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5e: HARDCORE MODE $3.50
Average Rating:4.5 / 5
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5e: HARDCORE MODE
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5e: HARDCORE MODE
Publisher: RUNEHAMMER GAMES
by Jonathan R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/26/2023 09:03:24

Yes! If your groupd insists on playing 5e, but you'd prefer to play a more old school game: see if you can get everyone on board with "Hardcore Mode" It fixes a lot of problems I have with 5e.. I'd rather just play an old school game, but "Hardcore Mode" is a good comprimise.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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5e: HARDCORE MODE
Publisher: RUNEHAMMER GAMES
by Mateo P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/20/2023 15:11:10

Simple and fun. A great set of house rules to hack DnD 5e. Do not get caught in the details, you can change a few things you do not like (I did not like the candle, except for a one specific campaign where there is something tied to it). Great ideas in there. The zones system, grit yout teeth, the xp table and many, many of the ideas here are just brilliant. And it's 3.50 USD, what's not to like?



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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5e: HARDCORE MODE
Publisher: RUNEHAMMER GAMES
by Brett K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/27/2022 09:10:11

This is a great rules hack for creating a more gritty and deadly DnD experience.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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5e: HARDCORE MODE
Publisher: RUNEHAMMER GAMES
by David O. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/07/2022 20:03:16

I was looking to add a little bit of that AD&D feel to my 5e game and this helped provide some ideas. Well worth the money. If you look at it like a plug in (which should be obvious by the term "mode" in the title) it works as intended.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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5e: HARDCORE MODE
Publisher: RUNEHAMMER GAMES
by Hans N. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/29/2022 03:00:38

Already a fan of Hank's work with ICRPG. This is another example on how the author just understands D&D.

This book is in my opinion just filled with great ideas. Some ideas, from an OSR player are simple, like 3D6 down the line and dead at -10 HP. Other ideas are genious on their own like Zymer's candle, spells by level, or zone based combat.

Very few ideas I'm iffy about.

Only shame is that I would still love to see PDF bookmarks for such a relative small PDF, and clickable index.

Even if you don't want to make 5e more "hardcore" there are just so many breaths of fresh air here that it's worth the purchase for anyone that is playing or has played 5e.

Honestly, if I ever run 5e again, this is the only way I would run it. I wished WotC just allowed free reign of the D&D license to Hank for 6e. Never gonna happen but one can dream.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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5e: HARDCORE MODE
Publisher: RUNEHAMMER GAMES
by Nathan P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/03/2022 17:07:20

This is a shockingly awful product; one that basically does not function alongside 5e's mechanics at all. It rips out integral mechanics, replaces them with new ones (some are interesting in a vacuum, but none slot into 5e's systems very well), and then offers no guidance whatsoever for making the resulting frankensteined-together mess of a game actually function.

As an example: The rules offhandedly mention you should just remove bonus actions entirely. Now, bonus actions are a core mechanic of 5e. Every single class has at least one mechanic that uses them. So what does this mean for, say, the Rogue who can disengage as a bonus action? Or the Barbarian who needs a bonus action to enter their rage? Well, the book doesn't tell you. It just assumes these things will, somehow, still function at all when bonus actions are unceremoniously removed from existence. This is a ten-year-old's understanding of game design. It's unworkable.

Other things the game suggests you remove: Initiative (what happens to characters with bonuses to initiative? Who knows), measured distance and movement on a grid (so now abilities that increase your movement speed or reduce enemy speed do nothing), and spell slots. These are not optional mechanics in 5e, they're core to the system, and everything is built around them.

These rules want to add danger and tension, much of the time by cramming in rules from old editions with no understanding of why those things worked in their respective systems (like class-specific XP progression, for example), but they entirely fail to accomplish that goal in any meaningful way. Some rules directly reduce lethality, like a videogame-style save point you can go back to (???) and monsters randomly rolling to decide what attacks they use, instead of doing what is most tactically advantageous. The few rules that do interact with the game's numbers feel like the designer just eyeballed them with no understanding of 5e's math. It's a failure of design on multiple levels, and at best, maybe some of these rules could serve as vague inspiration for actually functional homebrew with effort put into it.

The most confusing thing is that this comes from the same designer as Index Card RPG, which is actually quite good, with a decent understanding of the effect mechanics have on play; the fact that ICRPG and this unusable mess were made by the same designer baffles me. If I'd made a product as popular and well-designed as ICRPG, having 5e hardcore mode under my belt right next to it would be a stain on my reputation. Notably, the few good ideas this product has are mostly cribbed right from ICRPG, where they actually work, as opposed to here where they're a square peg in a round hole at best. Save your $3 for the good Runehammer product - this one is so bad I want my $3 back.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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5e: HARDCORE MODE
Publisher: RUNEHAMMER GAMES
by Michael M. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/02/2022 21:48:59

I tried the hardcore rules over a dozen sessions before changing it. They add a layer of complexity for the DM (recalculating monster HD and Damage on the fly) and the slotless spell casting breaks the game. I ended up reverting to standard slots (actually I went full Vancian), didn't change any monster stats but just capped PC hps at level 10 - thus not adding any extra work on me as the DM and providing a super deadly monster encounters once they hit the CR 10+ space, and the PCs die if they start their turn on 0 hit points - no saves. Oh I also got rid of resurrection magic



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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5e: HARDCORE MODE
Publisher: RUNEHAMMER GAMES
by David [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/02/2022 18:17:09

Well Written!!! I would highly recommend this for any GM that wants to really give 5e a more streamlined and dangerous feel to the game!!!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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5e: HARDCORE MODE
Publisher: RUNEHAMMER GAMES
by Eian T. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/26/2022 18:13:33

I LOVE the combo of 5e and D&D basic. As someone who grew up with AD&D (despite it being 2008) this is perfect to get others to try a more "classic" style of play. My book has a few errors (missing text) and a couple of confusing bits (use of AND instead of OR). I unserstand this is not the fault of the author but the scan of the book, so still 5 stars. My only actual gripe is in the XP table, it excludes Sorcerors and Warlocks. Yet it talks about them the page before. Monks are completly missing, a plus for me, but can be a big issue to the monk mains. overall a 5/5 star review as it does what it set out to do, make 5e harder and simplify it enough to speed up gameplay. absolute buy from me!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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5e: HARDCORE MODE
Publisher: RUNEHAMMER GAMES
by Jonathan T. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/04/2021 15:40:31

I really loved this little set of rules. This is how 5e should have been. WotC talked about taking the game back to it's roots back then and I don't think they delivered on that promise. This however really feels like a good fix or patch for 5e to get it to where I would really want to run and play it.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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5e: HARDCORE MODE
Publisher: RUNEHAMMER GAMES
by jeffery h. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/15/2021 05:21:31

I DM a game every saturday and my players were getting way to comfurtable with there huge health pools and nearly infinite ways to survive any deadly incounter, this book has opened both mine and my players eyes on how dangerous a simple goblin can be. Would rate it 6/5 if i could,



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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5e: HARDCORE MODE
Publisher: RUNEHAMMER GAMES
by idorx t. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/07/2021 11:35:43

test ssrf



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
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5e: HARDCORE MODE
Publisher: RUNEHAMMER GAMES
by Alan R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/13/2021 22:58:51

A superb supplement! Fixes many of the shortcomings in 5e, resulting in a more deadly, fast-paced, tension filled game. As an old 1e DM, there's a lot here to like. Awesome!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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5e: HARDCORE MODE
Publisher: RUNEHAMMER GAMES
by Ivan H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/08/2021 16:33:03

Runehammer is one of those content creators that you can rely on. 100%. Especially if you're looking for meaty, real-feeling experiences in the RPG world. HC mode gives you that grit, that dark tone you might have been looking for, but couldn't really describe with vanilla 5E. Now's your chance though.

Thank you for your hard work (and also, I've ordered ICRPG since I wanted to see a bigger picture of your ideas)



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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5e: HARDCORE MODE
Publisher: RUNEHAMMER GAMES
by niu n. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/18/2021 11:55:42

I have tinkered and homebrewed extensively to produce hardcore/grimdark style games, and I think 5e hardcore mode hits on all the notes I've found important. Not only that, it works right out of the box to produce the game style I am looking for. DMs, save yourselves hours of work on homebrewing your own gritty rules and just buy this product. Either using it as a jump off point or implementing the entire thing verbatim, you will not regret it if you want a more hardcore 5e experience



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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