House Rules

The official regulatory charter of the hearth, as it were.

Golden Rules

Rules Disputes

Discussion is good, but rulings will be made in the interests of keeping the game fair, fun and maintaining pace. This isn’t a union contract negotiation, so the real rule here for players and DM is: don’t get too worked up, and don’t provoke it in others.

Mary Sues Are the Enemy

Kill on Sight.

Studded Leather is Stupid

Wear brigandine. Anyone seen wearing studded leather into combat shall be judged and found wanting. Anyone wearing it in private will not be kink shamed.

Character Creation/Build Rules

Starting Attribute Array

17, 15, 14, 12, 10, 8

Racial Choices

Base options TBD. This game-world may not have all published 5e content available, but the DM can work with you to reshape your vision of a PC to suit it. Flying races are allowed, but be forewarned that intelligent enemies may have or will evolve strategies and tactics to account for this.

Custom Lineage & Feats

If you select custom lineage for your race during character creation, one of the races from their lineages may be used for the purposes of feat prerequisites. Any additional ancestries may be used for lore and aesthetics, but can have no mechanical impact or benefits and must be reasonably conceivable (pun intended.)

• Discuss custom lineage with the DM prior to finalizing your decision, as per racial choices above.
• A starting custom feature may be used in lieu of the free feat, but will be of a strength no greater than that of other racial starting features and must make thematic sense. It will be developed between you and the DM. IE, custom lineage will not be a loophole to stack racial abilities.

Levelling

Levels 1-4 will progress quickly with milestones, and it is recommended to have these levels planned out in advance. Further levels will be XP-based, although story milestones or other great achievements may come with commensurate XP rewards.

Multiclassing & Build Optimization

These are allowed, but unlikely lore combinations will need to have sufficient, sensible story justification. It is best to discuss these plans in advance so that there is an opportunity to work them into the story-line or to discuss alternatives.

Retcons/Rebuilds

Each player is allowed one retcon of their build for this campaign, however they may have to continue as is until it can be worked into the story, and not all retcons may be possible (eg: changing a subclass is easier than changing a full class; changing race is unlikely without access to high level magic or science.)

Gameplay Rules

Healing Potions

If you use an action to consume/administer a healing potion, it heals the maximum value of hit points from the item description. You can still consume it as a bonus action, in which case the healing value is rolled.

Epic Dice

• A d6 that can be added to any ability check, saving throw, attack roll or damage roll made by the PC. Only one epic die may be added used per turn. An epic die used for a damage in a critical hit is rolled twice.
• They can be rolled at the player’s discretion after the initial roll is seen, but before any consequences of the roll are known.
• Epic dice are awarded at the DM’s discretion. Excellent role-play, rules honesty or hilarious comedy are some examples of potentially rewarding moments.
• PCs cannot share epic dice with each other, and cannot apply them to rolls made by any other actors. There is no set limit to the amount of epic dice a PC may have, although the DM may choose to withhold additional dice rewards if a player is hoarding them unreasonably.
• Once spent, the epic die is returned to the DM.

Sidekicks/Pets/Familiars

These do not earn epic dice, but the player controlling one may use their PC’s epic dice on the creature that they control. This is an exception to the notes above, and may be revised after play-testing. Charmed, dominated or summoned creatures with a duration limit do not qualify for this exception.

Random Encounters

Random Encounters will not be generated using the content from published sources, and will instead be based on thematic options from the campaign narrative. Be forewarned that travel is not the only source of a random encounter. Take solace in the fact that not all random encounters are bad.

Credits: Some of these house rules are inspired by content from Tales of Aneria and The Dungeon Dudes on YouTube.