Chargen By Draft!

OK, so I had this problem/solution for 5th edition D&D:

Everyone always wants to have a mixed party, right? But nobody ever wants to interfere with anyone else's creativity either. So sometimes, you wind up with groups that have characters who share overlapping functions, or don't synergize well. How do you resolve both issues? How do you guarantee a mixed party, without interfering with creativity?

Then it hit me: "5th edition is balanced. You literally can not fuck up chargen in 5th edition D&D. Go ahead, pick any combination of character options. Some may be more effective than others in certain situations, maybe, like a little bit, but ultimately it just boils down to how versatile the character is. You cannot make a truly dysfunctional character in 5th edition. They've top-decked the chargen process so that can't happen, and bounded accuracy means everyone can hit anyone with something sometimes. That means you can actually generate characters at random, and they'd still be playable and fun."

Then I realized something else: "5e character options are elegant in their simplicity. I bet I could fit these things on reference cards, so nobody has to flip through a book any more. Then I could just give newbies a card that has all their basic stuff written down in point form already."

So I started doing that, and then the two ideas collided all at once and I had the solution to the problem: Make up a deck of cards, one for each of the three major character options, and start session 0 by passing each deck around the table, and letting the players choose their option from the deck. When they choose an option, they remove the card and keep it. That way, nobody else can choose that option! Because there's no such thing as a bad build in 5e, you also aren't dooming someone else to failure. (That's what would happen if you did this in any other edition of D&D, BTW) Nobody's truly interfering with each others' creativity, because  creativity starts after they took a card from the deck! The uncertainty of the draft process excludes preplanned character building from the equation!

I've always loved draft games in MTG, there was always that competitive mindgame going on in the background as everyone passed the pack around and picked cards for their makeshift decks. This is kind of the same thing, but way lower stakes, because most D&D groups are, like, 4-5 players, and (if you count each subrace as a racial variant) there are 33 racial options in the official corebooks, from the PHB to the SCAG, and 29 backgrounds to boot. With 5 types of elves to play, I don't foresee anyone being too salty about their friend picking Wood Elf first. In fact, I crunched the numbers, based on just major character options, (ignoring things like gear, feat, and spell selection) there are 48,807 general character builds. That's before multiclassing.

Here's pictures of the prototype character options cards! (The reverse side has just flavor text for newbies who don't know this stuff off by heart. You can't mess it up, so it makes sense to just choose your options based on the flavor you like most. The crunchy side is for play reference.)

Race Cards (each subrace treated as a full racial option)

Background Cards (variants treated as full background options)

Then I ran out of perforated backings to make the cards from. Once I get a new pile of that stuff I can make up the class cards! They'll only have information necessary for first level, obviously, but the purpose of these cards is for character generation anyways.

So, that's what I've traded in my DT in to the crafting activity to make! Off to spend more gp to complete the crafting process! Have fun out there, people!

Making SD&D

Rules:

1. No art. Artwork will never accurately represent what the designer wants, will always restrict the imaginations of the audience, and will always take up space.

2. No tables. Everything must be described by a rule. Development is procedural, not static or retroactive. A table demands reference, and reference is an interruption to the game. You should be able to play without the rules even being present, and without noticing them in any case.

3. 1 book = 1 page. My primary assertion, (or should I say "accusation"?) is that every single d&d book is disgustingly bloated for production value purposes. You aren't paying for a game, you're paying for a pretty book which speaks at great length about a game. I believe the entirety of what makes up a core book can be compressed onto a single, double-sided sheet of standard letter format paper. (As with a board game for example) D&D has always been related, somewhat indirectly, to board games, so the 1-page instructions is a good thematic fit which suits the game's roots.

4. Only one real core book. All you need to play is one core book, or sheet in this case. Everything else is supplemental, covering things that don't actually have anything to do with playing the game. For instance, many d&d books repeatedly go over "what is an rpg?" Book after book! I will compress it all into a single "Greenhorn's Guide" supplement. Nobody needs it but the newbies, so why sell it to EVERYONE??

5. No content. This is a pure abstract SRD of the game engine. No content means no barriers. There is no pressure to play any pre-defined campaign. Your settings are not defined by anyone else's limited ideas for races or classes. Nobody uses premade content anyways, we all modify it or create our own whole-cloth! If you have an imagination you do not need examples. Seriously, there is no need for content. Furthermore, content bloats up each rule section. Most of the page-flipping that occurs during referencing comes from trying to find little rules scattered between huge piles of content you aren't using!

Process:

Step 1: Go through everything and find those elements that are present and function nearly the same in all editions. This is the core of D&D. This is what makes the game D&D!

Step 2: Identify the missing gaps. For instance, saving throws, though always present, have no consistent form. Thus, though "saving throws" is part of the core of D&D, all that existed in step 1 was a placeholder indicating that something called "saves" had to be present, and that failing them can kill your character.

Step 3: For each mechanical deficiency, use the system(s) which, in this priority:
- 1. Have been most consistent for the longest.
- 2. Were present in active play for the longest.
- 3. Are generally considered to be the best version of said system(s) by the majority of fans.
- 4. If there is absolutely no consensus between game editions or fans, make something up that makes as much sense as possible in the game as it is now. It is best to find some commonalities among the systems you are replacing and focus on the net mechanical effect they produced and the feeling they invoked.

Step 4: We now have the "pure" game, or as close as we can get to it. This is the average sum of all that dungeons and dragons has become over the years. Now we need to relate it to each of its major forms:
• OD&D: A wargame supplement connecting Chainmail and Wilderness Survival to create an "army of one" style play with a focus on characterization borrowed from Role Play.
• BD&D; Rules Cyclopedia: A cleaned up and refined format of D&D as a game in its own right. Emphasis was on escalation from pathetic peasantry to deity over time.
• AD&D Revised Second Edition: What Gygax wanted D&D to be. For many, this is the only "true" final form of D&D. It is the most philosophically balanced mix of wargame/RP elements, but suffers from the most arbitrary and counter-intuitive rules to date. One of its most influential inventions was the OGL, which allowed a huge chunk of the gaming industry to subside off of overflow demand for the game, while simultaneously sustaining sales and reducing production costs for massive amounts of published material.
• D&D 3.5e: The version many people consider to be the penultimate RPG, it is an elaboration upon AD&D with a focus on intuitive, versatile rules and expansive player options. Eventually, form was abstracted from content, and we were blessed with the pure D20 system, taking the initial form of D20 Modern. 3.5e ultimately spawned Pathfinder, Hackmaster, and Fantasyquest after production ended.
• D&D 4e: Largely considered to be the worst edition of D&D, but nevertheless developed its own strong audience, sort of a subset of the D&D playing majority. Most 4e players consider 4e the single best version to the exclusion of all others, but are less critical of other RPGs, which is a perfect inversion of other generations. This game is actually much closer to its OD&D wargame roots with the design ethics of 3.5e and option complexity reduction. It was also an attempt to include innovations from VRPG design philosophy, particularly those in MMORPG design.
• Next & 5e: They designed the game in an "open" format, where prototype rules were available for public review and use, allowing the entire audience to comment upon, and thus directly influence, the new edition. So far, I feel this has sucked some of the character, the individuality and life, out of the game, and created something very hollow and artificial feeling.
The most defining elements, the things which made them impressive, and by relation made D&D impressive, but do not negatively impact any other editions or the core of D&D's true form, must be brought into the new game. It should have the fundamental greatness of each of its successors combined.

Step 5: Finally, it is time to distill. Simplify everything as much as possible. Anything that can be reduced or combined, must. For instance, why do we roll 3d6 to get a score to get a modifier? Why not roll 1d6-1d6 to just get the modifier at a similar curve?

Step 6: Once you have rendered the game in its lowest terms, it is time to innovate. You have your perfect foundation, so let's build a house! Make this D&D its own D&D. What is lacking in the pure foundation? Where has the game grown stagnant and why? How can the game be advanced by modern RPG theory or game design philosophy? What prevents D&D from delivering its promises? These kinds of questions, and many more, are used to make something new and unique out of D&D. The thing that makes D&D fun is its independence and individual character. It must have some form of idiosyncrasy to be true to the spirit of D&D! The process we have done now would create but a sterile, clinical, artificial, and hollow, pale imitation of D&D.