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Setting Hack: D&D, Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Dragonlance

If you love the settings of Dungeons & Dragons, but dislike the official or traditional game systems for D&D, this page is for you.

This setting hack will allow you to quickly and easily adapt our TTRPG system to the most well-known Dungeons & Dragons settings: Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Eberron, Ravenloft, etc.

This setting hack assumes that you already have a basic understanding of our system.

 

Character Creation

Players must go through the steps on the main character creation page in order to create their character.  Players will use the kit provided to them by the GM when creating their characters.

The kits below are example kits specific to this D&D setting hack.  Your GM may make changes to them.

 

Kits

Each kit provides an approximate level equivalent to levels in D&D 5E.  This is a rough approximation, as our system is level-less.

 

Starting Level: ~1-5

Caps

Attributes: 6

Skills: 6

Assets: 9

To Spend

10 Attribute Points

25 Skill points

20 Power Points

16 Asset Points

Starting Magic: 1

Free Powers: Mask, Heroic Timing

 

Starting Level: ~6-10

Caps:

Attributes: 9

Skills: 9

Assets: 12

To Spend

16 Attribute Points

35 Skill points

30 Power Points

24 Asset Points

Starting Magic: 3

Free Powers: Mask, Heroic Timing, Passive Regeneration 1

 

Starting Level: ~11-16

Caps:

Attributes: 12

Skills: 12

Assets: 18

To Spend

22 Attribute Points

50 Skill points

50 Power Points

36 Asset Points

Starting Magic: 6

Free Powers: Mask, Heroic Timing, Passive Regeneration 2, Extra Health

 

Races

 

Dwarf

Free Powers: Harden Armor, Unreasonable Inventory,

 

Elf

Free Powers: Eternal Youth, Light Sleeper, Power Nap, Dark Vision

 

Halfling

Free Powers: Hide In Plain Sight, Detect Hidden

 

Human

You receive 6 free power points to spend at character creation.

 

Orc

Free Powers: Intimidating Strength, Magic Lift

 

Classes

This section will help you portray the themes & tropes of the common player character classes in D&D, while using our TTRPG system, which does not have classes.

You may wish to refer to this section during character creation.

 

Non-Standard Player Character Classes

Our system can allow you to play concepts which exist in D&D settings, but which are difficult if not impossible to play in any official D&D system.  For example, you could easily play a fire, water, earth, or ice elemental in our system.

You can also do fun multi-class concepts without suffering from the mechanical price you would pay in any official D&D system.  For example, a bard/monk drunken master.

 

Barbarian

  • Invest heavily in the Physical attribute.
  • Invest heavily in Close Combat & Might skills, along with their linked powers.
  • Barbarian Rage mechanics:
    • Barbarian Rage is a custom power limiter made for this setting hack.
      • This is a rating 2 power limiter.  You reduce by 2 the buy-cost of powers that require you to be enraged.
        • You can lock as many or as few powers as you want behind your Barbarian Rage.
      • Entering Barbarian Rage is a free action, which costs 1 Energy to activate.
        • If you know you’re going into battle, you may activate it in advance of the fight starting.
        • Once activated, Barbarian Rage lasts until the end of the scene.

 

Bard

  • Invest heavily in the Social attribute.
  • Invest heavily in the following skills: Presence, Guile, and Insight.
    • If you can reach rating 6+ in Presence, consider the Charismatic Attacks & Charismatic Defense powers, which allows you to use your force of personality as attacks and defense in combat.
    • These skills have some of the coolest powers in the game, including things that a bard could never achieve in any official D&D system, such as:
      • Causing a person to forget the conversation you just had.
      • Starting vicious rumors that spread like wildfire.
      • Speaking loud enough for an entire country to hear your voice.
      • Perfectly discerning truth from lies.

 

Cleric

  • The Borrowed Power power limiter can represent your relationship with your chosen deity.
  • Investing in the Medicine skill & linked powers will allow you to heal like a cleric.
  • The Spiritual Awareness skill & linked powers should not be ignored.  This can allow you to treat with spirits, exorcise demons, etc.
  • The Presence & Insight skills will also serve a Cleric well.

 

Fighter

  • Invest heavily in the Physical attribute.
  • Invest heavily in either Close Combat or Ranged Combat, & their linked powers.
  • For fighters who wish to “tank” for their party, invest in the Protection skill & linked powers.
  • The Mobility skill is useful for fighters, but isn’t of primary importance.

 

Monk

 

Ranger

 

Rogue

  • Invest in the Stealth skill & linked powers.
  • Invest in the Physical Awareness skill & linked powers.
    • This will allow you to find and disarm traps.
  • Invest in the Guile skill & linked powers.
    • This will allow you to keep your motives and goals secret.

 

Sorcerer

 

Wizard

 

Damage & Healing

In  this system, characters normally heal 1 health per week.

The ‘Passive Regeneration 1’  power lets a character heal 1 health per day, and the ‘Passive Regeneration 2’ power allows a character to heal their (Magic) rating in health per day.

If the GM wants the player characters to heal very quickly and easily, they should include one of the Passive Regeneration powers in their character creation kit as a free power.

 

Wound Penalties

Wound penalties are optional.  The GM can choose to include them in their game, or not.

No official versions of D&D includes wound penalties; the heroes fight at their full strength even when they’re on death’s door.

If you choose not to include wound penalties in your game, you will need to make sure that no player characters buy powers which interact mechanically with wound penalties, all of which are listed here: Wound Penalty Resistance, Envenomed Weapon, Damage Control, Invert Wound Penalties, Pain Fuel, & Relieve Pain.

 

Powers

This section makes changes to some of the powers in this system.  The goal here is to better match the setting.  Bear in mind that these changes almost certainly make your game less balanced than our default powers would.

  • The Resurrect Power
    • Lower the skill requirement from 9 to 6.
    • Lower the buy cost from 10 to 7.
    • The Quick Resurrect power becomes free, and is granted when you buy the Resurrect power.

 

  • The Regenerate Flesh Power
    • Lower the buy cost from 7 to 5.
    • The Quick Regenerate Flesh power becomes free, and is granted when you buy the Regenerate Flesh power.

 

Spirits & The Spirit World

Our system has robust rules for interacting with the spirit world, along with skills & powers to match.

Official D&D systems have some rules for managing interactions with different planes of the multi-verse.  However, those systems are somewhat lacking when it comes to portraying the core themes and tropes of the spirit world.  For example, most demons & devils in D&D are not immaterial spirits regardless of what plane of the multi-verse they’re on; a tiny number of them can become immaterial beings, and even fewer of them can possess a person.  Similarly, player characters in these systems have very few options when it comes to dealing with immaterial spirits, or interacting with the spirit world.

Here is a  list of things which are normally immaterial spirits in most settings, but are not typically immaterial spirits in D&D systems:

  • Demons
  • Devils
  • Angels
  • Fae / Fair Folk
  • Elementals
  • Gods

 

We suggest that you make most of these types of creatures into immaterial spirits when playing a D&D setting using our system.  You will need to give most of these creatures one or more of the following powers: Materialize, Manifest, Possession, or Lesser Possession.

If you choose not to make these sorts of creatures into immaterial spirits, you should consider leaving the Spiritual Awareness skill, and it’s linked powers, out of your game entirely.

 

D20, Or Not

You can choose to use our D20 plugin, or not.  The plugin’s details are copied below:

When making a test, follow these steps:

  1. Calculate your dicepool: (Relevant Attribute + Relevant Skill) +/-modifiers.
  2. Roll a single D20.
  3. Add the number rolled on the die to the number you calculated for your dicepool.
  4. This becomes the total number of hits on the roll.
  5. Total hits = ((Dicepool) + (D20 result)).

 

If you’re using the static defense values plugin, be sure to read how it interacts with D20 resolution.

 

Disclaimer

FreeRPGs.org does not own or license any of the settings listed here.  FreeRPGs.org does not copy, host, or publish any copyrighted materials that do not belong to us.  Discussion of the settings listed here is fair use under the DMCA.

FreeRPGs.org encourages all our users to purchase the official books for this setting.