Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
Sign in- Marketplace
Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
Sign in
Hello everyone! I am TheExpendableGuard, history teacher, reenactor, amateur historian, and all-around nerd, like many of you. I've been playing since 2015 right after 5e released, and while I enjoy the high fantasy worlds and swashbuckling adventures that color most D&D campaigns, I've been feeling an itch that can't seem to be scratched by the usual themes, settings, and campaigns of my local groups. However, after being involved in reenacting for a couple years, particularly WW1 as a Frenchman, I've figured out what has been bothering me about D&D. By and large, each setting is the same. Aside from Eberron; Rising From The Last War, you always find yourself in the same High Fantasy Medieval World, even Spelljammer suffers from this in my opinion. And while there's nothing wrong with that, it just feels boring to me. Dungeons and Dragons can easily be expanded to encompass all sorts of different settings, so I'm wondering if anyone has either run or played in a campaign that used the Great War or the general setting of the early 20th Century as a backdrop for their campaign? If so, how did it go?
I'm working on my own campaign/setting for this, including new weapons, subclasses, mechanics, and environmental hazards for players to face, so I'd like to get as much information from people who have experience before I go at it with vigor.
Here's forty shillings on the drum,
For those who volunteer to come,
To enlist and fight the foe today,
Over the hills and faraway.
I don’t have experience with this stuff so take my info with a grain of salt. But I don’t think D&D 5e would fit will with something like WW1, which was defined by brutal wave tactics and trenches. Depending on how much new mechanics you add, you might want to look for different game systems that works for WW1. Also what level are you going to focus around, how do you explain the different classes, I’m kinda curious.
Have you looked at Trench Crusade? It seems to be a High Fantasy/WW1 mashup.
Not the biggest fan of it. I've been following it since its kickstarter was announced and have been disappointed at every turn with the project. If you want a good summary of it, go watch Janovich's breakdown of the issues, but long story short, terrible lore, poor quality models, extremely toxic fanbase, and a company that is just in it for a cash grab.
Here's forty shillings on the drum,
For those who volunteer to come,
To enlist and fight the foe today,
Over the hills and faraway.
If you are finding the same settings in everything, either I am not understanding what you consider the same or the DMs in your games have not had quite the imagination to do totally different things with in the framework.
Ignoring the myth of WWI only had "brutal wave tactics and trenches." the problem with moving D&D beyond the 1750s and into more modern times is the issue with magic/firearms. Modern firearms can destroy the use of magic due to better range, higher damage and can be operated by the ignorant masses.
The other Issue is WWI is more of a larger unit maneuver. There is less small unit tactics. The Vietnam War, Malayan Emergency and the Falkland islands lend itself to more small units like a D&D party.
Why do you want to use WWI? You can tailor a homebrew to reflect the arms race and the WWI situation, but have it at a lower technology. Heck the crusades were a similar (high level) political situation.
Yes, because D&D is a system designed to play high fantasy roleplaying games. It's not a universal system, it's not meant to play any setting. It has a niche that it operates within.
This statement is the kind that is technically true with a lot of caveats. D&D can be expanded to encompass a lot of settings if:
If you want WW1 TTRPGs, do yourself a favour and instead of trying to make a pizza in Subway, check out these:
If you want to expand your scope to WW2, also check out:
If you don't want some flavour of fantasy, D&D is not what you're looking for.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
So, I think there was a little misunderstanding, I don't mind the fantasy element, I enjoy it quite a lot. I'm just a little bored with the HIGH fantasy and want to try something different. So the way I'm looking at it is, using your terms, Historical Fiction, but Fantasy. Nations & Cannons does a pretty good job of this, even if they remove the fantasy from the game, you're still playing D&D but in a Historical Fiction kind of way. So my take is essentially, what if you had to fight a Juvenile Red Dragon in a biplane while your copilot hastily casts mend on an engine shot to pieces during a dogfight with the Ruby Viscount. What if you had to clear a trench manned by clockwork gnomes and warforged automata because the Big Push is coming soon and your company is the only one with an artificer who knows how these things run. That's what I'm going for with this concept.
Here's forty shillings on the drum,
For those who volunteer to come,
To enlist and fight the foe today,
Over the hills and faraway.
Then you want systems like Weird War 1 and Carbon Grey, historical fantasy built around fantasy combined with the tropes of modern history.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
-
View User Profile
-
View Posts
-
Send Message
ModeratorI'm going to pop this into General as it feels like the discussion isn't going to focus on official story/lore or homebrew world building, but rather the system and genre itself.
Also as a pre-emptive note on this topic, please mind our rules on politics and religion:
D&D Beyond ToS || D&D Beyond Support
To break things down, this is how I am starting things off:
Changes in Mechanics:
Health - Players health will largely stay the same throughout the campaign regardless of levels, though they can increase HP by investing in constitution as they level up, but I do want to try to keep things geared more towards High Lethality where one misstep can spell the end of a character, but I don't want things to be the equivalent of a Guardsmen's average lifespan is 15 seconds when they reach the front lines. As such, armor class is largely going to stay the same, with the exception of a few tweaks to availability early on.
Weapons - I'm not messing with Melee weapons at all, but firearms will function based on caliber and action. So, caliber will run from 1d8 for pistol caliber and rifle caliber will be 1d10 and above, most will be 1d10 but some weapons like early anti-tank rifles will be d12s. Action will essentially be how many damage dice you roll after you hit. To show this, firearms will have the descriptor of bolt action (bolt action rifles and break action shotguns), Semi-Auto (Magazine Fed Pistols and Pump-Action Shotguns), and Automatic/Slam Fire (most machine guns, submachine guns, and certain shotguns). So, for example, a soldier using a bolt action rifle uses one d20 to hit and rolls 1 damage die whereas a soldier using an early submachine gun will roll one d20 to hit, but will roll between 6-8 damage die, with 1s being counted as misses. One other change is with firearms, you can miss either during your action or damage, the d20 is you taking the time to aim and fire, the damage die is where the bullets land.
New Mechanics:
Suppression: Machine Guns will have the ability to suppress an area of ground for an action, so long as they have the ammunition to do so. If you become suppressed, you need to roll 2d20, designate one as up and one as down, and so long as you roll above the down dice, you resist suppression. If you fail though, you need to make a moral test where you need to make a dc14 wisdom saving throw. If you fail once, you remain suppressed, twice, same as the first, but fail it three times, you become frightened. Stay frightened for too long, and you become shell shocked which gives you disadvantage on attacks, saves, and morale tests.
Ammunition: No big changes, you shot, you spend ammunition, same as regular D&D
Gas: Gas is going to be one of those insidious weapons that can linger for several turns before dissipating (this is more mechanical than historical, there are accounts of poison gas lingering in shell holes and trenches long after its deployment). There will be four types that players can use, and one of the subclasses (School of Chemistry for Wizard) will be able to infuse their effects into their spells.
1. Tear Gas: DC 13 Constitution Saving Throw per turn in cloud, if failed, the person is blinded and has disadvantage on str. checks, upon second failure, the person must use their next action to leave the radius of the cloud.
2. Phosgene: DC 14 Constitution Saving Throw per turn in cloud, if failed, the person takes 2d6 poison damage and is poisoned for 1 minute
3. Chlorine: DC 16 Constitution Saving Throw per turn in cloud, 2d8 poison damage per turn, cannot take actions requiring speech, gain one level of exhaustion per subsequent turn in cloud
4. Mustard: DC 18 Constitution Saving Throw per turn in cloud, 2d12 poison damage per turn, speed halved, disadvantage on attack rolls and saves, effects last 1+d6 hours after exposure unless treated or using a long rest
-This can be negated by using a bonus action to don a gas mask if available. Effects can also be mitigated by healing or through long rests unless otherwise specified.
There's still a lot that I am working on, but if you want, I can post it when I'm done.
Here's forty shillings on the drum,
For those who volunteer to come,
To enlist and fight the foe today,
Over the hills and faraway.
Maybe you could be interested into crunch for steampunk settings like "Kingdoms of Iron: Requiem".
D20 could be used for no-fantasy games with firearms or modern technology but if you need a different list of classes then it is not D&D.
If it is your game then you should be totally free to create d20 hasn't designed for a right power balance when barbarian and monks have to face shooters with firearms.
If magic is allowed then players could create low-level magic countermeasures, for example illusory magic working like smoking grenades, or runic stones thrown to summon swarms. Or the creation of new monsters with ballitistic damage resistance: undead, constructs, plants, elementals, summoned outsiders, mutants with troll-like traits (let's use the name "draug"). The war deities would punish the gunslingers in the battlefield. Some times when a warrior is killed this is reanimated as "draug" (more a troll-like fey than an undead or infernal) who wants revengue against enemy shooters. This only be definitively finished off with honorable combat (without firearms, throwing weapons, arrows and crossboews are allowed) or magic.
I plan on having some interesting stuff, as my setting involves this war messing with the flow of magic that courses through the world and lets some particularly heinous stuff out to stalk and haunt no-mans land, which will involve druids, warlocks, and sorcerers tapping into this for different results.
Here's forty shillings on the drum,
For those who volunteer to come,
To enlist and fight the foe today,
Over the hills and faraway.
A few thoughts. As a long time D&D player, started in the 1980s, and War Gamer 40k since the late 90s. I can say that your setting idea works, I have a few animes you could watch to see how you can add magic and the fantasy elements to the 1st World War, of course you would need to change the global history a bit see Trench Crusade for ideas.
Links for your research:
Was going to post a whole set of suggested mechanics, but looks like you got that locked in.
Anyway, now to pivot to my stupid sense of humor.
Meanwhile in the Spirit world:
Francis Pegahmagabow: " I call ranger!"
Paul Bäumer: "... I'll pass. I didn't Fare as well as Francis."
Fritz Haber: "Mein Got, I vill not be a Saz Tam Stand in. Make him Do it." Points across table.
Vlad Tepes: "Why? if anything Herr Haber, I am Strahd."
He/Him. Loooooooooong time Player.
The Dark days of the THAC0 system are behind us.
"Hope is a fire that burns in us all If only an ember, awaiting your call
To rise up in triumph should we all unite
The spark for change is yours to ignite."
Kalandra - The State of the World
Thanks for the sources,
I am aware of Trench Crusade and while I'm not too fond of it, mainly due to decisions made by the company and the inconsistent lore (personal opinion), I do appreciate the suggestion. I did enjoy Kino's Journey and have read multiple books by Harry Turtledove (Gunpowder Empire was probably his weakest work in my opinion) after diving through my Dad's collection of Eric Flint and David Drake. I haven't watched the Saga of Tanya the Evil yet, but it is on my list once Summer Vacation hits and I'm no long obligated to teach for 7.5 hours a day.
Here's forty shillings on the drum,
For those who volunteer to come,
To enlist and fight the foe today,
Over the hills and faraway.
If you don’t let hp go up, you’re going to have a lot of dead characters. When I read, stay the same, to me that means 1st level character hp is all you get, so I may be misunderstanding the premise. But if that’s the idea, your proposed mustard gas will just kill everyone. Even just using off the shelf monsters, they hit harder at higher levels; t2 monsters will wipe out characters with t1 hit points. Even with a high AC, lots of characters are going to die. I agree there is something to be said about getting off the treadmill of we get stronger so they get stronger so we get stronger, but this idea just takes one side off that treadmill. Everyone will always be one crit away from death, and since they’ll bit crit roughly 1 time out of 20 attacks, you’re setting up a real meat grinder. It will end badly for the players.
Adding in extra chances to miss with your firearm rules just hurts PCs, (any time you add randomness, it hurts PCs) in particular this hurts the martial types who are most likely to be using guns — a fireball or a firebolt will still just work.
There’s already suggested rules for increasing lethality and grittiness. Why not use those?
I have to agree with Davyd about it seeming like you’re trying to fit a square peg in a round hole here. There’s other systems that are going to be much closer to what you’re looking to do.
Or, at least, just make the setting without homebrewing in too much. Try and get there with just some reskinning. Call bows and crossbows various pistols and rifles, alchemist’s fire is an hand grenade, and call it a day. In the end the storytelling is what’s going to make it feel like a different setting, much more so than the game mechanics.
Ok got the links done... now for the word soup of thoughts.
1st Eberon and Dragonlance will be your friend for game mechanics... and no I'm not talking 5th ed books, I'm talking 3rd ed books. For dragonlance get the AD&D books if you can. As you will need a way to have war in the backdrop, and 5/5.5 are linked to a War Game history that made D&D they are economized for 3~5 players vesus maybe 10 NPCs at max. It's also not good for vehicle combat, while past editions had good vehicle combat rules, other game systems are better for large army battles. I posted a link to one in my above post, me I play WH40k but it's not so good at mixing with 5.5 D&D (I do because as a DM I am running a Rogue Trader setting game using 5.5e) for large battles I tend to describe them as a backdrop for what the players are doing, not as something the players are activily dealing with. If you Play FFXIV think The Ghimlyt Dark (See: Video)
Basically as modern D&D is a Fantasy Magic Wargame for small parties and small scale dungeon crawls, you can build your setting as an alt history where War Wizards and Magic are very much a party of the alt history. Instead of mustard gas, it's cloudkill. etc. Personally I love the 1880~1930 era to make into alt history magical settings for my games. It's history is something people can relate to, and the basics of the world and geopolicial state are easy to grasp. You can have Class struggles and fights against powerful opressive empires. You can take real world struggles and place people into them without having to use systems we don't really understand anymore ie fuedalism.
Run with it, I mean the genre of fantasy was born of Tolkien and his fantasy take on the Great War.
Welcome. Trench Crusade's lore is an excuse for Grimdark the WW1 fantasy wargame. Some people hate it because for grimdark to work there is no good guys, and well for some that take set in the real world hits too close to home. Me it makes me laugh, but I'm not vested in those things. So I can understand your issue even if I don't feel the same. Tanya the Evil does a few things similar to Trench Crusade... or should I say Trench Crusade might have been inpsired by watching it while playing 40k. It's a good anime, but there is no good guys in it, and you are following the life of a villain and a child soldier.
Also hope your summer is nice and long, and very relaxing. I could never have been a teacher, I just have no forbearance for dealing with children or young adults.
Davyd, if you were looking for a TTRPG that fits something like silent hill or resident evil, would you go with DnD or something wholly different?
Hiii :3
14yo cancer, bisexual(maybe Pan?), Genderfluid femboy, prefer She/They but don’t mind what pronouns you call me
Love all soulsbourne and soulslike games + metroidvanias.
Killing two birds with one post:
Reasoning for my choices (and some clarifications):
First, regarding firearms, the rule for missing on 1s only applies to weapons with the Automatic/Slam Fire Trait is for recoil. It can be hard to keep something on target when repeated recoil is hammering against your shoulder. Granted, most players are only going to have access to bolt action rifles, but for automatics and semi-automatics, it shouldn't be pull the trigger and everything is dead.
Regarding health, my idea was to keep that overall lethality that came with the rapid change in technology but the inability to tactically or strategically adapt. Machine Guns made wars of maneuver essentially pointless, and armies were forced to dig in, that's what I want to simulate. And one thing that sort of mitigates this is that player's aren't just playing they're characters, they're part of a company/regiment, so new characters that are generated are other members of the company that they interact with. As for the health, I can see you point in so far as it being a bit too punishing, particularly when a gas attack can wipe out entire sections of the line (though that was the norm before widespread adoption of counters), so I'll revisit that before I do anything else.
So, funny you should mention Ghimlyt Dark, that has one of the bosses that I despise the most, screw you Prometheus. But I can understand what you're going with, and that's what I had planned with how the combat portions would run. Each combat section essentially runs as its own encounter when out in no-man's land (with the occasional actual dungeon unearthed by bombardment or a mine going off), with the enemy trench line serving as a FFXIV Dungeon. As for the suggestions for reading and inspiration, I'll start hunting for them on Ebay or Amazon if they're not available here.
Here's forty shillings on the drum,
For those who volunteer to come,
To enlist and fight the foe today,
Over the hills and faraway.