OD&D with Chainmail - playtesting and session reports

[multiarms]

I've recently become very interested in OD&D, which is what led me to this very interesting corner of the internet and the various discussions in this forum. My play experience with the original game is somewhat limited however. I have run several sessions for my regular group using Swords & Wizardry Complete (a retroclone), and I played in one convention game using White Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game (a clone of a clone haha). 

I have read Chainmail: Rules for Medieval Miniatures (1971) several times over the past year, but found it very confusing and difficult to grasp at first. I was interested because I realized that the d20 attack matrix system which we are now accustomed to from 40+ years of D&D was actually initially meant to be the alternative combat system, which might be used in lieu of Chainmail.

Recently I began to finally understand Chainmail a little bit (I think). Material which helped me included a document called "Compleat Chainmail: Using Chainmail to Resolve OD&D Combats". This document was published online around 2010 and is still hosted by our friend Jason Vey over at his website, along with a bunch of other interesting free stuff.

After that, I stumbled upon the copious material of Daniel Norton, a YouTuber who made multiple audio podcast episodes, detailing his use of Chainmail to run combat in OD&D. His podcast is here, and he eventually uploaded a document of his custom Chainmail rules. Go back to episodes 2 and 3 of his podcast and start there. He has some "acutal play" audio on his podcast and he has a video of Chainmail being used on his YouTube here. This guy has been very helpful to me in understanding Chainmail.

So, inspired by this material, I perhaps impetuously signed up to run several convention events using OD&D with Chaimail. I am going to be running an event at Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio this fall, followed by Con on the Cob near Cleveland, and probably also GameHole Con in Madison, Wisconsin. I will run the same scenario all three times. But I still need to playtest the OD&D/Chainmail rules and design a scenario (GULP!)

So this past weekend, while I had some free time due to the US holiday, my wife and I sat down to try to play some OD&D, one-on-one style. This was the first time for her playing one-on-one, and I haven't played that way since I was a little kid with my brother. We both found it very enjoyable, since there was absolutely no rush! We could take as much or as little time on the session as we wanted!

I intend to write up some playtest notes and session reports in this thread, for those who are interested. I'd love to hear others' comments and ideas about these rules and my rulings as I describe them. Should be fun for me at least.

Admin Pete feel free to migrate this thread to wherever it is most appropriate.

Cheers,

Nick

[The Perilous Dreamer]

This a good location for the discussion, we might move it after it runs its course, but this is fine.

A little bit of an historical note is that (by all reports, including Rob Kuntz) the "alternative combat system" was the primary system well before publication and from what I have gathered in general, it was called the "alternative combat system" (along with other notes in OD&D) so that reference to Chainmail could be made to sell more copies of Chainmail. Well before publication use of Chainmail for anything other than a mass battle had ceased. There was nothing wrong with Gygax wanting to see more issues of Chainmail, though it has muddied the waters somewhat.

Nevertheless, exploring the use of Chainmail for one-on-one combat is quite interesting and a great exploration to do. Especially considering that both Arneson and Gygax abandoned that avenue and each had their own combat system. We don't know a lot about Arneson's except that hit points were more fixed and you got harder to hit as level increased and he also used opposed roles in combat - I am not sure of the details beyond that.  Of course, Gygax devised the version called the "alternative combat system" as his combat system.

That all said, I am really looking forward to see what you do with this and where it takes you.

[multiarms]

Session 1 (7/4/21)

Olivia and I sat down for a few hours of casual D&D. 

My materials included the original edition 1974 rules (in the form of Greyharp's Single Volume Reference document which I have printed up and in a 3-ring binder), Chainmail: Rules for Medieval Miniatures (2nd edition with yellow cover in booklet form), and Daniel Norton's Chainmail hack document (linked in the first post), also printed and bound in the same binder as Greyharp.

I had a set of pink 6-sided dice. Olivia had a nice set of green. Both from Chessex and bought the day before at our FLGS for the express purpose of playing this new game. Fully prepared to slaughter the sacred cow of the d20 (although we did end up using it for other stuff as described below).

We had some 28mm scale miniatures, mostly cheap plastic and unpainted. They were Reaper line  minis, plus some WizKids "townspeople" and a little farming village set with pre-painted livestock and farm buildin.

We each have our own notebooks dedicated to this campaign (Leuchtturm1917 A5 dotted - mine black, hers purple, in case any other notebook nerds out there).

We started by rolling up attributes for a PC. In keeping with the text of the original game, I as Referee rolled for her attributes. We rolled up about 10-12 sets of PCs and then she picked one that looked interesting. She usually likes fighting-types, but none of these poor sods had a Strength score over 11 haha. She chose a set which had 15 in Constitution and chose to make a Cleric. She has a cool female cleric mini so we used that and she named the Cleric "Gal" (short for something which I now forget. With her starting gold she "purchased" plate armor and shield, a morningstar, and some adventure equipment. I say "purchased" because she decided that it was given to her by her deity as a boon, since she was from a poor little homestead with no store or blacksmith. Her patron is the Blue Lady, a lawful goddess, and she is of course a lawful Cleric. 5 hit points were rolled (with the constitution bonus).

She had some extra cash, so we decided that she could have a hireling/companion. The cost of a crossbowman was listed as 4 gp/month so we deducted 4 and grabbed a mini with a crossbow. Thus, "Hal" the faithful childhood friend was born. Hal is of course devoted to Gal and in love with her, but she is pledged to chastity in service of the Blue Lady. The last of the gold went to a draft horse, named "Pal."

I began the session with Gal in her little homestead, which has been stricken with a famine. The crops have failed and the villagers are restless. Meanwhile, young Gal has received a vision of the Blue Lady, who has blessed her with the powers of a Cleric and tasked her with finding the source of this curse on the village. She has given her a clue to "find the Baron" and ask for his aid. Unfortunately, no one has seen or heard from the Baron in at least a generation, and no one in this little podunk settlement even knows where his castle might be.

Meanwhile, a trio of local toughs arrives at the well where Gal and Hal are watering Pal the horse in preparation for their voyage. Bruno, Stugg, and Chortle confront them, demanding that they turn over Pal to be slaughtered and eaten by the hungry townsfolk. I was goading them into a fight, but Gal demured, using logic and reason instead. She offered them the last of the egg-hens to eat instead, and promised to go get help from the Baron. She did have "purify food and water" prepared as a spell but decided to save it [partly because of a specific rule which is in play stating that memorized but un-cast spells confer a defensive bonus on an MU or Cleric in Chainmail combat - see Daniel's document].

So battle was avoided, and Gal and Hal departed on their horse into the wilderness to search for the Baron. At this point, I grabbed a piece of hex graph paper and turned to the wilderness adventures section of the rules. Because this session was impromptu I did not have a wilderness map prepared, so I used the "generating random wilderness" section on page 173 of the 1979 AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide. Their pace on horseback was 5 hexes per day, so we wandered through some rough terrain, crossed a river at a ford, and eventually camped in a "desert" which in my world is like the barren moors of Wales. I diced for random monsters and rolled indicating an encounter! I rolled on the OD&D chart and got men, bandits. Now, 30-300 bandits versus 2 characters didn't sound like fun, so instead I had the encounter be the 3 tough guys from the village, who followed Gal and Hal to bushwhack them. This time, they weren't accepting any talk, and a battle ensued...

To be continued!

[multiarms]

Here's where the crunchy Chainmail combat part begins...

I think the biggest confusion about Chainmail for me, and the realization which helped me crack the code to understanding it, is that there are actually THREE combat systems within Chainmail, which can be used separately in different situations, whichever of the three is most appropriate in the context. Also, the three can be combined in interesting ways. For purposes of this thread, I will follow Daniel Norton's nomenclature and call the three combat systems Troop Combat, Man-to-Man Combat, and Fantasy Combat.

We decided to begin the encounter using the Troop Combat system initially.

The 3 tough guys are unarmored with simple weapons, so they count as "light foot" for attack and defense. As a unit they count as 3 men.

Gal is a level 1 Cleric. So she fights as equivalent to "one man." Armed with a mornigstar she attacks as "Heavy Foot" and with her plate and shield she counts as "Armored Foot" for defense.

Hal is a stat-less crossbowman (we don't even need hit points or anything for him in this system). With missile attacks against light foot he get 3 dice per man, and scores a hit on 4+ (very good!).

Initiative was rolled and won by the bad guys. They moved forward to engage in melee. I allowed Hal to loose his crossbow and attack before melee was resolved. 3 dice were rolled and 2 hits were scored, killing 2 of the 3 bandits. This may require some house-ruling on my part. Part of the heavy crossbow is that it can only fire once every other round because of reload times. So how could one man kill more than one enemy unless he was going through them with one bolt? It would make more sense if there were a limit of one "hit" per man firing or something, and the extra dice just represent a high lethality and very good chance of killing.

But we kept playing, and entered melee phase. The bandit attacked Hal, light foot vs light foot. He is one man so one die and hits on a 6. He failed.

The next round, the good guys won initiative. Olivia and I discussed the nuances of Chainmail system here. If Gal engaged Bruno in troop combat, they would exchange blows, whereas in Man-To-Man combat, the "first blow" would be delivered based upon weapon class, allowing Gal's longer, slower weapon a chance to kill before the bad guy hits back. She decided she wanted to duel the villain in Man-to-Man while Hal reloaded. Consulting weapon class, the morningstar is 2 higher than the short sword of Bruno, so Gal would get first strike in round one, whereas the lighter sword would take over first strikes in subsequent rounds. To hit the unarmored Bruno required a roll of 6 on 2d6. She rolled a 7, and rolled a d6 for damage. She rolled 5 damage as I rolled 3 hit points, so Bruno was defeated. [NOTE: in retrospect, Gal would have fared even better in Troop combat. Consulting the tables, light foot versus armored foot rolls 1 die per 3 men, so 1 or 2 LF enemies couldn't possibly hit Gal in her plate mail... she would be essentially invulnerable!]

We ended the session there. It took us about 2-3 hours to generate characters, make the story, roleplay, and figure out this one small battle. But as I said, on-on-one gaming is quite relaxing and low-key with no rushing required. I will continue to post updates of our sessions and I'm happy to discuss any details of the Chainmail combat system(s) since I know they are rather confusing at times.

Cheers!

Nick

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Quite interesting, I have read comments by Chainmail players about this stuff, but never having played Chainmail, I don't remember the details.

You linked to this The Compleat Chainmail and there is also this one too, Forbidden Lore which also concerns Chainmail.

[multiarms]

Jul 6, 2021 20:46:32 GMT -5 The Perilous Dreamer said:

Quite interesting, I have read comments by Chainmail players about this stuff, but never having played Chainmail, I don't remember the details.

You linked to this The Compleat Chainmail and there is also this one too, Forbidden Lore which also concerns Chainmail.

Yup! Forbidden Lore and Age of Conan both discuss the use of Chainmail for OD&D combats.

Jason Vey ("The Grey Elf") and D.H. Boggs ("Aldarron") both did a ton of valuable research and writing about Chainmail back in the early OSR period.

[Admin Pete]

Jul 6, 2021 16:03:34 GMT -5 multiarms said:

Admin Pete feel free to migrate this thread to wherever it is most appropriate.

Cheers,

Nick

You're good, great thread.

[multiarms]

Session 2:

Gal and Hal had now leveled up (because I want to get to higher-level play quickly and try it out). Gal is now a level 2 cleric with a spell, and we'll say that Hal is a level 1 fighting man with his crossbow.

They continued their wilderness exploration, and after traversing some forest hexes they encountered a settlement (I'm still using the AD&D DMG tables to generate the wilderness hexes on the fly as we are adventuring). It was rolled as a castle! Perhaps this is the home of the mysterious Baron whom they are seeking. But I rolled on the OD&D castle table and got an Evil High Priest with a band of 8 spectres and 140 chaotic men-at-arms. Holy crap! That is awesome. I named the fortress Wyrmcastle and described it as a twisted tower dire, with large dark aerial monsters circling the spire (giant bats perhaps, or small pterodactyls??). The EHP is name Levitosh the Lame and unbeknownst to Gal and Hal he is the source of the curse on the surrounding lands and the famine in their home village. I rolled to see if they detected the small party with their evil forest spies, giving them a bonus due to small size of the party (2 adventurers and a horse). They were not detected, and decided to quickly flee that hex marking it on their map as a dangerous locale.

In the next area, there was a forest with a pond or small lake. I rolled a random encounter and got a lycanthrope! So they met Letsukot the fisherwoman and secretly a werewolf, cursed by Levitosh. She was in human form, and friendly if a little sad. She told them about Wyrmcastle and Levitosh, and they suspected that something was wrong with her from the way she spoke. She invited them to her home for supper, indicating the Souteasterly direction of her cottage, but they declined. Instead they traveled North, continuing the search for their Baron.

The next hex was mountainous, slowing their progress, and they camped for the night. Gal went to sleep while Hal kept watch. Late that night, Letsukot approached the camp, but Hal detected her, surprised to see her here. She came to the campfire and quickly transformed into werewolf form, horrifying Hal who screamed and woke Gal. Combat ensued...

Now, these low level characters, not being "heroes" yet, cannot engage a werewolf in Fantasy Combat using those 2d6 tables. But they can engage in Troop Combat, although the werewolf's fight capability is that of 4 men, so it is a very unbalanced combat. In the first round, Hal was engaged but had no melee weapons. The werewolf easily defeated him, biting and clawing him down almost instantly. The next round, Gal was up and she cast Protection From Evil, a brilliant move. Based on my interpretation of the OD&D description, that not only made her essentially invulnerable to the werewolf's attacks, but lowered thew monster's HD to 3, which is much more killable especially if they had silver arrows or something which could cause it to defend as light foot instead of armored or heavy. So we were in a situation where neither party can really damage the other. Gal picked up a torch out of the fire and hit the werewolf with it (on the troop combat table I ruled that the werewolf defends as light foot against fire or silver). She burned the werewolf's face and drove her away.

Hal was barely alive following the werewolf's attack. Gal cast Cure Light Wounds the next morning, restoring him from the hit he took in Troop Combat. Gal leveled up to level 3 and nursed Hal for another day, realizing that while he was now recovered, he was infected with lycanthropy and in need of magical curse removal in order to avoid becoming a chaotic monster in 3-4 weeks when the moon is next full...

[multiarms]

Session 3:

Gal and Hal decided to continue searching for the Baron, in hopes that they could cure Hal's lycanthropy. The set off trying to head North from the mountains, but rolled a "get lost" roll and ended up heading Southeast... exactly the direction they didn't want to go, towards Letsukot the wounded werewolf's lair. I rolled for a settlement that would be Letsukot's lair, and got a "ruins: shrine" on the AD&D table. At this point we had them on a barren, moor-like terrain with dark clouds and light rain. Very atmospheric. 

They found the ruined shrine complex, and the lightly armored Hal approached stealthily to spy it out. I ruled that he could spy invisibly on a 4-6 roll, and he did. Inside the ruined building, he spied the wounded Letsukot in human form, her face burned and scarred, being tended to by a band of half-men, monstrous chaotic men, 13 in number (these are orcs by the way haha). There was a dark well in the room and the half-men were drawing water to give to their wounded companion/leader. Also in the room is a 10-foot tall idolatrous statue of a grotesque feminine form: Asherach the dark goddess worshipped by Levitosh and the half-men. Gal knew that the Blue Lady found this idol abominable, and the two adventurers decided to surprise attack this group and try to kill Letsukot while she was vulnerable, and destroy the idol.

Hal climbed to the roof, where there was a crumbled hole from which he could take fire against the enemies sniper-style. Meanwhile, Gal mounted her horse Pal, and prepared to storm the doorway to the shrine and engage in melee, correctly confident that her armor and mounted status would grant her superiority in combat even against a mob of half-men.

We started with troop combat, surprising the orcs with a round of crossbow fire followed by a mounted charge. In 3-4 rounds, the orcs were handily defeated by Gal. Four of them fled but one was ridden down and subdued. The other three scattered and fled, and will report back to Wyrmcastle. Meanwhile, Hal fired upon Letsukot who was petitioning the idol of Asherach, begging for a transformation in to werewolf form. He won initiative and slew her with bolts before she could transform.

They tried to interrogate the captured half-man, but his brutish speech was unintelligible to these lawful heroes. They considered slaying him but decided that was dishonorable and unlawful, so instead they have named him "Jork" and are keeping him tied on a leash as a captive/hostage. They destroyed the idol, which pleased the Blue Lady, and she revealed that there was a monstrous treasure hoard (type D for orc lair as per OD&D). I rolled 1,000 gp and also a magic ring, which was found on Letsukot's body and rolled as a ring of protection +1 (more on that next session!).

[mao]

this is a fun thread! Keep it up!

[hengest]

This is a killer, killer thread, have an Exalt. Please report more whenever you can. I love the flavor of all this, it feels modern but also a sincere attempt to play the game in an "older" way. Doesn't feel like an imitation.

partly because of a specific rule which is in play stating that memorized but un-cast spells confer a defensive bonus on an MU or Cleric in Chainmail combat

Never conceived of such a thing, awesome idea.  I need to have a look at this document you linked to.  Thank you very much.  Just goes to show how much unbelievable variety there can be.


(I like notebooks and appreciate the notebook information, was not aware of this brand.  Sewn in signatures?  Asking for a friend)

I don't have much else to say at present but this was really an excellent read.  

[multiarms]

Jul 30, 2021 20:57:26 GMT -5 hengest said:

(I like notebooks and appreciate the notebook information, was not aware of this brand.  Sewn in signatures?  Asking for a friend)

Leuchtturm1917 is my favorite notebook brand. I used to use Moleskine, but these are much better for my purposes. The binding is sewn. I count about 9-10 signatures in my notebook which has 251 pages.

Some other things I like about it: 
- Tough construction. I have gone through several of these over the past 5 years and they have proven indestructible.
- Dotted pages. Much better than either blank or lined. Great for maps, drawing, or writing. The dots are rather subtle, too. Nice.
- Numbered pages with a blank table of contents in the front. I run multiple RPGs and I just write things down sequentially starting in the front. If you just flip through it looks like things are out of order, but I keep an index in the front using those page numbers. So I can just consult my index and see which games and dates or session numbers are on which page. 
- 2 bookmark ribbons. Handy for me since I usually run 2 campaigns at any given time. Pro tip: gently burn the ends of the ribbons to keep them from fraying.

Criticism:
- The pages are a bit transparent. I am used to it, and it doesn't bother me that I get some ghosting from the ink on the other side. But if you write with fountain pens, or do a lot of art, or just love thick paper... it will be a problem. The company does make a more expensive version with 120g paper (and fewer pages of course), but I haven't tried it yet.

[multiarms]

SESSION 4

Gal and Hal found themselves inside the abominable shrine with the "dead" werewolf in human form, numerous dead half-men monsters, and the smashed idol. They investigated the dark well from which Letsukot was drinking, and found that it went down quite a way, and that there was an odd echoing from the bottom. They attempted some crude communication with their captive, Jork, and determined that there was something down that well... Bravely they elected to light torches and descend down into the dungeons beneath the shrine. They left the enemy bodies where they lay, and unbeknownst to them, Letsukot the werewolf was able to revive herself, having been defeated by a standard (non-silver) crossbow bolt, and flee the shrine to seek revenge another time.

Meanwhile, they found themselves at the bottom of the well, in a room with three doors, a locked treasure chest, and a pile of rotting dead bodies! The smell was atrocious, and they discerned that this must be the refuse pile for the sacrificial victims of the shrine. They considered pillaging the chest, but wisely decided not to try it yet (it is trapped with a spell rune which will animate the pile of corpses into a mob of hungry zombies). Instead, they wanted to forge ahead through doors. But Gal had the idea to take some of the dead bodies and use them to barricade the doors beside the South one through which they would proceed. A smart idea, as it turns out later.

The exact door procedures in OD&D have never been perfectly clear to me. I ruled that all doors are stuck by default, but can be burst open on a 1-2 by normal men, potentially surprising any monsters on the other side. If the roll fails, the door still opens but there is no chance of surprise. I also ruled that high Strength (15+) would give a +1 pip bonus to that roll. I was creating this dungeon on-the fly, using the OD&D underworld rules. I roll for each room to see whether it contains a monster, and if so if there is any treasure. Each room without monsters also has a 1:6 chance of unguarded treasures.

They proceeded through several empty rooms and listening at stuck doors. We had fun just imagining the spooky dark cobweb-filled passages by torchlight, and I described the eerie dripping sounds... it was rather suspenseful even though nothing particularly exciting was happening. The fact that I was creating the dungeon as we went made it fun and suspenseful for me as well. 

Eventually, they twisted and turned until they were in a passageway heading back North. There was a light ahead, and sounds of screaming and pain... they crept ahead and saw a twisted sight: a torture chamber where several monstrous half-men were tormenting a dwarf who was bound to a rack (I had rolled for a monster and both parties were surprised so this is how I narrated it). Gal, being strongly lawful, could not abide this atrocity, and stepped into the room boldly, and battle was joined.

For this scenario, we used the Man-to-Man combat in Chainmail. Gal and Hal are arrayed as follows: Gal has plate armor and a mornigstar. No shield because she carries a torch. AC 3. Hal has scavenged some orc armor and a crude sword. He also holds a torch. AC 5. The enemies were variously armed based on a handful of Reaper minis which I had on hand. Some had leather armor, some had chain. Some had swords, some knives or clubs. There were 5 orcs including a torturer. 

The Man-to-Man tables proved to be quite fun and interesting, a different way to adjudicate combat compared to the Troop tables we had used previously. Much more "nitty-gritty" and granular, like dueling rather than mass combat. But still distinct from the d20 "alternative combat system." In Man-to-Man, the initiative roll is important for movement, but it is weapon type which determines first strike. The longer, "higher class" weapon will strike first in the opening round of melee, whereas the shorter, "lower class" weapon may parry and will strike first on subsequent combat rounds. This makes weapon choice very interesting, and of course answers the perennial question "why carry a sword or polearm if all weapons do d6 damage?" The answer is that your polearm can kill an opponent before he has a chance to strike you back!

The chance to hit is determined using the 2d6 Man-to-Man chart found in Chainmail (and also included in the 1978 Judges Guild Ready Ref Sheets on the same page as the d20 Men Attacking table... a friendly retort to anyone who would assert that no one ever actually played D&D using Chainmail!). The number needed to hit is determined based on weapon type versus armor class. This is why that ring of protection functions as it does: it does not change ones armor class, it gives a -1 penalty to hit to the attacker. Because armor class is not a number, it is a category! Magic armor and shields likewise do not change armor class. 

So, if hit probability is based on weapon versus armor, then what distinguishes a high-level fighting man from a low-level magic user in Man-to-Man melee? The answer is Fighting Capability, the forgotten statistic. It is prominent on the table for each class in Men & Magic, but sadly forgotten in almost every OD&D retro-clone ever produced. Gal the Village Priest (lv 3 cleric) fights as 2 men. Meaning she gets 2 attacks, or an attack and a parry, or 2 parries. Hal the warrior (lv 2 FM) fights as 2 men +1, meaning he also gets 2 actions but adds 1 each 2d6 roll! Great!!

The dicing gets fast and furious. Our heroes are wading in and out of the fray, parrying and slaying. Hit points are being rolled for damage now in Man-to-Man, and Hal is wounded but still fighting. Jork the captured orc is used as a body-shield and gets hacked down by his own kind. Meanwhile Gal parries her way to the torture rack, killing the torturer and freeing the dwarf prisoner. One of the enemy orcs breaks morale and flees for the door to the East to escape... only to find it blocked, having been barricaded by the corpses piled up on the other side earlier in the adventure!! A great moment in our game as the bloodied Hal and Gal advance on the cowering survivor and destroy him.

Man-to-Man combat system in Chainmail is... fun. As in, REALLLY fun. It is not easy to convey how cool this is in writing, and I suggest you try it yourself. FUN.

The rescued dwarf is wounded. He reveals that he is Drax, a would-be adventurer who snuck down the well in search of treasure but was captured. We decide that he will join the party and make him a level 1 thief (using Greyhawk version). He rolls 1 HP which makes sense given that he has been tortured almost to death. [SIDE NOTE: we are rolling HD each day or each adventure in this campaign, which is my preferred way to do it in OD&D.] We roll up some stats for Drax and he joins the group. 

End of session.

[hengest]

multiarms, killer post again. Two Exalts for this, I really like reading these. I appreciate the combination of crunch, in-world details, and a touch of notes about just exactly what you're enjoying. These are very engaging session reports.

Generating on the fly or even from imagination is something I know more than one person on this board can do with ease (I'm thinking of The Perilous Dreamer here, but am sure there are others), but it seems so far beyond me. It is great to hear an account of it.

A section quoted below with what I particularly valued in bold italics (your bold is left as bold).  I note these things either because they are well-said, striking, new to me, instructive, or sound fun.  

I have been wanting to look more at some of the crunch of OD&D and Chainmail, neither of which I have ever actually run except in my mind.  It has been too daunting although I know it is easy, flexible, modular, etc.  But this is helpful to me.  I plan to go through this post and check on all the crunch and get a little more oriented.

Aug 1, 2021 17:20:35 GMT -5 multiarms said:

SESSION 4

The exact door procedures in OD&D have never been perfectly clear to me. I ruled that all doors are stuck by default, but can be burst open on a 1-2 by normal men, potentially surprising any monsters on the other side. If the roll fails, the door still opens but there is no chance of surprise. I also ruled that high Strength (15+) would give a +1 pip bonus to that roll. I was creating this dungeon on-the fly, using the OD&D underworld rules. I roll for each room to see whether it contains a monster, and if so if there is any treasure. Each room without monsters also has a 1:6 chance of unguarded treasures.

They proceeded through several empty rooms and listening at stuck doors. We had fun just imagining the spooky dark cobweb-filled passages by torchlight, and I described the eerie dripping sounds... it was rather suspenseful even though nothing particularly exciting was happening. The fact that I was creating the dungeon as we went made it fun and suspenseful for me as well. 

Eventually, they twisted and turned until they were in a passageway heading back North. There was a light ahead, and sounds of screaming and pain... they crept ahead and saw a twisted sight: a torture chamber where several monstrous half-men were tormenting a dwarf who was bound to a rack (I had rolled for a monster and both parties were surprised so this is how I narrated it). Gal, being strongly lawful, could not abide this atrocity, and stepped into the room boldly, and battle was joined.

For this scenario, we used the Man-to-Man combat in Chainmail. Gal and Hal are arrayed as follows: Gal has plate armor and a mornigstar. No shield because she carries a torch. AC 3. Hal has scavenged some orc armor and a crude sword. He also holds a torch. AC 5. The enemies were variously armed based on a handful of Reaper minis which I had on hand. Some had leather armor, some had chain. Some had swords, some knives or clubs. There were 5 orcs including a torturer. 

The Man-to-Man tables proved to be quite fun and interesting, a different way to adjudicate combat compared to the Troop tables we had used previously. Much more "nitty-gritty" and granular, like dueling rather than mass combat. But still distinct from the d20 "alternative combat system." In Man-to-Man, the initiative roll is important for movement, but it is weapon type which determines first strike. The longer, "higher class" weapon will strike first in the opening round of melee, whereas the shorter, "lower class" weapon may parry and will strike first on subsequent combat rounds. This makes weapon choice very interesting, and of course answers the perennial question "why carry a sword or polearm if all weapons do d6 damage?" The answer is that your polearm can kill an opponent before he has a chance to strike you back!

The chance to hit is determined using the 2d6 Man-to-Man chart found in Chainmail (and also included in the 1978 Judges Guild Ready Ref Sheets on the same page as the d20 Men Attacking table... a friendly retort to anyone who would assert that no one ever actually played D&D using Chainmail!). The number needed to hit is determined based on weapon type versus armor class. This is why that ring of protection functions as it does: it does not change ones armor class, it gives a -1 penalty to hit to the attacker. Because armor class is not a number, it is a category! Magic armor and shields likewise do not change armor class. 

So, if hit probability is based on weapon versus armor, then what distinguishes a high-level fighting man from a low-level magic user in Man-to-Man melee? The answer is Fighting Capability, the forgotten statistic. It is prominent on the table for each class in Men & Magic, but sadly forgotten in almost every OD&D retro-clone ever produced. Gal the Village Priest (lv 3 cleric) fights as 2 men. Meaning she gets 2 attacks, or an attack and a parry, or 2 parries. Hal the warrior (lv 2 FM) fights as 2 men +1, meaning he also gets 2 actions but adds 1 each 2d6 roll! Great!!

The dicing gets fast and furious. Our heroes are wading in and out of the fray, parrying and slaying. Hit points are being rolled for damage now in Man-to-Man, and Hal is wounded but still fighting. Jork the captured orc is used as a body-shield and gets hacked down by his own kind. Meanwhile Gal parries her way to the torture rack, killing the torturer and freeing the dwarf prisoner. One of the enemy orcs breaks morale and flees for the door to the East to escape... only to find it blocked, having been barricaded by the corpses piled up on the other side earlier in the adventure!! A great moment in our game as the bloodied Hal and Gal advance on the cowering survivor and destroy him.

Man-to-Man combat system in Chainmail is... fun. As in, REALLLY fun. It is not easy to convey how cool this is in writing, and I suggest you try it yourself. FUN.

The rescued dwarf is wounded. He reveals that he is Drax, a would-be adventurer who snuck down the well in search of treasure but was captured. We decide that he will join the party and make him a level 1 thief (using Greyhawk version). He rolls 1 HP which makes sense given that he has been tortured almost to death. [SIDE NOTE: we are rolling HD each day or each adventure in this campaign, which is my preferred way to do it in OD&D.] We roll up some stats for Drax and he joins the group. 

End of session.

[Morose]

This is some great reading. I never used Chainmail, I figured without the minis not much point.