Monster Statistics in BECMI Dungeons and Dragons

Great video to listen too as my rules cyclopedia was delivered yesterday and I'm pouring over the pages

If the berserker has a magic sword in its stash.....why didn't he have it on him and using it to fight you?

That's because your one of the good guys of hobby and devoid of petty issues.

In curating a campaign for 1-5 level, low magic, less fantasy, I pulled out all monsters needed to my own mini-manual, since its human centric I use more human "monsters" and like KotB more NPC humans, with humans capped at 3d8 hit points (+ from stats allowed) to keep it deadly.

I use the same condensed block as you show, I find putting the NAME (character or monster) in all caps and bold, the [stats] in brackets to follow with a few items italic or bold to catch my eye. It makes dropping them in my text easy.

Great video. I think these are all the stats you need. It's not called Dungeons and Admin. But I do find the old abbreviated Stat Block (new term for me), a bit tight fisted. I've put this down to more expensive printing costs back then. But did they have to be that parsimonious? A lot of the old adventure modules didn't give the XP. So you have to look that up yourself. It's not a game-breaking chore, but for the sake of 4 to 8 extra characters - why so tight?!
But in terms of gameplay I do get all I need. If I wear my reading glasses.

Dying because no halfling vid

Looking good with the new profile picture BECMI Berserker!

Great video. I've always found the older monster statistics to be way better presented. The information you need is very legible and close at hand. The newer editions, specifically 5e, always deliver each statblock on the same focus as a piece of art. Its meant to stand out and look pretty, but I feel this often comes at the cost of beign either way too large or difficult to read at speed during play. I also find that older editions do more to support the idea of D&D being an adventure game (treasure type, number appearing, lair quantities, ect) over purely combat assets. Being easily over 1/3 of the core rules books, how you deliver the creatures that act as obstacles is going to enforce the style of play. Fantasy Adventure/Horror vs High Fantasy Combat can easily be seen in the presentation of information regarding them.

Obviously, the BECMI Berzerker is a Unique creature with an Intelligence of 13+, and higher AC due to maille.

Question: Would a female Berzerker wearing barding be a Valkyrie Ponygirl?

Thanks BB! Another great video. In trying to streamline the game to attract new players, much of the flavour and nuance was lost. Can't wait for the next video.

Great explanation. One could really learn to play the game with just the information given in this video.
Cheers!

Good stuff, BB!

I always thought the number appearing were for random encounters or in their lair.

Nowadays I can just look at a character sheet or a stat block and know if I'll enjoy a game. The bloat in both across the editions, especially monster stat blocks is truly eye opening and reveals underlying design principles.

didn't monster type appear first in Dragon magazine? like most rules that were later added.

I love Basic, but I find it very difficult to quickly interpret monster stats at a glance of the abbreviated stat lines. Modern books published for stuff like OSE handle it much better.

I don't suppose you would consider posting a video of you playing a solo game would you?

You have a really good speaking voice that makes listening to easy. The only thing I think you would need to change would be your speaking speed, I think for a game you are a wee bit too fast.

The reason I suggest running a solo game is to cut the chatter that happens in the normal gathering of friends at a table. While I love games I am NOT a fan of listening to other groups play because of all the chatter/discussions/rules refering/__ that happens, if it is just you most of that time is either not there or much more quickly delt with. Things are tighter.

I personally would love you to play a game in the vain of Tails of The Manticore or Solo Dungeon(??? Toms channel).

Thank you for posting.

While I like a lot of modern D&D design, I always found the compactness of old school stat blocks pleasingly efficient.

As usual, the old way is better.

I miss the "% in Lair" and think the exploration aspect of the game has been done a grave disservice by its exclusion.

Great video, I've played BECMI for years and just automatically take in the data represented by a stat block, it's only seeing it laid out here that brings home how much information is held in two or three lines of abbreviations.

Morale checks are absolutely essential - Bandits Keep has a great video on it. If intelligent monsters always preserve their lives, it makes a great contrast with monsters who do fight to the death - including Berserkers of course. Ty BB as always

Take the 9 as low DM cunning BB, most of those Magic user types are too darn clever to sit the right way round on a Privy Seat...... consider it not.... you have your 1+1* HD and +2 to hit to shut them up!

What are some key differences between B/X DnD and BECMI, other then the extensive high level content provided by C-I?

At last! There was much rejoicing.great stuff.

In my opinion, challenge rating has been used wrongly since it was introduced with 3rd edition. It should have never be used to determine how many experience points you got from an encounter, but only how difficult that would have been. Like in BECMI, most experience should have come from things other than just killing mobs, such has succeeding in quests and reaching objectives.
The very concept of "to rise in level you have to kill this many creatures of that CR" just feels wrong to me. It forces you to build encounters based on numbers instead of plot or setting.
Back then, killing 1000 goblins would have given you only enough XPs to be around 3rd level, while today would make you an epic hero. This difference made a DM free to put all kinds of encounters in an adventure without having to worry about giving out too many XPs or having to do too much math. It was really easy to put up an encounter on the spot when needed.

I vastly prefer the stat presentations from older versions of D&D. Starting with 3rd ed., they got so complex, and long; it was easy to miss abilities, making it more difficult to use monsters to their fullest. The abbreviated stat blocks were also so handy; now you need to have the whole thing, which can run to several pages, which is decidedly unhandy.

5e stats don't include sufficient descriptions of monsters, especially average size in real units. "Medium" size is anything from dwarf to half ogre. But we only know those relative sizes from previous editions.

Old School is the best School.

Someone who is in a berserk state is going to have less effective intelligence than someone remaining calm in the heat of battle. It's a tactic mostly used to break the morale of opponents, and frequently fails against well trained or well equipped opponents. Slightly below average fits, particularly if standard soldiers and bandits are listed with 10. You can be an above-average berserker who has intelligence which is simply not helpful for berserking and not in use while berserk, but on the whole a berserker can get away with a lower average intelligence than other types of fighting-man.

I think modern stat blocks are superior. They are bigger, but they present everything the gm could need to know to use them in any way. They also include special abilities inline so you don't need to consult a separate page to figure out what they do.

I felt that the abbreviated stat blocks made it easier as a DM to improvise, as it was less to read. Current versions of the game require a bit of read-ahead to play the monster intelligently.

Great video Berserker, I love the depth of mechanics you are willing to explore. I'd love a breakdown of weapon/armor choices and equipment for new characters of each class. What should I be buying to stay alive? How much encumbrance is too much for a given class? How do various common weapons "level up" with additional weapon mastery? Otherwise, keep up the excellent work.

This is the best thing I ever saw.

I wonder what would be an example of a "Lowlife" Monster type?

I'd love a text version of this, or a blog post. Did you say these details were found in the Rulescyclopedia?

Thanks for the video.

Stat Block

Name: AC ; HD ; Hp ; Att ; THAC0 ; Dmg ; MV ; Save ; ML ; AL ; SA ; SD ; XP

Much prefer the simpler star blocks. Modern star blocks have a lot of superfluous information which adds more and more cognitive load on the DM as the monsters became meaner and meaner.

What do you think of 3rd and 3.5 editions?

Im not a maths person but honestly decending armour and thac0 are not hard and ive been running it for years since moving away from 3.5

Regarding treasure types, the number of coins for treasures in lair are to be multiplied by 1000 as indicated above the chart. So 10% (1d8) sp would represent 10% chance of finding 1000 to 8000 silver pieces. This is why finding treasures was the fastest way to gain experience in BECMI as 1 gp would get you 1 experience point.

I remember finally giving up on 3E D&D when the Expeditions To adventures were released and certain NPC's statistics took up an entire A4 page. I'd sit there trying to work out how their powers would combine with their skills and with their feats, how their different class abilities could be used and what spells they could memorise, how their basic ability scores would give them certain bonuses and whether this had already been applied to their attack and damage or not.
It was a nightmare to DM, and when you go back to BECMI and see those simple statistic blocks its such a weight off your mind as a DM. You can then start considering more interesting things like how the monsters are deployed, what their motivations are, how they might react to the party. You can't do that with an A4 page worth of information to digest.

I love your videos. they are so helpful!

Perfect!

A berserker who doesn't get his ac from toughness and wolf furs? Blasphemous! (Kidding around)

thac0... oh man. If you played war games you'd recognize a 1:1 attack as "even odds" of success. If you look at a 1st level character vs. AC 9... its basically a 50-50 shot, or "even odds". A 3:2 is usually a bit better and so on. A 1:4 attack sucks and a 5:1 rocks. It's power v. resistance more or less. "Modern" or "old school" its the same shit. Ratios and probability.
Saves are about the same thing really. It's one of the most annoying not-really-a-debate debates out there.
Morale is another port from wargaming. Its really important. If you wish you can incorporate initiative into your morale. The aggressor has the initiative but once they hit a "hesitation point" for losses they make a roll. Beyond hesitation there is the break point. At this point they flee, surrender and lose all cohesion and will to resist.
Larger combats benefit from this more than your typical party actions.
I love this as a topic for a video man!

Regarding Challenge Rating it doesn't really matter how long a system has been around if it doesn't actually work. I've seen plenty of examples where someone runs a monster through the challenge rating calculations and you come up with a number different from the official challenge ratings.

I was running a HeroQuest game that got so advanced I had to shift it to a BECMI inspired System. The players loved it & found Morale in particular to be a great addition.

A quick note, where coins are indicated in the lair treasure of the treasure table, the table refers to that number in thousands of coins, not individual coins.