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.
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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.
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.
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.
Please do NOT post that you are dropping out of the recruitment in this thread. I would like this thread to "die" and drop down the board. If you absolutely feel you must comment on the fact that you don't like the house rules I have instituted, do so in the actual recruitment thread although I'd prefer you didn't clutter up that thread just to say you don't want to play with the house rules I have set up. Thanks.
Okay, there appears to be enough preliminary interest in this trip down memory lane, so I will start an actual recruitment thread later today with full details on the adjustments I intend to make to the 5E rules to get a little closer to the "old-skool" feel I am looking for.Can you link it here to make sure we all find it? Thanks!
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. House Rules: 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.
Okay, there appears to be enough preliminary interest in this trip down memory lane, so I will start an actual recruitment thread later today with full details on the adjustments I intend to make to the 5E rules to get a little closer to the "old-skool" feel I am looking for.
Work in progress. Mountain Dwarf Wizard with Guild Artisan background. Will be specializing as a transmuter. Is a member of mason's/stonecutter's guild. Proficient with mason's tools and wood carver's tools. I think it would only be fair to tell you that as I am trying to keep the "old-skool" flavor, I would be less likely to select a PC that doesn't fit that "vibe"...like a dwarven wizard, for instance. ;)
As stated in the thread title, this is a preliminary check to determine if there is enough interest in playing a classic "old-skool" 1st Edition adventure using the quasi "old-skool" ruleset: 5E. I have not yet settled on which 1E module to use and might allow the group to decide (assuming this game even gets off the ground...). 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 would likely be making a few tweaks/houserules to give the game a little more of the old-skool flavor. I can definitively state that the following race or class options would not be available: drow elf, half-orc, dragonborn and tiefling races as well as the monk and warlock classes. (I'm aware that half-orcs and monks were in the 1E PHB but I have never allowed them in my games.) I would not be using any of the supplemental material that Wizards has put out in Unearthed Arcana or the Elemental Evil companion material, just the Basic rules and Player's Handbook. Characters would be built using the 27 point buy system in the 5E PHB with max HP at 1st level. Multiclassing and feats would 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 would be set at a minimum of three posts per week. I would probably only post three days a week but would likely make multiple posts on those days.
I'm still here but the response level has been even lower than I expected and I wasn't expecting much for an old-school rules game on a new school rules game forum. I'm not sure if there are enough players/PC's to proceed with this or not as I am not all that keen on running NPC henchmen. A second issue I am struggling with (and this is my mistake) is that I didn't read the module again before posting this recruitment thread and, after reading it over, I am not sure that I really want to run a Basic D&D game after all. I primarily proposed Basic D&D because it was well...basic and thus easier to learn/run and I felt a little intimidated at trying to go with AD&D after a long time away from that system. However, after reading B1, I am not really that "geeked" on running that adventure and would prefer to run something like T1, N1 or U1. So...I'm a little torn on how to proceed. Are any/all of the people who posted complete characters in this thread actually still interested (most have not posted in a while)? If so, does everyone still want to play Basic D&D and In Search of the Unknown or would there be interest in running an AD&D game instead (honestly, my preference)?
Yeah, I think I need to change my screen name to DM McSoftyPants and turn in my Grognard card at the next meeting. :D
Nice work on that character sheet. Looks great!
In the interest of creating a slightly more level playing field for everyone (...and straying even further from the old-school mentality, alas), I will permit anyone who fails to roll at least one 16 or higher in character generation to replace their highest stat with a 16. Thus, Druna can replace her 15 CON with a 16 and Lucky Wilkins can replace his 14 DEX with a 16. I'm not going to be using the bonus XP for high stats in prime requisite scores, though. NOTE: I placed a link to the free PDF download for "A Primer on Old School Gaming" by Matt Finch, author of the Swords & Wizardry rules, in the campaign info page. This is a helpful refresher on the play style used in older/rules-lite gaming.
I forgot to mention starting Gold and Hit point rules: Starting gold is 135 gp for all PC's Max hit points at 1st level. (Yeah, not old-school at all, but I'd like to give you all a chance to survive past the first combat encounter.)
Do you remember when "Elf" was a class, a 10 foot pole was standard adventuring gear and when players actually ran away from monsters? Then this thread just might be right up your alley... I will be running the classic Old-School Basic D&D module B1: In Search of the Unknown using Labyrinth Lord Core rules which are available for free download here: LL Core rules -- the first download link on the page are the Core rules. --We will be creating characters the way Moldvay and Cook intended: 3d6 in order (Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution and Charisma). --I am looking for 5-7 players. Ideally there should be 1 of each of the core classes: Figher, Cleric, Thief and Magic-User. --We will be using THAC0. --I'd like to try just using Theater of the Mind initially. If that proves to be too difficult we may need to move to using maps but I am not really familiar with any mapping software so that could be problematic. --I will set the posting requirement at 3 times per week. I will mostly be posting on Sunday, Tuesday(evening) and Thursday(evening) but will likely make multiple posts on those days. Combat generally moves more quickly in Old School gaming so we should probably move at about the same pace as a 1 post per day game. So, are there any other old-timers out there who would be interested in joining me on a trip down Nostalgia Lane?
I decided to be more precise in my parameters for the game...so, I am going to definitively state that I will be using Labyrinth Lord (base rules only) to play one of the following Basic D&D modules: B1 In Search of the Unknown
(to be decided by the group or DM fiat if I feel like it...) I will also mention that if this campaign does in fact start up, I will put the posting requirement at 3 posts per week. Personally, I prefer not to feel obligated to post something everyday as that starts to feel like a job, so I would probably be posting on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday but I would likely make multiple posts on those days. It is possible that I might post on other days, but that should not be an expectation by anyone playing in the game.
Do you remember when "Elf" was a class, a 10 foot pole was standard adventuring gear and when players actually ran away from monsters? Then this thread just might be right up your alley... This thread is intended to gauge if there is any interest for playing an "old school" rules PbP game on this here forum. This would be pretty much be a "one shot" game (most likely a dungeon crawl) not a full-fledged campaign with long running plot lines. I am open to discussion as to which OSR system to run (assuming there is sufficient interest...) including any of the following: Swords and Wizardry (any variation), Labyrinth Lord (Basic or Advanced), OSRIC or even official 1st Edition AD&D. Once a system was settled on, we could then discuss which module we would like to run. So, are there any other old-timers out there who would be interested in joining me on a trip down Nostalgia Lane? |