>>98371850
>OD&D and judges guild had it down right from the start.
Yep, it's the best. The LBBs don't have the best editing, but the system works great.

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Slow day, huh?

>>98373596
Yep. Maybe people are busy running their games. Or maybe they're hung over from the bronze match in the world cup yesterday. Either way, happens.

N00b PHB guy here. Gonna fix the links and such today.

>>98373701
Done. Apparently sendspace nuked PDFs?

>>98373720
Something like that, yeah. Good work, quasi-Anon!

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>>98372743
>favorite fan-made OSR PDF supplement
Fuck me that's hard to narrow down to one choice.
If I had to, D4 Caltrops 100 Wilderness Hexes is a really great pdf but its more present of mind with the current campaign being more classical fantasy.
Gorgazo's Level 1 Creature Generator has been a lot of fun over the years.
Broken System is just that, but it grabbed me many moons ago.
Muster: A Primer for War is quite good as an actual primer but its likely longer than most people want to read as an intro.
Goblin Punch's Book of Tigers, Book of Mice and Bestiary in general.

>blogs
Almost all of Monster and Manuals, Dungeon of Signs/All Dead Generations, Beyond Fomalhaut, Clerics Wear Ringmail, Prince of Nothing, Hack & Slash, Mizirian's Garden, The Manse, Simulacrum, Melancholies & Mirth, Elf Maids & Octopi, the aforementioned D4 Caltrops, Planet Algol, Straights of Alain, there's a lot of blogs.

Special mention to fan made being 10' Pole by Bryce. Its not always the best, but he's consistent enough and churns through modules enough its been a very useful measure over the years.
The death of What's New In The OSR guy has been an unfortunate blow, everyone after that has been very clearly bought out and shills product identity rather than a broader interest. Looking at you Ben.

>>98372743
newfag here anyone knows where i can find Malustrious Brood free pdf and other osr material

>>98374024
>102 pages
>12 monsters
I even like the artfag stuff but its been deeply fucked for a while.
Might be in the nusr trove but I don't think its updated in a while. Ask in general in the share thread you'll have better luck there.

>>98373994
>supps
Good choices. I'm a big fan of the Vancian Magic Supplement myself.

>there's a lot of blogs
I know, that's why I tried to specify post, lmao. I was thinking of stuff like Jeff Rients' "Party like it's 999" post.

>The death of What's New In The OSR guy has been an unfortunate blow, everyone after that has been very clearly bought out and shills product identity rather than a broader interest.
Very agreed.

>>98372743
Best fan-made supplement is one that came out of this website: Legends of the New Earth, a fan-made player supplement for Anomalous Subsurface Environment. The Anon who made it is a regular here

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>>98374280
Jeff Reint's 20 Questions is a solid post that is useful for every setting anyone makes for osr games to this day.

Its overly wordy but I like All Dead Generation's series of articles on osr play, dungeon delving and design.
https://alldeadgenerations.blogspot.com/p/the-classic-dungeon-crawl-theory.html
Monsters and Manuals has a great bit on describing how ttrpg rules can operate and how flexible that can be or not and advantages of various types.
https://monstersandmanuals.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-fundamental-principles-of-rpg-style.html

Beyond Fomalhaut's hex crawling design and examples were quite helpful and I think one of the better explanations along with GFC's video
https://beyondfomalhaut.blogspot.com/2021/11/blog-hex-crawls-simple-guide.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC-h1haFSIA

The Alexandrian and the old Melan post on dungeon design is also quite good.
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/45711/roleplaying-games/xandering-the-dungeon-addendum-how-to-use-a-melan-diagram

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Forgot a few pdf fan made things that have been well used.
https://files.catbox.moe/y826wi.pdf
is Actual Dungeon Mastering, a good look at dungeon design and how the keying tables function with comparisons between editions.

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This is an older pdf of various introduction modules with summaries that has good variety and insight.
https://files.catbox.moe/jwmwte.pdf

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and this one is about zoz. ifkyk
https://files.catbox.moe/36eds3.pdf

>>98375823
That's linked in the OP, bro.

Stonehell on the Borderlands has had to cease play for a while, due to the early arrival of my son this morning. I was hoping to get to 40 sessions, but 36 will have to do. Maybe I will be able to bring it back in a few months when things relax.
Until then I hope y'all have good games.

>>98376787
Congratulations, Anon!

>>98376784
Version 2.1 even. Been ages since I opened the pastebin's pastebin.

I'm gonna run a couple of B/X one shots. Something I'd like is doing basic and then expert characters, but I don't think I have the time to come up with a cool adventure and making the pregens. So I'm going with The Kidnapping of Princess Arelina and The Revenge of Rusak, from AC3 and AC8, the tile sets. They come with fully loaded pregens and they're simple (kinda boring) adventures that are easy to retouch. Has anyone here run them? Did you ever get those 80's tile sets? It feels like a really weird product for the current market, but I feel that as a child in the 80's-90's with no 3d printer or even cheap color printers I would had bought three of them.

Also, these are open tables, so I need a cool attention grabbing image, but the modules don't have any and nothing all that exiting happens. Do you have any early 80's art (AD&D-B/X, BE) that is cool but doesn't over sell? No dragons or all powerful wizards, just adventurers being cool.

Should I play Gygaxian D&D or Macrisian D&D? Which is better?

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>>98378846
>The Kidnapping of Princess Arelina and The Revenge of Rusak
Unusual choice and you're right, they're kinda boring.
Are you going to print out the pieces and assemble them? It is a weird product for the current market but you might be able to lean into the retro vibe.
>classic adventures being cool
I don't think this one is dnd in origins but it has a lot of stuff going on that works well for adventuring and exploration of a dungeon.

>>98378859
gygACKSian is the umbrella term for both

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>>98379245
Shit. Posted a small version.

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>>98378846

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>>98378846

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>>98378846

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>>98379266

>>98378859
>Should I play Gygaxian D&D or Macrisian D&D?
Yes.

>Which is better?
Both.

>>98378859
Whether to play ACKS over AD&D or B/X depends entirely on how much help you feel you want/need with the economic end, or to phrase it a different way, whether you prefer handwaving or a spreadsheet.

>>98379556
I can only speak for myself but after these months of playing ACKS I don't want to go back to any previous version of D&D I have played.

>>98379607
Good for you, Anon! I don't think anybody here would dissgree that, if it's the right game for you, it's unbeatable. There's nothing to touch it in its niche.

>>98378971
all virtual, but I was considering taking them to gimp and using them as tiles in a vtt. I don't know how long that would take, I'll probably give that idea a couple of hours and see if I'm having fun.

thanks for the pics
if I link everyone 4chan assumes I'm spamming

>>98380131
>all virtual
I am now entirely lost on why you picked those modules when you know they're bad.

>>98380422
They're quick to prepare and I wanted to do something contemporany that could be solved in a one shot. My main interest in showing the B/X mechanics to see if people vibe with them and then moving maybe to OSE adventures or a bigger module.

But if you have a rec for something that could be worked in 4 hours (including chunks of dungeons or whatever) that comes with pregens with interesting load outs I'll consider it. It was more of a "good enough" choice. Switching around stuff to open paths in a railroad or changing the narrative to make it more engaging is easier than building apropiate characters or an adventure from scratch for me.

>>98380461
>that comes with pregens with interesting load outs
is an interesting design space I haven't thought of much at all honestly. That you're seemingly looking for slightly higher than level 1 is different enough its worth thinking about too.
The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh is direct and to the point while you can likely still get a decent sense of accomplishment in 4 hours. The pregens are very basic, as would be my suggestion of using the B4 Fast packs, or just B4 for that matter although I suspect its a lot more work to read and prep if you're only using it for 4 hours.
Is there any reason to not use something like
https://character.totalpartykill.ca/basic/
to make some pregens?
Could do Hole In The Oak, its a generally well liked intro module.

Is this too broken? Its a homebrew demihuman ability
>Shout: Once per encounter, you may replace one attack with a Shout. This frightens any nearby 1 HD enemies (causing them to flee for 1 turn, Save v Petrification to ignore).
Not sure if it should instead become:
>Shout: Once per DAY

>>98380628
Why are you not forcing a morale check instead?

>>98380692
Good point. In fact I like the ideal of it forcing a morale check + you adding a bonus equal to your class level

>>98380628
whether its stronger or not, 1/day abilities feel a little too video gamey IMO. Per encounter is fine

>>98380547
I'm doing a run of D&D tasters, I already did Holmes and AD&D 1e at level 1, I noticed a ton of character progression comes from magic items so I wanted to run something that took that in consideration but actually picking or simulating what they could find for 4-6 pregens was too much for the time I can put into this dumb project right now. This two sub par modules include not only pregens with equipment but it's also the same characters so if a player comes back they can see how their character could had changed if he kept playing for months. It's an interesting concept for showcase adventures.

There are classics I really wanted to try out, like White Plume Mountain or Barrier Peaks. But for now I'm focusing on running the systems to get the experience and maybe get regular players.

>>98380461
In four hours, even if it took a whole hour to roll up characters (which it definitely doesn't) you've still got plenty of time to run a decent session.
>Wanted to do something that can be solved in a one shot
Is the wrong way to think about it. Run the first floor of Stonehell, keep an eye on the time and players will have to think about returning to the surface once the session approaches its end. Then this "one shot" becomes session 1 if the table vibes with the system. Nothing needs to be solved other than A: where is the treasure" and B: "how do we get back safely". Everything else will be taken care of by the game.

>>98380628
An "encounter" is not a meaningful unit in old-school D&D. >>98380692 is right that it should be a morale check.

>>98380728
Adding a bonus equal to your level to a morale check will produce insane results, it's a 2d6 roll. The highest bonuses allocated to morale checks in Basic are ±2.

On the other hand, in AD&D's baroque morale system that nobody uses, a bonus equivalent to your level is basically nil and a waste of time to add into the already far too elaborate calculus.

>>98381193
>These two sub par modules include not only pregens with equipment but it's also the same characters so if a player comes back they can see how their character could had changed if he kept playing for months. It's an interesting concept for showcase adventures.
NAYRT but although this is a compelling argument, you could just steal the pregen PCs and use them in something better. What are the characters' levels? I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with AC3/8, but Khosura, for example, has a level span of 3-8 and is great, so you could arrange for the PCs to get two separate commissions to go into the same underworld; since the environment is the same, it'll play up the contrast in the characters. (Or if the levels are somewhat lower, use Castle Xyntillan, which is level 1-6; same principle.)

>>98380628
>Once per encounter
Sounds like WotC or something like that, we don't do that here, as it is ill-defined and when an encounter starts and a new one ends is often unclear with running away, chases, or wandering monsters arriving mid-combat with otherwise unrelated monsters.

Once per turn is what we say in D&D.

>>98381193
>picking or simulating what they could find
Don't overthink pregen balance to a given dungeon. This having been said, the DMG has rules for that.

>>98380628
>once per encounter
>once per day
FOE GYG

>>98379556
There's so much in ACKS that is neither spreadsheety nor economics, though.

>>98381731
NTA. Tons of magic items have once per day powers, and a few Paladin, Druid, Monk, and Bard abilities do as well.

>>98376787
Congratulations, Anon!

>>98381279
Tht's how I approached Holmes and 1e. It worked fine, but teaching the system and dungeoneering at the same time took a bit of a toll on me. More than it does when I'm confident with the system or I expect the group to keep going for a while. Since I saw this two adventures that are smaller and more manageable I want to see if that works better. The first one isn't even THAT bad, rescue a princess from a small dungeon-house, get and out while keeping her alive.
The second one looked like a rail roady hexcrawl with just two OP enemies. That one I might drop after properly reading it.

>>98381440
This is true
The first set of pregens are between 3 and 5, the lower one being a dwarf. The second I think is 7 and 9, I might be wrong. Each has different magical equipment including utility stuff which is what made me think it'd be cool.
You're right I could just take the pregens I like and ditch the adventures in favor for something better.

I might give the Mystara stuff a second look.

>>98381896
>Mystara
Is mostly garbage. It wasn't half bad when ti was still called "The Known World" though. Quality took a nosedive in the post-Gygax era, like a lot of things at TSR.

>>98381919
I made the mistake of checking the gazeteers hoping to find playable content for over an hour once.

>>98381731
>once per day = FOE GYG
1. It should be FOSRE GYG
2. Kill yourself faggot
3. Oriental Adventures: Ninja can hold breath equal to their Ninja level once PER DAY
4. See item #2

>>98382269
NTA, but NO U, newfag

>>98382275
I accept your concession.

>>98373701
>>98373720
Welcome back!

Greetings fellow FAGs, B/X newfag here, just played session 37 yesterday. I seek your guidance and wisdom once again.
The players solved a mystery in an underground gnome village and monastery in which gnome villagers kept disappearing. Some of the monks and their elder turned out to be behind it and to use the abducted gnomes as sacrifices to their demon god.
After revealing it all and imprisoning the evildoers, the gnome chieftain generously rewarded the party with a big part of his community's treasure amounting to around 50.000GP. Now for my two issues:
We've been playing for roughly a year now and the group typically consists of 3 to 5 PCs. Each of them has around 3 retainers/henchmen (always forget the distinction). Which means if the group is in full attendance we have like 5 PCs and ~13 NPCs in the adventure party which really can drag out both dungeon and combat procedures as well as logistics. I usually have small whiteboards with square grid and non permanent markers where we track the marching order, light sources and combat encounters which can get a bit tedious due to the group's size. I told them that it also reduces the XP and gold they receive but they only wittingly respond that in the early campaign days I kept pointing out that they could and perhaps should hire a few NPCs to support them at times.
The other issue that arised is that the players know of the royal gnome mausoleum and the remaining treasures found in there. Both the dwarven PC as well as the dwarven NPCs in the party due to their lawful alignment are strictly against robbing the gnomish graves. After the session yesterday two morally more flexible players approached me and told me their desire to try and retrieve these treasures anyway. I won't split the party mid session, I've told them they have to convince or deceive the lawful characters to support their heist (perhaps unknowingly) a separate session also feels unfair towards the lawful player.
Any thoughts and advice?

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In this one room of a dungeon there is this flail snail guarding treasure. Now, the party has decided to kill the thing using ranged weapons because it would be easy to kite. However, I suddenly had an idea. I want to tame it.

How would you go about taming a flail snail? (And I didn't realize it, but you could use it as a very slow mount.) I got to thinking about it, and my plan so far is to buy a ton of buckets of vegetables and taking them to the snail and going into the dungeon once a day and attempting to feed it (Leaving it at a distance first, before getting closer and closer.) Are there any rules or mechanics written out for doing this or would I just play it by reason?

>>98383081
Not sure what your first issue actually is. Do you feel that they have too many henchmen? Or are you rather asking for advice on procedures to speed up the management of the henchmen?

As for your second issue, I would personally split the party. Maybe not mid-session, but I would allow the neutral(?) players to prepare for robbing the mausoleum between sessions and then start a session with them doing that and the lawful players doing something else, whatever they want – possibly allow them to prep that between sessions as well, depending on what it is.

>>98382089
I remember going through the Forgotten Realms setting books and thinking
>Okay, this is kinda cool, but what am I supposed to do with this?
Stuff like one town having a retired champion, and it was good to offer training, but there was no context for the dude so I could had made him up. Or not-tibetan monks doing the thing with the 30 items and you have to pick the ones their great master had as a child, I could pre-pick them and see if anyone happens to match them... and what happens next? What does it mean to be the reincarnation of the great master?
It was pretty much a 1d20 cool hooks list expanded into a book filled with pointless generic details.

>>98383081
Shouldn't they have some sort of keep at this point where they can stash the NPCs?

>>98383482
>Are there any rules or mechanics written out for doing this or would I just play it by reason?
Ask your referee. Not to be a cunt about it or anything but it's pretty much up to him whether he would even consider it tameable, what its diet is, what kind of research your character would need to do to learn these things etc. That's not really something we can tell you.

>>98383499
I didn't know if B/X or a similar system had written rules for taming animals/monsters.

>>98383512
It 100% doesn't
I could see a chart hidden somewhere in AD&D that could be repurposed, but the concept of collecting creatures as gameplay is more modern than that.

>>98383512
Understandable! Various editions of D&D have notes in specific monster descriptions on how to tame those specific monsters. I don't think the flail snail is one, but I could be mistaken. There is not to my knowledge any first-party set of comprehensive rules for monster taming; anything like that would have to be a third-party house rule or supplement (and a good idea for one, natch!), which means your referee would have to actively opt to use it in his game. Which brings us full circle, but again, a reasonable line of thinking. There could have been rules.

>>98383512
ACKS does but something like a snail is really dumb so you probably can't train it to do much.

>>98383081
>large parties
As a player in a group with 5 PCs and 20 henchmen the key is everyone knowing what thier role and zone of responsibility is. We have 2 PCs with that form the front rank and their henchmen are the thief types and second line fighters. Another is mostly mid marching order reserve. And mind are the rear guard, healers and ranged specialists. The 5th guy joined late and has no henchmen yet.

>>98381193
>>98381896
>I noticed a ton of character progression comes from magic items
For sure this, but I think you already got good advice to use pregens of any availability as long as the levels are about right. The idea for a lot of those modules was tournament play and being able to plug in whoever showed up so the specific loadout isn't that calculated.
That being said, I had also been "saving up" modules I really liked for the right group but that wasn't coming together so I just went ahead and started just running them. No time like the present, you can always run it again if you want.

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>>98383081
>Any thoughts and advice?
Get each player to mark down on an index card or something similar the marching order of their henchmen and quartermastering details, who has the torch, etc. Likely want two copies, one for you and one for them so they don't forget. This is the assumed default setup in all cases unless specified now.
You can now zoom out or abstract your own tracking/markings to units like a wargame rather than each linkboy, spearman and small but viscous dog. It declutters your map and keeps things simple.
I'd use the potential conflict of interest between the greedy dwarves and the do-gooders as a great opportunity to slide in domain play with some rivalry and enmity between factions forming in the area. It might not be practical for separate sessions, but if you can pull that off and also encourage more than one character per player it lets everyone continue but its sometimes a hard sell to detach from the
>I am my character
mentality.
Not as familiar with B/X's henchmen loyalty and alignment rules but there might be interesting things with that as well if the majority of the party's henchmen are inclined to support the lawful PC.

>>98383482
>Are there any rules or mechanics written out for doing this or would I just play it by reason?
Could us the rules for dropping food to distract monsters while fleeing as a base chance of it working and go from there. Something like
>x successes in y attempts familiarizes the creature to you
but it being a brute beast I'd be inclined to keep the feeding requirement high.

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Would you guys play an airship-based OSR game with something akin to traveller where you start out potentially with shares in a ship and you go to different islands trading and exploring dungeons there? Random islands generated too, on 100-mile-hex hexmaps, and something akin to Traveller UPPs to be able to "roll up" a whole setting?

>>98384632
Absolutely.

>>98384671
How much deviation from B/X would be too much? Would rolling for "live events" that affect your character turn it into FOE GYG and destroy your desire to play it? What about skills that only are binary have/have nots that just apply to 2d6-based procedural rolls for specific aspects of airship travel? Like ACKS but even more restrictive.

>>98384909
NTA, shouldn't you be asking your players these things instead of strangers on the internet?

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>>98384632
Sounds good to me. Hardest part would be figuring out how much of my knowing about boats to turn off so the game still works and is fun for everyone.
>>98384909
Do you mean life path generation like in Traveller or Beyond the Wall? Don't mind it and think it can be cool if done well but can end up over emphasizing the significance of starting characters and making the higher mortality potential and better ref practices of impartiality harder to keep up.
Skills as a binary and 2d6 is fine as long as you don't mess up the curve.
>>98385000
They might be asking for players, or seeing what a general reaction to a premise is to tune it a bit before pitching it to their group. Or hoping people suggest more material. Or bored.

>>98385191
>Do you mean life path generation like in Traveller or Beyond the Wall? Don't mind it and think it can be cool if done well but can end up over emphasizing the significance of starting characters and making the higher mortality potential and better ref practices of impartiality harder to keep up.
That's my goal, to keep character generation to just a few rolls still. And having a single roll as a party when you start out to determine what your situation is, if you're stakeholders in your own ship, one of you owns a ship outright (requires 18 on 3d6) or if you're just crew on someone else's ship (boring because it takes away PC agency). So maybe I'll scrap that entire system, I don't know.

>>98385241
>boring because it takes away PC agency
I've played no-ship Traveller before, it's fine, you just have to find a ship to book passage on when you need to get to another planet, and there's lots of adventure to be had at a single location anyway.

>>98385241
Its a bit of a contrivance but shared stakeholders in the ship with debts seems like the easiest way to have group cohesion and adventuring pretense that easily ties into treasure/xp.
>having a single roll as a party when you start out to determine what your situation is
Could take a page from the Sine Nomine stuff and use a full polyhedral set, the results of each being ship details.

>>98383629
>No time like the present, you can always run it again if you want.
Not only that, but if the module really is good you'll only get better at running it with repeats.

>>98384632
Honestly I'd be iffy on the totally randomly generated islands (assuming I knew about it). In my view a good referee designs the core aspects of his dungeon and milieu, and uses random generation to fill in the gaps and margins.

Besides this I'm pretty sure you asked about this before and got generally positive responses, although I will say B/X might not be the best fit out of the box if you intend the game to start with roving between islands instead of dungeoncrawling.

>>98385295
>>98385251
That might be better yeah. I just don't know if it's better to have a random roll for your starting premise, or have it be decided by the PCs or DM. The idea is that the DM's prep can be pretty brainless, he can just roll up a starting island and some adventure hooks, available cargo, etc and the PCs have financial pressure on them right away because they mostly start out broke. I don't know if I even want the possibility of noble PCs.

>>98385437
If you're making a specific setting I find it helps having at least an outline for players and DMs to work with, so the random rolls can give some direction/inspiration as needed.
>noble PCs
Not my thing, gets too caught up in what their special privileges are and the mess that is mixing that with other players, player characters and npcs.

>>98385479
The best campaign I ever ran was a mix of a noble PC and his friends and underlings. But also that was specifically narratively constructed to work as such. I don't think it really works in OSR. It certainly isn't a "zero to hero" sort of thing.

You can end up with such a character in Traveller and it makes for some fun roleplaying dynamics but it just doesnt feel like it'd work here.

My question is, I guess, how much I want these tables to come up with various prompts and attributes for the PCs' characters, and how much work I want them to have to do to reconcile all those different characters together.

I did have a Traveller campaign where multiple characters rolled up with ships in their possession. One scout ship and one science ship. The character with the science ship was just a pain. It was a whole other ship to keep track of and tag along. Also the player who had it had no idea what she was doing and really only showed up every few months to hang out. But just feeling how much it ground my gears to have a traveller party with 2 different ships at the game START, made me want the whole "what is your ship ownership situation??" for similar games want to be resolved on a party-wide basis, rather than by individual characters.

>>98385241
The way I would do this is just to take it for granted that the PCs are stakeholders in a ship and throw to see how much debt they've got on it (with 18 still being that they own it free and clear, and 3 being a horrible situation with space-mafia loansharks that the PCs are into for three times the vessel's worth, etc.) You don't *have* to put deleterious ideas like "the PCs are just the crew" on the table.

>>98383486
Yes, I feel like for their levels (around 6 to 7) they could still goof around in a much smaller party since they rather try to avoid and ignore too dangerous challenges.
>I would personally split the party.
That's a good idea, since I can only find one day to run a weekly session rn, but I could also meet earlier with the graverobber party and have them try. I just didn't feel confident in splitting the party in a session that much and switching the scenes.

>>98383497
>Shouldn't they have some sort of keep at this point where they can stash the NPCs?
They should and I told them they could but they rather store most stuff in the nearest safe place and the players not attending the session are there keeping watch.

>>98383624
>in a group with 5 PCs and 20 henchmen
Do you track all the henchmen and do they have different marching orders when the passages become narrow in a dungeon?

>>98383713
I like the idea with the cards, that's something I should try. The abstraction would be nice and we at least used that in large overland battles with mercenaries.
>great opportunity to slide in domain play
That would be the dream brother, but I'm not sure if we can pull it off. So far everyone just has one character and we're all rather inexperienced. But maybe that is the perfect time to let them assume playership over certain hemchmen so they can actually start some parallel play despite us only managing one weekly session.

Is Dolmenwood and OSE okay for a group new to pre-3rd edition D&D? I have played anything prior to this and neither has my group (been playing 3.x for over 20 years at this point) but the Dolemnwood setting is really appealing to me.

>>98384632
You've been asking this every month for almost a year. Have you actually made any progress? Or do you just like to talk about it?

>>98385295
>seems like the easiest way to have group cohesion
The easiest way to have something utterly unnecessary is not necessarily a plus.

>>98385944
>pre-3rd edition D&D
Deliberate bait and fuck off. OSR is pre-2e D&D.

>>98385972
Relax, dude, he just means he's never played anything earlier than 3e.

>>98385972
It was a typo, sorry. I HAVEN'T played anything prior to 3rd edition

>>98385944
>Is Dolmenwood and OSE okay
Yes.

>for a group new to pre-3rd edition D&D?
Do notice that this general is about pre-2e D&D, which is a narrower focus than pre-3e.

> the Dolemnwood setting is really appealing to me.
Then go for it. Do add a "mega" dungeon to it, tough, like Stonehell.

And be sure to play as Gygax commanded, as explained in the two n00b guides in the OP.

>>98385988
You're good. He's just suspicious because we have a persistent troll who keeps trying to push his pet notion that "OSR is everything TSR made before 3e." (as if there wasn't a big difference by the time of 2e's publication)

>>98385807
>do you track all the henchmen?
Yes? What else would we do?
>do they have different marching orders when the passages become narrow in a dungeon?
So far we have had 10 and 20 foot wide corridors or fought outside. If we went unto some hole with 5 foot passages or some shit I would definitely cut group down.

>>98385988
Yeah was clear from context, don't worry. As for the knee-jerk reaction, we've had a persistent troll on the general for two years now, and "pre-3e" is one of his favourite baits. Nothing personal, I for one am giving you the benefit of the doubt.

>>98385944
Dolmenwood has a problem whereby the hexcrawl is way too densely packed with encounters and shit, it doesn't really play like a hexcrawl is meant to, but instead like some sort of whacked-out fairy funhouse. This might lead to you feeling obscurely choked by the game without really understanding why (since you don't have the prior experience to understand what's wrong), but it also might be something that your 3e-habituated group actually prefers. Either way though, be aware that it doesn't really fully match the intention of old-school wilderness exploration.

>>98386007
>If we went unto some hole with 5 foot passages or some shit I would definitely cut group down.
Yeah, the henchmen can easily just stay behind and guard the opening while the core group proceeds.

>>98386039
I agree with your criticism, but if OP is strongly attracted to it I wouldn't discourage him from giving it a shot.

It's fair to warm him of Dolemnwood's deviations from the norm, so he doesn't get a distorted view of the OSR or blame the OSR as a whole for Dolmenwood's shortcomings.

>>98386090
>if OP is strongly attracted to it I wouldn't discourage him from giving it a shot.
Yeah same, I'm not actually trying to discourage him, just warn him in advance of possible failure modes. Notice I also said that it might work out to where his group prefers it. It's just that *if* it goes wrong/feels weird I'd rather Anon have an idea in advance of what the issue might be.

>>98385952
Yeah I've written about 10 pages so far with some basic rules.
Alchemical enhancements for ships
Basic rules for island generation
etc

>>98386044
Or guard the camp with the mercs until we need to rotate them in after some people get injured. Our group found a staff that casts cure light wounds once per 10 minutes so as long as no one hits 0 we can retreat and come back fresh in short order. Spreading out damage is another advantage of lots of henchmen against regular enemies.

>>98386366
>Our group found a staff that casts cure light wounds once per 10 minutes
jfc

>>98386007
Was asking more about who tracks them and all their stuff. As a GM I feel them especially game slowing during combat in dungeons. My players already track all their henchmen's stuff already, so I got a little less to take care on that front.

>>98386206
Cool, I'd love to see both, Anon. What do you expect the final page count to be?

>>98386401
Yeah, as long as you don't roll less than an 11 on the mortal wounds table you will live to see another day no matter what, and if you get the 6-10 roll we have 3 cure light wounds casters and 3 lay on hands havers to save you in a dungeon turn.

It's wild.

>>98386764
>Dungeon Master installs handrails and soft padding at the bottom of all staircases
ok

>>98386814
I don't think he did, it was just in the module. He tried really hard to get us to sell it when we got it identified. He also hates that the wardogs never stay dead because of it.

>>98386841
I've pretty much replaced wardogs in my games with turkey velociraptors. Everyone loves the attack chickens.

>>98386698
I'm hoping to keep it under 50 pages if possible.

>>98386999
Nice

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>>98385540
>and how much work I want them to have to do to reconcile all those different characters together.

This is the crux. Lifepath generation can be a neat idea but I think in practice its fairly time consuming and of minimal benefit for most osr purposes. BtW manages it by tying together the starting adventure and the town while everyone is simultaneously generating characters. Its still a decent amount of effort but it works there. You might be able to do something about the ship and ties there but it starts getting into a fairly different play style.

Its nusr and not a thing I like much but the
Electric Bastionland character generation did at least have a decently effective way of getting across some randomization and setting/world building without taking too long to do it. Helped that it had the art. There's lots of various starting career tables or background tables kicking around and you can probably make one that does some gestural setting building and keeps it sparse.

>>98386841
>I don't think he did, it was just in the module
Understandable but also should have read that first. What module was it?

>>98386012
>we've had a persistent troll on the general for two years now,
yeah, before that the OP simply stated the thread is about TSR era D&D

>>98388370
Back to your containment threads, shitter. God knows you made enough of them for storing one guy.

>>98388273
Sinister Stone of Sakkara. We found it in a traped chest inside a secret room.

>>98389250
Nope, it's the objective truth, now kindly stop shitting up this thread with your trolling.

>>98386401
>>98386366
>>98388666
>Staff of healing
To be fair, the staff shouldn't really be in the module in that form. When ax1 was written for ACKS I it operated the same as the staff of healing from B2 i.e. once/person/day. For the 2e revision the SoH got changed to cure light once per turn but AX1 hasn't been revised since then. I'm inclined to treat it as the one in KotB, but being able to Cure Light on whole platoons of mercs has it's own problems further down the road.

>>98391670
Seems like the best limitation to prevent both those abuses is to say it only has one charge per turn and it also only works once/person/day.

>>98391879
>and it also only works once/person/day.
This seems reasonable enough. Its still quite powerful but not totally busted.

>>98391879
>>98392838
Don't give my GM ideas

>>98388221
True.
Also that I need a premise for them to be getting together as a group.
The idea being that their previous occupation failed them, so they are turning to working on a ship. Or already did. Whatever the motivation is, it needs to center around that. So maybe I should have that be one of the tables, and potentially affect what "skill" they have.

>>98383081
>a separate session also feels unfair towards the lawful player.
Players are not lawful, characters are. The player can just create a second character with a different alignment and choose which one to use each time.

>>98395323
>Players are not lawful, characters are.
nta, but great point.
Now can you make the same one but without being a cum guzzling pedant while doing so?
You knew exactly what he meant.

>>98395253
>XD20 everyone rolls for background
>1D12 group ownership complication
>1D10 ship positive trait
>1D8 ship negative trait
>1D6 ship type: cargo bulk, cargo special, passenger, private recreation/custom, exploration, war
>1D4 ship size: tiny, small , medium, large
Background dice let you do simple gestural world building like
>Falconer , Kite Builder, Loadstone Miner
Same for ownership complications, lets you fill in setting key ideas a dm can use.
>Tradewind Charterist Backing, Dispossessed Scion ship, Cloud Loom Consortium engine, etc.
and positive and negative traits.
>Loadstone burner, Livewood timbers, pressgang crew, spidersilk rig, the bilge hungers, etc.

>>98395369
>Now can you make the same one but without being a cum guzzling pedant while doing so?
No, not really, I can't help it. Thank god 4chan tolerates cunts for the most part, I'd be banned everywhere else.

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>>98395694
At least you have some self awareness!

>>98395694
I respect the honesty if not the dickery.

>>98395694
Kek

>>98395747
>>98395762
FWIW I do try to make up for my dickishness in other areas of my participation. Pedantry can be weaponised for good too!

>>98395369
Anon has a good point though, if the player feels the character wouldn't go along with it, one of the best things the referee can do to avoid either split play or half the group being idle is having the recusant PCs' players roll up new PCs, hired aides or the like to the would-be thieves.

Hey you, yea YOU.
How many henchmen is your crew rockin?

>>98397730
Henchmen? Just one, Vordnaz The Patient (l1 Fighter). Arqubus is the primary weapon. A bit dry, morale of 7 with strong faith. Got paralyzed by a ghoul, party saved him which is offsetting his unease of the witch who heads the party.

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>>98372743
I've been using OD&D+chainmail+grayhawk for a year now. Have to say I simply love it. It is so easy to run with minimal effort. It truly is a working mans game. You can just have the players exploring the map, come across a high level npc who can just give them a quest or geas and have the next three sessions planned out right there. And it is so easy to generate, the m-u wants a magic item, the cleric wants a relic or a holy place and the fighter reqruits the pcs for a scouting mission or battle after jousting them. It's a complete game despite what the pdf-peddlers might tell you that you can run just of the tables alone. Having a ready map helps but using the DMG generator or whatever works too. They really did hit the nail on a fantasy world simulator with the first try. And from the players side of thing the fighting capability rules and the weapon length system from chainmail really do make combat more fun and tactical and makes fighter so much better. My players have adapted a m-u spamming strat to get around magic users limited spells. It has been a blast and easily the best dnd experience we've all had. The OSR can suck a dick the original games are the best.

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>>98398386
>The OSR can suck a dick the original games are the best
kek
Where do you think you are and what do you think the OSR is, my brother in Gygax?

>>98398399
NTA but I know what anon means, fuck the "OSR" brand, long live the /OSRG/

What retroclone should I get to experience the true OSR feeling? I'm not against playing B/X, BECMI, or others, it's just I don't want to give WoTC my money.

>>98399487
>giving wotc money
Just download a copy of b/x and print it out on your own, at a copy shop, lulu, whatever. Run it as written for a bit then start noodling with it from blogs, ad&d and other retroclones you like the look of.

>>98399487
OSE used to be the best retroclone of B/X, but Norman's in the process of fucking it up. I agree with Anon though, just get the print-ready B/X omnibus off the trove and pull a copy via Lulu. That way you get the original and no money goes to Hasbro.

>>98381731
>Hating on per day abilities
Extreme FOE behaviors.

>>98400258
Hardly, "per-day" isn't some pillar of the game like dungeon turns or surprise mechanics or something

>>98399487
ACKS is B/X+ with thieves that don't suck, fighters that don't get outscaled by wizards and better support for mid and late game play.

>>98400157
>Norman’s fucking it up.

Damn, how so? I haven’t been following whats happening lately.

>>98401322
Removing OSE and pushing his OSE "Advanced" which is mostly player options that are loosely inspired by AD&D, without all the DM stuff and things that AD&D is actually good for.

Player options sell books, though, so I guess I understand the inclination. OSE Advanced is a mixed bag though, and it's kinda homebrew, which is not what people here liked about OSE.

>>98401448
That sucks to hear. I always thought that OSE had a great niche that appealed to purists who were looking for a clean presentation.

>>98369067
you are more than welcome to post about Knave in the thread about OSR in its entirety >>98378113

>>98400642
Stop defending the faggot, kid. Saying anything that has its roots in OD&D is FOE is subversion and faggotry.

>>98385944
Dolmenwood's examples and rules are written simple enough that it's pretty easy for anyone to grasp. The main session I'm playing in has been running for over a year with people who were new to OSR and I've run a few one shots with people that started with modern editions. It's gone well enough.
I think the big flaw from the GM in my main session is that he's excited about the setting and gets carried away, spoonfeeding us POIs which leads to what >>98386039 mentioned. Exploration should feel rewarding, only through the deliberate decision to explore a hex should a lot of its secrets be found.
Tangential to that, my other complaint has to do with the adventures themselves. All of the NG adventures published in books have an overblown impact on the setting. You definitely should create or pick out a few modules with hooks that are purely location based.

>>98401448
>Removing OSE
Last I checked OSE-Classic will not be dropped

Dolenwood is Nu-OSR and it's discussion belongs in Open OSRG general

>>98401515
>Linking two posts from outside the thread just to shitpost
Kill yourself, Fishfag.

Should I pick up B/X or Rules Cyclopedia?

>>98401962
It depends on whether you want a compact, streamlined system or a wealth of options (some of which are poorly thought out).

Do you guys have a "Adventurer's Guild" in your OSR campaign?

>>98401962
Rules Cyclopedia is kinda garbage
>>98402153
That's up to players to set up.

>>98402153
>Adventurer's Guild
What's that? What's the point of joining one?

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>>98401962

>>98401874
I'd appreciate it if you'd turn yourself into glue.

When converting odnd's armour class to chainmail's Light, Heavy, and Armoured catagories is there a commonly accepted method? I'm struggling to find one that doesn't trivialise shields in most instances.
Almost inclined to just fork the whole thing but I'd like to maintain compatibility.

>>98402153
Like the japanese fantasy trope? Never saw the appeal. Half the fun of fantasy is being an enterprising band of desperados who blaze their own trail to the top, managing their own logistics and goals along the way. Adventuring guilds take much of that away and kills the entire appeal of fantasy for me honestly. I've played in quite a few non-osr games in my life which had a big centralized adventurers' guild or two and engaging with it just felt really stupid and hollow every time.
Thieves and assassins guilds get a pass however, for some reason the trope circles back around into being cool. I can't really describe why, it just feels less kitsch.

>>98403192
Like a lot of weird japanese fantasy tropes, that one came directly out of D&D. The big difference between its origins and now is the guilds were set up by players, not by the DM.

If you have a long running open table game, players will eventually come up with something that resembles an "adventurer's guild" just to pool resources and share them between PCs. Buy ten wagons and say they're "for the guild" and now you've got wagons ready for whoever shows up to play next week, without leaving them the hassle of sourcing ten wagons,

>>98403215
>naturally emerging way for players to pool resources in open table play
Yeah within that context it totally makes sense for a guild like that.

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I don't get Shadow Elves. First they lure you in with this shamaness stacked with some double Ds, but the art inside the book makes them look like the Nosferatu.

>>98403420
>y-yeah that profile picture is a few centuries old

>>98403441
But she's already 120 at the very least. Those are the rules for Shadow Elf Shaman class.

>>98403420
Simple explanation: that cover is a Clyde Caldwell painting. If you literally told him to paint Nosferatu it would probably come out as a stacked bitch wearing a wisp of fabric with very carefully rendered legs.

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>>98403483
I get it they used Dragonlance artist for the cover and Ravenloft artist for the interior, but they make such a stark contrast. Maybe I can use the trope where males of a certain race are butt-ugly while the women are hot. I think Caldwell painted the Shadow Elf on Alfheim cover like a Drow. Makes me wonder if he has ever actually played D&D.

>>98402391
You don't get your legs broken for scabbing, access to legal representation if your employer withholds payment and a healthplan

>>98403420
>>98403489
>garbage from well after tsr was any good or had anything to do with osr has bad art and design
You just figuring this out? They were full slop production by that point and making trash to sell based on the cover art and elevator pitch.

Is it considered a Faux Pas to include a list of pregens for a very short module?
Its not a high level adventure AND its not a megadungeon. Will people laugh at me if they flip to the back and there’s like eight Level 1 characters ready to use?

>>98404311
Not really. It's not like people are forced to use them, and as long as you don't format the pregens like a crackhead they won't occupy much space in the adventure. It's just a beneficial optional resource, I don't see how that can go wrong unless it's like a 4-page adventure and you insist on adding eight pages of full character sheets.

>>98404290
I've realized TSR kept reusing art all the time, it had good art, but come on.

>>98404475
To be fair, you would too if you were paying Parkinson-Elmore rates. In fact, few other RPG publishers have ever even been able to pay for *one* original piece by the TSR Big Four, and they were kept on as salaried staff at TSR. (One of the biggest Swefag fantasy games used a Parkinson painting as a cover which Parkinson originally did just for an issue of Dragon. That's how big the gap is, other RPG companies have had to license TSR leftovers.)

>>98404311
It's fine. Just be cautious of formatting, as
>>98404345
said.
I've never run into anyone who got upset that there were pregens provided, and have included pregens that were the characters of the inital party I ran through the adventure.

>>98403192
>Like the japanese fantasy trope? Never saw the appeal. Half the fun of fantasy is being an enterprising band of desperados who blaze their own trail to the top
Ironically this is more or less what Japanese Adventurer's Guilds are for. To "blaze your trail to the top" there has to be a top, and as with so much Japanese fiction, Guilds provide a grading structure to track your progress. You can go from an F-rank newbie to Super S-Rank dragon-suplexing god slayers just like your video games!

As with many such things your tolerance for it will depend heavily on your ability to tolerate "gamificiation" of a setting. If the idea of your gritty mudcore Fighting-Man pulling up a little holographic stat sheet to check his current level and condition makes you retch it's probably not for you.

>>98405120
>pulling up a little holographic stat sheet to check his current level and condition
NAYRT but I vomited a little just reading this

>>98405120
In the games I run, the 'Adventurer's Guild' is the name of a popular brothel.

>>98405120
>To follow the rails to the top there has to be rails and the all encompassing socioeconomic infrastructure this retardation requires
Its not the gamification, its the removal of the possibility of agency, adventure, exploration and the entire point of playing osr games to get away from that shit.

Is it accurate to say that left leaning "people" can never truly understand Gygaxian D&D?

>>98405724
No, fuck off with your politics shitting

>>98405724
Jaquays, retard.

>>98405724
No, that's "falseflag-by-ACKS-hater"-tier retarded BUT
>>98405859
You're also wrong, Paul was an old-school Bruce Jenner-style boomertranny with conservative views outside of his private bonkers delulu about his sex.

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My group is running a AD&D 2e Masque of the Red Death campaign. I am playing a Native American mystic (cleric) using the shaman kit. Another player in our group is some kind of wizard and he has convinced the DM to let him use level-0 spells with no restrictions. He's also not using the increased casting times for his cantrips which is annoying, but not why I am here.

Are there any official Cleric level-0 spells? I am aware of the three different times Dragon Magazine had articles about some, but I was curious if there are any I may have missed. And if the DM gives me any trouble with things I'll bring up my concerns about the wizard being allowed to do way too much, but I am pretty sure he won't which is cool with me because now I'll feel useful with being able to cast spells.

These are what I have so far:
Arthur Collins "Cantrips for Clerics," Dragon Magazine issue 108
Rick Reid "Cantrips for Druids -- Naturally", Dragon Magazine #119
Mark L. Palmer "Higher Aspirations" , Dragon Magazine #120

Thanks for any help you can give.

>>98406049
>AD&D 2e
Off-topic (see OP) and trolling, 2e is not an OSR game. Doesn't belong here.

>>98406049
This isn't really a good thread for 2nd ed discussion. There isn't really a good thread for that desu, the alt-osr thread has very minimal gameplay knowledge. Might work if you make a thread about it specifically but you're at best well off base here and at worst baiting several times in a row. Hard to tell, there's been a lot of persistent trolling, like years of it, from a few dedicated autists.

>>98406075
Ah shit, my bad I thought anything pre-3e was OSR. Sorry I am retarded and a faggot.

>>98406086
It's cool, anon. "Pre-3e" is just a meme that gets spread around /tg/ by a massive faggot, is all. Cheers

>>98405895
>boomertranny
This neologism would have dealt psychic damage to a medieval peasant

>>98406086
Yeah if this was an honest mistake, no problem, there's a faggot out there roaming the board poisoning the well on purpose. OSR is pre-2e but don't sweat it.

>>98406155
That's the well known "sonic boom"

Any tips on how to keep level 1 characters alive that have rolled 1 on max HP? We'll hire hirelings to stand in front of us as soon as we can, but as of right now we don't have any money to hire them...

>>98406448
As a DM, generally I start characters at level 2 or 3 depending on the difficulty of the starting module, or make them reroll if they start at level 1 but roll a flat 1.
As a player, if you have max 1 HP, just play defensively and smart, basically don't get into fights until you level up. You should remember that in OSR you don't need to kill monsters to level up, just recover treasure into town, so try to only do that.
Also, in general, don't get attached to characters. OSR is very lethal. But luckily rolling new characters takes 10 minutes.

>>98406475
>I start characters at level 2 or 3 depending on the difficulty of the starting module
In abstract, what does this mean for those characters then, that they started their adventure at 2nd level as opposed to 1st?

>>98406572
In abstract terms? Probably that they already have some prior experience in adventuring and have completed some missions already in their lives before the game session. May fit characters or not.
In practice, that just makes them a little bit more durable and useful, and that is why I do it generally. It works well to curve off a bit the difficulty of OSR for new players, or players that are used to the newer editions.
But if it's a one shot session, a horror themed session, or an easy module, I rarely bother, as lethality is sometimes good and intended.

One of my players wants to play an "Evil" cleric, or a cleric of chaos. Now, I've already talked to him about the motives of the character, and we've all agreed that "Evil" in this case isn't going to be antagonistic to the party, but rather someone that is self serving and worships a god of chaos, war, and "Might Makes Right".

Other than reversing all of his spells (So that a healing spell is now a "Harming" spell.) What other considerations should I have for the character. I will still have his undead turning work the same, but instead of rebuking the undead, he now overpowers them and destroys them.

In the next floor that they're going into, there is a shrine of a god of "Mercy and Wisdom". Should I give him a sort of reward in the event that he defiles or destroys the place? How exactly should him going into the holy places of good aligned gods work mechanically?

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>>98406656
I'd rather not tell too much more since this isn't the place for 2e, but I will share my character concept. The setting is 1889 America and I am a Lakota that was involved in the Ghost Dance Movement of that time. During a three day long dance, I had a vision to travel East and so that's why I ended up in Boston where the rest of the party was. I make a meager living crafting trinkets and charms which the rich citizens are intrigued by since this during a time where spiritualism is very popular. One of the players owns a rare books shop so I sell my stuff there and live in one of the rooms there so long as I provide trinkets/charms. Originally I was going to focus more on nature themed spells, but last session four of our players dropped thanks to multiple crits from the DM. I was able to finish off the threat alone and then stabilized the dying players. Because of that experience I am going to focus more on healing and when I learn about my tribe being killed in 1890 during the Wounded Knee Massacre I'll have to figure out how that should affect me.

Also, I did find a place to ask and got my question answered which was awesome. Sorry again for posting here, but I didn't see a better place and I wasn't going to kill a thread for a single question.

>>98406876
>I wasn't going to kill a thread for a single question.
Threads are cheap, have a limited lifespan, and most of them are shit.

>>98406049
you are welcome in a broader OSR thread >>98378113
personally I'm not much of a 2e guy but we have some anons who apparently are into it
Perhaps they can help you but honestly going by your list of sources seems like you already nailed

PS
don't mind the local anti-2e schizo, please understand he is very unwell

Why do you keep coming into our thread to post bullshit and antagonize people, you smarmy faglord?

>>98407916
Firstly, he's still fuming about the clarified OP text, as you can see he said himself. Secondly, he's salty because it's dawned on him that his latest hijack attempt has failed comprehensively again; his slide thread is completely dead except for his own samefagging bumps every six hours or so. And he's too much of a shitbird to just accept when he's lost.

>>98406448
My group's usual DM always gives max HP ar 1st level, e.g. M-U roll 4 every time, because he doesn't like to kill PCs
by bad luck, only if the players do something stupid.

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Beans of Power:
Bag holding seven beans with magical effects. The embroidering reads: ‘Bite Me!’
>Spicy Red: Breathe fire for 2 rounds. Fire deals 2d8 damage in a 15’ radius, Save v Breath for half.
>Damp Blue: Breathe underwater for 6 rounds.
>Metallic Grey: AC improved to 2 for 1d4 rounds, movement speed halved for 4 rounds.
>Sour Green: Spit poison once within the next 2 rounds. Foe must Save v Poison or die in 2 rounds. Only works on living, nonmagical creatures.
>Sugary White: Movement speed increased by 20’ for 1d4 rounds. THAC0 worsened by 1 for 4 rounds.
>Jawbreaker Black: Deals 1d4 damage to self, then restores 2d4 HP.
>Mottled Bean: Combines the effects of two separate beans. Roll 2d6, rerolling any duplicates.
Anyone who consumes 3 or more beans within a single day will be plagued by stomach cramps that night.

>>98408047
Nice try, fishfag, but I checked your 2e thread and you couldn't even be bothered to repeat the "question" over there, let alone fabricate some pointless "answer". Just go away

>>98408190
Not the point, my reading-challenged friend! On the contrary, what I mean is that poster *claims* he asked elsewhere and got an answer, but the alleged post is undetectable, so this was just another shitpost trying to force 2e into the thread by feigning naive ignorance (and inability to look at the OP) and the anons who replied to him in good faith were bamboozled by a troll.

All I'm going to say is last time this happened it was reported to the higher ups and mysteriously stopped happening.
Just something to think on.

>>98406736
>Should I give him a sort of reward in the event that he defiles or destroys the place?
This strongly depends on how present and proactive the various gods are in the game world and how much conflict about it you want to have in your game. If its the sort of game you want to encourage letting the player know there are rewards for various shrine and faith based war will encourage it.
>How exactly should him going into the holy places of good aligned gods work mechanically?
I like having religious elements being part of the constant background but not upfront and centre in terms of how they directly engage with the mundis so I'd lean towards something like
>can't rest in opposite aligned shrine areas, can't heal, can't regain any resources

>>98406736
>In the next floor that they're going into, there is a shrine of a god of "Mercy and Wisdom". Should I give him a sort of reward in the event that he defiles or destroys the place? How exactly should him going into the holy places of good aligned gods work mechanically?
You could check out Melan's rules for "divine champions" in Fomalhaut; there, the gods will often grant those who do their bidding single-use spells that stay "memorized" until used, and similar boons. That type of thing could be an appropriate reward.

>>98409155
>>98409934
Thank you. These are good things to consider, and I'll look into those two references. I don't want the whole campaign to become about the gods (yet.) But maybe I can use these things to plant seeds for things that may happen in the campaign world later... Without story-gaming, mind you.

Initially I was going to ask what the point of limiting retainers was, but then upon further reading and thinking, I realized it's 1.) So the game doesn't become bogged down with retainers. And 2.) so that Charisma can play a role in leadership, (Where a person with awful charisma might only have 1 follower, and a person with high charisma might have 7!)

However, I was wondering if there were some way to alter this for use with solo play. Maybe allow myself to have any number of retainers (So long as I am able to maintain their loyalty,) but of my retainers only be able to command a number of them equal to 4 + or - my Charisma?

>>98409994
Well, the traditional advice for solo play is to just run a full group of PCs alone. Not that far off 3-5 henchmen.

>>98409994
Just upgrade some of those "main" retainers into fully fledged characters that are always loyal to your PC and call it a day. This is only a problem at lower levels or when you're poor since eventually most PCs are expected to command their own armies.

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Which TSR 1st edition modules actually had mimics in them?
Do you know of any?
It seems it only appeared in the monster manual in the first edition.

>>98410742
>Which TSR 1st edition modules actually had mimics in them?
Do you know of any?
Not off the top of my head, but why's that a problem?

>It seems it only appeared in the monster manual in the first edition.
Many such cases.

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>>98410742
>>98411996
I2 Tomb of the Lizard King (top). Bottom is Gygax, EX2 final encounter

>>98373596
I don't know what but the knights in this pic reminds me of Adam Smasher.

>>98412043
Nice catch, Anon! I'm not sure I'm totally clear on where the middle one's from though (you said "top" and "bottom" but there seem to be three distinct quotes).

>>98412133
the bottom two are both the same encounter in ex2 (it's food themed, the black pudding is a pudding, etc.)

I know it goes against the spirit of OSR to put a price on magic items, and in many ways it doesn't make sense. But what do I do in the rare situations when I do need a price for a magic item? Or in the case of "Gold for EXP", how much should each recovered magic item be worth when I distribute EXP based on how much the players recovered from the dungeon?

Or, if there were a traveling merchant that did so happen to have a magical lamp in his possession. Sure it would be a lot and you can't put a value on such things... But everything has a price, right? At some point I kind of do need a list of comparison of magic item values...

>>98412660
AD&D DMG sale value, adjusted to whatever predatory pricing this travelling merchant is up to. Use with caution, an overabundance of for sale magical items can fuck up your game quickly, as can getting into whatever weird magical item economics you get tangled up in attempting to rationalize how it would function.

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>>98412660
In ACKS magic items have an apparent value of whatever they appear to be if mundane that the PCs get for bringing back into town no matter what and a base cost which is what the item will sell for if its properties are known and the amount of xp the party can get if they sell it without ever using.
As for prices consult the chart

>>98412660
As Anon said, this is in fact covered comprehensively by the DMG.

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>>98412858
>but anon how many magic items and what type should be available to buy?
I glad you asked totally not me, ACKS has that covered too

>>98411996
>why's that a problem?
I didn't say it was a problem, I just wanted to know how did gygax and the other og masters used mimics, because generally when you see a mimic nowadays it's just chests with teeth but I know in OSR they were much more than that, and it's very interesting to see how creative you can get using them.
>>98412043
Nice! Thank you.

>>98412899
It's worth noting that many DMs do NOT allow PCs to purchase magic items. The DMG agrees.

I do understand why Macris allows it (self-consistent economy and the idea that the PCs are not special, so there should be no asymmetrical rules for them).

>>98413285
It is also worth noting that in his own published content the biggest city is market class III so it is unlikely to find anything other than potions and scrolls.

>>98413245
>I just wanted to know how did gygax and the other og masters used mimics, because generally when you see a mimic nowadays it's just chests with teeth but I know in OSR they were much more than that
Oh cool, in that case, see if you can find some writeups on "The Living Room" from the OG Castle Greyhawk. I don't think those were *exactly* mimics because the whole castle predates most codified monsters, but it should still interest you as an implementation of the same basic idea.

How do you set up high level pregens?
Do you pre-select spells? If so, do you tell the players to check if they're cool with those? How do you assign magical items? Do you roll the chart as many times as needed dungeons to reach that level and then spread the items rationally? Do you pick your favorites or ones that will fit the module?

>>98413465
>Do you pre-select spells?
Yes.

>If so, do you tell the players to check if they're cool with those?
No. The point of pregens is to start playing right away

>How do you assign magical items?
The DMG and ACKS II both have rules for that. I use those.

>Do you pick your favorites or ones that will fit the module?
Generally speaking, no. There's no reason for PCs to have the right magic items for the job.

>>98413465

Definitely pre-select. If you're doing pregens, it's either a time issue or a complexity issue, and in both cases you're helping by addressing spell selection ahead of time.

>>98412899
It really annoys me that the item categories aren't ordered in falling order of rarity.

>>98413465
High level pregens fora module or something else?
Is the module made to be dropped into settings, which seems harder to do at higher level unless you're going into sailors on the sea of fate metacosmic stuff, or is it a tournament see how far you get sort of module?
The first would be a bit less concerned with making sure there were enough available resources in spells and magic items to succeed as the players would be able to explore the world the module is dropped into and gather more resources to return with. If its a short run, having more intentional design is likely a better choice in terms of making a successful experience that still provides challenges but doesn't make it impossible, ie no means of gaining access to areas.

>>98379266
This is the greatest of all D&D images.

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Converted the Orcwort to bx, my players are going to learn mass combat rules or watch the world burn around them.

>>98421965
best of luck to your players if they're fighting an Orcwort unprepared.

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I just found a very old "Faction alignment chart" from my campaign world. I think that this was originally about 10 years old? You can see that back then I used that really early AI shit to make character portraits. I pulled from many different published sources for the factions, then put my own spin on them. (Wish I had time to run this campaign still. It was very fun while it lasted.)

>>98422601
Am I just too old to understand why everything on this chart is faux-greentexted?

>>98422992
I have no clue why I did that. I think, perhaps, I've spent (And had spent at the time,) so much time on 4chan that my brain basically works in greentext format? But that's probably just an excuse.

>>98421965
Post conversion, would be interesting to see.

Do we need an "/amg/-Alexander Macris General"?

>>98423546
No, but you need to be neutered just to be on the safe side

>>98423546
No, the Open OSR slitde thread already is an ACKS General in practice – there's no other content in it except Fishfag bumpfagging with the same Mystara map over and over and crying about this general. The ACKSfriends are the only people actually posting, Fishfag hasn't even mention 2e once in several threads lmao

>>98423616
i was the 2e fishfag. I gave up after the new political fishfags showed up and ruined any chance of change.

>>98423332
I concur.
Please post it.

>>98423630
Kek, well, at least you can console yourself that there was never any chance of change to begin with.

>>98423681
heh, well of course i must disagree. but enjoy your victory. I hope the new company is as entertaining for you as it is to me.

>>98423716
Frankly, seeing this thread pleasant and untrolled and the slide thread faggoted up by obvious retards is a pleasure, yes. Seeing the back of your retarded confected alt-histories of the OSR you made up just to try to force 2e on this thread where it never belonged is nice, too. Whoever the guy who usurped you is, he doesn't seem eager to repost that trash.

>>98423736
sadly i can't take credit for the alt history stuff or posting in this thread. I only ever argued that 2e is osr due to its compatibility with past systems and made a couple todd threads. todd was just a bad idea in hindsight.

The amount of seething anger in the other thread is unreal.

>>98424077
Yeah, that's the real Fishfag there, the OG whose autismal hatred of ACKS is so massive it's distorted his entire personality.

>>98424182
Well, no matter how mad he gets it won't stop us from playing tomorrow.

>>98424077
You have to remember that he's been increasingly furious about this for years and years, at least since the COVID era and maybe longer. You may not recall this but he would initially try to push a scope change with arguments like "it's just clearer if everything TSR is included" and "3e is a simpler cutoff". We'd point out to him that A, 1e/2e is just as clear a boundary as 2e/3e and anyway OSR never meant TSR (then there wouldn't have been any need for a new term in the first place, people would just say TSR), and B, in any case he couldn't expect to single-handedly redefine OSR by artificially forcing 2e into the definition on /tg/.

Ever since then he's just been escalating and escalating, coming up with increasingly involved and deranged stories for why he should get his autistic way, getting shot down and coming back with some even angrier, even more schizo pretext for why he should get his way, deciding that the thing he wanted had always been true everywhere outside the thread anyway and blah blah.

I'm not exactly sure why ACKS tripped his autistic tic into full blown meltdown, though. That part's pretty odd.

>>98424551
>I'm not exactly sure why ACKS tripped his autistic tic into full blown meltdown, though.
Pretty obvious to me.
He's trying to shit up /osrg/ because of brainworm politics ("/osrg/ is a bastion of right wing chuddery who glorifies the old ways, it must fall, dozens must play 5e! REEE-")
And anyone saying nice things about ACKS is also against the exact same brand of brainworm politics.

Soon as you recognize that through-line the entire thing is logically consistent and clear as day.

>>98424182
>>98424551
I think its only the new fish's that hate acks and they seem to do so for purely political reasons. I think its theatre kids trying to fully infiltrate the ttrpg hobby. og fishfag is probably long gone and and as a 2e fishfag i don't wish lumped in with the new faggots that wear the label.

>>98424577
>I think its only the new fish's that hate acks
Bruh.meme
The entire nickname comes from him sperging about ACKS. What the hell have you been smoking?

>>98424582
the old one had better reasons then irl politics to dislike acks. that's the difference i see.

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>>98424589
>the old one had better reasons then irl politics to dislike acks. that's the difference i see.

>>98424601
well if that's how its gonna be, I'll just go back to lurking. please enjoy arguing with the new fags and talking to yourself.

>>98424616
Alright, if you're not baiting then; man, what? All he ever had was IRL politics.
There was the thinnest veneer of "Oh, it has too many tables. Oh, the economy doesn't work but I won't specify how or why. Oh, it's clunky." but soon as you scratch the surface with him it is and has always been "Marcis drew a cock swastika on the moon with his Nazi space laser."
If you ever fell for any of the paper thin bullshit then I guess I have a bridge to sell you, but come on man, surely you're not stupid.
And I'm so sincere in saying this that I won't even end this post with a joke.

>>98424608
Kill yourself, Fishfag!

>>98424642
after browsing the archives looks like the only good reasons are subjective ones that don't matter like "its a more complex B/X so i'll stick with B/X". other then that i just saw generic shit flinging (did include calling people nazi's), and some stuff about macris.

so i will concede there was always a political faction of fishfags. and btw my stance on the osr is that it should only include games from the od&d lineage of games which would include acks and 2e in my mind. just wanna give my position.

>>98424723
>so i will concede there was always a political faction of fishfags. and btw my stance on the osr is that it should only include games from the od&d lineage of games which would include acks and 2e in my mind. just wanna give my position.
Alright, I respect you for being willing to go check and change your mind rather than doubling down. I still don't agree on 2e being OSR since in my eyes it changes too much.
But that's at least a respectful conversation you and I can have (elsewhere, not here) rather than it being two baboons flinging handfuls of shit at each other like a certain other thread currently ongoing on this board.

>>98424739
thank you. i will go back to laughing at the other thread.

>>98424739
>two baboons flinging handfuls of shit at each other like a certain other thread currently ongoing on this board.
Honestly, it looks more like "some kids at the zoo dinging a baboon with pebbles and watching it go absolutely frothing apeshit for amusement" to me. Could be wrong, but there's a lot of "cavalier denial of angry retard –> four replies full of 200% mad wordswordswords" going on.

Which set of lewd rules maintains the original spirit of B/X the best? I don't think most games need them, but if I'm doing a solo game or a game with my gf then they're acceptable.
What's the best way to determine the results of seduction, manhandling, sexual performance, and the outcome of sexual encounters?

>>98421965
>>98422535
>>98423332
>>98423667
The orcwort faggot is an "open osr" troll.
Orcwort is from dragon292, which was conveniently posted there today.
Ignore him

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>>98424992
So no conversion was actually done, that anon's just a lying nogames faggot. Lovely.

>>98424966
Its far away from what I run but take a look at Alpha Blue, its the sexo osr stuff, might be more you can find from there. I don't think Venger was ever particularity concerned with the original spirit of much but he at least knew what he wanted to do.

>>98422535
Would be foolish at best to try and fight it head on. Given it's inability to give chase should give them enough breathing room to put themselves in a winning position.
>>98423332
>post conversion
Shall do, but I'd like to so it after I've seen the players play around with it first so I can post the stat block(possibly with tweeks)and talk about it at with relevant actual play experience at the same time.
For now I'll just say that it's a 9hd monster with ac-1 and a canopy that can be attacked separately as one can attack a Beholders eye stalks.
>>98425013
>>98424992
Fuck you. I'd never post in your shithole thread kept alive only by bumpfags.
>Orcwort is from dragon292
Probably, I'm familiar with the one from a later monster manual which is why I converted it and didn't claim that the orcwort has always been osr, not that it is inherently osr.

>>98385191
>Do you mean life path generation like in Traveller or Beyond the Wall
Beyond the Wall has lifepath generation? It looks like a retroclone the version I have

>>98425593
>your shithole thread
My shithole thread? What?

>>98425640
>admits to following open osr
>shits up osrg with unfounded accusations
>wants me to think he's not a troll
Talk about games or fuck off.

>>98425685
You replied to two people, dumbass

>>98425596
BtW gives classes for Fighter Mage Rogue early in the rules, but does lifepath generation in its Character Playbooks.
I really like it. Run a few oneshots through lifepath generation and a short adventure afterward. Players always liked it, and a few ported the characters they made into other games and systems.

>>98425133
Thanks. Your recommendation helped me find basic rules for what I needed. Just wanted rules for seduction, relationships, and whether a character was skilled in the bedroom. Alpha Blue has really basic ""joke"" rules for all of this.

Have you ever played in someone else's game where they have a strange rule implemented? My DM is an older guy whose been playing since the early 80s, and he has a rule that if the players win on a surprise or ambush round that everyone gets a +1 on anything they do in that first round of the encounter. Whether it's attacking, negotiating, sneaking... Anything.

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>>98426032
Have fun pervo anon.

>>98372743
is there a ravenloft osr version?

>>98426458
I think Chubby Funster has a one he is working on. No idea if anyone else has done similar.

>>98426458
In OSR terms, Ravenloft is a module, I6. It's considered a classic by D&D fans generally but looked at askance by OSR enthusiasts due to its heavy plot elements and certain rules used to emphasize them.

>>98426043
You mean they get that bonus in the surprise round? Doesn't seem like a terribly strange rule to me, I'm more baffled by the idea that you could meaningfully negotiate at all with someone you just took by surprise, in the few seconds he was still overcome with shock. What would that look like?

>>98426470
Doesn't he make stuff for Shadowdark?

>>98426458
There were a few gothic horror games like Ghastly Affair, an old blog called Against The Wicked City that had that sort of tone and setting. There maybe even made a retroclone with a blueish purple cover and a stage coach on it? Its been a while and wasn't very relevant to my interests.
LotFP does more of a slasher horror than gothic but there's not much mechanically about it really just modules.

>>98427686
There were a couple of those blogs with the same type of vibe, I can't remember the name of the other big one now but he released a supplement with a green/black cover, I remember.

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>>98427771
Midderlands? There's been so much of this stuff.

>>98427802
Yeah, that's it! Good memory, Anon.

>>98426458
Isn't raveloft OSR already?
The original ravenloft module is an AD&D(1e) adventure. So what are you asking? There's no need for conversion, it is originally OSR.

I wish there was an actual grimdark setting for OSR that is not ravenloft.
Like, I wish there was just something like Berserk, with no dracula clone or werewoves and retarded pocket dimensions, just medieval feudal fantasy with sadistic nobles, lots of violence and actually terrifying monsters that lurk in the dark. But I can imagine why there's nothing officially released like that.

>>98427923
Anon most likely is asking for the setting that it became later, that grew up around the original module into "gothic horror D&D" (which was, let's be honest, never a good fit of system and setting, but still).

So in ACKS/BX what do you do about a dragon when your PCs are level 3 and your mass of henchmen are levels 1 or 2? I feel like whoever gets the dragon breath is just dead. So I want to leave a bunch of them behind.

>>98427861
Its going to bug me all day I don't remember the name of the clone with the purple and stagecoach.

>>98427969
If it's a random encounter and not scripted, as a DM I would do a monster reaction check, unless the PCs are dumb enough to start the encounter attacking upfront. Most monster checks give a neutral reaction so the players would be fine
>>98426458
>>98427955
Mmm in that case, check out all the TSR ravenloft modules, they are mostly 2e (and garbage, in my opinion), but conversion to OSR systems should be easy. They form a complete setting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ravenloft_publications

>>98427969
Scout things out. Plan accordingly. Where's the dragon lair and what's it built like?
Does b/x not have different HD dragons on the encounter and keying tables based on dungeon level? Or using treasure and food to distract monsters while fleeing if you have to?

>>98427938
Lion & Dragon. Not my thing but might be closer to what you want.
Beyond The Wall with the Cult starter and the right bit from Further Afield too.
There's buckets of darksouls inspired zines and blogposts when DS was popular, lots of WHFB mudcore meme stuff too. It wasn't exactly the default but it was quite popular.
Into the Wyrd & Wild and Rackhell (nusr but pretty good regardless) as setting generation tools for that style of play as well.

>>98428080
I'll check out shadowdark, it seems it's already quite grimdark, and there's lots of modules for it, in fact I think they just released an official setting.

>>98427969
Tbh if you're preparing to fight a dragon or realistically any heavy-hitter monster it makes perfect sense to leave the henches behind, the vulnerables likely won't be able to give much assistance, certainly less bang for the buck than against large rabbles in any case, plus you want somebody left behind to inherit the grudge, get revenge and recover our magic stuff if you blow it.

>>98428129
>turns out it's an invading shitposter again
Good grief.

>>98397730
Two people in my party have two each, two people have one each. I have none but I'm managing the hirelings in the party (currently a teamster and porter for the cart). The torch bearer we had was coaxed into fighting, promoted to henchman and is now in hire of a members who has one.
We had three more henchman and two hirelings (packhandler, another porter) but rightfully abandoned us during our last delve when a PC got a henchman killed by shoving them towards a stone construct dog to see if they were a statue or not. I'm sure it'll impact attempts to hire later down the line.

>>98428129
That one's mostly memes, you might be able to salvage something from it though, there's a lot of material being current hot topic. 10' pole does functional reviews and has looked at some of it.
Its 3 or 4 marketing iterations into mudcore so it'll be much closer to your initial imaginings of
>why there's nothing officially released like that
if you were on some sort of culture war noise.