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[nenjin]

I do recall that in AD&D 1st ed., your initiative roll was modified down by your dex bonus. I don't remember if the book calls for individual or team-based initiative rolls for the characters....but I believe it says for PCs, initiative rolls are individual. Monsters roll as a group for simplicities sake.

And yeah, AD&D rules are horribly vague and had the double whammy where not all the information you needed to play was contained in the PHB. IIRC, something dumb like XP levels or saving throw charts resides in the Dungeon Master's Guide...and not in the base book.

[loose nut]

For a human the character speed is 12" unencumbered, 9" in moderate armor, 6" in heavy armor and I think there may be a 3" speed if he's really heavily encumbered.

I know how long those are, but I mean, how do I use that in game? Magic missile is one segment, does that mean I'm tossing down over 20 a round?

No, because of reasons. The casting time determines how quickly you can get the spell off, though, if you are running things strictly by the book. There is an online reference that breaks the AD&D combat round down into more understandable language - it may be the OSRIC rules but I'm not totally sure at the moment.

[UristMcDwarf]

Hoo boy.  I remember every group I played with had different interpretations of how a combat round played.  I believe your 'initiative' roll indicates the 'segment' of a round that your group starts at.  So rolling a 5 on a d6 means your team starts at segment 5 of 10.  From there you add your character's weapon speed or spell segment, and the total is when your attack 'goes off'.  I think DEX bonus was subtracted from that but I can't recall if that was a house rule or not.  So in other words, just because you beat the other group on initiative, they may very well go first because they have lighter weapons or faster spells prepared.  You basically proceed segment to segement of a 10 segment round, resolving the attacks in order.  It got complicated when slow actions went off in the next round!  I don't think it allowed you to attack multiple times per round, except under certain conditions.  Anyways, this system morphed into simpler 'initiative modifiers' in later editions.  I may just be remembering whatever house-ruled interpretation that is stuck in my head, so take it for what it is worth.

Weapon length I think is used to determine who attacks first in a charge.  Longer weapons go first, and I think that ignored initiative.  Also, the lengths came into play if you were exploring tight spaces.  I remember it often determined if the party order was single file, or 2 wide, or what have you.

That brings another question. What if you roll a 6 and wield a 7 speed battleaxe? Do you not move that turn?

[Werdna]

That part I don't remember - I think we always argued about whether it went off at segment 3 of the next turn, or it simply went off at the very very end of the current turn (in other words the current turn was rather open-ended).  There's also some complications around the "surprise" segments and I don't remember how those worked any more.  Either way, that guy is generally going last! 

[UristMcDwarf]

Yaaay, you guys are so cool!

[loose nut]

Honestly, I haven't played in a while, but I think the only times weapon speed factor is considered is a) determining if a weapon beats a cast spell, and b) initiative ties. With initiative ties, it actually works so that if the slower weapon's speed is divisible by the faster weapon's speed, the faster weapon gets that number of attacks in.

Also, talking about house rules, the weapon speed factor/ weapon reach/ weapon vs. AC tables are some of the most widely ignored rules in AD&D, so if you can't make sense of it to your satisfaction, the simple solution is, don't.