Baron de Ropp 🎖️ demonstrates how to run better D&D sessions by critically analyzing gaming systems, and illustrates superior worldbuilding and quest hooking through the lens of History, Sociology, and Geopolitics.
Awesome content. Fantastic delivery. Side recommendation: Go to a tailor and get your jacket fitted for you properly (if possible). It's far too big for you.
Using distance locations as landmarks and orientation is brilliant. Moving towards them leads to smaller ones that are closer. Excellent. "geographical white noise" indeed.
I don't know why so many OSR players are upset about a 'lack of innovation' in Shadowdark. Since when has the OSR been about innovation? It's about recreating the feeling of playing D&D in ages past, with simple rules that trust the DM to know what kind of game they and their players really want. DCC and C&C are basically OSR games that were designed to be easy for players familiar with 3.X D&D, and I don't see people criticism them for lacking innovation. Or the endless slight variations on B/X or BECMI that fill the market; aren't they all derivative as well? So why can't we have an OSR game to bring in 5e players? In order for the hobby to thrive, we will always need fresh blood as older players age out or leave this veil of tears. The more games we have to bring in a wider variety of players, the better, I say.
Shadowdark is this year's Mork Borg reheated old school destined to warm shelves all over the internet proclaimed as an RPG rebirth by influencers pretending the last two decades of OSR never happened Pass
No one ever said Shadowdark was revolutionary. It's designed to be a bridge between 5e and old school D&D, so that grognards and Gen Z gamers can sit and play at a table together, and it does that very well. The designer herself said there's nothing really new here; it's a synthesis of lots of preexisting game ideas. Which also describes pretty much every other OSR game in existence.
Late to the party but solid video, very dense. I really want to streamline my prep so that I can get everything prepped super simply, start to finish, then just use additional time (if I have it) to go above and beyond.
Anything with more interconnected water travel will be much more rich & powerful than anyone else. However, that also means that those areas are more prone to conquests, skirmishes & slave raids. Those who live in the mountains are far less likely to be conquered & plains riders are also far more likely to be the ones doing the conquering with their extreme speed & hit & run tactics. A dragon/beast riding culture in a fantasy world are also more likely to be conquerors like the Githyanki are.
I am playing in an Eberron setting with a Q'barran lizardfolk. So to hear the description "The human State of Q'barra", while true in the international diplomacy sense, felt funny, haha. I would love to see more videos explaining the relations between the nations and groups of Eberron or other DnD settings! You explain it so nicely using real-life examples, I like it.
Love the channel. I don't like rolling two dice but do like some curve. I typically just use a D20 but the more common things get mulitple slots, ie a caravan of traders 19-20, road patrol gets 17-18, 16-17 is goblins scouts (from your example) etc with most less common things occupying only one number on the die. Maybe #1 is the Big Bad or his Captain with a group of guards. I have NOT done the "add a number for higher level encounters", but I will think about it. The problem is that I like my players to clap and cheer when they see a 20 and moan when they see a 1. Also, not every encounter is an "encounter with monsters". Some times it is just a random incident that happens, ie you come across a deep creek/river/lake, no bridge, ford, or ferry. Dex checks. Everyone wet. If it's cold, do you make a fire (draw attention) or stay wet and cold with potential effects later.
Thank you for explaining "attempts" and "effort"! I listened to a couple other Dungeon Tube content creators and came away baffled. You are clear and concise as always, again thank you!
Interlinking plot points scattered about the map transform a sandbox into a network of railroads that all lead to the same place. That is brilliant. The players can go where they want, and the choices they make matter, but the DM can still develop the same (or similar) story.
In other words, you think there should be a "Room 0" to do more set up: establish the importance of the dungeon and groundwork for later twists, right?
I know that you only brought it up for a moment in the video right before Mausritter, but thank you for bringing my attention to Liminal Horror. I have been wanting to put together a Backrooms campaign for my friends for a while now and it's been hard trying to figure out how to make it work like I envisioned it. D&D just wouldn't work for the type of gameplay I wanted and Liminal Horror seems to be already hitting exactly what I want just by reading a little bit about it on their website. I mean, heck, it's literally called LIMINAL HORROR. Which is exactly what the Backrooms is all about! So thank you for bringing a light to it. I think I've found the system for my next game! 🥳😄
Pretty good video. You touched on it somewhat, but it is worth noting that the line between these three powers was more blurry than most modern governments. The pope was at times also the monarch of the Papal States, while many monarchs had additional lower titles, giving them direct control over a holding as a power base. Some nobles had lands in multiple countries through diplomacy or marriage. Have a blessed day!
THACO existed because they already had the silly reverse armor class system, and had decided to have a level chart as opposed to an attack bonus, so they needed a simple way to replace the chart for monsters in the adventures, so they could have a line for you on the page. It's an attempt to fix a problem, but hardly a real solution.
This guy's analysis is Marsember is really good from a geopolitical level, but when you get into the lore of the city itself it does reveal some key things shit it's relatively small size compared to Baldur's Gate. For a start, Marsember is built across several small islands in a swamp basin. So immediately you have a geographical factor that limits the extent to which the city can grow. Granted, urban sprawl might be able to extend the city further onto the mainland, but that would come at the cost of security for those living in the outer areas further from the city's main walls. Also, it seems that Marsember has had a reduced troubled history, with many dangerous monsters in the nearby area as well as corruption within the city. There's a powerful trading organisation called the Zhantarim, whose members have in the past served some of the darkest gods in the Faerûnian Pantheon, and they've absolutely sunk their claws into Marsember at various points. The corruption in the city and its guard definitely seems like a factor that would disrupt the basic needs for a lot of the city's people. Moreover, Marsember has been abandoned and repopulated at least three times over the course of its history. The kind of devastation that must have been wrought to necessitate this must have been a hugely limiting factor in its growth and development.
