Sample Dungeon - Design

I made a (an unfinished) dungeon.

This is by no means a finished product. It is an example. And this is a lesson about what you need, and what you don't!

First, scale. What is the scale? Scale means how big it is. I don't have a grid, and that's fine. In its absences, we can say the smaller rooms are about 30 ft x 20 ft and the bigger rooms are about 60 ft x 40 ft. Don't like those dimensions? Change them. Precision is extraneous. Keep it simple. This is economic prep and GMing.

Second, cardinal directions. I have no compass rose. Which way is north? You're the GM. You pick.

Third, what's the name and story of this dungeon (the context)? Call it a fill in the blank dungeon. It looks like a cave network right. Or maybe it's an old mine. Doesn't need to be special. Write a short list of three to five things about it. Who, what, when, where, why, how. It's your setting - you know best.

Context

Now that the obvious questions about the map are answered, and I assume not everyone is happy, we can talk about why scale, markings, and deep lore aren't important. Ahem. Your players don't care. OK, they might care. Nerds. The context, why they're here and why this place is or was important, is helpful. Let's brainstorm three explanations.

1. This is an old coal mine. Because of the plague, all the minors got sick and many died. While it was vacant and inactive, monsters moved in and now they're interfering with the mine restarting.
2. A small, private silver mine. The deed holder died of old age, and the heirs are fighting over how to split it. One of them wants to hire diggers and continue to operate it, one of them wants to sell it to a noble and earn some favor. A gang of bandits have arrived to sabotage it for one of the parties.
3. This iron mine operated during the war, was stripped of all the iron deposits, and has been boarded up to prevent outlaws and wild animals from moving in. Someone dangerous opened it up and is hiding out.

Nothing special, right. Simple, one to two sentence backgrounds. There's room for you to improv, speculate, extrapolate, and embellish on, but there's not an overwhelming amount of information for you to learn. It's not limiting, restrictive or cumbersome.

Design

This is where I tell you what makes a good dungeon, obviously.

Room key

The rooms are keyed, but keys are always flexible and subject to change. Note how simple they are. It does not need to be paragraphs. Don't have read aloud text. Use bullet points and keep it to a small list of essentials. Monsters and their stats should be one line. Treasure should be one line.

Exploration

Exploration means that there are choices to make and things to discover or miss. The fun of exploration is discovery, so learn from Starfield by Bethesda and put monsters, traps, hazards, and treasure, and notice that there are optional paths! In fact, there is an optional entrance that plops the PCs in room 8a near room 11 where the 5-room dungeon begins.

5-Room Dungeon

Believe it or not, rooms 11 through 15 are a 5-room dungeon. You've heard about these right? Each room resembles a significant beat in three-act story structure. There's an intro, a minor obstacle, a major obstacle, a climax, and a reward. It's not perfect, whatever. The point is that it's in the back of the dungeon. This means you have a structured, linear ending after a dungeon with choices.

Multiple Entrances 

The dungeon has two entrances (room 1 and 8a). The reason being is because this means that the PCs have something to discover, and they have a choice about how to access the dungeon. Room 1 is the main entrance, but room 8a goes up. Maybe it was a natural opening that was used an old emergency exit or, maybe above it they build a separate structure and used it for worker housing or for a depo. There are multiple factions in this dungeon, and each gets their own entrance.

Annotated Maps

The edges of this drawing are filled in and the rooms are small. Were I to use the entire piece of paper, I would put notes and symbols all over the map. Anything to simplify the map and make it more intuitive is helpful.

Loops

I've got loops in my map. Loops make it interesting and each loop can be treated as its own zone.

Volume

15 to 24 rooms sounds like a perfectly good size dungeon to me. I have rooms numbered 1 to 15, plus 8a.

Flow Charts

Maps are overrated. Flow charts are simpler. Use a flow chart like this one instead. It's the same as the map above. The shapes of the rooms are all pretty square, but their shapes here are not intended to be literal. 

Map Key

1. Main Entrance. The entrance to the mind shaft has a sign bearing the name of the mine and the notifies trespassers "private property". Roll a 1d6; There is a 1-2 chance of encountering 1d6 bandits on watch for potential trespassers.

2. Rubble path. Recently collapsed, but narrow paths have been haphazardly cleared by its new temporary occupants.

3. Mine and pit. The outer perimeter ramps down into a pit in the center. This is where most of the mining was done.

4. Tool storage. Only old, worn, damaged tools left.

5. Bandit leader's room. His treasure is hidden here in a locked box. A bound prisoner is kept here.

6. Bandit's common room / barracks. They are occupying the mine. Bedrolls, food and drinks, and some possessions are stored here. They keep one watch dog here to protect against traffic coming from the direction of room 7 and beyond.

7. Empty room. 

8. Trap - The trip wire spans the hall, and goes up to a concealed bottle of alchemist fire and is suspended from the ceiling. If kicked or stepped on, the bottle is yanked and falls to the ground. Poof!

8a. Broken Ladder 15 ft up and out of dungeon through a hole among tall grass! It is prone to break under the weight of a human-sized creature (roll 1-2 on a d6). Two people on the ladder at the same time means the ladder automatically breaks. Anyone who falls, or who has someone fall on them, takes 1d6 damage.

9. Seemingly empty. Stash of silver ore hidden by one of the bandits.

10. Three large watchdogs are placed here by bandits who occupy rooms 5 + 6. They are roped in place to a stake in the ground, but each has 50 ft of slack.

11. Stick topped with severed human head. Goblin foot tracks below. Improv ropes has been made from strips of cloth (old shirts) and suspended from the ceiling like a curtain. Bones have been tied in them. They clatter when you pass through them. This is an alarm.

12. Goblin guard post. 1-3 goblins are on watch at any time.

13. Goblin barracks. 4 to 6 goblins, either resting or rough housing.

14. Goblin common room (12 to 18 goblins resting)

15. Goblin chief's room + his 3 goblin concubines and their treasure hoard - a pile of two-hundred forty (240) impure silver nuggets worth about 24 gp.

Wandering Encounters

Yes, you need these. They make your dungeon feel like a living, believable place, and they encourage PCs to treat the dungeon that way. Each round of exploration or movement, roll a 1d6. On a roll of a 1, roll for an encounter based on the room (see below). If you roll an encounter, place it logically. The NPCs do not simply appear without logic. They are either in the room before the PCs arrived, or they are approaching this room from another room.

The NPCs are aware that they share the dungeon with another faction, but they are relatively familiar with their presence, and they tentatively respect each other's boundaries. They are suspicious and untrusting of the other faction, thought they don't tend to engage in violence or theft. Therefore, both factions are generally cautious when wandering the dungeon. If the PCs have not encountered the NPCs, then the NPCs are cautious but not alert; otherwise, the NPCs are cautious of possible intruders and are actively keeping an eye out for them. 

• Rooms 1-6, and 10, encounter 1d6 wandering bandits. They are either on their way to mine, or they're checking on the dogs, or they're going to relieve guards at room 1, or they're preparing to leave the mine to commit various crimes on the road or in town.
• Rooms 11-15, encounter 1d6 goblins.
• Rooms 7-9, you may encounter either 1d6 bandits (1-3 chance) or 1d6 goblins (4-6 chance). The goblins use room 8a to leave the dungeon to raid farms for livestock, pets, or small children.

Annotated Map (Flow Chart)

You can add more notes, but I got lazy. The contents of the room could be added. This is the apex of the dungeon map. Honestly, I don't know why maps aren't done more like this.

Alignment and Morality in TTRPGs

Moral grayness sucks and it needs to go. This post is about the rejection of moral grayness in fantasy and fiction by instructing you on the meanings of the associated ideas. I'm going to reference Avatar the Last Air Bender (AtLAB) because that's where the idea for this post began, then I retrofitted it to D&D and TTRPGs.

Spirits in AtLAB are humanized characters because they're nuanced and complex, but they do not have a mystery morality or some exotic morality. Somehow, audiences think they have some complex, otherworldly morality. This is a mistake; you simply don't fully understand the individual spirits because their thinking isn't fully explained; They have not been demystified. Similarly, there is no alignment to neutrality or evil as these are nonsensical ideas. TL;DR, you're either moral or you're lacking morality. Let me break it down.

Objective morality describes beliefs and values that are either more beneficial (or helpful) than they are detrimental (or harmful) to us, or more detrimental then beneficial, and we call these morally good (moral) or morally bad (immoral). We call morality righteous and we call immorality evil.

Amorality means without morality or lacking morality. Babies and puppies, and people and creatures who don't understand the difference between right and wrong, are amoral because they are not moral agents. A moral agent is someone who understands the difference between right and wrong and can make choices to act in ways that are right and wrong. Amorality does not necessarily mean, imply or suggest moral relativism or that one is a moral relavitist.

Immorality and amorality are not their own ideas separate and apart from objective morality. What they mean is a lack of morality.

Moral variety describes different moral values held by different people in different times and places that are still either more beneficial than detrimental or vice versa. Perspectives can change and vary, but the morality of actions can still be measured. You can argue moral relavitism, but the problem is anything can be justified if there is no objective right and wrong.

There is no category of morality that is separate from this (i.e. human morality vs spirit morality or some exotic mystery morality). You either recognize actions as being more beneficial than they are detrimental, or you don't.

Just so we're clear, I'm not arguing that one belief is true in real life and the other is false. I'm also not arguing that one belief is superior to live by in real life. I'm arguing that the belief of moral relativism sucks in fiction.

As an intentionally very simple argument, I would argue that unaliving innocent puppies is morally bad (immoral), but saving puppies is morally good (moral). Being indifferent to the unaliving of puppies could be amoral, but it's also lacking morality.

The spirits in AtLAB are depicted as being somewhere on the spectrum of good and bad, moral and immoral. Wan Shi Tong the owl library spirit for instance, demonstrates an indifference to the suffering of mankind due to a lack of interest or understanding in the human world. In our previous puppies example, this makes him lacking morality. It doesn't matter how you explain his reasoning or justify his point of view, he is lacking morality and his choice of actions and inactions would lead to outcomes that are more detrimental than beneficial. Screw Wan Shi Tong. He's a git and a prat. If Wan Shi Tong chose to unalive puppies by buring then in sand and refused to allow you to save them, you should not sit in awe of his exotic otherworldly morality. You should rightly think he's a git and a prat.

Morally gray characters are genrally (but not always) unlikable. Don't sit there and argue that your neutrally aligned D&D character is morally grey or amoral, and that somehow means he's not immoral. The moral complexity of every situation is not like the Trolly Cart Dilemma. Sometimes you're playing a character who is making choices that we would describe as more harmful than helpful (bad choices), and the reasoning for your choice may be sympathetic, but we can still say your character is lacking morality. Another neutral character who is concerned with the balance of good and bad (which is nonsensical but a valid alignment in D&D - bleh) is someone who sometimes helps evil triumph over good, and that means they occasionally make choices that are more detrimental than beneficial. Evil is not a force you're aligned to, that's also nonsensical. Evil people are moral agents who actively make choices that are more harmful than helpful (such as murder) and are significantly lacking morality. People like this should be opposed by anyone, not just those who are moral.

Moral grayness makes for unsatisfying character arcs. How does a morally gray a-hole change and still be morally gray? What do they change into, a slightly more likeable morally gray a-hole? That suggests traits or qualities that are consistent with universally likeable characteristics which would support an argument for moral objectivity. What are they going to defeat, a less likeable morally gray a-hole? You realize that if morality is relative, then its equally valid for the audience to root for the antagonist if the audience agrees with the antagonist more, right? What themes are there for morally gray a-holes? Always be yourself? I guess you could have a morally gray a-hole learn the value of being an A type morally gray a-hole after struggling with pretending to be a B type morally gray a-hole. Do I need to explain why that's linear and not growth, and also not fulfilling to sit through? It could work in a comedy. Even mean old bad old Dr. Greggory House of the series House has a heart of gold and a standard of trying to save lives.

For some supplemental material, please see this amusing 5 minute video "From my point of view the Jedi are Evil! [Legends] [Remastered]" by Seals are Good.

TTRPG Foes - Stats, Lore, Design

Design

Monster stat blocks are too complicated! You only need to know three numbers: HP, Defense (or AC), and Damage. That's it! Maybe some notes about something special about it or the way it acts. Reader, you might be asking "what about this or that stat?" Sure. A to-hit bonus for example. Let me then rephrase my previous statement. You only need three numbers to describe an individual statistic.

I'm going to give you a game design tip from classic D&D. In classic D&D, every monster's stats were based on their number of hit dice. A monster with 3 hit dice had a +3 to hit and had the same saving throws as a level 3 fighter. That's very slick. It gets better! Monsters tended to appear with other monsters with the same number of hit dice. In fact, a dungeon would be several floors deep and the monster's number of hit die tended to match the floor number! Therefore, the saving throws and to-hit bonuses could easily be written on the map! What does that describe? A global statistic; in other words, a number representing the average statistic of an NPC in an area, room, or scene with a set difficulty.

So, consider treating each enemy as having individual stats like HP and what kind of damage it does, and treat each enemy has global stats that are dependent on the difficulty that the game's designer (the GM) set for the room. This simplifies prepping and running the game! Imagine determining that all the monsters in the room have a +4 to hit? Why should it vary? Really, what difference does a +1 or +2 make?

This is a supplement to a 2d6 game I wrote about here. Note that NPCs are not designed with the same logic as a PC! Here is a breakdown of statistics to use for NPCs:

• Hit Points (HP): How much points of damage an NPC can take. NPCs typically die at 0 HP. The game assumes generally low hit point values.
• HP values given are average for that variety of NPC.
• Small, weak enemies (ex: goblins) typically have 2-3 HP. They typically die in one hit.
• Human combatants typically have 5 HP and can typically survive one hit.
• Many enemies have 10 or so HP to reflect that they are comparable to a PC.
• Enemies that are larger than humans, lions, bears, or ogres, have 15+ HP.
• Giants and dragon tend to have 20 to 30 or more HP.
• Defense (Def): How hard the monster is to hit.
• 9 is the basic number a player needs to roll to succeed in the 2d6 game; however, individual monsters can have their own defense.
• Defense could easily be tied to the global difficulty.
• Damage (Dmg): It's attacks (claw, bite or weapon for example) and the number of damage dice it rolls for all of its attacks!
• Often, the damage will be based on the weapon it swings or its size class! A human-sized monster will do damage comparable to humans, a monster that is double the size of a human, like a lion, bear, or ogre, will do 2d6. Giants and dragons can be assumed to do 3d6.
• When "by weapon" is given for damage, this means you refer to typical weapon damage and even typical barehanded damage. 
• To-Hit Bonus (Hit): The bonus added to a monster's 2d6 toll to hit.
• This number is typically not written and is left up to the global difficulty.
• Damage Reduction (DR): This number is subtracted from damage received representing the amount of protection provided by the armor worn by the NPC, or sometimes a natural armor provided by a natural armor or armored body.
• If this number is not given, treat as 0. Most NPCs are considered unarmored and so they reasonably have a 0 DR.
• 1 DR is comparable to light armor.
• 3 DR is comparable to heavy or metal armor.
• Saving Throw (Save): Some attacks force a PC or NPC to make a roll to reduce the harm or to avoid some effect. The save represents how well a character is able to successfully avoid or resist an attack.
• This number is typically not given and is left up to the global difficulty.
• Classically there are different kinds of saves for different kinds of attacks. They usually break down to dodging an effect that can be dodged, or to resist an attack that cannot be dodged with either physical toughness or mental resilience.
• An NPC can be considered good or poor at a particular save as it suits them. A flying enemy may be considered good at dodging while airborne, etc. A warrior may be good at resisting fatigue. A wizard may be good at resisting mind control. Use your judgement. If an NPC is considered poor at a particular save, simply do not let them use the Save bonus offered by the global difficulty!
• Movement (Move): How far a character can move per turn. If move is not given, assume the typical movement for this NPC.
• If using grid and mini play, Move is typically six inches or one pencil length.
• If using theater of the mind, assume approximately 30 ft as typical.
• If using zones, one zone is typical.
• For simplicity, consider there are only three speeds: Slow (half a pencil length), normal (one pencil length), and fast (one and a half pencil lengths). If any move penalties are applied, assume that the character's move is lessened by one (ex: from fast to normal or normal to slow).
• Notes: Special notes are given under the stats about what characters can do and how. The stats and these notes both imply lore without describing it.

MONSTERS LIST

I believe that your monster list ought to be curated meaning you don't include everything! Your setting is not a kitchen sink. Below I have provided a curated list of stat blocks that might be found in a low fantasy setting. Some of the more fantastic things would occur rarely.

Alligator / Crocodile

HP 10 Def 9 Bite 1d6+2 DR 1

If bitten, you are automatically grappled

If grappled, the alligator can deathroll for 2d6 damage

Alligator / Crocodile, Giant

HP 18 Def 9 Bite 2d6+2 DR 3

If bitten, you are automatically grappled

If grappled, the alligator can deathroll for 2d6 damage

Bear (Grizzly or otherwise)

HP 18 Def 9 Bite or Claws 2d

Beastman (aka Hnoll, spotted, furry body resembles a man, head like a hyena)

HP 12 Def 10 Dmg by weapon or 1d6 bite

Blood Frenzy: Beastmen prioritize bloodied opponents

Bogyman (AKA Troll)

HP 15 Def 9 Dmg based on weapon

Regeneration: If slain, recovers in 24 hours with +1 to max HP and damage unless burned and beheaded.

Bugaboo (AKA Goblin)

HP 2-3 Def 9 Dmg based on weapon

Bullman (AKA Minotaur)

HP 20 Def 9 Hoof, Horns or Weapon 2d6

Gore - If gored, make a brawling check to avoid being grappled

Chimera (AKA Amalgam)

HP 25 Def 10 Claw, bite, Ram, etc. 2d6

Fire breath (15' Stream) 2d6

Tail can bite and inflict poison

(The) Damned (AKA)

HP 10 Def 9 Dmg by weapon

Weak to silver and magic

Deerman

HP 20 Def 9 Hoof, Atlers, or Weapon 2d6

Doll (AKA Golem)

HP 12 Def 9 Dmg based on weapon

*Immune to charm, sleep, paralysis, poison

Cannot fail morale checks

Dragon

HP 30 Def 13+ Claw, bite, etc. 3d6 DR 3

Fire breath (either 15' cone or 25' line) 3d6

PCs save vs fear or difficulty +1

Eaterman Bush

HP 10 Def 9 Dmg 1d6-1 (minimum 1)

Elemental, Major (Earth, Water, Air, or Fire)

HP 15 Def 9 Dmg 1d6+1

Not harmed by mundane weapons

Elemental, Minor (Earth, Water, Air, or Fire)

HP 8 Def 9 Dmg 1d6-1 (minimum 1)

Not harmed by mundane weapons

Elf

HP 10 Def 10 Dmg by weapon

Magical Bloodline: Bonus to Saves vs Magic

Affinity to Woods: Bonus to track and hide in forests

Fiend, Major (AKA demon or devil)

HP 15 Def 9 Dmg 1d6+1

Not harmed by mundane weapons

Fiend, Minor (AKA demon or devil)

HP 8 Def 9 Dmg 1d6-1 (minimum 1)

Not harmed by mundane weapons

Ghost

HP 10 Def 9* Touch 1d6 (max HP)

Life drain: damage is applied to max HP

Not harmed by mundane weapons

Levitates

Intangible

Griffon

HP 20 Def 10 Dmg 2d6

Flies

Big and strong enough to carry a human

Hangman's Tree

HP 30 Def 9 Strike 2d6 DR 1

Strike with branches and throw or pin, or ensnare to grapple!

Homunculus (Plural Homunculi, AKA artificial human, a product of alchemy)

HP 5 Def 9 Strike 1d6

Defect: The creation process is too precise. No two homunculi come out the same. All have a defect; if not physical, then mental.

Hybrid (any non-typical creature with features of two or more creatures, typically a product of alchemy)

HP 10 Def 9 Dmg by weapon

Leech (AKA Vampire)

HP 20 Def 10 Dmg 2d6 DR by armor

Liger

HP 30 Def 9 Bite 2d6

Makes charge attacks - jaws first and pins the target.

Lizardman

HP 5 Def 9 Dmg by weapon 1d6-1 (min 1)

Vulnerable to cold

Manticore

HP 20 Def 9 Claw or Tail 2d6

Tail has a 10 ft reach

Spike 30'

Nymph (Including siren, dryad, Ice Maiden, Venus)

HP 5 Def 9 By weapon

Charming Appearance (nymph): Upon sight, men save vs charm

Charming Gaze (dryads) or Song (sirens): when in seeing or hearing range, save vs mind control

Ogre

HP 18 Def 9 Dmg 1d6+2

+4 to Brawling

If hit, save vs being knocked prone!

Ratdog (a rat-doberman mix)

HP 8 Def 9 Bite 1d6-1 (min 1), Save vs Disease

If bitten, Ratdog can choose to grapple with its jaws

Ratkin (creatures resembling rat men about two feet tall)

HP 2-3 Def 9 Bite 1d3 + Save vs Disease

Reaper (reaper is a class; each reaper is an individual fulling the role of a reaper uniquely)

HP 20 Def 10 Dmg by Weapon

Green Flame: Cast a projectile of green flame (1d6); if hit, you are ignited

Eerie Lantern: When lit, this light stuns the living with fear. Roll to save.

Dirge: Sings a song that quells hostile undead

Passage: Create a passage to the afterlife.

Revenant

HP 10 Def 9 Dmg based on weapon

Undead, but retains their personality although twisted with a need for vengeance

Immune to charm, paralysis, sleep, poison

Does not heal

Cannot fail morale checks

Scare Crow (enchanted object)

HP 5 Def 8 Dmg 1d3

Call Swarm (of crows) up to 3 swarms. Swarm has 10 HP, Def 9, and does 1d6 damage

Command Swarm (of crows) attack for 1d6 damage

Skeleton

HP 5 Def 8 Dmg 1d6 Move Slow

Slime (a product of alchemy, rarely occurring in nature)

HP 5 Def 8 Dmg 1d6

Acidic; -1 to equipment on contact

Not harmed by mundane attacks

Snake Bearer (AKA Ophiuchus) 

HP 5 Def 9 Dmg by weapon

Its left arm ends with the head of a venomous snake! On a hit, save vs Poison.

Snakeman

HP 5 Def 10 Dmg by weapon

Its left arm ends with the head of a venomous snake! On a hit, save vs Poison.

Snatcher (AKA Harpy)

HP 8 Def 10 Dmg 1d6

Flight, fast speed

Spider, Giant (a 3ft tall spider)

HP 10 Def 9 Dmg 1d6-1, min 1, save vs Poison

Web, save vs Grappled!

Titan Snake (Aka Goliath)

HP 40 Def 9 Bite or Constrict 3d6

Snake (ex: Viper)

HP 2-3 Def 9    Bite save vs deadly poison

Wil-o-wisp

HP 2-3 Def 9    Dmg none

Not harmed by mundane attacks

Flies and sheds light like a torch

Hypnosis upon sight: Save or follow it, possibly until you die of starvation

Witch (AKA Hag, Crone)

HP 10 Def 9 Damage by spell

Sleep (AOW up to three within 15 ft)

Deep Mist: Creates an area of concealing, chilly fog. To-hit -2!

Poisonous Touch vs 1 within 5 ft. Save vs poison.

Curse Word vs 1 within 30 ft, save vs disease, mute, or blindness

Illusionary Foe within 60 ft: Conjure an illusionary foe to district and chase one PC.

Conjure Demon or Elemental within 20 ft.

Enchant Object: Create an NPC such as a scare crow from one large object or many smaller objects

Petrifying Spit (10 ft) vs 1: Save or become stone!

Either Fly or Port - a witch can fly for the duration of the encounter, or teleport as a movement for the duration of the encounter. Her normal movement is doubled.

Frost Bolt (1d6): Cast a ray of chilly air and ice at one Character! On a hit, the creature's move is reduced to half their normal move.

Scry: Remotely view a scene in a reflective object, usually a crystal ball or the surface of water.

Create Zombie or Golem (requires one workday): The witch can create a revenant or zombie from a corpse, neither of which is obedient, or a golem from a mixture of human ashes mixed with clay. 

Werewolf

HP 10 Def 10 Claw or Bite 1d6

On a hit, save vs curse of the werewolf (lycanthropy)

Requires silver weapons or magic to harm.

Wolf

HP 5 Def 10 Bite 1d6-1 (min 1)

If bitten, wolf can choose to grapple

Zombie

HP 10 Def 9 Dmg based on weapon Move Slow

Grapples first, then bites

Immune to charm, paralysis, sleep, poison

Rots and stinks

Cannot fail morale checks

Soft Skill System - TTRPG Design

I like a rules-lite game because of its flexibility to suit different games and tables, speed of play, and ease of use. Any game where I have to remember a catalog of rules slows the game down more often than not and makes it more complex than needed. Complexity can but does not always improve a game. Below I have a system - not an original one - for skills. It's a soft skill system intended to be simple and fluid. It relies on your reasoning more than instructions or mechanics.

Occupations

At character creation, players choose up to four occupations for their character. Each occupation has a skill level of 0 by default representing an average skill (whereas not possessing an occupation represents no skill, training or experience). You get 4 points that you may distribute among your occupations to a cap of 3 (written as +0, +1, +2, or +3).

Consiser this post a supplement to this post about a 2d6 ttrpg system where this soft skill system is used.

Occupations are intended to be used as non-combat skills. Your combat skills are a separate system and are apart from your occupations. This applies even for a combat oriented occupation like soldier. An occupation like soldier applies to the other knowledge and skills that a soldier would be expected to have in addition to combat skills. When making a non-combat roll, add one attribute and one occupation.

• Occupations represent knowledge, skill, training, experience, and social etiquette. They can describe actual jobs you have or have had, training you've received, your social class or rank, or even your cultural origin.
• Occupations describe your characters backstory. For example, in my first book, Iosefina is a server in a restaurant. Then she briefly becomes a thief, then she becomes a witch, then she briefly receives training in swordplay and wilderness survival from a soldier.
• Occupations are DIY. Choose your own or from a list of occupations in the setting provided by the GM. Discuss with GM. 
• Examples: Merchant, Soldier, Mage, Ranger, Beggar, Noble, Laborer, Priest, Musician, Sailor, Thief, Charlatan, Barbarian, Doctor, etc.
• If a bonus from an occupation can reasonably apply to a (non-combat) roll, then you may add it. One occupation per roll, one roll per action.
• Some actions may not have a chance of success without possessing an occupation. For example, a surgeon or nuclear physicist. Use your reasoning! GMs have final say.
• The difficulty of actions should default to realism. If something can reasonably succeed, it does. If something is genuinely impossible, no die roll will allow it.

What if there is a combat application for an occupation? If so, then it can be used for a combat roll only if the combat skills of the game do not cover that applicatio . For example, let's say there is no magic combat skill in your game and you would like to attack with a spell using your Mage occupation. This would be allowed.

TTRPG Martial Realism

Let me define what I mean by martial realism: Not fantasy or superheroic violence but violence that conforms to our expectations of real-world violence with the abstraction of a game for simplicity. It does not mean simulative.

This is a supplement that can go with potential any game but is intendednfor the 2d6 game I wrote about in this post.

Core Rules

These are the core rules that describe the way the game should play or feel. They encourage you to treat combat as a deadly contest for life and death rather than a sport. Play your character like you care what happens to them! These rules are intended to give magical healing more value, to make damage more meaningful, to incentive downtime, to ground the fiction of the game in a believable make-believe world, and to disincentivize risky play.

• Hit Points (HP) represents your body's capacity for injury and wounds. HP loss abstractly abstract represents injury or wounds (which cause no penalty to ability by themselves). HP does not represent fatigue, skill, and luck. Maximum HP should be capped low (8 to 15).
• 0 HP or less means you are KOed or otherwise incapacitated and unable to act or move. Any subsequent hits ignore your defenses and are killing blows. FYI, we don't track negative HP. If HP is less than 0, treat as 0.
• This deathblow rule is intended to allow the game to be more forgiving than death a 0 HP but still keep it simpler than some sort of death count mechanic.
• Recover 1 lost HP per day representing natural healing. Recover 2 lost HP per day of dedicated bedrest in a safe location.
• Damage dice by most weapons is one six-sided die (1d6). Add any bonuses or penalties that apply such as strength. Optionally, and for variety, use this:
• Barehanded damage = 1 + strength
• Improvised weapons = 1d3 + modifier
• Small or light weapons = 1d6-1 (minimum 1) + modifier
• Medium or average size and weight weapons = 1d6 + modifier
• Large or Heavy weapons = 1d6+1 + modifier
• Critical Hits represent a lucky shot that hits just right! Crits are intended to be scary and rarely feel disappointing. Roll your damage as normal, then add two six-sided dice (2d6)!
• Actions: PCs can make one dedicate action per turn. They can speak and move up to their normal movement as part of their action.
• Multiple actions mean longer wait times in between turns. This is not permitted.

Optional Rules

Once you are familiar with the core rules, you may add these optional rules to make your game more interesting, complex, or give it a different feel. They are modular rules, so don't worry about using all of them. Use only what you want.

• Stagger: If damage received equals 1/2 your max HP, roll Constitution or equivalent stat to avoid being staggered. If staggered, you lose your next turn!
• The difficulty to resist being staggered is 10 or equal to the damage received, whichever is higher.
• 1/2 HP means you're condition is injured or wounded; you've received significant injury or wound to affect your performance, and your actions are penalized by -1.
• Killing Blows: If one instance of damage received equals or exceeds your max HP, you are instantly dead. Therefore, crits are likely to kill. For a softer version of this rule, you can allow the player to roll to survive with 0 HP and be incapacitated. Any blow or attack that would reduce you to -1 * your max HP or less is always fatal.
• Max HP Penalty: If you are KOed, your maximum HP is temporarily penalized by -2 representing your diminished condition after a significant loss. These are cumulative! Seek magical healing or return to town for bedrest until all lost HP is naturally recovered to remove this penalty.
• Hit Locations: Attacks are assumed to aim for the center of mass (usually the body). If you declare an attack to a specific location, a penalty applies to hit (-2 for limbs, -3 for hands, feet, and head). Declare your intent such as crippling, disarming, stunning, extra damage, tripping, grappling, or etc. and the GM will adjudicate the effects. Consider that the vitals are not located in the limbs or extremities (arms and hands) and so damages to non-vitals are never killing blows.
• Damage Types: Weapons can do different kinds of damage. Some opponents or body parts are particularly resistant or vulnerable to different types of damage meaning damage can be halved or doubled. For example, lacerating a muscle or breaking a bone. GMs, use your own judgment in adjudicating the effects! Consider that weapons can do more than one kind of damage. A sword can cut or pierce with the blade, and bludgeon with the pommel.
• Cutting: forms of damage that slash. Claws, slash attacks with a sword.
• Piercing: forms of damage that impale or pierce or stab. Fangs, thrust attacks with a spear, arrowshots.
• Bludgeoning: forms of damage that are blunt, smashing, or crushing. Punches, clubs, falling from great heights. Armor can convert cutting and piercing damage into bludgeoning damage.
• Injury with Penalty: It is not the intent of this game to impose a codified, prescriptive, precise injury system! If injury with a penalty is intended to be inflicted for narrative purposes, then use this soft, flexible system.
• All injuries are temporary until HP is healed to max.
• Injuries can be imposed by the GM to the character if they drop to 0 HP, if they receive a critical hit, if a damage roll 6, or if the character receives a massive amount of damage from a single hit or instance of harm, say equal to their max HP.
• Injuries are vague and abstract, not literal. Think "hand injury" rather than broken bone or severed muscle. The GM decides via adjudication. Injuries should suit the narrative; for example, if the character was hit in the head, the injury they receive should be a head injury, not a foot injury. Track injuries as "injury to the hand, -2 to actions" or "injury to the leg, 1/2 movement".
• Range: At close or short range, your ranged attack roll is not penalized. Ranged attacks are penalized at medium range by -1 or long range by -2.
• Long Reach: Some weapons are considered long reach weapons like spears, polearms or great swords. You can attack opponents 10' away rather than 5'. Opponents who step within 5' are too close for you to use your weapon properly, and so you do improvised weapon damage (1d3).
• Dual-Wielding: Ordinarily, characters can make one action per turn. A character who is wielding one melee weapon in each hand can choose to make one attack with each weapon, but each attack roll is penalized.
• Grappling: You can use a dagger or short club effectively while grappling, but we assume that longer weapons cannot be used at normal efficacy while grappled or grappling and do improvised weapon damage (1d3) if at all.
• Exponential Falling Damage: Some enemies snatch you up and drop you! This alternative to 1d6 per 10' makes falling more serious.
• 10' = 1d6 damage
• 20' = 3d6 damage
• 30' = 6d6 damage
• 40' = 10d6 damage
• 50' = 15d6 damage
• Side-Based Turns: The GM rolls a d6 for the NPCs. One player rolls a d6 for the PCs. Whichever side rolls highest goes first. Players take their turns in phases. First is a declaration phase where they all players declare their action. Once declare, actions cannot be changed. Second is a resolution phase where all dice are rolled and all actions are resolved.
• Countdown Turn Order: Each PC rolls a d6 and adds their agility modifier. You cannot roll higher than a 6 or lower than a 1 regardless of your stats. The GM makes this roll for each NPC group. Then, the GM counts down from 6. When your initiative is called, we pause the countdown to resolve your turn, then we resume. Speed ties are resolved simultaneously. Reroll each round.
• Declaration-Based Turn Order: He who declares their action first goes first. Turns are taken clockwise around the table starting from that player or the GM. No rolls are made, not stats or powers are consulted. If you're not ready on your turn, someone else can declare their action and skip you. If you are skipped, you lose your turn that round. Everyone should be allowed a 10-second grace period to declare an action, and they should be allowed to finish their sentences without being talked over.
• This resembles a freeform combat and is intended to make combat as fast and fluid as any other scene in the game.
• Ready Bonus: If you are able to declare your action at the start of your turn without any need of questions, clarification, or lag time, you get a +1 bonus to your roll. This incentivizes paying attention and being ready.
• Tactical Combat is lacking in most games. Use any of these rules. Their intent is to encourage varying actions with different risks and rewards.
• Flanking: If you and an ally are on opposite sides of an opponent and if both of you are within melee reach of the opponent, you each get a +1 to hit. You are no longer considered flanking if either you or your flanking ally are also being flanked.
• All-out Attack: any sort of attack where you commit to the attack at the expense of defending yourself, such as a berserker attack, a multi-hit attack, or a running attack (a charge). You take a -1 to hit and to defense (the defense penalty applies until your next turn), but you add a bonus damage die (1d6) to your next damage roll.
• Aim / Assess / Concentrate: Choose a target. Spend one turn aiming (range) or assess (melee) or Concentrate (magic) You will have a +1 per number of turns spent aiming or assessing up to a max of +3, to hit on your next turn to attack that same character. Only a 5 foot step is allowed. If you are hit, roll Willpower to maintain focus on the action or your effort is spoiled.
• Back Attack: attacking an opponent from behind gets you a +1 to hit. This combines with flanking bonuses.
• Prone: Prone means flat on the ground. You can drop prone for free, but standing up from prone means you may only make a 5 ft step. Attacking an opponent who is prone will get you a +1 (if in melee), but a -1 (if making a ranged attack). While prone, your melee attacks are penalized by -1. Ranged weapons that can reasonably be braced on the ground gain a +1 to hit.
• All-out Defense: if you commit to defend, gain a +2 bonus to your Defense until your next turn. You can take a 5-foot step with this action.
• Range: You take a penalty to all ranged weapons, throwing, or ranged spells based on distance. +1 within 5 ft, -1 at medium range, -2 at long range.
• Cast a spell: If you move rapidly or are short of breath, you will not be able to clearly speak the incantation or perform the precise gestures of a spell, and so only a 5 foot step is allowed.
• Cover: there is only partial cover (+2 to Defense) which assumes an obstacle is obscuring about half of you, and full cover which obscures you completely. You cannot be attacked directly in full cover. When using miniatures and grid, consider that a character is benefiting from partial cover if an imaginary line from his grid to his opponent's grid is blocked by either a character or object of half or similar size. Characters engaged in melee may be assumed to be benefitting from cover from their opponents' limbs as the move in and out of strikes and counter, etc.
• Trajectory: Any projectiles, such as arrows loosed from a longbow, thrown objects, etc., travel in a line or arc. On a miss, these projectiles may still be live, meaning in flight, determined by the GM and based on the emergent narrative. On a miss, any characters in the trajectory of a live projectile may be hit and damaged. Use your judgement.
• Firing into Melee: If you shoot or throw any ranged weapon or spell into melee (two or more characters who are engaged), there is a chance you may hit the wrong target; This happens automatically if you roll double 1s.
• Grappling: Describe your lock, hold, pin, tackle, shove, etc. Then make a brawling roll vs 9 + the opponent's Brawling stat. On a success, the opponent is suitably restricted based on the grapple described - if movement is reasonably restricted, they are unable to move more than a 5 foot step if at all, or are prone. Actions with arms and legs are restricted or penalized as reasonable. The opponent, on their turn and at the cost of their action, must make a successful brawling roll to escape. Attacks with daggers and short clubs are not penalized while grappling unless the weapon arm is restrained. Other weapons may not be effective or are treated as improvised weapons while in a grapple. If you are grappling with an opponent and standing, you may move with them at half your typical movement rate provided you make a successful strength roll vs theirs.
• Sneak Attack: If an opponent is unaware of your presence, or is unable or unwilling to defend themselves against you, your melee or ranged attack hits automatically and does maximum damage (example 6 on a 1d6), then roll critical hit damage. Once a sneak attack has been made, all characters as is reasonably become alert to the danger and sneak attacks are regular attacks for the remainder of the encounter.
• Feint: You make a false melee strike to force your opponent to react. Roll Agility vs 9 + their Agility. On a success, you create an opening for yourself and gain a +2 on your next melee attack.
• Counterattack / Riposte: In melee only; add a +2 to your Defense vs an opponent you specify. If they make a melee attack against you, and miss, then if you make a melee attack against them on your next turn, you gain a +2 to hit and damage. A 5ft step is allowed with this action.

What if I was in charge of Netflix's Avatar the Last Air Bender

Season 1 of the animated series is 20 episodes. If every episode has a 20-minute runtime, that's 400 minutes of content. The Netflix season is 8 episodes which allows for 160 minutes of content. So, here's how I would convert the 20-episode animated series into the 8-episode Netflix series.

The first two episodes at the south pole for a strong beginning, possibly condensed into one episode, the final two episodes for the siege at the north pole for a strong ending. Priority in this order: the episode with Suki, the episode with the Blue Spirit and commander Zhao, and the episode with Jet and his freedom fighters because their characters need to be established for Season 2 and Season 3. There's seven of your eight episodes right there. Maybe they can be condensed or consolidated?

What else do we need? The scene where Aang discovers Monk Gyatzo's body at the Southern Air Temple is pretty powerful, also this is where the group finds Momo. We also need to have Avatar Roku teach Aang about the comet to set up the stakes. I would combine these to take place at the southern air temple!  Maybe, maybe Roku appears to Aang in a two-minute dream to teach him about the comet and maybe Momo is just added off-screen.

What else is really, really important for Season 1? There's a lot. I think the episode with Katara and Master Paku at the North Pole is also very, very important and it includes the sub-plot for Princess Yue and Sokka, also important. Anything else to establish the meaning of Katara's necklace is important. Anything to foreshadow the White Lotus is a yes. King Boomie and Omashu should be established somehow although I didn't really like this episode. Earthbenders Haru and his father are recruited for the day of black sun, so let's establish them if we can. Their episode established how the fire nation mistreats their colonists and prisoners. How Zuko got scarred in the Agni Kai is essential for his character, as well as Iroh's. If we can also work in episode 12 "The Storm" because this fleshes out Aang and Zuko and it shows their parallels. I think we need to introduce the engineer at the northern air temple because that guy's participation later is important, although that episode is frankly not one of my favorites. Some of this is getting left out, some of it is getting abridged, some of it is getting cut up and stuck together awkwardly. Lots of re-writes!

I don't think the episode with Jeong Jeong is that important, even though I really like his introduction and the scenes where Aang burns Katara and Katara discovering waterbending healing. Healing can be established at the north pole. Aang's learned hesitation for firebending is not that important except for his field trip with Zuko in Book 3, so I'm really hesitant to cut this completely.

I might take some pointers from abridged series of anime on the internet. Scenes from several Avatar animated series episodes might be mushed together in a slightly coherent way for the Avatar Netflix episodes. Each 20-minute Netflix episode might be structured like two 10-minute episodes or three 7-minute episodes. Key scenes are going to run together with a lot of suggestions that time passed in between shots or scenes.

Does anything need to be added or invented? No! We're going to have a lot of trouble making 400 minutes fit into 160 minutes.

Anime Recommendation: Kimi Ni Todoke

I don't have a lot to say about this anime but it's good. It's a high school romance between a very socially awkward but endearing girl named Kuronuma Sawako and a popular boy named Kazehaya Shota. Because the girl met the boy, she started coming out of her shell and becoming less lonely, even popular in her own way. Like I said, she's very, very endearing. Think of the most likeable anime girl you can; Now throw it out! This girl is the most endearing anime character of all time. No contest. She's an extremely sympathetic character. All the characters are very likeable, and I really only have one complaint, but it's kind of spoiler territory for season 2. I watched it on tubi TV this month.

Anyway, sympathetic characters. What are those? It means a likeable character. In writing terms, it's a character the audience can care about. It's the difference between the audience caring and not caring about what happens in the story or what happens to the character. Unlikable character means the audience doesn't care and are bored.

How do you write a sympathetic character? Just make someone who you would hire at work, or someone you would like to have added to your class as a new student. Are there universal qualities? Why yes, thank you for asking.

First, no one likes a whimp. Sorry. Gotta be brave. Even if you're kind of a wiener, you have to do what's right and what's important even when there's risk. When it counts, be there. Be reliable.

Other universal traits of a sympathetic character. Good work ethic. Skilled (at least in your area) or competent. Passionate or obsessed about something; In other words, you have to care about something a lot, such as a hobby or trade. If I ask, "what do you like to do?" And your answer is "nothing", that's boring. Funny; everyone likes funny people. Respected, liked or loved by others; if no one else in the story likes you, at all, then that's concerning. At least have someone who dislikes but respects you, eh? Also, nice for no reason or for niceness sake.

And finally, having an unfair disadvantage or a problem that's not your fault. Like having a sickness or coming from a poor background.

Anything else is subjective. The audience may or may not appreciate it.

Kuronuma Sawako checks all these boxes. She speaks up for others, so we know she's brave. She likes cleaning. She's a good student and a good tutor so we know she's competent. She volunteers for school chores. We know she works hard. She like ghost stories and gardening, so she's got interests! She cares about her friends. She is funny, albeit unintentionally, but that counts! People easily like her after they get to know her! Her friends love her like crazy! And of course, she had a social anxiety problem making her an odd loner, and it's not her fault. People try to take advantage of her, and she struggles with understanding people. She's also nice for niceness sake.

Subjectively, she's very cute both in appearance and in the personality.

If you want to write likeable characters, study this one.

5e House Rules

This post is about rules I would use if I were to run D&D 5e. I think D&D 5e is a frustrating game to run or play and most of my experience with it have been mixed. The rules presented here are either optional rules straight out of the 2014 core books or are permitted by the rules therein.

Variant and Optional Rules, Rules Changes

I am going to use variant rules to suit the tone or style of the game.

Slow Natural Healing + Healer's Kit Dependency (DMG pages 266 - 267)

Healer's Kit Dependency applies to short rests only. PCs cannot spend hit dice to recover lost HP during a short rest unless someone expends one use of a healer's kit to treat that character.

Slow Natural Healing applies to long rests only. PCs do not automatically recover lost HP at the end of a long rest. They must spend hit dice to recover HP. Standard rest rules are used (short rest is 1 hour, long rest is 8 hours). RAW, PCs recover half of their hit dice per long rest, and so you need at least two long rests to recover all your hit dice. That means you may need two long rests to be able to recover all your lost HP, then another two long rests to recover all your spent hit dice.

First, this rule encourages down time activities meaning you are encouraged to take an interest in the setting. Rest means light activity is allowed. Go make friends or contacts. Hire allies. Gamble. Research something. Gather information, rumors, news, gossip. Find a teacher and learn something. Try crafting. If you rest in the wilderness or the dungeon, the GM is going to roll wandering encounters and you're going to die. Make the local town your hub.

Second, this rule changes the way you perceive damage within the narrative of the game. Standard rest rules make damage abstract and nonsensical. A stab wound from a spear or a bowshot can be slept off which causes something called narrative dissonance. With this rest variant, damage feels like something to treat seriously. Healing spells and items become more valuable.

Because your class features still recover normally (unlike with gritty realism), it shouldn't slow the game down too much or nerf characters.

Side Initiative (DMG page 270)

The GM rolls one d20 for each NPC group. One player rolls one d20 for the PCs. The rolls are unmodified. Whichever side rolls the highest goes first.

Morale (DMG page 273)

There are conditions that stipulate when to roll to see if the NPCs want to continue to fight or if they try to flee, surrender, or parley. 

Starting Attitude (DMG page 244)

The rules instruct the GM to "Choose the starting attitude of the creature that the adventurers are interacting with..." Either friendly, indifferent, or hostile. For the sake of randomness and emergent gameplay, I may turn this into a Charisma roll on a case-by-case basis, usually for random NPCs. Either the PC who is in the lead or the PC who is nearest to the NPC must roll. The DC for indifferent will depend on the creature or situation. Friendly will be 5 above the DC or a nat 20.

Awarding Inspiration (DMG page 240)

Players can earn inspiration for good roleplaying. To me, good roleplaying is not playing true to your character (even though that is objectively good for roleplaying). People recognize good roleplaying as staying in character as opposed to breaking character, and avoiding metagaming.

If you break character to make jokes, to ask for rules clarification, to ask for room or NPC descriptions that have already been provided, to ask the GM how they'll interpret a rule or make a ruling before you commit to your action, use game terminology in your player narration and descriptions, spoil the mood of a scene, have side-conversations or out-of-character conversations, these are examples of breaking character and are bad roleplaying. You don't have to use a voice or accent to stay in character, but those are also good. Staying in character means providing descriptions of what your character does and how they do it using natural but not necessarily flowery language, and saying what your character says how they would say it.

Players who can maintain character for an entire scene / encounter are automatically awarded inspiration at the end of the scene / encounter.  No discussion needed.

Monsters

The sidebar on page 6 of the monster manual says DM's should feel free to tweak monster stat blocks. No restrictions are given. Page 7 states alignment is part of the stat block and says it is subject to change by the GM. Therefore, I will probably never use any vanilla monster stat blocks.

Race, Class, Background, and Magic Restrictions

I don't like all the races, subraces, classes, subclasses, backgrounds, and spells. The passages cited below show that these things are features of the setting and that the GM has purview over the setting, therefore, the GM is free to restrict race and class availability and even combinations. In addition, Chapter 9 has rules for customizing existing classes, races, backgrounds, spells, and even creating your own. Therefore, count on any race, class, or background feature, or spell being subject to change because I don't like broken builds. Broken builds make more work for the GM.

-PHB page 6: "Your GM might set the campaign...on one (a world) that he or she created...Ultimately, the DM is the authority on the campaign and its setting, even if the setting is a published world."

-PHB page 17: "Not every intelligent race of the multiverse is appropriate for a player-controlled adventurer."

-PHB page 17: "Humans are the most common people in the worlds of D&D..."

-PHB page 45: "Twelve classes...are found in almost every D&D world..."

-PHB page 165: "This chapter defines two optional sets of rules for customizing your character: Multiclassing and Feats...Your DM decides whether these optional rules are available in a campaign."

-DMG page 4: "And as a referee, the DM interprets the rules and decides when to abide by them and when to change them."

-DMG page 4, "Part 1: Master of Worlds": "Even if you're using an established world such as the Forgotten Realms...The world is yours to change as you see fit and yours to modify as you explore the consequences of your players actions."

-DMG page 9, section "It's your World": "The assumptions sketched out above (reference section Core Assumptions) are not carved in stone...You can build an interesting campaign setting by altering one or more of these core assumptions..."

-DMG Page 9: "Your world is the setting for your campaign. Even if you use an existing setting...it becomes yours."

-DMG page 263 GM's Workshop: "As the GM, you aren't limited by the rules in the PHB, the guidelines in this book, or the selection of monsters in the Monster Manual."

-DMG page 287 Restricting Class Access: "Without changing the way a class functions, you can root it more firmly in the world by associating the class with a particular race or culture."

Table Rules

DMG page 235, "There are the rules of the game, and there are table rules for how the game is played. For instance, they (players) need to know...how to treat a cocked die." Topics listed include Table Talk, Dice Rolling, Rules Discussion, Metagame Thinking, etc. Chapter 8 of the DMG touches on unwritten or soft rules of the game. They discuss things tantamount to style, expectations, and the etiquette. The books make suggestions, but these are things the GM takes responsibility for.

Declaring Actions

Once you've declared your action, you can't change it. No do-overs, no redos, no retracting what you've said. No retcons. If you recognize a mistake two rounds later or after something has been resolved, we're not going back and correcting it unless it's life or death. Otherwise, we can talk about it outside the game and try to do better in the future.

Joke Characters

No joke characters. Joke characters spoil the tone (mood) of the game. Try not to spoil the tone. 

PvP

No PvP (player vs. player). Adversarial play makes your characters unlikable to me, the GM. If your characters are unlikeable, it makes it harder to care about preparing and running the game.

Evil PCs

No evil PCs. Evil PCs are something I don't like about this hobby. It's not fun for me. If you're going to make a character who's a jerk, give them some redeemable quality to make them likeable. If you do something heinous enough, I reserve the right to take your PC and make them mine, and make them an NPC villain in the setting.

PC Names

No joke names, no dumb fantasy names. I need to be able to spell, proncounce, and remember your character name. I am the GM and I portray all NPCs. Your parents are NPCs. Therefore, I have veto powers for all PC names, and it goes like this "my NPC would not have named their kid that. Pick another name or I open up the Bible."

Character Builds

Some players have fun by finding exploits with powers and abilities available in the game and mixing and matching them to create overpowered combinations to trivialize challenges. These are called character builds. Sometimes these builds are called broken because they spoil the intended way the game should play or function. This makes more work for me, the DM, and I don't like it. If you bring a build to my game, I reserve the right to hand you a pre-generated character (a pregen) to play instead, I reserve the right to nerf your character without justification, I reserve the right to do something arbitrary and malicious up to and including stating "rocks fall, your character is dead.", and I reserve the right to remove you from my game or group.

Electronics

I prefer pen and paper. If you're relying on D&D Beyond or a similar application to track your character or understand the rules for how your character works, here's a warning: if that app doesn't work or is slow, I'm not waiting on it.

Table Talk

First rule about speaking at the table: Don't be a dick. If you get mad, it's OK to excuse yourself. It's OK to ask for the GM to call for a break. It's OK to leave a session and come back next week. Second, if it's unclear if you're speaking in-character or out-of-character, I am going to treat what you've said as in-character. No jokes or side-conversations. No phones. No building dice towers. No drawing. These things spoil immersion and slow down the game. Pay attention and be ready.

Player Narration

Players narrate their own stuff. You tell us what your actions look like. Tell us what we see, hear, etc. Use natural language rather than game terminology. For example, don't say "I use my bonus action to rage, I use 20 ft of movement to move to the goblin, and I use my action to attack." Instead, you can say "you see Conan go into a rage, run, and swing his sword at the goblin's head." Don't say "I cast fireball." Say "you see Samson conjure a small flame and hurl it into the center of the goblin hoard and it blossoms into a great big hemisphere of flame." Here's another rule: Description or roleplay first, roll second.

No Rules Discussion During a Game

During the game, there is no asking rules questions for clarity, no reading rules allowed or describing them, no asking the GM for their reasoning for a ruling. The exceptions are if the situation is life or death. Save it for outside the game. Do your best to use the rules correctly and we'll use the honor system. If the rules are unclear or lacking, or if our recollection of the rules is incomplete, I'm going to make a ruling and move on with the game.

No Breaking Character (the Metagaming Rule)

5e DMG page 235 describes Metagame Thinking as "thinking about the game as a game." Essentially treating the game like a game rather than a roleplay exercise. Metagaming is essentially what happens when you break character or roleplay poorly.

For instance, your character doesn't have a concept of a balanced encounter. If you are playing your character cock-sure that the encounters, traps, hazards, etc., will be suited to your character's powers and abilities, you're not playing your character like they care what happens to them. You're playing your character like an idiot, a madman, or like someone with no sense of self-preservation.

Here's another example of metagaming. A combat round represents 6 seconds of real time. It is therefore metagaming to have a discussion about what to do and how to do it mid-encounter if that discussion is out-of-character. If it's in-character, you must wait for your turn to speak, and you can only speak an amount that is reasonable for a 6-second time span.

The best tip to avoid metagaming is to stay in character as much as possible. Every time you break character, you're breaking immersion and you're slowing the game down. I challenge you to try to go without breaking character as much as possible like Liam O'Brien from Critical Role.

No Speech or Insight Checks, Limited to No Ability or Skill Checks

Per the DMG, page 236, under the subheading Ignoring the Dice, the 5e DMG says that it is valid for a Dungeon Master to "...use dice as rarely as possible. Some DM's use them only during combat and determine success or failure as they like in other situations."

I believe that the player should use their own intelligence, wisdom, charisma, and luck. This is called player skill over character skill. Treat the NPCs like real people, not like an opportunity to roll-to-solve (tm) a problem; Try to find a solution in-character by using curiosity and creativity. Try to make the NPCs happy or satisfy their needs to get something in exchange. I see game mechanics for social interaction as unnecessary, and the results of their use often feel contrived and unsatisfying. I also think they disincentive player engagement.

Also refer to these passages for social interactions specifically:

-PHB page 186 Results of Roleplaying: "The DM uses your character's action and attitudes to determine how an NPC reacts..." "Pay close attention to the DM's portrayal of the NPC's mood, dialogue, and personality. You might be able to determine an NPC's personality traits, ideals, flaws, and bonds, then play on them to influence the NPC's attitude." "Interactions in D&D are much like interactions in real life..."

-DMG page 244 Social Interaction: "Some DMs prefer to run social interaction as a free-form roleplaying exercise, where dice rarely come into play..."

Interpreting the Dice

5e DMG page 242 has allowances for failing forward or succeeding at a cost if the roll just shy of a difficulty class, for degrees of success or failure where additional effects can occur for when a roll is +/- 5 of a difficulty class, and treating 1s and 20s as special even outside of combat. I will use these situationally and they will be entirely case-by-case. I won't use these as opportunities to be generous or cruel to the players; instead, I'll use them to make the game more interesting or to manage the pacing of the game.

Rules Lite

Conversation is the medium of the game, not the rules or mechanics. I will repeat this for emphasis. Conversation is the medium of the game, not the rules or the mechanics. I as the GM am the referee of the rules, and I will be using them sparingly because I don't like most of them. If something can reasonably succeed, I'll probably just say it works. If something is stupidly impossible, I'll probably just say it fails. Consider the passages below:

-DMG page 4: "And as a referee, the DM interprets the rules and decides when to abide by them and when to change them."

-DMG page 4: "...but the rules aren't in charge. You're the DM, and you are in charge of the game."

-DMG page 4, How to Use This Book: "The last part helps you to adjudicate the rules of the game and modify them to suit the style of your campaign."

-DMG page 5 subheading Part 3: Master of Rules continued: "As a referee, the DM acts as a mediator between the rules and the players. A player tells the DM what he or she wants to do, and the DM determines whether it is successful or not, in some cases asking the player to make a die roll to determine success..." and "the rules don't account for every possible situation...How you determine the outcome of this action is up to you."

Grounded Fiction

Fiction / fantasy / sci-fi doesn't mean anything goes. The logic of the make-believe world is based on out real world (but is not strictly realistic or simulative). Assume if something can work in real life, it works like that in the game. The reason why we make this assumption is because the real world is our shared point of reference. In other words, don't ask what the game rules allow, ask what the world allows. This makes the game intuitive. Apply our basic understanding of the real world to the make-believe world to understand places, people and character actions. This is how I will make rulings and this is how I expect you to decide what your character can do in a given situation.

More to Come

This is a start. I expect to find more problems with the game and to find more solutions to them as I go were I to actually run 5e. I expect that this post could be revisited and expanded upon by a lot.