The Verdant Chamber: A dungeon room

Deep in the dungeon there's a smooth green cyst in the bedrock. Trapped within, a weird organic sludge waits for a chance to begin its expansion once again.

If you open the door, it may bury the world in slime.

 

 

Merry Christmas! Here's a dungeon room for you, courtesy of the 2025 Onegeon Jam on itch.

What if every D&D power could be used at will?

Seriously, what would happen?

I think that in D&D 5e:

• Resource tracking is fiddly, takes valuably game time, and isn't particularly fun.
  
• The game's built-in resource management is one of its weakest design elements. So much hinges on the long rest mechanic that resources feel all-or-nothing. Between published adventure content and the relative lack of 'living world' rules under the hood, resting tends to be either impossible or unpunished, with little middle ground, depending on the situation. The DM gets little guidance on making it work.
• Resource management decisions are only sometimes important, and seldom very engaging or fun, compared to the other decisions made during play. You learn good spells and tactics, and it's seldom important to change them. You may sometimes have intel leading to an opportunity to prepare differently, but the game isn't so difficult that doing so is necessary, and there isn't much in the way of DM guidance or built-in mechanics for getting intel into the PCs' hands.
• Most of the game's rules are about tactical life-or-death combat, and therefore the game itself is about tactical life-or-death combat (although of course not everyone plays it this way). Trying to conserve resources in combat is a big gamble. After the particularly resource-limited early levels, play styles tend to converge on 'open with full broadside' and not be punished for that.
• It is a game where characters don't just have 'powers' but extravagant superpowers, and it's highly character-focused.
• Character classes all have a fairly similarly design, considered in the abstract. They get an array of at-will small superpowers plus various rate-limited superpowers, almost all of which can be used a low-single-digit number of times between rests. Other limiters on powers (e.g. HP or GP costs) are rare.
• The game's balance is precarious and a DM needs to develop skill to tread the line between 'feeling dangerous' and 'being unfair'.

Let's say you mostly agree with these premises. I think it follows that making all D&D 5e powers at-will – that is, removing their rate limits...

• Would remove part of the game, but not an important one
  
• Wouldn't get rid of interesting choices
• Would work for all classes without changing typical playstyles
• Would lean into the existing superpowered and character-focused feeling of the game
• Would make gameplay much faster
• Wouldn't upset a perfect game balance that doesn't exist.

Spam spells all you like. Action surge on every turn. Put ki points on every attack; metamagic on every spell; enter rage or confer bardic inspiration whenever you can spare a bonus action.

This is an idle fancy – I've never seen it done. But I'd be fascinated to see how it played out. Extrapolating some consequences that seem plausible:

1. The DM could then abandon CR and offer challenges which would otherwise be completely unfair, then see what the players come up with.
2. If the DM created a 'too easy' encounter as a result, it wouldn't matter, because the power disparity and lack of resource tracking means the encounter gets settled in a fraction of the time that combat, spell-based trickery, or the various resource-conserving hedges usually take at the table.
3. The DM could alternatively keep CR but remove all the rate limiters on adversaries' resources: recharges, dailies, slots, etc. (But unlike character classes, this would affect some creatures much more than others)
4. PCs wouldn't need to keep lesser powers and spell choices for backup offense. With normal ideas of challenge abandoned there should be more situations where a particular utility spell or defence is desperately needed. That suggests that spell selection might become a more interesting decision!

Now, historically this sort of thing would lead to a worsening of 'linear fighters, quadratic wizards', but I don't think the difference would be as large in this edition of the game, at least before the highest levels. Fighters getting two actions every turn via action surge is pretty huge, for example. The biggest difference might be in high-level utility powers, the kind where you normally have one use of a valuable high-level spell slot and have to consider whether to save it for a fight. Now you could Fabricate or create a permanent Wall of stone every ten minutes, Mind blank the whole party, spam divination spells, and so on.

What other issues would you need to navigate?

• A few character powers stop mattering. For example, second-rate but 'cheap' healing features are mostly obviated by having lay on hands or a decent healing spell. You might need to introduce some 'alternative features' available to all classes.
• Some character powers would become irrelevant as the character increased in level. This wouldn't matter except that I doubt they're evenly distributed over character classes. You'd want to add a mechanic for swapping defunct powers out once you grow out of them, for those classes that don't already have one.
• There are some slightly more or less resource-limited classes, and they become slightly better or worse choices respectively as a result. I don't think this matters except for warlocks, who deviate from the overarching class design patterns. They'd keep their major disadvantage (few powers) while everyone gets a better version of their major advantage (powers usable more often).
• At the highest levels, powers (and spells especially) can become absurdly strong. But having poked around, I think only a few of them would be real trouble. It might literally just be Wish and Divine Intervention!
• If you're abandoning material costs from spells as well as spell slots, you'd want to look at the few spells that are highly constrained by GP cost: Forcecage, Clone, Sequester, Gate, etc.
• I might be wrong; maybe top-tier spellcasting really does outcompete other classes. You could make level 8-9 spells the sole exception to the 'infinite resources' rule, perhaps sticking to slots or limiting them in some other way (once per hour?).
• Rogues would now get infinite Stroke of Luck as their capstone: their attacks always hit and their ability checks always succeed. I don't think this actually outshines having infinite spells, but it might be boring.
• If the PCs' opponents also have no constraints, there might be a risk at high levels of the game devolving into win-initiative-to-win-combat, but hopefully it would lead to unique solutions.

Implications for the world

Obviously things would get absurd, especially if this is the norm for all people in the setting. But I already think the implied and official D&D settings don't actually develop most of the implications of the things that are canonically possible within them. All sorts of things (technologies, prices, lifestyles, community structures, social structures, etc) ought to look completely alien on the basis of low-level spells alone, and yet the setting (with its dramatic mixture of tech levels, dramatic mixture of society types, dramatic mixture of stakes, etc) stands unaffected.

But overall, losing even more immersion in a typical fantasy setting does strike me as a glaring issue, yes. Maybe abandoning rate limits would work in a more (post-)apocalyptic setting? One where everything is chaotic and in flux, where huge changes happen in the world very quickly, where absurdly spectacular powers are harnessed to mundane ends, and where nightmarishly powerful entities regularly make an appearance?

Updating past TTRPG work for the year 2024

I set aside some time this week to apply last year's fancy purple Periapt Games logo update to most of my previously published work. Along the way I found myself freshening things up with some nicer graphics, improved hyperlinking, typo corrections, and a little bit of extra content.

This meant minor updates to half a dozen different things (note, affiliate links):

120 Fantasy Food Inspirations

We Will Yet Triumph: An Imagination Game

Spells: Made More Magical (5e)

and

Spells: Made More Magical (system neutral)

Almanac of the Archaic

A Fistful of Curiosities: Ten Site-based Mysteries, Oddities, and Puzzles



 

 

 

 

It was a bit more of a process than I expected, with all the files in different layouts and most of them generated using technology (LaTeX) that I stopped using for TTRPG content a year ago. And then there was the extra work of uploading and double-checking the files, resetting the file previews, updating storefront images, etc. It's definitely enough to make me want to stick with my nice new logo for a long time.

If you bought or received any of this older work via DriveThruRPG, you can download the new versions for free through your account there. Thanks!

A thought on simplifying random encounter generation

Caution: Idea not yet table tested.

If you, like me, are always on the lookout for TTRPG simplicity and conciseness, here's a dice roll you can overload with extra meaning.

In a random encounter table, list the "numbering appearing" dice code with a negative modifier. If the result is zero or fewer creatures, it means the PCs have come across recently-left signs of such creatures, in the form of tracks or spoor which the characters might or might not choose to follow.

If the GM ever does need to find the number appearing of these regionally nearby creatures, roll again without the negative modifier.

For example:

Instead of, say, 1d6 ogres, the random encounter table lists 2d6–4 ogres. The range is slightly greater (0-8 instead of 1-6) and the average is similar (3 instead of 3.5). If the GM rolls snake eyes, no ogres are here; instead, perhaps, large footprints and gnawed cooked bones. The PCs follow the tracks, so the GM rolls again (2d6 this time) to see how many ogres are camped a day or so away.

Now, you can obviously accomplish similar results in other ways. Most systems do. Why do it like this?

Key benefits:

1. Minimalism via overloading. You no longer need a separate roll for signs/tracks/spoor.
2. Reminder. The GM won't accidentally neglect to include reminders that fictive content is everywhere (i.e. elsewhere), and not always served up to the PCs on a platter. The world feels populated.
3. Scaling and choice. This method automatically results in nearby groups of possibly greater numbers, creating something in between an 'easy random encounter' and a planned challenge. This allows you to define the size of creature groups with an upper limit higher than the one you'd randomly inflict on the PCs at an inopportune moment. Look at the example above. Suppose you have four PCs who can each take on one ogre, but two each is a big risk and three each is exceptionally dangerous. Rolling 2d6–4, a random encounter will usually serve up about 3 ogres, but very rarely as many as 8, and the PCs can discover ogre tracks and cautiously scout them to find a group of (on average) 7, but possibly as many as 12. It becomes a PC choice as to whether to push their luck, which is always a good thing: the GM doesn't have to waste extra time on balancing or 'fudge outcomes' (cheat).
4. Standardisation. If you're adding a negative modifier, you'll often be adding more dice to compensate, resulting in a steeper probability curve. As a result, the GM has a slightly better idea of how many creatures will tend to show up to an encounter. If you specifically don't want that, it's easy enough to use larger dice sizes instead, or add a multiplier (say, [1d6–2]×5 instead of 5d6–10).
5. Extensibility. You could overload the 'number appearing' roll further, adding ideas like exploding dice. Let's say a maximum roll means the PCs have found a monster lair and that's how many creatures are lounging around the entrance or on guard. Roll again without the negative modifier to see how many creatures are deeper in the lair.
   

 

Main issues to be resolved:

1. If your system has a separate roll for non-creature encounters that includes things like notable environmental and weather effects as well as tracks/spoor, then you aren't really any better off this way.
2. The mathematical conversion quickly becomes non-trivial as "number appearing" increases. Many GMs won't be able to do a representative conversion of an existing encounter table entry at a glance or on the fly even with relatively simple dice codes. And even with a good grounding in dice probabilities, it still takes time and effort to convert 8d8 to e.g. [4d10–10]×2 (if you care that the larger likely numbers appearing stay about the same), or else to e.g. [5d8–15]×4 (if you care that the average number appearing is similar but don't mind sometimes getting lots more), or even to e.g. 6d20–50 (if you want lots of tracks and lots of variation).
   

Steps to a Hero (end of the campaign)

Do you want fantasy characters who have deep ties to their world? Backstory that directly affects mechanical traits? A fun, fast, unique character creation minigame?

We're down to the last 24 hours of the Kickstarter campaign for Steps To A Hero. It's the 125+ page book implementing a lifepath character generation system designed for compatibility with D&D 5e!

Thanks to everyone who's already supported the project!

What's a lifepath?

A lifepath is a unique tool for producing a roleplaying game character, beginning them early in life and setting them down a path to become the person that the player will begin the game with. It tells a story about how a character came about, replacing the common process of generating race, background, ability scores, and other traits.

A lifepath is a process of discovery, and each step on the path is an event, decision, or encounter which will reveal things about your character – generating both backstory and game-mechanical traits as you go. Everything in the book is streamlined for 5e, overriding or complementing parts of the base game.

What's in the book?

In Steps to a Hero, you’ll find

• Everything you need to develop characters with lifepaths for fifth-edition fantasy roleplaying
• 300 unique lifepath 'steps', each one combining a piece of weird/medieval fantasy short fiction and corresponding character traits
• A comprehensive set of rules describing the lifepath process, plus optional rules for tweaking character generation
• A ton of 5e game content including hundreds of new background features, and methods to make many millions of possible stories and backgrounds
• Support for 12 ancestries, including all the classics, plus half-djinni, half-minotaur, half-dryad, and shorewalker

Discover the remarkable story of each character’s early life, and determine how those experiences gave them the unique abilities and traits in their background.

 

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Venture forth!