Prehistoric War!!!

 Something that's been in the back of my mind for the past couple of days is making a combat system for a paleolithic/neolithic type game based on combat in the good ol' TSR war-game Chainmail. This has nothing to do with anything really, and in fact I have a bunch of other things I probably ought to be working on, but yknow this was on my mind so I had to bring it into the world. Maybe I could do some kind of Stone Age game at some point? Wouldn't wanna step on Pariah's toes too much!

So, the basics: the core of this is based on the Chainmail man to man table, but it also includes missile attacks and attacks and defenses from animals since I figure those would likely also be prominent in a Stone Age type game. Its a weapon vs. armor table, where the target number determined by the combination of the attacker's weapon and defender's armor is to be rolled equal to or over on 2d6. Could use it basically as a replacement for the d20 roll in the "Alternate Combat System", or using it straightforwardly with the Chainmail man to man system, do whatever really.

Chainmail also has a separate combat system for fantasy combats between fantastical/magical opponents, which I could totally see as an alternative to the modified man to man table I wrote up below. I prefer the idea of the modified man to man table though, because in the kind of culture that would exist in a late paleolithic/early neolithic environment things like weaponry would take more precedence than training or any kind of superhuman ability; no heroes or superheroes in the Stone Age! Perhaps some things could give a bonus, like having taken part in an empowering collective ritual? I don't know.

Putting the table in as an image because I don't think it would display right if I tried to squeeze it in the post as text

Since this is assuming the context of the Stone Age, specifically the late Paleolithic into the early neolithic (think the time around the building of Göbekli Tepe in what is now Turkey; I was actually writing this with early neolithic Anatolia in mind, or a more fantastical version at the very least), don't have to worry about horses, don't have to worry about metal armors, I also don't think have to consider shields much? I'm not aware of shields in the neolithic or paleolithic, if there are shields maybe they give a small bonus or something, like idk minus 1 to attacker roll or somesuch.

Instead, most armors are animal skins of different types, with the only entirely human made armors being textile and lamellar made from bone and wood. The different animal skins/hides/leathers on the table do double duty for both those actual animals in combat and humans wearing the skins of said animals. I just thought that that would be an interesting way to include animals and people in the same combat system while also communicating a type of shamanic or animistic element to the worldview of the people in the game. I was thinking of the practice of the berserkers in old Norse Scandinavia and of figurines like the Lowenmensch that combine human and animal features and the general preponderance of animals at places like Gobekli Tepe and Catalhoyuk. Maybe that could be expanded for specific types of animals, like wearing a lion skin gives you traits of a lion in combat, or it could be a bear, or a crocodile, or an ostrich, whatever.

Bird Skin: Primarily intended for flightless birds like ostriches and terror birds. Obviously none of those live around ancient Anatolia, but yknow I can include whatever prehistoric animals I want to include.

Some real fish leather armor, from Taiwan

Fish Leather: I think I'd use this for any aquatic creatures and for the skins thereof. Fish leather is a real thing you know! I don't think it would be very effective at stopping most things, but who knows. 

Thin Beast Hide: Originally I called this tier "Herbivore Hide", with the idea that herbivores are meeker, etc. Functionally, however, I think differentiating between thin vs thick is probably a better idea. Thin beast hides would be deer, antelopes, probably rabbit skins I bet, but also most carnivores such as lions.

Textile Armor: I feel like a lot of the time textile armor gets ignored! Textiles, quilted armor, and padded armor were much more common historically than leather armor was. I have no clue if textile armor was really used much in the neolithic, but I figure since people were able to make textiles by this point it isn't exactly impossible.

From the Cederberg Mountains, South Africa

Thick Beast Hide: Refer to thin beast hide, above. Elephants, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, oxen, I have no idea how thick their hide actually is compared to those but I feel like I'd put bears here too; they're pretty hardy animals!

Reptile Hide: Self explanatory. Again, no real prehistoric basis for this, but I do have a historic basis, in that reptile leather was used at times in certain ancient and medieval societies, like the ceremonial crocodile leather armor from Roman Egypt above. Also reptiles are a staple of prehistoric stuff.

A bone lamellar chest piece from prehistoric Russia, near Omsk

Bone/Wood Lamellar: Again, no real prehistoric basis, but all of the technology to make lamellar with materials like bone and wood were around so I just sorta assume that they had it. Lamellar, if you're not aware, is small plates of material, in this case bone or wood, together forming armor by being connected to one another.

Turtle Shell: Self explanatory.

Also I think the attacker weapons are mostly self explanatory. I included animal natural weaponry because I wanted to integrate animals and humans into the same combat system like I mention. I realized after writing the table that I didn't include anything for unnaturally large arthropods, which was an unfortunate omission! Big bugs are a staple of all tabletop roleplaying games, especially ones that I run; I think I would have them range from thick beast hide to turtle shell depending on the species, with either beak or crocodile bite for their attack again depending on species. What are mandibles if not a beak but sideways?

With carnivores and herbivores no longer divided, I was thinking that carnivores should get some sort of bonus. Perhaps extra attacks, or a penalty to the attacker's roll? I think that could work. This was partially suggested by a certain Gus L. Carnivores, no matter what type of hide they have, put a penalty of 1 or 2, depending on their size, to their opponent's roll. Terror birds get that minus 1, wolves get that minus 1, bears and lions get that minus 2, a crocodile would probably be minus 2 also which would make someone fighting a croc with fists impossible to succeed but yknow that's okay, who do you know that won in a fist fight with a crocodile?

Other ideas for this that are unrelated to the modified Chainmail man to man combat: EXP from wasting food? No currency in this world, trade done through ritualized barter between communities but inside communities stuff is just shared communally, etc. Things are given calorie values, and you have to eat a certain amount of game calories when you get exhausted, but to gain EXP you have to waste calories in the form of a ritual sacrifice or an ostentatious feast or by giving it to other people. No combat EXP; you can get the EXP from killing a deer or a shark or whatever by bringing the quarry back with you to your encampment or your local ritual site. Perhaps the best way to earn EXP would be sacrificing food in a ritual; go to a stone temple complex a la Göbekli Tepe and give up your quarry. I think I'd likely supplement that with EXP for exploration, like finding new locations and stuff. I've actually had EXP for food in some stuff before, but I like the idea of this one the most of the different ways I've implemented it. No clue what EXP or leveling would even really do for you though, when you can't really improve to hit chances or whatever since its a weapon based system. Maybe ability scores matter a lot and advancing in level improves ability scores? IDK!!

Other stuff for me to consider I guess: possible inclusion of ritual cannibalism? rules for taking prisoners? Maybe the ones that are already in Chainmail are good enough. It seems that massacres were rather common in the occasional circumstances of prehistoric warfare, so maybe that should be the assumed result of any kind of combat between human foes. If I wanted to include the extremely fantastical, like maybe super science stuff or shamanic magic or whatever, like if this were a sword and sorcery, erm, spear and sorcery type setting perhaps, how would that integrate into all this? 

Honestly, I don't really know what I'll do with this, if anything. It's not nearly as interesting an approach to prehistoric roleplaying as Pariah; really, go check out the link at the top! And check out their amazing blog too while you're at it.

The Janissary Deserter (A Class for the Gamma GLOG)

 I actually first wrote this class roughly two months ago, but I have since revised it somewhat and have been meaning to post it for a while. It was the first class I wrote up in my haphazard messy GLOGhack based on Gamma World and similar post-apocalyptic science fantasy games (or other forms of media). Colloquially I'm calling it the Gamma GLOG, but its full name is building on a game I made many years ago: Mutants and Machines of the Baffling Badlands. Technically, this makes this abortive attempting at a rules hack a second edition to that game, even though the rules are essentially nothing alike. Oh also, you should check out my previous posts about Gamma Ohio, since this class (and Gamma GLOG more generally) are set within that world.

CLASS: JANISSARY DESERTER

You are a stranger in a strange land, brought here to fight enemies you've never seen before on the orders of a king you've never seen the face of. You have no lot in this futile battle, so you left. The generals of the Amish King do not take kindly to deserters.

Each template of Janissary Deserter you have gives you +1 to hit +1 to rolls for stealth.

Skills: Animal Husbandry, Lying, and Foreign Customs

Starting Equipment: A polearm of some sort (1d8), a submachine gun (no bullets), a tall silken hat emblazoned with pheasant feathers, an ill-fitting ostentatious uniform, a slip of paper guaranteeing pay (now null and void) (all of the above are stolen). A small thing to remind you of home, fear (the only things that are truly yours).

A Piercing Pressure, Anxious Aura, Hunted

B Run for your Lives

C Faceless Enemy

D Auspicious Incident

Piercing Pressure

All ranged and reach attacks that you make pierce through armor, even if the weapon is not listed as armor-piercing.

Anxious Aura

You are never surprised. The rest of your group may be unable to act due to a surprise round, but you will be able to act. However, because of your intense anxiety, you are always able to be detected by psychics or creatures that can smell fear. You lose anxious aura when you are no longer being hunted.

Hunted

You are being hunted. You know that you are being hunted, but by what you don't yet know. The general you deserted, a bounty hunter he hired, an executioner-droid, just the feeling of guilt weighing down on you?

Run for your Lives

You have advantage on rolls when fleeing during a chase. You are also able to give advantage on rolls when fleeing to a number of other people equal to your number of Janissary templates minus 1.

Faceless Enemy

If you do not know the name of the enemy you are fighting, then any damage you deal in excess of how much it takes to kill them goes to the nearest creature. This continues until you hit an enemy you know the name of.

Auspicious Incident

If you would be killed by a physical attack (this does not apply to psychic attacks or nuclear radiation), you can declare that you slipped out of the way in the nick of time. This is only possible once. The fear from that near-death experience allows you to have a new start. Once the auspicious incident occurs, you may take the A template of another class as if you never had Janissary Deserter's D template.

I have no clue what this is from (if anything), and the fungus stuff has basically nothing to do with this post but I found it when looking for janissary art and thought it was cool

Also here are some SUPER SIMPLE CHASE RULES so that Run for your Lives makes more sense:

When a chase begins (I believe it would be rather obvious when a chase has begun), each individual person/creature involved in the chase (not counting hirelings/pets) roll 1d20+DEX modifier. If the chasers roll higher than the flee-ers (not exactly certain what the term for the would be), then the flee-ers are caught, and may be forced to fight, or be captured or eaten, depending on what sort of creature was doing the chasing. If the flee-ers roll higher, then they get away with little to no complications.

However, if some of the flee-ers fail the roll (roll lower than their pursuers) while some succeed (roll higher), then the ones who succeed can simply choose to abandon the ones who failed, allowing them to get away just fine, or they can try to help them up and get back to running away. This prompts another roll, with no modifier; at that point, whether you're able to get away is up to chance. Also, players who fail a roll can choose to sacrifice a hireling in order to succeed the roll; this lets them escape, but will invariably cause strife with whatever other hirelings the group has. This system assumes creatures that are roughly of normal human speed; creatures that are considerably faster than a person will always win out in a chase with a person on foot, and players who are so overburdened that they cannot run with agility will always be caught.

Summary:

Chase begins

All pursuers and all flee-ers roll 1d20+DEX modifier
Pursuers and flee-ers compare the results of that roll

If pursuers roll higher, they catch the flee-ers; if flee-ers roll higher, they get away

If some flee-ers fail while others succeed, the flee-ers who succeeded the roll choose whether to just keep running away or turn back to try and save their friend(s)

If they choose to turn back and help their friend(s) back up, they roll 1d20 with no modifier

If a player fails a chase roll, they can sacrifice a hireling to succeed it

King of Kings Session 9 After Action Report

 Just pickin' up where we last left off, this session was a direct continuation of the previous one (find it here) and there will be another session following up after this one.

Dramatis Personae

Ishthyromeda the Small, level one amazon 

Kusa, level one cleric of the exiled and half-dead foreign goddess Nasitu-Neb 

Manchugo Coldeswain, level one cleric dedicated to Damir, foreign god of the trade routes 

Rohm'Daan, level one cleric dedicated to Anzhalar, a local chthonic god of subterranean flame

So the four adventurers, having retrieved information and a payment agreement from dehqan Shahab Manati, depart to investigate the three farming communes that have been slacking in their payment of tribute. Their first point of call is the estate to the north, along the road to Humakuyun. They come upon a wide expanse of tall grain with a singular path dug through it, and as they enter in they are met by a single arrow whizzing by their cart! After another arrow, they hear a voice yelling from a small copse of trees up ahead, telling them to "fuck off" and that they don't want any "agents of house Manati here any longer". Yelling back to reassure the disembodied voice that they are not agents of that house, they are apologized to and told that they can move forward, but to please bring the arrows with them, since they're not easy to make.

Coming upon the trees, they are met by a wiry young man with a scraggly beard and a red hat cocked upon his head, who explains rather nervously that they are rather reticent to deal with the insistent agents of Shahab any longer. When the players started asking questions, he said that he didn't really know what he could say and that they needed to talk to his mother. Guiding the group down the path in the field, they eventually come upon a collection of mudbrick houses encircled by a low-lying wall, teeming with his brothers and sisters. They meet with the boy's mother (who, by the way, informs the group that his name is Parsani), and ask just a whole lotta questions about the situation. To summarize: two other farming communes have become wholly empty about a month ago, their families disappeared into the ether, and dehqan Shahab hasn't done anything to help them, instead just expecting the same amount of tribute. As a result, the family here has changed their allegiance to house Taburi (which, when Manchugo mentioned they were servants of Farzaneh Taburi, made the matriarch smile and open up considerably more). They ask if her and her family would ever be willing to renegotiate with Shahab, but she refuses (though this prompts Manchugo and Rohm'Daan to wonder at perhaps organizing a meeting between Farzaneh Taburi and Shahab Manati at some point in the future (although neither are the heads of their respective houses)).

After the conversation, the group and the farming family of eleven settle in for the night, the kind peasants hosting the adventurers for the night. Ishthyromeda teaches Parsani and a number of the other boys how to make better arrows. The next morning, before they depart for the other abandoned communes, Parsani comes forward and asks if he can join the group on their travels. Once convinced that his family will be just fine without him, the four allow him to join. They depart on the dirt paths out of the farm, traveling south to the next nearest farming estate. While on the road, the group hears sounds of loud cawing up ahead, and peek beyond a hill to see seven griffons clawing and tearing at an immense hairy beast. A strange beast indeed, everyone recognized it as something that wasn't from around here. They choose to not intervene, and just continue on the road, letting the beasts duke it out behind them.

My players have provided many a visual reference this session

Another hour or two of travel later, the group comes upon wild untended to expanse of grain, being overtaken by weeds but with paradoxical random patches that have been cut low to the ground. Beyond the field is a slumped over partially collapsed farm house, and beyond that the edge of the Holy Cedar Forest. As they approach, they see the more thorough destruction of the mudbrick wall and the houses therein, empty animal pens scattered about. They spend some time discussing what to do, but ultimately just decide to look around the complex.

When they approach the main farm house, Ishthyromeda at the front with javelins in hand, they hear no noise. Ish peeks around a corner of the crumbling building, and sees a very strange form: a massive bull with pitch black skin rippling with muscles, an empty headless stump of a neck on its shoulders. She immediately threw a javelin at it, which flew right through the beast, leaving a gaping hole in its wake billowing out choking black smoke.

Another player-provided visual aid, which served as a size reference in-game

A combat ensued, using the new combat system I wrote up in this post here, but I won't describe it in a play-by-play, that'd probably be a tad too longwinded for an already too rambly post. It mostly worked out, though the headless bull-thing didn't really get to shine in the system because it was impaired by a choice it made at the start of combat: to rush at the wall of the farm house to collapse it, which ended up having no effect on the players due to lucky rolls on their part. With its shoulders embedded in a mudbrick wall, the group started whalin' on it, but bronze weaponry simply clanged off of its thick skin, while iron implements slid through it like butter, making deep slices that bled dark smoke. The beast's kicking legs knock Rohm'Daan and Manchugo to the ground. In the end, the horrible thing was pushed to fleeing by Kusa deftly grabbing onto its neck stump to attempt to hammer in an iron spike (which ultimately failed, with the thing's thrashing making Kusa fall to the ground, trampled by its feet and left with many broken bones) and subsequently by Rohm'Daan, prone on the ground but not injured, throwing sharp pieces of scrap metal at the thing. A single morale check later and the headless beast fled off into the distance through the field of grain.

After the battle, Kusa and Manchugo were helped to their feet, Parsani was found cowering behind a collapsed wall, and the group decided to make camp out at the edge of the Holy Cedar Forest, to investigate the area further next session.

Non-Treasure Experience Acquired

1 horrible headless bull thing (213 XP each before Prime Requisite modification)

Steel on Steel and Blood on Blood!

 My foolhardy rules-tinkering knows no bounds! Or well, I guess actually it is pretty bounded, since I am just going to be re-examining something that has been examined innumerable times before by innumerable other referees and game designers: combat. 

I have set out to make a combat system that:

01: is no more complex than B/X combat already is

02: has simultaneous/descriptive initiative (this is the biggest change from how I'm used to running things, but I think it will be a change for the better)

03: has as many rolls as possible be player-facing (gotten really into player-facing rolls from the GLOG tbh)

04: has abstracted and simplified movement that doesn't require tracking distances (this is because on the one hand a lot of my games are run over the internet and on the other hand because I am awful at visualizing distances so just not bothering with it is better for me)

There are many posts that inspired this one, too many to link individually, though I would like to thank the fine post-writers over at METAL vs SKIN, Spells and Steel, Goblin Punch, Alone in the Labyrinth, and innumerable people I know via the OSR discord who helped me in discussions about this, especially Retired Adventurer, CosmicOrrery, Archon's Court, and kahva. Very likely I've forgotten some people, sorry about that if I have!

I've taken too long to actually get to the combat rules stuff so here it is

DEATH TO INITIATIVE, DEATH TO ARMOR CLASS, DEATH TO MOVEMENT RATES

Let's take a look at this step by step using a made up random encounter to illustrate. Skip to the section titled IN SUMMARY for a more succinct description.

An adventuring party of two fighters, a thief, a cleric, and the cleric's henchman come across four pigmen wandering the halls of some abandoned cellar, one of them astride a stinking manpig. It would take 2 rounds for one party moving in to close the distance, and the pigmen are doing just that! At the table, the referee rolled a hostile reaction for the pigmen, who noticed the adventurers by their torchlight. The adventurers cannot see anything just yet, but they hear movement in the darkness and smell the dripping spit of the manpig as it approaches. The players succeeded their roll to see if they would be surprised.

So far this mostly works like a B/X encounter normally does! Notice the switch from rolling the exact distance that the monsters are encountered at to rolling the number of rounds it takes to close the distance. Since we will not be tracking distances elsewhere in combat, I figured that an easy abstraction would be to just roll how long it would take for the players, the monsters, or both to close in. Then, it becomes a binary choice: do you move in to engage in combat, or move away to avoid a fight? There are of course other alternatives, but those would be situational and don't have to be detailed here. The way this is determined depends on the location:

Dungeon/Underground: 1d4 rounds to close in.

Wilderness: 3d6 rounds to close in.

A rambunctious pigman, upon rushing closer to the group for a round, throws a rock at one of the fighters, who is holding a torch. The fighter's player makes a saving throw vs. dragon breath, and fails. They are hit on the head with the rock, taking 2 points of damage.

Like I said above, as many rolls as possible are made player-facing. Rather than the pigman making an attack roll to hit the fighter with their rock, the fighter makes a saving throw to not get hit. Didn't help them much here though; they got hit anyway!

By the time the four pigmen come within the light of the torches, the adventurers are ready. The referee describes the situation to them: a pigman with a tangled mess of teeth holds another rock in their hands, while a pigman with one eye missing approaches the fighter that was hit by the rock, a sword in hand. The pigman astride the manpig rushes toward the cleric, while another pigman wielding a flail approaches the other fighter. Each player describes what they are doing in response: the already hit fighter defends themself from the sword-wielding pigman, the other fighter engages the flail-wielding pigman, the cleric and their henchman defend from the pigman astride the manpig, and the thief dashes in to strike the sword-wielding pigman while distracted by the fighter.

Here is where things start to look more and more different from B/X. Combat is handled with simultaneous initiative: the referee describes a starting situation, the players describe their reaction to that situation, and each response is handled one by one. A round finishes once all of these are resolved.

The fighter who wasn't struck by the rock is wielding a short sword and a wicker shield, and is engaged in melee with the pigman wielding a flail. The fighter rolls 1d20+2; this is the combat roll, it is modified by +2 because of the fighter's level (they are level 1, so they add +1 to their rolls) and because they are carrying a wicker shield (which adds an additional +1). They roll an 8, which is a failing roll, so the referee rolls 1d6 for the pigman's flail: 3 damage is rolled, which would halve the fighter's HP, but they are wearing cloth armor that lessens it by 1 point.

With monsters no longer having a dedicated turn in combat that they do their actions on, and with as many rolls as possible being player-facing, I decided to combine monster and player attack/to-hit rolls into one single roll that the player makes every round they are engaged in melee. The player rolls 1d20+combat bonus (your combat bonus is based on your class, level, and possibly also certain items you are using) with the referee comparing it to the monster's combat score. On a success the player rolls damage dealt to the monster, on a failure the referee rolls damage dealt to the player. Armor worn by a character is damage reduction. The combat roll functions this way as an abstraction of offensive hits and defensive parries in aggregate, with the ultimate result of each round of fighting coming out at the end.

That armor doesn't look very protective young lady! I would be inclined to grant a bonus to damage for wearing that!

The other fighter (the one who got hit by a rock earlier) and the thief are engaged in melee with the sword-wielding pigman. The pigman is focused on the fighter, although they do notice the thief slipping behind them out of the edge of the torchlight. The fighter rolls 1d20+1, rolling a 19, which is a success! In addition, since the majority of their attention is focused on the fighter, the thief is able to stab them with a knife, automatically dealing damage. The pigman collapses to the ground from their injuries.

A creature/character with only one attack per round simply does not have the capability to keep attention on multiple opponents at once. As a result, if another combatant attacks the "distracted" opponent, that combatant's attack automatically deals damage. In a sense, this is an abstracted way to handle that flanking that "tactical" combat in games like 3e and 5e like so much. Notice however that this did not give the thief the opportunity for a sneak attack; the pigman was fully aware of the thief, but couldn't risk turning to defend from them since they were already defending from the fighter.

The cleric and their henchman are engaged in combat with the pigman and its manpig mount. This is a dangerous situation for the cleric: they have to contend with two melee combatants, as well as a very likely thrown rock from the other pigman. The cleric's player asks if it would be possible for their henchman to distract the pigman so that they could turn the unclean manpig and force the mount and rider to flee. The referee gives the a-okay to that plan, but includes a difficult cost: the henchman will automatically take damage and the player must make a save vs. poison or their henchman contracts a horrid disease from the manpig's bite. The cleric player succeeds on the saving throw, but the henchman ends up taking 6 points of damage and collapses to the ground. In the interim, however, the cleric succeeds on the turn unclean roll, forcing the manpig to flee with its rider in tow. The referee makes a morale check for the other pigmen, resulting in them fleeing, but not before the one wielding a rock throws it at the cleric. They fail their save and take 4 points of damage.

After just one round the combat is over. Morale works just the same as in B/X, since it is by far my favorite aspect of that system's encounter rules. I included the bits about the cleric's player discussing with the referee to show that this combat rework is just as flexible as normal OSR play, with everything coming about as agreement between players and referee, and DM adjudication. 

IN SUMMARY:

Distances are not tracked in absolute numbers. Whether you are able to engage with a given creature is entirely based on relative, narrative-based description. Initiative is simultaneous, rather than going in turns.

To-hit rolls, AC, and monster saving throws have all been scrapped. Instead, players make combat rolls that represent all aspects of a fight in a round, defensive and offensive. If they succeed in a combat roll against a monster's static combat score, they deal damage; if they fail, the monster deals damage to them. Characters have a bonus to their combat rolls based on their level, their class, and items/hirelings they may have. Armor is damage reduction, and players make saving throws for non-player characters/monsters, as well as making saving throws to avoid being hit by ranged attacks, rather than the monster rolling to hit them with the ranged attack. Characters/monsters can only engage with as many combatants as they have attacks per round; any creatures attacking them in excess automatically deal damage.

COMBAT PROCEDURE:

01: (if applicable/at beginning of combat) Roll for surprise. During the surprise round, whichever side has surprise can act unopposed (attacks automatically deal damage).

02: Referee describes the situation at the start of the round to the players.

03: Players discuss among themselves and communicate to the referee how they respond.

04: Non-melee actions are resolved first. Spells, retreats, missile attacks. (these are resolved first so that monsters can respond to them if possible. this didn't happen in the example above but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen).

05: Melee combat is resolved.

06: Check morale when applicable. If monsters or players do not flee, return to step 2.

COMBAT BONUSES:

Martial Classes: Equal to level. Example: Fighter, Berserker.

Semi-Martial Classes: Half level, rounded up. Example: Wrestler, Ranger.

Semi-Combatant Classes: Half level, rounded down. Example: Cleric, Thief.

Non-Combatant Classes: 0 at level 1, +1 every level after. Example: Magic-User.

DEX modifies melee combat rolls. INT modifies missile attack rolls. STR modifies all damage rolls.

Wielding a side-arm along with a one-handed weapon provides a +1 to a combat roll. Think a parrying dagger or swordbreaker. On a critical hit, deal the damage of the sidearm in addition to the maximum damage of your primary weapon.

Carrying a shield with a one-handed weapon provides a bonus to the combat roll. +1 for a wicker shield, +2 for wood or metal. The player can choose to sacrifice their shield to negate all damage taken (a la SHIELDS SHALL BE SPLINTERED).

Henchmen (defined here as retainers that typically engage in combat) provide a bonus to the attack roll of whoever they are helping equal to half their HD/level, rounded up if a more fighty-type character, rounded down if a less fighty-type character.

ARMOR:

Armor is damage reduction. Damage dealt can not go below 1 point from armor.

No armor, normal clothing: 0 armor

Cloth/padded armor, leather, animal skins: 1 armor

Mail: 2 armor
Plate and mail: 4 armor

SOME THOUGHTS ON SPECIAL COMBAT STUFF:

Reach weapons (such as spears, polearms) stop their opponent from effectively responding. The player still rolls (when both on the receiving end of the polearm or they are the one wielding it themself), but the one not wielding a reach weapon never deals damage to the one that is wielding it. If both parties are wielding spears/polearms, combat works as normal, with some risk of the polearms getting caught up on one another and falling to the floor.

Being slow in combat (either from encumbrance or wielding a slow two-handed type weapon) leaves you open to attacks even when attacking. If engaged in combat with a faster opponent (i.e. one that isn't encumbered and isn't wielding a slow weapon), they always deal damage to you even if you succeed on the combat roll. If you succeed, for instance, they deal damage to you and you deal damage to them. Two opponents that both wield slow weapons fight as normal.

Sneak attacks automatically hit, none of this "+4 to-hit" stuff, if your opponent is actually unaware that you are attacking then you always hit with the sole exception of if some extraneous circumstance stops you from doing so.