Old School XP Heresy?

I enjoy both old school aesthetics and the very old school mindset of relying on one's own inventiveness, but I am not an idolator and there are certain aspects of the Original Fantasy Adventure Game I have always been more than willing to entertain the notion of tossing into a sphere of annihilation. One such thing is the concept of experience points—how they are gained, how they are calculated, how many are needed for levelling up. I have no use for it. If I were to run the earliest edition of Dungeons & Dragons or return to Swords & Wizardry White Box, I would be strongly tempted to use the experience system from Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG, create my own, or just wing it free-form-style. Anything, to my mind, would be better than the pitiless bean-counting obstacle of fun and adversary of immersion that is the traditional experience point system unless it serves the fictional genre and/or can be referenced in character (such as video games or game shows). It may be heretical to the "rules as written" tribe, but I have always subscribed to the philosophy of necessary rules tinkering: If something doesn't work for you, replace it with something that does. When it hits your table, it's your game. You can craft it to suit the needs of your gaming group. It's the original old school way.

My Blogging Challenge Sense Is Tingling

Adam Dickstein is starting a new blogging challenge in February called Barking Alien's RPG Campaign Tour Challenge 2026. I think it's an excellent idea, and I think it behooves us as bloggers to share this idea widely.

[This article is cross-posted here in Decidedly 6-Sided.]

Dare to Dream of Gaming

Here are some things I would like to do this year gamingwise:

• Continue our ongoing Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG campaign.
• Start a new Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG campaign (open table style?).
• Start a new Mutant Crawl Classics RPG campaign.
• Run some Flash Gordon Savage Worlds.
• Run some Teenagers from Outer Space.
• Resume the Toledo Ghostbusters campaign for Ghostbusters (1st edition).
• Play something at BASHCon?
• Game at the local board game parlor.
• Start a gaming podcast?

Locksmith with a Dagger

Once in a while, just for fun, I like to generate a 0-level character using the 0-Level Party Generator from Purple Sorcerer Games. Usually, I use the The Crawler's Companion app on my smartphone. In any event, if I use a character, I use it as is. I take the good with the bad and see how the character's life unfolds. I play the hand I was dealt, as it were. Take a look at this character I generated on 29 December 2025:

Occupation: Locksmith
Strength: 10 (0)
Agility: 14 (+1)
Stamina: 12 (0)
Personality: 12 (0)
Intelligence: 12 (0)
Luck: 8 (−1)
AC: 11; HP: 2
Weapon: Dagger −1 (1d40)
Speed: 30; Init: +1; Ref: +1; Fort: 0; Will: 0
Equipment: Chest—empty (2 gp)
Trade Good: Fine tools
Starting Funds: 30cp
Lucky Sign: Harsh Winter (All attack rolls)
Languages: Common

A locksmith. An average locksmith who is marginally more agile and marginally less lucky, with 2 hit points, an empty chest, fine tools, 30 copper pieces, and a dagger that causes 1d40 points of damage. 1d40... points of damage. True, his "lucky" sign is Harsh Winter, which means he suffers a −1 penalty to all attack rolls because his Luck score is 8, but if he does hit something, he causes 1d40 points of damage. I don't know if this an Easter egg, a glitch, or a mission from the gods, but this locksmith wields a dagger with a damage die that hasn't been invented yet, and I'm willing to make that work!

I could be satisfied with a simple 1d4 × 10 damage scheme, but just in case I face a judge who is a stickler for the full range of 1–40, I offer the following alternative for rolling 1d40 without a 40-sided die:

1d40 Substitute

Roll 1d10, then 1d4.
If you roll 1 on the d4, keep the d10 result.
If you roll 2 on the d4, add 10 to the d10 result.
If you roll 3 on the d4, add 20 to the d10 result.
If you roll 4 on the d4, add 30 to the d10 result.