New demo character stats available + some rule crunch

[nerfherder]

For those that haven't seen the OD&D rules, here are the character stats from Gencon when I played in Diaglo's demo game.

Roger the Cleric
2nd level
HP 4
Move 6

S 8
I 9
W 14
C 4
D 15
Ch 9

Healing prayer that can heal everyone in party by 1HP.

Equipment
Plate + shield
Mace
Holy symbol
Holy water
Caltrops
Mule
Rations
2 X 50' rope
10' pole
Backpack
Sling with 9 bullets
Incence
Censor

As you can see, the character sheet format is very easy to read, with all the information right in front of you. I wrote mine in my journal, but I believe other people used index cards or sheets of plain paper.

Character generation took approximately 15 minutes, with most of that time being spent finding the most comfortable spot on the sofa.

Some players will be disappointed with the emphasis on using figures in combat. We used lead figures (don't lick your fingers, children!) on a hex sheet during wilderness trecking, and then on a square sheet when combat was joined. Some people will also be disappointed by the lack of open content - OD&D is a completely closed system. When I asked Diaglo about this, he told me to osric off!

I managed to squeeze lots of crunch out of the Referee. I'll write it out in full below:

• To hit - roll 1D20 and tell the referee what you rolled. The referee will tell you if you hit. If you have, roll 1D6 for damage. The referee will tell you what effect that has on your opponent.
  
• Being attacked - the Referee rolls some dice and tells you what happens to your character.
  
• Fatigue - after a period of time in combat, your character will get fatigued. You can decide to rest, or continue fighting, with penalties.
  
• There were also options for setting spears against enemy charge, etc. You told the referee what you wanted to do, and he told you what the effect was. Sometimes a die was rolled.

I forget how initiative was determined (I believe a die was rolled), but I do remember that everyone wrote down their character's actions for the round, and read them out when their turn came. Fortunately, I managed to smuggle out the index card I wrote my character's actions on, so you may be able to glean some more rule crunch from this:

1. Hide mule behind a bush and secure it.

2. Stand behind a tree (hey, have you seen his HP!) and shout encouragement to my fellows.

3. Load a bullet into sling, and fire at nearest enemy. Duck behind cover.

4. Load another bullet, fire sling at nearest enemy and duck back behind cover. Shout "Go team!" (I couldn't remember what role a cleric was meant to be, so I picked cheerleader)

5. Load sling. Step out bravely and sling nearest guy. Shout out "In the name of the lord!".

6. Rest, while shouting encouragement to the team. (see, I told you there were fatigue rules)

7. Sling nearest enemy.

8. Throw rock (that's what happens when you only write down 9 sling bullets on your character sheet).

I hope this information is useful, and helps you to decide if you want to upgrade to OD&D.

 

[Engilbrand]

I'm going to point out that this is why I'm glad that I never experienced the older editions of the game. Balder's Gate was my first experience with the rules, and I'm happy I didn't need to think too much there.

 

[theredrobedwizard]

Oh, my goodness. They're trying to turn D&D into Pong with this new class! Hiding behind things and shooting little pellets at it. D&D is dead to me now.

-TRRW

 

[Wormwood]

Way to dumb down the game to appeal to kids.

And hiding from your enemies because one hit can kill you? Um, hello---Pac Man? Talk about video gamey.

And hey, where's the skills list? I need those for verisimilitude. Or is it my sense of wonder? I forget which.


That's it. I'm changing my bookmarks.

 

[DeusExMachina]

Wow, they completely removed the skill system??? Best idea ever, now we'll never have to discuss the DC's anymore, but we can just have the DM handwave whether we make it or not...

 

[Daniel D. Fox]

Thac0! Thac0! Thac0!

 

[Imban]

Thac0! Thac0! Thac0!

Sadly, OD&D (and the 1e corebooks themselves) predate THAC0, instead using a really bad system of table lookups and referencing to determine your chance to hit. Unlike THAC0, however, this was a mechanic that was bad, not just non-intuitive, so it went the way of the dodo much faster.

THAC0, which if I recall was introduced around the time of Unearthed Arcana, was a great step up from its predecessor in quality, so it wasn't immediately shot down for being non-intuitive. Which is somewhat of a shame, because once it became an accepted part of the system, veteran D&D players had no real reason to excise THAC0 from the game - being as they required essentially the same steps as attack rolls in 3e, the only thing you were really gaining was making it more intuitive and accessible to new players, while the cost of needing to rewrite every monster and NPC stat block was somewhat large.

Which is unlikely to be a factor in house rules, which are usually implemented to customize the game for a specific group of players who typically have some experience already, and this clearly wasn't a rule change that would service most experienced players.

 

[Irda Ranger]

I realize this is a joke post, but a Fatigue rule might actually be a useful mechanic for people who don't like the "Daily" limitations. Maybe the three kinds of powers are:
1. At-Will
2. Encounter
3. Encounter-Fatigue

You can use your (former) Daily powers more often but there are consequences to doing so.

 

[nerfherder]

I realize this is a joke post

OK, so me posting it in this forum to match this years AF theme is a joke, and I wrote it in (what I hope was) a mildly humourous tone, but it literally is my recollections of playing OD&D with Diaglo at Gencon 2007, and the character stats and combat actions are taken verbatim from my journal. We had a blast

but a Fatigue rule might actually be a useful mechanic for people who don't like the "Daily" limitations. Maybe the three kinds of powers are:
1. At-Will
2. Encounter
3. Encounter-Fatigue

You can use your (former) Daily powers more often but there are consequences to doing so.

SWSE also has an interesting mechanic that gives the option of stopping to recuperate, or pressing on at a penalty - recovering on the condition track. I've observed that once PCs have taken a few hits on the condition track, they start to consider whether they can duck behind cover and recover, or whether they'd be better off shooting that round.

 

[Bargle]

Roger the Cleric

Is that a name, or a philosophy of life?