Sacrosanct
Legend
- Let the dice fall where they may.
- Don't intervene to save pcs who die.
- Monsters fight to win instead of fighting to die.
- This includes hitting downed pcs when appropriate.
- If you want a map of the dungeon, map; otherwise, prepare to die lost.
- Force the players to rely on their notes and memories rather than filling in gaps in their knowledge that they wouldn't reasonably remember.
- Use 'left' and 'right' instead of cardinal directions unless someone has the Keen Mind feat.
- No npcs who can save your bacon. If you want to raise a dead pc, find a pc to do it.
- Enemies should be proactive and take measures to defeat their foes, including pcs.
- Challenges should vary in nature ("I'm perfectly prepared to fight monsters, but this snow storm is killing me!")
I find it funny that "gritty" is now defined as not cheating on the players' behalf lol. That's not gritty. That's simply being an impartial and fair DM.
Gritty and default 5e are polar opposites. In order to make 5e gritty, you have to change so many things, you aren't playing 5e anymore. Better to simply use a system that is gritty to begin with imo. WFRP 4e might be the ticket.
Not true at all. See my post earlier. I prefer a more gritty system, and 5e works just fine. The only rule I've really changed is the healing rate and that's pretty much it. 5e does grit well if you want to DM it that way.