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OD&D CHAINMAIL Mass Combat Conversion for Solo Play

I'm increasingly finding it much easier in solo play when using OD&D rules to use CHAINMAIL Troop Combat to handle many of my encounters, as there is so much less to track and not as many rolls to make. Troop Combat or probably better known as 20:1 combat (although it doesn't necessarily have to be used at that ratio) relies on determining a Fighting Capability and Attack As and Defend As ratings for the troops involved. A major disclaimer here is that this is not based necessarily on weapons and armour of troops but is more complex than that. It subsumes things such as a units formation, whether close or loose so it's best not to think of a figure's ability to defend in troop combat as a direct conversion from armour class. That being said, armour class is a useful reference in deciding what troop classification a figure should be. Deciding what Fighting Capability a character will fight as can be simply a matter of looking at the Fighting Capability column under t...
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OD&D Domain & Faction Play

I've just got done listening to an episode of Blogs on Tape. Specifically episode 172 - Pleasures of the OSR: Emergent Story and Open Worlds, by Ben. L. This got the cogs turning in my brain thinking about "faction play" or "domain play". In particular I felt inspired to take a trip down the rabbit hole to explore what the original Dungeons & Dragons rule pamphlets says about these concepts. From memory, not much considering this original system was marketed as a "top-down" war game. However I have a suspicion that much can be extrapolated from what these pamphlets do say. So let's take a look... OD&D Domain & Faction Play In Men & Magic the character section provides details of high level character play, which is very applicable to domains or factions. In particular what income is available to high level characters: "Top-level fighters (Lords and above) who build castles are considered “Barons,” [...]. Base income for a Baron ...
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OD&D Bards as NPCs NOT PC's!

Many players might not consider the bard as an official OD&D class. Case being that unlike the Ranger & Illusionist, which were also introduced outside of the official OD&D supplements (in Strategic Review or Dungeon magazine) - the bard never made it into the AD&D Player's Handbook. There are several other proposed classes like this, such as the alchemist (which I want to visit at a later date). I've been toying with the idea of how these "unofficial" classes would be well suited as been specialists that can be hired or consulted by players in an OD&D campaign. The alchemist is already listed as a specialist in Underworld & Wilderness Adventures, so why not expand the details provided to included some of the traits they have as a proposed class? Like, I said, I want to look into this later, but for now I am intrigued by the bard... OD&D Bards as NPCs NOT PC's! A new version of the Bard combining Michael Siemon's & Dan Pierson...
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OD&D Learning Languages

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...
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OD&D Footpads, Robbers, Burglars, Cutpurses, Sharpers, Pilferers and Thieves...

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...
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OD&D Spell Duration - How long is a turn?

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...
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Searching a Dungeon Room in a Solo D&D Game

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...
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