Page 31
More Naval Combat
rules: shearing oars, grappling, and boarding.
Boarding invokes the
Chainmail rules again, and introduces newcomers to gaming to
the concept of Command Control (C&C). C&C is explained
more fully on the next page, the remainder of this page is taken up
with melee rules, presumably for those who do not possess Chainmail.
Page 32
Command Control:
we learn here C&C is the ability of the command figure to have
his troops follow his orders and remain under his control. It is
based upon Charisma, a fine choice given how CHA works in D&D.
Basically, one must keep the leader visible to his troops and free
from melee.
Page 33
Swimming: good
guidelines for swimming, drowning, and armor removal here. One might
well suppose anyone wearing plate who finds themselves in the water
should spend it making peace with their deity or deities.
Rules for ship
capturing and typical crew by ship types, and their respective tasks,
follows.
Pages 34-36
These last few pages
kick off with some detailed advice on running certain monsters in an
aquatic setting. The man-type aquatic species are quite fond of
grappling passing ships. There is also good information for the
attentive reader for establishing movement speeds and armor classes.
Healing Wounds:
in light of Gygax’s explanations regarding the nature of hit
points, one may question the glacial rate of recovery. The rules
themselves even dryly point out [t]his can take a long time.
Basically, Gygax claimed approximately d6 of a PC’s hit points were
actually representative of physical damage. The remainder a
combination of luck, stamina, divine favor, etc.
Time: easy to
follow, basic guidelines for timekeeping in a campaign. Gygax felt
this was an important component to conducting a game. Careful
timekeeping records would certainly aid a referee with multiple
groups running in the same campaign, rather less common nowadays then
it was in the halcyon days of the hobby.
Afterward
A final pat on the back
from the author, exhorting us to go forth and make new rulings in
accordance with how we felt the game should run. The afterword asks
an important question, one which every referee considering running an
OD&D should ask themselves: why have us do any more of your
imagining for you?
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Illustration: though they are part of an illustration, we have
always regarded them as the last words of the rules …
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