Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: The Artificer Is Here! & UA Schedule Changes

Seramus · Mar 2, 2019

Prakriti said:
Session 0s make people angry? Why? Or is that not what you meant?

Like "I worked 72 hours this week. Can we just play?"
The players who want everything taken care of before people meet up.
Sometimes well-intentioned, sometimes not.

Ash Mantle · Mar 2, 2019

Seramus said:
Like "I worked 72 hours this week. Can we just play?"
The players who want everything taken care of before people meet up.
Sometimes well-intentioned, sometimes not.

I understand that not all people can have their times all sync up to discuss things, though discussing ahead of a meet up is also good.

Otherwise, potentially leaving things to be taken care of by the others, bringing something that may not be vetted, potentially getting angry at session 0 discussions, and making the excuse that they work long hours probably means they won't be a good fit for any party unfortunately.

Seramus · Mar 2, 2019

Ash Mantle said:
Othwerwise, leaving things to be taken care of by the others, bringing something that may not be vetted, potentially getting angry at session 0 discussions, and making the excuse that they work long hours probably means they won't be a good fit for any party unfortunately.

I can understand the impulse somewhat. I've seen experienced players show up at the table without their characters created, when the expectation was that everyone would have their stuff done. Or times when the Session 0 took place on the internet over a group chat, and someone was just too busy with work to follow along. If the player is good otherwise, you can forgive some faults.

Ash Mantle · Mar 2, 2019

Seramus said:
I can understand the impulse somewhat. I've seen experienced players show up at the table without their characters created, when the expectation was that everyone would have their stuff done. Or times when the Session 0 took place on the internet over a group chat, and someone was just too busy with work to follow along. If the player is good otherwise, you can forgive some faults.

I can also understand that, one of my best friends is one of those players who'll consistently come to a session without having his character created. But that's the good thing with discussion and roleplaying games, you just roll with it. We'll have a discussion with character creation then, there's no delay in starting and everyone will be on the same page. We're also all friends, and everything's drama free, so that's no worries.

Demetrios1453 · Mar 2, 2019

Elfcrusher said:
Ugh. I'm going to be annoyed as $%@# if people start showing up in my group with Artificiers. I wish the sidebar made it explicit that these are intended solely for Eberron. Instead they did the opposite.

What's next, Jedi?

#getoffmylawn

I agree with you that they were pushing it a bit for some settings (such as Greyhawk), but the examples they gave for the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance are spot on and fit just fine with those settings' established canon. They probably should have just added a line like "Artificers don't necessarily exist in every world, so ask your DM before creating one", similar to the statement on how "uncommon" races don't exist in every D&D world in the PHB...

Prakriti · Mar 2, 2019

Stacie GmrGrl said:
Why doesn't Wizards ever look at 3rd party stuff/homebrew stuff???

It's mind confusing to me that here they have so much 3rd party stuff they could mine ideas from and a lot of it is really good.

The same reason that TV writers don't read third-party screenplays for their own show*: liability reasons. If WotC started reading third-party content, even a little here and there, then it would open the door for plagiarism accusations. The only way to avoid that scenario is to not read any third-party content ever, which is presumably what they do.

* When you apply for a job as a TV writer, you always submit screenplays for other shows. Even if you've written a killer screenplay for that particular show, the writers/producers can't/won't read it (unless they hire you, of course, in which case you can pitch your script in the writers room).

Hussar · Mar 2, 2019

Demetrios1453 said:
I agree with you that they were pushing it a bit for some settings (such as Greyhawk), but the examples they gave for the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance are spot on and fit just fine with those settings' established canon. They probably should have just added a line like "Artificers don't necessarily exist in every world, so ask your DM before creating one", similar to the statement on how "uncommon" races don't exist in every D&D world in the PHB...

Heh. It's really funny how we all have different take aways from different settings. You mention this not fitting in Greyhawk. But, GH is a setting with fallen spaceships (multiple), one of the iconic wizards of the setting uses six-guns, and one of the first encounters in the Slave Lords modules involves a wagon mounted flamethrower and goblins (or orcs, I can't remember).

The notion that artificers wouldn't fit in GH seems strange to me.

Parmandur · Mar 2, 2019

Prakriti said:
The same reason that TV writers don't read third-party screenplays for their own show*: liability reasons. If WotC started reading third-party content, even a little here and there, then it would open the door for plagiarism accusations. The only way to avoid that scenario is to not read any third-party content ever, which is presumably what they do.

* When you apply for a job as a TV writer, you always submit screenplays for other shows. Even if you've written a killer screenplay for that particular show, the writers/producers can't/won't read it (unless they hire you, of course, in which case you can pitch your script in the writers room).

Not entirely so: the DMs Guild terms are designed to more or less provide a legal space that minimizes this liability.

Hawk Diesel · Mar 2, 2019

Parmandur said:
Not entirely so: the DMs Guild terms are designed to more or less provide a legal space that minimizes this liability.

Sure, but that would destroy a lot of the goodwill that WotC has built with its player base if they just steal from creators without any credit or compensation.

vecna00 · Mar 2, 2019

Hussar said:
Heh. It's really funny how we all have different take aways from different settings. You mention this not fitting in Greyhawk. But, GH is a setting with fallen spaceships (multiple), one of the iconic wizards of the setting uses six-guns, and one of the first encounters in the Slave Lords modules involves a wagon mounted flamethrower and goblins (or orcs, I can't remember).

The notion that artificers wouldn't fit in GH seems strange to me.

Also the mentality of "X thing doesn't belong in Y setting because it wasn't in the original books for the setting." I mean, it didn't exist back then, so...

Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: The Artificer Is Here! & UA Schedule Changes

Seramus

Hero

Ash Mantle

Adventurer

Seramus

Hero

Ash Mantle

Adventurer

Demetrios1453

Hero

Prakriti

Hi, I'm a Mindflayer, but don't let that worry you

Hussar

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Parmandur

Book-Friend

Hawk Diesel

Adventurer

vecna00

Speculation Specialist Wizard

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