Rewriting 5e

A funny thing happened at Gen Con. If you've been following my writing here for a while, you night remember that I took a pass at dramatically simplifying 5e a few months ago. That project has remained in the back of my mind. While working on Cthulhu by Torchlight, I felt that my mastery of 5e had slipped badly over the years. To help rebuild it, I grabbed the 5.2 SRD and rewrote parts of it. I find that when working on a rules set, the best way for me to learn it is to take parts of it and rewrite them into my own reference document.

In doing that, I revisited the process of slimming down 5e. I started by re-writing character creation to speed things up. Today. I have the basic, initial steps of character creation.

I used these at Gen Con to run a pick up game and was very happy with the results. The rule of thumb at conventions is "Never make players create characters." Obviously some games make that possible, but with 5e that process takes 30 to 60 minutes.

I was quite happy that with my re-written rules the process took about 10 minutes. Even better, it was procedural enough that I as the DM could guide the entire, eight person group through the process. It took about 10 minutes and led to about four hours of gaming.

So, here's the process for everything but character classes. I'll start posting those next week.

(As an aside, work on Odyssey continues. Some day I should do a post about my work process. The root of it is that I find working on multiple projects really good for my net productivity. Forcing my brain into a different design context helps me come back to projects with a fresh mind. The trick is to make sure you rotate through your projects on a regular basis, rather than let stuff go fallow.)

Character Creation

Use the following steps to create a character.

Determine Abilities

There are two ways to determine your ability bonuses.

Assign Values

You set two of your abilities to +2, two to +1, one to +0, and one to –1. You can then add +1 to an ability.

Alternatively, you can allocate a total of 7 points to your abilities. Each point gives you a +1 bonus and scores start at 0. You can start with one score at –1 to gain an additional point to allocate, for a total of 8.

Random Values

Some players enjoy rolling a character’s abilities at random. Roll six d6s and allocate each die to a different ability, choosing how to allocate them or doing it at random. Use the table below to determine their abilities. Then, add +1 to an ability of your choice.

Roll: Ability Score

1: –1

2: +0

3 – 4: +1

5 – 6: +2

Species

You can pick one of the following species: dwarf, elf, halfling, or human. You gain the following benefits based on that choice. Your size is Medium, your creature type is humanoid, and your speed is 30 feet unless otherwise noted.

Dwarf, Mountain: You have darkvision with a range of 30 feet. You gain a +1 bonus to AC and are proficient with light and medium armor, and shields. You know the Dwarvish language.

Elf, Wood: Your speed is 40 feet and you gain a +1 bonus attacks. You are proficienct with light armor, longswords, short swords, and longbows. You know the Elvish language.

Gnome, Forest: Your size is Small. You gain a +1 bonus to Intelligence (maximum +5). You know the Gnomish language and can understand the language of beasts.

Halfling: Your size is Small. You gain a +1 bonus to Dexterity (maximum +5). You know the Halfling language.

Half-Elf: You gain a +1 bonus to all attacks and a +2 bonus to checks made with two skills of your choice. You know the Elvish language.

Half-Orc: You gain a +1 bonus to Strength (maximum +5). You know the Orc language.

Human: You increase your proficiency bonus by +1.

Luck

You have three luck tokens. You can spend a luck token to roll 1d6 and add the result to any d20 Test you make. You use a luck token after you learn the result of the d20 test, potentially turning a failure or miss into success or a hit. You regain one expended luck token when you finish a long rest.

Background

You have decided to embark on a life of adventure. Why grind away at a mundane career when you can risk life and limb in search of treasures hidden in monster-infested holes in the ground?

Skills

You select one of the skill packages listed below.

• Burglar: Acrobatics, Investigation, Sleight of Hand, Stealth

• Diplomat: Deception, Insight, Performance, Persuasion

• Scholar: Arcana, History, Medicine, Religion

• Soldier: Athletics, Intimidation, Medicine, Perception

• Wanderer: Animal Handling, Nature, Perception, Survival

With your DM’s permission, you can create your own skill package by picking four skills.

Languages

You know Common. Make a number of rolls equal to your Intelligence to determine additional languages you know. Reroll duplicates. At your DM’s option, you can instead pick some or all of your languages.

1d12: Language

1: Common Sign Language

2: Draconic

3 – 4: Dwarvish

5 – 6: Elvish

7: Giant

8: Gnomish

9: Goblin

10 – 11: Halfling

12: Orc

Equipment

You start with a backpack, a waterskin, three days of rations and four items chosen from the list below.

Bedroll

Holy Symbol

Pole (10 feet)

Bell

Holy Water

Rope (50 feet)

Blanket

Ink and Quill

Sack

Chalk (3 pieces)

Iron Spikes (12)

Shovel

Crowbar

Lantern

Signal Whistle

Grappling Hook

Mirror, Handheld

String (30 feet)

Hammer

Oil Flask (3)

Tinderbox

Healer’s Kit

Parchment (12 sheets)

Torches (6)