I'm excited to see how this comes out! I hope you post updates. You asked for house-rule opinions on Basic D&D. Mine will be unpopular, but if you want to make it a campaign rather than just a series of semi-connected dungeon crawls, I recommend house-ruling how you roll stats. People debate this topic as an issue with only the options of one extreme or the other, which is absurd. You don't want characters to be so powerful that there is no risk or stakes for them; but at the same time (for a campaign at least), they need to be powerful enough that as long as the players make good choices (and don't have too much bad luck with the dice), the characters will survive long enough to keep the campaign a story rather than a group of vaguely linked episodes with an ever-changing cast. Balance. My advise is this: Pick a stat rolling method that makes characters that are strong enough to be survivable (not ensure survival), but not too strong to take the risk out of playing. Perhaps 4D6, drop the lowest die and assign to stats as desired or something like that. I'm sure you've seen the several options in the AD&D 2E PHB or the many other ideas floating around out there. Somewhere is one that will work for your table that will give you the balanced approach. Anyway, whether you take my recommendation or not, I wish you a great campaign and hope you will share how it goes.
@@laocoon7734 I started rolling up Stats last night, and I opted for 4D6 drop the lowest straight down the line. I'm going to have piles of pregens ready for people to pick from. In my Labyrinth Lord game each player had 2nd character that was a retainer that was like a 1/2 XP bank. I might do that again.
I’m just setting up my new game and I’m just going to use the 3d6downtheline house rules for their Arden Vul game (it’s on their site). It’s OSE but close enough to B/X. They are a bit more involved than what you’re thinking tho.
My extensive house rules for B/X: Shields splinter (if a fighter is reduced to 0 while using shield, they lose the shield but go to 1hp) Mages and Clerics start with scrolls equal to their Int/Wis bonus. So a Mage with 18 intelligence gets 3 scrolls. If a fighter reduces an enemy to 0, they can attack an adjacent enemy. This carries on. So fighters could potentially kill a lot of little monsters if they are surrounded. Honestly there are others. I might be playing a different system at this point 😅
I've always thought that if two dwarves are played identically it's a player problem, not a system problem. Too many players trying to be John Rhys-Davies instead of creating their own character. (I notice elves are less prone to this - probably because Rhys-Davies is a better actor than Orlando Bloom.) If a player needs shades of class distinction to make their characters unique they aren't trying very hard. A home brew rule I always use in BECMI, and I suspect it would apply in B/X, is to give Thieves the same ability to find secret doors as Elves have. It makes sense to me. A Thief is about secrets, infiltration, spying - surely finding secret doors is a part of that. I first introduced it because my group waaaay back in high school didn't have an Elf and I didn't want secret doors to be near impossible to find.
@@TheDungeonMinister good point about finding secret doors! True, role-playing a character's quirks and traits can go a long way to making characters unique. :)
Expert rulebook is available as POD on Drivethrurpg, but Basic rulebook isn't. Sad. Hopefully sometime soon. Race as Class but it's pretty easy to switch rules to Halfling Thief, Dwarf Cleric, Elf Fighter. Thief skills are really low, I'd give a dexterity bonus or just start skills at Level 3 from the start. Looking forward to seeing what adventure you run. The Keep and Caves is a favorite, but you know that. I remember your map!
@@shockerck4465 That's odd that Basic doesn't have a POD option... For now I'll keep those Race as Class options, but maybe I'll look up some other races statted up for B/X or LL or some other similar OSR game for options later on down the road. I might just add in items that bump up various Thief skills, or have a thieves' guild offer to train characters in a skill for certain favors or for a cost. You remembered my Caves of Chaos map! I ran that all day at GASPCon one year. That was fun.
@@shockerck4465 That's a hike for sure. I wish GASPCon was still around. It was such a great local convention. Blackbarnz (a TH-camr) showed up for one of those once. It was cool to meet him.
He’s back!
@@willmendoza8498 Yo! Hehe. :)
I'm excited to see how this comes out! I hope you post updates.
You asked for house-rule opinions on Basic D&D. Mine will be unpopular, but if you want to make it a campaign rather than just a series of semi-connected dungeon crawls, I recommend house-ruling how you roll stats.
People debate this topic as an issue with only the options of one extreme or the other, which is absurd. You don't want characters to be so powerful that there is no risk or stakes for them; but at the same time (for a campaign at least), they need to be powerful enough that as long as the players make good choices (and don't have too much bad luck with the dice), the characters will survive long enough to keep the campaign a story rather than a group of vaguely linked episodes with an ever-changing cast. Balance.
My advise is this: Pick a stat rolling method that makes characters that are strong enough to be survivable (not ensure survival), but not too strong to take the risk out of playing. Perhaps 4D6, drop the lowest die and assign to stats as desired or something like that. I'm sure you've seen the several options in the AD&D 2E PHB or the many other ideas floating around out there. Somewhere is one that will work for your table that will give you the balanced approach.
Anyway, whether you take my recommendation or not, I wish you a great campaign and hope you will share how it goes.
@@laocoon7734 I started rolling up Stats last night, and I opted for 4D6 drop the lowest straight down the line. I'm going to have piles of pregens ready for people to pick from.
In my Labyrinth Lord game each player had 2nd character that was a retainer that was like a 1/2 XP bank. I might do that again.
@@Samwise7RPG That sounds like a very promising balance point and I like the idea of having a backup already in play to keep continuity.
@@laocoon7734 it worked pretty well.
I’m just setting up my new game and I’m just going to use the 3d6downtheline house rules for their Arden Vul game (it’s on their site). It’s OSE but close enough to B/X. They are a bit more involved than what you’re thinking tho.
@@powerfamiliar Arden Vul is no joke. That dungeon is huge.
Let the setting grow organically. A homebase town and 2 or 3 locations are all you need to get things started
@@johnscheib9077 a tried & true method. :)
My extensive house rules for B/X:
Shields splinter (if a fighter is reduced to 0 while using shield, they lose the shield but go to 1hp)
Mages and Clerics start with scrolls equal to their Int/Wis bonus. So a Mage with 18 intelligence gets 3 scrolls.
If a fighter reduces an enemy to 0, they can attack an adjacent enemy. This carries on. So fighters could potentially kill a lot of little monsters if they are surrounded.
Honestly there are others. I might be playing a different system at this point 😅
@@Cuthbo thanks for sharing those. :)
I've always thought that if two dwarves are played identically it's a player problem, not a system problem. Too many players trying to be John Rhys-Davies instead of creating their own character. (I notice elves are less prone to this - probably because Rhys-Davies is a better actor than Orlando Bloom.) If a player needs shades of class distinction to make their characters unique they aren't trying very hard.
A home brew rule I always use in BECMI, and I suspect it would apply in B/X, is to give Thieves the same ability to find secret doors as Elves have. It makes sense to me. A Thief is about secrets, infiltration, spying - surely finding secret doors is a part of that. I first introduced it because my group waaaay back in high school didn't have an Elf and I didn't want secret doors to be near impossible to find.
@@TheDungeonMinister good point about finding secret doors!
True, role-playing a character's quirks and traits can go a long way to making characters unique. :)
Expert rulebook is available as POD on Drivethrurpg, but Basic rulebook isn't. Sad. Hopefully sometime soon.
Race as Class but it's pretty easy to switch rules to Halfling Thief, Dwarf Cleric, Elf Fighter. Thief skills are really low, I'd give a dexterity bonus or just start skills at Level 3 from the start.
Looking forward to seeing what adventure you run. The Keep and Caves is a favorite, but you know that. I remember your map!
@@shockerck4465 That's odd that Basic doesn't have a POD option...
For now I'll keep those Race as Class options, but maybe I'll look up some other races statted up for B/X or LL or some other similar OSR game for options later on down the road. I might just add in items that bump up various Thief skills, or have a thieves' guild offer to train characters in a skill for certain favors or for a cost.
You remembered my Caves of Chaos map! I ran that all day at GASPCon one year. That was fun.
@@Samwise7RPG I'm in Allentown, a bit far, or I would show up for a game!
Yes I remember you drew out a big map.
@@shockerck4465 That's a hike for sure. I wish GASPCon was still around. It was such a great local convention. Blackbarnz (a TH-camr) showed up for one of those once. It was cool to meet him.
I have a few. I let fighters choose one weapon where they get +1 to hit and damage.
@@DirtyDwarf-u1r Weapon Specialization, I dig it.
Any others?
I give the cleave ability to fighters (extra attack when they kill a creature). I also give dwarves a d10 for hit dice.