ItDR design guidelines
Here's a collection of guidelines I try to follow while designing Into the Dungeon: Revived materials, asides from those already presented in the ruleset.
The Golden Rule
The rules should be as intuitive as possible.
When the Referee does not have a specific rule or does not remember one, the first guess should be correct most of the time.
Hit Points
HP range (both for characters and monsters) is 1-30 (1d6 - 5d6), corresponding to the characters' progression from first to fifth level.
Armour
Armour is capped at 3 for creatures (usually 1-2 from Armour, and +1 from another source) to give d4 attacks a chance of inflicting some damage.
Features
If possible, Features should not add any new expendable "resources" for the player to track on the character sheet.
Damage
No +/-X Damage modifiers except Ganging Up and Large Battles rules.
Dice Rolls
Lower roll results are usually better or more successful for the one who is rolling.
Persistent Spells
Persistent spells are rare. Generally, the spell should be persistent only if it will become effectively useless otherwise.
Elemental Damage
- Acid Damage usually causes STR Loss (affected by Armour) at the end of the next turn unless washed off.
- Electricity Damage usually ignores Armour.
- Fire Damage spells are usually slightly more powerful than other spells of the same Circle.
Additionally, Elemental Damage causes obvious unmentioned effects:
- Acid corrodes stuff.
- Cold freezes liquids and incapacitates moving objects.
- Electricity shocks and travels through conductors.
- Fire incinerates flammable stuff.
Creative spell usage should be rewarded.
Healing
Healing should be scarce:
- Sans rare exceptions, Spells should not restore HP nor Ability Scores.
- HP are restored on a Rest or by Commanders and Thaumaturges.
- Ability Scores are restored by a Healing Service, Healers, or potions.