49:00 The style of competitive dungeon-crawl you describe here was actually a common way of playing D&D in that era. There was actually an official D&D tournament that ran every year until 2013, although competitive D&D was most popular during the 1st Edition era. This actually impacted the design of the game because of this format's popularity; while competitions to see who could earn the most points or clear a dungeon the fastest were common, the most popular competitive format was survival. Survival modules were designed to be incredibly difficult and player hostile, as the goal wasn't to make it to the end, but to survive for as long as you could. The winning team would be the one whose final party member died furthest from the entrance. While these modules were designed for competitive play, they were played by D&D groups in the non-competitive context we're more familiar with today, often without any knowledge of the competitive scene. This is why old school D&D has a reputation for being incredibly hostile. A lot of old school modules weren't designed to be survived
49:00 The style of competitive dungeon-crawl you describe here was actually a common way of playing D&D in that era. There was actually an official D&D tournament that ran every year until 2013, although competitive D&D was most popular during the 1st Edition era. This actually impacted the design of the game because of this format's popularity; while competitions to see who could earn the most points or clear a dungeon the fastest were common, the most popular competitive format was survival. Survival modules were designed to be incredibly difficult and player hostile, as the goal wasn't to make it to the end, but to survive for as long as you could. The winning team would be the one whose final party member died furthest from the entrance. While these modules were designed for competitive play, they were played by D&D groups in the non-competitive context we're more familiar with today, often without any knowledge of the competitive scene. This is why old school D&D has a reputation for being incredibly hostile. A lot of old school modules weren't designed to be survived