House Rules for D&D & Pathfinder (Episode
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 มิ.ย. 2024
- Professor DungeonMaster on why YOU should be unafraid to introduce house rules and gives his Top 5.
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"Fury of the Dragon's Breath" by Peter Crowley
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By Kevin Macleod: "Thatched Cottages," et al. All tracks are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/...) - เกม
"He's getting his brother's room; his brother's joining the Army."
As a veteran myself, I wish your son good fortune and clear skies.
Clear skies. That won't happen if he's infantry 🤣
@@dkbibi It means I hope he doesn't have to train in the rain. Basic NEVER stops but rainy days are pretty rough.
As they say... "Embrace The Suck!"
Thank you for your kind words and for you service to our country.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 As a former infatryman, " If it ain't raining, we ain't ttraining!"
"People assume that the employees of Wizards of the Coast are walking around the offices wearing lab coats and they have degrees in game-ology... they don't. They're working in cubicles to deadlines, they're average people just like you and me." - guy with Professor Dungeon Master nameplate behind him.
Shout out to Veronica, the real hero out there on the front lines and the realest wizard casting fireballs at every available opportunity!!! I cannot wait to play again with my D&D family soon!
We're close now. Late June/early July.
More like a life domain cleric granting them bonus heals, but yes 👍
Thank God for real heros. 🙏 you are make great content. 👍
I don't think I've ever played a game where the GM hadn't included a house rule!
Yep.
House rule,
1st-level wizard gets initiative and amazingly bets the 12th-level fighter in full plate armor. Strength / Dex Reflex check. Roll touch attack vs AC:12
End result, the newbie wizard " hip toss " the warlord over the railing to a 60ft drop into the horse trough.
Even a party who all have never played any rpg's before include house rules in their games too.
Whether that be intentionally or not.
There's just not enough Thursdays in the week. I've re watched almost every video this week I think.
I rewatch older episodes frequently as well. Before I found this channel I used to follow six or seven different D&D channels pretty regularly. After I found this one that became only 3 including this one.
I only watch this (and koibu's stream vods because he does a live show like this )
It would be so cool to see my two favorite DMs play a game together
@@TheShadowKarl Thank you. Please share it so the channel can grow.
That's kind of you to say and inspires me to keep going. As we speak I'm photographing minis for the episode on City Adventures. It takes 12 hours to make an episode, so one Thursday is all I can handle!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 I appreciate the effort. Really is the number one channel for d&d in my opinion. People call your ideas "radical". But like youve said, many homebrew rules become rules proper in the future. Not to mention how GG said rules are a guideline. Your vids and runehammers got me into d&d and me and my son love it.
The Hungry, Hungry, Hippo line was just perfect. Thank you for being you, good Sir.
For magic, I've a house ruled spell check to determine how successful the spell is, but since the wizard is risking magical corruption, I've decided that the result is never "nothing happens." Magic always happens; it's just not always what the wizard intended, or upon the person they targeted.
The Fun-gineers at WOC work hard, consult the bones, and study ancient lore to create a completely flawless game system- it cannot be changed - until 6E - then it can change again
Until they release a new rulebook yes
@@elgatochurro yes, that was indeed the joke
Professor DM: My son is joining the army
My brain: His son is joining the Warrior's Guild and is on his way to earn the Fighter Archetype.
Horray for the US PetroDollar Warriors!
@@earl528 His sister is an chemical engineer for an oil company. She may be pulling the strings.
#tinfoilhat #illuminaticonfirmed
" cough, cough, cough," They Wayne just because your parents named you " Bruce " does not mean you have to play a Detective in every RPG you play. Ok got that " Batman." .. !
Cool thing is, my old buddy Wayne did become a police detective by the time he was 27 years old in 2007.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Decades ago, I worked for Mobil's Strategic Planning Dept. One project I was asked to do was a 'What If" Scenario on "What If War broke out in the Middle East".
Tell your son, "thank you for your service!" (hand salute)
Thank you, Michael.
A good discussion on house rules is one of the true joys in the hobby. It's all about letting the creative juices flow freely! And it's a great way to share with your friends, learn new things, practice logical thinking, and show off how smart you can be!
Thanks for sharing your house rules and sources of inspiration.
I'm actually young enough that dnd 5e is the system first I've played. I'm frankly completely pissed off that the starter set doesn't give new dms nearly enough to have an idea of how to do their job. Even the dmg is more like a collection of optional rules and lore than a guide on how to dm.
Your videos are kind of the reason I'm switching to ftd and we're having the first game next week.
I'm in the same boat. WotC is really bad at teaching you how to play their game. Fortunately a lot of indy/OSR RPGs do have propper GM guides in their systems.
4e had a better starter set! The 5e starter set doesn't even give you a blank character sheet!
Thank you. I love the D&D starter set but it's a bIG game with so many facets. Glad I can help you on your journey.
the “rules” are not the “game”
For how to prepare sessions and master games, I highly recommend Sly Flourish's Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master:
www.dmsguild.com/product/251431/Return-of-the-Lazy-Dungeon-Master
And Scott "Angry GM" Rehm's Game Angry:
www.drivethrurpg.com/product/280384/Game-Angry-How-to-RPG-The-Angry-Way
Love your take on the concept of house rules and expectations of the designers. They make a fun game we enjoy, but are also regular people working their very real job, with real constraints and deadlines.
Also that you bring up that they have different house rules on their own! The individual designers! Showing they are not a hive mind but people building a game with all the compromises that entails.
I think it is good to acknowledge that they likely have a good design grasp, and therefore their rules are likely thought out. However, that does not mean the game is exactly crafted for you or your group. So hacking the game to slightly steer it in the direction you want is brilliant!
Good luck to your son from a recently discharged Soldier. He's set up for success too, you'd be amazed how many one-shots I ran on slow days in the motor pool.
Thank you! I once had a friend who was stationed in a missile silo in Europe. They played D&D all the time! Thanks for your kind words and your service.
I am a fan of your creativity and designs. Some of your "homebrew" ideas are great. Thanks for putting your knowledge and advice out here for our community.
Thanks you for taking the time to comment, Matthew. It helps grow the channel and I really appreciate it.
For decades my rules for spell casting is this. Your Intelligence (or Wisdom for clerics) forms the basis for your Craft (Arcane Casting) skill, which is a class skill bestowed automatically to the class. To successfully cast the spell, you roll equal or less than your Arcane Casting skill. Having to engage in melee combat can potentially breaks your concentration, if the character takes 1 > HP damage, the DM can assign a -1 to -3 negative modifier to being able to successfully cast the spell. Also a natural 1 indicates the spell backfires in some way (appropriate to the spell). Also I give prime requisite bonuses to spell memorisation - i.e. a mage with Int 9-12 has no bonus, Int 13-15 has +1 spell per spell level, Int 16-17 +2 bonus to spells per spell level etc...
As a side note, this can make for some interesting characters, because you can allow a perosn to spend Non-weapon proficiency skill slots to augment their skill to Craft (arcane casting)+1 or more. This along with weapon mastery allows you to develop a kind of hardened battle mages, which many of my players have been giddy to play.
Thank you Veronica!
I love the face to face idea. Thanks to you as well Professor Dungon Master.
Thanks again for the great ideas. I love houseruling D&D. Dragon Magazine (and 1e AD&D with all it's quirks) was a group test crucible back in the day and I remember adding HERO POINTS from Dragon 118. They were a knock-off of the TOP SECRET Fame and Fortune points from 1979.
One of my favorite XP methods we called, "Begging for experience." At the end of a session or at some stop point, we would all receive a base level of experience, then one by one we would go around and explain what we did "in character" that was exceptional or demonstrated good role play for that character. Playing well in character, and pushing or capitalizing on the character class, role, alignment, backstory, and so on earned experience. We would cheer each other on, remind each other of their character's good and bad deeds. It was great way to recap a session with a bit of comraderie wrap up the fun.
I love how they interrupt you... makes this feel more personal and not just a lecture/ podcast. Cherish these times.
I am 29 and find you infinitely insightful, sir. Ha
I like doing my best at whatever I do and you’re a great mentor for D&D.
I absolutely adore the mvp idea.
Also, I’ll ask my players after the recap where they want to sit based off the initiative they might possibly be in, in that particular session.
I’m not going to comment on every video, thanking you for the ideas you’ve given me. If I say it once on the internet, I’ve said it a thousand million times. Thank you, professor.
I'm trying to hone in on a rules set that best pleases my table and this is probably the most helpful TH-cam channel for that. Thank you!
I get so excited to see new videos from Dungeon Craft. I often disagree with suggestions for rules changes but I always find 1 or 2 little gems in these videos. The concept of player facing combat is so obvious, yet has eluded me forever. I think I'll bring up the concept to my players and see if they'd like to try it out. Thank you for the inspiration.
I truly appreciate you putting so much into creating this content. The passion you have for tabletop rpg's is undeniable.
Thank you!
Very nice video, one of your best. One thing to add is that the WotC folks have to create a game for the widest possible audience; that's Hasbro's sales / marketing imperative. DM's have the freedom to create the best possible game for their group. This is a huge inherent advantage hobbyist DM's have over corporate Hasbro. Thanks for encouraging the creative, independent, dynamic spirit of the early days of the hobby!
Many years ago, a former group decided to try playing DnD with Mage Rules. That was pretty fun back then. Fast forward and across the country I joined a new group playing 3.5 which was very similar to that previous experience. - Gotta luv trying new mechanics
Remember the golden rule: You're the DM, you make the rules.
Right on!
And a DM with zero players is a Zero DM =P
@@EricScheid then they don’t really want to play table top. If they’re having fun they’ll play.
Death Bringer has had such great character development.
SO MUCH YES IN THIS VID. I'm going to start doing more of these. great content, thanks!
After watching many of your videos over the last week... and starting to try to adopt your style for my next (first) campaign as DM, THIS is the exact video I needed. Im pleased to have just become a new patreon.
Thank you. I appreciate your support!
Good advice that hits home as always. Thank you for the continued content. I left the cookie of the table for the metric.
I feel I should point out that Constitution is also still valuable in "Harcore Mode" because you can make a DC 10 "Grit Your Teeth" check to spend hit dice during combat or when rest isn't an option, presumably at the cost of an action. Arguably, this makes Constitution just as important as ever. I think it's a brilliant alternative to just adding CON to HP up front.
I agree. I did mention it but cut it for time. Shoulda kept it.
I've been using the no initiative rule for a few weeks now. My players love it. The mages also enjoy rolling on their spells. I got both of these ideas from your channel. Awesome stuff.
Jack Vance’s characters DID sometimes miscast spells, with disastrous effects. Check out the Dying Earth novel The Eyes of the Overworld, for example: "Cugel hastily consulted the workbook and saw that in error he had transposed a pair of pervulsions, thereby reversing the quality of the spell. . . . "
I have to confess I have never read the Dying Earth and I am ashamed to admit it.
This makes me think of using a house rule where the DM rolls secretly when you try to copy a spell into your spellbook, but instead of just failing you've copied it incorrectly and the first time you try to cast it something will go horribly wrong.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 You really, really need to fix that. Or at least read the RPG from Pelgrane, which catches the flavor of the setting nicely. I think you'll be surprised to find out how little the RPG hobby's idea of "Vancian casting" resembles the magic in Vance's actual books. No character of Vance's would dream of casting something as prosaically named as "Fireball" and the only people skilled enough to be capable of memorizing more than a handful of spells at once don't bother doing so, they rely on what amount to contracted overworld spirit servants to create Limited Wish like effects at will instead. Actual memorized fire-and-forget D&D-style spells are for the relatively young and inexperienced magicians (who might, at most, be able to carry 5-6 of them at once in their minds) or overconfident dabblers like Cugel (who usually come to a sticky end by botching a cast).
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Strongly recommended if & when you can find the chance, though I'm sure you may be tired of hearing that ;). It's kind of sad really though how badly vancian magic was butchered in it's conversion to the D&D rules we all know & love/hate. Way more dependence on magical items vs spells, way fewer spell slots ( I want to say in the 1st story that the arch mage had a grand total of ONE, since chromatic spray occupied his whole brain), along with explanation on WTH spells & 'slots' even are. A lot of times I wish more folks would go back to the books & try to better emulate what was there vs. going the more sadly tried & true route of 'vancian magic sucks'
Ah where would dnd rogues be without Cugel
Another excellent video! Thanks, Professor! Best of luck to your son. I joined the Canadian Army in 1986 and stayed will my Regiment ever since. Now 34 yrs later, my Regiment is my family. I know the US Army doesn't use the Regimental System as we do, but hopefully, he'll feel the same about his Unit too! Can't wait to see what you do with the new "Studio". Unless Mrs. Dungeon Master has the last laugh! Cheers.
DM rolling player death saves is still my favorite house rule. I actually had a player sweating from the suspense not knowing if my roll was a pass or fail.
I don't play D&D right now, but if I did this would definitely be a rule I'd implement at my table.
Thanks for talking the time comment. I love kittens! (I mean--who doesn't?)
I believe in openly rolling for anything the PCs would be able to perceive. I think your dying PC would at least be able to know they're making their saves or not. How about kicking unconscious players out of the room until their PCs regain consciousness?
@@Joshuazx PCs are unconscious when making Death Saves. How would they know they're dying or not? And kicking players out of the room while their PC is unconscious is liable to cause hurt feelings.
I liked this rule at first, but I changed my mind. One of my players made a good point, that they might have the right to roll a die that will outright kill them.
Alternatively, I adopted a different system to add tension to death saving throws from the Dungeon Coach TH-cam channel. When players fail death saving throws they gain a level of exhaustion, and whenever a player goes down they start with a number of failed death saving throws equal to their level of exhaustion.
That part about Player Facing Combat melted my brain. See, I'm a 3.X player (that switched to Pathfinder over time) and there was an optional rule (I can't remember if it was from Unearthed Arcana or the DMG) where you could have your players roll AC. Seeing as we were already quite high level we switched to this system to add a little variability in the results (and as a DM I thought they would like the option to roll for defense rather than just having a static number, because who doesn't love rolling dice) and never looked back, but lately I've been using the group initiative variant among other things in order to speed up combat, and I was considering dropping that specific rule to minimize the math... And I never even thought of doing it this way. This is brilliant. And I'm dumb.
Hey, Hungry Hungry Hippos is an untouchable classic! ;o)
Prof., love your positive energy and love for the game. Thanks for the content and stay safe.
I absolutely love your channel! I joined your Patreon and the content is amazing - thank you so much!
I love all Dungeoncraft videos!
Thank you.
I absolutely agree with your basic thesis. I've made changes to every game I've ever run and to my eye many of those changes have made the games better. (Some have made them actively worse and it's possible that some of my players might disagree with my assessment, but that's the risk you take.) If you and your players are happy, there's not a problem.
That said, be very careful with the changes you make. Depending on the game system you're using and the changes you make, it can be the case that unexpected or inobvious consequences may attend upon any change. While I often disagree with rules designers' decisions, they certainly spend more time than I do thinking about their games. And sometimes there are dependencies that are both crucial and not easy to see.
As to whether you're playing D&D? I'd say no, because your game is about as closely related to any published version of D&D as d20 Call of Cthulhu or (to use a much earlier example) Empire of the Petal Throne. This is not intended as a value judgement (not least because I haven't considered "D&D" as a label to be a selling point since the late '70s), just an issue of _truth_ in labeling. I would consider the game that you have described to be a heavily house-ruled descendant of D&D ... same genus, different species.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply, Doug. I agree about being careful when making changes. One rule can have a huge unintended effect on other rules. Cheers!
I came up with a rule, in case you want Constitution to matter more in your game.
You add your constitution modifier to your hit points only once. If your constitution modifier changes, ajust your hit point maximum accordingly.
Vitality rule: You have vitality points that represent your life force and how much mortal wounds you can take before you can't endure anymore.
You vitality points on level 1 equals your Constitution value. If your Constitution value increases you get that same amount in extra vitality points (1 extra constitution point = 1 extra vitality point).
Whenever your character drops to 0 hit points you lose one vitality point (you still must roll death saves).
As optional rules, losing vitality points may also give your character a scar. Special attacks that lowers your hit point maximum (like the Succubus/Incubus kiss) also drain one vitality point. If any massive damage rule is being used the DM might also request a CON saving throw (DC 15) to avoid losing vitality points in that situation.
If a character loses all his vitality points he dies and can not be resurrected.
Example: Tordin, the dwarf, has a constitution value of 16 on level one. Which means he has 16 vitality points and he gets +3 hit points.
In his adventures he dropped to 0 hit points 12 times and has only 4 vitality points left.
At level 4 however Tordin decides to add 2 points in constitution (total = 18). That gives him 2 extra vitality points (total = 6) and increases his hit point maximum by 1 point (since his modifier went from +3 to +4).
Feel free to alter this rule as you want ^_^
PS: If a rule like this already exists, I'm sorry, I'm just ignorant to that fact. I'm not trying to take credit for anything.
I'm usually against HR because I think they change a lot balance:
For example CON is meant to differentiate pg HP...
For example DEX is meant to differentiate pg Initiative...
But I understand that FUN has a priority.
Anyway I'm really happy that you shared the "facing combat" rule. I love it, because it doesn't change the math, involves the player more and reduce the work for the DM.
In short you are letting the player rolls with a complementar d20, setting an equivalent DC to their rolls.
U can use this formula to speed up mental calculation:
DC=22-DELTA
where DELTA = AC - Hit Bonus (When monsters attack PG; u can see it as PG trying to dodge)
where DELTA = DC - Save bonus (When monster try to resist spells; u can see it as PG trying to hit the monster)
this popped up in my feed the same day as I found out that one of the P2e options one of my players wanted was an updated version of the P1e ability that came out a year after I had house-ruled it into existence in a campaign from over a decade ago. also had class-independent archetypes before they showed up in books. someone keeps reading my house rule notes.
Glad you found it!
@DUNGEONCRAFT1 been a fan for a while. I used to have the guy in my gaming group who designed the thief class that Gygax stole. 🤓
Love it! The clue is in the title, "Guide", something that helps you form an opinion or make a decision about something else.
I’ve only watched a few videos and already have so many good ideas to improve the game I run. I’m thankful for your wisdom!
Thanks for watching!
I always enjoy hearing people's house rules. Great video!
"Why don't you just play with Duplos?!"
Adding Con Mod to hit point recovery could take the sting out of dropping the mod from total hit points.
Yep.
"this is the company that makes Hungry Hungry Hippos".....and with that, PDM wins the Internet!
Hasbro makes Hungry Hungry Hippos...that was worth the price of admission right there
Thx PDM! Great video as always.
another great video Professor :) I am certainly going to take your words of wisdom under consideration .
As a service member who started watching your videos to DM for shipmates while we were underway, best of luck to your son in the Army.
Now, real talk, where did you get that killer tie?
Thank you and thank you for your service.
Nice job. Love the family element.
Yet another video I love.
Please more videos like this!
Working all the time on them. Thank you.
I have my own system for level advancement. The best example is like a classic Zelda game: Characters have a base set of skills that doesn’t really change (a 12 on a d20 is a success for any skill that fits their history/profession), a couple of signature items that will grow as they accomplish more things. The only leveling they do is hit points. Everyone starts with 16, and they add 1 hp to their hp total after they have taken a cumulative of their current Max hp in damage. So if they have 16 hp and they take 4 damage 4 times across 3 encounters ( they likely will have healed between these encounters, but that doesn’t affect the cumulative tracking of hp loss for advancement) they will add 1 hp to their maximum which will now be 17 hp. This accounts for being more accustomed to taking a hit, so if you always hang out in the back shooting a bow/casting spells your hp maximum will never change, but frontliners will get better and better at taking hits, acting while injured and shrugging off lower damage injuries in battle.
A Huge High Five to PDM for your signature ending...class is back in session. lol Anyway, I think we've heard most of these ideas over the course of your videos. Nice to see them in one place. But more than that, I like the idea that you discussed one of them that your still contemplating showing that these rules can be refined and detailed out. Nothing is set in stone if another or better idea comes along. You have the best Dungeons and Dragons channel anywhere. Agree or Disagree with your talking points...you make us think and strive to better the/our game. Always look forward to Thursday. And another Huge High Five to your friend Veronica, a true hero...praying for her safety and thanking her for her efforts. Yes, I'm stealing this, but can't think of anyone who deserves it more...PDM and Veronica...May all your rolls be 20's as well. Cheers!!
Thank you so much for this long, very kind, very encouraging post. It's very flattering, because there are so many great D&D channels. Please share DungeonCraft wherever you can so we can grow. Cheers!
Nice Old School Essentials Boxed Set in the back. Need to get myself a copy of the Rules Tome.
Useful insights and good luck to your son.
Initiative: flip coin or 1d4 even gos clockwise odds gos counter clockwise. Depending on which direction rock,paper,scissors to player left or right of DM winner either player or enemies gos first. Takes 3 seconds, example start of every round (or combat) DM rolls 1d4 rolls 3, looks player to the right DM throws Rock, Player throws paper meaning that round of combat players go first counter clockwise around table followed by enemies. Once everyone gers used to it gos pretty fast add randomness. DM could pick random player for rock,paper,scissors for even more randomness and no math.
I love it when your family participates! :-)
It is a fascinating idea to think about running the whole schoolsystem on D&D :oD
You can teach almost everything through RPG-Gameplay....
MATH, LANGUAGE, GEOGRAPHY, HISTORY, RELIGION, SOCIALOLGY,. Storytelling, Dramaturgy, Acting, Strategy....
As a teacher you should create a concept for a pure RPG-Elementary-School for Kids
Very wholesome interaction with your son.
Good advice.
I have homebrewed may rules. It helps make my world unique. Crit hits we had way back in 1st ed. Always look forward to your insights. DMing for a group of ladies must be interesting.lol Thx again.
In before anybody else! Can't wait for this week's lesson, professor.
Thanks, Alex!
For my old-school game I added a magic-user option called "enervatic channeling", the MU can recast any spell they have already used by taking d4 damage per spell level. Our wizard player uses it quite a bit, in a couple of desperate combats he's taken enough damage from using it to put the character out if play. Gives low level MUs another option and it really cranks up the grimdark when your wizard gets off one last spell before passing out with blood coming from their eyes.
House Rules MUST exist. As long as DM and Players understand and agree beforehand.
It's a game - that has been changed by the publishers a million times. Nothing is set in concrete. It's meant to be FUN!
In my games, a 1 is NOT always a 'miss' and a 20 is NOT always a 'hit', for example. I have other variants.
The very heart of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons
Hey I'm excited for this because while our preferences in D&D and roleplaying games are very different It's always interesting to hear such a wildly variant point of view to the opinions I'm usually surrounded by. Normally I dungeon master, but as a player my primary concern when I hear a lot of your house rules from earlier videos is that I would feel like my choices don't have any mechanical meaning as a player. If my characters hit points cap at a low value that isn't really even that varied based on class/stat/race because as a whole you want combat to be quick and deadly then I feel like no matter what I do as a player I'm just beholden to dying if I get hit. If everything in the room is a specified difficulty class to make adjudication faster, and you judge whether I can do something based on what archtype I'm playing (fighter, thief, cleric, magic user) then my character as an individual doesn't matter. I'm going to be just as good at lockpicking as every other thief. If everyone gets one action on a turn then really it just feels like I'm throwing my one thing into the pot and while it does make it more of a collaborative effort I almost feel like I could be missing from the table and it wouldn't matter. I have no way of leveraging rules because there's no foundation that the player has any control over. Which is definitely something that seems by design, after all your the dungeon master, what you say goes. However it just seems too far in that direction for me because I feel like I wouldn't even have control over my own character- their success and failure isn't even determined by the dice, it just feels like its arbitrary decision making that isn't transparent at all- like I'm just along for a ride and I'm getting whatever narrative stew is delivered. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it feels like it breaks a lot of the trust I'd expect at the table because as a player there should be moments where the DM loses control too. That's what really makes it a collaborative storytelling experience.
Hi! I think what this boils down to is what kind of experience you are looking for at your table: if the majority of people on the table tend toward the tactician spectrum of player personalities and derive most of their fun from crunching the numbers and mastering the mechanics, many of these proposed changes are not meant for that table. These house rules aim to facilitate and accelerate a more narrative and/or thespian playstyle. For players who derive most of their fun from these game aspects, it is not the HP or the AC or their proficiency in some skill that defines their character, but their, well... *character*, or personality. When you say you'd be afraid your character as an individual doesn't matter, you are refering to the mechanical individuality of the character; but in a more narrative-focused game the decisions and actions of each single character shape the overall story and experience more than whether that character gets a +2 or +4 to a saving throw. A thief with a heart of gold from a humble background will behave very differently when themselves being targeted by urchin pickpockets than a greedy catburglar who is strictly in the business of filling their pockets, no matter who suffers for it - and it is these deciding narrative moments these house rules are meant to lead to more quickly per session, at the expense of mechanical detail.
I don't fully understand the criticism on losing control of your character with the house rules presented here, on the contrary: the player facing combat gives the player MORE rolls, and therefore fewer chances for the DM to fudge, should you be allergic to that. A thing I just realized is how "arbitrary" is usually negatively connotated, though a DM is exactly that, an arbiter, a judge. Maybe we as a community should move to haphazard or capricious to describe unwanted, unexpected or incomprehensible DM adjucation.
While I can't speak directly for PDM's game itself as I've never played in it, I can defend the narrative style and say that it's not nearly as disempowering as you might think. I realize that for some those that are used to the wargamey chess game, it can feel very disempowering to take away all the grid squares. But with the loss of the chess game, you get a ton of narrative freedom. It does require a good narrative DM of course, but you'll be rewarded for good plays in the narrative. Back in the OSR days it wasn't just throwing perception skill at everything. You'd be probing with a 10 ft pole, tapping walls looking for hollow spots, opening chests from the side to avoid a dart trap and so on. And if you played during those days, the modern rules-hard styles felt very constraining. In many cases it was more about player ingenuity than just having the right ability on your character sheet to solve the problem. Most modern DMs wouldn't have any idea how to rule on a PC using a 10 ft pole or all the other manner of crazy ideas OSR-style PCs come up with.
Hell if anything, I feel like the narrative thief is a lot more interesting, because the modern incarnation is just "make a perception check, and then a disable device check to open locks or disarm traps." That to me is very boring. You're basically just tossing dice at problems hoping they go away.
Really I don't have trouble with either style and think both work well, really I feel like the problem comes in when DMs rule inconsistently, sometimes making rigid wargamey rulings and other times making narrative common sense rulings.
I don't have a problem with narrative DMing, and I don't think that more mechanically heavy roleplaying means that the roleplay has to stop or that problemsolving goes out the window. The main problem I have, and the main place that I see loss of control, is the emphasis on game pacing and dramatic tension at the expense of character choice or player control. For example using 5e D&D as a basis, mechanically the only repercussion for using a longbow without proficiency is a lack of the proficiency bonus. I've been in games where we decided to ambush a ferryboat on a river. We had longbows for every party member regardless of class because we knew that they had a range of 150/600 feet and that even if you were taking non proficient shots at disadvantage that ship was stuck following the rivers current and couldn't just turn around easily because we had scouted the terrain beforehand.
From a narrative perspective that combat had essentially no dramatic tension to it because the people guarding the ferry were trapped, if they tried to jump off and swim we had answers for it, if they simply tried to hide on the boat we had the option of stopping the ship and waiting them out. As a player I'd be incredibly frustrated if a narrative focused DM invented a new problem to insert dramatic tension into a moment where the players set themselves up for success- were there should be no tension because they planned and executed. If the DM said "No your mage can't use a longbow because they aren't proficient" I'd understand if they physically couldn't pull it back and they were as restricted with every other type of strength based requirement- but if it was just to force the party to insert their characters and split up based on ability I wouldn't like it.
I wouldn't be a fan of requirements and limitations being inserted or removed based on rule of cool or narrative tension. I want consistency and a structural foundation that allows creativity to exist. Because without a structural stability- whether that comes from a firm rules system or a narrative DM that is impartial and consistent, then you can't really be creative because every situation is adjudicated based on whim. When drama and pacing take paramount importance over consistency and worldbuilding is where I really have a problem with things. So when the mentality is "whats the right answer- it doesn't matter make a call and keep the game moving" or "tell me what you want your spell to do and I'll tell you what it does this time." Then i need a huge amount of trust in that DM that he's not running things just to keep the story engaging at the expense of knowing I can actually influence situations and I'm interacting with a real world.
@@RemedialHappyMan I feel like most of the things you are afraid of happening when using PDM's house rules are not really side effects of the rules in and of themselves, but boil down to an inconsistent or even antagonistic DM who can't gauge or doesn't prioritize the engagement of their players. When you say "without a structural stability- whether that comes from a firm rules system or a narrative DM that is impartial and consistent, then you can't really be creative because every situation is adjudicated based on whim", you seem to imply that EITHER firm rules OR an impartial and consistent DM is sufficient to ensure the stability you crave, but I submit that the DM is head and shoulders more important to the "stability" of a game than the rules system. Remember, even if the players think they can "beat the DM", plan for every eventuality, the DM could in theory deus ex machina the hell out of a situation and just make all that planning obsolete, totally rules legal, because they are the DM - although a very bad one. When DMs use that power simply to thwart the players' plans and make them feel miserable and defeated, it doesn't matter whether they obey every RAW, FAQ and errata or not - they are a bad DM and will probably ruin every table, no matter the game system. The moment you accept that a good DM is ON YOUR SIDE and trying to tell your characters' stories as compellingly as possible, players shouldn't feel restricted by fewer rules, but empowered to do what brings the most fun to the table, regardless of numbers on character sheets.
A question on your ferry ambush example: When you say "from a narrative perspective that combat had essentially no dramatic tension to it", why was that so, and how long did you play out that combat with "no tension to it"? And was it still fun? If you planned the ambush so well that there was literally absolutely no possibility of another outcome (the ambushed have no ranged weapons, no magic users, no emergency escape plans, no backup?), do you really need to play out 20-60 minutes of game time and x combat rounds to wait until the dice "decided" you decimated them? Or would you rather that the DM describes or even lets YOU as players describe what exactly happened, how you heroically stopped the escaping despot and his retinue and brought them to justice as a reward for your incredibly solid plan (that probably took as long as an actual combat to come up with), and then get on with the story? When a scene has *literally* no tension, only one possible outcome - why play it? Just to roll dice for the sake of rolling dice?
@@PatchedUpMusic
I definitely think you're right in that an antagonistic DM can easily just circumvent a rules system. It's within their right to change any circumstance they want and they can always justify it after- in fact they never need to justify it. They're the DM and what they say happens happened.
There was no dramatic tension because the outcome was pretty much pre-determined, no characters were at any risk, success was pretty much guaranteed. It took maybe 50 minutes to play out and I still think it was fun because it was a few precious moments to see characters come to life. I can say my character is a dexterous fighter who is a good archer- but if we just narratively played it out and cut through the ambush I'd just be saying things- it feels like when the dice fall and you get to add those modifiers its a statistical confirmation that gives you the greenlight to roleplay something and say "yes this actually happened- I didn't just say it, the rules that we use to adjudicate the world confirmed it." It's silly but it adds credence to adult make believe in the same way that the DM making a name up for an NPC on the fly feels less real than if he had it written down before hand. He's literally making up the NPC in both cases but the dice falling, and the name being written down somehow magically hack the perception that "these things are real and codified" even though I know that's silly.
To me the story of the game is what happens at the table when everyone is playing their characters. I still remember roleplaying an unplanned moment where our characters were writing our wills and it got me to confess to another character and it lead to a huge roleplaying moment that felt real. However in regards to narrative plots that the DM is weaving I'd rather roleplay cooking sausage around the campfire while rotating watches than discover who murdered the lords niece. I'm not a beer and pretzels tactical player- I love roleplaying and having complex characters but I want a simulated world far more than I want a dramatic narrative. If we play for 8 hours wandering the wilderness and just never happen to roll on a wilderness table that puts us in any dramatic situations then that makes the game feel more real than if the DM interjects a dramatic moment just because nothing is happening. Sometimes literally nothing happens, the weather is clear skies, and there's nothing to do but march and enjoy the peace.
Ok but the rule about letting the player roll to see if the enemy hits is really genious. Im definitelly going to try that with my group of new players
Well thanks... now I have "Veronica" by Elvis Costello going through my head.
We used to sing that to her all the time. Why did we stop?
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Because 31 years passed and now it's on Oldies stations? That would be my guess, anyway. :) th-cam.com/video/g-rF4COOd9c/w-d-xo.html
2:00 Critical hits have been "standard rules" since 3.0, where they factor in significantly for weapon balance and have many associated feats and features. 2nd edition had a different version of them as optional rules, as the video mentioned.
I am from Russia and I am not a native speaker. Back in the day, translations weren't existed beyond fan translated core books, so people had to use English books. I still remember how I struggled to create my first character - a 1 lvl rogue in dnd 3.5 - it took around 1 week with a dictionary. Yeah, dnd and marvel movies definitely contributed a lot to my English education.
I feel like this is going to be a long video since your game seems to be mostly house rules lol, very excited!
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Thank you for the video! I find a lot of places online, not just your comment section, have the "why are you trying to change the rules" mentality. I get frustrated with people who say "if you like older editions then go play them", and "maybe D&D isn't the system you want to play".
I really like D&D 5e, but there's a few things I want to add or borrow from Pathfinder 2e or other editions of the game. This video is so right in that the only permission anyone needs to use house rules is their players enjoying the game.
@@TaberIV So do I. Thanks for watching and pass this video along and let it do the arguing for you!
Hey professor DM,
Do you have any opinions on Fate RPG and/or Accelerated? I feel like a lot of ideas that you propose in modding DnD e.g. lower amounts of hit points, zone based movement, a focus on the pure "roll this or higher and you pass", the awesome points that you can use to change the outcome of things that happen somewhat parallel fate points, levelling up not being very important. That, plus the extreme moddability and narrative focus of the system seems like it would be relatively ideal for your purposes. Maybe there's a video in it?
I've read Fate. My players would never accept the loss of the D&D d20 "engine." So here we are.
100% agree on the philosophy of house ruling.
I keep the constitution modifier to hit points, but my resting system is different. You only get 1hp per character level (+con modifier one time) on a short rest. 3hp per level on a long rest if you are in a unconfortable area and 5 hp for a good night sleep in a confortable bed and eating a good meal. Now your healing priest's spells has even more value.
#3 Player Facing Combat - I have been playing D&D/Pathfinder for a lonnnnnng time and have never really given much thought about the players rolling to avoid the monster hitting them. I really like this concept. I will be implementing this with my Friday night group to see how it works for them and how they like it. I like it because the players are involved with the action the monsters are taking.
Nice Vest of protection, Good house rules episode.
Another stellar video!
I love modifying rules. I've done it so much I am contemplating publishing my game.
Oh, and 137 (the episode number) is my favorite number. :)
DO IT! I'll buy it on the first day.
Thumbs up for Dan and Veronica !
I go with a simple xp progression. Level1-4, 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, per level, by level 20, it's 19000-20000 for max level.
For giving out xp, lower levels, I go with 250 for a section, end of mini adventure or session, if 3000 xp are given, they get two levels. At higher levels, sections can be worth 500 to 2500 xp. It depends on how often the group plays together.
Easy to understand. I like it.
Gary Gygax specifically states in the AD&D DM’s guide the DM has the ultimate decision on the rules. It blew my mind as a kid, a game that essentially has all these rules but you didn’t need to play by them. It was awesome.
One system to keep it player facing and without initiative is to have a single roll for each exchange, then determine if the PC or enemy gets hit by measuring the degree of success (enemy is hit) or failure (PC is hit). Freeform Universal uses something similar where the results of any task go from: yes, and...; yes; yes, but... to no, but...; no; and no, and. Something like this could possibly do both.
My preference for Hit Points is to have them simply equal to Strength, perhaps with a multiplier for size (halved for Small creatures, doubled for Large, quadrupled for Huge) and if they were to rise simply on level up...it'd be strictly a feature of the Fighter class to get +1 or +2 HP per level, flat with no CON bonus or the like.
You sir have the patience of a saint.
Any tabletop game that goes on long enough eventually becomes an amalgamation of book rules and house rules.
My table loved group initiative and player facing combat. More team building and more Player Rolling = action at every turn
Glad your group enjoyed!
My two favorites from the DMG are Side Initiative, and Hero Points.
I also changed all of the racial ability score modifiers to modifiers to the minimum of 8 on the score, so everyone has the same potential. Then, your level 1 class choice gives you a +2 and a +1 that suits the class. That way players don't ever have to think, "Which race is going to make the best wizard?" and they can instead choose the race based mostly on roleplaying preference with the knowledge that their potential in the class is just about as good as anyone else's would be.
The key takeaway IMO is that there is no perfect system. But I agree that ICRPG and Five Torches Deep comes close, with some of the Dungeon Adventuring rules from Old School Essentials and the spell failure / corruption rules from DCC.
Not really a big fan of 5e but while I was running it I implemented a house rule that inspiration could be acquired up to 5 points and spent thusly:
1 = standard inspiration effects
3 = one automatic success/hit
5 = one automatic critical success/hit
This provided plenty of incentive to role-play and remedied what I've always hated in gaming- that universal law that says when the player delivers the coolest line of the campaign but rolls lousy on the follow-through thus ruining their shining moment.
Running an OSR clone, I created my own magic system similar to yours: no spell slots, cast whenever but use a d12 and require the player to roll higher than the spell's level (I have modifiers on a chart of which they have copies). I like this for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that those long, intricate and complex spells are just that much harder to keep straight when under serious pressure.
Thanks for sharing! Instead of inspiration, I recommend DM Scotty's (from DM's Craft) Luck Dice. Once you play with it, inspiration is like watching paint dry. It solves the very problem you describe--whiffing the shining moment. I don't get a kick-back. I just love it and recommend it everyone. At $1 it's a bargain: www.questgivers.com/product.php?p=20
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Thanks for the tip; I'll check it out!
Ive noticed my Players rarely ever read the rules so I tend to steal mechanics I like from other games to put in whatever game I'm running.
Then I get to use all my favourite mechanics.
My favourite house rule is characters get contacts at charcter creation, they only need to come up with them when they need a contact for x. That way they dont have useless contacts.
Another great video! I'm going to have to make a ton of rule changes for my next group of players. Just found out that one of the kids in my autism class likes D&D. I'm an assistant for a classroom for autism K-4/5. So over the summer I'm going to make a UDT and some very simplified rules! They love Candy Land... so let's see how they will like this! Gonna try to incorporate some simple math with d6s. Wish me luck!
I do love all these ideas but my favorite is the critical failure spell roll. I have always loved this idea.
Here is what I use for initiative - everyone rolls a d20 and the highest goes first followed around clockwise, or the DM rolls a dice based on the number of players+1 for the bad guys. That number goes first and then clockwise. This gives the game randomness that people like and fast and easy to track.
I hope you like it and use it.
The Last Laugh!
Perfect!
House rule I encountered back in the day: Natural 20 crit hits.....opponent must make death save. On failure death, if they save they take double damage.
The group initiative kind of tends to also create in party issues with several character options. Some people like to make characters that go first, or are built entirely about needing it, others tend to prefer going later on because that's where they're skills are set up. I've got a Paladin who prefers going later in the order because he's more heavily support based, while the rogue and fighter in the party want to go as early as possible...no dex, and lumbering in heavy armor while the swashbuckler can run in and the archer starts picking targets off.
I've had fun importing the active Initiative system from Spycraft into a few games, where initiative can change around between turns as players do things to influence it, I've also heavily considered swapping HP for the VP/WP system that debuted in the SW D20 stuff.