New 5e Campaign: Dust to Dust

In addition to my ongoing "Firefly: The Lost Episodes" open tabletop, I'm hoping to start up a new D&D 5e campaign set in Eberron in the next few weeks. This is envisaged to run for about a year, though it may well collapse by Christmas or run for considerably longer, depending on how it goes. Anyway, as is my wont I'm musing about concepts, house rules, and other such things in preparation for the campaign.

Here's what I have so far:

Character Creation

This is going to a pretty standard D&D campaign, so there's actually not too much guidance to be offered here. In particular, on the one hand I'll be starting the campaign at a New Year's party (actually, a New Millennium party) and with no assumption that the PCs actually know one another, so there's scope for just about any type of PC to be in the mix. On the other hand, and as is always the case with D&D, it's rather better if those five random individuals just happen to form a coherent party who can cover all the main roles and work together without promptly killing one another.

It's also worth noting that I expect the campaign to have significant urban and dungeon sections, but while it will have plenty of travel it probably won't include much by way of wilderness adventuring, so it might be best to avoid building characters specifically for that. (Of course, if I find that I'm presented with five Rangers and/or Druids, I'll adjust my concept accordingly. But if, as is more likely, I get four characters who fit and one who doesn't really, the player of that one may wish to reconsider.)

Can I Play a...?

The short answer to this is: yes, probably. There are quite a few bits of stuff published for D&D, and if it's by WotC then you can use it. So, there are character options in the PHB and DMG, in "Princes of the Apocalypse", in the web-supplements for the two 'storylines' they've published, and in their "Unearthed Arcana" columns. All of these are open for use - if it's published by Wizards of the Coast, go for it! (And, yes, you can use the 'variant' human from the PHB if you want.)

If it's third-party material, however, or if it's something that was present in older editions but hasn't been converted, then I'm afraid not.

There is one caveat to that: the "Unearthed Arcana" column dealing with Eberron was both incomplete and generally poorly-received. So, although it includes Warforged and Artificers, I may well have to work up an alternate version for these that better suits my vision of the campaign. If I do get a chance to do this, then that will be the approved version, and the UA one won't be available.

Actually, there's one more: the UA material provided by WotC is clearly labelled as work-in-progress. If they should produce an updated version of the same, then any character using that material will be expected to update accordingly. So if you find some wildly broken combination featuring the Shifter race and the WotC publish an updated, nerfed version, you're out of luck!

Ability Scores

Ability scores will be generated with my usual three-way choice. Each player gets to choose for him or herself:

• Random roll: 4d6-drop-lowest, arrange to suit. Reroll if your highest score is 13 or less, or if your net bonus works out as +1 or less. If you choose to roll, you need to do so in front of the group, and as soon as the first die lands you're committed to playing the character that results.
• Standard array: 16, 15, 13, 12, 10, 8.
• 28-point buy, using the following costs: 8/0, 9/1, 10/2, 11/3, 12/4, 13/5, 14/6, 15/8, 16/10, 17/13, 18/16.

Alignment

Don't bother. I won't be using it.

Evil Characters (and other anti-social types): You're responsible for playing your character, and if you're "just playing your character" then you're responsible for deciding that your character is like that. So, here it is: there are two ways to play a 'jerk' character, be it the evil character, the lawful-stupid Paladin, the thief who steals from the party, or whatever - you can either do so in a 'fun' way that improves the game for everyone else or you can do so in a 'jerk' way that is fun for you but ruins the game for everyone else. One of these is acceptable (even encouraged) while the other is not. Do you want to guess which one?

Personality Traits

Each 5e character has five role-playing features on the character sheet: two Traits, an Ideal, a Bond, and a Flaw. The PHB provides lots of examples for each of these, but ties them to the Backgrounds. However, for this campaign you can either use some of the examples given or make up your own, and they can be tied to your Background, or Race, or Class (or even alignment) as you wish.

Players can even choose not to define these aspects of the character if they choose, but in doing so they won't be able to use Inspiration (see below).

Note to Self: I need to come up with a dozen or so Bonds associated with the campaign to help PCs tie themselves to the storyline. A couple of new Backgrounds wouldn't be a bad thing, either.

Joining a Higher-Level Party

In the event that a new member joins the game late, or a fallen character is replaced, or even if one character is retired and a replacement brought in, the replacement will be generated as normal, except as follows:

1. The new character will be created at the lowest level in the current tier of play. The tiers are levels 1-4 (start at 1st level), 5-10 (start at 5th level), 11-16 (start at 11th level), and 17-20 (start at 17th level).
2. Characters start with equipment purchased from the PHB only. Characters created at 5th level or above may select any amount of such equipment, and start also with 1,000gp. However, they may not purchase magical items at this time.

Other Rules

Encumbrance

Yeah, I won't be using it. The minimum Strength scores associated with each armour type will be used, however.

Reputation

I'll be using the Reputation rules described in the previous post.

Note to self: Need to come up with the list of factions.

Inspiration

This one comes from the Angry GM.

Inspiration is tied into the five character traits you have (hopefully) defined at character creation. If you haven't defined those characteristics, you can't use Inspiration.

Inspiration is something you either have or you don't. You can't have "double inspiration", you can't bank it up, and there certainly aren't any "inspiration debts".

Starting Inspiration: All PCs start each session with Inspiration.

Using Inspiration: If you have inspiration, you can spend it on an Inspired Action. You can take an Inspired Action on your own behalf, to aid an ally in his task, or to spoil an enemy action. However, in the latter two cases, you need to describe how your involvement can aid or hinder the appropriate action. Furthermore, you need to explain how this action ties into one of your five character traits. (For example, if your Ideal is "I defend the weak" and you're fighting slavers, the connection should be obvious!)

If you use Inspiration on your own behalf, doing so cancels any Disadvantage you might be suffering and instead gives you Advantage on the roll. If you use Inspiration to aid another, then that character has Disadvantage cancelled and instead has Advantage. Finally, if you use it to oppose another character then the reverse is true: that character loses Advantage and instead suffers Disadvantage. (Note that these are all exceptions to the normal rule that Advantage and Disadvantage cancel one another out.)

Gaining Inspiration: If you don't have Inspiration you can gain it by Causing a Setback. This is done by describing how one of your traits (most commonly your Flaw) can work against you in the specific situation. If you do so, and assuming the DM agrees, you first cancel any Advantage that you have on the current roll and instead suffer Disadvantage. And then, whether the roll succeeds or not, you gain Inspiration. (Again, this is an exception to the normal rule that Advantage and Disadvantage cancel one another out.)

For example, a Paladin with the Ideal "I defend the weak" may be negotiating with a Duke who he observes bullying his servants. The player thus suggests he'll Cause a Setback by having his Paladin protest the Duke's behaviour. The player thus suffers Disadvantage on the resulting Charisma check for the negotiations, but gains Inspiration as a result.