The campaign has been in progress for a year, and I feel like shaking things up a bit. P.W./Dick Dock's player needs to roll up a character, and Gutboy has a good chance of dying, so I'm making some changes to the house rules.
a. Any Basic or AD&D class is fair game, from any source. Unearthed Arcana, Oriental Adventures, the goofy ones from Dragon Magazine - it's all good. Death Masters, Anti-Paladins, Geisha, Duelists, it's all good. Only caveat here is I will rework the XP tables for any class so it's more in line with Labyrinth Lord. Stats will still be 3d6 in order, but players will be allowed to move points from stat to stat to make the minimums for a desired race or class.
b. I like variable weapon damage vs. size from AD&D, so I'm going to start using that too.
c. Not sure if I'm going to go for AD&D style hit dice (e.g. d10's for fighters) or reduce the dice used for the other classes
d. All spells are fair game for choosing wizard & cleric spells, from Unearthed Arcana or wherever.
e. I'm going to add Moktars and Insect People of the Lanthanide Wastes as playable races/classes. Now I need to stat those up.
The net effect, I hope, is to both up the gonzo factor, and to make character death more palatable. I am giving no consideration for balance - this isn't a video game. If somebody gets overpowered, great, enjoy it until you're dead. Then do something different.
PDF
I never understood the variable weapon damage by size thing in AD&D. In fact I think most of the weapon damage tables from ealy editions are seriously borked. A warhammer was designed to penetrate plate armor yet they have it doing 1d4+1 or 1d6 damage? Battle axes do the same or less damage than longswords, yet they are 2 handed weapons? A crossbow does 1d4 damage? I won't even get into the weights that they list for the weapons (i.e. completely wrong!). But including two or more different damage values for each weapon just seems like one more thing one needs to look up in the books in the middle of a fight.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to see some logical weapon damage tables then check out James Raggi's Lamentations Of The Flame Princess. He has big, meaty weapons doing big, meaty damage and doesn't seem to care that a cleric can do 1d8 points of damage on a melée attack.
Other than variable damage vs. size it sounds pretty cool. Especially opening it up to allow any class and spell. That'll gonzo the hell out of everything.
ReplyDeleteWhen you stat up the Moktars and Insect People will you be posting them? I'd love to shamelessly borrow them for my own games.
Ed Green
There was a Geisha class? I caught the two variations on Sumo wrestlers for OA, but the Geisha passed me by. Can somone give the name of the source material?
ReplyDeletePat,
ReplyDeletePlease don't let my tirade influence how you run your game It really sounds like an awesome campaign.
No love for variable weapon damage, apparently!
ReplyDeleteYeah I'll post the Moktars & Insect People when I've got them written up. I need to get that done this weekend, since the next session is Tuesday.
Geishas were from Dragon Magazine, issue 121
No worries, By The Sword, I appreciate the opinions!
ReplyDelete