Inspired by reading this great article on B/X D&D playstyle, I thought I’d jot down my thoughts on Old-School D&D (and in particular, Basic/Expert or B/X D&D) vs. 5e, and include some easy ways to get 5e to run more like B/X D&D.
Tag: D&D (Page 1 of 2)
In a traditional dating back nine years, I like to inventory the ‘games I’m itching to run someday’. Interesting how things evolve: see my posts in early 2023, early 2022, late 2020, early 2020, early 2019, 2017, 2016 and 2014 of things I was itching to run in prior years.
The big change this year is that I recently (for the first time ever!) came up with a list of my favorite game engines to use for campaigns I run. With a couple of exceptions (The One Ring and Pendragon) where there’s an amazing campaign tied to a particular ruleset, I will, for the most part, target to run my favorite systems, which at the moment are story games (Fate, QuestWorlds, and Kids on Brooms), D&D (BX D&D and D&D 5e), and d100 (either Chaosium’s BRP or d00Lite).
I am kicking off an Eberron D&D campaign that will have a Noir feel. The characters will all be Inquisitives working for a detective agency. I want each character to have a secret of ‘scar’, some sort of dramatic element in their past that can drive adventures. Secrets can either be truly secret (the other players don’t know about them), or just secret to the PCs (so the other players know about the secret even if their characters don’t).
With all that in mind, here are 20 secrets and scars for Eberron characters to spark your imagination.
I’m creating some rules for converting classic D&D monsters (AD&D, OD&D, B/X D&D) to BRP on the fly. Partly because I’ve got some old D&D modules (the Oriental Adventures series in particular) I’d like to run using BRP rules. Also, there are so many free, robust early edition D&D bestiaries out there, you’ll never lack for adversaries!
Modulating Saving Throw Lethality
When you’re new to BX D&D / Old-School Essentials, the terror of saving throws (such as a save vs. poison) can be palpable. But death isn’t the only outcome from such saving throws. Let’s take a look at some great examples of creative uses of saving throws (in this case, saves vs. poison) in the excellent The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford by Chance Dudinack.
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