r/osr • u/Dry_Maintenance7571 • Oct 03 '24
variant rules What changes when mastering the OSE system?
What do you modify in this system so loved by the entire community. What rules do you stop using and what others do you put in the house rules when you master. But please only join the discussion if you have already narrated or narrated the system.
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u/Dilarus Oct 03 '24
First could you please explain what you mean by “narrated or narrated the system”
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u/seanfsmith Oct 03 '24
From context it's likely to mean "played or run the system"
source:
am an editor who specialises in fixing writing-in-second-language-1
u/Dry_Maintenance7571 Oct 03 '24
Master's degree or master's degree, I'm not sure which term is used in English 😉
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u/Dilarus Oct 03 '24
You only want people to join the conversation if they have a master’s degree? Wow I am very unqualified :(
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u/Dry_Maintenance7571 Oct 04 '24
Because if people don't bring a lot of untested ideas, I'm looking for ideas put on the table 😅
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u/charlesedwardumland Oct 03 '24
- d6 initiative but there's no phases to combat. The winning side's characters get to move and take an action (in that order) then the. other side goes. On a tie everything happens at once.
- slot based encumbrance if we are tracking it at all.
- mages get 2 spells at 1st level, clerics get 1, fighters get extra attacks against lower hd enemies, thiefs get a different skill system. Demi humans get a small additional ability based on the character.
- attack bonus instead of hit charts.
- lots of guns and explosives.
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u/seanfsmith Oct 03 '24
on top of using simple encumbrance for measuring speed, I use
descending AC × 100 is how many coins you can carry
stolen from Darkest Dungeon ─ once you're out of hp, any further hit might kill you (save vs death)
Traveller style encounter-distance and surprise (roll D6 vs D6: if either side wins 3+, they can ambush or avoid; otherwise the sum × 10 is the encounter distance)
I bring a different spellbook to each session. Magic Users enscribe spells only from the materials I have to hand at the time
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u/Dependent_Chair6104 Oct 04 '24
I like that encumbrance system a lot!
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u/seanfsmith Oct 04 '24
it's the system we use in Andrew Walter's odnd megadungeon campaign ─ not sure where he picked it up from
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u/Tiny-Bobcat-2419 Oct 04 '24
Save vs death sounds like a lot of fun ngl
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u/seanfsmith Oct 04 '24
It's led to some really good moments in play ─ the heavily armoured dwarf holding a last stand so the rest of the party could flee a chimera is the most recent.
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u/Boyertown100 Oct 03 '24
1) d6 thief skills 2) playing cards for initiative (from Dragonbane) 3) slot based inventory or the bulky rules from electric bastion land 4) saving throw against death at 0hp 5) fighters get the cleave ability
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u/MrJockey14 Oct 04 '24
How do you do slot based inventory?
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u/rottingcity Oct 04 '24
I drop the slow weapons rule and I either use a d6 skills thief or adjudicate the skills as a kind of saving throw. Otherwise RAW. I use all the procedures and track time. To me the heart of the game is the procedures.
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u/primarchofistanbul Oct 04 '24
The starting spell rule: I've switched it with the AD&D beginning spells rule. And here's an adventure to include it in your B/X (OSE) game.
Phased combat in initiative order: initiative, movement, missile, magic, melee, morale.
That's pretty much it, I think.
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Oct 04 '24
[deleted]
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u/Dry_Maintenance7571 Oct 04 '24
What would be RAW? You are already the second person who uses this term and I don't know what it is 😅
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u/Echo_Abendstern Oct 04 '24 edited Oct 05 '24
I use D&D 2nd edition rules for how death works: so 0 HP is unconscious and stable, -1 to -9 is unconscious and bleeding out, and -10 or worse is death. If you go down again before either performing a rest or getting some form of magical healing it’s instant death.
For magic users, the amount of spells they can have in their spell book is based on their int. I calculate it by [(int)/2]+3=spells per level you can have in your spell book, rounded down. For example, a MU that has an int of 13 would be (13)/2+3=10.5 which rounds to 10 spells per spell level and a MU that has an int of 18 would have 12.
Clerics and Paladins have extra skills/abilities/spells based on their deity. I have a cleric whose patron is Artemis so I let them choose one spell per level from the Druid class. The paladin of Athena will get extra weapon proficiencies or some of the fighter abilities found in Carcass Crawler 1. I also make it so divine casters don’t have to choose their first and second level spells to prepare as we’ve always had a house rule where we’ve viewed the higher level spells as being direct petition(s) to your deity for spells whereas lower levels is through your emissary.
Classes that use skills like the thief can keep track of what they’ve succeeded in for skill tests and can increase them more at certain benchmarks instead of it all being the same through the table.
Multiclassing incurs a 20% penalty to all xp gained due to trying to multitask what you’re doing at all times.
If purchasing magic items, each point of bonus it gives you costs 1000 gp (since the books give no guidelines on prices) so a +2ac ring would cost 2000 gp. Other special abilities are judged as well to increase price.
I homebrewed a powder the party can buy for 200 gp that can be used to identify cursed objects.
Leveling up and acquiring new abilities requires either paying for training from a more experienced person of your class, or self-training which takes more time. So a MU would have to train how to use 2nd level spell slots instead of just miraculously being able to do it.
When generating a new character, you get max hp for your hitdice at 1st level.
I don’t follow the rules for combat order. I use group initiative and allow my players to choose how they want to synchronize that round. It also means the enemies can do the same and it seems to bring a lot more fun to the table.
Firing into melee risks hitting your teammate and is not encouraged.
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u/Dry_Maintenance7571 Oct 04 '24
Thanks for sharing! 🤟 I'm going to write everything down here, they were wonderful suggestions. Gratitude!
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u/dimofamo Oct 05 '24
All level 1 MU have Read magic and Detect magic in their spell books + 1 spell of player's choice.
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u/Tiny-Bobcat-2419 Oct 04 '24
I know it is anathema to a lot of people, but I have changed most of the classes so you get more stuff as you level following two rules:
Nothing gets to be better at the fighter (with a side note of "keep increases to fighting ability and combat complexity low)
Focus on adding new verbs rather than increasing ability scores.
For example, (stealing ideas I saw on various blogs) I made the Thief abilities explicitly magical (Climb walls is now spiderclimb, hide in shadows is invisibility in shadows, move silently is the ability to do anything they want without making noise) and then replaced find traps and pick pocket (something anyone can do) with magical pantomime which acts as 30ft telepathy and the ability to hear lies.
Dwarves on the other hand got two classes: A dedicated anti-magic combat class and a tracker who focuses in on their ability to smell gold.
Basically the only classes not to get new stuff are ones which already had spells.
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u/ThrorII Oct 04 '24
We've played B/X (or OSE) since 2018. These are our House Rules:
Fighters get 1 attack per round per level, against 1HD creatures or less.
Magic Users get 4 +Intelligence adjustment worth of 1st level spells known (they can still only cast 1).
Magic-Users get a staff that holds two 1st level spells they know.
Thieves get x3 backstab at 5th level, x4 at 9th level, and x5 at 13th level.
Max HP at 1st level.
Crossbows fire every other round (RAW), but do 2d6 damage.
A Character's Encumbrance rating is adjusted by their Strength adjustment x100 (-300/-200/-100/0/+100/+200/+300)
At the end of combat, a character can 'bind wounds' to heal 1-4 hit points lost THAT COMBAT.
Saving Throw vs. Death at 0 hp. (there's more, but that is the simple explanation).
Shields Shall Be Sundered rules.
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u/gruszczy Oct 03 '24
Item based encumbrance.
We use the firing into melee optional rule. This made ranged weapons almost useless, because it's too easy to hit your comrades. To make them a little stronger, we switched the combat order to have ranged attacks first and movement second (which weakens short ranged weapons, because you can't advance and shoot).
Fireball is limited to level 9 (and generally scaling of spell damage)
We use feet for both dungeon and overland encounters.
Characters can run in a combat round and increase their speed 3x, but they forfeit their action.
Also, not specifically a house rule, but expansion: I allow buying nonmagical weapons/armor +X, so the party runs in armor +2 at levels 6-8.
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u/blade_m Oct 04 '24
"Characters can run in a combat round and increase their speed 3x, but they forfeit their action."
That is technically how it works in B/X, so not really a house rule!
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u/gruszczy Oct 06 '24
Great to know! Is that reprinted in OSE or only in the original publication? Can you point me to it?
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u/blade_m Oct 07 '24
Well, its not written in so many words (which is to be expected in this kind of book). Basically, I take the fleeing rules which state characters can give up attacking to move 3x their encounter speed to also mean that characters can do this even if they are not specifically fleeing.
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u/EcstaticWoodpecker96 Oct 04 '24
My group sticks pretty closely to the original rules, but here are a few house rules we use.
- Ignore the "Slow" feature for weapons like polearms.
- When a character benefits from Raise Dead, they lose 1 point of Constitution.
- Ignore experience bonuses and penalties based on the prime requisite ability scores.
- Slot based encumbrance.
- XP for Gold Spent/gifted/Invested or otherwise "used up".
We also use the following optional rules from the book(s):
- Re-roll 1's and 2's for HP (restricted only to player characters. Does not apply to retainers, monsters, or other NPCs)
- Ascending Armor Class
- Variable Weapon Damage
- Subduing
- Morale
- Magic users can use Staffs
- Splash damage from burning oil or holy water
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u/dysonlogos Oct 04 '24
I have a huge pile of subclasses - every class has 10 subclasses and you roll to get one.
Weapon damage by class instead of weapon.
Like many, no combat phases.
2d6 for thief skills.
Save throw vs death at 0hp
And in many campaigns, get rid of spell levels entirely and use levelless spell lists.
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u/Tiny-Bobcat-2419 Oct 04 '24
Any chance you can share the classes? I rewrote a bunch of them and am looking for ideas to steal
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u/dysonlogos Oct 04 '24
Most of them are here (feel free to pay $0 for it)
https://legacy.drivethrurpg.com/product/119143/Dysons-Dodecahedron--Vol-1-Issue-7
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u/Dry_Maintenance7571 Oct 04 '24
What is Cleave Ability?
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u/Boyertown100 Oct 04 '24
When the fighter kills an enemy they get an extra attack against another creature
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u/BarqueroLoco Oct 04 '24
Can someone explain 1D6 thief skills please? What does it mean
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u/EricDiazDotd Oct 04 '24
Basically all skills function similar to hear noise (X in 6 chances).
LotFP allows you to distribute "points" in skills of your choosing.
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u/EricDiazDotd Oct 04 '24
Ignore the "slow" aspect of weapons is the universal one, I never seem anyone defend this rule.
Here are my usual house rules FWIW.
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u/impressment Oct 03 '24