House Rules
Every good campaign has a list of rules that a DM has made after other experiences at their table or their preferences. The base set of rules for Launtrel is Dungeon and Dragons 5th Edition. The Player's Handbook is an amazing reference I believe that all players should have in any form. If you are unable to get a copy, please reach out to me on Discord (Zimxter#3341 or via the Discord Link) and I will help you out!
I reserve the right to modify as I see fit, but I will notify players immediately of any changes on the Discord in #ooc-announcements.
2. No racism, homophobia, transphobia, ect. In Launtrel, none of these things exist. All races are seen as equal and there are no "designated evil races". The fey do not have societal norms for gender or culture in the same way humans do, so that point is moot. This also applies to OoC as well.
3. Please do not 'Rules Lawyer'. For an understanding of why I have this rule, it is a continuation of Rule 1. Of course, helping a new player out with actual game rules or even politely pointing out a mistake I made with the rules (we are all human, it happens!) is totally fine! The issue comes in when I say that what happened is fine and the matter keeps getting pressed. 99.9% of the time if I allow a 'break' in a mechanical rule, it is because I have a specific reason for it. And it's probably cool.
4. Sexual Assault themes or mentions is not and never will be allowed. I would hope this is a no-brainer, but I wanted to make sure it was explicitly stated. This also includes things as seduction of NPCs. Even if you roll a 30, 40, 50, 60... NPCs still have a right to consent and say no. This also includes sexually harassing table members or characters. Overly sexual jokes/repeated sexual jokes walk a fine line and if other players or myself ask for them to stop, please respect that. This is an 18+ campaign, so mention of sex is of course fine, just in moderation and maturely.
* As a side note to this, sex scenes will be fade to black for both NPC and Player x Player.
5. I work on The Honor System. All of your characters should be linked to the World Anvil, however I know some people like the good ol' pencil and paper. I am totally fine with you keeping a paper version of your character sheet. However, I trust that you will a) Update your World Anvil sheet regularly and b) be honest with what is on it. (For Online Players) This also goes for character creation and dice rolls. I cannot be there physically to see you write your stats, so I trust your rolls are not doctored. I also do not require rolls to be made on Discord, because even I love the feeling of rolling in person. However, if I become suspicious of your rolls I may ask you to start rolling on Discord. If all of your characters have suspiciously high stats, I may ask that either I roll for you or you use Standard Array. I really want to trust my players, and I hope in turn I receive the respect of being truthful.
6. Murder hobos are frowned upon. While I will not explicitly state your character cannot be a homicidal maniac, I would like to discourage it and warn that in the Feywild, all actions have consequences. Please see The Laws of the Feywild.
7. To finish off the rules, Be Respectful. This is to be a fun experience for all involved, and respect should be for everyone at the table.
Natural 20s do not automatically grant you a critical success. However, it will grant you the best outcome. For some, if not most outcomes, it will be a success. For others, it will be the best outcome possible. An example is below. Additionally, the player will be granted an Inspiration Point, to give reward to the character's incredible luck. Natural 20s in combat do still roll critical damage.
Natural 1s, on the flip side, also do not mean a critical failure. I personally feel that it is cruel and unfun to make a pretty capable hero/adventurer fail in an insane matter because they rolled a Nat 1. It doesn't make sense. So, a Nat 1 will usually just mean a failure for the roll but does not mean that the character will fail so badly they make a fool out of themselves. A Nat 1 may fail in undesirable ways, such as stepping on a twig in stealth. But this character won't randomly start screaming and flailing around for the same roll. Additionally, just like when you roll a Nat 20, a Fate Point is given to the DM to represent the character's bad luck.
* For more information on Fate and Inspiration Points, see the next section.
2. On Player vs. Player (PVP). I am not a big fan of PVP in most situations. Of course, a squabble, a little slap, a little tying up... Sometimes that is necessary. Your characters can disagree, hate each other, not get along, ect. However for major PVP conflicts such as murder, political backstabbing, pick-pocketing/theft, and other more serious actions I require both parties to consent to it.
3. On Character Alignments and Shifts. Certain extreme actions can force an alignment shift, depending on where your character stands at the time of the action. For example, a Lawful Good character decided to Fireball a home with innocent people inside for no reason will take a shift to the appropriate neutral of evil alignment. This will be discussed privately with the player after the session.
4. On Leveling Up. For characters in a long-term campaign, the campaign will have natural/designated points for characters to level up. For "Come When You Can" campaign characters, they will level up by a 'session tally system.'
I reserve the right to modify as I see fit, but I will notify players immediately of any changes on the Discord in #ooc-announcements.
GENERAL TABLE RULES
1. Most importantly, I follow the Rule of Cool. DnD is all about having fun and creating kick ass stories together to escape our regular lives. Therefor, I keep this in mind during every session and every action taken by players. I design all of my campaigns, battles, and encounters to be as open ended in possible and set up for player's experiences. In long-term campaigns, I keep careful notes on player's playstyles, how often they interact, and keep tally of their "cool points". If I notice a player has been accidentally pushed to the side due to being new, being quiet, or similar reasons I will intentionally set up scenarios designed for them to have their moment. It is my hope that in these circumstances, the other party members will be respectful of this. Don't worry- everyone gets them at some point. For the "Come When You Can" sessions, it can be a little difficult to manage this to the extent that I like to, but I will do my best to make sure it still happens.2. No racism, homophobia, transphobia, ect. In Launtrel, none of these things exist. All races are seen as equal and there are no "designated evil races". The fey do not have societal norms for gender or culture in the same way humans do, so that point is moot. This also applies to OoC as well.
3. Please do not 'Rules Lawyer'. For an understanding of why I have this rule, it is a continuation of Rule 1. Of course, helping a new player out with actual game rules or even politely pointing out a mistake I made with the rules (we are all human, it happens!) is totally fine! The issue comes in when I say that what happened is fine and the matter keeps getting pressed. 99.9% of the time if I allow a 'break' in a mechanical rule, it is because I have a specific reason for it. And it's probably cool.
4. Sexual Assault themes or mentions is not and never will be allowed. I would hope this is a no-brainer, but I wanted to make sure it was explicitly stated. This also includes things as seduction of NPCs. Even if you roll a 30, 40, 50, 60... NPCs still have a right to consent and say no. This also includes sexually harassing table members or characters. Overly sexual jokes/repeated sexual jokes walk a fine line and if other players or myself ask for them to stop, please respect that. This is an 18+ campaign, so mention of sex is of course fine, just in moderation and maturely.
* As a side note to this, sex scenes will be fade to black for both NPC and Player x Player.
5. I work on The Honor System. All of your characters should be linked to the World Anvil, however I know some people like the good ol' pencil and paper. I am totally fine with you keeping a paper version of your character sheet. However, I trust that you will a) Update your World Anvil sheet regularly and b) be honest with what is on it. (For Online Players) This also goes for character creation and dice rolls. I cannot be there physically to see you write your stats, so I trust your rolls are not doctored. I also do not require rolls to be made on Discord, because even I love the feeling of rolling in person. However, if I become suspicious of your rolls I may ask you to start rolling on Discord. If all of your characters have suspiciously high stats, I may ask that either I roll for you or you use Standard Array. I really want to trust my players, and I hope in turn I receive the respect of being truthful.
6. Murder hobos are frowned upon. While I will not explicitly state your character cannot be a homicidal maniac, I would like to discourage it and warn that in the Feywild, all actions have consequences. Please see The Laws of the Feywild.
7. To finish off the rules, Be Respectful. This is to be a fun experience for all involved, and respect should be for everyone at the table.
MECHANICAL TABLE RULES
1. On Natural 20s + Natural 1s. To me, Nat20's are the most fun and exhilarating parts of DnD, and to some extent, Nat1s. If you have played a campaign before, you probably have experienced either the dead silence as a player rolls an important roll, followed by the explosion of cheers or groans on the outcome of the roll. As a player, I love it. However, I also believe it shouldn't completely override everything. So, for my table, I have a way I love doing them.- The party is standing in front of a magical sword in the stone. They had just stumbled across it without hearing anything about the sword beforehand. However, the sword is clearly a very impressive weapon, and any sword-wielder would love to get their hands on such a sword. The Paladin steps forward, determined to pull it from its stony prison. Gripping the sword and bracing himself, the Paladin rolls a strength check and rolls... A Natural 20! The players are all excited, assuming the sword would fly free with easy. However, this is not the case. The Paladin was not able to break the sword loose. As he steps back, a voice behind them speaks. "I'm sorry, what are you doing?" She says confused. As the party explains the situation, the Druid shakes her head. "No amount of strength will free it. You must recite the correct phrase before you pull. Unfortunately, I do not know it. But 'NPC' in 'City Name' might."
- So, let's break that situation down. The Paladin rolled a Nat 20 strength check, but the sword did not come loose. This is because the sword cannot be pulled out by any means of strength and is bound by magical means. Rolling a Nat 20, or even having a combined roll of anything would not free it. But the best possible outcome did happen: The Druid appearing to give you point-blank information on how to get the sword free. For any other roll of the Strength dice, simply nothing would happen. In the end, even though the Nat 20 did not free the sword right then, the best outcome of learning how to free the sword happened.
* For more information on Fate and Inspiration Points, see the next section.
2. On Player vs. Player (PVP). I am not a big fan of PVP in most situations. Of course, a squabble, a little slap, a little tying up... Sometimes that is necessary. Your characters can disagree, hate each other, not get along, ect. However for major PVP conflicts such as murder, political backstabbing, pick-pocketing/theft, and other more serious actions I require both parties to consent to it.
3. On Character Alignments and Shifts. Certain extreme actions can force an alignment shift, depending on where your character stands at the time of the action. For example, a Lawful Good character decided to Fireball a home with innocent people inside for no reason will take a shift to the appropriate neutral of evil alignment. This will be discussed privately with the player after the session.
4. On Leveling Up. For characters in a long-term campaign, the campaign will have natural/designated points for characters to level up. For "Come When You Can" campaign characters, they will level up by a 'session tally system.'
- Level 1 to Level 2= One Session Attended | Level 2 to Level 3= Two Sessions Attended | Level 3 to Level 4 = Four sessions Attended... And so on.
- As a basic guide, for every level up, double the amount of required sessions from the previous level. The sessions are cumulative.
INSPIRATION/FATE POINTS EXPLAINED
Inspiration Points (IP)
Inspiration Points is the already established point system in DnD 5e, with a small change. They allow a player to roll with advantage on one skill check, attack roll, or saving throw. They do stack up to 10 points per character. A player can choose to use an IP at any time. Once used, the IP is no longer useable and the player loses one IP on their sheet. Typically, they either represent a character's 'rewarded luck' or rewards for being themselves; essentially, they are mechanical karma. IP can be gained in the following ways:- By rolling a Natural 20.
- When I, as a DM, believe that a Player has came up with an exceptionally fun or creative idea, roleplayed a beautiful scene, or when a Player truly leans into a characters Flaws, Ideals, or Bonds even when it disadvantages them in the long run.
Fate Points (FP)
Fate Points are a system of my own creation to keep the game exciting, fun, and suspenseful. (It is inspired by other similar systems, and I am sure another DM out there has the same system as I.) FP are the DM's version of Inspiration Points, but they have a different effect. When a FP is used, it is used in a pivotal moment that changes a scenario in a favor that is most likely not in the party's favor. I will announce when a FP is being used and then narratively describe the results. Like IP represents luck or a positive karma point, FP represents bad luck or 'bad karma'. Unlike IP, Fate Points can effect a single player or the whole party. FP are gained in the following ways:- A player rolling a Natural 1.
- When a character breaks one of The Laws of the Feywild.
Comments