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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 8435523" data-attributes="member: 6779196">I mentioned in the “What are you Prepping” thread that I am getting ready to run a modified Curse of Strahd sandbox game in about a month. One of the things I’ll be playing with in this campaign is a homebrew system dealing with background characteristics, inspiration and stress. Originally inspired (heh) by the Fear and Stress rules in Van Richten’s Guide, I wanted something that tied in more with the characters’s background traits, and that had a bit more crunch to it than the fairly simple rules in that book. Here’s what I came up with. Feel free to share your feedback, or to borrow ideas for your own campaigns.CharacteristicsRather than choosing personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws connected to your background, choose the following characteristics.Personal FearsA Personal Fear is something your character is deeply afraid of. It can be as broad or as narrow as you like, from simple fears like enclosed spaces or spiders, to more conceptual fears like inadequacy or betrayal. You start with 1-3 Personal Fears, but you can gain more as a result of gaining levels of Stress.Whenever you encounter one of your Personal Fears, you may choose to gain Inspiration. If you do, you must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, you gain a level of Stress.IdealYour character’s Ideal is something they strive for, that your character finds fulfilling and reinforces their sense of self. When you hold true to your ideal despite adversity, you can reduce your Stress level by 1 the next time you finish a long rest. If you don’t have any Stress levels, you gain Inspiration instead.BondYour Bond is a statement about a relationship your character has with someone or something important to them that motivates them to be their best. It could be a loved one they hope to do right by, a rival they are driven to exceed, a memento symbolizing their sense of duty, or the like. If the nature of the relationship represented by your bond changes or you develop a new relationship that holds deeper meaning for your character, you can replace your current bond with a new one between game sessions.When you have a meaningful interaction related to your bond, you gain Inspiration. Whenever the relationship represented by your Bond is threatened, you must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or gain a level of Stress.FlawYour character’s Flaw is an unhealthy coping mechanism. Something they turn to for easy, short-term comfort or a sense of control. When you indulge in your Flaw, you temporarily suppress the effects of Stress. Until you finish a long rest, your Stress level is reduced by 1, and you can’t gain or spend Inspiration.StressStress is a special condition that functions similarly to Exhaustion. Like Exhaustion, Stress is measured in six levels, and a creature suffers the effects of its current level of Stress as well as all lower levels.Stress Effects<table style='width: 100%'><tr><td>Level</td><td>Effect</td></tr><tr><td>1</td><td>Character suffers the Frightened condition regarding their Personal Fears</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>-5 to character’s saving throw DCs, unable to maintain concentration</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>Attack rolls against the character have advantage</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>Automatically fail Wisdom and Charisma saving throws</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>Unable to take actions or reactions other than dash, disengage, dodge, or hide</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>Unable to understand language or communicate in any meaningful way. Permanently gain a new Personal Fear.</td></tr></table>When you spend a day doing nothing but relaxing in a safe, calming environment, reduce your level of Stress by 1 the next time you finish a long rest. If you don’t have any levels of Stress, you gain Inspiration instead. The lesser restoration spell can be used to remove one level of Stress from the target, and the greater restoration spell can remove all levels of Stress from the target. The calm emotions spell suppresses all effects of Stress on affected targets for its duration.</blockquote>

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