Here is a Resource for OD&D
Mar 26, 2016 8:21:33 GMT -5
The Semi-Retired Gamer, Vile Traveller, and 4 more like this
Post by Admin Pete on Mar 26, 2016 8:21:33 GMT -5
Over on Knights & Knaves a poster that goes by rogatny posted the following TSR and The Dragon table of contents for The Strategic Review and the first 32 issues of The Dragon for just those things that in his opinion relate to OD&D. The list itself is likely to trigger ideas, even if you never read any of the articles. In fact that is probably one of the best ways to use any big list, is just to trigger ideas - your ideas. On the other hand there is nothing wrong with reading the articles. I read pretty much everything I can get my hands on.
I [rogatny] put this together for my own use, but figured others might like to refer to it. There are certainly more comprehensive TSR/Dragon indexes on the Internet, but I find this useful and maybe one of you may, too. It's a brief description of the OD&D rules articles for all of the issues of The Strategic Review and the first 32 issues of The Dragon. The only article I really "unpack" is Gary's FAQ from The Strategic Review #2, since it is so dense and the subjects addressed are so varied.
I was looking for a quick reference in putting together my OD&D house rules. So, these are only rules oriented articles; I skip advice, commentary, and humor. I decided to stop at issue #32 (December 1979) of The Dragon for purely arbitrary reasons. There are certainly many articles written after the '70s that could be useful to someone's OD&D game. I also omit the more AD&D related articles - usually based on what the stat blocks look like or what product they reference - as they begin to appear starting in about issue #18. There's no reason why one could not apply them to their OD&D game. I just choose not to.
TSR#1: Mind Flayer – monster; Solo dungeon – random dungeon generation
TSR#2: D&D FAQ
- fighters get #att/round against 1HD or less creatures
- initiative is determined by rolling 2 (6-sided?) dice, high goes first, adjust for dexterity
- may attempt to grapple with successful hit – each successful hit rolls d6/HD or level, victim rolls d6/HD or level – if attacker total is more, victim is pinned and helpless – if defender total is more, attackers are thrown and stunned for total number of rounds equal to distance of dice – if tie, defender cannot use his weapon that round.
- Shield bonus to AC does not count from flank and back. Attackers have +2 to hit from rear
- Monster saving throws are generally as a fighter with level equal to HD, pluses rounded up. Magical or clerical tables if appropriate for the individual monster.
- Morale can be determined for npcs and monsters by rolling a 2d6 and adjusting as appropriate, high a good result, low a bad result.
- Monsters should be treated as an additional HD monster for each major power in terms of calculating experience. Magic treasures can be assigned XP values, but not a very high value
- Magic-users must determine which spells they are equipped with at the beginning of the day subject to their level, and can only use those spells. A single spell can be equipped multiple times. Magic-users must have their spells books to renew their spells the next day.
Roper – monster; Ranger – class; Pole-arm additions to the man-to-man combat tables in Chainmail
TSR#3: Yeti, Shambling Mound, Leprechaun, Shrieker, Ghost, Naga, Wind Walker, Piercer, Lurker Above – Monsters; Deserted Cities of Mars – random town generator
TSR#4: Chainmail weapon additions – more pole arms, morning star, bo stick, jo stick, staff; Illusionist – class; Clay Golem – monster; Magic items – Ioun Stones
TSR#5: Sturmgeshutz & Sorcery – rules for guns and artillery in D&D; Magic Items – Robe of Scintillating Color, Prayer Beads; Rakshasa, Slithering Tracker, Trapper – monsters
TSR#6: Alignment – introduction of Good & Evil axis; Bard – class; Magic items – bard harps; Greyhawk additions and corrections – all are incorporated into Greyhawk errata except “Gauntlets of Dexterity – give +2 Dex bonus to wearer.”
TSR#7: Further clarification on magic-use (basically reiterates FAQ in TSR#2); Magic items – Cup and Talisman of Akbar, Staff of the Priest Kings, Brazen Bottle; Denebian Slime Devil, Catoblepas – monsters; Thief bonuses for Dex and extraordinary (percentile) Dex
TD#1: Roll against attribute skill system – uses attributes and levels to create a percentage chance to succeed in a task; Magic & Science – “artificers” and their high-tech weapons; Use of languages; Bulette – monster; Illusionist additions; Three Kindreds of Eldar – elf variants
TD#2: Monk promotion combat – sort of “rock, paper, scissors” martial arts system; Dungeon hints column with trapped treasure chest chart, underground lake and river encounter chart, and magic items – hobbit pipes and pipeweed, ring of magic-missile, bag of infinite wealth, helm of forgetfulness, ring of infravision; Remorhraz – monster; Alchemist – class; Variable weapon damage variant
TD#3: Women & Magic – variant female characters; Birth tables – social class & family; letter from Lew Pulsipher and response giving alternatives to elf variant article in TD#1; Healer, Scribe, Samurai, Berserker, Idiot, Jester – classes; Dwarf variant; Combat bonuses for dexterity
TD#5: Witchcraft Supplement – witch npc/monster with new magic items; Anhkheg – monster; more arguments about elves in the letters page; Magical research variant
TD#6: Sea Trade; Psionic variant; Morale variant; Death Angel – monster
TD#7: Prowler – monster
TD#8: Planes of existence; Town creation; Valuation of gems & jewelry variant
TD#9: Ruminations on alignment by Gary; Contents of tombs & crypts
TD#10: Uses for gold in the campaign; Designing unique wilderness encounters; random monster design; random pc appearance table; gaining a new experience level variant
TD#11: Unarmed combat; quarter-staff fighting
TD#12: Illusionist revision; Persian and Lovecraftian Mythos; M-U’s in melee using EW’s initiative system; ship’s cargo
TD#13: “How Heavy Is My Giant?” – sizes and weights of creatures and substances; Random demon generation; Japanese Mythos
TD#14: Jarkung, Cursed Crimson Crawler, Ulik – monsters; Cthulhu mythos revisions; Lycanthropy – pcs as lycanthropes
TD#15: Dragon Magic – dragons variant; Pit trap random table; Random events table for settlements; wandering monsters advice; Ground and Spell area scale; Random weather generator
TD#16: More argument about the Cthulhu mythos; Near Eastern mythos; Ninja – class; penalty system for m-u’s and clerics to use more weapons
TD#17: Jousting; Specialist magic-users; random sights and sounds in the dungeon; Tesseracts; Wandering monster table for Egyptian dungeon level; Adamanite metal armor and weapons; Angels
TD#18: Insanity; Big list of new spells; “God game” – a tricky dungeon encounter; D&D to MetaAlpha conversions; Monk combat and weapons; Using poison; random NPC personalities
TD#19: Use of Wishes; Australian mythos; specialist spell-casters; random table to determine what spell npc spell-casters will use; location of treasures/traps random chart
TD#20: Polynesian mythos; Witch – class; Demonology Made Easy; Demonic possession
TD#21: NPC titles chart; spell research rules; list of npcs; Hall of Mystery – adventure
TD#23: Psionic combat variant; permanent damage – scarring, etc.
TD#24: Rules for limiting magic-users; Chinese Dragons; a different Lycanthropy system; alternate psionic system; Disease variant; Alignment and the power of gods
TD#25: Social Class; Different kinds of vampires
TD#26: Chinese undead monsters; Deck of Fate – magic item; hireling rules
TD#27: More types of elementals; African mythos
TD#29: God/pantheon creation; encouraging heroic acts rules; Inns & taverns, including food price list; Oceana Mythos; strain and spell-casting – a sort of spell point system; trained animals; aging; random npc personality table; Heward’s Mystical Organ
TD#30: Revised ninja class
TD#32: Poison rules; Aquatic mega-flora; The Fell Pass - adventure
I was looking for a quick reference in putting together my OD&D house rules. So, these are only rules oriented articles; I skip advice, commentary, and humor. I decided to stop at issue #32 (December 1979) of The Dragon for purely arbitrary reasons. There are certainly many articles written after the '70s that could be useful to someone's OD&D game. I also omit the more AD&D related articles - usually based on what the stat blocks look like or what product they reference - as they begin to appear starting in about issue #18. There's no reason why one could not apply them to their OD&D game. I just choose not to.
TSR#1: Mind Flayer – monster; Solo dungeon – random dungeon generation
TSR#2: D&D FAQ
- fighters get #att/round against 1HD or less creatures
- initiative is determined by rolling 2 (6-sided?) dice, high goes first, adjust for dexterity
- may attempt to grapple with successful hit – each successful hit rolls d6/HD or level, victim rolls d6/HD or level – if attacker total is more, victim is pinned and helpless – if defender total is more, attackers are thrown and stunned for total number of rounds equal to distance of dice – if tie, defender cannot use his weapon that round.
- Shield bonus to AC does not count from flank and back. Attackers have +2 to hit from rear
- Monster saving throws are generally as a fighter with level equal to HD, pluses rounded up. Magical or clerical tables if appropriate for the individual monster.
- Morale can be determined for npcs and monsters by rolling a 2d6 and adjusting as appropriate, high a good result, low a bad result.
- Monsters should be treated as an additional HD monster for each major power in terms of calculating experience. Magic treasures can be assigned XP values, but not a very high value
- Magic-users must determine which spells they are equipped with at the beginning of the day subject to their level, and can only use those spells. A single spell can be equipped multiple times. Magic-users must have their spells books to renew their spells the next day.
Roper – monster; Ranger – class; Pole-arm additions to the man-to-man combat tables in Chainmail
TSR#3: Yeti, Shambling Mound, Leprechaun, Shrieker, Ghost, Naga, Wind Walker, Piercer, Lurker Above – Monsters; Deserted Cities of Mars – random town generator
TSR#4: Chainmail weapon additions – more pole arms, morning star, bo stick, jo stick, staff; Illusionist – class; Clay Golem – monster; Magic items – Ioun Stones
TSR#5: Sturmgeshutz & Sorcery – rules for guns and artillery in D&D; Magic Items – Robe of Scintillating Color, Prayer Beads; Rakshasa, Slithering Tracker, Trapper – monsters
TSR#6: Alignment – introduction of Good & Evil axis; Bard – class; Magic items – bard harps; Greyhawk additions and corrections – all are incorporated into Greyhawk errata except “Gauntlets of Dexterity – give +2 Dex bonus to wearer.”
TSR#7: Further clarification on magic-use (basically reiterates FAQ in TSR#2); Magic items – Cup and Talisman of Akbar, Staff of the Priest Kings, Brazen Bottle; Denebian Slime Devil, Catoblepas – monsters; Thief bonuses for Dex and extraordinary (percentile) Dex
TD#1: Roll against attribute skill system – uses attributes and levels to create a percentage chance to succeed in a task; Magic & Science – “artificers” and their high-tech weapons; Use of languages; Bulette – monster; Illusionist additions; Three Kindreds of Eldar – elf variants
TD#2: Monk promotion combat – sort of “rock, paper, scissors” martial arts system; Dungeon hints column with trapped treasure chest chart, underground lake and river encounter chart, and magic items – hobbit pipes and pipeweed, ring of magic-missile, bag of infinite wealth, helm of forgetfulness, ring of infravision; Remorhraz – monster; Alchemist – class; Variable weapon damage variant
TD#3: Women & Magic – variant female characters; Birth tables – social class & family; letter from Lew Pulsipher and response giving alternatives to elf variant article in TD#1; Healer, Scribe, Samurai, Berserker, Idiot, Jester – classes; Dwarf variant; Combat bonuses for dexterity
TD#5: Witchcraft Supplement – witch npc/monster with new magic items; Anhkheg – monster; more arguments about elves in the letters page; Magical research variant
TD#6: Sea Trade; Psionic variant; Morale variant; Death Angel – monster
TD#7: Prowler – monster
TD#8: Planes of existence; Town creation; Valuation of gems & jewelry variant
TD#9: Ruminations on alignment by Gary; Contents of tombs & crypts
TD#10: Uses for gold in the campaign; Designing unique wilderness encounters; random monster design; random pc appearance table; gaining a new experience level variant
TD#11: Unarmed combat; quarter-staff fighting
TD#12: Illusionist revision; Persian and Lovecraftian Mythos; M-U’s in melee using EW’s initiative system; ship’s cargo
TD#13: “How Heavy Is My Giant?” – sizes and weights of creatures and substances; Random demon generation; Japanese Mythos
TD#14: Jarkung, Cursed Crimson Crawler, Ulik – monsters; Cthulhu mythos revisions; Lycanthropy – pcs as lycanthropes
TD#15: Dragon Magic – dragons variant; Pit trap random table; Random events table for settlements; wandering monsters advice; Ground and Spell area scale; Random weather generator
TD#16: More argument about the Cthulhu mythos; Near Eastern mythos; Ninja – class; penalty system for m-u’s and clerics to use more weapons
TD#17: Jousting; Specialist magic-users; random sights and sounds in the dungeon; Tesseracts; Wandering monster table for Egyptian dungeon level; Adamanite metal armor and weapons; Angels
TD#18: Insanity; Big list of new spells; “God game” – a tricky dungeon encounter; D&D to MetaAlpha conversions; Monk combat and weapons; Using poison; random NPC personalities
TD#19: Use of Wishes; Australian mythos; specialist spell-casters; random table to determine what spell npc spell-casters will use; location of treasures/traps random chart
TD#20: Polynesian mythos; Witch – class; Demonology Made Easy; Demonic possession
TD#21: NPC titles chart; spell research rules; list of npcs; Hall of Mystery – adventure
TD#23: Psionic combat variant; permanent damage – scarring, etc.
TD#24: Rules for limiting magic-users; Chinese Dragons; a different Lycanthropy system; alternate psionic system; Disease variant; Alignment and the power of gods
TD#25: Social Class; Different kinds of vampires
TD#26: Chinese undead monsters; Deck of Fate – magic item; hireling rules
TD#27: More types of elementals; African mythos
TD#29: God/pantheon creation; encouraging heroic acts rules; Inns & taverns, including food price list; Oceana Mythos; strain and spell-casting – a sort of spell point system; trained animals; aging; random npc personality table; Heward’s Mystical Organ
TD#30: Revised ninja class
TD#32: Poison rules; Aquatic mega-flora; The Fell Pass - adventure