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ad_hoc

(she/her)
Here is probably more information than you might need on the topic, but "honor" mechanics have inspired a lot of debate in some spaces in recent years especially when they are meant to be a mechanic paired with Asian cultures which seemed the intention in the 2014 DMG and in D&D historically.

Asians Read...AD&D Oriental Adventures (Part 6): Honour, Arms, & Armour

Thanks for that. I tried starting at Part 1 but it's tough because they don't know the AD&D rules so they don't know when something was already just a base part of the rules. For example, they think bonus experience for high stats and 18 percentile strength is a specific thing for the book.

I'll try to check out this specific part later.
 

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M_Natas

Hero
Right, but how many DMs want variant rest rules, slow natural healing and full encumbrance? Ask 100 DMs what variant rules they'd like in the DMG, and you'll probably get 100 different answers. There are thousands of knobs that could be turned by any DM, depending on what they and their table find interesting.

To me, rather than presenting 10 or 50 pages of possible variants, I think giving them a couple of strong guidelines to help them navigate how to make changes to suit their own needs is more important. Give them explicit permission to make the game theirs, and point them to Indie publishers, liveplays and forums like Enworld for inspiration and advice. That, I think, will be far more valuable in the long run for any new DM.

For example, Dungeons of Drakkenheim has a great way to combat the 5 minute work day in their setting and Critical Role has a system to make resurrection both more difficult and meaningful. Sure you could publish those rules in the DMG, but again, how does that serve DMs for who those specific rules don't help them?
In an Ideal DMG you present the intent first, like "The Current rules of 5e2024 make for an Heroic playerwishfullfilment RPG, were Character Death is something that will rarley happen. If you want more Gritty Realism and Simulatism the following Variant Rules can reach that goal: Variant Rest rules, Variant Food rules, Variant... - if you want more of a Stardew Vakkey experience, here are Bastion Rules and this and that... and if you want more of cosmic horror, those are some Variant Rules to support that ..." or "your campaign feels to easy on the players, try those ..."

You know, like first think about, what those variant rules are supposed to going to achieve and really dig into the supposed modularity of 5e.
 


Chaosmancer

Legend
I think I really like that "One-Hour Guideline". Even if it isn't perfectly accurate, it is a good framework for thinking about sessions. I know we have often run under or over what was planned for a session (very often under)
 

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