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Who popularised the abbreviation of XP for experience points? Was it Basic D&D?
Basic Dungeons and Dragons page B22:
Experience points (abbreviated XP, as ep stands for electrum pieces) are given for non-magical treasure and for defeating monsters.
Is this why in most games ...
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Are there rules for increasing ability scores after character creation in Basic D&D?
Are there any rules (house or otherwise) for increasing ability scores after character creation in Basic D&D or any of its retro clones? (Other than magic items or wishes.)
When we generated ...
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Moldvay D&D First Round in Encounter
I'm confused about how to DM the first round of an encounter using Moldvay's rules, specifically, when is the DM supposed to use the Monster Reaction table on page B24.
Say a party encounters a group ...
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Melee Combat in Moldvay's D&D Basic
I'm working on a CRPG, written in Python, that will hopefully re-create some of the fun from the original D&D Basic Set (Moldvay's 1981 red-box edition), and so I'm getting into some pretty nitty-...
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Fighting Withdrawal vs Retreat in Moldvay's Basic D&D
This pertains to Moldvay's edition of D&D Basic from 1981.
I've never understood the rules behind meleed movement options. The rulebook says that a player in melee combat with a monster has only ...
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How many things can a player do on his or her round?
I'm just starting out DMing in D&D, using the Moldvay basic rules from 1981.
A player encounters a monster that is 100' away. The player wins initiative and wants to do the following on round 1:
...
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Turns vs. Rounds playing time in Moldvay D&D 1981 Ed
In D&D (Moldvay 1981 Basic rules) turns are 10 minutes each, used for normal adventuring time. When an encounter occurs, time shifts to rounds (10 seconds each). This means 60 rounds equates to ...
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Moldvay Basic D&D - Mapping using Charater Movement Rates
I'm dusting off the Moldvay Red Basic Rulebook (1981) and taking a stab at figuring out some of the rules that I, frankly, didn't fully understand when I was a kid.
On B19, under the MOVEMENT section,...
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Does exploration movement rate in Basic D&D (B/X) include trap/secret-door detection?
In the Basic Rulebook for D&D, on page B19, it states that characters can move 120' in a dungeon per turn (10 minutes). Later it states that this movement assumes players are mapping carefully, ...
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In calculating Basic D&D monster experience, what's a special ability?
I really like my good ol' Moldvay Basic D&D. Every once in a while, it's missing a rule I want, and I make it up. Then I feel clever. Sometimes, though, I want to know what everybody else did ...
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How can players learn the nature of magic items?
I'm running a sandbox campaign with Adventurer Conqueror King System (essentially Moldvay-Cook Basic/Expert D&D). My players are starting to find probably-magic items during their expeditions and ...
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In early D&D, why would chainmail ever be preferred over plate armor?
In early D&D, both chainmail and plate armor were considered metal armor, and to slow the wearer to 60' per turn. Chainmail cost 40gp, and plate armor 60gp. Their encumbrance was 400 or 500 coins ...
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Where can I find a database (sqlite, csv, etc) of Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set character and monster data?
I'm writing an engine for Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set (Red and Blue Box) First Edition (1E) in Python and would like to be able to read from an existing database of what is in the players and ...
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What are the differences between Holmes, Moldvay, and Mentzer D&D?
What are the differences between Holmes, Moldvay, and Mentzer D&D? Also, which one came first?
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