Earlier this week I talked about the new D&D 5 Essentials Kit, I wanted to have another look at my own roots, the D&D Holmes Basic Set. The Holmes set is one of the few versions of the D&D games you can't get from DriveThruRPG. You can, however, get the Blueholme game from Michael Thomas and Dreamscape Design.
Blueholme comes in two different versions, the introductory Prentice Rules, and the full Journeymanne Rules. I will cover both here. In this case, I am reviewing both the print books from Lulu and the PDF versions from DriveThruRPG.
Blueholme Journeymanne Rules
Blueholme is a retro-clone / what-if of the first Basic Set edited by John Eric Holmes. Sometimes called "Blue Box Basic" or "Blue Book Basic". At 118 pages it is a complete game. If that sounds light, then you are right! Blueholme is a "rules" light old-school game much in the same way that Holmes was. Don't let it's light-weight dissuade you. This is a feature, not a bug.
On the surface, the Blueholme Journeymanne Rules (BJR) looks like any other retro-clone in the OSR. Once you dig into it you will see the differences are from the source materials.
Foreward. We start with a foreward (not forward) from Chris Holmes, the son of John Eric Holmes and the reason why there was a Holmes Basic set to begin with. It gives these rules a bit of gravitas if you ask me.
Part 1: Introduction covers what you should expect to see in this book and the general tone of the book. Like everything else it is short, sweet and to the point.
Part 2: Characters deals with character creation. All game developers should have a look at these first two pages to see how the economy of words pays off. In the first two pages, we cover all the steps in creation. Rolling stats (3d6 in order), choosing a species (I prefer this over "race"), class, and everything else. The six ability scores are covered and what they do. SURPRISE they do much less here than in other OSR games. Essentially these are the means to get a bonus when leveling. Eg. Strength provides no bonuses in combat. Constitution does aid in hp it points, Intelligence still helps in learning languages. But that is about it really. Only Dexterity helps to hit and then only + or - 1. Dexterity is central to combat, but more on that later.
For species, there is nothing specific listed outside of humans. For anything else have a look in the Monster section and pick something! Want an elf, dwarf or orc? Go ahead! Goblin? Yes! Dragon? sure, work it out with your GM. Black Pudding? Sure...work it out with your GM.
It is very much the way the original D&D and Holmes D&D games worked.
Classes are the basic four; Cleric, Fighter, Magic-user, and Thief. Fighters do not get more attacks as they level up, but can cause more damage. There are rules on Combination Classes or what we also call Multiclassing. If your base creature type has more HD then there is a table of adjustments.
Alignment is broken down to just five, Lawful Good, Chaotic Good, True Neutral, Chaotic Evil and Lawful Evil.
Coin and Equipment is next. Note that all weapons do 1d6 points of damage per hit as per the OD&D and Holmes BD&D rules.
Part 3: Spells covers all the spells that can be cast by Clerics (1 to 7 spell level) and Magic-Users (1 to 9 spell levels). These are not huge lists and some spells are different than other books representations of them. Make sure you read before you assume a spell does what you think it does.
Part 4: Adventures covers just that, what the characters do and where they do it. This section is very reminiscent of the similar sections in both Holmes and Moldvay Basic. The breadth of the information is wide, but the depth is low since it depends on the Game Master to make calls on what is happening in certain situations.
Part 5: Encounters would be called Combat in other books, but the name change fits. We start with lots of tables of monster encounters at various levels and various locales. Combat, damage, and healing are also covered. The initiative is determined by Dexterity score. If there is a tie then a 1d6 is rolled with highest going first. AC is descending with an AC of 9 meaning unarmored.
We get tables of attack matrices and saving throws too.
Part 6: Creatures deals with all the creatures you can encounter as friend or foes. There are plenty here and brevity is the key. For example, Demon gets a single entry and some tables to determine what it looks like. You can also choose your character specifies from these entries. All the usual suspects are here. I in particular like the "pumpkin-headed" bugbear; a nod to the OD&D rules. There are a lot of Lovecraftian monsters here as well. They are the ones credited for creating the vast "Underground" where the adventurers find their fortunes. There are also plenty of "Appendix N" style creatures like intelligent apes and monsters out of Pellucidar and of course dragons and dinosaurs and undead.
Part 7: Treasure has both individual and hoard types with plenty of magic, and cursed items.
Part 8: Campaigns is a guide for Game Masters.
We end with a character sheet and a solid index.
The PDF is bookmarked, but the Table of Contents and Index are not hyperlinked (minor thing really).
The book is well laid out and easy to read. The art is all new and works fantastic with the book. Solid old-school feel to it., if slightly better than what we actually had back then. It reminded me more of Moldvay era art than Holmes, but that is fine really.
Blueholme Prentice Rules
The Blueholme Prentice Rules came out first as a preview of the Journeymanne rules.
These rules cover the basic rules as the Journeymanne rules, save only to level 3. In this respect it is actually closer to the Holmes set than the maine (manne?) rules.
In character creation, the choices of Human, Elf, Dwarf, and Halfling are given. The same basic four classes of Cleric, Fighter, Magic-user, and Thief are here.
From here the Prentice rules parallel the Journeymanne rules, there is just less of them. This is a truly Basic set of rules with everything to get you started for the price of dice.
The Prentice Rules has the same cover art, albeit in a monochrome format (not unlike Holmes) and features Public Domain art inside from Henry J. Ford. Now personally I LOVE the art. These old images from old fairy tales really sets the mood for me and gives this game a different feel.
Bluehlome Prentice Rules are a perfect solution for someone wanting to get into an Old School game and does not know where to start or what to do, and maybe not spend a lot of money upfront. For a PWYW PDF and print copies under $6, it has replaced Basic Fantasy as my OSR game of choice to hand out to people I want to introduce to old-school play.
Additionally, there are some full-color character sheets and an introductory adventure.
Blueholme is a great addition to the vast and growing library of OSR games. It might be one of my favorites, to be honest.
You can find Dreamscape Design on the web at:
