And here we are on Day 5 of the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge and today we will be making a character for the Dungeons and Dragons Rules Cyclopedia. Now I can probably hear a few of you saying: “But Carl, didn’t you already use BECMI for your very first Character Creation Challenge entry back in 2021?” Yes… but the first players handbook in that set walked a new player through the character creation process and rules by going through a solo “pick your own way” adventure. While the character creation is basically the same (no pun intended), there are some extra rules that are available in the Rules Cyclopedia. I had picked up this book quite a while ago via DriveThruRPG PoD (click link for review) and I thought that it would be good to use this system with the extra items.
There is a different character sheet provided with this version. The one seen in the red cover Basic Player’s Manual was… well basic with lots of wasted real-estate. This character record sheet has more sections for some of the different rules. The steps for creating a character are found on page 6. They are 1- Roll ability scores, 2- Choose a class, 3- Adjust the ability scores, 4- Roll up hit points, 5- Roll for starting money, 6- Purchase equipment, 7- Generate other numbers, 8- Note adjustments for ability scores, 9- Select alignment, 10- Name, personality and background, 11- Determine the height and weight of the character and 12- Earn experience. I’m not certain what that last one is. If it’s not listed in the next couple of pages, I’ll also be flipping back a few pages to the weapon and non-weapon skills.
This is roll 3d6 in a row system according to RAW. I rolled the six standard D&D ability scores with the special D6s I picked up from SaltCON last year. And it looks like this new character is going to be a not-so good looking Human cleric with the following stats. Str- 10, Int- 11, Wis- 17, Dex- 9, Con- 12 and Cha- 7. I briefly considered forcing this character into a demi-human class, but that’s just to high of a Wisdom score to let go. I looked at the adjust ability scores information and you can trade two points from an ability score to your prime requisite by one. You can’t pull these numbers from Constitution, Charisma or Dexterity. Well I don’t want Charisma to get any worse. I also can’t lower any ability score past 9 so this character’s Strength will not be going down. I could drop the Intelligence to a 9 and not suffer any negative effects, but it could affect any skills that I select that are Intelligence based. So I’m going to not adjust anything at this time.
All right, the important Hit Points of the character. The Cleric rolls a 1d6, so sticking with my SaltCON dice I rolled a 5. Unfortunately, the character’s Constitution score isn’t high enough to earn a HP bonus.
Starting money for this Cleric is determined by rolling 3d6 and multiplying it by 10. I rolled a 14 (I could have used that during the ability score generation), so 140 gold pieces to start. The RAW states that the character already has normal clothes. I picked up the standard fare that most starting characters have including the standard holy symbol. With the higher GP count, I did splurge for some chainmail and a shield.
Next I calculated up the AC and found the character’s saving’s throw information. With the high Wisdom score, I can add the bonus to the savings throws vs magic. There was an option for THAC0, but I stuck with the regular attack roll table. I’ve never really been a fan of THAC0. And to be honest, I’m more of a fan of the Ascending AC (if your opponent’s AC is 13, you need to roll a 13 or higher to hit it). This book has the Descending AC.
For the Alignment, I’m going with Lawful. There are only three of them in this system. As for a name (reaches up into the reaches of my mind), lets go with Brother Carthan of the Good Guy Church. Hey, I don’t know what world this guy is playing in so we’ll go nondescript until the DM tells me what gods they use. After an (insert bad guys here) raid on his farmstead left him an orphan, the Good Guy Church took him in. He is trying to repay the church by going on various quests for them out in the field with his friends the other player characters. Grin. The chart for determining the character height and weight is just a generic chart. Nothing to roll, so I picked something I thought would fit a traveling Cleric. As for the “Earning Experience” section, it just describes going up in level and what happens when you reach “name level” (aka Level 9).
So that’s the end of the standard character creation process, but as I have mentioned above, I wanted to include some optional rules found on page 75 “Other Character Abilities”. This includes Weapon Mastery and General Skills. At first level Brother Carthan gets two weapon mastery slots as a Cleric. Had he been a Fighter he would have started with four. At certain class levels, the number of slots increases that I can spend to learn new weapons, or increase a current weapons mastery that the character has. Anything without a slot is considered “unskilled” and only does half damage if a successful attack is made. And these can’t be generic in nature (e.g. Normal Sword mastery doesn’t cover Bastard Sword). There are some weapons that come in as Basic (the first level of mastery) such as throwing rocks. I selected War Hammer and Sling since that is what I had purchased earlier. If I decided to increase a mastery of a weapon that I’m already skilled in, eventually it would lead to attack roll/damage bonuses, AC bonuses, the ability to attack more than one target and even place an opponent(s) in Despair (which may cause them to flee or surrender depending upon their intelligence). It is not limited to just Fighters, but they get more slots than the other classes.
At creation, each character gets four General Skills. A higher intelligence can add more. There is a list of suggested skills and what ability they fall under. More can be added by the DM if needed. When a character needs to use a skill, they roll a D20 and try to match or roll under their ability score. The DM can give bonuses or penalties depending upon the situation. Later, when Brother Carthan gains more levels, additional skill slots can be acquired and spent on the same skills (making them better) or adding new skills all together. I selected Bravery, Ceremony, Danger Sense and Detect Deception. I then transferred everything over from my notes to the character sheet. Since Clerics don’t get spells until 2nd level, I did not scan the Spell Book Sheet.
Afterthoughts:
I hadn’t noticed this until now, but the page numbers are smack dab in the middle of the footer surrounded by a leafy graphic. It was easy to hide the page number in it.
When reading the rules for weapons mastery and skills, there were rules for unskilled use of weapons, but not for skills. What happens if my character tried to start a fire without flint and steel? This is something that the DM would have to make a decision on. Later, while I was reading some of the skill descriptions, they had guidelines for unskilled use, but not on all descriptions. I really want to compare some of the different OSR skill rules against each other at some time.
I can see how Weapons Mastery may lead to some roleplaying opportunities. You found a magic weapon, but you are not a master of it’s type, you need to search out a trainer who can teach your character.
I was getting some flashbacks while creating this. But I can also see why I’ve moved onto other OSR systems like Basic Fantasy.
Additional Notes:
I’ve had a few participants in the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge tell me that they are making characters, but not posting them online. I’d like to encourage these participants to post them on social media, discord or one of the message boards. Let’s share them for others to see. I’m already finding out about games that I’ve never heard of. In 2020 there was a game released called Visigoths vs Mall Goths which involves time travel to a 1990’s mall which sounds like crazy fun.
Coming Up Next:
White Lies 3rd Edition
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