Angry Cab Comic: January 2024

Thursday, January 18, 2024

My revised house rules for my D&D Basic Set campaign.

I’m writing down my house rules for my D&D Basic Set campaign, while waiting for One D&D to be published. These are my house rules that I learned from playing in fun for all campaigns run by entertaining game masters.

The characters from my basic campaign will transfer to my One D&D campaign. With constructive feedback from my players, these house rules will change from time to time.

My house rules will create stronger Player Characters (PCs) that will survive most combats. That will encourage my players to invest time into their fictional characters’ backgrounds, as well as skills and goals outside of combat. In short, my PCs have lives outside of collecting experience points and treasure.

Here is an example:

“I was born and raised in the city of Ravens Bluff.

“Two years ago, I was recruited into the Harpers. By classroom instruction, physical training, and outdoor experience I become first level. My Harpers mentor will give me advice for personal or group problems. (This is similar to Princess Celestia being a mentor to Twilight Sparkle.)

“I am the eldest child of seven. Both my parents and six younger siblings are alive. (If your current PC dies and can’t be revived for a while, then one of your younger siblings will take their place.)

“In the short term, I hope to gain money to support my family.

“In the long term, I hope to build for my family a brewery & tavern, with a large apartment home on the second floor.”

For my campaign’s tone, I intend that my campaign will be a lighthearted adventure resembling the 2023 action comedy movie, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

More precisely, my campaign will be based more on the themes of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and based less on the themes of Game of Thrones.

1. All characters will start off with the lawful alignment. Their characters may not stay lawful. However, their players need good reasons to change their characters' alignments.

2. All characters will start with maximum hit points. In addition, all characters will start with maximum money.

3. My player characters will use the fifth edition rules for leveling up experience points. In D&D Fifth edition, experience points for second level is 300, experience points for third level is 900, and experience points for fourth level is 2,700.

To get to third level your character needs 300 + 900 = 1,200.

To get to fourth level your character needs 300 + 900 + 2,700 = 3,900.

Two D&D game masters I know use rules from several D&D editions. They do that to make their unique, individual home brew campaigns. Also, I put more emphasis into having my group create an entertaining story, rather than following one set of rules. I bend the rules to fit my group’s story, rather than bending my group’s story to fit the rules.

4. All characters are Harper protégés in the Harpers and live by the Code of the Harpers. Your homes and families are in the seaport city of Ravens Bluff, located within the Dragon Reach, a northwestern fjord of the Sea of Fallen Stars. Ravens Bluff is also the city that your game master is most knowledgeable about.

To become first level, all my PCs trained together within the Harpers campus of Ravens Bluff, located on a bluff overlooking the sea. Thus, all my PCs have the Harper protégés - Regional Feat “Luck of Heroes”.

According to the published sourcebooks, “Your land is known for producing heroes. Through pluck, determination, and resilience, you survive when no one expects you to come through.”

Benefit: You receive a +1 luck bonus on all saving throws and a +1 luck bonus to Armor Class.

5. For rolling player character ability stats, my players will roll 4 six-sided dice (4d6) and then discard the lowest roll.

6. Each player character will start with one minor magical weapon (Moon-Touched Sword) or tool (Flaming Battle Pan) as their family heirloom equipment.

7. D&D is a game where you can play someone other than yourself. If you are a woman who has a shy, librarian personality, then do not play a female, elf magic-user! Play instead, an boisterous and outgoing male barbarian.

8. I use Death’s Doorstep in the second edition rules. Your character becomes unconscious at 0 hit points, bleeding to death at 1 hit point per round, and then that character is dead at -10. Any character can stabilize a dying character in one combat round with bandages. Thus, all my PCs should buy and then carry bandages.

9. As a Game Master, I don’t allow one bad dice roll to kill off a player character. If a player plays their character intelligently, they live. For example, I will allow a character to live if they retreat in the face of an overwhelming threat. An enemy NPC will laugh instead of attacking, as a smart player character runs away.

10. I encourage good player behavior, while discouraging bad player behavior. For example, if a player runs their character as a “murder hobo” by disregarding common sense, logic, and self-preservation then I let a difficult situation combined with the dice decide if their character lives or dies. If your bad behavior persists, you may be asked to leave our campaign. No disruptive player has any right to ruin other player’s fun.

11. I will encourage my players to make a common fund to build a PC bastion. A bastion is a fortress, an apartment building, team headquarters, libraries for research, stables for animals, rooms for vehicles, and workplaces to build items. A bastion crewed by NPCs is also useful in creating passive income for player characters while they are out adventuring. The stronger your bastion becomes, the more ‘Bastion Points’ over time your team earns. Your team can then spend those points to purchase hard to obtain magical items.

12. As this is a group storytelling game, please make any constructive suggestions you have. Likewise, if anything in the game is making you feel uncomfortable, decreasing your enjoyment; speak up or hand me a note on an index card (A) so I and/or your fellow players can alter our campaign for your benefit. Each of my players has an equal say in how we create a shared story in our campaign.

(A) Index cards are good for passing notes to your game master or to your fellow players without disrupting the game’s narrative or interrupting someone who is speaking or doing something.

As my father would say, “I have spoken!”

I hope to start my basic D&D campaign, and then my One D&D campaign in 2024!