D&D 5E (2024) How do you run an open table game in D&D '24?

[kermit4karate]

Setting expectations aren't house rules in my mind.

Treating other players with kindness is an expectation.

Not tracking ammunition is a house rule.

One of those is absolutely necessary to open table play in the modern world. The other is a house rule that increases the friction for a first time player.

House rules can also very easily reduce friction. There's a big difference between 2 simple house rules (say, eliminating initiative, max HP per level, or simplified spell components) and a multi-page list of house rules.

 

[bedir than]

reduce and remove most of the house rules

There's a big difference between 2 simple house rules (say, eliminating initiative, max HP per level, or simplified spell components) and a multi-page list of house rules.

Great, we agree!
I never called for elimination. Presenting my words as elimination created "complete disagreement."

 

[kermit4karate]

Great, we agree!
I never called for elimination. Presenting my words as elimination created "complete disagreement."

I apologize. I went back and read that first comment, and I did exactly what you said, which is a massive pet peeve of mine! -- straw man fallacy. You did say reduce, not eliminate. My bad.

 

[sevenbastard]

) Each session MUST start and end in a safe place (e.g., a town) to receive treasure and XP (in the old days, this was more important due to 1gp = 1xp, of course)

I like this rule, but because 5e combat is so drawn out exploring takes a lot more real world time and you going to get a lot of 15 minute adventuring days.

Also because players know they have to go back to town at the end of each session they are going to burn thier "once per long rest" powers and spell slots.

 

[Distracted DM]

I'm considering starting an open-table D&D campaign at my LGS since several people have come in the past couple of weeks asking about regular D&D games at the shop (there aren't really any) or wanting to learn to play; usually I'd be trying to push "OSR" style games or older editions (my personal preference) but people want to play D&D, not a game that's "just like D&D but...". I would plan to use the old "TSR Hobby Shop Dungeon" approach that I read about in Ernie Gygax's (rest in peace) Marmoreal Tomb, which is close to but not quite what the kids nowadays call "West Marches", the main points of which are:

1) Sessions are scheduled (ostensibly each week), with one single DM and not necessarily with multiple groups (unlike West Marches). Whoever shows up plays; if necessary, a player must create a new character (or promote one, but I don't think D&D'24 has henchmen anymore) to ensure a cohesive party.

2) Each session MUST start and end in a safe place (e.g., a town) to receive treasure and XP (in the old days, this was more important due to 1gp = 1xp, of course)

3) If party levels are too far apart, they need to be balanced (by people having to use/create other characters from their stable)

The first two points can be done easily enough in D&D '24. The third point is the one that seems to be the outlier because everyone I've talked to is 100% adamant that you can NEVER have varying levels within the same party; everyone needs to be equal level at all times to make things "fair", and the idea of saying "Bob your PC is 8th level, you can't play him in a group of 1st levels you need to create an alt character" is openly hostile, which defeats the whole point of people being able to play as they are able, since why commit to play every week if you know that if you miss a month, your character will just get bumped up to everyone else's level when you come back? In older editions (e.g., 1st and 2nd edition), there wouldn't be an issue since A) each class leveled at different XP rates, and B) it was assumed because of A that you could have a 2-3 level gap between PCs and it would be perfectly fine.

I can't figure out how to handle that part and keep the open table—whoever shows up gets to play self-contained adventures in an open-world style game with the current edition—since it's so focused on the "consistent party" gameplay style (which, to be fair, would also have been an issue since the 3rd edition) where everyone is always the same level. I've heard about Adventurer's League, but it seems like WotC has abandoned it except for conventions, as there doesn't seem to be any info on it for D&D 2024.

Is there any way to get around this issue? The hypothetical level gap, if some people can play every session and some can play only once a month or two, is the only thing preventing me from wanting to do this right now, because it seems like D&D'24 cannot support that. Still, it's bound to happen if you go with the idea that if this week, 5 people show up, and next week, 3 people show up, PCs shouldn't receive XP for games they haven't played.

You can absolutely have varying levels in a party in 5e- it actually works kind of better thanks to the flat math. I've done it with West Marches, lots of others have, not to mention the fact that Adventurers League has characters of differing levels.
The table just needs to know that stuff might get particularly perilous, or maybe not every encounter can be beaten- so maybe throw in some Flee!-retreat rules (I like 13th Age's).

Other note on point 2, the party doesnt necessarily have to end in a safe place during play, they can do it off-camera- everyone just accepts the conceit that at the end of the session, even if they're neck-deep in a massive gelatinous cube and couldn't possibly get out... they do, and they go back to town. Got shot into space? At the end of the session, they find their way back to town off camera. It's just required by the structure of the game. And having the party need to make their own escape is (IMO) a waste of time. I'm sure you could make it fun or interesting, but I would roll random encounters for them on the way to "the dungeon," so to add some on them leaving would mean very little time spent in the actual dungeon.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Given that you cannot expect everyone to come back every week, even the diehards, since life happens, I would actually focus on small, bite-sized adventures, rather than a megadungeon or hex exploration, each of which can end up with player characters stranded in the middle of nowhere or, worse yet, halfway through an encounter they will never get to finish with the same group of players.

The Five Room Dungeon model is your friend. (It doesn't have to be a dungeon, it doesn't have to be rooms.) The model has the benefit of being geared around player (not character) types, so that the person who wants combat should see some, the person who wants to solve a puzzle will get a chance to, the person who wants to roleplay while you do a funny voiced NPC can, etc.

I've found, generally speaking, a five room dungeon created with this model (as opposed to five rooms in a megadungeon or something) takes about two to three hours to complete, which feels like a pretty good average for a store game. If you find this fun and aren't exhausted by it, you could even schedule one session in the morning and a second after lunch, so that the hardcore folks can get the effective experience of playing all day, but the people who just want to drop in for a casual game can do that.

I would also suggest you start off with Heroes of the Borderlands as a warm-up, which will help familiarize you with the 5E rules and, frankly, which will also likely help you sell more than a few boxes as well.

 

[kermit4karate]

Given that you cannot expect everyone to come back every week, even the diehards, since life happens, I would actually focus on small, bite-sized adventures, rather than a megadungeon or hex exploration, each of which can end up with player characters stranded in the middle of nowhere or, worse yet, halfway through an encounter they will never get to finish with the same group of players.

The Five Room Dungeon model is your friend. (It doesn't have to be a dungeon, it doesn't have to be rooms.) The model has the benefit of being geared around player (not character) types, so that the person who wants combat should see some, the person who wants to solve a puzzle will get a chance to, the person who wants to roleplay while you do a funny voiced NPC can, etc.

I've found, generally speaking, a five room dungeon created with this model (as opposed to five rooms in a megadungeon or something) takes about two to three hours to complete, which feels like a pretty good average for a store game. If you find this fun and aren't exhausted by it, you could even schedule one session in the morning and a second after lunch, so that the hardcore folks can get the effective experience of playing all day, but the people who just want to drop in for a casual game can do that.

I would also suggest you start off with Heroes of the Borderlands as a warm-up, which will help familiarize you with the 5E rules and, frankly, which will also likely help you sell more than a few boxes as well.

These are fantastic recs! I'd like to upvote them all!

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I've played regularly in a couple open table 5e campaigns at a game shop, and run a few sort of open table sessions at a summer camp (the kids who made characters with me were the ones told when it was happening, but of course if a kiddo sees us playing and wants to participate they get to participate). The ones I was involved with just ran on the principles of keeping things pretty loose and casual. Sessions tended to be planned to be centered on one big "monster of the week fight" but if they ended up being something completely different through character choices whatever. Sometimes one or two people show and you do very player driven stuff. Sometimes 12 people show and basically the DM has to tell them what they are doing and it's just the big fights. Groups tend to split off to do their own separate games if the sessions consistently become too big. New characters showing up might get a moment and an explanation if time and story allow, or might not. Characters disappearing is handwaved with a joke.

It's not a consistently satisfying long-term experience generally speaking, but can be a lot of fun for a few sessions. And if you hit it off with some of the other folks playing you might stick it out at the open table game for a good long while. I think keeping things pretty unstructured and casual is actually better for a new player experience than having a bunch of rules to make open table play make narrative sense or whatever, because while both options give them the wrong impression of typical D&D, they are more likely to see through the facade of the prior, and more likely to leave just thinking that D&D is even more rules heavy than it is with the latter.

At this level of casual usually everyone just rolls up a character of whatever level the group is at when they join and levels up when the DM says so. Some people do end up of a different level because they want to start at level 1 (which I always encourage for brand new players), or they missed the session where level up happened and just don't have time to do it in session. Divergent levels really stop mattering once you've got 7 or 8 players in the mix. Just giving out XP would also be fine I'm sure. The "characters should be at the same level" principle is about not punishing the player who had to miss a session one week since missing it was already the punishment. At the casual drop-in table you get a lot higher "show up on days they feel like it" players to "would only miss due to another engagement" players ratio than at a typical table, so not letting absent people's characters advance is a lot less likely to feel unfair.

 

[jasper]

I recommend Adventure League. That way you can blame, Wotc, AL writers and volunteer Staff. As someone else has pointed out you will get the glass with the cannon occasionally. Or AL light. Steal most of rules from AL but don't worry if the module is AL. As see if you can get two DMs per night. Even if you are running the same thing, some people will like the other dm better.

 

[Nobleshield]

Given that you cannot expect everyone to come back every week, even the diehards, since life happens, I would actually focus on small, bite-sized adventures, rather than a megadungeon or hex exploration, each of which can end up with player characters stranded in the middle of nowhere or, worse yet, halfway through an encounter they will never get to finish with the same group of players.

The Five Room Dungeon model is your friend. (It doesn't have to be a dungeon, it doesn't have to be rooms.) The model has the benefit of being geared around player (not character) types, so that the person who wants combat should see some, the person who wants to solve a puzzle will get a chance to, the person who wants to roleplay while you do a funny voiced NPC can, etc.

I've found, generally speaking, a five room dungeon created with this model (as opposed to five rooms in a megadungeon or something) takes about two to three hours to complete, which feels like a pretty good average for a store game. If you find this fun and aren't exhausted by it, you could even schedule one session in the morning and a second after lunch, so that the hardcore folks can get the effective experience of playing all day, but the people who just want to drop in for a casual game can do that.

I would also suggest you start off with Heroes of the Borderlands as a warm-up, which will help familiarize you with the 5E rules and, frankly, which will also likely help you sell more than a few boxes as well.

That's sort of an interesting approach because the old school style specifically wanted a mega dungeon, well, just a dungeon in those days, precisely because it wasn't something you could complete.

So the gameplay loop was that A group would explore a part of the dungeon and then have to leave, And the next group could either pick up where they left off or explore a completely different part. Hence why time tracking was so important (if group a doesn't explore a room and group B explores at the next day then when group a gets around to exploring it, they're going to find the treasure has been taken already)

That's said though I'm not completely married to the idea of the mega dungeon, especially because I would have to design one...