D&D 5E Session-based Rules

[MNblockhead]

Do you or your DM ever use session-based rules?

By this, I may mean a variant or home rule that you only use for a specific session. In the thread Capricious Home Rules and DM Pet Peeves many of the rules posted there have to do with making the game more "realistic."

Most of the time, for my games, I don't see much of a point in deviating from the RAW to make the game more "realistic." I'm fine with the default monetary system, default healing rules, etc. I especially am not interested in enforcing rules that make me or my players into book-keepers. I'm no more interested in the details of nursing oneself back to health during rests than I am with how players relieve themselves in a dungeon delve. Even things like encumbrance are things that I may give a general reality check to, but I am not going to sweat the details too much. I'll assume that coin is exchanged for gems during downtime without making players do the book keeping, etc.

But there are some sessions where resource management, or health and rest management, can be a central to the challenge and the plot. Survival-based games, retrieving heavy items under dangerous conditions with no chance to go back, race to safety challenges, and so forth.

In such situations I may require full encumbrance accounting for that session, exhaustion mechanics may be strictly enforced, I may add the healing-kit dependency rule, etc. I would let my players know this at the start--the point isn't to pull the rug from under their feet. Also, if the change is a major departure from the norm of our play style, I would likely run it past them before the session so that if they didn't like the idea I could alter things before the session.

I understand the importance of continuity and setting consistent ground rules, but occasionally mixing things up can keep the game feeling fresh.

Please share any session-based rules you have implemented. I don't mean changing a rule mid-campaign because you and your players like it better, I mean a rule or set of rules that you put in place for one adventure, or even just one encounter/challenge--just for one session or a limited number of sessions.

These can as simple as "sometimes I use variant rule X, though not in most session" to more radical ideas like "on one session I used Jenga blocks for skill challenges instead of rolling dice."

Interested in hearing how y'all mix it up at the game table.

 

[Nagol]

Occasionally.

Sometimes planar travel or something specific to an exploration site may have an effect on the game rules. For example, one are a group of adventurers was exploring was tied more closely to the negative plane and curative magic provided only half its normal effect. Another site had odourless flammable gas pockets and exposed flame or fiery magic had unexpected effects,

Other times sections of the rules that are typically hand waved get scrutiny. For example, if the party gets shipwrecked, consumables such as rations, fresh water, and ammunition may become an issue until such time as the party reaches a friendly town to restock. Alternatively, if the party is laden and someone drops, I'll ask for a review of encumbrance and what needs to be redistributed or abandoned.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Maybe not session (I often run pretty short sessions), but scenario-based, sure. That's something that goes way back, special rules that apply just for a particular battle or monster or trap or trick or area or quest or whatever.

 

[MNblockhead]

Maybe not session (I often run pretty short sessions), but scenario-based, sure. That's something that goes way back, special rules that apply just for a particular battle or monster or trap or trick or area or quest or whatever.

Can you give an example where that worked particularly well? A special rule for one battle, quest, etc. that was a lot of fun?

 

[happyhermit]

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by session based rules. At first I thought you were referring to rules that use "session" as a measure of time such as "session based leveling" or the way other systems such as Fate have things that last or refresh on a session based schedule rather than any sort of in-game time. Those things I have really grown to dislike, at least in the context of the games I would play/run in "D&D".

If you are referring to rules that are "brought in" then "taken out" for a session, then that is something I find fun at times. Usually we use such rules to "Zoom in", or out, on certain aspects of the game. Sometimes we might use rules to strictly track resources for instance, in a game where that was handwaved previously. Other times we might bring in all of the tactical options and run some intricate battles while other time we might run things much looser.

I think the important part is to let the players know these sorts of things might happen ahead of time, as long as they trust the GM then everyone will have a good time IME. You don't have to tell the players ahead of time what particular rules will be used to resolve things, but it is good practice to let them know how important or difficult something will be. For example, if they are preparing to cross a desert and you want to make it somewhat simulationist, it is best to be clear with the players (and PC) that this will be a very difficult trip and they must cross all their T's and dot their I's if they want to succeed.

 

[Uller]

Yep. My PbP is just finishing up Chapter 3 of Out of the Abyss. We kept track of food and water as they made their way from Velkenvelve to Sloobludop. But assuming they have a decent supply of food and a good navigator, we'll probably shelve that from here on out. I had my fill of it.

I may 'turn on' ammo tracking or encumbrance or whatever if it is relevant to the problems the PCs are facing. But if it's not a problem, then I don't bother. For instance, if they are facing one encounter every few days with lots of opportunity to resupply, why bother tracking ammo (magical ammo is always tracked, of course).

 

[Sadras]

Do you or your DM ever use session-based rules?

In order to challenge the PCs, certain sessions depending on the reasonable number of encounters expected, I change the rest period to the optional rule in the DMG.
For instance in a city where encounters maybe fewer I could change a short rest from an hour to a day and a long rest from 6 hours to a week, otherwise some fights might seem too easy.

 

[MNblockhead]

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by session based rules. At first I thought you were referring to rules that use "session" as a measure of time such as "session based leveling" or the way other systems such as Fate have things that last or refresh on a session based schedule rather than any sort of in-game time. Those things I have really grown to dislike, at least in the context of the games I would play/run in "D&D".


If you are referring to rules that are "brought in" then "taken out" for a session, then that is something I find fun at times. Usually we use such rules to "Zoom in", or out, on certain aspects of the game. Sometimes we might use rules to strictly track resources for instance, in a game where that was handwaved previously. Other times we might bring in all of the tactical options and run some intricate battles while other time we might run things much looser.

I'm referring to the latter: rules that are brought in and then taken out for a session. I don't have experience with games that use "session" as a measure of time. I didn't know that was a thing.

I think the important part is to let the players know these sorts of things might happen ahead of time, as long as they trust the GM then everyone will have a good time IME. You don't have to tell the players ahead of time what particular rules will be used to resolve things, but it is good practice to let them know how important or difficult something will be. For example, if they are preparing to cross a desert and you want to make it somewhat simulationist, it is best to be clear with the players (and PC) that this will be a very difficult trip and they must cross all their T's and dot their I's if they want to succeed.

Agree. So you find these situations mostly arise in simulationist scenarios?

I'm considering introducing some wildly different mechanics for sessions taking place in other planes of existence to give them an alient, altered-reality feal. My concern is that these would be so different that you really wouldn't be playing D&D for part of that session. I'm thinking of temporarily adopting mechanics from games like Dread and Grin for some sessions.

For simulationist games, to make it feel more real and help build anxiety, I was thinking of using various physical items to represent your rations, arrows, water, etc. Even something simple like blue cube to represent a gallon of water (or a quart, depending on how granular you want to get), a brown cube to represent a days rations (or 1/2 day, etc.), toothpicks for arrows/bolts, and so forth.

I know some DMs that do this a par for the course in their games. I don't bother, but might be fun for specific adventures/challenges.

 

[happyhermit]

Agree. So you find these situations mostly arise in simulationist scenarios?

For me they tend to most of the time, usually because the players (or GM) want to delve deeper into particular aspects of the game we usually gloss over such as resources or encumbrance or stronghold/domain management. It isn't so much that those rules don't exist in the game when they aren't being used, we just agree on a less mechanically defined resolution most of the time. On the same not, on occasion, sometimes we "zoom out" abstract many things, even combats and have used "rules" to do that.

I'm considering introducing some wildly different mechanics for sessions taking place in other planes of existence to give them an alient, altered-reality feal. My concern is that these would be so different that you really wouldn't be playing D&D for part of that session. I'm thinking of temporarily adopting mechanics from games like Dread and Grin for some sessions.

For simulationist games, to make it feel more real and help build anxiety, I was thinking of using various physical items to represent your rations, arrows, water, etc. Even something simple like blue cube to represent a gallon of water (or a quart, depending on how granular you want to get), a brown cube to represent a days rations (or 1/2 day, etc.), toothpicks for arrows/bolts, and so forth.

I know some DMs that do this a par for the course in their games. I don't bother, but might be fun for specific adventures/challenges.

As for "alien" mechanics, they don't have to make the game feel less like D&D but they can, whether or not that is a bad thing really depends on the players and GM. If you want to add things like "sanity" or similar attributes or subsystems it probably won't effect the "D&D" feel too much, however more abstract things can certainly have that effect. If you are referring to the rpg with the Jenga tower, that certainly will change the feel quite a bit, it can be really fun though.

 

[discosoc]

I do, in regards to long rests and short rests. I use the "Gritty Realism" rules by default (for encounter balance), but if a session has an actual dungeon crawl planned or a lot of encounters for some reason, I state up front that we're using the default rules for the time being.