Thinking Outside the (Dice)Box

While the recent issues that arose in D&D, a lot of players looked to other systems. Some went for systems that were distinctly different from the experience that 5E provided. There are many reasons Trying Another System can be useful. Other systems can simulate specific genres better, create a different perspective on gameplay, and just be a refreshing opportunity. But sometimes you or your table might decide that you want to come back to 5E. You love the system, but want to incorporate elements it based on what you have learned. What do you do?

If you were one of those players and want to return to the game of Dungeons & Dragons, you can bring along something to make the game you play that much more unique. Taking what you have learned and incorporating it into the 5E system to better represent an element of the game you want. One of the best qualities of Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition is that it handles homebrew well. The system is lighter than other d20s and provides an excellent base to build on. Tweaking the system you play in can provide a wonderful and unique experience.

Word of Warning

While it's fun to tweak, alter, and add to your D&D 5E game, you will want to do so in moderation. As I mentioned above, the system takes additions well, but sometimes that can be a dangerous temptation to pack on changes. While one or two tweaks can bring some small and interesting changes, too many can have unintended consequences. You will get odd interaction, and the system itself will start to bloat and slow. I call this Kitchen Sinking, and believe. 

In order to avoid this pitfall to your system, you will want to put thought behind every potential game addition. Make fewer choices, but put more thought and intent behind each, deciding if it will add to your game. Read my article Kitchen Sinking in order to better protect yourself and keep your gameplay smooth and exciting.

Crunchier Mechanics

While some will say that 5E has a moderate amount of crunch, the systems built in place feel fairly light and streamlined. Compared to some of the older editions, such as 3.5E, it will feel downright lightweight. However, the system might feel like it lacks in some places. The simplicity can lead to situations that feel like pitfalls, and could use some more mechanics. Luckily, we can find some solutions in the cousin to D&D, Pathfinder.

Pathfinder has a lot of mechanical crunch, and the mechanics will feel more complex than 5E. Some will think Pathfinder has too much crunch, especially if they prefer 5E. As someone who got back into TTRPGs by playing Pathfinder 1E, I would agree. The system felt overly complex in a few areas. But in some places that crunch can be especially useful in making a mechanic that makes sense. Now that Pathfinder has its second edition out, it has some systems that might feel a bit more complicated, but do an excellent job in practice.

One thing that Pathfinder excels at is tracking conditions over rounds. Dungeons & Dragons will often track a condition through saving throws done each round or by having a single round effects. Most poison effects I have seen will do damage once and then give the poisoned condition for a time. While this makes adding poisons to your game simple, the system feels a bit lacking. PF 2E employs a numerical system for many effects. With poisoned, you may have “Poisoned 2” which means you have 2 rounds worth of the poisoned condition until it is gone. This number may give added effects based on how many levels a creature has at a time. 

I like this system better for a few reasons. Providing a set number of rounds that a character is affected means that failing a saving throw does not feel so staggering. I have seen players become frustrated when a condition locks them out of acting round after round because of a few bad saving throws. On the other side of the battlefield, if my main creature becomes stunned for more than a few rounds it may sway the difficulty of the battle into something trivial. This system can allow for a finite duration of an effect which avoids that situation. This number system can also stack effects. In 5E, petrifying a creature exists as a block of text that involves concurrent saving throws. Referencing the pathfinder system, we could simplify this into a condition that grows on each failure, with a certain number rendering the creature as stone. So we might use this system for inspiration on our homebrew.

You can make a dagger that instead of giving a single dose of poison, gives “poison X” on a hit. The modifier shows how many rounds the effect persists for, and when the number reaches zero, the effect is gone. Not only can this streamline combat by reducing the amount of necessary rolls, you also end up with a more balanced system that won’t feel unfair if there are a bunch of saving throws. You can also scale different poisons based on this system, using the DC and number of rounds as a guideline for the value of the poison. A common toxin might poison for one round, but a rare poison could damage a character for a few rounds in combat. This setup would also work well for “Save or Suck” conditions, like the incapacitate that certain Cephalopods that enjoy eating brains can do. Instead of locking the Barbarian in an unending series of failed intelligence saves, they instead will know how many rounds they have to wait until they are back in the action. Other characters can choose to help them as well.

Narrative Focus

Many players love to lean into the narrative of their characters and the stories they tell. I have had quite a few players that really like to build up their character through the stories they tell. Often, I would love to have the dice play a role in those stories. Sometimes 5E can feel a little limited in the ability to do so, especially with how the social pillar is set up. Dungeons & Dragons has its roots in combat simulation and still focuses on combat most of the time. They describe most spells in how they function in combat, as do many of the actions. You can definitely have a narrative focused 5E game. I have seen and took part in quite a few that have been successful. But other systems provide some interesting narrative opportunities for players, like the Savage Worlds system.

If Pathfinder is on the mechanics end of the TTRPG System, Savage Worlds would be towards the other side of things. Proud of their ability to move simply and swiftly through most game mechanics, this system allows for a very narrative focused story to unfold. One of the best ways that it does this is through the [Interludes system]. For those not familiar, this system provides a mechanic to create a prompt for a character. Drawing from a deck of cards, a player will get a prompt such as “Tell of a time where you failed, and how it affected you”. The player then builds offs their character’s backstory, creating a story of a memory to share at the table. The result often gives a player a small boon at the table that can be used later, as a reward for the narrative. 

I really like the idea of backing up narrative elements with mechanics. While an experienced GM will often know by feeling how to incorporate these into the game on their own, the game as written feels a bit lacking in that area for my taste. While we do not need to have a mechanic for everything, having some optional rules for a GM to lean into allows for the option to make some stories cooperatively at the table with help of random chance. The Interlude system gave me the inspiration to try my hand at such a thing.

Currently, I run a Curse of Strahd campaign, which features the SRD 5.1 mentioned Strahd. This game uses a Tarokka deck, the in-world equivalent to Tarot Cards. The deck helps set the stage for the story, and can give players direction when they need it. But I felt the deck did not get nearly enough use and wanted to find a way to incorporate it. So there comes my Threads of Fate system. Still in testing, a player can get a card reading during a rest. I draw a card from the High Deck portion, and give the player something to act on for a boon. For example, let’s say the party wizard draws a Seer card. The Seer card, according to the CoS Tarokka guide, states “Inspiration and keen intellect; a future event, the outcome of which will hinge on a clever mind”. At this point I, as a GM, will ask my player “Tell me of a time when your Inspiration or Intellect benefitted you”. Alternatively, I can ask the negative of this (as if I drew the card upside down), asking “When was a time where your intellect failed you?” Once the player responds, they will gain a boon based on the card. Since it was the Seer, the Boon would allow for a single re-roll on an ability check in the future. 

This system is not extensive, nor does it have to be used at every rest. Instead, this lightweight system can be employed to generate some conversation between party members when the space arises. Often I like to use this if the party ends a session on a rest, giving the prompt before the beginning of the next session. It gives players a chance to think on their characters, and have them interact with one another. The reward for completing the prompt gives a nice little boost to be used later on. Overall, a fantastic addition.

Unique Moments

Sometimes you will want to recreate a feeling at the table that the standard Dungeons & Dragons system struggles to create. The system itself does a good job at a standard adventuring story, and even better at simulating epic combat. But when you want to try something unique, the system might feel restrictive. A great example of this comes up in horror games. There are many sub genres of horror, each focusing on a unique element to build suspense at the table. 5E does a good job at simulating some of them, but can struggle to capture that unique feeling of fear that I find core to horror stories. Something the system struggles to simulate is the effects that horror can have on the mind. Luckily for us, Call of Cthulhu does a wonderful job of that.

Call of Cthulhu pits characters against Eldritch Horrors, beings that exist in ways beyond human comprehension. Both the monsters and the knowledge about these beings will slowly warp one’s mind as you come to understand the terrors that exist in the surrounding universe. This is represented by a Sanity Score. They used this score to signify the strain that happens when a character goes up against unspeakable horrors, with a failed Sanity Check causing the score to drop. If your score goes too low, a character might become lost to the horrors in the shadows. As you understand the eldritch more your sanity decreases, representing that this knowledge will bend your mind beyond normal perspectives. I like that this system provides another resource the characters need to be aware of, one that can also be spent when necessary. We can use these guidelines to provide Sanity in a D&D game.

Sanity might be calculated using the mental stats, either based on the force of personality (Charisma), mental fortitude (Wisdom) or a mixture of both. Once you have the score, effects that cost Sanity Points (SP) can be deducted as the players encounter terrors. Monsters might have a save when seen, or have an attack that will go after Sanity directly. Same goes for traps, attacking the mind instead of the body. When players get low, they might suffer effects. Sanity could also be regained through restorative magic or only through resting. 

I like this idea since it could change the dynamics of a game in very interesting ways. While the characters might have the brawn and knowledge to get through a cultists’ lair, the horrors inside might give them more struggle. Having a Sanity score also can provide narrative opportunity as their stress is tracked alongside their HP. While not as good a system as Call of Cthulhu, it feels promising.

Final Thoughts

These options can give you a taste of what another system excels at in your Dungeons & Dragons game, but will not give you the full experience. You may add some crunch or narrative elements or even some mechanics, but in the end it will be 5E running the show. So while this can be fun, I highly recommend [trying other systems]

Not only can trying other systems be incredibly insightful, it can help refresh your mind by seeing things in a different perspective. All the above elements brought into 5E were done in order to add new mechanics or interaction somewhere in the game. Going farther and playing a few adventures in another system can truly immerse you in that mindset. Horror can be great in 5E, but it won’t hold a tentacle to Call of Cthulhu. Each game will have its strength and weakness, and each is great in its own way. So definitely make some time to try other system.

Conclusion

Playing other systems provides so many benefits, and some of those don’t stay with the systems themselves. If you ever wanted to create a homebrew rule or system for your Dungeons & Dragons table, the many other TTRPGs out there can provide a lot of options. You can increase the mechanical crunch of the 5E system by utilizing ideas from the systems like Pathfinder 2E, creating more complex conditions that provide a larger range of effects. You can also use mechanics to bolster the narrative side of the game by employing elements from games like Savage Worlds. The Interludes system provides a great way to create stories at the table, and reward players mechanically, and was the basis for my Threads of Fate system that does something similar to my 5E table. Finally, we can provide a different perspective of game play, better simulating specific genres. While Dungeons & Dragons does horror well, Call of Cthulhu can better simulate the stress and strain of beings beyond our comprehension. That system used can inspire a module for 5E that does the same. The benefits for trying other systems are endless.

Have you used mechanics from another system, or been inspired to build your own because of one? Do you want to do so? I would love to hear in the comments below.

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