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House ruling toward simplicity
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<blockquote data-quote="Rod Staffwand" data-source="post: 7624374" data-attributes="member: 6776279"><p>For my current campaign:</p><p></p><p>1. Initiative. The DM chooses which side goes first, generally based on context but occasionally with a roll. Each side goes in an order of their choosing from round to round. Anything else takes too much time for practically no benefit.</p><p></p><p>2. Race Options. These are greatly simplified. Subraces are removed with a single subrace rolled back into the "main" race's stats. The game is based off of the 5B rules, so I'm not removing too many options.</p><p></p><p>3. Class Options. These are greatly reduced and simplified. I rewrote every short rest ability into a long rest ability. It's much easier to do with Basic's four classes than the full 5E complement, which is one of the many reasons I'm not running the full 5E.</p><p></p><p>4. Languages. Everyone pretty much speaks common. I've been playing D&D since 1984 and language fluency has probably come up less than five times.</p><p></p><p>5. Alignment. Good, Evil, Neutral. Nothing else is needed--certainly not the wackadoo nine-point alignment which is simultaneously overly complicated and utterly insufficient. You can easily remove alignment altogether, but my campaign has a strong good vs. evil component so I included it.</p><p></p><p>6. Backgrounds. Be anything you want. Pick 2 trained skills.</p><p></p><p>7. Equipment. Adventuring equipment, rope, light sources, et. al. This is mostly ignored. None of this will solve an adventuring challenge. If it's needed, the PCs can have it. If they need to use it, it will also likely involve a skill check or some creativity on the part of the players. Managing equipment lists and encumbrance is not worth the trouble unless that's a specific focus of the campaign (such as a grimy dungeon-delve type of thing). Ammunition is likewise not tracked. Also--tool proficiencies are removed and their tasks rolled back into other skills (such as sleight of hand for lockpicking).</p><p></p><p>8. Encumbrance. Most PCs get PB x 4 item slots to carry weapons, armor, shields, consumable items, magic items, etc. Clothes and jewelry are "free". Everything else takes a slot, no matter the size.</p><p></p><p>9. Resting. A long rest is taken in "town" or another place of safety. You restore up to full, even HD. Camping in a wilderness or dungeon is an overnight rest which restores full hp and half HD, removes fatigue. It allows changing spell selections, but does not restore slots. A short rest takes only a few minutes and is primarily used for HD healing (first aid), since I removed short rest abilities.</p><p></p><p>10. Spells. Greatly simplified. All spells require V and S components. M components are only required if they have a gp cost. I also removed a ton of spells which I consider problematic, boring or cumbersome. Monster summoning spells, for example, are always more trouble than they're worth.</p><p></p><p>11. Skill Check DCs. The default DC for a skill check (or save) is 10 + the level of the adventure. The level of the adventure is roughly based on the "adventuring day" limit of a party of 4 of the same level.</p><p></p><p>12. Experience Points. Completely reworked and simplified. PCs gain xp from completely quests and performing other feats as described in the adventure. For example, if the PCs hear about a griffon terrorizing the countryside in the midst of adventuring, I might tell them that slaying the griffon will net them x number of xp. They can choose to take on the griffon, or not, based on their interests and party condition. There is no default xp for slaying most monsters.</p><p></p><p>Overall, I've been pretty happy with these changes and the players seem to agree. The games have been very fast-paced as a result and we haven't missed the added complexity at all.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rod Staffwand, post: 7624374, member: 6776279"] For my current campaign: 1. Initiative. The DM chooses which side goes first, generally based on context but occasionally with a roll. Each side goes in an order of their choosing from round to round. Anything else takes too much time for practically no benefit. 2. Race Options. These are greatly simplified. Subraces are removed with a single subrace rolled back into the "main" race's stats. The game is based off of the 5B rules, so I'm not removing too many options. 3. Class Options. These are greatly reduced and simplified. I rewrote every short rest ability into a long rest ability. It's much easier to do with Basic's four classes than the full 5E complement, which is one of the many reasons I'm not running the full 5E. 4. Languages. Everyone pretty much speaks common. I've been playing D&D since 1984 and language fluency has probably come up less than five times. 5. Alignment. Good, Evil, Neutral. Nothing else is needed--certainly not the wackadoo nine-point alignment which is simultaneously overly complicated and utterly insufficient. You can easily remove alignment altogether, but my campaign has a strong good vs. evil component so I included it. 6. Backgrounds. Be anything you want. Pick 2 trained skills. 7. Equipment. Adventuring equipment, rope, light sources, et. al. This is mostly ignored. None of this will solve an adventuring challenge. If it's needed, the PCs can have it. If they need to use it, it will also likely involve a skill check or some creativity on the part of the players. Managing equipment lists and encumbrance is not worth the trouble unless that's a specific focus of the campaign (such as a grimy dungeon-delve type of thing). Ammunition is likewise not tracked. Also--tool proficiencies are removed and their tasks rolled back into other skills (such as sleight of hand for lockpicking). 8. Encumbrance. Most PCs get PB x 4 item slots to carry weapons, armor, shields, consumable items, magic items, etc. Clothes and jewelry are "free". Everything else takes a slot, no matter the size. 9. Resting. A long rest is taken in "town" or another place of safety. You restore up to full, even HD. Camping in a wilderness or dungeon is an overnight rest which restores full hp and half HD, removes fatigue. It allows changing spell selections, but does not restore slots. A short rest takes only a few minutes and is primarily used for HD healing (first aid), since I removed short rest abilities. 10. Spells. Greatly simplified. All spells require V and S components. M components are only required if they have a gp cost. I also removed a ton of spells which I consider problematic, boring or cumbersome. Monster summoning spells, for example, are always more trouble than they're worth. 11. Skill Check DCs. The default DC for a skill check (or save) is 10 + the level of the adventure. The level of the adventure is roughly based on the "adventuring day" limit of a party of 4 of the same level. 12. Experience Points. Completely reworked and simplified. PCs gain xp from completely quests and performing other feats as described in the adventure. For example, if the PCs hear about a griffon terrorizing the countryside in the midst of adventuring, I might tell them that slaying the griffon will net them x number of xp. They can choose to take on the griffon, or not, based on their interests and party condition. There is no default xp for slaying most monsters. Overall, I've been pretty happy with these changes and the players seem to agree. The games have been very fast-paced as a result and we haven't missed the added complexity at all. [/QUOTE]
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