D&D General I’m Trying to Love D&D Again—and I’ve Got Some Complaints. Young Grognard posting.

mamba · Tuesday at 6:27 PM

James Gasik said:
My group chose Tales of the Valiant, which has a fairly devoted fanbase active on Discord. And with deep pockets too- when their offering for Megadungeon Month (Hastening Doom) went live on Backerkit for funding, by the time my pledge cleared, it was fully funded, and in 17 days nearly 1.5 million dollars of the 10k goal has been earned- basically, before they can even announce new stretch goals, they've been surpassed already.

so far 50k were pledged to it, the 1.5M is across all 30 projects making up Megadungeon Month…

Osgood · Tuesday at 6:29 PM

KnightofCaliban said:
That was not said and not what I mean! I'm happy to play at a game with everyone! If I'm playing with someone of faith, doesn't matter what one. Who's done crimes, doesn't matter what ones. Employed/unemployed, doesn't matter. I don't think anyone here wants the first thing everyone hears at the start of the game to be, "Hi everyone I'm Sammael, before we begin can you all promise me you'd accepted Jesus as your one true king?". Now put that with any other faith, pronouns, anything. We're here to play a game as strangers, if we have fun and like each other we stick around. Why put anything that could make that a harder transition up front or at all? That's my point!

That's a major false equivalence... unless you are suggesting that players have come to the table and demanded others players turn gay to play D&D with them.

Whizbang Dustyboots · Tuesday at 6:30 PM

James Gasik said:
Yeah, TSR really dropped the ball on the Japanese D&D market. Lodoss was huge, and that's what led to Sword World becoming "their" D&D. It also created some interesting things, like, if you've ever watched a fantasy anime and wondered why kobolds are dog people, when everyone knows they are reptilian humanoids with ties to dragons?

Back in 1e, kobolds were reptilian, with scales and laying eggs, but they were described as having doglike qualities as well, and for many gamers, because these were stressed more, we just thought of them as dog-men (the 2e Monstrous Compendium art giving us Pug Kobolds certainly didn't help! Yip yip!).

But there was a clear association with kobolds being used as minions to dragons even then. The Dungeon magazine adventure "Into the Fire", the Dragon Mountain boxed set, and so on. And so by 3e, they shifted to be "more dragon, less dog".

However, in Japan, the opposite occurred. Kobolds became more doglike over time, and shed their reptilian features entirely. Which I find fascinating.

Good Pointy Hat video on this was released this week:

Misanthrope Prime · Tuesday at 7:22 PM

Osgood said:
That's a major false equivalence... unless you are suggesting that players have come to the table and demanded others players turn gay to play D&D with them.

The D&D game I joined right after college, literally everyone involved in it changed their stated sexuality and/or gender by the time it ended.

Fun fact; the fact I was locked out of the polycule forming at that table was part of how I figured out I, myself, was ace.

Gradine · Tuesday at 7:34 PM

Misanthrope Prime said:
The D&D game I joined right after college, literally everyone involved in it changed their stated sexuality and/or gender by the time it ended.

Fun fact; the fact I was locked out of the polycule forming at that table was part of how I figured out I, myself, was ace.

I was literally the cliche "working out my gender stuff with characters at the table". One of my favorite PCs in my college campaigns was a woman (it also helps that she used Incarnum stuff, which was rad as hell). After college I was almost always the token straight in the group. Little did I know!

Umbran · Tuesday at 7:39 PM

Bravesteel25 said:
I hope you show similar disdain towards the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza and the settlements in the West Bank that are illegal by international law.

Mod note:

Folks, this site has a no-real-world-politics rule.

Please do not violate it.

Thank you.

Lanefan · Tuesday at 9:02 PM

James Gasik said:
However, in Japan, the opposite occurred. Kobolds became more doglike over time, and shed their reptilian features entirely. Which I find fascinating.

Which would make Kobolds-to-Gnolls (which are bigger dog-like critters) similar to Hobbits-to-Humans.

Yeah, there's certainly space for that.

I've always kinda seen Kobolds as almost their own thing, though; maybe a little bit reptilian in looks but not completely, and not egg-laying. Given that, for a Gnoll version of a Hobbit I'd probably design something completely new.

Which means now I have homework.....

Misanthrope Prime · Tuesday at 9:23 PM

Lanefan said:
Which would make Kobolds-to-Gnolls (which are bigger dog-like critters) similar to Hobbits-to-Humans.

Yeah, there's certainly space for that.

I've always kinda seen Kobolds as almost their own thing, though; maybe a little bit reptilian in looks but not completely, and not egg-laying. Given that, for a Gnoll version of a Hobbit I'd probably design something completely new.

Which means now I have homework.....

Hyenas have more in common with cats than dogs iirc.

djotaku · Tuesday at 10:41 PM

Misanthrope Prime said:
I'm not going to bother reading the entirety of the thread; but I just want to bring up the idea that LGBTQ+ representation being "modern politics" is naughty word silly. Not only have there been people that we would consider to be gay, trans, bi, lesbian, queer or asexual in the past (we stan ace icon Immanuel Kant in this house), but many people with these identities or sexualities factor into the traditional narratives that fantasy novels and TTRPG campaigns emulate.

If you're comfortable using the word "epic" to describe D&D, you have to be comfortable with the fact that canonical epic of western society is about a gay guy being sad that his boyfriend is dead.

According to the Paizo post on TDOV (TDOV—We Have Always Been Here. | Paizo Blog ) some of the founders of the hobby as we know it are included in that number

djotaku · Tuesday at 10:44 PM

FrozenNorth said:
Good point. I work at a large company where my first interaction is often via e-mail (so kind of like online gaming).

So is Kelly could be either a man or a woman. So could Chris. Or Evelyn. And that’s only looking at names from the Anglosphere!

Yeah, back before it was mainstream to note pronouns, I knew a few folks with those "agender" English names that had something in their email signature noting whether they were male or female