Favorite D&D Retroclone?

[Viking Bastard]

Swords & Wizardry supports both ways.

 

[FalconerGH]

[No message]

 

[scruffygrognard]

"AD&D 3" by Christopher Perkins is pretty cool. I prefer it to Castles & Crusades.

Thanks Libramarian! Have you been running a game with my rules? If so, how have they been working out for you and your group?

 

[Yora]

I think I'll look that one up to see what I might adapt to my C&C game.

 

[scruffygrognard]

Hey Yora,

Some quick-fixes that I found worked were for C&C were:
1] Get rid of primes, set the challenge base to 15 (or 13, if you're feeling more generous), and give humans a +1 to all attribute checks.
2] Make combat dominance apply to all foes with 1/2 the levels or hit dice of the fighter.
3] Get rid of the fatiguing after-effect of the berserker rage ability.
4] Ditch healing for illusionists but give them access to more spells.

Here's a link for my houserules:
PHB: http://www.scruffygrognard.com/documents/phb.pdf
DMG: http://www.scruffygrognard.com/documents/dmg.pdf

If nothing else, you could mine A LOT of spells from AD&D and 3rd edition that have been ported into the game.

Happy gaming!

 

[Libramarian]

Thanks Libramarian! Have you been running a game with my rules? If so, how have they been working out for you and your group?

Not recently, but about five years ago I ran the slave lords series with AD&D3 and it worked really well. That was basically my introduction to OSR gaming. (I used Castles & Crusades for a short period before that but chose AD&D3). This was before you added the DMG so when I began to want a complete game I moved to BECMI D&D and then finally taught myself 1e, which is now my edition of choice. I owe my appreciation for Gygaxian prose to AD&D3 I think if anybody is looking for a "d20-ified" version of old D&D this is the game they want.

 

[scruffygrognard]

Thanks! That's high praise indeed.

 

[Meatboy]

I'll toss in my hat for Searchers of the Unknown. Its a rules ultra light game that captures the feel of OSR gaming with out all the baggage. I ran some dungeons with it and it worked great.

http://www.retroroleplaying.com/content/searchers-unknown-rpg-collection

Also will take a second to plug my own game Realms of Adventure. Super light been playing Keep on the Borderlands with it. Works great and feels right.

http://www.mediafire.com/view/632c3s4eqw44g0b/RoA (1).pdf

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Tough call on a favorite. I really like Labyrinth Lord and Dark Dungeons for their direct capture of old-school compatibility. Swords & Wizardry is pretty solid as well. Castles & Crusades I haven't picked up, but the products look great and the game is well supported. Fantastic Heroes & Witchery is new and very nicely presented, though there are a few elements that don't mesh with what I prefer in my "traditional" fantasy game.

I supported Adventures in the East Mark just for the artwork, and am looking forward to the release.

But I have to admit while everything is close and tastes good, nothing tastes exactly right ... so I went and wrote my own. MAGES & MONSTERS is kind of BECMI-meets-d20 and thus far is hitting the sweet spot for me. You can get the draft rules for free here at EN World ... see the thread on the game.

 

[oracular]