D&D General Project Bree-YARC: An Unholy Mashup of BX and 3e

[thirdkingdom]

After saying for years that I'm not going to publish a retro-clone, I've found myself starting to work on one. I'm going with a working title of Bree-YARC (Yet Another Retro-Clone) for the time being. The plan is to bring this to crowdfunding winter of 2026, and I've got the following goals in mind. I'll be trying to update this thread as work gets done on the project.

So far I'm incorporating the following:

• BX level limits, race-as-class (although I'm calling them ancestry as class), saving throw categories, hit point and attack/save progressions.
• XP requirements are going to be standardized. For humans (that I'll use as the primary examples), magic-user will be the default baseline for progression, with all other classes based off that. I'm keeping the BX restrictions on magic-users that help bring the power level down, specifically not being able to move and cast spells and losing spells if suffering damage while casting.
• AC will be ascending, and I'm using the base attack bonuses, but with the BX-progression. Saving throws have been reversed to a bonus, hitting a target number of 20.
• The above two changes will make it easier to change classes.
• I'm trying to reduce the impact of ability scores -- and eliminate them for monsters -- since I feel that is a hallmark of BX-style games, how you can have an effective character without stupendous ability scores. The hope is to also make it easier to run monsters and NPCs without having to keep track of so much information.
• I'm looking to incorporate downtime activities into leveling requirements, while keeping the XP for gold as the primary driver for advancement, as well as exploration bonuses.
• Retainers will continue to be important, as will morale and reaction rolls.
• Feats and skills.

I'm not as familiar with 3.x as I am with BX, so I'm curious to know if there are any hallmarks of 3.x-style games I should be including.

 

[Willie the Duck]

I'm not as familiar with 3.x as I am with BX, so I'm curious to know if there are any hallmarks of 3.x-style games I should be including.

It's hard to decide what is most iconic to 3e. For many, it is the feats. For others, the formulaic calculations of cost-of-magic-item-by-plus, wealth-by-level, challenge-ratings, etc. For many, I think it is the character build-choice decisions. Many of them are going to directly conflict with a BX design aesthetic. Others (like the 3e skill system) could be lifted straight out and ported into a BX game with little to no issues (other than changes to numbers and assumptions about magic items and the like).

Specific rules aside (minus the XP system), BX and 3e are simply on opposing sides of the Dragonlance revolution. There are different stated (or unstated) goals about the central play loop and what you are likely to have as player goals. That said, other than gp=xp (and honestly expected WBL, which stealthily puts 3e over closer to the 'treasure-hunting expected' camp than 2e or 5e), there aren't a lot of mechanical enforcers of this.

 

[thirdkingdom]

It's hard to decide what is most iconic to 3e. For many, it is the feats. For others, the formulaic calculations of cost-of-magic-item-by-plus, wealth-by-level, challenge-ratings, etc. For many, I think it is the character build-choice decisions. Many of them are going to directly conflict with a BX design aesthetic. Others (like the 3e skill system) could be lifted straight out and ported into a BX game with little to no issues (other than changes to numbers and assumptions about magic items and the like).

Specific rules aside (minus the XP system), BX and 3e are simply on opposing sides of the Dragonlance revolution. There are different stated (or unstated) goals about the central play loop and what you are likely to have as player goals. That said, other than gp=xp (and honestly expected WBL, which stealthily puts 3e over closer to the 'treasure-hunting expected' camp than 2e or 5e), there aren't a lot of mechanical enforcers of this.

This is, of course, why it is an unholy mashup. For advancement, I'm using four central pillars, in descending order of importance:

1. Treasure = XP. Encourages getting in, getting out, with as little combat as possible.
2. Exploration. My preferred mode of play is the sandbox hexcrawl, and I'd like to reward players for exploration, uncovering what I'm calling "secrets".
3. Downtime. I'm experimenting with making downtime mandatory at each level. AD&D did this with training times, but I'm making it more specific with a variety of downtime activities, both because I'd like to encourage players to make use of downtime to craft items, research, recruit retainers, etc. but also to deliberately try and slow down the pace of play (in-world)
4. Combat. Keeping in reaction and morale rolls should help keep combat as the "fail state" of BX, as will the minimal XP awards for monsters.