QOTD: Do you use a lingering-injury system at all? Like if someone takes a narratively serious blow, and your story needs people to sometimes be benched or hurt physically in a way that reflects the magnitude to which they've been hurt emotionally or psychologically? If so, what does it look like?
Right now I'm considering something similar to the exhaustion system, except instead of imposing actual mechanical penalties, it would impose narrative penalties which you can always choose to break, but if you do, it gets worse. So like, 1: You're in a foul mood from constant pain. 2: You can't use the part of your body that's injured, and have to protect it. 3: You suffer disadvantage on anything that could conceivably be hindered by your injury. 4: You can't bear to do anything besides move around. 5: ??? The issue of course is that it doesn't make a lot of sense for the endpoint to be death like it is with exhaustion. And imposing a "death-clone" condition like "comatose" would run the risk of devaluing all existing death cures? Idk. Maybe that's good.
Idk how often a system like this would be used though. Pretty rarely I think. Which makes you wonder why it needs to exist.
QOTD: Do you use a lingering-injury system at all? Like if someone takes a narratively serious blow, and your story needs people to sometimes be benched or hurt physically in a way that reflects the magnitude to which they've been hurt emotionally or psychologically? If so, what does it look like?
Right now I'm considering something similar to the exhaustion system, except instead of imposing actual mechanical penalties, it would impose narrative penalties which you can always choose to break, but if you do, it gets worse. So like, 1: You're in a foul mood from constant pain. 2: You can't use the part of your body that's injured, and have to protect it. 3: You suffer disadvantage on anything that could conceivably be hindered by your injury. 4: You can't bear to do anything besides move around. 5: ??? The issue of course is that it doesn't make a lot of sense for the endpoint to be death like it is with exhaustion. And imposing a "death-clone" condition like "comatose" would run the risk of devaluing all existing death cures? Idk. Maybe that's good.
Idk how often a system like this would be used though. Pretty rarely I think. Which makes you wonder why it needs to exist.
That’s a pretty cool system Choir! I might have the 5th level of it start the exhaustion system. But idk if that would work in play
That was a lot more than I thought I would get in response lol. Thank you both. I’ll try to keep all that in mind. It makes a lot more sense to keep it loose and open to input rather than to plan every detail. I’ve got a while before my campaign actually is ready to be used.
I have noticed that most things related to DMing is a lot more difficult for me since I am neurodivergent. I think that your advice AED and Dark will help me construct a world that my players will want to interact with and that I could maybe use in pbp down the line.
It’s frankly impossible to plan for every detail. Literally impossible. Not just really, really hard and people say it’s impossible but it really is possible, just really, really hard. No no, it’s actually, literally impossible. There’s just no way. So I don’t even bother trying.
When it comes to the people of my world, all I do is create my major NPC's and get super intimate with them as a writer, I write their drives and motivations, and I write their plans and put them in motion. Then I wait to see what the players decide to do. Since I know my NPCs so well I even know what they carry in their pockets without having to look it up, I just know how they react to whatever the players do or cause to happen. It’s a more reactive style of DMing, but it works well for my neurodivergent mind.
As for all the details of the world, I take a similar approach. I write the major things, and figure out how the general daily world functions and all like that there, but I invent a lot of the rest of it on the fly based on whatever my players choose to interact with. Since I know how the overall framework fits together in its entirety, it’s easier to invent the smaller details as they come up rather than trying to figure it all out in advance. The added benefit to that is, if my players invent things as part of their backstories or whatever, it’s easier for me to fit that all in as canon into the world.
QOTD: Do you use a lingering-injury system at all? Like if someone takes a narratively serious blow, and your story needs people to sometimes be benched or hurt physically in a way that reflects the magnitude to which they've been hurt emotionally or psychologically? If so, what does it look like?
Right now I'm considering something similar to the exhaustion system, except instead of imposing actual mechanical penalties, it would impose narrative penalties which you can always choose to break, but if you do, it gets worse. So like, 1: You're in a foul mood from constant pain. 2: You can't use the part of your body that's injured, and have to protect it. 3: You suffer disadvantage on anything that could conceivably be hindered by your injury. 4: You can't bear to do anything besides move around. 5: ??? The issue of course is that it doesn't make a lot of sense for the endpoint to be death like it is with exhaustion. And imposing a "death-clone" condition like "comatose" would run the risk of devaluing all existing death cures? Idk. Maybe that's good.
Idk how often a system like this would be used though. Pretty rarely I think. Which makes you wonder why it needs to exist.
No. It’s more often than not just additional bookkeeping and generally unfun.
That was a lot more than I thought I would get in response lol. Thank you both. I’ll try to keep all that in mind. It makes a lot more sense to keep it loose and open to input rather than to plan every detail. I’ve got a while before my campaign actually is ready to be used.
I have noticed that most things related to DMing is a lot more difficult for me since I am neurodivergent. I think that your advice AED and Dark will help me construct a world that my players will want to interact with and that I could maybe use in pbp down the line.
It’s frankly impossible to plan for every detail. Literally impossible. Not just really, really hard and people say it’s impossible but it really is possible, just really, really hard. No no, it’s actually, literally impossible. There’s just no way. So I don’t even bother trying.
When it comes to the people of my world, all I do is create my major NPC's and get super intimate with them as a writer, I write their drives and motivations, and I write their plans and put them in motion. Then I wait to see what the players decide to do. Since I know my NPCs so well I even know what they carry in their pockets without having to look it up, I just know how they react to whatever the players do or cause to happen. It’s a more reactive style of DMing, but it works well for my neurodivergent mind.
As for all the details of the world, I take a similar approach. I write the major things, and figure out how the general daily world functions and all like that there, but I invent a lot of the rest of it on the fly based on whatever my players choose to interact with. Since I know how the overall framework fits together in its entirety, it’s easier to invent the smaller details as they come up rather than trying to figure it all out in advance. The added benefit to that is, if my players invent things as part of their backstories or whatever, it’s easier for me to fit that all in as canon into the world.
Cool! I always over complicate stuff so this helps a lot. Thanks Sposta! i feel like such a nobody talking to the most insightful ppl in the forums lol
QOTD: Do you use a lingering-injury system at all? Like if someone takes a narratively serious blow, and your story needs people to sometimes be benched or hurt physically in a way that reflects the magnitude to which they've been hurt emotionally or psychologically? If so, what does it look like?
Right now I'm considering something similar to the exhaustion system, except instead of imposing actual mechanical penalties, it would impose narrative penalties which you can always choose to break, but if you do, it gets worse. So like, 1: You're in a foul mood from constant pain. 2: You can't use the part of your body that's injured, and have to protect it. 3: You suffer disadvantage on anything that could conceivably be hindered by your injury. 4: You can't bear to do anything besides move around. 5: ??? The issue of course is that it doesn't make a lot of sense for the endpoint to be death like it is with exhaustion. And imposing a "death-clone" condition like "comatose" would run the risk of devaluing all existing death cures? Idk. Maybe that's good.
Idk how often a system like this would be used though. Pretty rarely I think. Which makes you wonder why it needs to exist.
um, I'll tell you, but you have to promise not to laugh...
TL;DR:
So I have something vaguely resembling what you want, but I sidestepped the physical part and just went into role play supported by scores.
What I don't have is "you have a broken arm". We stopped doing double damage critical hits (because the players were getting creamed by them) and instead we have fumbles that break weapons you wield, and crits that damage armor you wear. It is just an attack. But we did that because, really, critical hits are hard to do well with a hit point system that doesn't have "bod parts".
So I don't have the physical impact stuff. I could probably work something like that into my vitality set up, but even then, it wouldn't "feel" right to my players, who would probably hate it anyway.
I have a 10 point fatigue system. You can die of exhaustion, even with full hit points. In a comatose state.Or, you can enter a state and then wake up once you've recovered enough. Fatigue adds disadvantage. At 6 points, it adds penalties (higher DC add or roll penalty) that scale up to 9, when you collapse. At 10, you require intervention or time to recover -- unless your ability to recoveris compromised.
Now back in the day (1e, 2e) if something like a Wraith hit you, you lost levels. This was a big deal. I didn't want to bring that mechanic back at all, but I did want something that could mimic it, and I needed it for several different things.
Magic -- run out of spell points, and you collapse. Use too many in casting certain spell, you take a hit of fatigue.
Psionics -- same process, but psionic points instead.
Heart -- resistance to corruption (which is reflected by a shift in worldview, in emotion)
Vitality -- the opposite of fatigue, the combination of different aspects of a person to be vital, or persevere and endure.
I use a comatose system for Magic, Psionics, Vitality, and Heart. However, they all operate slightly differently. Mana is an ability score. Rolled like any other. Heart, Psyche, and Vitality all come from adding and dividing other scores (derived). That distinction was necessary for Heart and Psyche, since those scores can be reduced (like burnout from psionics, or falling prey to an evil curse).
Now, in the case of Vitality, it is used against fatigue. Take some kind of serious damage, and your vitality score is affected (is reduced), which can make it harder to resist fatigue. RP side -- you are tired. Being tired makes you cranky. You are sore, Being sore makes you feel bad. blah blah. Any time anyone gets a point of fatigue, they can roll Vitality against -- they power through it, so to speak. The catch is that each time you power through, the next time is harder (higher DC). Vitality is what keeps you standing (fatigue points and all the rest). (Vitality is the total of your Con, Wis, and Mana scores divided by 3.)
All of them have mechanism for recovery -- but derived score recovery is on the basis of your score modifier. So if your ability score is so low you don't have a score modifier, or so low your modifier is negative...
Much of it is put to the player to role play.Most planar beings have some kind of capability like this, and several nonplanar ones do.
The Psyche score has the same basic function as Mana -- you get so many psionic points and you use the to perform psionic abilities (which are not spells -- there is a whole separate way to handle psionic combat, but I totally confess I used the way I did magical combat to base it one).
But you take damage to Psionic points first (including from psychic attacks) and when those run out, you start to suffer losses to your Psyche. They don't have the "use too much and pass out" thing, but psionics combat is handled the same regular combat is, except that attacks and defenses can be kept up and match against each other on a point for point basis. So say you want to drill through someone's defensive shield, you have to put in more points than they spend -- and if you are locked in mental combat, that's pretty much all you are doing (though if there is no attack/defend, you can use psychic abilities as an attack like normal and still move around). This makes Psychic fighting super down and dirty and flat out vicious. And those characters who *are* psychic can withstand more damage, because they have trained themselves to build up their pool of Psionic points, where regular people haven't, so it goes straight to their Psyche score. (this also conveniently allows me to excise psionics if needed).
Heart is the rarest in use so far -- I have a damage type called corruption that shifts the roleplaying parameters a bit. Healing lessens that. I did have to put in healing spells and such (and yes, the Shrinewards do the Heart Healing, lol, but also Psychic Healing, while Paladins do Vitality) for these, and restoration will help a lot.
I mentioned the impact of emotion. Player's get notes to use these emotions more frequently -- even if it takes them out of character. So, here are the emotions that Corruption brings out:
There are counterparts to all of that for the Celestial, Radiant, and Shadow realms as well. And yes, all of it plays into regular spells as well. I should note that I have mentioned before how Paladins, Shrinewards, and Clerics all have different things they oppose, lol. Well, in order, it is Infernal, Necrotic, and Nether -- and undead carry the curse of corruption, Devils use a form of charm to corrupt, and Demons do it by eating your emotions, leaving you only the bitter tasting ones. Netherfells (which include the beings of the dimension of Nightmare) also do the whole swipe and you feel it thing. And nightmares are the ones who fight in Mortal Kombat, lol.
Edit: Also, the reason I made you promise not to laugh is that I found a way to mechanically use the Power of Heart in D&D in a meaningful manner that engages players in role playing.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
QOTD: Do you use a lingering-injury system at all? Like if someone takes a narratively serious blow, and your story needs people to sometimes be benched or hurt physically in a way that reflects the magnitude to which they've been hurt emotionally or psychologically? If so, what does it look like?
No. It’s more often than not just additional bookkeeping and generally unfun.
So, do people just never sustain injuries that can't be slept off in one night?
Antonia, your system is so dense lol. Though, on its face it isn't too different from what a lot of TTRPGS (FATE comes to mind, though I haven't played) have, basically multiple hit point trackers instead of just one. And I'm into that. I like the idea that you could, if you wanted, target someone's psyche exclusively until they were taken out by sheer psychic exhaustion. I do suspect there's likely a lot of unseen hand-on-the-wheel going on to ensure that players don't all feel like "enemies have one HP for my attacks, one HP for John's, and one HP for Kayla's." Which is the sort of magic DMs do on the regular anyway, but it's difficult to codify as rules. Does that sound right?
I think a D&D game would benefit greatly from having one specific, thematic additional HP tracker. Rather than try to emulate all possibilities, just choose one that suits your vibes. Maybe it's Supplies, where you lose access to equipment and suffer from malnourishment. Maybe it's Teamwork, where you start snapping at each other and the lancer character goes off on his own. Maybe it's Faith, where your healing powers wane and you get tempted by devils. A Dungeon Master's Guide could supply a collection of popular ones, and you could even have the PHB come with asterisks on certain spells and powers. For example Vicious Mockery could have an asterisk that tells you, if you're playing with Teamwork rules, it does Teamwork damage. Animate Dead could deal Faith damage to the caster. Who knows.
If we're just speaking 5th Edition - the thing I like the least, despite running five games, is not being able to run more games.
Honestly, I think 5th Edition really nailed it down - made it easier for the DMs and the players. It feels much more balanced. It isn't a world that will virtually kill the player character for the most trivial mistakes (I am looking at you 1st and 2nd edition - despite my love of 2nd edition... but I think that love comes from it being the time I really got into D&D and began running my own games and telling my own stories... but D&D was still ridiculously lethal).
Agreed, it's nice to be able to just say "let's say DC 14" and (usually) not have it be the end of the world. Pair that with a pretty intuitive scale of DCs, and a very small range of proficiency and ability bonus numbers, and you get a game that's really comfortable to play from the DM seat. You don't need stat blocks or specific rules for most things at all. It's trivial to supply the necessary info just from understanding the story. And advantage/disadvantage is perfect for smoothing out the question of "how big should this situational bonus be, exactly?"
It could be better. How do you judge if someone should have +3 or +4 in an ability score on the fly? Idk. But it could be a lot worse. And indeed it has been.
I mean, to an extent, it wasn't worse, it was just trading off that intuitiveness on purpose in exchange for other things like simulationism. And that's fair. But I don't find that to be a worthy exchange. And I get suspicious any time someone starts trying to put more of that back into 5e, lol.
so to summarise: How do you get past writers block/ how do you get ideas you can build on?
I think it's going to be different for everyone. For general (like when I am writing my stories - unrelated to D&D) - I listen to music that is similar to the mood I am going for. If I am writing my kids book, I will listen to the Harry Potter or Chronicles of Narnia soundtrack - to get my mindset in that place.
In regards to D&D... I feel like I am odd. What I usually do is flip through whatever notes I have from the previous session. Get reminded what happened. Think - what could happen next? Crack open the Monster Manual (and other "monster" related books) - and just start jotting down monsters and how they could relate to what might come up.
So for example - this is my literal notes for a session I just ran this past Tuesday as to what I had planned... I know some of it isn't going to make sense, but you can see, I was just scribbling down ideas of how an NPC could feed information to the party... and from there, what might come next? A naga? A behir? Both if there's time?
Ferin Unthall explains that she overheard the Githyanki speaking about how they have a dragon prisoner
The Dragon is: Aoil the Emerald Dragon
She explains by keeping Aoil prisoner and blaming the Earth Genasi, they’ve managed to sway Kvars, the Topaz Dragon to help serve the Githyanki in attacking the Earth Genasi
Kobolds (Zor) explain that Kvars is “Zapot” and that they know him. If the party needs someone to talk to “Zapot” (Kvars) they know how to call him. So maybe rescue Aoil, then come back to the Kobolds, who can summon “Zapot” (Kvars) and clear things up and get rid of the “snake-elves.”
When the party attacks, General Va’rum (Drow General) – very beaten up joins the fight (“The rumors of my death were highly exaggerated!”)
The kobolds are able to provide general directions on where to go, having seen Aoil being held prisoner. They mention “Serpent with many legs guards dragon” – and they also mention “serpent guards main entrance that leads to long hall. Serpent not friendly.”
Stonesight mentioned Karvus – the giant of a hundred hands
First, you must find his eyes, so that he can see the world and see the enemy. You must also find his breath again – to fill his lungs and give him life – that can be found in the Plane of Air. But Karvus – he was a great warrior – he will need the fire that burned in his heart – which can be found on the Plane of Fire. Take these three things to the Plane of Water, where you will need to find Karvus’ final resting place and awaken him.
The Eyes – Gems, party recovered on Plane of Earth
And then I ended up improvising from there. For example the party got to the Naga - and I mentioned that there were dead Drow around it. My NPC with the party, Ferin Unthall, is a female Drow captain. They asked her if this looks like her soldiers. I said yes. They said could there be more near by? And I improvised a whole scene of some Drow who survived the fight against the Naga and fled - but were near by - and she communicated by rapping her sword against the stone - and they responded back. So now some more Drow have joined the party in the fight against the Naga - and the Behir they learned is ahead of them.
So just going through the monster manual, seeing where your party is now - and seeing what monsters might fit in that area - is an easy way to keep the adventure moving. Be sure to introduce NPCs along the way to engage with the party - so it's not just battle after battle. Allow some fun RP. In the above case, one of my players is a High Elf, so there was tension between her and the Drow - but they realize the Githyanki (who in my world are corrupted Elves that even the Drow hate) are the bigger threat. So they became uneasy allies. Was a great RP session.
QOTD: Do you use a lingering-injury system at all? Like if someone takes a narratively serious blow, and your story needs people to sometimes be benched or hurt physically in a way that reflects the magnitude to which they've been hurt emotionally or psychologically? If so, what does it look like?
Right now I'm considering something similar to the exhaustion system, except instead of imposing actual mechanical penalties, it would impose narrative penalties which you can always choose to break, but if you do, it gets worse. So like, 1: You're in a foul mood from constant pain. 2: You can't use the part of your body that's injured, and have to protect it. 3: You suffer disadvantage on anything that could conceivably be hindered by your injury. 4: You can't bear to do anything besides move around. 5: ??? The issue of course is that it doesn't make a lot of sense for the endpoint to be death like it is with exhaustion. And imposing a "death-clone" condition like "comatose" would run the risk of devaluing all existing death cures? Idk. Maybe that's good.
Idk how often a system like this would be used though. Pretty rarely I think. Which makes you wonder why it needs to exist.
I've only done it in the case of for fun. For example, there was a time a cleric - fleeing from an enemy on a mountain ledge - jumped, because the flying Artificer said he'd catch her - and he did - but then failed his strength/dexterity and the two ended up spiraling down to the ground and crashing (after several failed checks). So I gave them both Disadvantage to Perception for the night, due to their ears ringing from colliding into the ground. So nothing too serious.
Same game, the Paladin got two critical hits on him - so I mentioned how the first one pierced his armor and shoulder - and the second one ripped the wound more. So there was an ongoing joke where one of the brash, female, Earth Genasi fighters, would slap him on the shoulder repeatedly. And it was more for RP because he would react to her slapping him in the wounded shoulder.
But never made any form of official chart for any ongoing effects.
QOTD: Do you use a lingering-injury system at all? Like if someone takes a narratively serious blow, and your story needs people to sometimes be benched or hurt physically in a way that reflects the magnitude to which they've been hurt emotionally or psychologically? If so, what does it look like?
No. It’s more often than not just additional bookkeeping and generally unfun.
So, do people just never sustain injuries that can't be slept off in one night?
Antonia, your system is so dense lol. Though, on its face it isn't too different from what a lot of TTRPGS (FATE comes to mind, though I haven't played) have, basically multiple hit point trackers instead of just one. And I'm into that. I like the idea that you could, if you wanted, target someone's psyche exclusively until they were taken out by sheer psychic exhaustion. I do suspect there's likely a lot of unseen hand-on-the-wheel going on to ensure that players don't all feel like "enemies have one HP for my attacks, one HP for John's, and one HP for Kayla's." Which is the sort of magic DMs do on the regular anyway, but it's difficult to codify as rules. Does that sound right?
I think a D&D game would benefit greatly from having one specific, thematic additional HP tracker. Rather than try to emulate all possibilities, just choose one that suits your vibes. Maybe it's Supplies, where you lose access to equipment and suffer from malnourishment. Maybe it's Teamwork, where you start snapping at each other and the lancer character goes off on his own. Maybe it's Faith, where your healing powers wane and you get tempted by devils. A Dungeon Master's Guide could supply a collection of popular ones, and you could even have the PHB come with asterisks on certain spells and powers. For example Vicious Mockery could have an asterisk that tells you, if you're playing with Teamwork rules, it does Teamwork damage. Animate Dead could deal Faith damage to the caster. Who knows.
Some of that density is me trying to explain it, but yeah, it is a bit more. Of the Derived scores (Heart, Psyche, and Vitality) Vitality is used frequently, since I do make pretty heavy use of fatigue (didn't eat the last three days? Fatigue. Didn't drink today? Fatigue. Didn't clean your weapons after that last fight? Fa-- no, just kidding.
But a lot of that stuff you describe,is why I created these systems -- and in practical play, well, Vitality is the only one most folks use unless there are some special circumstances or they are higher levels. While there are some differences, the overall system is pretty much the same across the board:
Figure out what "creates" the pool. You could add all the ability scores up together and that's your pool. Or divide the by 6 and that's your score and your pool comes from a multiplier, or whatever.
I liked the "score + multiplier for pool" method because it allows for DC checks and proficiency bonus and modifiers and such.
After that, just figure out *how* it is reduced. It can be a group of things or a single thing -- it is a mechanic on its own, a "subsystem" that works to provide an alternative, non-combat damage option.
As a single mechanic, it matches the 5e system really well, lol, but more importantly, it can be as simple and light or complex and dense as you want to make it. I'd argue it's lighter than Battlemaster feature dice, which could use the same mechanic in place of the dice system.
And i may have edited it out, but in the first pass on my response, I noted that I could fairly easily come up with a way to do your part using the same rough system. Because a lot of what you listed is really kinda role play related (bad mood, protect injury, disadvantage, antipathy), I will say that I would go for something closer to my approach for corruption (because it means giving a player role playing bits that only last until the effect ends) than vitality, but the system could easily work for what you want.
THe big key will be things like the "powering through it" if they enter combat (Character: I am so NOT in the mood for this, DO you see this, goblins? I have a cast on. That means you are coming to me and you will stand there nice and pleasantly while I cut you down. Or Else!) and then having a consequence for that, or just kicking back.
My fatigue restoration is 1 point for a long rest. Short rests do not reduce fatigue. I also am cruel -- they don't reduce it, but they have to short rest at least twice in a day (you know, lunch and dinner) or they gain a point (and if they don't mention eating then another), and so their long rest is nixed on recovery.
Something like that fits in well with your injury thing -- "this injury requires at least X days to recover 1 fatigue point". So, let me see...
This is a combination of grumpiness and injury. Grumpiness usually falls under "personableness", recovery usually falls under Wisdom, and injury falls under Con. So, add Con, Wis, and Cha and divide by three, giving you an Injury Score.
When you take a big hit (determined byt he DM or by some number you choose), do an Injury roll against a DC of 13. Failure means you are fine. Crits could mean automatic failure.
The injury could be any of these sorts. TABLE: Die Roll, Injury Type, Effect (the RP part), Duration. Duration would be how many long rests it will take to recover from the injury.
I would suggest that some of the effects include disadvantage (limb) while others do not. And sorry, you have to create your own table, lol.
Now, if you want to tie fatigue ito it and potentially have "an infection", well, quick, grab a disease set up.
Each day you are fully active, you increase your fatigue by one point. After three days (or 5 or 7 or 14) or 3 points of fatigue, you develop a fever, which applies a penalty, as you have an infection.
The infection will add an additional fatigue point (2 points per day) for each day you are active beyond resting. Should you become incapacitated while having a fever from the infection, the infection will continue to work (thus creating an almost stasis, since they are now resting, they gain a point, but the infection eats it away).
You can recover a point each day by making a successful Con check against the DC of the fever (DM determined, or a standard number you decide on).
When the fever breaks, you can recover in a number of days equal to your con modifier.
If your fever reduces you to 10 levels of fatigue, you start making death saving throws.
Regular stuff will work (healing, restoration, medicine skill, stabilize dying, whatever) to dispel it (unless you choose not to have it do so).
The key for you will be the Table in this case -- and it is only necessary if you want i to be -- you can just as easily make it up as you go along.
Bam. We have an Injury Score for the kinds of injuries you are talking about. Not a pool of points, but rather a score that you can use to simulate these things, by operating within the 5e system.
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Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Also, yes, I did just create a new thing for the game on the fly as I wrote that, so there are probably like 350 words more than needed in all that.
Edit, because I wasn't going to make a third post:
So, in case you are wondering where I got a list of six different categories of emotion from so that each of my planes could have a list of emotions tied to them (which is how the corruptions work out)...
I used the standard therapy emotion wheel, lol. Which we actually use in role playing therapy sessions (wel, not me, anymore, but other psychologists).
If you've ever had cause or course to study emotions, you'll be aware there are generally a list of 5 to 9 basic, core emotions that are universal, and those all have like "bits and pieces" emotions. There are a lot of systems, but I used a very common "emotional wheel" that had a lot of subtype on it.
Because my games do feature a lot of role play and I like to help with it, being able to give a character a set of slips (or send them PMs that say "start RP this emotion more frequently" it let's me simulate the effects and create a more rewarding session for my players.
Plus, I do bits with horror and mystery and sometimes we get dark, and these things can help heighten the whole thing, keeping us all in character.
Now the best part, at least for me: So not only did I tie the planes to emotion, I also have the planes tied in a different way to my alignment system -- which is built off how folks deal with the seven primary existential issues of Self (Agency, Independence, Dying, Empathy, Community, Balance, Chaos).
Neither of those tools existed when D&D was created or even when I started playing. Both are relatively new concepts used in analysis. It is all pretty much meaningless for 99% of the stuff we will be doing, but having it there gives more "lore" depth to the whole thing.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
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How do you get past writers block/ how do you get ideas you can build on? (I couldn’t find the original post. A lot has happened since I last was here!)
Writer’s block is a tricky subject. This is how I deal with it (I had to use this last night as I was brainstorming some finals elements of my current project).
Begin by pulling out some paper. A notebook is best, but not required (Note: Typing DOES NOT work as well as writing for this exercise. Only type if you have no other option). Start by jotting down what exactly the story is that you want to tell (in D&D terms, what is the overarching idea that you are building this adventure/campaign on). Then jot down the first key point that comes to mind. It could be anything from how old your main character(s) is to what sort of world this is set in. Then, divide off that section and start anew. This next section is not about your story. It’s about a very similar world that is slightly different and has different main ideas and characters. This time, you’re going to write down a “What if this is our world” (you can replace everything past “what if” with whatever core detail you feel like writing about). Write a few sentences about the “What if” (For example- What if this is our world: Dark Fantasy. There are all sorts of villainous beasts. Sorcery is feared as a sign of infernal influence. Our heroes are a greedy mage and a cunning woodsman. They aim to) and suddenly, you stop. Not anywhere, of course, but you stop when you hit the point that you feel you cannot expand any further on this topic or when you feel like the writing is running flat. Now you are ready to brainstorm your real story. (Assuming you are writing a new story/book/campaign/adventure from scratch) Write a good 6-8 sentence paragraph that outlines what you will cover in your writing, who it will cover, the antagonists, the world, whatever makes sense to you. Everything before this has only been partial or short sentences. This is where you actually dive deep into your story, not too deep though. Just enough that you have the main ideas down on paper. Now write out a plot. I recommend these points as ones to cover: Prologue (or how it began, outside of the main story or game); Beginning; Initial Conflict (or how the danger begins. This is [almost] NEVER at the beginning. Starting with tension is good, but it is very rare that starting with tension related to the initial conflict works; try doing that in the prologue); Rising Action (more conflicts); Climax (the most major conflicts that the story revolves around); falling action (conflicts resulting from the climax and attempted resolutions); Resolution (how do you tie everything together and wrap it all up or leave things open for the sequel); Epilogue (This is a good way to tease your players or readers with future adventure)
One final note: For designing your plot tree with the points above, only do 2-3 sentences, simple, short sentences that cover the MOST important points of that section. 4 is okay, but you shouldn’t need this many. If you have that many it usually means your plot is crowded.
QOTD: Do you use a lingering-injury system at all? Like if someone takes a narratively serious blow, and your story needs people to sometimes be benched or hurt physically in a way that reflects the magnitude to which they've been hurt emotionally or psychologically? If so, what does it look like?
No. It’s more often than not just additional bookkeeping and generally unfun.
So, do people just never sustain injuries that can't be slept off in one night?
I switched it so that a long rest returns all Hit Dice, but only half HP. It encourages short rests while simultaneously making it so that a long rest doesn’t let PCs automatically sleep of all injuries.
That was a lot more than I thought I would get in response lol. Thank you both. I’ll try to keep all that in mind. It makes a lot more sense to keep it loose and open to input rather than to plan every detail. I’ve got a while before my campaign actually is ready to be used.
I have noticed that most things related to DMing is a lot more difficult for me since I am neurodivergent. I think that your advice AED and Dark will help me construct a world that my players will want to interact with and that I could maybe use in pbp down the line.
It’s frankly impossible to plan for every detail. Literally impossible. Not just really, really hard and people say it’s impossible but it really is possible, just really, really hard. No no, it’s actually, literally impossible. There’s just no way. So I don’t even bother trying.
When it comes to the people of my world, all I do is create my major NPC's and get super intimate with them as a writer, I write their drives and motivations, and I write their plans and put them in motion. Then I wait to see what the players decide to do. Since I know my NPCs so well I even know what they carry in their pockets without having to look it up, I just know how they react to whatever the players do or cause to happen. It’s a more reactive style of DMing, but it works well for my neurodivergent mind.
As for all the details of the world, I take a similar approach. I write the major things, and figure out how the general daily world functions and all like that there, but I invent a lot of the rest of it on the fly based on whatever my players choose to interact with. Since I know how the overall framework fits together in its entirety, it’s easier to invent the smaller details as they come up rather than trying to figure it all out in advance. The added benefit to that is, if my players invent things as part of their backstories or whatever, it’s easier for me to fit that all in as canon into the world.
Cool! I always over complicate stuff so this helps a lot. Thanks Sposta! i feel like such a nobody talking to the most insightful ppl in the forums lol
If we're just speaking 5th Edition - the thing I like the least, despite running five games, is not being able to run more games.
Honestly, I think 5th Edition really nailed it down - made it easier for the DMs and the players. It feels much more balanced. It isn't a world that will virtually kill the player character for the most trivial mistakes (I am looking at you 1st and 2nd edition - despite my love of 2nd edition... but I think that love comes from it being the time I really got into D&D and began running my own games and telling my own stories... but D&D was still ridiculously lethal).
How streamlined everything is. I wish it were crunchier.
We are of different mind sets, clearly. :D
The fact that it is streamlined allows the games to run smoothly.
I currently play in a World of Darkness game that is very crunchy - and I feel like that can choke the game sometimes.
I never found WoD to have that problem, but I never ran the story for that, so I only needed to know my characters’ stuff. But the Magic system in particular was simpler than D&D’s because it just had examples of stuff that you could do at various power levels and the Storyteller just adjudicated based on those. Of course, that was an older edition of WoD, I’m not familiar with the current version.
Sorry, I can't tell you about it. That's classified. How did you hear about it?
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That was a lot more than I thought I would get in response lol. Thank you both. I’ll try to keep all that in mind. It makes a lot more sense to keep it loose and open to input rather than to plan every detail. I’ve got a while before my campaign actually is ready to be used.
I have noticed that most things related to DMing is a lot more difficult for me since I am neurodivergent. I think that your advice AED and Dark will help me construct a world that my players will want to interact with and that I could maybe use in pbp down the line.
It’s frankly impossible to plan for every detail. Literally impossible. Not just really, really hard and people say it’s impossible but it really is possible, just really, really hard. No no, it’s actually, literally impossible. There’s just no way. So I don’t even bother trying.
When it comes to the people of my world, all I do is create my major NPC's and get super intimate with them as a writer, I write their drives and motivations, and I write their plans and put them in motion. Then I wait to see what the players decide to do. Since I know my NPCs so well I even know what they carry in their pockets without having to look it up, I just know how they react to whatever the players do or cause to happen. It’s a more reactive style of DMing, but it works well for my neurodivergent mind.
As for all the details of the world, I take a similar approach. I write the major things, and figure out how the general daily world functions and all like that there, but I invent a lot of the rest of it on the fly based on whatever my players choose to interact with. Since I know how the overall framework fits together in its entirety, it’s easier to invent the smaller details as they come up rather than trying to figure it all out in advance. The added benefit to that is, if my players invent things as part of their backstories or whatever, it’s easier for me to fit that all in as canon into the world.
I DM the same way! And I’m probably neurodivergent too, so I totally get it.
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How streamlined everything is. I wish it were crunchier.
We are of different mind sets, clearly. :D
The fact that it is streamlined allows the games to run smoothly.
I currently play in a World of Darkness game that is very crunchy - and I feel like that can choke the game sometimes.
I never found WoD to have that problem, but I never ran the story for that, so I only needed to know my characters’ stuff. But the Magic system in particular was simpler than D&D’s because it just had examples of stuff that you could do at various power levels and the Storyteller just adjudicated based on those. Of course, that was an older edition of WoD, I’m not familiar with the current version.
Heh. I am not the DM of the World of Darkness game. I am the player. So in the Mage game - you're right, in a way - that it gives examples of what "Mind 2" does, for example. But that also leaves it very open to interpretation.
So rather than just knowing what it does - it becomes a discussion. "Well, with Mind 2 would I be able to use..." DM considers it. Then player says, "OK, so then I would like to..." DM considers it. Rather than just, "I read his mind" (if that's all Mind 2 did). Each time something happened in the Mage game - the game halted as we all tried to figure out what powers to use, and if they'd work how we think, see if the DM agrees with how we think we can use these powers.
In the Vampire game, it's far less of a problem because spells aren't really a thing you use in Vampire. It's more about Potent and Disciplines you have. But still, even doing skill checks - why isn't JUST THE SKILL? Why if I am brawling am I rolling the BRAWL and then need to roll Strength too? Why isn't it simplified to just roll Brawl? So there's weird quirky things about that.
Imagine if in D&D - "I want to make a Perception check." "OK. Click Perception. And also click Wisdom."
QOTD: Do you use a lingering-injury system at all? Like if someone takes a narratively serious blow, and your story needs people to sometimes be benched or hurt physically in a way that reflects the magnitude to which they've been hurt emotionally or psychologically? If so, what does it look like?
Right now I'm considering something similar to the exhaustion system, except instead of imposing actual mechanical penalties, it would impose narrative penalties which you can always choose to break, but if you do, it gets worse. So like,
1: You're in a foul mood from constant pain.
2: You can't use the part of your body that's injured, and have to protect it.
3: You suffer disadvantage on anything that could conceivably be hindered by your injury.
4: You can't bear to do anything besides move around.
5: ???
The issue of course is that it doesn't make a lot of sense for the endpoint to be death like it is with exhaustion. And imposing a "death-clone" condition like "comatose" would run the risk of devaluing all existing death cures? Idk. Maybe that's good.
Idk how often a system like this would be used though. Pretty rarely I think. Which makes you wonder why it needs to exist.
That’s a pretty cool system Choir! I might have the 5th level of it start the exhaustion system. But idk if that would work in play
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It’s frankly impossible to plan for every detail. Literally impossible. Not just really, really hard and people say it’s impossible but it really is possible, just really, really hard. No no, it’s actually, literally impossible. There’s just no way. So I don’t even bother trying.
When it comes to the people of my world, all I do is create my major NPC's and get super intimate with them as a writer, I write their drives and motivations, and I write their plans and put them in motion. Then I wait to see what the players decide to do. Since I know my NPCs so well I even know what they carry in their pockets without having to look it up, I just know how they react to whatever the players do or cause to happen. It’s a more reactive style of DMing, but it works well for my neurodivergent mind.
As for all the details of the world, I take a similar approach. I write the major things, and figure out how the general daily world functions and all like that there, but I invent a lot of the rest of it on the fly based on whatever my players choose to interact with. Since I know how the overall framework fits together in its entirety, it’s easier to invent the smaller details as they come up rather than trying to figure it all out in advance. The added benefit to that is, if my players invent things as part of their backstories or whatever, it’s easier for me to fit that all in as canon into the world.
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No. It’s more often than not just additional bookkeeping and generally unfun.
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Cool! I always over complicate stuff so this helps a lot. Thanks Sposta!
i feel like such a nobody talking to the most insightful ppl in the forums lol
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um, I'll tell you, but you have to promise not to laugh...
TL;DR:
So I have something vaguely resembling what you want, but I sidestepped the physical part and just went into role play supported by scores.
What I don't have is "you have a broken arm". We stopped doing double damage critical hits (because the players were getting creamed by them) and instead we have fumbles that break weapons you wield, and crits that damage armor you wear. It is just an attack. But we did that because, really, critical hits are hard to do well with a hit point system that doesn't have "bod parts".
So I don't have the physical impact stuff. I could probably work something like that into my vitality set up, but even then, it wouldn't "feel" right to my players, who would probably hate it anyway.
I have a 10 point fatigue system. You can die of exhaustion, even with full hit points. In a comatose state.Or, you can enter a state and then wake up once you've recovered enough. Fatigue adds disadvantage. At 6 points, it adds penalties (higher DC add or roll penalty) that scale up to 9, when you collapse. At 10, you require intervention or time to recover -- unless your ability to recover is compromised.
Now back in the day (1e, 2e) if something like a Wraith hit you, you lost levels. This was a big deal. I didn't want to bring that mechanic back at all, but I did want something that could mimic it, and I needed it for several different things.
I use a comatose system for Magic, Psionics, Vitality, and Heart. However, they all operate slightly differently. Mana is an ability score. Rolled like any other. Heart, Psyche, and Vitality all come from adding and dividing other scores (derived). That distinction was necessary for Heart and Psyche, since those scores can be reduced (like burnout from psionics, or falling prey to an evil curse).
Now, in the case of Vitality, it is used against fatigue. Take some kind of serious damage, and your vitality score is affected (is reduced), which can make it harder to resist fatigue. RP side -- you are tired. Being tired makes you cranky. You are sore, Being sore makes you feel bad. blah blah. Any time anyone gets a point of fatigue, they can roll Vitality against -- they power through it, so to speak. The catch is that each time you power through, the next time is harder (higher DC). Vitality is what keeps you standing (fatigue points and all the rest). (Vitality is the total of your Con, Wis, and Mana scores divided by 3.)
All of them have mechanism for recovery -- but derived score recovery is on the basis of your score modifier. So if your ability score is so low you don't have a score modifier, or so low your modifier is negative...
Much of it is put to the player to role play.Most planar beings have some kind of capability like this, and several nonplanar ones do.
The Psyche score has the same basic function as Mana -- you get so many psionic points and you use the to perform psionic abilities (which are not spells -- there is a whole separate way to handle psionic combat, but I totally confess I used the way I did magical combat to base it one).
But you take damage to Psionic points first (including from psychic attacks) and when those run out, you start to suffer losses to your Psyche. They don't have the "use too much and pass out" thing, but psionics combat is handled the same regular combat is, except that attacks and defenses can be kept up and match against each other on a point for point basis. So say you want to drill through someone's defensive shield, you have to put in more points than they spend -- and if you are locked in mental combat, that's pretty much all you are doing (though if there is no attack/defend, you can use psychic abilities as an attack like normal and still move around). This makes Psychic fighting super down and dirty and flat out vicious. And those characters who *are* psychic can withstand more damage, because they have trained themselves to build up their pool of Psionic points, where regular people haven't, so it goes straight to their Psyche score. (this also conveniently allows me to excise psionics if needed).
Heart is the rarest in use so far -- I have a damage type called corruption that shifts the roleplaying parameters a bit. Healing lessens that. I did have to put in healing spells and such (and yes, the Shrinewards do the Heart Healing, lol, but also Psychic Healing, while Paladins do Vitality) for these, and restoration will help a lot.
I mentioned the impact of emotion. Player's get notes to use these emotions more frequently -- even if it takes them out of character. So, here are the emotions that Corruption brings out:
There are counterparts to all of that for the Celestial, Radiant, and Shadow realms as well. And yes, all of it plays into regular spells as well. I should note that I have mentioned before how Paladins, Shrinewards, and Clerics all have different things they oppose, lol. Well, in order, it is Infernal, Necrotic, and Nether -- and undead carry the curse of corruption, Devils use a form of charm to corrupt, and Demons do it by eating your emotions, leaving you only the bitter tasting ones. Netherfells (which include the beings of the dimension of Nightmare) also do the whole swipe and you feel it thing. And nightmares are the ones who fight in Mortal Kombat, lol.
Edit: Also, the reason I made you promise not to laugh is that I found a way to mechanically use the Power of Heart in D&D in a meaningful manner that engages players in role playing.
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So, do people just never sustain injuries that can't be slept off in one night?
Antonia, your system is so dense lol. Though, on its face it isn't too different from what a lot of TTRPGS (FATE comes to mind, though I haven't played) have, basically multiple hit point trackers instead of just one. And I'm into that. I like the idea that you could, if you wanted, target someone's psyche exclusively until they were taken out by sheer psychic exhaustion. I do suspect there's likely a lot of unseen hand-on-the-wheel going on to ensure that players don't all feel like "enemies have one HP for my attacks, one HP for John's, and one HP for Kayla's." Which is the sort of magic DMs do on the regular anyway, but it's difficult to codify as rules. Does that sound right?
I think a D&D game would benefit greatly from having one specific, thematic additional HP tracker. Rather than try to emulate all possibilities, just choose one that suits your vibes. Maybe it's Supplies, where you lose access to equipment and suffer from malnourishment. Maybe it's Teamwork, where you start snapping at each other and the lancer character goes off on his own. Maybe it's Faith, where your healing powers wane and you get tempted by devils. A Dungeon Master's Guide could supply a collection of popular ones, and you could even have the PHB come with asterisks on certain spells and powers. For example Vicious Mockery could have an asterisk that tells you, if you're playing with Teamwork rules, it does Teamwork damage. Animate Dead could deal Faith damage to the caster. Who knows.
If we're just speaking 5th Edition - the thing I like the least, despite running five games, is not being able to run more games.
Honestly, I think 5th Edition really nailed it down - made it easier for the DMs and the players. It feels much more balanced. It isn't a world that will virtually kill the player character for the most trivial mistakes (I am looking at you 1st and 2nd edition - despite my love of 2nd edition... but I think that love comes from it being the time I really got into D&D and began running my own games and telling my own stories... but D&D was still ridiculously lethal).
We are of different mind sets, clearly. :D
The fact that it is streamlined allows the games to run smoothly.
I currently play in a World of Darkness game that is very crunchy - and I feel like that can choke the game sometimes.
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Agreed, it's nice to be able to just say "let's say DC 14" and (usually) not have it be the end of the world. Pair that with a pretty intuitive scale of DCs, and a very small range of proficiency and ability bonus numbers, and you get a game that's really comfortable to play from the DM seat. You don't need stat blocks or specific rules for most things at all. It's trivial to supply the necessary info just from understanding the story. And advantage/disadvantage is perfect for smoothing out the question of "how big should this situational bonus be, exactly?"
It could be better. How do you judge if someone should have +3 or +4 in an ability score on the fly? Idk. But it could be a lot worse. And indeed it has been.
I mean, to an extent, it wasn't worse, it was just trading off that intuitiveness on purpose in exchange for other things like simulationism. And that's fair. But I don't find that to be a worthy exchange. And I get suspicious any time someone starts trying to put more of that back into 5e, lol.
I think it's going to be different for everyone. For general (like when I am writing my stories - unrelated to D&D) - I listen to music that is similar to the mood I am going for. If I am writing my kids book, I will listen to the Harry Potter or Chronicles of Narnia soundtrack - to get my mindset in that place.
In regards to D&D... I feel like I am odd. What I usually do is flip through whatever notes I have from the previous session. Get reminded what happened. Think - what could happen next? Crack open the Monster Manual (and other "monster" related books) - and just start jotting down monsters and how they could relate to what might come up.
So for example - this is my literal notes for a session I just ran this past Tuesday as to what I had planned... I know some of it isn't going to make sense, but you can see, I was just scribbling down ideas of how an NPC could feed information to the party... and from there, what might come next? A naga? A behir? Both if there's time?
And then I ended up improvising from there. For example the party got to the Naga - and I mentioned that there were dead Drow around it. My NPC with the party, Ferin Unthall, is a female Drow captain. They asked her if this looks like her soldiers. I said yes. They said could there be more near by? And I improvised a whole scene of some Drow who survived the fight against the Naga and fled - but were near by - and she communicated by rapping her sword against the stone - and they responded back. So now some more Drow have joined the party in the fight against the Naga - and the Behir they learned is ahead of them.
So just going through the monster manual, seeing where your party is now - and seeing what monsters might fit in that area - is an easy way to keep the adventure moving. Be sure to introduce NPCs along the way to engage with the party - so it's not just battle after battle. Allow some fun RP. In the above case, one of my players is a High Elf, so there was tension between her and the Drow - but they realize the Githyanki (who in my world are corrupted Elves that even the Drow hate) are the bigger threat. So they became uneasy allies. Was a great RP session.
I've only done it in the case of for fun. For example, there was a time a cleric - fleeing from an enemy on a mountain ledge - jumped, because the flying Artificer said he'd catch her - and he did - but then failed his strength/dexterity and the two ended up spiraling down to the ground and crashing (after several failed checks). So I gave them both Disadvantage to Perception for the night, due to their ears ringing from colliding into the ground. So nothing too serious.
Same game, the Paladin got two critical hits on him - so I mentioned how the first one pierced his armor and shoulder - and the second one ripped the wound more. So there was an ongoing joke where one of the brash, female, Earth Genasi fighters, would slap him on the shoulder repeatedly. And it was more for RP because he would react to her slapping him in the wounded shoulder.
But never made any form of official chart for any ongoing effects.
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Some of that density is me trying to explain it, but yeah, it is a bit more. Of the Derived scores (Heart, Psyche, and Vitality) Vitality is used frequently, since I do make pretty heavy use of fatigue (didn't eat the last three days? Fatigue. Didn't drink today? Fatigue. Didn't clean your weapons after that last fight? Fa-- no, just kidding.
But a lot of that stuff you describe,is why I created these systems -- and in practical play, well, Vitality is the only one most folks use unless there are some special circumstances or they are higher levels. While there are some differences, the overall system is pretty much the same across the board:
As a single mechanic, it matches the 5e system really well, lol, but more importantly, it can be as simple and light or complex and dense as you want to make it. I'd argue it's lighter than Battlemaster feature dice, which could use the same mechanic in place of the dice system.
And i may have edited it out, but in the first pass on my response, I noted that I could fairly easily come up with a way to do your part using the same rough system. Because a lot of what you listed is really kinda role play related (bad mood, protect injury, disadvantage, antipathy), I will say that I would go for something closer to my approach for corruption (because it means giving a player role playing bits that only last until the effect ends) than vitality, but the system could easily work for what you want.
THe big key will be things like the "powering through it" if they enter combat (Character: I am so NOT in the mood for this, DO you see this, goblins? I have a cast on. That means you are coming to me and you will stand there nice and pleasantly while I cut you down. Or Else!) and then having a consequence for that, or just kicking back.
My fatigue restoration is 1 point for a long rest. Short rests do not reduce fatigue. I also am cruel -- they don't reduce it, but they have to short rest at least twice in a day (you know, lunch and dinner) or they gain a point (and if they don't mention eating then another), and so their long rest is nixed on recovery.
Something like that fits in well with your injury thing -- "this injury requires at least X days to recover 1 fatigue point". So, let me see...
This is a combination of grumpiness and injury. Grumpiness usually falls under "personableness", recovery usually falls under Wisdom, and injury falls under Con. So, add Con, Wis, and Cha and divide by three, giving you an Injury Score.
When you take a big hit (determined byt he DM or by some number you choose), do an Injury roll against a DC of 13. Failure means you are fine. Crits could mean automatic failure.
The injury could be any of these sorts. TABLE: Die Roll, Injury Type, Effect (the RP part), Duration. Duration would be how many long rests it will take to recover from the injury.
I would suggest that some of the effects include disadvantage (limb) while others do not. And sorry, you have to create your own table, lol.
Now, if you want to tie fatigue ito it and potentially have "an infection", well, quick, grab a disease set up.
Each day you are fully active, you increase your fatigue by one point. After three days (or 5 or 7 or 14) or 3 points of fatigue, you develop a fever, which applies a penalty, as you have an infection.
The infection will add an additional fatigue point (2 points per day) for each day you are active beyond resting. Should you become incapacitated while having a fever from the infection, the infection will continue to work (thus creating an almost stasis, since they are now resting, they gain a point, but the infection eats it away).
You can recover a point each day by making a successful Con check against the DC of the fever (DM determined, or a standard number you decide on).
When the fever breaks, you can recover in a number of days equal to your con modifier.
If your fever reduces you to 10 levels of fatigue, you start making death saving throws.
Regular stuff will work (healing, restoration, medicine skill, stabilize dying, whatever) to dispel it (unless you choose not to have it do so).
The key for you will be the Table in this case -- and it is only necessary if you want i to be -- you can just as easily make it up as you go along.
Bam. We have an Injury Score for the kinds of injuries you are talking about. Not a pool of points, but rather a score that you can use to simulate these things, by operating within the 5e system.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
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Also, yes, I did just create a new thing for the game on the fly as I wrote that, so there are probably like 350 words more than needed in all that.
Edit, because I wasn't going to make a third post:
So, in case you are wondering where I got a list of six different categories of emotion from so that each of my planes could have a list of emotions tied to them (which is how the corruptions work out)...
I used the standard therapy emotion wheel, lol. Which we actually use in role playing therapy sessions (wel, not me, anymore, but other psychologists).
If you've ever had cause or course to study emotions, you'll be aware there are generally a list of 5 to 9 basic, core emotions that are universal, and those all have like "bits and pieces" emotions. There are a lot of systems, but I used a very common "emotional wheel" that had a lot of subtype on it.
Because my games do feature a lot of role play and I like to help with it, being able to give a character a set of slips (or send them PMs that say "start RP this emotion more frequently" it let's me simulate the effects and create a more rewarding session for my players.
Plus, I do bits with horror and mystery and sometimes we get dark, and these things can help heighten the whole thing, keeping us all in character.
Now the best part, at least for me: So not only did I tie the planes to emotion, I also have the planes tied in a different way to my alignment system -- which is built off how folks deal with the seven primary existential issues of Self (Agency, Independence, Dying, Empathy, Community, Balance, Chaos).
Neither of those tools existed when D&D was created or even when I started playing. Both are relatively new concepts used in analysis. It is all pretty much meaningless for 99% of the stuff we will be doing, but having it there gives more "lore" depth to the whole thing.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
How do you get past writers block/ how do you get ideas you can build on?
(I couldn’t find the original post. A lot has happened since I last was here!)
Writer’s block is a tricky subject. This is how I deal with it (I had to use this last night as I was brainstorming some finals elements of my current project).
Begin by pulling out some paper. A notebook is best, but not required (Note: Typing DOES NOT work as well as writing for this exercise. Only type if you have no other option). Start by jotting down what exactly the story is that you want to tell (in D&D terms, what is the overarching idea that you are building this adventure/campaign on). Then jot down the first key point that comes to mind. It could be anything from how old your main character(s) is to what sort of world this is set in. Then, divide off that section and start anew. This next section is not about your story. It’s about a very similar world that is slightly different and has different main ideas and characters. This time, you’re going to write down a “What if this is our world” (you can replace everything past “what if” with whatever core detail you feel like writing about). Write a few sentences about the “What if” (For example- What if this is our world: Dark Fantasy. There are all sorts of villainous beasts. Sorcery is feared as a sign of infernal influence. Our heroes are a greedy mage and a cunning woodsman. They aim to) and suddenly, you stop. Not anywhere, of course, but you stop when you hit the point that you feel you cannot expand any further on this topic or when you feel like the writing is running flat. Now you are ready to brainstorm your real story. (Assuming you are writing a new story/book/campaign/adventure from scratch) Write a good 6-8 sentence paragraph that outlines what you will cover in your writing, who it will cover, the antagonists, the world, whatever makes sense to you. Everything before this has only been partial or short sentences. This is where you actually dive deep into your story, not too deep though. Just enough that you have the main ideas down on paper. Now write out a plot. I recommend these points as ones to cover: Prologue (or how it began, outside of the main story or game); Beginning; Initial Conflict (or how the danger begins. This is [almost] NEVER at the beginning. Starting with tension is good, but it is very rare that starting with tension related to the initial conflict works; try doing that in the prologue); Rising Action (more conflicts); Climax (the most major conflicts that the story revolves around); falling action (conflicts resulting from the climax and attempted resolutions); Resolution (how do you tie everything together and wrap it all up or leave things open for the sequel); Epilogue (This is a good way to tease your players or readers with future adventure)
One final note: For designing your plot tree with the points above, only do 2-3 sentences, simple, short sentences that cover the MOST important points of that section. 4 is okay, but you shouldn’t need this many. If you have that many it usually means your plot is crowded.
I switched it so that a long rest returns all Hit Dice, but only half HP. It encourages short rests while simultaneously making it so that a long rest doesn’t let PCs automatically sleep of all injuries.
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Creating Epic Boons on DDB
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I never found WoD to have that problem, but I never ran the story for that, so I only needed to know my characters’ stuff. But the Magic system in particular was simpler than D&D’s because it just had examples of stuff that you could do at various power levels and the Storyteller just adjudicated based on those. Of course, that was an older edition of WoD, I’m not familiar with the current version.
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Least Crunchy Game Ever:
Sorry, I can't tell you about it. That's classified. How did you hear about it?
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
I DM the same way! And I’m probably neurodivergent too, so I totally get it.
I really like D&D, especially Ravenloft, Exandria and the Upside Down from Stranger Things. My pronouns are she/they (genderfae).
Heh. I am not the DM of the World of Darkness game. I am the player.
So in the Mage game - you're right, in a way - that it gives examples of what "Mind 2" does, for example.
But that also leaves it very open to interpretation.
So rather than just knowing what it does - it becomes a discussion. "Well, with Mind 2 would I be able to use..." DM considers it. Then player says, "OK, so then I would like to..." DM considers it. Rather than just, "I read his mind" (if that's all Mind 2 did). Each time something happened in the Mage game - the game halted as we all tried to figure out what powers to use, and if they'd work how we think, see if the DM agrees with how we think we can use these powers.
In the Vampire game, it's far less of a problem because spells aren't really a thing you use in Vampire. It's more about Potent and Disciplines you have. But still, even doing skill checks - why isn't JUST THE SKILL?
Why if I am brawling am I rolling the BRAWL and then need to roll Strength too? Why isn't it simplified to just roll Brawl?
So there's weird quirky things about that.
Imagine if in D&D - "I want to make a Perception check."
"OK. Click Perception. And also click Wisdom."
Just seems like there's needless steps.
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I was not expecting to get an entire books worth of stuff dealing with writers block and getting ideas. You all are awesome!
I may have to revisit this page a ton to fully understand all the stuff you all posted because it is so detailed and mind blowing. :D
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