Recaps & Roundups part 68: Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set

Box art by Dave Sutherkand

The D&D basic set was the beginning of a new era for the game, one where TSR was upping their production values and shooting for wider mass market success.  A big part of that process was the development of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, but prior to that it was decided that the game needed a more introductory rule-set.  These rules - which only cover player character levels 1 to 3 - were written by John Eric Holmes, a professor of neurology, and are mostly a revision of the original Dungeons & Dragons booklets (with some stuff thrown in from Supplement I: Greyhawk).

Initially, the boxed set came with a rules booklet, a copy of Dungeon Geomorphs Set One, a copy of Monster & Treasure Assortment Set One, and a set of dice.  Later printings swapped out the Geomorphs and Monster & Treasure Assortment for the module B1 In Search of the Unknown, and much later that was replaced by B2 The Keep on the Borderlands.  There were also the infamous numbered cardboard chits, which replaced the dice when TSR were having a shortage.

I already covered this product, starting all the way back here.  Check those posts out for a more in-depth look at the product.  (Although maybe ignore the stuff at the beginning about resetting the rules via an adventurer's guild, because I'm not planning on doing that kind of "rules progression" campaign, at least not in the way I was originally.)  Here I'm just going to quickly run through the new additions to the game, mostly to remind myself of the things I need to incorporate for the Ultimate Sandbox.

NEW RULES & RULE CHANGES

• The first racial ability score requirements (for dwarves and halflings) in an official product.
• Elves now specifically operate as fighters and magic-users simultaneously (not having to switch classes between adventures as they did in OD&D).
• The halfling missile bonus is clarified as +1 to attack rolls.  (Previously the rule had referred back to Chainmail, but what was in Chainmail made little sense with D&D's combat system.)
• Halfling fighters only get 1d6 hit die, as opposed to the standard 1d8.
• Halflings are specifically limited in size of weapons and armour. I don't think this had been mentioned before.
• While I'm on the subject of halflings, this is the first D&D product that consistently uses halfling instead of hobbit.  As I understand it, this was the result of legal action from the Tolkien estate, and we won't be seeing the use of the word hobbit from this point forward.
• The rates for healing are now different.  In OD&D a character healed 1 hit point per day of rest after the first, but here they heal 1-3 points per day
• Spears now cost 2 gold pieces instead of 1.
• Tinderboxes have been added to the equipment list.
• A specific price is given for advertising to hire henchmen (1d6 x 100 gp).
• The five-point alignment system from The Dragon #6 is used for the first time in an official D&D product.  The alignments are neutral, lawful good, chaotic good, lawful evil and chaotic evil.
• A simplified, rudimentary encumbrance system is introduced, where characters are either unencumbered, encumbered by armour or a heavy load, or encumbered by both.
• Durations are given for lanterns and torches.
• Infravision is clarified as not working near a light source.
• The chance for surprised characters to drop items is lowered from 25% to 1-in-6.
• Wandering monsters are now checked for at end of every third turn, rather than every turn, a drastic drop in frequency.
• The starting distance for encounters is changed from 20-80 to 20-120.
• Monsters (at least the ones appearing on the wandering monster charts) are given ranges for number appearing that are much more manageable than those from OD&D.
• The wandering monster tables for dungeons are altered, mostly to get rid of the various classed NPCs and the monsters that Holmes didn't give any stats.
• The monster reaction roll table is altered, with results for rolls of 2 and 12 being "immediate attack" and "enthusiastic friendship", respectively.
• Turning undead is greatly clarified, with an actual explanation of how it works presented alongside the chart.
• Clerics seemingly no longer use spell books, as they were said to do in OD&D.
• Thieves used to use the magic-user table for saving throws, but now they use the fighter table.
• Normal men were previously as good in battle as 1st level fighters, but now they've been a little downgraded.
• The use of flaming oil in combat gets specific (and very lethal) rules.
• The use of holy water on undead gets specific rules.
• Combat rounds last for 10 seconds, rather than 1 minute.
• Parrying rules are given that are different from those in Chainmail.
• There are rules introduced that allow daggers to strike twice in a round, and limit heavier weapons like polearms and two-handed swords to striking once every other round.  Every weapons does 1d6 damage, so there's no reason at all with this system to choose anything other than a dagger.

NEW SPELLS & CHANGED SPELLS

There are a bunch of minor changes to spells, but here I'm only listing the more significant ones.

• The following 1st level magic-user spells make their debut: dancing lights, enlargement and Tenser's floating disc.
• The following 2nd level magic-user spells make their debut: audible glamer and ray of enfeeblement.
• The following 1st level cleric spells make their debut: remove fear, resist cold, know alignment, and resist fire.
• Light is given a range of 120', whereas before it didn't have a range.
• Magic missile requires an attack roll to hit, whereas most later versions of D&D make it hit automatically.
• Protection from evil's bonuses stack with magic armor, whereas before that was specifically not the case.
• Sleep is given a duration of either 4-16 turns or 2-8 turns (both are used.) It previously had no duration specified.
• The radius of continual light has dropped from 240 ft. to a much saner 60 ft.
• The strength spell bonuses are now reversed for clerics and thieves; originally, clerics got a 1d6 bonus and thieves got a 1d4 bonus.
• Hold person is clarified as a paralysis spell, whereas before it could be interpreted as a variation on charm person.
• The reversed spells for evil clerics now get specific names: cure light wounds becomes cause light wounds, detect evil becomes detect good, light becomes darkness, purify food and water becomes contaminate food and water, remove fear becomes cause fear, and bless becomes curse.

MONSTERS

• Pretty much every monster's alignment gets changed from OD&D to the Basic Set, due to the use of the new alignment system.  There are also a bunch of smaller statistical changes that I'm not going to bother listing here.  I went through those pretty exhaustively in my initial posts on the Basic Set.
• Zombies are said to be poisoned by salt.  Curiously, this line (under "Monster Saving Throws") is in my PDF version of the rules, but not my actual copy of the book.  It must have been removed from later printings.  I might keep it in mind for specific types of zombies.
• Kobolds are described as dwarf-like, which is more mythologically correct than the D&D-style dog-men.  They also get a saving throw bonus that's not seen in other versions of the game.
• Weresharks are mentioned as a possibility (and said to come from "Polynesia"), but sadly no stats are given.
• The sight of a mummy can now paralyse, which isn't something I recall from other editions.
• Pixie royalty are said to be powerful magic-users.
• Zombies are upgraded from 1 Hit Die to 2 Hit Dice.  (Although I think that the OD&D tables could be interpreted as 2.)

TREASURE AND MAGIC ITEMS

• The value of electrum pieces are set at half a gold piece.  Previously they had been valued at either half or double of one gold piece.
• Treasure Types J through T are added, which mostly give much smaller results than the earlier types.
• There's a cursed sword -1 on the chart, whereas I'm pretty sure the only previous cursed sword had been a cursed sword +1.  That might have been a typo.
• Magic swords are no longer all intelligent.
• The ring of plant control makes its debut.
• The ring of protection grants an Armor Class of 2, which is a very generous interpretation of the OD&D rules.
• Gauntlets of ogre power get specific powers, adding a bonus of 2d4 to damage.

STUFF FOR ME TO ADD TO THE ULTIMATE SANDBOX

• Malchor the Magic-User is an NPC who has an Intelligence score of 10.  In addition to his normal garb (boots, loincloth, robes, girdle, pointy hat), he bought the following gear with his starting gold: 2 daggers, a backpack, a large sack, some rope, standard rations, 2 small sacks, 12 iron spikes, a quart of wine, 2 oil flasks, 2 vials of holy water, a garlic bud, some wolvesbane, a waterskin, a tinderbox and a lantern.  He had 20 gold pieces left over.  He is able to cast the sleep spell.
• Drego the Thief is another NPC named.  He is 1st level.  At one point he failed to pick a lock, and at another he successfully hid in the shadows of a dark corridor while a party of evil warriors passed by.
• Bruno the Battler is another NPC, a fighter.  He has a Dexterity of 13, wields a sword, wears chainmail and shield, uses a bow, and has 6 hit points.  As will be seen later, I sadly won't be using Bruno as an active NPC in my campaign.
• Clarissa the Cleric is an NPC with a Dexterity of 6, who uses a mace.  She's described as a "priestess", which might make her 3rd level (the 3rd level cleric title being "priest").
• Mogo the Mighty is the last named NPC.  He is presumably a fighter, as he uses a bow and a sword, and wears chainmail armour.  He has a Dexterity of 9, and only has 3 hit points.
• On one adventure, Bruno the Battler busted down a door and killed a big goblin wearing chainmail armour and wielding a scimitar.
• On another adventure (or possibly later in the same one), a party of adventurers (which includes Malchor, Bruno, Clarissa, and Mogo, among others) is standing at an intersection when they are attacked by six giant spiders.  Malchor takes out four of them with a sleep spell, while one is killed by arrow fire.  The last one poisons Bruno to death, before being killed by Clarissa.
• An example dungeon cross section is given, as shown below.  I will probably use the Skull Mountain adventure written by Jeff Sparks to represent this dungeon in my campaign.

• There's also a sample dungeon, set beneath the ruined tower of the wizard Zenopus.  I've already extensively detailed my placement for this module in the campaign, as shown in this post.
• Finally, there's an example of play with a party that includes the "caller", a halfling, a fighter, an elf, a dwarf, and possibly others.  They move north up a corridor, and enter a room and fight some orcs for a chest with 100 gold pieces.  The halfling hears slithering behind the door they just came through, while the elf finds a secret door.  The party goes through the secret door until they are eventually confronted by a gelatinous cube.  As the cube advances, the dwarf notices a hollow space under the floor.  I may include this section of dungeon somewhere, and I've mapped it below.  The NPCs aren't named, so I might just assume that the cube did them in.

Play Report: The Tower of Zenopus, Session 2

I ran D&D over Zoom again this weekend, with much more success this time.  I've cast my net pretty wide among my D&D-playing acquaintances, and managed to rope in some guys that I haven't gamed with in over 20 years.  Last week we had a bunch of connection issues, but this time around everyone who wanted to play was able to get on.  It was only three people, just one more than last week, but the game went much longer and saw the party experiencing far greater success.

The novel thing for me is that none of the players who showed up carried over from the last game.  This is the first time I've ever experienced running multiple groups through the same dungeon setting, and I'm looking forward to doing more of it.  This week's group took an entirely different path than the previous adventurers, so it didn't make much of a difference.  Plus the dungeons beneath the Tower of Zenopus are small, and I don't think I'll get more than one more session out of them.  But with my current set-up, where I run for whoever shows up on a Saturday night, the possibility is there for some proper old-school multi-party campaigning, especially when I start running some more expansive modules.  I can tell already that it's going to be a lot of fun.

This week's group consisted of a halfling, a cleric and a thief.  They played things smart by hiring a man-at-arms, which they were clued into by one of the rumours from Zach Howard's excellent Ruined Tower of Zenopus.  I called the man-at-arms Hew off the cuff, and had a lot of fun investing him with the persona of a simple everyman slightly overwhelmed by the situations he was finding himself in.  The players took to him pretty quickly.

The party headed east from the entry stairs, and fought a fairly easy battle against the five goblins in room A.  I used the morale rules from Basic D&D, and the goblins rolled well and ended up fighting to the death.  This went somewhat against the module text, which states that they surrender once half of their number is dead.  Ah well, you can't remember everything.  Unfortunately, what I also forgot was some of the loot: the goblins are meant to have two bags with 500 silver pieces, but I only gave the PCs one.  I think I'll move the second bag somewhere else in the dungeon, so that they can still find it.  I don't want to cheat them out of the treasure completely.

From there they went south, and it didn't take them long to figure out the trick with the doors and the statue.  Continuing south to the base of the thaumaturgist's tower, they fought and killed a giant snake.  The cleric got constricted a bit, but a single monster like this rarely fares well against a full party, and the snake didn't last long.

From there they headed west, to the room with the sundial and the bronze mask.  The mask will answer any question asked of it, but only if the party figures out its clue: "I will not speak til it be four".  The cleric player figured this out with suspicious quickness; I'd suspect him of having read the module beforehand, but he's always been a sharp dude.  I'll have to keep on my toes, it's going to be hard having a player who is obviously more intelligent than I am.

They kept their eyes on the prize, and asked the mask where they could find the most valuable treasure.  I didn't have this info readily at hand, so I had the mask direct them to the sea cave and the smugglers.  In retrospect I should have directed them north to the catacombs, but I didn't want to bog the game down while I scoured my notes.

They followed the directions south, west, and then north, having a fight with a giant crab along the way.  It lasted a few rounds due to a tough AC, but my rolling for the crab was abysmal, and it didn't score a single hit.  My rolls for Hew, on the other hand, were on fire, and he was undoubtedly the MVP of the session.  He might have made things a little too easy, but then again it could all have gone very differently if the dice had swung the other way.  One bad roll and Hew would have been dead.  Still, an easy game for the players isn't such a bad thing now and then.

From there they headed north, where they fought four smugglers.  This was the final encounter of the session, and it ended in a real anti-climax.  The smugglers failed their morale check after the first of them fell, and two more of them were cut down as they fled.  One of them escaped, fleeing north into the dungeon tunnels.  I suppose he'll still be there next session, if he's still alive.

The party found the treasure chests in the smugglers' boats, as well as a kidnapped Lemunda the Lovely, daughter of the local lord.  There was serious discussion about them taking one of the boats and rowing out of the sea tunnel, but that would almost certainly have resulted in disaster at the hands of the giant octopus lurking at the bottom.  I figured that Lemunda would have heard the pirates talking about the octopus, so I had her warn the party against it.  Sometimes the DM must be kind.

The rest of the session was spent lugging the two treasure chests out of the dungeon.  I probably should have made more of a big deal about them carrying them across a 3-foot-deep river, but it was getting late so I fudged it.  What I didn't fudge were the half-dozen or so wandering monster checks I made while they were struggling to get the chests out of the dungeon.  Not a single one came up.  I probably made about 20 wandering monster checks for the whole game, and none of those came up either.  Sometimes all the luck just runs the way of the PCs I guess.

All told, a fun and quite successful game.  The PCs played well (lots of sharp decisions, listening at doors, not lingering too much), the dice rolls went their way, and they managed to win a few fights and make off with some decent loot at little cost to themselves.  They also had some luck with the paths they chose, and avoided the most difficult encounters, any one of which could have resulted in a TPK.  Those encounters are still down there, of course, and it just makes it more likely that the party will encounter them next time.

ENCUMBRANCE HOUSE RULES

I'm still using my encumbrance house rules, and this time I actually got to put them into practice.  They worked about as well as I was hoping, and we were able to easily keep track of what the PCs were carrying and how it would affect their movement.  They even had to leave some treasure behind: 2,000 copper pieces in a chest that they found after defeating the goblins.  Copper pieces are a proper encumbrance trap for dumb PCs, being of such low value, and I was pretty pleased to see this party making the smart decision to leave them behind.  The system I've come up with isn't precise, but it's close enough that it made the PCs question whether to take that chest with them, and that's exactly the sort of thing I was looking for.

One thing I need to come up with is a rule for  characters carrying things between them.  As it is, nobody in my current rules is capable of carrying a chest with 2,000 coins in it.  I allowed them to carry the chests with one character lifting each side, and dropped all of their movement rates to 30'/turn as they struggled their way out of the dungeon.  It would be nice to have concrete rules to fall back on for this kind of thing though.

I also need to know how much weight a character can carry over the amount that drops their movement rate to 1.  I'll look into how the various editions have handled this and work something out.

LIGHT SOURCES

I was tracking light sources pretty rigorously, which I've never really done before.  The party were using torches, which burn for one hour.  Combined with ten minute turns, and D&D's frightfully slow dungeon movement rates, those torches run out really quickly.  A little too quickly, I felt, but then again I have no practical experience with burning torches.  The players didn't complain, and they were smart enough to take and use the torches that I mentioned the goblins had burning on the wall.  So I had some misgivings, but I'll stick with the rules as written for now.

COMBAT SEQUENCE

I've been using a combat sequence with group initiative and phases: spell phase, missile phase, movement phase and melee phase.  Last week I toyed with the idea of adding a second melee phase that would happen right at the start of the round, but I decided against it on the grounds of over-complication.

I'm not entirely thrilled with what I've come up with.  The main problem I'm having is that it's a bit arbitrary as to which players go first during their turn in melee.  It doesn't really matter, and didn't cause any issues during this game, but I know that there are players that are territorial about  getting their "kills".  I think I'll start using Dexterity scores, and just running down the characters in order based on that.

EXCEL GRID MAP

I mentioned last week that I was using screen-sharing and Excel to show the players the room dimensions, and to track things during battle.  So far, all of this has worked surprisingly well.  My main concern was that it's only good for square and rectangular rooms, but I've solved that problem as well, as you can see below.

Rooms K and S2 of the Tower of Zenopus adventure.

You can set background images in an Excel worksheet, and doing that I was able to mock up the sea caves and the round rooms in the thaumaturgist's tower.  It's a little time-consuming - especially getting the grids lines up correctly, but it does the job if you're not into using things like Roll20.

I expect to get one more session out of the Tower of Zenopus, possibly one more in Portown if the players decide that they really want to go hunting for smugglers.  After that, I think I'll send them to a certain Keep on the Borderlands, and the Caverns of Quasqueton nearby.  Beyond those, I'm not sure, although I'm leaning towards Caverns of Thracia and Jeff Sparks' version of the Holmes' Skull Mountain dungeon as a bridge to get them strong enough for some of the mid-level TSR modules.

Outdoor Geomorphs Set One: Walled City

Today's post has been a little problematic, due to one small thing: I haven't been able to find a copy of Outdoor Geomorphs.  It can't be purchased as a PDF, it costs a fortune to buy, and it's not even out there on torrent sites.  There are other D&D products that I haven't been able to find, but all none of those were commercial releases.  This one was out there in the shops, but I'll be buggered if I can find a copy.

It's not all bad news, though.  Through various sites I've been able to find scans of the front cover, the back cover, and an image from one of the interior pages.  Even better than that, all of the interior text can be read here.  So special thanks go out to Grodog at www.greyhawkonline.com for being the only guy to make this product even partially available.  You sir, are a prince.

The text begins with Gary giving some basic tips for designing cities: sketch out a brief history, work out what type of government rules the city, divide it into various sectors (like the Thieves' Quarter, Peasant's Market, etc.), think about the city's military forces and guards.  It's elementary stuff, but this sort of advice can be handy for beginners.  I must admit to chuckling at some of Gary's example for street names.  Pimp Passage, you guys.

This is followed by a list of the types of occupations found in most medieval cities, and this is always a good one to skim over when doing city design.  It's rare that I go into that level of detail when doing initial designs on a city, but it never hurts to place some of the most commonly sought after occupations before play begins.  The same goes for the list of building types that follows.

The text ends with three sample locations.  The first is the Old Gate, which is open all day, manned by 24 guards and commanded by three NPC fighters: Runalf, Feldoc and Vorje.

The second location is the Silvery Mart, so named because it's stalls mostly sell fish.  One of the stall owners will regale his customers about his adventures on the Lake of Unknown Depths, and the friendly mermaid who told him about the City in the Lake.  he can be bribed to draw a map to the city, but warns that the crystal steps leading down to it are guarded by a huge monster.  (The Society of Sages is mentioned as a place from which further information can be sought.)

Anchor Tavern is the last place described, a fairly normal establishment frequented mostly by mercenaries and sailors.  Sometimes it will be visited by the Master Thief, Quaggy the Quick-Fingered, and at other times by the buccaneer super-hero Radvar, and his four lieutenants.  Radvar is enamoured of the tavern's serving wench Kyleen, and could cause trouble if she's seen in the company of the PCs.

That's basically all the info I can find about this product.  Since this is all written by Gary Gygax, I'll be incorporating all of this into my version of the City of Greyhawk.  In addition to the three locales above, there's some other stuff in the earlier design guidelines.  There are divisions (Thieves Quarter, Peasants Market, New Quarter, Foreign Section, Temple Block), and some sample streets (Herbal Lane, which includes alchemists, apothecaries, herbalists, with fortune tellers at one end, and some physicians, chirurgeons, leeches and barbers at the other end, where the lane T's at Medicine Row).  The Thieves Quarter contains the Thieves' Guild, Assassins' Guild, Pimp Passage, Drunkard's Walk, the Avenue of Beggars, Whore Street, Gambler's Row, and the lower end of Currency Avenue where many money lenders can be found.  At the end of Gamber's Row is Money Changer's Court, where the Usurer's Union building is.  Just up Pennyless Walk is the Almshouse of the Brothers of the Blinding Light.  The Old Town Barracks are mentioned, as is the Riverman's Hostel.  It's all stuff to remember when I'm putting Greyhawk City together.

Finally, here's a sketch of the city:

It's kind of difficult to make out the details, to be honest.  Once I have some more concrete details about the City of Greyhawk, I'll come back to it.

NEXT: Player's Handbook, baby.

D&D Basic Set part 19

Dungeon Mastering as a Fine Art: This section is a very short primer on what the DM needs to prepare to run the game. There’s not much to discuss here, but I thought I’d bring attention to it just because I love that sub-heading. I’m a firm believer in equality among all the arts, with no distinction between low and high, and there’s no reason that a well-crafted dungeon should be any less valued than a well-crafted sculpture. Like they say, I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like. Is every DM a fine artist? Hell no, but it's something to aspire to.

Oh, and there’s also a little dungeon cross-section you may have heard of. Shall I reproduce it? Who am I to resist such a thing?

Now that is an evocative dungeon layout right there. I’ve been itching to design something for it ever since I first saw it a few years ago, but given the breadth and scope of this current project I’m much more likely to have to steal someone else’s work. Such as this version here, soon to be on sale. Are there any other Skull Mountains out there?

Then Holmes goes on to discuss the distribution of monsters and treasure, and the deadliness of traps. He’s much more forgiving with pit traps than the other rulesets I’ve seen, allowing a 4-in-6 chance that a shallow pit deals no damage. It’s all good advice. There’s even a little bit about role-playing, and using appropriate voices for various NPCs. I’m a total ham, so I get into doing voices, but I can see that it’s not for everyone. Some people are comfortable with it, some aren’t. As far as my table goes, you play it however you want to. Holmes then describes the customary player roles of Caller and Mapper, but he also adds a third – a player to chronicle the monsters killed and treasure obtained. This is actually a very good idea, as it takes some onus off the DM so far as calculating experience points goes. So long as you have a trustworthy player, that is. Where I do disagree with Holmes is his assertion that the Mapper and Caller must be at the front rank of the party. I can’t think of a watertight rationale for either, so I won’t enforce it. A leader doesn’t always lead from the front, and the mapper can do his job just as well from the middle ranks.

An example of play follows, and besides some lines that I find inexplicably humorous it’s not that remarkable. It’s distinguishing feature is that it reduces the game to a conversation between the DM and the Caller, which doesn’t sound like the sort of game I’d want to play in. It’s possible that it’s all an abstraction to simplify the players discussing their decisions, but that’s hardly the best way to go about things in an introductory example. In the example, a Fighter, a Dwarf, an Elf and a Hobbit are exploring the dungeon. They explore a room, do the obligatory listening at doors and searching for secret doors, find some treasure and smash some orcs. The example ends just as they have encountered a gelatinous cube. I’ll most certainly take the dungeon as described and place it somewhere in Skull Mountain, and I’ll stat out that adventuring party as well. (The way the leader constantly refers to his buddies as ‘The Elf’, ‘The Dwarf’ and ‘The Hobbit’ gives me all sorts of ideas about him already. I’m going to play him as a somewhat prejudiced guy who really does call the rest of his party by those names. “Hey elf, check for secret doors! Hobbit! Gather up those coins. Dwarf, get over here and look in this pit!” Yeah, I can have some fun with him.)

And then Holmes ends with some more good advice. DMs should prepare, inspiration can be found in literary sources, make the game your own, yada yada. The usual stuff that’s been covered before.

Sample Dungeon: The sample dungeon given here is the Tower of Zenopus, and it’s pretty sweet. It’s not the most imaginative dungeon out there, but it hits the basics very well, and it has a good ratio of traps, tricks and monsters, as well as some nice atmospheric touches. I’ll be placing this dungeon and the nearby Portown somewhere in my World of Greyhawk, possibly around the Nyr Dyv. There are quite a few intriguing possibilities brought up by Holmes at the conclusion for expanding the dungeon. I’m wondering now if the on-line community has tackled this yet, but I can't find anything.

And that’s a wrap for the Basic D&D Boxed Set. Overall it’s a quality product, albeit with some shonky rules in the combat section. And I think it’s going to be a valuable deck-clearing tool when my campaign has acquired too much rules build-up from the OD&D supplements. I also think it’s interesting that Holmes D&D can legitimately lay claim to a connection to all three strains of TSR D&D. It’s a reorganisation of OD&D. It’s the obvious design predecessor to Moldvay’s Basic Set. And it has a number of pointers in the text to AD&D. Holmes Basic is a very important piece of D&D history and development, and we should never forget that.

NEXT: The Dragon #10

D&D Basic Set part 18

Treasure: This section begins with a cursory explanation of the treasure tables, and also provides the exchange rates for the different types of coins. Electrum is given a concrete value for the first time here, being worth half a gold piece. Previously in OD&D it could be worth either half or double the value of gold, depending on the DM.

The section on determining the value of gems uses the same table as in OD&D, but it doesn’t provide for values above 1,000 gold pieces. Sorry folks, there’s no way to fluke a 500,000 gp gem any more.

The value of jewelry has also been greatly decreased, using only the least valuable entry from the OD&D chart. The rules for destroying jewelry and gems with fire and lightning have been retained, but they lack the precision of OD&D.

This is followed by an explanation of how to use the Treasure Tables, something that wasn’t given in OD&D. Holmes goes out of his way to stress that the treasures shown are very large, and should be guarded by a lot of monsters. Words to live by!

The actual treasure tables are much the same as those in OD&D, except that Holmes has added columns for electrum pieces and platinum pieces. There are also new Treasure Types from J to T, which provide much smaller treasure hoards intended for single creatures or small groups. The only other change is that there is a slightly smaller chance of finding magic items here than there was previously.

The table to determine what type of magic item you’ve found has been slightly altered, with the armour and miscellaneous weapons categories now combined.

Holmes has created his own tables for each category of item. Rather than a percentile dice roll as is required in OD&D, each table requires a single roll of 1d10. There are ten items on each table, meaning each has a 10% chance to come up. It’s a lot less fiddly than OD&D, but it also provides less granularity and choice of items. It makes sense for an intro game, though.

The Swords table is much the same as that in OD&D, with the following omitted: Sword +1 with 2-8 Wishes, Sword +2 with Charm Person, Life Draining Sword, and Sword +3 vs. Trolls. He has added a Cursed Sword -1, which is the first time a cursed sword with that particular penalty has entered the game. Supplement I had a Cursed Sword +1, which may have been a typo, but it also made the wielder seek out battle with as many monsters as possible, which is penalty enough without the negative modifier.

The Armor Table and the Weapons Table from OD&D have been combined here. You can no longer find armor of more than +1 bonus. Also omitted are the chance for 3-30 magic arrows, mace +2, war hammer +2 and +3, and the spear +2 and +3. Bad luck clerics, you only have one type of magic weapon to choose from. Holmes has brought in his own version of cursed armor, that adds +2 to the opponent’s chance to hit.

A ton of potions have been left out of Holmes, so instead I’ll list what is there: growth, diminution, giant strength, invisibility, gaseous form, speed, flying, delusion, poison and healing.

Holmes has done something interesting with scrolls. Along with the usual assortment of spell scrolls and protection scrolls, there are also options that allow a scroll to duplicate magic rings, potions or wands. I’m not sure there’s much there that isn’t already covered by spells, but then again Holmes only covers spell levels 1 and 2 – this is a neat way of getting some higher level spell scrolls into the game without having to give the actual spell descriptions.

There are also a lot of rings left out. Holmes has included rings of invisibility, animal control, plant control, weakness, protection +1, three wishes, regeneration, water walking, fire resistance, and contrariness.

Again, the selection of wands and staves is small, and many of the most powerful sorts such as the Staff of Wizardry didn’t make the cut. Included are: wand of magic detection, secret door and trap detection, fear, cold, paralysation, fire ball, staff of healing, snake staff, staff of striking and rod of cancellation.

Last of all is miscellaneous magic, a section that has been absolutely gutted by paring it down to ten items. Included are the crystal ball, medallion of ESP, bag of holding, elven cloak and boots, broom of flying, helm of telepathy, bag of devouring, helm of evil/good, rope of climbing and gauntlets of ogre power.

Magic Weapons and Armor: These work much the same as in OD&D, with most swords only getting a bonus to hit, while other weapons all get bonuses to hit and damage. Swords have been majorly nerfed here, as they no longer have intelligence and the raft of special abilities that come with it. A regular sword +1 is actually an inferior weapon to most of the miscellaneous types.

Potions: The potion of giant strength now specifically confers the strength of a stone giant, and thus is more powerful than the OD&D version. The potion of haste (called a potion of speed in the tables, as it was in OD&D) now allows the user twice as many attacks a round as well as the power to move at double speed. Otherwise, the potions listed work just as they did in OD&D.

Scrolls: A little more explanation is given regarding cursed scrolls, and the protection scrolls are simplified a little. But this is mostly just as it was in OD&D.

Rings: The ring of animal control (mammal control in OD&D) has been slightly altered in terms of how many animals can be controlled at a time. The ring of plant control is new, and it simply gives the wearer the ability to mentally control plants and fungi. The ring of weakness has been changed, as it now has a 5% chance to make its wearer stronger instead of weaker. The ring of protection has been majorly beefed up, now granting the same AC as plate mail +1. The original line in OD&D said that the ring ‘serves as +1 armor would, giving this bonus to defensive capabilities and saving throws’. I’ve always interpreted this as the ring granting a simple +1 bonus, but Holmes has definitely gone with the more powerful option. The ring of three wishes hasn’t been changed, but there is an added note that wishes can be curtailed with literal interpretations. The ring of contrariness has also not been changed, but this sentence is a doozy: “If, for example, the wearer is told to not kill himself, he will agree – and instead attempt to kill the person suggesting he not kill himself.” I’m not sure if it works logically, but it makes me laugh.

Wands and Staves: The same is those in OD&D.

Miscellaneous: There is now a 1-in-6 chance that someone in an Elven Cloak can be spotted. It is suggested that a Broom of Flying ought to have its command word engraved on the handle, or be otherwise easily accessible. Holmes gives a saving throw against the mind control ability of the Helm of Telepathy, which I approve of over OD&D’s more arcane percentile method. The Helm of Evil/Good was known as the Helm of Chaos/Law in OD&D. It still changes the wearer’s alignment to the opposite, but now this has been altered to suit the more complicated alignment system of Holmes. The Rope of Climbing is now said to be able to support 10,000 gp in weight. Gauntlets of Ogre Power are now given specific powers. They grant 2d4 extra points of damage per blow, and the ability to carry an extra 1,000 gp.

Holmes ends with a note on characters using their henchmen to test magic items, and how it can be a Very Bad Idea. Bad morale, henchmen demanding to keep beneficial items, revenge schemes for henchmen who get bad items… Good stuff. I’m almost certain this advice has appeared in the game before, but I’m mentioning it now just in case I’m wrong.

On Alignment Changes From OD&D to Holmes Basic

Alignment undergoes a big shift from OD&D into the Holmes Basic Set and AD&D. Originally it was a simple three-way system of Law-Neutrality-Chaos, but by Holmes the concepts of Good and Evil have entered into the mix, creating a system with five alignments (Lawful Good, Lawful Evil, Neutral, Chaotic Good and Chaotic Evil). I've tracked these changes below:

Chaotic to Lawful Evil
Bandit
Gargoyle
Fire Giant
Goblin
Hell Hound
Hobgoblin
Kobold
Wererat
Werewolf
Manticore
Minotaur
Mummy
Shadow
Spectre
Vampire
Wight
Wraith

Chaotic to Chaotic Evil
Bandit
Bugbear
Chimera
Doppleganger
White Dragon
Black Dragon
Red Dragon
Ghoul
Hill Giant
Harpy
Weretiger
Ogre
Orc
Troll

Chaotic to Neutral Evil
Displacer Beast

Chaotic to Chaotic Good
Wereboar

Neutral to Chaotic Good
Pixie

Lawful to Lawful Good
Blink Dog
Dwarf
Pegasus
Unicorn

Lawful to Chaotic Good
Brass Dragon
Elf
Storm Giant
Gnome
Werebear

Note that the above list is probably not precise, with a few accidental omissions here and there. But it gives a pretty good indicator of how alignment changed between OD&D and Holmes (as well as AD&D, which more or less uses the same system for monsters as Holmes).

The alignments previously known as Law and Chaos seem to have mostly split down the lines of good and evil. There are a lot of once-Chaotic monsters that have become Lawful Evil, and quite a few once-Lawful monsters that are now Chaotic Good.

It makes me wonder about the nature of the grand cosmic struggle between Law and Chaos. Though it seems that on a conceptual level those are the two sides vying for dominance, on a practical level it comes down to a struggle between boring old Good and Evil. The good monsters sided with Law, and the evil monsters with Chaos.

What's evident from this is that alignment models a completely different thing in OD&D than it does in later AD&D versions of the game. The Law-Neutrality-Chaos system of OD&D is what I like to call Universal Alignment. These are the only conceptual forces that matter in the grand scheme of reality. Growth vs. entropy, live vs. death, law vs. chaos, order vs. disorder, however you want it to actually play out. The later system models what I call Personal Alignment, which is much more predicated on the internal nature of the individual.

So why the shift? Something happened to fracture the two sides, something that I'm probably going to connect to the rise of various new churches and deities. When the campaign begins, it will be full of churches to Odin and various real world mythologies from Supplement IV. These are powers that are either fading in potency, or not particularly interested in the dealings of mortals. By the time the AD&D era rolls around I will have introduced churches to St. Cuthbert and Pholtus, as those two were the first two such churches introduced in Gary's campaign. And there will also be Demon Lords and Arch-Devils, and the many other staple D&D gods, all more active on the Prime Material Plane than the 'elder gods'. So new gods rise to power and prominence, and the Law vs. Chaos war gets muddied by different ideologies, which makes Personal Alignment (at least on my Oerth) become more important than Universal Alignment.

As for some of the more anomalous results above:

The Displacer Beast above was said in Holmes to be Neutral with Evil tendencies. There's no actual Neutral Evil alignment in these rules, but I threw it in for completeness.

The wereboar is an interesting anomaly, as the only case where Chaos was not equated to Evil. They're Neutral in AD&D, so that's no help. I guess it's just a weird rules thing, but I like having those strange discrepancies. Why did they fight for Chaos, then become Good? Were they enslaved, and then broke free? Or were they utterly loyal to the tenets of Chaos, despite their goodness?

D&D Basic Set part 17

Troll: In OD&D Trolls had an AC of 4, but now it has dropped to 6. They were Chaotic in OD&D, but now they are Chaotic Evil. As has become expected, the damage for the Troll’s claw/claw/bite attack routine has been changed, from 1-4/1-4/1-8 to all three attacks doing 1d6.

Unicorns: They were Lawful in OD&D, and now they are Lawful Good. The unicorn’s horn now only deals 1d8 damage instead of 1-16. Their saving throw of 8 against all magic is a simplification of the OD&D rule, in which they had the same saving throw as an 11th level magic-user. They have also lost their ability to sense enemies within 240 ft.

Vampire: Vampires were Chaotic in OD&D, but now they are Lawful Evil. The need for them to sleep in a coffin filled with soil from their native land has been taken out, which is a shame because it’s right out of Dracula.

Wight: Wights were Chaotic in OD&D, but now they are Lawful Evil. There’s also an odd note about them being nearly immaterial, which doesn’t really jibe with later D&D material. I’m going to play this as false information from a sage who got wights and wraiths mixed up.

Wraith: Wraiths were Chaotic, but now they are Lawful Evil.

Yellow Mold: Just as in OD&D.

Zombie: Zombies have received a boost, being twice as fast and having 2 Hit Dice instead of 1. I chalk this up to research, and the standard Animate Dead spell being replaced by a more effective version.

And that's it for the monster section. It's a nice eclectic selection that Holmes has used, even if he's filled it with stuff that 1st to 3rd level PCs are never going to be able to encounter without dying horribly. But now I want to talk about a couple of the differences and discrepancies that keep popping up in the Holmes ruleset.

The first is the damage for monsters with multiple attacks. Most of these have been simplified so that all of the attacks do the same amount of damage. I don't know what Holmes' reasoning here was, unless it was just a way of simplifying things at the table. And I'm not even sure that mathematically speaking it doesn't average out the same. It's certainly not something that Holmes grabbed from the upcoming AD&D Monster Manual. But in terms of my campaign, in which I am trying to rationalise all of these fiddly little rules changes, it's a bit annoying. Luckily I can explain it without too much fuss. I figure that there are always different combat techniques being developed, and for a while here certain attacks may be more or less effective.

I also want to do an analysis of alignment, and how it has changed from the Law-Chaos system to the five alignments of Holmes. I'm separating that out into its own post, so expect that later today.

Basic D&D part 16

Owl Bear: Like many other monsters in Holmes, the Owl Bear’s attack routine has been simplified. Instead of two claw attacks that deal 1d6 damage each and a bite that deals 1d12, it now has three attacks that deal 1d8 damage each. I was all set to castigate Holmes for not providing the rules for an Owl Bear’s bear-hug attack, but it seems he’s just following the lead of OD&D. Supplement I says that the Owl Bear hugs as a Werebear, but lo and behold the Werebear has no hug attack to speak of in the rules. Perhaps Gary was talking about a rule he was using at his own table, without realising that he’d never set it down in the books.

Owl Bear’s get an alignment for the first time here: Neutral.

This is also the first time that the Owl Bear’s physical appearance is specified in writing. Supplement I had an illustration that made it pretty clear, but nothing in the monster entry itself.

Pegasus: They were Lawful in OD&D, and now they are Lawful Good.

Pixie: Their Armour Class has improved significantly, from 6 to 3, and their Treasure Type has changed from C to R + S combined. What this means is that they have less copper and silver coinage, and a much higher chance for gems, jewelry and magic items. In OD&D their alignment was Neutral, but now they can be Neutral or Chaotic Good. They are otherwise the same as in OD&D, with their rules for flying fatigue brought in from Chainmail. There’s some new info provided as well, with Holmes stating that their royalty are powerful magic-users, and that they are friendly with Elves and Fairies.

Purple Worm: Holmes’ irritating tendency to simplify a monster’s attack routine strikes again. The worm’s bite damage has been lessened from 2d12 to 1d12, and its sting has been raised from 1d8 to 1d12. The only other difference from OD&D is that their swallow whole attack is no longer restricted to creatures of ogre-size or less.

Rust Monster: Their alignment is now given as Neutral, and their ability to turn metal to rust is no longer restricted to ferrous metals specifically.

Shadow: Shadows were Chaotic in OD&D, but now they are Lawful Evil.

Skeleton: Skeletons had an Armour Class of 7 in OD&D, but it is now listed as 8. Their alignment is now given as Neutral. Their immunity to sleep, charm and mind-reading spells is also specifically called out in the monster entry.

Spectre: Spectres were Chaotic in OD&D, but now they are Lawful Evil. And look, that reference to the Nazgul is still there!

Stirge: Their alignment is now given as Neutral. Holmes also gives them a +2 to attack rather than saying they attack as 4th level Fighters – a much more elegant way to model the rule. The less charts I need to look up the better.

D&D Basic Set part 15

Lizard Man: The lizard man seems to have lost its two claw attacks, now having but a single attack at 1d8 damage. If this is a weapon attack as the description implies, then I guess that Lizard Men are adapting to more civilized warfare, rather than using their bites.

Lycanthropes: Holmes has included all five types from OD&D: wereboars, werebears, werewolves, weretigers and wererats. Werebears and weretigers have had their attack routines altered. Whereas before each of them had a few attacks of smaller damage, now each gets one attack with enormous damage. The werebear dishes out more damage than just about everything else in the game. The origin area of some lycanthropes is mentioned, with werewolves being from ‘Europe’, weretigers from ‘India’, and weresharks from ‘Polynesia’. Alas, there are no wereshark stats provided.

Lycanthropes are still only affected by silver or magical weapons, but now it is spelled out that they can be damaged by normal weapons while in human form. It’s also made explicit that they are repelled by wolfsbane. And of course there are the obligatory alignment changes: wereboars changed from Chaotic to Chaotic Good, wererats from Chaotic to Lawful Evil, werebears from Lawful to Chaotic Good, weretigers from Chaotic to Chaotic Evil, and werewolves from Chaotic to Lawful Evil.

Manticore: The manticore’s alignment has changed from Chaotic to Lawful Evil. Their attack routine has also been simplified, with each claw and bite dealing 1d6 instead of the claws doing 1d3 and the bite doing 1d8.

Medusa: As in OD&D, but with the amusing note that ‘this monster is usually female’.

Minotaur: Their alignment has changed from Chaotic or Neutral to Lawful Evil. Otherwise, they are just like OD&D.

Mummies: The Armor Class of mummies has dropped from 3 to 5. Their alignment has changed from Chaotic to Lawful Evil. The mummy has also developed a greater resistance to magic weapons; in OD&D it was the weapon's magic bonus that was halved, but in Holmes the entire damage rolled is halved. There's also a whole new rule about characters being paralysed by their first sight of a mummy.

I don't know if I realised this before, but the mummy's rotting touch is utterly hardcore. That it causes you to heal at 1/10th the normal rate is bad enough, but the best you can hope for in the way of aid from clerical magic is that your healing rate will be halved from now on. Once a mummy touches you, that's it buddy – that rotting disease has you forever. Throw in the new rule about mummy paralysis and you've got one very deadly creature.

Contradiction alert: mummies are said to be vulnerable to fire, yet burning oil only does half damage to them. What gives, Holmes?

Nixies: The same as in OD&D, except that the effect of Dispel Magic on their charm spell is not given, probably because that spell is out of the range of PCs using the Basic Set. The bit about flaming swords holding their fish flunkies at bay is also omitted, for reasons less easy to fathom. Also, they now have a movement rate of 60 on land.

Ochre Jelly: The same as OD&D, with the added ability to eat through leather and cloth.

Ogre: Their Armor Class has changed from 5 to 6. Their alignment has changed from Neutral or Chaotic to Chaotic Evil.

Orc: Their Armor Class has changed from 6 to 7. Their alignment has changed from Neutral or Chaotic to Chaotic Evil. There is no longer a roll to see if Orcs in the wilderness lair in caves or a village, and the powerful monsters that live with the Orcs have been drastically scaled back – there's no longer a chance for high-level Fighters or Magic-Users, or Dragons. Orcs no longer have a chance to be guarding wagon trains full of gold, either. I suppose this is because Holmes D&D doesn't really deal with wilderness adventuring, being more focussed on the dungeon. But taken as a whole it looks to me like the orcs are falling on hard times.

D&D Basic Set part 14

Before I go on, I feel the need to point out that Holmes Basic is the first D&D rule set to have a monster’s stats grouped together with its description. God bless functional design!

Gnome: In OD&D, gnomes could be Lawful or Neutral. Here, they are either Neutral or Chaotic Good. There’s a note at the end that Gnomes favour crossbows, which is something that’s never been brought up before, and doesn’t stick around in the future so far as I recall. I'm going to play it up, though. It does fit well with the 'tinker gnome' theme that crept into the race in the late 80s.

Goblin: In OD&D goblins all carried 1-6 gold pieces each. Now they carry 2-12 electrum pieces, which is the exact same value expressed in different coinage. Their alignment has changed from Chaotic to Lawful Evil. In Supplement I their standard damage was set at 1-4, but here it’s been upped to 1-6. The only other difference noted is that the Goblin King and his bodyguards don’t suffer the -1 penalty in daylight, but OD&D’s assertion that they fight as hobgoblins may have been intended to cover that.

Gray Ooze: These are exactly the same as in OD&D. The only minor difference is that it isn’t noted that gray oozes can’t dissolve wood or stone. And the psionic powers from Supplement III don’t make it either, but then again psionics aren’t present in Holmes at all.

Green Slime: Just as in OD&D, with an additional note that green slime often drops from the ceiling onto unwary adventurer. A welcome addition!

Griffon: For some reason, their Armor Class has changed from 3 to 5. They also now get a physical description, though a rudimentary knowledge of mythology would have provided that already

Harpy: The harpy’s damage range has changed, as they now do 1-4 with each attack instead of 1-3 per claw and 1-6 with a weapon. Seems reasonable, as the image of weapon-wielding harpies doesn't really sit right. They have also changed from Chaotic to Chaotic Evil. Otherwise, they’re just as in OD&D.

Hell Hound: Their alignment has changed from Chaotic to Lawful Evil. Holmes has house-ruled the breath weapon, saying that it requires an attack roll on the regular combat chart for monsters. Their supposed great stealth isn’t mentioned, nor is their tendency to hang around with fire giants.

Hippogriff: They now have an alignment of Neutral.

Hobgoblin: Their Armor Class has changed from 5 to 6; I suppose they have downgraded from chainmail to leather and shield? Although their movement rate remains unchanged... Their alignment was previously Chaotic, but now they are Lawful Evil. Otherwise they’re just like in OD&D.

Horse: Just as in OD&D.

Hydra: Just as in OD&D.

Kobold: Individual treasures for kobolds have been lessened from 1-6 gold pieces each to 3-24 copper pieces. Looks like the kobolds of the world have fallen on hard times! Their alignment has changed from Chaotic to Lawful Evil. It’s weird that kobolds are generally said to be weaker than goblins, but a kobold chieftain (who fights as a gnoll) is stronger than a goblin king (who fights as a hobgoblin). They are also described as dwarf-like, very much unlike the canine appearance they had already been given in earlier products, as well as the upcoming Monster Manual. I'm going to chalk that up to a reference to their size, rather than their appearance. Finally, they get a +3 bonus to saving throws that is unique to Holmes so far as I know. It seems he was really embracing that whole ‘dwarf-like’ thing.

D&D Basic Set part 13

Dwarves: This entry wisely directs the DM to the Dwarf PC class for special abilities. Otherwise things match with OD&D, but with several things omitted. There’s no chance given now for higher-level Dwarves to own magic items. The tendency of Dwarves to use wolves and bears to guard their strongholds didn’t make it in. The only change is that Dwarven leaders now range from level 2-7 instead of 1-6. Plus the standard alignment change, from Neutral or Lawful to Neutral or Lawful Good.

Oh, and despite being weapon-wielders in a game where all weapons deal 1d6 damage, dwarven damage is listed as 1d8. As I said for the berserker entry, shenanigans. I’ll keep it in, though; a back-to-basics approach at the Adventurers’ Guild isn’t likely to extend to monsters and NPCs, so it makes reasonable sense despite being an obvious discrepancy in the rules as written.

Elves: Again, the section on character creation is cited for elven special abilities. In OD&D they could be Lawful or Neutral. In Holmes Basic, they are usually Chaotic Good or Neutral – there’s that pesky Law-Chaos switcheroo again! There’s an interesting change to the types of elves. In OD&D, there were woodland elves and meadow elves. Now, there are Wood Elves and High Elves. So are Meadow Elves and High Elves the same thing? If so, I heartily approve of the name change. Like Dwarves above, elven leaders are now of generally higher level. Their ability to move silently is now gone, as is the invisibility given to them by their grey-green cloaks. They can’t do split-move and fire any more, either, which I guess indicates that Holmes wasn’t approaching this from a war-gaming perspective. And lastly, they don’t get a +1 damage bonus when wielding magic swords any more. This represents the first and probably the last ever time that elves get slightly nerfed.

Gargoyles: In OD&D, gargoyles were Chaotic, but in Holmes they are Lawful Evil. Their damage entry has been simplified, as they now deal 1d4 with four attacks instead of having different ranges for their horn and bite. The only other difference is that in OD&D they were given a 75% chance to attack anything or anyone, whereas in Holmes there are no mechanics to simulate their natural hostility.

Gelatinous Cube: Just like those in Supplement I, but their spell immunities are less specific.

Ghouls: Ghouls were Chaotic in OD&D, and now they are Chaotic Evil. Their damage range has been simplified, with their bite doing the same 1-3 as their claws, instead of 1-4. They get a description now, as bestial humanoids that live on dead bodies. Their paralysing touch is clarified, as it specifically states that the ghoul needs to land a hit in melee for it to take effect, and that the target gets a saving throw. And in a crushing blow to me, those killed by ghouls no longer rise up as ghouls themselves. For shame, Holmes, for shame.

Giants: Giants are now limited to throwing rocks once every five rounds. Holmes provides a method for determining rock throwing based on the catapult rules from Chainmail. It works, but I can’t help feeling that it should just be simplified to a standard attack roll. All six types of giant are presented here. Hill giants have now gone from Chaotic to Chaotic Evil. Stone giants are slightly shorter than in OD&D, as are frost giants. Plus, frost giant damage is listed simultaneously as 4-24 and 2 dice +1. The latter is from OD&D and the former is from Supplement I; I think I’ll go with the more recent rule, the one from Supplement I. Fire giants and cloud giants have the same discrepancy. Unless this is supposed to be their damage for throwing rocks? Fire giants have changed from Chaotic to Lawful Evil. Cloud giants are two feet shorter. Also, their damage range has a probable typo – it reads 6-63, but in Supplement I their damage range was 6-36, so it looks like an error to me. Storm giants have gone from Lawful to Chaotic Good. Otherwise, same as before.

Giant Ticks: Ticks previously had an 80% chance of carrying disease, but now they all do. At least the disease doesn’t drive you insane any more…

D&D Basic Set part 12

Chimera: In OD&D they could have an alignment of Neutral or Chaotic, but in Holmes Basic they are now Chaotic Evil. There’s also a small change to their damage dice. In Supplement I, the goat head is said to inflict 1-4 points of damage with a horn. Here it inflicts 2-8, which makes me wonder if in Supplement I you were supposed to roll the 1d4 damage for each horn. It’s clarified that the dragon head will breathe fire 50% of the time in any combat round, and that it is limited to 3 times per day. The damage dice is also upped from 3d6 to 3d8.

Cockatrice: Cockatrices were given no alignment in OD&D, but here they are listed as Neutral. They also get a physical description for the first time, as a chicken with a serpent’s tail.

Later supplements gave the cockatrice abilities relating to the Astral and Ethereal Plane, but they aren’t printed here, probably because it’s not a factor for the low levels that the Basic Set deals with.

Displacer Beast: Displacer beasts were listed as Chaotic in Supplement I, but in Holmes Basic they are said to be Neutral with Evil tendencies. Some other details are also dropped, such as their enmity with Blink Dogs (although it did get mentioned in the Blink Dog entry). The biggest change comes with saving throws. In Supplement I they saved as 12th level Fighters, which gave them some very good defences. In Holmes they are simply said to have a +2 to saving throws, further research of which has led me to discover that there’s no mechanism in this rule set to figure out saving throws for the toughest monsters. Unless I’m missing something...?

Djinni: It is clarified that djinni-created steel lasts for but 1 turn, and that their illusions can include sound. Their carrying ability is also different, with bigger loads tiring them more quickly. It’s clarified that creatures under 2 hit dice are killed outright if caught in their whirlwind form, and that stronger creatures still take 2-12 damage. They also now have an alignment of Neutral.

Doppleganger: Their alignment was listed as Neutral or Chaotic in Supplement I, and here they are either Chaotic Evil or Neutral; that seems much the same to me. Their ability to change shape is now limited to humanoids up to 7 feet tall.

Dragons: Only four types of dragon are given in Holmes: White, Black, Red and Brass. I suppose Holmes wanted to include the classic fire-breathing variety, then rounded things out by including the three weakest types. All dragons now deal 4-24 damage with a bite, instead of the variation by type presented in Supplement I. The alignment of Dragons from OD&D was either Neutral or Chaotic. White and Black dragons can still be Neutral or Chaotic Evil, while all Red Dragons are now Chaotic Evil. Brass Dragons in Supplement I were Lawful or Neutral, but here they can be Neutral or Chaotic Good – and if that switch from Law to Chaos isn’t an indicator that alignment is now serving a completely different function, then I don’t know what is. Their chance to use their breath weapon in any given round has slightly decreased. Cone breath weapons now have a smaller diameter at the dragon’s mouth. Dragon’s now have a larger chance to be small or large, and for the first time small dragons are specifically female, and large ones are specifically male. And there are now two extra age categories as well – young adult and ancient – which has also resulted in the age ranges for some categories increasing. It’s interesting to note that now only sleeping dragons can be subdued; in OD&D, characters could elect to subdue a dragon at any time. The method used for determining subdual is also much simpler, but also makes it harder for the PCs to accomplish; I can get behind both of these things. A maximum duration of one month is also now given for subdual, which wasn’t present before.

There’s a ton of information from OD&D that didn’t make it into Holmes Basic. There are no numbers given for the chance to find a dragon asleep, even though it’s mentioned in the rules for subduing. Likewise, there is no chance given for dragons to be able to speak. No info is given on the preferred habitats of each dragon. None of the resistances to various energy attacks are here. There’s also nothing about encountering dragon families. In short, there's a whole lot of simplifying going on.

Solo D&D Play

I have a habit of flitting about from project to project. One week I'm obsessed with writing a novel, the next I'm programming a text adventure, and the week after that I'm trying to write a mega-gamebook that provides linking material between all of the Fighting Fantasy series. This week, I've started developing rules for D&D solo play that abstract dungeon exploration. So just for the heck of it, I'm going to post some of that work up here. I've been using Mentzer Basic as my guide for the rules here, with some AD&D thrown in for good measure. And it's definitely incomplete. I haven't included any of the random tables, which are the heart of the game, really. But the basic framework is provided below.

And no, my tables and charts didn't format properly.

D&D SOLO PLAY RULES

The Regular Game Turn:

For every turn in which you are exploring the dungeon, you must follow the procedure below.

Step 1: Wandering Monsters: At the beginning of every second turn, you must roll to see if you have encountered any wandering monsters. Roll 1d6. On a result of 1, you have encountered a wandering monster. Use the Random Monster tables in Appendix A to determine what type of monster you have encountered, then use the Encounter rules to resolve it. This will take up the entire turn. Remember that wandering monsters usually have no treasure. If you do not encounter a wandering monster, proceed to Step 2.

Step 2: Encounter Check: Roll on the following table to see what you have discovered in the dungeon this turn:

Encounter Check Table

Roll: Result:
1-4 No encounter
5-6 Monster
7-8 Monster and Treasure
9-10 Trap
11-12 Trap and Treasure
13-14 Treasure
15-16 Obstacle
17-18 Obstacle and Treasure
19 Stairs
20 Special

No encounter: You have found nothing of significant interest in the dungeon this turn.

Monster: You have encountered a monster. Use the Random Monster tables in Appendix A to determine what type of monster it is, then resolve the encounter using the Encounter rules. There is a chance that the monster will have some treasure, as noted under each individual monster entry.

Monster and Treasure: Determine the monster type as noted above. The monster is also guarding a treasure of some sort, determined by using the Random Treasure tables in Appendix D. Note that this is in addition to any personal treasure the monster may have as noted in their monster entry.

Trap: Roll on the Random Trap tables in Appendix B to see what kind of trap you have encountered.

Trap and Treasure: You have found some treasure, as determined on the Random Treasure table in Appendix D, but it is guarded by a trap. Check the Random Trap tables in Appendix B to see what sort of trap it is. You may ignore this and proceed to the next turn if you wish, or you may choose to try and take the treasure, in which case you must bypass or trigger the trap, as detailed later in the Trap section.

Treasure: You have found some unguarded treasure that you may take with ease. Roll on the Random Treasure table in Appendix D to see what it is.

Obstacle: Something is blocking your path. Roll on the Random Obstacle tables in Appendix C to see what it is and how to resolve it. You must get past the obstacle to proceed. Otherwise you may choose to take another path through the dungeon, in which case see the rules for Backtracking.

Obstacle and Treasure: The obstacle is not blocking your path, but is instead stopping you from claiming some treasure. Roll on the Random Obstacle tables in Appendix C and the Random Treasure tables in Appendix D to determine what is here. If you want to claim the treasure, you must get past the obstacle. Otherwise, you may choose to continue exploring and proceed to the next turn.

Stairs: You have found some stairs leading up or down to a different dungeon level. Roll on the Random Stairs table in Appendix E to see what type they are. You may choose to ignore the stairs and keep exploring the same level you are on, or you may take the stairs to the new level.

Special: You have found a special sort of room not covered by any of the previous categories. Roll on the Random Special table in Appendix F to see what you have discovered.

Time-Keeping:

It is important to keep an accurate record of your game turns as they progress. This will become necessary when you want to leave the dungeons, and will also be needed for various other situations, as well as helping track durations for spells and light sources. Your record should look something like this:

Turn Event
1 No encounter
2 Wandering monster: 1 orc
3 Found treasure: 100gp
4 Took stairs to Level 2
5 Pit trap: killed

Mapping:

You are assumed to be moving carefully and making an accurate map of the dungeon. Doing so prevents you from becoming lost. You may choose not to map, in which case your exploration will be quicker. If you do so, you need only check for wandering monsters half as often as normal. However, you have a 1-in-10 chance of becoming lost every turn. Dwarves are better at navigating the underground passages of the dungeon, and so they only have a 1-in-12 chance of becoming lost. See below for the consequences of being lost.

Becoming Lost:

There are a number of ways you may become lost, with teleportation and not mapping being the two most common. If you become lost, you will be unable to leave the dungeon until you find a familiar area again. Characters have a 1-in-10 chance per turn of finding a familiar area, except for Dwarves, who have a 1-in-8 chance. If you have become lost by somehow being transported to a new dungeon level, you will only be able to find familiar territory once you return to a dungeon level you had previously explored.

Leaving the Dungeon:

You may decide to leave the dungeon at the start of any turn. To do so, total up the number of turns you have played, and then divide them by two. This is the number of times you must check for Wandering Monsters before you reach the dungeon exit. Note that you may not leave the dungeon if you have become lost.

Backtracking:

If you come to an obstacle that you cannot pass, you may backtrack along your path until you find a new area to explore. On each turn you roll for Wandering Monsters as normal, but do not make the usual Encounter Check. Instead, you have a 2-in-6 chance of finding a new area to explore. Only then can you start making Encoutner Checks again.

Light:

Your character must have a light source to see in the dungeon, unless you are a Dwarf or an Elf. Some common light sources are listed below, along with the number of turns they last for.

Light: Duration:
Candle 3 turns
Torch 6 turns
Lantern 24 turns

Note that your character will need a tinderbox to light a torch or a candle, and flasks of oil to light a lantern. If you run out of light sources in the dungeon, you will be effectively blind. See below for the consequences of blindness.

Fatigue and Resting:

Your character must stop and rest every 6th turn, due to fatigue. During this turn you do not check for Encounters, but you must still roll to see if you have encountered a Wandering Monster. You may choose to go without rest, but you will suffer a -1 penalty to attack and damage. This penalty is cumulative, so if you ignore this rest period twice, you will have a -2 penalty. The penalty disappears as soon as you rest for a turn.

Encumbrance:

Your character’s movement may be slowed if he carries too much equipment and treasure. Normally your character is unencumbered, but if you become encumbered you must roll twice as many times for Wandering Monsters as normal. See the Equipment section for more rules on encumbrance.

Blindness:

Your character cannot see. You suffer a -4 penalty to saving throws, attack rolls, and armour class, and you have double the normal chance to be surprised by monsters. You are automatically lost, and do not have a chance to find a familiar area until the blindness wears off. Otherwise, your only real chance of survival is to find another light source, or to stumble across stairs heading to the surface.

D&D Basic Set part 11

MONSTERS: The monster section opens with some broad advice on using monsters in the campaign. It goes through how the monster entries are laid out, how the DM should stock his dungeon, provides some advice on using powerful monsters against weak PCs, and even gives some guidelines on handing out treasure and experience. I do wonder about Holmes’ estimate that it will take from 6-12 adventures for a character to get from 1st to 2nd level – in my experience, beginning characters are usually up a level after 1 or 2 sessions. That’s with Mentzer Basic and AD&D 2e, though, so the Holmes rules could net different results. And you have to love the bit here about 10-20% of adventures being profitless.

BANDIT: In OD&D, if over 100 bandits were encountered, there would be an 8th or 9th level fighter present. That’s not the case in Holmes Basic, but otherwise the presence of high-level leaders is the same. They now carry 3-18 silver pieces instead of 2-20. In OD&D they had a 50/50 chance of being Neutral or Chaotic in Alignment. Now they can be Lawful Evil (25%), Chaotic Evil (25%) or Neutral.

BASILISK: The basilisk is now described as a small reptilian monster. It’s clarified that victims of the basilisk get a saving throw to avoid being turned to stone. Characters can also now safely view the creature’s reflection without turning to stone.

Later OD&D supplements gave the basilisk abilities relating to the astral and ethereal planes, but given the low levels of characters in Holmes Basic they don’t need to be printed here.

Basilisks were listed as Chaotic in Chainmail, and not given an alignment in OD&D. Here they’re said to be Neutral, probably because of their non-intelligence. I'll chalk the Chainmail alignment up to the Chaotic side capturing basilisks to use in warfare.

BERSERKER: Much the same as in OD&D. Their +2 to attack against ‘normal men’ has been clarified here to include kobolds, goblins, and orcs, the obvious intent being that the ability affects humanoids of 1 hit dice or less. I also call shenanigans on their damage range of 1-8. Remember that in Holmes all weapons deal 1d6 damage, and all types of men deal damage by weapon, so what’s going on here? I guess I can attribute it to their berserking.

BLACK PUDDING: The same as in OD&D, but there’s no mention of the Gray Pudding. It’s clarified that they can be killed by a flaming sword. Plus, it actually gets a physical description for the first time, as a black amorphous blob that can grow as big as 30 feet in diameter.

BLINK DOG: The same is in Supplement I, but the random determination of when they teleport has been taken out. Their alignment has been changed from Lawful to Lawful Good.

BUGBEAR: The same as in Supplement I, but their alignment has been changed from Chaotic to Chaotic Evil.

CARRION CRAWLER: Just as in Supplement I, but they are now given an alignment of Neutral.

D&D Basic Set part 10

MAGIC WEAPONS: The brief treatment of magic weapons given here in the combat section matches fairly well with the OD&D rules. We'll see if that's still the case when Holmes gets into more depth in the magical items section.

As for magical armour, Holmes is going for the simpler system introduced in Supplement I. In OD&D, the shield's magical bonus only comes into play one-third of the time. In Supplement I, this is changed so that the bonuses always work together. Holmes has gone with the latter, and in the interests of simplicity I'm happy.

COMBAT ROUNDS, TIME AND MOVEMENT IN MELEE: The big change here is that a combat round is now 10 seconds instead of 1 minute. I'm not sure why Holmes bothered, to be honest, but it does head off the inevitable questions about why characters only get one attack per minute from those who can't wrap their heads around the abstraction. The biggest change this makes is that now characters and monsters can't move as far per round as they could before. Otherwise it has very little effect mechanically, unless you want to take spell durations and the like into account.

The next few sentences are the one bit where Holmes loses me completely. Dagger-wielders here are given the ability to attack twice per round, while those wielding heavy weapons like two-handed swords can only attack every other round. And yet, every weapon deals 1d6 damage. There's a wonky rule if ever I've seen one, and it's been duly noted by every other blogger that's ever analysed Holmes. It's probably an attempt to duplicate a similar rule from the Man-to-Man combat rules in Chainmail, but those rules factored in weapon type vs. armour. This one doesn't, and so it's majorly flawed. I'd be inclined to house-rule it, but given the strictures of my campaign I have to include this ridiculous design.

So here's what I'm thinking. As I've mentioned earlier, the transition in my campaign from OD&D with supplements to Holmes Basic is being handled by a change of leadership within the Adventurers' Guild, and the back-to-basics ethos that came with it. But looking at the above rule, there's a certain type of character class that benefits here. One that primarily uses small weapons in melee. That is, of course, the Thief. So I'm thinking that maybe the new guild leadership is under the thumb of the Thieves' Guild, who are changing the regular training to benefit themselves. About the time the players hit 3rd level this manipulation could be exposed, and that's when the leadership gets overthrown and the AD&D rules start to filter in.

WHO GETS THE FIRST BLOW?: Basically, in Holmes D&D the guy with the highest Dexterity goes first in melee. Again, it's a big advantage to Thieves, isn't it? The system from Chainmail that factored in weapon lengths and speeds was much better than this rule, which I guess was extrapolated from a line in OD&D about Dexterity influencing initiative. There's also a problem in that you need a Dexterity score for everybody for this rule to work, but there are none provided in the monster descriptions. It's easy enough to roll on the spot, or just to assume that most monsters have a Dexterity of 10, but it's still an oversight.

THE PARRY: There were rules for parrying in Chainmail, but Holmes hasn't gone with those. His rules are simpler, just granting the defender a bonus to AC in exchange for forgoing his next attack. And if the attacker rolls exactly the number needed to hit, he breaks the defender's weapon.

MELEE RESOLUTION - CONQUER, WITHDRAW, SURRENDER OR DIE!: That's the best sub-heading in the book, without a doubt. But the section doesn't live up to the hype, simply providing some cursory rules for retreat and surrender.

COMBAT EXAMPLE: The first combat example details a simple exchange of blows between a big goblin and "Bruno the Battler". All it shows is how to do regular attack rolls and damage, but it does provide me with an NPC to have hanging around the Adventurers' Guild. Bruno is presumably a fighter, and we learn that he has a Dexterity of 13, wields a sword, and wears chain mail and a shield. He also has 6 hit points, which probably makes him first level.

SECOND COMBAT EXAMPLE: The second example has a whole adventuring party having a random encounter with six giant spiders. The adventuring party is made up of the aforementioned Bruno, Malchor the Magic-User (who has previously appeared in the book), Mogo the Mighty (presumably another Fighter), and Clarissa the Cleric, among unnamed others. The adventurers take out the spiders, but poor old Bruno is killed by a poisonous bite. Alas, I must scratch him from my list of active NPCs. His surviving comrades will talk about him should they meet the PCs, though.

As for them, we learn the following. Malchor can cast the Sleep spell. It looks like Bruno and Mogo were both armed with bows. Mogo has a Dexterity of 9, wields a sword, wears chainmail, and has but 3 hit points. Clarissa has a Dexterity of 6 and wields a mace.

It's interesting to note that in this example Holmes does suggest rolling Dexterity for monsters on the spot, so at least that little discrepancy is dealt with. But I'm still wondering, why did Mogo and the spider have two attacks each after Bruno's death? Or was it simply a short way to describe the passage of two rounds?

The comments at the end state that readied spells go off first, followed by missile fire, then melee. And that's as much as we get on initiative, folks.

D&D Basic Set part 9

Melee Combat: Combat in Holmes is much the same as all forms of old-school D&D; roll 1d20, look on a chart to see what Armor Class you hit, and roll damage if you landed a blow. All melee damage for weapons is rolled using 1d6, which is a throwback to OD&D. The variable damage by weapon type that was introduced in Supplement I is mentioned briefly as an option in advanced play. Monsters still get their variable damage, though. Sometimes it’s good to be the DM.

The charts used for combat are described by Holmes as ‘extremely complicated’, which is pretty laughable if you’ve ever taken a look at stuff like Rolemaster. The chart is otherwise the same for PCs here as it was in OD&D. The biggest change is for Normal Men. In OD&D they fought as 1st level fighters, but now they are slightly worse than that. The chart for monsters attacking is also much the same as in OD&D, except that the hit dice categories are very slightly tweaked.

Armor class is briefly discussed and expanded upon. Although each number from 9 to 2 is assigned a specific armor type, in general this only applies to humans and humanoids. The various non-human creatures are assigned a number based on the toughness of their hide, their size, and their speed, with armor type not really being a factor. Mechanically it doesn’t mean anything, but it’s the first time AC gets talked about in this way.

Poisoned Weapons: I’m not entirely certain what the rules here mean. Anyone hit by a poison attack must ‘make his saving throw against poison or paralysis and also take the number of damage points indicated by the die roll’. So what happens to a character who fails his save? I assume a failed save vs. poison means death, and the rule about taking damage just refers to the monster’s standard attack damage.

Fire: We gets some new rules for setting oil on fire, as well as the use of flaming oil as a weapon. The siege rules for Chainmail had previously discussed burning enemies with oil, and they were also updated for Swords & Spells. In OD&D, burning oil is briefly mentioned as a way to deter pursuers. But here it’s full-on Molotov cocktail time, with the oil dealing a massive 1d8 on the first round and 2d8 on the second. When you consider that every weapon deals only 1d6, that’s huge. Attacking with oil ignores Armor Class as well, using only Dexterity and size to determine how difficult the target is to hit. Honestly, flaming oil is easily the deadliest option available to characters in the Holmes rulebook.

Wraiths and spectres are immune to burning oil, as are all fire-wielding monsters. Wights and mummies take half damage, and I have to say that the last one surprises me. I’ve played a bunch of D&D inspired games in which mummies are extra-susceptible to fire, so it’s kind of weird to see the opposite in effect here.

Holy Water: This item could be purchased in OD&D, but there were no mechanical benefits described in those rules. Presumably it was up to the referee to house rule it based on general vampire lore. Here holy water is given the same effect on undead that burning oil has on other creatures.

Missile Fire: Ranges are given for the various missile weapons that mostly match up with those in Chainmail. The range of the javelin has been extended from 60 feet to 80 feet, and slings have been given a range whereas previously they had not been dealt with. The same bonuses and penalties still apply to firing at short and long ranges. The ranges are converted to yards when outdoors, as weapons may be fired further (this is straight out of Chainmail). Long range fire (as well as slings) is also pretty much unusable in dungeons, unless the roof is high enough.

Cover: Characters behind cover are harder to hit with missile fire. The rules also expressly forbid characters firing into melee. Way to dodge the question, Holmes!

D&D Basic Set part 8

CLERICAL SPELLS: The brief run-down of how clerical magic works goes through the basics, such as the fact that OD&D clerics don’t cast spells at first level. It is said that they don’t have to study spells to master them, which just means that they don’t use the Chance to Know Spell table that magic-users do. No, clerics are lucky sods in that they have access to every single spell on their spell list. This was fine when clerics were mostly defensive, and had a small list of spells. But once the spell list expands, and clerics get a host of offensive options, it gets problematic. Thankfully, that time is well out of the purview of Holmes’s Basic Set.

1st LEVEL SPELLS:

The list of 1st level cleric spells is the same as that from OD&D, with the addition of two new spells: remove fear and resist cold.

Cure Light Wounds: This spell is identical to the OD&D version, with a couple of minor changes. OD&D is often vague about the distinction between rounds and turns, and there it says that the spell cures the target over the course of one turn. The Basic Set clarifies this as meaning one melee round. It also specifically says that hobbits can benefit from the spell (in OD&D they were alluded to with a dismissive etcetera), and mentions that the caster has to touch the target for the spell to take effect.

Detect Evil: Just like the OD&D version.

Detect Magic: Also the same as the OD&D version.

Remove Fear: This spell does what it says on the tin: it lessens fear in the target touched by the cleric. Against magical fear it grants another saving throw (with a bonus), but it doesn’t mention anything about non-magical fear, such as in an NPC who has failed a morale check. I’d be inclined to have it automatically dispel any non-magical kind of fear.

Resist Cold: This spell protects against regular cold, grants a save bonus against cold attacks, and lessens any damage taken from said cold attacks. It’s of a lower level than its counterpart resist fire, probably because the latter is a much more common form of attack.

Light: This is the same as the version cast by magic-users. See previous blog posts for the differences from OD&D.

Protection From Evil: Again, it's the same as the version of the spell cast by magic-users, with all the differences detailed there.

Purify Food and Water: This is just like the OD&D version, but now it has a range of 10 feet.

2nd LEVEL SPELLS:

This spell list is the same as that in Supplement I, with the addition of two spells: Know Alignment and Resist Fire.

Bless: Just like the version in OD&D.

Find Traps: Just like the spell in OD&D.

Hold Person: The major difference here is that the spell’s effect gets a proper explanation. In OD&D it is described as being similar to charm person, with nothing further said. Here it is clarified as the paralyzation spell that we all know and love. Also, in OD&D clerics cast this spell with a greater range and duration than magic-users. In the Basic Set, the cleric does not get these extra bonuses.

Know Alignment: This spell tells the caster the exact alignment of the target, even going so far as to indicate exactly how evil, good, chaotic or lawful he or she is. It’s a handy spell for players, that’s for certain, but a problematic one for DMs. I’m not entirely opposed to the existence of it, but I do think it should be higher level than it is.

Resist Fire: This spell grants a save bonus and damage reduction against fire. It doesn’t work against prolonged exposure though; if you’re stuck in a fire for longer than two rounds, the spell won’t protect you any more.

Silence: 15’ Radius: Just like the spell in Supplement I.

Snake Charm: The only difference from the spell as presented in Supplement I is that the duration is clarified, as hostile snakes are charmed for a shorter time than docile ones.

Speak With Animals: Just like the spell from OD&D.

EVIL CLERICS: They're no longer called Anti-Clerics, unfortunately. Their reversed spells now get actual names; cure light wounds becomes cause light wounds, detect evil becomes detect good, light becomes darkness, purify food and water becomes contaminate food and water, remove fear becomes cause fear and bless becomes curse.