My OSR Blog about fantasy world building and rules analysis for D&D. Also home of the B/X inspired 5e-clone "Into the Unknown."| mythlands-erce.blogspot.com
I know, I know. Addition is easier than substraction, what kind of backwards grognard do you have to be to like descending AC in 2024? I get all that. But hear me out for a moment. My argument is that whilst ascending AC may be marginally easier to calculate to begin with, descending AC offers something different - A more intuitive appreciation of what the numbers mean and how they are bounded.| Mythlands: The Setting to End All Settings
There are three armor types in classic D&D (B/X, BECMI, Cyclopedia). Leather (AC7), Chain (AC5), Plate (AC3). | Mythlands: The Setting to End All Settings
I've been anticipating reviewing "Mystara" as perhaps the most difficult of the setting reviews. | Mythlands: The Setting to End All Settings
My OSR Blog about fantasy world building and rules analysis for D&D. Also home of the B/X inspired 5e-clone "Into the Unknown."| mythlands-erce.blogspot.com
And back to my series of classes for my mad mashup of various sources, but based on a B/X core. | Trollsmyth
And back to my series of character classes for my mad mashup D&D game based on B/X but including rules from all over. This time, a bit of Hindu myth that really, really harshes on what lots of folks consider a core element of the Old School vibe.| Trollsmyth
Bathtub Reviews are an excuse for me to read modules a little more closely. I’m doing them to critique a wide range of modules from the perspective of my own table and to learn for my own module design. They’re stream of consciousness and unedited critiques. I’m writing them on my phone in the bath. […]| Playful Void
Letter from Gygax to an fan (1989)| ZENOPUS ARCHIVES
If you've read my posts on D&D Without Damage Dice and Ascending Damage, you'll know I use a sort of "wound counting" or "hit counting" system, which by definition has static damage - every hit with a weapon is just "one hit". The design goal is to make combat simpler and faster, but ideally, it should still be interesting and have some variety.| Homebrew Homunculus
TL;DR: Have several tables of backgrounds; characters with low ability scores roll on better tables.| Homebrew Homunculus
TL;DR: give LotFP Specialists 8 skill points to invest, not 4.| Homebrew Homunculus
About Duryan the Gardener | Homebrew Homunculus
Why Ascending?| Homebrew Homunculus
A strange mummy wanders the sandy wastes, not bound to a tomb | Homebrew Homunculus
Here's a small adventure site/scenario. Plop it onto your hex key on the edge of a forest or something.| Homebrew Homunculus
[ click here for single-page PDF version ]| Homebrew Homunculus
D&D B/X is, I would wager, the most popular basis for OSR games. Therefore, B/X style ability modifiers are the most common. In case you didn't know, ability modifiers in B/X range from -3 to +3 and are determined like this:| Homebrew Homunculus
Observation 1: Most of the Thief skills in B/X D&D improve in increments of 5%, which makes using a percentile die rather pointless. You can take the percentile (and x-in-6) Thief skills table, convert all the values onto a d20 target number, and it looks like this (TN rounded up):| Homebrew Homunculus
A contest on G+ to come up with a new way to speed up combat in D&D caught my interest, two responses in particular.| Homebrew Homunculus
I was inspired to adapt | Homebrew Homunculus
You’re probably aware of the multi-attack abilities fighters have had over the years. There’s the “Melee attacks per round” table, where Fighters in AD&D could have 1/1, 3/2 or 2/1 attacks per round. That fractional value of 3/2 means your number of attacks alternates each round: twice in one round, then once in the next, and so on. Sure, it’s not hard to understand - but it’s still an additional thing to remember in the heat of battle, which I don’t want in my game. Newer edi...| Homebrew Homunculus
My OSR Blog about fantasy world building and rules analysis for D&D. Also home of the B/X inspired 5e-clone "Into the Unknown."| mythlands-erce.blogspot.com
A common refrain in old-school games, most often from those new to old-school play, is that 1st level magic-users (MU) suck, don’t feel like...| icastlight.blogspot.com
Getting to work on some dungeons for my next campaign, I want to stick as close as possible practical to what the Basic and Expert rules actually advise as guidelines to see how that really plays out in actual play. I have found that most of the moving pieces in this game are set up … Continue reading "Monsters and Treasures in the B/X Dungeon"| Spriggan's Den
Somewhere in the Dragon Magazine issues I've been perusing lately, Moldvay comments that the part of the Basic set he is most proud of is B60 "Dungeon Mastering as a Fine Art", where he gets to impart his own experiences as a DM to newbie DMs. I leave the entire passage transcribed here below without further comment:| Mythlands: The Setting to End All Settings
Smaller numbers are better.| Mythlands: The Setting to End All Settings
As you can see from the costs and spellcasting level required, making a mummy is obviously something reserved for higher level players (or N...| savevsdragon.blogspot.com
Bring additional dimensions to your classic fantasy gaming! This 64-page book presents players and DMs alike with information to expand the playability and possibilities in their campaigns. It's a cornucopia of information on all aspects of the game including characters, spellcasting, adventures, encounters, monsters and dungeon mastering. This is truly an indispensable resource for the the classic edition Dungeon Master (BX, OSE, LL).| Save Vs. Dragon
This has been in the works for a while, and we're in the final round of edits and tweaks. | Save Vs. Dragon
200 new monsters based on PD pulp images statted for classic editions (OSE, B/X, BECMI, LL, etc.). Available in PDF from DriveThruRPG, and in hardback and paperback from Lulu.com. The hardback has white interior pages, and the paperback has a cream interior (nodding to the books pulp roots). Includes new animal-related spells and new psionic abilities for Basic Psionics. (236 pages)| Save Vs. Dragon
Carry these Darkness is Bad. We live in a world with light at will and we’ve forgotten how scary the night is. But moreover in a fantasy world it is worse than in ours: it twists and transfor…| Odd Skull
Thinking of a different model for you fantasy world’s polytheism.| Odd Skull
Totally not a bootleg zodiac Today it’s my birthday so I’m putting together a simple birthsign table intended to be compatible with classic D&D-ish games. It’s not an original…| Odd Skull
An alternative to open-ended cantrips and small magicks through the use of a consumable| Odd Skull
