Basic Equipment and Costs:
A list of some of the basic items that the players can carry with them and the cost of purchase. A dagger, for example, costs 3 gold pieces, while a sword, costs 10. There are also some more luxurious items, such as a heavy war horse, which costs 200 gold pieces or if you want to go big: a Large Galley at 30,000 gold coins. Damn. No mention of silver or bronze coins so far. There’s also a section for the weight which can be carried. A bit vague in its presentation, I feel like the weight could have been added in the previous table along the items. This one confuses a bi. It says ”Weight of a Man”, 1,750. I don’t know if those are pounds, kilos or perhaps a new unit for OD&D. What I understand is that a man/human can carry a maximum of 1,750 units of items, and depending on weight, you lose speed, this is where the unholy encumbrance rules are born. A coin is equal to 1 unit, same as a gem, while potions or wine skin equal to 30 units. Now, what exactly is the purpose of bags or backpacks then? Does it increase carrying capacity?
Levels and Number of XP Necessary to Attain Them:
This XP chart to level up! This one brings some questions and seems quite interesting in nature. The general mechanic is still the classic: earn points, gain XP, level up. Thing is, some classes only reach to certain levels, and levels back then weren’t called with numbers, and instead titles. A new warrior is a veteran at 0 XP (that has been quite the debate for a while), while a MU is a Medium at 0, and clerics are called Acolytes.
Warriors max level is Lord (which would be equal to 9, I think) and requires 240,000 XP, MU max level is Wizard, duh (level 11) and requires 300,000 XP, and clerics max level is Patriarch (level 8) and requires 100,000 XP.
And there’s even limits for the races, as explained previously. An elf can only be a warrior Hero (level 4), a MU warlock (level 8). Dwarf can only be warrior myrmidon (level 6). These are quite interesting limitations and benefits. It seems MU have to grind a lot to truly reach greatness, while seem to have the lowest requirement and can reach their level quite fast. Not sure how it worked in the table, but for a modern perspective, this would cause some serious discussion if it was to be brought back.
Statistics Regarding Classes: A table indicating the dice for accumulative hits (which is how you roll/determine your HP), fighting capability (A new concept to me, I think), and Spells & Levels, which I imagine works like 5E.
Experience Points: The classic XP we all love. Unlike modern iterations of D&D, and almost any other RPG-related thing ever, XP isn’t awarded for killing monsters, well, you can, but the standard was to do award XP by treasure collected, this includes gold, jewelry, gems, magical items, etc. Instead of straight murder XP, it was ”loot” XP, which I imagine made this edition quite intensive in the looting and treasure hunting side of things. There’s also some math here and there about how to balance XP according to player level and the challenge ahead. A 5th level warrior won’t gain the same XP from killing a monster that’s level 1, for example. A bit confusing the way it is presented, and I imagine a lot of DMs decided to just use their own judgment instead of dividing everything. I guess that’s quicker.
Levels: There are no actual limit in levels (so that explains a bit more about the titles on the previous part). In theory, you could be a 20th level Lord. But how, exactly? How much XP does it require? It doesn’t say here.
Dice for Accumulative Hits (Hit Dice): Rolling dice determines your total hit points. The same HP system we all know. You roll some dice, and you add some extra pluses and that’s your total HP. Of course, some classes are tougher, like the warrior, while MU tend to be super fragile.
Fighting Capability: This seems to be some kind of special concept or mechanic that’s sadly not explained here, and you need Chainmail to understand it.
Spells & Levels: Spells have levels, which indicate their power (this can be subject to the author) and there’s also another table that indicates how many times you can use that spell, which is like a spell slot.
Levels Above Those Listed: Alright, this one is quite confusing. I imagine its purpose is to try and help out how to progress past the default max levels.
Endless Questing 