The ten-minute rulebook
Learn 5E 2024 by playing with it.
Every game on Elrune has its own short guide: the core roll, a turn, health and harm, and how characters grow. Every roll here runs the same rules code as the table.
The dice of every game, in 3D, and how to type a roll
CHAPTER 1
The core roll
Roll a D20 and add your modifier: the ability modifier, plus your proficiency bonus when you are proficient. Meet or beat the Difficulty Class the GM sets (10 easy, 15 medium, 20 hard) and you succeed.
Advantage rolls two D20 and keeps the higher, disadvantage keeps the lower; with both, you roll one. Attacks go against Armor Class: a natural 20 is a critical hit that rolls the damage dice twice, and a natural 1 always misses. On ability checks and saves a 1 or a 20 is just a number.
In these rules Heroic Inspiration lets you reroll one die right after rolling it (with advantage, one of the two), and each level of Exhaustion takes 2 off every D20 Test.
Try it · An ability check
Set it up, then roll.
A demo: rolled in your browser. At a table every roll is made on the server.
CHAPTER 2
A turn
Initiative is a Dexterity check, highest first. On your turn you move up to your speed and take one action, such as an attack, a Dash or a spell. A bonus action exists only when a feature or spell grants one, and you have one reaction a round, for example an opportunity attack.
On the board one square is 5 feet. Difficult terrain costs double, and cover adds to Armor Class and Dexterity saves.
Weapon masteries add their effect after a hit, for the weapon kinds a hero chose and is proficient with.
CHAPTER 3
Health and harm
Damage comes off your hit points. At 0 you fall unconscious and make death saving throws: 10 or more on a D20 is a success, three successes stabilise you and three failures kill. A natural 20 brings you back with 1 hit point; a natural 1 counts as two failures. If the damage left after you reach 0 equals or exceeds your hit point maximum, you die at once.
A short rest lets you spend Hit Dice to heal; a long rest restores your hit points and half your Hit Dice.
CHAPTER 4
How characters grow
Experience points, or a milestone the GM awards, open the next level, from 1 to 20. Levelling up on the sheet adds hit points (fixed or rolled on the server, as the campaign chooses), class features with their uses and, at set levels, an Ability Score Improvement. Your proficiency bonus rises with your level.
Ready for a table?
Elrune keeps the bookkeeping of 5E 2024: every roll on the server, the sheet worked out, the turn order and the harm tracked, so your table can tell the story.