Pruning 5e: A response to '5 Cuts To 5e That Make The Game More Interesting'

Domain of Many Things (DoMT) had an interesting blog post about how 5e is fundamentally a good game, but that quality is obscured by 'layers of interdependent ill-considered bloat' that need to be cut off. Overall, I agree with their assessment: I just like different solutions. I am more a pruner than a logger, by nature.

Let's take them one by one.

1) Darkvision & The Light Cantrip. DoMT argued they remove the challenge of darkness, and should be cut.

I agree that if you are starting a campaign, removing Darkvision and the Light spell are possible 5e hacks. BUT not all parties will agree, and if you are running a campaign already, taking these away from PCs is un-fun. Are there other options?

My hack:

Let's say we are starting a campaign.  Here's two alternative hacks: 

A) Instead of banning Darkvision and over-penalizing elf and dwarf PCs, instead convert all Darkvision to Dimvision, which sees in dim light like it is bright sunlight.  Moonlight, a faraway torch, they see like owls.  But complete dungeon darkness?  No way. 

B) Keep the Light spell--and make it require concentration and be on an object the wizard is carrying. Wizards have to choose between between concentrating on Light or another defensive spell.  If the wizard gets hit hard, out go the lights. And what monster with Darkvision (let's say they ALL have Darkvision, copying Shadowdark) wouldn't prefer to attack the light source?   Parties will learn to carry a torch instead, less risk.  

In the middle of a campaign and can't change the rules?  

C) Make frequent usage of the Darkness spell by enemies and cursed objects.  Give any necromancy-affected areas a side-effect of Greater Darkness, a homebrew fog of war that limits Darkvision and light sources to 10-20 feet.   And remember that Darkvision is black-and-white dimvision in the distance, which gives enemies advantage on hiding.  A few sneak attacks from the darkness or scenes puzzling out color wall runes in black and white, and they will start carrying torches.  

2) Goodberry.  DoMT says it removes the challenge of food, and should be cut.  

I agree Goodberry is an annoying hack if eaten daily, but it lets a druid or ranger save the day the first time it is cast. Can we have both?

My hack:

Sure, just make a Goodberry magically OVER-filling. It's something that 1) cannot be eaten more than once a week, 2) is uncomfortable to eat and can't be fed to unconscious people. Now the party can hoard them as emergency food, but it only saves them from starvation for a day and cannot heal the dying.

3) Base Carry Capacity & Bag of holding.  DoMT says they remove the challenge of inventory.  Bags should be cut, and a homebrew carrying capacity system is needed.

Not everyone enjoys inventory management, and giving a party a Bag of Holding is one way to waive that away and focus on the fun.  I do it in my home game.  

Know your group and pay attention to what they do at low levels.  If they track inventory like hawks and always carry tools for all jobs, DoMT is right, avoid giving them a Bag of Holding.  But if they don't care about inventory and/or hate tracking items, give them the Bag--they will RARELY have the tools they need for a job anyways.  Murder-hobos gonna murder-hobo, not doom-prep.  

As for 5e's inventory issues, DoMT is totally right, it stinks.  There are a variety of homebrew inventory systems: I have a SUPER SIMPLE one for you.  

My hack:

If you decide your group would benefit from a Bag of Holding, keep track of who is carrying the bag.  Nothing can be retrieved quickly from there, so combat uses are out.  It takes 5-10 minutes to rummage through it.  

Regarding inventory, DoTM's inventory system is cool, check it out.  But I like even simpler: I have my inventory-averse players only track what they are carrying.  Everything else takes an action to retrieve from their pockets/backpack.  When you think they are getting overloaded or about to carry massive items, warn them they are close to carrying Too Much Stuff.  The simplest encumbrance system is BINARY: 

• Too Much Stuff (disadvantage on every roll, half speed), or 

• Enough Stuff (normal).  

Gold in 5e weighs about 50 gp to 1 pound, or about 100 gp to 1 kilo.  When they start carrying a 50 lb (25 kilo) sack of gold (2500 gp), that's Too Much Stuff to be fighting with (when added to the armor, weapons, backpack, etc.).

4) Arcane focuses.  DoMT says they remove a needed 'internal character balance'.

Agreed, removing all spell components is problematic. But 5e is just recognizing what many tables do in practice--keeping track of spell components is not FUN. Exception: for some spells, especially powerful ones, securing the right spell components (the ones with costs) should require a quest, and is FUN.

But bat guano? It's hard to feel heroic unearthing a trove of bat shit.

My hack:

Small "change"--arcane focuses can't replace costly or rare spell components (because they cost $ to get!).  If you think a spell is overpowered in 5e (looking at you, Banishment), just require a costly or rare spell component (in Banishment's case, it already requires a rare one, as written)  The Weave changes, and existing spells can change as the DM gets sick of them (or better, anticipates abuse).  

5) Healing Word.  DoMT says healing is too easy, either cut the spell or double-tap to auto-kill unconscious players.  

Whoa!  I completely agree with DoMT that magical healing in general makes death all too rare in 5e games, and that Healing Word is too much healing as a bonus action, creating a death yo-yo as unconscious players pop up and down.  But I feel double-tapping downed PCs as a solution is unlikely to get player buy-in at many tables.  You might as well remove the Unconscious and Death Save mechanics altogether.  Even most OSR games are not quite that lethal.  

My hack:

The first time you drop to 0 hp and get back up from magical healing you have a level of exhaustion, this first level goes away on a short rest.  For each additional time you go down and are raised by magical healing, you gain an additional level of exhaustion, and the moment you hit level 2 all the levels take a long rest to get rid of as standard.  Failed Death saves don't reset until a rest clears you of one level of exhaustion (or you roll a nat 20 death save). Source: Unknown Redditor (I looked).

6) Long rests DoMT says they reset everything, undermining resource management, so use mid-night wandering monsters and bedroll requirements to limit long resting.  

Yep, this is good stuff, DoMT is on the money here.  Not only are long rests unrealistic and hard to justify in terms of recovery (you nearly died just now, 8 hours later you are all WELL), they make it hard to challenge players who like to field rest often (curse you, Leomund's Tiny Hut!).  

My hack:

Fictionally, I make it clear to players that they made a deal with an unknown patron before starting adventuring, and that's the reason they heal so unnaturally fast.  In game, I turn long rests into short ones by hitting them with mission time limits, wandering monsters, freezing floors that keep them awake, earthquakes, all-night undead pirate shanties, you name it.  They are used to waking up mid-watch and realizing the DM will not let them long rest here.  Anything to keep up the pressure.  

They often fort up and attempt to rest mid-dungeon--and half the fun for me is anticipating that and shooting. it. down.  The other half is rewarding them with a long rest when they are clever and fort up well.  

But if I was starting a new campaign?  

I would limit long rests to comfortable beds in secure places: no dungeon long rests unless they have fully cleared a floor and have dry bedrolls.  And once they discover the glory of the Tiny Hut, that's when the monsters start howling outside all night and digging under the dome.  

Da BEST initiative: Chaos sandwich!

Initiative (who gets to go first in combat) is one of those things that is endlessly discussed in RPG circles.  If you haven't read an excellent roundup of initiative systems, read this one and then this one, and then come back to me.  I will wait.  That's because I have the BEST initiative system for you to use.*

*choosing initiative systems is really a matter of personal taste, but bear with me, this system is GOOD, and different.  I call it 'chaos speed sandwich initiative', or the chaos sandwich, for short.  I have playtested it over 40+ DnD sessions, and I can say it is fast, fun, and dynamic.

Let's start by asking questions:

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Simple question 1: Why do we need initiative AT ALL?  

Answer: Initiative's greatest usefulness is deciding who acts first, the enemies or the heroes.  Beyond that, it can be useful in resolving which simultaneous actions occur first.   If the heroes are all charging an opponent on a narrow bridge, who gets there first?   

But once combat has started, I find limited value in re-rolling initiative in subsequent rounds, as it injects randomness and slows play, without providing significant strategic returns.  

Twist: It's never good fun when a player surprises the kindly merchant by telling the GM, "I draw my dagger and stab him." and you say, wait roll for initiative and the fighter, who is like 60 feet away haggling with the sheep seller, gets to go first.  Now, it has to be a clear case of surprise to skip initiative, but...

Resolution: If it's already obvious who shot first, you don't need initiative to start combat.  In 1977, Han Solo shot Greedo and completely surprised him.  Greedo would go second, but wait, he's dead.  Moving on...  Point is, you only need initiative in this case for everyone else.  The initiating actor goes first, then everyone else (Greedo, the bar patrons, etc.). 

Chaos Sandwich Rule #1a: Roll initiative AFTER resolving the first action of the combat.  BUT if both sides (enemy and hero) were expecting violence to break out, then instead roll initiative to see if the enemies or heroes go first.  

Chaos Sandwich Rule #1b: Roll initiative ONCE for the whole combat.  

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Simple question 2: Why do we need formal turns at all?

Answer: Well, if we already know the enemy is going first or last...no, not really, we don't need turns.  Reasonable people can be kind and quick and decide who gets to go first.  No you go.  Oh no, I insist, you go.  Oh, the humanity.  Everyone deserves a chance to speak and act in a combat round, and we should all respect that.  But do we need formal turn orders to achieve that basic goal?  

Twist #1: The argument in favor of taking formal turns is that they are fair and don't require discussion.  It's also boring to wait for your turn, leads to stilted combat, and is SLOW.  It's like doing all your six loads of laundry in one washer, when there are six laundromat washers in a row, all unused. 

Twist #2: The argument against getting rid of turns is that groups can bicker on timing and endlessly debate the group tactical choices.  Furthermore,  even where parties quickly agree on what needs to be done and quickly act as a coordinated group, side initiative (where either all the enemies or all the heroes go, in two groups) is super-swingy.  Either the monsters curb-stomp all the heroes before they act in round 1, or vice versa.  

Resolution: Speed sandwiches fix the side initiative problem by breaking up player actions into BEFORE or AFTER the enemies.  If you roll higher initiative than the enemies, you go in the BEFORE "pack"--and if not, you go in the AFTER "pack".  Each pack can coordinate their own actions, and individuals can take formal turns within each pack if they want to, based on their initiative roll.  This system is widely used, and rocks.  At the very least, small packs resolve who goes first more quickly.  

Chaos Sandwich Rule #2:  All the enemies roll initiative together once, as one group.  PCs that rolled higher than the enemies go first together, in any order, as a pack. Then the enemies act, then all the other players (that rolled lower) as a pack.  In rare cases with multiple factions of enemies (fighting each other), each has their own initiative, and there may be more than two packs of players acting together.   

##########

Simple question 3: Is this solution a speedy one?  

Answer: Well, no.  We haven't really sped up combat at all yet.  We have just made determining who goes first clearer (Rule 1a), eliminated needless re-rolls (Rule 1b) and broken up player actions into subgroups (Rule 2), making it possible to ignore turns if we want to. But a formal group could still take formal turns in this speed sandwich framework, based on their initial initiative roll, and do six loads of laundry ONE. AT. A. TIME.  Excuse me while I go doomscroll and wait for my turn for half an hour.  

Twist:  You want faster?  What you are modeling?  The chaos of combat. Actions are simultaneous.  Information is limited by the fog and chaos of war.  Discussion is limited, at best, and comes with risks of enemy action while you think.  To hesitate is to go last. 

Resolution: Ask all members of a pack to declare their actions at the same time, and to roll for success at the same time (for DnD-alikes, all players should roll attack and damage together, folks).  Imagine a two-person pack, going before the enemy.  The hero who declares first, attacks 'first', but the other hero can't wait to find out if that attack was successful.  They need to decide what to do now, then their pack rolls as a group..  Most crucially, if they truly delay, the enemy acts, and the player slides to the AFTER pack for that round.  

Chaos Sandwich Rule #3a:  Everyone in a pack declares actions simultaneously and then rolls together to see the outcome simultaneously.  Initiative order is only used to resolve the order of conflicting actions, like if several PCs rush onto a narrow bridge.   

Wait.  Does this system mean that two people may shoot the same weak monster, and kill it twice over?  Yep--that's what happens in the chaos of combat, right?  In general, I allow players to react to sudden deaths and switch targets if they are in melee, but not if they are at range--arrows and bullets and spells take time to fly across the battlefield.  

Chaos Sandwich Rule #3b:  Players in melee range may switch targets if they see it die before they attack.   

Double wait.  What do you do if a pack decides to discuss at length what to do?  Well, an easy solution is to verbally press the players to play, but if they don't respond right away, I roll dice.  Specifically 2d6.  When a 1 comes up (or honestly, when I am sufficiently irritated by delay), the monster acts out of turn, immediately.  

Chaos Sandwich Rule #3c: Characters that truly delay their action go last in a round.  Packs that delay their actions with excessive discussion risk the GM rolling 2d6 to determine if the monster attacks out of turn, immediately.  

Triple wait.  How does the GM and players resolve what the hell happened, if each pack is moving and attacking simultaneously?  

Chaos Sandwich Rule #3d: Once the players have resolved their rolls, the GM decides the order and manner of what happened.  Just like you would do when all the monsters attack at once.  If two players rush and attack a single monster, the first to hit is the player who first decided what to do.  

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Now we have rules 3a-d, the chaos sandwich initiative system is FAST.  It's easy to run.  What's more, if a GM doesn't run it well, it defaults back to a speed sandwich with formal initiative turns--fair and clear. 

 And cherry on top?  If you are in speed sandwich mode, it's easy enough to jump back into a chaos sandwich the following round--just say "No, remember your pack goes all at once, initiative only matters for ties and to make sure we don't forget anyone."  You can tune the chaos up and down, scene by scene.

Chocolate sauce on that cherry?  This system simultaneously rewards players who have built fast characters to win initiative as a tactic (via the speed sandwich) AND rewards players who decide quickly on their turn (they get to go/talk first in their pack, even if their action is simultaneous).  This second reward is psychological, but it ain’t nothing.  

And in this system, it's especially fun to interrupt a player who just declared their action and rolled and say, sorry, but the enemy attacks you a second time before you can act  Giving challenging enemies another turn to act is especially visceral here, because it interrupts simultaneously resolved turns.  Everyone else got to go, but I got hammered first before I could go?  

See?  Da BEST initiative system!**  Da Best!*** For everyone!****

**yeah yeah, I know it's all to taste.  But this one is fun.  Give it a try!  I run six players in a DnD 5e game with the chaos sandwich and we can do multiple combats in game sessions <2 hours long.  

***and maybe the most important thing is to remember initiative rules should be flexible, and responsive to player perceptions of what is happening (the 'fiction').  They are not meant to punish players, just make games fun and fair.  Even when rushing players into simultaneous actions and deciding which one lands first, it's fun to then pause and ask each player in turn to narrateu/ what happens.  

**** On Reddit, u/Onslaughttitude was concerned that slow, shy, or quiet players would always be upstaged by fast players in this system.  I clarified the ‘chocolate sauce’ paragraph as a result.  I have new and quiet and slow players at my table and they like this system. They don’t feel pressured to hurry since the spotlight is off them while they think, instead of everyone staring at them to go if they win initiative. Since all is technically simultaneous, you may have to wait on them anyway before resolving the action, but less than before.  Like in parallel processing, speed is limited by the slowest processor—as it should be, to be fair to everyone.  The game can’t progress without everyone weighing in, and if I feel a player is being upstaged, I slip back into speed sandwich ordered initiative for a while, until they find an alternating group rhythm.  Normally, I call on players in rapid fire to simultaneously decide on actions, and I make it a point to check the slower players first, then come back to them if they need more time. Rewarding the fastest players to speak is 100% optional—you should resolve actions in any order that makes sense.

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Image: jefferyw, CC-BY-.20

Here's all the Chaos Sandwich rules, gathered together:

Chaos Sandwich Rule #1a: Roll initiative AFTER resolving the first action of the combat.  BUT if both sides (enemy and hero) were expecting violence to break out, then instead roll initiative to see if the enemies or heroes go first.  

Chaos Sandwich Rule #1b: Roll initiative ONCE for the whole combat.  

Chaos Sandwich Rule #2:  All the enemies roll initiative together once, as one group.  PCs that rolled higher than the enemies go first together, in any order, as a pack. Then the enemies act, then all the other players (that rolled lower) as a pack.  In rare cases with multiple factions of enemies (fighting each other), each has their own initiative, and there may be more than two packs of players acting together.   

Chaos Sandwich Rule #3a:  Everyone in a pack declares actions simultaneously and then rolls together to see the outcome simultaneously.  Initiative order is only used to resolve the order of conflicting actions, like if several PCs rush onto a narrow bridge.   

Chaos Sandwich Rule #3b:  Players making melee attacks may switch targets if they see it die before they attack (within reason).

Chaos Sandwich Rule #3c: Characters that truly delay their action go last in a round****.  Packs that delay their actions with excessive discussion risk the GM rolling 2d6 to determine if the monster attacks out of turn, immediately.  

Chaos Sandwich Rule #3d: Once the players have resolved their rolls, the GM decides the order and manner of what happened.  Just like you would do when all the monsters attack at once.  If two players rush and attack a single monster, the first to hit is the player who first decided what to do.  

****You know what really delays an action? Getting knocked out.  If a PC is hors de combat at any point, and then recovers, they act last in every round from that point onward.  If a players goes to the bathroom mid-combat and doesn't leave instructions, same deal.  

What I am playing?; d4 magical merchants

Now that we are past the beginning, I will begin at the DAWN OF TIME and tell you about all the adventure games I have ever loved.  

This will be a blog about tabletop role playing games (TTRPGs), the kind you play with dice or cards or coins.  I’ll write about DnD and its d20 cousins, OSR/NSR games,  fantasy, science fantasy, and gaming with kids and adults.  

What do I know about TTRPGs?  Less than many, certainly more than is healthy for me, and enough to be getting on with, I think?

Here's where I am coming from, TTRPG-wise (this post will be updated every few years):

In the beginning (Waldenbooks):

D&D Red Box

AD&D

AD&D 2e 

Games played lately:

DnD 5e

AD&D

Shadowdark

Dragonbane

Wildsea

Cocaine Owlbear (da BEST Honey Heist Hack) 

Pirate Borg

As a parent GM:

Hero Kids (a great kids TTRPG)

Adventurous (note bene: works well as a Hero Kids expansion)

Mausritter

Amazing Tales

Past campaigns (GM):

DnD 5e (online)

Current campaigns (GM):

DnD 5e (weekly, in person)

Mausritter (with my kids)

Rulesets I think I love but might be afraid to play: Dungeon World, Dogs in the Vineyard, His Majesty the Worm, Otherkind Dice

Want to play:

Nimble 2e, Glaive, Cairn, Mythic Bastionland, Vaults of Vaarn, Ultraviolet Grasslands, Perils and Princesses, Down We Go, GLOG, Knave, Mothership, Brindlewood Bay, Blades in the Dark.

Looking at this list, CLEARLY I need a friend to GM a Mythic Bastionland campaign, preferably set in the deserts of Vaarn.  Yeah, that's the takeaway. :)

All done.  Now let’s talk magical merchants.

d4 Magical Merchants

1- 

Our first merchant is clearly an asshole (no verbal filter, blunt as a club, openly overcharges disliked patrons), who happens to sell a wide selection of valuable and interesting magical goods. Roll a d6 for asshole-ness (1: Clean freak, 2: Racist, 3: Sarcastically insulting, 4: Kicks puppies and beggars, 5: Sexist, 6: Combine these or add body horror).  The key things are that A) your table hates him upon first encounter, and B) he has a price list of what is in his back shop.  What makes him extra fun is that this list of items includes something AMAZING they will want to steal, but that is an effective security device.  

    In my game, he disdainfully asked the players to leave his shop ASAP and sent over a menu of magical items to their hotel (prefaced by an insulting note).  I ran him in DnD, so on this list of level 2 appropriate items (many taken from Knock magazine #1) I included this ADnD jewel: Apparatus of Kwalish.  A ingenious invention by a scholar of Marlinko, many years ago.  It’s a large iron tub that transforms into a metal lobster, operated by someone inside.  You cannot possibly afford it, but I include it here because it guards my shop at night, among other precautions against thieves: beware.  137,500 gp.

    They can't wait to get powerful enough to go back and rob this bastard.

2- 

Our second merchant is a powerful being, met drinking tea at an inn.  He is either a shapeshifted dragon, a reserved efreet, a powerful fey, or some hidden horror, up to you.  But he gives the players a golden ticket to visit his establishment.  This ticket stops time and will teleport them to his interdimensional shop; they return to the same moment they left.  He only takes cash, has on displaya grab-bag of items heros could want, and doesn't really take requests, although he will look in the basement for 1d4+1 items the players ask for.  While he is down there, the players could cut and run with the items on display (you could also run a Mausritter one-shot as his brave servant mice, retrieving items from the rats of the deep cellar for their master, but that's bonus).  He never quite meets a request head on, preferring monkey paws that force the characters to be heroic.  Got a character who hangs in the back?  Give them a magic helm powered each day by taking one hit meant for someone else!  

3- 

Our third merchant is a kindly and helpful one, running a well-stocked shop with a green awning on the side of a busy urban market, or the side of the road.  She will move it soon after selling her items to you: she just needs one big score and then she drops out of sight.   Her items work as advertised, but come with...issues.  The rusty magical sword Thunder will lose magical oomph with every third hit (for DnD, going from +3 to +1, yeah ya overpaid sorry).  The ring of flight works normally but erratically for two uses; after that, it cuts out randomly after 15 seconds (up to you if they float down, or fall).  The wand of magic darts works so well, it sparks on firing and blinds everyone looking at it for d4 rounds.  After an auspicious start, the bag of holding turns out to be a bag of infinite rats/mice/hamsters/chicks (d12 emerge each round, they push out whatever is put in the bag).  The ring of animal speaking comes with a hidden curse: after using it, make a check or you can only speak as that animal for the rest of the day.  

4-

Our fourth merchant is a respected merchant who identifies magical items for a reasonable price, and sells potions AND one expensive, very nice magical item, like a Necklace of Fireball.  She sends the characters away for the day, promising to identify their magical items by the evening, signing whatever agreement they request--she has a reputation for honesty.  When the party returns, her shop is strangely empty and the door unlocked and open.  Behind the counter, their items are labeled, the Necklace of Fireballs is in plain sight, there's a box for payment, and if they search, there's a drop or two of blood on the stairs leading up.  Do they call the guard?  Do they steal and run, and get framed for murder?  Do they go upstairs, to brace the monster (mimic? doppelganger?) that has eaten her?  THAT ruckus will likely summon the guard; if so, they lose their chance at the Necklace.