Solo Dungeon Crawler - Solo DnD Tutorials

When it comes to modern editions of D&D following the D20 system, many player actions are resolved through what is known as an Ability Check. i.e. the player rolls a twenty-sided die adds his ability score modifier (a bonus or penalty) and compares this to a target Difficulty Class (DC). In earlier editions of the game an Ability Check was popularly carried out by attempting to roll under a characters Ability Score on a d20 but as far as I know this method does not predate (at least) Holmes Basic and possibly later products such as B/X and BECMI D&D. The earliest attempt I can find in regards to crafting some form of OD&D Ability Check dates back to June 1976 and can be attributed to Wesley D. Ives with his article in Dragon #1. However his method is rather complex and not so elegant. The article is never the less worth a read because he sets out some useful descriptions of what sort of tasks are appropriate for each ability score and this is not "sullied" by any ...

I recently stumbled upon some scanned copies of Lliasons Dangeruses, a vintage diplomacy zine from an online archive over at whiningkentpigs.com . There is a number of articles within written by Len Lakofka. If you don't know, Len (although never a formal employee of TSR) was influential in the development of the game He was one of the play testers of the original game as it was being developed. Len also edited some early manuscripts. Len Lakofka's OD&D Casting a Spell - Fantasy Rule Additions Some of the scanned pages were a little difficult to read due to the quality of the scan, however I have typed out an article written by Len from Lliasons Dangeruses #59 which was published in July 1975 for those who might be interested in an alternative system for handling OD&D Magic Users. LLIASONS DANGERUSES #59 - July 1975 CASTING A SPELL--Fantasy Rule Additions DUNGEONS & DRAGONS uses a spell casting system based upon spell difficulty level and a # of spells that can be ...

Just a quick one today! I came across something I felt was interesting when I was running through a wilderness adventure. The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures book (D&D Vol. III) dedicates just 1 and a 1/2 pages of it's 30 plus pages of rules to movement across a wilderness hex map. There are a couple of references to OUTDOOR SURVIVAL, the early 70's wilderness survival board game. For the most part OD&D implies that terrain penalties are the main thing to be adopted if using a "Referee's map" for "exploratory adventures." But the text regarding lost parties is intriguing.  OD&D Wilderness Movement The Underworld & Wilderness rulebook tells us that "There is a chance of being lost, the chance depending on the type of terrain the party begins its turn upon. A lost party must move in the direction indicated by the die roll (1–6, as shown in the OUTDOOR SURVIVAL rules and on that board) and may make only one direction change from ...

First level characters roll 3d6 * 10 Gold Pieces and buy their starting equipment from the equipment list in Men & Magic. After a few successful expeditions into the underworld the characters lucky enough to survive are very quickly kitted out with everything they might need: the best armour, useful equipment to cover most conceivable situations, horses, perhaps a wagon? A small boat to travel the waterways of the kingdom. But it soon becomes apparent after a handful of levels have been gained that there is much more loot to and not much to actually spend it on! This might influence a character’s motivation to seek out further adventures. So, what else can a character spend their hard earned treasure hoards on? Things to Spend Money on in an OD&D Campaign (Besides Strongholds) - Part I There are a number of services the characters can access in the form of “Specialists”. Underworld & Wilderness Adventures tells us that “There are a number of specialists available to those i...

I recently came across a situation in my OD&D campaign: "The Castle of the Quest", where my party had defeated and apprehended half a score of bandits who were considered "subdued" as 9 had been put to sleep with a sleep spell and the remaining bandit failed their morale check and surrendered. I decided to sit down with my OD&D books and have a read through to see if I could find something that might indicate what should happen with subdued creatures. Whilst flicking through Vol.1 Men & Magic I noticed the following text in the section regarding non-player characters: "Capture of Non-Player Monsters: Morale dice can cause a man or intelligent monster to attempt to surrender or become subdued. When this happens an offer of service can be made (assuming that communication is possible) as outlined above. Subdued monsters will obey for a time without need to check their reactions, and such monsters are salable (see Book II)." OD&D Selling Monst...

Construction of strongholds in OD&D, or any version of D&D for that matter, has always been quite a vague subject with just a few rules scattered around the rulebooks which mostly seem to have been ignored. Here are some quick insights I have noted to help shed some light on to the subject... Underworld & Wilderness Adventures explains that it’s “mandatory to hire an Engineer to build any major stronghold.” and an engineer costs 750 gold pieces per month, but the book gives no indication whatsoever of how long it takes to build any structure! The AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide helps. It says on page 106 “Fortress-like stone constructions take about one week per 10’ cubic section. Normal stone buildings as shown on the cost list, require four months to construct, including interior work.” Construction of strongholds in OD&D The prices of construction are incredibly confusing! There are a few discrepancies that I searched high and low to clarify. Namely, the illustration ...

 It probably occurs to most people when looking at the OD&D thief abilities for the first time that the chances of succeeding when using any of these said abilities at 1st level is pretty slim! At first glance it seems quite harsh on the player. Imagine a 1st level apprentice thief who is a dwarf (so gets some bonus) is attempting to follow an unlawful merchant back to their hideout to retrieve stolen goods. The thief wants to remain hidden and silently so the relevant skills would be the ability to Hide in Shadows and Move Silently. The apprentice only has a 25% and 15% chance of being successful at these things. The obvious issue is that hiding at night time behind barrels of goods, or wagons and carefully following the merchant from a distance is far easier than sneaking up on a guard without much cover and just a little shadow for concealment. So the system as presented is quite ambiguous. OD&D Moving Silently/Hiding in Shadows in Solo Gaming A quick flick through my ol...