Category: Game mechanics

  • Right-skewed dice

    As I’m guessing was true for many of you, my first introduction to probability theory was pages 9-10 of the AD&D DMG in which Gygax explains how rolling one die (including d100) gives you a uniform distribution but summing multiple dice gives you a bell curve. Ever since, it has been a basic principal of…

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    Shadowdark review

    As a Kickstarter backer for Shadowdark I have read the PDF and my bottom line is it’s a really great game that skillfully synthesizes many different ideas and mechanics. If you were turned off by the hype, don’t be. I see it as a really well executed effort for what it intends to accomplish. I…

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    Gift economies

    This post is a reaction to someone asking how to run a gift economy on r/osr. The gamist answer is to say just stick with the presumption in Player’s Handbook that there’s a Target in the Keep on the Borderlands. Modern people are very used to markets which is why D&D has always had an…

  • Hexcrawl compatibility

    [Update 4/21/2023: added Shadowdark] We are often told that the great thing about OSR is that all of the materials are mutually compatible. The idea is that it doesn’t matter if it says D&D, AD&D, OSRIC, Swords & Wizardy, or Old School Essentials on the cover of the module — regardless you can run it…

  • Roll Over vs Roll Under

    One of the basic differences between modern and old school D&D is whether ability checks are roll high (modern D&D) or roll under (old school D&D). I’m going to bracket various aesthetic issues of which mechanic is more elegant, simple, etc. and only look at the math of how swingy they are and in particular…