B/X Headgear - New Charts to Gear Up Your Game!

Even though the time signature may be earlier, I didn’t finish yesterday’s last post till well after midnight…which is unfortunate because my brain was starting to go by that time.

HOWEVER, the only reason I was writing about headgear was as a precursor to this “goody” which I came up with yesterday afternoon. Since I wanted to give people a chance to check out the Exceptional Traits for B/X tables, I figured I’d better hold off on posting THIS deal-i-o till today. Unfortunately, I could hardly contain myself…hence the reason for the late night (and rather bleary) posting.

Sorry about that. Hopefully, this will make up for it.

; )

Every D&D character should have some recognizable head decoration or accoutrement. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it till someone tells me otherwise. However, it wouldn’t be “Old School” D&D without some random tables (yeah, that’s not a question), so I figured I’d do all the creative “heavy-lifting” for people and provide some. Because they’re so extensive, I’ve made a one-sheet .pdf that you can download from here:

B/X Headgear


Yes, it is also useful for non-B/X versions of Dungeons & Dragons…even 4th edition (though would anyone playing 4E care? Probably not…). This is all just set-dressing (or rather “head dressing”)…there are no mechanical bonuses or systems associated with it. Just something to help characterize each player’s adventurer.

[by the way, I think the lack of system mechanics is a PLUS. While helmets are, admittedly, a form of "armor," I prefer AC determination to be limited to suits and the active use of a shield, not a person's headgear or lack thereof. As such, magic-users and thieves are fully able to wear crazy-ass helmets in MY B/X game]

DMs running campaigns with high level characters may allow players to roll more than once.

The headgear tables’ purpose is four-fold:

A) To immediately instill a character with a recognizable trait (“decoration”)

B) To help paint a picture in the player’s mind (“hmmm…ok”)

C) To supply an otherwise “boring” set of stats with personality (“what does this say about me?”)

D) To have a quick and easy “add-on” to character creation (really, no sweat here).

Anyway, I think it’s fun. I shall be giving all my pre-gen characters random pieces of headgear for my upcoming B/X game and fully intend to make any new players “dice for a hat.” Hey, you know how quick chargen is for B/X? This is hardly an extra minute of added time!

Hope you enjoy!
; )