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EpicSavingThrow.com: A Grognard's Notebook

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Category: Rules

B/X Spell Rules & Summaries

July 7, 2025 mstanton Rules

A little homebrew reworking of magic spell rules.

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B/X House Rules

July 3, 2025 mstanton Rules

Some ideas for using the 1981 rules.

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Modern B/X Magic System Ideas

June 20, 2025 mstanton Rules

Some rough notes on a Knave-like system for OSR Modern RPG homebrew.

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Fast RPG v1.1

June 11, 2025 mstanton Rules

Another revision of homebrew role-playing rules.

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Damage Ideas Besides Losing Hit Points

May 28, 2025 mstanton Rules

Tips and tricks to layer onto hits or missed saving throws.

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Star Trek Adventures 2e

STA2e Complication Ideas

April 29, 2025 mstanton Rules

Idea for creating negative traits from botched task dice rolls.

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Realis RPG 101

March 13, 2025 mstanton Rules

A diceless narrative space fantasy game by Austin Walker.

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Between The Skies

The Shortest TTRPG Rules Ever

February 19, 2025 mstanton Rules

Roll 2d6, get 9 or more or spend a story token to succeed.

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Star Trek Adventures 2e

STA2e Rules Notes, Glossary, Momentum and More

February 6, 2025 mstanton Rules

Some clarifications on terms used in Star Trek Adventures Second Edition.

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Homebrew Rule: No Dice Failures

January 8, 2025 mstanton Homebrews, Rules

Instead of success or failure, attempt always work but player must choose at what cost.

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Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying Rules

January 6, 2025 mstanton Homebrews, Rules

Notes on mashing up BRP with some patchwork houserules.

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Another Homebrew RPG Idea

January 2, 2025 mstanton Homebrews, Rules

Another homebrew idea, Frankenstein of ideas from D&D5e and BRP (Chaosium’s Basic Role Playing/Call of Cthulhu system), with a few bits borrowed from Marvel Multiverse RPG and GURPS.

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Sci-Fi Equipment Lists

January 2, 2025 mstanton Lists & Benchmarks, Rules

Sample personal “starting gear” lists from science-fiction role-playing games.

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Fast Starship Combat Rules

July 8, 2024 mstanton Rules

Some ideas for a quick-and-dirty starship RPG rules set.

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Fast RPG v0.8

June 1, 2024 mstanton Rules

Yet another homebrew set of tabletop role-playing rules to playtest.

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D&D 5e House Rules, Take Two

April 20, 2024 mstanton Rules

A list of common Dungeons & Dragons 5e house rules, and some new ideas to consider.

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Fast Traveller 0.8

April 2, 2024 mstanton Rules

Version 0.8 of my re-edit of classic Traveller rules.

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Stanton's DM Screen

Stanton’s DM Screen

January 4, 2024 mstanton Rules

A peak at my cribnotes for running 5e-based games, including credit on some great reference sources.

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Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game

Marvel Multiverse RPG Cheatsheet

November 27, 2023 mstanton Rules

Some quick reference notes on Matt Forbeck’s rules.

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Hey ChatGPT, Make Me Some Wargame Rules

October 11, 2023 mstanton Rules

An experiment in AI game design using some prompts into ChatGPT-3.5, circa October 2023.

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Trait System RPG Idea

October 6, 2023 mstanton Homebrews, Rules

Updating my 30-year-old RPG design project notes, started way back in the early 1990s. Uses d20s only, no ability scores, and players roll for all task outcomes.

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Another RPG Ruleset In Progress

September 27, 2023 mstanton Homebrews, Rules

Brainstorming a sort of D&D-Cypher hybrid rules idea…

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LARP Character Magical Powers

September 25, 2023 mstanton Homebrews, Rules

I found the following character abilities in some mid-1990s LARP rules I made for con events in Wisconsin.

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AD&D1e to 5e Conversions

June 25, 2023 mstanton Rules

When running old AD&D1e modules for D&D 5e adventures, follow these guidelines

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Questions to Make Character Bonds

March 13, 2023 mstanton Rules

This exercise is designed to help players create character bonds through debts, rivalries, and shared past experiences. Position players in a circle (around a table

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Coup: Rules & Notes

July 13, 2022 mstanton Rules

Notes on how to play the card game “Coup.”

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Marvel Superheroes FASERIP Redux

May 10, 2022 mstanton Rules

The Marvel Superheroes Role-Playing Game rates abilities by descriptive ranks, each used to roll percentile dice (d100) to measure results on the Universal Results Table.

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Imperial / Metric Conversions For D&D

March 24, 2022 mstanton Lists & Benchmarks, Rules

Loose estimates rounded for narrative/gaming purposes.

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D&D 5e House Rules

March 24, 2022 mstanton Rules

A list of house rules I tend to use in Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition games.

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5e Custom Character Traits

July 17, 2021 mstanton Characters, Homebrews, Rules

Some ideas on character customization.

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5e Robots

July 17, 2021 mstanton Characters, Homebrews, Rules

My take on making a playable race for sci-fi robots.

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D&D5e Action Economy

June 22, 2021 mstanton Rules

A breakdown look at RAW, plus a couple of house rules.

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Magical Healing 101

April 29, 2021 mstanton Rules

A comparison of what magic fixes what injuries.

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Micro Fast Traveller 2.1

February 24, 2021 mstanton Homebrews, Rules

Even shorter version of ttprg rules for Traveller.

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D&D5e: Expanded Conditions & Abilities Glossary

February 21, 2021 mstanton Rules

Notes on conditions, common abilities, and a few house rules.

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Sci-Fi 5e Medicines And Equipment

January 11, 2021 mstanton Rules, Settings

Some homebrew items for a science-fiction flavor to D&D5e.

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D&D5e: Prices For Spellcasting Services

November 30, 2020 mstanton Lists & Benchmarks, Rules

A houserule on the price and availability of hiring spellcasters.

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D&D5e: Magic Item Prices

November 28, 2020 mstanton Lists & Benchmarks, Rules

A shopping list for magical items and spellcasting services.

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Subtle Spellcasting House Rule

September 18, 2020 mstanton Rules

A clarification on spellcasting.

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Faster Combat Tips

August 8, 2020 mstanton Rules

Cribbed from several YouTube videos and blog sites…

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Gamma World for D&D 5e

July 12, 2020 mstanton Rules, Settings

Notes for playing Gamma World using the D&D 5e ruleset.

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Dirty Tricks Of The Evil Spellcaster

June 29, 2020 mstanton Rules

Uses D&D5e PHB spells for espionage – surveillance, sabotage, psyops and assassination.

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The Xro Dinn Chronicles RPG

June 29, 2020 mstanton Rules

A quick outline about a sci-fi role-playing game from 2001.

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Shorthand Stats For D&D Monsters

January 19, 2020 mstanton Rules

Text crib notes for D&D monster stats.

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House Rules For Modern 5e

August 11, 2018 mstanton Rules

Some rough ideas on using the Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition ruleset for other genre games.

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Top Secret: New World Order Notes

April 14, 2018 mstanton Rules

Some initial notes on the 2018 reboot version of Merle M. Rasmussen’s original espionage role-playing game.

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Star Trek Fast Traveller

February 22, 2017 mstanton Rules

Notes for running a Traveller game in the Star Trek universe.

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T.I.M.E Stories Rules

February 12, 2017 mstanton Rules

A summary of basic rules to Space Cowboys’ “decksploration” board game.

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Adventures In Middle-Earth 5e

December 19, 2016 mstanton Rules

Some early notes on the D&D sourcebook / conversion of THE ONE RING role-playing game.

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D&D5e: Inspiration Hack

November 30, 2016 mstanton Rules

An alternative method for determining when and how a character gains Inspiration during play.

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D&D5e: Downtime Activities

November 25, 2016 mstanton Rules

Notes about what characters may do between adventures. More roll-play than role-play but nice to have some guidelines for DMs and players to set expectations.

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D&D5e: Magic

November 25, 2016 mstanton Rules

Notes about spellcasting, magic items and guidelines for effects and limitations in play.

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D&D5e: Skill & Tool Use

November 25, 2016 mstanton Rules

Notes about ability checks and various proficiencies, plus clarification on the “Hide” action.

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D&D5e: Combat & Health

November 25, 2016 mstanton Rules

All kinds of notes about running combat, “to-hit” rolls and damage, hit point loss and recovery and class abilities.

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D&D5e: Time & Travel

November 24, 2016 mstanton Rules

Recap of rules and house rules for travel by land, air or sea.

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Hack: Defusing Bombs/Traps

November 24, 2016 mstanton Rules

An RPG mechanic for solving short codes such as defusing sequences for bombs or traps.

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Cypher System

August 25, 2016 mstanton Rules

A hack to the “buying down Difficulty” rule in Monte Cook’s Cypher System Rulebook.

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D&D5e Range Chart

November 20, 2015 mstanton Rules

Comparison of some range distance limits in Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition.

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Call Of Cthulhu 7th Edition

October 31, 2015 mstanton Rules

An expanded version of Matt Puccio’s Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition cribsheet.

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Fantasy Forensics

March 15, 2015 mstanton Rules

BlogOfHolding’s fantastic post on how magic changes criminal investigations in a fantasy world.

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D&D4e: War Challenges

May 1, 2014 mstanton Rules

Repost of “Skill Challenges of War” by Michael Brewer, Jonathan Jacobs, and Quinn Murphy.

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AD&D1e Fast Treasures

March 23, 2014 mstanton Rules

A collection of treasure items a party might have in its possession during an adventure.

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Alternatives To Death

July 22, 2013 mstanton Rules

So, a character has died. Now what? here’s ideas to avoid a player having to “start over” with a wholly new character.

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Descriptive D&D Damage

March 1, 2013 mstanton Rules

Hit point loss could be meat, OR condition of armor OR self-confidence, focus and resisting shock in combat OR ability to ignore nuisance effect like dirt in eyes or awkward stumbles OR lots of things…

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Pre-Rolled Dice

June 11, 2012 mstanton Rules

Lists of dice rolls in a random order repeating multiple times for each die type.

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Pre-Rolled d20s

June 11, 2012 mstanton Rules

Lists of modified d20 rolls to make attack and saving throw rolls easier for DMs managing multiple opponents.

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AD&D 1e Skills

December 14, 2011 mstanton Rules

A summary of the original “non-weapon proficiencies” allowed to player characters, sometimes called “secondary skills” in rules by Gary Gygax.

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AD&D1e Equipment Lists

December 14, 2011 mstanton Lists & Benchmarks, Rules

A list of items, services, prices and weights.

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AD&D1e Age Ranges

May 22, 2011 mstanton Rules

AD&D1e followed short lifespans for rapid-population-growth humanoids and ridiculous Tolkien-based ages for elves.

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Microlite20

December 2, 2010 mstanton Rules

Microlite20 is a super-simple RPG rules set created by Robin Stacey back in 2006 and widely modified by fans ever since. It is meant to

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Area Threat Levels

October 22, 2009 mstanton Rules

Suggested degrees of “local danger” found in various types of locations.

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Prices In A Fantasy Setting

April 22, 2009 mstanton Lists & Benchmarks, Rules

A collection of benchmark standards for use as a house rule for most traditional fantasy marketplaces.

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nWoD Vampire Powers

December 1, 2007 mstanton Rules

Lists of supernatural powers for “new World of Darkness” Kindred characters per Vampire: The Requiem.

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World Of Darkness Rules

December 1, 2007 mstanton Rules

Notes, summaries and a few house rules from The World Of Darkness Storytelling System Rulebook (2004 edition, aka “nWoD”).

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Magick Vs. Paradox Guidelines

October 8, 2006 mstanton Rules

Instead of “vulgar” and “coincidental” labels, instead look at the effect and and consider what a mundane would say if he directly witnessed the event.

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Foreshadowing Mage Magick

October 8, 2006 mstanton Rules, Settings

The big limitation on magical powers in Mage comes from paradox driven by the counter-belief of non-mage observers. A little creative description can get around that issue…

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Magick Effects

October 8, 2006 mstanton Rules

Guidelines for creating specific effects via the magick spheres using the Mage: The Ascension game.

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Fast Traveller Rules 0.6

October 1, 2006 mstanton Homebrews, Rules

Another edit of “quick and dirty” home rules for running introductory Traveller games.

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Traveller Psionics

September 29, 2006 mstanton Rules

Notes on using psionic abilities in the Third Imperium of Traveller, per the 1977 Basic Set.

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Character Alignment

August 22, 2003 mstanton Rules

Summary of how the original nine basic alignments are meant to be used and role-played in D&D.

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Fast High Guard

March 4, 2003 mstanton Rules

Some notes on running space combats with the CT 1979 rules, plus 1980 revisions and house rules.

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Cop Gear, Spy Tools, Modern Equipment Lists

January 5, 2003 mstanton Lists & Benchmarks, Rules

GURPS 3.0 stats for equipment typically found in the trunk of a police cruiser / squad car.

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Ozymandia Rules

May 24, 1999 mstanton Rules

Rules for “Simultaneous Risk With Bombardments” from New Rules for Classic Games by R. Wayne Schmittberger

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RPG Mini-Handbook

June 4, 1996 mstanton Homebrews, Rules

A rough “conversion document” for several RPGs popular in the mid-1990s.

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