A Few Apologies About Yesterday's News, Combat Tables and Some Other Stuff

Werdi Mart 15, 2022

D'OH!

A few of my links were broken in yesterday's newspost. While they have been fixed, I wanted to apologize to my readers and most importantly, to those authors and bloggers I didn't link to correctly.

I'm usually quite assiduous, when it comes to my commitment to making a quality news post. But, I was pressed for time yesterday, blogger was giving me fits with formatting and a news post as long as yesterday's, takes a few hours to put together. That's with having all the links already collected and ready to go. So, I rushed things a bit, as I had an errand to run and family coming to visit. Then, rushing to get out the door, I neglected to properly proof read my post. I should have just waited and put it out in the evening, which is how I will handle things in the future.

One of my links to B/X Blackrazor was incorrect, though fortunately the second one was operational. I completely forgot to insert the link, to N. Wright's Aremorican Addendum, or lost it during formatting. It took me over two hours, before I caught and corrected the error. Lastly, my link to Joe Bloch's Adventures Dark and Deep forum was inaccurate.

Gentleman, I owe you all some extra pimpage! Again, my most sincere apologies to you all and to my readers.

The Old School Mainstream?

Hogscape of Like Real Life posted a review of LotFP: Weird Fantasy Role-Playing. I wrote this in his comments:

Hi again Hogscape :) - Various people played in various ways, back when they were kids. What matters, is what we're doing with the game Now.

If you think nostalgia is really what's driving all the passion, creativity and enthusiasm, evident on the over 200 OSR blogs, the forums and in actual by-god physically present gaming groups, you're going to miss what's really going on by a country mile.

There are certainly people who take S&W or LL, etc., out for a spin, because they think it's a hoot or because they are on a nostalgia kick. And after a short period of time, they either go back to their old pursuits, or discover what some never forgot.

Mr. Raggi isn't outside the "mainstream" of the OSR. Far from it! I don't want to put any words in your mouth, but you seem to be imagining that those of us into Old School gaming, are... unsophisticated, shall we say?

My games were never one-dimensional, even back in the day. And I've learned a trick or two, in the past three decades. TSR era D&D suits my purposes. That's why I play it. I've never played 4e and won't. I DMed 3e for 7 years. I like 3e. But I prefer the lighter rules, flexibility and overall flavor of the earlier versions of the game.

While certainly not all my thoughts on the subject, as I didn't want to write an essay in someones Comment Section, I hope I managed to entice Hogscape to investigate the Old School scene a little more thoroughly. As can be seen from his post and comments, he seems like a nice fellow and like many, just has a few misconceptions about what's really going on in Old School circles.

AD&D, Osric, Swords & Wizardry And Combat Tables

So, I think I've narrowed things down to two choices:

I'm either going to run AD&D, but using the Combat Tables from Osric, or S&W, but using Osric Inspired Combat Tables.

Here's the thing. As far as AD&D goes, not only do I like the the way Osric gives the Fighter a +1 to hit every level, after the first, as opposed to two every other level, but the Monster Attacks are adjusted to a straight-up +1 to hit per Monster Hit Die. The AD&D Monster charts are roughly the same, but are a just a little wonky in the low-mid levels, before evening out and following the +1 per hit die formula. Allowing Fighters to progress 5% per level, as opposed to 10% every other level, is an optional rule in the DMG, so it's not so much a different rule as a different presentation, in that case. With Monsters, I not only think the formula followed in Osric is really fine, but it follows James Maliszewski's Chartless Combat formula, perfectly. Monster HD + Negative AC + 1d20. 20 or higher is a hit. I'll need to go over Osric some more, to see if there's anything else I want to swipe.

My only real issue with AD&D, is that I feel Gary has done a little too much of my work, for me. Not a problem, but I love the idea of taking S&W and building My D&D, Not that I can't do that with AD&D. I just think that taking the journey using S&W might be more educational, fun and easier.

Which brings me to the S&W combat charts. I have a problem with the way they work out.

That may be because I never look at a campaign as a short or even mid-term thing. I've DMed two very long-lasting campaigns over the past 28 years, so I'm always telling myself that "This one is going the Distance, too!" That's rare, but I always plan it out that way.

Ok, taking LL, S&W and AD&D and comparing the combat charts, is kind of interesting. The Cleric has roughly the same probabilities, across all three games. The MU gets an easier time of it in the earlier games, until very high level. But, the big difference, is the Fighter! The Fighting-Man keeps getting better and better, until in AD&D he's clearly head & shoulders above his fellow adventurers, in terms of Combat Ability Progression.

Tying into this, is that the S&W Core Rules Cleric, has been given some Divine Favor and progresses faster than his OD&D, S&W Whitebox, AD&D, etc., counterparts

Let's take two players. Call em Sam and Bilbo. They're playing S&W Core Rules. We give Sam and Bilbo 225,000 xp and Sam builds a S&W Cleric, while Bilbo makes a Fighter. Sam's Cleric will be 10th lvl and Bilbo's Fighter will be 8th, but close to 9th. They will both hit AC 0 on a role of 14.

After a several years, they amass 780,000 xp! We're assuming they've probably been resurrected a few times, lost xp due to Energy Draining Undead and have probably been hit with a Girdle of Masuclinity/Femininity, to boot! But, they've finally got 780,000 XP! Sam's Cleric is now 18th lvl with and will hit AC 0 on a 9! Bilbo's Fighter is barely 14th. He hits AC 0 on a 10.

Granted, Sam can't use Magic Swords. And eventually, their To Hit bonus will max out. Bilbo will catch up and once again, his To Hit will be better than Sam's by 2. Eventually. By 2. Hmm.

While I wouldn't want to go as far as Mr. Raggi, I do think that the Fighter should definitely be better at fighting, than the Cleric.

So, If I run S&W, I'll use ascending AC and utilizing some ideas from Osric, the Modified Chart will look like this:

Utilizing the S&W XP progressions, there's a point where the Cleric will almost catch up to the Fighter, with the latter being ahead only by one, before eventually leaving the Cleric well behind. At 570,000 XP, the Cleric will be 15th level with a +8 to hit and the Fighter will be 12th level, with a +11 to hit. At 780,000 XP, the Cleric will be 18 and the Fighter will be 14th. The Fighter will still be ahead by three. Eventually, at very high levels, the Fighter will pull a little further ahead, as can be seen at the extreme end of the chart.

The MU gets a fairly heavy reduction in Combat Ability, which I'm more than fine with. Monster to hit will stay the same, at +1 per Hit Die. I tested out the Thief, though I don't remember who's version of XP I used and the Thief came within 1 of the Fighter at two points, before the Fighter once again pulls ahead.

If I run S&W, I'll use an Ability Score Bonus of 13-16 = +1 and 17-18 = +2. Overall, I like that scheme better than the one in AD&D or LL, though it's certainly not a deal-breaker, when it comes to deciding what to run. And if I ran S&W, I would probably add Casting Times and Combat Segments, as I like that aspect to Combat and Spell-casting in AD&D. And of course, the Types of Magic.

All of which brings to mind two questions: