OD&D Combat: Initiative and the Combat Sequence

The first thing to work out when constructing a combat system for OD&D/CHAINMAIL is the combat sequence.  CHAINMAIL provides a perfectly adequate one, as shown below, but a few tweaks are required:

 

 

 

This is simple enough so far.  Both sides roll a die, and follow the steps given above.  If the die results are different, the Move/Countermove system is used.  If the results are the same, the Simultaneous Movement system is used.

A few things need to be added to the above sequence.   Dragon breath, and other breath weapons, I will place in the Artillery Fire phase.  Boulders thrown by giants will also go into that phase.  I'm placing spellcasting into its own phase, after Missile Fire but before Melee.  Spellcasters will start casting at the beginning of the round, and any damage taken before then will disrupt the spell.

The following rules from CHAINMAIL's Man-to-Man section will apply to determine who goes first in melee:

 

So on the first round of a melee the longer (higher-class) weapon strikes first, and on subsequent rounds the smaller and faster (lower-class) weapon strikes first.  The terms "attacker" and "defender" in the rules above are a bit vague, but I'm defining the attacker as the side that won initiative (regardless of whether they chose to move first or second).  Second round attacks won't be contingent on who attacked first in the previous round, but will still be determined by initiative roll (or weapon class, if applicable).  Of course, anyone fighting with natural weaponry won't have a weapon class, so the attack sequence will be entirely determined by initiative.

The final thing to incorporate into this system is this line from OD&D Vol. 1: "Dexterity applies to both manual speed and conjuration. It will indicate the character's missile ability and speed with actions such as firing first, getting off a spell, etc."  As I interpret the above combat sequence, the Artillery and Missile phases have both sides firing at the same time.  I would do the same for the Spellcasting phase.  The one thing I would change for each of these phases is to have characters with a high Dexterity (13-18) shoot or cast first, followed by those with average Dexterity (9-12), then those with low Dexterity (3-8).  Most monsters will have an average Dexterity rating, so this will most often advantage or disadvantage PCs, as the case may be.  To simplify things, Dexterity won't be a factor when using the Simultaneous Movement system.

When finalised, the Combat Sequence will look something like this:

COMBAT SEQUENCE

THE INITIATIVE ROLL

A die (1d6) is rolled to determine initiative at the beginning of each combat round.  Each side rolls, and the side with the highest score has the initiative.  The side with initiative chooses whether to act first (Move) or last (Counter-Move).  Proceed to the Move/Counter-Move System below.

 

If the rolls are equal, use the Simultaneous Movement System instead.

 

THE MOVE/COUNTER-MOVE SYSTEM

1. All characters on the side going first move
1. characters that are able to may split-move and fire
2. Stationary opponents may retaliate with pass-through fire
3. Melees resulting from a charge are resolved.
1. The side charging attacks first, unless:
1. the defender's weapon is 2+ classes higher
2. the defender is fighting from above (a castle wall, rampart, etc.)
3. Anyone is attacked from the rear or the left flank; characters attacked from the rear may not retaliate during the 1st melee round, and those attacked from the left flank must attack last
   
2. All characters on the side going last move
1. characters that are able to may split-move and fire
2. Stationary opponents may retaliate with pass-through fire
3. Melees resulting from a charge are resolved
1. The side charging attacks first, unless:
1. the defender's weapon is 2+ classes higher
2. the defender is fighting from above (a castle wall, rampart, etc.)
3. Anyone is attacked from the rear or the left flank; characters attacked from the rear may not retaliate during the 1st melee round, and those attacked from the left flank must attack last
3. Artillery missiles, Giant boulders, and breath weapons are fired, both sides firing simultaneously.
4. Missiles are fired, both sides firing simultaneously.  Characters with Dexterity of 13+ fire first, those with Dexterity 9-12 fire second, and those with Dexterity of 8 or lower fire last.  Unless otherwise noted, assume a Dexterity of 9-12.
5. Spells are cast, both sides casting simultaneously. Characters with Dexterity of 13+ cast first, those with Dexterity 9-12 cast second, and those with Dexterity of 8 or lower cast last.  Unless otherwise noted, assume a Dexterity of 9-12.
6. Melees are resolved. First blow in each round is determined as follows:
1. On the first round of a melee:
1. The side that has initiative strikes first unless
1. The defender's weapon is 2+ classes higher
2. The defender is fighting from above (a castle wall, rampart, etc.)
3. Anyone is attacked from the rear or the left flank; characters attacked from the rear may not retaliate during the 1st melee round, and those attacked from the left flank must attack last
2. On subsequent rounds:
1. The side which has initiative strikes first, unless
1. The opponent has a weapon 2+ classes lower
2. The opponent is fighting from above
3. Anyone was attacked from behind in the 1st round of melee; such characters always strike last on the next round
7. Roll for initiative again at the beginning of the next round.

 

THE SIMULTANEOUS MOVEMENT SYSTEM

1. Each player writes down what they want their character to do for the round, including direction of movement, and the referee does the same for the monsters
2. Every creature in the battle moves as per their written orders, making half of their move.
1. Opponents that come within 1" of each other have entered melee contact, and must stop moving.
2. All characters able to split-move and fire may do so, both sides firing simultaneously.
3. Stationary characters may make pass-through fire.
3. Every creature finishes the remainder of its ordered movement.
1. Melees resulting from a charge are resolved.
1. The side charging attacks first, unless:
1. the defender's weapon is 2+ classes higher
2. the defender is fighting from above (a castle wall, rampart, etc.)
3. Anyone is attacked from the rear or the left flank; characters attacked from the rear may not retaliate during the 1st melee round, and those attacked from the left flank must attack last
4. Artillery missiles, Giant boulders, and breath weapons are fired, both sides firing simultaneously.
5. Missiles are fired, both sides firing simultaneously.
6. Spells are cast, both sides casting simultaneously.
7. Melees are resolved.
1. On the first round of a melee:
1. Both sides strike simultaneously unless
1. One opponent's weapon is 2+ classes higher
2. One opponent is fighting from above (a castle wall, rampart, etc.)
3. Anyone is attacked from the rear or the left flank; characters attacked from the rear may not retaliate during the 1st melee round, and those attacked from the left flank must attack last
2. On subsequent rounds:
1. Both sides strike simultaneously, unless
1. One opponent has a weapon 2+ classes lower
2. One opponent is fighting from above
3. Anyone was attacked from behind in the 1st round of melee; such characters always strike last on the next round
8. Roll for initiative again at the beginning of the next round.

 

Split-move fire and pass-through fire (see the Missile Fire section of this chapter) take effect immediately during the movement phase.  All other artillery and missile fire occurs simultaneously just prior to melee.

 

It is not shown here when morale checks should be made.  They can occur during any kind of missile fire, as well as after melee, and must be made whenever the rules require. See Morale for more details.

 

"Charge-if-Charged"

This special charging rule can only be performed by cavalry. It can only be done during a Simultaneous Movement turn sequence. It must be declared as part of a character's written orders before the round begins.

 

The character ordered to "Charge-if-Charged" may react to any charge made by an enemy creature (provided the charge is at the character or an ally of that character).  This enemy creature must be within the character's charging range when its charge begins.  The character charges that creature, beginning at the second phase of movement and charging up to one-half of a normal charge move.

 

All other charging rules and bonuses apply.

Constructing the OD&D/Chainmail Combat System

You may have noticed that my last post was in December.  You might even remember that in the post before that I made a promise to myself to focus more on playing and running D&D, and blogging more.  You're almost certainly aware that it's now April. Well, I haven't played during that time, and I haven't blogged during that time.  The truth is, I've barely done anything D&D-related at all.  I almost joined a group as a player, with a professional paid DM, until I decided I couldn't really afford it (and had some other life stuff come up as well).  Aside from that, I've been more focused on my fiction writing and some other projects, and D&D has been on the backburner.  My muse is cycling back around to it again though, and the first task I know I need to do before I can start prepping my campaign is to get the ruleset I'm using ready to go.  Unfortunately for me, the ruleset I've decided to use is Original D&D, which requires a bit more assembly than most.  So I figured I'd blog for a while about that process, starting with the combat system.

When figuring out how you're going to run combat in Original D&D, there's one stumbling block that every referee will encounter: there is no combat system contained in those three booklets.  Sure, there's a method for determining whether or not an attack causes damage, and if that damage is sufficient to slay the target.  But there are many other important questions that go unanswered.  Who goes first?  What can an individual character or monster accomplish in one combat round?  When do combatants lose heart and run away?  All of these questions are answered by later editions of the game, but what I'm trying to do is build the game using the answers that would have been available in 1974.  So let's see what the original booklets have to say about things, under the heading Land Combat:

 The basic system is that from CHAINMAIL, with one figure representing one man or creature. Melee can be conducted with the combat table given in Volume I or by the CHAINMAIL system, with scores equalling a drive back or kill equal only to a hit.

There's a little bit more after that about fighting larger battles on a 20:1 scale, but that's not usually relevant in most D&D games.  The key point is that we're referred to the CHAINMAIL miniature wargame rules.  We're also given the choice of using the CHAINMAIL systems or the tables in OD&D for determining whether an attack is successful.  For me, the choice is an easy one.  OD&D gives one single mechanic, and encompasses every monster in the rules within that mechanic.  CHAINMAIL has multiple mechanics depending on whether creatures are man-types or fantastic, and even then there are quite a number of D&D monsters that aren't covered in the CHAINMAIL rules.  It's very easy to default to the OD&D tables here.  But this doesn't answer the questions posed above about the other aspects of combat.

Taking a look at CHAINMAIL shows that there are three separate combat systems.  The first is for mass battles fought between normal men.  The second is for man-to-man skirmishes.  And the third - from the Fantasy Supplement - is for fantastic battles between monsters and powerful characters.  The Fantasy Supplement doesn't do much to answer questions of movement, initiative, morale, etc.; and being a supplement the assumption is that it would be based on the rest of the CHAINMAIL rules.  Since D&D combat is almost invariably at the skirmish scale, it would make sense to default to those rules.  But look what it says:

 When using the Man-to-man combat system all preceding rules apply, except where amended below.

So effectively all of the mass combat rules apply in man-to-man combat, unless the man-to-man rules contradict them.  This is the "fun" part of constructing a workable combat system using OD&D and CHAINMAIL.  What counts, and what doesn't?  Which rules are applicable?  That's what I plan to figure out below, at least in a very broadstrokes fashion.  I will probably break down some of these topics in future posts, but for now I'm just going through CHAINMAIL and giving some quick notes about what is in and what's out.

One general principle I'm going to try to stick to with this is that the CHAINMAIL mass combat rules are superseded by the man-to-man rules, which are superseded by the OD&D rules.

• Melee range is 3" (30 feet when indoors or 30 yards when outdoors)
• This is not a rule I care for.  Even in the very abstract combat round of D&D, I feel like it breaks the immersion for characters that are 30 feet (or yards!) apart to be attacking each other in melee.  Thankfully, there's precedent for a 10 feet/yards melee distance in the OD&D surprise rules, which show an example where a Wyvern can melee because it's within 10 feet.  With a maximum encounter distance of 30 feet when surprised, it wouldn't make much sense to even roll for it if melee distance was 30 feet, so... This is the first rule I'm kicking out.  Melee range is 1".
• First blows
• In melee, who strikes the first blow depends on who is the "attacker", and on the relative "class" of each weapon.  Weapon class subsumes weapon length and speed; higher class weapons are longer and will attack first when initiating melee, and lower class weapons will strike first on subsequent rounds.
• This all seems reasonable, although it may sometimes be unclear who the "attacker" is in any given situation.  And I'm not quite sure what to do in situations where there are more than two weapon types in any given melee.
• Some special case melee rules:
• Men attacked from the rear can't retaliate on that round, and will attack second the round after. Seems reasonable, and applicable to any creature attacked from the rear.
• Those attacking from the rear also get a +1 to hit.  These small bonuses are due to CHAINMAIL's resolution mechanics being rolled on 1d6 or 2d6.  They're significant at that scale, but not so much when rolling a d20. I'll stick with them regardless.
•  Men attacked from the left flank automatically attack last on the initial melee round.  I guess this assumes everyone is right-handed?  It's also not necessarily applicable to non-humanoid monsters and animals.
• Mounted men get a +1 to hit against footmen, and +2 on the first round of melee; footmen are -1 to hit mounted men. On the second melee round, a horse can attack footmen with its hooves in addition to its riders attacks.
• Parrying and multiple attacks:
• To quickly summarise some fairly involved rules, if two weapons used in melee are different enough in weapon class, one attacker may get 2 or even 3 attacks, and there is also the option of parrying.
• As I mentioned above, weapon class can get unwieldy when you have melees involving more than two combatants, especially when each has a different weapon.  I'm inclined to keep this rule, but maybe only apply it for one-on-one battles.
• Morale: 
• The man-to-man rules say that: "Morale is to be checked when 1/3 of an army has been killed. Use the standard morale tables, check type of troop, and allow any bonuses to dice".  There are two morale systems in CHAINMAIL, but the man-to-man system seems to be referring here to the one listed under "Instability Due to Excess Casualties".  The question here is whether to use that exclusively, or to also apply the "Post Melee Morale" rules.  In the interests of simplicity, I will probably just use the former.
• It should also be noted that morale ratings will have to be determined for all of the non-humans in D&D.
• Turn Sequence:
• CHAINMAIL has two turn sequences, one where the sides take turns resolving each phase of the round, and one where the resolution is simultaneous.  The basic system is that each side rolls 1d6, with the winner deciding who moves first, then each phase is resolved: movement, artillery, missile fire, and melee.  My interpretation is that the simultaneous system is used when the d6 rolls are the same, but that's not stated.
• One thing that needs to be figured out is when spellcasting happens in this sequence.
• It should also be noted that OD&D says that Dexterity is a factor in speed of missile fire and spellcasting, so I'll need to factor that in too.
• And then there's the First Strike stuff from above, which I know my players will rebel against when winning initiative doesn't mean they necessarily get to attack first.
• Movement:
• The terrain effects here seem workable, and there's a list of movement rates for various troop types.  OD&D has boiled this down to simply Light Foot, Heavy Foot, and Armored Foot, so these can mostly be ignored.  Interestingly enough, in CHAINMAIL Light and Heavy Foot are both 9", but there's enough precedent in the OD&D booklets for lightly armored humans moving at 12" for me to go with the standard 12"/9"/6" system.
• Different troop types (and monsters in the Fantasy Supplement) have distances listed for movement when Charging. I'll have to figure these out for the D&D monsters not in CHAINMAIL, or figure out if there's a system.
• Formation and Facing: 
• I think I can dispense with these rules outside of mass combat.
• Fatigue:
• Moving and fighting for too long can fatigue a character, making them less effective in combat.  It all seems reasonable enough, although it's not something that was brought forward into later versions of D&D (except for the requirement for characters exploring a dungeon to rest one turn in six, which exactly corresponds to the fatigue movement rules here).
• I'm going to try to use these, although I suspect that keeping track of this for PCs and monsters will quickly prove tiresome.
• Missile Fire
• Bows can be fired twice per round if the archer is stationary.  Light crossbows can be fired once, and heavy crossbows can be fired every second round.  In a system where every weapon deals 1d6 damage, this makes heavy crossbows highly suboptimal.  This is somewhat balanced by them having a +1 bonus on attack rolls.
• Split-Move and Fire (the ability to move, shoot, then move again) is usually reserved for mounted troops, but of course in OD&D it's a core ability of Elves so I have to include it.
• Arc of fire is limited, but I think I'll ignore that for non-mass combat.
• The rules for ranks permitted to fire, indirect fire, and cover should all be included.
• It states outright that missiles can't be fired into a melee
  
• Catapults and Gunpowder Weapons:
• It's likely that these rules will only come into play for rock-throwing giants.
•  Charging:
• Of course these rules will have to be included.  I'm inclined to ignore the stuff about missile troops "refusing" combat.
• Infiltration:
• Troops are said to control the space 1" on either side to stop "infiltration".  This seems like a good way for fighters to be able to control the battlefield a bit and protect spellcasters in the back row, so it stays.
• Getting "Drawn in" to battle
• There's a rules about getting drawn into battle if you're within 3" of a melee that I'm going to ignore.  I've already said that melee range is 1".
• Melee Optionals for Added Realism:
• Most of this stuff is only applicable to mass battles, such as the capturing prisoners, forming pike hedgehogs, and the historical characteristics of various troop types.
• The "Impetus Bonus", which grants an attack bonus to charging Heavy Foot, Armored Foot, and Horsemen, is a good one. It's not actually clear that charging otherwise grants a bonus, unless I'm missing something.
• Man-to-Man Melee and Missile Tables:
• It's clear from the man-to-man melee tables that certain weapon types perform better or worse against different types of armor.  This is the basis for the dreaded "weapon type vs. AC" tables in Supplement I: Greyhawk and AD&D.  I'm tempted to extrapolate a similar table for OD&D using just this table.
• It should be noted that, according to this table, plate-armoured characters that have fallen over are much easier to kill if you're armed with a dagger, sword, or spear.  Go for the eyeslits!
• It should also be noted that, past a certain range, some missile weapons are completely ineffective against heavily armored targets.
• Missile weapon ranges are also given here.
  

D&D Things I've Been Vibing With Lately

Despite a distinct lack of gaming in 2024, I've still been absorbing a lot of D&D-related material.  Books, blogs, podcasts, videos on Youtube... there's a lot of good stuff out there that I can recommend.  I'm sure I'll forget some things, but below is a list of the D&D-related material that's been firing my synapses lately.

The Collected Works of Jon Peterson

• The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons 1970-1977
• Playing at the World Vol. 1
• The Game Wizards

The first two of these I purchased as soon as they were released, and devoured almost immediately.  I discovered The Game Wizards on Spotify, available to anyone who has Spotify Premium.  All three of these are great.  The Making of OD&D is a good overview and collection of documents related to D&D's early days, including the rulebooks and supplements, and of course the draft version of the game was fascinating reading for someone as interested in the progression of the rules as I am.  Playing at the World gives an excellent look at the wargaming scene that gave birth to D&D, and I learned a lot about how that transition came about.  I'm very much looking forward to Volume 2, which will dig more into the rules elements of D&D and their influences and origins.  The Game Wizards was more focused on the creation of D&D by Gygax and Arneson, their ensuing legal battles, and the financial growth and collapse of TSR up through 1985.  It's all interesting stuff, although it can get bogged down a bit in the numbers and figures and incessant talk about stock options.  I'm not sure I'd have appreciated it as much without the context given by the following podcast, which was not by Peterson but makes a great companion to his works:

• When We Were Wizards

This oral history of TSR I found captivating.  Most of it is sourced from actual quotes by ex-TSR staff and other involved parties, or actors quoting their words exactly.  The actor who portrays Gary Gygax did a great job in particular.  Tense boardroom meetings, politics, drama, Gary's wild Hollywood excesses... This podcast has it all, and is highly recommended to anyone with an interest in the history of the hobby.

Blogs

• The Tao of D&D

I've been a fan of Alexis Smolensk's D&D writing for years, and I've always admired his dedication to improving the game and his give-no-fucks attitude towards the game's creators and current custodians.  He's always consistently produced enlightening material, but this year his 39-part RPG 201 series has been a particular highlight.  Reading the whole thing will require a subscription to his Patreon, but it's the sort of high-quality, thoughtful material that will benefit any DM who reads it.  Definitely worth shelling out 3 bucks for - hell, as an Aussie I had to shell out 5 bucks!  Still worth it.

• BXBlackrazor

JB has been blogging for a long time now, and I always pay attention when he has a new post or a rant.  I've found his evangelizing for AD&D in the last few years to be particularly eye-opening, but more than that his blog has been my gateway to a number of other inspiring parts of the D&D online scene: Anthony Huso's blog, the Fantasy Adventure Gaming movement, and the German AD&D scene.  Those last two I'll talk about later (but definitely check out Huso's AD&D blog posts if you haven't yet).

Podcasts

• The Classic Adventure Gaming Podcast

There aren't many episodes of this show (and there hasn't been a new one in quite some time) but what there is is very good.  Each episode covers an aspect of old-school D&D play and features in-depth discussion from a roundtable of folks who know what they're talking about.  The Fantasy Adventure Gaming scene (or Classic Adventure Gaming for those who desire a less objectionable acronym) is heavily focused on a style of play that emphasises the game as a game, and prioritises effective play over theatrics and story-gaming.  This is the playstyle I've come to favour, and there's a lot to learn from this podcast.

• Zock Bock Radio

On a related note, this podcast comes out of the German AD&D scene.  Most of the episodes are in German, but when they have non-German guests they're in English, and those episodes are highly entertaining.  Settembrini and his regulars have an intelligent, refreshing and entertaining take on AD&D that aligns pretty closely with the CAG scene I mentioned above.  In particular I recommend episode 38, in which Settembrini and Prince of Nothing debate the relative merits of AD&D vs. BX.

Also, they have the catchiest theme song and it will get stuck in your head.

Youtube

• Wandering DMs

I've been following this show since its inception in 2018, and I'm always surprised that they're not bigger than they are.  Hosts Dan and Paul have very different approaches to the game, but they always approach their topics with enthusiasm and it's hard not to come away from each show energised about D&D.  I tend to prefer what I call the "Dan" episodes, which are the ones where they do a deep-dive into particular aspects of the rules, but they also have great interviews and occasional looks into the current 5e scene and more social aspects of the hobby.  Just a great show all around with two very engaging hosts who obviously love each other's company and would no doubt be doing what they do even without an audience.  The best way to start my Monday morning every week.

• Daddy Rolled a 1

I've been enjoying this show in the last year or so.  It does deep dives into the history and rules of D&D and other parts of the hobby, and the host delivers it with an unscripted, conversational style that I really like.  It's a great companion-piece to the Jon Peterson books I mentioned above.

• Arbiter of Worlds

Alexander Macris, the creator of Adventurer, Conqueror, King, tackles all sorts of high-level aspects of D&D and RPGs in this series.  There's a level of  rigorous, intellectual thought that's gone into these videos that can't be found in too many other places online, where the majority of the pundits out there are recycling the same DMing advice that's been circulating for years or decades.  It does get a little too systematised in places for my tastes, but this series is full of concrete DMing guidance that's of a calibre head and shoulders above the norm.  I definitely want to do a rewatch of these so I can properly grok the concepts he's talking about (and I definitely need to check out ACKS for its wargaming and domain play aspects).

• Joy of Wargaming: How to Win at RPGs

Ah, the BroSR...  They are an amusing bunch of trolls at times, but I like a lot of their ideas.  Running games by the book, using 1-to-1 time for tracking campaign downtime, exploring Braunstein play in relation to RPG campaigns, handing control of important NPCs or factions to other players to increase the game's unpredictability...  For me, this Youtube series is the best distillation in one place of everything these guys have been doing, and it's mostly free of their self-congratulatory and self-aggrandizing tone that I find funny but many others find intolerable.  There are a lot of great ideas in this series for anyone who wants to run a grand campaign in the old-school style.

17 Years

I was looking back at some of the earliest entries on my blog recently, and it's somewhat sobering to realise that I started this just over 17 years ago.  Not that I've posted with any sort of regularity or consistency, especially in the last couple of years... but 17 years is a long time to stick with anything.  I guess it puts me in some rarefied company as far as longevity goes, and being part of the earliest days of D&D blogging.  It was still edition 3.5 back then, just barely.  I'd just gotten married that year, a marriage that ended in 2021.  My son was born a year later, and he's rapidly approaching adulthood.  I was just starting work at the library where I'm still happily employed.  That job's been about the only stable thing in my life over that period, and given that I wrote a significant number of my early posts while I was on the clock, I might still be lucky to have it.  I was excited about the imminent arrival of D&D's 4th edition... that certainly changed, and quickly.  So yeah, a long time, and a lot of changes, and I'm feeling reflective about it.  Please indulge me while I ruminate about my place in the D&D blog-o-sphere.

If I'm being real here, I don't have much of one.  My readership, I assume, has always been low in comparison to the BXBlackrazors and Taos and Grognardias of the world.  Nothing I've written has ever really blown up, or caught the attention of the D&D community.  (Well, I did get in a fight with Rob Kuntz one time... but we patched it up pretty quickly.) I've had no particular insights to convey, or grand theories to espouse, or manifestos to advance.  I haven't created anything.  No adventures, no rules supplements.  Not even a thinly-veiled retroclone reskinning of an old version of D&D, and everyone who's anyone has peddled one of those!  Nah, I've just been plugging away, tinkering with ideas here and there but not following through.  Making plans, but not enacting them.

Oh, what grand plans I had.  Remember the Ultimate Sandbox?  What a dickhead I was, but when you're young you think you have all the time in the world to tackle every foolishly enormous project you can think of.  And that was a big one: creating a massive multiversal campaign setting incorporating everything ever published relating to D&D.  Of course it was never going to eventuate.  It would take a dedicated lifetime just to do that with the material that existed in 2007, and of course there was always new material on the way.  And something that unwieldy was never going to something I could practically run.  I still love the idea, and I'm still planning something similar... but a campaign on a smaller, more manageable scale.  Something I might actually be able to get started in this lifetime.

Most of my blogging here involved a chronological reading and exploration of D&D's earliest publications, and I think that's probably been my most valuable contribution.  I started it a time when the larger D&D sphere was rediscovering OD&D as a whole, and while I think there were many others who covered the material with more insight, I don't think many covered it as comprehensively.  Reading my blog in order would give a decently in-depth overview of how the rules developed from Chainmail through to the Player's Handbook, with some sidebars for Judge's Guild, the Games Workshop scene, and others.  It's something I think I'd tackle more knowledgeably now, but I also don't think there'd be as much value in it these days.  The territory has been explored long ago, and I'm happy enough if I've been a small part of doing that.

The thing is, my contribution has been small.  Like I said, no insights, no creations... and I think that's a side-effect of my biggest failing.  Which is, no gaming.  Well, very little gaming.  During the course of this blog, I believe I've DMed ten games.  For something that I always list off as one of my primary hobbies, that's not enough.  For something I love, it's not enough.  Oh, I've certainly been immersed in D&D research and note-taking during that time, almost constantly.  Blogs, podcasts, books, rules... I've sunk hours and hours into it.  But I've barely played.  And if there's one thing that all of the insightful and productive D&D luminaries on the internet have in common, it's that they play.  A lot.  It makes sense, doesn't it?  To contribute meaningfully to the game, you have to know the game, and to know the game you have to play it.  And while I think I know it quite well on a historical and theoretical level, I'm very out of practice on the practical level.  There are reasons for that, some of them valid.  But I've always said, you can always make time for the things you genuinely love.

And over the last 17 years, one thing hasn't changed: I still love Dungeons & Dragons.  I love learning about it, I love discussing it, I love prepping for it, and I love playing it.  That love has been out of balance, though.  I've spent a lot of time on the first three, and not enough on the last one. That's going to be my D&D resolution for next year: play more.  Knuckle down, do the bare minimum prep required to get a campaign up and running, and play as much as possible... and blog about it.  And who knows, maybe I'll be back here in 17 years, and I'll be proud of the contributions I've made, and the blog posts I've written, and happy with the amount of gaming I've done.  Things can change, after all.