keith wrote:Did you (or anyone you know) begin playing Original/Basic D&D and then move on to play with the Basic, Expert, Companion, Master, & Immortal rules?

... everyone I knew who used "D&D" (like a module) simply adapted it to AD&D.

My group started with the Holmes basic set, and then we moved to AD&D later that same year.  However, we actually played both lines throughout.  Although realism in a fantasy game is a bit oxymoronic, AD&D was grittier, slower and heavier!  Those hardbound books started to weigh you down if you were peddling everywhere, whereas with just those two 3-hole punched, Erol Otus-arted softbacks you had everything you needed!  

So while we were totally hooked on AD&D, every so often we would decide to just slam together some basic/expert characters (they were so quick to make, and you could buy down/up your stats, which rocked!) and take on Tegel Manor, Castle Amber, the Lost City, Curse of Xanathon, or suchlike and have a blast.  It was D&D pared down to the fun.

In fact, when I just ran Curse of Xanathon and the Lost City last summer using the basic/expert rules, and it was just as much fun as it has always been.

muaddib5 wrote:Played very briefly in 1984. My best friend tried teaching me basic D&D out of the red box set. I moved and didn't play for almost two years. Then my best friend and I met up again in 1986 and we dived head first into AD&D. My first Gen Con was GC19 that summer. I had been only playing for a few months at the time, and I can remember my buddy telling me while we were waiting to be picked for teams for that years AD&D Open "remember if anyone asks, you've been playing for a year." That first year was the only time we made it to the second round of the Open

Hey at least you made it to the second round, we got booted after the first round this year and I have been playing for years

killjoy32 wrote:

Blackmoor wrote:Hey at least you made it to the second round, we got booted after the first round this year and I have been playing for years

oooh a story in the making....start a thread off and tell us what happened

Well we had a disfuntional group to say the least.  First off the DM was very slow, his grasp of the rules was poor and his decisions were wishy washy; especially when one of the girls (we had two in our group) talked.  I think he may have helped write the 40 year old version

One of the other players felt he was the best player and everybody should listen to him.  That was fine but he was far from the best player at the table.  After he started bragging that he was the manager of a Dominoes Pizza I knew we were doomed.

The best part was there were two players from the UK, both these guys brought exactly no books with them   They told us that coming from all the way over there meant they had to leave there books at home.  Wait a minute, I came from western canada and somehow I could fit a players handbook in my luggage.  Come on man, you are coming to a gaming convention with no players handbook .  They really slowed us down always borrowing a book, finally my wife told them to go in the hall and buy one .  We did not come close to finishing, still had a few laughs (especially the girls bugging the nervous DM).

I played in a tournament once.  We crushed the adventure (didn't really even take any damage) but ended up finishing second......

   ......Turns out that we were so inexperienced that we did not know that teams could score points for doing stupid things.  The team that won bumbled about the adventure getting smacked by monsters and scoring points for it.  

    Not that I'm still pissed or anything.  

killjoy32 wrote:

MShipley88 wrote:I played in a tournament once. We crushed the adventure (didn't really even take any damage) but ended up finishing second......

......Turns out that we were so inexperienced that we did not know that teams could score points for doing stupid things. The team that won bumbled about the adventure getting smacked by monsters and scoring points for it.

 Not that I'm still pissed or anything.

talking of running games, i am gonna get me mate over for halloween. i got the kids down n stuff, so am gonna run I6 - ravenloft, just so i can get the atmosphere right. ran it before and it was a success.

gonna use some music for it too....anyone got any good ideas? was thinking of something backgroundish and moody.....

Al

    For Ravenloft, you cannot beat the soundtrack CD to the most recent Dracula movie (with Gary Oldman as Dracula).  It might still be around on a large music store's racks.

Killjoy32 wrote:talking of running games, i am gonna get me mate over for halloween. i got the kids down n stuff, so am gonna run I6 - ravenloft, just so i can get the atmosphere right. ran it before and it was a success.

gonna use some music for it too....anyone got any good ideas? was thinking of something backgroundish and moody.....

Ah!  Music for Ravenloft -- now yer in my wheelhouse, mate!  

You have three routes for this -- the first is to play up the Bela Lugosi cheese factor -- special effect CDs, Halloween CDs, Bach's Tocatta and Fugue in Dm (which, incidentally, is the piece that Tracy Hickman had in mind when he wrote the scene in front of the organ).  Vampyre of the Harpsichord/Phantom of the Organ is also good in this vein (pardon the pun); these are older works, but if they don't take you back to 1960's Hammer Horror/American International fright pictures, it's a damn shame.
Ultimately, though, these are pretty silly things to throw in-- if you just want to go way over the top and have Strahd spout lines in a thick Hungarian accent "I never drink.... blood...." then these soundstracks will have everyone rolling around on the floor.

The second route is to grab an off the rack soundtrack.  Dracula falls into this category, the Alien soundtrack, John Carpenter's The Fog, The Prince of Darkness, or The Thing, are all very good.  Most of the CDs from Midnight Syndicate fall into this category as well.  Problem is, they match the rhythm of the movie, not necessarily the rhythm of your game -- just when the suspense is building to a crescendo with Strahd stepping out of the shadows to open a vampire-sized can of whoop-a** on the PCs, the soundtrack launches into a love theme and the moment is gone.  I've been there -- especially with the Omen soundtrack, which while good, has a vocal love theme track that will suck the horror out of a game in a heartbeat.  

The third route, and the one I recommend for true gloom, is to find some dark ambient music.  This stuff is minimalist, dark, and often heavy on low- and sub-harmonics.  I think the majority of its regular listeners use it to enhance their already... erm, altered, state of awareness, but even without resorting to chemical assistance, it has great gaming uses.  Because a fair portion of it is subharmonic, you need a subwoofer that can move some air at the 17-30 hz range, to get maximum effect.   Nevertheless, this stuff blends into the background fast -- it never disturbs your DM narration, or throws the players out of their groove -- within minutes no one is really "aware" that it is still playing.  But it is working on you nonetheless -- before the evening is through, you will be seriously believing that you are deep in a crypt that someone else calls home.   And better yet -- because almost no one listens to this stuff for real, it can be had used for pennies on the dollar from most online used CD stores (Amazon.com/Secondspin.com/insert your country's used CD store here).  

Here are the titles that I recommend:

Stalker [Audio CD] Rich, Robert; Lustmord, B
The Magnificent Void [Audio CD] Steve Roach
Cold Summer [Audio CD] Lull
Midnight Moon [Audio CD] Roach, Steve

There are others, but these work like no ones business.  Be aware, they are not "heroic," they don't evoke romance or excitement, or anything like that.  These are tracks that capture, however, the sense of dread of creeping around a haunted house, castle, catacombs -- in the dark, with something around that palpably wants to do you in.

Yama-Arashi wrote:Here are the titles that I recommend:

Great post! Thanks for providing the info and recommendations.

I've been a longtime fan of The Thing, but I just watched the Omen and the Fog for the first time last week. Getting ready for Halloween...

Another choice for theme music might be Joy Division. All the songs are downcast yet commanding; some are propulsive and rhythmic and others are slow and atmospheric. I think JD would make a good soundtrack for Frodo being chased by the Ringwraiths in Lord of the Rings.

John Carpenter is by far my favorite horror director. I have all of his movies. Prince of Darkness was probably his best.

John Carpenter is by far my favorite horror director. I have all of his movies. Prince of Darkness was probably his best.

I knew there was something I liked about you DL.  :wink:  Prince Of Darkness is great, strange, horrific fun.  I got hooked on John Carpenter movies with the original Halloween.  I have all of his movies except the Elvis flick, Darkstar, and Memoirs of an Invisible Man.  They Live, In The Mouth of Madness, and Escape From New York are still my favorites of his.

Escape from L.A. and Ghosts of Mars should have never been made though.  And I for one think Vampires killed James Woods' career.  :P