An OD&D Player's Guide

[Zulgyan]

The LBBs are all full of mixed "player" and "referee only" game information, IMHO. So... if you would create an OD&D Player's Guide with all the information player's need to know...

1. What would you surely include?? Examples.
Equipment, spell descriptions.

2. What would you surely not include?? Examples.
Combat tables, saving throws.

But I still have lots of "grey area" that I'm not sure about, such as...

- Combat circumstantial modifiers.
- Turn Undead Table.
- I also think that SOME class information can be know to the player's and SOME not. It's hard to draw the line.


DISCUSS!!! What info would go in you OD&D Player's Guide and what not?

[dwayanu]

I'd give 'em the "Successful Adventures" section from the 1st ed. AD&D Players Handbook.



That's it.

But that's just me ...

[philotomy]

Actually, that whole section of the 1E Players Handbook, from "SPELL CASTING" on pg. 100 to the "SUCCESSFUL ADVENTURES" section, would be a good guideline. Just take the headings and re-write it in your own words as it applies to OD&D, instead of AD&D.

Pretty cool idea, by the way.

[Zulgyan]

So when a player says: "ok, what can I play? (regarding classes and races)" - what should the OD&D Player's Guide include?

[geoffrey]

I kind of think that Men & Magic as published IS the OD&D player's guide, while Monsters & Treasure and The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures are the referee's domain only.

[greyharp]

I've just started re-formatting the OD&D rules (3LB and some parts of Greyhawk) into a one volume Moldvay Basic layout, using the exercise to familiarise myself with the rules at the same time. I hadn't thought of a separate "Player's Guide", that's a great idea. Hmm, another project to add to the list.

[Zulgyan]

May 18, 2008 21:48:38 GMT -6 geoffrey said:

I kind of think that Men & Magic as published IS the OD&D player's guide, while Monsters & Treasure and The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures are the referee's domain only.

My main gripe with M&M are the combat tables, which I prefer to keep secret.

But not only that... also

NPC Reations.
Loyalty.

[Stonegiant]

May 18, 2008 22:09:30 GMT -6 Zulgyan said:

May 18, 2008 21:48:38 GMT -6 geoffrey said:

I kind of think that Men & Magic as published IS the OD&D player's guide, while Monsters & Treasure and The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures are the referee's domain only.

My main gripe with M&M are the combat tables, which I prefer to keep secret.

But not only that... also

NPC Reations.
Loyalty.

Maybe the idea would be to print out a master copy of Men & Magic (from the pdf.) and whiteout the sections you don't want them to see and make them a copy from this modified master copy

[coffee]

May 18, 2008 21:48:38 GMT -6 geoffrey said:

I kind of think that Men & Magic as published IS the OD&D player's guide, while Monsters & Treasure and The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures are the referee's domain only.

I'm going to associate myself with this response completely, since it was the first thing I thought in response to the original post.

But I'm also going to respond to M&M having the combat tables: Yes, it does, but I don't think of that as a bad thing. Sure, AD&D does it that way, but that's not to say that it's the only way to do things. If you as a DM don't want your players to have that info, that's fine, but for me, I don't see as it matters.

The last time I ran OD&D, the players had copies of M&M that I had printed out (just a couple to pass around, mostly for the magic-users). But for the most part, they didn't look at them. They looked at me, and I told them what they needed to roll, and when. Otherwise, they just told me what they wanted their character to do.

Anyway, that's my two coppers.

[sham]

May 18, 2008 21:48:38 GMT -6 geoffrey said:

I kind of think that Men & Magic as published IS the OD&D player's guide, while Monsters & Treasure and The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures are the referee's domain only.

I even go one step beyond and suggest that Vol. I, M&M, is THE rules book. It's all there, the rest is supplemental for the most part. In fact, if you distill it further by removing spells and equipment suggestions, the OD&D rules are all of 12 or so booklet sized pages in their entirety. Very refreshing from an old AD&D player's point of view.

I can see the desire to take the AD&D route, and split the player info and the referee info, ala the PHB and DMG, in order to keep the combat and saving throws numbers 'mysterious'. I prefer the idea of a single rule book, though, Vol. I, M&M. YMMV of course!

[busman]

From going through the books these last few months, it looks like a few key pages from the Reference Sheets is all you really need to pass out. Heck, the reference sheets themselves are all you probably need to run an entire session, player and DM! They are an amazing distillation of the books. iirc, the only thing missing are xp progression charts.

[coffee]

May 19, 2008 11:25:34 GMT -6 busman said:

iirc, the only thing missing are xp progression charts.

And that's something you don't actually need when you're "down in the dungeon," anyway.

[hackman]

Yeah, in fact the reference sheets are one of the reasons I've been so excited about OD&D. I realized that it was all I needed, for character creation and to run a session on the fly.

[foster1941]

A couple months back I created a series of handouts for players -- LBB-sized cardstock sheets: 1 with a summary of the char-gen procedure on the front and the combined ability score bonuses and penalties chart on the back, 1 with the equipment lists (standard equipment on front, magic items (for pre-experienced characters) on the back), 1 for each race (shamelessly ripped off from those summaries Zulgyan posted) and 1 for each class (bullet-point list of class characteristics, XP & hit dice table, and (for clerics and mages) spell lists on the back).

[foster1941]

Character Creation Checklist:

1. Roll three 6-sided dice (total 3-18) six times for ability scores (in order): strength, intelligence, wisdom, constitution, dexterity, charisma

2. Choose race:

• human
  
• dwarf
  
• elf
  
• fairy
  
• hobbit

3. Choose class:

• fighting man (human, dwarf, elf*, or hobbit)
  
• magic-user (human, elf*, or fairy)
  
• cleric (human only)
  
• barbarian (human only)

Note: all elves are both fighting men and magic-users

4. Trade points between ability scores (if desired):

fighting man or barbarian

• decrease intelligence by 2 to increase strength by 1
  
• decrease wisdom by 3 to increase strength by 1

magic-user

• decrease wisdom by 2 to increase intelligence by 1

cleric

• decrease strength by 3 to increase wisdom by 1
  
• decrease intelligence by 2 to increase wisdom by 1

Note: point-trading may never bring an ability score below 9

5. Roll experience points and determine character level

6. Roll hit points (by class and level)

7. Choose alignment:

• lawful
  
• neutral
  
• chaotic

8. Roll three 6-sided dice (multiplied x10 for levels 1-2, x100 for levels 3-4, x250 for level 5 or higher) for gold

9. Purchase equipment

[geoffrey]

Foster, what's a fairy?

[foster1941]

House-ruled race (inspired by the vague mentions in Chainmail): like elves but shorter (4 1/2' instead of 5') and with wings (fly 18" per turn but only 3 turns in a row before landing); magic-users only (max. 9th level) but can use short bows and wear elfin mail (as per AD&D); suffer double damage from iron weapons; otherwise as elves (languages, detecting secret doors, split-move-and-fire, etc.).

[dwayanu]

Oh yes -- Elves and Fairies!

If you get a chance, Foster, please revisit the "two combat systems in Chainmail" thread.

[Zulgyan]

5. Roll experience points and determine character level

What are you using for this? Jeff's tables?

[coffee]

Foster, I am so gonna yoink that for my own use! Have an exalt.

[foster1941]

May 20, 2008 4:43:27 GMT -6 Zulgyan said:

5. Roll experience points and determine character level

What are you using for this? Jeff's tables?

Yep. These cards were originally written up for use in conventions or other one-off games (directly inspired by Jeff's blog entry). In a campaign-game I'd (probably) skip this step and start everybody with 0 XP.