Playing With Packets Again

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