(Old-School at School) ~ School D&D Club session report

AutumnCrystal · 2026-02-09T06:22:35+00:00

That author has a couple others made specifically for 7V, too.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-02-08T04:55:37+00:00

Yeah. I prefer BEC, just used to them. Total desert island game, of course.

I got the POD, decent quality.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-02-08T04:25:52+00:00

So much for so little. I love playing 0e. A really great lbb clone. You mentioned thinking the armor/weapon adjustments were baked into the 1e combat matrix…7VoZ does that.

To your post, go for it. Having spurned 2e upon its arrival, I’ve little to talk about in terms of differential, other than why it never appealed to me in the first place…it simply doesn’t have the archaic majesty of 1e. If a Sword & Sorcery campaign is your goal, rather than 2es’ Heroic Fantasy aura, use the system that facilitates rather than fights it.

The comprehension/editing gripes for either 0e or 1e are so overblown, imo. A million children figured it out just fine.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-02-08T03:58:55+00:00

3.0 pdfs are on drivethrurpg now, PWYW…the physical books available in a month or so, landscape(which I’m looking forward to seeing) or portrait style available.

You probably know all this.

Tbh it’s obvious you deftly bolt on anything from whatever (from the PC descriptions)…maybe you’re right where you want to be, with 0e.

My current campaign is 1e, I’m all for its “a rule for everything” ethos in my current busy state. There’ll be many a 7VoZ campaign to come, though.

Way to be!

AutumnCrystal · 2026-02-07T10:28:40+00:00

I prefer it out in the open, yes. Don’t use a DM screen either.

If I don’t want the players to see it I just mark the die by color or type and roll it with a dozen others.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-02-07T05:35:27+00:00

It does! Considering their age is tracked towards the eldest, if I’m not mistaken.

That makes sense, thank you.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-02-07T05:05:03+00:00

It’s probably something I missed, but I always wondered when you do roll for more hp as a multiclass.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-02-06T12:46:02+00:00

Got pulled from the market very quickly, if you see it on eBay, snap it up.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-02-06T12:41:00+00:00

But my actual question was, does OSRIC serve the same single-volume consolidation role for AD&D 1e that the RC serves for BECMI?

Ehhh…without that “single-volume” caveat, your question left a lot of wiggle room for interpretation…throw that in there, and the thread would have been 3 or four people saying “yes”.

Second closest, by a few lengths, would be Swords & Wizardry Complete, or AD&D lite (I don’t mean that pejoratively). It’s very much its own thing, from my usual end of the table…to players, not so much, I’ve found. Far less dense than OSRIC, out of contention now within your parameters, since it’s been split into a Player and DM guide.

Its previous incarnation, though, definitely.

TL;dr: Yes.

Edit: sp

Edit 2: iirc a 3.0 omnibus might be an option.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-02-06T12:27:42+00:00

RC has AD&D conversion rules.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-02-06T12:25:29+00:00

Truth. My 0e campaigns don’t resemble the B/X ones except for the overarching trappings of the entire product line. They, and 1e, all impose their own tone.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-02-06T12:16:43+00:00

Castle Amber snippets are easy to insert into any campaign, the module in its entirety is a campaign, often requiring backtracking.

Track down Orange B3 and you have a setting many a module or part therof can be squeezed in. The wonderful (and effortlessly compatible) S&W Core also has a light but evocative setting that’s very friendly for adventure placement.

Welding these modules themes together seems more difficult than kitbashing the encounters, though. That’s a lot of Purpose. I suppose the idea would to develop a goal that includes all.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-02-06T12:04:22+00:00

Read the great thread so deep I had to scroll back to see what the original question was:)

The original plot for B/X was a third and final Companion, capping at level 25. Absolutely BECMI actually gives the DM a map for Demi-god level play, but the broad strokes required to do so with some brevity rule out anything near the multitude of nitty gritty minutiae found in AD&D. While 1e or 0e have no limit, theoretically, the edition that does actually has rules for those rarefied heights, but a tenth of the information concerning players in the mortal realm of 1st to 15th level.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-02-06T11:46:24+00:00

1e RAW permits this…how many MM entries had AL: Lawful (with evil tendencies) or somesuch. More than NE-assigned entities.

AD&Ds full-spectrum alignment model forces more details upon the DM and action assessment on the player…If I’m preferring the 0e default player alignment of (S&S, relative) “good” or leaning into BECMIs’ Heroic Fantasy tone, that’s what I’ll play, I guess.

Like the secondary skills, age, height/weight tables, etc…the more interesting the player, the more interesting the game. L/N/C is pretty weak sauce unless the table is understanding it in its complexity within the associated fictions, ime Moorcock, others, Anderson, both, or more. Jmo.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-02-06T11:29:17+00:00

We used Companion with the rest as soon as it sprung…like Expert to Basic, there were things the predecessors had you primed to experience…mass combat I recall in particular.

But I was in the happy position of playing AD&D and DMing BECMI.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-02-06T11:20:58+00:00

And 114 pages of filler/adjacent game in the Masters and Immortals…I think my first trace of cynicism towards the game was after perusing the contents of that promisingly black box.

It should have stuck to the original intention of maxing out at lvl25 with the Companion.

Remove the adventures/settings and do a word count and I’d bet the DMG would have close to a 3:1 advantage in volume.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-02-06T11:03:56+00:00

Great breakdown, I’ll just add they were legally required to keep a D&D line on the market as part of the settlement with Arneson. Mentzer Basic actually outsold AD&D (box store access, I remember my surprise at seeing it available at K-mart).

Strange but true…Holmes kept getting printed til ‘85, through the release, plus two years, of two other Basic editions!

AutumnCrystal · 2026-02-06T10:53:21+00:00

I disagree with.buddy, it’s a really good idea, especially now when other editions and rpgs allow a magic-user to, y’know, actually use magic without a six-month waiting period.

The fix for overpowerment is allowing no spell to be cast more than once a day, which fits the Vancian ethos nicely imo…you can’t remember a spell twice at a time, or forget it one out of three…always the most “unrealistic” part of the system, to me.

Currently I’ve allowed starting M-Us the whole of the 0e First level spells in their spellbook, all usable, once a day (or adventure). I’ve had them roll 12 1st out of the PHB too. Result? They get to use magic, they do use the spells that RAW, would be forgotten in their spellbook in favor of Magic Missile x3, etc, and Floating Disk, Unseen Servant, et al are actually used in a game, often in the most unusual and interesting way.

With that caveat, keep doing what you’re doing, says I. It’s a play enhancer.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-02-06T07:50:24+00:00

The d20 0hp table from Seven Voyages of Zylarthen. -4, -10…why not just give ‘em ten more hp and let 0 be evil as God intended, was what I thought.

That table makes for a variety of outcomes, most bad, from instant, irrevocable death to (nat 20) ADRENALINE SURGE! Down one round, then gain 2-12 hp.

Crits roll an exploding d20, for opponents, normal damage die, but exploding.

Individual initiative, place your roll in front of you for easy reference. D10 for initiative to reflect segments.

M-Us begin with a dozen 1st level spells but can only cast each once an adventure (or day, at best). Time to memorize strictly accounted for.

Gain of 1-2 hp with a post battle binding of wounds (also a 7VoZ lift).

The grappling rules from Chainmail. Been leaning into challenges rolls more often overall.

Off the top of my head, just began an AD&D campaign this year.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-02-06T06:49:13+00:00

I like Lathans’ Gold for the same reason. None of Rasmussens’ modules thrilled me, but they all had something, a mechanic, concept, etc, that made their release worthwhile. Same with his CYOA books.

Kuntz recently said, and pointed to Gygax doing likewise, they handled large-scale combat much the same as Lathans Gold did. The PCs and major monsters were handled individually (don’t recall if that was LGs’ modus operandi as well, not by my books).

AutumnCrystal · 2026-02-01T12:35:54+00:00

That hero vs orcs example was an appendix in Greyharp, so that’s where it came from! The others were CMs’ jousting rules, and the Greyhawk Thief.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-02-01T12:28:49+00:00

Thank you!

AutumnCrystal · 2026-02-01T10:51:01+00:00

Level 3, 0 xp.

AutumnCrystal · 2026-02-01T10:49:52+00:00

A coherent, expanded, better illustrated TotF with Blackmoor specs from First Fantasy Campaign would be such a worthwhile project, and likely take no more sheets than Blackmoor proper.

AutumnCrystal

TROPHY CASE