Alderon's Tower -- Project 74 Role-Playing Game

Project Status Update, 7/14/2009

I was looking over the Tower yesterday, and I realized I had not updated this page in almost four years. There's a reason for that: I changed my mind.

I guess it's not as simple as that. Reading over the list of complaints about AD&D, I can see very clearly that my views on a lot of things have changed. I've come to appreciate the design of the classic games much more than I had before... there's a magic to the mechanics that tends to disappear when the rules become too comprehensive.

Not long after the last release of Project 74, I created an entirely different game: Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game. I recommend taking a look at it, if you are a fan of the old-school games.

Of course, I'm still sharing Project 74; just because it no longer works for me doesn't mean it won't for you.

Project 74 2005.5 -- Updated 7/27/2005

Revision 2005.5 corrects many errors (there is now just one rule for calculating monster CR instead of two conflicting rules, for instance). The Ability Roll rules have been clarified. Various formatting changes have also been made (for instance, the document is all old-school Century Gothic now).

About Project 74

Project 74 is a rules-lite (A)D&D compatible core rule system which I have prepared for use in my own campaign. I have decided to release it online due to interest in some of my house rules from some users on Dragonsfoot Forums.

If you are interested in more information about why and how I designed this system, click here.

You need one of the following to use Project 74:

AD&D rules (at least the Player's Handbook) for 1st or 2nd edition.
Classic D&D (i.e. the Holmes, Moldvay/Cook, or Mentzer version).
Some other source of compatible monsters and spells.

Contributions are welcome! Email your comments to:

chris@gonnerman.org

Contributed rules will be credited to you even if I make changes to them.

Downloading the Rules

I am using OpenOffice.org 1.1.5 to create these rules. Below are links to the rules in OpenOffice.org format and in Adobe Acrobat format. I dropped the HTML version as it was rather a poor quality translation, and the Word DOC format as it was a pain to maintain two versions. Take the Adobe Acrobat PDF file if you don't have OpenOffice.org installed.

As a convenience to those trying to wean themselves away from the core rules, I am also posting my abridged (i.e. trimmed) version of the Great Net Equipment List (entitled Project 74 Generic Equipment List). It is available for download below, in both formats.

Last, but not least, you will find downloads for my Project 74 Treasure Generation document, which is based on the Cook edition of Expert D&D.

Document	Click to Download...
Project-74-2005.5 Core Rules
Project-74-Equipment-2003.1 Alternative Equipment List
Project-74-Treasure-2004.0 Variant Treasure Generation System
Project-74-Character-Sheet-2005.1 Character Sheet