Bringing an Old School Feel to 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons
I grew up playing D&D in the early 80s and tend to view D&D through an old-school lens. I enjoyed Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and if I am lucky, I still run an A&D game once a year at a local convention. I played 2nd edition, read the 3rd edition books, and played some video games based on 3rd edition. I read the 4th edition books, wrote a campaign \ adventure for 4th edition, and ran a few games, mostly with my kids. I found 3rd and 4th editions to be pretty complicated and they didn’t feel like earlier editions. I really enjoyed the edition of minions in 4th edition and I’ve tried to use them a bit in 5th Edition. 4th Edition felt almost too tactical and a bit like a video game. It was not bad, but it did not ‘feel’ like D&D. 5th Edition felt like the best of both worlds or all five worlds. In my humble opinion, it took the best of AD&D, 2nd edition, 3rd edition (3.5), and 4th edition with some new features. The game is fast, clean, and can be nudged to more closely resemble one of your favorite previous editions.
Long gone, as of 3rd edition, are negative armor
classes and THAC0 (which I still miss for some strange reason). Combat is reasonably fast and encounters can
be balanced pretty easily. 5th edition offers more variety and
flexibility in race and class selection.
AD&D and 2nd Edition D&D were lethal. Poison and some monsters had a save or die
mechanic. AD&D level drain was rough. Some of the most iconic and dangerous
monsters were truly terrifying to face.
Regaining hit points and leveling up was slow and expensive. Many who
critique 5th edition complain that the game is no longer as
dangerous, or it’s too easy to pop back up in combat with a cure wounds or
healing word spell. Leveling it too
fast and easy. The race and class
selection look more like Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh with many anthropometric races. Others opine on the changes in Mordenkian’s Monsters
of the Multiverse, particularly the removal of alignment. So how
can the game be changed to have a more Old School Feel? The question should really be rephrased, and
asked as what is important to your game and setting?
Restrict Races and Classes:
5th Edition D&D, in fact, all editions of
D&D represent an engine or ruleset, not a setting. Given when I started playing, I was heavily
influenced by the tone of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, the writing of Tolkien
and the world, or Robert Howard’s Conan.
The worlds I tried to create were human-centric, with elves, dwarves,
halflings, and gnomes being present but rarer.
Although the world was tough my campaigns
were and are full of heroic themes.
With the exception of one-off games, I tell my players, that the campaign
features heroic themes. No evil
characters are allowed and races must be human, elf, dwarf, gnome, halfling or
half-orc. I do not allow any Tieflings,
Dragonborn or any other races. This
brings the game into alignment with my world, and my campaign and it more
closely resembles AD&D.
Alignment
If you do not care of changes or the removal of alignment from
Mordenkian’s Monsters of the Universe, don’t use them. 5th Edition and all editions of
D&D are a rules engine. Not a
setting, although settings may be purchased. Are you running a world dominated by an evil
kingdom of humans? Perhaps orcs are an
oppressed warrior culture. Are they
evil? Simply misunderstood by their
counterparts. Are drow evil in your
world, make them evil? Your world and
your setting should dictate how creatures and cultures behave. It’s yours, mold it into your vision. If you purchase a setting follow it, unless
you don’t like it, then change it. Make
it yours.
To digress a bit, I am both excited and concerned about the Dungeons and Dragons movie coming in 2023. I will see it and I am excited, but I worry that a D&D movie is a flawed concept. D&D is a game system and set of rules, not a setting or story. How does one translate this to a movie? Perhaps taking a known story from D&D; Dragonlance, Gord the Rogue, etc… would be a better choice. This topic will wait for another post.
Running a Human Centric World \ Class and Level Restrictions
for Non-humans:
I was not particularly fond of class and level restrictions
for elves, dwarves, etc…. but I must admit it did help foster a human-centric
game. Every 5th edition
campaign I have run has been mostly elves or half-elves. The benefit of darkvision, and resistance to
charm and sleep seems to be tough for most players to pass up. I have encouraged humans, and I get a few but
not many have taken this up.
I know some Dungeon Masters run worlds where non-humans are
treated as outsiders and strange, even discriminated against when they visit
the human-centric world. This may work
if players and the DM are looking for more role-play and less combat or exploration.
Encouraging players to run humans is about the best I can
do. Giving them an extra boost at the
start of the campaign, or opening up an extra feat to them may also be a helpful
temptation.
Save or Die
There were a lot of save or die rolls in early editions of
D&D. Personally, I had a love-hate
relationship with this mechanic, I disliked it far more than I cared for
it. It was difficult to build up a
character only to see them perish on the role of a single die. Saving throws and damage can be just as lethal
in 5th edition if you wish.
Increase the saving throw DC or increase the damage if that is your cup
of tea. Nothing is stopping you from
making this change.
Death Saving Throws
This is a huge change for 5th Edition. If you feel this makes the game too easy,
then change it. You drop below 0 hit
points and you are dead, or you only get one death saving throw.
Personally, I like this mechanic, and for those who say it
makes it impossible for characters to die, I lose an average of 2-3 player
characters in a party of five over the course of a game. In my current campaign, one died, and the other
was resurrected by the party druid, who know regularly gathers locks of hair and
toenails from characters as a precaution.
They better hope she doesn’t die.
I heard a few recommendations from other DMs and podcasters
which I find appealing but have not tried.
First, the DM should make Death Saves on behalf of players
behind the screen. This increases the
tension and drama when a character goes down.
Did they get a 1, which counts as two failed saves? Where are they from round to round. When is it truly critical to reach them
during an ongoing battle? This may not
give the game an old-school feel, but it certainly ratchets up the tension.
Finally, when a character has been below 0 hit points and comes
back, they should gain a level of exhaustion.
This should be an ordeal. It continues
to preserve the character and make the game fun but it adds weight and
consequence to the being on death's door. This can make the game feel more weighty and lethal
like earlier editions.
Short Rests \ Long Rests and Regaining Hit Points
Hit points were regained at 1 per day in Advanced Dungeons and Dragons without healing magic. With second wind, short rest and long rests characters bound back quickly. If you wish to make the game feel more like old-school play, you can:
- Eliminate short rests completely (this impacts more than just hit point recovery, so I do not recommend this without careful thought)
- Reduce the hit points gained in a short rest to 1 hit point per hit die
- Shift recovering hit points from hit dice from a short rest to long rest, or reduce hit points regained to 1 hp/level.
- Make it more difficult to get a short or long rest. Think about where your players are and if something would stumble upon them. This is a great time to use wandering monsters or just think about what is in the vicinity. My players love leomond’s tiny hut and use to it safely get a long rest. More than once the creatures living in the area have found them and are ready to spring on them as soon as they emerge. Don’t make it easy on them
Leveling Up
I require characters to train in a safe area, mostly uninterrupted
for a week to level up. I have tried
increasing this to one level per week and adding a fee or investment of 100
gold pieces per level. For the current
campaign and story, we are telling requiring one week is more than enough to
slow them down and force the players to make choices. It also gives the game a bit of an old-school feel
Magic Items
It is very easy to shift items from recharging once per day
to having a limited number of charges, and this is suggested as an option in the
Dungeon Masters Guide. Again, whatever
your preference you should go for it.
Time and Resource Management
Dungeon exploration in early D&D was very much about
resource management. How long would a
torch last while exploring a dungeon and would characters escape before it went
out? Limited resources, including light,
put pressure on the characters. It is
recommended that the Dungeon Master carefully track the passage of time as this
directly impacts the use of the limited resources the characters have.
Darkvision
Darkvision in 5e, is defined as seeing as if in dim light,
and color is not seen, just a muted gray.
Emphasizing this for characters with darkvision will help motivate them
to use torches or a light cantrip. Darkvision is not vision. Can characters read a scroll with darkvision
or do they need light. Restricting what
they can and can not do will help give it an older school feel. This may also help with crafting a more human-centric world if darkvision is not quite as powerful.
Really this comes down to what you prefer. I suspect many old-school Dungeon Masters
and Players look back at Advanced Dungeons and Dragons with nostalgia-tinted glasses. The game was wonderful and gave me many
great memories. 5th Edition is streamlined, and fast. It preserved
some of what was best and made many improvements to bring in new gamers with a modern sensibility and it’s a fun game.
I think it is easy to make a number of adjustments to use these new streamlined
rules but give the game and your world an old-school feel. Personally, I think I have struck a pretty good
balance in my games. I communicate and calibrate with my players
before I make changes to see what they want to try. If I nudge or push things to far, they let me
know and we strike a good balance.
The bottom line is it’s your game and your game world. Craft it to be what you want.
As always stay safe and happy gaming my friends.
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