The Game :: Oath-Bound DMG/Overlay

Approaches to Playing AD&D (p.9)

The vanilla DMG describes a range of approaches to play, from pure storytelling to realism-simulationist. Oath-Bound sits firmly outside the realism-simulationist end of that spectrum — and deliberately so. The intellectual biography behind the design is covered in the Designer Diary. The short version: extensive experience with simulationist systems produced the conviction that the mechanical apparatus was doing less work than it appeared to, and that the fiction was the point.

The DMG’s characterization of play approaches is substantially accurate as a map. Oath-Bound simply occupies a specific position on it and has opinions about why.

Dice (p.9)

Oath-Bound adopts a d100 percentile resolution system as its primary resolution mechanic — the most structurally significant departure from vanilla AD&D in this overlay. The system, its rationale, and its practical application are covered in full in the CRM.

Use of Miniature Figures With The Game (p.10)

This section applies in Oath-Bound as written in the DMG.

Aids to Playing AD&D (p.11)

The vanilla DMG directs readers to write to TSR at an address that has been unreachable since WotC acquired the company in 1997. You are already reading the Oath-Bound notes. This is where the useful information lives.