The House Rules of Lateral Movement · 1:12am Aug 8th, 2023
I've made no secret of the fact that the d20 System – that is, the game engine upon which Dungeons & Dragons 3.0 and 3.5, Pathfinder 1E, d20 Modern, and several other tabletop role-playing games are designed around – is the "architecture" upon which Lateral Movement is built. In other words, that the d20 System's game rules are the physics on which the world(s) of the story function.
But leaving aside the minor differences (e.g. the skill lists) between the various iterations of the d20 System in the aforementioned games, there are some minor changes that I keep in mind when determining how things work in the story. Some of these are optional rules outlined in those games, others are changes suggested elsewhere (such as in Eclipse: The Codex Persona, the point-buy character-building supplement that I've used for Lex and several other characters in the story), and a few are tweaks that I've made myself. Given that, I wanted to share them here, so that fans of the story can get another glimpse – albeit a tiny one – into the how's and why's of the game world.
I should note that these are presented in no particular order. The scope, scale, and overall effects of each change are different, and none are meant to be measured against each other, even if some cover similar ground.
To that end, here are the house rules of Lateral Movement:
#1: Multitasking and Time Management
This one is fairly straightforward, in that it implements the multitasking and time management rules from this article (written by the co-creator of Eclipse). As outlined at the end of the article, those four rules help to differentiate how quickly various long-term tasks (i.e. things that take hours, days, weeks, etc. to finish) can be completed. While things like crafting non-magical items (as per the Craft skill) already allow for a certain degree of differentiation via how high your skill bonus is, this allows for degrees of talent (as opposed to training, which is what the application of skill points typically represents) to make an appreciable difference, particularly where characters would otherwise be terribly similar.
The major area where this applies is in crafting magic items. While characters have various options for speeding up the crafting time, most of these involve special feats/class abilities/racial traits that won't be available to most characters (the exception, of course, is cutting the crafting time in half for a mere +5 to the relevant skill DC used in creating the item). This allows characters who make magic items to differentiate themselves a bit more easily, without making those other options irrelevant.
#2: Making a New Magic Item Doesn't Ruin a Work in Progress
"A character can work on only one item at a time," according to the magic item creation rules. "If a character starts work on a new item, all materials used on the under-construction item are wasted."
That makes absolutely no sense to me. If a wizard leaves a months-long project 90% completed for ten years, he can come back and finish it off a decade later with no problem whatsoever. But if he spends two hours making a scroll of some cantrip (i.e. a 0-level spell), that ruins that huge project? Even if he's making that scroll on another plane of existence altogether, rather than at home in his laboratory? Somehow, that ruins all the work he put into that other endeavor?
Yeah, no. That rule exists to limit what PCs who want to focus on crafting can do, and even then I'm not sure why the game designers felt the need to put that restriction in. It's not as though working on multiple projects at once allows a character to circumvent the time or gold that such things require. Given that it's fairly pointless, and makes no sense anyway, this one's right out.
Frankly, given how much the image of the stereotypical wizard's lair tends to include half-finished arcane experiments and incomplete projects, I'm amazed this was put in there to begin with. As it is, this still keeps in place the (entirely presumptive) restriction about one crafter being unable to simply step in and finish someone else's work.
#3: Everyone Can Use Overwhelm Attacks
The various combat maneuvers that characters can make in combat cover a lot of things besides standing in place and whacking an enemy over the head. However, there's a particular option that's notable in its absence: the ability to push/shove/knock someone away from you. While the game allows for bull rushing (i.e. barreling into them so that your momentum carries you both forward), repositioning (i.e. moving someone around you), and dragging them behind you (which needs no explanation), the lack of a "knockback" effect it rather obtrusive.
Eclipse gets around this by introducing the "overwhelm" option (page 54), but that costs 6 Character Points to buy. Since it doesn't seem like most characters would need practice or special training (which is essentially what paying the cost for that ability represents) to push someone backward, we're going to go ahead and make this ability universal. As far as it being a combat maneuver goes, it's essentially a bull rush where you don't move with the target if you succeed in pushing them backward; using it still draws an attack of opportunity, which you'd need to buy off (either with an "Improved Overwhelm" feat, or with Eclipse's Evasive power (page 52).
It might seem like this option is overpowering, but in truth it's anything but. Leaving aside that most PCs seem to have an aversion to doing anything that provokes an attack of opportunity (and quite often eschew combat maneuvers in favor of dealing damage anyway, unless they're planning a build around grappling, bull rushing, etc.), pushing an adjacent enemy one or more squares away is quite often a sub-optimal choice. Characters that are willing to get in close with their enemies usually want to make a full attack action, and if you have to move more than five feet in a round, you can't do that. So making the overwhelm option universal doesn't really change much.
#4: Heighten Spell is Universal for Spellcasters
I've spoken about this before on my other blog (and got it from the note on page 56 of Eclipse), but the Heighten Spell feat should be something that all spellcasters can naturally do. That's because using a lower-level spell in a higher-level spell slot (i.e. using a fireball, which is a 3rd-level spell, in a 5th-level spell slot) is already a sub-optimal choice; you could be using a 5th-level spell in that 5th-level spell slot!
To that end, having to pay a feat just so you can get the benefit of calculating the spell's saving throw DC (if any) using the higher-level slot's value (instead of the spell's normal level) is simply punishing. Feat slots are highly limited resources already; characters shouldn't need to take one just to make what's already a bad option only somewhat more palatable. Hence, all characters can do this now, without needing to take a feat.
There are a few other, very minor benefits to this change. Spontaneous spellcasters, such as sorcerers, won't need to take a full-round action to cast a spell that has only a standard action casting time (which most do) due to Heighten Spell being considered metamagic. This also allows for spellcasters to have a slightly easier time getting around effects which take spell levels into account, such as globe of invulnerability.
#5: The Augmented Subtype Actually Counts for Something
Ah, the augmented subtype. What does it actually do? No matter where you look, no one seems to be completely certain. It almost seems to be more of a notation than anything else, pointing out that a creature with that doesn't have certain aspects of its build recalculated from before it was "augmented" and became something else...but even that interpretation is ambiguous.
To that end, Lateral Movement is treating that subtype as denoting that a creature is still vulnerable to type-based effects as per whatever the augmented subtype is paired with. So an awakened creature, which becomes a magical beast with the "augmented animal" subtype, is still vulnerable to a charm animal spell.
This is another change that seems on its face to be fairly extensive, but which is actually quite minor in scope. That's because, with the exception of undead creatures and outsiders with the extraplanar subtype, the d20 System doesn't have much in the way of type-specific effects. There's spells such as charm person, hold person, and dominate person, and the ranger's favored enemy ability, but beyond that there isn't much. This doesn't even make undead creatures with the augmented subtype (by far where it appears most commonly) much more vulnerable either, since all of the aforementioned spells are mind-affecting effects, which the undead are immune to anyway.
#6: Friendly Fire and Damaging Cover
In another reference to my other blog, the optional rules for damaging cover (i.e. if someone is using something, or someone, to shield themselves from an attack, that attack might actually harm whatever or whoever they're using) and for missed ranged attacks (including single-target spells that require an attack roll) are in full effect. Again, this is a point toward verisimilitude.
While these options tend to slow things down when actually playing a d20 System game, their presence in a narrative context is taken completely for granted. Even so, given how often I've pointed to the game rules as being the engine for this story, it seems only right to explicitly confirm their use here.
#7: Minor Points of Magic Item Creation and Usage
There are several minor aspects of creating and using magic items which don't really show up in the narrative aspects of Lateral Movement, but which I take into account anyway. All of these are small enough that they don't merit individual points on this list, but rather can be grouped together and quickly overviewed (it helps that I've spoken about all of them elsewhere).
Among these are points 4 and 5 on the blog post that I referenced before. In a nutshell, these make it easier to activate certain magic weapon properties without wasting an action, and allow for certain magical abilities to be added to existing magic items without an inflated surcharge. Likewise, point number 2 on this article, which eschews a rule that modifies the cost of making a magic item based on the duration of the underlying spell.
I didn't mean to refer to my other blog quite so much when I started writing this, but in hindsight it was somewhat inevitable. Most of these points are changes that I've mentioned elsewhere before, and it seemed easier to refer back to the articles where I've talked about those rather than repeating myself here.
Conclusion
As noted above, these are all relatively modest changes, none of which have any major impact on the narrative sequence of Lateral Movement. Even so, they do exert very minor (and often invisible) influences on the background of the story. Things like this are how Lex was able to invent a new spell so fast in Chapter 160 - Breakthrough and Breakdown (and which was noted in the blog post devoted to that chapter), or why Sonata's spells were (almost) always so effective (she tends to burn through her higher-level spell slots willy-nilly).
To that end, I hope you've enjoyed this brief glimpse into the inner workings of the story! 
Theres a well trained ainceint dragon mutasking Bard for spell casting.
And then theres Pinkie.
Amazing site linked to, but something I find worrying, is that after roughly 15 years of monthly blogging, there hasnt been anything since November 2022? How are such sites saved if any, if Wayback didnt notice and the US Library Of Congress Net Archive didnt select it?
On the second rule I actually agree the original rule that a character can only work on one object at a time.
If you think about it magic is inherently unstable in some way and when you are working on a big project you are actively controlling and shaping the magic while constructing the various pathways that the magic will go thru to form a stable circuit. If you pause in the middle all the magic will dissipate and waste all your hard work or in some scenarios be even more harmful like causing and explosion at the minimum.
The project can be unfinished if it’s in an magically inert state. For example we want to create an animated globe. Sculpting the wood or forging iron into a spherical shape is still Item creation but it can be paused with no repercussion, even inscribing runes can be paused. But when actively manipulating the magical energies get interrupted the whole item maybe lost due to the magic destabilizing and may even destroy the reagents or make them unusable due to the lingering magic or them losing their magic.
I also think this is what the original rule is going for rather than stopping the player from creating multiple magical items at the same time.
Anyways, always nice to read the behind the scenes thanks for sharing.
5741192 Funny thing about the dating on Thoth's blog; a few years ago, when his posting rate slowed down, he'd go in and back-date new posts so as not to create apparent gaps of time. So that November, 2022 entry (i.e. the most recent one to date) is actually from late May of this year.
That said, I've also been worried about it disappearing one day, so rather than relying on the Wayback Machine I found an FTP program that will go in and download offline copies of a webpage, including all sub-pages. For such a huge blog, with hundreds (perhaps thousands) of articles, it takes forever to work, requires a large amount of space, and screws up the formatting all to hell, but at least now I have the entire thing saved on my hard drive!
5741196 The problem with the "it's unstable and easily disrupted" idea is that, if that's the paradigm used, it shouldn't only apply to subsequent works undertaken by the creator before the new work is finished. Consider, for instance, that there are no provisions for a work being disrupted by someone else creating a magic item in proximity to another wizard's unfinished work. Likewise, if the creator gets most of the way through creating a particular item, and then goes to another plane of existence and makes a quick magic item there, why does that disrupt the work-in-progress of a given item on another plane of existence altogether?
In other words, this particular restriction doesn't adequately explain itself from an in-game point of view. It's a meta-mechanic, designed to keep PCs under control (and even then, it seems rather superfluous, since PCs can't double-up on the time spent, nor get around the GP requirements), and has no in-character explanation. Now, by itself, that's not necessarily a deal-breaker; a lot of aspects of the d20 System are meta-mechanics (and some are ubiquitous to the point where they go beyond the d20 System itself, such as hit points), but there's typically at least some way to justify them from an in-character standpoint in a way that keeps internal consistency within the game universe.
That's not the case here, however, and so I find it easier to toss that particular rule out.
All of that said, I'm glad you enjoyed the peek behind the curtain!