Rules

This is where we discuss the rules, as well as rules variants we'll be using in this game.

There are a lot of optional rules that you can apply to D&D5 to alter the game slightly to make it feel more like one previous edition or another. Since this is playing in an AD&D module, I’m choosing to use the optional rules that make it more closely resemble AD&D, while NOT using the optional rules that make it more like D&D 3, 3.5, or 4. The only exceptions to this are Alignment and Morale, which I never particularly cared for in any edition; I think the backgrounds in fifth edition work much better to guide role-play than alignment, and if I can’t decide when monsters quit a fight, I shouldn’t be a DM.

Most of these won't have much of an effect on normal game play, as they cover edge cases or special situations in combat. I also plan to point them out as the situations arise (it's my job). But I will elaborate them here for your reference, because I don't want any player to ever NEED the DMG.

The following optional rules from the PHB and DMG will be used:
Combat option: climb onto a bigger creature – DMG 271:
Smaller creatures can jump onto and cling to larger creatures. To do so, they make an opposed check: Athletics or Acrobatics vs the target's Acrobatics. While clinging to the target, the smaller creature has advantage on attack rolls against that target, and can climb around on the creature. The larger creature can make opposed checks to remove the smaller creature: Athletics vs. the smaller creature's Athletics or Acrobatics.

Combat option: disarm – DMG 271:
Declare that you are attempting to disarm your target, then make an attack roll. This is opposed by the target's Athletics or Acrobatics.

Combat option: overrun – DMG 272:
Push through a hostile creature's space, using opposed Athletics checks.

Combat option: shove aside – DMG 272:
A variant of the shove attack: roll a shove with disadvantage. Succeed and move the target to one side or another.

Combat option: cleaving through creatures – DMG 272
Hit an undamaged creature and reduce it to 0 HP in one attack, you may check to see if the attack roll also hits an adjacent creature. If so, apply any remaining damage to that creature.

crafting magic items – DMG 128
Rules for crafting magic items. This is more likely to come into play as NPCs fulfill player orders, rather than the PCs making their own items.

equipment size – PHB 145
Equipment from downed enemies may not fit every PC.

fear and horror – DMG 266
There are some situations so awful that characters will have to perform WIS or CHR saves to avoid getting Frightened or Mad. Unlikely to occur in this adventure.

healer’s kit dependency – DMG 266
In order to use Hit Dice to heal, a healer's kit must first be applied to the wounds.

slow natural healing – DMG 267
You heal naturally only through using hit dice.

inspiration – PHB 125
You do something that makes sense for your character's personality traits but which isn't in the best interests of the character, you get a point of inspiration. You can then cash in that inspiration to get advantage on a d20 roll.

injuries – DMG 272
A critical hit or dropping to 0 HP has a chance of inflicting a lingering effect on the character, which then becomes an additional flaw that the character can incorporate into role-playing. The chance from a critical hit is 10%. The chance from going to 0 HP is 40%.

milestones for additional XP – DMG 261
I will grant XP for achieving objectives/accomplishing tasks in addition to defeating enemies in combat.

mixing potions – DMG 140
Drink a potion while still under the effect of another potion, and there's a chance that something...weird will happen.

more difficult magic item identification – DMG 136
Figuring out a magic item's properties requires using identify or experimentation, not just 'attuning' to the magic item overnight.

multiclassing – PHB 163
Players may choose another character class when leveling, assuming a class trainer of the requisite type is available.

planar effects – DMG 50
When traveling to other planes of existence, characters experience...weird effects.

scroll mishaps – DMG 140
When you attempt to cast a spell from a scroll and [i]fail[/u], something weird happens.

skills with different abilities – PHB 175
As the situation requires, I may ask you to do a skill check using a different ability score than the default.

SpaceSeeker 19's Travel Rule with Mounts (read it on Gamer's Plane)
Mounts increase the distance you travel per day.

training to gain levels – DMG 131
When you earn enough XP to gain a level, your HP and attack modifiers go up immediately if you are gaining a level in the same class. But any other gain of new abilities - or gaining a level in a new class - requires that you spend some time with a trainer in the class to learn the new abilities. This almost always requires returning to town.

variant backgrounds – PHB 130-136
Pretty much every background in the player's handbook has a variant background: the pirate, the knight, the gladiator, etc. These are all available for players to choose during character creation.

The following optional rules from the PHB and DMG will not be used. I am not going to elaborate on them here, unless people ask about them.
alignment – PHB 122
feats – PHB 165
mark – DMG 271
Alternatives to epic boons (won’t come into play anyhow) – DMG 230
point buy for ability scores – PHB 13
encumbrance (D&D5 base rules are sufficient) – PHB 176
firearms, explosives, alien technology – DMG 267
healing surges – DMG 266
hero points – DMG 264
hitting cover (I’ll determine this myself, not using this mechanic)– DMG 272
honor – DMG 264
initiative variants – DMG 270
level advancement without XP – DMG 261
loyalty – DMG 93
massive damage – DMG 273
morale – DMG 273
only players award inspiration – DMG 241
piety – DMG 23
playing on a grid – PHB 192
plot points (I’m happy with suggestions from players, but not the mechanics) – DMG 269
proficiency check variants – DMG 263
proficiency dice – DMG 263
renown – DMG 129
rest variants – DMG 267
sanity – DMG 264
spell points – DMG 288
variant human traits (naturally, since feats are out) – PHB 31
wands that don’t recharge – DMG 141

Edit: I added a percentage chance for the injuries; RAW, the injuries just happen or are up to the DM's whim. I prefer to make it a percentage chance.

Just to make sure I have this right:

1. No full heal at the end of a long rest, just healing with Hit Dice and,

2. Must use a healer's kit to do any healing at all with Hit Dice

Does the Herbalism Kit count as a Healer's Kit?

No, they're different. A herbalism kit is a set of tools, mechanically speaking. Using them gives you ADV on a medicine check to stabilize a character, but does not expend any part of the kit. In play, I'd encourage the characters with a herbalism kit to look out for opportunities to look for herbs to restock the kit (for role-play purposes; it's mechanically unnecessary).

With this variant rule, a healer's kit is a resource with 10 uses. A use will automatically stabilize a creature at 0 HP, and/or enable a creature to spend hit dice to regain HP after a short rest. The healer's kit and herbalism kit are both likely to be available for purchase at Fantikaflar's Fantastic Items shop. A fine point: a given set of wounds only needs to be treated with a healer's kit once to heal, no matter how many hit dice are needed to heal the damage. Example: a 1st-level PC takes a bunch of damage in a fight, applies a healer's kit, spends his hit die to regain HP. He continues adventuring and takes no damage that day. When he gets the opportunity, he takes a long rest to regain the hit die, and at the end of the long rest can then spend the hit die immediately to regain more HP.

Short rest with prior application of a healer's kit: spend hit dice to regain HP.
Long rest: regain 1/2 of total hit dice, minimum 1 (in addition to spell slots, class powers, etc)

Edit: In this post, I put forth the idea of using a crit (fail) deck. No one really liked the idea, including me. So I've redacted it.

So, I've put forth that we'll be using the variant injury rules, which I like. But...!

I am a HUGE fan of CritJuice, particularly the innovative mechanics that the DM has created. One of them is the idea of a Crit Deck and Crit Fail deck. So, I'll put it to all of you, as the players: would you like to play with a Crit (Fail) Deck, to lend some humor and chaos to the game, and possibly invite other people on GP to suggest Crit cards for us?

I'm okay with the idea. And since this is a play by post I won't have drunk people roaring in my ear, I like it more. Just a jest, the story on CritJuice is actually fun, but I can't stand it when they get loud. Some episodes are better than others, it's just to much for my tastes.

The drinking is my least favorite part, for all that I love the show and it's a D&D drinking game.

I'm still not sure how much I like Crit Cards for this; it really sets a tone of outrageousness that can be fun, but it would be fun to play the game more "straight" and less over-the-top, too. Anyone else have a strong opinion one way or the other?

I prefer to avoid crit fails honestly, though they're ok if it's minor setbacks. It's never fun to kill your buddy

That's the sort I was thinking (disadvantage, prone, dropping weapon, that sort of thing); I don't think crit fails should ever harm an ally, even if it's just an NPC. That said, I'm interested in seeing if anyone is excited about the idea of a crit deck; I'm leaning a bit more against the idea the more I think about it.

For one thing, it's more work for me!

So let me know if you'd really like it and I'll get to work making it happen. Otherwise, I think the rules as stated are fine.

Personally, I haven't had any experience with a crit deck (I'm mainly inferring from context what that involves). I don't have strong feelings one way or the other.

Same here.
As for that, I think I might prefer "straight" in this instance. I imagine the tone that the crit deck lend the game will all depend on what the cards themselves say.

I think we're fine without Crit or Failure decks. It's also a bunch more work for you (setting up Decks here in order for it to work smoothly and not just become a source of slowdown).

Personally, I've never been a fan of stacking punishment on crit fails. I mean, it's already disheartening enough that you failed at what you set out to do (which typically means you made zero progress on your objective), adding other effects for 'rolling a 1', to me, always felt like twisting the knife.

I would prefer additional critical failure to be in line with the narrative and driven by the DM, personally. I've begun to get too attached to the weird wild rolls you can get in FFG games and would rather if I roll a 1 let you set the tone on how good/bad it is -- you can understand the state of the game such that you can make it fun, narratively, without it being terrible.

I'm not hearing any enthusiastic support of the crit deck idea, so I will not implement a crit (fail) deck for this game. Thanks for all your feedback!

You've really checked those rules through! I like the selection. But I'm interested...why no feats? (Not against it, they are poorly balanced in 5e)

I really like feats in 5e, they're a lot better than they were in 3.x. I'm not opposed to being without them though. I think they could be more well balanced though

Simply put: there were no feats in AD&D.

As much as I love 5e and love feats in general, I'm really looking forward to the old school vibe this is giving me! It feels like 1986 and I'm in highschool again, having just discovered RPG's!

Which is why even though I like my character concept and the way it has developed thanks to everyone's input, part of me feels wrong playing a late-edition race haha! I guess I'm playing up his outsider-ness. We had outsiders in AD&D, right? :-)

Sure, and there was little concern about game balance with such things in AD&D (just think of the cavalier, or some of the OA classes). But with D&D5, class and race features provide plenty of interest, despite our not using the feats option.

Your dragonborn is somewhat more playable than a Bozak draconian, even though you don't get the cool death scene built into those (which had no chance of resurrection).

Bozak draconian! I remember those! :-D

Bozak draconian! I remember those! :-D

Btw I love that we're doing psionics here. I don't have any experience with it myself but for some reason I associate it with, again, my early days of gaming.

If you're like me, you never played a psionic, but you tried to qualify for one every time you rolled up a character.

We pretty much always played it straight, so my friends and I never played a psionic in a campaign. But, one time we did do a 'what if?' test of psionics in AD&D. We rolled up a ranger, GAVE him psionics, leveled him up to 16th, and pit him against a succession of monsters in an arena to see how he'd fare.

Psionics made him completely unstoppable; he blasted through everything we threw at him in a few rounds at most...right up until he met Jubilex. Jubie summoned some black puddings and they wiped the floor with that psionic tough guy.

Sorry, I have next to no experience playing spellcasters so I just want to make sure I understand this edition's rules correctly:

1. Spellcasting does NOT provoke opportunity attacks from adjacent foes, but ranged attack spells are made at disadvantage. Is that right?

2. Based on the text of the War Caster feat, a caster who DOESN'T have the feat can't cast a spell with a somatic component while using a shield. Correct?
Thanks!

That is how I've been interpreting the rule Jabes. It's a departure from previous rules for casting in combat to not provoke, but disadvantage is a nice compromise I think. And yes normally shiields and weapons would make Somatic gestures impossible to perform so that feat is very useful for casters who plan on getting into melees often

It may not ever come into play in this game, but I wanted to note that I've added another optional rule to the variant rules I'm using with this game: Spaceseeker19's Travel Rule with Mounts.

This is possible; it's called "multiclassing" and it's one of the D&D5's optional rules that we're using in this game. There are three prerequisites:
* Finding a trainer for the class you want
* Earning the experience points needed to gain a new level
* Having the required ability scores to multiclass (changing career direction requires one to be especially gifted)

Finding a class trainer
Each class trainer only trains levels in his class, so a character would have to find a class trainer for the class it wishes to gain. To train a monk class, you'd have to train with Tuan Vo, while Diana teaches cleric levels and Cormac teaches only fighter levels. Class trainers exist for all classes in and around Hochoch.

Earning the experience points
Everyone gains experience points as one adventures. To gain a level, one must reach the required experience.
Level 2: 300 XP
Level 3: 900 XP
Level 4: 2,700 XP
Level 5: 6,500 XP

When multiclassing, each level of all classes a character has are added together to determine the total character level; the character must earn XP to add another character level beyond the total character level, regardless of what level the character is in a particular class. So a character who is a 2nd-level barbarian and a 1st level bard is considered a third-level character, and would need the XP to go to level 4 (2,700) before it could train in any class.

Required ability score minimums
When multiclassing, your character needs to be better than good in order to change careers. Thus the character must meet or exceed minimum ability scores (13) in the last class trained and the new class trained in order to change career paths. The fighter who wishes to multiclass needs a 13 in Strength OR Dexterity to train in another class, but all the other classes with multiple abilities listed must have BOTH of those abilities at 13 or higher.

Prerequisite ability scores
Barbarian: STR 13
Bard: CHR 13
Cleric: WIS 13
Druid: WIS 13
Fighter: STR or DEX 13
Monk: DEX and WIS 13
Paladin: STR and CHR 13
Ranger: DEX and WIS 13
Rogue: DEX 13
Sorcerer: CHR 13
Warlock: CHR 13
Wizard: INT 13

Example: Jenny's character Medb is a Druid with the following stats: STR-14 INT-9 WIS-16 DEX-13 CON-12 CHR-10. The character earns 300 XP, and Jenny decides that she wants to multiclass to a rogue. Medb can do this because she is a Druid and exceeds the Druid's minimum multiclass WIS of 13 AND meets the rogue's minimum multiclass DEX of 13. Medb finds a rogue trainer and becomes a second-level character with classes Druid 1/Rogue 1. Then Medb gains 600 more XP for a total of 900, and she decides she wants to learn some new abilities. She meets the rogue's minimum multiclass DEX of 13, but she does not meet the minimum INT required to gain a wizard level, nor can she train to become a bard, paladin, sorcerer, or warlock (as they all require a CHR of 13). So she opts instead to multiclass to a ranger (having both a DEX of 13 and WIS exceeding 13), becoming a third-level character with classes Druid 1/Rogue 1/Ranger 1.

There are particulars about each class when multiclassing (which skill proficiencies your character gains, how different hit dice work, etc) which I will go into with each player if it comes up, or players may ask here ahead of time.

(edited for legibility)

Just a note on the map of the Forest Ruin: in the setup of the game, I expressly said that we would NOT be playing on a grid. That has not changed; it's just that I had the grid paper out for another GP game's map, and I automatically used the next sheet of the pad in drawing the initial Forest Ruin map. You are not restricted to moving within the squares shown there, though the map has been drawn to each square is 5' on a side scale. So we can:
a) continue with this map, only using the grid for a sense of distance measurement, or
b) I can remove the grid with the next update of the map and add a map scale legend, so it won't be provoking any confusion about this.

Let me know which option you prefer.

I’m ok if you leave it as-is. I tend to only regard grids and squares if it’s a combat situation, unless DM instructs otherwise.

I’m used to theater of the mind in a pbp game. I’m down with whatever works for the group.

Thanks for noting the grid isn't absolute. No need to remove; it provides convenient measurement.

Seconded.

Two things about the rules:

First, I want to apologize to everyone for not following the injury rules we'd laid out for this game; when you all took the short rest and spent hit dice, I should have mentioned that spending hit dice uses healer's kit applications. I will endeavor to not omit this in future.

Second, we have a question about some other optional rules to apply (optional class features from the accessory book Tasha's Cauldron of Everything). The easiest thing would be to say "No, that's not on the list." It would certainly keep things simpler. But when I made that list of rules for this game and the initial group of players accepted it - NINE YEARS AGO - no D&D5 books existed other than the PHB and DMG. All the other optional rules in D&D Fifth Edition were written after this Gamer's Plane game started! So I wanted to check in with you, the players, to see how you feel about it. Do you want to consider adding any of the optional rules (particularly the character class options) from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, or do you want to continue with just the rules we have already established? The particular class feature mentioned so far - the monk's "Dedicated Weapon" feature - doesn't seem too disruptive of the AD&D feel I was trying to maintain for this game, which is the primary criterion I will apply to all such optional rules if the group decides that we should consider them.

Obviously I'm biased since I am the monk player looking to benefit from the optional rules. I just want to add that I'm perfectly fine with not having the optional rules in play. I plan to stick with the monk class and will likely take the Way of Mercy should I survive to level 3, and my enjoyment of this game will not be affected by whether or not I can use the rules from TCoE.

I am ok with the optional rules.

Speaking as a player whose PC has an odd-numbered stat, I might at some point ask for a specific feat they grants a +1 ability score increase as well as another nominal benefit (I’m looking at you Skill Expert).

I’m ultimately ok with or without, but if it’s helpful and increases fun-factor for everyone, and esp as long as it doesn’t hurt the DM’s brain to do so, I support it.

My stat rolls were pretty bad. I can't see multiclassing. The only optional rules for Druids are a crappy version of a familiar, and the ability to replace a Druid cantrip with another Druid cantrip.

I could go either way on optional rules, personally.

The rule on identifying magic items we are using in this game is called "More Difficult Identification" (page 136 of the 5e Dungeon Master's Guide). Instead of the default "a PC rests with the item and learns all there is to know about it" rule, "More Difficult Identification" requires using an Identify spell to learn all the details, or just experimenting by using the item to discover what it does. So for the mace I've tried to provide some finer detail as to what Kragga and the others can observe about the mace, given their languages and abilities. I'll endeavor to do the same with any other magic items you find.

Xana is continuing down the Warlock path. I don't think any of the optional rules apply to her.

CancerMan has made reference to Aanbo's herbalism kit a number of times, so I wanted to us clarify the process for a PC to create a potion of healing. The difficulty is that the basic rule - Crafting in "Downtime Activities" on page 187 of the PHB - implicitly contradicts the optional rule I said we will use in this game for "Crafting a Magic Item" on pages 128-129 of the DMG.

Here are the differences:
1) If we consider a standard healing potion as a magic item, then a standard healing potion would take 2 work days and 50 gold for one or more minimum-level-3 characters who each can cast Cure Wounds to create.
2) If we consider a standard healing potion as adventuring gear, then a standard healing potion would take 10 work days and 25 gold for one or more characters each proficient in the use of herbalism kits to create.

For this game, I'm leaning toward interpreting standard healing potions as "Adventuring Gear," for the purposes of crafting mechanics. How do you feel about it?

I know healing potions have this odd sort of "in-between" status, but personally I have never thought of them as magical items.

I'm inclined to think of a standard healing potion as adventuring gear, but only because it appears in the adventuring gear list. I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other, although...

My eventual plan is for Aanbo to take the Way of Mercy, which at third level allows him to spend ki points to heal HP. If the consensus is that healing potions are magical and require the Cure Wounds spell, could Aanbo's Hand of Healing feature do the same?

Adventuring gear.

I don't have a strong feeling either way, but I'll go with adventuring gear.