So it begins...

People always ask me to teach them how to play D&D. They've read an article, seen a clip, or someone has posted something about D&D's latest edition. It seems that the newcomers to D&D want a taste of what it was like...they want B2, G1-3, D1-3, S2, they want to know what is like to encounter a Drow for the first time, to fight a giant crab inside a bubble, the sneak down a glacial crevasse, but mainly they want to experience the foundation experience of the nerds that came before. 

I then tell them about how wonderful Old School D&D is, and how far the current rules are from that perfect ideal. But which one to use?

After several months of looking I have decided that the rules set is going to be Swords & Wizardry. Mainly because it is free, secondly that it is like AD&D without the bloat.I think S&W best captures that spirit. Labyrinth Lord is good. AD&D itself is good-but it is not free to get all those books. S&W it is, but I'll still call it D&D.

My intro spiel to the players...

Here's the basics. (If you don't understand anything below, do not worry, it will make sense once you start rolling dice...)

There are dice! A four sided (called a d4, 'd' for dice '4' for the number range), a d6, a d8, a d10 (number 1 through 0), a d12, and a d20. The d10's are used to generate a number from 1-100. You roll it twice-the 1st number is the tens and the second is the singles. For example, a roll of a five followed by a 6 would be fifty-six. A 0-0 is 100.

Your "playing piece" is called a player character ("PC"). The person who runs everything other than the PCs is called the game master ("GM") or dungeon master ("DM").
Each character can have one of four jobs: Cleric, Fighter, Magic User, or Thief. Once you pick one you are basically stuck with it. Demihumans can have two or three classes, but are limited in how good they can get.

Clerics need a good wisdom score and are basically medics who can fight: they cast spells that cure and can wear good armor. Fighters need a good strength score, swing swords and wear good armor. Magic Users need a good intelligence score, can't wear armor but can cast spells that hurt enemies. Thieves need a good dexterity score, cant wear nice armor, they sneak around, scout, pick locks, and find traps.


I will be the DM. Everyone else will have PCs. The PCs are a group called a "party."
The party moves through the gameworld doing whatever the hell you want. This is called adventuring. The DM referees the adventure, rolling dice for everything the party meets.

When you decide that your PC does something you will roll to see if it succeeds. The success level is the relevant ability score relative to the difficulty. Say you want to go down a slippery set of slime covered stairs. If you wanted to run down it and do a back flip, it would be more difficult than if you tied a rope off at the top, braced against a wall or railing, and descending slowly and carefully. The first would be a roll on a d20 against your dexterity with a modifier of +4 (lower than your ability score succeeds), the latter an automatic success.

A normal adventure features a safe house (a town/castle) that the party journeys from to a dungeon filled with traps, tricks, monsters and treasure. The point is to avoid the traps/tricks, defeat monsters, and collect treasure. Defeating monsters earns PCs experience points. Stealing treasure earns experience points. Generally treasure earns more experience points than defeated monsters. Generally the more dangerous the monster, the greater the treasure.

Generally, the further you go into a location, the more dangerous it is. For example, a dungeon 20' feet deep is generally less dangerous than one 150' deep. The emphasis is on generally. A party can encounter a monster that is tougher than the party...that is when you RUN AWAY.
When the PCs get back to a safe place they get the experience points ("XP") they have earned. As a PC accumulates xp,they gain levels. every PC starts at level 1. The higher the level, the more powerful the PC. what that means depends on the character class. Clerics and Magic Users gets more spells, Fights get better attacks, Thieves get better at thieving, and everyone gets harder to kill. 

The version we are playing is called Swords and Wizardry. It is an emulation of the original version of D&D from 1974. It is very rules light...about as hard to learn as Monopoly. Swords and Wizardry is free and available here: http://www.swordsandwizardry.com/ . I will have five copies and multiple sets of the rules for character generation.

Each PC has six ability scores. Strength (Arnold), Intelligence (Marie Curie), Wisdom (Grandma), Dexterity (Lin Dan), Constitution (Adam Richman), and Charisma (Oprah). The scores are determined by rolling three six sided dice ("3d6") and combing the rolls for a range of 3-18. 18's are rare; 10 is average. 

There are multiple races: Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, Half-Elves, and Humans. Any race that a player can be are called "demi-humans."

Logistics...

• Roughly every third Saturday at 2:00, newbies will be told to show up at noon to get acclimated. Bring what you want to drink. No hard stuff until after the session. We'll make a pot of something to eat. Smoking outside only...
• If you show up late, you can join the party, but you have to roll on the "Where Have You Been?" table from  A Red and Pleasant Land by Zak S. This is the worst thing on the table: Set upon by thieves. You get to keep your money and lose your stuff or vice versa. Choose.
• If you have to leave before the party is in a safe place, someone can either run your character as a henchman, or you can roll on the "Did I Get Out Alive?" table. this is really similar to the "Where Have You Been Table?" If you leave early you also miss out on any treasure split.
• We will play as late as we want. I got coffee, the next day is a Sunday...wtf else did you have to do?
• You cannot handle cursing, an R rated horror movie, or being around adults who smoke and drink this is probably not the table for you.

Notes on my style of DMing: 

• Generally I do not use a screen. If a dungeon has a complex map I might use one to keep it hidden from player view.
• Rolls that need to be kept from players I will roll behind my hand. 
• I do not fudge rolls.
• If a party wants to run away-you get to run away unless you are lost or trapped. Some monsters will follow!
• I play smart monsters smart and dumb ones dumb. Super-smart monsters (Int 17+) I will play with some of my in game knowledge to reflect their higher intelligence.
• Monsters, in general, do not want to die. They will surrender, run away, play dead, etc... to avoid getting killed.
• Monsters, in general, want to capture PCs if possible for ransom, sacrifice, or slavery/food on the hoof.
• Torture is always evil.
• Save or die is acceptable.
• If you have an issue with a ruling on my part let me know, but once I have decided lets both move on. for example in the slippery stair thing above you might say "I have crampons!" to which I might say "OK-its a modifier of 3." At that point either make the roll or do something else. Other people are playing and waiting on someone else while they argue over rules and rolls is BORING. We can revisit it after the session is done.
• The game world is magical. Anything that cannot be explained is MAGIC.

Houserules? (Note to beginners...this will only make sense to people who know how to play.)

• Descending AC.
• Every PC gets max hit points at 1st, 2nd, and 3rd levels.
• A 1 or 20 on d20 always fails/succeeds. A natural 20 when attacking means max damage. A 1 means a possible broken weapon. Make a dex check...if failed the weapon needs to make a saving throw vs. crushing blow. 
• Falling damage is 1d6 per 10' additive, i.e. a 20' fall is 3d6: 1d6 for the 1st 10', 2d6 for the 20'. Max d6 for a fall is 20d6 at 60'. Each 10' thereafter adds +1 to each die to a max of +5: 120 hps of damage for a fall of 110' or greater.
• Three alignments: Law, Chaos, and Neutral. All PCs must decide when reaching 4th level.
• At 4th level PCs may add 3 points total to ability scores. Max score is 18.
• At 4th level PCs with qualifying ability scores may transform into an advanced class... Clerics into Druids, Fighters into Paladins or Rangers, or Thieves into Assassins or Monks. XP is transferred over, this will in most cases change the level of the PC. Hit points are rerolled, max for first three levels. New total is kept only if higher than the previous total or the previous total was higher than the max possible for the new level. This class transfer can only be done at 4th level.
• XP is awarded at 6 per gold piece.
• Magic items give the PC who owns the item the experience value of the item.
• Magic items can be bought or sold...but the items that can be bought are usually potions or scrolls.
• Training for a new level is 1,200 gp per level and takes 5 days +1 day per level. E.g. Training for third level would cost 3,600 gp and take 8 days.
• Alternatively to training a PC may spend 90% of their money on public works to achieve the same results: this can be a party, statue in the public square, funding an orphanage, grand donation to the church, road improvements, etc... as long as it is a public display of wealth and success.
• Your character died and everyone else is umpteenth level? You can start a new PC at a class level equal to average XP of the party, but with ZERO actual XP, no magic, and 60 gp per level to buy equipment. For example if the average XP of the party is 12,000 you could start as a ASS5, CLC5, DRD4, F4, MU4, MNK4, PAL4, R4, or THF5. Ability scores rolled 3d6 in order...if level is higher than 3rd you get to add before choosing a class/race. Multi-class character's XP would be divided by 2 or 3 depending on the number of classes.
• Demi-humans reaching max level earn 50% XP for that class, but have no level limit.
• Level draining undead drain XP points equal to the total XP of the character divided by the number of PC levels times the number of levels drained.
• Example... a 4HD wight hits a 4th level MU with 19,000 XP. 19000/4 is is 4,750. Times the number of levels drained (1) is still 4,750. That would drop the MU to 14,250 XP, still above the minimum for 4th level. If the level drainer had been a specter which drains 2 levels it would've looked like this: 4,750 * 2 for a total of 9,500 drained dropping the MU to 9,500 XP and just below the amount required for 4th level.
• Example...An MU18 with 1,050,000 XP would have 116,667 drained by a specter...enough to remain above 17th level.
• What happens if you are drained and lose a level? HPs lost is a die roll appropriate to the class less any bonus for constitution. For example, that MU4 above if they had a constitution of 13 or above would lose 1d4 minus 1 hit points for the lost level. A roll of 1 would mean ZERO lost hit points. Regaining the level would mean an additional roll for hit points. In a weird way, suffering a weak undead attack may provide a boon to a lucky roller. Spells in excess are lost immediately...PC choice which goes.
• PCs knocked below 0 hp minus their highest level are knocked unconscious. In the case of a dual classed character, the highest level is used even if it is not the prime class. e.g., a F12 switched to a THF and is at level 1 would go to -12 hp before succumbing to their wounds. Characters in negative hit points lose 1 hp per round until dead or ministrations are applied.
• Clerics may turn/command every round. All cure spells cure at +1 per cleric level above the level of the spell up to the maximum allowed by the cure spell. Thus a CLC6 would not need to roll for a cure light wounds spell as it is 1d6+1 normally. A CLC6 would cure lights wounds at 1d6+1+5 (6th level minus 1st level spell), or a minimum of 7 hps with a roll of a 1. That same CLC6 would cast a cure serious that cures 2d6+2+2, (6th level minus 4th level spell), for a range of 6-14 hps cured.
• Fighters rolling a 20 get double damage or max damage, which ever is less.
• Magic Users need to carry an item that is a component in all of their spells-think wands in the Harry Potter world or Pedro Cerrano's chicken foot in Major League. For me I would go with a rune covered oosik.
• Thieves may open a stuck door automatically as if they were picking a lock. If they make their "open locks" roll the door is opened silently, failure means the door opens loudly. Basically a thief can open an unlocked door without making a roll.