Frankenstein AD&D: A more streamlined way to game

Holmes Basic was the first official Basic ruleset that simplified matters after the original game set dropped in 1974, but for our "Frankenstein" streamlined version of the game we aim to run, I will be using a combination of BECMI rules and the rules later introduced in 1e, for such things as combat, encounters and character creations. 

 

 Although I have neglected this blog in calendar year 2025, as we approach a new season and new year, I have decided to continue with more frequent updates but with two specific goals in mind:

1. Building a better, streamlined easier to run version of my favorite edition of D&D (Advanced 1st edition) 

2. A campaign diary for my D&D and RPG games which can serve for some guidance and DM advice and feedback from those of you who have played the game a lot longer, or DMed for a while now.

I should probably preface all this by saying that I am not a noob DM. 2026 will mark 4+ years of being behind the screen of a regular local campaign and I also run a roll20 game every other week, when I am not playing in one, but these have been primarily 5e games.

Frankenstein AD&D

The version of AD&D I want to run harkens back to the 1e days, those halcyon days of youth which for many Gen Xers such as myself, can be colored with nostalgic sensibilities but which undoubtedly has also helped define and shape what gamers, RPG gamers to be specific, call the OSR movement. 

I can't believe it's been several months (almost 10 to be exact!) sine I attempted an in-depth dive and look at the 1e DMG by Gary Gygax. This is the book I started playing with at age 13 in 1983, but have now come to appreciate with the benefit of a 50+ year filter, that I was looking at this book all wrong, as rather than adhere to all its esoteric contents and complexities, the book is meant as a guide and can be as malleable as you want it to be, tailored to each individual campaign or game table.

 So what follows then is a continuation of that initial post, but also a reconcentrated effort to take the best or most usable bits of that tome and apply that which I want to use in my games, while throwing out the rest. The same goes for the 1e PHB and the subsequent books like Unearthed Arcana and the survival and dungeoneer's guide, which I find provide us with a blueprint for proficiencies which in my opinion, are superior to the feats which arrived in later editions of the game.

But in order to arrive at a truly unique "Frankenstein" recreation of Dungeons and Dragons, I submit that additions must also be made, whenever they are of a beneficial nature. That's when BECMI enters the picture, the precursor to the AD&D game, but which in my mind does a superb job of introducing neophytes into the RPG and D&D action and mechanics. 

I realize that Holme's blue book basic was the first official basic ruleset, but I find BECMI to be more complete and easier to build a character and get a group going. So for our project, we are going to simplify the combat sequence found in AD&D 1e and utilize the much easier to run and digest combat sequence found in the BECMI player's book by Frank Mentzer, (starting on page 58).    

But let us return to the DMG and continue where we left off more than two seasons ago. Before anything else I will point out that I am absolutely using the secondary skills table on page 12 upon character creation, as this gives some structure and guidance to the budding character, not to mention wonderful role-playing opportunities, akin to backgrounds in 5e. I have discussed in that previous post the character age, aging and death mechanics and those will also be included. From there we skip to the brief section on the Paladin's warhorse, which is interesting (on page 18) but only if you allow paladins in your game, which were not a part of BECMI but are definitely a part of the advanced game. 

We will be skipping the section on followers for upper-level characters in favor of the rules for followers, mercenaries, NPC parties and hiring of specialists found on pages 24-27 of the Expert BECMI set, as I feel these are more clear and easier to digest than the convoluted guidelines for hiring these NPCs as presented in the DMG.

From here we jump back to page 19 of the DMG where Gygax outlines the thief abilities with greater detail than what can be found in the class description of the 1e PHB. 

The assassin subclass of the thief in 1e D&D

 

The last topic we will look at today to consider for possible inclusion to our game is the concept and rules for alignment. It is quite interesting to me that in Holmes, there was a system of five alignments: Good, Neutral, Chaos and Evil. This is in contrast to the nine-alignment system introduced in AD&D found on page 23 of the DMG. Alignment is more than a tool for role playing, it also dictates the creatures which can be found in the outer planes. (1e PHB p. 120) BECMI simplified it to three basic alignments: law, chaos and neutrality and also espoused the idea of a alignment language. I think alignment languages over complicate things, so I will not use them in our streamlined AD&D Frankenstein version. 

Character age and other game mechanics from 1st edition's DMG

My old 1E AD&D DMG by Gary Gygax.

 

The 1st edition AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide by Gary Gygax is a mess! This statement should not come as a surprise to anyone who knows or plays the game of AD&D, or even has some passing familiarity with the core rulebooks which make up the main portion of rules for this system.

I have been playing in a weekly first edition campaign for over a year now and in order to understand the system better, I have endeavored to slowly digest the contents of the core books one at a time, starting with the DMG and moving on to the PHB, for no particular reason in this order, except that I am familiar with the contents of the PHB, which is slightly less hefty that the DMG.

I will do this mostly in an attempt to become more familiar with this book's contents. 

Of course, I say that the guide book is a mess because everyone knows it seems to jump from one topic to the next, in seemingly an endeavor to be as comprehensive as possible. It does a poor job of organizing said content, but I will attempt to digest most if no all of it, skipping around sections and doing my analysis piecemeal, rather than in one fell swoop.

Today I am looking at character age, aging and outdoor movement rates, which is an interesting discussion given the fact this doesn't seem to come up a lot in the modern version of D&D. 

So character aging is a part of character creation detailed in pages 14-15 of the 1e DMG. At the onset of each and every character's creation it is necessary to establish his/her age. There is a table for PCs and Henchmen, both human and non human. They are divided by race and class, while the humans get a table organized by the various classes. For example, I rolled for a half-orc fighter and his age turned out to be 15! Then I did the same for a human cleric and he turned out to be older at 19. 

What are the effects of aging in the game? Well, in the book Gary says the DM must keep track of a character's age after one is established, from game year to game year. The age categories are: young adult (for a dwarf this ranges from 35-50) to venerable 450 max for a dwarf, about 120 at the long end for humans. Calculating these affect attributes with a mature character adding 1 point of strength and 1 point of wisdom every game year.   

Unnatural aging is also common and mostly caused by spell casing or magical mans: casting alter reality for example, will syphon 3 year's from the caster's life, which getting hit with a haste spell would shorten a person's or creature's life span by a year.

This section of the book is followed by disease, which I don't even find fun in real life, so why include it in my game? the Book does go into death due to age. Indeed, the read texts: "Once a character dies due to old age, then its all over." 

The following section expands upon the characters' abilities which were first introduced in the PHB. It starts on page 41 and starts with a discussion of the Cleric's spells. Detect evil, detect magic, light and protection from evil. Light is caused upon the visage or before the visual organs of a creature, it will tend to blind it (rather as if a strong light were placed before its eyes), and this causes a -4 penalty "to hit," saving throws, and even armor class. 

Spell description for each casting class are explained for the DM's benefit all the way up to 7th level. 

A rather lengthy section on adventuring outdoors ensues, beginning on page 47. It is at this point that I need to mention that surveying these game rules as written will allow me to cherry pick those I want to bring into my games and those which I do not wish to use either because they seem cumbersome, are a bit vague, or superfluous or all of the above.  

A map is recommended for use by adventures in the outdoors, the scale being 20 to 40 miles per hexagon, with the GM dividing each large hex into blocks of smaller hexes, 5 across the middle or 5 across each face as desired. This is primary done for determining chance of encounters and they reference the possibility and mechanics of pursuit. 

Outdoor movement rates are given on page 58 of the DMG and procedures for getting lost and exhaustion results from movement without proper rest are also detailed. We will return to other movement rules including aerial, waterborne and underwater adventure guidelines, but after our next post which will further detail PC abilities.