D&D General D&D: Literally Don't Understand This

[FitzTheRuke]

From Tales of the Radiant Citadel:

Divas attack the crowd at the Thornapple during their March of Vice performance.

Kala has been lurking near the Thornapple, looking for opportunities to strike at Zenia. She found her opportunity with Diva Luma, tainting the diva’s glitter—a feature of the diva’s performances—with rage-inducing biza’s breath.

Diva Luma uses the assassin stat block, but her only weapon is her wicked, high-heeled shoe, which functions as a Shortsword attack without poison. The other two divas use the scout stat block and attack only with broken bottles that function the same as their Shortsword attack. As the divas are all under the effects of biza’s breath, they each randomly make one melee attack against Zenia or a character on their turns. All three divas fail their saving throws to resist the poison affecting them for three rounds. On the fourth round, they overcome the effects of biza’s breath and groggily stop attacking.

Sounds like (somewhat) typical D&D shenanigans to me.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

It's the high-heeled shoe that turns me off. This and the TNT plunger detonators, the museum cafes, the heat metal hot plates. Things are so modern in D&D that I think we could add stoplights, payphones, and garbage trucks to Waterdeep and very few people would make note of it.

Maybe it's just the just the evolution of dungeonpunk. Maybe it's dungeonpop.

 

[pukunui]

It's the high-heeled shoe that turns me off. This and the TNT plunger detonators, the museum cafes, the heat metal hot plates. Things are so modern in D&D that I think we could add stoplights, payphones, and garbage trucks to Waterdeep and very few people would make note of it.

Maybe it's just the just the evolution of dungeonpunk. Maybe it's dungeonpop.

This was my complaint about some of the art in the Radiant Citadel book when it first came out. I know it's meant to be all non-Western European cultural stuff, but even then, it just all feels too "modern" - like it would belong more in a d20 Modern sourcebook rather than a D&D one.

 

[Umbran]

It's the high-heeled shoe that turns me off.... Things are so modern in D&D....

I hate to tell you this, but the modern high-heeled shoe has its origins in 10th century Persian equestrian footwear. Elevated shoes of various sorts have been around since the European Dark Ages.

Oh, and by the time of Henry VIII, high heels were worn primarily by men, for fashion, and taken as a symbol of masculinity.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

I hate to tell you this, but the modern high-heeled shoe has its origins in 10th century Persian equestrian footwear. Elevated shoes of various sorts have been around since the European Dark Ages.

Oh, and by the time of Henry VIII, high heels were worn primarily by men, for fashion, and taken as a symbol of masculinity.

They didn’t look like the high heels in that picture though.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

Because the convergence between D&D fans and Taylor Swift fans must be huge...

The confluence between Taylor Swift fans and the demographic likely to be running WotC's digital marketing is surprisingly high actually.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

I hate to tell you this, but the modern high-heeled shoe has its origins in 10th century Persian equestrian footwear. Elevated shoes of various sorts have been around since the European Dark Ages.

Oh, and by the time of Henry VIII, high heels were worn primarily by men, for fashion, and taken as a symbol of masculinity.

Sorry to tell you this Umbran but stilleto heels were not being worn by people in the 10th century.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I hate to tell you this, but the modern high-heeled shoe has its origins in 10th century Persian equestrian footwear. Elevated shoes of various sorts have been around since the European Dark Ages.

Oh, and by the time of Henry VIII, high heels were worn primarily by men, for fashion, and taken as a symbol of masculinity.

That doesn't make their appearance in this context make sense though.

 

[pukunui]

I hate to tell you this, but the modern high-heeled shoe has its origins in 10th century Persian equestrian footwear. Elevated shoes of various sorts have been around since the European Dark Ages.

Oh, and by the time of Henry VIII, high heels were worn primarily by men, for fashion, and taken as a symbol of masculinity.

Yes, but as others have pointed out, those historical high-heeled shoes didn't look like modern pumps or stilettos, like these do:

Like, I know that the "Written in Blood" adventure set in Godsbreath is meant to have a Southern Gothic vibe, so in that sense, I understand why all the art has a more modern vibe to it, but I still don't like it. I feel like that kind of story / vibe would be better suited to a d20 Modern type game than D&D.


When Eberron was new, I intensely disliked the idea of having "modern" things like robots and trains and magic guns in my D&D. I've since grown to love the setting, but I am again finding that WotC is now pushing even Eberron to be "too modern" for my tastes (if the art previews from the upcoming new Eberron book are any indication).

I'm fine with non-western European styles and cultures and such being added to the mix ... but can we have them be not 19th or 20th century in appearance?

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

That doesn't make their appearance in this context make sense though.

I agree but it would make sense if these divas are visiting the Radiant Citadel en route from turn of the millennium Earth.