March 2015 – Rules Lawyers

First Review – Keeping it Simple with D&D Basic

In August of 2011 Wizards of the Coast announced a new Dungeons and Dragons product in the pipeline – what they called “D&D Next” – a terrible name that drove those of us who like consistent versioning a bit crazy. Thankfully the name was just a place-holder for the game that was released in 2014 – Dungeons and Dragons 5e (D&D). 5e D&D strips out much of the complexity of prior version – cutting back to a system that depends heavily on a few simple rules and putting a Dungeon Master at the table to make more complicated adjudications on the fly. That simplification is in full display in the free version of the game rules (available at the link above) the D&D Basic Rules. Go download them, then come back.

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Preparation – Where do we Begin:

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

– Abraham Lincoln

Setting up a new game in a new system can be a bit bewildering. Faced with learning new rules and dealing with the logistics of managing a group is stressful. So – when it comes time to start the new game, its easy to make preparing for the campaign slip. Many role-playing games include a module in the back to “quick-start” your party on their way. I’m not a big fan. Before you start running the game, you need a plan. You need to prepare.

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Rules Lawyering – The Action Economy in the d20 SRD:

In a normal round, you can perform a standard action and a move action, or you can perform a full-round action. You can also perform one or more free actions. You can always take a move action in place of a standard action.

d20 SRD “Action Types”

The “Action Economy” is the system that limits what each playIer can accomplish in one turn. In the d20 SRD the rule cited above compactly summarizes the action economy in the d20 system (i.e. D&D 3.5). Each turn a character can take either (1) a full-round action, or (2) both a standard action and a move action. In addition each player can take “free actions.” The action economy is not the choices you are presented with during your turn, rather it is the number of choices the game allows you to make each turn.

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