Interesting trivia on the cover: that art was created and intended as the orange spine reprint cover for the Fiend Folio, but that book got cancelled so it was used here.
Githyanki, Githzerai & Slaadi were some of my favourite races from the AD&D Fiend Folio. I always thought that they were under-utilised in 1st edition AD&D. I stopped playing AD&D around 1985 (though I still roleplay to this day), so I was unaware that they featured so prominently in this supplement.
I totally get the level 12 thing. My first character got up to level 17, and it started getting unfun. I think I only missed to hit rolls on a 1 vs any AC.
Another great overview of a cool product. I know Jeff Grubb expanded on the World Serpent Inn's lore in 3E, and entry points from the Free City of Greyhawk and Irongate came up in the Living Greyhawk Journal and Dragon during 3.5. The articles were relatively mechanics-free; I know for a fact that a couple of the authors had a preference for 2E. Agree on Battlesystem. 2E version was an improvement over the original. I have to ask. What's the rest of your shirt say?
Nice coverage of this video! And I'm wondering if you'd be willing to do a video where you cover the aspects of 1st edition topping out at 12 level like you said in this video? Thanks!
Interesting. Does the World Serpent Inn essentially exist in its own pocket universe, connected to the other planes via a portal at the main entrance? The Inn would be the ultimate hidey hole to stash treasure & stolen goods (can secure rooms be rented?). And if characters are being chased by the local authorities or villains, they need only duck into the WSI. Their pursuers will be perplexed, having seen the PCs walk through the door of the local tavern and then vanish into thin air. :-)
The "pocket dimension" idea is spot on. The later Jeff Grubb piece describes the WSI as being a *transitive plane*, stitching other planes and demiplanes together, similar to the Astral and Ethereal. (In fact, in one account, the WSI has the Ethereal as one border and actually crosses into the Plane of Shadow, if I'm remembering correctly.) Because of its nature, its portals lead to all kinds of places. The WSI "exists in multiple planes simultaneously and nowhere at all."
"It is a gathering place for dead races, unborn gods, forgotten heroes, restless ghosts, and the engineers of worlds as yet uncreated... Almost all the inhabitants of the Inn are travelers, either by design or chance."
@@LemuelPigeon It'd be fun to make the Inn really, really big - a vast tavern hundreds of miles across (and possibly still expanding). And you keep walking in one direction, you'll end up back where you started.
In my opinion, the players start to outpace the game. They get stronger and stronger and everything opposing them kind of struggles to keep up. I didn't mean to imply the game was unplayable after 12th level. I just feel the design tops out around 12th level and it falls more and more to the DM to find new things to challenge the players.
@@page121tabletoproleplaying4 ahh good to know I’m recently rediscovering AD&D from my youth and haven’t progressed that far I’m also a fan of UA in spite of the the general opinion Awhile back I read a 1995 interview with GG where he was asked about his feelings on players seeming to think that UA ‘killed’ the game He responded he was aware, but that he was slated to revamp the Monster Manuals after 2nd Ed The interviewer then asked if he used UA rules in his own home campaign which GG responded that he did but he’d also use augmented Hit Dice based on the size of the creatures He described it as this: Small creatures use the normal 1d8; Medium use 2d6 plus 1HP per HD (so a 4+3 creature would be 8 to 48 plus 7) The average being increased from 21 to 35 by my math; Large creatures would use the same method as medium but once the total was completed the HP would then be increased by an additional 50% Also Large creatures would do an extra HP of damage per HD If you haven’t already heard of this I can tell you I have been trying it and it seems to work, but of course it’s more challenging; especially against large numbers of opponents However I don’t use this on NPCs I just use the standard class methods for HP generation Like I said I’m rediscovering AD&D and don’t have have the XP of the more seasoned players, but I thought I’d throw that in Edit: I also use AC adjustments If one compares the monster attack matrix to the fighter attack matrix it makes for a more challenging scenario if those adjustments are figured in, by the look of it
@@satturnine7320 I buff the monsters hit points also. That is one of the things I meant when I said more falls to the DM to adjust to keep the game challenging.
It was assumed by GG that most players would have their high level 10+ characters building castles and empires. Thereby taking them out of the main game and thrusting them into other roles. I personally like the challenge of the lower levels of play.
Congrats you found something that 1500 other UA-camrs havnt done a vid on, how refreshing. Now watch the dominoes drop. In a week or so there will be some more lol.
Interesting trivia on the cover: that art was created and intended as the orange spine reprint cover for the Fiend Folio, but that book got cancelled so it was used here.
Good info. Thanks for sharing.
I had forgotten about the World Serpent Inn. Thanks for doing a video on this.
Githyanki, Githzerai & Slaadi were some of my favourite races from the AD&D Fiend Folio. I always thought that they were under-utilised in 1st edition AD&D. I stopped playing AD&D around 1985 (though I still roleplay to this day), so I was unaware that they featured so prominently in this supplement.
What have you been playing all this time since 1985?
I totally get the level 12 thing. My first character got up to level 17, and it started getting unfun. I think I only missed to hit rolls on a 1 vs any AC.
Great video.
Another great overview of a cool product. I know Jeff Grubb expanded on the World Serpent Inn's lore in 3E, and entry points from the Free City of Greyhawk and Irongate came up in the Living Greyhawk Journal and Dragon during 3.5. The articles were relatively mechanics-free; I know for a fact that a couple of the authors had a preference for 2E.
Agree on Battlesystem. 2E version was an improvement over the original.
I have to ask. What's the rest of your shirt say?
I will show the front and back of the shirt in a video soon. I covered it in a video a few months ago, but I don't remember which one.
We never did much plane traveling. Too dangerous!
Nice coverage of this video! And I'm wondering if you'd be willing to do a video where you cover the aspects of 1st edition topping out at 12 level like you said in this video? Thanks!
That's an interesting idea. I'll look into it.
Interesting. Does the World Serpent Inn essentially exist in its own pocket universe, connected to the other planes via a portal at the main entrance?
The Inn would be the ultimate hidey hole to stash treasure & stolen goods (can secure rooms be rented?).
And if characters are being chased by the local authorities or villains, they need only duck into the WSI. Their pursuers will be perplexed, having seen the PCs walk through the door of the local tavern and then vanish into thin air. :-)
I make it its own pocket universe. Stashing goods may cost you extra.
The "pocket dimension" idea is spot on. The later Jeff Grubb piece describes the WSI as being a *transitive plane*, stitching other planes and demiplanes together, similar to the Astral and Ethereal. (In fact, in one account, the WSI has the Ethereal as one border and actually crosses into the Plane of Shadow, if I'm remembering correctly.) Because of its nature, its portals lead to all kinds of places. The WSI "exists in multiple planes simultaneously and nowhere at all."
"It is a gathering place for dead races, unborn gods, forgotten heroes, restless ghosts, and the engineers of worlds as yet uncreated... Almost all the inhabitants of the Inn are travelers, either by design or chance."
@@LemuelPigeon It'd be fun to make the Inn really, really big - a vast tavern hundreds of miles across (and possibly still expanding). And you keep walking in one direction, you'll end up back where you started.
i dont't play anymore, but i want this just to read.
When you said the game started breaking down around 12th level, how so? Does it become too hard, too easy or something else?
In my opinion, the players start to outpace the game. They get stronger and stronger and everything opposing them kind of struggles to keep up. I didn't mean to imply the game was unplayable after 12th level. I just feel the design tops out around 12th level and it falls more and more to the DM to find new things to challenge the players.
@@page121tabletoproleplaying4 ahh good to know I’m recently rediscovering AD&D from my youth and haven’t progressed that far
I’m also a fan of UA in spite of the the general opinion
Awhile back I read a 1995 interview with GG
where he was asked about his feelings on players seeming to think that UA ‘killed’ the game
He responded he was aware, but that he was slated to revamp the Monster Manuals after 2nd Ed
The interviewer then asked if he used UA rules in his own home campaign which GG responded that he did but he’d also use augmented Hit Dice based on the size of the creatures
He described it as this: Small creatures use the normal 1d8; Medium use 2d6 plus 1HP per HD (so a 4+3 creature would be 8 to 48 plus 7) The average being increased from 21 to 35 by my math; Large creatures would use the same method as medium but once the total was completed the HP would then be increased by an additional 50%
Also Large creatures would do an extra HP of damage per HD
If you haven’t already heard of this I can tell you I have been trying it and it seems to work, but of course it’s more challenging; especially against large numbers of opponents
However I don’t use this on NPCs
I just use the standard class methods for HP generation
Like I said I’m rediscovering AD&D and don’t have have the XP of the more seasoned players, but I thought I’d throw that in
Edit: I also use AC adjustments
If one compares the monster attack matrix to the fighter attack matrix it makes for a more challenging scenario if those adjustments are figured in, by the look of it
@@satturnine7320 I buff the monsters hit points also. That is one of the things I meant when I said more falls to the DM to adjust to keep the game challenging.
It was assumed by GG that most players would have their high level 10+ characters building castles and empires. Thereby taking them out of the main game and thrusting them into other roles.
I personally like the challenge of the lower levels of play.
Congrats you found something that 1500 other UA-camrs havnt done a vid on, how refreshing. Now watch the dominoes drop. In a week or so there will be some more lol.
I really liked the vid.
I finally got one!
wonder why RA Feist didn't sue.
btw, , just nobody to play with