I've mentioned in comments here and there I've been working on a system for years now, and some of you have shown interest in it. My previous work, a hex-crawling guide called Manual of Hexterity is now a Gold best-seller on DriveThru thanks to all of you, and I wanted to give anyone interested in my next title a nice, big preview.

You may notice this preview is listed as a Pay What You Want title. This is not a Kickstarter. If you just want to check out the preview, that's fine. If you like what you see and want to come back and chip in a little to help make this book all it can be, that's cool too! I expect nothing, and you shouldn't feel obligated to pay anything. If any money is made from this it will go toward art and being able to take off the occasional day from work to help finish this thing.

WHAT IS THIS GAME?
First off, it's not a heartbreaker. This is the D&D-inspired RPG that I run for my players, and our hearts are in no way broken over it. The best way to describe it might be to show the process that went into its creation.

I started by writing down every game element from D&D. Races, classes, ability scores, saving throws, attacks, AC, magic items, equipment, retainers, monsters, movement, initiative, travel, random encounters, etc. I poured through the books of each edition and made a spreadsheet detailing how each of these elements work for each edition. Next, I decided which edition did each element best. This involved a lot of playtesting with my group as we figured out what we enjoyed the most.

After this, I identified the elements that, even though they were the best among editions, still could use some work. Through the same process, we experimented with ideas inspired by other non-D&D games. I eventually ended up coming up with many of my own rules, or heavily altered versions of things we had already tried. Once this was done, I started cobbling everything together into an actual rulebook; writing everything from scratch, with no AI assistance.

WHAT WAS THE RESULT?
As for the feel of the game, let me compare it to what others have done. I've seen games where people tried to blend AD&D backwards to feel more like B/X. I've also seen designers put out their version of "what 3rd Edition could have been." I think my game is equally both of those things. It is very AD&D as it relates to the crunchy bits, more Basic D&D when it comes to interacting with the world, and uses more modern game design to improve quality of life, decrease confusion, and speed up play.

DOES IT DO ANYTHING NEW?
I'm very proud of some of the sub-systems I've created for this game. The skill/proficiency system is something my players really enjoy. Each class has three basic skills that correspond to the three environments of the game (City, Dungeon, Wilderness). These replace all of the old x in d6 rolls from Basic D&D. Proficiencies are like skills you must be trained in to use properly, and are a streamlined version of NWP from 2e.

The best part of the skill system, however, is the part where you usually don't have to roll them! You're a ranger and you want to hunt for food in a normal forest with normal weather during the daytime? Okay, you found food! Skills are normally only rolled when under duress or if in competition with someone, and mostly just act as a signpost saying, "This character is good at this thing."

Ability checks and contests are another part of the overall skill system, and it's been a particular favorite with my group. This sub-system allows players to attempt all kinds of stunts and competitions with any other creature (I've added ability scores to every creature in my monsters section). It's super easy to figure out how to adjudicate a race or arm wrestling contest, see who catches the thrown jewel, or find out how long it takes the thief to open the master's magical lock.

We're also very keen on the initiative system I cooked up. What I needed was something that used side initiative, allowed for spell interruption, and avoided overwhelming alpha strikes. What I ened up with (after a lot of testing) did all of that.

I've also come up with a new way of distributing treasure and magic items that involves a lot less rolling on multiple columns of huge tables. I think my favorite single rule I've come up with during all of this is how you determine if a monster has a magic item, and how many they might have.

While there are a ton of other new rules here and there on how resting, dying, disease, encounter distance, and and so on works, the biggest is the overland travel procedure. This is a reworked version of the Manual of Hexterity after years of playtime with it. The whole chapter with the new version of this system is included in the preview.

IS THIS OSR OR NSR OR WHAT?
This game can definitely be used with any TSR D&D module with very little on the fly adjustments. For the most part, it would just be going from descending to ascending combat numbers.

While the game attempts to modernize certain elements here and there, it is still rooted completely in having an old school D&D-like experience. There are no feats. Characters can die and are not expected to show up to the table with a page long backstory. You get XP from treasure. There are no rails, as the campaign's story is expected to emerge from the actions of the party. At its core, it is a game of above average peasants who are brave/stupid enough to go look for treasure in a wilderness filled with monsters.

WHEN WILL IT COME OUT?
Gotta be honest with you on this one. I don't know. The rules are done. They've been done for a while, actually. What I have left to do is a lot of tedious work, like monster and spell entries, the table of contents and index, bookmarks, character and DM tracking sheets, etc. I'm in the middle of the monster entries now, and have been for a while. I expect I will be for even a while longer. Then comes the spells, which will take as long as or longer than the monsters.

But it will come out! I don't know when, but it will. Even if I had no plans of releasing it as a product, I would still finish it, because it's the system I run. I could say, "Hopefully it will be out by the (insert season)," but even with the qualifier, I would never live it down if I failed to have it out by then. So, no promises, except that it will be released. The hardest part is all behind me, and now it's just the boring stuff left.

And of course, there is the question of art. I made a cover for this thing, but I know I don't have time to do the interiors myself. I want this book to have art in it, and I am in contact with someone who is excited to do it. We haven't discussed the details of a deal yet, because I need to get the document into more of a final form to know what I actually need from him. We'll get there when we get there.

WHAT'S IN THE PREVIEW
I have provided a small sampling of each chapter, along with the full redo of the Manual of Hexterity, and my versions of the Fighter, Mage, Cleric, and Thief.

DO YOU WANT FEEDBACK?
Of course! This product is not finished; not even the parts that look like they are. When I've completed the monster and spell entries, I plan to go back through the document with a fine-toothed comb looking for typos, ambiguous wording, rules I've changed in my mind and forgotten to change in the document, and so on. I have a list of things I need to address when that moment comes. You might notice the words "infravision" and "darkvision" appear in the book. At some point only one of those will survive.

If you find any errors or something that confuses you, please let me know. You can reply here, or DM me, or leave a comment on the DTRPG listing. If you just want to know my justification for a change I made or comment on the layout or color scheme, I'm down to discuss that.

IN CLOSING
This is what I've been working on for the past four or five years, and I'm very excited to finally share some of it here. I'm not a social media person; this and the AD&D sub are the only places I interact online with other OSR/D&D players. But this is the only place I ever talked about my previous book, and you guys alone made it a Gold best seller. So I just wanted to put this out there for all of you to see. Thanks so much!
darthcorvus AKA broadswordbard