Hi! Long time gamer here, and I know I'm not the only one. What stuff, be it crunch or fluff (mainly fluff) are my fellow oldies wanting to hold onto as it comes time to give 5E a test drive?
For myself, I'm working on a homebrew campaign, and I'm reaching across several editions for tasty flavorful fluff. For example:
4E planar cosmology and the backstory? Sweet mother of all that's holy, I love it!
"Flavor text" of 2E kits? Great!
Deities and Demigods from AD&D? We're seeing them in the 5E PHB
4E "Points of Light?" Brilliant!
How am I keeping all that stuff and incorporating it into 5E? I used the Dusk War alluded to in the 4E Planes Above as a rationale to simultaenously change the "laws of physics and magic" and incorporate a few gods from the AD&D Deities and Demigods. *cough* Arioch and Donblas *cough* Likewise, why are magic items so scarce in this setting? Due to the actions of a gigantic horde led by a (2E-inspired) Forsaker barbarian.
So what about my fellow oldbies? What old stuff are you incorporating into your new games?
PS: Minions. Love em. Keeping em!
Points of Light is a good example of designing one's campaign setting toward a certain game experience, and I take it as a lesson, along with West Marches.
Once I feel out the new rules enough, I'll see how easy it might be to adapt missing monsters from my old 1e MM and Fiend Folio. I will likely also try using my stack of 1e adventures and see what I can use from my d20 mecha supplement.
I also liked, and may repurpose, the story of the immoths: giant, crystalline entites who gather words scattered upon the slopes of the Mountain of Ultimate Winter, a place so cold even words, once spoken, fall frozen to the ground. Immoths have recognized long ago words have power, and they build themselves out of these frozen words. I would guess Immoths some of the best judges of the worth of one's words, but they are reclusive and not altogether amiable creatures.
Nice. I like it!
We make natural 1's fun with D&D 3.5 Fumble Deck by Paizo;
Dreamstryder wrote:
2E Combat and Tactics critical hits has contiuned to be featured in my game since the book was released.
Other than that, everything I'm importing are house rules such as a minimum of half hit dice on rolls for hitpoints at each level. Also, related to the above mentioned C&T crit system, in my game we roll on that table for situations other than attack rolls. Losing half one's hitpoints in a single blow creates a severe critical hit. Meanwhile dropping below half hitpoints normally creates a minor critical hit, and dropping to 0 hitpoints creates a moderate crit.
I was going to revert to negative hitpoints from prior editions and eliminate the short rest healing, but I decided that overall I liked the new 5E system, and that it just needed a lethality boost so in healing in my game the number of hitpoints you get back is a static # of 2 for D6 hitpoint chars up to a 5 for D12 chars..plus con bonus of course. For dying, the only change I made was that even if you roll 3 successes before rolling 3 failures, the massive wounds that dropped you to 0 don't just magically heal. You regain consciousness, but you are still dying, and still need to bind those wounds before you roll 3 failures.
Orcs are not from WoW, but the classic pig-like creature.
Kobolds are not draconic, either.
We keep the bloodied status, with the DM and the players stating aloud is someone got bloodied, or is no longer bloodied.
We also use Halfdragons as a player race, i belive they are orriginally from teh council of wyrms.In our worlds Dragonborn do not excist, we have do have Half-dragons(half-humans) they use the same rules.
I as a DM also use a home brew Minion rule: If your Avarage Damage per hit is more then a creatures avarage hitpoints and I as a DM use at least 8 of them in an encounter they count as minions, and a single Hit kils one. If your avarea dmg is more then half its maximum avarage hitpoints it count as bloodied, the next hit thtas more then half its HP kill it.
I do not want to keet prack of the individual HP of 40 goblins against a lvl 9 party ;)
Yep, from 4e I'm keeping the minion concept as well...Implemented about like NimrodVanHall stated. One shot and two shot minions.... which, ofcourse, means I'm keeping the bloodied concept as well.
As far as HP goes - sort of from 4e... starting HP = Con score + your average Hit Die value. Characters are a little more durable.
Gods? The pared down and simplified list from 4e too... easier for me to manage.
NENTIR VALE - and - DARK SUN... two best settings ever.
In time, I might try to incorporate some really old school stuff, like weapon-type vs. armor type variable damage, armor as damage reduction as opposed to 'harder to hit' concept. Much will depend on how stuff looks when I get my hands on the new DMG.
With 5th filling the 'traditional' RPG bracket and 4e the more 'modern?' RPG/Tactical Combat Game slot... I see no need to even look at or consider other Fantasy setting RPG's.
Nothing against any of the other games (Pathfinder, Castles and Crusades, 13th Age, Hackmaster, Numenaria, etc....) but my brain power is limited by my advanced age and I have to draw the line somewhere. 
So far, this is the only one that I am keeping (to retain the "original" flavour for the Cleric class).
Weapons Limitations & Exceptions For Clerics
01.) Clerics may only use non-sharpened and/or non-bladed weapons (as per the original BECMI and AD&D rule sets). The weapons available to use in 5th Edition are: Club, Flail, Great Club, Heavy Mace, Light Hammer, Mace, Maul, Quarterstaff, Sling, and War Hammer.
02.) Clerics have access to three Martial Weapons level items (two official and one home-brew):
- Heavy Mace, 10 GP, 1d8 bludgeoning, 8 pounds, Heavy + Versatile (1d10) (Home-brewed Weapon)
- Maul, 10 GP, 2d6 bludgeoning, 10 pounds, Heavy + Two-Handed
- War Hammer, 15 GP, 1d8 bludgeoning, 2 pounds, Versatile (1d10)
Lord_Phobetor wrote:
Shiroiken wrote:
After a bit of theorycraft, I'm definitely keeping Minions from 4E. RAW, a 20th lvl fighter with a two-handed weapon has less than average odds of "one shotting" a CR 1/2 orc 
Lord_Phobetor wrote:
NimrodVanHall wrote:
Item saving throws
Undead level drain (on a failed save)
Thac0
Race / class restrictions as per AD&D
Slower leveling. Not sure how to stack it up yet, but will probably be a close emulation of AD&D. Depending on overall class power, may split them up so not everyone levels at the same time.
It's how we prefer our games, :shrug:
ymmv
4E cosmology.
Scattered flavor texts, prn
bawylie wrote:
Indeed, the 4e cosmology was awesome, and since I already incorporated vast swaths of it into my game, I see no reason to change back to the Great Wheel. I'd save that for when I want to run Planescape.
I have the whole Encyclopedia Magica from 2e that I might draw ideas from magic weapons from.
I'm keepeing the Eladrin from 4e, as well, since the last campaign i ran in my world had them as major villains and I want to keep continuity with it.
The_Stray wrote:
- Item saving throws - We're all Olde Schole players. And we both like and are used to how you can survive a red dragon's breath but your gear might not. Nothing is more funny than a paladin whose armor is falling off because the dragon's breath burned away the straps and buckles.
- 5-foot step / shift - I know RAW says you can Disengage and move, or whatever it's called, but we prefer the 5' step. It lets the PC disengage, move, and do an Action, which speeds things up and lets players do more on their turns.
- Minions are being reintroduced, slowly and subtly.
- Similarly to minions, I'm going to institute an old 1E rule where Fighters, when battling <1HD creatures, i.e., minions, can make as many attacks on such creatures per round as the Fighter has levels. Right now my Fighter is feeling a bit ... meh ... even with Battlemaster maneuvers. She's not exactly wrong, either. The other players are blasting away with scorching ray and turning into critters, and she's just like, "I attack it with my sword. Again." I want to give her more ways to feel mighty. Standing over a heap of goblin corpses is a good way for her to feel more epic.
- System Shock rolls. One thing I don't particularly like is how hard it is for a character to actually die. Low-level "don't die" divine spells, short rests, a massive damage rule that's hard to actually make work, death saves - I want fair ways to mitigate that somewhat and still be fair. So I'm instituting the AD&D System Shock rule, as well as the one which specifies you can only be revived as many times as you have CON points.
Somebody fill me in on Bloodied. Bloodied was only important in 4e because it kicked off certain effects. I can't think of any effects in 5e which depend on a character being at or below half hit points. Though I'm sure some exist - and I'm fer dang sure about 75 people will immediately jump on me and give me examples - none of them have yet come into view at my table, so I haven't yet experienced them. (My players are only at 3d level.) Why is it important enough to retain?
Cheers,
Bob
Gungolphus wrote:
bawylie wrote:
I liked the fluff text from Primal Power. Finally, conservationists (Teddy Roosevelt-style) not just stereotypical anti-civilization wild men !
And my Druid could turn into a porcupine if I really wanted to; powers and abilities were not tied to any specific animal (bear, wolf, kraken). I did some scouting one time Wild Shaped as a skunk - even the orcs didn't want to mess with that - and another time as a common beast of burden; what is the Dark Sun equivalent of a War Pony called?
As another old school pnp gamer, I'm sure I've forgotten more than the young 'uns have learnt. Still, with D&D 5E, I'm keeping it as close to the books as possible, without pulling in "that awesomeness from AD&D" etc.
I have several reasons to do this, but mainly it's because half of my group are newbies, who have never set their feet in a Greataxe before. In order to not confuse them, I'm sticking to the 5E rules. (Not even one single house rule!)
what I do bring with me as the DM is 25+ years of D&D, and other systems, where I've almost always been the GM. I can wing it, I can plan ahead, I have fantastic NPC's I can convert, and I know the description of most beast, critters, spooks, and monsters. I have knowledge, patience (a very importaing trait as DM - put xp in it as soon as you can!), and a vivid imagination. (Hence the homegrown world - Wartorn Lands)
My players are in for a ride, original rulebooks or not.
jdarksong wrote:
alienux wrote:
Gungolphus wrote:
The 2E Morale rules for monsters, or at least the morale roleplay guidelines.
The 4E tenets of the gods design for religion, loved that.
My homebrew worlds have quite alot of the Points of Light and 4E Cosmology infulencing their design as opposed to the Alignment ridden Great Wheel.
Some of the alignment restrictions. A lawful barbarian seems silly to me.
Item saving throws.
From 1e; Wizards (and Sorcerers) can’t cast spells if wearing armor. Ever!
From 3e; Missing by 4 or more when firing into combat - you hit an ally.
I'm incorporating an hybrid skill system based off of 3.5. I like a lot of the suggestions above, such as the minions. I'll definitely work those back in. I also like the idea of 'bloodied' status.
I am planning to keep the following:
2e-style multiclassing
- Concurrent class progression in more than one class
2e Book of Artifacts special component item crafting rule
- Items require special components that must be quested for
4e-style defenses
- Calculated for 5e as 14 + ability mod + proficiency modifier (where applicable).
- Fort (better of Str or Con mod)
- Ref (better of Dex or Int mod)
- Will (better of Wis or Cha mod)
Healing surges
- Surges heal HPs equal to 25% of your HP total
- Each PC gets four of them, plus one per +2 on Con modifier
- They replace your HDs
MechaPilot wrote:
ankiyavon wrote:
MechaPilot wrote:
Kazadvorn wrote:
Shiroiken wrote:
Shiroiken wrote:
Lord_Phobetor wrote:
I am keeping the planes from 2e and working on converting Spelljammer to 5e.
Probably going to be ignoring the 5e version of Ravenloft and adapting a version of the Feywild.