Old-School Fantasy RPG Adventures and Campaigns

Classes and Races

This is the 21st in a continuing series of articles, which reedits house rules for Holmes Basic D&D from 40-year-old game club newsletters. Mentions of house rules are in bold text and followed by a [bracketed category designator].

For rules category descriptions and more about the newsletters, see “About the Reedition of Phenster’s.” For an index of articles, see Coming Up in “Pandemonium Society House Rules.”

Phenster’s Pandemonium Society House Rules is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, events, incidents, and newsletters are either products of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is pure coincidence.

Playing Classes in the Pandemonium Society

by Phenster

Some of us play AD&D with the big kids at the Game Hoard. I recommend Ivanhoe's "GOLGOROTH" campaign to anyone who can play on Monday nights. He puts lots of magic in his world, and he isn't stingy with treasure like some AD&D DMs I've heard about.

We wanted to put some AD&D rules in our D&D game. Tombs got the DUNGEON MASTER'S GUIDE and read it from cover to cover, and so did Cypher. I tried to, but I got stuck in the combat chapter. Tombs told me I could skip the combat chapter, because, after playing in Ivanhoe's game, he didn't think anybody else read it either. Cypher thinks that was the best part. Hazard says most of the AD&D rules are too complicated for what they do. Beowulf just flips through the Monster Manual and fights the monsters.

For a long time we've already been allowing thieves for the other character types, like in AD&D. We give dwarves a +10% bonus on locks and trap skills. Halflings get the same bonus to pick pockets, and elves are better at sneaking around (moving & hiding). Dwarves and halflings take a -15% penalty on climbing.

I wanted to let dwarves and halfings be clerics and magic-users too. But Hazard thinks it's better to differentiate between character types. Or else they all start to feel the same. He said there are probably dwarf religious leaders, for example, but most of them don't cast spells and go on adventures. Maybe there are some, and we might meet them sometimes.

If they want, dwarves and halflings can advance as fighters and thieves, like an elf does with fighting and magic-using. And elves can add thief to their class list, even though it takes even longer to go up in levels, because you have to divide x.p. into all three classes. Or you can be an elf who is just a fighter or just a magic-user or just a thief.

Depending on their DEX, thieves get a bonus to their abilities (not including climbing).

DEX Abilities
--- ---------
15 +5%
17 +10%
18 +15%

Nobody seems to know why non-human characters can't go up high in level, like humans. Hazard says it's just the game-way to even out the playing field, because non-humans get special abilities, like better saving throws and seeing in the dark. So, we let elves, dwarves, and halflings go up as high as they like. To make it up to the humans, Hazard gives them 2 extra points to add to their primary ability score and 1 point to add to any ability (even the primary if they want).

Human beings can also take more classes, but it works differently from non-humans. Humans can switch between classes but only advance in one class at a time. So, for example, if a level 3 fighter switches to clericing, all x.p. goes to gaining cleric levels. Later, the same character can switch to magic-using. Then he goes up in magic-user levels. When you switch to a new class, you don't get hit points for the first level. Clerics that switch to another class still can't use edged weapons without the usual consequences. Hazard makes us pay for training when we take a new class, and it’s expensive.

Basel wanted to play a druid, but Hazard said druids and rangers and such don't fit the ambiance in the Great Halls of Pandemonium, which is mostly dungeon adventures. Those classes are more for outdoor campaigns.

—L’avant garde #37, April 1981

I break these up into discreet rules, so a DM may choose one or more or all as befits their preference. Skillful Humans [E] is suggested for use only in combination with any other of these rules that give an additional bonus to non-humans. I cite the rulebook where applicable.

Skillful Humans [E]

After choosing a class, 1st-level human-types add two points to their primary ability score by class and one additional point to any ability score. No score can be raised over 18 (addition mine).

No Level Limits [E]

Dwarves, elves, and halflings can achieve any experience level in their profession.

Non-Human Thieves [E]

“There are special rules for halflings, dwarves and elves who wish to be thieves—these are given in ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS” (Holmes, 6).

Dwarves, elves, and halflings can be thieves as well as humans. Non-human thieves adjust their thief’s abilities according the following table.

Race/AbilityPick PocketsLocks & Traps*Move & Hide**Climb†Hear Noise‡
Dwarf+10%−15%+1
Elf+10%+1
Halfling+10%−15%+1
*Pick Locks, Remove Traps
**Move Silently, Hide in Shadows
†Climb Sheer Surfaces
‡Phenster doesn’t mention hear noise. Maybe it’s obvious. I add the final column.

Dexterity Bonus to Thief’s Abilities [E]

Thieves with high Dexterity adjust all thief’s abilities except Climb Sheer Surfaces according to the table below. Note the jump from 15 to 17.

Dexterity ScoreBonus
15+5%
17+10%
18+15%

Single-Class Elves [E]

“[Magic-users] have the advantage (shared with clerics and some elves) of being able to work magical spells” (6, emphasis mine).

In addition to fighter/magic-user, elves can be single-classed fighters or magic-users.

Non-Human Single and Multi-Classes [E]

Non-humans can be any single class or may take multiple classes. An “X” in the table below indicates the race-class combination is allowed.

Race/ClassClericFighterMagic-UserThief
DwarfXX
ElfXXX
HalflingXX

Dual-Class Humans [E]

Humans may, at any time during their careers, take up a new profession. A training period and a fee (see below) may be required, after which, earned experience goes toward advancement in the new profession. At anytime thereafter, the character may switch back to a previous profession or take another. A dual-class cleric may not use edged weapons.

Training: Phenster doesn’t specify the training period or the fee. I suggest one year and 1,000 gp per total class level at training time. So a 3rd-level fighter, training to become a magic-user, must pay 3,000 g.p.

Class and Race Combinations à la Carte [C]

Hazard nixes Phenster’s suggestion to open the gates on race and class combinations, while reserving the right to use them as NPCs. Furthermore, a DM might allow and disallow particular combinations for player characters according to the campaign setting. One might imagine a world, for example, in which dwarf-kind invented magic. In the campaign, dwarf magic-users are common, and perhaps elves are denied magic-use. In another world, the halfling god is the most powerful divinity, so halflings may be clerics.

Additional Character Classes [C]

“There are a number of other character types which are detailed in ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. There are sub-classes of the four basic classes. They are: paladins and rangers (fighting men), illusionists and witches (magic-users), monks and druids (clerics), and assassins (thieves). There are half elves” (7).

Again according to the campaign setting, a DM might allow other classes and races. Detailing each class is beyond the scope of this series. Of course, DMs may make up their own classes or find many classes elsewhere. Those noted above, with the exception of witches, are found in the AD&D Player’s Handbook (1978), to follow the rulebook’s guidance. They are also found in various OD&D supplements and issues of the Strategic Review, which groups may have referenced prior to mid-1978.

“The Witch” NPC class is detailed in Dragon No. 43 (November 1980). Tucked into that article is another article: “The Real Witch” (8) is an origin piece by Tom Moldvay. Also interesting are two articles: “Witchcraft Supplement for Dungeons & Dragons” (Dragon No. 5, March 1977) and “Another Look at Witches and Witchcraft in D&D” (Dragon No. 20, November 1978). Following the latter, check out the related article “Demonology Made Easy” (No. 20). We’ll see later, in the Monsters section, that Hazard makes use of these early Dragon articles for his Great Halls of Pandemonium campaign.

For late-1st-Edition era, “The Witch” is further treated in Dragon No. 114 (October 1986). For what seems a comprehensive list of witch references and illustrations, see “Witches in Early D&D” by Oakes Spalding, Save Versus All Wands (November 2017).

The previous month, in the Pandemonium Society’s Paradigm Lost #3 (March 1981), appears the following notice under GAMES & CAMPAIGNS:

KING OF WANDS (NEW!): ADVANCED D&D wilderness adventures (some dungeons too). Explore dark lands, kill monsters, claim territory, become the King of Wands! Wednesdays after school @ 3:15. Call Basel: (redacted).

Next up in Phenster’s Pandemonium Society House Rules: Level Advancement

Read more about the article Fury’s Deep

Fury’s Deep

In the middle of a dark night, the ground shook, the earth groaned. Startled from shadowy dreams, the folk of Domesday lay still, wondering throughout the night what new doom had befallen their accursed town.

The sinkhole was soon discovered by goatherds in search of strays in the steep, rocky hills outside town. All was quiet, at first, in its dark depths. Before a year was out, though, shadows could be seen deep down, and after unquiet nights, strange tracks appeared in the narrow gorge that led to the rim.

The townsfolk built a watchhouse to block the only easy access to and from the pit. The post was manned in the day, but none would stay the night after the first such attempt. Avery Dain was a man of 27 years when he came to be called “Oldave,” for he aged a lifetime in that one night.1

Even the daylight shift proved too hazardous. One stormy afternoon the next year, a fury of flames blew from the depths and ravaged the watchhouse and the hills around.

That was a hundred years ago. Now called Fury’s Deep, no one goes there these days save the foolhardy… Save the foolhardy.

Description

A tear in the landscape, Fury’s Deep stretches 110 feet from Rock Point (map 96, northeast) across to Deep’s Dark Defile (104, southwest) and 180 feet from Faerie Falls (102, southeast) to the Carver’s Sand Cliffs (105, northwest). A pit (106) in the western crevasse, over 400 feet down, is said to be bottomless.

Hand-drawn dungeon map, showing Fury’s Deep, areas 95 through 107 of Deep Dungeon Deep.
Fury’s Deep, Deep Dungeon Doom

An upper floor once joined the two rooms of the Old Watchhouse (95) that straddle the only safe path into the Deep, which is otherwise surrounded by steep granite hills. Steps carved into a rocky cliff once led up to a door, but the wooden upper structure is burned away.

Slipping by the ogres, who lair under a log shelter within the watchhouse, we proceed to a rocky outcrop, called by the locals Witches’ Finger (97), from which we survey our path.

Natural stairs take us to the first precipice (98), down which we must climb or rappel. A hundred feet below, a steep, winding path of rocky dirt leads through Unicorn Grove (99), under the Dryad’s Tree (100), to an Enchanted Lake (101). We then follow the river west, passing Hive Rock (103) and Deep’s Dark Defile (104), before descending farther into the Deep in the northwest at the Carver’s Sand Cliffs (105). A second precipice drops 60 feet onto a slope that slips under an archway of pitted granite stone blocks (107). The archway is about 400 feet below the rim. We avoid the Bottomless Pit (106) to the south.

In Deep Dungeon Doom, I follow #Gygax75 and #Dungeon23 to create a D&D dungeon campaign in a few minutes per day for one year. I post irregular updates here. To get the daily rooms, follow me on Mastodon.

Nexus

Fury’s Deep is a nexus, connecting to diverse dungeon levels and other worlds. Except the Old Dwarf Road (107), further development of the following areas are left to the DM.

  • 98 Cave of the Unknown: They say no one has ever come out of this cave alive, and it’s true. But no one has ever gone into it, either.
  • 101 Enchanted Lake: Nixies live in a complex of submerged caves 80 feet below the surface. The caves may lead to another dungeon level or to an underwater realm beneath the surface of some distant sea.
  • 102 Faerie Falls: The 200-foot waterfall hides two passages:
    • First, from where it emerges from the cliff, 50 feet below the rim, we can follow the river upstream to the Subterranean Lake (33) in Kubra Kowthar’s Realm (Lyceum Arcanum). Who knows what lies between here and there.
    • Second, through a grotto beyond the cascade, we enter the realm of Faerie or that of Grimshade, depending on some unknown factor. Both realms are dangerous for mortal beings. From neither does one easily return.
  • 104 Deep’s Dark Defile: Here the river drops into unnatural darkness. I don’t yet know how far down it goes or through what dangerous paths. Eventually, it enters a lower level (probably 8 or deeper) of the dungeon.
  • 105 Carver’s Sand Cliffs: These three sandstone cliff faces seem to be carved by a giant hand. Behind this bizarre facade, a nest—or multiple nests—of giant ants riddles the earth. Foraging tunnels may lead to other dungeon levels.
  • 106 Bottomless Pit: Descending to a magical void on a lower level, the hole is truly without end. Perhaps the void takes hapless characters to the world’s underside.
  • 107 Old Dwarf Road: Beneath the archway, we enter a wide thoroughfare built during the dwarven civilization. We now follow this road farther down into Deep Dungeon Doom.

1 I have the idea that Oldave, despite his apparent advanced years, went on to enjoy a long and successful adventuring career. On retirement, he bought a tavern in Domesday. He became its keeper and occupies the post to this day—for he yet lives, going on his 14th decade and in perfect health!

Half All OD&D’s Magic Swords Suffer Cruel Fate

“SWORDS: Among magic weaponry swords alone possess certain human (and superhuman) attributes, Swords have an alignment (Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic), an Intelligence factor, and an egoism rating (as well as an optional determination of the their origin/purpose)” (Monsters & Treasure, 27).

It’s a little known fact that all magic swords in D&D’s original edition are intelligent. In 1974, we determine a magic sword’s intelligence with a d12 roll. An intelligence of 7 or higher grants the sword an increasing number of primary and extraordinary powers and the ability to communicate.

A roll of 1 to 6, however, gives us a sword with intelligence yet unendowed with any powers or any means to communicate. It is also denied an ego, for “Only those swords [with an] Intelligence of 7 or more will have an Egoism rating” (29). Such a sword may signal its condition only to characters of a differing alignment, who take damage from a touch.

Magic Swords Intelligence Table from D&D (1974), Monsters & Treasure, 28

Maybe the co-creators did not intend to manufacturer such an item. An asterisk denotes that “Although the sword cannot communicate it will endow its user with the powers it has, but these will have to be discovered by the user” (28), while the Mental Powers column makes it clear the sword has “None endowed.” Perhaps “the powers it has” refers to the sword’s magic powers, such as has a sword +1, +2 vs. Lycanthropes or a sword +2, Charm Person Ability?

As written, if we obey the dice, half all OD&D’s magic swords suffer this fate. Considering that it is usual for a magic sword to have been created in some long ago time and that such weapons tend to be nigh indestructible, we might say it is a fate worse than death.

In B/X D&D, Moldvay, Cook, Marsh save magic swords from this cruelty by replacing the straight up d12 roll for intelligence with a d20 table. A sword is intelligent on a result of 15 or higher. A 14 or less results in a null intelligence score.

Read more about the article Periphron’s Tower and Excavation: Dungeon Map Cover Art

Periphron’s Tower and Excavation: Dungeon Map Cover Art

Periphron’s Tower and Excavation — Frontispiece

To stock the dungeon, I’m using the Old-School ’77 Dungeon Stocking Tables for general room contents. Look for results here sometime within a week or so. See also “Periphron’s Tower and Excavation: Adventure in the Making” for development notes.

Lacking space in the six-page PDF, I omitted a frontispiece. The dungeon map from the cover of the Old-School ’77 Dungeon Stocking Tables, in the cartographer’s opinion, warrants a showcase.

Taking cues from the map god, I provide, for your personal use, grid and no-grid versions of the map without scale or compass rose accompanied by background text. The cartographer’s apologies to cross-hatching aficionados.

It was stocking his Deep Halls that prompted the development of the Old-School ’77 tables. Furthermore, it is through study of his work that we learn dungeon map design. More than that, the example of his career teaches the value of diligence and perseverance in pursuit of our dreams. This map is dedicated to Dyson Logos.

Periphron’s Tower and Excavation

The wizard Periphron seeks a powerful artifact called “the Seventh.” His research, which includes use of a crystal ball and multiple castings of contact other plane, aided by a library of esoteric tomes, indicates the Seventh is located within the ruins of an ancient town, purportedly buried under a rocky hill in an arid plain.

After charming the blue dragon that laired within, Periphron rebuilt a ruined tower on the hillside. Beneath the tower, he excavated several tunnels in search of the ancient town. Exploratory tunnels broke into a series of natural caverns, which leads to the ancient town’s underground ruins.

Periphron uses the charmed blue dragon to guard the tower entrance. The excavation is accomplished by move earth spells and stone giants. Periphron’s apprentices handle the excavation’s day-to-day management.

Meanwhile, the wizard continues research. For, with the Seventh, Periphron intends to begin the prophesied Age of Dragons. How he will achieve this is unknown, even to the wizard himself.

But lawful factions want to prevent Periphron’s finding the artifact. Chaotic factions want to steal it. After so many uses of contact other plane, Periphron might be fairly nuts.

—from “Periphron’s Tower and Excavation: Adventure in the Making”

Periphron’s Tower and Excavation (200 dpi, grid)
Periphron’s Tower and Excavation (200 dpi, no grid)
Read more about the article The Charnel Pits and Caverns of Ningalgaur, Great Lady of Demons, Called the Laughing Fiend

The Charnel Pits and Caverns of Ningalgaur, Great Lady of Demons, Called the Laughing Fiend

In Deep Dungeon Doom, I follow #Gygax75 and #Dungeon23 to create a D&D dungeon campaign in a few minutes per day for one year. I post irregular updates here. To get the daily rooms, follow me on Mastodon.

Progress: For the second time in the year-long daily dungeon-making exercise that is #Dungeon23, I got behind a few days and caught up again in March. Each day’s room often takes me some time more than a few minutes, but I love the work and am so far pleased with the resulting dungeon.

Campaign: Meanwhile, after closing the door on the baalgaur’s prison (Lyceum Arcanum, 9) on the uppermost level, the player party explored the Auditorium’s balcony (2a): The cautious adventurers turned away from three great blades swinging like pendulums in an archway (2d). They then defeated a giant black widow spider (2e), foiled a pit trap in front of a treasure chest (2f), and purloined the gold coins the chest contained. Emboldened by this success, the duo acquired hirelings in Domesday and prepared their second foray into Deep Dungeon Doom.

Ningalgaur [nin-gal-GAW-r]

Named after the nefarious empress and “great lady of demons,” this dungeon region was first used by the demons during their civilization that followed the Illmind’s departure. Most walls, whether natural rock or built from rust-red brick, bare vestiges of relief carvings depicting gruesome faces: bulging eyes, bulbous noses, fat cheeks, wide mouths grinning, lascivious lips, rolling tongues. Since then, a succession of civilizations and empires have connected the former charnel pits with tunnels to create a dense network of rooms and caves.

Now, with its 55 encounter areas (40-94) spread across levels 2 and 3, Ningalgaur may be divided into four sections: Minotaur Maze (NE), Veiled Grotto (NW), Laughing Rift (SE), and Daemningstadr (SW). A brief description of each follows the map.

My thanks again to Tony Dowler for his How to Host a Dungeon: The Solo Game of Dungeon Creation (2nd Edition, Planet Thirteen, 2019), whence I draw the civilizations: demonic, dwarven, and magic-using. You didn’t think I came up with a fortified drinking hall myself, did you?

The Charnel Pits and Caverns of Ningalgaur, Great Lady of Demons, Called the Laughing Fiend (200 dpi)

Minotaur Maze (NE)

A deluded magic-user employs illusion, polymorph self, and a hero henchman in a bull’s-head mask to discourage trespassers. It’s Scooby-Doo meets Theseus and the Minotaur, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a real minotaur in there.

Veiled Grotto (NW)

A lost pebble sheds an impenetrable darkness throughout these natural caverns filled with noxious molds and creeping animals. Largely considered impassable by the locals.

Laughing Rift (SE)

A deep chasm connects diverse regions of the dungeon, this level and beyond. A mad hermit holes up in natural caverns below a dwarf-built dam on the south rim. Nearby, a magic portal wants repair. Carved tunnels on the north rim are presently inhabited by gnolls, who dispose of their waste in the rift’s nether regions and guard the entrance to Daemningstadr.

Daemningstadr (SW)

Built during the dwarven civilization, Heillwaegg Daemningstadr Drekkenhal—in the common tongue, “Drinking Hall of the Blessed Wall in Dam’s Site”—is a fortified construction, now occupied by members of the Doommaker Cult. The priest-leader’s mission is to destroy remnants of the Gold Flame, which defends the Bastion of Law on Level 1, to make way for the cult’s main objective in the dungeon’s shallow levels: to release the balgaur from its prison in the Infernal Tower.

Warning: Reading this book will make you want to play D&D!

Alternative Method to Increase Prime Requisite for XP Bonus

In “Three Paradigms: Evolution of Ability Score Adjustments and the Prime Requisite Bonus in Old-School D&D,” I stated my preference for the complimentary paradigm from OD&D over the later practice paradigm to determine experience-point bonuses. The Pandemonium Society had another idea. They used both.

This is the 20th in a continuing series of articles, which reedits house rules for Holmes Basic D&D from 40-year-old game club newsletters. Mentions of house rules are in bold text and followed by a [bracketed category designator].

For rules category descriptions and more about the newsletters, see “About the Reedition of Phenster’s.” For an index of articles, see Coming Up in “Pandemonium Society House Rules.”

Phenster’s Pandemonium Society House Rules is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, events, incidents, and newsletters are either products of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is pure coincidence.

Another Way to Adjust Ability Scores for XP

by Phenster

Ivanhoe tells me he doesn't use the rules for bonus XP in his AD&D campaign because it's too much math. In the Pandemonium Society, we use bonus XP for high prime requisites. Cypher helps us with the math. It's really pretty easy the way she explains it. But we didn't much use the rule that says you can change your ability scores when you roll up a character.

Like, if you want to be a fighter, you can subtract 2 from your INT and add 1 to STR, and a cleric or magic-user can subtract 3 from STR and add 1 to WIS or INT (for M-U). The higher your prime requisite the more XP you get.

That system worked for Beowulf because he didn't care about being intelligent. He just wanted to be a burly brute. But Tombs wanted to play the cleric. They have to be wise and be able to fight pretty good, so he didn't want to lower his strength.

I rolled a 13 for INT, a 15 WIS, and 12 STR. I could've been a cleric or an elf, but I really wanted to be a magic-user of the wise-old-wizard kind. A wise old wizard is usually frail so I lowered my STR to raise my INT to 14. Not enough to get 10% extra XP, but I got another language. I could have lowered my WIS 2 to get another INT, but a 13 WIS is barely above average, so I didn't want to do it.

Tombs and I talked it over with Hazard, and we came to a compromise. Hazard let us use the points to raise our prime requisite score, just like in the rulebook, except we didn't really change the scores. For example, I used 6 WIS points to make a 17 in my prime requisite without lowering WIS or raising INT. I’m still wise (15) and not any more intelligent (14), but I get a 10% bonus on XP. Tombs used 3 points of STR, without lowering it, to raise his prime requisite to 15, but his WIS is still 14.

Of course, everyone wanted to do it that way then. Except for Beowulf. He still wanted to be a brute. Hazard said we could do it either way: changing the scores or just using the points toward our prime requisites, or both. But just not using the same points twice.

—from L’avant garde #59 (January 1984)

Alternative Method to Increase Prime Requisite [E]

After generating ability scores, instead of raising and lowering scores (as described in Holmes: Adjusting Ability Scores, 6), the player uses points from certain above average scores to increase the prime requisite score only as it applies to the experience-point bonus. All constraints—used abilities by class, number of points used, minimum scores, etc.—are according to Holmes. The only difference is that no ability scores are raised or lowered.

Using this method, it helps to think of the prime requisite as a separate score, initially equal to the class’s primary ability score.

I put the alternative method in the [E] Extra category because it’s quick and easy: Count points above 9 in one or two abilities and add one or more points to another score. Furthermore, as no sacrifice is made, players have no barrier—only the prospect of earning more XP.

Strength Not Complimentary for Magic-Users [E]

When using the Alternative Method to Increase Prime Requisite [E], magic-users cannot use points of Strength to increase Intelligence.

As in OD&D’s Men & Magic, high Intelligence makes a more clever fighter, but a strong magic-user is no more adept in the profession. The Pandemonium Society seems to ignore this point.

Combined Methods to Increase Prime Requisite [P]

The alternative method may be used together with that described in Holmes, though points may only be used for one method.

In Phenster’s example, he reduced his Strength score to raise Intelligence, but when using Wisdom, he adjusted neither score.

For simplicity during character creation, I suggest using Holmes’s raise-and-lower method first to get the desired ability score bonuses, Then use the alternative method to figure the final prime requisite score for the XP bonus.

Because it effectively adds a second step to character creation while at the same reintroducing the time-consuming min/max decisions, this one goes in [P] Pandemonium.

Simplifying the Exchange Rate

We might simplify both methods by setting the exchange rate at 2 for 1 in all cases. I don’t propose it here for three reasons.

  1. I try—though not always successfully—to avoid B/X-isms in Phenster’s.
  2. While the Holmes spirit is simplicity in one sense, it also embraces a certain complexity, most often where it fails to modify rules from OD&D.
  3. The difference in the exchange rate, 2 or 3 for 1 depending on ability and class, implies a difference in the importance of each ability to each class. Consider that the more intelligent fighter improves faster than the wiser one (exchanging 2 INT or 3 WIS for 1). Likewise, the smarter cleric improves faster than the more brawny (2 INT or 3 STR for 1). And the more successful thief must be not only intelligent but also wise (2 INT and 1 WIS for 1). I appreciate this nuance.

Old-School ’77 Dungeon Stocking Tables Now on DriveThruRPG

Random Determination of Room Contents for Dungeons from the Late 1970s. Like Moldvay’s dungeon room contents tables for earlier editions. Available at DriveThruRPG in PDF for print and phone.

Roll on one of three d% tables to determine a room’s general contents: monster, treasure, trap, interesting variation, or empty. The tables are derived from guidelines given in three late-1970s’ publications of the world’s most superlative role-playing game.

For a one-third chance of monsters throughout the underworld, use the BLUEBOOK table. To differentiate between built dungeon areas and natural caves and caverns, switch between the DUNGEONS and CAVES tables.

You get 2 PDFs:

  1. Print PDF (6 pp., 5½" x 8½") displays well on tablets and e-readers.
  2. Phone PDF (8 pp., 2¼" x 4") fits on the smallest screens.

Both contain the tables and brief instruction. A footer contains links to each table for quick navigation on screen. Or print the tables on a single double-sided letter-size or A4 sheet; fold in half short-wise to expose the desired table.

Monsters and Treasures Not Included: After determining general contents, you’ll need to decide on specific monsters, treasures, and interesting variations according to your dungeon plan and preferred rule system.

Get yours on DriveThruRPG.

Read more about the article Old-School ’77 Dungeon Stocking Tables Coming Soon

Old-School ’77 Dungeon Stocking Tables Coming Soon

Release is set for early in the week. Previously called “Flying Dungeon Stocking Tables,” we used these a couple years ago to help stock a certain twisted and nightmarish dungeon. Lately, they serve in Deep Dungeon Doom when inspiration is short for the daily #Dungeon23.

I put the trio of tables, with instructions for use, behind a nice cover and made one PDF for printing and viewing on mid- to large-size screens and another for use on your smartphone.

Random Determination of Room Contents for Dungeons from the Late 1970s. By Stephen Wendell

Like Moldvay’s dungeon room contents tables for earlier editions.

Roll on one of three d% tables to determine a room’s general contents: monster, treasure, trap, interesting variation, or empty. The tables are derived from guidelines given in three late-1970s’ publications of the world’s most superlative role-playing game.

For a one-third chance of monsters throughout the underworld, use the BLUEBOOK table. To differentiate between built dungeon areas and natural caves and caverns, switch between the DUNGEONS and CAVES tables.

For details on how the tables are derived, see “Flying Dungeon Stocking Table by the Bluebook” and “Flying Table by Dungeon Geomorphs Sets.”

Read more about the article Doom’s Door: Death Trap Design

Doom’s Door: Death Trap Design

“Zap! You’re dead!” J. Eric Holmes warns against these sorts of traps in the 1977 Basic D&D (40). I tend to comply. Sometimes, though… sometimes!

During the daily cartography exercise that is #Dungeon23, I noticed an auspicious alignment. Let us go to Deep Dungeon Doom’s Level 2 (image above). From room 37 in Kubra Kowthar’s domain, a corridor runs northwest to an apparent dead end. Stopping to search for secret doors—as adventurers do—we stand above Level 3’s Laughing Rift.

I am doomed to put a pitfall there. The floor opens beneath our feet. We fall 110 feet to the rocky floor below—Zap!

Holmes lets us get away with such a trap, though, if “a character might avoid or overcome [it] with some quick thinking and a little luck.” With that in mind, we set about to give ourselves a chance.

Warning

Beyond the secret door—for one there is—room 23 lies at the bottom of the Bastion of Law. Carved into the stone block wall that disguises the secret door is the following warning:

YOUR DOOM LIES BEYOND
FOR BEYOND YOU LIE BELOW

On our side of the door, we read a similar inscription:

YOUR DOOM IS UPON YOU
FOR YOU ARE UPON YOUR DOOM

Ignoring the warning—we’re adventurers after all—we find the secret door, whose presence we think obvious. The trap is armed when the opening mechanism is engaged. From room 23, we would walk through, into the space beyond. From this side, the floor opens beneath us.

Chance to Spring the Trap

If the DM is a little soft, we might say the trap is not maintained. It engages when weight is upon it only one-third of the time, to use a B/X-ism (B22).

Saving Throw Conditions

Further, the aperture is 3 feet square. The tight fit allows us a save vs Turn to Stone to catch ourselves with outstretched arms, feet kicking in the void, fingertips gripping a floor stone’s edge. Quick comrades have a chance to snatch us from fate. Otherwise, we might be able to haul ourselves out on our own. DM’s call. This DM would ask how we intend to do it.

Failing that, we have time to feel heart rise to throat, as we plummet into darkness.

Map showing area 78, Sludge Pit (03/19), of the Laughing Rift (Level 3), Deep Dungeon Doom.
Running through the trash heap in the Central Rift Floor (77, below center), the stream turns to a thick sludge of decayed organic waste. It fills a 20-foot-deep pit (78) in front of rough-carved stairs. Runoff flows south and west through a grate to who-knows-where. Endowed with an adventurer’s presence of mind, we make a quick check for treasure at the bottom of the pit while we’re down there.

Unexpected Deliverance

One last chance. Directly below, the Sludge Pit (78) awaits. We save vs Dragon Breath to take half 11d6 damage.

We still have to wrestle off any armor before drowning and swim to the surface through viscous muck. Then we find ourselves all alone and sans armure at the nethermost point of the Laughing Rift—Zap! Welcome to Deep Dungeon Doom!

Read more about the article Ability Score Modifiers in the Great Halls of Pandemonium

Ability Score Modifiers in the Great Halls of Pandemonium

“Saving Throw VS. Death,” the previous article in the series, wrapped up the Pandemonium Society’s house rules for combat, as published in various issues of the newsletters L’avant garde and Paradigm Lost. We jumped around issue numbers to talk about the combat rules in a coherent manner. Now, it makes sense to take the remaining house rules by book-order, that is, in the order as the rules they modify appear in Holmes.

So, we start here with ability scores, and we’ll end with treasure, which seems appropriate for such an adventure. For, an adventure it is. It may be of the there-and-back-again sort, but Phenster’s contributions to the newsletters from 1980 to 87 are numerous. Between here and there, we have some monsters to fight before we can take the treasure.

This is the 19th in a continuing series of articles, which reedits house rules for Holmes Basic D&D from 40-year-old game club newsletters. Mentions of house rules are in bold text and followed by a [bracketed category designator].

For rules category descriptions and more about the newsletters, see “About the Reedition of Phenster’s.” For an index of articles, see Coming Up in “Pandemonium Society House Rules.”

Phenster’s Pandemonium Society House Rules is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, events, incidents, and newsletters are either products of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is pure coincidence.

Additions to Ability Scores

by Phenster

The guys at the Game Hoard talk a lot about the ability adjustments[1] they have from high scores in their A(dvanced) D&D games. They get pluses to lots of stuff, like +3 to saving throws for WIS, −4 on AC for an 18 DEX, and bonuses to hit AND damage for STR. They even get "extra strength" (fighters only) that can give them as high as +6!!

We think it's more fun to have bonuses for more high scores besides CON and DEX like in the rules, but according to Hazard we have to be careful of "power creep," or it makes the game too easy. So, Mandykin and Tombs worked out some extra bonuses that Hazard said was OK for his "Great Halls" campaign.

—from Paradigm Lost: the Newsletter of the Pandemonium Society of Neighborhood Dungeons and Dragons Players, #2 (November 1980)

Following this introduction, Phenster provides a table showing modifiers for Strength, Wisdom, Dexterity, and Charisma. I reproduce the table below, adding Constitution and the full Dexterity entry from Basic D&D (1977, 6) plus a couple rows for Intelligence (9) for completeness. Note that rule-smiths Mandykin and Tombs in some cases add bonuses without corresponding penalties.

Power creep aside, while I don’t agree that they make the game too easy, I do think AD&D’s bonuses—similar to those introduced in OD&D’s Greyhawk supplement (1976)—are over-complicated for Holmes. Conversely, Moldvay’s Basic (1981) bonuses and penalties for ability scores are too elegant. Neither has the Holmes spirit we wish to preserve.

Ability Score Bonuses and Penalties [E]

AbilityScoreBonus/Penalty
Strength18+3 attack, damage, force doors
17+2
15-16+1
7-14None
6 or less−1
Intelligence11-181-8 additional languages
10 or lessNone
Wisdom15 or more+1 magic saves
14 or lessNone
Constitution18+3 hit points per hit dice
17+2
15-16+1
7-14None
6 or less−1
Dexterity15 or more−1 armor class
13 or more+1 missile fire
9-12None
8 or less−1 missile fire
Charisma18Up to 12 hirelings; +3 loyalty2
1710; +2
13-166-9; +1
7-125
6 or less4; −1

1 From the context, I assume Phenster intends “ability score modifiers.”
2 Phenster covers loyalty in an article about henchmen, which we’ll get to. For now, we note that loyalty, for the Pandemonium Society, is not the same as morale.