I continue to read up on Dungeons & Dragons and watch homebrew rule videos for D&D and other systems. I’ve been reading both the 4th Edition (which I never played) and 2nd Edition (which I played extensively) books, and I marvel at the fact that Wizards of the Coast has never solved the falling damage problem.

When D&D was first created, Gary Gygax set falling damage as 1d6 per 10 feet fallen, cumulative. By this he meant 1d6 for the first 10 feet, 2d6 for the second 10 feet on top of the first 1d6, etc. But it was universally played as merely 1d10 per 10 feet fallen. Bizarrely, this rule was codified, and–despite many editions and great expansion of hit points*–it remains.

* Fighters only had d8 hit dice in early editions, and characters were limited to 14th level.

They could have at least changed it to 1d6 per 5 feet. You can be pretty badly injured falling off a 5-foot platform (if you’re not deliberately jumping), and most platforms, pits, traps, ditches, and ravines are going to be 5-, 10-, or 15-feet, not 10, 20, or 30.

Some people have even made memes and videos lampooning it, such as one depicting a character deliberately jumping off a cliff, safe in the knowledge that he can survive a 50-foot fall. After all, that’s only 30 hp damage, at most, and just 18 on average.

Meanwhile, real-life people who work on roofs and ladders attest that falls that cause “life-changing injuries” start around 15 feet.

What Are Hit Points Anyway?

I solved the falling damage problem the same way I solved the overall hit point problem. Traditionally, hit points are thought of primarily as your body being physically injured. In older editions, you healed at a rate of just 1 hp per day; but in newer editions, you get all your hit points back overnight, which means they can’t represent real injury but just getting tired. But actually, that nicely explains why heroes can keep fighting all the way down to 1 hit point.

And since that mechanism has worked for decades, I say: let’s embrace it.

First, you need to know that, in my house rules, you start with an extra 8 hit points (but later hit point gains are reduced). Also, most skill checks and saving throws are allowed a recovery roll. That is, you make the same roll again and maybe this time succeed, but only partially–my way of fixing so-called “save or suck” mechanics.

This creates a new definition of hit points:

Hit points up to 8 represent your physical durability and fortitude. Those above 8 represent your fighting prowess, stamina, and resilience.

Getting Injured

Losing hit points down to 8 represents fatigue, cuts and bruises, and perhaps getting the wind knocked out of you.

When your hit points are reduced below 8, you are noticeably injured (“bloodied”). This injury doesn’t stop you, but you make attacks and skill checks at disadvantage.

If you are reduced to zero hit points, you are seriously injured and fall down. On your next turn, you must “dice with Death”. Check difficulty class 10 using your constitution modifier.

• If you succeed, you are seriously injured but conscious.
• If you fail but make a recovery roll, you are seriously injured and unconscious.
• If you fail both rolls, you are dead.

Now, getting reduced to 8 hit points means you got a flesh wound but can soldier on. Getting reduced to zero means you got a sword in the guts, an arrow in the eye, or an ax to the leg, wounds that, in real life, you might survive, but you’re pretty much done fighting for the day.

In fact, I even created a hit location table for it. Hit location tables were popular for awhile in the late 1980s, but they were far too cumbersome to use on every successful attack. But since PCs don’t get reduced to zero hit points often, it works fine here and provides great flavor.

Roll 1d6: head/face, torso, right arm, left arm, right leg, left leg.

That’s it, and it tells you where the scar is going to be. If you like, you can even use it for the flesh wounds you get when you’re below 8 hp. Beasts and monsters can take real wounds, tho, so just say low damage is to extremities and high damage is to the body.

Seriously Injured

When you are seriously injured, you fall down. You drop anything you are holding, and, even if conscious, are unable to attack or cast spells. You can get up but can only crawl, stagger, or limp at 1/4 speed. Attacks against you get advantage. If you take additional damage, you die immediately.

If you are not killed and do not get magical healing up to 8 hp, you recover at 1 hp per week until your hit points equal 8; then resting allows you to get additional hit points normally. However, from the injury, you gain a permanent scar. Scarring is not repaired by natural or low-level magical healing but can be repaired by higher-level restorative spells.

It’s not necessary to dice with Death for monsters, but the same results are possible, so heroes may occasionally leave creatures for dead only to find they actually survived.

This lets us solve falling damage the same way.

Falling Damage

When you fall more than 5 feet onto a hard surface, check difficulty class 6 using your dexterity modifier. (At 15 feet, use DC 13. At 25 feet or more, use 20.)

• If you succeed, you take 1d6 hp damage per 5 feet fallen.
• If you fail but make a recovery roll, you are reduced to zero hit points and are seriously injured (a broken bone) but are conscious.
• If you fail both rolls, you are reduced to zero hit points and seriously injured and are unconscious.
• If you roll a natural 1 for the first roll, you must make the recovery roll, or you break your neck and die.

Succeeding on this check represents landing flat or on something soft enough to break your fall or perhaps briefly catching hold of something on the way down.

Resting

The last piece of the puzzle is recovering your hit points. As stated above, the old-school rules allowed only 1 hp per day. 5th Edition allows short rests and long rests that return far more–too much, even when we think of it as resting instead of healing from real wounds.

My solution is to draw them back a bit.

Short Rest

If you spend 10 minutes resting (catching your breath, tending to wounds, having a meal, fixing a broken strap), you regain 1 hit point, for a maximum of 3 hp after 30 minutes. You can do this once each time you lose hit points. During a rest, you cannot search a room, travel, or otherwise adventure.

Good Night’s Rest

A good night’s rest means you stop to pitch camp with a tent or pavilion or at an inn, abbey, or similar place and get a decent meal and a bed for a good, sound sleep. If making camp, you may even take a turn at sentry duty, as long as you get at least 6 hours of sleep. (Typically, each person would stand sentry for two hours over an 8-hour night.)

A good night’s rest allows you to regain a maximum of half your full hit points. This represents partially recovering from your minor cuts and bruises and fatigue. You also recover any “once a day” abilities. If your sleep is interrupted by an alert or combat, the night is counted as sleeping rough, at best.

Sleeping Rough

Sleeping rough means you pitch camp or otherwise sleep in a dangerous or precarious situation—often without decent shelter—where it’s hard to let down your guard and fully rest. As long as you sleep at least 4 hours, all “once a day” features and abilities become available.

Sleeping rough allows you to regain a maximum of 2 hit points per level. (However, most monsters and natural animals sleep rough as their natural state, and so get half their hit points each night, regardless.)

I like this kind of terminology, because they are terms people actually use. Everyone knows that “sleeping rough” means you don’t wake up fully refreshed but that a “good night’s rest” really helps you recover from a day of hard labor or hiking.

One aspect of Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition that I like is the idea of wild magic areas. However, I don’t like wild magic effects tables that focus on effects that only last a few combat rounds, and I really don’t like ones that have a lot of positive effects, especially healing, which is part of the cleric’s domain.

So I created my own wild magic effects tables focused on what can happen in a wild magic area when magic is used, the effects of which are nearly always bad, and which tend to last for days. But also, I wanted wild magic effects to occur when a spellcaster is working with magic in unusual ways, such as creating a magic item or new spell or mixing magic together in unpredictable ways (drinking multiple potions at once, for example). Because of this, I wanted such experimentation to be more flavorful by mimicking the traditional vignette of a lone wizard or witch performing magic in an isolated location under the light of a full moon.

In the material below, I use “sorcerer” to refer to all users of arcane magic. In my world, wild magic doesn’t affect clerics, because their magic comes from a different plane than that of sorcery.

Wild Magic Areas

Some areas of the world are crossover points where the “seams” of the Material plane and that of the Ethereal plan cross or are areas that have worn thin between the planes. In these places, often quite small, the casting of spells and use of other magic can cause strange effects.

Magic that is affected includes sorcerer’s spells, creature’s spell-like powers, spells from magic items (a staff, wand, etc.), the use of the powers of magic items (boots of speed being used for their speed, for example), the drinking of potions (but not tonics), and the reading of scrolls. It does not include the bonuses of magic weapons and armor or the mere presence of magic items, nor does it include any holy or sacred items or the performing of rites (clerical spells).

Each time magic is used in the area, perform a skill check to determine if the magic works normally or (on a failure), the caster suffers a minor wild magic effect.

Be sure to read the effect first and decide how to relay it to the player. Some effects will not be obvious immediately. Effects are considered a curse and can be lifted as one. For some effects, the GM may rule the character is allowed a saving throw.

• “Full moon” means the effect lasts until the character is touched by the light of the full moon. If the effect occurs while the character is under a full moon, the effect lasts until dawn.
• “Two full moons” means the effect lasts until the character is touched by the light of the full moon after the next full moon. If the effect occurs while the character is under a full moon, the effect lasts until only the next full moon.
• “Dawn” means the effect lasts until the character is touched by the light of the first hour of dawn.

Minor Wild Magic Effects

1d100	Effect
1	You are drained of your spells and suffer shock.
2	You become old in appearance (but not physicality). Full moon.
3	You change genders. Full moon.
4	Dogs find you contemptible and show their displeasure. Two full moons.
5	Vegetation within 30 feet your current location grows surprisingly fast. Full moon.
6	Vegetation within 30 feet your current location withers. Full moon.
7	You leave a lot of dust in your wake. Full moon.
8	You lose your memory of the last 48 hours. Two full moons.
9	You become a kleptomaniac and try to steal things. Full moon.
10	You believe you have become the ruler of the kingdom. Full moon.
11	You keep telling ridiculous lies. Full moon.
12	Light music wafts upon the breeze quietly wherever you go. Full moon.
13	Your appearance changes to that of the nearest person. Full moon.
14	Your footfalls are very loud. Full moon.
15	You suffer amnesia and forget who you are (but not your abilities). Full moon.
16	Dark music follows quietly wherever you go. Full moon.
17	You grow fur over most of your body. Full moon.
18	Your skin turns another color… (1d4: 1=gold; 2=silver; 3=blue; 4=green). Full moon.
19	You have a fit of hiccups. Then, whenever you are being deceptive, you have a mild fit of hiccups. Full moon.
20	Under the light of the day, you appear normal; by firelight or the light of the moon, you appear hideous (the other players decide how). Two full moons.
21	You develop an allergy to any magic near you. You sneeze and itch until magic-related things are removed. Full moon.
22	You attract harmless… (1d6: 1=birds; 2=frogs; 3=crickets; 4=squirrels; 5=mice; 6=bats). Two full moons.
23	You no longer have a reflection or cast a shadow. Full moon.
24	Your eye color turns red. Full moon.
25	Your hair turns white but grows out its normal color at the normal rate.
26	You grow a tail as long as your forearm. Full moon.
27	You lose your sense of smell. Two full moons.
28	During the night, butterflies settle on you. Hundreds of them, unless you can seal your sleeping chamber tightly, in which case they settle on the roof. Full moon.
29	You are unable to read and write. Full moon.
30	Everywhere you walk, mushrooms grow. Two full moons.
31	You lose the ability to speak one random language you know. Full moon.
32	Your skin becomes tough and leathery (+1 AC). Full moon.
33	You become grotesque-looking. If already grotesque, you become beautiful. Full moon.
34	You become confused and walk around in a daze. Full moon.
35	Your hair falls out and grows back at the normal rate.
36	You switch bodies (but not class type) with the nearest person. Dawn.
37	You leave the footprints of a random monster. Full moon.
38	You change ancestries to… (1d6: 1=human; 2=dwarf; 3=elf; 4=halfling; 5=half-ogre; 6=goblin—if you roll your own ancestry, you get goblin). Full moon.
39	You suffer shock and develop a phobia about something within 30 feet of you. Two full moons.
40	You become unable to speak. Dawn.
41	Any clothing you are currently wearing stiffens to the consistency of plaster, making it difficult to break out of it.
42	Colored ribbons stream from your fingertips when you attempt to cast a spell. Full moon.
43	Bubbles come out of your mouth every time you speak. Full moon.
44	You feel and act drunk. Dawn.
45	Food tastes bad and makes you slightly ill. Full moon.
46	Any clothing you are currently wearing stiffens to the consistency of thin stone. Perform a strength check to break out.
47	Your personal items seem very attractive to thieves. Two full moons.
48	You lose your hearing, it seems, but actually radiate silence for 20 feet. Full moon.
49	You float up in the air 10 feet per minute for 3d6 minutes, then descend rapidly (but not fall) for 1d4 hp damage. While levitating, you have no control and may drift on the wind.
50	Any loose items near you slide toward you until they (gently) hit each other or you.
51	You are encircled by a wall of fire that does 1d4 hp damage if you walk thru it. Lasts 1 hour.
52	You become incorporeal, like a ghost or phantom. Dawn.
53	You are safely teleported 100 yards in a random compass direction. Your clothing is not.
54	You are blinded by visions of spots. Dawn.
55	Any clothing you are currently wearing becomes animate and attempts walk you around wherever it wants to go. Dawn.
56	You sense the next person you encounter will suffer a minor wild magic effect.
57	You are hurled 10 feet away for 1d4 points of damage.
58	You vomit up a live, non-poisonous snake.
59	Your hair turns white permanently.
60	You become mildly magnetic to iron-based metals permanently.
61	Your voice is now… (1d6: 1=squeaky; 2=booming; 3=a foreign accent; 4=raspy; 5=over loud; 6=affected by a speech impediment of your choice). Two full moons.
62	A small explosion blasts your face and hair for 1 hp damage, leaving your face smoke-blackened.
63	You become very hot and need to cool off by jumping into a pond, river, snowbank, etc.
64	You have a vision of the death of someone you know to you whom you cannot name and which you cannot describe. The next death near you fulfills that vision and makes you suffer shock.
65	You have a vision of your own death and suffer shock. You can’t remember it.
66	The nearest magic item is drained of all its magic and reduced to pieces as its magic is used up to shoot showers of sparks out of it.
67	You shapechange into the next beast you see. You retain your intelligence but acquire its appetite. Dawn.
68	You shrink several inches per day until you are the size of a squirrel, then after a week grow back to normal at the same rate.
69	You grow several inches per day until you are one yard taller, then after a week shrink back to normal at the same rate.
70	You have a vision of a primordial being of eldritch horror you now understand to be real and still in existence.
71	You become very romantically attractive. Full moon.
72	You are compelled to tell a joke to each person you encounter. Until you come up with the joke, you can have no other interaction with the person. Full moon.
73	There is a sudden thunderstorm, highly localized to your current location (100 yards).
74	You vomit up 1d20 of your own gold crowns.
75	A swarm of rats attacks you.
76	You cannot remember how to cast spells. Two full moons.
77	All items made of metal within 30 feet of you move glow with the strength of a torch. Full moon.
78	You smell like a skunk, or, more precisely, like you got sprayed by a skunk. Full moon.
79	You teleport safely to a distant land you’ve heard of. You return to your own bed once you fall asleep.
80	You have a vision of the secret shame of a local noble and suffer shock.
81	You can only speak in questions. Full moon.
82	Every time you cast a spell, you become very hungry and must eat immediately or faint. Full moon.
83	A prized possession vanishes, but you know exactly where it is 3 miles away from you.
84	A prized possession vanishes and reappears somewhere 100 yards away from you, so you have to search.
85	You smell delicious to carnivorous beasts. Full moon.
86	All creatures up to 100 yards away from your current location suffer a random minor wild magic effect themselves.
87	You lose 1 point of a random ability score. Full moon.
88	You lose 2 points of a random ability score. Full moon.
89	You lose 3 points of a random ability score. Full moon.
90	You lose 1 point in all ability scores. Full moon.
91	You are compelled to go carousing every night for one week. Full cost; keep the luck. (See Carousing rules.)
92	Your shadow detaches from you and becomes a shadow being. You only get a normal shadow again if you personally kill it.
93	The area near your current location becomes saturated with heavy fog. Full moon.
94	Wherever you go, all liquids within 20 feet of you turn to plain fresh water. Full moon.
95	Dogs become very hostile to you—barking, chasing, possibly biting. Full moon.
96	You are convinced the magic worked and make three more attempts using the same method and recipe, suffering automatic failures each time.
97	You suffer a debilitating migraine. You can barely move for the pain. Dawn.
98	All normal fires near you are extinguished.
99	Your voice becomes very loud. Full moon.
100	Roll 2d20 on this table. The effect is permanent as a curse.

Major Wild Magic Effects

If the effect includes “the vicinity”, it is a one-mile radius.

1d100	Effect
1	The nearest item (or spell) is cursed such that using it always causes the user a minor wild magic effect.
2	You are turned to stone until the full moon, after which you suffer shock.
3	You are turned to iron until the full moon, after which you suffer shock.
4	You grow two extra arms out of your torso. At the next full moon, they begin to rot. At the following full moon, they fall off.
5	You grow a third eye on your forehead. It affords no advantages. Full moon.
6	You lose 1 point of a random ability score. Two full moons.
7	You lose 2 points of a random ability score. Two full moons.
8	You lose 3 points of a random ability score. Two full moons.
9	You lose 1 point in all ability scores. Two full moons.
10	You can only eat fresh blood and crave it immediately; animal blood will do. Full moon.
11	Spiders become very attracted to you. They would like to eat you, but they aren’t big enough… except for ones that are. Two full moons.
12	You switch bodies with the last person you touched. Two full moons.
13	You shapechange into the last beast you saw. You retain your intelligence but acquire its appetite. Two full moons.
14	Your eyes occasionally seep tears of blood. Two full moons.
15	Your spirit is trapped in a nearby object you are drawn to, and your life lasts as long as the… (1d6: 1-2=apple; 3=cherry; 4=pear; 5=peach; 6=mushroom): 3d10 days, waning gradually.
16	You are cursed with the ill luck of the gambler. You get -2 on all d20 rolls until you win at gambling, whereupon the ill luck transfers to the loser. Your ill luck includes gambling rolls.
17	The area near your current location becomes saturated with heavy fog. Two full moons.
18	You safely teleport to a distant land you’ve heard of. You return at two full moons.
19	Your current location (50-yard radius) becomes a wild magic area. Two full moons.
20	You smell of death. Carrion eaters gather around you, expecting you to die.
21	You suffer shock. Any damage you inflict on others you suffer also. Two full moons.
22	You suffer shock. Any time you cast a spell, it causes you damage equal to the spell order. Two full moons.
23	You suffer shock. Any time you cast a spell, you suffer a minor wild magic effect. Two full moons.
24	Your skin becomes thin and translucent (-1 AC). Two full moons.
25	Roll 2d20 on the Minor Wild Magic Effects table; the effect is permanent.
26	All your possessions that are up to 50 yards away, including your clothes, are teleported 100 miles away in a random compass direction.
27	You have a vision of a dragon in a cavern on a pile of treasure. It now knows you. You suffer shock.
28	Your face is permanently disfigured; it frightens children and evokes disgust in adults.
29	You have a vision of a unicorn; you are so struck with its beauty, meeting it becomes a quest. You suffer shock.
30	Your current location (50-yard radius) become a wild magic area permanently.
31	Touching metal burns you for 1 hp damage per round, permanently.
32	By a scribe’s error that is difficult to correct, you are declared an outlaw.
33	Normal food no longer sustains you. You must eat… (1d6: 1=weeds; 2=wood; 3=ashes; 4=hair; 5=bark; 6=wool).
34	You are cursed with lycanthropy of the type… (1d6: 1=werewolf; 2=werebear; 3=wearboar; 4=wererat; 5=werefox; 6=werelynx). If you are currently touched by a full moon, you transform immediately (as an NPC for the night).
35	Your clothing becomes animated and attempts to strangle you. Perform a strength check to tear it off.
36	Your clothing catches fire. You take 2 hp damage per round until it’s removed or doused.
37	You are teleported into the nearest body of water, 2d6x10 feet from shore.
38	You are teleported into the nearest body of water. You are transformed into one of the sea folk permanently.
39	You suffer shock. Now, each day, you gain a tattoo that summarizes what you did that day. Two full moons.
40	You have a vision of yourself falling down stairs and being killed. From now on, you must check dexterity every time you walk up or down stairs or take a tumble and suffer 1d6 hp damage. On a natural 1, you tumble down and suffer 5d6 hp damage.
41	You are affected by a reversal of gravity and fall upward. If in an open area, you drift away from the affected area after falling up 1d12x10 feet, presumably then falling back down.
42	The life is drained out of all creatures who are within 30 feet, giving them 5 ranks of fatigue and causing them to faint.
43	All creatures who are within 30 feet suffer visions of eldritch horror that result in a bout of madness.
44	All creatures who are within 30 feet turn to stone until the next full moon.
45	All creatures who are within 30 feet turn to iron until the next full moon.
46	All creatures who are within 30 feet are teleported safely 2d4 miles in a random compass direction.
47	From now on, you can sense wild magic (areas, bad potions, etc.). It makes you vomit.
48	You are safely teleported 1d100 miles away in a random compass direction.
49	The vicinity is deluged with… (1d4: 1=heavy rain; 2=a flash flood; 3=sleet; 4=snow).
50	You take to sleepwalking permanently. Waking a sleepwalker causes shock.
51	Your personal possessions within 30 feet your current location become random oozes.
52	You suffer shock. Everyone you encounter suffers a minor wild magic encounter. Full moon.
53	You are hurled by a fiery blast 30 feet away for 3d4 points of damage, which catches any normal clothes you’re wearing on fire for 1 point per round until you put them out.
54	You are hurled straight upward for 1d6x10 feet and potentially suffer falling damage.
55	Dogs become very hostile to you—barking, chasing, possibly biting—permanently.
56	A prized possession vanishes… (1d4: 1=forever; 2=and reappears in the next dungeon you explore; 3=but you know exactly where it is: in a dungeon 2d4+1 days’ ride away).
57	You are cursed with bad luck and take -1 on all d20 rolls. Two full moons.
58	All small beasts and larger in the vicinity panic and stampede thru your current location.
59	Talking to any creature forces you to perform a charisma check or faint.
60	The trees in the vicinity grow bent and gnarled over the next few weeks.
61	Your skin turns another color permanently… (1d4: 1=gold; 2=silver; 3=blue; 4=green).
62	Vegetation within 20 feet of you wherever go are begins to wither after 24 hours, permanently.
63	You are drained of spell levels and suffer shock.
64	The ground under your feet rumbles and opens a crack a handspan wide for 20 feet.
65	You experience a vision of a dark and calamitous future that you and your companions alone can prevent. You suffer shock.
66	You smell delicious to carnivorous beasts, permanently.
67	Your spirit becomes bound to a prized possession you cannot bear to be without from now on. If you die, you become a ghost, and it is your spirit anchor.
68	It rains… (1d8: 1=frogs; 2=small fish; 3=locusts; 4=blood; 5=dead birds; 6=ordinary snakes; 7=small hail; 8=large hail) in the vicinity.
69	You learn a dark secret about the world and suffer a bout of madness.
70	From now on, everywhere you walk in moonlight, mushrooms grow.
71	Your voice is now… (1d6: 1=squeaky; 2=booming; 3=a foreign accent; 4=raspy; 5=over loud; 6=affected by a speech impediment of your choice). Two full moons.
72	You manifest sympathy. When a creature within 30 feet takes any damage, you take 1 hp. If there is any person drunk, crying, or laughing, you do the same.
73	You faint. From now on, if you take at least 1 point of damage, you faint.
74	You faint and suffer a small wound for 1 hp damage. You don’t heal naturally any more.
75	All potions now cause a minor wild magic effect on you as well as their normal effect.
76	Birds become hostile to humanoids in the vicinity. Two full moons.
77	Birds become attracted but not hostile to humanoids in the vicinity. Two full moons.
78	Your skin becomes hypersensitive to sunlight, taking 1 hp damage per minute exposed.
79	You forget how to cast first order spells permanently.
80	You are teleported inside the nearest large barrel, displacing your volume of what it already holds (d6: 1=pickles; 2=ale; 3=water; 4=stale urine for tanning; 5-6=air). If it is sealed (d6: 1-4=sealed, 5-6=unsealed).
81	You are rendered comatose until dawn. This does not protect you from animals.
82	The vicinity becomes a… (1d4: 1=marshland; 2=forest; 3=brambly waste; 4=rocky crag; if the vicinity is already that thing, it becomes a desert).
83	You now obey all orders directed at you by anyone. They don’t automatically know this.
84	You become quite hungry. Any food you attempt to eat instantly rots into a putrid gruel. Eating it anyway to keep from starving requires a successful constitution check or you vomit it back up. Two full moon.
85	If you take any damage, perform a successful wisdom check or panic.
86	You and all objects within 20 feet of you are shaken violently and scattered around the area for 1d4 hp damage.
87	A rift in the planar fabric opens, and a nature spirit enters the Material plane. This location is now its demesne.
88	Everything you do (all d20 rolls) seems to either be a great success (natural 20) or awful failure (natural 1). Two full moons.
89	You contract a disease… (1d4: 1=pox; 2=cough; 3=fever; 4=bloody flux).
90	A creature of the last type you helped kill appears 100 yards away, moving toward you, intent on revenge.
91	The ground before you opens, and out comes a hungry giant constrictor snake.
92	2d4 livestock or wild animals in the vicinity become fatally ill.
93	A minor earthquake occurs in the vicinity.
94	A rift opens between the material and Ethereal planes, and a nature spirit manifests and attacks you.
95	You are unable to read and write permanently.
96	You can’t sleep and begin to suffer hallucinations after the first night. Lose 1 point of wisdom each week. Two full moons.
97	You are struck by lightning for 5d6 points of damage.
98	A tear in the fabric of the planes opens, and a demon is summoned thru it.
99	You lose 1 point of wisdom with each full moon until (at 0) you are insane.
100	Roll 2d12 on this table; the effect is permanent as a curse.

I got intrigued by the idea of the “duel of wits” mechanic from the TTRPG The Burning Wheel, which has since been reused in Torchbearer and Mouse Guard. It’s also used for some combat as well, but reports are that it is crunchy, requires substantial setup to work well, and can be somewhat unsatisfying dramatically, despite being clever.

It’s based on an expanded rock-paper-scissors idea, with four to six choices and three or more outcomes, but the core requirement seems to be that you must specify three plays at the beginning, which leaves you something of a spectator as the conflict gets resolved.

A battle of wits is a great idea that can be useful for resolving a negotiation with a nobleman or foreign emissary, a civil or criminal trial, a peace treaty, a surrender or ransom, a trade dispute, a negotiation with pirates, or even a romantic entanglement. So I wanted one of my own.

My idea is to base the mechanic on tic-tac-toe and let the players play out the conflict in real time. The strategy of tic-tac-toe is very simple, but the game generates drama by making each choice contested. Hollywood Squares introduced drama to tic-tac-toe by requiring the contestants to answer trivia (or, rather, agree with trivia answers). My version requires the players to engage in a roll-off or contested skill check for each square. This mechanic allows characters with negotiation, deception, or even entertainment skills to gain an advantage for some plays.

Role-Playing a Battle of Wits

You can role-play making (brief, simple) appeals using persuasion, intimidation, or instruction combined with a rhetorical skill of charm, shade, or dismissal. If preferred for simplicity, you can merely quote the square in the layout.

Persuade: You appeal to the facts, justice, honor, and fairness. Relevant skill: negotiation.

Intimidate: You appeal to the law, rights, authority, or, in subtle ways, even might and wealth. Relevant skill: hearten/dishearten (or the law, pirate code, etc., where relevant to an NPC).

Instruct: You appeal to logic, consequences, tradition, history, and common sense. Relevant skill: lore.

Charm: You make your point with an attempt impress, charm, delight, or trick the audience or opponent. Relevant skill: entertaining (any verbal version).

Dismiss: You make your point by an attempt to dismiss, sidestep, belittle, or reject the opponent’s arguments. Relevant skill: gambling.

Shade: You make your point by casting doubt on the facts, witnesses, evidence, or motives of the opponent. Relevant skill: deception.

Playing Out the Battle

To begin, each side makes an opening argument that states their case, such as adventurers vs a nobleman: “We should be allowed to keep all this treasure, because we found it,” as opposed to “I should be able to claim all this treasure, because it was found on my land.”

Then the opponents alternate selecting and contending over squares. Use your TTRPG’s contested skill checks or the shambles rules I posted previously to see who makes the better point in the back-and-forth of appeals and rebuttal. The winner takes the square, and the loser chooses the next square. An official may remark on the insightfulness of the point; an audience may laugh and cheer.

One side can even try to overturn a square taken by the other (effectively rebutting the point to make a point of their own). If overturned, that square should then stand. In casual disputes, the GM may allow only one overturning; in formal court argument, the opponents might try to overturn nearly every point; in courtly intrigue, a square might be overturned twice.

Winning a Battle of Wits

In the end:

• If one side has three in a row, the opponent is likely to concede, or the judge or audience is likely to come to a conclusion heavily favoring one side.
• If neither or both sides complete three in a row (possible, since both get to have their say each turn), they have both made a good show, and there should be an even compromise.
• If the winner makes three in a row vertically (using all shade, charm, or dismissal techniques), the argument is weak, and the judgment may include some compromise.