I’m challenging conventional wisdom that AD&D by-the-book combat is too difficult! In this episode, I review surprise and initiative and those dreaded words/phrases: “segments” and “weapon speed”. Let’s learn and see that a bit of crunchy AD&D combat doesn’t have to be hard!
Anchor Episode link: https://anchor.fm/the-dungeon-masters-handbook/episodes/Episode-22—Demystifying-ADD-Combat—Surprise-and-Initiative-e9fo32
YouTube Episode link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CPUHsJ_ioM
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On Anchor: anchor.fm/the-dungeon-masters-handbook/message
Links from episode:
My AD&D Combat Cheat Sheet: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1buc4Iubou-bH7V1Ud-h_4SkHm9wfm64a
Intro music: Dragonaut by Bradley The Buyer (bit.ly/2ASpAlF)
Outro music: Dream by Wild Shores (bit.ly/2jbJehK)
Nice Cheat Sheet! Thanks for sharing.
I've looked forward to this episode, as I have never bothered to really delve deep. Without doing that, it just looks messy.
It sounds workable now that you laid it out, with things like segments only needed when certain acts are taken, and so on. The general case does not sound that terrible.
That being said. How do your players like Surprise? I'm beginning to feel it really does not bring much fun to the table, but it would be interesting to hear from a group that must have been exposed to it way more than me and my players.
They love it when they get 2 rounds of surprise… not so much when the monsters do. So far, it's worked out as well as I could expect it to.