Talking about why we want to write our homebrew games and what old school D&amp;D means to me.

Why homebrew?

Talking about the six standard ability scores and wishing I could just rename Intelligence and Wisdom to Education and Yoga. But my players didn't pick it up.

Abilities

Race as class, elves and dwarves in particular. Talking about the gender of elves and dwarves. Talking about the questions Judd proposed for classes, a long time ago.

Race as Class

Fighters and magic users. Using descending armour class, to-hit tables, all weapons do 1d6 damage, adding explosions and rays to the saving throws, not having unified advancement tables

Fighters & Magic Users

Thieves and normal humans. How do skill checks work, thieves have better skills, how does surprise work, substituting a d30 for a d20 once a day, max damage, +4 to hit, two handed swords, again; and torch bearers and porters, and magic users wielding weapons, or thieves and magic users wearing armour fight like normal humans

Thieves & Normal Humans

Elves are basically fighters and magic users. Halflings and dwarves have better saves and some abilities here and there. Limits on the weapons you can wield. What about armour size? I don't care about level limits since all my games end before we get to level 10.

Demihumans: Elves, Halfling and Dwarves

Rolling starting gold and thinking of your parent's background. Social standing? How to buy equipment. The benefits of a character generator, again. The weapons. Fighting from the second rank, again.

Starting Gold & Weapons

Items to fight monsters and oil in particular. How do we use flaming oil? How much can you carry? Encumbrance and the rule of cool. Also: why is plate armour so cheap?

Items & Armour

Buildings are a great way to spend money for XP and to let players add to the world. And buildings require servants and guards, and these require wages. And when you take mercenaries along on an adventure, then that also costs money.

Buildings & Wages

A little something about demon lords: why do their priests survive? They must useful to somebody! I like the ambiguity of the old gods. They are not all good or all evil. And I like the old threefold alignment: Law, Neutrality, and Chaos.

Gods, Demon Lords & Alignment

The Halberds &amp; Helmets podcast by Alex Schroeder.

Basic terms: player, player character, experience points, level, hit points, saving throw, circle, reaction roll and morale check.

Basic Terms

Retainers: make sure you agree on how many characters you all bring along. As always, just use pregens. When to make the loyalty check.

Retainers

Skills: class abilities, the roll to open doors and bend bars, the lucky die of fate, and thieves' skills, they can all be mapped to a 1d6 roll.

Skills

Combat: surprise, initiative, d30 rule, not using variable weapon damage, shields shall be splintered, formations, protection, targeting, retreating, fleeing.

Combat

Chase, Injury, Death

Movement and reputation, two systems I'd like to use but actually I don't.

Movement, Reputation

Spells and your repertoire: not being able to copy spells from scrolls and spellbooks and requiring a teacher instead, and not being able to learn more spells than you can cast per day. Also, no research and no crafting.

Spells

No clerics. Healing magic makes fights and delves longer. Undead turning makes fights with undeads easier. None of this makes the game better, but instead the Old Testament references break my immersion.

No Clerics, No Paladins

No skills. Fewer classes. Quick and random character generation. Smaller bonuses, little damage, few hit points. Rare healing. Simple combat. Treasure is XP. No magic shops. Random encounters.

Eleven Principles

Keep prep short. Use every idea right away. Be impartial and be adversarial. Let them struggle.

Running the Game

Alex Schroeder: Halberds & Helmets

Running Dungeons, when to roll for random encounters, how much XP to give for monsters, how to restock dungeons

Dungeons

The mini settings I like to generate where the environment or the map generates inspiration for conflict: the river valleys generate political entities, the swamps and mountain peaks religious entities, add secret societies, a long war somewhere else...

Environment, Conflict

The gods, the realms, confusing and overlapping portfolios, how even the evil ones need to provide a benefit.

Gods & Demons

Creating settlements, starting with a few non-player characters, rumours about adventures to be had nearby, the importance of merchants

Settlements

Things to consider when writing RPG text: keeping it short, keeping stats short, keeping it all in one place, don't require leafing around, have art that referees can show to player, have maps that referees can annotate

Writing RPG Material

The best podcast episodes of anyone with an interesting story. With famous guests like Obama, LeBron James, Drake, Oprah Winfrey, Richard Branson, Michelle Obama, Serena Williams, to anyone who has a unique and interesting story to tell. Add episodes you're interested into your queue below!

Best Episodes: Personal Stories & Great Interviews

The best podcast episodes on global issues affecting everyone. Covering topics such as the #metoo movement, climate change, the impact of technology and some of the biggest global issues facing us right now. For anyone interested in learning more about the world, and some of the issues we're facing, pick an episode below and start listening! Add episodes you're interested into your queue below!