So as I've been talking about, I am DMing a new campaign soon. I have been contemplating the setting, system, and adventure for a while and I've had some thoughts I'd like to share.
I believe it is well-known that the system you choose to play matters. Pathfinder 2e plays much differently than Old School Essentials. However, the system matters to everyone, not just the DM. My players love heroics, they love super-heroics and character arcs and backstories and everything that has come out of a decade of playing 5e. They have fallen in love and, in a sense grown to expect and look forward to, the type of game the system encourages and reinforces. However, as a DM, I tire of tactical combat and skill checks surpassing actual engagement with the world.
There are endless ways to hack the rules of 5e with Hardcore mode, or Into the Unknown or the alternate resting rules, but I don't really want to do much of that. Instead, I think I can do some of it, but change the DM side of things and make it run, on my side of the table, so that I can enjoy it. I have fallen in love with the OSR style of game on the DM and player side, but I think, if we do go 5e, I can still adopt the things I love into my prep.
Character Options: PHB + Weird Wastelands
This introduces enough subclasses without worrying about option bloat.
Setting: Weird Wastelands
This introduces mechanics for tracking supply and resources, harsh travel conditions and exploration.
Adventure: In the Shadow of Tower Silveraxe + Locations from Weird Wastelands
I already own and love Silveraxe and its made for OSE so running it in 5e will be easy. I will need to Weird-ify it, but that won't be hard and can be done session to session in my prep as I go.
Monsters: Weird Wastelands and Forge of Foes
WW has some setting specific fully built monsters and they will be fun for big set-piece encounters, but my bread and butter are going to be the general-use stat blocks that are in Forge of Foes. Long ago I adopted the idea that everything was a bear and really only kept a handful of stat blocks in front of me anyway.
DM Prep: WW, Swords and Wizardry, Return of the Lazy DM, and Shadowdark
Weird Wastelands has plenty of DM advice on running games using the book, Return of the Lazy DM keeps me from overpreparing, and Swords and Wizardy has simple practical advice. Lastly, Shadowdark has the best random encounter tables I have ever seen.
Procedure Changes: Dungeon Turns, Wandering Monster rolls, reaction/morale rolls, only rest in safe areas.
I am going to be adopting the 10-minute turn when exploring from OSR games as well as "always on initiative" from Shadowdark. The combination of these two will encourage players to actually talk through their searches, since your investigation check and you actually talking through your search will take the same amount of in-world time, and one might secure your success while the other leaves it up to a dice roll, and either way, after a few turns I will be rolling for random encounters so you want your actions to really count. Also, torches on one-hour timers will encourage a more engaging play style. Similarly, monster reaction/morale checks will provide a sense of realism so that every encounter isn't an automatic fight and every fight won't necessarily be to the death. I think the best way for me to do this is just to look at the OSE or S&W stat block on my end until fights break out, then I can just use whatever general-use stat block makes the most sense. Only resting in safe areas makes sense in the Weird Wastelands, It is a harsh environment and you can't long rest without your Dark Souls bonfire!
So what does this actually change?
Well, hopefully, the players can still feel heroic. They can write a simple backstory and have some character goals without it feeling a total waste since they won't die so easily. It gives procedures to exploration both on the micro-scale scene to scene and macro-scale when going through over-land travel (Weird Wastelands has procedures for this). It turns the DM prep and running of the game into something way more enjoyable for me than traditional 5e encounter building and adventure prep and puts the ownness on the players to survive, explore, and adventure.
