Accelerated D&D Combat, Platemail-Style

So, a couple of days ago, I discovered Platemail 27th Edition. It's, loosely speaking, a retro-clone of Chainmail, though (as far as I understand -- I've never actually read Chainmail) it's greatly expanded, as Chainmail wasn't really a full RPG.

This link seems to contain the most up-to-date versions of the rules: http://furiouslyeclectic.com/forum/printthread.php?tid=190

Direct links to the main rule book: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxVXsD3On015OTNTclgySmFCamc

and the book of magic: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxVXsD3On015b09Nd1hmX18wX3M

It's got some really nice touches and I'd definitely recommend you to check it out. Some highlights for me include:

• The book of magic. There are some super nice, flavourful spells in here. Not just rehashes of the classic D&D spells (though, naturally, some of them do make an appearance).
• The rules for divine magic. There's no cleric class, but any character who takes the Devout ability is able to petition their god for magical aid. It's a really nice system.
• The skirmish combat rules. These are what initially brought me to wanting to look into Chainmail, in the first place, as I will elaborate below.

Skirmish Combat for D&D

One thing that I find irksome about D&D, from time to time, is the amount of time that resolving combat can end up taking in sessions. Even in simple, old-school systems, a fight can easily take half an hour (or longer). Sometimes this is fine, but at other times -- especially when several combats happen in a single session -- I find myself wanting something quicker. The original idea I had was the possibility of a system where a complete battle can be resolved in a single step, without requiring individual rounds/actions to be resolved. I've not managed to come up with anything so greatly simplified (yet), but I did come up with a system for D&D combat, inspired by Platemail's skirmish system, that I reckon should be significantly quicker than the standard D&D combat system.

Here goes:

Hit Dice
In addition to his or her hit points, each character has a number of hit dice. These depend on class and level (fighters have one HD per level, rogues have about one per two levels, wizards have about one every three levels -- proper progression charts needed). Hit dice represent both a character's ability to avoid dying and to inflict death upon others.

Action in Combat
Combat rounds are of indefinite length, somewhere between ten seconds and a minute. Many attacks may be made each round. Each round of combat:

• Each character can move, attack, or cast a spell.
• Move: up to full movement rate.
• Attack: make a number of attack rolls equal to current hit dice. Apply all normal modifiers, but THAC0 is always 19 (the same as a first level character). Attacks are directed at groups of enemies with the same AC. If different groups are present, attacks may be divided between them. Each attack roll that succeeds is one hit. See damage, below.
• Casting spells: healing spells restore one hit die per die of healing. Damaging spells inflict one hit per die of damage.

Damage and Death
Each hit reduces the enemy by one hit die -- either defeating an individual with one hit die or reducing a more potent foe's total by one.

Defeated characters may not move or act in any way. Defeated monsters are assumed to be dead or shortly on the way to death. Defeated PCs have a chance of survival, see below.

At the end of combat, if enemies remain, defeated characters may be:

• Killed: eaten, finished off, dismembered, sacrificed.
• Captured.
• Ignored.

A PC who is lucky enough to be ignored or forgotten after being defeated in battle may make a saving throw versus death to determine his fate. If the save fails, the character is dead. If it succeeds, he is alive with 1hp and an injury which permanently reduces a random ability score by one. (A "death & dismemberment" table may be used at this stage, instead.)

After a battle, undefeated PCs lose 1d6 hit points per hit die lost during the fight. If this brings the character's total to zero or lower, a saving throw may be made, as above.

Recovering Hit Dice
Hit dice can be lost during combat and are recovered after a night's rest.

Analysis
I've yet to try this system, so can only speak theoretically, at this stage. I feel it should be quicker in the following ways:

• No initiative roll. A minor thing, but every "roll this per round" makes a difference.
• No damage rolls. This is the big one. Hit points are abstracted into hit dice, making damage rolls redundant. Every hit simply reduces the target by one hit die. The conversion from HD to hp is done at the end of the battle -- either via the death save (-> 0 or 1hp) for defeated character or applied as hit point damage to undefeated characters.
• Resolving multiple attacks per round. Characters with more than one HD can make multiple attacks per round. This should greatly speed up resolution, as lesser enemies may be mown down. This of course changes the balance of combat and may skew it too heavily in favour of those with higher HD. I also don't think this scales up to the standard D&D level range -- a 15th level fighter rolling 15d20 per round?? That probably wouldn't work so well.

LL Campaign House Rules

After playing around with D&D 5 last year (and deciding that, while there are some elements of it that I like, overall it's not really my cup of tea), I'm just about to start a new Labyrinth Lord campaign.

I've just finished compiling a short (6 page) house rules document, including details on the custom races and classes of my (very vaguely imagined) setting.

Click here to check it out!

LL/5e Mashup: Arcane Trickster and Arcane Champion

I just came across some notes related to the ideas I had for a 5e-inspired Arcane Champion (Warrior) class and Arcane Trickster (Rogue) class.

It's just simple lists of spells, but I thought I might as well type them up, for completeness, rather than entirely discard them. So here we go.

Arcane Trickster
1st Level Spells

1. Auditory illusion
2. Dancing lights
3. Darkness globe
4. Doppelganger
5. Charm person
6. Feather fall
7. Comprehend languages
8. Jump
9. Read languages
10. Spider climb
11. Unseen servant
12. Ventriloquism

2nd Level Spells

1. Invisibility
2. Phantasmal force
3. ESP
4. Knock
5. Levitate
6. Locate object
7. Detect invisible
8. False gold

3rd Level Spells

1. Blink
2. Haste
3. Hold person
4. Nondetection
5. Suggestion
6. Infravision

4th Level Spells

1. Arcane eye
2. Charm monster
3. Dimension door
4. Polymorph self

Arcane Champion
1st Level Spells

1. Light
2. Magic missile
3. Burning hands
4. Protection from evil
5. Shield
6. Shocking grasp

2nd Level Spells

1.  Detect evil
2. Scare
3. Strength
4. Pyrotechnics
5. Mirror image
6. Ray of enfeeblement

3rd Level Spells

1. Dispel magic
2. Fireball
3. Lightning bolt
4. Haste
5. Hold person
6. Protection from normal missiles

4th Level Spells

1. Enchant arms
2. Fire shield
3. Ice storm
4. Wall of fire

Theorems & Thaumaturgy Revised: Introductory Guidelines

Well, the "maybe" I postulated a few weeks back has become a "definitely". In fact, an almost-finished-draft "definitely".

My main goals with this revised edition are firstly to reformat the book as A5 (my preferred format nowadays) and secondly to improve the thematic consistency and usability of the content. One thing in particular that I wanted to improve over the original edition of Theorems & Thaumaturgy were the guidelines for integrating all the new spells and classes into campaigns. To that end, I've written several pages of ideas and optional rules which will, hopefully, really help clarify the different approaches which are possible and their pros and cons.

Here's the complete text of that section, as it stands. If anyone has any feedback, please feel free to comment! (The formatting below is a bit odd... The cut & paste from the document apparently didn't work that well.)

Using This Book

You Now Have in Your Possession Over 200 New Spells

This is a book, primarily, full of spells. Hopefully, after having a browse, you'll feel inspired to start using all this new material in your campaign, but how to go about this? That depends primarily on whether you're starting a new campaign or already running one. Below are some guidelines for each of those situations.

If you want to integrate this material in an existing campaign, the two most obvious approaches are:

• Introduce one or more of the new classes (elementalist, necromancer, vivimancer) as members of a school of wizardry from a region which the players haven't explored. These wizards may be directly encountered by the player characters (as friendly, neutral, or antagonistic NPCs) or may be spoken of in rumours or adventure hooks. Once the new classes are known to exist in the setting, they become available as an option for any future player characters that are created.
• An alternative way to use this book is simply as a resource for new spells. If you want to follow this approach, simply ignore the classes and their spell lists and make all of the new spells available for use by standard magic-users (or druids, clerics, illusionists – as you wish). New spells can easily be introduced by putting scrolls or spell books in the hands of player characters: as gifts from mentors, as rewards for missions accomplished, or discovered in the treasure hoards of defeated enemies.

For Labyrinth Lords who are starting a new campaign, two further options are available:

• The new classes in this book may simply be added to the roster of choices available to players when creating their characters at the start of the campaign.
• When preparing for a campaign, it is also worth considering that an excellent way of imparting a specific and novel flavour to the milieu is to alter or restrict the classes of adventurer which exist (and thus the classes from which the players may choose when creating their characters). A very interesting potential, then, is to imagine a world where standard spell-casting classes do not exist, being replaced by one or more of the classes from this book. A world where vivimancers are the only type of arcane practitioner, for example, takes on a very different tone and has very different possibilities than a world dominated by the standard fireball-slinging mage. Or, perhaps, the wizards of a certain kingdom may all be known to be necromancers, while the neighbouring land only allows the practice of imperially sanctioned elemental magic. This kind of approach can really breathe new life into the game.

The Elementalist, Necromancer, and Vivimancer Classes

Each of these three new classes is presented in its own section. However, no mechanical details (e.g. saving throw or to-hit charts, prime requisites, lists of allowed armaments, etc.) are specified. It is assumed that these classes perform and advance in exactly the same manner as the standard magic-user class, with the one (albeit major) difference being the replaced spell list.

A Note on Spell References

In the spell lists for the new classes, the symbols (C), (D), (I), and (MU) are used to denote spells drawn from the standard cleric, druid, illusionist, and magic-user lists, respectively.

Specialist Wizards in the Campaign

The basic Labyrinth Lord rules describe a single type of arcane magic, usable by magic-users and elves. The Advanced Edition Companion and other books, such as this, add further, more specialised wizardly classes: illusionists, elementalists, necromancers, etc. In campaigns with multiple different types of arcane spell-caster (i.e. wizards), it pays to give some thought to how they inter-relate, both in terms of their place in the society of the imagined world and in terms of how the classes interact with each other on a mechanical level. This section discusses some issues around the latter point; the society of your campaign world is in your hands alone!

Casting Spells From Other Spell Lists

It is important that the Labyrinth Lord consider to what degree characters of the different wizardly classes are able to use spells from the other spell lists. Traditionally, in Advanced era games, the two types of arcane spell-caster – illusionists and magic-users – practised entirely different kinds of magic and, apart from a few areas of overlap, were unable to cast spells from each other's list.

Characters of each of the classes presented in this book are designed to be competent adventurers in their own right, with a different balance of strengths and weaknesses when compared to classical magic-users. They are able to stand on their own and do not require access the standard magic-user spell list. Some Labyrinth Lords may, however, prefer there to be less strict boundaries between the different types of wizard, with some possibility of casting spells from each other's spell lists. If this is allowed, it will clearly increase the power of each class to a significant degree, as they will gain access to a broader selection of spells and types of magic. Some possible approaches in this direction, listed in ascending order of permissiveness, are described below. Whatever is decided, this should always be a two-way decision – standard magic-users must be treated in the same manner as all other types of wizard.

Fallible scroll-use: All types of wizard may cast scrolls of spells from other spells lists (for example, a magic-user may cast an illusionist scroll). They are unable to learn these “foreign” spells but have sufficient arcane knowledge to be able to activate magic encoded on scrolls. When casting such “off-list” spells from scrolls, there is a 10% chance of failure per level of the spell being cast. Failure indicates that the scroll is wasted or (if the Labyrinth Lord wishes) causes some kind of backfire. In this way, low-level spells may be cast fairly reliably but high-level spells will remain the sole province of the appropriate specialist.

Reliable scroll-use: Off-list scrolls may be cast without risk of failure. This allows the boundaries between the different types of specialist wizard to be blurred slightly, but only in the (presumably somewhat special) situation when magical scrolls are acquired as treasure.

Limited learning: In addition to allowing foreign spells to be cast from scrolls (either with or without a risk of failure), another possibility is to allow wizards to also learn a smattering of them – one per level of spells which can be cast. (For example, a 7^th level wizard may cast spells of up to 4^th level. Using these rules, she could thus learn four spells from specialist areas not covered by her standard spell list.) This system allows wizards to diversify their spell repertoire and have a few tricks up their sleeve, while maintaining the clear separation between the different types of specialist.

Reduced chance to learn: This is an option for games where the advanced “chance to learn spell” rules are used. Wizards may cast foreign spells from scrolls (as above, with or without a risk of failure) and may also attempt to learn an unlimited number of off-list spells, but with a reduced chance of success. A penalty (-25%, for example) is applied to the chance to learn foreign spells. The Labyrinth Lord may also stipulate the additional requirement of a period of research (one week per spell level, perhaps at a cost of 250gp per week). Under this system, it is likely that wizards will end up having a significant number of off-list spells in their spell books, as their careers progress. This is the most flexible system before the boundaries between different wizardly classes are collapsed completely.

Placing Spells in Treasure Hoards

It is assumed that all classes of wizard acquire new spells in the same means as the standard magic-user: by finding spell books or scrolls in treasure hoards. Ideally, then, the number of spells discovered which can be cast by each type of wizard should be (roughly) balanced. When it is determined that a treasure hoard contains scrolls of magic-user spells, it is desirable that spells usable by specialist wizards also be (at least some of the time) present.

One way of handling this is to multiply the number of spells present in the hoard (as indicated by the treasure tables) by the total number of wizardly classes in the campaign, then to give each spell an equal (random) chance of being taken from the list of each class. For example, in a campaign with magic-users, elementalists, and illusionists, the number of spells found in a hoard would be multiplied by three and each spell would have a 1 in 3 chance of being taken from the standard magic-user list, a 1 in 3 chance of coming from the illusionist list, and a 1 in 3 chance of being from the elementalist list. The Labyrinth Lord ensures, in this way, that the balance of spells available to characters of different spell-using classes remains fair and consistent.

Note that, as some spells are shared between the different classes, these guidelines will, in fact, slightly increase the number of spells available. It is also worth bearing in mind that, even if an adventuring party discover scrolls of spells that they cannot cast themselves, such scrolls still have value and may be sold to or bartered with NPCs who can put them to use.

Spell Acquisition

This section contains optional guidelines for Labyrinth Lords on the subject of how wizardly characters may gain access to and learn new spells.

For games in the vein of the traditional Basic rules, the following guidelines may be used:

• Wizards begin the game knowing read magic, one randomly selected spell from the appropriate class spell list, and one spell of the player's choice.
• The number of spells a wizard can know (i.e. record in his spell book) is limited to no more than double the number that he can memorize. For example, a 5th level magic-user can memorize two 1st level, two 2nd level, and one 3rd level spell. Such a character could have at most four 1st level, four 2nd level, and two 3rd level spells in his spell book.
• Upon gaining an experience level, if the wizard does not already have spells available to learn (e.g. from scrolls or captured spell books), he automatically acquires knowledge of one new spell, selected randomly from a level of the player's choosing.

Design Note: In the original Basic rules, magic-users and elves were limited to knowing one single spell at 1st level – not even read magic was “free”! – and could never record more spells in their spell books than the number they could memorize each day. Personally, while I find this system charming in its simplicity, I feel it is too restrictive and use the system described above in my own games. Other groups may, however, prefer to stick with the original rules.

Advanced era games are more generous with the number of spells known and may use the following guidelines:

• Wizards begin the game knowing read magic, two randomly selected spells from the appropriate class spell list, and two spells of the player's choice.
• The number of spells a wizard can know (i.e. record in his spell book) is limited by the character's INT (see the AEC).
• Upon gaining an experience level, if the wizard does not already have spells available to learn (e.g. from scrolls or captured spell books), he automatically acquires knowledge of one new spell, selected randomly from a level of the player's choosing. This spell must be learnt according to the normal rules for spell learning, again dependent on the character's INT.
   

LL/5e Mashup: Bard Songs

In my previous post about the Rogue class and its various sub-classes, I didn't go into any detail as to what spells exactly are usable by the magic-using sub-classes, the bard and the arcane trickster.

Here's the list of songs available to bards. I'm keeping things limited to the spells that are available in the LL Advanced Edition Companion, initially.

Bard Magic
Bard songs take one turn to have magical effect. Bards do not need to memorise songs -- they can play any magical song they know at any time, subject to the limited number of songs per level per day.

Bard songs which produce an effect with a duration need not be physically played or sung for longer than the one turn casting time. Once the spell takes effect, the bard may stop playing. The song instead lingers in the bard's mind until its duration expires. During this time, if the bard plays any other magical song, the maintained spell is cancelled. Songs with permanent duration do not have this requirement.

Songs which have the effect of enchanting another person must be audible to the target in order for the magic to take hold.

Bard Spell List

First level
Allure
Charm person
Doppelganger
Identify
Light
Mending
Protection from evil
Remove fear

Second Level
Arcane lock
Bless
Continual light
Cure light wounds
Invisibility
Knock
Phantasmal force
Snake charm

Third Level
Augury
Fly
Haste
Protection from evil, 10' radius
Purify food and drink
Tiny hut

Fourth Level
Arcane eye
Charm monster
Create food and water
Cure serious wounds
Enchant arms
Implant emotion

LL/5e Mashup: The Warrior Class

Following on from the write-up of my rough ideas for a 5e-inspired Rogue class for Labyrinth Lord, here are my thoughts on a Warrior class. (I'm following the 2e class groups here, a concept which I always found appealing -- so the classes will be: Warrior, Rogue, Priest, Wizard.)

Warrior
Proficiencies: all armour, shields, simple weapons, martial weapons, 2 of: Acrobatics, Awareness, Climbing, Survival, Swimming.

1st level:
Fighting Style: Choose one of the following fighting styles:

• Archery: +1 to attacks with missile weapons.
• Defence: +1 AC bonus when wearing armour.
• Duelling: +1 to attacks and damage rolls when wielding only a one-handed melee weapon.
• Heavy Weapon Fighting: When wielding a heavy, two-handed weapon, re-roll damage dice which come up 1. (You may only re-roll once per attack and must keep the second roll.)
• Protection: When wielding a shield, you can grant a +2 AC bonus to a single character within 5' of you.
• Two-Weapon Fighting: (The exact effect of this fighting style depends on the rules for two-weapon fighting, which I've not decided on yet.)

2nd level:
Warrior Archetype: Choose an archetype.

6th level:
Extra Attack: You can make two attack rolls on your turn.

11th level:
Extra Attack: You can make three attack rolls on your turn.

20th level:
Extra Attack: You can make four attack rolls on your turn.

Warrior Archetypes

Fighter
2nd level:
Improved Critical: An attack roll of 19 or 20 is a critical hit.

4th level:
Indomitable: Once per day, you can re-roll a failed saving throw.

10th level:
Fighting Style: Choose a second fighting style.

Arcane Champion
2nd level:
Spell-Casting: Limited spell list. Slow progression, up to 4th level spells. Number of spells known is strictly limited.

4th level:
Weapon Bond: With a one hour ritual, you can bond up to two weapons to yourself. A bonded weapon can be summoned instantly to your hand from anywhere on the same plane of existence.

10th level:
War Magic: You can make a single attack and cast a spell in the same round.

Slayer
2nd level:
Favoured Enemy: Choose a monster type (dragons, goblinoids, giants, animals, etc) or a profession (cultists, witches, outlaws, etc). You gain a +1 bonus to Search checks to track or Lore checks to recall knowledge about your chosen enemy.

4th level:
Extra Proficiencies: Gain proficiency with Awareness and Stealth.

10th level:
Second Favoured Enemy: Choose another type of favoured enemy.
Expert Slayer: Gain +1 to hit and damage against your favoured enemies. Gain a +2 bonus to saving throws and AC against their attacks.

Beast Master
2nd level:
Animal Companion: A normal animal becomes your faithful companion. You may purchase the animal or find it in the wild. In combat, you can give the animal verbal commands. If your companion dies, you may find another beast to replace it after a week.

4th level:
Extra Proficiencies: Gain proficiency with Awareness and Nature.

10th level:
Bestial Fury: Your animal companion may make one extra attack each round.

Berserker
I'm planning a berserker warrior sub-class, but haven't come up with any mechanics that I like yet. I'm not that keen on the 5e barbarian berserker, with the "resource management rage" mechanic. I don't see berserk fury as something that has to be scrupulously managed.

If anyone has any ideas for a berserker sub-class that'd fit with the system above, please suggest!

Wot No Paladins?
Yeah... I don't believe in paladins. I've never really understood how they're different from clerics.

LL/5e Mashup: The Rogue Class

Now that we have a skill system, I'll present the rough outline for a class: the rogue. Yes, I'm calling it "rogue" not "thief". There's a good reason for that: one of the things I love about the 5e rules is the way that each class has several different "archetypes" -- essentially sub-classes -- which players can choose between. In the case of the rogue class, one of those archetypes is the thief.

Here's what I have so far. (Note that I won't discuss things like Hit Dice, XP progression, attack rolls, saving throws. That's, for now, assumed to be the same as in LL.)

First, a quick note on the types of proficiency...

Proficiencies

• Skills (see here).
• Weapons: non-proficient attacks incur a -4 penalty to hit.
• Armour: wearing armour with which the character is not proficient incurs some penalty that I've not fully considered yet. You definitely can't cast spells, at least.
• Tools: work like skills. 1 in 6 base chance of success, modified by ability score and proficiency bonus. I like the D&D 5 list of tools, so would go with that.

Ok, now the rogue...

Rogue
Proficiencies: light armour, simple weapons, hand crossbow, longsword, rapier, shortsword, thieves' tools, 4 of: Acrobatics, Arcana, Awareness, Climbing, Lore, Performance, Search, Sleight of hand, Stealth.

1st level:
Expertise: Gain a +1 bonus using 2 skills (or your proficiency with thieves' tools) of your choice.
Sneak Attack: +4 bonus to hit and double damage against a target who is not aware of your presence. (Finesse or missile weapons only.)
Thieves' Cant: Speak the secret code language of thieves.

2nd level:
Rogue Archetype: Choose an archetype.

6th level:
Expertise: Choose 2 more skills to gain a +1 bonus.

Rogue Archetypes

Thief
2nd level:
Fast Hands: Make two checks with your thieves' tools in one turn. (Note: I'm talking LL turns here = 10 minutes.)

4th level:
Read Languages: Make a Lore check to understand the broad gist of any text.

10th level:
Use scrolls: Make an Arcana check to use magic-user scrolls.

(Note: I think the thief could probably be beefed up a little bit, compared to the other archetypes.)

Assassin
2nd level:
Extra Proficiencies: Gain proficiency with disguise and poisoner's kits.

4th level:
Assassinate: (Exact effect to-be-determined... Probably simply an increasing sneak attack multiplier.)

10th level:
Infiltration: Pretty much as described in the 5e rules. The ability to create a false identity and to mimic someone's behaviour and voice.

Arcane Trickster
2nd level:
Spell-Casting: Limited spell list. Slow progression, up to 4th level spells. Number of spells known is strictly limited. Initially: unseen servant and one other.

4th level:
Legerdemain: Use thieves' tools or Sleight of hand via unseen servant.
Use scrolls: Make an Arcana check to use magic-user scrolls.

10th level:
Magical Ambush: Targets who are unaware of your presence suffer a -4 penalty on saves against your spells.

Bard
2nd level:
Magical Songs: Limited spell list. Slow progression, up to 4th level spells. Number of spells known is strictly limited. Spells require a Performance check and one turn.

4th level:
Read Languages: Make a Lore check to understand the broad gist of any text.

10th level:
Counter-Charm: (Exact effect to-be-determined)

Acrobat
2nd level:
Dodge: You can dodge out of reach of enemies, making a fighting retreat at full speed.
Tumbling Attack: Make an Acrobatics check to move towards an enemy, make a melee attack, then leap out of reach (effectively a fighting retreat) all in one round.

4th level:
Evasion: For effects which allow a save for half damage, a save indicates that you take no damage. You suffer half damage on a failed save.
Slow Fall: Subtract your level from falling damage.

10th level:
Uncanny Dodge: When damaged by an attacker that you can see, make an Acrobatics check to reduce the damage by half.

LL/5e Mashup: Skills

As I mentioned on Google+, I've been thinking about how it might look to take some of the bits I like about D&D 5 into a simpler rules system like Labyrinth Lord. One of my favourite bits of the new edition is the simple skills / proficiency system. This forms a foundation for some other stuff, so I'll lay that out first.

Skill Checks
1d6 based, like LotFP. All characters have a base 1 in 6 chance of success.

Modifiers:

• Relevant ability score above 14: +1 in 6 chance of success.
• Relevant ability score below 7: -1 in 6 chance of success.
• Proficient: +1 at 1st level, +2 at 5th level, +3 at 10th level, +4 at 15th level.
• Difficulty: easy tasks may increase, difficult tasks reduce the chance of success (as the referee wishes).

Notes:

I've never been a fan of the d20 system, so in considering a skill system suitable for bolting onto Labyrinth Lord, I knew immediately that I'd be looking for something else. I went for a d6 based skill system for several reasons: its precedent in the basic rules in the form of rolls to hear noises or find secret doors, surprise, etc; its use in LotFP, which I'm familiar with and have always admired. You could bolt on another system easily enough; you just need to make sure the proficiency bonus progression and any bonuses granted by other abilities match it.

List of Skills
Acrobatics
Arcana (detect magic -- 1 turn)
Awareness (surprise / notice hidden)
Climbing
Engineering (stone stuff, dwarves are proficient)
Lore (legends, history)
Medicine
Nature (knowledge, connection with animals)
Performance

Religion (detect divine or infernal influence -- 1 turn)
Search (find secret doors / hidden things)
Sleight of hand
Stealth
Survival
Swimming

Notes:

• I chose to split athletics into climbing and swimming as a nod to the traditional thief, who's great at climbing but whom I don't see as great at other athletic activities.
• The uses of arcana and religion to detect magic or cosmic influence are house rules I've used for years in LL. They seemed to fit these skills perfectly.
• I've chosen a list without any "social" skills. You could add them back in, if you like. The exact list doesn't really matter that much.

LotFP House Rules 2: One-Shot this Weekend

As I mentioned recently, I've been thinking of running a small adventure using the LotFP rules. Well, the thinking has becoming doing now, so here are the house rules we'll be using. Note that, for the sake of simplicity in this one-shot, I've not messed around with any of the classes.

Classes

• Humans only.
• Clerics are witch-hunters or crusaders.

Skills
Some additional skills. All characters have a base 1 in 6 chance of success. Specialists can add extra skill points as usual.

• Medicine: identify herbs*, spend one turn with first aid kit (counts as specialist's tools, 10 uses) to heal 1d3 hp of freshly accrued damage. The skill can only be used for healing if the patient has at least half of his maximum hit points.
• Arcane dabbling: use wands & scrolls. If the skill roll fails, the item is used (scroll destroyed, wand charge used) with no effect. If the skill roll fails with a 6 (or double 6), the item backfires, creating a detrimental effect (sometimes the opposite to what was intended).
• Sense magic: spend one turn to detect whether a single object, creature or 10' square area is magical. Further turns may be spent to determine the following things, in order: the type of magic, its potency (approximate spell level), the age of the enchantment.

*Bushcraft can also be used to identify herbs.

LotFP House Rules

Following my purchase of the Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy RPG (reviewed here), I have of course been thinking about what kind of game I would run with it at some point.

The main idea that's popped into my head is to run some games in the Wormwood campaign setting that Greg Gorgonmilk and I are working on (and which is planned for publication at some point). Wormwood is still in development, so its final form is still in flux, but it's shaping up to be a creepy, quirky, pseudo early modern period fairytale setting, which seems perfect for some LotFP-style adventures!

Like any DM worth his salt, I have thus -- as first order of the day! -- been thinking up some house rule tweaks to emphasize the desired tone.

Towit:

More Skills
The LotFP skills system is just begging to be expanded with a few setting-specific additions. I'm thinking about:

• Medicine: identify herbs, minor healing capability.
• Arcane dabbling: use wands & scrolls. Chance of things going badly wrong if the skill roll fails.*
• Sense magic: spend one turn to detect whether a single object, creature or 10' square area is enchanted.
• Appraisal: accurately value treasures.
• Lore: know stuff about history or legend.
• (Maybe) Performance: influence people by making beautiful music, telling gripping tales, dancing like a sylph, etc.

(The latter two were inspired by Beedo's post about an LotFP bard / skald.)

* Note that all characters would thus have a 1 in 6 chance of being able to read the magic words on a scroll and unleash the arcane energies locked within. For your average adventurer this would, of course, be highly risky though, and probably only a last resort.

Class Cuts?
I would run the setting human-only, so that cuts out the dwarf, elf and halfling classes. Aside from that, I've got this thing about stripping down classes to their bare essentials, and the flexible simplicity of the skill system sort of encourages this.

A couple of further ideas I've been considering:

1. Remove the specialist class and simply give all characters a certain number of skill points per level. That way, a fighter could have a sideline in sneakiness or a magic-user could dabble in bushcraft.
2. Remove the cleric class and replace divine magic / favour with a "piety" skill. I don't yet have a clear picture of exactly how this would work, but I'm envisaging some kind of system where characters can pray at shrines in order to receive blessings from saints or deities, which could then be used like spells.

Putting both of those together, one would end up with only two classes: Fighter and Magic-User. I'm not sure if I'd go that far, but it's an interesting idea to think about.

Alternative Use of Charisma: Allies & Enemies

A small house rule which I've been using in a slightly modified form in my recent Victorian horror campaign (which reached an unexpectedly explosive conclusion this week).

This rule works especially well for campaigns which are somewhat story-oriented (in that the PCs are involved in a fair amount of town based activity, and interaction with various NPCs and factions plays an important role), and campaigns where little or no use of the standard D&D henchmen rules occurs. Personally I've found that the henchmen rules are virtually never used in campaigns I run, so I thought it'd be good to come up with some alternative use of the Charisma stat (in addition to its role as a modifier to reaction rolls, of course).

Here's what I thought:

Using the standard B/X ability modifiers (3 = -3, 4-5 = -2, 6-8 = -1, 13-15 = +1, 16-17 = +2, 18 = +3), pluses in the Charisma stat mean that the character has a useful contact or ally, while minuses mean the character has an enemy.

Of course, the exact role these allies/enemies play in the campaign, and how much impact they have is up to the DM.

In the Victorian campaign we were just using the allies rule, which worked out really well. It occurred to me yesterday that the rule could be mirrored to give enemies to PCs with low CHA.

The Infiltrator -- A New Class for Labyrinth Lord

It's a perennial favourite activity of mine (and many other DMs) to mess around with the thief class in D&D. (Well, ok, it's a perennial favourite activity to mess around with any and all classes in D&D, but today I'm talking about the thief.) People have a lot of various beefs (beeves?) with the class. My personal beef is that I like to stick with four core classes but that I want to mix in the extra abilities of the assassin, bard, thief-acrobat, and anything else that comes to mind, to produce a single unified "dodgy person who does sneaky stuff" type class.

Previous  thoughts along these lines: here, here & here.

I'm building up to run a Dark Sun inspired campaign with Labyrinth Lord, and have in mind that it'll involve lots of sneaky infiltration and subterfuge, so it seemed like high time to revisit the "dodgy person who does sneaky stuff" class.

Here's my latest take on it. (Note the inclusion of freely distributable percentage points -- a nod towards AD&D 2e. I'm planning on adding a few other 2e type features to the campaign, weapon proficiencies, for instance.)

The rest of this post is designated Open Gaming Content according to the Open Gaming License.

Infiltrator
Requirements: None
Prime Requisite: DEX
Hit Dice: 1d4

Those adventurers who live by stealth, deception and wits are known as infiltrators. Some infiltrators are self-made, having learned their trade in the back-alleys and marketplaces of the great cities, while others are members of guilds and have studied under master thieves, spies, scouts and assassins.

Infiltrators use the thief experience, saving throw and attack tables, and are able to use leather or studded leather armour, all one-handed weapons and light missile weapons (all except longbow and heavy crossbow).

They have a number of skills unique to this class, which advance as the character increases in level. A 1st level infiltrator begins with a 0% chance of success in all skills, but gains 100 percentage points to distribute as he wishes between them. At each subsequent level he gains a further 20 percentage points to improve his skills. No skill may be increased beyond 98%.

Acrobatics: This skill can be used to perform feats of acrobatics such as leaping, vaulting, flipping, balance, and so on. The Labyrinth Lord may specify a penalty to the roll for extraordinarily difficult feats. An infiltrator may also use this skill to reduce falling damage by half.

Assassination: When performing an attack by surprise (either during a surprise round of combat, or due to use of hide in shadows or move silently), the character has a chance of being able to instantly kill his victim. If the attack succeeds, a percentage roll is made against the character's skill with assassination. If the roll succeeds, the victim must save versus death or die immediately. If the save succeeds, the attack causes double normal damage (which may in turn be enough to kill the victim). Note that for an assassination to succeed, the infiltrator must be able to attack a weak point of the victim (the throat or heart, for instance) – certain situations or targets may make this impossible, at the Labyrinth Lord's discretion (for example, undead creatures generally lack any such weak points).

Climb walls: Infiltrators are skilled climbers, and never need to make rolls to climb under normal circumstance (ladders, ropes, trees, etc). This skill enables the character to climb vertical surfaces with only small handholds, such as brick walls or cliffs. The skill check may be penalised due to exact conditions (slipperiness, darkness, etc).

Decipher script: The infiltrator is skilled at cracking coded messages, or deciphering small fragments of text written in foreign languages, such as may be found on treasure maps. This skill may also be used at a -10% penalty to attempt to cast spells from magic-user scrolls. In this case failure indicates a misfire of the spell.

Disguise: All characters may at times attempt to disguise themselves, with success determined by the Labyrinth Lord. This skill gives the infiltrator a backup roll if the Labyrinth Lord determines that a disguise is ineffective. A successful roll means that the character goes unnoticed.

Find/disable mechanisms: Characters of any class can search for hidden mechanisms to activate traps or secret doors, having a 1 in 6 chance of success. An infiltrator also gains a percentage roll with this skill. With the appropriate tools, this skill can additionally be used to disable or bypass small mechanisms such as sprung-needle traps or locks. Using this skill takes one turn.

Hear noise: All characters can listen at doors to detect sounds beyond, having a 1 in 6 chance of success. An infiltrator with this skill gains the normal 1 in 6 roll in addition to a percentage roll with this skill. Using this skill takes one turn.

Hide in shadows: Infiltrators are masters of concealment, and do not need to roll to hide under normal circumstances (behind statues, screens, undergrowth, etc). They can use this skill to attempt to hide when no cover is available beyond deep shadows. The character always thinks he is successful.

Move silently: Infiltrators are experts at creeping quietly, and do not need to make any roll to sneak under circumstances where absolute silence is not required (for example in a noisy environment). A successful roll with this skill means that the infiltrator is able to move unnoticed in situations where the slightest sound would give his presence away. The character always thinks he is successful.

Pick pockets: This skill can be used to artfully extract small objects from the possession of others.

Poison lore: An infiltrator can use this skill to detect and identify poisons (on weapons, in food, etc), and to create them. Each type of poison (q.v.) is rated with a difficulty to detect or manufacture, which is applied as a penalty to the skill roll.

House Rule: Specialist Knowledge

"All characters begin with the common tongue and their alignment language. Some classes grant further languages, and characters with high intelligence receive additional languages. Additional languages can be chosen at the Labyrinth Lord’s discretion. In general, any races or monsters capable of language have their own language." -- Labyrinth Lord p.14


This post isn't about alignment languages. In every campaign I've ever run I just ignore those.* No, it's about those additional languages gained from having an above-average INT score.

In general, I tend to ignore the issue of languages in the game altogether -- not out of any theory or moral principle, it just tends to end up that way. I suppose one reason for this is that I rarely use any of the standard monstrous races. Another reason is that I simply can't be bothered with it -- it's generally much more fun (for me) if players can just talk to the stuff they encounter. A matter of taste, of course.

But anyway, I've recently instigated a small house rule which is (I think) simple, elegant and effective, and which I wanted to share.

This is it:

"In place of an extra language, a character with high INT can choose an area of special knowledge or academic training."

This can be whatever the player wants (with the LL's approval, of course). Things like: alchemy, medicine, herbalism, history, fine arts, ancient technology, astronomy, philosophy, etc.

There is no specific rules mechanic tied to these areas of specialist knowledge, they are simply used in situations of improvisational ruling to determine what a character might know. In this sense they work similarly to "secondary skills" (in AD&D / AEC), but have a more intellectual / academic bent.

* Does anyone ever use alignment languages? I've contemplated coming up with an in-game explanation for them, but have never got around to running a campaign with such ideas in place.

Spiked Armour for Labyrinth Lord

A player in a game I ran yesterday spontaneously asked if he could have spikes on his armour and shield. My response was "erm, I guess so", and that was that. He used the spikes several times during the adventure, including dealing automatic damage to opponents who were hitting him. It was all good fun, and it was only a one-shot, so I didn't feel it necessary to come up with any negatives to balance out the obvious benefits he was getting.

Having now had some time to consider it, I think something like the following might work as a set of rules for spiked armour.

Buying
Banded, splint or plate mail can be forged with integrated spikes. This increases the cost of the armour by 50%. Either small or large spikes can be chosen. Small spikes increase the weight of the armour by 5lbs and deal 1d3 damage. Large spikes weigh an additional 10lbs and deal 1d6 damage.

Benefits
The character can make damaging attacks essentially unarmed, by simply throwing himself at opponents in an attempt to impale them on his spikes.

When hit by an opponent using natural weapons (claws, fists, bite, etc.) the character's spikes have a chance of inflicting damage on the attacker -- 10% per point of the attacker's AC. This chance applies per round against foes with a grappling, grabbing, swallowing or constricting attack.*

Drawbacks
On a natural to-hit roll of 1 the character spikes himself, suffering damage from the spikes. This is in addition to the normal effects of rolling a 1.

On taking falling damage the character is also damaged by the spikes on his armour. There is also has a 10% chance per 10' of distance fallen that the spikes on the armour are destroyed.

In most civilised regions such armour is regarded as dangerous, vulgar and brutal -- a sure sign of someone who's looking to start a fight. The character may get into trouble with the law if he wears spiked armour in towns and cities.

Indulging in a nice heroic embrace with ones companions after a battle is not recommended. The spiked character may risk becoming a social outcast.

Spiked Shields
A shield covered in spikes can also be purchased, again with either small or large spikes. A shield with small spikes costs 20gp and weighs 15lbs. A shield with large spikes costs 30gp and weighs 20lbs. Spiked shields have none of the benefits or drawbacks of spiked armour, except perhaps the drawback of being regarded by law-keepers as a sign of a dangerous rogue. A spiked shield can be used to make melee attacks, dealing damage based on the size of the spikes. If an optional rule for two-weapon fighting is used, a spiked shield may be used to make an off-hand attack. When using a shield offensively it grants no AC bonus.

* Lambton worm yeah!

Advanced Labyrinth Lord: Variant Dwarves, Gnomes and Half-Orcs

Some more ideas for my postulated dungeon-brawling mash-up campaign...

I like the idea of variant races, and plan to provide lots of choices for players. I've "traditionally" transplanted hobbits with rat-men, and have also thought to re-skin the race as goblins, kobolds and monkey-men. My recently posted reptiloid race also comes with a few variants. So, how about these variant gnomes, dwarves and half-orcs...

Note that the clockwork dwarf race is obviously inspired by Hill Canton's robo-dwarf class.

The rest of this post is designated Open Gaming Content according to the Open Gaming License.

Dwarves
Clockwork dwarf: These rare beings of obscure origin are occasionally encountered in adventuring parties or working as clock-smiths. They have all the normal faculties of a sentient being, but are made of metal (typically brass or bronze) and run on clockwork.

Clockwork dwarves cannot ingest normal food or water, and indeed react to such as poison. Instead they must consume one pint of lamp oil every other day, and often like to snack on nuts and bolts.

Additionally clockwork dwarves have the substantial advantage over their fleshy brethren that they do not need to breathe, and can thus happily exist in airless environments. It must however be noted that clockwork dwarves are damaged by water, taking 1d3hp damage per round they are submerged. This can be avoided by pre-preparing themselves by smearing 3 pints of oil over their whole body. Such protection lasts for several hours.

Clockwork dwarves have no affinity with stone, and lack all of the standard dwarfish stonework abilities. They do however have a natural armour class of 7.

Strangely, healing magic (including potions) works normally on clockwork dwarves. The reason for this is a mystery.

Stone dwarf: Some dwarven communities have retreated so deep into the mountains that they have, over many millennia, begun to meld with their stony environment, becoming beings half-flesh, half-stone. Such dwarves are as slow and determined as rock, and gain several advantages. Firstly they have a natural armour class of 5. Secondly they are completely immune to petrification magic, being already half-stone. They also have the ability to speak the language of earth elementals and their kin.

As a downside, healing magic of all kinds has only a 50% chance of taking effect on a stone dwarf.

Gnomes
Deep gnome (a.k.a. svirfneblin): This race dwells in deep subterranean caverns, and are sometimes encountered by dwarves as they delve for metals. Deep gnomes are an especially miserly race, giving them a -2 CHA penalty. On the positive side, they are able to identify gems and precious metals simply by smell, and at a distance of 10'.

Forest gnome: A meek and homely race, unlikely to produce much in the way of bold adventurers. They dwell in shallow burrows in sandy forest soils, and do not have the deep affinity with the subterranean world which their cousins possess – they are unable to detect their depth and orientation underground. They do however have ability to speak the languages of burrowing animals, which are often found in their company.

Psychedelic gnome: The origin of the psychedelic gnomes is something of a mystery, and the gnomes themselves refuse to provide details. Physically they are very similar to their “bog-standard” counterparts, however their behaviour and tastes are wildly different. Psychedelic gnomes, as their name implies, have an outrageous style of dress, eschewing the traditional drab earth-tones and red pointy hats in favour of clashing fluorescent colours, swirling paisley, tie-dye, and apparently religiously inspired patterns which they refer to as “fracktals”. Some sages suspect that these gnomes are from the future.

Psychedelic gnomes have no affinity with earth or stone, and lack the standard stonework abilities of their race. They are also of a less robust constitution, and gain no bonuses to saves against poison, paralysis or petrification. Instead they have an affinity with magic and illusion, which grants them alternative abilities.

Firstly, all psychedelic gnomes know how to cast a single 1st level spell once per day, chosen at random from the illusionist spell list. This spell is innate, and does not require study or a spell book.

Additionally their affinity with magic of illusion grants them a +4 bonus to saving throws versus this type of magic. On a successful save, there is a 15% chance that an illusion spell will rebound from a psychedelic gnome and affect its caster.

Half-Orcs
Half-bugbear: Hairy beast-men whose racial heritage is plain to see. Half-bugbears lack the standard half-orc's ability to find secret doors, but are instead able to move silently as a thief of equal level. Half-bugbear thieves instead gain a +10% bonus to their move silently skill.

Neanderthal: This race of brutish sub-humans are sometimes known to leave their caves and mix with other races. They have no ability at finding secret doors, but have a natural resistance to magic, gaining +2 on saving throws.

Advanced Labyrinth Lord: Equalising Humans

It's an old conundrum of AD&D: the balance of humans vs demi-humans. If you look at a mixture of 1st level characters of various race/class combinations, the demi-humans are clearly way more powerful with their infravision, huge saving throw bonuses, and the ability to potentially have the complete abilities of up to three classes. All these things give them an enormous advantage compared to their full-human brethren. In a dangerous old-school campaign, 1st level demi-humans are way more likely to make it to 2nd level -- that's the fact.

And what do humans get as a balance? No level limits.

So that's the traditional state of play. Now, in my experience this is not a balanced situation, not at all. The problem lies in the fact that no campaign I've ever played or run has reached the levels of experience where demi-human level limits kick in. And I think this is a common experience. (This is with the exception perhaps of long campaigns when I was a kid, but then we were playing BECMI, not AD&D, so it an wasn't issue.) Thus, players of demi-humans basically get all this cool stuff "for free" as it were, leaving their human comrades feeling a little under-par.

I have to say at this juncture that I don't care about balance purely for its own sake, in mechanical terms (for therein lies the road to 4e). The only reason I'm drawn to consider this is my observations of how players of "lesser races" (i.e. humans) feel overwhelmed by their "do anything, +4 on saves, see in the dark, oh and by the way I speak 7 languages" counterparts.

A novel remedy to the situation came to my mind the other day, which I shall describe.

1. Remove Limits
No level limits for demi-humans. Gone. They're rarely relevant anyway, and do nothing to create a sense of balance. Limits of class by race could also optionally be removed, if you want to go all the way.

2. Remove Some Benefits
Firstly multi-classing. As I've discussed before, that's the real killer for me, resulting in characters who can "do anything" -- honestly, who needs a thief when you have a multi-classed magic-user / thief at hand?

As a second reduction in demi-human power I'd suggest the removal of infravision from all playable races. It seems like only a minor perk on the face of it, but in practice is extremely useful (depending on how lenient the DM's interpretation of its precision is). I just find it more atmospheric when PCs are venturing into dark places with naught but a feebly flickering flame to guide them.

3. Boost Humans
In order to make humans attractive, all that remains is to give them a few perks in the same order of magnitude as the demi-human racial abilities (things like the dwarven stonework abilities, extra languages, saving throw bonuses, etc).

Here's what I thought of, though of course many other things would be possible.

Firstly:

• +1 to any two attributes (player's choice).
• No attribute limits (min 3 / max 18 for all scores).

And then, to mimic the traditional idea that humans are "more flexible" (odd that they were the ones who couldn't multi-class...), how about giving them the choice of some small bits and pieces of other class' abilities. Choose one of the following:

• Use any weapon without penalty. (Magic-users only.)
• Wear one better armour than usually allowed. (Thieves or magic-users only.)
• One thief skill which advances with level. (Non-thieves only.)
• Ability to cast one 1st level magic-user spell, chosen at random from the list in LL. (Non-magic-users only.)
• Ability to cast one 1st level clerical spell, chosen at random from the list in LL. (Non-clerics only.)
• Turn undead once a day as a cleric of equal level. (Non-clerics only.)
• +4 to one saving throw (player's choice).

I reckon that should roughly equalise the field.

D&D Mine -- It begins!

After musing on this idea back in April, I've now begun to work properly on a complete D&D rule book for a future campaign.

I've taken the Swords & Wizardry core rules document as a starting point, and started hacking away... What fun!

What I'm thinking is that making a pretty decent set of rules booklets based on the S&W rules is so simple that each campaign can easily have its own. I usually find that each idea I have for a campaign comes with a set of house rules, alternative or disallowed classes & races, new spells, etc etc, so being able to relatively quickly write them all up into a proper rules document seems like the perfect way to go.

So this is not so much "D&D Mine" as "D&Ds Mine".

The current D&D Mine is a rules set for an early modern inspired, low fantasy setting which I tested out a bit with my recent running of the Grinding Gear.

I'll post progress reports as significant things happen :)

LOTFP: Weird Fantasy RPG without XP & levels

From the world of drifting semi-conscious morning thoughts comes this proto-system for playing James Raggi's weird fantasy RPG without the normal D&D concept of levels and experience points. This is an idea I've been thinking about for some time, and the following is my first rough attempt at a system for it.

To Start With
Start your PCs off with the equivalent abilities of whatever level the referee deems a suitable starting "power level" for the campaign. They may be novice adventurers (1st level), or may be more capable in their chosen professions.

Advancement
Instead of characters' skills and abilities automatically improving through the course of their adventures, this system assumes instead that long periods of time are required to hone skill -- the typical timespan of an adventure (a few days or weeks perhaps) not being sufficient. Of course time is also money, to at least some degree.

It is thus envisioned that characters will advance in more meaningful ways -- deliberately choosing to hone the skills they feel they need to achieve their goals (whatever those may be), rather than simply getting "free stuff" when advancing in level. In situations where a campaign goal is pressing urgently upon the PCs, personal advancement may simply not be an option -- in this case other possibilities must be explored by characters (acquiring the aid of NPCs who do have the required ability, for example).

Mechanism for Advancement
The basic mechanism is that a certain time period must be spent in training of some kind, and that a roll of Xd6 against a relevant attribute (roll under or equal) determines whether the training was successful. The number of d6s rolled is determined by the level of the ability which the character wishes to advance to (i.e. the step above his or her current ability level), making it more and more difficult to advance as the character's ability improves.

The training roll can be attempted any number of times, although each attempt entails a length of time.

How Many d6s?

• A fighter can improve his or her attack bonus by +1 by rolling Xd6 against STR, where X is the equivalent fighter level for the next step up in attack bonus. (For example, a fighter with a +3 attack bonus, the equivalent of 2nd level, would have to roll 3d6 equal or under their STR in order to advance.)
• A specialist can improve any skill by rolling Xd6 against a related attribute (referee's call), where X is one greater than the current level of the skill. (For example, a specialist with 3 in 6 stealth would have to roll equal or under their DEX on 4d6 in order to advance.) The exact nature of specialists' training is open to negotiation -- this makes some skills easier to train than others (it's easy to imagine how a character could improve at foraging and hunting, but how exactly does one improve at searching?).
• A magic-user or cleric can advance one spell-casting level (a step up on the "spells per day" chart) by rolling Xd6 against INT (for magic-users) or WIS (for clerics), where X is the highest spell level castable by the next step on the chart. (For example, a magic-user able to cast three 1st level spells, two 2nd and two 3rd per day, the equivalent of 6th level, would have to roll equal or under their INT on 4d6 -- as the next step includes 4th level spells -- in order to advance.)
• Depending on how the referee handles known spells for magic-users, they may be required to make a roll against INT on Xd6 to learn a new spell, where X is the level of the spell.

How Long?
This is very open to each referee's and each campaign's requirements, but a rough idea per training attempt might be:

• Fighter attack bonus: one month.
• Specialist skill: one week.
• Spell-casting level: one month.
• New magic-user spell: one week.

In the long term this will, of course, mean that higher levels of expertise are harder to reach, as the training roll increases in difficulty, requiring on average more attempts to succeed.

Training time must be spent pretty much devoted solely to that activity. In periods of down-time between adventures, PCs may have other responsibilities, and thus may not typically have the time required for training, without making special arrangements.

Other Factors
Special circumstances may give a bonus to a training roll (i.e. effectively increasing the relevant attribute for the purposes of the roll). The referee may grant a bonus from things like expert tutelage (which will naturally cost money) or consulting tomes or libraries (for spell casters).

Training Through Adventuring
Over the course of a long adventure (weeks or more) during which a character has regularly and intensively practiced a skill, the referee may allow a training roll to be made. A short jaunt into a dungeon would not usually qualify, but a three week long military campaign (in the case of a fighter) may.

The assumption is that "adventures" are, in general, short bursts of intense activity dotted through the normal lives of PCs.

What About Hit Points and Saving Throws?
Good question... I'm not sure about that yet. Any ideas?

One could of course simplify this whole thing into a "roll to advance a level" system, but I quite like it being a bit more fine-grained than that.

A simple attribute-based skills / "good at" system

I've been talking to the players in my group about possibly starting a new campaign (actually a series of mini-campaigns), and one option that's been discussed is a Victorian era Cthulhuesque campaign.

I was considering this some time back, and we even got so far as creating characters, but never got around to playing. One of the main factors in this was that I realised I'm not that keen on the Call of Cthulhu rules, and (moreover) that I just can't be bothered to learn and master some new rules set. It's just not something that interests me. One of the brilliant things about playing Labyrinth Lord for me is that I'm innately familiar with the rules.

So I've gotten to thinking about how I might run a Cthuluesque game using a foundation of Labyrinth Lord / basic D&D.

Unlike in D&D, in a modern(ish) horror setting the concept of "classes" of adventurer isn't important. What is important however is what characters know and can do -- hence the enormous skills list in CoC. I'm not a fan of skills systems, which was one of the main things which put me off CoC as a rules system, but I'd want some way of defining what each character is good at.

Here's what I'm thinking of.

For each attribute, the player can choose a number of things which the character is good at or has training in, relative to the score, as follows:

3 to 8: not good at anything, 9 to 12: good at one thing, 13 to 15: good at two things, 16 to 17: good at three things, 18: good at four things.

Each "good at" / skill should of course be in some way related to the attribute in question. The player would basically be free to choose whatever they wanted, without being restricted by a pre-defined list of skills. Some ideas would be:

STR: climbing, boxing, wrestling.
CON: running, can drink anyone under the table, rude health.
DEX: shooting, draftsmanship, card shark.
INT: history, languages, mathematics.
WIS: self-control, good judge of character, compassionate soul.
CHA: public speaking, "ladies' man", mesmerism.

How these areas of skill would actually be used in play would be open to the referee's judgement. One example might be that if characters were given a 1 in 6 chance of achieving a certain task, then characters who are "good at" that thing would get a bonus (probably based on the attribute in question).

Very flexible, very vague, but probably enough to run a game with! (At least for people like me who aren't bothered about having strictly defined rules for everything...)

Fatigue based spellcasting in old-school D&D

As I recently mentioned, I've been running James Raggi's the Grinding Gear for a small group. I've been running the module as a one-shot, which means that I've not had to insert it into an existing campaign -- giving me free reign on the setting. Obviously, it being a one-shot, the setting isn't that important, and hasn't played a huge role, but the vague background I've imagined is a weird fantasy-esque, early modern setting, with no demi-human PCs, no divine magic, and much more limited arcane magic than one typically finds in D&D.

This slightly atypical setting, combined with the fact that it's a one-shot (well, a two-shot now) means that I've been able to play around with a few ideas for new rules. I've already talked about the introduction of mixed-class characters and firearms, so the remaining (and probably most experimental) house rule is my system for fatigue-based spellcasting.

Regular readers will know by now that my favourite D&D-related pastime (well, joint favourite with actually playing the game!) is messing around with new spells and rules for magic-users! Something of a hobby in itself ;)

I've been mulling over ideas for some time on how one could simply (i.e. without having to rewrite everything!) adapt the D&D Vancian spellcasting system to give it more of a low-magic, dangerous edge. From what I've seen of the magic system in Dungeon Crawl Classics, that's kind of the vibe he's going for, but of course that's a very involved rewrite of the magic rules and all the spells, so not what I had in mind.

At first I was contemplating some kind of spellcasting roll, with the possibility of nothing -- or varying degrees of bad / weird side-effect -- occurring if the roll fails. In the end, however, I came up with something far simpler, with a nod to Fighting Fantasy. It works as follows.

Fatigue Based Spellcasting

In the standard system of magic, as presented in traditional D&D, a magic-user's spells must be memorized in advance and vanish from his mind when cast. Thus a spell-caster's puissance is measured by the number of spells which he can fit into his memory at once.

Using this alternative system of spellcasting, a magic-user does not need to memorize spells. It is assumed that once a magic-user has mastered the formula of a spell, he is able to cast it at will, simply by performing the required gestures and incantations. However, as a counterbalance to this freedom, each spell which is cast drains the caster's reserves, leading to a creeping fatigue and listlessness.

This fatigue is simulated by a hit point cost for each spell cast, depending on its level. Thus, as a magic-user casts more spells, his ability to react in dangerous situations, and to avoid serious damage or death, is reduced.

Spell level        1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9
Hit point cost   1     2     4    8      12   16   20   24   28

Hit points lost due to spell-casting are recovered in a slightly different way to normal. A magic-user's player should keep track of both his current hit point total, and the sum of points which were lost due to magic use. After a full night's rest, all hit points lost as a side-effect of spells cast are restored. On the other hand, hit points lost due to spell-casting cannot be restored by healing spells or magic items.

This system enables low level casters (especially those at 1st level) to cast more spells than in standard D&D, while higher level spells, due to their large drain in hit points, will be less frequently used.

Notes

1. The only problem I can imagine with this system, and a point which I'm rather unsure of, is that it makes a magic-user's maximum hit point total extremely important. A 1st level MU with one hit point would be unable to cast spells, for example, and a player who made consistently lucky rolls for hit points as his character advanced would be at a great advantage.
2. I've been using the standard spell progression chart to determine the number of spells a magic-user knows, rather than how many spells he can memorize. I've doubled the numbers on the chart, so a 5th level MU would know four 1st, four 2nd and two 3rd level spells. This nicely simplifies the question of how MUs learn new spells.
3. Likewise, I've allowed high INT to grant extra known spells, using the cleric chart for high WIS.
4. Using this system, a few spells might need re-levelling. For example, given that a 1st level magic-user could be able to cast three spells a day, sleep is probably too powerful for a 1st level spell. I'd move it to 2nd level.