I've mentioned before that my plan for my next campaign is to start with OD&D, and gradually introduce and change rules until I'm running AD&D. AD&D is ultimately the ruleset I most want to explore, but I'm just as intrigued by the idea of running OD&D, and I'd like to examine each rules element individually as it gets brought in, and experience first-hand how it changes up the game. It would perhaps be simpler to just begin with the fullness of AD&D, and less confusing for my players, but I'm fascinated by tracking the progression of D&D. So that's how I'm doing it, and hopefully my players will roll with it as well.
Of course, if the rules of the game change over time, this will be reflected in the game world as well. Some of these changes will be more organic, such as the introduction of new monsters, spells, and classes. But what exactly is going on when, say, the rules for initiative change? Or weapon damage, or ability score modifiers, or any number of other things? How does this work in terms of the game world?
The easy answer would just be to hand-wave it. Gesture vaguely at it, change the rules, and say that it hasn't really changed what's going on in the game world. The rules are the rules, the world is the world, and one has little bearing on the other. It would be the sane thing to do. So of course, I have a different idea.
My campaign world, which I'm tentatively calling "The Last Earth", was formed at the end of a grand cosmic war that destroyed almost everything, fused together from elements of various worlds and settings. It's been thousands of years since that happened, but it's still a place where reality is unstable. And that reality is affected by the war between Law and Chaos. What happens in the planes affects the material world, and vice versa. As above, so below. So there will be occasional upheavals, and at times reality will be rewritten.
Normally such rule changes would be the purview of the DM, but I want to involve my players in the process as well. Healthy discussion and consensus would be one way to accomplish this, but I have something a bit more flavourful and setting-specific in mind. If I may be allowed to indulge in some setting lore... Back in ancient times, there was a war between mortals and the gods, in which the gods were driven from the material plane. (I already talked about this in my post on clerics and blunt weapons.) But not all the gods were driven out; many were killed, and their dismembered corpses still litter the countryside. An eyeball here, a hand there, a still-beating heart half-buried in a mountainside, that sort of thing. (I'd initially thought of them as being fossilised stone, but it's more fun if they still have some semblance of life.) The forgotten dead gods, worshipped by few because they no longer have power to bestow on their followers. But it's said that if you kneel before them and pray, the rest of the dead gods will hear. And if enough hear and answer, maybe some desired change will be wrought in the fabric of reality itself.
So basically what this is is a way for my players to voice their desire for a rules change by having their character pray at one of the dead gods. This would happen during downtime between sessions and require a single game day (remember that I'm going to be trying out 1 real day = 1 game day). So there's a bit of a trade-off there, because it's a day they could otherwise use for healing or training or research or whatever. But if they really want to emphasize how much they want a rules change, they could pray for multiple days... And maybe the gods (aka the DM) will hear them.
I'll have to stress that praying doesn't necessarily guarantee the player will get what they want. I'm going to be reluctant to change rules that haven't been properly engaged with. For example, I'm pretty sure I'll have players who initially rail against demihuman level limits... But I'd rather not relax those limits until I've played with them for a decent length of time. I'll also have to be clear that it's ultimately up to me how any rule changes. In most cases, I'm going to follow the progression through the supplements and into AD&D. And I want to set a hard and fast rule that I'm not changing more than one thing per game session. I want the changes to be gradual, and only rarely will I be instituting sweeping changes (such as when I introduce the PHB or other such manuals).
I'm not sure if this is going to work, or if my players will dig it or engage with it. But I know I dig it, and I like the flavour it adds to the game world. A broken landscape, littered with dismembered gods, clinging to life just enough that a prayer to them might be able to change reality... I'm deliberately building a generic world that reflects the D&D manuals, but inevitably some unique weirdness will filter in. This is why I enjoy trying to answer these questions.
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