20 Questions for Partholon

 Brendan of Untimately has organized a fantastic set of simple rules questions  that should make it easy to translate between referees. Here's the answers for Partholon:

Ability scores generation method? 3d6 in order, make a one-time swap of any two scores.
How are death and dying handled? At 0 hp, you are incapacitated and might die. If you survive, you will be saddled with a hampering injury. Details here. 
What about raising the dead? Bring offerings to a sacred grove of dryads and score a good reaction roll. 
How are replacement PCs handled? So far: promoting a retainer to PC status. PCs can also designate heirs to their wealth (minus 10%). New characters always start at 1st level.
Initiative: individual, group, or something else? Group d6 at start of encounter, high roll wins, ties lead to roll-off. Groups alternate for remainder of combat.
Are there critical hits and fumbles? How do they work? Natural 1 always fails and natural 20 always succeeds. If you're trying some fancy stunt, the referee may interpret rolls more elaborately.
Do I get any benefits for wearing a helmet? It could save your life at 0 hp. It's definitely helpful when green slime or spiders are dropping on you from above.
Can I hurt my friends if I fire into melee or do something similarly silly? Yes, absolutely. Ranged attacks target the melee group, with hits distributed randomly among the combatants.
Will we need to run from some encounters, or will we be able to kill everything? I'm often surprised by what the party manages to kill, as well as what they have to run from. Setting things on fire is usually a good idea one way or another. 
Level-draining monsters: yes or no? Yes, but you can recover the lost levels with extensive bed rest. 
Are there going to be cases where a failed save results in PC death? Usually a failed save just means you take massive damage, so it's likely to be fatal, but there remains a slim chance of survival. 
How strictly are encumbrance & resources tracked? Pretty strictly, but I use a simplified encumbrance system similar to LotFP.
What's required when my PC gains a level? Training? Do I get new spells automatically? Can it happen in the middle of an adventure, or do I have to wait for down time? With rare exceptions, XP and advancement is handled only during down time, and no training is necessary. Clerics get new spell access automatically. A magic-user will be offered a new spell by his/her mentor at each level-up through 4th level.
What do I get experience for? Treasure, defeating foes, unlocking new campaign resources.Magic-users get xp for money spent on each original project (e.g. the first time you make a given type of potion).
How are traps located? Description, dice rolling, or some combination? If the party is moving at mapping/sneaking speed, I assume they're looking for signs of traps. The locations of traps are therefore usually fairly obvious. How to get past them is a puzzle for the players to work out. Once a strategy is in place, dice rolls help to see if anyone goofs up. Influenced by Ben Robbins "Bad Trap Syndrome," part 1 and part 2.
Are retainers encouraged and how does morale work? Retainers are awesome, and I use B/X morale. 
How do I identify magic items? A magic-user with proper equipment can run some tests and eat up time and resources, and it might even work. Or you can just try doing things and see what happens. 
Can I buy magic items? Oh, come on: how about just potions? Not currently. Opportunities may be discovered in the future, though.
Can I create magic items? When and how? The rules I use are modified from LotFP. I'm also looking at the Crimson Pandect for additional refinements. 
What about splitting the party? I discourage it under most circumstances. As a tactic for outflanking opponents or investigating an enigma, it's fine. As a strategy for exploration, I'd rather not deal with it.

And I'm appending a couple of extras:
What kind of saving throws do you use? Modified from Swords & Wizardry: Whitebox, one target number based on class and level, with modifiers based on class and ability scores.
What's your base currency? Prices and XP are based on a silver standard.

Update: Beedo, of  Dreams in the Lich House, had some good add-ons.
How is alignment used? Among PCs, it's an ethical measure of just how trustworthy the character is, in a Sword & Sorcery or Spaghetti Western way. Among Monsters, it frequently reflects a more cosmological significance.
Are demi-human level limits enforced? Until the players find and make alliance with some demi-humans, there aren't any in the party.

Wrestling with the Flame Princess

James Edward Raggi IV (who really does have the coolest name in the OSR) posted a tentative solution to grappling/wrestling rules here and asked for feedback. Grappling rules have a history of sucking, but I like this subsystem a lot. It's straightforward enough I think I could recall it without reference, or recall something close enough to get similar results. However, one line caught my eye:

>>If there are multiple opponents attempting to wrestle a single defender, all attackers add their wrestling rolls together and then compare the total against the defender.>>

Just to clarify, all opponents add their wrestling rolls together, including the d20s, not just their bonuses? Let's say three PCs each with a bonus of +2 gang up against one monster. If they roll e.g. 18, 6, and 8 on the dice, you're looking at a result of 38. An opponent with a +18 bonus could tie on a natural 20. Even 2:1 odds are ridiculous: on average, a team of two can expect to roll 20 or 21 together, plus their bonuses. Only an exceptionally powerful *and* lucky opponent can have any hope to overcome such a duo.

It certainly makes sense that ganging up should be a significant advantage, but as the system is written, it pretty much outweighs the fighting ability of any participant. Is that the preferred effect? In my campaign at least, encounters are very often with groups larger than the party, composed of monsters or opponents who are individually weaker than the PCs. With this rule in place, the only sensible tactic is to dogpile the PCs until they are pinned. And when the party runs into one or two powerful monsters (that single horror arising from the mysterious well) their best tactic is to hurl themselves at it bodily. Even if it has tentacles and the associated bonus, a 1st-level magic-user with a strength of 7 has good odds of counteracting that bonus himself.

Here's my suggestion to preserve an advantage without making traditional combat tactics obsolete: If multiple opponents attempt to wrestle a single defender, the team rolls a single d20, adding melee Attack Bonus and Strength modifiers for all participants. [This already makes ganging up a decent tactic, but we can up the notch with the following add-on.] For each ally beyond the first, add a +4 bonus.

This "gang up" bonus still makes ganging up a significantly powerful tactic, but isn't as totally overwhelming as the original version. To go back to my first example, a group of three against one defender, where each of the three has a +2 bonus overall: if we assume the above roll of 18 was the group's roll, the result is 32 - a very strong opening. If the group's roll had been the 6 above, the end result would be 20 - able to overwhelm the common soldier, but that big tentacle-monster can probably cope. A gang of 2, assuming the same +2 bonus for each, would roll results ranging from 9 to 28, with an average of 18. A single opponent who is a bit more powerful than either individual has some chance, and even a weaker foe could get lucky. These averages are significant given that the system requires three wins to pin.

I expect that this method will allow the party to wrestle individuals into submission, but will preserve armed combat as the tactic of choice against groups and very nasty foes.