sambeastie

Yeah I probably should've asked for advice, but I knew while assembling the deck that all my picks were garbage. Plus I was intimidated by being the only one there who didn't already know someone else, so the anxiety took over and I didn't do a whole lot of talking. The first opponent might have helped me out a little, he seemed pretty nice. The last two were a little scary tbh haha.

And yeah this group had 24 I think. Funny thing is that this is the small shop nearby me. It just happens to have high ceilings so every sound on the floor is amplified.

Ah that sounds nice. Makes me wish anyone played Jumpstart. Cracking a couple of those in a similar way to your Pauper decks would've probably kept my energy up after a terrible round!

Yeah, I tried to not show that I was wearing down because I know that can dampen the mood. I did reflexively apologize to my first opponent because I assume one sided matches are boring, especially if someone is high skill, but to his credit he said not to worry about it and thanked me for the pack, so maybe I was overthinking it.

If I go again I'll bring noise dampening earplugs and hopefully weather the environment better.

This was great, very comprehensive. Thank you!

Yeah nobody said or did anything egregious. I could just see my second opponent getting bored and kind of annoyed even of she kept it to herself. At least I think she was, I'm admittedly not great at reading faces. I think most people had friends there, so I felt like every moment they were spending on our games was going to be time they couldn't be getting in a real game between rounds. Lots of friendly side games seemed to be happening between rounds. If that's not actually an issue, then I won't worry about it if I go again.

And yeah, the format change didn't really change my odds of winning, but it threw me off and since I don't really have fundamentals yet, it kind of felt like the floor falling out under me. Not a big deal though, just harder to learn from.

My solution is to run with as few as 2+me (the DM), and use a play structure that doesn't require the same players to be present at every session. We always end rhe session in a safe location (town, safehouse, etc). If someone can't make it, they're just in suspended animation along with their gear and hirelings/retainers until they're back.

Just not sweating the fact that it's a game has gotten me a very consistent game every two weeks like clockwork.

This, at least, is not entirely true. OD&D does not have any distinction at all between male and female characters in the original 3 pamphlets.

Pretty sure that stuff came in later, post-Greyhawk. It certainly showed up in fanzines of the late 70s, though...

Haha, I've been pulling your leg, the confused response was just too funny to ignore at first. I have a new comment that explains it.

You're good, and yes, it is older than 2e.

OK, time to come clean. I had assumed the other old people would have this at the ready, but when the confused responses came in, I just rolled with it and now I'm bored with the joke.

This is for BECMI. The question itself is real, though, I've heard of better Thief progressions, and I don't want to just top out at 14 like most people do since I never got to play with the Masters or Immortals sets and I want to try it at least once so I know how it plays.

Definitely not AD&D, I have those too and they're much heavier books -- these are more like magazines.

I should note that I have a blue one in here labeled expert rulebook. One of my players is bringing more that go with these.

I searched for the text on the box and mine is this one

https://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Basic-Rules-Set/dp/0880383380