To simulate the old-school feel and grittier style of West Marches, we will be using a number of house rules. Many of these will be familiar to regular players, but others are specific to this campaign. At Death's Door When a player is reduced to 0 hit points, they are knocked unconscious and begin making Death Saves. As is usual, a 1 indicates 2 failed saves, 2-9 indicate a failure, 10 - 19 indicate a success, and a 20 indicates a success so resounding that the player immediately stands up on 1 hit point and may make a move, action, or bonus action. Hovering at Death's Door However, occasionally a character will find a heroic reserve of energy that helps them fight to their feet for one final push. A character may choose to voluntarily fail a death saving throw in order to take one of the following actions: Move up to half their movement and make a single attack at advantage; Cast a cantrip or spell that does not require concentration; Drink a potion or eat a goodberry; Move up to their full movement and fall prone; Move up to 15 feet and give the Help action. Additional actions may be approved by the DM upon request. Immediately after completing this action, roll a 2d7 - one for fatigue and one for strife. You gain this many levels of both. You then lapse back into unconsciousness and continue making death saves. Attacks of Opportunity As is standard across my games, there are two major changes to how attacks of opportunity work: Standing from prone attracts an attack of opportunity; A creature (or character) may expend its reaction to prevent a single creature within 5-feet from making an attack of opportunity. Bonus XP In addition to experience earned through combat, there are a number of ways to earn bonus experience: A character writing a session summary earns experience equal to 100 x their current level. A level 1 character earns 100xp for a writeup, while a level 10 character would earn 1,000. To qualify, a write-up should be of sufficient length and detail. It needn't be a bestseller, but half-assed write-ups will not receive the same reward as those that put the effort in. Discovery experience can be earned for finding new locations in the game world. Landmarks are given a value that coincides with an Easy, Medium, or Hard combat and experience is divided up accordingly. Players can nominate other players for roleplay experience. This can be based on in-game roleplay or roleplay down in our Savage Frontier RP channel on Discord. Competitions are occasionally run on the Discord with rewards including gold, common magic items, and experience. Buying and Selling Magic Items Magic items cannot be sold to vendors in Hope. They simply cannot afford the exorbitant prices required for magic items, nor are they likely to find buyers for such items. Instead, players may make use of the Marketplace channel on Discord to arrange the buying and selling of items. When selling magic items, the price minimum is set to 50% of the value listed in the Sane Magic Item Prices guide on the Google Drive. Players cannot sell magic items to their own characters. Buying Equipment Starting equipment or equipment bought upon character creation follow the normal rules. Any equipment purchased after a character's arrival in the West Marches must be done using the inventory available at the various services in Hope. You must post all purchases in the pinned Purchases thread. Crafting As a West Marches game is all about venturing out into the wilds in order to find fame and fortune, crafting of items/potions etc. will be extremely limited. If your character embarks on a quest to find a rare ingredient and wishes to craft something with it, I'm all on board with it. This gets people out of town and risking their lives. Using Smith's Tools or Leatherworker's Tools to make armor for yourself or for sale, however, will not be permitted. You can, however, make use of the various experts in town (Muredach, Fizzbang etc.) to have them craft items for you while you're out adventuring. You can read more about crafting in the Enchiridion of the West Marches on the Google Drive. Critical Hits When a creature suffers a critical hit, we will roll on a special critical hit chart (there is one each for players and monsters) to determine the effect of the critical hit. More often than not, this is simply an additional damage dice, but sometimes it is a more dangerous effect. There are no special tables for critical misses, save that they always miss regardless of armor class. Destiny Dice Destiny Dice are awarded to players for writing session summaries. A player completing a session summary gains a Destiny Dice for use in a future session. Destiny dice can be used at any time to reroll a single saving throw, attack roll, or skill check. It can be also be used to force an enemy to reroll a single attack roll, saving throw, or skill check. Destiny dice can only be used to alter rolls affecting the player with the Destiny Dice. They cannot be given to another player or used to alter another player's rolls. The second result must be used, and additional Destiny Dice cannot be used to reroll the second result. Feats The optional feats rule will be in play, with feats available from level four. We will be using total character level, rather than class level, to dictate when these feats are earned. Classes that earn bonus feats (such as fighter) still earn these bonus feats based on class level. Feats from the Player's Handbook or various third party sources may be used. All feat selections require DM approval. Flanking The optional flanking rules will be used, but grant a flat +2 to attack rolls rather than advantage. To grant flanking, an ally must be conscious and must not be prone. Healer's Kit Dependency Hit dice cannot be used to regain hit points on a short rest unless a single use from a Healer's Kit is used. You do not need to use multiple charges from a Healer's Kit in order to spend multiple hit dice. Hero Points Every character in the West Marches has a number of Hero Points equal to their level. Once expended, these are not regained until a character levels up, at which point you regain 1 Hero Point (to a maximum of 5). In addition, each character receives 1 Hero Point at the beginning of each session. If this hero point is not spent, it is lost. It cannot be 'banked'. A character can have no more than 5 Hero Points at any given time. This includes their session Hero Point. Hero Points might also be awarded for particularly heroic and risky deeds or the completion of important events or adventures at the DM's discretion. 1 Hero Point May be Spent To : Add 1d4 to an attack, ability check, or saving throw. Deduct 1d4 from an enemy's saving throw against one of your spells or abilities. Deduct 1d4 from an enemy's attack roll or ability check used against you. Roll and expend a hit dice, regaining the amount rolled + your Constitution modifier. This uses your Bonus Action. Fighters may combine this with Second Wind as a single bonus action. Reroll the damage of an attack or variable numeric effect of a spell or ability used by you. You may choose which of the results to use. 2 Hero Points May be Spent To : Gain advantage on an attack, ability check, or saving throw. Impose disadvantage on an enemy's saving throw against one of your spells or abilities. Impose disadvantage on an enemy's attack roll or ability check used against you. Automatically stabilize. Gain 1 free use of an ability that normally requires a short rest to regain. Regain a single level 1 spell slot. 3 Hero Points May be Spent To : Regain the use of all abilities that would normally be regained upon a short rest. You do not get the other benefits of completing a short rest, such as hit dice expenditure. Regain 1 free use of an ability that normally requires a long rest to regain. 5 Hero Points May be Spent To : Regain the use of abilities as if you had completed a long rest. You do not regain health, lose levels of exhaustion, or otherwise receive the benefits of a long rest. For spellcasters, you regain a number of spell slots equal to half your normal total (rounding down). Take an additional turn immediately after this one. While making death saves, a character may choose to treat their next saving throw as a natural 20, returning to consciousness at 1d10 + character level hit point and immediately taking a turn. Initiative Variant Initiative will be rolled at the start of each round of combat, with dexterity used as a tiebreaker. This ought to create a more dynamic, unpredictable combat environment. Inspiration Although technically an optional rule, I will award inspiration based on player actions and roleplay. Inspiration can be spent to grant advantage to a single d20 roll. This must be declared before making the roll. Inspiration does not stack, nor can multiple incidences of inspiration be used on a single roll. Joining Mid-Adventure With many parties opting to 'stay out' on adventure between sessions, I've just been wanting to close a couple of loopholes that I've found somewhat problematic and immersion breaking. The first is defining how many party members must stay out in order for others to join them as reinforcements. Rather than the former number (1), 50% of the party (rounding up) must now stay out in order for reinforcements to join them. If less wish to stay out, they can do so, but cannot be reinforced from Hope. Secondly, reinforcements will no longer arrive at full strength. It makes no sense that a solitary character can trek across the treacherous Harrowmere and arrive without a single spell slot expended or supply consumed. In future, reinforcements must follow the following rules: 1 supply per character (+ any for mounts) per day's travel must be consumed. Any reinforcements roll on the below table (as a group). This represents what percentage of their resources they have expended in order to get to their allies. Consumed resources include spells, hit dice, and other 'per long rest' features. In the case of hit dice, this rounds down to the nearest number (zero is included). In the case of spell slots etc., the spell slots expended are at the player and DM's discretion. Lingering Injuries Whenever a 1 is rolled on a death saving throw, the character must also draw from the Enduring Wounds deck. Full information on this system is available in a handout on Roll20. Mixing Potions A player mixing potions or drinking two potions in subsequent rounds may find that the potion has an unexpected effect. You have been warned! Multiclassing As discussed in the Character Creation thread, multiclassing is allowed, but certain classes are restricted to being chosen only at level 1. Piety The Piety system from Gods of Faerun/Mythic Odyssey of Theros will be used in this game, although it is optional. At the end of each session, you may send me a list of acts you think garnered Piety. I will then award the correct amount. Resurrection Penalties Coming back from the dead is never easy. Those who pay to be brought back may come back... changed. Rest Variant We'll be using the Gritty Realism rest variant in this game. This means that short rests take eight hours and long rests take five days. To counteract this, we will also be using the Idle Talents system as described in Rest for the Weary on the Google Drive. In addition, certain spells have had their durations extended. When you are in a dungeon or adventure location, however, rests revert to the standard eight-hour long rest and one-hour short rest. However, both short and long rests can only be taken in places that are safe and where adequate shelter can be found. Idle talents cannot be used when using dungeon rest. Sharing Loot Between Characters The passing of magic items, gold, or loot items between characters controlled by the same player is strictly forbidden. While I'd like to leave it up to players to police this, I've decided to put in place rules against it to avoid exploitation. While I may make exceptions in cases where the characters being controlled by the same player have established an in-game bond, I'm inclined to simply disallow inter-character trades between characters controlled by a single player. This includes artificer infusions and the like. You cannot share these between your own characters. Spell Differences Due to the nature of the game, a number of spells perform differently in the West Marches. While traveling overland, spells with a duration of 1 hour have a duration of 8 hours. While traveling overland, spells with a duration of 8 hours have a duration of five days. This does not apply to Leomund's Tiny Hut. When casting Counterspell , the caster must first succeed at an Arcana check (DC 11 + the spell level) to identify the spell. If they cannot, the spell slot is not expended and the spell has no effect. The Memento Mori cantrip has its ranged changed from self to 5-feet . Leomund's Tiny Hut no longer has the Ritual tag. Spells that specifically mention an alignment (such as Protection from Evil & Good ) affect creatures with those alignments, regardless of their creature type. The Conjure Mock Animals spell is banned. The Silvery Barbs spell is permitted, but is a level 3 spell. Talents At level three (and every three levels thereafter), characters can select a talent from the Character Options: Talents books on Google Drive. Talents are essentially mini-feats that add a bit more characterful flair to your character. Like feats, all talent selections require DM approval. They can then be posted in the pinned Traits thread. Tools & Kits I'll be utilising extended rules for the various kits and tools in the game. You can read more about how these function in the Comprehensive Equipment Manual on the Google Drive. Wands Don't Recharge Magic wands do not recharge. They do, however, have more charges to begin with.