Whenever I run a long campaign or one with in-depth information, I like to create a lore archive or wiki for all the campaign information — Rules, custom items, NPCs, locations, etc. — all the things that it is easy to forget from one bi-weekly or monthly game to the next. These aren’t the in-depth notes you might write to yourself or the hardcore, deep-dive into the background information that is often more interesting to the Game Master than the players. Instead, these are the condensed, easy to parse overviews of things the players may want to reference later but wouldn’t remember the details of at the time. Who were the people in that Shadow Giants’ mercenary guild we met? What was the name of that seller at that one town where we got a good deal on magic potions? While being a good reminder, these kinds of campaign wikis also serve as an artifact of the game, a way to go back and look at your journals and remember what happened.

I’ve looked at many ways to build these – Trello, paid online services like Kanka and World Anvil, building my own websites (because that is within my skill), a Foundry instance hosted online, etc. Each of those was good in their own way, but often fairly complex or harder to get a simple and easy to parse setup out of. Recently I came back to one I had used far in the past and realized the new version is even better and more accessible for campaign wikis – Google Sites. I’d built with this quite some time ago, but they have recently revamped their service and I find it even easier to use.

Google Sites As A Campaign Wiki

What does the current iteration of Google Sites do so well that I’d recommend it? First, it’s easy to build something that looks good without major tech skills. Working like most online website builders, you will probably find it easy to work with but somewhat limited. That’s actually a nice mix as it keeps you from going too far afield of a clean experience with lots of tables and complex layouts. If you keep things condensed, you can really get a lot out of the site. It’s also fairly easy to organize information. I played around with a few of their built-in layouts and found good ways to organize information like lists of NPCs, complex dumps of custom rules, etc. There were some easy to use modules that made things fit a good user flow.

Organization of information was actually pretty easy. Everything in Google Sites is laid out with boxes in columns and rows. Drag a text box over and you can resize it in the grid structure. Drag an image over and do the same. Create a new row and you can drag into that with everything maintaining the same height. A lot of the architecture I use to build websites is integrated in such a way that it is almost hard to ignore. Useful elements like collapsible rows and the ability to link up text and image boxes make creating some well laid out sections easy. Google Sites is also useful in deciding who gets to see what. You can share certain pages or the entire site with only a select audience or make it public. That lets you create GM / Co-GM sections or keep some elements private to everyone while letting some information become public.

Some Tips For Building In Google Sites

I’m not going to give a full tutorial on building with Google Sites – others already have so I’m just going to link their work – but I will give a brief overview and then show how I lay out a decent and compressed campaign wiki. Here are some quick tips:

• Building in Google Sites is as easy as dragging a module from the right hand side of modules and resizing it.
• There are custom layouts, but the drag and resize is the core way you will make anything.
• Every element will live in rows and each row will be as large as the biggest element in it.
• Collapsible rows are good for large text dumps, but it is often good to let a collapsible row be full width rather than stack them next to each other.
• Collapsible rows cannot (unfortunately) hold other text boxes or images. That would be wonderful and let you gather things together in a much better way.
• You can use images and text and can resize so your text is to the right with your image to the left, but you cannot put images inside of text boxes.
• You can drag a text box to the bottom of an image to link it up and make it so that clicking the image reveals the text.
• You can do more complex things like tables and videos with the “embed” module, but that will require some coding knowledge.
• Tables cannot be created in text boxes, but you can make mock tables with tabs that are decent enough.
• The navigation module will include every header you have in your page, but you can also hide ones from it to just create a table of contents to important sections.
• If you want more spacing between rows, drop a spacer module or an empty text box.

Here are some tutorials that go more in-depth on how to build sites:

• https://edu.google.com/intl/ALL_us/for-educators/product-guides/sites/?modal_active=none
• https://zapier.com/blog/google-sites-tutorial/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0woNTtlcxgM

Tips for Building a Campaign Wiki

Building a wiki useful to your campaign requires a little content specific layout and thinking. Depending on what you want to convey, it will be different for your game but here is how I lay mine out.

• Navigation – Google Sites offers two types of navigation – side “hamburger / 3 line” menu or top. I like to keep to the top because it keeps all the pages visible, but long page titles or many pages may necessitate the side navigation.
• 3 Column Layout – When I build pages that are meant to give quick recaps on info for things like people or locations, I like to focus on columns that start with an image and then put the data below. I played with many different options, but I liked this from a user interface perspective if I’m going to have a lot of similar elements. It allows a quick scan to the person, item, or location you may be looking for info on and then a visual scroll down to get the relevant details. I can also do a basic description and then bullet points of events or new information like “betrayed group at Tarin’s Pass” etc.
  
• Link Out – Things that don’t work well in the Google site can easily be linked out to and stored as Google files. I have a whole “handouts” section to keep the detailed pdfs and other materials I make. With this setup, storing those online and making them easily accessible is as easy as dragging in the Google Drive widget. I describe this in the Handouts page description, but if something doesn’t work well on the Google site, it’s often better to move it to where it does and link to it. The Google site can act as a landing area that gets you where you need to go.
• Page Organization – When I begin laying out a campaign wiki (or any website), I determine the pages I’ll need that will be the biggest buckets  of information. Here’s a link to a generic campaign filled with placeholders that you can look at live. I like to keep fewer pages with longer scrolls since that mirrors modern usage patterns for websites and makes it easier to get in the general area without a lot of searching. These are the biggest pages I usually use.
  • Homepage – On my homepages I like to do a recap and then create a box navigation structure – 6 or 7 boxes that have images and links to the sections. The navigation menu is easy.
  • People and Organizations – This is all of the groups and NPCs that the party meets along the way. I like to keep rows for Allies, General, Antagonists, and Minor, but that all depends on the type of campaign.
    • I usually build this with 3 columns of Image – Text / Image – Text / Image – Text. This makes it easy for players to glance over and see the people they were expecting rather than the name they weren’t remembering.  That big Orc they met with the metal jaw is going to be much easier to recognize visibly, especially if I found or created some kind of image for them.
    • I like to include bullet points for recent interactions as well. That is a good way to quickly remind players “Allea is pissed you shortchanged her on the last interaction,” and guide their play decisions.
  • Locations – The Image / Text option is useful here as well. You can also use collapsible rows with a header of “Read More” if you have a lot of info to convey. Image, then brief description, then read more with details is a good way, but I follow the similar layout for people and organizations.
    • If I include big world maps, I like to link out to them rather than keep them in the page. Often times you can’t zoom in enough. If I’m lucky enough to have an interactive map or something at high enough resolution, I just include the link at the top.
    • I then segment locations into big areas – continents or regions, even planets if I’m running a space game. If it’s more local, just a list or organization by purpose is good.

• • Items – For my items and goods sections, I often include my general price ranges so players can quickly assess what a thing may cost. If I’m using detailed prices, I often link out to a PDF or Hombrewery pamphlet with all the details. I could also write up a whole separate page with the details or include a collapsible row if I needed.
    • Most often what I do with Items pages is write up the detailed descriptions of magic items so they are easy to reference later or create item lists for stores. I can use things like 5E Magic Shop or other generators to create the list of available goods and just put it in the items page so players can browse as they want.
    • I don’t tend to hold to a perfect layout of 3 or 4 columns of equal width, instead I base the layout on the amount of description I need. If I have 5 different potions that have just a bit of info, I might put them in two rows. If I have a custom potions writeup that has 5 bullet points, I create one big box. It all comes down to how much content people will have to parse and how much space that requires.
  • Custom Rules – Often times I’m using a lot of custom rules for my games. I’ve dropped a series of articles detailing them in case they are helpful to others running high action, high fantasy, jrpg themed games. If I have specific rules that I know people will need to reference quickly, I drop them on a separate page and use collapsible sections. The biggest thing people need to remember is how they can use their inspiration or what that rule about drinking potions per session was – 2 per con bonus? More in-depth rules pamphlets I save for a handouts page.
  • Handouts – I like to make handouts and other elements for games – things to increase immersion and give people something to consume to build up the world’s concepts. For me those are often videos, interactive dialogues, and small animations – but they could as easily be PDFs, Word docs, or images. The handouts section is actually really useful when combined with Google Drive. I can create a folder, set the permissions to be the players, and just drop the Google Docs widget with the folder in. Now people can open everything there. That handles almost anything I might make for a game. If something lives on YouTube or someplace else, I can link to it from that page.
  • Session Notes – I keep bullet point session notes for pretty much every game. Future John is going to forget the details just as much as my players are, but that quick reminder is all I need to reconnect the memory pathways. Collapsible rows are great here as well. You can scroll down to the session, open it, and quickly breeze through the notes you kept. You could also link out to a Google Doc or other journal if you have more in-depth setups.
  • Lore and Info – Often times in my games much of the “lore” that doesn’t fit other categories moves to handouts, but I can also just put it in it’s own section arranged with the 3 columns setup or collapsible rows. Things that might go here are thematic setting specific information, like how air bubbles in spelljammer work or what the general populace of the world knows about magic. This one is very much dependent on the info you need to present and how in-depth you want to go with it.

Conclusions

Google Sites isn’t going to be a perfect solution for everything you might want out of a detailed campaign wiki that mirrors the complexity of Game of Thrones, but it works really well for the quick blurbs and info that is useful in most campaigns. It’s pretty easy to use for a non-technical audience, but a few improvements would make it a bit more flexible. For a quick and easy to build campaign wiki, it’s the easiest and most accessible option I’ve found so far. There are more complex and detailed gaming ones that I’ve tried, but they often had similar limitations or required a bit more technical knowledge. For the limitations of Google Sites, it had a lot of good enough options. If you’re looking for a place to do a quick and free wiki for info, look into it.

• Generic Campaign Wiki Example
• Make a copy of the campaign template
  • Open this Google Docs folder while logged into a Google account.
  • Right click on the Genereic RPG Google Sites Campaign Wiki Template.
  • Choose Make a Copy.
  • The Google site template will be copied to your Google Drive and you can edit the copy from there.

Waaaaay back in the day I did a review of a new tabletop gaming adjacent piece of software called Tabletop Simulator. It was one of the first ways to recreate some of the in-person experience online with a 3D approach. Since then, the amount of Virtual Table Tops (VTTs) being created specifically for tabletop role-playing games has exploded. On forums I frequent, there is the joke – Which of the 100 VTTs are you currently using? While that’s a bit exaggerated, it does seem like every week or so I discover a new early access VTT being built in Unity or Unreal Engine that offers something just slightly different to the competition already in the field.

Since I’ve been moving away from physical minis, I’ve been digging into and testing out a lot of these VTTs that offer 3D gameplay – the ones that mimic the real life minis on the table experience. I figured I’d share my findings and opinions to help people similarly navigating these waters. As I’ve been researching, I’ve been considering different use case scenarios, primarily online play, in person play, customizability, ease of map creation, and getting “adequate” maps for quick improvisation. Everyone has slightly different uses, so if there is a specific question you have about a particular VTT that I don’t address, drop it in the comments.

Talespire

https://store.steampowered.com/app/720620/TaleSpire/

In general, Talespire is a block building 3D Engine. You create with pre-built tiles much like you might in minecraft. You drag things onto the map and arrange them. Everything is built of the smaller blocks, so building a house means setting all of the walls, floor, roofs, etc. The visual look is very pretty and looks very polished. There is no currently supported importing of your own assets or use of 2d tokens, but Heroforge API access has been added in a recent update. Talespire is very much a digital version of the old Heroscape board game with play elements included.

• Complexity – Building in Talespire can be fairly complex, but you can get some great results and impressive maps. There can be a bit of a time sink to create a map and all the little details, but it can also be an enjoyable experience just to build.
• Accessibility / Playability – Talespire requires every person to own their own copy of the game and the dev teams communications seem to indicate this won’t change in the future. As a platform to connect into and play together, it works fairly well and is easy enough to control. I’ve played with Talespire and a second screen, but there is no player view popout so Talespire is decent but not great for in person play.
• Pricing Model – As mentioned previously, Talespire requires every person to own a copy of the game. There is no free player client or ability to buy player seats as the GM – so the only way to get others to connect is to have them buy the $25 game or buy a copy for all your players. I’ve seen discussion about possibly selling asset packs and creating a community portal to sell things independently, but I’m not sure where things will land once the game fully releases.
• Quick Map Capabilities – This is an area where Talespire shines. There are sites like https://talestavern.com that allow you to grab the hashed values for a map someone else has made and paste it into your own game. Creators are out there constantly making new maps so there is often a map that fits enough of your needs that you can easily drop in and modify.

What It could do better

• Custom support / 2d Tokens – The dev team does plan to have some kind of modding support, but we are not sure exactly what form that will take. Currently there are hacky workarounds that allow you to use your own models, but it requires a decent amount of technical knowledge. There is also no desire to allow 2D tokens. The dev team has stated in the FAQ that they “murder the feel of the whole game and make us sad”. That’s unfortunate, because I want to play my game and sometimes that would be better with using 2d images as a placeholder rather than the built in monsters. Often I’ve had to say “imagine this giant knight is a final fantasy magitek” and that is far more immersion breaking than using a PNG image in my opinion.
• Resource Intensive – Talespire makes my computer run VERY hot and I have a decent video editing rig. I’ve had friends who couldn’t boot it up and had multiple issues if they could. Maybe they will resolve performance issues as development continues, but the build style of the game hints that it will probably always be a fairly intense in its resource usage.
• Lack of player seats / options – I can’t really ask all my players to buy a tool to play in the game I’m running, and even if I can shell out for my home group I can’t easily use Talespire with anyone new. As a GM I’m happy to pay for access to the tool, but it’s a hard sell to do that over and over. Many other VTTs have player seats or free clients for players and that would be a huge improvement over their current model.
• Finicky Controls Sometimes – Sometimes the controls and camera movement can be finicky, especially when maps are built with roofs and interiors. There is a “cutout box” that removes the elements inside of it so you can see into things, but it isn’t the easiest tool to use.
• Not Require an Online Connection – Discovered this just recently, but apparently you need to be online to load any maps at all. This is a big limitation in a lot of ways if you plan to game in person at a place without a connection or Talespire’s servers go down for any reason. Not as much of a limitation if you always game online, but a potential issue and not a customer focused business practice.

Final Take: Talespire is pretty and fairly easy to build in or use maps from other creators for quick play. It has limitations that cut off enough quality of life factors that I switched to something different after a while. The pricing model leaves something to be desired and I’m not sure where it will evolve to in the future.

Click to see higher resolution images in a new window. 

Foundry 3d Canvas

https://theripper93.com/

Foundry VTT is a highly modifiable play platform that allows many modules to be added to it. One of those modules is the 3D Canvas by theripper93. This module turns the 2d canvas in foundry into a fully immersive and option filled 3D environment. There is support for custom models to be imported, multiple effects, and a lot of control over many small details of each model, tile, and any setting you can think of. There is nothing built in as far as worldbuilding assets, but the dev has a 3D mapmaking pack of freely available assets (mostly aimed at game developers) and a 3D Miniatures pack of tokens created by MZ4250. These can be used to build multiple map types of varying visual looks. There are also tools to generate terrain, add in 2d maps that you can put 3D miniatures on top of and multiple tutorials that teach you the very basics of 3D programs and modeling to use the program.

• Complexity – If you’ve ever used regular Foundry you know that it is more complex than other VTT options.That is the norm in the 3D Canvas module as well, but scaled up an order of magnitude. This is essentially a 3D level creation program aimed at TTRPGs. There are so many options that allow so much capability, but you really do have to learn to use it. Some elements are simple and the dev does create tutorials that are often helpful, but it is a fairly complex program to learn and get setup. If you use Foundry already, you are probably used to that. If you are looking for something more drag and drop out of the box, understand that this requires some learning to get that functionality.
• Accessibility / Playability – The core Foundry VTT is built as a web app based on NodeJS. This gives it a lot of versatility and interoperability between platforms, even hosting it on a website or specialized foundry hosting. Players go to a website and log in – no need to buy anything extra on their ends. There are some control issues with the 3D. The camera mode is more akin to a 3D builder like blender than an FPS as far as controls and it was the biggest complaint from all the players I used it with. Once people got used to it, it was fairly easy to run the games. There was some lag with larger maps and a lot of those issues will depend on your hosting or if you are running it from your computer. Every asset and 3D model needs transferred to the players, so it can have some issues with speed. There are some really good quality of life features built in. Foundry takes 2D tokens and makes them vertical so that you can easily play with them in 3D mode. If the map is built right, you can switch back and forth between 2D and 3D. There are also some really cool particle effects and options built in.
• Pricing Model – The 3D Canvas module isn’t a program you can buy, but you can get access if you subscribe to the dev’s patreon. This model makes sense in some ways, as the dev is constantly updating and applying bug patches and fixes. If you stop subscription you will still have access to the current version, but not future ones. Foundry updates it’s base program fairly often (current version is v10 with lots of .4 or .8 updates as new bugs are patched). That means that Foundry Modules (of any type) can suddenly not work until their maintainer updates them.
• Quick Map Capabilities – Where Talespire and a few other options excel at this, Foundry 3D Canvas does not, at least not yet. There are not really any 3D full map repositories available that you can quickly pull from. There are other Patreons you can become part of to get some maps and more building assets, and the dev has been creating some procedural generation tools and options that give you at least basic structures and terrain (like ground, not trees, rocks, walls, etc – you can just pull those in onto the generated terrain).

What It could do better

• Complexity – Foundry 3D Canvas is much more complex and much less optimized than other programs. That’s the trade off for being so flexible, but it is a big enough issue to make me procrastinate on building maps for the next game session. I know I’ll need to devote a decent chunk of time to it and often end up just reverting to 2D maps or pretty meh adequate enough maps.
• Quick Map Creation – Improvisational play is much harder here because of the time it takes to really build things. You could subscribe to one of the Patreons making maps and assets, but that’s another Patreon to subscribe to in order to get a small amount of that “easy to create” functionality. Even with other maps, you still have to build and tweak things a bit.
• Bugs / Finicky – Like most any foundry module, there are enough unpolished elements depending on your usage and enough “the user will just have to learn how to work around it” areas that the UI/UX designer in me always struggles with the program. Bear in mind it’s a single developer building a 3D platform on top of a web server platform built for VTTs with lots of modules. It’s going to have bugs. There are also some finicky things to using the program and the dev does work to fix bugs and make new features available, but doesn’t look at many of the user experience options in other areas. Foundry already has a higher bar to entry, so the majority of the userbase will probably accept the lack of some quality of life improvements you wouldn’t tolerate in a larger, dedicated program.
• Pricing Model – I’m a little burned out on software as a service. It’s nice to know that the money is going straight to the person making the program, but I’d rather pay once than feel compelled to keep going with the Patreon support in order to keep the program working. Throw in the fact that any pre-built maps I’ve found are behind separate Patreons from various creators and it can get quite expensive on a monthly basis to keep using the option.

Final Take: I like 3D Canvas in Foundry a lot, but I already have the skills in many areas that are required to really make use of the program. Even one of my players who does 3D modelling for their job finds the amount of options and complexity a bit daunting. The incredible capability of what you can do (nearly anything) is counterbalanced by the complexity of learning and amount of work (quite a lot) that goes into making a good experience for your players. If you are already playing in Foundry and want to keep the mapping there, definitely check out 3D Canvas. If you aren’t sure you are up for the complexity and want a program geared at doing just the 3D mapping well another option may suit you better.

Click to see higher resolution images in a new window.

  

Rolltable.app

https://rolltable.app/

Rolltable.app is a fully online web-browser based VTT and that alone makes it kind of impressive. The options in rolltable.app are limited, but it is perfect for those who want to emulate the in-person tabletop experience without having to deal with much muss and fuss. The core idea of the program is 2D maps and 3D miniatures. There is a 2.5D isometric camera, a 2D camera and a full 3D camera. You can load in your own minis and they have also been taking all the free MZ4250 miniatures and digitally painting them one by one. You can load in your own miniatures as well as Hero Forge, although that takes a few extra steps.

• Complexity – Minimal. Like, seriously, this was the first 3D VTT that I instantly understood how to use. There are some things to learn to get a bit more out of the program and the team is updating some things to give more options. There are no 3D terrain models, although you could load your own in. They would currently work like minis loaded into the table, but that isn’t what the program is currently made to do. It does one thing and does it very well.
• Accessibility / Playability – To access the program you need to create a login and that’s it. Players link to the GM’s campaign and can be assigned their miniatures. There is fog of war and multiple camera options. It’s very easy to use the program and everything is incredibly intuitive.
• Pricing Model – I’m not currently sure how they intend to monetize the program. Currently it is free but they are very much in development. They have a Patreon and it looks like they are working towards an “early release”.
• Quick Map Capabilities – Since all the maps are 2D it is exactly as easy as finding maps for 2D VTTs like ROLL20. It’s actually quite charming and feels much like the majority of gaming I do in person. I don’t have 3D models for everything I do, often just hand drawn or 2D maps I’ve printed, or my TV Map enclosure that I use for digital maps. This feels exactly like that, just in a virtual setup.

What It could do better

• Careful Growth – The current iteration is very much in development and being worked on, but as an in progress project it is very good. For quick games or games I want to be easy to run, I’ll 100% use this program. While it doesn’t have as many features as some others, it is also super easy to use and learn. It just needs to add enough features while keeping an eye towards usability. They are planning some good features in their roadmap and talking with the devs in their discord gives me a sense they are looking at the community desires and needs.
• Hosting – The app has had a few outages due to hosting. I am sure the devs are trying to find the right amount of server usage that isn’t too expensive, and depending on their pricing model they may be able to improve that. While I’m not a fan of perpetually paying for software, a small fee as the GM monthly for hosting would feel viable here for reliable access.

Final Take: I consider rolltable.app my “backup” right now. It’s also the one I’ve recommended to a few people wanting to do more with 3D VTTs, but not really wanting to dig into more complex options. This would also be great for narrative games that need just a bit of visual representation. It is well worth checking out as an entry point into 3D VTTs and I would use this over Roll20 or other 2D only options. It lacks character sheets, game systems, etc. but I can do that more easily in other places.

Click to see higher resolution images in a new window. 

Upcoming VTTs Worth Mentioning

RPG stories

https://www.rpgstories.net/

Currently slated to have a “worldbuilder” version released in early 2023, RPG Stories looks like it might have the capability to “win” the VTT showdowns if it can deliver on what it has promised during it’s crowdfunding campaign. The visual look is on par with Talespire and has assets for multiple genres. It also promotes using your own custom miniatures and exporting anything made in the engine for COMMERCIAL use. Obviously that wouldn’t extend to custom assets unless you also owned rights to the models you pulled off of sketchfab or other areas. One of the standout features of the platform is the procedural generation. Much like Dungeon Alchemist, you can draw areas and have them auto populate with assets, but unlike Dungeon Alchemist they are more than just images you can use as 2D maps. There is also a Player Seat setup and Player Version setup already in place, meaning that it should be easy for GMs to run without asking extra of their players. The play options are slated to come later, but the dev diaries and alpha videos show a lot of good options on par with other VTTs. Interacting with devs in their discord, I have high hopes they will keep building things in a way that is community oriented and accessible. Since this isn’t released yet, it’s hard to say much about how it actually operates but it’s definitely one to keep an eye on.

Menyr

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nogstudio/menyr

I didn’t hear about Menyr when it first came to Kickstarter, but my friends certainly did. I was able to get in as a late backer and I’m impressed with the scale and scope of what they are trying to achieve. Menyr looks to be capable of incredible procedural generation and nearly first-person style control and play alongside isometric / 3D top down play. The videos and looks are impressive and they promise a lot. They also say the final product will be free. I’m not sure what their pricing model will be or how they’ll monetize after the fact. The one thing that strikes me is that nothing is ever truly free. Maybe the base options will be free with access to some areas or options behind a paywall, subscription, or DLC purchase. Menyr is a VTT to keep an eye on, but it promises a lot and that may be hard to fulfill. There also doesn’t seem to be current support for sci-fi or modern play. That may come later in some form, perhaps how they plan to monetize, but it doesn’t currently seem to be an option.

What Makes a Great VTT

Having looked deeply into so many different VTTs, I’ve got a few thoughts on what makes a VTT really work. I don’t think any VTT will ever be perfect and new technologies (like the ARR promised by products like Tilt Five) will shift the landscape even more. That being said, here are a few things I think a VTT needs to be truly competitive against all the other entries in the field.

• Simple to Moderate Complexity – People won’t want to learn level design comparable to game developers to build their maps. Focus on ease of building and using the program will make it much more viable. Advanced and complex options are always great for those who want to take the time and learn them, but they shouldn’t be required to use the program.

• Transparent and Fair Pricing – There are going to be so many competitors as new 3D VTTs keep getting made that people will be much more likely to choose and use the ones that they feel a sense of ownership over. Given a similar featureset, I will always choose the program or option that I don’t have to continue shelling out to use. I may be willing to purchase extra asset packs and models so long as they are cheap enough and don’t feel like micro-transactions in MMOs. When it comes down to choosing between paying monthly fees for streaming services / online games for low effort entertainment or paying for the VTT I use to run games bi-weekly, I’ll probably be dropping the VTT first and finding a different option even if it’s not as robust. Subscription services, even ones like Patreon that go directly to the developer, are going to have issues competing unless they offer vastly superior options to the other VTTs out there.

• Player Seats / Free Player Options – In a similar vein, the VTTs that allow the GM to invest the resources to play with anyone they want will be much more likely to succeed. Some groups share costs or loan books and you may be able to convince some tight-knit groups to each cover the cost of their own “license”, but for any GM that wants to use the system at conventions or might run different games with different people from time to time that model breaks down. As a GM, I might be convinced to cover the costs for my core players if I really like the VTT I’m using, but it’s far easier to convince me to buy 4 player seats that I know I can use with anyone. Asking players to buy Tabletop Simulator licenses was what prevented me from ever using it in a major way back when it first came out.

• Asset Importing – There are already a ton of 3D assets available out there for props, terrain, and characters. It probably won’t be too long before someone comes along and builds a character creator like Hero Forge, but standalone and capable of exporting 3D models for 3D VTTs. The JRPG game development market already has some sprite based and 2D avatar creators that look really good and it won’t take long for someone to build a decent 3D model creation one with options for TTRPGs as a second userbase. There are already tons of models available and there will only ever be more available. The VTTs that allow you to pull your own ones in without having to learn 3D modeling will have a huge advantage over other competitors.

• Bonus Points – Exporting: RPG Stories has mentioned allowing exporting of built maps to use in other VTTs and their impressive range of asset options is phenomenal. Even if the VTT options are sub-par, the program has already proven itself useful. I could build whole maps there and import into Foundry 3D Canvas or RPG Engine to use. That alone is worth the price of admission, especially if procedural generation is available.

• Quick Maps / Community Workshop – I enjoy fiddling around with map building, but like my settlements in Fallout 4 and bases in No Man’s Sky, I lose interest after a while. When it comes to TTRPGs, I also often have a sudden need for ye old jail to break out of (or into) or a new spaceship interior as the players raid the merchant ship they were supposed to be escorting. Talespire and The RPG Engine have this option available through community built maps and RPG Stories is slated to do this procedural generation options. Even Foundry 3D Canvas has some impressive “repeat model” options that allow you to quickly and semi-randomly populate a forest of the same model of trees. Some way to get quick maps that are “good enough” is going to almost be a baseline requirement.

• Fun Unexpected Details – I didn’t know I wanted the ability to “ping” with emojis in a VTT until one of my players made a barf face emoji appear over their head when they got sickened in the last session. Suddenly everyone was dropping emojis and laughing their heads off. This option in the The RPG Engine was at the end of the list of “spell effect pings” people were using to “cast” their spells for visual effects. Little extras like that aren’t necessary, but now that I’ve discovered it I’ll be sad if I don’t see it in other VTTs. I’m going to call out the awesome features of The RPG Engine here, but the animations built in to the built-in character creator and the ability to “open” doors and chests just blew my players away. They weren’t necessary, but they were a small, extra, immersive element that made things more interesting.

I hope this article has give you some things to look at in the current (and soon to be) realm of 3D VTTs. If you want some more info, there’s some great video overviews of various options out there.

If there is a VTT you currently use that you’d love to see added, let me know. I’m always on the lookout for the best available option. There are a few I didn’t add or talk about here for one reason or another, but I’d love to hear which ones you think are the best.

Recently I’ve been writing a few articles that highlight some of the homebrew changes I make to D&D5e to make it more epic and open (Simpler Currency System and Point Buy Feats). The current game I’m running is in a Final Fantasy world and I’ve wanted to make sure things felt more open and accessible. Today I want to share the Modular Weapon and Armor system I use to make weapons more interesting and variable. This system is definitely not RAW or appropriate for more OSR style games, but what it does is allow weapons to be more interesting and adaptable to character concepts. It gives an upgrade option outside of magic +1 weapons and armor. With stock D&D rules there aren’t a lot of ways to make a dagger “better” except by making it a +1 weapon. Older editions had things like Masterwork, which were interesting and added some definition to the weapons and armor. This system separates weapon mechanics and narrative aspects to allow more interesting weapon types.

The Core Concepts

The core concept of this system is to start with a base cost for the weapon or armor based on the core effect it has. From there you add weapon properties and other modifiers that change the base cost of the weapon or armor. Here are the steps for building this system out for use, but you can just modify prices in the tables later on and insert into your game for ease of use.

Creating The Tables

• Step 1 – Assign Tiers – Assign quality tiers to the basic categories for weapons and armor. Those would be Simple and Martial Weapons and Light, Medium, and Heavy Armor. In the tables presented later I have the various tiers set up as Poor, Basic, Good, Great, Excellent, etc. but they can be modified to fit your setting constraints.
• Step 2 – Base Costs – Find a base cost for each quality tier within the category based on the relevant factor. For weapons that is damage and for armor that is the AC provided. For example: A simple weapon of Poor (d4 damage) quality would be ## sp, while a weapon of Basic (d6 damage) quality would be ## sp, etc.
• Step 3 – Modifiers – Create mechanical weapon and armor modifiers that affect the price by a percentage. The Light weapon property that allows a weapon to be used with two weapon fighting style is now set up as a modifier that adds a %% to the base cost of the weapon.

That’s the basic setup of the system for your game. What comes next is building the weapons and armor when you need one. Let’s imagine that a magic using character who can only wield simple weapons wants to get a new staff made that is capable of withstanding combat as well as channeling magic. They would follow the following steps to build the weapon (or armor) and determine the cost.

Building Weapons and Armor

• Step 1 – Base Cost and Effect –  Determine the base damage / quality of the weapon you want to create.
• Step 2 – Modifiers – Add weapon property modifiers and cost modifiers associated with those. Weapon modifiers add or subtract together to get a final %% which is applied against the base cost. A +20% and a -10% modifier would be a final +10% modifier.
• Step 3 – Calculate Final Price – Calculate the final Price and add any GM modifications, “taxes”, or cost modifiers to represent non-mechanical elements or help with balance issues.

That’s it. New weapon acquired and priced. Let’s look at it a bit more in-depth though.

• Step 1 – Base Cost and Effect – Aven’s player wants a new staff that is more capable and sturdy in combat to represent their nature as a battle-mage. The GM says sure, figure it out and then we’ll come up with the narrative of how you get it. The player wants it to be the max damage possible, so she picks a d8 for 120 sp.
• Step 2 –  Modifiers – A regular quarterstaff is written up with the Versatile property, so Aven’s player adds that. From the list of modifiers versatile is a +10% cost. At this point, we have a regular if slightly more damaging quarterstaff. Aven’s player doesn’t want to just let it stop there. They are a magic user, they want something really special. How about an extra damage type. Let’s add slashing and piercing! Well, that’s two +10% modifiers so we are up to +30% total.
• Step 3 – Calculate Final Price – At 120sp + 30% we have a staff that costs 156 sp, but this isn’t the final price necessarily. Aven’s player talks with the Game Master and they determine what the narrative elements are around this. They decide that Aven meets another traveling battlemage who knows some unique tricks. They teach Aven how to add some unique “quicksilver” channels into the staff that will make it more sturdy as well as let Aven channel some magical energy to create energy blades and spikes around the staff. So the slashing and piercing come from Aven channeling a little energy into the staff to form a small energy blade that cuts. The GM thinks on this and likes it, but decides that the staff might count as a concealed weapon, at least part of it would so they say add +10% to the base cost. That takes the modifier total to +40% which makes the final cost 168 sp. They do a quick montage of the battlemage showing how to carve the channels, giving Aven the bottle of “quicksilver” to pour in and showing how to channel the energy into a blade. The material cost is considered to be spent on special components rather than paying the battle-mage.

There are a lot of benefits that come out of using a system like this.

What This System Gets You

So, why would you use this system over the core D&D system that’s already written up? There are a lot of benefits that come out of the small amount of extra work you need to do.

• Narrative Freedom with relative mechanical balance – If a player wants a weapon for a character that is unique or special in some way, it’s easy enough to create. Let’s imagine that a player with a rogue character wants a kind of Armblade built into a bracer. We start with a Martial Weapon of Good Quality providing 1d6 damage and costing 60 sp. At this point it’s the same as a handaxe or shortsword for damage. The player wants to use it for dual wielding and with dexterity, so that adds the Light modifier at +10% and the Finesse modifier at +10%. Now it’s more in line with a shortsword for damage and properties.
  • The final stats and cost: Armblade – 1d6 damage + DEX or STR, Light (dual wielding), Finesse (DEX or STR) – cost 72 sp.
• Upgradability – Does this scene sound familiar? The players are in town and you ask them what they are looking for. One player wants to find a “better” set of daggers, not magical because they don’t have that much money yet, but something better that does more damage. Hmmm. You want to say yes, so you’ll have to just homebrew something that feels right. With a system like this, you can figure out the costs and decide how to handle it from there. Upgrading from a d4 dagger (Finesse, light, thrown (range 20/60) – 26 sp) to a d6 dagger is merely a matter of determining the difference in cost. The 3 modifiers at +10% each equal 30% and the new base cost is 60 instead of 20. Buying the daggers new would be 78 sp. You could determine that someone in town could sharpen and re-hone them for a difference of 52 sp or say that it costs 78 sp to reforge them, just as a new set would cost. The process to determine the difference in cost is already in place, it’s just a matter of deciding if the thematics of the work are accurate enough.
• Cost by function, not form – In stock D&D 5e, a handaxe costs 5 gp while a shortsword costs 10 gp. The handaxe has thrown while the shortsword has finesse. A scimitar is 1d6 slashing with finesse, just like a shortsword, but has a cost of 25 gp. A trident costs 5 gp and the damage is 1d6 piercing with thrown and versatile. Much of the actual price in these instances is solely based on narrative functions and older fantasy gaming concepts, which is fine but lacks a balance. Using a system where cost is based on function allows things to match up in decently similar ways. You could set narrative costs, but those will be largely arbitrary. A handaxe made with elven craftsmanship to be a finesse weapon? You know how much that costs mechanically. If you want to consider it more expensive because it is an art piece or because it is made with a special material that is fine. The extra cost reflects the narrative elements.
• Expandability – A system like this that provides mechanical basis for the modifiers allows you to figure out ways to add in your own special properties rather easily. Taking the armblade example above, imagine that the player wants the armblade to be a concealed weapon. A modifier for that isn’t currently written up, but all you have to do is decide the parameters and cost. You may quickly jot down that a +20% concealment cost would make the weapon concealed at a quick glance while a +60% would mean it would be concealed from nearly any visual inspection, but not necessarily a pat-down. You could even decide that adding concealment would just straight up be +100% or +120% because it would take a lot of mechanical elements and tricks. If the player wanted to have a greatsword with a 1d12 damage as a concealed weapon, well you have a basis to determine that would cost +300% of the normal cost. The concealment could be magical, it could be a very special expanding greatsword, it could be a very thin but sturdy greatsword that is disguised in a thick oaken staff. It could be a metal pole that has mechanical blades that slide out from the sides. It could be the magical metal morphing powers of the elemental blood that is your legacy allowing you to perform a minor, practiced change in the metal bar of a specific composition that you always carry with you. The verisimilitude of your campaign is up to you, but the option to say yes and figure out the cost is available in a slightly more balanced way.
• Flexibility – If you use this system to determine the base mechanical costs of the weapons and armor, you have a basis to decide costs narratively but still have a solid core. Maybe a concealed armor is easier with a certain kind of material (a cloak) compared to a set of noble’s clothes. One may require just a bit of tailoring while the other requires some kind of special steel spider-silk. That could be the difference between a +20% and a +80% based on the narrative. You may be making a semi-arbitrary decision, but you are basing it on a system. It isn’t just +40 gold or +130 gold, it’s a percentage based on difference in effort. You can make changes after that if it doesn’t feel right, but you have a solid basis to guide your decisions. “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” That saying is attributed to Pablo Picasso, but there is also a similar one attributed to the Dalai Lama.  The idea is to have a solid system in place that allows for modifications in a standardized way. You can determine how wide of a change you want to make rather than having it feel arbitrary to your players.

All the Details

I’ve gone on long enough talking about the benefits of the system, so let’s end this article with the information you REALLY needed – the tables and costs. These are based on my FFXIV x DND costs but I’ve tweaked them back to silver costs to integrate more easily into a standard D&D game. You can get an approximate gold costs by dividing by 10.

Armor Creation Table

Light Armor

Medium Armor

Heavy Armor

Shield

Armor Modifiers

Standard 5e Armor Costs

Light Armor

Medium Armor

Heavy Armor

Shield

Weapon Creation Table

Simple Melee Weapons

Martial Melee Weapons

Weapon Modifiers

Standard Weapons List

Simple Melee Weapons

Simple Ranged Weapons

Martial Melee Weapons

Martial Ranged Weapons

Players never like to feel unprepared when it comes to situations in games. If there is a way to have an upper hand or even to “hovervan” past an encounter, the players will usually take that as a win in their book. That desire to be ahead of the game can often lead to massive slow downs and lags in the game as the players endlessly attempt to position themselves perfectly to address a challenge – especially if you are playing any flavor of Shadowrun. Luckily, any game that uses a point system to affect the narrative or mechanics in any way has a built in structure to help lubricate these slowdowns while also helping the players feel prepared for situations.

This happens all too often

Rogue’s Player: I want to look down that tunnel, but I’m going to be very quiet and I’m going to look for traps along the way.

GM: Okay, give me a stealth roll and two perception rolls.

Rogue’s Player: Is one for trapfinding?

GM: I can’t tell you otherwise it would reveal there is a trap.

Rogue’s Player: But I get a bonus to trapfinding.

GM: Okay, roll one with and one without the bonus.

— 2 minutes of dice rolling and adding up bonuses and feats later —

GM: There was nothing down the hall.

Rogue’s Player: Okay, I go down the next hall – VERY carefully and VERY aware.

Fighter’s Player: I want to hit something! Can we just move on!

Yeah, it’s a tropey scenario, but I can think of at least 3 or 4, wait 5, wait 7 times from games where that exact sort of scenario played out in some fashion. One player with a particular skill-set (sneaking, hacking, magical sensing, etc.) wants to use it to the best advantage, but that takes time to really bring their abilities to bear. Part of that is a game design issue, but part of it could be handled in a different and quicker way. The player who is playing the rogue isn’t doing anything wrong. They want to get the most out of their character and be of benefit to the party, their play loop is just built to be separate in some way. Everyone engages in combat, but if everyone engaged in sneaking around it would be detrimental.

You don’t actually have to prepare to feel prepared

So, how do you make those scenarios quicker while still making sure that players with those types of characters feel relevant? SUMMARIZE!

Rather than splitting one character off, pull that side-scenario into a more compressed meta-space. Before going into the situation, and maybe even at the start of the session, ask the person doing the sneaking / hacking / magical scrying / etc. to give you a handful of the relevant rolls. Depending on the number of successes and any perceived difficulty modifiers for the task  – such as more difficult because it is a well guarded space or easier because it is an ancient computer system with 12345 as the password – you can award a number of extra inspiration points that can only be used when relevant to that research or skill.

When you get to the time those points are used, narrate a brief montage of the event, or even better let the player do it within some guidelines, and you can move into the more group based play loops. With those extra inspiration points available, the player can get advantage and then call back to some element of their sneaking, hacking, or preparation phase. Maybe it matters, maybe it doesn’t, but the player now has a currency to use and feel justified in the use of their skills and their character build.  You can also ask for a multitude of rolls without triggering any suspicions about specific areas.

If you want to acknowledge that the player might have found a trap or accessed a blueprint and thus know where a laser grid is, you could just let the player know they have 3 “prep points” and that you will remove a few things based on their successes. Maybe you ask them if they want to spend a point before they go down the next hall. When they do, you show one trap they would notice, tell them about an ambush spot they could avoid, or reveal a secret door that bypasses the lockpicking challenge on the main door.

It all comes down to abilities, reward, and currency to spend in some way. The players with solo (ish) gameplay loops want to use their abilities, and you should reward them for doing well with those. Sometimes those moments should be zoomed in on but sometimes they pull you away from the rest of the game. Adding in some method that justifies the expenditure of time and effort without always having to pause the rest of the game for it can create the same sense of accomplishment. This sort of system doesn’t remove the solo-gameplay loop, it just moves it outside of the shared action phases while still letting that character interact at the same pace as the others. The rolls may happen earlier in a mini-game sort of situation, but the narrative is experienced at the same time as the other players.

Points and Meta-Currency

One of the reasons this works well is the idea of a meta-currency that you spend for benefit on the narrative. Gaining this currency is the reward for the rolls, but it also triggers that core idea of being prepared. Even if the players don’t know the narrative around how it is used when they gain it, they get to use it to circumvent disaster and thus feel like they were prepared. If you wrap in the narrative requirement as well, it mimics the concept of the heist movie prep scene, but in reverse. Rather than the protagonists explaining the heist and seeing small snippets of it, you know how prepared you are for the heist and then get the flashbacks of the preparation showing off how cool that character is on their own.

When a game system has some kind of points that affect the narrative – like D&D 5e’s inspiration, 3.5’s Action Points in Eberron, Fate Points in Fate, XP’s non-level up use in the Cypher System, etc. – you can easily tack the prep point idea on top of that. Hacking an existing framework like this gives a way for the players to easily tie into it. It gives a framework for the benefit to be applied and you can limit it to only certain uses. Can the advantage be used in combat or just for avoiding traps? Maybe the player can give a good narrative for why it is relevant for a combat use.

“I knew there were a couple of loose cobblestones in this hall from my sneaking through, so I back up until the enemy is on one of those and it puts them off balance a bit.”

That solution is clever as heck, so why not? It also lets the player be heard for their clever ideas and their character builds.

Of course, the prep points don’t need tied to the exact use of the already existing point, such as inspiration being used for advantage. You could have them be spent in an entirely different way. Maybe the player has 4 prep points that can be used to grant advantage or… as the character gets into the dungeon you offer to reveal as many traps as they want to spend prep points on. They give you two and you show them two traps they can now avoid. They save the rest for other uses and when they get ambushed they ask if they can spend the other two to retcon that they knew it was going to happen and avoid the first surprise round.

The fact that these are treated as currency lets them be malleable in just that way. You can spend them on different areas and still feel as though you have the same amount of benefit, even if the results are vastly different. Do you spend that $20 on 3 fancy coffees, one good meal out, or a new game book?

Another way to take this concept is to make the prep points shared. It’s not just the hacker who benefits from knowing the base blueprints after all, but everyone. Creating a generic challenge of 5 rolls of relevant skills with a threshold of 3 successes for the hacker / rogue / scout /etc. could give every player two more inspiration or story points to use. Rather than the hacker getting 4 points, this helps everyone benefit while also making the traditionally solo play loop feel relevant to everyone. You can still do the flashback and narrative justification for the character who did the solo loop, but now the fighter or cleric gets to narrate it or ask the other player to. This makes their contribution feel relevant while also removing the time sink that might disrupt the flow.

Conclusion

I have iterations of this that I use in different games, but ultimately the concept needs tailored towards your play style. In my D&D games I give 5 inspiration at the start of every session. I then find ways to bleed them out earlier in the game before big climactic battles, but if the players are wise to that they save them and pull victory from the jaws of defeat with them. Because of how I use inspiration in my games, 1 – 2 more per player for prep doesn’t overbalance things, but that’s because I run from the Tome of Beasts or at a few CR higher than the player levels. In a game that is less generous with inspiration – and closer to RAW – maybe leaving prep points as their own kind of currency makes more sense. In a game where the “Plot Points” are very powerful, maybe you have a chart where a certain number of successes in the prep phase yields different results.

However you use it, the idea of separating the narrative and mechanical elements of the more solo-centric gameplay loops and generating a type of currency to reconnect them during the group gameplay loops can really change the dynamic. It prevents the solo-action from bogging things down while still letting the player make full use of their character. Have you used systems like this before? There are some games where this style of mechanic is baked right in, but those usually focus around more heist-centric mechanics or investigation as full-game sorts of scenarios. What point-based systems would you envision this working well with?

I recently wrote up an article detailing the simpler setup I use for my FFXIV x DND game for currency. In that setup, I distill costs down to ranges for various categories of items and just figure out the appropriate cost within the range on the fly. Part of that concept is based on using the “Silver Standard” concept for fantasy gaming. There is a lot of information and discussion on the Silver Standard out there, and there are various versions of it. Since I’m basing part of my current currency system off of the idea, I thought it might be a good idea to talk about just the silver standard side of things and how it might be applicable.

What Is The Silver Standard?

There are multiple takes on the silver standard, but the core concept is to use silver coins as the main available currency rather than gold coins. Some versions merely replace the gold cost with silver, so a set of ring mail that would be 30 gold becomes 30 silver. Some versions change the conversion rates and tweak things to represent prices differently. In some of these systems 100 silver equals 1 gold or 20 silver equals 1 gold, etc. The goal here is to create a more realistic pricing model to medieval societies. That’s a very tall order in a fantasy world, but the various silver standard conversions change the paradigm to make gold feel more rare.

The big benefit of any silver standard system is that things “feel” more realistic based on our modern sensibilities. Gold is a much rarer metal and there is always a bit of a disconnect to think of things in gold coins. The modern exchange rate (currently) for an ounce of gold is ~1,650 USD. That means we would value a single, small gold coin at well over a thousand dollars in the real world. While there may be other societal factors at play in a fantasy world, it’s always hard to get around that idea. The mind wants to fall back to what denomination prices are listed in and match that to our understandings, so seeing 50 feet of rope listed at 1gp creates a weird mental accounting. The silver standard aims to fix that by putting things in easier to conceptualize denominations.

The Simplest Implementation Of The Silver Standard And Why It Works

My own take on the Silver Standard is inspired by this forum post and this comment by WIK:

“Well, when I did it, I just made sure that I made most transactions in silver pieces. When you do that, you start getting a bit more precise when you do prices – what would normally be a 10 GP per week stay at a nice inn is now 115 silver per week…while the one down the street is 110 silver, but they don’t do your linens (or whatever).”

That resonated with me and that simple concept works about 90% of the time. Change gp to sp and multiply by 10. The ring mail that was 30 gp becomes 300 sp and that feels more correct  in my mind. It’s easier for my brain to connect a silver piece as about a dollar and to conceptualize a 300 silver piece of armor. An inn stay costs about 8 silver per night while a very nice in stay costs about 20 silver and a super nice inn stay costs about 40 silver. Inflation and other factors make those not match up exactly to most real world costs, but they provide a better basis to work with. A decent dagger costing about 20 silver feels more realistic, even if you pay for it with 2 gold coins. Determining price variations becomes much easier. Is it a really fancy dagger – how about 35 silver or 90 because of the jewels.

So that’s it, the simplest – and in my humble opinion the best – implementation of the Silver Standard is to mark all gold prices in silver and salt to taste.  It will change the tone of the currency while not really changing any of the mechanics. You and your players can conceptualize the costs better and make quicker changes to provide the feel of a more alive economy. A chest of gold coins feels much more valuable and carrying around larger denomination coins becomes a way to rationalize not carrying 40 lbs of coins if you are playing more realistic, old school. It doesn’t quite mesh up to a real world currency but feels more in line and doesn’t require any other math.

What do you think of a silver standard this simple? Have you used one of the many versions of the silver standard out there or a totally different currency system? What works for you and doesn’t with pricing in gold pieces for D&D / fantasy games?

A very simple trick that I’ve used in many games and might have picked up from someone somewhere along the way is using the equivalent of a coin flip when I need to decide something quickly, or to see if I answer some player bid for advantage, or whether a guard can be persuaded. I’ve come to call it “Odds or Evens” but have also done “High or Low”.

The Setup

Suppose you have a situation like this:

Player: Hey GM, are those people who tried to con us out of a bridge toll still back at the bridge when we come back? I want to make them an offer for information.

GM (Thinking to self): Hmmm. Would they be? It’s likely they moved on after they failed and got intimidated, but they might also have stuck around to try to con some other poor sucker. I kind of want to say yes, but there’s a likely chance they would be scared off. Hmm…..

or one like this:

Player: Hey GM, can I find any plants in the area to make some poisons with? I know we’re in a desert, but oooh, wait, I could probably find a scorpion and milk the venom..

GM (Thinking to self): Scorpions would work, but plants would be more in line with the character and I have rules for that. I know the roll they would make to find it and to make it, but are there poisonous plants in a desert. Probably, but what kind and how much longer would it take to find the poisonous ones or Doesn’t matter if it’s realistic….

or the one that always pops up for me due to my generous use of inspiration as plot points ala Fate games:

Player: Heeeeeey GM… So, if I were to offer you 3 inspiration points, would I be able to morph my spell to…..

My normal inclination in most situations is to say yes, but I realize there is a power in letting the players “feel the win” from the dice going in their favor. In situations like this, I often decide to leave the decision up to fate by calling for an “even or odd” roll. What is that? Well….

The Execution

It’s so super simple. I ask the player to decide “even or odd” just like a heads or tails on a coin, and then I roll whatever die I want to represent – 1d6, 1d10, 2d6, 1d20 – anything and it will work. If the die comes up how the player calls it, I decide in their favor.

Yup, the con-men are back at the bridge. You can pitch your idea to them.

Sure, you can find enough plants to make poison. If you want to capture scorpions though, it’ll be some different rolls.

Alright, you have enough capability with spellcraft I need an arcana roll of ### and it happens. If you fail, you don’t spend the inspiration.

So why not just a coin flip? Well, the die roll feels more right for the gaming paradigm. Plus you can use the level of the roll as a random gauge of sorts if you want. They call even and you roll an 8 on a d10 –  bigger effect maybe. They call odd and you roll a 3 on a 10, sure but maybe the follow up isn’t as easy.  It helps you decide how receptive the con-men are to the pitch based on previous interactions or how easy it is to find poisonous plants.

There’s really not much more to it than that. Replace a coin flip with a die roll of evens or odds and use it when you need to determine something that would “feel better” with a bit of randomness – those on the fence moments. It helps remove any feelings of bias (for or against the players) and makes the players feel a win or a loss, even if it’s a 50/50 chance.

I would guess that a lot of GMs have systems or tricks similar to this, maybe just behind the screen. Moving it out in the open though creates a sense of player agency, a kind of exposure of the random chance and a feeling that the players staring at the dice as they roll will effect something as the click clack determines the fate. As Einstein once said “God tirelessly plays dice under laws which he has himself prescribed.” This system feels like a perfect example of that paradigm, deciding an equally viable left or right, up or down with a random binary choice that doesn’t feel binary, even if it is.

I’m currently running a D&D game in the Final Fantasy XIV world setting using a modified version of the excellent FFXIV x DND homebrew. At its core, it’s still D&D 5e, but I’ve been taking the opportunities the setting gives me to tweak and open up some of the systems to fit the more modular and open gaming style I tend to enjoy. I already wrote one article about the Point Buy Feats system I created to give my players more diverse options. Today I want to drop my setup for removing a ton of complexity from the D&D currency and item system.

Why Change Things?

I’ve always had a few personal issues with the way money and currency are handled in D&D games. I played way back when in the days of 2e and I get where the system has its historical roots. It works fine, but it always feels off. Whether it’s bribing a guard with what would be a year’s salary or realizing that the prices this “poor blacksmith” is selling their goods for should result in them living in opulent wealth, it just never seems to add up in a way that felt understandable. If the tech level differs a bit or there are more advanced options in the world, the system feels even more off balance. Sure, you just handwave and move along so you can get to the fun parts of the game, but I’ve always felt there are better ways.

I’ve tried using skill and resource based systems like in old World of Darkness games, and I’ve dipped into not bothering with it at all and just pushing those elements to the narrative. The issue always comes back to the players wanting to have that ‘gaining money’ experience, and it’s hard to do that without some quantification of the resource. It’s rarely satisfying to say “The quest giver offers you a ‘good amount of money’ to do this job” and then move on. Would the characters be motivated beyond the danger? Would they want more? How much more should they negotiate for? Would they scoff and not take the danger on for that paltry sum? So, from a narrative perspective, money needs at least a little definition to create the experience that fits the scope of D&D games. Really, all games in any setting need some sort of conceptualization of money if it is at all a part of the tropes. Would the elite merc group take on the deadly mission for $500? Would the tramp freighter group try to run the imperial blockade for 4,000 credits? Without some concept of relative worth, some of the verisimilitude breaks down, but the super detailed and accurate item accounting can cause it’s own issues and be a pain to keep track of. So, what’s the solution?

Relative Costs

I’ve played around with lots of ways to get around the issues I find in the D&D currency system, but the one that resonates and seems to fix most of my issues is figuring out the relative costs for some important categories of items and services and providing an adequate cost range – making a kind of matrix of value in the game world. Having the range of costs for a basic category gives you enough flexibility to quickly figure out a price for almost anything, while also allowing you to vary up things based on market conditions.

Here are my relative costs that I use for my FFXIVxDND game. For my world I use GIL, but I’ve gone ahead and converted to a version of the Silver Standard. The “Silver Standard” paradigm is a popular way to re-conceptualize and make the D&D prices feel more understandable. In short, if a price was in gold I converted it to silver and matched those to more of the idea that a silver piece is very vaguely around 1 USD. (Edit: The original article had the prices in gil for my game, but I went back and edited so this was more usable out of the box. You can just change sp to gil or whatever named currency you might use for your world. )

Basic Goods

Lifestyle

Travel (Per person)

Special / Magic Item General Price

Modified from the DMG chart, magic item prices will vary greatly depending on usage. This chart is for general consideration only.

The Breakdown – Or what’s so great about this?

What I love about this setup is that I can instantly ditch set item prices. I have converted a lot of the D&D items to sp within this paradigm, but when it comes down to figuring out how much some item should cost that isn’t listed, I’ve got some lines I can color inside of. Maybe a player gets a very smart idea to bribe the librarian for access to closed off sections of the library with a super nice journal or a rare book. All I have to do is consider what category it is within – let’s say the low range of extravagant – and provide the player some options. Perhaps give them a choice between a journal bound in rare leather and transported from a far away land for about 180 sp or a tome of Ben Hur 1860, third edition with the erratum on page 116 for only 376 sp. Both rare books but it is simple enough to figure out a price without referencing the item lists and then trying to determine how much it might be based off of standard D&D.

Book prices aren’t written up anywhere I know of in the stock D&D setting, and their value may change depending on setting and the rarity. With the relative system in place, all I have to do is decide if they are common or extravagant and decide how much this area may have one available for. Take a common item such as a set of blacksmith’s tools. I could determine that it is cheaper in a more populous area (say 65 sp for a hammer and tongs) while in a frontier outpost it costs more (125 sp) because of lack of supply and demand. I just have to target what I want the cost to represent for the item. Working with ranges lets you be flexible.

As you can see from the breakdowns I wrote up, you can also create ranges for many different types of sellable items or services. Modifying lifestyle options lets you get a general idea of how much a good bribe might be or how much fancy meals would cost within the range. With travel I can make the categories representative rather than 3 sp per mile and have to figure out the math. I can also break out of the ranges for special circumstances. Sure, it’s only a short travel by airship or boat but the island is supposed to be haunted and the captain requires triple the pay per person.

The Real Handwave – Real World Pricing

One more thing I like to do to ease things even more is make things equivalent to common scope of real world items. Matching what you and your players understand as real world value in USD, CAD, Euro, Rands, Yen, etc. and building the categories based off of that will let you just come up with prices immediately. You could even shift your money system by a percentage if you wanted to make it feel unique but still match a common understanding of value. If something would cost 20 dollars USD you could decide it is around 200 sp in the game setting because everything is about 10x real world USD prices in sp.

Something that wouldn’t be mass manufactured may have to accommodate the cost of crafting by hand, but – if you match it to real world money paradigms it is much easier to figure things out. If you set up your relative price ranges well you can still easily grok general costs without matching to a real world price. You may look up hand made soap on Etsy and see people sell it for around 4 to 6 bucks per piece. Great – that’s 4 sp to 6 sp or 40 sp to 60 sp if you are shifting prices for a unique feeling.

Final Thoughts

This is not a system based in realism, except in the ways it is more realistic. Maybe it’s more true to say it isn’t a system based in exacts, but neither are real world money systems. Look almost any product on an online marketplce where there are multiple versions of the same thing. You’ll see pricing varies greatly for goods that are made by multiple different manufacturers. The same goods also cost different prices in different locations. Anything on an island is usually more expensive because of supply chain costs and buying something from an open air market compared to an established shop will have great variation in the costs. This is a system more about defining the value than the exact pristine price of an item and that can be incredibly freeing. The paradigm works across many settings and it becomes easy to shift and move when the current game situation requires it.

What do you think about relative money systems like this? Do you see yourself using something like this to ease some bookkeeping? What other categories would you create to accommodate your in-game needs?

I’ve always been a fan of modularity and characterization in TTRPGs. It’s been the bread and butter of every gaming system I’ve built and is usually an option I try to shoehorn in if there aren’t enough options for my players to make the cool characters they envision. I like point buy systems, but there are always reasons to come back to D&D as a game you are running. Currently, I’m running an issekai FFXIV x DND for my players. We started in the newest BESM but the character advancement options in that game just weren’t clicking with me. After playing around with a revitalized version of an older game I built, I decided it was time to go back to the D&D roots of Final Fantasy and just work with the excellent homebrew that SilentSoren created.

My players know D&D, the FFXIV x DND options were mostly in line with how we envisioned the classes, D&D is very easy to improv with, and there are a ton of resources I can grab when I’m in need of a quick adventure or complete monster that I just need to give a shiny new Final Fantasy coat of paint. All that being said, I wanted just a bit more than was presented. A few more options for cool powers not tied to the classes. A way to say yes to an interesting concept. A way to emulate the unique abilities found in the video game setting. Thinking through how to achieve these things, the answer struck me – open up the feat system a bit. Decouple it from class progression and give it a way to be more modular and open to some custom powers and I felt I had a winner.

A Point Buy Feats System

Being the diligent researcher I am, my first step was to go see if it had been done before. It, of course, had but not in a way that fit quite what I wanted. There are a few forum posts and some OGL supplements that take the concept in a few different directions, but what I wanted was a mix of the ease of picking feats with just a bit more openness and a linear progression of rewards and chance at feats as an extra bonus for every character. So, how does it work?

• Characters no longer get feats and Ability Score Improvements at certain levels. (I do this for balance but create a new feat that gives the ASI if players would rather have that.)
• Characters are given 5 points for purchasing feats at character creation. (Season to taste. I like giving characters lots of options.)
• Every level gain grants a character +1 feat point that they can spend on new feats.
• All the core feats have been priced at either 2 or 3 points, with most being 3 as a centralizing factor and a few being just a bit cheaper.
• I also tend to remove racial or class limitations on feats, allowing players to pick interesting options and coming up with justifications for them in the narrative they spin.

My list of costs for feats

• Actor – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Alert – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Athlete – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Bountiful Luck – 3 Points
  (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
• Charger – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Chef – 3 Points
  (Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything)
• Crossbow Expert – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Defensive Duelist – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Dragon Fear – 3 Points
  (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
• Dragon Hide – 3 Points
  (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
• Drow High Magic – 3 Points
  (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
• Dual Wielder – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Dungeon Delver – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Durable – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Dwarf Fortitude – 3 Points
  (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
• Elemental Adept – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Elven Accuracy – 3 Points
  (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
• Fade away – 3 Points
  (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
• Fey Teleportation – 3 Points
  (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
• Fighting Initiate – 3 Points
  (Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything)
• Flames of Phlegethos – 3 Points
  (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
• Grappler – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Great Weapon Master – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Healer – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Heavily Armored – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Heavy Armor Master – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Infernal Constitution – 3 Points
  (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
• Inspiring Leader – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Keen Mind – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Lightly Armored – 2 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Linguist – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Lucky – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Mage Slayer – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Magic Initiate – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Martial Adept – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Medium Armor Master – 2 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Mobile – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Moderately Armored – 2 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Mounted Combatant – 2 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Observant – 4 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Orcish Fury – 3 Points
  (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
• Polearm Master – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Prodigy – 3 Points
  (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
• Resilient – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Ritual Caster – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Savage Attacker – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Second Chance – 3 Points
  (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
• Sentinel – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Sharpshooter – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Shield Master – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Skilled – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Skulker – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Spell Sniper – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Squat Nimbleness – 3 Points
  (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
• Tavern Brawler – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Tough – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• War Caster – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Weapon Master – 3 Points
  (Player’s Handbook)
• Wood Elf Magic – 3 Points
  (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)

Not many of the options are under 3 points, but a few that I wanted to make more available or enticing to my players are priced a bit lower. That being said, with the framework for the point buy system in place it’s time to get to what this is really about – new character options! For my FFXIV game, I wrote up a few setting specific feats, a few interesting options to modify characters, and a few very kitchen sink feats that let me expand wherever I want. I might have written these up as just regular feat options, but then I wouldn’t have gotten the ability to make some of these very cheap and enticing to add in with extra points.

My List Of Custom Feats

• Class Feature  (2 – 6+ points)
  You have one class feature from another class. The cost of this depends on the strength and level of the feature. You must be at the level where you could unlock the feature if you were playing that class. Spellcasting as a class feature can not be acquired with this.
  – A class feature 4 or below starts at 2 points.
  – A class feature 5 – 8 always starts at 3 points.
  – A class feature 9 – 12 always starts at 4 points.Depending on the power or utility of the class feature, the GM may determine it is +1 or +2 points. For example, the Extra Attack feature may be considered very powerful in your game. The GM determines it costs 4 points instead of 3. If a class feature would level up, the GM may determine it is only available at the lowest level or that adding the level up feature would raise the cost. For example, the Rogue’s sneak attack feature might cost 2 points if it is only available at the lowest level and 4 points if it progresses in power. The GM may also decide it is capped at 4d6 additional to keep it balanced, or may require it to be 6 points if it levels up all the way.
• Attunement Master  (2 points)
  You can attune to one extra item.
• Dual Spell Focus  (3 points)
  You can maintain one additional concentration spell.
• Expertise  (2 points)
  Choose one ability you have proficiency in. You gain expertise in it.
• Extra Hit Points  (2 points)
  Your hit die is one higher (max d10).
• Extra Spell Points  (3 points)
  Your spell points maximum increases by an amount equal to twice your level when you gain this feat. Whenever you gain a level thereafter, your manna maximum increases by an additional 2 spell points.
• Resistance  (2 points)
  You gain resistance to one type of damage.
• Strong Will  (2 points)
  You have advantage against attempts to charm or temper your will through magic or other extranormal means.
• Trait  (1 point)
  You have a “trait”, some capacity that makes you better at certain actions in some way. Whenever this trait is relevant you gain +2 on the roll. Only one trait can ever be active at a time.Traits can also act as narrative devices, providing mechanical justification for a primarily narrative benefit. Example: A trait of Iron Stomach would help when a character would have to roll to resist very hot food or prevent being sick from overindulgence in alcohol, but the Game Master may allow the character to not even make the roll because of their trait.
• Unique Ability  (2 – 6+ points)
  You have some unique spell-like ability or power that is written up in a custom way. This could be casting a particular spell once per long rest, it could be a spell as a permanently on power, it could be a monster’s ability that is added to your sheet. The GM will determine the cost.

Some FFXIV setting specific feats I wrote up for my game as an example of what setting or game specific feats you might have.

• Jobstone Affinity (1 Point Each Option)
  Jobstones enable people to learn and attune to abilities by connecting with the stored memories and resonances of a person who once used the stone. Some people can attune even better than others.
  – Instant Jobstone Switch – You can switch out jobstones nearly instantly, rather than with a long rest.
  – Apprentice Jobstone Creation – Once per month you can “clone” a jobstone you are attuned to and create a new version of it to give to someone else.
  – Jobstone Memories – If a jobstone is comprised of memories from another person, it is more easy to resonate with them. Some even have “conversations” with the personas comprised of the memories in their jobstones.
• FFXIV Traits (1 Point)
  These traits follow standard trait rules but also provide some benefits outside that system.
   – Aetheryte Traveler – Travel under 1,00 malms and suffer no teleport sickness so long as you only travel within “long distance” once per long rest.
  • This one is very specific to rules I have around a modification on teleportation circles, but it shows where you can easily tag onto other systems or rules you might have with custom feats that are “cheaper” than normal feats that do multiple things. 

And with that, you’ve got a setup for players to be character class plus. Something that emulates a bit of the old gestalt classes from 3.5 or allows some of the benefits of multi-classing. You’ve also got a system you can add onto with custom things for your setting. Want a dragon friendship option? No need to homebrew a whole new sub-system, just add an appropriately priced feat. Want to give anyone a familiar or steed? Simple 1 or 2 point feat that grants them access to that spell with any limitations you may need to add.

A few of my favorite custom feats are:

• Trait allows a bit of mechanical justification for something narrative. The +1 to a roll is a very minor benefit, but the chance to add a bit of the character into the narrative and showcase why THEY are special is phenomenal for the players.
• Class Feature that lets someone grab an interesting ability from another class and allows the GM to set the cost of the option. This has to be carefully considered, but letting my one player grab a dragoon jump alongside their red mage or the gunbreaker get a version of sneak attack that is tied to spending spell points is a great bit of extra bonus for the players.
• Unique Ability is also great, but in a very different way. I can just write up a feat to fit something I want, but having Unique Ability as an option on the list a player can pick from is a small way to “give permission” for them to pitch an idea to me.

Isn’t this broken?

Absolutely. If you let it be. I’ve never really believed in game balance as a major component of fun. It has to be at least somewhat balanced to  feel fair, but if the balance tips in the favor of the players (through a system like this or other playstyle options) you can always rubber band it back through changing the CR of enemies, upgrading the next fight or dungeon, or letting the players have some satisfying wins that make their character choices feel justified. This system isn’t really for purists, but few homebrew options are. This system brings in more character options and a chance to create unique and personal versions outside of the class limitations. If you’re not playing a very old school style game, this sort of system can be just the sort of thing you need to unlock a few more clever ideas and moments of player satisfaction. If you need to though, you can bring balance to a large hack like this with a couple of different tactics.

• Limit what you allow – If you want a more traditional D&D experience but a few options opened up, set some rules on what people can take. Don’t include the class feature feat or require some things to always be at the high end of expensive.
• Create more limited or expensive custom feats – If you have a very specific type of game setting that you want to have just a few more options into, create a solid feat list that only fits that tone and power level. Maybe your setting has a power granting / vampire-adjacent disease that would grant some extra abilities. You could add Darkvision as a 1 point option and a “Polymorph into wolf 3/day” as a 2 point option as viable additions that aren’t quite a full feat’s cost.
• Limit points – Limit the number of points a character would get. My system grants one every level and 5 at character creation, but you could grant a point every 2 levels so that progression is slower. You could also just give 3 points whenever a person might get a feat but still have the feats be point based to allow cheaper options or to make some modifications. The ratios I’ve written up will provide an extra feat or two for players but will also enable the cheaper custom feats to become accessible alongside the more expensive options.
• Only use this when you need to rebalance – My current game has 3 players, so characters that are a bit more powerful is just fine. I actually, usually prefer a 3 player party as it is easier to form party bonds and move the spotlight around. Situations like this, or ones where you want to run more brutal can use a point buy feat system to rebalance up to the new power level.

Final Thoughts

This sort of system won’t be for everyone and that’s fine. That’s why we have different game systems and different gameplay styles. But why not play a different game then? Coming back to D&D for games has a lot of benefits. It’s a system made to do a specific thing though, and doing some homebrew like this opens it up just a bit more to achieve some different choices. Point buy systems also create a feeling of more agency among the players. Picking 1 feat or knowing you have 3 points left to spend may effectively be the same, but they feel different psychologically. I hope you found this useful and can find some space for it in your game.

There is one word you should pay particular attention to as a Game Master whenever you are running your game. It sounds dramatic, but this one word is often going to be the key to a mediocre game or a good game. It applies in the game world and in the meta of the game and keeping it front and center in your mind while you run games will create far smoother and more enjoyable play experiences. That one word is WHY.

WHY is the reason the players are being ambushed on the road. WHY is the driving force behind the main villain. WHY is the focus of the player when they come up with their crazy plan to fire an arrow and rope dipped in oil. The other interrogative words are important, but WHY is their leader and the first thing that needs to be understood.

WHY shines a light on motivation and makes “standard” encounters have meaning

The old acting trope (and joke) of “What’s my motivation?” is an important implementation of WHY. In relation to gaming, it slots in with both the META and the IN-GAME elements that occur. Take, for example, a basic random encounter for first time out first level fantasy characters. They are traveling on the road and you decide to roll on the random encounter table. A pack of wolves and bandits attack them while they are camping. A common occurrence, and fairly boring in its implementation. The players could just tackle the combat and move on, gaining a bit more EXP and currency and forgetting about it altogether. Throw a handful of WHY questions at it though.

• Why are they even having this encounter (meta)?  – In the meta-reasoning space the encounter is there to give them that bit of EXP and currency. A little boost to their EXP totals and a test of their working together as players. A chance to test themselves out. With that WHY in mind, maybe you tweak the encounter a bit. Lower damage dealt and more enemies with just one or two less HP. Give them a chance to shine and really feel good. Give them a chance to get a bit ahead. Without questioning the WHY factor of the encounter even happening, you don’t get the chance to tweak it to fit the experience you want.
• Why are they even having this encounter (in-game)? – Thinking purely in setting ways, the WHY of the encounter showcases a different part of the encounter. Why are wolves and bandits working together? Why have they attacked these players? Why do they have the loot on them that they do? Sure, you rolled on the random encounter table and that came up, but with the deeper dive you can come up with some much meatier narrative for the players to chew on. Are they working together? Maybe the bandits trained the wolves or the wolves and bandits just happened to attack at the same time. They might have targeted these players because they didn’t look like much of a threat or maybe there was something that the NPCs noticed – the smell of cooking meat or an ancestral sword that might fetch a pretty penny. Once the enemies are defeated and you’ve rolled the 12 gold pieces and 2 scrolls of identify – WHY? A little introspection after asking the question may lead to the idea that they were sent out to find a particular item, their employer giving them the scrolls to determine if it was the correct one. Now there’s a bigger plan at play that the players may learn about, possibly through a note tied to one of the scrolls or by interrogating a kept-alive bandit. Maybe the WHY is just that the bandits and the wolves are starving, hinting at a land in peril that pushes people beyond their normal approaches.
• Why is this encounter going to be enjoyable? – Hinting at the HOW of the encounter, if you ask yourself why the players would enjoy this encounter over another, you begin to dig at ideas you could implement to create a much more engaging experience. Perhaps the encounter will be easy and the players will enjoy a job well done, a checkmark in the W column. The things they discover after the encounter – like how the bandits trained the wolves or why the bandits are starving  – could be satisfying bits of lore discovered in the game rather than narrated to the players. Considering the enjoyment WHY of the encounter will make you consider your players more and what each one of them might enjoy out of the game.
• Why is this encounter where it is? – You can use the WHY of the encounter to hint at location-based reasoning and catch gaps in the narrative as it is being built collaboratively. You want a group of winged kobolds at the entrance of the dungeon to drain some party resources – WHY are they there in the game setting? Is the dungeon a temple? Do they believe it is a temple, even though it isn’t? Do they guard it fiercely or run away? Is it sacred to them? Have they ever been inside? Why aren’t they inside? Is the entrance sacred as some kind of ritual? Can they not get in the door? If not, what is it that keeps them out?

WHY is the gateway question

The omniversal majestrix Opal Luna Saturnyne is referred to as her WHYness in the comic Excalibur. – Issue 24 of the 1988 run of Excalibur – art by Alan Davis and story by Chris Clairemont

It’s obvious that throwing a bunch of WHY questions at any part of  your game leads to a lot more questions, but those questions need to be asked if you want the element you are looking at to really shine. “Why does this element deserve so much focus?” is a great question as well. Should this random encounter steal focus? Maybe you decide the note the bandits have should be just a bit of window dressing and not pull the PCs off the path they are on. You can throw in enough exposition to showcase it for what it is rather than an open point. WHY as the gateway leads you to HOW to make sure the players know this is a sidequest with a quest complete banner popping up.

You had planned the note to say:

“Bring me the magic sword and make sure it is the right one this time. Use the scrolls, but remember they are expensive.”

Realizing it is very open ended you add:

“I have a noble willing to play a lot of money, but only if it was crafted by Miyagashi and is capable of wielding the abyssal fire.”

Sure, the players may find that morsel tantalizing, but now you have enough info to tell them they could reasonably determine that has nothing to do with the quest to retrieve the stolen crown that will only glow when on a person of royal blood.

WHY is where you get into all the other things you hadn’t already been asking yourself and how you decide what things to showcase.

WHY when focused on the players

WHY is also a phenomenal question to apply to the players and their characters. It’s great to ask when the rogue is detailing out a complex plan of dipping a rope in oil and attaching it to an arrow in a VERY specific way. You can interrupt (kindly) and ask “Ok, WHY is Aven doing this? What are you trying to achieve? What’s the end goal?” to get at the truly important part. When Aven’s player says they want to hit the flying owl beast and hope the rope catches on one of the campfires, now you know what they intend. The long explanation was likely to sew up any loose points and make sure they could pull off what they wanted, but if you don’t know what they wanted you can’t decide to help that along. You can then jump to the WHY of the player wanting to take out that owl beast in a spectacular way. Maybe they think it’s far tougher than it is, maybe they believe it will sow chaos to have a flying giant owl that’s on fire in the battle (it would). You can straight up ask them WHY they want to do this rather than just shoot it with the crossbow and with light shone on that secret motivation, you can decide all the other factors of the situation. Would it be likely to succeed? Would it be more fun? Would it be heartbreaking to say no or to not let it have some effect? Would it actually instantly take out the 5 hp owl  and thus ruin the player’s plan?

Without focusing that light on the intention, all that stays in the dark. Asking the question also lets you think about the WHY of the way the player tried to do it. Why did they describe it in a long winded way? To justify that it was well thought out? Why didn’t they just ask to shoot an oil soaked rope and arrow combo at the owl to set it on fire and cause chaos in the battlefield? Maybe the player is feeling anxiety from experiences in a different game and having everything questioned. Now that you’ve thought about that possibility, you can lay some better foundations for communication.

“If you have a crazy idea, feel free to tell me what you’re trying to accomplish. I won’t shoot it down unless it’s waaaay outside the realm of possibility. This is a game where clever means the difference between winning and losing, so throw those ideas at me.”

When you focus WHY on problems with the players, you can also find solutions. When the player says the “I’m just playing my character and how they would do it.” in that way that accompanies a gear grinding, game stopping type of moment you can use WHY as the lever to get at what’s going on behind the scenes. Why does the player feel the need to throw a wrench into things? Is their character actually that defined and does that mean they feel they aren’t being acknowledged? Are they just acting out and deriving joy from wrecking the game? Should they be in the game? Is it bugging the other players? Is it bugging you more than it should? Is it something else entirely that you need to address or have you misread the situation? When you ask “Can you expand on that?” does it shine a light on the reasoning? Will it keep being a problem going on? Starting with WHY also removes you a bit from the situation. It helps you empathize and realize that there is a reason behind the action. It moves you a step back so you can see a bigger picture.

I’ve been running a lot more D&D 5e recently, and there are always a few pieces of the Vancian style magic sub-system that rankle me. Overall it’s great, simple enough, and conforms to the tropes of D&D. Mages can cast fireball and prestidigitation, some of the cheesiness of “Shut down the situation” type spells is mitigated or gone, and the simple “grants advantage when situation matches X, Y, and Z” is a phenomenal easy bump system that prevents the +42 to skill check of Pathfinder 1e and D&D 3.5. All that being said, there are some places where the limitations in 5e’s magic system are just… dumb. A lot of it is carried through from other editions and fits tropes that work in some arenas, but not others. So, without anymore caterwauling about 5e’s magic system, here are the five changes you should make to your D&D 5e magic system RIGHT NOW!

1. The minimum range for any spell is touch

This is one of my biggest gripes about a lot of spells. As a wizard, why can’t I cast Alter Self on the rogue. They’re far better at the infiltration. Why can’t I pump the fighter with Blur or drop Comprehend Languages on our animal companion? I don’t want to Contact Other Plane to reach out to the dread demon you want to contact, but I’ll totally cast it on your character’s idiotic butt. Divine Favor? Why can’t I bless our monk before they go into one on one battle against their corrupted teacher?

The minimum range of Self cuts off a lot of narrative options, and it’s there to try to grant the illusion of balance to the situations. However, caster classes feel very limited when they can’t use their magic for other people. Removing the range of self (in 99% 0f the cases) means you can do more interesting things with the utility spells. If you feel you need to nerf it a bit, you could add the concentration requirement, but allowing these spells to affect others just feels more realistic and useful. In a world where magic is formulae and patterns (imagine it like coding with reality), someone has to have written versions of self spells that affect others, so just wave away the limitation and let your casters become more utilitarian.

2. Spell lists need to be fungible and allow some versatility

This idea won’t be super popular and breaks some of the “my class is special because we’re the only ones who can ____,” but let spell lists be fungible and malleable. A wizard or sorcerer should be able to cast cure wounds if they want to, maybe with a penalty. The Druid spell list (in my humble but not wrong opinion) sucks. There are many things I would love to do as a forest mage that a druid just can’t do. I’ll just play a wizard and pretend to be a druid. Why oh why can only wizards and bards cast magnificent mansion? That feels like a great warlock spell or druid spell – here’s an extradimensional space for you to have as your evil lair / hidey space in the woods. Sure, there are some narrative tropes you kill with this, and if those are in place in your game it’s not for you, but if your game setting can bear a little versatility, letting people get a little slippery with their spell lists is a great way to increase options for characters.

If you want to limit it, just up the levels. You can learn a druid version of Mage’s Mansion as an 8th level spell, or it costs extra spell slots. For combat spells like Fireball or Lightning Bolt, sure, more of your players may be damage dealers, but so do your NPCs, and you can prep higher-level encounters because you know your players can handle it. My favorite way to open up spell lists when I feel a need to limit things is tied into a later suggestion about spell points, but it’s easy to say yes you can learn the 3rd level Lightning Bolt as a druid, it just costs 1.5 extra to cast. You have to “hack” the spell formula a bit, and that means more energy. It’s not going to become a staple because of the off-provider spell list tax, but it becomes an option and a way for a player to not give up their chance at a cool spell while also having their shapechanging.

3. All magical classes need a way to “level up” in their magic throughout play without being fully restricted to their class

Again, breaking SOME of the narrative tropes, but all magical classes need ways to gain or learn new spells. Sure, wizards can have a million spells but only prepare 15 and sorcerers are supposed to only have a few bits of magic that they innately channel, but there should be a new way to learn more spells / gain more prepared spells / increase your knowledge as a magic user. My gripe with the sort of idea that all magic users are bound by very strict rules is that it just isn’t realistic. For my day gig I’m primarily a front end developer who makes stuff look pretty, but that doesn’t mean I don’t write some backend SQL to interface with the database. It doesn’t mean I don’t rework database schema or handle server configurations. It’s not my bread and butter and I always have to refresh on the “grammar” of coding when I get into those arenas, but I can do it and have built more than a few go-to scripts and backend options that I can pull out. Magic feels very similar to coding to me. You are writing new code into reality, channeling what’s there in the mystic realm. Maybe wizards get to just write down everything, but why can’t sorcerers pick up a few extra tricks along the way. Why can’t warlocks figure out a way to gain a few more spell slots or clerics and paladins gain some more options? Sure, some sources of magic come from external sources, but magical knowledge isn’t restricted. Are the divine deities and other power givers micromanaging everything for their followers? Forgotten Realms / D&D deity style, probably not. I see it more as setting up structures and allowing favored people to tap into them. That means there is still some arcane knowledge that could be there.

Here are a few things I like to allow that can be achieved through play / sidejobs / extra bonuses to reward cool narrative play.

• Classes with spell slots and “pull from list” style magic casting can undergo quests to learn magic outside their class, gain extra spell slots at certain levels.
• Classes that need to prepare spells each day can find ways to add spells to their spell lists and can learn how to add extra “slots” to your prepared spell list. The paladin CHA + 1/2 paladin level may be upgradeable to CHA + paladin level.
• Warlocks with their cast often and take short rests all the time can increase their number of spell slots every few levels through service to their patron or finding a way to eek more power out.
• Sorcerers can add more spells to their Spells Known list through study and learning, but it takes a lot longer than a wizard just copying a spell into the spellbook.

The crux of this suggestion is let your players spread their wings to learn new things / expand their options. You control balance in the game and if the players want to play out something, give them a reward. If it makes them too powerful, well they’re still having fun probably and enjoy not feeling like they’re about to die.

4. Use spell points, not spell slots

This one is pretty easy – use the spell point variant from the DMG. Since it’s not SRD I won’t link to an unofficial source, but the crux of it is:

• Spells get cast by using points instead of slots.
• A 1st level spell costs 1 point, a 2nd level costs, 3, a 3rd level costs … etc.
• You gain a set number of points per level (based on caster type) but can’t cast above a certain level of spell. At 10th you get 64 points and can cast 5th level spells.

What this opens up is the ability to not pick and choose between spells as much. It’s 100% D&D official and implementing it will give players the chance to “just do” the magic they find fitting rather than worrying as much about preparing beforehand. Again, breaks some narrative tropes and that may not be for your game, but mechanics-wise it feels better. The only thing that will save you from this monster is its weakness to acid. You can waste a bunch of higher-level slots, or just cast it again. If the tone of your game is more combative and dire, it may not work, but it lets utility casters not have to choose as much. You can always probably dredge up a few spell points from your reserve of mana while still saving back 5 for that fireball you just may need.

5. Casting times need to be shortened for many spells that have 10 minute casting times

Last one and it’s fairly situational, but I HATE seeing a casting time of 10 minutes on some spells. I get the idea, I see where the devs want to keep some of the spell cheesiness out of combat, but sometimes this goes way too far especially with other limitations to prevent “cheese”. I’m looking at you 5th edition fabricate. So, lower the casting times on a lot of the spells. My advice, take them each down a step.

• 10 minutes changes to 1 minute
• 1 hour changes to 10 minutes
• 8 or 12 hours changes to 1 or 2 hours
• 24 hours (only hallow) … sometimes change to 2 hours

One more thing, as I duck out of the way of the rotten tomatoes, do the same for rituals. Almost all rituals are 1 minute. Wait, what, why? Well, for me it’s about limiting the player chafing and flow of the game. Players want to preserve options and if they can cast something as a ritual, they will.

Mage: I cast detect magic as a ritual.

GM: What do the rest of you do for 10 minutes while the guards are looking for you and will likely have searched this area by then?

Other players: Uggh, no we’re not taking that much time. Fine, I sit and wait.

From a narrative perspective, a long ritual or casting time pauses everything. No one would watch a movie where the main hero charges up for a long time while everyone else sits around… except old school Dragon Ball Z fans, but even then we make fun of that malarkey. A 1 minute casting time makes most of these spells non-combat tenable but removes a lot of the friction of using them otherwise. Spells with very long casting times are all about the narrative anyways. Sure, it may be a 1 hour ritual for astral projection, but if it’s 10 minutes it feels less onerous. An 8 hour ritual for awaken makes some sense, but what are you doing the whole 8 hours? Tinkering, puttering, meditating? Sure, maybe. Those are great spell descriptions from a narrative sense, but we’re also playing a game and need to honor the players’ take on the narrative. If they want to awaken a tree to stand watch, maybe make the duration 8 hours then. If they want to do it to honor the tree as part of their druidic ceremonies and it stays awakened, make it 8 hours of meditation and chanting. The crux is to make sure that characters don’t have to just sit around while one person does everything, even if it’s the same number of real world minutes.

And Finally…

The whole point of these sorts of changes is narrative and fun. Again, if the narrative tone of your games is very low magic, this doesn’t work. If it’s fairly standard D&D or anything with more accessible magics, it makes the play so much smoother, the options so much more available, the personal choices so much more meaningful, and the challenge rating of creatures you can throw at your party much higher. Limitations are good sometimes, and sometimes they fit awkwardly. These changes aren’t for everyone, but for a lot of games out there they will let your players feel like their characters are far more capable and interesting. They won’t feel as cookie cutter based on the classes. Give these changes a try and let me know what other changes you make to your magic systems in your games.