Hit Dice Hack

This content is still under development and being playtested when possible. It is to be played with 0D&D, Basic, and/ or AD&D rules.

Hit Dice Hack (HDH) is an alternative dice pool character system compatible with classic versions of the Oldest Role-playing Game.

What you will need

1. Imagination
2. Scratch paper
3. Pencils or Pens
4. A set of polyhedral dice: four-sided (d4), six-sided (d6), eight-sided (d8), two ten-sided (d10 and/ or d%), twelve-sided (d12), twenty-sided (d20). It is advised to have four d4, d6, and d8 dice.
5. Your choice of Original, Basic, and/ or Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

Action Economy

As your character levels up they become more powerful, this is tracked by your experience level and the hit dice you have accumulated over play. These hit dice are the secondary resolution for gameplay. You will roll these dice to cast spells, attack with a sword, or test your infiltration skills.

Exploration

The skills provided in the Thief classification later on in this text may be performed by any character. However, your chances of success is 1-in-4 or 1-in-8 based on your chosen class's Hit Dice. You are not allows to expend multiple Hit Dice for one test, but you may attempt as many times as you wish.

Tracking Time

A round is based on the six hour interval of the day:

• Morning (6am to 12pm) is a version of twilight where the sun rises in the east.
• Afternoon (12pm to 6pm) is when the sun drifts across the sky warming the earth.
• Evening (6pm to 12am) is a version of twilight when the run rests in the west.
• Night (12am to 6am) is when the sun has set and the coldest part of the day. 

Your Hit Dice recovers from a Rest or at the next six hour interval of the day.

Combat

On your turn in a combat round, your Hit Dice pool refreshes and you may preform the following actions:

• Move you may move your player character (PC) up to near or thirty feet. This moment may be broken up between multiple points. The following distances are used during a combat encounter.

  
  

  • Close is when the target is within your reach.
  • Near is movement you can move and is an adjacent zone to your character's current position.
  • Far is the edge of the combat encounter but can still change if all parties are moving (during a chase).
  • Distant is outside of the encounter but still visible.

• Attacking requires you to expend hit dice to complete a Melee, Ranged, or Magic action. Your Hit Dice expended must equal the total Hit Dice of your target or your total possible Hit Dice rolled must equal or exceed the target's Hit Dice.
  • Melee is when you attack a target close to you.
  • Ranged is when you attack a target within near or far distance.

Susan is playing a Cedric, a Fighter, and rolls two eight-sided dice to hit a target with a Hit Dice total of four four-sided dice. Because Cedric has a total possible Hit Dice total of 16 the melee attack hits because it exceeds the target's possible Hit Dice total of 12.

• Jumping requires movement and consumes half your movement to long jump or high jump.
• Use Skill requires you to expend a Hit Dice to preform a skill from the thief skill list.
• Magic Actions require you to expend the needed Hit Dice as well as the symbol and verbal components (ingredients are optional).

Stats

The game has five stats: Strength, Reason, Intuition, Dexterity, and Constitution. Each has a suggested Saving Throw.  See the table below for your stat progression based on Experience Level:

Stat Progression Table

Class	Levels	Strength	Reason	Intuition	Dexterity	Constitution
Fighter	1-3	12	8	9	10	10
	4-6	15	11	12	13	13
	7-9	18	14	15	16	16
Thief	1-3	9	10	10	12	8
	4-6	12	13	13	15	11
	7-9	15	16	16	18	14
Magic-User	1-3	8	12	10	10	9
	4-6	11	15	13	13	12
	7-9	14	18	16	16	15

You may generate each stat by rolling three six-sided dice and adding them up (You may also roll four sixes-sided dice and drop the lowest). The higher the stat, the better! Stats do not improve as you level up.

Strength 

Raw might. Saves against Petrification and Polymorph.

Reason

Intellect as well as one’s ability to learn and recall from memory. Saves against Magical Items.

Intuition 

One’s senses as well as judgement. Saves against Spells.

Dexterity 

Nimble movement as well as finesse. Saves against Breath Weapons.

Constitution

Stamina. Saves against Poison, Paralysis, and Death.

Experience Level

At certain increments of experience gained you gain a level.

Derived Stats

The following are stats that change based on gameplay.

Experience Points 

This stat increases are you gain more Gold Pieces by adventuring and spending it. Jewels and Magical Items do not count as Experience Points (XP) until sold.

Hit Points

Your Hit Point maximum is equal to your Hit Dice rolled at each level.

Armor Class

Your Armor Class is equal to your Dexterity plus any other added effects such as armor, magic or magic items.

Saving Throws

At times, and maybe more than you want, your character will be in danger and you will need to roll a die to save your character from an effect. You do so by rolling a twenty-sided die and aiming for or under the declared stat as the target number.

Resting

Your character may complete two Short Rests (1 Hour) a day and one Long Rest (8 Hours) a day. When a Short Rest is complete the character rolls their expended Hit Dice and any result equal to half or greater of it’s face value restores the Hit Die. When a Long Rest is complete the character regains all expended Hit Dice.

Using Older Modules

The adventures from the 1970’s to 1990’s use specific saving throws: Death, Wands, Petrification, Dragon Breath, Spells.These rules will highlight the specific stats used for each save. However, if you feel that one stat makes sense over another use that stat.

Character Classifications

The following classic core classes are available to you during character creation:

Fighter

• Prime Stat: Strength 
• Hit die: eight-sided
• Armor: All armor and shields
• Weapons: All 

Level	Eperence Points	Hit Dice
1	0	1d8
2		2d8
3		3d8
4		4d8
5		5d8
6		6d8
7		7d8
8		8d8
9		9d8

Second Wind

The fighter may use their hit dice to recover hit points at any time.

Reminder: Your Combat Hit Dice refresh at the beginning of your turn in the round. However, your Hit Dice outside of Combat only refresh after one (of two) short rests or after you complete your daily rest.

Thief 

Acrobats or Assassins are among the many devious titles given to this class.

• Prime Stat: Dexterity 
• Hit die: d6
• Armor: Light armor and shields
• Weapons: Light and one-handed

Skilled Thieves

As a thief you have a talent for the following skills: Climb Sheer Surface, Arming and Disarming Traps, Listen for Sounds, Hide in Shadows, Move Silently, Open Locks, and Pick-pocketing. You complete a skill check by rolling the relevant Hit Die or Dice available to you and succeed when you roll within the parameter determined by your Experience Level in the following table under Skill Chance of Success.

Reminder: Any character may preform these skills. However, any class outside of the thief only has a 1-in-6 chance of succeeding

Experience Level	Experience Needed	Hit Dice	Skills Chance of Success
1	0	1d6	1-2
2		2d6	1-2
3		3d6	1-3
4		4d6	1-3
5		5d6	1-3
6		6d6	1-4
7		7d6	1-4
8		8d6	1-4
9		9d6	1-4

Sneak Attack

As long as you are undetected you gain +X (For now, refer to your preferred ruleset) to attack rolls.

Magic-User

Sorcerers and Enchanters are among the many names given to this class.

• Prime Stat: Reason
• Hit die: four-sided
• Armor: Cloth
• Weapons: Knife

Level	XP	Hit Dice
1	0	1d4
2		2d4
3		3d4
4		4d4
5		5d4
6		6d4
7		7d4
8		8d4
9		9d4
10		(+) 1

Evocation Source

As a magic-user you wield powerful magics that you have learned. These are commonly referred to as spells but you know better, their called Evocations! An effect produced through spoken words and hand gestures. These are recorded in a spellbook which is written in a code no other can (should) understand.

Magic

Each day you have a number of prepared spells. This increases as you gain Experience Levels. A full list of spells is located in the Magic Section of this text.

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	2	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	2	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	3	2	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	3	2	2	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	3	2	2	1	-	-	-	-	-
8	4	3	2	2	-	-	-	-	-
9	4	3	2	2	1	-	-	-	-
10	4	3	3	2	2	-	-	-	-
11	4	3	3	2	2	1	-	-	-
12	5	4	3	3	2	2	-	-	-
13	5	4	3	3	2	2	1	-	-
14	5	4	4	3	3	2	2	-	-
15	5	4	4	3	3	2	2	1	-
16	6	5	4	4	3	3	2	2	-
17	6	5	4	4	3	3	2	2	1

Rituals

Sometimes you’ve exhausted your memory and need to refer to your source, your spellbook is available to you as long as your have hit dice to spend. It is very dangerous to use your spellbook during a combat encounter. Even though it is inherently magical it is not immune to damage!

Magic-User Evocations

Magic-Users have the following spell list:

Level 1

• x

Level 2

• x

Level 3

• x

Level 4

• x

Level 5

• x

Level 6

• x

Level 7

• x

Level 8

• x

Level 9

• x

Equipment 

The total amount of equipment your character may carry is equal to your Strength. This is represented by a number of slots. A slot equals a number of X coins and most items weight your X coins. The following sections provide examples for reference.

Items

What do you bring with you on your delves and expeditions?

Armor

The armor you wear or carry takes up a slot of your Loatout. The following tags help describe how much space that is:

• Light armor includes Leather or Chainmail.
• Heavy armor includes Plate Mail. 
• Small armor includes a Buckler Shield. 
• Big armor includes a Kite Shield. 

Weapons

The weapon you are using simply have tags which describe it’s ability and damage type(s).

• Big weapons require two hands such as Battle Hammer, 
• Small weapons can be concealed such as a Dagger, 
• Light weapons can be wielded in both hands such as a Short Sword, 
• Heavy weapons may require two hands such as Battle Axe, 
• Blunt weapons do bludgeoning damage such as a Club, Mace, Staff, 
• Piercing weapons penetrate.
• Sharp weapons do slashing damage such as Long Sword, 
• Reach weapons can attack within double close such as Pole Arm, Spear, 
• Charge weapons require a mount such as a Lance. 
• Ranged weapons have a distance it can launch a projectile or be thrown such as Crossbow, Hand Axe, Javelin, Long Bow, Short Bow, Sling, 
• Ammunition is used with Ranged Weapons.
• Silver weapons may be entirely or plated in silver.

Appendix: Beyond 9th Level

Some play groups may want to their character to surpass level nine. In this event, the group must decide to do so and when they acquire X experience points they gain 10th Level. 

At tenth level the character receives a +1 to their hits and no Hit Dice. This increases at your tables desgression, but it is recommended that you only increase this every five experience levels and do not exceed +3.

Magic-Users Beyond 9the Level

A magic-user who achieves 10th level or more will gain X memorized spells until they have acquired nine memorized spells at each spell level.

Thieves Beyond 9th Level

A thief’s skill checks become 1-5 chance for success and never goes beyond this for chance would be eliminated.