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Lost a word there apparently. I meant to say "end of the third age". As in, Lord of the Rings being beginning of humanity ascending as the other races diminish. LotR kinda happens at the fulcrum. Humanity isn't strong enough yet but the other great races (elves and dwarves) are declining. But...

The quarry was on the skateboard, not her The poster map from In The Cage: A Guide to Sigil

Also not a bad design choice, assuming you still want everyone in their own little corners (this is humanville, the next kingdom over is elfland, and beyond that, there be dragon men). The benefit is that you can expand infinitely as long as the map keeps growing, but the fact you still start in...

Well, that's one way to phrase what happened to incorporate new females into the tribe...

I think the fatal flaw with a humanocentric world building is the fact that you world has to strictly limit what else is in the world. The classic AD&D model is that humanity is in ascendency, demi humans (elves, dwarves, etc) are in decline and withdrawn from the greater world (gnomes and...

Well... It depends on the book. Ravenloft's art was very Victorian (without firearms) and there is a Planescape art with the Lady of Pain chasing hoodlums on a skateboard. (The hoodlums, she is floating). The Realms always has a more Renaissance theme than strictly medieval. More Italian city...

Jermey said in the video about aberrations that gith who spent time away from the planes and lived on the material plane long enough (generations, not in ones lifetime) became humanoids and got the abilities of the pc species rather than the abilities in the Monster Manual (and were...

So this is D&D's take on it in 2024, using the Realms as the example. Humanoid's have no defined alignment tendencies. They can be as good or as evil as their society and morals allow. A drow from Mezzobaranzan has the same odds of being evil as a human from Thay has. But they also have the...

Which is why it feels so disjointed. Phandelver is great because you can go.so many different directions from it (Storm Kings Thunder, Light of Xarysis, Dungeon of the Mad Mage, even Decent into Avernus all fall within that sweet spot for levels). The Shattered Obelisk feel like just another...

I feel this thread is going to go only one way...

Sorta. I think they could have done more with the Black Spider working with a more powerful monster (like a dragon or giant or fiend) to keep the vibe of "classic monster manual" going. Icespire adds a bunch of unconnected plots and side quests rather than a proper expansion. I would have liked...

Agreed. Dark Sun can keep many of the same themes but remove a lot of the edgelord crap. I know it's heresy, but Ravenloft 5e did that well in the "removing all the grimdark without removing the horror" elements.

That kinda is the crux of D&D design right now: hope vs despair. 5e has been mostly designing via hope. The world is not bad, only things in the world make it bad. This is a stark contrast to both 4e (points of light) and 2e (when a lot of settings had a upcoming apocalypse or was recovering...

@Steampunkette presented an idea of a hopepunk version of Dark Sun. Basically, a world where things are so bad there is no where to go but up. I think that sort of tone would be true to the intention (a harsh world that is full of danger) without resorting to the "it's pointless to change...

I don't think they will soften it, but they may change how the particular evils are portrayed. Personally, my original issue with Dark Sun was that it was sold to me as "make the most tripped out powerful character you can imagine. It won't matter because your going to die of thirst in the...

I lucked out and got the free Beyond version offered during the Pandemic. I was disappointed that both Phandelver and the Shattered Obelisk got merged together rather than Phandelver getting a logical "expansion" keeping to its vanilla, classical play and the far realm/mind fayer plot didn't get...

Up to the 2024 DMG, I had written off Dark Sun as unsalvageable. Apparently WotC has other plans. The psion UA further tells me it's not only inevitable, but actively in development. I fully expect this will be a rebooted Dark Sun in the vein of Ravenloft or Spelljammer, but I think it's...

I treated much of Villaki as dark comedy, with the "all will be well" and Blinksy. Then again, much of my Ravenloft has a dreamy, surreal element to it so weird "Halloween town" elements work quite well.