D&D General If you could put D&D into any other non middle ages genre, what would it be?

Tony Vargas · Jun 18, 2019

CapnZapp said:
Thank you for making it personal. Makes it easy to skip your posts.

Sacrosanct said:
I'll make it even easier for you to skip my posts. Because I'm a giver like that.

Wow, guys? Over "can I use my magic elf game to play cowboys and ^E^E^E Native Americans?"

Beleriphon · Jun 18, 2019

Tony Vargas said:
Wow, guys? Over "can I use my magic elf game to play cowboys and ^E^E^E Native Americans?"

Welcome to the Internet Tony, where we argue about whether Dungeons and Dragons can be used to play Cowhands and Indigenous Peoples of North America.

As complete aside, I get why some folks might not like to use D&D for a Western game. I just got Red Dead Redemption 2 and I was surprised that I could kill most targets with at most two shots. Range made a difference with the rifle but that was about it.

As a genre spaghetti westerns tend towards gritty "realism", where the Man with No Name is genuinely threatened by a single gunshot and is actively sneaky about not getting shot. At the same time though we have stuff like Bonanza, which is a very different style of Western when compared to A Fist Full of Dollars, or 3:10 to Yuma.

Tony Vargas · Jun 19, 2019

Beleriphon said:
Welcome to the Internet Tony, where we argue about whether Dungeons and Dragons can be used to play Cowhands and Indigenous Peoples of North America.

Oh, the arguing, I get. I'm down for a nice argument.

As complete aside, I get why some folks might not like to use D&D for a Western game.
As a genre spaghetti westerns tend towards gritty "realism", where the Man with No Name is genuinely threatened by a single gunshot and is actively sneaky about not getting shot. At the same time though we have stuff like Bonanza, which is a very different style of Western when compared to A Fist Full of Dollars, or 3:10 to Yuma.

There is a range, yes. How you model a character 'avoiding' the deadly bullets, though, can vary quite a bit. In 5e, the DM could choose to narrate hp loss more as near-misses, dropping prone to avoid being hit, ducking fully concealed behind cover, and the like - increasing desperation & disadvantage (not the mechanic) rather than accumulating injuries.

doctorbadwolf · Jun 19, 2019

CapnZapp said:
More damage and same hp. Or same damage and less hp.

You're saying that D&D would work, just remove the defining features of D&D. Gotcha

So, now you’re claiming that the current edition ratio of weapon damage to PC HP is a defining feature of dnd?

seriously!?

Sacrosanct · Jun 19, 2019

Tony Vargas said:
Wow, guys? Over "can I use my magic elf game to play cowboys and ^E^E^E Native Americans?"

No, not over that. And since I know you’re prolifically active in many threads over the past couple years, I know you know it’s much more than that.

Besides, he wanted to skip my posts, so I’m simply helping him.

CapnZapp · Jun 19, 2019

doctorbadwolf said:
So, now you’re claiming that the current edition ratio of weapon damage to PC HP is a defining feature of dnd?

No, I'm not.

I'm pointing out to you that increasing damage is functionally equivalent to decreasing hp.

I'm pointing out to you that your attempted solution is indicative of the greater problem which might be best solved by switching to a other damage model entirely.

At no point am I comparing editions. I'm talking about hit points in general. Every edition of D&D has hit points; ergo I'm discussing D&D in general.

77IM · Jun 19, 2019

Pop quiz: When a wild-west gunslinger shoots an umber hulk, what should happen?

(I'm not directing this at any one person. I'm just trying to point out that the damage mechanic needs to encompass more than just "shootout at high noon." Also, as an aside, the protagonist, who is a PC, always wins the shootout at high noon, so attack and damage mechanics are already secondary to what's happening there.)

innerdude · Jun 19, 2019

Wow, 19 pages in . . . . So um, maybe I'll just answer the OP's question and slink away . . . .

Age of Sail. Hands down, no questions asked, if D&D wasn't "medieval fantasy" by default, I'd want it to be Age of Sail.

Tony Vargas · Jun 19, 2019

77IM said:
Pop quiz: When a wild-west gunslinger shoots an umber hulk, what should happen?

I think they'd both just be /confused/...

Oofta · Jun 19, 2019

77IM said:
Pop quiz: When a wild-west gunslinger shoots an umber hulk, what should happen?

(I'm not directing this at any one person. I'm just trying to point out that the damage mechanic needs to encompass more than just "shootout at high noon." Also, as an aside, the protagonist, who is a PC, always wins the shootout at high noon, so attack and damage mechanics are already secondary to what's happening there.)

Probably about the same thing as shooting a grizzly bear if you're using a 19th century pistol. You get a pissed off umber hulk. Using a rifle? Hope you're a really good shot. But you can only take real world as a template for anything in D&D so far. People have killed grizzly bears with .22s, it's just really, really unlikely. Even a modern hunting rifle is no guarantee of stopping a charging grizzly.