D&D General The Monsters Know What They're Doing ... Are Unsure on 5e24

[TwoSix]

Sounds awesome when you pit it that way...?

Exactly. I think sometimes people forget that “serious D&D table” is an oxymoron.

 

[TwoSix]

My Warforged are blatantly Decepticon.

But I had to Homebrew transformation in Combiners or guns

Warforged, roll out!

 

[Mephista]

Fortunate for me as a early Millennial, TMNT will always be popular.

Just need D&D to do Transformers,

My dude, warforged are right there!

My Warforged are blatantly Decepticon.

But I had to Homebrew transformation in Combiners or guns

Bonus points for going Artificers (armorer). Just need to make it so that you can use the Magic Action to transform between armor types instead of that oddly long time, and viola.

 

[Mecheon]

not a fan, I don’t need a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (1984) dressed up as a Tortle (1986) in my game

A non-zero amount of OSR games have plenty of room for totally-not-Runequest ducks, so. It just comes with the community

(completely incidental to the thread but I had a lovely time in a recent discord chat where this very thing came up and people were just boggled why 'duck' was included as a thing and not half orc or the like, meanwhile i'm cackling and just going "THE DUCKS, I KNOW WHERE THEY'RE FROM". delightful time. do discord read-alongs of random modules, highly recommended)

In the early days of D&D there was an almost punishing emphasis on DM control of all aspects of game play, especially the campaign setting. I think this was an inheritance from D&D’s roots as a war game variant, and perhaps also a result of Gary Gygax’s own controlling tendencies - or at least that was the impression I got from reading his rulebooks and magazine columns, which seemed to constantly urge DMs to bring the hammer down on those unruly, insolent players.

Today the pendulum has swung far in the other direction, and some players seem to think that the DM is there to cater to their whims in a “customer is always right” fashion. What happens if two or more players’ stories clash with each other? Some DMs would indeed probably be happier writing fiction, instead of running reluctant players through a pre-plotted railroad based on deep cuts of homebrewed lore. On the other hand some players might be happier trying out for amateur theater productions, where they might have a chance to be the actual star of the show. I would like to see a bit more flexibility and willingness to compromise on all sides of the table.

I'd argue we're in a better position at the moment because there absolutely was a stereotype of the controlling DM in the game, running awful games and killing people, but you having to play with them as that was the only game in town. The biggest DM and "This is what D&D is" being stuff like CR absolutely helps getting away from that, showing a more collaborative showing where you can absolutely see players have suggested some backstory stuff to chew on, and its been incorporated

D&D is collaborative fiction at the end of the day. Its shouldn't be controlled by either side

I think it is pretty interesting that both Blackmoor and Greyhawk, the two original D&D campaign settings, each include gonzo crossover stuff like steampunk war machines and crashed space ships full of robots, laser guns, and bug-eyed aliens. S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks seems to imply that mind flayers are ETs who arrived on Greyhawk in that wrecked spacecraft, but of course that possible origin story has been overwritten by decades of newer lore detailing them as Lovecraftian body snatchers.

Do they still stick with the "They're from the future" stuff? The alien origin of mind flayers tends to be what I think of for them and was around at least in 3.5e. I don't think either 4e or 5e went into their origins, the only big illithid-centric work being BG3

 

[Flying Toaster]

People make that reference as if it's a gotcha. TMNT was a small indie comic when tortles first appeared.

I definitely remember a friend who was a fan of comics (and martial arts) showing me this gritty, scrappy new comic that was spoofing the latest trends in mid-1980’s superhero comics: teenagers (New Teen Titans), mutants (Uncanny X-Men), and ninjas (Daredevil). This was a few years before parody, satire, irony, and meta-commentary became the default modes in pop culture, so a comic referencing other comics still felt fresh and a bit weird.

So it was definitely very strange to see TMNT absolutely blow up a few years later, and become one of the biggest kiddie entertainment brands around. Apparently the late 80’s Palladium RPG played a big role in bringing the property to the attention of marketers, and that led to the toy line, Saturday morning cartoon, and everything else. Of course in the process everything had to be sanitized for your protection...

At least the original creators Eastman and Laird got paid in full. The franchise is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Viacom-Paramount-Skydance-Whatever LLC.

 

[Willie the Duck]

not a fan, I don’t need a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (1984) dressed up as a Tortle (1986) in my game

If there was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle character in my game, the most notable part, IMO, would be the ninja (1985*).
*or 1976 if we count the one in Dragon issue #2.

 

[Stormonu]

not a fan, I don’t need a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (1984) dressed up as a Tortle (1986) in my game

At times, I feel the same way about the "Iron Man" artificer Armorer subclass. I want to like the class overall (and have actually played an Armorer Artificer in a MtG D&D game) , but the various subclasses tend to make me cringe - much in the same way many folk don't want the "Oriental" monk in their Western Fantasy game.

 

[Epic Meepo]

Bonus points for going Artificers (armorer). Just need to make it so that you can use the Magic Action to transform between armor types instead of that oddly long time, and viola.

Also:

Warforged druid = Beast Wars transformer

 

[Flying Toaster]

Fortunate for me as a early Millennial, TMNT will always be popular.

Just need D&D to do Transformers, Megatron, Soundwave, Shockwave, Devastator, or Starscream would be great dungeon fights

As a Gen-Xer, Transformers and TMNT came along just a little too late for me to get into them.

D&D was already a 1980’s Saturday morning cartoon, and a line of action figures. Sometimes I toy (heh) with the idea of a light-hearted campaign using ineffectual recurring villains inspired by Dick Dastardly, Cobra Commander, or Skeletor:

“Curses! Those Lawful-Do-Gooders have foiled my EEE-vil schemes yet again! Drat and double drat!”

If the campaign reaches higher levels, maybe try some meta-commentary on fantasy RPG tropes, in the style of the Mystery Men, the Tick, or the Venture Brothers. It probably wouldn’t work at a real table, but it is fun to think about.

 

[Minigiant]

Bonus points for going Artificers (armorer). Just need to make it so that you can use the Magic Action to transform between armor types instead of that oddly long time, and viola.

Yeah. Most Warforged in my game are artificers on Mechanicus.

I more or less injected Unicron into Mechanicus and has him be the dark brother of Primus for evil ones.