D&D General DM Authority

[Charlaquin]

Yeah. In the alternate rules section, near where things like Healing Surges and suchlike are. I remember seeing it, now that you mention it, but I'm too lazy to walk to the next room and find it.

I know what part you’re talking about, but “the alternate rules section” could refer to a couple different parts of the book. It’s... a very strangely organized book.

 

[prabe]

I know what part you’re talking about, but “the alternate rules section” could refer to a couple different parts of the book. It’s... a very strangely organized book.

Or, maybe, the whole book. ;-)

 

[Maxperson]

Not "random dungeons or whatever", but there are rules in 5E DMG for playing with at least rotating GMs.

Sure, but that's very different than playing without a DM at all. As far as I know, there are no 5e rules for playing with no DM. That means that people who do so are NOT playing with any rules to back them up and ARE changing the rules of the game when they do.

 

[Helldritch]

Sure, but that's very different than playing without a DM at all. As far as I know, there are no 5e rules for playing with no DM. That means that people who do so are NOT playing with any rules to back them up and ARE changing the rules of the game when they do.

Or, they took the rule from the 1ed DMG with no DM and random dungeons. We still have most of the random dungeon rules. Getting the rest isn't hard at all. Maybe I should try it just to see...

 

[Maxperson]

Or, they took the rule from the 1ed DMG with no DM and random dungeons.

You can't use rules from prior editions as RAW for the current one. Otherwise you end up with LG only paladins that can be any alignment, and all have a very specific code, and yet all have separate codes, losing their powers with a violation and yet don't lose them at all. Too much changes from edition to edition.

If you've gone to a prior edition for your rule, you are house ruling, which is fine. It just still counts as DM changes to the rules, and not something that the rules allow.

 

[Helldritch]

You can't use rules from prior editions as RAW for the current one. Otherwise you end up with LG only paladins that can be any alignment, and all have a very specific code, and yet all have separate codes, losing their powers with a violation and yet don't lose them at all. Too much changes from edition to edition.

If you've gone to a prior edition for your rule, you are house ruling, which is fine. It just still counts as DM changes to the rules, and not something that the rules allow.

Up to a certain point I agree with you. But the random dungeon rules are there, but they were cut down as to no longer incorporate traps, random treasures and monsters. So a variant od the rule is there, right in the 5ed DMG. All that is needed is to get the rest of the rules from the earlier edition. At that point, it is not in so much a house rule as it is getting the full rule that has been cut down for some obscure reasons.

And who knows... a DMG2 5ed might come up some day with the full rule...

 

[Charlaquin]

Up to a certain point I agree with you. But the random dungeon rules are there, but they were cut down as to no longer incorporate traps, random treasures and monsters. So a variant od the rule is there, right in the 5ed DMG. All that is needed is to get the rest of the rules from the earlier edition. At that point, it is not in so much a house rule as it is getting the full rule that has been cut down for some obscure reasons.

And who knows... a DMG2 5ed might come up some day with the full rule...

You still have random treasure in 5e RAW. You’re really only missing random traps, and frankly, I don’t think that’s a huge loss. I am a fan of traps, but you don’t need them to have a good dungeon.

 

[Maxperson]

Up to a certain point I agree with you. But the random dungeon rules are there, but they were cut down as to no longer incorporate traps, random treasures and monsters. So a variant od the rule is there, right in the 5ed DMG.

It's not a variant of the solo game rule. It IS a variant of the 1e random dungeon generator, but 1e also had the following rule after the random dungeon generator.

"The random dungeon generation system is easily adaptable to solitary play. Locate the entrance to the dungeon, and then select one of the random dungeon starting areas given here, locating it in the middle of the graph paper."

It had a specific and separate rule for solo play. 5e is missing that rule, so while you can adapt the 5e dungeon generator for solo play easily, it's not RAW(Optional or otherwise) to do so.

All that is needed is to get the rest of the rules from the earlier edition. At that point, it is not in so much a house rule as it is getting the full rule that has been cut down for some obscure reasons.

It is a house rule, because 5e has no rule for it and you are creating it yourself modeled after rules from a different edition of the game.

And who knows... a DMG2 5ed might come up some day with the full rule...

Sure. It might. Or it might not. "Maybe it's going to come in the future." isn't enough to make it a rule now, though.

 

[Helldritch]

You still have random treasure in 5e RAW. You’re really only missing random traps, and frankly, I don’t think that’s a huge loss. I am a fan of traps, but you don’t need them to have a good dungeon.

Well, the original rule had a lot more tables for the random dungeons. You rolled as per 5ed but, included were random traps (with a table), random monsters (16 tables if I remember correctly), random room content ( empty, monster, treasure and monsters with treasure). It was not only a set of tables for random directions and rooms. You could litterally build a whole mega dungeons along with furnitures, magical fonts (which had random effects, both good and bad), sliding and shifting rooms and even portals... The 1ed random dungeon generator was a lot more complete than its 5ed counter part.

That is why I think that we could pull DMless play with the 1ed random dungeon generator but mot with the 5ed one. The only drawback would be that ECL of encounters might not always be on spot as it could be possible to have 4th level monsters (or 5th?) as possible encounters. But otherwise it should be feasible.

 

[Maxperson]

You still have random treasure in 5e RAW. You’re really only missing random traps, and frankly, I don’t think that’s a huge loss. I am a fan of traps, but you don’t need them to have a good dungeon.

Sure. But you're also missing the rule for solo play, so it's not only random traps.