What if Paizo wrote 1E?


Conversions


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Been kicking around in my head for a while and with the re-release of the books, I thought I post. 1E is full of nostalgia for me (not a proper grognard, I know).

What would it look like if Paizo re-wrote the rules? I don't mean "changed" them, but re-wrote them for ease of use. Of course, some ease of use, could be construed as "changed" (or converted, which is why I post here) - but the math and the results of the die roll remain the same.

Here is a sample (simplistic one I know) but gives a flavor for it. All I did was convert THAC0 to "Hit AC 20" (which means the same thing generally) and I took the 0-level saves and made them the "Base DC" and converted the rest of the saves to "pluses". Same math, same rolls needed. Easier to use.

Thoughts? Just a fan's nostalgia trip, but interesting how far you could go with this. The 1E rules are just all over the place but with a simple re-ordering and re-structuring, how close could you get to today's game? - While still retaining the nerdy coolness of 1E? (maybe I'm the only one that feels this way - I understand there's some serious unhappiness with 1E out there).

Cheers,

~D


O.o Cool. Hey i cant b&@$$ about 1e It got me started on this monkey on my back called role-playing. 1e despite being clunky disorganized and allover the place with its inconsistencies and weird limitations still helped make D&D what it is today and by D&D i mean pathfinder ofcource.

Anyway If you go any further with this i would love to see where you go.


O.o Cool. Hey i cant b~~*+ about 1e It got me started on this monkey on my back called role-playing. 1e despite being clunky disorganized and allover the place with its inconsistencies and weird limitations still helped make D&D what it is today and by D&D i mean pathfinder ofcource.

Anyway If you go any further with this i would love to see where you go.


clff rice wrote:


Anyway If you go any further with this i would love to see where you go.

Thanks! It kind of helps me "clean the brain" as I'm working on conversions (and it's fun searching through the arcane tomes of the three 1E books looking for obscure rule-tie-ins).

I did another update. While I'm sure I could keep AC a downward grading scale against a THAC0, I'm kind of seeing what it looks like to use the AC20 model and Base AC10+bonus. For now.

~D


oops double post :O

Dark Archive

This is a very fun looking conversion. Both with a humorous twist (the nostalgic stuff is both cool and funny in a bizarre way) and an actual serious thought process on converting 1E (superior general game IMO) mechanics to a 3rd ed format.

The Fighters whirlwind attack is a great take on the obscure attack per round vs. 0-level foes.
The only thing I would (maybe) change is instead the d8 HD being a factor maybe go with the creatures CR. So if they have less than 1 CR the fighter can get multiple attacks against them (# of attacks = level, 1 attack only per target in reach).
But yours works just as well.

The thing is I see what you did with this whole project - and it’s good, really good. What you have converted so far is what 3rd edition should have looked like. Again, my opinion - but I would have really loved a "true" successor to the 1st/2nd ed D&D line vs. what was offered up in 2000.

Good stuff and a fun read.


Auxmaulous wrote:

This is a very fun looking conversion.

Hey, thanks for the comments - I had kind of hoped someone out there would "get it" - It's amazing the number of nooks and crannies 1E had even in just the first three books. Trying to compile across the books so the full rule was covered was... interesting.

I like the idea about CR, I wanted to convert to just "less than one hit dice", but as you know, low level creatures had a "full hit dice" even if it was just a d4. I wasn't sure whether to go all the way to challenge ratings yet.

I was trying to "just d20-ize" it enough to make the math easier to handle at a glance.

I've been ruminating over the horror (maybe I'm just not nostalgic enough) that is the 1 minute round and 6 second segments, initiative, lack of clearly defined actions, etc. I forgot how hard it was to get a spell off in combat. I'm trying make it work in an "easy to use" table, using some of the tricks learned in the beginner's box game. But, we'll see. Either way, I want to keep it true 1E so no changing rules other than lining up AC, attack and saves math. I might change % to d20 or yards to feet, but the values are the same.

Some rules are just inferred. Trying to understand "base movement" without any definition and what happens when a slow character (dwarf, gnome) wears heavy (sorry, "bulky") armor was interesting.

Thanks for geeking out along with me (well, more than I guess the usual geeking out we do around here...)

If anyone wants to add something, I'll put it in.

~D

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