LAST HAVEN

Venture into the wilds to defeat the gargantuan Keepers, raid the twelve forbidden temples, and steal their ancient secrets

tl;dr

If you are interested in joining the game, all you need to read are the sections on "campaign concepts" and "character creation". Everything else is just gravy. If you want to know more about the campaign setting, and how I will be running the game, then feel free to read the other sections.

Campaign Concepts

Last Haven is a "west-marches"[1] [2] style 5E D&D campaign by Rian. We will use the new 2024 rules. The free version of the rules are available here.

The game will be fast-paced, emphasize hex crawling wilderness exploration, old school dungeon delving, and fighting giant kaiju like monsters. But it will be light on urban adventuring.

Open table

The campaign will run as an "open table", meaning that people can come and go as they please from session to session. There is no obligation or need to attend every game. I would also like to open up the floor for others to DM if they would like to once we get the ball rolling.

A fresh start

Each session will start from the frontier town of Last Haven. From there, your characters will go out and do their thing: explore the wilderness, delve into dungeons, uncover secrets of the land, and kill monsters.

As we settle on when the next session will be, I will let you know how much game time will have passed since your character last ventured out. At the start of each session you will deduct your character's "lifestyle expenses". Depending on how luxuriously you live, I will garnish your character with adventure hooks, secrets about the world, or other interesting tid-bits that follow as a result of your chosen lifestyle in Last Haven.

During the session

This is a by-the-books game, so you can expect 6-8 encounters per adventuring day. Since we will be using the "gritty realism" variant rule, you will not be long-resting during the game session. Your "adventuring day" is effectively the game session.

What happens at the end

At the end of the session your characters are assumed to safely, and uneventfully, travel back to Last Haven. If your goal is to recover the lost staff from the third level of the Dread Knight's Tomb, then you'll have to act fast during the session. Otherwise, you'll have to start again from Last Haven next time, perhaps with different companions.

As we wrap up, I will tally up experience points so you can record them before leaving.

In between sessions

It's important that you prepare your character in advance of the game session.

Here are some things you can or should do before each session:

You and the other players should discuss what you want to do during the next session: continue exploring the tomb from last time, follow the tattered map that was found, route out the bugbears from their camp along the mountain pass, etc... This way you can prepare your character for it (equipment, spells, etc.), and so I can prepare too.

House Rules and Special Considerations

I've done my best to keep this game as close to "rules as written" as possible. But there are a few modifications you should be aware of:

CAMPAIGN BACKGROUND

History

One thousand years ago the civilized races lived prosperously all across the land. The kingdoms of humans, elves, and dwarves existed in a golden age. They traded freely and lived in peace with each other. Monstrous races such as hobgoblins and orcs threatened travelers occasionally, but posed little threat overall. Larger monsters, fiends, and aberrations, were known to exist, but mostly as legend.

The people were united in their quests for divine knowledge and arcane power. The humans, dwarves, and elves each amassed great caches of wisdom and power in the twelve sacred temples. They sought to know God and reach him directly, and they nearly did, until the Keepers appeared.

The Keepers

Colossal monsters emerged from beneath the seas, above the clouds, and from underground. They decimated civilization and destroyed entire kingdoms. No one knows for sure where the gigantic beasts came from, or why. Most believe they were sent by God as a punishment for attempting to become so powerful. Others surmise that the creatures were accidentally unleashed as part of the powerful magic the ancient sages practiced.

The orcs and goblinoids began to worship and serve the giant beasts. Through their evil service, these monstrous races inherited the land. And the civilized races retreated to the far corners of the world. The humans took to the south, and have taken refuge along a peninsula for generations now. Contact with the elves and dwarves was lost. None are sure if they even exist still (although small populations of dwarves, elves, and all the other civilized races exist among the humans).

The attacks from the Keepers were so abrupt that much knowledge of the past was lost except to legend, passed down through oral tradition. Homes, villages, and entire cities were abandoned. For the last one thousand years they have either decayed into ruin, or been taken up by hobgoblins or orcs.

To the east of Last Haven is a colossal spider named Gomo. She stands at least fifty feet tall, and her legs are as thick as tree trunks. And to the north, adventurers have crossed paths with Azitox the great Roc. Each Keeper is escorted by an army of smaller monsters. You'll know you are getting close to Gomo if you start to notice hoards of spiders around you. Likewise, Azitox is preceded by swarms of ravens, vultures, and eagles. The monsters you encounter will grow larger and more deadly the closer you get to the Keeper.

The legends say that each of the twelve forbidden temples were claimed by a Keeper. And so although keepers are known to wander the wilds, they are believed to stay close to their temples.

The monstrous races all worship the Keepers -- it's the only way they can survive out in the wilds. The hobgoblins to the north worship Azitox, the great Roc. And the orcs to the east serve Gomo.

Present Day

The Killion kingdom (pop. ~10,000) now tends to humanity's meager refuge on the peninsula. To the north, various outposts, frontier towns, and military forts dot the landscape to protect against any monsters that might travel further south. Most conflict that threatens humanity comes from marauding bands of hobgoblins, gnolls, or orcs. Less often are attacks from Keepers -- gigantic beasts that roam the wilds leaving destruction in their wake. Fortunately, the Keepers are said to stay close to, and guard, the 12 ancient temples that once housed the divine works of the sages.

Killion's armies guard the edges of the peninsula with the help of mercenaries and militia. Life within the kingdom is not good, and adventurers will risk journeying into the wild in search of lost riches from the ancient days. King Killion forbids adventurers from seeking out the 12 ancient temples. The given reason for this is that, since the Keepers came from the meddling in these temples, any further investigation will only anger the Keepers further. Rumors have spread that the real reason is that Killion wants to retrieve the treasures within the temples for himself, and that he sends out secret crusaders known as the "Moon Guard" to do so.

Last Haven

The furthest town on the edge of the Killion kingdom is Last Haven. It is surrounded by a twenty-foot tall bivouac to protect it from what evils might otherwise consume the fragile oasis. From here, small parties of adventurers band together around common goals and set off into the wild in search of their quarries, whatever they may be.

Some look to explore the mysterious ruins of past societies that pepper the landscape. Others hold out hope that perhaps beyond the expanses of monsters that lay before you are the lost bastions of other civilized races remembered only through legend. But most that set out from here are only interested in scoring a bounty of treasure to bring back home. Regardless of what compels you to leave the safety of home behind, you are sure to encounter a host of terrible monsters the moment you set foot outside Last Haven's walls.

People and Factions of Last Haven

Within Last Haven you can find most goods and services that adventurers need. Upon arriving it does not take long to discover:

Religion, Deities, and the Planes

The civilized people of the Killion kingdom are largely monotheistic. They believe that Nouse is the creator of everything, and the ultimate divine entity. Other lesser divine beings (celestials, angels, archons, etc.) exist in the higher planes. People oftentimes will pray to some of these lesser divine beings, as they are deities in their own way, but anyone who would pray or worship a lesser deity will ultimately revere Nouse. The most important divine beings beyond Nouse are the Twelve sages listed below. Clerics might realize their chosen domain by worshipping a corresponding sage; or they might revere Nouse and all twelve sages as a whole. Demons, devils, and other fiends exist in the lower planes. No one openly worships fiends, but warlocks may obtain their powers from them.

The Twelve Sages and their Domains

  1. Adelard, the Human - Light
  2. Itu, the Human - War
  3. Argos, the Half-Orc - Life, War
  4. Lamlis, the Half-elf - Trickery
  5. Kala, the Elf - Light
  6. Bodil, the Elf - Trickery
  7. Eira, the Elf - Life
  8. Atl, the Elf - Trickery, War
  9. Ejiro, the Dwarf - War
  10. Oriel, the Dwarf - Light
  11. Hadarai, the Dwarf - Lift, Trickery
  12. Varis, the Dwarf - Life, Light

Each of the twelve sages is said to have a lost temple somewhere out there. Each temple is said to be guarded by a Keeper, and houses untold divine and arcane power.

The 2024 player's handbook canonizes a lot of D&D lore including religions, deities, and planes of existence. Especially in the section on species where they go on about how orcs come from "Gruumsh", and elves love "Correllon" or something. And most bizarrely of all, that humans come from a torus shaped planet called Sigil. If you want to use this lore in some way for your character, that is ok, but know that it will be considered as a pagan religion that no one takes seriously. Similarly to how people in our world don't consider ancient greek or norse gods to be real. You won't find any temples to these deities, or other civilized people who follow them. Not even the orcs that you encounter in the wild will believe in Gruumsh.

If you play a "Path of the World Tree" Barbarian, then your belief in Yggdrasil is considered barbaric to civilized people. That is, you won't find any civilized folk from the Killion kingdom who believe in the World Tree.

CHARACTER MANAGEMENT

The following list should be consulted to create a new character. Use any character sheet you like; I recommend this one I made.

  1. We will use the "gritty realism" variant rule from the 2014 dungeon master's guide. With this rule, a short rest is 8 hours (or 4 hours for elves), and a long rest takes 7 days. You will not long-rest during a game session.
  2. Characters can be created using only the 2024 player's handbook. The free version of the rules are available here. No material from Xanathar's guide, Tasha's Cauldron, or any other source should be used. Please be sure to follow the instructions that this new player's handbook gives for creating characters. D&D beyond will break rules for you if you are not careful.
  3. See the section above on Religion and Deities if your character requires a deity, religion, or patron. Ignore any religions, deities, or planes the PHB mentions
  4. You may make and play multiple characters. However, only one character should be played at a time during a session.
  5. New characters always start at level 1.
  6. Characters will level up from experience points
  7. Leveling up requires training. See the section on "time in the campaign" for details.
  8. Ability scores should be determined using any of the methods given in the player's handbook. If you roll dice, be honest, and commit to the character that comes out of it for at least one session. Don't backpedal by thinking, "well I could have point-bought better scores so I'll just do that instead now".
  9. You must track the weight of your carried equipment, armor, coins, etc. We will use the standard rules for this as written in the PHB which are very permissive. You likely won't need to worry about it much unless you have a very low strength, or happen to be carrying a lot of treasure around. You don't need to know exactly how much weight you are carrying, but be aware if you are close to being encumbered or not.
  10. You must track ammunition such as for bows or crossbows
  11. You may purchase any equipment (except firearms) from the player's handbook at the price listed there. You can sell any equipment you own for half its purchase price (as per the handbook rules). You can buy and sell freely in between game sessions; you don't need DM permission. You can take the starting equipment afforded to you by your class and/or background. You can even take the starting equipment, and then immediately sell it (I don't think you can make money this way, but maybe?).
  12. Spell-casters must purchase any material components that have an explicit cost (e.g. for Find Familiar, Chromatic Orb, etc.). You may purchase or sell these materials like you would any other equipment.
  13. When traveling outside civilized areas you must track rations and water (see the below section on Wilderness Exploration for tips and tricks)
  14. There are no firearms in my game. Please take a sharpie and cross out the guns from your player's handbook.
  15. For now, you cannot purchase magic items from the DM guide
  16. You can sell magic items that you otherwise acquire during your journeys. Ask me, and I will tell you what a magic item can be sold for if you have one.
  17. When you go adventuring, you can safely store any equipment you don't want to take with you in Last Haven.
  18. You can freely exchange coins into any denominations you'd prefer while in Last Haven. And as with other equipment, you can safely leave money behind in Last Haven if you don't want to travel with it.

Why rule 1?

Mostly the reason for limiting characters to the PHB is to make sure everyone understands everyone's characters, and that everyone is making characters of equal footing. It can be hard for less experienced players, or players that don't have all the source books, or myself, to understand what the hell your tabaxi kensei-monk/hexblade-warlock even is, let alone what it does. Secondly, my personal opinion is that it's straight up unnecessary to use supplementary sources to make fun characters. If you are attracted to a supplemental race or subclass, it's either because of its flavor, or its mechanics. If you like the flavor of something, then take inspiration from it, and build your character around that flavor using the PHB. If you are attracted to the mechanics, then realize that it's all just the d20 system in the end, and that stuff doesn't really matter. For example, if you are inspired by the Arcane Archer subclass, then consider making a fighter with the "eldritch knight" subclass and "archery" for a weapon style. And just like that, "we have arcane archers at home. . . ". Finally, a lot of the stuff in the supplements is just plain goofy, and this game is silly enough as it is.

Tracking resources sounds tedious...

Tracking those resources can create an organizational challenge for the player, but those rules enable characters to be more interesting by adding utility to often overlooked character features.

Consider that If arrows are consumable, then the mending spell can be used to repair broken arrows. Proficiency with wood carvers' tools can be used to craft new arrows. Arrows can be looted from enemies. And the weight of arrows and quivers then plays into your character's encumbrance.

If food, water, and encumbrance are tracked, then a good strength score is valuable to everyone, not just the melee inclined. A bag of holding becomes a valuable magic item. You might choose to ride a mount which can carry your heavy equipment. Or the party might use a cart to carry all its rations and other adventuring equipment thereby reducing each character's carried load. This makes proficiency with land vehicles, and animal handling, valuable traits. Characters that are good at foraging (e.g. rangers, druids) get to be useful. Spells such as "purify food and drink", "create or destroy water", and "create food and water" become useful.

In other words, these rules create additional challenges that can be solved creatively, and aren't just a bookkeeping problem. Nevertheless, nobody wants to waste precious game-time adjusting these things on the character sheets. Check out the "Players Guide to Last Haven" section for tips and tricks on how to manage these things efficiently.

With all of these rules (which are not house rules, these are the actual rules and always have been), you can see how there is a lot more to character creation than maximizing combat prowess. You should see that your skills and proficiencies with tools, crafting, foraging, and languages are an integral part of the game.

Why are we using the "gritty realism" rule?

Because the gritty realism rule essentially fixes 95% of all of 5E's perceived balance/pacing issues. If you want to read a lengthy treatise on it, I recommend this blog post. But the tl;dr version is:

During each game session (adventuring day) you can expect 6-10 encounters (combat or otherwise) which is what the game is designed around. Since much of your adventuring will take place outdoors while traveling, a few (or even all) of these encounters will happen over the course of several game days, and the rest will likely take place inside a dungeon. Without the "gritty realism" rule, we likely could not reach 6-10 encounters in a single game session or "adventuring day".

A corollary of this rule is that you will essentially not be able to long rest outside Last Haven. The odds of encountering at least one wandering monster over the course of seven days while out adventuring are essentially guaranteed. This should jive really nicely with the new 2024 rules, since there are quite a lot of things that either refresh or that players can change about their characters after a long rest (prepared spells, weapons mastery), and these are things best done at home and not at the game table.

You'll also find tha (perhaps counterintuitively) this rule has the effect of boosting "short-rest" classes like monks and warlocks, while pumping the brakes on "long-rest" classes like wizards.

Extra commentary on ability scores

Of the three different methods for generating ability scores, you might wonder which is "best". This is a hard question to answer, because how much better is a 16 than a 15? How much better is an 11 from a 10? With point-buy or standard array, you cannot achieve an ability score above 15. That means your 1st level character will only have at most a +3 bonus in any score (once you factor in bonuses from background). But if you roll your scores, then you are fairly likely to be able to achieve a +4 out of the gate. It's even possible to achieve a +5 if you roll an 18. So in that sense, rolling is probably better. And it's pretty unlikely that you roll worse than the standard array or point-buy. Of course, there's no guarantee that you won't.

The books now suggest that DMs let players re-roll particularly bad stats. This almost certainly makes rolling flat-out better, because it completely removes the risk that comes from rolling. Why do they suggest this? Because in most modern D&D games, players play exactly one character for the entire campaign. And being stuck with bad scores would be a lousy experience for the player. However, this campaign is not a modern campaign. You will (if you play with us regularly), certainly be creating many characters. Not because they are going to die necessarily, but because your higher level characters will need time to train in order to level up. As such, since you will have many characters to play with, it's not such a big deal if one or two of them have bad or quirky ability scores. If you've ever wondered why old-schoolers were okay with rolling 3d6 down the line in order, this is probably why (idunno, I wasn't there, I just read the ancient texts); it's because they were all playing half a dozen characters.

Time in the Campaign

In between play sessions, time passes in the game world at the same rate as our real world. This allows you to know exactly how long it has been since your last adventure. For example, if you play a session on April 1st, and then play a session on April 15th, you know your character(s) will have spent 15 days recuperating in Last Haven. During this time your characters can do any crafting activities, long rest (one long rest per seven days), etc. These rules ignore the length of any actual adventuring during sessions to make time keeping easy.

Additionally, the climatological season in the game world will match the season of our real world's northern hemisphere. If it's spring-time in Seattle, it's spring-time in Last Haven. This has an effect on what kinds of random weather you experience in the game. You might also find that rivers run dry in the summer, or that lakes may freeze in the winter.

Leveling Up

Once you have gathered the necessary xp (it's given in your player's handbook), you can level up in between sessions. You do not HAVE to level up. If you want to keep your character at his or her current level for whatever reason, you can. They will continue to earn xp as normal. If you forget to level up before the session, then you should just play on at your current level.

Leveling up your character(s) requires training time per the table below. While your character is leveling up, they cannot go out adventuring. This means that you may need to create new characters to play while your high level characters are training. If you gather enough xp to level up multiple times at once, then you need to spend the time for each level gain. For example, if you have a 3rd level character, then earn enough xp to level up to 5th, you can do that, but it takes 30 days (10 days to go from 3rd to 4th, then 20 more days to go from 4th to 5th). Alternatively, you could spend 10 days to level up to 4th, then go out adventuring, then spend 20 days to level up to 5th.

Level Attained Training Time
2-4 10 days
5-10 20 days
11-16 30 days
17-20 40 days

Level Differences Between Characters

Supposedly the game stays "balanced" as long as the difference between the highest and lowest level characters in a party is no more than 2 levels. And so I will declare this a rule. This means all players need to bring characters that are within two levels of each other. If you don't have a character that satisfies this requirement, then you may need to create a new first level character; this might require some negotiation between you and the other players to work out a party that satisfies this constraint.

PLAYER'S GUIDE TO LAST HAVEN

Purpose

. . .it's so tragic that mainstream gaming has forgotten about procedural play. It used to be the standard that any common but even moderately complicated activities at the table would have a designated procedure to follow in the rules so you can make sure that you're following all the rules in the way you should be. D&D 5E has tons of rules for wilderness adventuring, but they're split up across several books and several chapters within each book and aren't laid out for actual "use at the table" purposes, and there's no guidelines about how they all "fit together." All it would take is a solid procedure that connects it all and suddenly those rules would actually be usable.

The purpose of this section is to explain how I will run the game, particularly wilderness exploration, combat, and dungeon crawling. You don't need to read any of this, but if you do, it should give you some hints about how to play the game more strategically. Wilderness exploration is a big part of this campaign, and I've created some procedures to actually make a game out of it, rather than just hand-waving you through the journey. Almost everything you see below is RAW D&D. It looks like a lot of new sub-systems and rules, but it's really just a concrete implementation of dnd's loose rules. My intent with these subsystems is to create a game that uses as much of the player's handbook as possible (skills, oft overlooked spells like "purify food and drink", tool proficiencies, etc.).

Wilderness Exploration & Survival

Your wilderness adventure will be played out one day at a time. There are a few props needed including:

  • The Map and Cartographer's Tools: Your map of the wilds and colored pencils to fill it in with.
  • The Navigator's Deck: A deck of playing cards that is used to pace out your journey and determine when random encounters happen.
  • The Forager's Freshness Tracker: A simple handout used by the forager to keep track of the party's trail rations, water, and foraged food.
  • A cheatsheet is available here. I will have printed copies for you to reference when you are at the table.

The Travel Loop

Follow these steps to travel through the wilds. It looks complicated here, but it is pretty quick once you get the hang of it.

  1. Each morning. . .
    1. Apply the benefits of a short rest
    2. Assign each of your characters to one of three roles: Navigator, Forager, or Scout. You will likely keep the same roles for the entire journey, but you can change roles at the beginning of each day if you'd like. The Navigator will receive a deck of playing cards (called the navigator's deck). They also will receive hexagonal graph paper, colored pencils, and a legend (collectively called Cartographer's tools), and the Forager will receive a game aid for tracking the party's rations and water. Where you locate your character on the journey compass also determines the party's marching order for encounters.
    3. The party eats breakfast. The forager discards food and water for each character in the party. If anyone can't eat or drink the required amounts, then see the rules for "malnutrition" and "dehydration" in the player's handbook.
    4. The forager then moves any raw foods one step to the right along the freshness track
    5. The navigator draws 12 cards face down from the navigator's deck. These 12 cards are known as the "daily travel subdeck". Each of these cards represents about 40 minutes of your 8-hour traveling day, and what things you find or encounter along the way.
  2. Traveling. . .
    1. The party decides which direction to travel in, and the pace it will travel at. The navigator draws from the daily travel subdeck to pace out the journey. The navigator draws four cards if traveling slowly, three cards if traveling at a normal pace, or two cards for a fast pace. Place the first 1-3 cards face down, and the last card face up.
    2. The party moves into the next hex tile. The DM narrates the new terrain, and if there are any interesting features in this area.
    3. If the new hex is unexplored, then a character with Cartographer's Tools can make a DC 15 Intelligence (Cartographer's Tools) check to map the surrounding area. On a failure, the navigator discards 1 card from the travel deck.
    4. If the face-up card is a "cup", then foragers may attempt to forage in this new hex. Make a Wisdom (survival) check against this hex's Forage DC. See complete foraging rules below.
    5. If the card is a "wand", then the navigator must succeed a Wisdom (survival) check against this hex's Navigation DC. On a failure, discard 1d4 cards from the travel deck. If the hex is already explored (all hexes around it are already mapped), then you receive a +5 bonus to this check. If there is a second navigator, then one "helps" the other.
    6. If the card is a "sword" or major arcana card, then each scout may attempt a Wisdom (perception) check against this hex's Search DC. On a success you find the hidden boon, or preemptively discover the wandering monster or challenge, affording you the opportunity to avoid or surprise it. On a failure, you miss out on the boon, or must contend with a challenge (e.g. monster, quicksand, avalanche).
    7. If the card is a "pentacle", then the DM will generate new random weather appropriate for the season.
    8. If the navigator has enough cards in the daily travel subdeck to continue traveling, then repeat the travel loop. Otherwise, continue to "At the end of the day".
  3. At the End of the Day. . .
    The party can choose to force march, or make camp
    1. Forced March
      1. Play out the Traveling loop with the following changes: If the navigator has cards leftover from the daily travel subdeck, then they can use those. If more cards are needed, then they are drawn directly from the full navigator's deck.
      2. At the end of each loop, all characters in the party must succeed a Constitution saving throw. The DC is 8 plus one for each card that has been drawn directly from the navigator's deck this day. Each failure results in one level of exhaustion.
    2. Camping
      1. Characters with Cooking Utensils can attempt to cook raw ingredients that were foraged into rations.
      2. Characters with an Herbalism Kit can attempt to brew Potions of Healing from herbs that have been foraged.
      3. Other crafting activities can be worked on, as long as it makes sense. Creating arrows with Woodcarver's Tools makes sense. Forging plate armor makes less sense.
      4. The DM determines if something goes bump in the night. If it does, then the party makes a group Wisdom (Perception) check to notice the encounter. Characters without darkvision roll with disadvantage. Elves (and other characters that don't sleep) roll with advantage.

Foraging

Foragers are encouraged to also act as "quartermasters" for the party, and manage the party's food and water rations. At the start of each journey (the start of each session) the forager should place a ration token onto the "Non-perishable" section of the quartermaster sheet for each ration the party is bringing on their journey. They should similarly place water tokens for each character into the Water section. I recommend using 1 token to represent 1 waterskin, which can hold half of the water required by a character per day. (By using tokens, players won't need to update their character sheets except for at the end of the session.)

Whenever a forager successfully forages, they will gain 1d6 + Wisdom modifier pounds of food, and as many gallons of water. You may only carry as much water as you have waterskins for (see below on "Water"). There are six kinds of things that can be foraged: Roots, mushrooms, fruits, game, shellfish, and herbs. What foods you find are determined by the DM and the terrain you are in. Some foods are only available in certain terrains, and figuring that out is all part of the game. Each pound of food is represented by a different color token.

When you first find a food, add it to the freshness tracker. Raw game begins one step ahead on the freshness tracker, and shellfish starts two steps ahead. Each morning when the party is "eating breakfast", you can feed a character food directly from the freshness tracker. If the food is old, then the character that eats that food must succeed a Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 24 hours. The DC for the save is given by the freshness tracker. After the party has eaten for the day, move all tokens one step to the right along the tracker.

A character with proficiency in Cook's Utensils can use them to cook raw food into shelf stable trail rations. To make one ration you must combine any two different raw foods (no ability check required). You can make at most two rations per day. The freshness of the raw ingredients does not matter when crafting rations.

A character with proficiency with an Herbalism Kit can use it to craft Herbs into Potions of Healing. It takes one pound of herbs to make one potion. A character can make at most one potion per day.

Herbs cannot be eaten as food or cooked into rations. They are only used for making potions. Herbs never expire, and don't need to be added to the freshness tracker.

The spell "Purify Food and Drink" can be used to make raw food safe. This resets raw food to the first position on the freshness tracker. After being purified, food continues to lose freshness as normal.

At the end of the session, all raw foods are lost. Any rations can be divided back amongst the party and recorded onto everyone's character sheets. Any herbs that were not brewed into potions can be divided amongst party members. Characters with an Herbalism Kit can brew potions in between sessions using the normal rules for that given in the Player's Handbook. Herbs can also be sold in Last Haven at a rate of 25 gp per pound. Herbs cannot be purchased in Last Haven.

Water

Water is heavy, and it is mostly impractical to carry more than a few days worth of water per character (given that a character needs 8 pounds (1 gallon) of water per day). A single waterskin holds 4 pints (1/2 gallon) and weighs 5 pounds when full (bet you wish we had the metric system). So if each water token represents 1 waterskin, then each morning when the party is eating breakfast, 2 water tokens should be discarded for each character in the party. If you are traveling along rivers or lakes, then you can refill your waterskins at any time without needing to succeed on a foraging check. This means that as long as you are traveling near water, then you will probably be safe from dehydration, but traveling away from water sources will require extra care.

If your party travels with a land vehicle (e.g. a cart), then you can take a barrel with you to store water in. If you do this, then you will not need to worry about water at all. Instead, it will be assumed that the party fills the barrel at every chance it gets, and perhaps you even collect rain water into it, just like the pioneers did. Vehicles require a mount to pull it.

Mounts

Mounts do not increase the speed you travel at overland during wilderness journey. They simply increase the amount of stuff you can carry with you, and allow you to pull a vehicle. Entering combat while mounted, however, will give you the speed of the mount while you are riding it. This also will improve your initiative as noted in the section below on Combat. You cannot ride a mount in combat if that mount is pulling a vehicle. It takes a Utilize action to connect or disconnect the mount's harness from the vehicle.

While traveling you do not need to worry about feeding your herbivorous mount rations or water. It is assumed that they can graze as you travel.

In between adventures, you must purchase stabling for any mounts you own (5 sp per day). This stabling cost must be paid at the beginning of each session, or you can sell the mount. This stabling cost is in addition to your lifestyle expenses.

You may also hire a skilled hireling to drive a vehicle for you.

Combat

Buckle up, because I'm changing the grid. There's nothing in the rules that say you have to use a grid for combat, and there's nothing that says you have to use a 5-foot grid when you do. So after a major epiphany, I've discovered that the ultimate grid for combat in D&D is actually (probably) a hexagonal grid with a 30-foot spacing. When we are in combat I will display (or perhaps project) a hexagonal grid onto the table. Each of these hexes will appear 4-6 inches wide. And the in-game distance between hexes will be 30 feet. This should provide all of the tactical details you need (can I reach them? Is my bow in range? how many can I hit?) without the fussiness of a five-foot grid (I'm tired of watching you guys solve path optimization problems every game). Here's how it works:

Initiative

We'll roll for initiative once per encounter, which is probably what you are used to. For every 5 feet of speed your character has above or below 30 feet, add or subtract 1 to your initiative roll. For example, a character with a 35-foot speed has a +1 to initiative rolls. Similarly, if your character is wielding a weapon with "reach", then add one to your initiative. This is to ensure that having slightly different speeds, or reach, actually makes a difference given the low resolution grid.

Using a token or mini-figure, declare your initiative score by placing the token onto the initiative track that surrounds the grid. This allows everyone to quickly determine the initiative order without needing to relay numbers to the DM.

If your character's speed or reach changes during combat, then adjust your initiative on the track at the end of the current turn. You can only take one turn per round of combat, even if something lowers your initiative in such a way that it would be your turn again.

Movement and Positioning

  1. Multiple creatures can all fit inside the same hex.
  2. To move from one hex to an adjacent hex, you must spend 30 feet of movement. Alternatively, if you do not already have the hindered condition (a condition I'm inventing), you can spend 15-feet of movement and gain the hindered condition to enter an adjacent tile. So if your character has a 35-foot movement speed, the extra five feet probably doesn't matter here, but see the above bonus to initiative we'll use instead.
  3. If a hex tile is difficult terrain, then you can enter it like normal with 30-feet of movement. Whenever you enter a tile that is difficult terrain, your character will gain the "hindered" condition. Whenever you leave a tile with difficult terrain, you lose the "hindered" condition.
Hindered (condition)

If you have the hindered condition, then your speed is halved. You can only have the hindered condition once; its effects do not accumulate or stack. You can end the hindered condition by spending 15 feet of movement.

For example: Tordek has a 30-foot speed. Tordek wishes to run across a shallow, 30-foot wide river (difficult terrain). On Tordek's turn, he spends 30 feet of movement to enter a hex tile that is difficult terrain. He gains the Hindered condition, and his speed becomes 15 feet. Tordek then takes the Dash action which gives him an additional 15 feet of movement to use this turn. Tordek spends those 15 feet of movement to end the Hindered condition on himself, and his speed returns to 30-feet. He ends his turn in the river. The next turn, Tordek uses 30 feet of movement to enter an adjacent tile, and leave the river.

Attacks

  1. Only creatures that are in the same hex tile are able to attack each other with melee attacks. (Being in the same hex tile is a necessary and sufficient condition for being able to make a melee attack). This does not mean that all creatures in the same hex tile are necessarily within 5 ft. of each other. It just means that everyone is close enough that, on your turn, you would be able to move to within melee range of any other creature in the tile.
  2. If you begin your turn in a hex with enemies, and make a ranged attack while in that hex, then you will roll the attack with disadvantage per the rules on ranged attacks in close combat.
  3. If you leave a tile that has enemies, then you provoke attacks of opportunity from 1/2 the enemies rounded up (DM's choice). If enemies leave your tile, then 1/2 of party members (rounded up) in that tile can make attacks of opportunity (party's choice).

Areas of Effect

  1. We will use the table in the Dungeon Master's Guide for adjudicating areas of effect when not using a grid, when there is ambiguity (i.e. when the size/shape does not align well with the 30-foot grid spacing). This basically says that a 15-foot cone hits two targets, a 20-foot cube hits 4, etc.. A spell like fireball (20-foot radius) will target all creatures of the hex tile it is cast into, because the area of fireball is greater than the area of the hex-tile, so there is no ambiguity about being able to hit all creatures in a single hex tile.
  2. Persistent area spells that are no larger than a 10-foot cube (such as Grease), will not affect the entire tile. So casting Grease does not make the entire 30-foot hex tile difficult terrain. Larger areas (like Web), will make the entire hex tile difficult terrain. You can see that this is almost exactly the same thing that happens on a five-foot grid. With Grease on a five-foot grid, creatures can simply go around the grease without losing any meaningful distance to their movement. And with web on a 5-foot grid you can either go through the web slowly, because of the difficult terrain, or go around the web which slows you down because of the longer distance.
  3. If an area of effect has a 15-foot size (any shape) or smaller, then there is no risk of friendly fire. We can assume that the sorcerer is able to position themselves, and communicate with his or her allies to avoid catching them in the Burning Hands. For spells that are larger than 15-feet, then I may adjudicate a risk of friendly fire if it seems unavoidable.

Cover

I may designate certain tiles as having discrete opportunities for cover (trees, rocks, etc.). If a creature is inside a tile with a cover, then they can take the cover as long as no other creature is already using it. If you don't like that a bugbear is taking cover, then you'll need to push/shove/grapple/thunderwave them out of it. I think this will be a lot more interesting than the rules for cover using a 5-foot grid. Those rules are really complicated, and make it really easy to negate any cover by simply moving around to the other side of the target.

Pushing and Shoving

Since the grid is so course, your usual attempts to push or shove creatures by 5, 10, or even 15 ft, don't really make a huge difference, except in your ability to move someone out of cover. If you would like to push an opponent out of the hex they are in, and into an adjacent hex, that is still possible. If your push can move an opponent by at least 30 feet, then that will push them into an adjacent hex as you would expect. If your push is less than 30 feet, then the opponent is moved into an adjacent hex, at your discretion, if they fail their check by a certain threshold as given in the table below. For example, if you push a creature 15 ft, and they fail their saving throw by 3 or more, then you can push them into an adjacent hex.

Push Distance Fail by
25 1
20 2
15 3
10 4
5 5

Climbing and Jumping

I may occasionally introduce elevation changes on the grid. Unless noted otherwise, each change in elevation is 15 ft.

To climb up or down, a creature must spend 30 ft of movement to enter the tile like usual. They must also have both hands free to climb. Otherwise, they must be able to get up there by some other means (flying, spider climb, jumping)

If a creature has a climb speed greater than the elevation, then they simply move to the next hex. If the creature lacks a climb speed, or has insufficient climb speed to cover the elevation change, then they gain the prone condition when they climb up to the next hex, or the hindered condition if climbing down (i.e. climbing is difficult terrain).

If the surface is slippery, or is not "easy" to climb, then an athletics check may be required to climb up or down. Failing this check means you stay in the lower hex (if attempting to ascend) or falling into the lower hex (if attempting to descend). In either case, your movement is used up. An easy climb would be things like: There is a ladder, a rope with knots, the face of the climb is sloped, there are generous hand and footholds, etc.

Creatures that are tall enough can jump up, grab the edge, and pull themselves up to avoid making an athletics check. The player's handbook can tell you how high you can jump and reach.

Dungeoneering

I'm going to be running old-school dungeons. That means there will be dark rectangular chambers, locked doors, trapped chests, and wandering monsters. I do want your characters to proceed cautiously through a dungeon, all the while searching for traps, feeling for secret doors, listening for monsters, and all the other fun activities that happen. But, I want things to move swiftly, so we'll use the below procedure.

Dungeon Cards

Just like in outdoor exploration, we will use cards to help track time, and determine when wandering monsters occur. Each "dungeon card" represents roughly 5 minutes that you spend in the dungeon. You can deal yourself small decks of cards to help keep track of consumables. For example, if you light a torch (which burns for one hour), you can deal yourself 12 cards face down. Once you've "burnt" through those 12 cards, then you know your torch is used up. I will remove the aces and jokers from the deck so that the deck is divisible by 12.

I will tell you when to "burn" a dungeon card. To do so, simply flip one over face up into a discard pile a.k.a. "dungeon pool". The cards in the dungeon pool represent not just the passage of time, but also the tension you feel while in the dungeon.

Wandering Monsters

If the party ever does something reckless, then I will roll against the dungeon pool.

Examples of reckless actions include:

  • Breaking down a door
  • Smashing open a chest
  • Making loud noises
  • Casting noisy spells such as "knock"
  • Having prolonged discussions
  • Abandoning torches (see below)

When the DM rolls against the dungeon pool, I will roll 2d6. If the number I roll matches the value of any card in the dungeon pool, then a wandering monster appears. Face cards have a value of 10. Since there will be no aces in the deck, this means that when I roll against the pool, there is always a chance of triggering a monster, but it is never guaranteed.

When a 12th card is added to the dungeon pool, I will roll against the pool.

If a 13th card would be added to the pool, empty the pool then add one card.

Dungeon Exploring Loop

When you enter a new room, we will use the following loop.

  1. The DM will describe the room and anything in it.
  2. If there is a monster, we will play out any combat or social encounter, then burn one dungeon card. This card represents the time spent in combat (or parleying), plus the time spent to catch your breath after and clean your weapons.
  3. The PCs will declare what, if anything, you intend to explore in this room. Be specific and describe "how" you are exploring, not just what. Keep in mind the "one thing at a time" rule. "Exploring" includes, but is not limited to, the following activities:
    • Searching a door -- for traps, listening to what's on the other side, checking if it is locked or stuck
    • Searching a piece of art or furniture for secrets and clues
    • Trying to understand how a puzzle or trap works
    • Attempting to disable a trap
    • Driving spikes to keep a door open or closed
    • Keeping watch while your companions explore the room
  4. For each character that is exploring something, the DM will:
    • Tell you everything that can be learned or accomplished with your task before any skill or ability checks are needed.
    • If there is something that warrants an ability check, I will ask for it now
    • If you succeed, then I will tell you what else you learn or accomplish. Otherwise, you know that your character failed at something, but not necessarily what it was. For example, if I call for a perception check while you are exploring a door, and you fail, that could mean the door is trapped, or that there are monsters on the other side, or that there is some other trick you missed. This does provide an opportunity for meta-game thinking. You can imagine that your character has a strong hunch that there is something there that they missed.
  5. Your party now burns a dungeon card for the time spent exploring
  6. Repeat these steps for anything else in the room you wish to explore, but has not already been explored during this session
  7. If you want to retry exploring something that was failed. For example, if a PC failed a perception check while examining a statue, or a PC failed to pick the lock on a chest, then a PC can "take 20" on the task. If you elect to "take 20", then your attempt automatically succeeds, but you must burn 4 dungeon cards. Essentially, your character is trying over and over until you succeed.

How to open a door

There are three ways to open a door. If you can think of a fourth way, I will add it to the list. Spending time to "explore" a door will inform you if the door is stuck or locked. You might also hear any monsters on the other side, or find traps built into it.

  1. Break it down: Any monsters on the other side will likely be surprised. If the door is locked or stuck, then the PC attempting to break it down must succeed on the break DC (see your PHB for tools that make this easier). If the attempt to break the door fails, then any monsters on the other side will become aware of you. No matter what happens, I will roll against the dungeon pool after you attempt to break down a door.
  2. Open it normally: Any monsters on the other side will generally not be surprised. If the door turns out to be stuck or locked, then any monsters on the other side may become aware of the party and respond accordingly.
  3. Open it stealthily: You must have "explored" the door before you can open it stealthily (you need to know if it's stuck or locked, and have listened to it, and have peered under it, etc.). You must extinguish all light sources to open a door stealthily. Or, if using a hooded lantern, the hood must be lowered. If the door is stuck or locked, then the door cannot be opened this way. PCs that are entering the next chamber can take the Hide action before entering the room. Other characters can hang back while the sneaky ones go ahead.

Picking Locks

To summarize the rules, to pick a lock you need to use thieve's tools (but don't need to be proficient with them), and must succeed on a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand, Thieve's Tools) check. The DC for the check typically varies from 10-20. If you have proficiency in both sleight of hand and thieve's tools, then you get advantage on the check. The time it takes to pick a lock depends on the complexity. For simple locks, it only takes one action. And for complex locks, picking takes one minute. Since picking a simple lock is so quick, it will not burn a dungeon card. Attempting to pick a complex lock will burn a dungeon card (I'm rounding up). As such, if you fail to pick a complex lock, then you may be able to retry by "taking 20" just like retrying any other "exploration" task. For any lock (but particularly for simple locks), you may find that failing to pick the lock breaks it, rendering the door "stuck". I will not allow another character to "help" with lock picking actions (too many cooks in the kitchen).

Torches and Lanterns

To extinguish a torch, you must explain how you do that (water, smothering). If you extinguish a torch, it cannot be re-ignited; it is consumed. The PHB doesn't say this explicitly, but it is implied, because lanterns (technically the oil) do state that they can be turned on and off. You can abandon a lit torch and come back for it (so that you can enter a room stealthiliy, for example). Extinguishing or abandoning a torch will require rolling against the dungeon pool due to the smoke of extinguishing, or just from leaving such an obvious clue behind you. Lighting or extinguishing a torch or lantern requires an action.

Keeping Watch

Characters can "keep watch" while the others are exploring. If a wandering monsters occurs while exploring, then the characters keeping watch might hear the monster coming before it gets there. If the monster is not being stealthy, then the PCs keeping watch automatically succeed at noticing the monster. Only if the monster is being sneaky should the PC roll a perception check vs the monster's stealth check. When a PC that is keeping watch notices a monster coming, this gives each PC one round to prepare before initiative is rolled. This means PCs can hide, cast a spell, drink a potion, etc.