D&D 5E Capricious Home Rules and DM Pet Peeves

[Oofta]

My pet peeve? People that make the assumption that real world economies should have a bearing on the default D&D world assumptions.

• complain about things like how people carry around gold pieces instead of silver
• talk about how a meal should only cost coppers
• they should be able to bribe a peasant to do just about anything with a gold piece or 10 because to a peasant it would be "a small fortune"
• how you can't sleep in armor even though they've never tried it and have never talked to anyone who has
• how the steel for a suit of armor would be worth more money than small cities could afford

Seriously? What do you think all those dwarves are doing in those mines and at their forges? Mining gold and making steel. Add in an occasional alchemist who really does figure out how to turn lead into gold, throw in a little bit of magic when making steel and voila things work differently.

Basically people that assume that magic being real would not change society and making assumptions about a fantasy world based on reality.

Don't get me wrong. If you want to model your campaign on a specific real world time frame, that's great. Just acknowledge that the base D&D game has about as much resemblance to real world medieval Europe as a Renaissance festival. Superficially similar, but that's about all.

 

[Arilyn]

A dying ally will either be dead, or will have stabilized on their own, long before that minute is up.

After battle, I am not counting rounds, but assuming that a wounded player will stabilize once a buddy can get to them with a healer's kit. My main problem is the stabbing an orc and wonking my wounded buddy with the kit.

 

[Arilyn]

Meh, they're a semi-magical poultice that you slap on.

Okay, still silly and I could see not allowing that kind of use. I would not at all mind playing in a game that restricted use of med kits somewhat by making it take more time to apply them.

I don't mind them being semi-magical. Already kind of are, even if not rated as such. I suppose you could then slap one on in a round, but still don't see how one is slapped on your friend while you are stabbing an orc. I am far from needing gritty realism in my D&D game, but picturing these amazing kits of healing make me laugh.

 

[MNblockhead]

My pet peeve? People that make the assumption that real world economies should have a bearing on the default D&D world assumptions.

• complain about things like how people carry around gold pieces instead of silver
• talk about how a meal should only cost coppers
• they should be able to bribe a peasant to do just about anything with a gold piece or 10 because to a peasant it would be "a small fortune"
• how you can't sleep in armor even though they've never tried it and have never talked to anyone who has
• how the steel for a suit of armor would be worth more money than small cities could afford

Regarding applying real-world economies. I agree. Who is to say that gold isn't more common in the D&D world than ours? Still rare and valuable, but less so than IRL.

Also agree with point on armor. May not be idea, but there is no reason you can't sleep in it, if you had to. If you are going to raise that as a complaint, you need to also worry about the far more serious issue of over heating. But what fun is that? so we want to add con roles and complex exhaustion and hydration mechanics to our combat?

 

[MNblockhead]

I don't mind them being semi-magical. Already kind of are, even if not rated as such. I suppose you could then slap one on in a round, but still don't see how one is slapped on your friend while you are stabbing an orc. I am far from needing gritty realism in my D&D game, but picturing these amazing kits of healing make me laugh.

Yeah, like torches in dungeons, its just one of those things you accept with an eye roll or its enough of a pet peeve you home rule it away.

Funny thing is that in the two years of running my 5e campaign, I don't remember a healing kit being used.

 

[MacConnell]

Torches, Armor, etc.

Yeah, like torches in dungeons, its just one of those things you accept with an eye roll or its enough of a pet peeve you home rule it away.

It is a fantasy game with magic, after all. Though physics and even, sometimes, logic defy many of the common practices used in the game, magic aside, as long as they are not interfering with game play in such as way as to halt its enjoyment, I never bother with it after inception.

It's like reading Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality. Considering physics and in many cases throughout this series, common sense, ruins the readability of this, at one time, very popular set of books. The opposition to this, if one likes the sciences, would be Jack L. Chalker's Rings of the Masters series, which is a phenomenal read.

I guess in all this, my only real peeve that can effect game play is a person who assumes they know everything and their only seeming intent is to be contentious. When one person ruins game play for the others, that person is not invited back to play.

 

[MacConnell]

It's Only Money

My pet peeve?

• complain about things like how people carry around gold pieces instead of silver
• talk about how a meal should only cost coppers

I agree. This is one that has never bothered me. In the publications, especially as they have progressed to new editions, the base currency is gold. As is such, everybody is carrying it. Adventurers more so than most.

At this point, gold becomes more of a term for money than the name of an element or mined mineral. If it's a dollar, a pound, a buck, a quid, a dram, a frank, a mark, a common, a gold, it's simply the term expressed for cost.

 

[Oofta]

I agree. This is one that has never bothered me. In the publications, especially as they have progressed to new editions, the base currency is gold. As is such, everybody is carrying it. Adventurers more so than most.

At this point, gold becomes more of a term for money than the name of an element or mined mineral. If it's a dollar, a pound, a buck, a quid, a dram, a frank, a mark, a common, a gold, it's simply the term expressed for cost.

I agree 100%. I look at gold as similar to a $20 bill, many people will carry several around in their wallet without a second thought.

However, I've had people state something along the lines of "I offered him 10 gold to give us the info, what do you mean he won't? That's a small fortune!"

The NPC would have had to flee town ... having enough money for a couple of nights in a decent tavern with a meal didn't even come close to being enough.

 

[Cyrinishad]

I have gotten out of the habit of banning things or restricting player choices, but I do like using many of the optional rules. I will say however that even though I may not veto player choices when they build their characters, I do inform them that the game-world & the NPCs don't necessarily have a neutral perception of PC classes & races. Essentially, I make sure they remember that Religious/Racial/Gender equality or tolerance should not be presumed simply because something is presented as an option in the PHB.

Here are the optional rules that I am currently using in my 5e games:

- Variant Human Traits (PHB pg. 31)
- Inspiration (PHB pg.125)
- Equipment Sizes (PHB pg. 144)
- Multiclassing (PHB pg. 163)
- Feats (PHB pg. 165)
- Encumbrance (PHB pg. 176)
- Feywild Magic (DMG pg. 50)
- Shadowfell Despair (DMG pg. 52)
- Psychic Dissonance (DMG pg. 59)
- Weather & Wilderness Hazards (DMG pg. 110)
- Magic Item Formulas (DMG pg. 141)
- Players award Inspiration (DMG pg. 241)
- Flanking (DMG pg. 251)
- Hero Points (DMG pg. 264)
- Healer's Kit Dependency (DMG pg. 266)
- Slow Natural Healing (DMG pg. 267)
- Action Options (DMG pg. 271-272)
- Hitting Cover (DMG pg. 272)
- Cleaving through Creatures (DMG pg. 272)
- Massive Damage (DMG pg. 273)
- Spell Points (DMG pg. 288)

 

[Celebrim]

My pet peeve? People that make the assumption that real world economies should have a bearing on the default D&D world assumptions.

Has anyone else noticed that quite early on, this went from being a thread about your own pet peeves with the rules and what you did about them, to a thread where you voiced your irritation with other people's pet peeves?