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 on 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 that's 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. They 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 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 this.

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.

Jokes

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 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 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."

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.

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 world is based in realism (but is not strictly realistic or simulative). The reason why we make the assumption that the make-believe world resembles our real world is because this is our shared point of reference. We can use our basic understanding of the real world and apply it to the make-believe world to understand how the non-fantastic elements of the make-believe world works. 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. In other words, don't ask what the rules allow, ask what the world allows.

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.

OpenD6 - Dice Pool TTRPG System

I've been reading OpenD6 online. It's a setting and genre neutral TTRPG. Its also free. I like the system, but I think the books are poorly organized and the information is hard to find or difficult to understand. So I'm providing my own notes and I'm taking just a few liberties with the vanilla rules. Let's begin with the game's core mechanic before we get into the rules of how to play. The core mechanic is the mechanic that decides how we simulate actions that we cannot roleplay or resolve through conversation, like attacking each other with swords or piloting ships.

Core Mechanic

The dice pool: Your character's stats are represented as a number of six-sided dice. For example, attributes like dexterity could be 2d6 rather than a number like 14. Skills like longbow, could be 2d6 rather than a number like 6. To make an attribute roll, you roll all your attribute dice and total them; however, to make a skill roll, you roll all your attribute dice and all your skill dice, and total them. Because your dexterity represents hand-eye coordination, then this is the attribute you use to aim and shoot a longbow skill. Actions succeed when the roll meets or beats a number representing the difficulty of the action.

Wild Die: Whenever you make a roll, one die and only one die will be your wild die. If the wild die is a 6, that means your action is a critical success and the wild die explodes; this means you reroll and add the wild die until it stops rolling a 6. If the wild die is a 1, that means the action fumble. Either remove the highest die and the wild die from your pool or the GM can impose a narratively appropriate consequence. Note that only the initial roll of the wild die determines if the action is a critical success or a fumble; if an exploding wild die rolls a 1, that does not turn a critical success into a fumble.

+1s and +2s: Some attributes, skills, weapon damage, etc., are represented by a number of dice with +1 or +2. Example: Dexterity 3d6+1 and Pistol 1d6+2. In this case, you add all the +1s and +2s to the result of the roll. So, in this example, rolling the pistol skill would be 3d6+1 + 2d6+2. Let's say you roll 3, 4, 2, 5, and 5. The total so far is 19. Then you would add your +1 from Dex and +2 from pistol for a final total of 22.

Character Points: This is a currency that you earn by completing adventures, good roleplay, and making progress towards your goals. You can spend them to improve your character outside of the game (detailed in the Character Improvement section). During play, you can also spend one character point per roll to add a single die to a dice pool. Characters typically begin with 5.

Fate Points: After you have rolled your dice pool and before the GM reveals if your action succeeds, you can choose to spend one fate point per roll to double the number of dice in your pool. Note that there is only one wild die per roll, even if you double your dice pool. The game recommends fate points to be more than a simple meta-currency like luck; they should have weight within the setting like the force in star wars. I agree. Let's say they describe your characters' relationship with fate! Is fate on your side today? Spend a fate point and find out. Fate points are only earned by completing adventures. Characters typically begin with one.

Difficulty: The difficulty of actions is determined by the game master, but the game master should evaluate the difficulty based on how likely it would succeed in real life whenever possible as this is our common frame of reference and makes the world believable. Consider this scale:

Very Easy: 1-5

Easy: 6-10 (consider that 10 is the difficulty to attack!)

Moderate: 11-15

Difficult: 16-20

Very Difficult: 21-25

Heroic: 26-30

Heroic+: 31+

Note that the GM does not have to reveal the true difficulty to the players, and the GM can use hidden difficulty to represent elements of a situation or challenge that a player or their character would not reasonably be aware of.

Opposed Rolls

If your action is contested by opposing character's action, both characters make a roll. Highest roll succeed. Ties typically go to the defender if one character can be assumed as a defender.

Modular Game Rules

This system is intended to be setting and genre neutral. Therefore, the game is intended for its rules to be modular meaning they can be swapped in and out. The game master can therefore tailor the system to suit their game. In effect, that makes all game masters the game designers. You can create and add your own rules to suit your campaign. This means this system can be used for different campaigns so that each campaign would have a different feel even though they use the same system.

Core Attributes

There are four core attributes referenced in all the major combat rules of the game. They are Strength, Endurance, Dexterity, and Agility.

Strength describes how much force you can exert and is used in damage rolls.

Endurance describes how long you can exert force and is used to resist fatigue, reduce damage, and effects maximum HP (if HP is used).

Dexterity (aka coordination) describes fine motor function like hand-eye coordination and is used for delicate and precise tasks like firing a pistol or picking a lock.

Agility (aka reflexes) describes major motor function like coordinating your entire body into dedicated movements like sneaking or dodging and melee attacks.

Feel free to change the names of these attributes. For example, Endurance could be Vitality. You should also feel free to fold Endurance into Strength. You may add other attributes to suit your game such as knowledge, perception, willpower, technical, acumen, charm, or magic. You're encouraged to make up with your own.

Consider that 2D is the average attribute for humans. You could ignore attributes and only use skills. This would simplify the game. In this case, consider that all characters have a base roll of 2D + their skill.

Skills

There are no core skills as the skills available in your game depend on your setting. You may design a game strictly around a few modes of play, like combat rather than crafting, exploration or socialization, and you may not consider vehicles or magic strongly. To reiterate the core mechanic, all skill rolls are made by rolling the skill dice and the dice of one attribute that lends itself to the use of that skill.

As a general rule, treat all skills as associated or belonging to only one attribute, but allow for the possibility of a unique case where something may differ. Driving or piloting a vehicle may be based in dexterity, but suppose that an endurance stat might be made to keep from blacking out under intense G forces. Consider that a horseback rider may use their strength to squeeze the horse with their legs and stabilize their core to keep from falling off rather than somehow abstractly balance on a horse with agility.

Note that skill with one weapon does not transfer to another. Axes and Swords are different skills. All melee weapons use Agility to hit. All ranged and throwing weapons use Dexterity to hit. Note that damage rolls are different from skill rolls.

The GM may rule that you can't attempt the action if you don't have any training in a skill. Consider this scale for skills:

0D = Untrained!*

1D = Below Average

2D = Average

3D = Basic Training

4D = Professionally Trained

5D = Expert or Elite

6D = Exceptional, 1 in 100,000 or 1 in a city

etc. Up to 9D which is described as 1 in a setting

*Optionally, a GM can add 5 or 10 to the difficulty if a character has non-proficiency with a skill.

Advantages and Disadvantages

At character creation, you may choose advantages and/or disadvantages for your character from a list (or discuss your own with the GM). Each of these advantages and disadvantages has a dice value that is either positive or negative, and is applied to the number of starting skill dice. For example, Debt has a +2D and Quick Draw has a -2D.

Damage Systems and Healing

Do you prefer a Wounds system or a Hit Points system? These rules consider the possibility of using one or the other system in your game.

Hit Points (HP): Player characters begin with 20 + an Endurance roll HP. 20 is standard but can be changed by a game master. A game master can offer the option to allow players to roll their endurance dice and take the average if the roll is less than the average. For example, the average of 2D is 7. If you have Endurance 2D and you roll a 4, that is less than 7, so you could take 7, and have a total of 27 hit points. Characters recover 5 lost hit points per day of rest. At 0 HP, you're dead.

Wounds: When you take a hit, the attacker makes a damage roll to determine if the defender receives a wound. 5 Wounds in standard, but this can be changed by the game master. Characters can recover 1 wound per day of rest. If you've reached your wound limit (say 5 out of 5 wounds), you're dead.

Attacking and Damaging

To attack, make a weapon skill roll. Melee weapons use Agility + Weapon Skill. Ranged and Throwing Weapons use Dexterity + Weapon Skill. The difficulty to hit is 10 by default, but a game master can rule on situations where it might be easier or harder. On a miss, no damage is done.

On a hit, roll damage. Damage is either based on Strength + Weapon, or it's entirely based on the Weapon alone. For example, a fighter with Strength 3D and a great sword that does 1D+2 does a total of 4d+2 damage. A soldier with a purely mechanical weapon like a crossbow might do the crossbow's damage only, which might be 3D. Then, the opponent rolls Endurance + Armor to reduce damage.

If you're using HP, then damage received = damage roll - (endurance + armor) roll. If the total is 0 or a negative number, then no damage is done.

If you're using wounds, then one wound is inflicted if the damage roll meets or beats the endurance roll. What about severity of wounds? We don't do that. Instead, for game purposes, we make use of more than one wound even though logically one would only suffer one wound for being hit once. If the damage roll exceeds the endurance roll in the following way:

1 wound = Damage Roll ≥ 1x endurance roll

2 wounds = Damage Roll ≥ 2x endurance roll

3 wounds = Damage Roll ≥ 3x endurance roll

4 wounds = Damage Roll ≥ 4x endurance roll

5 wounds = Damage Roll ≥ 5x endurance roll

etc.

Wound Effects

1 wound or 14-19 HP = stunned, -1D to remaining actions this round*

2 wounds or 9-13 HP = wounded, -1D to action rolls**

3 wounds or 4-8 HP = severely wounded, -2D to action rolls**

4 wounds or 1-3 HP = mortally wounded, -3D to action rolls**

5 wounds or 0 HP = cannot take actions / Dead

*this penalty does not apply to endurance rolls to resist damage

**lasts until healed; this penalty does not apply to endurance rolls to resist damage

Defending

As described above, an attack is successful if it meets or beats a difficulty of 10, but a defender can substitute this difficulty with a skill roll. To defend, a character must use one action. They must specify how they are defending as each defense is a separate skill. Dodging uses Agility + Dodge. Parrying can only be used to parry a melee attack and is done with Agility + Weapon Skill. To block with a shield, roll Agility and add the Shield Skill. It is possible to roll a result less than 10, and this is allowed and describes a situation where a character chose to actively defend and did so poorly in that instance.

Damage Scaling Based On Size

Characters, objects, or vehicles that are significantly larger than another do more damage to and receive less damage from a smaller character, object, or vehicle. Most characters are human sized. This is the base-size. The book offers everything a size modifier. For simplicity, I suggest this alternative. Half-size refers to something about half the size of a human (such as a hobbit). Quarter-size refers to something comparable to a small pet. Double-size refers to something like a horse, bear, lion, or ogre. Quadruple-size refers to things that are in comparable to elephants, giants, and dragons. Octuple-size is something like a blue whale. These categories are overly simplified for game purposes. For every step up or down, add or subtract 1D to damage.

Ranged Attacks

Ranged weapons have a close, medium, and long range. Anything closer than close range is point blank and receives a bonus 1D. Medium range is penalized 1D. Long range is penalized 2D.

Attack and Defense Modifiers (cover, visibility, etc.)

Modify the attack roll by -2D if the attacker is blinded or making a called shot. If the attacker spends one action to aim, modify the attack roll by +1D. If the defender is benefiting from cover, modify the base difficulty of 10 or other defense rolls (but not parrying) by +5 for light cover up to +15 for heavy cover. Also modify defense by +5 in poor visibility up to +15 in very poor visibility. If a defender is pinned, subtract 5 from the difficulty.

Environmental Damage

Characters take 1D damage for every 10 ft they fall. Characters in or on fire take 2D damage each round, but the fire damage may be scaled up or down depending on the intensity of the fire. Lightning does 9D damage.

Multiple Actions

There is no limit to the number of actions a character can make in one 5-second combat turn! However; there is a penalty to multiple actions. This is because a character who has to split their concentration cannot do everything so well. The penalty is applied to all actions, not just the additional actions. The penalty is -1D for 1 additional action, -2D for two additional actions, -3D for three additional actions, etc. In order to do multiple actions, the player must declare the number of actions at the start of their turn.

Movement

Humans (and similar fantasy or sci-fi races) have a movement of 10. This represents the number of meters they can move in one 5 second combat turn. Movement can be done as part of your action, and so one move does not count as an action, but additional moves do! Each additional move will allow you to move your base movement, and each requires a successful agility roll. Note that  each additional move is considered a separate action and is subject to the multiple action penalty. The Difficulty for each additional move is based on the base movement (for humans it's 10) times the number of additional moves. For example, if you wanted to run 25 meters in one turn, this would require two additional moves. The first additional move has a difficulty of 10, and the second additional move has a difficulty of 20.

Character Creation

The game mechanics of character creation are discussed here. A character typically begins with a number of attribute dice equal to 3 x # of attributes. Characters also typically begin with 7 skill dice. They can allocate their attribute dice to attributes and skill dice to skills how they choose within the limits set by the GM. A GM may set a starting maximum and/or minimum for certain statistics, like a minimum of 1D and a maximum of 4D. A single attribute die or skill die can be broken into three +1s or one +1 and one +2 which can be allocated among attributes (if from an attribute die) or skills (if from a skill die). So, for example, you could put 4D into Strength, 2D into Agility, 2D into Dexterity, and 4D into Endurance, or you could put only 3D into Strength and break that remaining attribute die and distribute the three +1s among your attributes for Strength 3D+1, Endurance 4D, Agility 2D+1, and Dexterity 2D+1.

Character Improvement

Characters earn Character Points by completing adventures. The GM can award more Character Points for other criteria such as good roleplaying, making progress towards goals, or overcoming significant obstacles. 1 Character Point can be spent to add a +1 to an attribute or skill (you may also think of this as raising a +0 to a +1). 1 character point may be spent to raise a +1 to a +2; however, note that a +2 cannot be raised to a +3. Instead, the number of dice increases. For example, a 1D+2 does not become a 1D+3, it instead becomes 2D. Also note that the cost in character points for improvement is multiplied by the number of dice. For example, it costs 1 character point to raise 1D+2 to 2D, but it costs 2 character points to raise 2D to 2D+1, then 2 points to raise 2D+1 to a 2D+2, then 2 points to raise 2D+2 to 3D. It costs 3 character points to raise 3D to 3D+1, etc.

Player characters should receive 3 to 15 character points and 1 to 2 fate points per adventure. The factors to consider are many. Did the players achieve their goal?(s) How well did they cooperate and work as a team? Did they do well as individuals? Was fun had by all? Did people roleplay well? 

Turn Order

There are two types of turn order in combat. With side-based turn order, all characters on one side declare their actions, and after all actions are declared, they get resolved. Then the other side goes in the same way. At the start of combat, each side rolls a single d6 and the side with the highest value goes first. With individual-based turn order, individual characters declare their action, then resolve them. At the start of combat, individual characters roll Agility, and turns will be taken in order of highest to lowest rolls; although, for simplicity, the GM should make only one Agility roll for groups of like-characters. For example, a group of soldiers. In either type of turn order, once everyone has had a turn, a round of combat is complete. Start a new round and repeat until combat is resolved. Note that initiative only needs to be rolled once per combat, but the GM can change this.

Weapon Damage and Range

On a successful hit, a damage roll is made. Strength applies to most weapon damage except for purely mechanical weapons, like a pistol or crossbow.

Fist = Strength

Punching Knuckle or Gauntlet = Strength +2

Improvised Weapons = 1D, but difficulty +5 and weapon can break on a fumble.

Knife, Dagger, or Throwing Knife = Strength +1D

Club = Strength +1D

Staff = Strength +1D+1

Longbow = Strength +2D, Range 15/30/50

Sword, Battle Ax, or Mace = Strength +2D+1

War Hammer or Spear = Strength +2D+2

Great Sword or Pole-arm = Strength +3D

Crossbow = 4D, Range 10/20/40; Action to reload

Armor and Damage Resistance

When you receive a hit, you roll your endurance and add a bonus from your armor. Subtract this result from the damage delt by the attack to determine the damage actually suffered. 0 or less means no damage.

Cloth or Leather = Endurance + 2

Banded Armor = Endurance + 1D

Mail, either chain or scale = Endurance + 2D

Plate = Endurance + 3D

Shield = Endurance + 2

Tower Shield = Endurance + 1D

Encumbrance option: The GM may add a cumulative +4 difficulty to agility rolls for wearing metal armor, carrying a tower shield, or layering armor such as wearing multiple layers of cloth or cloth, or by wearing cloth or leather over other armor types.

Anime Recommendation: Ghost Stories

I think the last time I watched anime was season one of One Punch Man. Before that, season one of Attack on Titan. Before that, I don't know. Anime seems meh these days, but I have seen a ton of anime in the past.

This past weekend I watched Ghost Stories, a horror anime from the early 2000s. I watched the English dub which is infamous for let's say not honoring the source material very well. In spite of this, I think the major concepts came through and it was still enjoyable. It's a monster of the week series featuring five school kids. One of them, Satsuki I think was her name, is the main character.

Here's the premise of the story that I can decipher based on the English dub. Satsuki and her little brother have recently lost their mom. Their family is moving back to their old neighborhood where Satsuki's parents grew up. There's a new school across from the old school, and so the old school along with an entire hillside of little old shrines is scheduled for slow demolition for new urban or commercial development. Every time the demolition crew demolishes some old shrine, they disturb a ghost or a release demon that was coincidently put to rest or sealed away by Satsuki's mom. The revelation that Satsuki's mom did all this is in episode one by their first demon encounter, and the ghosts and demons are all looking to take their revenge on Satsuki! Within the first episode, Satsuki visits the old school and discovers a secret journal left by her late mom detailing her encounters with all these ghosts and demons, along with how to defeat them, and she manages to defeat her first demon by trapping it inside her own pet cat. The demon in the cat, named Amanojaku, becomes a very interesting character really fast because he hates her, but his powers are useless inside the cat body. Still, he taunts her every time her life is threatened and reveals partial hints about how she and her friends might die.

Satsuki may or may not have spiritual powers or be the daughter of a witch. It's unclear in the English dub why she or her mom could defeat any of the monsters, but she can thanks to her mom's journal. There's an overarching plot about the unresolved grief or trouble or mystery caused by the untimely death of the mom, but that plot got very, very lost in the English dub. It's a short series of 20 self-contained episodes. I wouldn't mind watching it again in Japanese with English subs to get the real story and characters.

I appreciate writing, and so I appreciate how this series wrote monster of the week horror. What I learned about horror while watching this anime is that monsters are scary because they each have unique, weird, esoteric, sometimes unintuitive rules and the point of view characters have to figure them out. Who are they, why are they violent, how do their powers work, and what is their secret weakness are all asked and answered in each episode. Information is valuable! The characters have no other powers but to run, to hide, and their ability to get the right information in time. Sometimes there's other conflicts like being separated or pitted against each other. The monster questions are often resolved by consulting the mom's journal, but sometimes the journal entry is unclear to the characters, and they have to get more information from somewhere or someone else. Or they don't know how to look up the monster because they must first learn its name! A lot of the time, it feels like they're gambling, and that's where the tension comes from.

As far as writing goes, what else does this show do well? The set up is done well. The characters live in a grounded world and there's a perfectly believable and plausible reason for why hauntings are suddenly a problem. Characterization is good. Every ghost or demon has an unresolved issue or grievance motivating their violence. Sometimes it's personal because they hate the main character because her mom sealed them away, and that's unfair to Satsuki because she didn't do anything wrong. She's got to learn and adapt, and she has a cast of brave, helpful friends. They have an overarching plot that got lost in translation, but it's of a personal nature to the heroes and I can only assume it helps them grow as characters and has a moral lesson about life and death or coming of age. Curse the English dub! These are all strengths of the show! If you don't mind the comedic spin put on it by the English dub, or if you kind of like the English dub, you'll enjoy the show. Unfortunately, I can't appraise the characters more deeply because of the dub. Their English personas are fine for a dumb comedy, which I'm sure is a quirk of the English version only.

What other positive things can I say about it? Well, I think in spite of the English dub, I am inspired to write my own horror and to see the original. And, the English dub was kind of fun. Unlike the English dub of Shin Chan however, I don't think I like this English dub enough to watch it a second time. That's it.