The Table Rules

Everything you need to roll up a character and sit down to the game, and the two house rules that make our table ours.

Building Your Character

You are one of Treefall’s own: frontier folk, not yet heroes. Here is how we make you.

Rules and Sources

2024 by default

We play the 2024 edition. If you’d rather build under the 2014 rules, that’s your call, per character. Expanded sourcebooks are open (our band already includes an Air Genasi and a Warforged), so bring the species and subclass you want; just run anything unusual past the DM.

Ability Scores

we roll

Roll 4d6, drop the lowest die, six times, and arrange the results as you like. Everyone rolls their own set.

Safety net: if your set has no score of 15 or higher, or your modifiers add up to +2 or less, scrap it and roll the whole set again.

Level and Advancement

milestone

Everyone starts at Level 1. We level by story, milestones, no experience-point bookkeeping to track. Your first step up comes quickly.

Hit Points

your call, and no 1s

Maximum at 1st level. Every level after, your choice: take the fixed (average) value for your Hit Die, or roll it. If you roll, a 1 is always rerolled, so a roll never lands on its worst face.

Feats and Multiclassing

both on

Both are in play. Take feats freely. Multiclass if it suits your story, just a quick word with the DM first.

Your Gear

you start with almost nothing

You’re townsfolk, not adventurers. Build your sheet’s starting equipment as normal, but in the story you don’t have it yet. When things first go wrong you’ll have your bedclothes and whatever’s to hand.

Your true kit, weapons, armor, a wonder or two, comes into your hands soon after, from a certain village smith. Trust the story; the gear is coming.

Where You’re From

all of you

Every one of you is Treefall born and raised, and you grew up as one circle of friends. Let your background tie into the town and its people. See your Treefall record.

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At the Table

No Plot Armor

the dice mean it

The world won’t cheat to kill you, and it won’t cheat to save you, either. Choices matter and danger is real. Play smart, look out for each other.

Safety, Always On

lines, veils, the raised hand

Anything you never want in the game is a line. Anything to keep off-camera is a veil. And anyone, at any time, can raise a hand to pause, skip, or dial back a scene, no reason owed.

This world has hard moments in it. These tools stay on the table for all of them.

A Few Small Calls

house comforts

Inspiration is in play. You may drink a potion as a bonus action. We keep encumbrance loose, just don’t be absurd about what you haul.

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I. Flanking Is Earned

Standing on the far side of a foe earns you nothing by itself. Teamwork does.

When you strike at a creature a friend is also fighting in melee, that friend, if they haven’t yet used their reaction, can spend it to open the way for you: a feint, a shove, an insult, a fistful of thrown grit. Tell us what they do, and your attack is made with advantage.

It costs your friend their reaction, and it works only on a foe that can actually notice the trick. A mindless ooze is not undone by a taunt. One helper, one attack.

Why: piling onto a flank shouldn’t be free geometry. This keeps the teamwork and gives every opening a moment worth describing.

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II. Casting While Unseen

Invisibility is for slipping past, setting up, and shielding your friends, not for raining fire from nowhere.

While you are invisible:

When you cast…	…what happens
A harmless cantrip a light, a message, a small trick	You stay unseen. No roll.
A greater spell that helps only you or your allies a shield of speed, a healing word, a step of flight	Hold the weave together: roll spellcasting ability + proficiency against DC 15 + the spell’s level. Make it and you stay unseen; miss and you shimmer into view.
Anything turned against a foe an attack, a blast, a curse, a spell that forces them to resist	You appear at once. No roll, you’re simply there.

And remember, unseen is not unheard. A spoken incantation carries, and a sharp-eared enemy can still find your voice in the dark.

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