My solo 5E journey using Tanares RPG character continues from where we have left off on the last episode. This time, I am more focusing on actual 5E game play and the detail of the rules. I am including my investigation effort and reference of rules in this episode. I am not trying to make a tutorial video here as there are many great ones already out there. Instead, these references are meant to illustrate the depth and complexity of the 5E rule.
In this episode, we are looking at the adventure part of the game that is outside of the combat. Let’s get started.
Resting
After the first encounter against four goblins, Gaknak and M’Bollo needs some resting.
In 5E, characters’ hit points do not magically heal to full after each combat. The characters need to rest and there are specific ru les for them.
Short Rest
A short rest is a period of downtime, at least 1 hour long, during which a character does nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, and tending to wounds.
A character can spend one or more Hit Dice at the end of a short rest, up to the character’s maximum number of Hit Dice, which is equal to the character’s level. For each Hit Die spent in this way, the player rolls the die and adds the character’s Constitution modifier to it. The character regains hit points equal to the total (minimum of 0). The player can decide to spend an additional Hit Die after each roll. A character regains some spent Hit Dice upon finishing a long rest, as explained below.
D&D Basic Rule – Chapter 8: Adventuring – Short Rest
Long Rest
A long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long, during which a character sleeps for at least 6 hours and performs no more than 2 hours of light activity, such as reading, talking, eating, or standing watch. If the rest is interrupted by a period of strenuous activity – at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, casting spells, or similar adventuring activity – the characters must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it.
At the end of a long rest, a character regains all lost hit points. The character also regains spent Hit Dice, up to a number of dice equal to half of the character’s total number of them (minimum of one die). For example, if a character has eight Hit Dice, he or she can regain four spent Hit Dice upon finishing a long rest.
A character can’t benefit from more than one long rest in a 24-hour period, and a character must have at least 1 hit point at the start of the rest to gain its benefits.
I think this is a great example to test how you feel about 5E as an adventure board gamer.
Do you see “resting” in 5E as an interesting game mechanics or unnecessary complicated?
If you feel, each characters should just get full health back after each combat automatically, I think you are looking for more streamlined, perhaps combat focused games. Many adventure board games I think are built like that including Arena: the Contest.
If you see the resting system here as more opportunity for players to tactically manage resource then you would like 5E system. I personally, got excited seeing the resting mechanics in 5E for the first time.
Going back to the my adventure. I felt short rest is an appropriate in my case.
Short rest
Hit dice is one of character’s parameter specified on the main character sheet in the Tanares RPG.
For instance, Gaknak at level 3 has three d8 hit dice.
FoundryVTT takes care of the data tracking automatically here.
I rolled 7. So adding constitutional modifier of +1, M’Bollo regained 8 total hit points.
At the time of this writing, i have noticed M’Bollo actually has +2 constitutional modifier due to Taii’maku’s special specie trait, equilibrium but this was not reflected in the FoundryVTT and I have not yet found an easy way to enter this. So technically, he should have healed 9 hit points .
Gaknak regained 7 hit points by rolling 4 and adding his +3 modifier.
After the short rest, I kept reading the adventure book.
Goblin Trail
If my characters can successfully find Goblin trail, the story continues to next Goblin encounter, but if my party fails to find the trail, the story jumps to next chapter.
This is where I think 5E rule gets interesting. Rather than just giving me multiple choice question or perhaps a single die roll to determine what happens, 5E has what’s called ability check tests.
An ability check tests a character’s or monster’s innate talent and training in an effort to overcome a challenge. The DM calls for an ability check when a character or monster attempts an action (other than an attack) that has a chance of failure. When the outcome is uncertain, the dice determine the results.
To make an ability check, roll a d20 and add the relevant ability modifier. As with other d20 rolls, apply bonuses and penalties, and compare the total to the DC. If the total equals or exceeds the DC, the ability check is a success–the creature overcomes the challenge at hand. Otherwise, it’s a failure, which means the character or monster makes no progress toward the objective or makes progress combined with a setback determined by the DM.
D&D Basic Rule – Chapter 7: Using Ability Scores – Ability Checks
Because the test is comparing to the difficulty class value, this is often referred to as DC check.
Because of the ability modifier is determined by the character’s statistics, which depends on character’s level, background, class and others, this system is not just a pure dice roll determines your fate system.
There are many abilities and skills in 5E. For instance, some classes are really good at perception skill, which is frequently used skill to detect things like a trap. So having such character in the party may become gaming strategy.
Here in my adventure, my party need to first see if they can find the Goblin Trail. For this the DC check with Survival skill is perfomed. The target value is 10.
M’Bollo has survival skill modifier of +3 and he rolled 1 on d20. Therefore, his total is 4. This is lower than the target DC value of 10, so he has failed to find the Goblin trail.
Fortunately, despite Gaknak having only +1 survival skill modifier, he rolled 14. So he got total 15, which is higher than DC check value. So he has successfully discovered the Goblin trail.
Since M’Bollo and Gaknak are working as a team, I believe one noticing trail is overall success here.
Learning Opportunity
If you have played Arena: the Contest, you may wonder if M’Bollo rolling 1 means automatic miss independent of +3 bonus. It turns out the official 5E rule book definition of 1 for automatic miss and 20 for critical hit only applies to combat attack roll. So it won’t apply here.
Traps
As the narrative continues, it described about couple traps along the way. For this, the narrative first asked me to choose party’s marching order before proceeding.
So before reading any further, I chose Gaknak on the front and M’Bollo on the back because Gaknak is my main character. At this point, I had not put any tactical thinking.
But good player should put higher perception skill individual in the front as that’s the skill to be tested when identifying traps and other dangers along the way of adventurers.
As Gaknak and M’Bollo continues to follow the trail, the narrative asked for perception check to see if Gaknak can preemptively notice the trap and evades it.
As someone who had never played 5E game, I thought this whole trap system was also very interesting.
The general flow is first use the passive perception skill check. This is conceptually to see if my character could see the trap because his base attentiveness is enough to find the traps.
A passive check is a special kind of ability check that doesn’t involve any die rolls. Such a check can represent the average result for a task done repeatedly, such as searching for secret doors over and over again, or can be used when the DM wants to secretly determine whether the characters succeed at something without rolling dice, such as noticing a hidden monster.
Here’s how to determine a character’s total for a passive check:
10 + all modifiers that normally apply to the check
D&D Basic Rule – Chapter 7: Using Ability Scores – Passive Checks
If this fails, the DC perception check is required. So this time, my d20 die roll luck determines the result. I interpret this as if Gaknak has initially failed to notice the trap using his natural attentiveness, so this time, he starts to actively searching for the trap.
For the first trap, the perception check score was 12.
Since Gaknak has passive perception of 13, he has immediately noticed the snare trap and successfully evaded.
The second trap was a a 10 feet deep pit with perception check of 15. So Gaknak’s passive perception test has failed. Although tried to be extra-cautious and attempted to actively search for the trap, he has sadly failed the DC perception test as well. So the trap is triggered.
Now rather than just taking a damage immediately at this point, I was given the third chance. This time I rolled for a saving throw using Dexterity saving throw modifier.
Saving throws are another form of stat parameter that is tied to ability scores but just like skills, some saving throws may be more than just ability score bonus.
We use saving throw when it is specifically asked to do so. As name says, this is to save the character from the danger.
Conceptually, this is to see if Gaknak was able to avoid falling into the pit at the last moment by hanging on the edge of the pit.
In this case, Gaknak ended up reaching to the bottom of the pit and took one d6 roll damage.
This whole trap system is very versatile. Again, I have never played 5E before the current adventure but I can see designers can easily make many variation and types of traps via combination of skill tests, difficulty values and even a sequence and number of tests.
For example, some traps may be quick instantaneous with passive check alone. Maybe the other trap effect persists until you successfully escape the condition. So each failing roll keep damaging the character. The possibility seems endless.
Gaining Experience points
The narrative states at this point I have completed goblin ambusher part of the story, and each character is awarded with 75 XP.
Impression
Even though there was no combat today. Ability check system in 5E is extremely intriguing. I have certainly felt like I was playing a game with unpredictable outcome.
The system certainly follows what I consider the heart of casual game.. The “controllable luck” to create playing variance. Even though multiple choice can be a valid method and I certainly see its use, finding trail, avoiding traps felt much more game-like and immersive using ability check system than if I were to say “I take right here, and left there and as a result I fell in a pit.”
This ability and skill check system is so versatile, the limitation of where to use is designer’s imagination. Is there a downside? I think there is. This system can be easily over-utilized and when that happens it could feel more of analogous to game griding than fun part of the gaming.