5e skill reduction, Modern D20 to 5e

5e SRD Series

D & D 5th Edition and a 5e x 5 SRD Project

The difficulty with 5e escalating HP and Damage.

5e- the fluidity of magic

5e Magic v Technology

5e skill reduction, Modern D20 to 5e

Working through the skill material, I notice almost immediately the reduction of the number of skills. Also the skill proficiency simplifies keeping track of known skills with the same bonus applied to all proficient skills. A character is either proficient or not.

On the side, I have been working with the Modern D20 system.

Here is what I have seen so far for my skill conversion:

Str
Climb, Jump, & Swim -> Athletics

Dex
Balance & Tumble -> Acrobatics
Hide & Move Silently -> Stealth
Sleight of Hand stays the same

Int
Search, Research, & Listen -> Investigation
Navigate -> Nature
Knowledge -> History & Religion

Wis
Handling Animal -> Animal Handling
Sense Motive -> Insight
Treat Injury -> Medicine
Spot -> Perception
Survival stays the same

Cha
Bluff & Disguise -> Deception
Intimidate -> Intimidation
Perform -> Performance
Diplomacy -> Persuasion

This will convert the core of the game's skill system. There are however skills that don't translate which may have to be added to the 5e system.

I appreciate the reduction in the number of skills - the main ones being Athletics, Acrobatics, Stealth, Investigation, and Deception - which combine 12 skills into these 5 skills.

5e Magic v Technology

5e SRD Series

D & D 5th Edition and a 5e x 5 SRD Project

The difficulty with 5e escalating HP and Damage.

5e- the fluidity of magic

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

-Arthur C. Clarke
Some time during my look through and conversion of magic items what came to my mind is how closely many of the magic items might be to advanced technology for a science fiction world. A Ring of Flight might be a ring device that emits a anti-gravity field. Boots of Sneaking might be made from a high tech material that eliminates sound waves and is built to minimize their creation. Even magic items that that summon elementals can be explained by linking wormholes to alternate worlds filled with elemental beasts. Power armor suits of technology have different magical shields and material skin such as stone-skin in magic. This became more apparent when I looked into some of the devices found in science fiction and science fantasy worlds.

5e- the fluidity of magic

5e SRD Series
D & D 5th Edition and a 5e x 5 SRD Project
The difficulty with 5e escalating HP and Damage.
5e- the fluidity of magic

I'm rather new to 5e. I did play some AD&D before switching to MERP.

Magic in 5e is different from when I what I recall at it back 30 or so years ago.

For example, I don't remember that magic increased in power as levels increase. Maybe it actually did back then. But my memory doesn't recall those types of details.

Produce Flame spell increases in damage at levels 5, 11, and 17.

Or Prayer of Healing which heals for 2d8 HP + spell ability modifier also increases for each slot above level 2 by 1d8 HP.

The fluid dynamically defined or structures spells brings lengthened use at higher character levels of lower level spells even when the characters are well past that original level.

Well done 5e!

The difficulty with 5e escalating HP and Damage.

Working with 5e we came across a difficulty in just multiplying x5 for damage and HP.

In 5e, it uses escalating hit points per level unlike some of the other game systems. A hit die is added. Different sided dice are used to represent characters having different life force values. There are four, six, eight, ten, and twelve sided dice.

In trying to multiply by five, this is what happens each level.

Four sided dice becomes twenty sided dice. Which I figured could be two ten sided dice.
Six sided dice becomes thirty sided dice. Which I figured could be three ten sided dice.
Eight sided dice becomes forty sided dice. Which I figured could be four ten sided dice.
Ten sided dice becomes fifty sided dice. Which I figured could be five ten sided dice.
Twelve sided dice becomes sixty sided dice. Which I figured could be six ten sided dice.

On paper and at first this looks okay. Just add that amount is added at each level.

From one to twenty or 60 points of life each level.

By level two it's two to 120.
By level three it's three to 180.
...

But the amount of dice becomes clunky rather quickly.

We tried implemented a d100 once 10d10 was reached.

This created numbers like 8d100 + 4d10 + 58 or something like that.

That was fine on paper. After a day of him working on monsters, I asked Peter if he could figure any other way to smooth the amounts out. He suggested just maintaining the original system.

Looking at the other D100, Runequest uses such a system for their system. Rolemaster, although chart based has numbers. But both of those systems don't have automatic HP increasing each level like 5e and other editions - more unique to it. So they don't create the problem of escalating hit points, which creates clunky dice rolling.

So after reviewing that system I agreed that we should maintain the original hit point and damage system, and try to adjust the bonuses to maintain a separate skills/saving through d100 and the HP & damage using the different original dice, hit dice, damage, and hit points.

D & D 5th Edition and a 5e x 5 SRD Project

Beginning a new project - D100 based
A week ago after finishing the Aioksoru World Atlas, and after discussing with a partner the possibilities of working on a future product, maybe in November, it got me thinking of the available source material for the type of project that he and I were considering. We met in a specific D100 game forum. That specific D100 game is a system which closely guards it's licensing, and doesn't allow other's to make money making products for that system by using their name officially and don't want us stating our products to it's system.

While browsing forums looking for d100 OGL systems I noticed comments saying that d20 is just a easier, many say better because of the easier math,  because d100 is just d20 times 5.

But that doesn't help in itself when I coudln't find any d100 OGL SRD that was popular besides MRQ D100 and OQ2 D100. Both of which are roll under systems very similar because OQ2 was built greatly from MRQ I think.

5e d20 to 5e x 5
I thought What happens if we take the most popular game, 5e - a d20 game - and convert it to d100 by multiplying stuff out by 5? Using the formula d20 x 5 = d100. Hence the project name 5e x 5, or quicker 5ex5. I suggested this project to him, knowing that the task would be great. His reply was immediately positive and wanted to be involved.

It isn't as simple as it first sounds.

Just in the monster section are 10k changes. At least 1K more in the magic items. And 'find and replace' would be too difficult because it would change the wrong numbers many times.

So we together have formed a two person crew to try creating a new D100 SRD - project name 5e x 5 - which will be available as quickly as we can make it as a PWYW download. It will be OGL still so anyone could may any project or use the end product to make adventures and other game systems based on it. The information will be much more compatible with existing d100 games - Runequest, Basic Role Playing, Rolemaster, Warhammer, Gore, MERP, HARP, Hackmaster.

The project will create another D100 system which is already familiar to many gamers.

Hopefully we can finish it quickly and maybe use it in November for National Game Design Month. And help others to populate the world with some more d100 material - adventures and stuff.

Getting familiar with 5e
I haven't been overly familiar with 5e. I've never played it myself. I have read the free basic set and looked through the SRD, and used it for the basis of my ABS12 stuff. And I've used it when I was making a list of all the available OGL stats for one creature several months ago.

Ease of proficiency
This project has allowed me to look into the rules section. I've been focusing on the Character section for my initial conversion project. I like how the proficiency simplifies skill specialization. In other games, you normally have to keep track of each skill independently. In 5e, the bonus is set based on level. You just need a list of what skills that bonus applies to.

Trying, editing, and drawing - this weekend's summary

This weekend was spread with several different activities.

3 Deep
Part of the time was spent beginning a character trying the new game 3 Deep. I'll be posting it's story when I get enough content saved up. Right now it is 1 page of material including some roll and result notes. Interesting to me is a started out in a situation from a story I wrote several years ago. And immediately the story changed right from the first roll, despite having the same beginning. I don't know what this story will be about.

ABS12
With some suggestions I rewrote and added a few suggestions to the future PDF version of ABS12 Fantasy. The final result will a somewhat different than my free version on this site. I look forward to finishing it sometime in the future. There is no ETA on the ABS 12 game. The sooner the better.

Drawing
I unpacked my pencil and did some drawing today and last night. I drew an Aioskoru orc, an orc sorceror, and my first boat - a sloop.

Languages
Common Language for Aioskoru has passed 500 words and with that, it means Goblin is up passed 500 as well. Today I had to even try figuring out what the word for orc could be. I also check giant and many more such as hut. I even added the greeting, welcome.

It's been busy and fun.

Hope those in the states enjoyed their holiday weekend. Thanks to those that joined in on the 10% sale which was mentioned last friday to those that receive emails and have my products at RPGNow..

Aioskoru Atlas Scale

I figured out that keeping a separate PDF file, but making sure the zoom amounts are identical, when opened in two windows creates a nice scale which is always near whatever is needing to be measured.