Birthin' Babies in B/X

The endgame of the classic OSR game is in the establishment of a domain: the fighter builds their stronghold; the wizard their tower; the cleric, their monastic barony. A critical part of domains, in history - perhaps - rather than the common gaming implementation: succession. To whom will your dominion pass when you are no longer controlling it? Knowing that - why not produce your own heirs? Herein presented, the old rules I use to have - slightly adapted to fit better to B/X - regarding child-bearing in RPGs. 

Hold on - did this really ever come up in your games? No - not really.

Then why did you write it? Well, this houserule comes from an old heart-breaker I'd written in college and serves a twofold purpose: one, as a warning - showing the folly of too-much time on your hands coming up with convoluted and over-involved rule-sets, trying to emulate reality (I should write a ramble on that...) and two, as an announcement - a sort of state of the blog. The ultrasound used in the first picture is real - my wife and I passed our conception check: we are expecting a third child next spring.

Congrats... but what does that mean for the blog? In terms of gaming, this process has admittedly stymied my gaming. In terms of the blog - recall, the reason I started the blog was a creative outlet to allow me to express gaming in light of the birth of my twins. So - for that reason - I think - the blog shouldn't suffer: if I can handle twins and draw a map scenario by Saturday morning, I think I can handle a singleton. 

And in terms of the podcast? Well - still podcasting: same lack-of-schedule. I hope to maintain the quality of both: though there may be more "ramblings" and "reviews", knowing that those take less time to produce and proofread than modules or other, "bigger" content pages.

Delve on, readers; and without further ado, birthin' babies in B/X!

Cribs & Conceptions

Conception

A character with a partner, willing and able, is permitted to attempt to conceive a new prospective heir once per in-game month. For each attempt, there is a 2-in-8 chance - modified by the Constitution of the mother (thus, a mother with a Constitution of 14 would have a 3-in-8 chance to succeed, where a mother with a Constitution of 7 would have a 1-in-8) that the attempt will succeed.

Optionally, the referee may modify the chance of success by age: where each age category the mother is away from "Mature" increases the size of the die - thus, going by the table in the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide, page 13: a Human at age 45 would have a 1-in-8 chance, where a Half-Elf at the same age would have 2-in-8.

Gestation & Birth

Gestation period is proportional to the life-span of the character. This is equivalent to a number of weeks equal to the maximum threshold of the "Mature" category of the newly conceived character: thus, a Human will gestate for 40 weeks, where a Half-Orc will gestate for 30 weeks and a Gray Elf will gestate for 650 weeks.

At the point when conception succeeds, the mother must roll a Save vs Death, which will determine the outcome as follows:

• On Great Success - defined as passing by 8 or more - the pregnancy will result in a Success, as below, and also the offspring is considered gifted - detailed under Growth and Maturation.
  
• On Success: the offspring will be born without consequence at the end of the gestation period.
  
• On Failure: the offspring will be born, but with consequences. The rough experience causes the mother to age a proportional number of years equal to 2d6 percent of their "Old" maximum threshold.
  
• On Severe Failure - defined as failing by 8 or more - a severe complication occurs; the mother must Save again - treating a success as "On Failure" above and treating a second failure as a maternal fatality.
  

Optionally, as in a world with abundant Cleric magic or with more advanced medical maternal care, the above may be a bit grim - the referee may optionally have the mother roll 2d20 on the Save vs Death above: taking the higher result.

Growth and Maturation

Presuming heir survival, the heir should next roll their Ability scores. 

For normal heirs, rolling Ability scores should be 3d6 down the line. Then, select a parent the heir takes after: this can be done randomly, rolling odd or even - or it can be done along gender lines - at the discretion of the referee: for each Ability score that is 4 or more points different - higher or lower - roll 1d4, adjusting the Ability score in the direction of the parent. Thus, a Wizard of Intelligence 18 and Constitution 9 who sires an heir of Intelligence 13 and Constitution 16 would roll 2d4: one to adjust the Intelligence upwards, towards 18, and a second to adjust the Constitution downward, towards 9.

For gifted heirs, rolling Ability scores should be 4d6 drop lowest - again, down the line. Then, in adjusting the Ability scores, the 1d4 adjustments should only adjust upward. Thus, if the same Wizard had the same sired heir, but the heir was gifted - only 1d4 would be rolled, which would adjust Intelligence upwards.

Growth and maturation of the heir then follows naturally - with the heir bearing a fraction of their abilities proportional to their age until they hit Young Adult - at which point, they become eligible to play either as a henchman or hireling or as a replacement player character.

Open license art, Battle Axe Medieval Middle Ages by user OpenClipart-Vectors and Helmet Vikings Noorman (sic?) History by user gllms retrieved from Pixabay and incorporated into ultrasound image as original content. Other artwork, public domain, retrieved from OldBookIllustrations.com and adapted for theme - attribution in alt text.