You can see a list of previous blog club posts here.
This post examines two different sets of house rules for OD&D that Gary Gygax adopted through his life. Overall, these rules show an emphasis on improving low level characters by adding bonus associated with ability scores, increasing character health, and survivability when they drop to zero. I find some of these a bit tame due to my background in modern D&D, but I will concede that its a far cry from stats as 3d6 down the line, with death at zero HP. I’d be interested in learning more about what Gygax’s sessions were like at the time he was using these house rules, as how a GM structures play makes a difference in how the rules are expressed.
I will highlight the areas of rule changes that interests me the most from this: Initiative! First in Gygax’s home game, surprise would be determined on a d6. I find it very interesting that its possible, for characters to lose two turns, something I don’t believe I’ve ever seen in an OSR game. Without the above adjustments to PC health that could be a death sentence! After surprise is determined characters declare actions and spells. Each round initiative is rolled with ties occurring simultaneously. If a spell caster is hit they lose the spell. I enjoy this system for several reasons, first it creates a more dynamic and chaotic feeling to combat and party members have a strong incentive to protect their casters least they lose the spell.
Finally, I enjoy what Reed says at the end of this post. Its better to build a house ruled game off a simple rule set than a complicated one. Having never read OD&D, I’d be interested in hearing what others think about these house rules since I am sure I am missing a whole lot of context. How do you like this set of house rules?
I’ve only recently become interested in OD&D, and my introduction has mostly taken the form of browsing through Swords & Wizardry, so I’m by no means an expert.
It’s interesting to see how many of these house rules are part of B/X in some form or another. Since the house rules seem to be from con games in later years, I wonder in which direction that influence went.
Also…
Ability scores rolled as best 3 out of 4d6. Arrange scores to taste.
I know a few folks who would be absolutely scandalized by this, haha
The d6 initiative with a 1 causing the players to lose 1 turn and a 2 causing players to lose 2 turns is essentially what AD&D does. OD&D also has a party being surprised giving the surprisers 1 free “move segment”, of which you normally get two per dungeon turn.
These seem like common house rules for making the game more survivable. It’s what is implemented in later supplements and editions (B/X and AD&D) generally, though they often get in the weeds with other things.
Something else to note is these houserules are from Gary much later in his life. His 1974 game would look very similar to Supplement I: Greyhawk, then AD&D, minus the weapon vs AC and psionics, something IIRC he was never a fan of and was convinced to add to appease wargamers.
OD&D is also a foundational game, meaning it was truly meant to be a foundation from which you built your own house rules. It’s a beautiful game because of that simplicity and enough systems to build off of to effectively make your own rules.
My expectation was that Gary didn’t play the rules as written, but it’s nice to see how they differed at his table. The comments on the post are making me think about what house rules I think would be best for a con game.
The d6 initiative with a 1 causing the players to lose 1 turn and a 2 causing players to lose 2 turns is essentially what AD&D does.
Good call out! Checking my AD&D Player’s Handbook (still haven’t read it all the way through), it looks like when checking for surprise, you check for each side separately, and the difference between them determines how many segments (period of 6 seconds) a side gets. What’s more, both sides could be surprised! I guess both sides can be surprised in OSE too, but it just causes momentary confusion.
Digging into the surprise rules reminds me that I don’t remember to use them very often.
So unfortunately you’ll need to also check your DMG to get an interperable take on surprise and initiative.
You check for surprise among all parties and each side gets surprised for as many segments as they roll within their surprise range (which may be more than two depending). The difference in surprise segments only matters when both are surprised. So if one side rolls a two and is surprised for 2 segments (because everyone in the party surprises on 1-2), but the other rolled a six. they only get to act for 2 segments, not 4.
But if we instead rolled a two and a one, the side that rolls one is surprised for 1 segment along with the side that rolled two, but will act for 1 segment after.
After surprise, you then roll initiative, the difference of which determines the number of segments those with initiative have before the opposition begins resolving (sans some segment 1 resolution things like swords of quickness and fighter multi-attack profiles).
They’re fine. Very in line with what Gygax has mentioned and definitely seems in line with the versions of how he played, expressed on forums. But of course, like most of us, Gygax probably changed quite a bit on what he played at a given moment, and the context he was in (note this being for con games later on).
As someone who runs a ton of OD&D, all of these rules are fairly servicable, and I use something similar to quite a few of them.
Everyone I knew in the early 80s rolled 4d6 and took the best 3. Back then no one was scandalized by anything. It’s hard to feel superior to other players when you’re playing a game that you’re embarrassed to even mention the name of it.
Oh, I don’t doubt it! I feel both luck to have come to the hobby later in its life after it had already become “cool” and sad that I missed out on playing it as a kid. My comment was directed—tongue-deeply-in-cheek—at a few history revisionists I know who get down on modern games for being too soft on the players (I am one of them sometimes!).
I do think its interesting to see the slide from “just roll your dice and see what you get” to adding cushion here, an elbow pad there, and on and on to “protect” your character. Rigging the game, so to speak. You can see that precipitous slide start from the very beginning supplements that depart from the 3lbb core experience.
I really think that’s the threshold between different types of games. Is the game and world indifferent to your character, or do they exist to serve your character?