Now that I’ve thrown out all of these optional D&D combat rules packets in What Price Glory, I am beginning to consider exactly which ones I am going to use immediately for the OF&F campaign in Solstice.
1. Hit Points: I like the VIT/FHP balance. Randall has a more logical version, but it’s fairly complicated compared to this easy to implement packet.
2. Damage: Throwing extra dice is fun for the players. As far as Dynamic Dice, I think having a 1 in 12 chance of dealing 7 damage is good, and a 1 in 216 chance of dealing more than 7 damage is balanced.
3. Death: This is just my standard house rule. Pretty simple, and one that supposedly Mr. Gygax used in his own OD&D campaigns.
6. Engagement: Another one of my standard house rules.
7. Roll To Hit: I’ll use this for the depth that the d6 provides on rolls of 1’s and 20’s. The +2, +4 and +6 damage from Critical Hits is a keeper for me.
8. Staggering Blows: These massive strikes will add an element of excitement to melee.
11. Armor: This is simply a slightly different way of handling AC, and adds a level of ablative quality that might save one’s bacon when sustaining a Critical Hit from packet 7.
That’s less than half of the packets. With these I can still maintain a completely abstract round of combat, but add some interesting house rules.
I’m sure there will be more changes to What Price Glory, including minor alterations, and totally new rules packets.
Eventually it might be reworked into more numerous, specific packets (like one for Combat Move, one for Cloven Shields, one for the 4 M’s, etc). Essentially little house rules that a referee can pick and choose from, very limited in text, and modular.
I’d love to see other referees’ house rules that might be readily rephrased into a What Price Glory rules packet. Firstly because I find such house rules vastly interesting in the old school OD&D spirit, and secondly because I’d love to flesh this out even further.
~Sham, Quixotic Referee
6 comments:
Very interesting series of posts, but I swear every time I look at the titles, I think of the Digital Underground song "Sex Packets". *sigh*
Hehe, I'm not familiar with that song...but, uhh, sorry lol.
WPG, formerly Project X, remains an ongoing project for me. I'm already working on simplifying and reorganizing packets as I go.
I'm not totally happy with Combat Sequence, Initiative nor Grappling.
Now that I've thrown it all out there, I can fine-tune and hopefully gather some criticism that will aid in the process.
I'm not sure my old Body/Fatigue system is any more logical than your VIT/FHP system. I see them as two surprisingly similar systems developed many years apart.
Yeah, very similar concepts. BTW-I chose to call it FHP because I didn't like the sound of a VIT/FAT system. :-)
Sometimes I think I have too much time on my hands.
@greyhawk grognard
And now _I've_ got "The Humpty Dance" in my head. Old School of another sort I suppose.
@Sham, re VIT/FAT
So what you're saying, basically, is 'no fatties.' Tsk.
(Sorry, it's me just increasing signal-to-noise in your blog comments. Here's something more germane, if tangential: will we see any further sneak previews of your Darness Beneath level, here or at odd74?)
Max: Increases in signal-to-noise are always welcome. I've essentially become a walking noise maker myself 'round these parts.
I'm pretty close to submitting my TBD module. I just need to finish a few more areas, and then edit it for some added 'fun stuff'.
I'll try to find a teaser or two to post here in order to encourage folks to purchase Fight On! Err...and hope it doesn't have the reverse effect.
Thanks for inquiring!
~Sham
Post a Comment