#thehomelybrewster

[thehomelybrewster]

1d8 "Free" Fantasy RPGs To Replace 5e At Your Table

D&D 5e sure is a roleplaying game, and it's one that I have enjoyed a lot. However, that doesn't mean that I'd recommend it automatically for other people. This has many reasons, which I won't elaborate here. It has also shaped the perception of TTRPGs significantly thanks to its market dominance, and not in a good way.

5e has a reputation for being an expensive, complex game, and 5e players fear that other RPGs might just be the same. That it's too much of a hassle and too much of a financial burden to switch systems.

So, to help 5e players pick out a different system, I've made this handy 1d8 rolling table to help them pick a fantasy TTRPG with a combat component that they can try instead!

Let's now go through these eight nine RPGs and see what's up with them, right below the "Keep reading" section!

I'll be listing some metrics like the page count for the rulebook(s), the core resolution mechanic, how complex the game is in terms of character creation & combat, and how well-supported the game is by their publisher and the community-at-large.

1. Cairn

Author: Yochai Gal

Release Year: 2020

Cost: Free PDF, printed copies cost between $3 to $10 depending on the print quality.

Page Count: 24

Website: https://cairnrpg.com/

Resolution Mechanic: 1d20 Roll Under system for ability checks/saving throws, attacks hit automatically, "fiction-first".

Action Economy: Movement + one action per round.

Characters: Random character creation, class-less and level-less, advancement based on "Scars" (suffering damage that reduces your HP exactly to 0)

Setting: Implied. Low-magic European-style fantasy; mysterious woodlands.

Other Noteworthy Mechanics: Hit Protection and Ability damage instead of HP, Slot-Based Inventory.

Degree of Support: Very high. Available in fifteen languages (e.g. Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and German); full rules text is under CC-BY-SA 4.0; multiple published third-party adventures & supplements available; some official bonus material (e.g. bestiary, magic items/relics, and spells) is available for free on the website.

Addendum: An expanded 2nd Edition is currently on Kickstarter (ends April 26th 2024); Cairn is legitimately easy to learn, however the Hit Protection system and the connected Scars system is a very different abstraction to health and advancement compared to 5e.

2. Cloud Empress

Author: worlds by watt

Release Year: 2023

Cost: Free PDF of the rulebook and the creator-written sample adventure "Last Voyage of the Bean Barge", $20 for the print edition of the rulebook, $12 for PDF supplements, $25 for print + PDF supplements; free solo rules also available as PDF only.

Page Count: 60

Website: https://cloudempress.com/

Resolution Mechanic: d100 Roll Under system for stat checks/saving throws, critical successes or failures on doubles (11, 22, 33, etc.), 5e-style advantage/disadvantage, attacks generally hit automatically.

Action Economy: Two actions per round with no free movement.

Characters: Semi-random character creation, four classes ("jobs"), no rules for character advancement in the ruleset.

Setting: Specific. "Ecological science fantasy" heavily inspired by Hayao Miyazaki's "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind"; costly magic, giant insects, dangerous mushrooms; only human player characters.

Other Noteworthy Mechanics: Damage points culminate in Wounds; Wounds and Stress as ways to track your character's physical and mental state; slot-based inventory system.

Degree of Support: Low-ish. Several official supplements exist, however third-party material is very sparse. May improve due to the recent establishment of a Cloud Empress Creators Fund, has a simple 3rd party license system.

Addendum: A supplement, "Cloud Empress: Life & Death" is currently on Kickstarter (ends April 26th 2024, yes, the same day as Cairn 2e) and as a disclaimer I even backed that current Kickstarter; Cloud Empress is built on the engine of the sci-fi horror RPG "Mothership"; clearly built for one-shots and short campaigns; has a wonderful resting system that encourages roleplay between players.

3. Iron Halberd

Author: level2janitor

Release Year: 2023

Cost: Free PDF of the rules; no print option available.

Page Count: 60

Website: https://level2janitor.itch.io/iron-halberd

Resolution Mechanic: 1d20 + Bonus Roll Over system against difficulty or armor rating, however most non-combat-related actions follow a fiction first approach without dice rolls.

Action Economy: Movement + one action per round.

Characters: Semi-random character creation, class-less but there are four different "gear kits" that nudge your character towards certain archetypes, levelling up with XP.

Setting: Essentially non-existant. General European fantasy with magic, gods may or may not exist/shape the world, various fantastic ancestries included.

Other Noteworthy Mechanics: Includes rules for building strongholds and maintaining warbands; slot-based inventory with a durability mechanic.

Degree of Support: None. The game is intended to be relatively compatible with other OSR content and the creator suggests using adventures made for the D&D retroclone Old-School Essentials if you wanna use pre-published ones. An official introductory adventure, "Sea-Spray Bay", is apparently in the works. No 3rd party license available, as far as I know.

Addendum: One thing about Iron Halberd I like especially is how it uses random tables for generating equipment. Most of the equipment is listed in a numerical order by category, and the various gear kits include references on different rolling formulas for those equipment categories. For example someone taking the "soldier's kit" rolls twice on the d20 Weapons table and takes their preferred pick, while someone taking the "sage's kit" only rolls a d4 on that table.

4. Mausritter

Author: Isaac Williams

Release Year: 2020

Cost: Free PDF of the ruleset available; box set with the rules and several goodies including an adventure costs $55; additional box set + PDFs containing eleven official adventures costs $55 (or $20 digital-only).

Page Count: 48

Website: https://mausritter.com/

Resolution Mechanic: 1d20 Roll Under system, 5e-style advantage/disadvantage, attacks always hit.

Action Economy: Movement + one action per round.

Characters: Random character creation, class-less, levelling up with XP.

Setting: Vaguely specific. You play as mice and everything is related to mouse-size; cats are the equivalents of devils or dragons; humans exist as a setting background but may or may not be present in a campaign.

Other Noteworthy Mechanics: Includes rules for recruiting warbands; slot-based inventory with a durability mechanic.

Degree of Support: Very high. Several official supplements exist, as well as loads of content, be it adventures or supplements, made by other creators. Available in seven languages (all of them however are European). Has a simple 3rd party license system.

Addendum: Mausritter uses the phrase "adventure site" instead of dungeons. On the website a free adventure site generator is available, as is a digital tool that can be used to generate your own item cards for the slot-based inventory system.

5. Maze Rats

Author: Ben Milton

Release Year: 2017

Cost: $4.99 for the PDF, no print option regularly available.

Page Count: 32

Website: https://questingbeast.substack.com/

Resolution Mechanic: 2d6 + Bonus Roll Over system; advantage system that uses 3d6 drop the lowest + Bonus.

Action Economy: Movement + one action per round.

Characters: Semi-random character creation, class-less but instead there are character features (e.g. spell slots or attack bonuses), levelling up with XP.

Setting: Essentially non-existant. Magic is very irregular (s. the section below), but otherwise it implies a vaguely European fantasy setting.

Other Noteworthy Mechanics: Spells are randomly generated each adventuring day and spell effects are negotiated between the GM and the spellcasting player; includes several fantastic d66 tables that can be used to randomly generate worlds.

Degree of Support: Decent. The rule text is licensed under CC BY 4.0 and unofficial translations are available. Some third-party content has been made specifically for the game.

Addendum: The only purchase-only game on this list. However "unofficial" distribution of the PDF is very common. Also this is the oldest game on the list. Ben "Questing Beast" Milton is a prolific OSR blogger and runs a YouTube channel on the OSR. Great dude.

6. Sherwood - A Game of Outlaws & Arcana

Author: Richard Ruane

Release Year: 2022

Cost: Free quickstart PDF titled "Sherwood - A Quickstart of Outlaws" available; digital rulebook costs $7.50 and the print edition (including PDF) costs $15.

Page Count: 25 (Quickstart), 32 (Rulebook)

Website: https://www.r-rook.studio/

Resolution Mechanic: 2d6 + Bonus Roll Over system for skill checks (including attacks), 2d6 Roll Under system for saving throws; advantage & disadvantage system that involves rolling 3d6 and using the higher/lower of the two results; almost all rolls are player-facing

Action Economy: "Conversational", assumption of movement + action.

Characters: Largely choice-based character creation. Combine two (of six) background abilities with the benefits of seven different careers. Big focus on interpersonal relationships during character creation. Limited character advancement takes place during downtime.

Setting: Specific. Takes place in a fantastical version of 13th century England, with fey and magic coexisting with outlaws and crusaders.

Other Noteworthy Mechanics: The group of outlaws possesses two shared resources (Resources and Legend) that can be spent to gain certain benefits; spellcasting is divided into two categories: arcane talents and sorcerous rites, with the former being immediate and the later taking significant time; slot-based inventory.

Degree of Support: None. No further publications exist for the game and while it is published under the CC-BY 4.0 license, no third-party content exists as far as I know. It does include a guide on how to convert D&D and Troika (N)PCs into Sherwood characters, as well as three adventure seeds (one in the Quickstart, two in the rules), which is at least something.

Addendum: Might just be the game on this list that encourages the most roleplaying; the character sheet is sadly very provisional-feeling and the Quickstart feels outdated compared to the finalized rulebook.

7. The Electrum Archive

Author: Emiel Boven

Release Year: 2022

Cost: Free Rules PDF available, zines cost $12 as digital PDFs or $24 as print + PDF combos; the first zine contains the entire contents of the Free Rules PDF

Page Count: 26 (Free Rules), 72 (Issue 01)

Website: https://www.electrumarchive.com/

Resolution Mechanic: 1d10 Roll Under system, attacks always hit.

Action Economy: Movement + one action per round.

Characters: Largely choice-based; three archetypes roughly corresponding to fighters/rangers (Vagabonds), rogues (Fixers), and spellcasters (Warlocks); player characters are presumed to be human; levelling up with XP.

Setting: Specific. Mechanics heavily tie into the lore; humanity has abundant access to minerals but requires a rare substance known as Ink to operate certain pieces of tech (like guns) and cast spells but cannot produce Ink themselves; spirits of various sorts can be foes, targets of worship, or sources of power.

Other Noteworthy Mechanics: Uses a spellcasting system for the Warlock archetype that's heavily based on the one used in Maze Rats, as in it uses randomly-generated spells whose effects are negotiated between the player and the GM; slot-based inventory with a durability mechanic.

Degree of Support: Minimal. The game consists out of the free rules and (soon) two zines; a third party license exists but content produced under it is very rare.

Addendum: I need to disclaim that I recently backed the Kickstarter campaign for the second zine for this game; the free rules feature wrong page numbers in its table of contents which is unfortunate; The Electrum Archive uses incredibly simple stats for NPCs which makes creating new ones based on other games rather simple.

8. Shadowdark RPG

Author: Kelsey Dionne

Release Year: 2023

Cost: Free player and game master quickstarts exist as PDFs and are available in print for $19, the core rules cost $28 in PDF form and $57 in a print + PDF bundle

Page Count: 68 (Player Quickstart Guide), 68 (Game Master Quickstart Guide), 332 (Core Rules)

Website: https://www.thearcanelibrary.com/

Resolution Mechanic: 1d20 + Bonus Roll Over system, 5e-style advantage/disadvantage, natural 1s are critical failures and natural 20s are critical successes.

Action Economy: Movement + one action per round.

Characters: Largely choice-based; players have a fantasy ancestry and a class; levelling up with XP; class progression largely random.

Setting: Vague. General (dark) western fantasy conventions apply; alignment is a force in this universe and a sample pantheon is provided; the most potent enemies in the rules are named individuals that fit classic TTRPG monster types; illustrations and lore snippets have recurring motifs.

Other Noteworthy Mechanics: The key mechanic of Shadowdark is how the game handles light, namely that light sources are tracked in real time (i.e. a normal torch lasts 1 hour), which increases tension; slot-based inventory; has a 0th-level character creation option using an eliminationist "Gauntlet".

Degree of Support: Fantastic. Several official supplements and offically sanctioned digital tools exist; lots of third-party content available under a generous third-party license.

Addendum: Definitely the most similar game to 5e on this list besides the next entry; very robust mechanically and the Core Rules features extensive lists of magic items, monsters, and spells; also for early play giving your players only access to the quickstart is a totally valid choice; and finally, before Dionne made Shadowdark, she made 5e adventures for years and it shows (affectionate).

9. Pathfinder

Authors: Logan Bonner, Jason Bulmahn, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Mark Seifter

Release Year: 2019 (initial release), 2023 (remaster)

Cost: Free and comprehensive SRD available via the platform Archives of Nethys, free "Pathfinder Primer" abridged rulebook available via the Pathfinder Nexus (powered by Demiplane), Core books are priced $20 for PDFs and $30/$60 for print as a softcover/hardcover; a Beginner Box set with shortened soft-cover rules costs $45

Page Count: 464 (Player Core), 336 (GM Core), 376 (Monster Core), 160 (Combined Beginner Box Softcovers)

Website: https://paizo.com/pathfinder

Resolution Mechanic: 1d20 + Bonus Roll Over system, 5e-style advantage/disadvantage, four degrees of success based on result compared to target number.

Action Economy: Three action points per round; various actions may require more than one point; every character can use one reaction per round of combat.

Characters: Choice-based; players first pick an ancestry and a background and a class (the ABCs) and then tend to have meaningful choices after each level-up; levelling up with XP.

Setting: Important. Golarion, the game's setting, is a world that has been long in development and it shows; powerful magic and influential gods; very clear notions of what the societies of the various peoples of the world are like and how they should behave.

Other Noteworthy Mechanics: Balance between character classes and reliable combat challenge calculations are an important design goal; weight-based inventory system; archetype system for "multiclassing".

Degree of Support: Fantastic. Loads of content gets regularly produced by the game's publisher Paizo; the Pathfinder Infinite program (similar to D&D's Dungeon Master's Guild) provides lots of lore-compliant third-party content; uses the ORC third-party license for content produced outside of the Pathfinder Infinite program. Translations into other languages available but Paizo does not provide a comprehensive list of available languages (only German and French confirmed after brief personal research).

Addendum: The most popular and commercially successful of the listed games; but also by far the most complicated, though it is easier to GM for specificallty than 5e; also I dislike how certain feats create situations where fairly mundane actions get mechanics through these feats instead of being things you can generally do; anyway the reason why it's a 9 on a 1d8 table is because if you wanted to try out Pathfinder 2e you already would have and because while Paizo is better than WotC it's still a flawed big company.

...

So this was an exhausting little project. I hope you found this helpful and I hope you give at least one of these games a shot! A follow-up to this post is not out of the cards, but I don't plan on one.

Before we go, have this poll about which of these systems you're most looking forward to try! Shame it can only be open for one week...

#thehomelybrewster #dnd 5e #dnd #indie ttrpg #tabletop roleplaying #ttrpg community #Cairn #Cloud Empress #Iron Halberd #Mausritter #Maze Rats #Dungeons and Dragons #Sherwood #The Electrum Archive #shadowdark #pathfinder

[undefeatednils]

Looking for TTRPG Design Discords

Hey, I'm looking for places where TTRPG designers meet! I wanna discuss stuff with folks, collab, that sorta stuff.

You can message me here, send me asks, whatever. I'm also very much into the idea of joining a small Discord server.

About Me

My name is Nils, I'm agender (any pronouns, they/them preferred, he/him are also perfectly fine), 31 years old, German (but I also speak fluent English), and I've been engaging with TTRPGs for over a decade now, on-and-off.

I made and published two games on itch.io, Arcane Burglary of Castles and Meshaing, both made as game jam entries.

I also run the D&D homebrew blog @thehomelybrewster.

Looking forward to connecting more with folks in the community!

#nils talking #ttrpg community #indie ttrpg #ttrpg design

[thehomelybrewster]

Stealth in TTRPGs - A Micro Essay

Who doesn't love having the option in games to sneak around, move around hostile forces undetected, and maybe get a potshot off against an unsuspecting foe for extra damage?

A lot of TTRPGs involve Stealth as a mechanic, and I just wanted to provide a small overview over how varying games do it and what that means for those games:

Dungeons & Dragons 5e - Varying Target Numbers

In 5e, you have a distinct Stealth skill, used for both hiding and sneaking around. Characters make their Stealth checks, add their relevant modifiers, and then the GM compares that to either an arbitrary target number/DC, often the Passive Perception of the most frequent type of enemy in a location. This means that player characters don't know if they succeeded or failed, while still performing their own dice roll, which creates a rather unique sense of dread about hopefully having rolled high enough.

Stealth checks are also often made as group checks, meaning at least half the party must succeed on a roll to be successful, and if you play with a paladin wearing plate, chances are high the group will fail.

Dungeons & Dragons B/X - GM-Facing Roll w. Set Target Numbers

In earlier D&D editions, such as the Basic/Expert sets, stealth was handled with a d100 roll, with the player(s) telling the GM their odds, and then the GM rolls. If the results are below their odds, they succeed, but if not, the GM will soon describe how they failed. Officially the GM is not supposed to tell the players if they succeeded or not until the consequences of that roll reveal themselves.

Also, at least in the 1983 B/X rules, there are no stealth rules for non-thief and non-halfling characters. However, since the base "move silently" chance for thieves is 20 percent, most GMs might allow characters to also attempt it but at a lower percentage, with no improvements as a character gains levels (unless these levels are in the thief class).

While mysterious, this method removes the dice roll from the player characters, and is thus not ideal to emulate.

Call of Cthulhu - Roll Under w. Binary Success

The Call of Cthulhu games, using a d100 system, use a very simple system for stealth: You roll a d100, compare that result to your Stealth skill (in e.g. the 6th edition a minimum of 10), and if the result is lower, you succeed. The GM doesn't need to make any rolls or improvise a target number, it's very straight-forward.

OSR games that use roll under-systems also use this sort of system (e.g. Knave & Cairn). It significantly reduces the burden on the GM, but it gives players a sense of certainty that may be detrimental for suspense.

Pathfinder 2e - GM-Facing Roll w. Flexible Target Numbers & Degrees of Success

Pathfinder 2e uses a rather interesting system for stealth. Players declare that they intend to sneak, then give the GM their bonus to Stealth checks. The GM then rolls the Stealth check for the player character against the Perception DCs of any creature the player intends to sneak past, then narrates the result.

The trademark Critical Success - Success - Failure - Critical Failure system still applies here, though Critical Successes have the same effect as regular successes, and only Critical Failures result in you getting spotted. A normal failure just results in the creatures noticing you without being able to pinpoint your location or being able to see you but guessing your current location.

This system is mechanically pretty dense and offers suspense, but it, like the system used in B/X, doesn't involve a player-facing roll, at least not rules-as-written. However the player can probably still make this roll if the GM allows it. As with all things Pathfinder, the rules are very clear, but complex.

Anyway, just a small thought I had that I wanted to share here.

#thehomelybrewster #rant tag #ttrpg design #dnd dm advice #gm advice #dnd 5e #dungeons and dragons #call of cthulhu #pathfinder 2e

[thehomelybrewster]

How to Speed Up Combat with Near-Static Damage Using A Dice Chain

You may remember me making a post last year where I gave three tips to speed up D&D 5e combat. One of the suggestions was to use the damage die used in the die expression of an attack, spell or other effect and then adding or subtracting the result to the average damage based on whether the result is even or odd.

The basic idea is that rolling for damage, especially if it involves more than two dice, takes time. Especially for big and powerful effects such as a dragon's breath weapon, which in 5e at least may involve more than a dozen dice thrown.

So what if you could have a uniform, not very math-y way, to make the average damage, which is too predictable for most players, more engaging?

Well, inspired by a recent suggestion in the Sly Flourish newsletter, I refined this concept a bit further! In that newsletter, Mike Shea suggests using -3 + 1d6 to modify static damage, so let's build on that and make it a bit more swingy!

The answer is to use a dice chain!

The term dice chain is mostly used in the context of the gonzo OSR game Dungeon Crawl Classics to refer to its thirteen dice it uses. But even 5e has a dice chain, the standard six polyhedral dice.

So I'm proposing to use a progression of polyhedral dice, starting with the d8, for every damage roll that involves more than one die. So, for example, a minotaur's greataxe deals 2d12+4 slashing damage, or 17 on average. Extrapolating from Mike Sea's formula, we'd take the 17 average damage, then subtract 4, and then roll 1d8 to determine the damage dealt by the minotaur.

Now with just two dice, the time saved is not that much, but it really becomes more noticeable with larger rolls. I suggest using a d8 to modify damage that involves two or three dice in its expression, a d10 for those that involve four to six dice (e.g. a bulette's bite), a d12 for those that involve seven to nine dice (e.g. a chimera's fire breath), or a d20 for those that involve ten or more dice (such as an ancient blue dragon's lightning breath). Each time the average damage is first reduced by the (rounded down) average result of what I call the Variance die,

This way potent effects still have a noticeable damage range but they involve far fewer dice rolls and making it far less predictable for your players how many hits they can still take in an encounter.

Now for critical hits, I suggest doubling the average damage, and then applying the next highest Variance die based on the original damage expression (if possible).

If an attack or effect deals multiple types of damage in a single instance, such as a planetar's greatsword, which deals both slashing and radiant damage, then you use the -4 + 1d8 Variance for the damage type with the lower average damage (in case of the planetar, the slashing damage) no matter how many dice are involved (as long as they are at least two), but then use the appropriate Variance die for the higher average damage.

If an attack or similar has delayed instances of damage, such as a giant poisonous snake's bite causing a saving throw to avoid taking extra poison damage, then you use Variance dice for both instances of damage, as in the original piercing damage from the bite and the poison damage suffered as a result of the saving throw.

Now if you happen to have all the dice in the DCC dice chain, feel free to use them to have a more modular, or to make critical hits of the most massive attacks even more deadly. And in fact I made a handy graphic that summarizes this post and includes a table for both my default Variance die chain and the DCC Variance die chain!

Here it is!

I hope y'all find this useful, no matter which TTRPG you're playing (as long as it involves multiple dice in damage calculations, it should be fine xD)!

#thehomelybrewster #dnd homebrew #5e homebrew #dnd 5e homebrew #dungeons and dragons #gm advice #dnd dm advice #dnd 5e

[thehomelybrewster]

Natural 1s & When to Call For An Ability Check

Inspired by recent discussions about the "ethics" of save scumming in Baldur's Gate 3 and that game's decision to treat 1s as automatic failures and 20s as automatic successes both for saving throws and ability checks, I wanted to give my two cents.

This generally applies to all systems that use a DnD-style for these sorts of mechanics, where you roll a single die by default and add a relevant modifier to it, but I'll use DnD-centric language because of obvious reasons.

Now naturally in 5e that rule which is applied in BG3 does not exist. It was proposed as a rules change for the 2024 revision before being scrapped, yet I also know that plenty of tables run with this house rule and several DnD-inspired games have it baked in as a regular rule.

I generally don't like it, especially the automatic failure by rolling a Natural 1 part. Of course success and failure are relative. The typical example for this is the royal audience scenario, where a player character makes an outragous demand of the monarch, rolls Persuasion, and rolls a Natural 20 and expects that request to be granted, even if it's something ludicrous such as being made the official heir to the throne.

If I was playing a game that used this type of rule or had to DM for a table that expected it, I'd treat Natural 20s for impossible ability checks as an avoidance of negative consequences rather than as an opportunity for a reward. In the aforementioned scenario, the monarch wouldn't immediately try to arrest the daring adventurer for treason, for example.

Still, I'd normally treat this sort of attempt as an unprompted roll and a joke, ignoring it completely, because as a DM you have enough control over the table that you can determine that a roll shouldn't take place. After all, would you respect a player that attempts an unprompted melee attack roll when the next other creature is outside of that character's regular movement speed?

With failures coming from a Natural 1 however there are different ways you have to handle them. Personally, with ability checks in particular, I'd handle a table that requests or requires that rule the following way: if the player character attempts a check with a DC that's equal to or lower than their modifier for that ability check, no roll is required.

If the bard has a +11 to Acrobatics checks, they will always (!) dodge out of the way of a DC 10 trap. A rogue who has reached the point where they get access to Reliable Talent will always handle ability checks with skills they're proficient in perfectly if the DC is 10 or lower. No roll required. Failing those rolls goes against the choices the player made when building these characters over time.

Now with saving throws, I love this rule! Giving a barbarian with an Intelligence score of 10 that five percent chance to see through the DC 22 illusion feels good! Same with the rogue having that five percent chance to not fully evade the effects of that fireball spell a goblin is getting out of a stolen wand.

But with ability checks... Consider when to call for a roll, what a failure means, and what a success means before you implement this house rule.

#thehomelybrewster #5e rant #dnd rant #dnd homebrew #5e homebrew #dnd 5e homebrew #dungeons and dragons #dnd 5e #rant tag #dnd dm advice #gm advice

[thehomelybrewster]

Skills in D&D History

This is really just a brief "rant" post, but I like skills in D&D. They are a way characters can use their ability scores more precisely, especially out of combat. This post won't go into details on how skills "worked" in each edition, just an overview what skills entailed.

Skills have been around since the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons days, however they've changed drastically. First of all, in AD&D 1e, they were an optional rule, called "Non-weapon Proficiencies", and weren't around until supplements like Oriental Adventures (yes, really), Dungeoneer's Survival Guide, and Wilderness Survival Guide added them piecemeal, with lists appropriate for that type of adventure.

They were also incredibly granular: For example Oriental Adventures includes the skills "sailing craft" and "small water craft" as separate skills. Also available were "flower arranging" and "landscape gardening", "fire building", and "silk maker". Note the last one, a lot of times tool usage was the same mechanic as skills.

In Revised AD&D 2e, there were 64 skills listed in the Player's Handbook, with some limited to certain classes. They were also very granular, like AD&D 1e had them. For example it differentiates between "animal lore" and "animal training", or "local history" and "ancient history". It also includes tools as being part of the list of available skills, such as "gem cutting" or "bowyer/flechter" or "cobbling".

In 3.5e, the amount of skills in the Player's Handbook dropped to 34. Still a massive number, but manageable. Some are really recognizable, such as "perform", or "survival", or "handle animal". Some are however very specific still! "listen", "spot", "search", "appraise", "decipher"... All of these would be part of Perception or Investigation in 5e. Tools were gone from skills, made a separate mechanic.

In 4e, the amount of skills dropped to fifteen, one less than 5e's skill system. Missing are Animal Handling (handled by "nature"), Investigation (handled mostly by "perception"), and Survival... Which is handled mostly by "nature" (foraging) and "perception" (tracking). But also by a skill called "dungeoneering", which handles dungeon navigation and foraging, as well as aberration lore! Also noteworthy is the existence of the "streetwise" skill, which handles information gathering in settlements, something often handled by Investigation or Persuasion checks at 5e tables.

Pathfinder 2e, D&D's cousin, also has fifteen skills, by the way. Well, fourteen and then the MANY lore skills, which handle both tool proficiencies (together with "crafting") and History. "society" and "occultism" are unique to Pathfinder, with "society" handling etiquette, urban exploration, and similar things. And "occultism" is it's own beast, since it also serves as one of the four magic types in the game.

Anyway, I just wanted to share this knowledge with you all. In case you ever wondered if D&D 5e could use more or fewer than sixteen skills!

#thehomelybrewster #dungeons and dragons #dnd 5e #rant tag #5e rant #dnd skills #ttrpg design

[thehomelybrewster]

Ability Scores in 5e & Other RPGs

This little rant is inspired by a post by a blog named The Angry GM, titled "Your Ability Scores Suck" as well as a post titled "8 Abilities - 6, 3, or 4 Ability scores?" by DIY & dragons, because those two articles and my past few months of looking at various TTPRGs have led me to some insights into my own philosophy in how I like TTRPGs and how I feel about 5e's Ability Scores.

So let's look at how a couple of RPGs handle ability scores or their equivalents. Namely I'll look at D&D 5e, Pathfinder 2e, The Dark Eye (4th Edition Revised), CAIRN, and Pokémon. Yes, Pokémon is relevant to this. And it'll actually be the second game we'll discuss, but the first obviously has to be...

D&D 5th Edition

D&D famously has six ability scores: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. In most situations the exact ability score no longer is that important, however, since from 3e onwards d20-based checks have become the near-universal input you play D&D with. This means that instead the ability score modifier is key, which ranges from -4 to +5 for most player characters.

Now while these six scores might seem pretty equal, players have quickly figured out that certain ability scores are more desirable than others, unless you play specific classes.

Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom are for example the three most common saving throws. 109 out of the 361 spells in the Player's Handbook force a saving throw using one of these three ability scores, while Strength, Intelligence, and Charisma only have 24 spells. Thankfully every D&D class gives proficiency with two saving throws, one of the three major ones, and one of the lesser ones (and certain subclasses as well as the monk get more saving throw proficiencies, but that's besides the point).

Additionally, when it comes to skills, and thus out-of-combat usefulness, Strength only has one skill tied to it by default (Athletics), while Constitution has none. Charisma has four skills to its name, Dexterity three, and both Intelligence and Wisdom have five.

Now the DIY & dragons article mentions that there are effectively three axes you have to cover with your ability scores: physical vs mental, force vs grace, and attack vs defense. That leads to eight abilities total. In 5e, using what we know about the game, we can make some great deductions.

For one, Strength is almost exclusively concerned with physical force attack, while Constitution nearly exclusively covers physical force defense. Dexterity meanwhile fully covers physical grace attack, as well as physical grace defense, since it affects AC and is used for Stealth, as well covering evasion-type saving throws. Dexterity is incredibly powerful in 5e, arguably the most powerful ability score.

On the mental stat side, the lines are less clear. All three ability scores can be used for offence, though Intelligence, being the casting ability score of only wizards and the generally utility-based artificers is the least offensive of the three. Still, its association with wizards means it probably is best associated with force, because fireball. Charisma easily can be sorted into grace and is mostly offensive, and Wisdom straddles the line between force and grace, but is also both clearly offensive and defensive.

As you can see, Intelligence & Wisdom & Charisma are rather ill-defined, a point also made by the The Angry GM article, but mechanically Wisdom is universally useful, while Charisma is either super important (because you're playing either a Charisma caster or a face-type non-caster, such as a rogue), or can easily be sidelined/dumped. In fact a lot of tables seem to disregard or minimize Charisma when it comes to roleplay, my tables have definitely done that. Mostly because you don't want to have players not participating in roleplay encounters because they don't have at least a +2 in Charisma and several skill proficiencies in that area.

Speaking of proficiencies, for skills the maximum you can add is +6 or +12 if you have expertise, while with saving throws the maximum proficiency bonus is +6, so with saving throws in particular, a +5 for a saving throw from that relevant abilty score is a massive defensive boon, though it's often less relevant for skill checks.

This knowledge, as well as the known issues with Intelligence-based skill checks often being seen as gate-keeping plot relevant information, leads to the realization that Strength, Intelligence, and Charisma are the three most frequent "dump stats", with the latter two in particular often having implications in out-of-combat situations, while Strength is a "safe" choice for full spellcasters.

Now let's think about how other games handle this... Let's begin, as I threatened in the beginning, with...

Pokémon

Pokémon famously uses six so-called base stats for its collectible creatures: HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed. Using the system described by DIY & dragons, Attack and Defense clearly map onto the physical, and Sp. Attack and Sp. Defense clearly onto the mental. There is no distinction made between grace and force. HP is a universally defensive stat, and Speed is both offensive and defensive.

Naturally, Pokémon doesn't involve dice rolls. These stats are used for formulas and comparisons. But you can already see that Pokémon, at least since Special got split into Sp. Attack and Sp. Defense starting in Gold & Silver, has a clear division of these stats, with it being clear what they do.

Now due to the mechanics and the goals of Pokémon, an individual character (read: the actual Pokémon) doesn't need to have balanced stats. Largely also because these stats only affect combat, the main mechanic of these games. Any out-of-combat activity present in Pokémon games in fact uses distinct stats, completely distinct from the base stats of the Pokémon. These can then be discarded/put into the background when that out-of-combat activity, such as Pokémon Contests, is removed from subsequent releases.

Now let's look at a D&D-related game that has a different approach to ability scores, because it provides a stepping stone to look at different RPGs...

Pathfinder 2nd Edition (Pre-2023 Revision)

Pathfinder, being a game spun out off the 3rd Edition of D&D, also uses the six ability scores that D&D uses: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.

Just like with 5e, Pathfinder associates certain skills with certain ability scores, and just like 5e, Strength and Constitution are connected to only one and no skills respectively.

Still, that's just part of the bigger picture. Pathfinder 2e, just like D&D 3e, doesn't use ability scores as saving throws. Rather it uses three distinct saving throws that are tied to ability scores. Those saving throws are Fortitude (Constitution), Reflex (Dexterity), and Will (Wisdom). These are, for the keen-eyed, the same ability scores that are the primary saving throws in 5e. This means that defenses are covered exclusively by these three ability scores, and of these Constitution remains purely defensive, while Dexterity and Wisdom also have offensive capabilities. Still, the offensive power of Dexterity is lowered because in general it cannot be used to increase your weapon damage, contrary to how 5e does it.

It should also be noted that both when it comes to skills and saving throws, the calculations for rolls are very different than in 5e! If you are proficient with a skill or saving throw, you add both a bonus equal to your degree of proficiency (from +2 to +8), as well as your character's level, to the roll, in addition to your ability score modifier. This leads to massive bonuses, especially since magical effects can be added to that, too. Of course Pathfinder uses a sliding scale to determine difficulty classes and has a degrees of success system, but with that knowledge, the -4 to +5 you add to your rolls will matter less than 5e's ability score modifiers do. In general, as long as the modifier is at least a +1, it's fine.

This has actually led to Wisdom being considered a dump stat for many Pathfinder players, and that especially applies when playing with one alternate rule that I want to highlight.

In the Gamemastery Guide, the Alternative Scores variant rule splits Dexterity into Dexterity and Agility, merges Strength and Constitution, and makes Charisma rather than Wisdom the relevant ability for Will saving throws. That variant rule acknowledges the power of Dexterity and the relative weaknesses of Strength and Constitution, but somehow strengthens Charisma further. I don't have any numbers or insight on how popular this alternate rule is, but given what I know about Pathfinder 2e character optimizers, I wouldn't adopt the change to Will saves if I were to run this variant rule myself.

Still, the knowledge of these three saving throws puts us nicely into the realm of indie RPGs, which have really run with this. So let's look at one as an example.

Cairn

This lovely little game written by Yochai Gal has been a well-supported indie darling and is currently in a playtest for a 2nd edition.

Cairn uses three ability scores: Strength, Dexterity, and Willpower. It also uses a d20 roll under system, contrary to 5e and Pathfinder. This means that you aim to roll below your ability score, rather than adding a number to a d20 roll and seeing if you can meet the difficulty class threshold.

They are also, in combat, mostly defensive. Strength in combat mostly concerns surviving blows. Dexterity is used to determine if you move before the enemies and for escaping combat. Both Strength and Dexterity can be used for saving throws against certain spells. In combat Willpower is necessary to cast spells without suffering penalties.

Offensively none of the three ability scores are that important. They don't add to damage, they aren't important for making attacks, or anything of the sorts. Spellcasting outside of dangerous situations usually doesn't involve die rolls either.

This makes the three ability scores very balanced, but it also gives them comparatively little meaning. They are your protection from harm. Including out of combat. But Cairn doesn't know skill checks whose failure state isn't "nothing happens". If player characters have no pressure, they succeed. Especially if they have useful equipment for it.

Using the DIY & dragons blog post as reference, Strength only represents physical force defense, Dexterity only represents physical grace defense, and Willpower represents mental grace and force defense.

So, let's look at a different roll-under system, one that might provide additional inspiration for game designers...

The Dark Eye (4th Edition, revised)

The German TTRPG The Dark Eye (Das Schwarze Auge) is old, almost as old as D&D, and in its design its often as an antithesis for D&D. It's incredibly math-y, has a generally less heroic (but also categorically "good") playstyle, and is a class-less (kinda), level-less system. To ensure I know what I'm talking about, I'll focus on the 4th edition, which has by now been superceded by its own 5th edition, because that's the one edition of it I actually played.

DSA (its German acronym which I will use for brevity's sake) uses eight attribute (!) scores:

Courage, Cleverness, Intuition, Charisma, Dexterity, Agility, Constitution, and Strength.

Each of these eight attribute scores affects the character directly. Heroes have base values (melee attack, ranged attack, parry, initiative) that are calculated by adding together set combinations of attribute scores and dividing the sum, most often by 5, to determine those base values. For brevity's sake, let's look at two of these base values: attack and parry. Attack is calculated with Courage + Agility + Strength, while parry is calculated using Intuition + Dexterity + Strength. Both use two "physical" attributes and one "mental" attribute.

Similar rules also apply to calculating how much your character can withstand, be it through their general vitality (which is equivalent to hit points), their endurance (mostly used as a resource for athletic feats), and their wound limit, all of which can be used to defeat characters. Even the amount of astral points, the spellcasting resource, is calculated using your attribute scores. Every attribute is used at least once when calculating these eight values, with only Cleverness, Charisma, and Dexterity being used only for one of these eight fundamental character traits, with Charisma being the least important, because it is only used to calculate astral energy points, which are irrelevant for characters that don't know spells.

Furthermore skill checks in DSA are made by rolling three attribute checks in a row and then using skill points to modify the results if necessary. Skills use either three distinct attribute scores (e.g. Cooking, which requires Cleverness & Intuition & Dexterity), or two attribute scores (with one being used twice, e.g. Perception requires one Cleverness check and two Intuition checks). Simple attribute checks where you use only one attribute are rare, with heavy lifting often being the key example for it. There are also loads of skills in DSA, with the character sheet per default having twenty four skills, with more being common on most characters.

As you can hopefully see, all eight ability scores are used very often and impact your character greatly. They are furthermore more clearly delineated than the D&D standard, however they also don't map onto the DIY & dragons parameters for ability scores, despite having eight of them!

Conclusion

What can we learn from this? Well, honestly, draw your own conclusions. The six ability scores of D&D and Pathfinder are not the "be-all and end-all", that's for sure. You really need to think about what your game wants to do.

Is it just combat-focused? Then all ability scores should matter in combat and to (roughly) the same degree!

Does your game consist of multiple gameplay elements? If yes, then they should all be accessible and fun for players even if their base stats are "bad" in one aspect, while still allowing for specialization of player characters.

Generally, there is no "one size fits all" solution, and this rant hasn't even gone into ambiguity between different terms, the implications of specific terms and associated thresholds, or the exact history of ability scores in D&D before 3rd Edition!

Anyway, I hope this was legible, fun and informative.

#thehomelybrewster #rant tag #ttrpg design #dnd 5e #d&d 5e #dungeons and dragons #pathfinder 2e #The Dark Eye #The Electrum Archive #game design #rpg design #long post

[thehomelybrewster]

Gonna be making a little overview post of a few fantasy RPGs that are (partially) free in digital formats, just in case you need a push to get away from the D&D quasi-monopoly.

Now mind you, I'm generally a bit friendlier about D&D and 5e in particular than some other folks in this space, but (!) I do think it's good and healthy to play other games!

This is because it 1) is healthier for the hobby, 2) it allows players (including GMs) to determine if they actually like D&D or just play it because it's the default, and 3) I believe that a lot of games that have similar goals as D&D 5e are actually easier to get into, potentially allowing more people to get into the hobby!

#thehomelybrewster #rant tag

[thehomelybrewster]

Miscellaneous Worldbuilding Idea - Applying the Mandala to Fantasy

One aspect as someone who likes to study history and religion and politics that always fascinated me is the idea of the mandala political model.

The mandala (Sanskrit for "circle") is mostly used for art, but it is also used to describe the at-times interlocking spheres of influence powerful cities had in Southeast Asia before the 19th century.

The closer another polity, be it a tribe or other city or petty state was to a powerful city, the closer it was integrated into the system of that city, and the further away it was, the looser control generally became. Small polities would often have allegience to multiple regional centers, same with itenerant groups.

In fantasy settings, it's rather easy to apply.

A huge fortified city projects power along the established trade routes that go near by it. Rural communities rarely feel the power of the large city, but can occasionally call upon them for protection and have a useful market to send their goods to. They are politically however independent of that city with a hundred times it population.

The Orcish warband that migrates through the continent every year pays tribute to the big cities it comes close to, and in exchange the Orcs get access to the trade centers.

A remote forest is home to a religious community eager to avoid big city life. By not being close to any trade routes, either by sea or by land, officials of the city-states don't bother showing up.

The centrally-located island run by elves maintains ties with every coastal community, but several villages on the northern shore of the Great Ocean also swear fealty to the inland alliance of dwarven hillforts.

Basically, when worldbuilding, you can create interesting conflicts that come about by not following a "Westphalian" model of statehood, where areas are generally under the firm control of a single state entity. It even makes it harder to have modern nation states in your setting, allowing you to both explore fringe systems of government such as theocracies or anarchist communes without those polities having to function on a larger scale, and to have a clear focus on trade routes and diverse groups over all.

#thehomelybrewster #dnd worldbuilding #fantasy worldbuilding #gm advice

[thehomelybrewster]

Roll Less as a DM in Combat

Here are a two ideas that are easy to implement that make your life as a GM in a TTRPG less of a hassle by reducing the amount of stuff you need to roll for (and to reduce the amount of dice rolls at the table in general). This is mostly intended for D&D, but can be applied to most fantasy TTRPGs.

(Almost) static monster damage: As soon as monsters roll more than one dice to determine damage, use the average damage of the monster's attack (or do the math for spells ahead of time), then subtract 2, and then roll a single die, e.g. a d6 or d10 (ideally the damage die used by the attack or spell). If the results are even, add them, if the results are odd, substract them. That way you'll use way less dice when rolling damage while still preserving some element of randomness, which means that players can't calculate exactly how many hits they can take. This will also still increase the general danger of monsters, since they are far less likely to wiff their damage rolls.

Categorical Initiative: Instead of rolling the initiative of monsters, assign set values to them, ideally in increments of 5. Order the monsters in an encounter based on their threat level, and have most monsters have an initiative of 10 or 15. Reserve 20 for ambushers (e.g. assassins or dragons), while 5 should be the default initiative for shambling zombies, summoned creatures, and a creature's legendary actions.

Let enemies flee: Combats don't need to end with all monsters dead on the ground. End combats when its clear that the players have won and just need to clean up. Bandits can attempt to flee after they become outnumbered, beasts flee if they are too badly hurt. You can even use this to make fights more interesting when a major enemy like a dragon or powerful wizard retreats to a more favorable location, but in general, when dealing with weaker enemies, make it normal that fights can end in a LOGICAL manner before it has ended in death for the enemy side.

#thehomelybrewster #gm advice #dm advice #ttrpg advice #running a ttrpg

[thehomelybrewster]

Worldbuilding - On Magic Item Shops and Adventurers

Here's a thought which might interest y'all in regards to worldbuilding and how you run campaigns:

Magic item shops, just like professional adventurers, should not exist in your D&D setting.

What does that mean though? First of, let's talk about adventurers.

Unless your campaign regularly features high-profile supernatural threats, adventuring as a career should not exist. However you still need to have people that can take care of unique problems such as a family of giants terrorizing a valley, or an elemental that was unearthed in a mining town, or a changeling assassin stalking the city and murdering important denizens.

For that I think in a "realistic" world there would be three kinds of feasible options: the state, mercenaries, or local spellcasters.

The state obviously refers to the lcoal authorities. A major city likely has its own city guard or a similar government institution that enforces laws and is trained to deal with dangerous threats at the whim of the ruling elite. If it isn't sufficient, the other two kinds of options will be hired to aid the city guard.

Mercenaries are the closest thing there is to adventurers in the traditional sense. They come in groups and they are good at fighting. The problem with mercenaries is that they run a business and that they are risk-averse. If you can tell them what the problem is, they might be able to make you an offer, but if there's a mystery at hand, they won't be willing to do work, no matter how good the pay is, because stumbling into a lich's lair by accident when you were told to clear out a petty necromancer's crypt just isn't good business.

Local spellcasters meanwhile might like a mystery, depending on their actual nature. A cleric traveling between several temples to their deity in the area might help if they feel like it fits with their tenets and it is safe enough. The nearest wizard in their tower might be able to gather information, for a fee, and then give their opinion on how to proceed and might even get involved themself, if it fits their area of research. A larger magical institution might get involved if it's beneficial for the development of the arcane arts, but they are often difficult to reach or can only be contacted through good connections. A local hag meanwhile might be willing to help, but her price will likely be too cruel unless the circumstances are very dire.

Now what about magic item shops? If magic items, especially non-consumable items, are widespread, then people will be driven towards using them regularly. By keeping them rare, by having the acquisition of magic items being dependent on invite-only auctions or through the occasional specialist who has a minisicule collection and who might be willing to trade or exchange items for a favor... You reinforce the reliance of the world at large on people with power to solve problems.

And that, ultimately, will lead to your player characters sticking out, making a name for themselves, to not get lost in a sea of adventurers but rather to slowly grow and fill a void, becoming heroes in the process.

#fantasy worldbuilding #dnd worldbuilding #rant tag #thehomelybrewster

[thehomelybrewster]

How Much Do Systems Matter?

This post is directly inspired by the video "You shouldn't use DnD for narrative campaigns." by Questing Beast (aka Ben Milton) about the Polygon article "Worlds Beyond Number is teaching me things that no D&D book can" by Charlie Hall.

The video and article basically posit the following:

TTRPGs can use concretely designed procedures for certain types of challenges and scenarios while having much looser procedures for other types of challenges or scenarios

Just because a TTPRG has less thorough rules on a type of challenge or scenario than a different RPG tackling the same subject matter doesn't automatically make the former worse at being used for these scenarios than the latter

Depending on the preferences of the table, having a robust mechanical framework for one element of gameplay while lacking that for other types of gameplay may be preferrable than having robust mechanical frameworks for both

Having distinct game mechanics for narrative progression and character interactions is uncommon in D&D and derived games, but is very common in story games, e.g. most Powered by the Apocalypse games.

The Polygon article includes this quote by Worlds Beyond Number's Brennan Lee Mulligan: "[People say that] because D&D has so many combat mechanics, you are destined to tell combat stories. I fundamentally disagree. Combat is the part I’m the least interested in simulating through improvisational storytelling. So I need a game to do that for me, while I take care of emotions, relationships, character progression, because that shit is intuitive and I understand it well. I don’t intuitively understand how an arrow moves through a fictional airspace."

This intuitive knowledge on handling emotional beats, narrative, and characters of course stems from years of experience Brennan has as a writer, actor, improv teacher, comedian, camp counsellor, and professional TTRPG GM and player.

Using Ron Edwards design language (s. his 1999 essay "System Does Matter"), Brennan wants to run primarily narrativist games, while 5e would fit Edwards' idea of a Gamist system, i.e. one which involves the pursuit of "winning" against NPCs.

Now let's look at 5e: it's generally agreed upon that 5e is opinionated on combat, while also being vocal that exploration and social encounters, while less fleshed-out, are still part of its pillars alongside combat, meaning the game is still encouraging you to pursue these types of play.

Combat is a very fleshed-out series of systems. The action system is centered on combat, both in terms of time and types. Spellcasting is very distinct and allows for casting mostly offensive or defensive spells. Class progression usually focuses on improving one's combat capabilities.

Exploration and social interactions are much more bare-bones.

On the social side, a few more recent supplements have reintroduced the classic Attitude table present in earlier editions and which are a mainstay of the OSR community. Additionally the DMG spends merely three pages on how to run NPCs, mostly using fairly general advice instead of concrete game mechanics. Interaction between player characters is also barely discussed in 5e rules.

Exploration is similarly simple, mostly related to the omnipresent but simple skill system, as well as some relatively simple rules on weather, hazards, overland travel speed, and tracking rations.

5e's shift towards simplified rules for these two pillars, including simplifying the skill system into a mostly binary failure-success affair is a shift away from earlier D&D editions and some of its direct competitors, e.g. Pathfinder, Rolemaster, GURPS, and The Dark Eye, which often would involve subsystems for various aspects of social or exploratory encounters, s. Edwards' "System does Matter" essay and his point on simulationist games.

So if Brennan wants to run a narrative game where we can realiably use his knowledge of narratives and character writing to create a compelling story while having a set system as his backup to run situations where violence becomes a factor... Using a game like 5e is a decent choice.

Of course other systems might be even better for that. Shadowdark for example may just be the perfect fit for someone wanting to run a narrative game with occasional combat. The combat rules are thorough enough to cover the fundamentals. Sure, you may just need to get rid of real-time torches, the key mechanic which sets Shadowdark apart from other OSR games, but subtracting a mechanic, instead of modifying it, is a relatively uninvasive procedure.

Personally I too like it when my TTRPG, especially stuff intended for medium- or long-term play, doesn't touch social and narrative elements much mechanically.

Meanwhile games like Ironsworn and Heart - The City Below, which are much more narrative-focused, do have issues where their resolution mechanics clash with the fiction in ways that would pull be out of the story we're trying to tell. Heart has the issue with the Supplies resistance not being shared within the group, and Ironsworn's fulfillment of vows can be glacially slow (s. A. A. Voigt's "Ironsworn: A Narrative Dilemma" video essay).

Ultimately, it all comes down to preference. Personally, if I wanted to run a fantasy game with magic and a strong narrative (like Worlds Beyond Number), with the clear goal of not getting bogged down in combat or minis, I'd legit use Shadowdark as described above. If I knew I wanted to tell a specific type of story and knew of a game that was designed for these types of stories, I'd definitely give it a read and talk about it with my players before we adopt it.

However, I do implore folks to not Ship of Theseus a game with tons of homebrew and houserules so that it's no longer recognizable as its original game. If you ever feel compelled to do that, ask other players what systems might be a better fit for your needs.

#thehomelybrewster #d&d 5e #rant tag #dungeons and dragons #ttrpg community #indie ttrpg

[thehomelybrewster]

So just as a bit of a teaser, because it'll take a bit longer, I found out a cool thing about gnolls: they exist as hyena-folk since D&D's transition to AD&D and B/X.

Before that, they were gnome-troll hybrids, like the gnoles in Lord Dusansy's 1912 story collection "The Book of Wonder". Which makes Discworld gnolls seem less random...

#thehomelybrewster #gnoll #dnd gnoll

[thehomelybrewster]

How to Play a Force User in 5e?

One aspect of character building for 5e I enjoy is trying to replicate character archetypes that aren't obviously represented by a single (sub-)class into 5e. And Tulok the Barbrarian hasn't helped matters (check out his channel, it's fun).

Anyway, one of my favorite things is Star Wars and naturally I love Force users, and 5e offers a handful of combinations that work really well for it.

So here are some! Note that with most of them the Telekinetic feat is recommended, and the Telepathic feat also often works well.

Intelligence: Psi Warrior Fighter + Wizard

This one is basically ready-made. You get psionic abilities and you unlock really fun stuff as you level. However, since the Psi Warrior uses Intelligence for their features, that means you'll have an easy time multiclassing into wizard!

Both War Magic and Bladesinging are excellent additions. The former is more generic and synergizes well even with medium or heavy armor, while the latter is generally more powerful, but is often restricted lore-wise and pigeonholes you into wearing light armor only. It also works "best" with Psi Warrior if you take less than six levels in wizard, because at that point Bladesinging gives you Extra Attack and that obviously doesn't work with a fighter's Extra Attack (though you'd still gain the ability to use cantrips within your Attack action).

In general this build is bulky and uses magic for versatility, making an excellent frontline warrior. Also if your GM ain't no fan of the psionic subclasses, then Eldritch Knight is also fine.

Intelligence: Bladesinging Wizard + Samurai Fighter

Yes, another fighter + wizard combo, but one with a different flair. This would really lean into Bladesinging and use Samurai Fighter for its excellent Fighting Spirit feature at 3rd level (and Action Surge at 2nd). With Fighting Spirit you can give yourself advantage on attack rolls and gain temporary hit points, very appropriate in the "letting the Force guide you" sense. After that this build would focus itself entirely on wizard levels. Still, the 7th level Samurai feature Elegant Courtier is excellent, and if you only want to take four or five levels in wizard, or don't a redudant Extra Attack, snatch that up, too.

The levels in Samurai enhace the face archetype that a Jedi as intergalatic peacekeepers embody excellently.

This build is likely squishier than the prior one, but still not that squishy. It really depends on the level mix. Also note that Elegant Courtier works based on Wisdom, so that segues into...

Wisdom: Fey Wanderer Ranger + Samurai Fighter

The Fey Wanderer is the best ranger subclass to get the feel of a Force user for sure. Since it heavily focuses on charming foes and resisting charms yourself, it sells the stalwart moral stance of a Jedi and the classic Jedi mind trick quite well. Otherworldly Glamour makes you an excellent party face, and Wisdom feels the most intuitive among the three mental ability scores for a Jedi to prioritize.

For Samurai, just see the section I wrote for the prior entry, it's just really, really good, and those first three fighter levels are just a wonderful addition to any build that can afford them.

This build is also the best way to emulate a Jedi who is very connected to nature, like Kanan Jarrus or Ezra Bridger, since druid has too specific a fantasy to work with that.

Wisdom: Peace/War Cleric + Fey Wanderer Ranger/Samurai Fighter

The cleric also provides an excellent foundation for a Jedi character, and the War Domain and the Peace Domain especially. Both really fit the ideals of Jedi, the former obviously more of a Clone Wars-era Jedi general (or a Sith), while the latter fits the High Republic-era or the old Expanded Universe restored Order really well. Special shoutouts to War's Channel Divinity: Guided Strike and Peace's Implement of Peace features, those really feel appropriate.

Cleric spells work really nicely as Force abilities, and thus work as a great foundation. Now you can easily add either the Fey Wanderer or the Samurai on top of that to either go deeper into the role of a skilled negotiator or a mighty warrior, all while having a fairly easy time with multiclassing.

Charisma: Aberrant Mind/Divine Soul Socerer + Paladin

The sorcerer represents nicely the inherent nature of Force-sensitivity and both the Aberrant Mind and the Divine Soul fulfill the aspects of mental prowess and a special destiny respectively.

The paladin levels meanwhile enhance your melee capabilities, as well as your spellcasting and healing. Virtually any oath works here. Ancients provides a bit of Kanan Jarrus/Ezra Bridger/Bendu vibes, Conquest and Oathbreaker are very Sith, and the others all work for Jedi in general.

Ingnite your lightsaber with your smites, and you'll have a good time. Plus, as a Charisma-based build, you'll make an excellent face, of course.

Charisma: Great Old One Warlock + Paladin (or maybe Bard?)

We've reached the final one! The obligatory warlock-paladin multiclass. A wonderful combination. Now I'm deliberately excluding the Hexblade due to flavor, but the Great Old One is a wonderful patron for a wannabe Jedi to have. For you that patron are, basically, Medichlorians. You are more attune to them than other people (or so you think?), and thus you gain special psychic powers associated with them.

For the paladin aspect, s. the prior build. All of that also applies here.

Addendum: Even bard might be a nice option to add to the Great Old One. Bardic Inspiration can easily be interpreted as using the Force to subtly move or stabilize your allies during an Athletics or Acrobatics check, or as a minor Jedi mind trick in social situations. College of Valor and College of Swords are very good choices for this multiclass build to enhance your melee capabilities.

Addendum: On Monks

I did consider whether monk would work, maybe with the Fey Wanderer Ranger it'd be okay, and then I'd probably go with Way of Mercy but monk is too weird of a class to work well... But the 2024 rules revision monk might be just the trick for that! We'll see what that looks like. In terms of how short rest-reliant monks are, a warlock-monk build would make sense, but since the Playtest 5 warlock was thoroughly rejected, Wisdom-based warlocks will never happen in this game (until we get a proper 6th edition?)...

#thehomelybrewster #dungeons and dragons #dnd 5e #dnd advice #dnd tips #dnd player character

[thehomelybrewster]

College of Persiflage

"Persiflage is an old and prestigious art among bards, but few gain the mastery of it required to be considered College of Persiflage bards. It requires a mastery of the written word, comedic timing, and audacity that is hard to acquire and devoting yourself to spoofing and parodying the powerful can be a dangerous game to play. It is however a rewarding one, as satire is incredibly popular among the common folk, who see bards of this College as a source of respite and, sometimes, as inspiration for social change."

The first of my batch of subclasses I had originally intended to publish on DMsGuild. Turn enemy fumbles into opportunities for cantrip-based attacks, bolster your allies with your spells, and sharpen your bard's mind with the College of Persiflage!

Sidenote: While the key subclass feature, Heckler's Quip, was obviously designed around vicious mockery, you can also use it well with cantrips like true strike or cantrips you gain through other means, like a racial feature! A kobold with the Draconic Sorcery background feature could for example use fire bolt with this feature!

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[thehomelybrewster]

Simpler Wild Magic Surge

Here's a quick, revised version of the Wild Magic Sorcerer's Wild Magic Surge feature, basically acting as an abbreviated variant of the original feature. Also shout-out to Simon Aumar!

Starting when you choose this origin at 1st level, your spellcasting can unleash surges of untamed magic. Immediately after you cast a sorcerer spell of 1st level or higher, the DM can have you roll a d6. If you roll a 1, roll on the Wild Magic Surge table to create a random magical effect.

A Wild Magic Surge can happen once per turn. If a Wild Magic effect is a spell, it's too wild to be affected by Metamagic. If it normally requires concentration, it doesn't require concentration in this case; the spell lasts for its full duration.

Wild Magic Surge table

1 - You turn into a potted plant until the start of your next turn. While a plant, you are incapacitated and have vulnerability to all damage. If you drop to 0 hit points, your pot breaks, and your form reverts. 2 - You cast magic missile as a 5th-level spell. 3 - You cast confusion centered on yourself. 4 - You cast grease centered on yourself. 5 - You teleport up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space of your choice that you can see. 6 - Maximize the damage of the next damaging spell you cast within the next minute. 7 - You regain all expended sorcery points. 8 - A random creature within 60 feet of you becomes poisoned for 1d4 hours. 9 - Up to three creatures you choose within 30 feet of you take 4d10 lightning damage. 10 - You can’t speak for the next minute. Whenever you try, pink bubbles float out of your mouth. 11 - You gain resistance to all damage for the next minute. 12 - For the next minute, you can see any invisible creature if you have line of sight to it. 13 - Roll a d10. Your height changes by a number of inches equal to the roll. If the roll is odd, you shrink. If the roll is even, you grow. 14 - A spectral shield hovers near you for the next minute, granting you a +2 bonus to AC and immunity to magic missile. 15 - Your size increases by one size category for the next minute. 16 - You glow with bright light in a 30-foot radius for the next minute. Any creature that ends its turn within 5 feet of you is blinded until the end of its next turn. 17 - You cast fog cloud centered on yourself. 18 - You cast fly on a random creature within 60 feet of you. 19 - You become invisible for the next minute. During that time, other creatures can’t hear you. The invisibility ends if you attack or cast a spell. 20 - You regain your lowest-level expended spell slot.

General note: I trimmed the fat, reduced the number of bad options, and made it more frequent. Simple as that.

#thehomelybrewster #d&d sorcerer #d&D homebrew #dnd homebrew #sorcerer #wild magic #wild magic surge #simon aumar #5e homebrew #dnd 5e homebrew #dungeons and dragons #dnd 5e