Old-School D&D style game

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by soulnafein

Hello there,

A local Old School RPG group found itself without a d&d GM. They generally play D&D and/or traveller.
I've suggested that I'm happy to run a few old-school dungeons using GURPS.

As I recently found out, Dungeon Fantasy does "old school" Dungeons and Dragons better than Dungeons and Dragons. I think you'll think the same after a few sessions.

Originally Posted by soulnafein

1) 250 points characters are complex for beginners

Not really. While you can't put a DnD level to GURPS points, the templates as listed are probably between 5th and 7th level. When I GMed D&D I rarely started characters below 4 levels and I only remember two GMs who started at level one in nearly 25 years of gaming. That said the "leveling up" dynamic for GURPS is so radically different from D&D that players might actually become frustrated if you start them off at "low level" and use the guidelines for normal advancement (GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 3: The Next Level, p. 42).

Originally Posted by soulnafein

2) Old school 1st level characters aren't that complex

No, but they really aren't that much fun either. It's incredibly annoying to play a 1d4 HP mage and die requring you to create a new character. That said, check out GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 15: Henchmen for lower value characters.

Originally Posted by soulnafein

1) Progression (what's a good progression rate for such a game?

To keep it similiar to D&D I'd offer up at least twice what is listed in DF3 so you can "level up" every session.

Originally Posted by soulnafein

2) Adventure: can you suggest an old published D&D adventure that doesn't involve too many different type of creatures (lots of conversion work) and that they would enjoy?

I always liked Expedition to the Barrier Peaks myself, but Against the Cult of the Reptile God might work better if you use lower-point value characters.

Originally Posted by soulnafein

3) Anything else I should think about and I'm not?

I have a ton of worked up critters on my blog which might prove helpful.

[soulnafein]

Thank you for the quick a useful answers.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

As I recently found out, Dungeon Fantasy does "old school" Dungeons and Dragons better than Dungeons and Dragons. I think you'll think the same after a few sessions. [snip]

+1. I wasn't all that keen on D&D before my GURPS group ran our dungeon tribute game for Gary Gygax seven years ago, and now I use (some variation on) GURPS DF templates and rules for probably half of the games I run, including my current one, because it's such an effective way to ease people into high-powered violent fantasy, even if they're a little iffy on the rules.

ETA: Obligatory link to Mailanka's excellent Homebrew Monster thread.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

+1. I wasn't all that keen on D&D before my GURPS group ran our dungeon tribute game for Gary Gygax seven years ago, and now I use (some variation on) GURPS DF templates and rules for probably half of the games I run, including my current one, because it's such an effective way to ease people into high-powered violent fantasy, even if they're a little iffy on the rules.

ETA: Obligatory link to Mailanka's excellent Homebrew Monster thread.

I was a huge fan of D&D. Huge. It was my first RPG and it has a special place in my heart. I was in the RPGA and ran Raven's Bluff living campaigns so long...well - it was a long time. I stopped playing D&D when WoTC said "we're doing a new edition" not even a year after I swallowed the need for 3.5. I just quit. Never looked back. My players pretty much did the same. We were over it. Went fully to GURPS. But being able to capture the feel of tunnel-crawling with GURPS didn't occur to us until I demoed it for my local FLGS. They were hooked. Of course, I run DF like I used to run D&D - far more serious than "leveling up." I like to think of it as using Dungeon Fantasy as framework for running "high fantasy." It works quite well and I fully intend to write some on that specific subject since nearly all the other folks who run DF seem to do something very similiar.

[David Johansen]

I was working on a GURPS Lite supplement a couple years ago that was a stripped down action fantasy.

Really, you can do it pretty well with just GURPS Lite and the magic rules from the Basic Set. The trick is avoiding advantage and skill bloat.

Characters should look like this:

Fighter 150 points
ST 15 [50];
DX 13 [60];
IQ 10 [0];
HT 13 [30].

Advantages:
Combat Reflexes [15];
Comfortable Wealth [10].

Disadvantages:
Code of Honor (Soldier's) [-10];
Enemy (Orc Champion) [-10];
Over Confidence [-10].

Skills
Axe / Mace 12 [1];
Brawling 14 [2];
Climbing 12 [1];
Broad Sword 14 [4];
Riding 13 [2];
Shield 14 [2];
Spear 12 [1];
Spear Throwing 13 [1];
Swimming 13 [1].

[simply Nathan]

You can easily simplify from the DF baseline by making a few alterations to the templates too. Forbid options other than the Knight, Swashbuckler, Wizard, and Cleric for pure oldschoolness and make True Faith w/ Turning mandatory on the Cleric template instead of the usual chunk of character points to choose from various Holy abilities. Or go with the Henchmen that turn into those classes (Squire, Skirmisher, Initiate, and the like).

If you want the oldschool races, the list is pretty simple:
One of the lists chosen from

• Humans only
• Human, Dwarf, High Elf, Halfling
• Human, Dwarf, High Elf, Forest Elf, Half-Elf, Halfling, Half-Orc, Gnome