Charisma, OD&D's most important stat.
Author's Note
I have been away for a while now, working and going to Trade School. But I have some downtime, and can get back to my creative hobbies for a bit. While I have much else I am excited to work on, like my OD&D Homebrew for my setting and the Anathean Hexcrawl, I need to finish something today. So here we go dear reader, something i've been thinking about for a while...
Charisma is OD&D's Lifeblood
A few months ago, on an uneventful weekend I decided to do a deep read of the OD&D Retroclone I own (Full Metal Platemail). I wanted to get more intimately familiar with the specific oddities and quirks of the system so I took notes as well.
One of the first things I noticed was that half the stats didn't do much mechanically but vaguely alluded to the referee making a ruling based on the "Vibe" of the number compared to the task at hand. (Yes intelligence gives you more languages but you get the idea.)
Constitution, Dexterity, and Charisma get tables where the number of the stat has a mechanical effect on your gameplay. Consitution affects HP and % chance of surviving being revived from Petrification and Paralysis. Dexterity affects your To Hit Roll at Range. Charisma, well it affects how many Specialist Hirelings (Fucking Ship Captains, Animal Trainers, Smiths, Spies) you can hire and affects how loyal all of your hirelings are.
In other words, a High Charisma makes your hired army more likely to fight to the death with you by giving your +1 to their morale scores. That's very neat, but it also affects How far away you can be and still command your units! An 18 Charisma lets you hire 12 specialists, and give a + Fucking 4 to all your hired people's loyalty and Morale Checks.
How I run Charisma Scores, after having been bestowed with this Eldritch Knowledge.
I don't typically run games that reach a high enough level for Specialist Hirelings to matter, so I've scaled the table down a bit and reworked it to represent hirelings that will work for you for free (They sense your Heroism/Rizz). The Bonus to loyalty and Morale Checks remains the same, but I run a Morale System when interacting with NPC's and Factions so the bonus becomes a bit more OP.
And I am ok with that, I don't belive OD&D is inherently a Low Level MeatGrind of Pain and Gain. I see it as the starting off point for your setting, and over time things will change until the rules become your idea of what D&D is about.
Anathea to me, is a setting where D&D isn't just a hack n slash treasure hunting game. I mean that is part of it, and it is basically what the game is all about. At least at first, when you start off in front of the dungeon because it's a one-shot you convinced your friends to play.
But I think combat shouldn't be the only way you proceed through encounters and dungeons. Parlaying, Roleplaying, and Social Interaction is very important in my D&D games. If you can befriend Denizens, they'll let you walk right through half of the dungeon floor because it's their territory. You could get some new hirelings, get assigned some cool little side quests.
Final Statements, and Progress update
So, whenever I get around to releasing Character Creation for Anathea expect Charisma to be Peak. I'm planning to include a good useable, but not overly detailed and cumbersome Morale mechanic based off your charisma.
I've finished reworking Humans for the 3 stat system and more vague rulings based approach I have for Classes. I just need to finish the Dwarf, Halflings, and Cat People (Yes like Khajiit, but not exactly because i'm not interested in copyright infringement).
After that, I just need to codify my approach to classes and magic system. Should be a hoot once that's done, I have a few Adventure Sites and Keyed Hexmaps nearing completion as well so even if this takes me until next year i'll be able to release everything in one fell swoop.
That's all I have today folks, I hope the next time I get to sit and type like this for all of you is sooner rather than later. But, I have chosen quite a time intensive career and I have to roll with the punches.
Farewell brethren, remember to greet someone new today and tell someone you care about that you love them. All we have is each other, so let's think about one another.
I am the Hand of Baal, and I bid you a good life.