Make your own supplement

[korgoth]

I've been going back and forth (in small steps, due to time constraints) on my homebrew setting of Xulrua, dying city of the Vadran Wastes. At various stages it has gotten too "conventional", and I've had to back up and try again.

For example: I'm sick of elves, dwarves and hobbits. So why include them? I'm sick of goblinoids. So why include them? I don't like the Cleric class. So why include it? And why just end up re-writing B/X?

I've had a long period of "training" in D&D. I have to "unlearn what I have learned", as Yoda said in a rare moment of lucidity. My OD&D need not resemble anybody else's. This is where it differs from AD&D and Gary's excellent introductory statements in the 1e DMG: OD&D is not a baseline of common assumptions that allow cross-campaign play. OD&D is a toolkit which you can use to make your own fantasy role playing game.

As others have observed, Greyhawk was Gary's D&D. Blackmoor/FFC was Dave's D&D. And so I've concluded that "Xulrua" should be my D&D, and I shouldn't include anything that annoys me. I should just let my imagination run wild, and implement the results as simply as possible. I can write my own spell lists, my own monsters, etc. I can include a bit from Greyhawk, a bit from Blackmoor, a bit from Tekumel, etc. The basic system components are so simple... what does it take to write a monster? Almost nothing. So what's stopping me?

Anyway, everybody here probably already knows this. Now I know it too!

[badger2305]

korgoth said:

My OD&D need not resemble anybody else's. This is where it differs from AD&D and Gary's excellent introductory statements in the 1e DMG: OD&D is not a baseline of common assumptions that allow cross-campaign play. OD&D is a toolkit which you can use to make your own fantasy role playing game.

Yes, yes, and yes. Exactly. That's what I recall from 1975 through 1977 - that sense of being able to change the rules to fit the game you wanted to play. It meant that every time you started in a new game, it was a new game - get ready to toss assumptions overboard! It made everything challenging and interesting.

Some campaigns weren't to everyone's taste, and some were just great, but it was all D&D. Unless and until the referee decided it was something else, D&D it was - and we didn't kvetch about it. Oh, sure there were rules disputes and strong opinions - but that was typical for wargamers and others who came in with D&D. But the underlying principle of "the referee gets to decide what sort of game they want to run" was taken as a given.

[makofan]

Well said, exalted one!

[Zulgyan]

I'm in the process of making my own supplement, and having lots of fun! ;D

[Deleted]

I second that EXALT, Zulgyan--that's the spirit people need these days!

[Zulgyan]

I'm following the same order/structure/style of the Greyhawk supplement.

Here's a sneakpeek from my supplement (still on works):

Men & Magic

CHARACTERS: (Additions and Changes)

There are now five main classes of characters:
Fighting Men (including Archers)
Magic-Users (including Illusionists)
Clerics
Thieves
Psions

Fighting Men: In addition to regular fighting-men, the Archer sub-class is available.
Archers use dexterity instead of strength as their prime attribute (this will influence, for example, experience bonuses given for a high attribute score).
Archers can fire an extra arrow per combat round if they don’t move farther than half their movement rate. Archers wearing plate armor or shields fight at -1 penalty in melee and can’t fire their extra shot.

Magic-Users: new magical spells have been discovered for the wizard class. They will be listed and explained later in this volume.
Illusionists are a sub-class of magic-users who, as the name implies, employ illusion and similar powers derived from the shadow and nether realms. These spell casters use a spell table of their own, and can’t learn nor cast spells from the normal magic-user spell table.
Their magic item use is limited to the following:
• all potions not restricted to fighters only.
• illusionist scrolls (or those with Magic-User Spells otherwise employable by this class).
• all rings.
• Crystal Balls (not with ESP or Clairaudience), Fear Wand, Paralyzation Wand, Illusion Wand, Magic Detection Wand.
• miscellaneous magic items usable by every class of characters, crystal balls (but not with any added powers), a11 robes (excluding robe of the arch-magi), and books and similar written works readable by magic-users.
• magic daggers.

Clerics: to summon the might and glory of the gods, clerics don’t need spell books or pre-selection of spells in advance via the ordinary rules of spell memorization. They can cast any spell in their spell tables spontaneously, as long as they don’t exceed the number of spells they can cast each day according to the spells-per day table found in D&D. Clerics can worship more than one god at a time.
Thieves: this sneaky and stealthy character can become nearly invisible in the appropriate clothing that melds with the predominant background. In dark, shadowy areas, this will typically be a black or dark suit. Camouflage clothing may be used in the wilderness.
Thieves excel at finding secret doors as well as other secret or hidden things such as traps. They are also very good at opening locks without breaking them, if they got the right tools.
A sneaky and clever thieve that goes unnoticed can strike silently from behind, gaining two advantages: First, he adds a +4 bonus to hit this adversary. Secondly, he does double damage when he so attacks, rolling double damage die. A 5th level, he can hit for triple damage, rolling 3 die. Finally, at 9th level, he strikes for quadruple damage, rolling 4 damage die upon a hit. Note that if the thief is detected, this attack type is spoiled.
Thieves can wear only leather armor and cannot employ shields. Their proficiency in arms is limited to the dagger, hand axe, sword, short bow, and light crossbow.
Other information regarding thieves will be found in the appropriate sections of this booklet.

Psions: This characters have untapped the powers of the mind. These are the forces of Telepathy, Telekinesis and ESP. They also learn how to use other psychic power as they rise in levels, improving their dominion over mind and matter.

Barbarians: These characters are fighting-men that roll two die in the following table:
Skin color
2: jet black
3: marine blue.
4: green.
6-8: normal skin color.
9-10: red.
11: dark purple.
12: black and white stripes.

DETERMINATION OF ABILITIES: (Additions and Changes)

Additional modifier from Abilities:

Strength also aids the fighting man in his ability to deal damage up an adversary. Fighting men with strength score of 15 or higher, add 1 pip to the damage die.
Intelligence is the prime requisite for illusionists.
Wisdom – a character with a wisdom score of 15 or higher receives +1 bonus against all saving throws, except poison (see constitution below). This reflects “the favor of the gods" or an intuitive knack for making the right/wrong move.
Dexterity is the prime requisite for thieves. Fighting-men and thieves with dexterity score of 13 or higher can fight with two weapons effectively (this will be further explained in the combat section, below). Thieves with a score of 15 or higher are good dodgers in combat. Opponents subtract -1 to hit when attacking these agile characters.
Constitution – A character with a Constitution score of 15 or higher will be granted +1 bonus to their saving throws against poison.
The following table clarifies the values for withstanding adversity:

Constitution Chance to withstand adversity
13 and higher 100%
12 90%
11 80%
10 70%
9 60%
8 50%
7 or lower 40%

Charisma – characters with a charisma score of 15 or higher, begin play with an extra die of money.

To be continued....

(I got some more tables, but the format will be screwed)

[jrients]

By the way, my current houserules are written down in the brown version of one of these:

www.moleskines.com/klmc717.html

I find it very inspirational to use something the same basic size and color as the original books!

[Zulgyan]

Wow.

That's been added to my OD&D Favorite Links list.

I will certainly buy one when I get to the US.

[coffee]

You can also get them with lined pages or graph paper; that way, you can have your dungeon and it's key in similar books -- just carry the whole lot in the original box and you're good to go!

[Stonegiant]

jrients said:

By the way, my current houserules are written down in the brown version of one of these:

www.moleskines.com/klmc717.html

I find it very inspirational to use something the same basic size and color as the original books!

I have been using these for the past 3-4 years.

Zulgyan- They are made in France and you might find an importer that can bring them in from that venue.

They come in-

Lined, 5x5 graph, plain, comic/story board layout, & musical paper.

[kesher]

I've been using hardbacked moleskines for years, but for whatever reason I never noticed the similarity between the brown softbacked ones and the LBBs. That's just too delicious. I'm headed out to B&N this weekend...

[korgoth]

Zulgyan, are you going to make your supplement into a PDF?

[Zulgyan]

Of course. And I will gladdy share it to all here. ;D

I would love it if more would do the same.

I would love that an OD&D SRD get's released, so that we can all publish OD&D stuff.

[korgoth]

zulgyan said:

Of course. And I will gladdy share it to all here. ;D

I would love it if more would do the same.

I would love that an OD&D SRD get's released, so that we can all publish OD&D stuff.

That's my current plan, as well (to do a PDF). I don't know how to make a PDF, but I'm sure I can scare up an expert around here.

[Zulgyan]

I had no idea either until I grabbed this free program:

www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp

[Zulgyan]

Hey Korgoth, how will be naming your supplement??

[korgoth]

zulgyan said:

Hey Korgoth, how will be naming your supplement??

I thought perhaps I'd just call it "Supplement: Xulrua".

I can't call it "Supplement [number]" because I'm hardly in a position to decide which number I get to be, and the same goes for a letter or any other symbol. Even if I started a number system with something like Greek letters, how do I know I'm supplement Alpha? Anyway, maybe my offering doesn't deserve to be "Supplement: Alpha". That makes it sound rather important. But I'm pretty sure my campaign city/world name is unique, so I was going to just stick with that.

How about you?

[Zulgyan]

I'm quite puzzled:

I've been thinking a lot about something like: "Flails & Fireballs". I love that name, and it's really into the history of my main gaming group. But that's not really in the tradition of the D&D supplements, that are named after the campaigns most important city.

I used to have a main city call "Airwell". That is Buenos Aires, my home city in Argentina, liberally translated to English for a cool name. But the name does not have that much S&S vibe.

So I really don't know what to do yet.

[korgoth]

zulgyan said:

I'm quite puzzled:

I've been thinking a lot about something like: "Flails & Fireballs". I love that name, and it's really into the history of my main gaming group. But that's not really in the tradition of the D&D supplements, that are named after the campaigns most important city.

I used to have a main city call "Airwell". That is Buenos Aires, my home city in Argentina, liberally translated to English for a cool name. But the name does not have that much S&S vibe.

So I really don't know what to do yet.

Well, as much as I like the campaign/city naming style (and am eager to add "Xulrua" to the roster of Greyhawk, Blackmoor, etc.) there are other styles, too. We have "Eldritch Wizardry" and "First Fantasy Campaign" for example. And though it's not framed as a supplement per se, we also have "Wilderlands of High Fantasy".

If you're the only OD&D DM in Argentina, you could even incorporate that into the name if you were so inclined, such as "Argentine Fantasy Campaign" or "Tierra Argentina" (make sure to use a silver standard!) or something like that.

[jrients]

My house rules notebook is titled "Miscellaneous Modifications to Men & Magic".

[James Maliszewski]

I'm starting to assemble something that could be called a "supplement" as well, but I hadn't really considered "publishing" it in any form except perhaps on a web page. But I now know from firsthand experience that print on demand services are really quite inexpensive these days. I wonder how easy it'd be to reproduce the look of the OD&D LBBs through one of them ... ?