OD&D HD and HP Replacement Rules Inspired by Boot Hill
Inspired by Boot Hill and Violence
Warning THIS IS AN UNTESTED IDEA! It might be bad. It seems fine.
Purpose of this weird rule
Make taking a hit a bit scarier and simpler to reduce willingness to enter fair combat + speed up combat.
Notes
Inspired by the Boot Hill and the Fear of Dice blog post and also a bit by Violence. I don’t know if this is a good idea. Seems fun. Maybe I’ll try it. Someone told me this was similar to Chainmail, so I had a look and made some adjustments. Now it’s a bit closer to Chainmail.
HD and HP Replacement Rules
Don’t roll HD. Every HD is now worth 1 HP.
To attack an enemy, roll 1d6. If you have +1 to-hit, roll 1d8. If you have +2 to hit, roll 1d10.
| Dice | Hits AC equal to |
|---|---|
| 2 | Unarmored -1 |
| 3 | Unarmored |
| 4 | Leather |
| 5 | Chain |
| 6 | Plate |
| 7 | Plate+1 |
| 8 | Plate+2 |
| 9 | Plate+2 |
| 10 | Plate+3 |
A hit removes 1 HP from the victim.
Optional rule (which will be the default if porting this system to B/X): Fighters gain an attack dice at levels 4, 7, 10, and 13.
Probabilities
Chance of a low-level character hitting a giant snake
- OD&D: 14-in-20. This is a 35% chance.
- my system: 5-in-6. 33% chance to hit each turn.
Hits needed to kill a giant snake
- OD&D: It has 6-36hp. If it has 6 hp, it will die in about 2 hits. If it has 36hp, it will die in about 12 hits. On average, it will have 21 hp and die in 7 hits.
- My system: it will die in 6 hits (when rolling the default d6 to attack). No variation.
Result:
- A Giant snake that begins with full HP in OD&D will die twice as fast in my system.
- If it starts with average HP (21HP) it will take one more hit to kill on average in OD&D than in my system.
- If it starts with minimum HP (6hp), it will die much sooner in OD&D than in my system.
Pros
On average, the giant snake needs 1 fewer hits to die. A 1 hd enemy always requires 1 hit to die in my system. In OD&D, most 1hd enemies will die in 1 hit, but some won’t.
Cons
This removes the chance of a 1HD PC surviving an attack and getting their act together. Am I removing tension, release, and excitement? Am I removing at least some of the perceived uncertainty in an encounter with 1 HD monsters?
Conclusions
This only slightly accomplishing my goal of speeding up combat and making fair combat more risky. Am I close? How can we improve this? TALK TO ME.