House rules: Weapon Proficiencies, Weapons, Longbows, Sanity
Weapon Proficiencies
Weapon non-proficiency penalties have been reduced to half their values, and Crossbows still half that (with a minimum of -1). Improvised weapons are a flat -4 with the wisdom modifier affecting this value to a minimum of -1.
Reasoning: I do not want characters to feel dedicated to the weapons they are trained on and they will need to be able to branch out. However, weapon proficiencies represent the difference between training and not training. In fact, most opposing characters who fight with weapons will likely be untrained in them, and so a proficiency is really what separates you from a commoner, rather than a specialization on your part. In other words: if you are not proficient with a weapon then you using it is more closely equivalent to that of any other person, and therefore not necessarily directly handicapped. If you are proficient with a weapon, then its use is more heroic, refined. A warrior versus a battler. Not a warrior versus a retard.
If you look at it another way, reducing the penalty does not make every weapon more accessible, but rather makes every person less special. The jump from level 0 to level 1 is not immensely great in this world as it is in the standard AD&D world, and your ability to use a weapon is not an example of overarching talent and skill as it is with the full penalties. By reducing the penalties, the bonus for using a proficient weapon is comparatively less. This may be considered a "global" change, and any character I would normally slap with a non-proficient penalty will obviously benefit from this, including your opponents. This will manifest itself as 1 and 2 HD opponents gaining more circumstantial modifiers to their to-hit.
The rule for weapon specialization for the fighter class remains the same.
Longbow
Learning a longbow at start requires only 1 proficiency. It is assumed however that in doing so you spent almost your entire life learning it. Learning one while campaigning requires 2 points. You can spend 10 years - languages (Int modifier) to learn the longbow using a single proficiency. The English Longbow was an immensely powerful weapon that required years upon years of training. Redblade, in our campaign, is assumed to have spent a long time training to learn it.
Weapon Features
Weapons have "narrative crits" which occur when you roll, after connecting your damage, max damage with the damage di(c)e. I won't give away the entire system I'm using, but a just think that a warhammer is more lethal against an armored foe than a two-handed broadsword in this respect. Use common sense when thinking up weapon uses, not stat-whoring. We are using 0D&D style narrative fudging.
Sanity
You have a hidden sanity value that you have vague understanding of as a character. If you are interested it is 20 - your Int/2 + your Wis/2. Certain otherworldly events force a Sanity save, 1d12 against a predetermined DC. You get no modifiers to this. Your class level doesn't help you out of this. Losing the save causes you to lose a single point.
After a certain percentage of points are lost you begin to hallucinate and automatically fail (rolled by me) a percentage of your spot checks, listen checks, and search checks as well as Int checks and Wis checks due to hallucinations and uncontrolled thoughts. You can mitigate the effect of this by taking a year or so vacation from adventuring, but the minute you have to make another SAN check these problems come back (whether or not the check itself succeeds).
It is furthermore assumed that each point you lose puts you one "increment" away from your original character concept. Roleplay accordingly.
After a certain number is reached (at this time it is 10), then for every failed instance of a SAN check you make a Poison saving throw versus taking an insanity permanently or temporarily, difficulty +2. YOU roll the percentile dice, and YOU look at the list of insanities. You get to see what your potential fates are, but you can affect no outcome save that you're rolling the dice. There are no modifiers to this. The list's exception is that a 001 or 100 is a mystery insanity that I choose without telling you. The insanity you take is either permanent or temporary. If it is temporary it lasts for 3d6 days rolled by me in secret. If it is permanent it can only be removed by extremely powerful magic.
For those that do not know, the insanities in AD&D are all extremely detrimental to your performance as an adventurer. They are not meant as a narrative aspect. They hinder gameplay and are dangerous. If you take an insanity you will probably kill yourself, get yourself killed, or kill another player before it wears off or some time while it's triggered.
Sanity-damaging events are few and far between. Not everything breaks the laws of understanding or morality so much that it drives you mad. You are assumed to have prepared yourselves mentally to do battle with kobolds and evisceration. You are not assumed to have prepared yourselves for walking atop a roiling lake of the undead. In spite of this potential relief, sanity-damaging events are also possible anywhere that you see an event that is grossly against your alignment, determined primarily by DM, because a concise system would obfuscate the setting itself. Furthermore, sanity points lost are never regained and your character is permanently scarred. The gods would not regrant sanity, a Wish spell would not do so. The only choice you have after a certain point would be retirement or suicide.
Narrative use of SAN
You can subtract as much Sanity as you want from your character at start due your narrative backstory. There's no possible way this can benefit your character, but you can certainly do so. You don't get to roleplay "being insane." When you are insane I take control of your character and roleplay usually to your immense detriment.
Weapon non-proficiency penalties have been reduced to half their values, and Crossbows still half that (with a minimum of -1). Improvised weapons are a flat -4 with the wisdom modifier affecting this value to a minimum of -1.
Reasoning: I do not want characters to feel dedicated to the weapons they are trained on and they will need to be able to branch out. However, weapon proficiencies represent the difference between training and not training. In fact, most opposing characters who fight with weapons will likely be untrained in them, and so a proficiency is really what separates you from a commoner, rather than a specialization on your part. In other words: if you are not proficient with a weapon then you using it is more closely equivalent to that of any other person, and therefore not necessarily directly handicapped. If you are proficient with a weapon, then its use is more heroic, refined. A warrior versus a battler. Not a warrior versus a retard.
If you look at it another way, reducing the penalty does not make every weapon more accessible, but rather makes every person less special. The jump from level 0 to level 1 is not immensely great in this world as it is in the standard AD&D world, and your ability to use a weapon is not an example of overarching talent and skill as it is with the full penalties. By reducing the penalties, the bonus for using a proficient weapon is comparatively less. This may be considered a "global" change, and any character I would normally slap with a non-proficient penalty will obviously benefit from this, including your opponents. This will manifest itself as 1 and 2 HD opponents gaining more circumstantial modifiers to their to-hit.
The rule for weapon specialization for the fighter class remains the same.
Longbow
Learning a longbow at start requires only 1 proficiency. It is assumed however that in doing so you spent almost your entire life learning it. Learning one while campaigning requires 2 points. You can spend 10 years - languages (Int modifier) to learn the longbow using a single proficiency. The English Longbow was an immensely powerful weapon that required years upon years of training. Redblade, in our campaign, is assumed to have spent a long time training to learn it.
Weapon Features
Weapons have "narrative crits" which occur when you roll, after connecting your damage, max damage with the damage di(c)e. I won't give away the entire system I'm using, but a just think that a warhammer is more lethal against an armored foe than a two-handed broadsword in this respect. Use common sense when thinking up weapon uses, not stat-whoring. We are using 0D&D style narrative fudging.
Sanity
You have a hidden sanity value that you have vague understanding of as a character. If you are interested it is 20 - your Int/2 + your Wis/2. Certain otherworldly events force a Sanity save, 1d12 against a predetermined DC. You get no modifiers to this. Your class level doesn't help you out of this. Losing the save causes you to lose a single point.
After a certain percentage of points are lost you begin to hallucinate and automatically fail (rolled by me) a percentage of your spot checks, listen checks, and search checks as well as Int checks and Wis checks due to hallucinations and uncontrolled thoughts. You can mitigate the effect of this by taking a year or so vacation from adventuring, but the minute you have to make another SAN check these problems come back (whether or not the check itself succeeds).
It is furthermore assumed that each point you lose puts you one "increment" away from your original character concept. Roleplay accordingly.
After a certain number is reached (at this time it is 10), then for every failed instance of a SAN check you make a Poison saving throw versus taking an insanity permanently or temporarily, difficulty +2. YOU roll the percentile dice, and YOU look at the list of insanities. You get to see what your potential fates are, but you can affect no outcome save that you're rolling the dice. There are no modifiers to this. The list's exception is that a 001 or 100 is a mystery insanity that I choose without telling you. The insanity you take is either permanent or temporary. If it is temporary it lasts for 3d6 days rolled by me in secret. If it is permanent it can only be removed by extremely powerful magic.
For those that do not know, the insanities in AD&D are all extremely detrimental to your performance as an adventurer. They are not meant as a narrative aspect. They hinder gameplay and are dangerous. If you take an insanity you will probably kill yourself, get yourself killed, or kill another player before it wears off or some time while it's triggered.
Sanity-damaging events are few and far between. Not everything breaks the laws of understanding or morality so much that it drives you mad. You are assumed to have prepared yourselves mentally to do battle with kobolds and evisceration. You are not assumed to have prepared yourselves for walking atop a roiling lake of the undead. In spite of this potential relief, sanity-damaging events are also possible anywhere that you see an event that is grossly against your alignment, determined primarily by DM, because a concise system would obfuscate the setting itself. Furthermore, sanity points lost are never regained and your character is permanently scarred. The gods would not regrant sanity, a Wish spell would not do so. The only choice you have after a certain point would be retirement or suicide.
Narrative use of SAN
You can subtract as much Sanity as you want from your character at start due your narrative backstory. There's no possible way this can benefit your character, but you can certainly do so. You don't get to roleplay "being insane." When you are insane I take control of your character and roleplay usually to your immense detriment.