Welcome to Classic d20

Play in Five

It’s hard to start these things! A thousand-mile journey starts with a single step, so here we go…

I’m two years (I thought it would be three or four months) into a “weekends and evenings” project to scratch an itch I’ve had for at least 15 years. Maybe even 45 years.

Here’s the problem: no one has the time needed to play D&D - so no one keeps playing it. When I was running a 5e campaign several years ago, it would take me about two hours of preparation for every hour of play. Probably excessive but I’m not a gifted storyteller - I don’t like getting stuck and having six people stare at me waiting to figure out what’s going to happen next. It doesn’t matter how many books and copies of Lazy Dungeon Master you have on hand - it takes real boring time to look things up in the middle of a game. It gets even worse when you’re trying to do things like create an NPC, equip characters with spells, and so forth.

So here’s the core idea: Play in Five. Need to set up a new campaign? Getting ready for the next game? Need a new fully equipped NPC? A new character? A mini-dungeon for tonight’s session? It’s there, all under your control, in under five minutes (and usually much less).

Broadly, my design thoughts:

Digital tools, but the experience should be as analog as possible. I’m not trying to create a “Virtual Tabletop” - I want you to use a real table top with your real friends. Your laptop, your iPhone … these should be just tools in the same way your pen and paper are.

More rules doesn’t mean more fun. I’ll do another article about the rules, but let’s say for now we’re using the 3.5 SRD as a jumping off point, but then simplifying back to what rules looked like in 1979. And then simplifying some more (a full combat round should take less than a minute to play at the table).

Different people like different things. Some people like lots of complexity, some people like a lot less. Classic d20 is for the latter, but hopefully will still be fun for the first.

The mistake a lot of games make is they’re trying to be something else - D&D 4e is a Warhammer-like war-game, D&D 5e a video game, GURPS a reality simulator. Games are not reality simulators. It’s OK that Plate Armour changes your AC to 20 and doesn’t absorb damage depending on where it has been hit. It’s cool and has simple rules - that’s the main thing.

Players like their characters. I like heroic (not superheroic) fantasy, not murder-hoboing, grimdark Shadowdark / Deathbringer “your character will last 10 minutes, roll another” gameplay. The rules are written so that you have a reasonable chance of surviving if you’re not an idiot. If.

The DM should know rules the player does not. This was something that AD&D had that later editions dropped. Players should not have access to monster descriptions or full knowledge of how spells work. Obviously players can cheat here, but we won’t make it easy.

The game is not about inclusion nor exclusion. You will not see yourself represented here, any more than you would in Monopoly or Clue. You are not an MU, a Cleric, a Thief or a Fighter. You do not (I hope) bang people over the head with a cudgel and take their gold. On the other hand, if you’d like to create the next Conan adventure, or Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Geralt or Ciri, Red Sonja, this may be your thing.

Want to try Classic d20? Subscribe to this Substack and everyone will get an invite when it’s ready. Mail me directly if you’re really keen. Playtesting will begin September.

Upcoming post: AI and FRPs.