40th Anniversary of D&D

For the 40th Anniversary of D&D, I played in my regular, twice-monthly AD&D game.

We couldn't find the stuff we had that we'd brought into the dungeon (but was taken off of us in a previous Half Party Kill (hereinafter known as HPK, as opposed to TPK).)

But we went back over the map, checked out every place we had been, throughout the entire (small) dungeon, and found the one thing we had missed. We found our MacGuffin, our lost gear, and some treasure they'd taken off of other hapless adventurers previously.

In short, it was good old fashioned dungeoneering that saw us through. Not skill rolls, not pleading with the DM, not any of that. Going over the same old ground to see what we missed (and burning up the torches so we could see what we were doing -- yes, we keep track!)

It's not the thrill of killing a Dragon, that's true. But it IS the thrill of thinking our way through the problem. And that's better.

Because that is what D&D is all about.