A Quick Side Note- this post did not come out, as the last predicted, a week later :( In fact it's been several months since I last updated this series. I want to apologize for that, and say that I'm re-committing on finishing this series as quickly as possible while still being worth reading.
Having looked over the attributes, and how skills modify them, let's look at the rules for different types of actions. In my 5-fold system for describing RPG actions/ challenges my categories are: Exploring, Investigating, Manipulating, Communicating and Fighting.
That list starts with Exploring because it covers how the character interacts with the game world. This is the very first starting point, you need a world to inhabit to do anything/ exist in after all. This category includes both "natural" and "man made" environmental factors. So traps are a part of the Exploring rules here. So is stealth, since it's not really about the person looking for you as it is your ability to 'blend in' with the environment somehow (same way Perception is the ability to identify your environment). Survival, tracking, movement - both gross like running and swimming, and fine like acrobatics - are also Exploration, obviously, since they move you through the environment.
Here are the skills that I put as being exploring-
⦁ Acrobatics
⦁ Animal Handling
⦁ Athletics
⦁ Perception
⦁ Sleight of Hand
⦁ Stealth
⦁ Survival
And here are the sections of the SRD that I think go along with those:
⦁ some of the Attributes & Skills
⦁ Time & Movement
⦁ The Environment
⦁ Traps
I don't consider objects a part of Exploring, because I put working with/ changing objects as a part of "Manipulation." Traps are in Exploring however because a trap denies access to a place/ items. And movement, ie changing places, is a part of Exploration. Likewise poisons and diseases can afflict a character from a trap or location, but treating or removing them is also Manipulation (that is, manipulating bodies, ie healing).
So these are the core things to Exploring challenges, in my own system (which I use here only because the 5e SRD has no system at all, and I want to have a logical and well-constructed discussion [as opposed to just listing all my thoughts alphabetically, like too darn many RPG books])...
⦁ Perception / Stealth (stealth hides your whole being while sleight of hand hides your actions)
⦁ Movement
⦁ Access and Barriers (incld. Traps)
⦁ Weather/ Environmental Effects (including falling) [while healing these may be in Manipulation, taking them in the first place works best here]
With that as a filter, just how many rules are there and what are they like for Exploring challenges? Well, we have about 4 pages in 'The Environment' section, 2 pages of 'Time and Movement', and 4 pages of 'Traps' - and let's say 2 pages from the 'Abilities and Skills' section, for about 12 pages of Exploring-styled rules: out of 403 pages total (though a lot of that is characters, spells and monsters). There are maybe 50 pages of rules on running the game (estimating generously). Looked at that way the Exploring rules take up a decent proportion of the total rules.
So what all do we get in those 12 pages? Well, let's look at each section.
In the Abilities and Skills we have the skills I listed above. There are some examples of what each attribute/ skill might be used for, but as I mentioned in my last post there are no examples of DCs - weather each action might be easy or hard. While that does give the GM flexibility it also sucks if you're a new GM and don't feel comfortable with the DC system, or you're a player and the GM hides your DCs, in which case you have no idea how likely an attempt might be, and thus weather it could be worth any potential risks. Something is better than nothing, but I wouldn't call this section very useful.
Let me give you an example of what I mean. There is a little sidebar in the Dexterity section that talks about hiding. It has exactly one sentence about hiding while invisible, "An invisible creature can always try to hide. Signs of it's passage might still be noticed, and it does have to stay quiet." Okay, now how does that tell you anything you wouldn't have figured out on your own when thinking about invisibility and hiding? Instead of being written by Captain Obvious, how about we get a game designer to write about this - because a game designer would say something like: invisible creatures don't need to make Stealth checks unless the environment might give them away (ie, leaves or twigs that could break), or maybe, invisible creatures always have advantage on Stealth checks, or maybe, if an invisible creature makes noise/ tracks other characters who rely on sight still have Disadvantage to attack or interact with them, or anything that might actually help you adjudicate an invisible player/ monster at the table? I'm not saying the game needs precise rules, just some quick advise to the GM about how to use the system. A good thing to have, even in a "rules light" styled game.
Time and Movement is next. Time in RPGs is always screwy. No matter how detailed your rules it's impossible to simulate reality enough to measure things in exact seconds. And it's useless to try. The most valuable thing is figuring out who gets a task done first, or arrives at a location first. And given that DnD has always used identical numbers for a group (ie, all Humans move at exactly 30 feet per round) (DnD Olympics must suck), then it's really important to say what gets checked in a contest. If two players are having a foot race what do they roll to determine the winner? Dexterity? Strength? Constitution? Wisdom, what ?!?! That's the only really useful thing at the table, counting minutes and seconds is actually more of a waste of time than anything else.
Sadly the 5e SRD doesn't have a lot of useful information. And again it is very wasteful of its word count. Pretty much the entire Movement section can be boiled down to this:
Walking: choose a pace-
Fast- covers the most distance (automatically beating/ arriving before any slower creatures), but Disadvantage to Perception
Normal - the default speed, cannot use Stealth
Slow - the slowest speed, automatically beaten by all others, but can use Stealth
*Forced March - can treat your speed as 1 category higher, but have to make a Constitution save or gain 1 level of Exhaustion
*Difficult Terrain - move at half speed
Climbing and Swimming: move at half your normal speed
Jumping:
Vertical - can jump roughly half your height from standing, or just over your height with a running start
Horizontal - with a running start you can jump your Strength score in feet, half that from a standing start
*difficult or longer jumps require an Acrobatics check
What the rules miss (IMHO) are:
Flying creatures ignore ground terrain (and hazards), and will beat any ground characters at the same Pace. High winds may count as difficult terrain (headwind) or a free 'forced march' (tailwind) for fliers however.
Short-term movement is a contested Acrobatics check to determine a winner in the same Pace. Long-term movement is a Constitution save/ check.
Normal Pace should allow Stealth, just at disadvantage, while at Fast Pace Stealth is impossible (without a special ability). Also a Fast Pace may impose Disadvantage to other skills than just Perception (like Survival to track).
Hazardous Terrain (like Desert, Arctic, Volcanic) requires a save, typically Dex (? Con?) but could be another attribute, or the creatures take damage (use the Trap tables for save DCs and ignore attack roll, just apply damage). For ease of bookkeeping Hazardous terrain should only be applied once per journey, ie a Desert may be a Con Save vs the heat to the Oasis, then another Hazard check from the Oasis to the City the PCs were headed to (making checks for every day seems like it would just slow the game, no way to heal the damage though so that's the state you arrive in). Proper equipment/ abilities may negate Hazardous terrain, like being Fire Resistant may reduce or ignore hot environments, and using camels and buying extra water (or hiring native guides) may negate the hazards from the Desert example above.
Characters may need extra supplies (like food and water) if they travel at a Slow Pace, or fewer supplies traveling at a Fast Pace. Not having enough supplies requires a Con save (like for a forced march, but without the speed boost; and forced march w-low supplies is Con save at disadvantage).
Since a Forced March represents moving when others are normally resting, ie at night or just by making a smaller camp and shorter rest/ sleeping breaks, then any creatures moving this way need to be able to see in the dark, or else make any Hazard checks at Disadvantage.
Animal Handling - animals and the AH skill are usually either used to ride a mount or direct a carriage, or as a save against an animal hazard (ie, you recognize the dangerous animal's signs and avoid them).
Again, this list has my personal house rules, the book doesn't say anything about them. I only mention my thoughts to show how much the SRD is missing that might be needed at the table.
The Environment section has a decent amount to unpack, so I'll hit on each element in order:
Falling - as in previous editions falling damage is 1d6 per 10 feet, which works for me. While I'm not a fan of exact foot measurements, ten foot increments are broad enough and not too hard to approximate (you could say 1d6 per 'floor' or 'story' I guess). Hit Point inflation does make this wonky, but that's another problem.
Suffocating - the SRD says a creature can hold it's breath for it's Con modifier in minutes, min of 30 sec (with a 0 mod). I decided to try a scientific (I wrote it down, like Adam Savage said to do :) test and held my breath three times. I got 0:29, 0:33 and 0:28 - I'm a middle-aged overweight guy, no Con mod here, so I'd say the low end sounds about right. I kind of feel like it should be an extra 30 sec for your Con mod, a full minute seems like a long time - I seem to remember hearing that brain damage occurred around 6 minutes without oxygen. This sounds logical overall, and I'm not sure just how often it will come up, but the rule makes sense and is short and sweet, so I like it.
Vision and Light - again the SRD gets excessively wordy, basically there are 3 possible visibility levels: Normal, Lightly Obscured and Heavily Obscured. Lightly Obscured can be caused by dim light (the edge of the torch, twilight, full moon), patchy fog or light/mod foliage and gives Disadvantage on Perception checks relying on sight. Heavily Obscured can be caused by darkness, full fog or heavy foliage and creatures gain the 'blinded' condition. That's simple enough and works. (though, overly-bright light could have similar effects I guess)
Then the book talks about other types of perception, which gets a little odd. Blindsight lets a creature perceive it's surroundings within a radius, but that's all the SRD says. What kinds of details can it perceive? Can it sense colors? Can it detect a limb moving while the main body is standing still? Read lips? You really have to work this out on your own. Darkvision makes Heavily Obscured into Lightly Obscured instead, and only sees in black and white. That's detailed enough. Truesight lets a creature see, well everything, which works since it tends to be a high level ability.
Food and Water - like suffocating I'm not sure just how often this will come up at the table, but the rules deal with hunger and thirst by gaining levels of exhaustion. On page 358 is the conditions list, and there are six levels of exhaustion, with level 6 being death. That means you could survive 4 days without any water, which I think is pretty "realistic" (as weird as that gets when dealing with an RPG), I remember it being 3 days. For food you can go 3 + Con Mod (min 1) and then gain 1 level of exhaustion each day, for a minimum of 10 days and a max of about 14 - I seem to remember 30 days being the average you could survive without food (it was 3 min w/o air, 3 days w/o water and 30 days w/o food, and I don't remember where I heard that from). So I might house rule gaining a level of exhaustion every 2 days, but again I'm nit-picking something that might not ever come up.
The last section is about traps. Traps are a huge topic, there have been books written about traps and using them in RPGs. I don't want to get into it here, that will be a post for another day, but I will just say that the 5e SRD rules are okay. They're fairly detailed, they tell you to think about what the players are doing and the circumstances and not just rely on die rolls. There are not a lot of sample traps, but there are a few tables as guides and I think enough to get your house ruling pointed in the right direction.
Okay, so we've covered 1/5th of my Challenge categories, next post we'll cover some more.
You can find the rest of this series here
Role-Playing Games, Interactive Narratives, plus anything science-fiction or fantasy
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