In addition to the normal rules of Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition, Runesbane will be run with these rules meant to enhance the fun of the experience.
Write-Up Rewards
The most important reward. To encourage and facilitate the thing that keeps West Marches games alive, I will heavily reward player post-session Write-Ups. Descriptions of their adventure, actions, goals, what they saw and discovered, and updating the world map are essential for this style of play. Players who make a write-up (either together or alone) will be rewarded with a point of inspiration, EXP, and extra renown and fame (if they are a member of a faction). All members of a party can make a write-up and get the reward.
Inspiration
Inspiration is a rule used to reward players for making write-ups about their progress and actions after an adventure. Inspiration in this game will operate more like the "Lucky" feat. Whenever you make an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw, you can spend one inspiration point to roll an additional d20. You can choose to spend one of your inspiration points after you roll the die, but before the outcome is determined. You choose which of the d20s is used for the attack roll, ability check, or saving throw. You can also spend one inspiration point when an attack roll is made against you. Roll a d20, and then choose whether the attack uses the attacker's roll or yours. If more than one creature spends a luck point to influence the outcome of a roll, the points cancel each other out; no additional dice are rolled.
To combat Inspiration hoarding and squeamishness of use, players can develop a pool of three inspiration points. Think of it like a pool of the Lucky feat you can earn, or Edge points from Shadowrun.
Roleplay Reward
Staying true to your character's personality traits, ideal, bond, and flaw will result in an experience reward. Roleplaying in character, performing, making an effort to interact with the world and bring your character to life will result in an experience reward. This is to encourage roleplay and investment. These rewards will be party-wide. If one person's actions earn the reward, everyone will benefit. I hope this gives incentives to those who want to roleplay, while not discouraging those who simply want to crack open orc skulls and trek dungeons.
Renown
Renown is an optional rule you can use to track an adventurer's standing within a particular faction or organization. Renown is a numerical value that starts at 0, then increases as a character earns favor and reputation within a particular organization. You can tie benefits to a character's renown, including ranks and titles within the organization and access to resources.
A player tracks renown separately for each organization his or her character is a member of. For example, an adventurer might have 5 renown within one faction and 20 renown within another, based on the character's interaction with each organization over the course of the campaign.
A character earns renown by completing missions or quests that serve an organization's interests or involve the organization directly. Renown may also be earned with social bragging or doing acts worth of public discussion.
Benefits of renown include gaining ranks within factions. As a character's renown within an organization grows, members of that organization are increasingly likely to have heard of the character. Earning a rank within an organization comes with certain benefits, as defined by you. A character of low rank might gain access to a reliable contact and adventure leads, a safe house, or a trader willing to offer a discount on adventuring gear. A middle-ranked character might gain a follower, access to potions and scrolls, the ability to call in a favor, or backup on dangerous missions. A high-ranking character might be able to call on a small army, take custody of a rare magic item, gain access to a helpful spellcaster, or assign special missions to members of lower rank. Leads on treasure, help on adventures, resources can all be gained with time invested in a faction or organization.
It is somewhat like Glory from Legend of the Five Rings.
Downtime Activites
I would like to include the use of downtime activities. Characters who don't adventure one session, or declare their downtime activity between sessions, can partake in downtime activities. These include work, training, selling magical items, searching for information, operating a business, pitfighting, gambling and others! The rewards or detriments of such being dependent on the activity. You can read about downtime activites here.
Gritty Realism Resting
This variant uses a short rest of 8 hours and a long rest of 7 days. This puts the brakes on the campaign, requiring the players to carefully judge the benefits and drawbacks of combat. Characters can't afford to engage in too many battles in a row, and all adventuring requires careful planning. This promotes approaching combat and exploration with care and precaution. To spend hit die during a short rest, the players will need to use a charge of a Healer's Kit. After a vote: Player spells and class abilities will refresh themselves on a normal resting time table: 1hr short rest, 8hr long rest.
Injuries
Damage normally leaves no lingering effects. This option introduces the potential for long-term injuries. As written, the rules for injuries in the DMG are horribly debilitating. Instead, this house rule would offer the option for a player to take a scar or injury if they want to. It is intended to provide an outlet to tease out a character's story and change their personality.
For example: A player of mine had their barbarian killed outright by a Flameskull's fireball. When resurrected, he returned to life with horrible burn scars across his body. Further, flaws related to a fear of fire and a drinking habit to cope with his trauma. Or, a character of mine who was the sole survivor of a party wipe retained a limp that reduced his speed, gave him disadvantage on acrobatics checks, and scarred his face.
Critical Hits
Criticals will work as written, but for reference and to ease confusion, here is a copy of the book's mention of critical hits.
When you score a critical hit, you get to roll extra dice for the attack's damage against the target. Roll all of the attack's damage dice twice and add them together. Then add any relevant modifiers as normal. To speed up play, you can roll all the damage dice at once.
For example, if you score a critical hit with a dagger, roll 2d4 for the damage, rather than 1d4, and then add your relevant ability modifier. If the attack involves other damage dice, such as from the rogue's Sneak Attack feature, you roll those dice twice as well.
There are no critical hits or failures for ability or skill checks.
Carry Weight
Due to the nature of West Marches and dungeon delving games, encumbrance rules are important. Encumbrance will work as written with a slight change to encourage multiple trips, use of carts, Tenser's disc or leaving things behind.
Your carrying capacity is your Strength score multiplied by 15. This is the weight (in pounds) that you can carry, which is high enough that most characters don't usually have to worry about it. Larger creatures can bear more weight, whereas Tiny creatures can carry less. For each size category above Medium, double the creature's carrying capacity and the amount it can push, drag, or lift. For a Tiny creature, halve these weights.
When you go over your carry weight you are encumbered, which means your speed drops by 10 feet.