Intro
I left this series on the shelf for quite some time, which is a shame because I had quite a few topics planned.
As much as this series was focused mostly on D&D 5e, there’s some more general advice I wanted to impart. Many of us GMs are homebrewing bits and bobs all the time, whether it’s custom monsters, interesting magical items, or entire player classes. We’re usually creating these things for our games to improve and elevate them.
Today’s topic is a very simple one. Don’t forget to make your designs fun.
Making Fun the Goal
I know it sounds really obvious to say ‘Make sure your homebrew is fun!’ but it’s actually surprisingly easy to lose sight of that. Usually when we come to design something it’s because we have a particular goal in mind. Maybe we have a particular mechanic we want to implement, or some thematic territory we want to explore, or a tailored challenge we want to create.
It’s actually surprisingly easy to, in the course of pursuing one of these goals, accidentally come at odds with ‘fun’.
I’ll speak in broad terms first, then give a specific example. If we’re designing something to be challenging for our particular party composition then the easiest way to achieve this is to design something that actively counteracts or turns off their abilities – especially their unique ones. You can immediately see, though, that while this would create something challenging it would also be very frustrating and profoundly un-fun.
Why? Well because not getting to do any of your character’s cool shit is boring! Playing a Wizard then not being allowed to cast any spells would be awful.
Designing, for example, a custom monster to actively challenge the players is a bit of an art. Sometimes you need to dampen or negate their strengths, other times you need to create trade-offs (‘You can use your usual fire spells, but it will also make the creature’s attacks stronger!’).
Make sure you’re checking that whatever it is you’re creating is still going to be fun to play.
A Case Study
I’m going to use an example from quite a few years ago of someone seeking advice on a subclass of theirs. I’ll talk in somewhat vague terms here because even though it was a while ago I’d hate for them to get found and dogpiled on.
I came across someone asking for feedback on their bard subclass, the core premise of which was a sort of ‘Battle Chant’ mechanic. On their turn they could spend a Bardic Inspiration die (not roll, just spend) to give another character a suite of impactful buffs. While this chant was active they could not cast or otherwise concentrate on any spells, and could only really make weapon attacks to be proactive in combat.
The problem with this brew was it was exceptionally well-balanced. The numbers were incredibly finely tuned to make sure the buff being conferred was impactful and worth forgoing all your other spells without being overtuned.
The point I immediately made during feedback was that it didn’t seem very fun. You didn’t even get to roll the Bardic Inspiration die, it was just spent outright. Spellcasting makes up the majority of a Bard’s toolkit, and you lost access to it in order to use your cool unique feature. The gameplay loop was ‘Set up buff, end turn’ and on every subsequent turn you could make one attack on a class where weapon attacks would seldom be impactful in a fight (compared to a conventional full-martial).
This subclass was boring.
Unfortunately the brewer simply would not hear any feedback implying there was an issue with the design since all they were thinking about was whether the subclass was balanced. They had achieved their goal of exploring this mechanic, and achieved the supplementary goal of ensuring it wasn’t overtuned, but had done so at the expense of fun.
What Is Fun?
So if we’re keeping ‘Make It Fun’ among our main design goals we need to have an idea of where ‘fun’ comes from in TTRPGs. This isn’t a comprehensive list of ‘Things that are fun’ but it will give a good starting point of things to keep in mind. I’ll also be noting down the counter-examples.
Rolling Dice
I’ve mentioned this one before when I discussed Static Bonuses but rolling dice is fun! Picking up a dice with the chance of getting a mega outcome is really exciting! Better yet, actually getting that high roll feels great.
The counter-example, however, is rolling a dice with too many lacklustre outcomes. If your character is thematically great at throwing stuff but mechanically you have to roll a dice every time you want to throw something a long distance – with low rolls causing a failure – then this tension point becomes anti-fun. In this instance you’re better off with a flat bonus or an auto-success.
Making Choices
On any given player turn they should feel like they have options. Not all these options need to be equal. A martial, for example, is usually going to Attack, possibly with a rider, but at all times they have the option to Dodge if they want to up their survivability in a pinch. Forgoing damage to absorb more of the enemy’s effort represents a meaningful choice.
In fact it’s often a good idea to design just one, maybe two, things that will be the go-to choice at all times with a few more niche options that really shine when the necessary situation comes up.
The counter-example is that too many choices often becomes overwhelming. Secondary to that is when every choice is low-impact but mandatory. ‘I guess I’ll do [X] since I have to do something on my turn’ isn’t much fun…
Having a Niche
Being the only guy in the party who can do something creates really satisfying payoff any time that situation comes up. If one character, for example, is the best at piloting spacecraft then every time they’re able to get in the pilot’s seat they get to experience the fun of their investment in a certain skill paying off.
The counter-example to this is when a niche is too obscure. If a character has to invest a significant amount of resources into getting good at something which seldom comes up then they lose out on fun compared to everyone else whose niches come up more often.
The other counter-example to this is when there’s too much crossover. If Player A has to invest a lot of effort into being an incredible pilot, while Player B is able to be almost as good a pilot as Player A with minimal investment, then it kills some of the fun for Player A. Yeah they might be marginally better, but there’s an opportunity cost to being that good without the right level of payoff as a result.
Expanding Toolkits
This one often applies to things like custom items and bonuses. A Wizard getting something that, in a very limited capacity, lets them ‘hulk out’ and be a melee bruiser for a couple of turns is a really cool way to expand their toolkit! Really anything that gives a player a little bit of access to something they usually can’t do is a great source of fun. You’re giving them more toys to play with.
The first counter-example to this is expanding a player’s toolkit in a way that steps on another’s toes. I’ve gone into more detail about this previously so I won’t retread that ground.
The second counter-example is that expanding a player’s toolkit such that there’s nothing they can’t do is, paradoxically, anti-fun. If there’s never any question about whether they can accomplish something or overcome a challenge, things get boring fast. Having to cleverly utilise your existing, limited toolkit to overcome challenges is a great source of fun during gameplay, be careful not to stymy it.
Rewarding Good Decisions
This is at times the hardest one to intentionally design for. Rewarding good decisions usually means there must be some consequence for a wrong decision, which can see us sliding into ‘Ivory Tower’ design (wherein bad options exist on purpose to reward those who learn which options are good).
A good way to approach this is have abilities which payoff really well when used in the most optimal situation, but still payoff a little bit when used outside of this situation.
A weapon which, 3 times a day, can restore hit points equal to the amount of damage dealt does this really well. A Battlemaster Fighter who loads up an attack with advantage, plus a Manoeuvre, plus a buff to their damage from someone’s spell, then pops a use of this weapon is going to get a big payoff (especially if they crit and roll high on all that damage!). If they don’t have the chance to stack up all those bonuses and just need a bit of healing then using a charge of this weapon is still impactful and satisfying. It won’t feel like they’ve wasted a use and have still made a good decision.
I’ve already given the general counter-example of falling into Ivory Tower design. The other big way to get this wrong is to design things where it’s possible to make the correct decision and get no reward. If the weapon’s usage must be declared before the attack roll, you stack up all your buffs, then you miss, you’ve made all the right decisions for no reward. If you can declare it after the attack roll (but before damage), then you guarantee that the player can get some reward for their good decision.
A Second Case Study
While designing my Priest class I went in knowing it already had a slightly more niche offering in terms of the gameplay loop. It was built around providing passive buffs, which as we’ve previously discussed are often not as fun as having the option to roll a dice to provide a buff.
That doesn’t mean passive buffs are not fun, they just appeal to a certain kind of power fantasy – a subtler one.
With this in mind, I needed to ensure there was still action and activity within the gameplay loop. ‘Set buff, pass turn’ isn’t very fun so there needed to be more going on during a given turn.
Firstly, I added a bit of dice rolling tension to the passive buffs. It’s possible to set up multiple without expending extra uses of the feature, but only if you succeed at a flat check. Getting to preserve your resources on a successful roll adds a little bit of interaction and tension to an otherwise very uninteractive feature.
Secondly, the original version of the class had it getting Spiritual Weapon and a standard suite of damage cantrips. This gave them something to do on any given turn but also made them feel not that much different to a Cleric and also meant the average turn was just ‘Cast cantrip, use Spiritual Weapon’. That’s not a lot of variety and not a unique enough gameplay loop.
So I workshopped an alternate version that removed Spiritual Weapon and the basic ‘do a bit of damage’ cantrips and instead gave the Priest a small pool of one-round buffs they could give out as an action while their passive buffs were running.
Here they are:
Bolster
Nominate one creature currently receiving the benefits of one or more of your [buff abilities]. Those benefits are doubled until the start of your next turn.
Elude
Nominate up to a number of creatures equal to your proficiency bonus that you can see within 120 feet of you. Each of these creatires cannot be targeted by Opportunity Attacks on their next turn
Guide
Nominate one creature that you can see within 60 feet of you. The first time the creature misses and attack roll on its next turn, the creature may re-roll the attack roll, potentially resulting in a hit.
Safeguard
Nominate one creature you can see within 120 feet of you. The next time that creature makes a successful attack roll before the start of your next turn, you may roll a d4. You reduce the attack’s damage by an amount equal to the amount you rolled plus your Priest level.
How have we applied our ‘Fun principles’ from earlier? Well firstly you have a nice little array of choices. There’s one or two that you’re going to use in most situations (Bolster and Guide), a slightly more risk/reward one (Safeguard), and a niche use one (Elude). The impact of handing out these buffs is fairly immediate, so you actively feel your contribution to the fight. You also get the payoff of picking well on any given turn. Finally, every so often that niche ones will be relevant and will be super satisfying to utilise.
So now we’ve baked a bit more action in the gameplay loop and added much more fun to playing this class during combat, and that’s within the framework of a class whose power is largely applied indirectly.
Conclusion
Hopefully this piece will help you do two things going forward. First, it will remind you to re-centre Fun in your designs. Second, it will give you some guidelines as to how to accomplish that.
‘Fun’ is always a hard concept to pin down because as always there will be someone out there for whom the things most people hate are the things they love, and vice-versa. Even so, these are generalisms that will serve you well for all your homebrewing.
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As always, thanks for reading!
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