How to Fix Modern Class Design

I don't think I can play D&D 5e again. I definitely can't commit to a 5e group. I strongly dislike this game. That said, the point of this post is not to be an angry rant but an intelligent essay about the modern D&D class design. 

Modern Classes Aren't Distinct

Classes overlap so much that niche protection is lost. For example, players describe some classes as martials. These include, at least, the fighter, barbarian, and paladin. Barbarians more hit points, and they can rage and take half damage from everything. Paladins can wear as much hit points and armor as a fighter, but they can also smite for bonus damage at will and cast spells. So, when choosing a class, what is your incentive to choose fighter over barbarian or paladin? Everyone criticizes the fighter for falling short or being boring by comparison.

The rogue is your premier utility class. At first level and again at sixth level, a class feature called expertise allows them to choose two skills to double their proficiency. With the right races, backgrounds, and feats, the rogue can step on the toes of any other class. They can have better survival skills than the ranger, greater religion knowledge than the cleric, superior arcana knowledge than the wizard, etc. Why be a ranger when the rogue can track better than you and when their sneak attack damage can outdo yours?

Casters is a word that describes the classes that are primarily magic users. In classic D&D, magic was far more limited. In modern D&D, casters have access to at-will damaging spells (cantrips) that allow them to do as much damage as a martial character but from range. They scale up with level so that they don't fall behind characters who get multi-attacks. They can do consistent damage at no resource cost and less risk. So, why be a martial?

If any class can do anything or trivialize another class, then classes stop meaning anything. Why have classes?

Restore Niche Protection

This post is a companion post to a class design philosophy that I wrote here. To summarize one of my points, there are three pure classes: martial, magic, and utility (or skill). Classically they are the fighter, mage, and thief. The fighter should be the best at hitting, the mage should be the best at magic, and the thief should be the best at skills.

Other classes should either be variant or sub-classes of these three, or they should be combination classes. In each case, they trade one thing for another thing.

A ranger for example should not be its own class; it should be a variant of another class. Were it a variant of fighter, they trade heavy armor for wilderness survival. Were it a variant of thief, they trade skills suited for urban or dungeon environments for wilderness survival.

In either option, the ranger's niche as the party's expert in wilderness survival is protected, the fighter still gets the best AC, and the rogue's role as the expert in urban and dungeon themed utility skills is protected. These classes remain distinct and they retain something that gives them unique value.

The cleric is the first combination class. A cleric was conceived of something as an in between of a fighter and a mage. The combination class gets some things from both classes, and for balancing, gives up some things from both classes. Clerics get some but not all of the equipment of the fighter, and they get some magic but not as much as a mage. For balancing, clerics still can't hit as well as the fighter, they don't have as many hit points as a fighter, and they don't have as many spell slots as a mage.

In the presence of the cleric, the fighter is still the best at hitting and being hit, and the mage is still the best at magic.

Collapse Redundant Classes

You don't need new classes when existing classes can be customized or re-flavored.

We don't need a paladin if you can be a religious fighter or a martial priest. We don't need a barbarian if you can be a fighter from a different culture. You don't need a monk if you can modify the fighter into an effective brawler / pugilist.

You don't need a druid if you can be a nature cleric.

We don't need a bard if you can pick any class and play it like a musical, charismatic character. We don't need rangers if we can have a nature rogue.

You don't need Wizards, Sorcerers, and Warlocks if you can just make a single mage class and choose the source of your magic as being either academic, a blood-trait, or granted by a pact. You don't need an artificer if you can be a mage with a crafting skill.

There's a game called Five Torches Deep that collapses classes almost exactly like this. There's another game called Olde Swords Reign that offers four classes and lets you modify them with feats to resemble the cut classes. This customizability is anti-bloat.

Remove Skills as an Independent System

Most RPGs use either a class system or a skill system, not both. The pros of a skill system are customizability. The pros of a class system are simplicity. The pros of combining them are the simplicity of a class system with added customization but the cons are an overly complex character creation process that can lead to classes losing their niche.

This ability of the players to mix and match skills to different classes that do not describe the identity or role of their class has contributed to the ranger becoming a confused mess.

Many players are dissatisfied by the 5e ranger. In classic D&D, the ranger was distinguished by tracking. No one else had tracking. In modern D&D, anyone can have tracking and some classes, inappropriately, can be built to do it better. The 5e ranger has lost its niche. To compensate, the designers of 5e made changes to the powers of the ranger for game balance, but the changes distort the identity of the class.

Now the ranger is another class that can do some hitting, some magic, and some skills, and we already have classes who can do that! It's not special.

For simplicity, all classes should have their own built-in skills. You don't need a line item on your character sheet to tell you that the cleric is proficient with religion, that the wizard is proficient with arcana, or that the bard can sing and dance. You should have an understanding that when you pick thief, you can pick locks and sneak.

Stop Balancing Classes Against Each Other

I want you to consider two different jobs: doctors and cashiers. These are very different and distinct. Now I want you to take on the asinine task of trying to balance these two jobs so that they are equally attractive careers.

Balancing fantasy classes so that they are equally attractive or fair to play is similarly inane. When you tweak one, you have to re-evaluate the other eleven or twelve. It's just a load of trouble, and in spite of the trouble there are some classes (or sub-classes) that stand out as having more value or less.

This gets even more cumbersome whenever you add new subclasses to the game.

Blade Singers are wizards that can have incredibly high AC. Why would you be a regular wizard? Gloom Stalkers are rangers that can automatically become invisible in the dark to opponents who rely on darkvision. Why would you choose another ranger subclass?

Eventually, the core sub-classes get overshadowed by a few choice supplemental sub-classes. Eventually, the over-abundance of supplemental sub-classes makes the imbalance even more pronounced and problematic.

Not everyone needs to be able to do consistent damage. Not everyone needs to have a variety of different actions. Not everyone needs to have something to do in any given situation. Classes should be unequal. That's the point. Balance is the enemy of distinctiveness.

Make Class Features Rare, Not Constant

I made seventh level character for a one shot. It had fifteen features between race, background, and class. I want you to consider the word count. If each feature is one sentence of fifteen words (a very conservative estimate), that's 225 words. That's a paragraph on yours and everyone's character sheet.

All that to remind me of the special things I can do. And it wasn't even a spell-caster.

Classic D&D did not have a new feature (sometimes two?) at every level, and it did not front-load your character with a multitude of features at first level.

This is complexity that does not necessarily improve the game. It adds to your cognitive load, the number of things that your mind must keep track of. It makes the game harder for new players to learn. It can slow the games down when someone wants to figure out what they can do and how it works.

Features should be meaningful, not bloated, not constant. A hit die of d10 and a line item that states "can use all weapons, all armor, and shields" defines a fighter. A future line item that adds multi-attack makes them feel more powerful.

A hit die of d12 and a line item that states "rage adds a bonus to attack and damage rolls" defines a barbarian. Then trickle in the other features. Adding an unarmored or lightly armored AC bonus to barbarian after a few levels rather than immediately makes that feature earned, special. It shows growth.

Fewer features would create stronger identity. Some features feel like they were added for the sake of giving the class more stuff.

The bard's jack of all trade feature lets you add half your proficiency bonus, rounded down, to skill rolls in which you aren't proficient. At first level, this means +1 on a d20. It doesn't improve to +2 until nineth level. Is +1 to your least favorite skills worth of a whole feature? The lore college subclass adds their proficiency to three more skills which trivializes this feature further.

The ninth level fighter's indomitable feature comes up rarely, and they make it more complicated than it needs to be by adding a resource management component of giving you a limited number of uses per day. 

A fifteenth level monk, levels that players often do not reach, is immune to the effects of aging and old age. How common is that?

A first level ranger's natural explore feature lists six different benefits and is applicable during hex crawls, but the game notoriously under-supports hex crawl style play. They can't get lost which takes out half the challenge of hex crawls, and they aren't slowed by difficult terrain which makes difficult terrain a redundant portion of the GM's game prep and world design.

In Lamentations of the Flame Princess, only the fighter's to-hit bonus improves. Only the thief's skills improve. Only the mage can do magic. Then there's the race-as-class options for Elf, Halfling, and Dwarf which are like combination classes. These are class abilities with clear value and identity.

The excessive quantity of features built-in to your races, class, and background, in addition to the tight math of bounded accuracy, are why magic items are de-emphasized in modern D&D. Your characters are already really powerful, why design a game around characters with who can attune to more than three magic items? I think 5e has lost an opportunity to tether important special powers to magic weapons and equipment which would give magic items considerably more importance to the players and the game.

Use Prestige Classes Properly

A prestige class is not a class you have access to from character creation. They're classes that you earn through play. In essence, it's a class you promote into through play. Think about a soldier without a title being knighted or an acolyte being promoted to a priest. There should be a narrative component.

Prestige classes describe the setting. If anyone can just choose a prestige class, what's so prestigious about them? If any fighter can reach level three and choose to become an eldritch knight, that describes a setting where fighters can easily gain magic. That describes a setting where magic is common and ordinary.

There are no restrictions on the number of paladins, arcane tricksters, or assassins in the world, and the requirements aren't very strict if present at all. I would think assassins should be extremely rare since poison crafting and poison use should be a forbidden, rare, and specialized skill. There are also no rules about paladins and open assassins being in the same party.

All players can choose to be a noble or sage via a background option, and the game does not sit the GM down and explain "it's your setting, you can impose sensible restrictions." Nobility is given, not earned. Prestige is an expectation.

Classes Describe the Setting

Classes options and flavor should describe the setting, but 5e keeps this loose. Consider some of these classes based on 5e rules.

Barbarians are not required to originate from a low-tech culture, foreign culture, or an underdeveloped culture.

Bards' sub-classes describe colleges. Are these physical or figurative colleges?

Clerics are not required to be agents of a god or gods, yet they have access to divine powers. Therefore, divinity is trivial.

Similarly, Paladins are not required to be religious or belong to a knightly order. They're just freelance fighters who wield divine powers.

Personally, I think divine spell-casters should always have a religious component.

Classes shouldn't be casual choices. From the players point of view, classes are just options from a catalog, but from the character's point of view, where did their features come from?

Your class should ground your character in the world. If you're a fighter, this should suggest a history in a military or some strict martial training regimen. Were you a peasant who became a part of a town militia or a kingdom's army? Or are you the son of a noble brought up as a knight-in-training?

Some class choices make backgrounds redundant. If you're a thief subclass of rogue, this should necessarily mean a criminal background. If you're a ranger, this means you spent extensive time on a frontier or borderland, and so the outlander background is implied. For clerics, the acolyte background is implied. 5e permits thieves with an acolyte background and suggests that a person who was simultaneously a criminal and also an acolyte could exist, and that one player could benefit from both. What world allows pocket-picking priests-in-training?

5e does not give guidance on who can be what, and why you would impose race-class restrictions. Dwarves can be wizards, halflings can be barbarians, war-forged and other non-organic creatures that do not reasonably have ki can be monks.

Classically, dwarves were restricted to fighters. This described dwarven culture. Dwarves did not become thieves and they did not become magic-users. If they became clerics, they didn't adventure; that wasn't their role in dwarven society.

Classically, elves were restricted to either fighter or magic-user, and they oddly could be both. This described a culture of people who either became warriors or mages, and sometimes dabbled in both. 

And so 5e character creation describes a very ill-defined world where everything and anything goes. Player expectations are difficult to manage. Player experiences vary wildly.

Make Multi-Classing Diegetic

Diegetic means "happens organically within the world or narrative". You can't multiclass because the player wants to; you can multiclass because the character wants to and pursued it in play.

By default, if multi-classing is allowed, the player expectations are that anything goes.

Multiclassing should require a character-driven goal, otherwise it feels arbitrary. Why did the warlock become paladin today? Because the powers synergize really well? Is the warlock's patron OK with this? Is the paladin's deity OK with this? How about any NPC mentors?

Consider the absurdity of this scenario. The other adventurers are taking a rest. The warlock approaches with new a new paladin class. What's the first joke that comes to mind? How about "how come we weren't invited to the ceremony?" or, "why didn't you tell us you found religion!" or simply, "congratulations."

Multi-classing should require time, training, mentorship, or joining an organization. New class features should not be instant.

Reduce The Number of Classes to the Three Basics

Again, I already wrote about this at length in my older post here. To summarize, there are only three pure classes: martial, magic, and skill. All other classes are a variant, a flavor, a re-skin, a sub-class, a combination or hybrid class, a prestige class, or a cultural expression.

What Modern D&D Gets Wrong

The emphasis on the specifically defined classes and even more specifically defined sub-class is not real character customization. There are a dozen classes when fewer would do. Every class gets its own subclasses. These are not options that enrich player choice, they restrict it.

I proposed three to four broadly defined classes with open options to modify them with special powers or abilities from a catalog or by DIY. It's flexible. It's open customizability.

Compare that to modern D&D's current thirteen, more narrowly defined classes. They present closed-ended character growth paths. They force an early decision to choose a sub-class which presents an even more closed-ended path. In essence, 5e offers you only two customization options: one choice for your class, and one choice for your sub-class.

I don't even like all the subclasses. Many of them have their own flavor, but I want to flavor my character myself.

Sub-classes are an illusion of choice and bloat!

There's also way, way too much magic! Almost every class has access to magic by default. Too many spells can resolve too many problems too easily. This makes preparing and running D&D more challenging, more effortful, and more time-consuming, especially for a new GM, because you just can't anticipate what the players will do with their 100+ spells. Typically, the players use magic to trivialize everything you prepare that would be interesting or challenging.

Sometimes less is more.

What OSR / NSR Gets Right

I have referenced a couple other games that allow for alternative ways or simpler ways to make characters. What many of them have in common is that they are simple, they work, and they're still fun.

If you want to play Dungeons and Dragons B/X for example, you can make a simple character that's easy to play in only a few minutes. You can teach the game to new players quickly and easily!

Simpler games are also more adaptable to other settings and genres.

A lot of the OSR games are compatible, so adventures from one OSR game work for another! That means you have more options for campaigns and adventures.

Fewer rules, simpler rules mean less rules talk. Rules talk is a detriment to immersion and pacing. 3e D&D has been described as thirty minutes of fun packed into three hours.

Numbers are smaller, and so combats don't take an hour or two to resolve.

The rules-lite nature of OSR / NSR games makes them easier for a GM to prep and run, and so these games do not have a GM shortage. It's easier to train new GMs.

OSR / NSR games are more affordable. Many are free!

Why this Matters

D&D is the entry point into the TTRPG hobby. It has brand recognition and many prospective gamers want to play the shiniest, newest game. What they don't know is that it's also more difficult to learn, to play and to run than they think. People, especially GMs, are easily overwhelmed and burnt out. Groups fall apart under the weight of it all.

The funny thing is, I bet if 5e had to openly compete with its earlier editions, it wouldn't look so shiny.

5e has a problem with overpowered player characters. This is because there are so many player options that the game designers can't anticipate all the combinations of powers and how they might create an exploit that players can use to excel; Sometimes in cheap and unfulfilling ways.

If you're a player and your character is consistently being outclassed by an overpowered player character, this can affect your ability to have fun. You may have less to contribute. You may feel like your character doesn't belong or isn't needed. You may lose confidence in your character. You may ask why this other amazing character would have you along for their adventure.

Another problem with overpowered player characters is that if you want a game with some challenge, that overpowered character might spoil challenges consistently. Don't worry, I bet the next obstacle will be interesting.

Overpowered player characters also make prep harder for a GM, and they spoil the fun of running a game for the GM.

Niche protection combats overpowered characters by creating clear characters roles for players to understand. Simpler games limit the number of possible exploits for broken characters and make it easier to correct.

Reduced player options help to manage player expectations. They help you fit the characters into the world, and they help your players understand the kind of game they're playing.

The complexity of the game leads people to believe that one has to be a professional game designer to design anything, and this diminishes people's willingness or interest in the DIY aspect of the hobby. It's a paper-pencil game. The users should be able to modify it.

Conclusion

Modern class design can be fixed by remembering why classes exist: to make distinct characters. Everything else is noise. Classes need a niche. Classes shouldn't overlap. They should describe the world. They shouldn't be balanced into sameness. They shouldn't be bloated. They don't need an independent skill sub-system.

5e D&D doesn't have a class system, it has a catalog.

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.

Myth & Measure - A Simple TTRPG for Beginners

This game is intended to suit brand new players and can work for fantasy or sci-fi.

How to Play

The medium of the game is conversation. Follow this pattern:

• First, the Game Master (GM) describes a scene or situation.
• Second, players describe what their characters say or do.
• Third, the GM determines and describes what happens.
• Repeat until the scene or situation is resolved. Then, establish a new one.

Grounded Fiction

Fiction doesn't mean anything goes! Try anything if it makes sense in a believable make-believe world. Use the stock of your crossbow for an improvised weapon strike or flip a table and fling its contents at a foe.

Rolling Dice

Roll your dice pool (1 to 3) and compare it to a difficulty (2 to 12). If actions are contested by an opponent, the highest roll wins. Ties go to the defender.

Die size is based on skill:

• d4 = average
• d6 = trained
• d8 = skilled
• d10 = expert
• d12 = master

Difficulty

2 to 12, and it should feel intuitive. No roll if something can reasonably succeed. 1 is bad - the GM can ascribe a narratively appropriate consequence.

• 2 = Trivial
• 4 = Novice
• 6 = Intermediate
• 8 = Expert
• 10+ = Master

Push Fate

If the difficulty is out of reach, increase your base die by one step (ex: d4 to d6). Must be emotional, environmental, or resource driven. Maybe a personal goal or loved one is at stake, or features of the environment can give you an edge such as a storm wind that diverts arrows.

Dice Pool

Your base roll is one die. Add additional die based on situations (one to three dice). Roll and keep the highest die.

Player Characters (PCs)

Create an ordinary person who becomes an adventure. You start out as a nobody, but you have a chance at greatness.

Attributes

Characters have five attributes. Begin with one d8 and two d6s. The rest are d4s. At character creation, you may upgrade one by one die size.

• Strength measures brute force, lifting, carrying, melee, and brawling
• Agility measures reflexes, throwing, sneaking, tumbling, ranged weapons, hand-eye-coordination
• Knowledge measures lore, knowledge, technology, crafting, tool use
• Vitality measures your resistance to poison, fatigue, disease, enduring harsh weather, going without sleep, to avoid stagger and stun
• Willpower measures magic, resistance to stress and effects against the mind

Player Skill Over Character Skill

Statistics don't describe your character's personality or mind! Players portray their character. Rely on your own charisma, wisdom, intelligence, and luck!

Below is a list of actions or reactions associated with each attribute.

Strength

Melee for attacking and parrying with melee weapons

Brawling for barehanded attacks and grappling, to avoid being shoved

Athletics for climbing and swimming

Agility

Projectile & Throwing Weapons

Tumbling to balance and land after a fall

Defending against attacks

Sneaking to move silently or hide in shadows

Pickpocket to pick pockets, plant items, or cut purses without notice

Knowledge

Tools is your ability to use tools such as lockpicks or to use mechanical devices

Crafting is your knowledge of creating quality goods such as alchemy

Lore is your knowledge of history, nature, religion, society, and obscure things

Medicine to diagnose and treat people or animals

Tracking for finding and following tracks

Games for card games, board games

Vitality

Resisting fatigue, disease, poison, etc.

Willpower

Sense to detect magic or divine the unseen

Channeling to commune with entities and command them or their powers

Weaving to manifest effects, conjure, mend, ruin

Talents

Choose one talent. Your talent lets your roll a bonus die when you make specific actions, or gives you special abilities. 

Attractive: Add a bonus +2 to reaction rolls

Bushcraft: Add a bonus die to tracking rolls and wilderness survival

Elemental Affinity: Once per day, ignore harm from one elemental (choose)

Gambler: Add a bonus die to a game of skill or chance

Healing Hands: Restore 1 health with a touch per character per day

Magic Bloodline: Roll a bonus die to resist magic that causes sleep or charm

Thievery: Add a bonus die to picking locks or pockets

Weapon Specialist: Chose one weapon. Roll a bonus die to attack.

Resources

Divide 5 points among three resources. Recover completely each day. GMs should feel free to make recovery rate slower or faster, or require specific rest or treatment.

Health: Subtract 1 if hit. KO'ed at 0.

Stamina: Spend 1 to exert yourself and add a die to your pool or push fate. Subtract 1 if you fail a roll to resist fatigue.

Magic: Subtract 1 to cast a spell.

Gear

Adventurers and explorers need gear. Gear is managed with "slots" as shown below. Slots describe your carrying capacity. There is no catalog of gear. If you want something at character creation, write it down.

Character Slots

Weapon

Armor

Shield

Ring

Ring

Pocket or Pouch

Pocket or Pouch

Backpack Slots

Rations

Water Canteen

Torches

Rope

Ammunition Container

Currency

Tools

Personal Item (a memento or trinket)

Other

Magic and Extraordinary Powers

Character creation is when you choose if your character can use magic or other extraordinary powers. Refer to the Magic Section.

Character Improvement

Milestone based. Complete an adventure or train under an NPC instructor. Improve one attribute by 1 die size, increase a resource by 1 (cap 5), add a new talent, or add another gear slot. To earn a d12 attribute, complete an extraordinary milestone. Characters should not fulfill multiple milestones per adventure.

Combat Section

Combat should feel intuitive, fast and fluid. Transition in and out of combat seamlessly. Measure space with your pencil or hand rather than count spaces.

Time

One combat round represents a few seconds. 

Turn Structure

Whoever acts first in the scene goes first. Then, turns go clockwise around the table.

Turns

Move without acting, act without moving, or move as part of your action, but acting ends your turn. No double moves or double actions.

Movement and Range

Precision and tracking literal space is not the intended way to play. Use abstract space. A pen, pencil, or your thumb and first finger is about 6".

• 1" or less is melee range (eyeball it)
• 6" or less is short or throwing range, and is also normal movement
• 12" or less is medium range (no penalty for ranged weapons, -1 die for throwing)
• 18" or less is long range (-1 die)
• Cannot attack beyond 18"

Opposed Rolls

Any time your action is opposed by another character. Example: Attacking an opponent. Each character rolls the applicable attribute. Ties result with nothing substantial.

Character Death

No complex countdown. At 0 or less hp, you're KO'ed for the length of a scene or encounter. Subsequent hits are automatic deathblows. No resurrection.

Attacking

Choose an opponent within range. Attacker and opponent roll their appropriate die pool. Highest roll wins. Ties mean nothing happens. On a hit, opponent subtracts 1 health.

Defending

Spend your action to Defend, add a die to your pool to oppose attacks.

Brawling and Grappling

Unarmed strikes don't subtract health unless the opponent rolls a 1 or is unable to roll. While grappling, unable to move or act based on the logic of the pin, hold, shove, etc. To escape a grapple, use an action and make a successful roll. If you're on your feet, you can move on the same turn you escape. Attacking barehanded or with small weapons like daggers is effective in a grapple if arms are reasonably unrestrained.

Hit Locations / Disarming / Other Maneuvers 

The attacker subtracts one die from their pool (minimum pool 1). If already at minimum pool, opponent gets a bonus die to oppose.

Magic Section

The availability of magic depends on the genre and setting of the game. In a sci-fi game, it may be PK or ESP instead.

Theme

Choose a theme for your character's magic that suits the setting and tone of the game, and discuss its limitations with the GM.

Casting

No catalog of spells! Magic is freeform. Describe the effects of the spell you want to cast that suits your theme. Then roll against either a difficulty or an opposed roll. All spells cost 1 magic to cast regardless of success.

Difficulty

Magic should be mystical but not super heroic of physics breaking. A difficulty scale is below.

• 1 Something unintended happens! This is up to the GM.
• 2-3 spells that effect one character or object, have one trivial effect, a short range, short duration. Manipulate an object remotely, conjure a small illusion, or detect if an object has magic.
• 4-5 spells that effect one character or object, have one minor effect including damage or a condition, a medium range, short duration
• 6-7 effect one character or object and up to three adjacent or nearby characters or objects, one minor effect, a medium range, short duration
• 8-9 effects an area, one major effect or multiple minor effects, a medium range, a short or medium duration
• 10+ multiple or powerful effects, multiple characters, a long duration, great range

Game Master (GM) Section

Rules are not intended cover everything, that's why there's a GM!

Rulings

The GM determines the outcomes of actions. Base your rulings on the established logic of the setting and the fiction. Rulings should make sense for a believable make-believe world.

Preparing and Running Games

Keep it simple. Less is more. Rely on improv.

Design problems, not solutions. Allow the players to find their own solutions.

Prep the setting and the characters who live there, not the story.

Prepare obstacles and opportunities. Let the players find these themselves.

Dice and Rules

Dice and rules are not in charge of the game. Dice are for simulating things we can't do at the table. Rules are for structure.

Reaction Rolls

When the player characters (PCs) meet new non-player characters (NPCs), roll two six-sided dice (2d6) to determine the NPCs starting attitude towards the PCs. High is favorable, low is unfavorable. Middle numbers are neutral.

Morale Checks

Thinking, feeling people and beasts do not want to fight to the death. They act on a sense of self-preservation when reasonable. When in doubt, roll to determine if they continue to fight or if they attempt to parley, surrender, or retreat.

Fate Die

When you want to be surprised by what happens next, roll a d6. Low numbers mean something unfavorable to the players, high numbers mean something favorable happens to the players.

Sample Setting

Adventures take us from a settlement to a dungeon, and across the wilderness in between. Settlements are any town or hub with non-player characters (NPCs) who offer resources and quests. The dungeon is any place where the player characters (PCs) overcome dangerous challenges and obstacles for a reward, even a derelict ship or the ruins of a colonny. Wildernesses are untamed, wild, and un-explored lands, seas, or space routes.

Settlement: Haven

Society: small frontier town with a lot of simple rugged folk

Politics: Good Sheriff Reed enforces the law. Honest Mayor Baker runs the town.

Economy: Haven is self-sufficient with many trades. Includes a Traveler's Lodge, Smithy, Bowman, and general trader.

Religion: Church of Lucius run by Father Maxwell.

Military: sheriff and militia only, no military

Local Experts: Jeff, an old huntsman with failing eyes; Mack, a retired veteran with a bad sword arm; Les, a surgeon with an addiction.

Local Conflicts: infrequent confrontations with raiders. Reward for their leader Red Samuel AKA Samuel the Manslayer.

A Wild Maneater: an injured cougar is forced to hunt men, women, and children for food.

Goblins: people who go to far west off the edges of the map don't always come back. Some people claim to have escaped goblins out there.

Wilderness

Terrain: mix of plains, hills, forrests, occasional rocky outcropping

Climate: Mediterranean. Hot, dry summers but cold wet winters. 

Local Landmarks: 

Nina River. Shallow but wide. Non-navigable

Gregory's Pale. Wide, deep. Occasional floods during the winter.

Pagan Shrine: A stone monument to some nature deity hidden in the woods. Occasionally littered with empty alcohol bottles sold in town.

Animals: Crows, rabbits, elk, occasional bears, cougars, venomous snakes

Plants: Oak Trees, Fruit-bearing trees (apple), Devil's Thorn, Mako Leaf, Vigor Root, Elder Berry

Dungeon: Old Lionheart Fortress

History: This fortress was intended to be the springboard for expansion into the frontier, but the alchemist loosed something he couldn't control and the fortress was abandoned.

Goal: vault filled with gold deep inside

Challenges: traps, monsters

Factions: black tooth goblins lead by Snake Biter; Raiders lead by Red Samuel

Notable Rooms: alchemists' workshop; prison; kitchen; grand banquet hall; art gallery; servants' quarters; lord's quarters; old barracks.

Other Inhabitants: a slime; a half-troll hiding from society; a speechless wooden man animated by a mysterious alchemic source; a mad homunculus with a fatal flaw trapped in a coffin.

Sample Dungeon - Design

I made a (an unfinished) dungeon.

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

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

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

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

Context

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

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

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

Design

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

Room key

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

Exploration

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

5-Room Dungeon

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

Multiple Entrances 

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

Annotated Maps

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

Loops

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

Volume

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

Flow Charts

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

Map Key

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

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

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

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

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

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

7. Empty room. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wandering Encounters

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

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

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

Annotated Map (Flow Chart)

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

Alignment and Morality in TTRPGs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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