Planning the Library Game, part 1
While reviewing my “road map of topics,” I realized that because so many of the planning and preparation elements are interconnected and flow organically from one to another, writing about them is going to be much messier than my road map suggests. Let’s just start at the beginning and see how things go…
Our “Old-School D&D at the Library” game developed in Fall 2021 out of conversations I had with a colleague who shared my interest in classic, early versions of D&D. We were both interested in putting together some kind of library RPG program, and although we were both very experienced Dungeon Masters neither of us had much (if any) experience running any sort of ongoing game for the general public. With the end of the pandemic lockdowns and people tentatively-yet-eagerly inching forth to reconnect in-person with humanity, the time was right to do it. We decided to plan and pitch a biweekly, eight-session “pilot” game to test the waters before committing to anything longer term. As my co-DM is the Adult Services Manager, it made sense that we would offer the program under the auspices of his department; further, after some discussion, we decided that the program would be for ages 16+.
One of the first and biggest things we needed to address was the number of players allowed, which would affect pretty much every other planning decision. Several years earlier, a volunteer had run a D&D game for teens that ended on a bit of a sour note. It wasn’t that anything awful or dramatic happened, simply that it turned into something that resembles most D&D groups: the roster of players became fixed, a “closed table,” which necessarily (if albeit unintentionally) excluded additional players from joining. In the context of the average D&D group, this is totally fine and good — preferable, even, in that it allows players to bond and go deeper into character relationships and so forth. However, this tendency seemed in our minds to be contrary to the spirit of a public library program (which aims to provide access and opportunity to as many people as possible); thankfully, it is also a tendency that can be countered by the power of the Open Table.
In the 1970s through the early 80s, when D&D was riding its first wave of popularity, a common practice was “open table” play. (The playstyle had long been out of favor by time I was introduced to it in the late 00s, when it re-emerged as part of a broader movement towards old-school D&D play, a loose network of similarly-minded gamers eventually known as the OSR, aka the “Old School Renaissance” or “Old School Revival.”) The concept is incredibly simple: the Dungeon Master prepares a dungeon or similar adventure site/location, and whoever shows up at the table plays for the session. At the end of the session the player characters retreat to some safe haven or home base, from which they will foray next time. Among other strengths, the open table allows for greater consistency in planning sessions and flexibility in allowing a broader group of players into the game.
We had plenty of space for players, but our weeknight slot — the only time we were both consistently available — was limited to 2 1/2 hours, which meant we needed to manage that time well. We soon agreed that the classic 1981 Basic & Expert (BX) rules, while not our favorite flavor, would be best-suited for our game. Like any edition it has its flaws and weaknesses, but its simplicity and strengths shone through:
Because there are relatively few mechanical elements to track, it’s relatively easy to prep and run adventures. In much the same way, it’s also easier to improvise adventures or create monsters, items, etc. on the fly.
Related to the above, it’s a straightforward process to convert materials from other TSR-era editions (0e-2e), as well as from the many clones and variants produced by the OSR in the last 20 years: monsters, spells, magic items, adventures, and more.
Very few player-facing rules means someone can enjoy the game and be an effective player without the need for “system mastery” (I.e., learning and tracking the mechanical interactions of complicated builds, feats, skills, powers, etc.)
Combat, always the most time-devouring element of D&D, flows well and moves quickly
Character creation is fast, which ended up not being as much of an issue — we decided to use pre-generated characters in order to make best use of our table time, but someone still had to roll up all those characters. (As we refined our process, in addition to rolling stats we also used random tables to determine each character’s weapons, armor, basic equipment, and starting spells.)
Related to the above, there are only seven character classes in BX: Fighter, Magic-User, Cleric, Thief, Elf, Dwarf, and Halfling. While having fewer options may disappoint players used to the plethora of race and class combinations in other editions, it reduces decision paralysis and makes the process of getting new players set up and ready to play easier and faster, which means more time actually playing.
Tune in next time for Planning the Library Game, Part 2!
