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Staying Alive in Old-School Adventures Redux: Thieves

23 Friday May 2025

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This is a continuing series of ‘Staying Alive’ posts. The the first three were about Magic-Users, Fighters, and Clerics. They are mostly geared towards OD&D, B/X and clones, and have tips for both players and referees.

Melee

Thieves typically fight as Clerics, that is to say, slightly worse than fighters, but they are limited to leather armor and cannot use a shield. So they are not suited for front-line combat. They do, however, have access to magic swords and bows, so with their rear attack or backstab ability, thieves are best suited for surprise or missile attacks.

As a referee, consider allowing the rear or backstab attack any time a thief can reasonably surprise someone from behind – and not necessarily only when a thief can move silently and hide in shadows as per their skills. The latter requirements make the backstab nearly impossible at lower levels. In my games, If a player can describe a plausible way their thief can sneak into position without being heard or noticed, I allow the backstab after a round or two. And during melee this is sometimes easier to do, given that the general noise and chaos of battle might mask any external sounds or movement.

Missile fire once melee has started can be problematic, with the risk of hitting an ally (if you use such rules), but see below about missile use in other situations.

Avoiding Melee

Try to use clever means of avoiding combat, such as distractions, e.g. thrown food, treasure or rocks used to create noise as a misdirection. Also don’t forget that a thief with a high charisma can be useful in negotiating a party’s way out of a combat, or even making an ally. But if you have to, run away. A thief in leather armor will be faster than any metal-armored party members, so remember that old adage about just needing to be faster than the slowest person in your party.

Thieves of even low levels can climb sheer surfaces well (in the original incarnation of the class, at least), so if the geography or architecture allows it, you should consider climbing above a melee to a perch where a bow or crossbow can be used to pick off opponents who haven’t yet joined combat, or who attempt to flee combat.

Oil

Consider oil as a missile weapon, or as a deterrent to pursuit. In OD&D oil is mentioned only in the latter context; thrown oil that was set alight did not do damage until the Holmes Basic D&D rules came along. Either way, if the thief is scouting ahead for a party, the oil may come in handy if the thief has to flee an encounter.

Scouting

As far as scouting, think tactically. Most thieves won’t be able to see in the dark without magical assistance, and holding a torch or lantern and trying to sneak about unnoticed in a dark dungeon are at odds with one another. So scouting is best done in environments where there are dimly lit or shadowed areas to hide in, or objects to obscure direct view of the thief as they move around.

Staying Alive in Old-School Adventures Redux: Clerics

21 Wednesday May 2025

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This is a continuing series of ‘Staying Alive’ posts. The the first two were about Magic-Users and Fighters. They are mostly geared towards OD&D, B/X and clones, and have tips for both players and referees.

A Good Defense

Clerics are slightly worse than fighters in melee at low levels (same attack matrix at level 1, but slightly lower HP on average), but the availability of plate armor and shield gives them good defensive capabilities, so they can be useful as part of a front-rank shield wall that protects the weaker players. Fighters with spears can be in the second rank.

Missile Weapons

Keep at hand holy water and oil, both are good alternatives to direct melee with undead if that one turn attempt fails. Even if oil cannot be used as a thrown grenade in your games, it can offer a pool of fire that can deter direct attack, or at least slow down a pursuit. My own preference is to allow thrown oil, but not as a Molotov-style fire bomb – the oil must be lit separately, by a thrown torch or similar.

I also allow clerics to use slings in my campaigns (despite slings not being in the OD&D rules at all, they are a common addition), so they can be somewhat useful from afar when the fighters are pulling out their bows. Sling bullets are blunt weapons, after all. They don’t get two shots per round with the sling as fighters do with bows in standard OD&D or White Box, but they’re another missile option should your referee allow it.

Make Allies

Most PC clerics are Lawful in alignment or at least act in a good way in games without alignment (Chaotic or evil PCs in general are a problem in a game meant to be about PC cooperation). This is up to the referee of course, but you can play on this “goodness” and try to make friends of local churches or temples with donations and quests. They will sometimes pay you back with potions or scrolls, or even free healing services for your other party members. I also sometimes have the local temple offer up low-level Clerics to tag along on adventures.

One of the boons I have had high-level priests offer my Cleric players in my games is a one-time blessing of a standard weapon, which has the effect of a stored bless spell, and can be triggered once only at the start of a combat.

Creative Use of Spells

Cure light wounds (CLW) is typically taken as a Cleric’s first spell. Understandable, but I love it when players use non-standard spells creatively. If you can befriend the local temple (see above), and procure healing potions, consider light instead. Most refs allow it to be cast in an opponent’s eyes, and it is also useful to counter the darkness spell. Detect Evil can be useful to ferret-out evil NPCs that may try to join the party with bad intentions. The reverse of Purify Food & Water could poison enough food or water to sicken a dozen bandits and take the fight out of them. And even if you find yourself needing a healing spell and did not learn it that day, you can try to find a safe place to hunker down overnight and gain access to CLW the next morning.

Staying Alive in Old-School Adventures Redux: Fighters

19 Monday May 2025

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This is second in a series of posts on how to keep your low-level PCs alive in old-school adventures. This one deals with the Fighter, and is based on an older post, with some updates.

Armor

First, let’s talk protection. In OD&D and B/X, plate armor is relatively cheap, on the order of 50gp or so. Make sure you buy it during character creation, even at the expense of cheaper weaponry, like spears (see below). In later editions and some clones it can be quite pricey, so take advantage of it if it’s cheap in your chosen system. After you’ve been on a few adventures and have saved up some gold, plate armor makes a great gift for your hireling meatshields. My own gaming group does this to great effect – nothing says you care and boosts loyalty like the gift of decent armor.

Weapons

spear-combat

Next, weapons – the fighter’s bread and butter. I suggest you equip Mogo the Mighty with a spear. Why the spear? First, you can use a spear one- or two-handed, and in many OSR systems it does more damage when used two-handed (and if not, try to convince your referee to house-rule it to do more damage when used that way). Spears can be thrown. They can be used as a trap-finder and general prodding device. Spears can attack from the second rank, and can even be set against a charge to do double damage. Best of all, spears are one of the cheapest weapons to buy, leaving you more money for that plate armor (see above).

Tactics

Tactics can be even more important for fighters than with Magic-users, just because fighters are expected to, well, fight. But you may as well be smart about it. A line of fighters with plate armor, shields and spears is an impressive sight and keeps the bad guys away from the soft and chewy Magic-Users. Most humanoids will need a 16 or 17 to hit AC 2 (plate & shield), and while they are dealing with that, the second rank can attack with longer reach weapons like, well, spears (you may be sensing a pattern here).

If possible, attack enemies in pairs, so their non-shield flank is exposed by at least one of you, or if your opponents are outnumbered, a group can move to attack from the rear. Every little bonus helps.

Don’t be afraid to try the so-called non-combat maneuvers (a bad name, since they can and should be used in combat, or to enter combat). Go ahead and flip that table to get more cover, swing from that chandelier to crash into the enemy’s front line, jump through the window to take an enemy by surprise, gang up and tackle the bad guy, or push your opponent with your shield so they fall into the pit. These work best in rules-light games, where the referee can adjudicate your attempts with a simple die roll or roll-under ability check, either for the PC or the opponent. For referees, 2d6 rolls make a decent check for these kind of ad-hoc actions. As a bonus, they make combats fun and memorable, even when they fail.

Missile Weapons

Before you even consider melee, you should be trying to make best use of your missile weapons. Bows in OD&D and S&W White Box fire twice per round and are only usable by fighters (assuming the original three classes).

holmes-sample-combat-bows
Holmes Basic D&D – Missile Combat Example

But even in other systems allowing one shot per round (or fewer), you’d be crazy not to use a weapon with such a long range. The heavy crossbow seems like a bad choice since it can only be fired once every 2-3 rounds, but it has a very long range, and can be pre-loaded, fired, and dropped before melee ensues. You just have to make sure you are in a position to use it. So send that thief or MU with an invisibility spell or potion up ahead to scout things out, then if you are going to attack, try to work in a round or two of missile fire, either by drawing the bad guys out to you from a higher or more secure vantage point, or by sneaking to within missile weapon range. And if you can’t afford a bow because you spent all your coin on plate armor, buy a sling and fill your pockets with stones.

Run Away!

Sometimes you’ll need to flee, either due to overwhelming odds, or bad luck. Either way, don’t just turn and run. In most old-school, systems, a fighting retreat allows a gradual exit from combat without exposing one’s rear flank to a free attack. If enemies follow a fighting retreat, a well-armored fighter or fighters can still risk it, while allowing other party members to flee. Or, worst case, just make sure the best armored in the group flee last (the more lightly armored PCs will run faster anyway). Also remember that OD&D has some rules around pursuits in the dungeon and wilderness. If you’re a fighter and last in line to flee, burning oil, food and/or gold might deter a pursuit.

Avoiding Melee

Lastly, despite your fighter wanting to, well, fight, don’t just think that every encounter should end in melee. Take advantage of the affects of charisma or reaction rolls and try to talk your way into a favorable outcome, meaning getting treasure or someone to help you without a fight. Many intelligent dungeon denizens will entertain help in fighting their sworn enemy, whoever that may be (ask them). Some referees will even give you XP for cleverly avoiding combat (I do this).

Staying Alive in Old-School Adventures Redux: Magic Users

18 Sunday May 2025

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This is based on an older blog post of mine from 2013, I’ve updated it with some more options on playing Magic-Users, with some ideas for the referee as well. I have already written a post like this one for each of the four, canonical D&D classes, and those will all be published here as well.

Avoiding Melee

Ah, the freshly-minted, first-level character sheet, clean and free of eraser marks. It represents hope for every player that this character will be great, fearlessly battling underground evil and surviving to fame, riches and second level!

Unfortunately, first-level magic users (MUs) do not fare so well in melee combat. New players tend to want to jump in and attack everything in sight, with no thought given to the odds. Perhaps this comes from playing newer editions or video games, but when playing with an old-school referee, this is quickly fatal.

Referee: You open the door and get assaulted by the stench of rotted meat and body odor. Twelve orcs look up at you from their meal of freshly-killed mystery meat and grin, drawing their weapons.

Festivus (MU): I rush into the room and attack the closest orc with my dagger!

You get the idea. As players, you need to think tactically in old-school dungeons.

Referee: You open the door and get assaulted by the stench of rotted meat and body odor. Twelve orcs look up at you from their meal of freshly-killed mystery meat and grin, drawing their weapons.

Festivus (MU): I quickly shut the door and run back east, around the corner. I’ll prepare my sleep spell and cast it when the orcs pile into the hallway.

Creative Spell Use

Low-level magic users can still be very beneficial in old-school adventures. The sleep spell is, of course the canonical example, but often overlooked is charm person. The latter is long-lasting and once charmed, the former foe can be used as a source of valuable information. The light spell can be cast into an opponent’s eyes, which will blind them with a failed saving throw.

Hired Help

One of the best ways for a MU to avoid melee is to hire some muscle. You’ll probably have enough gold to hire a Fighter or two after a few adventures. Consider using that charm person spell to enhance your retainer’s loyalty.

Defensive Weapons

For referees, if you allow MUs in your campaign to use the staff as a weapon, you can allow them to parry with it instead of attack, at -2 to the opponent’s to-hit roll. This is an easy way to increase the survival odds for the MU that won’t upset the game balance. It’s not an offensive capability, after all, and could be combined with a backpedal for a sort of ‘parrying retreat’ that would get the MU out of the front line of attack.

The Thrown Dagger

MUs can throw daggers, of course, and they are cheap – so a MU can buy several to use as throwing weapons, if they are allowed in your games (OD&D and most of the clones thereof do not even mention the use of the dagger as a missile weapon). Still, they’re best used from a distance as a fire-and-forget weapon, before melee starts. I do allow them, with the same range as a hand axe – always assumed to be at medium range, or within 30 feet.

Spells and More Spells

MUs with high INT scores (say 15+) can be given an extra first-level spell, meaning they could memorize two sleep spells. Some referees don’t like sleep, with no saving throw it seems over-powered for a first-level spell. But keep in mind that it affects the rolled number of hit dice in a given area, perhaps including PCs if the caster is not careful. It also does not affect undead (your party clerics need to feel useful anyway). Also see this for more on the sleep spell.

The other common way to effectively give low-level MUs more spells is to adopt the Holmes scroll creation rules, that is that any MU can create a scroll of a spell in their spellbook for 100gp and one week per level. So a 2nd level spell scroll would take two weeks to create, and cost 200gp. I really like this option, and allow it in most of my games.

Staying Alive in Old-School Adventures: Fighters

30 Friday Nov 2018

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Note: There is an updated version of this post.

When I first started this blog I posted a short article on how to keep your first-level Magic-User alive. I meant to continue that as a series, but never did for some reason. Well, better late than never, here is an article on how to keep your fighter alive.

dungeon-spiders
Image from http://www.aribinus.com

First, let’s talk protection. In OD&D and clones, plate armor is relatively cheap, on the order of 50gp or so. Make sure you buy it during character creation, even at the expense of cheaper weaponry, like spears (see below). In later editions and some clones it can be quite pricey, so take advantage of it if it’s cheap in your chosen system. After you’ve been on a few adventures and have saved up some gold, plate armor makes a great gift for your hireling meatshields. My own gaming group does this to great effect – nothing says you care and boosts loyalty like the gift of decent armor.

spear-combat

Next, weapons, the fighter’s bread and butter. I suggest you equip Mogo the Mighty with a spear. Why the spear? First, you can use it one- or two-handed, and in many OSR systems it does more damage when used two-handed (and if not, try to convince your GM to house-rule it to do more damage). It can be thrown. It can be used as a trap-finder and general prodding device. It can attack from the second rank. It can even be set against a charge to do double damage. Best of all, it is one of the cheapest weapons to buy, leaving you more money for that plate armor (see above).

Tactics can be even more important for fighters than with Magic-users, just because fighters are expected to, well, fight. But you may as well be smart about it. A line of fighters with plate armor, shields and spears is an impressive sight and keeps the bad guys away from the soft and chewy Magic-Users. Most humanoids will need a 16 or 17 to hit AC 2, and while they are dealing with that, the second rank can attack with longer reach weapons like, well, spears (you may be sensing a pattern here).

But before you even consider melee, you should be trying to make best use of your missile weapons. Bows in OD&D and S&W White Box fire twice per round and are only usable by fighters (assuming the standard three classes).

holmes-sample-combat-bows

Even in other systems, you’d be crazy not to use a weapon with such a long range. The heavy crossbow seems like a bad choice since it can only be fired once every 2-3 rounds, but it has a very long range, and can be pre-loaded, fired and dropped before melee ensues. You just have to make sure you are in a position to use it. So send that thief or MU with an invisibility spell up ahead to scout things out, then if you are going to attack, try to work in a round or two of missile fire, either by drawing the bad guys out to you from a higher or more secure vantage point, or by sneaking to within missile weapon range. And if you can’t afford a bow because you spent all your coin on plate armor, buy a sling and fill your pockets with stones.

Lastly, despite your fighter wanting to, well, fight, don’t just think that every encounter should end in melee. Take advantage of the affects of charisma or reaction rolls and try to talk your way into a favorable outcome, meaning getting treasure or someone to help you without a fight. Many dungeon denizens will entertain help in fighting their sworn enemy, whoever that may be (ask them).

~

What Makes a Good Adventure?

15 Wednesday Jan 2014

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I’ve been thinking lately about what makes a good adventure from a player’s perspective. I think it’s fairly simple as far as old-school gaming – you want to feel challenged while you overcome obstacles, monsters, tricks, traps, and resource depletion. You want the choices you make to be meaningful and not feel forced into a choice just for the sake of progressing the DM’s vision of what you should be doing or where you should be.

From the DMs perspective, accomplishing this means that when you design an encounter, you have to provide multiple ways to succeed. If you have just one, you will be tempted to fudge rolls or cheat to make sure players succeed, or the players may feel railroaded into failure (or death). When I first started playing again after a many-year hiatus, one of the first adventures I ran my kids through was ‘The Ruined Keep’, home-grown, two-level dungeon set underneath a hilltop ruin. I had one entrance, a door at the center of the ruin that could only be opened if the players solved a riddle. This seems silly in retrospect – I wanted to provide a fun dungeon crawl, and I felt immediately pressured to make sure the riddle was solved by dropping hints so that we could all get on with the fun.

There is a similar issue with one of the rooms in ‘The Hall of Bones’, a free RPG day adventure by Frog God Games (warning – spoilers ahead if you will be playing in this adventure!). Getting through one of the caverns without dying is dependent on entering a cage, closing the door behind you (so as not to be attacked by the 60 giant spiders – 1d6 per round)  and finding a secret door in the floor of the cage that gives entrance to a tunnel. If I were running that as-is, I would be sorely tempted to fudge a die roll, maybe an Elf in the party would see something ‘unusual’ about the floor of the cage as they approached. Or, I would just modify it to allow more ways to make it alive through the cavern. Perhaps I would add a side-tunnel with a portcullis that could be lowered behind the fleeing party, or I may give some warning by leaving clues that a large number of spiders were ahead. Maybe one of the pre-adventure rumors would reveal hints of the secret door and escape from the spiders.

tpk_by_greenairplane

Note that this is not about game balance or save-or-die traps. Old-school games are frequently full of deadly encounters, especially for low-level adventurers. It’s about having choices, even if some of them are not clever or result in worsening the player’s situation. TPK’s will still happen, but they should be a result of a (presumably bad) choice by players. If you can keep the players engaged by offering them meaningful choices, they will have fun and won’t mind the occasional disaster.

~

Tips for Play-by-Post Dungeon Mastering

12 Tuesday Nov 2013

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After more than a year of being a player in some play-by-post (PbP) games, and DMing one such game, I’ve picked up a bit of what works and what doesn’t and how the most successful games are run.

 Picking a game system

ObS & W Whiteboxviously I’m biased in favor of old-school RPGs, but they do have the advantage of being simple with quickly resolvable, abstract combat. The emphasis on player skill vs. PC skill also lends itself to a text-only, slow-moving medium. Players can roleplay and describe actions as they want, and the DM can adjudicate in one or two posts.  Have a thread describing your house rules so players can refer back to it if needed.

Creating Charactersnpcs

Character creation in older RPGs is already quick, but you can speed this up by giving players a set of dice rolls and an empty character template they can just fill in. This standard character template has the advantage of making it easy to find player info at a glance.

Keeping players interested and moving the game along

  • Post at a set interval (every other day seems like a common and workable interval), and set expectations on posting frequency up front.
  • Remind your players to tell you if they will be away for any extended period of time.
  • Roll dice for players, let them post actions and roleplay.
  • Consider having a party caller to decide non-critical actions (“we’ll go left at the fork”), or let players know that if there are delays, you’ll post when some fraction of them have posted (half is a good compromise).
  • The best run games I’ve seen have DMs provide maps at periodic intervals. It’s too hard in the PbP format to have all but the most dedicated players keep up with a map based on DM descriptions. Even better, annotate the map in an image editor (Gimp, for example), showing the party’s location and any interesting landmarks or monsters.
  • Certain things don’t work so well in PbP games. One is megadungeons. Complex mazes of empty dungeon corridors are painfully slow to navigate when you are posting once every other day. And if the players get wind that you have a lot of traps in a dungeon, they will get paranoid and things will slow down as they check every floor tile, break out the 10′ poles, etc. (let’s be honest, this even slows down tabletop games).
  • On the other hand, you don’t want players to feel railroaded, so choices will be necessary. And traps work if they are isolated, like an occasional trap on a treasure chest.
  • Be honest about your dice rolls, and post them. Some DMs like to do most of the dice rolling, but let players make critical rolls – save vs. poison is an obvious example. Online dice rollers make this easier (unseenservant.com is one I’ve used).
  • Start a thread where you record the deaths of PCs as they happen. Just a paragraph about how they died and the treasure they left behind is curiously interesting to read, even for those not in the game.
  • Periodically award players XP based on recent actions, and note any loot gathered, even if they are still in the middle of the adventure. This gives them a sense pf progress and some will even level-up during the adventure.
  • It’s easy to get lost in the post history if you are gone for a few days – the mostly text interface makes it hard to find out what happened. Here are some things I’ve seen that help:
    • Post player status at the end of each post, to include spells memorized/HP remaining. This also defines marching order.
    • Speaking of marching order – have the players decide it up-front, for both outdoor and dungeon travel. Note who is carrying the light sources.
    • Make liberal use of maps – you can just post images in a separate thread, edited with your favorite photo editor to add your own notes as an overlay.

Giants Map

Handling AWOL players

This happens in most PbP games at some point – players disappear without notice.  When it happens, you have a few choices:

  • Play the player’s character as an NPC, while looking for someone to take them over.
  • Play them as a permanent NPC, either in their old role, or have them turn against the party.
  • Kill them off. Just be matter-of-fact about it and don’t make a big deal, sometimes players move on and you should, too.

Those are the tips I could come up with, I’d love to hear some more from more experienced PbP players and DMs.

~

Staying Alive in Old-School Adventures: Magic Users

26 Thursday Sep 2013

Posted by in DM Resources, Player Resources

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Note: There is an updated version of this post.

Ah, the freshly-minted, first-level character sheet, clean and free of eraser marks. It represents hope for every player that this character will be great, fearlessly battling underground evil and surviving to fame, riches and second level!

Unfortunately, first-level magic users (MUs) do not fare so well in melee combat. New players tend to want to jump in and attack everything in sight, with no thought given to the odds. Perhaps this comes from playing newer editions or video games, but when playing with an old-school referee, this is quickly fatal.

DM: You open the door and get assaulted by the stench of rotted meat and body odor. Twelve orcs look up at you from their meal of freshly-killed mystery meat and grin, drawing their weapons.
Festivus (MU): I rush into the  room and attack the closest orc with my dagger!

You get the idea. As players, you need to think tactically in old-school dungeons.

DM: You open the door and get assaulted by the stench of rotted meat and body odor. Twelve orcs look up at you from their meal of freshly-killed mystery meat and grin, drawing their weapons.
Festivus (MU): I quickly shut the door and run back east, around the corner. I’ll prepare my sleep spell and cast it when the orcs pile into the hallway.

Low-level magic users can still be very beneficial in old-school adventures. The sleep spell is, of course the canonical example, but often overlooked is charm person. It is long-lasting and once charmed, the former foe can be used as a source of valuable information.

For DMs, if you allow MUs in your campaign to use the staff as a weapon, you can allow them to parry with it instead of attack, at -2 to the opponent’s to-hit roll. This is an easy way to increase the survival odds for the MU that won’t upset the game balance. It’s not an offensive capability, after all, and could be combined with a backpedal for a sort of ‘parrying retreat’ that would get the MU out of the front line of attack.

MUs with high INT scores (say 15+) can be given an extra first-level spell, meaning they could memorize two sleep spells. Some DMs don’t like sleep, with no saving throw it seems over-powered for a first-level spell. But keep in mind that it affects the rolled number of hit dice in a given area, perhaps including PCs if the caster is not careful. It also does not affect undead (your party clerics need to feel useful anyway).