D&D 5E Things I Have Done So Far For, or With, 5E

[Jack7]

Things I have done so far for 5th Edition (or whatever it will be called) based on the design paradigms I have seen thus far:


1. Designed a Universal Character Sheet that can be applied to any type character. Two pages long.


2. Designed an Important NPC Sheet that can be used to track and grow an NPC like a character, but not as complex as a Character Sheet. Single page.


3. Designed a Nemesis/Monster Character Sheet that can be sued to track and grow a Nemesis or Recurring Monster as one would a Character. Single Page.


4. Designed some unique Devices, Magic Items, Miracles, and Miraculous and Relical Items for my milieu and setting. Also have developed magical and miraculous treasures, weaponry, and armor specifically tailored to individual characters, such as the Shepherd’s Crook for the Cleric, which is the Christian Clerical analogue to the Staff of the Magi.


5. Fully designed one adventure and sketched out three others as part of the Campaign of the Red Moon. I’ll detail that below somewhat. It is this campaign I shall use to playtest 5th.


6. Designed the Paladin and Ranger Classes based on the 5E playtest materials. Am sketching out some of the other classes I desire to create.


7. Designed the Sorcerer and Witch and Warlock to be used as the main opponents to the Wizard and Paladin.


8. Created the basics of a setting for 5E centered in the British Isles, circa 800 AD, starting out in Wales.


9. Created a Monster Type (the Moorwight) and a Nemesis Monster for my party, the Dunsill Wurm.


10. Created several ongoing NPCs and two Important NPCs, the Celtic Druid Slynirn, and the Jute Sorcerer Achilln. Also in the process of creating Achilln’s War Band Chief, the vicious Viking Yadrass.


11. Created an Ongoing NPC Sheet to track background and basically non-active NPCs in the campaign and have populated it with the necessary NPCs.


12. Created a Minor Monster Sheet on which I can locate the attributes and identities of minor monsters, animals, and others (pirates, thieves, mercenaries, raiders, etc.) the party encounters.


13. Modified my earlier Adventure and Campaign Templates to better fit the 5E type of adventure.


14. Created an entirely new Ad-Hoc Adventure Template which will allow me to keep track of necessary information and events and monsters and NPCs but will not involved sketching out in detail an adventure. Rather the adventure can develop Ad-Hoc and in an improvised fashion. 5E to me makes this not only possible, but lends itself to this approach. I will probably continue to develop some adventures and campaigns in a tight, well-ordered, well written format, but about half of my adventures will now be constructed on the spot and during game-play, just based on good concepts I have or that my party has. I have also developed a Sandbox of good adventuring/mission locales located throughout the British Isles and Western Europe.


15. Have developed 5E systems for hirelings, animal companions, familiars, establishing Keeps and Strongholds, King-Making, creating legacies and inheritances, etc.


16. Have developed a system of Player Determined Character Development which allows the players to decide how they want to develop their characters, in what way, and when, and one that emphasizes Role Play.




By Sheets I mean, of course, computer documents that I can modify or run off as I see fit whenever I wish.


Once I see the full game (5E) I will then take what I have already developed and either modify it according to 5E, take whatever is offered by 5E, or use 5E to develop new designs, whichever approach works best for my setting, me, and my players.

 

[Jack7]

Below is the Campaign I am writing to playtest the 5E system. It is partially based upon a horror story I wrote called, The Last Samhain, and partially upon a long poem I wrote caleld Caer Sidi (the haunted city that rises from the sea on Halloween).

As each adventure proceeds the storyline will become (hopefully) scarier and spookier up until the last adventure which takes place on the night of Samhain (halloween.)

Occasionally the Bard Taliesin (one of the NPCs and a Half-Elf who understands what is happening) will give clues in verse and recite parts of Caer Sidi to the players to help them along.

The Red Moon of Samhain​

• Red Moon Rising (The Tower Under Nowhere)
• If the Dead Be Not (Cairn of the Stalkers)
• Where Evil Walks (A’tha Omeirtyn, or, the Black Road of Midnight)
• The Last Samhain (The Black Old Stones of Sharn)

Red Moon - I now have the outline for my Red Moon series. The party will start at the Keep of a local Welsh Lord named Wargesthyn who resides at Aberystyth, on the coast (of Wales). The lord and his port town have suffered numerous recent raids from Irish pirates and even apparently some hired Norsemen mercenaries (possibly freeboot Vikings). No one is certain as to exactly why but it seems to do
with some ruins at Bay, which lie under the lord's protection and domain.

One of the possible rumors for the raids is that the Celtic Druid Slynirn and the Jute Sorcerer Achilln think they have discovered something about the Grael (not the Holy Grail, but the ancient Celtic Grael, a huge iron cauldron filled with Skee Waters, said to be able to raise the war-dead again to a sort of half-life) and are searching Bay for what they seek. The lord thinks the raids are a diversion to keep his forces tied up defending the keep and town while Slynirn and Achilln ransack the ruins at Bay.

So the Welsh lord hires the party (my wife and kids characters) to head South and intercept Slynirn and Achilln, or whoever they have hired, and either stop the Druid and Sorcerer, or preemptively recover whatever they really search for. Wargesthyn gives the party a small marshalling of men at arms and helps equip the team for the mission.

Should they survive the first adventure at Bay they will then have to sail North to the Isle of Wight as the days darken and autumn deepens, to see what has taken up home there, and why.

If they survive that they will then have to go to Arklow in Eire (Ireland) and explore beneath the sea cliffs and old ruins of the Feylaird.

Finally, if they succeed to the last adventure then they must sail down to Cardiff during Samhain (Halloween) to a final confrontation with whoever or whatever is really behind the Red Moon.

There will be totally unique treasures, some very interesting NPCs, some fascinating and very dangerous opponents, monsters, and beasts, and I've got some real surprises in store.

 

[Steely_Dan]

Exactly, with that 1st Play-Test Packet (the good one), and my Basic, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Ed goodies, I have enough to go on for many lifetimes.

 

[Jack7]

I have recently donwloaded upgrades to my OS, to my Office programs, and to my email program. Now I'm having all kinds of font, formatting, and file transfer problems (thanks yet again Microsoft/PCs).

If you guys can't read some fo the stuff I post I apologize. It's at my end until I can figure a fix. Mea Culpa.

If it weren't for the need to remain compatible with clients I'd have long ago abandoned Microsft and PCs.

 

[Gwarh]

Looking forward to reading more about your campaign and your house rules, i'm a big fan of "Dark Ages" themed settings. Please continue to share your work.