We had a break from gaming last week as too many people had other plans for the long holiday weekend (Labor Day in the US). So no session recap. Instead, here’s the house rules that we’ve been using for our 5e game…all subject to change of course. But first…a bit of news.
We won’t be playing next week so tonight, even though we’ll have almost a full table, we’re going to play the Side Quest again. We also will have a new player, Jeremy, joining us. He’ll be playing Ulfgar Ironfist, a dwarven fighter. It also sounds like Todd may have to bow out from playing on a regular basis. We might have another person interested in joining as well.
We’re also going to be dropping the Starter Set campaign and the Lost Mines of Phandelver adventure. To be honest, if we don’t play a campaign for awhile, I start to lose interest in it…especially if it is one that I’m not heavily invested in in terms of time and effort. Lost Mines kind of falls into that category as–other than the beginning at Crellar’s Trading Post–I really hadn’t done much to change or flesh it out yet.
Instead, we’ll continue with The Side Quest when we don’t have a “quorum” of players (the minimum number to be determined later) and we’ll be starting a new campaign soon. It’ll will be based on the excellent little mini-setting, The Lonely Coast, from Raging Swan Press. I’ll, of course, be changing, adding, and subtracting to make it my own. After a little “poll” on our forums this week, it looks like the campaign will be a heroic fantasy campaign with multiple locales to explore and intrigue to get caught up in with a pinch of ancient civilizations, a dash of swaggering-mercenary attitude, a splash of humor, and a subtle hint of good old-fashioned swords and sorcery.
Damn…I started to ramble. Better get back on topic. Our house rules are below the break.
Disclaimer…I love Savage Worlds. It is probably my favorite system and so many of our house rules are inspired and borrowed from it. These are also based on the Basic D&D pdf and not the full Player’s Handbook.
No Initiative Checks: We will be using the card system for Initiative from Savage Worlds. You are dealt a new card at the start of each round and initiative is counted down from highest (Ace is high) to lowest. If there is a tie on a card, the order is determined by card suit in reverse alphabetical order…spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs.
If you are dealt a Joker, you can go whenever you want in the round. In addition, your actions during the round have Advantage.
Any mention in the rules of DEX affecting Initiative checks is to be ignored. Actually, any mention of Initiative checks is to be largely ignored. If some rule or effect comes into play as part of an Initiative check, we’ll wing it and we’ll come up with a house rule for it later.
Hold Action: You can go “on hold” to go later in the round. Instead of taking your turn when your card dictates, you just wait and go later. This differs from the Ready action in that you delay your entire turn and you cannot interrupt another creature’s action(s) while on Hold. You either go before or after another creature finishes their action. If you are still on Hold at the end of the round, you are not dealt a new initiative card in the next round…you are still considered to be on Hold.
For the purposes of any effects, checks, or conditions that begin, end, or occur on your next turn, use the card that you were dealt that round. If you are “on hold” multiple rounds, the beginning of the round is considered your turn for this purpose. In other words, you can’t go “on hold” to postpone or avoid a detrimental effect or to prolong a beneficial one…stop trying to game the system! 😉
Inspiration: Everyone gets two “Bennies” at the start of the session. These can be used to grant your character advantage on a single check but it must be used in a manner that plays out your personality traits, gives in to the drawbacks presented by a flaw or bond, or otherwise portrays your character in a compelling way. You can also give another player one of your “Bennies” to use but only if it is going to be used in a manner that plays out their personality traits and such. This replaces Inspiration (pp. 35-36) because I suck at handing out stuff like that in the heat of play.
Thief’s Reflexes (pg. 28): You are dealt two cards and take a turn on each.
Arcane Recovery (pg. 31): The text reads as usable once per day. We will be interpreting this as you can use again after a long rest.
Carrying Capacity (pg. 60): As long as no one abuses this, we won’t really bother with carrying capacity and encumbrance. If the players abuse it, we’ll start bothering with it.
Standing from Prone (pp. 70-71): This action only costs 10 feet of your movement rather than half.
Cover (pg. 74): If you target a creature that has at least half cover (but less than total cover), you have disadvantage on your attack and the creature gets advantage on any Dexterity saving throws. This replaces the normal penalties for half or three-quarters cover.
Mounting and Dismounting (pg. 77): These actions only cost 10 feet of your movement rather than half.
That’s pretty much it for now. I’m sure we’ll come across other things or things impacted by the above as we play the game more and we’ll deal with them then.
