:(

Just a quick entry going in to say that the first part of ‘Chronicle of Heroes’ will be exponentially delayed as I managed to accidentally delete the draft on my computer. It was 75% complete and pretty well written, but it’s all gone. Windows live writer doesn’t even send deleted drafts to the recycle bin, so it’s completely gone. I didn’t realise that if I opened a draft, then clicked delete draft (thinking I could resave it under another blog, this one) that it would delete everything before my very eyes O_o. Well, you live and learn, and I can remember 90% of it, so it’ll be a good exercise to re-write it.

Of Homebrew and Print – Rules and Artistic License

An issue of some contention amongst my gaming group is that of homebrewed rules verses that which is written in printed media. This arises due to two very contrary opinions within my group on the subject of non-official rules, this is often an issue that must be addressed frequently. I can see both sides evenly, and as a DM, I must tread carefully.

In favour of homebrewing is the fact that it’s the spirit of d&d. Ever since first edition, players have been encouraged to make their own rules to not only make the game a more personal experience, but also to address issues that occur when there isn’t a rule to address a situation. I have found myself making some rules in order to address issues that aren’t covered adequately in the published material. One prime example of this is haggling; originally it was a completely role playing experience. This seemed like a good idea at first, but would frequently lead to exchanges like this:

NPC: This magical item is 300 gold pieces.
PC: I’ll give you fifty
NPC: I can go down to 250?
PC: I’ll give you fifty
NPC: Fine, what about 200?

…and so on, until the player either gets the item at a stupidly low price, or just walked away, making the whole exchange meaningless and tedious. Often as the dm, I would simply just cave and give them the item cheap. As such, I made a set of homebrewed rules regarding haggling that revolve around the use of Bluff, Diplomacy and Intimidate checks, much like a skill challenge. A PDF of the rules can be found here on my skydrive if you’re interested. I have yet to properly implement these rules, but I have a good feeling that they will work quite well.

Another set of custom rules that I am currently fine tuning is Armour Breakage for the Dark Sun setting. You see, within the Dark Sun Campaign Setting source book, there are rules for weapon breakage, but these don’t extend to armour, which seems a little absurd. How can weapon and armour both be constructed from inferior materials, yet only the weapons be prone to breakage? As such, I began translating the rules for weapon breakage over to armour. These are taking a bit more time to fine tune due to the significant affect loosing your armour can have in the heat of combat. As such, the rules found here, focus on instead lowering the AC bonus and increasing the likelihood of critical hits as the armour takes more damage.

These homebrewed rules are causing a slight upset for my more ‘strict’ who believes that homebrewed rules will ‘ruin’ the game. And in all fairness I can appreciate his point of view. If a rule is drawn up hastily and without careful thought, it can lead to either a broken situation making progression impossible, or possibly a loop hole that can be exploited by the players, ruining the balance and sense of immersion in the game.
I think the main thing to remember when dealing with homebrewed rules is that if the dm comes up with a new rule, it’s not because he’s trying to ‘beat’ the players (or at least he shouldn’t be. A good dm should be focused on keeping the players on their toes, providing fun challenges and a good story, not trying to kill them at every chance. Or so I believe). A house rule should be there to address an area that isn’t covered by the official rules, such as the above examples of haggling and armour breakage. The most important thing is that if a house rule doesn’t work, it can be as easily removed as it was included, if not easier. A good dm shouldn’t be stubborn, adamant that his or her rule is perfectly fine, the players are just playing wrong. If a rule doesn’t work, either because it’s not properly thought out or there’s an unforeseen loophole, it should be removed, and then possibly reworked.

So, in conclusion, houserules are an important part of any role playing game, but they must be carefully thought out. And any dm including such rules should be aware that these rules may not work how they expect, or work at all, and as such the dm must be willing to remove if needs be.

Current Activity

As this is a new blog for me, I thought it would be logical for my first, non-introductory post to be a brief summary of what I’m currently up to with regards to dungeons and dragons, so here’s a few bullet points (fun!)

Active Stories

• Chronicle of Heroes – This is my first, my original, my baby. This campaign was started over a year ago as my first foray into both 4th edition dungeons and dragons (henceforth, simply 4e) and also my first experience dungeon mastering (henceforth, simply dm’ing), It’s a homebrewed module set in the Tallern Plains, a fairly diverse area of mainly farmland and forests found between the Suneater Mountains to the north and the Abratic Sea to the south. At some point I will post a map, and possibly some historical documents regarding the region. I am also planning on writing a series of fictionalised dramatisations of events of this campaign under the same name.
  The campaign is a full level 1 to 30 module with a complex story, plot twists and revelations, varied settings, antagonists, locations and characters. The players will travel not only the Tallern Plains, but much further afield, including, but not limited to, the Astral Sea, and beyond. Structurally, the campaign breaks down as follows. Several Parts make up a Chapter, where usually parts represent components or alternates paths within a Chapter. 3 to 6 Chapters make up a Volume, where a Chapter represents a distinct element of the overall story of that volume, with a beginning, middle and end Chapter, often the last being a climatic battle. Around 5 Volumes make up a Saga, with each Volume representing a self contained story within a distinct locations. This is not to say that there isn’t an overarching plot spanning many, if not all Volumes, it’s just that each Volume represents a reasonable amount of time to complete a story without any irritating cliff-hangers (unless for suitable dramatic effect). Players usually go up by 2 or 3 levels in one Volume, depending on the difficulty and their various success’ and failures. 3 Sagas make up the Epic, with each Saga spanning one tier; Heroic, Paragon and Epic. As such, from start to finish, the players will go up by 10 levels during a Saga. The three Sagas make up the Epic that is the overall history and life of the players characters.
  Currently my group is at Saga 1, Volume 2, Chapter 4, Part 3 of 4, with one Chapter remaining. Hopefully, once I’ve written the story of Volume 1 – The Clockwork Quest, I’ll be able to publish up the current Volume – Evil in the Dark.

In Development

• Chronicle of Heroes -  Due to the sheer size of this module, and the effect that players actions have on the world in general, this will very much always be an In Dev project until the day they reach level 30. At this moment, I’m currently working on Volume 3 of the current heroic saga, which is set within a dwarven underground city. I’m working very hard to create authentic feeling for this city as I really want to make my dwarf player feel right at home!
• Gladiators of Dark Sun – This is a very different animal. Set within the Dark Sun Campaign Setting (with a few tweaks), this is a more combat, rather than story based, campaign. The players take the roles of freed Gladiator-Slaves who decide to take the only skills they have and use them to pursue fame and fortune, and hopefully stave off death, a fate that lurks round every corner and under every rock on Athas. In this module the players travel from arena to arena, choosing events to fight in. Rather than the usual encounters, which are tailored to the party level to give just the right amount of challenge, this system allows the players to pick their encounter from a roster at each arena. Factor in other elements such as weapon and armour breakage, gambling on (or even against) yourself and the very nature of the Dark Sun setting, I’m hoping it will make for a very interesting game. I’m still looking for players, and also a venue, so this one may be on the burner for a while, at least until the end of the month, when the Dark Sun update is released for the character builder.
• The Modrons – This is a monster class/race that was mentioned in the last d&d podcast I listened to, where they were discussing how to use the new monster creation rules from a recent publications, to update an old monster. The monster of choice was the modron, a construct race devoted to order. It immediately grabbed my attention, so I fired up my Adventure Tools and begun working on the entire hierarchy. I can defiantly see myself posting these guys on here in the near future as part of my Creature Feature.

On Hold

• Thankfully nothing is currently on major hold at the moment, but once my girlfriend goes back to university, I can see Chronicles of Heroes going here until next summer, as she is a member of the gaming group that is playing that module. My philosophy is very much that the party that starts is the party that finishes, and as such I would much rather shut down a module than run it minus a player. This prevents not only out levelling, but the absent player from missing any key parts of the story.

Well, that’s very much everything. Don’t forget to check back or subscribe to get updates on what’s going on.

Welcome to The D-Twenty

Hello there and welcome to my dungeons and dragons blog. Here I will post a mix of house rules, custom monsters, tips on and experiences with dm'ing, fiction based on the events of my various d&d groups and other role playing thoughts. I hope everyone who reads this little blog finds it interesting and even useful!