Attending the Old School, Part 2

I find the referee procedures of older editions of D&D very appealing. They are succinct and simple and therefore very adaptable, yet despite their brevity they manage to cover most common situations. Each set of procedures (for wilderness and dungeon adventuring turns, for encounters, and for combat) contains a collection of tools (surprise checks, reaction rolls, morale checks, etc.) that have broad applications once the referee gets used to them. This loose yet clear structure is one of the features of Old-School Essentials that drew me to the system in the first place.

As with its class options, I find that OSE once again sits in the sweet spot. In modern D&D, these procedures have faded into the background over time, and any mention of them in the rule books sounds rather hand-wavey. Sure, worry about tracking time, but just ... do what feels right. I'm sure this complaint sounds all to familiar to anyone in the OSR scene.

However, on the other end of the spectrum, you have the extremely rules-light systems like Into the Odd or Knave that reference morale and reactions but make an assumption that the referee already knows the various procedures that suggest when to use them. For a lot of their audience, this may be true. But for me, I didn't fully grok a "dungeon turn" until I read through Old-School Essentials.

Understanding these procedures as a basic framework for how to manage the game drastically improved my ability as a referee and also provided a great foundation to build from when customizing the game for my players.

My second session of Winter's Daughter featured a good example of how I used a classic referee tool: the reaction roll. But, before I get into that example, here is a quick summary of the session:

Dramatis Personae

Flynn Four-Fingers, Level 2 Thief

Russell, Level 2 Fighter

Ancin, Level 1 Magic-User

Chadwick, Level 2 Cleric (a new player)

Notable Events

• The party met a cleric named Chadwick sitting in the chapel to St. Sledge in prayer and allowed him to join in their exploration of the burial mound

• Near the main entrance, four religious objects floated up and attacked Flynn specifically (our only non-Lawful PC). The shifty thief managed to dodge the attacks while the party bashed the objects to bits

• The party crossed through a room with a full-length mirror and evidence of a stolen statue, but when they moved to investigate, foul sorcery tried to paralyze them. Russell and Chadwick both had to be splashed with holy water to remove the effects. Being fresh out of more holy water, the party backtracked to take another route

• They entered into the family crypt where they discovered two animated skeletons (Sir Chyde's parents) dancing in mid-air. After Russell made a good first impression, Flynn turned on the charm and joined them for a floating dance while managing to steal their jewelry in the process

Spooky scary skeletons (Three Dancing Skeletons, James Akin)

Referee Insights

When I read through this adventure, I identified the encounter with the dancing skeletons as a great opportunity to lean into the reaction roll; they aren't portrayed as your normal mindless undead.

Russell burst through the heavy door first and into the crypt, disturbing the skeleton dance. I immediately rolled 2d6 for their initial reaction, and got a 5: unfriendly. I portrayed them chiding the party for being disrespectful and interrupting their dance. 

Russell immediately became apologetic and brought up his apparent distant relation to the family. After some groveling, I performed another reaction roll, adding Russell's +1 Charisma modifier and got an 8: indifferent. They went back to their dancing and stopped harassing the party, and even said that they'd allow their relatives (Russell and Flynn) to join in.

At this point, Flynn entered the room and spotted the jewelry that the skeletons wore. He accepted their invitation and joined their floating dance. He tried to pickpocket using his thief skill, but failed: no easy pickings this time. 

I had forgotten that the party thief was a charmer with +2 Charisma, and he decided to try to use that as leverage to distract them. I made one more reaction roll and got a 12: they were smitten and started passing him back and forth. With that, I gave him an x-in-6 chance to try to nab the jewels without his preternatural abilities. He rolled well and got them both, the skellies being none the wiser.

Two things set this example apart from a modern "persuasion"-style check:

1. Varied degrees of success and failure: the roll doesn't default to a binary pass/fail outcome
2. Probability curve: unlike a d20 check, the reaction roll tends toward the neutral result

Both of these elements yield rolls that tend to be easier to interpret or reconcile with the fiction.

Additionally, the example above demonstrates the flexibility of old school referee tools. I used a reaction roll to establish the skeletons' initial disposition and then also to measure the impact of active player effort. It's multi-purpose and leaves room for interpretation by the referee; hallmarks of the old school mindset.

For anyone interested in porting a reaction roll into more of a check-style approach, I talk about it in a previous blog post.