2. Ulflandia B/X House Rules (this post)
3. Influences, Yoinking and Appendix N
3. Influences, Yoinking and Appendix N
4. Solo Romping
5. Weather, Time, Rumors and Other Minutiae
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| talking about my houserules people end up like this... wonder why |
- Criticals: no effect on a 20 rolled (this was the players' choice). 🕇🕇
- AAC: Ascending Armor Class, that's how we roll.
- Maneuvers: attacker gives effect of the maneuver, then do a normal attack roll. The defender then chooses either to accept the maneuver, or accept the damage (before damage is rolled). From here.
- Morale: of course we embrace this "optional" rule.
- At 0HP, Save vs Death. On a fail, character is dead, otherwise they are unconscious and need to be stabilized immediately. (Only for PCs and Retainers).
CHARACTERS & CLASSES
- New characters get one random impedimenta and one minor magical item at start.
- No prime requisite bonus/malus to XP
- No Elf PCs 🕇
- Halfling: their hiding in the wilderness undergrowth or woods ability of 90% assumes a static/stopped case.
EXPERIENCE
- Overcoming Monsters does not grant any XP. 🕇🕇
EQUIPMENT & ENCUMBRANCE
- Extending the meager B/X equipment list to Equipment Emporium from Basic Fantasy RPG, with referee discretion.
- We use Basic Encumbrance.
🕇 Rationale: Ulflandia is peppered with different Elf variations and their factions. It would be a disservice to player discovery to just allow them as an option to play. Sword-mage but pointy-eared does not cut it this time around. This can change as the campaign progresses and players grow into Ulflandia.
🕇🕇 These were, in fact, the choice of the players.
The above are fairly minimal. This is intended, as we prefer to change the game as the campaign play progresses. It goes without saying that this post will see edits in the future. Fight On!
Can you give us a bit more on the 'not overcoming monsters' rule? Is that to say that only gathering gold grants XP - monsters alive or dead is irrelevant?
ReplyDeleteYes, exactly that! So they don't get any treasure from defeating a monster. Leaving the monster dead or alive is irrelevant for XP purposes. If the monster had treasure hidden that is fair game though.
DeleteIt already came in to bite them. They sneaked in and looted a hill giant's lair, but decided to come back to double-check if a prisoner they couldn't free the first time was still there, and why not. And why not, try to best the giant. We spent 2 full sessions on the deal: preparing, stashing a mule with poisoned cider, getting retainers, the actual combat, etc. We ran an epic battle (which they surprisingly won!). It cost them dearly though, Biscuit the Halfling retainer was crushed like a bug, and they had worked him up to mid 2nd level (and he was a party favorite). But they netted exactly 0 XP from those 2 sessions, as the giant's loot was already gathered in the first sneaky scout.
As a sidenote, I have a player really leaning into his Halfling gourmand/cannibal, who wants to start concocting monster parts for one-off effects/potions etc. He has the (aforementioned) giant's ears, elf ears, faun thumbs, etc. You get the picture. It is an interesting route we are exploring, and a decent money sink to get a local Sage (1000gp/month !) to create elixirs. Probably going to use Skerples' Monster Menu All as a basis (https://coinsandscrolls.blogspot.com/2017/07/monster-menu-all-part-1-eating-ad.html)