D&D 5E Making 5E Feel Old School

[Archade]

This week's blog, looking at the small changes I made to my 5E campaign to make it feel old school, without breaking the game ...

Making 5E Feel Old School

I was re-reading through my 5E PHB recently, and it reminded me of reading it for the first time, with an overwhelming personal sense of ...

archadestower.blogspot.com

 

[Lanefan]

Generally good advice in there.

Have you given any consideration to bringing into your 5e such old-school elements as level drain, item saves if the carrier fails vs area-effect damage, and the like?

 

[Archade]

Generally good advice in there.

Have you given any consideration to bringing into your 5e such old-school elements as level drain, item saves if the carrier fails vs area-effect damage, and the like?

Interesting idea ... I looked at the Wight and it's level drain is pretty kind compared to AD&D days, but the old school permanent loss of XP is definitely too punitive. Maybe change it to a restoration of 1 hp per day? Or a level of exhaustion that requires a potent cure spell to remove?

 

[MNblockhead]

Nice article! Agree with slow leveling. In my current campaign I'm running the 5e version of Rappan Athuk. To give the old-school dungeon crawl experience, but still using 5e I do the following:

GP for XP. XP is earned by extracting gold and some milestones. Not by killing things. You kill things because they attack you, because you want their gold, because your characters think they are evil, etc. But there is no reason to turn the game into a slog of "clearing out the dungeon", though sometimes it makes sense to do that, to exert control over areas of the dungeon to have refuges you can retreat to.

This alone has done the most to make the game feel more old school.

The dungeon was designed based on old-school sensibilities and there are some save-or-die traps and creature attacks that are not common in 5e.

I do wish I made magic a bit more mysterious, but the dungeon itself can be pretty gonzo with magic. Also, I didn't want to deviate from 5e RAW too much and gimp identify, etc.

 

[Archade]

Nice article! Agree with slow leveling. In my current campaign I'm running the 5e version of Rappan Athuk. To give the old-school dungeon crawl experience, but still using 5e I do the following:

GP for XP. XP is earned by extracting gold and some milestones. Not by killing things. You kill things because they attack you, because you want their gold, because your characters think they are evil, etc. But there is no reason to turn the game into a slog of "clearing out the dungeon", though sometimes it makes sense to do that, to exert control over areas of the dungeon to have refuges you can retreat to.

This alone has done the most to make the game feel more old school.

The dungeon was designed based on old-school sensibilities and there are some save-or-die traps and creature attacks that are not common in 5e.

I do wish I made magic a bit more mysterious, but the dungeon itself can be pretty gonzo with magic. Also, I didn't want to deviate from 5e RAW too much and gimp identify, etc.

Love Rappan Athuk!

 

[Flamestrike]

For OSR I'd do:

• 3d6 in order
• Increase Stats needed to MC to 15 for the new class (remaining at 13 for the current class)
• Instant death if your HP drop to 0 and there is more damage left over than (Con score)
• Slower healing (Short rest spend max 1/2 level HD), long rest recover 1/2 level HD and then spend as many as you want.
• Resurrection drops Con by 2 permanently and is only successful on a Con ability check (DC 5) - this mirrors AD&D's system shock rolls.

And maybe a few other things.

 

[MNblockhead]

Interesting idea ... I looked at the Wight and it's level drain is pretty kind compared to AD&D days, but the old school permanent loss of XP is definitely too punitive. Maybe change it to a restoration of 1 hp per day? Or a level of exhaustion that requires a potent cure spell to remove?

I prefer having hit point max, strength, intelligence, etc. being sapped to be recovered after a long rest or a long rest for one point recovered.

Not a fan of level or XP drains unless very rare and mystical high-level boss. Even then, I would prefer it to be the result of a cursed artifact than a creature attack. Maybe an effect that makes you forget a portion of your recent past. But I would rule that greater restoration could be used or that revisiting certain places in the past and encountering people from the forgotten past can help you recover lost XP. This would mostly be interesting for lower level play. Once greater restoration is available, it trivializes so many setbacks in the game.

 

[Archade]

For OSR I'd do:

• 3d6 in order

I'm a huge fan of 3d6 in order for my DCC games, but I am not sure that would work in a 5E game, as stats are a lot more critical to character success in the long run where 1E/AD&D stats are less integral without skills and lower bonuses/penalties to combat and saving throws.

That being said, I'd say anyone brave or foolhardy enough to start a character with 3d6 in order deserves some sort of reward -- either a bump on starting experience, or a bonus feat. I'll think on that ...

 

[MichaelSomething]

Continuily introduce combersome subsystems until everyone gets sick of it and just decide to freeform everything?

 

[Flamestrike]

I'm a huge fan of 3d6 in order for my DCC games, but I am not sure that would work in a 5E game, as stats are a lot more critical to character success in the long run

I've done it with a caveat of 'You may replace 1 score of your choice with a 13, and treat any score of less than 6 as a 6'.

Another option is roll stats on 2d6+4