[Feedback] 5e changes to capture that old school feeling

[bwatford]

Working on a campaign setting that makes some significant house rules to D&D 5th edition to capture more of that "adventuring is dangerous" old school feeling, while keeping a lot of things that make 5e fun. Mostly by limiting options and tweaking certain features.

I have come up with some proposed rules for it and would like feedback if any of you have a moment.

Character Creation and Play v 2.0 - Player's Guide - Myth-Weavers

 

[cailano]

That's a lot of house rules! Modifying the long rest rules should keep your players on their toes a bit, but the characters will still be far more powerful than they are in old-school games, so I'm not sure if you'll reach your goal of making adventuring feel dangerous in that "old school" kind of way. 5E isn't really compatible with that style of gaming, which has as much to do with environmental challenges and resource limitations as it does with combat.

But that's not really very important. The important thing is that you're running the type of game you want and that you're trying to zero in on the amount of challenge that your group will enjoy.
 

[bwatford]

3 hours ago, cailano said:

That's a lot of house rules! Modifying the long rest rules should keep your players on their toes a bit, but the characters will still be far more powerful than they are in old-school games, so I'm not sure if you'll reach your goal of making adventuring feel dangerous in that "old school" kind of way. 5E isn't really compatible with that style of gaming, which has as much to do with environmental challenges and resource limitations as it does with combat.

But that's not really very important. The important thing is that you're running the type of game you want and that you're trying to zero in on the amount of challenge that your group will enjoy.
 

Thanks for the feedback, collecting it from a lot of different sources at the moment.

[Neopopulas]

I have a collection of a ton of house rules i like to mix and match depending on what you want out of a game. If you're interested i could put some together for you to look over, just if your curious. I like pretty much all the rules you have there, though i'm a little on the fence about spell components, while i like the mechanics of spells needing materials, i don't like the image of the component pouch but thats just a thematic thing.

[Malkavian Grin]

I don't play 5e and haven't looked at your house rules, so bear that in mind.

All I came here to say is that the more house rules you have, the more likely you--and your players--are to forget them. I am running a game of Star Wars SAGA edition and decided "It'll be a great idea to use all these house rules! It'll be more balanced!" The issue is there's so much to remember now... On top of that, many of them haven't even come up yet.

Personally, I'd think it'd be easier to use an old school system and add the few things you want to keep from 5e (advantage/disadvantage jumps to mind) than to cut down a system people expect to be a certain way.

[bwatford]

5 hours ago, Neopopulas said:

I have a collection of a ton of house rules i like to mix and match depending on what you want out of a game. If you're interested i could put some together for you to look over, just if your curious. I like pretty much all the rules you have there, though i'm a little on the fence about spell components, while i like the mechanics of spells needing materials, i don't like the image of the component pouch but thats just a thematic thing.

Removed the spell component thing this morning, and trimmed the fat from the rules to make it much smaller of a list based on feedback from multiple sources.

I think the biggest question that remains now is the cantrips not scaling for casters. this was done to try to bring casters and martials back in line but I have hit a lot of feedback about casters being useless if their cantrips are nerfed. I proposed at 5th level getting PF added to the damage instead of another dice.

 I mean otherwise, your toll the dead at 2d12 is still going to outshine every melee fighter swinging a longsword that has to hit twice against AC while you get a cantrip against most monsters dump stat every round.  So instead of 2d12 at 5th, it would be 1d12+3 or 1d10+3 for firebolt, etc.

@Malkavian Grin Completely understand where you are coming from, this is often the case. Just takes time to get adjusted. Better than learning a new system. lol

[Actana]

1 hour ago, bwatford said:

Better than learning a new system. lol

Curiously, it's not always the case. When learning a new system, you don't have to unlearn rules the same way that you do in a heavily houseruled game. Instead, with a new system your brain doesn't assume a default, so gaps in knowledge are filled with blanks instead of potentially wrong assumptions as might be in game with lots of houserules. Likewise, it can be harder to keep track of the list of changes and when they apply than it is to look up a rule when you don't know what it is.

[bwatford]

Thx everyone, with the help of all the feedback, I believe I now have it worked out to a final version. Take a look again and tell me your thoughts.