House Rules

Category: Table rules

From Session 20 on, this campaign runs outside Adventurers League. Your characters’ AL logs are parked and still valid. The rules below are the ones we agreed at the table, and they change when the table agrees to change them.

Magic items

There’s no magic item limit.
One-time switch from AL (picks due next session): pick five items from your AL list that you’re guaranteed to keep. If three of you pick the same item, there are three of it. Good candidates are things you always want on hand, like the Cloak of Protection, the Luck Stone, the Sending Stones or the Stone of Controlling Earth Elementals. Once everyone has picked, the lists are frozen and this bullet is removed.
The pot. Every AL item that nobody picked goes into the pot at camp, one of each. Anyone can take something from the pot later. If you want an item for certain, pick it instead of counting on the pot.
New items are single items. Anything the party finds from now on is the only one of its kind, and the party decides who carries it. The only exception is an item explicitly given out as copies.

Leveling

Advancement is milestone, but the table decides when to level. Leveling makes the party stronger, and the Dale notices.
A new player starts at the bottom of the tier and gains a level each session until they catch up.

Gold

Gold stands for camp resources: what the party can trade, build and feed people with. Its main use now is building up the camp (below).

The Camp (Bastion rules)

This uses the Bastion rules from the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide, changed to fit a tribal camp instead of a keep. You don’t need the book. Everything you need to make choices is here, and Dan has the details.

One shared camp

The party doesn’t own a castle. You’re responsible for a camp: Coldpeak, the Tribe of the Weaver, and Durok’s oasis, as one Bastion. Each player sponsors facilities in it. A facility is yours: you decide what it does each turn. It sits in the shared camp and is run by people from the camp, not faceless hirelings. The camp as it stands now lists what’s been built.

Special facilities

You each start with two special facilities, chosen from the menu below. More come as the camp grows. How that works will be decided later.
Special facilities can’t be bought with gold.
Some facilities are earned through the story, not picked. Facilities already in the fiction, run by someone in the camp, may come with their own way to earn them.
You can pick any facility on the menu that you meet the requirement for. If a facility fits your character but not its requirement exactly, ask. Reskins are welcome.

What gold buys

Basic facilities (sleeping lodges, a common hall, a storehouse for food, and so on) cost half the book price and take half the time, because the camp is built from hide and timber with plenty of hands to help. A cramped space is 250 gp and 10 days, a roomy one 500 gp and 22 days, and a vast one 1,500 gp and 62 days.
Basic facilities have no rules effect on their own. They show what the camp can hold, and the camp’s story notices when there’s no room for people.
Walls are free. The earth elemental from the Stone of Controlling Earth Elementals builds them, 4 sections of 5 feet per turn, and complains the whole time. A camp fully enclosed by walls loses fewer defenders when it’s attacked.

Bastion turns

There’s one turn for every 7 days that pass in the story. Some sessions cover a day and some cover a month, so turns follow the story, not the calendar.
On a turn, each player either gives orders to their facilities (craft, research, recruit, trade, harvest and so on) or lets them maintain.
While the party is away from camp, the camp maintains, and things happen there: visitors, trouble, opportunities, requests for help. Dan rolls for those and you hear about them when you get back, or sooner.
You can give orders from the road if someone can reach the camp. Alina’s Sending counts.
Turns are handled quickly at the top of a session, five minutes or less. Anything that needs longer goes to Discord.

Defenders

Some facilities (the Barrack especially) recruit Bastion Defenders, people from the camp who stand guard. They’re what the camp loses when it’s attacked. Walls and an Armory reduce those losses.

Every facility available at 9th level. Each order type is in brackets. People who could run it are suggestions from camp. Propose anyone you like.

Level 5

Facility	What it does	Could be run by
Arcane Study [Craft]	A charm that casts Identify, arcane focuses and books, and at 9th level Common or Uncommon arcane magic items. Needs a spellcasting focus for arcane magic.
Armory [Trade]	Stocks weapons and armor for your Defenders, so attacks cost fewer of them.
Barrack [Recruit]	Recruits Bastion Defenders, and houses up to 12 (25 if vast).	Kaarsk
Garden [Harvest]	Grows food, herbs for healer’s kits and potions, or poisons, depending on the garden.
Library [Research]	Researches a topic and turns up a few true facts about it.
Sanctuary [Craft]	A charm that casts Healing Word, and holy symbols or druidic focuses. Needs a holy symbol or druidic focus.
Smithy [Craft]	Weapons and armor, and at 9th level Common or Uncommon magic weapons and armor.
Storehouse [Trade]	Buys goods for the camp and sells them at a profit. Good for a camp that trades with a tribe on the move.
Workshop [Craft]	Tools and gear, and at 9th level Common or Uncommon magic implements. Also gives Heroic Inspiration after a short rest there.

Level 9

Facility	What it does	Could be run by
Gaming Hall [Trade]	Games of chance at camp. Brings in gold, sometimes a lot.
Greenhouse [Harvest]	Grows fruit that cures like Lesser Restoration (good against exhaustion), plus healing potions or poisons.	Durok’s oasis is already one, and it’s his. It isn’t free, and how a sponsor earns a place in it will come through the story.
Laboratory [Craft]	Alchemy: potions and poisons.
Sacristy [Craft]	Holy water and sacred magic items, and helps a caster recover a spell. Needs a holy symbol or druidic focus.
Scriptorium [Craft]	Copies books and makes spell scrolls.
Stable [Trade]	Keeps and trades mounts and animals. Useful for a camp that travels the corridor.	Dak
Teleportation Circle [Recruit]	Invites a friendly spellcaster to camp, who can cast a spell for you. Needs a spellcasting focus for arcane magic.
Theater [Empower]	Stages a production. Everyone who takes part gets a bonus die to use later. In this camp it can be a Telling Lodge, where the tellings happen, instead of a stage.	The Weaver elders
Training Area [Empower]	A trainer works with the party between sessions and grants a benefit (combat, skills, tools or weapons), depending on who’s training.	Tarsk
Trophy Room [Research]	Studies the trophies the party has brought back to learn about them, or finds something useful among them.	Skara

Exact rules for each order come from the DMG. Ask Dan when you’re choosing.