In this episode, Michael explains the ways he has houseruled and modified Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition to his liking. He covers things like:
- Different combat mechanic and combat sequence – no segments here!
- Encumbrance and counterspelling
- Expanding paladins and the all-mighty d30 dice
Season 1 Episode 8 – Modifying AD&D for my campaign
Links mentioned in this episode are:
Michael/Chgowiz’s Houserules Document for the Chronicles of Etinerra Campaign
https://docs.google.com/document/d/14ZXouC–Yyj3-CcDukJPI3FqVeVT794lWKUgWZHMhQ4/edit?usp=sharing
Target20 mechanic by Daniel Collinshttp://www.oedgames.com/target20/
Philotomy’s OD&D Musings (Writings by Jason Cone, PDF by Jason Vey)http://www.grey-elf.com/philotomy.pdf
Intro music: Dragonaut by Bradley The Buyer (bit.ly/2ASpAlF)
Outro music: Dream by Wild Shores (bit.ly/2jbJehK)
I'll have to keep the "target 20" method in mind for running descending AC material, when I don't have time for penciling in ascending AC.
I like your counterspell rules, and I might adapt them for 5th edition, though I think it makes sense for clerics to counterspell other clerics (i.e. no Cleric <–> MU spell duels). The flavour is different — two clerics trying to out-divine-intercede the other — but the mechanic can be the same.
Out of curiosity, what draws you to AD&D as a starting point over original/basic?
also, as a side note, OMG I've been trying to remember for a week about where I read about the logic behind OD&D's minimal ability score modifiers, and google was failing me. Cheers for jogging my memory with the link to Philotomy's Musings.
Another great podcast. Shields Shall be Splintered is one of those cool, simple rules that would be fun to add to a game. But I know my players, and I know they'd abuse the heck out of it. They'd either fill a Bag of Holding with shields, or they'd hire "shield boys" to follow them around with spare shields to replenish as needed. Though the damaged arm rule might be a way to mitigate that.
I'm glad you enjoyed the podcast! I do miss Philotomy's site, but at least we have a compilation of his best stuff. I go back and read it every now and then.
I was drawn to AD&D mainly because that was my game back in the day. My D&D is such a mish-mosh of OD&D, Holmes, AD&D and other inspirations, it's truly D&D. On the surface, it looks like AD&D with classes, spells, choices, but I've done a lot of tinkering. As you can see!
I've contemplated divine vs. divine, but it never felt as "right" of a fit in my campaign as does arcane counterspelling. If you do it, let me know how it works, please!
I'm fortunate that I have good players who don't do that sort of thing. One player might try, but he and I had a talk and he understands the spirit of what we're doing in the game, so he has only two shields, one on his horse, the other on his person. I'm OK with that, because he walks a very slow 30'/rd and he's always a target. He hates it when my monsters start tossing oil his way…
Anyway, it's a conversation if my players tried to do something like that.