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OD&D Multiple Missile Attacks

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OD&D & CHAINMAIL Rules for Prisoners (Taking or Being Taken)

There is a rather curious piece of text that Gary Gygax wrote in Strategic Review issue 2 published during the spring of 1975. The article in question is the famous “QUESTIONS MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED ABOUT DUNGEONS & DRAGONS RULES” and regarding a combat example between a Hero (4th Level Fighter) and orcs it says: “As they outnumber their opponent so heavily it is likely that they will try to over-power him rather than kill, so each hit they score will be counted as attempts to grapple the Hero [...]” What’s curious about this is the implication that forces outnumbering player characters might take prisoners as opposed to killing them. This is not a new concept, as prisoners had previously been dealt with in the D&D predecessor “CHAINMAIL”. OD&D & CHAINMAIL Rules for Prisoners (Taking or Being Taken) In a section of optional rules for added realism CHAINMAIL states: “Before the losing side falls back from a melee, both players roll a die to determine if any prisoners are

The Palace of Evendur - A BASIC Adventure Module (Basic/Becmi/OD&D)

I've been saying for a while now that I would eventually gather all my notes up and put together an adventure module based on my Tales of Mystara - The Palace of Evendur solo adventure. Well I finally did it. I've placed a link to the module below. I've published it as a "pay what you like" PDF on Drive Thru RPG. To avoid the obvious licensed content, I've made some subtle changes to make the module compatible with various rules systems, including many OSR systems. I've also avoided adding setting information based on the Known World, but instead made some suggestions for setting the adventure. You might notice the cover gives the game away though as it's inspired by the B series of modules published throughout the 80's, such as "The Keep on the Borderlands" and "Palace of the Silver Princess". The Palace of Evendur - A BASIC Adventure Module for BECMI or similar ruleset The Palace of Evendur is a BASIC Adventure Module that can

OD&D Character Sheets for Tales of Mystara

I have converted my D&D characters from my BECMI solo campaign "Tales of Mystara" to OD&D characters and thought I would share my character sheets, which I designed myself. I think they have the potential to be really useful for fans of OD&D or anyone with a casual interest as they shed some light on the subject of how OD&D works. Especially elves! I also brought in the Thief from the Greyhawk supplement so I could convert my BECMI thieves to OD&D. I haven't included character sheets for demi-human thieves as I haven't brought them into my solo game yet. I'll include some blank sheets for those who wish to use them in their own games. OD&D Character Sheets So, here are links to the sheets. I have included PDF's (not form fillable) and Google Docs for the blank character sheets as well as PDF's for all my Tales of Mystara characters. Feel free to leave comments to let me know what you think. Especially if you have a suggestion on an

Ditching BECMI for OD&D

BECMI versus OD&D in the Known World I'm currently working on episode 10 of Tales of Mystara the Palace of Evendur podcast. This is essentially (if you haven't seen or heard), a documentation of my solo D&D adventures in the world of Mystara. Recently I have somewhat come to realise that I could do more with the world of Mystara if I wasn't using BECMI D&D as the core ruleset. I realise that this is pretty controversial! But I will try to defend my case here. Ditching BECMI for OD&D A Better Solo D&D Experience with More Emergent Play If you have been following my YouTube channel "Solo Dungeon Crawler" then you may have engaged with my Castle of the Quest videos. In this series I'm playing OD&D and quite frankly the more I have come to understand this simple (yet complex) set of rules the more I have come to appreciate its brilliance. When I first started doing YouTube videos about playing Dungeons & Dragons solo, I made a point of

Tales of Mystara Episode 9 and my Podcast Feed WOES!

To host Tales of Mystara I use a free Podbean account and like all free podcast hosting platforms there are limitations. On Podbean you have a memory limit and a limit of 5 hours of episodes before it won't let me upload more without deleting older episodes. Unfortunately with this current story I am hosting the limit has been reached and so in order to upload episode 9, I was forced to delete episode 1. Not to mention I tried to correct this by sending my YouTube RSS feed to Apple Podcasts so I could overcome the problem entirely, but of course, that didn't work!!! As a result the podcast is currently (at the time of writing) unavailable on Apple Podcasts. I tried to update the feed again with the original Podbean link but it won't let me refresh the feed and so I'm forced to be patient and try again later. So, long story short - for those who wish to listen to the audio only version of episode 9 I would like to suggest an alternative: YouTube Music. Tales of Mystara o

Recruiting Retainers in Original Dungeons & Dragons (OD&D)

Rules for recruiting retainers in original Dungeons & Dragons are ambiguous. As I like to play solo I need a robust and consistent system for handling the process. I discuss my solution in detail in my Castle of the Quest series on my YouTube channel (video linked below). But here, I've also reproduced the rules in detail for anybody who would like to try them out for themselves. OD&D Recruitment Campaigns Recruiting Retainers Create a Recruitment Campaign Determine Advertising Expenditures Expenditures are determined by the table below. Make the rolls to determine costs and effectiveness before selecting the methods to be used. Method Initial Cost Effectiveness Posting Notices 1d6*10 gp 1d4 * 10 % (10 to 40 %) Frequenting Inns & Taverns 50gp maximum 1d4% per 10 gp spend Hiring Servitors 1d6*10gp 1d4 + 1 * 10 % (20 to 50 %) Combinations of the Above Variable as above -5% effectiveness to each method used To increase the effectiveness further, multiples of the initial co