Pitch Black

 

Audio Version

Hey I wrote an Adventure Game. It's mostly so I can stop saying "Skörne/APIE-like Games".
It also covers almost everything I want rules-wise, we're STILL missing good Traveller-type Trade rules that are fun and streamlined. Anyone?

In Pitch Black there are a bunch of things I did not explain to save space and keep things tidy-ish. I know it's pretty messy but trust me, the draft was way worse. I want to run classic B/X modules with it right now, and so I thought about how to make characters that feel more like the class-ic D&D roster. And then I remembered how I used to run 3LBB D&D and realized I don't need any additional mechanics.

See, by default you are a 6 Hits + STR Adventurer. You can do pretty much anything, save for casting spells from grimoires or holy books (but you can cast spells from scrolls, and use any sort of magic item). None of it is specified, but I put the Wizard later rather than going "pick between Adventurer and Wizard", since I want parties that are mainly Adventurers. If you look at Rythlondar, most PCs are Fighters.
And overall, the other classes always felt to me like "bonus" or "prestige" classes rather than being supposedly a careful balancing act of different niche abilities. Anyways, so how do we make them feel like a Classic D&D party? Well, nowhere do I say your character has to be human. So you could describe your Adventurer or Wizard as an Elf or Dwarf or Hobbit. Or heck, a Catgirl, a Half-Demon or whatnot. I've adopted Anti-Canon doctrines after breaking my teeth on yet another attempt at building an exhaustive homebrew setting, so you can make up whatever details you want about your character's origins or culture.

Also the Wizard can cover for a Divine Magic archetype like a Priest. Paladin/Templar/Monster Hunter archetypes work better as a regular Adventurer, D&D Clerics have always been a bit ridiculous to me.

If you want more spells, you can pilfer them from Classic D&D books, AD&D spell lists, Jack Vance novellas, etc. Personally I always go with Wonders & Wickedness, and its even lesser known supplement Marvels & Mallisons. They cover all the classic D&D spells in a more flavorful and creative (and incidentally, level-less) manner than pretty much anything else I've seen on the market and it's a shame these booklets are not more talked about.

So to summarize:

Adventurer (Fighter, Thief, Dwarf, Elf, Hobbit, Paladin-type Cleric) : 6+STR Hits, 10 Inventory Slots
Wizard (Magic-User, Priest-type Cleric) : 4+STR Hits, 8 Inventory Slots, Cast Spells from Grimoires

A Grimoire contains one spell and take one inventory slot. It can be cast at will, but is always risky.
There's a neat little loaded 2d6 table in the PDF for Magical Mishaps, to use whenever one fails this.

I'll be running B/X modules in order (starting with B1 - In Search of the Unknown) using this set of rules until I get distracted.