Looking back at Part 86, “Ten Essential Elements of Old School D&D,” we see that the PCs and their players were seeking treasure, not battle.

First level was a meat grinder, and any combat, even an “easy” one, could result in the death of one or more party members, just with a couple of bad rolls. Healing was relatively expensive back then, so two easy fights in a row could be deadly without any wildly bad rolls.

In other words, combat was a “fail state” for the PCs. Their ideal outcome, like any tomb-raiding fortune hunter, was to get in, get the treasure, and get out safely. Fighting didn’t even give any experience points in the oldest editions of D&D. Combat was a fail state, but it was an inevitable fail state. The way D&D was structured, there was almost no way to successfully collect enough treasure to get to second level without fighting.

But what if it wasn’t inevitable?

Well, that certainly wouldn’t be mid-70’s D&D, but what would it be? It might be closer, in some ways, than the combat-focused, anime-inspired editions Wizards of the Coast has produced.

Essential Elements of this New, D&D-ish Thing:

1. Rethink “Monsters” as “Hazards”
2. Relevant non-combat activities must be as exciting as combat
3. Go back to the old-school idea of experience gained only for loot or major goals, not fighting
4. Give all PC’s the ability to sneak, climb, evade, run, etc.
5. De-emphasize constant hallway traps, or at least make them “dodgeable,” because otherwise they make pursuit impossible
6. More people make your group stronger in stealth and flight, like they do in combat now
7. Pursuit, Stealth, and Physical Obstacle Puzzles take the place of combat

Rethink “Monsters” as “Hazards”. These can be traps to be disarmed, monsters or guards to sneak by (more on that later), pursuers to outrun, and more.

Relevant non-combat activities must be as exciting as combat. This can be done through

1. description and set pieces,
2. high stakes,
3. Extended tests with several steps, with meaningful choices at each step that impact future steps (just like combat is an ongoing process, so must these tests be)
4. Active opposition that can react to PC choices

Numbers 1-3 are possible with virtually any hazard or test. 4 is possible with many things, such as stealth, tracking, and pursuit. You’ll need a resolution system that measures quality of results (basic, special, exceptional or some such, not just pass/fail).

If you’re doing this as an add-on to OD&D or Red Box D&D, you can add this type of system on pretty easily. Many of the sub-systems within these games use different resolution systems anyway (combat, finding hidden doors, thief skill checks, etc.)

Pursuit:

1. You’ll need an extended system, with active choices along the way, for pursuit.
   1. Some creatures will pursue you only for a set number of turns/tests
   2. Others will pursue until you lose them or they catch you
   3. Each side rolls each turn and keeps track of successes. One side wins when it reaches a predetermined number (usually 5) more successes than the other side.
2. A way to “dodge” a trap when you’re fleeing full-tilt
   1. A failure sets off the trap. If the failure is particularly bad (special or exceptional failure), any saving throws will be penalized.
   2. A success evades the trap. Special or exceptional successes may cause the trap to go off in the pursuers’ faces.
3. The option to be more aggressive (yet take greater risks regarding hazards and traps) or be more careful, but move more slowly (I outlined this in Column 70)

Stealth:

1. This will use the same extended system as pursuit.
2. The chances taken (aggressive searching vs conservative listening) will differ a little than those for pursuit. Taking aggressive measures puts more at stake. It’s like getting up to go investigate a noise, and running the risk of going in the wrong direction. If you’re successful, you get more “net successes,” but if you fail, more go to your opponent.

One major point that must be addressed is that in combat, more people makes your group stronger, but in most games’ stealth and pursuit mechanics, more people makes your group weaker. In most games, if one character falls behind, you’ve lost a group member. If one character steps on a twig, your whole party can be discovered.

And the way most games handle it, they require a separate stealth test from each character. If you have five PC’s in the group, by the law of averages, one of them is going to get a bad roll and give the whole group away.

This system would do things differently. The highest ranked character in each group would do the main test roll. Followers could roll their own stealth or pursuit traits to give the leader a bonus. Exceptional botches would, of course, create a penalty, but most of the time, the extra characters would be helpful.

This post is just the broad outlines. Next month, I’ll give some details on possible implementations in old-school D&D.