D&D (2024) Heroes of the Borderlands

[Micah Sweet]

Yeah, I got dragged a while back for suggesting that the violence in D&D ago be viewed in the same lens as violence in the real world. That if you moved the Keep on the Borderlands onto any modern nation's border, the PCs would be war criminals for their treatment of prisoners, non-combatants, and spoils of war. "But Remathilis, D&D is a fantasy game, it's not supposed to be realistic". Ok. Then it's not realistic for children to be conspicuously absent from a war zone so that should not be a problem either. If you're not going to fix the underlying problem behind D&D's view on righteous violence, we can at least mitigate some of the worst aspects of it.

Seriously, I'm past the whole edgy "what are you going to do with the gobin toddlers, Mr Paladin?" Scenario. The game should move past that too. It's the least it can do.

That the game isn't supposed to be realistic is not and has never been my argument. Quite the opposite.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Far too often "edgy moral dilemmas" are really just "f*** you if you decide to play anything other than a neutral or evil PC". Frequently there simply are no good options in real life and I don't want to deal with it when I'm playing a game for fun and relaxation.

Then choose not to. Don't make that choice for everyone who plays the game.

 

[The Glen]

Keep on the Borderlands was technically sort of Mystara originally, despite being Gygax.

Canonically it's Castellan Keep in NE Karameikos

 

[Micah Sweet]

Why not?

Because that's a different adventure?

 

[Remathilis]

Because that's a different adventure?

So is Return to the Keep on the Borderlands. And this is Heroes of the Borderlands. You can have more than one adventure in the same location.

 

[Oofta]

Then choose not to. Don't make that choice for everyone who plays the game.

If it's something you enjoy, go for it. I'm not making choices for anyone else. In the meantime, such things are easy to add to any module but hard to remove so I think by default they shouldn't be there.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

If it were me, I'd make the Caves less of a tribal land and more of a staging ground for a war and thus only have soldiers and support personnel rather than civilians. The tribes send their warriors to serve the grand warlord, the women and children remain in places off camera and away from the action.

I'm perfectly fine with ignoring the existence of children when it comes to lairs and dungeons.

I like this idea.

For some reason, it made me think of the difference between the first Death Star and the second. It's not my bit, but... the first station was operational. It was a full-on military base and staffed. The second? Not complete, mostly filled with contractors and workers.

 

[DarkCrisis]

It depends on how you see them.

If you see them how they were originally and found in certain fairy tales from previously (little demon monsters spawned from the minds of evil..and truly and unredeemably evil themselves...sort of like other monsters and animals, but these had no sense of good, only a desire to destroy, murder, and cause mayhem...and normally only brought into any sort of order by a very strong leader...) then...maybe.

I mean, If you had a Tiger that was shown to attack and try to kill on site...and it had little kits (oh...so cute), and knowing tendencies of parents passed onto their progeny...would you let the kitties live and let them be around your infant to while it grew (so, by the time it's 2, the Tigers are now full grown and likely to eventually eat your 2 year old)?

Now, add a little more rudimentary intelligence....your answer may be...give it to a Zoo...is that really any better for an Orc...life long torture in a cage..or put it out of it's misery to begin with?

Orcs were NOT seen as much as a racial item as they are today. Orcs were evil and terrible enough, just being somewhat looking like them (A Half-Orc for example, one of the 10% that actually could meld into other societies) were seen as very hated by everyone else in many instances, and Orcs themselves were killed on site in most intelligent society (as were other creatures such as Dark Elves...refer to the early Drizzt books to see why....or Mindflayers, or Demons, or Undead...etc). These were creatures of darkness and as such...acted in accordance with their alignment...but worse in many instances.

I agree 100%

I view D&D monsters like monopoly tokens. They just are what they are. Game tokens. People trying to apply cultures who are just there to be something to over come as part of a game just blow my mind.

Oh no the goblins! The Orcs! They are just metal cars trying to land on free parking.

That's just how I see it.

 

[Micah Sweet]

So is Return to the Keep on the Borderlands. And this is Heroes of the Borderlands. You can have more than one adventure in the same location.

So long as it's considered a different adventure, and not a replacement that changes the past, sure.

 

[Micah Sweet]

If it's something you enjoy, go for it. I'm not making choices for anyone else. In the meantime, such things are easy to add to any module but hard to remove so I think by default they shouldn't be there.

Removing things is always easier than adding them. I honestly don't see how the opposite view makes sense.