AX&X

Lineage

AX&X is built on AD&D first edition, but it does not reprint it. Every roll is 1d20 plus a modifier against 12, so there are no attack matrices and no saving-throw tables. Armor Class counts up instead of down. The five old save categories collapse into three, Body, Dodge, and Will, chosen by what an effect does to you rather than how it reaches you. Any kindred may take any class, with no level caps and no class limits. A character starts with maximum hit points and adds CON to every Hit Die. Alignment is the older three-fold Law, Neutrality, and Chaos, not the nine-box grid. Humans get a +1 to one ability score, which is an AX&X invention, not a first-edition rule.

Some of that is borrowed, and it should be named plainly. Ascending Armor Class and the single d20 check against a target number come from the third edition family. The three effect-based saves are third edition's Fortitude, Reflex, and Will wearing old-school names. The optional critical hit, maximum damage then doubled against a vulnerability, is a fourth edition idea. What AX&X keeps from the old school is the texture: side-based d6 initiative, 2d6 reactions, 1d6 morale, d6 dungeon stocking, and wandering monsters on a 1 in 6. It deliberately leaves out the modern opportunity attack. Withdraw is just the first edition's careful retreat under a shorter name. The conversion supplement carries the full line-by-line map for running old modules at the table.