OK, so by now you must realize that I am not a fan of the new edition and prefer the older games. This is not to say that I haven’t had fun with the new version. One of the current groups I game in likes the same time period I do (late 1970s sci-fi/fantasy) and we all have similar perceptions of acceptable rules and genre considerations in our RPGs. Our 3.5 games reflect that time period, but still work with the new rules. That aside, I would like to take this post to tell you that you can exist in the present and relive the past. Here’s how you do it.

My favorite time period for D&D is the 1979-1983 period of AD&D 1st edition. Without a doubt one of the most confusing rulesets and yet the most expanded set of rules for simulating a shared reality ever written. Therefore, I want to alter the rules to reflect that time period. Since I have friends who also played under the Unearthed Arcana rules of 1985, I would be willing to use that expanded material as well. Here’s a list of suggested alterations:

1) The ability scores listed in the new rules favor the high side. It would interest some on this blog to know that “4d6 drop the lowest” was the written method for rolling characters in AD&D! 3d6 was the original method in white-box rules and Basic D&D. In any case, I would move to a standard point-build for any character in 1st edition Greyhawk.

2) Races would remain as listed in the Core Rules, but Unearthed Arcana options could be added with minor alterations. Dark elves, gray dwarves, wild elves, valley elves, the sub-races of halflings, and various sub-races of humans in Greyhawk (Suel, Oeridian, Flan, Baklunish, etc.) are all viable. No other monster races should be considered for starting characters, and strict XP penalties (also known as ECL) must be adhered to. Starting all the characters at 0 XP allows the more powerful dark elves and gray dwarves to adventure in a group early, but advance much slower than normal. Their racial benefits dwindle as they lag behind the others in level.

3) Classes listed in the Core Rules remain as is, with the exception of the Sorcerer. This class is broken in a 1st edition style campaign. Use the Bard class for casting arcane spells on the fly. To replace the Sorcerer, add in a modified 20-level base class Assassin and the Knight from Player’s Handbook II as the Cavalier class. A few modifications must be made to a few of the classes. Rangers have an alignment requirement of “Any good” just as assassins have “Any evil.” Knights must be upper class members of society or else they can only take the Cavalier prestige class (Complete Warrior) when they qualify. Either determine class and station by random roll, or the DM will decide if such is allowed at the start of the game. Dwarves should suffer a -20% XP penalty to any arcane spellcasting classes they select simply due to their anti-magical nature. And the gnome Favored Class reverts back to “Illusionist.” Call me a stickler, but I saw no reason to change. The Psion class can be added into the mix as well - but not everyone liked psionics in their games. I have no problem with it, as long as the truly psionic creatures from the monster manual are changed to reflect this nature. Also, make sure that psionics is it’s own system to make such opponents as fearsome as they should be.

4) Equipment can remain unchanged. The original Unearthed Arcana and the Player’s Handbook 3.5 differ very little as far as selection goes. I would eliminate some of the more bizarre exotic weapons however.

5) Spells can be left as is and still work just fine. Magic items are also left as is.

6) Skills and Feats are a purely 3.5 addition to the game. Removing them completely hurts several classes, so these must remain as is. I would limit characters to selecting ”background” feats at 1st level, and limit that further by adding the concept of regions to the Greyhawk map. There’s no reason for a character to suddenly develop Stealthy as a feat when he/she never was before….. The rest of the feats are either combat or magic oriented, so these can remain as is. Skills such as Knowledge and Profession must really be nailed down to a region or specific category before using. DRAGON Magazine had Greyhawk divided into regions for the purpose of feat selections and special bonuses.

7) Some of the feats or spells must be returned to 3.0 versions to become useful again. I do not share the opinion that spellcasters of the arcane persuasion are over-powered. In fact, they are the first to fall in any campaign I have ever played in. By removing the broken sorcerer class, wizards suffer enough of a penalty with poor AC, hp, and weapon selections. Fighters and other classes don’t suffer a chance to botch their attack from a readied action like spellcasters have (although that would be a novel idea). To make their spells work better, I suggest restoring Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus to their previous values for spell DC (+2 and +4 respectively). CR and HD are not on the same scale, yet saves are tied only to HD. Therefore, a wizard going against a creature of his appropriate CR will fail to affect a creature almost 75% of the time (since CR is almost always lower than HD). So many other restrictions for targets, areas of effect, and spell resistance exist that most of the spells are neutered as a result. To restore wizards to their glory, you might want to institute randomly rolling spell save DCs instead of using the 10 + spell level + Int mod opposed by the saving throw roll.

8) Too often, DMs neglect treasure in a campaign. I’ve been guilty of doing this as well. You become so focused on the adventure story, character motivations, and monster interactions that you forget that treasure has been an integral part of the game. 1st edition games were brimming with treasure of the common sort. Return to the glory of 1st edition and stock those pockets and chests with a plethora of wealth. The players will thank you when they look to make magic items or buy masterwork quality items. On the other hand, be stingy with magic items. Make them work for those magic weapons and armor. Finding a wand of burning hands should be a big deal at lower levels. Potions and scrolls should always be the most common magic items since they have the least requirements to make (exactly as it was in 1st edition). DMs might also consider giving out treasure maps for campaign hooks - such were common in older campaigns.

9) 1st edition games were all about the dungeon. They did this right in 3.0, but 3.5 got a little too involved in the outdoor campaigns and extraplanar menaces again. Those are higher level arenas of combat and should not be used for characters under 4th level, unless you are mean. Some parties never get out of the dungeon and spend their entire careers in one area. Dungeons are not necessary for 1st edition campaigns, but definitely express the feel of the earlier versions.

10) In order for any campaign-specific world to exist as a separate entity from all others, you have to include unique elements. Forgotten Realms did this very early on and reaped the success of such differentiation. Greyhawk suffered because the DM was supposed to use the info as a basis to make his or her own unique world. However, a few campaign-specific concepts grew from the World of Greyhawk Boxed set. The Scarlet Brotherhood, an organization of Lawful Evil monks, assassins, and wizards determined to control the world from the shadows, emerged as a major group. The humanoid forces of Iuz to the north continued to menace the population. I suggest adding Iuz back into the mix (believe it or not they replaced him with Vecna in 3.0!). All campaigns need a super-powerful menace to pull strings in the background without actually facing the characters. It gives purpose to the lesser villains and hero organizations such as the Knights of Holy Shielding, the Knights of the Hart, or Council of Eight. Most of the “named” wizard spells listed in the Player’s Handbook were derived from the spellbooks of the Council of Eight - Mordenkainen, Tenser, Otto, Bigby, etc. Encouraging player’s to develop their own spells and name them for their characters is a good way to introduce new magic from other sourcebooks to the campaign. These spells could be taken from other campaign settings and altered to suit Greyhawk.

All of these changes are fairly easy to implement with little danger to the system. I’ve also contemplated changing elves and gnomes to Fey instead of humanoids. That might be too drastic a change, but fits their immunities, demeanors, and magical abilities. Of course, all of this is theoretical and has not been tested in practice. In order to alter a campaign to the white-box version or Basic D&D requires removing Core Classes and Races from the Player’s Handbook; too drastic a step in my opinion. Still, there is some eloquence in playing a four-class system (Cleric, Fighter, Wizard, and Rogue) and a four-race system (Human, Dwarf, Elf, and Halfling). Maybe some other time I’ll work up a conversion for the Known World of Basic D&D. Next time I’ll post my homebrew conversion of the Assassin class as a D&D 3.5 20-level class.