I have a fairly old/long campaign that has been going on for nearly a year now. DnD is built for more serious games than the one we are running. We don’t use spell components, hit dice, food, disease etc. As I’m learning more and more about DnD I want to incorporate these without throwing my players on an island in the middle of the ocean (metaphor). Should I wait for this to end and do it with my next one?
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What Am I? Professional Voice Actor, Dungeon Master, Player
What Is My Stuff?
Homebrew: (currently privated)
Campaigns: A.W.W, The Astral Symphony, Detroit, Vampiric (k)Nights, Tales of Moved Sands.
Characters: Ben Alick, Travis Marmo, Trevor, Lucian Belmont, Aiden Nevogross
First, D&D is built to play the way that makes your table happy. If everyone is having a good time, you're doing it right, no matter how many rules you modify or ignore.
To answer the question, probably yes you should wait.
If I'm understanding you correctly, it seems like you're proposing some pretty drastic changes to the way you play. These are the sorts of things best sorted out at a Session 0 so everyone can understand what's going on, create characters that will work within the rules framework, and all be on the same page about how the game will work. It can be a bit of a shock, and depending on how the characters and players work, it can be a bit unfair to make big changes mid campaign.
That said, you could still do it right now. A Session 0 doesn't have to come at the beginning of the campaign -- you can throw it in at any time. Start the next session talking about what kinds of changes you want to make and get buy-in from your players. Probably, I'd let them make some character adjustments if needed to accommodate the changes. Then go from there. Or, maybe they'll decide they like the idea, and want to just wrap up the current campaign to move on to something new. Or maybe they're really happy with the current way you play, and then you'll all have to make some choices and compromises about what to do going forward. Talk it through with your group, and then see what you all want to do together.
I would recommend considering a change of scenery, if not characters or campaign.
For example, they might have been romping around the forests and whatnot, and now they are going towards a desert/jungle area where they will not be able to gather resources so easily. Have a session 0 before this section and explain that you're thinking of havign them use rations and water, and see if they're up for it. Some people don't enjoy that sort of game, and you might find the group says thaty would prefer not to have to manage their rations - and that's fine. Session 0 is as much about the DM finding out what the players want (moreso, in fact) than it is the players learning the DM's rules.
I would recommend intrducing Hit Dice, though. They are a key part of Short Rests and allow them to heal!
I have a fairly old/long campaign that has been going on for nearly a year now. DnD is built for more serious games than the one we are running. We don’t use spell components, hit dice, food, disease etc. As I’m learning more and more about DnD I want to incorporate these without throwing my players on an island in the middle of the ocean (metaphor). Should I wait for this to end and do it with my next one?
It depends on what you think they would add to the game and whether it would be more fun/add some tension/be a mini game.
For example, I keep track of spell components only to the extent of making sure that the character has purchased spell components that need to be expended. For almost everything else, the characters use a spell focus so there is nothing to track. Items like diamonds for resurrection type spells for example.
Inventory management is mostly to see if the characters have an item when it becomes useful or if they need it to implement a plan. Cold weather clothing to go out in the snow for example - but once they have it there is very little point to making an issue of it. Or things like rope, pitons, hammer, chisel, thieves tools, other tools for related trades, staff/walking stick ... useful to know if the characters have what they need to implement a plan they come up with. However, managing inventory in general isn't fun. Keeping track of weight and encumbrance, except in a specific type/style of campaign where everyone has agreed from the beginning and the DM uses a system that takes encumbrance into account, also might be something to avoid.
On the other hand, hit dice is a mechanic you could introduce since I am not sure how you have been handling short rest hit point restoration since expending hit die is pretty much the only way other than spells/items/potions.
Disease is something that tends to come up pretty rarely except as the side effect of the attacks of certain monsters. Unless you want the characters to start casting Purify Food and Drink on their food every day, then the typical mechanisms of catching a disease from food and water aren't worth the effort of inclusion typically.
Basically, most of the list except hit dice, may not be worth adding since a lot of folks just use a simplified version of food/water/disease/inventory management already.
I have a fairly old/long campaign that has been going on for nearly a year now. DnD is built for more serious games than the one we are running. We don’t use spell components, hit dice, food, disease etc. As I’m learning more and more about DnD I want to incorporate these without throwing my players on an island in the middle of the ocean (metaphor). Should I wait for this to end and do it with my next one?
1. DND is build for you to play it how you want, if you are happy and your players are happy, and everyone is having fun, your are doing it right and better then a lot of people!
2. When you say you don't use hit dice are you saying you don't use hit dice on a short rest to regain health or you don't use hit dice during combat? One of those options is a simple fix.... the other not so much.
3. Adding the use of spell components RAW(rules as written) is fairly complicate, and is going to bog down anything related to spell casting. Every time some one cast a spell you are going to have to verify with them, or look up yourself, what the components are and if they are consumed, and the PC's are going to have to keep track of the consumption of their components. There are for sure people who like playing this way with spell casters, and RAW it for sure balances spell casters out vs martial PCs. But.... a lot of players just want to cast fireball without double checking if they have bat guano and sulfur in their pouch.
4. I personally don't worry about food in any of my campaigns unless the players really want to for some reason. Example in one of my campaings the party "adopted" a dire wolf, and now spend a lot of time each session trying to find or kill something big enough to feed it. The players came up with needing to feed the wolf something like three cows a day, and i just rolled with it because its fun and they like doing it.
5. idk if there are rules for randomly contracting diseases, DM: "you are walking through the swamp roll a con save to see if your get malaria" the only time diseases happen in my games is when a bad guy does something to cause it to the PC's or NPCs.
I would talk to your table and see what they want. if they are all ready to jump into the deep end of the pool, then go for it, knowing that it will be learning curve.
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I have a fairly old/long campaign that has been going on for nearly a year now. DnD is built for more serious games than the one we are running. We don’t use spell components, hit dice, food, disease etc. As I’m learning more and more about DnD I want to incorporate these without throwing my players on an island in the middle of the ocean (metaphor). Should I wait for this to end and do it with my next one?
What Am I?
Professional Voice Actor, Dungeon Master, Player
What Is My Stuff?
Homebrew: (currently privated)
Campaigns: A.W.W, The Astral Symphony, Detroit, Vampiric (k)Nights, Tales of Moved Sands.
Characters: Ben Alick, Travis Marmo, Trevor, Lucian Belmont, Aiden Nevogross
Contact
Non-serious - Here
Questions - aninlostt (Discord)
Buisness - aninlostt@gmail.com
First, D&D is built to play the way that makes your table happy. If everyone is having a good time, you're doing it right, no matter how many rules you modify or ignore.
To answer the question, probably yes you should wait.
If I'm understanding you correctly, it seems like you're proposing some pretty drastic changes to the way you play. These are the sorts of things best sorted out at a Session 0 so everyone can understand what's going on, create characters that will work within the rules framework, and all be on the same page about how the game will work. It can be a bit of a shock, and depending on how the characters and players work, it can be a bit unfair to make big changes mid campaign.
That said, you could still do it right now. A Session 0 doesn't have to come at the beginning of the campaign -- you can throw it in at any time. Start the next session talking about what kinds of changes you want to make and get buy-in from your players. Probably, I'd let them make some character adjustments if needed to accommodate the changes. Then go from there. Or, maybe they'll decide they like the idea, and want to just wrap up the current campaign to move on to something new. Or maybe they're really happy with the current way you play, and then you'll all have to make some choices and compromises about what to do going forward. Talk it through with your group, and then see what you all want to do together.
I would recommend considering a change of scenery, if not characters or campaign.
For example, they might have been romping around the forests and whatnot, and now they are going towards a desert/jungle area where they will not be able to gather resources so easily. Have a session 0 before this section and explain that you're thinking of havign them use rations and water, and see if they're up for it. Some people don't enjoy that sort of game, and you might find the group says thaty would prefer not to have to manage their rations - and that's fine. Session 0 is as much about the DM finding out what the players want (moreso, in fact) than it is the players learning the DM's rules.
I would recommend intrducing Hit Dice, though. They are a key part of Short Rests and allow them to heal!
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It depends on what you think they would add to the game and whether it would be more fun/add some tension/be a mini game.
For example, I keep track of spell components only to the extent of making sure that the character has purchased spell components that need to be expended. For almost everything else, the characters use a spell focus so there is nothing to track. Items like diamonds for resurrection type spells for example.
Inventory management is mostly to see if the characters have an item when it becomes useful or if they need it to implement a plan. Cold weather clothing to go out in the snow for example - but once they have it there is very little point to making an issue of it. Or things like rope, pitons, hammer, chisel, thieves tools, other tools for related trades, staff/walking stick ... useful to know if the characters have what they need to implement a plan they come up with. However, managing inventory in general isn't fun. Keeping track of weight and encumbrance, except in a specific type/style of campaign where everyone has agreed from the beginning and the DM uses a system that takes encumbrance into account, also might be something to avoid.
On the other hand, hit dice is a mechanic you could introduce since I am not sure how you have been handling short rest hit point restoration since expending hit die is pretty much the only way other than spells/items/potions.
Disease is something that tends to come up pretty rarely except as the side effect of the attacks of certain monsters. Unless you want the characters to start casting Purify Food and Drink on their food every day, then the typical mechanisms of catching a disease from food and water aren't worth the effort of inclusion typically.
Basically, most of the list except hit dice, may not be worth adding since a lot of folks just use a simplified version of food/water/disease/inventory management already.
1. DND is build for you to play it how you want, if you are happy and your players are happy, and everyone is having fun, your are doing it right and better then a lot of people!
2. When you say you don't use hit dice are you saying you don't use hit dice on a short rest to regain health or you don't use hit dice during combat? One of those options is a simple fix.... the other not so much.
3. Adding the use of spell components RAW(rules as written) is fairly complicate, and is going to bog down anything related to spell casting. Every time some one cast a spell you are going to have to verify with them, or look up yourself, what the components are and if they are consumed, and the PC's are going to have to keep track of the consumption of their components. There are for sure people who like playing this way with spell casters, and RAW it for sure balances spell casters out vs martial PCs. But.... a lot of players just want to cast fireball without double checking if they have bat guano and sulfur in their pouch.
4. I personally don't worry about food in any of my campaigns unless the players really want to for some reason. Example in one of my campaings the party "adopted" a dire wolf, and now spend a lot of time each session trying to find or kill something big enough to feed it. The players came up with needing to feed the wolf something like three cows a day, and i just rolled with it because its fun and they like doing it.
5. idk if there are rules for randomly contracting diseases, DM: "you are walking through the swamp roll a con save to see if your get malaria" the only time diseases happen in my games is when a bad guy does something to cause it to the PC's or NPCs.
I would talk to your table and see what they want. if they are all ready to jump into the deep end of the pool, then go for it, knowing that it will be learning curve.