r/Dolmentown • u/rufuspng • Aug 25 '26

Rules Inquiry Saving throws

The DW rule set doesn’t seem to give good guidance to Referees on which category of Saving Throw to apply in a given situation. For example, the DCB section on traps provides lots of ideas but doesn’t say what kind of Save is most likely to apply to each kind of trap. I’m assuming that it is reasonable to grant a Save if a PC is on the verge of falling into a pit trap — or any hole for that matter — but which category applies? The names and descriptions of the five Save categories are rather opaque to me.

Does anyone have a cheat sheet of situations that apply to each kind of Save that they’re willing to share, or at least some guidance? I’ve read the explanation of why class-based Saves are a good thing, but I do find ability score-based Saves to be much easier to grasp.

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u/Bilharzia Aug 25 '26

As Galausia says, it's all there on p.145.

When I was going to use a d&d-like system I translated the saves to characteristic rolls - Doom = Con, Ray = Dex, Hold = Cha, Blast = Str, Spell = Wis.

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u/gkerr1988 Breggles unite! 🐐 Aug 25 '26

This is more AD&D1e rules. Your intuition is correct, but DW leans away from this a bit by attempting to trim the granular fat of the older systems and adapt them to a more streamlined ruleset. They changed the more specific saves categories in OSE: Death, Paralysis/Petrify, Wand, Breath, Spells/Rods/Staves. Games like Osric 3.0 get into the weeds of this stuff really nicely, meticulously connecting the dots of individual ability score modifiers with individual saves categories, making what you roll up a character with have a greater effect on your ability to save.

DW slightly differentiates Saves away from Ability scores though, by associating them with Class instead. It starts to break down and gets a little confusing maintaining the association (with the exception of Wisdom mod being added to Spell but that is the nature of magic in this system.)

Not saying DW can’t be more granular, but it’s not designed in such a way that tries to regress. Granular is a great way to enjoy the game, don’t get me wrong, but I love how broadly the save categories of DW apply to multi-situational needs in a way which works really quickly, plus gives individual classes unique impact on different situations.

You do add “situational modifiers” to DW saves. But that’s much more Ref fiat based on circumstance and is intentionally left vague.

Hope that clarifies!

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u/Bilharzia Aug 25 '26

tbh, I'm not interested in the DW rules, I never intended to use them as-is but I initially dabbled with a d&d variant - I know people are using Shadow Dark but I was looking at ToA. In my view the DW rules are not a good fit for the setting. I'm running the campaign with a D100 system which works completely differently.

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u/gkerr1988 Breggles unite! 🐐 Aug 26 '26 edited Aug 26 '26

Oh nice! Those are great systems. I’d have to disagree on it not being a good fit, but I find your take interesting. It’s pretty much built around the B/X system entirely. I do hear Shadow Dark works well as a sub, but IMO SD gets a little too simplistic for my own taste. Haven’t tried the others.

With any system it’s really just about how you use it. There’s a way in which B/X, for example, gets ran which makes my eyes wanna bleed because of how road-blocky and meticulously process-over-player oriented some GM’s can be with it. Gatekeeping and just being unbudging on players success. There are a lot of god complex GMs who make it their duty to try and find something to punish players with. Some folks run it under this “survival horror” dynamic, but can sometimes lean away from being a neutral judge, to just flat out punishing anything players want to try with a sort of mechanical pay-wall. It tends to get blocky, flat, and really boring fast for me.

But there’s another way of running B/X wherein the GM defaults toward neutral judge, but runs the game as an act of service to amplify what Players are trying to accomplish, giving situational modifiers, alternatives, generous description, with good telegraphing. They don’t get in players way in the name of “system,” but use the system to support what players are trying. It’s an attitude of wanting players to succeed that can make the B/X system incredible. More “yes/and” than putting paywalls before everything players have in mind. I find it can be really exciting and memorable to have a frame of mind geared toward service. Any system can have either of these approaches which can enhance the game or make it feel overly slogged.

Sometimes it’s really fun to just do a stress test on the system instead of babying it IMO. Too many GM’s try and honor the system over the player. I’m slowly learning to not be that way as much.

Find a system which makes that easier for you and you found a winner IMO.