D&D 5E Free 60+ page Guide to Sword & Sorcery for 5E D&D

[CapnZapp]

Actually when I think about it - it would not be inappropriate to let S&S heroes purchase Inspiration (or similar) points with gold (between adventures)!

 

[CapnZapp]

One solution to the "rolling on between-story tables is great except when you don't like the result" problem is to add a mechanism where you can spend gold to influence the result (by rerolling or simply modifying the outcome).

Anything that makes players actively want their characters to risk life and limb for cash - despite the genre trope pre venting you from hoarding it - is a good thing!

One thing I would absolutely allow is for players to purchase the power to turn the downtime result into the next adventure.

For instance, Korgoth successfully finishes the latest scenario. Now he rolls 16 on whatever between-stories table you use and gets the result

"You hook up with what you believe is a local girl that turns out to be the princess slumming it anonymously. You were caught in flagrante by her father the King and had to leave everything and escape the city. You have just reached the next city over, without knowing the princess is searching for the father of her unborn child..."​

Korgoth spends X gold to say "Actually that sounds great and I want that story to be the next adventure". The GM goes "okay, you meet up at the Hornless Unicorn as usual when you spot a beautiful girl..." (It goes without saying the ending is now not predetermined).

If more than one player gets a result they want to experience interactively (perhaps in order to get a different outcome) the GM simply has them outbid each other

 

[xoth.publishing]

Actually when I think about it - it would not be inappropriate to let S&S heroes purchase Inspiration (or similar) points with gold (between adventures)!

Note that depending on culture, you can already do this using the rules from the Player's Guide. Examples include (GMs can of course elaborate as they see fit):

• Civilizeds get inspiration for spending money to impress peers or superiors
• Enlighteneds get inspiration for spending money on (futile) esoteric research, or maybe buying ancient figurines and pottery shards, etc.
• Decadents get inspiration for spending money on drugs, alchohol, slaves, etc
• Degenerates get inspiration for destroying treasure that comes from that hated high civilization that drove them away

That leaves Savages and Nomads. You could simply say that money means little to these (and the concept of "personal property" is strange to a nomad), so give inspiration to players who simply refuse to take their part of the treasure in the first place. (It will probably be picked up by other party members, though, but you can simply raise the cost of inspiration for them if they always get a bigger share.)

 

[ART!]

"Scene Transitions"
This is another "two birds with one stone" thing:
1) My ideal sword-and-sorcery campaign would consist of self-contained adventures all over the world, without my having to necessarily do all the travel and other "filler" in between. You know, like Conan
2) There's the problem (in all RPGs) of what to do with your loot.

My idea here is a kind of down-time minigame where you roll on tables and a narrative unfolds of what happens in between your adventures. How do you lose all that gold? What happened to your weapon? What allies/enemies did you make? How did you go from carousing in a seaport to becoming a pirate captain 1,000 miles away?

I think it would be a blast for the dice to basically generate those scene transitions we read in the Howard stories, so that I can start off the next adventure in the right place, probably once again penniless. The more gold you ended the last session with, the more starting benefits you are likely to have in this one, perhaps in the form of a quality weapon or particularly good horse, or maybe some specific story "cards" that you get to play once. E.g., "Ally in an unexpected place" or whatever.

I like this a lot. Like, A LOT a lot!

 

[Bill Zebub]

One solution to the "rolling on between-story tables is great except when you don't like the result" problem is to add a mechanism where you can spend gold to influence the result (by rerolling or simply modifying the outcome).

Anything that makes players actively want their characters to risk life and limb for cash - despite the genre trope pre venting you from hoarding it - is a good thing!

Yes this is exactly what I'm imagining. Although more "bid" than "spend"...I would want there to be some risk involved.

Maybe even structure it as if it were some kind of gambling game you'd be playing in a tavern.

 

[CapnZapp]

Just keep in mind it's easy to get carried away and end up designing entire mini-games in of themselves. When I play rpgs I want the focus on the rpg.

Cheers

 

[Bill Zebub]

Just keep in mind it's easy to get carried away and end up designing entire mini-games in of themselves. When I play rpgs I want the focus on the rpg.

Cheers

Yeah, and that's totally fair.

I don't have as much time to play RPGs as I used to, and I actually don't want to spend whole sessions negotiating for passage on a ship or having a keep built. I want to get straight to the action.

I'm imagining this subsystem not as a requirement, but something totally optional for people who want to encapsulate their adventures more.

 

[Bill Zebub]

On the weapon damage thing, I've got a few permutations of the following, but I think this version is the simplest and cleanest:

Weapons have a quality rating from 1-6. (6 is basically unheard of. Think Excalibur or Mjolnir.). When you suffer a crit you can block with your weapon, rendering it a normal hit. Then roll a d6: if you roll under your weapon's rating, it's unaffected. Otherwise it goes down one grade. At zero it breaks.

A quality of 3 or 4 might be the highest achievable by mortal smiths.

 

[Fafnir_]

Note that depending on culture, you can already do this using the rules from the Player's Guide. Examples include (GMs can of course elaborate as they see fit):

• Civilizeds get inspiration for spending money to impress peers or superiors
• Enlighteneds get inspiration for spending money on (futile) esoteric research, or maybe buying ancient figurines and pottery shards, etc.
• Decadents get inspiration for spending money on drugs, alchohol, slaves, etc
• Degenerates get inspiration for destroying treasure that comes from that hated high civilization that drove them away

That leaves Savages and Nomads. You could simply say that money means little to these (and the concept of "personal property" is strange to a nomad), so give inspiration to players who simply refuse to take their part of the treasure in the first place. (It will probably be picked up by other party members, though, but you can simply raise the cost of inspiration for them if they always get a bigger share.)

Alternatively, Savages and Degenerates could get inspiration for squandering treasure in heedless debauchery.

About Nomads, I'm reading Wolf of the Steppes by Harold Lamb, and I think it offers good roleplaying cues. Khlit and his Tatar friend/foes are not indifferent to treasure. Quite the opposite; they are avaricious hoarders. Khlit is proud of the treasure trove he amassed and boasts about it. He is described to be "thirsting for gold". The hidden treasure trove of Genghis Khan is also an important element of the stories. Thus, in my Xoth campaign, I'll award Nomad characters for hoarding treasure in a safe location.

 

[xoth.publishing]

Alternatively, Savages and Degenerates could get inspiration for squandering treasure in heedless debauchery.

About Nomads, I'm reading Wolf of the Steppes by Harold Lamb, and I think it offers good roleplaying cues. Khlit and his Tatar friend/foes are not indifferent to treasure. Quite the opposite; they are avaricious hoarders. Khlit is proud of the treasure trove he amassed and boasts about it. He is described to be "thirsting for gold". The hidden treasure trove of Genghis Khan is also an important element of the stories. Thus, in my Xoth campaign, I'll award Nomad characters for hoarding treasure in a safe location.

Good points. I have a bunch of Harold Lamb books and I've read several of the Cossak/Mongol stories. While they are what I would call "swords & just a touch of sorcery", they are excellent inspiration for adventures in Xoth or any other classic S&S setting.