Aaron The Pedantic

I recently made a video about hacking D&D to make it your own, and a lot of people seemed to feel where I was coming from with what I was saying. To provide a little more guidance on how I'd handle this and how I'd present it to a group, I thought I'd flesh this out for a future game I plan to run. First, I'd lay out exactly what I'm hoping to do. If you can sell them on a concept, the particulars will often follow with no pushback. If they like the concept and you can explain how every change you've made thereafter is to strengthen the concept, they'll probably jive with it. Here's my concept. We're going to play a low-magic, low-fantasy game kind of like a middle ground between Forgotten Realms and Westeros. The PCs will be retainers to an up-and-coming Lord in the Kingdom who is vying for the throne through the affinity of the heirless King. Demihumans are rare, and nonhumans are enemies. The game will be very deadly and low powered, but there...

Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons.. Fucked in some ways, revolutionary in others. It is simultaneously the reason I barreled serendipitously into the RPG hobby and the bane of my OSR craving existence. It's often an absolute chore gathering the type of crowd that is willing and able to dedicate themselves to an OSR system. As a result, I'm left dismantling the edition that garners the least resistance. With enough tinkering, I can work it into the kind of game that I can really dig into.  All of this preamble is meant to put this into proper context. I wish to break down the concept of initiative, and how it's applied in 5e. Anytime you are going to be picky, pedantic little shit, as I am wont to do, you need to get definitions out of the way. As we all know, initiative is little more than the method by which we determine turn order. This is the most basic, stripped down definition. Taking this further, a turn is an opportunity in which a creature may do somethin...

The Chronicles of Andren Keep Preface It is with utmost curiosity that I take the task to chronicle the events surrounding Andren Keep.  Our collection of books is meager at best, and the stipend I receive is far more a courtesy of the Castellan than any earned payment of a service I provide.  Thus, I deem it appropriate to use my gift as a scribe to keep these aged hands from losing their precision. I. I have seen many groups of odd bands venture forth for gold and glory, but I have seen few so fortunate as the one that departed on Monday, January 11th.  Whether their tales are to be believed or not, the amount of wealth they recovered in an afternoon's time is absolutely astounding.  They returned with bags of coin and jewels, and more interestingly, with a weapon of note that was ancient enough for me to not recognize.  Even so, the inscription on the blade was an easy decipher.  Alberranoc, literally "Change Ender." Paired with the depiction of a serpen...