M20 Hard Core

This page is about a M20 variant without skills: M20 Hard Core Rules.pdf.

M20

M20 Hard Core Rules.pdf

If you’re interested in changing anything get M20 Hard Core Rules.sxw and use Libre Office to edit it.

M20 Hard Core Rules.sxw

Changes made from the original M20 by GreyWulf:

M20

• *Shadow Walk* got switched with *Teleport*
• I’ve added *Dream World* & *Wind Walk* (an alternative to *Dimension Door*)
• I replaced saving throws with magic defense – roll Magic Attack vs. 10 + Level + relevant stat bonus of unwilling targets
• There are no more ranged touch attacks – use magic defense all the way; I always felt bad when wizards needed high DEX to be good at these spells
• No more STR bonus to hit with melee weapons – DEX makes hitting with ranged weapons easier, STR adds to damage with melee weapons (trying to decrease the importance of stats a bit)
• No more multiple attacks – fighters just get a bonus to-hit and damage; they get it every four levels instead of every five levels to compensate (trying to reduce the number of dice being rolled)
• Turn undead is gone – I never liked it anyway since encounters with undead turned out to be either very difficult or a walkover
• Since there are no more skills, I’m granting humans +1 to two stats of their choosing instead
• Wizards and clerics may use any arms and armor (allowing battle mages, sword mages, dusk blades, rune warriors, etc.)
• Use 3d6 instead of 4d6-drop-lowest
• Use 1-2 on a d6 for surprise
• I’ve added the equipment packs to the core rules.

Changes made inspired by Randall S. Stukey’s M74 who based his game on OD&D from 1974:

M74

• I got rid of skills ← a very important change!
• I’ve switched to 1d6 for all weapons (obviating a weapon list)
• I’ve added Randall’s design notes
• I’ve added Randall’s monster list
• Wizards are limited to 6th level spells
• Clerics are limited to 5th level spells
• Clerics are also limited to health oriented spells
• You get XP for spending money “in frivolous ways”

Changes made inspired by Brian Isikoff’s Swords against Sorcery variant:

• Armor bonus increases the spellcasting costs without incuring a chance of failure.
• Half an hour of rest recovers all hit points. Hit points lost due to spellcasting are not treated specially.

This resulted in some more changes:

• No more thief or rogue class because there are no more skills; I never liked them anyway because traps were a rogues-only minigame
• No more scrolls and wands since wizards will not run out of spells at the end of the adventuring day

Comments

(Please contact me if you want to remove your comment.)

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Should d8s be changed to d6s in the Vampire and Spectre stats ?

Think I’ll use d6s instead of d4s for spells too as I like the idea of just using d20 and d6s during play.

– Sean 2008-08-24 07:15 UTC

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Oh, absolutely. I fixed the two monsters. I’m not sure with regard to spells. Will you also change the healing spells from d8 to d6?

Simplifying the weapons to d6 was going to eliminate the min-maxing of which weapons to take and it was going to shatter the illusion that the numbers are supposed to be “realistic” (something I’ve heard a lot). That’s why I didn’t change those dice. But it’s going to be an interesting house rule. Just d20 and d6 – it has a very hard core ring to it! 😄

– Alex Schroeder 2008-08-24 07:30 UTC

Alex Schroeder

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Yes, used d6s for the healing spells too in today’s session. Worked fine.

– Sean 2008-08-24 19:39 UTC

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Love this!

– GreyWulf 2008-08-31 12:23 UTC

GreyWulf

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Like the Big Font version but the healing rules are missing.

– Sean 2008-08-31 16:19 UTC

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Oops. Must have lost them a while back. Do you think five minutes is too short or should I take Brian Isikoff’s thirty minutes? A friend of mine felt that clerics being restricted to healing under these circumstances were not attractive. What did you cleric players – if any – say?

– Alex Schroeder 2008-08-31 23:22 UTC

Alex Schroeder

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Our cleric healed HP during combat once and the rest was STR healing after taking on an Ogre. The player didn’t mind not being used as a medic after combat and felt the 5 minutes was fine. 30 minutes would mean they’d be on their guard longer after the initial combat so could help the creation of tension if the Cleric was unable to perform spells or split off/apart from the party.

– Sean 2008-09-02 17:46 UTC

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Our first real playtest ended with the following points being discussed:

the following points being discussed

1. Can we enter each fight fully buffed (flying and invisible) because the wizard casts all the spells and the cleric heals him and himself? I haven’t found a good solution, yet. It seems to me that we have to reintroduce “mana damage” that cannot be healed.

2. How do we compute XP? I think the main XP should be story based like in the old days where treasure = XP reward = story reward.

The passage “Add +1 for each doubling of the number of foes. e.g.: 1 kobold (a 1 hit die monster) = 1 XP. 2 kobolds = 2 XP. 4 kobolds = 3 XP, 8 kobolds = 4 XP etc.” seems to go against our expectations. I think we’ll just remove it from the rules and stick to the simple “Experience Points (XP) = Hit Dice of defeated monsters.” If we don’t like our advancement speed, we can just change the XP/level requirement instead.

– Alex Schroeder 2008-10-07 09:07 UTC

Alex Schroeder