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  1. Composer99

    D&D 4E 4e-like game (title TBD)

    The Berserker The 4e barbarian is a primal-theme class. (Indeed, that's their power source in 4e.) I think I'd like this game's equivalent to be more of a martial-themed class. Core Ideas I had worked up a prototype/pre-generate berserker, but I think I'll be rejigging it to better fit the...
  2. Composer99

    D&D 4E 4e-like game (title TBD)

    My employment has cycles of activity - low activity in the summer, picking up to a peak just before Christmas, then relatively busy through the spring after a holiday break. So things have been a bit slow. Also, since the sort of niche this game was occupying as it was conceived over the summer...
  3. Composer99

    MCDM's New Tactical TTRPG Hits $1M Crowdfunding On First Day!

    I'm a bit surprised at the view that favouring patrons - who doubtless have way more skin in the game than backers do over the long term - is somehow "insulting" to backers. Backers are helping get one project off the ground. The patrons are the folks helping keep the lights on over the long...
  4. Composer99

    D&D 4E Rambling thoughts about D&D 4th Edition

    It's not a demerit of 4e that it doesn't support "low-importance" fights as a means of daily attrition. One does not have to like that about the game, but to my mind that's a matter of personal preference, rather than a design problem of the game itself. At any rate, it's plainly incorrect to...
  5. Composer99

    D&D General One Less Warlock

    My deepest condolences. It's supposed to go the other way around, that (adult) children bury their parents, and it's just not right. Best wishes as you navigate your journey of grief.
  6. Composer99

    MCDM's New Tactical TTRPG Hits $1M Crowdfunding On First Day!

    5e can do heroic fantasy play, but it's not focused on it because it's also trying to have rules elements (even if they're vestigial) that appeal to classic attritional play. IIRC what happens is some of your abilities get buffs as you gain Victories; you don't spend the Victories. For...
  7. Composer99

    D&D 4E Let's Talk About 4E On Its Own Terms [+]

    I'm sure it's come up already in the thread how well 4e makes characters feel heroic in play, but here's a timely example from just a little earlier this evening. I'm playing in a 4e game, with a 12th-level dragonborn paladin. A bunch of enemies are clustered in a convenient 5-by-5 area, so I...
  8. Composer99

    D&D General Should you clarify information to the detriment of the players?

    I mean, you're not wrong, strictly speaking - but, well, it's all too easy to forget, or misinterpret remarks, etc. By way of example from another domain, I personally have never - not once - had any difficulty navigating either the website of the charity I work for or the online platform we...
  9. Composer99

    D&D 5E (2014) Is the Forgotten Realms experiencing a new Golden Age now that its NOT the default 5e setting anymore?

    It is (to my mind) blisteringly obvious that the Realms, and the Sword Coast region in particular, was, at 5e's outset, as close as it gets to being a "default" setting for D&D, de facto if not formally designated as such. Adventures The vast majority of adventures published to date are set in...
  10. Composer99

    D&D General Should you clarify information to the detriment of the players?

    I'm generous in terms of providing information that I think the characters would know if it seems like the players don't (or have forgotten) or reminding them of risks they're likely to face. As others have said, ideally, if the player characters are going to get themselves in a pickle, it...
  11. Composer99

    WotC WotC - why are we still shocked with layoffs?

    It seems to me that there is rather a difference between being surprised and being appalled or disappointed, a distinction that I feel comes across as not being fully appreciated in the OP. But both feelings can be summarised within the term "shocked" (indeed, I would say that "shocked" is...
  12. Composer99

    D&D General Does D&D (and RPGs in general) Need Edition Resets?

    Rules light RPGs or RPGs with very bespoke designs and ambitions probably don't. A game like D&D does, eventually. A given edition just gets too cluttered. Janky mechanics just get too tiresome to deal with. The soft reset of the 2024 release is probably a better course for D&D, though, than...
  13. Composer99

    D&D 4E Let's Talk About 4E On Its Own Terms [+]

    "Where there's a whip there's a will, my slugs. Hold up! I'd give you a nice freshener now, only you'll get as much lash as your skins will carry when you come in late to your camp. Do you good. Don't you know we're at war?"
  14. Composer99

    D&D General High Gygaxian: Time To Post Your Favorite Purple Verbiage

    I do quite like the attempt in the Vault of the Drow to describe something that we literally cannot perceive with our own senses! Apropos of @Whizbang Dustyboots last post, there can be found passages of text in other D&D works that to my mind approach High Gygaxian without quite going over the...
  15. Composer99

    D&D 5E (2014) Poignant D&D Moments

    So, long story short, the Rise of Tiamat game I've been DMing has finally come to an end, with a surprisingly poignant moment for me. We've been using Roll20 for maps and Discord for chat and die rolling. Despite my best efforts, the player character party was severely under-leveled by the time...
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    tiamat1.jpg

  17. Composer99

    D&D General Why Is D&D Successful?

    I've speculated that D&D is the success that it is because its current mechanics better support the kind of heroic gameplay that has predominated since the mid 1980s while being more streamlined than other modern versions of D&D. TSR-era D&D had streamlined mechanics (well, aside from THAC0 or...
  18. Composer99

    D&D General US Postal Service Releases D&D Stamps

    So... I live in Canada but I want these stamps. I better go see if I can order them anyway.
  19. Composer99

    Technical play skill + setting/situation + narrative + player dissatisfaction

    Just wanted to chime in saying there's some really good stuff in this thread!
  20. Composer99

    D&D General D&D without Resource Management

    This discussion has me thinking about two video games I've played that have a bit of an "older school" vibe to them: Darkest Dungeon I'm playing a lot of this at the moment. For those unfamiliar with it, it's a tactical dungeon-crawler with intricate 2D-positional combat, a dungeon-exploration...
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