#132 

Professional Wrestling is the original Live Action Actual Play.

I think the secret (or not so secret) recent history behind the question "what do you think about systems and settings that are closely tied together" is that a lot of recent system design - from Powered by the Apocalypse to a lot of Free League games - is heavily inspired by Ron Edwards' dictum "system does matter". What's not so obvious from that dictum is that what Ron really seems to mean is that SETTING DESIGN is ACTUALLY the province of SYSTEM DESIGNERS. Meaning that "world-building DMs", as Dael calls herself, are Ron Edwards' enemy. As well as system designers who follow in his footsteps. In fact, many game systems who follow in Ron's footsteps wind up turning the GM into a kind of glorified player, whose world-building responsibilities are pretty meager. Instead, these systems come pre-packaged with pretty specific settings that the GM can't really change that much. And what's more, on the other side, these systems also empower players to make a lot more changes to the world, doing things that what you might call "traditional" games like D&D would normally reserve for the DM. The ultimate result is that the GM is a LOT less of an "author/director" and much more of a "game night host". This also changes the way these games are marketed to GMs - from "you'll get to build the world of your dreams" to "it won't be that much work".

When our group is getting ready for a new campaign (ideally at least a couple of weeks in advance), we have everybody write a quick elevator pitch for the games they're willing to run. We then discuss, rank, etc. until we figure out what people are most excited by.

Was the game Dungeons & Dragons Heroes on X-Box?

You could always do Terminator rules for Teleport. Any clothes or equipment you travel with don’t make it to the other side. Upside of the spell is the party gets there fast, downside is once you get there, your character better be ready to face your foes as naked as the day they were born.

I'm thinking that Dale's mystery game was Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (or Dark Alliance 2). Couch co-op, smoother graphics than Runescape, etc.

19:12 One of my favorite things that exists is a game called mobile frame zero where you build mechs out of Lego and the dice mechanic reflects the way that you build your mech to have pieces for maneuverability versus pieces for defense and pieces for offense. It's so cool. It would be super neat to play a fantasy game that did something similar, maybe not based on a war game, but the accounting involved in an RPG that is still moderated by the use of a physical structure of Lego.

So when Gaider et al were writing Dragon Age, a large foundation of them envisioning that environment was "what would actual magic look like in a society--what would things like detect thoughts and charm person and fireball do to social order?" and that's how you get Templars--because having a bunch of independent contractors running around being able to just magically override a person's thoughts or blow up whole towns is not conducive to civil society. I don't know if you need to go that extreme as a DM, but I definitely think that based on the TYPE of story you are trying to tell, there should be certain rules loadouts regarding spells, making some spells unavailable or modified depending on the needs of the setting. If you're running a murder mystery, that means that resurrection spells, detect thoughts, and speak with dead are all off the menu. Gothic Horror? Detect Good and Evil and Light spells might not work or introduce mechanical wonkiness (Ravenloft famously did this in 2e, and even in 5e, you can't cast Banishment in Barovia).

Shawn and Dael were super spot on, "When your players break your game, they are filled with joy - there is no greater thrill to your players than when they ruin the things you had planned"! So true. I felt seen.

Things a murder mystery needs: 1) A Murder 2) A Mystery

Athena is a huge D&D fan. She was part of Austin Creed’s campaign on UpUpDownDown

Fairly new to the Lorecast, but you guys deserve more subs.

You are all so delightful that I could listen to you talk about anything in the world for an hour.

On teleportation; you can also make clear that spells like these are not without peril - mishaps could happen; displacements, time dialation, dimensional ambushes etc.. and have some smaller encounters ready or use a teleportation mishap generation.. basically making spells like these more dangerous and sorta a "only-in-times-of-need" tool for the players.

23:07 I think Dael's video game was Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance - unless it was on the 360, in which case it might have been the console release Chronicles of Mystara, which combined 2 D&D arcade games that were Golden Axe, Streets of Rage style side scrolling beat 'em up. I'd love to see, D&D branded, a Monster Prom XL style game with the monstrous inhabitants of a Mirkwood style forest having weird community with high school popular-kid style power balance dynamics, and living their lives and dating while having to deal with adventurers; OR a Necrobarista/VA-11 Hall-A style bartending story game set in the Yawning Portal.

If you want to prevent Speak with Dead, have the villain taken the victims jawbone 😈

Thanks for shouting out Athena (your forever Ring of Honor Champion). She’s not just a Baldur’s Fate fan. She’s well known for being a big TTRPG fan!

Oh man, some good discussion in today's episode. I think the topic I wanted to Chime in was related to the "Hacking" of 5e to do things, and the argument from some people asking you "Why are you making 5e support a Murder Mystery?" I want to talk about this, because I have become one of those people, but I wasn't always. Originally, I started with 5e in 2017, and I played it, as a GM and a player. Eventually, the standard Fantasy bored me, and I was like "Oh, these rules are simple enough, I can change this, alter that, and use this rule in the DMG and dang, I've made a pretty good Survival Game of D&D." I do that for I think 4 years, up to when COVID started. Afterwards, I started playing D&D a lot more, and I started to get tired of doing that prep/remembering that rule change. This is getting long, but I started playing new systems, and, to me, the breath of fresh air I felt knowing I could pick up MASKS: The Next Generation and play a Superhero Game without changing ANYTHING blew my mind. It went on from there. I think there is some bias on my part, but when I see people homebrewing and hacking 5e (Which I still do, I won't lie), I feel the urge to ask them "You know X does this without changing the rules as much" because maybe that person is like me when I started, and they are hacking 5e because that's what they know, and maybe playing a different game to achieve their SCI FI Game will be a Breath of Fresh Air for them as well.

I just started listening to the first book of Stephen Brust's Vlad Taltos series, and there's a long digression about what it means to be an assassin (or a likely target of assassins) in its extremely high-fantasy setting. I think this is a far better approach: Don't say "x spell or y magic item means z is impossible;" ask yourself "How does the existence of x spell or magic item y change archetypal plot element z?"

As Austrailians, you don't have much call to know Spanish, but J in Spanish sounds like H. Therefore, "Brujah" is "Broo-hah", so Dael is correct there. Brujah are typically punks and thugs. Ben, Toreador are the artistic ones. Ventrue are the Blue-Bloods, the wealthy and well-bred, which may be confused with Tremere, who are the Alistair Crowley sort.

25:45 a DND Auto battler like Team Fight Tactics would be cool. Have a bunch of monsters you can draft and make a team with them

Dice rolls are great at differentiating players and how they approach an adventure, so even if some group tried to play the exact same adventure twice (and could ignore metagaming), the big swing between 1 and 20 will make a huge difference, and I think that is a good thing.

It’s ghostfire day 🔥🔥🔥

I run weekly games. I have a player who routinely can't make the session every 3 weeks. So, now, my solution probably won't work for very many people, as it means a lot more investment from the DM. I run a separate game for the other players. Different characters, less structured "campaign" - just a bunch of modules I've picked out and say "this is what we're doing tonight." So, yes, it's a hell of a lot more prep (reading modules, finding maps, preparing vtt, etc) but I rather enjoy it. It's also an oportunity for my players to do something more wild. These characters are much more broken than the regular campaign. But it's also where I get to test third party stuff and find my own broken monsters to throw at them. It works for us, we don't have to have someone else run the missing person's character and worry about killing them, and the players get to have a crazy time killing some bad guys. Bubbadah bubbadah!

Worlds Beyond Number's Brennan Lee Mulligan (and other stuff ofc lol), gave a great answer to the rules/mechanics vs. the world question. In there chapter 2 wrap-up.

When it comes to rules vs. setting the answer is one is simple question. What is the main dice roll in the game? In D&D the main roll is 1d20, sometimes 2d20, then add or subtract a number on your character sheet. This means, more often than not, that the players will succeed at a thing they are good at doing and many things they aren't specialized in doing. In Call of Cthulhu the main roll is a D100, and you have to roll under a number on your character sheet that you generated by allocating a finite number of points to a vast list of individual skill proficiencies. This means that your player will often fail at most things they try, and even on things they are specialized in, they need to get lucky. You can slot any genre or setting you want into either of these games. The only difference the rules/mechanics dictate is that in D&D 5e, the PCs will be mostly competent badass heroes. In Call of Cthulhu, the PCs will be underdogs struggling against seemingly impossible odds. That's the only limit to using the rules of any game to run any setting. If you want to run cosmic horror in D&D you can, just be aware the players will probably stomp the eldritch horror from beyond the stars. If you want to run medieval fantasy in Call of Cthulhu you can, just be aware your players will probably get murdered by goblins in session one. Look at the game mechanics in question and really think about what they mean for the average skill/ability check. Then, use that to decide which genres or settings are best for the rules. You can run an Aliens game using the official Aliens rpg, but you could also get the feel and experience of the first Alien movie by running the game with Call of Cthulhu and changing the list of skills the players put points into to reflect the fact they are asteroid miners and spaceship technicians trapped in a moving factory with a monster they can't physically challenge. You can also run a game set in the first Bioshock video game by taking 5e, retheming the magic as splicer injections, and populating the underwater city with reskins of the monsters in the Simic, Izzet, and Rakdos sections of the Ravnica setting book. Are you facing a Nivix Cyclops guarding a Cackler Demon? No. You're facing a Big Daddy and a Little Sister.

49:30 I see the rules as a baseline. You can pick and choose and use what you like and not use what you don't. It's that simple. They should be balanced around it. One another as a game. But if you don't like one aspect, you can change it as the DM/GM there's a reason why that's the first rule of the game. But only in your home game.

I believe Dael is referring to D&D Heroes...

I have two options for "where is that PC?" 1. In a lot of my campaigns, I have the PCs take their marching orders and pick their quests from a Mercenary Academy and a network of bounty boards. When a player misses a session, the Headmaster opens a portal and says they need that PC to help with an emergency or to save/carry another team. 2. After looking up how original D&D games were run, the simplest solution to missing PCs became obvious. They're guarding the caravan. Actual old school games had a lot less mechanical support for the PCs and were much more lethal. After a while, the player base came up with a solution. Use their money and charisma scores to hire minions. Adventuring parties turned into wagon caravans with the three to six PCs being in charge of thirty or so crossbowmen, one or two hound masters with a dozen guards dogs each, a camp cook, a few servants, a few dozen pikemen, and at least ten guys whose job was strictly to carry the torch. If this seems too weird, theme the npcs to be followers of a faction the PC belongs to as part of their class. The barbarian, paladin, and fighter each have soldiers who flock to their warbanner. The cleric and warlock have religious fanatics. The druid runs an ecoterrorist splinter cell and probably a few bears or dinosaurs. The wizard has at least one apprentice, and the bard has groupies. When a player can't make it, they are with the majority of the npcs guarding the horses, wagons, and the escape route.

54:44 Communicate with your players. Explain hey I need to know this session, what you guys are wanting to do next session If you're planning on teleporting somewhere so that I can prep it. It's completely reasonable to communicate and have a good and open conversation with your players.

Teleport has a 1Action casting time... NOt 10 minutes lol but hey! if it works for your campaign, MAKE IT a 10 minute casting time :D lol

Sharing my AFK solution: the character’s eyes glaze over with metal, can’t fall below 1HP, don’t participate socially, and either controlled by me to max efficiency or stay out of combat if not needed. The secret is this is actually a lore based long range mind control from a NPC within the world that the party may meet in lvl 10+ Arcs.

ooh i loved that x-box dnd game! wow you guys have enough friends that you can invite only people excited to play that idea? way to brag lol for the teleportation question, i think great advice is just to be honest. as a player if i do something dramatic like teleport, im pretty understanding if the DM needs a few minutes or more to figure something out inexhaustitive.... great episode!

I want a White Plume Mountain video game. What? OK, I'll show myself out...

Let’s get a DnD metroidvania. White Plume Mountain or Undermountain in that format. I’m also down with a new Action RPG like Dark Alliance but that would probably be better for Dragonlance. Do a 3rd person adventure/action horror game in Ravenloft ala Alan Wake.

The video game is “For the King”

RE: Rules VS Setting, Spells: Personally, I would limit spells so as they have to first learn it from a dedicated user of that spell/school/etc. Like, I have to learn how to cast Wish from someone who dedicated their life into manipulating reality. I can even extend that to other benefits of leveling up- you don't suddenly benefit from your Paladin Oath after hitting 3rd level- you have to find an archpaladin who would recognize you as one of them. Or even just gaining enough experience so that the veteran Fighter would decide to teach you how to "use an action surge". the above can lead to nice downtime adventures, best for one-on-one sessions or specifically for those who may have missed a session. Having level ups "unlock" options for your characters, and no other options, is the vanilla way video games have done it. If your group is okay with that, then by all means go ahead. However, let's not pretend to be playing video games where we just replaced the CPU with a person.

3:48 So there with Shawn. My group has so many real-world issues that I run a session whenever I get quorum. The story for my campaigns are "for the group", NPCs react to "The Group", I don't plan for individual PCs anymore.

I got past teleport by telling my players at session 0 that they cannot progress their characters past 12th level. At this level they should be Kings, Admiral of the Fleet, or arch mages of the wizard school etc. and have moved beyond being just an adventurer. When they get to 9th level they should start to plan for their characters retirement.

48:06 I love all of the comments that you guys have about murder mysteries and rules and stuff like that but it's all solvable with DM/GM and player communication and buy-in from your group of friends if someone doesn't want to play the game the way the DM/GM is running it then talk it out and come up with a solution that every can get behind, communication is king in any group setting and if it is something that cannot be tolerated then they can run their own game and play it the way they want to.

I'd LOVE to get more Dark Alliance games (not the new one). They're super fun.

Thank goodness for some diversity in this episode!

Dael are you talking about Gauntlet Seven Sorrows? Or maybe BG1/2? (That’s Probably too obvious )

RE: D&D Video Game: Give us a new wave of DND beat'em ups! Maybe steal the 4e mechanics along the way. Or maybe just a Front Mission, Fire Emblem or Super Robot Wars-esque game...

In regards to rules and/or settings - it seems that Alien and Blade Runner don't run without their unique mechanics. Is there an affect or trope integral to a setting that isn't covered by the rules?

There a baulders gate game that I'm pretty sure was on Xbox. If it could have Ben playstation I think you're thinking of champions of Noath.

Rather than removing "iconic" spells, I'd much rather see a fleshed out world where they actually impact the way the world exists, then provide the DM with suggestions for how to circumvent players using those spells. What happens when a villain that knows all the spells the city watch will use to investigate a murder, so everything they do is countered and they find nothing? What happens when an item is stolen despite alarm, arcane locks, dispelling magic, etc.? I never liked worlds where the magic that is available at low levels feels like it has no impact on the surroundings.

Do demons and devils play Words with Fiends?

D and d video game for ebberon inspired by la noire that is what I want I would love that

Speak with Dead gives you d8 questions...

Man I've backed a lot of you're kickstarters and I can't believe I just found out this was a thing. Qq for someone part of a small but passionate D&D youtube series, any advice on increasing reach? We're doing a gameshow with 120 contestants and it's a lot of fun, but we're not getting the number's we'd like.

I feel like Dungeons & Dragons shouldn't be focusing on AAA games. They should be developing a toolkit for independent developers and really small Studios so they can just license out the property and a lot more people will be able to make their own adventures with it.

FIRST!

how to deal with spell x( in this case, Teleport. STPE !.. READ THE SPELL. if yur echaracters are randomly teleporting all over the world, you havent read the spell, and if they still want to randomly teleport all over the world, ask yourself why they are so bored, theywould do that.

Players can't teleport somewhere they don't know about - teleport is great for travel, terrible for exploration. Going somewhere they aren't familiar with carries a significant risk of a mishap - which inflicts damage and can pile up in a single teleport.

I don't know about the idea that D&D's setting is any less integrated. "Vancian" magic, elves, dwarves, gnomes, Devil people, all sorts of martial characters with magical abilities that have detailed and explicitly magical descriptions... It might have become the default for most if the cast and us who watch (heck, even for hollywood), but D&D absolutely has tons of setting baked into the game, and that's OK, good even. I've found games like FATE to be pretty poor play experiences because they're so generic that they aren't inspiring and don't capture whatever setting is pasted on top of the game.

wha tmakes 5e great is the kitchen sink rule set, what a lot of modren gamers odnt understands is that dpeending on the world YOU ARE NOT entitled to eveyrhting in the rulebooks, dpeending on campaign setting. i hav eno problem woth a DM getting rid of Goodberries for a survuval gamestyle , or removing certain classes/sublcasses that dont fit the theme of the game. Its annoyong to have a DM submit a campaign setting, for examplre, GOTHIC HORRIR, and ther eis always one tonedeaf player who shows up with a Warfdorged Steampunk character, as an example. Read the room. Respect and buy into the THEME of the campaign.