House Rules

Out of Character

After years of Game and Dungeon Mastering, there are a few base rules that I have found to greatly ehance the experience for everyone.

The Campaign

• Throughout the campaign, I will do check-ins with each player to see how the game is going and how you are liking your character. If you ever get tired of your character and want to play a new one, or want to work with me to come up with a character altering event, let me know! Characters should be dynamic and never forced to stay in one role their entire lifetime.
• This campaign is meant to be fun! But there will certainly be some darker elements to it. If you have any triggers or if there are any topics you want me to stay away from, please let me know and I will exclude those from the campaign. Don't worry, bringing something like this up to me will never cause you or other players to lose out on content. I will simply re-flavor it.
• Current Warnings: Kidnapping, Human Trafficking, Enslavement, Assault, Enprisonment, Torture, Non-Magic Mind Contorl, Muder, Trauma, PTSD.

Table Rules

• No Smart Phones unless you are looking something up.
• Always be engaged! I will do my best to ensure everyone is able to participate equally, but if you feel you are losing interest or your voice is not being heard (IC or OOC), let me know so that I can addresss the issue!
• If you believe I have something wrong, missed something, or made an incorrect call, bring it up! I am tracking a lot and it is easy for things to slip through the cracks from time to time.
• No Metagaming

Basics

Role Play (RP)

• Unless you preface something as out of character, if you say something, you do it.
• At the beginning of the campaign, this rule will be bent for new players
• Specify EVERYTHING. Anything you leave to the unknown will be up to my interpretation and may not go the way you want.
• If you don't remember something, your character doesn't remember either. Notes are your best friend! In certain situations however, I may allow you to roll a history check on something your character should remember.

Mechanics

Inspiration

• Can have no more than one inspiration at a time
• Can be used at any point
• Can be gifted by one player to another
• Gives advantage on one ability check, attack roll, or saving throw
• In certain circumstances, you may ask the DM 1 question and will only be given a truthful answer. Questions will be answered at the DM's discretion but if an answer is not given, it will not use up your inspiration point
• Awarded for:
  • RP: playing your character in a way that's true to their personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws
  • Heroism: Successful actions at great risks
  • Great Creativity: your creativity causes me to react similar to one of the following.

    I can't believe you did that / Oh s**t, that was epic! / I never would have thought of that.

Encumbrance

• Carrying Capacity = Strength * 15
• Encumbered if excess ≥ 5*Strength
  • - 10 Movement Speed
• Severely Encumbered if excess ≥ 10*Strength
• - 20 Movement Speed & Disadvantage on Ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws that use Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution
• Coin Currency and Ammunition do not have weight

Exhaustion

Arcane Exhaustion (AE)

Manipulating the fabric of magic and channeling its energy into even a simple spell is physically and mentally taxing, and higher-level spells are even more so. In this campaign, spell slots represent the number of spells you can cast safely (This does not affect spellcasting/spells gained by feats, daily powers, or any other way besides base spells from the respective class). As you run out of spell slots, your exhaustion will increase and your spells will become less predictable. If you attempt to cast a spell with no spell slots available you will lower all mental barriers, leaving your mind susceptible to madness and weakening your body on all fronts.

Starting at the 1st level of Arcane Exhaustion:

• You become drained (The condition attached to having 1+ Arcane Exhaustion Points)

• For spells that require attack rolls, any miss will change who the spell targets. The greater the value of the miss, the more likely it is to hit an ally (if a disadvantageous or damage spell) or an adversary (if a beneficial or healing spell)

• For spells that require saving throws from adversaries, your Spell DC will be halved

• Immediately after casting a spell, you will roll a sanity saving throw to determine if you succumb to madness. (If you had no points of Arcane Exhaustion prior to casting the spell, it is not affected by additional disadvantage)

  • Sanity Saving Throw: Roll 1d20 - Points of AE. On a nat 1 or a modified 1, your character succumbs to madness and experiences an Unfortunate Effect.

• For each point of Arcane Exhaustion you will gain disadvantage on all skill and ability checks.

  # of dice rolled for disadvantaged rolls = Total # of AE Points.

Arcane Exhaustion Recovery:

• AE can be cured by short or long rests depending on your caster status. AE is incurable by any other means besides long or short rests. If the character succumbed to madness due to AE, resting does not remove any amount of AE.

  • Spellcasters recover from Arcane Exhaustion faster than Non-Spellcasters due to the amount of time they have spent understanding and learning magic.

    • Spellcasters: Are able to recover from one point of Arcane Exhaustion per short rest.

      • Full Caster: Short Rest = 1 | Long Rest = 2

      • Half Caster: Short Rest = 1 | Long Rest = 1.

    • Non-Spellcasters: Are able to recover from one point of Arcane Exhaustion per long rest. Your character falls into this category if your class has no spellcasting ability.

      • Short Rest = 0 | Long Rest = 1

Physical Exhaustion

Creatures can become exhausted due to spell effects, too little sleep, overexposure to the elements or grueling conditions without adequate rest along with the over-consumption of alcohol. Each time one of these circumstances occurs, the creature takes one point of exhaustion. There are 6 levels of physical exhaustion that correspond to the number of exhaustion points a creature has. When a creature moves to a new level of exhaustion, they retain all the disadvantages of the previous levels. One point of exhaustion may be cured by taking one long rest along with the consumption of food and water.

• Level 1: Disadvantage on ability checks
• Level 2: Speed is halved
• Level 3: Disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws
• Level 4: Hit point maximum halved
• Level 5: Speed reduced to zero
• Level 6: Death (no death saves)

If any of the following or a similar event occur, the creature must succeed on a Constitution saving throw to prevent gaining a level of exhaustion. The frequency and difficulty of this saving throw depends on the event but is commonly done once an hour with a DC of 10.

• Not meeting food and water requirements
• Every several hours (3 + Con modifier) past 24 hours that a creature fails to meet food and water requirements, they will suffer 1 level of exhaustion. If the creature meets half of their food and water needs, they must succeed on a DC 10 Con save to avoid taking a level of exhaustion
• Exposure to extreme climates such as extreme heat, extreme cold, high altitudes, or high pressure
• After each hour in extreme weather, the creature must succeed on a DC 10 Con saving throw or gain one level of exhaustion.
• This may be negated by innate or magical resistances to particular climates
• Traveling for longer than 8 hours a day without rest
• Eeach hour past the initial 8 will require the creature to succeed on a DC 10 Con saving throw or gain one level of exhaustion
• Going 24 hours without a long rest
• After 24 hours, the creature must succeed on a DC 10 Con saving throw or gain a level of exhaustion. This Save DC will increase by 5 for each 24 hours gone without long resting. The DC will reset to 10 after a successful long rest.
• Falling into frigid or arctic water
• The number of minutes a creature may be immersed in frigid water before needing to make a saving throw = Con Score. Each additional minute requires the creature to succeed on a DC 10 Con throw or gain one level of exhaustion.
• Swimming for more than 1 hour
• A creature must succeed on a DC 10 Con save for each hour or gain one level of exhaustion
• This time = 8 hours if the creature has a swim speed
• Swimming at a depth of 200 feet counts as 4 hours

To prevent gaining a point of physical exhaustion, the following requirements must be met.

• Tiny: 1/3 ration ration per day and 2/3 waterskin
• Small: 1/2 ration per day and 1 waterskin
• Medium: 1 ration per day and 2 waterskins
• Large: 1 1/2 rations per day and 2 1/2 waterskins

The standard ration is 2lbs. and waterskin holds 1/2 gallon of water.

• 1 long rest per 24 hours

Dice rolls

Advantage & Disadvantage

• Advantage may be granted when:
  • A player shows exceptional creativity or cunning in attempting or describing a task
  • Previous actions (regardless of who performed them) improve the chances of success
  • Some aspect of the environment contributes to the chance of success
  • An aspect of the envirnment contributes to the chance of success
  • Circumstances not related to a creature's inherent capabilities provide it with an edge
• Disadvantage may be granted when:
• An aspect of the environment hinders the chance of success
• An element of the plan or description fo an action makes success less likely
• Circumstances hinder success in some way

Out of Combat

Dice Rolls

Skill Checks

• No Skill Check retries unless circumstances change
• All but 1 of the party members may forgo rolls to give the 1 advantage

Helping

• Helping gives a creature advantage on a roll (typically a skill check)
• You must have proficiency in a skill to help others or be able to describe how you are able to provide assistance that would give them advanatage
• You are free to debate why a skill you are proficient in would help your ally

Health Regeneration and Rests

• Short Rest (1+ hour(s)): You may spend some, none, or all of your remaining hit die
  • During a short rest half of each of the following is recovered: Resources, Item uses, Feat uses, Pact spell slots
• Long Rest (8+ hours where no more than 2 hours are spent doing a light activity like reading, talking, eating, standing watch etc.): All health, spell slots, class resources, and a all hit dice are regained upon completion.
• Downtime: During long rests, if not sleeping for the entirety, you may choose to further your knowledge of a skill, proficiency, etc as well as make, create, or invent something. This may be done through practice, research, or attempts. However, this requires all of your attention and will give disadvantage on all skill checks while learning. You may choose not to focus all of your attention on this task and you will not get disadvantage on skill checks at the sacrifice of making a quarter of the amount of progress you would have previously made. This also does not allow you to have advantage on skill checks during the time you are studying or practicing.
• It takes 400 hours (10 work weeks of 5 days) to learn a new skill.

Combat

Player vs Player

• Player vs Player combat is allowed and follows the same rules as normal combat

Initiative

• You may not increase your initiative score but you may choose to decrease it
• Until the first round passes, you will not know the initiative scores of enemies

Cinematic Advantage

• Players may use features of the battle field to get a cinematic advantage
• To do this, you may propose what action you wish to take and how you wish to use the battle field to your advantage. I will determine what attribute and skill (or skills) may be used to accomplish the feat as well as the DC
• You will be informed of the DC but not the exact details of the penalty you will face on a fail
• If you choose to proceed, you will roll the check as part of your move or action
• Success: you get advantage on your next attack
• Failure: something bad happens depending on what you tried

Reactions

Criticals

• Nat 20 = Attack hits, roll attack's damage dice twice, Sum = attack's damage against target
• Nat 1 = Attack misses. Nat 1s on more ambitious attacks may result in self or ally damage.

Non-Lethal Damage

• You may do non-lethal damage to an enemy but it must be announced before damage is rolled.
• You may announce that all damage dealt by you to a specific creature will be non-lethal and may change your mind at any time.
• Non-lethal damage can only be done if you can concentrate while dealing damage.
• Non-lethal damage must be melee damage.

Wounds (PCs Only)

Damage

• Wound Risks: Whenever a critical is scored against you, instead of multiplying the damage, you receive one wound risk
• Wound risks reset at the beginning of your turn each round
• Open Wounds: If you have a wound risk, at the end of each combat round you will make a DC 10 + x Con saving throw (where x = # of wound risks received during the previous round ). Failed wound risk saving throws result in an Open Wound .
• Damage higher than your Con score (after any mitigations) is always an open wound
• Until the end of combat or the encounter, you lose 1 hit point at the beginning of your turn for each Open Wound you have.

Mitigation & Recovery

• You may stop the bleeding damage from an open wound if you spend your action to make a DC 12 Medicine check
• Open wounds can be removed with a DC 15 Medicine check and expending one use of a healer's kit (10 uses per kit).
• Open wounds can be removed by healing magic. Magic can cure both hp damage and remove one open wound per 4 hp of healing.

Stabilizing

• If a creature is at 0 HP, it can be stabilized on a successful DC 10 Medicine check.
• A stabilized creature does not have to make Death Saving Throws.

Unconsciousness

From Wounds

• If you have more open wounds than your Prof mod + Con mod (3 min.), you immediately fall unconscious
• You will still take damage from open wounds while unconscious and if you reach 0 hp you will begin making Death Saving Throws
• If stabilized, you will regain consciousness in 2d4 hours and lose all wounds
• If healed, you will regain consciousness immediately and lose all open wounds

From HP

• Reaching 0 hp knocks you unconscious and you will begin making Death Saving Throws
• Every time you fall unconscious you gain one injury. Write down the damage type & location for each injury.
• Injuries will not be determined until you regain consciousness.
• Injuries may or may not be permanent depending on the circumstances and the severity of the injury.

From Injuries

• If the number of injuries your character possesses is equal to or greater than your Con mod + Prof mod (3 min.), you fall unconscious and begin making Death Saving Throws.
• Spells such as Spare the Dying do not change in their function.

Death Saving Throws & Death

• All death saves are done secretly between you and the DM.
• When you fall into unconciousness from wounds, HP, or injuries, you begin making Death Saving Throws.
• Three Successes are required for your character to stabilize. Upon regaining any amount of HP (excluding temporary HP) or being stabilized, your death save count resets.
• Death Saving Throws have a DC 10 and require a roll of 1d20.
• Nat 20: Gain 1 Hit Point & Regain Consciousness
• 10-19: Succeed 1
• 2-9: Fail 1
• Nat 1: Fail 2
• Upon failing 3 death saves, your character is dead. If this occurs, we will discuss how to proceed at the end of the session.
• Common Features that affect death saves: Spare the Dying, Bardic Inspiration, Bane, Bless, Lucky

*Note: As death saving throws are saving throws, spells or features that grant advantage or disadvantage on saving throws also apply to death saves. However, death saves do not have an associated attribute or skill. This means advantage or disadvantage on saving throws associated with a specific attribute or skill do not affect your death saves.

Special Condition Mechanics

Nightmares

Some things your party has seen cannot be easily forgotten and might even haunt your dreams. Every time the party takes a long rest, you will roll a percentile die for nightmares. If the you have had more negative experiences than good that day, the likelihood of nightmares rises to 30% chance. If the you have had more positive experiences that day, the likelihood of nightmares drops to a 10% chance. On an average adventuring day with a mix of good and bad, the likelihood of nightmares is 20%. A character experiences a nightmare if they roll lower than the relative percent. When this occurs, the player does not get a long rest and receives one point of exhaustion.

• You may always opt to have a nightmare but must roll to not have one.

Sanity

*Whenever a character's base Int, Wis, or Cha score increases or decreases, that character's max San increases/decreases by that same amount.

Events

Sanity Decreasing Event Point Distribution

• Unsettling or alien event: 1-3 points
• Tragic or deeply upsetting event: 4-6 points
• Highly Traumatic event: 7-10 points
• Mentally sundering event: 11-30 points

Unfortunate Effects

• Enduring and Indefinite effects will decrease the character's max San and cause the loss of the corresponding number of current SP
• Temporary effects will only affect current SP.
• The mechanics for Indefinite Sanity will be revealed at a later date

Thresholds

• 20 Points: Mild Flaw / Neurosis / Phobia
• 15 Points: Additional or Worsened Flaw / Phobia
• 10 Points: Extreme Flaw / Psychosis / Phobia
• 0 Points: Nonfunctional

Sanity Restoration

The sources of unfortunate effects also fall into 3 categories: Internal, External, and Mystical. Viability of recovery options depend on the most recent event that caused the unfortunate effect to trigger.

• Time | Current Sanity Only | Mild Potency for all sources
• 1 point of San per long rest may be recovered on a successful DC 13 Wis save
• Postive Interactions/Relationships | Current or Max San | Internal: Mild | External: Moderate | Mystical: Ineffective
Redacted
Therapy / Current or Max San / Internal: Strong / External: Moderate / Magical External: Mild
• To give useful mental therapy, a therapist must have the Heal skill. Intensive treatment can return San points to a troubled character. However, San points restored in this manner can never cause the patient’s San score to exceed her starting San or maximum San (whichever is lower). A character can have only one healer at a time.
• Such treatment can also be used to help a character snap out of an episode of temporary insanity (for example, from an acute panic attack). It does not speed recovery from indefinite insanity, but it can strengthen a character by increasing her San points.
• Recovery from indefinite insanity only comes with time (typically, 1d6 months). It is not dependent upon the character’s San points and is not connected to them. A character can be sane with 24 San points and insane while possessing 77 San points.

• Magical Intervention | Current or Max San | Internal: Mild | External: Moderate | Mystical: Strong
• Worldview Adaptation | Current or Max San | Internal: Strong | External: Moderate | Mystical: Moderate
• Great Triumphs (Leveling Up) | Current and Max San | Ineffective for all Sources - Only pertains to increasing current San and max San

World Anvil vs Foundry Virtual Table Top

• World Anvil will be used to keep track of discovered lore, NPCs, significant character changes, notes, and summaries. During a session I will be keeping a log and tracking other information on World Anvil. This will also be the location where I share handouts. Because of this, you must join the session on World Anvil but do not need to have it on your screen at all times. Simply keep it running and refer to it when I ask.
• Foundry VTT will be used to keep track of character sheet details and will be the platform we actively play on. Video chat and Audio chat will occur over discord. Notes will be taken in the Journal section of your character sheet. After the session, I highly recommend transferring these notes to your Journal on World Anvil (As Foundry is more likely to crash and loose all your notes than World Anvil is)