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.