B/X, tigers and bears, oh my!

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Spartan

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OK folks,

I'm currently running a GURPS DF box set campaign via Roll20 and it's going well. I really like depth of the rules, the level of crunch, the tactical possibilities, the magic and so on. It's fantastic. Easily my favourite dungeon crawling ruleset by far. However, I have the original B/X box sets (complete with dice and crayon still unopened in the bag in my Basic box), and I'm itching to put them through their paces. This is because I've started making a map of In Search of the Unknown in Roll20 (see image), and adding assets to make it as close to the original map and descriptions as I can, and have started The Lost City too. It started out as a vanity project for my own amusement, but I've decided to spring it on my group when the DF campaign is done. I really dig DCC's Áereth setting, so I'll use that and place the adventures in it, like this: http://goodmangames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1125 .

So my question is, what juicy things can I throw in there? How much DCC/LOTFP weirdness could work mechanically with B/X? How can I un-nerf (de-nerf? dis-nerf?) the Thief skills? I really like the Thief class, sorry. As supplements when needed, I'll use the B/X Companion, Complete B/X Adventurer, and the LL Advanced Edition Companion, or should I not? I like the idea of a straight-up B/X elf adventuring with a Dwarven Cleric or whatever, but I'll keep it simple at the start.

So here it is, rpgpub: what ingredients should I put in my B/X stew? What would spoil the broth? What makes a tasty dungeon campaign?


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How can I un-nerf (de-nerf? dis-nerf?) the Thief skills?
I've heard of replacing the thief's percentage skills with the cleric's turn undead table. Instead of undead hit dice, GM picks the difficulty. That gives a range for automatic success, automatic success with an advantage, automatic failure and a roll difficulty if it doesn't fit into those other areas.
 
I've heard of replacing the thief's percentage skills with the cleric's turn undead table. Instead of undead hit dice, GM picks the difficulty. That gives a range for automatic success, automatic success with an advantage, automatic failure and a roll difficulty if it doesn't fit into those other areas.
Thats an interesting way about it. Hmmmmm..... :smile:
 
I've heard of replacing the thief's percentage skills with the cleric's turn undead table. Instead of undead hit dice, GM picks the difficulty. That gives a range for automatic success, automatic success with an advantage, automatic failure and a roll difficulty if it doesn't fit into those other areas.

Neat! I was thinking of just adding a +5% per +1 Dex bonus or something, so a Dex 18 Thief would get a flat +15 to all skills. Much better than nothing.

Also, has anyone here run Stonehell Dungeon? Seems pretty cool.
 
Neat! I was thinking of just adding a +5% per +1 Dex bonus or something, so a Dex 18 Thief would get a flat +15 to all skills. Much better than nothing.

Also, has anyone here run Stonehell Dungeon? Seems pretty cool.
Edgewise Edgewise, I think that's your cue.

As a player, I can confirm that Stonehell is indeed pretty cool. When I was playing a thief we got a little fed up with his uselessness skill-wise, though, and ended up swapping in the d6-based Specialist from Lamentations of the Flame Princess.
 
Two things:

I use 2d6 thief skill tables that use the same percentage results as the classic B/X Thief, but then tag in their Reaction/Attacking adjustment for their Dex to the 2d6 roll. Also, I only check for move silent / hide in shadows if the party fails to have surprise on the enemies (at which point the thief checks to see if they have surprise anyways) and allow hear noise to be used to counter being surprised. Effectively, thief skills are a second chance at a lot of things. Characters have a 1-in-6 chance of detecting traps, thieves get to do a find traps roll if that 1 in 6 fails, etc.

Also, for standard tumbler locks, pick locks isn't checked to see IF you can pick the lock, just if you can pick it quickly enough to not have a wandering monster check.

[Article from my blog is here - https://dysonlogos.blog/2009/08/01/d6-and-2d6-thiefin-for-basic-dungeons-dragons/ ]

Subclasses - I made a list of 10 subclasses for each B/X and Advanced Labyrinth Lord class. These are chosen randomly using a d12 roll - an 11 doesn't give you a subclass but gives you a +10% to earned XP (so you level up faster by focusing on the core class) and a 12 has you pick one or make up a new one. Each subclass fits on a single line of text.

For example:


Thief Subclasses (d12)
  1. Bounty Hunter – +1 to hit and damage against his own race
  2. Dungeoneer – +20% chance to detect traps
  3. Butcher – Increase backstab multiplier by 1
  4. Scout – +1 initiative, +1 hear noise
  5. Fence – +2 on reaction rolls to buy and sell goods
  6. Guild Thief – +10% to open locks and pick pockets
  7. Thug – d6 hit die (d8 if using advanced hit dice)
  8. Knife Artist – +1 to hit and damage with daggers
  9. Outcast – -1 on reaction checks, +1 weapon damage
  10. Arcanist – Cast magic user spells as a magic user of 1/3 level. Cannot wear armour.
  11. Focused – +10% to earned XP
  12. Choose one or make up a new one
I have all these subclasses compiled in an issue of my old zine. Issue 7 contains all 130 subclasses I wrote.

 
LotFP pretty much is B/X with a few minor tweaks so I don't see that flavour or those adventures being much of an issue.

Personally I'd go with Old School Essentials or the Advanced OSE if you want a race/class split (although the Advanced OSE extended race-as-class options are very cool). For thieves I'd suggest using Necrotic Gnome's B/X Rogue, available on Drivthrurpg for a song.

P.S. I agree thieves are awesome and the OSR trend to pooh pooh them is lame.
 
My solution was to replace %age thief skills with 2d6 roll under.
All skills start at 6 and when the thief levels up they choose 3 skills to improve by 1 point each.
Difficulty can be introduced as a penalty on the skill if needed, but don't do this often.

Typically thieves then become specialists at mid level and generalists as they get to higher levels.
 
To answer another question the tastiest B/X dungeon campaign is always The Lost City B4. It will run characters from 1st to 7th level and more if used cleverly.
 
And it has been reissued by Goodman Games! On my wishlist, one of the best early modules.
 
The only things I've found with the Goodman reissue is the maps are bound in making it necessary to get a copy of the module to avoid possibly damaging the book by photocopying them plus the old modules don't have some of the lower levels which are found in the reprint/reissue by Goodman.
 
I think I’ll port in some 2e stuff for thief now that I’ve been giving it serious thought. Use the B/X starting percentages, modified for Dex as in 2e, with a block to distribute at 1st level (say, 50 points) with 25 or so per level. Though the B/X Rogue is super cool.
 
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