Interest Check for Old School D&D ruleset

[FXguy]

I would absolutely LOVE the older D&D rulesets, however, I am unsure if the AD&D game would even be playable with the RAW (unless OSRIC is used). 2nd Edition might be easier.

[vodokar]

I would absolutely LOVE the older D&D rulesets, however, I am unsure if the AD&D game would even be playable with the RAW (unless OSRIC is used). 2nd Edition might be easier.

What specifically do you think would not be playable?

[FXguy]

What specifically do you think would not be playable?

Combat in general. I recall having to make up house rules to play in 1978, and then re-reading the books a couple of years ago, and still being confused on a few rules. I believe that OSRIC had addressed the issues and fixed them to play as Gary would have wanted it.

[damned]

Question for Trenloe & damned - I started looking through the 3.5 ruleset, both in FG and under the hood. I noticed it doesn't support drag and drop and auto-populate from modules to fill out the character sheet, etc. The 5E stuff does - is this by design? Ideally I would like the S&W layered ruleset to support that functionality but want to make sure it is okay to do so before I dig too much into it.

Yes - build drag and drop but do not try to emulate the character building features. Too much effort for too little gain. The abilities of FG have evolved over time and devs (smiteworks and community) have really pushed its capability so newer rulesets will/can have more features. But they require more work. Bite off what you can chew. You dont have to deliver the all singing all dancing version right from the get go. Start with the character and npc sheets and then the combat tracker and party sheets. Then see what you still want to do after that.

[damned]

Combat in general. I recall having to make up house rules to play in 1978, and then re-reading the books a couple of years ago, and still being confused on a few rules. I believe that OSRIC had addressed the issues and fixed them to play as Gary would have wanted it.

Your memory of what you read back in 1978 may not be as clear as you remembered
The rules work alright.

[vodokar]

There were certain rules that no one ever used, that I know of anyway, like "weapon speeds" and "to hit bonuses/penalties vs. specific armors". The initiative system wasn't quite all worked out yet and smooth. But, those things won't really be addressed in this ruleset anyways. The standard initiative system built into FG is far better. And no one ever used those other rules anyway.

I have years of experience actually playing 1e, so I know it was playable, even back in 1978, and most importantly, I think I know what's the most important aspects of the rules system that must be there for it to feel authentic.

[Zhern]

Yes - build drag and drop but do not try to emulate the character building features. Too much effort for too little gain. The abilities of FG have evolved over time and devs (smiteworks and community) have really pushed its capability so newer rulesets will/can have more features. But they require more work. Bite off what you can chew. You dont have to deliver the all singing all dancing version right from the get go. Start with the character and npc sheets and then the combat tracker and party sheets. Then see what you still want to do after that.

Right on. I'm taking too much of a feature complete view of it when I need to really be looking to do minimum viable product and then go from there. Thanks for the advice.

[vodokar]

Right on. I'm taking too much of a feature complete view of it when I need to really be looking to do minimum viable product and then go from there. Thanks for the advice.

Yes, what Damned said. Just give us a functional ruleset that has a functional combat tracker, automated hit determination, easy to use spell list and other such niceties. We've been living in the stone age up till now with regards to old school games; we don't expect to go to warp speed in a heart beat.

[leozelig]

I ran a bunch of AD&D modules a few years ago using the OSRIC ruleset (but AD&D rules). We ignored weapon speed and to hit bonus vs AC. There were a few random bugs, but it worked. Group initiative in the combat tracker was a good feature - I assume S&W does something similar.

[damned]

Yes, what Damned said. Just give us a functional ruleset that has a functional combat tracker, automated hit determination, easy to use spell list and other such niceties. We've been living in the stone age up till now with regards to old school games; we don't expect to go to warp speed in a heart beat.

Sorry - I know this has been said before and Ive said it to you before - but Castles&Crusades is both an excellent old school system - even if it isnt exactly the rules you want - and its FG implementation is excellent. That is not old school stone age!

And leozeligs DCC ruleset is also very functional.