Darrin Drader
Explorer
Ditto that. But there's nothing stopping me from doing it soon.... at least after I run my ancients campaign.
Oh, looking forward to seeing OSRIC 2.0
I'm going to run a 1e game
- Thread starter Obryn
- Start date
Ditto that. But there's nothing stopping me from doing it soon.... at least after I run my ancients campaign.
Oh, looking forward to seeing OSRIC 2.0
grodog
Hero
Until Dragon published the Combat Computer in issue #74 (June 1983, also in Dragon Archive), I mostly ignored weapons vs. armor type, and weapon speeds (though to a lesser extent: they were always good tie breakers). The Combat Computer made using them so easy that there was no reason not to, per my thinking at the time.
fuindordm
Adventurer
If your players are on board, you should have a blast. I started my own 1e campaign about a year ago.
I'm definitely not a by-the-book DM, though. I put together a little system whereby players coud buy two "perks" on character creation (roughly comparable in power to feats). The main point was to balance single-class characters against multi-class characters better--but I also really wanted a human-dominated world and party, not the usual demi-human band. It cost one of your perks to be a demi-human (so you pay for all those special abilities at first level), but I don't enforce level limits on them.
If you're interested in deviating from the norm, I can send that to you.
Anyway, here are some lessons I've (re-)learned in the past year:
Assume the characters are competent adventurers, and have a wide if not deep skill set. In other words, try to say 'yes' when they want to try something not defined by the rules. If it sounds difficult, call for an appropriate ability score check.
I wanted to use weapons vs. armor first, but it came up so seldom that I've let it slide. AD&D initiative works pretty well if you don't worry too much about exactly how long a round is. It's really mostly for the first blow of a combat. The speed factor rule has come up a few times--it won't keep your fighters away from the mighty two-handed sword, but it will make them regret the choice occasionally.
The experience point system assumes that up to 3/4 of XP comes from mundane and magic treasure. Then all that money (at least at low levels) has to be spent on training to actually level up. There are better ways of keeping the PCs poor, and you get exactly the same effect without crashing the local economy by giving them a story XP award for goals accomplished. I still calculate monster XP so they get a nice (and noticable) bonus when they defeat opponents that by rights should have killed them.
Embrace the randomness, in a limited way. One of the things my players enjoy most is encountering wierd magic they don't understand (relics of an ancient empire and all that) and figuring out how to use it. Often the experimenter will end up with a permanent change...for better or for worse.
Cheers,
Ben
I'm definitely not a by-the-book DM, though. I put together a little system whereby players coud buy two "perks" on character creation (roughly comparable in power to feats). The main point was to balance single-class characters against multi-class characters better--but I also really wanted a human-dominated world and party, not the usual demi-human band. It cost one of your perks to be a demi-human (so you pay for all those special abilities at first level), but I don't enforce level limits on them.
If you're interested in deviating from the norm, I can send that to you.
Anyway, here are some lessons I've (re-)learned in the past year:
Assume the characters are competent adventurers, and have a wide if not deep skill set. In other words, try to say 'yes' when they want to try something not defined by the rules. If it sounds difficult, call for an appropriate ability score check.
I wanted to use weapons vs. armor first, but it came up so seldom that I've let it slide. AD&D initiative works pretty well if you don't worry too much about exactly how long a round is. It's really mostly for the first blow of a combat. The speed factor rule has come up a few times--it won't keep your fighters away from the mighty two-handed sword, but it will make them regret the choice occasionally.
The experience point system assumes that up to 3/4 of XP comes from mundane and magic treasure. Then all that money (at least at low levels) has to be spent on training to actually level up. There are better ways of keeping the PCs poor, and you get exactly the same effect without crashing the local economy by giving them a story XP award for goals accomplished. I still calculate monster XP so they get a nice (and noticable) bonus when they defeat opponents that by rights should have killed them.
Embrace the randomness, in a limited way. One of the things my players enjoy most is encountering wierd magic they don't understand (relics of an ancient empire and all that) and figuring out how to use it. Often the experimenter will end up with a permanent change...for better or for worse.
Cheers,
Ben
Obryn
Hero
Alright, here are my basic thoughts on rules/houserules/etc....
(1) 4d6, drop low, arrange to taste.
(2) You're proficient in all weapons for your class. Fighters choose one weapon to Specialize in at 1st level; Paladins and Rangers do so at 3rd. Fighters can double-specialize at 6th. (3e really showed me that weapon proficiency limits add basically nothing to the game except added complexity & bookkeeping.)
(3) I'm using the Max Attribute by Race table, but Sex makes no difference. Use the Male column in all cases. (I'm not handicapping my female players who prefer female characters.) Per OSRIC, 18/00 = 19, should it ever matter. Keep in mind different racial limits to Exceptional Strength.
(4) Level limits are in force, but ignore the footnotes about high ability scores.
(5) Although I'm mostly using OSRIC rules for races and classes, the Monk and Bard are as-is from the 1e PHB.
(6) What the hey. I'll allow psionics, for added wackiness.
(7) Characters' first HP die can be no lower than half the maximum.
(8) All those weapons... Before closing to melee, weapon length breaks ties, and missile weapons beat long weapons. After closing to melee, speed factor breaks ties, and missile weapons always lose. (But remember that your Dex helps your Initiative if you have a missile weapon.) I'll give Weapon vs. AC a shot, when applicable, but reserve the right to drop it.
(9) No Unearthed Arcana. My book fell apart within a few hours after I got it, anyway.
(10) Secondary skills. No non-weapon proficiencies.
Thoughts? Criticisms? Additional things I could consider?
-O
(1) 4d6, drop low, arrange to taste.
(2) You're proficient in all weapons for your class. Fighters choose one weapon to Specialize in at 1st level; Paladins and Rangers do so at 3rd. Fighters can double-specialize at 6th. (3e really showed me that weapon proficiency limits add basically nothing to the game except added complexity & bookkeeping.)
(3) I'm using the Max Attribute by Race table, but Sex makes no difference. Use the Male column in all cases. (I'm not handicapping my female players who prefer female characters.) Per OSRIC, 18/00 = 19, should it ever matter. Keep in mind different racial limits to Exceptional Strength.
(4) Level limits are in force, but ignore the footnotes about high ability scores.
(5) Although I'm mostly using OSRIC rules for races and classes, the Monk and Bard are as-is from the 1e PHB.
(6) What the hey. I'll allow psionics, for added wackiness.
(7) Characters' first HP die can be no lower than half the maximum.
(8) All those weapons... Before closing to melee, weapon length breaks ties, and missile weapons beat long weapons. After closing to melee, speed factor breaks ties, and missile weapons always lose. (But remember that your Dex helps your Initiative if you have a missile weapon.) I'll give Weapon vs. AC a shot, when applicable, but reserve the right to drop it.
(9) No Unearthed Arcana. My book fell apart within a few hours after I got it, anyway.
(10) Secondary skills. No non-weapon proficiencies.
Thoughts? Criticisms? Additional things I could consider?
-O
PapersAndPaychecks
First Post
Using OSRIC specialisation or UA specialisation? There are slight differences.
MrFilthyIke
First Post
You have any links for these...my google-fu is still at Karate Kid: First 15 minutes of movie stage.
Obryn
Hero
ThanksMrFilthyIke said:
OSRIC. I don't even have my UA book anymore. It disintegrated.
I figure I'd rather have my players using an easy-to-follow, well-organized PDF for all their rules than plowing through ancient copies of 1e books. My general rule of thumb is that OSRIC trumps PHB in rare cases where the two disagree. But - I reserve the right to overrule anything.
Speaking of - Kudos for all those PDF bookmarks and the clickable table of contents.
(I'll note, however, that both my 1e PHB and DMG - both with the old covers and the little yellow bar in the upper left corner - are still in wonderful shape. The corners are beat up, and I marked all over them with pencils back in my youth, but the binding is still strong.)
-O
grodog
Hero
You may want to ponder some implications of not using weapon proficiency while still using weapons specialization: WS becomes very "free" and there's no downside to specializing in your favorite weapons if you don't use weapon proficiency. That is, in UA WS a fighter loses access to additional weapons by choosing to specialize. So, if you drop that penalty/balancing factor, that removes any downside to specialization.
UA vs. PHB level limits?
That's nice: I generally give max HP at 1st level, but still making them roll adds that additional level of fun randomness in which the MU may have more HP than the fighter
That sounds reasonable.
Definitely look up the Dragon 74 Combat Computer then; if you don't have a copy, email me.
Interesting. Why no UA except for weapon specialization? What about spells/magic items?
grodog
Hero
Sure, here are some searches:
Canonfire! @
"elemental evil" site:canonfire.com - Google Search
and
T1-4 site:canonfire.com - Google Search
K&K: Looks like K&K's forum isn't google indexed, so if you go to KNIGHTS & KNAVES ALEHOUSE :: Search and enter "T1-4" and "elemental evil" (with "all" selected as the radio button), you find some good stuff.
DF looks similar, so use their site search @ Dragonsfoot • Search for the same queries as above, which results in
Dragonsfoot • Search
and the T1-4 query doesn't work well, so hopefully the first will prove sufficient.
