Welcome to my OD&D page. I grew up playing a mixture of Holmes D&D, Moldvay/Cook/Marsh B/X D&D, and first edition AD&D.
It all just kind of got mixed together and we went back and forth between all of them, often combining elements of the
different versions into our games without even really being aware of it. In the 2010's, after a long hiatus, I immersed
myself once again into the hobby, this time discovering the original D&D booklets and supplements from the early to mid
70's. I've always loved the creative freedom of those earlier times where there was no standardization or "official
interpretation" of D&D. The game was completely open-ended and the rules "subject to modification, expansion, and
interpretation according to the desires of the group participating". It was, afterall, a game created by amateur hobbyists
and game enthusiasts, and the golden rule was "use your imagination and have fun".
Toward that end, I've undertaken to tinker with the old guidelines a bit for my own enjoyment and because I've always been
a hobbyist at heart. This page will be where I fiddle around with new ideas and work on creating my own "world". Some of
what is written here are my own ideas and inspirations. Some are ideas taken from other places on the web and adapted and
modified to fit my specific game world or personal aesthetics. And some have been lifted completely intact from various
forum postings and gaming blogs written by people far more creative than me. As always, my ideas and needs are constantly
changing, so this will be a continual WIP.
I've played around with the original D&D classes to give them a little more individuality, make them a little more interesting, or broaden their skills and abilities a bit. I've drawn a few concepts for Fighters from the old Chainmail game, rolled in some assassin and thief-acrobat skills with the Thief to make it more versatile, written demi-humans to feel more like completely different races rather than just "small humans with pointy ears", and made the Cleric class both more general, in order to make it fit into a wider scheme, and more specific to better fit the particular order the individual player is a part of. I've also played around with the magic system a bit, combining some spell point concepts within the standard spell level model. In the section below are links to text files for each of the classes.
Here be various OD&D rules, classic D&D rules, house rules, tables, magic spells, a creature catalogue, magical treasures, my own World of Aurora as I design all the bits and pieces of it, and a few other things.
This section contains various dungeons and adventuring locales I am in the process of making. . .
Links to some archived rpg books and resources can be found here.