Several of these sites have garnered interest from readers. I would very much like to hear your opinions, as well as what brought you to these.
This is a sub-index page of the Index to the Writings of Mark Joseph Young, which cover many areas of thought and life, including, law, bible, rpg's, time travel, fiction, and many other subjects.
AD&D Special Weapon Maneuvers Without Martial Arts: MyWorld rules attempt to balance the advantages of weapon specialization by giving some advantages to the generalist, but also improves the abilities of the specialist, by allowing the creation of martial arts-like maneuvers within limits.
Adjudicating Chess Games Played by RPG Characters: One of my D&D player characters gave a hand-carved chess set to another as a birthday present; I needed rules to determine the outcome of games within the game, so I devised these.
The Alchemic Lab--for Dungeons & Dragons and other FRP's: Part of the rules for the experimental Alchemist class, these rules explain everything necessary for the character to do his work.
Alignment CGI Quiz: Wei-Hwa Huang liked my alignment quiz (below) so much, that he not only linked to it--he created an interactive form which would let you take the quiz on line, and return the results. I ran a few of my own characters through it, and had no complaints. But after he graduated, the school took down his site, and we thought the quiz lost forever--until this German role playing game site asked permission to translate it into German and post it on their site. So if you read German, enjoy it--and if you don't, it can be kind of interesting to stab at it, too.
Alignment Quiz for Dungeons & Dragons: One of the most positive and interesting aspects of the Dungeons & Dragons game system has always been the issue of alignment--is the character good or evil, lawful or chaotic? Yet many players and not a few referees have not fully appreciated the impact the choice of alignment makes on a character. This quiz helps refine an understanding of what characters of each alignment believe.
All In the Mind: Milieu Integration in 1st Ed. AD&D: Suggestions on mixing second edition psionics in a first edition AD&D game setting.
Ancient Mystery Languages for Fantasy Role Playing Games: As a theologian and scholar, I'm very much aware that much of what constitutes the basics of my faith is written in rare or dead languages. I've created a few fictitious dead languages for the scholars of my fantasy realms.
Apprenticeships for AD&D Character Classes: Although the game assumes that the character must pass through an apprenticeship to become a new class, these apprenticeships are defined for few classes. This page provides information for the other classes.
BASIC Programs for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Games: The best of these is my ADR's and Surv's program, which allows character weapon attacks and durability to be compared in a realistic way; but there are others which referees and players will find useful to designing and enjoying their game worlds.
A Beginner's Guide to Role Playing Games: This page in the Multiverser information center gives a quick look at how real role playing games work, in contrast to computer role playing games, and also discusses to what degree players and referees must be familiar with the rules in order to play a game.
Called Shot Rules in Dungeons & Dragons: The AD&D game system provides many modifiers to determine the chance to hit an opponent; but what modifiers ought to apply to an effort to hit the opponent's eyes? Discussions with another dungeon master led to agreement on these rules for such circumstances.
Character Creation For Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition: Index page of a separate site connected to the M. J. Young's Dungeons & Dragons Materials site, this site provides a step-by-step approach to everything a player needs to know to create a D&D character, as a collection of hyperlinked documents with information drawn or extrapolated from TSR's out-of-print books. There are so many pages on this site--indexed from a separate section of this index--that it seemed too much to include them all here.
Character Math and Language Skills based on Social Class: In the Dungeons & Dragons game, the question of whether characters can read is inadequately addressed. This section of the Dungeon Master's Reference Materials provides a reasonable framework for this.
A Class Act: Milieu Integration in 1st Ed. AD&D: In providing character background in a mixed milieu setting, motivations which bring particular classes into the setting and the reactions they will have to other classes unfamiliar to them is an important part.
Confessions of a Dungeons & Dragons Addict: An intelligent consideration of conservative Christian charges that Advanced Dungeons & Dragons is satanic, the paper discusses exactly what is and is not wrong with this and other role playing games.
Containers in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Part of the Special Rules section of M. J. Young's Dungeons & Dragons Materials, this recommends weights, volumes, and dimensions for most standard packages in the game, such as sacks, backpacks, and saddlebags.
Dungeon Master's Reference Materials: This secondary index within the Dungeons & Dragons materials lists pages containing rules and charts which I have developed to assist game play over the years.
Dungeons & Dragons Random Language Selection Chart: Part of the Dungeon Master's Reference Materials, this page lists all the languages in the first edition rule books I could identify, on a table which allows random selection for inscriptions and documents of ancient or unknown origin within the game.
Experience for Ninja Split-class in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: A simplified system for assigning when experience is added to the ninja class totals, and when it goes to the other character class.
Forms of Medical Assistance in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: The Barbarian first aid and occidental healing proficiencies are compared and contrasted, and used with a bit of extrapolation to create an herbalism package to define that Oriental proficiency.
Footwear for AD&D Characters: The decision to wear high or low, hard or soft boots, or sandals or tabi, or nothing at all, on the feet of a character should have some meaning. This rule gives it some.
The Frontier: Milieu Integration in 1st Ed. AD&D: This web site section suggests a way of working in a mixed milieu setting, specifically in relation to the setting itself, so that Occidental, Oriental, Krynn, and Viking characters are all present in a logical context with appropriate support structures.
Game Ideas Unlimited: An Amusing Dungeon The series on Gaming Outpost (for subscribers only) presents an interesting adventure idea created by reproducing something familiar in an alien setting.
Game Ideas Unlimited: Monster Design: Without actually designing a monster, this twelfth article in the Gaming Outpost subscriber series presents important considerations of what makes a good monster.
Holidays for Imaginary Worlds: Every world has holidays; these are a few ideas, many from games I have run or played, which can fill the calendars of any world.
Infravision, Ultravision, and Physiology: Here are a few thoughts about how to handle infravision and ultravision in the D&D world.
Kensai Dedication and Associated Rules in AD&D: MyWorld rules clarify how the bonuses and restrictions of the Kensai dedication apply when the dedication is to a martial arts weapon or to a martial arts style or to any other attack form.
Laws of Inheritance in Fantasy Scenarios Returning to Life: How to resolve the problem of who owns the treasure and equipment of a character who has died but has returned to life as himself or as someone else.
Leadership System for Dungeons & Dragons: So that party leadership would be a character dynamic instead of a player dynamic, these rules were created to base leadership on such factors as charisma and experience.
Martial Arts Rules for Role Playing Games: This sub-site contains many pages of rules on the use of martial arts within AD&D, including a number of styles created for use in the game.
M. J. Young's Dungeons & Dragons Materials: This is the introduction and primary contents page of my site on the original role playing game, which briefly describes the pages and sections placed there to assist gamers.
Modron Military Escort Units in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Many of the modrons are given contingents of other modrons, who also have modron contingents. How many modrons are with Primus at a given moment? This page answers that for him and all other members of the lawful neutral hierarchy.
Monthly Expense System for AD&D Characters in Games: This page in the M. J. Young's Dungeons & Dragons Materials site Special Rules section creates a system for charging party living expenses monthly, instead of attempting to update character treasure records for every game day.
M. J. Young's Dungeons & Dragons ADR's and Surv's Explained: Comstat--the Combat Statistics Program--is explained, complete with the calculations which are used to determine the average damage per round and the survival rating.
A Nice Kid Like You: Milieu Integration in 1st Ed. AD&D: In providing character background in a mixed milieu setting, motivations which bring particular races into the setting can be valuable.
Non-weapon Proficiencies for Non-player Characters: Part of the Dungeon Master's Reference Materials, this page provides a table for quickly putting some of the finishing touches on characters.
Now You Look Human: Milieu Integration in 1st Ed. AD&D: In working in a mixed milieu setting, certain character races will be perceived as human until they reveal otherwise.
Other Pages by M. J. Young or Related to RPG's: My original links page, it connects to many of these pages, and to several others by people I know.
Placement of Spell Books and Magical Books in Libraries: Part of the Dungeon Master's Reference Materials, this chart allows quick selection between the various valuable magic books listed in first edition materials for situations in which it is appropriate to include a book, but the referee does not wish to choose which one.
Playing Unfamiliar Musical Instruments in Dungeons & Dragons: As a musician, I am aware that skill in a musical instrument is partially transferable to other musical instruments; and that the more instruments and greater variety of instruments you can play, the more likely it is that you will be able to play any particular unknown instrument. These rules carry that into role playing.
Primer on Poisons in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Combining the published rules on poisons with some reasonable answers to the unanswered questions, this page provides the information necessary to understand the use of poison in the game.
Randomized Size, Appearance, and Gender of Game Horses: For referees whose players are like mine and want a horse of the color and size and gender they specify, the horses which are available in any given stable can be randomly determined. Although part of the Dungeon Master's Reference Materials, this chart is adaptable to almost any role playing game.
Re-educating the Power Gamer: This look at how to balance games so that "munchkins" and wargamers can play alongside story- and character-driven players was published as the lead article in the second issue of the e-zine Wounds Unlimited and later reprinted on RoleplayingTips.com.
Searching for Secret Compartments in Dungeons & Dragons: These rules were designed to provide probabilities for locating hidden hatches in the game world.
Shukenja and Non-good Deities: Thoughts on how evil and neutral gods may be served by the standard good clerics of the Oriental world.
Special Rules for the AD&D Table of M. J. Young: A secondary index within the M. J. Young's Dungeons & Dragons Materials site, this connects various documents which explain rules I created to make the game run more smoothly.
Strategic Maneuvers Rules for AD&D: Part of the Special Rules section of the M. J. Young Dungeons & Dragons site, for determining the number of team combat strategies a character can learn, based on intelligence and class.
Strength Damage Bonus for Missile Weapons in AD&D: The game implies that stronger characters can get damage bonuses by using heavier missile weapons, but fails to define any standards for this. These rules take care of that oversight.
Tables for Identifying Marks and Command Words for Magic Items: The first question I was asked about most treasure items was whether there was anything written or drawn on the object. This led to the attempt to determine command words for magic items--both questions inadequately addressed under first edition rules. These tables determine what kind of etchings might be on an item, what kind of command word is used to activate magic, and how likely the characters are to guess it.
Thief-Acrobat Adjustments for Exceptional Strength in AD&D: The rules which created the Thief-Acrobat split class in Dungeons & Dragons neglected the possibility that a thief might have strength above 18--either because of magical enhancements or due to being multi-classed as a fighter. This material provides reasonable bonuses for skill use for those superior strengths.
Treasure Limits for AD&D Characters with Limited Treasure: Rangers were the best known but not the only characters who were forbidden to amass treasure in Dungeons & Dragons. This page, part of the Special Rules section of the M. J. Young Dungeons & Dragons Material site, creates a definition for those limits which allow the character to meet expanding needs as level increases.
Turns Rule in Role Playing Games: Part of the Special Rules section of the M. J. Young Dungeons & Dragons Materials site, this provides a fair approach to assuring that no player is lost in the shuffle at large game sessions.
What is an RPG?: This material was excerpted from the Multiverser role playing game Referee's Rules. It explains the gaming phenomenon in a way which is brief yet revealing.
When Worlds Collide: Milieu Integration in 1st Ed. AD&D: Cross-cultural attitudes in a mixed milieu setting in AD&D games are discussed generally.
1st Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Alternate Planes of Existence: From the Dungeon Master's Reference Material, this lists all the planes identified in first edition rules on a table designed to randomly select one, weighted toward the larger and more familiar ones.
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