Mike Mearls Games

Odyssey and Patreon Update

As Odyssey comes together, the path forward to publishing actual products has come into view. I wanted to take some time to walk you through were things are going.

Odyssey is going to be its own game. It uses the 5e interface - skills, abilities, AC, hit points - but is built for a much faster, more streamlined, but still tactically interesting experience. I had thought about using 5e's math, but that goal got in the way of keeping the game streamlined. The math will be roughly similar,...

Talents and Subclasses

I always liked the concept of feats.

Way back in early 2000, I had the chance to playtest 3e. When the rules packet showed up at my apartment (this is the Olde Days, when stuff was printed and mailed to you), I couldn't wait to tear into it.

Feats leaped out as one the most interesting changes to the game. Characters could now pick up mini class features, giving you a new way to customize your PC.

Over time, I think feats have become lost in the shuffle. They ranged...

Background Check

I mostly like backgrounds as they exist in 5e. They're simple and allow any character to take any skill. For Odyssey, I want to hit two main design points:

First, backgrounds are optional. If you want a streamlined game, on old school experience, or simple characters (especially for a one shot or a con game) you can drop them. None of the load-bearing elements of the game require them. However, backgrounds are all or nothing. If one player wants to use them, all players in a game should...

Thief Revised

Today I have a PDF of the revised thief character class. This revision incorporates the resolve mechanic and adds a few more schemes.

A few things to point out:

• The use of resolve hopefully points to how I see the mechanic playing out. It is required for mechanics that you could not reuse until you finished a long rest. For things like schemes, it hopefully encourages creative play by letting you use more than one in a round. That fits my philosophy of keeping characters f...

  2025-06-12 13:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post

Rethinking Sneak Attack in 5e

This week I spent some time diving into my approach to monster math when I was reminded that the 5e rogue is incredibly underpowered. It looks great at low levels. In fact, if you only play levels 1 to 5 the rogue seems pretty powerful! However, at high levels the fighter's extra attacks make the rogue look like a sad puddle of ineffective pancakes.

The 5.5e update tries to fix this by giving the rogue the option to swap out sneak attack damage for save-dependent status effects. I'm not...

Resolve and Resources

Playtesting with a hack of an existing rules set gives you a big advantage in playtesting. It allows you to change one piece and focus you attention on it, knowing the rest of the game works.

In playtesting over the past few months, I've not been happy with rolling to cast. It has worked great for me in convention scenarios, but in campaign play I've found it frustrating. It feels like a caster either blows their first roll of an adventure and is hobbled the rest of the way or they nail...

Stop, Thief!

Attached to this post is the latest revision of the thief character class. A few notes:

• The class refers to the intentions phase. This is the step in each round where the DM checks if the players want to keep fighting, retreat, or pause to parley. As you'll see in monster design, this is also where complex monsters do things like target an area for an attack or pick a character to target with a powerful effect.

• The thief now gains a benefit during the intentions p...

  2025-06-03 13:35:54 +0000 UTC View Post

TTRPG Design Tool: Character Maps

Many years ago, when I started work on what became 5e I developed a tool to look at how players experience a TTRPG system. I called them player maps.

A player map breaks down mechanics into a simple schematic that shows the process a player goes through in piloting their character. What choices do they face? How do they navigate the path from starting their turn to ending their turn? Can we spot any conceptual rough points or overly complex segments?

The map starts with the action...

Start of Round Options

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about that strategic approach to encounters. One of my rules of thumb for adventure design is that combat is the default end state for any interaction. You might start with the characters talking to an NPC, but once someone attacks the encounter is a combat. Pulling it out of that state is difficult. Why waste actions talking when you could just beat down an NPC?

The reverse is also true. Players are notorious for pressing a battle long after it’s cle...

Shadow Tactics

Shadow Tactics = Shadowdark + SSI Gold Box tactical combat.

Basically, I love miniatures. I don't always use them when I run games, but when I do I like battles that feel like fun tactical puzzles.

I also love Shadowdark's streamlined, elegant rules. It's the version of BECMI that I didn't realized I needed until I first gave it a run.

As a miniatures enjoyer, I wanted to add a tactical element to Shadowdark combat without bogging the game down. Shadow Tactics is a Shadowdar...

Monster Levels and Roles

Below is a table that breaks down how to balance monsters by level and role for 5e.

Minions are meant to fight in large mobs, four per PC.

Troopers are tougher creatures, two per PC.

Champions are equal to one PC of a given level.

Elites are worth two PCs. They should have one legendary action per round and one use of legendary resistance.

Bosses are worth four PCs. They should h...

5e Minus... A Lot

Have you seen the movie Ford v Ferrari? My favorite sequence was watching the Ford team strip down their car, removing weight while simultaneously finding a way to add a more powerful but also lighter engine.

As a thought experiment while working on laundry over the weekend, I thought about what 5e would look like if you went back and ripped out every non-essential element from a character.

This is how I defined non-essential and essential.

• Is it important for ensuri...

  2025-04-22 12:00:21 +0000 UTC View Post

Updated Thief Class

Earlier this week I posted my new take on initiative for Odyssey. Based on playtesting, I also need to make some adjustments to the thief class. That new version is posted here as a PDF.

I want the thief to be the stealthiest class in the game, while also featuring flexibility, speed, and agility. To hit that note, I leaned into the new initiative rules.

A thief does not roll initiative. Instead, they always seize the initiative. They can then also act as if they did not seize the...

Odyssey Initiative

I started a Shadowdark game that runs on Wednesdays. I wanted to run a game that was just for fun, with no playtesting or game design riding on it.

So of course, I started tinkering with initiative. Shadowdark's approach - roll for initiative, high roll goes first then wheel around the table - is a little tricky to run online. I use Zoom, and the players don't necessarily have the same arrangement of speakers on their view of the call.

I have also learned a few things about initia...

Skill Challenges

Last year I wrote a bunch of posts about skills and DCs. I've been mulling those ideas over in my head and have come around to what I hope is a usable model for skill challenges in 5e. You can use this as written in Odyssey, and you can adapt it to Shadowdark by using SD's standard DCs instead of this document's use of 5e ones.

Threat Timer for 5e

Last week I wrote up the threat clock for Shadowdark. I made a tweak to the name - going from clock to timer - based on some feedback I received. Clock is a term popularized by the excellent Blades in the Dark, and timer does a better job of getting across what the mechanic actually does.

The Threat Timer in 5e

For 5e, I want the threat timer to add uncertainty by combining random encounter rolls and short rests. Here are the basic rules:

• Start a 10-minute timer wh...

  2025-04-08 12:28:39 +0000 UTC View Post

The Threat Clock: Shadowdark

Last week I talked about using real time mechanics to help keep your game move forward while keeping a sense of dread and danger in your game. I've been absolutely slammed at work, so I decided to reconfigure my weekly games to focus on playing something fun. I love design and testing, but it's tricky to make everything a playtest.

So, I decided to run a Shadowdark game. But of course, the drive too create and tinker is always strong. I ended up hacking together a threat clock mechanic ...

Twenty Minutes of Fun, Four Hour of Play

Ryan Dancey, architect of the OGL and head of the D&D brand team in the halcyon days of 3e, once said that TTRPGs are twenty minutes of fun packed into four hours. That comment resonated back when he said it, and it continues to loom over TTRPGs. Our games are a great value per hour, but it takes a lot of hours of play to make meaningful progress.

The typical TTRPG session is around four hours. If you look at trading card games and miniatures games, both offer play formats that dram...

A Mysterious Discord Server Appears

It appears that Patreon just adds you to a Discord server attached to a paid tier, so sorry for any confusion about that. My assumption was that it would generate an invite for you to click on. I appreciate Patreon's fervor, but it might be a little too aggressive in this case.

In related news, I've added Discord access to the paid tiers! Jump on in!

Outdoor Regions

In thinking over exploration and reading over the comments, I've made some tweaks to the system for outdoor travel.

Dungeon exploration, or any exploration that takes place on a tactical scale, tracks threat and resolves encounters or events in real time as a default. A DM can choose to attach that to a more formal turn order for groups that prefer that approach.

Outdoor travel is based on narrative time. The characters move from region to region on the map. Entering a region migh...

Outdoor Survival

Earlier this week I wrote up my approach to exploration. The procedure works well for tactical scale exploration, like moving through a dungeon or a ruined city. What about larger scale exploration?

I like the idea of a journey as a challenge, one that evokes a real sense of dread or excitement in the players. You're not venturing into any old swamp. You need to cross the Fen of Screaming Souls, from which no expedition has returned!

I wanted rules for evoking that feel. Dungeons ...

Exploration Rules

Today I have the rough draft for the Odyssey exploration rules. I've struggled with creating a exploration rules that I've enjoyed using in play. I've tried using rules that break exploration down into rounds, with the DM tracking each loop through the round sequence.

In my experience, those rules feel flat. The structure a sequence provides to combat is great, because the combat rules allow each player to have their moment to act. As a DM, combat rounds also ensure that I remember to h...

Rot Dragon

It's incredibly humbling that so many people have chosen to support my by opting into the paid tier. I'd like to start creating more exclusive content for this tier, so let's get started with something fun: a dragon!

Attached to this post is a PDF of a dragon stat block. You can use it in the playtest encounter I shared on 2/26/25 by replacing the four orc champions with the dragon. It starts the encounter in the loot room, and emerges to attack when it hears sounds of combat.

As ...

Monster Playtest

Attached to this entry is a set of orc stat blocks, a short encounter, and a link to a feedback form. I'd really appreciate it if you took the time to review the material and try giving it a run.

I'm using the Level Drain codename for the monster design project. It's meant to work with both Odyssey and 5e.

This playtest is meant for use with 5e. I'd like to test the monsters against 5e as a base. Testing with Odyssey as a starting point puts too much pressure on both characters an...

Apprentice Tier Kobolds

Today I have a set of kobolds you can use with Odyssey. I built them using the spreadsheet from last week. I also wanted to use kobolds as an opportunity to show off my design approach for humanoids.

Dungeon Dwellers

I love dungeons, and I wanted each humanoid type to have a clear reason to hang around dungeons. For kobolds, they love to pick off adventurers or monsters - preferably while they are low on hit points - in order to steal their magic items. The puny kobolds keep to ...

Content Mix

Hey folks! I want to take a temperature check on where to take content. My thinking is to go with a 50/50 split between Odyssey content and content that works with 5e. Does that sound good? Sound off in the poll and comments below.

I've had a lot of fun building Odyssey, but I also really enjoy working within the constraints of D&D 5e. Some people get lost in video games. I get sucked into spreadsheets.

In any case, let me know how you feel!

CR is Dead!

I've hated CR since the earliest days of 5e development. It was pretty awkward back in 3e. I loved the 4e rules for monster design. As it happens, Odyssey uses a similar approach to building encounters. Since Odyssey is based on 5e, it was simple to take that system design and point it at the 5e engine.

Attached to this post is a PDF that adapts the Odyssey monster rules to 5e, then provides baseline values for minions, troopers, elites, and solos. I'm using different terminology for 5e...

Math Update

I had requests for a spreadsheet that also supports champion and boss monsters. Here it is!

Also, thanks to the a LOT of work by Paul over at Blog of Holding and Teos on his Alphastream YouTube channel, we have a good breakdown of the math behind the D&D 5.5 monster design. I took their work and built a simple spr...

Monster Mash. I Mean, Math

I thought about designing some monsters but realized a few things. First and foremost, I am swamped with work right now. I also thought it would be interesting to pull back the curtain on the math behind Odyssey.

Attached to this post is an Excel spreadsheet that breaks down the basic math behind Odyssey. It shows off how much damage the typical fighter deals per round. It uses that as the basis for the math behind the other classes, then feeds that into a simple spread sheet you can us...

Improvised Actions

Before I dive into today's topic, a few housekeeping updates:

I am behind on post comments, mainly because I have a few projects that are entering critical phases or just kicking off. I've been working on a major release for Chaosium that is due out later this year. We're nearing the finish line for that. I've been able to keep up on post volume here, but not always schedule.

To that end, in the coming week I am going to focus on posting Q&A drawing on comments made to my last...