How I got here
Back in April last year I wrote my first post about what I then simply called my House Rules (https://www.patreon.com/posts/meyerhawk-house-81091480). I had worked on them since back in 2019 when the 3.5/PF era was coming to an end and I wanted to have a system that would suit me even better. My plan back then was to use a published system as a base and then create a set of House Rules to go on top. At first, I leaned heavily into PF2 seeing a lot that I liked in it, but my players (and a lot others around me) pivoted towards 5E, so I also looked more and more towards 5E.
Now half a decade later both 5E and PF2 are being updated with new “half editions” with lots of revisions, I’m glad I got myself deeper and deeper into designing my own “heartbreaker” meaning version of the world’s oldest fantasy roleplaying game. Since my plan has been to give it away under Creative Commons I’m not worried about commercial success. The plan is to create something to improve my games, and maybe a few of you will like it as well!
The Goals back in my 2023 post where: Keep the D&D feel, 5E Compatibility, Not for Beginners, Skip Classes, More to do for the Players and Less for the GM. Tweaking the power curve by giving more HP to start with and start the Proficiency Bonus with a measly +1. A set of GM rules to guide more advanced stuff in the background, publish it using Creative Commons in PDF and Markdown formats.
All of this are still at least somewhat still goals I’m striving for wit Hawk Tales, my working title for this project. My 5E compatibility I’ve not abandoned by somewhat ignoring, 5E (or any edition) compatibility are not going to stop me from making rules that I think will work the best at my table. The D&D feel, with terms and a lot of the basics still there to keep the connection to old (and newer) times gaming in Greyhawk, this will make sure that all the spells, monsters and magic items will be reasonably easy to convert back and forth.
Player Agency
This is a key goal for this project. I want players at my table to have interesting, sometimes (I must admit) dire, but still choices for their characters even in critical situations. Like when to Make Death Saves, and even offer choices after character death (but that is not part of the Alpha Release).
Rules for Enchantments and things like Compel are one of the few rules that are different for player characters, compared to npc’s and monsters. All other rules are otherwise the same for all creatures in the game. A player character Compelling an NPC means the player makes an Influence (Str or Cha) Roll against the Save DC of the target. An Player Character on the other hand will instead of having to save to avoid being drawn in, will be offered Advantage and other perks to entice attacking.
Character Development – a key part of the game
It is too important to be left out of the story, what a character becomes should be the sum of the players wishes and what the story dictates. Characters in Hawk Tales don’t follow pre-planned formulas of classes, they start (if you start at low level) as an almost blank slate, to adventure and learn their way through the adventures it participates in.
It’s been the norm for a long time that characters are mainly “built” before the game starts, choose class, feats skills etc. Then as the campaign progresses you get to make a few career choices as your character levels up.
My goal is to have characters built more during games, as part of the story, rather than before. Concepts like class that has no real home in the game world will be gone, and instead your character will learn and get better at what it does in the game, and what you as a player want your character to be, which can vary throughout its adventuring career. Take things are you go, or have a specific goal, jack of all trades, or the world’s best in something specific. Both should be viable options, as well as wander back and forth between those goals and end up somewhere in between.
Setting and Story First
The rules are there to support the game, not take center place. This is another key aspect I want to emphasize. My goal is not to create the “coolest” mechanics, I want mechanics that do the job well enough to provide tension and interesting outcomes, but simple and easy enough to fade away. Rules should do a god job, and then just stay out of the way. This is not easy to do, but it is what I’m striving to accomplish.
The Setting (in my case Greyhawk) is for me, way more interesting than what rules I’m using. I’ve run my Greyhawk Campaign using AD&D1E, AD&D2E, D&D3E, D&D4E, PF1, PF2 and D&D5E. Back in the early days when I switched to a new ruleset I felt anticipation and new possibilities. That feeling started to wane after PF1 when I started to see as many problems as well as new cool ways of doing things.
I’m sure there are several reasons behind this, first me maturing both as a person and a gamer, understanding more and more how this works and what I want out of my games. Another aspect is that in the early years roleplaying was still a hobby in its infancy and new ideas and concepts where invented all the time. Nowadays it is a more mature hobby that has found a firmer footing, lots of interesting ways are still emerging, which is great, with more niche games catering to certain playstyles, themes etc.
After four decades of doing this, I now feel confident enough to try and get in the game (pun intended) and create a ruleset to best support the way I like to play and run my games. Since almost everything I run is Greyhawk, my goal is to try and create a set of rules to do just that.
Sharing how I go about this and my thinking behind it has several reasons, one key thing is that to have fun I need players who what to play in my games. Giving current and potential players a chance to see what I’m doing early gives them a chance to tell me what I’m doing wrong, and for new players to become interested. Having more brains looking at this and giving feedback will improve the end result. Also, it might be of interest to all you guys to give you another reason to sign up to my Patreon to help me spend more time on Greyhawk stuff.
Cooperative and GM fiat
Hawk Tales FRP requires, and assumes, responsible GM's and Players who are in the game to play TOGETHER and not adversarial. The game is not about outsmarting others. The rules are there to provide a framework to help guide the gameplay towards cooperative fun. I intend for the rules to be a bit less “firm” in nature than regular 5E and other games played by masses of players and used in organized play and other more demanding circumstances. HTFRP is designed for homebrew games where rules are tweaked to the groups liking. Both the way it is designed and will be published is with this in mind.
Mechanics and GM - Player work Balance
Combat rules are made to be playable in a “theatre of the mind, as well as using grid-based play on physical table or VTT.
The action structure is (if you are making an oversimplification) “You Either Attack or Do something Else”. There are some tweaks to this of course, but the basic is that you do one thing and move, on your turn each round. The tweaks are that some spells are cast as attacks, and you can also interrupt others and take over the action in several ways. Reach, Ready and Delay have an increased importance on the battlefield.
Streamlining is a key part to try and bring down the number of dice needed to be rolled and summed up each round. Multiple attacks are only rolled if you attack multiple creatures, otherwise damage is just increased. Using two weapons, use the worst of your to hit bonuses and make a single attack. Both spellcasters and martial characters will be able to make multiple attacks causing huge amount of damage when they level up.
Ability Modifiers, Proficiency, Expertise, Magic and a few other modifiers – most of them precalculated written on your character sheet. Advantage – Disadvantage takes care of the rest, a minimum of calculations during the game is the key.
Players do most of the dice rolling and number crunching. Defense and Damage rolls are (both ways) done by the players.
Players take care of a lot of rolls and number crunching, their characters circumstances and options, and with my goal of more player agency there should be more things to choose between than in a lot of other games. The slightly less burdened GM is instead given more elevated tasks to deal with, like enemy tactics, goals and things like resistances and whether some forms of magic are impeded in the battle.
Complexity is added not at the level of the action economy or combat modifiers, at this level I intend for the rules to be streamlined and simple. Instead, complexity is added at an higher level often overlooked in other rules systems. Magic is a good example of this, casting a spell in combat is usually pretty much done as we are used to in D&D, but there are other aspects to magic, like what powers the spell you just cast, will it work in the current environment, maybe it is even enhanced. How far can magic be detected, and by what senses. Can Iuz see (or maybe even hear the fireball you just cast and come and cause trouble.
Why do wizards, and a lot of temples often have towers, will a cave protect, or even hinder the use of a certain spell. Not something a fledgling wizard or priest need to worry about but as you take on more powerful opponents and travel to exotic and dangerous places will start to play a role.
Below is Magic Missile
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Magic Missile
Level: 1
School: Evocation
Casting Time: Action
Range: Long (120 feet)
Effect: Three Attacks
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous
A trio of glowing darts of magical force unerringly and simultaneously strike the targets. Magic Missile provides three attacks each dealing 1d4+1 force damage the caster can spend during his turn as per the normal rules for attacks.
Specialization (Evocation or Astral)
1: 4 Attacks
2: 5 Attacks
3: 6 Attacks
4: 7 Attacks
Expertise (Force)
Damage Dice Size Increase
Conduit: Arcane, Divine Strain: Astral Taint: None
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Various forms of specializations and expertise can make a huge difference between the village shaman and an Arch Mage even when it comes to an individual spell. Lots of spells have attributes that change depending on how skilled the caster are. Terms like Conduit, Strain and Taint can play a key role in spellcasting.
There are eleven different Spell Components like Condition, Death, Exertion and Time to mention some of them. These can affect the caster in numerous ways, even permanent so be wary when using some magic!
Let’s take a peek at a creature stat block to see that features it will contain, here is a Goblin as an example.
Most things ought to be very familiar to all who has played (or at least run a D&D game). A few things stand out, like Essence, Exertion, Prowess and the stats under Armor. Essence is what type of force drives the creature, it dictates what happens after death and might be behind some resistances and vulnerabilities.
Attacks are listed as DC’s as well as die rolls due to the use of Character Defense Rolls. Hardness, Minimum and Beatings are defensive characteristics used alongside AC. Armor reduces damage rather than the chance of getting hit. Most Armor has a Minimum which means the amount of damage it will let through when damaged. So regardless of armor, if you enter combat, you are most certainly get hit and suffer some damage, lower AC’s (since armor usually doesn’t increase it) also see to this. Beatings is another term I will explain more in a later post detailing combat.
Remember that all of this is early design and very much subject to change!
