Thanks for posting all this! Was a great read!

I really love how the guys who created the rules threw them out the window left and right but years later those who followed let themselves get bound up within them.

A quick random thought I had - Has anybody incorporated these house rules into a retroclone by replacing the appropriate sections? It seems like a cool project and would give us a closer approximation of the way Arneson did things. 8)

Slowly but surely I will try to put together most of what I got. For now, here are the houserules found in Dave's various post on Marv's forum (ODD74):


Usually if they stay in one spot five minutes screaming at each other a (not too powerful) wandering monster shows up to remind then where they are!

...when the mapper was killed and the map lost... (or) the players couldn't figure out how to read the map. "OK guys now where are you going?"

A fighter takes more damage, has higher saving throws, etc. If he kills an opponent he gets another attack. When all opponents next to him are gone he gets no more attacks. Thus he chops his way through the weaker creatures pretty quickly. The Great Svenny was good at that. MU needed their protection 'Badly'

Generally fireballs are "one size fits all". I allow smaller ones but the spell is still a spell. The components are used up. Why smaller ones? Well there are times you don't want to take down half the house to get one Goblin. "Like being sneaky."

On Ability Score generation:
....we always used 2d10 or 2d6 +6. Worked out OK. Plus if your rolls were bad you just started over.
(and)
I find that you are more content with;
1) Re-rolling the highest and lowest number.
2) Roll the two dice (not three) but add +6
3) If your total is less than 50-60 just start over.

After all you are a special being not some weak kneed court fop

I had my own house rule for Critical Hits (Crits), however being erudite, I didn't make it up on my own. I picked it up from elsewhere, I just don't remember where. (Some ancient issue of Dragon, Judges Guild or Dungeoneer? I've no idea.)

After an unmodified natural (nat) 20, if you rolled another nat 20 it was instant death. 19 is Triple Max (damage), 18 is Triple, 17 is Double Max, 16 is Double, and 15 is just Max. Anything else is just normal damage.

Due to the cumbersome formula for Crits in HackMaster, to speed up play I give it as an "option". Players can use the official critical hit tables or opt for my house rule. We call it the "cheese" crit, because the rule is cheesy.

And the formula is reversed for fumbles. In other words suicide on a double nat 1.

Here is a few more:

+3 for rear attacks
(Source: "A Quarter Century of Role Playing?" By Dave Arneson)


When I do my games, I give roleplaying points for people staying within their character. If they want to go out and kill things, that's easy to do, and a lot of referees that's all they do, but there's more to it. The richness is not in just rolling dice, the richness is in the characters and becoming part of this fantasy world. (Source: Pegasus #14, summer 1999)

One of the very first considerations for a party entering a new and unknown area should be to keep a low profile, i.e., keep one's eyes and ears open without drawing too much attention to oneself. ..... more and more wandering monsters were encountered ...As the adventurers .....made little or no attempt to conceal themselves or their activities. (Source: Dave Arneson, Oerth Journal # 6, Nov. 1997)



Arneson rules notes from Pegasus #1 1981:

Players roll hits and saving throws.

Players with dead characters are given monsters to play at each encounter. The referee must brief the player on the monsters goals and motivations – often no more complicated than guard this room or kill intruders. The player is given total control of the monster, speaking for them if need be and otherwise controlling their actions and decisions. The Player or players, as the case may be can be kept involved in the game by handing over control of each group or individual monster encountered until such time as they can introduce a new or resurrected character back into play.

Characters who limp back from an adventure with a lot of casualties in the party gain a bad reputation and have a hard time finding hirelings. The same is true of non-cooperative characters who fight among themselves.

Characters of opposite alignments cannot adventure together.