I’m currently in 2 groups, 1 is with actual personal friends, the other is a PbP group of people I met here on DDB.
What’s PBP like on DDB? I’ve thought about DMing a game on here
PbP stands for “Play by Post.” Yeah, here on DDB in the PbP forum: (https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/play-by-post). People in the campaign just drop a post whenever they get a chance, usually at least 1ce/day, but some people set up sessions at specific times and play like normal.
I’m currently in 2 groups, 1 is with actual personal friends, the other is a PbP group of people I met here on DDB.
What’s PBP like on DDB? I’ve thought about DMing a game on here
PbP stands for “Play by Post.” Yeah, here on DDB in the PbP forum: (https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/play-by-post). People in the campaign just drop a post whenever they get a chance, usually at least 1ce/day, but some people set up sessions at specific times and play like normal.
I’ve done PBP on stuff like Messenger and Discord before. I’ve just never done it on DDB. How do you start a game on here?
Short version: you start a thread with the "RECRUITING" tag to mark it as a game you're recruiting for. Once you have enough people that you're done recruiting, you can set that thread to "CLOSED", or you can set it to "PRIVATE" and start playing in that same thread with the people you've recruited.
I'm working on a homebrew world that I will hopefully run starting in May for the group I'm currently playing in. It's a continent ruled by a wizard hierarchy, with each school of magic (excluding necromancy) having a sort of fiefdom under an emperor. I'm having a lot of fun inventing things for this world, including a criminal organization with signature magic items to go with their status. I've also never run a game before so it's gonna be nerve-wracking, but the other players are good friends and are already supporting me in this endeavor.
I'm working on a homebrew world that I will hopefully run starting in May for the group I'm currently playing in . It's a continent ruled by a wizard hierarchy, with each school of magic (excluding necromancy) having a sort of fiefdom under an emperor. I'm having a lot of fun inventing things for this world, including a criminal organization with signature magic items to go with their status. I've also never run a game before so it's gonna be nerve-wracking, but the other players are good friends and are already supporting me in this endeavor.
Its generally much easier to play a pre-written campaign as a new DM than to create an entire setting and adventure from scratch, though the setting sounds neat. I wish you luck with the campaign, and hope you enjoy running your first ever game
I'm working on a homebrew world that I will hopefully run starting in May for the group I'm currently playing in . It's a continent ruled by a wizard hierarchy, with each school of magic (excluding necromancy) having a sort of fiefdom under an emperor. I'm having a lot of fun inventing things for this world, including a criminal organization with signature magic items to go with their status. I've also never run a game before so it's gonna be nerve-wracking, but the other players are good friends and are already supporting me in this endeavor.
Its generally much easier to play a pre-written campaign as a new DM than to create an entire setting and adventure from scratch, though the setting sounds neat. I wish you luck with the campaign, and hope you enjoy running you first ever game
I am not sure I would go so far as to say “much” easier. Frankly, for lots of people, the liberation of being able to control your own story (and not being faced with the struggle to always force folks back on the tight rails of a premade campaign) can be far easier than running a canned campaign right out of the box.
It’s really more of a six on one hand, half dozen on the other situation - each has different advantages and disadvantages.
I'm working on a homebrew world that I will hopefully run starting in May for the group I'm currently playing in . It's a continent ruled by a wizard hierarchy, with each school of magic (excluding necromancy) having a sort of fiefdom under an emperor. I'm having a lot of fun inventing things for this world, including a criminal organization with signature magic items to go with their status. I've also never run a game before so it's gonna be nerve-wracking, but the other players are good friends and are already supporting me in this endeavor.
Its generally much easier to play a pre-written campaign as a new DM than to create an entire setting and adventure from scratch, though the setting sounds neat. I wish you luck with the campaign, and hope you enjoy running you first ever game
Depends on what you mean by "easier"
Is there less prep work involved in using a pre-written campaign or adventure? Of course
Once the dice hit the table though, I find it's much easier to run encounters that I've chosen in areas I've mapped out, and have those creatures react appropriately to whatever wacky ideas the party comes up with, than it is to use pre-written stuff where their motivations, goals, exit strategies etc. might not be so clearly defined
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I'm working on a homebrew world that I will hopefully run starting in May for the group I'm currently playing in . It's a continent ruled by a wizard hierarchy, with each school of magic (excluding necromancy) having a sort of fiefdom under an emperor. I'm having a lot of fun inventing things for this world, including a criminal organization with signature magic items to go with their status. I've also never run a game before so it's gonna be nerve-wracking, but the other players are good friends and are already supporting me in this endeavor.
Its generally much easier to play a pre-written campaign as a new DM than to create an entire setting and adventure from scratch, though the setting sounds neat. I wish you luck with the campaign, and hope you enjoy running you first ever game
Believe me, I considered starting with something pre-written for that reason, but when the idea came to me I knew I was going to be more committed and passionate about something I came up with. That's not to say I'm not vulturing as much as I can get away with from other things, though.
How do you find players and/or groups to play with, and what do you look for in your players and/or DM?
I have an IRL group of friends who used to play monthly before COVID but, honestly, my online PbP group is much more my speed. I lucked my way into that group and have stuck with them ever since because I found my people. Heavy RPers who value character development over stats, RAW play to promote consistency and fairness, healthy appreciation for ooc banter, similar stages of life...we just click. And that's essentially what I look for in a group. People who click with me.
When I'm the one starting a campaign, I treat it a little like I'm recruiting for a job (which I did for years...old habits die hard). I give a campaign teaser, describe my DM style, and ask players to send me their character concepts over private message. This weeds out a lot of people who can't follow directions or aren't willing to put in any effort. I exchange messages with the people who I think would mesh with me and any other players I have lined up, and I try to weigh their hopes and expectations against what I can deliver. I only extend offers to people I am confident will be a good fit at my table. Sounds really HR, lol, but I've had nothing but success.
As written Icewind Dale, without anything to flesh out the incredibly poorly written adventure.
Ah yes, another poor soul who survived that dumpster fire of a module. My condolences that you had to do it with such a dysfunctional group, though. I look back on that campaign fondly because of the reconstructive surgery my DM ended up doing to the plot toward the end.
<snip>...I'm looking for presentation. I don't want "hey im running a game would like more players send me a dm with your character if you want to play". I want to see a detailed campaign pitch written in evocative language, or I want to see character snippets written similarly. Not "hi can i play i have a half orc fighter i wanna try", but a paragraph or two that gives me a sense of who the character is and why I should let them in. I want effort, put into an appealing and inviting presentation, because if somebody's not willing to put that effort into one or two forum posts to try and catch people's attention they're not going to put that effort into playing/running their game.
It's taking a considerable amount of self-restraint not to use all caps and exclamations to express how much I agree with this.
One is an epic campaign that no almost is going 5 years. They are level 18 scratching on 19 and soon it is the question - will they save the world or not?
One startet as Ghosts of Saltmarsh and than spiraled off, became something different and now they are more or less in something like the astral sea, trying to stop an invading force.
The third one is in a homebrew big city, a little bit london noir flair. Started as a detective tale, now something more sinister has revealed its horrifying face and the players try to stop it, while fighting against the growing panic in the city.
I'm working on a homebrew world that I will hopefully run starting in May for the group I'm currently playing in . It's a continent ruled by a wizard hierarchy, with each school of magic (excluding necromancy) having a sort of fiefdom under an emperor. I'm having a lot of fun inventing things for this world, including a criminal organization with signature magic items to go with their status. I've also never run a game before so it's gonna be nerve-wracking, but the other players are good friends and are already supporting me in this endeavor.
Its generally much easier to play a pre-written campaign as a new DM than to create an entire setting and adventure from scratch, though the setting sounds neat. I wish you luck with the campaign, and hope you enjoy running you first ever game
I am not sure I would go so far as to say “much” easier. Frankly, for lots of people, the liberation of being able to control your own story (and not being faced with the struggle to always force folks back on the tight rails of a premade campaign) can be far easier than running a canned campaign right out of the box.
It’s really more of a six on one hand, half dozen on the other situation - each has different advantages and disadvantages.
I'm working on a homebrew world that I will hopefully run starting in May for the group I'm currently playing in . It's a continent ruled by a wizard hierarchy, with each school of magic (excluding necromancy) having a sort of fiefdom under an emperor. I'm having a lot of fun inventing things for this world, including a criminal organization with signature magic items to go with their status. I've also never run a game before so it's gonna be nerve-wracking, but the other players are good friends and are already supporting me in this endeavor.
Its generally much easier to play a pre-written campaign as a new DM than to create an entire setting and adventure from scratch, though the setting sounds neat. I wish you luck with the campaign, and hope you enjoy running you first ever game
Depends on what you mean by "easier"
Is there less prep work involved in using a pre-written campaign or adventure? Of course
Once the dice hit the table though, I find it's much easier to run encounters that I've chosen in areas I've mapped out, and have those creatures react appropriately to whatever wacky ideas the party comes up with, than it is to use pre-written stuff where their motivations, goals, exit strategies etc. might not be so clearly defined
I'm working on a homebrew world that I will hopefully run starting in May for the group I'm currently playing in . It's a continent ruled by a wizard hierarchy, with each school of magic (excluding necromancy) having a sort of fiefdom under an emperor. I'm having a lot of fun inventing things for this world, including a criminal organization with signature magic items to go with their status. I've also never run a game before so it's gonna be nerve-wracking, but the other players are good friends and are already supporting me in this endeavor.
Its generally much easier to play a pre-written campaign as a new DM than to create an entire setting and adventure from scratch, though the setting sounds neat. I wish you luck with the campaign, and hope you enjoy running you first ever game
Believe me, I considered starting with something pre-written for that reason, but when the idea came to me I knew I was going to be more committed and passionate about something I came up with. That's not to say I'm not vulturing as much as I can get away with from other things, though.
When I say a "pre-written campaign" I don't mean that you are required to run it 100% as-is, but that you should change and customise it to your party. Personally I find it easier because it gives me an adventure area to mess around with, while still allowing me to change things on the fly.
The point I'm trying to make is that yes, pre-written campaigns tend to be more limiting, but that comes with the benefit of having everything laid out for you, so it's much less prep work. While a full homebrew campaign takes a hell of a lot more prep work, but it's much more flexible.
Personally I prefer the former, because I struggle with prep work. Many others prefer the latter because it's more fluid.
Today's "Literally Anything but The Thing" Kickoff Question: what's your favorite homebrew rule you've used in your games. Or if you don't use homebrew, which RAW rule surprised you as being more fun/useful than it sounded?
My table has used a homebrew character progression system for our last few games we've come to really enjoy that we term Enhanced Standard Progression. Namely, you start with Standard Array or by-the-book Point But, then whenever you gain a level that grants an ASI you must take it as an ASI, you cannot select a feat. This is because at character levels 1, 4, 8, 12, 16, and theoretically 19, you select a feat for your character regardless of what class level you just took. Effectively, you get both a full suite of feats and full ASI progression.
We really enjoy the system because it gives you room to use feats you rarely see in play without butchering your progression, and also avoids the Instant Superhero issue of rolling Heroic stats. Your character's numerical power stays roughly where it's supposed to be for your tier of play, and grows naturally as you play rather than starting out with Endgame stats. It promotes more interesting decisions than regular progression where you're so squeezed you really can't make a suboptimal choice without instant regret, and it's let us play around with a much wider range of feats. We've had Chefs, Poisoners, species feats from Xanathar, even Skulker. Skulker. It's hard to beat a system that gives you room to try Skulker of all things.
What about everybody else? Any cool rules or systems to share, or neat experiences with seldom-used RAW?
Today's "Literally Anything but The Thing" Kickoff Question: what's your favorite homebrew rule you've used in your games. Or if you don't use homebrew, which RAW rule surprised you as being more fun/useful than it sounded?
My table has used a homebrew character progression system for our last few games we've come to really enjoy that we term Enhanced Standard Progression. Namely, you start with Standard Array or by-the-book Point But, then whenever you gain a level that grants an ASI you must take it as an ASI, you cannot select a feat. This is because at character levels 1, 4, 8, 12, 16, and theoretically 19, you select a feat for your character regardless of what class level you just took. Effectively, you get both a full suite of feats and full ASI progression.
We really enjoy the system because it gives you room to use feats you rarely see in play without butchering your progression, and also avoids the Instant Superhero issue of rolling Heroic stats. Your character's numerical power stays roughly where it's supposed to be for your tier of play, and grows naturally as you play rather than starting out with Endgame stats. It promotes more interesting decisions than regular progression where you're so squeezed you really can't make a suboptimal choice without instant regret, and it's let us play around with a much wider range of feats. We've had Chefs, Poisoners, species feats from Xanathar, even Skulker. Skulker. It's hard to beat a system that gives you room to try Skulker of all things.
What about everybody else? Any cool rules or systems to share, or neat experiences with seldom-used RAW?
I know it might sound weird, but ive really taken to going past like...level 20 with characters in general, the monsters I create are fine for my party balances with the group I play with who goes that far and it allows us to be really creative with some crazy bs
but on a smaller scale, I started instituting players can have their characters die, and have a sort of "will" where skills, abilities, items or even quest leads can be passed down to their next character so that they feel as if they arent losing everything on a death, and have something from before to hold onto just for sentimental stuff
It’s not the most original of house rules, but you asked for favourite - and I’ll stand forever by having natural 1s and natural 20s represent critical successes or failures whenever rolled as part of a check. There’s something fun about seeing that 20 come up and the rush of excitement - and saying after that “well, now add your bonus” and seeing a crestfallen player sheepishly say “19 (or even that they have to use a regular number) takes away from that joy some. Likewise, a crit fail adds an element of delightful risk to any role—and avoid things like the initial groan of seeing a 1, followed by, “and now I add my stealth, and that pass without trace, and I have… a billion stealth still” that can turn even fumbles into inconsequential events in higher levels.
Beyond that, there’s a few spells I am glad I banned at my table - specifically spells that segregate enemies into groups, making the entire encounter easier. Fighting half now, and half later is far simpler than “take everything on at once”, and, in my opinion, can lead to particularly stale gameplay as the party just goes through the motion of stretching out combat to make it as easy (and also long) as possible.
On level up, player rolls for hp, and DM rolls the same for in secret. You can take what you rolled, or go for what’s behind door number 1.
The other I stole from an old DM. In combat, when someone rolls a 1, we have a battlefield event. They roll again on a d100 chart and something happens to the terrain, like a wall crumbles, or an area becomes a damaging aura type zone. My favorite was when everyone had to move, roll a d8 for direction, and a d6 for number of squares and everyone suddenly has a new position. The entire concept can really work to shake up combats, since most of the results force some kind of movement, so it’s not just everyone standing in one place smacking each other.
Unrelated to the topic of the day (sorry yurei) I have a session 0 tonight and I’m super excited. DM is starting a campaign with a lot of newbies, so I’m going to see what they all want to play before I pick something. And as an added bonus, when I get a new mini, I’ll be able to use the table-mounted magnifier my wife got me for Chanukah to paint it.
Today's "Literally Anything but The Thing" Kickoff Question: what's your favorite homebrew rule you've used in your games. Or if you don't use homebrew, which RAW rule surprised you as being more fun/useful than it sounded?
My table has used a homebrew character progression system for our last few games we've come to really enjoy that we term Enhanced Standard Progression. Namely, you start with Standard Array or by-the-book Point But, then whenever you gain a level that grants an ASI you must take it as an ASI, you cannot select a feat. This is because at character levels 1, 4, 8, 12, 16, and theoretically 19, you select a feat for your character regardless of what class level you just took. Effectively, you get both a full suite of feats and full ASI progression.
We really enjoy the system because it gives you room to use feats you rarely see in play without butchering your progression, and also avoids the Instant Superhero issue of rolling Heroic stats. Your character's numerical power stays roughly where it's supposed to be for your tier of play, and grows naturally as you play rather than starting out with Endgame stats. It promotes more interesting decisions than regular progression where you're so squeezed you really can't make a suboptimal choice without instant regret, and it's let us play around with a much wider range of feats. We've had Chefs, Poisoners, species feats from Xanathar, even Skulker. Skulker. It's hard to beat a system that gives you room to try Skulker of all things.
What about everybody else? Any cool rules or systems to share, or neat experiences with seldom-used RAW?
When rolling for HP upon a level increase, reroll 1s. If you keep rolling 1s, keep rerolling until the dice give you at least a 2.
Gain a level of exhaustion when you drop to 0 HP.
Choose a feat at 1st level, lineages that grant a feat aren't allowed (I don't use this rule or the exhaustion-on-0-HP rule when running the game for new players).
When choosing starting equipment, you can swap out any equipment for other equipment of similar value, and you can sell any equipment you don't want for half of its initial price in spare coin.
Grease (from the spell) is flammable.
All of these work great for my group, I don't really have a favourite
What’s PBP like on DDB? I’ve thought about DMing a game on here
PbP stands for “Play by Post.” Yeah, here on DDB in the PbP forum: (https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/play-by-post). People in the campaign just drop a post whenever they get a chance, usually at least 1ce/day, but some people set up sessions at specific times and play like normal.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
I’ve done PBP on stuff like Messenger and Discord before. I’ve just never done it on DDB. How do you start a game on here?
DDB PbP FAQ
Short version: you start a thread with the "RECRUITING" tag to mark it as a game you're recruiting for. Once you have enough people that you're done recruiting, you can set that thread to "CLOSED", or you can set it to "PRIVATE" and start playing in that same thread with the people you've recruited.
Please do not contact or message me.
I'm working on a homebrew world that I will hopefully run starting in May for the group I'm currently playing in. It's a continent ruled by a wizard hierarchy, with each school of magic (excluding necromancy) having a sort of fiefdom under an emperor. I'm having a lot of fun inventing things for this world, including a criminal organization with signature magic items to go with their status. I've also never run a game before so it's gonna be nerve-wracking, but the other players are good friends and are already supporting me in this endeavor.
Its generally much easier to play a pre-written campaign as a new DM than to create an entire setting and adventure from scratch, though the setting sounds neat. I wish you luck with the campaign, and hope you enjoy running your first ever game
[REDACTED]
I am not sure I would go so far as to say “much” easier. Frankly, for lots of people, the liberation of being able to control your own story (and not being faced with the struggle to always force folks back on the tight rails of a premade campaign) can be far easier than running a canned campaign right out of the box.
It’s really more of a six on one hand, half dozen on the other situation - each has different advantages and disadvantages.
Depends on what you mean by "easier"
Is there less prep work involved in using a pre-written campaign or adventure? Of course
Once the dice hit the table though, I find it's much easier to run encounters that I've chosen in areas I've mapped out, and have those creatures react appropriately to whatever wacky ideas the party comes up with, than it is to use pre-written stuff where their motivations, goals, exit strategies etc. might not be so clearly defined
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Believe me, I considered starting with something pre-written for that reason, but when the idea came to me I knew I was going to be more committed and passionate about something I came up with. That's not to say I'm not vulturing as much as I can get away with from other things, though.
That's the way to go. It's not stealing ideas, it's building a content library for your players.
Please do not contact or message me.
I have an IRL group of friends who used to play monthly before COVID but, honestly, my online PbP group is much more my speed. I lucked my way into that group and have stuck with them ever since because I found my people. Heavy RPers who value character development over stats, RAW play to promote consistency and fairness, healthy appreciation for ooc banter, similar stages of life...we just click. And that's essentially what I look for in a group. People who click with me.
When I'm the one starting a campaign, I treat it a little like I'm recruiting for a job (which I did for years...old habits die hard). I give a campaign teaser, describe my DM style, and ask players to send me their character concepts over private message. This weeds out a lot of people who can't follow directions or aren't willing to put in any effort. I exchange messages with the people who I think would mesh with me and any other players I have lined up, and I try to weigh their hopes and expectations against what I can deliver. I only extend offers to people I am confident will be a good fit at my table. Sounds really HR, lol, but I've had nothing but success.
Ah yes, another poor soul who survived that dumpster fire of a module. My condolences that you had to do it with such a dysfunctional group, though. I look back on that campaign fondly because of the reconstructive surgery my DM ended up doing to the plot toward the end.
It's taking a considerable amount of self-restraint not to use all caps and exclamations to express how much I agree with this.
Currently I am in the process of trying to find a Radiant Citadel game to play in-hopeful I will find something soon.
I am atm DMing 3 Groups.
One is an epic campaign that no almost is going 5 years. They are level 18 scratching on 19 and soon it is the question - will they save the world or not?
One startet as Ghosts of Saltmarsh and than spiraled off, became something different and now they are more or less in something like the astral sea, trying to stop an invading force.
The third one is in a homebrew big city, a little bit london noir flair. Started as a detective tale, now something more sinister has revealed its horrifying face and the players try to stop it, while fighting against the growing panic in the city.
When I say a "pre-written campaign" I don't mean that you are required to run it 100% as-is, but that you should change and customise it to your party. Personally I find it easier because it gives me an adventure area to mess around with, while still allowing me to change things on the fly.
The point I'm trying to make is that yes, pre-written campaigns tend to be more limiting, but that comes with the benefit of having everything laid out for you, so it's much less prep work. While a full homebrew campaign takes a hell of a lot more prep work, but it's much more flexible.
Personally I prefer the former, because I struggle with prep work. Many others prefer the latter because it's more fluid.
[REDACTED]
Today's "Literally Anything but The Thing" Kickoff Question: what's your favorite homebrew rule you've used in your games. Or if you don't use homebrew, which RAW rule surprised you as being more fun/useful than it sounded?
My table has used a homebrew character progression system for our last few games we've come to really enjoy that we term Enhanced Standard Progression. Namely, you start with Standard Array or by-the-book Point But, then whenever you gain a level that grants an ASI you must take it as an ASI, you cannot select a feat. This is because at character levels 1, 4, 8, 12, 16, and theoretically 19, you select a feat for your character regardless of what class level you just took. Effectively, you get both a full suite of feats and full ASI progression.
We really enjoy the system because it gives you room to use feats you rarely see in play without butchering your progression, and also avoids the Instant Superhero issue of rolling Heroic stats. Your character's numerical power stays roughly where it's supposed to be for your tier of play, and grows naturally as you play rather than starting out with Endgame stats. It promotes more interesting decisions than regular progression where you're so squeezed you really can't make a suboptimal choice without instant regret, and it's let us play around with a much wider range of feats. We've had Chefs, Poisoners, species feats from Xanathar, even Skulker. Skulker. It's hard to beat a system that gives you room to try Skulker of all things.
What about everybody else? Any cool rules or systems to share, or neat experiences with seldom-used RAW?
Please do not contact or message me.
I know it might sound weird, but ive really taken to going past like...level 20 with characters in general, the monsters I create are fine for my party balances with the group I play with who goes that far and it allows us to be really creative with some crazy bs
but on a smaller scale, I started instituting players can have their characters die, and have a sort of "will" where skills, abilities, items or even quest leads can be passed down to their next character so that they feel as if they arent losing everything on a death, and have something from before to hold onto just for sentimental stuff
It’s not the most original of house rules, but you asked for favourite - and I’ll stand forever by having natural 1s and natural 20s represent critical successes or failures whenever rolled as part of a check. There’s something fun about seeing that 20 come up and the rush of excitement - and saying after that “well, now add your bonus” and seeing a crestfallen player sheepishly say “19 (or even that they have to use a regular number) takes away from that joy some. Likewise, a crit fail adds an element of delightful risk to any role—and avoid things like the initial groan of seeing a 1, followed by, “and now I add my stealth, and that pass without trace, and I have… a billion stealth still” that can turn even fumbles into inconsequential events in higher levels.
Beyond that, there’s a few spells I am glad I banned at my table - specifically spells that segregate enemies into groups, making the entire encounter easier. Fighting half now, and half later is far simpler than “take everything on at once”, and, in my opinion, can lead to particularly stale gameplay as the party just goes through the motion of stretching out combat to make it as easy (and also long) as possible.
I have two:
On level up, player rolls for hp, and DM rolls the same for in secret. You can take what you rolled, or go for what’s behind door number 1.
The other I stole from an old DM. In combat, when someone rolls a 1, we have a battlefield event. They roll again on a d100 chart and something happens to the terrain, like a wall crumbles, or an area becomes a damaging aura type zone. My favorite was when everyone had to move, roll a d8 for direction, and a d6 for number of squares and everyone suddenly has a new position. The entire concept can really work to shake up combats, since most of the results force some kind of movement, so it’s not just everyone standing in one place smacking each other.
Unrelated to the topic of the day (sorry yurei) I have a session 0 tonight and I’m super excited. DM is starting a campaign with a lot of newbies, so I’m going to see what they all want to play before I pick something.
And as an added bonus, when I get a new mini, I’ll be able to use the table-mounted magnifier my wife got me for Chanukah to paint it.
When rolling for HP upon a level increase, reroll 1s. If you keep rolling 1s, keep rerolling until the dice give you at least a 2.
Gain a level of exhaustion when you drop to 0 HP.
Choose a feat at 1st level, lineages that grant a feat aren't allowed (I don't use this rule or the exhaustion-on-0-HP rule when running the game for new players).
When choosing starting equipment, you can swap out any equipment for other equipment of similar value, and you can sell any equipment you don't want for half of its initial price in spare coin.
Grease (from the spell) is flammable.
All of these work great for my group, I don't really have a favourite
[REDACTED]