Solo Dungeon Crawler - Solo DnD Tutorials

So, what do the OD&D rules as written tell us about languages? Well, Men & Magic says "Intelligence [..] allows additional languages to be spoken." and goes on to say that "Characters with an Intelligence above 10 may learn additional languages, one language for every point above 10 intelligence factors. Thus, a man with an intelligence level of 15 could speak 7 languages, i.e. the common tongue, his divisional language, and 5 creature languages. Of course, Magic-Users’ spells and some magic items will enable the speaking and understanding of languages." Note the use of the words " may learn additional languages". The implication here, quite clearly in my opinion is that additional languages are not adopted from the get-go but must be learned.  Unfortunately there is nothing further to describe how this might be done in terms of game mechanics, but there is a strong indication that the referee should come up with something themselves. OD&D Lea...

Footpads, Robbers, Burglars, Cutpurses, Sharpers, Pilferers and Thieves... Quite a mouthful! In the original Monster Determination Table found in Underworld & Wilderness Adventures you won't find these entries, but of course, when the Thief class was introduced in Greyhawk an updated Monster Determination Table was provided. Now, that's all well and good, but the supplement did not include details for these entries. It's true that these are simply individual levels of the thief class, but Monsters & Treasure does gives some information on how to handle encounters with NPC fighting men, magic-users and clerics. i.e. under the entry for Bandits there is a 5% chance per level that any of these three classes might have an appropriate magic item with them. There are two ways to interpret this. One way is to assume that these super-normal types might only have magic items when leading a group of bandits. Another popular option though is for referee's to extrapolate th...

The word “turn” does seem to be used interchangeably throughout the OD&D rule books to mean different things at different times, i.e. a turn of movement in a dungeon, a turn of combat and even a turn of movement in the wilderness. This doesn’t pose much of a problem in most cases, but one example of when it does is in determining a spells duration. Many of the spells listed in Men & Magic provide a duration in turns that the effects of the spell are supposed to last, but there is no clear indication of whether each of these turns represents a 10 minute turn or so many rounds/turns of combat. OD&D Spell Duration - How Long is a Turn? To help unravel this problem I think it’s necessary to look at what Gary Gygax says about time in both OD&D, AD&D and CHAINMAIL so we have a basis for comparison as all three works are detailed under the same author and contain several of the same spells. I think Gary expresses it quite clearly in the AD&D Player’s Handbook. “In adve...

Typically in old school Dungeons & Dragons games it takes a full turn (usually 10 minutes of game time) to search a 10' by 10' space. The player will tell the Dungeon Master which area they want to search and the Dungeon Master will describe (if anything) what has been found. This is straight forward enough, but who could this possibly work in a solo game of D&D in which everything is randomly generated? Searching a Dungeon Room in a Solo D&D Game The Judges Guild handled this problem quite well with their searching method described in the 1978 Ready Reference Sheets. This method handles the problem by allowing a roll on a table which may result in treasure, a trap, a secret passage, a wandering monster, a sound, a clue, a combination of any of these or nothing at all. The table may also result in what is called a "finding roll" which at the Dungeon Master's discretion can allow a roll on a sub table to see what mundane item is found. When rolling on t...

I've recently started experimenting with some simple rules in my OD&D solo campaign "The Castle of the Quest". I'm trying to create an interesting mechanic regarding management of excess treasure. The intention is to contribute towards keeping the motivation of characters high in terms of seeking out additional adventures and also attempt to create a more realistic economy that reflects the middle-ages. Things to Spend Money on in an OD&D Campaign - Part 3 I came up with the following rules for "Treasure Tallage" and "Squanderage" All characters must pay a tallage to the local ruler of the parties home base for any treasure acquired at a rate of 10-30% of the overall hoard. Once this has been paid, rangers, paladins and monks must donate all excess treasure from their share to a worthy cause, holding back no more than 250 encumbrance worth. Clerics must tithe 10% of treasure from their share.   After each adventure when tallage, donations a...

I came across another interesting D&D article while pilfering old copies of White Dwarf magazine. This article appeared in the very first issue of White Dwarf. So we are travelling back to the summer of 1977, just 3 years after D&D came out and already its popularity is rising in the UK. The article in question is titled "D&D Campaigns" and was written by Lewis Pulsipher. What I found interesting about it is that it illuminates the state of play at that time in the UK and the challenges of the ambiguity of the original rules. It's also interest to imagine what differences there were in the UK approach having most likely been introduced to the game at a time when all the supplements were available. UK OD&D Campaigns Discussed in White Dwarf #1 In summary the article introduces a three-part series on running Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, aimed at aspiring or novice referees (Dungeon Masters). It provides insights into campaign philosophy, mechanics, and ...