Have you seen Dimension 20's Escape from the Bloodkeep? Your comment about the goblin loving monstesrs reminds me of Jeremy from that series.

Wait what did you say about a duck?

But... Why steal anything for D&D?! Ditch it for a spell or two (or indefinitely) and play Dragonbane. Or something else... My recommendations: Blades in the Dark, Any World of Darkness game or something else working with the storyteller system, KULT, Symbaroum (NOT the 5E version, but the original), The One Ring (NOT the 5E version, but the original), Alien RPG, Forbidden Lands, Traveller, The Dark Eye (not rules light), Cyberpunk, Beyond the Wall (based on very old D&D but with a lot of freedom).

High Wisdom, low Charisma: The Sycophant: This character's sense of identity and force of personality are weak. They are, however, very perceptive. Thus, they know what those around them expect and are eager to comply. They are so agreeable that they sometimes seem to obey orders before they are given.

Why "steal" these mechanics from other games? Just play those games instead of 5E. Let's reward those designers actually innovating the RPG world instead of giving more money to Hasbro.

Flaws are the absolute best! How characters work to get around and compensate for their flaws is some of the best parts of TTRPGs for me <3

I can't reframe brownies from how I remember them in AD&D - i.e. distant relatives of halflings or perhaps half-halfling half-pixie....

3:43 Hahaha this makes me feel so much better about never handing inspiration because I couldn’t remember it to save my life

If you're letting your players trade initiative cards like pokemon before they even start taking actions then I can see how that would slow things down, but that's not how Dragonbane initiative works. When it's your turn, you can choose to wait by swapping cards with anyone who hasn't acted yet and they cannot refuse the trade. Otherwise, you keep the initiative you were dealt. It was specifically designed to make combat fast. The whole point is you don't have to spend time adding modifiers and comparing results.

Haha, the old Drakar & Demoner was not rules light at all. It's quite interesting how this new edition managed to cut away so much un-needed fluff from the system, without losing the feel of the game <3 It's so nice to see a game from my childhood, the first TTRPG I ever played, dusted off, polished and released to the rest of the world.

I personally LOVE Dragonbane. I ran about half the in-game adventure for my group and while there were complaints, they were actually more invested in play and more aware of the fact they could get their butts kicked if they weren't careful. I'd love to be a player myself, even die during play, but that would require someone else to run the game.

I backed the DB kickstarter just because of the art but it's such an amazing game and the box set is an amazing value - rules, campaign, dice, standees, character sheets, pregen characters, cards, solo rules and even a small battle grid. I recommend it to everyone and so happy to see people getting in to it.

Really liked the content, good vibes and charisma. Not gonna lie, the excess of vocal fry is a bit annoying though

How about just stop playing DnD instead of making it into a different system. Just play Dragonbane.

Don't steal to make DND better, just play a different game dawg.

Agree. Duck.

In my experience, for a longer campaign, it's absolutely critical that the DM/GM is running the sort of campaign that they want to run. If they aren't that campaign is going to fold as preparing the material and running the game is just going to become a chore for them relatively quickly. Don't be a slave to player preferences.

Why steal it for D&D? Just play Dragonbane, It's fun.

A couple of TTRPGS with cool mechanics to steal: FATE - Fate points and compels - GM can "compel" PC to act on their flaw, if they go with it they gain a fate point, if they decline they lose a fate point. Fate points can be used to add story detail or add bonus to a roll. In D&D you could add these mechanics to "inspiration". Blades in the Dark - flashbacks, position and effect - in D&D you could be more transparent about roll consequences and let players trade easyness or consequences for faillure for better effect on success. D&D 4e / Blades in the Dark - Skill challenges (4e) / progress clocks (BitD), pretty much the same thing. D&D example - The party stealthily roam in a castle. Failure on stealth check doesn't reveal them instantly, but marks one step on progress clocks. Guards become more wary the more they fail and they are detected on filled clock. Apocalypse World and it's derivatives - partial success, consequence on failure - in D&D: if rogue doesn't open a door with no traps, maybe guard hears that and walks in. If they miss by a little, they open, but guard hears too. Dungeon World - fronts - good framework for GM prep for unscripted games

I'm definitely stealing the swap init rule for my DCC game. I have dry erase cards they can write the initiative they rolled, so I can keep the d20 roll high AND using cards together. Though they would not be able to trade their bonuses. Those are theirs alone!

I totally recommend doing this and throwing in the Bonds system in His Majesty the Worm. It's consice and elegant, adding both a small game mechanism and simplify the complexity of relationships into a single concept.

All rolls succeed in D&D. You get six chances at every roll, right?

WOW, what an amazing breath of fresh air you are. This is a fantastic video. Thank you. I am now going to implement these ideas in to my game. I use Zipper initiative which can easily be used with this. We also play online via Foundry VTT so with a few tweaks this can be easily manageable via a macro or two. Thank you.....again....

Dragonbane is amazing. My group loves it - we're finishing up our campaign in a couple weeks!

I love these videos! Have you thought about a playlist for all your Steal This Idea videos?

As a person of years, I've played MANY rpg's. I started playing DnD in the 80's, and played every major rpg and wargame. Dragonbane hit the sweet spot. No constant leveling up, hit points are stable, combat is short and brutal, and players really have to work together to prevail. I found it was a rule system that didn't get in the way of the game. I have jettisoned DnD and adapted my Spelljammer campaign to Dagonbane mechanics. Thank you for the great video! Peace. And never underestimate an angry Mallard Knight.

Hey Dragonbane is currently on sale at drivethrurpg. 80% off so grab it now!

Or just play Dragonsbane

Great ideas for learning more about players whom you haven't spent years sitting around the game table playing and chatting. I like to run a Session Zero where the players create their first villain. This gives the reason for the players to come together and helps avoid that awkward bringing the group together situation. This can be done before character creation. Some players may have one specific character they want to play, or a few to choose from, while others might be inspired by the starting adventure to create a new character.

I can't remember the last time I watched a good movie and didn't think of an interesting idea for D&D. This Atlantis idea is a good fit for me right now. My players are currently heading to the third of the four elemental keeps. The fourth is the Water keep, which is located under the sea. So far I have barely dropped a few hints about the things which live under the sea as the aquatic races tend to avoid surface folk.

Good content

❤

Just play the damm game for christ sake.

#boycottWotC

All things being equal, any content normalizing theft is just good praxis.

I'm not a fan of pushing, but that's mostly because I don't like the idea of re-rolls at all (or advantage or disadvantage, preferring to give out numerical bonuses instead) that doesn't mean I don't use inspiration, inspiration in my games is best possible roll (so a 1 on a d100 or a 20 on a d20), which works well enough because I only remember to give it out like once every 5 sessions or so. If a player earns inspiration and already has it I let them take a +2 forward for the remainder of the session (or into the next if it's near the end of the session) which basically means they add a +2 to all their dice rolls (-2 for d100s) I should note when I run 5e I don't remove advantage from classes and abilities, I just never hand it out.

I am currently doing the Dragonbane campaign, but the first thing we scrapped was the card-drawing (because we're online and screw that), we don't trade initiative either, there just doesn't seem to be a reason to do so, but I can see it useful, but way better to do a better system. The "get disadvantage to all future rolls if you push it" is good, but it seems to not come into play too much.

I enjoyed the mechanics in Dragonbane so much that I decided to just play Dragonbane instead.

Another RPG from the same company with similar rules but that's, imho, better and more interesting is Forbidden Lands

I like the idea of initiative swapping. You could even turn it into a magic item or special feat. Maybe characters who read a book of tactics could swap initiative once per combat, or once per short rest.

Solid tips! I'm altering the character sheets and making initiative cards for the next game ♠♥♣♦

Swiping the actions from DC20 can side step the whole initiative system totally.

Free League's Forbidden Lands is one of my all time favourite TTRPGs. One of the many things I like about the Year Zero Engine is the pushing mechanic. Seeing how it's implemented into a target number system in Dragonbane has inspired me to introduce it into an Olde Swords Reign homebrew I'm working on. Also, check out Olde Swords Reign. It's a great 5e based take on old school D&D.

The last time I was in an IKEA store was sometime in the mid-80s. I loathe that stuff. On the other hand, I love Dragonbane. It'll be a while before I get to run it because Shadowdark is next once the Greyhawk campaign is finished. I've already incorporated Shadowdark's Encumbrance rules into the 5e game. I ordered a copy a few weeks ago and there were only two disappointments. First was that the GM screen is unavailable with no date for when it is. The second is the Duckfolk is called the Mallard. I understand that most people think of a Mallard or perhaps a Muscovy when they hear the word "duck". Personally, I think of a Maned Duck since they're common around here. I don't have a better name yet but Duckfolk certainly isn't it. Minor disappointments, indeed. The game has wonderful art and the mechanics are easy. Rolling low is also used by Das Schwarze Auge (The Dark Eye). Which is a game I like despite its crunchiness. I can't get my players interested in that so, as strange as it may be, Aventuria may be the setting for a Dragonbane campaign. Complete with, er, Mallards.

Pushing rolls is NEW to dnd players? Wow. Just Wow.

0:30 That's classic fantasy artwork for us grognards. Michael Whelan's chilling cover for the novel Stormbringer by Michael Moorcock in the DAW version, the ones out when I discovered the Elric books. So the cycle of stealing, old as time itself, continues unimpeded. Thus it is written. This is the way. 🦆

I love free league publishing. I think most of my favourite games come from them these days

Why not play Dragonbane instead of D&D?

You should have definitely added Rally as another house rule! It's awesome