Home » Ancient Posts » Encounters Should Not Automatically Mean Combat — The Role of Reaction Rolls    
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Randall

@Capheind:A very good point.

Capheind

If a dragon is hungry why the hell would he be wasting time with the PC's? THats not a reason for the encounter to go strait for combat, thats a reason for the dragon to fly right by the armed and armored party and go pick off a large, stupid, and tasty herbivore. Even a first level fighter is some possible damage, whereas some unattended horses are easy pickings.

Ynas Midgard

Although I just love the simplicity of OD&D (by that, I mean all subsystems are pretty straightforward), yet I can barely tolerate its incompleteness and contradictory rules interpretations… It is still a great game but far from the greatest.

Randall

@Hedgehoobit: Of course, further down that same page there are statements that seem to contradict what you quoted (or at least modify it outside of "pursuit" situations. This is one of the things that makes OD&D great (IMHO), every DM interprets the rules somewhat differently and usually justify his interpretation meaning every table is a different game.

Hedgehobbit

Here's a quote from OD&D book 3 page 12:
"Monsters will automatically attack and/or pursue any characters they "see", with the exception of those monsters which are intelligent enough to avoid an obviously superior force."

Apparently, it's a hard habit to break.