Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
D&D Next Blog: Tone and Edition
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Essenti" data-source="post: 5893740" data-attributes="member: 100205"><p>Good lord... if my gamers brought the same level of "OMG NO!1!!!11!" to the table as some people bring to these 5E threads, I'd be tidying up my nice new digs in the state penitentiary. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite7" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue :p" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":p" /></p><p></p><p>Try to look at "common, uncommon, rare" from a different perspective. These labels don't have to tell you how common or rare they should be in <em>your</em> game. Think of them as an indication of how often they appeared in the various editions of the game--without having to put a definitive edition label on them, which would probably keep the edition warfires smoldering.</p><p></p><p>(I can imagine there exist a few edition zealots out there who'd be ecstatic to see WoTC categorize the game elements with literal edition labels so they can more easily recognize those parts of the game that have anything to do with those vile and hated editions which could potentially corrupt their delicate sensibilities through inadvertently reading <em>the mechanics that shall not be read</em>)</p><p></p><p>"Common, uncommon, rare" works perfectly fine if you think about them from an <em>all editions encompassing</em> frame of reference.</p><p></p><p>Did it exist in all editions, pow, common.</p><p></p><p>Did it exist in two or more editions, bang, uncommon.</p><p></p><p>Did it exist in only one edition, bam, rare.</p><p></p><p>Could WoTC use other labels? Indeed they can and perhaps should--judging from some of the reactions in this thread. Having them categorized is still a great idea and offers a straightforward method for a DM to allow or disallow races/classes/whatever.</p><p></p><p>You could tell your players:</p><p></p><p>"Feel free to use any <em>common</em> or <em>uncommon</em> elements to create your character before the game on Sunday, contact me if their is a <em>rare</em> element you'd like to explore and I'll think about it."</p><p></p><p>Or,</p><p></p><p>"Feel free to use any <em>common</em> race, except those horrible halflings! Gnomes and half-orcs are okay, but no other <em>uncommon</em>. Oh, and don't even contemplate any of those weird <em>rare</em> races, unless your dragborn is sans the mammaries."</p><p></p><p>You can even change the category of an element if you want:</p><p></p><p>"Drow are <em>common</em>, they're like dog poop in my campaign."</p><p></p><p>At the end of the day, you can still just list straight out what you want to include or leave out, and completely ignore the labels with no additional work required (save what you'd have done in any previous edition by writing out the list of races/classes/whatever).</p><p></p><p>The categories are there to make things easier and should have absolutely no game mechanic associations, so they don't actually matter if you totally ignore them.</p><p></p><p><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Essenti, post: 5893740, member: 100205"] Good lord... if my gamers brought the same level of "OMG NO!1!!!11!" to the table as some people bring to these 5E threads, I'd be tidying up my nice new digs in the state penitentiary. :p Try to look at "common, uncommon, rare" from a different perspective. These labels don't have to tell you how common or rare they should be in [I]your[/I] game. Think of them as an indication of how often they appeared in the various editions of the game--without having to put a definitive edition label on them, which would probably keep the edition warfires smoldering. (I can imagine there exist a few edition zealots out there who'd be ecstatic to see WoTC categorize the game elements with literal edition labels so they can more easily recognize those parts of the game that have anything to do with those vile and hated editions which could potentially corrupt their delicate sensibilities through inadvertently reading [I]the mechanics that shall not be read[/I]) "Common, uncommon, rare" works perfectly fine if you think about them from an [I]all editions encompassing[/I] frame of reference. Did it exist in all editions, pow, common. Did it exist in two or more editions, bang, uncommon. Did it exist in only one edition, bam, rare. Could WoTC use other labels? Indeed they can and perhaps should--judging from some of the reactions in this thread. Having them categorized is still a great idea and offers a straightforward method for a DM to allow or disallow races/classes/whatever. You could tell your players: "Feel free to use any [I]common[/I] or [I]uncommon[/I] elements to create your character before the game on Sunday, contact me if their is a [I]rare[/I] element you'd like to explore and I'll think about it." Or, "Feel free to use any [I]common[/I] race, except those horrible halflings! Gnomes and half-orcs are okay, but no other [I]uncommon[/I]. Oh, and don't even contemplate any of those weird [I]rare[/I] races, unless your dragborn is sans the mammaries." You can even change the category of an element if you want: "Drow are [I]common[/I], they're like dog poop in my campaign." At the end of the day, you can still just list straight out what you want to include or leave out, and completely ignore the labels with no additional work required (save what you'd have done in any previous edition by writing out the list of races/classes/whatever). The categories are there to make things easier and should have absolutely no game mechanic associations, so they don't actually matter if you totally ignore them. :) [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
D&D Next Blog: Tone and Edition
Top