Redbeard's Ravings

This is what you get when you open your game up and have no expectations; what happens when you present a problem to the player characters that can’t be solved by a skill check or a character ability; when the world is rich enough and has enough moving parts that the adventuring party can invent multiple possible solutions; they make a choice and change the campaign world, not once but several times. Is this the DM's version of "let me tell you about my character?" This group isn’t in my megadungeon , but is in a different part of the campaign world.   It’s a swamp with the southern portion occupied by the Barrow Maze (I call it the Swallowed Cairns) and the northern portion is the hex crawl swamp of Dyson’s Challenge ofthe Frog Idol .   The party needed a pilgrimage to clear a catastrophe effect , so they got a vision that the Alabaster Oracle (an NPC in Dyson’s module) could tell them of a pilgrimage; she sent them to the Frog God.   (I gave the player that ...

Resource Management is one of the pillars of what I consider to be Old School role playing.   One of the limits on your resources is the encumbrance system of your game.   Especially in a game where the majority of your experience is derived from treasure recovered, there’s a balancing act for the player to manage of how much equipment, how many supplies, and how much treasure they can carry.   One of the key resource mechanics in 5 th edition is resting, by which character abilities recharge and hit points (always an abstract measure of stamina) can be recovered.   In order to really make this matter to 5 th edition players, consumption of supplies must be a part of the rest mechanic.   So I have a house rule that rations and water must be consumed in order to get the benefits of a rest. Encumbrance Many original games and most new style games have encumbrance systems that don’t get used at the table, so you need a simple and quick system. ...