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

doctorbadwolf · Jun 19, 2019

CapnZapp said:
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.

Hit points aren’t counter to the goal. Only having vastly more HP than single attacks output damage is counter to the goal, and that isn’t a constant in dnd, much less dnd based games.

Its easy to take the framework of dnd, and add new weapons that do enough damage that a “glancing blow” still hurts, and any hit has a chance to kill anyone. Which models old west shootouts and fuels just fine.

Oofta said:
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.

A modern rifle is no guarantee of immediately stopping an enemy soldier with one hit.

Satyrn · Jun 19, 2019

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

The umber hulk gets angry, like real angry, and the gunslinger doesn't like it.

And the rogue at the reins of his horse says he's got a bad feeling about what's about to happen next.

CapnZapp · Jun 19, 2019

Oofta said:
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.

I would have thought shooting a grizzly bear would piss off the bear, not the hulk.

CapnZapp · Jun 19, 2019

doctorbadwolf said:
Hit points aren’t counter to the goal. Only having vastly more HP than single attacks output damage is counter to the goal, and that isn’t a constant in dnd, much less dnd based games.

The *entire point* of having levels in D&D is to allow you to level out of the danger zone of being felled before your melee charge reaches the opponent.

Besides, there are numerous other aspects of firearm enabled settings that D&D simply isn't equipped to handle, so it's not like there's any point to pretending higher damage/lower hp would be enough.

One admittedly unfair example is how you in 5E never have to expose yourself to return fire from the enemy, except the reaction of a delayed action. (That is wonky no matter how you look at it; the point here is that you need to change a lot of things before D&D meets most expectations on tactical ranged combat.)

And no, that still doesn't mean D&D is bad, or that you can't make it work. It only means to use something for which it was not initially designed, nothing more.

jgsugden · Jun 19, 2019

I have a settling that mixes early 1900s technology with fantasy. It is inspired by Cthulhu mythos, mostly, but has influences from the Wild West, Cold War, and a variety of other elements in a world of magic, science and heroics.

Oofta · Jun 19, 2019

jgsugden said:
I have a settling that mixes early 1900s technology with fantasy. It is inspired by Cthulhu mythos, mostly, but has influences from the Wild West, Cold War, and a variety of other elements in a world of magic, science and heroics.

Care to share any details?

Tony Vargas · Jun 19, 2019

CapnZapp said:
The *entire point* of having levels in D&D is to allow you to level out of the danger zone of being felled before ~~your melee charge reaches the opponent.~~

...before you do something cool or heroic, at any rate.

There's really no good* reason hp couldn't work well in another genre.

Besides, there are numerous other aspects of firearm enabled settings that D&D simply isn't equipped to handle, so it's not like there's any point to pretending higher damage/lower hp would be enough.
One admittedly unfair example is how you in 5E never have to expose yourself to return fire from the enemy, except the reaction of a delayed action. (That is wonky no matter how you look at it; the point here is that you need to change a lot of things before D&D meets most expectations on tactical ranged combat.)

Yeah, 5e did cut some corners as far as off-turn actions & movement was concerned, but most other eds, I think, handle that sort of thing well enough.

What else is so bad?

And no, that still doesn't mean D&D is bad...

... it's bad, it's bad come on
You know it's bad, it's bad come on, you know
You know it's bad, it's bad come on, you know
And the whole world has to
Answer right now
Just to tell you once again
it's bad.

* plenty of bad reasons, of course. Real bad, you know it come on.

jgsugden · Jun 19, 2019

Oofta said:
Care to share any details?

Some, but the majority are under wraps:

* It uses preconstructed PCs and is intended to run in 8 full day sessions.
* It uses a modified 4E rule set. Each PC has unique mechanics that sit on top of the 4E mechanics. There is also a Jenga tower for each PC (drawing upon Dread mechanics). Each PC plays very differently from a mechanical perspective (one uses a deck of cards in addiion to dice, while another is entirely diceless, and another allows the player to add or subtract powers from their PC whenever they want - but the more powers they have the greater the chance of a mishap that puts the 5E Wil Magic table to shame)
* It is designed to run with no advance prepartion by the players - at the start of the first session, all PCs have no memories.
* The PCs begin in an old theater. There are signs of recent combat, fire and explosions. They can hear the fading echo of the words "Ceiling collapsing", but have no idea why someone would say that as the building is structurally sound.
* The PCs will discover clues as to who they are, why they were in the theater, and what they need to do as the sessions unfold.
* The PCs travel the globe to achieve their goals. The first session is a city adventure in a city based upon London; the second session takes place aboard a vehicle, the third is a dungeon delve beneath a monastery in a 'Wild West' area, the fourth is also a dungeon delve in an icy fortress, and the last 4 are best not described here where people might see spoilers.
* The majority of foes the PCs face are human, but they also face Cthulhu-esque foes, and several other mythological foes. There are 43 fixed encounters and dozens of optional encounters.
* The PCs consist of 4 humans, an elf, a dwarf, an orc and an ogre. Any combination of 5 of the PCs can be used.
* It has been run twice. It was modified heavily from run 1 to 2, but I will only tweak it slightly if I run it again.