House Rules

I mostly use the B/X ruleset, with a strong preference for Necrotic Gnome’s Old School Essentials presentation.

Silver Standard

Equipment prices are in silver pieces instead of gold, and characters gain 1 xp per silver piece of treasure recovered.

Note: Consider the impact of this change on your incentives. There is essentially a 10x multiplier on XP from treasure compared with RAW, while XP from combat stays the same.

Character Creation

The biggest change here is that characters start with 4,000 XP, which puts them at 2nd or 3rd level. Follow the usual steps for creating a character, with the following amendments / clarifications:

  1. Roll Ability Scores: 3d6 in order for stats. If you’d like, you may swap one pair of scores.
  2. Choose a Class: Only the standard classes (Cleric, Dwarf, Elf, Fighter, Halfling, Magic-User, and Thief) are available.
  3. Adjust Ability Scores: Rules as written.
  4. Note Ability Score Modifiers: Rules as written.
  5. Note Attack Values: Rules as written.
  6. Note Saving Throws and Class Abilities: See the table below for starting spells.
  7. Roll Hit Points: Characters get maximum hit points for their first level, then roll their usual hit dice for levels above the first. See the table below for the rolls to use. Do not re-roll 1s or 2s.
  8. Choose Alignment: Because characters have to work together, it is strongly suggested that they be either lawful or neutral alignment.
  9. Note Known Languages: Please don’t skip this step.
  10. Buy Equipment: Just pick a reasonable assortment of basic adventuring gear and weapons & armor appropriate to your character’s class. Your character will also start with some amount of cash. See the table below for the rolls to use.
  11. Note Armour Class: We use descending AC.
  12. Note Level and XP: As mentioned, characters start with 4,000 XP, so they’ll be either level 2 or 3 depending on class.
  13. Name Character: Please make it something pronounceable.
Class Level Hit Points Money Magic
Cleric 3 6 + 2d6 1d4 x 10 sp 2 first-level spells per day (+1 if WIS is at least 15)
Dwarf 2 8 + 1d8 3d4 x 10 sp
Elf 2 6 + 1d6 2d4 x 10 sp 2 first-level spells (1 chosen by the player & 1 random)
Fighter 3 8 + 2d8 2d4 x 10 sp
Halfling 3 6 + 2d6 2d4 x 10 sp
Magic-User 2 4 + 1d4 4d4 x 10 sp 2 first-level spells (1 chosen by the player & 1 random)
Thief 3 4 + 2d4 3d4 x 10 sp

Magic-Users

A new magic-user character may spend 100 sp of their starting cash to buy a random beneficial potion. Magic-users who take read magic as their initial spell have the option of purchasing a scroll with 1d3 random low-level spells instead, for the same amount.