In which we finally get around to enumerating our House Rules

 Not our mechanics, mind you.  Don't want you to see EVERYTHING behind the curtain.  But I'll be adding a hint or two to this list every month or so.

1. Starting characters roll 4d6 and choose the 3 highest dice for statistics. Players choose where to allocate the final six numbers. Further character stats are generated according to my own systems. Must have at least one 15 AND one 16 OR one 17.
   
   2) Classes are restricted. No monks or artificers. Some sublasses might also be discouraged. Ask during creation.
   
   3) Races available to players are restricted to dwarves, halflings, elves, half-elves, half-orcs and humans.
   
   4) No class/race restrictions
   
   5) Any race and any class may be multi-classed.
   
   6) There are no race/ability score minimums or maximums.
   
   7) There is no such thing as “alignment.” Paladins may be jerks if they wish.

   8)  Material components replaced with Spell Focus Homebrew
   
   9) Only trained fighter types (including paladins and rangers) may fight from horseback. Only fighter types may successfully ride warhorses while armed.
   
   10) Backstabbing and assassination may only be accomplished against surprised or stupefied creatures. Neither may be accomplished in combat against an opponent who is aware of the thief’s or assassin’s presence.
   
   11) Some spells have been rewritten and are periodically subject to review. Goodberry and Mend are two examples.*
   
   12) At present I use a money system in which a gold coin (weighing 4 grams or 1/6 of an ounce) is equal to 10 silver pieces. One silver piece = 10 copper coins. Typically 80 coins will fit into a small belt pouch and 300 into a large belt pouch.
   
   13) Long bows cause 1-8 damage. Short bows still cause 1-6 damage and may be used from horseback. Either may be fired every other round normally, but a -4 penalty may be accepted if a player wishes to fire a bow every round.
   
   14) Light crossbows cause 2-12 damage, but may be fired only once every 3 rounds. Heavy crossbows cause 4-14 damage, but may be fired only once every 4 rounds. These damage changes were made to give players a reason to pause when facing a group of town guardsmen.
   
   15) There is no difference between outdoor ranges and indoor ranges. One foot is one foot, always.
   
   16) Psionics do not exist.
   
   17) All players begin at first level, regardless of the present level of the party. Low level characters associated with high level party members who SURVIVE tend to go up levels very quickly.
   
   18) Experience points are awarded for using the UA Three Pillar System.

19) Initiative System Homebrew

20) Death & Dying Homebrew

Goodberry: invests ordinary berries with the power to restore lost hit points (1 per berry) or provide nourishment equal to one pound of food each, in persons who have no damage to heal. The berry always heals before it can nourish.

Mending:as written but may only cast once per long rest, plus once per level

In which we consider what, if anything, is character creation

 

What are we playing? Is the idea to be given a set of stats and traits and play them in a game setting to the best of your ability? Or are you creating a game-piece customized within a set of rules in order to play in a game setting to the best of your ability?

In Monopoly you may chose to be the dog, the battleship, the iron or the race car (although why anyone would NOT chose to be the race car is beyond me) and the only differentiation is the shape. But imagine they had different traits. The car gets to move one extra property per turn. The boat may move an extra property IF the dice indicates it lands on a property NOT named after a body of water. The dog prevents any other player from landing on either side of it. And so on. Are we still playing Monopoly? Probably not but there are a TON of house rules to the game so work with me here.

In version one you still get to pick which token you use, and you select the one that fits your game style the most (?.) In version two there's a blind draw to see which token each player gets. In version three you may select the token you get BUT the “trait” is then modified by the roll of a d6. Are these three games THAT different? Which would you prefer?

It seems that being handed character sheets that only differ in the picture of the character is the base game. Everybody is the same class/race with the same Big Six. Might be interesting but not gonna fly long-term. Each of the proposed versions above seems to be (loosely) correlated to various character creation methods.

Over time the methods for creating a character have stayed more or less the same, but the ORDER of creation (and locus of control) has changed. DM's initially controlled generating the Big Six with the player making subsequent decisions. 3D6 in order WAS a thing! Minimum requirements had to be met. Wanna play a Paladin? Probably not gonna happen. You're out of luck. Here's your Big Six in order. NOW pick a race (and get some modifiers) then a class (more modifiers) and you're done. Didn't qualify for the race/class you wanted? Suicide by monster and start over. NOT good game play. Good game play would be taking taking the character you got and adventuring to the best of your ability.

At one point different dice were rolled for different skills based on character/class. And it's looking like ONE is turning classes and races into a gray mass of differences without distinctions. Dogs and irons and race cars. Ah … but then you choose your BACKGROUND! And stuff gets “different.” Like in the second 'graph above. Perhaps version three in 'graph three.

LONG post to get to a different question: is your “goal” playing D&D to explore the world and see what happens? OR is it to create the coolest half-gnome half-orc multi-class artificer monk and see how they interact with the world? And this is where I get kinda harsh perhaps. If you're looking to play the second type of character then a series of disconnected one-shots will meet your needs. But if you're looking fro the first you need a more complex interconnected world. The second type of player will love the ONE method of character creation. Type one would be happy (and challenged) with a strict 3d6 in order, give me a race, a class, and a name and I'll give you the rest kinda game.

Perhaps another way of asking is: Do you consider D&D to be a game about PLAYER skill or CHARACTER skill? 

note: after I wrote this I had a LONG tm exchange with two other DM's about this topic.  Disagreement brought me no closer to a viable understanding. 

Edit to add:  Alexis over at the Tao of D&D has a running series on this topic that started my trip down this rabbit hole

In which we begin to encounter THE ONE

If you're reading this you're probably aware that WotC and all the other corporate kraken that IS D&D these days is coming out with something new.  Not 6e.  Not 5.5.  ONE.  There's some play testing out there.  We know a little about what's coming.  Some of it's good.  Some of it isn't.

Here's my take.  D&D is now poker.  There's a world of difference between five-card draw and Spit in the ocean.  Play of Texas Hold Em is different than Big O high/low split.  But it's all poker.  And then layer in House Rules and it becomes unplayable.  Except it doesn't.  You learn the basics.   You ask the game.  You touch on house rules and you play.  Every table is different but but every table has the same elements.  

So I'm thinking when ONE (I forget: is this Coke or Pepsi?) hits tables will adopt some and reject some and we'll move on.  This is my initial impression of what we know. 

1.  Critical hits.  No crits for monsters.  No crits for magic.  Change of the damage calculation.  Pretty much what we've BEEN playing so not really a change for us.  Just kinda incorporates our house rule into canon.  There's a bit more there but that's the meat of it.

2.  Rolling a 20.  20 always succeeds.  1 always fails.  Not a fan.  By this rule a 90-year-old commoner has  5% chance to throw an aircraft carrier to the moon.  Additionally the ONE calls for a character gaining inspiration if they roll a 20.  No.  Just no.  IF we incorporate it it will be for rolling a 1.  "You failed miserable but realized you could succeed by ..."   

3.  Ability score bonuses.  Since first edition AD&D, each race has gained ability score modifiers that match the fantasy archetypes of robust dwarves, agile elves, and so on. This started back when everyone rolled characters at random and when good play meant making the most of whatever the dice gave you.  I HATE this equity crap.  I'll probably skip this modification completely and stick with old school/home brew character generation so the stereotypes will endure.  

4.  Feats.  I've been trending away from feat for some time.  MUCH better to get a 5-10% bonus in a skill.  But players don't see it that way.  They wanna be able to do cool stuff.  And eventually they will.  But at the start you get six ability scores, a race and a class.  GO!  But now we take AWAY the distinguishing features of race and instead add options via background" and feats.  Don't like it.  I'll probably continue to improve and implement Alexis' sage knowledge system.  The one GOOD thing it appears the ONE does is to break feats down by level.  Kinda like Alexis has been doing for years.

5.  Grapple.  Doesn't happen often enough to matter.

6.  Spells.  Three types.  Arcane, Divine, and Primal.  COULD really clean up quite a few things.  I like the IDEA.  We'll see how the implementation goes.

So there you have it.  I'm thinking my table will stick with what we like from 5e, incorporate the "good" from ONE and continue to implement our house rules as needed.

In which we harvest

 

A few months ago I stumbled across this website and began incorporating it in my sessions. Was kinda neat but needed soe work to be fully actualized and then I found out the guy had a book. Actually THREE books.

So I read the books and I did some tinkering and here's how I'm going to complete the integration …. and how you can too!

Step 1. Appraising. What can the party do with that carcass before it? Somebody makes a a check against 8 + the critters CR. The skill used is determined by the type of creature. Success means the character has knowledge of what they can get and how hard it will be, along with risks and how long it will maintain efficacy.

Step 2. Harvest. Make a DEX check with the same skill used above. The higher the roll the more items may be harvested. It will take the DC/5 minutes to harvest.

Step 3: Buying and selling. And out comes the spreadsheet. Long version. Using my economics spreadsheet I give every city, based on its infrastructure, its appropriate terrain. This provides supply/demand prices for critters. Spreadsheet has a drop down for terrains and pulls cities valuation based on that. Also a field for DC of production. Dropdown based on occurrence, based on this site. Then a bunch of math based on that and I get how much an apothecary would would charge for the item and how much the party can get for selling it.

If an item isn't listed and the party wants to harvest it anyway, use the following table:

Material	DC
Blood and fluids	5
Soft Tissue (tongues, ears, genitals, etc.)	5
Hard Tissue (claws, teeth, spikes, horns)	5
Bones	10
Eyes	10
Internal Organs (heart, stomach)	10
Limb (leg, arm, tail)	15
Hide (fur, plating, scales)	15
Complicated lim (wing, tentacle)	20
Brain	20

In which we try to figure out what a hit point is

 Had a situation last session.  Character fell 60' and took enough damage for death.  Prior to "expiration" cleric wanted to know why he couldn't just "Cure Light Wounds" until he was back above 0 HP.  I had no answer, but it didn't FEEL right.  Didn't even feel right to the party.  But in the intervening time I've done some thinking.

The DM’s Guide defines hit points as “The number of points of damage a creature can sustain before death (or optionally, coma), reflecting the character’s physical endurance, fighting experience, skill or luck.”  But that causes all KINDS of problems. My conclusion? Hit points are an indication of how near a being is to death. Magical/spiritual …. even sexual …. healing only increases the distance between life and death. Once a character has gone below 0 HP only  application of medical skill or a successful Spare the Dying can help. Revivify can return a “dead” character to 1 HP whereupon healing can then be used to “increase the distance between the character and death.” Damage, injury, effects resulting from the damage taking the character below 0 still exists, but life has been restored.

The Drive

 In a well-constructed world the stories write themselves.  Party has been traveling up and down the Great Northern Road pursuing leads but a recent vow of vengeance took them off the road and into the woods to the east - toward the mountains.  There's another small village a week away.  No trail connects them bacause south flowing rivers provided better passage.  Snowtall.  It's existence had been plotted and it's economy created but I needed to flesh it out.  Nothing fancy.  Nickel mining with an occasional peridot.  Sable habitat nearby suitable for trapping.  And goats.  As the party approached the village the biome changed.  More pine forest.  And they climbed about 1,000 feet.  Colder.  Just enough different from where they've been to make it interesting.  And goats.  Chevon to the French.  And all the differences it makes.  Goat milk.  Cheese.  

Goat meat replaces pork on the menu.  Cabbage and onions.  Carrots when you can find them.  Beer and vodka.  Kefir for ceremonies.  And then there's the neighboring town of Lireverc.  It's a 9-10 day journey.  But it sits in the lowlands.  And they raise pigs.  So over the years a trade has developed.  In the fall the goat herders and the swineherds cull their animals and begin driving toward each other.  Many a peasant and workman make the trip as well.  For the boys it is a rite of passage, for they carry the heavy packs of salt and provisions.  The drovers meet at a halfway point and the slaughter commences.  Huge bonfires are lit with hogs and goats roasting for three days.  The animals are skinned: the goats more carefully as their hide is more valuable.  Amateur tanners set about their task.  Then the butchers.  Entire carcasses are prepared as are specific cuts.  The salters prepare the meats for shipping.  And after three days of slaughter, hard work, story-telling and passing the news each side packs up and heads home to prepare for the winter.

Our party missed this years slaughter by about three weeks.  But they'll hear about it.  Probably eventually pass the site of this years event.  Might lead to an adventure.  But regardless it makes the world real.  And it wasn't some fanciful die-roll on a pre-generated "festival" table.  It was what the world gave them. 

In which we ask "why?"

“Why?” should be the D&D version of “yes, and ….” It can move the action further and it can gt you to the place where you can say “yes, and.”

A few examples from recent play sessions.

Our half-orc barbarian asks, as they're preparing to leave town for an overland journey, “can I buy a bird?” The easy answer was “yes.” The town is big enough to support a stock yard. Heavily agrarian. At worst inquiries could be made and some opportunistic townie would go TRAP something for him. Why he didn't catch his own, or ask the party ranger to do so was beyond me, but so what? Table discussion then devolved into a discussion of Ogar owning a vulture. Or perhaps a falcon, but no sleeve. At THIS point I began imagining all manner of unintended consequences. So I asked why? He has several control/speak with animal spells and has been unable to use them. This would allow him to do that. So – a birdbrained scout. Not a familiar. Not a beast companion. Just extended scouting ability. So I said yes, but …. no birds of prey. A pidgeon. A dove. Maybe even a crow. I offered a chicken but was soundly rejected. And a duck or goose would be eaten too soon! But I already have PRICES for those three. He's flush with cash so that's not a problem. We agreed in principle to a non-stat-block bird (thus eliminating the temptation to use offensively) of yet-to be-determined provenance. Some quick research yielded the Red-billed Quelea. And everybody's happy.

The party has taken on a “Magnificent Seven” type task to protect a small village. Quite admirable. In prepping the defense the rogue asked to “walk the perimeter. Why? He explained his idea for locating the highest traffic means of ingress in order to narrow down what needed to be defensed AND to set up opportunities for enfilading fire. I could then provide him with the exact info he was looking for instead of waxing poetic about “the beautiful countryside lightly frosted with rime.” He didn't USE the enfilade opportunities, but that's beside the point. The question “why?” saved time and enabled the player to do what he wanted to do succinctly. Several other similar plans were attempted by other party members along the same track. Can I X? Is there any Y laying around? Why? Once I know why I can better answer the question and the players can actualize their plans. Everybody's happy.

Side note: Two new flavor mechanics got expanded this session. It's winter. Temps dropping. Party made sure to purchase winter clothes when the opportunity presented. Weather report is simply three words: one for precipitation, one for wind and one for temp based on the 10 degree range the wind chill presents (pleasant, cool, brisk, chilly, etc.) As conditions worsened the party realized their winter clothes wouldn't protect against ALL cold. A couple frosty nights threw the party into disadvantage. Staying close to the fire and within a windbreak were helpful but they know their movement is now limited by conditions.