It's been a bit more than two years since my last post, but I'm back! This time, I bring you a small guide on how to play DnD 5e using Scarlet Heroes.
First and foremost, this guide will focus on solo roleplaying. That is, you playing your RPG of choice on your own without a GM or another player. I make this clarification because not everyone may be aware that this is a possibility. Nowadays, you can play any tabletop RPG on your own, and there's a wide variety of tools and games that help you do it.
Scarlet Heroes is precisely one of the most well known games/tools to help you play solo. The book comes with everything you need: both a ruleset (which includes character creation, items, monsters, etc.) and a set of oracles and random tables.
Oracles and random tables are key when it comes to solo roleplaying. They essentially provide the answers you would normally ask a GM during a standard game. There's an element of surprise to them too, so that you can get the improvisational excitement RPG games are known for despite not playing with anyone else.
1. A SUMMARY OF D&D EVOLUTION AND WHY IT'S RELEVANT
Before we continue, there's something essential you need to remember:
DnD 5e is the latest release (as of 2022) of the world's famous Dungeons & Dragons tabletop Role Playing Game. This means that, since its creation back in 1974, the rules of DnD have had several revisions. The game we're playing nowadays on its fifth official edition, even though it preserves the essence and concepts of the 1974 ruleset, has been carefully edited and expanded throughout the years to guarantee it's easier to play and more understandable for contemporary audiences.
However, these revisions and changes in the rules have both taken and added aspects that not all players like. Because of this, there are many players who prefer playing with older editions of the game, or who edit the rules of older editions to their own needs and likings —thus creating new rulesets that share the core of DnD, but are not necessarily considered canon DnD. The most well-known examples are perhaps Pathfinder RPG (based on DnD 3.5 and which is nowadays its own game and franchise) and the whole OSR RPG movement (or Old-School Revival Role Playing Game movement, which covers a variety of rulesets; many of these rulesets derive from DnD B/X, also known as the Moldvay/Cook ruleset, which is a 1981 spinoff of DnD 1e from 1977).
Scarlet Heroes is an interesting hybrid because it is a spinoff of a DnD spinoff. It was originally designed as a complementary set of rules that could help you play Labyrinth Lord (a contemporary OSR RPG from the Moldvay/Cook branch of games) with a single character. It used to be known as the Black Streams: Solo Heroes supplement, but it was eventually released, via Kickstarter, as its own full game.
Confusing? Maybe, but bear with me.
These facts are important for you to keep in mind because they explain game compatibility between systems.
2. GAME COMPATIBILITY AND CONTENT CONVERSION
All OSR RPGs that derive from the Moldvay/Cook ruleset are compatible with one another, as well as with the DnD 1e books and supplements. This is because they're in essence they same core game, but with their own distinct flavor. If you were to play an OSR RPG such as Labyrinth Lord, you could easily use the monster tables or spell lists from OSRIC or Old-School Essentials (OSE RPG) with minimal or no conversion needed.
Because Scarlet Heroes (or SH) is derived from Labyrinth Lord, you could use Labyrinth Lord's monsters and spells in SH, or you could use those of any other DnD B/X ruleset-based OSR game in SH. Again, with minimal conversion needed.
Now, what happens if you want to use supplement books or lists from games beyond DnD B/X? Like, DnD 5e with Scarlet Heroes? Well, it's still possible, but the further away the editions are, the more flexible you need to be in order to adapt the contents you want to use from one game to another.
3. THE GOLDEN RULE OF CONTENT COVERSION
Regardless of your situation, try to remember this golden rule for content conversion:
Stick to the ruleset of one game, and import the monsters, spells, and items from the other ONLY when the first game can be enriched by the second one. If the second game does not offer anything new to the first game, why even bother converting content? Use what you already have!
If you want to use a DnD 5e adventure in Scarlet Heroes, but you want to stick to the SH ruleset (because you want to play solo and SH already offers you that), look first for those details within the SH book that can be used in the 5e adventure without needing to be converted. If the adventure calls for a Wolf, use SH's included stats for a Wolf. Converting a 5e Wolf to SH would be both redundant and unnecessary, unless it's a special type of Wolf that's outside the scope of the SH's monster... and I mean a VERY special type, like an Alpha Colossal Thunder Wolf or something extremely specific like that. Basic derivatives of a creature can be adapted on the fly by tweaking Hit Points (or Hit Dice, but more on that later!) number of attacks per turn, etc. More intricate monster conversions are better done in detail. Check out this other article on the topic if you're interested in that type of work.
If the adventure calls for a Cultist, you may notice there are no Cultists in Scarlet Heroes; there's only Bandits, Commoners, Nobles, and Soldiers. This is because most OSR games keep things simple, like old DnD B/X did. What is a Cultist if not an evil doer —and an evil doer can very well be called a Bandit. So, use a Bandit instead! Need a Mummy? Well, all Mummies are undead, so you may as well use a Zombie or a Skeleton (it depends on how well-preserved the mummified body is). Remember when I told you to be flexible? Well, this is one of the reasons why.
4. THE KEY TO OLD-SCHOOL FLEXIBILITY
Modern RPGs, video games, books, movies, and pop culture have accustomed us to always having a variety of monsters, creatures, NPCs, and other specialized fantasy tropes at our fingertips at all times. Due to this, we cannot conceive equating a Bandit to a Cultist, or a Mummy to a Zombie. They're entirely different! But, that's where the charm of Old-school games lies: one core concept can cover many. It's minimalist; it's simple; it's effective.
You can see this minimalist approach to fantasy tropes more clearly in character creation. Nowadays, there are dozens of classes and races available; each with their own quirks and characteristics. Back in the day: 4 classes and 4 races only; if you're going Basic, then it's 4 classes for Humans, and 3 races-as-class. If you wanted to be a Third-Degree Dark Elf Blood Sorcerer, you'd choose either a level 3 Elf (when playing with race-as-class) and spice it up in your PC's bio, or a level 3 Elf Magic-User with extra flavor in your PC's bio. Need Blood Sorcery spells? Take the Magic-User spells and change the names to something more arcane. And, guess what? It worked like a charm! Also, it was freeing in a way because you could have ANY character you could think of, without having to rely on ultra-specialized rules or tomes upon tomes of supplemental books. Flexibility and imagination were key.
The same thing worked for monsters and even items, and that same thing you can bring into your games if you want to play a 5e adventure with the Scarlet Heroes rules... well, that is if you're okay with the Red Tide setting that Scarlet Heroes includes. If you definitely don't like the Red Tide setting from basic SH, you can replace all default spells, monsters, and even items with those of Labyrinth Lord. Remember, since SH is a spinoff of Labyrinth Lord, it's 100% compatible with its supplements and default contents! Also, the Labyrinth Lord: Revised Edition (no-art version) and the Advanced Edition Companion (Labyrinth Lord, no-art version) are available for free on DriveThruRPG (just follow the links). Does doing this suppose extra encumbrance on your table? Probably, yes. But, it's no different from playing DnD 5e with the adventure book on one side, the PHB on the other, and the Monster Manual on top of everything else. In this case, you'd be using the 5e adventure book, the Scarlet Heroes book for the rules and oracles, and the Labyrinth Lord book for monsters, spells, etc. See? It's essentially the same deal, except you'd be having a much simpler ruleset with full solo-play compatibility, which is why you're probably reading this article.
5. THE ISSUE WITH OLD-SCHOOL ABSTRACTION
Older versions of DnD were not as organized or detailed as the current Fifth Edition. This is why many modern OSR RPGs have been made: to try to overcome these limitations for the sake of clarity. However, it's still in their nature to retain some of that abstract and minimalist design old DnD had. Just have a look at these examples for the statblocks of a Boar.
From top to bottom, you have: #1) Boar from DnD 5e, #2) Boar from Labyrinth Lord (an OSR RPG based on DnD B/X), #3) Boar from a B/X compatible monster supplement (which is very simplistic on its own).
NOTE: Both #2 and #3 could be used in Scarlet Heroes as is.
You'll notice there are some core elements to all of them, and I don't mean just the creature's name! It's the same basic Boar, but its representation varies greatly from source to source, or at least in the way the stats are written. The Boar from the B/X supplement (#3) is perhaps the most radical of all three examples. It is concise, yet it can come across as cryptic if you're used to the DnD 5e monster format. Don't discard it, though! If you learn how to read such a minimalistic monster profile, interpreting all other stat blocks for older versions of DnD and most OSR RPGs becomes piece of cake. It also offers you a brand new possibility: to use DnD 5e monsters directly from the Monster Manual into your OSR RPG-based games (like your adapted Scarlet Heroes adventure) because you'll know what to look for.
By the way, this is what that minimalist interpretation of a Boar says:
Number of boars encountered in a dungeon: 1d6 (in a wilderness scenario: 1d6); alignment: neutral; movement in the wilderness: 150 yards (movement per turn during combat: 50 feet); Armor Class 7 (Descending); Hit Dice 3; Number of Attacks per turn: 1 (attacks with its tusks, so it's melee); Damage done when attack hits: 2d4; Saving Throws: Use the table for a level 2 fighter to determine the rolls; Morale: 9; Treasure Hoard Class: none (i.e. no treasure)
Almost all OSR RPGs and supplements open the chapter on monsters with a detailed explanation of what these weird abbreviations or concepts, such as AL, MV, DG, are. I highly recommend reading those. It's almost always one entire page dedicated to listing and expanding all those items, and they tend to be the same accross versions and rulesets. In fact, many acronyms are considered standard for old-school games, like AC for Armor Class or HD for Hit Dice (and I'll talk more about these two in a second). Therefore, I won't be explaining all of them here. Luckily for you, I had already dissected them all on a previous post (Quick 5e to OSR Conversion Method).*
*As you can see, I'm expanding a bit more on the contents of that article in this entry, but I do hope this guide is more thorough!
If we focus once again on the concept of converting content from one game to another, there are two essential monster stats that are pretty much universal, regardless of the version you're using, whether it's old-school (e.g. DnD B/X) or new-school (DnD 5e):
- Armor Class (Descending vs. Ascending)
- Hit Dice vs. Hit Points
That's it. If you understand how these two universal items work, the rest becomes easy. Also, the doors from DnD 5e conversion to OSR RPGs open wide with this trick. Again, I've already talked about this in the article I linked above, but I'll go over it again.
Let's start with the first one: Armor Class (or AC)
6. ARMOR CLASS (DESCENDING vs. ASCENDING)
The concept of Armor Class is found in stat blocks of Player Characters, NPCs, and monsters alike. At its most basic, AC is understood as the overall layer of physical or magical protection that a creature possesses, be it by natural, mechanical, or mystical means. It may refer to literal armor over a human player's body (like a shield with a breastplate), the carapace of an insect, a magic field that repels certain attacks, draconic scales, the thick hide of a beast, etc. It keeps the creature from being hurt or damaged by attacks that may be directed against it. If an attack fails to meet the AC of the creature, it means it was not strong enough to cause any harm, or it caused nothing but a shallow cut or scratch that doesn't compromise at all the creature's health or integrity.
A creature's AC will be calculated with a specific number. When put on a scale, that number may represent either extreme vulnerability to harm, to literal immunity. There are two ways of interpreting the scale: ascendingly, or descendingly. Depending on what version of DnD (or any derived ruleset) you choose to play, you'll find one version of the scale or the other. The key in either case is to remember two essential numbers: 0 and 19.
6.1 DESCENDING AC
Let's explore the Descending Armor Class scale (or Descending AC for short). It's called Descending because the LOWER the AC, the BETTER. This means that the closer you are to a 19 (which on a scale from 0 to 20 is actually quite high), the more vulnerable you'll be. In fact, an AC 19 in a Descending AC game would be the absolute worst! It'd be akin to having the resistance of a one ply square of wet toilet paper. In fact, it'd be even worse than that! An AC 19 would be abysmal considering that the average unarmored human has a basic AC 9. A one ply square of wet toilet paper is probably at an AC 14 or 15. So, imagine an AC 19! On a Descending AC scale, you want to get to a 0, or even below that number if possible. Negative numbers are epic; they're what you'd expect an Ancient Red Dragon to have...like, AC -3.
Why is this? Well, it's because of the attack formula that's used to check if you hit your opponent or not.
The formula is as follows:
1d20 + Attack Bonus + STR (Strength) or DEX (Dexterity) Modifier (+ Any other applicable bonuses if the rules so permit) + Enemy's AC
If the resulting number is equal to or higher than 20, you hit!
The attack bonus is defined by your character's class within the rules of the game, as well as the STR and DEX modifiers (depending on the type of attack you're performing, you'll use STR for Melee, or DEX for Ranged attacks). Any other bonuses may come from special weapons or advantageous circumstances. It is also possible that some of these numbers are in fact negative, and instead of adding to the final result, they end up subtracting (which would make rolling a 20 or above more challenging).
Descending AC is perhaps one of the most notable characteristics of DnD B/X and B/X-based OSR RPGs. As you may assume, Labyrinth Lord and Scarlet Heroes use the Descending AC scale. Other OSR games, like the Old-School Essentials ruleset, offer you Descending AC by default (although, this one gives you the option to play with Ascending AC if you want).
The easiest way to check if your ruleset uses Descending AC or not is by
looking at the armor values in the items section of the rules. Most armor pieces will lower your AC below 9. For example, in Scarlet Heroes, a set of Leather Armor will give your character an AC 7, and a set of Plate Armor will give you an AC 3.
6.2 ASCENDING AC
If you're used to new-school RPGs, including DnD 5e, Descending AC may be counter-intuitive to you. Why? Because it makes more sense to think of higher numbers as something more developed or powerful than lower numbers. Just think of video games. A level 5 character will definitely be weaker than a level 25 boss. So, why not do the same with Armor Class? An AC 5 creature will surely be more vulnerable to damage than an AC 25 creature, right? Well, according to the Ascending AC scale, that's how it goes!
An AC 0 in an Ascending AC game would be equivalent to being as weak as it gets, while an AC 19 or above would be Ancient Dragon worthy. An average unarmored human in an Ascending AC game possesses an AC 10.
This all makes sense because of the standard attack formula to determine if you hit your opponent or not.
The formula is as follows:
1d20 + Attack Bonus + STR or DEX Modifier (+ Any other applicable bonuses if the rules so permit)
If the resulting number is equal to or higher than your Enemy's AC, you hit!
The formula itself is even more straightforward than the one of the Descending AC scale. This also makes it the preferred formula for many DnD-derived games, including some rulesets that could be considered OSR RPGs, like Dungeon Crawl Classics (or DCC) and Basic Fantasy RPG (an entirely free ruleset with LOTS of supplements and content; needless to say, many players love it!).
The easiest way to check if your ruleset uses Ascending AC or not is by looking at the armor values in the items section of the rules. Most armor pieces will raise your AC above 10. For example, in DnD 5e, a set of Leather Armor will give your character an AC 11, and a set of Plate Armor will give you an AC 18.
6.3 CONVERSION CHART
Following the idea we've been developing in this article, let's assume you want to play a DnD 5e adventure using the Scarlet Heroes rules, due to its solo-play compatibility. In that case, a very useful tool for you to have at hand would be the following conversion table:
Any item or creature with an Ascending AC can be easily transferred to a Descending AC system. As you can see, the table starts from the basic unarmored value (which for all intended purposes is considered to be the lowest relevant AC in a game), all the way up (or down) to some truly epic levels.
Is your adventure rewarding you with a set of Magic Adamantine Armor of AC 19? Easy, that's an AC 0 in Scarlet Heroes. Have you come across an Efreeti, AC 14? That'd be AC 5.
So, yeah. This is why Armor Class is the first key pillar of content conversion. Now, let's check the second pillar.
7. HIT DICE vs. HIT POINTS
If you've played any games in the past 10 years or so, you should be familiar with the concept of Hit Points or HP. They represent a creature's health. The more HP a creature's got, the more damage it'll take before being defeated, and the longer it will last in combat. It's pretty simple, really. But, what about Hit Dice (or HD)? Aren't they the same thing as HP? Well, yes and no.
Hit Dice are a concept that's commonly used in older editions of DnD, such as DnD B/X, but which has been entirely replaced by Hit Points in more recent games. It doesn't mean they've disappeared; it's just that they're not acknowledged by their name anymore.
As the name suggests, HD are dice that you roll to get the total amount of HP a creature has. In early DnD versions, 1 HD was equivalent to 1d8. So, in a sense, there was a standard way of knowing how to calculate a monster's total health. If a creature had 6 HD, you'd roll 6d8 (or 6 eight-sided dice) to find out how many total HP it had. If you rolled really low, the creature would have only 6 HP; if you rolled really high, it would have 48 HP. On average, you were likely to end up with a total of 27 HP for the creature. This allowed for variability, which made monsters more interesting.
Depending on the ruleset used, monster statblocks could give you only the HD value plus any extra HP you could add to the roll. It'd look something like 4 HD + 2 (so, roll 4 eight-sided dice, and add +2 to the resulting number). Most OSR RPGs keep this system. They give you the HD formula, so you can figure out how much HP your monster has.
Other more modern rulesets like DnD 5e will give you both HD and HP, listing the HP first (which corresponds to the average sum of the suggested HD roll) and then the HD in parenthesis (although this value is no-longer acknowledged by its technical name anymore; it's just given as a roll in a parenthesis). This is so GMs can easily use monsters during encounters without having to roll lots and lots of dice if the monsters are particularly numerous.
So, you see, HD and HP are very close, yet very distinct concepts. However, Scarlet Heroes uses HD in monster stats exactly as you would use HP in other games. You don't roll the HD to determine how many HP the creature has. You treat the HD directly as HP. So, a creature with 2 HD works as if it had 2 HP. This makes combat much simpler because with a good enough roll, you could kill an enemy in just one turn. Of course, SH rules go in far more detail than that, but that's what the game is for. I recommend you read the section on "Combat and Damage rules" on p. 18 of the book (and its summary on p.25).
Okay, but you want to play your DnD 5e adventure using Scarlet Heroes rules, and now that you have a look at your monster stats, you realize that their Hit Dice are all over the place!
I mean, just look at that Efreeti! It has 200 HP and 16d10+112 HD! Wasn't the base formula just 1 HD = 1d8? Why is this giving me 16d10, and what am I supposed to do with the extra +112? What does it mean?!
Worry not, fret not. Let's have a look a three possible solutions to this HD dilemma:
- The simple HD method
- The Challenge Rating (CR) method
- The Level to HD method
You can use any of them; whichever you prefer, really.
7.1 The Simple HD Method
The first way is simple. Because you want to adapt the creature's stats from DnD 5e to SH, you won't be needing the HP value at all, nor any additional HP you're meant to add after rolling for the creature's custom HP value. This means that out this:
200 HP (16d10+112 HD)
You're left with this:
200 HP (16d10+112 HD)
Because you're really not rolling all those HD, the die-type of the roll becomes irrelevant. So, the fact it calls for d10s and not d8s can be ignored too:
200 HP (16d10+112 HD)
What you're left with is a very simple value: 16 HD, and there you go! That's how much health your Scarlet Heroes Efreeti has!
7.2 The Challenge Rating (CR) Method
The second way of calculating the total HD for your 5e-imported creature is by using its CR rating. Depending on the monster, it may or may not give you the same number of HD than if you follow the first method above.
The CR or Challenge Rating is essentially the difficulty level of the encounter you're having. A DnD 5e game offers you a scale from CR 0 (a Mouse) up to CR 30 (a Tarrasque). Low-level characters should never face a high CR monster, unless they want to die. That's also another reason why DnD 5e adventures are meant to be played with a full party of 4 PCs (or more, depending on how difficult the adventure is). If you play with Scarlet Heroes rules (which is meant to be played with a single PC, and on top of that, solo), your character is meant to be more powerful than in your average DnD 5e campaign, so that they can face tougher challenges and be able to survive. That's why combat rules are different, you're given a fray die (see SH rules p.7 for more information), and monster health is interpreted as being 1 HD = 1 HP.
So, how to calculate HD based on a monster's CR? Easy:
CR levels from 0 to 1 (including 1/8, 1/4, and 1/2) count as 1 HD. So, a monster with CR 1/2 will have 1 HD.
CR 2 = 2 HD; CR 3 = 3 HD; CR 4 = 4 HD... and so on.
By this method, a Tarrasque (CR 30) would have 30 HD. Our Efreeti from above’s example would have 11 HD instead of 16 HD, and would be slightly easier to kill.
7.3 The Level to HD Method
The last method is almost like the second one, except you use it when you don't know the CR of a monster, but you do know its level. It's a 1:1 ratio.
A level 7 monster would have 7 HD. A level 20 monster would have 20 HD. This one doesn't need any further explanation. Sometimes, knowing the level of a monster can prove useful, so you can either take its HD for its level (4 HD = Level 4), or if it's a DnD 5e creature, its CR for its level (CR 1/4 = Level 1; CR 15 = Level 15).
Our Efreeti could be considered a level 11 creature due to its CR 11.
8. CONCLUSION
A little bit of patience, creativity, and flexibility will go a long way. If you can identify a creature's AC and HD, from DnD 5e to SH, monster conversion will be fast, easy, and may be done on the fly. Items and spells tend to be even more transparent than that. Because DnD 5e and SH share a common ancestor, many concepts will translate directly, or may even be a part of their respective core rules without any edits. So, distances, penalizing conditions, etc. don’t need much analysis. Other game mechanics such as check rolls, bonus actions, and saving throws remain relatively similar too. In case there are any differences, stick to the definitions used by the ruleset you’re using to play. So, in our DnD 5e adventure being played with SH rules, stick to what the SH book says. If it says nothing regarding one very particular detail, it’s likely because of its old-school design. Therefore: make it up on the spot. It won’t affect you mechanically… and if it does, don’t overthink it. The game itself is telling you, though indirectly, to either ignore that detail, or to cover it narratively (not mechanically).
I highly recommend using Scarlet Heroes rules to play DnD 5e adventures. It's something that can be done, so feel free to experiment! Whenever possible, use SH stats and contents, or use those from Labyrinth Lord (or any other Moldvay/Cook compatible OSR game), before converting them from DnD 5e. Remember: SH is a much simpler system than DnD 5e, so don't be afraid to cut corners and take only the basic elements you feel are relevant when converting info.
If you want to know how to transfer ALL STATS from a DnD 5e monster into SH, I insist you check out my previous article: Quick 5e to OSR conversion method. The last paragraph gives more details on SH conversion.
If you're looking for further guidance on how to play Scarlet Heroes solo (whether you're adapting a DnD 5e adventure or not), make sure to check the book on p.114, and the example that's provided on p.130.
Aaaand... that's all for now!
See you later in a future entry :)
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