Post by aldarron on Apr 28, 2010 15:33:39 GMT -6
The combat system in Dragons at Dawn is drawn from several sources, as mentioned in other threads, including the Fantasy Supplement to Gygax and Perren's Chainmail.
It's meant to emulate the system Arneson developed in 1971/2, but it is not the first combat system Arneson used.
So, want to use the first, Original combat system Arneson used in the first couple months or so of Blackmoor? That honor goes to Chainmail by all accounts, and if the dates everyone remembers are correct, it must be the version of Chainmail published in the Domesday newsletter of the Castle and Crusades society that did not include the Fantasy supplement.
Some of you may even prefer to use Chainmail combat with DaD, and that's okay; although I haven't yet myself tried it, I see no compatibility problems.
So what to do.
Convert the Armor Class to Chainmail using your favorite OD&D with chainmail method.
HD and HPV's remain the key statistics as always. Again this is much the same as you would do with OD&D with Chainmail.
Its best, (I would argue) to begin the combats by determining morale as usual. Next you can choose to calculate Fighting Strengths as normal or you could ignore the modifiers for level, dexterity, etc, as long as you are consistent. Also apply any magical modifiers to Fighting Strength as usual.
Once calculated, the Fighting Strenght represents the characters strength in Chainmail "men". Away you go.
Arneson likely used the "troop type" mass combat system most, perhaps all the time for his combats, at least its the only one he ever references besides the Fantasy supplement, but the Man to Man would work just as well if preferred.
It's meant to emulate the system Arneson developed in 1971/2, but it is not the first combat system Arneson used.
So, want to use the first, Original combat system Arneson used in the first couple months or so of Blackmoor? That honor goes to Chainmail by all accounts, and if the dates everyone remembers are correct, it must be the version of Chainmail published in the Domesday newsletter of the Castle and Crusades society that did not include the Fantasy supplement.
Some of you may even prefer to use Chainmail combat with DaD, and that's okay; although I haven't yet myself tried it, I see no compatibility problems.
So what to do.
Convert the Armor Class to Chainmail using your favorite OD&D with chainmail method.
HD and HPV's remain the key statistics as always. Again this is much the same as you would do with OD&D with Chainmail.
Its best, (I would argue) to begin the combats by determining morale as usual. Next you can choose to calculate Fighting Strengths as normal or you could ignore the modifiers for level, dexterity, etc, as long as you are consistent. Also apply any magical modifiers to Fighting Strength as usual.
Once calculated, the Fighting Strenght represents the characters strength in Chainmail "men". Away you go.
Arneson likely used the "troop type" mass combat system most, perhaps all the time for his combats, at least its the only one he ever references besides the Fantasy supplement, but the Man to Man would work just as well if preferred.
