Unpopular opinions go here

[not-so-newguy]

I think all the artwork on dungeon crawl classics maps makes things confusing and I wish it wasn't there. Looks cool, but kind of dysfunctional.

ETA Hole is ok and the Trip Hop video gives me a headache. Kids, and their friggan rocknroll. Sheesh

 

[DrunkonDuty]

So I just listened to Dummy and Third back to back. I prefer Dummy.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

So I just listened to Dummy and Third back to back. I prefer Dummy.

Like I wrote before, it was an unpopular opinion.

Portishead has three (studio) albums; the vast majority of people consider Dummy the best. It was certainly the best-selling and a massive force in the 90s.

I, on the other hand, keep returning to Third. Rarely can a band both break with the past yet remain essentially the same. The album challenges me in a way that the other albums didn't, and every time I listen to it, I can feel the tension in the music fresh like an itch that can never be fully scratched.

Third is to Dummy what Finnegan's Wake is to A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

View attachment 293146

Remember UNKLE?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Which reminds me of another unpopular opinion of mine: level drain in AD&D served a purpose, in that it could be used to keep the game at its so-called "sweet spot" (in terms of level advancement) for longer. If you thought the game worked at its best between, say, 5th and 13th level, then level-draining spells and monsters kept it there longer.

Of course, nobody likes the idea of advancement becoming Sisyphean in nature, so it's no surprise that everyone hated that, but it still served a purpose.

I didn’t mind level drain in and of itself. I mean, I FEARED it, but I wasn’t against its existence in the game. The main annoyance for me was dealing with it for multiclassed characters. And the vast majority of my D&D PCs are multiclassed. Not only was the math tedious in those cases, recalculating everything was S-L-O-W.

I also felt the “draining levels” mechanic was a poor match the lore of “life draining”. So I had started testing using the 3.5Ed’s fatigue mechanics instead of level draining. It was much more streamlined, meaning the penalties were easily and quickly calculated. It caused problems for any PC, so the fear factor was intact.

The one flaw: it was TOO good. With level draining, a PC might be able to survive a handful of drains, but the same number of successful fatiguing blows would drop any PC, regardless of level. And the level draining spells & powers were likewise as problematic. Before I could rectify that issue- probably by making successful drains rarer- 4Ed was announced.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

I'd swap out level drain for a straight Con drain. If I were to go back to a D20 level based game.

 

[Cadence]

Roger Daltrey's cover of "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" > any Elton John verison of it

 

[deganawida]

I’d like to see the Bard class replaced with a generic Adventurer class, and Bard made a kit/subclass/prestige class/paragon path/whatever. From general to specific is my design philosophy.

 

[Hussar]

I didn’t mind level drain in and of itself. I mean, I FEARED it, but I wasn’t against its existence in the game. The main annoyance for me was dealing with it for multiclassed characters. And the vast majority of my D&D PCs are multiclassed. Not only was the math tedious in those cases, recalculating everything was S-L-O-W.

I also felt the “draining levels” mechanic was a poor match the lore of “life draining”. So I had started testing using the 3.5Ed’s fatigue mechanics instead of level draining. It was much more streamlined, meaning the penalties were easily and quickly calculated. It caused problems for any PC, so the fear factor was intact.

The one flaw: it was TOO good. With level draining, a PC might be able to survive a handful of drains, but the same number of successful fatiguing blows would drop any PC, regardless of level. And the level draining spells & powers were likewise as problematic. Before I could rectify that issue- probably by making successful drains rarer- 4Ed was announced.

I went a different direction. Level draining could be healed over time - IIRC, it was about a week/level of rest. And then I gave undead a claw/claw/bite routine instead of the standard 1 attack that most undead had. You very much could die from level draining undead, but, if you survived, it wasn't going to completely derail the campaign because now Dave's character lost three levels.

 

[Gradine]

I don't like D&D combat.