OD&D used for non-fantasy settings?

[Finarvyn]

Anyone use OD&D for non-fantasy settings? Basic attack vs AC, monsters with Hit Dice, etc, taken from the brown books and modified for other camapigns.

For example, before Metamorphosis Alpha came along we ran a post-holocaust adventure using D&D rules modified for mutations and such. (Actually, I wish we had MA's mutation charts when we first played! We added them as soon as the game came out.)

When Star Wars came out (and before West End Games put out the Star Wars RPG) we played Star Wars as future D&D with blasters and light sabres.

A friend ran OD&D Rome where elves and dwarves and most magic things were stripped away and the setting was more historical.

I've run OD&D Barsoom to simulate ERB's John Carter adventures on the red planet.

If you have run anything like this, share your experiences. What worked or didn't work, how you adapted the rules, and so on.

[thorswulf]

A couple of years ago at our regional wargmaes convention Enfilade, I picked up some old White Dwarf magazines. One had a great article called "Dungeons and Dragoons". It ;isted some values for warriors of non medieval backgrounds. Everything from Ancient Egyptians, to Japanese Samurai were listed as optional warriors for outdoor adventure encounters. The Dark Ages featured prominently, with Celts, Picts, Vikings, Goths, Franks, and Saxons.

Now I have wanted to run a D&D game in a Dark Ages world for many years. I would like to do it without the influence of Rome, and make magic accessible. The nice thing is that most dark Ages stories are full of dark, otherworldly places usually of a natural bent. Most of the Dwarves, Elves, Goblins, Giants, and Dragons are common threads throughout these stories as well. Dungeons don't really fit in, unless they are caves, barrows, are some sinister place in the lands of Faerie, or in the misty seas, or upon the shores of Thule, or something.

Warriors are quite easily the most common character, with priests less so, and wizards are often viewed with suspicion at best, and hatred more often than not. Pagan gods would hold sway, because I have a hard time rconciling "magic" with Christianity. Yes I suppose one could play a priest performing miracles, or something, but I dont like it myself. Mind you I am a Christian by faith!

The other issue is money. People in the Dark Ages didn't have very much of it! Silver is the coin of the realm, and poverty is rampant. Perhaps one solution is to start all characters off with 3d6x2 gold pieces in silver to purchase equipment. Here the spear, and the hand axe become the common weapons of the warriors of the era! This should be enough for a starting character to purchase a spear, a shield and a few sundry items. Wealthy warriors might posses a sword!

Just some ideas. The rest really needs some fleshing out. Any ideas?

Thorswulf

[Finarvyn]

thorswulf said:

...old White Dwarf magazines. One had a great article called "Dungeons and Dragoons". It ;isted some values for warriors of non medieval backgrounds. Everything from Ancient Egyptians, to Japanese Samurai were listed as optional warriors for outdoor adventure encounters. The Dark Ages featured prominently, with Celts, Picts, Vikings, Goths, Franks, and Saxons.

That's a great article. Thanks for the reminder. It's a great aid for anyone wanting to play a historical version of OD&D!

[tgamemaster1975]

Is that article available anyplace or is it just in the magazine?

[thorswulf]

To the best of my knowledge, it is only available in the magazine. A pity, because it is really a cool article. Most of the early White Dwarfs were good about supporting lots of different games, and some of the adventures were pretty decent as well. I'll dig out the magazine and find out which issue it was in.

[thorswulf]

The issue of White Dwarf that the article "Dungeons and Dragoons" appears in is issue #20. For the sake of those who don't have a copy I'll paraphrase and condense the information.

Troops are defined by the following terms:
Quality Poor: 75% 0 lvl, 20% 1st lvl, 5% 2nd lvl
Average: 50% 0 lvl, 30% 1st lvl, 20% 2nd lvl
Good: 40% 0 lvl, 30% 1st lvl, 20% 2nd lvl, 10% 3rd lvl
Elite: 20% 0 lvl, 25% 1st lvl, 30% 2nd lvl, 15% 3rd lvl,
10% 4th lvl

Armour Class: As per AD&D, but I would substitute for D&D.

Alignment/Gods: This is subjective, and should be treated as
such.

Organisation: Scale of 1-5, 1 being uncontrollable or berserks,
5 being tightly disciplened, and organised.

Morale: Again a scale of 1-5, 1 being peasant rabble, 5 heroes.

Weapons: Typical arms carried, and any adjustments due to
skill or training.

EGYPTIANS
Quality: Average
A.C.: 8 Shield only for most troops
Alignment: Lawful neutral, Egyptian pantheon
Organisation: 3
Morale: 3
Weapons: Dagger plus one of the following: 40% spear, 20% bow, 15% 3 javelins, 10% sling, 5% sword, 5% maces, Battle axes, archers and battle-axe men are AC 9.

ASSYRIANS
Quality: Good
Armour class: varies, but average is 5
Alignment: Lawful neutral, evil tendancies, Assyrian pantheon
Organisation: 5
Morale: 4
Weapons: Mixed. 5% Elite guards with chain and shield, short sword, spear, bow and dagger. 60% heavy with AC 5 (scale armor?) shield and spear, or bow, Sword or Mace, and dagger. The rest of the troops are light skirmishers with slings, bows, or javelins.

HEROIC ERA GREEKS
Quality: Elite
AC: 6 (Bronze or linen curaiss, and shield?)
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Organisation: 2
Morale: 5
Weapons: Spear, javelin, shortsword (+1 to hit from training), 40% add short bow (+2 to hit for training)

GREEK HOPLITES
Quality: Good
AC: 5 (Leather reinforced curaiss and large shield)
Alignment: Lawwful Good
Organisation: 5
Morale: 4
Weapons: Spear (+1), shortsword
Note: Spartans should be considered Elite!

PERSIAN IMMORTALS
Quality: Elite
AC: 5 (Iron Scale and robes, and wicker shields)
Alignment: Lawful Good
Organisation: 4
Morale: 5
Weapons: Spear, dagger, composite short bow (+1 training bonus)

HAN CHINESE
Quality: Average
AC: 6 (Leather reinforced with iron rings, and wooden shields)
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Organisation: 5
Morale: 3
Weapons: Longsword, plus spear (50%), polearm (30%), or heavy crossbow (20%)

ROMAN LEGIONARIES
Quality: Average (45%) or Good (55%)
AC: 4
Alignment: Lawful Neutral tending to good
Organisation: 5
Morale: 4
Weapons: Dagger, shortsword (+2 to hit training bonus), Pilum- may not be used at long range, but if attack roll misses it has a 20% chance of sticking in an opponents shield and rendering it useless. It takes the shield bearer 1-4 rounds to remove the pilum.

CELTS
Quality: Average
AC: 8, chieftains probably a 6-4.
Alignment: Neutral- Druidic religions, or Chaotic Neutral
Organisation: 1
Morale: 4
Weapons: 2 javelins and sword

ANCIENT GERMANS
As Celts, but more primitive. 10% of the troops may be considered Berserkers. Weapons were Javelin, Spear and dagger.

PICTS
As Celts above, but were very primitive, woad painted savages. Some archers with short bows, rank and file carried spear and shield. Arrows are flint tipped and -1 to hit, but have a 40% chance to causea disease. Picts surprise on a 1-4 outdoors.

FRANKS
As Celts above, but not so impulsive. Instead of Javelins the franks use Heavy throwing spears and throwing axes with the similar effect of Pilums.

OSTROGOTHS
Quality: Average
AC: 7, leaders have higher AC's
Alignment: Chaotic, some Neutral Good if Christian converts
Organisation: 2
Morale: 4
Weapons: Two javelins, Spear, sword. All are mounted on unbarded horses.

HUNS
Quality: Good
AC: 8 light shields
Alignment: Chaotic Evil (tribal deities)
Organisation: 2
Morale: 4
Weapons: two javelins, short composite bow (+2) short sword (-1) All are mounted.

ARTHURIAN BRITONS
Quality: Good
AC: 4
Alignment: Lawful Good (Christianity)
Organisation: 3
Morale: 4
Weapons: Dagger, sword, spear, two javelins. Mounted on a medium warhorse. Feudal levy that supports the mounted knights are aither unarmored archers with short bow, or AC 8 spearmen.

CAROLINGIAN FRANKS
Quality: Good
AC: 4
Alignment: Lawful Good (Christianity)
Organisation: 3
Morale:4
Weapons: Sword, spear. Some replace spear with lance.

VIKINGS
Quality: Good
AC: Varies
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Organisation: 2
Morale: 5
Weapons: Varies.
Vikings wear any armor up to chain and shield. weapons include sword, spear, battle axe, javelins, shortbow, hand axe, poleaxe, and club. Vikings gain +1 when using axes. For every 5 men include one berserker who has 5% chance of being a lycanthrope (Werewolf, or werebear).

OK, my eyes are hurting and I'm omitting some stuff. Mongols, Samurai, Byzantines, and Aztecs. Sorry, but I am more interested in the Dark Ages and the Bronze age myself. Hope this helps.

[crimhthanthegreat]

Thank you a lot for this post, perhaps another day when your eyes have recovered you will post more of those that you have omitted, this is very good stuff.

I will be posting more to my Tarrozian Campaign World thread as I have time and will be dealing more about how I have used real world stuff in the campaign. Always love to see what others have done.

[Deleted]

Indeed thorswulf. Thanks for the info!!! I'll post a few things myself here soon.

[thorswulf]

Thanks for the kind remarks! My eyes were feeling well enough for some mini painting, so I'll finish up tomorrow.

[thorswulf]

I have seen Mazes and Minotaurs and love the idea of a mythic greek campaign ala Harryhousen monsters. D&D works pretty good as it is for this kind of campaign. Some minor cosmeti changes transition it pretty well. Leather armor would be considered to be a linen/leather curaiss worn with greaves and a helmet. Chainmail is something barbarians wear, and civilized nations wear scale armor for the same AC. Plate mail is a full bronze curaiss with greaves, helmet and bracers of bronze. For the purists raise the AC by one for metal armor, unless it is iron armor. Hoplon shields should probably be considered AC 7 by themselves, and bump all the other armor lower by two points. Just my ideas, and not set in stone

[crimhthanthegreat]

oltekos said:

Indeed thorswulf. Thanks for the info!!! I'll post a few things myself here soon.

oltekos, I would love to see the things you were talking about posting.
;D

[crimhthanthegreat]

thorswulf said:

Thanks for the kind remarks! My eyes were feeling well enough for some mini painting, so I'll finish up tomorrow.

thorswulf, I would love to see the things you were talking about posting, especially the Mongols and Aztecs. ;D

[thorswulf]

I confess. I love the 2ed Historical supplements for 2EdAD&D. In Particular I like the Vikings book. I have thought about using it with OD&D, but never monkeyed around with it. Anybody else try it?

[Deleted]

I haven't forgotten you, thorswulf; I'll be posting a good bit of source info for a dark-ages campaign this weekend (new guitar + new amp = long term distraction...) ;D

EDIT- Well d**n, I still didn't get to it...Lots of stuff happening this weekend I'll see what I can do in the coming week or so.

[doc]

This is a little off the beaten path, but many years past I used OD&D to run a Blade Runner game. I only used a handful of classes of my own modification, but only two were actually fleshed out: Blade Runner and Replicant (a race as class deal). The blade runners got skills like streetwise, move silently, and detect replicant, along with all the nifty toys from the film. The replicants became more adroit at performing greater feats of strength, agility, and endurance as they progressed. We only played about 4-5 sessions before we moved on to other things, but I recall it was a lot of fun.

Doc

[Deleted]

Yeah, mine's a little weird, too. One night, we all wanted to try something a little different. I had just watched "WestWorld" earlier that afternoon for the umpteenth time, & decided that my players would create vacationers that were trapped inside Delos. I really didn't have different skills or anything worked out for anybody (I just kind of assumed that if someone wanted to try to pick a lock, they would (a) have something to do it with, & (b) they could pass a Dexterity check, & so on & so forth), but boy did we all have a blast (literally). The "cast" was: a U.S. Marine on leave (Fighting-Man), a Paramedic on vacation with his family (Cleric), & a Mob-type wiseguy on the lam (Fighting-Man). I think the game lasted a good 7 or or 8 hours; I still remember this as one of the most hilarious (& fun) games I ever ran: we had so much fun, even though Yul Brynner still dusted the remaining PC's right before they escaped (The "Gunslinger" was crawling, had like 3hp left, was on fire, & had only one arm). But, then again, he's Yul Brynner. ;D

[bert]

This is really off the beaten path, but waaaay back in the early 80's when I was a wee schoolboy the D&D fans at my school developed a version of the game called Schools and Scholars which gave you the opportunity to beat seven shades of shirte out of the staff with rulers and the pointy ends of geometry tools. All very silly, but there was some fun to be had driving off mutant school dinners with bottle of tomato ketchup and beating the maths teacher to death with his own textbooks. Me and mate even did a boardgame version, but who knows what became of it.

[Thorulfr]

Back before I shelled out the money to buy Traveller (the 3 LBBs), I used the D&D rules to make a SciFi game set in the 'Terran Trade Authority' universe (From Stewart Cowley's Spacecraft, 2000 to 2100 AD. It wasn't too successful - the sketchy rules for spacecraft were rather clunky, I hadn't thought out interstallar travel, and before I worked out all the details, I ended up buying Traveller. I have no idea where the notes went.

And yes, I am aware that there is now a Terran Trade Authority roleplaying game available through Amazon...