D&D General Dark Sun as a Hopepunk Setting

[Steampunkette]

Not a huge fan of the emphasis on "but the work has to portray the bad thing as bad". Hays Code actually really bad. Things like it sort of bad in general too. I think sometimes it's okay if the book doesn't explicitly handhold you through whether things are good or bad. Like, I don't really entirely disagree with your vision, but any time you start saying things like "pass muster because it'd be presented as an outright evil to be opposed", you are giving me very strong Hays Code vibes.

The Hays Code was an outright prohibition of topics being presented, at all. There were some guidelines about how "positive" things had to be presented as wholly positive. And that included things like the American Flag. Which is jingoistic AF and not at all what is happening here.

There is no situation in which slavery, oppression, or eugenics is -not- evil. So I would want to present them as explicitly evil and meant to be opposed. Sure, you -could- write it without making that explicit, but you run the risk of people believing you endorse it or at least consider it to be a neutral fact of the world due to its presentation. Especially with a well known Tumblr meme:

I don't want that. So I will present it as evil.

If you wanna write about it in a way that isn't "Handholdy" or whatever, be my guest. Unlike the Hays Code this isn't going to be imposed on other projects or works. It's just how I'd want to do it to ensure its specific level of 'problematic' is low enough for WotC to publish.

Now if you wanna argue that WotC's standards for their publications are too stringent that's definitely something you could argue. But please do it in a thread dedicated to discussing WotC's standards for publication.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Not a huge fan of the emphasis on "but the work has to portray the bad thing as bad". Hays Code actually really bad. Things like it sort of bad in general too. I think sometimes it's okay if the book doesn't explicitly handhold you through whether things are good or bad. Like, I don't really entirely disagree with your vision, but any time you start saying things like "pass muster because it'd be presented as an outright evil to be opposed", you are giving me very strong Hays Code vibes.

I'm sorry, but there are enough people trying to go 'but what about the good parts of slavery?' with their gaze flicking between me and a nearby cotton field already, and 'enough' starts at negative 8 billion.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The Hays Code was an outright prohibition of topics being presented, at all. There were some guidelines about how "positive" things had to be presented as wholly positive. And that included things like the American Flag. Which is jingoistic AF and not at all what is happening here.

There is no situation in which slavery, oppression, or eugenics is -not- evil. So I would want to present them as explicitly evil and meant to be opposed. Sure, you -could- write it without making that explicit, but you run the risk of people believing you endorse it or at least consider it to be a neutral fact of the world due to its presentation. Especially with a well known Tumblr meme:

View attachment 388931

I don't want that. So I will present it as evil.

If you wanna write about it in a way that isn't "Handholdy" or whatever, be my guest. Unlike the Hays Code this isn't going to be imposed on other projects or works. It's just how I'd want to do it to ensure its specific level of 'problematic' is low enough for WotC to publish.

Now if you wanna argue that WotC's standards for their publications are too stringent that's definitely something you could argue. But please do it in a thread dedicated to discussing WotC's standards for publication.

To be honest, I'd much rather see something like this presented in Level Up, or even TotV, than in WotC 5.5. Just file off those serial numbers! Anyone who wants the old proper nouns etc can get them, but I don't care for 5.5's mechanics.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Not a huge fan of the emphasis on "but the work has to portray the bad thing as bad". Hays Code actually really bad. Things like it sort of bad in general too. I think sometimes it's okay if the book doesn't explicitly handhold you through whether things are good or bad. Like, I don't really entirely disagree with your vision, but any time you start saying things like "pass muster because it'd be presented as an outright evil to be opposed", you are giving me very strong Hays Code vibes.

Although I agree with you I note that in the media environment, we exist in it seems to be necessary, we must adapt to the changing conditions or get crushed under it personally I favour adaptation.

Psionics in 5e is a solved problem. It's just not solved by WotC.

how so?

 

[Steampunkette]

how so?

The book I wrote.

Micah Sweet and a lot of the A5e community really love the Esper and the power structure I came up with. I get comments on it once or twice a week, get tagged in posts, it's nice.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I'm sorry, but there are enough people trying to go 'but what about the good parts of slavery?' with their gaze flicking between me and a nearby cotton field already, and 'enough' starts at negative 8 billion.

holy hell.

The book I wrote.

Micah Sweet and a lot of the A5e community really love the Esper and the power structure I came up with. I get comments on it once or twice a week, get tagged in posts, it's nice.

I am poor so please describe them in a way that do not invalidate buying the product but still means I can be on the same page as you?

 

[Steampunkette]

I am poor so please describe them in a way that do not invalidate buying the product but still means I can be on the same page as you?

Here you go. Free copy of the Class and Powers for anyone who wants it. I'll go ahead and put it up on DTRPG for folks, too.

Short version:

Powers are basically Cantrips you can use at any time. They have different ways you can Augment them.

Augments can increase damage, spread the target count, change the range. Or they can do power-specific stuff like increase the weight limit of Telekinesis.

You have Psi Dice. When you use a power you assign Psi Dice to each Augment you want to use to change the power. You cannot use more Psi Dice than you have.

You can apply multiple Psi Dice to the same augment, increasing the effect.

Power goes off with all augments that you used Psi Dice for.

After the power resolves, roll all the dice you assigned to the power. On a 1 or 2, that Psi Dice is expended. On a roll of 3 or higher, you keep that Psi Dice.

 

[Corinnguard]

The book I wrote.

Micah Sweet and a lot of the A5e community really love the Esper and the power structure I came up with. I get comments on it once or twice a week, get tagged in posts, it's nice.

What made the 2e Dark Sun setting is so interesting and so different than the other D&D settings was that it had psionics being very commonplace. Every character who wasn't a member of a psionic class had a wild talent. Every monster had psionic abilities.

So, I could see the Esper class being a part of the standard class line-up in a Dark Sun-like setting.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The book I wrote.

Micah Sweet and a lot of the A5e community really love the Esper and the power structure I came up with. I get comments on it once or twice a week, get tagged in posts, it's nice.

Absolutely! Beyond that, Level Up has its own first party psionics system in the new Voidrunner's Codex. Personally I've used and allow either or both in my games.

 

[AnotherGuy]

I have a player who insists that eating dragons should be a culinary high point. In his own game, dragon steaks are served at the major expensive meals and when he fought a dragon in my game, he always got out the butchers knife. Personally, I think the eating of sentient beings is cannibalism regardless of body type and composition. He eventually stopped doing it in my game, but it really highlights what people consider ethical consumption would be very different in a fantasy world.

Oh I like this, thanks!
This will be interesting to bring up at my table by a NPC who shares your player's outlook and so offers the party this supposed delicacy. I will have a NPC present (Leosin Erlanthar - Cult of the Dragon expert) and a PC (Maccath the Crimson- dracologist), both from the ToD storyline and see how the situation unfolds as Leosin will respond in disgust at the offer.
We also have an artificer character who (along with the player) enjoys these moral quandaries, perhaps now made complicated within a fantasy setting.
Could foster some interesting dialogue.