House Rules

Malaise

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© Daniel S. Wall, July 20, 2026.

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A Trace of Death Lingers by Joyce Maureira

Malaise is an inverse measure of a character’s will to live. The higher their Malaise, the less resilient a character will be. Those with truly high malaise will be quick to grow ill and slow to heal. They will also be remarkably susceptible to attacks from Undead. They will retain all their normal skills and abilities, but a character with a high malaise has one foot in the grave. Until she learns to love life again, a character with high Malaise may be very difficult to keep alive.

The idea here is to create a long-term problem with its own significance in role-play, one that is solvable, but not with a quick healing spell. It plagues characters who have come close to death, or experienced significant loss, been subjected to life-draining attacks, or engaged behavior contrary to their deepest convictions. Any one of these could leave a character with a weakened will to live. It does not undermine their skills and abilities, but it does leave them more fragile. Malaise provides an alternative to the loss of levels or attribute scores and the forcible alignment change of earlier editions of D&D while keeping a sense that these issues create problems not easily resolved within a single game session.

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Malaise at its Core

Squonk painted by Andy Sneed

Acquiring Malaise: Aside from rare instances of special attacks or magical effects imposing it, Malaise is usually acquired through close calls with death, the loss of loved ones, or by actions inconsistent with the established nature of a character. A character fresh off a near-death experience may find that death itself still has a little bit of a hold on them, just as they may long to join a dead spouse or some other loved one. Characters who have acted in a manner significantly inconsistent with their values and goals may find themselves questioning the value of their own life.

Malaise can also be the result of extraordinary attacks one might characterize as life-stealing, such as the bite of a vampire or the nightmares caused by a succubus. These too will weaken a character’s will to live.

Effects of Malaise: The Malaise score of a character is a penalty to any healing done to that character. It is also a vulnerability penalty, adding to the damage done by Undead to that character. A character with 1 point of malaise thus reduces the damage healed from a spell by 1 point and raises her damage from an Undead by 1 as well. A character with 6 points of malaise reduces healing spells by 6 and adds 6 points to any damage caused by Undead. Malaise can have other featurs as well, and at their own discretion, a GM may certain flesh add implications of their own.

Overcoming Malaise: A character must play a full game session with any Malaise earned before attempting to buy it off. After that, a character may buy off malaise at a cost built on a triangular sum at the end of any given game session. If 1 point of Malaise can be bought off at the cost of 1 point of x.p., then 2 may be bought off at a cost of 3 total (1+2=3), and 3 can be bought off at a cost of 6 (1+2+3=6). Thus, Malaise can be bought off slowly at a low cost or rapidly at a high cost. It is up to the player to decide which he prefers.

Certain special abilities or problems may enhance malaise, trigger tactical benefits on the basis of malaise, facilitate rapid overcoming of malaise, or drag out that process. These are rare abilities, and they are prone to high cost. In no case, will an ability ever enable a character to overcome Malaise without going through a full game session with any given Malaise penalty.

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Game-Specific Applications

D&D (1st through 3rd editions): How does one apply the concept to D&D? First we will look at the specific mechanics for acquiring Malaise, the specific effects of Malaise, and finally, the means of overcoming it.

Mechanics for acquiring Malaise: Malaise may be acquired in a variety of ways.

Death: Any character brought back from the dead automatically gets 10 points of Malaise.

Grief: The death of a loved one or dear friend, or a significant loss with serious consequences, may incur 1-3 points of Malaise at the discretion of the GM (or alternatively, the consensus of the players present).

Life-Draining Attacks: Any attack which might otherwise cause the permanent draining of a level or a point off a character’s attributes would instead result in 3 points of Malaise. (Alternatively, 1 point of Malaise could be added to the existing effect without taking that effect away.)

Moral Transgressions: Any time a character acts in such a manner as to contradict their alignment, they acquire 1-5 points of Malaise, depending on the severity of the transgression. This can replace the old first edition mechanic of simply changing the character’s alignment. How this decision is made varies. It could be the GM’s call or it could be a decision at the consensus of the players.

Near Death Experiences: A Character acquires 1 point of Malaise once she goes below 0 hit point status and 1 more for every 3 continuous rounds spent at 0 hit point status or below. (Note: if the character dies outright, just apply the death rule instead.)

Effects of Malaise: The numeric value of a character’s Malaise provides a variety of different problems for a given character.

Attacks by Undead: It is a bonus to the damage done by Undead to that character.

Death Magic: It is damage taken in the event of a successful save versus death magic. A failed save would of course make this irrelevant.

Healing Magic: It is a penalty to any healing done on the character in question (to a minimum of 1 point healed).

Natural Healing: It is a penalty to any rolls made to assist a character in healing by means of natural medicine, and it is a chance (multiplied by 5) that the wound will not naturally heal according to the normal rules on any given day.

Mechanics for overcoming Malaise: To buy off Malaise, a character must first play a full game session with any Malaise they wish to eliminate. After this, they may buy off Malaise in the following manner. To buy off 1 point of Malaise at the end of a given session, a character must spend 10% of the difference between the experience needed for their current level and that needed for the next. To buy 2 points off at the end of a given session, a player must spend 30% of that difference. To buy off 3 at the end of a given session, they must spend 60%, and so on.

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Tunnels and Trolls (Deluxe Edition): How does one apply the concept to Tunnels and Trolls? First we will look at the specific mechanics for acquiring Malaise, the specific effects of Malaise, and finally, the means of overcoming it.

Mechanics for acquiring Malaise: Malaise may be acquired in a variety of ways.

Near Death Experiences: A Character acquires 1 point of Malaise once she goes below 0 hit point status and 1 more for every 3 continuous rounds spent at 0 hit point status or below. (Note: if the character dies outright, just apply the death rule instead.)

Death: Any character brought back from the dead automatically gets 10 points of Malaise.

Grief: The death of a loved one or dear friend, or a significant loss with serious consequences, may incur 1-3 points of Malaise at the discretion of the GM (or alternatively, the consensus of the players present).

Moral Transgressions: If the player running a character and the GM agree that the character has acted in a manner wildly inconsistent with their character and/or the best interest of their stated goals, they acquire 1-5 points of Malaise, depending on the severity of the transgression. This may not happen often, as a player is unlikely to agree to it, but it remains an option.

Effects of Malaise: The numeric value of a character’s Malaise provides a variety of different problems for a given character.

Attacks by Undead: It is a bonus to the damage done by Undead to that character.

Healing: It is a penalty to any healing done on the character in question (to a minimum of 1 point healed). Note that the in event that a character should have been healed to full Constitution, they end up with their Malaise in damage after all.

Mechanics for overcoming Malaise: To buy off Malaise, a character must first play a full game session with any Malaise they wish to eliminate. After this, they may buy off Malaise in the following manner. To buy off 1 point of Malaise at the end of a given session, a character must spend 10 adventure points. To buy 2 points off at the end of a given game session, a player must spend 30 adventure points. To buy off 3 at the end of a given game session, they must spend 60 adventure points, and so on.

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Worlds of Hurt (My Homebrew): How does one apply the concept to Worlds of Hurt? First we will look at the specific mechanics for acquiring Malaise, the specific effects of Malaise, and finally, the means of overcoming it.

Mechanics for acquiring Malaise: Malaise may be acquired in a variety of ways.

Death: Any character brought back from the dead automatically gets 10 points of Malaise.

Grief: Characters may take on Malaise for the loss of loved ones or for major set backs, as detailed in the rules for social relationships and other relevant portions of the game system.

Deep Wounds: A variety of special attacks cause Malaise as spelled out in the game rules.

Moral Transgressions: Characters may take Malaise for actions contrary to their moral values or memes as spelled out in the relevant sections of the game rules.

Near Death Experiences: A Character acquires 1 point of Malaise once they go down to 0 physical durability or below. They acquire 3 points of Malaise if they spend 1 full round in that status, and 5 points if they spend 2 rounds in that status.

Effects of Malaise: The numeric value of a character’s Malaise provides a variety of different problems for a given character.

Attacks by Undead: It is a bonus to the damage done by Undead to that character.

Healing Magic: It is a penalty to any healing done on the character in question (to a minimum of 1 point healed).

Natural Healing: It is a penalty to any rolls made to assist a character in healing by means of natural means.

Mechanics for overcoming Malaise: To buy off Malaise, a character must first play a full game session with any Malaise they wish to eliminate. After this, they may buy off Malaise in the following manner. To buy off 1 point of Malaise at the end of a given session, a character must spend 1 experience point. To buy off 2 at the end of a given session, they must spend 3. To buy off 3, they must spend 6, and so on.

Ninja (D&D, First Edition)

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How do you make a ninja in first edition D&D?

Well, as I recall, Dragon Magazine published something to that effect a time or two, but my own friends and I found it preferred our own version cobbled together from conventional classes out of the Player’s Handbook. We just had to tweak a few core rules, but the essential concept was simple.

Run the character as a Multiclassed Monk-Assassin. This of course ignores either the rule saying that Monks have to be human or the rule that only other races can be multi-classed. I guess, you could ignore both, but you have to ignore at least one of them to do this. My preference is to say Ninjas have to be human, but that this specific combination is allowed.

We didn’t really think of this as one character combining two different skill sets. We thought of it as one skill set that simply tracked through the rules system as two different classes.

As to alignment, the Ninja can be true Neutral or Lawful Evil.

Any weapons appropriate to ninjas are automatically allowed.

That’s it.

Critical Fumbles

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A house rule for first edition, D&D.

Daniel S. Wall

Whenever a character rolls a natural 1, her player rolls a die 20 and consults the table below to see what happened.

Note that the likelihood of a serious critical fumble is significantly affected by the nature of the attack. Someone firing a missile at a single target is less likely to fumble than someone fighting with a weapon in the midst of a general melee, and of course there are all sorts of shades in between. It is for this reason that some of the columns below contain several possibilities for ignoring the fumble result altogether while others have little or no such merciful options.

Definitions

Ally: Any character, monster, or construct actively helping the principal attacker. This does not include bystanders unless they are actively attacking the same opponent.

Attack (the): The attack which scored a critical fumble and landed you on this table to begin with.

Enemy: The target of the attack and/or anyone clearly allied with that target and/or fighting the principal attacker and her allies.

Attacker: The person launching the attack which scored a critical fumble.

Target: The individual attacked on the critical hit.

 

  Missile  
Armed Attacker Unarmed Attacker
Roll Isolated Target Crowded One-on-One Crowded One-on-One Crowded
1 A A A A A A
2 P C C C P C
3 P B P B P B
4 P C P C P C
5 D D D D D D
6 P C E E E E
7 P C P E P E
8 P C I F P F
9 H H G G G G
10 P P G G G G
11 I I I I I I
12 P P I I I I
13 P P J J J J
14 K K K K K K
15 P P K K K K
16 P P N L N L
17 M M N L N L
18 N N N N N N
19 P P N N N N
20 O O O O O O

 

A: Hit Self. Attacker rolls using strength and weapon bonuses only on the attack roll against the attacker’s own armor class without a dexterity bonus. If successful, then only strength and weapon bonuses apply to the damage. Any other technique or skill bonuses can be ignored.

B: Hit ally, Alternatively, give other enemy an attack of opportunity on the attacker.

C: Hit Wrong Target. This could be an ally or an enemy, or even a bystander. The GM will randomize the new target based on proximity to the original target or to the line of fire toward that target. The attack roll will be made using any applicable strength or weapon bonuses.

D: Lose Next Attack. This applies if the character remains in continuous melee combat up until her next attack is due or if she is firing missiles continuously until her next attack is due. If she moves on to do other things, the result becomes irrelevant, but she must waste at least 1 action to do so.

E: Leave Opening. Target gets a free attack on the attacker.

F: Get in the Way. Target gets a free attack on an ally.

G: Fall Down. (Nuff said!)

H: Slip: If the character is in a precarious condition, she falls down. If hiding, she loses hide-in-shadows and move-silently.

I: Drop weapon. Yep!

J: Drop Shield. Alternatively, drop weapon.

K: Drop Miscellaneous Item. Attacker drops an item of equipment. Alternatively, drop weapon.

L: Other Enemy Gets Free Attack. This is rolled against the attacker.

M: Snap Bowstring.

N: Break Weapon. The weapon breaks if it is non magical. Alternatively, if the weapon is magical, it is dropped.

O: Trivial Injury. Attacker takes 1 point of damage.

P: Nevermind.

Mentorship

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A Mentor in Action

Introduction: What follows is a house rule in broad stokes designed to enable advanced player characters to donate experience points (or any comparable measure of character development) to other characters in an RPG campaign. The more experienced character does this by sharing their own wisdom with a less advanced character, discussing the events of a given game session in order to help the novice learn from their shared experiences. Doing so means the elder character has to a degree shifted their own focus from learning and developing new skills to thinking about the needs of their younger and less experienced companions. As a result, the less developed character accumulates experience faster while the more advanced character grows more slowly.

This is game rule intended to accomplish two things; it can enable low level characters to catch up with more advanced companions faster than they might otherwise do, and it can facilitate greater cooperation between player characters (giving some players a real sense of investment in the development of the characters belonging to other platers at the table).

The basic idea can be tweaked in a number of different ways, but I have tried to follow a few practical guidelines here. First, the effect should be a small bump, enough to make a significant difference over time, but not enough to substantially transform the nature of the average game session. Second, the effect assumes a degree of role playing significance. The characters must talk to each other to make this happen; it is not simply a spell effect, it is something that is going to shape the relationship between the characters in question. The ability further assumes that the characters have gained experience together, and the bonus is applied to that experience. It may not be used to donate experience already accused to a given character.

How does it work? First, a character declares her intent to mentor another character. Doing so enables the mentor to donate 10% of the experience she has gained in shared encounters with her mentee over the course of that game session. If the mentee accepts, and both characters spend time discussing the events of the game with one another, then the experience points for each character are modified accordingly. Characters may mentor more than one 1 character and characters can also accept mentorship from more than 1 character, but no character may ever donate more than half their experience points for a given game session, nor may any character more than double the experience she has gained from a given encounter or game session.

Obviously, this model assumes a conventional experience point model. Alternative systems of advancement may require modification of this approach and GMs may wish to alter the approach to taste.

Individualized Options: Special abilities and feat systems can be used to enhance mentorship in a few ways. Such options can be used to provide a net gain in experience whenever mentorship is used. This making some characters exceptionally good at guiding and teaching their companions. A feat or special ability can be used to double the experience gained by a mentee without adding to the cost to the mentor. Whether or not this can be repeated so as to give some mentors even more effectiveness is an open question. In the case of a point-buy system for special abilities, a mentor can be given the option to provide a 10% bonus without cost, but only when the mentee is purchasing abilities already known to the mentor (e.g. a specific feat, language, or skill well-known to the mentor). Of course, it is also possible for a character to gain special abilities enhancing the benefits they get from mentorship, but that benefit would have to be weighed against the cost of the ability itself. Whether or not the result is worth it for the player or even for a GM to provide the option is another question.

Variations

Dungeons and Dragons: To use mentorship, the mentor must be at least 2 levels higher than the mentee. The mentor donates 10% of her experience points for any encounters during that game session in which she and her mentee were both present. The Mentee thus gains 10% over and above her normal haul for the session. Possible feats include “Mentor” which boosts the experience points gained to 20% for the same 10% donation, or “Advanced Mentor” which increases the experience points gained to 30% for the same 10% donation and “Trainer,” which boosts the experience points gained for characters with the same class to 30% for the same 10% donation. *

Tunnels and Trolls: To use mentorship, the mentor must be at least 1 level higher than the mentee. The mentor donates 10% of her adventure points for any encounters during that game session in which she and her mentee were both present. The Mentee gains 10% over and above her normal haul for the session. *

Worlds of Hurt (my homebrew): To use mentorship, the mentor must be at least 2 levels higher than the mentee. The mentor donates 1 or 2 points from her experience gained for any encounters during that game session in which she and her mentee were both present. The Mentee gains 1 or 2 points (matching the amount donated). Possible feats include “Mentor” which boosts the experience points gained to 2 or 4 (i.e. twice that donated) for the same 1 or 2 point donation. Additional options are available. *

* All variations are subject to the following limitations. 1) No mentee can gain experience without talking extensively to her mentor about the events of the game session.  2) No character may donate more than half her total experience point haul for a game session. 3) No character may do more than double the original experience point haul through donated experience for any given game session.

 

Critical Hits

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A house rule for first edition, D&D.

Daniel S. Wall

Whenever a character scores a critical hit, roll a die 20 and consult the chart below. If more than one option is listed for a result, the first option applicable to the situation is the one that counts. If no listed options could apply, then the result defaults to Option ‘O.’

Note that some monsters may not be affected by options listed on this table. A goo cannot be subjected to a called shot and some monsters may be immune to stunning, etc. In such cases, the critical hit is meaningless.

Definitions

Ally: Any character, monster, or construct actively helping the principal attacker. This does not include bystanders unless they are actively attacking the same opponent.

Attack (the): The attack which scored a critical hit and landed you on this table to begin with.

Enemy: The target of the attack and/or anyone clearly allied with that target and/or fighting the principal attacker and her allies.

Attacker: The person launching the attack which scored a critical hit.

Target: The individual attacked on the critical hit.

 

 

 

Die

Roll

 Missile

Attacks

 Melee Attacks
Crowded One-on-One
Basic Attack Called Shot Basic Attack Called Shot Basic Attack Called Shot
1 A B A B A B
2 C C C C C C
3 D D D D D D
4 E E E E E E
5 F F F F F F
6 D D G G G G
7 H H H H H H
8 M I I I I I
9 F F J G G G
10 A B G G G G
11 H H H H H H
12 I I I I I I
13 A B J J A B
14 C C J J C C
15 F F K K G G
16 F F K K G G
17 L L L L L L
18 M M M M M M
19 N N N N N N
20 O O O O O O

 

Results

A: Shot counts as a kill shot (i.e. a called shot intended to kill an opponent outright in one shot).

B: Improved Odds of success on a called shot. (If the initial damage qualifies for a percent chance of automatic success, then the called shot is automatically successful. If it does not, then attack qualifies for a percent chance of automatic success anyway.)

C: The attack scores maximum damage.

D: Add 1d12 to the final damage after all relevant multiplications have already been calculated.

E: If possible, the target will bleed for 1 point per round until dead or magically healed. A viable form of non-magical healing has a slight chance of stopping the flow of blood. The chance is equal to the Intelligence of the healer +1% per level of the character, 2% if the healing character has any healing spells or relevant professional skills (such as doctor).

F: Add 1 point per level of the attacker to the damage of the attack for those rolling on the fighter attack chart, 1 per 2 levels for those rolling on the Cleric attack chart, and 1 per 3 levels for those rolling on the thieves and assassins attack chart, and 1 per 4 levels for those fighting on the magic users and illusionist’s attack chart, but every character gets a minimum bonus of  1.

G: The attacker may immediately take an extra attack on the target. If the character dies from the first attack, she may take any relevant actions she cares to take as if she did not attack on that segment after all.

H: The target is stunned for 1 round, as per the rules for a monk.

I: Knock opponent down if possible. If not, then the critical hit has no effect.

J: Give an ally an extra attack on the target (if that is possible)*. Otherwise, take an extra attack on a different enemy*.

K: Take an extra attack on a different enemy if that is possible*. Otherwise, give an ally an extra attack on the target*.

L: Chance to disarm the opponent attacked. This is calculated by making opposed attack rolls. If the character scoring the critical hit has a disarming weapon such as a trident, she may roll this at a +5. If the opponent is unarmed, the critical hit has no effect.

M: Roll an extra die 6 in damage. Opponent will also move at half rate for an equal number of rounds.

N: Until the opponent activates for their next turn, any attack scored on them will count as a backstab. If any such attacks would have counted as a backstab anyway, then the attacker add 1d6 in damage.

0: attacker adds 1d6 to the overall damage.

 

*Whenever shifting targets as a result of a critical hit, the new target must be within immediate reach for a melee attack.

Dragon Modifications for First Edition D&D

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Dragons in first edition D&D suck. The narrative blows them up big time, but they are easy as Hell to take down. I recall an episode of Dragon Magazine tried boosting their power by adding minor attacks such as wing beat and tail swipe, but the damage for these was miniscule. Even with these additions, Dragons in first edition never lived up to the hype. They were supposed to be bad-ass, but they always ended up being meh.

So, here is what we did…

Take the standard stat block for a Dragon from the Monster Manual as your starting point.

  • Start by doubling the hit dice of the dragon.
  • Double the dice rolled for damage on physical attacks (bite and claw).
  • Add a tail swipe against any opponent in the back of the dragon (anyone within a full 180 degree arc to its rear). The attack is rolled at any penalties normally applied for attacking enemies to the rear. Damage for the tail swipe is equal to that of a claw after the modification mentioned directly above.
  • Now treat the age of the dragon as a bonus to hit and damage on all physical attacks (bite, claw, and tail attack) as well as a bonus to armor class.
  • Double the penalties for called shots to a dragon for man-sized opponents and smaller. Dragons are simply too big to focus on specific body parts on a regular target.
  • Breath weapons work normally (but of course the damage is now set by the higher hit dice).
  • Now watch the PCs fall.
  • More importantly, watch the players treat dragons with the respect they deserve.

Called Shots for First Edition D&D

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Introduction: I have fond memories of first edition D&D, but those memories do include a host of house rules. One aspect of the game that generated a lot of interest in house rules was the pace of combat. Without feats and other such innovations common to later editions of D&D, physical combat in first edition could be particularly stale as there just weren’t many ways to generate extra damage, even at high levels. Spell casters had options, of course, and specialty classes such as Thief or Ranger could generate extra physical damage under the right circumstances, but for basic fighter types, a fight with a big monster meant whittling them down slowly.

This is what had a lot of us experimenting with called shots. My own friends and I tried a lot of things, mostly variations on a penalty to hit roll in exchange for the possibility of a one-shot kill (or some comparable effect likely to take the intended victim out of the fight). Balancing the cost of the penalty against the benefit of a successful called shot was of course difficult. If the options for a called shot were too generous, even the biggest enemies went down with ease, and if the GM decided to turn that possibility on the players, then a TPK was just a few die rolls away. If the called shot option was too stingy, then you had to slog your way through even mediocre opponents, the game slowed down, and everything got tedious.

Really tedious!

In any event, what follows is the system I ended up with after a couple decades running first edition D&D. I really think this hit the sweet spot for my gaming group, but a lot depends on other factors in the game. We had a system for extra proficiencies, and we used special abilities and problems, both of which also contributed to slightly more dangerous player characters. In combination with those systems, our rules for called shots helped us to speed up the game and boost the power of physical attacks without completely obliterating the core system.

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Called Shots and the To-Hit Roll: At its core, the system calls for a simple penalty of -4 on the attack roll for any called shot. (If the call was hyper-specific, then GM could boost the penalty to -6 or even -8, but that was her call.) Along with that, a natural 2 becomes an automatic miss, although it does not become a critical fumble. If a called shot is successful in striking the target, the damage is treated as applying directly to a focused body-part. This can be called out (E.g. a head, a leg, a tail, or a player can just declare that they are taking a “Kill shot”). Either way the damage is now measured against 20% of the target’s total hit points (rounded high). If the damage equals that percentage or exceeds it, there is a chance, the called shot succeeds in destroying the body-part in question.

Chance of Success: The chance for success at this point is equal to twice the damage done on the attack or 5% per stage on the to-hit charts from the DM’s Guide, whichever gave the attacker a better chance of success. (Note that the highest stage of the to-hit chart for fighters would be 55%, and at least in our old games, the best fighters could generate damage in about the 20-30 point range on a single attack, thus making it a toss-up as to which chance worked best for a given attack.)

It is best for players using the option to write the percent chance of success based on the to-hit chart on the character sheet. This should enable a player to compare the chance using double damage versus the chance based on the to-hit chart quickly.

Successful Called Shots: Success generally meant death in the event of a “kill shot” or in the event of a specific called shot with lethal implications (e.g. a head, in most cases). Results such as decapitation which might be necessary to kill certain monsters could also be achieved in this manner (assuming the appropriate weapons). If a leg, an arm, a tail, or a wing had been the focus, it was generally considered severed or otherwise destroyed and the GM would apply whatever penalties seemed best to the maimed character as a result of the injury.

Failure: In the event that a called shot was not successful, the damage was scored normally against the target’s hit points.

Target-Based Limitations: Called shots were useless against any target that lacked meaningful anatomical vulnerabilities (e.g. an ooze, a zombie, or a ghost). Such creatures were simply not venerable to called shots.

Tactics-Based Limitations: Certain damage effects were not applied to called shots, or they were applied in unusual ways. Thieves and Assassins could either add their backstab multiplier to the damage of a called shot or apply it as a multiplier for a normal shot under the normal rules, but the player had to choose. (Most chose the latter.) Rangers add their giant-classed bonus to the damage, but leave it out for purposes of calculating the odds of success on the percentage die roll.