How I'd Run OSE These Days

I'm into running my own bespoke rules at the moment. I like the idea of developing a campaign concept and world first and building rules around that stuff from the ground up. The next campaign I try to run will almost certainly be such a project.

That said, someone brought up favorite systems in the OSR Discord recently, and I had to conclude that OSE is my favorite published OSR system. And the reason, really, is mostly nostalgia. Not that I was around to actually play B/X back in the day, but the idea of it still has a classic appeal to me. It feels cozy.

It makes me think of Dragon's Dogma, which I swear I'll get around to playing properly before the sequel comes out. Part of what put me off that game when I first tried it was the apparent generic-ness of the setting, but I remember at one point watching a YouTube video about the crappy anime adaptation that mentioned offhandedly that in the setting of the video game, goblins are evil tree spirits who reproduce through underground blood rituals. That's fucking sick, and totally transformed my view of the setting. It now seems to me like the perfect form of the "classic D&D world"--all the familiar concepts, but with just enough spice to make them fun.

I can definitely see the appeal of trying to run an OSE game with that vibe. So here's the (short? it's three pages in docs) list of houserules I'd adopt to tweak the system just enough to suit my tastes, while still keeping it fundamentally the same game.

THE WIND IS PUSHING MEEEEEEEEEE

Optional Rules

Ascending AC, detailed encumbrance, variable weapon damage, and crossbow reloading will be used. Individual initiative will not be used. 1st-level characters reroll results of 1 and 2 for their starting hit points.

Alignment

Alignment will not be used. Player characters should not select an alignment. Alignment languages will not be used.

Classes

Player characters may be fighters, magic-users, or thieves. Clerics don't exist, but magic-users inherit many of their spells (see below). Dwarves, elves, and halflings are not available as player characters.

Fighters

Fighters begin with a +1 attack bonus and gain an additional +1 at each level.

Beginning at 10th level, fighters can cast spells from scrolls as thieves of the same level.

Magic-Users

Magic-users begin with a +0 attack bonus and gain +1 at every third level (3rd, 6th, etc).

Magic-users can use all weapons, wear any armor, and use shields. However, they must have both hands free to cast spells, and they can't cast while wearing more than leather armor--the weight, bulk, and restrictiveness of heavier armor interferes with the concentration and precise movements involved in spellcasting, and encasing the body in iron disrupts magical forces. Magic wands and staves, and certain other items made for magic-users, can be held in one hand without interfering with spellcasting.

Player character magic-users begin with three 1st-level spells in their spellbook. The player may choose one and rolls for the others on the list below.

Beginning at 4th level, magic-users can read non-magical text as thieves of the same level.

Thieves

Thieves begin with a +0 attack bonus and gain +1 at every even-numbered level.

Thieves can wear any armor and use shields. However, they cannot backstab, climb sheer surfaces, hear noise, hide in shadows, move silently, or pick pockets while wearing more than leather armor or using a shield.

Thief skill checks are rolled in addition to normal checks for similar actions that any adventurer can attempt. For example, any adventurer can attempt to free-climb a cliff, but a thief may roll a skill check to climb sheer surfaces alongside any other roll the referee calls for, and succeeds if they pass either check. Additionally, some thief skills allow the thief to attempt feats that would be impossible for other characters, like free-climbing a completely sheer wall without handholds or hiding in shadows when no other cover is available. In these cases, the thief rolls only their skill check.

Hit Points and Healing

Characters recover 1 hit point per level for each full day of rest. Cure Light Wounds restores 1d6+1 hit points per level of the subject. Cure Serious Wounds restores 2d6+1 hit points per level of the subject. The reversed version of each spell does the same amount of damage.

Spells

Magic-users determine their spells from the following list. Spells marked with a * are considered dark arts. Anyone caught possessing them (or, if only the reversed form of the spell is forbidden, casting that form) without Church dispensation may be branded maleficarum and hunted down.

1st Level:

1. Cure Light Wounds (Cause Light Wounds*)

2. Detect Magic

3. Floating Disc

4. Hold Portal

5. Light (Darkness)

6. Purify Food and Water

7. Read Languages

8. Remove Fear (Cause Fear*)

9. Resist Cold (Resist Heat)

10. Shield

11. Turn Undead

12. Ventriloquism

• Charm Person*

• Magic Missile*

• Sleep*

2nd Level:

1. Bless (Blight*)

2. Continual Light (Continual Darkness)

3. Detect Invisible

4. Find Traps

5. Levitate

6. Locate Object

7. Mirror Image

8. Phantasmal Force

9. Silence 15’ Radius

10. Speak with Animals

11. Web

12. Wizard Lock

• ESP*

• Invisibility*

• Knock*

3rd Level:

1. Clairvoyance

2. Cure Disease (Cause Disease*)

3. Dispel Magic

4. Fly

5. Growth of Animal

6. Haste

7. Hold Person

8. Infravision

9. Protection from Normal Missiles

10. Remove Curse (Curse*)

11. Striking

12. Water Breathing

• Fire Ball*

• Invisibility 10’ Radius*

• Lightning Bolt*

4th Level:

1. Create Water

2. Cure Serious Wounds (Cause Serious Wounds*)

3. Dimension Door

4. Growth of Plants

5. Hallucinatory Terrain

6. Massmorph

7. Neutralize Poison

8. Polymorph Self

9. Speak with Plants

10. Wall of Fire

11. Wall of Ice

12. Wizard Eye

• Charm Monster*

• Confusion*

• Polymorph Others*

5th Level:

1. Conjure Elemental

2. Contact Higher Plane

3. Create Food

4. Dispel Evil

5. Hold Monster

6. Pass-Wall

7. Telekinesis

8. Teleport

9. Transmute Rock to Mud (Mud to Rock)

10. Wall of Stone

• Animate Dead*

• Cloudkill*

• Feeblemind*

• Insect Plague*

• Magic Jar*

6th Level:

1. Anti-Magic Shell

2. Control Weather

3. Move Earth

4. Part Water

5. Projected Image

6. Stone to Flesh (Flesh to Stone*)

• Death Spell*

• Disintegrate*

• Geas* (Remove Geas)

• Invisible Stalker*

(When rolling for a random spell of a given level, the non-numbered spells don't come up by default. They're available as options when choosing spells manually.)

Quick Skirmishes

Quick Skirmish Rules

For battles between coordinated formations of up to about a dozen fighters.

Thrown together off the cuff, currently untested, doubtfully functional.

Warbands

Each fighter in the warband is a die. By default, they're d6. Modify size as follows, d4 minimum, d12 maximum:

- Untrained, hungry, exhausted, injured, poorly armed, poorly armored: -1 each

- Well-trained, well-fed, well-rested, heavily armed, heavily armored: +1 each

- Commander is green, commander is distrusted by fighters: -1 each for the whole warband

- Commander is experienced, commander has fighters' trust: +1 each for the whole warband

- Situational, tactical, or positional advantage: -1 to all enemy fighters

Initiative

If it's not clear which warband has the initiative, commanders roll off, 1d6 each by default, size modified by the above factors as makes sense.

Clashes

When two warbands clash, each able to inflict casualties on the other, each commander rolls all their dice.

Whichever commander has initiative then gets to pick one of the enemy's dice and pair one or more of their own dice against it. Then the other commander picks an opposing unpaired die and does the same thing. Continue until all dice are paired.

Results

Look at each pairing. Whichever side has the higher total in that pairing wins. The losing fighter gets hurt as follows:

- Beaten by 1: wounded

- Beaten by 2: alive but out of the fight, will need treatment and recovery

- Beaten by 3+: dead

Surviving fighters check morale according to normal rules (individuals check if they're wounded, warband checks collectively if outnumbered, reduced to half strength, or commander has fallen).

If the fight continues, commanders roll for initiative again based on current conditions and a new round begins.