Smoldering Wizard's Old-School Gaming Forums

Seems like a good place to mention Zenopus's OD&D/Holmes Basic backgrounds:
http://zenopusarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2 ... ounds.html

None of my players has ever shown any interest in the concept of a "character background". They're more interested in the present (Where can we hire retainers? Can I buy a crowbar? Which way is the dungeon?) and the future (How can we avoid being ambushed next time? Let's wipe the smug smiles off th...

I use 100xp per HD, despite the Greyhawk rebuke I find it simple and helpful for moving through the first few levels quickly. Moving through the first levels quickly was what I was thinking about. Due to various real-life changes in the circumstances of my players (children, moving house, etc.), we...

For the most part, White Box seeks to emulate the play style of the 3LBBs without material from the supplements. However, the progression of XP awards for killing monsters (1 HD = 15 XP, 2 HD = 30 XP, 3 HD = 60 XP, etc.) is based on the progression in Supplement I: Greyhawk, rather than the strictly...

I was skimming through my notebook and found an idea that might fit in here. It would need to be in a coastal hex. A deep bay surrounded by rugged cliffs. This was once the domain of Baron Vaeryg, whose blasphemies so outraged the gods that they caused his lands to be inundated by the sea for 999 ye...

It does seem to be an omission in every version of S&W: rules for what AD&D called "henchmen" and Moldvay Basic D&D (where I started) called "retainers". What I do is simply import the rules from Basic D&D (page B21). If you don't have that handy, you could use the next best thing: Labyrinth Lord. F...

I'd be quite happy to see The Wizard's Scroll become a zine for White Box, which would mean most of its contents would be easily portable to OD&D and other LBB clones like Delving Deeper, etc. White Box certainly seems to be the preferred flavour in this forum. I have a one-page dungeon for 1st-leve...

How detailed do you want the hex descriptions? I know you said just a couple of paragraphs, but what about stats for NPCs and new monsters, treasure, etc? A full list, or just an indication? I'm guessing, this being White Box, that perhaps less is more. Something like: A neat, pretty cottage, with t...

Thanks for the input! Apart from some of the classic high-level Gygax modules back in the day (for which we just rolled up PCs of the appropriate levels) I've never played above level 7 or 8, and have no particular desire to do so. I think PCs ought to retire around level 9, and their players ought ...

Here's a simple house rule I'm using while running The Cleansing of Cameth Brin (see elsewhere on these forums). The S&W Core Rules give characters a chance to hear sounds, force open stuck doors, find secret doors and traps, etc. The rules assume the use of 1d6 and the chances are expressed as x-in...