D&D (2024) Do you plan to adopt D&D5.5One2024Redux?

[Greg K]

It's not clear if you are trying to say that the mists should be even more impassible than he suggested or if you are suiggesting that a background feature can override them unless the gm adds some houserule. What would @Greg K be informing them of?

It seems as if the mists are far more restrictive than he described,

Do those restrictions you listed apply to the Vistani? From what few online discussions that I have seen about Ravenloft in 5e, they are not subject to the Mist and can even travel to Faerun and other settings.

 

[James Gasik]

Honestly in the case of the Criminal, the Dark Powers would probably allow the character to get in touch with what they believe to be their contacts just to feed them false information and/or entice them further.

Backgrounds can be a tool for everyone, after all.

 

[mamba]

Do those restrictions you listed apply to the Vistani?

the book does not give exceptions to them afaik

From what few online discussions that I have seen about Ravenloft in 5e, they are not subject to the Mist and can even travel to Faerun and other settings.

I assume they can travel through the mists but largely stay in the domains, ending up on Faerun once in a blue moon is a far cry from being able to travel back and forth reliably.

I very much doubt the latter, and that still leaves open why they would bother for someone they barely know

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Don’t they just travel between the different domains?

Even if they did not, why would they go on a potentially months long and dangerous journey to get some info to someone they do not know just because someone else they barely know asked them to? Seems pretty implausible to me

That's the only thing in D&D that seems implausible to you?

The vistani don't have to bring the message the whole way, just pass it onto someone else heading in that direction. The background feature doesn't specify any timeframe for how long it takes the message to reach the contact, it could be a while.

 

[Oofta]

One of the weird simplifications that is made for FR is that there are things like global organizations like the Zhentarim. If you don't make those kind of assumptions, I think it's unrealistic to expect to be able to reliably pass a message reliably. Why would they? Any message would likely have to go through multiple rival groups. That, and just having a criminal background means ... what? That you were some no-name runner? Maybe some minor flunky? There's nothing to indicate that you were important to the organization you belonged to.

Understanding how many criminal organizations are structured, how the individuals interact with each other, even recognizing some common grifts and understanding the dynamics likely at play? Absolutely. Which is the kind of thing I'll support in my game that can have much larger impact than someone in Barovia getting a note to someone who can't help them anyway. If people care about more than getting training in stealth and lockpicks of course, which rarely happens.

 

[mamba]

That's the only thing in D&D that seems implausible to you?

depends on how you look at it, if you live in a world with magic and dragons, then a stranger not traveling for months to deliver a message for a person they just met is still plausible.

I am not throwing out logic and reason just because dragons exist…

The vistani don't have to bring the message the whole way, just pass it onto someone else heading in that direction.

yeah, there is no reliable connection between wherever the contact is and Ravenloft, and they do not have connections to the contact’s network, so either they deliver it, or they might as well put it in a bottle, throw that in an ocean, and hope for the best

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

yeah, there is no reliable connection between wherever the contact is and Ravenloft, and they do not have connections to the contact’s network, so either they deliver it, or they might as well put it in a bottle, throw that in an ocean, and hope for the best

Why does the connection need to be reliable? It only needs to work once to get the message to the contact. Maybe most messages fail, but this one gets through because PCs are special and this PC has a special feature that lets him send messages.

It seems like you're looking for reasons for the PC's feature to be useless, rather than looking for reasons for why it could work.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Why does the connection need to be reliable? It only needs to work once to get the message to the contact. Maybe most messages fail, but this one gets through because PCs are special and this PC has a special feature that lets him send messages.

It seems like you're looking for reasons for the PC's feature to be useless, rather than looking for reasons for why it could work.

That assumes that PCs are special, to be fair, a philosophy in which not everyone believes.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

That assumes that PCs are special, to be fair, a philosophy in which not everyone believes.

It's a default assumption in D&D, change that and you're playing a very different game.

 

[mamba]

Why does the connection need to be reliable? It only needs to work once to get the message to the contact. Maybe most messages fail, but this one gets through because PCs are special and this PC has a special feature that lets him send messages.

the PCs are not special, the connection is either reliable or it is not, the PCs do not affect that.

It seems like you're looking for reasons for the PC's feature to be useless, rather than looking for reasons for why it could work

I am rejecting a reason why the PCs are so special that norms do not apply to them, and so far I have not heard a convincing one

If you can give me an in-world reason why this should work and not just ‘but the feature says…’, I’d be interested in it, until then I stick with the feature being poorly phrased / thought out and therefore not working in this case (or at least not better than for anyone else)