House Rules & Setting Notes

From Delgar

These are house rules and setting notes to keep in mind for D&D 5e campaigns set in this world.

No Death Saving Throws

When you reach 0 HP, you fall unconscious but you don't roll death saves. You must be stabilized by a Medicine check (DC 11) or an appropriate spell or item (Spare the Dying, Potion of Healing, etc.) within 1 minute (10 rounds) or the end of the fight, whichever is later, or you die. When stabilized, you roll on a d20 injury table (on a 1, it's a false hope, you're dead).

Resurrection is Dangerous

The denizens of the afterlife are rather keen on holding onto their new arrivals. A doorway allowing a soul to return to the world of the living also allows less friendly spirits to enter. Expect a difficult fight. Some temples in larger cities have powerful wards to make this process safer.

Languages

Racial languages make no sense. Delgar doesn't use them, instead it has regional languages for different groups who normally interact with each other.

  1. Ignore whatever languages D&D 5e says you get (except Druidic or Thieves' Cant, those are special).
  2. You start with:
    1. the Regional Language of the place you grew up (see list below)
    2. Araxian and Belgritian (the "common tongues")
    3. any applicable Special Languages
  3. You get a number of Language Points (LP) equal to your INT score.
  4. Spend your LP using the tables below

Regional Languages

Region Civilized Language (3 LP) Monster Language (5 LP) Similarity
Al-Uqh Al-Uqhid Krakhsha ("Crackjaw") Low
Ao Ao Jibari ("Gibberish") Low
Ambervale Gabberwain Chitter-Chatter Moderate
Belgrit Belgritian Gobble ("Goblin") Low
Dhol Dholsk Skedki None
Dumecia Dumecian - -
Henge Hengske Babelske ("Babble") Moderate
Ordinatus Ordian Orxian ("Orcish") Moderate
The Wilds - Eturisi -
The World Below Dvergu Zivvik Low

Special Languages

Language Description LP Cost
Ariven Ancient language of Wryth spoken primarily by Light Elves 10 (5 for Elves and Half-Elves)
Elvani Ancient language of Wryth spoken primarily by Wood Elves 10 (5 for Elves and Half-Elves)
Draveni Ancient language of Wryth spoken primarily by Dark Elves 10 (free for Dark Elves)
Druidic Secret language spoken primarily by Druids 10 (free for Druids)
Old Dumeric Extinct ancestor language of Dumecian and Belgritian 10
Thieves' Cant Card cipher known by thieves, assassins, and spies throughout the world 10 (free for Rogues)

Language Similarity

The languages above are related to each other and evolved naturally over the history of this world. As such, many languages (particularly ones spoken in the same region or historically by related groups of people) exhibit some degree of similarity to other languages, even sometimes to the point of mutual intelligibility (which for sake of simplicity is treated as symmetric). These relationships are captured above in the "Similarity" column of the Regional Languages table, as well as in the following table for languages spoken in different regions:

Language 1 Language 2 Similarity Reason for similarity
Ao Eturisi Low Unknown
Araxian Ordian Moderate Araxian and Ordian share a common ancestor language which they inherited from people who lived in the mountains between Araxia and Ordinatus.
Belgritian Dumecian Moderate The people who settled Belgrit originally came from Dumecia, the oldest human settlement in the world.
Dholsk Hengske Mutually Intelligible The people who settled Dhol originally came from Henge (a few centuries ago).
Old Dumeric Belgritian / Dumecian Low Belgritian and Dumecian are both descended from Old Dumeric.