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.

Game Creation Notes Part 2

So I finally started working on maps for the game and drew up a dungeon using Roll20 and here are some things that I learned.

First off Roll20 is a great virtual tabletop system, if you haven't checked it out then go take a look.

That being said I learned that it doesn't have an erase tool which would be useful in map creation especially when creating "hand drawn" maps. I had gotten pretty close to finishing off my map and as I laid the background of some nice hewn stone for the floor I learned that all those extra lines I created during the process were not going to be hidden. I messed with it for an hour trying desperately to save the map I worked so hard on, but it was a loss due to this. So I deleted the map, cried for a minute then began working on it again with a much modified way of thinking. It took a lot less time to create the second time and I am very happy with the results.

I also learned how to use the "fog of war" setting, real simple and allows you to reveal the map as characters delve deeper into it. This will be getting a lot of use in the game.

In creating the dungeon and placing objects I was telling myself the story in my head of who sleeps here, what the doors were made of, motivations and so on. So in creating the dungeon first I actually was able to flesh out an entire storyline and NPC list. Not sure how others do it but this seemed a very natural workflow for me and I plan to use it in the building of the town map as well.

This is all pretty exciting to me, seeing my world gradually come to life and having a plan to communicate that world to the players in a way that should make it an immersive experience...at least that is what I am hoping for.

Tonight I plan on creating a sewer system and if time is on my side maybe start on the town a bit as well.

Thanks for reading, feel free to post comments or personal experiences below.
~John~

...but you're dead Billy!!

Character deaths are more an inconvenience than anything else in a majority of games I have played, granted I have a short history in the RPG tabletop gaming area (about a year now) but aside from having to roll a new character there was no incentive to not play my characters a bit haphazardly, so I have decided on a couple ways to make it more interesting for both the players and the DM.

What could possibly make death more interesting you ask?

Good question, allow me to explain a bit of back story. I am currently putting together plans to run my first game as a DM, I have been reading books, listening to podcasts, building characters, scribbling outlines of basic concepts and generally over thinking the whole process as I do. It all kind of fell apart when it came to how I am going to handle character deaths (actually just one of many spots) and after some thinking I came to the conclusion that an adventurer needed a proper burial once the battle dies down and it must be in accordance to their religion of choice or they must carry the body out if a funeral cannot be carried out. I mean deep in the darkness of a dungeon is not a proper place for an Elf to be buried after all.

If this is not done there needs to be a penalty right? But of course I want it to be fun for everyone and the dead guy isn't having much fun sitting there watching his corpse rot is he? So if a proper burial is not performed and everyone goes about robbing the body (we all do it right?) of all the useful stuff. After a time (to be determined) the dead character rises to play as a zombie with goals and some skills remaining.

My thought on this was they get basically half skills, no magic abilities and can only use basic weapons or surrounding objects as weapons if their weapons have been stolen. Movement speed becomes halved and intelligence is dropped to that of just above a zombie so they still have some tactical knowledge and no speech skills to explain their intentions. Again this isn't completely worked out but the idea being that they have to retrieve all items taken from them by the players and if this goal is accomplished (not likely) the character is returned to life with penalties placed until such a time as they can be healed properly through ritual, if they fail and the players kill the zombie character then that character is dead and must roll a new one.

Wow John, that sounds like a lot to worry about when all I want to do is move on with the game.

Is it really? In real life there is a grieving process and a funeral for a person who has passed. So how do I handle this in a more detailed form? Well having not yet implemented it and this post being part of my fleshing out process, I have decided that all characters take penalties to a variety of skills for a period of time (not yet determined). The idea behind this is again they are grieving for their friend so things like concentration for spells, called shots etc. would be skewed.

I have not set in stone what the penalties would be for the various issues and will be working on this a bit further to hopefully create some kind of a table based on character class and skill levels. It is a slow process for me as I am still learning a lot but wanted to toss the idea out into the wild with the intention of getting a bit of feedback from others on it and it's implementation.

Have you done something similar to this to make death either more realistic or more traumatizing to the party?

If so how or what did you do?

Leave comments and feedback below, all is appreciated and more thoughts on this and other oddball ideas to come in future posts.

~John~

*edit*
After posting this I realized I had not given proper credit to +Gamerstable and their podcast for inspiring this idea after listening to their podcast relating to character death.