rules-and-meta - OverTheMoon D&D

# Rules & Meta A short list on what meta or “out of world” apply to my games. --- ### Introduction - ##### Flow Comes First. Let’s play a game where things get done. - We’ll keep rule arguments to a minimum, relying on previous rulings or notes I’ve kept here when possible. - If you have a hard time with focus, try keeping notes. If **I** have a hard time keeping **you** engaged, tell me. - Know your character. Early game is fine to not know class/sub-class mechanics. Once we reach around 20-30 hours spent in a campaign, you should remember your features. Have an idea of what you want to do on your turn in combat. I do not use timers but will implement one if needed to keep things rolling. - ##### Immersion is King. Let’s play a game where people are immersed. - Respect the scene. Keep meta talk to a minimum. - Respect the characters. Don’t joke when people are roleplaying. Especially do not joke **about** people’s roleplaying. - Respect the ignorance. Artless exposition might be worse than focused ignorance. - Respect the player. Players can ask for what they need, don’t volunteer it unprompted. - Respect the game. You are not someone playing a character in a game, you **are** that character in the game. - ##### The Story is Collaborative. Be mindful of others. - We are all main characters in this experience. - Everyone will get their time in the spotlight, don’t hog it. Eager participation is welcomed, eager participation **at the detriment of others** is not. - Express your desires for the story and your character. It’s not guaranteed, but I can take the essence of a thought and implement it. - ##### Respect, Don’t Dictate. It’s the Game Master, not the Game Suggester. - Rulings will try to be fair and consistent. That said, no whining. - Stop asking to level up. - Boons or rulings **might** be player or situation-specific. Do not expect something, but appreciate it. - ##### NO METAGAMING --- ### Meta #### **Less Tedious Action Cost** - No action cost for equipping, sheathing or drawing any weapon or gear. - You can cast spells while holding shields, swords or anything. - You can interact with full hands. - Material components are *mostly* done away with. Special spells where the components are valuable/important retain these. Otherwise something *else* may be the cost. #### **No Encumbrance** - Weight will not be tracked. You may be limited in what you can carry but I will not be counting the pounds of the items you do carry. #### **How Do You Want to Do This?** - When you make the killing blow on a mini-boss or boss level enemy, you can embellish the scene. Have fun with it! #### **Rule Of Cool** - Fun and creativity over rigid guardrails. Sometimes the unorthodox answer is the best. - Don’t be afraid to give ideas, even if they’re outlandish or don’t seem “correct”. #### **Critical Success and Critical Failures** - Rolling the max or min on a d20 causes the result to be extra exaggerated. - In the case of a 20, it is the **best possible outcome.** In the case of a 1, it is the **worst possible outcome.** - This does not mean you will magically convince the king to give up his kingdom and title because you rolled a 20, it means he will laugh it off as a hearty joke and not instantly execute you. - Critical Failures during combat trigger a roll on the [[critical-fumble]] table depending on the weapon used. #### **Custom Ability Point Buy** - When making a character you will use a slightly edited [point buy system](https://chicken-dinner.com/5e/5e-point-buy.html#select&NA&8&8&8&8&8&8&0&0&27&15&8&19&15&12&9&7&5&4&3&2&1&0&1&2&4&6&9&4&4&4&4&4&4). - Most values are the same, you get a maximum of **30** points to spend instead of 27. Minimum and maximum values of abilities remain the same. #### **Feats & Flavorful Feats** - Feats are now earned every four (4) **character** levels, not subclass levels. - There are no half, full or ASIs. You get a feat which comes with a +1 to a stat of your choice per 2024 Edition Rules. - Some feats have been moved to be specific to character creation or [[downtime activities]]. - These are called [[flavorful-feats]] and they have been modified from their original form to no longer include ASI (if applicable). #### **Flanking** - Flanking is not used, it is an optional rule from the DMG. #### **Advantage & Disadvantage Stacking** - Normally, each additional instance of advantage or disadvantage does nothing. Now each additional instance will grant a flat +1/-1 to the rolls you make per instance. - Furthermore, each opposite instance will cancel out only one instance. For example, you have 2 instances of advantage, granting you Advantage + 1 to the roll. You are now affected by disadvantage, and the roll is simply done with Advantage. #### **Hidden (Death Saves)** - When a player reaches 0 HP, they become unconscious and are considered “downed”. On the start of their turn they must roll a death saving throw. A 10 or higher is a success and a 9 or below is a failure. 3 successes [[stabilizes]] the player, whereas at 3 failures, the player dies. - A 20 lowers the DC for subsequent rolls by 2 (to an 8 or higher), and a 1 raises the DC by 2 (to a 12 or higher). - The player must roll the death saves *in secret* with the DM. ~~A successful DC 10 medicine check on the player (Must be within 5 feet, action cost is a bonus action) reveals their current save count.~~ - Normal enemies will not target players after they have been downed. This feels unfair and can be especially crushing with multi-attacks. Reasonably it can be assumed that in a fight a creature won’t target something that poses no threat and will instead target those that do. - Inversely, creatures with an intelligence stat *below* 4 can and will target downed creatures if they were their aggressor (i.e. a bear downs a player and will continue mauling said player on subsequent turns unless it is deterred or distracted). Special cases of intelligent creatures targeting downed ones may be: bounty hunters, assassins, adversaries with particularly deep grudges, etc. #### **HP Choice on Level Up** - When you level up and are rolling your hit die for HP, you may take the average if you roll lower. #### **Boss Enemy HP + Visibility** - Bosses and Mini-Bosses will have their HP formulas maxed. - Mini-Bosses reveal their health bar at half health and bosses will never reveal. #### **More “Critical” Criticals / Maxed Criticals** - Rolling a critical on an attack roll gives you a max roll on your damage die. (i.e. 1d8 damage die on a critical would be 1d8+8). #### **Inspiration** - Instead of inspiration granting advantage on any d20 roll, it grants a bonus die. - The bonus die is a d6 that increases as the character grows in level. From levels 1-4 it’s a d6, from levels 5-9 it’s a d8, levels 10-14 a d10 and finally 15+ it is a d12. - More than one inspiration cannot be used on the same roll. - You cannot use inspiration on a roll the same *round* you received it. - Players can give their inspiration to one another, but must describe how they are doing so. #### **Absolute Critical Rolls** - Rolling a 1 or 20 on a d20 is unchangeable short of divine intervention or a wish spell or an unexplained important mechanic in any campaign. - Furthermore, any 1 or 20 auto-fails or auto-succeeds, respectively. This applies to skill checks, saving throws, or attack rolls. #### **Pocket Criticals** - In the event you roll with advantage and get two natural 20s, you may pocket one of them for later use to replace any d20 roll you make(provided it was not a Nat 1). - However, if you happen to be so incredibly unlucky that you roll two natural 1s, *the DM* may pocket one of them for later use *on that characters* future rolls (provided it is not a Nat 20). #### **Countermagic Surge** - When someone counterspells a counterspell, both must roll on the Wild Magic Surge table. #### **Resurrection Rituals** - Instead of spells like Revivify or Raise Dead, a resurrection ritual is performed. `When a creature is targeted by a resurrection spell with a casting time longer than one action, such as Raise Dead or Resurrection, a ritual is initiated in which up to three creatures can contribute in order to call the creature's soul back to their body. The creature makes an ability check with a skill the DM deems appropriate for the action, against a DC that the DM also determines. `For each successful check, the creature's death DC is lowered by 3 for this ritual. For each failure, it increases by 1 for this ritual. The DM makes the final roll against this DC. On a success, the creature is returned to life if its soul is willing. On a failure, the creature's soul is lost, and further resurrection rituals fail automatically. `Only the strongest of magic can bypass this ritual, in the form the True Resurrection or Wish spells. These spells can also return to life a creature whose soul was lost from a failed ritual.``mind body soul roll 3 d20s averaghe them #### **Exhaustion** - We will use a slightly altered version of the 2024e version of exhaustion mechanics that - See [here](obsidian://open?vault=TTRPGs&file=Administrative%2FRules%20%26%20Mechanics%2FMechanics%2FExhaustion%20Mechanics) -