Searching for My Ideal D&D Retro-Clone

There are a ton of Dungeons & Dragons retro-clones. So many that there isn't a complete listing anywhere. The best listing I've seen is the one at Taxidermic Owlbear, though I believe that list is now out of date. The second best listing is the one at Tenkar's Tavern.

Anyway, I certainly have not had enough time to read every ruleset out there, but I've read a lot. The one I like the best is White Box Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game, but it's still not an exact match for my preferences.

Maybe one of my readers knows of a better match for me.

Here are my preferences:

• Armor Class should be Ascending.
• Limited number of classes: Fighter, Magic-User, and Cleric (like OD&D). Druid is ok. I can barely tolerate Thief. Rangers, Paladins, and Bards are unacceptable. 
• Race as class. Allowing all races to be thieves is acceptable.
• There should be some serious disadvantages for being non-human. The disadvantage should be so severe that most players would rather play a human. 
• Three alignments  (like OD&D). Or none.
• Savings throws based on attributes. Second preference is the 3E categories. Third preference is a single save. Recreations of the original D&D savings throw category is unacceptable.
• d6 based Hit Dice is preferred (like OD&D).
• All hits should do 1d6 (like OD&D).
• Most monsters get only 1 attack per round (like OD&D).

The problem with my preferences is clear: I want something that emulates OD&D, except where I don't want it to. Most retro-clones are written to emulate a specific version.

So what retro-clone would you recommend for me? How do you preferences differ from mine?

OSR October: Is D&D the only valid OSR Game?

A bunch of bloggers and podcasters have decided to dedicate October to the OSR. I'm not sure who started the idea, but I thought I'd play along. Some of that group seems that we should spend this month only promoting OSR game products.  I reject that notion. I feel that any positive presentation of the OSR that serves to get people interested in the older form of play is a good thing.

Another popular notion that I reject is that the OSR is exclusive to 20th Century editions of D&D and the retro-clones. This seems silly and limiting to me. In A Quick Primer for Old School Gaming [PDF], Matt Finch lays out the four cornerstones of OSR play:

• Rulings, not Rules
• Player Skill, not Character Abilities
• Heroic, not Superhero
• Forget "Game Balance"

I agree with all of those points (to a degree). The important thing here is that all of these points refer to a style of play and not a particular rules set. While modern rules will often get in the way of these goals, D&D wasn't the only game in the 1970's to rely on this playstyle.

Tunnels & Trolls came out in 1975 and should easily be considered an OSR game. It doesn't need a retro-clone because they already sell the old versions for a song!

Want to play in the OSR style in space? Sure there's White Star: White Box Science Fiction Roleplaying but that's just the D&D rules with spacesuits. Why not just play classic Traveller or its retro-clone?

There is more to the OSR than just D&D.

Podcast Episode 3: Alignment Systems

This is the first episode of OSR October. We talk about the three different alignment systems used in D&D's history, and a little about alignments in general. Surprisingly, there's a lot that we agree on in this episode!

You can listen to the episode at Anchor.fm, or using the embedded player right here:

Turn West at the Squirrels

A while ago I talked about how sailors would navigate in my Moana campaign. If you don't want to read that post, the short version is that they would look through the clear water and use the landmarks on the sea floor to navigate.

James said, "They would use the fish, too."

That seems wrong to me.  That's like saying "You want to go to the mall? Sure... Just drive north on this road until you see squirrels, then turn west. You can't miss it!"

It sounds crazy to me.  What am I missing?