The Campaign
| Classic AD&D often assumes the world is arranged around adventure progression — safer beginnings, harder wilderness, deeper dungeons, and challenges broadly suited to the party’s growing power. Oath-Bound leans more toward a world that simply exists on its own terms. Danger is situational rather than tiered, characters are usually tied into existing social and institutional structures, and retreat, negotiation, caution, and logistics are often as important as combat ability. At the same time, the older idea that the setting gradually develops its own internal momentum through play remains very much part of the Oath-Bound approach. |
Social Class And Rank In AD&D (p.88) 
| This is a rare case of the vanilla DMG declining to offer prescriptive rules and tables — and the better for it. Social class and rank in Oath-Bound are emergent properties of the oath economy, institutional affiliation, and the obligations a character has accumulated and honored. They are not a table lookup. The DMG’s discursive treatment here is useful context rather than a mechanical framework to adopt or reject. |
The Town And City Social Structure (p.89)
| The vanilla DMG’s town and city model assumes a broadly early medieval culture. The Oath-Bound setting spans a wider range — some areas retain the administrative and physical infrastructure of the Velasian Empire and operate at a correspondingly higher level of urban sophistication, while others have regressed considerably in the three and a half centuries since the Fall. GMs should calibrate the vanilla model to the specific region being played rather than applying it uniformly. |
Duties, Excises, Fees, Tariffs, Taxes, Tithes & Tolls (p.90)
| The vanilla DMG’s tax models are informative but not uniformly applicable across the Oath-Bound setting. Implementation varies by region, political structure, and the degree of Velasian institutional survival in the area. Tithes in particular are addressed in the context of character expenses. |
See Money.
Monster Populations And Placement (p.90)
| The vanilla DMG’s asides about Killer Dungeons and Monty Haul campaigns are worth noting here. Both represent failure modes of campaign calibration that the Oath-Bound approach to advancement and pacing is designed to avoid — the former by grounding danger in fictional logic rather than challenge rating, the latter by keeping the GM’s XP award honest and the table’s expectations aligned. The DMG’s underlying guidance on population and placement is sound and applies across the setting. |
In the northeast reaches of Velland, monster populations tend to be lower and humanoid conflict more prevalent — a regional characteristic rather than a setting-wide position. Elsewhere the vanilla guidance applies without that qualification.
This section applies in Oath-Bound as written in the DMG.
Placement Of Magic Items (p.92)
| The directional guidance applies. The d100 resolution model allows for finer granularity at the lower end of the magic item power curve — a modest enchantment that would be too small to express meaningfully on a d20 is representable in percentile terms. Low-plus items can therefore be somewhat more common in Oath-Bound without inflating the overall magical economy. The ceiling on item power is not lower; the floor is more accessible. |
Territory Development By PCs (p.93)
| The vanilla DMG’s territory development model is directionally correct. The Oath-Bound setting differs in texture: true monsters are relatively fewer, but humanoid conflict, institutional friction, and social-political events are more prevalent. A character securing territory in Oath-Bound is more likely to be dealing with competing oath-holders, Foundation interests, and the legacy of Velasian land claims than with monster clearance. |
Peasants, Serfs and Slaves (p.94)
| This topic is more complex in the Oath-Bound setting than the vanilla DMG treatment allows. The oath economy has specific implications for what kinds of bondage are institutionally sanctioned, how they are entered and exited, and what protections — if any — apply to those in various forms of dependent status. The vanilla categories are a starting framework, not an accurate map of Oath-Bound social structures. |
Monastery Cellars & Secret Crypts (p.94)
| The example contains vanilla AD&D features — specific classes, alignment-dependent elements, and institutional structures — that are not supported in the Oath-Bound setting. These do not detract from the value of the general example as a demonstration of dungeon design principles. GMs should read it for the structural and pacing lessons rather than as a literal template. |
The First Dungeon Adventure (p.96)
| Substantially compatible with the Oath-Bound setting and worth reading for its demonstration of the interaction model — how the GM manages a first dungeon experience, paces information, and handles the early encounters that establish table expectations. The specific content may require adaptation; the approach it demonstrates does not. |