House Rules

As you all already know, this game is using the D&D Rules Cyclopedia for reference. You can use the BECMI rules, as long as they give you all the options ready and available for your use. I don't have those books, so I can't really comment on them. However, all of the optional rules will be available on the Cyclopedia.

Stat Rolls

Roll 4D6, drop the lowest. Arrange your stats to your liking. If your combined stat bonuses add up to Zero or less, you may feel free to re-roll the character.

You came prepared for the journey, so you roll 3D6+3 x10 gp in starting gold.

You start first level at max hit points plus CON bonus. CON bonus continues to apply on all levels past Hit Dice rolls.


Death and Dying

0 hp: Unconscious, but not dying. Will wake up in (1D20 - CON value) turns, minimum of 1 turn. Can be woken earlier with outside help and a CON roll. Will wake up immediately when brought back to positive hit points.

-1 or lower hp: Critical or Lethal injury and Unconscious. Will lose 1 hp per round unless they make a CON roll at -1 per round past the first. This can be rolled every round. On success, the character stabilizes and survives the injury, but will still need help. The character will wake up after 1D20 turns.


House Rules

Ability Bonus or Penalty Adjustments to Thief Abilities
Each Thief ability is governed by an Ability Score (as listed below). Add or subtract to each Thief ability the relevant ability score modifier multiplied by five (i.e. +1 gives +5%, +2 gives +10%, and so on). Remember, low ability scores will adversely affect Thief abilities as well.

Open Locks: INT
Find Traps: INT
Remove Traps: INT
Climb Walls: DEX
Move Silently: DEX
Hide In Shadows: DEX
Pick Pockets: DEX
Hear Noise: WIS

Sniping
At 10th level thieves normally gain the special ability to cast magic-user spells from scrolls. Thieves may now choose between gaining the ability to read magic-user scrolls or sniping. Sniping is a ranged attack at a surprised target within short range that gains the backstab to hit and double damage. As with backstab, the thief must remain unseen before delivering the attack to gain the benefit.


Strength and Encumbrance
A character’s Strength score can affect how much encumbrance they can carry. See the table below.

STR Carrying Capacity
3 -300 cn
4-5 -200 cn
6-8 -100 cn
9-12 No adjustment
13-15 +100 cn
16-17 +200 cn
18 +300 cn

Just add the bonus or penalty to the Encumbrance level for each movement category found on the Character Movement Rates and Encumbrance Table on page 88 of the D&D Rules Cyclopedia. For example, a character with 16 STR can carry 200 cn more for each Encumbrance level, so he can carry up to 600 cn and still move 120’ per Turn as opposed to a maximum of 400 cn for a character with a STR of 9 to 12.


Equipment

Shields are...
- small: +1 AC, 60 cn encumbrance, 10 gp
- large: +2 AC, 100 cn encumbrance, 15 gp
- tower: +2 AC vs Melee, +4 AC vs Missile, 200 cn, 30 gp


Optional Rules In Use

- Weapon Skills and Weapon Mastery

- Character Skills

- Druids and Mystics

- Wizards do not need to pre-select a specific spell for each slot. They may cast a level appropriate spell without restriction. They do, however, still need to review their spells every day to recover the incantations spent.

- Clerics may cast any level-appropriate spell in their list for each slot they have. They still have to pray in the morning for spells.

- All character classes may use clubs, staves, and light crossbows.

- Fighter Combat Options (Smash, Parry, Disarm, Two Weapon Combat): choose one of the four at 3rd level, another at 6th, and one more at 9th. The last one remains unlearned for the character's career.
  - Smash does 1/2 STR damage, rounded up, instead of full STR damage.
  - Smash can be used with ranged weapons. The target must be in short range, and the extra damage done is based on DEX, not STR. However, using Smash with a ranged weapon incurs an AC penalty of -5 for that round in addition to the -5 To Hit. Taking careful aim like that means standing very still for the best possible shot.
  - Two-Weapon Fighting and Multiple Attacks can be combined with Weapons Mastery as given in the optional rules.
  - Two-Weapon Fighting can be used with ranged weapons to attack twice in the same round as long as the character is Skilled or above with that weapon. The character applies the normal penalties to their ranged weapon as if it was a second melee weapon: -4 to hit and a -1 Mastery penalty on the second shot.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:26, Mon 21 Sept 2020.

God-Favored Weapons and Weapon Restrictions

A god may declare certain weapons off-limits to their followers. No follower may use such a weapon on their god's behalf.

A god may have a set of favored weapons. These weapons represent the god in question and are to be used in preference to all others. However, if no such weapon is available, a follower may fall back on anything else that is not restricted.

Gods without favored weapons or weapon restrictions have no interest in such mortal details, and don't care what their followers use.

For the purposes of restrictions, a few categories are available:

Common Weapons
- Hand Axe
- Short Bow
- Crossbow, Light
- Club
- Mace
- Staff
- Torch
- Dagger
- Spear
- Sling
- Hammer

Martial Weapons
- Battle Axe
- Long Bow
- Heavy Crossbow
- War Hammer
- Halberd
- Javelin
- Lance
- Pike
- Polearm
- Poleaxe
- Trident
- All Weapon Shields
- All Swords

Uncommon Weapons
- Blackjack
- Blowguns
- Bola
- Cestus
- Net
- Whip

Wizard Weapons
- Staff
- Dagger
- Light Crossbow
- Short Sword

Farm Weapons
- Club
- Dagger
- Hammer
- Axes (hand and woodcutting)
- Pitchfork (trident)
- Short Bows
- Slings
- Whip
- Scythe


New Weapons

Item                Damage     Range       Cost(gp)  Enc(cn)   Notes

Farm Scythe         1D6         -            5        80       2H, L
War Scythe          1D8         -           12       100       2H, L
Halfling Crossbow   1D4        50/100/150   25        35       a,m,2H,S

This message was last edited by the GM at 22:48, Sun 24 May 2020.

Skills and Difficulties

It has occurred to me that I haven't codified the ideas I am using for our skill system. Here they are:

Premise:
The average stat is 11, numerically speaking, although from a human perspective it probably goes from 9 - 11. Hence, for our purposes, 11 is the middle point for this operation.

System:
Now, with this 11 in mind, we establish difficulties. To succeed you have to roll equal to, or below, your stat number. A 1 always succeeds.

- Easy/Routine: no roll necessary, you can do it or know the information
- Slightly Difficult: -2 to the roll
- Difficult: -4 to the roll
- Very Difficult: -6 to the roll
- Challenging: -8 to the roll
- Heroic: - 10 to the roll

Untrained skill usage is still possible, but it defaults to "Challenging" difficulty. Note, this applies only to physical skills. With knowledge skills, if you are untrained/unstudied, you just don't know it.

Standing Up In Battle

Standing up is not exactly detailed in much degree other than mentioning it should be considered an "action". So, I am going to make it like this:

If your character needs to stand up for any reason, s/he will only have 1/2 their movement distance available.


Grabbing Weapons and Other Tools

Grabbing a weapon is considered easy enough that it's does not affect a character's actions in a round. I am going to say that grabbing and readying a shield AND a weapon will affect a character, like a 'standing' action, leaving only half the distance left.

Therefore, standing + grabbing weapon + grabbing shield = full round action.

Roll a Natural 20

In many other D20 systems this is usually means an unusual success. I will respect the "Nat 20" tradition and make this rule present in this game:

A natural 20 will cause the full damage of your weapon, plus a normal roll of damage for your weapon. Strength, Material, Magic, and any other flat modifiers are not counted twice.

Example: Attacking with a long sword +1 (1D8+1) with 17 STR (+2 Damage) will render you a Critical of: 8 + 1D8 + 1(Magic) + 2(STR) worth of damage.

This is a significant amount of damage, enough to mark the strike as dangerous, but not overwhelming. Of course, this depends on the damage dice. If a creature strikes with D12s, those critical will hurt. A lot.