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That Oath spell sounds more like a proto-Geas to me, considering there's no benefit to the recipient, only penalty if he breaks the oath. 5e Ceremony is meant to be a beneficial thing.
 
Is there anywhere in any edition of D&D, or any RPG for that matter, that explains how much gear you can stuff in a backpack, or a beltpouch, or a chest, or pretty much any non-magical container?
 
The1True said:
The Encumbrance rules in AD&D?
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You would think so, right? But I struck out in the DMG and PHB for 1e, 3.5e, and 4e. There seems to be the assumption that the carrying capacity of the backpack is the same as the carrying capacity of the character, while the carrying capacity of a belt pouch is whatever small stuff the player wants to put in there. The 4e PHB does have a capacity for sacks, which is 100 lbs.

Oddly enough, I did find it in the 5e PHB, which lists a backpack as having capacity of 1 cu. ft. or 30 lbs; whereas a belt pouch can hold 0.2 cu. ft. or 6 lbs. I assume that stuff attacked to the outside of the packpack (bedroll and rope, probably) don't count as part of it's carrying capacity. It also has carrying capacities for a whole bunch of other containers.
 
EOTB said:
It's in the text that came with the permanent character record folders
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Thanks! I'm pretty sure I never owned that product. Interesting that the carrying capacity by weight of a backpack is still the same (or the same again) in 5e, but the capacity in volume has been reduced significantly.
 
SIDENOTE: The D&D subreddit is doing the hobby no favors. It looks like a ren-faire furry's Pintrest board in there. I'm all for letting people play whatever they want, but why is it always big-tittied devil folk and cat people? And why do they feel the need to commission professional art for these fetish characters and then plaster them all over the subreddit? Damn.
 
Is this what traveling through the tunnels and caves of D1 might look like?

tunnel.jpg

Video link:

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x.com x.com
 
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squeen said:
Is this what traveling through the tunnels and caves of D1 might look like?

View attachment 1418

Video link:

x.com

x.com x.com
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Cool. I'm pretty sure that was a mine, what with the debris, the rail tracks, and the wooden braces at the end.

I've only been in three natural caves systems, but all of them had quite smooth floors, which I guess makes sense if they formed by erosion due to water? Naturally, that is how I would describe D1-2 if I ever get around to running it.
 
And this.
DSCF0148 (2015_08_24 04_42_11 UTC) - Copy.jpg

It occurs to me that I need to run a slideshow of these whenever the characters are in a cave and we aren't using a battlemap.
 
Awesome panoramic photos!

I was once in a famous cave in Gibraltar once (the one with the monkeys) that looked similar inside. Loved it.
 
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Beoric said:
I've only been in three natural caves systems, but all of them had quite smooth floors, which I guess makes sense if they formed by erosion due to water? Naturally, that is how I would describe D1-2 if I ever get around to running it.
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Could it be a self selecting issue? You, the "generic" traveler, go only to caves that are easy to travel through...
And over time, as many people walk through them, the floor becomes "smoother"
 
The1True said:
Tchya! What kind of total dork would still have his beautiful, orange, unmarked character sheets from, like, 40 years ago. What an obsessive weirdo! Psshh! Pffah. yeah... 🤓😅
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Hey I won't ding you for holding on to old stuff - I think we all have a few pieces of OG D&D tucked away. I myself have a full whitebox OD&D set (even though I don't play it), and I think the last time I cracked open my still-extant copy of Deities & Demigods was as a pre-teen peeking at drawings of boobies.

I do take issue with the prevailing modern mindset that these things are commonplace, however. Replies like "well duh, you just use the table in Dragon #28" is all too common a statement around the sphere, conveniently ignoring the idea that it's fucking bonkers to just assume someone has an easy-referable copy of Dragon #28, as if we're all sitting on some archival library of early works. Or worse - the assumption that we all memorize every single piece of D&D ephemera from eons past, somehow.
 
Beoric said:
I still have my DM Adventure Log, which I didn't even find useful at the time.
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Back in my 20's when friends were just starting to shack up with their girlfriends and first wives, it was the bachelor's duty to receive the giant box o pr0n because apparently that was never going to happen again now that there was a woman in the apartment... In my case however, it was apparently my duty to receive the giant box of miniatures and RPG junk, for equally sad reasons. I've got some weird shit as a result: Dungeon Geomorphs. Official Hex Paper. 1.5e Player Character Record Sheets. MERP. Those amazing Warhammer "Realm of Chaos" books.

And the AD&D Dungeon Master's Design Kit which has surprisingly never been discussed around here...
 
DangerousPuhson said:
I do take issue with the prevailing modern mindset that these things are commonplace, however. Replies like "well duh, you just use the table in Dragon #28" is all too common a statement around the sphere, conveniently ignoring the idea that it's fucking bonkers to just assume someone has an easy-referable copy of Dragon #28, as if we're all sitting on some archival library of early works. Or worse - the assumption that we all memorize every single piece of D&D ephemera from eons past, somehow.
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You are not wrong. Older D&D material was scattered and hazard (Dragon mag, etc.), but that's because it was growing organically in real-time. No one had even the remotest template (talking 0e/1e days) for what was gold and what was fool's gold. That's why it was such a vibrant time. I've made the analogy before with regards to open-source software in the early aughts (e.g. Raymond's The Cathedral and Baazar). The OSR was a renaissance (rebirth) too (around the same time, both facilitated by the new distribution mechanism of the early internet) and grown in "bazaar" mode. We are now deep into "cathedral" design-mode, orchestrated by WotC and in typical fashion, it's slow, heavy-handed, and---to be honest---uninspiring.

Circling back to your point: yeah it's a mess, and no one can really expect you to know all the arcana---but rather than a condemnation, I look at it as part of the fun of the (original) hobby.

Primarily, I like digging for knowledge (I'm a reserach engineer) because it's so rewarding when you add another uncovered relic to your collected database. This is, after all, a hobby. Hobbies are not things served up for effortless consumption (i.e. consumer products, movies, etc.), but something your fiddle with out of sheer joy and interest. Hobbies are suppose to take time and effort, although I can see where rule-hunting might not be everyone's favorite aspect. Incidentally, this may be why rule-light versions of the game probably don't hold one's attention for quite as long, whereas something like AD&D campaigns go on for years and years.

Secondly, there's a social aspect of having to sift for info. We are all here to support each other's searching through the rubble of the ages to find those obscure elements we need for our next play-session. It's why we're on this forum, satiating that basic desire to trade tips at Byrce's generous marketsquare.
 
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