der_kluge said:
But even that's not entirely true, is it? I mean, it's one that to put that as a stat block for an Orc, but quite a different thing for a troll - which regenerates (how much? How often) or a skeleton (takes half damage from slashing weapons) - so some monsters have *other* things that can complicate the stat block.
Well, if a monster does something special I might note it, like Ghouls: AC 6, HD 2, Move 9", damage + paralyze.
Everything does a base of 1d6 damage in the game. Some monsters get a bonus (like an ogre gets 1d6+2), but instead of that I actually base damage dice on a comparison of attacker's hit dice to defender's hit dice, like in Empire of the Petal Throne. Basically, if a 4 HD creature attacks a 1 HD creature, it rolls 2 dice; it progresses in steps of two based on that (though it counts 1+1 as a step, but not other plusses as steps; I don't find this hard to remember). You can run it either of those two ways, or assign a flat number of damage dice based on Hit Dice (an idea I also like; you can make it roughly equal the Fighting Man progression on the To Hit chart... so 1 die at lvls 1-3, 2 dice at lvls 4-6, etc.). Any of those three are easy, transparent methods.
Which highlights more of the strengths of the system. Virtually nothing changes based on which style of damage rolls you pick, except the narrow thing you were hoping would change.
Also, monster creation is easy. Abomination of Yondo: AC 5, HD 9, Move 9", poisoned. Done!
I think the game, in its simplicity, allows for a ton of options. I think that feats limit options because if you don't have the feat, you can't do what it defines. So every feat that gets added, the less characters are allowed to actually do (without the feat). In OD&D there are no such things, so it's all a Ref call and a roll.
Bascially, it's a question of whether you like rules-light. If you do, and you like hacking together your own unique snowflake of a game, you're golden and OD&D is what you want. If you want rules-light but "plays straight out of the box", you're looking for Classic instead. And if you want feats, skills and all the rest of it, well clearly there are those choices out there too.