Doomsword
September 9th, 2022, 19:50
Last night, I posted this on the Discord but I'm posting it here to get some further visibility.
First, the TL;DR - I created a new extension, based on Core 1E that makes 1E and OSRIC games run with many rules-as-written. I intend to continue developing it and I'm thinking that it should replace Core 1E entirely, but it could also just be a third extension for 1E games that I could hopefully find some way to let people know about because there's a lot of advantages to using this instead of Core 1E. Looking for feedback, please. And sorry for the really long, possibly rambling post
As you may or may not know, there are currently 2 extensions that can be useful in running 1E and OSRIC games with the 2E ruleset. There's the Core 1E extension which adds some combat and saving throw matrices and other 1E-like properties, and there's the AD&D Options and House Rules extension that includes Core 1E and adds/improves on a number of further 1E/OSRIC-like properties and several options for changing things in the 2E ruleset.
I decided to work on backporting some of the stuff from AD&D Options and House Rules (anything that was actual rules-as-written) into Core 1E.
For the last few weeks, I've been working on that.
It ended up opening a can of worms in my thought processes and, as might be obvious, it became apparent that we don't need two extensions that do the same basic thing.
This led me to believe that the Core 1E mod should really focus on 1E or OSRIC as written (RAW), without additional options and that AD&D Options and House Rules should still include Core 1E but offer a number of options in running games with your own house rules (go figure).
There was a lot of thought and decision-making and doubt about whether it was worth it and what-not. I do ultimately think that it is worth it because it gives people the ability to play a fairly faithful vanilla 1E or OSRIC game with the 2E ruleset plus this extension (and only having to set a couple OSRIC-specific options if using OSRIC), which is what I think Core 1E was really intended to do. I don't think that anyone has any intention of further work on Core 1E, except for maybe me, so I ended up thinking that the best use of it was making Core 1E RAW-like while leaving the AD&D House Rules and Options mod for those choices that aren't RAW. To that end, I intended up approaching it as more of a 1E ruleset in extension form.
I could make this a separate extension called something like "AD&D 1E/OSRIC" and put it up in the Forge, but that would result in 3 extensions that at least all partially do the same things. If I do that, though, I would think that very few of the people who are using Core 1E would even know that an actively-developed extension with some really good 1E functionality even exists, as maybe evidenced by the fact that many people are still on Core 1E, when the other extension behaves exactly the same way through the setting of options but adds a lot of benefit to 1E players.
On the other hand, I could make this the new Core 1E extension, but that might break people's games without them knowing that it's doing it.
The other thought I had was making Core 1E throw up a window that lets anyone using it know that it's not being actively developed and that there are other options that they can use, depending on their use case, that have beneficial functionality that should continue to be updated.
Such an approach would leave the Options and House Rules extension as the extension that provides additional options for running a 1E-styled or even 2E-styled game outside of RAW and would continue to include the Core 1E stuff as an option.
All of these considerations led me to make some pretty big changes to the Core 1E extension, which have the potential to break the way somebody is running their game.
In order to avoid breaking anything, I found the options that definitely aren't a part of 1E/OSRIC RAW (and that were set to defaults faithful to those rulesets) and modified their descriptions to indicate that they'd be going away.
Then, not being sure that that would be the best approach, I came up with the idea of pushing an update to Core 1E (as stated above) that pops a window to let anyone using it know that it's being replaced, and to instead use the updated Core 1E extension (which I've considered renaming) or the Options and House Rules extension depending upon how they want to run their game. Doing that would allow me to right away remove the options that I think should be removed given that Core 1E would become RAW only, which I obviously think has several merits. Anyone desiring to run a non-RAW 1E/2E/OSRIC game or to maintain backward compatibility with their current game would then know about the option to migrate from the Core 1E extension to the AD&D Options and House Rules extension.
Anyway, here are the changes I've made to Core 1E that I'm looking for input on. They need a final review, test and cleanup for general consumption but I wanted to try to get some feedback before proceeding...
reset initiative on round start (forced)
group all initiative (forced)
osric initiative swap (option)
assign init based on character who rolled (forced)
remove critical hits (would be forced, noted in option description)
d6 initiative die (forced)
remove pc vs npc init (forced)
encumbrance mandatory (would be forced, noted in option description)
remove armor dp (forced)
remove all initiative mods (forced)
remove all surprise mods (forced)
auto-reset initiative every round (forced)
enable delay only for OSRIC (option), sets delayed actor's init to 7
remove ability checks (would be forced, noted in option description)
remove kits (forced)
make currency weight mandatory (would be forced, noted in option description)
change label of auto npc initiative and switch to on/off only (forced)
remove critical hit/fumble tables (would be forced, noted in option description)
death's door thresholds and associated condition handling, according to AD&D 1E's (2) options or OSRIC
exactly 0 (AD&D)
0 thru -3 (AD&D)
0 thru -9 (OSRIC implied)
unconscious characters brought back to 1 or more hp receive a coma effect and a helpless effect
dead characters brought back to life receive a helpless effect
What are your thoughts on this approach? I definitely don't want to tell anyone how to run their games but I do want to make it easier for people to figure out how to run their games, while maintaining fidelity to the original rules for those people who care about that or don't know the RAW and want to learn.
In the following pictures, anything circled in red in would be the things that would be removed as options (and that I'd simply remove if I don't have to worry about breaking anyone's games), yellow highlight is the change, and blue circles are the new options.
54300
54301
54302
Thanks!
First, the TL;DR - I created a new extension, based on Core 1E that makes 1E and OSRIC games run with many rules-as-written. I intend to continue developing it and I'm thinking that it should replace Core 1E entirely, but it could also just be a third extension for 1E games that I could hopefully find some way to let people know about because there's a lot of advantages to using this instead of Core 1E. Looking for feedback, please. And sorry for the really long, possibly rambling post
As you may or may not know, there are currently 2 extensions that can be useful in running 1E and OSRIC games with the 2E ruleset. There's the Core 1E extension which adds some combat and saving throw matrices and other 1E-like properties, and there's the AD&D Options and House Rules extension that includes Core 1E and adds/improves on a number of further 1E/OSRIC-like properties and several options for changing things in the 2E ruleset.
I decided to work on backporting some of the stuff from AD&D Options and House Rules (anything that was actual rules-as-written) into Core 1E.
For the last few weeks, I've been working on that.
It ended up opening a can of worms in my thought processes and, as might be obvious, it became apparent that we don't need two extensions that do the same basic thing.
This led me to believe that the Core 1E mod should really focus on 1E or OSRIC as written (RAW), without additional options and that AD&D Options and House Rules should still include Core 1E but offer a number of options in running games with your own house rules (go figure).
There was a lot of thought and decision-making and doubt about whether it was worth it and what-not. I do ultimately think that it is worth it because it gives people the ability to play a fairly faithful vanilla 1E or OSRIC game with the 2E ruleset plus this extension (and only having to set a couple OSRIC-specific options if using OSRIC), which is what I think Core 1E was really intended to do. I don't think that anyone has any intention of further work on Core 1E, except for maybe me, so I ended up thinking that the best use of it was making Core 1E RAW-like while leaving the AD&D House Rules and Options mod for those choices that aren't RAW. To that end, I intended up approaching it as more of a 1E ruleset in extension form.
I could make this a separate extension called something like "AD&D 1E/OSRIC" and put it up in the Forge, but that would result in 3 extensions that at least all partially do the same things. If I do that, though, I would think that very few of the people who are using Core 1E would even know that an actively-developed extension with some really good 1E functionality even exists, as maybe evidenced by the fact that many people are still on Core 1E, when the other extension behaves exactly the same way through the setting of options but adds a lot of benefit to 1E players.
On the other hand, I could make this the new Core 1E extension, but that might break people's games without them knowing that it's doing it.
The other thought I had was making Core 1E throw up a window that lets anyone using it know that it's not being actively developed and that there are other options that they can use, depending on their use case, that have beneficial functionality that should continue to be updated.
Such an approach would leave the Options and House Rules extension as the extension that provides additional options for running a 1E-styled or even 2E-styled game outside of RAW and would continue to include the Core 1E stuff as an option.
All of these considerations led me to make some pretty big changes to the Core 1E extension, which have the potential to break the way somebody is running their game.
In order to avoid breaking anything, I found the options that definitely aren't a part of 1E/OSRIC RAW (and that were set to defaults faithful to those rulesets) and modified their descriptions to indicate that they'd be going away.
Then, not being sure that that would be the best approach, I came up with the idea of pushing an update to Core 1E (as stated above) that pops a window to let anyone using it know that it's being replaced, and to instead use the updated Core 1E extension (which I've considered renaming) or the Options and House Rules extension depending upon how they want to run their game. Doing that would allow me to right away remove the options that I think should be removed given that Core 1E would become RAW only, which I obviously think has several merits. Anyone desiring to run a non-RAW 1E/2E/OSRIC game or to maintain backward compatibility with their current game would then know about the option to migrate from the Core 1E extension to the AD&D Options and House Rules extension.
Anyway, here are the changes I've made to Core 1E that I'm looking for input on. They need a final review, test and cleanup for general consumption but I wanted to try to get some feedback before proceeding...
reset initiative on round start (forced)
group all initiative (forced)
osric initiative swap (option)
assign init based on character who rolled (forced)
remove critical hits (would be forced, noted in option description)
d6 initiative die (forced)
remove pc vs npc init (forced)
encumbrance mandatory (would be forced, noted in option description)
remove armor dp (forced)
remove all initiative mods (forced)
remove all surprise mods (forced)
auto-reset initiative every round (forced)
enable delay only for OSRIC (option), sets delayed actor's init to 7
remove ability checks (would be forced, noted in option description)
remove kits (forced)
make currency weight mandatory (would be forced, noted in option description)
change label of auto npc initiative and switch to on/off only (forced)
remove critical hit/fumble tables (would be forced, noted in option description)
death's door thresholds and associated condition handling, according to AD&D 1E's (2) options or OSRIC
exactly 0 (AD&D)
0 thru -3 (AD&D)
0 thru -9 (OSRIC implied)
unconscious characters brought back to 1 or more hp receive a coma effect and a helpless effect
dead characters brought back to life receive a helpless effect
What are your thoughts on this approach? I definitely don't want to tell anyone how to run their games but I do want to make it easier for people to figure out how to run their games, while maintaining fidelity to the original rules for those people who care about that or don't know the RAW and want to learn.
In the following pictures, anything circled in red in would be the things that would be removed as options (and that I'd simply remove if I don't have to worry about breaking anyone's games), yellow highlight is the change, and blue circles are the new options.
54300
54301
54302
Thanks!