D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

[Remathilis]

Personally I find the arithmetic around descending AC (which I still use) to be easier when not using THAC0. THAC0 just adds an extra step and an extra number to the calculations I-as-DM have to make anyway.

This was exactly what I was referencing. Thank you.

 

[Minigiant]

That's more splatbook material.

I don't think people are to hard wired on faux medieval but there's expectations I suspect on generic fantasy tropes.

Guns are iffy for example.

The conservatism.is "how deep into splat".

There is a conservatism.in D&D that something is splat and thus:

1. It's low priority
2. It's doesn't matter if it's well designed
3. It's material that can wait or let third parties handle it and thus
   1. never tie it back into official products
   2. only support it once
   3. never come back to it even if it's popular.

It's basically why the monk always sucks and why new classes and races that are popular but often remain wonky.

 

[Lanefan]

List of chess variants.

TIL there's a Pokemon chess variant.

Sure there's loads of variants but exactly zero of those have - or are even remotely likely to - dethroned the basic game of chess as we know it.

It usually is, because it's based on the idea that an individual or small group get to decide what's real and what's fake.

Even when that individual or small group has it correct* and the masses do not? Science, for one thing, would not have got far without specific people at different times taking a stand saying "Yes I'm right and all of you are wrong".

* - as opposed to merely thinking they have it correct.

 

[Minigiant]

I don't need those as official options. They're all in my houserule doc.

If you and a couple thousand table houserule it, that means it should be official options.

That's the whole justification of official options: Very popular aspects that don't fit in the default core.

 

[KYRON45]

Look if you're going to be downgrading it from difficult to silly without consulting the necessary authorities you're going to be upsetting some incredibly capable mathematicians.

Great now I have to quantify silly. There’s always math!!!

 

[Lanefan]

Personally, I always found that bit hilarious. Although in retrospect, kind of silly because in 2e, gnomes (and everyone else) had always been in the MM. Sorry, MC, at least until they did the hardback Monstrous Manual.

Ditto in 1e, where all the playable species were also listed in the MM. (and this didn't exactly help consistency any, given the number of places the MM write-up of a playable species would conflict with the PH write-up of the same species...sigh...)

 

[Lanefan]

Great now I have to quantify silly. There’s always math!!!

This screams at full volume for a Monty Python skit!

 

[Swarmkeeper]

Thing is, listing it as 2-12 gives you two options (pick one and stick with it) - roll 2d6 or roll d12 ignoring 1s - depending on whether you want the results to be on a bell curve or linear.

Particularly relevant if the damage is 3-12, which could mean 3d4 or d10+2.

Don’t leave out d4+d8 as another option for 2-12

 

[Micah Sweet]

If you and a couple thousand table houserule it, that means it should be official options.

That's the whole justification of official options: Very popular aspects that don't fit in the default core.

I certainly wouldn't object to them being in a book.

 

[rhythmsoundmotion]

The thac0 arguments are edging into judgment of people’s capacities.
-Whether or not I find a concept easy to learn does not influence how easy it is for someone else.
-Abstract concepts are understood at different levels by different people.
-If something relates to a concept that the person already knows than it is easier to learn.