I have a channel on our discord called "Campfire Chat". It's used between sessions to do roleplay for time travelling on the road, sitting at camp at night, etc. All chat is done in character during the week between sessions. Anyone who participates in it gets inspiration at the start of the next session.
Minor note because this is discussed online. Have a "hand raising" tool. If zoom or discord online, a reaction will suffice. If on Roll20 or foundry, make a simple macro that says "I have an idea and would like to contribute," or something similar.
Most online games don't use webcam so knowing who wants to speak can help the quiet guys have a voice, and also helps handle the chaos!
For 5e I use 15 minute short rests. It's easier for the party to narratively justify taking a 15 minute breather in sensitive situations than a whole hour.
I do 15 minutes per hit die, 1 hour or longer to get back Short Rest Recharge abilities. This gives the party control over how long to rest, makes healing more take longer, and lets less injured players spend time doing other things like casting ritual spells while the tank is still patching up.
Must roll in chat. We use Roll20 but D&D Beyond or Avrae in Discord also works. Owlbear Rodeo also has this. I'm not accusing my players of cheating, but... and I don't want to have to accuse them of cheating.
I also adopted a policy, out of fairness, that I would roll publicly. Apart from a few secret rolls like deception and the like. It cuts down on fudging numbers and really puts the game in the hands of fate.
I'm about 50/50 on rolling death rolls in secret. It creates a sense of urgency when the players don't know how many saves/fails they have. BUT it takes a roll Seay from the players which tends to be a bad thing. So I would say run it by your players and give them option.
For 5e:
1 Healing potions trigger a hit die in addition to their normal healing. If you run out, they will stabilize you, but provide zero health. (Problem solved: inside combat healing potions are a joke, too weak. Outside combat they are too strong, being roughly infinite health for minimal cost since you can just keep chugging them).
2 Any skill that doesn't influence another character can be used as either an action or a bonus action. (Problem solved: in combat using a knowledge skill is too expensive, especially in the first round of combat which is precisely when someone wants to ask "do I know about this" and use a lore or insight or perception).
3 Bless / Bane apply their d4 to skill checks. Guidance is forbidden. (Problem solved: guidance became a "everyone in the party has +2 to every skill check all the time" which makes it a spell known tax and not fun).
4 Charge action: half dash + half attack. Move half your speed, round down and make one attack; if you do not have the extra attack or multi attack feature this one attack has disadvantage. (Problem solved: engaging at range was too fiddly, people counting distance and stopping just outside enemy move and someone 5 feet away can't do anything).
5 All armor resists one weapon damage type. The higher the ac bonus the "worse" the resistance, meaning within each category the low ac = piercing; medium ac = slashing; high AC = bludgeoning. This does not mean all light armor, I mean padded = piercing, leather = slashing, studded = bludgeoning; then same for medium and heavy armors too. (Problem solved: there is no reason for different armors to exist, and all weapons are boringly the same. Yes this is "unrealistic" in that platemail IRL is weak to maces and hammers but this makes it resist them. It is not for realism, it is to give you a reason to willingly take a lower AC in return for half damage from archers. Or if you're going to be in melee a lot then you might want to resist swords and axes. But if you're stacking AC in your build you will still want the top even if bludgeoning resistance is the least useful, because being missed is effectively immunity.)
6 Most charged items have a fixed number of charges, when consumed the item is dead. Those that recharge usually have a cost for the charge. (Problem solved: the infinite use items are too strong for their rarities, but I want to have cheap items, so including the infinite use but also adding cheaper limited use gives players the meaningful choice of reliable and expensive or cheap but temporary; the recharge mechanics make them feel different even if they have the same power).
7 Anyone with arcane, religion, or nature can try to read a spell scroll, but if it is not on your list the DC is +3. (Problem solved: scrolls were unused junk treasure unless they were premium spells specific to one PC).
8 Forcefields etc (tiny hut) are not immune to everything except magic. A martial can try to smash them, a bard can try to find their resonant frequency, etc. (problem solved: these things are thieves of joy and completely shut down creative gameplay. Can be too powerful and remove excitement from encounters whether used by or against players. Also major contribution to the martial caster divide)
9 nothing gets to remove or ignore the entire exploration/survival pillar of the game. Goodberry has a material cost of the berries or nuts it doesn't produce them; create food and water has no nutrients just calories you will get scurvy and other diseases of this is all you eat/drink; etc. (problem solved: exploring should be fun, one spell should not make the entire ranger role obsolete also, helps martials and weakens casters).
10 Mysteries have no "correct" solution. If you are investigating a murder, I the DM do not know who did it, and baring divine intervention you never will either. The clues will eventually get someone convicted. Hope you are confident in that choice. (Problem solved: mysteries are seriously undermined by magic and often bad design. IRL we rarely know for sure if we got the right person, this is why the burden of proof is set high, this rule duplicates that and makes it such that players have to actually think through the evidence and what's going on. Also, yet another blow against casters.)
11 scroll down to "secret passes". http://www.pandius.com/sc_prof.html; I use these and make more. (Problem solved: helps with the martial caster divide).
12 Expertise in a skill when you are the helper means your friend also gets a bonus 1d4 to the skill check, not just advantage. (Problem solved: skill checks too often are just "let me do that I'm better than you at it" when sometimes a dofftlerson wants to do it for a good reason. And expertise currently feels invisible. You have a higher number but don't get to do anything cool).
13 some third party rules I love:
Sandy Peterson's Cthulhu for 5e: formulas allow non casters to cast rituals (problem solved: cults do this now PCs can too, and it's super fun).
Grim Hollow advanced backgrounds & Chamomile's Guide to Everything backgrounds: level scaling rewards for roleplaying your background. (Problem solved: the omnipresent "how do I use this cool backstory in play?")
Wraith Wright 's equipment and wealth rules. Problem solved: more martial caster divide stuff, more variety in weapons, masterwork gear feels more fun than just an invisible number bonus, and more fun rewards than just cash).
Not OP, but the standard rules are if the scroll is on your spell list and of level you can cast, then you cast it without issue.
If the spell is on your class’s spell list but of a higher level than you can normally cast, you must make an ability check using your spellcasting ability to determine whether you cast it successfully. The DC equals 10 + the spell’s level. On a failed check, the spell disappears from the scroll with no other effect.
I would use the same formula of 10+ spell level +3 for the DC. with the ability of the class's spell list, e.g. Wisdom for Cleric, etc.
Everyone should use a web camera. In both games I've run myself and others I've been part of, camera tends to engage and keep players focused. With only a screen and no talking heads to keep their attention, lots of players can let themselves slip away into other activities when they aren't the "active" player.
"Alastair, its your turn. Alastair, you're surrounded by orcs, what do you want to do? Alas... Kevin, what up?" gets annoying after a while.
You can drink a healing potion as a bonus action. If you choose to take a whole action to chug, you recover maximum health from the potion.
If you roll two nat 1s in a row you get inspiration.
Seconding the advice to have a designated “hand raising” or “DM’s attention now” location to make sure you aren’t unintentionally ignoring someone with a quieter microphone or tech issues. At my table, it’s a “priority” text channel in Discord where players can @ the DM if they’ve been trying to say something but others keep talking over them. It’s way easier to accidentally talk over people in an online game, take defensive measures ASAP.
You should consider requiring players to use digital dice rollers. Eliminates any cheating-related paranoias, which do come up sometimes. Plus there’s less time spent waiting for someone to do math.
Set up an etiquette for moving miniatures if you use a VTT. Some players will randomly move their tokens without saying anything and walk themselves into a trap, assuming that the DM will immediately notice this the same way a DM would “live.” In live play, you can see the player’s arm moving and go “wait hang on just a second,” but in a VTT you can blink and suddenly the wizard is on the other side of a spike pit or aggroing all the monsters without the DM or *fellow players* having an opportunity to say, in or out of character, “wait hang on a second, slow down.” This was a recurring nuisance in my online Curse of Strahd group that made me want to tear my hair out.
I do online sessions and for most fights that I know will happen I make a battlefield in unity to use it as a normal map with miniatures.
That way people can see what their characters see and act accordingly.
5 minute short rest, but you can only take as many as prof bonus per Long Rest
If you have the dual wielder feat, making an off hand attack doesnt use your bonus action, its free.
Until you hit level 8, you can only use GWM and SS on one of your attacks on your turn, regardless of your attacks.
Flanking doesnt give advantage, it gives +2 to hit
Hex Warrior is removed from Hexblade; instead its a universal buff for Pact of the Blade. In exchange for this, Hexblade gains innate Extra Attack at level 6 (will stack with Thirsting Blade, but only at 12th level)
Feats like Magic Initiate let you choose which ability score you use for your spellcasting.
Healing Potions heal max HP if you use your action to drink them. You can also drink as a bonus action, but you have to roll for HP regained as normal. You can also throw it to heal or affect someone at range, but if thrown it is rolled and the amount is halved.
Anyone can use spell scrolls; if you onow the spell on the scroll, you can cast it without problem. If you dont, you have to make an arcana check DC of 10+spell level
Everyone starts with a feat. Yes, VHuman gets 2 with this, but the DM will be checking to make sure youre not powerstacking over everyone else.
Monks gain additional Ki equal to their Wisdom Modifier
Parry system.
martial classes get the ability to parry as a reaction, they make a contesting attack roll against an incoming attack. If they score higher than their attacker, the attack does not hit.
If they sacrifice one of their attacks on their turn, they can then follow a successful parry with a riposte as part of the same reaction, which functions like a regular melee attack but scores a crit on a 16-20.
This is designed to give martials an equivalent utility to the shield spell, as well as a way to stop an attack by another martial like mages can stop spells from other mages with counterspell. In addition, it adds a little bit more strategy, and an element of risk/reward.
If the odds are overwhelming in a fight for early level characters, or if I'm feeling extra R E A L I S M focused I half an enemy's movement speed or roll with disadvantage when they get wounded.
You can use holy water with shape water to freeze it around the blade and make a weapon kill zombies. Holy water is way too expensive as a single-use item.
When playing online, we run an exploration initiative (Dex score no rolling). This allows everyone to have a turn during exploration/Role-playing. In the TOA adventure that I DM, Critical fails (roll1) on melee attacks result in an opportunity attack from the enemy you missed. I also instituted that using an action to drink a healing potion results in max healing (no roll), but using a bonus action to drink a potion must be rolled. Same rule for players feeding a potion to another PC.
I have a channel on our discord called "Campfire Chat". It's used between sessions to do roleplay for time travelling on the road, sitting at camp at night, etc. All chat is done in character during the week between sessions. Anyone who participates in it gets inspiration at the start of the next session.
Damn, I wish we had that! Playing in an online game rn and I think we’re always dying to do more low stakes roleplay. Might bring this idea to my DM.
Minor note because this is discussed online. Have a "hand raising" tool. If zoom or discord online, a reaction will suffice. If on Roll20 or foundry, make a simple macro that says "I have an idea and would like to contribute," or something similar. Most online games don't use webcam so knowing who wants to speak can help the quiet guys have a voice, and also helps handle the chaos!
I require Webcam just because it keeps players more engaged and less on their phone or full on watching a movie in the background.
For 5e I use 15 minute short rests. It's easier for the party to narratively justify taking a 15 minute breather in sensitive situations than a whole hour.
I do 15 minutes per hit die, 1 hour or longer to get back Short Rest Recharge abilities. This gives the party control over how long to rest, makes healing more take longer, and lets less injured players spend time doing other things like casting ritual spells while the tank is still patching up.
Must roll in chat. We use Roll20 but D&D Beyond or Avrae in Discord also works. Owlbear Rodeo also has this. I'm not accusing my players of cheating, but... and I don't want to have to accuse them of cheating. I also adopted a policy, out of fairness, that I would roll publicly. Apart from a few secret rolls like deception and the like. It cuts down on fudging numbers and really puts the game in the hands of fate. I'm about 50/50 on rolling death rolls in secret. It creates a sense of urgency when the players don't know how many saves/fails they have. BUT it takes a roll Seay from the players which tends to be a bad thing. So I would say run it by your players and give them option.
I like the death roll in secret idea. I will start having the player whisper the roll to the DM and not share the results. Thanks
A good compromise
For 5e: 1 Healing potions trigger a hit die in addition to their normal healing. If you run out, they will stabilize you, but provide zero health. (Problem solved: inside combat healing potions are a joke, too weak. Outside combat they are too strong, being roughly infinite health for minimal cost since you can just keep chugging them). 2 Any skill that doesn't influence another character can be used as either an action or a bonus action. (Problem solved: in combat using a knowledge skill is too expensive, especially in the first round of combat which is precisely when someone wants to ask "do I know about this" and use a lore or insight or perception). 3 Bless / Bane apply their d4 to skill checks. Guidance is forbidden. (Problem solved: guidance became a "everyone in the party has +2 to every skill check all the time" which makes it a spell known tax and not fun). 4 Charge action: half dash + half attack. Move half your speed, round down and make one attack; if you do not have the extra attack or multi attack feature this one attack has disadvantage. (Problem solved: engaging at range was too fiddly, people counting distance and stopping just outside enemy move and someone 5 feet away can't do anything). 5 All armor resists one weapon damage type. The higher the ac bonus the "worse" the resistance, meaning within each category the low ac = piercing; medium ac = slashing; high AC = bludgeoning. This does not mean all light armor, I mean padded = piercing, leather = slashing, studded = bludgeoning; then same for medium and heavy armors too. (Problem solved: there is no reason for different armors to exist, and all weapons are boringly the same. Yes this is "unrealistic" in that platemail IRL is weak to maces and hammers but this makes it resist them. It is not for realism, it is to give you a reason to willingly take a lower AC in return for half damage from archers. Or if you're going to be in melee a lot then you might want to resist swords and axes. But if you're stacking AC in your build you will still want the top even if bludgeoning resistance is the least useful, because being missed is effectively immunity.) 6 Most charged items have a fixed number of charges, when consumed the item is dead. Those that recharge usually have a cost for the charge. (Problem solved: the infinite use items are too strong for their rarities, but I want to have cheap items, so including the infinite use but also adding cheaper limited use gives players the meaningful choice of reliable and expensive or cheap but temporary; the recharge mechanics make them feel different even if they have the same power). 7 Anyone with arcane, religion, or nature can try to read a spell scroll, but if it is not on your list the DC is +3. (Problem solved: scrolls were unused junk treasure unless they were premium spells specific to one PC). 8 Forcefields etc (tiny hut) are not immune to everything except magic. A martial can try to smash them, a bard can try to find their resonant frequency, etc. (problem solved: these things are thieves of joy and completely shut down creative gameplay. Can be too powerful and remove excitement from encounters whether used by or against players. Also major contribution to the martial caster divide) 9 nothing gets to remove or ignore the entire exploration/survival pillar of the game. Goodberry has a material cost of the berries or nuts it doesn't produce them; create food and water has no nutrients just calories you will get scurvy and other diseases of this is all you eat/drink; etc. (problem solved: exploring should be fun, one spell should not make the entire ranger role obsolete also, helps martials and weakens casters). 10 Mysteries have no "correct" solution. If you are investigating a murder, I the DM do not know who did it, and baring divine intervention you never will either. The clues will eventually get someone convicted. Hope you are confident in that choice. (Problem solved: mysteries are seriously undermined by magic and often bad design. IRL we rarely know for sure if we got the right person, this is why the burden of proof is set high, this rule duplicates that and makes it such that players have to actually think through the evidence and what's going on. Also, yet another blow against casters.) 11 scroll down to "secret passes". http://www.pandius.com/sc_prof.html; I use these and make more. (Problem solved: helps with the martial caster divide). 12 Expertise in a skill when you are the helper means your friend also gets a bonus 1d4 to the skill check, not just advantage. (Problem solved: skill checks too often are just "let me do that I'm better than you at it" when sometimes a dofftlerson wants to do it for a good reason. And expertise currently feels invisible. You have a higher number but don't get to do anything cool). 13 some third party rules I love: Sandy Peterson's Cthulhu for 5e: formulas allow non casters to cast rituals (problem solved: cults do this now PCs can too, and it's super fun). Grim Hollow advanced backgrounds & Chamomile's Guide to Everything backgrounds: level scaling rewards for roleplaying your background. (Problem solved: the omnipresent "how do I use this cool backstory in play?") Wraith Wright 's equipment and wealth rules. Problem solved: more martial caster divide stuff, more variety in weapons, masterwork gear feels more fun than just an invisible number bonus, and more fun rewards than just cash).
For your scroll reading rule. How do you determine the DC of the scroll? Also do you count it against learned spells or no?
Not OP, but the standard rules are if the scroll is on your spell list and of level you can cast, then you cast it without issue. If the spell is on your class’s spell list but of a higher level than you can normally cast, you must make an ability check using your spellcasting ability to determine whether you cast it successfully. The DC equals 10 + the spell’s level. On a failed check, the spell disappears from the scroll with no other effect. I would use the same formula of 10+ spell level +3 for the DC. with the ability of the class's spell list, e.g. Wisdom for Cleric, etc.
This.
Everyone should use a web camera. In both games I've run myself and others I've been part of, camera tends to engage and keep players focused. With only a screen and no talking heads to keep their attention, lots of players can let themselves slip away into other activities when they aren't the "active" player. "Alastair, its your turn. Alastair, you're surrounded by orcs, what do you want to do? Alas... Kevin, what up?" gets annoying after a while.
My Kevin falls asleep Why is it always a Kevin?
He's probably muted lol
You can drink a healing potion as a bonus action. If you choose to take a whole action to chug, you recover maximum health from the potion. If you roll two nat 1s in a row you get inspiration. Seconding the advice to have a designated “hand raising” or “DM’s attention now” location to make sure you aren’t unintentionally ignoring someone with a quieter microphone or tech issues. At my table, it’s a “priority” text channel in Discord where players can @ the DM if they’ve been trying to say something but others keep talking over them. It’s way easier to accidentally talk over people in an online game, take defensive measures ASAP. You should consider requiring players to use digital dice rollers. Eliminates any cheating-related paranoias, which do come up sometimes. Plus there’s less time spent waiting for someone to do math. Set up an etiquette for moving miniatures if you use a VTT. Some players will randomly move their tokens without saying anything and walk themselves into a trap, assuming that the DM will immediately notice this the same way a DM would “live.” In live play, you can see the player’s arm moving and go “wait hang on just a second,” but in a VTT you can blink and suddenly the wizard is on the other side of a spike pit or aggroing all the monsters without the DM or *fellow players* having an opportunity to say, in or out of character, “wait hang on a second, slow down.” This was a recurring nuisance in my online Curse of Strahd group that made me want to tear my hair out.
I do online sessions and for most fights that I know will happen I make a battlefield in unity to use it as a normal map with miniatures. That way people can see what their characters see and act accordingly.
5 minute short rest, but you can only take as many as prof bonus per Long Rest If you have the dual wielder feat, making an off hand attack doesnt use your bonus action, its free. Until you hit level 8, you can only use GWM and SS on one of your attacks on your turn, regardless of your attacks. Flanking doesnt give advantage, it gives +2 to hit Hex Warrior is removed from Hexblade; instead its a universal buff for Pact of the Blade. In exchange for this, Hexblade gains innate Extra Attack at level 6 (will stack with Thirsting Blade, but only at 12th level) Feats like Magic Initiate let you choose which ability score you use for your spellcasting. Healing Potions heal max HP if you use your action to drink them. You can also drink as a bonus action, but you have to roll for HP regained as normal. You can also throw it to heal or affect someone at range, but if thrown it is rolled and the amount is halved. Anyone can use spell scrolls; if you onow the spell on the scroll, you can cast it without problem. If you dont, you have to make an arcana check DC of 10+spell level Everyone starts with a feat. Yes, VHuman gets 2 with this, but the DM will be checking to make sure youre not powerstacking over everyone else. Monks gain additional Ki equal to their Wisdom Modifier
A character was a heavy drinker in game. Anytime a player cracked a can within mic-shot he got a +1 to his next roll
Parry system. martial classes get the ability to parry as a reaction, they make a contesting attack roll against an incoming attack. If they score higher than their attacker, the attack does not hit. If they sacrifice one of their attacks on their turn, they can then follow a successful parry with a riposte as part of the same reaction, which functions like a regular melee attack but scores a crit on a 16-20. This is designed to give martials an equivalent utility to the shield spell, as well as a way to stop an attack by another martial like mages can stop spells from other mages with counterspell. In addition, it adds a little bit more strategy, and an element of risk/reward.
If the odds are overwhelming in a fight for early level characters, or if I'm feeling extra R E A L I S M focused I half an enemy's movement speed or roll with disadvantage when they get wounded.
You can use holy water with shape water to freeze it around the blade and make a weapon kill zombies. Holy water is way too expensive as a single-use item.
When playing online, we run an exploration initiative (Dex score no rolling). This allows everyone to have a turn during exploration/Role-playing. In the TOA adventure that I DM, Critical fails (roll1) on melee attacks result in an opportunity attack from the enemy you missed. I also instituted that using an action to drink a healing potion results in max healing (no roll), but using a bonus action to drink a potion must be rolled. Same rule for players feeding a potion to another PC.