User:Ravenstongue

It's me.

I am the RT.

You might be looking for my character Ravenstongue, though. She's also the RT.

Heroic Leeway System

NOTE: This is not staff-approved, official stuff. I use it for my events. You are free to use it for your events, but do not expect other people to use it and do not demand other people to use it.

Are you tired of dice rolls cramping your style?

Got an event that's down in the dumps because no one can hit?

Do you really want to do cool things and watch other people do cool things, too?

Introducing the Heroic Leeway system!

The roll bonuses system that's so simple that an otyugh could run it!

Loosely inspired by the Exalted "stunt" system, the Heroic Leeway system is intended to reward players for roleplaying well, working together, and staying true to their characters! While the Heroic Leeway system works best with more cinematically-minded DMs, it is flexible enough to be applied to any DMed event for theoretically any tier--this system was tested with a POP featuring combat with characters spanning from T1, T2, and T3!

The basis is simple: a player asks to do an action or declares their intent to do something such as attacking or making a skill check. The DM declares a Heroic Leeway bonus as they deem applicable: +5, +10, or +15.

+5 bonuses are easy to hand out and easy to get. If a character's action makes sense and it's well within the realm of possibility, award a +5.

+10 bonuses are a little harder and usually require a favorable situation resulting from character background or set up to succeed by allies. Consider also awarding a +10 for really great roleplay, if a character with a flaw commits to their flaw, for a party that is winning the battle as a reflection of morale, or if someone is having a rough go at rolls and you decide they need a break.

+15 bonuses are rare, but usually come about as a result of a combination of outstanding roleplay, character background, and being set up to succeed by allies. Consider giving these out to create truly cinematic moments if the players are up against the wall against evil and if they remain steadfast--or if they're scared, but find the spark within them to remain.

Fervently Anticipated Questions (FAQs):

Q: What sort of rolls should I consider applying these bonuses to?

A: In the original playtest, heroic leeway was applied to skill checks and rolls to attack, including ranged touch attacks. I also had one instance where I gave a player a +5 heroic leeway bonus to healing an ally with a class feature that normally requires a ranged touch attack to hit: because nobody likes rolling low on healing to help your friends out. You could conceivably add the heroic leeway bonus to a damage roll or a save, but the chief concern I had was making sure that characters get to have meaningful and fun turns in combat--which usually hinges on being able to hit people--and that their efforts in crafting characters and roleplaying them were rewarded with impressive skill checks. This is a system for letting characters be Big Damn Heroes, so your interpretation of this may vary.

Q: Do these bonuses stack with other types of bonuses?

A: Yes. This is intentional.

Q: Can enemies get heroic leeway?

A: I'd call it antagonistic leeway at that point. Serious answer: generally, no. I would be interested in seeing someone use it for a boss NPC character of some sort, but very sparingly and with player consent/heads up before combat. The point of this system is to make player characters the stars rather than the dice.

Q: Those bonus numbers seem whack. Can I change them?

A: Sure, but tell your players if you are going to do this up front, e.g. don't change them on the fly, out of simple fairness. These numbers were chosen based on what seems reasonable for a d20 system that must use a pseudorandom number generator, and it worked well on playtesting--my lower level players were able to hit enemies much more and make interesting skill check discoveries more consistently, and I was able to reward roleplay in a meaningful crunchy manner, which pleases my little storyteller heart.

The inevitable result of this system is that sometimes you'll have players making sky-high skill checks and attack roll numbers that they wouldn't normally be able to do. That may be jarring to some, but I promise that the roleplay payoff and player enjoyment is worth it--at least to me, anyway.

Q: Is this system staff approved?

A: No. I am merely only a roleplayer who had an idea to defeat pseudorandom number generators and carried it out when I kidnapped my own character in a POP. (She's fine now, don't worry.)

Q: Can I send you (Ravenstongue) feedback via @mail, Discord, messenger raven, etc?

A: Yes (especially to the raven). I am especially interested in hearing about new ideas and applications for bonuses.

Q: Can I edit/remix this system for my own use in my own events and even in my own off-MU endeavors?

A: Absolutely. I lifted this somewhat from a forum conversation talking about how to adapt Exalted stunts to a d20 system, and I subscribe to the famous knitting instructor Elizabeth Zimmermann's school of thought regarding inventions: someone else has likely invented it first, so I don't require credit, thanks, etc. I'm just a roleplayer here to have fun with my rad friends and friends-to-be.

By the way, if you do come up with something cool and you have wiki access, edit the page this will be on and include your additional rules/content as a new section separate from the basics. You can also @mail or Discord DM me the deets and I'll get it up there. This is a community tool, so I welcome community contributions (and I don't really own it anyway, so nothing is stopping you from taking it and making it your own!).