I've had very, very little time looking at the D&D Next public playtest materials I downloaded yesterday. What with all the downloading problems WotC had most of the day, helping my sister move out of her dorm and my dad borrowing my computer to burn DVDs of his fishing trip, I didn't even get to download it until late last night, and then I spent today helping my sister and her friends move out of their dorms some more.
Not that I'm complaining – really. Contrary to what I've heard other truck-owners say, one of my favorite things about owning a truck is being able to help other people move stuff; probably something about feeling needed.
Anyway, this isn't a truck blog; it's an RPG blog.
I've had a chance to very, very briefly scan the materials and see that stat blocks are longer than most non-Advanced forms of D&D, but not by much. I haven't taken the time to suss out what they all mean and how that will impact anything, but I'm a fan of short stat blocks any day, so that's nice.
That's all overshadowed, however, by this simple fact: Yesterday WotC allowed me to download Module B2 – The Caves of Chaos. For free.
Wow.
See, you need to remember that I'm a grognardling. I've been looking forward to BUYING the DMG next month. I still haven't ever handled any core books from before Type III D&D, let alone the kind of D&D I like to play, that the retroclones introduced me to. I've read over and over the nostalgic reminiscing of my fellow OSR bloggers who cut their teeth on B2, and resigned myself to probably never getting my hands on it; really, if I was going to buy TSR-era D&D stuff, I'd probably buy rules sets before modules, so I chalked it up as something I'd probably never encounter, let alone get to run.
(By the way, WotC, I still would very much appreciate you making the PDFs of OD&D and other older versions available again, preferably for free; we in the OSR haven't given up on that.)
So, yeah. As soon as I can wrangle a group together, I'll be running the Caves of Chaos. It's very exciting, and even a little shocking, that I'll be now sharing in something at least very close to the experiences I've only read about until now.
For this little gesture, WotC, thank you. May we continue to show good faith to each other.
Exploring games that were published before I was born - and the games inspired by them.
I just got the stuff too. Pretty chuffed it has B2. Rules look like the love-child of all the editions, I will be interested to see how it plays out when i get the chance to run it.
ReplyDeleteHear, hear.
ReplyDeleteSo far, the rules look like they have promise too, though there are a few issues that stand out. I agree that the smaller stat blocks (especially how they are done in the adventure) are nice. I'm surprised how much old school play advice is present in the module too.
You're probably already aware, but B2 Caves of Chaos is only part of B2 The Keep on the Borderlands. About half of the material is missing (the keep and the wilderness part).
If you have been longing for a copy of the old modules, like B2, I have a pristine copy of X1, 1983 printing, you could have for a song.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the fold. We have t-shirts if you're interested.
ReplyDelete;^)