Modern Rules 1: Skills | Insomnia

In this article series, we’ll be revisiting and reviving the Insomnia project, a book designed to bring horror to your D&D game.

The next and most critical part of the Insomnia project is the modern segment—creating a scaffolding of rules that helps you dive into a more modern setting like Nowhere USA. Naturally, we have a background in expanding 5e to new settings, but we previously underestimated the challenges of emulating the modern world. Some of the fundamentals, like firearms and subclasses, are fairly approachable, but the scope can grow rapidly when you start writing dozens of pages of gear, rules for vehicles, guidelines for internet research, and other minutia. Without exaggeration, this facet killed the project last time. So the word of the day is scope: what we choose to tackle and how.

For the modern rules included alongside Nowhere USA in Insomnia, we plan to include the following:

1. New Skills
2. Variant AC
3. Modern Firearms (thankfully handled by Valda’s already)
4. Some modern gear (maybe just a table of prices, or a meta “check online” rule)
5. A new way to create human characters.

Like everything else in the book, these rules are standalone and optional — use what you want and leave the rest to create your version of a modern setting. Here’s the first component:

Modern Skills

Replaces Tools

In the modern day, many existing skills take on new, prominent roles, whereas others are relegated to afterthoughts. Animal Handling, for example, was simply more important when horseback was the principal means of travel, but Sleight of Hand is arguably more important than ever. This setting introduces three new skills, Driving, Handywork, and Technology, to supplement the existing framework of skills and offer new, innovative ways to interact with the world.

Dexterity (Driving)

Your Dexterity (Driving) check covers how well you can drive in poor conditions or pull off complicated maneuvers behind the wheel. You don’t need Driving proficiency to be able to drive an automobile (or most boats, for that matter), and being able to drive doesn’t automatically give you proficiency in this skill. Rather, the GM might call for a Dexterity (Driving) check when you weave through traffic on a motorcycle, when you make a handbrake turn on a sports car, or when you fight to maintain control over a speeding car in difficult circumstances.

This skill can alternatively be called Piloting when it applies to flying aircraft. A Dexterity (Piloting) check and a Dexterity (Driving) check are identical; modifiers which apply to one also apply to the other. You don’t need proficiency in Piloting to keep a plane aloft in calm conditions, but you do need it to make tight turns or land successfully.

Wisdom (Handiwork)

The Handiwork skill replaces the wide and antiquated swathe of tools and proficiencies used in fantasy settings. It governs your knowledge and experience of various repair, construction, and modification tasks. Using a Wisdom (Handiwork) check, you can hang drywall, fix a leaky toilet, repair a tractor, construct makeshift weapons, or rig up an alarm system. At the GM’s discretion, you might require a set of general or specific tools to use this skill with proficiency. This skill covers purely practical skills learned through experience, but doesn’t cover knowledge of computers or electronics beyond the basics of wiring and providing power.

Intelligence (Technology)

This skill encompasses your knowledge of computers, software, and the internet. You don’t need Technology proficiency to use a computer or cell phone, but the GM might call for an Intelligence (Technology) check when you scour the internet for obscure information, attempt to crack a computer or phone’s password, or assemble or repair a piece of technology. Note that this skill doesn’t govern certain practical technology skills, such as rewiring a light socket in your home. As a rule of thumb, if it requires more experience than knowledge, the task uses Handiwork.

Modern Skill Proficiencies

At 1st level, characters can choose to gain proficiency with these new skills, as shown on the following table:

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