Old School Saving Throws as Milestone Advancement

 

Remember years ago when I talked about Barony/Conrad's Game? Today we're gonna mix the ignobles milestone advancement from that RPG with the old D&D saves. In never actually talked much about the ignoble deeds before. It’s a neat system. Maybe the first milestone system in RPGs! To advance from one job to the next in Barony, you need to check off the following things:

Adventure (Travel Exotic Lands, Danger and Intrigue) 

Bard's Tale (Fame, Triumph, Notoriety) 

Battle (Military Engagements and Strategy)
Crafty Deeds (Cunning Execution of Skills and Ingenuity) 

Desires Fulfilled (Profit, Revenge, Power)
Exercising Prudence (Forethought Plans or Precautions) 

Growth (Leadership, Comradeship, Political Authority) 

Heroics (Boldness, Courage and Audacity) 

Magical Events (Acquisition, Exposure, Use)

Each deed can only check off one thing. 

 

I could actually say to use this system and call it a day, but we are here to provide a slightly simple alternative to XP counting for old school D&D type games, or at least in the spirit of them. 

 

So, here comes my idea:

When, in the course of your wanderings, you character survives* something that falls under the following categories, check it off. If they are all checked, you erase the checks and you can level up.

□　Death Rays or Ray-guns

□　Poisons or Diseases

□　Mesmerism or Mind Control
□　Paralysis or Stonification
□　Dragon Breath or Explosions
□　Wands, Rods, Staves, Curses, or Spells

There you go, no need to count XP. 

You might have noticed that my old school D&D saves don’t match your rulespedia or whatever. That’s okay, none of the old D&Ds agree with each other. Just use yours. Mine are better tho.

Maybe undead can be slightly friendlier in this system; if you get caressed by a ghoul, you lose one of your check marks (not the paralysis one!) instead of a whole level. 

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*: Or is resurrected after experiencing.

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The Seventh Ability Score is Gold

Sometimes the seventh score is Luck, and that is a useful one to have, but this post is about starting gold. Many D&Dalikes have you roll 3d6*10 for starting gold. And many DnDs let you swap ability scores around or lower one score to raise another. In our Black Pudding game, I have let the players consider gold to be a score that these options are applicable to. Can't afford that helm? Maybe you can sacrifice your CON of 11 to get a little extra cash up front.

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A less tedious way to do prime requisits

The tired-sauce way.

I've actually done this in a couple campaigns now, and it worked pretty fine, though this is the simplest iteration of the rule: Your prime requisite score is applied as a percentile reduction to the XP you need to level up.

Simple example: A Wizard with INT 10 needs 100XP to reach level 2. She only really needs 90XP to level up. Easy peasy, wizard-squeezy. 

Aw, I started my example on the high road to really drive home that the glass-ceiling was being burst, but ended it creepy.

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Let Them Find the Secret Door

Lately, I have not been asking for many search-type checks. Sometimes I have asked everybody to roll a d6 and hope for a 1. Sometimes we are playing Dragonbane and I want to reward having that skill. But really tho, I have found straight up success, especially at finding doors, to be good for the feels of the game. 

Each time the PCs devote time to searching for doors or whatever, they're gonna find them, but I am going to loudly roll encounter dice (or happenings dice). Players know there is a risk. That's fun. They find the things and that's fun too.

Now then, finding a secret door does not mean you know how to open it. I usually have a super-dooper simple trick to opening it in mind. In a library: notice the floor marks from the swinging shelf, but you have to find a likely book and pull it to open the latch holding it closed. Looking at baas-relief dwarven carvings? You find one with a hammer shaft that has to be worked to open the way.

Have you tried poking its eye?

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HP Burn

Almost all games I run now use HP burn.

Sacrifice a couple HP to raise (or lower) the results of one of your rolls. Will that burn come back to bite you? Maybe! Risk vs Reward, baby!

HP works well as a meta-resource like Luck or bennies. After all, it doesn't make much sense as Health or Hit Points when you really look at it, but feels perfect as Hit Protection or Heroic Perserverance.

So what if a PC burns down to 0HP? Well, I'm also a fan of ill-advisedly fighting on when you should give up. I didn't hear no bell! 

When I run DCC, I let the PCs burn it just like in the Luck burning rules. They can still burn luck too.

If using CON or STR score as true health, HP burn works great. If using something like Dragonbane or 5e Deeandy, consider letting the PC fight while making death saves, but no more burn. If using VtM, I am really confused how you are burning HP...

Try it in your next game. Crom!

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Black Magic Mechanics for Lankhmar

Because Fritz said:

It seemed to Ivrian that she heard the mellow voice of Glavas Rho repeating a statement he had once made to Mouse and to her. ‘None can use black magic without straining the soul to the uttermost—and staining it into the bargain. None can inflict suffering without enduring the same. None can send death by spells and sorcery without walking on the brink of death’s own abyss, aye, and dripping his own blood into it. The forces black magic evokes are like two-edged poisoned swords with grips studded with scorpion stings. Only a strong man, leather-handed, in whom hate and evil are very powerful, can wield them, and he only for a space.’

I say spellburn, ala DCCRPG, should be a requisite component of each casting. You may heal that ability score damage, but 5% of the time you will roll a 1 while rolling to cast and take permanent ability score loss.

Tangentally to this bit, the mouser makes a good case for allowing multi-classing; abandon the path of pain and embrace subtle skullduggery.

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Old School Fast 5e

I may try to advertise a 5e game the next time our Discord runs shallow. Behind the screen, I'd probably give monsters hits equal to their HD, less the PCs' average level (1 on damage=I don't let a killing blow happen with this strike).

Species allowed: Human, Elf, Half-elf, Kenku, Cyclops (Goliath), Dwarf.

Classes allowed: wizard, thief, barbarian, fighter, cleric.

Generation method: 4d6d1 down the line on Roll20, with all players witnessing your rolls. You see your stats and choose a species/background/class that will compliment them.

No feats. Take ability score increases. You wanna cleave or something, go for a gambit (roll with disadvantage or take consequence on failure). 

Can spend HP on rolls, including damage rolls.

1XP if you attend a session. [LVL to be gained]XP to level up (resets to 0). You have to spend a month in civilization to gain any level benefits before you jump back into adventuring.

d6 vs d6 group initiative. Match= simultaneous. Someone can spend HP to raise your side's roll.

Roll area/monster difficulty or better to intone your spell well enough to cast it this round. Awesome stuff if you roll a 20. 1 is a fumble.

No money survives carousing between adventures, so spend your treasure as soon as you get back into town. On the other hand, we shall hand-wave all room and board fees.

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