zottel
Explorer
Do you have any recommendations?I use campaign creation guides to help with my worldbuilding all the time. None if them are from WotC, however. Other publishers do a better job for my needs IMO.
Do you have any recommendations?I use campaign creation guides to help with my worldbuilding all the time. None if them are from WotC, however. Other publishers do a better job for my needs IMO.
I like the Midgard book from Kobold Press (to circle back to the impetus for this massive thread). I haven't looked at the Warhammer Fantasy book, but I read some of the novels and loved them, so I bet that's cool. Castles&Crusades has their Aihrde setting (also really cool). Lots of great world/setting books out there if you are looking to spread your wings a bit. I am about to run Dragonbane using the Midgard setting.Do you have any recommendations?
I'm not looking at my library right now, but off the top of my head I'd say: Worldbuilder's Guidebook (AD&D 2e), Judge's Journal (ACKS II), GMs Survival Guide (Legend of the Five Rings 2e from Fantasy Flight), Listen Up You Primitive Screwheads! (Cyberpunk 2020), Stars Without Number and Worlds Without Number, to name a few. I know I have plenty of others.Do you have any recommendations?
I wasn't arguing what was or wasn't sufficient for you. I was arguing whether stating there are no optional/alternate rules in the 2024 DMG was or was not a truthful statement.Then they are effectively gone. A few sidebars is not nearly sufficient.
The current starter set paradigm is to be a board game introduction to D&D rules, which is why it relies on pregens and modules. It also keeps the amount of rules light and the cost down. What you'd need to do is basically Essentials 2.0 with a trimmed down amount of character generation and adventure design tools to move players from the passive experience of pregens and modules to actually creating characters and adventures. Then you move them on to the full game, but even then the DMG is still going to have to do a lot of heavy lifting for world building and such.The more I think about this, the more I like your idea @Micah Sweet . The starter set has the guidewires and semaphores to get you through your first time running an adventure. It then gives you the basics of how to move on from that, to your second adventure. This includes building a world to stage and connect your first experience with your second. Not the entire world... just expand the immediate vicinity. Here are some simple suggestions and recommendations to help fill in those initial instructions with your own ideas.
At this point, you've primed the pump and your students are ready to go off in whichever direction suits them.
It will be interesting to see what tactic they take with the new boxed set, as all the old ones are out of the pipeline at Target at least.The current starter set paradigm is to be a board game introduction to D&D rules, which is why it relies on pregens and modules. It also keeps the amount of rules light and the cost down. What you'd need to do is basically Essentials 2.0 with a trimmed down amount of character generation and adventure design tools to move players from the passive experience of pregens and modules to actually creating characters and adventures. Then you move them on to the full game, but even then the DMG is still going to have to do a lot of heavy lifting for world building and such.
It also might not be a bad idea when the MM comes out that that take the Free Rules section of D&D Beyond and package that as a softcover or free PDF as step 2 from starter to core books.
It is a truthful statement to say a lot of them are gone then, making this a binary choice is just blurring the linesI wasn't arguing what was or wasn't sufficient for you. I was arguing whether stating there are no optional/alternate rules in the 2024 DMG was or was not a truthful statement.
Between beginner advice (for the boxed set) and the advice you expect in the DMG.What gap?
why does there need to be a gap? If (and that is a big if…) I’d use the Starter Set as a help for onboarding DMs and the DMG for experienced DMs only, I’d make sure there is some overlap between the two, rather than a gapBetween beginner advice (for the boxed set) and the advice you expect in the DMG.
Hopefully playing through and examining the starter materials gives you enough experience and knowledge that you can then move on to the DMG without a substantial hiccup. Hence, no gap.Between beginner advice (for the boxed set) and the advice you expect in the DMG.