Embracing the D&Disms

There have been a lot of threads complaining about how certain spells or magic items "ruin" a campaign. Teleport, raise dead, remove disease, the various divinations, etc. I used to have a conceptual problem with these spells too, back when I was playing AD&D1. But my campaigns never got above 6-7th level, so most of the "problems" never came up in play.

Now, with D&D3, I've decided to create my campaign world with these spells in mind. I've fully embraced the spells and magic items that are a core part of D&D. I've considered how the world would have evolved culturally, socially, and "technologically" with the standard D&D magic. I've organized my campaign with the knowledge that many people (though still only a very small percentage of the general population) can heal wounds, cure diseases, double crop output, divine secrets, teleport from place to place, and raise the dead. And I don't have to create any new spells or items to deal with the core spells -- I assume only the core spells and items are commonly known and used.

And I don't say this to brag on myself for being particularly clever or wise. Just that I've found accepting all the "game breaking" spells of D&D, and working with them, actually releived a lot of mental stumbling blocks for creating my games. I have actually found it interesting to make some situations/encounters/adventures *require* the use of D&D spells and magic items - requiring teleport-type spells to access certain areas, requiring divinations to find out the next thing to do, etc.

How many other DMs here have taken the core D&D concepts and extrapolated the results to their campaign world? How many of you have embraced the D&D spells and items that some see as problematic or game-breaking? How is your gaming experience with this approach?

Quasqueton

Quasqueton said:

I have actually found it interesting to make some situations/encounters/adventures *require* the use of D&D spells and magic items - requiring teleport-type spells to access certain areas, requiring divinations to find out the next thing to do, etc.

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Bravo. That's the way to do it.

There's an all-too-brief section of the DMG about this. Don't deny your players their powerful abilities. Make them use those abilities!

As you said, create dungeons with areas that can only be reached by teleportation effects. (Dungeon mag. #113 has a good example of this in the "Practical Magic" adventure.) Make mysteries in which the only way to get a key clue is via divination or commune -- maybe the murder victim's body was disintegrated and the remains scattered, rendering conventional means or lesser spells like speak with dead unworkable. Create enemies who, once they're aware of the PCs, start scrying them regularly. (There's nothing like paranoia to inspire creativity in your players.)

Remember, D&D is not a game of DM vs. PCs. It's a game of cooperative fun. The players want to enjoy using their powerful spells and abilities. Encourage them to do so! You (the DM) will end up enjoying the game more as well.

By the way, here's an inspirational story hour that really opened my eyes to the possibilities of high-level play:

James McMurray's Return to the Tomb of Horrors

I found this to be a very thought-provoking post... I'm running a game in a few weeks and will try to keep this in mind while designing the adventure...

That's an excellent suggestion Quasqueton!

IMOC, I've pondered the idea of limiting certain spells of features, but like you, they haven't gotten that powerful yet to matter. And in truth, it is easier to not mess with it, and just figure out how to fit it all in when it comes up.

Janx

re

Monte Cook's Ptolus campaign had a similar design philosophy. Check it out at www.montecook.com

I generally like this idea. Its easier to just embrace the D&D world than it is to make your own world and reshape everything in the rules to fit.

So what are some of your ideas?

Hear, hear!

I second the incorporation of "game-breaking" spells. Makes the DM remove the rigidity of the game world. Well done.

I designed my last campaign around those spells planning to take it to 16-17 level. They made it to 15-16 before the campaign was done. So they had access to many abilities that are game breaking (in some opinions). Here are a few things I did.

Temples/churches had a natural immunity to scry and teleport. Not every podunk shrine but the larger churches did. Just part of its divinity.

There was an alchemical way to prevent scry and teleport. Very expensive but possible so the movers and shakers of the world usually had a room or two shielded from such things.

The main Meta plot dealt with a deal the Gods had made with the Demon/devils so as part of that contract the God's could not answer questions directly dealing with the meta plot but Divinination was still very useful to the players.

The God's where not all knowing except in their own feilds of power. So who you asked when you Communed and such really changed the answers. I adjusted answers based on the God's own veiw of the world, an almost alien one. Alien in that mere mortals may not "get it". My players often debated which God they were gonna ask certain divinations becuase they knew the answer would vary. It was a moral quandry if the cleric would go outside his God's realm to ask other God's for info.

Raising dead envolved dealing with the God's fairly directly. Often you had to bargain with the God's to get a soul returned. Sometimes agreeing to a quest or oweing them when your next death came about. I would often have the whole party involved in the ceremony asking each player (privately) what they would give up to bring this person back. Often the God's would not take that full price but instead wanted to know how important this person was to the real world versus the afterlife. A sort of defending your life deal.

just a few thoughts

later

This is the exact philosophy behind the design of Eberron, isn't it?

This is something I totally agree with! During my 1e/2e days, I was into that "medieval world" mindset, but since 3e I've made a point of actually using the core rules as-is and seeing where it takes mey campaign.

Shallown...isn't what you describe actually against the point of this thread? You're limiting Scrying beyond what the rules indicate, instead of revising your campaign to include scrying as it is.

I think a great example of using Scrying as-is is in Piratecat's Story Hour, where his BBEG actually used somebody else's name to trick the party into attacking somebody else!

I think there are three possible ways you can go:

1) Ban stuff like raise dead, keep the giant carnivores wandering the countryside to a minimum, etc. Allows you to keep the pseudo-medieval world of knights, castles and so forth. These campaigns are typically described as 'realistic' or 'low fantasy'.

2) Embrace the weird and see what sort of world it leads to as the original poster suggested.

3) Allow all the DnDisms but keep the typical fantasy Tolkien-esque world that now has about a million times more weird stuff in than Tolkien's but is otherwise the same. The justification for this? None whatsoever. It's just a genre thing, like alliterative names in superhero.

Personally I favour option (3), like option (2) and think option (1) is boring.