Rules of the table
I love Dungeons and Dragons because it has something for everyone - people can enjoy it in different ways. The article Eight Kinds of Fun really articulates this for me.
If you’re solely focused on one of those aspects, this is probably be a bad game for you. There will be sessions with no combat and mostly RP and narrative and others might be mostly combat.
Code of Conduct
Tabletop roleplaying is a collaborative effort. It works well if everyone is working together, not just in the game, but outside of it as well.
- Treat everyone with respect.
- Foster a safe and respectful environment for all participants.
- Everyone’s ideas, skills, and contributions have value. Do not deride other players or make passive aggressive comments based on their choices in the game.
- Out-of-Character physical abuse, discrimination, or verbal abuse is not tolerated. In-character can be treading a gray area as well, so please take care your character’s behavior is not making players uncomfortable.
- If a path is making you uncomfortable and you don’t feel comfortable throwing a yellow card out during the game, I’ll be watching my Discord DMs so just flag me there.
- If someone’s choice makes you ineffective in a combat or even kills you, you should not take it out on the player. (It could be fine to role-play if your PC is aggravated by this)
Rules
I generally follow 5e RAW rules (with some additions) For any questions that arise, I usually take Crawford’s rulings as law if I don’t have a deep opinion on how it should work.
I do use The Rule of Cool if the action makes narrative sense to me and the physics seem possible.
There are some caveats to the rules I’d like to stress below
Banned Spells/Features
- Silvery Barbs
Flanking
Flanking is a +2 bonus to hit.
I don’t like the optional rule that flanking provides advantage because it’s both too strong and invalidates a lot of spells, abilities and the entire Help action that can give advantage. While this may seem like a nerf, this does mean that you could get advantage and a +2 to hit if you have advantage and are flanking.
Social Checks
I play social checks mostly RAW, but some players think rolling a Nat 20 on a persuasion check means the NPC does what they suggest.
If you ask a warlord to just hand over their keep, your 32 in persuasion is just going to mean she’s not going to kill you for the suggestion.
I grade social checks largely on how I think the NPC is going to react to the argument. The DC is going to float from 10 to impossible depending on the NPCs disposition and the strength of your case.
2024 Update: 2024 rules have codified the DCs of these checks, but I might strength of the argument/other setup/RP could dictate how I rule “willing”/“unwilling” in regards to the NPC.
UA and Homebrew
Anything in a published book is allowed. I share my content in D&D Beyond, so you should have access to every published class/spell (Update: After Beyond took away buying only classes and spells this might no longer be true). Tasha’s new character options are also encouraged.
I permit most UA content available on DND Beyond, assuming you’re picking it for variety or role-play and don’t see some OP option you can exploit. I reserve the right to nerf or nix a UA feature that starts drastically outshining other players.
Character creation
You can take the standard array or do a point buy. Any of the Tasha’s rules for character creation are valid.
Any race available in a published book is valid - with the one exception of Arakokra - unless you’re okay with swapping flight for a different attribute.
Combat
I strive to have a quick paced combat that flows narratively.
Please remember that other players are waiting for their turn, so aim to have your action in mind and dice ready.
One way to make it flow quicker is if have your d20 and damage die in hand when your turn comes. It can speed things up to roll them all at once. While knowing your damage on a miss could effect your choice to use inspiration, I think this is a fine trade-off for quicker turns.
(If every player’s turn is 30 seconds shorter, that means you waiting three minutes less for your next turn.)
Sometimes the circumstances change right before your turn and that’s understandable, but in most cases you should be able to plan your action in advance.
Attendance
Life happens! But please give us a head’s up on Discord when you realize you can’t make a session, both so the DM can plan or if multiple people are out we can decide early to cancel.
Other Actions in Combat
The optional actions of Shove Aside, Climb On Larger Creature, Tumble and Overrun from the DMG are all valid in combat.
From the DMG:
Overrun When a creature tries to move through a hostile creature’s space, the mover can try to force its way through by overrunning the hostile creature. As an action or a bonus action, the mover makes a Strength ( Athletics ) check contested by the hostile creature’s Strength ( Athletics ) check. The creature attempting the overrun has advantage on this check if it is larger than the hostile creature, or disadvantage if it is smaller. If the mover wins the contest, it can move through the hostile creature’s space once this turn.
Shove Aside With this option, a creature uses the special shove attack from the Player’s Handbook to force a target to the side, rather than away. The attacker has disadvantage on its Strength ( Athletics ) check when it does so. If that check is successful, the attacker moves the target 5 feet to a different space within its reach.
Tumble A creature can try to tumble through a hostile creature’s space, ducking and weaving past the opponent. As an action or a bonus action, the tumbler makes a Dexterity ( Acrobatics ) check contested by the hostile creature’s Dexterity ( Acrobatics ) check. If the tumbler wins the contest, it can move through the hostile creature’s space once this turn.
Homebrew
Sprint You can use move up to 4x your movement speed in a straight line if you forego your bonus action and reactions for this turn. Opportunity attacks made against you are done so at advantage. You can not sprint more than twice in one minute.
Minutiae
Changelings: The changeling nerfs were uncalled for. If you want to play a Changeling you can take an extra/free homebrew feat for changelings giving them back their old UA Divergent Persona and Unsettling Visage traits.
Druids: Conjuring Animals/Woodland Beings. RAW the DM decides, but I don’t like the flavor/utility of that. As long as you don’t try to conjure 8 pixies for 8 polymorph spells you can pick the animals you conjure.