Downtime Spending Rules for OD&D

Downtime Spending

In OD&D, where game time is meant to correspond to real time, I saw a need for mechanics to determine what happens during those 2 weeks of game time between our sessions.

 

You pick the social class you want to live like, and that determines how much it costs per week, as follows:

Lower Lower Class (bums on the street) - 1 cp

Middle Lower Class (what you were as indentured servants) - 1 sp

Upper Lower Class (freemen, working class) - 1 ep

Lower Middle Class (common tradesmen) - 5 gp

Middle Middle Class (guild tradesmen) - 10 gp

Upper Middle Class (merchants) - 20 gp

Lower Upper Class (knights) - 60 gp

Middle Upper Class (barons) - 180 gp

Upper Upper Class (dukes) - 360 gp

Upper Upper Class+ (princes) - 720 gp

Upper Upper Class++ (kings) - 1,440 gp

What Happened to You Doing Your Week of Downtime? Table

Roll       Result

1 or less Someone kills you in your sleep and takes all your stuff

2            There is a 5 in 6 chance that someone beats you up, robs you of 10-60% of your wealth, and leaves you with 1 hp

3            You have a 4 in 6 chance of catching an ailment/disease/infestation (referee’s call)

4            You have a 3 in 6 chance of one of your contacts/followers/hirelings/henchmen leaving you

5-9        Nothing happens

10          You have a 3 in 6 chance of picking up a new contact/meeting someone to hire

11          You have a 4 in 6 chance of someone seeking you out to hire you to do something (plot hook!)

12          You have a 5 in 6 chance of a sponsor finds you and offers to pay your way to the next social class up next week

13+       You are accepted into the hierarchy for your class or race (your choice) or advance up in that hierarchy (permanent one step up on the social class table)

Social Class Modifiers

LLC -4

MLC - 2

ULC -1

MC - no modifiers

LUC +1

MUC +2

UUC +4

[This next part is adapted from an early Dragon magazine: ]

Further, like in the original Blackmoor campaign, you can earn XP *again* by additional spending during downtime, in the following ways:

- Religious sacrifice. Any classes, no more than 1/week, no limit.
– Philanthropy. Non-chaotics only, no limit (half-value for Neutrals).
– Spell Research. Magic-users only, up to 250 gp per level per day.
– Clan hoards. Demi-humans only, no limit, but must travel to the location of the clan & its hoard.

- Guild/Church tithing. Any classes, no more than 1/week, up to 10% of everything you have.
– Carousing. Non-lawfuls only (half-value for Neutrals). Max spent is 500 gp per level per night (or 250 if at less than full hp). A character needs a CON score of 2 per day (so a CON of 14+ is required to keep going all seven days of the week), and the character needs an equal number of days of rest afterwards.

For downtime extra spending, 1 XP is earned for every 2 GP spent (so 50% of its initial XP value when earned).

The Audience for the Small Press RPG Publisher

This started out as a Facebook post, but when someone asked me to link to it, I decided it belonged somewhere more permanent, and needed to be expanded as well.

 A little background: there are still people out there, like me, publishing pen-and-paper RolePlaying Games (RPGs), similar to Dungeons & Dragons, but about superheroes or comic books in general. These indie/small press publishers, like me, make use of public domain heroes in two ways: a cheap source of art (instead of paying for new art) and a cheap source of characters (instead of paying to license more famous characters, or just inventing our own that no one will have heard of). I do both, some might do one but not the other.

Ideally, there would be a healthy, growing audience for this material, eager to see any new material enter the market, even if the new material is only different in nuance from material that has come before.

 At issue is that this sub-niche of the RPG market, and the audience that it serves, is in reality very small. Even taking "Golden Age" and "public domain" out of the equation, the number of people still buying any type of superhero-themed RPGs is small. When new games come into that market, it can fracture the fan base for each of the existing games even smaller. The chance of a new game growing the market -- perhaps because it is innovative, or looks really slick and polished -- is slim. There is just too much competition from other sources of entertainment.

There are other dangers inherent in the new guy coming along and producing a new superhero RPG that is only different from previous attempts in nuance -- that is, trying to reinvent the wheel. There may be nothing wrong with earlier versions of the wheel, but because of limited ability to advertise, older versions may be quickly forgotten once the new version of the wheel is released. There is also the danger of over-saturating the market -- fans getting tired of seeing new games that seem just like the old games and being misled into thinking the market has nothing new for them and moving on.

What a new RPG should be doing, then, is trying to coordinate with and complement the existing games rather than directly compete with them.

A perfect example is my Hideouts & Hoodlums and Steve Miller's Nuelow Games. When I discovered Steve's work, I saw that, whereas I was mostly publishing a RPG that included Golden Age public domain work, he was mostly publishing Golden Age public domain work that included some RPG. The two complemented each other perfectly, so much so that we've even tried some cooperative ventures, like Nuelow products with H&H stats in them.

Another way to complement preexisting RPGs would be to stake a claim in some area not directly competing with any one of them. Like, a RPG that took public domain superheroes, but re-imagined them in an urban fantasy setting. Or one that imagined all 1950s public domain heroes as actually being Commie spies.

Another way to stand out by using game mechanics substantially different from what else is out there. Game mechanics can affect not just game play, but what players choose the game for. When it comes to abstract combat, almost nothing beats the old 1984 Marvel Super Heroes roleplaying game. When it comes to adding more calculations and number-crunching to your combat, your go-to game should be Champions. If you want really abstract campaign play and aren't interested so much in battles, then Superheroes 2044 might be your thing. If you want a strong, campaign-focused game where heroes level up and get more powerful over time, then Hideouts & Hoodlums might be your game. What about your game mechanics will make your game stand out? What will distinguish it and make players choose it over so many other options?

Now, my rant has been RPG-focused because that's my area of concern, but those making comic books might feel the same way. Every time someone new tries to revive the Black Terror, for example, those already using the character are at risk from the issues I've described above. There are only so many people in the world left who both a) know who the Black Terror is and b) care, and those people likely have a limited budget for multiple iterations of the same character. 

My D&D 5E

D&D historians know, of course, that the real 5th edition of D&D (counting Advanced D&D) already happened back in 1983, but there's still a lot of excitement out there over the new "5th edition" of D&D. Will they scrap the sham that was 4E? Will they try to recapture the 3E market from Pathfinder? Or will they bring their Old School Gamers back into the fold by going back to basics?

From my perspective, the answer needs to be the last one. OD&D never needed an overhaul, just tweaking. If you want tons of options, skills, or superpowers -- oops, I mean feats -- then buy all the supplements Wizards could come out with for the new edition.

The basic rules should be two thin softcover books: a Players book of about 70 pages with character creation rules, spell lists, the basic rules of combat and campaign play -- everything a player will need for up to level 12 characters; and a Dungeon Master's book of maybe 110 pages with magic items, monster stats, a fuller explanation of the game mechanics needed for campaign play, a brief sample of a dungeon, summary of a starting town, and an overview of the World of Greyhawk campaign setting.

The new core rules in the Players book should look a lot like the 1977 Holmes edition of D&D, only expanded out to level 12.

I would tweak ability scores so all scores of 14-17 would give you a +1 in something and an 18 would give you +2. Strength would add to melee damage, Intelligence would add to the number of spells you know, Wisdom would add to the number of spells you could cast, Dexterity would modify both missile attacks and Armor Class, Charisma would add to your max. number of hirelings, their loyalty/morale checks, and encounter reaction rolls. Constitution would add an hp bonus, but also give you a percent revival chance that would determine if you were dead or just unconscious every time your character reached 0 hp.

I would add half-elves, but keep all other races and classes the same as Holmes. Just the four basic classes -- Cleric, Fighter, Magic-User, and Thief. Fighters would pick up the ability to make a second attack with a bow, dagger, dart, fist, or hand axe each combat round starting at 4th level. Thieves' Hit Dice would bump up to d6. Clerics would not normally start getting spells until 2nd level, but could cast their bonus spells for high Wisdom as soon as 1st level. Magic-Users would stay as-is.

I would tweak upwards little things like the xp value of monsters defeated and the cost of platemail. I would add a little weapon damage variation, similar to the 1981 D&D rules -- daggers, darts, and fists would do d4 damage; bows, crossbows, all pole arms, and two-handed swords would do d8 damage; all other weapons would do d6.

Natural healing would occur at the rate of 1 hp per 6 hours of bed rest.

I would keep the d6 rolls for initiative from OD&D instead of by Dexterity, as per Holmes.

The list of Magic-User spells would be the same as Holmes for levels 1-3 and as per OD&D Book I for levels 4-6 (adding Ice Storm, Fear, and Monster Summoning II to level 4 and Legend Lore to level 6). The list of Cleric spells would be the same as Holmes for levels 1-2 (with Command added to level 1), as per Greyhawk for levels 3-6 (with Animate Dead added to level 3). Some spells that were broken would be tweaked, like giving a saving throw vs. Sleep and making Continual Light last only days instead of permanently, but most spells would stay as-is.

The Dungeon Masters book would include all the monsters and magic items from OD&D Book II and the Greyhawk supplement. The monster stats would look much as per Holmes, with some tweaks to damage and maybe an extra descriptive paragraph per monster. The sample dungeon would be a 12-room dungeon for level 1 characters (and a mash-up of the samples from OD&D Book III and the Holmes book). The town would be 9 pages of Citystate of the Invincible Overlord-level descriptiveness, detailing the Town of Hommlet, expanded from the original Village of Hommlet module. The overview of the World of Greyhawk would describe the planet of Oerth, the continent of Oerik, the region called the Flanaess, and then the Viscounty of Verbobonc, up to the year 585 CY.

A Lesser Bard Class

[The following also comes from my City of Greyhawk campaign in the early '90s. This bard was meant to correct problems I perceived in the 2nd ed. AD&D bard class and the "lesser" part compares it to the 1st ed. AD&D bard, which was retained as the "greater" bard.]
Lesser Bards

of the two types of bards, lesser bards are the ones most people hear about and see. Some people do not make a distinction between the common bard and the great bards of legend, much to the lesser bard's advantage.

The lesser bard travels about, performing for his living. While traveling, the bard starts to pick up the skills of adventurers. The bard becomes a jack-of-all-trades, knowing a little from various classes without mastering any one in particular.

Humans, elves, and half-elves can be lesser bards. A lesser bard must have at least the following scores: a 9 in Strength, an 11 Intelligence, a 10 Wisdom, a 12 Dexterity, and a 13 Charisma. They may be of any alignment. A lesser gains a 10% bonus to experience points earned if Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, and Charisma are all 15 or higher.

The lesser bard can cast spells. Although they can begin casting as early as 1st level, they begin with no spellbook of their own and must find or borrow scrolls or spellbooks. A lesser bard can learn to cast any spell from any spell list, including cleric and druid spells. All spells cast by a lesser bard are less effective than those cast by normal spellcasters. Like a druid using oak leaves, spell range, duration, and area of effect are halved. Saving throws made versus these spells are at +2.

Lesser bards may use thieving skills as if a thief of the same level. However, a lesser bard may only have five skills initially. He may choose any five from the thieves' skill table. Additional skills are gained at the same rate as thieves.

Lastly, the lesser bard has certain abilities of his own. A lesser bard above 1st level has a percent chance of knowing a legend related to any particular person, place, or thing. This skill can only be used once on any subject. Also, the bard's poetic ability raises the morale of associated creatures by 10% and inspire a ferocity in attack that bestows a +1 bonus to hit. This skill requires 2 rounds to implement, and then lasts for one turn. The bard may engage in combat while reciting, but may not sing or cast spells with verbal components. Lastly, a bard's singing and playing negates other song effects, such as harpies use. A bard can also, by singing, sooth a shrieker into not shrieking.

Lesser Bards Table I.:
-------------------Experience--# of Hit
Experience Points--Level-------Dice (d6)--Level Title
0-2,000------------1-----------1----------Rhymer
2,001-4,000--------2-----------2----------Poet
4,001-8,000--------3-----------3----------Lyricist
8,001-17,000-------4-----------4----------Singer
17,001-30,000------5-----------5----------Performer
30,001-55,000------6-----------6----------Joungleur
55,001-95,000------7-----------7----------Troubador
95,001-175,000-----8-----------8----------Minstrel
175,001-325,000----9-----------9----------Lorist
325,001-500,000----10----------10---------Bard
500,001-660,000----11----------11---------Bard (11th level)
660,001-880,000----12----------12---------Bard (12th level)

Lesser Bards Table II.:
Experience---Know Legend---Number of Spells
Level--------Percentage----1-2-3-4-5-6--------College
1------------0%------------1------------------Fochulan
2------------3%------------2------------------Fochulan
3------------5%------------3------------------Fochulan
4------------6%------------3-1----------------Fochulan
5------------7%------------3-2----------------MacFuirmidh
6------------8%------------3-3----------------MacFuirmidh
7------------10%-----------3-3-1--------------MacFuirmidh
8------------13%-----------3-3-2--------------MacFuirmidh
9------------16%-----------3-3-3--------------Doss
10-----------19%-----------4-3-3-1------------Doss
11-----------21%-----------4-3-3-2------------Doss
12-----------23%-----------4-4-3-3------------Canaith
13-----------25%-----------5-4-3-3-1----------Canaith
14-----------28%-----------5-5-4-3-2----------Canaith
15-----------31%-----------5-5-4-3-3-1--------Cli
16-----------34%-----------5-5-5-4-3-2--------Cli

Note on Bard Colleges: Aside from role-playing, level of college is a useful reference for determining rarity of training facilities and access to peers. The higher the college, the fewer there are of them.

The Thief Class Revisited

[This is from the house rules I wrote for my 1st ed. AD&D City of Greyhawk campaign, back around 1989.]
To allow more variety in the thief class, the thieves' skills have been expanded upon to include the following: tightrope walking, pole vaulting, high jumping, broad jumping, tumbling, falling, street fighting, street smart, forgery, and disguise. The 1st level thief still starts out with 7 skills, but chooses which 7 they will be; thus allowing for custom-made thief kits.

Thief Function Table--Expansion (Plus Racial Modifiers)

Level ---- Read ------ Tightrope - Pole ----- High
of Thief - Languages - Walking --- Vaulting - Jumping
1 -------- 05% ------- 50% ------- 6 1/2' --- 2 3/4'
2 -------- 10% ------- 55% ------- 7' ------- 3'
3 -------- 15% ------- 60% ------- 7' 1/2' -- 3 1/4'
4 -------- 20% ------- 65% ------- 8' ------- 3 1/2'
5 -------- 25% ------- 70% ------- 8 1/2' --- 3 3/4'
6 -------- 30% ------- 75% ------- 9' ------- 4'

Level ---- Broad ---- Tumbling --- Falling -- Street --- Street
of Thief - Jumping --------------- ---------- Fighting - Smart
1 -------- 6 1/2' --- 05% -------- 20%/10' -- 1% ------- 05%
2 -------- 7' ------- 10% -------- 50%/10' -- 2% ------- 10%
3 -------- 7 1/2' --- 15% -------- 90%/10' -- 3% ------- 15%
4 -------- 8' ------- 20% -------- 30%/20' -- 4% ------- 20%
5 -------- 8 1/2' --- 25% -------- 70%/20' -- 5% ------- 25%
6 -------- 9' ------- 31% -------- 10%/30' -- 6% ------- 30%
7 -------- 9 1/4' --- 37% -------- 30%/30' -- 7% ------- 35%
8 -------- 9 1/2' --- 43% -------- 60%/30' -- 8% ------- 40%
9 -------- 9 3/4' --- 49% -------- 100%/30' - 9% ------- 45%
10 ------- 10' ------ 55% -------- 40%/40' -- 10% ------ 50%
11 ------- 10 1/4' -- 61% -------- 90%/40' -- 11% ------ 55%
12 ------- 10 1/2' -- 67% -------- 30%/50' -- 12% ------ 60%

Level ---- Forgery - Disguise
of Thief
1 -------- 30% ----- 15%
2 -------- 35% ----- 20%
3 -------- 40% ----- 25%
4 -------- 45% ----- 30%
5 -------- 51% ----- 36%
6 -------- 57% ----- 42%

Race of - Tightrope - Pole ----- High ---- Broad
Thief --- Walking --- Vaulting - Jumping - Jumping
Dwarf --- -10% ------ -2' ------ -2' ----- -2'
Elf ----- +5% ------- no mod. -- no mod. - no mod.
Gnome --- -5% ------- -2' ------ -2' ----- -2'
Half-elf no mod. --- no mod. -- no mod. - no mod.
Half-orc no mod. --- no mod. -- no mod. - no mod.
Halfling +10% ------ -1' ------ -1' ----- -1'
Hobgoblin no mod. --- no mod. -- no mod. - no mod.

[-The tumbling skill is a percent chance to make one attack that would otherwise have hit miss, limited to one hit per round.
-The falling skill is a percent chance to fall up to that far without taking any damage.
- The street fighting skill is a bonus to chance of knockout in unarmed combat.
- The street smart skill (which was very popular in the urban campaign) is a chance of evading a rolled wandering city encounter before it happens.]