So You Want to Run OSR: Part 1 - Preparing Your First Dungeon

Last week, I covered the materials you will need for your first session of an OSR game. This week, we'll look at creating your first dungeon.

Per my advice given in "Golden Rule for Sandbox Refereeing," your first session should be spent on a simple dungeon crawl with some interesting adventure hooks that your players can follow up on in subsequent sessions. They will tell you which hook they want to pursue the following session (or if they'd rather just keep exploring the dungeon), and you spend the intervening time preparing it.

I would caution against spending too much time and effort coming up with a "back-story" or "lore" for your dungeon. I understand the urge, but remember that players rarely walk away from a session buzzing about the story you wrote; rather, players love and remember the stories they create. Information about a dungeon can be interesting and fun, and ideally it provides clues to the players about enemies, traps, and treasure that can be found within. For an obvious example, a crypt can be assumed to be full of undead, so clerics in the party would be a boon. Two or three sentences should be enough to give players an idea about the dungeon. Any further information I'd recommend giving to players via NPCs, to encourage interaction, whether this means interrogating factions in the dungeon or rolling for rumors in town.

The amount of rooms you will have to map and key for your first session will depend on how quickly your players explore the dungeon. You don't want to run out of content during a session, but you also don't need to create a 150-room dungeon in a week if your players only explore four or five rooms a session. I'd recommend at least 15 to 20 rooms keyed for your first session. Your dungeon should not be linear, so make sure that even the shortest route through your dungeon has enough content for a session. Gygax recommended keying the first three floors in advance of the first session, in case players wanted to pull a high-risk, high-reward dive to the lower levels.

Don't worry about a beautiful map; your players will probably not see it. Multiple entrances are a plus. Create a few loops and branches, and then connect certain rooms through sub-levels to make an interconnected dungeon. One-way doors and exits that reveal hidden entrances will also make things interesting.

Monsters, traps, treasure, and tricks.

About 1/3 of your rooms will contain monsters. Begin by creating factions (see my guide here). Some factions may be made of multiple kinds of monsters (if goblins and kobolds have an alliance, e.g.), while other factions may even be only one monster (a roaming ogre or a lost mage). Depending on the size of your dungeon, three or four factions per floor is probably sufficient. Some monsters may be unintelligent or otherwise unaffiliated, as well. Decide on each faction's "headquarters," where they gather, where their leader sleeps (and hides treasure!). Per the recommendation in B4, make sure you know what monsters will do should the PCs decide to attack, talk, or wait. REMEMBER TO USE REACTION ROLLS AND CHECK FOR MORALE! Forgetting to do so is a  common mistake new referees make.

In my opinion, it is more fun to interact with a trap you know about than find a trap you didn't know about. I like "Indiana Jones" style traps: it is obvious that there is a trap, but not exactly what it is or how to disarm it. A statuette on a plinth, dried blood on the floor, large cracks in the walls... players can poke around the environment to search for clues. A deceptively simple trap can still pose danger for even experienced players!

Stocking a dungeon can be a bit tricky. Using the treasure tables as given may be fairly "swingy." Think about it this way: players getting 500xp each per session will take 4 sessions to level up. This is a month of play, if you play once a week. Players will "lose" xp by dying or bringing along hirelings, as well. If you have 6 players, they'll have to recover 3,000gp of treasure per session to reach second level in a month. So how much treasure you put in your dungeon will depend on how fast you want your players to level up. Using the recommendations in Moldvay Basic, there is an average of about 255gp of nonmagical treasure per room on the first floor. Going off this, I'd recommend about 510gp per room on the second floor, 765gp per room on the third, and so on. This is on the lower end of what you'd probably want to stock, so don't hesitate to add some more treasure, especially if playing with a large group. Magical items can be rolled for as usual.

For mundane stocking, I'd refer you to Appendix I in the 1e AD&D DMG.

"Trick" is one of the most fun ways to stock your dungeon. Rather than rolling for something, I'd encourage you to truly let your imagination run wild. Don't be afraid to put in something bizarre. I keep a journal handy and write down anything that comes in my head, then pick my favorite ideas from it. Per Moldvay, these should come up about 1/6 times, but I like to keep them somewhat rarer - a few per floor. These also help players orient themselves in the dungeon, because the rooms stick out in their minds.

Some things to keep in mind:

When going for "Gygaxian naturalism," each faction should have a place to eat, sleep, store goods, store weapons and armor, prepare or cultivate food, hide treasure, convene, dispose of waste, quarter soldiers, house their chieftan, & c. I use Dwarf Fortress as inspiration.

Careful mapping should be rewarded. Symmetry and "missing rooms" can indicate where traps and secret doorways are.

Dungeons change! They grow and live. When players come back after time has passed, things should be different. If a character dies in the dungeon and their body is not recovered, it should be scavenged. Your players will be enraged and delighted to find that a goblin has pilfered the late Caliban's axe and is now using it against them. Have a section of your binder dedicated to tracking changes in a dungeon. Which rooms have been explored and must be restocked, what will happen if a faction is allowed to expand, & c.

Finding already-sprung traps and the long-decayed corpses of hapless adventurers can give players valuable information about what to be on the lookout for. A floor full of petrified adventurers is almost sure to contain a basilisk, and a chest surrounded by rotten bodies is best approached with a ten-foot pole.

You may want to put players on a clock, so to speak. This doesn't need to create much more work for you. To discourage the dreaded "five minute workday" where players show up to a dungeon, cast their spells, exhaust their resources, and then return home, for a first dungeon, I like to tell my players that there is a solstice festival in two weeks, and they will be spending their lucre on it. Therefore, all treasure they can acquire in those two weeks can be spent for bonus experience on the solstice day. This gives them a fun and concrete deadline. Of course, the dungeon can continue to be explored after this date, but it helps to use the players' own greed to draw them deeper into the dungeon.

Finally, create a rumor table that indicates features, danger, and traps. This encourages interaction with NPCs in town and factions within the dungeon. I don't like to include wholly false rumors; rather, all my false rumors have a grain of truth to them. The coven of blood-sucking vampires that the Goodman swears to have seen might actually be a swarm of blood-sucking stirges instead. The fearsome cockatrice might be a regular chicken, escaped from a kobold's pen. I like to overplay, rather than underplay danger in my false rumors.

Now you have everything you need to run your first session! I cover the details of running it in the next article, which you can read here.

So You Want to Run OSR: Part 0 - Preparing for Your First Session

yea babey

So you've heard a lot about this whole 'OSR' thing and decided to give it a shot. You've chosen a rule set you like, and you're wondering where to begin. Begin here.

The scope of this article will cover the physical necessities for your first session. The next article will cover how to prepare your first dungeon. This article assumes that, per my advice offered in 'The Golden Rule of Sandbox Refereeing,' your first session will be a simple dungeon-delve. No need to create an entire milieu just yet.

A disclaimer: this is how I choose to run my games, and what works for me. Other approaches may differ. This is fine. I am not the final authority. If it works for you, use it. If it doesn't, ignore it. Games are fun, so have fun.

To begin, here is a checklist of what you will need at your first session. I will elaborate on what is needed and why after the checklist.

• The obvious: pencils and erasers, dice, your ruleset of choice.
• A running list of things you wish you had at your table.
• A DM screen with appropriate reference sheets.
• A three-ring binder, preferably with dividers and inserts. Can double as a DM screen in a pinch.
• Extra character sheets, or notebook paper and a "master character sheet" for your players to copy
• A guide on rolling new characters (enough copies to distribute to your players)
• A list of first-level Magic-User and Elf spells (as well as first-level Cleric spells if you allow your Clerics to cast spells at first level)
• Bookmarks if using physical rulebooks
• A running list of important things to remind yourself for next session
• A town
• A dungeon

Pencils, erasers, dice, ruleset, graph paper:

Enough to go around. Cheap enough you don't mind if your players walk off with them or lose them under the table. Have a sharpener handy as well if they're not mechanical. I found that players were burning through the erasers on their pencils faster than their lead, so I had a rubber eraser for people to use. For players, one to three d6 dice, a d4, a d8, one to two d10s and a d20 are sufficient. For you, the DM, I'd recommend two to three d4 dice, three d6, three d8, two d10, and a d20. A d12 is optional as well. For graph paper, I prefer four hexes per inch, with a three-hole punch so that I can keep them in my binder.

A running list of things you wish you had at your table:

During your first session, you'll find yourself scrambling for something you wish you had on you. Keep a list handy to remind yourself next time.

A DM screen with appropriate reference sheets:

You don't need to be fancy. The screen is more for the reference sheets than for secrecy. Really, the only things that need to be rolled in secret are listen checks and some thief skills.

On the outside of my screen are player-facing reminders: cleric turn undead tables and equipment costs and weights.

On the inside of your screen you might want:

• Combat matrices
• The combat sequence, including reaction rolls
• Rules for evasion and pursuit
• Wandering monster tables
• Saving throws

A three-ring binder:

You may set this up how you see fit. I like to have a section for calendars, a section for my hexmap and key, a section for the dungeon map and key, useful random tables, and then scratch paper.

Extra character sheets or notebook paper:

For your first session, I recommend having twice as many characters pre-generated as you have players (or half that if your players are generating their own characters). The nice thing about OSR games is that character sheets are very simple, so players can also write their own character sheets on notebook paper as well. Just have a master character sheet they can copy from. I prefer to write anything that doesn't change in pen, and fill it in with pencil afterward.

A guide for rolling new characters:

Have enough guides so that your players can each have one, if you're generating characters at the table. Otherwise, one that can be passed around is fine. Walk them through the process of character creation, including:

1. Rolling for stats
2. Choosing a class and adjusting stats if applicable
3. Recording adjustments
4. Rolling and recording hitpoints
5. Recording XP, prime requisite adjustment percentage, saving throws, and to-hit matrices
6. Rolling for starting money
7. Purchasing equipment
8. Recording armor class, damage dice, and encumbrance and moving speed
9. Recording any special abilities

A list of first-level magic-user spells (and cleric spells if you allow clerics to cast spells at first level):

It may be useful to write these on notebook cards, so that magic-users may have their spells handy as a reminder.

Bookmarks if using physical rulebooks:

Keep track of which pages you reference frequently; it may be beneficial to copy this information onto your screen. If you use a PDF program for your rules or modules, use the 'bookmark' or 'favorite' function. 

A running list of things to remind yourself for next session:

Keeping a calendar is a great idea, but for your first session, a pad of paper where you write reminders for yourself will do. For example, if your players let a few kobolds escape, perhaps next session they come across their camp on the way to the dungeon.

A town

For your first session, your town is little more than a place to rest and re-stock. Come up with the names of a tavern (to get rumors and hire people), an inn (to sleep and store belongings), a sanctuary (to purchase healing and restorative services), a shop and smithy (to purchase equipment and weapons), and a stable (to purchase mounts). Name the owners of each establishment and have a few random names on hand as well.

A dungeon

See the next part of this series.

Fuliginous Souls: Dark Souls OSR hack notes

Something to keep me busy. Nothing is playtested.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1R_rgnf9bOkcbhTRQ_o1cJxQsbmyE_0aFGpiH5nzDg9A/edit?usp=sharing

Check the link for updates. Content:

Classes:
Knight - All armor and shields. Highest HD. Bonus to saving throws vs. poison.
Bandit - Light armor, no shields. Deal max damage on criticals. Bonus to all saving throws.
Sorcerer - No armor or shields. Cast offensive spells (sorcery). Bonus to saving throws vs. magic.
Priest - Medium armor and shields. Cast defensive spells (miracles). Bonus to saving throws vs. curse.
[Deprived - No abilities. No armor, no shield, any weapon. Half xp requirements?]

THAC0 = 20 - your HD - STR if knight or bandit AND wielding heavy/med weapon OR DEX if knight or bandit AND wielding ranged or med/light weapon - enchantments on weapon

ITEMS:
Pyromancer’s glove: cast offensive and defensive spells at cost of Souls (XP)
Estus Flask: Once per day, heal 1d6+1 HP. Upgrade with estus shards (add to health gained) or firekeeper souls (add to times per day). Quaffing takes 1rnd.
Titanite: Exchange titanite + souls at a Giantsmith to upgrade weapons or armor.

Stats (3d6, arrange to taste or 4d6 drop lowest swap two?):
STR: Affects carrying capacity, melee to-hit and melee damage with heavy weapons IF knight or bandit.
DEX: Affects AC and ranged to-hit and melee damage with light weapons IF knight or bandit.
VTL: Vitality. Affects HP. On a -1/+1 scale rather than -3/+3.
INT: Affects attunement slots (if higher than FTH) and sorcery
FTH: Faith. Affects attunement slots (if higher than INT) and miracles
HTY: Humanity. All saves are d20 at or over humanity. Save vs. going Hollow is 3d6 roll under. NO CLASS provides a bonus to saves vs. going Hollow (cf.) Also affects reaction rolls.

Hitpoints:
Each level you gain, roll your level in HD (D6). If total is higher than previous HP, that is your new HP total. If it is not, gain 1 HP instead. KNIGHT, roll Xd6+X every level. CLERIC AND BANDIT, roll Xd6 2 out of every 3 levels. SORCERER, roll Xd6 every two levels.

GOING HOLLOW:
When you reach 0 HP, you die. To prevent going hollow, roll 3D6. If you roll UNDER your current HTY score, your soul returns to the nearest bonfire. You may return to unlife. However, your HTY is now the total you rolled. You are also CURSED. If you roll AT or OVER your HTY score, you have gone Hollow. Your corpse immediately raises as Hollow and attacks the nearest non-hollow mindlessly on a 2-in-6. Otherwise, docile Hollow.

BONFIRES:
Rest at a bonfire for 24hrs. to refill health and restore spells. Estus flasks refill. All treasure incl. currency may be fed to the fire and returned as Souls. OR sell in town and get ½ value back as currency. DOES NOT CURE CURSE. May travel FROM certain bonfires TO any other bonfire previously attuned to?

SOULS:
XP. You may not spend so much that you level down. However, you do not have to level up upon reaching a breakpoint. You may only level up once per rest at bonfire. Knights need 2k souls to level, doubled as B/X. Sorcerers need 2.5k, Priests 1.5k, Bandits merely 1.2k.

CURRENCY:
1 copper = 1 aes = .1 xp
1 silver = 1 orichalk / 10 aes = 1 xp
1 electrum = 1 bit / 5 orichalks = 5 xp
1 gold = 1 asimi / 10 orichalks = 10 xp
1 platinum = 1 chrisos / 5 asimi = 50 xp

Begin with 3d6 x 100 orichalks. Keep costs for mundane equipment in asimi. If adapting from module, DND platinum = bits, gold = orichalks, silver = aes, copper/10 = aes, electrum/10 = bits (“silver standard”)

ENCUMBRANCE:
STONES of encumbrance. 1/3ST = 50cn.
“Flip-roll” = 3st or less
“Fast-roll” = 3.3st - 6st
“Medium-roll” = 6.3-9 st
“Fat-roll” = 9.3 - 12st

Players may ROLL away from an attack by rolling OVER their encumbrance (rounded UP) with a d12. Negates damage. Multiple attacks must be rolled for multiple times. If they fail, attack succeeds (no need to roll to-hit).

HUMANITY:
Rare treasure (magic item table). Consume one to add +1d4 to humanity (max 18), fully heal, and break CURSE. Immediately gain souls equal to your HD squared x 1,000.

CURSE:
Your max HP is HALVED. Does NOT stack.

Upon reaching max humanity, you may retire as a firekeeper.
HD 1-3: Small bonfire.
HD 4-6: Medium bonfire. +1 estus flask while resting at it. May travel to any bonfire from here.
HD 7-9: Enormous bonfire. +2 estus flask while resting, may travel to any bonfire from here, and from any bonfire to here. Towns typically spring up around these.
If firekeeper is killed, fire goes out. Firekeeper drops firekeeper soul. (Small, medium, or enormous as per bonfire size: +1 or +2 estus if M or E.)

Weapons:
BLADES are most common and do max dmg on 20 (stab).
AXES deal “leftover” damage to adjacent targets after killing one.
MACES +2 to-hit vs. plate or otherwise heavily armored opponents.
POLEARMS may attack from second rank.

BANDITS deal max damage on 20 (1-3), 18-20 (4-6), 16-20 (7-9)

KNIGHTS may roll HD, any 5 or 6 scores one “hit” vs. swarms (4 dmg or kill 1 1HD creature. 2 hits 8 dmg or kill 1 2HD creature, etc.) “Cleave.”

ATT slots = FTH or INT bonus + ½ levels in Priest (round down, 0 at level 1) or levels in Sorcerer

ENCHANTMENTS:
Crystal: add INT bonus to to-hit and damage. Shatters on a 1.
Holy: add FTH bonus to to-hit and damage.
Normal: add +X to to-hit and damage.
Lightning: add +X to to-hit
Fire: add +X to damage
Chaos: add HTY bonus (or 1d6?) to to-hit and damage.

S1: The Undead Parish
S2: Darkroot Forest + The Tower of Havel
S3: Blighttown (hexcrawl)
S4: Anor Londo (CISO-inspired?)
    S5: Tomb of Giants
    S6: New Londo Ruins
    S7: Lost Izalith
    S8: Kiln of the First Flame

ORNSTEIN 4HD+4, AC 2, 1 attack (d8) as 6HD due to Lightning enchantment, Mv 120/40, Save as F4, ML 10 / takes 2x dam from Fire, ½ dam from lightning
SMOUGH 8HD+8, AC 5, 1 attack (d12+3 due to Fire enchantment), MV 90/30, Save as F8, ML 10 / takes 2x dam from Lightning, 1/2 dam from fire

OSR FAQ

>Just what the hell is 'OSR' anyway?
A: OSR stands for Old-School Renaissance (or Revival, depending on who you ask.) Over the last 40 years, the game we refer to as "Dungeons and Dragons" has changed so much that its initial inception is essentially an entirely different game from its current form. The OSR is for people who enjoy that early style of play.

>Why is "Old-School" D&D so much better?
A: It's not "better," it's just a very different game. If you ask 100 different OSR enthusiasts why they prefer OSR, you'll get 100 different answers. Common answers include an increased emphasis on player agency and sandbox environments, a more grounded power curve, an emphasis on player skill rather than rules mastery, simple rules, quick character generation, easier DM prep, and more challenging, lethal gameplay.

>I thought Old-School D&D was complicated, and only the groggiest of nards could understand its arcane rules?
A: AD&D 1st edition is famous for its crunchy and sometimes byzantine rules, but B/X, OD&D, and their derived systems couldn't be simpler. As the writer of this document I can tell you I've had people who have never played D&D before rolling dice and exploring dungeons alongside veteran players within 5 minutes, and that's not an exaggeration.

>So many editions! I wouldn't even know which one to start with...
A: At a certain point, it becomes a question of which shade of white paint is your favorite. The "OSR" places an emphasis on compatibility: we want to be able to run a module in our preferred ruleset, whichever that may be, so the difference between rulesets is fairly minimal. For a first-timer coming into the scene totally cold, the author of this document (TAOTD) would recommend "Old-School Essentials," by Necrotic Gnome. Its SRD is available online in wiki form totally free. It is essentially a re-printing of the 1980's "Basic/Expert" D&D (AKA "B/X D&D") which was itself a simplification of AD&D, a parallel product. B/X D&D is the foundation of most retroclones and hacks, and 99% of modules can be run using B/X with minimal to no conversion.

>I think I might like to play OSR, but I'd want to change some stuff about it first...
A: One of the best things about the OSR is its infinitely hackable rules. House rules were the expectation, acknowledged many times in the official rulebooks. However, TAOTD would recommend playing at least a few sessions as "by the book" as possible. Often rules that seem silly or incongruous will justify themselves in play.

>Alright, I've got my ruleset chosen. Now what modules do you recommend?
A: A helpful anon of the /osrg/ has compiled a .pdf of recommended introductory modules; ask after it in the /osrg/. As of May 2020, its latest version is 1.6. TAOTD recommends either B2 - Keep on the Borderlands or B4 - The Lost City.

>I want to play OSR, but my players want to stick with 5e/3.PF...
A: Ask them to run a module as a one-shot. They'll fall in love before they know what's happening :)