Heroes of the Borderlands

D&D (2024) Heroes of the Borderlands

I saw this posted on the official D&D YouTube page today.

EDIT: I didn't realize this was posted here already. Feel free to delete.

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Return of the poster grid maps, kind of like the black box D&D of the 90s (one can hope)?

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Given that I have never and will never throw "monster's" children into the mix, and times and opinions have changed over the past half century, I think sometimes morality depends on assumptions and settings. I assume most people wouldn't think twice about killing a swarm of demonic Dretches or Larva. But those are basically the equivalent of fiendish children. People will say that that's okay because these are formed from the souls of evil individuals or born of the chaos and evil of the plane.

But what if my campaign has reincarnation? I have slurgs, an evil race that people who were particularly evil come back as because my campaign doesn't have other planes of existence like Avernus or The Abyss because I only have the prime material. They're born evil and malevolent with no chance of redemption. They are fiends with different fiction and lore. Is it always evil to kill them before they have a chance to harm others?

Like I said, I'll never throw the evil children scenario, even if those children are irredeemable. But I also won't tell people they're wrong if their setting assumption includes always evil monsters. Some people like simple black and white campaigns with clear lines. I don't judge others based on how they play their games, I certainly won't judge a mod written over four decades ago.

Fiends even manes and lemures aren't exactly innocent.
 

"Ok kids. I know we just slaughtered your tribe, but we're going to let you leave the only home and family ever you've known to go starve in the wilderness. Because we're the Good Guys."

Alternatively, you can give them into foster families like and tech them "proper" behavior, similar to what was tried with indigenous children up to a few decades ago.
The orc baby dilemma doesn't really have a satisfying solution, each way of handling it can be questioned.
I always found it annoying some Mystara fans argue baby Kobolds in Caves of Chaos should rush the PCs with their first small knives "as a way to teach the players humanoids are evil". Dude, if some jackass broke into my house and murdered my parents in front of me and I stab him, does that make me evil?
 

I always found it annoying some Mystara fans argue baby Kobolds in Caves of Chaos should rush the PCs with their first small knives "as a way to teach the players humanoids are evil". Dude, if some jackass broke into my house and murdered my parents in front of me and I stab him, does that make me evil?
No, but it means the players won't have the opportunity or confront the issue of "oh these children are defenseless, what do we do with them?" You kill the demons, but then little demon babies burst out of them and also try to kill you..." There's no "but should we adopt them?" You just roll initiative.
 


No, but it means the players won't have the opportunity or confront the issue of "oh these children are defenseless, what do we do with them?" You kill the demons, but then little demon babies burst out of them and also try to kill you..." There's no "but should we adopt them?" You just roll initiative.
My issue isn't that, but insisting on humanoids being inherently evil.

Also, I jsut realzied actual demons in D&D do not have children, they spawn in a specific adult form and transform into strogner ones. Kinda gives me ideas for villain, a demon who hates humans for being allowed t obe born innocent and clear, be shaped by their upbringing and choose their path, while he came out fully formed adult made for killing.
 

My issue isn't that, but insisting on humanoids being inherently evil.

Also, I jsut realzied actual demons in D&D do not have children, they spawn in a specific adult form and transform into strogner ones. Kinda gives me ideas for villain, a demon who hates humans for being allowed t obe born innocent and clear, be shaped by their upbringing and choose their path, while he came out fully formed adult made for killing.

Unless things gave changed demons can spawn from souls or abyss itself.
Devils are via souls.
 

My issue isn't that, but insisting on humanoids being inherently evil.
Yeah, I don't think WotC would have brought back the Caves of Chaos at this point without the changes made in the new Monster Manual to eliminate the idea that "these guys look funny, so it's OK to kill them."

Ideally, they will also make it clear that the inhabitants of the Caves of Chaos are actively malicious and dangerous and not just living their best lives, creating homemade crafts to sell on Fantasy Etsy (which is basically just the same as regular Etsy at this point).
 

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