New(?) Character Classes/Races for OD&D

[sjmiller]

I was given a bit of a challenge the other day, so I figured I would use my full resources and ask you folks. A friend of mine is running an OD&D game world that has been going on for over 20 years. We were talking about it and he said it was fun back in the old days to find new character races/classes for the game and add them in as a surprise for the players. We would find them in magazines of the day and sometimes just make up our own.

I said that it should not be too hard to find some these days, or make up new ones. So the challenge was made for me to find new or different classes and races for OD&D. Failing that I will have to make some. I would rather find them, to be honest, as I don't have the time lately to make my own.

So, where would one go to find such beasts these days? Anyone?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Herzog]

did you check the Creature Crucible modules?

those contained various (playable!) races...

herzog

 

[diaglo]

I was given a bit of a challenge the other day, so I figured I would use my full resources and ask you folks. A friend of mine is running an OD&D game world that has been going on for over 20 years. We were talking about it and he said it was fun back in the old days to find new character races/classes for the game and add them in as a surprise for the players. We would find them in magazines of the day and sometimes just make up our own.

I said that it should not be too hard to find some these days, or make up new ones. So the challenge was made for me to find new or different classes and races for OD&D. Failing that I will have to make some. I would rather find them, to be honest, as I don't have the time lately to make my own.

So, where would one go to find such beasts these days? Anyone?

Thanks for the help!

for the OD&D(1974) campaign i referee i use every source i can find.

the internet, the newspaper, the local library (nonfiction and fiction sections), the home shopping network or other cable channels

 

[diaglo]

using the food network.

and a story on the internet from russia (about an alien recovered and eaten by fishermen).

and maybe some current events in the newspaper like the UFO info from France.

you could generate an alien shark like race of food/scavengers/explorers. make the new class a food based one. they search for new sources of food for their race. give them enhanced sensory organs/ tastebuds.

they swim.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

You could try here and here.

 

[D.M. Punks]

Is this "OD&D" as in "Rules Cyclopedia/Basic/Expert/Companion/Master/Immortals"? If so, there's a doc floating around the 'net with instructions on how to make your own classes... probably here: http://www.pandius.com/

 

[diaglo]

well i can only guess what Steve is calling OD&D.

but for me OD&D is the game before any of the other editions arrived.

 

[sjmiller]

well i can only guess what Steve is calling OD&D.

but for me OD&D is the game before any of the other editions arrived.

It's close to your definition Diaglo. It's mostly the original three booklets with a bit of Rules Cyclopedia thrown in. We managed to find a couple of copes of the RC in near mint condition not too long ago, so we got them and have been adding things here and there to the campaign.

Right now I have created a gnome race/class and a ninja class (because someone said I couldn't make one). I am thinking of doing a Swashbuckler class, and hmm, maybe a centaur or lizardman.

 

[diaglo]

centaur race is easy enough. a nomadic rover type. herders. they herd plains people and care for them as domesticated animals.

if you want to go mature themed. think what scots men do to sheep.

but in this case um... the roles are reversed.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

Right now I have created a gnome race/class and a ninja class (because someone said I couldn't make one). I am thinking of doing a Swashbuckler class, and hmm, maybe a centaur or lizardman.

At the Vaults of Pandius (a page of which I linked to above and which D.M. Punks provided a direct link to) there is the Savage Coast material for AD&D (provided free by TSR/WotC) that is in an html format- it includes several different lizardman races as playable races.

The centaur popped up in PC1: Creature Crucible for BECMI/Cyclopedia format, and the gnome in PC2: Top Ballista. The formula used for creating those PC races/classes was originally used by Bruce Heard in Gaz10: The Orcs of Thar, and is usually the one used in that first link I posted when people on the Mystara Mailing List/Board decide to create OD&D style races.

[EDIT- looking over the page, there's a gnome class there already, somewhat different from the PC1 version.

There are a couple of different new classes on the Vaults as well, though nothing immediately seems to fit what you are looking for.