jgsugden
Legend
There have been a lot of discussions about houserules in D&D recently. I'd like to hear about very unusual ones that you have for your table that make your table unlike other tables in a way that you enjoy.
My (first) contribution: Shadowfell Dread
When the PCs enter the Shadowfell I immediately pull out a Jenga tower and set it up right next to my DM screen. Then, while the PCs are in the Shadowfell, certain triggers will result in me instructing them to pull a piece from the Jenga tower. I do not tell them why the tower is there. I do not answer questions as to what happens if the tower falls directly. It just stands there.
There are some obvious things that cause a pull that they can spot and understand right away. For example, they have to pull from the tower if they roll a 1 on a d20. There are other things that are less obvious.
Some are story related. For example, if something malevolent watches them undetected I will have them pull from the tower. If they are in the Ravenloft domain of certain Dread Lords and they say the Dread Lord's name they have to pull from the tower. In one Dread Lord's Ravenloft domain there is a pull every 7 hours of game time because the Dread Lord is reliving a 7 hour period constantly. These are intended to provide hints to the group about the world around them that either advances the story or gives them reason to fear.
Some are truly arbitrary just to mess with their heads.
And if the tower falls? Bad things happen. If they're in a Ravenloft Domain there is a specific thing (or a table to roll on) that reveals the calamity. If they're in the Shadowfell I have a table of stuff I can roll on, but I usually have something in the game that I can draw upon that seems apprpriate. For example, in one session the PCs snuck past my version of the Headless Horseman. When the tower was knocked down, mid-combat, the Headless Horseman swooped down from the Sky on his Shadow Wyvern and joined the battle against the PCs with his Vorpal Scythe. In another the group was trying to travel across the Shadowfell to get to the Dread Domain that was reliving an event in the past so that they could learn what truly took place there in the real world (note: don't expect a traumatic supernatural forced reliing of an event to be historically accurate) when the tower fell. The Shadowfell twisted their path and sent them back to the start of their journey - or they thought it had. In truth the group had been split in two and surrounded by illusions as Shadowfell Doppelgangers replaced half the party in each group to try to lure them into disaster in a warped mindgame. And once it falls, we set the thing up again and start all over.
The goal of the tower is to create a more pronounced feeling of impending doom. With some groups it works great. With others - generally the ones that love chaos too much for their own good - it turns into a red button they kind of sorts want to see pushed just to see what will happen. It is worth a try with most groups, but will not be a success for every group.
(Credit where credit is due - using a Jenga tower in an RPG was something I stole from the Dread RPG, although I took it in a different direction by incorporating it into another RPG: Dread (role-playing game) - Wikipedia)
My (first) contribution: Shadowfell Dread
When the PCs enter the Shadowfell I immediately pull out a Jenga tower and set it up right next to my DM screen. Then, while the PCs are in the Shadowfell, certain triggers will result in me instructing them to pull a piece from the Jenga tower. I do not tell them why the tower is there. I do not answer questions as to what happens if the tower falls directly. It just stands there.
There are some obvious things that cause a pull that they can spot and understand right away. For example, they have to pull from the tower if they roll a 1 on a d20. There are other things that are less obvious.
Some are story related. For example, if something malevolent watches them undetected I will have them pull from the tower. If they are in the Ravenloft domain of certain Dread Lords and they say the Dread Lord's name they have to pull from the tower. In one Dread Lord's Ravenloft domain there is a pull every 7 hours of game time because the Dread Lord is reliving a 7 hour period constantly. These are intended to provide hints to the group about the world around them that either advances the story or gives them reason to fear.
Some are truly arbitrary just to mess with their heads.
And if the tower falls? Bad things happen. If they're in a Ravenloft Domain there is a specific thing (or a table to roll on) that reveals the calamity. If they're in the Shadowfell I have a table of stuff I can roll on, but I usually have something in the game that I can draw upon that seems apprpriate. For example, in one session the PCs snuck past my version of the Headless Horseman. When the tower was knocked down, mid-combat, the Headless Horseman swooped down from the Sky on his Shadow Wyvern and joined the battle against the PCs with his Vorpal Scythe. In another the group was trying to travel across the Shadowfell to get to the Dread Domain that was reliving an event in the past so that they could learn what truly took place there in the real world (note: don't expect a traumatic supernatural forced reliing of an event to be historically accurate) when the tower fell. The Shadowfell twisted their path and sent them back to the start of their journey - or they thought it had. In truth the group had been split in two and surrounded by illusions as Shadowfell Doppelgangers replaced half the party in each group to try to lure them into disaster in a warped mindgame. And once it falls, we set the thing up again and start all over.
The goal of the tower is to create a more pronounced feeling of impending doom. With some groups it works great. With others - generally the ones that love chaos too much for their own good - it turns into a red button they kind of sorts want to see pushed just to see what will happen. It is worth a try with most groups, but will not be a success for every group.
(Credit where credit is due - using a Jenga tower in an RPG was something I stole from the Dread RPG, although I took it in a different direction by incorporating it into another RPG: Dread (role-playing game) - Wikipedia)
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