In addition to the rewards listed in the Allowed Content document, as described in the Hawthorne DM Guidelines, DMs can submit a Rules request via a thread in the #dm-requests channel to award homebrew magic items and other rewards in their games. This document provides important guidelines for DMs submitting such requests, both in terms of the expectations in how a request is submitted but also in terms of how homebrew rewards, especially homebrew magic items, are evaluated.
This document will not and cannot cover all aspects of how homebrew reward requests may be evaluated, owing to the many niche or unique situations that may exist from request to request. This document will cover major common themes and expectations to help create a shared set of expectations for DMs submitting requests and also for DMs working together in threads in the #dm-collaboration channel. This document is also intended to be a living document that will be further updated over time so it is recommended to review this document again before submitting a request, in case anything has changed since you last read it.
The following is the typical and intended procedure by which a homebrew reward request in #dm-requests should proceed. More details regarding each step can be found in further sections of this document.
Collaborate with DMs. Workshop your request in a thread in the #dm-collaboration channel, either pinging all DM Collaborators or select DMs you prefer to collaborate with, working to brainstorm and refine your request prior to request submission.
Submit Your Request. To submit your request, create a new public thread in the #dm-requests channel, with a descriptive thread title of what the request is, ping the Rule Architects and Rule Apprentices into the thread, and be sure to include the following information in the thread:
Rules Review. There is a 24 hour period before any reward request will be reviewed by Rule Architects for approval. During this time, available Rule Apprentices will reach out to you to aid you with the request, though a Rule Architect may provide some guidance to steer conversation during this time if any are available. After this 24 hour period, available Rule Architects will participate in the discussion to weigh in to discuss further and indicate any modifications necessary for approval.
The following information is what you should bear in mind and consider as part of any homebrew reward request you submit.
Homebrew rewards such as homebrew magic items should exist because they support a story and ongoing narrative you wish to tell, not with the aim of achieving a specific tier of play or optimizing or maximizing power. The tiering process exists to evaluate a homebrew reward after it has been designed, not as a target to build toward. Therefore, mechanical strength should be a result of that design, not the goal itself.
Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition is balanced and designed in such a way that characters are not assumed to receive any specific magic item during play, and as such, not every homebrew reward needs to push mechanical boundaries to be a meaningful or interesting reward. Rewards can be desirable and impactful without necessarily scaling the item up to match the party’s level. Many core items in the game function in this way, providing a meaningful and unique benefit that remains relevant across multiple tiers of play without needing additional arbitrary properties to make them more powerful, such as the Bag of Holding or Goggles of Night as examples.
Prior to creating and submitting a homebrew reward request, please refer to the Allowed Content document. The Allowed Content document includes almost all official rewards from the game and has a vast plethora of options to choose among to help support the stories you want to tell. In that regard, it is highly encouraged to refer to the Allowed Content document first to see if existing options present there already help to accomplish your narrative goals for the game rather than needing to create and request a homebrew reward.
Remember as well that you are free to reflavor items present there provided no mechanical changes are made, as well as customize items further as described in the Item Properties sheet. Feel free to consult with fellow DMs in the #dm-chat or #dm-collaboration channels for assistance and guidance in selecting appropriate loot for a game, as the Allowed Content document is very extensive in what it provides.
When evaluating your own homebrew reward request to make sure it is appropriate for server play and the tier of play you are running for, you should strive to refer to the following sources first and foremost:
You should always refer to these sources before looking at other DM requests for consideration. DM requests are handled on a case by case basis to work with individual DMs such as yourself, not with the aim of establishing general precedent. As we are human, not all past Rules decisions are intended to be reflective of current policy as we learn and our understanding evolves over time, as reflected in this document as a living document.
Before submitting a DM request for a homebrew reward, you should workshop your request in a thread in the #dm-collaboration channel, either pinging all DM Collaborators or specific DMs only you prefer to collaborate with. You can work with fellow DMs to brainstorm and refine your intended homebrew reward to be appropriate for server play and the intended tier of play. This peer review process is important to help ensure DM requests are received in a refined and a ready to review state to reduce the burden both to you and to the Rules team: receiving an item in a refined and ready to review state helps ensure your request can be handled in a more timely fashion and also decreases the overall workload for the Rules team. If you submit a DM request without taking this step and the requested homebrew reward is deemed to not be in a ready to review state, then you may be directed back to the #dm-collaboration channel to workshop and refine your request prior to further discussion and review.
When workshopping and later submitting your request, be sure to analyze and breakdown how you arrived at the intended tier and design for the homebrew reward. You can do so by using the sources described in Your First Point of Reference above, especially the Allowed Content document as well as the guidelines described in this document or other existing game elements. You can work with your fellow DMs in your thread in the #dm-collaboration channel to help aid you with this step. Even if your justification is incomplete or you may not be fully knowledgeable about all relevant elements in the Allowed Content document, this step is important to show the legwork you’ve done to create your vision, which can help us understand where you are coming from and your intent in design with your request in order to best assist you.
Note: Rarity. The server uses the tier system for item rewards in replacement of rarity but the two correspond as follows: Common items are T0, Uncommon items are T1, Rare items are T2, Very Rare items are T3, and Legendary items are T4. Item tiers diverge from rarity in cases where an item’s power or other considerations warrant placing it in a higher or lower tier, but an item’s rarity was used as a useful starting point when originally tiering items into Allowed Content.
Note: Tier Outliers. Not all effects within a tier are intended to be representative of that tier’s overall expected power level. Various rewards in Allowed Content were placed into a given tier because it was the best available fit, even if the effect otherwise may be an outlier in power in that tier of play. For example, the Frightful Presence Draconic Gift was placed into T2 rather than a higher tier due to the increased frequency of Immunity to the Frightened condition in T3 and higher play. As such, not all rewards in a tier are apt or representative comparables to use in evaluating your own request.
Hawthorne Guild