Do you long for the halcyon days of your misspent youth, guzzling lukewarm Mountain Dew by the 2-liter bottle and gobbling down an entire bag of stale Doritos in your best friend's basement while wasting a Saturday exploring the crumbling ruins of a Gary Gygax penned deathtrap dungeon?
If so, then read on, intrepid adventurer!
I will be running a classic "old-school" 1st Edition AD&D module using (modified) 5th Edition D&D rules (see the spoiler at the end of this post for the house rules to be used). I have not yet settled on which 1E module to use and might allow the group to decide. The three modules I am considering are: The Village of Hommlet, Against the Cult of the Reptile God or The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh.
I plan on running this game with 6 PC's starting at 2nd level. Characters will be built using the 27 point buy system in the 5E PHB with max HP at 1st level and 1/2 HD + 1 HP for 2nd level (as described in the PHB). Roll for starting wealth as on page 143 of the PHB to make your equipment purchases. Multiclassing and feats will NOT be used but a variant human option would still be available with an ability score increase used in place of the feat.
Posting frequency will be set at a minimum of three posts per week. I will probably only post three days a week but will likely make multiple posts on those days.
It is my intention to try to run this game using just "Theater of the Mind" for combat rather than using tactical maps. If it becomes necessary to use maps I may need some help setting that up as I have not used them before.
As this is intended as an "old-school" game, I will be showing preference in my selection of PC's to those who follow "old-school" PC creation archetypes. For example, a wizard is more likely to be selected if it is a human, elf or half-elf rather a dwarf or halfling.
Recruitment will be open through Friday, May 15th.
Materials used for character creation: Only the free Basic game on the Wizards website and the Player's Handbook. NO supplemental material (e.g. Elemental Evil Player's Companion).
Races: The following races are NOT available: Drow, Dragonborn, Half-Orc and Tiefling.
Classes: The following classes are not available: Monk, Sorcerer and Warlock. In addition, the Circle of the Moon archetype is NOT available for Druids. Finally, Bards will NOT have access to divine spells such as Cure Wounds, Healing Word, Lesser Restoration, Raise Dead, etc. When in doubt about a spell for Bards, ask me and I will make a ruling. Bards will only have access to the Wizard spell list for their Magical Secrets ability.
Equipment: None of the following equipment listed for sale in the PHB is available for purchase in this game: Hand Crossbow, Acid, Alchemist's Fire, Antitoxin and Potion of Healing. The Herbalism kit cannot be used to make Antitoxin or Potions of Healing.
I will not be using anything from Chapter 6 in the PHB. Thus no multi-classing and no feats.
Resting: You will only be able to benefit from one short rest between long rests. A long rest will NOT restore all lost hit points but will restore 1/4 (rounded down, minimum of 1) of your maximum hit points. Thus, a PC with a maximum hp total of 19 would recover 4 hp (19/4 = 4.75) from a long rest.
Critical Hits: Will not be used in this game. If you wish to play a Champion archetype Fighter, we can discuss an appropriate replacement ability for that archetype's Improved/Superior Critical feature.
Hit Points: We WILL be tracking negative hit points and not just stopping at 0. For example, if your PC has 7 hp and takes 12 points of damage you will be at -5 hp NOT 0 hp. You will need to be healed back up to at least 1 hp to regain consciousness; therefore, in the previous example you would need to receive 6 hp worth of healing to regain consciousness.
Death Saving Throws: Rolling a 20 does NOT make you conscious with 1 hp. It simply counts as one success. Rolling a 1 on a death saving throw does NOT count as two failures, only one.
Spellcasting: There will be NO ritual spells. Concentration rules are NOT in effect (See I can give you nice stuff, too!). Cantrips will NOT be spammable ad infitum. All casters who use cantrips will receive eight 0-level spell slots per day. If you have access to a feature that allows you to recover spell slots during the day (e.g. Wizards Arcane Recovery) you may choose to recover three 0-level spell slots per spell level recovered. Thus, a 2nd level Wizard can recover either one 1st level spell slot or three 0-level spells slots.
Magic Items: Potions and scrolls can be determined simply by sipping (potions) or reading the scroll (assuming someone of the appropriate class reads the scroll). All other magic items must have the Identify spell cast upon them to reveal their properties/charges/command words. Items with charges (e.g. wands) do not "recover" charges each day. Once a charge is spent, it is gone forever.
Seems reasonable to me, I'm in if you'll have me. I'll adjust this character
Work in progress here.
So that should be 120 gold to spend
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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I've got a question about one of your houserules:
Resting: You will only be able to benefit from one short rest between long rests. A long rest will NOT restore all lost hit points but will restore 1/4 (rounded down, minimum of 1) of your maximum hit points. Thus, a PC with a maximum hp total of 19 would recover 4 hp (19/4 = 4.75) from a long rest.
Okay, so suppose that at 2nd level, we take our one short rest. I'm mildly injured, so I roll one of my two hit dice to heal up. I've still got one left.
Later, we bed down for the night and complete a long rest. I'm at 1 HP. Can I spend the previous day's remaining hit die in addition to the 1/4max healing? Or are hit dice that don't get spent in the single short rest simply wasted?
Unrelated question: What level is this likely to end at?
Thanks!
I've got a question about one of your houserules:
Resting: You will only be able to benefit from one short rest between long rests. A long rest will NOT restore all lost hit points but will restore 1/4 (rounded down, minimum of 1) of your maximum hit points. Thus, a PC with a maximum hp total of 19 would recover 4 hp (19/4 = 4.75) from a long rest.Okay, so suppose that at 2nd level, we take our one short rest. I'm mildly injured, so I roll one of my two hit dice to heal up. I've still got one left.
Later, we bed down for the night and complete a long rest. I'm at 1 HP. Can I spend the previous day's remaining hit die in addition to the 1/4max healing? Or are hit dice that don't get spent in the single short rest simply wasted?
Unrelated question: What level is this likely to end at?
Thanks!
Good question. You would be allowed to utilize any hit dice that you did not spend in the previous short rest during your long rest and they would still be replenished at the rate specified in the PHB.
As far as the ending level, I honestly don't have any idea. Getting from 2nd to 3rd is really quick and I think it is possible/likely that the module would end with the PC's at 4th level but that is really just a guess.
You can't play old school, old school gamers with 5th edition rules.
You know how much we grumbled and gnashed our gums when the new fangled Pathfinder came out!
Whippersnapper! Stop this Tomfoolry!
I would have loved to play this using honest-to-goodness TSR 1st Edition AD&D rules but I knew I would get ZERO response to that recruitment post. I tried a recruitment using Labyrinth Lord rules for a Basic D&D adventure last year and got almost no response.
I did an initial interest check for this stating that I would be using modified 5E rules and still got plenty of interest...until they actually saw my house rules and then most people who expressed interest bailed.
That's okay, I just wanted a ballpark, like the difference between 2-5 and 2-15, you know? I probably won't be able to post a character until after the weekend, but I'm thinking of maybe rogue or a cleric.
You just reminded me that I left out a house rule about Rogues and Sneak Attack: Rogues may only Sneak Attack once per combat encounter and they must do so with a melee weapon (no ranged sneak attacks).
The other house rule I forgot relates to spells: spells which indicate you may make a saving throw to end an effect every turn (e.g. Hold Person) do NOT function that way in this game. If you fail the initial save, you get no further saves to end the effect.
Should be good to go now. Let me know if you want any more information or see any changes that need to be made.
I'm interested
Working on a Gnome Wizard (Tinker) starting wealth x 10gp. 80gp it is !
Just wanted to let everyone know that I will not be proceeding with this game. There simply wasn't enough interest after people saw my house rules. With only 3 submitted PC's (one fighter and two wizards) this game has died on the vine, I'm afraid.
DM Grognard thanks for putting it out there!