Beyond the Moldvay Way

In a recent conversation on Twitter, a poster asked the question, “What’s a good retroclone based on Advanced Dungeons & Dragons?” Various answers were given, most notably OSRIC™ System (Old School Reference and Index Compilation) and Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea: A Roleplaying Game of Swords, Sorcery, and Weird Fantasy. My response was that in most cases, retroclones start with a version of Dungeons & Dragons or Basic Dungeons & Dragons and then build up from there to emulate Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Certainly, this is the case with Labyrinth Lord and Advanced Labyrinth Lord. It is also the case with Old School Essentials: Classic Fantasy, Necrotic Gnome’s interpretation and redesign of the 1981 revision of Basic Dungeons & Dragons by Tom Moldvay and its accompanying Expert Set by Dave Cook and Steve Marsh. With Old School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy presents options which emulate Advanced Dungeons & Dragons whilst restraining them in order to avoid the complexities of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

Old School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy actually consists of two separate books. These are Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules and Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells. Now the two books complement each other, but also work on their own—though only to an extent. This is because some of the Classes from Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules use some of the spells from Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells, but simply the Magic-User from Old School Essentials: Classic Fantasy could use the Illusionist spells from Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells and a game of Old School Essentials using Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules could be run without using the spells from Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells or without using the Classes that use those spells. However, Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules and Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells really work together and ideally the Referee should combine both if she wants to run Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy.

Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules provides Referee and her players with some fifteen new Classes. In keeping with Old School Essentials, nine of these Classes are Human-only Classes. These are Acrobat, Assassin, Barbarian, Bard, Druid, Illusionist, Knight, Paladin, and Ranger. What is interesting here is the inspiration for these Classes. Not just Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition, but with the inclusion of the Acrobat, Barbarian, and Knight—as nods to the Thief-Acrobat, Barbarian, and Cavalier respectively—Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules actually draws upon that most contentious of supplements for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, that is, Unearthed Arcana. The other six Classes are Demihuman Classes and in keeping with Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy with ‘Race as Class’ rather than Player Characters possessing both Race and Class. The six are Drow, Duergar, Gnome, Half-Elf, Half-Orc, and Svirfneblin, and again, in bringing these to Old School Essentials, the supplement draws heavily upon the Unearthed Urcana. The inclusion of the Drow, Duergar, and Svirfneblin also draws from the Underworld of Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying games, which Old Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules also add to Old School Essentials as an adventuring environment. What is clearly missing from these fifteen new Classes is the inclusion of the Monk as a new Class, but the publisher aims to include that in a supplement to mythical Asian adventures, what will likely be the equivalent of Oriental Adventures for Old School Essentials.

For the most part, the Classes in Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules will be familiar. So the Acrobat and the Assassin are like the Thief Class, but lack skills such as Pick Pocket, Find Trap, and so on. Instead, the Acrobat focuses on jumping, tumbling, and evading, whilst the Assassin focusses on kills by stealth. Similarly, the Barbarian has some stealth skills in the wilderness, fears all use of magic, and can eventually strike otherwise invulnerable foes. The Knight adheres to a chivalric code, always attempts to wear the best armour and wield the best weapons, is a good horseman, and is immune to fear. The Paladin casts divine magic, can lay on hands to heal and turn or destroy undead. The Ranger is rarely surprised, casts Druidic spells, can track, and also perform surprise attacks in the wilderness. The Bard is different in that it can cast Druidic spells from the Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells, charm and fascinate an audience with his music and singing and learns languages and lore. Druids are of Neutral Alignment, also cast Druidic spells, can Pass Without Trace in the wilderness, rarely get lost in the woods, and can eventually shape change into animals. The Illusionist is like the Magic-User, but casts spells from Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells.

Of the six ‘Race as Class’ Classes, the Drow are like Elves, but know Divine rather than Arcane spells, suffer light sensitivity, and have an affinity for spiders. Duergar are like Dwarves, but suffer from light insensitivity and notably have mental powers like Invisibility and Enlargement that can be used daily. Gnomes cast Illusionist spells, but can wear armour and also speak with burrowing animals. Half-Elves can all use all weapons and armour and can also cast arcane spells, though not as many as an Elf or a Magic-User. The Half-Orc can use all weapons and light armour and has a number of Thief skills, whilst the Svifneblin can blend into stone, has illusion resistance, can speak with Earth Elementals, can understand the murmurs of stone, and also suffer from light sensitivity.

What is notable with all of these Classes is that the designer has tried to keep them unique, to keep their abilities from encroaching on those of Classes, and to keep them from being too powerful. The likelihood is that he has almost succeeded with the fifteen new Classes. There is some overlap of skills, for example, the Move Silently skill being shared by several different Classes. Plus Classes like the Knight and the Paladin do feel powerful in comparison to the standard Classes. That said, all of the Classes feel reined in when comparing them to their original versions from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

In addition to the supplement’s dozen or so Classes, Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules also provides a number of Advanced Character Options. These include rules for making Old School Essentials a Race and Class roleplaying game, separating the two. So all three ‘Race as Class’ Classes from Old School Essentials— Dwarf, Elf, and Halfling—as well as Humans are presented as Races, as are the Drow, Duergar, Gnome, Half-Elf, Half-Orc, and Svirfneblin. All bar Humans have Level limits on the Classes available to them, though if this is lifted, options are given to account for the lack of Human innate abilities. Further rules cover the use of poison, extra rules for combat including two-weapon fighting and parrying, multi-classing, as well as secondary skills and weapon proficiencies. Of course these add complexity in play, but they also add depth and they move Old School Essentials towards, but not to the level of complexities of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. And again, these rules are all optional.

Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells is the companion volume and very much contains what it says on the tin. It presents thirty-four Druid spells, from First to Fifth Level, and seventy-two Illusionist spells, from First to Sixth Level. Druid spells focus on survival, healing, and offence, so Predict Weather, Cure Light Wounds, and Call Lightning. Illusion spells focus on deception, mind control, and warping reality, so Dancing Lights, Fascinate, and Mirror Image. The selection and range have been kept in line with the Cleric and Magic-User spells of Old School Essentials, so the numbers for the Druid are the same as the Cleric, just as the numbers for the Illusionist are the same as the Magic-User. What is fantastic about Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells is how well the book is organised. It has an index for the spells plus the inside of the front and back covers are effectively used, not just with spell lists, but spot rules too. It makes Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells highly accessible and useable at the table.

Physically, both Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules and Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells are nattily presented little hardbacks. In particular, Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules follows the format of Old School Essentials by keeping its various elements particularly succinct. So every Class is kept to a single two-page spread, each individual Race to a single page, and so on. Both books are illustrated in black and white and for the most part, the artwork is good.

If there is an issue with Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules and Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells it is really that not all of either book works without referring to the other. If the Druid and Illusionist Classes are in play, then really, Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells is really necessary to effectively play because not only the Druid and Illusionist use these spells, but so do the Bard, the Gnome, and the Ranger. If there is another issue with either book, it is that they pull Old School Essentials away from its origins in the 1981 revision of Basic Dungeons & Dragons and its accompanying Expert Set. The inclusion of elements from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons may not sit well with some players and Referees of Old School Essentials, but fundamentally, both Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules and Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells are optional. Which means that they are not integral to playing or running Old School Essentials and neither Referee nor player have to purchase them to play the roleplaying game.

Ultimately, if you are playing Old School Essentials using Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules and Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells, then you are not playing the Basic Dungeons & Dragons of 1981. However, neither are you playing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Instead, Old School Essentials using Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules and Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells presents the means to incorporate elements of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, but in a restrained fashion, adhering to the simplicity of Old School Essentials throughout.