B/X House Rules - Updated

Dead Lords by Brom

In February of 2023 I kicked off a B/X campaign with some friends of mine using B4 The Lost City by Tom Moldvay. Over two years later, with a hiatus here and a break there, we still meet and deal with the ancient secrets of Cynidicea on game nights. 

Below is the simple list of house rules we use to run the game. A few items added we added earlier have fallen off, some things we've tried haven't stuck. These ones have seen a fare bit of use so far and have stuck around.

Rolling Stats. Characters' stats are rolled in order as normal. A character who is below average in every ability, or has more than one very low (3-6) ability score can be declared “hopeless” and fully re-rolled.

Starting Hit Points. A roll of 1 or 2 for starting HP can be re-rolled.

Classes. The classes are: Fighter, Speaker (as Cleric), Thief, Mage (as Magic-User), Hamstero, Dwarf, Albino Elf (as Elf).

Moral Alignments. Alignments are changed to Good, Neutral, and Evil.

Languages. Languages known can be held in reserve. The first time a language is encountered, characters must declare whether they know it or not. Not that some languages cannot be learned this way.

Turn Undead. Speakers may affect beings other than undead with turning/command based on Hit Dice, if it is appropriate to their deity.

Long Reach. Those armed with polearms or readied missile weapons may strike first, regardless of initiative.

Cleave. Fighters (and some monsters!) can do carryover damage. When fighting grouped opponents, the damage remaining after a killing blow is transferred to the next applicable opponent.

First Aid. There is a chance to save a dead character by healing them very quickly. A normal type that reaches 0 HP is irrevocably slain, but a 1st-level character-type begins dying. Such a character has 1 combat turn in which they can be healed to prevent their death. For each level of experience past the first, a character has one more combat turn before they are permanently slain. A character that was dying but was saved suffers a permanent loss of 1 point of Constitution and gains a terrible scar from the wound.

Flip the Body. If the body of a dead ally can be recovered, there is a chance that they were not truly killed! Perhaps they were knocked unconscious or stunned. If a character reaches a dead ally's body within one hour, the dead character may make a death save when their body is rolled over. Any points of damage below zero are added as a penalty to this save. On a successful save, the dead character was badly injured but able to stay alive. Once shaken awake, they recover to 1 hit point. They are groggy for the next hour (-4 to all rolls) and sustain a permanent injury of some kind, reflected as a loss of 1 point of Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution.

Shields Shall Be Splintered. Before damage is rolled, a shield may be sacrificed to negate a single strike. This only works for conventional strikes—other, specific types of shields might stop magical attacks.