marius.vision

OSR House Rules

Created: 2025-03-22 01:36:45 | Last Modified: 2025-04-17 09:36:27

Below are the house rules I use for playing oldschool Dungeons and Dragons, meaning any version compatible with the basic/expert set. Usually this means oldschool essentials. I post this here for others, and also as a reference for myself and my players.

New: Check out the list of spells. Gathered from various sources, all published under the OGL.

Character Creation

Players may pick their class. And that's it.

After that, three (usually level 1) characters of that class are generated automatically, and presented to the player. The player may then choose one of them to play.

In the beginning, only Fighter, Cleric, Thief, and Magic-User are available as PC. To unlock other classes, certain ingame events must procure. This may include finding an elven retreat in order to play as elf characters, or finding a druid grove to unlock druids etc. Once a given condition is met, players can create new characters of unlocked classes in the usual way and play them in subsequent sessions. Unlocking conditions are varied and depend on the setting. See later in this document for some ideas for DM.

Note that the automatic generation method is omitted here.

Alternative character creation methods

The standard choose 1 of 3 character generation is recommended because it is the fastest method, that still, for the most part, ensures everyone gets to play with a non-gimped character. If you wish to play a game where lethality, and character removal as a failure state is an option, we think that it is also essential to make character creation really quick and hassle-free, so players can get back into the game as soon as possible.

If your game is less-lethal, if you want people to be more invested in their characters, or for whatever other reason, you may choose one of the alternative methods below, if you wish. Note however, that if you sit down with a new group to play, we highly recommend that all players at least use the same method of character generation. If another player later joins your table, it is sometimes ok to give them another method of character generation, since they are the odd one out anyway, and you won't have to wait for multiple people to go through the process.

Rolling stats

Some players really like rolling their own stats. If the DM agrees, players may create a character in the following way, as an alternative to the standard, choose 1 of 3 method.

• Roll 3d6 for all 6 stats, down the line, no swapping.
• If your total modifiers are negative, you may reroll.
• Unless you reroll, you may now pick a class.
• The rest of the character, including spells and equipment, will be randomly generated by the DM, according to the same rules as per the standard method.

This method is great because it lets you ask "Who is this character?", and choose a class based on their stats. This method is not great for players who already have a particular class in mind when they sit down to play.

Party Generation

Instead of generating characters for individual players, generate an entire party, i.e. a roster of characters to choose from. This is great to build party cohesion. Due to the increased randomness, the DM may elect to remove class restrictions for this method.

• Automatically generate a number of completely random (including class, and stats, but not level) characters equal to 1.5 times the number of players you have. This is your roster.
• The players may then all see the entire roster and must choose one of them to be their PC.
• The remaining, unchosen characters are still part of the party. They may be used like hirelings in-game, become "bench" characters, or simply travel with the party, but stay out of fights, managing the groups behind-the-scenes work (like a band-manager), and sometimes running errants, like finding a good inn, keeping the mounts well fed, selling off random junk the others find in dungeons, and so on.
• After everybody is done choosing, one player will have gotten the worst character from the roster, excluding the bench characters. It will be completely obvious to your group who this is. This player may receive one random magic item to start the game with. The item must be usable by their class.

It's a good idea for the DM to generate the party and then print out multiple copies of the roster, so that everyone can study it at the same time.

The group must find their own way to decide who gets to play who. Consider stone-paper-scissor to break ties. After all, if your group can't find a way to decide this simple thing, how are you ever going to survive as a party facing orcs and trolls?

If discussion and picking takes too long, the DM should set a time limit, and simply generate a new roster for people to choose from if players go over time. Don't pose this as a threat, it's just a helpful rule to give them a new party, since if they take so long to choose it must obviously have been a bad one.

First Blood

Note: I never actually used this. Reading it again now I think it would feel rather patronizing and condescending.

You may only use this method if you are the first player in your group to lose a character. After that, the method won't be used anymore, or the DM may choose to award an exception when a player loses a character in an exceptionally gruesome or unfair way.

• Roll 4d6, drop the lowest, for all 6 stats, top to bottom.
• You may swap two stats.
• Pick a class.
• The rest of your character, including spells and equipment, will be randomly generated by the DM, according to standard rules.

Unlock Conditions

As stated above, players can unlock other races based on conditions. Here are some examples for unlock conditions.

• Players gain access to 1d6 dwarven characters they may generate after saving a lost trade caravan of dwarves.
• Players get 1 elf character after finishing a quest for an elven lord. The character is the lords nephew, who is sent out to learn of the ways of other people with the group, and may start the game at level 3.
• The group meets a halfling village and is friendly. Players may now make halfling characters from that village. If their reputation ever becomes too bad, halflings will no longer join their group and halfling characters are locked again.
• Players start the game in a town with a delegation of holy knights who are in the area to destroy a dragon cult. Players may create paladin characters if they agree to follow the dragoncult quest. Once the quest is fulfilled, the delegation leaves and players may no longer make new paladins, though whichever were already created may choose to keep traveling with the group.

Shields

Shields shall be splintered! This means that if you wield a shield into combat, and you get hit, you may choose to block the blow with your shield, thereby destroying it, but taking no damage. This includes magical shields (remember that noone is forcing you to destroy your shield).

This rule is so iconic and important, it gets it's own heading. Splintering shields alone usually boosts a campaigns survivability significantly. Especially at early levels.

Optionally, DM may introduce weapons that interact with this rule, like maces and hammers that force you to splinter the shield, or flails that bypass this ability.

Players may choose to splinter before or after damage is rolled.

Sleep and feeling 'Fresh'

Every night we see how characters sleep, to get an idea of how they feel the next day. Characters can have 'good or bad days'.

Sleeping

To see how you sleep, roll 2d6 + your constitution modifier and any situational modifiers, then consult the table below.

Fresh

The "Fresh" condition is a buff giving characters the following benefits:

• +1d6 temporary hit points, for player characters only. These don't stack with other temporary hp. Reroll this every time you receive the freshness buff.
• +1 morale, for NPCs.
• +1 to the first thing you do in the morning. Could be your first attack roll, first skill check, or first reaction roll.

Freshness lasts until afternoon (4 pm), or until some event or condition causes you to lose it (DM decides). Examples are:

• getting bloodied (1/2 hp) in combat
• falling into a mudpit, getting drenched in water, being in a stinking cloud
• being humiliated, frightened, insulted or otherwise emotionally vexxed.

Losing freshness does not remove any temporary hit points you may have already gotten from it. DMs may consider removing the freshness buff in characters as a consequence to a failed skill check, or as a devil's bargain condition.

Situational modifiers

The sleep constitution check is modified by your constitution modifier, as well as the following situational modifiers.

• +1 if you slept in a tent or inside.
• +1 if you had an extra meal before going to bed, which was cooked or prepared. This can't be just rations, and it has to be in addition to what you eat just for nourishment. This is a 'feel-good' meal, not just sustenance. For extra nice meals, alcoholic beverages, or food and drink in inns, the DM may increase this modifier to up to +3.
• +1 if you have a fire, and another +1 if someone tells a story while you sit around it
• -1 if you sleep without a bedroll or mattress, or in your armor.
• -1 if the weather is bad, like rain, snow, or stormy conditions. This doesn't apply if you're inside.
• -1 if you sleep in extra dangerous, spooky, weird, or swampy environments, or in dungeons. The DM may increase the penalty to up to -3 depending on the severity of the environmental impact.
• -1 the first time you share camp/quarters with a stranger.

So a party that has tents, builds a fire, and has equipment, time, supplies and expertise to cook a meal in the evening will usually roll with something like a +4 modifier, depending on constitution score, environment, and wether someone can be bothered to tell a story after a hard day of travel. That puts the sleep roll at an average of 11, meaning people will get the freshness buff about 41.66% of the time, which is the intended outcome. Also note that rolling with anything greater than +0 will not put you at risk for contracting a disease.

Don't be stingy. If players are really good about getting bonuses for their sleep, and they end up getting 'fresh' every morning, great, let them. Apart from immersion and verisimilitude, the freshness buff is intended to give low level characters a boost, especially in survivability through the temporary hit points. Many people play b/x with maximum hit points rolled on first level. We don't, but freshness is supposed to similarly mitigate the meatgrinder problem of low-level play.

Currency

We use the silver standard. This means that XP is given out per silver piece found, not gold.

Using the silver standard ensures a slightly saner economy and keeps the party from becoming insanely rich. E.g. a 2nd level fighter has accumulated 2000 gp in the normal game, which would allow him to buy 40 suits of plate armor. That's a bit silly. With the silver standard, he would require 2000 silver pieces to level up, equivalent to 200 gp, which buys him only 4 suits of plate.

And yes, the prices in the book stay the same, at least for weapons and armor, meaning this is a 10x reduction in buying power for the PC.

Encumbrance

We use slot based encumbrance.

A character can carry a number of slots equal to their strength score. Of those slots, half may be readied gear, worn as clothing, in belts or holsters. If gear is not readied, it is considered packed in a backpack or sack, and must be retrieved, which takes time.

Optional fun/thematic rule: A character can carry a number of slots equal to their strength + 5, minus the number of characters in their name. "Og" can carry more than "Persephone".

Generally you can carry one item per slot. An item taking up one slot is an item that can be held in one hand. An item taking up two slots is one that must be held with both hands. Rarely, bigger items will take 3 slots.

If you carry more than the allowed slots you are considered encumbered. Encumbered characters move at half their normal movement rate. Here's a chart:

Horses and other mounts can be used to carry large amounts of items. They can carry a number of slots measured in coins / 100. Here's a chart:

If a character carries more than 1.5x their strength score in slots, they are overburdened, and can no longer move.

skills

To determine the outcome of some PC activities that aren't otherwise covered by the rules, we use skill checks. Skill checks are modeled after the NPC reaction roll, which uses 2d6 + charisma.

|Monster Reaction Roll 2d6 | Result | ----|----|--- | |2 or less | Hostile, attacks | |3–5 | Unfriendly, may attack | |6–8 | Neutral, uncertain | |9–11 | Indifferent, uninterested | |12 or more | Friendly, helpful |

So, generalizing the table above, we roll 2d6 + attribute + modifier for skill checks, with the following results:

Modifiers might be gained from situations, character backgrounds, magic items, or skill training.

The DM may apply a default modifier of -1 for untrained actions that normally require some skill, but are in principle doable by beginners, like building a wooden box with no training in carpentry. Actions that are impossible to do without training should not procure a roll.

Special Traits and Training

At certain levels, the group votes on special traits for characters, based on their past performance. Traits should bestow mechanical benefits. This is slightly different at the basic tier, see below.

Characters must be nominated for a trait by a player (or the DM) other than the character's player. Then the group (including the character's player) must vote unanimously to bestow the trait. A character can only gain one trait this way for each tier where they are eligible for a trait.

Example: John the human fighter has reached level 5. During his last adventures, he and his group fought a grizzly bear in a cave, when the torch went out. John kept fighting the bear in the dark, at a hefty penalty, ultimately saving the group. One of the player's besides John now nominates John to receive 'Blind Fighting' as a trait. Initially, nobody knows what that would mean, but the group quickly agrees that it should make John ignore all fighting penalties in darkness. The group unanimously agrees and John gets the trait.

In addition to traits, a character may spend time with a trainer or teacher to practice a certain skill or craft, which will remove the -1 penalty from untrained skill rolls, or give them a +1 bonus if they are already trained. This takes time and money.

Time and cost for basic training can be spent cumulatively, so a PC can pick days here and there to train. Mastery training must be done in an intensive session with a competent teacher, where the PC spends a whole month in one go. Mastery trainig cost is based on current level (teacher's assess you and will demand more gold if they deem you a more competent adventurer).

You can pre-train for the levels that unlock training. If a PC has completed the required training for a skill bonus, but has not yet reached a new tier, the skill bonus will be unlocked once the PC has reached the next tier, when they will have a sudden epiphany or insight that their previous training has now made available.

Multiply training cost by 10 for magical skills.

Note: At the level 1 tier, there are no traits or skill training. Instead, the player chooses a background for their character from a list of backgrounds provided by the DM, rolls randomly, or designs a particular background with the DM.

Backgrounds

Every character has some kind of background. A background may provide one special mechanical benefit, but may have unlimited fictional implications. It may also allow the character to make one or several different skill rolls at 0 instead of -1, if the DM thinks the background is applicable to the current task.

Backgrounds are chosen or rolled randomly at character creation.

Example Backgrounds

• Apothecary
• Bricklayer
• Street Urchin
• Noble Heiress
• Oathbreaker
• Farmer
• Sailor

Attack Rolls

We use descending armor class with the target 20 system. This foregoes thac0 and attack matrices completely, but still maintains an oldschool feel.

To attack, roll 1d20, add your modifiers, and add the opponents AC. If the result is equal to or greater than 20, the attack hits. Rolls of 20 always hit, rolls of 1 always miss.

It's called target 20 because you only need to remember to get 20 or higher on the roll, which is very simple. You won't always know the enemy's AC, but that's ok. Simply announce your roll + modifiers to the DM, who will add the monster AC quietly and tell you if you hit. In other cases the AC will be obvious from what your opponent is wearing.

Note that with descending AC, 0 is the best physically attainable for normal beings. When AC becomes negative, it indicates magic is in play,or that someone has superhuman dexterity.

Attack roll Modifiers

Let's break down modifiers. You will add the following to your attack roll, when applicable:

• Strength modifier for melee weapons or unarmed attacks
• Dex modifier for ranged or finesse weapon attacks
• Your level if you are a fighter or a Demihuman (Dwarf, Elf, Halfling).
• 2/3 your level if you are a cleric or a Thief.
• 1/2 your level if you are anyone else (Magic-users).
• Any bonus from magic weapons or spells acting on you.
• Any situational modifiers that the DM announces.

The target 20 system is mathematically equivalent to the thac0 and attack matrices, to within 5%, and smoothes out the level progression, which normally has many dead levels for classes. It was also what Gaigax and Arnesson used in the first draft of DND. Target 20 was scrapped in favor of the long tables, for various reasons, including the dominant wargaming culture, which liked tables. Unfortunately, the resulting tables got too big, and Gary had to save on printing costs, so they removed a bunch of entries from the level charts and attack matrices, which made progression more 'chunky' and introduced dead levels.

Saves

Note: These days I don't use this for players, as their saves are printed on their automatically generated sheet, but I'm leaving it in as I still use this system behind the scenes for monsters.

Saves also follow target 20, in the following way:

To make a save, roll 1d20 and add the corresponding modifier. If the result is 20 or higher, you saved successfully.

The modifiers are:

• Death: 8 + 1/2 your level
• Wands: 7 + 1/2 your level
• Paralysis: 6 + 1/2 your level
• Breath: 5 + 1/2 your level
• Spells: 4 + 1/2 your level

Add your wisdom modifier to the roll if you are saving against something magical. This applies to all saves, not just spells and wands. Dragon breaths are excluded.

Always round down when calculating your level bonus. A first level character gets +8 on death saves.

Monsters save the same way, but use their hit dice instead of level.

Some demihumans have better saves. Dwarves and Halflings add an additional +4 to all saves.

Again, this is mathematically equivalent to within 10% of the save tables, and identical to them in almost all cases. Except magic-users and thieves, who get a 10% buff for breath and paralysis, which is honestly fine.

Critical Hits

Rolling a 20 on an attack roll incurs a critical hit. When you critically hit an enemy, you deal maximum damage.

Only PC can crit. Monsters don't crit on a 20, they may trigger special abilities instead. Trained NPC fighters may be able to crit like PC.

Mechanically improving crits is a great choice for a fighter trait.

Optional rule: When you your roll + modifiers totals 30 or above, you also critically hit. This works only with target 20.

Weapons

• Two-weapon fighting/dual wielding: When you hit with an attack roll, you may roll both weapon's damage dice, and choose the higher one. If the weapons have magical on-hit properties, both of them procure.
• Two-handed fighting: Wielding a melee weapon in both hands means you can add 1.5x instead of 1x your strength modifier to damage.
• Battleaxe: Becomes versatile. You may wield a battleaxe in one or two hands, and switch grip at any time. This is so the battleaxe is appealing even though it only has 1d8 vs the 1d10 2handed sword. A strong fighter may want to wield a battleaxe until they splinter their shield (or choose to drop it), and then benefit from the free hand by adding 1.5x their strength mod.
• Short sword: Gains finesse. You may use your dexterity modifier for attack and damage rolls with finesse weapons.
• Dagger: Gains finesse.
• Shortbow: Requires strength >= 12
• Longbow: Requires strength >= 15
• Crossbow: No strength requirement. Reloading takes an entire combat round and is only done in the slow action phase[1].

[1]: Most medeival crossbows had a mechanism to use leg strength in order to load them. You would place the crossbow on the ground pointing down and step on it like a ladder or footstool, thereby pushing down a lever that pulled the bowstring taut. Human anatomy is such that legs are powerful even in otherwise feeble individuals, making the crossbow a viable option for low strength characters. Other crossbows had crank operated mechanisms for loading, which is even easier, though I don't know how common this was.

Special weapon moves

Charge: Charging is a kind of action that can be done in the melee phase. If announced at the start of the round, it also doubles your movement. In any case, it gives you +2 to attack rolls and -2 to AC. If you have horns, tusks, or are using a lance, damage dealt by a successful charge attack is doubled

Examples: If you are on an open field and you want to charge the enemy, you can announce it at the start of the round to double movement, and charge in with +2 to hit and -2 AC. If, in another case, someone moves away from you while you are engaged in melee with them, you may decide to charge them on your melee turn, allowing you to move even outside of movement phase.

Brace: If you wield a weapon with the brace quality and you are being charged, you may attack the charging creature before it gets to do its attack, even outside of your turn, possibly killing it. You may not do this if you are surprised. If you win initiative, you may preemptively brace your weapon against a charging enemy. In addition to the first strike, you will then also deal double damage.

Classes

We change some of the B/X classes, others get replaced entirely (thief).

Specialist (replacement thief)

The specialist is identical to the thief class, with the following changes:

• YOu no longer have 1d100 skills. They use 1d6 instead, similar to surprise and find secret door roll.
• You can have 1 to 5 pips in each thief skill. Roll equal or below the number of pips with 1d6 for success. At each level up, you get 2 pips to spend to increase skills of your choice.

The specialist starts with the following skills:

• Climb sheer surfaces: 4
• Find or remove treasure traps (TR): 1
• Hear noise (HN): 2
• Hide in shadows (HS): 1
• Move silently (MS): 1
• Open locks (OL): 1
• Pick pockets (PP): 1

If the specialist has a positive dexterity modifier, then, at character creation, they can distribute an amount of pips equal to their dexterity modifier across these skills. If the modifier is negative, nothing is changed.

When using this system, the above skills replace some of the normal game rolls, like listening at doors (now HN), or finding secret doors (now covered by TR). When sneaking up on monsters, the move silently roll can be taken instead of the monster surprise roll, specialist player's choice.

Note that specialist rolls are completely independent of the specialist's dexterity modifier after character creation; you do not add your dex mod to the 1d6 roll.

Addendum

Skip this if you are not into verbose game design rationales.

Why not 2d6 for thief skills? Since we already use 2d6 for general task resolution, why not unify the systems.

Reasons:

1. 1d6 thief skills slot neatly into the existing 1d6 rolls (surprise, listening, secret doors, etc).
2. 1d6 rolls are consistently independent of attribute and are generally unmodified (no + or -),as opposed to 2d6 rolls, which are always modified by attribute. Having unmodified thief skills is a design goal for the thief / specialist, as the class is thematically well suited for low-stat characters.
3. Similar to (2), 1d6 rolls in the game occur often, don't require much setup, and have a more 'world simulation' feel. Rolling only one d6 instead of 2 is a kind of haptic reminder of this simpler characteristic.
4. 2d6 rolls are based on the reaction roll, and thus should feature a range of responses, with partial successes and critical success/failure. 1d6 skills are binary pass/fail.
5. By making class skills 1d6, we keep 2d6 completely uninfluence by class choice. Only background counts for 2d6 skills.
6. 2d6 is rolled by players; 1d6 is most often rolled by the DM.

Based on the above reasons, we can also formulate a design principle for new homebrew classes:

A class should have a x in 6 specialist-like skill system if:

• The class covers an area of expertise, within which exist clearly differentiable, individual skills
• The skills are of a pass / fail nature
• The skills should be unmodified by stats, or, if you prefer, the skills should be tied very strongly to class identity or training.
• The skills are typical for adventurers of that class, require no long setup or description, and are mechanical and repetitive in nature. They are 'world simulation'-ish

Thief

Note: This applies wether you use the specialist above or not. Just replace 'percentile' dice with 1d6 if you do.

Your thief skills are only rolled under pressure, or in order to save time. In other cases, you are assumed to just do it.

For example, if you wish to pick a lock, you may roll your percentile dice. If you succeed, it is picked. If you fail, it takes up the current dungeon turn to pick it. In an encounter, where you are under extreme pressure, failing to pick a lock may actually mean you can't do it. Highly advanced or magical locks may also require your thief skill just to open them. Some locks may be beyond your skill entirely.

Some notes on the individual skills.

• Hide in Shadows: Anyone can try to hide behind stuff etc., only thieves can hide in mere darkness. This is baby invisibility.
• Move Silently: Normal stealth is covered by the 2 in 6 surprise roll. Thieves have this in addition. If the move silently fails, the enemy must still roll for surprise. If they are surprised, you maintain stealth.
• Pick Locks: only thieves can pick locks. Period. The once per level rule only applies to very advanced locks.
• Climb sheer surfaces: Basically spider climb
• Find/Remove Traps: This is in addition to the normal 1d6. You may spend additional turns removing the trap for a 10% per turn bonus, up to a bonus of your level * 10 in percent.

Cleric

Ad-hoc Healing

Clerics may cast any prepared spell as a healing spell of equivalent level (e.g. Cure Light Wounds, Cure Moderate Wounds, etc.). If you cast a prepared healing spell, you may roll the healing die twice and take the greater value.

Turn Undead / Channel Divinity

In addition to the turn undead feature that every cleric gets, clerics may choose to use their turn undead charges to 'channel divinity', invoking the power of their god directly. The exact effects of this depend on your god and their domain, and should be negotiated with the DM before play.

A use of channel divinity can be more or less successful, or fail entirely. In order to resolve a use of channel divinity, make a reaction roll with your god. Use the cleric's charisma modifier, not wisdom. Apply appropriate bonuses/maluses. You can use the following table as a guideline:

|God Reaction Roll 2d6 | Result | |----|----|--- | |2 or less | God angry, cleric smited[2] | |3–5 | God angry | |6–8 | God remains silent | |9–11 | God answers, but requires tribute/concession to grant boon | |12 or more | God is pleased and grants boon |

[2]: Smiting is a general term meaning some kind of punishment. This should fit the God, their temperament, and their domain. Examples may include throwing lightning bolts, summoning 2d4 servants to harrass the cleric, or cursing part of the cleric's inventory. Comedy nethack option: Attach a cursed ball and chain to the cleric.

Angry and pleased Gods

The channel divinity reaction roll can be modified according to the cleric's conduct. Here are some example modifiers:

• +1 for praying regularly (prayer takes a dungeon turn)
• +1 for having sacrificed at an altar recently
• +1 for channeling divinity in some kind of holy place for your order, or having a divine servant in your presence
• -1 for the god being angry
• -1 for having recently broken some precepts or code of conduct for the cleric's order

Fighter

Easy Multi Attack / Cleave

When a fighter attacks a target, subtract the targets total number of hit dice from the fighters level. This is the multi attack threshold.

If there is another target remaining after the attack, who has not been attacked by the fighter yet, and the target's total number of hit dice are equal to or lower than the multi attack threshold, the fighter may attack it, even if this is the first or third or nth attack on the turn.

Repeat this procedure until the multi attack threshold is zero or negative, or there are no more targets that have not been attack.

This is intended to allow high level fighters to plow through mooks. The DM is free to set a limit on the HD that this procedure can be applied to, e.g. you cannot use multi attacks against creatures with 4 HD or more, even if you are level 10. But a level 10 fighter could attack up to 9 HD 1 goblins if they are completely surrounded, and possibly vanquish them all. This is very much the paradigmatic case, and should give the fighter's player that rare satisfaction of rolling a fistful of dice.

Cleaving like this is for melee attacks only, and requires a two-handed weapon.

Special Weapon Moves

Fighters have special knowledge of weapons and possess greater martial prowess than the average adventurer. Every fighter starts the game with two special weapon moves that they can perform when using that weapon.

The moves should be either negotiated with the DM or randomly generated. The fighter should be guaranteed to

• start with 1 move for a weapon that is part of their starting equipment
• start with a second move that is for a different weapon than the first, which may or may not be a weapon in their starting equipment.

Example Special Moves

Here's an example table for swords.

As you can probably tell, balance is not a design goal of the random moves. If you are afraid that some fighters may be overpowered, Remember that characters are randomly generated and so unfair advantages should on average be canceled out by unfair disadvantages. In addition, death is a constant option, so even completely broken PCs won't stick around forever. To me, the idea of having a player choose a character that has -1 in all stats, 2 HP and is generally completely unfit for the adventuring life, but just happens to have a real knack for sudden decapitation is a very fun thing, and the intended outcome of this design.

Magic-user

Spell selection

You start the game with the read magic spell known. Other spells are randomly generated.

If you don't use the automatic tool to generate a magic-user, you can choose to either

• start with one level 1 spell of your choice in your spellbook, or
• Roll 2 random level 1 spells, then choose one of them to be in your spellbook, keeping the other as a one-use scroll.

Weapon proficiencies

In addition to daggers, you may use staves and slings as weapons.

Scribing

During downtime, you may scribe scrolls from spells in your spellbook. Each scroll costs (spell level)^2 *100 sp to make and takes a number of days equal to the spell level to make.

Dwarves

Oath

All (adventuring) dwarves have an oath that they have sworn at some point in their past. Allegiance to their mountainhome, betrothal to a future spouse, or a great wrongdoing they wish to atone for. These oaths are part of the automatic character generation tool. Alternatively, if the DM agrees, the player may come up with their own oath.

If a dwarven character does anything that is directly in service of an oath, or if doing anything different would endanger that oath, they get a +1 to any attack roll, saving throw, or skill check. Note that 1d6 rolls, such as surprise, or spot hidden doors are not included in this.

A dwarf who breaks their oath feels great shame. There is no direct mechanical punishment, but nevertheless, the DM is free to enact fictional consequences, and may send out a party of 2d6 dwarven oathkeeper assassins to come after the dwarven character.

Elf

Reroll

Due to their natural grace, elves may reroll a failed skill check once per day, and must use the new result if they do.

Inspiring presence

If there is an elf in the party, the party's side gets +1 on initiative rolls.

Note that these rules are contingent on elves being restricted in the setting and unlocked only through establishing contact with an elven settlement, which is usually difficult. If you play with elves being readily available as characters in your setting, these bonuses should not apply.

Halfling

Lucky

Halflings are lucky and may reroll 1s on a d20 once, and must use the new result.

Specla Sling Moves

Similar to a fighter, halflings get special weapon moves, but only for the sling, and only one move. Roll on the table below for a special sling move.

XP

XP is silver and treasure. Details follow below.

When the party returns from adventuring, tally up the treasure in coins and other valuable items (not equipment) that you are able to sell. The result is split evenly among the party, including retainers, as per the standard rules.

To count as XP a PC must spend their gold. What you spend it on should reflect your advancement or adventuring lifestyle, but it can be anything, really. Examples are carousing in taverns, having statues or artwork of yourself or your party commissioned, or donating it to a temple. It may also include buying necessary equipment, such as armor and weapons, gifting it to another player who will buy something with it, or investing it in a future project, like a stronghold or wizard laboratory. The only requirement is that it gets removed from your character sheet, and is otherwise unavailable for your character in the fiction.

If you gift gold to another player, you get its XP reward, not them. You cannot pool XP by pooling gold.

Death

By default, when a character reaches 0 hit points, they die, and cannot be brought back except by powerful magic. This changes for player characters once they reach level 3: At this point, they have become more hardy and resilient, and may have a chance to survive a mortal blow, though their adventuring career may well be over. Note that this really only applies to player characters, not NPCs or hirelings.

When a PC of level 3 or higher reaches 0 hit points or lower, they must pass a death save or die. If they pass the save, they survive but must roll on the death and dismemberment table below.

Death and Dismemberment Table

When a character goes to 0, determine hit point overflow of the incoming damage. E.g. I have 3 hp and get hit with a sword for 8, the overflow is 5.

Then, roll 1d12 + overflow + existing wounds to determine the wound the character receives. Roll 1d6 to determine the hit location. Results 15+ usually mean the character's adventuring life is over, though some hardy fighters with eye-patches exist.

Characters who survive in this way are at 0 HP until 1d4 turns pass, after which they wake up with 1 hit point.

• Treatment: In general, the wound categories above describe light, moderate, and severe wounds. Using the appropriate cleric/druid spell will halve the healing duration. Having access to bedrest and professional medical treatment will halve it again.
• Light Wounds: Results of 10 and below on the table indicate light wounds. These are debilitating in the moment, but usually Go away on their own. A character with a light wound will lose the wound and associated malus if they get a night's rest and pass the 2d6 sleep constitution test with a result of 9 or higher. Having received magical healing after they incurred their wound will add +1, +2, or +3 to the sleep roll (non-cumulatively), depending on the type of cleric spell used.
• Arms: Arm wounds may make using certain items and weapons impossible, and broken arms require a splint or a sling to heal, usually regaining function after 6 to 8 weeks.
• Legs: Leg wounds usually impair the mobility of a character and may make jumping or running impossible. A broken leg may require a splint, and the character will need crutches to move. Broken legs become usable after about 6-8 weeks to regain function without magical healing. Receiving a leg wound may permanently alter the character's gait.
• Torso: Torso wounds are as common as they are messy. We only consider the ones that are survivable for adventurers here. Internal bleeding and bruises usually heal on their own, but can easily get worse. broken ribs are incredibly painful, but usually heal on their own after 3-6 weeks, faster if assisted by magical healing. Torso wounds usually leave a big scar and a tale to go along with it.
• Head: Head wounds impair cognitive function, and usually leave some cosmetic scars. If they are survivable at all, that is. Skull fractures are nasty, and can take 3-6 months to heal without magical assistance. If you lose an eye because you survived a fatal head wound, and you somehow survive, you may choose to keep adventuring with an eye patch, -1 to ranged attack due to impaired depth-perception, and usually a couple of "odd" behavioral ticks.

D6s

Here we accumulate all d6 rolls in the game in one location. This is just for my convenience and sanity.

• Find secret door: 1 in 6
• Surprise: 2 in 6 (mind light and other factors)
• Force door: 2 in 6 + str mod (1 minimum)
• Lockpick: Proficiency with thieve's tools or magic
• Listening at doors: 1 in 6 or thief skill
• Trap triggered: 2 in 6 chance for trap to deal damage
• Find room traps: 1 in 6 or thief skill
• Find treasure traps: Thief skill
• Pursuing monsters stop chasing after treasure/food dropped: 3 in 6

Distances

• Dungeon distance: 2d6 * 10ft
• Wilderness distance: 4d6*30ft6

Also, you can have 4 hirelings who have a morale score of 7. Both values are modified by charisma mod.

combat

Here's the algorithm:

• Pre-round
  • Declare spells and melee movement/fleeing
  • Roll monster morale if applicable.
  • Roll initiative 1d6 per side, higher wins. Bonuses for having leaders or elf in the party.
    • You now have winning side and losing side (of initiative).
    • The ngo in phases. Within each phase, winning team goes first.

1. Phase: Movement/Missiles
   • First, Winning side does movement and missile attacks
   • Then, Losing side does movement and missile attacks.
   • Missile attacks include magic wands!
   • If you're casting a spell, you can't move.
2. Phase: Melee/Magic
   • Winning side does magic (spells go off).
   • winning side does melee (this may include some additional movement, to close distance or charge)
   • losing side does magic
   • losing side does melee (including maovement if appropriate)
3. Phase: Slow Actions
   • Winning side makes attacks with weapons that have the slow tag.

• Losing side makes slow attacks.

  • any other long/involved/slow action gets resolved here as well.

• Post-round

  • Have we resolved the dramatic question of who will win the fight?
  • If yes, end combat.
  • if If no, go back to the Pre-round.

Some notes on the sequence above, since it probably seems a bit quaint to modern D&D players:

• In general, winning initiative is really important.
• Remember that in B/X there is no concentration. Any damage taken means a spellcasting fails. A lot of the above sequence is designed around the interruption of spellcasters. Consider:
  • If you win initiative, your spellcaster can only be interrupted by enemy archers or mages with wands.
  • If If the enemy spellcaster has lost initiative, all you melee guys potentially get to attack them before their spell goes off.
  • This is why in old editions wand of magic missile is so coveted: It's a tactical tool for spell interruption since wands go off in the missile phase.
  • Also, positioning is extra important for spellcasters since they can't move while casting at all.
• Two-handed weapons are really punished by going last. Remember the AOE/Cleave rule. It can make it worth it.
• Remember that crossbow reloading is a slow action. Crossbows are worth it for characters that lack the strength for using bows.
• The phases may seem a bit stilted at first but they do a great job of facilitating team play, as complex maneuvres become easier to coordinate with other players.
• The weakest point of this system is melee movement. Remember the charge rules to make it easier. Also, in my experience, it's ok to be lenient and let melees move a bit out of phase. Value verisimilitude over mechanical accuracy.

Overworld

Note: This section is almost irrelevant for players. These are mostly notes/reminders to myself.

Here are rules governing overworld travel. They only apply if travel is included in the campaign. If travel applies, we assume that we are working with a map of hexagons.

Players don't see the hex grid. The below rules also assume that player's never actually deal with hexes as a game entity. They may, and should be encouraged, to draw their own map, but it's actually crucial that the player map is divergent from the DM's internal 'true' map. If the players have a 100% accurate map, they can never get lost. We want them to get lost.

Hexes

The basic unit of travel is the hexagon. An overworld map consists of a collection of adjacent hexagons, usually identified by a name and some kind of indices, like "A 5", or "B 7".

Each hex

• Is 6 miles across.
  • That means it's 3 miles from the center to each corner.
  • It's also 6 miles from the center of one hex to the center of an adjacent one, which is roughly how far a person can see on a clear day in flat terrain.
  • That's 9.65 kilometers, which you can round to 10. I'd rather you don't though, sticking with imperial has real advantages as you will see below.
• has a danger rating from 1 (low danger) to 5 (high danger)
• Has a navigation difficulty from 1 to 3.
  • Default is 1.
  • 2 is hills, dmountains, forests, barren lands, swamps, deserts, and jungles.
  • 3 is for swamps, jungles, and deserts. Ocean hexes are also 3 if you are into that.
• Can be foraged/hunted or not
  • Deserts, Mountains, etc may not be forageable and offer no animals to hunt
  • You could assign a 1 to 5 value here, I usually don't since it just doesn't come up in play that much.
• has a unique, characteristic landmark
  • A landmark must be clearly visible and is identifiable from some distance.
  • Think things like an ancient tree, a large boulder that inexplicably serves as a nesting location for far too many birds, an ancient battlefield, or a ruined tower.
  • Landmarks are the interface between hexmap and game world. Players and NPCs should never talk about hexes, but they can and should talk about landmarks when discussing travel.
• has 0 or more discoverable features. This may include dungeons, shrines, settlements etc. Anything you want to zoom in on.

Travel Algorithm

Note: If this seems involved, it's because it is. I personally use a tool that automates travel, making the complexity a non-issue. I may release this at some point in the future. If you do this by hand and you find that the below sequence is taking too long at the table, by all means just pick and choose the most relevant parts for your campaign.

Here is the sequence that the DM should go through to resolve overworld travel.

1. Ask party fo their destination.
   • A destination can be any discoverable feature in a hex, or a landmark. A hex is never a destination.
   • You must set a destination. "We walk east and see what happens," is not a destination, and while the party can do this in the fiction of the game, you need to resolve it in some other way than using these travel rules. But please don't. Really, just require players to give you a destination.
2. Ask party for a route to the destination
   • A route may be as simple as "We walk east until we find the landmark xyz"
   • It may also be complex and involve the party specifying a sequence of identifiable landmarks or visible features they want to use to navigate.
   • The point is: A route is not something the characters come up with, the actual players need to tell you.
3. Determine the sequence of hexes that need to be traversed for the chosen route to the destination
   • In case it wasn't clear, this is done secretly by the DM
   • If you can't figure out a sequence of hexes, ask the party to clarify their route.
4. Determine base travel speed
   • Base speed is the travel speed of the slowest member of the party.
   • For example, 120ft for humans, 90ft for halflings and 60ft for dwarves.
   • Mounts can mitigate the slow speed of shorty races. A dwarf on a horse is a formidable thing.
5. Ask the party if they travel slow or fast.
   • Slow means 33% speed reduction, but the party may move stealthily.
   • Fast means 50% speed increase, but the party is extra easy to detect and they can't forage or hunt.
   • Traveling on roads automatically let's the party travel fast without any penalties.
6. Determine the hexes per day/miles per day
   • Miles per day
     • Normal: (base speed) / 5 miles/day
     • Slow: (normal mpd) - ((normal mpd) / 3) miles/day
     • Fast: (normal mpd) + ((normal mpd) / 2) miles/day
   • Hexes per day: (miles per day) / 6
7. Determine the travel time
   • Sum up the number of hexes from the travel route and divide it by the hexes per day.
   • You now know how many days of travel to expect.
   • You may or may not share this estimate with the players. This can make sense if they have some map material to plan with, have a guide or advisor, there is a ranger in the party, or they just know the area well.
8. For each day of travel, do the following in secret
   1. Navigation: Roll 1d6. If it comes up lower or equal to the hexes' navigation rating, the party is lost. Do not tell them if this happens. See the heading below for more.
   2. Foragin: Roll 1d6. On a 1, you can feed 1d6 adults for the day with resources gathered from the area.
   3. Hunting: If the party decides to spend all day hunting, extend travel time by 1 day and roll 1d6. On a 1, the party encounters an animal to hunt. Consult the monster manual for food value and difficulty of the hunt.
   4. Roll for encounters and discoveries
      • Roll 6x1d6 (that's 6d6 without summing up).
      • Arrange the dice in front of you and consider them from left to right.
      • Each die now corresponds to one of the following, starting at the leftmost die: Early morning, Morning, Noon, Afternoon, Evening, and Night.
      • If a die came up lower or equal to a hexes danger rating, an encounter or discovery procures at the corresponding time of day.
      • To find in which hex the encounter or discovery happens, just ballpark it, roughly considering at which point of the journey the party would be at that time of the day.
      • An encounter means you may roll on the extremely robust B/X overworld travel encounter tables for the hexes terrain type.
      • A discovery is completely dependent on your campaign, world, and you can either prepare it or make it up.
      • Travel may be interrupted by dealing with an encounter or if the party decides to investigate a discovery. You may resume travel or fast forward to the end of the day, depending on how involved the party's activities were. DM decides.
      • Note that a die that comes up equal or lower than the danger rating may indicate either an encounter, or a discovery. The DM must decide which it is. Try to incorporate the current context, and take advantage of golden opportunities. In general though, it's not bad to simply alternate. And yes, these rules imply that more dangerous areas harbor more discoveries.
   5. Narrate the day of travel.
      • Include small vignettes that show the passage of time.
      • Clearly point out the unique landmarks as the party travels through hexes.
      • Point out obvious changes in terrain, like going from a desert to grasslands, and point out big features such as rivers or mountains in the distance.
      • Don't over do it with the description.
      • Lead into the encounters at appropriate points.
   6. At the end of the day, ask the party if they wish to keep pursuing their chosen route, or pick a different destination, in wich case you go back to (1).

Becoming lost

When the party becomes lost due to a failed navigation roll, estimate which hex the party is currently on when they get lost. Then, roll 1d6 in secret. The number indicates which direction the party will actually travel, while they believe that they are still on the correct path, e.g. 1 going north (for flat top hexes), 2 northeast, 3 southwest, etc.

As the party travels this way, keep narrating their surroundings as usual. Be extra sure to point out the landmarks. If the party has prepared well for their journey, they should become aware of the fact that they are lost at some point.

Once a party is lost, they must become unlost. A party is unlost if they can reach a familiar landmark or feature. This may be one of the unique landmarks they have encountered before, or one that has been marked on a map for them, or it may be an obvious navigation aid, such as a river, a mountain range, or a road that they can follow back to familiar territory.

Unless they become unlost in this way, it is impossible for the party to plan a travel route. Alter the travel algorithm above accordingly, and simply send them into a random hex direction each day, traveling at their chosen speed.

Please be reasonable and lenient about allowing players to become unlost. Use common sense. If they find a lookout such as by climbing a tree or using flight, point out familiar landmarks in the distance. Allow NPCs they encounter to give them directions etc. Getting lost is fun only for some time.