L is for Labyrinth Lord

Last Monday I talked about Basic Clones.

Today I want to focus on one of them since it will tie well into tomorrow's M post.

Today L is for Labyrinth Lord.

Again, what is a basic clone?  Well a basic clone is a new game, using new rules to emulate an older game.  In this case the rules are D&D from 2001-ish (called 3.0 or 3.5) to emulate "Basic" D&D from 1980-82.

Why would someone want to play a game that is 20 years old?
Well D&D Basic is long out of print.  D&D 3.x (the 2000s version) is a great game, but the complexity is also much greater.  D&D Basic is easier to learn, faster to play and perfect if you are teaching younger kids how to play.  But I can't buy copies of D&D Basic anymore.

I can buy Labyrinth Lord.

Goblinoid Games is the publisher of LL and in many respects could be considered one of the pioneers of the both the Retro-Clone game (their game GORE simulated Call of Cthulhu) and OSR (Old School Renascence).

Labyrinth Lord specifically is most like the B/X version of Basic, or the Moldvay, Cook/Marsh edited versions.  Which is great because that is the version I enjoyed the most and talked about last year.

You can get Labyrinth Lord in three different "Editions", though all work roughly similar.
Labyrinth Lord - the original.
LL: Advanced Companion - which sets out to emulate AD&D 1st Edition
LL: Original Edition Characters - which emulates the original D&D from 1974

All are compatible with each other, maybe more so than the games they try to emulate.

There is another game, Mutant Future, which uses the LL rules and is the subject of tomorrow's post.

But the one thing that occurs to me is this.  Since LL and Mutant Future do use the same rules, it gives you a chance to do some really weird things.  Actually the first thought I had was this "Labyrinth Lord + Mutant Future = Adventure Time!"

Adventure Time is a cartoon about a human boy named Finn and his magical dog Jake.  It takes place in the land of Ooo which seems to be a post-apocalyptic Earth.   The Dungeons and Dragons elements are all over the place including liches, gelatinous cubes, displacer beasts, dungeons, magic swords, Finn even calls himself a Paladin.   If that is not enough then check this out from Wizards of the Coast, http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4spot/20110408

The world of Finn and Jake is totally D&D...and Gama World.  So if we want one system to do it all it needs to be LL + MF!

Finn  (for Labyrinth Lord)

7th level Human Paladin (Fighter)
Age: 14

STR: 13		Breath Attacks: 9
DEX: 16		Poison or Death: 8
CON: 15		Petrify or Paralyze: 10
INT: 13		Wands: 9
WIS: 12		Spells: 12
CHA: 13

AC: 7
HP: 50

To Hit AC

-6	-5	-4	-3	-2	-1	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5

Sword +1, Backpack, Awesome Hat!