There have been a lot of threads about BECMI lately, and I have to admit, I'm intrigued. After two or so years of 4e, and a few years of 3e before that, I'm sort of interested in "going back to the basics".
Was
mine one of those inspirational threads? I was a little surprised by the largely positive response I got from that one.
My question is, what sort of rules changes should I make to really give the game its best sheen? I plan on giving each player a set XP total (modified by prime requisite), such as aroun 2,500 XP each (so thieves would be level 3, elves level 1, and everyone else level 2).
If you're running it as a one-shot or an occasional game, then this is probably a good idea. The session I ran started as a one-shot and I thought of starting the PCs off at a slightly higher level, but I decided to stick with 1st level and make a couple of changes to the character generation process to improve survivability a bit:
- Max hit points at first level (which may be in reality more common than rolling at first level)
- Generate ability scores using 4d6, drop the lowest, and roll up two sets of scores. Pick the set you like best and arrange as desired.
I read elsewhere that Hackmaster has a 20 hp "kicker" for new characters, which is simply a bonus 20 hp on top of your 1st level hp that can't be restored once they are gone. I heard about this just a couple of days ago, but I might have borrowed it had I known.
My wife wanted our 9 month-old daughter to have a character in the 4e game, so I had created a little faerie that can't really communicate but could cast the cleric Cure Light Wounds utility power once per day. I brought that character over to the Basic game and said that she functioned as a Staff of Healing (Cure Light Wounds once per character per day, no charges).
What sort of rules should I think of changing? I like the idea of base attack bonuses as opposed to hit matrices/THAC0. And I'd sort of like to up the thieving skills a tad to make thieves a bit more viable (or maybe add some discretionary points, a la 2e?) And I know we'll be using my old BECMI favourite - death at -10, with those in the negatives losing 1d3 HP a round (and cures do NOT restore you to 1 instantly).
As others have mentioned, Basic Fantasy RPG uses the base attack bonuses with ascending AC. I thought of doing that for my game, but in the end I stuck with the original rules. I might change my mind if/when we get to higher levels. If you do change it, keep in mind that AC in classic D&D starts at 9 and not 10, so chain mail is actually +4 AC, for example.
The BECMI thief ability table is one thing that I don't like about the system, as it does really make thieves a weak class. The previous Expert Set (Cook) had thief abilities topping out around 14th level, with vague allusions to additional, more advanced thief abilities to come in the Companion Set. Unless you're going to actually play through to 15th level and above, there's no need to worry about thief skills at that level and you can just go with the earlier table. Labyrinth Lord has its own take on the thief ability table which is based on that of the Cook/Marsh Expert Set but is not identical (some skills are better at 1st level, for example).
I used the Labyrinth Lord thief table in my game. I also gave a bonus to most thief abilities for high dexterity (all but Climb Walls and Hear Noise): +5% per +1 bonus. This might have been a bit too good for 1st level, as the thief had an 18 dex (my wife rolled up his character as he hadn't arrived yet, and she rolled the exact same array of scores as for her character: 18 15 13 13 12 12).
We used the "death's door" (death at -10) rule as well, though I let healing bring the character back to 1 so that the player isn't just sitting there waiting to play. I considered just using the 4e rule of making three "saves" but the terminology "save" would be confusing and I didn't want to actually base that on the Death saving throw which would be too easy to fail at low level and too easy to make at high level.
1e/2e's basic secondary skills system could be fun to play with.
I thought of using secondary skills, but in the end I just said to make up a reasonable (and short) background story. I'm thinking of borrowing the Castles & Crusades SIEGE system for handling skill/ability checks, as it looks like a smooth and simple but consistent resolution mechanism.
My brother wants to use 3e's Saving Throw mechanic as opposed to the BECMI standard.
I would suggest sticking with the saving throw mechanics as written and applying the 3e saving throws over top. By that, I mean don't try to convert the 5 categories into Fort/Reflex/Will, but use the original categories for the effects that they are named for and use these guidelines when a judgement is necessary:
- Death or Poison is a Fortitude save against effects which cause damage or attempt to kill you outright.
- Paralysis or Turn to Stone is a Fortitude save against status effects, especially ones which effect mobility.
- Wands is a Reflex save against single-target effects.
- Dragon Breath is a Reflex save against an area-of-effect attack.
- Spells is a Will save (it is modified by Wisdom and is the only save category in the basic rules to have such a modifier), but does also reflect a general resistance to magical effects even when they don't primarily affect the mind.
These guidelines aren't perfect, but will probably map the majority of saving throws fairly accurately. One set of exceptions that comes to mind is that I am pretty certain that Fireball (and similar spells) specify a save vs Spells for half damage but have a Reflex save in 3e. There actually aren't that many spells in the Basic Set that specify a saving throw anyway. If you do collapse the saving throws to Fort/Reflex/Will, take care that Dwarves and Halflings don't lose their advantage, as their saves are very good even at 1st level and are a primary advantage to playing those classes.
Some extra purchaseable commodoties might be a fun idea (read as: stuff to do with your money that's not related to your castle).
A good idea. Labyrinth Lord has an expanded equipment table, and the tables in the AD&D 1e Player's Handbook work pretty well too (or you can swipe that from OSRIC if you don't have the AD&D book). The 3e PH probably also works reasonably well here.
Any other ideas? Suggestions?
When PCs level up, I allow the player to roll two of their class' hit die and take the better result. If two ones are rolled, roll both dice again. Rolling a 1 for your hit points sucks, and many classes don't get anything else when leveling up.
First level Magic-Users get Read Magic, one spell of the player's choice, and one spell of the player's choice per +1 intelligence bonus in their spellbooks. First level Elves just get Read Magic and one spell of the player's choice.
Clerics get their Wisdom bonus as bonus spell levels, and Magic-Users and Elves get their Intelligence bonus as bonus spell levels. They can't apply the bonus spell levels unless they can already cast that level of spell, with the exception of first level Clerics (so they will usually get at least one spell at first level and I don't have to change the acquisition table). So an 18 would give 3 bonus spells levels, which could be three 1st-level spells, one 3rd-level spell, or one 2nd and one 1st. I want low-level spellcasters to have a bit more to do, and some bonus spells might encourage players to memorize spells that aren't Sleep, Charm Person, and Cure Light Wounds.
A natural 20 is a critical hit and you double your damage dice. No critical fumbles. Alternatively, a natural 20 does maximum damage and you don't roll (like 4e). I like natural 20s to be exciting.
Convert encumbrance figures to use pounds instead of coin weight. Ugh, I never liked cn/gpw encumbrance in the original games. The Labyrinth Lord equipment tables already do this, and I think the Basic Fantasy ones do as well.
I've considered making some 1st-level Magic User spells into cantrips (Read Magic, Detect Magic, Ventriloquism) to encourage their use in-game, but that would add a bit of complexity and I'd need to replace them with some spells ported over from AD&D or another source.
If a character attacks with a weapon not allowed by their class, I assign a -2 penalty to the roll for the human classes (because the restriction is based on lack of training) or -4 for dwarves and halflings (because the restriction is due to the size of the weapon). If a player wants his or her character to permanently learn the use of such a weapon, I'd come up with something on a case-by-case basis (hasn't happened yet). For example, if a Magic-User wanted to be "proficient" with a sword, I might require the permanent loss of a 2nd-level spell slot or something like that, reflecting the time that martial training has taken away from studying magic.
