Old School Thief Variant - Adventurer, Ranger, Rogue.

There comes a time in all our lives when we have to 'fix' the Old School Thief.

Considering they're part of the core text of D&D, they needed a lot of modding.

Description: Thief, adventurer, ranger, rogue, ruffian, swashbuckler, scoundrel, hero.

Whatever they call you, your traditional ancestors are still Cugel and the Grey Mouser. But roll high STR/ CON and you're also Conan or Fafhrd without having to multiclass or otherwise bend/break the rules.

You might want this kind of Thief to specify if they're more inclined to the rural, the urban or the dungeon environment, and tweak their abilities accordingly.

XP, Saving Throws, & Attacks: All as Thief.

Hit Dice: Depending on the base system, you start with 2d4 or 2d6 hit points, but gain only 1d4 or 1d6 per level as normal thereafter.

Prime Requisite: Dexterity.

Armour: Any, but as Thief only when you want to do Thief stuff.

Weapons: Any, but you prefer the lighter/smaller hand weapons for special ability reasons.

Alignment Restrictions: None, unless that's important for in your setting/system.

Special Abilities.

Thief Skills: Everything a Thief can normally do, but agree which of either Hear Noise probabilities or boosted percentiles you use before play begins.

If you have a CHA, INT or WIS bonus (highest applies), you can start casting from scrolls that many levels earlier but chances of failure do not change until your levels catch up.

Snipe: You can Backstab using a missile weapon if this is not already allowed.

Dual Wield: When fighting with two weapons, you get +1 to Hit or AC. This also applies to unarmed strikes. You cannot Dual Wield while performing a Backstab.

Choose which bonus to use at the beginning of each combat round, before you roll any dice. 

If you hit, use the higher rolled damage or choose which weapon inflicted the wound (for magic and poisoned weapons, for example)

If you have 18 STR, you can wield a max. d8 and d6 weapon simultaneously; STR 15, 16 or 17, a max. d8 and d4 or d6 and d6; all other STR scores, the max. is d6 and d4.

(This presumes you don't already have Dual Wielding going on anyway)

Cleave: If Fighters get extra attacks vs. <1HD opponents, so do you but only when Dual Wielding.

Surprise: If you are alone or with no more than three other Thieves in leather or no armour, your first surprise attacks count as Backstabs.

Simple Aging For Old School.

Robin and Marian (1976).

It's a bit of a shower thought, but:

Mechanics from recent posts about the hazards of Outer Space and arctic conditions could also be applied to Aging.

Instead of age bands and multiple modifiers (as in D&D, for example), why not just rule that when a player character is significantly 'older' or 'elderly':

• they must rest twice as often and/or twice as long
• rates of natural healing are halved
• optional: saves vs. disease at disadvantage/penalty

This hasn't been tested, but in principle I prefer it to unsoakable permanent Ability Score damage and penalising attack rolls.

Some of this came from mechanics; some from surveying my own decrepit corpus.

d66/d36 Introductions for Replacement Adventurers

Guess what? You went on an adventure and you got killed. Hand in your character sheet and shed a tear.

But you don't have to stop playing. 

Either get yourself raised from the dead, or roll 2d6/d66 to see how a new character can be introduced mid-session, seamlessly or with a great thump of deus ex machina. 

There's no particular reason why the surviving adventurers would hand over their late comrade's equipment for you to use, so maybe roll on some other tables to kit yourself out.

This leans into the old school dungeon adventure type of game, but is system agnostic and should easily adapt to other settings and systems. These are narrative prompts to get you going when you don't have the luxury or will to research, hone and carefully edit a 30-page backstory.

1. Roll d6:
1. Solo Adventurer. A Solo Adventurer (sword, leather armour, backpack, rations, 1 potion, 3 random not necessarily useful/not necessarily useless items) approaches the party after the fatality.
2. Survivor. The party stumble on the aftermath of what looks like mutually assured destruction, but someone was knocked out and hidden under the blood and bodies. You're in need of some healing, but otherwise functional.
3. Bounty Hunter. Roll d3: 1. Hunting one of the party members, 2. Hunting the dead character, 3. Hunting an NPC in the dungeon.
4. Assassin. Roll d3: 1. Contracted to kill a party member, 2. Contracted to kill the dead character, 3. Contracted by an NPC in the dungeon (odds/evens, on their way to/from receiving orders/collection payment)
5. Messenger. Roll d3: 1. Delivering a message to the party, 2. Delivering a message to an NPC in the dungeon, 3. Bringing a ransom for a prisoner in the dungeon.
6. Spider Victim. Caught in a web or wrapped up in silk. Spider(s) present, 1 on d6.; Spider(s) nearby on a 2.
2. Roll d6:
1. Ghoul Victim. You're paralysed, but it will wear off in a few rounds. The Ghouls themselves have been driven off or are waiting in ambush (odds/evens).
2. Swallowed Whole. You're either in the next appropriate monster (vomited up, shat out or cut from belly during the battle) or the beast is already dead and you struggle free as the party arrive.
3. Prisoner. Locked or tied up in the nearest appropriate location. If a rogue-type, you may already have escaped.
4. Sacrifice. If you're not being dragged to the altar/ edge of the pit, you're either a prisoner or being prepared (odds/evens, you're drugged, hypnotised or otherwise subdued).
5. Black Ichor Addict. A twitchy, hollow-eyed, compulsive dungeoneer.
6. Amnesiac. Not necessarily equipped to have made it this far. Baffled, but you know your name and adventurer type. 
3. Roll d6:
1. Sleeping Beauty. Roll d3: 1. A sleep spell is expiring, 2. Can be woken with a kiss, 3. Naked and looted, your last memory is setting off a gas trap at a dead-end.
2. Friendly Doppelganger. "Their life's work was not done - I shall take their form and make sure this death is not for nothing."
3. Unfriendly Doppelganger. "No, I wasn't really dead - you just left me behind."
4. You were the Doppelganger. "Thank goodness, my evil twin has been slain and I can take my life back."
5. Activated Clone. You arrive on the scene with a convenient gap in your memory and a debt of 24,000 standard wealth units + 100 per Ability Score point (or adjust to reflect cloning procedures in your campaign/setting), but you're otherwise the same character.
6. Vengeful Revenant. Doesn't have to be the dead character. Dies a true death when avenged.
4. Roll d6:
1. Stone-to-Flesh. You transform as the party happen by. You may be from the distant past if you were petrified by magic or monster. If you were originally a statue, you will either be like the sculptor's subject (which might be a famous historical figure, allegory or deity) or an amnesiac. Or you could be a Living Statue.
2. Lovecraftian Resurrection. Someone said the right words and you have risen from your essential saltes. You are vulnerable to effects which can reverse this and blast you back to dust.
3. Mercenary/ Hireling. You were part of another adventuring party, but they couldn't pay/cheated you out of your share. It's possible you are just lost.
4. Treasure Hunter. You know the whereabouts in the dungeon of a significant hoard or object, and see the wisdom in teaming up.
5. Pilgrim. You are visiting the sacred sites. It's possible you are lost.
6. Sent by Fate. A righteous quest, the needs of cosmic balance or a karmic debt have driven you to seek out the party and fight alongside them.
5. Roll d6:
1. Vampire Victim. You are free of the Vampire's clutches now. Or are you? Obviously.
2. On the Run/ In Hiding
3. Berserker. When the red-mist cleared, here you were.
4. Summoned Monster. Plucked out of time and space by a spell, you completed your task and find yourself stuck here rather than back there.
5. Trapped by Lava. You seem to have got yourself stuck on the wrong side of the lava and would be ever so grateful for some help.
6. Trapped by Monster. "Such good luck that you turned up when you did - LOOK OUT!"
6. Roll d6:
1. Binding Circle. You were trying to keep something out or something was trying to keep you in. In any case, someone else needs to break the circle to set you free.
2. Forlorn Encystment. Your sentence is over and the enchantment wears off - you are unceremoniously expelled from the earth, and you don't remember a dungeon being here. Your sorcerous incarcerator could be long dead by now.
3. Monster Hunter. You're after a specific monster (or type of monster) found in the dungeon. You know its habits and weaknesses, but it turned out to be more than you can manage on your own.
4. Sorcerer's Apprentice. Someone has to collect the rare, raw leavings of the dungeon denizens so some tower-wizard can do their experiments. You're that someone, you're not necessarily magically gifted or even interested.
5. Outcast. You have been rejected, hounded out of the mainstream, and you walk the liminal spaces of the world, seeking solitude or rare companionship.
6. Doom Seeker. You can be found in the dark and dangerous places seeking the deadliest monsters and/or the most destructive artefacts - you fully intend to die trying.

Three d66/d18 Starting Equipment Tables

I like an equipment list - they can often tell you something about the setting, maybe author intentions/ obsessions, too.

For instance, I like how Tunnels & Trolls (5e, UK Corgi Edition) has Warm dry clothing & pack (5 gp) at the top of the list, implying that a) you start out naked (not disabused of this notion by the Josh Kirby illustrations) and b) that you're going to end up cold, wet, naked and separated from your goods with some frequency.

Here's a d66/d18 table of kits for new adventurers, suggested by this Prior Experience table, so you can roll or just take the equivalent result.

d66	Result
11,12	Good boots; sword; dagger; leather jack; change of clothes; rations; wineskin.
13,14	Change of clothes; good boots; dagger; poison; medicinal herbs; light crossbow; dark lantern.
15,16	Mail shirt; soldier’s coat; medicinal herbs; two-handed weapon; dagger; hand axe; heavy crossbow; trapper’s tools.
21,22	Soldier’s coat; helmet; sword; mancatcher or spear; cudgel; dagger; letter of authority/ discharge papers.
23,24	Leather jack; good boots; wineskin; rations; medicinal herbs; cudgel.
25,26	Wineskin (empty)/ drug paraphernalia; just one last hit/ drink; roll again and take one item from result (choose or randomise).
31,32	Coil of rope; hammer and pitons; bullseye lantern; flask of oil; squeezing grease; healing draught; chalk (sticks & powdered); charcoal and parchment; flask of brandy.
33,34	Fancy clothes; change of clothes; dagger; cards/ dice; fake letter of credit; fake letter of introduction.
35,36	Pick & shovel; pry bar; dark lantern; hammer & wedges; coil of rope; leather jack.
41,42	Healing salve x 3; healing draught x 3; bandages; herball (book); wineskin; flask of brandy; basic surgical tools.
43,44	Soldier’s coat; whip; sword; pistol; medicinal herbs; map; notebook & pencils; torches x 3.
45,46	Fine clothes; change of clothes; letters of introduction; dagger; sword; letters of credit.
51,52	Mask; bell; concealing robes; begging bowl.
53,54	Leather jack; sword; dagger; rations; wineskin; pistol; concealing robes.
55,56	Medicinal herbs; drug paraphernalia; flask of brandy; holy symbol; dark lantern; thieves’ tools; notebook & pencils.
61,62	Holy symbol; ceremonial vestments; holy book/ pocket liturgy.
63,64	Change of clothes; livery of noble house; dagger; shaving/ beauty kit; letter of introduction.
65,66	Dagger; cudgel; thieves’ tools; leather jack.

Even without specialist gear, every new adventurer should probably get to start out with: staff/ cudgel, knife, tinderbox/ fire-starter, travelling clothes, rain cape, backpack, belt pouch/ wallet/ purse, a few coins*.

*J.H.Brennan's paperback rpg Monster Horrorshow had a rule that what you sat down at the table with was translated into the game. So, any change becomes copper, silver or gold pieces (regardless of value).

Brennan said paper money became bits of paper, but why not make them promissory notes or debts you can call in? Go further - bank and credit cards become debts the character owes. If you don't want to share balances and limits, just say 500 for a bank card and d3x1000 for a credit card.

It works better when the players don't know this. 

I used the following table (new adventurers get d3 rolls) to equip pre-gens for the first game I ran in 20+ years. 

These are meant to have directly applicable adventuring uses. If a player needs/wants it, animals get plot armour vs. death but the player can't mechanically take advantage of that, which also means they don't take part in combat except abstracted as part of the PC's actions and rolls.

d66	Result
11,12	Alpenstock: see Weapons table below. You don't think of it as anything other than a mountaineering tool.
13,14	Lock picking tools: you could persuade people they’re just for tinkering.
15,16	Trained Bird: comes with cage & drape or gauntlet & hood, depending on whether it’s a hunting or singing bird; you need to feed it.
21,22	Hound: well-trained, obedient, with a spiked collar, but not devoted to you; comes with leash, harness and muzzle; you need to feed it.
23,24	Leather Jack & Helmet: in case of ruffians.
25,26	Decoctions of Medicinal Herbs: you know what you’ve got and what it does (3 types).
31,32	Mule with Panniers: it’s on its last legs, but should make it there and back again; you need to feed it.
33,34	Dice, Cards, Board & Pieces: games of chance and strategy, rigged or otherwise. Could include a full, incomplete or homemade set of The Game of Dungeon or The Game of Vampire.
35,36	Pick Axe, Shovel & Crowbar: for prospecting, and for breaking into tombs.
41,42	Leech’s Kit: all the cutting, prodding and tying bits for ‘healing’; jar of leeches, too. For the keen amateur and semi-professional.
43,44	Silk rope & grappling hook: 50’, light and strong, plus an improvised weapon.
45,46	Horse and Saddle: great wits wherever you go offer to buy your saddle and take the horse off your hands as a favour; you need to feed it.
51,52	Lantern and Oil: enough for the next adventure.
53,54	Telescope, Sextant, Compass & Signalling Mirror: for some reason, local authorities confiscated your star charts.
55,56	Novelty Vampire Hunter’s Kit: garlic, wolfsbane, bullet mould, wooden stake x 3, piton hammer, small silver mirror, holy symbol, miniature prayer book.
61,62	Training Sword & Buckler: martial practice kit, but you’ve sharpened the blade so it cuts well enough.
63,64	Antique Breastplate & Helmet: just like modern stuff, but old and unfashionable. Might actually be worth something, but has definitely seen action in the past.
65,66	Turnip Watch* & Barometer: also, notebooks and writing kit to take down your observations.

* Because it came up when we played, a Turnip Watch is a big old-fashioned pocket watch not a magical vegetable. I ruled it would be enough to bash someone's head in with, maybe even a Wight if it was silver-plated.

80s UK rpg Dragonroar prices Leather Armour at 10 Crowns, Chainmail 50-150 and Plate Armour 300-6,000! Despite the range, the cost makes no mechanical difference to the armour.

Characters start off with the standard 3d6x10 and loot/rewards tend to be lower than in (say) D&D. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that at least one of the designers didn't like how easy it was to get plated up in other games. 

Which is one way to try and enforce a low armour game.

This table of weapons complements the adventuring gear above, with some opportunity for doubling up. I liked the idea you might be carrying an ancient sword around, but you might not use it - because you've got guns, or bodyguards, or you're not planning on getting into that kind of trouble. 

d66	Result
11,12	Brandistock: stout cudgel from which you can shake out a blade and two prongs; bash, stab, cut or parry & disarm.
13,14	Assassin’s Dagger: treated for a dull, dark, unreflective finish, and easy to conceal in a sleeve, this weapon has a hollow handle for secret messages and packets of poison.
15,16	Short Sword: five fingers wide at the base, perfect for the cut-and-thrust of tunnel fighting.
21,22	Holy Water Sprinkler: you made this deeply intimidating spiked club yourself; there are no doubts as to its function or your intention.
23,24	Antique Sword: old, reliable, has a history; they don’t make them like this anymore - possibly cursed or haunted or belonged to the next significant undead you encounter.
25,26	Swordstick: whether simple or fancy, the main function of this is to conceal the fact you can stab someone through the heart or cut off their ear as you parade around town; parry and misdirect with the stick in your off-hand.
31,32	Bow: you’re a barbarian, a hunter, unusual specialist or an eccentric badass. You've put in your 10,000 hours on this.
33,34	Sickle, hammer, adze, pick axe etc.: your weapon is really just a tool that’s got (or going to get) someone else’s blood on it.
35,36	Ironshod Quarterstaff: you call it a ‘traveller’s friend’.
41,42	Sling: it's not taken seriously, but you've put in your 10,000 hours and it's genuinely frightening what you can do with this.
43,44	Boarding Axe & Dirk/ Tomahawk & Hunting Dagger: a combo favoured by pirates and rangers; hook, hack, throw and eviscerate.
45,46	Fancy Sword: it’s a rapier, but clearly someone paid a lot for it; d6-1 gems decorate the hilt and/or scabbard. Worth at least 10x normal, even without gems.
51,52	Cavalry Sabre: double chance of a crit when mounted, triple if charging.
53,54	Brace of Pistols: use them as cudgels once the smoke clears. Comes with enough stuff for d6 + 2 shots.
55,56	Kris: wavy-bladed and not from round here, this dagger is thought to have special properties - odds/evens, it can hit monsters immune to normal weapons/ 1 on d6 spells cast against you by L/HD 1-3 will fail (you cannot cast any spells or benefit from protective magic devices while you carry the kris).
61,62	Antique Mace: old, reliable, has a history; they don’t make them like this anymore; modern armour was not built with this kind of weapon in mind.
63,64	Alpenstock: ice axe, pick and short spear in one robust walking stick; helps with climbing, cutting handholds and checking for hidden crevasses.
65,66	Notched Heavy Cutting Blade: this axe/ cleaver is an ugly piece of work - it is clearly not for self-defence but for stomach-churning mayhem.

No stats, because most Games of Dungeon will already have them for most of these. As much as being objects for violence, they are meant to suggest something about the character's personality and background.

Because this has all been about equipment in fantasy rpgs, I'm going to round off with an example from 'the largest game-book ever printed' F.A.T.A.L (Fantasy Adventure to Adult Lechery or From Another Time, Another Land - depending on your edition):

Bowl: This is a small, hand-sized reservoir that is most often used to hold beverages or food. Bowls may be made of wood, metal, clay or a variety of materials, though wood is most common.

(p. 410, 1st edition) 

Evidence that F.A.T.A.L. was written by and/or for Mi Go infiltrators?  

Dungeons & Dragonwarriors - Who is That?

Okay. A bit of a change of pace, so bear with me on this one.

In 1986, Out of the Shadows - the fourth in the Dragonwarriors series - hits the shelves and introduces us to the Assassin Profession.

In illustrations accompanying one of the included adventures -'The One-Eyed God'- this faceless character turns up twice. Apart from the armoured figure on the left (being the exception to prove the rule), there are no other characters illustrated in this fashion throughout the 4 books so far.

 

Because this is book 4, I think the character is an Assassin: staff and dagger/short sword are their speciality weapons, and they prefer light or no armour.

Other special abilities of the Assassin include Climbing, with added acrobatics: 

An Assassin can leap up to scale any obstacle below 3m in height, given at least 5m as a run-up. This is executed as a single jumping somersault - spectacular, though it can lead to problems if the drop on the other side is more than 6m!

Assassins can fall up to 6m without sustaining injury. 

- Out of the Shadows, p.19-20

So the boots are off for some jumping, leaping or tightrope walking.

Though we can't definitively determine gender or ethnicity from the illustrations, I think that this character is Diana the Acrobat from the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon (1983-1985).

The outfit is not 100%, but I think that could be for the same reason the face is hidden - so as not to poke the D&D litigation monster. Alternatively, Bob Harvey might just have thought that her original get-up wasn't suitable for the frosty wilds of Algandy.

Why? 

Is this an Easter egg or a coincidence? Does anyone know either way, or even think this is plausible?

d66/d18 Prior Experience

[Edited 18/06/2021 - Revised table for browser compatibility]

Prior Experience, Background, Current Sketch - whatever you prefer to call this kind of thing; same thing applies with rules and mechanics as with the last post - I've got faith in you.

Roll 2d6:

1 to 2 (1st d6), 2nd d6:

1. Adventurer: you seek gold and experience wherever you may wander.
2. Assassin: people pay you to kill people; you might not want everyone to know that.
3. Barbarian/ Outlander: you’re not from round here and you’re different enough from these people that curiosity and suspicion go both ways; there’s a chance you can’t speak the language.
4. Bounty Hunter/ Mercenary: others pay you to defeat their enemies.
5. Champion: you are the enemy of injustice, the friend of the helpless; you just cannot leave it alone.
6. Drunkard/ Addict: you have handed yourself over to drink and/ or drugs as a career choice.

3 to 4 (1st d6), 2nd d6:

1. Dungeoneer: you seek thrills and reward in the dark places beneath the earth.
2. Gambler/ Grifter: you stake your wealth (and life) on the turn of a card, the roll of the dice, the ways human minds work.
3. Grave Robber/ Tomb Raider: you know where the freshest bodies are buried, and also the oldest and most richly adorned.
4. Healer: the care of the weak, sick and injured is your life’s work.
5. Monster Hunter: you are a generalist or specialist monster hunter, includes vampire slayers and rogue demon hunters; you might not even believe in the supernatural.
6. Nobility: you expect to be treated a certain way, and cannot abide the lower orders getting uppity or over familiar.

5 to 6 (1st d6), 2nd d6:

1. Outcast/ Pariah: no one likes you and if you won’t go away under your own steam, they will try and do something about it.
2. Outlaw: whether a dashing swashbuckler or a brutal killer, you are not going to be allowed to get away with it.
3. Plumber of the Darkness: investigator or keen student, you are unable to keep your nose out of the business of the foul things of this world and beyond.
4. Religious Order: novice, monk, cultist, templar or high priest, you are under holy orders.
5. Retainer: you are bound to serve a noble household.
6. Thief: even if it’s nailed down, you’ll try it for the challenge.

When putting this together, I had a Hammer Horror period setting in mind - so pseudo-European, approximating the late 17th and early 18th Centuries; there are firearms, but there has not been (and will not be any time soon) a Magical Industrial Revolution and we are pre-Steampunk. 

With that in mind, by Barbarian/Outlander I don't mean Conan or Slaine, but more like as a Cossack to an English dandy, a Samurai to a Parisian aesthete (come to think of it, why not a Parisian sans-culotte to that English dandy).