Sunday, November 29, 2015

Character Creation Worksheet

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Above is a draft of a "Character Creation Worksheet" for Holmes Basic, planned as part of my Holmes Ref series of references sheets. I designed it for character creation, but also to be used as a character sheet. If you are using it as a character sheet, you can simply circle the relevant selections/information. There is also a quick reference box near the top of the page, and some reference tables at the bottom.

A few notes:
1. No Str or Wis mods per Holmes, but I left the rows blank so they can be added easily.

2. For reasons of space, the M-U Intelligence modifiers are a bit off for Ints below 10.

3. The Charisma numbers involve a bit of an extrapolation. Holmes (pg 5) only mentions a maximum of 5 followers for Charisma "below 13" and a "large number" for a Charisma of 18. This is probably based on the OD&D Vol 1 table, but it doesn't match it exactly ("below 13" (10-12 Charisma should be a maximum of 4 followers). Also, as with the M-U Int modifiers, my columns don't always match the original.

11/30 Update:
4. I had two purposes in mind for the numbers 1-12 in the equipment table, neither of which is essential to character creation but that I thought could be useful. 

One, they allow for random d12 rolling on the table, for example if a DM wishes to use the sheet to generate random weapons, armor, other equipment for an NPC, or to generate random items found in a room.

Two, the numbers 1-12 represent the original 12 weapon class from the Man-to-Man Melee Table in Chainmail (pg 41). These classes are roughly ordered in length and/or weight from lightest/shortest to heaviest/longest, and the class was used in the Man-to-Man combat starting on page 25. OD&D didn't mention any specific use for these classes, but did keep the weapons ordered in this fashion in the equipment table. Holmes likewise kept the weapons in this order in the equipment table. In the module B2, Gygax lets the guards in the Keep that wield polearms automatically win initiative on the first round of combat, which shows one possible use for this information.

I left Halberd out of the table for space reasons, as it can be considered a form of Pole Arm. Both cost the same and are the same class in Chainmail.

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This is still in the tweaking stage, so feedback is appreciated.

5 comments:

  1. Nice work. You forgot to mention the thief;s backstab ability, which was not present in the earlier Holmes printings. Also, you might want to get character movement rates in there.

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    1. Good catch on the Backstab; definitely an oversight. I'll squeeze in it. Movement is a good idea, but I'm not sure if I can find room for it!

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  2. Forgot to mention that I also left it out when I did something similar. Check your email to see what I'm talking about.

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  3. Nice sheet!

    Does the first column in the equipment section (1..12) serve any purpose?

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    1. Yes, thanks for asking about that. I meant to mention it in the notes above. I'll add another one.

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