OSR Thread: House Rules Edition

You're beautiful and I hope you know this.

>House Rules
Converting AC to DR

Oh, yeah. I sometimes forget that you're supposed to die at 0 in Basic.

Debating on bringing in dead at -10 hp. I'm kind of curious about adding multiclassing or dual classing as well.

Well, elves are basically just fighter / magic-users, so maybe the Basic approach to multiclassing is to simply create new classes to embody various multiclass combinations.

Yeah, that's what I was getting at, potentially letting demihumans dual class as thieves (and maybe clerics).

Someone was asking about some "update" in last thread.
> issues where it says Hexographer needs to update

Not sure what that was about. Either way, keys should work through any updates.

Also. Minor mistake (for those people who are saving keygen code). Last time () everything was correct, but this time I mistyped pastebin link for Hexographer. It should be: pastebin.com/T2eLgmkH

I do appreciate a smoothed-out attack progression rather than a jumpy one that advances it fits and stops.

Wasn't sure where to ask this, so I'm gonna ask here since this thread features many systems.

I need some materials/modules that have detailed village descriptions to use as a DM aid. Are there any good ones?

Well, there is "Fief" by Lisa Steele (compilation of historical data about medieval England). Also, I've got Judges Guild's village generators (Village I & II) - should be in Trove.

Can someone skim this series of House Rules I've made for my upcoming Labyrinth Lord campaign and critique?

T1: Village of Hommlett.
L1: The Secret of Bone Hill (Restenford).
B10: Night's Dark Terror (Threshold).
N5: Under Illefarn (Daggerford).

Can I get grimtooth's traps? I've heard there were several editions with a bunch of different stuff. Given the nature of OSR gameplay, I suspect collecting all those might be really useful

Cavegirl:
mysteriousearth.net/prehistoric-battlefield-yields-100000-giant-neanderthal-looking-skulls-in-kansas/

Also, check the comments on your blog.

>Player characters must be neutral or good.
You mean neutral or lawful, right?

>2.1. After two turns without sight, other senses become slightly heightened. The success range for a Listen check improves by one.
This is a ridiculous level of detail, IMO. You're never going to be able to make a good reality simulator that's actually a fun, playable game. I'd say go back through, streamlining and simplifying what you can. Whenever possible, see if eliminating a rule or step in a process would really cause you to lose very much, and if not, drop it...

>A player who has been reduced to 0 or fewer HP and then healed to 1 or more HP may attempt to resume combat, rolling 1d6 after declaring actions but before acting. On a 1-4, the character is unable to act and takes 1 point of damage. On a 5-6, he or she is able to act and takes no damage.
Like this. Or having an encumbered character lose 1d6 constitution (or 1d4 hp per HD if a monster), but with a check vs. paralysis halving the damage (as if ability damage weren't obnoxious enough by itself, now we've thrown an extra step into the process).

I will, however, say that there is a mitigating factor, and that's that these are rules for you to use in your own game, which means that you won't need to learn and come to grips with your rules, as you'll already know them. I still think you'd benefit from paring things down, but it shouldn't be an unplayable mess for you. (If I were to play your system, I'd just end up ignoring most of the shit you added, but adding back in at least half the complexity when improvising shit in a way that seemed intuitive to me.)

A bit of an overkill, imo.

> To generate abilities, roll 3d6 three times. Pick any full set (do not mix and match). Assign in
any order.
Too much rolling. 4d6 drop lowest (or 5d6, drop two lowest) would be much faster.

> At level one, players may reroll a 1 or 2 on rolls for HP.
Simply give full HP.

> At subsequent levels, before increasing HP, a player may reroll all of his or her HP
It's easier to "after each level-up, re-roll HP for all levels and use new result if it's higher".

> Alignment
You may drop it altogether or say it's Eberron-style and doesn't matter much.

> Class-Specific Rules
> Thief Skills
Just use Specialist from LotFP.

> Magic Users
> any non-damaging spells
> does not expend a use of the spell if it was prepared.
Make it 10 minutes. (+10 minute per level of the spell, if are feeling nasty - you ARE using those monster encounter rules in dugeons, are you not?)

>At subsequent levels, before increasing HP, a player may reroll all of his or her HP (but may not reroll a 1 or 2 for those HP representing level one. If the new total is higher...
I initially found this a bit confusing, but with a close parenthesis mark, it would probably be clearer. Maybe you should simply mark it with an asterisk and make the comment as more of a footnote, like:

*You do not get to reroll any 1s or 2s this time.

Honestly though, I kind of feel like you could have a very similar system for hit points that was a little easier to explain. Why not just roll all your hit points from scratch and keep your old score if it's higher? Why reroll your current hit dice separately before rolling your newly acquired die? The system isn't bad, it just seems like you could easily cut out a step or two.

>To generate abilities, roll 3d6 three times. Pick any full set (do not mix and match).
I assume you mean players should roll three full sets of attributes and then pick one, but it reads like they should roll up 3 different attributes.

>Penalties caused by encumbrance may apply to some skills, combat, AC, and spell level; the specifics are up to the Referee.
If you're gonna wing it, that's fine, but it's a bit odd to go into the level of detail you do in the encumbrance section only for the actual effects to be undetermined and left to DM fiat.

Anyway, in conclusion, I've probably sounded very critical here, but that's mostly down to a pet peeve about unnecessary complexity or clutter (well, that and the ridiculousness of me going through and telling you every time you didn't fuck something up--I'm obviously going to tend to focus on the things I think need work rather than taking the time to say "Everything's fine with section!"). As I suggested before, the fact that you're the person running this makes an enormous difference with what's workable and what's not, and overall I actually like the overall direction of your rules.

While I agree with your overall thrust towards streamlining things...

>Too much rolling. 4d6 drop lowest (or 5d6, drop two lowest) would be much faster.
And either significantly more powerful or way more powerful. Plus, this isn't something you're doing in the middle of combat or anything, so taking a little extra time is fine. And it gives folks some flexibility as far as character types go, as the higher numbers in the sets are likely to be different. So you might choose to go with the set with the high Dexterity, because you want to play a thief, even if the scores aren't as high overall.

>Simply give full HP.
I don't have a problem with it, except that it makes the next step (rerolling when leveling up) more complicated, because you need a disclaimer.

>Just use Specialist from LotFP.
I haven't mathed the system out, so I can't speak to how well it will work, but it's legit to do thief skills a different way.

...

Check the trove.

> And either significantly more powerful or way more powerful.

Clarify this bit, please.
> roll 3d6 three times
As far as I understood, you suggest rolling 3d6 three times (choosing the highest) for each ability.

...

>To generate abilities, roll 3d6 three times. Pick any full set (do not mix and match). Assign in any order.
The second sentence made me conclude that he meant to roll three full sets of attributes, 3d6 straight down the line (and left the full description out of his first sentence).

I should note that part of what I was saying last post--about choosing the set where the high number is in an attribute you like--is actually nonsense, in light of the third sentence in the description ("assign in any order").

>with any thrusting or striking weapon
What does that mean? Isn't every weapon a striking weapon?

I suspect it's "everything except axes".

That... uh... That's a good question. I never really took note of that before. I'm gonna assume it's Gygaxian prose for "any weapon", because what weapon doesn't strike or thrust? I mean, I guess you wouldn't be able to wrestle twice a round, or garrote somebody twice a round...

What? How are axes considered to be the one weapon that doesn't strike?

Man, Gygax loved to fill his writing with the most obscure vocabulary and Latin abbreviations he could find, but he could not write in plain English to save his life.

But you could still wrestle, garrote, or lasso a number of kobolds equal to your level each round.

All taken into account. Thank you!
I was unclear in my description of rolling for stats. Fixed that.

I took your tips into account and did this:

>At level one, players get the maximum amount of HP they could roll (i.e., a Fighter gets 8 plus CON modifier). After this, roll as usual.

>After each level-up, re-roll HP for all levels (including actually rolling for level one) and use the new total if it is higher.

>You may drop it altogether or say it's Eberron-style and doesn't matter much.
I kept it but added a comment that it really only matters for understanding how some spells that detect or protect against certain alignments work.

I'm keeping my thief skills.

>ritual casting
I'll make it 10 minutes per level of the spell. That way level 1 spells are only 10 minutes.

I've been muddling with my homebrewed LotFP/Into the Odd style hack. I plan to keep it level less, and give characters abilities after they devote so many levels in either their skills, spells, or attack bonus. I could use some helf coming up with about 3 or 4 thiefy/specialist tiers.

Forgot the file

A flail?

Looking for some module recs. Something more dungeon oriented, but with some oddities involved. Anything you'd suggest? No megadungeons preferably.

I want to make a kobold city which has been fortified against dwarves, who are the enemies of the kobolds. Because of the nature of caves, where all this is happening, it seems that massive clearings would be uncommon. Instead, I imagine a series of clearings connected by tunnels, with some areas bricked off or just filled with rocks, or with strong iron doors, to control coming and going to/from the kobold city.

The party would be coming from the opposite direction, from which nobody has ever approached the city before because the entrance from the surface is all but unreachable.

How do I depict all this, including a significant kobold civilization, without literally drawing a gigantic cave map and thousands of kobold homes?

In a regular city, it would make sense, but this is structurally different. It also may end up being a place where the party becomes welcome, or could become a site of conflict through which they fight their way as quickly as possible in hopes of finding the dwarves, depending on how they react to the kobolds waving spears at them and yelling "kill the tall dwarf!" in draconic.

> rolling for stats. Fixed
Okay. But my math sense is still tingling. Way too much rolling.

"Roll 3 separate sets of 3d6s for all stats" will give slightly more than 11.5 points on average for each stat. You might as well go for 3d6+1/re-roll 1s, then switch 2 attributes.

Or roll 3d6 seven times, then switch 2 sets. Discard 7th set.

This one is highly regarded.

How strict are you guys on finding/disarming traps, and lighting?

That rule looks like something designed for fighting hordes of these enemies, like swarm rules in 3e.

During chargen, one of my players (a newbie to rpgs) was describing her elf. She casually mentioned her bow glowed with an aura. I decided to allow it cause keeping track of torches and shit bores me. It also makes it impossible for her to use stealth.

I like the one in spoiler text. Switched it in. Thanks.

> I want to make a kobold city which has been fortified against dwarves, who are the enemies of the kobolds.
Low ceilings, man. Low ceilings everywhere.

Kobolds are smaller than dorfs (2-2.5 feet tall versus 4-5 feet tall).

> Because of the nature of caves, where all this is happening, it seems that massive clearings would be uncommon.
Depends on what you mean "massive". As long as it can be turned into kill-zone - why not?

I'd say - very few large tunnels that connect everything. Lots of small tunnels (3 feet high, 1 foot wide).

> How do I depict all this, including a significant kobold civilization, without literally drawing a gigantic cave map and thousands of kobold homes?
No idea. But city map should be Top Secret. Anything beyond very few areas (large caverns: market and foreigner dwelling; maybe temple) should be unmapped mess of labyrinthine passages.

If you want some inspiration - check Vietnam tunnels.

That last part actually helps a lot. I'll make a few big nodes connected by big tunnels (with low ceilings anyway) and just describe everything else as little tunnels the party can't fit through, that kobolds have to climb and crawl through.

To me this is part of the core experience, if you don't want that stuff why are you running an old-school dungeon crawl?

Speaking of torch times and whatnot, can anyone provide a good round/turn tracker? I saw one the other day and never saved it.

Here's one. There's a few others floating around.

What's your favorite old school era published setting?

What's your favorite newer published setting that's designed for OSR purposes?

Is allowing a lv. 1 Magic-User and Cleric to start with a prepared spellscroll (with a lv. 1 spell) in addition to their 1-a-day casting spell a bad idea?

Anybody ever run a game in Yoon-Suin? How'd it go?

I know I've asked before, but I'll ask it again, because it's important.

How fucking verisimilitudinous is your goddamn milieu?

Any books with ideas for compelling adventure hooks?

How do I, a man with no previous experience in RPGs or story telling, create a session and be a 'game master'?

Go to the Trove. Download the following books:

>The Role Playing Game Primer and Old School Handbook (probably in the GM Tools folder at the top)
>TSR 2014 - Basic (Moldvay - BX) which is in TSR > Basic D&D > '81 Basic Rules - Moldvay (Bx)
>B2 - The Keep on the Borderlands, which is in TSR > Basic D&D > Basic D&D Modules B Series)

Read the first PDF. Look through the second and third ones. Once you feel you've got a basic idea of how they work, run the third PDF, which is a module (basically an adventure) that is designed both for new players and new DMs, using the rules and such from the second book.

After that, you should be well on your way.

I know it sounds like a lot but it really isn't. You're getting a PDF which explains how RPGs work in general, that will make it easier to understand the other two PDFs. Then you're reading the rules and an adventure, and diving in.

It could be exploited, but as a single use item, it can't hurt all that much. Scrolls are a great way to extend MU power--since you can only carry so many, they serve as a check on the "weird wizard show" of 3.0.

IIRC the 5e DM guide has a nice section on how to GM in general. Older edition DMG's do too, but prose in TSR editions can be needlessly esoteric.

I made a couple of wacko, gonzo Race-As-Classes yesterday night before I went to sleep.

You'll have to excuse the incomplete savage lizard thing, I couldn't think of anything else before I passed out. I might finish or touch these up later, or might not.

Should a magic potion have its full effect despite the amount drank?

Depends on the potion. A B/x potion of invisibility makes you invisible .. uh.. forever.. until you do something that turns it off. OR you can drink one-sixth of it to get a temporary effect.

So the answer is "depends on the potion." If you want it to have a smaller effect if you drink a portion of it, then you need to make a rule about it. If you don't plan on giving them decreased effects then probably not.

How should one think when making a wandering monster table? What HD range should monsters be? Should lower tier monster act a certain way and should higher tier monsters act differently? Should the chance of encounter be the same in any dungeon?

>What HD range should monsters be?
The general rule is to aim for hit dice equal to the current level of the dungeon, but that gets tricky with added abilities and whatnot. Higher-HD monsters should come in smaller numbers while lower-HD monsters should come in larger groups.

>Should lower tier monster act a certain way and should higher tier monsters act differently?
Not necessarily? Just have them act as appropriate for their type and use reaction rolls when in doubt.

>Should the chance of encounter be the same in any dungeon?
Depends on the system. Also, higher encounter chances discourage exploration while lower encounter chances encourage pixel-bitching - there's a lot of fine-tuning to be done there.

When in doubt, you can just change the encounter rate mid-session. Gygax had a bit in the DMG about fucking with poke-every-10ft-with-a-pole players by screwing up the encounter rate to make them hurry up, for instance, although personally I'd recommend something less passive-aggressive.

I remember a site that had about a thousand double-wided papercraft characters to print and use. Anyone have the link?

Any tips on how to come up with good adventure hooks?

You've got to think of something interesting and unique. The reason why people go adventuring is for wealth or some sort of magic item, so there should always be some kind of legend of a reward or treasure of some kind, or problems that would personally effect the party members.

THOSE FUCKER STOLE YOUR SHIT!
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

simple but effect

A flail doesn't strike somebody?

merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flail
>a : to strike with or as if with a flail

Yeah, I like that better.

>I could use some helf coming up with about 3 or 4 thiefy/specialist tiers.
You're gonna have to explain further or give examples before I understand what you're really looking for.

>I plan to keep it level less
Doesn't this contradict the stuff in the text about gaining levels?

Whats a good first module for level 1-3 characters that provides some kind of town for them to keep interacting with once the adventure is over?

I was thinking of using White Dragon Run, but if any of you know of something else I might go with that instead.

I really wouldn't start with something as sandboxy as B2. Running a more packaged adventure like B3 would be a good deal easier for a noob GM.

Role-playing is really just playing pretend with some dice rolls thrown in. Rules-heavy games can sort of turn into complicated tactical wargames, but you want to avoid those to start out with. You should be spending your time learning the basics of role-playing, storytelling, group management and so forth not, and not wrangling with mechanics 95% of the time. If you search around you can find play-throughs and podcasts of folks playing RPGs (which I personally think are mostly awful and uninspired, but they can at least give you an idea of the basics). But when I first started role-playing, I was in 4th grade, I was the GM, and I just kind of made shit up and rolled some dice, and everybody had fun. Don't overthink shit.

As far as a rules set goes, if you're looking into the D&D family, Swords & Wizardry White Box is a good place to start, or Moldvay Basic (B/x) if you want to play an authentic edition. Something like Barbarians of Lemuria is going to be even easier to get into, or you could go for an ultra-light game that's a few pages at most (something like Risus) to start out with. An ultra-light game probably isn't going to give you a super-long campaign, and your game is more likely to end up being silly, but it can allow you to get a feel for role-playing before you try to tackle a more complex set of rules.

Risus is in the image slot. S&W White Box and B/x are in the Trove.

Barbarians of Lemuria -- mediafire.com/folder/7llc83r2xf8bg/Barbarians_of_Lemuria_-_Mythic_Edition

>I really wouldn't start with something as sandboxy as B2.

B2 comes in a box intended for ten year olds, granted that only EGG and TSR know what the fuck that means. I DMed my first three games ever running B2, and intend on using it for my 4th. Having a detailed homebase that responds well to customization, (I'm using Vornheim and others) as well as a dynamic dungeon with a bunch of sketchy factions is super helpful. The necessity of schlepping back and forth gives a lot of room to a new DM and the lack of a firm plot allows a new but adult DM plenty of room to build up a campaign. I'm super stoked to get to third level and have the crew head back west on the road and roll into Dolmenwood.

House rules for multiclassing.

Just trying to read through B2 bored me to the point where I couldn't do more than quickly skim over the module and then put it away in favor of something more interesting. It felt like the actual adventure was an uninspired afterthought to the people in and particulars of the keep. Of course, I was young and a noob DM, but that's going to be pretty common. I didn't know what a sandbox is, but it wouldn't have interested me much even if I had. I certainly wouldn't have had the skill to pull one off as a noob. Not sure I really do now either, but then my standards for what makes a good adventure are pretty high. I do know that most of the sandboxy stuff I've played in has been frustrating and boring. I'm convinced it takes a good GM to pull one off, and not merely a passable one.

ooooh

Right now, I'm wresling with getting the cover for a Print version of Wolfpacks ready. The templates are being weird.

I dunno, just sharin' stuff. I like this gonzo spell list.

Updated and expanded with a bit more explication about how the table works and with the option of half-level classes, so multiclass characters don't start off so powerful.

Here's how I do fair attributes.
Get a deck of playing cards (or tarot, or custom made). Your deck has 18 cards in it. Three have a value of 1, three have a value of 2, three have a value of 3, three have a value of 4, three have a value of 5 and three have a value of 6.
Each attribute is generated by drawing three cards from the deck, totalling their values, and then discarding them.
It works out just like rolling 3d6 down the line, but without the risk of getting loads of high or low dice.

Deep Carbon Observatory and The God That Crawls are both pretty good.

Is it to exclude ranged weapons?

...

>It works out just like rolling 3d6 down the line, but without the risk of getting loads of high or low dice.
You need to weight the cards towards the extremes if you want to end up with a similar distribution. Your chance of rolling an 18 with dice is 1/6 * 1/6 * 1/6 = 1/216. But with cards, because every time you draw a 6 there's one less in the deck, your chance is 3/18 * 2/17 * 1/16 = 1/816. That's almost 4 times less likely. (To look at it another way, once you draw a 6 card for any other attribute, it becomes impossible to get an 18.)

If you want a somewhat similar distribution, you're better off going with either 4 aces, 3 twos, 2 threes, 2 fours, 3 fives and 4 sixes (the top left graph), or 4 aces, 2 twos, 3 threes, 3 fours, 2 fives and 4 sixes (the top right graph), rather than 3 of each (the bottom left).

Hmm. I was thinking it already specified it was melee, but it just says "per melee round", so you're probably right. It's a retardedly vague and confusing way of say "melee weapons" though.

...

Thunder Rift, and the series of modules that followed, are all based around the eponymous town.

The classes section of the OD&D (LBB) column is wrong. OD&D technically has race distinct from class, so the only classes in LBB OD&D are FM, MU, and Cleric.

Hmm. I didn't even notice that. You are, of course, correct. Without Greyhawk, the demihumans might as well be race-as-class, since there's only one class allowed for each (fighter for dwarves and hobbits, fighter/magic-user for elves), but they are technically separate.

Are there any good rules on running organized crime campaigns?

Greyhawk also introduces demihuman thieves, multiclassed thieves, and various NPC-only Cleric multiclasses.

Here's a Vancian spell list I found before. It's pretty neat.

It's meant for OD&D, I'm pretty sure, hence the scant descriptions and six spell levels.

bump

How does one salvage a "weird earth" campaign? I started one but it's getting boring fast.

...

What's a weird earth campaign?

Set on normal earth but with weird fantasy elements. Basically what most LotFP modules are about.

I want to add a Medical skill to LotFP. Regular 1-in-6 chance (add INT Mod & Specialist can invest points.) Requires a one-use medkit (which they can buy).

Only thing is, I can't decide on healing factor:
>1d4 per healer level
>1d4 per victim level
or
>1HP per healer level
>1HP per victim level

That aside, should I add potential harm for a failed Roll? Perhaps a flat 1HP in damage? Or nix that altogether?

Ten foot polemic had kind of an elegant rule: you get healed the amount of HP that the healer has skill points in first aid. So a person with 1-in-6 would only heal 1 HP if he rolls a one, but a person with 3-in-6 chance would heal 3 HP if he rolls a one, two or three.