AD&D DMG cover to cover - part V, pages 47-60 (THE ADVENTURE)

We´ve been reading the original DMG - the ultimate DM book! - but from a B/X and OSR point-of-view.

Check the other parts of this series here.

Today we discuss:

— ADVENTURES IN THE OUTDOORS 47

— ADVENTURES IN THE AIR 49

— AERIAL TRAVEL 49

— AERIAL COMBAT 50

— WATERBORNE ADVENTURES53

— UNDERWATER ADVENTURES 55

— Underwater Spell Use 57

— TRAVEL IN THE KNOWN PLANES OF EXISTENCE 57

— OUTDOOR MOVEMENT 58

— INFRAVISION & ULTRAVISION 59

— INVISIBILITY 59

— MIRRORS 60

— DETECTION OF EVIL AND/OR GOOD 60

— LISTENING AT DOORS 60

As you can see, this section is about two vaguely related topics: traveling to different places that are not cities or dungeons (through earth, air, water, and different planes of existence) and noticing things (noises, light, darkness, good and evil, invisible).

ADVENTURES IN THE OUTDOORS

It is necessary to have a reasonably well-detailed, large scale map for conducting

adventures outdoors. Naturally, the initial adventuring in the campaign will be

those in the small community and nearby underground maze. For whatever

reason — player desire, quest or geas, or because of your own direction —

adventuring will sooner or later move to the outdoors.

So we get some good advice right away:  start  your campaign with a small village and a nearby dungeon. The proceed to the larger setting (your own or something published). The setting should be divided in hexes and smaller subhexes (I prefer pointcrawls nowadays, butt here is a reason for hexes here, as we'll see).

LAND ADVENTURES

Here the author describes chances and frequencies of encounters (according to terrain and population density) with detail. This is useful, it somewhat crunchy - especially considering the author suggested we occasionally ignore random encounters.

Encounter Distance is also described with interesting detail - distances are smaller if one size is surprised. The rules on confrontation clarify some questions I had with B/X:

Confrontation indicates that the adventurers and some

monster have met at close proximity, and some interaction is likely to take

place. There are, however, modifying circumstances:

1) If the monsters are intelligent and would normally deem themselves to be

weaker than the party of adventurers, then they will always seek to avoid

such confrontation.

2) If the party of adventurers surprises the monsters and elects to flee the

encounter, they may attempt to avoid confrontation by using free segments

of action to move out of confrontation distance and evade the monsters.

Movement for parties of more than 100 creatures are detailed here.

Then we have rules for becoming lost. They only apply with a lot of caveats: "Any party not guided by a creature knowledgeable of the countryside through which the party is moving, or which is not following a well defined course (river, road, or the like), or which is not using a well-drawn and correct map, might become lost.". IF they apply, they are incredibly harsh: in a forest or marsh, there is a decent chance you'll simply starting walking backwards, 180º degrees.

"Procedures are only for exploration of unmapped terrain." This is why we use hexes rather than pointcrawls (also because they did not exist by this name at the time).

Forced movement is possible, but requires rest to avoid exhaustion (i.e., temporary loss of levels) and sudden death. These rules are comparatively simple and elegant (I'd prefer  Constitution loss, but this  has the advantage of hindering spellcasters equally).

ADVENTURES IN THE AIR

This section includes flying brooms,  carpets, and creatures. Training a  flying mount  requires money and time.

AERIAL COMBAT

Another incredibly detailed section about something I'm very unlikely to use, including a whole page on how different creatures fight when flying and hex-maps of flying maneuvers ("A running record of absolute (or relative) altitude should be kept, either on a separate sheet or on a small piece of paper under each figure or counter"). 

If I had to pick some rule from here, I like the idea  that winged creatures cannot fly at less than half HP since their wings are probably hurt. 

Other than that, I'll just skip it.

WATERBORNE ADVENTURES

This section details virus types of  boats, ships, galleys, etc. A nautical campaign is much more likely for me than an aerial one, so this definitely looks interesting. It has rules on navigation, combat, damaging ships, swimming in armor, naval terminology, and so on.  Lots to learn in here even if you don't include it in your games!

UNDERWATER ADVENTURES

Traveling underwater the water is even rarer than travelling on air.  This section has rules for breathing,  fighting,  moving,  seeing, and casting spells underwater. I'll just skip it again, since I don't think I'll ever use it. I do enjoy the facts  that these rare  circumstances are described here rather than in combat or spell sections, so you can just ignore them if you want.

TRAVEL IN THE KNOWN PLANES OF EXISTENCE contains some vague ideas about the planes, further detailed in the PHB.

OUTDOOR MOVEMENT details travelling speed on foot, mounts, boats, etc.  Pretty straightforward.

INFRAVISION & ULTRAVISION details and somewhat limits these special senses, making infravision somewhat less powerful than simply seeing in the dark. "Light sources which give off heat also absolutely prevent normal infravision from functioning within their sphere of illumination".

INVISIBILITY, similarly, nerfs invisibility powers. "Monsters might well be able to hear, smell, or see the invisible character.". This is funny and sensible: "Now consider a silence spell and large area invisibility cast upon a party. Imagine the chaos within the area as characters stub their toes on the heels of the person before them, with the inability to hear anything so that falls, suggestions as to what should be done, or orders cannot be heard. Consider also that dust on the floor will betray most invisibility, as will dust or powder in the air.". In addition, creatures of sufficient HD and intelligence have a probability of detecting invisibility through keen hearing/smell etc. I'm conflicted about this rule; could be fun, but why not allow dogs and cats to have a chance?

MIRRORS - "It is important for DMs to remember that in order to be reflective, a mirror must

have a light source." This is the entirety of the entry.

DETECTION OF EVIL AND/OR GOOD has detailed rules about detecting evil/good that should be included under the appropriate spells or power - or at least under alignment.

LISTENING AT DOORS has rules on exactly that... including details on races and even the chances of a character finding out to be "keen eared" the first time he tries it! Should be a part of character creation and is included here for no particular reason. The DMG is like that, full of fun little ideas that come from out of nowhere, as if the author was making it up as he goes.

When compared to B/X, AD&D gives 10%-15% chances of hearing rather than 16%-33% for most PCs. It also explicitly allows three PCs to try at once, and three attempts to be made, so the odds are in the PC's favor. It is a simple system and not particularly clever IMO (I might give a bonus proportional to the time being spent, maybe). However, I'm fond of the idea of using a d20 here (while many B/X fans prefer 1-in-6), and "three attempts" soudns good enough to me too.

What have we learned today?

 

There is  not much here for my B/X games, except some clarifications and rulings on how to nerf certain powers. The part on encounter distance is useful. This is not a particular inspiring entry to the series... But what we've got next will certainly be fun!

Additional reading (on encounters)

https://methodsetmadness.blogspot.com/2023/05/reaction-rolls-in-practice-osr.html

Coming next... COMBAT!

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