Notes on the 1973 D&D Draft
Yo, it's been available since 2019, I feel very stupid for not finding it before but thanks to this post I learned it existed in the first place. The article (at the time of writing) mentions that the digitzed copy of the court record can be requested via the archive's email address. He gives the case file information, I typed that in google and lo and behold, someone uploaded the whole 854 pages PDF online 5 years ago. I extracted the draft, it's 112 pages, and it's awesome. I don't understand Copyright Laws and the US legal system scares me so I'm not even posting screenshots cause you literally can go and download it right now if you want to follow along. Here are bits I found interesting:
"Introduction: This is where Gary editorializes and tells neat stories as much as his little heart desires and if he wants to use the extra pages. A rule book is a rule book not a novel."
Alright Dave.
To make a character, roll 3d6 in order for Intelligence, Cunning, Strength, Health & Appearance. The first three are not described (cunning is the Cleric's prime requisite), Health is described in a very coy manner: "the measure of how well a person stands up under the strain of events (such as being turned to stone or changed to a toad)", and ability to take physical punishment, added Dave. Appearance is "seldom used, and it can be ignored, but it makes some interesting situations when a male player is captured by a Witch, for example -- will she turn him into a swine or keep him as a lover? The reverse is also true." Ah yes, when a female player is captured by a Wizard. Feeling icky about this one but I guess it looks like Charisma's description already.
There's mention of Health modifying hp from HD. You get +2 for 15+, -2 for 6-, +1 for 13-14 and -1 for 7-8 (it's written in the old format but that's what it says, basically).
Alright Dave.
To make a character, roll 3d6 in order for Intelligence, Cunning, Strength, Health & Appearance. The first three are not described (cunning is the Cleric's prime requisite), Health is described in a very coy manner: "the measure of how well a person stands up under the strain of events (such as being turned to stone or changed to a toad)", and ability to take physical punishment, added Dave. Appearance is "seldom used, and it can be ignored, but it makes some interesting situations when a male player is captured by a Witch, for example -- will she turn him into a swine or keep him as a lover? The reverse is also true." Ah yes, when a female player is captured by a Wizard. Feeling icky about this one but I guess it looks like Charisma's description already.
There's mention of Health modifying hp from HD. You get +2 for 15+, -2 for 6-, +1 for 13-14 and -1 for 7-8 (it's written in the old format but that's what it says, basically).
There's a paragraph desperately trying to explain how to trade prime requisite stats. You do move the points around, can't lower below 9, business as usual.
Next to "recovery of wounds" in an addendum/bullet point series of notes by Dave it just says "new system needed". For "23A, first two [can't make out the last word] he just wrote "What?" and for Clerics: drop or change. Later in the draft, there's a few bits where the Cleric is even stronger than in the 1st print.
"Mummies: possible as (special) mummy kills it becomes more and more lifelike and eventually looks normal and keeps it up by absorbing victims life into its own body."
Like Clive Barker's Hellraizer! Possibly something earlier that I'm not aware of. Either way it's rad.
There's a mention for players having bought the book to write down rules changes enacted by the Referee in pencil (cause it might change again) and a nudge encouraging checking how many hits are required to slay a typical six-headed hydra, as it might save their game life. Go powergamers!
The section on dwarves is very hard to read but I'm pretty sure it says they progress 10% faster regardless of prime requisites. They just do.
Changing class is like a proto-AD&D version initially. I don't remember whether that was in the 3LBB. Basically it says elves can shift career (fighter or magic user) regardless of stats, while men(sic) and dwarves need a 16 in the new class' prime requisite. My reading is that it also implies that elves don't just change class every other day/adventure/whatever, just that they begin as a fighter OR magic-user and later down the line switch to the other career.
The bit on elves later also doesn't specify armor use. That supports my reading I think. No need to specify that since elves are either or, and so will use armor, magical or otherwise, during their fighter career but not during their magic-user one. What of elven mail?
Clerics need 500 xp for level 2, then 1500, 3500, 7000, etc.
Fighters need 1000/2500/5000/10000/25000, up to 150 000 for Lord.
For MUs it says 1000, striked, 2000, or the other way around. Level 2 is 5000, then 8000, 14000, 24000, 40000, 60000, 85000, 125000, 200000.
There's no mention of the alternative combat system just yet, it just says "see CHAINMAIL" for an explanation of Fighting Capabilities (they haven't changed either).
In equipment, there's slightly different categories and for mounts and mount equipment you can buy a small or large thoat (400/1000 gp), a pegasus (2k), hippogriff (3k), griffon (9k) or roc (5k). There are saddles and saddle bags for the different flyers. Remember that aerial combat and movement rules? Back in the early draft you could straight up by flying mounts!
It also says distinguishes rations between standard (5gp per week) and light rations (-1 on strenght after 1 week, 2gp per week).
Equipment load is lower! Adventurers have a max equipment load of 1500 (no unit given, but it's gold). Misc. equipment is 40 instead of 80, weapon values look similar to the 1st print, though I think armor is a bit lighter in this version, 500 for plate instead of IIRC 750, though I may be wrong and I am too lazy to crack open my 3LBB copies at the moment.
Gary explains retainers and mentions that in his Castle Greyhawk campaign, most players have 1-4 retainers. It's specified that men (including elves and dwarves) will go in dungeons but only orcs amongst the monsters will serve in underground dungeon expeditions, while trolls and the likes would man your castle while you're away on adventure. And they lurk in dungeons built beneath the players' strongholds.
Players build their own dungeons under their strongholds. Remember B1?
"Eventually players will be forced to -- or willingly go -- leave the primary castle to build their own". So you start in a castle home base. Like the Keep on the Borderlands.
When you do that, there's a 50% chance one hireling will follow, another coin toss for a second hireling, while monster retainers always follow along. Moving is tough for the found families of adventurers.
NPCs are "Non-Real Players" w/o caps. You roll d6 for how many hours it takes for NPCs to respond to ads when trying to hire new retainers. 100gp per level (for fighters) is 10% chance of positive response. So mercenaries are super expensive if you want to be sure they'll show up. If I spend 1000 gold, I'm sure of getting ONE Veteran. Hiring Swordsmen (level 3) should be difficult, and Heroes or above you plain cannot recruit. So your hirelings are levelled NPCs, just 1st or 2nd level, soooometimes 3rd level at best. Dwarves want 50% more gold, Elves want magic items as incentive to join your gang. When you capture enemies who have surrendered or been subdued, they "may usually be employed as retainers or guards"...
So actually you don't pay for hirelings, you just recruit the people you beat the shit out of, because once they've been bested they just join your gang. Is OD&D just JoJo's Bizarre Adventure or are these guys slave?
The counterpart to the Underworld is the Upper Land.
Cost of Upkeep is calculated with fixed rate for all retainer type and your own character included, % of treasure/booty from expeditions is required for folks above Hero grade so there's no fussing about living expenses, this is for salary basically.
You can hire engineers and animal trainers!
It's expected that lower rank players will serve as retainers to more experienced players and negotiate their rates themselves.
Loyalty is a bit more detailed! Average is 10-11, and every point above/below average modifies morale rolls by the same value. That's huge considering morale is a 2d6 roll. Loyalty increases by 1 per game-year of continued service.
There's highest possible ranks, but you can continue to level up past that with incrementally higher XP requirements. Nothing new here. Only fighters continue to get stronger in fights past title level.
For some reason there's a specific flat price tag on magic items and such made by magic-users, even if player handled. OH, also it specifies Wizards, so title level magic-users were the only ones able to do that, then. Pretty sure common practice shifted to the less precise version in 3LBB where any magic-user can make spell scrolls, potions, etc. Wizards in castles totally just sell charms, love potions and other trinkets for automatic gp gains, as a side hustle. EDIT: next page clarifies further. 8th level or better magic-users can make Magic Items, spell scrolls are OK for MUs as long as they have access to the given spell level (not spell, cause every MU has access to all spells of the level they got access to already - it is known). Potions are doable if you know the formula.
A Cleric's castle is called a Monastary (sic).
A dungeon turn is 10 minutes, every sixth turn (the hour turn) is spent resting. Also two days a week for above ground travel are spent resting, so you don't wilderness crawl on weekends.
Secret doors are found on 1-2 by men or dwarves, "and one through by an elf". Ref's discretion, higher levels of the dungeon might have easier chances for secret passages, lower levels might have paths that are harder to find, etc.
Undead never make any sound and so can't be heard when listening through doors, otherwise there's a 2-in-6 chance of hearing what's through a door for dwarves and elves, 1-in-6 for men.
Players need a light, which makes them seeable as they see, while monsters see "despite the stygian darkness". Dungeon as Mythic Underworld, nice. Monster XP is described in "level". I'm pretty sure it's HD, not dungeon level, especially since the idea of monster levels was also around judge guilds products and I think tekumel in the jargon of the era.
Encounter tables are a bit different in presentation. They have some cool Dave Arneson things like Giant Hogs, Giant Toads, Giant Crabs, Lizards, Giant Weasels, White Apes...
And also the NPC types have the "anti"-prefix, it's silly but it basically means "evil men of that class and level". So you might stumble upon Anti-warriors, or anti-swashbucklers.
Usually damage is 1d6, but it could be 2d6 if fighting "opponents with the ability to fight at double hits, ie giants, efreet, etc". Double hits?
"Recovery of wounds is 2 points per day, with wound spells speeding the process (see trolls)". This is drastically different from the latter 1 hp every day of full rest past the first. Way more lenient. Alongside the lower XP requirements, it implies a faster paced campaign. Contrast and compare with Neo-OD&D delight, Into the Odd/Electric Bastionland.
Holy shit finally, here's number of monsters appearing below the surface!
Drum rolls.
1d6 for level 1-4 monsters, 1d4 for level 5+ monsters, 2d6 or 2d12 for level 1 monsters specifically (I think the distinction is for weaker 1st level monsters like goblins or kobolds). It also specifies "if the level roughly corresponds to the level of the monster and the adventurers concerned also equal this level". It doesn't say how many players this is for though (we do know there's 1-4 retainers per player and a table would have ~4-6 players, up to 8-10 in tournaments and conventions). This reveals a way more lenient playstyle than what modern OSR think of. Basically Challenge Rating mentality before its time. Only if there's more players than expected is it suggested to also multiply the number of monsters accordingly (or if they're further below, so the deeper you go the more numerous the monsters are, which is part of why lower levels are so dangerous if you go unprepared!).
"Monsters will not attack obviously superior forces unless they're intelligent." Not stupid, intelligent. I think that's a typo but I'm not sure.
Pursuit is a bit more wordy and detailed.
Combat tables use is detailed! Men vs Men for skirmishes of less than 1:20 troop ratios, mass combat for more troops involved! In cases of men vs fantasy figures (that's normal men, 1-3 HD, vs 4+ HD creatures, for the kids in the back who don't know 3LBB jargon much), hits only score 1 point of damage! So anyone below 4 HD (including fighters below Hero level, magic-users and clerics below heh, 8th for MUs, I think 6th for Clerics) are essentially unable to defeat monsters via brute force.
They mention they tried to make a Fantasy vs Fantasy table but 70+ more categories made it super unwieldy, so instead there's a d20 based system with increments of 5%!
You get a To-Hit Armor Class of 2 (Plate mail + Shield) of 19 (THAC2). No, they don't call it that they make a long explanation but that's what it is. You deduct the armor class from 20 and that's the base number to hit it, so plate mail and shield is "Class 2".
Then there's the table! It goes by +1 increments per levels and doesn't distinguish Fighters from Monsters. So in essence, you add your HD to a d20 roll to hit, 18 hits AC 2 and so on. Magic-users fight as men until 7th level, Clerics until 6th level. Which means they only deal 1 hit of damage to 4+ HD creatures, to balance out the easier chances to hit of the d20 table.
Kinda what LotFP ended up doing (I know, James Raggi is a poo poo bastard man and a creep, but he cooked a good B/X hack).
Crazy stuff now: all men add 1 to their Armor Class when they reach Hero level or equivalent. That is to say, for every 4 HD, you improve your AC by one. It keeps going at 12th and 16th levels for fighters, though Clerics and MUs only get the buffs twice.
This means a 16th level fighter in Guidon Draft D&D wearing Plate & Shield has a cumulative AC of -2 (or 22 for the AAC gang). And ever since he got to Hero (4th level/4 HD) level, anyone under 4 HD only deals 1 damage when they do manage to hit them.
Goblins and kobolds have half HDs, 1-3 HP.
Encounter Matrix for the Upper Land!
"Small dwellings on the OUTDOOR SURVIVAL mapboard are towns and villages, 1=Hamlet, 2-5=progressively bigger villages, 6=walled town. Walled towns have a dragon market in which to sell your catch."
The teenager in me is very giddy about the mention of dragon markets even though I already knew that was a thing before, I kinda lament its absence from the 3LBB. But yes also considering the earlier bits on how retainers work and how you basically beat monsters or "evil" men into submission to enslave them into your service, I have little doubt as to what this implies for the setting.
On traps: "the risk of death is one of the most stimulating parts of the game. Therefor it behooves the referee to include as many mystifying and dangerous tricks and traps as is consistent with a reasonable chance of survival (there is no question but what players could easily be killed by falling into a pit containing iron spikes tipped with poison)."
I think he advocates for funny or "messing with you" traps rather than insta-gibbed stuff because anyone could see that was not great design.
Suggestion of gates in the underworld to travel to other worlds like Barsoom, Lankhmar or "fantastical moon peopled by whatever creatures you desire". Dungeon moon!
Rivalry between players, and top level players dishing it out in war is expected and built-in. After pointing that out as a part of the late game fun, there's a list of NPC specialists to hire, like an assassin (1500gp), or, ya know, slaves. Male slaves are 200-400gp initial cost, female slaves are 100-600gp.
...the dragon market tho...
Oh hey Investment! Invest in Inns, animal breeding, farming, land trade, slave dealing...tourism! magical research and religion! I dunno about you but that's a lot of slavery. It is, after all, a fantasy world made by white dudes. It's there in later release if you read between the line but it's refreshing to see it clearly laid out in this draft.
Ok moving on, spells!
Charm person was buffed in 1st print compared to the draft, which specifies a length of time equal to 6 (no unit given) + the level of the magic-user. I figure it's in turns, so hours underground or days in the upper land. Contrast to 3LBB which does not list an end aside from the spell being dispelled via Dispel Magic. There's also no save in 3LBB, here it says "if the spell is successful".
Speaking of Dispel Magic, there's a formula! d20 + Caster Level vs d20 + Original Caster's Level. It takes one turn to cast.
Lightning Bolt is in the Guidon Draft! Since it just says "same as in Chainmail" they removed it later on.
Turn Undead doesn't mention turning, just that Clerics have a strong effect upon the undead. Like a Paladin's aura.
Boring magic items and such, dunno if it's different. Lots of bits are just super hard to read too cause of the damage to the paper.
Humans can take # Hits equal to HD +1. I think this can be interpreted as "don't bother counting HP, just give them X number of hits". More conservatively, they just get +1 to their HD but that's boring.
Brigands are evil bandits. Pirates are evil buccaneers. I think "good" is like, Homeric good, like Ulysses being a bastard/garbage human being on an interpersonal level but still being Good compared to say, monsters. Good is Cheeky Evil that's also human and white and not innately corrupt by like, the Evil Magic of an Evil God or something. The Man Who Would be King vibes.
Remember that massive power level disparity between normal types and fantasy figures? Enemies like wights who require magic weapons to be hit also require these to be made by fantasy figures. Even with a magic sword, non-Heroes cannot fight them efficiently.
"free-chop" for surprise attack round against dragons when encountered asleep.
Thoats hate horses and will not travel or be stabled with them!
"The Opposing Forces" is the header instead of "Alignment" with the list with Law/Neutral/Chaos.
EDIT: the pictures were too big.
The Ugly Witch didn't make the cut, too bad cause she looks amazing.
The Warrior, subsequently known as the Amazon. Warrior just means high-level fighting-man, so this addition without the name change would have allowed some power fantasy on the part of women players. Dragon markets and slave-based economies are all fine and dandy but this was a bit too much so she became the "Amazon" which can be safely put under exotic types of enemies you might encounter (and, ya know, enslave) instead.
Next to "recovery of wounds" in an addendum/bullet point series of notes by Dave it just says "new system needed". For "23A, first two [can't make out the last word] he just wrote "What?" and for Clerics: drop or change. Later in the draft, there's a few bits where the Cleric is even stronger than in the 1st print.
"Mummies: possible as (special) mummy kills it becomes more and more lifelike and eventually looks normal and keeps it up by absorbing victims life into its own body."
Like Clive Barker's Hellraizer! Possibly something earlier that I'm not aware of. Either way it's rad.
There's a mention for players having bought the book to write down rules changes enacted by the Referee in pencil (cause it might change again) and a nudge encouraging checking how many hits are required to slay a typical six-headed hydra, as it might save their game life. Go powergamers!
The section on dwarves is very hard to read but I'm pretty sure it says they progress 10% faster regardless of prime requisites. They just do.
Changing class is like a proto-AD&D version initially. I don't remember whether that was in the 3LBB. Basically it says elves can shift career (fighter or magic user) regardless of stats, while men(sic) and dwarves need a 16 in the new class' prime requisite. My reading is that it also implies that elves don't just change class every other day/adventure/whatever, just that they begin as a fighter OR magic-user and later down the line switch to the other career.
The bit on elves later also doesn't specify armor use. That supports my reading I think. No need to specify that since elves are either or, and so will use armor, magical or otherwise, during their fighter career but not during their magic-user one. What of elven mail?
Clerics need 500 xp for level 2, then 1500, 3500, 7000, etc.
Fighters need 1000/2500/5000/10000/25000, up to 150 000 for Lord.
For MUs it says 1000, striked, 2000, or the other way around. Level 2 is 5000, then 8000, 14000, 24000, 40000, 60000, 85000, 125000, 200000.
There's no mention of the alternative combat system just yet, it just says "see CHAINMAIL" for an explanation of Fighting Capabilities (they haven't changed either).
In equipment, there's slightly different categories and for mounts and mount equipment you can buy a small or large thoat (400/1000 gp), a pegasus (2k), hippogriff (3k), griffon (9k) or roc (5k). There are saddles and saddle bags for the different flyers. Remember that aerial combat and movement rules? Back in the early draft you could straight up by flying mounts!
It also says distinguishes rations between standard (5gp per week) and light rations (-1 on strenght after 1 week, 2gp per week).
Equipment load is lower! Adventurers have a max equipment load of 1500 (no unit given, but it's gold). Misc. equipment is 40 instead of 80, weapon values look similar to the 1st print, though I think armor is a bit lighter in this version, 500 for plate instead of IIRC 750, though I may be wrong and I am too lazy to crack open my 3LBB copies at the moment.
Gary explains retainers and mentions that in his Castle Greyhawk campaign, most players have 1-4 retainers. It's specified that men (including elves and dwarves) will go in dungeons but only orcs amongst the monsters will serve in underground dungeon expeditions, while trolls and the likes would man your castle while you're away on adventure. And they lurk in dungeons built beneath the players' strongholds.
Players build their own dungeons under their strongholds. Remember B1?
"Eventually players will be forced to -- or willingly go -- leave the primary castle to build their own". So you start in a castle home base. Like the Keep on the Borderlands.
When you do that, there's a 50% chance one hireling will follow, another coin toss for a second hireling, while monster retainers always follow along. Moving is tough for the found families of adventurers.
NPCs are "Non-Real Players" w/o caps. You roll d6 for how many hours it takes for NPCs to respond to ads when trying to hire new retainers. 100gp per level (for fighters) is 10% chance of positive response. So mercenaries are super expensive if you want to be sure they'll show up. If I spend 1000 gold, I'm sure of getting ONE Veteran. Hiring Swordsmen (level 3) should be difficult, and Heroes or above you plain cannot recruit. So your hirelings are levelled NPCs, just 1st or 2nd level, soooometimes 3rd level at best. Dwarves want 50% more gold, Elves want magic items as incentive to join your gang. When you capture enemies who have surrendered or been subdued, they "may usually be employed as retainers or guards"...
So actually you don't pay for hirelings, you just recruit the people you beat the shit out of, because once they've been bested they just join your gang. Is OD&D just JoJo's Bizarre Adventure or are these guys slave?
The counterpart to the Underworld is the Upper Land.
Cost of Upkeep is calculated with fixed rate for all retainer type and your own character included, % of treasure/booty from expeditions is required for folks above Hero grade so there's no fussing about living expenses, this is for salary basically.
You can hire engineers and animal trainers!
It's expected that lower rank players will serve as retainers to more experienced players and negotiate their rates themselves.
Loyalty is a bit more detailed! Average is 10-11, and every point above/below average modifies morale rolls by the same value. That's huge considering morale is a 2d6 roll. Loyalty increases by 1 per game-year of continued service.
There's highest possible ranks, but you can continue to level up past that with incrementally higher XP requirements. Nothing new here. Only fighters continue to get stronger in fights past title level.
For some reason there's a specific flat price tag on magic items and such made by magic-users, even if player handled. OH, also it specifies Wizards, so title level magic-users were the only ones able to do that, then. Pretty sure common practice shifted to the less precise version in 3LBB where any magic-user can make spell scrolls, potions, etc. Wizards in castles totally just sell charms, love potions and other trinkets for automatic gp gains, as a side hustle. EDIT: next page clarifies further. 8th level or better magic-users can make Magic Items, spell scrolls are OK for MUs as long as they have access to the given spell level (not spell, cause every MU has access to all spells of the level they got access to already - it is known). Potions are doable if you know the formula.
A Cleric's castle is called a Monastary (sic).
A dungeon turn is 10 minutes, every sixth turn (the hour turn) is spent resting. Also two days a week for above ground travel are spent resting, so you don't wilderness crawl on weekends.
Secret doors are found on 1-2 by men or dwarves, "and one through by an elf". Ref's discretion, higher levels of the dungeon might have easier chances for secret passages, lower levels might have paths that are harder to find, etc.
Undead never make any sound and so can't be heard when listening through doors, otherwise there's a 2-in-6 chance of hearing what's through a door for dwarves and elves, 1-in-6 for men.
Players need a light, which makes them seeable as they see, while monsters see "despite the stygian darkness". Dungeon as Mythic Underworld, nice. Monster XP is described in "level". I'm pretty sure it's HD, not dungeon level, especially since the idea of monster levels was also around judge guilds products and I think tekumel in the jargon of the era.
Encounter tables are a bit different in presentation. They have some cool Dave Arneson things like Giant Hogs, Giant Toads, Giant Crabs, Lizards, Giant Weasels, White Apes...
And also the NPC types have the "anti"-prefix, it's silly but it basically means "evil men of that class and level". So you might stumble upon Anti-warriors, or anti-swashbucklers.
Usually damage is 1d6, but it could be 2d6 if fighting "opponents with the ability to fight at double hits, ie giants, efreet, etc". Double hits?
"Recovery of wounds is 2 points per day, with wound spells speeding the process (see trolls)". This is drastically different from the latter 1 hp every day of full rest past the first. Way more lenient. Alongside the lower XP requirements, it implies a faster paced campaign. Contrast and compare with Neo-OD&D delight, Into the Odd/Electric Bastionland.
Holy shit finally, here's number of monsters appearing below the surface!
Drum rolls.
1d6 for level 1-4 monsters, 1d4 for level 5+ monsters, 2d6 or 2d12 for level 1 monsters specifically (I think the distinction is for weaker 1st level monsters like goblins or kobolds). It also specifies "if the level roughly corresponds to the level of the monster and the adventurers concerned also equal this level". It doesn't say how many players this is for though (we do know there's 1-4 retainers per player and a table would have ~4-6 players, up to 8-10 in tournaments and conventions). This reveals a way more lenient playstyle than what modern OSR think of. Basically Challenge Rating mentality before its time. Only if there's more players than expected is it suggested to also multiply the number of monsters accordingly (or if they're further below, so the deeper you go the more numerous the monsters are, which is part of why lower levels are so dangerous if you go unprepared!).
"Monsters will not attack obviously superior forces unless they're intelligent." Not stupid, intelligent. I think that's a typo but I'm not sure.
Pursuit is a bit more wordy and detailed.
Combat tables use is detailed! Men vs Men for skirmishes of less than 1:20 troop ratios, mass combat for more troops involved! In cases of men vs fantasy figures (that's normal men, 1-3 HD, vs 4+ HD creatures, for the kids in the back who don't know 3LBB jargon much), hits only score 1 point of damage! So anyone below 4 HD (including fighters below Hero level, magic-users and clerics below heh, 8th for MUs, I think 6th for Clerics) are essentially unable to defeat monsters via brute force.
They mention they tried to make a Fantasy vs Fantasy table but 70+ more categories made it super unwieldy, so instead there's a d20 based system with increments of 5%!
You get a To-Hit Armor Class of 2 (Plate mail + Shield) of 19 (THAC2). No, they don't call it that they make a long explanation but that's what it is. You deduct the armor class from 20 and that's the base number to hit it, so plate mail and shield is "Class 2".
Then there's the table! It goes by +1 increments per levels and doesn't distinguish Fighters from Monsters. So in essence, you add your HD to a d20 roll to hit, 18 hits AC 2 and so on. Magic-users fight as men until 7th level, Clerics until 6th level. Which means they only deal 1 hit of damage to 4+ HD creatures, to balance out the easier chances to hit of the d20 table.
Kinda what LotFP ended up doing (I know, James Raggi is a poo poo bastard man and a creep, but he cooked a good B/X hack).
Crazy stuff now: all men add 1 to their Armor Class when they reach Hero level or equivalent. That is to say, for every 4 HD, you improve your AC by one. It keeps going at 12th and 16th levels for fighters, though Clerics and MUs only get the buffs twice.
This means a 16th level fighter in Guidon Draft D&D wearing Plate & Shield has a cumulative AC of -2 (or 22 for the AAC gang). And ever since he got to Hero (4th level/4 HD) level, anyone under 4 HD only deals 1 damage when they do manage to hit them.
Goblins and kobolds have half HDs, 1-3 HP.
Encounter Matrix for the Upper Land!
"Small dwellings on the OUTDOOR SURVIVAL mapboard are towns and villages, 1=Hamlet, 2-5=progressively bigger villages, 6=walled town. Walled towns have a dragon market in which to sell your catch."
The teenager in me is very giddy about the mention of dragon markets even though I already knew that was a thing before, I kinda lament its absence from the 3LBB. But yes also considering the earlier bits on how retainers work and how you basically beat monsters or "evil" men into submission to enslave them into your service, I have little doubt as to what this implies for the setting.
On traps: "the risk of death is one of the most stimulating parts of the game. Therefor it behooves the referee to include as many mystifying and dangerous tricks and traps as is consistent with a reasonable chance of survival (there is no question but what players could easily be killed by falling into a pit containing iron spikes tipped with poison)."
I think he advocates for funny or "messing with you" traps rather than insta-gibbed stuff because anyone could see that was not great design.
Suggestion of gates in the underworld to travel to other worlds like Barsoom, Lankhmar or "fantastical moon peopled by whatever creatures you desire". Dungeon moon!
Rivalry between players, and top level players dishing it out in war is expected and built-in. After pointing that out as a part of the late game fun, there's a list of NPC specialists to hire, like an assassin (1500gp), or, ya know, slaves. Male slaves are 200-400gp initial cost, female slaves are 100-600gp.
...the dragon market tho...
Oh hey Investment! Invest in Inns, animal breeding, farming, land trade, slave dealing...tourism! magical research and religion! I dunno about you but that's a lot of slavery. It is, after all, a fantasy world made by white dudes. It's there in later release if you read between the line but it's refreshing to see it clearly laid out in this draft.
Ok moving on, spells!
Charm person was buffed in 1st print compared to the draft, which specifies a length of time equal to 6 (no unit given) + the level of the magic-user. I figure it's in turns, so hours underground or days in the upper land. Contrast to 3LBB which does not list an end aside from the spell being dispelled via Dispel Magic. There's also no save in 3LBB, here it says "if the spell is successful".
Speaking of Dispel Magic, there's a formula! d20 + Caster Level vs d20 + Original Caster's Level. It takes one turn to cast.
Lightning Bolt is in the Guidon Draft! Since it just says "same as in Chainmail" they removed it later on.
Turn Undead doesn't mention turning, just that Clerics have a strong effect upon the undead. Like a Paladin's aura.
Boring magic items and such, dunno if it's different. Lots of bits are just super hard to read too cause of the damage to the paper.
Humans can take # Hits equal to HD +1. I think this can be interpreted as "don't bother counting HP, just give them X number of hits". More conservatively, they just get +1 to their HD but that's boring.
Brigands are evil bandits. Pirates are evil buccaneers. I think "good" is like, Homeric good, like Ulysses being a bastard/garbage human being on an interpersonal level but still being Good compared to say, monsters. Good is Cheeky Evil that's also human and white and not innately corrupt by like, the Evil Magic of an Evil God or something. The Man Who Would be King vibes.
Remember that massive power level disparity between normal types and fantasy figures? Enemies like wights who require magic weapons to be hit also require these to be made by fantasy figures. Even with a magic sword, non-Heroes cannot fight them efficiently.
"free-chop" for surprise attack round against dragons when encountered asleep.
Thoats hate horses and will not travel or be stabled with them!
"The Opposing Forces" is the header instead of "Alignment" with the list with Law/Neutral/Chaos.
EDIT: the pictures were too big.
The Ugly Witch didn't make the cut, too bad cause she looks amazing.
The Warrior, subsequently known as the Amazon. Warrior just means high-level fighting-man, so this addition without the name change would have allowed some power fantasy on the part of women players. Dragon markets and slave-based economies are all fine and dandy but this was a bit too much so she became the "Amazon" which can be safely put under exotic types of enemies you might encounter (and, ya know, enslave) instead.
The whole "anti" thing mainly survived as various versions of "anti-paladin" in Dragon magazine and elsewhere... I always wondered about that.
ReplyDeleteThe Lightning Bolt thing is interesting... I'm looking at my copy of Chainmail (7th printing) and I don't see that spell in it! I guess that might be why they dropped it, other than the lazy "as Chainmail" wording...
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