So...5e

Again been a while.  Been busy trying to figure out the business options for my Novel and what I want to do about it.   Also been playing with a possible conversion for DRev out of 3.5 into....5th!     Yes, 5e is now SRD. Well call me surprised that in the world of locking everything behind a copyright door or hiding behind a paywall that this is mostly in the open.  Lessons learned from 4e I guess.  You can find it here:  http://www.5esrd.com/home
 

There are definitely things from 5e I really like, by far the best thing is the easy to understand proficiency system for virtually everything.    Your proficient with longswords according to your character sheet?  Cool what level are you, 5, cool,  proficiency gives +3, add your strength mod and your good to go.  Works for everyone and everything.

The other is Advantage and Disadvantage.   Roll two d20 and take the highest or take the lowest.  Done and done...okay it does have some issues at higher levels as power and situations granting Adv. or Dis.  start to become more common, but since they cancel each other out, all these cool effects will have the possibility having no effect at all.    My idea to help with this issue is use coins or tokens to track Adv. or Dis.  and whichever piles up more will apply, maxing out piles at 3 a piece.     So let's take melee attacks for an example.  You gain Adv. with melee attack, put a red token (or whatever you choose) somewhere that clearly represents your melee attack.    However, you take Dis. from some situation, putting a blue token in place, indicating now that you have neither Adv. or Dis.  You than activate another power that grants you further Adv. with one specific melee attack action on your turn, granting a tempory red token and once again gaining Adv. at least until your attack resolves and the token is once again lost.    This will however might be only an optional rule to ensure streamlining is kept in mind. 

Keeping in the mind of streamlining  a huge couple of questions come to mind.

The first my partner in crime has mused about in the past, Lumping or Spliting for stuff?

The concept in 5e that you have certain tools or tool kits that are required for certain actions.   Instead of writing down that you have a pan, tinder, lighter, some cooking oil, salt, pepper, a plate, fork and knife...you can simply say you have a cooking kit.    So can we just eliminate the giant equipment list....or does that destroy the flavor of our world and ruin player engrossment?    its one the greatest fights in RPGs in the last 20 year for sure.   For DRev 5e which way do we go?

Than there is the idea of general or specific weapons and armor.   5e SRD still goes mainly specific, such as picking up a short sword and leather armor...though if you pick up a shield...its just a shield.  So one of the ideas we we're playing with is general weapons, and in my mind even eliminating things like payload for ammo.  


Here's a new idea for DRev 5e if we go general. 

Name	TIER	Damage	Range	RoF	Reload
Light Pistol	1	1d8	20/60	Normal	6
Medium Pistol	2	2d4	30/90	Normal	5
Heavy Pistol	3	2d6	30/90	Normal	4
Energy Pistol	4	2d6	50/150	Auto	3

So until we decide on the cost thing, we may just stick with our TIER system for virtually everything, though we could use our own version of the 5e rarity version, that I’ll look at in the next blog. 

Range will use the 5e rule, nice streamlining.

Rate of Fire (ROF)  is simply going be labeled as normal, auto or how often it can be used.  Once/two rounds for example.   We’ll examine of really streamlining auto.    Autofire can Burst (-2 to attack, does one additional shot of damage, but cannot do critical damage) or Spray (hits 10 foot area, targets in area make Dex save contested by your attack roll to take half damage.  Can only be used once per round).    

The newest idea I’ve been playing with is a Reload number.  If your attack roll is less than this number the weapon becomes empty of shots, meaning you will have to reload it as a bonus action or reaction.  You will keep track of how many reloads you have rather than having x number of bullets.    So I might have 3 light pistol reloads.  If my attack roll is less than 5, I get one shot off and than will have to take a reaction or action to use one of my reloads for the pistol.       Not sure if this is good idea or not and I know other systems have tried this as a way to streamline weapon use and minimizing what players have to track.  This would even apply for bows and crossbows and the like.   You can also roleplay the reload rate as fussy weapon designs and the like. 

In the next blog, I think I’ll look at the most controversial idea, eliminating gold…...