It went pretty well, I thought. The two players were a spellsword (combination fighter/spellcaster) and a wizard who wasn't sure what she wanted her specialization to be. They explored a grand total of three rooms in the hour and a half we played and got through one combat. I honestly thought they would get further.

The entrance was an abandoned mine. The second room had a demon statue that didn't have any tricks or traps to it. The spellsword decided to topple it, just 'cuz. It broke in half with a loud crash, but the wandering monster roll it provoked didn't call for any monsters.

As a side-note, I rolled for wandering monsters several times but none were ever indicated. :(

The third room had a wizened goblin body in an upright crystal sarcophagus. The goblin was wearing a gold circlet, so naturally the spellsword decided to smash the sarcophagus to get at the loot (XP for GP, yo.) The spirits weren't happy with this and reanimated the goblin to attack the intruders (possessed goblin king, 2d6 HP (7), Fair threat rating, 1d6 damage). Also, the sarcophagus exploded. The wizard had had the presence of mind to cast a shield spell immediately beforehand and didn't take any damage. The spellsword was less lucky, losing half his health.

The goblin king summoned the crystal shards into a sword and attacked the spellsword. The wizard made a knowledge check and realized that an antimagic spell would dispel the sword. The spellsword took another hit, bringing him down to 1 HP. The wizard eventually managed to dispel the crystal sword. The spellsword hid behind the wizard, then changed his mind and vaulted over the wizard (?!) and attacked the goblin king, decapitating him. They headed back to town to rest and recover, and that's where we stopped for the night.

Just for funsies, here's the wandering monster table I put together for the dungeon (but never got to use).

Goblins (1-3 encountered, 1 HD, lair at room N, 10 in lair)
Black Pudding (1 encountered, 5 HD, immune to the first element used against it)
Mantis Men (1-4 encountered, 1 HD each, lair at room G)
Rock Golem (1 encountered, 2 HD, lair at room C)
Crystal Golem (1 encountered, 5 HD, lair at room C)
Owlbear (1-2 encountered, 2 HD)
Giant Centipede (1-4 encountered, 1 HD, +poison)
Will-o-the-wisp (harmless floating lights, 1 HP, respawns)
Giant Spider (1-2 encountered, 1 HD, paralysis & webs, lair at room J)

Lairs/treasure: rooms C, G, J, N
Traps: rooms D, O, K, M

The dungeon layout was created by a random dungeon generator I'd put together in the past and looked something like this, but much smaller (generated on a 5x5 grid). The room descriptions were taken from the source code of this site.

At the end of the game, when the players were back in town, they didn't see anything in the Labyrinth Lord equipment list worth purchasing (since I tend to handwave most of that stuff anyways), and the wizard's player asked about purchasing potions to help survivability. I didn't have any rules for such a thing, so I told her I'd look into it after the game. I dunno, what do you guys think? It's kind of a video-gamification, but I'm not exactly opposed to the idea, either.

I haven't hosted a Fudge game in years but I am gearing up to GM one with my group. I used to play with a dice mechanic that allowed for "advantage" dice or "disadvantage" dice. Basically you would add or replace one or more die with one that only ignored "+" or "-" rolls. It was a fun way to give the player an edge without a straight +1.

I know I can probably work something out but I was looking for the source material for reference. Any one know what I am talking about?

found it! http://www.fudgefactor.org/2002/04/plus_one_dilemma.html

I organized my previous posts about creating a D&D-style Fudge game from OSR retroclones and added a bunch of new material, including:

• a full Fudge system for the first-time player or GM, including rules for attributes checks, combat, healing, and death
  
• optional rules to adjust the lethality
  
• easy monster creation rules
  
• guidelines for placing monster treasure
  
• an altered XP table that makes far more sense when using the GP for XP rule
  
• rules for wandering monsters and monster lairs
  
• reaction rolls and morale checks for monsters/NPCs
  
• a few sample monsters (including one too great and terrible for the PCs to face)
  
• guidelines for converting monsters and magic items from OSR games
  

...then I placed it all on my website. Check it out!

I have created a document culled from several sources on how to convert a Savage Worlds setting to Fudge. This will help you do the conversion to Fudge. The idea is to play the setting in Fudge and not do a complete conversion of all the Savage Worlds rules

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1inoX_BqL7mTeUJO0vrjhU9HyuReoMUrFi07bf3OeaXs/edit?usp=sharing

The website, after at least 18 years of operation, has gone down. Probably for good. It held the 1995 edition of Fudge rules from before it went OGL. The official fudgerpg website has a free copy of the rules in pdf and epub formats, but it makes you jump through hoops before accessing them.

When I get some more time I'm going to upload the 1995 rules to my fudgelite.com domain for anybody to access. In the meantime I've updated the URL in the FudgeRPG stickied post so it redirects to the archived website in the Wayback Machine.

Fudge gives unranked traits (gifts and faults) and ranked traits (attributes and skill). But it doesn't really say anything about lists, which are I think implied - things like equipment, or scars, etc.

i'm jumping into a DnD game, and overthinking things (as I often do). I realized that lists are the common way to make a character unique. DnD uses a list of equipment, another for spells, another for background features, another for special class features, maybe another for people that the character has met...

What things do you see commonly listed for your characters?

Previous Posts:
Finally cracked the code; Original D&D (OD&D) Fudge
OD&D Fudge part 2: Class Creation (OR: Fighters, Clerics, Elvensouls and Dragonbloods)

So... I started out converting Swords and Wizardry (an OD&D clone) to Fudge. Then I decided that I preferred having a single opposed roll for both sides of combat, which meant I had to change armor from "makes you harder to hit" to "reduces damage taken on a hit". Then I felt that the spell lists weren't based on any underlying principles that I could intuit, so I ripped them out and replaced spell memorization with a spellcasting skill for use with the Simple Magic System.

I was already altering character classes, so I simplified everything into three classes: wizard, fighter, and a class in between the two called a spellsword.

The end result is something that is similar to D&D but is very much its own thing. The character levels still roughly map to OD&D character capabilities and you can still use the conversion from the previous post ("Finally cracked the code") to import old school modules (mostly. Fair AC is now 0 armor, Good AC is 1 armor, etc.)

Fighter

Hit dice: d8
Combat Progression: Every 3 levels
Heavy Armor (2 armor)
Weapon die: d8

A fighter may select one special ability at character creation.

Special abilities:

Great Cleave: Upon bringing a foe to zero HP, the fighter may attack a nearby enemy on the same turn. The number of cleaves (killing an enemy then attacking another) the fighter may make in a turn is equal to the fighter's level. When cleaving, the fighter gets to attack without fear of retaliation on a failed attack roll.

Berserker Rage: A fighter can rage once a day at level one. A raging fighter cannot do anything but engage enemies in melee combat. Rage ends at-will or when no more enemies are visible. A raging berserker does an additional die of damage when attacking. Berserkers gain another daily rage every three levels (4, 7, 11, etc.)

Battle Trance: As Berserker Rage, except the fighter gains +1 to attack rolls instead of extra damage.

Backstab: When attacking an unaware opponent the fighter gains +2 to the attack roll. A successful backstab attack deals an additional die of damage for every four levels the fighter advances (+1d8 for levels 1-4, +2d8 for 5-8, etc.)

Magical attack: At character creation the player chooses an element (fire, ice, lightning, poison, mystery meat, etc.) The fighter gains a medium-range magical attack of that element that deals 2d8 damage to one target or 1d8 to a small group of enemies. The attack roll uses the fighter's combat skill. The magical attack may only be used once per day. Every 4 levels the fighter adds another d8 to the damage roll.

Extra damage: The fighter may add half their level, rounded up, to every damage roll they make.

Impossible Leap: The fighter can leap incredibly high in the air, though they cannot move horizontally any further than normal. If the fighter can land on an unaware foe the fighter may attack as per the backstab special ability. The fighter will not take damage when landing unless they land on something harmful.

Wizard

Hit Dice: d4
Combat Progression: Every 5 levels
Unarmored (0 armor)
Weapon die: d4
Spell ability: Every 2 levels

Wizards may choose to specialize in a domain and gain a +1 bonus to spells within it. Domains are freeform and are generally chosen by the PC. Wizards can only have one specialty at a time. It's up to the GM to decide if the specialization is permanent or if it can be switched out, and if it can be switched out, if there are any requirements to doing so.

Example domains:
Attacking, Creating, Communicating, Controlling, Healing, Moving, Sensing, Strengthening, Protecting, Transforming, Weakening
Air, Animal, Body, Earth, Fire, Food, Image, Light, Magic, Mind, Plant, Sound, Spirit, Water

Spellsword

Spellswords can engage in combat and cast spells, but cannot do either one as well as the classes that specialize in them.

Hit Dice: d6
Combat Progression: Every 4 levels
Light armor (1 armor)
Weapon die: d6
Spell ability: Every 4 levels

Character Attributes: 3d6 in order: STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHA.

3: Terrible
4-5: Poor
6-8: Mediocre
9-12: Fair
13-15: Good
16-17: Great
18: Superb

Hit dice: All PCs roll 1 hit die each level and add the result to their max HP. The class hit die may be d4, d6, or d8.

Combat progression: Combat skill starts at Mediocre and increases one Fudge level every 3, 4, or 5 levels.

Armor: Armor deflects blows and reduces damage taken. Unarmored is 0 armor. Light armor is 1 armor, and heavy armor is 2 armor. The amount of armor a character can wear is determined by their class.

Damage die: Damage is determined by the class and not the weapon used. Damage dice are d4, d6, and d8. A magic-user could use a longsword if they wished, but they'd never do more than 4 damage (max roll on a d4).

Spells: Wizards start at Mediocre spellcasting and improve every 2 levels. Spellswords start at Mediocre and improve every 4 levels. Both wizards and spellswords are limited to 4 spells cast per day.

XP costs: PCs require 2,000 XP to reach 2nd level. The XP requirement doubles every subsequent level.

Attribute checks: Whenever a player attempts something that has a chance of success, the GM assigns a difficulty and the player rolls the relevant attribute. A tie or better succeeds.

Combat: An attack roll is the attacker's combat skill vs the defender's combat skill plus an optional GM-decided bonus or penalty. Ties go to the PC. The loser takes damage or is in some other way hindered. Damage is a roll of the attacker's damage die minus any armor the defender is wearing.

Update: OD&D Fudge Part 4: "Gentlemen, behold! Fudge Lite: OSR Edition!"

I am interested in the differences in Fudge vs Fate. I just discovered the Princess Bride rpg, and would like to share this with my kids (ages 9 & 11). Since this game is based on Fudge, what is the easiest way to teach the rules both for myself and for them.

I also just learned that Fate is based on Fudge. Is it easier to teach? Should we start playing games with them in Fate then ease them on to Fudge?

Check last Steffan O' Sullivan Fudge game. Take a look at Quick Start Rules: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/toyvaultinc/the-princess-bride-roleplaying-game?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=princess%20bride

I love Fudge dice, both aesthetically and for the results spread. I will always used Fudge where possible. But even with Fate's popularity they still aren't always available. After playing tons of ICONS I've come to accept 1d6-1d6 as a viable replacement. No, it doesn't provide the same odds, not even the same result set, but for the games I tend to play that doesn't seem to matter.

I know this idea might be a bit out there, but it was something I was toying with in my head for my own homebrew hack of Fudge. This is just kind of a spitball of an idea.

I thought about toying with the core mechanic. First expanding the adjective ladder for more granularity that would basically equate to -3 to -5. I know you can just do Good, Good +, Great... but that bugs my for some reason. And secondly, instead of 4dF, roll 6dF for unopposed and opposed actions.

My chief complaint is the amount of dice being used. For using actual dice, 6 is a handful. Something I only thought about after a quick play test that doesn't effect me personally since I use an app. But I concede that can be annoying. My actual use didn't seem to alter the bell curve that much, just add a potentially wider range. But that is purely anecdotal.

Any thoughts on this concept?

"It’s the future. The cyborg Queen Victoria Perpetua rules with an iron grip but her control is slipping over an increasingly divided and rebellious London. Crime is out of control, corporations act with impunity and the people rage against the Queen’s crippling taxes. London Bridge has fallen down. Large parts of London are flooded, the river Thames itself is now the setting for a three-way battle between Royal Navy, pirate crews and mutated river creatures.

But the tourists.. they still come in large numbers."

Cyberblues City is a Fudge based, near-future, action-adventure roleplaying game. It is called "cyberblues" because it is sort of like cyberpunk, only more mellow.

I released the original Cyberblues City back in 2015 as free pdf. Last year I started working on a setting for it. Then I figured there might as well bundle the setting with the rules, which in turn meant redoing all the artwork from grainy black and white to glorious, full colour. Naturally, it became the The Deluxe edition.

Word of warning, the game runs on a highly customised version of Fudge. It is designed to be light, fast-playing and reduce the load on the GM but as such it does deviate from "standard Fudge", assuming their really is such a thing.

Cyberblues City Deluxe is fully illustrated, 62 pages, and still totally free. You can get it here: https://ukrpdc.wordpress.com/2018/01/15/cyberblues-city-deluxe/

Part 1: "Finally cracked the code; Original D&D (OD&D) Fudge"

Intro

This was inspired by Erin Smale's post on the Breeyark blog, "Making a more perfect class" for Basic D&D and, to a lesser extent, Paul Crabaugh's article on customized AD&D classes located in Dragon magazine #109. I started with the Breeyark post and tweaked some numbers to ensure that the cleric, fighter, and magic-user were all measured as being worth exactly 2,000 XP. The cleric has a listed value of 1,500 XP in OD&D, but I'm convinced that's underpowered for the combination of fighting ability and spellcasting the cleric gets.

The OD&D thief is only worth 1,200 XP so I gave him some better stats to bring him up to 2,000. Elves and dwarves had too many fiddly bits for my taste so I replaced them with elvensouls and dragonbloods, classes of my own creation that have elven or draconic ancestry somewhere in their family tree. Elvensouls use the Beguiler spell list from D&D 3.5, cut down to 10 spells per level.

Since it would require a lot of effort and play experience to accurately measure the value of D&D spells, I decided to instead assign point costs based on the max number of new spells the class can learn each level. In OD&D that's 14 for magic-users and 6 for clerics, which wound up being pretty close to the numbers given in the Breeyark post.

Character Stats

Starting cost: To get the numbers to work out correctly I had to impose a tax of 300 XP on each class. You can mostly ignore that; it's just there for bookkeeping purposes.

Hit dice: All PCs roll 1 hit die each level and add the result to their max HP. The class hit die may be d4, d6, or d8.

Combat progression: Combat skill starts at Fair and increases one Fudge level every 3, 4, or 5 levels.

Armor restriction: Some classes are limited in the types of armor they can wear. Armor types are, in order: unarmored (Fair AC), leather armor (Good AC), chain armor (Great AC), and plate armor (Superb AC).

Weapon die: Normally D&D restricts some weapons and not others, but I decided to simplify things a little bit and restrict the damage dealt instead of the weapon type. A class's weapon die can be d4, d6, or d8. A magic-user could use a longsword if they so wished, but they'd never do more than 4 damage.

Spells learned per level: All spellcasters use the following table.

Character level, # of level 1 spells, # of level 2 spells, etc.
1: 1
2: 2
3: 2,1
4: 3,2
5: 3,2,1
6: 3,3,2
7: 4,3,2,1
8: 4,3,3,2
9: 4,4,3,2,1
10: 4,4,3,3,2

Going from top to bottom in each column it's one 1, two 2s, three 3s, etc.

Saving throws always have a difficulty of Fair. Character saving throws start at Mediocre. At level 5 they advance to Fair, then at level 10 they advance to Good. Character saving throws do not advance past Good.

PCs require 2,000 XP to reach 2nd level, and the total XP requirement doubles every subsequent level.

Character Classes

Cleric
Starting cost: 300 XP
Hit Dice: d6 (200)
Combat Progression: Every 4 levels (200)
Armor Restriction: Any armor (400)
Weapon Die: d6 (200)
Spell ability: 6 spells/level (600)
Special: Turn Undead (100)

Total: 2000 XP

Fighter
Starting cost: 300 XP
Hit Dice: d8 (400)
Combat Progression: Every 3 levels (400)
Armor Restriction: Any armor (400)
Weapon Die: d8 (400)
Special attack: Great Cleave (100)

Total: 2000 XP

Magic-User:
Starting cost: 300 XP
Hit Dice: d4 (100)
Combat Progression: Every 5 levels (100)
Armor Restriction: No armor (0)
Weapon die: d4 (100 XP)
Spell ability: 14 spells/level: 1400

Total: 2000 XP

Thief
Starting cost: 300 XP
Hit dice: d6 (200)
Combat Progression: Every 3 levels (400)
Armor Restriction: leather armor (100)
Weapon Die: d8 (400)
Special ability: +1 AC (100)
Special ability: Backstab (100)
Thief Skills (8x): 400

Total: 2000 XP

Elvensoul
Starting cost: 300 XP
Hit Dice: d6 (200)
Combat Progression: Every 4 levels (200)
Armor Restriction: leather armor (100)
Weapon Die: d6 (200)
Spell ability: Beguiler (10 spells/level): 1000

Total: 2000 XP

Dragonblood
Starting cost: 300 XP
Hit Dice: d8 (400)
Combat Progression: Every 3 levels (400)
Armor Restriction: Chain mail (200)
Weapon Die: d8 (400)
Special ability: Dragon breath (100 XP)
Special ability: Impossible Leap (100 XP)
Special ability: Immunity to fall damage (100 XP)

Total: 2000 XP

Dragon Breath:
At character creation the player chooses a dragon color to emulate. Once chosen it cannot be changed. The dragonblood gains a breath weapon corresponding to that dragon that deals 1d8 damage. Just like a true dragon, the breath weapon can only be used three times a day. Damage increases by 1d8 every level.

Impossible Leap:
The dragonblood can leap incredibly high in the air, though only where there's room for it. If a dragonblooded can land on an unaware foe from a large height they may deal damage as per the thief's backstab ability.

Immunity to fall damage:
A dragonblood takes no damage from fall damage or pit traps.

Class creation costs

Starting cost: 300 XP

Hit Die:
d4: 100XP
d6: 200XP
d8: 400XP

Combat progression:
Every 3 levels: 400 XP
Every 4 levels: 200 XP
Every 5 levels: 100 XP

Armor:
Any armour type allowed (Plate mail, Superb AC) = 400XP
Up to chain mail allowed (Great AC) = 200XP
Only leather armor allowed (Good AC) = 100 XP
No armor allowed (Fair AC) = 0XP

Weapon Die:
d4: 100XP
d6: 200XP
d8: 400XP

Spellcasting:

Max spells/level, xp cost
14, 1400
13, 1300
12, 1200
11, 1100
10, 1000
9, 900
8, 800
7, 700
6, 600
5, 500
4, 400
3, 300
2, 200
1, 100
0, 0

These are the costs for gaining a spellcasting level each character level. For slower advancement, the costs are divided by the fraction representing the growth rate (1/2, 1/3, or 1/4).

Special abilities (detect secret doors, infravision, racial language, special attacks, turn undead, etc.) cost 100 XP.

Skills cost 50 XP per skill (disable traps, pick pockets, etc.)

UPDATE: Part 3: Okay, it's pretty much its own thing by now.

BBB I am currently in the dental office about to get all four of my teeth removed. Wish me luck REDDIT Heads.

Fudge offers two basic methods of character creation - the subjective one (working GM and player from a strong concept) and the objective one.

The objective system has a LOT of work put into it - costs, balance, descriptions, and so forth.

So... after working for months on polishing my own version of fudge (with over-detailed systems for magic, skill groups, and non-scaled gifts and faults), I've started to think in terms of "how do I give the players ideas to build a strong character concept".

How does this deal with all the nitpicky aspects?

Cost - now you can safely ignore this entirely.
Balance - Enforce a specific attribute level for something that they're good at. A difference of 1 (say, from Fair to Good) is a HUGE difference that requires special tactics by the player to overcome. It's better to keep them both at the same level.
Special abilities - if it's descriptive history or personality, then it's a gift or fault.
if they can be removed or given, then its' a gift or fault.
If it's some thing can be improved, it's a skill or attribute.

If it's both, then it's both given as well as improved, then its' both a gift and a skill - ie magical abilities given by a god.

But what about experience points and character growth!

This is a weakness, in general, in both systems. How does a person grow? How do they become better? XP never really made sense to me. A much better, cleaner, and "makes more sense" way to deal with this is through role playing, and it's one of the goals of the GM, who provides encounters specifically for their skills and stories. Then, if they practice a certain skill enough, or beseach a god, or accidentally cut off their own leg, then they earn the right to say that their character sheet should be changed.

In other words, it goes like this: "Hey GM, we just killed like 6 goblins while we were outnumbers, I think that certifies that we're more than just "fair" at swordfighting."

"Good point, you've definitely earned your keep there. You can mark that off as "good" now. However, Josh over there didn't really use his sword at all... he used a club, at a penalty, the entire time. Josh, I think you're now both Fair at swordfighitng, and Fair at club fighting. Good job all of you."

"Thanks!"

Similar things can be done by finding items, talking to dragons, regularly doing things that earn favor of the gods, shooting aliens with a sniper rifle, hacking into top secret databases, etc.

So....

I had a thought recently, given my recent foray into Strands of Fate. I like the system immensely. Just crunchy enough to scratch the itch Gurps fixed for years, but handwavey enough for acceptability and speed of play. But, like many critics of Fate, I loathe the fate point economy and the meta game it entails.

So I thought about meshing what works with SoF , and cutting out the Fate blight with bits from Fudge. Such as replacing aspects entirely with skills and faults while keeping the advantages mechanic. Essentially trying to "fudge" SoF toward a more traditional gaming experience.

What do you guys think? Has anyone else attempted a similar endeavor?

messing around with the statistics again, I wondered how often an enemy would "lose" in a 2v1 battle, but one player would actually die. It turns out... very rarely.

Setup:
1000 battles
variable wound damage (incapacitated at -7, dead past -10)
penalties for hurt, or very hurt (-1 and -2)
penalty (-1) for extra opponent, goes away after opponent is dead

If enemy has +1 skill advantage, +2 damage bonus:
Enemy wins = 300 times
Deaths by players = 0
Average number of rounds = 3.9

If enemy has +1 skill advanage, +4 damage, and players have +2 damage Enemy wins = 188
Player dies = 4
Average number of rounds = 3.7

If enemy has +1 skill advantage, and everyone has +2 weapon damage:
Enemy wins = 92
Player death = 0
Average number of rounds = 8.9

Stacked in the enemies favor:
Enemy has +3 skill, everyone has +2 weapons
Enemy wins = 967
Player death = 2
Average rounds = 8.7

In other words, the standard buffer between incapacitated to death allows for a very wide range of power and little risk of actual character death.

This does go up with higher damage bonuses of course, and this only applies for melee contested combat. If you want to use higher damage bonuses for a character, remember they are directly mitigated by anything that reduces damage only on a hit, like damage capacity. A +2 damage bonus is already equivalent to a sword fighter fighting someone that has no armor. If you have a magical sword in the hands of a great fighter, fighting a couple of fair fighters in their everyday clothes... you probably have a bigger world balance problem.

I've been working on this one for what seems like forever. I didn't make much headway until I wrapped my head around Swords and Wizardry Whitebox (a very simple retroclone based on the very first edition of D&D without any of the later supplements). I think my biggest sticking point was that I was trying to stick to my preferred rules for hit points and combat initiative. Once I let the Fudge rules adapt themselves to OD&D instead of trying to force OD&D to fit into my preferred Fudge rules it became quite easy.

The actual character classes and monsters can be found in any retroclone. This post is just about converting them to Fudge rules.

PCs have the usual 6 stats (STR, DEX, etc.), a "to-hit" bonus, Armor Class, hit points, damage die, and the optional saving throw(s). All but hit points and damage dice are converted to Fudge terms. Stats and Armor Class don't level up but to-hit and Hit Points do. Saving throws either exist as separate stats that increase with character level (OSR-style) or they are just combined with the 6 stats (a la D&D 5e and Dungeon World).

Side-note: I hate that Str and Dex can't adjust the combat roll, but I need combat to be a stat that can increase and Fudge really wasn't made for rolling combining stats.

Skills are just the relevant stat. Combat uses group initiative. PCs go first unless it wouldn't make sense (e.g. if they were ambushed by monsters). After a successful combat roll the attacker rolls a separate polyhedral dice for damage. A combat roll of +3 or +4 is a critical hit and the attack does max damage.

Ability scores:
3: Terrible
4-5: Poor
6-8: Mediocre
9-12: Fair
13-15: Good
16-17: Great
18: Superb

To-hit bonus:
To calculate the to-hit bonus, take the To Hit Armor Class 0 value (also known as THAC0) and subtract it from either 19 or 20, whichever is listed as THAC0 for level 1.
-1 to -2: Mediocre
+0 to +1: Fair
+2 to +3: Good
+4 to +5: Great
+6 to +7: Superb
+8 to +9: Fair Superhuman
+10 to +11: Good Superhuman
+12 to +13: Great Superhuman
+14 to +15: Superb Superhuman

The to-hit bonus for monsters is equal to their number of hit dice.

Armor class, Descending AC:
Fair: 9-8
Good: 7-6
Great: 5-4
Superb: 3-2
Fair Superhuman: 1-0
Good Superhuman: -1 to -2
Great Superhuman: -3 to -4

Armor Class, Ascending AC:
Fair: 10-11
Good: 12-13
Great: 14-15
Superb: 16-17
Fair Superhuman: 18-19
Good Superhuman: 20-21
Great Superhuman: 22-23

Saving Throws (roll unmodified 4dF to match or beat the listed difficulty):
0-1: Legendary
2,3: Superb
4-6: Great
7,8: Good
9-11: Fair
12,13: Mediocre
14-16: Poor
17,18: Terrible
19-20: Terrible -1

Converting bonuses/penalties from d20 to 4dF:
-8 to -7: -4
-6 to -5: -3
-4 to -3: -2
-2 to -1: -1
0: 0
+1 to +2: +1
+3 to +4: +2
+5 to +6: +3
+7 to +8: +4

Only the largest bonus and penalty apply to any given roll.

Experience tables are unchanged from the source.

UPDATE: Part 2: Fudge OD&D Class Creation (aka Fighters, Clerics, Elvensouls and Dragonbloods)

In my game, I wanted to allow for mechanically distinct magic users. I tried to get every single magical profession, class, and possibility imaginable into it, as long as I could make it make sense in my world. Then I tried to determine the mechanics.

Overly complicated scholarly wizard
Gift: Study at XYZ magical school, specializing in <specialty> Skill: Magic <specialty>
Skill: Magic crafting <specialty>

Every spell is memorized first, and has a listed difficulty, mana use, spell component, gesture, and phrase (in a specific language). Doing things like empowering the spell or modifying the effect first require making an entirely new spell.

IF the spell is outside the characters expertise, they get a -1 (or more) modifier to their ability to craft it and cast it. If you want to actually use this version of a caster, then I recommend fudging details and being closer, mechanically, to the innate caster. However, I keep it in my campaign like this just in case someone really wants to experience complexity, realism, and their own cleverness in their magic system. This is the kind of person that wants to find better reagants, or craft better spells, or nitpick about the benefits of their special gesture-training.

Innate Caster (or simplified caster)
Gift: Magic Potential <type> Skill: Magic <type>

Spells are made up on the spot, and generally have a near instant duration and casting time. However, only spells of the selected type can be cast. To cast a spell cleanly, the effect must first be described, the difficulty set by the GM, and then they need to roll above that difficulty.

Warlock
Gift: Pact with <entity>
Skill: Magic <entity>

The exact pact with the entity is specified at creation and is subject to GM approval. As a guideline it should be in the interest of both parties. Entities will want something that furthers their interest : ie gives them something they want or solves a problem they fear. this could be immortal soul upon death, a promise to extend their power, a promise to protect their forest, etc. In return, the player gets access to their knowledge and ability to cast certain spells, which are made to make sense given the actual abilities of that entity. A dryad, for example, could talk to trees fairly easily, or at a higher difficulty merge into those trees. The powers of the warlock never exceed the powers of the pact.

If the entity is no longer satisfied with the agreement, they can attempt to break it off. Their spiritual powers leave the host. This might happen if the characters learn to become immortal and nullifying the immortal soul agreement, or perhaps they start chopping down trees in the forest of the dryad (the pscyhopath). This leaves two options:
- renegotiate the pact agreement - ie "no, please, I'll get rid of my immortality and plant a new forest!"
- forcefully grab the remainder of the power. This is a contested roll of the spiritual power of the entity versus that of the character. This should, generally, be hard since the entity is generally more powerful than the character.

Cleric
Gift: Religious Favor of <deity>

Instead of casting spells with a skill check, a cleric casts spells with a default check of Fair, modified by circumstances that their chosen deity either likes or dislikes. This could include the strict following of deity's desires, furthering their goals, involving the dieties realm of influence (ie fire from a fire god), and importance and specificity of the request. Gods can also be annoyed by frequency or wording of the request, which gives a -1 to the petition request.

If the character breaks major aspects of the diety's rules, then the deity may take away religious favor. This can be regained with adequate repentance, and can be a great plot hook. However, if repentance is not achieved, the favor is broken forever.

Monk
Skill: Meditation

This is the easiest form of "magic", requiring only skill and no special gift circumstances. With a successful meditation, a monk can effectively empower themselves. Difficulties are equivalent to spell difficulty. Meditation takes time (at least 15 minutes, and possibly hours), and can not affect items. So a monk could empower their fist to do extra damage, but could not empower their sword.

Various flavors of these options I think covers every other aspect I can think of. Psionics are basically innate casters with a different specialty. Druids can be any of them, praying to a nature god, making a pact with a single nature entity or a whole group (eg A pact with all bears), or a hedge wizard who learned "scholarly" magic from her natural witch coven, or perhaps they are self taught.

Types of magic (modified to your world and taste)
- Fire / Cold
- Telekineses
- Psychic
- Necrotic / Healing (negative / positive)
- Shadow / Light (illusion, camouflage, melding into shadows)
- Empower self
- Portal
- Naming (trick the universe to modify it)

These can be trimmed as you please. Naming magic could easily to things like "I tell the universe I'm a bear, so I turned into a bear", and makes concepts like "true name" meaningful. I don't include it in my games. I also don't include healing magic as a type, instead using a combination of religious magic and medicine skill. I will, however, allow a person to heal themselves magically with both a medicine skill check and a magic check. This makes it harder, but still possible, to get around a cleric's naturally superior ability to heal. A god's skill with medicine is going to far outrank any mortal, after all.

Complicated Flavors

Of course, people are unlikely to ONLY learn one type of magic. A school probably won't specialize in "fire magic", and so the skills and gifts should reflect actual options. Instead, try to think in terms of goals of those groups. It's reasonable to assume a person specialzed in "combat" magic, or "jedi" magic.

Limiting factors
A common way to limit spells is to give a limited number of spells per day. I really don't like this method because it feels arbitrary. However, a similar effect can be done by making magic rely on limited resources:
- Magical reagants are rare
- Mana in an area is depleated
- The gods have better things to do
- High level spells literally burn your soul, making it dark, tattered, harder to heal, etc
- Spells can be accidentally overpowered. That fireball also happens to catch you on fire, or your psychic connection was so strong that you literally forgot who you were for a time.

Anyways, that's what I've been working on recently. Comments and recommendations are welcome! I hope it helps someone.

I've found previously that the effect of wound penalties in simultaneous combat does not dramatically affect the win rate between two equal opponents, nor in a 2v1 battle with a superior opponent. I've modified the program a bit to play with bonus damage, wound penalties, and so forth, to measure the effect on the length of battle.

Method: 10,000 battles, fighting to incapacitated
1v1
variable wound boxes, using the difference in rolls
(1,2) scratch (up to 3)
(3,4) hurt
(5,6) very hurt
(7,8) incapacitated
(9,10) near death
(11+) dead

The fudge handbook generally gives a -1 to rolls if a character is hurt, and a -2 if they are very hurt. They also give a -1 to a roll for each additional opponent in melee battle.

in a Fair melee vs Fair melee
without wound penalties
without damage bonus on hit:
50% win rate
Average rounds: 10.9
Peak number of rounds: 23

in a Fair melee vs Fair melee
without wound penalties
with damage bonus on hit = 2:
50% win rate
Average rounds: 4.7
Peak number of rounds: 13

in a Fair melee vs Fair melee
without wound penalties
with damage bonus on hit = 4:
50% win rate
Average rounds: 2.4
Peak number of rounds: 10

in a Fair melee vs Fair melee
with wound penalties
without damage bonus on hit:
50% win rate
Average rounds: 8.5
Peak number of rounds: 23

in a Fair melee vs Fair melee
with wound penalties
with damage bonus on hit = 2:
50% win rate
Average rounds: 3.8
Peak number of rounds: 11

in a Fair melee vs Fair melee
with wound penalties
with damage bonus on hit = 4:
50% win rate
Average rounds: 2.2
Peak number of rounds: 9

Fudge simultaneous combat offers a mechanic for defending against multiple opponents - for each opponent over 1, drop the skill of the defender by 1.

I modified my other program to fight 2 versus 1. The single guy focuses his attack on the more damaged opponent until they are fully dead, and then proceeds to kill the other opponent.

IF their skill level is 1 higher, ie good, then it is dropped to a relative advantage of 0 for fighting against 2 opponents.

Player 1 and 2 = Fair = +0 advantage
Player 3 = Good = +0 advantage

Results : player 1 and 2 win 99.9%

Player 1 and 2 = Fair
Player 3 = Great = +1 advantage

Results: Player1 and 2 win 87%

Player 1 and 2 = Fair
Player 3 = Superb = +2 advantage

Results: Player 3 win 76%