The more I read and work on games and rules, the more I love OD&D. Simplicity. After talking to a few people online, and thinking pretty deeply, I've decided I'm not going to codified any player's rules anymore. At least not many. Maybe the weapons list. Other than that, they get nothing.
I know that sounds drastic, but I've figured out what I absolutely hate when it comes to D&D: Character Optimization. I hate when I give a player a list of options to choose from, and inspire creativity; then they analyze the mechanics, and pick the "optimal" choice. Not the coolest, not the funnest, but the "optimal". What's going to do max damage per round (I hate when they use MMO terms like DPS), not what would be fun to role play.
In fact it really killed me for the last few months to run "Arcane Adventures" and have players ignore most of the rules, and go with what's familiar, or what's the "best". For example I tried to make several techniques (ie feats) that have actual fun dice rolling mechanics. Like rolling damage twice and taking the higher of the two, or exploding damage, etc. Instead players always take the straight +1's, or double damage, etc. Furthermore they ignore any class that isn't Ranger, Paladin, Druid, etc.
Anyway, that's where I'm at in gaming. I'm either going to play with other old schoolers that don't need rules to role play, and will do what they want, and I'll reward for them that; or I'll play with guys who basically just want Pathfinder, and we'll just play that or NEXT. On one hand this kind of depresses me, because there are a lot of actually cool rules out there; rules that make you go "oh man that sounds really fun!". On the other hand, I'm tired of collecting all sorts of cool material and fun rules, to have it be over-analyzed and ignored.
On to the main point of this article, my OD&D Thief I'm going to start using. I know I just said I'm going to stop codifying stuff, so this is really more just my own notes for how I'd handle such a thing. In fact, I might not make it a class, just part of my house rules for any character that chooses to make the right preparations.
Why am I not using the Greyhawk Thief anymore? Well I'm starting to agree that it does lead to the more modern style of gaming. Tons of class abilities, specific skills with their own progressions, etc. A lot of what I talked about above, I feel the Thief contributes to, even if it's not solely responsible. Speaking of which, this thief does not progress in his abilities. He gets some stuff, and that's it. Probably why I'm leaning more towards it not being a class, but just common rulings.
More or less what I'm thinking right now is, if someone purchases lock-picking tools, they get a 1 in 6 chance to unlock doors. This has the advantage of not making a ton of noise to attract wandering monsters. If the character is only wearing light (leather) armor, has no lights, and is unencumbered, they have a 3 in 6 chance to surprise. If the character gains surprise, and has a one handed blade weapon, they gain a +4 to hit, and deal double damage on a successful strike.
This is pretty much the Thief. He just doesn't get better at his skills. What's great about this is, anyone can be a thief. Anyone can do these things. Which leads me to what I'm going to start using as a general task resolution system.
I love the X in 6 chance of OD&D. Most things are handled by a chance out of rolling a d6. Surprise, for example, has a 2 in 6 chance of occurring. That means a roll of a 1 or 2 on a d6 results in surprise. This is also used for smashing in doors, checking for secret doors, etc. Later in AD&D (I can't remember if it's in Greyhawk), the "break down doors" check is modified by strength.
I've started using Gygax's (also Swords & Wizardry: Whitebox) attribute bonus rule, of 15+ grants you a general +1 bonus with that attribute. This is great for the above system. Then Dexterity can grant a bonus for surprise, Wisdom for checking for secret doors, etc.
I get that this doesn't progress as your character gains levels, but I don't really care anymore. If the player role plays well, and keeps at it, I can grant an additional +1. If it's really relevant to whatever class he's playing, or class he's role playing (IE if he says he's a "Bard" when he's really just a fighter), he might get another +1.
The best benefit of this to me, is that it makes the +1 a big deal again (something a lot of old schoolers have talked about).
This is pretty much where I'm at in my line of thinking now. The more I read the original three booklets for D&D, the more I see they really are "as complete as possible". Even if every possible scenario isn't covered, the rules and concepts are provided to help you figure out to handle them.
I'm particularly thinking of making my own super-specific set of house rules, like a lot of people have done, particularly back in the day. I'm thinking of using my Spell Dice system to handle magic, and defining the most common adventuring tasks in my campaigns, using the X in d6 system. After that, just a good equipment list, and whatever Referee advice I need to keep handy (random tables, hell yeah).
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