D&D 2E What would you want in a 2e AD&D inspired RPG?

[Campbell]

Dungeon World gave me everything I ever wanted out of the playstyle that 2e advocated, but often failed to deliver. 1e is another story.

 

[pemerton]

2e is my favorite iteration of D&D, and I've long harbored a desire to create an OSR version of it with some rules cleaning.

I can't believe that there's not an OSR D&D out there for everyone by now...here are some random thoughts

A quick Google turned up a reddit thread, which turned up this:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/justen-brown/for-gold-glory/ebook/product-21832476.html


Apparently this one crashed:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/705393141/myth-and-magic-players-guide-2e-revived-and-update

 

[Legatus Legionis]

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[Morlock]

Percentile strength never made sense to me. What can't a stronger guy just have strength 19, which is greater than 18?

In terms of math, it crowds a lot of bonuses into a narrow space (18, strength-based classes), which isn't necessarily a bad thing, while keeping 18 as the "mortal limit." My response back in the day was to make percentile scores for every other attribute, too.

That said, I was never fond of it.

 

[pemerton]

It does make sense, but it also causes a huge ripple effect in the game.

I don't think it's all that huge. It effects the notation for a handful of magic items, plus some gods!

(And maybe some monsters? I've played plenty of 2nd ed AD&D but never GMed it. Do ogres, trolls and giants get STR mods to their damage? That's still not very much change, and frankly you can just hold the mods constant without even worrying about the fact that the numerical value of their STR score has changed.)

 

[Staffan]

It does make sense, but it also causes a huge ripple effect in the game.

Not really. Most monsters don't have ability scores other than Intelligence.

IMO, Exceptional Strength is part of some early Gygaxian philosophy about rewarding those who are already good. If you had a high prime requisite, you got an XP bonus in addition to actually being better at your stuff, so you got rewarded twice. In some cases, you could also unlock better classes (1e paladin and ranger were straight-out better than fighters, until weapon specialization entered the scene with Unearthed Arcana). In 1e (and later with the 2e Complete Psionics Handbook), high mental stats could give you psionic powers. And if you were a warrior with 18 Strength, you got extra super-strength on top of that.

Exceptional Strength was meant as a perk of being a warrior, but if I was going to remake AD&D I would instead either just give warriors an inherent +1 to hit/+2 damage or something like that, or use the Dark Sun Revised rules, which eliminated exceptional Strength and spread most of its benefits up to the 19-22 scores, and gave warriors +1d4 Strength (this was necessitated by Dark Sun having "basic" ability scores in the 5-20 range instead of 3-18, and the Exceptional Strength skewed things by making a 19 much, much better than an 18).

 

[Yaarel]

Ability Bonus
24-26 +5
21-23 +4
18-20 +3
15-17 +2
12-14 +1
09-11 +0
06-08 −1
03-05 −2
00-02 −3
(Lower than 00 is autofail)

Bonus = Score/3 −3 (round down)

Use only one ability for an attack using a d20. However, make damage normally use two abilities. For example, Heavy weapons add both Strength and Constitution to damage. Light (finesse) weapons add both Dexterity and Intelligence to damage. This helps flavor different fighting styles, and helps each ability to be more useful.

_____

It is also possible to make each ability score improvement meaningful, by ’staggering’ the bonus among save/skill, damage, and attack.

18 +3 to a saving throw or a skill check that uses this ability

17 +2 to an attack that uses this ability
16 +2 to damage that uses this ability
15 +2 to a saving throw or a skill check that uses this ability

14 +1 to an attack that uses this ability
13 +1 to damage that uses this ability
12 +1 to a saving throw or a skill check that uses this ability

11 +0

And so on.

 

[vivsavage]

What if, instead of percentile strength, warriors got a different strength bonus than other classes a la the constitution bonuses? For example, a strength of 17 for a fighter gives you +2/+3 instead of +1/+1 for other classes?

 

[pemerton]

What if, instead of percentile strength, warriors got a different strength bonus than other classes a la the constitution bonuses? For example, a strength of 17 for a fighter gives you +2/+3 instead of +1/+1 for other classes?

I think it would be cleaner to have a common STR chart and give fighters a bonus to their STR stat.

Or, alternatively, give fighters a bonus to hit and damage that is independent of STR.

 

[Legatus Legionis]

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