Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)

[Wormy]

>>"They should all start as dirt farmers with no teeth and enjoy fucking pigs! Because that's how the medieval world is!"

"Great, but this isn't the actual medieval world, champ." should have been the response.

>>I also had some of those old grognards try to tell me back in the early 2000's that having a celebration for the party members at a small town they saved every year was stupid and dumb.

The fu...what was their logic behind that shit? If they were really going on the whole medieval logic schtick, then YES, you save a village from doom single handedly you can bet your ass the people (and the local nobles too since you likely saved them a lot of trouble and showed yourself to be a useful asset if nothing else) are more than likely going to appreciate it, especially if you weren't obligated to by nobility ect....

>>Then ENWorld did a poll and most of those grognards who insist everyone start as Dugger the Shit Digger had either never actually played D&D or hadn't played in years. Those that did play admitted they had a problem keeping players.

I won't post PJW's face, because fuck him and the whore who birthed him, but IMAGINE MY SHOCK.

 

[Corn Flakes]

>>"They should all start as dirt farmers with no teeth and enjoy fucking pigs! Because that's how the medieval world is!"

"Great, but this isn't the actual medieval world, champ." should have been the response.

>>I also had some of those old grognards try to tell me back in the early 2000's that having a celebration for the party members at a small town they saved every year was stupid and dumb.

The fu...what was their logic behind that shit? If they were really going on the whole medieval logic schtick, then YES, you save a village from doom single handedly you can bet your ass the people (and the local nobles too since you likely saved them a lot of trouble and showed yourself to be a useful asset if nothing else) are more than likely going to appreciate it, especially if you weren't obligated to by nobility ect....

>>Then ENWorld did a poll and most of those grognards who insist everyone start as Dugger the Shit Digger had either never actually played D&D or hadn't played in years. Those that did play admitted they had a problem keeping players.

I won't post PJW's face, because fuck him and the whore who birthed him, but IMAGINE MY SHOCK.

I'll never understand the dirt farmer crowd.

I love myself a lower-level game in a low-fantasy setting. But the medieval world was a vibrant place. Just because they didn't have Netflix to rot their brains every waking moment, doesn't mean they spent their entire days just toiling away or being bored. They told stories, they played games, they pursued their own private interests, they prayed, they gathered. Even while they were working there was often song and conversation. This grey-and-brown world where everybody just shuffles around silently weighed down by the massive bundles of sticks they're carrying on their backs is just as fictional as the wizards the dirt farmers claim to hate.

Seriously, it's like these people saw a single adaptation of a Dickens story and decided every single period of time pre-1960s looked like that.

 

[Wormy]

I'll never understand the dirt farmer crowd.

I love myself a lower-level game in a low-fantasy setting. But the medieval world was a vibrant place. Just because they didn't have Netflix to rot their brains every waking moment, doesn't mean they spend their entire days just toiling away or being bored. They told stories, they played games, they pursued their own private interests, they prayed, they gathered. Even while they were working there was often song and conversation. This grey-and-brown world where everybody just shuffles around silently weighed down by the massive bundles of sticks they're carrying on their backs is just as fictional as the wizards the dirt farmers claim to hate.

Seriously, it's like these people saw a single adaptation of a Dickens story and decided every single period of time pre-1960s looked like that.

Hell, I actually had quite a bit of fun playing a salt of the earth NPC class game, with the stakes being to keep our little village above water and fending off 1 HD critters and the occasional corrupt burgomeister/minor noble. Yea, it wasn't exactly glorious by adventurer standards, but to us it mattered, and that makes it epic regardless.

Seriously, it's like these people saw a single adaptation of a Dickens story and decided every single period of time pre-1960s looked like that.

"EDDIE, THERE'S SOME LOVELY FILTH DOWN HERE!"

 

[Jet Fuel Johnny]

>>"They should all start as dirt farmers with no teeth and enjoy fucking pigs! Because that's how the medieval world is!"

"Great, but this isn't the actual medieval world, champ." should have been the response.

>>I also had some of those old grognards try to tell me back in the early 2000's that having a celebration for the party members at a small town they saved every year was stupid and dumb.

The fu...what was their logic behind that shit? If they were really going on the whole medieval logic schtick, then YES, you save a village from doom single handedly you can bet your ass the people (and the local nobles too since you likely saved them a lot of trouble and showed yourself to be a useful asset if nothing else) are more than likely going to appreciate it, especially if you weren't obligated to by nobility ect....

>>Then ENWorld did a poll and most of those grognards who insist everyone start as Dugger the Shit Digger had either never actually played D&D or hadn't played in years. Those that did play admitted they had a problem keeping players.

I won't post PJW's face, because fuck him and the whore who birthed him, but IMAGINE MY SHOCK.

The post I did that really seemed to set some ENWorlders off back in the early 2000's was about how my group had managed to defeat the four goblinoid tribes in the area, used their own money, contacts, and magic to help build walls for towns and villages, and now there was celebrations and songs. How the local lord was appreciative in them taking care of stuff (he was off fighting a war) and gave them Sheriff badges and exempted them his local taxes.

THAT'S POWER GAMING! THAT'S NOT D&D!

A lot of people seemed seriously shocked that they get celebrated by the commoners and the lower lords and eventually work up to getting a "Dear Supreme Adventurer" letters from high lords when they play any game I'm running.

A LOT of those grognard's problems ultimate were "But but but it takes the focus off of legendary and heroic NPC's and ancient heroes!" which always struck me as "Noooooo, you can't affect my self-insert masturbatory fantasy world where the PC's are always less cool and powerful than my NCP's!"

Most of them also sneer at PC's moving through the social arena as "playing pretend" or "what, is it a soap opera?"

Another funny thing is that they're fine with the mage bobbing around like a soap bubble farting out magic all over the landscape but a warrior class being able to do more than just "Hit X with Y" seems to break their suspension of disbelief.

Shocker, another poll showed those guys usually played only wizards.

Of course, these are the same assholes that tried to convince everyone (successfully I think) that Clerics shouldn't have to worship a God to channel divine power. How dare the Gods demand that someone serve or worship them before imparting their power upon that person.

I'll never understand the dirt farmer crowd.

I love myself a lower-level game in a low-fantasy setting. But the medieval world was a vibrant place. Just because they didn't have Netflix to rot their brains every waking moment, doesn't mean they spent their entire days just toiling away or being bored. They told stories, they played games, they pursued their own private interests, they prayed, they gathered. Even while they were working there was often song and conversation. This grey-and-brown world where everybody just shuffles around silently weighed down by the massive bundles of sticks they're carrying on their backs is just as fictional as the wizards the dirt farmers claim to hate.

Seriously, it's like these people saw a single adaptation of a Dickens story and decided every single period of time pre-1960s looked like that.

I don't know.

They also seemed to think it was weird that NPC's had colorful clothing. I had someone try to argue that clothing dyes of certain colors didn't occur in our world until [FIll inDate] so that world shouldn't have those colors available to the peasants.

So I pissed them off by making a few first level spells that added color or patterns to cloth and/or clothing.

For some reason, the idea of some low level wizard (4th) using his spells in a textile mill seemed to piss him off enough to quit my game.

Fuck him.

It's a flaw of 3.X and PF and most modern games that magic has to be super stable because of the theory that anything bad will effect the players more because they have a longer life than NPC's (specifically bad guys, it was a rant against crits), with no failure rate to making magic items or scrolls or potions, no difficulties spell casting.

That means that shit would get industrialized quickly. But unfortunately, too many idiots think that 'proper' industrialization only came about with the Industrial Era. They don't realize that guilds and shit would have turned magic item making into damn near an assemblyline.

Shit, I could write a whole bunch of effortposts on how magic, as steady and unmysterious as it is in 3.0E and beyond, would have rapidly led to magical industrialization.

Hell, a lot of games ignore guilds and the vast power they wielded completely, unless it's the thieve's guild or a useless mage guild where apparently everyone just sits around and admires each other's beards and ass hair.

Develop a spell to instantly and permanently conjure a 100 nails with a 2nd level spell? The iron workers, smiths, construction, and shop keeper's guilds are going to climb up your ass, stabbing the whole way. Which leads to some really fun stuff in game.

Sorry, getting long.

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

@Jet Fuel Johnny reply bug, looking at your post.

There's are some class features for martials I've seen that basically give you evasion if you have a shield. Damned if I can recall them, but it annoyed me that it wasn't part of the fighter toolkit.

Gonna be honest though, removing multiple attacks from casters is basically a non-disadvantage for arcane spellcasters. Very, very rarely are they going to be using those multiple swings anyways, even at high levels.

Now, if you wanna fuck with them? Disallow metamagic rods. Hooboy...

EDIT: I've seen a couple settings that lean into the whole 'magic as industrialization' aspect pretty hard, instead of trying to dodge the issue. Hell, that's what Eberron's built on. It's not a BAD idea, but it's definitely different from the usual medieval/Renaissance setting.

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

Maybe in PF2, but PF1's fighter still suffers from the same issues 3E's did; they're just straight up overshadowed not just by casters but by other martials like the brawler and cavalier.

Cavaliers are hampered by the fact that all their best skills are tied directly to their mount. And since Pathfinder is basically "Dungeons and Dragons but with the serial numbers filed off", you are going to be in a lot places where that Cavalier cannot use that mount, unless you specifically go for a small character riding something like a dog. Without the mount, you are just a worse fighter. The only time that isn't an issue, ironically, is if you play the cavalier archetypes that specifically removes the mount and gives you something else, like the one that gives you a personal follower (which, in the PF archetype tier list, is rated quite highly because of it).

There's no end to the complaining about classes not being balanced, or certain races being sub optimal. Just today I saw a YouTube video complaining that Fighters in 5e are worthless because Paladins can do everything Fighters can and cast spells.

While grognards are an annoying bunch to be sure, lack of class balance is a legitimate issue of the game, as comments in this very thread, and the question earlier about fighters, can attest.

 

[Jet Fuel Johnny]

Disallow metamagic rods. Hooboy...

The first time someone tried to say "I'm going to make a rod of metamagic" my reply was "In someone else's game?"

I describe metamagic feats as the ability/knowledge to custom tailor your spell, on the fly, to the specific circumstance, not "Goblins Hate Him With This One Easy Trick!" bullshit.

Although I did give the Staff of the Arch-Magi metamagic capability, but that's the damn SAM.

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

Cavaliers are hampered by the fact that all their best skills are tied directly to their mount. And since Pathfinder is basically "Dungeons and Dragons but with the serial numbers filed off", you are going to be in a lot places where that Cavalier cannot use that mount, unless you specifically go for a small character riding something like a dog. Without the mount, you are just a worse fighter. The only time that isn't an issue, ironically, is if you play the cavalier archetypes that specifically removes the mount and gives you something else, like the one that gives you a personal follower (which, in the PF archetype tier list, is rated quite highly because of it).


While grognards are an annoying bunch to be sure, lack of class balance is a legitimate issue of the game, as comments in this very threat, and the question earlier about fighters, can attest.

Somehow, you managed to completely miss the cavalier's challenge ability, order abilities, and banner abilities? Not to mention the 'I grant all my teammates a free teamwork feat' which can get amazingly ugly.

I'm sorry, you're wrong. And the aforementioned stuff actually makes the cavalier a better fighter than the fighter.

 

[Wormy]

>>"But but but it takes the focus off of legendary and heroic NPC's and ancient heroes!" which always struck me as "Noooooo, you can't affect my self-insert masturbatory fantasy world where the PC's are always less cool and powerful than my NCP's!"

You found the center of the hedgemaze there. "This is MY world, you're just in it!" The GM was not there to create a story or present challenges, they were there to (they hope) have players ooh and ahh over how cool and awesome and powerful their OC's or whatever established NPCs they stan for are.

>>Of course, these are the same assholes that tried to convince everyone (successfully I think) that Clerics shouldn't have to worship a God to channel divine power. How dare the Gods demand that someone serve or worship them before imparting their power upon that person.

If you want to fling Divine magic and be agnostic/atheist, just be a damn Archivist. You don't have to worship a God, you get Divine spells AND you get some cool buff/debuff abilities to help the party. It's a fun class, one of my personal faves.

Hell, for that matter, you can be a straight up Nature worshipper. I remember that being an option for Clerics in 3.5, meant to represent shamans that aren't Druids and the like.

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

>>"But but but it takes the focus off of legendary and heroic NPC's and ancient heroes!" which always struck me as "Noooooo, you can't affect my self-insert masturbatory fantasy world where the PC's are always less cool and powerful than my NCP's!"

You found the center of the hedgemaze there. "This is MY world, you're just in it!" The GM was not there to create a story or present challenges, they were there to (they hope) have players ooh and ahh over how cool and awesome and powerful their OC's or whatever established NPCs they stan for are.

>>Of course, these are the same assholes that tried to convince everyone (successfully I think) that Clerics shouldn't have to worship a God to channel divine power. How dare the Gods demand that someone serve or worship them before imparting their power upon that person.

If you want to fling Divine magic and be agnostic/atheist, just be a damn Archivist. You don't have to worship a God, you get Divine spells AND you get some cool buff/debuff abilities to help the party. It's a fun class, one of my personal faves.

Hell, for that matter, you can be a straight up Nature worshipper. I remember that being an option for Clerics in 3.5, meant to represent shamans that aren't Druids and the like.

While I'm willing to let PCs be slightly overshadowed by NPCs for a time, typically at low levels, ultimately the game is about the PCs, not my self-insert NPC who is always cooler than them.

Sheesh.

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

Somehow, you managed to completely miss the cavalier's challenge ability, order abilities, and banner abilities? Not to mention the 'I grant all my teammates a free teamwork feat' which can get amazingly ugly.

I mean, yeah, all of that, but those are support abilities. At the end of the day, its a mounted class that relies on the fact that it has a mount for combat, with a good chunk of its class features focused on your mount. Which is why I said that the archetypes that specifically forgo the mount in favor of something else are the best archetypes, because they allow you to do all of that that you just mentioned, while not having to rely on your mount for combat. So your character can still do all the other "cavalier things" without having the cavalier's most glaring weakness.

Case in point, just to give illustration. One of the Cavalier archetypes is the Esquire. You lose the mount entirely in favor of an Aide-De-Camp, who is basically a cohort, just like if you got the leadership feat, except you only get the cohort. The only limits is that the Aide-De-Camp "must advance in a class that grants proficiency with all martial weapons and cannot multiclass until the esquire reaches 7th level (though the aide-de-camp can select an archetype)." So you can basically gain a battle buddy for free, without burning a feat, and that battle buddy can even be a second cavalier with their own mount (only limited by the fact that said cohort must follow the player cavalier's Order, but that's not really an issue).

To give a very specific example of how this can be awesome, you could have a Magus Aide-De-Camp with the Bladebound archetype. So now, you have a battle buddy cohort with the best magus archetype, giving it a magical weapon that very well may be better than any weapon you or the rest of your party are using at the time, that gets a damage bonus. And said magic weapon is intelligent, with its own skills and special abilities. And, on top of all this, you get a bunch of different teamwork based class features to replace all the mount related class features you no longer need.

Even if you were going for something mundane, like a fighter as your aide, its still a cohort. The only potential issue you could possibly run into is if the DM simply refuses to let you use the archetype, maybe because they already ban leadership.

 

[King Dead]

Update from my table: I found the maps for Dungeon of the Mad Mage on 5etools (thank God that website exists), and simply dropped the map into GIMP, added a fog layer over, and erased the fog as the party discovered new rooms. Hooked up a laptop to a spare TV they had, which also helped since I had a player out of town, so he could connect and see us and the map remotely. Worked so much better than drawing out the rooms as they went, and they were able to make a lot more progress than last session. I think they'll manage to clear the first floor after one more bout.

I also decided to make the couple's child's "character" a sentient bundle of chaos, because honestly that's what kids are. Whenever it's his "turn" and he rolls a 16 or higher, I secretly roll a d20 and use a pared-down version of the Wild Magic table to have a random effect occur, mostly harmless ones. It only happened once last session, but a unicorn appeared out of nowhere while they were fighting, conversed with them in Elvish for a bit, and then disappeared, leaving the characters (and their players) very confused.

He also said he didn't want to be a gnome anymore and wanted to be a halfling, so I'm going to surprise the players next session by having him turn into a halfling child instead, reflecting his chaotic nature. If he ever wants to race change again, I'll just have that happen at the start of the next session; I'm hoping he wants to be something wildly different next time so it'll be more obvious. I think it'll be a fun little way for him to interact with the game. No plans on actually making up some story thread for this since it's predominantly just a dungeon crawl, but we'll see.

[EDIT: I've seen a couple settings that lean into the whole 'magic as industrialization' aspect pretty hard, instead of trying to dodge the issue. Hell, that's what Eberron's built on. It's not a BAD idea, but it's definitely different from the usual medieval/Renaissance setting.

It's part of why I like Eberron as a setting, which Keith Baker described as a "wide magic" setting. Low-level magics are commonplace and understood to the point of setting up industries around them, but high-level spells, spellcasters, and items are still rare and magical. It's kind of a have your cake and eat it scenario, where you have transportation and communications systems augmented by magic, but your characters can't just walk into a business and get their dead friend resurrected for cheap. It also makes for interesting thought experiments, like why there aren't really firearms in the setting: why would anyone go to the trouble of inventing the gun when wands can do the job just as well? Thus, wandslingers instead of gunslingers.

But like you said, it's very different from the standard, and that doesn't appeal to everyone.

 

[Ghostse]

A question I wondered gameplay wise in both gaming and tabletop, is there a way to make fighters interesting and varied to play in a way that doesn't just make them magic knights?

In D&D 3.x & 5, no.
4e makes fighters into battle space dominators who soak up damage and then dish out punishment with opportunity attacks. They mark anything they attack - hit or miss - which means if the enemy doesn't attack the fighter they take a -2 to attack rolls. And if they are in OA range, the fighter gets to OA them even if the attack wouldn't normally provoke one.

The only real way to do it is to start borrowing from 2e.

4.0 is basically a video game, so I had fun playing a fighter in that because its built that way. Still, a caster will probably outshine it.

Only way casters outshine is really with rituals, and fighter can burn a feat and also cast rituals. Though strictly speaking they need to burn a second feat for Religon or Arcane.

I think the main thing that fucked balance is the removal of casting time as a limitation, so now there's no way to interrupt a magic user before they blow up half the board.

Agreed, the issue isn't that fighters get the shaft but that wizards can cast fireball in 6 seconds while sprinting.

And grognards too. There's no end to the complaining about classes not being balanced, or certain races being sub optimal.

There's balance and then there's balance.

5e (and 4e for that matter) just have a template for classes where you could really just build a race/class by picking options from these columns.
OTOH you have 3.5 where its just "be a wizard to get fucked", or pathfinder where its a Half-orc something was the powergamer meta.

tl;dr: not every race/class combo needs to have the same damage average in combat, but if you don't give every class something they're good at and something important they suck at, and don't make every race have some significant drawback, you just end up with a bunch of Half-Orc Fighters with Crossbow Expert.

"Great, but this isn't the actual medieval world, champ." should have been the response.

Pretty much.

@Jet Fuel Johnny

Con bonuses for non-martials tapped out at +2 unless the racial bonuses were +2 or +4, then it tapped out at +3/+4 respectively.

That's a solid idea.

I also added casting time where casters had to proclaim at the start of the round what they were casting and until 7th level had to proclaim their target creature or area at the beginning of the round. (Improved Initiative for casters became suddenly important) Their init turn was what they would normally get PLUS the level of the spell. They were casting from the beginning of the round till their modified initiative and could only take a single 5-foot step if it had a somatic component. If they got hit, it was a concentration check.

I think I'm going to do that if I ever end up doing 3.5 again.
I'd probably work in a target-swap/spell-swap mechanic and associated feat chains.

The last thing I always did was I flat out let them know "No, you don't get to pick a random spell out of the book when you level up and have your character pull it out of their ass." That got some screaming, but fuck those people, they can find a different game.

Lastly, I reintroduced "training", which meant time spent (3 days per level, 1,000 gp per level) and made guild and fraternal/sorority membership suddenly a huge deal, since it could reduce the cost and training time.

This is important stuff. Players should never get to pick their spell books, they need to earn it. I started doing my OSE games with random spells.

The only down side is then training becomes its own side quest and can derail a campaign.

I had cool backgrounds and shit, because I always assumed the PC's had a certain 'spark' that NPC's didn't that let them rise in power so quickly.

Solid agree. I like low-level games, but every single PC is an adventurer. No "I quit my account job and this the sword I bought yesterday", not even fresh-from-boot-camp. You might not be grizzled, but when the PCs step foot in the dungeon they expected to be reasonable adventurers who have seen some shit, and can do standard adventurer shit.

And there is always something special that makes them PCs. They are blessed by the gods to be the main characters. that's why they're PCs.

I also had some of those old grognards try to tell me back in the early 2000's that having a celebration for the party members at a small town they saved every year was stupid and dumb.

Only thing I'd mildly call bullshit on is the average fantasy town has a festival for everyone who saves them from destruction, there wouldn't be any non-holidays. But I think taking issue with it is just being overly greybeard.

Personally, I'd probably have the local authority throw them a feast to celebrate being saved and then take a page out of the Catholic handbook and just re-dedicate/add-to an existing feast/celebration. There should be some festival already dedicated to some local or national hero, so now in addition to the plays celebrating the life and times of St. Chadeaux de Tonnerrecoq, the troupes also perform an additional skit about the party's exploits.

In my current campaign, the party saved the region's bread-basket kingdom from invaders, and the reward was their daily food/lodgings costs are basically picked up by one merchant or another. They just have to be in the Inn's tavern for a few hours each morning/evening and they'll either be recognized or pointed out, and as thanks for saving their food business the merchant will pick up their tab. They are also understood to be the guests of honor at the yearly harvest festival.

Monetary-wise its not a huge boost, but it really gives some motivation and lets them feel like they are making an impact. Plus it saves fiddly shit. But its also not 100% free - they still have to be in the tavern long enough to be recognized (or be little entitled shits and announce their presence). The party had a bard for a time who would perform in the inn, so they'd just start up their "Ballad of the Party".

Its also fun because right after they got their ass-pats in the boonies, they wound up in a big city in another region where they got "literally who'd" because they'd never heard of the area much less its saviors. And then they got recognized by a merchant who thanked them for all they did. They're back in the region now, and enjoy that their reputation is spreading, while understanding their pond is quite small.

 

[Brain Problems]

Update from my table: I found the maps for Dungeon of the Mad Mage on 5etools (thank God that website exists), and simply dropped the map into GIMP, added a fog layer over, and erased the fog as the party discovered new rooms. Hooked up a laptop to a spare TV they had, which also helped since I had a player out of town, so he could connect and see us and the map remotely. Worked so much better than drawing out the rooms as they went, and they were able to make a lot more progress than last session. I think they'll manage to clear the first floor after one more bout.

I cannot recommend this enough. It takes a bit of set up beforehand but I think it's a game changer. A buddy of mine is doing a campaign and doing a similar set up and beyond it being slightly hacky in its implementation, it's way way easier than drawing up maps on the fly or gradually revealing things with paper etc. Just grab that eraser tool/magic wand and delete your layers as needed.

My only criticism is that it does take away from the analogue/low tech pen and paper aspect and erodes the reason we're all sitting around together in the first place by staring at a screen but overall I am pretty impressed. Bonus points if you sink the screen into the table properly.

 

[Bloitzhole]

My party (4 players, level 3 about to level to 4) has presented forged evidence to the crown that is sure to send a beloved merchant of the city to the gallows, causing massive civil unrest.

My party has realized that the evidence they have presented was forged, about 5 minutes after presenting it (during the post-game roundtable chat.)

My party now wishes to break the merchant they have just incriminated out of jail in tomorrow's session, or as the warlock put it "behaving very much chaotic goodish"

The person responsible for the forging will be "disappeared" by his superiors during the night, thus making it impossible to cast aspersion on anyone else.

If they attempt to free him, and they are identified as the jailbreakers, the main hub of the game will turn against them - I think they know this, but all but one of them wants to go through with it

Who cares about a fair trial, who do you guys think I am? Rogue, Attorney at law?

I am very, very curious how they'll handle this and frankly I'd like some input on how I, as the DM, should handle it, should they be discovered and identified.
They will be fugitives, commanding their own ship (which they received only about an hour before the tribunal) thus ending the main campaign storyline (no tears shed there on my part) and I don't really have a good module or other content source to draw from to weave a story from there. Any ideas what I could use to have them flee into a new, appropriate (given their status as fugitives, wanted by the crown) setting?
Has anyone perchance played "Curse of Strahd" as I was considering them fleeing to Barovia?

 

[Corn Flakes]

Re: spellcasters announcing their spells in advance.
I think more than a couple OSR games have casers announcing their intention to cast at the start of the round, even before the first step on the initiative ladder. If they're hit before their turn, they roll a save/concentration based on the damage taken before they can cast.

Personally, just in order to keep things running quickly without adding a whole spellcasting phase, I'd go for a tweaked version of that in 5e: if the spellcaster in question was attacked or moved more than 5ft that round, any spell they attempt to cast requires a Concentration check DC [10 + whatever damage they might have taken up to that turn + 1 for every 5ft the caster moved past 5 ft], with disadvantage if they are within reach of an enemy.

Oh, and remove level scaling from cantrips. Those should be supplemental damage at best.


Re: spell acquisition
Players having to look for new spells instead of immediately learning them upon leveling up might sound annoying to some people, but it's a very good way to get the party more connected to the world. It's also a good excuse for changing locations, as the party would sometimes have to travel long distances for the casters to pick up certain spells that are only known by specific groups. Those factions would then send the caster in question (and by extension the party) to quests to either prove their worth, or just bring back something the masters want before teaching them what they want.

And this works for more than just wizards, too. Sorcerers cast instinctively, but they'd also be learning from other sorcerers, either by infusing themselves with the magic via rituals, or just learning new ways to shape magic with their bare hands. Clerics would need to have access to different holy scripture in order to understand their deity better, or memorize different prayers.


Re: Low-level characters
Unless the character's background specifically states otherwise, in our campaigns everybody is just assumed to have worked as a hireling for a while before the campaign started. Following more experienced adventurers and learning from them lets them pick up their first level, and then the character sets out on their own. The mere fact they survived a couple adventures as a hireling makes them special enough to be PCs.

It also handily explains how they got their initial equipment: they're either hand-me-downs from the group they hauled treasure/supplies for, or stuff they purchased with their hireling wages. Because your average dirt farmer straight out of the dirt farm is not going to have the 200+ gold pieces necessary to buy even the initial equipment listed for a Level 1 Fighter.

 

[Judge Dredd]

You found the center of the hedgemaze there. "This is MY world, you're just in it!" The GM was not there to create a story or present challenges, they were there to (they hope) have players ooh and ahh over how cool and awesome and powerful their OC's or whatever established NPCs they stan for are.

This is why I simp for Eberron and Starfinder (the setting, not the rules). They are settings designed to be played in. Almost everything is designed to be interacted with by the players and/or give fuel to the DM in some way. There are few powerful friendly NPCs, and those that do exist are usually limited or pre-occupied in some way. Key mysteries like what caused the mourning and the gap are not answered.

 

[Ghostse]

I am very, very curious how they'll handle this and frankly I'd like some input on how I, as the DM, should handle it, should they be discovered and identified.

Depends on how "smart" your players are. If they are going to come up with an actual plan, you need to give them the tools to do it.

Think about the prison. Think about the ways in/out. Think about that could be turned into ways in and our (windows, walls, ceilings) with the tools/spells at the party's disposal.
Then think about ways to make it more interesting. think about heist films. Food delivery. Laundry delivery. New guards showing up.

If he's just being held in Jail, that is a small holding area near the court, they could probably just wild-west it.
If its an actual prison/dungeon, expect you'll need to figure out how many guards are there, when shifts change, etc. Don't be afraid to randomly roll up guard alertness and disposition.
Figure out how much time and what rolls the party needs to do to figure this information out. Don't be afraid to set gates for partial successes.

If during the rescue the party makes a lot of noise, how will the authorities respond and when? Town guards? Town Militia?

What if the party, going to rescue the merchant, runs into an assassination squad sent by the powers behind the forger who didn't want to take even the small risk of the trial?

As for the actual repercussions if caught, exile in lieu of execution.

They will be fugitives, commanding their own ship (which they received only about an hour before the tribunal) thus ending the main campaign storyline (no tears shed there on my part) and I don't really have a good module or other content source to draw from to weave a story from there. Any ideas what I could use to have them flee into a new, appropriate (given their status as fugitives, wanted by the crown) setting?
Has anyone perchance played "Curse of Strahd" as I was considering them fleeing to Barovia?

Raven loft is a perfect place for them to end up after somethign like that. Even if they get caught breaking out the merchant, they could be put on a prison ship that wrecks in Barovia.

The only bad things I've heard about Strahd (and from leafing through it) is its not as good as the OG setting and general "We can't have gypsies be evil" wokeshite from WotC.

 

[Brain Problems]

They will be fugitives, commanding their own ship (which they received only about an hour before the tribunal) thus ending the main campaign storyline (no tears shed there on my part) and I don't really have a good module or other content source to draw from to weave a story from there. Any ideas what I could use to have them flee into a new, appropriate (given their status as fugitives, wanted by the crown) setting?
Has anyone perchance played "Curse of Strahd" as I was considering them fleeing to Barovia?

Ravenloft/CoS is perfect for really turning players on their heels and making it clear that they are just barely surviving in a world that does not care about them and has a BBEG that could slaughter them at any point but is choosing not to either out of apathy, greater machinations, or because he likes playing with his food. If you use older rulesets too you can be rolling Dark Powers checks every time the PCs do something nasty with relevant modifiers depending on how big a piece a shit thing they did.

The biggest thing about Ravenloft which I like is that Actions Have Consequences and if you are doing it right (not saying I'm a saint) they should feel vulnerable and barely scraping by and constantly going, why oh why did we try to murderhobo here?

If you do CoS out of the box you will TPK your PCs depending on party size. If you look at Strahd's statblock and understand how lair actions work it is difficult to not TPK the party because of just how lethal he is as a villain. It's not perfect but there's a lot there if you prep and/or dip into the couple of supplementary guides that some very dedicated fans have built up (Mandymod, Dragnacarta, Raising the Stakes etc.)

The only bad things I've heard about Strahd (and from leafing through it) is its not as good as the OG setting and general "We can't have gypsies be evil" wokeshite from WotC.

As irritating and gay as this is, is the book more or less still keeps the Vistani as the shifty dangerous fuckers that they were intended to be, they just slap some window dressing on it and hope the dangerhairs move away looking for more obvious targets. The only thing that actually bugged me was they shoehorned in a totally pointless and obviously political gay romance between doomed knights in the silver dragon's wrecked house. Came across as totally forced and silly that I ignored it during my game because there was nothing remotely believable about it.

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

Any ideas what I could use to have them flee into a new, appropriate (given their status as fugitives, wanted by the crown) setting?

If you don't want them to be fugitives anymore, just having them flee to another realm, such as a neighboring kingdom, should be good enough. They will only be wanted in the kingdom they came from, so they will be alright in a neighboring realm. Since they have a ship already, getting away should be trivial.

I wouldn't send them to Barovia unless you wanted to TPK the party. If you actually want to keep running with this party, I'd avoid Ravenloft like the plague.