We wanted to take the time today to put together some information about what it is like to be a Dungeon Master in the world of Watorial. We follow all the same rules as the Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition Players Handbook, Monsters Manual, and Dungeon Masters Guide provide, but we have added a few tweaks and twists to bring something different to our setting. These rules can bring an air of realism to some scenarios and add some effects unique to Watorial in others, but all are 100% optional and are not required in any way to play the game.
Some of you will look over Gatewalkers: The World of Watorial and find it wanting in extreme details on places, persons, or things. This is done on purpose, allowing you as players and dungeon masters, to evolve this world and some of its specifics. It will be up to the dungeon master to create detailed statistics for the presented characters such as the rulers of the different regions, or the many persons of interest presented herein based on the descriptions and basic information given. This gives a dungeon master freedom to form the world as he or she wants, to fit into their story. Much of the world is relatively unsettled so the dungeon master has plenty of room to create new cities, towns, and villages and to populate those areas with whatever they wish, coming up with new power structures, alliances, etc…
Regional histories are left mostly left up to the dungeon masters to define from what little histories are recorded, as one of the factors in this world is that much is lost in the way of ancient histories. There are even special magics that muddle the memories of natives of the world such as the temporal flux that some of the rulers have that hides their immortality, ( these rulers will be signified by an asterisk * by their name ).
Seeing that this world and all it contains is to be used with the Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition System, you can mix and match things from both worlds allowing players and dungeon masters to make the world unique in make-up and races found in many of the regions. This means you may find both the orcs of Faerûn and the orsic of Watorial in the same region, maybe fighting each other or forming alliances to wage war, it’s entirely up to you to do what you want to do with the world presented. We give only a basic framework of the world, the beginning histories, and the bloodlines that have come about. We just want you to have fun and make it your own, creating new ages and…new legends.
The following rules are optional and by no means necessary to implement in the game. The rules presented here are to show the way the gods interact with the mortals that may have caught their notice.
Luck of the Draw
At character creation, each player will get to draw 3 traditional playing cards. These cards are kept face down and the player may not look at the card until it is used. The face of the card determines the effects and can be used to boost a single roll per card.
· Number cards gives a +1 to any roll
· Face cards give advantage to any roll
· Ace grants automatic success on any roll.
· The Joker will automatically grant you training in any skill.
The Hand of Fate
Each player will gain 1 fate point, this point is used to add 1 die to any roll either to add damage or to gain advantage on the roll. Players will get 1 fate point when they gain a new level, but they do not stack meaning they may only ever have 1 at any given level such is the fickle nature of fate.
Paying the Ferryman
After each segment of a campaign, such as after the accomplishment of some task or the defeat of a major enemy, the players get to choose who in the group gets a reprieve. The chosen player will choose a coin (gold, silver, copper, dragon coin) at random. This coin is used to “pay the ferryman” if needed to succeed at a check, roll, etc. each coin has a certain purpose to its effect. These coins can be saved and used at any level but only one coin per round may be used.
· Dragon Coin – allows saving from death itself. Instead of death the person just ignores whatever would have caused the death.
· Gold – succeed on any roll
· Silver – succeed on any skill roll, Wisdom Save, or Dexterity Save
· Copper – succeed on any skill check or Constitution Save
Dexterity Saves
A dexterity save represents your ability to reflexively act and make movements to avoid a situation’s ill effects. With this in mind when one is called for the character must move a minimum of 5 ft. of movement to avoid effects to show they avoided the cause of the effect. (example: Fireball – 20 ft. radius must move 25 ft. to avoid the effects, etc.…) this movement does not count towards your actions in the given round and your movement speed does not limit your distance. What we mean by that last part is that if you are playing a race that has a movement of 20 ft. and you succeed at your DEX save to avoid a fireball, you would move a total of 25 ft to show that you avoided the damage.
Scarring
The very real damage of combat on the body does show after a while or a particularly powerful attack leaves its mark. That said, if a successful attack does damage equal to more than 1/4 of max hit points the character takes a scar counter. After accumulating 5 counters they receive a scar lowering their CHA score by one. These scars remain unless one gets healing magics or potions, which in turn returns 1 charisma point per such thing used. If an attack does more than 3/4 of max hit points the character automatically takes a one-point drop to CHA. Any negative penalties will actually give a bonus to intimidation per point of the negative modifier.
Innate Abilities
Several of the bloodlines on Ehbon, and throughout the realm lands, have abilities that are innate to their species. Most of these are similar or identical to spells. When these abilities are used, they are used as the spell, maintaining the actions required, saves, etc. of the spell itself.
