OED Update (v0.8)

Getting ready for some D&D games at HelgaCon 2011 this weekend, I went and updated my Original Edition Delta house rules (now version 0.8). Some refinements, edits, and clarifications. Folded in some miscellaneous house rules, and also the fighter Feats that I use. Added some tables to make some things clearer.

See the mini-website here. Or get the PDF directly here (5 pages). Or see the updated player-aid card here.

One thing that rather surprised me as I did my editing process was the rule for archery that I decided to use (based on prior blogs discussing things like indoor missile ballistics and archery range penalties). What I decided to run with was this:

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Bows: Bows can be fired every round; slings and crossbows take one round to reload between shots. Underground, missile weapons all have an effective range of 30" (assume 10' ceiling). Attacks are −10 to hit at medium range (over 1/3; 50') and −20 to hit at long range (over 2/3; 100'). Note: Thieves can only use a sling or light crossbow.

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In the past I didn't think I'd use that option (from the indoor ballistics article), but as I did my pass-through tonight it seemed really elegant and attractive. It's short. It's accurate to the physics (at a 1"=5 ft scale). It's trivial to remember (one number for all missile weapons indoors). It gets rid of one of the tables you'd otherwise need. It's easy to divide into range increments (10/20/30 inches). It's simple to eyeball on a 10'-scale-map (50/100/150 feet). Coincidentally, the penalties are actually the same as the range increments: -10 at 10"; -20 at 20" (which then suggests the idea that you might just apply a -1 per 1" penalty; although it really shouldn't be linear like that, maybe it's close enough).

So that seems like a lot of reasons pulling for it. We'll see how the players respond to it this weekend (or if they even notice a difference). More to come...