Game Bastardization Thoughts

Currently our group is having a lot of fun with 5th edition D&D in vanilla form. 

As always though a person gets to looking around for some fun ways to spice things up a bit. There is just something about character creation that seems lacking and a bit too optimal in my opinion. 

So as we get near to looking for a new adventure for my Wednesday night group which is nearing the end of the Lost Mines of Phandelver module I have been giving thought to running the Tyranny of Dragons (ToD) series, Horde of the Dragon Queen (HotDQ) and Rise of Tiamat (RoT). Having read through it a bit it looks like a fun pair of modules and to be honest I kind of like the low prep, I also run a full sandbox game which is high prep.

So here is my idea for rolling up the new characters:

1. Roll for race. This can be done with 1d10, any races with a sub-race gives the player the option to roll for it as well or play the race as it sits.
2. Roll for class, I am debating this a bit and instead letting them declare class before rolling stats.
3. Stat rolling 3d6 down the line, play what you get. Have toyed with the idea of each player rolling a stat for each other.
4. Incorporating the Hackmaster flaws list with each player having to take one flaw for their character.

We tend to play pretty lighthearted games with humor throughout and I figured it would add a bit different dynamic to the game, but I kind of question if this should be done on a ToD campaign or I should save it for a custom campaign.

Going to run it by my group of course, but if anyone has any input or thoughts on the idea I would appreciate the feedback.

Savage Worlds Has My Interest

Went out and bought the Savage Worlds (SW) core manual a bit ago and have probably read through it four times now. Each time I read through it I find myself falling more and more in love with it.

Initially I bought it on a bit of a whim after hearing one of my favorite podcasts talk about it regularly +Gamerstable and how flexible it was. Admittedly I was a bit skeptical because they made it sound too easy to use for any scenario you could think of. After reading it I realized they were actually under selling the system a bit.

Core book gives you anything you may need to run a game, obviously it has character build details like just about any other core book would. What it also includes is a wide range of vehicles, monsters, magic, feats etc. It also includes clearly defined rules for creating custom items, vehicles, NPCs, monsters and so on. The way it is put together is very intuitive and logical to my mind.

Being new to DMing I wanted something that was easy for the players and myself to understand, could easily be modified for any occasion and just got everyone playing quickly, this fits those requirements.

So I am know adding and yet another game night specifically for my daughter and her friends to play a zombie scenario game that begins in the town we live in. I am going to have them build themselves with minor modifications and turn them loose on the town. This will make mapping a simple process of printing off Google maps of the area and using local landmarks, businesses and even people they recognize in order to produce moral dilemmas within the game.

Enough typing, back to planning. I just can't say enough about the system at this point and can't wait to see it in actual play.