Designed to emulate the fun and fantasy of the earliest versions of the world's most famous roleplaying system, without getting bogged down by an excess of rules.
These rules are still a Work-in-Progress. If there's some rule or feature you need that isn't here yet (ex: spells), feel free to use the equivalent rule from your favorite B/X-compatible retroclone.
> If you don't have a favorite B/X-compatible retroclone, might I suggest [OSE](https://oldschoolessentials.necroticgnome.com/srd/index.php)?
There is one _referee_. Everyone else is a _player_.
The referee's job is to describe what's happening in the game, and the players describe how their characters respond.
Sometimes, dice are rolled. These dice are described by how many sides they have (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, and d100).
## Doing Things
Simple tasks are assumed to succeed. If the task is dangerous or complicated, roll the dice for a _check_.
For most checks, roll a 20-sided die (d20) under a character's most relevant _ability_ score.
For hard (or very hard) tasks, you can subtract 1 (or 2) from the ability before the roll.
## Abilities
Each player character (_PC_) has 6 abilities that help to define how they can interact with the world.
**Strength (STR)** - Raw physical power, affects melee damage and carrying capacity.
**Dexterity (DEX)** - Speed and agility of movement, affects _armor class (AC)_ when under attack.
**Constitution (CON)** - Mettle and gumption, affects _hit points (HP)_ gained at each level.
**Intelligence (INT)** - Knowledge and reasoning, affects languages known and arcane magic.
**Wisdom (WIS)** - Experience and insight, affects divine magic.
**Charisma (CHA)** - Appearance and social capability, affects hirelings and pact magic.
## Saving Throws
When something (bad) happens to a character or monster, they can usually make a saving throw to avoid some (or all) of it.
To make one, roll 1d20 and consult the appropriate table (with higher results doing better).
**Death** - Poison, death ray, bleeding out.
**Aimed** - Wands and other aimed items.
**Restrain** - Paralysis, petrification, being buried alive.
**Blasts** - Breath weapons and other area effects.
**Spells** - General magic, including from rods and staves.
## Alignment
Cosmic principles that represent broad world views
**Law** - Order, truth, and justice. Typically prosocial.
**Chaos** - Anarchy, power, and chance. Typically pro-individual.
**Neutrality** - Balance, mediation, and detachment.
## Character Creation
1. Roll Abilities
- Roll 4d6 and drop the lowest die (aka "4d6DL") for each.
- Either roll 4d6DL once for each ability in order and see what kind of character comes up, or make all 6 rolls and assign the results to fit a particular class and/or race.
Adventurers tend to die easily, so most combat should be avoided unless the adventurers have a clear advantage.
That having been said, fights do occur, and when they do, the following steps are performed:
1.**Stealth Check** - Each side that's being relatively stealthy (quiet, douses torches, etc.) has a base 1-in-6 (1 on 1d6) chance of not being spotted.
- The side with stealth gets a free attack (or can pass unnoticed), and if both sides have stealth, they miss each other.
2.**Declare Spells, Defending, and Retreats** - Players declare if they will _cast a spell_, _defend_, or _retreat_ this round (and which type of retreat).
3.**Roll Initiative** - Each side that can attack rolls 1d20, highest roll attacks first.
4.**Winning Side Goes** - Each character or monster gets a move and an action, with either one occurring first.
- **Morale Check** - Monsters who've been severely wounded or seen their leaders killed may flee. Roll 2d6 under morale score or the monsters surrender / flee.
-**Fighting Retreat** - Can move backwards at 1/2 their normal movement rate while still taking an attack or defend action, while avoiding giving enemies a free attack.
-**Full Retreat** - Turning and fleeing from combat at their full movement rate, enemies can make a free attack at +2 bonus.
**Medical Treatment** - INT check, success restores ability to move and fight (after nearly dying).
- Can't be used on oneself.
**Languages Known**
| INT | Spoken Languages | Read? |
| :---: | :--------------: | :---: |
| 3 | Native (broken) | No |
| 4-5 | Native | No |
| 6-8 | Native | Basic |
| 9-12 | Native | Yes |
| 13-15 | Native + 1 | Yes |
| 16-17 | Native + 2 | Yes |
| 18+ | Native + 3 | Yes |
## Encumbrance
PCs can carry a number of "Important Items" equal to their strength (to a minimum of 10).
- Leather armor counts as 1 item, chain-mail counts as 2 items, plate counts as 3 items.
- 2-handed weapons count as 2 items.
- 1000 coins or 100 gems count as 1 item.
Carrying more items than allowed can be done, but movement is halved (or worse).
## Time
Time is often represented at different scales:
- A combat round is 10 seconds long.
- An exploration turn takes 10 minutes.
- A watch takes 4 hours.
- A long rest takes 8 hours.
## Exploration Procedure
The general steps to take when exploring (dungeon, wilderness, etc.)
1.**Setup** - Referee describes the situation
2.**Marching Order** - Party determines general exploration process
3.**Complication Check** - Referee rolls the complication die to see what effect it has.
4.**Actions / Responses / Complications** - Party declares actions, referee describes the results (and any complications).
5.**End Turn / Watch** - When the party's gone far enough or combat has completed, the (dungeon) turn or (wilderness) watch ends.
- Dungeon: 120'
- Wilderness: 12 miles
6.**Repeat** - Return to step 2 and repeat until the adventuring ends.
### Complication Check
Roll 1d6, ignoring results of 4+ for the first 4 turns in a session (or since they last occurred).
1.**Encounter** - Wandering monster, social encounter, or some other random interaction.
2.**Signs** - Indications of possible encounter nearby - could be a clue, monster tracks, etc.
3.**Locality** - Some environmental or external event that affects the PCs - water rises, the assassin gets closer to the target, doors lock behind the party, etc.
4.**Exhaustion** - Take a rest turn (short rest) or (additional) -1 to all rolls until you do.
5.**Light Source** - Torches go out, lanterns go out every third time.
6.**No Complications**
### Listening at Doors
Spend a minute listening at a door to have a base 1-in-6 chance of hearing a noise.
- Referee makes this roll.
### Opening Doors
**Locked Doors** - Can be picked or broken.
- Picking a lock takes 1d6 minutes.
**Stuck Doors** - Can be unstuck or broken.
Doors always break on a 1. Failure can affect stealth / surprise.
| STR | Unstick | Break |
| :---: | :-----: | :----: |
| 3-8 | --- | 1-in-6 |
| 9-12 | 2-in-6 | 1-in-6 |
| 13-15 | 3-in-6 | 2-in-6 |
| 16-17 | 4-in-6 | 3-in-6 |
| 18+ | 5-in-6 | 4-in-6 |
## Monsters and NPCs
_Monster Saving Throws_
| HD | Death | Wielded | Paralyze | Blasts | Spells |
- Some spells affect multiple targets, either by area or by Hit Dice total. If the spell doesn't say how to select the targets, the referee decides.
- Some spells require the caster to concentrate to maintain the spell's effect. Performing any other action or being distracted (ex: attacked) causes concentration to end.
- Multiple spells cannot increase the same ability (e.g. bonuses to attack rolls, AC, damage rolls, saving throws, etc.). Spells that affect different abilities can be combined, just as spells can be combined with the effects of magical items.
**Magical Research** - New spells may be learned / created via research.
- Requires access to information (ex: library, other spellbooks, etc.) .
- Arcane casters can use arcane magic items and scrolls for spells on spell list.
| INT | SS | CC |
| :---: | :-: | :-: |
| 3 | 1 | 20 |
| 4-5 | 1 | 30 |
| 6-8 | 2 | 40 |
| 9-12 | 3 | 50 |
| 13-15 | 4 | 65 |
| 16-17 | 5 | 80 |
| 18+ | 6 | 95 |
-**Starting Spells (SS)** - The number of starting spells in a new caster's spell book.
-**Copy Chance (CC)** - The chance to copy spells scrolls and other sources into spellbook. Roll 1d100, result under score is success, failure means can't try again until next XP level.
**Divine Magic** - Divine spell casters memorize spells through prayer to their gods. When praying for spells, they may choose any spells in their class’ spell list that they are of high enough level to cast.
- Divine casters must be faithful to the tenets of their alignment, clergy, and religion.
- If they ever fall out of favor with their deity, penalties may be imposed (ex: -1 to attack, a reduction in spells, or being sent on a perilous quest).
- To regain favor, they would need to perform a great deed for their deity (referee's choice - ex: donating relics or gold, building a temple, converting others to the religion, etc.).
- Players running multiple characters gets a full share for their first PC and a half-share for the second, although they choose how to distribute the points.
- Referees may increase the derived value arbitrarily.
- Once a PC acquires enough XP, they go up to the next level in their class.
## Legal Information
> This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 (“SRD 5.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC and available at https://dnd.wizards.com/resources/systems-reference-document. The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.
