Progression

For right now, I'm keeping everything down to a paragraph or less, as much as I can. This includes race, class, spells, and even adventuring tasks. I think this will give a really nice, clean, minimalist RPG, that's still very functional. From there I'll move on to the Greyhawk method, but I'm going to try and still keep things simple. I'm thinking I want to keep everything at a page or less (possibly even a half page, what with it being digest sized); or possibly keep everything paired down to 3 or 5 features (not sure which yet). In any case I want to avoid the "AD&D trap" of multi-page class descriptions, and extremely detailed rules.

The goal is interesting, but simple.

MicrOD&D - Arcane Adventures?

I know I'm updating every 5 minutes, but that's kind of what's cool about the Microlite20 structure; you see the game unfold very quickly, because you're not busy writing a novel. Anyway, on to the point.

As I go through this, I see that I'm not cloning OD&D at all, and I don't think I want to, or that I need to. I'm starting to view this more like a Blood & Treasure or Basic Fantasy style game, just geared more towards OD&D than B/X or 3E. So yeah, very much an OD&D inspired game.

There are a few things that are really making this more OD&D inspired. Just like Microlite20, and to a less extent Basic Fantasy, I'm definitely keeping my focus on making a simple, rules-light game; I'm not so concerned with the retro-aspect or emulation. Right now I'm thinking of including AD&D spells instead of OD&D spells, and just including like five per spell level. This is to keep things simple, and so I can include some of the more iconic spells like Magic Missile, which didn't come out until Greyhawk. I still might change my mind, but we'll see.

The point being, I'm really liking how this is turning out. I'm utilizing the simplicity of OD&D, to make a clean role playing game instead of emulating OD&D for the sake of emulation; or starting from scratch like Microlite20.

MicrOD&D - Races

I'm working on races right now, which should take all of 5 minutes, and I'm considering racial abilities. It doesn't seem like much if you say:

"Dwarves have a 2 in 6 chance of finding traps, and other dungeon oddities. They gain a +4 bonus for saving throws versus magic. Against giant-type creatures such as trolls, ogres, giants, and titans, Dwarves are at +4 AC."

That's just a paragraph of description, but still pretty meaty. I'm wondering why I wouldn't include this. Of course, how far is that from just including the full description from AD&D? In OD&D The Dwarf pretty much has that many abilities. However this goes against my idea of emulating Microlite20's minimalistic approach. I mean after all, how much "fun" does any of that actually add to the game? I'm tempted to just keep the 2 in 6 chance of finding traps. It's a cool, unique, and extremely useful ability, that's easy to remember, and doesn't modify some other roll or rule in the game.

I'm thinking for now, keep the most minimalistic approach as possible to get something done and out there. Then if I really want to I can make a "Race Options" booklet that includes meatier description of races. This opens you up for including alternatives like "Wood Elf" or "Grey Dwarf". For those who prefer (like myself), they can stick with the ultra-simple Dwarf and just "roleplay" being a "Grey Dwarf". I think that's what I'll do for now.

Plan - MicrOD&D

That's the project name for now. Whether or not I slap the "Arcane Adventures" name on it, we'll see. Anyway, I think I have a plan for now.

I'm going to start by utilizing the layout of Microlite20 to determine what I need to include initially; in the sense that Microlite20 provides the minimum rules needed to play, but that's still enough to play. I'm probably going to rearrange it to resemble OD&D more. From there I'm going to stick with content mostly from OD&D, but use the updated variants and versions from AD&D: with the exception of keeping the numbers down where possible (I really like +1s to be meaningful). I'll probably tossing in some basic house rules from Gary Gygax's 2005 house rules, and stuff from Philotomy's Musings (because it's awesome).

From there it will be supplements! Instead of replicating early OD&D supplements, that had a bit of everything in them, I'm going to try and keep them organized by type of content, i.e.; spells, monsters, classes, treasure, etc.

So there you have it for now, I'll get started soon, and see what I get.

OD&D is in Limbo

Not if you count the "Premium Reprint" of course, but nonetheless OD&D is currently in limbo. I don't think anyone is going spend $100+ on a premium set of stapled booklets to play with. I know plenty of people who have bought it for collectable purposes, but those same people have "play copies" they've printed from PDFs. What's more is that most people don't consider OD&D as written to be "playable".

There's still Swords & Wizardry, but they've shifted their focus to the "Complete" book, and to supporting Pathfinder conversions. They've all but abandoned "Whitebox". What I find more interesting about Swords & Wizardry is that they aren't putting out anything else. They made "Complete" (which in my opinion isn't it), and it has tons of extra classes from the Supplements, but they've stopped there. Nothing from the Strategic Review or Dragon, tons of stuff left out from the Supplements. Nothing wrong with that of course, but it's just kind of a downer: there's just so much untapped stuff.

I'm actually hopeful for Delving Deeper now, because I really like the guys who've taken over. I really agree with their general philosophy on OD&D, and it looks like they have a long term plan for adding a bunch of cool material and conversions. However, the Brave Halfling still has a huge back log of orders. I'll admit I was wrong. I still think what he did was wrong, but he definitely wasn't doing it intentionally. By the Gods he's still sending out shipments, and making sure the job gets done.

However all of this leaves OD&D in Limbo; especially because as of right now, the "Premium Reprints" seem to be a one time thing.

What am I getting at? Am I just complaining for no reason? Not really. I love OD&D. I love D&D in general. This is in fact close to the state every other edition is in right now. 2E is dead sadly; it gets no love, and the one retroclone for it turned out to be a huge disappointment. You have all of these lovely retroclones and reprints (whether "supported" or not), but they're just there.

Now maybe everyone else is cool with having their old games, just the way they were, and essentially staying in a stasis, but I'm not. I don't want my edition of the game "redone", and that's just that. It's a real shame, because early on it seemed like there was going to be progress and additional material. Labyrinth Lord released two companions to expand game play; Basic Fantasy had tons of new supplements coming out; and my personal favorite Adventures Dark & Deep re-envisioned 1st Edition. Adventures Dark & Deep seems to be the only still pumping out new material.

Let me clarify really quickly, that when I say new material, I don't mean adventure modules. We have millions of those, and people are constantly popping those out. I mean new classes, new spells, new monsters, new races, etc. I'm fairly certain I talked about Grey Matter before, and I think stuff like that is awesome, and we need more of it. Same goes for Blood & Treasure, another awesome project, with a dedicated creator who just keeps going.

Lets get back to the point. OD&D, the game I love, is in stasis. It's stuck; at least "officially". I love the OD&D74 forums, because man, there's always something going on. However several people have pointed out that a forum isn't the best media for usable game material; as in a lot stuff just gets lost in time and buried under new discussion.

Now I'm going to stop complaining. Instead I want to do something about it. I've admitted I'm crap at authoring, but thanks to Microlite20 I don't have to be a good author. I'm going to make a game, the way I like it, and I'm going to make stuff for it on a frequent basis.

It's going to be modeled after Microlite20; as in shorthand rules, to the point, and no fluff. I'm going to make it digest size for now, so it will be easier to format, and it will have the OD&D feel to it. It's going to be a bunch of 30ish page booklets. Most importantly it's going to be free.

Now I just have to come up with a game plan. I'm not so sure another OD&D "clone" is what we need, nor is what I'd actually use; otherwise like everyone else I know, I'd just use my printed out LBB's. I am thinking something more along the lines of Swords & Wizardry or Castles & Crusades, with the focus being expansion and continued support. After all I just talked about how everyone keeps "cloning" their favorite edition and going "well I'm done here...". Nothing wrong with that of course, but I want more.

OD&D vs D&D

What I've noticed in doing research, playing, reading, discussing D&D, etc., is that OD&D doesn't fit in. I should specify more really: pre-Greyhawk OD&D doesn't fit in. There's a quaint charm some of us find in LBB D&D, and the non-TSR supplements from around that time. Even if you add the supplements, but view them like (as in not considering Greyhawk essential), you have a vastly different game than anyone else in the D&D community recognizes.

Allow me to explain better. Pretty much every other version of D&D has decent to generous benefits provided by ability scores. In fact there is a much larger emphasis on ability scores in other versions of D&D. In Basic D&D (both B/X and BECMI as far as I know) you have a +3/-3 modifier to certain rolls and stats from your ability scores. In AD&D you have separate tables for each ability, with some bonuses going up to +4, or even +6 for exceptional Strength. In 3E you have bonuses going up to +5 (interestingly enough, if you cap the scores at 18, you get +4/-4 which is actually in line with AD&D, they just spread it out more evenly).

However in OD&D you have practically no benefit for ability scores. As soon as you toss in Greyhawk though you start to see more emphasis on ability scores. What's interesting is that most of the tables presented in Greyhawk are special to the fighter. Instead of having universal attribute benefits, it's a class-based table, which sort of makes the fighter an "attribute specialist".

Another major area of difference, is race and class. In fact all three of these points of discussion have to do with character creation/development. In OD&D the characters are pretty much nothing. It's ALL about how you choose to role play your character. Race and class descriptions are a paragraph or two in length. There is some mechanical benefit and rules for race and class, but they're usually found in the Referee's section of the book.

When you get into AD&D, and even in the Basic Set I have, class and race descriptions go up to a page or more. Definite rules for multi-classing demi-humans, thieves with dozens of skills and abilities, etc.

Interestingly enough, the Monster Manual, and pretty much everything that came after that (as far as monsters) seems to be compatible with OD&D. Does that suggest that OD&D is just D&D on hard mode? Maybe. I'm starting to think so.

My point in all of this, is that I'm recognizing a "universal D&D", at least in spirit and theme; it just doesn't jive with the original. How does this concern me? Well as far as house rules go (whether or not I publish anything I make), I want a sort of cohesiveness. I love playing OD&D, but I also love playing "D&D".

The way I'm starting to see it, is that "D&D" needs to be defined, and OD&D really doesn't. If OD&D does need to be defined (as in my house rules), I think I can do it in under 64 pages, and have that be that. Then anything else I make, even if it is on "easy mode" and based on later D&D material, can still be used with it; it will just be on hard mode.

In fact I might be refereeing for my band this weekend. They all played AD&D back in the day, but I don't know how much they remember. I'm thinking of running Swords & Wizardry, but letting them use material from AD&D as long as I convert it for them (which should be pretty easy). It's been pointed out a few times, that AD&D is more or less a compilation of OD&D supplemental material.

What I'm trying to do now, regardless of intent to share or publish, is organize and work on my rules in a way that a company would. After all it makes sense to emulate what role playing game publishers and designers have done. I think in the end I might just make my "Universal D&D" and then make a fascimile of OD&D for my own use. We'll just have to see.

Wrestling not Grappling

I do martial arts in real life. In fact I've been doing forms of ju-jitsu since I was 5 years old. I love grappling. However, I don't think grappling fits in with D&D, at least not realistic grappling. When you watch old school fantasy shows, or sci-fi sword & planet adventures, you rarely see realistic arm bars and over-the-shoulder throws. You see two athletic guys pushing each other back and forth in a clinch, till one falls over a cliff. That's fun.

However I do play with a lot of guys who have real grappling experience, and they like to use it in the game. What I currently do is really simple, and I'm sure lots of you guys have done it too: I just use a saving throw for grappling. I use Swords & Wizardry's single saving throw, modified by attributes like Castles & Crusades: so depending on description/player choice I either apply strength or dexterity, or sometimes both.

This is a much simple abstraction than complex grappling tables, or "body combat defense scores". Not saying better, just simpler.

What's great is this doesn't penalize people who don't know how to grapple in real life. "Can I try and trip the guy?" "I"m going to try and throw him", etc. If they do take time to describe their actions, a simple -1 to their opponent's saving throw is good, or if they declare they're grappling with a weapon I might let them get away with just a normal attack.

The real benefit of this abstraction is that as you increase in level (including monsters), the saving throw gets easier to pass. Just like in real life, the better you are in combat, the easier it is to slip in and out of grappling. In Judo a lot of times it's more about avoiding getting thrown, and having that stable foot work. While it's not ultra-realistic, because obviously someone who is really good at their techniques will have a better chance of grappling you, it's a decent abstraction, that works. Furthermore if players choose to specialize their characters in grappling (however you handle that), you can give them bonuses (or penalties to their opponent's saving throws).

Not much to say on the matter, just thought I'd share.