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One level of fighter early (either start at fighter, or dip at 2nd level, depends on what saves and proficiencies you prefer), lets you choose the unarmed fighting style, and your unarmed strikes are now d8's.

I'm going to suggest homebrew, but feel free to use any of the others. That's the beauty of homebrew, you can pull in any other sources you want. Great DMs steal relentlessly and you can bring in whatever elements you want to re-flavor any of the others. Going into any of the others, players...

I've also been wanting to use ley lines since Rifts, and I'm finally getting around to starting a new game where I'm going to work them in. I've been pushed by a series of articles that Nick Landry at Kobold Press put out last year about ley lines, and should probably revisit them...

One idea I have for Eska, but haven't really worked out the details of yet is Ley Lines. I love the idea of ley lines being sources of power that can be tapped into. Like if your spellcaster is on a ley line, you can upcast your spells At Higher Level one extra level for free. Ley Line Nexus...

In my homebrew World of Eska, all dragons can have kobold minions. In one adventure I ran, the party was actually helping a group of kobolds rescue their young brass dragon master from a radioactive meteor. https://jonbupp.wordpress.com/2016/12/14/bowl-of-stars-play-report-and-review/

I'm also adding in lore and artifacts from Magic: The Gathering. Ancient Vril items (magic items), run on powerstones. I'm starting up a new campaign right now, starting at 3rd level, and at 5th level I'm going to introduce a version of infernal war machines from Descent into Avernus, except...

My homebrew World of Eska starts as a Mad Max/Thundarr, but I have a bunch of Star Wars influence in it. Rock gnomes ride around in their crawlers selling off warforged. The drow I've reskinned as Dathomirian Nightsisters. It also features an ancient aliens level of unkown gods called the Vril...

Like you, I had never run it until a few years ago. Awesome adventure. I wrote about it on my blog, did it in three "sessions". The house, back at town, then the ship. https://jonbupp.wordpress.com/?s=sinister 2&3 are meh. A bit of a letdown after a strong start. My party did go diplomatic...

I was a player in three different groups while in junior high. (1E) DMed two groups while in high school. (1E) Dmed three different groups while in the Army (2E) After the Army, thru 3E and 4E, I didn't play, but bought and read the new editions. Started back with 5E, have DMed 3 different...

Will do! I've run the 1E versions in 5E already, but doing Ghosts with a new group. Mostly just setting it in Saltmarsh, IDK how much of the original storyline I'm going to stick to this time.

I have my own homebrew world that I've written up on my blog. Also includes some play reports. Eska I've tried wikis and the such in the past, but no one was interested, so I've reverted to blogging about it, where I occasionally write other stuff. I'm going to give your Saltmarsh stuff a read...

I've used the stats for a hill giant to represent a swarm of orcs for a higher level party.

I've played and run games with multiple characters per player. 2 characters per player is the norm at my table, though I usually only have 2-3 players. One character seems to be the "main" and the other ends up being a glorified stat block. I was ran a one on one game where the player played...

Using the Escalation Die from 13th Age really speeds things up. Right about when fights would start getting bogged down, those bonuses to hit kick in. As others have said, roll attack and damage dice together. It's minor, but saves a lot of time. As we move thru the initiative order, I make...

I've found with converting things to 5e, that it's best to be consistent, so I usually just copy and paste the 5e versions of abilities if they already appear. I don't know why I did that advantage vs. illusions and invisibility. I wrote this up years ago and recently found it. I've changed it...

I prefer milestone leveling. As a player, I like getting XP for the session. Watching the points tick up. Planning out my next feat taken. Looking forward to the new abilities. So as a DM, I award XP at a rate that will allow them to level up at milestones.

I was digging thru my Google Drive recently, and came upon a 5e conversion of the octopin. I had done this write up in preparation of running Hall of Harsh Reflections, as part of the Age of Worms adventure path. HoHR is found in Dungeon Magazine #127. I only ran half of the adventure before...

There is an old RPG.net thread that speaks to this. https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/2e-planescape-nonsense-corellon-larethian-must-be-stopped.695515/ I've used this in my homebrew world of Eska. I've actually tinkered with the drow a lot on Eska, the main mega-war that led to the...

Check out these pieces on the subject. http://hillcantons.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-howling-emptiness-of-world-of.html http://hillcantons.blogspot.com/2012/09/postscript-on-greyhawks-howling.html The main crux is in the comments.

Because while the DM may have played those older editions, many newer players have not. It's easier to get players to play 5e with some house rules than it is to get them to play a different edition.