Xanathar's 18 Pages of What??

[MoonSong]

You know what, let me put it another way, because this really does bother me. I'm a linguistics student. I'm working on a couple of conlangs. I taught myself Python for the express purpose of writing a script that could phonetically generate and process words to my satisfaction.

Woow, you are into conlanging too? That's so cool.

This is a very inaccurate generalization. Even the the underlying assumption you make that there was something called a "feudal system" is increasingly questioned by historians. And in the times and places where there was a professional martial class, status was still determined by birth, connections, and command ability. Yes, William of Normandy could swing a sword and ride a horse, but he became the Conqueror because of politics and an army, not because he was the most badass swords-and-horseman.

Basically I would say that for every William the Conqueror and Richard Lionheart in history, there were tens if not hundreds of badass warriors that died in disgrace and without of crown.

I think they haven't expanded on Magic Item Creation because they are attempting something of a "Hippocratic Oath" ('first, do no harm') in regards to crunch in this edition. (Not saying they are successful, but I think it is pretty clear that they are being cautious.)

They've left magic item creation in the hands of DM-fiat because only DMs have a clue of what is happening within their respective campaigns. What will be necessary in one game could unbalance another. What will help some DMs build an interesting challenge in one game could be a tool to wreck another. Yes, we could be disappointed in that our work is not done for us, but we could also be happy that we were not given a problem.

One size does not fit all.

But many DMs are very reluctant to try stuff without the proper scaffolding to support them. What we have is too bare bones for that.

 

[Parmandur]

WoTC said the name tables were included by popular demand, and they seem to be quite a hit in my experience: I could have done with more pages, actually, covering additional cultures and touching on naming conventions (family names, toponyms, patronyms, nicknanes, etc).

 

[schnee]

This isn't 'Cakes and Quilts'. it's a game about life and death adventuring, not sitting indoors and sewing.

3E ruined the game with such ready-made crafting. It doesn't belong. Xanather's tweaks are enough.

You want magic? Go out and find it. The suggestions in the DMG are perfect: 'Getting each ingredient should be an actual adventure.'

After they travel to the Weeping Wastes to retrieve a single tooth of the famed Sky Blue Polar Bear, get a single tear of a Frost Giant evoked by the telling of a sad tale, and carve a man-sized piece of permafrost that has never seen the light of the sun, then they can throw a bit of gold at the best Elven weapon-smith to make them a Frost Brand.

Other than that there is absolutely no need for formulaic, boring, predictable, capitalism, mass-produced scheduling crafting rules. It's nothing but rules-munchkin bait.

 

[Gardens & Goblins]

This isn't 'Cakes and Quilts'. it's a game about life and death adventuring, not sitting indoors and sewing.

3E ruined the game with such ready-made crafting. It doesn't belong. Xanather's tweaks are enough.

You want magic? Go out and find it. The suggestions in the DMG are perfect: 'Getting each ingredient should be an actual adventure.'

After they travel to the Weeping Wastes to retrieve a single tooth of the famed Sky Blue Polar Bear, get a single tear of a Frost Giant evoked by the telling of a sad tale, and carve a man-sized piece of permafrost that has never seen the light of the sun, then they can throw a bit of gold at the best Elven weapon-smith to make them a Frost Brand.

Other than that there is absolutely no need for formulaic, boring, predictable, capitalism, mass-produced scheduling crafting rules. It's nothing but rules-munchkin bait.

Side note: Some students of mine prototyped a game where brave heroes adventure for.... cooking ingredients. Then they combine them to discover recipes for buffs and bait (to trigger special encounters), so that they can venture forth once more for.... EVEN BETTER/GREATER cooking ingredients.

So yes, I totally agree with you/the DMGH - Getting each ingredient should be an adventure!

 

[Kurotowa]

That is the norm for the premodern era. Most people only had a single name. To distinguish someone from someone else with the same name, people added a ‘son of’ or ‘daughter of’, a ‘from the place of’, or a nickname.

Or sometimes just "The New Guy". See: "Newman" and similar family names.

 

[Yaarel]

A weird feature of premodern names is, origin. It means almost always not what it says.

For example, the artist who has the nickname ‘El Greco’ − the Greek − *MEANS* he doesnt live in Greece. In fact, he lives in Spain. Heh, he has one of those crazy long Greek names, so the Spanish just called him ‘the Greek’.

Leonardo ‘di Vinci’ means he doesnt live in the town of Vinci in the region of Firenze. As an adult, he spent his life elsewhere, Milan, Roma, Venezia, Bologna, even France.

And so on. Normally, of such-and-such a place, is a nickname that means the person comes from there in some sense, but is no longer to be found there.

 

[Mistwell]

Well, Wizards tells us that non-variant Humans are all the rage

They well and truly did not tell us that. It was an erroneous news story title which was refuted directly by WOTC.

 

[Mistwell]

And I'm think you give WotC too much leeway.

In other words, I think you focus on something entirely different than what I had in mind when I wrote my post.

I want WotC to produce official crunch. I want to pay WotC to produce quality crunch.

I want WotC not to get away with selling padding. I don't want to pay WotC for pages of filler.

Whether there is 3PP stuff and whether it is any good is entirely beside the issue.

I want WotC to produce official fluff. I want to pay WotC to produce quality fluff.

I want WotC not to get away with selling padding, like 18 pages of crunch rules for something I will never use like magic item creation rules. I don't want to pay WotC for pages of filler like that would be.

 

[MoonSong]

A weird feature of premodern names is, origin. It means almost always not what it says.

For example, the artist who has the nickname ‘El Greco’ − the Greek − *MEANS* he doesnt live in Greece. In fact, he lives in Spain. Heh, he has one of those crazy long Greek names, so the Spanish just called him ‘the Greek’.

Leonardo ‘di Vinci’ means he doesnt live in the town of Vinci in the region of Firenze. As an adult, he spent his life elsewhere, Milan, Roma, Venezia, Bologna, even France.

And so on. Normally, of such-and-such a place, is a nickname that means the person comes from there in some sense, but is no longer to be found there.

Another not so nice naming custom, giving abandoned children a surname that marks them as just that, like in the Spanish surnames Iglesias -found in the church-, Cruz-raised by the people of the cross-, Expósito -exposed aka. foundling-, Blanco -last name in blank- or Aparicio -appeared out of nowhere-.

 

[Parmandur]

They well and truly did not tell us that. It was an erroneous news story title which was refuted directly by WOTC.

Well, that wasn't what Crawford said, but the data from D&D Beuond suggested that most active Human PCs are not variants with Feats.