House Rules
Campaign Intro:
This is Europe in 525 C.E. (Since Caesar standardized the calendar in year 0) with standard D&D elements like Elves and Dwarves. The Western Roman empire has been gone for a century. We have human kingdoms in Gaul, Francia, Amorica (Brittany), Iberia, the Italies. and Albion. Rome itself is now a city state. Goblinkind provides our barbarian tribes and make petty kingdoms in the Germanies. Elves rule in Erie. Dwarves rule the Scandinavian peninsula. Gnomes are, of course, found in their Alpine city of Zurich. I will take liberties with history. The Eastern Roman Empire stands strong with its capital in Constantinople. There are rumors of other ancient empires still standing such as Stygia on the Nile river and Persia in the far east. Across the Mediterranean lies the the fabled city of Carthage and then the lush forests and jungles of Africa. There are no monks. The longbow has yet to be invented. This is a slightly stripped down game in that there are no feats. Monotheism never came to this world. I am unlikely to provide a campaign map. Players have a sense of Europe. Characters can draw their own maps. Culture wise, please see the races document. Also note that humans are under pressure. Goblinoids out of the Asian steppes have progressed as far as sacking Rome about a century ago. They have been pushed back to the Germanies but see it as their fate to occupy all of Europe. At the same time, Saurians (dragonkind and the like) have expanded from their ancient empire of Mali in Africa. In recent decades they have established the kingdom of Cordoba in the Iberian peninsula. (The elves and dwarves might note that the humans pushed their races to the fringes and mountain tops of Europe a millennia or two ago, so there would be some sense of payback if they did not like these newcomers even less.) For Humans, Making Europe Great Again would mean re-establishing the Western Roman Empire. Human study of magic traces back to Rome. I will strive to make this campaign character driven. I wall ask for character back stories. Players may make up histories and I will incorporate them into the campaign. If your back story says you were captured by pirates and escaped, you can name the pirates, the ship, and the like. You can name the magic school your wizard attended. Name the battle where you saw your first kill. When I accept the character, that all becomes cannon. Of course, I may re-interpret any of it. Tell me what you want in a campaign and I will make some attempt to provide it. This could be that you want to run a cleric of life in a campaign filled with undead or that you want to play a ranger and get to shoot tons of orcs. D&D is shared story telling. My goal is to extend this notion to the campaign creation process as well. Your back story is world building. --- I expect to steal and re-purpose older material so there may well be a 2nd Edition feel to this campaign. That means more money and more magic items. But no promises. I expect to see: Undead, Hobgoblins, Orcs. I am expecting a military campaign. I will be using a set of rules for Strongholds and Followers. You can build Keeps, Temples, Wizards Towers, or 'Establishments'. These give you in game benefits.Rolling Stats:
We do the standard 27 point buy system. If you want to roll dice, you get one chance. The DM must witness the roll and you must take the results. You roll 3d6, six times and record the results in stat order. Good luck. Do note the possible bonus under Upkeep!No Feats
As it says. Feats slow play.No Multiclassing
You power gaming munchkin.Languages
- There are no languages such as Common, Elvish, or Giant.
- Elves speak Celtic. As do the humans of Albion and the rural humans of western Armorica.
- Goblinoids (Goblins, Orcs, Hobgoblins) speak German.
- Humans in Gaul speak French.
- Educated humans throughout all lands once ruled by Rome speak Latin. It is said that Latin is still spoken in the streets of Rome. Many magic texts are in Latin. (Though this would be Celtic if the elves wrote them and Draconic for truly ancient texts.)
- In Iberia, Humans speak Spanish
- Dwarves speak Norwegian.
- Down in Iberia, where snake men and kobalds live, Draconic is the language.
- Abyssal and Infernal are languages, not that any character is likely to have heard them spoken.
No Monks
As it says. Monks do not exist in dark ages Europe.No longbows, No hand crossbows, No Rapiers
Longbows have not been developed in dark ages Europe. Also, longbows are over powered in D&D. Any game reference to a longbow should be replaced with the shortbow. Rapiers are yet to be developed. Hand crossbows are never developed.Spears Rule.
For characters with martial weapons skills, the spear stats are: 1d8 Piercing, Versatile 1d10, Thrown (range 20/600) This puts it on par with the longsword. Also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afqhBODc_8UCover and Shooting into combat
I am changing the earlier house rules for the closest interpretation of 5e I can provide. Cover is discussed in the Player's Handbook on page 196. Cover is Half, 3/4 and Full. It provides a bonus to AC and Dex saving throws in the amounts of +2, +5, and not targetable. Other characters are clearly listed as things that provide cover. The DMG, on page 251, discusses cover on tactical maps. It suggests that you pick a corner of the attacking unit's square and draw imaginary lines to all four corners of a target unit square. If 1 or 2 are blocked, that is half cover. If 3 or 4 are blocked (but the target is still exposed such as using an arrow slit), then that is 3/4 cover. This means fighting at a corner provides no cover. It also means that if there is a party member between me and my target, they have 1/2 cover. Further, on page 272, the DMG discusses Hitting Cover. While it suggests that if the miss is by the amount of points of protection provided by the cover, then the cover is hit instead. To simplify the math, I am going to put that range at the bottom of the die. For the case of a party member between archer and target, that means that they hit their party member on a 1 or a 2. I am going harsh and say, it is a hit, not a chance to hit (you roll damage, not another to hit). While, by these rules, 2 party members between archer and target would not change the situation (still 1/2 cover), I am going to call that 3/4 cover. You hit the party member closest to you on a 1 or 2 and the next one closer to you on a 3, 4, or 5.Bringing Flanking Back!
Flanking is an optional rule in 5e. It is in the DMG on page 251. I'm using a modified version of it. Flanking is when two characters are on opposite sides of their target. This grants a +2 to hit.No Dual Wield
Just kidding. I think dual wielding is stupid and there are no significant examples from history. If you want to cite parrying daggers such as the main-gauche, I will counter that these were used more like a small shield than for offense. Even if you had a weapon in each hand, it would not increase your attack speed. You really should get the same number of attacks as someone with only one weapon. Still, some people like this and the game system has legitimized it. yuk. But, do it if you must.Damage by Class
I considered this but am killing this notion. It is probably not worth the overhead of a house rule. Any improvised weapon does d4 damage.Bennies
Bennies are tokens that can be traded in for a re-roll of any roll. If you re-roll, you have to take the new result. Every character gets a bennie at the start of a session. Bennies can also be earned for writing session recap journal entry. Bennies do not carry over from one session to another. Use them or lose them.Training
As GM, I will hand out XP and tell you when characters level. Training is not required but, in a throwback to earlier editions of D&D, it is an option. If a character spends a week training under a higher level character, they can earn 10% of the XP needed to make the next level. There is generally a cost associated with this.Swimming!
Use an action to swim. Can tread water and attack. Swimming DC 12 in open sea. Advantage if wearing no armor. Disadvantage for anything over light armor. If you fail, you do not move and fail to breathe. Attacking while swimming is done at Disadvantage (except spear like weapons). Characters can hold their breath for 1 minute plus a number of minutes equal to their Con bonus. (So, like, forever.) I should do something based on taking damage with Con saves.Updating rules for knocking people out.
When attempting to knock people out, you attack with a melee weapon at disadvantage. If they go to 0 hit points, they get a con save with the DC = to damage done. If they fail, they were killed. If they succeed, they are at 0 HP, alive but unconscious.Bandits:
The difference between an adventuring party and bandits is that adventuring groups have royal charters. Any group without a charter is to be hunted down as bandits. This is common practice throughout Europe.Deities:
Common pantheons are Celtic, Greek/Roman, Norse, (Egyptian). https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Pantheons#content has a nice basic list. Also the various racial gods. (Or do the Elves worship Celtic gods?) Also, in Foundry, these pantheons can be found in Compendium, Rules (SRD), Dieties. This is a handy list for noting domains and the like. Lastly, in this campaign, the Greek gods largely kept their names as they were adopted by the Romans so Zeus and Jupiter are clearly understood to be the same god. https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net/greek-vs-roman-gods/ gives a mapping of Greek to Roman gods. If your deity is important to your character, please flesh it out. What are the important rites, dress, holy days, symbols, weapons, handshake, or anything else that brings them to life. It is probably also worth noting that, in general, clerics worship entire pantheons but have specific, patron, deities. Competing pantheons are generally accepted to exist and compete.Pick things as you need them.
If you have 3 languages, you can leave them unpicked. In play, on the fly, you can pick them and they become cannon. This applies to skills and anything else that might be more fun to pick in the context of play.I know a guy.
Once per proficiency point (twice at 1st level and again at 5th, 9th, and 13th), when you need something, or need to know something, you can say "I know a guy." You then tell me (the DM) who you know, how you know them, why they will help you, where they are now, and how they can help. "Hey, look! It's my cousin Vinny. I used to spend the summer at his house when we were kids. Man, just when I needed a guy who collects legal texts."Upkeep
Lifestyle expenses are on page 157 of the PH. I am going to put game effects on them.- Wretched - Free - 1 level of Exhaustion condition (PHB page 291), and -1 to one stat.
- Squalid or Poor (1 - 2 SP/day) - -1 to one stat (except druids, rangers and barbarians)
- Modest - 1 gp/day - No game effect
- Comfortable - 2 GP/day - +1 to one stat
- Wealthy - 4 GP/day - +2 to one stat (or +1 to two stats)
- Aristocratic - 10+ GP/day - As Wealthy, plus Advantage on one charisma check (for a social interaction)/day.
Travel
Travel is pretty clearly defined in 5E. It is on page 182 of the Player's handbook. It amounts to 24 miles per day at a normal pace under optimal conditions. Optimal conditions would be a Roman road. Off the road is Difficult terrain and you move at half speed. You can move faster at a cost to passive Perception and you can opt to move slowly and use the Stealth ability.Spell casting is not subtle.
Spell casting is, in general, a noticeable activity. Verbal components are said clearly, Somatic gestures are solid and definitive. Some casters have a Subtle Spell metamagic class feature that offsets this.Level Progression.
In general, I will track XP. We will start at 2nd level (Because first level characters are fragile and you learned something from the things you did in your backstory). Expect roughly 1 level every 4 sessions of play. (So, slower than story based progression.)Swapping weapons in melee.
As a free action during a move, characters may pick up an item or draw a weapon. If a character wants to sheath a weapon and draw another, they may do the second part as a bonus action. A character may always drop anitem as a free action.Followers.
A follower is an NPC that works for the PC. They get fewer XP and are not leaders or decision makers. Treated well, they are loyal. Let me know if your character would like one and we will work it into the story/backstory. Follower's are built like PC's and get a class, with all the class features and abilities. In general, it helps to keep the Follower to a simple design. Given that we have five players, we probably do not need Followers.Character Knowledge
We are going to play that the characters know what the players know. You do not have to play your characters as not knowing about silver weapons and werewolves. Of course, As DM, I am always free to change things. Characters also know things that the players may not. Use the various knowledge skills (Nature, Arcana, History) to determine what things are.Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
