Free D&D

(Or, rather, at no extra cost to you, as long as you already have the proper dice, pencils and paper, graph paper, and notebooks. Also, a computer or smart phone and Internet connection.)

These are some resources I’ve recently discovered, that allow one to set up and play a fantasy tabletop dungeon crawler.

First, the rules: this is called “Delving Deeper”, and is a cleaned-up version of the original Dungeons and Dragons—specifically, the 1974 “White Box” version. There are three booklets one can download. Version 4 is the latest complete revision.

Second, there is a booklet that describes how to create a campaign world, in which your players’ characters can adventure. It’s called “The Gygax 75 Challenge”, and can be procured here.

Third, and as a companion to “The Gygax 75 Challenge”, there is a single page product by Matthew Colville’s MCDM company, that asks several questions to help develop ideas for a fantasy world.

That should be all one needs. Another product that is technically free, if you don’t mind being a moocher, is the “Swords & Wizardry Core Rules”. I bring it up because it has more extensive rules, with illustrations for creating dungeons than “Delving Deeper”.

If you need dice, there are free online dice-rollers available. For the real thing, starting out, I recommend checking out Walmart, which has been selling sets of dice with bags for around 8 to 10 dollars. Each set contains 42 dice, and six bags. Or, you can find out if you have a comic shop nearby, which might also have gaming dice.

Addendum: versions 1 and 2 of “Delving Deeper” contain a sample dungeon map in book 2. I don’t know why this was removed from the later revisions.

They did put up the sample dungeon as a separate product.

Addendum #2: here are a couple of sites that explain how to use the Chainmail combat rules in Dungeons & Dragons.

Using Chainmail with OD&D

Click to access compleat-chainmail.pdf

The Compleat Chainmail

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The Lawful Anarchist

So, about alignment in D&D…

Originally, there were just three alignments that characters could be: Law, Neutral, and Chaos. This system was carried into “Basic” D&D—those rules edited by Tom Moldvay and then Frank Mentzer.

1st Edition AD&D added to this “ethical axis” the “moral axis” of Good, Neutral, and Evil.

The rules in Basic provide some description for what each alignment means, and equates “Law” generally with good behavior, “Chaos” generally with evil behavior, and “Neutral” with non-malicious self-centeredness. In my opinion, these rules fail to adequately explain why “Law” is “Good” and “Chaos” is “Evil”. I think that part of the reason for adding the “Moral Axis” is to explain why legendary characters like Robin Hood could be considered a “good person” even though he breaks the law(s).

Some have attempted to describe “Law and Chaos” as the struggle between “Civilization and Wilderness”, but I don’t think this captures the essence of these concepts.

The rules system “Lamentations of the Flame Princess” comes the closest to explaining why characters who are aligned with “Law” are considered “good” and those who align with “Chaos” are considered “evil”. The rules are available free of charge somewhere on the Internets, but here is my paraphrase of the explanation:

Characters who are “Law aligned” believe that the world has a design, a purpose, and a destiny, and that there are consequences for their actions beyond the temporal—perhaps they believe in a personal Divine judge, or in an impersonal force of fate, but they believe that bad behavior will result in punishment at some point, and that good behavior will be rewarded, again, in addition to or beyond temporal consequences. That is why the “Law” character willingly stays behind to slow down the monsters so that his companions can escape.

Meanwhile, one who is aligned with “Chaos” believes that the world has no purpose, that events are undirected by any Divine or impersonal force beyond natural laws which developed randomly. He believes that his actions do not incur penalties or rewards beyond immediate circumstances. Now, he may act in ways considered “good”, and it may be due to his personal code, but because he doesn’t believe it matters, he is still of the “Chaos” alignment. Many who are of “Chaos” believe that there are no restrictions to their behavior, as long as they can get away with whatever it is they wish to do. The Chaos aligned character will stab his fellow party member in the back and take his stuff because he thinks he can get away with betrayal without consequence.

The title to this, my little essay, is derived from the idea that someone can be a political anarchist, but still be aligned with “Law”, because he believes that his deeds will have metaphysical meaning.

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Classic Party Pic

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More Artwork

 

 

 

 

 

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Character Portraits

 

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A couple of sketches.

Actually, the same sketch

 

 

 

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BECMI #6

So, Saving Throws get a brief three paragraphs. Halleck already encountered two situations in which he had to make saving throws–once, against the snake (a Poison saving throw) and once against the low-down dirty dog Bargle (a Saving Throw vs. Spells). The player checks his character’s saving throw chart, finds the target number for the type of throw, and rolls a d20. The goal is a number equal to or greater than the number on the chart.

As an aside, if you look up discussions about Moldvay B/X rules versus Mentzer BECMI Rules, you might see the argument that Moldvay is better for reference, while Mentzer is better for learning how to play the game. Well, that isn’t quite true, when the subject concerns saving throw tables. In Moldvay, one must search through the rules to find the chart that lists every class’ saving throw chart. Mentzer, however, gives the various class saving throw charts in the class description section. Much easier to reference.

In any case, the easiest saving throws (lowest target numbers) are for Death Ray/Poison, while the hardest saving throws are made against Spells, Rods, Staves, and Wands.

As a second aside, if you ever watch the excellent videos by Matt Colville, called “Making a Fighter in Every Edition of D&D” (he has completed up to 2nd edition, so far), you will hear him discuss how the only thing special about the “Dwarf Class” is the dwarf’s ability to detect sloping passages, new construction, etc., while in a dungeon environment, and how pretty much useless this special ability is. He even goes so far as to search through the TSR published adventure modules to see if they put any sloping passages in them for dwarves to detect. The Temple of Elemental Evil was the only one that he could find.

However, there is another reason to play a dwarf, and that is the excellent saving throws, which are better than any other class, except Halfling, which has the same Saving Throw numbers as the Dwarf.

That’s pretty much it, for Saving Throws.

The next few paragraphs describe how Halleck, as a fighter, does not have any special abilities. He just fights really well.

The section after that mentions the Combat Chart that is on the Character Sheet, which will be used in group games, but will not be needed for the second solo adventure, which is coming up.

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Becmi #5

Ability Score Adjustments. So, Ability Scores range from a low of three to a high of eighteen. For low or high scores, there are adjustments that must be made to simulate the character’s interaction with the world. A score of nine to twelve is considered within the normal range of most folk’s abilities. If a character’s score is higher than this normal range, then he gets a bonus to certain die rolls, and if the score is lower than normal, he suffers a penalty to his rolls.

STRENGTH: this ability determines how successful attacks are, and affect the damage inflicted by successful attacks. It doesn’t specify, here, but the Strength ability applies to melee, not ranged, attacks. Strength also affects the character’s attempts to open stuck doors and/or lifting huge rocks. Halleck’s Strength score of 17 gives him a 2 point bonus to his attack rolls, damage rolls, and to the various muscular-based activities he attempts. The show-off.

INTELLIGENCE: this ability’s sphere of activity isn’t described, excepting for the use of languages. Halleck’s score of “9” is considered average, and as a result he knows two languages: Commonese, and his alignment language of Lawish. Characters don’t use their alignment language, unless they have to, it says, which means they will never, ever use their alignment language.

WISDOM: this ability score affects certain saving throws, and apparently does nothing else (I jest; clerics’ spellcasting depends on the wisdom score, but that is not revealed in this section of the rules). Halleck’s wisdom score is 8, which means that he will suffer a one point penalty when an enemy casts a magic spell against him. Aleena had a bonus to her saving throws against magic, which, unfortunately, did not prevent her from being killed by a magic spell, ironically enough. As an aside, it is,mentioned here that Aleena’s low Strength score incurred a one point penalty to her attack rolls. I had assumed that the sample cleric that is listed in the middle of this booklet was supposed to represent Aleena’s ability scores, but this cleric has a Strength score of “9”, which is “average”, and suffers no penalty.

DEXTERITY: this ability score affects the use of missile weapons (a.k.a. ranged attacks), and how quickly the character acts compared to enemies. Halleck’s is “average” (it is listed on the previous page that Halleck’s Dexterity score goes to eleven).

CONSTITUTION: this ability score determines hit points. Halleck’s is high (a score of 16), and grants him a two,point bonus to his hit points (8 hit points rather than 6). A lower score might mean fewerr hit points.

CHARISMA: this ability score affects the character’s interaction with other characters. Halleck’s score of 14 gives him a one point bonus when he meets and converses with others.

Next topic: Saving Throws

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This artwork is a bit different from my normal stuff

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ECDTHM

 

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