D&D 5E Blue ONE, An attempt at a TRUE 5e Basic version

[Aldarc]

The problem is that this falls into the same trap that hundreds of designers have already fallen into.

They say they update (or condense) the original rules, but upon closer inspection they can't resist bringing their own personal tweaks into the game.

Either it's a true "basic" edition, complete with every main feature WotC decided to put in (and with no main feature WotC didn't include), never second-guessing the original authors' intent; or it is your personal vanity project that presupposed to "fix" the "errors" of the edition in question (and there sure is a lot of them).

Please don't market the latter as the former.

I feel as if there are more respectful ways to talk about Sacrosanct's work in his own thread than this.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I feel as if there are more respectful ways to talk about Sacrosanct's work in his own thread than this.

I normally can't see his posts, but I can see you quote him.

If he can read mine, rest assured his fears are not applicable with this project. It is holding as close to the design philosophy of 5e (2024 version as much as we know) as possible. The only tweaks are those made to streamline the system down while also keeping true as much as possible to the 5e intent. Any other changes are those inspired by Moldvay/Holmes, as the project tagline is basically "If Holmes or Moldvay were tasked with creating a true basic version of 5e, what would it look like?" It's not my personal pet project that I'm overriding the game with my own changes. In fact, many of the changes are things others have overwhelmingly suggested, with my own preferences hitting the cutting room floor.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I can't recall who mentioned it upthread, but here are the initial character sheets. I'm sure I'm missing something somewhere, but I really wanted to keep them to one page, and to make it easy for new players to know what to do.

And an example:

 

[DND_Reborn]

@Sacrosanct

It looks like things are coming a long very nicely!

I would have liked the 4 core classes, but this works without cleric anyway. I was working on a similar concept based on the sidekick classes, so a warrior, expert, and magus. Your work has inspired me to get back to that project, but there are so many things also in the works. Sigh...

 

[Riley]

This looks very nice! Thanks.

I also feel that a cleric would be a good inclusion in a book that aspires to be a basic version of 5e.

It seems an essential D&Dism.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Now that it looks like I'm actually doing this for real, I need a name. There's already "BlueHolme", and "One" is just the D&D insider placeholder name (like Next).

But alas, I have no ideas....

 

[Sacrosanct]

Based on some of the feedback about clerics, I think I found a solution. I still think that if you're distilling the classes into the most basic of buckets (martial, skill, and magic), all spell casters fall into one class. After all, it really doesn't matter if you get your magic by manipulating arcane forces, divine influence, or mail-in Columbia House subscription (9 spells for $1!). But there is a class choice you can make to differentiate between more traditional cleric, warlock, or wizard. So I made some adjustments and shifted things around a bit:

 

[DND_Reborn]

Now that it looks like I'm actually doing this for real, I need a name. There's already "BlueHolme", and "One" is just the D&D insider placeholder name (like Next).

But alas, I have no ideas....

Simply D&D or Simple D&D?

 

[Sacrosanct]

Simply D&D or Simple D&D?

Simply D&D has a nice ring to it, but the term "D&D" is verboten according to the OGL.

 

[Aldarc]

Now that it looks like I'm actually doing this for real, I need a name. There's already "BlueHolme", and "One" is just the D&D insider placeholder name (like Next).

But alas, I have no ideas....

• The Blue Tome of Holmes
• Simply Dragons
• Simply 5e/Fantasy Heroes