How to do Speech in TTRPGs (without dice!)

I don't like rolling for speech. This post explains why, how to do the alternative, and why you might like the alternative better than rolling for speech too! There are different ways to play a TTRPG. One approach is called player skill over character skill (or player-skill-forward) where the players rely on their own intelligence, wisdom, charisma, luck, skills, creativity, etc., rather than use the characters abilities and skills and etc. I personally believe that the opposite approach of character skill over player skill is for video games, and I personally do not want it in my TTRPGs.

First, I'm going to start with some arguments, then I'm going to explain some general concepts, then I'm going to instruct you on how to talk to people.

Why Player Skill Over Character Skill?

First, some arguments for why you would have the players rely on their own speech skills rather than rely on their character's speech skills and the games mechanics.

1. Personal preference. For you D&D 5e folks, this is supported by the 2014 5e DMG, page 236.

2. The game is about portraying a character. I don't want the game's rules or the designers ideas of game balance to tell me how to portray my character. It's my character, I can handle that. Outside of a computer game, a personality is not something that needs to be made into a statistic and then balanced against other abilities.

3. Incentive and disincentive. I want to engage with social interaction using my skill, and I don't want to be penalized for my character's poor skills. Similarly, I don't want players holding back on engagement with roleplay because they are relying on their characters high skill to do all the work. Players also tend to elect a single character as the face of the group and they all avoid participation.

4. Game mechanics and rules are not the medium of the game, conversation is. Mechanics and rules are for simulating what we cannot do at the table. In other words, we don't need to simulate conversation because we can actually have those. Excessive mechanics and rules make the game more complex without necessarily improving the game.

5. Disengaging from the emerging narrative to resolve something with dice and mechanics, and then re-engaging with narrative is immersion breaking and slows the pacing of the game. In other words, it's not fun. There's too much rolling dice in games. Every time you stop a conversation to roll a die, the story forgets what it was doing.

6. With skill / ability rolls, we tend to roll a die to resolve uncertainty (id est when the GM can't make a ruling to determine success or failure). The fact is that if the speech reasonably satisfies the NPCs needs and does not raise any objections, the speech should succeed and there should be no uncertainty. Adding dice to such rolls is arbitrary and the outcomes feel contrived. That's not fun to play or narratively satisfying. If the NPC already agrees with you, the dice don't get a vote.

7. If you're not good at speech, a TTRPG is an excellent situation for learning that skill! You can get practice here without real world consequences. It's an educational component of a TTRPG.

8. Demystification of charm. Charm is not how you talk to people; intelligence is. In GURPS for example, all speech skills are related to intelligence, not the personality. Why? First, communication is about ideas. You need some intelligence to communicate, and you need high intelligence to communicate complexity. Second, because what you communicate is the substance, and how you say it is the style. Substance beats style. If you have a crap idea but pretty words and charm, people are still going to reject the idea. For example, I went to the mall and someone tried to sell me a product that keeps the bottoms of my shoes white. I think my face said it all and the salesman shrank away in shame because deep down he knew he was selling a crap idea.

General Concepts

Here are general concepts for Speech and how to think about them from a player skill over character skill mindset. Think of this as the glossary but better. You're probably familiar with them some of the ideas. I think if you read this, you'll have a high-level overview of game concepts and practical application of them.

1. In-Character means speaking as if intending to portray your character. You can use your own voice and accent or a different one. Speak what the character says verbatim. Out-of-character means speaking as if not intending to portray the character. Alternatively, out-of-character is breaking character. You may either speak in-character, or you may describe out-of-character what your character says and how, including paraphrasing what they say, as long as the description is vivid enough for the players to continue the scene or the GM to resolve the scene. Alternating in-character and out-of-character portrayal is fine.

2. Your character concept need not define what kind of speaker your character is, but if you establish or play your character as a good speaker or a poor speaker, be consistent! It is a bad roleplaying to flip flop from a good speaker to a bad speaker, and it is metagaming to flip flop from a bad speaker to a good speaker in an instance when you really need to be successful.

3. Consider your reputation. Reputation is the part of your character sheet you don't get to write. You may have no reputation but can earn one through your interactions with people and your other deeds. If you're unknown but your reputation is known, this may be a benefit or a detriment. A poor reputation can sour any interaction even by someone amenable with something good to offer. Also consider that you may have separate reputations based on place or social group.

4. Objections stop people from doing what you want no matter how good a talker you are. Sometimes, people have objections that come from deeply held principles, or sometimes they just don't like you. Sometimes they don't voice these objections either. Consider a hypothetical religious shop owner who doesn't want to do business with customers of other religions. Consider a nationalist who won't betray their homeland for anything, or a man who would rather take a beating and die than earn a reputation as a coward. Consider a man might never endanger his family even if it means betraying his own values and beliefs. Some objections aren't puzzles; they're walls.

5. Charm isn't magic. Charm is often depicted in fiction as a character smiling and winking and getting what they ask for, and everyone in a room likes them. In reality, people have a general attitude and affinity for certain kinds of people or behavior which doesn't radically change because someone is charming.

6. Persuasiveness can come from good reasoning and logical argument rather than charm or charismatic speech, such as convincing someone that an idea might work. Note that people are complex, and you can't reasonably expect to change people's minds with every interaction.

7. Good persuasion can be knowing how to ask for something, but not always. Persuasion is more often like diplomacy, negotiation, or a trade deal. It's about having something of value to offer someone in exchange for something you want from them. Find what a person needs and try to satisfy it in a way that they will want to do business with you again. Regret and buyer's remorse will sour future interaction.

8. Intimidation is disrespectful. Non-player characters will have varying tolerance of disrespect, and many will remember it. Intimidation and disrespect negatively affect your reputation and become future objections.

9. Lying is generally strongly unwanted in a society. The key to a good lie is that it's plausible. If it's not plausible, you can make people suspicious of you. Also, a lie that isn't plausible isn't a lie, it's an insult (these become future objections and poor reputation). Just because you successfully convince someone that a lie is true doesn't mean your lie compels their thoughts or behavior; That would require additional persuasion or intimidation.

10. Social situations or context. If you're speaking to a king, expect to use proper courtesy and etiquette. If your manner of speaking does not suit the social situation, for example, speaking too formally at an informal situation, people might perceive this as lacking social tact. Some people might simply reject people from other social groups or classes, and there might not be much you can do about that. Altering your speech or code swapping, if caught, comes across as inauthentic and you may lose respect with certain people or groups.

11. Insight or Sensing Motivations is not a psychic power. One's ability to do this comes from experience with and knowledge of people or animals, and situational awareness. Sometimes it's a sense that something feels off that you can't explain. Pay attention to the GM's description of the NPC and their portrayal of them to spot clues or inconsistencies. If you the player get a bad feeling, only you can decide if your character would also get a bad feeling.

12. Players, rely on your own luck, intelligence, wisdom, perception, insight, charisma, etc., not just your character's. This is called player skill over character skill. If something feels wrong, you don't have to roll for it. If you have an idea about how to overcome an NPCs objection and make them happy, try it. Don't ask the GM "would my character think...". Judge for yourself, it's your character. If a thought occurs to you, why wouldn't it occur to your character?

13. Etiquette is a knowledge and understanding of how a social group interacts. It includes having an understanding of what words to use, when and how, of body language, of dress codes, of expected behaviors (e.g. manners, decorum). Etiquette can be a major culture, but is often more specific like criminal etiquette, scholar etiquette, business etiquette, religious etiquette, noble etiquette, warrior etiquette,  etc. Your etiquette is leaned through being a member of that social group, and so possessing that etiquette describes (implicitly) your history. Some social groups are clique-y or insular, and some social groups don't like other groups. This means your having or lacking of an etiquette, or your associating with people with a certain etiquette, can be an advantage or disadvantage sometimes.

How to Talk to People

1. Identify what people need.

2. Make an offer.

3. Ask for feedback to identify any objections and adjust your offer.

That's it. That's all there is to it. That's how to make a deal. That's how to threaten people. That's how to lie. That's how to ask a girl for her number (seriously).

It's important to know that if someone declines, there's a certain amount of persistence that's acceptable, then you should gracefully accept their decision. If you don't, you risk coming across as pushy and obnoxious, testing their patience, and burning their good will. You risk treating people like a mark to take advantage of rather than a person to form a functional, mutually beneficial relationship with.

Needs and objections can typically, but not always, be revealed by having a casual or friendly conversation with someone! There's no rolling. There's just keeping your mind in the scene, embodying your character, and asking open-ended questions. If a player makes an offer that is genuinely satisfying to the NPC, the offer is accepted. If there's any objections, the offer is refused unless the player can offer something that overcomes the objection. Sometimes, the NPC will tell you why the offer is not good enough and make a counteroffer. Sometimes, there's nothing you can do about an objection to your offer.

Does anyone watch Doctor Who? The Doctor is a remarkable speaker. He can walk into a room where he has no business being, act like he belongs there, tell everyone why they should listen to him, and then earn their trust or at least their begrudging obedience. If you pay attention to the writing of Doctor Who, this isn't bullsh!t. This is a smart character who happens to be charming. He asks people to make hard decisions, and he does it by explaining practically why they need to. He explains why the decision they make will help or hurt people. He appeals to people's sense of decency, duty, morality, faith, community, family. He asks people to be brave and virtuous and be the best person they can be because no one else will. This is not "I do a persuasion." *rolls dice* "33. What happens?" This is dramatic dialogue.

Conclusion

If you can speak, think, and negotiate at the table, you don't need mechanics to do it for you. Hopefully, if you use this in your game, it works. This might not be for everyone, but hopefully you can teach your players, and they can learn fast, and it'll be easy. Hopefully it will improve your game even if you go back to rolling for speech. Then again, there might be some people for whom I have spoiled speech checks forever and they'll never want to go back (I don't!). I have seen players get into characters and give really great speeches. When players start giving impassioned speech, that's the freeform nature of this approach working! One bad die roll and they may never put in the effort to do that ever again. So, if you don't use this idea in its entirety, use some of it.

5e House Rules - High Immersion, High Discipline, GM Curated Style of 5e

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, pronounce, 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

This is a player-skill table, not a character-skill table. 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.

House Rules for Faster, More Immersive Games

The intent of these house rules is to make games  faster and more immersive by eliminating habits that lead to interrupting the pace of the game. I hoped this would be a simpler version of a much more in-depth blog post here which uses the concept of flow state to describe why interruptions in TTRPGs are detrimental to the overall TTRPG experience. I've added some non-essential rules that suit my desired game, but I justify their inclusion because they set expectations which can avoid confusion.

Grounded Fiction

This rule establishes a common understanding of the setting. Fiction does not mean anything goes. The setting has relatable characters, plausible scenarios, and realistic environments. Your character is an ordinary person who becomes an adventurer. Don't do anything you wouldn't do in real life. Play your characters like you care what happens to them.

Ready Bonus

If you're ready at the start of your turn, you get a +2 bonus to your roll. This means that as soon as it's your turn, you state what you do and how you do it in one fluid sentence. No questions, no looking up rules, no thinking.

Initiative and Turn Order

Transitions into combat should be seamless, as much as possible. He who takes initiative goes first. If unclear, a GM ruling decides. Turns go clockwise around the table.

One Action Per Turn

Long turns mean more waiting which is boring. On your turn, you can move without acting, you can act without moving, and you can move up to your maximum movement as part of your action, but attacking ends your turn. One sentence can be spoken during your turn. No double actions or double moves, no bonus or free actions, no holding actions, no reactions.

Skipping Turns

Players are not entitled take as long as they want on their turn. The GM can give them a last call for declaring an action or rule that their character hesitates this round.

No Redo's, No Do-Overs, No Retcons

Once you declare your action, you can't change it.

Player Descriptions

Players must describe what they do and how using natural language, like writing a scene in a book. Avoid using game terminology. The intent of your action should be clear.

No phones, laptops, or electronics

Put them away. It's a paper and pencil game.

Character Creation

Player Characters (PCs) must suit the tone and setting of the game. PCs must have their own goal to pursue in play. Discuss with GM.

No Player vs Player (PvP)

The game is about collaboration and cooperation, not adversarial or competitive play. Don't sabotage each other. Don't be that guy. Evil PCs become GM property and NPC villains. Adventuring is dangerous, therefore PCs need a good reason for why they trust the other PCs with their lives.

Metagaming

Metagaming means thinking about the game like a game. Using knowledge that your characer doesn't have is also metagaming. Out-of-character discussions that your characters would not reasonably be able to achive in-character; e.g. long strategy during a short combat round. 

Player Skill, Not Character Skill

Dice rolls and game mechanics do not solve puzzles, resolve exploration, or social interaction; player ingenuity does. Describe what you search and how. Treat NPCs like real people, try to make them happy. Knowledge and insight are learned in play. Pay attention and ask questions. Plan ahead.

Character Stats

Your stats are just numbers for mechanical purposes. They do not necessarily describe your character or determine how you must portray them.

Emergent Story

Neither the GM or the dice tell the story. The GM prepares the setting and the NPCs, obstacles and opportunities within. The story is what emerges when the players engage with the setting and NPCs. In other words, players choose what to do and how, and the GM reacts.

Tools, Not Rules

The games rules and mechanics are just tools to help the GM to run the game. The GM may take and leave these tools to make their own tool kit as it suits them. Part of being a GM is knowing when to use them and knowing whey they don't suit a moment of the game.

No Rules Talk During The Game

During the game, no talking about the rules, no reading the rules, no asking for clarity about the rules. No rulebooks at the table. Save it for outside the game. The GM makes a ruling and moves the game along.

GM Rulings

One of the roles of the GM is to be a referee of the rules and to make rulings of what happens in the game. It's important to be fair and consistent, and without investment in the outcome. The rules can't account for everything, but people can! Consider in real life as your criteria. If something can reasonably succeed, it does. If something is genuinely impossible, no die roll will allow it.

Don't Break Character

This house rule is a guideline. Always being strictly in character is not needed, but breaking character leads to loss of immersion, momentum, and tension. Instead of asking what's in a room, ask what you see, hear, smell, etc. Don't ask what's in the box, describe how you inspect it. Don't declare that you sneak, describe what you're doing to be sneaky. Treat each in-game conversation as though it's actually happening and avoid out-of-character comments or sidebar. Turn out-of-character discussion into in-character conversation. If you're going to award anything to players for good roleplaying, factor whether or not they stay in character for their whole turn!

Optional Rules (in-character bonuses) to incentivize desired player behavior:

• Go an entire scene without breaking character and earn a hero die (a d6). You can hold up to five of these. Any number of hero dice can be spent on any roll.
• Go an entire game session without breaking character and earn 150% experience points.

Flow State to Speed Up TTRPG Combat - Game Design & Managing Expectations

I have played in many sessions where we spent more than one hour in a single combat round. Ever since then, I have a newfound resentment for a game I already resent (D&D 5e).

The matter of how to speed up combat in D&D (or other TTRPGs) is more than just a few tips. I want combat to be as fast as any freeform roleplay scene. For that, we have to make concessions to rules and structure. It's in changing player behaviors. It's in changing GM behaviors. It's in changing the rules of your game. I warn you, it might not resemble the same game after you make all these changes. A fast game pace is prioritized over accuracy and complexity of game rules. You might think I'm asking a lot from you, and that I'm asking a lot from your players, but I promise you people will be playing TTRPGs like this in a hundred years. Also, this blog post is just over 4,199 words.

Flow

Flow as in flow state which is a term in psychology that describes the experience of being totally immersed and focused that you lose track of time and performance feels effortless. Think about streaming a movie or video with bad internet connection. The movie stops and stutters every few seconds to buffer. That's very annoying. Most people I know would rather wait for the internet to work properly to watch the movie. No one wants to put up with an analogue medium like a CD where the CD is all scratched up and the tracks don't play right. You want to press play on the movie or the album, and you want the experience to be smooth and fluid from start to finish. No interruptions.

It's difficult to get immersed in something when the quality is choppy and you're constantly being mentally and emotionally disengaged from the substance of the story or the game, then you have to reengage. D&D and TTRPGs are like this. You want to cut out all unnecessary interruptions, pauses or delays in the game. Here's a short list of interruptions: players asking questions (about anything), side conversations, side conversations, distractions (smartphones), people making jokes that don't match the mood of the scene, side conversations again, players not knowing how their spells work, using D&D Beyond with sh@#ty internet connection, players rolling dice to make decisions about how to roleplay their character, people looking up rules in the book, players talking over other players, players not being ready on their turn, and last but not least, side conversations again. I'm going to tell you now, curb anything that makes people disengage from the game and have to reengage with it. The best way to do that is to tell people no breaking character. When people break character, that's when all this stuff starts to happen. No breaking character!

Flow is very important to me in particular because I have ADHD! To me, interrupting flow or causing me to disengage from something I'm focusing on causes frustration. Breaking flow state is a certainty; There is no avoiding it, but, we can do better to preserve it! interruptions cause people to check out or tune out. Their minds wonder. They get impatient. They get frustrated. They get bored. If players are bored because they have to wait for their turn, that's bad GMing! It's bad GMing because you're letting the other players cause interruptions that are easily avoidable. Or you're running a game that's too slow and clunky because there are too many unique powers and spells and maneuvers with very specific rules to get right. Yep, it's you. Train your players and switch games! All of my ideas below are about stream-lining the game, making it more intuitive, being more flexible, being clearer, and encouraging awareness of flow and to preserve it!

Initiative

What is the first thing that slows combat down? It's when the GM says "roll initiative". I used to get excited or anxious, but I roll my eyes and groan these days because initiative is not an important or essential part of a TTRPG. Here are the downsides of initiative. This moment feels like pausing a movie right before the best part to take drink orders. Sure it takes a minute if you're efficient, but it takes people out of the mood. It's a moment where people can take a breather and tension is partially relieved, when people break character, decide that now is a good time to read that rule or read their character sheet for the right thing to do. It's a moment where people start making jokes or talking strategy. The momentum and energy of the scene is lost. In addition, you also have to make and keep a list. I have seen players get their turns skipped more than once. In my experience, it happens very frequently, and it ruins flow for everybody! This happens because initiative turn order is not intuitive. By intuitive, I mean being able to do something without thinking about it. You know what's intuitive? Clockwise turn order. Do clockwise turn order instead.

Why do we roll for initiative anyway? Because that's a rule in the game. Really? That's it? Because it's fair? It's not. Because we like the randomness or unpredictability? Then reroll from round to round. Because we like when the dice tell the story? What if the result doesn't make sense for this scene?

Here's my solution. I have two rules for initiative. First, the general rule is he who takes initiative gets initiative. Before you get excited, here's my point of view. The game is fiction, but that doesn't mean anything goes. There must still be a make-believe world with believable logic (else that's a distraction and we risk breaking flow). If the fighter kicks down the door and declares his intention to charge inside a room, then we roll initiative and the fighter rolls poorly and ends up last in turn order, that means he kicks down the door but somehow the other PCs run inside first, or the NPCs somehow, pending surprise, can potentially get up from whatever they were doing, charge for the door, and hammer the fighter before he goes. That's silly. If the use of the initiative roll ruins the internal logic of the world and the scene, you're using a rule inappropriately. The scenario with the fighter kicking down the door and going last happened in one of my games. It causes a certain cognitive dissonance (which is a mental distraction caused by overthinking) because it's blatantly absurd, and we all laugh at it. That moment of absurdity sort of spoils the mood of the scene. Therefore, the initiative roll is not mandatory and is situational. In fact, your goal should be to make the transition from non-combat into combat seamless. If one side can reasonably act first, they go first! Don't spoil a perfectly planned ambush with a random die roll.

My second rule of initiative roll is to use it to resolve uncertainty only. The perfect time to use an initiative roll is at the start of a duel when two fighters are staring each other down. Then the coin hits the ground. Then they draw their weapons and lunge almost simultaneously. You can even have them roll initiative after they declare their actions.

Interrupting Turn Order

Anything that interrupts or disrupts turn order causes someone to have to stop what they're in the middle of doing it, think about something new, resolve it, then go back to the last thing, and work forward from there. That's messy, occasionally frustrating, and it is an interruption of flow for someone. "What was I doing? Where were we?" "You were here." "Oh yeah." For these reasons, all reactions and held actions are either banned or work like actions. You can go when it's your turn. You cannot go when its someone else's turn. Ever. Even if you're the GM and your NPC has a special legendary action or lair action or whatever that lets them act on someone elses turn. Eff that.

It also stings bugs the ever-living hell !@#$% out of me when it's about to be someone's turn, they're prepared and ready and excited to go, then you cut them off to resolve the interruption, then you get back to that player and they're no longer ready. Ugh! This can happen because the interrupting action can change the conditions of the scene and spoil that player's idea. Interrupting turns should be a technical foul!

Once You Declare Your Action, You Can't Take It Back! (No redo's)

Can I redo my turn? I didn't know there was an obvious, big open pit there. My character would have been smart enough not to do that thing I did. He would have done this other thing instead. The answer is no redo's. Once you declare your action, you cannot change it. This will train players to pay more attention to your descriptions of the room or scene. Part of the problem with redos is they're pathetic. They are. They make everyone look at you and think "oh come on, man." Imagine watching an athlete ask the referee or the announcer if they can redo the last play. It breaks flow and this can spoil the mood of the scene, and that should be a foul.

Player Descriptions

Players absolutely have to describe their own actions! It's not even in question. Tell the players they are co-narrators. It's not about flavor, but it could be; instead, player responsibility is to clearly state what they're doing and how. The intent of the action should be clear. The intended outcome of the action should not be ambiguous. Leave nothing to interpretation. If the GM has to ask for clarification so they can make a ruling, that's back-and-forth we could avoid. It can help everyone if your description states where your character ends their turn. "I run up to the goblin next to the pile of skulls and I hit him with my axe" tells us where you are in space - next to the pile of skulls. This is better than next to goblin #5 because we have to think about where goblin #5 is. Also, avoid using game terminology. Avoid "I use 20 feet of movement to..." Instead, use natural language. "I run across the room to..." Avoid "I use my action to attack..." Instead say "I thrust my sword at the goblin." Use present tense too. Don't say "I'm going to attack the goblin," say "I attack the goblin." That's more concrete, therefore its clearer.

GMs, when the spotlight returns to you, do not restate a player action or narration. "As you swing your sword..." or "as you draw back your bowstring..." Just say what happens after. "You see the goblin's face go white with fear and your sword cuts through their flesh for 6 damage!" Done.

No Out-Of-Character Questions

Sometimes players ask "can I use my such-and-such skill/power/feature to do this thing?" In other words, they either want to know, one, if the rules of the game permit something, or two, they want to know how the Game Master will rule on something before they commit to it. Either way, these questions interrupt flow. You need to remove all of these sorts of moments from the game! All of them!

The solution to the first issue is to tell your players to think about the game as a story telling exercise first and a game second. If you can reasonably do something in real life, you can do it in the game. For example, the game doesn't have rules for hitting someone with the stock of your crossbow, but you absolutely could do this in real life, therefore, you can do it in the game. I don't care what the !@#$% rules say, you absolutely can whack someone with your shotgun by swinging it like a club or hammer. The reason why people have these questions is because they don't trust the GM or because they don't understand the setting or the game. Don't answer these questions; instead, remind the player about the basics of the game. Here's how to play a TTRPG: the player describes their action, then the GM makes a damn ruling and moves on with the game! Also encourage players to treat the setting like a believable world. If something can reasonably work in real life, it effing works in the make-believe world too!

The second issue has been called test-driving your turn. The player doesn't want to commit to something because they're trying to make sure that they're doing the optimal thing first. The solution is to tell them that this is an out-of-character question and tell them that they would be metagaming if they use your answer, and they absolutely would be metagaming. What is metagming? According to D&D 5e's DMG, it's thinking about the game like a game. According to most people, metagaming is making decisions in-character using out-of-character knowledge. The fact is, that weird thing you're asking about, your character wouldn't have access to the GMs answer. You the player are asking the GM a question when you should be immersed in the scene, and you should be in your character's head and you should be thinking about what they would do in the moment. That's what should be the basis for what you're doing on your turn, not a potential GM ruling.

Strategizing is Allowed Before Combat Starts (in play!), Not During

Speaking of metagaming, if a combat round represents mere seconds of time, you don't have time to strategize in the middle of combat. Therefore, any out-of-character conversation is metagaming. Plan ahead. If you're not prepared, why are you getting into a fight? You're playing your character like you don't care what happens to your character. You're thinking about the game like a game, not a role-play exercise or story-telling exercise. Cut that out!

Ready Bonus

If a player is ready on their turn, they get a +2 bonus to their roll. What does ready mean? To avoid argument and to establish expectations, it means that as soon as it is your turn, without any hesitation or delay, you state clearly and concisely what you do and how you do it. No questions. No reading your character sheet. No reading the rules. No questions. No making jokes. None of that crap. Pay attention to the game and be ready!

Skip Turns

If players aren't ready on their turns, that's fine, but people are not entitled to take forever. If they're dragging their ass, you can rule that their character hesitates this round and skip their turn. How much ass dragging is too much? I don't know, feel it out, but give them a last call to declare their action before skipping them. Make sure that everyone is aware of the rule before play.

Consider that players should not have thinking time if their characters do not have thinking time. Thinking time means engagement is not effortless because people are thinking. Part of the definition of flow state is that performance is effortless. Tell players not to be afraid to make decisions with their gut, not their head!

One Action Per Turn

On your turn, players can do one thing! This is called your action! There is no move action. You can act without moving, you can move without acting, and you can move as part of your action up to your maximum movement, but attacking ends your turn. Speech of any kind does not cost your action because you can reasonably speak while running and swinging a sword, but you can speak only one simple sentence per combat round due to the length of time that one combat round represents. One action per turn means shorter turns. Shorter turns means less waiting for your turn. It helps alleviate the problem of people from getting bored and checking out and being bored. Did I mention that long turns are boring?

I advocate cutting bonus actions and multi-attacks too! Every time I hear a player say "that ends my turn." or a GM ask "is that the end of your turn?", I get a little annoyed because that's an interruption in the flow of the game. It should be clear when your turn is over. We shouldn't need to seek confirmation. The exception is if you can describe your action and bonus action in one smooth, fluid sentence, like writing a line in the book; and also refer to the rule about no redo's. You hit the monster twice even though he dies on the first hit. Moving on. Consider that in chess, when you take your hand off your piece, your turn is over. In this game, when you punctuate your description, your turn is over.

Let's talk about a way that actions get a little loosey-goosey. I'm talking about the free action. This is the, ahem, thing that you can do as part of your action because it's so, so simple. Like drawing your weapon or opening a door. People can get stuck on this. Stuck is an interruption to flow state. Why? Because the rules can't cover every conceivable situation. So, a GM ruling is sometimes necessary here. Here's how to think about it: it's not about the number of things you can or can't do, it's about if you can reasonably do any / all of them in the length of time that your combat turn represents. If it sounds reasonable, let it happen. If it's cool and it doesn't cause cognitive dissonance, let it happen. This is charitable and simple.

One Action, One Roll

If an action is particularly complex, don't break it down into multiple steps and resolve each step. For example, let's say I describe my action as "I grab a discarded shied off the ground, then use it to slide down the banister of the stairs, dismount at the bottom, flip through the air, grab onto the chandelier, swing ten feet and fling myself past the soldiers, then tumble and roll, and run into cover behind the column." Let's say the rules let you do all these things on your turn. Resolve it with one roll! Because there are so many places to fail, then the lower the roll, the earlier in the sequence they fail. Easy. You might (might!) even say they that because they character is doing so much, that the difficulty is slightly greater. Actually, why do we need to roll?

Rules about Jokes (AKA Don't Spoil the Mood)

Jokes are part of the game. We are all very, very aware of the absurdity of this exercise; of sitting around a table and pretending we live in a world where Taco Bell doesn't exist and we're all really tempted to make a Taco Bell joke, or make a movie or song reference, or whatever. It's normal and some people would even say it's part of the hobby or the fun. To an extent, sure. As long as the jokes don't cause too big a delay, no harm; however, if we establish a scary scene or a sad scene, don't @#$%! spoil the mood! If you undermine the mood, you're a spoil sport to someone else. That's like talking during a movie. Don't do it! Exceptions are case-by-case, like if it's in-character and your character would totally say something inappropriate. As the GM, it is appropriate to do one arbitrary and malicious thing to the offending player's character as long as it doesn't harm the innocent player's character, but keep it within the logic of the scene. For example, an NPC who loses respect for that character. If no NPCs are obviously around, God is.

Simplified Character Sheets and Stat Blocks

Imagine flipping your character sheet over so that it's face down and then playing your character or NPC. Can you do this? If the answer is no, then your game is to complex. Stop it. Shame on you. If you have to look your character sheet over in the middle of the game, that means you're not paying attention to the game. You're missing GM descriptions or you're missing out on what the other players are doing or what's happening. If you're missing information, you might need to ask for it, and that causes an interruption. If you have to read the dumb rules about how to run your character when you should be describing what you do and how you do it, that's an interruption. Either learn your !@#$% better, or play a simpler game!

No Rules Discussion

None! Zero! Make a ruling and move on with the game! Allow players to make a simple case for why something should go their way, and err in their favor or in favor of fun. No rule books. No reading rules allowed. No interpreting rules. No discussing how you would make a ruling. None - not during the game at least. Use the honor system. If you have questions or concerns, make a note to review it outside of the game. Deemphasize the rules. They're not perfect. There is no right way to play and there is no perfectly designed rule set or game. The game designers are flawed and imperfect just like you and me.

Treat Rooms and Scenes as if they are in a Quantum State

If a player is not confident in the specifics about room or scene, such as its shape, size, features, or other obstacles, this is going to cause them to want to ask questions. Oof! That's no good! So, here's the problem, we can't always get a room or scene as precise and literal like a professionally drawn tactical map! Then the solution is to embrace abstract space. Play "yes, and" and don't say no. Consider that rooms and their features are in a quantum state meaning things both exist but also don't exist at the same time, and we only know for certain when something is in the scene because someone speaks it into the scene.

Describe the theme and general features of the room once when the players enter a room, and tell the players they are allowed to have some say about what features are available to them. If it's a library, then anything that would reasonably be in a library is there! If they're in a kitchen, then they can pick up a knife off any counter and throw it; they don't need to ask where the knives are. If they're in a graveyard, they can always kneel and take cover behind a big tomb stone! If they're in a dense forest, then line of sight is always broken when characters are more than one move away. If a player is in a bar, there are stools and plates and mugs of ale handy, and they get tossed around when someone gets knocked into a table really hard.

With this rule, you'll need the players to track their own position in the room! Have them  include in the description of their action where they start and end their turn each round. I move from the door to the goblin in the corner. I run from the side of the room and hop up onto the table in the center. If we lose track of where you are, that's your responsibility, and we're not waiting for you to figure it out. I'm telling you where you are and you're going to like it. Also, be less strict about exact distances and placement. Don't count squares if you can just use a 6" pencil and approximate your move.

Simultaneous NPC Turns

If you have a group of like-NPCs, you can describe what they all do in one or two fluid sentences (because we're effectively using side-initiative). "These three goblins attack you" you say as you move three goblin minis to the fighter's mini, "and these two goblins attack you" you say as you move two goblin minis to the ranger. Then you make three attack rolls against the fighter, then roll damage, then two attack rolls against the ranger, then roll damage. Then say "the fighter takes 6 damage, the ranger takes 4." Remember the flavor. There, your turn is done. Roll attack and damage dice together, of course. Roll all of them at once! Group the dice based on proximity before reading them. Read dice left to right. Do not run trash mobs individually.

Simultaneous Player Turns

Speaking of consolidating turns, do this. Go around the table and have all players declare an action (including movement). That's it, nothing else. "I move and attack the goblin on the right of the evil shrine", "I shoot the goblin priest from the door", "I cast a spell on the crowd of goblins in the middle of the room." Once everyone's action is declared, then they roll dice. Then you describe the results. "You miss the goblin on the right side of the shrine, you hit the goblin priest, you blow up three goblins with your spell." Done. Use this for less important fights. Hell, use it for any fight.

First Time GM Checklist

If you've never, ever been a Game Master (GM) before or maybe even never even played in a TTRPG before, here's a simple first-time GM checklist:

Starter Checklist

1. A place to play

2. People to play with

3. A beginner-friendly game to play (CairnRPG.com. Read it in your web browser!)

4. A beginner-friendly adventure to run (Tomb of The Serpent King)

5. Paper and pencils 

6. Dice (Google search for google dice and you can roll dice in your browser)

I'm going to assume you have items 1, 2, 5, and 6 under control and skip to item 3.

Beginner-Friendly Game to Play

There are a few games presented as easy, but Cairn is a combination of rules lite and free that makes it simple for absolute beginners. It's got a lot of good principles for playing and running games too which are a must-read. Reading the entire first edition (here) may take fifteen minutes.

Other beginner-friendly games that are free include Basic Fantasy RPG, Olde Swords Reign, and The Black Hack. I highly recommend Index Card RPG (ICRPG) which has a free QuickStart set of rules here! Any are good. They are all derived from one version of D&D or another. Basic Fantasy RPG is a retroclone of an D&D Basic from the 1980s. Olde Swords Reign is a combination of 5th edition and 0th edition D&D with some modern changes. The Black Hack is a hack of D&D, and I mean a hack. ICRPG is very rules-lite and DIY, and it is basically modern D&D stripped down to only the parts that matter and refined into a fast and intuitive game with new game design ideas and style. Pick one game, but definitely read the Principles in Cairn (Cairn RPG).

A Beginner-Friendly Adventure to Run

There may be many adventures marketed as starter adventures, but how many of them are actually beginner-friendly? I don't know. But I recommend Tomb of the Serpent King. It's a teaching dungeon, and it's free. You can download a pdf and you can view it on this blogger page at CoinsandScrolls.blogspot.com. In one game session, you won't be able to play the whole dungeon, so I would suggest only reading up to Room 19. End your game there, leave people wanting more.

Don't stress. Don't take it too seriously. Read your rules. Read your adventure. Get your people together. Make some characters. Play for two-three hours. Call it a night.

Bonus Checklist

Think mood. You want to set the mood if you can. It will improve the experience. You turn down the lights for a movie, right?

1. Something to look at

2. Something to listen to

3. Lightning

4. Food

Something to look at

If you've never done this before, if everyone has never done this before, it might be kind of awkward to have nothing to look at but each other's faces. Put something on your table as a visual. Make it a centerpiece, a piece of art. A big poster board with a crudely drawn map of the dungeon is good. I like to draw the map on a white board and put that down. Everyone can use coins or candies or chess pieces to track their characters. I also have Jinga Blocks. I can put two at a right angle and call that a corner. Get four corners and you suggest a room. Stack two next to each other and put a third block on top and that's a doorway. Get creative.

Something to listen to

Not rock n' roll, not hip hop. Think one of those four-hour long mood tracks you can listen to on Youtube. Commercials will spoil the mood, so if possible, find something ad-free.

Lighting

If you can get the lights down, do it. Just do it. Even if you're not playing a horror game. Candles or flashlights or lanterns. Set the mood.

Food

Get something that is simple, like pizza. If you have to use utensils and serve ware, that's too much. I think it's fair that the first time is on the host, after that everyone pitches in.