House Rules

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Spearmint
Rider of Rohan
Rider of Rohan
Posts: 12357
Joined: Sat May 14, 2016 5:42 pm

House Rules

#1 Post by Spearmint »

House Rules:...ever changing as the game goes on.

First of all let me express I am not a rules lawyer and your player character may 'in character' attempt to do anything and may very well achieve it if he rolls high enough. This section is to help me run the game in a challenging and enjoyable way. Most Dungeon and Dragon games don't have pistols, muskets or cannon fire. Very, very few actually take place on the water. So we are all going to learn as we go along and these rules are all subject to change if they appear to be too overpowered, ineffective or just plain stupid. However as the DM I will arbitrate any final discussions and decisions. Hopefully these house rules will just help the game flow and manage game mechanics in a simple and understandable way.

It will include another couple of 'in game' characteristics which will be important for your character as he adventures.

The following are some house rules developed so far: :)

Spearmint
Rider of Rohan
Rider of Rohan
Posts: 12357
Joined: Sat May 14, 2016 5:42 pm

Re: House Rules

#2 Post by Spearmint »

Dice Rolling:

Please use the dice roller when you make an attack roll, use a skill or make a saving throw. Link the rolls please so I can see them. It is your character and I want you to take responsibility for all their hits and misses, heroic actions, desperate saves, inspired knowledge or lack thereof. Make a macro which reflects your action and the appropriate bonus or penalty modifiers. for example:

Granville the great, swigs from a bottle of rum, tainted with poison from the sap of a jungle toad.

Granville save vs poison [1d20+1]. Surviving thus Granville the great attacks the native chief with his magic dagger+2.
Granville melee attack [1d20+2] Dagger Damage [1d4+2]

It is your responsibility to know the macro accurately so please check all the modifiers are included in the text. In combat situations, you may be faced with multiple attacks and I will roll these using real dice, in real time on my desk. I just don't have the patience to link 20 or 30 different attacks and damage differentials. I will post a narrative of the action and consequences of successful or unsuccessful rolls. As Gary Gygax said,
DMs' dice rolling is just for audio effects only.
.

Critical Hits and Fumbles:

If you roll a natural 20 on an attack roll, it will be counted as a critical hit. All critical hits do maximum damage from the weapon type plus or minus any modifiers due to strength, magic, miscellaneous conditions and an additional normal damage roll. So in the above example, Granville the great critically hitting the chief would do: max(1d4)+2 = 4+2 =6hp + [1d4+2] damage with his dagger. so a range between 9 - 12hp of damage.

Certain weapons will also have a critical hit range. For example all pistols and cannons have four ranges. Point blank, short, medium and long range. Any successful hits taken at point blank range will be treated as critical hits even if a natural 20 was not rolled on the dice.

I will also be using aCritical Hit Table as the game progresses. This will determine long term consequences of surviving a critical hit. The first result could be that your prized chainmail armour can no longer take the beating and falls apart or the hull of the ship you sail in is damaged beyond repair and the boats begins to sunk. For the player character , especially if such a hit brought the character to 0 hit points or less, surviving the critical may have lasting physical effects. A critical wound to the head may result in you losing an eye, cannon fire blasting apart your boat may also blast apart a leg. Still wooden legs and hook hands may add to your notoriety if not your charisma.

Fumbles: these will work in different ways. Fumble during melee and the opponent may get a free basic melee attack in return as you are off guard. Fumbling range attacks may cause different results. I will narrate them as necessary.

Firing into melee: At short range, characters may fire into melee without any penalty or danger to allied combatants. A miss will be counted as missing all combatants. At medium range and long range I will roll to see if the fired projectile hits a 3rd party or misses.

Skill Checks:

Skill checks are rolled when the characters need to overcome a problem, attempt an action or gather information. Instead of rolling a d20 I find it easier to class the difficulty level of the problem or action and then get you to roll a number of d6 dice vs an attribute you are using. So an easy to solve problem or action may need you to roll [2d6], as problems or actions go from easy to nigh on impossible you may need to roll, 2,3,4,5 or even 6d6

For example, jumping from the balcony to swing from the chandelier in the tavern might be a normal task, roll [3d6]vs the characters dexterity ability score, wrestling free of the Krakens' tentacles might be a very hard task, roll [5d6] vs strength.

Spearmint
Rider of Rohan
Rider of Rohan
Posts: 12357
Joined: Sat May 14, 2016 5:42 pm

Re: House Rules

#3 Post by Spearmint »

Money

To keep things simple we are using copper and silver coins, gold sovereigns and gold 'doubloons'. Most common everyday trade is done in small change, copper and silver pieces. An ale, a common meal, a room for the night.

Most craftsmen and artisans work in gold piece value and all armour and weapons are sold in that currency.

10 copper pieces equate to 1 silver piece.
10 silver pieces equate to the 1/2 sovereign, so 20 silver pieces make up 1 gold sovereign.
1 gold doubloon is worth 2 gold sovereigns and a 'double-headed' gold doubloon is worth 4 gold sovereigns, but these are extremely rare and ancient coins.

Of the colonial nations, the Bretons, Gauloise and Iberians have minted their own currency. Though mixed trade is widespread the basic rule is that a port of one particular nation will only accept or trade with coins minted from that nation. If you have coins from a friendly nation at peace or from a nation in truce, the coins may be exchanged in the town bank at a loss of 10-20 percent. If the nations are presently at war then they will not accept the currency, even in the exchange banks. You will have to go to the 'black market' where the mark up may be significantly increased. Pirate havens exchange coins as a black market operation and each nations coins may be worth the same, depending on where pirates want to raid or trade. Native settlements do not trade in coins but in goods and luxuries.

Generally I will just expect players to 'tip' to the nearest silver piece, rounding monies up and adjust their purses as necessary.

Spearmint
Rider of Rohan
Rider of Rohan
Posts: 12357
Joined: Sat May 14, 2016 5:42 pm

Re: House Rules

#4 Post by Spearmint »

Zero Hit Points and Death, Taking Damage

I have never been a fan of 'instant death', particularly in the use of poisons. You are in a campaign though where toxic substances, venomous snakes, inedible fungi, poisonous fish, etc, exist. Fail a poison roll and suffer the results. A 'deathly poison' may be quick but not instantaneous, a few days or hours, perhaps minutes in worst case scenario. Some creatures have a paralysing touch, such as ghouls. A failed save and the effect kicks in, though a high Con may give you modifier +1 or +2 rounds to still do actions but at a cumulative -4 action penalty each round. Just that extra window of opportunity to crawl away or fire off a last pistol before succumbing.

At exactly 0 HP, characters are knocked out and will remain so for d6 turns. Make a normal Con check [3d6] to recover or suffer another d6 turns unconscious. Repeat until awake at 1hp.

Any time a character goes into negative hp, then you are dying. You will die under the following conditions:

A) Your enemy completes a 'coup de 'grace', or a creature in melee continues to attack your prone body unchallenged, each attack is assumed to hit automatically.

B) You suffer ongoing damage which unaltered takes you to below your negative HP equivalent. For example you are unconscious and drowning, taking d4 hp damage each round until rescued and resuscitated.

C) Left on negative hp and without help, you must make a successful hard [4d6] Constitution save each round or take an additional d2 ongoing damage. Once a save has been made, your character is stabilised and will remain comatose until healed or rested in a safe place (not a dungeon), regaining d3 hp for each full day of complete rest. There may be a lasting consequence for going to negative hp. A character may survive in a comatose state, if in safe bed rest and in medical care, ie: resting in a chapel, staying in an infirmary, sickbay with 24hour nursing on a boat. Characters may stay comatose for a maximum of one day per experience level. After each 24 hour period has elapsed, the still comatose character must make an additional save vs constitution check at very difficult [5d6] level. Failure indicates the body has succumbed to injuries received and the character unfortunately dies.

D) Mages may go to negative hp at -4hp + any character constitution bonus or penalty. Likewise thieves are at -6, monks, clerics, druids and rangers at -8, fighters and paladins at -10. Any exceeding of this and the character automatically dies.

Spearmint
Rider of Rohan
Rider of Rohan
Posts: 12357
Joined: Sat May 14, 2016 5:42 pm

Re: House Rules

#5 Post by Spearmint »

Drowning

A character may stay underwater holding their breath for 4 rounds +Con modifier providing they are not exerting themselves (swimming, fighting). Otherwise it is just 4 rounds.

They must make a successful System Shock % survival check on each subsequent round after the fourth. (5th, 6th, 7th, etc). A successful pass indicates no damage and you can do a basic action such as strip armour off, walk on seabed. Failure indicates you take d6 damage to your lungs as you begin to drown and can take no further action. You must make a SS check for each bonus round based on a positive Con modifier. There are no penalties for a negative modifier.

If or when, a character exceeds their number of breath holding rounds or falls into negative hp from the lung damage the character goes comatose and passes out. You are dying and immediately placed on 0 hpand take d4 damage each subsequent round until you reach your negative hp limit (explained in previous post) or get rescued.

Drowning effectively treats a 1st level character equal to a 10th level comrade if they have the same Constitution score.

Hope this is clear and we don't have to use it in play!

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