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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Holmes Ref

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The project I'm working on these days is Holmes Ref, my take on an OGL expansion for Holmes Basic, which I'm hoping WOTC will release as a pdf soon (or even reprint). "Ref" refers to both Referee and Reference, and pays tribute to the Judges Guild Ready Ref sheets. Like that set, Holmes Ref will be heavy on single-page reference sheets that can be used directly in DIY DM screens. It's not intended to replace Holmes Basic, but should have sufficient information to play the game, much as OD&D can (mostly) be played using only the Ready Ref sheets. 

As a preview, a portion of the table for magic items is pasted above (this is a draft version and specific details may change). The idea here is to take the Basic rulebook magic item tables and make them more expansive. For example, "Ring" powers are not necessarily limited to an item in the shape of a ring, and rings can have powers normally found in other forms. This expands on the 'quirk' in the Holmes rules that allows for Potion, Ring and Wand powers to be found on scrolls.  

Update: Reference sheets completed so far can be found on this ZA site page.

4 comments:

  1. minor quibble ... I think (on vacation, blue book not at my side) that Holmes had a 10 - 20% chance of obtaining a treasure map in the SCROLL category .. .

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    1. In the Bluebook, maps are determined before rolling for type of magic item, with 25% of "Any" results on the Treasure Table being a map. So this would be determined before using the table above, and will be on a previous sheet in Holmes Ref.

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