Tag: osr

Post 2 – Give your Thieves a Break

November 20th, 2025

Day in the life of not having a Knock spell.

B/X Thieves are infamously known for being the weakest class in the line up. D4 hit die, leather armor being the highest tier armor they can wear, and a list of skills that are borderline useless for a majority of your play sessions.

Despite this, the flavor and vibe of playing a Thief is one of the most popular in modern fantasy history. If we are talking about the classics see no further than The Mouser of Lankhmar, Silk from the Belgariad, Arsène Lupin the Gentlemen Burglar, Robin Hood, Cudgel the Clever and last but not least Bilbo Baggins of the Shire. Some more modern classics carry this legacy, such as Locke from Final Fantasy 6, Garret from Thief: the Dark Project, Sly Cooper, and Joker of Persona 5.

The Origins of the Thief

The Thief class was originally developed by the Aero Hobbies crowd in Santa Monica, California after they called up Gygax on the telephone and shot the shit with him on the concept, so you can thank Bob Switzer and Daniel Wagner for the Thief class we have today.
At a later point, Gygax tweaked and created his own Thief class from the bones of Switzer/Wagner’s Thief and thus was released in Supplement 1: Greyhawk for OD&D in March of 1975. Allegedly, Gygax came up with the percentage style chance of success for the Thief’s skills and the Backstab multiplier which now has become a divisive topic amongst the OSR crowd.

The Thief’s Impact on Old School D&D

Prior to the Thief’s release, the 3 other character classes (Cleric, Fighting Man, and Magic User) didn’t have a list of skills that they could use like the Thief’s percentile based skill system, the only thing they had in common was the x – in – 6 rolls to preform mundane tasks like listening at doors and the like. The Thief’s inclusion to the Core 3 has split the modern player base, with people either loving or hating the Thief.

Said Thief haters believe that by adding these percentile skills that it changed the playstyle of the game from a more descriptive/fiction focused playstyle to that of something akin to modern D&D with the player character’s sheet being occupied by a list of abilities they refer to when playing the game. These players believe that when incorporating these aspects that it takes away from the player’s investment and immersion while also causing confusion for the other classes, as prior to the Thief’s release, the party regardless of class were sneaking, cracking open locks, foiling traps, and the like. Why shouldn’t a Fighter be able to do the things a Thief can do? Is sneaking not a useful skill that any character class can utilize? Would a Back-Attack from a non-Thief not be as equally effective?

Arguably, there is a distinction between the Thief’s abilities and that of the non-Thief’s attempt at trying the same thing. The Thief’s Find/Remove Trap ability is a notable one; commonly mistaken for finding and removing room traps like pressure plates and such. In reality, it’s intended for small mechanical traps like poison needles (as detailed in Greyhawk Supplement).
Another difference is made with the inclusion of Move Silently and Hide in Shadows. I’d like to believe that the phrasing of Move Silently implies that no sound can be heard at all when successful, which gives a preternatural edge to the Thief’s abilities. Likewise with Hide in Shadows, you can’t move once you’re hidden but I imagine they meld into whatever shadows blot a room and become practically invisible if successful.

With this information, it’s really up to taste and preference whether you want to include Thieves or remove them entirely. I’d say removing them gets rid of the following issues I end up detailing below, but some people just love the archetypal thief so much and find them to be the missing quarter of a whole for the party dynamic that they can’t help but adore them.

The Thief’s Impact on Modern Media

If comparing the playstyle of the Thief in D&D to that of thieves in popular video game media, in certain ways they’ve both inspired one another. In Thief: the Dark Project, combat is generally a last resort option as Garret is weak and frail relative to the guards and brutes that patrol the castles he stalks. Likewise with Sly Cooper, getting caught in certain sections of the game results in immediate game overs or retries, especially in the 1st game where Sly can lose a life to just one hit from basic enemies. Lastly, in Persona 5 (and the rest of the prior games mentioned), it’s best to stay out of obvious spot light paths and enemy patrols as they often result in unwanted face to face encounters. Fighting enemies head on in all of these games tends to be the more challenging experience as thieves stereotypically have been established to be weaker in head to head combat. Ideally, you want to ambush the patrols to get the first turn in Persona, or to just avoid interaction entirely like in T: TDP.

Woah! Lookin’ cool Joker!

Garret is known for his abundant access to nifty tools and gadgets which help him to get around places stealthily – such as Water Arrows to douse torchlight, Rope Arrows to make climbing place easier, Wrenches and Wire cutters to disable pesky traps, and so on. The major appeal of playing Thief is the open-endedness of the levels and the ability to preform the heists of each level in a different way every time, as the level design supports up to 3 or more possible ways to get into buildings, either thru gatehouses, sewer systems, or scaling walls. The art of being a Thief lies more in wit, available information and the Thief’s access to useful tools than their inherit power.

With the tropes of casing a joint, sneaking around in shadows, being careful to avoid patrols and torch-light, and ambushing the unaware, we now have a framework for the expectations of a Thief. A Thief being one who’s –

A. Weak in direct head to head combat; ideally taking their foes by surprise with attacks from behind.

B. Excels at casing joints to find sneaky entrances, secret passages and are acrobatic enough to climb or sidle into places typically unreachable by non-thief types.

C. Using tools and gadgets to more easily traverse dungeons, crack open locks, disarm traps and to maintain their stealthy nature.

These are the 3 major core aspects of fulfilling the Thief archetype and as D&D players love to play this role in the core party of four, doing so from 1st level in B/X is not an easy task.

The Inadequacy of the Thief

Here is the Thief Abilities chart as depicted on page X6 in Moldvay Expert. As you can see, the odds of success on these checks are minuscule if just playing the game straight from the book. Only a Thief of 7th level seems adequately efficient enough to preform the feats of our prior mentioned fantasy heroes, and by that point, the party is probably a year into play given the amount of exp required to reach 7th level.

If you were to compare the capabilities of a 1st level Rogue in D&D 5e (2014) to our B/X Thief, if they choose to be proficient and have expertise in Stealth, Sleight of Hand, Acrobatics and their Thieves’ Tools, they’d probably be nearly as effective as a 8th level Thief in B/X at minimum. Say the Rogue has a +4 to DEX and is proficient in these skills, they’d likely have +6 to +8 when making those skill checks, and if the average difficulty of a check is 15 (being medium difficulty), they only need a 7-9 on a d20 to succeed (a 60-70% chance). The average low level monster in 5e also has a relatively low Passive Perception, such as Goblins with a score of 9, Grimlocks with 13, Hobgoblins with 10, Kobolds with 8, and Orcs with 10.

With this understanding, it’s no wonder the Thief doesn’t see much play. Even if you aren’t explicitly using the Thief skills it’s considerably better to play a Halfling or a Dwarf Class (in B/X) for both their dungeon utility, base skills and saving throws with only someone with impressive ability scores being able to make up for the lackluster power of a 1st level Thief and in OD&D, every demi-human race gets bonuses to the percentile Thief skills that makes them noticeably better than starting as a generic human, and none of them have a level cap for playing a Thief unlike the other classes demi-humans can choose. “Furthermore, dwarves, elves, half-elves, or hobbits may be thieves, and in this class there will be no limit to their continuing to advance to the highest levels.” -page 4 of Supplement 1: Greyhawk (1975).

from page 11 of Supplement 1: Greyhawk (1975)

You could argue that because it is believed that 5e D&D is more so meant to achieve Superheroic levels of gameplay vs. OSR style plain ol’ heroic, that it explains the drastic difference between their abilities. However, the Rogue and the Thief aren’t doing anything particularly different from one another in execution that isn’t separated by chance of success. The modern Rogue isn’t warping reality with magic to make himself more stealthy at 1st level. If anything, the B/X Thief is more preternatural with their ability to climb sheer surfaces with ease, move silently (I imagine moving silently is moving without making any noise), and to hide in shadows. The 5e Rogue really just has a lot of these abilities compacted down into Acrobatics and Stealth, neither of which are particularly described as supernatural vs. the more evocative phrasing of Hide in Shadows.

So – what now? How can we pull the Thief in line with the other classes and make them both a viable option and a fun character choice for both new and old players?

Step 1. Variable Difficulty

One way a DM could adjust the game to be more favorable is by giving variable difficulty adjustments to the listed Thief Abilities depending on in-game scenarios.

You could use 5e D&D as a framework for this by taking inspiration from the table of Difficulty Classes.

You could on-the-fly adjust the Thief’s chance of success by giving bonuses or penalties in percentage form. A DC 5 Task being labeled as Very Easy could be interpreted as a +75% bonus, Easy as +50%, Moderate as +25% and Hard and higher difficulties as unmodified or impossible to attempt. I would, however, highly suggest that if a task could be completed in a reasonable time and without much difficulty, the Thief should not require a skill check at all.

Say for example a Thief attempts to climb a castle wall that’s composed of cobblestone blocks, hanging vines, stone pedestals, flag poles, and gargoyle statues. Given the time and equipment the Thief has on hand, I would personally rule that it would require no roll at all to climb up such a building as the environment is suited to the Thief’s expertise.

In a nearly identical scenario, but with a few adjustments, say this castle is darkened by nightfall, slippery due to rainfall, and made of difficult to climb material, then a Climb Sheer Surfaces check should be rolled, either with just the base chance of success or adjusted by circumstance.

I’m sure you’re creative enough to come up with similar scenarios for the other Thief skills, like low quality or aged padlocks being easier to lockpick than more intricate Dwarvencraft locks, carpeted rooms of the castle being easier to move silently on, and dark corridors or dark forests to hide in the shadows easier.

Lastly, you could implement a percentage increase in success by how much time a Thief decides to put into a task. Say for example they’re trying to get into a highly protected vault with a complex lock mechanism. The Thief could ask his party to stay on guard as he attempts a long marathon of lock picking, passing 20 or 30 minutes, and potentially gain a +10% bonus for each Turn he takes to try to crack the lock. Eventually with enough persistence the Thief could open the vault and isn’t reduced to one singular attempt per entire experience level as adjudicated in the books.

Step 2. Connections and Gadgets

With our prior mentioning of Garret from Thief, he is no more than a mundane man fueled by experience, information and the adequate tools for the job. You could imagine that a thief within your own D&D setting or campaign might have contacts or guilds they may report to for assignments or information on potential heists or delves. Thieves’ Guilds should be utilized more often with players, even non-Thieves should try to get in touch with them as they’d have valuable information for just the right price or job.

With that being said – Thieves should bargain with the guilds brokers and fences to get better deals on relics found in the dungeon, maps from previous delvers, specialized equipment for Thief jobs, and or rare one-time-use magic items that may make the job a sinch.

Here’s a few items that I thought up that could be used by Thieves to increase their odds of success when preforming their Thieving Abilities. Feel free to include or exclude certain items depending on how much power you wish to potentially give Thieves in your game. The items include a Usage Die mechanic tooling as I find it easier to keep track of equipment that way.

Climbing Chalk
10gp per Small Pouch worth of Chalk
4 Uses or (1d6>1d4 Usage Die)
Takes up 1 Equipment Slot, or 100 coins
When the Thief attempts to Climb Sheer Surfaces, if they take 10 minutes to prepare ahead of time by chalking their palms for better grip, they get a +5% chance to successfully climb.

Climbing Cleats / Spidersilk Boots
25gp per pair of cleats / 50gp per pair of silken boots
4 Uses or (1d6>1d4 Usage Die)
Takes up 1 Equipment Slot, or 100 coins
When the Thief attempts to Climb Sheer Surfaces, if they take off their mundane boots and put on the cleats, they get a +5% chance to successfully climb, as the cleats let them get better foot holding. If using Spidersilk Boots, they get a +10% chance to successfully climb, but if the surfaces the Thief steps on are wet, muddy or metal grated they are treated as ineffective.

Grapnel Gun
30gp Micro-Grappling Hook mounted Light Crossbow
Takes up 1 Equipment Slot, or 100 coins
1d4 damage, Missile (5’–80’ / 81’–160’ / 161’–240’), Reload, Slow, 2H
Can be used to fire a 50′ length of rope from a specialized singular crossbow bolt tipped with a smaller form of a grappling hook. The shot can be fired up to 160′ into the air with no penalty, but anything higher requires either a successful missile attack vs. an AC of 10 or 10 minutes to get a successful grapple. When set-up, gives the Thief a +5% chance to successfully climb.
Any failure of missing the missile attack induces a Usage Die roll starting at 1d6 usages and when depleted means the grapple hook has chipped or broken.

Brass Listening Cone
25gp per Trumpet
Takes up 1 Equipment Slot, or 100 coins
Can be used to press against dungeon doors, walls, and the like to receive a +1 bonus to Hear Noise. Can be used to hear for monsters, running water, hollow walls that hide secret doors, etc.

Trick Revealing Powder
50gp per use
1 Use
Takes up 1 Equipment Slot, or 100 coins
A bag of arcane powder that can be blown from the palm or applied with a brush to find traps, secret doors, hidden wires or invisible objects. The objects when applied with the powder shimmer in torch light.

Dowsing Rods
50gp per pair of rods
Takes up 1 Equipment Slot, or 100 coins
A pair of rods that when used for 10 minutes gives a +1 bonus to finding Secret Doors, locating water, traps, and or maligned earthly vibrations. When successful, the Rods seem to vibrate in the hands of the Thief, with being further away from a potential secret generating a small rumble versus a heavy vibration when closer to findable secrets. Loud vibration may alert nearby monsters on a 1/6 chance.

Hushwraps
100gp per pair of footwraps
Takes up 1 Equipment Slot, or 100 coins if not worn
Footwraps that when worn (with shoes off) make the step of the Thief more delicate and quiet, giving the wearer a +50% bonus to Moving Silently. It takes 10 minutes to put them on, and they provide no padding or foot protection, so any harmful objects the Thief may step on may result in unwanted potential detection.

Gloomcloth Shroud
150gp per Shroud
Takes up 1 Equipment Slot, or 100 coins if not worn
A pitch-black cloak crafted by elven artisans to improve hiding in shadows. The wearer, when fully wrapped and concealed in the shroud gains a +50% bonus to hiding, but at the cost of vision for the wearer. The cloak is so dark that the wearer cannot see through it.

Ghillie Suit
100gp per Suit
Takes up 2 Equipment Slots, or 200 coins if not worn
When attempting to Hide in Shadows in heavily Forested terrain or Jungles, the wearer gains +50% bonus to their Hide ability check, but cannot move as per the rules of Hide in Shadows. The suit is cumbersome, and requires 10 minutes to put on.

Charcoal Facemask
20gp
4 Uses or (1d6>1d4 Usage Die)
Item is discrete and small so takes up no bag space
After 10 minutes of preparation the charcoal is applied to the face, allowing the skin of the wearer to meld more easily with darkness, giving them a +25% bonus to Hide in Shadows.

Soot Bomb
75gp per Pouch
1 Use
Takes up 1 Equipment Slot, or 100 coins
Missile (5’–10’ / 11’–20’ / 21’–30’)
A small pouch full of soot, that when thrown causes the effects of a Darkness spell centered on it’s landing location. The soot remains floating in the air for 1d2 Turns and can be blown away with a strong wind.

Flash Powder
75gp per Vial
1 Use
Takes up 1 Equipment Slot, or 100 coins
Missile (5’–10’ / 11’–20’ / 21’–30’)
A small vial full of granular reflective arcane dust, that when thrown activates a magical pyrotechnics display that blinds and disorients (Light spell) anyone within a 10′ radius centered on it’s landing location. Those outside of this range who witness the explosion have a 1-2/6 chance of being blinded (including yourself and your allies).

Dousing Darts
10gp per Dart
1 Use Darts, when recovered are treated as typical 1d4 darts
10 coins per Dart, or 10 Darts per Equipment Slot
Missile (5’–10’ / 11’–20’ / 21’–30’)
Small, feather-finned darts with tips covered in an fire-retardant substance that when thrown can douse small flames like candle or torch-light. However, the clinking of the darts with the nearby wall or floors when it lands may attract nearby monsters on a 1-2/6 chance.

Dwarven Cranktop
75gp per Top
Multiple Uses if recovered, malfunctions on a 1/6 every time it’s thrown or (1d6>1d4 Usage Die)
Takes up 1 Equipment Slot, or 100 coins
Missile (5’–10’ / 11’–20’ / 21’–30’)
A Dwarven toy noisemaker that can be cranked and thrown or rolled to cause a ruckus as it’s gear mechanisms click and grind to make a loud sound.
May attract a random encounter on a 4/6 chance, and a Thief attempting to Move Silently nearby the noisemaker has a +50% bonus to said ability check.

Shardbinding Gel
50gp per container
1 Use or (1d4 Usage Die)
Item is discrete and small so takes up no bag space
The gel can be smeared along a window of reasonable size that when broken and pushed in, when the glass lands it stays together and reduces the sound of the impact had it been broken normally. If a monster is nearby, they have a 1/6 chance of hearing the gel-smeared glass landing if the surface it lands on isn’t soft, versus a potential higher chance of detection had it not been smeared at all.

Scroll of Ventriloquism
150gp per Scroll
1 Use
Can be used to cast the Magic User spell Ventriloquism, written in arcane-infused Thieves’ Cant that can only be read by Thieves to recite the spell.

Ball Bearings
10gp per pouch
1 Use
you can spill these tiny metal balls from their pouch to cover a level, square area that is 10 feet on a side. A creature moving across the covered area must succeed on a Saving Throw vs. Breath Weapons or fall prone for 1 Round. A creature moving carefully through the area at half speed doesn’t need to make the save.

Step 3. Thief Ability Point Buy

When looking at the Thief’s list of percentile chance of Abilities, if you were to suck out the points and add them all up you’d have about.. 162 points.

With this in mind, adding together the percentile chance of 2nd level, you get 188 points, 214 points at 3rd, and so on. If you subtract these numbers from each other incrementally, you get about 26 points gained per Thief level.

So – lets cut to the chase. Start your Thief player with a pool of 156 Ability Points with 6 points subtracted from the base total (162) to give each skill a base of 1%. Let them apply the points as they like, and every time they level up let them apply 26 more points to any of their skills so that they can tailor their Thief to the type of archetype or skillset that they enjoy.

This method retains the same percentage odds chance that a typical Thief would have at 1st level, as they aren’t getting cheated any more or less points than what they would have spread across their available skills widely. I can imagine in the D&D world that Thieves would vary in skill and expertise, so some Thieves may be suited to infiltration with better Climb and Pick Lock skills, or may be a Sneak type with high Hide in Shadows and Move Silently.

So yeah – that’s it for Thieves. I’ve never actually used any of these items or rules in a practical game so they may be totally bunk or impractical, but I think anyone with a good head on their shoulders could mine this post for great ideas for their own games.

Thanks for Reading! -Dylan
Post 1 – OSR Sins Laid Bare

November 19th, 2025
RIP MY HOMIE GABUMON, HE TOOK THE L FOR MY SINS

Broadly speaking, when discussing the OSR there is a common understanding that people playing OSR games follow the same principles when it comes to running games.

As written in Matt Finch’s A Quick Primer for Old School Gaming there are four pillars that make up OSR-style play (quoting from Wikipedia).
1. Player skill is more important than character abilities. Outwit the enemy, don’t simply out-fight them.
2. Emphasize the heroic, not the superheroic. Success lies in experience, not superpowers.
3. Game balance is not important. If the characters meet a more powerful opponent, either think of a clever plan or run away.
4. Rulings from the gamemaster are more important than rule books. Concoct a clever plan and let the gamemaster rule on it.
I’m sure if you asked any one of your friends who share interest in the OSR what they thought was the epitome of OSR games, they’d likely say Moldvay Basic/Expert D&D (1981), or more commonly known now as Old School Essentials.

Playing B/X rules as written you’d need to utilize all four pillars of OSR-style play in order to have an enjoyable experience. Characters are fragile starting from 1st level; they lack a lot of the options and abilities that a more modern 1st level d20 fantasy character might have (cantrips, short rests, etc). It’s more often wise to run from a fight or talk it out than to see it through with violence. Characters are almost equivalent to peasants in power if not for the few additional hit points they get, so they must plan wisely to survive.

With this being established, I enjoy running and playing in OSR games but my philosophy on gameplay has changed with time and experience.
Many friends or more modern players I’ve introduced to the game can never seem to get over the hump that is 1st to 2nd level OSR characters.

The modern player may choose to play a thief, only to be disappointed by their measly 10% chance to hide in shadows, 10% chance to remove traps, 20% chance to move silently, and their 15% chance to open a lock.
You’d think that a in-world character who dedicated their life to being a thief would have better odds of success than that.

The modern player may choose to play a magic user, only to be disappointed by the lack of spells they can cast. A trained magic user can only proficiently memorize a single first level spell in their head with no other methods of feasible magic?

The modern player may choose to play a cleric, only to be disappointed by not having any spells they can cast at 1st level. A holy warrior dedicated to the will and tenants of their god cannot cast a single spell without fighting for their life, tooth and claw, inside a dungeon in hopes of getting that 2nd level for what amounts to 1-6+1 points of healing with Cure Light Wounds?
I imagine if you ran a poll for what spell a cleric takes when they reach 2nd level that over 50% of the choices would be Cure Light Wounds, and the least chose option would be Resist Cold.

I personally believe that when these now lauded versions of D&D released, they never complained about how weak their characters were or how they didn’t replicate the heroes that inspired the game such as Conan, Elric, or John Carter. They played and they enjoyed themselves as many of them didn’t have any other options for fantasy roleplaying games that didn’t arguably have more confusing or difficult to learn rules (see Runequest or Palladium).

I’m sure that even then, players didn’t play the game completely rules as written and molded the game into something they enjoyed playing regardless of what the rules said and I urge anyone having issues with low level play in OSR games to do the same.

Not everyone enjoys playing Jim the Wizard with 1HP and their only spell being a randomly assigned Ventriloquism and I think a lot of OSR musings and philosophy is rooted in an idyllic view of how the game “was supposed to be played” with modern understandings of TTRPG systems and game design.

If anything – playing a character with gimped HP and stats actively encourages inaction.

From personal experience playing in a co-worker’s 2e D&D game, I played a magic user with the whole party starting at 1st level, and any time there was ever any combat or dungeon delving I strictly stood in the back and chose not to participate because even 1 sling stone flying in my direction meant my instant death. Starting with the maximum 4HP is a mere 25% chance and an AC 9 isn’t hard to hit for the average 1HD+ monster and dying only results in me throwing away a sheet of paper, printing another one, and filling it out again like taxes.

Even D&D’s creator, Gary Gygax, has his own personal house rules for how he runs OD&D, what could be considered the UR-OSR game.

“Gary’s OD&D House Rules:

For a score of 15 or over:
STR: +1 to hit and +1 to damage if a Fighter
INT: +1 1st level m-u spell
WIS: +1 1st level cleric spell
DEX: +1 to AC, and +1 to move silently
CON: +1 HP per HD (same as a Fighter class gets, +2 if a Fighter)
CHA: +1 (positive) on reaction checks

HPs: Characters are only unconscious at 0 HPs. For each level a character may have a minus HP total equal to the level, so a 1st level PC is dead at -2, a 2nd level at -3, etc.”

Many of the perceived minor changes Gygax made to the rules was to facilitate what he thought would both be fun for himself and the players, and you can tell right away with the characters starting at 3rd level, ability scores giving additional spells, and DEX giving thieves a better chance to sneak.

I don’t believe that by incorporating these changes that Gygax is removing any of the established four pillars of OSR gameplay, if anything he’s giving the players some breathing room for making mistakes and when the time comes for their character to die either an honorable or foolish death, they may be more emotionally impacted and invested in the game, as Jim the Wizard didn’t get killed by a rusty nail on a 2×4 in the corridor of the dungeon but instead survived by the skin of his teeth when he quickly came up with the idea to present the visage of a horrifying beast which scared away the horde of goblins when he cast Phantasmal Force.

This may appear as an idealized version of events from my perspective bias, but attempts at parlay, sneak and evasion are never 100% guaranteed to work even if it is the suggested course of events. Besides, the game actively encourages you to fight monsters, given that you get better at fighting with level and that the monsters have HP to reduce and rare items for you to loot.
Would the game not resemble something similar to Call of Cthulhu if you were meant to fear and run from the monsters and the only way you could win is via strategy and wit?

Now, with all of this out of the way, I wish to give a list of my own personal house rules that I use for many of my OSR campaigns that I added to facilitate my idea of fun for both my self and my friends, dubbed
MY OSR SINS.

OSR SIN #1
3d6 Around the Line

During character creation, I allow my players to place their 3d6 ability score rolls into specific abilities of their choosing, but only as they go score by score.
Ex. Jim wants to play a Magic User, and so when he rolls his first 3d6 he miraculously gets an 18, but the first stat down the line is Strength, what are the odds he gets a decent Intelligence score on his next roll? So, I let him put his 18 in INT, and the same is done with each subsequent score roll. The stat cannot float in-between rolls and it must be placed as he rolls them. This method of character creation gives power to the players and also prevents min-maxing their abilities as they may get unlucky with the skills they don’t immediately choose with their higher rolls leading them to always have some sort of downside or weaker skill.

We all know that regardless of what class someone is playing, everybody wants a bonus to DEX and CON as it just adds needed survivability, essentially making them both the best abilities and abilities that require high scores for character success.

Why should he be forced to play a class he doesn’t want to? If anything there should be house rules in place to incentivize rolling a character purely randomly (additional starting gold, starting exp, magic items, etc) but that’s for another day.

OSR SIN #2
CON as BASE HP

When generating your character, your base starting HP is determined by your CON score, so a CON of 9 is 9 base HP. The HD you roll for your first level is added to this base, so Jim got a 4 on a d4, and so his HP is 13. Any HD rolled after this point are done as by the class table’s HD total. So at 2nd level Jim rolls 2d4, and because his HD can’t roll over his 13 HP, his HP will only go up by 1 point, and if he had a CON bonus it would be +2. At later points in the game when Jim’s HD’s potential total surpass his current HP, if he gets any score higher than his current HP, his HP changes to that number (+ any bonuses he would get if he had a higher CON modifier).

Ex. Jim’s buddy Chris rolls up a Fighter starting at 3rd level (because his DM said the game would be a higher level game). Chris gets an 18 for his CON and in B/X an 18 CON gives you +3 HP per hit die, so he rolls his 1d8 and unfortunately gets a 1. The 1 he rolled +3 is 4, so he has a starting HP of 21.
We aren’t quite done just yet, since it’s a 3rd level game he’s playing, he will get to roll 3d8+3 (6-27 potential HP) and gets two 8s, and a 6 (22 HP on the die +3 = 25) so Chris’s total current HP is now 25. Had Chris rolled his 3d8 and gotten under his previous total of 21, he would also have 25 HP, as you gain 1 HP per level that you don’t roll over your previous total + your CON bonus (21 +4 = 25).

These HP rules keep the character’s HP lower than they’d ordinarily be if they just added their level by level HD to their base total. We don’t want the players to have the HP of dragons or higher HD monsters by 3rd level so this keeps them in tune to progression and also gives them opportunities to have significant jumps in HP if they’re really lucky. It both is a benefit to the DM with keeping the players powered down, and a benefit to the players as they have more starting HP as level 1 characters.

OSR SIN #3
Removal of Alignment Languages

A common issue I’ve seen in B/X and other OSR games is the vagueness of alignment. The 3 alignments Law, Chaos and Neutrality are described as such on page B11 in Moldvay Basic as –

There are many interesting things you can pick out of these descriptions of the alignments. Notably that, against popular belief and teachings, “Lawful behavior is usually the same as behavior that could be called “good”.” and “Chaotic behavior is usually the same as behavior that could be called “evil”.”.

Is it no surprise that players immediately assume that Law = Good and Chaos = Evil?
Looking at Neutrality it essentially details that they attempt to bring balance between the forces and that they’re more interested in their personal survival. With them being more self-preserving you could honestly conflate the selfish behavior of a Chaotic character with that of a Neutral character.
This doesn’t help the stereotype of Chaotic player characters being Le Randumbz xD and doing party destructive behavior and being a nuisance to everyone else playing.

The example of Chaos exemplifies every problem people have with the Chaotic Thief archetype that steals from other players and murders NPCs for no reason outside of “that’s what my alignment would do”. It just feels like an in-universe excuse for characters to act in-humane and likewise for Law but in the opposite perspective.

I cannot imagine a scenario where anybody but a Lawful/Neutral or an entirely Lawful party can cooperate (if obeying alignment and roleplaying) to achieve any sort of goal without distrusting one another or having internal party fighting.

Later on the same page it mentions the application of Alignment Languages and a character’s intelligence score dictating their behavior.

The paragraph ends saying ” Note that playing an alignment does not mean a character must do stupid things. A character should always act as intelligently as the Intelligence score shows, unless there is a reason to act otherwise (such as a magical curse).”. Saying >Should always act> implies that although Intelligence doesn’t affect much of the character besides known languages, that it should impact the character’s decision making and thought processes. The book literally gives an out for players who love to do stupid things a reason to sabotage the party, and OSR is ABSOLUTELY LAUDED AS A PLAYER SKILL ORIENTED GAME STYLE. Too bad you rolled a 3 for Intelligence, your character would never buy or utilize the 10′ Pole that OSR fans rave about in order to avoid traps. On top of that, the higher your Intelligence it seems the less you’d act like any specific alignment.

I’d imagine characters who are very intelligent lean towards Neutrality the most as it’s the most self preserving and doesn’t lock you into being simple-mindedly Lawful or stupidly Chaotic. Neutral characters by the book do to others as you would have them do to you, which in a hostile environment like a dungeon seems the most logical of decisions.

Now with all of this cynical talk out of the way – you can argue that playing a certain alignment isn’t about logic but is more about fun and living out a fantasy character who’s just insane or overtly righteous and there’s nothing particularly wrong with that but it does seem to conflict with OSR teachings and modern perspectives of intended play established now.

MY SOLUTION IS – My 2×2 Alignment Grid
Order / Freedom
Altruism / Egoism (or Virtuous/Decadent)

With this alignment system, it’s a lot easier to understand where a character is at mentally vs. Law/Chaos/Neutrality. It feels more fluid to use also, as it’s easier to separate characters by their Altruism or Egoism. Altruistic characters would be more reliable in a party and although Egoism is the exact opposite of Altruism, it isn’t explicitly 100% selfish. I imagine a character who’s Freedom/Egoism isn’t going to be nearly as destructive as a Chaotic character (or Chaotic Neutral or Evil in a 9 alignment system). Characters who are Altruistic aren’t explicitly good either, as they could only be Altruistic to their friends or their cause (Order or Freedom).

All of this to say that alignment doesn’t impact major game mechanics like it usually does, with Chaotic people being more easily slain by Lawful spells and swords. This can be adjusted to affect monsters that fall into said category ultimately, such as Faeries, Demons and Undead being pure Chaos and Angels, Modrons and Sphynx’s being pure Law so that spells like Detect Evil and the like aren’t rendered useless.

I understand now that with the origins of Law, Neutrality and Chaos being from Poul Anderson’s Three Hearts and Three Lions series, having the alignments be depicted as Law representing the good/human wellbeing and chaos being trickery and evil. However, Michael Moorcock’s perspective of cosmic forces that are struggling for balance over universes is a very awesome concept and despite my complaints can be used when running D&D, but most players see them only in their perspective of categorizable personality traits. My alignment grid more easily fits the personality board style descriptors as it’s less about cosmic red and blue teams and more about what you’d do if a gun was held to your head.

Anyways – this is all I got left in the think tank when it comes to this topic at this time. I appreciate everyone tuning in to read and all my friends who give them a skim when I shoot them links.

Thanks guys. -Dylan