Happy St. Patrick's Day, Here are some Celtic Legends

My love for mythology in tabletop RPGs started with Deities & Demigods, later I discovered its predecessor Gods, Demigods, and Heroes. This slim volume offered a brief but fascinating look at mythological figures with original D&D stats. While its scholarship may have been a bit thin, especially by modern standards, I’ve always appreciated its brevity. Mythology is a vast and complex subject, and distilling it into something gameable is no easy feat.

The real standouts in the book were the Hyborea and Elric sections—bringing the worlds of Robert E. Howard and Michael Moorcock into the game. However, I’ve always wished that instead of a broad survey, early TSR had released dedicated books focused on specific mythologies, diving deeper into their themes, creatures, and deities for use in OD&D.

That’s why I’m so excited about a new project from my longtime friend and game design partner, Rob Stone. Rob, a passionate scholar of Celtic mythology (and a proud Irishman), has written Celtic Legends: Faeries and Spirits, the first in a series exploring the rich folklore of the Celtic world. I’ve had the pleasure of contributing to the book’s art, layout, and design, and I can confidently say it’s a must-have for anyone looking to bring authentic Celtic myth into their games.

Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, Celtic Legends: Faeries and Spirits is now available! Here’s a sneak peek at a sample page:

If you love mythology in your RPGs and want a deeper dive into the world of Celtic faeries, spirits, and folklore, be sure to check it out!

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/515675/celtic-legends-faeries-spirits

Dwarf Crafter - an Original Edition Class

The Dwarf is severely limited in the original edition. It is restricted to the Fighting-Man class and can only rise to 6th level. They get a small number of interesting abilities that are acutely geared toward the sort of dungeon delving that was most popular in the early days of the game (and is still the best fun, in my opinion). While it does not explicitly associate race-as-class like the later Basic editions did, it was implied because they could only be the one class. Taking that idea and extrapolating it further here is a Dwarf class that is explicitly specialized at being a Dwarf.

The original Dwarf clearly drew inspiration from Tolkien, who in turn took his inspiration from Norse mythology. In that mythos there is little difference made between Elves (or Alfar as they are called) and Dwarves (or Duergar). Perhaps oversimplified, but the elves were light and lived in Alfheim, the dwarfs were darker and lived in Svartalfheim. They were semi-magical beings with the ability to craft wondrous items with powerful magical qualities. It makes sense then, that the original edition dwarf would have some magical crafting abilities.

In this version there is no limit to the level a Dwarf may attain, this is balanced by other factors.

DWARF CRAFTER 

An Alternate Original Edition Class

Prime Attribute: Strength, 13+ (+5% XP), 15+ (+10% XP)

Hit Dice: 1d8

Armor/Shield Permitted: Any.

Weapons Permitted: Any.

Languages: Gnome, Kobold, Goblin, Dwarf, Common

Dwarfs are at once Fighting-Men and Craftsmen of the finest sort. The quality of their metal work is legendary. 

Dwarfs emerged from the decomposing corpse of Ymir, the first frost giant. They were born without any distinguishable form or intelligence. Disgusted by their looks, the gods transformed them into a more human form and bestowed upon them a very high level of intelligence, and tremendous skill in crafting items of beauty and wonder.

Dwarfs are dour and stoic, and have a reputation for greed because gold and finely crafted art are their only true joys in life.

All dwarfs are of stocky build and have very broad shoulders. Their general complexion and size depends on their type; hill, mountain, or burrower:

Hill: these ruddy tan skinned dwarfs are about four feet tall and weigh around 175 pounds. This is the typical and most common dwarf.

Mountain: these brown skinned dwarfs are about four and a half feet tall and weigh around 200 pounds. Largest and most boisterous of the dwarfs, they are also not as common.

Burrowers: these gray skinned dwarfs are just under four feet tall and weigh around 150 pounds. Rarely seen on the surface world these reclusive dwarfs are known to delve in the deepest subterranean depths.

Dwarf Crafter Statistics

Dwarf Crafter Saving Throws

*Dwarfs generally save vs. spells at 4 levels higher.

Dwarfs are agile and rugged for their short stocky size. They have a knack for frustrating very large foes in combat thus they only take ½ damage from Giants.

Dwarfs are generally not adept at learning the complexities of spell casting, but they do have a natural ability to resist the effects of magic. This innate Magic Resistance gives them excellent saves vs spells (+4 levels, as already noted on the Saving Throw chart).

Dwarfs are the finest crafters in the known world and can forge weapons, armor, and other items to the highest levels of craftsmanship. Any item crafted by a dwarf has x4 base value and readily takes enchantment. They are the only beings able to craft and wield +3 Magic WarHammers.

A dwarf notices immediately if a surface they are traversing on is an inclined plane. 

The keen eye of a dwarf for craftsmanship and manufacturing gives them a bonus to detect traps, note shifting walls, and notice any new construction underground. 1-2 on d6.

Their keen eyesight extends into the ability to see in the absence of light, thus they have infravision and can see monsters up to 60’ away in the dark.

Goblins & kobolds are a dwarf’s natural (and most hated) enemies, and Dwarfs will attack them before any other enemies in sight. The dwarf gets a +1 bonus to hit when fighting these creatures.

Dwarfling

Optionally the Referee may permit the Dwarf character to begin as a 0 level Dwarfling. They will have 1d6 hit points, +0 Attack Bonus (or fight as a Man), and have saves as 1st level.

Happy 50th Birthday D&D

 

The OSR Elf

Now available, the OSR Elf. No longer part time fighter part time spellcaster, now it is a full time class that doesn't split its experience points. It is carefully balanced with the other original edition classes. Also includes a nifty old-school style character sheet fully illustrated specifically for the Elf, and also a blank version. That alone is worth the price. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/336205/Elf-OSR-Class

See the previous work in progress version here And the discussion on ODD74 here.

Reinventing the Greyhawk Thief

  Coming into D&D in the early 80's with the red box set and then quickly onto AD&D I had no idea that there were some who'd been playing the game since its release in 1974 that considered the Thief class to have broken the game.

While I very much enjoy the original LBB (little brown books) that are so bare boned there was only 3 classes: Fighting-Man, Magic User, and Cleric. I find that Greyhawk really completes the original set.

There is general agreement that Greyhawk which introduced variable damage and hit dice, ability score bonuses and penalties, and a variety of other things really fixed the game. Yet the thief seems to have stolen some of the primary things players were doing on adventures that hadn't quite been systemized yet: sneaking around and stealing stuff.

The thief is a staple now of just about any fantasy roleplaying game. Enjoying a special niche all their own separate from the fighting ability and spellcasting ability of other classes.  There is however a problem with the thief that I haven't seen much written about. That is how bad they are at their character abilities.

A 1st level thief can pick pockets with a 20% chance of success. You know from actually playing one that is terrible, there is an 80% chance of getting caught! All those other things are so bad there is hardly a point in even trying until higher levels, 15% to open locks? 10% to remove traps? Oops! Triggered again, the party is dead. Yikes. What if we got rid of all that stuff and they were really good at one thing first. What if pick pockets started at a 60% chance of success? Now we're talking. Then it could improve at a slower rate and eventually become very proficient.

What if they slowly acquired the other abilities as they leveled up?  Then they would be in synch with the other classes. With this idea in mind here is a reimagined Greyhawk-style thief class. A note on terminology, a few things are changed to be more generalized; for example the general term pilfering instead of the specific term pick pockets. Or climb instead of climb walls.

Each level opens a new Thief Class Ability. Success is not determined by a percentage, an idea I find doesn't fit the rest of the mechanics of the game, but by an ability check. The GM could adjust the difficulty of the task up or down. If the victim is attentive and other leery viewers in the area a pilfering attempt may be more difficult. If the victim is asleep success may almost be assured with only a roll of 1 waking the target up and getting caught. The level of the character and dexterity adjustment may be added to the roll of a d20 for success.

Prime Attribute: Dexterity, 13+ (+5% XP)
Hit Dice: 1d4
Armor/Shield Permitted: Any non metal. No shield.
Weapons Permitted: Any one-handed.

Thief Class Abilities

Pilfer: at 1st level the thief can filch small objects, pick pockets, and palm small items without being noticed.

Open Locks: at 2nd level the thief can open any lock given enough time and with the right tools.

Hear Noise: at 3rd level the thief is sensitive to sounds others may not notice, and identify what they are or what someone who is speaking in a language they understand is saying.

Climb: at 4th level the thief can climb sheer surfaces including walls and cliffs.

Backstab: at 5th level the thief can deal double damage when striking an opponent from behind. At 7th level damage is x3. At 9th level damage is x4.

Disarm Traps: at 6th level the thief can render a trap inoperable given enough time and the right tools.

Move Silently: at 7th level the thief can move at half speed without making a detectable sound.

Hide in Shadows: at 8th level the thief can become near invisible when lurking in shadows, they may slowly crawl at a rate of 1”.

Read Languages: at 9th level the thief can read any language they may have reasonably come in contact with, including magic. This ability allows them to use magic-user scrolls, though with a high degree of error. Reading languages excludes lost, ancient, extremely foreign, or dead languages that would require special knowledge to know.

Thieves Guild: at 10th level the thief becomes the master of a local thieves guild in a fortified hideout, usually in a seedier part of town, that will attract 2-12 apprentices. This hideout is difficult to find and infiltrate. They will also have political influence with corrupt officials and powerful criminal elements.

Thoughts? Discussion here:

https://odd74.proboards.com/thread/14527/reinventing-greyhawk-thief

APoM Design Diary #16 - Dak Kova

Dak Kova
Green Martian, Warhoon, 5th level Fighting Man
Armor Class: 5 [15]
Hit Dice: 6+6
Move: 120'
Attacks: longsword, and shortsword or pistol or tusks
Damage: 1d8, and 1d6 or 1d12 or 2d4
No. Appearing: 1 (unique)
Save: F5
Morale: 7
Treasure Type: A
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
XP Value: 700
Social Status: 12
Str: 12 (+0), Dex: 12 (+0), Con: 16 (+2), Wis: 15 (+1), Int: 10 (+0), Chr: 8 (-1)
Equipment: longsword, shortsword, pistol (x2).
Dak Kova is a Green Martian from the horde of Warhoon. He was a Jed until he challenged and killed the Jeddak Bar Comas and assumed leadership of the Warhoons. The conflict resulted from a disagreement over the fate of John Carter following his capture by the Warhoons, though Dak Kova had regarded Bar Comas as weak and unfit to rule and needed little excuse to usurp his position.

Bar Comas had much the better of the battle, as he was stronger, quicker, and more intelligent. It soon seemed that the encounter was done, saving only the final death thrust, when Bar Comas slipped in breaking away from a clinch. It was the one little opening that Dak Kova needed, and hurling himself at the body of his adversary he buried his single mighty tusk in Bar Comas's groin and with a last powerful effort ripped the young jeddak wide open the full length of his body, the great tusk finally wedging in the bones of bar Comas's jaw. Victor and vanquished rolled limp and lifeless upon the moss, a huge mass of torn and bloody flesh.
- A Princess of Mars, Chapter 18, Chained in Warhoon

APoM Design Diary #15 - Woola

Woola

Calot

Armor Class: 6 [13]

Hit Dice: 6/40hp

Move: 120' (360' burst)

Attacks: bite

Damage: 2d10

No. Appearing: 1

Save: F5

Morale: 12

XP Value: 600

Str: 18 (+3), Dex: 18 (+3), Con: 13 (+1), Wis: 9 (+0), Int: 5 (-1), Chr: 12 (0)

Equipment: n/a

Woola is a calot and the loyal hound of John Carter and his family. Calots are about the size of a Shetland pony, with ten short legs and a frog-like head, and a small amount of bristly "hair". They are the fastest creatures on Mars. He can perform bursts of speed for 2-8 rounds of 360' per round, and requires an hour of rest before performing a burst again.

Woola was once a guard-dog for the Tharks at Korad and was assigned by Sola the green martian because she feared for Carter's safety since Korad was infested with white apes. Carter misunderstood Sola's intent and attempted to run away and was startled to find Woola was faster than him. So he leapt to a second story window, but was grabbed by a white ape. In the struggle he was pinned down by the ape and was about to be smashed by another apes cudgel when Woola intercepted and tore at the massive creature. Carter returned the favor by grabbing the cudgel and smashing the monstrous ape's head in and saving Woola.

Carter showed affection to Woola by petting his head, and never before having experienced kindness Woola became his loyal companion. After John Carter was forced to leave Mars, Woola became Carthoris's pet and later that of his younger sister Tara.

APoM Design Diary #14 - Air Plant Keeper

Air Plant Keeper

Red Martian, 1st level Fighting Man

Armor Class: 10 [9]

Hit Dice: 1/6hp

Move: 120'

Attacks: shortsword or pistol

Damage: 1d6 or 1d12

No. Appearing: 1-4

Save: F1

Morale: 12

XP Value: 100

Str: 11 (+0), Dex: 10 (+0), Con: 10 (+0), Wis: 9 (+0), Int: 13 (+1), Chr: 9 (0)

Equipment: shortsword, pistol.

Air plant keepers are skilled in the operations of the great air generators that maintain the breathable atmosphere of Barsoom. They are dedicated to their job and will defend the plant from hostile forces that may harm it.

___

Some things are switched around in the stat format. This is similar to the classic B/X layout. Still considering what would be the best format. I like the brevity in the Warriors of the Red Planet rulebook, but feel it might be a little too minimalistic.

One of the common criticisms of WotRP is that it mentioned Social Status as an attribute, but doesn't provide much more information. I discussed Social Status a bit in this thread odd74.proboards.com/thread/14144/social-status-lurking-ability-stat

Social Status is a very important part of the Barsoom novels and deserves more extrapolation. So maybe Social Status should be added to these NPC entries?

APoM Design Diary #13 - NPC Roster

These are the 22 NPC's gleaned from the text of A Princess of Mars to be described in the adventure.

1. Air Plant Keeper
2. Bar Comas
3. Dak Kova
4. Dejah Thoris
5. Edgar Rice Burroughs
6. Gozava
7. James K Powell
8. John Carter
9. Kantos Kan
10. Lorquas Ptomal
11. Matai Shang
12. Mors Kajak
13. Notan
14. Sab Than
15. Sarkoja
16. Sola
17. Tal Hajus
18. Tardos Mors
19. Tars Tarkas
20. Than Kosis
21. Woola (calot)
22. Zad

APoM Design Diary #12: Bar Comas Jeddak of the Warhoon

I compiled a list of about 22 NPC's for the Princess of Mars Adventure (unless I missed some in my multiple read throughs). I'm thinking of illustrating and designing the stats for each character. So it will be a pretty hefty section of the book. Some might only need a brief stat block, while some of the more important ones will need quite a bit more. Here is the first one on my list:

Bar Comas
Green Martian, Warhoon, 6th level Fighting Man

CR/XP 6/320

Size L (12’6”)

AC: 5 [15]

HD: 6+6

Atk: longsword, and shortsword or pistol or tusks

Dmg: 1d8, and 1d6 or 1d12 or 2d4

Save: F6

Move: 120’

Str: 17 (+2), Dex: 13 (+1), Con: 18 (+3), Wis: 12 (+0), Int: 10 (+0), Chr: 8 (-1)

Equipment: longsword, shortsword, pistol (x2).

Bar Comas was the Jeddak of the Warhoon tribe of Green Martians. He was regarded as weak and not strong enough to rule by his lieutenant, Dak Kova, who killed him over a disagreement about what to do with John Carter after the Warhoons captured him. This resulted in Dak Kova becoming the Jeddak.

"He will die as Bar Comas, your jeddak, sees fit, if at all," replied the young ruler, with emphasis and dignity.

"If at all?" roared Dak Kova. "By the dead hands at my throat but he shall die, Bar Comas. No maudlin weakness on your part shall save him. O, would that Warhoon were ruled by a real jeddak rather than by a water-hearted weakling from whom even old Dak Kova could tear the metal with his bare hands!"

Making Sense of the OD&D Elf

Much has been said about the 1974 OD&D Elf, it is a bit of a strange class. On one adventure it is a Fighter on another it is a Magic-User, but it can't be both at the same time. It is awkward and somewhat unwieldy when running an OD&D game. How can we make a better version that also remains true to the integrity of the system? The core idea is you have a character with good fighting ability and some magic ability. Sounds a lot like a cleric, so perhaps it has similar spell progression. If you give an Elf the combat ability of a fighter and also spells there will need to be a balancing factor, so what if it had the experience progression of a Magic-User, and is limited to the 8th level? With this in mind we can give the Elf attacks and saves like a fighter full time.

How do you give level titles to an Elf? OD&D doesn't even address this. The authors of Basic simply smashed Fighter and Magic-User titles together and ended up with this:

1. Veteran-Medium
2. Warrior-Seer
3. Swordmaster-Conjuror
4. Hero Magician
5. Swashbuckler Sorceror
6. Superhero Necromancer
7. Lord Wizard
8. Lord Wizard 8th

These titles sound epic and compelling in a generic fantasy sense, who doesn't want to play a Superhero Necromancer! However, these titles don't really fit an Elf and are a bit strange. What can be done about that? Besides the obvious problem of race-as-class, which is only murkily suggested in OD&D and codified in Basic, level titles are always a bit awkward. And yet they unquestionably add flavor to vanilla fantasy. I don't have an answer yet, I'm still mulling it over. So for now Level Title is: Elf.

With all this in mind I present the 1974 OD&D Elf Class:

ELF
Elves are at once Fighting-Men and Magic-Users and thus they gain the benefits of both classes and may use both weaponry and spells. They may use magic armor and weapons usable by either Fighters or Magic-Users. They select spells from the Magic-User list.

Elves with a Dexterity of 14 or more reduce enemies' attack rolls by 1 per point of Dexterity over 14.

Elves are able to locate secret passages  and hidden doors on a roll of 1-4. They sense any secret door they pass, a 1 or a 2 indicating that they become aware that something is there. Elves have the ability of moving silently and are nearly invisible in their gray-green cloaks, reduce in half any chance anyone has of detecting the elf. Elves armed with magical weapons will add +1 to dice rolled to determine damage, i.e. when a hit is scored the possible number of damage points will be 2-7 per die.

Elves on foot may split-move and fire: move half their normal movement, fire an arrow, then move the balance of their normal movement. Mounted Elves may not split-move and fire, for they are not naturally adapted to horseback. Finally, Elves are able to speak the languages of Orcs, Hobgoblins, and Gnolls in addition to their own Elvish and the other usual tongues.

Alternate Combat System:

As for the Level Titles what can be done? I dunno. Adolescent, adult, village elder? Forest Warden. Nature protector? Orc slayer? Low elf, mid elf, high elf? There probably is a good approach. If I hear of one, I'll update this post.

fin.

Monastic Knights

I've been thinking about replacing clerics with military monks.

The basic cleric class has always been a strange fit in the genre of classic swords & sorcery that spawned the settings of D&D. It seems that the cleric was inspired more by Van Helsing as portrayed in Hammer Horror films than by medieval lore or the pulp fantasy novels that filled the imaginations of Gygax and Arneson. The cleric’s Turn Undead ability made them more like protectors of the living from the dead than military monks. In practice they became walking hospitals with a bit of combat ability.

The cleric seems to come almost out of the blue in the first published DnD rules. Chainmail had Religious Orders of Knighthood, it would have made more sense to have a monastic knight character class, which eventually came in a way with the Paladin in the Greyhawk supplement.

Clerics are often the one character class that a group needs to have but nobody wants to play. Paladins are a better fit in the genre than Clerics, but there is obviously an important place for dedicated healers in any adventuring party. They even got an entire booklet dedicated to them with the Gods, Demigods, & Heroes. Despite these efforts they are still some of the least favored classes to play.

To make the Cleric more appealing what if instead of a Van Helsing type, the Cleric was more akin to the military monks of old. Like the Templars, a group that became so powerful the pope and monarchies conspired to wipe them out. Or the high ideal minded Knights Hospitaller who sponsored hospitals, or the legendary and fearsome Teutonic Knights.

Some changes have to be made to adapt them to a world of swords & sorcery where multiple gods vie for servants among the humans, elves, dwarves, and other races. The largest change is making them serve a deity among a pantheon of deities, rather than the monotheism of the real world. Here is an OSR treatment of monastic knights and military monks making them suitable as player character classes, and a worthy replacement of the common Cleric. There are dozens of Religious Orders of Knighthood, the focus here is on the three most well known and distinctive orders. In game terms these represent a spectrum from compassionate healers to formidable warriors.

Here's a basic idea:

Monastic Knights

Templar Order strikes a balance between being warriors and healers. They use d8 for hit dice. Advance like clerics, but only go up to 4th level in spell casting ability. They can turn undead but not as well as Knights Hospitaller.

Knights Hospitaller are compassionate healers and only fight as necessary. They use d6 for hit dice. Advance like clerics in combat and spell ability. They can turn undead.

Teutonic Knights are formidable warriors. They use d10 for hit dice. Advance like fighting men. They cannot turn undead and get no more than 3 spell levels.

A Princess of Mars Adventure - Chapter 7

Chapter 7 Child-Raising on Mars

Book summary
After breakfast in the dead city, John Carter, Sola and Woola the watchdog, accompany a huge caravan of chariots and armed mounted warriors to the hatching ceremony at the isolated tribal incubator. Every five years, the best 500 eggs presented by the females are selected for a five-year incubation process in the solar heated, sealed incubators. The Earthman watches as the green Martians claim their fully-formed, four-feet-tall offspring. Sola claimed a young male to whom she would teach the barbaric skills necessary to survive the cruel existence of dying Mars. Under Sola's tutelage, both Carter and the child soon learned the spoken language and developed the mental powers needed for the universal Martian language of telepathy.

Player actions
Child Raising on Mars
Egg hatching ceremony
Learn barbaric survival skills
Learn spoken language of Barsoom
Learn martian telepathy

A Princess of Mars Adventure - Chapter 6

Chapter 6 A Fight That Won Friends

Book summary:
After Carter escapes his imprisonment and nearly eludes Woola a giant white ape-like creature and its mate attack. They have six limbs like the green men. Woola saves Carter from being smashed by the female's cudgel. Woola is endangered, Carter grabs the cudgel to defeat the female ape. Carter could use this opportunity to elude the male ape, but feels a sense of duty to rescue Woola.  Carter employs earth tactics with the cudgel and finishes off the male ape. The green martians are impressed by Carter's victory over the apes and wins their admiration. He also wins the devotion of Sola by saving Woola from being terminated by Tars Tarkas' gun.

Player actions:
If (when) the characters escape the prison White Apes attack
If the characters befriended a calot it will fight valiantly for them but will be killed if not helped.
Defeating white apes will win the admiration of the Tharks.
Saving the calot wins the devotion of Sola.

Rereading this the white apes were more intelligent than I remembered, for example they are using cudgels as weapons. I realize my impression of them was formed more by Frazetta's art than the text of the book.

Calot
HD 5; AC 6[13]; Atk: 1 bite (1d10); Move 12; Save F5; CL/XP 6/400; Special: Speed Burst 360' for up to 6 turns, 1 hour rest to perform again.
Calots are about the size of a Shetland pony, with ten short legs and a frog-like head, and a small amount of bristly "hair". They are the fastest creatures on Mars. Calots were domesticated by the Green Men who use them for multiple purposes such guard animals and fighting for entertainment in their arenas.

Ape, Giant White
HD: 6+6, AC: 4 [16], Atk: 4 fists or club (1d6 each, or 2d10), Move: 15, Save: F6, CL/XP 7/800.
These hideous, enormous apes resemble Earthly gorillas, but they are snow-white, stand nearly fifteen feet tall, and have four powerful arms. They are hairless except for a shock of stiff hair at the top of their heads which only increases their savage appearance, and are cunning predators, capable of scaling nearly any surface with ease. Many are devastatingly proficient with a club. These selfish beasts will try to kill silently if possible, but will not hesitate to howl for friends if seriously over matched. Some larger specimens have 8+8 HD.

Social Status

On page 10 of Men & Magic a simple formula for starting Gold Pieces is given:

"Each player notes his appropriate [ability] scores, obtains a similar roll of three dice to determine the number of Gold Pieces (Dice score x10) he starts with,"

It was noted on the OD&D discussion forums that this can be interpreted as your character's Social Status. It has the exact same range 3-18 of all other abilities, is determined the same way, and is in the same step of character creation.

Today I was re-reading issue #70 of Dragon Magazine from February of 1983 and stumbled across an article by Gary Gygax describing a Social Status system for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. He hints that it will be in the forthcoming expansion volume. I assume that became Unearthed Arcana. In his typical Gygaxian way he systematized social status into multiple tiers from Lower Lower Class, to Middle Middle Class, to Upper Upper class and everything in between. Also adding birth tables and corresponding Non-Human races.

So taking off from there here is a proposal for a very "white box" Social Status stat:

Roll 3d6 to determine your character's Social Status score

3-4 Lowest Class
5-9 Lower Class
10-14 Middle Class
15-18 Upper Class
19+ Royalty

Lowest Class: These are the dregs of society. Freed slaves, peasants, tinkers, vagabonds, beggars, criminals, common thieves and assassins
Lower Class: This is most people. Herdsmen, laborers, peddlers, actors, jugglers, men-at-arms, freemen, tradesmen, petty officers, money-changers, tax collectors, mountebanks, fences
Middle Class: Artisans, craftsmen, petty merchants, junior officers, bankers, landless knights, landed gentry, merchants, petty officials, senior officers, landless petty nobles, guild masters, great merchants, military commanders, officials, doctors, priests, landless nobles
Upper Class: Great landed gentry, generals and marshals, greater officials, knights, commanders, bishops, lesser nobles
Royalty: Great nobles, sovereign nobility, royalty

Parent’s Marital State roll 1d12
1-8: married, character is legitimate
9-10: character is an orphan
11+: unmarried, character is a bastard

Birth Order: roll 1d12 twice. The higher number is the number of children in the family. The lower number is the order in birth your character is.

First born generally inherits most or all the wealth, land, and titles. Subsequent born inherits proportionately less. In some cultures the children inherit their parent’s debt as well.

Your character's starting wealth is Social Status x10 in Gold Pieces. (30-180 GP)


Your class could have an effect, so each 2 or 3 levels you could gain +1 to your Social Status. There would be certain perks associated with them, advantages and disadvantages to each tier.

Converting the OD&D Alternate Combat system to d20

d20 assumes a simple progression of +1 bonus to hit for each HD. I was wondering how well that lined up with the original D&D TO HIT table. It's not quite that simple.

Looking at the Alternate Combat system (the top chart in gray) in the Original Men & Magic book the table is relatively smooth except in a few spots where it jumps. Between 2-3 and 3-4 hit dice the number needed to hit reduces by two. This also happens from 6-8 to 9-10 hit dice. We can take that as is and directly convert it to an ascending Armor Class combat system with a bonus to hit on d20. This is indicated in blue.

However with some tweaks we can smooth out those jumps a bit by spreading out 5 & 6 and then grouping 7-8 and moving 9 hit dice down to its own column.

I think these adjustments remain very true to the original To Hit chart while smoothly adapting it to an ascending Armor Class system.

The blue chart is useful for converting OD&D to d20 as well. For example a 4HD monster might be better as a 3HD monster in d20/5e.

Here are a couple other To Hit tables from early DnD that ever so slightly smooths out this progression by delineating the overlap a little more clearly, like separating 3 from 3+. From the Holmes "Blue Book" basic:

And this classic from the indispensable, hugely useful, Judges Guild Ready Ref Sheets which appears to be identical to that in OD&D, just expanded.

Complete Original Dungeons and Dragons set for sale including Chainmail

Alright, I know I'm pushing a lot of stuff to sell lately, and it's Christmas time so you are being bombarded. My wife had me clean up the home office and I'm using the classic "Keep, Sell, Toss" method. So, lots of great old gaming stuff going up on ebay. A great present for that gamer in your life! (or yourself)

I'm selling my original white box set and all the expansion books for it. Chainmail through Swords & Spells. They are all in very good condition, with Chainmail having the most wear because it's been played a lot, it's still pretty good.

Original 1974 White Box Dungeons and Dragons Set
http://ebay.us/Qa6CAg?cmpnId=5338273189

Chainmail
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Greyhawk
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Blackmoor
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Eldritch Wizardry
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Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes
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Swords & Spells
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Raiders! Available for online sales

At last, got the edits completed, exported the files and got them all loaded up on Lulu! This is the most ambitious Original Edition RPG yet, absolutely packed with information. Yet, still light and easy to play.

http://www.lulu.com/shop/thomas-denmark/raiders-of-the-lost-artifacts/paperback/product-23097586.html

You can join the Raiders! community and tell us what you think and how your adventures are going.