hi to all this is my first thread & post, and i am typing with joy that over the weekend i played my first adventure in over 10 years using the old school rules via the Rules cyclopdia. It was a small dungeon crawl where the pc's had to help a small town rid the local goblins out. I have played both the 3.5 rules and going back to the old rules it just seemed like the game play was more fun & flexible.
just wanted to know if anybody here still plays the old rules.
I may wind up doing that. For various reasons, my group is dissolving. One is moving, one is having a change in his work schedule, and another one did one last favor for a "friend" and got picked up with, shall we say, "questionable substances. My husband and I have been regaling our niece and nephews with legends of gaming days long past and they want to try the older stuff. We'll probably cut the sessions to once a month, though, so they don't burn out. Their dad will join us as he was one of our ollllllllld group. This should be fun, although I'll have to tone it down. It wouldn't do to play a raunchy game session with hookers and such with a) kids and b) in faithful Christian home. Gotta keep it clean and heroic!
i will play the new rules soon with a gaming group, but i enjoy the old rules so muh
The good news is that I still have most of my old modules and books. The better news is that I still remember them, so game prep should be a snap! The even better news is that I have so much more experience now that I should be able to really go to the wall with them!
Glad you had fun with the Rules Cyclopedia!
I am running a game using the original 1974 three brown booklets, and so far, it's a blast. I'm glad to see there are still old-schoolers having fun out there! Game on!
Shhh! Don't let anybody know, but its not the rules its the players that make the game fun!
In the right group, any rules set will do... but there must be an eye on fun over everything else.
On RPGNow there is a 1974 rules based supplement for the Halfling available for free. It's not an "official" product, but just incase you were interested I thought I'd mention it. Also, I have PDFs of the TSR supplements for the 1974 set. I don't recall where I got them, but PM me if you want to know what's in them. I'll have to find them first, though!
And I wholeheartedly agree. It's not the rules that make the game fun, it's the people playing it!
If you want to play with the 1974 rules, you can download Swords & Wizardry White Box for free here (PDF File, Right Click, Save As).
See the S&W website for more (including the "Core Rules", which a rules set apart of the "White Box" version, and is a blend of the 1974 rules with bits and pieces from the original supplements, particularly Supplement I - Greyhawk).
I finally got a look at that product. They even kept the "every weapon does d6 damage"! Pretty sweet. Same rules, better organization, now to get some more ink and print it!
I play a house-ruled version of Basic D&D; I give clerics and magic-users a bit more spells to start with and made saves and turning undead work more simply without the need for a chart, but it's pretty close, and I use monsters out of the old BD&D and 1e books and modules.
In fact, I'm currently arranging a chat game using such rules (you can view my groups).
I really enjoy the pick-up-and-play aspect of those simple rules; it's so quick to make a character.
The fastest character creation ruleset I've found is Magpie Codex. Less than five minutes if you have no idea what you're doing, less than two if you do, and the PCs are just as beefy as anybody's. Still, unless you were carefully nitpicking for every possible mechanical advantage and weighing all numerical possibilities, yeah, you could slap a Basic D&D PC together pretty quickly.
This one will be very long, so everyone please bare with me. I just turned 37. When I was 13, I mowed all the lawns in my neighborhood and then took that money and bought the Rules Cyclopedia. My buddies and I back then, played the snot outta that book!! When all the older kids in our school found out we were playing "Basic" D&D, they would make remarks like: "yea ..... that's cool ...... but it's not Advanced." So I kept mowing lawns and shortly owned the 2nd Edition PHB, DMG, and the first 2 Monsterous Compendiums. We converted our characters up to 2nd Edition, and then I just stopped using the Rules Cyclopedia. So I sold it. Dumb move.
All these years later, my old buddies, (now in their 30's like me,) are all saying: "3rd edition is awesome, but we should just play an old basic D&D game! Role up some characters and just start beating on stuff like we used to!" So of course, I jumped on eBay and found a beautiful, near flawless, copy of the Rules Cyclopedia, an excellent copy of The Creature Catalog, (I didn't know they had that monster book when I was 13,) and started paying the outrageous prices to get some of the old GAZ series of modules for the Known World. (I think a great idea for Wizards would be to release a full compendium of the GAZ1-14, with a HUGE poster map. I would gladly pay $50-$70 for that. Kind of like what they did with the re-release of Against the Giants.) I haven't been this excited to play D&D in long, long, time! I read, and re-read, through my RC and CC like I did when I was a teenager! Now with the internet, I started looking to see if Dragon Magazine had ever released anything on a Barbarian class for "Basic" D&D. If I read my info right, they did early on, and an earlier version of the "Original" D&D had the Barbarian. But when they re-did the box sets into the BECMI era, they left out the Barbarian and finally put him into the Unearthed Arcana book. I did find a cool version of a "Basic" D&D-style Barbarian for Sword & Sorcery. I put my own touch on him, and am asking for all of you to chime in and tell me what you think. Did I miss something? Should I do more? Should I do less? Here is my take on the Barbarian for BECMI D&D. The original outline comes from:
ode2bd.blogspot.com/2009/11/bx-s-barbarian-class.html
BECMI Barbarian
Prime Requisite: Strength - 13-15=+5% to Experience earned/16-18=+10% to Experience earned
Barbarians roll on the attack charts of Fighters and the saving throw charts of Dwarves
Restrictions: Barbarians use a 1d10 to determine their hit points. Barbarians may use any type of armor (except plate and suit,) and may use shields (except Tower and Walled.) They may use any type of melee or thrown weapons but do not use missile weapons. A barbarian character must have a minimum Constitution score of 9.
Special Abilities: Barbarians are used to surviving in the wilderness and are able to forage, discover the correct direction if they become lost, and spot traps and snares in the wild one-third of the time (a roll of 1 or 2 on 1d6.) Because of a Barbarian's upbringing and natural behavior, they can fight with one weapon in each hand, but only with a -2 penalty to the second weapon's attack roll. When a Barbarian fights this way, they do not receive 3 attacks/round because of high levels. At the beginning of play, Barbarians gain the Lance Attack and Set Spear vs. Charge attacks.
When Barbarians reach 9th level, they become known as a Barbarian Lord, build a stronghold and attempt to establish a clan. The stronghold will be located in the wilderness.The Barbarian Lord may only use barbarian warriors, but specialists and retainers of other classes may be offered other positions.
1- 0 - 1d10 - Barbarian
2 - 2200 - 2d10 - Barbarian
3 - 4400 - 3d10 - Barbarian
4 - 8800 - 4d10 - Barbarian
5 - 17000 - 5d10 - Barbarian
6 - 35000 - 6d10 - Barbarian
7 - 70000 - 7d10 - Barbarian
8 - 140000 - 8d10 - Barbarian
9 - 270000 - 9d10 - Barbarian Lord
10 - 400000 - 9d10+3*
11 - 530000 - 9d10+6
12# - 660000 - 9d10+9
13 - 800000 - 9d10+12
14 - 940000 - 9d10+15
15 - 1080000 - 9d10+18
16 - 1220000 - 9d10+21
17 - 1360000 - 9d10+24
18 - 1500000 - 9d10+27
19 - 1640000 - 9d10+30
20 - 1780000 - 9d10+33
21 - 1920000 - 9d10+36
22 - 2060000 - 9d10+39
23 - 2200000 - 9d10+42
24## - 2340000 - 9d10+45
25 - 2480000 - 9d10+48
26 - 2620000 - 9d10+51
27 - 2760000 - 9d10+54
28 - 2900000 - 9d10+57
29 - 3040000 - 9d10+60
30 - 3180000 - 9d10+63
31 - 3320000 - 9d10+66
32 - 3460000 - 9d10+69
33 - 3600000 - 9d10+72
34 - 3740000 - 9d10+75
35 - 3880000 - 9d10+78
36 - 4020000 - 9d10+81
*=Constitution adjustments no longer apply
#=2 attacks/round ...... ##=3 attacks/round
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I decided not to give the Barbarian 4 attacks per round like the Fighter. I figured with the most hit points possible in the game (198,) I had to give him some severe restrictions. Plus to me, a person that gets 4 attacks/round would need some intense training for that. Barbarians (IMO) do not have that amount of patience. That's also why Barbarians cannot wear plate, suit armors, or use a walled or tower shields. It just don't see Conan (Arnold version ..... don't forget I'm 37,) in huge restricting armors. Imagine Arnold in knightly suit armor? Yea .... that's not right. I lowered the penalty on the duel wield, because to me, Barbarians would learn something like that pretty much from birth. LOL! According to the Rules Cyclopedia, it seems to me like if you use the weapon specialization rules, let's say your Barbarian uses duel wield. You use a Long Sword in your main-hand, and a dagger in your off-hand. Now with your specialization, you get your dagger up to +2 to attack roles. When you duel wield, now your dagger in the off-hand does not have a penalty. However, if the dagger is in the main hand, it receives a +2 to attack roles, but now the sword, (which is in the off-hand,) now receives the -2 penalty. I may have that rule wrong, but that's the way I read it. I thought about attempting rage powers, but then I figured that would make this version of the class to ..... Advanced. Let me know what you all think. Please keep in mind, this is the very first time I have tried to do my own class. Not really my own, but hopefully it doesn't unbalance my BECMI D&D campaign.