D&D General What house-rules or techniques do you use to make 5e grittier?

[Xenolith234]

Throwing out death saves & replacing them with something less in the style of loony toons Wile E. Coyote and meaningfully functional carrying capacities like older editions had can be important secondary concerns. There is so much focus on recovery because 5e's recovery actively works to thwart all other efforts & is so deeply rooted to so much.

I think I’m going to use a stand and fight mechanic - once a PC has dropped to 0HP, they start making death saves at DC15. They can keep fighting, however, but can only use an action or a bonus action, no reactions, no concentration spells, and move half their speed.