D&D 5E Blog Post by Robert J. Schwalb

[dd.stevenson]

RBDM

That's a new one on me. I don't expect you mean Registry of Births, Deaths, and Marriages?

 

[D'karr]

Fair enough, but that situation has relatively little to do with AD&D logistics, and everything to do with a real nasty RBDM.

I believe it has everything to do with AD&D logistics or even logistics in general. When the resources are not available in a reliable way you find ways to make the resources reliable, or find alternate sources. That is all logistics.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

That's a new one on me. I don't expect you mean Registry of Births, Deaths, and Marriages?

Rat Bastard Dungeon Master.

I believe it has everything to do with AD&D logistics or even logistics in general. When the resources are not available in a reliable way you find ways to make the resources reliable, or find alternate sources. That is all logistics.

Put it another way - without the context of the extreme RBDM, your experience that "IME when we played AD&D, the logistics were up front, and in your face all the time. Nobody used spells to remove/reduce the logistics as they were a limited resource with a much higher opportunity cost than simply purchasing the equipment." is a very different experience. Remove the RBDM, and yours was super-RB, given he flipped the table at Continual Light, and you would not have acted the same way.

 

[D'karr]

Rat Bastard Dungeon Master.



Put it another way - without the context of the extreme RBDM, your experience that "IME when we played AD&D, the logistics were up front, and in your face all the time. Nobody used spells to remove/reduce the logistics as they were a limited resource with a much higher opportunity cost than simply purchasing the equipment." is a very different experience. Remove the RBDM, and yours was super-RB, given he flipped the table at Continual Light, and you would not have acted the same way.

Within any context Continual Light is a 3rd level spell. Which means that it is a 5th level spell. It probably took our group a year to reach 5th level. So until then logistics were still in our face. Is that clearer? Your experience might have been different, granted. And that is why I said IME. Anything else to nitpick?

 

[Emerikol]

Depending on which logistics you are talking about, it happens at any level. I agree that continual light when it comes along eliminates the light issue for groups but it hardly eliminates logistics. I remember the lengthy discussion about pack mules and preparations for going into deep earth (module D1). I am not an evil DM or a RBDM, but I do require resource management because that is the kind of game I run. Players opt in that like the same level of detail.

 

[Hussar]

Heh. My bad. Got my cleric and MU versions of the spell backwards. Point still remains the same though. As the group gains levels, logistical issues tend to go away. Granted, that's assuming the DM isn't being a dick.

 

[billd91]

Depending on which logistics you are talking about, it happens at any level. I agree that continual light when it comes along eliminates the light issue for groups but it hardly eliminates logistics. I remember the lengthy discussion about pack mules and preparations for going into deep earth (module D1). I am not an evil DM or a RBDM, but I do require resource management because that is the kind of game I run. Players opt in that like the same level of detail.

I'd argue the 3e sunrod doesn't exactly remove logistical issues either since the single most important one is probably the ability to heal from the punishment that exploring a dungeon inflicts.

The sunrod also doesn't alleviate the other light issue - that of drawing attention to yourselves with a bright light while most other things around you see in the dark.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I'd argue the 3e sunrod doesn't exactly remove logistical issues either since the single most important one is probably the ability to heal from the punishment that exploring a dungeon inflicts.

Easily, reliably and cheaply PC-made Wand of CLW dealt with that.

The sunrod also doesn't alleviate the other light issue - that of drawing attention to yourselves with a bright light while most other things around you see in the dark.

That's not really "logistics" is it? It's pretty much an inevitability if you have non-dark-see-ers in the party. It's largely tactical, rather than logistical, no?

 

[Hussar]

Easily, reliably and cheaply PC-made Wand of CLW dealt with that.



That's not really "logistics" is it? It's pretty much an inevitability if you have non-dark-see-ers in the party. It's largely tactical, rather than logistical, no?

To be fair though, you could bypass it in 3e fairly easily with reasonably cheap Goggles of the Night and (again reasonably cheap) Rings of Sustenance. I'd probably expect parties that did a lot of dungeon crawling to have both by about 10th level.

 

[BryonD]

In all these years of 3E play I've never had a party craft a cure wand. (they have bought like 2 or 3 over the past dozen campaigns).
But I do get that this is a common gamecraft idea. I've always agreed that there are lots of things 3E will LET you do if you choose to torpedo your own game. If you are crafting wands and having huge fun, then WIN. If you are crafting wands and then complaining then .... ??!!!??? maybe stop??

But I've never heard anyone even suggest that Goggles of Night or Rings of Sustenance were even something to consider specially valuable, much less expect.