More d100 D&D

I've been playing with this idea again.

Basically, you have percentile values for each ability. 

Each level gets you at least 2% better at (basically) everything, with each ability point giving you 3% as a starting rule.

A level 8 PC (example above) might have Strength 13/55% and Intelligence 10/46%.

We'd basically use that 55% for skills, attacks, and magic.

Probably thieves get 20% extra on their skills, fighters on their attacks, and mages on their spellcasting.

Limit PCs to level 10 or so, and leveling bonus will not surpass differences in abilities., although the system does still work up to level 20 and more.

Saving throws use the same number. The 30–80 range is quite perfect for that.

[Strength 10 gives you 32% on level one; with Strength 20, you'd get 80% on level 10, or 100% if you're an specialist; maybe you could do ability x4 plus level x2 for slightly more competent PCs].

Combat wouldn't be hard to do; you probably need some defense stat in lieu of AC, maybe even some dodge chance, parry, etc. One reason I like d100, BTW, is because they can produce crits on doubles, and use the "tens" digit as damage, to make combat quicker and more exciting.

HP are trickier. You can't really get the same range as old-school D&D without a completely different formula.

Spells would be a lot weaker unless you spend some of your magic for additional effects.

But at this point I'm not even sure you'd need the ability scores; the percentiles would be enough. I can hardly think of a task a PC should be able to attempt without getting better through leveling. Breaking down doors, for example, could certainly improve with practice.

"But why not just roll under every ability, like in The Black Hack, etc.?" This is doable too, but I like the small increments from level instead of raising attributes directly. And the curve from my method, going from around 30% to 80%, feels more akin to D&D’s zero-to-hero style than starting at a 40–50% chance of success.

And, well, I just like the d100.

Old school swarms/minions (B/X, OSE, AD&D, etc.)

I started playing with these tables in the context of mass combat ideas, but it might be a good way to avoid handfuls of dice when your 8th-level party is fighting a horde of goblins or orcs (or any 1HD creatures that deal 1d6 damage, basically, but see special cases below) - a situation that happened several times in my current campaign.

Instead of rolling each attack separately, just roll damage, using the table below. 

It’s up to the GM to decide (or check the book to see) how many creatures can attack a single PC at once — in melee, this number might be limited to 6 or 8, but archers could potentially be much worse.

I originally wrote this for B/X (unarmored AC = 9 means you have 55% chance to-hit), but see special cases below

The averages are very close to the original, with few outliers. This is most useful and precise when you are fighting many creatures - if there are only 2 or 3 foes, go back to the original D&D system of rolling 1d20 to-hit, then maybe damage, etc.

Example: five goblins attack your AC 3 fighter - just roll 1d6+1 damage. If they attack your AC 6 thief in the next round, the damage is 2d6 instead. 

If 15 goblin archers aim at your AC 6 mage, they deal 6d6 damage!

Special cases

AD&D. Use the AD&D line.

Ascending AC [for B/X, OSE]. Use the AAC line.

Other systems. If your system is similar but the AC numbers are different (e.g. LotFP, BFRPG), you can use the AAC line as "number needed on the d20". For example, if you need 15 or more to hit, check the 15 on the table.

Creatures with different damage. Creatures that cause 1d6-1 or 1d6+1 damage add a bonus/penalty per dice. So 6d6 becomes 6d6+6, for example. Treat 1d4 as 1d6-1 and 1d8 as 1d6+1.

Creatures with different HD. You can use the AAC line with the number needed to hit. For example, a 2+1 HD creature in B/X hits AC 0 on a 17 or more. The easiest way to do that without THAC0 or other tables is just adding 1 to AC for each HD after the first one (remember that 1+1 HD counts as 2 etc.). In other words, a creature with 3 HD attacks AC 0 as if it was AC 3, and AC 6 as if it was 9.

Damaging hordes. This system only deals with the damage that hordes deal, not what they take; we'll leave that for another day, but the fighters would at the very least deserve some kind of "cleaving" power.

HOWEVER. If you give fighters one attack per level against 1 HD creatures (like OD&D), you could use this table for them too! Just substitute the number of creatures for the fighter's level. So a 8th-level fighter attacking AC 6 goblins deals 3d6+1 damage if using an 1d6 weapon; if his damage is 1d8+1, it becomes 3d8+4 instead. No d20 needed.

Creatures with more than 3 HD, 2d8 damage, special powers, etc. This system is for simple creatures that can be treated as swarms. Anything more complex than that defeats the purpose. While in theory you can run swarms of ogres with a similar method, I prefer to keep this system for goblins, orcs, kobolds, cave man, ordinary humans, wolves, and similar creatures.

Memorizing this table. Is easy to memorize that a  group of twenty 1 HD creatures, with 1d6 damage each, deal 2d6 damage per round against AC 0. Just add 1d6 for AC 1, 2d6 for AC 2, 3d6 for AC 3, etc. If there are fewer than twenty creatures, I can usually do a rough estimation on my head without a table - try it and see which method you prefer. 

For example, AC 5 results in 7d6 (2d6+5d6) for 20 creatures, so 6 creatures would deal a little less than one third of that (I'd guess 2d6 or 2d6+1).

20:1 mass combat in practice

Here is one huge simplification of old school D&D combat. I’ve written about this before, and I’m sorry if I end up repeating myself.

[Also, I got a bit carried away in this post, so it might sound rambly... you've been warned! ;) ]

Assuming most creatures have 1 HD, deal 1d6 damage, and hit AC 0 only on a 20, each 20 creatures deal 1d6 damage per round against AC 0 on average. So, we could say that unit damage is 1d6 for a unit of 20 creatures.

[In a game like B/X, where you hit AC 0 on a 19–20, the average damage is 2d6 instead of 1d6.]

However, for each point of the target’s AC, 1d6 is added to damage. So, a unit of 20 archers deals 1d6 damage to a unit of 20 bandits, plus 5d6 if the bandits’ AC is 5, or 7d6 if it is 7, etc. Likewise, if your damage is 1d8, then you start with 1d8 and add 1d8 for each point of AC (you can use 1d6+1 if you don’t have many d8s). 

All very intuitive.

You don’t have to roll to hit—just roll damage. Each roll of 4 or more removes one creature from the opposing unit. Rolls of 1–3 can be added together to remove more creatures.

The “remnants” of each wounded unit are immediately added together into new units if they succeed at whatever morale check you deem necessary. This is an abstraction.

So you can easily run, say, a clan of 60 dwarves attacking a lair with 100 bandits with just a few rolls. Shall we try?

Let’s say the bandits have the initiative. The dwarves have AC 4; so each 20 bandits deal 1d6 plus 4d6 damage, a total of 25d6 for 100 bandits. We roll 25d6* and get:

6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1

[Notice that we could roll each unit separately for more detail; for example, maybe one unit breaks and the other does not, etc.].

16 dwarves are killed immediately from the 6s, 5s and 4s, plus four deaths by adding the rest (3+1, 3+1, 2+2, 2+2; the last 2 is discarded].

20 deaths is very convenient, otherwise we'd have to discuss what to do with units of 17 etc.

But for now, 40 dwarves remain. They pass their morale check and attack. Their damage is 1d8 according to B/X, and the bandits AC is 6. This means 1d8+6d8 for each 20 dwarves, for a total of 14d8:

8, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 6, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1

Only 10 kills! 90 bandits remain. By this time, it is obvious that the dwarves, having smaller numbers and having lost initiative, are nearly doomed.

If we attack with only 80 bandits next, we'd roll 20d6:

6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1

Another 16 dwarves are dead. Now we have 24 dwarves against 90 bandits. Let's "put aside" 4 dwarves and 10 bandits and continue with 80x20. Twenty desperate dwarves attack (7d8):

8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2

Six bandits killed. 84 left, 80 will attack again:

6, 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1

16 dwarves killed, only 8 remain.

By this point, you can decide the dwarves are defeated, captured, or routed. You can easy estimate the losses on the bandit's side (about 20%). 

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And this was not much slower than an usual D&D combat of say, 4 PCs against a dozen goblins. 

This is exactly the goal: you can insert your PCs in this battle, and they could even turn of the tide of the battle.

Assuming the PCs are fighting against bandits, a cleric could cast bless and add 1d8 damage to an unit of 20 dwarves. A mage could fireball 20 bandits in the first turn.

A fighter could kill multiple bandits, although we probably need special rules for that: like in OD&D, maybe give him one attack per level, so a strong level 6 fighter can kill maybe 2-4 bandits per round.

Is this enough to change the tide of battle? Let's try adding a party of three level 6 PCs.

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The bandits attack first, reducing the dwarves from 60 to 40. A fireball reduces the bandits from 100 to 80, and the fighter reduces them to 77. The 40 dwarves, 20 being blessed, roll 15d8 to attack:

8, 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 4, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1

68 bandits remain. Since we get 5d6 for each 20 bandits, lets roll 17d6 for the 68. Here the GM is averaging and abstracting a bit.

6, 6, 5, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2

About 27 dwarves are left. Let's roll 10d8, assuming a few of them are still blessed. Again, the DM is averaging and trying to get to the right ballpark:

8, 8, 7, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Bandits are reduced to 61. Fighter kills 3, MU kills other 2 with magic missiles, cleric blesses again. Now there are 56 bandits, but let's add a twist: 20 bandits attack the fighter. The fighter's AC is 2, so he takes 3d6 damage. 36 attack the dwarves: let's roll 8d6.

6, 6, 5, 4, 4, 3, 2, 1

21 dwarves are left. Roll 8d8 since most are blessed:

8, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.

49 bandits left, soon reduced to 42 by the PCs. Roll 10d6 against dwarves:

6, 6, 5, 5, 4, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1

14 dwarves left. Roll 5d8:

8, 7, 6, 4, 2

38 bandits left. 20 bandits attack dwarves (5d6) and 18 attack the AC 2 fighter (3d6 or, let's say, 3d6-1). And AD&D fighter is likely to be severely wounded at this point but alive:

6, 5, 4, 2, 1

Only 11 dwarves left, the fighter is severely wounded and the MU out of good spells (of course, if I gave him TWO fireballs they might have won). 

The battle is nearly lost but I want to see it to the bitter end. Let's go!

Dwarves (8, 7, 5, 3) kill 3 bandits. Fighter and mage kill 4 more. Cleric heals fighter. 

31 bandits are left, but now 20 of them decide to attack the cleric. With AC 3, the cleric takes 4d6 damage. Ouch! 11 bandits (6, 4, 2) kill 2 dwarves.

9 dwarves (8, 6, 5, 2) kill 3 bandits. 28 left, reduced to 24 by the desperate PCs. They attack the remaining dwarves, rolling 6d6 (6, 6, 5, 3, 2, 1). 

Only 5 dwarves left, they attack (7, 3) and kill one bandit. the PCs also attack; 19 bandits are left, and they'll finish the dwarves (6, 5, 4, 3, 2). A single dwarf is left.

Now there are 3 PCs and one dwarf against 19 bandits. They manage to reduce them to 15. The fighter, slightly healed by the Cleric, takes 2d6 damage and barely survives. The GM decides the last dwarf falls killing one bandit, and the PCs also attack to reduce the bandits to 10.

The cleric takes 2d6 damage. Bandits are reduced to 7. Fighter takes 1d6 damage, and falls. 5 bandits against cleric and MU. There are two few combatants to keep using 20:1, and at this point I'm guesstimating. Could go either way, but it seems PCs are doomed.

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So, 3 PCs were not enough to win this battle decisively. An additional warrior (or just another fireball) would certainly change things.

Still, the PCs made a significant difference. Instead of 80 bandits, now only a few will remain. In practice, repeated morale rolls (that I skipped) could win the day for the PCs.

Took me a bit more than an hour to write this and took some abstractions, rulings, etc. Seems that dwarves had little chance, even with better armor and weapons, after losing initiative. Even with the PCs, it was basically 100 HDs against 78, and the loss of initiative was a huge big deal.

It was a fun exercise, but probably would be more fun in an actual table with friends. Definitely deserves a few tweaks. I need to give it a try...

The AD&D burger

I find AD&D better than B/X—arguably twice as good. But it also comes with five times the page count (and weight, price, etc.)

In some ways, it’s like a burger that’s twice as tasty or has twice the protein of a McDonald’s burger, but also five times the calories, five times the cost, or stretches your lunch to two hours instead of twenty minutes.

Maybe there’s a better analogy out there, but you get the idea.

So let’s stretch the analogy a bit further: AD&D also has several parts (bards and monks, weapon versus armor, weapon speed) that people will simply remove from their burger before eating. Meanwhile, B/X might lack enough protein for your diet, so you can just add more meat or a second source of protein.

Which do you prefer?

Most OSR titles, including my own, try to reach a happy medium between the two.

Often, they start with B/X and add races separated from class and a few extra classes and magic items.

I believe my ideal D&D would be AD&D reduced to around 120 pages like B/X—cutting some fat and carbs from the big burger instead of adding more meat to the small one. 

I don’t think this has been done successfully. OSRIC gets close but not quite (still way more than 120 pages compared to B/X, and it doesn’t even include all AD&D parts). The Challenges Game System by Moldvay could be a good start. Every edition of D&D after B/X, including 2e, 3e, and 5e, tries to streamline things without actually simplifying much.

Maybe I should give this a shot before my next campaign. While I don't, you can read my analysis of the AD&D DMG here, including many thoughts on how to use AD&D stuff for your B/X games.