'Minimum Viable' D&D, and a handful of regular updates

 My wife (who has been referred to in the past as 'R' here) and I were at my parents' house for a few days over the holidays because of water outages in our apartment due to shitty-ass weather and I was craving D&D but didn't have any polyhedrals or books or anything with me, so I threw together the basics of a very simple version of D&D - like, what I'd call minimum viable D&D, designed for one-shot play pretty exclusively, with sessions being limited to maybe 2-3 hours. It just uses d6s, since that was all we had on hand. I even threw together a basic dungeon generator to mitigate the fact that I was too tired to write an adventure (and didn't have a notebook with me to write it in) and didn't have any modules on hand to run.

I ended up not getting the chance to use it then - we had plans to play it the next day and then the water came back that night so we were able to go home and life went back to normal, but I'm fairly proud of what I threw together. I showed it to a few friends and a couple of people suggested I throw it on here for y'all to enjoy, so I decided I would. 

In other news, well... not much. Haven't gotten to play D&D/lotfp at all over the holidays because shit has been so hectic, but my whole group and I have gotten really into Classic Battletech, so we've been playing that a lot. I'm working a bit on some mechanics for a Classic Traveller campaign I'm going to run eventually that integrates Battletech rules to add mech combat into Traveller - a little simplified, with smaller formations and a little jankier tech so that mech fights don't eat up the entire session, but straight-up using Battletech for when the mechs come out all the same. I'll probably post more about that as I work on it. 

Next month we're going to be starting a Blueholme/Holmes Basic campaign that E is running. I'm playing a worm cultist cleric and I'm very excited. Not sure if I'll be doing full recaps for it, but I might. E has described our intro scenario for the campaign as being Uzamaki and Fatal Frame-inspired, so I'm betting it's going to be delightfully insane. After that (which, like, might well be a year or so, we'll see), I'm going to be running the Call of Cthulhu investigative sandbox I've mentioned on here before, using 2nd Edition Call of Cthulhu (god that reprint box set is so fucking pretty and it runs so well), set in the early 1980s - a sequel to the grindhouse fish-rape island scenario I ran to test the mechanics a couple of months back, using the same PCs but 10 years older (the other scenario was set in 1971) since they both survived. 

Gonna try to get back to posting here more often. My head is buzzing with all kinds of gaming-related shit that I'd love to put down on paper at some point, but shit has been busy lately and I haven't had much time. 

Anyways, enough about me, time for the minimalist D&D thing I made:

Minimalist D&D

Three stats:

Strength - melee attacks

Dexterity - ranged attacks

Intelligence - spellcasting

3d6 down the line, swap two if you've got a really strong idea.

<8 = -1

8-12 = +0

13-18 = +1

>18 = +2

Three classes:

Fighter - d6+2 HP, +2 to melee attacks.

Magic-User - d6-1 HP, d6-2 spells from the below list, each can be cast 1/adventure

Thief - d6 HP, +2 to two dungeoneering skills

Three saves: Magic, Non-Magic, Trap

Fighters get +1 Non-Magic, +1 Magic.

Thieves get +2 Trap, +1 Non-magic, -2 Magic.

MUs get +2 Magic.

Most PCs are human, but if you want to play a nonhuman, it can be worked out as +2 to one stat and -2 to another.

MU spell list - roll 2d6

2 - Magic Missile - 1d6 dmg

3 - Shield - +2 Armor

4 - Sleep - 1d6-1 creatures fall asleep for 1d6 turns

5 - Feather Fall

6 - Spider Climb

7 - Knock

8 - Fireball - 1d6-1 dmg in 30 feet

9 - Detect Law/Chaos

10 - Comprehend Languages

11 - Light - light as lantern for 6 turns

12 - Web - trap enemies in 20ft radius on floor. Strength check to escape but it takes their whole turn.

Spellcasting:

2d6 + Intelligence bonus

<6 = spirals out of control

8+ = success

>10 = spell works better than usual (3 missiles for a magic missile, duration stuff

lasts longer, sleep works for 2d6 turns, etc.)

Everything else is handled through 2d6 + stat bonus rolls. Typically, an 8+ is a success.

Combat:

D6 side based initiative. All weapons do 1d6 dmg. Armor increases the TN.

Leather is TN 9, Chain is TN 10, Plate is TN 11. Shield is +1 TN from the front.

At 0 HP, you're unconscious and injured. At -1 HP or lower, you're dead.

Gear - 3d6 rolled 4 times.

Fighters get a melee weapon of your choice and an armor. D3 roll for armor. 1 = Leather, 2 = Chain, 3 = Plate.

MUs get a spellbook and dagger.

Thieves get a ranged weapon of choice and have a 50% chance of leather armor.

3: Shield

4: Knife

5: Bow and 10 arrows

6: Sword

7: Lantern with 6 turns of oil

8: 18 turns of oil

9: 50 ft of rope

10: 2 Torches

11: 10 Arrows

12: Marbles

13: Silver Mirror

14: Grappling Hook

15: 10 foot pole

16: Crowbar

17: Drill

18: Spyglass

The Dungeon

The dungeon is controlled by (2d6):

2: Deep Ones

3: Zombies

4: Wights

5: Elves

6: Eldritch abominations

7: Goblins

8: Spiders

9: White Apes

10: Kobolds

11: Proto-humans

12: Mindflayers

...who answer to (2d6):

2: a dragon.

3: a demilich.

4: a shoggoth.

5: space aliens.

6: a troll warlord.

7: a basilisk.

8: a dead god.

9: the void.

10: their own greed.

11: a vampire.

12: an elder thing.

Dungeons have 1d6+4 rooms.

2d6 traps. Use 3-4 per dungeon.

2: Pit trap

3: Pit trap with spikes

4: Swinging blade

5: Green Devil Face

6: Poison Darts

7: Poison gas in locked room

8: Swinging hammer

9: Spikes in floor, pressure plate

10: Ceiling crusher

11: Explosive runes (2d6 in 10 feet when read)

12: Spear thrower

25% chance of a room being empty. 25% chance of a room containing treasure. 

Encounters are 1-in-6 every 2 turns. +1-in-6 for each additional level down you go.

Dungeon modifiers (2d6):

2: Trapped: +2 extra traps

3: Empty: encounter checks only every 4 turns

4: Populous: Encounter check every turn

5: Treasure-Filled: 50% chance of room containing treasure

6: Vertical

7: Difficult Terrain: 1/2 move speed

8: Dark: Torches and lanterns burn out twice as fast

9: Verdant

10: Non-Euclidean

11: Cursed Treasure

12: Sentient Dungeon

Dungeon Room Generator:

Empty rooms (1d6):

1: Latrine

2: Dormitory

3: Closet

4: Prayer Room

5: Library

6: Bedchamber

Non-empty rooms (2d6):

2: Temple

3: Barracks

4: Kitchen

5: Camp

6: Prison Complex

7: Burial Chamber

8: Monster Lair

9: Armory

10: Smithy

11: Orrery

12: Treasure Room