OD&D Dungeon Crawling

[Scott]

For the past couple sessions I've been running OD&D, original box only, dungeon crawls. It's fun, but it can be tough. You can see why EGG implemented the house rules he did in the last session notes he posted online: PCs start at 3rd level and adding unconscious rules.
Last night's party consisted of:
Vaas: 1st level fighter
Ogawsh: 1st level cleric
"Smoky": 2nd level magic-user
Nytar: 1st level magic-user

The party also hires four men-at-arms, sword armed footmen.

After reaching the ruins the party descended the central spiral staircase and entered the dungeons. The decided to explore west, the opposite direction from which they had been exploring. The first encounter proved to be quite challenging, it was with a stuck door. It took them multiple tries to open it. When they finally did the inhabitants of the room beyond were ready for them. There was a cleric with some orc lackeys. Some of the orcs had crossbows and opened up as soon as the party burst through the door. The party charged the orcs. One of the M-A-A got skewed on a spear and went down. one of the M-Us cast a sleep spell and put the orcs to sleep. The deranged cleric rushed them while casting a spell. The party spelll casters were quicker and charmed him. The party discussed what questions to ask the cleric, and then killed him without asking any. A search of the area did turn up a sack of silver and a few pieces of jewelry. The party continued exploring, coming across several open pits that caused them to turn around and look for other options. Eventually they came across an area that looked like a cell block, doors lined one side of the hall. There were kobolds guarding the area, and they attacked with javelins as the party approached. Flaming flasks of oil were exchanged and half the party charged. The kobolds fled, and several of the party decided to pursue. The rest of the party examined the doors. They were cells, one held a kobold, another a dwarf, the rest were empty. The party started busting down the door. Meanwhile the pursuing party members ran into another squad of kobolds on their way to investigate. More melee, until the surviving kobolds retreated again. The banged up party decided to follow this time and returned to the cell area. The dwarf was freed, and the party decided to head back to town. They asked the dwarf to join the party and he agreed.
The party was close to leveling, and everybody did after this expedition.
To be continued.

[Scott]

After spending some time in town healing, equipping, hiring, etc. The party was ready to return to the dungeons. They replaced the fallen M-A-A with a crossbowman, and equipped Gunter the dwarf.
The party returned to the spot where they left off and continued exploring. They ran into numerous traps, pits, a maze of rooms, giant rats, etc. set up by the kobolds to confound adventurers. Eventually they did find the main kobold living area. In the battle that ensued the party lost another M-A-A and their newly recruited dwarf. They killed most of the kobolds, but several escaped, including the leader. The battle did drain their resources, and they debated heading back to town, but decided to push on ''just s little but more'.
The party was sick of kobolds, traps, and copper, so they headed to the central staircase and headed down to the second level. They wandered around for a while and unknowingly went down a sloping passage to the 3rd level. The explored a few empty rooms. After the party entered one, the door slammed shut behind them. There was a moment of panic, but it passed when they were able to open the door with no problem. They had another moment of panic when they exited the room and realized they had been teleported somewhere. They tried the room again, but nothing happened. They started exploring. After a few more empty rooms they entered a room with several humans, a magic-user and two fighters. The party was forced to use up the last of their spells, a sleep and a charm person ended the fight. From the charmed M-U they discovered they were on the 3rd level. They assumed they got teleported there, and still didn't realize they had wandered down a sloping passage. They also got directions out. To thank the charmed magic-user for his help, they killed him. (He was evil) In the room they found a spell book, and a chest of gold. They took the loot, followed the directions to the stairs, and escaped the dungeons and headed back to town.

[Scott]

Poor Gunter. His death was one of those odds defying moments that shock you now and then. He waded into the kobolds in his plate mail feeling invincible, but the kobolds were like, 17, 17, 17 which was exactly what they needed to hit. One miss and he would have survived the battle and been cured, but it was kobolds revenge I guess.

[GRWelsh]

Although I didn't play in this particular session, playing OD&D again reminded me how plate mail and shield (base AC 2) is generally affordable right away and so it is a fighter's game where you may feel like superman -- possibly for a long time -- until you get a run of bad luck like Gunter.

A fighter in plate and shield with a Dex bonus actually has a pretty good chance to go a long time without being hit in a scenario similar to B1 or B2.

[Scott]

I liked the jump in prices in AD&D. But maybe I’m just used to staring with chain from all the 1E I’ve played.
Plate does help balance out OD&D’s brutal lack of unconscious rules and no cleric spells at 1st level.