Pineapple Express: Someone Is Wrong on the Internet?

[el-remmen]

Not complaining about any pineapple on pizza, but something interesting I wanted to share with you all.

I play a lot of Magic: The Gathering. Much more than I play D&D, infact. One of my favorite formats is Pauper, which has the deck building restriction that all cards must be of the Common card rarity. It's an official format, endorsed by WOTC, but it's largely ignored by them, and very much community driven. As such I'm part of a Discord server for people who play Pauper in my area.

We recently got my preferred LGS to run the format as a regular weekly event in the last few months. Last week a group of guys from the server all car pooled out to my store to join us and play. It was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed seeing them all. One of the guys won for the day too. The store is cool, and they pay out 100% of the entry fees back out as store credit for prizing, so he ended up with a cool $45 or so to spend at a store he's unlikely to visit again any time soon.

I'm showing everyone around the shop, showing them the little arcade, the in-house candy store, and where all the MTG related accessories are and he stops at the TTRPG shelf and mulls it over. I apologetically mention that the RPG supply is a little lacking, but point out some of the cool third party books and stuff that are available. He grabs a copy of Descent into Avernus and looks it over and asks my opinion of it. I tell him I've never ran or played it, but have always thought it sounded cool. It's got some Mad Max vibes, and it's also kind of like a precursor to Baldur's Gate 3.

Here's what's interesting. He tells me he doesn't actually play D&D, or TTRPGs in general for that matter. He does however collect, and reads sourcebooks/adventure modules. And that's what he spent his store credit on.

I just found that kind of fun. I know a lot of books are sold to people who will likely never actually use them, but I always assumed that demographic was more like, people who were being wishfully optimistic.. Like "Maybe someday I will run this." or like me, who enjoys reading source books to steal bits and pieces from them for my home brew game.

First of all the Pauper format sounds great for someone like me who still has all his magic cards but has bought none and played little since the format changes of earlier this century (I still think of the card layout as new).

Secondly, I bet a thread you started with this story would end up being 145 pages of people fighting big about whether Descent to Avernis was actually any good and if WotC adventures are even actually meant to be played and not just read.

 

[Meech17]

First of all the Pauper format sounds great for someone like me who still has all his magic cards but has bought none and played little since the format changes of earlier this sentry (I still think of the card layout as new).

Secondly, I bet a thread you started with this story would end up being 145 pages of people fighting big about whether Descent to Avernis was actually any good and if WotC adventures are even actually meant to be played and not just read.

I almost made a thread for it, but felt it wasn't interesting enough to warrant one, which is how it ended up here.

Pauper is a blast. It may not be great for you, as it's still a hyper competitive format that does rely on a lot of new cards. That's actually one of my favorite things about it. It's this weird format that is based around a lot of old, very powerful cards, like Lightning Bolt, Counterspell, and Brainstorm.. But then they're all held together by the weird janky modern commons of today which tend to not see Standard play because they were more designed as draft filler pieces. With that said, it is very affordable, as it's name suggests. Many of the new cards that see play are very cheap.. Often worth <$0.50/ea. Many of the "Expensive" staples tend to be some of those older cards that haven't seen many(or sometimes any) reprints, like Snuff Out which is around $6/ea I think these days. You can put together a deck capable of winning a local event for <$50 quite easily.

There is a format that is currently gaining a lot of popularity however that may be right up your alley called Pre-Modern. It has the deck building restriction of cards from 4th edition, until the adoption of the "Modern" card frame. It's very popular, in part due to the love of the old border.

 

[billd91]

Man, is that confirmation bias something else!

 

[trappedslider]

talk about projecting

 

[trappedslider]

Bend the knee for House Elmo

 

[el-remmen]

You can put together a deck capable of winning a local event for <$50 quite easily.

Yeah, but the goal is to spend zero or less dollars.

There is a format that is currently gaining a lot of popularity however that may be right up your alley called Pre-Modern. It has the deck building restriction of cards from 4th edition, until the adoption of the "Modern" card frame. It's very popular, in part due to the love of the old border.

my Sol Rings are burning to try this format.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I just found that kind of fun. I know a lot of books are sold to people who will likely never actually use them, but I always assumed that demographic was more like, people who were being wishfully optimistic.. Like "Maybe someday I will run this." or like me, who enjoys reading source books to steal bits and pieces from them for my home brew game.

There's also me who plays/runs games, but also has a limited playtime, and well, lifespan but still like reading interesting games (sometimes things I'd never run, sometimes ones I would but may well never have time).