Bare Bones

I often find myself creating the same OSR basic rules for myself. I always start with character creation and get lost in classes or spells. So I made this bare bones version as a start; this will be a comentary.

you need Pen, Paper, Dice (d4, d6, d8, d12, d20)

roll 3d6 for the five attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Charisma). See the table for modifiers:

 

3-5         -2

6-8         -1        
9-11      +0    

12-14    +1   
15-17    +2   
18         +3  

 

add the modifier to:

Str: melee hit, melee damage

Dex: range hit, Defense (base is 10)

Con: poison resist, Blood (base is 6)

Int: magic

Cha: reaction

to hit: roll d20 add modifier
damage: roll weapon damage

 

I am a firm believer in the analoge nature of pen & paper games. I'm still trying to figure out which pen and paper are the best for me: pencil and index cards? Gel ink pen and printer paper?

I came to the realization that I don't like the d10. It feels out of place not being a platonic solid and the d20 makes a fine d10 as a crutch. The small dice are perfect for weapon damages, but I have yet to find a good use for the d12. I use it as a DM die for most of my random tables are d12 tables.

I do like the original 3d6 down the line methode of generating stats, but I do use a different modifier table. It is shorter and skews upwards. It was developed after countless trys. To me it just feels right: 

-3 modifiers aren't particularly fun. A 12 feels like it should give a +1. And a 15 should give a +2.

 

I only use five attibutes, because I think wisdom and intelligence where only ever seperate to distinglish divine clerical magic from the arcane magic. I simply don't care and would use charisma as a second magical stat if I added divine magic.

 

As secondary stats I use Defense instead of Armor Class and Blood instead of Hit Points. I find these much better. Armor should reduce the damage I take and if I get hit I lose blood not points. 

I also don't roll for blood on the first level, since I have the nasty habit of killing one character every first session and it has become quite lame. So I decided 6 blood sounds perfectly reasonable for a normal first level character, the Con modifier does the rest.

The poison resist is listed because I always want to use more poisons and drugs in my games, since I enjoy them a lot in Shadowrun and CY_BORG.