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Older Activity
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Today, 03:35 AM
"Cannot possibly fail" is also known as DM Narrates Success, and it's not slaved to bonuses or DCs - in fact, it precedes the determination of the DC by the DM.
There's no need to tweak rules to get there more often, just narrate success more often. As DM, you are /Empowered/ to do so!
182 replies | 8490 view(s)
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Today, 03:11 AM
I know you're a lawyer, not a physicist, but is that The General Theory of 4e Relativity? Or The Special?
217 replies | 6872 view(s)
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Today, 02:46 AM
That occurred to me shortly after my first look at 4e.
It seems like a fine idea, there's nothing wrong with It mathematically...
.... but I never did get around to trying it.
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Today, 01:51 AM
I think the question is more properly how many of them have access to economy-breaking magic.
And, yeah, since that's the Realms:
all of 'em.
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Today, 01:42 AM
Clearly, it's a good illusion, if even you are missing it! ;)
Maybe a hypothetical non-illusory treadmill would help:
Bob, a veteran (1) fighter in service to the local lord(9), Bert, an apprentice (1) thief in service to the guildmaster (10), Robin a sorceress's (9) apprentice (1) who just mastered Sleep, and Robere a novitiate (1) sent by the high priest (9), are brought together to...
217 replies | 6872 view(s)
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Yesterday, 06:13 AM
Yes. He practically created the S&S genre, and his writing broke with tradition, he was the freak'n Henry Miller of pulp.
Well, Shakespear wrote the Temest, and it's wizard, Prospero, /used a spellbook/, so, yeah, D&D is totally emulating high art, there.
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Yesterday, 05:46 AM
Unless you have save:1/2 AEs flying around at high levels, then the hordes get auto-killed. It's more dramatic, since volleys from said hordes will also be quickly fatal, but it's still problematic.
Yes, it does, and back to the treadmill illusion, as those minions and swarms will be of about the party's level, again.
217 replies | 6872 view(s)
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Yesterday, 05:37 AM
I think it's pretty obvious that unclear rules (so hard to apply system mastery) that mention spoiling spellcasting and loss of the slot when casting in melee are a lot more melee-adverse than clearer ones that call for an AoO, risk spoiling the spell but not loss of the slot and can be circumvented with optimized concentration, which in turn are harsher than a mere OA without stopping casting...
217 replies | 6872 view(s)
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Yesterday, 05:24 AM
How many PH classes are two words? And any military rank is problematic as a class name. (And, again, not much point of a clone that changes the most recognizable, original bits).
42 replies | 1123 view(s)
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Yesterday, 05:20 AM
I don't actually disagree, it's just that, mechanically, SCs in their final form were a robust subsystem. Just like d20 skill systems in general, not a very evocative one - since they're all essentially pass/fail.
On the topic of bad names for things, I'd think twice about 'social /combat/'
I think it was just a convient, pithy play on words. If they'd've picked something else,...
78 replies | 2292 view(s)
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Yesterday, 04:51 AM
You couldnt really do 'builds' in 1e, especially not that depended on items. And multiclassing meant significant level limits.
But the point wasn't mainly toughness (though wizards get slightly tougher with each ed, too), it was casting in melee: in 1e, it was risky (though the rules weren't super clear even by 1e standards, and even clear rules could vary from table to table), and you could...
217 replies | 6872 view(s)
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Yesterday, 02:27 AM
Traditional D&D design principles put at least some value on the 14,400 uses of an at-will action you could hypothetically squeeze into a really busy 24hr day.
5e, I think, is closer to your understanding of the value of an at will than that - or cantrip designs would be different - but Zard and quite a few others are skeptical of at will cantrips as presented, and leary of any other at-will...
78 replies | 2292 view(s)
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Yesterday, 12:24 AM
The Warden and Avenger never gelled for me. I never did see where the former concept came from (beyond corner of Primal & Defender grid-filling - not that there's anything wrong with filling a grid, if you're gonna have one, anyway). And while the latter was clear enough I never quite got how it was intended to be played - didn't stop multiple players from having a great time playing one in my...
42 replies | 1123 view(s)
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Saturday, 25th May, 2019, 11:08 PM
Y'know, towards the end (HotEC) more and more powers were being written that way.
2 replies | 211 view(s)
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Saturday, 25th May, 2019, 11:05 PM
It's a really weird, really old issue.
When D&D was naught but a misfiring neuron in Dave Arneson's brain, there was a not too popular wargaming hobby, and, since it was essentially historical reenactment on sand tables using tin soldiers, "realism" was a highly coveted - and very elusive - quality.
So, when various innovations passed through the minds of Gygax & Arneson - in what order, ...
189 replies | 15827 view(s)
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Saturday, 25th May, 2019, 10:25 PM
Sure, but a lot of us have been here since it was Eric Noah's and all about the 'new' 3rd edition, and have just adopted each new edition, 4e, then 5e, in turn.
What's your favorite alternate to the current ed is often a close call. I nearly voted 4e, but went with 1e, because that's still where the magic lies, for me, emotionally. I could have as easily gone for 4e (pre-E), on the basis of...
217 replies | 6872 view(s)
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Saturday, 25th May, 2019, 10:14 PM
Yeah, don't make the mistake the "tactical module" did and create something for the 4e fans, based on how the game's detractors painted it.
Skill Challenges are a plenty robust sub-system, what they lacked was da flavah. The best SCs I ran or played in where the ones that had been added to, creating a sort of game-within-a-game, that had the success and failure map to something more...
78 replies | 2292 view(s)
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Saturday, 25th May, 2019, 09:27 PM
It'd be a platform to produce modules and supplements compatible with 4e, and to continue to add to and develop it in the directions it was originally heading (before all the hadwringing and backsliding).
78 replies | 2292 view(s)
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Saturday, 25th May, 2019, 09:22 PM
Paladins are rarely being played as knights of Charlemagne, nor or Sorcerers as gaining their powers from spirits, nor Clerics as issueing fatwas.
Commander is much narrower, and more strongly implies just barking orders (one of the more controversial visualizations), rather than inspiration, leading by example, executing cooperative maneuvers or giving tactical advice.
42 replies | 1123 view(s)
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Saturday, 25th May, 2019, 07:03 PM
Would bumping them with the note "Please move to the D&D forum" help?
Is there any way to add a tag to an old thread you, yourself, started?
83 replies | 3590 view(s)
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Saturday, 25th May, 2019, 06:32 PM
The issue with the 4e version was the wording, which was eventually cleaned up.
A 5e translation (at will, give up /action/ to grant /attack/) struggles to be worthwhile, in the hands of the Tanky fighter, because it's virtually always better to just attack, himself.
78 replies | 2292 view(s)
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Saturday, 25th May, 2019, 06:16 PM
( I prefer "block of tofu" )
But, no, it's not, and I'm a little surprised that 5e got away with keeping everyone proficient exactly as good with their d20 checks as they leveled.
I suppose Expertise helps.
Correct. Your fighter might just graduate from being smashed to paste in one round by an ogre, to being pasted by a Giant, but you hit the giant on natural iterative rolls...
217 replies | 6872 view(s)
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Saturday, 25th May, 2019, 05:34 PM
Yes!
but my phone, in its silicon wisdom, had deduced - probably from my participation in way too many DEX is das Uberstat threads - that when it type CHA, I mean DEX.
- technology: making our lives easier!
Oh, there's still a tradeoff, it's just in choice of class, and even concept. Want or play a charismatic warrior? Too bad you CHA is 5 and your STR 9 - Maybe with that 16 INT you...
91 replies | 4242 view(s)
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Saturday, 25th May, 2019, 05:19 PM
PrCs would open up quite a lot. They'd be a powerful setting tool for the DM, since a player who takes a setting-tie-in PrC has bought into the setting in a big way. The DM could also use them to gate status - like the old 1e Lord - behind preqs, rather than just class/level or, as it currently stands in 5e, Background.
The PDK-pretty nearly every sub-class on SCAG really - and the...
91 replies | 4242 view(s)
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Saturday, 25th May, 2019, 04:55 PM
I wonder if it isn't also something WotC just saw the wisdom in letting slide? The OSR movement has arguably been good for 5e, building buzz around D&D and it's status in the history of hobby games.
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Saturday, 25th May, 2019, 04:40 PM
You don't, but, unless your opus is the best RPG designed to date at the moment it's released, it will vanish into a void of abject indifference, along with all the money you invested in self-publishing it.
( If it actually is the best RPG designed to date at the moment it's released, it will win some obscure awards for "best new game of the year" before being forgotten.)
78 replies | 2292 view(s)
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Saturday, 25th May, 2019, 04:26 PM
Oh, that's an idea! It might also work for *ahem* 'solo' play ...
189 replies | 15827 view(s)
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Friday, 24th May, 2019, 09:27 PM
They don't random-roll them, either.
They don't have numeric stats, at all. It's numeric stats (and classes &c) in the game that are /trying/ (often unsuccessfully) to model them.
When you're trying to model an archetype with a character class, though, everything that class choice touches comes up. What benefits you get from which stat, and the trade-offs that creates becomes very...
91 replies | 4242 view(s)
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Friday, 24th May, 2019, 09:21 PM
Has the virtue of simplicity.
What about 'good' saves? Those could get pretty high if you added proficiency - and, if you don't, there's no progression, at all (rather than just none with bad saves).
56 replies | 1308 view(s)
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Friday, 24th May, 2019, 08:43 PM
Ignoring the rules (that didn't suit you) /was/ how 1e was played, and is, IMHO, how best to play 5e, sure. ;) It's definitely not how 3.x (RaW! RaW!) and 4e (updates! DDI!) were played.
For you, sure. For me, it's more nostalgia. I played 1e from 1980 through to 2e, and my 2e campaign was really more a hybrid between the two. After a 5 year break I came back to D&D with 3.0. I played...
78 replies | 2292 view(s)
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Friday, 24th May, 2019, 08:03 PM
I think he said something more like, /one/ player of each ed, rather than an odd-man-out scenario, but my recall isn't perfect.
They took down the old L&Ls, or I'd link it for you.
It was played pretty differently at each table, as I recall!
When I say 'run 5e like 1e' I mean get the same feel, use an old module just converting on the fly, stuff like that. Not translate all the...
78 replies | 2292 view(s)
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Friday, 24th May, 2019, 07:26 PM
Mearls came right out and said it, in a pre-playtest L&L. Not just groups will be able to play 5e (Next) like it was their past-fave ed, but that /different players at the same table/ would be able to play their characters like they were still in their favorite respective past eds!
It was total pie-in-the-sky idealism, and the effort wasn't ever really undertaken to deliver it.
But, /a/...
78 replies | 2292 view(s)
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Friday, 24th May, 2019, 07:16 PM
It's not unusual to not stick with a game that doesn't work - unless the game that doesn't work is D&D, then you don't just stick with it, you defend it zealously and re-define what a game is even supposed to be so that the way it doesn't work is exactly the way everything /should/ work, and it's all other games that have problems!
Well, I've played exactly none of those, and only heard of...
19 replies | 791 view(s)
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Friday, 24th May, 2019, 06:36 PM
Nothing escalates a thread
to edition war defcon1 like the prospect of someone, somewhere, someday possibly being allowed to play an official 5e D&D Warlord, even if there's only a remote hypothetical possibility that it might not suck. Heck, Warlord discussion needed their own hazardous thread containment forum, here, for a while, so virulent was the reaction against even discussing...
42 replies | 1123 view(s)
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Friday, 24th May, 2019, 06:28 PM
I'd never complain about a class being 'only' Tier 2. ;) The 3.x Sorcerer, for instance, Tier 2, but a better class design with more potential for engaging play and covering more potential character concepts than the Wizard, IMHO.
I can't agree. The point of psionics is that it is magic scrubbed of fantasy, religious, mystical or superstitious trappings, and draped with scientific ones,...
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Friday, 24th May, 2019, 06:10 PM
Yeah, I spun off on a couple of tangents, there, I think.
Sure, but that's nothing unique. Really, /levels/, foundational to all forms of D&D and many of it's imitators, do that - the numbers just give level some mechanical teeth.
Hit points, damage, and number/complexity/power/versatility of powers & feats would still support that arc, though. That's what 5e BA did, relative to 4e. ...
217 replies | 6872 view(s)
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Friday, 24th May, 2019, 05:21 AM
Well, we couldn't let the little buggers invade D&D, with their battlemagic and power crystals and percentile skills and level-less progression! I don't care if you just came looking for a better life, /go home to Glorantha!/ you stunted excuse for a troll! Do you even regenerate?!
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Friday, 24th May, 2019, 03:32 AM
Charismatic Warrior Hero is a pretty broad archetype. There are /many/ examples.
You're presuming a conclusion.
Archetypes and characters from fiction don't have D&D CHA, and aren't a D&D class - they are what they are - D&D can be used to try to model them by choosing stats, race, class and so forth.
And it can often model them poorly, or inefficiently.
Which means those universal...
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Friday, 24th May, 2019, 12:44 AM
While I in no way begrudge folks who want them their psionic classes, for me it always seemed the problem with psionics - and the reason game designers kept resorting to novel mechanics for it - is that it's not really that different, in fluff, from magic. A lot of what people who believed in magic would have called magic, is what we'd today call a 'psychic power' (or a temporal lobe seizure, as...
92 replies | 3058 view(s)
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Friday, 24th May, 2019, 12:10 AM
Almost. In order to call back psionic power points, they made the encounter powers into power points that enhanced at-wills, the results were not terrible, but the exercises struck me as unnecessary - mechanical difference for the sole sake of being /mechanically/ different.
The GOO Warlock even gets telepathy!
So only Tier 2, then?
92 replies | 3058 view(s)
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Thursday, 23rd May, 2019, 11:57 PM
Wow. Had WotC over a barrel and Hackmaster is what the went for? Heh.
OK, looking at what they have to say, they went to the effort of teasing out "just the mechanics, ma'am" - I'm a little surprised, at time's I've looked up something in OSRIC and it seemed word-for-word identical.
While mechanics vs 'fluff' are presented more clearly in 4e, a lot of the wording that holds them together -...
42 replies | 1123 view(s)
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Thursday, 23rd May, 2019, 10:33 PM
As I recall Hackmaster and the first OSR (OSRIC?) actually got some sort of permission?
:|
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Thursday, 23rd May, 2019, 09:18 PM
I've done both over the years.
The former seems like the standard assumption. It leaves each player free to create his character and give it backstory independent of the others.
I find the latter quite intriguing, but you need to have players into the idea of having history with eachother in the characters' backstories. I like it for starting campaigns with that right kind of player - or...
18 replies | 435 view(s)
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Thursday, 23rd May, 2019, 09:14 PM
Yeah, that's due to past organization. This used to be PF & Older Editions, the 4e threads were started then and haven't all petered out yet. Now it's just PF. (Dunno why those other threads haven't just been moved.)
Rightly, you should put this thread in the D&D forum, with the 4e tag.
Until they change it again, anyway.
PRD?
13th Age is often called out as similar to 4e, and...
42 replies | 1123 view(s)
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Thursday, 23rd May, 2019, 07:17 PM
Not a 4e a clone, but an OGL that's like 5e D&D but better?
But we already have 13th Age. ;P
I kid, but 13A did hit several of 5e's supposed goals more squarely than 5e did, supporting TotM, for instance, balancing classes with radically different resource mixes, for another, oh, and limiting the Xmass Tree effect, and mooks, and, well, more than a few, I guess.
Well sure, it was...
217 replies | 6872 view(s)
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Thursday, 23rd May, 2019, 05:47 PM
Roll under runs into some numerical issues, like a stat of 20 being problematic, and modeling varying difficulties being a bit fraught. Open-ended bonuses and DCs leave a lot more room to work with, mechanically.
A simpler, more honest solution to the 'odd stat out problem,' is just to toss them. Replaces stats with their bonuses: PC stats range from -1 to +5, end of story.
I certainly...
56 replies | 1308 view(s)
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Thursday, 23rd May, 2019, 05:02 AM
It resonates with me, a bit. I feel like I run better 4e games, after running 5e for a while. I've reconnected with DMing techniques I'd had less need for in 4e.
Oh yeah, what I love about 3e. I'll still play 3.5 if I get a chance to finally trot out some build-to-concept I never got a chance to play. Last time it was the mad kobold sorcerer with "imaginary friends" - and spells, from...
217 replies | 6872 view(s)
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Thursday, 23rd May, 2019, 04:24 AM
Want to play Orpheus? Have a 3.0 Commoner with a kazoo.
(You've got a funny hat, too, y'might just pull it off.)
I think it's fair to say the system does that - both have very significant return on CHA, a Bard would conventionally be CHA-primary, a Paladin at worst, CHA secondary.
To be fair, they are both explicitly optional, and not every table may opt in.
Ironically, turning...
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Thursday, 23rd May, 2019, 03:37 AM
Heal? or True Polymorph?
Yeah, a thing called a Lawyer. That kinda shout'n can True Polymorph all sorts of legal entities...
...but...
...certainly not after those legal bills.
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Thursday, 23rd May, 2019, 12:04 AM
It's not an idea, it's the GSL. You can't clone 4e, it's not open source. It's not a limitation of the 5e (or other d20) mechanics - you can work from any open source engine, and replace most of the parts, if you want - it's a limitation of the license.
You could create a 4e-ish game using a d20 OGL (any of 'em really), like 13A did, heck, you could take the Pelgrane Press Archmage Engine...
78 replies | 2292 view(s)
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Wednesday, 22nd May, 2019, 10:09 PM
Oh, the classes are very different, even within the same source or role (or in a few cases, Bard v Artificer, frex both) - nothing much to do with the big numbers floating around everyone.
The one thing big numbers do, though, is provide an often-credible illusion of advancement..
The GSL seriously complicates actually publishing (even e-publishing) any of it, though.
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Wednesday, 22nd May, 2019, 09:30 PM
Sam sure seemed like he had a high Loyalty Base.
A protagonist in fantasy/myth/legend, that is a) a warrior, and b) not exclusively on a solo quest the whole time, is probably a Charismatic Fighting Hero. He may grow into the charismatic part, especially in more modern fantasy offerings which often have coming-of-age elements, or he may have only occasional, temporary allies rather than a band...
91 replies | 4242 view(s)
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Wednesday, 22nd May, 2019, 09:17 PM
Or Psionics or Artificer fans. Some of us want an Artificer who's basically just a wizard who specializes in making magic items, others want a steampunk engineer, or Johnny Sokko, or to be Q to their party's James Bond. Psionics? Magic or not? Points or slots? Should it even be a class - it wasn't in 1e!
In any group of n on-line fans of x feature in y game, you probably have x^n + n^Y +...
217 replies | 6872 view(s)
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Wednesday, 22nd May, 2019, 08:48 PM
Sorry if I mostly riff off your post for humor purposes....
Any stat or skill could conceivably be rendered moot by the DM's style or choice of setting & challenges, I suppose.
I don't see why not knowing anything isn't a meaningful consequence. I mean, recalling something useful certainly is. Is the idea that you start off not knowing anything, so you might as well try?
...
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Wednesday, 22nd May, 2019, 07:19 PM
Options like that go way back. I mean, 3e had 'fighting defensively,' sure, but back in the day DMs would assign all sorts of modifiers. Before there even was a barbarian, one DM I played with would let you 'rage' (I don't think he called it that) getting an attack bonus & taking an AC penalty - something my Druid in his game did on a number of occasions, because Celtic warriors, though not the...
189 replies | 15827 view(s)
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Wednesday, 22nd May, 2019, 06:32 PM
Y'know, some groups have kinda done that, just organically, and it can be fun. Started in one edition and migrated to the next, with or without some in-campaign event (or time passage) marking the rev roll.
My old AD&D campaign spanned 1e & 2e, but as 2e started out so much like 1e I didn't mark it in any way (though I did annoy one player by whip-sawing his exp table around, and kept an...
217 replies | 6872 view(s)
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Wednesday, 22nd May, 2019, 12:53 AM
I converted B1: In Search of the Unknown, it's about as classic a dungeon crawl as it gets. Though more weird than brutal, and it's low-level, but classic with all the crazy D&Disms you could want.
OK, 'converted' is giving me way too much credit, I didn't convert anything up-front, just ran with the 5e versions of what was there... sometimes even just used the old stats, mentally inverting...
22 replies | 852 view(s)
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Wednesday, 22nd May, 2019, 12:48 AM
For my money it's the Circle of Oak in the playtest, I got to play one and it really brought me right back to the 1e Druid, real nostalgic fun - or the "Land" Druid in the 5e PH.
The Moon Druid harkens more to the 3.5/WoW/4e shape-shifting-centric druid. While shape-shifting was a legendary Druid thing, and the 1e Druid did it, it wasn't with quite the same emphasis, not mainly about hulking...
5 replies | 390 view(s)
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Wednesday, 22nd May, 2019, 12:36 AM
I suppose you could make some arguments about leverage and so forth...
…
but, nah "just dumb" sounds 'bout right. If you're gonna cut the gnome some slack 'because fantasy,' you might as well cut the amazon some slack 'because fantasy.'
If you're not, well, "realism kills," as my BBS tagline used to say. ;)
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Tuesday, 21st May, 2019, 10:43 PM
FWIW 1e halflings had a lower max STR than other races.
Though, that's for the benefit if the younger generation out there - I obviously don't need to tell you that, since, as I understand it, you still run 1e by preference?
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Tuesday, 21st May, 2019, 06:32 PM
More like the fallout, the collateral damage - and what made forums blaze in the flames of hell, and gave mods all over the internet ulcers, of course. Not to mention the undiagnosed tragedy of Post Traumatic Edition War Syndrome.
Sure, you do see continuations of the edition war in those threads, it's inevitable when you think about it. The Warlord was introduced in 4e, and it's a valid...
217 replies | 6872 view(s)
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Tuesday, 21st May, 2019, 07:29 AM
Not a fan of TotM, but, since I don't see how it actually has any bearing, went ahead and voted for da Flavah. Bland bonuses are bland.
Of course, in the olden days you didn't have to choose: your +1 sword most likely glowed (thanks, Tolkien), and your +1 armor was feather-light and needed no maintenance. 5e, likewise, has some cool options for adding extra seasoning to otherwise bland...
31 replies | 817 view(s)
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Tuesday, 21st May, 2019, 07:22 AM
Superior? Different. Willing to adopt the new can be seen as positive or negative, depending on your PoV, but it's certainly different from defending the old.
Edit: But, hey, if thinking of yourself as superior matters so to you, you can always spin it hard in the negative direction, something like: former 4e fans must be a bunch of uncritical WotC apologists who automatically adopt the...
217 replies | 6872 view(s)
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Tuesday, 21st May, 2019, 05:58 AM
They're very closely linked topics. The 5MWD is all about timing encounters vs rest for maximum advantage to full casters, and, thus, the PC side of those encounters. It was a very potent strategy in 3.x, when players would plot an attack, execute it, and retire to recover all-important spells. In 1e, it was vital to rest & recover spells frequently, just to survive 1st level.
I've been...
53 replies | 1535 view(s)
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Tuesday, 21st May, 2019, 05:36 AM
There's always griping, of course, merely not adopting is a live-and-let-live 'rejection' of a new ed, if that's as far as it goes..
But, CoC notwithstanding, there was lots of edition warring here - and it's not exactly entirely gone, either. Look at how quickly 4e leading in even a trivial little poll like this drew the attacks.
217 replies | 6872 view(s)
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Tuesday, 21st May, 2019, 05:07 AM
Yes, and your argument is proven wrong by the conspicuous lack of an edition war raging against 5e.
I understand that you want to establish an equivalency between the more extreme demands of the playtest, and the extremes of the edition war, but they were fundamentally different: all the demands, posturing and vitriol if the playtest was fans wanting to get what they wanted into the coming...
217 replies | 6872 view(s)
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Tuesday, 21st May, 2019, 01:42 AM
It's really just peeling another onion-layer off action declaration. Implicit in many action declarations is a reason for the choice of method that goes with the goal. If that reason is predicated on knowledge and the PC having or recalling that knowledge is in doubt, then in calling for the check the DM is just breaking down a declared action into necessary smaller actions. DMs have been...
580 replies | 20979 view(s)
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Tuesday, 21st May, 2019, 01:14 AM
To be fair, I only credit 1e with those qualities. I'd quibble with 2e, since it did pour on a /lot/ of er stuff. ;) But 1e and 5e both have something going on that isn't quantified in the rules or just the sum of the sub-systems or anything quite objective or tangible, it's the DM's freedom to explore way from the system that's a big part of it. 1e had that going for it more or less by...
217 replies | 6872 view(s)
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Monday, 20th May, 2019, 11:07 PM
Edition warring, in the brief 4e era, during the playtest, and right now, in this thread, has generally been initiated /against/ 4e. This is no exception. 4e is dead, you got to help kill it, you got to dance and spit all over it's grave. But, now, with 4e taking a /slight/ lead, in a trivial little 2nd-favorite-edition-after-5e poll, you're at it again.
Why? What possible threat could...
217 replies | 6872 view(s)
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Monday, 20th May, 2019, 07:13 PM
Yes. 5e is both easy and hard. It's hard to DM, requiring a lot of skill/talent/experience/gall/whatever to just take up that imaginary absolute power and run with it - but, if you /have/ meet that preq somehow (or you just don't care), it's also /easy/ to just wield that power and have fun with it.
I'm not sure if it's 'conversely' or 'by the same token,' or both, but from the players'...
46 replies | 1833 view(s)
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Monday, 20th May, 2019, 06:48 PM
Not to mention liking 4e and some prior editions (I was a straight-up 4venger, but I'm also one of those old guys for whom nothing will ever match what I had with 1e, for instance - and more on that below, since you bring it up...).
THE biggest reason for preferring one older edition is that it's the edition you started with. It's just a powerful emotional connection, I guess.
The 1e...
217 replies | 6872 view(s)
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Monday, 20th May, 2019, 05:07 PM
Well, there is a PF forum. I suspect if you put this poll up there you might see the result you'd expect.
BTW, I'm curious why you play 5e rather than 3.5 or PF?
217 replies | 6872 view(s)
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Monday, 20th May, 2019, 04:01 AM
Selective memory of the present?
There is no edition war being waged against 5e.
217 replies | 6872 view(s)
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Monday, 20th May, 2019, 01:51 AM
Fans of 4e were necessarily drawn from the segment of the fan base most willing to give a new ed a fair shot. You had to be, to look past the rocky introduction and the vitriol of the edition war, and form an honest impression of the new ed.
5e's introduction was a lot more considerate and measured, there may not have been a lot of enthusiasm for Next, but when season 19 rolled around, we...
217 replies | 6872 view(s)
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Sunday, 19th May, 2019, 11:33 PM
Consider that this is being asked in 5e forum. The most effusive praise I've heard of 5e has come from 2e fans. 0e/1e/OSR and 3.x/PF fans have their things, so may not drop by here. 4e fans, by definition, were those most willing to give a new ed a chance.
So what you're seeing isn't absolute popularity of editions, but a prevalence of 2e & 4e fans within the 5e community.
217 replies | 6872 view(s)
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Sunday, 19th May, 2019, 05:34 AM
One set in the alternate universe of Je ne suis pas un homme facile, for instance. Or, for us older fellas who may not have netflix, any of those 70s battle of the sexes spoofs, like Queen Kong or Star Maidens.
104 replies | 2706 view(s)
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Sunday, 19th May, 2019, 05:03 AM
1e AD&D. Every edition since has been better in many ways, but can't compete with those early experiences.
217 replies | 6872 view(s)
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Saturday, 18th May, 2019, 08:41 PM
You could slip in something of the kind in one of two ways that *might* not go over too badly:
1) Have SIZe and BuiLD stats chosen by the player, together they determine your characters weight, and put limits (min & max) on STRength and DEXterity. They're independent of the player's choice of assigned sex, but will probably result in gender-stereotype-conforming PCs.
2) Setting. If a...
104 replies | 2706 view(s)
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Saturday, 18th May, 2019, 08:18 PM
I've heard all sides in such debates way too much to get into it, there's political issues fueling different sides, and it involves autopsy-level detail that'll never be modeled with a hp system.
The takeaway is that lots of things can kill you, where guns stand out is in how easy they make it, regardless of size/strength/skill of either party involved.
'cept for 4e, iff, by 'people' you...
161 replies | 5002 view(s)
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Friday, 17th May, 2019, 09:45 PM
Or what's appealing, sure (I recall harboring some hearty skepticism in the playtest when Mearls started going on about reaching back to early experiences with AD&D to get insight into what would make 5e appeal to new players - being a new player in the 80s or 90s has gotta be very different from being one today!). And the dynamics at the table can have a big impact. But, while 39 years (yeah...
46 replies | 1833 view(s)
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Friday, 17th May, 2019, 07:18 PM
While a 4e approach might have been as or more accessible to new players as 5e's, and might've become more so in the long run, it's failure with established fans and 5e's reversion to type means that a new generation of fans are being indoctrinated into the same expectations as the old generation. D&D as it was in the 80s, and is again today, is how it will remain for the foreseeable future. If...
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Thursday, 16th May, 2019, 09:26 PM
Obviously, the guy that made the potion has to concentrate. That's dedication.
… or, no, wait if the potion requires concentration do you have to run it through a high-vacuum evaporator before use? Store it in a freezer?
67 replies | 9440 view(s)
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Thursday, 16th May, 2019, 07:20 PM
I suppose it doesn't have to be conventional black powder (in my 4e pirate game, 'thunderfire rods' used 'alchemical reagents'), and could have different characteristics, like merely smoldering when touched off outside of a gun rather than being a functional low explosive.
161 replies | 5002 view(s)
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Thursday, 16th May, 2019, 07:08 PM
I'm not even so sure it's that big a deal. Why do firearms have to be particularly lethal? They just punch holes in people down range. Spears punch holes in people, arrows & quarrels punch holes in people - a dagger can certainly kill, but only does a d4.
Historically what made firearms so revolutionary wasn't that they were deadlier or longer-ranged than bows but that they required less...
161 replies | 5002 view(s)
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Thursday, 16th May, 2019, 06:08 PM
In a D&D world, the bolded, above, could include: Kings, Emperors, Vassals thereof, Tyrants, humanoid chieftains, Theocracies, Magocracies, Mad Liches*, Demi-gods, Diabolic powers, and, well, Dragons if they really felt like it. I'm guessing the average attitude of governing bodies is not one disinclined to accept rampant poverty among the general populace.
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Thursday, 16th May, 2019, 05:47 PM
It's funny how the subject has turned to hps.
The second-earliest, second-most-vicious, second-best-justified criticism of primordial D&D was that characters gaining hps through 'experience' made no sense. (Obviously that's second after 'forgetting' spells upon casting being ridiculous.) EGGs exhaustive defense of the system was a useable rationalization if you were willing to suspend...
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Thursday, 16th May, 2019, 12:42 AM
I'd think, if you're working back from the kind of world you want, you would be considering which spells &c to include that would support that vision, and cut those that don't fit. Otherwise you're really back to the same exercise.
137 replies | 5911 view(s)
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Thursday, 16th May, 2019, 12:37 AM
My usual advice for new DMs is play a lot first, if at all play possible with a series of experienced DMs. Playing develops familiarity with the rules, and the informal process of play (and how much both can vary from DM to DM). It lets you see what DMs do that works and doesn't work for you and for other players. And, of course, it sparks ideas, though it sounds like you already have those. ...
12 replies | 472 view(s)
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Wednesday, 15th May, 2019, 11:41 PM
He'll be fine.
… and often to not so good effect and/or for not so good reasons … really, most of the time, said tradition is unexamined.
OK, you deserved XP already, but you're getting it for that reference.
Honestly, back in the day, I recall what we'd now call 'sharing director stance' /just happening/ as part of the GM* & player trying to get through the...
580 replies | 20979 view(s)
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The Charismatic Fighting "Hero" - Which Core Class does it Best? in *Dungeons & Dragons
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