Degrees of Difficulty

So listening to a the revisionist history podcast by Malcolm gladwell, and he brings up the subject of degrees of difficulty as used in judging professional divers. I think it is relevant to any rpg using Difficulty Checks or assigning Target Numbers to tasks. The difference between the difficulty of doing a thing or doing a thing well are also discussed,  and I think that is extremely relevant to being a DM; it's easy to start DMing, but really hard to be a good DM. The relevant part of conversation starts at about the 15 minute mark

The Games We Played . . .

Just felt like showing off what my father had available when he ran games for me and my siblings. If you want to more in depth discussions about these, you can listen to our interviews here: anchor.fm/dndnduncanites

the rule sets,  my dad used the cook/marsh expert set mostly, while I used the Mentzer book when I started dming. My dad allowed mystics and druids at 1st level,  we used weapon mastery and the other rules from the companion and master set starting from level 1, we never did get any characters up to companion levels.

the supplements, ac2 had an adventure we played quite a bit, and ac7 also had an adventure which we never played. Didn't really use the provided character sheets, we had a master sheet that was a photocopy of the one provided in the basic set with some modifications. Some of the items in marvelous magic saw occasional use, but the 2 screens and the creature catalog(more for the index than anything else) saw the most use and are literally falling apart. 

the basic modules.  Sword of justice is from Dragon magazine and is just as iconic to me as B1 or B2. B10 was the beginning of a series of adventures that led to the founding of the Dragon City. 

The expert modules. Isle of dread was a favorite, we really only used the blue one, so the orange is almost like new still. X4 and X5 led to a long excursion into the Western deserts. My dad ran O1 at least once for each of us kids. Lots of fun memories watching others play through it while we knew all the spoilers.

the high level modules we either never played or only did as one-shots.

The version of the Known World my dad was subsequently quite different than what was presented in the gazetteer line as he only had these modules. My version of Mystara/ the Known World is a continuation of where my dad left off, with some modifications based on my personal preferences.  I do use material from the gazetteers and other published material but the results of our early adventures takes precedence over all else.

Weather Generation

I've intended to create weather generation tables for each climate and game mechanic effects of weather for awhile now. I originally intended to do something like is presented in B10 Night's Dark Terror, with a % roll of 4 possible conditions each for clouds, rain, temperature, and wind. I had extrapolated from the calendar in the modular to create a chart that covered the whole year. Well, I've decided not to use that model. 

While rereading the OSE books, it occurred to me that a partial weather table was already built into the expert game with the variable wind conditions chart and that the chart could be repurposed for other weather conditions. So here I present four weather tables that use the 2d6 roll and descriptions of how PCs are affected by the weather.

Cloud Cover

2 Fog 

no precipitation; roll 1d4 to determine density of the fog: 

1) visibility limited to 1/2 mile; chances of getting lost increase by 1/6; chances of being surprised increase by 1/6; apply a -1 to To Hit rolls for ranged attacks

2) visibility limited to 400 yards; chances of getting lost increase by 2/6; chances of being surprised increase by 2/6; apply a -2 to To Hit rolls for ranged attacks

3)  visibility limited to 200 yards; chances of getting lost increase by 3/6; chances of being surprised increase by 3/6; apply a -3 to To Hit rolls for ranged attacks

4)  visibility limited to 50 yards; chances of getting lost increase by 4/6; chances of being surprised increase by 4/6; apply a -4 to To Hit rolls for ranged attacks

3-5 Clear 

apply a -1 to next Cloud Cover roll; no precipitation; for every hour the skin of a PC is exposed, they take 1d4 damage from sunburn

6-8 Partly Cloudy 

apply a -4 to the Precipitation table

9-11 Cloudy 

apply a +1 to next Cloud Cover roll; apply a -1 to the Precipitation table

12 Overcast 

apply a +2 to next Cloud Cover roll; roll on the Precipitation table; chances of getting lost increase by 1/6

Precipitation

After the type of precipitation is rolled for it may be necessary to determine what time of day the precipitation occurs; this can be done by rolling randomly by the hour or 4-hour watch, or may be determined as the DM sees fit. The DM may also want to roll on this table more than once a day, at every hourly interval, 4-hour watch, or directly after one precipitation type ends.

The PCs may take precautions to remain dry; this may consist of waterproof clothing, taking shelter under partial cover (large trees) or indoors. If the clothes a PC is wearing become completely soaked, that PC suffers the effects of one Temperature grade lower than reality.

Catching Cold: If a PC catches a cold they suffer a -1 on all To Hit rolls, a -1 INT, and a -1 CON. Also any PC with a cold cannot sneak or hide because of their constant sniffling. A cold will last for 2d6 + 2 days; on the last day another CON check is must be made or the cold persists for another 2d6 + 2 days. For each week a PC suffers from a cold there is a cumulative 10% chance that they will contract pneumonia. A PC who is sick with pneumonia suffers an additional -4 STR, -4 DEX, -1 WIS, and -1 CON. Pneumonia lasts for 1d10 + 10 days, at which point the PC must make a CON check or die.

Freezing Temperatures: If the temperature is Cold, Frigid, or Sub-Zero, then precipitation may manifest as snow, hail, freezing rain aka sleet, or a mixture of freezing rain and hail. 

    The amount of snowfall resulting from any level of precipitation is listed as Snow (x"). Snow 3-12" deep will decrease movement by 10/20/30/50; Snow 12-24" deep will decrease movement by 20/40/60/100; Snow greater than 2' deep will decrease movement by 30/60/90/150. 

    Hail will cause damage to any exposed PCs, this is denoted as Hail (x/time).  

    Sleet will cause a PC to suffer the effects of one Temperature grade lower than reality if their skin is exposed to the freezing rain.

    A mixture of freezing rain and hail cause the normal effects of sleet, but only half the normal damage caused by hail.

    Roll a 1d20 and refer to the table below to determine what type of frozen precipitation occurs

Temperature Grade    Rain    Sleet     Mix        Hail    Snow

Cold                               1-15    16-17    18-19       20          -

Frigid or Sub-Zero            -            -           -         17-20    1-16

Thunderstorms: apply +1d4 to Winds table; apply +4 to frozen precipitation roll; 1% chance per hour an exposed PC is struck by lightning causing 8d6 damage to anyone within 10 feet, this is increased to 5% if the PC is holding or wearing metal

2 No Precipitation 

3-5 Sprinkles 

1% chance of Thunderstorm; lasts for 1d6 x 5 minutes; can stay dry if shelter under partial cover; visibility limited to 1/2 mile; chances of being surprised increase by 1/6; must succeed on a CON check or catch Cold; fire is extinguished on a 3/6; Snow (light dusting); Hail (1/30 minutes)

6-8 Showers  

apply a +1 to Winds table; 20% chance of Thunderstorm; lasts for 2d6 x 10 minutes; can stay dry for up to 70 minutes if shelter under partial cover; visibility limited to 400 yards; chances of being surprised increase by 2/6; must succeed on a CON check each hour or catch Cold; chances of getting lost increase by 1/6; fire is extinguished; Snow (1"); Hail (1d4/30 minutes)

9-11 Downpour  

apply a +2 to Winds table; 80% chance of Thunderstorm; lasts for 1d6 +1 hours; completely soaked in 10 minutes; visibility limited to 400 yards; chances of being surprised increase by 2/6; must succeed on a CON check each hour or catch Cold; chances of getting lost increase by 1/6; fire is extinguished; movement decreased by 1/4; Snow (2d6"); Hail (1d8/10 minutes)

12 Drizzle 

5% chance of Thunderstorm; lasts for 24 hours, at the end of 24 hours there is 2/6 chance that Overcast clouds and Drizzle continue for another day; completely soaked in 30 minutes; visibility limited to 400 yards; chances of being surprised increase by 2/6; must succeed on a CON check each hour or catch Cold; chances of getting lost increase by 1/6; fire is extinguished; movement decreased by 1/4; Snow (1d4"); Hail (1d4/30 minutes)

 

Wind Speed

2 Calm

apply a -4 to next Wind Speed roll; Sailing speed reduced to 0; oarsmen gain 3 times normal fatigue

3 Faint Breeze

apply a -3 to next Wind Speed roll; Sailing speed reduced by 2/3

4 Gentle Breeze

apply a -2 to next Wind Speed roll; Sailing speed reduced by 1/2; fog or smoke is cleared in 1 hour

5 Brisk Breeze

apply a -1 to next Wind Speed roll; apply a -1 to the Temperature Grade table; Sailing speed reduced by 1/3; fog or smoke is cleared in 30 minutes; apply a penalty for ranged attack rolls of 0/-1/-2 for short, medium, and long ranges

6-8  Fresh Breeze

apply a -1 to the Temperature Grade table; fog or smoke is cleared in 10 minutes; apply a penalty for ranged attack rolls of -1/-2/-4 for short, medium, and long ranges; fire is extinguished on a 3/6

9 Strong Breeze

apply a +1 to next Wind Speed roll; apply a -1 to the Temperature Grade table; Sailing speed increased by 1/3; fog or smoke is cleared in 1 minute; apply a penalty for ranged attack rolls of -2/-4/-8 for short, medium, and long ranges; fire is extinguished

10 High Wind

apply a +2 to next Wind Speed roll; apply a -1 to the Temperature Grade table; Sailing speed increased by 1/2; fog or smoke is cleared in 1 round; apply a penalty for ranged attack rolls of -4/-8/-16 for short, medium, and long ranges; fire is extinguished; movement(land) against direction of wind decreased by 10/20/30/50

11 Gale

apply a +3 to next Wind Speed roll; apply a -2 to the Temperature Grade table; Sailing speed doubled; fog or smoke is cleared immediately; apply a penalty for ranged attack rolls of -8/-16 for short and medium ranges, missiles will not reach long ranges; fire is extinguished; movement(land) against direction of wind decreased by 30/60/90/150; flying creatures cannot stay aloft more than 10 minutes; Take on Water (10% if seaworthy, 20% if coastal) resulting in movement reduced by 1/3

12 Storm

apply a +4 to next Wind Speed roll; apply a -2 to the Temperature Grade table; Sailing speed tripled; fog or smoke is cleared immediately; apply a penalty for ranged attack rolls of -16 for short ranges, missiles will not reach medium or long ranges; fire is extinguished; movement(land) against direction of wind decreased by 60/120/180/300; flying creatures cannot stay aloft; Take on Water (10% if seaworthy, 20% if coastal) resulting in movement reduced by 1/3, coastal vessels that roll 21-80% are swamped and sink; if in sight of land when storm hits may find safe harbor on 2/6; if encounter land while being driven by storm, 75% chance ship is wrecked

Wind Direction

2 180 degrees 

3 135 degrees left

4 90 degrees left

5 45 degrees left

6-8 Previous/predominant direction

9 45 degrees right

10 90 degrees right

11 135 degrees right

12 180 degrees

Temperature Grade

A PC may mitigate the effects of temperature by putting on or taking off clothing. Any armor or mild winter clothing will increase the effective temperature of a character by 1 grade; heavy winter clothing will increase by 2 grades; and shedding clothes to the point of near nudity will decrease by 1 grade.

Hypothermia: If exposed to cold temperatures a PC must make a CON check at a specified interval of time, denoted as Hypothermia (x units of time). A failed check increases the degree of hypothermia. These are:

Mild - apply a -1 to STR, DEX, and WIS; gain 1 fatigue, gain fatigue at double the normal rate

Moderate - DEX and WIS are halved; gain 4 fatigue, gain fatigue at double the normal rate

Severe - WIS reduced to 3; gain 10 fatigue, gain fatigue at triple the normal rate; 50% chance of passing out immediately and progressing to the next stage 

Apparent Death - unconscious and completely unresponsive, may still be saved if given expert care

Death - the character dies from hypothermia and there is no hope of revival 

Frostbite: If the bare skin of a PC is exposed to cold temperatures for an extended period of time the extremities of that PC will become frostbitten. The time it takes for frostbite to set in is denoted as Frostbite (x time). Each extremity exposed, the hands, the feet, or the face, will receive 1 light wound each when the given time has passed. When the time exposed is doubled each wound will become serious. When the time has tripled each wound will become critical and any adjacent areas, such as the arms or legs, will also receive a light wound from frostbite. When the time has quadrupled the frostbitten extremity will be dead and irretrievable and adjacent areas will continue to suffer the effects of frostbite until the PC is dead or given treatment.

Heat Stroke: If is exposed to high temperatures a PC must make a CON check at a specified interval of time, denoted as Heatstroke (x units of time). A failed check means a character collapses and is disoriented, their WIS and INT being halved, there is also a 50% chance the PC will pass out at this time. If not treated within 30 minutes they will begin losing 1 point of CON every 10 minutes, and die when their CON reaches 0.

2 Sub-Zero

apply a -4 to next Temperature Grade roll; Hypothermia (1 minute); Frostbite (1 turn)

3 Frigid

apply a -2 to next Temperature Grade roll; Hypothermia (3 minutes); Frostbite (3 turns)

4-5 Cold

apply a -1 to next Temperature Grade roll; Hypothermia (1 turn)

6-8 Pleasant

9-10 Warm

apply a +1 to next Temperature Grade roll; double water intake

11 Hot

apply a +2 to next Temperature Grade roll; double water intake; gain 2 times normal fatigue; Heatstroke (1 hour)

12 Scorching

apply a +4 to next Temperature Grade roll; double water intake; gain 4 times normal fatigue;  gain 1 fatigue from resting for 1 hour; Heatstroke (30 minutes)

Wilderness Exploration and Journeys

 For a long time now I've wanted to develop a robust rule-set for traveling on long journeys as opposed to the classical hex crawl of D&D. What I mean by a journey is when the PCs want to go from city A to City B and they take the King's Road or some such. They aren't mapping or getting lost or doing any kind of exploration. They just want to get to the destination, and it is anti climactic to just say you travel for eight days and you get there, or they travel for 3 days, random encounter, travel, for 2 days, random encounter, travel for 3 days and they arrive. It never feels like they actually traveled. 

So towards that end, I've been looking at the house-rules of other people, and most recently examining The One Ring and its 5e adaptation Adventures in Middle-Earth. I was working on converting it wholesale when it hit me: long journeys and detailed wilderness exploration don't need separate rule-sets. Sure I can have a robust travel ruleset that expands on the normal D&D rules by giving PCs tasks of scouting, or foraging, etc, but I can use the same method for both aspects. The only real difference between the two modes of travel is the navigation, or getting lost. Just skip that step when the PCs are on a road or river. Resolving all the travel tasks every day, instead of trying to figure every 3 days or 5 days like TOR, can give the journey a sense of length. Every single day matters. 

I'm also of the opinion that wilderness exploration should not be done on a day by day basis, and even the 4 hour watch may be too long of a time frame, because the PCs are exploring and don't have a destination in mind; if they did they would be following a road or river. But that's beside the point. Journeys require the same day to day resolution of tasks as wilderness exploration, discounting navigation rolls.

Movement Rates for Old School Essentials

Go to the Delvers and Denizens Index

So due to the absurd movement rates provided in classic D&D I'm finally putting forth my own take at revising it for realistic game use. I have done this before for D&D back in high school but I don't particularly like the rates I came up with then, and I also came up with standard rates for my own rpg system based on statistics of real world athletes, but this is for D&D which is an abstract system and I want something that plugs into the D&D rules already there.

I think everyone agrees that moving 120 feet every ten minutes is ridiculously slow if we assume the PCs are actually moving, that is 0.14 miles per hour. Sheesh! Someone didn't do some basic math. So I think we need a basic walking speed that is different. The base encounter speed of 40 feet per round is 2.7 miles an hour which is reasonable for the average person, so lets use that. the other huge problem is the given speed for running during a pursuit in the wilderness (40x3x3(because yards instead of feet) which is 360 ft per round, which can be maintained for 5 minutes! That is 24.5 miles per hours, which is humanly impossible. Usain Bolt reaches an average of like 21 or 22 miles per hour in the 100 meter dash(its been a while since I look up the stats), and he can definitely not do that for 5 minutes. So the running speed needs to be paired down. After talking to my brother, who ran cross country and track in high school and college, and doing some math I came up with different rates of speed for the unencumbered man.

Searching: 120 feet per turn. Causes 1 Fatigue point after 1 hour.

This is the speed at which PCs explore dungeons at a cautious rate, looking for traps, secret doors, listening at doors, mapping, etc. When traveling at this rate a roll to find secret doors and traps is automatically made, and the players do not have to specify that they are searching. This could be interpreted as moving in a straight line down a hall or searching 12 10'x10' squares.

Walking: 40 feet per round (800 yards per turn, 2.7 miles per hour). Causes 1 Fatigue point after 1 hour.

This is your standard walking rate, both indoors and outdoors. This is the rate used for overland movement, and the players can decide when they want to rest.

Hustling: 80 feet per round (1600 yards or 0.91 miles per turn). Causes 1 Fatigue point after 1 turn.

This is the standard combat encounter speed.

Running: 120 feet per round (2400 yards or 1.36 miles per turn). Causes 1 Fatigue point after 20 rounds (3 after 1 turn)

This is your running speed during a pursuit. It can only be sustained for a few minutes. 

Sprinting: 200 feet per round. Causes 1 Fatigue point after 1 round.

This the fastest a PC can go, they are bolting for their life their life here. This is also the speed used during a charge in combat.

The above speeds are for the unencumbered human and elf. Gnomes haves speeds of 30/60/90/150. Each Encumbering Item decreases speed by 10/20/30/50.

Weapon vs Armor Adjustments

Go to the Delvers and Denizens Index

Dan Collins at Delta's D&D Hotspot recently did a statistical deep dive into the weapon vs armor table in the 1e AD&D PHB. Essentially the numbers come from the Chainmail man to man melee table, but Gygax did his math wrong. This is why the numbers in the PHB don't even remotely reflect historical reality. The numbers in Chainmail aren't exactly historically precise either, but at least they feel like they could be reasonable.

In my last effort at putting together houserules for OSE I considered using a weapon vs armor table, but since the one in AD&D is so ridiculous I tried to make my own. To do this I thought about restricting AC just to specific armors as originally intended and have dex add to hp instead of con. However, in the end I decided against it because if AC equaled actual armor types then I would have to redo the AC for every single monster, which I wasn't about to do. So AC is an abstract concept representing how difficult it is, or how much effort is required, to actually cause a significant injury. I tried assigning specific +or- values to hit for each weapon vs armor types, e.g. giving +2 to hit chain for maces to represent the fact that the chain doesn't protect against bludgeoning weapons, but the padding underneath would. I found it too fiddly though, and I ended up giving certain weapons Target Specialization(granting advantage or disadvantage) vs certain armor types, such as chain, or padded, or plate, and this bonus would apply to monsters with a similar type of 'natural armor' like dragon scales, etc. So this is what I came up with:

So spurred on by Dan's analysis and by this post with a further conversion of the chainmail numbers, I decided to do my own take. 

First, since chainmail used a 2d6 as a basis we can assume that a 7 to kill is average. So going from there I extrapolated the probabilities of getting below or above seven and converted that to a bonus or penalty, numbers above 7 result in some -%, and numbers below seven result in some positive %:

then I took the numbers needed to roll a hit in Chainmail, resulting in a kill, and converted the 2d6 number to a % bonus or penalty. For the missile weapons I took an average value of all three ranges:

From this it's simply a matter of dividing by five to convert to a d20 to hit roll as +or-1 is the same as +or-5%. I ignored the values for shields as I have my own rules for shields and their use is very situational, as opposed to armor which is always there. So this is what the Chainmail values to kill would be converted as adjustments to hit:

Some of the numbers make sense to me, like the huge penalties to bows vs plate; its not really any of the numbers that bother me, but comparing them to each other. What's the difference bewteen a horse bow and a composite bow? I'm assuming a horse bow implies a bow used by the different steppe cultures, but all those bows were composite, so why have two listings? And why is the 2-handed sword better at killing someone in armor than the lance? That is so ridiculous. and why are the polearm and halbard so drastically different? did Gary not know that a halbard is a polearm? And the Spear, I mean come on. And the drastic differences between a mace, morningstar, and flail; why would weapons that are so similar have such huge differences in effectiveness? 

So, I think we can conclude that Gary set a few of these numbers based on what he knew about history and pulled the rest out of his ass. I think I'm going to stick with advantage/disadvantage as it better represents the vicissitudes of combat, rather than try to work this table so it represents reality.

Religion of the Cleric Addendum: Church Organization and Practices

The OD&D Cleric

Analysis of Level 1 Spells

Analysis of Level 2 Spells

Analysis of Level 3 Spells

Analysis of Level 4 Spells

Analysis of Level 5 Spells

Analysis of Level 6 Spells

Analysis of Level 7 Spells

Conclusions

Alignment

Based on my previous analyses of the cleric's religion in the Classic D&D game, and looking at different organized Judeo-Christian churches, I present the Church in the Holy Empire in the Known World or Mystara. First some definitions of different hierarchy within the church, then the duties and blessings owed and received by the different members of the church.

Roles within the Church

Emperor The head not only of the various principalities ruled by the empire, but also the head of the Church. The Emperor is a patriarch of the church, the first among equals. He presides over all ecumenical councils, appoints all bishops, and recognizes the status of other patriarchs. His role is mostly an honorary one, outside of his personal domain of the Diocese of Darokin he has little influence over the dioceses of other Patriarchs and Bishops.

Bishop The civil and religious governor of a diocese. The Bishop is an appointee to rule in the stead of a given patriarch, whether that patriarch be the Emperor himself or a lesser patriarch. Bishops are usually appointed in large cities of the empire. They are the chief judge of the civil courts of their diocese, and appoint all the lesser priests within the diocese, directing the doctrine these priests are to preach in their churches.

Patriarch The independent ruler of all aspects of a domain: religious, civil, and military. The Patriarch encompasses the roles of a Bishop and a king or general all into one person. He is for a intents and purposes a Priest-King. He runs the church and the courts, as a Bishop would, and raises fields armies in the field of battle and contends with rulers of other domains. If a Patriarch's domain is too large, he often appoints a bishop to rule over a portion of his realm.

Priest A member of the clergy who has been appointed by a patriarch or bishop to be judge over the courts of a specific church and to guide the faithful in that church.

Acolyte A lesser member of the clergy who assists the local priest or bishop or patriarch. Both men and women may join the clergy, though it is rare that a women becomes a patriarch or bishop.

Layman A faithful member of the Church, but not a member of the clergy.

Pagan A non-believer. People such as this are viewed as potential converts and simply ignorant through no fault of their own. The religions and sacrifices and other observances practiced by them are considered foolish traditions and superstitions. 

Infidel An enemy of the Church. This includes Heretics, former members of the Church who have been Excommunicated, conjured beings from other planes, and shamans or other practitioners of dark arts spreading pagan philosophies. Infidels are shown no mercy by the clergy of the Church, they are to be wiped from the face of the earth.

Alignment Defined

In the eyes of the Church, characters are classified as Clergy, Laymen, Pagan, or Infidel. These four categories should be used in place of Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic.

Practices of the Church

Duties

Tithes Each layman is expected to dedicate one tenth of his labors to the church, this can be done by literally working the church lands, or by paying a tenth of their income to the church in coin or in kind.

Worship The layman is expected to pray three times daily, morning, midday, and evening. They also must attend worship services conducted by a priest every seven days on Soladain. Attendance of services on other holy days are also required.

Conduct Laymen are expected to aspire to the seven virtues of prudence, justice, temperance, courage, faith, hope, and charity; and avoid the seven deadly sins of pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth. No labor or business is to be conducted on Soladain. Neither should any of the faithful blaspheme against the Church, its clergy or God. Laymen are also forbidden from learning the 'magic' arts of the pagans. If a laymen sins they are required to confess to a priest and pay a penance as judged right by him.

Clerics must take vows of celibacy, and avoid all strong drink. Clerics also have a duty to preach the doctrine of the church wherever they find unbelievers, and to show no mercy to those who will not hear his words.

Blessings

Clergy In his training a cleric is taught the Holy Tongue. The Cleric also is granted the ability to perform the miracles of the saints.

Laymen The average member of the church is given the blessings of the church in healing and protection as provided by the local priest. They are also given a proper burial on hallowed ground. The poor are given bread and water and shelter.