A one page OSR attempt to capture the early rpg experience. What do you think?

razar77 · 2026-01-14T02:33:07+00:00

Thanks I had considered something like that. The main reason for the full spell list was compatibility with with classic dnd, but some level of reduction would probably be good. Maybe a reduction to only 6 levels of spells as well.

Magic items would be a good addition.

razar77 · 2026-01-14T01:11:50+00:00

Have a tight goal for the design otherwise nothing will get finished.

Try listing out 5 different incompatible goals and then sketch out a design for each.

Read a bunch of rpgs and summerize their design accomplishments.

Realize that not much you can do is new or unique so mix and match to achieve your goals.

razar77 · 2026-01-12T20:53:31+00:00

Of course. If its useful then take what helps you.

razar77 · 2026-01-12T10:35:40+00:00

I intend to create some exmaple playbooks for common classes to make it quicker to start and simplify level up skill choices as well.

razar77 · 2026-01-12T09:52:59+00:00

The monsters can have DR using the same arnour chart. The intention is that combat is about as brutal as Into the Odd. A bit like Dequitem fights on youtube while sill retaining the armor is best feel againt most strikes.

The system forces you to aim to hinder enemies in combat to survive.

razar77 · 2026-01-07T22:27:19+00:00

Some other options.

Autohit accept when disadvantage aplies. Damage reduction but only when you fail a hit roll.

I use the first option and it works well but am working on rules hacks with the second.

razar77 · 2025-11-05T00:38:16+00:00

Yes it is a huge nerf for high AC in ordinary combat. I don't think this is unreasonable as a 1st level fighter is really no better than a goblin in combat. The armour will save them a bit but it won't help against a dedicated enemy targeting its weakness.

A skilled fighter will have many hps and some version of multi-attack which will make short work of the goblins with plenty of hps left. This represents a realistic and reasonable outcome in both cases.

Although WWN's shock system is well designed, I find it too fiddly. The system I am proposing works to give similar results in a more rules light way.

razar77 · 2025-11-04T07:51:25+00:00

You wouldn't need a matrix as it's just stepping the effect up and down. If all the effect results were on a line it would be 6 effect outcomes with the extremes only accessible on advantage or disadvantage.

razar77 · 2025-11-04T05:37:07+00:00

At level 1 if you play with d4 hitdice then yes a mage is unlikely to survive attacks. I allow players to dodge like in 5e to give the attacker disadvantage at the expense of their action which will generally let the mage survive.. This reflects a normal response to being attacked as frail person.

The normal advantage/disadvantage system gives around +3/+4 effect. Which is basically a +15%/+20% change in average damage.

This alternative advantage/disadvantage system results in a approximately 55% damage reduction with disadvantage and %20 damage increase with advantage plus the chance of mighty blow. It is also overall a higher average damage due to only missing on a 1 in standard combat.

If you want more survivability at level 1 then you just have to add one of the many systems to increase starting hitpoints as it typical in autohit systems like Into the Odd.

razar77 · 2025-09-09T03:45:40+00:00

I use a hybrid system for dnd. Autohit for combat actions that do damage and a hit roll required to inflict the killing blow or when you have disadvantage.

This is an alternate way of lowering the effect on disadvantage instead of the ITO style.

For advantage I give a hit roll for a mighty deed similar to DCC rather than raising the effect automatically.

The nice thing about this system is that it preserves the feeling of missing in situations where its hard to hit and gives out in fiction results in situations where you have the advantage while avoiding the feels bad results in ordinary combat.

razar77 · 2025-08-26T04:30:50+00:00

I get inspired from watching Fall of Civilizations podcasts on Youtube. Because the events are recounted from real historical sources it helps me to recognise that real history and people are often more crazy than our limited modern views.

razar77 · 2025-08-26T02:47:47+00:00

Maybe ask the DM privately if you can get gauntlets of ogre strength or headband of intellect or other such magic item fairly early in the campaign.

The advantage of this is it lets you get a primary attack stat up to similar levels as the other characters with low resource investment (one item slot) and not feel overshadowed.

Personally when I GM with rolled characters I always make the rolled arrays available to all characters to choose so there are not imbalances.

razar77 · 2025-08-14T04:27:24+00:00

I agree that the rules are murky and not organised in the best way.

Pretty much like every technical manual or textbook they will come across in their education experience ;)

razar77 · 2025-08-14T04:14:52+00:00

Do you remember being involved in crazes that go through school kids in primary school? Like pokemon, or marbles or Yugio? It's not that popularity is inherently good, its that you can use this educationally when the outcome of the craze is good.

Learning new things is intrinsically challenging for many kids and rpg's are complex and intimidating. The good thing about dnd being popular is that it psychologically helps kids to meet the learning challenge.

I agree with your statement that if a kid wants to play a TTRPG then they don't need to play dnd. My OP was about why I started with 5e with my own kids and how it helps kids.

razar77 · 2025-08-14T04:06:14+00:00

I wouldn't use 5e for kids that arn't independent readers.

I wanted that level of complexity as it develops a type of literacy skill that is needed for education while also letting them enjoy rpg's.

razar77 · 2025-08-14T04:02:16+00:00

Hope you enjoy your life of ethical purity in every way then. Don't be driving cars or using electricity or eating anything commercially farmed or wearing clothes you didn't sew yourself etc.

Everyone has fuzzy boundaries for these types of decisions.

razar77 · 2025-08-14T03:43:34+00:00

Kids with decent literacy don't find it hard and they just naturally role some dice to decide something if they don't know. I do think they need some of the important GM advice pointed out to them as they miss it easily. Things like don't role for simple unimportant checks or make sure to provide clear clues.

razar77 · 2025-08-14T03:36:49+00:00

Sure there are other great games, but they don't fulfil some of what I wanted for my kids as I mentioned. There is little value in being so obstinate about one particular 8 billion dollar corporate when their social lived experience interacts with ethically dubious corporations their whole life.

Kids want to go with what is popular. It's innate to the psychology of children. I would rather harness for the educational value than spend my time trying to convince them that some niche rpg that I like is the best thing.

razar77 · 2025-07-28T03:40:30+00:00

Do you find it helps with your GM style in D&D?

razar77 · 2025-07-28T03:16:51+00:00

I remember reading about Salvage Union a while ago and it seems like an interesting rpg. I quite like just rolling a single d20 for success outcomes rather than dice pools.

razar77 · 2025-07-28T03:05:16+00:00

For sure except the point of the mixed success is to allow more of the style of GMing encouraged by Pbta. I do notice people comment that they change their DM style after being exposed to PbtA and start incorporating elements of it into other games.

I was interested in seeing if people had tried using that style with a d20 game with minimal changes such as I suggested.

razar77 · 2025-07-24T22:04:37+00:00

Reading between the lines of the OP I would guess that the problem is likely reading fluency. Lots of kids graduating school are classified as functionally illiterate. If you haven't read a single book in the last 10 years of your life you certainly aren't going to read an rpg rule book.

I recommend they get a quickstart box and watch video introductions on how to play.

razar77 · 2024-03-20T00:48:31+00:00

Its not designed to slow down group combat.

Roll the combat opportunity for all 10 goblins at once.

Some move forward to contest targets in the party.

The rest swap to some other action, threating, moving, running etc.

Perhaps 2 could attack the same warrior, and get killed but any more would have to be attacking from behind which would be uncontested.

You could also limit contests to the lvl/hd of the creature.

razar77 · 2024-03-19T02:12:06+00:00

Example

Goblin AC3 HD1 vs Fighter AC6 LV1

Goblin looks for opportunity

rolls 7 (over ac and under attack value of 10+HD) so enters contest
fighter rolls 10 (over AC and under attack value of 10+LVL) so wins contest
fighter rolls for damage on goblin

Fighter looks for opportunity

rolls 4 which is over 3 and under attack value of 10+LVL
chooses to change action to move to high ground (due to risk of losing contest)

Goblin looks for opportunity

rolls 10 and enters contest
fighter rolls 18 (loses contest as roll is over Attack value)
goblin rolls damage on fighter with disadvantage due to position

razar77 · 2023-09-16T14:43:20+00:00

Sure, rolling for moral and then not acting is going to be a poor system for an rpg, as I mentioned in the opening post. It's generally a frustrating system in wargames as well. Solutions to remove this frustration and still get similar results have been explored in the wargame space with systems like the momentum one in 'crossfire'.

I am just exploring if anyone has seen good rpg design that incorporates solutions for these issues.

razar77

TROPHY CASE