House Rules in a Digital House

I've been running D&D 5e for a group of remote friends recently. These are the “house rules” that I've adopted to make things go smoother, or at least reassure myself. I'm sure I got most of these from other places, but I can only credit what I remember.

Absence

Characters of absent players will be ignored and their departure and return unremarked on. I will make no effort to explain this in the fiction, but in future sessions we can act as though they were there. So “remember that time we all burned down a fortress?” or “aren’t you those people who tried to murder my brother?” will still include characters of players who were absent at the time.

I don't plan to spend a lot of time balancing encounters, so I think “fading into the background” is a fine solution. I want to encourage roleplaying, but also a shared group identity, so this doesn't let anyone off the hook or force anyone to miss opportunities because of real-life concerns.

Experience

Experience will be awarded using the “Milestone” option. While we are in a dungeon, “clearing” a level will be worth one level of experience. Outside of a dungeon, other goals may be used. These are negotiable.

I started the game in a dungeon and expected the first level to be cleared fairly quickly (it was). So this gave us a quick level-up without math on my end, but still tied to a measurable achievement. For the first-time players in the group, the early level-up lets them engage with the rules differently and see possibilities for (mechanical) growth. Because I do not know what parts of the game this group will enjoy most, the “Milestone” option allows them to pivot away from the dungeon later.

Inspiration

Inspiration will be awarded at the end of each session by player vote for favorite moment.

This is something I borrowed from DIE TRYING, although I've seen similar things in other systems. The practical effect is a moment of reflection at the end of the session when players can say what they liked best and what they're looking forward to most. It also reminds me that inspiration exists.

Quorum

We will not play D&D with less than half the party. To keep the appointment, we can play other games with however many people we have.

It feels bad for the players who do show up when there aren't enough people to play, so I really wanted to get in the habit of playing even if we can't play the main game. Games under consideration for backup have to be lightweight. So far they include:

• Lasers & Feelings
• Three Black Crows, Three Dead Men
• Electric Bastionland + Some One-Page Dungeon

Timekeeping

Generally, I will assume an “exploration turn” of 10 minutes, which is enough time to fully explore a room and interact with all of its contents (excluding combat etc.). After 8 hours (48 turns) without rest, characters will take a level of exhaustion.

I didn't find timekeeping rules that I liked in 5e, and as long as we were in a dungeon I wanted to build expectations around that procedure. In practice, the biggest effect of this change is that ritual casting now carries some cost. It does seem like 48 turns is unlikely to be an actual concern.

Encumbrance

I haven't adopted these rules yet, but I'm considering something like Electric Bastionland (paraphrased):

Some items are [bulky]. You can carry two [bulky] items: one on your back and one in your hands.

The hope is that these rules are just enough to make looting things complicated, but not enough that I have to worry about weight or spreadsheets. The worry is that with six characters, this just still doesn't matter.

Hexcrawling

These are also rules still under consideration:

Travel 3 hexes (6 miles each) per day, walking 8 hours per day.
Roll a d6 2x every day of travel, once during the day and once during camp.
On a 1, an Encounter occurs (something interesting).
On a 2, an Omen occurs (signs of something interesting).
Difficult terrain (mountain, swamp) counts as 2 hexes.
Travel -1 hex to explore for hidden locations in one hex.
Travel -1 hex to forage, gaining 1d4-1 rations per forager.
Travel +1 hex on a road.
Travel +1 hex if everyone has fast mounts.
Travel +1 hex over another 4 hours but [take a level of] Exhaustion.

I didn't find any hexcrawl rules in 5e, so I stole these ones wholesale from Moonhop. Because we have new players, I'm trying to fit as many “modes” as I can into the game, to showcase it a bit. At the same time, I'd like to minimize the overhead of learning a hundred new subsystems and then abandoning them later. I might have to make it two levels of exhaustion though, in order for it to matter.

Other Notes

I've observed some other things about the group in particular and online play in general.

• Playing on a weekday evening, and given the limits of engagement online, 3 hours is about as long as I can go.
• Some players fare better than others with “theater of the mind”. There has been a request for a VTT system of some kind, which terrifies me, but I'm considering it. On the other hand, I'd like everyone to be on the same footing, so maybe I can strike a balance with a whiteboard of some kind or some more defined abstractions (“Zones” from Fate or “Abstract Distances” from The Black Hack).
• None of the players has actually used their inspiration yet, so I'll have to be better about reminding them when they can. The post-game ritual seems to go over well though.
• D&D is actually fun! This should be obvious, because why else would be be here? But it's always refreshing to play.

Miscellaneous Mechanics & Ideas

I haven't had a whole lot of time recently, but there's still some ideas kicking around in my head.

For making an alien in Samurai Jack:
Roll 1d6 for number of eyes.

For characters from large families:
Roll 2d12:

• The higher number is the number of children.
• The lower number is your birth order.

For halflings, use 2d20.

For steel-boned corsets:
Use AC as splinted mail, with a bonus to Cha, and penalties to Dex.

Tell me these are really so different.

For patent medicines:
I saw "Dead-Sea Moisturizing Face Serum" at Ocean State Job Lots. Not only does this sound truly terrifying, but it's fodder if I ever revisit my generator.

For a wierd nightscape:
Consider a pitcher plant that catches moths using an anglerfish's bait. It obviously grows on trees. Possibly consider fat squirrels with anglerfish-bait-tails filling a similar niche.

Dream fragments:

• Babylonian guardian demons that take the form of either giant awakened naked mole rats or riderless motorcycles. They enforce the rule that "nothing is free".
• Helium jellyfish that float around like plastic bags roost in trees. They have a complex lifecycle. Possibly they have propellers.
• Staircases that are difficult to use the other direction. They require a will save to go the "wrong" direction. They aren't railroads, but make circular navigation necessary.

Contract Races

The standard non-human races work well for a high-fantasy and high-magic setting, but I have trouble explaining them in settings with fewer deities. On the other hand, I do feel that these races can add to a setting and I have players who like them.

This is the compromise I'm considering: the two major races are humans and halflings. But during the events of a great cataclysm, some groups entered into contracts with greater powers, in which they were granted certain abilities in exchange for fealty to those powers. The arrangements I made for my setting are as follows, but they are somewhat specific, and the idea is not limited to these.

The Dragons

Contracts with the dragons are some of the oldest, perhaps the first. Consequently these contracts more completely change the races they are with: the lizardfolk and kobolds. These races bore the brunt of the cataclysm and are very rarely still found, lizardfolk retreating to the swamps to gather around their remaining draconic lords, and kobolds moving ever deeper underground towards the unknown.

The Elemental Parliament

The elemental parliament remains distant and makes few contracts, but contracted halflings become dwarves. It is unknown however, what contracted humans might become.

The True Fey

Contracts with the true fey are responsible for creating elves and gnomes from human and halfling stock, respectively. They are by far the most numerous of the contracted races, and frequently live alongside their benefactors.

The Envious (Abberations)

A twisted form of contract magic, the Envious could transform unwilling captives into hobgoblins, regardless of race. Since their masters departed, the remaining hobgoblin armies war with each other eternally in the lands to the East.

The Fallen

Generally, breaking a contract is unthinkable, and results in a quick death. However the capricious nature of the true fey can dictate a stronger punishment, and those who break oaths to them are sometimes transformed from elves and gnomes into orcs and goblins, cursed to have no masters.

Signing a Contract

There are only a few contracts for each race, and they usually remain in the custody of the granting powers. Signing a contract is not an affair to be undertaken lightly, and adding one's signature is often a rite of passage in societies of contracted races. Consequently, there are few "pure" contracted societies, as children and those not bold enough to sign still exist as humans and halflings (or something like them).

The signatory of a contract to a greater power must be human or halfling. He or she forfeits all saves made against his or her granting power and in exchange gains all the traits of the race he or she has become. He or she may necessarily lose traits he or she already posesses.

It should be noted that saves are only forfeit against official representatives of the contract. For example, a dwarf does not forfeit all saves against elementals, only elementals who currently possess his or her contract, or direct agents thereof.

Half-Breeds

Half-breeds don't really make sense in this system, but could be considered as the un-contracted offspring of contracted races. Because orcs have no contract, all second-generation orcs are half-orcs.