D&D (2024) WotC Fireside Chat: Revised 2024 Player’s Handbook

Steampunkette said:

I mean... Maybe, yeah.

Answer remains the same, though. Writer says so.

The writer dictates the rule of the world, the way those rules are reflected in the reality of the world, etc etc and so on and so forth.

All of them start with "Our Normal World" as a baseline with assumptions about gravity and the rate at which the world orbits the nearest star... but then gets -weird- with it after that point.

"Your world's got a normal moon? Child's play! You need at -least- 3 moons and a bunch of broken moonlike material and probably a planet with rings dominating half your sky for a month or two every year..."

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No but that's what I'm saying, it ISN'T an answer to his question. They aren't asking why the writer wrote what they wrote, he is asking assuming that world is real, what is the explanation? In this world is it possible for things to just "happen" for literally no reason? If so/not so, what are the implications?

Practical or not, there are people who are treat fictional worlds as models, and those models need to have internal rules and explanations to be satisfying for those people.

tetrasodium said:

Huh? 489 & 531 were talking about players I see who exhibit the behavior describe both in those posts and the one quoted in 489. Participating to online forums is about as relevant as hair color or fillable PDF printout vra hand filled printout preferences. When a player doesn't try to participate in anything but close to melee>smash>repeat it creates a situation where they obviously wont

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I have no idea what you're talking about or what this has to do with whether or not these types of discussions that matter to us matter to the people who make the game.

Oofta said:

Except in a world where anything that exist is no longer supernatural, ghosts would no longer be supernatural. Kind of like how people once though gorillas were a myth. The words supernatural and magic have meaning for the players of the game, that's all that matters.

I find supernatural and magical useful for describing things. In general anything supernatural is unaffected by dispel magic or antimagic zones because those supernatural things were not brought into existence by direct manipulation using a spell. There are exceptions to every rule including this one of course. So a +1 sword is magical because it was created by a wizard casting a spell of some sort artificially imbuing it with power. A ghost is just a ghost, something we would consider a supernatural being.

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... okay... so... you recognize that the post you quoted accounts for that, right?

Steampunkette said:

And, of course, the supernatural "Exists" in stories as reflections of the real world. Even though ghosts have always existed within the world of Ebenezer Scrooge, they're not common enough in their interactions with humans to be normal and they don't exist in reality, so supernatural describes them just fine.

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I acknowledge that the word exists in the English language and expressed how it is useful to describe other worlds. I was referring to how in those other worlds the idea that magic is "Supernatural" is silly.

Because it's been part of their world for literally ever. Like thousand upon thousand year old "War of the Mages" long at least. And in a world with Elves often known of 20-200,000 years ago.

The term "Supernatural" within most settings would be weird. And likely not refer to Magic or Gods or Monsters that provably exist within the setting.

One detail not yet discussed from the video: "many more feats".

The feats they gave us back in Expert Classes (PT2) were not revisited (Epic feats were cut), but for the most part they all corresponded to PHB feats (as discussed here).
What are the "many more"?

Some possibilities:

• The Tasha Feats.
• new Fighting Techniques (Tasha's had blind sight, thrown weapon, interception, superior technique, unarmed fighting, all of which could be added trivially)
• actually new feats
• Racial feats (a la Xanathar)

That list is in what I see an order of decreasing likelihood.

Raiztt said:

No but that's what I'm saying, it ISN'T an answer to his question. They aren't asking why the writer wrote what they wrote, he is asking assuming that world is real, what is the explanation? In this world is it possible for things to just "happen" for literally no reason? If so/not so, what are the implications?

Practical or not, there are people who are treat fictional worlds as models, and those models need to have internal rules and explanations to be satisfying for those people.

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Ohhhhh...

Then... Whatever -reason- the Writer wrote into the canon about the thing that is being asked about!

'Cause, y'know. I literally described keeping things "Supernatural" in my Sunset Riders setting by making it the laws of physics of an alternate reality being imposed upon a reality where those are -not- the laws of physics, making it effectively supernatural within the context of the setting.

But, again. Dude running 30ft and swinging a total of 6 times with weapons within 6 seconds at the -end- of the 30ft run. John Henry with a hammer in his hand. Whatever folk-hero baseline the setting's got is the one it's got because that's the one the writer wrote.

For John Henry it's because a normal human being is capable of digging a tunnel through a mountain in a single day if he's good enough, strong enough, and willing to die trying.

For the 5e Fighter it's because they just can. No "Reason" is ever given for them to be capable of performing those superhuman feats. So I guess anyone in the world is capable of it if they try hard enough.

Just like John Henry.

And any distinction of what is or isn't magical or supernatural is going to be determined by the writer but will probably never -really- have an in-narrative explanation of why it is or isn't magic?

Like. Ki. Or Exertion. Or whatever. It isn't -magic- but it's not something -everyone- can do, but I guess anyone -could- do it if they took a level of Monk/Adept/Whatever.

It's weird. But it's all about the writer and the reader's suspension of disbelief, I suppose.

Steampunkette said:

... okay... so... you recognize that the post you quoted accounts for that, right?

I acknowledge that the word exists in the English language and expressed how it is useful to describe other worlds. I was referring to how in those other worlds the idea that magic is "Supernatural" is silly.

Because it's been part of their world for literally ever. Like thousand upon thousand year old "War of the Mages" long at least. And in a world with Elves often known of 20-200,000 years ago.

The term "Supernatural" within most settings would be weird. And likely not refer to Magic or Gods or Monsters that provably exist within the setting.

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The meaning supernatural likely has a slightly different meaning in a world of magic, but the word isn't used for the inhabitants of that world. It's used for the players.

Neonchameleon said:

The fighter mountain thing isn't anime. It's literally Celtic Mythology. On the other hand if we're looking at the inspiration for D&D we have Hercules for the fighters who literally carried the world on his shoulders.

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So every fighter is a demigod?

Oofta said:

The meaning supernatural likely has a slightly different meaning in a world of magic, but the word isn't used for the inhabitants of that world. It's used for the players.

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Wouldn't it be by inhabitants of the world of PF 1e, at least among Wizards able to cast dispel magic and antimagic field? (I'm guessing the typical person might not no where the dividing line is).

Steampunkette said:

The term "Supernatural" within most settings would be weird. And likely not refer to Magic or Gods or Monsters that provably exist within the setting.

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The term supernatural isn't for their understanding. It's for US. The players and DMs who do understand the world only from the framework of Earth, have to understand why things are different.

Imagine you are playing on Faerun and you character picks an apple of a tree and takes a bite, only to be met with the DM asking for a Constitution save vs poison. When asked why, the DM looks point blank and says "apples on Faerun are poisonous. Everyone who lives on Faerun knows that!" Well, I, an earthling, doesn't live on Faerun and I assume apples have the same properties as on earth unless it's explained otherwise. I want the same applied to fighters. Explain why this fighter is able to do things an Earth fighter cannot and the more elaborate the abilities, the more elaborate the rationale.

Kobold Stew said:

One detail not yet discussed from the video: "many more feats".

The feats they gave us back in Expert Classes (PT2) were not revisited (Epic feats were cut), but for the most part they all corresponded to PHB feats (as discussed here).
What are the "many more"?

Some possibilities:

• The Tasha Feats.
• new Fighting Techniques (Tasha's had blind sight, thrown weapon, interception, superior technique, unarmed fighting, all of which could be added trivially)
• actually new feats
• Racial feats (a la Xanathar)

That list is in what I see an order of decreasing likelihood.

Click to expand...

I don't think the racial feats made the cut, but everything else is fair game.