GETTING STARTED

Your character stands atop a grassy hill . . . the sun glints off your golden hair, rippling in the warm breeze . . . you absent-mindedly rub the gem-studded hilt of your magic sword, and glance over at the dwarf and elf, bickering as usual about how to load the horses . . . the magic-user has memorized her spells, and says she’s ready to go . . . a dangerous dungeon entrance gapes at you from the mountain nearby, and inside, a fearsome dragon awaits. Time to get moving. . .

What is "role playing"?

This is a role-playing game. That means that you will be like an actor, imagining that you are someone else, and pretending to be that character. You won’t need a stage, though, and you won’t need costumes or scripts. You only need to imagine.

This game doesn’t have a board, because you won’t need one. Besides, in group games, one person is the Referee, and everyone else is a player. The Referee runs the game, while the others play the roles of characters. The Referee gives all the information needed for running group games.

The Referee designs the dungeons and makes careful maps on graph paper. The players do not know where anything is located in the dungeons until the game begins and they enter the first passage or room. They create their own map as they explore. While only paper and pencil need be used, it is possible for the characters of each player to be represented by miniature lead figures which can be purchased inexpensively from hobby stores or via the www. The results of combat, magic spells, monster attacks, etc., are resolved by rolling special polyhedral dice as shown below.

THINGS YOU'LL NEED TO PLAY

Pencils & Paper

You'll want a means for keeping notes and recording important information during game play, so have a lot of pencils, scrap paper, and graph paper available. Use the scrap paper for notes about the adventure (write down the names of people and places, any treasure your character acquires, and any other details that you might forget or think may be important later). One player might take the role of note keeper, or each player may want to take his or her own notes. Use the graph paper to sketch a map of the area the players are exploring - players want to map the dungeon as they explore it, while the Referee uses graph paper to design the whole dungeon before the adventurers enter it.

Character Sheets

Your ODD character is defined by a series of key statistics, as well as by the background story you create for the character. These statistics and other key information are contained on a character sheet. As your character participates in adventures, these statistics change.

Dice

To play ODD, several different types of dice are necessary. Dice with 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 20 sides are used in ODD. All can be found at many local game stores. There are various notations in the rules telling what type and how many dice should be rolled during game play. These notations may appear cryptic to first-time roleplayers, but they are easily learned: d4 = four-sided die; d6 = six-sided die; d8 = eight-sided die; d10 = ten-sided die; d12 = twelve-sided die; d20 = twenty-sided die; d100 = the result of 2 ten-sided dice (before rolling, one die is designated the ‘tens’ and the other is designated the ‘ones’).

It is also possible to generate random scores for which no die exists. The most common are d2 and d3, both of which can be made by rolling a d6 and dividing by 2 or 3 and dropping the fraction. To roll a d2 by using a six-sided die, the results 1-3 would be a score of 1, while 4-6 would equal 2.

When the rules require it, rolls of more than one die will be expressed in the following format: [# of dice] die type [+/- any modifiers]. For example, an instruction to roll 3d6 means that 3 six-sided dice are rolled, and the results are added together. A notation to roll 3d6+3 means that 3 six-sided dice are rolled and added together, then 3 is added to the total.

Sometimes, the rules might require rolling two different die types, adding the results together, and then dividing by a set number. For example, the rules might require the results of 1d4 and 1d6 to be added together and then divided by 2. Always drop the fraction unless the rules specify otherwise. If, in this case, you rolled a 3 and a 4, the result would be 3.5, but dropping the fraction gives a final result of 3. Exceptions to this are rare and are noted in the rules. One common exception, for example, is that certain rules have a minimum result of 1.

Miniatures and a Battle Grid

While most of the action of ODD occurs in the imaginations of the participants, it is often very helpful to display certain information where everyone can see it. Combat situations, for example, work better when the players and Referee know where all the participants are (characters and monsters) in relation to one another. ODD uses a one-inch grid, called the battle grid, to represent where the action takes place. To represent the characters and monsters, the players and Referee place miniatures or other markers on the battle grid.

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