Infocyde's RPG Blog

 OK, initiative bogs things down.  My system below is too complicated as is, but it is a starting point to revisit later. The just: Everyone has an initiative number that is calculated.  Then weapon and situational mods are added. Base initiative is your Dex mod. Medium armor subtracts 1 Heavy armor subtracts 2 Fighter types add 1 per 4 levels Rogue types as 1 per 5 levels Scholar types add 1 per 10 levels There would be some feats that add to the above. If you are surprised a big minus for the first round would apply. Anyway, you come up with a number.  That doesn't change.  Monsters and foes have a number.  That doesn't change.  You do in the order of highest to lowest.

Here is a very simple chart for throwing a curve to the monsters / foes in DnD that your party will face. Roll D4 - 1 for number of changes for each group of monsters/foes encountered. Then roll a D12 on the chart below for each change. 1) Increased HD (1-2) 2) Attack more damaging (one die up) 3) New Magical ability (per spell of HD - 3, min level 1 mage or cleric power) 4) Additional Feat or feat like power 5) Increased (better AC) 6) Additional Attack 7) Increased number of appearing 8) Unlikely ally monster(s) of 1-2 less 3-4 equal or 5-6 greater strength 9) Alignment / motivation change (sometimes beneficial) 10) Reinforcements near by 11) Treasure type increased by one letter (or equivalent) 12) Monsters / Foe more cunning that usual (ambush, traps, delays)

Option Four: Revising Hit Points Inspiration :  Games with a lot less hit points Reason :  Simplification Rule Description: Having a lot of hit points causes a lot of unnecessary number crunching in my humble opinion.  It prolongs combat, often in high levels turning fights into slog fest.  Also have a large amount of hit points puts things out of scale in my opinion.  There should be a vast difference between a well seasoned night and an untrained peasant in how well they do in a fight.  But having a level 20 knight be equivalent hit point wise to 50 zero level peasants I think might be over kill.  By reducing the range of hit points in the game things speed up, combat is quicker, and the fear of death increased a bit for players.  It also changes the game to be a little bit more low fantasy instead of high fantasy due to real threats of death (which I like, high fantasy in my opinion is just supers with magic). Most zero level characters s...

Option Three: Using Base Stats for Saving Throws Inspiration :  N/A Reason :  Simplification Rule Description: Rather than have separate states for saving throws, saving throws are now just roll under an appropriate state.  Charm type spells would be either Wisdom or Intelligence.  Paralyses would be Strength or Constitution.  Wands and Staffs would be Dex (getting out of the way).  Etc... Monsters/Foes would use their hit dice + 10 as their base saves. Variants Variant 3A: The level of the spell would be added to the saving die roll (bad). Variant 3B : The difference between the level or hit dice of the caster minus the level or hit dice of character's level would be added to the saving die roll.   NPCs/Monsters would start with a 10 or under roll, adjust needed save with level vs hit dice. Example . A 7th level wizard attacks a 10 Hit Dice dragon with a Fireball spell.  The Dragon has a monster base save of 10 + 10 for it's hit dice ...

Here is another DnD "Pro" Option Option Two: Making Combat Deadlier and Faster Inspiration : Warhammer Fantasy Role Playing Reason: Hi level characters have too many hit points, slows combat down, makes it less deadly. Rule Description --------------------- The hit point system should be changed as follows- Characters start out with 4 hit points, plus any Constitution bonuses. Fighter / Combat focused characters gain 1 hit point per level Cleric, Thief, Secondary fighting classes gain 1 hit point per two levels Magic users, non physical combat types gain 1 hit point per three levels Example. Strom the fighter has a Constitution of 16, and gains a +2 modifier to his hit points (maybe +3 in some retro game systems). Strom is level one so he gains an additional hit point.  So Strom starts out with 7 hit points.  At level 10, Stom has gained a further 9 hit points, giving Strom a total of 16 hit points. Example. Jargena the mage starts out with four hit points p...

There are a lot of retro D&D RPG's out there.  I've been pondering a few rules tweaks that I think might add to these retro games.  Each rule tweak option I propose will be modular, so Dungeon Masters can take or leave what they like.  Here is my first rule tweak. Option One: Stat Potentials Inspiration : Space Master Reason : A way to make character's stuck with low stats able to eventually compete with characters that randomness favored. Rule Description ---------------------- Characters role up there initial character stats in the normal method approved by the Dungeon Master. Next, a player roles the the stats over again using the same method.  These are potential stats.  If the first rolled stat is higher than a potential stat, the potential stat is increased to the first rolled stat.  The potential stats are written down on character sheet right next to the first rolled stats.  This second set of stats represents a characters given nat...