Older D&D and Retroclone Thread: From OD&D To 4E

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Older D&D and Retroclone Thread: From OD&D To 4E

whydirt: Apr 18, 2001; Gaz Posting Brigade

AD&D secondary skills would be better if there wasn't a 1 in 6 chance of rolling No Skill of Measurable Worth. Some dudes can't even be actual poo poo-farmers I guess.

# ¿ Jul 24, 2012 19:49

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 10:34

whydirt: Apr 18, 2001; Gaz Posting Brigade

Not all OD&D players hate fighters and want to keep them from having nice things.

quote:

What are these "mythical" capabilities that the OD&D Fighting-Man is owed from Chainmail?

(I'll list them first, then discuss the sources in detail below...)

At 1st Level:
1. (and presumably thereafter) a fighting-man is +1 to hit and +1 to damage rolls,

2. a fighting-man can have any one set of armour (presumably for free),

At 4th Level:
3. He is immune to fear and/or panic (such as that caused by a wand of fear, drums of panic, a terrifying dragon, and so on.),

4. He adds +1 to morale rolls of any troops he is leading in combat,

5. He is not subject to randomised missile or melee hits unless there are no other targets available,

6. He can hit (ordinarily impervious) dragons with normal weapons.
If dragons are not impervious to normal weapons in your game, then he is instead +4 to hit dragons.

At 8th Level:
7. He causes "normal" types to check morale when he charges them.
Normal types includes clerics up to 5th level, M-Us up to 6th level, fighters up to 2nd level, and (presumably) most other man-like types with up to ~3 HD.

8. He is +2 to hit (ordinarily impervious) dragons with normal weapons.
If dragons are not impervious to normal weapons in your game, then he is instead +6 to hit dragons.

At ALL Levels:
9. He has multiple melee attacks per one minute combat round versus ALL opponents.
Regardless of HD. Yessiree.

Read on for the the nitty-gritty details and grossly unjustified assumptions, etc., etc.,...

Details here: http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&action=display&thread=8509&page=1

# ¿ Mar 5, 2013 05:10

whydirt: Apr 18, 2001; Gaz Posting Brigade

Collin McComb apologizes for the Complete Book of Elves:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwDWx1cAqP4

# ¿ Mar 13, 2013 00:15

whydirt: Apr 18, 2001; Gaz Posting Brigade

WhitemageofDOOM posted:

Well, they aren't. The point of the old school reniassanse isn't to take what was lost by the changing gaming landscape and taking it forward, it's rejecting going forward all together.
Shame, but it's hard to reclaim things from living memory because of sentiments like that.

I don't think that's entirely true or fair. The first wave of OSR products was mostly about aping the classics just to get them "in print" and/or let people make their own heartbreaker edition of OD&D + personal house rules. There is certainly more nostalgia than I think some in the OSR will admit, but I would say especially over the last year or so that there's a decent amount of innovation as well.

# ¿ Apr 9, 2013 15:39

whydirt: Apr 18, 2001; Gaz Posting Brigade

Black Box D&D is awesome. It was my first set and I still have my dogeared copy of the main rulebook, although my cover has long since fallen off and I've lost track of the map and other parts. It's honestly what I'd probably use as a core book if/when I ever run a campaign again. I'd just work up some Attack Bonus/Ascending AC tables and maybe convert Saving Throws to a single number that various classes just get conditional bonuses to.

# ¿ May 10, 2013 02:28

whydirt: Apr 18, 2001; Gaz Posting Brigade

I like the familiarity and simplicity of BECMI D&D, but I also like a lot of the cool mechanics from current iterations of D&D like Dungeon World and 13th Age. Has anyone had success porting in some of these mechanics into older editions or retroclones? I feel like One Unique Things in particular would be a fun way to spice up my future games.

# ¿ Oct 31, 2013 04:47

whydirt: Apr 18, 2001; Gaz Posting Brigade

I think people can post about Zak's book and blog without dragging the rest of his baggage along.

# ¿ Nov 8, 2013 03:56

whydirt: Apr 18, 2001; Gaz Posting Brigade

I have no idea if it's similar to the Dragon article, but I found this custom class building guide: http://www.pandius.com/custclas.html

# ¿ Nov 12, 2013 19:05

whydirt: Apr 18, 2001; Gaz Posting Brigade

To my recollection, the Fallout PnP RPG was a pretty traditional stats/skills/perks setup paired with binary task resolution mechanics. I'm sure JE Sawyers' games were fun, but that was probably more because of his ability to GM than the mechanics themselves.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2015 20:14

whydirt: Apr 18, 2001; Gaz Posting Brigade

I assume it's a human dual-classed character, where instead of spitting XP between two classes simultaneously, you start in one class then switch. AD&D!

# ¿ Mar 28, 2015 18:43

whydirt: Apr 18, 2001; Gaz Posting Brigade

What's the fighter level limit for elves in 1e? That might be it too.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2015 00:09

whydirt: Apr 18, 2001; Gaz Posting Brigade

Yeah I'm just trying to explain the wonkiness of the pregens.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2015 01:54

whydirt: Apr 18, 2001; Gaz Posting Brigade

Remember that THAC0 wasn't even designed as a standalone mechanic, but rather created as a way to determine hits without looking things up in the Attack Matrix every time.

At least for Basic D&D/OD&D with their smaller spread of ACs, just using the table directly is potentially faster and easier than using Attack Bonus + mods vs Ascending AC.

# ¿ May 10, 2015 19:38

whydirt: Apr 18, 2001; Gaz Posting Brigade

They don't get extra thief HD until they surpass their old fighter level. So it'd only be 7d10 + 3d6 altogether.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2015 03:33

whydirt: Apr 18, 2001; Gaz Posting Brigade

Thieves get boned the most since their main feature is faster leveling. I'd increase their HD and/or let them attack on a better to-hit table.

Or just give most of the thief skills as bonus abilities to the fighter.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2016 21:03

whydirt: Apr 18, 2001; Gaz Posting Brigade

Would you mind sharing a link?

# ¿ Oct 17, 2016 16:45

whydirt: Apr 18, 2001; Gaz Posting Brigade

Almost everything in D&D can be attributed to an early design quirk that got cemented into the game through inertia and appeal to tradition.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2018 21:33

whydirt: Apr 18, 2001; Gaz Posting Brigade

That or they'd promote an existing hiring/henchman to full PC status. Remember that old school parties usually had more of them than full-blown PC characters.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2018 21:35

whydirt: Apr 18, 2001; Gaz Posting Brigade

Joining an existing at first level isn't so bad in old school games anyway. Surviving the first session can be rough, but due to the geometric increase in XP needed at each level, you catch up to just a level behind the rest of the party very quickly.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2018 21:51

whydirt: Apr 18, 2001; Gaz Posting Brigade

Also the geometric increase in XP per level also means that having different base XP requirements among classes is meaningless after the first few levels since all characters will be within a level of each other.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2018 21:59

whydirt: Apr 18, 2001; Gaz Posting Brigade

Nice! Please share it when you love got something ready for public consumption.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2018 23:07

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 10:34

whydirt: Apr 18, 2001; Gaz Posting Brigade

It�s OD&D plus all the supplements, which ends up looking quite a bit like AD&D. The White Box edition is closer to the actual original three books.

# ¿ May 3, 2018 20:21

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