You don't want to start out with a ton of junk when you start a new game and load on so many optional rules and expansion subsystems that your fun turns into an unsustainable mess of piled-on cruft. I plan on starting with the base three books for LU-A5E, and just starting for the first three to five levels here. But I do want a few fun systems from my expansion books that fit the theme of my game.
The classic demons will be present in my game, a nod to old-school AD&D where these were the world's ultimate bad guys. Back in the 1980s, the demons and devils in our games were the ones who plotted, made the orcs invade the lands of good, spoke words of encouragement into the dragon cults and their allies, gave the drow power, and were always there until the characters were high level enough to face them down in an ultimate battle to save the world. From Dante's Guide to Hell, I plan to use two optional systems.
The first is Corruption and Damnation, on page 66. Exposure to demonic entities, temples, unholy sites, magic spells, relics, runes, magic items, and evil acts will all tick up characters' corruption counters. To fight the darkness, they must go into it and risk corruption. They will need to atone, do acts of virtue, spend time on holy grounds, and undergo cleansing rituals to remove the taint. Otherwise, they will begin to hear the whispers and be offered untold power by the things they are trying to fight.
Corruption gain could mean a character gets a free level of warlock or other evil class as a dark gift. There are corrupt classes in plenty of the books I have, and there are more in the PDF-only Player book that is a companion to this one. Everything comes with a price, though. You take the quick road to power, and you will pay the price.
I do plan on milestone achievements instead of counting XP and leveling that way. At any time, if a character has enough corruption, a level will be offered in something nefarious. The bill will come later.
The Sins and Virtues system on page 70 also looks fun and is sort of a yen-yang system of personal choices, like the corruption system, but it is less world-ending and more roleplaying-focused. If my paladin picks Justice as a virtue, they will get +1 on a roll to intimate wrongdoers and can earn extra benefits in the system. If he decides Pride is his sin, he will have disadvantages on rolls when someone flatters him, and if they continue to fall into the sin mechanic in the game, they will suffer new drawbacks. This fun system could be a gateway to corruption if the sin is egregious enough. The system is a lighter-weight one and encourages roleplaying.
Character power does not determine success in this world, and it does not give you immunity from corruption. The more character power you get, the harder you work to break the taint. This puts roleplaying and social encounters on a high level of importance since the threat that is not always easily dealt with is always out there, whispering in the darkness.
Too often in 5E, characters will become unassailable bastions of power and invincible. I want the enemy to be inside everyone, and they will need to observe each other for the telltale signs that the things they fight aren't becoming the dark allies they are working for. While old-school games often lacked these sorts of corruption mechanics, they fit in with the theme and story of the world I want to tell. We have them in newer games, and they not only offer plenty of roleplay opportunities but are also a threat outside of the d20 and system mechanics that offer a different endgame for a character's journey. Too often, we assume, "My character is good forever with no changes," but that isn't always true, given the nasty things they fight.
I will not have "planes" or "alternate worlds." If I do any portals to a modern world, it will be a 1940s pulp-era adventure via Amazing Adventures 5E. No modern technology, the 2020s, Internet, cell phones, or anything like that. Just mad science, two-fisted heroes, gumshoes, gangsters, and the pre-WW2 Nazi bad guys looking for artifacts of magic power. Like Indiana Jones before the last two movies. This is the only "modern world" anyone is getting in my game, and no exceptions trying to go forward in time to grab an iPad.
By keeping this to the 1940s, the advantage of pulp characters will be in gear and skills, whereas fantasy characters will be brute power and magic. Guns will only be limited to pulp characters and toned down to a level where they aren't walking armories. Characters here will have the Sins and Corruption subsystems.
I like this book; it is a self-contained game, and I may run it for fun.
One Million Magic Items may get used early since my love for Diablo-style items knows no bounds, and they force inventive play.
And that is it; I am keeping the start simple and avoiding all the other books, extra monsters, spells, magic items, and the other books in my collection off the table for now. As I need them, they will get added in.
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