D&D 5E What resources do you track in play?

Imaculata · Aug 10, 2017

Quickleaf said:
@Morrus I was tracking renown/reputation in our Night Below / Out of the Abyss mashup campaign. Not exactly a resource, but here's an example of what I did with my own adaptation of the Renown rules from the DMG/PHB:

I'm currently doing something more in the line of the loyalty system from Dragon Age. Characters and organisations can change their relation to the players from Mortal enemy, hostile, unfavorable, neutral, favorable, friendly and loyal.

Some parties start as neutral, others may already start as hostile or friendly. The players can earn the loyalty of a person or group by completing an important quest or deed for them, or they can make them their mortal enemy due to some critical story development. Just because an ally likes the players, does not mean they are loyal. Once they are loyal however, they will follow the players to what ever end. This is important since the campaign is steering towards a huge climactic naval battle. They need to gather a fleet, and for that they need loyal allies. The desire of the players to form alliances is a perfect quest hook.

Lanefan · Aug 10, 2017

side question

Imaculata said:
This is important since the campaign is steering towards a huge climactic naval battle.

Curious: what rule system are you planning to use for said big naval battle? I'd like to check it out.

/side question

Enevhar Aldarion · Aug 10, 2017

What gets tracked during a campaign varies greatly depending on the environment the characters are going through. But one thing most, if not all, groups I have ever been a part of make clear, if it is not written on your character sheet when the campaign starts, then your character does not have it, and you will need to find or buy whatever it is you are missing.

Sadras · Aug 10, 2017

Enevhar Aldarion said:
But one thing most, if not all, groups I have ever been a part of make clear, if it is not written on your character sheet when the campaign starts, then your character does not have it, and you will need to steal or buy whatever it is you are missing.

FIFY

Enevhar Aldarion · Aug 10, 2017

Sadras said:
FIFY

No clue what your abbreviation means, but I hate people who screw with other's posts by "changing" what they originally wrote. You are one of the worst kinds of troll to do that.

Imaculata · Aug 10, 2017

Lanefan said:
side question

Curious: what rule system are you planning to use for said big naval battle? I'd like to check it out.

/side question

That is something that I'm still working out. I play 3.5, and there aren't really any good massive battle systems for 3rd edition that I know of. We are currently using the rules for ship combat as written in Stormwrack, but that only works for small battles. Stormwrack assumes that any naval battle should be moved into a boarding action as soon as possible, and then you're back to regular combat. So I'm thinking of homebrewing it a bit, and maybe taking some inspiration from the few massive battle books that exist.

One of the ideas that recently came up, was to simply illustrate the conflict with cards. You basically have a map of the battle zone, and you place cards on the areas where a conflict in ongoing. The players can then dedicate their forces to that conflict, or engage the conflict themselves. Their allies could also be represented with cards, which the players can place on the conflict card to commit their forces to that conflict. Wether their forces are successful would still come down to a dice roll (D6), but perhaps adding extra forces gives them an extra die to roll with.

For example, you could have a naval blockade that has a strength of 2 (meaning two 6-side dice are rolled to resolve that conflict). The players can then dedicate one of their forces to resolving that blockade, which gives them one die, or they could dedicate two of their forces, or maybe even three, which would give them three die and an almost guaranteed victory. You then roll the die, and the highest number succeeds.

If the players decide to go in themselves, then you just play out the battle as per the rules of Stormwrack. Otherwise the battle happens offscreen, and you just give the players the results. There should also be consequences to winning or failing an objective. I was thinking that upon failing an objective, two more conflicts can spawn (again represented by cards). Winning an objective, could give them a spare die to work with.

But like I said, I'm still working this out. I may test this system with my players two or three sessions from now, in a some what smaller scale battle.

Sadras · Aug 10, 2017

Enevhar Aldarion said:
No clue what your abbreviation means, but I hate people who screw with other's posts by "changing" what they originally wrote. You are one of the worst kinds of troll to do that.

Good grief!
FIFY is an acronym for Fixed It For You.
It was a joke and you should probably lighten up, especially on a forum where people post about a hobby we all enjoy.

howandwhy99 · Aug 10, 2017

I run old school D&D, so for me the thread question sounds somewhat absurd. Perhaps because I think of it two different ways.

1. What do the players track? Well a big part of playing the game for players is remembering and note taking (including mapping). Exactly what they wish to track is completely up to them. However their Character Record sheet has basic stuff they can quickly recognize: their ability scores, their saves, hit points, etc. Also character equipment and large categories like class, race, gender, even height and weight.
- Like I said, "This is all optional". They never need to track things, but it can be hard to play if they aren't trying a little bit.

2. What does the referee track? Everything. It's one of the core acts. As we move our pieces around the dungeon, pick up, use, and discard things, change our stats, whatever. If it's in the game, the GM tracks it.
- But we don't know what they are tracking, which is core to old school play IMO.

Enevhar Aldarion · Aug 11, 2017

Sadras said:
Good grief!
FIFY is an acronym for Fixed It For You.
It was a joke and you should probably lighten up, especially on a forum where people post about a hobby we all enjoy.

Whatever. I got tired of that BS more than 20 years ago and I thought people, at least here, had outgrown that juvenile behavior, since I have not seen it done in the threads I normally read or comment on here. It is rude and immature, so please do not do it again.

Imaculata · Aug 11, 2017

Maybe we could just try to be nice to each other, and not presume the worst when someone makes a joke? Especially when that person specifically states that it was meant as a joke. Temper, temper.