Note from the Writer

This booklet is just for individuals who would like to participate and join the tables run by DM Devin and DM Katrina. This booklet will tell you everything you need to know about us and how we run our tables and it also has information that will help you in your character creation.

Should you have any other questions that is not covered within this booklet, feel free to contact us through our Facebook Page, Facebook Messenger Group or Whatsapp.

To keep up to date with all the latest developments of our homebrewed campaign setting known as Baile Draíochta, please check out the World Anvil page as well as our Patron and Offical Twitter.

Keep in mind, rules will change!

Like anything in life, things are constantly evolving and changing. These rules will be added upon, omitted, and maybe deleted as the world of D&D (and its players) change. If anything does happen to differ from the copy you are familiar with, we will gladly provide a new copy of the house rules along with another review session to look over the whole document again with you.

Table of Contents

Overview on rules.......................................................... Pg. 3
Grading of Games.......................................................... Pg. 3

Safe................................................................................ Pg. 3

Standard....................................................................... Pg. 3

Epic................................................................................ Pg. 3

Playtest......................................................................... Pg. 3
Reference Source Materials........................................ Pg. 3

Books allowed........................................................... Pg. 3

Homebrew Materials.............................................. Pg. 4

Under Review Sources........................................... Pg. 4
Character Creation.......................................................... Pg. 4
Creating Your Backstory............................................... Pg. 4

Learning your character......................................... Pg. 5
Alignment is Important................................................. Pg. 5

Definition of Alignment........................................ Pg. 5
Player's Information Package (PIP)........................... Pg. 5

Documents found in PIP....................................... Pg. 5
Optional Rules/Rulings................................................. Pg. 5

Carrying & Weight Limit....................................... Pg. 6

Combat......................................................................... Pg. 7

Exhaustion................................................................... Pg. 7

Experience & Banking............................................ Pg. 7

Homebrew.................................................................. Pg. 7

Inspiration & Additional Uses............................ Pg. 7

Multiclassing.............................................................. Pg. 7

Passing of Time........................................................ Pg. 8

Player vs. Player (PvP)............................................ Pg. 8

Reputation.................................................................. Pg. 8

Seasons and Weather............................................. Pg. 8

Sensitive Topics........................................................ Pg. 8

Size Matters................................................................ Pg. 8
Dice and Dice Roll Etiquette....................................... Pg. 9
Metagaming System................................................... Pg. 10

How the System Works...................................... Pg. 10

What is considered Metagaming.................... Pg. 10

Warnings and Tokens.......................................... Pg. 10
Code of Conduct.......................................................... Pg. 11
Abbreviation Dictionary............................................. Pg. 11
Location of Tables........................................................ Pg. 12
v1.5 Notes...................................................................... Pg. 12

House Rules

Reference Source Materials

Many DMs have different preferences and allowed source materials that players can use to create their characters. Unless otherwise specified for a certain campaign. Should you decide to use any of the below reference materials, please reference the page or appendix you have taken from each book (example: App. A: Backgrounds in Tomb of Annihilation).

Books Allowed

The source materials that we have used and that we allow in our games from 5th edition is;

• Acquisitions Incorporated (Spells Only)
• Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus
• Curse of Strahd
• Dungeon Masters Guide
• Eberron: Rising from the Last War
• Explorers Guide to Wildmount (Classes only)
• Ghosts of Saltmarsh
• Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica
• Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat
• Monster Manual
• Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes
• Player’s Handbook
• Storm King's Thunder
• Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide
• Tomb of Annihilation
• Tyranny of Dragons Alternative Cover
• Volo’s Guide to Monsters
• Waterdeep Dragon Heist
• Waterdeep Dungeon of the Mad Mage
• Wayfinders Guide to Eberron
• Xanathar's Guide to Everything

Part 1 | Introduction

Homebrew Materials Tested and Approved

These home made campaigns and the races/classes found within them are perfectly fine to use in your character's creation.

• Baile Draíochta: Radiant Cataclysm (5/19/18)
• Baile Draíochta: Ragnarök (9/14/18)
• Baile Draíochta: The Holy War (10/12/18)
• Baile Draíochta: Power Shift (3/18/18)
• Duanahar: Yurmina (10/7/19)

Materials under review or playtesting

Not allowed in creation unless granted permission by overseeing DM.

• Unearthed Arcana (All Sources)
• Dragoon or Starling Classes
• Selkie (BD or land), Da'traxi, Papallona, Avalis, Lunalven, and Oréal

Character Creation

At our tables we prefer to roll out character’s ability scores but we do allow players another choice for creating their character.

1. You can roll 4 6-sided die and record the cumulative total of the highest 3 dice, 6 times (Preferred Method). Should any player roll a 1, they can re-roll up to 5 ones. Keep in mind that this method is required by our table to be done so during the session for verification by the DM.
2. You take the “standard set” which is 15,14,13,12,10,8. You can assign these scores without any verification from a DM

We do not allow the point buy system as verifying that the ability scores were assigned properly as well as if the assigned racial traits/class scores are correct, actually slows down set up of the session. As for classes, our updated custom character sheets cover most of the work, all a player needs to focus on before session is their background features, backstory and their race. Should you need any additional information such as available races, classes, backgrounds or anything relating to the campaign lore feel free to ask the DM. We want you to be able to utilize and play your PC as intended.

Creating Your Backstory

As a player you have full creative freedom of your character's creation and this also means creating their backstory. Should you need help creating a generic backstory and do not mind just using the basic Player's Handbook you can always use this Generator. With that in mind there are a few points that we ask all players to review.

1. Just because a DM assists in creating a character doesn't mean its approved.

Some players need creative guidance in writing out their backstories and as world creators we are more then happy to help. But, just because you gain the assistance of your DM in creating the backstory of your player character, doesn't mean that the DM has already approved your character for play.

All character sheets must be submitted a week before main session for review. The review process is to work out the cohesiveness of the potential party. Should we find any issues with factions, personalitys/flaws, and backstories, we will discuss it individually with the players beforehand.

2. Your experience should reflect your level.

When creating your character's backstory, a player should keep in mind the starting level of their character for the up coming campaign. If your character is starting off at level 1, they would not have a backstory filled with experience from battles war, ECt that would cause them to be a higher level. For example a character starting at level 1 would have the experience of a villager their whole life.

There are some exceptions to this rule and you can ask your table DM if you have any questions about your ideal backstory or if you would like to know more about any exceptions the overseeing DM is willing to make.

3. Lore is encouraged

When creating your backstory we encourage players to utilize all lore within the settings (Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Greyhawk, Mystara, Birthright, ECT). Should you want to create a character from one of the homebrewed campaigns, discuss it with your table DM who will work out the details of the lore of your character.

4. Stay true to your character's personality

When a player creates a character and rolls out their Personality Traits, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws, we expect you to stay true to what you have picked (or rolled), for your character. The reason for this is so we as DM/players know when someone is roleplaying and when someone is just acting based on how they feel they should act.

Roleplaying something we are unfamiliar with is not easy, but it is what the whole purpose of D&D is for. To explore a realm of possibilities of different lifestyles and cultures we ourselves may not be familiar. With this being said, if we hear at our tables "Its what my character would do." after a problematic issue is brought up, then we may have to address the issue accordingly.

Players who stay true to their character's traits will be awarded. The best thing to remember is, the better you are at playing and interacting as your character, the more content, situations and rewards you get. Its quite simple.

5. Our tables are not for self therapy

Our tables is not to be used to help an individual cope with certain life experiences as we are not the trained professionals needed to develop healthy coping methods. Keep in mind that a game is for everyone and not every player may feel comfortable playing in a game that another is trying to use to work through certain life situations. Should we discover that a player has made a player character with a backstory reflecting their own life story or in the memory of a passed loved one, we will kindly ask the player to reroll a new character, regardless of where the players are in the story.

With this being said it also depends on the individual experience of the DM if they are willing to allow such PCs to exist in their games. If you feel you would like to discuss the possibility of having such PC at the table, talk to your overseeing DM. If the DM is willing they would need to get the permission of all the other players at the table before any game can proceed with such concept. So be aware that should you want to play out such issues, they will have to be made public to the players and the DM still can say no.

Learning your character

Our tables have implemented a new method of character creation that helps new players to our tables, create a more cohesive team. After sitting down with a potential new player to create their ideal character, we will host a one shot campaign where the player will have an opportunity to test out and roleplay their character through a series of making hard decisions and battles. Once done, the character may (or may not be) introduced to the group for the main campaign. Upon completion of the one shot campaign, your character will be awarded 2,500 EXP. Should they die in the campaign, then they will be awarded no EXP. The players can also accumulate experience from monsters killed in the one shot.

For some of these one shot campaigns, another player may or may not join you to either run through the one shot with you or also create and introduce their PC to the game. NPC players will have to stick to a set script and set of events that is already predetermined for them before the campaign. They are simply there for guidance and help, should you as a player feel the need for it.

Alignment is Important

Within the world of D&D, various races, classes, spells and items are highly affected by a character’s alignment such as a Divine Magic (Xanathar's Guide to Everything 5e; Sorcerer Origins pg. 50) & Talisman of pure good (Dungeon Master´s Guide 5e; Magic Items pg. 207) as some highly specific examples. And although it seems that in the recent 5e, the mechanics of alignment has been reduced to a passing mention, instead of an enforced rule. Because of this, our table does track and count various actions/deeds to your alignment based on our definition of what constitutes Good, Bad, Neutral, Lawful and Chaotic.

Combat

What many players have grown accustomed to is a more turn based combat roleplay style (Based on initiative rolls, players and enemies alike will take their turns in sequence) which leaves many players to metagame the whole fight. What many players and DMs forget is a round of combat happens simultaneously, but what we find is if say the fighter with the highest initiative goes first and harms himself from a bad roll, the cleric with the second highest initiative will then proceed to heal the fighter. This is considered metagaming since the battle is happening simultaneously, the cleric would not have known to heal the fighter since the fighter would have been injured on the same turn the cleric take their action.

We try to remind players of this fact when we catch it but when the table grows above 4 players, we implement a different style of combat sequence. Initiative is rolled and based on the numbers will ask each player what their action, bonus action is (while also rolling for whatever they decided) and if they would like to use their movement or disengage. After all the information is collected by the DM, they would calculate what transpired in that round and tell the whole party who did what in a story like recap of that round.

Exhaustion

It is a mechanic that is part of the basic rules in the dungeon master’s guide (DMG) but is rarely seen in many campaigns. This is just a heads up that at our table, exhaustion is a very real condition your PC could face. If you are unfamiliar with the rule it is;

1. If an already exhausted creature suffers another effect that causes exhaustion, its current level of exhaustion increases by the amount specified in the effect's description.
2. A creature suffers the effect of its current level of exhaustion as well as all lower levels. For example, a creature suffering level 2 exhaustion has its speed halved and has disadvantage on ability checks.
3. An effect that removes exhaustion reduces its level as specified in the effect's description, with all exhaustion effects ending if a creature's exhaustion level is reduced below 1.
4. Finishing a long rest reduces a creature's exhaustion level by 1, provided that the creature has also ingested some food and drink. Also, being raised from the dead reduces a creature’s exhaustion level by 1

Passing of Time

Like many other campaigns, the DM will tell you how much time is passed, if its morning, noon or night but what our table does is take this little concept one step further. For every 10 minutes that passes in real time, 1 hour passes in game. This is more for a story tool then a strict fact, as we do have times where the game play needs a bit more of a lenient time management touch (due to shenanigans at the table, we will pause the time flow). During Combat and during certain situations time will not follow this rule.

Like hours passing in game for real time minutes, the DM may implement the same method for days. Should this method be used, the DM will ask the players what goals and jobs they want to accomplish during the passing of time. Requirements and rolls will be calculated at the start of the next session to determine the amount of time passed and successfulness of the PCs. This method is only used when PCs are training to learn proficiencies, languages and new classes.

Player Vs Player (PvP)

First, let’s define, identify and generally discuss PvP in D&D. No matter what edition you may prefer, player abilities are not balanced for use against other player characters. It comes down to who manages the first hit, easily, and at low levels no matter the classes of the combatants (like finding that one spell that works and hoping they fail their saves). With that being said, you may find instances of PvP within our games.

Other instances we have come across where size matters are if the terrain you are fighting in is narrow/small, if a creature/player is of tiny, large size (this means they get double carry weight if large or half carrying weight if tiny) or if your attacks/spells require a certain range. One example where a spell clearly requires size is Animate Objects. With this spell, you can animate objects of a certain size of your choosing, but you can only animate up to a Huge sized object.

Notice how they trade in AC for HP as Size increases. The idea for this spell is, the larger you are, the easier you are to hit with the added benefit of being a little tougher to kill.

Metagaming System

At our tables we have a certain mechanic in place to help combat metagaming while keeping games at a constant pace. We advise all players to review this section for understanding and for future references should they experience this mechanic in game.

Firstly, all players need to understand that metagaming can happen without even intending to do so, which is ok. The DM may not be able to catch metagaming behaviour at all given times, so when a DM uses this mechanic to bring awareness to metagaming even though another player has done the same, please do not think you are being singled out.

Secondly, you as a player should not feel overwhelmed when experiencing this system. We have tested this method and found that this keeps the game on track and doesn't interfere with the overall enjoyment of the game.

Code of Conduct

At our table we do not believe in treat others as you want to be treated as we found out that some individuals are the literal embodiment of the song sweet dreams (are made of this). So, we have sat down and worked out a set guideline that we ask all players to read and try to follow.

1. Be a dedicated player! If you know that the table meets consistently on a certain day and time, try not to constantly plan other things on the days we meet up. If the day no longer works for you be sure to discuss this with the DM as they may be able to work around it. If it becomes a constant occurrence, the table may no longer be a fit for you.
2. Try to show up early or on time. Following up on the first point, this is a fairly basic point, but it’s one that bears repeating. Sessions will often not start on time, but that doesn’t mean that it should be down to you. Make sure you’re there and ready to start when you’re supposed to. Don’t keep other people waiting because you couldn’t be bothered to get there on time.
3. Be mature. Look, everyone loves a bit of immaturity every now and then. Making dumb jokes and being silly is totally cool sometimes, and will be welcomed. The key word here is sometimes. If you spend all your time behaving like a 12-year-old kid, then you’re going to become an irritation. Be mature for the most part, just like you would be in real life, that way, the moments where you are actually dumb WILL be funny.
4. Know your limits. All players are different, we have had our fair shares of smokers, socially awkward and anxiety riddled players. We strive to create an environment that is both welcoming and enjoyable for all players. We do not allow harassment of any kind to the DM or to the other players and if we should get complaints about such behaviour, we will investigate and act accordingly on a case to case basis. Should you need special accommodations such as more frequent breaks, shorter sessions or a relocation to a quieter environment to enjoy our games, talk to your DM. We want our players to enjoy D&D.
   The same can be said about staying under control. If you’re drinking/intoxicated – don’t get too crazy. Stay under control, else it’s going to be stupid. D&D is not a game that benefits from people unable to make rational decisions. If you want to do a night out, do a night out, but D&D should be a time for chilling with friends rather than annoying them, especially if we go to the bar for a session.
5. Communication is a must. Following up with the previous point, if you’ve got a legitimate grievance or criticism that’s preventing you from enjoying the game, let the DM know! The whole point of playing this game is to have fun, and if you’re not, don’t seethe in silent resentment. If the DM is any good at their job, they’ll be happy to take your criticisms on board. Basically, look at it this way. Running the game is a team effort. While the DM steers it, you can offer advice and criticism, so long as you do it in a friendly and respectful manner.
6. Let other players have their moment. It’s natural that to you, your character is the most important person in the game, but that’s not the same for everyone. If someone else takes the lead, or is doing something heroic (or indeed, villainous), don’t steal their spotlight so your character can do it instead. You’re not the main character in a Bethesda RPG. You’re just another person in this huge world, and you need to know when it’s not your moment, just as much as when it is.
7. Be respectful of other players. You’d think this one would be obvious, but you’d be amazed how many people seem to lose their social skills when they’re around the table. If someone does something you disagree with, you can try and talk them out of it, but if they still want to go ahead with it, let them. Don’t call them an idiot or curse at them. Don’t let your manners go just because you’re enveloped in a fantasy world. It doesn’t matter if your character would say it, don’t do it.
8. Don’t be a creep. Since this became an issue with multiple different instances, we feel we need to add this point to the standards we ask all our players to observe. If a comment, action or behaviour seems wrong by any social setting, just don’t do it. Please don’t make any uncomfortable remarks about the people at the table or people in the area of the group. No matter if its sexual in nature or predatory in essence, these kinds of things can never be seen in jest. This kind of behaviour if found to continue will result in a permanent ban from our table/group. We also ask that players do not exchange personal information at these sessions. Keep communications with the group through designated channels to ensure no incidents occur.
   
   

Location of Tables

Version Update Notes

Revision notes from 1.2 -1.3

• Slight adjustment to rolls for characters
• Added “Sensitive Topics” Under Optional Rules/Rulings
• Added “Reputation” Under Optional Rules/Rulings
• Added Abbreviation Dictionary
• Added links to online booklets

• Organized Rules to be more collective
• Grammar mistakes corrected
• Fixed alignment issue with IE/Chrome online versions

Revision notes from v1.3 - v1.4 (2019-12-12)

• Added “Creating Your Backstory” Under Character Creation
• Added "Metagaming System"
• Fixed highlights and links
• Created document to be mobile friendly

Revision notes from v1.5 (2020-02-16)

• Added new information to the experience & banking section
• Added new information to Character Creation
• Added new information on locations games are held
• Updated for new source materials
• Fixed spelling errors
• Adjusted alignment of the online format