House Rules

**House Rules** are modifications or extensions to the provided rules from the official books. They are adopted in order to increase the realism of the adventure, as well as to reward players for considerable effort.

## Early Bird

If you roll a natural 20 for initiative, you gain advantage on your first attack roll for the encounter.

## Flanking

When making a melee attack, you get advantage if your opponent is threatened by a character or creature friendly to you on the opponent's opposite border or opposite corner.

## Battle Ready

In combat, if a player declares their movement and action within 15 seconds of the Dungeon Master letting them know it is their turn, they get a +1 on any actions they take that turn, including attack rolls and ability checks.checks.

## Stances

By default, it is assumed that player characters will have their weapons sheathed in a non-hostile environment unless otherwise stated. In a potentially hostile environment, weapons are drawn and readied.

## Heat Of The Moment

During combat, players may not engage in Out-Of-Character conversations with each other, but may freely discuss anything they wish with the Dungeon Master.

## Death Toll

Regaining consciousness after falling in battle can cause you to become exhausted. After coming back, roll a *Constitution* saving throw (DC 10). On a failure, you gain one level of exhaustion.

## Helping Others

You can only assist an ally on an ability check if you have proficiency in said ability and if it makes sense to do so at the time, or it is roleplayed well enough to the Dungeon Master's discretion.

## Skills With Different Abilities

Normally, your proficiency in a skill applies only to a specific kind of ability check. Proficiency in *Athletics*, for example, usually applies to *Strength* checks. In some situations, though, your proficiency might reasonably apply to a different kind of check. In such cases, the Dungeon Master might ask for a check using an unusual combination of ability and skill.

For example, when a barbarian uses a display of raw strength to intimidate an enemy, the Dungeon Master might ask for a *Strength (Intimidation)* check, even though *Intimidation* is normally associated with *Charisma*. If the barbarian is proficient in *Intimidation*, they apply their proficiency bonus to the *Strength* check just as they would normally do for a *Charisma (Intimidation)* check.

## Inspiration Cards

Instead of inspiration points, players will be handed inspiration cards when their characters do something of great note. A player can hold up to one inspiration card of each type.

## Constitution Saving Throw

If you roll one of your dice off the table, everyone else gets to punch you in the arm.Growth

## Free Actions

Certain actions don't take any time at all or can be achieved while you're doing something else. During your turn, as a free action, you may drop an item in your space or into an adjacent square, drop to a prone position in your space, or speak up to one short sentence.

## Combat Timescale

In order to increase the feeling of urgency and speed up combat, combat follows a 1:10 timescale with real-time. Each round in combat lasts 6 seconds, allowing each player a total of 60 seconds per turn. Failure to do so represents indecision or hesitation of their character and they lose their turn in that round of combat as a result.

Players can ask the DM questions with regards to the enemy's positions, numbers, land features, or other logistics at no time cost. Spell clarifications or game mechanic questions will be answered at the DM's discretion.