Morrus
Frazzled

Congratulations on the amazingly fast funding of this, Morrus - that was truly impressive to behold!

... While I like 5E I (along with most of my group) are rather disappointed at the pace of rules production released in 5E. Mike Mearls mentioned that thereis a ton of new players and someone in this over twenty page thread made a statement saying that since 5E is doing so well it must mean that players in general don’t favor heavy rules customization. I take issue with that belief. I take issue with it because we really don’t fully know what Hasbro is counting as sales of D&D. Mike Mearls has said before that they don’t have to put out as many splat books because they can release games like Lords of Waterdeep, etcetera as income generators since the Hasbro merger. I am wondering if things like the numerous board games and additional niche products (Dice sets), etcetera are what is making a more significant portion D&D 5E sales now, whereas the RPG books like splat books were the main revenue generator in previous editions? I don’t know if there are any hard numbers on this (perhaps Morrus has some insight) but I would feel secure betting that besides the three core books (DMG, PHB, and MM) the biggest book sales of D&D 5E are probably the books that offer actual rules and option expansions like Xanathar’s Guide to Everything and Mordenkainen’s Guide, and also the SCAG (as the first book to really offer PC expansions despite how skimpy). I do know that there are a number of third party options but many people don’t use those because they like to use official products for a variety of reasons: 1) It creates consistency from campaign to campaign and between games 2) people may feel that official splat material has been better play tested, etc. What I think is that is that Mike Mearl’s statement is coming from two places. 1) His own personal philosophy and not that of ALL the designers because I know Jeremy Crawford had written much more crunch to the game that was not included and 2) it was pragmatic political statement. What I mean in regards to the latter is ...

I think you are misinterpreting the "fired" comment. He was just saying "Anybody who thinks it's your job to maintain an aura of eliteness by keeping out the 'unworthies'...please go away." He was also observing that there was a high correlation between that crowd and people who enjoy system complexity, probably because system complexity makes a nice barrier to entry for people who want to imagine they are part of an elite crowd. Unfortunately, a lot of people are interpreting it as, "People who like system complexity, please go find another game." EDIT: Overlapped with @Morrus. I'll refrain from further commentary on that aspect.

First of all, thanks Morrus for collecting this. I generally avoid Twitter because, frankly, it's full of a$$holes. That aside: this is an interesting way of looking at it, and underscores the difference in design philosophies between the WotC team and the Paizo team. There is a lot of room for both philosophies of design, and I don't think there is any reason for fans of one to be hostile to fans of the other, but those differences do matter. There are ways in which I like the prescriptive elements of 3.x era games (I like set skill difficulty lists, for example) but I tend to run by the seat of my pants and the effects of my beer, so a fast and loose and forgiving version like 5E really enables me running a game the way I like to.

Oh crap, I didn't know about this book at all! Pre-ordered! Thanks Morrus!

Thanks Morrus and Yunru for getting the posting problem sorted out, now I can take the barbarian guide off my bookmarks.

I have a theory, but I don't like the implications if it's right. It may be that it's simply too big of a post? EDIT: Nope, works fine in a new thread. Could you please sticky the new one and unsticky this one please Morrus?

Yeah I got nothing, need to wait for Morrus I guess.

Wonder why? Cuz Morrus wants it this way and doesn't need to explain to anyone why he changes things?

Even a sucker punch has a chance to be countered by someone with quick reflexes, and an attack action in D&D does not mean you strike once and that's it, but it is a time segment of around 6 seconds, during which you do all sorts of combat stuff but get #number of attacks chances to actually hit and do damage. Therefore, at first I did like Morrus thought, but the more I think about it, the normal initiative system is more balanced and fair.

Nice article and some interesting comments as well. Morrus, I have a fantasy coin generator too. It's based on the old Dragon Magazine article Coins in a Coffer. It was fun to make! https://www.findgamers.us/coins-in-a-coffer

Thanks to Morrus and BookBarbarian for the comments. I'll have to read the AiME books, and see how I feel... see whether I think low-magic can be done in 5e at all. High magic certainly does seem baked in by default, and that may be quite difficult to overcome for people who want "D&D". If it is as much about expectations as anything else, perhaps that is manageable. Otherwise, perhaps I'll look into TOR. I've learned from experience with Cypher System that getting a group into a whole new ruleset can be a lot more work than I may want to deal with, so I'd prefer 5e AiME if possible.

I just posted an in depth blog post on this topic: http://dicehaven.com/middle-earth/things-learned/ TLDR version: I love Adventures in Middle-earth but it does require a different approach to structuring game sessions and play. Very satisfying though! Thanks for this blog post! I picked up the Adventures in Middle-Earth Player's Guide and Loremaster book this weekend at Gencon on a whim, mostly because I want a strong low-magic setting and that seems impossible using the player's handbook (without disappointing nearly every player at the table). This seems to do that well, with a number of other neat systems. My friends loved the Journey system in The One Ring. (I do think he liked some of the mechanics in TOR better, but I'm definitely set on 5e for a few reasons.) Anyway, I greatly appreciate the post you linked. Morrus, did you ever get around to trying out Adventures in Middle Earth? If so, any comments on the experience?

Morrus

Morrus

Hi. I am only familiar with D&D as far back as AD&D 1st Edition and would very much like to learn about what the game was like before that - Races, Classes, Monsters, Cosmology, etc. Is there anything like a timeline listing when things appeared in the game? I seem to recall Morrus at one time had a pretty impressive timeline chart showing what was released when through all of D&D's history up to that time, but I'm not sure where he's hidden it or even if it's still on this site.

I've always felt that the Final Fantasy style of putting the PCs on one side and the monsters on the other, which was explicitly inspired by American football of all things, is a great reflection of the type of abstract combat that a lot of lazy DMs implement instead of actually tracking positions when using Theater of the Mind. That might well be, but I see the Final Fantasy screen as a division of the game table more than the battlefield. I really hope that FF players didn't see a 50-yard-line down the middle of their screens while fighting, despite the resemblance. Really? It's still more than the sorcerer gets. It's probably not fair, but I was comparing wizards to wizards. Maybe sorcerers don't need a lot of spells, but I was spoiled by D&D's wizards - limited only by the size of their spellbooks. For what it's worth, Morrus, I listened to the first half-hour of the podcast leading up to the end of this post, but still haven't heard about the Greatest D&D Video Game ever. Are there any plans to post podcast timestamps on the Podbean site?

Coding that information wouldn’t be too hard. What would be hard is all the data entry. It would take days of work to enter all the text of all the exploits etc. I haven’t even added the OLD, NOW, and 2000AD careers yet.Hey, Morrus, what does the php spreadsheet look like? I have a lot of the racial, career, and exploit data typed into an excel spreadsheet. Would you be able to use that easily?

Knightfall I don't see why not Morrus?

I like the color scheme. Very pneumatic control panel. Does the symbol repeated on the walls mean something special? ..and the fact that they are only alive because of a 1 in a trillion trillion trillion trillion chance of a passing spaceship picking them up in space. That was very Hitchhiker's Guide-like (I seem to recall that happening multiple times throughout them books). Where did the spectacles come from?

There aren’t rules. The person who is hiring will look at your resume and decide if they want to interview you. If they interview you, they’ll then decide if they want to hire you. You can’t rules-lawyer it or get them to hire you on a technicality. I feel weird explaining the concept of a job application to somebody. Are you particularly young? I’m guessing you’ve not applied for a job before? Generally I’d suggest viewing the job requirements in the spirit they’re intended. No, I am not young. I just figured they would need examples of such things, but something attached to an NDA for example does not have examples. But Jester David explains it better in a below response.

Yes, but they’ll look at it. How does things you can't talk about work? Like let's say you did some work for Warner Brothers (which I didn't), but you have an NDA until the product is revealed. And in that product you have some credits. How does that work?!?

I personally prefer names like Glasstaff and The Black Spider over Sharokina and Sahastra, as there's no way on earth I'm going to remember the latter. And I don't think Glasstaff is any worse than Skywalker. Skywalker is a terrible name as well, only it is meant to be campy. The bad name is intentional with Star Wars. But try saying the name "Glasstaff" to yourself, and now say the name "Sharokina". Which of the two sounds more menacing? Opinions can of course differ on what makes a good name (and thats fine), but for me, it is definitely the latter that sounds better. Then there's a name like Aram Seen the Unseen, which I only had to mention once and my players never forgot it. It has a lyrical quality to it that just makes it work. I'm fine with Glasstaff, but Phandelver just didn't work for me or my group and I think the names were a factor. Conversely I'm loving the Gygaxian names in Village of Hommlet - Ostler Gundigroot, Furnok of Ferd, Lareth the Beautiful, Rufus & Burne. Phand...

I personally prefer names like Glasstaff and The Black Spider over Sharokina and Sahastra, as there's no way on earth I'm going to remember the latter. And I don't think Glasstaff is any worse than Skywalker. I'm fine with Glasstaff, but Phandelver just didn't work for me or my group and I think the names were a factor. Conversely I'm loving the Gygaxian names in Village of Hommlet - Ostler Gundigroot, Furnok of Ferd, Lareth the Beautiful, Rufus & Burne.

It feels like a history book. Many HS students feel your pain. :-S

Was this confirmed before? Minotaur PCs definitely in Ravnica. https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/1049724912867323904 "Your wish has been fulfilled! Minotaurs appear as a playable race in "Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica." - Jeremy Crawford. Yeah, Crawford's talked on Twitch about the Minotaur/Centaur UA article from a few months back being a stealth Ravnica playtest. Dunno if he had confirmed it had made the final cut previously.

Looking forward to this! So Pegg plays the father of the character that was based on him in the comic book? Yeah. Apparently. :)

Well if he did, I’m sure I wouldn’t notice. Never heard of him. Yep. Just like I've never heard of this dude. Quiz shows don't generally span oceans. Alex Trebek is the host of "Jeopardy!" a quiz show famous on this side of the pond, so I'm thinking it is pretty analogous.

Daleks lose their potency when they're defeated twice a year. Or psychoanalyzed into wanting to ex-ter-min-ate the other Daleks, all by their lonesome. (Would the Doctor recognize if she met THAT one again?)

Issue #0 contains an adventure with comics illustrating scenes relevant to it. But also some interesting pregens, and an essay waxing poetic on The Mimic. I thought issue #0 had great ideas, and the art was charming, but some of the execution could’ve been better. I'm not super clear what this is. Is it an adventure combined with a comic? If so, that sounds quite cool.

The actor. I associate him with daytime quiz shows. Oh. Yeah, I can see that could be a bit distracting. I now have this image of Alex Trebek showing up in Star Trek: Discovery, or something like that.

The actor. I associate him with daytime quiz shows. I’m sure my perception will change over the coming weeks. It's not like we haven't had to work against preconceptions of companions based on past careers before... https://youtu.be/YECHW8BxqNg

Still not sold on Bradley Walsh. The actor, or the character. As I was watching, I was thinking, "Oh, yeah, here's how we know Companions. They are the ones that walk *toward* the weird space things." And then here's this guy who... doesn't. He has a normal, credible amount of fear of things that go ZAP! in the night. I find that... refreshing. They will have a balancing act over the man's fears vs staying with the Doctor, but if they can pull it off, it is markedly different perspective than we usually get.

What an odd thing to say. Well, they have a lot of competition towards the end of the year (especially because Dead Pool 2 is getting a rerelease). Maybe they are giving us a much better look at the movie to convince the audience that this is the movie they should be seeing. Surely DC is aware that a lot of their recent movies haven't exactly had a good reception, so they do have some convincing to do. After seeing this trailer, I still don't think this will be good. It is a pity that even when they shoot an action scene that is not underwater, it still looks 95% CGI. It is kind of like watching a cartoon. I understand that all of the Atlantean stuff has to be done in CGI, but some of the above water stuff as well? It often feels like they are just throwing computer effects at the screen, hoping it will sell enough tickets. I hope this is a good movie. I hope it is like the Wonder Woman movie, and that DC is occasionally able to turn out something some what decent. But I remain highl...

I'm not going to watch that. 5 minutes is too much of the film for a trailer! I'm going to see the movie anyhow, but I don't want it completely spoiled. Most of it is really just two extended scenes. It's like watching a couple clips from an interview show interspersed with snippets.

OLD already has corruption rules (in the appendix). I initially missed that, it exists but it doesn't quite fit the purpose for the setting. I think the track minus the Light is a good way of tracking more permanent points, however I'm after something more temporary. Something that can be used as a resource that you risk permanent corruption by using, i.e I want players to be able to use magic but feel it's dangerous and if I they push it there's a risk.

Wowzers. That will take a lot of unpacking! That's a LOT of questions! :) Thanks for your answers so far! The spellcraft skill has a section on page 156. It is knowledge about magic, as opposed to magical skill. Yeah, that's the section were I saw it before. It's listed there, but not in Fantasy Careers anywhere. It's not in any of the skill categories, nor listed by any career as a career skill. So how do you learn spellcraft? A minute is 10 rounds. I get asked that a lot, and it will be highlighted in v1.2 to make it clear. This is very useful to know, thanks! (RE: creation vs transformation elemental damage effects) They're different effects. One creates an object you'd need to use in some way, the other creates an area which affects all who enter it. I think I understand that, but it seems like the prices are backwards. An item that can deal 1 damage/round if I can find a way to get you to touch it seems worse than terrain that does the same (especially difficult terrain, which is a...

Nothing wrong with trying something and saying “let’s let the market decide this one”. As someone who has published PDFs and physical products, Morrus, I’m curious if you share their sentiment about separate teams and workloads.

I have never heard a drink referred to as a “mild alcoholic beverage” before! Sounds like what Data from Star Trek would call it! :) I'll consider that a compliment sir, and say thank you! I'm not a fan of beer, more specifically, so I get those nifty flavored drinks; Mike's Hard Lemonade, Smirnoff Ice, etc, and they have about as much alcohol as kid's grape juice past its expiration date, so yeah - mild alcoholic beverage heh. Besides, the Kentucky Bourbon isn't for DnD, and going blind from the local Moonshine wouldn't work well at all for DMing.