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RPG Evolution - Minecraft: The Gateway to D&D
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<blockquote data-quote="talien" data-source="post: 7682258" data-attributes="member: 3285"><p><em>Minecraft </em>has become ubiquitous with kids everywhere who are obsessed with the crafting game, and for good reason: the game has a presence on every major game console, raking in over $300 million in revenue in 2014. Although it might seem children are frittering away their time glued to screens, my kids' transition to <em>Dungeons & Dragons </em>was so effortless that <em>Minecraft </em>may be one of the most effective means of getting a younger generation into playing fantasy tabletop role-playing games.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH=full]280123[/ATTACH]</p><h3><strong>How Did We Get Here?</strong></h3><p>Microsoft purchased <em>Minecraft </em>last year to the tune of $2.5 billion -- and expects to break even this year. The tech giant explained the game's reach in a <a href="http://news.microsoft.com/2014/09/15/minecraft-to-join-microsoft/" target="_blank">press release about the acquisition</a>:</p><p></p><p><em>Minecraft's </em>presence is felt everywhere, <a href="http://www.reelseo.com/minecraft-youtube-views/#ixzz3j2C8MG66" target="_blank">including on YouTube</a>:</p><p></p><p>And of course, there's the ubiquitous <em>Minecraft </em>stuff: plush toys, clothing, and pixel weapons. That doesn't account for all the imitators, a dizzying host of games that borrow elements from <em>Minecraft </em>to launch their own platforms (<em>Terraria </em>being just one example).</p><p></p><p>It took me a while to get my son to play <em>Dungeons & Dragons</em>. I had built simpler role-playing games for him in the past, but when we started playing Fifth Edition he immediately got the basics of D&D, and it was all because of <em>Minecraft</em>.</p><h3><strong>Everything I Ever Needed to Know I Learned from Minecraft</strong></h3><p><em>Minecraft </em>teaches some fundamentals that experienced tabletop gamers take for granted in <em>D&D. </em> To begin with, it posits a medieval trade society where equipment is rare and our sole hero is expected to fend for himself. Armed with only a map, the nameless protagonist (sometimes named Steve) begins in the wilderness with nothing but his hands to build a shelter. He has until the sun sets before monsters come out at night.</p><p></p><p><em>Minecraft's </em>"survival mode" encourages emergent play, a concept that originated with <em>Dungeons & Dragons</em>, fell out of favor as TSR pushed published adventures, and <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?2891-Is-the-OSR-Dead" target="_blank">recently came back into vogue</a> with the Old School Renaissance. Emergent play uses basic rules to encourage creative strategies. <em> D&D</em> originally featured overland navigation as a major element of play. Jon Peterson explains in "<a href="http://playingattheworld.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Playing At the World</a>":</p><p></p><p>The <em>Outdoor Survival</em> game that <em>Dungeons & Dragons</em> relied on for its overland exploration could just as easily describe <em>Minecraft</em>. The difference being that instead of a bird's-eye view of the terrain the player looks out of his <em>Minecraft </em>character's eyes. Both games are extremely unforgiving in "survival" mode.</p><p></p><p>The open-world concept was a major factor in <em>Minecraft's </em>development. <em>Minecraft's </em>creator Markus "Notch" Persson was inspired by <em><a href="http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/features.html" target="_blank">Dwarf Fortress</a>,</em> a fantasy construction and management simulation of a dwarven colony rendered in ASCII format. Like <em>Dungeons & Dragons,</em> it relies heavily on emergent play to produce an interesting gaming experience:</p><p></p><p>Another inspiration for <em>Minecraft </em>was <em><a href="http://www.dungeonkeeper.com/" target="_blank">Dungeon Keeper</a>, </em>in which the player takes on the role of a typical D&D dungeon master by populating a dungeon with monsters and minions to ward off invading adventurers:</p><p></p><p><em>Dwarf Fortress'</em> fantasy construction and management simulation mixed with <em>Dungeon Keeper's</em> strategy evolved into a form of emergent play in <em>Minecraft </em>that's similar to <em>Dungeons & Dragons. </em>Along with these two game systems comes a bunch of other elements endemic to the role-playing genre: treasure to be spent on increasing armor and weapons, fighting monsters to gain experience points and level up, and the ability to view a character from an isometric (miniatures) or first-person view (immersive role-play).</p><p></p><p>In addition to the standard role-playing game tropes, <em>Minecraft </em>brought some unique monsters that entered the popular fantasy lexicon: creepers and endermen. <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/254786594/Mines-of-Madness#scribd" target="_blank">The adventure that introduces some of these critters is not easy to find</a>; it debuted at PAX East 2013, "Mines of Madness." <a href="http://www.tabletitans.com/comic/mines-of-madness-page-2" target="_blank">There's even a comic about it</a>, although the adventurers never made it to the <em>Minecraft</em>-themed area. The adventure includes a portal to the Nether Realm that releases "oink zombies" (zombie pigmen, basically zombie orcs) and "deathstalkers" (creepers, weird aberrations that sneak up on you and explode). Endermen were inspired by the Internet meme known as <a href="http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/The_Slender_Man" target="_blank">the Slender Man</a>; see <a href="http://psychicmayhem.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-slender-man-for-d-5e.html" target="_blank">this blog</a> for Fifth Edition stats.</p><p></p><p><em>Minecraft </em>also has something that <em>Dungeons & Dragons</em> has grappled with since its first incarnation. It's right there in the title: "craft." This is one aspect of gaming that<em> D&D </em>has sometimes struggled with...the art of making stuff.</p><h3><strong>The Right Stuff?</strong></h3><p>Jon Peterson defined the core elements of D&D more specifically in <em>Playing at the World</em>:</p><p></p><p>The <em>Papers & Pencils blog</em> <a href="http://www.paperspencils.com/" target="_blank">explains crafting</a> in Peterson's context<em>:</em></p><p></p><p>Using these definitions, crafting shares some elements with exploration (harvesting, mining, etc.) and logistics (creating, preparing, etc.). Although it wasn't necessarily a core element, D&D has always had some form of crafting, going all the way back to <a href="http://geekdad.com/2015/02/original-dd-and-5th-edition/" target="_blank">the original boxed set</a>:</p><p></p><p>And that was basically it. Creating mundane items never entered into the equation. Crafting in Second Edition <em>Dungeons & Dragons</em> <a href="http://harbinger-of-doom.blogspot.com/2011/01/crafting-systems-in-tabletop-games-ad.html" target="_blank">wasn't much better</a>:</p><p></p><p>It wasn't until the Third Edition of <em>Dungeons & Dragons</em> that crafting came into its own. This was the first time there was a skill dedicated to crafting, feats to support it, and a rules system that (unlike Second Edition) cut across all specializations. With 3.5, <em>D&D </em>finally added crafting to combat, exploration, and inventory management as a legitimate style of play.</p><p></p><p>Fourth Edition <em>Dungeons & Dragons</em> focused more on the combat style of play most of all, which <a href="http://geek-related.com/2008/06/06/dd-4es-out-and-its-awful-heres-why/" target="_blank">deprecated crafting in the core rules set</a>. Fifth Edition took the middle road, with <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?357672-Crafting" target="_blank">much simpler rules for crafting</a>.</p><h3><strong>All I Wanna Do is Craft Some Fun</strong></h3><p>But why would anyone want to dabble in crafting? It's a question that came up <a href="https://1d30.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/there-is-no-such-thing-as-a-2nd-level-blogger-in-dd/" target="_blank">on the 1d30 blog</a>:</p><p></p><p>There are many arguments for and against crafting, which has come into vogue with crafting video game simulations. Alexander King <a href="http://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/articles/5-approaches-to-crafting-systems-in-games-and-where-to-use-them--cms-22628" target="_blank">outlines why it's popular</a>:</p><p></p><p>The <a href="http://www.technologytell.com/gaming/37022/forget-rachael-ray-why-food-games-are-so-popular/" target="_blank">popularity of the Cooking Mama franchise</a> has brought home just how broadly popular the crafting style of play can be. Crafting simulators has also proved <a href="http://boingboing.net/2015/08/08/no-girl-wins-three-ways-women.html" target="_blank">popular with female gamers</a>:</p><p></p><p>With all this in mind, I set out to modify <em>Dungeons & Dragons</em> so my eight-year-old boy and five-year-old girl could share their passion for <em>Minecraft</em> with my passion for tabletop role-playing games. Here's how I did it.</p><h3><strong>You've Got Minecraft in My D&D!</strong></h3><p>The first change that required a different approach to <em>D&D </em>was sandbox-style play. Sandbox style play works best with a hex map, and since we were using "The Battle of Emridy Meadows" from <em>Dungeon Magazine #221,</em> it was easy to find a map of the surrounding area.</p><p></p><p>The <em>Dungeons & Dragons Next </em>playtest exploration rules were an opportunity to demonstrate sandbox play, dividing exploration into five-minute, one-hour, and one-day turns. Unfortunately, the entire set of exploration rules didn't make it into the final version of Fifth Edition.</p><p></p><p>To capture the feel of <em>Minecraft's "</em>stuff," I purchased <a href="http://stonemaiergames.com/games/treasure-chest/" target="_blank">Stonemaier Games' tokens</a>. The tokens represent wood, stone, brick, and ore. I also used other icons for water and food. The gems and nuggets from the board game <em><a href="http://amzn.to/1FPTlAm" target="_blank">Dragon's Gold</a></em> filled in for other valuables.</p><p></p><p>Each of my kids got a cloth bag filled with the appropriate supplies. I'm still accumulating tokens for everything else that might be in their packs (potions are missing; Stonemaier Games is working on that), but this was a good start. I also gave each player a separate pouch of plastic gold pieces (you can buy at any party store) to use when calculating costs for buying good or selling raw materials.</p><p></p><p>This system is highly stylized and meant to represent the fast-paced crafting that kids are accustomed to in <em>Minecraft</em>. They are by no means meant to be realistic! In addition to the <em>D&D Next </em>play test exploration rules I added a few other actions: <strong>craft, eat, fish, forage, hunt, and mine. </strong>Eating is a 5-minute or 1-hour turn, but the others are 1-hour or 1-day turns.</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Crafting </strong>an item requires the GP value divided by 5 in raw materials. The PC uses the appropriate proficiency in the relevant artisan tool and an Intelligence (Nature) check, with the DC equal to 10 + the GP value of the item divided by 5. For every point over the DC, the PC spends 1 point of raw material (up to a maximum of 8 in a day). For every 5 points below the DC, the PC loses 1 point of raw material. For example, making a longsword (15 gp) requires 3 iron ingots and an Intelligence DC check of 13 (15/3 + 10). The PC can spend a 1-hour turn to craft 1 of the 3 ingots (and then has to make another check on the next 1-hour turn) or complete the effort in 1 day (up to 8 ingots spent in a day).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Eating </strong>is self-explanatory and covers the rules for eating and drinking in D&D. The food and water tokens helped my kids keep track of their supplies. This is a simple add and subtraction system that works well with my daughter's basic math skills.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The other tokens were gathered by using turns to produce them. <strong>Fishing, foraging, </strong>and <strong>hunting </strong>requires a Wisdom (Survival) check. The target roll is determined by the terrain type. For <strong>hunting </strong>and <strong>foraging</strong>, the DCs range from 10 (forest and plains) to 15 (hills and mountains) to 20 (desert). For mining it's slightly different, with a DC 10 (hills and mountains), 15 (forests and plains), or 20 (desert). <strong>Fishing </strong>requires a body of water and a judgment call on the quality of the fishing spot (10, 15, or 20). On a 1-hour turn, every point over the DC the character rolls nets 1 pound of appropriate food or 1 cubic foot of material (fish, fruits/vegetables, or meat/leather). For every 5 points rolled under the DC the character suffers damage (cold damage from <strong>fishing, </strong>poison damage from <strong>foraging, </strong>slashing damage from <strong>hunting</strong>). Spending a 1-day turn multiplies these results by 8 (as well as the damage, which could be deadly!).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Mining </strong>is a little different, with every point over the DC on a Wisdom (Survival) check creating 5-feet of material; a natural 20 means precious metals or gems. Every 5 points below the DC inflicts 1 point of bludgeoning damage from a cave-in. As the PCs gather raw materials they get tokens for each cubic foot/5-feet or pound of material they gather. They spend these tokens by either trading them in or crafting the equipment themselves.</li> </ul><p>In addition to these rules, the PCs used Intelligence (Nature) to perform search checks. These checks were how the PCs found the villains' lairs, and thus they might move from hex to hex, foraging and searching, until they found their target and then "typical" <em>D&D</em> would ensue.</p><h3><strong>Did it Work?</strong></h3><p>The overall verdict was that my kids really enjoyed the harvesting of raw materials and converting it to equipment, but were less enamored with worrying about food and water. The added benefit to this system is it involves addition and subtraction, which goes a long way in helping kids develop their math skills. Perhaps the best indication of the success of the experiment is that my kids frequently beg me to play what they call "<em>Minecraft D&D</em>."</p><p></p><p><em>D&D's </em>challenge with crafting is that the purpose of adventuring is the accumulation of stuff, and the game works hard to ensure that PCs focus on adventuring at the expense of crafting. <em> Minecraft </em>doesn't distinguish between these styles of play -- crafting, exploring, and combat are all seamlessly integrated -- and by tweaking the rules a bit <em>D&D </em>might just net us some new converts.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="talien, post: 7682258, member: 3285"] [I]Minecraft [/I]has become ubiquitous with kids everywhere who are obsessed with the crafting game, and for good reason: the game has a presence on every major game console, raking in over $300 million in revenue in 2014. Although it might seem children are frittering away their time glued to screens, my kids' transition to [I]Dungeons & Dragons [/I]was so effortless that [I]Minecraft [/I]may be one of the most effective means of getting a younger generation into playing fantasy tabletop role-playing games. [CENTER][ATTACH type="full" alt="811461b8d1cacf1f2da791b478dccfe2.jpg"]280123[/ATTACH][/CENTER] [HEADING=2][B]How Did We Get Here?[/B][/HEADING] Microsoft purchased [I]Minecraft [/I]last year to the tune of $2.5 billion -- and expects to break even this year. The tech giant explained the game's reach in a [URL='http://news.microsoft.com/2014/09/15/minecraft-to-join-microsoft/']press release about the acquisition[/URL]: [I]Minecraft's [/I]presence is felt everywhere, [URL='http://www.reelseo.com/minecraft-youtube-views/#ixzz3j2C8MG66']including on YouTube[/URL]: And of course, there's the ubiquitous [I]Minecraft [/I]stuff: plush toys, clothing, and pixel weapons. That doesn't account for all the imitators, a dizzying host of games that borrow elements from [I]Minecraft [/I]to launch their own platforms ([I]Terraria [/I]being just one example). It took me a while to get my son to play [I]Dungeons & Dragons[/I]. I had built simpler role-playing games for him in the past, but when we started playing Fifth Edition he immediately got the basics of D&D, and it was all because of [I]Minecraft[/I]. [HEADING=2][B]Everything I Ever Needed to Know I Learned from Minecraft[/B][/HEADING] [I]Minecraft [/I]teaches some fundamentals that experienced tabletop gamers take for granted in [I]D&D. [/I] To begin with, it posits a medieval trade society where equipment is rare and our sole hero is expected to fend for himself. Armed with only a map, the nameless protagonist (sometimes named Steve) begins in the wilderness with nothing but his hands to build a shelter. He has until the sun sets before monsters come out at night. [I]Minecraft's [/I]"survival mode" encourages emergent play, a concept that originated with [I]Dungeons & Dragons[/I], fell out of favor as TSR pushed published adventures, and [URL='http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?2891-Is-the-OSR-Dead']recently came back into vogue[/URL] with the Old School Renaissance. Emergent play uses basic rules to encourage creative strategies. [I] D&D[/I] originally featured overland navigation as a major element of play. Jon Peterson explains in "[URL='http://playingattheworld.blogspot.com/']Playing At the World[/URL]": The [I]Outdoor Survival[/I] game that [I]Dungeons & Dragons[/I] relied on for its overland exploration could just as easily describe [I]Minecraft[/I]. The difference being that instead of a bird's-eye view of the terrain the player looks out of his [I]Minecraft [/I]character's eyes. Both games are extremely unforgiving in "survival" mode. The open-world concept was a major factor in [I]Minecraft's [/I]development. [I]Minecraft's [/I]creator Markus "Notch" Persson was inspired by [I][URL='http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/features.html']Dwarf Fortress[/URL],[/I] a fantasy construction and management simulation of a dwarven colony rendered in ASCII format. Like [I]Dungeons & Dragons,[/I] it relies heavily on emergent play to produce an interesting gaming experience: Another inspiration for [I]Minecraft [/I]was [I][URL='http://www.dungeonkeeper.com/']Dungeon Keeper[/URL], [/I]in which the player takes on the role of a typical D&D dungeon master by populating a dungeon with monsters and minions to ward off invading adventurers: [I]Dwarf Fortress'[/I] fantasy construction and management simulation mixed with [I]Dungeon Keeper's[/I] strategy evolved into a form of emergent play in [I]Minecraft [/I]that's similar to [I]Dungeons & Dragons. [/I]Along with these two game systems comes a bunch of other elements endemic to the role-playing genre: treasure to be spent on increasing armor and weapons, fighting monsters to gain experience points and level up, and the ability to view a character from an isometric (miniatures) or first-person view (immersive role-play). In addition to the standard role-playing game tropes, [I]Minecraft [/I]brought some unique monsters that entered the popular fantasy lexicon: creepers and endermen. [URL='http://www.scribd.com/doc/254786594/Mines-of-Madness#scribd']The adventure that introduces some of these critters is not easy to find[/URL]; it debuted at PAX East 2013, "Mines of Madness." [URL='http://www.tabletitans.com/comic/mines-of-madness-page-2']There's even a comic about it[/URL], although the adventurers never made it to the [I]Minecraft[/I]-themed area. The adventure includes a portal to the Nether Realm that releases "oink zombies" (zombie pigmen, basically zombie orcs) and "deathstalkers" (creepers, weird aberrations that sneak up on you and explode). Endermen were inspired by the Internet meme known as [URL='http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/The_Slender_Man']the Slender Man[/URL]; see [URL='http://psychicmayhem.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-slender-man-for-d-5e.html']this blog[/URL] for Fifth Edition stats. [I]Minecraft [/I]also has something that [I]Dungeons & Dragons[/I] has grappled with since its first incarnation. It's right there in the title: "craft." This is one aspect of gaming that[I] D&D [/I]has sometimes struggled with...the art of making stuff. [HEADING=2][B]The Right Stuff?[/B][/HEADING] Jon Peterson defined the core elements of D&D more specifically in [I]Playing at the World[/I]: The [I]Papers & Pencils blog[/I] [URL='http://www.paperspencils.com/']explains crafting[/URL] in Peterson's context[I]:[/I] Using these definitions, crafting shares some elements with exploration (harvesting, mining, etc.) and logistics (creating, preparing, etc.). Although it wasn't necessarily a core element, D&D has always had some form of crafting, going all the way back to [URL='http://geekdad.com/2015/02/original-dd-and-5th-edition/']the original boxed set[/URL]: And that was basically it. Creating mundane items never entered into the equation. Crafting in Second Edition [I]Dungeons & Dragons[/I] [URL='http://harbinger-of-doom.blogspot.com/2011/01/crafting-systems-in-tabletop-games-ad.html']wasn't much better[/URL]: It wasn't until the Third Edition of [I]Dungeons & Dragons[/I] that crafting came into its own. This was the first time there was a skill dedicated to crafting, feats to support it, and a rules system that (unlike Second Edition) cut across all specializations. With 3.5, [I]D&D [/I]finally added crafting to combat, exploration, and inventory management as a legitimate style of play. Fourth Edition [I]Dungeons & Dragons[/I] focused more on the combat style of play most of all, which [URL='http://geek-related.com/2008/06/06/dd-4es-out-and-its-awful-heres-why/']deprecated crafting in the core rules set[/URL]. Fifth Edition took the middle road, with [URL='http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?357672-Crafting']much simpler rules for crafting[/URL]. [HEADING=2][B]All I Wanna Do is Craft Some Fun[/B][/HEADING] But why would anyone want to dabble in crafting? It's a question that came up [URL='https://1d30.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/there-is-no-such-thing-as-a-2nd-level-blogger-in-dd/']on the 1d30 blog[/URL]: There are many arguments for and against crafting, which has come into vogue with crafting video game simulations. Alexander King [URL='http://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/articles/5-approaches-to-crafting-systems-in-games-and-where-to-use-them--cms-22628']outlines why it's popular[/URL]: The [URL='http://www.technologytell.com/gaming/37022/forget-rachael-ray-why-food-games-are-so-popular/']popularity of the Cooking Mama franchise[/URL] has brought home just how broadly popular the crafting style of play can be. Crafting simulators has also proved [URL='http://boingboing.net/2015/08/08/no-girl-wins-three-ways-women.html']popular with female gamers[/URL]: With all this in mind, I set out to modify [I]Dungeons & Dragons[/I] so my eight-year-old boy and five-year-old girl could share their passion for [I]Minecraft[/I] with my passion for tabletop role-playing games. Here's how I did it. [HEADING=2][B]You've Got Minecraft in My D&D![/B][/HEADING] The first change that required a different approach to [I]D&D [/I]was sandbox-style play. Sandbox style play works best with a hex map, and since we were using "The Battle of Emridy Meadows" from [I]Dungeon Magazine #221,[/I] it was easy to find a map of the surrounding area. The [I]Dungeons & Dragons Next [/I]playtest exploration rules were an opportunity to demonstrate sandbox play, dividing exploration into five-minute, one-hour, and one-day turns. Unfortunately, the entire set of exploration rules didn't make it into the final version of Fifth Edition. To capture the feel of [I]Minecraft's "[/I]stuff," I purchased [URL='http://stonemaiergames.com/games/treasure-chest/']Stonemaier Games' tokens[/URL]. The tokens represent wood, stone, brick, and ore. I also used other icons for water and food. The gems and nuggets from the board game [I][URL='http://amzn.to/1FPTlAm']Dragon's Gold[/URL][/I] filled in for other valuables. Each of my kids got a cloth bag filled with the appropriate supplies. I'm still accumulating tokens for everything else that might be in their packs (potions are missing; Stonemaier Games is working on that), but this was a good start. I also gave each player a separate pouch of plastic gold pieces (you can buy at any party store) to use when calculating costs for buying good or selling raw materials. This system is highly stylized and meant to represent the fast-paced crafting that kids are accustomed to in [I]Minecraft[/I]. They are by no means meant to be realistic! In addition to the [I]D&D Next [/I]play test exploration rules I added a few other actions: [B]craft, eat, fish, forage, hunt, and mine. [/B]Eating is a 5-minute or 1-hour turn, but the others are 1-hour or 1-day turns. [LIST] [*][B]Crafting [/B]an item requires the GP value divided by 5 in raw materials. The PC uses the appropriate proficiency in the relevant artisan tool and an Intelligence (Nature) check, with the DC equal to 10 + the GP value of the item divided by 5. For every point over the DC, the PC spends 1 point of raw material (up to a maximum of 8 in a day). For every 5 points below the DC, the PC loses 1 point of raw material. For example, making a longsword (15 gp) requires 3 iron ingots and an Intelligence DC check of 13 (15/3 + 10). The PC can spend a 1-hour turn to craft 1 of the 3 ingots (and then has to make another check on the next 1-hour turn) or complete the effort in 1 day (up to 8 ingots spent in a day). [*][B]Eating [/B]is self-explanatory and covers the rules for eating and drinking in D&D. The food and water tokens helped my kids keep track of their supplies. This is a simple add and subtraction system that works well with my daughter's basic math skills. [*]The other tokens were gathered by using turns to produce them. [B]Fishing, foraging, [/B]and [B]hunting [/B]requires a Wisdom (Survival) check. The target roll is determined by the terrain type. For [B]hunting [/B]and [B]foraging[/B], the DCs range from 10 (forest and plains) to 15 (hills and mountains) to 20 (desert). For mining it's slightly different, with a DC 10 (hills and mountains), 15 (forests and plains), or 20 (desert). [B]Fishing [/B]requires a body of water and a judgment call on the quality of the fishing spot (10, 15, or 20). On a 1-hour turn, every point over the DC the character rolls nets 1 pound of appropriate food or 1 cubic foot of material (fish, fruits/vegetables, or meat/leather). For every 5 points rolled under the DC the character suffers damage (cold damage from [B]fishing, [/B]poison damage from [B]foraging, [/B]slashing damage from [B]hunting[/B]). Spending a 1-day turn multiplies these results by 8 (as well as the damage, which could be deadly!). [*][B]Mining [/B]is a little different, with every point over the DC on a Wisdom (Survival) check creating 5-feet of material; a natural 20 means precious metals or gems. Every 5 points below the DC inflicts 1 point of bludgeoning damage from a cave-in. As the PCs gather raw materials they get tokens for each cubic foot/5-feet or pound of material they gather. They spend these tokens by either trading them in or crafting the equipment themselves. [/LIST] In addition to these rules, the PCs used Intelligence (Nature) to perform search checks. These checks were how the PCs found the villains' lairs, and thus they might move from hex to hex, foraging and searching, until they found their target and then "typical" [I]D&D[/I] would ensue. [HEADING=2][B]Did it Work?[/B][/HEADING] The overall verdict was that my kids really enjoyed the harvesting of raw materials and converting it to equipment, but were less enamored with worrying about food and water. The added benefit to this system is it involves addition and subtraction, which goes a long way in helping kids develop their math skills. Perhaps the best indication of the success of the experiment is that my kids frequently beg me to play what they call "[I]Minecraft D&D[/I]." [I]D&D's [/I]challenge with crafting is that the purpose of adventuring is the accumulation of stuff, and the game works hard to ensure that PCs focus on adventuring at the expense of crafting. [I] Minecraft [/I]doesn't distinguish between these styles of play -- crafting, exploring, and combat are all seamlessly integrated -- and by tweaking the rules a bit [I]D&D [/I]might just net us some new converts. [/QUOTE]
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