D&D General Recommendations for a "Witcher" style campaign

[Jaeger]

Also:

In my opinion; R.Tal's Witcher RPG was a missed opportunity...

It is one of the few cases where I would say that they absolutely missed the boat by not doing a 5e compatible RPG for the Witcher IP.

Many aspects of the version of interlock used for their Witcher RPG could have been ported over to a d20 bounded accuracy model.

Not quite a straight across port like you see in AIME, where things are just added, subtracted with a few new subsystems moved in. But something more along the lines of the systems drift attempted for the Dark Souls 5e game - although not quite as radical.

They just needed to have the six ability scores, AC, HP, saves, and "classes"... With the core d20 mechanic. I actually like a lot of their ideas of how crafting and magic should work, I really think a 5e version of those ideas could have gotten a lot of people to try a game that would have given them a very different play experience than standard 5e D&D.

 

[TheSword]

They got the process backwards...

Playtesting, before release. It's used to be considered a thing.

You can say no crying over spilt milk all you want.

I am also free to say that I do not mind the cost of current full color RPG hardback core books at all: So having a functional game system that works out of the gate with no glaring issues in return is not an outrageous ask.

Call me crazy; But having to homebrew/fix their game system on release, essentially putting paying customers in the position of doing their play testing for them, are things "professional" game designers and RPG companies should not get to brush off with an "Oops!?"...

Well actually the process is called a feedback loop. It wasn’t an ‘oops’. It doesn’t end when the feedback is given. It keeps on improving the game. If you don’t mind the cost of expansions, what’s the big deal. It’s a 352 page rulebook with the best art I’ve seen in an rpg product. People get their moneys worth.

They did play testing. Then did a pdf release. The writing team collaborated with the community. They then gave options to people who didn’t like the original rules for whatever though expansions. Though some folks are never satisfied, and unless they get their flavour of spaghetti sauce first are annoyed that someone else got there’s.

I mean, you’re entitled to your opinion, but back in 2018 a poll had two thirds of folks stating the game was either fine or had minor issues that were easily tweaked. Of the remaining third, comments suggest a decent chunk were die hard 2nd ed’ers who were never going to be happy. .

 

[Jaeger]

If you don’t mind the cost of expansions, what’s the big deal.

I actually do mind seeing as how the "fixes" are something that should have been in the core book from the jump.

And now I have the privilege of paying extra for expansions in order to get their corrections based on paying customer playtesting.

I decline their generous offer.

They did play testing. Then did a pdf release. The writing team collaborated with the community. They then gave options to people who didn’t like the original rules for whatever though expansions. Though some folks are never satisfied, and unless they get their flavour of spaghetti sauce first are annoyed that someone else got there’s.

They did playtesting like Pazio does playtesting. i.e. They released the game they wanted to largely unchanged despite feedback.

The two issues you cite as fixed in post #28 are something that would have been caught in an actual blind playtest amongst the fanbase. And that's just two of several issues found by many fans just reading the rulebook on release.

I mean, you’re entitled to your opinion, but back in 2018 a poll had two thirds of folks stating the game was either fine or had minor issues that were easily tweaked. Of the remaining third, comments suggest a decent chunk were die hard 2nd ed’ers who were never going to be happy. .

I mean, you’re entitled to your opinion, but no game company in the history of RPGdom has ever released a negative poll of a recently launched game.

I can point you to polls on other fora where things come out rather differently for WRFRP 4e.

And while It is 100% true that you can't make everyone happy.

It is also true that some can't accept that many fans of (insert RPG IP here) feel that the latest edition of (insert RPG IP here) was pooched.

For someone that said they were not interested in edition wars, you had a hard time not dwelling on the past and promptly jumped to 4e's defense.

I’m not really interested in edition wars either. I get that 4th Ed has its proponents. I put forward an alternative view.

It's time to let people make up their own minds, and focus more on posting about Witcher gaming in alternative RPG systems.

 

[TheSword]

I actually do mind seeing as how the "fixes" are something that should have been in the core book from the jump.

And now I have the privilege of paying extra for expansions in order to get their corrections based on paying customer playtesting.

I decline their generous offer.




They did playtesting like Pazio does playtesting. i.e. They released the game they wanted to largely unchanged despite feedback.

The two issues you cite as fixed in post #28 are something that would have been caught in an actual blind playtest amongst the fanbase. And that's just two of several issues found by many fans just reading the rulebook on release.




I mean, you’re entitled to your opinion, but no game company in the history of RPGdom has ever released a negative poll of a recently launched game.

I can point you to polls on other fora where things come out rather differently for WRFRP 4e.

And while It is 100% true that you can't make everyone happy.

It is also true that some can't accept that many fans of (insert RPG IP here) feel that the latest edition of (insert RPG IP here) was pooched.

For someone that said they were not interested in edition wars, you had a hard time not dwelling on the past and promptly jumped to 4e's defense.

I’m not really interested in edition wars either. I get that 4th Ed has its proponents. I put forward an alternative view.

It's time to let people make up their own minds, and focus more on posting about Witcher gaming in alternative RPG systems.

The poll wasn’t released by Cubicle 7 it was on a forum. About 100 people. Spitball demographics.

Yes you are right, let’s get back to Witcher… Cubicle 7’s WFRP 4e is the best existing system for Witcher games for all the reasons I gave above.

 

[Dukey]

The Five Peaks Domain in the Birthright Setting could be what you are looking for.
Birthright has Awnsheglien creatures. Any special Witcher creature not covered by standard D&D creatures, can therefore be easily homebrewed into the setting.

 

[Quickleaf]

Quickleaf's conversion seems to not be available anymore on Google drive. Can it be found somewhere else?

I too was hoping it would still be available. I know @Quickleaf is still on the forum, because last night I checked to see when he was last active and saw that he had just looked at this thread. I was hoping that he might leave a reply as to whether he moved the conversion or why he removed it.

I took it down because I was being bombarded with requests for access to the file via Google Mail (my personal account is attached to my Google Drive because I use it for academic & personal uses). And I mean BOMBARDED – I was getting 4-6 emails requesting access on the daily. It was swamping my email.

And I have no idea why. Because I specifically set up the document in Google Drive such that anyone with the link could access the document (without needing to ask permission).

Either Google Drive's settings are not working properly, or people are learning about the file through some other way and not using the link I shared.

I tried giving someone a new link, and then in a few weeks the same issue started happening again. Therefor, unfortunately, I've taken it down. Until I can find a solution to this issue, I won't make the file available via that channel.

 

[Greg K]

I took it down because I was being bombarded with requests for access to the file via Google Mail (my personal account is attached to my Google Drive because I use it for academic & personal uses). And I mean BOMBARDED – I was getting 4-6 emails requesting access on the daily. It was swamping my email.

And I have no idea why. Because I specifically set up the document in Google Drive such that anyone with the link could access the document (without needing to ask permission).

Either Google Drive's settings are not working properly, or people are learning about the file through some other way and not using the link I shared.

I tried giving someone a new link, and then in a few weeks the same issue started happening again. Therefor, unfortunately, I've taken it down. Until I can find a solution to this issue, I won't make the file available via that channel.

Hi Quickleaf,
Thanks for letting us know what happened.
A week ago while looking at 5e YouTube channels, I came across some videos on The Witcher for 5e. One of them mentioned someone having done an extensive conversion of the setting and posted a link. I don't recall whose channel it was and didn't check the link. Perhaps, it was to your google drive and drove traffic there.

 

[amaryliz]

I took it down because I was being bombarded with requests for access to the file via Google Mail (my personal account is attached to my Google Drive because I use it for academic & personal uses). And I mean BOMBARDED – I was getting 4-6 emails requesting access on the daily. It was swamping my email.

And I have no idea why. Because I specifically set up the document in Google Drive such that anyone with the link could access the document (without needing to ask permission).

Either Google Drive's settings are not working properly, or people are learning about the file through some other way and not using the link I shared.

I tried giving someone a new link, and then in a few weeks the same issue started happening again. Therefor, unfortunately, I've taken it down. Until I can find a solution to this issue, I won't make the file available via that channel.

Ok, thanks for letting us know.

I did find a version uploaded here, but I'm not sure if it's the most up to date:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://img.4plebs.org/boards/tg/image/1477/36/1477360852873.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiQ4Ivbxq_4AhVNjIkEHWKZDooQFnoECAsQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1QEL52vW6Ljl3929_ZdnHi

Very useful regardless, thank you for this

 

[Beleriphon]

I took it down because I was being bombarded with requests for access to the file via Google Mail (my personal account is attached to my Google Drive because I use it for academic & personal uses). And I mean BOMBARDED – I was getting 4-6 emails requesting access on the daily. It was swamping my email.

And I have no idea why. Because I specifically set up the document in Google Drive such that anyone with the link could access the document (without needing to ask permission).

Either Google Drive's settings are not working properly, or people are learning about the file through some other way and not using the link I shared.

I tried giving someone a new link, and then in a few weeks the same issue started happening again. Therefor, unfortunately, I've taken it down. Until I can find a solution to this issue, I won't make the file available via that channel.

That's a damn shame. I was actually looking for it again a few days before hitting this thread. Can you upload it to the EN World content stuff? Or is that a TOS issue with EN World, given the content and art?

 

[Quickleaf]

That's a damn shame. I was actually looking for it again a few days before hitting this thread. Can you upload it to the EN World content stuff? Or is that a TOS issue with EN World, given the content and art?

I don't know if it's a TOS issue. If you or someone could look into it for me / post a link to the EN World TOS for uploads, yes, I'd be open to providing it that way.