Little Rules and Tricks I like to Use
Reloading a Musket: Roll Under Dex. For characters trained in firearms, success means it takes 1 Round to reload and failure means 2 rounds. For untrained characters, success means 1d4 rounds and failure takes 1d4+1 rounds.
I actually like using this a lot, honestly. Roll under Stat. Success means 2 positive results. Failure means 1. I do this for gathering rumors during downtime in Low Road.
Nat 20 on a Save: A Save that would otherwise halve damage, instead negates damage if a Natural 20 is rolled.
Spells: A Spellcaster can cast any spells she has in her grimoire. Basically, this would apply 5e spell slots except the caster has all the spells they know prepared. This reduces a lot of the weird bookkeeping that casters have to do and sets them free to just have fun.
It Might Be There: If, in a collection of items where the precise number and identity of each item is not stated, and a player asks if an item that makes sense to be present is there, then have the player's character roll under Luck or Cha. On a success, the item is present. On a failure, it is not.
For example: The party defeats a bandit camp and start rummaging through their tents. One of the players asks if there is rope. Now it makes a certain amount of sense for the bandits to have rope but it is not an absolute. If it was almost certain that these thieves must have rope, then I would just say that they did, in spite of having not recorded it in my notes. However, in this case it is a toss-up. In which case, I would have said player Roll under Cha. They succeed and find some rope in a tent.
Drugs Restore Magic: At the cost of hallucinations or Madness, psychedelic drugs allow casters to restore lost spells/spell slots or cast more spells than they would usually be able to.
I have used several variants of this rule. Sometimes, I have used drugs as a cheaper way to rid DCC clerics of Divine Displeasure or give a pool of spell burn points to wizards.
I also like a rule I saw from playing the upcoming Driftwood Verses where drugs give the caster an equal amount (1d6) of Gnosis and Madness. Gnosis may be spent to cast spells. You must spend points equal to the spell level to cast it. If Madness ever exceeds Wisdom, the character gains a random permanent Insanity and Madness resets. Carousing reduces Madness.
Get Down Mr. President: If a character wants to throw themselves in the way of another character that is near them to take the damage in their stead, let them. They often think this is a good idea. It is almost never a good idea. Each character may do this once per round. If you want to make them sacrifice their action to act out of order, then you may. Honestly, I find that is usually unnecessary. If there is some doubt that the character could defend the targeted ally, have them roll under Dex.
Combat Maneuvers: In DCC I had a player that would never play a Warrior but always wanted to pull weird tricks in combat. Rather than saying this is impossible, I say: "You can either do damage or do a maneuver, but you can't do both." So the player would roll to hit and forgo damage to pull off their maneuver. I have applied this to many games. Often it would actually happen for DCC Warriors where them pulling off the stung was more important than the damage, but they didn't roll a Mighty Deed of Arms. I let them make the same choice.
All 10ft Poles are Dissasembling or Telescopic: As it says on the tin: 10ft poles are often silly. They are massive and gong through cramped dungeon halls with them is weird, but it is cooler and makes more sense if they are always in several parts or are telescopic. Not so much a rule as a justification for the fiction.
Magical Items tell you What they Are: I don't like forcing players to use some kind of Identify spell to know what loot they get. Magic items are rewards and it just isn't fun to make the party leave and go find a scroll or a caster to figure out what an item does. The item just tells you what it does as soon as you find it. It's magic! Why not?
I might use Identify for like Quantum Items, where the item doesn't properly exist until it is Identified. You could have tables to roll on and several choices for the loot so the discerning player can choose which item they prefer rather than just getting stuck with an item they don't like very much. I might do a more comprehensive post on that idea in the future.
The Devil's Bargain: Players always try to make arguments to improve their positions in bad situations. It is right that they should. They often try to bend the rules in this way. I like to offer them a deal. "Certainly you can do a cartwheel to get more movement, but if you fail your cartwheel, you fall prone." I set out all the risks ahead of the player. They know exactly what they are signing up for. The rules structure of the game which is usually meant to offer legitimacy to the GM's decisions. This is a kind of contract in and of itself. The players know what to expect from the game. When you set out a ruling as a deal they can agree to with full knowledge of the risks and consequences, the following results have the same air of legitimacy.
I actually like using this a lot, honestly. Roll under Stat. Success means 2 positive results. Failure means 1. I do this for gathering rumors during downtime in Low Road.
Nat 20 on a Save: A Save that would otherwise halve damage, instead negates damage if a Natural 20 is rolled.
Spells: A Spellcaster can cast any spells she has in her grimoire. Basically, this would apply 5e spell slots except the caster has all the spells they know prepared. This reduces a lot of the weird bookkeeping that casters have to do and sets them free to just have fun.
It Might Be There: If, in a collection of items where the precise number and identity of each item is not stated, and a player asks if an item that makes sense to be present is there, then have the player's character roll under Luck or Cha. On a success, the item is present. On a failure, it is not.
For example: The party defeats a bandit camp and start rummaging through their tents. One of the players asks if there is rope. Now it makes a certain amount of sense for the bandits to have rope but it is not an absolute. If it was almost certain that these thieves must have rope, then I would just say that they did, in spite of having not recorded it in my notes. However, in this case it is a toss-up. In which case, I would have said player Roll under Cha. They succeed and find some rope in a tent.
Drugs Restore Magic: At the cost of hallucinations or Madness, psychedelic drugs allow casters to restore lost spells/spell slots or cast more spells than they would usually be able to.
I have used several variants of this rule. Sometimes, I have used drugs as a cheaper way to rid DCC clerics of Divine Displeasure or give a pool of spell burn points to wizards.
I also like a rule I saw from playing the upcoming Driftwood Verses where drugs give the caster an equal amount (1d6) of Gnosis and Madness. Gnosis may be spent to cast spells. You must spend points equal to the spell level to cast it. If Madness ever exceeds Wisdom, the character gains a random permanent Insanity and Madness resets. Carousing reduces Madness.
Get Down Mr. President: If a character wants to throw themselves in the way of another character that is near them to take the damage in their stead, let them. They often think this is a good idea. It is almost never a good idea. Each character may do this once per round. If you want to make them sacrifice their action to act out of order, then you may. Honestly, I find that is usually unnecessary. If there is some doubt that the character could defend the targeted ally, have them roll under Dex.
Combat Maneuvers: In DCC I had a player that would never play a Warrior but always wanted to pull weird tricks in combat. Rather than saying this is impossible, I say: "You can either do damage or do a maneuver, but you can't do both." So the player would roll to hit and forgo damage to pull off their maneuver. I have applied this to many games. Often it would actually happen for DCC Warriors where them pulling off the stung was more important than the damage, but they didn't roll a Mighty Deed of Arms. I let them make the same choice.
All 10ft Poles are Dissasembling or Telescopic: As it says on the tin: 10ft poles are often silly. They are massive and gong through cramped dungeon halls with them is weird, but it is cooler and makes more sense if they are always in several parts or are telescopic. Not so much a rule as a justification for the fiction.
Magical Items tell you What they Are: I don't like forcing players to use some kind of Identify spell to know what loot they get. Magic items are rewards and it just isn't fun to make the party leave and go find a scroll or a caster to figure out what an item does. The item just tells you what it does as soon as you find it. It's magic! Why not?
I might use Identify for like Quantum Items, where the item doesn't properly exist until it is Identified. You could have tables to roll on and several choices for the loot so the discerning player can choose which item they prefer rather than just getting stuck with an item they don't like very much. I might do a more comprehensive post on that idea in the future.
The Devil's Bargain: Players always try to make arguments to improve their positions in bad situations. It is right that they should. They often try to bend the rules in this way. I like to offer them a deal. "Certainly you can do a cartwheel to get more movement, but if you fail your cartwheel, you fall prone." I set out all the risks ahead of the player. They know exactly what they are signing up for. The rules structure of the game which is usually meant to offer legitimacy to the GM's decisions. This is a kind of contract in and of itself. The players know what to expect from the game. When you set out a ruling as a deal they can agree to with full knowledge of the risks and consequences, the following results have the same air of legitimacy.
Nice ideas. I have some similar ideas - which I should probably write down as you have. If we have a long break between sessions and also switch campaigns then things like this can be forgotten. I’m trying to have a game notebook to write down what happens in a session just for these sorts of things.
ReplyDeleteYeah I come up with stuff during games that I often don't remember too. This post is storing some of those ideas.
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