For those who don’t know, my “Shackled City” campaign looks like it is on temporary hiatus due to both Daniel and Dave being unavailable to play in it. We’ll return to it once Daniel returns from classes. However, until then, I’m going to run an original D&D campaign. We had the first session last week, where we blundered our way through several encounters in my version of the venerable “Castle Greyhawk”.

I also killed Adam’s first PC, so it’s all good, right?

Here’s a few notes on the game, as well as things I may have gotten wrong last week but will be fixing this time:

All new PCs start at 1st level. They roll 3d6 for stats, in order (Str, Int, Wis, Con, Dex, Cha). Low stats aren’t that bad… they don’t really affect much. 3d6x10 for starting gold (which meant Sarah managed to roll a 3!) Only classes: Fighting-Man, Cleric, & Wizard.

Combat – bows are awesome! If you don’t move, you get 2 shots per round, assuming you’re not in melee by the end of the round. Shots occur midway through movement of the opposing side – so, if they move 20′, you fire 10′ into their movement. However, you may *not* fire into melee. Once a character is in melee, they may not be attacked by a bow.

Elves have the opportunity of “split-fire”: move up to half their speed, fire once, then move up to half their speed.

Clerics don’t have spells at 1st level! (even when they do get them, they aren’t that great).

Magic-Users know every spell in the book. 🙂

In weapon vs. weapon combat, during the 1st round, the larger (slower) weapon strikes first. In later rounds, it’s the faster weapon – and it may get additional attacks if its very small in comparison to the big one. Mind you, you’ve got to survive that first attack!

Men-at-arms and Henchmen: This is a big one. You really, really need them. I also misplayed this last week. Adam should now have a man-at-arms…

Basically, it takes a week to advertise for them, costing 100-600 gp in advertisement costs.

At the end of that time, you may hire the following: (costs are per month; per day while on a dungeon expedition):
* Light Foot: AC 6, MV 12″, HD 1, sword, leather + shield = 2 gp
* Heavy Foot: AC 4, MV 9″, HD 1, sword, chain + shield = 3 gp
* Archer: AC 7, MV 12″, HD 1, bow =  5 gp
* 1st level Henchman – 100 gp initial payment + half-share of treasure thereafter.

Henchmen will advance in level (gaining half-XP), and may be made more loyal by increased payment. You can have as many men-at-arms or henchmen with you as noted by Charisma…

Note, that though we’re using old rules, the campaign is moderately serious, and will involve more intrigue, roleplaying & story as it progresses.

Cheers,
Merric