A place where a higher level if Pen and Paper Roleplaying Game discussion is found. I have a soft spot for the games of the 70s and 80s. I'm a Guilded Partner.
Hey, TBE. I was wondering. What are your thoughts on the two different Crosses that clerics get in old school (wooden and silver) I would imagine Gygax and Co. wouldnt have put them in for no reason other than one is cheaper. Do you think you need a silver Cross to turn higher HD undead, or maybe it would let you turn other things (1e lets clerics turn demons, anti-clerics/anti-paladins) Could make an interesting short/video, where you go into more detail about religion in 0e Food for thought. Keep up the good work
@@darkknightofhibernia4815 that's something I have wondered but I haven't done any research on that to see what the purpose was. That is for sure something to research.
@TheBasicExpert Gygax wouldn't have put it there for simple flavour. He would have just said Cross, and if players wanted to silver it, he wouldn't have bothered with differentiating them and left that to DMs and their home games. The simple fact it exists means it must serve a mechanical purpose. Gygax would t have wasted the space, otherwise
Some thoughts: A huge, ancient dragon is the ur-kaiju and model for Godzilla and his kaiju rivals. So this could appeal directly to dragon game players. I get the desire to have an attractive page design but am not a fan of light text on a dark background, or busy text backgrounds in general. Hopefully you are making an ink saver version of the PDF so a GM can print a few pages and use them at the table. Also, please blind playtest the game extensively and respond to the testers. Pay attention to Macris on this. He was up to version 125 of his current project according to a vid I saw the other day, and the versions are driven in large part by play tester feedback. The game will be better for it. Cheers!
Just got my discount and bought the pdf, going to print this beautiful book! Thank you very much for your discount love all the art work! I see many mechanic improvement, although I still love the first d20 version of it. I will have to get out of the confort zone and fetch 2d10. Keep up the good work. 💪😎
Great video. I like 2d10 or 3d6 instead of 1d20, which is too random and thus makes the die be too important and the rest (e.g. how good you are at attackung or a skill) too unimportant.
Phandelver is actually good and not as railroady compared to the other 5e modules. It’s not bad to prod the players into the various dungeons provided. Keep is more of a location based adventure.
Very interesting topic. While I don't agree with you, I do understand your point of view. For me rules are also very important, understanding the rules is the starting point to play the game, as you said. I, however, think of DnD/D&D as an umbrella term, at least conceptually, so you can use Shadowdark or Old-School Essentials to crawl on Dungeons & confront Dragons (I don't tell my casual gaming friends we're gonna play WhiteBox: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game, I tell them we're gonna play D&D). I also think homebrew/house rules are a big part of the hobby, and always have been. In my case, a pintch of homebrew is needed to enjoy the game, but in order to make a good working home rule, you should know and understand the original rule you are changing. Just my opinion.
One thing you made clear: Encumbrance is directly tied to the number of wandering monster checks made in the underworld. So yes, it is important not to get into an argument about what the PCs can carry and can't carry. If they insist on adding on more weight, then just roll more wandering monster checks. "Time to ditch my plate mail armor, grap that pouch of rubies, and make a mad dash for the exit!"
Love Tonisborg! I have the paperback version and have gotten a ton of use out of it (around a year). My group was able to recover two of the crowns. The Sorcerer's Crown was tossed into a lava pit for being chaotic aligned by a PC.
DUDE! You finally put into words something I've been feeling over the years but haven't been able to pin down. I also find myself falling into the theorycrafting hole myself, as I don't have any games running currently. I try to avoid that by just looking for inspiration and leaving it at that, rather than pontificating on what I think would be the perfect game. I also read rulebooks+settings+modules, considering how I would try to run them as intended. I'd like to see in an actual, real life GAME how fun or different they would be!
I am a "world-weaver" :) But I play a lot in the settings I do. I acknowledge that I won't use most of world-building I prep, but I treat the world-weaving as a separate part of a hobby for me, which brings a lot of fun.
This is really good advice. I'm new to talking about D&D online and I do have strong opinions but I've never known about play reports until now. I am going to start doing them now, thanks
Theorycrafting is certainly a major source of entertainment in 5e-so often people talk about classes or subclasses being amazing or terrible without actually playing the class in a game. Tons of rules like different initiative systems and and play-procedure mechanics don’t show their value (or lack thereof) till you actually use them.
Just call me out, why don't you? I just really love discussing abstract ideas, and some people keep fueling the discussion to the point where it's hard to know when to shut up. I've seen it loads of times as a GM, and it makes game sessions take like 8-9 hours if the guys just let it
I actually kind of prefer playing solo and world-building and mapmaking. It's easier for me to sink into the world without as much cross chatter. I still run two games, but I think I probably do prefer the parts of the game I can do myself. I also like the game-theory side of the hobby and trying to make more and more elegant mechanics. I'm public enemy number one. I agree that prep is kind of the enemy of fun. It's better to go the point-crawl route and make custom tables and make a couple of new npc's each session. Even if they don't get used.
For me, and I'm not tossing this out on anyone else, my group only has the ability to get together once a week for a scheduled game. That's just not enough for me and how much I'd like to play so I spend a lot of that week thinking about games / gaming / etc outside of session time. This often leads to idle theorycrafting or talking about games with my bros, but I don't typically bother posting any advice or tips online because of how subjective all the opinions are and the various play styles that different tables may prefer. Makes sense to create a community around the type of game you like to participate in and keep the discussion focused on that type of play, no complaints there, and the brosr style session reports as receipts of ideas in practice does accomplish that. Plus it also gives me some entertainment to see the kind of shenanigans they get up to.
At some point I gave up trying to craft a setting or universe for D&D and did the following: created a small landmass, usually a number of hexes, and just lined it with cool stuff with some vague theming. I was transparent to my players that there was no broader existing world but that as they pushed the boundaries of this map, I would start adding more and more for them. This seems to give the opportunity for creating a setting, but it's driven by player engagement. There's no stupid moment where I'm thinking, "Damn, come on guys, go east to my totally-not-Mirkwood!" but I'm rather thinking, "they're headed east, what's east?" and often times I roll on a chart for the biome and settlements.
As a 30-year grognard, this is 100% accurate. Theory crafting has lead to the player-indulgent, GM-crushing WotC D&D’s & the live-theatre “ideal” session. Also, this topic makes me want to touch grass, because, holy hell, this is extreme 1st-world.
I'm not actively running a games myself right now, but have at least two or three in the hopper at various stages. None of them am I referring to the them by their game system names, but rather the campaign setting I'm envisioning for them. Depending on the system, I may still be playing RAW, while another may be heavily house ruled. In the previous campaigns I have run, I did the same with their 'titles'. Truly, the average player doesn't care what its called, as long as their having a good time Good discussion, TBE!
I'm a game idea crafter. If I learned anything from my years as an educator, I would not have a PLAN; I would have ideas. My current Saturday game is a perfect example, if they ignore a plot point im not going to force it on them ill just shuffle it back in the stack. Maybe they will go investigate the Orcs and who killed Stephen; maybe they won't. Maybe they will ask someone how they ended up in this world, maybe they wont.
