New 1E Greyhawk Campaign House Rules

Looking at 1E again I do have some decisions to make about character generation, level limits, and combat. 

Character generation: 4d6 drop the lowest, in order - that should be forgiving enough but the in order part will feel very old school to my newbies. 

Max HP at 1st level - Yeah I'm a softie.

Races, Classes - right out of the PHB

Demi-Human level limits - I always thought they were too low so I'll probably use the limits in Unearthed Arcana or 2nd edition as my baseline. 

I'm not using the zero-level characters option - you spend enough time at low level as it is. I don;t think you benefit much from extending it more.

Combat - I've been running Basic D&D by the book and I like it, but AD&D is different , especially when it comes to initiative and I don't really like that part of it. I always liked how 2nd edition handled initiative (d10 -dex adj + weapon speed or casting time or a set number based on item/action, lowest goes first)  so I may use that. Or I may go with the very simple d6+dex adj highest wins. I'm not sure, but I'm not thrilled with it as written.

I'm not going to introduce UA at first, and I will probably never use the classes and races in it at all - I know how overpowered they are. I do like the spells, magic items, and equipment though so those may turn up along the way. 

I will use Dragon articles. The CD-archive from  a few years back is an old-schooler's dream and I love mine. There are a lot of good ideas in there if I run into problems. 

If all else fails and I run into something I just don't see a good answer for, I can always consult 2E and even Hackmaster. Lots of options with those as well.

The plan is to stick to the adventures I mentioned in the last post so I shouldn't need much more other than the occasional fill-in adventure or wandering encounter. Ebay has provided additional PHB's so everyone now has their own. Now I just need to find some decent character sheets and a good day to start running this and we're all set.