Fixing 5e Initiative, Part 5: Initiative with a DC

I decided the combination of speed factor and initiative scores wasn't helping the game enouhg. The declarations phase just bogged things down too much. So, I tried a different way.

The monsters use their initiative scores. At the beginning of combat, the PCs make initiative rolls. All that matters, though, is which monsters they beat. In the simplest case, the initiative rolls divide the PCs into two groups—the Befores and the Afters.

The thing is, I don't care about what order the PCs in a group go in. They can act in whatever order they like. They can even interrupt each others' turns.

Initially, I let them actually resolve their turns at the same time. I found I couldn't keep track of multiple turns at once, especially with players making automated rolls on a VTT. So now, I let them choose the turn order, and a player can interrupt another player's turn if they want to. They usually don't want to.

This injects a little bit more player choice into initiative from round to round. Using initiative scores for monsters speeds up the beginning of a combat significantly.

It isn't perfect. Since initiative is circular, it often turns into a cycle of : Fast PCs, monsters, slow PCs, fast PCs, monsters .... The PCs get bunched together, but they don't have full control over their order at that point. The fast PCs share a turn, followed by the slow PCs' shared turn. Why not one shared party turn at that point?

There are a couple of modifications I'd like to try.

Add initiative rerolling. At the beginning of each round, the players reroll their initiative. In this way, there's always a possibility that fast character goes goes with the Afters one round, or that a slow character gets lucky and goes from the After group to the Before group one round.

Initiative as a group check. If half the characters beat the monsters' initiative score, they all go before the monsters. Otherwise, the monsters go first.

Fixing 5e Initiative Part 3: The Solution?

We've looked at what's wrong with the default 5e initiative system and several alternatives that won't solve the problem. Now it's time for a proposed solution. Here's what I tried. (It didn't work, but it was a valiant effort.)

Here's what we need from a solution:

Initiative as player-managed risk or uncertainty. The initiative order should respond to players' decisions during the combat encounter itself, but the players' decisions should be subject to risk or uncertainty. That is, their decisions should make it more or less likely that they go before or after others, but it should rarely be a matter of certainty.

Initiative should reflect both dimensions of player agency. The consequences of player decisions about Dexterity scores and anything else that affects Dexterity checks should still matter in the background, even as player decisions in the combat round itself matter.

Initiative order should be a consequence of action selection. Player's shouldn't choose their initiative position directly. Instead, their initiative position should be a predictable (but not determinate) consequence of the action decisions they are making anyway.

Initiative resolution should not interrupt game flow. Stopping the game for the initiative ceremony must end!

And here's a bonus criterion I haven't said anything about so far: The initiative system should reinforce the idea that, in combat, everything is happening all at once, not one turn at a time.

With those things in mind, here's my proposal for a solution. It is probably deceptive in its simplicity. I think that's good.

Drum roll .....

Use both the Initiative Score and Speed Factor Initiative variants from the 2014 DMG. Together. At the same time.

Here's how that will play out.

• At the start of each round, the DM decides what the monsters are going to do and notes their modified initiative scores, usually 10 + Dexterity modifier + speed and size factors. At the same time, players are deciding what they are going to do that round and noting their modified initiative scores.
• Next, the DM asks the players for their actions and modified initiative scores, noting them all down.
• Then, all the actions get resolved, from highest initiative to lowest. Ties get broken by Dexterity score or by random roll.
• Then, we move to the next round and start over.

This system should reduce disengagement in two ways. First, players spend less time waiting for others to make decisions about what to do on their turn. Almost all decisions about what to do in a turn are made by everyone all at once. Second, the initiative-rolling ceremony is replaced by players telling the DM what they are going to do, which is something that happens on each player's turn in the default system already.

The system replaces randomness with uncertainty. Your decision about what to do tells you what your initiative score for the round will be, but you don't know what the other side is going to do. So, you have to make an educated guess as to whether that will be higher or lower than the other side's modified initiative score for the round. You are, in effect, choosing your actions based on the calculated gamble that you can take them at the most opportune time.

The system makes a PC's precise initiative score entirely a matter of player choices each round. It is determined by choice of action and other decisions that affect Dexterity checks.

In theory, then, this system will meet all the criteria for solving the problem. It even meets the bonus criterion. Everyone decides what to do at the same time. Action resolution is orderly and turn by turn, but it amounts to just the systematic resolution of things we all understand to be happening over the same six-second time span.

Later, I'll report on why this didn't work.

Fixing 5e Initiative Part 2: More Solutions that Don't Work

Last time, I talked about what's wrong with 5e initiative, and why none of the variants in the DMG solve all the problems. Now we're going to solve it.

Let's start by looking at what a couple of recent games have done to address the problems.

In Shadow of the Demon Lord, there are fast or slow actions. Your choice of action determines whether you go before or after the opposition. This is not disengaging, and it makes initiative depend on what it should: player decisions about what they are going to do.

The trouble is that there isn't an obvious way to convert that system to 5e. You could look at every possible action and decide whether it's slow or fast. But when you do that, you'd also break everything that is supposed to interact with initiative by modifying characters' Dexterity checks, and you eliminate the advantage of high Dexterity for initiative. It might work, but it's a lot of work.

In the upcoming Delve RPG, player characters get three actions per round, and monsters go first each round. Player characters can sacrifice one of their actions to go before the monsters do. This system does away with the disengagement of rolling initiative, but your choice of action doesn't have a lot of effect on the decision whether to go before the monsters. The main questions for players are (a) is there a good reason to make the monsters go between my turn and another player's turn?, (b) do I need to do three things this turn anyway?,  and (c) will it be good for me, having gone last this turn, to go first next turn?.

Unlike Shadow of the Demon Lord, Delve doesn't make your place in the initiative depend on your action choice. However, Delve asks the player to think about and make decisions about their initiative directly, in conjunction with their choice of action. For anything you can do with one or two actions, you ask yourself, "Should I do this before or after the other side's next turn?" That can be an interesting decision, but it's also a deterministic interaction with a purely mechanical aspect of the game, turn order. Those decisions would be more interesting and immersive if they involved risk or uncertainty derived from player choice.

The Delve system could, maybe, be implemented in 5e. You could try having the monsters always go first, unless players sacrifice their bonus action, movement, or action, to go first instead. That would probably have unintended bad consequences. For example, characters such as rogues are likely to use their movement, bonus action, and action each turn. In unmodified 5e, they are also likely to go early in the round. In the 5e-converted Delve system, they'd go last. The system also removes any initiative benefits that come from high Dexterity or bonuses to Dexterity checks.

Next: The Solution?

Fixing 5e Initiative Part 1: The Problems

I don't like the way initiative works in 5e. Really, I don't like the way initiative has worked in D&D from 3rd edition onward. Really really, I don't like the way initiative works in any edition of D&D. This time, I'm going to try to fix it for 5e, though.

You can't fix a problem until you know what the problem is. Here's my diagnosis of the problems with 5e's initiative system:

Rolling initiative is disengaging. Just as something very exciting is about to happen, everything stops as the DM and players roll dice, add modifiers, and then take notes of all the results. Once that's done, you begin cycling through characters and monsters one at a time, deciding on each creature's turn what it's going to do, and then resolving it. This is disengaging in two ways. First, rolling and recording initiative itself breaks everyone out of the game's imaginative space for a few minutes to deal with something purely mechanical. Second, there's not much for players to do when it's not their turn. They could be planning their next turn, but conditions might have changed a lot by the time that comes around. Or they could see what's new on Instagram.

Rolled initiative results are mainly randomization independent of player choices at the table. The main influences a player can have on initiative results are decisions made about ability scores and class features, which provide modifiers to a d20 roll. In almost all cases, the roll itself is the most significant determinant of initiative. As a rule of thumb, though, mere randomness is almost as bad for player agency as pure determinism. The ideal is player-modulated risk or uncertainty; there is a chance element, but player decisions in play can influence the probabilities.

Here's why none of the initiative variants in the 2014 DMG solve the problem.

Initiative Scores. Instead of rolling initiative, use passive Dexterity checks. 

This approach reduces disengagement, because the DM can have all the relevant initiative scores written down ahead of time. It eliminates randomization as well. Unfortunately, it replaces randomization with an absolutely deterministic mechanic that is still entirely separate from decisions players make in play. It is a little better than the default system, but it doesn't give players enough control over when their characters act.

Side Initiative. No modifiers apply to initiative. Instead, each side rolls 1d20, high roll goes first, and the two sides alternate thereafter. Creatures on each take turns in whatever order they choose.

Like using initiative scores, this approach reduces the time spent dealing with initiative. It also lets players decide their place in the initiative order round to round — relative to their own side. Those are good things.

However, this system amounts to flipping a coin for which side gets first action in combat. No decisions anyone makes can help or hurt their initiative. So, features like Jack of All Trades, simply having a high Dexterity score, or cat's grace lose some of their benefit. Relative order within a side rarely matters as much as going before or after the opposition, so this approach still leaves the most important part of initiative up to chance in a way player's can't influence.

Speed Factor. Every round, everyone declares their actions and rolls initiative. The roll is modified by penalties for slow actions, bonuses for fast ones, and the size of a creature.

This approach makes initiative depend on player decisions about what they will do in combat. That's good. That's really good. It injects an element of risk or uncertainty into the system that was otherwise a matter mainly of chance.

The main problem with this system is that it replaces the once-per-combat ceremony of rolling and recording initiative with a once-per-round ceremony of declaring actions, rolling initiative, and recording everyone's results.

Next up: Some other possibilities.

Encumbrance and Inventory Limits

I have a little bit of an obsession with encumbrance systems. It's a pretty common aspect of the D&D to house rule and hack, and a lot of people are dissatisfied with it no matter what.

This is just a quick post to point out one reason people are dissatisfied with every encumbrance system everywhere. Everyone knows some sort of system is needed, but no one is clear enough on why it's needed to be happy that what they have does it what needs doing.

Before you even start to think about encumbrance in your games, though, you need to think about the differences among three sorts of rules.

Inventory limits are rules that say you can only have a certain amount stuff in your character's inventory.

Encumbrance rules impose consequences on characters based on how much stuff they are carrying at any given time.

Carrying capacity rules concern how much weight or bulk a character can pick up and move around with.

These are not the same things! A game doesn't have to have all of them. Most versions of D&D have a set of rules that do all three jobs at once. But games such as the wonderful roguelike, Brogue, get by with just inventory limits, and they don't just work, they work really, really well.

If you have carrying capacity rules, they probably indirectly determine inventory limits. You can't have more in your inventory than you can lift or carry. I've played in many games, especially 5e games, where that's the only limitation on you inventory. The rules say what the maximum weight you can carry is, and your inventory is limited only by that weight, containers be damned.

But carrying capacity and inventory rules serve slightly different functions. Carrying capacity is an aid to verisimilitude. It's just too silly not to have some limits on how much a character can lift, especially when all characters have a Strength score sitting there to tell you exactly that.

Inventory limits are constrained by verisimilitude, but that's not their main point. Their main point is to create interesting decisions—times when you would like to be able to carry both A and B, but you only have room in your inventory for one of them. You must weigh the pros and cons and decide which you will carry.

That's why Brogue works so well with no more than just the rule that you can only carry 20 things at once. You want to carry more than that. At a certain point, you must decide what to drop to make room for new items you really want. You start to think about where to cache supplies you can't carry but want access to. Those are all interesting decisions, but there is no nod to verisimilitude here. A maul and a potion and a ring are each 1 "thing," and each takes up the same amount of inventory.

Carrying capacity rules are only needed if the characters bump against the limits from time to time, so that they have to make decisions. Inventory limits are only needed if characters are picking things up and putting them down frequently enough that decisions about what to pick up or put down can be interesting. In a game where characters aren't running into anything too heavy for them to lift, and they aren't finding treasures that will take up limited inventory space, there's no need for carrying capacity or inventory limit rules.

Then what does encumbrance do? There are two versions.

One version of encumbrance rules is to add a dimension to the sorts of decisions inventory limits impose. Rather than just saying you can only carry so many things, the rules give you consequences for carrying more stuff, even before you reach your limit. This should lead to decisions about whether to take the penalties or drop something and, if the latter, what to drop. In a good set of rules, the penalties might increase as one carries more and more, but they shouldn't be immediately crippling. There should be some temptation to soak up the penalties for the sake of carrying what you want.

That first version of encumbrance rules is much less interesting if characters aren't often picking things up and putting them down. If characters' gear is fairly static, and they aren't hauling around a lot of heavy treasure, there's not much point to a detailed set of penalties for carrying more and more. They won't come into play.

The second version of encumbrance rules is aimed mostly at simulating the idea that some equipment, especially armor, makes you move slower. So, it simply assigns movement rates based on armor and leaves it at that. This version is independent carrying capacity or inventory limits. It can exist without either.

So, before you can decide if the inventory management rules of your game are doing their job, you need to think about what job you want them to do and what sorts of rules can do that job. Don't expect inventory limits to give you a satisfying simulation of how strength affects carrying capacity. Don't expect rules for lifting and carrying to make inventory decisions more interesting. And whatever rules you wind up going for, don't use a detailed and fiddly system to track something that almost never changes!

The promised article on kobold tactics is coming soon. Stay tuned.

Raising the Dead

If you're going to have a D&D campaign in which PC death is possible, you need a way to raise characters from the dead.

There are some exceptions. It's much less important in an open table game, with many players and more or less ad hoc adventuring groups. It's also less important if the characters aren't going to go beyond about 4th level or so. And PCs don't need to be able to come back from every kind of death. But the DM should take care setting up situations in which unrecoverable death is possible. They are campaign-ending situations — unless you have a way for the campaign to keep going despite the PC's death. For most of us, that means finding a way for the PC's player to keep playing, despite the PC's death. And that's why you need a way to raise characters from the dead.

Characters from about 4th level and up need ways to be raised from the dead. In B/X, they'll have to rely on NPC clerics until a PC cleric reaches 7th level. In 5e, PCs can't cast raise dead until 9th level. Either way, the span of levels that PCs need access to raise dead but can't cast it themselves is fairly big. If you don't provide those characters with a way to be raised from the dead, you should follow the lead of some other games and just stipulate that PCs can't die.

Most campaigns have a fairly limited and stable set of players. But players need characters. So, when a PC dies, the player has a problem. They can't play without a character, and you can't (ordinarily) play dead characters. Raise dead and outlawing PC death both solve that problem.

Some DMs deal with character death in other ways, but they aren't good for the game. Here are some popular ones.

• Roll up a new 1st-level character to join the party. This is fine at low levels, but it has lots of problems when the other characters are more than about 3rd or 4th level. Basically, the challenges appropriate for the other characters are not appropriate for the 1st-level character. If the other players have stables with other, low-level characters, the new PC can adventure with them, but now the high-level campaign is on hold until the new character reaches a high enough level, and then there's still the question of how to explain the new character's appearance in the party.
• Roll up a new character at a higher level. Popular options are to give the new character XP equal to or a bit less than the lowest-level character in the party, or to base their starting XP on the XP of the character who died. But if you are going to allow a new character of that level, why allow the old character to die at all? Why not just dock them XP and carry on? It would avoid the narrative problems of incorporating a new high-level character (who, presumably, has some history) into the party. And if you're willing to handwave those narrative problems, why aren't you willing to handwave the narrative problems of simply deciding that Petey Paladin didn't die after all? Why not just say he lost consciousness and a level or two?
• Promote a retainer/henchman to PC status. If there is a retainer whose level is high enough, this could be a workable approach. But there does need to be one, and it needs to make sense that they would be promoted and be willing to continue adventuring rather than, say, retiring after their old boss got killed. If there isn't an appropriate retainer, it won't work. But if raise dead is available, then not only is it not necessary to promote a retainer to PCs status, but retainers have a reason to help their boss get raised—no boss, no pay.

There's always the possibility of making it very difficult for PCs to die, or declaring, as some games do, that PCs don't die—their failures will always take a different form. But if you don't rule out the possibility of death altogether, you need to plan for PC death and your players need to be able to plan for it too. And don't be a wuss about it. Don't pretend PC death is a real possibility and then start fudging to avoid it when it happens. Be honest with yourself and your players about whether PCs really can die.

But how can you make raise dead available to lower-level PCs?

The Local Temples

Raising the dead should be possible at temples and churches where there are 7th-level (B/X) or 9th-level (5e) clerics. It might be possible at other temples or churches, if the local clergy has access to a scroll with the spell on it. An appropriate donation should be required, and there might be other requirements as well.

Almost no religion will raise the dead of those whose alignments or religion conflict with their own. Fortunately for the churches, the recipient of raise dead is weak and has only 1 hp for a while after being raised. If someone is not already a member of the church, the cleric who raises them from the dead might give them a chance to convert. Those who refuse might be "returned to death," (i.e. re-killed), and that should not be considered an evil or chaotic act on the cleric's part. Rather, it is understood that those who are raised from the dead owe a certain loyalty to the religion that raised them, and refusing to pay means forfeiting the resurrection.

As for monetary costs, the AD&D 1e figure of 1,000 gp plus 500 gp per level of the recipient is reasonable for B/X. As characters gain levels, their wealth grows exponentially, and so raise dead becomes more affordable the more established and powerful a character is.

It is harder to set a price for 5e, because there is no firm relationship between character wealth and level.  As a rough guide, though, you might set the price for levels 1-5 to be 500 gp, 5,000 gp for levels 6-11, 50,000 gp for levels 12-17, and 500,000 gp for levels 18-20.

Raise dead has a time limit. In 5e, the person must be no more than 10 days dead. In B/X it depends on the level of the cleric casting the spell, ranging from a maximum of 4 days (a 7th- or 8th-level caster) to 28 days (a 14th-level caster). In practice, though, these spell casters are unlikely to have the spell prepared and ready to cast as soon as the PCs show up with a body at the temple doors. The party will have to wait at least a day, so that the NPC cleric can prepare the spell.

If a party doesn't have a cleric able to cast raise dead, either from memory or a scroll, there is thus a limit to how far from a temple they should travel. They should never go so far from a temple that they can't get back to it in time to raise their dead colleagues.

Whether your campaign is a sandbox or not, you need to bear that in mind when you are setting it up. Do not arrange things so that the PCs have no choice but to travel beyond their ability to get to a temple for raise dead, unless they have the ability to cast the spell themselves (and a backup in case the cleric is the one who dies!). Otherwise, you haven't really given them access to the spell at all.

Scrolls

Instead of paying a high level cleric to cast raise dead, characters might want to cast it from a scroll or pay a lower-level cleric to cast it from a scroll.

The benefit of this is that the PCs don't have to stay within a few days' travel of the temple. However, it is more expensive as well. The PCs need the scroll.

Clerics should be able to buy scrolls with the spell on it from their churches. They will probably be expected to follow all the church's rules about whom to raise and what donations to collect. In 5e, the scrolls cost 250 to 2,500 gp. That's a wide range, but 2,500 gp is likely unaffordable to anyone below 6th level or so. You might use prices on the lower end of the scale for clerics under 6th level or so, supposing their churches only expect the highest prices from their wealthiest clergy.

In B/X, scrolls of raise dead cost at least 2,500 gp to make, and so 5,000 gp may be a reasonable price. That amount is affordable to most 4th or 5th level PCs—and those are the levels when access to raise dead becomes most important.

Additionally, it's probably a good idea for a scroll of raise dead to be part of the treasure a group recovers sometime while they are around 4th level.

Banning Death

I like for character death to be a real possibility. For most campaigns, though, that means there needs to be a way to recover characters who have died in most cases. But there's an alternative that some games use. You can simply stipulate from the start that PCs don't die, except in truly exceptional cases.

This turns the game into something more like a superhero game. The stakes for characters are not their own lives, but they may be other things they care about, including the lives of other people they care about.

In 5e, there's a fairly straightforward way to ban death. When a character fails three death saving throws, they are unconscious and injured. They roll on the DMG's lingering injury table to find out the exact nature of their injury. Whatever it is, it'll probably keep the PC out of action for a period of game time while they recover from the injury or find someone to heal it. That can be more than enough to make failing three death saves extremely undesirable, even if it doesn't mean losing the character permanently.

In B/X, you can adopt similar mechanics, or something even simpler. A PC reduced to 0 hp or less is incapacitated for a turn, and then they have all the disadvantages of a recipient of raise dead: they have 1 hp, can't do anything but move at half speed, and can't be healed by magic. That state lasts for two weeks, just like raise dead.

It's still bad to get dropped to 0 hp. If your PCs have to pay for upkeep, those two weeks are unproductive downtime that still has to be paid for. It's two weeks during which Team Evil's plans get to advance without the PC being able to do anything to stop them. That can actually be worse than what would have happened if the PC were replaced right away with a new one just a level or two behind.

Make a Plan!

When people allow replacement PCs at higher than 1st level, or they force players to use 1st-level PCs who aren't close to the level of the rest of the group, it's usually because they haven't planned for PC death, and they haven't planned how to make raise dead available to the party. With a little planning, though, you can easily give PCs access to the spell, and you can do so without making the campaign too easy. Coming back from the dead is expensive, and it can require new in-character commitments. Until the PCs can cast the spell themselves, they have to stay near the clerics who will cast the spell for them, or they have to pay for expensive scrolls. When the players know all this, they can also face potentially deadly situations with more confidence. Character death can become an opportunity for new campaign events, rather than a campaign killer.

But if none that makes sense for your campaign, then you need to be honest with yourself about whether you want PC death to be possible at all. What are you going to do when someone's character dies? Are you going to let that end the campaign, or are you going to do things that make no real narrative sense just to keep the player in the game? The best move might well be simply to ban death for PCs—except for a handful of cases in which you want the campaign to have the possibility of ending with, "Some PCs died here, and so the group didn't accomplish the campaign's objective."

A Night at the Chunker: Barkeep Jam 2024 Submission

Here's what I've submitted for the Barkeep Jam, sponsored by Prismatic Wasteland to support their really interesting "pubcrawl" adventure, Barkeep on the Borderlands.

[Update 8/15 - added the missing drinks menu.]

A Night at the Chunker

Pubcrawl Location Compatible with Barkeep on the Borderlands, 5e, and OSR

Contents

·       Using this Location

·       Pubcrawl Details

·       Zone Descriptions

·       Special Rules

·       Catalog of Creatures

·       Map of the Chunker

·       Legal

Using this Location

This location uses the Barkeep on the Borderlands pubcrawl rules in conjunction with your favorite 5e or OSR ruleset. You will need access to the Barkeep on the Borderlands rules to get the most out of this location.

Getting around in the Chunker presents its own set of challenges, apart from the basic challenges of a pubcrawl location. The location can be used on its own or as part of a larger pubcrawl, and it works best if the jolly crew has something they need to accomplish or an NPC they need to meet with in the pub.

The Chunker is written as a location in a mostly human settlement, but it’s easy to change it to suit other locales, including that of the Barkeep on the Borderlands adventure.

See the Special Rules section below for information on moving from zone to zone inside the Chunker. Some activities are possible only in certain zones. For example, you can buy drinks only in The Bar, and you can use the privy only in The Garden.

When a name or creature type is an ALL CAPITALS, see the Catalog of Creatures section for additional details.

When the jolly crew arrives at the Chunker, choose a starting Crowd Size or roll 1d10 on the table below:

1d10 Roll	Starting Crowd Size
1-2	Sparse
3-6	Crowded
7	Full
8	Tight
9	Packed
10	Bursting

Pubcrawl Details

Regulars

When the jolly crew enters the Chunker, roll 1d6 on the table below. If a character’s number is equal to or below the result, they are in the Chunker right now. Choose gender or roll randomly.

d6 Roll	Regular
1	The Musician. Hunter (male) or Heather (female). Claims to be an accomplished lutist, but has no instrument here now. Will force anyone into conversations about music and musicians, requiring a Charisma check (difficulty based on Crowd Size) to escape. Probably better at flirting than music.
2	The Nice Thug. Trent (male) or Tiffania (female). Muscular, imposing, dressed in leather. Will give axe-throwing, dancing, or card-playing lessons to anyone for free, any time. Definitely connected to local thieves and assassins, but not on duty right now.
3	The Scholar. Scotten (male) or Sheila (female). Skinny, messy hair. Good source of information on any general topic, but completely ignorant of local people and events.
4	The Flirt (male). Flirts with everyone but Fillis, and buys a drink for whoever he flirts with. Married to Fillis.
5	The Flirt (female). Fillis, flirts with everyone but Flander, never buys her own drinks. Married to Flander.
6	The Naturist. Norville (male) or Norvelle (female). Wearing a little less than everyone else would prefer they wear. Loves to talk about the affairs they had as a youth, and actually knows quite a bit about local history.

 

In addition to these regulars, 1d6 CHUNKERITES are in any area of the Chunker at any time, plus whoever constitutes the ever-increasing crowd (see Special Rules)

Risk Die

When the jolly crew is inside the Chunker, interpret Risk Die rolls as follows:

1               Setback and Increase Crowd

2               Setback

3               Drinking

4               Drinking

5               Mark Time and Increase Crowd

6               Mark Time

Setback. Roll a Situation if the jolly crew is inside the Chunker, or a Setback if they are on their way.

Increase Crowd. Increase the Crowd Size one step, unless it is already Bursting. See Special Rules.

Drinking. Each character finishes their drink and rolls their sobriety die, downgrading it on a 1, 2, or 3. If the result is 1, the character also needs the privy (see Special Rules). Characters need to go to The Bar to buy new drinks if they don’t have extras with them. A character who has no drink when Drinking is rolled counts as Not Drinking. A character who has been drinking water upgrades their sobriety die one step and counts as Not Drinking.

Sidetracks

If the Risk Die rolls a Setback while the jolly crew is approaching the Chunker, roll 1d6 on the table below.

1d6	Sidetrack
1	Where is it again? The pub isn’t where the crew thought it was. In addition to the lost time, increase the crowd size when they arrive by one step.
2	BEGGER BRIONY stops the party and spins a long story before finally getting to the point and asking for money.  ·       If no one pays, she will curse the party with crotch rash. There is a 1-in-10 chance the curse is real. If it is real, all characters must succeed on a saving throw (5e: DC 10 Constitutionl; OSR: save vs. spells with +2 bonus) or get an uncomfortable crotch rash that reduces their speed by 10’ per round. The rash lasts for a week or until removed via remove curse. ·       If anyone pays, she will bless the party. The percent chance the blessing is real is equal to the number of gold pieces given to the beggar. If it is real, recipients are under the effect of a bless spell for 24 hours.
3	DREAD DANIEL approaches the jolly crew and asks, “What you lookin’ for? I’ll hook you up. You want a date? Drinks? Herbs? Anything you want, I’ll hook you up.” Daniel has a stash of ale nearby, and he’ll sell drinks for 10 sp each. Whatever else the jolly crew asks for, Daniel will name a price of 1d100 sp, take their money, and say he’ll be right back. He won’t be right back.
4	Portia, a MANIC PIXIE, wants to hang out with the jolly crew. She’ll flirt with a random character, as well as anyone else who talks to her, and she’ll promise to buy anyone’s drinks if they’ll pay her entry fee. Once inside, Portia disappears.
5	Sorry, we’re full. There is a long queue, and the crew can’t make it to The Door this turn.
6	Gimme a Boost. Riker the CHUNKERITE isn’t allowed in the pub, so he asks the jolly crew to help him get over the back fence into  sThe Garden.

 

Drinks

The Chunker serves …

Price	Drink
1 cp	Elven Rations. Water with a mint leaf.
1 sp	Blue Ribbon Beer. Not first prize. Marked with a blue ribbon so everyone knows you’re too good for good beer.
2 sp	Second Best Ale. Almost as good as ale, for those who are watching their purses.
3 sp	Ale. The best-selling ale in the place. Everyone says they hate it.
5 sp	Dwarven Rations. Distilled spirits, always count as “drinking heavily,” except for dwarves. Counts as water for Dwarves.
1 gp	What she’s having. Secret recipe, possibly magical, definitely pleasant, even better with a friend.

 

 

Situations

When the Risk Die indicates a Setback inside the Chunker, roll 2d6 on the table below.

2d6	Situation
2	Axe-throwing gone wrong. A CHUNKERITE throwing axes misses the target, badly. The errant shot might deal 1d6 damage to a member of the jolly crew, or it might badly injure another CHUNKERITE. If it hits a CHUNKERITE, count the crowd in The Floor, The Back, and The Muddle as one step larger. Either way, HARRY THE HERO tries to take charge of the situation.
3	Gambling gone wrong. A CHUNKERITE in The Casino accuses someone of cheating. If any of the jolly crew are in that area, a random one of them is the target of the accusation.
4	FREDDIE wants trouble. A FREDDIE insults a random member of the jolly crew and issues a random challenge. Roll 1d6 for the challenge. 1-2: A drinking contest (first to black out loses); 3-4: A card game in The Casino; 5: Axe-throwing; 6: A fight in The Garden.
5	Axe-throwing tournament announced. Anyone in The Back can enter the axe-throwing tournament this turn and stay in it until either they miss or the Risk Die next rolls Mark Time. During the tournament, only those in the tournament can throw axes. Anyone who has not missed when the tournament ends receives 6 free ales.
6	Talent Show. A talent show starts. Characters can enter and compete. Each round requires succeeding on a Charisma check to advance to the next round. The difficulty starts at Very Easy and increases one step each round. A character who succeeds on the Very Hard check wins 6 free ales.
7	Don’t I know you? A CHUNKERITE approaches a random member of the jolly crew and starts flirting (see Special Rules), insisting that they’ve met before. Escaping the conversation (if desired) requires success on a Charisma check whose difficulty is set by the crowd size.
8	Local Musicians play in The Stage. Roll 1d6 for how good they are (1: terrible, 6: great), for how drunk they are (1: sober, 6: blackout), and 1d6 for how loud they are (1: very quiet, 6: conversation in The Floor, The Back, and The Bar is impossible).
9	Don’t you owe me? A CHUNKERITE approaches a random member of the jolly crew, quite drunk, and insisting that the crew member owes 4 sp “from last week.” If paid, the CHUNKERITE hangs around making conversation that requires a successful Charisma check to escape (difficulty depends on Crowd Size). If not paid, the CHUNKERITE gets belligerent until either paid or fended off with a Hard Charisma check.
10	Friend’s old flame. A CHUNKERITE approaches a random member of the jolly crew and claims to have had a romance with a friend of the crew member. The CHUNKERITE wants to talk about it. Escaping the conversation requires a Charisma check whose difficulty is set by the crowd size.
11	A MANIC PIXIE (but not Portia) flirts with a member of the jolly crew (see Special Rules). Until the crew member buys the MANIC PIXIE a drink, escaping the conversation requires a Hard Charisma check. The MANIC PIXIE disappears when bought a drink or the next time the Risk Die rolls Mark Time.
12	Well known traveling musicians play in The Stage. Roll 1d6 for how good they are (1: terrible, 6: great), for how drunk they are (1: sober, 6: blackout), and 1d6 for how loud they are (1: very quiet, 6: conversation in The Floor, The Back, and The Bar is impossible).

Zone Descriptions

In the zone descriptions below, anything in bold is immediately noticeable by characters in the area. Underlining indicates additional details are given in the entry. ALL CAPS direct you to the Catalog of Creatures section.

1.   The Door

Description

Giant bloodshot eye in the wall over wooden door (usually open). Four CHUNKERITES congregate, talking to an obese man (FRANCIS)on a stool.

·       Bloodshot eye. About 1’ across, watches over the entry area. Doesn’t care if anyone sneaks in, but responds to fighting in the area by shooting a stun bolt at a random combatant other than Francis each round. (5e: Ranged spell attack: +5; Hit: 11 (2d10) psychic damage. OSR: Target must succeed on a saving throw vs. death ray or be knocked unconscious for 1d4 turns.

·       Stool. An invisible bag of holding hangs under the seat, where Francis deposits the night’s entry fees. At any given time, it contains 1d6 x 100 sp, but only 1d6 x 10 sp can be accessed without speaking the command word: Ummagumma.

movement

To get into the Chunker, a PC must either sneak past FRANCIS, bluff their way in, or pay the entry fee.

·       Sneaking past Francis. Use the normal rules for your game system. In OSR, characters have a base 2-in-6 chance to sneak in successfully, with their Dexterity modifier added to their chances (minimum 1-in-6 chance). Thieves and Halflings have an additional +1 bonus to their chance of sneaking in.

o   Failure. Characters failing to sneak in are confronted by HARRY THE HERO just inside the door, who tries to force them back out.

·       Bluffing your way in requires success on Moderate Charisma check.

·       Paying. Francis makes up an entry fee for each character. The base fee is 1d10 – 1 sp. A character’s Charisma bonus is subtracted from the base to get the fee Francis wants. Francis’s fees are non-negotiable. Once the fee is paid, a character must succeed on a Very Easy Charisma check to stop chatting with Francis and move to The Casino.

2.   The Casino

Description

Three tables for gambling games, with a view of The Bar and The Muddle.

·       Tables. PCs can try to get into a card or dice game, with a Charisma check based on the crowd size. Use whatever rules you want for gambling, or have a character win 1d10 – 1d12 sp per turn spent gambling. Characters who cheat are confronted by their opponent and HARRY THE HERO (who says he saw the whole thing), and they may call on FRANCIS THE DOORMAN for additional help.

Movement

Characters can move from here to The Door, The Bar, or The Muddle.

3.   The Bar

Description

A long counter; tended by a green-haired elf (Mishal the bartender) who serves drinks.

·       This is the only area where drinks can be purchased.

·       Elf: Buying a drink requires success on a Charisma check (difficulty determined by crowd size) to get Mishal’s attention. Calling Mishal by name grants advantage on the check. Buying Mishal a drink makes the check unnecessary for the rest of the night. Mishal is chatty and happy to talk with anyone who succeeds on a Charisma check (difficulty based on crowd size).  

·       Counter: Behind the bar are the cashbox (a locked chest containing another bag of holding, this one with 2d6 x 1,000 sp) and the kegs from which drinks are being served.

Movement

At the end of the turn, any character here who did not spend the entire turn here must succeed on a Charisma check (difficulty based on crowd size) or be randomly moved to The Casino, The Floor, The Muddle, or The Garden.

Characters can move from here to The Casino, The Floor, The Muddle, or The Garden.

4.   The Muddle

Getting In

The crowd size always counts as one step larger for the purpose of entering this area. If the crowd is already Bursting, entering requires two successful Charisma checks.

Description

There’s nothing here except for the people in your way.

Movement

At the end of the turn, any character who spent the entire turn here is moved randomly to The Casino, The Bar, The Floor, The Back, or The Garden.

Characters can move from here to The Casino, The Bar, The Floor, The Back, or The Garden.

5.   The Floor

Description

Open area with murals on the walls and ceiling, a long bench, three small tables and a view of The Stage and The Back. There is a 1-in-20 chance for each member of the jolly crew who comes here that a CHUNKERITE will try to strike up a conversation about the mural on the ceiling.

·       Murals. Show scenes of well-known local citizens dancing with weird creatures (man-sized hydras, floating eyeballs, griffons with goatees, etc.)

·       Ceiling. Very famous painting depicting a naked, bearded woman with red skin, reclining on a cloud in the sky and a beardless, pale, naked man with a skull for a head and long whiskers on the sides of his face reclining on the ground. Both are reaching for a red cup that is falling through the air, spilling a green liquid.

o   Anyone looking at the painting must make a Wisdom saving throw (5e, DC 8) or a saving throw vs. Spells with a +4 bonus (OSR). On a failure, the character is compelled by the painting to stay in this area looking at it and talking to others about how great it is. A character can repeat this saving throw at the end of each turn.

Movement

Characters can move from here to The Muddle, The Stage, or The Back.

6.   The Stage

Description

A raised platform where performers stand and entertain the crowd in The Floor. If a member of the Jolly Crew tries come up here while someone else is performing, HARRY THE HERO follows them onto the stage and tries to pull them off.

Movement

Characters can move from here to The Floor or The Backstage. Moving to The Backstage will require either sneaking in (OSR: 2-in-6 chance, plus Dexterity modifier and +1 for thieves and halflings) or being noticed by Harry the Hero (see The Backstage).

7.   The Backstage

Description

Cramped with broken musical instruments, uncomfortable furniture, rusted construction tools, and stacks of boxes (containing rags and cups), and 12 kegs (4 are empty, the rest contain the drinks served in The Bar).

·       There’s a chest under a pile of wooden boxes here that contains a very fine dress (worth 600 gp), a bewelled necklace (worth 1,500 gp), and three emerald rings (worth 1,500 gp each). But the chest is also locked, animated, and grumpy. If anyone tries to open it, it grows tentacles and mouth and attacks. Use the statistics for a black bear. 

The jolly crew are not allowed here. If members of the crew make a lot of noise here, or if HARRY THE HERO noticed them coming in, HARRY THE HERO appears at the end of the turn and insists they leave.

Movement

Characters can move from here to The Stage.

8.   The Back

Description

Four axe-throwing targets line one wall, and chest-high rail runs parallel to them down the middle of the building. Under each target is a stump, where up to three hand axes are stored. Chunkerites have axe throwing competitions here.

·       Axe-throwing targets. A member of the jolly crew can enter an axe-throwing competition by succeeding on a Charisma check (difficulty depends on crowd size). If a character competes, the player makes a single ranged attack roll. The character wins a free ale (to be claimed in The Bar) if their attack roll hits AC 3 (OSR) or AC 17 (5e). If the crowd is Tight or bigger, characters have disadvantage on this attack roll.

o   In a head-to-head axe-throwing competition (as in response to the challenge of a FREDDIE), both sides make attack rolls, and the higher successful roll wins. Either side can cheat by attempting a Hard Charisma check. On a success, they manage to distract their opponent and give them disadvantage on their throw. If they fail by 5 or more, their attempt to cheat is detected for what it is.

Movement

Characters can move from here to The Floor. 

9.   The Garden

Description

Courtyard with buildings on three sides and an 8’ fence in the back. Four tables. Two outdoor privies.

·       Conversation is possible here even when the crowd is Tight or Packed. 

·       Privies. Using a privy requires a successful Charisma check with difficulty based on crowd size.

·       8’ fence. Easy to climb.

Movement

Characters can move from here to The Muddle or The Bar.

Special Rules

Drinking

In addition to the normal Barkeep on the Bordelands rules, these rules apply:

·       Starting Sobriety Die based on Constitution score. Characters with above-average Constitution start with a d12. Characters with average Constitution start with a d10. Characters with below-average Constitution start with d8.

·       See Barkeep on the Borderlands for additional details.

Needing the Privy

When a character’s sobriety dies comes up 1, they need the privy. A character who needs the privy has disadvantage on all rolls until they have used the privy (located in The Garden). If a character already needs the privy when their sobriety die comes up 1, they must succeed on a saving throw (5e: Constitution DC 10, OSR save vs. poison) or need the privy right away. Such characters must relieve themselves during the current turn no matter where they are, which could be embarrassing, but they will no longer need the privy.

Charisma Checks

If you are using 5e rules, the normal rules of Charisma checks apply, with DCs given on the chart below.

If you are using OSR rules, there are two ways to do Charisma checks: Roll-under and Roll-over.

For roll-under checks, the player rolls 1d20 and succeeds if the roll is equal to or less than a target number based on their Charisma score. A natural roll of 1 always succeeds, and a natural roll of 20 always fails The target numbers are given in the chart below.

For roll-over checks, the character rolls 1d20 plus the characters Charisma score, plus a bonus or penalty based on difficulty. The check succeeds if the result is 20 or higher. A natural 1 always fails and a natural 20 always succeeds.

When a difficulty is listed as “none,” no Charisma check is required.

Advantage and disadvantage apply as in the Barkeep on the Borderlands rules.

Difficulty	5e DC	Roll-under Target	Roll-over Modifier
Very Easy	5	CHA + 4	+3
Easy	10	CHA	+1
Moderate	15	CHA – 1	+0
Hard	20	CHA – 2	–1
Very Hard	25	CHA – 4	–3

 

Moving from Zone to Zone

Characters can move from zone to zone as many times as they like during a turn. At first, movement is automatic, but entering a new zone requires a successful Charisma check once the crowd picks up. When a character fails a Charisma check to move, they are stuck where they are for the rest of the turn. The Charisma check’s difficulty depends on Crowd Size.

Crowd Size

The Chunker is constantly getting more crowded. It does not get less crowded until closing time. The size of the crowd determines the difficulty of moving from zone to zone, and the difficulty of various activities in each zone.

Crowd Size	Difficulty
Sparse	None
Crowded	Very Easy
Full	Easy
Tight	Moderate
Packed	Hard
Bursting	Very Hard

 

Nonlethal Damage

Some OSR systems do not include nonlethal damage. If yours doesn’t, use this one. A character can deal nonlethal damage with unarmed strikes, blunt weapons, or thrown objects. When the amount of nonlethal damage a character has taken meets or exceeds their current hit points, they are knocked out. A character’s total nonlethal damage taken is reduced by 1 point for every turn they spend doing nothing more strenuous than sitting and talking (and drinking!).

Flirting

When someone flirts with a member of the jolly crew, it’s entirely up to the player how the crew member responds. You can roleplay the interaction or, if that’s uncomfortable, just roll 2d6 for how good a job the flirter does, with a 2 being utterly offensive and 12 being maximally appealing. But remember, it’s up to the player how their character responds. They might decide their character isn’t interested in even the most appealing possible effort to flirt with them.

For PCs who want to flirt with others in the pub, use a reaction roll (OSR) or Charisma (Persuasion) check (5e).

Catalog of Creatures

Beggar Briony

Description: Dressed in rags, mutters to herself constantly, usually invoking the gods to punish the people who have treated her unfairly. Sometimes they listen.

Statistics: As normal human or commoner. Her efforts to cast bless and bestow curse actually work 1 time in 10.

Chunkerites

Look like normal humans (or demihumans). Any given Chunkerite has a 10% chance of being a locally well-known (artist, musician, socialite, noble, etc.) and a 1% chance of being secretly very famous. In either of those cases, there is a 1-in-6 chance the person is tolerated because of their fame, even though people don’t like them very much.

Statistics: As commoner or normal human, possibly with class levels to match fame.

Dread Daniel

Description: Short human with long black hair, wears black leather armor and always has a short sword handy.

Statistics: As bandit.

Francis the Doorman

Description: Obese male human, scraggly brown beard, balding, in his 30s but looks to be about 45. Talks to everyone about anything, no matter how long the line to get into the Chunker is. 

Conversation: Escaping his conversation requires a Very Easy Charisma check.

Statistics: As grizzly bear.

Freddie

Description: Boisterous, arrogant young male humans, usually looking for trouble and trying to prove they are  better than everyone else. They aren’t.

Freddies love competition, and they often cheat. 

Statistics: As noble.

Harry the Hero

Description: Thin male human, wears worn-out clothes that used to be quite nice. If a fight breaks out anywhere, Harry shows up in the second round and tries to either break it up or eject the troublemakers. Harry does not work for the Chunker, but he considers himself the unofficial bouncer.

If Harry the Hero is in any fight, another Harry the Hero joins each round. No one knows where these guys come from.

Statistics: As black bear.

Manic Pixie

Description: Effortlessly good-looking pixie who is eager to talk to anyone, flirt with them, and encourage them to do something daring. Manic pixies tend to disappear abruptly, most often after making a promise or persuading someone to do something they wouldn’t ordinary do.

Statistics: As pixie.

Map of the Chunker

Dashed red lines connect areas it is possible to travel between. Area 4 is The Muddle.

Legal

This work is copyright 2024, Chase Wrenn. All rights reserved.

This work is compatible with Barkeep on the Borderlands (found at prismaticwasteland.com), written by W. F. Smith and published by Prismatic Wasteland LLC, pursuant to the Barkeep on the Borderlands Third Party License.