Alex Schroeder: Halberds & Helmets

Nov 15 2024 52 ep. 12 mins 130

Alex Schroeder: Halberds & Helmets Podcast artwork

The Halberds & Helmets podcast by Alex Schroeder.

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Why homebrew?

Dec 18 2018 13 mins

Talking about why we want to write our homebrew games and what old school D&D means to me.

Abilities

Dec 19 2018 11 mins

Talking about the six standard ability scores and wishing I could just rename Intelligence and Wisdom to Education and Yoga. But my players didn't pick it up.

Race as Class

Dec 19 2018 16 mins

Race as class, elves and dwarves in particular. Talking about the gender of elves and dwarves. Talking about the questions Judd proposed for classes, a long time ago.

Fighters & Magic Users

Dec 21 2018 11 mins

Fighters and magic users. Using descending armour class, to-hit tables, all weapons do 1d6 damage, adding explosions and rays to the saving throws, not having unified advancement tables

Thieves & Normal Humans

Dec 22 2018 11 mins

Thieves and normal humans. How do skill checks work, thieves have better skills, how does surprise work, substituting a d30 for a d20 once a day, max damage, +4 to hit, two handed swords, again; and torch bearers and porters, and magic users wielding weapons, or thieves and magic users wearing armour fight like normal humans

Demihumans: Elves, Halfling and Dwarves

Dec 23 2018 9 mins

Elves are basically fighters and magic users. Halflings and dwarves have better saves and some abilities here and there. Limits on the weapons you can wield. What about armour size? I don't care about level limits since all my games end before we get to level 10.

Starting Gold & Weapons

Dec 25 2018 18 mins

Rolling starting gold and thinking of your parent's background. Social standing? How to buy equipment. The benefits of a character generator, again. The weapons. Fighting from the second rank, again.

Items & Armour

Dec 25 2018 12 mins

Items to fight monsters and oil in particular. How do we use flaming oil? How much can you carry? Encumbrance and the rule of cool. Also: why is plate armour so cheap?

Buildings & Wages

Jan 03 2019 16 mins

Buildings are a great way to spend money for XP and to let players add to the world. And buildings require servants and guards, and these require wages. And when you take mercenaries along on an adventure, then that also costs money.

Gods, Demon Lords & Alignment

Jan 04 2019 15 mins

A little something about demon lords: why do their priests survive? They must useful to somebody! I like the ambiguity of the old gods. They are not all good or all evil. And I like the old threefold alignment: Law, Neutrality, and Chaos.