Legend4ry D&D, or How I tried to Reinvent the Wheel

It's exactly as it sounds in the title. I reached too far and tried to reinvent the wheel that was 4e with an old-school flavor when there really wasn't a need. When I first posted the Legend4ry D&D Basic Rules here I was never really pleased with them. The first pdf was a learning experience and I got a lot of good feedback, the second was definitely a refinement, but one I've not really talked about or touched on in months. There was just something missing about it.

What is "old-school?" To me it's simple: massive dungeons; wandering monsters; fast, furious, and deadly combats; puzzles; and more. 

The old-school games are also simple and not bogged down with too many rules. When I put out both versions of the Legend4ry Basic Rules, they were just the opposite, they were bogged down with rules and exclusions and this and that. I think I can do better, I think I can make this simpler. 

You see, I had been pretty forthcoming about not having play-tested a lot of these ideas, but that they seemed to make sense logically and fit the goal I was going for. Many people suggested just playing OD&D or AD&D or any of the OSR retro clones, but I wouldn't have it. You see, I love 4th edition. I think it's a fantastic system that offers me mostly everything I want. I just wanted it to be a little more deadly. Let's face it, characters in 4e can be pretty hard to kill even when/if you try. I wanted to keep the mechanics but bring in that old dungeon delving feel. Character death would happen, fear would be culminated, players would be stressed debating the merits of resting or continuing, but all-in-all everyone would have a blast. And then I finally found it.

Awhile back I had posted about my conversion of an OSR "mini-mega-dungeon" called Dyson's Delve. The Delve itself stretches over 11 levels and is originally meant for a party of levels 1 to 6. Seeing as I am an avid proponent of Heroic Tier only play, this seemed perfect. And it was. I ran my conversion for the first time on Saturday (and then again on Tuesday) and it was amazing. Hand-made character sheets. Fear. Fast combat. Legitimate threat of character death. It was everything I wanted and the players ate it up. They had begun to feel complacent and had gotten lazy with expected Short Rests and safe Extended Rests and this shook things up. Combats took, on average, 2-3 rounds. Battles were hard-fought and hard-won. This was it!

But as great as all of this was, it got me thinking. I had tried so hard to bring the old school with complex rules changes and other methods but it wasn't necessary. We ran this as a pretty rules as written adventure with some minor changes and it was everything we wanted. The Legend4ry Basic Rules pdfs are great, sure, but there were never right. It was an experience to do them, but I've since learned from my mistakes and was able to really figure out what I wanted. And here it is:

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Sources:

Heroes of the Fallen Lands, Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms, Heroes of Shadow, subsequent Dragon Magazine articles that expand upon the sub-classes featured in the above sources.

Hirelings are also available to parties as per the rules listed in Dragon Magazine 397 and Modenkeinen's Magnificent Emporium starting on page 136.

Monsters:

Nightmare Damage variant, 1/2 Monster HP, Wandering Monster lists, Savage Monsters

Due to Monster HP being 1/2 the Encounter Budget can be adjusted accordingly, add a few levels on to what you would normally run. Example: A level 1 party of 4 against a level 4 or 5 encounter.

Re-introduce to 4e concepts like Ability Score and Level Drain, as well as similar "save versus death" mechanics.

Dungeons:

Dungeon Delves with huge open maps, Wandering Monster lists

Gear:
As listed in the above sources. Low-magic setting, potentially with Inherent Bonuses. Unique magic items that ignore the AEDU item design philosophy and instead do something perpetually with a risk versus reward mindset.

Basic Rules:
Heroic Tier play only. Short Rest variant that splits the rest into two categories and marries nicely with a Wandering Monster table. My Extended Rest variant that also brings fear to resting but with the potential for reward by way of healing and regaining of powers.

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I really feel foolish for trying to change so much in the past, but at the same time it proved to be a good learning ground on hacking 4e and doing too much to the point where it bogged the system down. It was a great learning experience and I now know without a doubt what I was going for in my OD&D-inspired 4e play.

You can find the pdf here or in the upper right hand corner of the blog. There are some minor changes to the rules linked above with some clarification to what my variants actually mean. While the blog post serves as a good indicator for flavor and direction, the pdf is much more concise.

Also be sure to keep an eye out for level 2 of my 4e Dyson's Delve conversion (which I got to run on Tuesday,) as well as some more magic items including a Vorpal Greatsword and a Flaming Broadsword.

Until next time,

-blob

You can follow me on Twitter @Sorcerer_Blob or via the hash-tag #legend4ry. You can also find my blog and others at the Fourthcore Hub and at the RPG Blog Alliance.