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.

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 which means 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 is a fumble and so you 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 first 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 character points.

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 (GM) 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 an opposing character's action, both characters make a roll. Highest roll succeeds. Ties typically go to the defender if one character can be considered 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 type of 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.