D&D 5E Nations and Cannons: The American Crisis for DND 5E

[Sparky McDibben]

The other thing that intrigues me is just how many different options you have for this kind of game.

1. French & Indian War - wilderness point/hex crawl with some intense man vs wild themes, regardless of what sides you play as.

2. Pontiac's Rebellion - similar, but with some interesting historical outcomes PC's could affect.

3. American Revolution - Anything from a socially-themed spy game to a full-bore Washington's Commandos tactical espionage simulator.

4. Post-War Intrigue - The Revolution's happened, win or lose, and now power structures are shifting. Who takes power, and who can keep it? This might be blackmailing plantation owners at the Constitutional Convention into giving up slavery, or (if the Brits won the Revolution) suborning Crown agents to set up an unparalleled criminal conspiracy!

5. Underground Railroad - Help smuggle slaves to freedom, arm John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, and duel Southern politicians on the streets of DC!

6. Civil War - Duke it out at Fort Sumter, reenact the Great Locomotive Chase, and launch daring raids to determine Lee's next objective!

Not to mention that if the native folks win Pontiac's Rebellion and block the westward expansion of the North but not the South, that's going to massively influence later play. Or if the Brits win the Revolution, maybe the Civil War gets moved up quite a bit as the British abolition of slavery triggers an earlier secession crisis!

Y'all...this is gonna be SO fun!

 

[Flagbearer Games]

Yep! I liked a lot of the gambits that felt like something that would happen in a tactical engagement - the one where you can shoot a grenade out of someone's hand as a reaction was amazing! Some of the more social ones, though, felt a little like they undercut player planning. There's no need to set up a spy network, after all, if you've got access to intelligence network (level 3 firebrand gambit). But then I feel all kinds of wishy-washy because firebrands don't get those until level 9, literally one level before you're supposed to retire the character. I kind of feel like that should be a sub/class feature - spend an hour in a settlement and learn the following (and then include that dope table they have for the ability!) Interested to hear y'all's thoughts.

This is a great point. The level 10 retirement rule is meant as a kind of historical guardrail past Tier 2; after this point, HP and damage values for threats start to balloon past a credible approximation of real-world combat. You certainly can keep playing past level 11 (especially in a flintlock fantasy scenario), just with that caveat in mind.

It's a tricky balancing point because gambits use the same spell level system and scaling as baseline 5e. While we put forward 1st-level gambits through 5th-level gambits (i.e. stuff a Ranger could cast at 2nd and 17th level, respectively), you wouldn't normally be able to cast high-level gambits while playing in the Tier 1 or Tier 2 brackets.

However, we do have a few systems in place that allow characters to "upcast" gambits that they don't even have slots for. Firebrands get a resource called Resolve that they can spend to gain access to a curated gambit list (based on their vocation) at the same effective level as a full caster like a Wizard might. The Trailblazer subclass for Ranger can "find" trap-based gambits in the terrain around them with the Choke Point feature, a mechanic we plan to expand on in future publications.

If you're taking feedback, I'd love more robust travel / exploration rules specifically for 18th century wilderness expeditions. I really want "there's a flash flood - you can save the mules or the powder, but not both" to be on the encounter table! I know this is the most-iterated aspect of 5E, but given how important the frontier is to colonial and native mindsets, I love for it to be included. I did buy the "Poor Richard's Almanack" weather supplement, so hopefully some of that's included in there!

Yes! This is going to be one of the major components of the Almanack, alongside weather rules and some fun colonial witticisms for fluff. There's an appendix at the end of the Core Rules which has some foul weather rules for Fall/Winter, and we are going to expand that to a full system with weather forecasts, natural disasters, and even tropical weather variants for the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.

I'd also love to see some support for a running battle where two groups are moving through an area with a constant engagement. Zooming out to mix exploration consequences with combat consequences would be really fun! So something like, "OK, you know the Huron and the French are engaging the rearguard, and won't stop pursuing you to the fort. You can try a forced march with the risk of a save vs exhaustion. You could also try scouting around to see if you can find anything beneficial in the nearby area, but that risks the Huron cutting you off. You could also try counterattacking into French pursuit, but that risks being bogged down in a tough fight. Or you could pull something outside of the box. What do you want to do?"

This is something I think we can leverage the new Exhaustion rules in One D&D (one of the few bright spots of the playtest so far, imho) in future content. I'm not quite confident that WotC can bring a competent rework of the Exploration pillar to the table... but we're ready to pick up the slack.

It's one of those great mechanical nooks and crannies where a 5e fork like Nations & Cannons can (hopefully!) outshine the base ruleset; we have a vested interest in unearthing some highly specific gameplay elements that play to our strengths. Similar mechanics that we have in R&D include a first contact / social standing / negotiation system, persistent illnesses and injuries, and an exploration of colonial law and magistrate courts.

 

[Andras]

In the cannon section, Fused Shot says it has a 25ft radius in bold, but in the text it later says 30ft radius. Which is it?

 

[Flagbearer Games]

In the cannon section, Fused Shot says it has a 25ft radius in bold, but in the text it later says 30ft radius. Which is it?

Oof. Good catch, that should definitely be 30.

 

[Sparky McDibben]

Yes! This is going to be one of the major components of the Almanack, alongside weather rules and some fun colonial witticisms for fluff. There's an appendix at the end of the Core Rules which has some foul weather rules for Fall/Winter, and we are going to expand that to a full system with weather forecasts, natural disasters, and even tropical weather variants for the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.

This is something I think we can leverage the new Exhaustion rules in One D&D (one of the few bright spots of the playtest so far, imho) in future content. I'm not quite confident that WotC can bring a competent rework of the Exploration pillar to the table... but we're ready to pick up the slack.

It's one of those great mechanical nooks and crannies where a 5e fork like Nations & Cannons can (hopefully!) outshine the base ruleset; we have a vested interest in some unearthing highly specific gameplay elements that play to our strengths. Similar mechanics that we have in R&D include a first contact / social standing / negotiation system, persistent illnesses and injuries, and an exploration of colonial law and magistrate courts.

OMFG sold! Is there a blog where I can follow development? Any social media I should watch for news? Y'all have a Patreon?

 

[Flagbearer Games]

OMFG sold! Is there a blog where I can follow development? Any social media I should watch for news? Y'all have a Patreon?

Let me drop some things! Here is our website and discord where you can access the free Quickstart and other play aids:

Website: NationsAndCannons.com
Discord: discord.gg/CjNVyGJ

I try to post free content every 1-2 weeks on these socials:

Reddit: /r/NationsAndCannons
Instagram: NationsAndCannons
Facebook: NationsAndCannons

Links to paid stuff:

Kickstarter: www.YourDadWillLoveThis.com
Patreon: FlagbearerGames

 

[Weiley31]

1. French & Indian War - wilderness point/hex crawl with some intense man vs wild themes, regardless of what sides you play as.

 

[Weiley31]

I'm actually amazed the Quickstart is as beefy as it is. Pretty much giving anybody all the Player's side of mechanics with the new class, the gambits, origins, and all that. Along with the PDF of the Nations and Cannons being so cheap along with the Flintlocks and Fulminates* companion PDF being such an absolute steal as well pricewise.

Despite that, I still plan on purchasing the actual hardcover of Nations and Cannons. The Revolutionary Wars was one of the parts in History class I got into a lot as a kid growing up and I used to know a crap ton of facts about it. (Sadly, my knowledge of it isn't so hot as it was. But I enjoyed the movie 1776, remember the Boston Tea Party picture on the og Snapple Tea glass bottles, and Assassins Creed: Rogue is one of my two fave games in the whole series. (Of course, Black Flag would be the other. But since AC: Rogue takes place in the war that was DIRECTLY BEHIND the Revolutionary War, it still feels close enough to be fitting).

So, a number of parts about this whole project speaks out to me because of that.

 

[Sparky McDibben]

Let me drop some things! Here is our website and discord where you can access the free Quickstart and other play aids:

Website: NationsAndCannons.com
Discord: discord.gg/CjNVyGJ

I try to post free content every 1-2 weeks on these socials:

Reddit: /r/NationsAndCannons
Instagram: NationsAndCannons
Facebook: NationsAndCannons

Links to paid stuff:

Kickstarter: www.YourDadWillLoveThis.com
Patreon: FlagbearerGames

Thanks! Joined the subreddit, and I plan to join the Patreon once the month rolls by. See! Outreach is hard, but worthwhile!

 

[Flagbearer Games]

Thanks! Joined the subreddit, and I plan to join the Patreon once the month rolls by. See! Outreach is hard, but worthwhile!

Haha. You guys have been great Do people post homebrew / prototype content in these forums? I might start to do that if there's interest—just tryna be respectful of the culture here since I haven't used EN World that much before!