5 MORE Rules to Steal | D&D | 5e | DM Advice

[@amaerajenson8341]

I found the other video only yesterday. I'm thrilled you decided to make another!

[@TheGeekPantheon]

So glad you found the other one! Hope you like the follow-up!

[@LeMayJoseph]

I found them both today, they’re great!

[@gameraven13]

That first one actually was something I subconsciously did when making a character for a campaign. In the DM's world, during ancient times there was a big war between dragons and giants. So, my character was a frost giant general that had unknowingly sold his soul to Levistus when facing defeat at the hands of a dragon horde. His soul went to Stygia and was there for centuries until the present day of the world. The BBEG of the campaign was a resurrected half-dragon that was a patchwork of various different dragon types and he was trying to summon Tiamat to the world. My character was resurrected by cosmic forces to help deal with this threat. So, my character was a Stygia tiefling that was abnormally tall to show his giant past life and he was a hexblade bladelock lore bard multiclass. Once resurrected he found a fondness for music and eventually in his search of lore for inspiration for his music, he came upon this text that was in giant and draconic and he was somehow able to read it. It led him to where the tomb of his previous giant self was buried where he reclaimed his axe. What would have been a normal axe when he was a frost giant was now a greataxe for his current stature and became his pact/hex weapon. He'd flip it around and arcane strings would appear when he wanted to cast bard spells and he was 100% a brutal legend inspired heavy metal bard. The most fun character I have played to date and definitely followed that "only one in the world" thing. I played up his hatred of dragonkind quite a bit, even being tolerant, but distrusting of metallic ones. He even went on in the epilogue of the game to start his own guild (the DM's world is full of Fairy Tail-like guilds), Dragon's Bane, that the entry process is killing dragons. The most powerful dragon you've killed determines your rank in the guild, with my character being at the top having defeated this draconic general who was trying to resummon Tiamat.

[@Amry]

Just watched the first part recently and this is another great video! I found out about Devil's Bargain from Outside Xtra playing Blades In The Dark. I really like the concept and I think players would really enjoy it too. Haven't found a moment to use it yet as a DM but I'm sure it'll spice up the game! Also, would definitely watch an in depth video about Fronts.

[@TheGeekPantheon]

Thanks for checking out the video! I will need to go take a look at Outside Xtra's Blades in the Dark content.

[@MikkosFree]

One of my players had a character whose mother was a mermaid, and his father was a minotaur. He got both human halves so his character is fully human. He has a brother who is bull-fish creature.

[@FUT55]

Hey dude this is my first time seeing your channel, loved this video. I think you shared some really interesting wisdom for new and experienced DMs alike

[@sebasculin3739]

Inner monologue is a great extension of insight checks where people just know your exact feelings by staring at you. It would be good to see Inspiration be spendable (Story Points) like in Modiphius RPGs since as above, there is already a lot of uhming and ahhing and handwaving. It would also relieve pressure on calling out rules nuances and potential cheating.

[@modtyrant1784]

I love homebrewing but at this point i can't stand players constantly complaining about anything i add ( unless its optional or my own original rules ). I think i'm just an unlucky DM and the majority of the players i've had were min/max official content only players. It seems players HATE anything that creates downsides even if it has upsides. Especially if a rule is just a net bad, either for the sake of the world/campaign's story/lore or for challenge ( not a fan of the latter, so i get that one ). EDIT: I'm probably just biased, i do have players that like the homebrew rules but the majority i've played with and what i've read online and seen, is that players generally only like positives vs negatives and vanilla over modified.

[@angst_]

I think rewarding players with inspiration for doing an inner monolog would be a good balance and it might encourage people to participate. If someone puts themselves out there to do an inner monolog they can then turn around and use that inspiration to ask someone else, or the dm to also monolog, giving the inspiration to that player or back to the dm. It might be a way to display mutual trust and engagement. I hope I'm explaining it well.

[@TheGeekPantheon]

Love this idea!

[@MemphiStig]

You as DM could have a player do an inner monologue and give them inspiration in exchange.

[@arrceegee]

First thing I thought about the inner monologue would be the Captain’s Log (or other character’s personal log) trope in Star Trek. That could be a fun way to share narration or set up a premise in character.

[@Rimedane]

So I have a question regarding the second one in terms of Initiative, because my players love going spellcasters, and as well all know, many spells have saving throws. How would a player roll for imitative using a spell that causes a saving throw rather than something similar to rolling to hit.

[@LeMayJoseph]

With the inner monologue, an easy way to use it as the DM is to give the player Inspiration for performing the inner monologue. If they already are Inspired, they can give it to another PC. This also encourages players to spend more Inspiration this way.

[@TheGeekPantheon]

Yeah I really like the idea of the DM granting Inspiration for a player performing an inner monologue

[@LeMayJoseph]

@@TheGeekPantheon give it a try!

[@w4iph]

With the Goblin Hoard front, i like the idea of the Party uniting the goblins, freeing the Orcs, forging an alliance with the town, and then the fight is with a faction of the goblins that want to take over and hired the gnoles

[@Esoni12]

I'm glad you are getting back to these series of videos. I like the inner monologue one. I think I'll steal that.

[@TheGeekPantheon]

It is definitely one of the more interesting mechanics I've seen.

[@synmad3638]

Love these videos. Personally I've been playing Lancer and I think I'm gonna steal its initiative rules. They're really simple: no rolls, each side decides which character goes next. After a side takes a turn their opponents take a turn (if possible). Player characters always go first. I like this because it eliminates those chaotic moments of writing down what each character rolled and since you don't know the turn order until the round is over it prevents players from getting distracted or frustrated by rolling a low initiative.

[@hayleykaye1751]

There's a Jane Austen rpg?! Great video, I'm off to drivetrhurpg now lol

[@TheGeekPantheon]

Right?! I was so surprised when I learned that.

[@foxoninetails_]

I know you talked about it in the last video, but Blades in the Dark's flashbacks are my absolute favorite mechanic to steal, and more specifically as part of reworking inspiration. I've always felt inspiration is a little underwhelming, so I like to let players stack it up and add additional story options to using it. Something along the lines of: - You get 1 inspiration point per session, which expires at the end of the session. The DM can also award you inspiration points, which you can stockpile. - You can spend 1 inspiration point in the same way you would use inspiration RAW. - You can spend 1 inspiration point to trigger a flashback up to once per session. - You can spend 2 inspiration points to invent a potentially helpful NPC the party can seek out up to once per session (another stolen mechanic called the Calrissian Gambit / Lando Rule / "I know a guy"). - Add other potential uses you like here! The numbers may need some tweaking, but that's the general idea =)

[@Sage2d6]

Thank you very much for these rules to steal! They're very inspiring.

[@crazedlasher6309]

Love this series, would be happy to see another!

[@patrikBZ]

I have been thinking about the Fronts and the 1 thing I am struggling with is when to move (in-game time) to the next Grim portent in case the party is ignoring it. If it is in the SRD just tell me :) (I don't have time to read it now, but will in the near future as I am preparing a campaign) If it is not there, does anybody have some recommendations? I know it will probably depend on the campaign type but some general rule of thumb would be appreciated.

[@TheGeekPantheon]

I think that aspect is largely up to the DM to decide and will be different based on the nature of the portent, but I would keep it a couple weeks to a month in game time (depending on the nature of your campaign). Long enough to feel realistic while quick enough to keep the pressure on.

[@patrikBZ]

@@TheGeekPantheon Yeah it will come down to the feel of the campaign like most stuff in D&D :) We all know the 1 to 20 in 30 days problem in 5E. I think the Fronts shines the most with the gritty realism resting if you have some big Grim portents. For "quicker" campaign it will be probably better to create some smaller ones where the final Impending Doom is on a smaller scale like Orcs will take over the city. It is still a nasty thing and there could be a lot of story around it but it will not destroy the world :) I will surely create them in my next campaign as I feel it will help with the illusion of living world and it will provide stuff for the DM to incorporate and have hooks and just be there as support for the game itself. It will be probably hard to figure them out up front but hey, even the villains can change plans if the first ones were just quick or incomplete thoughts. As always it will get better with time as most stuff in D&D does :) We will see how it goes. Sorry for the long post I just went with the thoughts flow.

[@justsomeguy9555]

"Devil's Bargain" - as a trade for Advantage on one roll? TERRIBLE offer, should be laughed at if the DM is absurd enough to make that offer. Now, for guaranteed success on a roll that was already failed... NOW you're talking "Devil's Bargain".

[@CountAdolfo]

Inner monologue is problematic. Whenever you introduce a mechanic that is aimed at the players instead of the characters, you are on thin ice. Metagaming becomes nearly impossible to avoid when you introduce material that the players know but the characters don't know. It's a situation that happens but you don't want to invite those problems by building it into the mechanics of the game

[@grahamcharters1638]

My group and I are GURPS players, so dnd isn’t really our bag. But yes, i use Fronts (DungeonWorld) and Icons (13th Age) in campaign design. We also make use of Flashbacks (Blades in the Dark) to keep the story rolling. Also Core Concept and Aspects from Fate. I also particularly like City Design from Dresden Files and mix it with mapping tools from Bastionland. Oh yeah, and Moves (Apocalypse World)! Basically, if it helps to tell a story, steal it!

[@sebasculin3739]

19.00 *Hides their copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies*

[@stonerocks0]

Thanks for making these; it's really inspiring to hear these intriguing different approaches!

[@TheGeekPantheon]

Glad you like them!

[@beowulf.reborn]

Ability Skill Initiative seems like it could work well with the FG's SW Initiative System, which already uses 2 different skills (which I always confuse anyway). Coupled with the fact that Players share Initiative slots, I can imagine a situation where the Charismatic Commander rolls Leadership in order to direct the Soldier to fire on a certain enemy (thus the Soldier uses the Initiative slot the Commander rolled instead of a later one), that kind of thing.

[@mikeyHustle]

I took the entire setting from 13th Age just for One Unique Thing, and for the open-ended worldbuilding. There are parts of the campaign world that almost wrote themselves, based on what the players came up with for their Thing.

[@BabsScriven]

So, I steal a mechanic from new world of darkness when I'm DMing. In those games, every character has a Virtue and a Vice from a list, the list being the 7 Heavenly Virtues and 7 Deadly Sins in first edition, allowing for more customizable choices in second edition. Acting in line with your Vice gave you a small amount of spent resources back, while acting in line with your Virtue gave a much larger amount back, symbolizing how much harder it is to stick to your ideals when it might not be the easiest way out. For D&D, I sometimes have characters explicitly choose a Virtue and Vice, but generally follow this same principle using the Faults and Ideals of their background. When they act in line with a fault, I'll give them a point of inspiration, but when they act in line with their ideals, especially if it gets them into more trouble, I'll give them a bigger reward, like replenishing a small amount of spell slots or other class-based points that they've spent that day. I think it really helps my players get deeper into their roleplaying even in combat, since they now get to weigh the decision of maybe making the fight harder on themselves to get, say, some ki points back that might turn the tide of the fight.

[@jasonscott2443]

I have one of my own that I usebut death/dying mechanics are something I would like to see more options with if you are taking requests for a potential next video. I just do not like death saves at all, they don't make sense and for me personally they break the emersion and take away the threat of going down in combat. Like my guts are laying next to me as I bleed out on the ground completely helpless because a minataur decided I look better that way and still can kip up with 1 HP on a nat 20? Gtfoh. No. Just no. I think it's stupid so I actually did something about it, for my games I have modified the -10 bleed out from older editions. So at 0 hp instead of losing 1 HP each round untill you stop being alive at -10 hp or get stabilized with medicine checks/healed by magic (which is tedious as hell and no small wonder they dropped that nonsense) you roll a D4 each round on your turn and loose that much HP as you lay there helpless on deaths door, it's 3 rounds and if at the end of round 3 the player is not dead, they are stabilized at current HP with 1 exhaustion level (1 level added each time you go down before resting) and remain down until healed to at least 1 hp, and yes using this method a player could very well die from being near death too many times in a short span of time before taking the required rests to remove exhaustion levels, it's like you get so exhausted from being near death for so long that your body just quits and you die outright. For reference I run a grittier game with higher stakes on life and death because my players are fans of horror, suspense and danger, and I admit that this method might not work with all game styles like a fluff fantasy game of epic heros who start play basically as demigods and only get more powerful with each passing day for instance. I'm play testing a little bit to work out if a D4 or D6 with 3 or 5 rounds works best but so far D4 and 3 rounds feels pretty good for the level of deadliness I like to empart in the games I run. I also use the coup de grace full round combat action to allow for the quick finishing off of a downed opponent on deaths door. I'm confident enough with the foundation of the system but I wouldn't mind a bit of constructive feedback on the specifics related to dice size and number of rounds used for the optimum living to death ratio. I want it to be deadly enough that going down in battle is an actual problem not just an inconvenient thing like a stomach cramp or stubbed toe, but not so deadly that it guarantees a players death if they go down in combat. I don't know if any other systems already use a similar or the exact death/dying mechanic to the one I've homebrewed.

[@Ed-zp2xo]

Definitely going to use the Fronts concept for my campaign prep! Gracias

[@saravelasco5807]

Confession I kinda stole the MAILBOX creature from Omori. It started out as just me voicing them for a friend while we played the game together. Then I drew a picture as I imagined what they looked like. Months later, I now have an insane looking shadow rabbit bat creature and am putting together a special list of merchandise for them to sell that can only be received through them. Not only that, all the items are either based on the game they come from or from other games or media that I just wanted to make dnd versions of. Oh well. At least I have an excuse to peddle my fandom dnd content? 😅

[@alephpardo8393]

Very interesting videos ! About that fronts mechanic, in the original story that I've written, I really wanted to give my world a living, breathing feel to it which translates into having multiple events happening in the world that may or may not be related to the main plot. For me, it was a way of giving my players a lot of choices as well as tactical moments , while making it realistic in some kind of way. The world doesn't wait for you to come and save the day, your choices have consequences. So in a way, I'm glad that other games have rule for it and it's obvious that I'm not the only DM who thought of that. However, what I discovered as a DM, but also as a Player is that most of the players don't enjoy that. They'll say to you, we want more choices but on the other hand, most of them will feel kind of overwhelmed by these choices. The other day my DM revealed to our party another thread of potential quests and two of the members jumped on him saying " man, that's too much, we already have to do that and now we have this, we don't know where to go, we don't want to let something unfinished "... They don't have to obviously but they felt like it...So in other words, that mechanic is interesting to me but from what I saw, most people say that they want to feel free and move to wherever they want and act upon whatever seem more important to them, but when you give that to them by creating multiple choices and adventures, they'll say they want a more linear type of campaign with a beginning, a middle and an end before moving on to something else.. because they don't like having consequences on their choices. Let us free but please make the world wait for us, just because we are the heroes. Sorry for the rant

[@KingDooburu]

In Call of Chtulhu you can spend your luck trait to increase a roll, but permanently reducing your luck by that amount. I am thinking of the possibility of adding a Luck ability score that could be used in that way, but refreshing after a long rest. Also you could ask for luck checks from your players and thus spending it makes them less lucky.

[@frankurmom8741]

These videos prove that we dont need new editions. Just change the one we play to how we like.

[@Katesloveslave]

Personally there is one game that I did take something from and that was the dragon age role-playing game by Green Ronin - If you roll a critical success there is a mechanic that allows everyone an opportunity to choose what that critical does. It could be extra damage it could be disarming it could be knocking the target prone

[@ReneRunsRPGs]

Clicked this immediately when I saw the Good Society image in the corner and was like "Oh snap someone's giving it the credit it deserves!" But great mechanics all around. Blades in the Dark and Dungeon World really changed the way I approach running all of my RPGs. If you don't mind shameless self promotion - my group over at DMs After Dark is in the middle of a Good Society mini-series right now that we're absolutely LOVING. Keep up the great work!

[@TheGeekPantheon]

I'll check out your Good Society mini-series. I want to do a deep dive on that system as a whole because it has some great social interaction tools, but I knew I needed to include it on this list.

[@mafoo72]

I love this content keep it up!

[@TheGeekPantheon]

Thanks! Glad you like it!

[@ignaciodimeglio9840]

I really like the mechanics analysis videos. Thanks!

[@TheGeekPantheon]

Glad you like them!

[@ignaciodimeglio9840]

@@TheGeekPantheon thanks for sharing 🤜🏼💥🤛🏼

[@sylvaincousineau5073]

Level Up Advanced 5e have a skill initiative system like pathfinder2e . If you like new rules for 5e you should check out Level Up from EN Publishing .

[@TheGeekPantheon]

Checking it out now! Thanks.

[@timothyjohnson2350]

This was awesome!!!! Tell us more about fronts

[@bahamutkaiser]

But, being a dragon would be better...

[@christianrilling7922]

For number 5, I want to do a Pride, Prejudice and Zombies with this system. Just saying.

[@TheGeekPantheon]

Haha awesome!

[@ivanhagstrom5601]

These videos are great. Gonna try to implement some of these rules into my game

[@TheGeekPantheon]

Awesome! Let me know how it goes!

[@glomdi]

2:20 "in the body of a baby" omg ily

[@omikun17]

Fronts sounds cool and I don't know if this is just me but if we diplomatically talk to the goblins and get to stop attacking villages and then that is what united the hoard and set them off to cause more trouble I think that would lead to murderhoboism. We tried diplomacy and look where that got us. They can't the hire the gnolls if they're all dead.

[@mikec.2449]

Yes. It would feel so bad as a player to take a success they had, a positive interaction, and just say "Whoops I had this railroaded so you actually helped the bad guys" without any warning that what they were doing was going to backfire. I like the Fronts idea, but as a GM you have to change on the fly because the way your PC's achieved that was so radically different than the villains would have. Did you unite the goblins to be peaceful? Cool, now they provide resources to the battle on your side.

[@TheGeekPantheon]

I agree, I didn't do a great job at explaining it in the video. You shouldn't take victories totally away from the party unless it is pretty clearly telegraphed that something else is going on. One of my favorite book series is the Dresden Files and that series has a ton of victories with unintended consequences, so maybe I'm just a fan of that concept, but not all players will be.

[@rdsmith2784]

Your reference to Calvinball during The Devil's Bargain earned my Sub. Well done.

[@Malthan]

I really like that initiative rule! It actually solves one of my biggest gripes- the situation when the party is in negotiation, then one of the players decided to preemptivelly attack, but they roll very low on initiative, while their opponents roll really high. It makes it look like it was actually the enemies who attacked first, and also may mean the action declared by the player no longer makes sense. I just realised fronts is kind of how I treat my main plot lines already, now I have a name for it :D

[@williamlittle3325]

The DM/GM gives a point of inspiration if they want an inner monologue from the player

[@87392v]

Fronts!

[@emilyaw3831]

I feel like another way the DM could use the inner monologue mechanic is to *offer* inspiration to the player if they do an inner monologue for their character.

[@TheGeekPantheon]

You're totally right! It would be great to offer inspiration for a voluntary inner monologue, but also allow players to spend inspiration to get another character to do an inner monologue so they could gain insight into the other characters.

[@IdiotinGlans]

I like the Devil's Bargain and fronts, I would love full video on Fronts.