Orcs and XP through the Ages

I have been working on a booklet about humanoids and found some interesting tidbits about XP ratios and humanoids through the editions (and this also touches on treasure). The main simple distillation of what I found can be seen in the ratio of the number of orcs a party must kill/defeat before rising from 0 XP at 1st level to 2nd level.

After almost 40 years, I now understand why I always thought AD&D was more of a grind than B/X, which I think is a major element in my preference for B/X...

Party of four adventurers: Cleric, Fighter, Magic-user, and Thief; XP required to get to 2nd level:

OD&D: 7,200

GH: 7,200
B/X: 7,200
AD&D: 7,254
5E: 1,200

XP Value of One Average Orc (5 hp):

OD&D: 100 xp
GH: 10 xp
B/X: 10 xp
AD&D: 15 xp
5E: 100 xp

Number of Orcs a Party must Kill to rise to 2nd level (not including Treasure XP):

OD&D: 72

GH: 720
B/X: 720
AD&D: 484
5E: 12

Average Treasure per Orc, including Individual & Lair Treasure (except 5E), ASSUMING MAXIMUM COINS in treasure (not counting gems or jewelry) and Orcs per Group:

OD&D: 26 gp (TT D: 8,000 gp/300 orcs)
GH: 26 gp (TT D: 8,000 gp/300 orcs)
B/X: 133 gp (TT D: 8,000 gp/60 orcs)
AD&D: 16 gp (TT C, O & L: 4,860 gp/300 orcs)
5E: N/A

Number of Orcs a Party must Kill to rise to 2nd level (including Treasure XP, except in 5E):

OD&D: 58

GH: 200
B/X: 51
AD&D: 234
5E: 12

[TOEE] Local Cultures, Elemental Evil Domain, and Minor Map Revisions

Here are the latest updates on the development of my 5E Temple of Elemental Evil Campaign:

I have completed my write-up of the local cultures, human and demi-human:

Dwarves: Graybeard Mountain Dwarves of the Lortmil Mountains.

Gnomes: Curelneblin Rock Gnomes of the Kron Hills, Neurlneblin Forest Gnomes of the Gnarly Forest.

Elves: Arostorin High Elves of Celene & Verbobonc, Gorgladhrim Sylvan Elves of the Gnarly Forest.

Halflings: Noniz Halflings of the Uleks.

Humans: Flannae (Adohinagi of the Gnarly Forest and Welkwood, Digadushi of the Kron Hills and Lortmil Mountains), Kronfolk of the Kron Hills, and Velvervyn of Verbobonc.

E-mail me at jamesmishler and gmail dot com if you want a copy of the PDF. 

Next I am going to finish the Random Encounters and Geographical Regions sections. Here's a sample of that:

***

I developed an Elemental Evil Domain for use by the clergy of the Temple of Elemental Evil. It is available as a PWYW product on Dungeon Masters Guild. Click here to go there and get it.

Please let me know what you think!

***

Finally, some minor changes on the map:

[TOEE] New 5E Greyhawk Campaign OAR6 Temple of Elemental Evil

 I have started a new Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign using Goodman Games' Original Adventures Reincarnated #6 -- The Temple of Elemental Evil.

While I very much enjoy most of the conversion, one thing that I felt needed more personalization was the map of the environs of Hommlet and Nulb, the easternmost section of the Kron Hills and westernmost portion of the Gnarly Forest. And so I have made a new map; it is more focused than that of OAR6, covering only the area of the original map included with the TOEE, so it is about 30 miles north-south by 50 miles east-west, or thereabouts.

It is also much more solidly packed with lesser and side adventures than OAR6 or the original. I based the amount of potential adventures on Gary's Random Wilderness Terrain generator (Appendix B, 1E DMG p. 173), which assumes a scale of 1 mile per hex (as I have for this map), and therein 1 in 6 hexes thereof should have some sort of settlement, stronghold, or ruin (in addition to any monstrous lairs). In the case of the region, most settlements and strongholds are ruins, of course, and I also folded monstrous lairs and special locales into the fold; yet even with seeding only one locale in 10 hexes, I still have 138 locations on the map!

I am assuming population density of around 10 per square mile, equivalent to that of the North of England after The Bastard's Harrowing. 

It gives the whole a very Wilderlands-esque feel. Excellent!

As it is getting late, without any further ado, here is the map. Email me at jamesmishler at gmail dot com if you want a larger version.

Right Click and Open in New Tab to Embiggen... 

[Now Available] 20 Minor Magic Items #01 for use with Fifth Edition

20 Minor Magic Items #01 for use with Fifth Edition
By James Mishler and Jodi Moran-Mishler
Designed for use with Fifth Edition
 

20 Minor Magic Items contains 20 items of lesser or least magical sort, designed to be given to lower-level characters. Most of the Minor Magic Items listed herein are common or very common items of minor, lesser, or petty sort. One common or two very common items from this booklet can be substituted for any one common item from the standard treasure lists.

The 20 items are:

 
Adamantine-Chased Armor
Ammunition of Ready Recovery
Belt Pouch of Plenty
Crown of the Goblin King
Grenade of Wonder
Healing Salve
Holy Crackers
Instant Armor
Locket of Memory
Pastries of Provisioning
Phantasmal Pipe
Ring of Invisibility, Lesser
Ring of Truth
Ring of Warding
Rune Weapon, Lesser
Shielding Shield
Talisman of Resistance
Talisman of Protection
Thieves Tools Nonpareil
Tome of the Master
 
8-page PDF (4 pages of content) – $1 CHEAP!

Buy Minor Magic Items at DriveThruRPG!