How I want to Play D&D

I'm going to leave these here..
and because that statement is a thing ..

In no particular order I'm laying out the framework for my D&D game. I did what I consider normal preparation last night and it was really quick. Very nice and easy with a Challenge Rating chart and encounter building info from the parts of the DMG I have.

Note some of these things are personal works in progress. I accept that I don't hit these marks every time but I want to enunciate what I'm aiming for.

Fun

I will fudge for effect. If the encounter isn't fun it failed. It can be scary fun, actually humorous, cathartic, satisfyingly difficult or enjoyable to break.(bubblewrap?) I would rather have a theoretically difficult encounter nerfed without the players knowing rather than a medium encounter made hard by sticking to rules. I would rather let the players do what they envisage and "Inspiration" may help in that role. (comment to self ..Need to hand it out more)

Inclusive

I try to get gender and other forms of discrimination out of my games. I'm fairly feminist but I do fall into stereotypes on gender. I'm going to make an effort to get that going in my game. I'm also going to put some effort into sharing player time and spotlight. Hopefully personal storylines and shtick will make that doable. Might lead to more inspiration.

Immersive and Consistent

The rules are only there to provide consistency of approach, which aids suspension of disbelief. I like thundering monsters and trippy vistas. One way of taking you there is giving you a series of mechanical descriptors that enable you to feel the response of the environment. We instinctively know where the mouse is on the screen because it's response is consistent, hence it becomes immersive.

Thought inducing

I like moral and philosophical interaction. Matrix like "what ifs" are much harder to pull off but general discussions about the good and evil of fire, necrotic and radiant damage are easier. Most adult roleplayers have fully explored what their personal ethos is but it's still interesting to give them moral questions and dilemmas.  Not "should we stab the good guy in the back?"- general answer no, rather, "should we defeat the hobgoblin empire by starving them to death?" How is that more evil than lopping their heads off one at a time? And if you don't want to lop their heads off how will you stop them?

Mind-Blowing

I want earth shattering crazy. Bit hard to do at low levels so I'll have to compromise. Funky magical effects and the like. It's about making the monsters and environments epic. Needs more work from me. More succinct description.

Competence

This is something from the FATE system. The player characters are not useless. The game is about them and their actions. . Average and easy is just done. Most of the time they can do the reasonably difficult. Epic is possible, tricky but doable.

this is a living document, feel free to comment and I'll add things as we go

Campaign Base

Environment and Milieu 

My game is set in the pre-spellfire, pre-catalysm, pre-bane murder's the gods shenannigans Forgotten Realms.

So this boxed set

With a touch of this

Because the detail was just awesome


Some of this stuff going on underground

And some Errol Otis for fun and games

Factions

I'm going to steal the campaign faction ideas from the orgnaised play folks.

The Harpers is a scattered network of spellcasters and spies who advocate equality and covertly oppose the abuse of power.
The Order of the Gauntlet is composed of faithful and vigilant seekers of justice who protect others from the depredations of evildoers.
The Emerald Enclave is a widespread group of wilderness survivalists who preserve the natural order while rooting out unnatural threats.
The Lords’ Alliance is a loose coalition of established political powers concerned with mutual security and prosperity.
The Zhentarim is an unscrupulous shadow network that seeks to expand its influence and power throughout Faerûn.  So, yes, forest dudes, harpers, lords,paladins and zhents. Choice of faction will be an in-game thing- although if some factions are un-touched by the party I won't flesh them out.

They will have 2ndary missions, buy things from you and offer rewards/items. Reputation based vendors.

Shtick

I also will be pursuing individual storylines as well the general group one..
And what I'd call "shtick". Each character should have a item/weapon of legacy/pet/mount/curse/fate that marks them out and builds story and character.

House Rules

1. The character change token. 
Everyone gets a "change my toon" token/opportunity.

In general terms you change everything and anything up to 3rd level. After 4th I'd prefer folks stuck to  what they did last level or re-do the toon as a different character.


2. Stats. 
I don't like crummy stats.
And some people are really crap at rolling. So I'm going with a beefed up buy-point version of the one. As follows

Stat	Cost	Bonus
8	0	-1
9	1	-1
10	2	0
11	3	0
12	4	+1
13	5	+1
14	7	+2
15	9	+2
16	12	+3
17	15	+3
18	19	+4

with 29 points to spend. Now  this is considerably more than you get in the players handbook and allows you to go to 18. But 18,15,15,8,8,8 doesn't strike me as outrageous.

3. Multiclassing. 
It doesn't make any sense to me to link the stat bonuses to the class level rather than the total character level. Unless you want to punish multiclassing, which I don't. So the plus to stats at 4th 8th etc level are based on total level allowing people to change classes without getting jipped.

DnD NeXT

This post will be a post on the merits and  flavour of DnD NeXT based on my experiences so far.

These comments are not good or bad- I haven't played enough to judge, rather just the facts as I see them

First up: Bounded Skills
It is a bounded skill system- goes +2 to +6 basic skill bonus. this means it's almost more about the stats than about the skills. - as the stat bonuses are -5 to +5. Some exceptions- rogues and clerics of knowledge pick 2 skills to double the skill bonus in.
This should mean that monsters hang around as "relevant" for longer.

Stats are Important
More than I realised. This means my usually relaxed attitude to stats won't cut it if the players want to be equivalent in power. That's not essential but a buy point system is a good idea. I'm not sure the stingy, capped buy point system in the players handbook is a good idea but.. we'll see.
Sub- discussion- Stats have a cap
The maximum for stats is 20. this actually  has relevance as +2 from race can take you to 20 at first level. I will say, having played a barbarian with 20 strength, that +7 to hit at first level is STRONG. But that's where I cap.

The system has a built in flavour
As a result of the classes and mechanics I have viewed so far .. it is.. Elric not Scarlet Pimpernel, Conan not Pirates of the Caribbean, Sparticus not Romeo and Juliet. The skill system is a stat roll system. It's either very coarse or very flexible depending on how you roll/role. But the way stats work and the lack of hard mechanics for tumbling, swinging from chandeliers etc means I'm be playing Silver rather than Valerius, It's sword and sandal or chivalry rather than john wu or 3 musketeers. The weapons seem big. Damage is big. Strength and Constitution matter for dishing it out and staying alive. Heavy Armour negates dexterity completely. If you want to dodge you do it in your undies..
If anything you could say that it is forgotten realms with a gladius/shortsword style rather than renaissance as some versions of Faerun have been. Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, Elric of Melinbone and Greyhawk are squarely in this book. Conan would be swolen with all the non-human options. Too many starting races really to pull off the gritty human on human of Conan. Dark sun would need an addon book for psionics, muls and half-giants.

Magic
So- Bard, Wizard, Sorcerer, Cleric, Druid are what rolemaster would term pure casters. they get "full spell progression" But the ease of putting on armour and the extra hitpoints puts a bit of starch into them.
Paladin, Ranger and ..Warlock are semi-users- half progression, although the warlock has really quick power regen, as normal and really powerful cantrips...
Low level spells kick butt. Magic progression is singular, it doesn't double up. You add your total casting classes together and access a single table.- sounds powerful? Not really- each single class caps the max spell level, even if you do get higher slots you have to then spend them on lower spells if you multiclass.
In general there is a lot of magic. Not much in the way of magical items, because we have no DMG yet

Barbarian, Rogue, Monk, Fighter are non-spellcasting although Rogue and Fighter can pick up subclasses to get some 1/3 progression casting if they choose.