On Alignment Changes From OD&D to Holmes Basic
Alignment undergoes a big shift from OD&D into the Holmes Basic Set and AD&D. Originally it was a simple three-way system of Law-Neutrality-Chaos, but by Holmes the concepts of Good and Evil have entered into th[...]Read on >>
Download the Microlite75 Final Playtest Draft
What I hope will be the final playtest draft of Microlite75 is now ready for people to download. No major changes in this draft, other than splitting the game into two books and adding an optional Vancian "Fire and Forge[...]Read on >>
Free Microlite75 RPG Playtest Draft 0.5 Available Now
The latest playtest version of the free Microlite75 RPG is now available for download. There aren't a lot of major changes in this version, other than Saving Throws, but there are a lot of small tweaks and minor changes [...]Read on >>
Gygax Legendarium: Original Dungeons & Dragons(January 1974 – 1976)
As we come to the end of Gygax Month, it is only fitting that we have reached the one work of Gygax that has touched so many of our lives and games tables. Of course, I speak of . . . Dungeons & DragonsDung[...]Read on >>
Old School Dice Pool Class Sketches
So, more sketches related to the Old School Dice Pool concept I’ve been playing with. (You need to read those to understand this.) Designing character categories is neat because you break out subsystems, see their [...]Read on >>
More Old School Dice Pool Shenanigans
I’m still thinking about that OD&D and Chainmail inspired dice pool system from the other day. Let me add a few rules: Exploding Dice: I resisted it, but it looks like I’ll need it to help characters deal with lo[...]Read on >>
New Saving Throw Rules for Microlite75
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago (in this post Microlite75 Saving Throws: Change Them Or Keep Them?) that I was thinking of changing the saving throws in Microlite75 to be more like those in 0e/1e as the older saving th[...]Read on >>
Gary Gygax Invents Dice Pools
Over the past week I’ve been thinking about Chainmail and OD&D, as well as the late Gary Gygax’s mention (in an old ENWorld thread) that he used an opposed hit dice rolls to resolve grappling. I’m a[...]Read on >>
And the (Palace of the Vampire Queen) Winner Is…
I'm pleased to announce that the "drawing" for the Palace of the Vampire Queen was held last night during my Microlite75 game session. Drawing is in quotes as it was actually a die rolling. Every entry was assigned a num[...]Read on >>
RetroRoleplaying’s Firecracker Cancer Fund Drive — Friday is the Last Day!
Tomorrow, Friday July 16th is the last day of our Firecracker Cancer Fund Drive, raising money to help pay my wife's cancer bills and giving away a number of old school gaming items, some fairly rare -- including Palace [...]Read on >>
Microlite75 Saving Throws: Change Them Or Keep Them?
Microlite75 currently uses the same variant 3.x saving throw system that Microlite20 has. At low levels, this isn't that different in effect that the saving throw system in older editions. Because it adjusts for things l[...]Read on >>
Evil Vs Evil — with the Party In the Middle
I've been asked for occasional updates on my Sunday Microlite75 campaign. Unfortunately, I don't do these well. However, I will try to provide one every once in a while. This session started with some general messing ab[...]Read on >>
Another Old School Primer: A Different Introduction to Old School Play
If you are interested in old school gaming, you may have read the Quick Primer for Old School Gaming by Matt Finch. It's "a quick introduction to playing Original D&D or Swords & Wizardry (the 0e retro-clone). Th[...]Read on >>
Multiclassing in Microlite75?
Multiclassing was possible in 1970s versions of D&D, at least for demi-humans. Human could dual class in AD&D1e. Microlite75 does not yet have any rules for multiple classes, either for demi-humans or for humans.[...]Read on >>
Notes on The Dwarven Glory (Wee Warriors, 1977)
The Dwarven Glory was one of the earliest professionally published standalone adventure module for D&D. Written by Pete and Judy Kerestan, it was published by Wee Warriors in 1977. The first edition was distributed b[...]Read on >>
Notes on FEZ I: Valley of Trees
FEZ I: Valley of Trees was the first of the FEZ modules published by Mayfair Games in their Role-Aids line of adventure modules -- which were labeled as suitable for use with AD&D. The latter got TSR's lawyers in a t[...]Read on >>
4E and 2E meet Microlite75
It all started Saturday when one of my Sunday players asked me if I wanted to ride over to the FLGS with him. He was going to pick up some over-priced Eurogame for a birthday present for his son. I was just along for the[...]Read on >>
North Battlement Sector for Terminal Space (Free)
Here a nifty free module I just discovered... North Battlement Sector. It's is a free sector for the Terminal Space supplement to OD&D/Swords and Wizardry, written by Chris Robert. A free sandbox for the Terminal Sp[...]Read on >>
Notes on Geomorphic Mini Dungeon Modules (Fantasy Art Enterprises, 1979)
Most old school gamers are probably familiar with TSR's Dungeon Geomorphs. Fewer have probably seen these Geomorphic Mini Dungeon Modules published by Fantasy Art Enterprises in 1979. While these geomorphs are smaller th[...]Read on >>
Notes on Palace of the Vampire Queen (Wee Warriors, 1976)
Palace of the Vampire Queen was the first professionally published standalone adventure module for D&D. Written by Pete and Judy Kerestan, it was published by Wee Warriors in 1976. It was even distributed by TSR for [...]Read on >>
Microlite75 Playtest Version 0.4 (with Equipment and Weird Science) Available
The fourth playtest draft of Microlite75 is now available. Changes for this draft are again mostly in the optional rules section. Major additions include: more advantages and disadvantages, the Techno class (and "weird s[...]Read on >>
More Ancient RPG Items (and Dungeons) From the 1970s Box
I finally had a chance to go through the rest of that box of papers I found Palace of the Vampire Queen in. I discovered a few additional RPG items published in the late 1970s (and, near the bottom of the box, early 1980[...]Read on >>
Found: Palace of the Vampire Queen
I found a box full of old papers from the 1970s Sunday and was going to toss it out as it looked to be old papers from college. Fortunately, I decided I had better at least glance through the stuff before tossing it. I'm[...]Read on >>
Psionic Combat in Microlite75
I've added psionic combat to the optional Psionics rules in Microlite75 at the request of one of my players. He thought that if I was going to do psionics, I shouldn't leave half of it out. This version of psionic combat[...]Read on >>
Microlite75 Playtest Version 0.3 (with Psionics) Available
The third playtest draft of Microlite75 is now available. Changes for this draft are mainly in the optional rules section. Major additions to the optional rules include: Advantages and Disadvantages, Character Goals and[...]Read on >>
Free RPGs from RetroRoleplaying.com
When I started RetroRoleplaying.com a couple of years ago, I intended it to be a site with in formation about out-of-print RPGs. However, I soon found myself sucked into publishing my own free RPGs. Now RetroRoleplaying.[...]Read on >>
Thoughts on Dehydration and Starvation
May 22, 2010 from Mediocre Tales of the Fair to Middling Game Master
Filed under: Call of Cthulhu, D&D 4e, OD&D, RPG Hub
I did a precursory scan (read: “I googled it”) and did not find any gritty, simulationist rules of dehydration or starvation. I’m looking for something that is not too complicated to keep track of on [...] Filed under: Call of Cthulhu, D&D 4e, OD&D, RPG Hub
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Awesome Sci-Fi OD&D Supplement – Terminal Space!
May 18, 2010 from Planet Algol
Filed under: Inspiration, ODANDD, RPG Hub, Swords and Wizardry, Traveller
The Polish gentleman necro_cyber dropped me a line to let me know that his science fiction/science fantasy supplement for OD&D, Terminal Space, was available for download (the sidebar-widget pdf thing on the right-h[...] Filed under: Inspiration, ODANDD, RPG Hub, Swords and Wizardry, Traveller
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3e Dungeon Crawl Classics Adventures and OD&D
One of my players gave me eleven adventures from Goodman Games Dungeon Crawl Classics line for D&D 3.x Sunday. I've glanced through several of the adventures for lower level characters (Idylls of the Rat King, The My[...]Read on >>
Game Mechanics for Personality (for any edition of D&D)
March 16, 2010 from Mediocre Tales of the Fair to Middling Game Master
Filed under: D&D 4e, OD&D, RPG Hub
This is a set of mechanics to represent personality and its change over time in terms of some abstract game mechanics. As it is presented it will function with all editions of D&D, but could easily be modified to f[...] Filed under: D&D 4e, OD&D, RPG Hub
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Microlite75 Suffers a Critical Hit: Split in Twain
I'm finally beginning serious work on Microlite75. After giving it a lot of thought and talking with the gamers playing in my OD&D game, I've decided that main version Microlite75 will be less an attempt to duplicate[...]Read on >>
Tales of the Dying Earth
I have just finished Jack Vance's first novel, The Dying Earth. The wonderful podcast Roll For Initiative, finally inspired me to dive into the reputed source of the "Vancian" magic system that Gary Gygax was inspired to[...]Read on >>
Brown Box Giveaway Early Results
I went to bed early last night thinking we had done well but were going to be about $200 shy of being able to completely pay off the lab bill. This morning's email proved a shock to my heart. Almost $1400 in donations ov[...]Read on >>
Cancer Donation Brown OD&D Giveaway Update: 36 Hours Left
As I write this, there are about 36 hours left in the OD&D Brown Box Giveaway Retroroleplaying Cancer Fund drive (see the Brown Box Dungeons and Dragons Goodies Available (for Cancer Fund Donors) post for more info. [...]Read on >>
Action Points in OD&D?
My players have asked if we could try an action point/hero point system for our OD&D game. I can hear the screams now. However, unlike many old school players, I'm not automatically allergic to the idea. To me, actio[...]Read on >>
Monster & Treasure Assortments Sets 1 to 3
I'm not certain exactly when these products were released, but given that the first one was included with the original Basic Set it has to be before this point. I've lumped all three together at the end of what I consid[...]Read on >>
OD&D as a 4e Adventure Design Tool
I just saw a blog post by Mike Mearls, Build Your Adventures in OD&D, where he suggests doing the initial design work for 4e adventures as if the adventure was being written for OD&D. According to Mike, because O[...]Read on >>
January Cancer Donation Brown OD&D Giveaway Extended
My old computer died about an hour after I posted on the Brown Box Dungeons and Dragons Goodies Available (for Cancer Fund Donors) on January 20th. Between having to come up with money for a new system on short notice an[...]Read on >>
The Dragon #9
This is it folks, the last issue of The Dragon in the OD&D era (at least so far as this project goes). There's not a great deal of stuff to cover. But first, the things I ain't covering. The Dragon Rumbles editori[...]Read on >>
Frustration thy name is AVAST, OD&D Cancer Giveawy goes on
After a week of setting up my new computer, I find that I get top do it all over again. AVAST decided the main component of Microsoft's update system, trustedinstaller.exe was a Trojan earlier this week. I told AVAST to [...]Read on >>
The Dragon #8 part 2
The Development of Towns in D&D: This article gives guidelines on designing your campaign's main town or city, where the PCs go between dungeon expeditions. The advice given is generally quite good, but in my opinio[...]Read on >>
The Dragon #8 part 1
After last issue's dearth of usable articles, it's back to business as usual. The Dragon #8 has a bunch of useful ones, including one on the Outer Planes that introduces a lot of D&D lore. But first, the articles t[...]Read on >>
The Dragon #7
Remember last issue when the editorial promised to expand the magazine coverage to different games? This where it begins, leaving me with a pretty small selection of articles to cover.But first, the irrelevent ones. T[...]Read on >>
The Dragon #6 part 2
Further Rules, Modifications and Clarifications for Metamorphosis Alpha: The glut of articles about this game continues. This time we get some clarification to a few mutations that were vague in their implementation. F[...]Read on >>
The Continuing Battle Between Creativity and Conformity in Our Society: Observations and Links
(This is in part an answer to Endymion's post in Up on a Tree Stump #4™ (below) and my continued commentary upon the matter.)RPG Examples abound--and I limited the contrasting part of my essay to 3E+. It is[...]Read on >>
Up on A Tree Stump #4
Up on a Tree Stump™(or) All I Know about D&D™ I Learned From LifeThe Value of D&D's Early Creativity, Improvisation and Play©2010. Robert J. Kuntz{An edited first draft extracted from my combined essay[...]Read on >>
The Dragon #6 part 1
I return from my holiday feeling somewhat rested but no more enthusiastic than I was beforehand. I did not game that whole time, and D&D was really not on my mind at any point. Oh, 4th Edition, see what horrors tho[...]Read on >>
Microlite75: Plans; Or What Will Definitely Be Included
What will Microlite75 have that Microlite74 does not have? Here are the current plans. All the following will be added to M74 as part of the "base rules:" Classes M75 will have the following additional classes from th[...]Read on >>
Decision 2010: Microlite75 is the Winner
January 3, 2010 from RetroRoleplaying
Filed under: Microlite20, Microlite74, ODND, Old School, RPG Hub, Swords and Wizardry
I've decided I have too many projects in the fire and that I really need to focus on one of them. After consulting with my players, and some of my net friends and associates, I've decided to work on Microlite75. Back whe[...] Filed under: Microlite20, Microlite74, ODND, Old School, RPG Hub, Swords and Wizardry
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The Dragon #5 part 2
Witchcraft Supplement for D&D: I love how the guys at TSR just published this thing even though they have no idea who wrote it. Truly, it was a different time, and there's absolutely no way Wizards of the Coast would[...]Read on >>
