 May 21, 2017 - 11:56am | Well I apparently can never have too many things to work on... so because of 5E I now have two projects... one is just me putting OD&D stuff together for my use to let my play group play either system. Projects: 1) integrating CM & OD&D better for some epic battle fun and to make some CM things translate to OD&D better. 2) Creating a few Kingdoms with the more Old School Western feel versus the Oriental feel we are doing with 5E thus 2 different settings for the different rules. 3) Back converting things I like to OD&D that are newer ideas while keeping it simple. 4) Different pantheon for this setting. 5) Add in Psionics for humans only per the old supplement and gender rules from Dragon #3 becuase well it was the wacky 70s and I am okay with it. "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
May 21, 2017 - 12:12pm | Half Elves: Gary created D&D to be Human dominated with the other races rare, on their way out, older dying stagnating civilizations, remote civilizations is the feel he wanted, so adventuring Dwarves, Hobbits and Elves are rare adventurers and where heavily capped on potential for that reason. A very different D&D then today. When D&D was created not all of Tolkens stuff was avialbe and we all know even though Gygax was not a Tolken fan it had an influence on the game including the addition of Half-Elves latter, I think everyone assumed Elves and Humans could mate no problem and make Half-Elves. But alas this assumption has been since the 1970s found to be untrue... no, no, no. In fact Tolken had it that the only way Elves and Humans could make a baby was with serrious divine intervention. This works actually much better with Gary's ideas than what we see today which is Half-Elves every where. I like the idea that Divinities must be involved to produce a Half-Elf, so my first setting change for this unnamed setting will be just that. In addition the Half-Elf should they choose to marry and make bouncing babies will have to go before the Gods for that too... in short they need help to reproduce with either Humans or Elves. This makes them rare, with an interesting back story, but with specific ties to Gods and cultures. "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
May 21, 2017 - 12:40pm | Alignement/Division Thoughts: Okay this is one of those things unique to D&D, it has morphed into a complicated system in my opinion. Some folks hate it others like it, most of us have had head scratch moments about it over the years. Articles have been written again and again. So back to basics on this. D&D inherited Alignment or Divisions from the Fantasy Combat Rules in CM which where intended to help players figure out how the Fantasy Armies and Creatures would behave on the field of battle. So the Basics where Law and Chaos with some critters in both categories. So civilization versus the wilds is one way to think of this, but much more if you look through the CM rules it is obvious Law is assumed Good and Chaos is assumed Evil. So eventual Neutral evolved. So OD&D started as only those 3 things, and I am going with that for simplicity sake. No long philosophies or everyone trying to figure out how to play all the shades of Neutral for example. Just keep it simple. In addition G.G. added in Alignment as a Language, he latter said he thought he made a mistake here, but he seems to have basically viewed Alignment (based on his statements) from a religious point of view versus the sociological psychological thing it has developed into, thus he thought of Alignment language like big languages connected to religion, Hebrew and Latin being examples. Thus a PC might speak the religious language and their everyday language. He latter mused maybe only priests would know the Alignment Language well enough to converse in it fully. So I have decided Alignment Language is not automatic, you got to choose to learn it properly to speak it, read it, understand it... I will however give PCs a chance based on their IQ to sort of understand it spoken if it is their Alignment, as all Law, Chaos, and Neutral church goers would have heard it growing up... would recognize key phrases from services. I can recite certain things in Latin and Arabic and know what they mean, I can even recognize some Arabic, Latin and Hebrew words, written phrases from life experience but I can not speak, speak or read, read these languages. This makes the most sense to me. Plus it creates 3 ancient world languages. "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
May 21, 2017 - 12:54pm | Languages: One big difference between OD&D and Modern D&D is the Language Creep, heck you can be dumb and still speak like 7+ languages in the new system. I am not cool with that idea... what is the point of having languages just declair the whole setting speaks 1 language and move on WOTC. I noticed OD&D is most restrictive... you get your native language then learn additionals if you can... not 5 languages plus your IQ bonus simple becuase of your race. So I am going to be conservative here and that is what it is. Yes it might be a problem if you are a less than smart Elf, Dwarf or Hobbit and can't speak Common but oh well. I know the language creep happened pretty fast but I am rolling it back, hopefully PCs will find some magic to help them over come language issues. "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
May 21, 2017 - 1:02pm | Titles & Levels: D&D used to have titles for each level, and yes you were suppose to use them. So I am keeping that... though the names for the females might get a tweak from the Dragon article. The Titles are linked to Fighting Capability which is linked to CM rules for leveled players or personalities on the Battlefield. So this needs to be maintained. "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
May 21, 2017 - 1:35pm | The Fighting-Man This class became the less gender specific Fighter. However Dragon #3 gives some rather interesting rules for women. As a chick I suspect the guys play testing and coming up with the rules where playing Heroic Dude characters and it just never crossed their minds Chicks would like to play War Games of any sort. Keep in mind D&D started as a form of War Gaming which is almost always a bunch of dudes into history chuckling at the idea a girl might play (I know been there got the T-shirt). So females were probably all NPCs in the beginning. At some point the what about girl PCs became a new problem... but I will address the Dragon article fix latter. Right now the Fighting-Man! The Fighting-Man also occurs in CM rules but in a form that you can unravel if you pay attention to those Level Titles and Fighting Capability information. So I decided to allow all CM perks for leveled Fighting-Man to roll over into OD&D... The Veteran AKA 1st Level Fighting-Man is exactly the same as the Leader in CM. CM Perks: 1st Level Fighting-Man will receive anyone set of normal armor of the player's choice appropriate for the setting/culture, this includes shield and helmet. That's right they earned the armor before they went adventuring from someone for service as a guard, in an army, in the gladiator ring what ever, but they are trained and better fighters than a recruit, or a peasant, that is why they are called Veterans. Also allows Players to have a nice back story of how they got trained if they want. 2) Immune to fear/panic at 4th level. 3) Add +1 to morale rolls of hirelings/troops leading at 4th level. 4) Not subject to randomized missile or melee hit, unless only target left at 4th level... important if PC is part of a mass battle... in other words those hirelings no one ever hire become more important now or in big battles. 5) Causes "Normal" types to check morale when he charges at 8th level. 6) He can hit "impervious dragons" with normal weapons at 4th level. 7) He is +2 to hit "impervious dragons" at 8th level. 8) He has multiple attacks per round after first level that go up with his level. In short the CM Leveled Fighting-Man was pretty decent and kicked some butt. I have no problem maintaining this as it helps deal with the Fighter/Wizard power issue that has developed in D&D. "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
May 21, 2017 - 4:18pm | Okay The Female Player Character... In just looking at the suggested changes and it is not integrated well. But I am going to try to fix this: The first change will be to change the class name to better fit with OD&D from the latter Fighter to Fighting-Women, this means though I need a Title for Level 1 so I decided to go with Amazon. Now to compare what the author is suggesting to the OD&D Fighting-Man Special are spells unique to beautiful women for seduction reasons pretty much. The author says he has the fighting capability right for CM but if you use D&Ds system you need to subtract a level for the women or the fight just as well as a man... also note how many fewer experience points are required to level up but if you do as he says the women then need more? Also all women get a beauty score which based on a different system than the latter Comeliness. There are some special fatigue rules for women too. So just looking over this one class the female archetype they are trying express... here's what I think. 1 all women are magical some way 2 women use their magic to manipulate men 3 women are suppose to be weaker in general I am not against these points but I just don't think he expressed it well. Generally women in various games I have played especially earlier games are weaker, and easier to kill aka takes very few hits to kill all other things being equal. So the easiest fix in my opinion is to adjust the hit dice, and make some fighting capability changes while still allowing for faster leveling up... 1 Amazon=0, 1, man, none Veteran/Leader=0, 1+1, man+1, none 2 Swordswoman=1600, 1+1, man +1, none Warrior= 2000, 2, 2 man+1, none 3 Gladiator= 3200, 2, 2 men, none Swordsman=4000, 3, men or Hero-1. none 4 Battle Maiden = 6400, 3, 3 men, special Hero=8000, 4, Hero, none 5 Shield Maiden=12800, 4, Hero, special Swashbuckler=16000, 5+1, Hero+1 or 5 men, none 6 Myrmidon=25000, 5+1, Hero +1, special Myrmidon=32000, 6, Hero+1 or 6 men, none 7 Heroine=50000, 6, Hero+1, special Champion=64000, 7+1, Superhero-1, none 8 Valkyrie=100000, 7+1, 7 men, special Superhero=120000, 8+2, Superhero, none 9 War Lady=200000, 8+2, Superhero, special Lord=240000, 9+3, Superhero+1, none 10 War Lady, 10th level=300000, 9+2, Superhero Lord,10th, 360000 10+3, Superhero+1 Next some Title changes need to be addressed. 1 Amazon=0, 1, man, none Veteran/Leader=0, 1+1, man+1, none 2 Warrioress=1600, 1+1, man +1, none Warrior= 2000, 2, 2 man+1, none 3 Swordswoman= 3200, 2, 2 men, none Swordsman=4000, 3, men or Hero-1. none 4 Battle Maiden = 6400, 3, 3 men, special Hero=8000, 4, Hero, none 5 Heroine=12800, 4, Hero, special Swashbuckler=16000, 5+1, Hero+1 or 5 men, none 6 Myrmidon=25000, 5+1, Hero +1, special Myrmidon=32000, 6, Hero+1 or 6 men, none 7 Shield Maiden=50000, 6, Hero+1, special Champion=64000, 7+1, Superhero-1, none 8 Valkyrie=100000, 7+1, 7 men, special Superhero=120000, 8+2, Superhero, none 9 War Lady=200000, 8+2, Superhero, special Lord=240000, 9+3, Superhero+1, none 10 War Lady, 10th level=300000, 9+2, Superhero Lord,10th, 360000, 10+3, Superhero+1 He has Women rolling Strength 1d8 sided die and 1d6 sided die versus the 3d6 (Any woman scoring 13 or 14 in strength may add 1 to her constitution score)
Instead of Charisma BEAUTY is rated on 2 20 sided dice numbered 1- 10 (so the range is 2-20, not 2-40. Fighting Women Fighting Women (warriors) may incorporate the spells of Seduction, Charm Men or Charm Humanoid Monster depending on their level and beauty scores (see spells of seduction, et al). Women’s strength scores range from 2-14. Thus some weaponry and types of armor are too difficult for them to wield/bear without undue fatigue. Women are allowed 1000 points of encumbrance plus 50 times Strength rating at no movement loss. Anything over that weight reduces figure to half speed. Maximum load is 1.8 times encumbrance score. Women of ST 10 or lower wield Flail Battle Axes, Morning Stars at -1; Pole Arms, Halberd, Pike and Two Handed Sword at -2. Women of ST 12 or lower wield only the latter group at -1. Plate armor has a 20% greater fatigue rating in women of ST 10 or lower 10% in ST 11 or 12. Chainmail has a 10% greater fatigue factor in women of ST 11 or lower. ALL WOMEN wield a dagger at an additional +1. As you can see I am trying to tweak these ideas to work better... Other options: 1 keep exp the same between the sexes, so genders progress the same 2 use the lowered fighting capability I made to reflect females in mass battle correctly as assumed by War Gaming dudes of the 70s 3 make no changes to how stats are rolled, I think this is wisest but there could be a gender cap on STR for females say the suggested 14, but if the roll was high the difference could be added to another stat 4 allow the special beauty stat or simple convert to CHR the idea 5 dock the hit dice like I did or not as I don't really know if it really takes less to kill a women but the docked hit dice line up with the fighting capabilities... Anyway this is obviously a bit complicated... but I would like to adapt some of these crazy ideas for a female run kingdom I have in mind.
"Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
May 21, 2017 - 6:55pm | Magic Users AKA Wizards and Witches After rereading the OD&D rules a few times & CM it dawned on me there seems to be a different take on a few things. So some notes: Spell Books ever MU starts with a Spell Book appropriate for their level. I have decided these basic Spell Books contain all the spells listed for first level in the OD&D rule book, plus tons of other use magical info, like charts, names of powerful beings, that sort of thing... and of course the MU's notes. Spells are added as the MU learns new things and it is up to the MU to seek out new spells, research new spells past the starter list. This however means that these basic known spells are available to be studied which makes the line between Cleric and MU not to much... in more modern gaming your stuck with the first few spells you get and then seem to magically get new ones as you go up in level. I think I will do something more sensible and logical to me. Here's my thought so the MU Spell Book comes with the very early Basic 1st level spells, 1st Level 1. Detect Magic 5. Protection from Evil (Chaos) 6. Light 7. Charm Person 8. Sleep but I am going to use Greyhawk Supplement I idea: Intelligence % Chance to Know Minimum # Maximum # of Magic-User an\ Given Spell per Level* per Level* 3-4 20% 2 3 5-7 30% 2 4 8-9 40% 3 5 10-12 50% 4 6 13-14 65% 5 8 15-16 75% 6 10 17 85% 7 All 18 95% 8 All •minimum and maximum numbers of spells known/knowable in each spell level The intelligence of the magic-user also serves to delineate the use of spells above the 5th level: — Only magic-users above 11 intelligence are able to employ 6th level spells. CM Notes on Wizards: 1) In normal combat they fight as 2 Armored Foot or 2 Medium Horse if mounted. Regardless of level. 2) Wizards can handle magical weaponry. 3) Wizards can becomes Invisible & remain so until they attack. 4) They can see in darkness. 5) They effect friendly & enemy morale as do Super Heroes. 6) They throw deadly missiles in the form of Fire Balls or Lightening. 7) They cast terrible spells 8) Impervious to normal missile fire, but if they are struck by a missile from another Wizard they must score a 7 or better with 2d6 to survive. Adjust all dice scores by the lesser value for weaker MU). In looking over the classes in OD&D and the use of the same titles in CM it looks like the lowest level MU likely to be found on the battle field is a second level Seer. Spell Range 1"=10 yards!
Wizard Unlimited Range Sorcerer 60" = 600 yards = 1800 feet = 180" D&D Warlock 48" = 480 yards= 1440 feet = 144" D&D Magician 36" = 360 yards= 1080 feet = 108" D&D Seer 24" = 240 yards = 720 feet = 72" D&D Wizard Missiles can be thrown up to 24" CM or 72" D&D Obviously CM Wizards are powerful and don't match up as nicely though some of the spells do and don't... So this needs work... but I do like some of the ideas I will have to fiddle with the power variance to try and figure out the D&D levels they gloss to best.
"Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
May 25, 2017 - 4:54am | Wizards of CM continued okay they don't gloss well, until you realize the spells are high level versions of D&D... so I am thinking a sort of speciality class Battle Mages is what these guys are. "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
May 27, 2017 - 9:09am | Wizards in the oldest Fantasy Rules by L. Patt (Rules For Middle Earth) cast Fireball once every other turn, versus CMs and latter Swords and Spells every turn. "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
June 16, 2017 - 6:49pm | Original D&D Spell List for Magic-Users & Clerics.
Magic-User Spells:
1st Level: Charm Person Detect Magic Hold Portal Light Protection from Evil Read Languages Read Magic Sleep
2nd Level: Continual Light Detect Evil Detect Invisible ESP Invisibility Knock Levitate Locate Object Phantasmal Forces Wizard Lock
3rd Level: Clairaudience Clairvoyance Dispel Magic Fire Ball Fly Haste Spell Hold Person Infravision Invisibility, 10’ Radius Lightning Bolt Protection from Evil, 10’Radius Protection from Normal Missiles Slow Spell Water Breathing
4th Level: Charm Monster Confusion Dimension Door Growth of Plants Hallucinatory Terrain Massmorph Polymorph Others Polymorph Self Remove Curse Wall of Fire Wall of Ice Wizard Eye
5th Level: Animate Dead Cloudkill Conjure Elemental Contact Higher Plane Feebleminded Growth of Animals Hold Monster Magic Jar Pass-Wall Telekinesis Teleport Transmute Rock to Mud Wall of Iron Wall of Stone
6th Level: Anti-Magic Control Weather Death Spell Disintegrate Geas Invisible Stalker Lower Water Move Earth Part Water Projected Image Reincarnation Stone to Flesh
Cleric Spells:
1st Level: Cure Light Wounds* Detect Evil* Detect Magic Light Protection from Evil* Purify Food & Water*
2nd Level: Bless* Find Traps Hold Person Speak with Animals
3rd Level: Continual Light* Cure Disease* Locate Object Remove Curse
4th Level: Create Water Cure Serious Wounds* Neutralize Poison Protection from Evil, 10’ Radius* Speak with Plants Turn Sticks to Snakes
5th Level: Commune Create Food Dispel Evil* Insect Plague Quest Raise Dead*
* = reversible spell
Note in 5E some spells have changed level, possibly bee renamed, or disapeared, or moved to another class.
"Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
June 17, 2017 - 7:34am | Intelligence & Language (from OD&D) Ability Scores and languages that can be spoken. Being Literate is another issue as well... I need to find the old rules on that. Score Additional Langauges 3-10 0 11 1 12 2 13 3 14 4 15 5 16 6 17 7 18 8 "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
June 17, 2017 - 9:10am | Intelligence & Language (from OD&D) Ability Scores and languages that can be spoken. Being Literate is another issue as well... I need to find the old rules on that. Score Additional Langauges 3-10 0 11 1 12 2 13 3 14 4 15 5 16 6 17 7 18 8 Languages: Languages break down in the game as follows: Archiac languages which maybe completely unknown or by very few. Common languages which include the following: Each human ethnic group has their own tongue but may use different writting systems per nation if they posses writting. Royal languages used by upper class circles of society usually refered to as High X. Such circles of society will often know the Low Language but will refuse to speak it, acknowledge it or even punish peasants for using it directly toward them requiring a translator. Some kingdoms make the Royal Language the official language outlawing all other languages. Racial specific languages often presented in the rules as bonus languages PCs get automatically. I am modifing this ruling. Alignment languages which for simplicity sake I am only allowing the big three Chaotic, Lawful and Nuetrality... these are ancient tongues that have ancient writting systems and are preserved mainly by religious Clergy as the oldest of old written and spoken dead languages, used by Clergy, but rarely understood well by followers of various religions unless they have recieved a formal education in them. So what should PCs really know? All PCs should be able to Speak their Native Language. The Native language is definded as their Kingdom's Language, so a gnome of Low Intelligence might not speak Gnome if he has been raised in a human kingdom that forbids other languages or the gnome may only be able to speak his racial ghetto gnome language and not the kingdom's tongue if the human kingdom allows multiple languages. If however they are from a gnome kingdom they will speak Gnome. PCs should start the game with logical language choices, they need not fill up all their languages right away and can wait to learn new ones. If they know more than one language there should be a reason they know that language. I have decided Racial Bonus Languages in addition to their ethnic-racial language should be treated as easier languages for you to learn or know something about even if the PC does not actually speak or read the language they can recognize it as such and such language and if not spoken may have a chance to know a few words. Intelligence % Chance OD&D compared to 5E AM 1 5% AM -5 2 10% AM -4 (2-3 INT) 3-4 20% AM -3 (4-5 INT) 5-7 30% AM -2 (6-7 INT) 8-9 40% AM -1 10-12 50% AM +0 (10-11 INT) 13-14 65% AM +1 (12-13 INT) 15-16 75% AM +2 (14-15 INT) 17 85% AM +3 (16-17 INT) 18 95% AM +4 (18-19 INT) AM +5 (20-21 INT) AM +6 (22-23 INT) AM +7 (24-25 INT) AM +8 (26-27 INT) AM +9 (28-29 INT) AM +10 (30 INT)
If a PC can not speak the language but it is listed as a Bonus language (Race, Class or Alignment) they gain a +1 to recognize which language it is, plus their AM for their INT against DC15, to understand some key words but not understand every word or have a very general idea such as being insulted, this is a prayer, words like death, kill, eat, help, toilet, hello, stop, yes, no for example the DC is 20, to attempt to communicate something DC is 25. "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
June 17, 2017 - 10:38am | Intelligence & Language (from OD&D)
Ability Scores and languages that can be spoken. Being Literate is another issue as well...
Score Additional Languages 3-10 0 11 1 12 2 13 3 14 4 15 5 16 6 17 7 18 8
"Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
June 18, 2017 - 9:09am | Continuing my attempts to understand changes in game dynamics I just compared EXP to Level Increases. One streamlining feature is in 5E all classes progress using the same EXP/Level chart... so no more using EXP to slow or speed level increases as a way of maintaining balance of power between PC classes. However one thing I did note is the EXP required to go up levels is significantly less no matter which OD&D class it is compared to. I am going to have to review how EXP is now handled, I am currently rewarding based on the module suggestions... but clearly something has changed to be so low. "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
