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Comments on How can I make a game of D&D5e playable in a Sabbath-observing environment?

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How can I make a game of D&D5e playable in a Sabbath-observing environment?

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Being a person with some semblance of a real life, and the same applying to my players, I often find myself in the position of only having several hours of free time on Saturday - Shabbat (the Sabbath), a day where, as a religious Jew, we traditionally refrain from anything considered "work", including writing.

For RPGs, particularly D&D5e - which is the system we're using - this poses a problem. I as the DM often find myself making notes either on paper or electronically, and the players use pencils to mark HP, spell slots, etc. on their character sheets, as well as taking notes, marking down inventory items, or solving puzzles that I give to them.

Essentially, I need to find a way to run a game without relying on writing at all, from either the players or the DM.

How can I make a game of D&D5e more easily playable in a Shabbat-observant environment on Shabbat? I'd prefer answers that avoid potentially expensive items such as a HP counter ring, although I'm aware of the potential that those might be the best approach to take.

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4 comment threads

Have you experimented with dice as counters? (5 comments)
I have a sideways answer that might not be satisfying: instead of playing D&D, play a RPG that uses c... (2 comments)
Is recording voices an option? (3 comments)
Variant rules might trim down some note taking. (2 comments)
I have a sideways answer that might not be satisfying: instead of playing D&D, play a RPG that uses c...
dsr‭ wrote over 1 year ago

I have a sideways answer that might not be satisfying: instead of playing D&D, play a RPG that uses cards, e.g. the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Falkenstein_(role-playing_game) system, or something similar. I understand that playing cards are generally permitted as long as you are neither removing them from the deck to cast them away nor gambling. Generating characters on some other day of the week would be necessary.

droid‭ wrote 9 months ago

I don't know what's required to observe the sabbath, but I think that all or most of the gmless games by Ben Robbins could work: https://www.lamemage.com/

For Microscope you would want some cards with the light and dark markers filled in to place the timeline with, and for Follow you would want the ability to cast lots, but that could be adapted if it's a problem. Of those games, Follow and Kingdom are the most similar to D&D. The only change to the rules is that when it says to write something down, you just wouldn't, but words spoken take priority anyway.

There is a new game called In This World that just ended a Kickstarter, I've played that one on a camp with new players, and we could have done that with spoken words alone.