I’m still thinking about that OD&D and Chainmail inspired dice pool system from the other day. Let me add a few rules:
Exploding Dice: I resisted it, but it looks like I’ll need it to help characters deal with long odds and can’t-hit scenarios. So if a hit die rolls an unmodified 10, roll another die and add it to the total.
“Kills:” Naturally, the final Kill can represent a nonlethal victory, such as subdual, a knockout a wrestling hold, etc. And no nonsense about declaring intent is necessary.
Mobs and Swarms: You can allow multiple hit dice to represent a bunch of similar creatures. Obviously.
Parrying: You can split some hit dice to parry, or even use all of your hit dice. Make an attack roll; instead of being penalized by armour, you’re penalized by the attacker’s weapon. Each “Kill” removes one Kill from the enemy’s attack. You can always hold dice back to do this, and can announce “parry!” right after the attack roll.
You must devote as many hit dice as the opponent possesses to the sum total of your attack and parry dice each round, or all of your hit dice if you don’t have as many hit dice as your enemy. That’s before any modifiers to dice.
Unarmed Grappling: Grappling ignores armour. Each “Kill” forces the opponent to remain entangled with the opponent for a round so that he can’t move, but inflicts no damage. If an opponent parries your grappling attempt they also inflict damage — 1 Kill per “Kill” of parrying. Optionally, you can shove an opponent 10 feet per “kill”" instead, but you immediately lose control of them next round.
Unarmed Striking: Unarmed striking is standard combat with a weapon modifier of 0, but can considered to be two weapon combat if the attacker chooses.
Unlimited Criticals: This isn’t very OD&D but it is very Chainmail to allow a weaker opponent to smack a stronger one with instant death. So attacks now inflict a number of Kills equal to each die divided by 10, rounded down (1 at 10, 2 at 20, 3 at 30, etc.).
Weapon Load and Shields: Some guys want two weapons. Some guys want shields. Some guys want a two-handed weapon. Some guys want one hand free. Let’s make each option interesting but not overwhelming.
- Two Handed Weapon: Two-handed weapons benefit from 150% of the character’s Strength bonus.
- Two Weapons: You may split dice to attack opponents that you would normally need to use your full hit dice against more than once and you earn a bonus hit die to one of these pools when you attempt multiple attacks, but your attacks suffer a -2 penalty because of lighter weapons or lack of coordination. You can always refuse the benefits to ignore the penalties.
- Weapon and Unarmed Hand: The standard. No adjustments, though you can treat your off hand as a weapon and act as if you have two weapons, above.
- Weapon and Shield: If you split dice to parry, add 1 die to your parry roll. The shield’s type can add up to +4 to your parry if you’re a fighter or cleric, but nothing if you’re a thief.
Weaklings: Some creatures are weaklings with ½ hit die. They suffer a Kill on a 5 or better, and roll 1d5 to attack, but their rolls explode on a 10 on the d10 die face (even though the roll’s value is 5). In a mob, 2 weaklings = 1 hit die.