The creative writing class disguised asa fantasy worldbuilding class I have been teaching at a local
progressive school has been humming along now for a couple months. Not
terribly surprisingly it only took a month before I had them playing
some D&D. The kids, also perhaps not surprisingly, have been one of
the weirdest (I say that with pride), most anarchic, out-of-the-box play groups I
have ever had the pleasure of running.
What follows are the stripped-down OD&D
hack rules I have been using. The level of detail is just about right
I have found for the youngest in the classroom (9 years-old) but a
wee bit lacking for the oldest (11). Big solid thank you to the
crowdsourcing peanut gallery on Google Plus that helped me fill out
the whimsical random starting equipment, a big hit with the kids.
The
Circle School Fantasy Game
Roll Up Your Abilities
Roll 3d6 in order. Swap any one for
another one.
Brawn: How big and burly (or weak) you
are.
Knowledge: How much you know (education
and brain capacity).
Speed: How quick and fast (or slow) you
are.
Charm: How charming or good looking you
are.
Hit Points: How much damage you can
take. At zero you are “knocked out.” See below for how many
points you get.
Who You Can Be
Pick one class
choice from below. All characters advance one level after
successfully completing an adventure (2-3 class sessions).
Warriors
Hero: 2d6 hit points, hits as 4th level
OD&D Fighter
Superhero: 4d6 hit points, hits as 8th
level Fighter
Champion: 6d6 hit points, hits as 12th
level Fighter
Magic-Users
Mage: 1d6 hit points, 2 spells, hits as
4th level OD&D MU
Wizard: 2d6 hit points, 3 spells, hits
as 8th level MU
Arch-Wizard: 3d6 hit points, 4 spells,
hits as 12th level MU
What You Get
All
Clothes
Backpack
Bag of Food
Torches
Canteen
Magic Users
Staff, Club,
Nunchucks or Knife
Styling Cloak,
Robe, or Hat
Magic User Spells (pick two)
Sleep (same as
Sleep)
Charm (same as
Charm Person or Monster)
Shapechange
(Polymorph Self)
Big Firey
Explosion (Fire Ball)
Heal (Cure 3d6 hit
points)
Warrior (pick one)
A. Leather Armor,
Magic Bow and Arrows
B. Chainmail,
Magic Sword or Axe
C. Platemail,
Sword, Lance, Shield and Horse
Special Stuff Chart (Roll Once on
Each Table)
- Talking Animal Friend (Non-Annoying)
- Mean Old Beast of a Pet
- A Long Silk Rope (60 feet)
- Vial of Angel Tears
- Big Wheel of Cheese
- Silver Mirror (Vampires won't appear)
- Painted wooden duck decoy
- Straw broom
- Metal bucket full of fresh strawberries
- Pair of stilts
- Hand saw
- set of jugglers pins
- horse head mask
- big ball of yarn and some knitting needles.
- leather poncho
- wicker basket full of dead harmless (but live) snakes
- A pet goat
- A loyal follower: An aging woodcutter
- A not so loyal follower: A village cutpurse
- A loyal follower: A slightly loco milkmaid who thinks herself a viking.
- A taxidermied owl
- A small wooden box of broken glass shards
- A double ended battle-shovel from a drunken dwarf smith.
- A brass teakettle
- A jack in the box
- A pouch of 20 palm sized perfect skipping stones
- Magic Chopsticks
- A map scribbled on a nakpin
- A book of poetry in a language they can't read
- A fist-sized crystal that glows a warm amber.
- A snake-shaped ring that can respond to yes/no questions.
- A graven stick with strange designs and slotted ends
- A bear/wolfs head headdress
- A small silver bell on a string
- A roosters claw
- A polished brass mirror (no glass)
- A pouch of purple sand
- A kindly old mentor
- A little sidekick (gnome, dwarf, tinkerbell)
- Roll Twice More
Misc Rules
All characters can
search for hidden items, secret doors or traps by rolling a 1 on a
d6.
Other conditional
tasks can be done by rolling d20 at or lower than the relevant
attribute (pushing a rock would be against your Brawn, a running jump
against your Speed, etc.)
Man, I think I prefer these rules to regular OD&D.
ReplyDeleteWhat are "dead harmless (but live) snakes"? Are they harmless undead snakes (both dead and alive)?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jack.
"Dead harmless" as in "absolutely harmless".
DeleteThis is very cool.
ReplyDeleteI like the milkmaid. My character has one of those in our S&W game. But she's a little more than a milkmaid. Our wizard accidentally transformed her (partially) into a cow hybrid with two big udders. The cow maid is smitten with me (Charisma 17 warrior).
ReplyDeleteI also have a hireling, who was accidentally transformed (it was a busy 'between-adventure' carousing time) into a Frog Man, with big jumping legs and a long, sticky, prehensile tongue by the same wizard in the same experiment.
You'd be the least insane player in the group.
DeleteThese need to be made into a PDF with photos. Come up with a name. Throw them into the aether!
ReplyDeleteYeah I will do that. Maybe write down some more of the "make it up as we go" rules.
DeleteWizards with nunchucks?
ReplyDelete"Hello, I am Ctulalik of the Mystical Order of the Broken Nose."
OK. I misspelled 'ckutalik'. Try and sue me.
DeleteAgain the major guiding principle being "what would I dig at 10?" Mages with martial arts weapons, hell yeah.
DeleteHow do you do saves? As ability checks?
ReplyDeleteLove it. I was also wondering about saving throws. Do you have some sort of Save=20-level or something?
ReplyDeleteNun-chuks as basic wizard equipment is surely the sign of a truly sagacious intellect
ReplyDeleteI hesitate to start adding classes, but a halfling thief would round it out. Every 10-year old I know would only want to play that.
ReplyDelete