So, it took me longer than I planned but I finished a set of homebrew rules for to run with my local group. My aim is to re-create the flavor and difficulty of the original 2e setting (before the novels).
VelvetHobo 5e Homebrew v1.1
We’ve spent a couple nights playtesting and it seems reasonably balanced while maintaining the full flavour of the original. I added in an optional subset of environmental rules that can be used to make the desert wastes inhospitable and deadly. The mechanic is not difficult once the base number is calculated, akin to AC, and is framed around the 5e skill diffiulty progression.
Anyhow, I had inspiration and credit from many sources I found while lurking around this site, and I think I captured them all in the credits. If I missed you, I am truly sorry!
Any feedback is welcome. If you choose to run this I would be interested in knowing what works well and what does not.
I’m slowly converting monsters and I may upload those in this thread at a later date; but don’t hold your breath.
Thanks, and I hope you find something to enjoy in here!
If you want or need to email me directly, reach me at ygdrasill@hotmail.com. Cheers!
Neat. I like the Introduction that sets the tone of the world in just a few pages. I’m not too fond of buffing up the characters; rather, I’d consider giving them the Hero Points option (DMG pg 264), to give them a slight edge. The way ability scores are treated now are quite different from back then in the early '90s.
Gensai
I assume you refer to Genasi?
Thanks for the thoughts.
I would like to know more about your critique about buffing up the characters. I tried to keep the 5e ability scores (in that most races get +3 or +4 to stats once you account for subraces, spread out across ability scores) and without any negatives to scores as there once were.
For the races that have an equivalent in standard 5e, I changed them in small ways and allowed for a stat to be increased as the player chooses, in line with standard subraces that do not exist in Dark Sun. I sometimes took something out, and added something in, to keep the flavor of Dark Sun (for example, halfings have “killing machines” trait rather than the “lucky” trait).
Half-Giants and Thri-kreen were admittedly tough, and I sought to keep as much of the key flavor as I could (HGs - Strong and dull witted with high STR and HPs; Kreen - 4 useful limbs and a natural armor class formula) and balanced them with negatives traits rather than ability score reductions.
As I type this, I think I’ve realized that your critique is likely aimed at the way ability scores are calculated (a method that does give slightly higher scores than traditional campaigns) rather than at the race options themselves. That is a very fair point, and I think your solution is a good one. If I update this further I will add that as a specific option. Thank you for the idea and contribution. Anything else you might have would be welcome.
And yes. Sigh. I misspelled Genasi AGAIN. When I first saw that race in EE I read it “Gen-sai” in my head and that forever plagues me.