Simple Conditions For Old School D&D

Up until recently I was playing a fair bit of a game called Barebones Fantasy . It's a nice, simple system that I had a lot fun running but eventually stopped due to annoyance with the multi-action per turn combat. The game listed a set of Conditions that you could disadvantage characters with. They had a elegance to them that worked well with the rest of the game's rules. You could happily apply them without having to trudge through a rulebook to work out the specifics of each condition. They were also all listed on one page, rather than being spread across different sections and different books.

I had each of the conditions allocated to the result of a roll on a d100. I used this for getting ideas for special attacks and abilities of monsters or the specific dangers of hazards in a game. I also would just have it laying around to remind me of different ways to fuck with players.

I was thinking of putting the list straight into my Labyrinth Lord file as is, and work out D&D equivalents for the conditions on the fly. That would have been lazy, so here they are, reworked for Labyrinth Lord. Not all of them actually needed to be changed but some were specific mechanic-wise to Barebones.

They're not particularly original, and the same things probably been done some where before, but they will be my way of slotting in quick and easy conditions to D&D. Many of these conditions are already present in some form (spells, specific monster attacks, surprise rules etc) but this saves me wading through rule-books and matching per-existing rules to words. Plus, I tried to make them as simple as possible, so regardless of actual rules I will be using these.

(I've given them all results on d100 for funsies).

Negative Condition:

0 - 8) Dazed: Your head is spinning! Victim gets -1 to attack rolls, +1 to attribute saves. The condition can stack (ie, get daze attacked twice and your attack roll goes to -2) and will also stack with the Fatigue condition. Lasts a d6 amount of time.

9 - 18) Fatigue: You are exhausted. Victim gets -1 to attack rolls, +1 to attribute saves until they rest. The condition can stack (ie, not dealing with your fatigue will result in -2 to attack rolls the next day) and will also stack with the Dazed condition.

19 - 27) Immobilized: Victim is held in place, they can't move but can still perform actions (that obviously don't require moving). They must make a Save vs Petrify or Paralyze to cease the condition.

28 - 36) Paralyzed: Victim can't move and can't perform actions. They are aware of their surroundings but have no recourse to interact with it. They must make a Save vs Petrify or Paralyze to cease the condition.

37 - 45) Petrified: Same as Paralyzed but now the victim has an AC of -5 as they have turned to stone. They will need some sort of magical cure to cease being stone.

46-55) Prone: Victim is sprawled on the ground, their armor class is increased (ie, made worse) by 5. They will have to devote the next turn to getting up.

56 - 63) Slowed: Victim can only act every other initiative pass. This condition may last a certain amount of turns or the victim may have to make a specific save depending on how the condition was gained.

64 - 72) Stunned: Victim can only act every other third initiative pass. This condition may last a certain amount of turns or the victim may have to make a specific save depending on how the condition was gained.

73 - 81) Surprised: Victim always rolls a 1 for initiative. Surprised characters takes their turn after the non-surprised characters and opposition have acted. If opposition also rolls a 1, surprised party member can roll a d6 for initiative but the opposition also gets to re-roll.

82 - 90) Unconscious: Victim is required to make an appropriate save to wake up.

91 - 99) Weakened: Victim only does half damage with martial weapons.