After the first installation in this series (about different movement rate systems in OSR games) the turn has come to the differing armor class systems that has been used over time.
There has basically been 2 different versions of armor class (AC) over time:
Descending AC (DAC) – In this system the AC gets better the lower the number is. To complicate things, early D&D actually used two different variants of DAC. In basic D&D (b/x, BECMI, RC, and similar variants the worst AC (represented by an unarmored person) was 9. In AD&D (1e and 2e) the worst AC was 10, so the tables get a little skewed. DAC (base 9) is used in Labyrinth Lord, Swords & Wizardry, and Old School Essentials while OSRIC uses DAC (base 10).
Ascending AC (AAC) – In third edition D&D (and onward) the AC gets better the higher the number is, but similar to DAC, the worst AC is 10 and then it increases from there. Lamentations of the Flame Princess (LotFP) uses a similar system, but the base number (unarmored person) is 12. AAC is used by Castles & Crusades, Blood & Treasure, Fantastic Heroes & Witchery and is an optional rules variant in both Old School Essentials and Swords & Wizardry.
The table below shows the different systems side-by-side and I have added some iconic armor types that are available in all systems for easy comparison.
As for the previous post, a similar PDF was published by me some years ago, but got lost when my laptop hard drive died. This version has been updated to better reflect the games that I am into today.
The next installation in this series will be about conversion of Saving Throws. The topic is a little more complicated, so please have patience while I write up the materials.
Over the years, since the first edition of D&D (now called 0e) hit the shelves, certain basic game engine concepts have changed. One such important concept is movement rate.
Differing movement rates can create some confusion if you are like me and like to mix and match between different OSR games. It can be about importing a monster from another game or maybe you want to run a module written for Swords & Wizardry using the b/x rules set.
To facilitate such enterprises, I created a document with summarized principles for conversion between different movement rate formats.
I did publish a similar table on this blog some years ago, but the links broke when the hard drive of my old laptop decided to call it a day, so they haven’t worked for long. For this blog post I have also updated the game systems covered to better reflect the games I am into today.
My interest in RPG publishing and blogging about such things has been practically absent for some years now, leading to no new output from my DIY publishing imprint Lazy Sod Press. I have of course continued to write and play RPGs during this time, but only with my tabletop group and mostly non-OSR/D&D games.
However, this is about to end pretty soon, as my interest in these things have returned, mainly as a result of being a player in my buddy’s old school Rules Cyclopedia/BECMI D&D game “Night’s Dark Terror“, which was super cool and hilariously fun. Somewhere, I had forgotten how smooth these old rules run.
I currently have three partly written up adventures in various states of finished-ness:
Tomb of the War-Pig (short super lethal dungeon adventure)
Fiery the Angel Fell (longer adventure including a base village, an overland area and a large creepy dungeon complex abandoned by the forces of good)
Klaatu Verata Nictu (part 3 of my adventure trilogy Per Aspera ad Inferi, set in the Silent Valley and centered around a weird sorceress and her bio-horror experiments)
All the adventures are set in different parts of my own loosely defined setting Terra Inomminata, but easily placed in the GM:s world of choice.
Going forward, I have also decided to change my preferred publishing game format to Old School Essentials(OSE). I have previously supported Blood & Treasure (1st ed) and Swords & Wizardry Complete, as well as Castles & Crusades and Labyrinth Lord. However, I see no point in publishing several versions of the same materials and it is pretty simple to convert adventures between different OSR and old D&D versions. Maybe, I will write down a free short PDF about conversion between various OSR and Old School D&D systems, making it even more convenient.
The reasons for changing the game system to OSE is that (i) OSE is easily available where I live, (ii) the production values are very high (i.e. the books are gorgeous), and (iii) that it is actively supported and published by a professional publisher. These days it is pretty much also the most popular and talked about OSR game, thus ensuring interest from the old school gaming community. Labyrinth Lord and Blood & Treasure were among the first but are one-man print-on-demand projects that seem mostly abandoned these days. To be fair, I really like Swords & Wizardry Complete that is also produced professionally, but it is nigh impossible to get hold of in Europe where I live, so there’s that.
This also means that I will create OSE versions of my currently published stuff at DTRPG and Lulu, cleaning them up and improving things I’m not 100 % happy with these days. It also means that i probably will retract the older Blood & Treasure, Castles & Crusades, and Swords & Wizardry versions as well.
Personally, I prefer Castles & Crusades for my own games and will probably use that rule set at my table most of the time, as it feels like the logical successor to AD&D 1e/2e, but with modernized mechanics that actually makes sense. For shorter games or one-shots I will however go with Old School Essentials.
More information about these things will be published on this blog, so keep your eyes peeled if you are interested!
Most of the links on this page broke when my old computer suffered a catastrophic breakdown of the hard drive. Coming back to gaming and blogging, I will try to fix this going forward, but it will take time.
If you’re interested in something particular, please write a comment and I will try to set you up.
I considered a few different game systems for this campaign: my old trusty AD&D (1e) from TSR (now Wizards of the Coast), Old School Essentials (Advanced) from Necrotic Gnome, and Castles & Crusades from Troll Lord Games. The final decision came down to Castles & Crusades due to many factors.
Back in the OSR heyday, I was super fascinated by all the retro-clones and simulacrum games. I own too many of them and have played or GM: ed most of them as well: Labyrinth Lord (AEC), Swords & Wizardry, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Blood & Treasure (1e and 2e), Basic Fantasy, OSRIC, and Fantastic Heroes & Witchery (plus a few more in PDF format). After the initial fascination, I discarded most of them based on the fact that I already own the originals. The main win with these, however, was that they allowed you to write and publish new material for those venerable game systems, which is super cool and led to an upswing in new old-school compatible materials.
On a personal level, the OSR games that really added something new to the mix for me were Blood & Treasure and Fantastic Heroes & Witchery. Not true retro-clones but rather constructed using a more modern rule set, but dialed back to old-school aesthetics, power levels, and above all old-school feel. During this period I got interested in Castles & Crusades but the books were not available where I live and the cost of importing them from the US was all too steep, so I finally went with Blood & Treasure which I used for my Lost Lands (by Frog God Games) game.
Fast forward a few years and the OSR movement had gone in a direction that did not sit well with me. Google Plus was discontinued and the earlier free-sharing spirit of the OSR was replaced with endless Kickstarters, Patreons and what have you. And since both my favorite OSR flavors were one-man print-on-demand shows with little support in the OSR community, I decided that I would henceforth go with professionally produced game systems from actual publishers, like in the olden days.
Today, I have settled with three different game systems:
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (1e)
Old School Essentials (Advanced)
Castles & Crusades
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
I have owned AD&D since back in the day when I bought the books as they came out. The books I did not get back then, I have collected as an adult. I have the original covers as well as all the orange spined ones and also the 2016 reprint edition, along with a metric ton of old modules, boxes, and supplements. AD&D is sheer nostalgia and I love those books, but reading them now with the intent to play is a mixed bag. Too many complex sub-systems and many unnecessary special rules about just anything. These days I mostly use the books for information (especially the Dungeon Masters Guide) or maybe I might use them for a special nostalgia game with my old gaming buddies. For me, the rule set feels overly complicated these days, but who knows in the future…
Verdict: To be used as reading material and for nostalgia games
Old School Essentials
Old School Essentials (OSE) is a very close adaptation to Moldway-Cook b/x D&D, which is the game version that I started with back in the early 1980s, and because of that it automatically has a special place in my heart. These days I’m not too fond of race-as-class and some other b/x things, so for me the Advanced Options version of OSE is the right one. OSE is great for those shorter spur-of-the-moment adventures or one-shots, but for me it falls short in a few departments. One is the adherence to some outdated rules from earlier times. Others are the limited selection of spells, gear, and monsters. Also, at the moment I only have the base book. I sold the advanced expansion books to get the newest collected basic plus advanced books, but my FLGS is still waiting for the new books to arrive.
Verdict: To be used for one-shots and shorter adventures
Castles & Crusades
Over the last five years or so, I have collected Castles & Crusades and have GM: ed some games and played in others. The game feels like a modernized version of AD&D 1e, but it is built from the 3E OGL and was one of the first D&D-derived alternatives. For me, the most important features are that it plays pretty close to how AD&D played back in the day, but it is achieving this with a much sleeker game engine. I also like that there are tons of classes, races, spells, monsters, weapons, gear, and so on. The Castle Keepers Guide (CKG, akin to the DMG) is also very good, second only to the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide, providing optional solutions to things like advanced combat, critical hits, hero points, talents (a bit like 3e feats), and even alternative spell casting systems and several multi-class options if that floats your boat. The base rules are easy to grasp but it is also easy to add mechanics to the base engine thanks to the toolbox approach of the CKG, allowing GM: s to create the game and the complexity they want for their particular campaigns.
I also like the fact that it is very easy to run other games’ modules with Castles & Crusades. Conversion is simple, especially from pre-3e versions of the game including most OSR games, but it is perfectly possible to run 3e and even 5e adventures using Castles & Crusades.
I could continue with many other cool features of Castles & Crusades, but I think that I will stop here as I think that I have made my point.
Verdict: My go to game systemwhen it comes to D&D-style gaming
If I captured your interest with these thoughts, please keep your eyes open for the next post in this series, which will discuss choice of setting!
Nerd-O-Mancer of Dork 