Welcome to /osrg/ - the OSR General, devoted to pre-WotC D&a

Question in basic fantasy hp says something like this

lvl 9. 4d6+1
lvl 10. 4d6+2
lvl 11. 4d6+3

so if i have 30 hp at lvl 8, at lvl 9 i will have 31, 33 the next level and 36 the next?

>>48673374
Yes

>>48673374
Nope. Note how when you go from 2d6HP to 3d6 you don't suddenly roll 5d6.

Level nine has you at 31, ten at 32, and eleven at 33.

Reading comprehension, anon.

>>48668755

>Platemail

I've never been 100% clear on it. It's some kind of imaginary thing that never existed or something. Like ringmail.

>Spells, redux

You could port AD&D spells, but they don't scale like Basic/OD&D spells do. In the RC, magic missile gives you two extra missiles every 5 levels (15d6+15 by 35th level). AD&D 1e gives you one extra missile every two levels (so by 20th level that's 10d4+10). AD&D 2e does the same, but caps the damage at 5d4+5 at 9th level.

And it's more than just that, range is calculated differently. In the RC, magic missile has a range of 150', in AD&D 1e, it's 60'+10' per level (assuming we're in a dungeon, it's longer if your overland, where it would be 60 yards+10 yards per level). AD&D 2e keeps the longer range from 1e, and just ignores the shorter "dungeon" range entirely.

LotFP uses 60'+10' per level, but it creates extra missiles every level, and deals 1d4 damage per level of the caster (20d4 at 20th level).

So... ultimately, you'd need to consider whether or not the version of the spell is too powerful for your game. You'll likely want to use AD&D 1e's "dungeon" scale ranges for your spells (in the book, ranges are listed in inches. Dungeon scale is 1":10', overland is 1":10 yards).

>>48673590

>Monsters

So, I don't have the AD&D 1e Monster Manual, so this won't be 100% accurate between the three systems, but:

1.) Monsters use d8s for hit dice.
2.) They fight as fighters, and save as fighters in their respective system.

These two things make it easier to port them over than it would otherwise (like if you were converting something from 3e).

I'm going to compare the RC Basilisk with the white cover 2e Monstrous Manual Lesser Basilisk.

>RC Basilisk

AC: 4
HD: 6+1** (L)
Move: 60' (20')
Attacks: 1 bite/1 gaze
Damage: 1d10+petrification (special)
No. Appearing: 1d6 (1d6)
Save As: F6
Morale: 9
Treasure Type: F
Intelligence: 2
Alignment: Neutral
XP Value: 950

A surprised character automatically meets the creature's gaze, but saves normally.

Persons in melee combat must either meet the gaze or avert their gaze per round. Averting applies a -4 penalty to all attacks against the basilisk, and gives the creature +2 on all attacks against the character averting their gaze. Characters meeting the gaze fight and defend normally, but must make a saving throw vs.petrification.

A person can use a mirror in a well lit area to reduce the attack penalty to -2, but cannot use a shield. There is a 1 in 1d6 chance that the basilisk will see itself in the mirror each round. If it does, it must make a saving throw or be turned to stone.

** just means it has special abilities which affect XP, and (L) just means it's "larger than man-sized); the two different move rates are for "wandering around the dungeon" and combat.

>White Cover 2e MM Lesser Basilisk

Treasure: F
Alignment: Nil
No. Appearing: 1-4
AC: 4
Movement: 6 (60 ft.)
Hit Dice: 6+1
THAC0: 15
No. of Attacks: 1
Damage/Attack: 1-10
Special Attacks: Gaze turns to stone
Size: M (7' long)
Morale: Steady (12)
XP: 1400

Gaze can be reflected, but requires at least torchlight and a good smooth reflector. Gaze kills on the Astral plane, and petrifies on the Ethereal plane (the creature's gaze extends into both).

>>48673607

>Monsters, part 2

The major differences are that the XP is different, and the morale uses a d20 in 2e and 2d6 in the RC. I'd say you could probably safely port up to 2e's monsters into B/X and OD&D, but you'd need to recalculate their XP.

Dragons are perhaps the most dangerous thing you might port over, and that's because they have twelve age categories in 2e instead of the 3 in the RC (small, large, huge). At their most powerful, 2e dragons are going to be a challenge. They have more hit dice than their RC cousins, greater armor class, their breath weapons are significantly more damaging; a huge red wyrm in the RC will do perhaps 90 damage on average (before saving throw!) at the start of the fight, and then progressively less as it loses HP, whereas a red great wyrm in 2e will do 144 damage on average (again, before saving throw!) whenever it can use its breath weapon (every three rounds), and it won't get weaker as it loses HP.

Any recommendations for more pulpy modules? Something more Conan-ish than Tolkien

>>48673590
Non-scaling ranges are one of the things that makes me prefer Basic to AD&D, which seems to rarely miss an opportunity to slow things down by adding more moving parts.

Are the goblins in range of your spell? In Basic, all you have to do is know whether they're within 150' (and that's a value you probably have memorized). In AD&D? Wait... what level are you again? You just reached 7th, right? And it's 60' plus level...

I found these methods for rolling attributes at the purple sorcerer games website. If you couldn't use standard 3d6, what would you pick?

>4d6, drop lowest
>2d10
>2d10, results capped at 3 and 18
>3d7, 7=6
>3d7, 7=1
>4d7, 7=6, drop lowest
>1d16+2

>>48673625
2e morale uses 2d10.

>>48673792
4d6k3, because I'm an AD&D man.

>>48673625

Also, the AC scales are different between the editions. AD&D 2e has unarmored AC at 10, while RC has it at 9. The RC has a nifty appendix in the back for converting between D&D (the RC) and AD&D on pg. 291.

>>48673805

My mistake.

>>48673827
>The RC has a nifty appendix in the back for converting between D&D (the RC) and AD&D on pg. 291.
Some of the later Gazetteers have that conversion section as well. It's very slightly different (level scaling and such), and is for 1e in the earlier iterations.

>>48668755
>>48673590
>What is platemail supposed to be anyway? Is it meant to be like a hauberk with some bits of plate? 14th century style plate?
In most of the early editions it's just called "plate armor" IIRC, and in most of those cases is clearly meant to just represent 16th century style full plate armor.

RC has "suit armor" which is that though, so I think it makes more sense to assume it's early plate as >>48668755 suggested — chainmail enhanced with plate pieces in strategic places.

File: attribute generation methods.png (6KB, 243x220px) Image search: [Google]

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>>48673792
>Not drawing cards to ensure that everybody gets equal but random scores
In terms of average stats though, I like 3d6+1.

>>48674071
I actually do that on occasion, but those were the only options on the website and I wanted to see what people had to say about them.

>>48673756

I agree. One thing that might be an imperfect solution is to just calculate the maximum range at 20th level, and then multiply it by 2/3. For magic missile that gives a range of 166.6', and you can just round it down to 160'.

I'm not recommending you should use ported ranges for spells that are already in B/X, or OD&D. But it could work out okay if you're porting over a spell that ISN'T already there.

>>48674135
>calculate the maximum range at 20th level, and then multiply it by 2/3
Wouldn't 2/3 of their level 20 range basically just equal their level 13 range, since 2/3 of 20 equals 13.33? But multiplying by 10 is easy and I figure why not just use level 10 as your guide?

>>48674257
>Wouldn't 2/3 of their level 20 range basically just equal their level 13 range, since 2/3 of 20 equals 13.33?
No, I see you're taking 2/3 of the base range too (though wouldn't 2/3 of that range be 173 and not 166.6?). I still say it'd be easier to just take what the range of a spell would be if you were 10th level and stick with that.

>>48674257
>>48674318

Fair enough. I was only advocating the (base+level)*(2/3) because it was close enough to 150' (the RC magic missile range) without becoming excessively fiddly. But, the 10th level range is not only simpler, but even closer (60+100) without needless rounding down. It might even be better to use 9th (name level) ranges, but eh. It's close enough for government work.

>>48674513
I noticed that name level would give you exactly the same value as in Basic for magic missiles, but A) doing 10th level is easier, and B) the several other spells I checked don't fit the same pattern.

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Would anyone be kind enough to upload The Undercroft #9? I'm very interested in both the Skinned Moon Daughter and Doctor classes it introduces.

>>48673669
B4 The Lost City is straight out of Red Nails.

>>48673792
>1d16+2
Not seen that before. I like it, though!

Created my first "campaign" yesterday, usually i used something like keep in the borderlands, this time i just used a randomly generated dungeon and started the players outside of it, there, when they wanted to go back just said to them what do you do "buying stuff and shit like that" there was no real town at first just asked them what they wanted to do and back to the dungeon in less than 10 rl minutes

is this an ok way to play?

>>48673792
4d6k3, easily.

Also, 1d16+2? What? That's not even a bellcurve any more - that's literally just a flat line of probability. Those stats would be ridiculously swingy, with threes and eighteens showing up everywhere.

>>48675189
Just tell 'em the truth that you've just got the dungeon, man. If they understand that then they understand the limits of the session, as it is.

Beyond that, though, you should really have some manner of town in mind and probably some wilderness as well. Not necessarily detailed, but enough that you can confidently make up stuff that fits on the spot.

>>48675189
I guess, but you could have just said that it's assumed that they bought things before going to the dungeon so they can buy the stuff they want on the equipment list. No need to have them go back to town.

>>48674071

Why does everyone hate 3d6 so much?

3d6 literally gives an average of 10.5, which in most systems is perfectly average. Your person will have an average stat spread, as to be expected.

>>48675329
"Not muh d20". I can sympathize though, I love the tactile thrill of rolling weird dice.

>>48675329
3d6 in order is great.
In AD&D and AD&D 2, the concept of Balance started to appear, and since ability score bonuses came from OD&D and still needed really high scores, plus the huge variety of classes with different requisites, it became more and more important for PCs to start with high stats. In the end, Gary would DM OD&D with the three little brown book but gave a to-hit and damage bonus to the fighter if they had 15+ STR (remember there's no ability modifier for STR in OD&D), but let his players roll 4d6k3 because it basically felt better to have good stats for heroic characters. That's all there is to it. I don't think 3d6 in order makes for a very efficient team in AD&D 2 since it really starts to turn into what then became 3.X (which is, a wargame with RPG bits in it)

>>48675329
Because they can't be speshul with average stats.

>>48675329
Penalties tend to work less well than bonuses in D&D. Having a -2 strength is absolutely crippling (especially if you're limited to magic-user weapons), and having a -2 constitution slams you into the 1 hit point floor pretty often. Additionally, if you're commonly rolling attribute checks, it's nice to succeed more often than you fail.

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In an effort to incentivize the use of halflings in my Basic campaign, I've decided to grant them some minor spellcasting ability. I'd appreciate some feedback on balance.

>(Should note that halflings can reach a maximum experience level of 8 within the rules I'm using)
>Halflings are now pseudo-illusionists. They retain all their normal class abilities, but can also cast select magic user spells up to level 2.
>Halflings conjure spells without any need for complex rituals, but they must have at least one hand free from which to fire the spell. There are no equipment restrictions otherwise.
>Halfings don't need to scribe spells from scrolls, as they will already have knowledge of all available spells as soon as they gain spell charges in that level.
>Halflings don't prepare spells in advance. Instead, they can expend one charge in a spell level to cast any available spell from that level.

See attached pic for spells-per-level granted to halflings.

The available spells include:

>Level 1
Charm Person
Light
Sleep
Ventriloquism

>Level 2
Invisibility
Phantasmal Force
Levitate
Mirror Image

>>48675329
If stats matter, an unbiased system like 3d6x6 where the bonuses are rare is, well, not really the best?

Don't get me wrong, it's fine for OD&D where the stats really don't matter much and in Basic they don't matter THAT much, but when you get into AD&D with percentile strength and every stat giving SOMETHING with high numbers? Yeah, you'll want an alternate stat generation method.

Stats matter is also a bit of a double-edged sword. If rolling well makes your Fighter literally twice as effective, for instance, that means that your tough monsters are now half as powerful in the face of that - or more, really, given AC and THAC0 adjustments.
So you start to make monsters that take into account the possibility of high-level characters having bullshit stats that make them able to steamroll the previous monsters, but then you run into the issue of these monsters being TOO powerful against the mere mortals that RNGesus didn't smile upon.

So, y'know, you make it so that everyone starts a bit closer to that theoretical maximum. Nudge the bellcurve over a bit so that you still get some variance, it's just not THAT much variance.

Also, of course, sometimes you just want your characters to be tougher for whatever reason. If they're stronger you can put them through more without them breaking - it's why Dark Sun had you roll 5d4 for abilities. You get an advantage, but that's only because you'll fucking need it.

There's plenty of other reasons for people to want non-3d6x6 generation systems, of course. One immediately obvious one is the one where you don't really get to choose what you play, while in a 3d6 arranged as desired system you do. It allows for dump stats, yes, but it also allows you to play X class without winning the lottery.

>>48675852
>(Should note that halflings can reach a maximum experience level of 8 within the rules I'm using)

Doesn't matter, nobody is still going to play them.

Even if its unlikely that people will get to that level, nobody wants to go play a character concept that gets stuck prematurely while everyone else gets to continue to advance and become more powerful.

>>48675852
>Halflings are now pseudo-illusionists. They retain all their normal class abilities, but can also cast select magic user spells up to level 2.
Illusionists got their own spell list, so that's probably not the best example. They were more like the Druid than later 2E on specialist mages.
>Halflings conjure spells without any need for complex rituals, but they must have at least one hand free from which to fire the spell. There are no equipment restrictions otherwise.
So Elves with slightly less restrictions, got it.
>Halfings don't need to scribe spells from scrolls, as they will already have knowledge of all available spells as soon as they gain spell charges in that level.
So B/X rules. Works fine, I suppose.
>Halflings don't prepare spells in advance. Instead, they can expend one charge in a spell level to cast any available spell from that level.
Ah, the 3E Beguiler/Warmage/Dread Necromancer. We meet again. This does change the resource management game a bit, but given the number of spells involved not that much.

As for the spells, though:
>Level 1
Charm Person and Sleep are the obvious winners here, since those are literally the two best 1st-level MU spells. Or, well, arguably. Ventriloquism is niche but slightly more useful given the spontaneous casting. Light as well, although I can't see it being used for blinding when Charm and Sleep do an even better job for the same saving throw. (Sleep gets a save in Basic, right?)

>Level 2
Invisibility lasts for-fucking-ever, but also has the weird thing where it's pretty redundant with the already godlike stealth halflings have. At least it lets them hide other people? Phantasmal Force is a weird choice since it's probably the second-most broad spell there is, second only to Wish - it's a lot of improvisation on an already improv-heavy spontaneous chassis. Levitate is, well, Levitate. Poor man's Fly. At level four or six, depending on the priority you give it.
Mirror Image is kind of OP on a Fighter?

>>48675852
I'd push their spell casting back a level. If clerics don't have spells at 1st level, should they?

>Should note that halflings can reach a maximum experience level of 8 within the rules I'm using
This is honestly their biggest weakness. Under normal circumstances, they should be able to reach at least 12th, like dwarves.

So for those of you out there that like OSR blogs;

What kind of content is your favorite on the blogs? Is it setting based? New content like classes or spells? Play Reports? Houserules? Meta (such as state of RPGs today) or Editorial material?

>>48676012
>nobody is still going to play them
Hey, they're halflings, not gnomes.

>>48676012
>nobody wants to go play a character concept that gets stuck prematurely

I guess they work if you roleplay them in a very niche way. Keep them equipped with slings and don't have them rush into the fray. They probably shine most outside of combat where they can
>Easily move about undetected, allowing them to spy or ascertain danger.
>Can get into nooks and crannies that larger characters can't. This might allow them to recover treasure that's tucked into small corners, or traverse to the other side of a door and activate its opening mechanism.

So really, they have more of a utilitarian use... like a ferret.

>>48676012
Unless you know that the campaign is probably not going to go much further past that point, in which case you can rest smug in being the Fighter but better.

Also, of course, even at level eight it takes a while before the humans get noticeably better - long enough that they're close to the soft level 14 cap in B/X. Mostly because advancement in general is so damn slow after name level, and the Halfling's saves are so good that they're kind of equal to a max-level human?

Halflings are a pretty damn strong choice in B/X, although the same can't be said for OD&D where they're mostly trash and also an optional race on account of being trash.

>>48676173
I don't know that RAW halflings are better than fighters. They have d6 hit dice instead of d8, are more limited when it comes to weapons, and have two prime requisites to contend with. This is counterbalanced by some sweet saving throws, their hide ability, and a couple of fiddly modifiers (-2 AC vs. large creatures, and +1 to individual initiative, which you probably aren't using). Overall, it seems like a wash. Until you consider their level cap, anyway.

>>48676133
I like setting material and house rules, specifically if they fit within a general theme like sword & planet, or horror. Play reports can be fun, while meta/editorial material are things I'll read but won't appreciate unless they're few and far between. I've got Tenkar's Tavern for that.

I like custom sandboxes, those are always fun to see. Plug-and-play encounters or dungeons can also be useful.

What is /osr/'s interpretation on elf spellcasting? I don't mean Whitebox elves who had to choose between playing a fighter or a mage, but later iterations of the elf (like Rules Cyclopedia) that multiclass the character.

Does this version of the elf have the same casting restrictions as human mages, or can they cast magic while using any kind of equipment setup?

>>48676401

I have a house rule for dual-wielding in my campaign. Fighters, dwarves, elves and halflings can do it, with regard to whatever equipment restrictions they have. The character must be wielding two instances of the same type of weapon, never mismatched setups like a sword and a mace.

Dual-wielding permits the player to make a second attack roll and use the higher outcome to determine damage output. But only one outcome is used. Abstractly, this is portrayed as the character having scored two attacks, even though on paper it's only one (very good) attack.

Kind of makes halflings more useful in melee combat. There isn't much incentive to go back to using a sling though, since two short swords will certainly outclass the halfling's missile bonus.

>>48675189
>is this an ok way to play?
Of course it is.
Persoanlly I don't think I could keep myself from fleshing out the town and surrounding wilderness and then the entire region and so on, but that's just my autism or love of world building if you prefer, although those are the same thing flaring up.

>>48676093
>(Sleep gets a save in Basic, right?)
It does not.

I agree with literally everything else you wrote though, >>48675852 should note this is spot on.

>>48676628
Pretty sure RC elves can explicitly cast in any armor and only need one free hand and the ability to speak.

File: XP Demihuman Alt (Basic D&D).png (60KB, 616x995px) Image search: [Google]

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>>48676628
The whole "choose whether to be a fighter or magic-user at the start of each adventure" is stupid. With that said, Basic's multiclass fighter/magic-user approach is overpowered. In compensation for lagging maybe 2/3 of a level behind magic-users, elves get d6 hit dice, access to all armor and weapons, infravision, and the ability to detect secret doors (though granted, they have two prime requisites instead of one). Swords & Wizardry White Box variant elves (that is, the ones that operate like multiclass fighter/magic-users rather than picking a class at the beginning of each adventure) slow their spell progression (so that they get a new spell level approximately once every three levels), increase their XP requirements a bit, disallow using two-handed weapons or shields while spell-casting, and suggest limiting them to chainmail. That, however, may be overdoing it a bit.

The pic here is an alternate XP progression I came up with to try to balance the demihuman classes against their human counterparts.

>>48676401
The thing is, though, that those weapon restrictions don't actually matter. All they can't use are two-handed weapons, which are generally worse than a sword (the hands-down best weapon in B/X), and the longbow, which literally just has +40% range over the shortbow. Which they get +1 to hit with, meaning that at the very least they offset ranged penalties. Or, y'know, the -2 THAC0 you have relative to a 13th-level Cleric. (And the +4 to Fighter saves means that the Fighter doesn't catch up until level 13 as well.)

Their 2-in-6 chance of hiding in dungeons is like a fifth-level Thief, but their 9-in-10 in undergrowth is like a twelth-level Thief - and guess at what levels wilderness exploration starts to kick in?

-2AC against large enemies is a pretty damn big bonus, and means that you go from AC2 to AC0 at the very least. The AC bonus is a bit fiddly, but not overly so - changing a number by two is pretty easy for humans, and if you play a Halfling you're likely to keep an eye out for opportunities to use it.

So maybe not necessarily strictly better than the Fighter, but there's not that many downsides before level nine - mostly just the hit point, to be honest, and that's arguably offset by the increase in saving throws and AC.
I definitely don't think that they fall behind irreparably, though, and believe that they stay competitive all the way out to level 12 - or beyond, with BECMI, but that's a separate game.


Also, of course, the Halfling gets to make a stronghold literally whenever they have enough money for it. Not that this matters much in B/X since so much of that is just straight-up DM fiat, though.

>>48676628
Basic elves inherit the OD&D elf's ability to cast in magic armor (but only MAGIC armor), IIRC.

>>48676846
>It does not.
Whelp, guess that's another tick in my "Fuck Supplement I: Greyhawk" box. Seriously, wasn't that spell powerful enough as-is without removing the save?

>>48676953
>The whole "choose whether to be a fighter or magic-user at the start of each adventure" is stupid.
It should be noted that I'm pretty sure that the way actual OD&D Elves worked was that you had all the abilities of both classes but just chose which one got the XP from each adventure. Also they have shit level limits in both classes, obviously.

Then again, the OD&D Elf is confusing as fuck so who the hell knows. That's the impression I got from reading it, the Greyhawk elf and the Men & Magic multiclassing footnote, though.

>>48676959
>The thing is, though, that those weapon restrictions don't actually matter. All they can't use are two-handed weapons, which are generally worse than a sword (the hands-down best weapon in B/X)
It depends on how you read things. The interpretation I've usually seen is that a sword is like a two-handed sword in the hands of a halfling, thus barring use of a shield.

>>48676959
Basic elves can cast spells in armor. From Moldvay Basic:

>RESTRICTIONS: Elves use six-sided dice (d6) to determine their hit points. They may advance to a maximum of 10th level of experience. Elves have the advantages of both fighters and magic-users. They may use shields and can wear any type of armor, and may fight with any kind of weapon. They can also cast spells like a magic-user, and use the same spell list. A character must have an intelligence of 9 or greater to be an elf.

>>48676959
>Basic elves inherit the OD&D elf's ability to cast in magic armor (but only MAGIC armor), IIRC.
Nope, that's an AD&D thing. I just went ahead and checked; RC page 25 makes no mention of any casting restriction whatever (remember that the M-U doesn't have any explicit restrictions on what armors it can specifically *cast in* either, just the implicit one of not being able to use armor). Neither does the Spells chapter, the Equipment chapter, the Combat chapter, or the magic items section of Chapter 16.

Note that this is exactly the same as for the Cleric, so any argument that the Elf's spellcasting is restricted also implies that the Cleric's must be. I think it's pretty clear that that's not the case.

>>48676981
>Whelp, guess that's another tick in my "Fuck Supplement I: Greyhawk" box.
Kek, it even explicitly says "The victims get NO saving throw against this spell" at the end of the spell description.

>>48677038
>That's the impression I got from reading it, the Greyhawk elf and the Men & Magic multiclassing footnote, though.
Yes, the footnote's the really damning one for anyone who wants to parse the OD&D Elf any other way, as I recall. If you assume it works some other way, there's no reason for that footnote to be there in the first place (unless my memory's getting really badly mixed up).

>>48677067
>Halflings can use any type of weapon and armor which has been "cut down" to their size. Thus, they cannot use a two-handed sword or a long bow, but may use a sword or short bow.
Note that Basic only has Daggers, three swords (short, normal, two-handed), and "other weapons" - the Mace/Club/Sling/War Hammer which are all usable by Clerics, and the two-handed Pole Arm and one-handed Spear which aren't.

Basic notes that two-handed weapons disallow shields and cause initiative to be lost, but is completely mum on Halflings using normal swords.

Expert doesn't say anything on the matter either, I don't think, although the Rules Cyclopedia does go a step further and disallow normal swords.

So, yeah, I dunno. Personally I'd allow a shield because why not. Once you start putting in weapon sizes and changing those relative to races it just all gets a bit too complicated, I feel.

So elf spellcasting is essentially always ambiguous and probably best left up to the DM?

I suppose the elf would at least need one free hand to gesture the spell, and also not be gagged or silenced. (Surely, the Silence spell is intended to affect elves as well as mages)

That brings up another concern: Would Silence have any impact on clerical spellcasting?

>>48677320
>Yes, the footnote's the really damning one for anyone who wants to parse the OD&D Elf any other way, as I recall. If you assume it works some other way, there's no reason for that footnote to be there in the first place (unless my memory's getting really badly mixed up).
This is the one I'm talking about, by the way:
>Changing Character Class: While changing class (for other than elves) is not recommended, the following rule should be applied: In order for men to change class they must have a score of 16 or better in the prime requisite (see below) of the class they wish to change to, and this score must be unmodified. A Cleric with a "strength" of 15, for example, could not become a Fighting-Man. In any event Magic-Users cannot become Clerics and vice-versa.
Like most things in OD&D, it's vague as hell and gives you more questions than answers.

>>48677434
Elf spellcasting in Basic works exactly the same as Magic-User spellcasting, down to the spellbook, with the one exception that Elves can cast spells while wearing armor.

The only reason that Magic-Users can't is because their class is restricted from wearing armor for balance reasons. Also probably aesthetic reasons.

Clerics in Basic also care about the same things as Magic-Users when casting spells, IIRC, but you really shouldn't take my word for this - go read what the book actually says. The beginning of Moldvay Expert's section on spells has a decent rundown, IIRC. The Rules Cyclopedia probably has something in the procedures somewhere.

>>48677239
Ah, alright. I was getting things confused with the OD&D elf, who has the specific "magic armor" thing - although, then again, there's some people who subscribe to the theory that the weapon/armor restrictions in the LBBs only apply to MAGIC weapons/armor - I'm not one of them, but it's one of those weird vagueries people argue about.

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Good plot hooks to have my players enter Khirima (Nigerian city) in World of the Lost for LotFP, aside from just hearing about silver tributes or traveling with a caravan?

I have 2 solid players atm, a Maasai Fighter and an Egyptian Specialist (thief) if it helps.

I have a bit of a weird question.

I might be running an Engine Heart oneshot for some friends of mine, and I was thinking about running them through an old school dungeon crawl just to see what it would be like.

Ignoring fluff as to why a bunch of robots are going on a dungeon delve, what would be some good modules to use for this?

>>48678234
S3 "Expedition to the Barrier Peaks"

>>48673669

im pretty sure you can convert some DCC modules like People of the Pit easily.

File: Labyrinth Lord - Land of 1000 Towers (ASE) - Red Demon in the Vile Fens.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

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>>48678234

Anyone have Lusus Naturae for LotFP? It's by the guy who did Teratic Tome, which was pretty fantastic

Why is OSR so fucking gay?

It's either AD&D with the stupid THAC0 thing that is only clung to out of nostalgia, or its retarded inelegant character progression with different Xp for each class, or it's a fuckton of tables. I like gritty games, i like hexcrawl, I like low complexity and even the lack of skills / skill points for the most part, but these autistically obtuse, just flat-out badly designed rules grind my gears. They aren't even that complicated to learn but I can't stand them because they are just trying to copy the flaws of AD&D and lose half of what is good about it.

Is there an OSR game that doesn't use:

> THAC0
> autistic attack matrices
> varying XP rates for advancement
> level caps
> class/race restrictions
> stupid-ass tables for what happen when I punch someone

>>48678696
>>48679101

Will check both of these out.

>>48680275
S&W doesn't use THAC0, either doesn't use level caps for certain races or makes them very easy to ignore, doesn't have race/class restrictions, and the only tables it uses for attacks are "do you hit."

It also has a place at the bottom of the character sheet where you can write what AC each roll can attack.

It even lets you use ascending AC if you want.

>>48680275
The Black Hack. Old School Hack (which is old-school in spirit but not mechanics).

>>48676739

Historically most duel wielding has been with a sword and dagger. Not equally sized weapons.

>>48680342
>>48680357
>>48680357

Thanks faggots, I'll look into them

>>48680357
Old School Hack is great, but I wish it went beyond level 5.

>>48680275
most OSR games don't emulate AD&D, most of them emulate BX/BECMI/RC D&D which is fairly different(if compatible) from AD&D, also OSR games are incredibly easy to modify so you can easily make one fit your needs

>>48680275
>> THAC0
>> autistic attack matrices
Basic Fantasy, Castles & Crusades, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Swords & Wizardry (optional)...

> varying XP rates for advancement
Nothing springs to mind. Varying XP is pretty standard. I'm in favor of standardized progression, but variable progression isn't that much extra trouble.

> level caps
A whole lot of people just ignore them. Granted, this can take away a balancing factor for demihumans, but it's a stupid one anyway (as it either doesn't apply or it completely shuts you down). It should be said, however, that the level caps for Moldvay Basic are actually pretty appropriate. If you take 14th level as the highest level attainable, 12th level for dwarves and 10th level for elves is about right. Halflings get shafted, but you could houserule them going up to 13th or 14th level (they use the fighter's XP progression, so you wouldn't even have to extrapolate that).

> class/race restrictions
Races are their own classes in Basic, which obviates the issue. But really the class/race restrictions are there for fluff rather than crunch reasons, and if you're okay with elves being clerics and halflings being paladins, then it's easy enough just to ignore them. Back in the day, there wasn't this feeling that tweaking the rules was somehow cheap, and any DM worth their salt had at least a few house rules.

> stupid-ass tables for what happen when I punch someone
This is pretty much every OSR game. I think 2e had an optional unarmed combat table that nobody used, but other than that...

>>48679952
Last time I checked it was free on Dtrpg

>>48681106
It's been $6.66 for as long as I've known.

Running a game with total newbies rn. What module is best for us after Keep on the Borderlands?

>>48681297
Boderlands on the keep

>>48681297
Depends on what kind of thing you're into, I guess. I've always liked B3 Palace of the Silver Princess (the revised, green-cover version). It's a lot less sandbox-y and more typical dungeon crawl than B2 is, albeit it with a little twist.

File: TSR 9049 - B4 - The Lost City.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

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>>48681297
Lost City

>>48681249
Oh, I think for a while it was pwyw, never mind then.

I'd upload it but am on mobile atm.

>>48680416
Yeah. Dual wielding equally sized weapons males it Hard to party and significantly reduces the strength of each strike. Any HEMA instructor will tell you use only sword & dagger if you intend to dual wield at all.

>>48682560
my houserule for LotFP is that if you dual wield, you get a +1 melee attack AC to coincide with the idea of using the offhand as defense and not attack.

>>48680275
So play something else then, Philippus Bombastus Theophrastus von Trollenheim. First edition WHFRP sounds like it might be your speed.

Has anyone here tried Mazes and Minotaurs? How is it?

It does enough differently from standard that it has my interest piqued, but it also does enough differently that I find myself concerned it could be a total shit show.

>>48682560
>Dual wielding equally sized weapons males it Hard to party
Well, yeah. I mean, how are you supposed to even hold your beer?

>>48680357
>the black hack

Oh, this is just what I've been looking for. I'm not even that guy, but I've been looking for a game like this for years. Something that looks past the basic mechanical trappings of the OSR game and tries encapsulate the spirit of the games without descending into weird freeformery like Dungeon World (not inherently bad, not my thing). Thank you very much.

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>>48683098
Black Hack is alright. It would be brilliant to intoriduce players to RPGs with.

I just cant get over how boring constantly rolling a d20 (aside from damage) the entire game is.

>>48683369
I've been looking for something that eschews the various mechanical idioms of OSR games that the OSR scene has enshrined and fetishized, to creating something both mechanically elegant and in the spirit of OSR games and I think this fits well. I might give it a shot later to run a dungeon crawl or something.

I really don't see how it would get much more boring than regular OSR games. It can't be any worse than playing a fighter in Basic Fantasy.

>>48683411
I just come from the middle-ground that actually likes skills (LotFP/BX style) but not an abundance of them (Pathfinder, 3.5+ etc.)

I like things not just being attribute based. I can pull my leg over my neck IRL. Why would that make me better at picking locks or climbing walls?

Pretty much, I like *slightly* more crunch.

>>48683491
I'm not necessarily against crunch exactly, but on the whole I feel like there's too much fetishism of the old school mechanics in the OSR scene. I can understand wanting to defend these mechanics when you get the post-TSR crowd deriding them as old fashioned, but there seems to be a pervasive thread of "this was how it was done in my favourite version of the game, and thus this is the best way it could be done" in OSR gaming. This leads to an unwillingness to experiment with the design, which means an unwillingness to actually look at what made these games good. It wasn't simply their mechanical trappings, it was a combination of many factors that made them greater than the sum of their parts.

I'm very fond of games like this because there does seem to be a clear effort to take that kind of inquisitive look under the hood, and to see if things can be made better.

>>48682560
>Dual wielding equally sized weapons males it Hard to party and significantly reduces the strength of each strike.
Not... really? I *am* an assistant HEMA instructor, and this sounds like nonsense to me. Why would you hit less hard or parry less securely with a one-handed sword or axe because you're holding something in your left hand?

That said, making realistic dual-wielding rules is almost impossible, so you might as well go for movie style in your game rules. Even restricting yourself to *just* rapier and dagger, the way the dagger changes the dynamic is really hard to put into a simple rule - when you add the possibility of other weapons, there's no way any one rule could encapsulate it.

>>48683072
Very true
What I'd do is make parrying (the characters AC value) more difficult & do a small decrease in overall damage (maybe like, -1 or more depending on the weapons in question) in exchange for the character being able to roll for damage twice and picking the higher roll

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>>48683532
For me, its not so much fetishising the old ways. Its that having *one* mechanic makes the whole thing feel like a Chutes & Ladders boardgame to me.

All that aside, of all the OD&D homages out there, DESU does it well.

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>>48683532
>This leads to an unwillingness to experiment with the design

This statement makes me wonder what OSR you've been watching.

>>48683072
What if you're dual-wielding beers, though?

>>48683548
Eh I saw it on a Skallagrim video. Feel free to hate. They made a pretty good case for dual wielding being retarded.

>>48683601
>DESU
Top cake

>>48683632
>Feel free to hate.
Nah, no hate in /osrg/, bruh. I will say though that Skall isn't the most accurate guy. Entertaining sure, but he doesn't get it nearly as right as someone like Easton. Sure, their views speak plainly about which one's more fun to watch, but for accuracy you have to go Easton every time.

>>48683618
>What if you're dual-wielding beers, though?
He said dual wielding weapons, and if you're using your beers as weapons, that too makes it hard to party.

>>48683687
>not glassing one guy with each hand routinely at a party
Your parties sound shit, man.
BORLÄNGE

>>48683713
>Your parties sound shit, man.
Say what you want, but we haven't had a single TPK.

I'm the same guy from the last thread talking about making a fantasy setting where mages have a felt impact on society and (low level) magical items are relatively much more rare. Kind of like Eberron.

How do you think the spell list from Basic D&D compares to Labyrinth Lord Adv. Ed. Companion? It seems to have more spells though I haven't done a side by side comparison.

>>48684265
>magical items are relatively much more rare.
>Kind of like Eberron.
I'm not trying to be a dick now, but I genuinely don't follow this.

>>48684278
I haven't got to read it yet, but magic/magical items are supposed to be relatively common compared to other settings, no? With some higher magitech like lightning elemental-powered trains.

>>48684265
>How do you think the spell list from Basic D&D compares to Labyrinth Lord Adv. Ed. Companion? It seems to have more spells though I haven't done a side by side comparison.
AEC, as its name implies, draws from AD&D, with it's much more extensive spell list. In LL core, clerics have 8 spells per level, while magic-users have 12. In AEC, clerics average 12 spells over the low levels and 10 over the highest few. Meanwhile, magic-users have more than 20 spells at every level until 7th (including a whopping 31 first level spells). So yeah, there's more.

Generally, while I like AD&D's spell selection, I prefer Basic's simpler approach, but though AEC uses AD&D's spell list, it tries to keep the simplicity of Basic, tending towards its simpler mechanics wherever possible.

>>48684306
Yes, but you seemed to be saying that magic items would be uncommon, like in Eberron, which seems like a contradiction. You mean to say that there will be a lot of magic stuff, like Eberron?

>>48684396
Oh fuck. I meant relatively more common*. My bad.

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What are some non-humanoid enemies that could be used as early substitutes for orcs/kobolds/goblins? I'd like to try and avoid overuse of primitive humanoid tribes if possible.

So far I've got wolves/dogs, giant insects/arachnids, and slimes, but it feels like an awfully small list in comparison to the various different flavours of barbaric humanoid.

>>48684523
giant rats, carrion crawlers, stirges, giant frogs, snakes, giant lizards, piercers, white apes*, bears, big cats, etc.

*technically humanoid, I suppose, but probably not like you meant

>>48684523

Man crabs
Generic Beastmen (I like these, you can make weird hybrid creatures and hint at rape of farm animals to really make your players hate them)
Rat men/skaven
Animated scarecrows (common witch thugs)
Those weird slug/octopus things in your picture
Lost race of men (like goblins, but human. Also subtle racist implications)

>>48684523
>The shotguns breach end bulges over the side of the stock, so it must be double barrelled.
>There is only one muzzle at the other end.

File: Gescannt_20160808-1140.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

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Is anybody interested in seeing maps?
I recently started scribbling small dungeons and shit into a small notebook but I also made a few more larger maps.
Sample is attached, sadly only a shitty photo and not a scan.
(Maybe there could be a Trove folder for maps?)

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>>48685020
(one more!)

>>48684790
Non-euclidean geometry.

>>48685043
>>48685020
Cool!

>Maybe there could be a Trove folder for maps?
That would actually be pretty cool, especially for those of us who are cartographically challenged.

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>>48683411

Torchbearer.

>>48685151
torchbearer isn't mechanically elegant. Its a complicated mess and can't decide if it wants to be a narrative or gameplay oriented game.

>>48684790
This is what happens when you teach kids to fear guns.

File: 81229852708 - scrapprincess arnaldo pomodoro thanks patrick_1.jpg (46KB, 400x400px) Image search: [Google]

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>>48673345
Alright /osrg/, its time to exert your brain juices.
What are some cool "magic" items that a party of early modern level origins discover in the ruins of a hyper-advanced civilisation?
I tried to do some myself, but realised there are only so many times the players will put up with 'nanomachines, son' as an explanation.

>>48685199
I wish there was some kind of light variant that carried over some of its better ideas over.
It understands the feel it wants to carry over, and does that well. But the rest is just too much.

File: Gescannt_20160808-1510.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

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more maps!

>>48685020
yes please, I'm always on the hunt for maps.

>>48686712
allrighty, im gonna see if i can get a scan of them later today

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>>48685020
I also draw a lot of maps.

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>>48687736

Anyone got The Jeweler that Dealt in Stardust?

>>48687765
These ones will EVENTUALLY actually be scanned and touched up.

>>48687736
>>48687765
These look dope.

>>48687822
Where I can I just rip shit off from https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/maps , but over time I've picked up a few methods that are different. But that blog taught me how to cross-hatch and use verticality in a dungeon map, so.

>>48687770
I do, but I'm at work.

>>48682525
Much obliged

>>48682980
>Has anyone here tried Mazes and Minotaurs?

I didn't care for it. The author goes out of his way to establish all sorts of pointless gender restrictions when it comes to rolling a character. I would have approached character classes more neutrally.

>>48680416
>Historically most duel wielding has been with a sword and dagger.

>historical propriety
>in a setting involving fantasy creatures and magic

This is to say nothing of the inaccuracies found within D&D itself. The game's developers even mistakenly believe that bastard swords and long swords are two distinct weapons.

But feel free to single out my house rules instead.

>>48688475
You're a lifesaver, anon. Would you be willing to share later when you're free?

>>48687736
>>48687765
Damn these are amazing.
We really should get a map folder.

>>48688791
I just remembered GG has it free on their website.

http://www.goodman-games.com/downloads/FRPGD12.pdf

>>48688791
PS, here's my DCC trove. It's the most organized and concise one yer gonna find.

https://mega.nz/#F!QcVXkDTL!xdNW7wljroZRw8LH3MyVeQ

>>48689043
Whoops, wrong key:

https://mega.nz/#F!JN90gQZY!pYTH91f7VOmSS_Z1VVsn2w

>>48686565
Very nice-looking

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>>48673345
Uhh, that's some serius stuff out here!

Many thanks to you guys who scanned, collected and shared these. I found many things I was wishing and looking for years.

>>48688973
They do? And they're selling it on DrivethruRPG for 5 bucks. Odd.

>>48689063
Thank you so much, this has a lot of goodies I didn't catch anywhere before

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>>48676133
What I love in the last some years is reading about the roots and birth of the hobby. Especially the book and blog of Jon Peterson (http://playingattheworld.blogspot.com/).

Also many times I catch myself digging into old grognard forums, like Dragonsfoot or odd74.proboard for rule explanations.

Plus Tome of Treasures for rare cover scans and infos on early products.

>>48690968
You're welcome. Also, thank TroveGuy, he's the brilliant mind behind the Trove!

Can you help me clarify a rule in LotFP?

p56:
"When surprise is possible, roll 1d6 for each side
which might be surprised; most normal characters
are surprised on a roll of 1–2. Surprised charac-
ters are unable to act for one Round. Characters
or creatures which are well hidden and prepared
to perform an ambush act from surprise on a roll
of 1–4 on 1d6."

The ambush surprise roll is instead of the two normal rolls? Or is it after the normal roll, instead of the enemy's roll, if the ambusher succeded? It's very unclear to me.

>>48691862
If the condition "this side is currently getting ambushed" then they are suprised on a roll of 1-4 _instead_ of the regular 1-2.

>>48691862
I think this is for what you roll for the _enemy_ for being surpised if _you_ are hidden and prepared for ambush. Or reverse. So this is instead one of the normal two rolls.

>>48691966
And the ones in ambush roll normal 1-2 for being surprised too?

>>48692023
Ok, this makes sense. I whish it would be formulated more clearly in the rules. Stuff like the reaction roll being a 2d6 i had to look up in Moldvay. The surprise ambusher rule isn't from B/X.

>>48692044
Hm, now that you put it like that, I would say the "prepared ones" cannot be suprised, so it could be the only roll. Just guessing.

>>48691862
Stumbling upon an enemy (or vice versa), you're/they're surprised on 1 or 2.

If you're all hiding in broom closets and shit and someone walks in the room and you jump out and attack, you surprise them on a roll of 1-4.

>>48692214
OK, but the question now is (at least from my side) that the hidden ones could be still surpised on a 1-2?

>>48692260
>"When surprise is possible, roll 1d6 for each side
>which might be surprised
That answers my question, sorry for the complicating. I was just thinking loudly. :)

>>48692260
No. If they're hiding, they're prepared and aware. At best, if they were hiding in, I dunno, a giant vase and couldn't see shit, they can still hear.

Perhaps if a sneaky fuck saw them hide from afar in secret, knew they couldn't see from their hiding spot, and successfully Stealthed their way over, I'd grant auto surprise on the person hiding.

Since we are already talking LotFP. Who the fuck thought of the bankruptcy rules? 5-25% for every investment completely vanishing every year in addition to possible losses? That's insane. Nobody would invest with this risk.

>>48692549
The point of the rules is to incentivice adventuring instead of incorporating.

>>48692880
No rules are better than incentivizing rules in this case i think.

Interesting thing i found:
It's impossible to kill a helpless lvl 1 Fighter with a dagger in one round without sneak attack by e.g. cutting his throat. You will kill him by charging at him with a dagger though.

>>48693098
"I cut the fighter's throat."

Okay, he's dead. Now what?

>>48693116
That's dm fiat. You need 3 rounds to kill him RAW, without charging. (I would houserule it)

>>48685990
A machine that eats plants and spits out seeds for them.

>>48693098

Never roll for things that don't need it. You don't need to roll Drive in WoD to start your car, and you don't need to make Dexterity checks to walk without stumbling on an even surface.

A helpless person (regardless of level) is just that: Helpless. Their combat stats are meaningless at that point.

>>48693116

That's exactly what should happen. Alternatively:

>PC

"I smash his head in with my mace."

>GM

"His skull fractures under the force, and he dies from the blow. What do you wish to do next?"

>>48693260

Rulings, not rules anon. There's a reason we have DMs, and it's to arbitrate corner cases like this. RAW as an unacceptable alter to worship at when it's at odds with common sense.

Is the old DCC Punjar:Tarnished Jewel any good?

>>48693348
I generally agree. But this requires a good DM. If you play with bad DMs, you'll badly wish they just use RAW.

>>48693572

>bad DMs

Don't play with them then. No game is better than a bad game.

>>48692044
I think its written to encompas the situation of like two sides fighting and then getting ambushed by a third. Each of the first two sides roll for suprise.

>>48692107
LotFP is gops but this is one of its drawbacks. Sometime it seems to forget it might be introducing a concept to a person who haven't ever heard of it.

>>48693740
If they're your friends and you have no alternative group it might be better than no game. And most DMs don't start out as experts.

>>48687765
That lower one is beautiful!

>>48693808

Whatever. The problems are your table are not mine to solve. Do as you will.

How's /tg/ with storytimes these days? I got one and a half of two sessions of Maze of the blue medusa written up. Should I post?

>>48693942
Have you ever seen someone post "Should I post this storytime /insert board here" and then having people say "no, faggot"?

>>48693942
Have at it anon, I've seen that Maze has won a lot of acclaim and awards, though I'm not entirely sure why. Either way- should make for some interesting storytime.

>>48693942
Please do! Love reading those stories!

>>48694084
Same anon, For my two cents, I think it's a well written megadungeon and the book layout is very useful in play. If there was one thing that I've gathered through play though, it's that the room entries are very dense with details that I often forget in play. Even though I've read the book cover to cover three times before starting play.

>>48693942
Go ahead. I'm preparing to run the maze too so any bit of forethought and seeing how players go about situation helps.

>>48694412
Maybe make little bullet list of useful/interesting details you want to find quickly during play?

>>48694791
I guess I should do that. But there is so much stuff, and the nature of layout means that searching through such a list on the fly would probably still slow down the game.

Im gonna start a new thread for the storytime pretty much now. look out for it.

File: Fearsome Gods.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

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Any feedback on pic related?

I might change up the races soon; it might be more interesting for players to be allowed to play hobgoblins instead of monkey men for the 'regular' races, but not sure yet.

I hope Fomorii giants are cool for the big guy category.

>>48694899
Thread complete. Im going to bed now, Have fun.

>>48695034
how about include both in the "Regular Races"(common might be a better term than regular though), and add something new to the Exotic Races section in Hobgoblin's place

>>48695331

I was gonna switch hobgoblins with monkey men there, and put the monkey men in exotic because I felt with regular beastmen it made them a little redundant.

Truth be told I am putting the two racial categories into things that most humans would interact with (common or regular) and the ones they usually wouldn't (uncommon). But because I am a massive edgelord contrarian I think making the slaver hobgoblins a standard and not evil at all race would be significant more interesting then monkey monks.

Are there any decent art resources that give of OSR vibes?
I'm not really what to look for when I need art for tokens and such.

So, this dude is... kind of fascinating. He clearly started playing RPGs way back in the day but also has no idea what he's talking about when he talks about them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N_kWDMBWBs
Here, he ranks official D&D campaign settings from worst to best. Highlights include him saying that it's terrible to put sci-fi in D&D, then ranking the Known World highly, implying that Bela Lugosi sucked, and implying that Dracula and Frankenstein and such originated with/is limited to the Bela Lugosi movies.

(part 1/2)

>>48696732
(2/2)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZYD_1iFw7Q
Here, he suggests that "role-players" and "game players" are two different kinds of gamers, that "role-players" don't want the "gamey" stuff, that "game players" are often the "problem players."

He also suggested that devising "standard door-opening procedures" is inherently bad and immersion-breaking. Motherfucker, if I was going in a scary hole with my friends in real life, I would figure out who was best at what and we would get it down to a science. That is good role-playing. It is what a reasonable fucking character would do in that situation. What do you want from me?

Then he goes on to describe 4e (which to be fair, I haven't played) as a "game-player's game" because it doesn't have a lot of rules for the role playing part. Why do you need rules for the role playing part?! Do you need to roll a dice to decide if your character is sad? Role playing is the part where you want the game to stay out of the way! Especially since you whined 3 minutes ago about how it breaks immersion when you have to look up rules!

That was seven minutes in. He keeps going on about how people who focus on things like traps and treasure and everything are refusing to engage with the world and get into their characters' heads. As if you can't do both.

I know there's that "Stormwind Fallacy" term for the idea that people who like crazy builds can't also roleplay. Is there a term for thinking you can't like both roleplay and a challenge?

>>48696750
Holy shit. It got worse. He just wondered aloud if maybe "game players" don't actually find RPGs fun, but keep at it because they don't have any friends.

>>48696524
http://fuckyeahosr.tumblr.com/

http://grognard.booru.org/

>>48696732
>>48696750
>>48696855
That's nothing:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHsdDGXjSA8

Here he is saying he's been gaming since he was a little kid and has never, EVER seen a game that was any good at ALL which used 3d6 down the line, and that a 4 INT means your IQ is 40, and you need at least a 7 in every stat for your character to be viable. Y'know, but also what's important is the roleplaying, not the game.

>>48696998

Stop watching him, it's bad for you.

>>48697020
So is alcohol, but every once in a long while I get absolutely fucking hammered.

>>48696975
Perfect, thanks!

>>48696998
>And that same gamemaster who makes you roll 3d6 down the line will get furious if you role play
FUCK this guy!

>>48685990
Coffee Machine. Press a button, get a mild narcotic. No fuel or ingredients required.
Highly powerful freezing device. Point at the subject whilst holding down the 'freeze' button for a while - big things take more time for freeze. Good for preserving food, or making your enemies really unhappy.
Sorting machine. You put an item in, and it comes out seperated into the pure elements that make it up: a big block of carbon, a bag of helium, etc etc.
Hyper-demensional goggles. Gives X-ray vision/see invisible/see alternate worlds/other mad shit.

>>48696998
>>48697288
Oh god, the comments...

>As you said, I'd roleplay the hell out of that 4 int, but as a DM, I never let the players have any stats under 7. With the 7 int I don't let them solve riddles and do other stuff based on int. Sometimes I use the 3 dice rule, but if it's under 7, just put o 7 or reroll.
>I DON'T LET THEM SOLVE RIDDLES AND DO OTHER STUFF BASED ON INT
>mfw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F07HbfgzpG8

>>48696732
>>48696750
>>48696998
Jesus christ how horrifying.

>>48697918
What's weird is he either made or is in some other way connected to the Within the Ring of Fire system, which I used to run an awesome ASOIAF-inspired political intrigue game a couple years back.

>>48697440
Sure, and if their character has 7 Wisdom, I don't let the player use common sense.

>>48698053
If the character has 7 Charisma, I require the player to be That Guy.

DAE hate racial powers? Like I'm fine with a stat boost and something that's like "dwarves can find their way underground" or "elves are proficient with longbows no matter their class" and that's IT NO SPECIAL SHIT, NO ACTIVATED POWERS

>>48698302

Depends on the setting

I personally dislike activated powers for the races and even for Wizards/classes too. Things should be skills or abilities that are constant, which are both more interesting and less of a pain in the butt to balance. Moreso, giving races activated abilities are typically just spells or magic that has the same or similar effect to a spell in the game which feels very cheap and weak creatively, it feels like something people would do in a video game, since they could just 'reuse' the same file.

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>>48697302
>Hyper-demensional goggles. Gives X-ray vision/see invisible/see alternate worlds/other mad shit.

It's been done, and it was great.

>>48698351
eh I find passive abilities to be boring as hell personally

>>48682525
Did this ever get uploaded?

>>48698302
I like the typical Dwarves can see in darkness, Halflings are stealthy, Elves have sharp eyes to spot shit.

I like how DCC added even more fluff (halflings kickass at two-handed fighting, elves are allergic to iron, dwarves can smell gold)

>>48696732
Ugh, I almost forgot about that guys channel- good if you want to listen to a bunch of rants with very little substance to back it up but other than that? Avoid at all costs.

Have a nice palate cleanser:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kD_Aj5HoRA

OSR discussion starts about 5 minutes in.

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>>48696975
>http://fuckyeahosr.tumblr.com/
Ohh, that tumblr is awesome! :)

>>48701293
It sounded interesting but there was a ton of random pausing and looking away from the camera that felt distracting.

>>48698612
It looks like cugel on the cover, but in what story is he? What are those mushroom men? He isn't holding one of the cusps is he?

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Is Tower of the stargazer in gold or silver standard? If it's in gold standard, is it still 50 sp for 1 gp?

>>48701949
It was made during deluxe edition when it was still gold standard, so 1 gp = 1 xp.

>>48702098
>>48701949
The old version of it is in gold standard, the one with the entire title in rainbow gradient is in silver standard.

You can check the amount the wizard offers to free him, in the old one it is 100gp, in the new one it's 100sp

What modules would you recommend to a new S&W DM?

>>48687765
I really like that hex-detail style. Do you do larger hexmaps Hexographer/Known World style or Judges' Guild style?

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>>48704152
I've been experimenting with them, but I haven't made any real country-scale or larger maps that I'd call a finished product.

>>48688561
>The game's developers even mistakenly believe that bastard swords and long swords are two distinct weapons.
Pedant time: they can be, based on the fact the "bastard sword" is a really diffuse term that doesn't have anything like consistent usage. Some academic writers have used bastard sword to refer specifically to an arming sword with a lengthened grip, which is of course distinct from the "knightly longsword".

I actually agree with you, though.

>>48696750
>devising "standard door-opening procedures" is inherently bad and immersion-breaking
Tell that to the Army and SWAT.

Just played through the LotFP tutorial solo dungeon. Raggi is a giant troll, isn't he? You automatically die when you find the secret door in the north room which you need to find to survive. And then he says "no sweat man, you are still a little newb, just try it again."

>>48704164
This looks really neat! What pens or and tools are you using to get that nice color?

>>48704284
Copic Sketch markers. They're pretty easy to work with and get a really good result. I think I have seven or eight different tones in that one.

>>48704164
I really like your marker tinting.

Are you planning on just using overview maps like this one, or any type of hex/grid map?

>>48704324
I'm going to be getting some nice hex paper that's like >>48687765 (the bottom one) except in A5 size (squarehex.co.uk). I'll probably draw on it with a pretty simple overview style just like I do now, but with the scale drawn up so that I can zoom into a hex and draw at the six-mile per megahex scale I do with the little pad already.

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>>48704349
Speaking of, another thing I've been messing with is topographic terrain at the six-mile scale.

>>48704164
Ffuck that's so good!

>>48704423
These maps are nice shit. As for >>48704349, you do know the A5 hex pad from Squarehex has the small, 7mm hexes, right? I think the A4 pad's the only one with the bigger hexes, and I'd use that preferentially for large-scale maps any day.

>>48704349
You know that you could always just print out custom-sized hex paper if you wanted to, right?

Just saying. Depending on how much you need and what you're actually looking for, that may or may not be cheaper.

>>48704495
Nah, I wanted the 7mm hexes so that it'd scale higher with the smaller maps. I want it a bit more zoomed out. As it is, I can draw up the close-in maps like that, and compare to the USGS maps on my wall for a real-world comparison to places I can visualize, and then link it all up to larger maps and even have an approximate idea of how many degrees and minutes on the globe it'd be as I change the scale.

>>48704514
Oh, yeah, and I have, but the Squarehex pads have paper that doesn't bleed as much, so the markers look better on it and I can write on them with a fountain pen. Plus, when you print it yourself the grid might not show through the marker-- I don't know if it's visible on the photos, but I can actually still use the hex grid under all of that.

>>48704557
>Nah, I wanted the 7mm hexes so that it'd scale higher with the smaller maps. I want it a bit more zoomed out.
Totally fair. I just wanted to make sure you didn't end up disappointed, but you seem to have this nailed down.

>>48704557
>Oh, yeah, and I have, but the Squarehex pads have paper that doesn't bleed as much, so the markers look better on it and I can write on them with a fountain pen. Plus, when you print it yourself the grid might not show through the marker-- I don't know if it's visible on the photos, but I can actually still use the hex grid under all of that.
Makes sense to me!

Also, yeah, you can still kinda see the grid in those photos. It was one of the first things I looked for, to be honest!

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>>48701949
The new version rectified the gp/sp issue and fixed a few other other things (like all those bullshit 1% chances) Nicer layout, too.

What happens if you do:

>choose a class and write it in the box
>roll 6d6 in order
>now roll 12d6 and assign two to each stat as desired

To reflect both the influence of environmental factors and the fact that the players are people who overcame their circumstances to become what they want to be?

It should allow them to put their highest stat where they want it without minmaxing, and without higher average stats than 3d6 in order, right?

>>48706439
Huh, that's an interesting thing to do I think. the 1d6 in order at the start shows the innate ability, and the 2d6 assigned reflect how one trained himself.
I'd definitely be up for that in a game.
2d6 in order and 1d6 assigned might also be interesting, putting more weight on innate abilities while most likely still allowing for stats that are important to you to be high.

>>48680275
There's a cool alternate method of level progression for LOTFP in issue 4 (i think) of Green Devil Face, add on the race/class rules from LL Advanced and ignore the caps/restrictions and you're off to the races I think. Also gr8 b8 m8 in your initial question.

>>48682710
Nice. I've been trying to figure out what to do about dual wielding before any of my players actually ask about it.

Got any ideas about what to do if they are holding a laser pistol in one hand and a melee weapon in the other?

>>48706886
I wouldn't alter anything. They'd just be able to shoot or slice like normal, but without needing to drop & switch weapons.

>>48707380
Any other LotFP houserules?

>>48707479
- Max HP at lv. 1.
- Specialists start with Tools at no cost.
- MUs & Clerics get one lv. 1 spellscroll at game beginning.
- Medicine Skill (roll your skill number or lower, heals that amount of HP. Requires medkit.)
- If an item costs cp, I pretty much ignore it's deduction from their funds. I don't have time for that shit.

Considering making 'Read Magic' an innate MU ability. Unsure if I should tho. Also considering using the Wonders and Wickedness Spell list.

The Deluxe Version of LotFP is the most recent iteration, right? Or is is the free, artless version newer, and that's why it has Firearms rules and the Deluxe version doesn't?

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>>48708530
Afaik pic related is the cover of the newest version. So the free should be newer than deluxe.

>>48708690
Oh, okay. I prefer the free version anyways; it doesn't have that annoying ye olde "long s" and giant header art on every page.

What is the best BFRPG module/adventure?

>>48707594
What game is it that gives some of those abilities to all magic users? Like read magic and detect magic?

Hey guys, not really the right board, but it is /osr/related thanks to appendix N.
I've been trying to get a hold of the Fafhfr and the Grey Mouser stories for a while now, and I can't seem to find a pdf anywhere. Can you at least point me to the right direction, please?

>>48708738
I also just remembered to ask, does anyone know a good free PDF editor so I can cut out all the blank pages in the free version?

I've been thinking of running a campaign that starts out with the players being members of a small group of hunter-gatherers in a "humans (with magic) dropped in the late Cretaceous" setting. A strange magical plague kills everyone except the party and some others (who basically become like hirelings) right before the game starts. As the party explores, they discover that to the North, East, South, and West respectively, there is:

>A civilization that is advanced well beyond even the technology we have IRL, with ray guns and shit, in regular contacts with off-world colonies and aliens
>A society which is basically ancient Egypt
>Basically the Old West
>Basically ancient Rome

1. Does this sound like an awesome thing to discover through hexcrawling?

2. How would you handle hirelings when there's no economy to speak of in the starting land?

>>48709831

There's a lot of tech difference between those various places you mentioned. What kind of trade do they have between each other? Are there Romans running around with six guns and stirrups? Is there an Egyptian guy with a ray gun and an Anubis robot?

How far apart at they?

Hirelings get shares of whatever is discovered by the party, including food, shelter, and other resources. They would also contribute their ability to find useful things and hunt, as well as carry things. Their labor would be useful.

Essentially, they'd have to contribute to the group (as would the PCs) or others in the group would "vote with their feet" and leave. There really aren't much in the way of leaders in hunter-gatherer societies, but the PCs would likely still be nominally in-charge because they're adventurers.

>>48709831
>1. Does this sound like an awesome thing to discover through hexcrawling?

Unless you make Egypt, Rome, and Old West kinda gonzo then it sounds really boring. Needs more dinosaurs.

>2. How would you handle hirelings when there's no economy to speak of in the starting land?

Food and/or reputation.

>>48709931
The places all got shoved together fairly recently by a magical cataclysm that absolutely destroyed them around the edges. The party doesn't know it, but powerful sorcerers from a sixth world basically accidentally pulled the worlds together in trying to escape from their own, which they'd totally fucked all to hell with their magical experimenting.
>>48709944
Egypt is going to basically be ancient Alexandria with working magic. Rome is like a movie caricature of Rome, with everything built around this absurdly large Colosseum where the bravest used to fight lions but now fight t-rex and shit. Old West is going to be the town of Tombstone, AZ and the surrounding area, meticulously lifted from real life, down to carefully researching how people lived in the Old West, what groups of Native Americans might be nearby at any moment and their customs, and what things they had need of that they got from up East and will now have a shortage of. Plus dinosaurs will have wandered in and started causing trouble.

>>48709831
>Does this sound like an awesome thing to discover through hexcrawling?
yes, yes it does

>>48710095
>Egypt is going to basically be ancient Alexandria with working magic.

yawn/10

>absurdly large Colosseum where the bravest used to fight lions but now fight t-rex and shit.

okay/10

>the town of Tombstone, AZ and the surrounding area, meticulously lifted from real life

boring/10

Sorry, man, but it just doesn't sound gonzo enough. Maybe I'm just too jaded.

>>48709674
Have you tried searching torrent sites for Fritz Leiber? That'll catch the big compilation torrents. A quick search on both Demonoid and Pirate Bay catches some that have seeders - including a seven-year-old torrent with a single apparently really dedicated seeder on Demonoid. Good on them, I guess.

>>48710217
Hmm. I'll figure out a way to crank it up.

>the wizards that fucked up their own world are from the distant future of the Egypt setting, and their actions created a second timeline in which it collided with the other worlds
>Egypt is ancient Alexandria with working magic, but the only kind of magic they have is psionics, which they've started to develop because of genetic tampering by the future-wizards, who live underground to hide the hideous Illithid forms they have due to experiments they did on themselves long ago

>the Colosseum is actually the living quarters of a starship that crash-landed there long ago, which has basically turned into an explorable dungeon through disrepair, still-functioning security bots, and creatures that have been put there to fight the gladiators
>the absurdly rich pay to sit in what was once the main deck and watch on the front monitors, which are kept working through magic known only to the elites
>the front of the massive ship is mostly destroyed, but the characters "CC-17" are still visible

>Doc Holliday has been miraculously cured of his tuberculosis, and nobody is sure why, but rumors abound that he made a deal with the devil
>he actually was cured through science, in exchange for procuring corpses for a man on a continent floating in the sky still further to the west, one Dr. Victor Frankenstein
>if you ask Mr. Holliday himself, he might tell you the devil rumors are basically true
>since then, dozens of sightings of strange, lumbering humans, dead but somehow alive have been reported, sometimes as many as five or six of them at once

>>48709777
If you don't want to pirate one you are stuck with some rather fiddly options I think. mutools (part of the pdf viewer MuPDF) is a commandline tool. I think you can use it to generate a new PDF from another one, by specifying which pages to keep. Maybe you can also delete pages with it, not quite sure.
Inkscape can do a bit PDF manipulation, but only ever one page. Like, you can edit page 5 of some pdf and save it as new PDF.

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>>48710403
>CC-17
FUND IT

>>48673345
Hi /osrg/!

How do you DM your fights? Do you describe most, all, few, none of the attack rolls? How do you describe damage in your games?

Those days, I try to describe most attack rolls unless combat drags itself, but that rarely happens in LotFP since most fights are one-sided.

>>48709674
>http://gen.lib.rus.ec

books are probably here in some format or another

File: Issue #09.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

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>>48674784
Here you go Anon. One player has a back-up Daughter, but we'll probably switch to another game when her main bites the dust.

>>48710461
Never been a DM before, but I did have one great DM once that would give a quick snippets on what just happened in combat. If we ever rolled a critical, he would allow us to give our own over-the-top description of this amazing feat, or if we felt shy, he would try his best to come up with something cool for us.

>>48710403
Now that sounds interesting. Good job, Anon.

>>48710461
>How do you describe damage in your games?

Most damage is just random cuts and stabs. Damage that gets close to killing someone sometimes results in dismemberment or scarring. One time a bug-guy NPC ally quadsected an enemy bugman by killing him in a single round via two-weapon attacks.

Haven't been paying attention to the OSR for about a year and a half now, come back around to tabletop and just wondering if I've missed any significant developments?

Glad to see these threads are still around anyway, nice one lads.

>>48710533
Oh my god anon, thank you so much.

>>48710415

I can use my OS' built-in print to PDF function and just specify the pages. Gimme a comma-separated list of what pages should remain and I'll post the result.

>>48710621
That's an awesome DM. I bet you guys had some great games.

>>48710533
Do you have the other issues?

>>48711111
Everything up to 5 or 6 is in the trove.

>>48711094
He was actually an Anon from here I found on a Game Finder thread years ago. He was hosting a 2e game online using Fantasy Grounds. He even went as far as having us all tune in on Winamp to a playlist/radio he made for sounds and background music while we played.

It was honestly the coolest game I've ever played. And we didn't even use mics.

>>48711206
Last time I downloaded them they were corrupt :/

>>48712053
They're fine for me. Does anyone have issues 6 through 8?

where can i get the one page dungeon shit for free? is it in the trove?

>>48710461
The players describe how they want to attack and, based on the dice rolls, I describe the results. When an enemy attacks a player, I describe what they are doing and usually have the player describe his reaction / defense (though sometimes I'll streamline things and just describe what happens without player input, depending on the flow of events and the pace of battle). So...

Me: The hobgoblin, anxious to get at you, slams aside the goblin who had engaged you with his shield, clearing the way for a thrust of his spear at your midsection.

Player: I'm going to sidestep the spear, turning my body sideways and moving in the direction he shoved the goblin on the assumption that will crowd him and reduce his mobility. As I turn, I'm going to bring my sword across in an arc that intersects his neck. Hopefully his shield is still out of place from shoving the goblin.

Me: No! You start to turn, so the thrust is oblique, but the spearhead still slides across your stomach and catches, embedding itself in your left side for 3 points of damage.

Player: Shit! I'm down to 5.

Me: The blow is going to knock off your aim a bit, but you're already halfway through the swing, and if anything, the impact is going spin you around, increasing the speed of your arc. Roll to hit at -2, but we'll call damage a wash, with speed counterbalancing inaccuracy.

Player: Wait! Is it to late change my attack?

Me: You're already partway through your swing.

Player: But what if I just divert it? Like, I reflexively grab the spear with my left hand as its tip pushes into my side, and I turn my arc downwards, bringing my sword across the shaft where the hobgoblin's hand is, and hopefully slicing off some fingers and possibly bisecting the spear.

Me: Okay. I let you divert your attack without penalty, but you still have the original -2.

Player: 17! I miss! [roll-under system]

Me: Your body clenched up from the spear thrust, causing you to swing wild...

>>48710801

Dungeon crawl classics has released two boxed sets, one is dark sun the other is Silver John. They're pretty good. They also just funded a Mutant Crawl Classics...so thats that.

>>48714412
Me: Your body clenched up from the spear thrust, causing you to swing wild. Your sword clips his spear half a foot in front of his hand but does little more than nick it. You have, however, managed to grab his spear near the tip with your left hand, and with you turned sideways, the hobgoblin is going to have an awkward time trying to attack you. Still, if his attack is tricky, so is your defense...


Granted, that's the more detailed end of descriptions, and sometimes we play things a good bit simpler, with less back-and-forth (especially when there are more players and/or monsters involved), but that's not an unrealistic depiction of how things might go.

>>48713844
https://onepagedungeon.info/2016/

Go nuts

What's the best way to stock a LL dungeona nd to make it interesting? is there a resource I can use to theme and keep encounters within a good level range? I know balance isn't a focus, but what can I do to get an estimate of what levels the dungeon I'm making is good for? just HD?

I'm coming at this stuff from D&D4e, so help is super appreciated in figuring out how to make fun dungeons.

Also, if I need to make a custom NPC- whats the best way to do so? say I want to make an evil summoner from the complete adventurer for b/x?

In "Beyond the Silver Scream", what damage die does the revolver have?

>>48715240
I had the same question.

Transylvanian Adventures for DCC has a pistol, and it's damage die is a d3 squared (larger guns have d6 etc.):

>Damage die results with firearms are squared. A result of 1 is 1 point of damage. 2 is 4 points of damage. 3 is 9 points of damage. 4 is 16 points of damage. 5 is 25 points of damage. And 6 is 36 points of damage. Any bonuses to damage (or extra damage from critical hits) are added after the damage die is squared.

That's a wee bit OP for a 0-level funnel, especially considering it has all 6 rounds. I'd just run it as a 1d8 DAM ranged weapon.

>>48715934
Never heard of the squared damage idea before. I like but I think I'll use normal 1d8 as well. Thanks for the help anon!

>>48715181
Typically with OSR, combat isn't the focus, its a necessity in order to acquire treasure, which is the real way to level up. In OSR, 1gp worth of treasure found = 1 xp.

My suggestion would be to outfit a dungeon with more interesting rooms with traps, puzzles, and treasure than guessing how many kobolds you should have in the hallways. Try looking at OSR modules and getting a good idea how how to make your dungeon. B2 Keep on the Borderlands might be good read, or the Tower of the Stargazer LotFP module.

what other games have fast and deadly combast as OSR?

>>48716365

Traveller, Classic or Mongoose. I can't think of much else, the industry trend has been strongly away from "Round 1: loludead!"

>>48673345
There are a LOT of different OSR games kicking around (just started looking at the trove).

I've heard talk of S&W several times, and I've heard that the different OSR games are not all based off of the same edition of D&D.

Out of the old D&D editions, I've only played 2e, and even then, most of my 2e experience comes from videogames.

So, can someone explain, in OSR-Nub terms:

>What are the criteria for a game to be "OSR"?
>How cross-compatible are things in different OSR games expected to be?
>Do they all just need to be compatible with the same adventures/monsters?
>Do the player options need to be mix&matchable?

>Example Hypothetical 1:
Someone makes a game that has d20 style rules and core mechanics, and d20 style classes/feats/skills. Everything is calibrated to work with old D&D adventures/monsters. Is this an OSR Game?

>Example Hypothetical 2:
Someone makes a game that has GURPS style rules and core mechanics (Including Point-Buy character creation and Powers-designing). Everything is calibrated to work with old D&D adventures/monsters. Is this an OSR Game?

>Example Hypothetical 3:
Someone makes a game with AD&D2e style rules and core mechanics, but everything is calibrated to work with Pathfinder adventures/monsters. Is this an OSR game?

>>48716733
>What are the criteria for a game to be "OSR"?
Personal opinions.

>d20 style classes/feats/skills
"not muh OSR"

>GURPS style rules
"not muh OSR"

>AD&D2e style rules and core mechanics, but everything is calibrated to work with Pathfinder adventures/monsters
"Based Dungeon Crawl Classics"

>>48716070
whats a good way then when designing a dungeon challenge to know a good level range. or to figure out levelmappeopriate challenges? also combat withnsome dungeon foes can be dun, or even knowing what factions and npcs to stock a dungeon floor with! I'll absolutely read through b2 again though.

any tips on keeping a cohesive dungeon theme or building NPCS?

>>48716912
Check out the Five Room Dungeon model. Its not specifically five rooms, but sets up arcs and helps with design.

Part of the fun of osr for a lot of people is the random tables for building encounters, settings, items, etc. Do some of that, make a few things, place them basically at random and see what connections and ideas you end up with. Ask yourself why the goblins live on top of a waterfall, if the shrieker fungus grows from the floor or the ceiling, how can a necromancer live next to a giant, what is their relationship? Stuff like that. It'll mostly come together, and the players will fill in the rest with ideas you haven't thought of but can build on.

Checking out the onepage dungeon contest is a good place to look for ideas and examples of tightly designed stuff too.

>>48716852
>Personal Opinions
They must be fairly commonly agreed upon though, for everyone to communicate what is and is not OSR, no?

>DCC
>Look through the book:
>3e style stats, and the monsters look like 3.0 statblocks.
>No Skills.
>BD&D Style Race as Class.
>No Cross-Compatibility with AD&D stuff, looks like no cross-compatibility with older D&D stuff either.
>Still OSR?
>Likely limited or no compatibility with other OSR games.

So, is it about the simplified player rules vaguely resembling old D&D editions?

I'm trying to grok what it is that makes all these products "OSR Games".

>>48717074
"Old school" refers to games from the 70s-90s and games meant to emulate them, in general.

OSR refers specifically to games which are intended to be compatible with some or all of the materials from D&D up to and including AD&D 2e.

These threads are primarily for the discussion of OSR in particular, but because the OSR crowd tends to be the ones most likely to know/care about old school gaming in general, the latter gets some time here too and that's generally considered fine.

What are some OSR-inspired games that use more original ideas or settings? i.e. Not just rehashes of classic D&D classes and tropes. Stuff like Mutant Future or Mazes & Minotaurs, maybe. I don't know of anything else.

(Preferably something that's free to print and play... although I could probably just pirate PDFs too)

>>48717132
Starships and Spacemen 2e is basically Star Trek: The Original Series with the serial numbers filed off, made to be compatible with Labyrinth Lord.

>>48717054
thanks a ton for this!

File: how to host a dungeon - a solo game of dungeon creation.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

>>48717196
There's also this sweet game/story building exercise you can play that also gives you a dungeon to run players through later.

>>48717112
>OSR Games are intended to be compatible with some or all of the materials from D&D up to and including AD&D 2e.
DCC doesn't seem to be compatible with any of those things though. Is it not an OSR game?

>>48717337
I have no idea if it's compatible because I haven't investigated it heavily. Assuming you're right that it isn't, I would say it isn't OSR, then, but it may still be an old school game.

I'll be looking into it more when the Lankhmar box set comes out and I get it, because people I trust have said DCC is good, and I hope that heaven is Nehwon.

>>48717337

It's mostly compatible, and it aims at the same themes. So it's kind of a edge case, but I think it still fits.

>>48717375

It's similar, but uses static DCs for stuff all over the place, 3e style, so if you're using an old module you either have to skip those parts of the system or make up DCs for stuff. I've read DCC modules with an eye to running them in another system, and that seems to be the main sticking point.

>>48717408
>DCC uses static DCs, 3e style
>Static DCs are unusual
I'm a nub; how are they normally handled instead?

>>48717132
The Driftwood Verses fits this bill, but it's not coming out until February

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>>48717337
Its easy enough to just convert dcc to pretty much whatever variation on B/X you're using.

Random chunk of a dcc module I just took. The monsters are easy, might have to change AC from ascending to descending. Don't even worry about converting saves, just roll as if the thing afflicting them was based on fort, reflex or will. Attacks, movement, hd are all fine.

For the trap you can have everyone roll a d6 if they're not moving carefully, on a 5+ they're safe. 4+ if you're a pussy and don't want to run a proper funnel.

dcc's got some odd tables for magic, but they're easy to make a ruling on and run with, ignore or steal from as you see fit.

A big part of osr is taking the parts you want, ignoring the parts you don't. If its got enough parts you can easily take, its more OSR. Probably a spectrum/scale rather than binary.

do you guys balance encounters? waht i see in basic fantasy sometimes monsters appear in 3d6 in a lair, for a 4 lvl 1 parti an average of 9 goblins can easily kill them

>>48718134
That's a situation where the party should hide or run or try to talk their way out of it.

>>48718175
this is something i dont understand, can all monster talk?

>>48718370

Lots of them can. Goblin is one of the languages players can know in B/X.

One classic tactic in Keep on the Borderlands is to get all the monsters to stop fighting, and organize them to march on the Keep, which is where the big money is.

>>48717132
Wolfpacks & Winter Snow is paleolithic, but has magic and a bunch of other fantasy themes.

>>48718370
the monsters that make sense being able to talk can. For the rest, using tricks like throwing them food to keep them distracted while you sneak off is also smart.

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>>48717132
Weird Adventures, Strange Stars, and Yoon-Suin are all pretty unique OSR settings

I'm just curious what the OSR approach to outdoor exploration is? I think I have the wrong idea, but I think OSR and I think mega-dungeons and dungeon crawling. Is the approach to outdoor exploration for OSR enthusiasts the standard hexcrawl?

>>48704423
Topographic terrain is the way to go, if you haven't already, you should check out Harnworld maps.

>>48719599
You guys do anything with geomorphs?

I've always wanted some good geomorphs, especially for wilderness terrain.

>>48719599
Does the trove have any? I can't tell if I'm looking in the wrong place.

>>48717460
Normally, people don't use DC.based checks at all, just roll-under-ability, a Thief's percentile skill check (or equivalent), one of the preestablished rolls (e.g. 1-in-6 chance of finding secret doors) or reasoning out the outcome with common sense and player description of their actions.

>>48715181
>Also, if I need to make a custom NPC- whats the best way to do so? say I want to make an evil summoner from the complete adventurer for b/x?
The best way is to decide what powers he has and how many hit dice/hit points he should have. If you're coming from 4E, you'll already be familiar with the idea that the systems for creating PCs don't represent nature, just the options available to PCs. Give him whatever abilities you want, try to think about what they'd be like in play to make sure you don't miss some obvious mistake, then see what happens.

>>48719891
To be honest, I really like the World Building techniques in Dungeon World.

>>48707594
>- Max HP at lv. 1
>[...]
I like your rules. I take it you're not the DM that has fun in murdering PCs. Do you tone the instant deaths/general dangers down in the modules?
Do you play early modern and EXP for treasure?
Hirelings BTB?

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>>48709777
>I also just remembered to ask, does anyone know a good free PDF editor so I can cut out all the blank pages in the free version?
I did the work already. (master pdf editor in linux)
I also removed the black backgrounds for printer friendliness.

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>>48691216
BTW, I found the .mobi version of the brilliant book I mentioned earlier, Playing at the World by Jon Petersen. It is about the history of D&D, with scientific level research deepness. I think it would be well worthed to include it in the GM Resources session of the Trove.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/s5mkheyceide9ni/PatW+-+Jon+P.mobi

>>48720001
Does DW use Geomorphs for worldbuilding? I haven't played it.

>>48715967
A squared damage die sounds like fun for like a spell?

So what's a good little story to tell about the statue of the medusa embracing a king in Tower of the Stargazer? I'm still prepping a bit for the first run of it, so I have not idea. I could just handwave it but it'd be fun to have a two-sentence summary of the imaginary folktale.

Hey guys, quick question - I took a glance at the taxidermicowlbear list of retroclones, and... holy fuck, just how the shit do you pick any one particular retroclone from this heap of possible ones? I know there are about 5 of the most well known ones - Dark Dungeons, Swords & Wizardry, Castles and Crusades, Labirynth Lord, but what about all the other stuff on that list? Do you go and read them one by one, or do you just pick one by gut feeling and stick with it?

>>48720755
generally I do some research on them, then I might read some of it(which is easy cause even ignoring the Trove most OSR rulesets are free in some form or another), after which I decide if I'd use it enough to buy it, currently I have like 11 different OSR systems in a physical format(becomes 14 if we count non OSR D&D clones as well)

>>48720755
>holy fuck, just how the shit do you pick any one particular retroclone from this heap of possible ones?
Frankly I wouldn't bother. Decide whether you want conciseness or options more, and based on that, choose either B/X or BECMI.

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Ok so I wanna run a Cowboy Bebop-style game using Stars Without Number. I would love to use Traveller (Classic or Mongoose), but I suck at crunchy games, and SWN really appeals to me for its ease of use.

But. I really really love the Traveller CharGen. It suits Bebop well : you play an Ex-Something, or even a retired dude, and most people have a background in the military or shady stuff going on, while SWN chargen is much more generic and much less Space Western like Traveller feels, to me at least.

Do you think it would be possible to steal the CharGen from Traveller and use it to build SWN characters?

>>48720755
It was very hard for me, but I came to realise I have only two real loves in the OSR : OD&D, and LotFP. LotFP isn't as much a B/X clone as it is a LBBs clone. Yes, there are bonuses looking like B/X, but when you really think about it, the way mechanics are used is much closer to OD&D. Spells work closer to LBBs and the Blue Book too.

Anyway, at some point you'll fall in love with your perfect match, until then, just experiment and discover new stuff.

>>48720988
Neither classic nor mongoose traveller are crunchy at all. What are you talking about?

>>48721029
The Starship construction, for exemple, is something I really can't wrap my head around.
Too much logistics, really. Same thing for space rules in general, I just don't get it.

It might be important to point out that english is not my first language, so even though I have a pretty good level compared to people in my country, it's still pretty hard to assimilate a lot of stuff written in another language, especially if I'll need to translate it on the fly for my non-english speaking players.

>>48720755
I ignore all of them and just play D&D instead.

Hey, is the Cepheus Engine a good alternative to Classic Trav?

>>48720657
The king tried to steal treasure from a wizard to prove himself for his queen. The wizard took revenge on the king by transforming the queen into a medusa.

Are there any retroclones that are designed to play like a streamlined version of AD&D?

I like AD&D with its modular rules and heavy options, but there are some really weird rules in there that could do with some more revision. Especially the flat, d6-based rolls for things like surprise, stealth and finding hidden doors; those are weird. I don't mind the d100 skill checks or the d10 initiative; in fact I think it has a number of clear advantages over 3e's universally standardized d20, but I wish there was more of an attempt to make things more fluid.

>>48721741
>Especially the flat, d6-based rolls for things like surprise, stealth and finding hidden doors; those are weird
Why are those weird? Is it weird to say that you have a 33% chance of opening a stuck door which you check by seeing whether you roll 1-2 on a d6?

>>48722096
It's weird for it to ALWAYS be that chance, no matter which door. It's also kind of weird to have a separate system for trying to force doors open when there's already strength checks.

>>48722114
Isn't it a leftover from od&d where you didn't have strength checks?

Talking about AD&D, anyone have a good rundown / summary about how to play combat by the book 1E? I get confused by the DMG.

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>>48722114
And you're saying that you want a STREAMLINED version that makes things more granular and, well, less streamlines?

Incidentally, the strength check is a later thing - almost 2E, IIRC. The door-opening check is a variation on similar stuff like surprise chance, listen checks, secret door checks, trap activation checks, random encounter checks -- all of them X-in-6 in OD&D, mostly 1-in-6 or 2-in-6 until Greyhawk comes around and gives Strength varying door-opening checks.

Really, though, if you want to play a streamlined version of AD&D you should probably just go for some variant of Basic? It cuts out a lot of the chaff.

>>48722356
Check the ADDICT for an explanation of initiative, at least, and use it to crossreference while reading through the DMG.

>>48722114
It's up to the referee to grant circumstantial modifiers, the 1-2 on a d6 is just the default.