Creating a Character

 This is the second in a series of posts that have sections of the Crimson Reach Player's Guide that I am working on. When I have a few more sections completed I'll create hyper-linked pages of the guide in progress for ease of use.

Creating a Character

Creating a character for a campaign in the Crimson Reach is quick and straightforward. Grab a pencil, paper, and some dice, and let’s get started.

 

• Generate Ability Scores. Roll 4d6 discarding the lowest die roll. Total the remaining three dice and jot down the result. Do this six times. If at least one of the scores is not 15 or higher, or if there are three scores lower than 9, then discard the scores and re-roll.
• Pick a Lineage. Read through Peoples of the Reach and choose one of the described lineages. Record the lineage features associated with your choice.
• Choose a Class. Read the section Classes in the Crimson Reach and pick a class. You may also want to read Multi-classing in the Crimson Reach. You can only choose to multi-class at character creation. Please be aware this is a complex option.
• Arrange your Ability Scores. Assign your six rolled ability scores to one of Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, Constitution, and Charisma. The class descriptions include recommendations for which abilities are most important for that class.
• Adjust your Ability Scores. Player Characters can add +1 to two different ability scores. You may want to look at Table 1 – Ability Score Adjustments, to see which of your scores may get an adjustment improvement from the +1.
• Write down Ability Adjustments. For each of your six abilities, consult Table 1 and note the Adjustment for its score next to the Ability Score.
• Write down Class Features. Jot down the Level 1 features for your chosen class. Some of these may be affected by one of your Ability Adjustments. If spellcasting is one of your 1st level features, you select a spell or spells as directed in the class feature.
• Choose a Background. Read through Backgrounds in the Crimson Reach and choose one of the Backgrounds. Table nn – Random Backgrounds by Lineage, shows the typical backgrounds found in each lineage. Note the Background Feature on your character sheet.
• Pick starting equipment. You start with the equipment listed for both your class and your background. Some listed equipment requires you to make a choice. For example, Fighters choose a martial weapon. Consult the equipment tables to make this choice. Your background will also have a random amount of starting money. Roll for that money and buy additional equipment from the equipment tables. Record any unspent starting money.
• Calculate additional Scores. Roll the Hit Points (HP), adjusted for CON, listed in your class description. Write the Armor Class (AC) from your starting armor, modified by your DEX. Write down your bonuses to hit and damage next to each of your starting weapons. Write down your Saving Throws from Table nn – Saving Throws by Class and Level.
• Pick an Alignment. Read the alignment descriptions in Alignment and choose an alignment that appeals to you. Some classes have constraints on their alignment choice. Be aware of them when making your choice.
• Choose a Deity. Look through the section Deities of the Reach. Spell-casting classes that get their spells from a deity must choose an appropriate god to follow. Other characters may select a god if they wish.
• Give your Character a Name. Note down a name and as much of a description as you wish. Lineage descriptions can help with things like height, weight, and coloration.

Lineage Design

One of the things that have a lot of grognards and folks on the anti-woke right argleing and bargleing is the choice Wizards of the Coast has made to do away with the term race and get rid of (to the best of their ability) legacy lore that has an aroma of racism or other distasteful -isms. Things like the rapey origins of Half-Orcs and the always evil nature of the only Elves of Color in the game. You know, small things like that.

 

As you should have gathered from the tone of my opening paragraph, I think this is a good idea, despite my age and grognard credentials. 

 

I have been fortunate through the years to have played with a pretty diverse bunch of gamers, and these issues that are being addressed, finally, by the publisher of the most popular RPG on the market have been topics of concern and discussion for decades.

 

With that in mind, I am personally going to replace the word race with lineage in my campaign rules. I am also going to re-assess one of the oldest core assumptions in D&D that the game world, and therefore the game is human-centric. This is an assumption with several intersection points with the rules on character creation and almost no intersection points with gameplay mechanics. 

 

The most important re-assessment, in my mind, is that other lineages should be described in terms of differences from humans, especially in ability score generation. If humans are no longer the baseline that other lineage's ability scores are measured against, does having ability score adjustments for any lineage make sense anymore? I don't believe they do. I'm getting rid of them.

 

Characters are exceptionable individuals with potential beyond that of most, regardless of lineage. 

 

I want the choice of class to carry the heaviest load of mechanics in character creation, followed by ability scores. Players want their ability scores to be conformant to their class choice with the best scores assigned to the ability scores that offer the best mechanical advantage to the chosen class. 

 

So with doing away with human centrism and elevating class to mechanical preeminence, I will have players assign two +1 ability bonuses to their scores after choosing a class and arranging their rolled ability score set.

 

What role does this leave for lineage, especially for humans who are no longer the center of the universe? 

A small number of lineage features for each lineage. Said features will be small, useful talents with nice-to-have but not major mechanical effects.

 

I am going for a grittier, zero-to-hero, old-school style of a game rather than the fantasy superhero feel of 5e.

 

Here is my first pass at the Human Lineage

Humans

By far the most populous lineage in the lands of the Crimson Reach. There are three sub-lineages of humans in the Reach. In order of population found, they are, the Tuari, the Sea People, and the Cyrenican. 

 

While there are some differences in the sub-lineages in appearance and typical classes and backgrounds found among them, they are of one lineage and share the same Lineage Features. 

 

It is not unusual to find humans of mixed sub-lineages, especially in the bigger cities; so when creating a character of human lineage do not hesitate to choose physical characteristics from different sub-lineages.

 

Human Traits

Age. Humans reach physical maturity in their late teens to early twenties. Among the poorer strata of society, it is not uncommon to see humans as young as 12 or 13 following a profession, including adventurers. If fortune favors them, humans commonly reach the age of 70, with some very few seeing 100 years.

 

Alignment. Humans run the full spectrum of alignments, slightly favoring the collective efforts of Law.

 

Size. Humans average around 5 ½ feet tall though they range from under 5 feet tall to 7 feet tall. Most individuals will be between 5 feet and 6 feet. Their average weight is 140 pounds; like height, the range is quite variable. Humans are size Medium.

 

Speed. The base walking speed is 30 feet.

 

Hardy. Humans are a hardy race, able to toil for long hours even in adverse conditions. When they are affected by Exhaustion, they suffer the effects of the next lower level. Humans also have Advantage on any check to resist the effects of extended effort or adverse conditions such as starvation, thirst, or exposure to harsh weather conditions. This does not apply to magical effects.

 

Polyglot. Humans are good with languages and may start with additional languages known equal to their INT bonus, or one additional language if their INT adjustment is not a bonus. This feature also increases the maximum number of languages a character can learn by the same amount.

 

Skilled. Most Humans specialize in a chosen field. For any class ability that gets a bonus to a check based on the character’s level, a Human character determines that bonus as if they are one level higher. For example, Thieves add half their level, rounded down, to their check to Open Locks; a Human Thief of 3rd level would calculate this bonus as if they are 4th level getting a +2 to the check instead of the +1 a 3rd level Thief would normally receive.

 

Languages. All humans speak, read, and write Common and the native tongue of their sub-lineage. This is in addition to the languages they learn from the Polyglot feature.

 

Sub-lineage. There are three common sub-lineages of Humans in the Crimson Reach. A character’s choice of sub-lineage influences their background and helps anchor them in the world. There are no mechanical differences from the choice of sub-lineage.

 

Other lineages will follow this pattern with a few features based on lore for the lineage.

 

If anyone reads this, I would love to know what you think.

Introduction to the Crimson Reach

 I am not creating a generic rule set. Instead, I am crafting my blend of old and new rules and tying them tightly to my campaign world. The rule books for all editions have always implied a lot about the default game world and expectations of play. I am leaning into that, and part of my blending will be choosing what fits my world and discarding those things that do not. 

As a starting point, here is the introduction to the Player's Guide for my Campaign.

The Crimson Reach is a fertile land of lush, rolling pastoral meadows situated between the shores of the Sea of Strife in the south and the Riesen Highlands to the north. To the west rise the rugged Kaskoi Mountains and the headwaters of the Bourannos. Vast grassy steppes march to the east beyond the verdant valley of the River Bourannos.

The Reach is home to the Tauri, tribal humans who are primarily peaceful herdsmen; and occasionally pirates. The capital of Taurica, the Tauri kingdom, is Symbolon, a newly built and bustling city at the Great Bend of the Bourannos. 

On the shore of the Sea of Strife at the mouth of the Bourannos lies Chernessos, a colony city founded by the Sea People. Much trade flows along the river between Chernessos and the towns and villages of the Tauri. 

In the hills and dales of the Riesen Highlands live two peoples, the Vilk and the Riesen. These people live intertwined in small villages and hamlets scattered throughout the highlands. Few outsiders travel among the folk of the highlands, and the folk seldom travel outside except for the occasional contingent seeking a market for their furs. 

A small number of other people live and travel in the Reach. 

Lizard-folk from the swamps along the sea's western shore can be found in small bands of mercenaries or fighting in the gladiatorial games in the arenas at Chernessos and Symbolon. 

Tribes of Chaos Beast-men live beyond the swamps of the lizard-folk. Orcs and Hobgoblins from these tribes are sometimes found in the Reach, usually working as mercenaries or gladiators. 

Emissaries and traders from Cyrenica, the empire from the far side of the eastern steppes, have been making the arduous journey from their homes on the business of their Empress, Cybele.

The region surrounding the Sea of Strife is busily racing towards civilization, building shining cities of stone and marble, creating extensive trade networks of fine goods and raw materials, and studying arts and culture. For the citizens of Chernessos and Symbolon, it feels like a golden age of peace, wealth, and culture. Debates of new and exciting ideas occur daily in the forums. Actors and poets perform their plays, songs, and poetry in amphitheaters and private villas. Fine clothes and jewelry adorn every shopkeeper and artisan. 

Life outside the cities is a very different story. The tribes and villages in the outlands of Tuarica are growing restless, chafing at the growing cost of finished goods from the cities and ever-lower prices paid for their foodstuffs, hides, and furs. The Riesen and Vilk must remain tirelessly vigilant against intrusion from the north; whispers race like the wind of something sinister that drives monsters and beastmen south into the Highlands. Merchants in great caravans crossing the steppes from Cyrenica speak in frightened whispers of horrifying monsters threatening to end their trade in fine metals and jewels of the east; they offer bounties on the monsters that threaten their livelihoods and hope that it is enough to secure the caravan routes.

Ability Scores

 My first couple of posts were sort of rambling attempts to get what I've been kicking around in my own head down. I'll be referring back to them and refining my thoughts as I work on this. It is important to have some goals written and the actual design work regularly evaluated against those goals.

Now it is time to get some actual rules on paper.

Ability scores are fairly straight forward. This is going to be D&D, even if Hasbro disagrees, and the long standing scores are going to be my starting point. There is a been some pretty consistent usage of the scores through the various versions. AD&D was the first to expand their usage and add some mechanical weight to the scores and not simply as prerequisites for classes. 5e puts a massive load on the ability scores with every major mechanical system being affected by them. I'm going to land somewhere in the middle.

So what should be the mechanical functions of ability scores?

• Bonus or Penalties to combat, both attack roles and damage rolls.
• Adjustments to some class features, Thief skills, et. al.
• Adjustments to common actions, searching, opening doors, etc.
• Bonuses to some racial features, Dwarven poison saves, for example.
• Encumbrance and lifting and carrying.
  
• Target number for ad-hoc adjudication.

What are some of the things ability scores have been used for that I don't want to carry forward?

• Racial or gender minimums or maximums.
• Blanket adjustments to Saving Throws.
• Bonuses to experience earned.
• Adjustments to number of spells known.
• Chance to survive certain spell effects.
• Skill use.
• Number of uses of a class feature.

So looking at the list, I'll need both a score and a set of adjustments tied to the score. I'll stick to the 3-18 traditional score range. Generated using 4d6 drop the lowest. Arrange as the player wants. For the bonuses, I like the consistency of 5e but I like a more bell curve approach to how they tie to the ability scores.

Score	Adjustment
3	-4
4	-3
5	-2
6	-2
7	-1
8	-1
9	0
10	0
11	0
12	0
13	1
14	1
15	2
16	2
17	3
18	4

 Scores above and below this range are possible in play, through magic items, wishes, etc. Scores above 18 get an additional +1 per point above 18. Scores below 3 get an additional -1 adjustment per point below 3.

The Abilities

Strength is the most important ability for melee combat. Attack rolls with melee weapons use the Strength adjustment. Damage rolls with melee weapons and thrown weapons are also adjusted by strength. How much a character can lift and carry is based on the Strength score. Certain weapons and armor will need a high Strength score to access their full benefit. There are a wide range of physical tasks that may require a strength roll.

Dexterity affects a characters armor class. The Dexterity adjustment is added or subtracted from AC. Attack rolls with missile weapons and some melee weapons use the Dexterity adjustment. Thieves class skill rolls are adjusted by Dexterity.

Intelligence determines the maximum number of languages a character can know. The roll for a spell caster to attempt to learn a spell from a found scroll or book is adjusted by Intelligence. Making out ancient carved texts and archaic books is affected by the characters Intelligence. Arcane spell casting is enhanced by Intelligence.

Wisdom affects Divine and Primal spell casting. Characters likelihood of spotting hazards they are not actively searching for is adjusted by Wisdom. Chance for being surprised when entering combat is affected by a characters Wisdom.

Constitution is an important attribute for all characters as Hit Points per level are adjusted by Constitution. How well a character handles adverse terrain and weather is also affected by their Constitution score.

Charisma affects characters in two key ways. First, the maximum number of Henchmen and the loyalty of those henchman is based on the Charisma adjustment. Second, how NPCs and monsters react to a character who is trying to engage them socially is adjusted by the character's Charisma.

Design Considerations

One of my biggest frustrations with Wizards of the Coast versions of D&D is the time it takes to run a combat encounter. Fifth edition trimmed some of the issues with 3e, so many bonuses to walk through every attack, and 4e, so many off-turn actions added to the combat round. Still, in our sporadic Monday night game, a couple of smallish combats are all we can squeeze into one session and do any social or exploration play at all. I've heard this same complaint from other old, grumpy gamers, like myself; but, interestingly (to me anyway), in a fairly brief discussion in a different forum, a friend of mine who isn't much older than the release of 3.0 wrote the following:

"You hit the nail on the head regarding 5e combat being slow and frustrating. I think I've isolated the key sources of why that's the case.

1: initiative - whenever it isn't someone's turn, they check out of the game. This system also discourages teamwork as it focuses on one person at a time.

2: action bloat - there is no restriction on how many special powers you're allowed to use in a turn, so most players try to maximize the number of things they can do in their turn. This slows the game down exponentially, and also contributes to the teamwork problem as players spend more time staring at their sheets while disregarding the rest of the table

3: hp bloat - this will be the controversial one, but ascending hit dice is one of the worst ideas ever conceived for the hobby. The game offers a wealth of tactical options but then punishes any choice that doesn't focus on big damage numbers. Plus, every enemy having a large hp pool makes combat feel less like a fight and more like chopping down a tree. This also leads to players checking out mentally as battles slog on."

Now Owen has played a lot of other games and I know he's played some older versions and OSR/retro-clones so his opinion is probably shaded by those experiences as mine is. Still, I think he has masterfully encapsulated the major issues with combat speed in 5e. I'm going to dig into each one and then add one more factor of my own.

 

Initiative, and its related system Surprise, at first glance, seems pretty slick and it is pretty easy to explain to even new players. Basing it on the d20 mechanic and unifying it into the check system gives it a built-in set of levers for character customization. Abilities, feats, and bonuses from Inspiration of various spells can all be used to game the initiative roll. Here's the deal though, Initiative, like Hit Points, is a complete game concept. A pure holdover from D&D's war game roots. It is pretty important to decide who goes first but when you add all the levers and possible bonuses and the need to step all the players and the NPC/monster roles and put them all in order, it becomes a time sink and the combat hasn't even really started yet. As Owen rightly stated, there is an emergent problem with each player's initiative being unique and bulky to arrive at, it gets in the way of character coordination and diminishes player engagement. 

 

I am going to use 1e's initiative system. A d6 for the party and a d6 for the NPCs/monsters. The high roll goes first. More importantly, no ability scores modify the initiative roll, except in one corner case. On the player's turn, play will go around the table but if a player wants to wait for someone else to go then it's simple enough to adjust the order the party goes for that round. Initiative is re-rolled every round which gives the added excitement of making the order of play a little more dynamic which I think helps keep the players engaged and reduces the feel of repetitiveness that arises from the 5e system of rolling once at the start of combat and then walking the checklist in order however many times it takes to complete the encounter.

 

The corner case is when initiative is tied, which will be 1/6th of the time, characters who start the round in melee range with an opponent will use their Dexterity modifier as a tie-breaker. If the modifiers are the same, then actions will be simultaneous. For those not starting the round in melee range, there is no tie-breaker their actions will be simultaneous. Every once in a while this creates a "death blow" situation where a character or monster is rolling an attack as they are taking a mortal wound. 

 

AD&D has some special case handling of initiative. I am still uncertain if I will stick to all of them. The most common are mid to high-level fighters with multiple attacks per round. AD&D has those fighters always getting the first attack, then the opponent attacking with the fighter getting his additional attacks at the end. This rule essentially sets aside the initiative role for those combatants. It is also somewhat inconsistent in that a monster with a multiple-attack routine, say claw, claw, bite, always makes all of those attacks as one action. The inconsistency slightly favors players so I am sure it was a deliberate and subtle way to increase fighter power by guaranteeing their first attack would go before an onslaught, but it also keeps a fighter from winning initiative and delivering his attack combo before his opponent can respond. 

 

I think in this instance I am going to follow the 5e concept (and the 1e monster concept) and consider all of a character's attacks as a single combat action. It's simpler and creates less head-scratching at the table. Speed of handling is still one of my primary concerns. 

 

The other fairly common special case is combatants under the effect of magical haste or slow. I'm going to slightly depart from AD&D here as well. A hasted character will get their first attack before any non-hasted combatants but their second attack will come on their side's initiative, instead of always coming last which is the AD&D method. Slowed combatants always go last in the round, in initiative order if there are slowed combatants on both sides.

 

Action bloat and the action economy, here I think Owen miss-states the issue, slightly, while touching on the gist. There is a limit on the special powers a player can use in a round, but the three-action structure, especially the bonus action, does encourage players to scour their character sheets so as not to "waste" their round. The class-build game can create a very busy set of powers, and for casters, spells add to the list of options. With a lot of the options allowing you to swap in powers in place of actions, it becomes a complex decision loop for most players in each round of combat. This creates a classic analysis paralysis situation. Even for experienced players who don't hesitate during their turn, it takes some time to get through the action resolution, especially when you start throwing in all the ways other players can affect an ally's turn with bonus dice and reactions. 

 

I admit this adds a lot (and I mean a lot) of tactical depth to combats. This tactical depth adds a lot (and I mean a lot) of handling time to a round of combat. When it takes a few minutes, each, for all of the other combatants to take their turns, players get distracted. The tension and flow start to suffer and the distraction tends to add to the time when players have to be reminded that it is their turn. 

 

Again, AD&D has a quick-paced action economy in a round. In essence, you get one action. You can move or attack or cast a spell or (every fighter's favorite) charge, where you can move and then attack if you started the round outside melee range. AD&D also was very generous in how characters can interact with stuff, with only one action to resolve it can afford to be. So a character can quaff a potion, switch weapons, use a wand, or open a door while performing their action. 

 

The action economy was heavily house-ruled at most tables, at least to the extent that a lot of tables allowed a move and an attack for unengaged combatants without requiring a charge. Later editions have added a lot of rules that amounted to codifying common house rules. Understandable, but in this case, it is pretty easy to look back over the history of the game and see how this common house rule evolved into the action bloat of 5e. I'm going back to the one action a round. 

 

This also lets me re-introduce another concept that has been gutted because of the time to handle during combat, companions and pets/summons that do not use a player's action. I think I can hear faint cheering from Druid and Ranger players.

 

HP bloat is a great way to characterize monster design in 5e. The designers created a very elaborate Chinese puzzle box of character powers, actions, and spells, greatly increasing the damage output of a player party. With initiative being manipulable and damage dice being stackable, if monsters don't have huge honking stacks of hit points or punitively high defenses it is very possible for a party to go first and nova blast down an encounter before the monsters get to act at all. 

 

Occasionally, this is fun, and the players certainly feel awesome when it happens, but it grows old quickly when all sense of challenge disappears. So monsters have huge bags of hit points and do large amounts of damage because even with their huge bags of hit points they won't live long so they have to seem a creditable threat while they last. This is the best possible outcome for a given monster, too many of the monsters miss even this ideal. A good many of them have defenses just a little bit too good and a huge bag of hit points and then the party is stuck chopping down Owen's tree. 

 

This idea of monster design took away a classic encounter type, the party being heavily outnumbered but able, through smart play, to overcome. Slaying a dragon is an awesome feeling, but so is wading through a cave full of hobgoblin warriors and defeating 3 or 4 to 1 odds (or more). This issue isn't a combat rules issue. Class design and monster design play a bigger role. So do the magic system and spell designs. Even equipment and magic item design play a part. I will say this before moving on, lair actions and legendary actions in 5e monster design are a very cool addition to the game. They will be included in the modified monster designs.

 

Here's my last factor before I close this post. How in the world is adding so many ways to add additional die rolls as a bonus to checks and damage rolls an improvement over adding a bunch of static bonuses? 

 

The design team came up with a very slick idea with the advantage/disadvantage system to take out a bunch of finicky bonus fishing and weird chasing of circumstance bonuses and neatly wrapped them into an elegant construct. They rightly touted how this speeds up play and reduces the amount of mental arithmetic required for each attack or use of a skill. 

 

Then they added back in a broad array of bonus dice from spells and class powers that bypass the advantage/disadvantage rule and reintroduce not just bonuses, but variable bonuses, so you still have to do the extra math, but only after you roll some extra dice. It is even more annoying because some of them happen on other players' or monsters' turns as reactions. I'm looking at you, Silvery Barbs, you bastard spell. So now I have a reaction spell that disadvantages an opponent, but doesn't use the elegant disadvantage rule, oh no, it makes the opponent stop, roll an extra die, and subtract that roll from the already calculated result; and it's a fucking cantrip so it can be used on every single combat turn, it doesn't even burn an action of any kind on the casters round, its a reaction to an opponent attacking. 

 

There are a whole series of these kinds of design decisions. Each one looked at by itself seems like a neat idea, but the net result of all of them is slowing play and adding complexity and bloat in combat handling. The handing out of extra dice to be used as bonuses or penalties to future rolls will not make the cut. Most powers and spells that are simply about adding numerical bonuses (other than direct damage) will not make the cut either. There is very little of that in classic D&D and the introduction of them by Monte Cook wanting to force Rolemaster bullshit into D&D during the 3.0 design has been a bane to modern D&D.