D&D Premises: Heroes vs. Villagers

 I find that most D&D players are firmly entrenched in two different camps when it comes to adventurers: you either believe that adventurers are epic heroes following a path to glory and start out as above-average; or you believe that anyone could be an adventurer and that you start with what you've got and make the best of it. I am a follower of the latter camp, but I can see the reason why others would want to be members of the former camp.

D&D is an adventure game. Some prefer to call it a hobby; others refer to it as a role-playing game. But at its heart it is just a game we play to have fun. Fun is different things to different people. Some people enjoy being the best character they can be, racking up accolades and experience points by overcoming each and every encounter without a scratch or loss of consumables or daily-use powers. Some folks just like sitting around a table with friends and spending an evening chatting in character with NPCs or developing intricate backstories for their beloved alter egos. Others prefer tracking numerous statistics on detailed character sheets or expertly mapping mega-dungeons and drawing up plans for castles or wizard towers. The game can be this, and much more, for those who choose to play.

The Dungeon Master has to cater his campaign world to entertain his players. In order to do that, the DM has to KNOW his players. Creating a new campaign for almost complete strangers is hard to do, especially if you get the formula wrong and put in things that only you enjoy. If you are a heroic gamer who loved lots of combat, you will be bored out of your mind if the first adventure is nothing more than a murder mystery or exploration romp through a local abandoned keep. Again, the DM has to have some sort of indication from the players as to what they enjoy. The easiest way to determine the tone of the campaign is to ask them if they prefer to play heroes from the start, or if they prefer to play common folk who become heroes in the course of play. This simple question can affect the method of rolling ability scores and saves you from causing a total-party-kill (TPK) that might turn some people off from playing the game at all.

I've mentioned my own thoughts on this topic in my article entitled Hopeless Characters. I prefer letting the dice determine what I CAN be, instead of starting with a preconceived notion of what I WANT to be. I also prefer having fewer choices presented in order to keep the character creation process to a minimum. If it takes longer than an hour to roll up a character, the system may be intricate but what happens if your character dies? Do you then leave the group to begin work on a new character? If you have a simpler system where choices are eliminated by random rolls, then you can get back in the game quicker!

D&D writers have seemingly swung to both extremes on this topic. Gygax originally had all players roll 3d6 in order for ability scores - you could play whatever you wanted, but if your prime requisite was low, you suffered an XP penalty which slowed your advancement in your chosen class. You could play a weak fighter, a moronic magic-user, a foolish cleric, or a clumsy thief. However, ability scores meant much less in play in the early days of D&D. In AD&D 1E, Gygax stipulated that player characters were a cut above the common men and women in the campaign world - they could advance in level while everyone else was stuck at 0-level. Even in the DMG (under Henchmen), he stated that:

"Human and half-orc characters suitable for level advancement are found at a ratio of 1 in 100. Other races have an incidence of 1 in 50. However, as most of these characters will be other than low level adventurers and already in a situation they are satisfied with - and humans more so than other races, unless the development of the area is primarily other than human - about 1 in 1,000 population will be interested in offers of employment as a henchman, NOTE: This figure must be adjusted by the DM according to the locale, for if it is an active adventuring area, the incidence of prospective henchmen might be as great as 1 in 200, while if it is a settled and staid area, incidence might be as low as 1 in 5,000."

OK, so that quote is talking about henchmen, not player characters. But if you take a look at the world in which you will be running a campaign, not everyone in the local village has a character class. In fact, they should NOT have a character class if the above means much at all. If we assume to have a party of 8 player characters, and they are all from the same starting area, then they are likely the ONLY characters of level-advancing ability from that community. Which means, that everyone else they meet in that community are 0-level humans without any class abilities whatsoever. How about the ruler of the community? How about the king? What prevents the PCs from taking over every community they enter simply because they have abilities that everyone else does not have?

These are the kinds of questions you have to ask yourself before coming up with a campaign world. These premises are not well explained in the various rules sets that have been released in the past. In fact, based on the quote above, one would assume that the local baron who inherited his position is likely to be a 0-level human, as is the local town guard captain, or the local cleric in the temple. However, if one looks at D&D modules from the beginning, this is not so. In fact, so many of the NPCs have character classes that it's hard to separate NPCs from PCs or henchmen in these adventures. Later edition adventures give EVERYONE a character class of one type or another and allow advancement for everyone! So how special are those PC adventurers then?

My belief is that D&D characters are meant to be common villagers and everyday people who obtain training and power from their conversion into 1st level characters. Their decisions and goals are the same as those who might begin the game as noble warriors and mighty wizards, but it is the journey to the goal that is where the fun lies, not the actual achievement of fame and fortune without effort. From a DM perspective, you want to keep the players hungry for more, looking to empower their characters to better survive the rigors of a perilous journey or despicable dungeon. If they begin capable of taking on all comers and emerge without a scratch, the game becomes rote and boring to the players and they seek thrills elsewhere. There are some players who just crave human interaction and don't care much about what happens to the characters in any case, but these are happily few and far between.

Loss is an important part of character growth as well. Losing a battle, a powerful magic item, or even a portion of the character's body is possible in the game. If the player cannot deal with the loss and emerge better for the experience, then they miss out on an aspect of "character development." Heroic players see losing as just that, and many deal poorly with it. "Commoner" players see losing as  development of the personality of their character - one can learn more from a loss about who they are and the nature of their character.

OK, all this being said, I noticed that almost all the NPCs in modules have character classes and are NOT simply 0-level humans. Remember, the premise behind original D&D was that rulers of communities were once 1st level PCs who achieved greatness in adventures and are now Name Level rulers of dominions, temples, towers, or hide-outs. The goal of OD&D was to become one of these leaders to then wage wars against other name level leaders and acquire lands and political power in the region of the campaign world. That is NOT the current goal of the game, since those rules were essentially removed in 3rd edition D&D and beyond. Now, only increasing power is the goal typical among players these days.

But again, how did all those common shop owners, temple acolytes, and common bandits the PCs encountered in early adventures become classed-characters? If only 1 in 100 characters in a region are suitable for character advancement, then how do you explain a village like Hommlet with over a dozen high-level classed NPCs all living in a community of about 250 people? The answer is simple - to deter the Heroic players from overtaking the village simply by having abilities and powers not common to the normal humans therein. If a heroic player sees there is little chance of success, they will not attempt an action. The "Commoner" players will not even attempt this since they see all characters as essentially equals, only with different motivations and abilities. Some NPCs in modules are so powerful, one wonders why THEY don't perform the mission that they get the players to do, since it would be child's play for them to do it. Again, this is a game... Some suspension of disbelief has to be used in order to advance the story or get the players into the adventure. Besides, not all NPCs wear a placard around their neck announcing their level, class, and hit points. Like alignment, not everything about an NPC is obvious from casual observation or conversation. Only by interaction can one deem the worth or power of an adversary or ally. Here is where the Heroic player gets into trouble by bragging or mouthing off, whereas the "Commoner" player seeks to engage the NPC as an equal, respecting the artificial rules of engagement when dealing with anyone outside their knowledge.

Besides, if PCs were actually all Heroic characters, then it would take much more effort to train for next level since anyone of high-level would be few and far between. There would be a much smaller percentage of the adventuring classes that are name-level, given attrition and death rates. In this case, the demi-humans would likely be the most powerful and highest levels, since their abilities allow them to survive better than humans. However, if humans are really just common characters with heroic outlooks on life, then they all have the same ability to advance and in this case the faster-breeding humans would dominate higher levels simply due to probabilities and superior numbers.

This is starting to ramble a bit, and I apologize. I've just been reading over modules from the 80s through 3rd edition and it seems to me that this issue has never really been addressed before. While Gygax kept telling us that PCs were a cut-above the common man, all his villagers were classed NPCs of one sort or another, and all guards seemed to be members of the Fighter class. Why couldn't a common man just wear armor and wield a sword once he was shown how? Sure, he wouldn't be as skilled as a 1st level fighter PC, but that's how it goes. Why does the jeweler have to be a 3rd level thief? Why make the bartender a 2nd level fighter? Why do all lords and ladies need to be name level character classes? If all of these NPCs in the world exist with class levels, then doesn't that imply that ANYONE can be a classed character? Doesn't that mean that PCs are NOT the cut above the rest, but are instead just another commoner taught to swing a sword or cast a spell?

D&D Basic: Entering Hommlet

 

Well, it has been a while since I've published anything on this blog. To be honest, I've been dabbling in D&D 5e and trying to get a feel for how the system works. It's not terrible, but I'm feeling like the balance is way off. Characters are too powerful at low levels, but the monsters are somewhat neutered in power, and treasure is next to meaningless to the party as a whole.

In order to feel better about running such a campaign, I've been decompressing by randomly rolling Basic D&D characters and doing some solo play in B2: Keep on the Borderlands. However, since I've been running the 5e campaign in Greyhawk, and using T1: The Village of Hommlet as the starting point, I've decided to convert the characters backwards into D&D Basic stats. The characters in the 5e campaign are: Brother Brassid, a human cleric of St. Cuthbert; Giaeya Larenhael, an elven druid with a spy background; Bru Goldenaxe, a dwarven fighter with an acolyte background and worshipper of Ulaa; and Oblaho Gorung, a half-orc monk follower of Rao, the Lord of Peace. Converting some of the characters was somewhat challenging, except for the cleric and the dwarf.

A few notes here - druids in Moldvay Basic do not exist. I don't like using Mentzer Basic because of the changes made to the original versions to make everything level evenly. I make druids be a choice for clerics of Neutral alignment only. Such "druids" adhere to religious rules, not game rules. If these rules are flaunted or broken, then they have angered their patron deity and suffer the penalties listed in the Expert rules. The strange part of this is that these "druids" can turn undead; but this isn't as strange as expected since undead are basically the antithesis of life, which is important to druids. The druidic religion abhors metal, so they are limited to using wooden or stone weapons like spears, clubs, stone maces, staves, slings, stone axes, and stone knives. They also wear only leather armor and must use wooden shields. Lastly, their spell selections must deal with the natural world. Since most of the Moldvay cleric spells are nature-related, this is not very limiting at all. I also like the idea of adding certain spells to the cleric lists from the World of Greyhawk Campaign setting. Despite the fact that this was written for AD&D 1st Edition, it can still work just fine in Basic/Expert D&D, so long as the characters abide by the spirit of the rules.

Alright, so the elven druid and the half-orc monk have no direct translations. I took the elf as is as the Elf class, eliminating her druid class, but making her a follower of Ehlonna of the Forest. She had only a few spells as a druid, so I opted to grant her the magic missile spell as her Elf class spell for 1st level. She was an archer in 5e so I made sure she had a bow as an elf. I kept the leather armor to make her movement faster than the others in the party. She was LG in 5e, so she is Lawful in Basic D&D. Elves are not sneaky in Basic, so her concept as a spy suffers a bit here. The good news is that she is not limited in her weapon and armor selections, so she can take sword as her melee weapon.

The half-orc race does not exist in Basic D&D. The closest I can come is a homely human. The monk class also does not exist in Basic D&D, however unarmed combat is a thing (see Expert Rulebook) and it could be that this is just another religious type class. However, I didn't see Oblaho as a cleric during play. He was much more of a physical monk, so I decided to make him a Fighter. Due to his religious upbringing in a monastery, he cherishes Rao, the Lord of Peace. Since he is a warrior-type, he was politely asked to leave the monastery after being trained in how to make unarmed attacks. His 18 Strength helps him immensely with this, since unarmed attack damage is a base 1-2 points + strength adjustments. Therefore, Oblaho can cause 4-5 points per strike. Unlike the monk class, fighters in B/X only get one attack per round. In keeping with his monk-like upbringing, he does not like to wear armor, but being a human Fighter he can wear leather armor and not be too slowed. His original weapon was a staff in 5e, making 2 attacks each round and doing a lot of damage. In Basic/Expert, a staff causes only 1d4 base damage, so I decided that he would use a pole arm instead, causing 1d10+3 points of damage per hit, but striking last in a round. There are no throwing stars in this version of D&D, so I gave him 3 normal daggers he can throw. Lastly, I gave him a sling as a missile weapon. His stats are very good, so he ends up with AC 6, 6 hit points, and MV 90' (30'). He may not have all the special abilities of a half-orc monk, but he is only 1st level and wouldn't have too many abilities anyways.

The party, having been converted, is outfitted with what I can remember from the first couple of sessions. We actually ran an overland travel adventure from Narwell to Hommlet (since the original adventure says that the characters came up from the Wild Coast), but I decided to simply start them in Hommlet for the Basic run. Having gone through the first three chapters of the D&D Basic rules covering the basics, character creation, and spells, we're now at the Adventure chapter. Having read the intro to the characters, they have organized the party and realize that they are too few to take on an adventure since average party sizes are 6-8 characters. They decide to enter the village and look for rumors, retainers to hire, and directions to where these bandits might be found.

After spending a few days wandering around the village and speaking to folks in the Inn and various shops, the characters have learned that the village was oppressed by the Temple of Elemental Evil in the past and the bandits in recent times seems to indicate that the Temple is rebounding from their defeat. The village was dominated by an agent of Chaos in a nearby moat house about a league along an old path off the High Road. They decide to organize and head out to explore the ruins. The cleric is voted as the Caller for the group. The Mapper is decided to be Oblaho. Metal miniatures are used to indicate marching order, but since the party is so small they decide that Oblaho and Bru will be up front, followed by Brother Brassid and Giaeya. The party moves at 60' because of the metal armored dwarf and cleric (Encumbrance rules are being used). Oblaho and Brassid have torches since Bru and Giaeya have infravision. While in the village they hired on Spugnoir as the least offensive of the options available. He is so feeble at 2nd level that he is in the middle of the party and has his detect magic and sleep spells prepared for the day.

Since this is Basic D&D, and the focus is on the dungeon at this level, no random encounters are rolled on the way to the moat house. The party has to clear the path to the moat house since it is overgrown. The distance to the moat house is 1 league (or 3 miles). Overland travel in D&D is calculated by taking the normal speed of the party (60'/turn) and dividing by 5 to get miles per day of travel afoot. This results in 12 miles. Since the party is only going 3 miles, this should only take 1/4 of a day. Assuming that the travel day is 10 hours long with breaks, this should take the party 2½ hours. However, since the path is overgrown and they must clear it as they go, it will actually take twice as long or 5 hours. Essentially, the party arrives at the moat house by midday. 

Brother Brassid, Cleric of St. Cuthbert: AC 3 (chainmail & shield, Dex), 1st level Cleric, hp 4, MV 60' (20'), #AT 1 weapon (+1 to hit), D by mace or club (+1 str bonus), SA turn undead; Str 14, Int 13, Wis 17, Dex 13, Con 12, Cha 8.

Bru Goldenaxe: AC 5 (chainmail), 1st level Dwarf, hp 6, MV 60' (20'), #AT 1 weapon (+1 to hit), D by battle axe (+1 str bonus) or crossbow, SA infravision, dwarven detection; Str 15, Int 9, Wis 12, Dex 12, Con 15, Cha 9.

Oblaho Gorung: AC 6 (leather, Dex), 1st level Fighter, hp 6, MV 90' (30'), #AT 1 weapon or unarmed (+3 to hit), D by pole arm, dagger, sling or unarmed (+3 str bonus), Str 18, Int 12, Wis 15, Dex 14, Con 15, Cha 10.

Giaeya Larenhael: AC 5 (leather & shield, Dex), 1st level Elf, hp 5, MV 90' (30'), #AT 1 weapon (+1 to hit), D by sword or longbow (+1 str bonus), SA infravision, find secret doors 2 in 6, spell (magic missile); Str 15, Int 15, Wis 12, Dex 15, Con 13, Cha 13.

Spugnoir (NPC): AC 8 (Dex), 1st level Magic-user, hp 4, MV 120' (40'), #AT 1 weapon or spell, D by dagger or spell, SA spells (detect magic, sleep); Str 11, Int 15, Wis 11, Dex 15, Con 14, Cha 7. 

Upon the party's approach to the ruins they note the collapsed sections of the walls and towers and the fact that the drawbridge is down. They hear loud croaking in the marsh grass nearby and swarms of flying insects fly around their heads and bite exposed flesh. They organize into their marching order and one torch is lit and handed to Spugnoir in the center of the party. Despite the fact that it is midday, they want to explore inside the ruins and don't want any surprises if there are deep shadows in the courtyard of the structure.

That's about all for this session. Next time we'll begin with Chapter 5: the Encounter!