I have talked to most everyone about switching the inventory system to closely resemble that of Torchbearer and now that I am reading Lamentations of the Flame Princess, closer to that system too. I am not 100% how everyone feels about it, it is a big change but to be honest we have not done anything with inventory. This is partially because calculating encumbrance is truthfully not that fun, it can also slow the game down. This is true for any inventory system that requires management and I know this, switching systems will add more things to keep track of. But I also feel that it adds another layer when adventuring in the wild or in deep dungeons, while I resist to use the term an element of "realism" it is honestly so that there is another element of danger. Danger in that you may become hungry and or thirsty. Again this is more management, but in reality I will be trying to take most of that weight on myself. In most cases I will not ask for you to roll to see if you are hungry, to resist hunger if you are out of food yes, but I will not stop action and say "roll to see if hungry". It will be based on the passing of time in game. If you have not already figured it out, the inventory system will dictate how much you can carry. Not in weight but in amount, it does not matter how much a group of items weighs, if it is cumbersome you will not be able to carry it.
Each character will have a series of slots, many are familiar and are in a plethora of games including D&D. The slots are head, neck, torso, hands and feet with the addition of bag, belt and held. All characters are allowed one item on their head, neck, one ring on each hand, one item held in each hand, feet. Though small items like necklaces and rings can be worn only one in each slot will give a benefit. Torso is the new exception, the torso has three slots. These torso slots are used for armor, rope, baggage, quivers, etc and you can carry any combination of the items as long as they do not go over your slots. Belts are also assumed to have 2 slots or pouches and can carry one weapon. Items held in the belt can be retrieved as a minor action in combat, meaning if you wanted to grab a scroll or potion from your belt you can do it for free.
With all of that, you can go over your total slot allotment, if you wanted to carry 4 items on your torso you can do so, if you wanted to stuff your backpack with more items than it can carry comfortably, you're more than welcome to. But for each item you carry over your base lowers your movement speed by 5 feet. This means you move slower in combat, do not move as many miles during daily marching and you jump less distance. Dwarves do ignore the first 2 items over their max, but we currently do not have any dwarves so that does not matter. I will hopefully have inventory sheets for everyone or at least an example to copy.
With the system comes some new items or older items tweaked. The first new items I want to introduce are mundane head gear.
Leather cap: Will modify the first critical rolled against this character. Rather than doing max damage plus 1 weapon die, the attack is forced to roll both the base dice and the crit dice.
Half helm: +1 AC and cancels the first critical rolled against this character (normal damage done) and must be repaired or replaced after canceling a critical. Characters wearing a half helm roll disadvantage on all notice checks that require hearing. When a character wearing a half helm is at half hit points or lower they roll disadvantage on all combat rolls.
Full helm: +2 AC and cancels the first critical rolled against this character (normal damage done) and must be repaired or replaced after canceling a critical. Characters wearing a full helm roll disadvantage on all notice and spot checks. When a character wearing a half helm is at half hit points or lower they roll disadvantage on all combat rolls.
It is a free action to remove a piece of head gear but it requires an action to place a piece of head gear on a character.
Adventuring gear:
Cloak: cloaks allow a player to roll advantage on constitution checks versus elements.
Torch: Torches light enough space for the person holding it and two other players. Anyone outside the radius of a torch that does not have low light version rolls disadvantage on all rolls.
Candle: Candles act the same as torches but only give enough light for the holder.
(at first the changes to lighting may not make sense, but think about several people crowding around one light source, it tends to obscure it for the other people around.)
Books: Books act as skill buffers and vary in quality from +1d4 to +1d8. Books will have a specific topic associated with them. If a player has enough time to research a topic in the book (typically 5 minutes) they will get the die bonus to their next skill check that is associated with that book.
For example Galnord knows that his band of merry grave robbers will be wondering in to the wood soon. Before packing up camp he reads some of Treeman's book of Nature a +1d4 book. Next time he is required to roll a nature check he adds +1d4 on top of his normal skill check.
A character can only retain one bonus at a time.
If your character successfully uses a book 20 times than your character permanently gains the skill die when they use that skill. As above if Galnord succeeded 20 times using Treeman's book, he can chuck it down a ravine because next time he uses his nature skill he automatically gains a +1d4 on his skill roll. These bonuses do not stack, so if he finds a better book about nature later, then whenever he has time to research in the new book, the skill die would be a d6 rather than his innate d4.
Friday, February 21, 2014
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Some ideas and rules that I would like to implement in the coming sessions.
I am going to say right now, that I love D&D Next or 5th or whatever it will be called (hopefully 5th). I know a lot of OSR guys pooh pooh it because it's not 1st or 2nd edition, but everything gets dumped on unless it's an old school clone. Not to say that is a bad thing, those editions evoke a lot of nostalgia for a lot of people, people that paved the way for us to get where we are now. It has been 40 years since the original release of D&D and like anything over 4 decades there has been a lot of change. With that said, as much as I love the newest incarnation of the worlds most popular roleplaying game, I feel like something has been missing from the last few editions. Something that is very common in earlier editions, the thrill and the danger. 5th has done a great job in scaling the game back and realigning the focus. 3rd was about the "arms race" each +1 and +2 gave you that edge you needed to win. But the math was wonky and bogged the game down, it felt like there was too much stock on those 1's and 2's rather than the game. They also "purposely" designed poor feats so people could learn what feats sucked, I call BS, but that drove a lot of people to pick the same feat combinations over and over. 4th focused less on the 1's and 2's but more on miniature style combat and there was no way a character could be killed (well, they could be but it took a lot of resources and unlucky/lucky rolls). 5th has stripped the game down and brought it back to it's roots but adding some of the great innovations from 3rd and 4th. But there are still a couple things that bother me and thus this blog was started.
Resting and healing is something that does not sit well with me. The hit dice mechanic is a welcomed addition as it extends the durability of a party without having a cleric and it also has a randomness to it. But the change that I propose is that it requires a player to "spend" a use from a healer's kit. Healer's kits now come with 10 uses if a player is not proficient with healer's kits then the player simply heals their hit die + constitution modifier. If a player has the proficiency or makes a healing check of 15 they can add their proficiency to the amount healed.
Example:
Zardoz the fighter has 10 of his 45 hit points left and wants to use his healer's kit. He has two uses left and decides to spend one, he rolls 1d10 (fighter's have a d10 hitpoints) and adds his constitution modifier, lets say he has 16 constitution, so he rolls 1d10+3 and rolls a 1, healing 4 hit points, tough luck Zardoz. Dartanian the cleric comes over and says "Hey, let me help you" since he has proficiency with a healer's kit with a proficiency of +3, he starts patching Zardoz up. This time Zardoz rolls 1d10 + 3 + another 3 from Dartanian, this time he rolls a 10 and heals 16 hp, much better this time. Then the stingy cleric Dartanian expends a spell and heals Zardoz some more.
This does add another resource but requires players to choose carefully when they heal.
The main issue I have with the healing is that after a full nights rest a player heals all of their hit points. Unless you are throwing mobs of monsters at a full group everyday then they are most likely not fearing anything, because they can just take a long rest and get all of their hit points back. But at the same time it can get boring when you have to figure out how many days it would take a fighter to heal to full hit points when he only heals 2-3 hp a day. The change that I am making is that in town or anywhere safe (an inn on the road, a peasant's house that is not under threat of raid) players heal to full after a nights rest. If an adventurer rests in a place of danger, a campsite in the wilderness, a dungeon or abandoned ruins for example, they heal their constitution score in hit points. The normal rules also state that a player heals half of their hit dice after a nights rest. In safe haven players now heal all hit dice but in a dangerous area they only heal a fourth of their hit dice. It makes traveling long distances that much more dangerous and the group really has to pick when to stand and fight or run.
Aside from the healing I really have no problems with the core rules of Next everything else that I want to add I want to add for flavor and to give players more options. The main goal that I want to accomplish is giving players meaningful choices on the road. At the moment it's "let's roll to see if there is a random encounter...nope, you get there safely". To accomplish these meaningful tasks I will be borrowing some concepts from the One Ring, which a few of you are familiar with. Some of these ideas also come from Torchbearer a game that is inspired by Dungeons and Dragons basic. When a group sets out on their journey everyone picks a role. While traveling, each day a player can take an action that pertains to that role. The list of roles are:
Cook
Scout
Mapper
Hunter
Smith
Each role grants benefits to the group if they succeed on their dice rolls.
Cook: A cook can take a single ration and stretch it out to feed the entire group. When on the road a cook can make a wisdom check of 10 + 1 for every other character aside from herself that she is trying to feed.
Example: The group is down to their last ration and the five of them are fighting over who gets it. The cook swipes it and throws it in to a pan with some seasonings. Since there are four other adventurers the cook would have to make a wisdom check of 14.
Cooks can also make use of any food a hunter brings back to the group. If a hunter returns with raw meat or fungus a cook and make a wisdom 10 check to make the items edible without risk of becoming sick.
On a failure the rations/food are lost and anyone that consumes what was cooked becomes sick.
Scout: Scouts are proficient at finding the safest paths for a party and can make sure the group finds best camping spots. When a scout is trailblazing they are required to make a nature/wisdom check of 10 + 1 for every other character in the party. If the scout is successful the group does not get lost, random encounter chances are halved (to a minimum of 1) and the group is not slowed by terrain. They also find a "haven" for the group to sleep and recover hit points equal to their constitution + the scouts proficiency.
On a failure the group can become lost, random encounter chance is doubled, and the group only heals half of their constitution when resting.
Mapper: The mapper takes their time to map the surrounding terrain to benefit both their party and their coin purse. Each day the mapper maps they make a wisdom check of 10 + any terrain modifiers. If a mapper is successful then they have mapped the area and anytime the group returns to the surrounding area they are rewarded with advantage on an amount of rolls equal to the mappers current proficiency. Maps are also highly sought after items and fetch a decent price in the secondary market.
On a failure whenever the group returns to the area disadvantage is imposed on an amount of rolls equal to the mappers proficiency. These disadvantages are imposed by the DM. A mapper can attempt to remap the area but at a disadvantage. The map also becomes less valuable when areas are mapped incorrectly.
Hunter: Hunters make sure that the party stays fed and healthy. They are equally proficient in foraging for herbs/berries/mushrooms and snaring wild game. A hunter makes a nature/wisdom/intelligence/dexterity check equal to 10 + 1 for each other party member. If a hunter is searching for herbs or edible fruits and fungus they make a nature/wisdom check. They can also refill uses of a healer's kit when searching for herbs. If they are hunting wild game they can use nature/intelligence/dexterity to outsmart or catch their prey. With a successful check they return with enough food for the entire group.
On a failure the hunter returns, with poisonous food, an unwelcomed guest (the hunted has become the hunter) or at the very least empty handed.
Smith: The smith maintains the gear for the rest of the group. Twice per day he may repair or improve a piece of equipment. The smith must make a strength/intelligence check of 15 to complete such an action. On a successful repair the item will last until the group returns to town, at which point it is advised that the adventurer gets a more formal repair. If everything is in tip top shape (or not it's up to the smith) a smith may reinforce armor or sharpen a blade. On a successful check made on armor the adventurer's armor gets a temporary +1 to the base ac. If the roll is successfully made to a weapon the weapon acts as a +1 weapon in all ways save the magical property. These improvements last one days travel as the trail wears everything down.
On a failure for a piece of armor the armor get a -1 to it's base AC, failure imposes disadvantage with all rolls for that weapon. A successful repair negates these rolls but does expend one use of the smiths daily usage.
If people have any other ideas I am open to them! Next I want to touch briefly on new equipment such as the tools for the above roles.
Resting and healing is something that does not sit well with me. The hit dice mechanic is a welcomed addition as it extends the durability of a party without having a cleric and it also has a randomness to it. But the change that I propose is that it requires a player to "spend" a use from a healer's kit. Healer's kits now come with 10 uses if a player is not proficient with healer's kits then the player simply heals their hit die + constitution modifier. If a player has the proficiency or makes a healing check of 15 they can add their proficiency to the amount healed.
Example:
Zardoz the fighter has 10 of his 45 hit points left and wants to use his healer's kit. He has two uses left and decides to spend one, he rolls 1d10 (fighter's have a d10 hitpoints) and adds his constitution modifier, lets say he has 16 constitution, so he rolls 1d10+3 and rolls a 1, healing 4 hit points, tough luck Zardoz. Dartanian the cleric comes over and says "Hey, let me help you" since he has proficiency with a healer's kit with a proficiency of +3, he starts patching Zardoz up. This time Zardoz rolls 1d10 + 3 + another 3 from Dartanian, this time he rolls a 10 and heals 16 hp, much better this time. Then the stingy cleric Dartanian expends a spell and heals Zardoz some more.
This does add another resource but requires players to choose carefully when they heal.
The main issue I have with the healing is that after a full nights rest a player heals all of their hit points. Unless you are throwing mobs of monsters at a full group everyday then they are most likely not fearing anything, because they can just take a long rest and get all of their hit points back. But at the same time it can get boring when you have to figure out how many days it would take a fighter to heal to full hit points when he only heals 2-3 hp a day. The change that I am making is that in town or anywhere safe (an inn on the road, a peasant's house that is not under threat of raid) players heal to full after a nights rest. If an adventurer rests in a place of danger, a campsite in the wilderness, a dungeon or abandoned ruins for example, they heal their constitution score in hit points. The normal rules also state that a player heals half of their hit dice after a nights rest. In safe haven players now heal all hit dice but in a dangerous area they only heal a fourth of their hit dice. It makes traveling long distances that much more dangerous and the group really has to pick when to stand and fight or run.
Aside from the healing I really have no problems with the core rules of Next everything else that I want to add I want to add for flavor and to give players more options. The main goal that I want to accomplish is giving players meaningful choices on the road. At the moment it's "let's roll to see if there is a random encounter...nope, you get there safely". To accomplish these meaningful tasks I will be borrowing some concepts from the One Ring, which a few of you are familiar with. Some of these ideas also come from Torchbearer a game that is inspired by Dungeons and Dragons basic. When a group sets out on their journey everyone picks a role. While traveling, each day a player can take an action that pertains to that role. The list of roles are:
Cook
Scout
Mapper
Hunter
Smith
Each role grants benefits to the group if they succeed on their dice rolls.
Cook: A cook can take a single ration and stretch it out to feed the entire group. When on the road a cook can make a wisdom check of 10 + 1 for every other character aside from herself that she is trying to feed.
Example: The group is down to their last ration and the five of them are fighting over who gets it. The cook swipes it and throws it in to a pan with some seasonings. Since there are four other adventurers the cook would have to make a wisdom check of 14.
Cooks can also make use of any food a hunter brings back to the group. If a hunter returns with raw meat or fungus a cook and make a wisdom 10 check to make the items edible without risk of becoming sick.
On a failure the rations/food are lost and anyone that consumes what was cooked becomes sick.
Scout: Scouts are proficient at finding the safest paths for a party and can make sure the group finds best camping spots. When a scout is trailblazing they are required to make a nature/wisdom check of 10 + 1 for every other character in the party. If the scout is successful the group does not get lost, random encounter chances are halved (to a minimum of 1) and the group is not slowed by terrain. They also find a "haven" for the group to sleep and recover hit points equal to their constitution + the scouts proficiency.
On a failure the group can become lost, random encounter chance is doubled, and the group only heals half of their constitution when resting.
Mapper: The mapper takes their time to map the surrounding terrain to benefit both their party and their coin purse. Each day the mapper maps they make a wisdom check of 10 + any terrain modifiers. If a mapper is successful then they have mapped the area and anytime the group returns to the surrounding area they are rewarded with advantage on an amount of rolls equal to the mappers current proficiency. Maps are also highly sought after items and fetch a decent price in the secondary market.
On a failure whenever the group returns to the area disadvantage is imposed on an amount of rolls equal to the mappers proficiency. These disadvantages are imposed by the DM. A mapper can attempt to remap the area but at a disadvantage. The map also becomes less valuable when areas are mapped incorrectly.
Hunter: Hunters make sure that the party stays fed and healthy. They are equally proficient in foraging for herbs/berries/mushrooms and snaring wild game. A hunter makes a nature/wisdom/intelligence/dexterity check equal to 10 + 1 for each other party member. If a hunter is searching for herbs or edible fruits and fungus they make a nature/wisdom check. They can also refill uses of a healer's kit when searching for herbs. If they are hunting wild game they can use nature/intelligence/dexterity to outsmart or catch their prey. With a successful check they return with enough food for the entire group.
On a failure the hunter returns, with poisonous food, an unwelcomed guest (the hunted has become the hunter) or at the very least empty handed.
Smith: The smith maintains the gear for the rest of the group. Twice per day he may repair or improve a piece of equipment. The smith must make a strength/intelligence check of 15 to complete such an action. On a successful repair the item will last until the group returns to town, at which point it is advised that the adventurer gets a more formal repair. If everything is in tip top shape (or not it's up to the smith) a smith may reinforce armor or sharpen a blade. On a successful check made on armor the adventurer's armor gets a temporary +1 to the base ac. If the roll is successfully made to a weapon the weapon acts as a +1 weapon in all ways save the magical property. These improvements last one days travel as the trail wears everything down.
On a failure for a piece of armor the armor get a -1 to it's base AC, failure imposes disadvantage with all rolls for that weapon. A successful repair negates these rolls but does expend one use of the smiths daily usage.
If people have any other ideas I am open to them! Next I want to touch briefly on new equipment such as the tools for the above roles.
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