Thanks for the reminder that TTRPGs are supposed to be about having fun in whatever way you and your gaming group define it, and if the rules as written don't work, it is both your right and duty to ignore or rewrite them to suit yourself. There is a reason why on all those "Who do you trust most?" surveys, TTRPG rules lawyers consistently come in at the bottom just below politicians and people who use your toothbrush without your permission.
I originally had not been interested in solo play rules, until a friend of mine (who also runs games for kids) pointed out it can also be used as good practice for upcoming games, especially if you are nervous about it. Take for example: I am in an online Tunnels &Trolls game every wed, and I had pitched running Shadowdark to them when the gm wants to take a break. I will totally be practicing and prepping more than normal for that group (because I’m hoping they’ll want to switch to Shadowdark ;-) ) I’m excited to see the next videos, and thanks for putting that pdf out!
@@DexSaveDan Dang it! This is the 2nd time that I had commented on someone else's video, and somehow it ended up on another video. I have yet to watch this one, and had written these comments on Kelsey's last video (Solodark). Sorry. Hopefully my comments on this one will end up on this and not another video (lol)
So, for real this time: You are so right on all your rules changes! I do pretty much the same with Initiative on all games I run. And my wife totally hates the fact that they need to roll for damage... and I totally agree that you can roll well, but crap on the damage dice. I really like the roll to cast system for magic, but magic/mana points is also waaaay better than spell slots for modern games (I only tolerate it when I'm playing pre-3rd edition D&D since AD&D's and B/X version was easier than whatever the hell 5th Edition has done with it. I totally need to read ICRPG some time. Thanks again!
Fucking brilliant! I use a ton of those too. For multiple actions in a round (not just their turn) players they con take a -3 penalty for each additional action. I’m looking at the action points too, seems like a great way to do this. Oh, love the animated creatures. GI Joe was a fun Easter egg.
🥳🫂👍🏿 Love a good house rule - I’m on a quest to collect every house rule on RU-vid and beyond - thank you for sharing and thank you for trying to give sources - very much appreciate it ❤ would love to hear about any others you use
I’ve been doing round the table for about a year and ditched opportunity attacks in general, but I like your check idea - we’ve been using Nimble 5e exploding dice with no roll to hit - probably the wildest house rule my players have let me try
awesome video lol - on the topic of exploding dice: It makes daggers more desirable to use since a d4 is more likely to explode compared to a d12 2hander which won't explode as often - I think a nice balance to exploding dice rules is to simplify weapon die - One handed weapons are d6's, two handed weapons are 2d6s to keep things consistently exciting. I'm the type of guy that likes double the damage and half the hitpoints to both NPCs and Players... just keeps things more dangerous, exciting, and fast paced O_O
@@DexSaveDan More d6 stuff, I handle initiative with it too lol. We roll a GIANT D6 on the table; 1-3 enemies go first, 4-6 players go first. Let the players strategize rather than wait 20 to 40 mins for their turn lol. Teamwork with your friends is way more fun than taking turns separately. At least it is for my table. I let the players add the Giant D6 to their rolls, but they either spend a Hit Die to use it or give me a "GM POINT" That I get to use to do a variety of things: bring in a reinforcement, drop a stalagmite on them and make them reflex/dex saving throw, make an enemy do extra damage, give an enemy an action surge, whatever... I might instantly spend that GM point to "Yes, but..." them as well... Yes you succeed on your attack, but the muddy terrain proves to be too slippery; you fall prone. Why is it more fun this way? Danger makes for more exciting and suspenseful encounters- succeeding feels good - and "yes, but's" makes more interesting narratives... it's what all fiction in literature is based on... It's a proven formula, might as well use it in TTRPGS which are very story based. (look at any movie or book you love... it's just a series of Yes, buts...) This d6 initiative and the GM POINT mechanic we tag onto it accomplishes all of this. The magic you can accomplish with a simple d6 is amazing. Cheers!
That's cool, I mean I only mentioned it a couple of times and just did a load of jokes. I'll do a more in-depth one later, still loads of jokes though I can promise you that.
5E includes Kobold Press and LevelUp, too😊 Roll Initiative once for the entire session - Total Party Skills Clockwise around the table for turn order; swap seats to reorder - ICRPG
I understand where you are coming from in the first 2, is just that these both punish some playstyles really hard. The roge looses a ton of value in BA with no OA and characters with bonuses to the initiative get shafted. Same with critical failiures in combat, every martial, but specially the fighters are dropping their weapon or smth once every couple turns, it seems bad for them
Crit fails can be really fun, but it works less for dnd as spellcasters have so many spells they can't crit fail When we played a dungeon world homebrew, crit fails was one of my fav things as it really made the story alive and magic became risky etc, there is something really interesting crit failing a spell and teleporting into your magic staff having to find a way to escape while your allies are now really sweaty of what just happened For iniative, I think it can be done without, playing without and doing it boardgame style is so much smoother ^^ For disengaging it's an easy fix for the rouge and that's give them advantage or something, but having to roll could be more interesting as there could be enemies that are harder to go away from etc In the end it's all what you prefer yourself and you can only try out stuff or not ^^
This is such a well thought out, deep response. I was just going to say F**K ROUGE'S!! and MARTIAL CLASSES CAN STOP F**KING WHINING!!! But, basically what @spookimi said.
Sounds like you actually want to be playing Dragonbane lol. -It's got card-based initiative so you just deal out a card each and lowest number goes first. Super easy. -Moving away from an enemy you get to make a roll against your Evade skill (it's a roll-under system) before they get an attack of opportunity. And since it's roll-under you not only always know what your chance of success is but you can also explicitly build your character to essentially ignore AoOs. -There are tables for crit fails on both melee and ranged attacks and Spellcasting. Not to mention the critical injury table for whenever you go down in combat. -Forget mana points, DB has Willpower Points. A single unified resource that fuels not only your spells but all abilities beyond basic actions as well. Whether you're a Mage summoning Undynes, a Warrior pounding enemies to the ground with Massive Blow or a Merchant asking their gut which way leads to riches using Treasure Hunter you're all still using Willpower Points.
Obviously it depends on the type of storytelling the campaign is - but especially in one-shots, all rules can just go out the window right. It doesn't even matter if it shafts the players, or gives them a ridiculous advantage - so long as the story is being told.
Lot of these I already did when I was gm or my friend who was the gm, some are new like the disengage and with the dex roll also allows also for more interesting enemies etc ^^ Crit fails was always my fav, we always would gain more xp as well at the end as crit fails were just fun ^^
@@DexSaveDan my first introduction of ttrpgs was with homebrew dungeon world and I always just loved homebrew and changing what doesn't work When our gm switched to dnd, the game was still fun but the dungeon world days were just better, dnd felt to official and more by the rules of dnd instead of rule of cool (gm still did an amazing job, but I think it was there unconsciously) I mainly play wargames now as it's easier to get a game going but I keep the same mentality and it keeps me also mentally healthier from all the negative content etc out there I would love to play a ttrpg again but as a player, I don't have the time to gm and I miss being a player ^^
initiative, yepp simple is better, with our game initiative is about, does the pc attack or defend, different approach, kind of, does it slow down not really, its reflective on your survival, if you get stuck rolling defense on each turn for initiative, you could die. if you roll attack on each turn then the critter is most likely going to die. adds some chaos to the combat rounds,
oooh and magic, well we've come up with something a weee bit different there too, no meditating, no spell books to read, ... magic stones, simply roll against the DC to identify using your INT mod and if successful, then roll on the spell table to see which spell, done. once used though, its done gotta find another magic stone in order to do more, at least until 4th level then there are advanced skill options, but hey im rambling... :)
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