SD&D mods

Simplified D&D (SD&D): the Castles & Crusades rules modifications to 1st edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.

Using these simple on-the-fly modifications, any 1st edition AD&D module can be played using a streamlined ‘d20-like’ system.

Armour class

The Armour class in SD&D is the reciprocal of the armour class in AD&D.

To generate the SD&D armour class subtract the AD&D armour class from 20.

Examples:
AD&D armour class 3 becomes SD&D armour class 17.
AD&D armour class -2 becomes SD&D armour class 22.

Bonuses to dice rolls based on characteristics

There are two types of characteristic bonus that can be applied to d20 dice rolls.
1) Primary bonus.
2) Unusual score penalty/bonus.

1) Every character is defined by a numerical score against six characteristics: Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, Consitution and Charisma.
You can specify any three of these characteristics as being Primary. That is: the particular characteristics that more especially personalise the character over and above their class/profession.
Every class specifies at least one of these allocations. The Fighter class, for example, always requires Strength to be specified as Primary.
When performing an action and where the activity would draw on a Primary characteristic, you may add 6 to the roll.

2) Very high or very low characteristics attract penalties or bonues to any and all d20 rolls.
The penalties/bonuses are as follows:

1	-4
2 to 3	-3
4 to 5	-2
6-8	-1
9 to 12	0
13 to 15	+1
16 to 17	+2
18 to 19	+3

Saving throws

The categories of saving throws are the same in SD&D as in AD&D. However, each category is tied to a specific Characteristic, rather than being independantly generated.

When the character must make a save, the DM specifies (but is not required to reveal to the player) the intensity of the threat, expressed as a number greater than 1 and typically less than 20.

To save against the threat, roll higher than the intensity identified by the DM on a d20.

Bonuses for the characteristic being tested are applied to the roll. That is: if the characteristic is Primary, you may add 6. If the characterteristic is unusually high or low, add or subtract that amount.

The category of save and the characteristic that it is based up on are:

Paralysis, constriction	Strength
Arcane magic, illusion	Intelligence
Divine magic, confusion, gaze attack, polymorph, petrification	Wisdom
Breath weapon, traps	Dexterity
Disease, energy drain, poison	Constitution
Death attack, charm, fear	Charisma
Spells	Variable

Performing class-related activities

Every class has a list of activities, or skills, that we allow the character has some expertise in.

Fighters, for example, are skilled at combat, though any fool can give it a go.

In 1st edition AD&D the annoying mechanism of a percentage roll existed to cater for such things as thieving skills (Thief class activities).

In SD&D any such class-listed skill is resolved the same as combat. The DM assigns a level of difficulty and the character must beat it on the roll of a d20.

The advantage that the character who is class-skilled in the task has is the automatic primary attribute bonus of +6 on the roll.

Casting spells

The magic model is simple. If you know how to cast a spell, then only being interupted will prevent you from successfully casting it.

If the spell is directed against an object or entity that is due a saving roll then the effects might be reduced, altered or nullified. But under all circumstances the spell has still been cast.

Having said all that, there is still plenty of opportunity for the DM to interfere to make things interesting…

Jiwa Prefecture

This is an excerpt from the Greyhawk map, intended for use in my oriental-influenced rpg. It uses a mixture of Japanese and Chinese sensibilities, so the use of both Kanji (Chinese idiograms) and Japanese script is appropriate.

 I am no scholar of these languages, though I have an interest. So please excuse any howling words that I have inadvertantly created. Since this is a translation of the Greyhawk map, I had to work with the existing words. For the names that used general real-world objects I tried to use Kanji that seemed to be close in meaning. Where there are several words together, however, it may well have come out to be something else. Oops.

When it came to the words that were just fantasy made-up names I decided to translate them phonetically. Originally I did this in Hiragana (ひらがな) because it is a beautiful looking script. Trouble is, in this script the words might be taken to actually mean something, and the lord only knows what I might be saying accidentally. So then I changed to Katakana (かたかな), the script that is predominantly used in Japanese to denote loan or imported words. In this way the words “translated” into Japanese are identified as rubbish, foreign words that are meant to be pronounced and not to be interpreted as anything meaningful, or offensive. I hope.

This area, identified in Greyhawk was the Grand Duchy of Geoff, is in fact an administrative prefecture of the distant central government. The more correct pronunciation is Jiwa. Each hex is 50 miles from side to side.

Ming artillery

Chinese armies of the Ming period made wide use of artillery. Both on the field as well as for the siege and defence of fortifications. It would seem almost every military expedition had a substantial artillery train. This undoubtedly contributed to the success of early Ming armies against Mongol nomads and rivals.

Chinese cannons were cast with both bronze and iron. Ammunition came in the form of stone, iron and lead balls, or large steel-tipped “arrows” with leather fins. Grapeshot was also widely used. Early Ming cannons usually have thickened walls around the explosion chamber, as well as reinforcing rings cast along the length of the barrel. Weight and calibre vary widely, though Chinese cannons seem to have been much smaller than European bombards. Firearms were produced in very large numbers, from 1380 onwards 1000 bronze cannons were manufactured a year, in 1465 alone 300 very large artillery pieces were manufactured. And in 1537 soldiers in Shanxi were supplied with 3000 brass cannon. In the late 14th century, each warship was armed with 4 cannons, 20 fire lances, 16 handguns, and large numbers of grenades and fire arrows.

Several field pieces are illustrated in Ming sources. From 1350 onwards, one of the most popular designs was the “long range awe-inspiring cannon”, this weighed in at 160lbs and could fire a 2lb lead ball hundreds of paces, grapeshot came in the form of 100 small pellets held inside the same bag. A more interesting type is the “Crouching Tiger Cannon”, a small bombard weighing 47lbs and carried on the shoulder, it had two “legs” for elevation and was stapled onto the ground with iron pins before firing. These designs continually advanced over the next few hundred years, and indeed the latter remained in use until the 18th century. Many other artillery pieces existed, but we need not cover them here.

Artillery seems to have performed well when it was used. In Yongle’s Mongolian campaign of 1414, the Ming army arrayed cannons in front of cavalry units and obliterated a Mongol cavalry charge, killing “countless” Mongols and terrifying the enemy horses. In the conquest of Annam, the Chinese used artillery to great effect in the field, on water, and in sieges.

Though effective in the field, early artillery was probably more effective in the defence and siege of fortifications. In 1412 Yongle ordered the stationing of five cannons at each of the frontier passes. Gunpowder weapons had almost completely replaced trebuchets in sieges. During the siege of Suzhou in 1366, large earth platforms were built and “bronze general” cannons placed on top of them to batter the walls, trebuchets were used to launch diseased corpses into the city rather than attacking the walls directly, and thousands of rocket-arrows were fired to set Suzhou alight.

Ming cavalry

Cavalry were a minority in the Ming military. However, they were still an essential component of Chinese armies. Yongle once said “Horses are the most important thing to a country.”, while he may have been exaggerating, it’s clear that the cavalry was highly valued.

Ming cavalry were divided into two types–lancers and mounted archers. The former were equipped with helmet, armour and sabre, as well as a long spear and round shield. The latter were also armoured and carried a sabre, but the primary weapon of a horse archer was his composite bow. Lancers typically charged after the enemy had been softened up with missile weapons, as they proved unable to face spear-armed infantry and artillery bombardment directly. Whereas horse-archers were often the first into battle, meeting the enemy with arrows before the rest of the army engaged in hand to hand combat.

Time and time again, Chinese horsemen proved their worth on the battlefield, though generally when fighting nomads they needed support from infantry. In 1365 Li Weizhong of the Ming defeated a Wu army with a cavalry charge which he led in person. Later, Zhu Di’s success against both imperial forces and Mongol nomads was due in no small part to his strong cavalry. In 1422 Zhu Di led 20,000 elite cavalry and infantry into Manchuria and won a string of victories over the eastern Mongols.

In the later stages of the dynasty. Chinese cavalry severely declined and proved unable to stand up to nomads. Qi Jiguang had to develop specific tactics to ensure success when fighting on the northern border. His armies were infantry and dragoon based, using wagon laagers mounted with light cannon to protect against cavalry charges. This proved successful–the Mongols sued for peace with the Ming soon after Qi Jiguang was put in charge of the border defence.

Ming infantry

The standard company numbered 100 men in the years before Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming in 1368. Each 100 man squad consisted of 40 spearmen, 30 archers, 20 swordsmen and 10 men operating firearms. Later, the army was reorganised and the standard company increased in number to 112 men, though they were likely similarly equipped. These soldiers undertook a sophisticated training program, whereby infantry were well trained for manoeuvring around the battlefield and performing specific drills in the heat of combat, much like the training system of the European renaissance.

Chinese armies of the Ming period used a wide variety of spears. All were generally quite long and tipped with a socketed, tapered steel blade. Some types had downward curving hooks projecting from the blade that were designed for dismounting horsemen. Tridents and more exotic designs existed, but it is doubtful that they were used in large numbers in the army.

Ming archers were armed with long composite bows and various types of arrows, including specialised designs tipped with deadly poison .The most interesting of these designs was the rocket arrow. The rocket arrow was said to have great range and power, piercing through iron breastplates and hardwood planks. But was apparently almost impossible to aim with, for this reason rocket-arrows were usually released in massive swarms. This greatly demoralised the enemy as they would be unable to predict the point of impact. Crossbows were also used in large numbers and probably employed in much the same way as during the preceding Yuan and Song dynasties.

Chinese swords of the Ming period had their origins in central Asian sabres. Ming infantry swordsmen usually carried a goose-quill or willow leaf sabre. The former being comparatively straighter and more suitable for thrusting than the latter, which had a deep curve and was primarily a slashing weapon. Sabres were often used in combination with a shield by special fighting squads.

In the late 14th and early 15th centuries. Chinese firearm technology was the most advanced in the world. The most widely used gun weighed roughly 5lbs and was attached to a long wooden stock which was tucked under the arm or placed over the shoulder before discharging. Ammunition came in the form of both arrows and solid balls. During Yongle’s second campaign in Mongolia, a Chinese army used arrow-firing guns to smash the Mongol cavalry in battle. In his fifth campaign, the emperor ordered his men to first attack with firearms and then to follow up with bows and crossbows–indicating these early guns must have been reasonably effective. Indeed, firearms were instrumental in the Ming conquest of Dai Viet, and proved decisive in a number of battles. However, for the most part it was artillery–not handheld firearms, which gave early Ming armies an edge.

The Ming military system

Under the Ming, military service became hereditary. A soldier and his family would be registered as a military household. Each of these military household’s had an obligation to produce a young man to serve in the army. The hereditary system in it’s early years had guard units numbering 5,000 men, further divided into battalions of 1,000 and companies of 100. Later, the number of soldiers in a guard unit was increased to 5,600 men, comprising of five battalions of 1,120 men, with each battalion divided into companies of 112 men. In total, the Ming army in the late 14th century numbered approximately 1.2 million hereditary soldiers. During the reign of Yongle (Zhu Di) three training camps were established, which troops were sent to in rotation. The first specialised in infantry warfare, the second in cavalry warfare and the third in artillery. While this worked very well at first, it stagnated after 1435 and had to be revived in 1464 by the Chenghua emperor.