OSR I never should have picked up Old School Essentials…

Mannahnin said:

I can understand the desire to update the Cleric spell table. My favorite house rule for Thief skills is just to make all skills except Climb Walls use the Hear Noise d6 chance. Except Climb Walls; start that as 5/6, and every time it advances I keep a 1 in x chance of failing, but increase the die size.

Click to expand...

bmfrosty said:

Quite honestly the thing I like most from modern D&D is that it's core mechanic is simply to roll a d20 (could use any die, but the other math changes) and try and hit a target number. I think some retroclone changed the saves to all be DC20 with a bonus equal to 20 - the B/X save value. It wouldn't be too hard to make all the thief skill d6 or d100 or d20 with a DC target either.

Click to expand...

Mannahnin said:

Oh yes, folks have done that too. 1/6 roughly equates to 3 in 20 (a bit closer than it does to 4 in 20). So, for example, you can call a 1/6 ability an 18 or better on a d20. I know some folks have done full charts. I don't have one handy but I'm sure I saw one last week.

The Thief % skills have percentages that aren't all multiples of 5, but it's hardly a big impact to round them off to the nearest 5 and just convert direction to d20 target numbers.

Level 1 B/X Thief has 87% Climb, 10% Find/Remove Traps, 10% Hide in Shadows, 20% Move Silently, 15% Open Locks, 20% Pick Pockets.

D20 equivalent values: 3+ Climb, 19+ Find/Remove, 19+ Hide, 17+ Move Silent, 18+ Open Locks, 17+ Pick Pockets. And the 1-2 Hear Noise can be 13+.

Of course, the side benefit of just switching them all (except Climb) to the Hear Noise chance, for me, is bumping up their odds while I'm at it so they're not so crappy at their jobs.

Click to expand...

Cruentus said:

In Carcass Crawler Magazine #1, I think, for OSE, they have an optional d6 thief ability system outlined. Basically, your thief starts at a 1 in 6 chance to do each thief skill. You then add a number of 1 in 6 chances at first level to whatever skill you choose, then gain additional 1 in 6 chances each level. It does two things: moves the mechanic to d6, similar to hear noise, etc. (if you want that), and allows the thief to specialize. Want to have a 5 in 6 to move silently at first level? You can do that by putting all your starting points there.

I use that system in my OSE games. Its much simpler to use and remember for us.

Click to expand...