D&D General Help Me Build the D&D Game I Want to Run

[Flamestrike]

That is one thing I never understood. I know that strict tracking of all resources (food, water, ammo, spell components, encumbrance, etc) can really turn people off these days but to completely eliminate ALL resources just seems like lazy design imo. There are times where limited resources can create adventures and tension on their own.

There is nothing stopping the DM from vetoing the ability (No Grog, you're in the desert/ badlands. You cant automatically find food, and/or you need to make a DC X survival check to do so').

That's what DM's are for.

Id rather they took the above approach, than include a complex table of how much food you find with a check result of X, divided by terrain types and so forth, plus meticulous bookeeping.

Eyeball it, make a ruling and move on.

 

[Reynard]

There is nothing stopping the DM from vetoing the ability (No Grog, you're in the desert/ badlands. You cant automatically find food, and/or you need to make a DC X survival check to do so').

That's what DM's are for.

Id rather they took the above approach, than include a complex table of how much food you find with a check result of X, divided by terrain types and so forth, plus meticulous bookeeping.

Eyeball it, make a ruling and move on.

I'd rather they hadn't included it at all, since the reason for doing so was clearly to obviate resource management.

 

[Flamestrike]

I'd rather they hadn't included it at all, since the reason for doing so was clearly to obviate resource management.

Create food and water has always been a spell that exists at low levels in any event, and a vast number of DMs dont really bother with the nitty gritty of tracking food intake.

People want to play Achillies, Gandalf or Conan. They dont want to be tracking how much toilet paper and apples they're carrying around.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

Create food and water has always been a spell that exists at low levels in any event, and a vast number of DMs dont really bother with the nitty gritty of tracking food intake.

People want to play Achillies, Gandalf or Conan. They dont want to be tracking how much toilet paper and apples they're carrying around.

Except I don't want to play Achillies, Gandalf or Conan. I find them rather boring; they're expected to win. I want to play an unnamed adventurer in a ruthless fantasy world - an adventure who, if shred and cunning enough, can eventually surpass Achillies, Gandalf and Conan despite his/her humble beginning.

 

[Flamestrike]

Except I don't want to play Achillies, Gandalf or Conan. I find them rather boring; they're expected to win.

So are the PC's.

In my games at least. I dont run long term campaigns only for them to be TPK'd 3/4 of the way through.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

So are the PC's.

In my games at least. I dont run long term campaigns only for them to be TPK'd 3/4 of the way through.

I think the word "win" doesn't fit my games. They PCs don't "win". There isn't anything to "win". They don't might encounter and achieve fleeting success, but the game lacks a win condition. There are no big bad guys in my game. There are competing forces. Some good, some evil.

I see my world like the Count of Monte Cristo. While Edmond Dantès avenges the wrongs done to him, his success leave him feeling empty. Vengeance brought him neither happiness nor closure. When all was finished, "winning" left him meaningless and without a clear path to follow.

That's how things in my world. You might have defeated the Bloodhound Bandits, but the city's still going to a corrupt cesspit no matter how hard you try, because the majority of humanity in my world isn't worth saving.

 

[Flamestrike]

I think the word "win" doesn't fit my games. They PCs don't "win". There isn't anything to "win". They don't might encounter and achieve fleeting success, but the game lacks a win condition. There are no big bad guys in my game. There are competing forces. Some good, some evil.

I see my world like the Count of Monte Cristo. While Edmond Dantès avenges the wrongs done to him, his success leave him feeling empty. Vengeance brought him neither happiness nor closure. When all was finished, "winning" left him meaningless and without a clear path to follow.

That's how things in my world. You might have defeated the Bloodhound Bandits, but the city's still going to a corrupt cesspit no matter how hard you try, because the majority of humanity in my world isn't worth saving.

Sounds like fun.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

Sounds like fun.

Fun can be many things. It's simply preferring Hamlet to King Henry V.

Many people like their games to embody the phrases "Once more into the breach my friends" and "From this day to the ending of the world, we in it shall be remembered."

Others prefer "Something's rotten in the state of Denmark" and "“I must be cruel only to be kind; Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind."

 

[Aldarc]

@Reynard, you should consider plundering Black Hack (2nd ed.) for ideas. It's an easy-to-play OSR game with some connections to 5e, though Black Hack is a roll-under-stat system. You may find its Usage Dice idea worth considering or even its armor rules, if you want to put the warriors' equipment also through the wear-and-tear.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Any time I think about whether or not I'd have more fun running or playing something like 2E... all I need to do is fire up the Baldur's Gate video game and suddenly realize just how much of 2E sucks to me compared to more modern mechanical ideas and balancing.

- The massive amount of spells that just don't get any use whatsoever because there's only a handful that are actually useful except in very specific situations. The cleric basically preparing nothing but healing spells every morning because all the others just don't give any equivalent bang for their buck for instance.

- The inanity of negative AC and THAC0

- The ability modifiers that only pop in starting at like 15, and which most classes don't even get in their best forms (+3/+4 HP from CON for any class other than Fighter for instance).

- Non-weapon proficiencies being a pale shade of an actual skill system.

- And many others.

Sure, I'd love a game whose "essence" was evoked from the 2E era occasionally... but I sure as heck would never want to use the actual 2E rules to accomplish it. Not after three subsequent editions that showed off just how bad many of the game rules actually were.