D&D 5E D&D Livestream: Lost Mine of Phandelve Todayr 4 PM PT

[Plaguescarred]

Greg Blisland advised on twitter yesterday that tomorrow , so today at 4 PM Pacific there will be a D&D livestream of Lost Mine of Phandelver


Looking forward to it!!


https://twitter.com/gregbilsland/status/483370758698053632

@gregbilsland Gearing up to run a practice session of Lost Mine of Phandelver from the #dnd Starter Set. We're livestreaming it tomorrow at 4 PM Pacific.

 

[Plaguescarred]

I was expecting an article announcing the livestream at midnight but nothing so far.

May be there'll be one later this morning...

 

[Riley]

Anyone have a link for this?

 

[Drakhar]

http://www.twitch.tv/wotc_dnd it's where they do most of their livestream stuff

 

[tuxgeo]

It's linked from the Daily D&D page.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

*watching*

"Inspiration Points". Hadn't heard that before. Use a flaw, gain an inspiration point to gain advantage on a later roll. (Silly name; having Happy Days flashbacks.)

Edit: Later explained that inspiration is given out for making "suboptimal" choices to encourage roleplaying.

Inspiration can also be used to cancel disadvantage (since advantage neutralizes disadvantage).

 

[Semah G Noj]

The DM gave a player a point of inspiration for playing according to the character's flaw, which that player can spend to gain Advantage on a roll.



EDIT: As was just said.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Cleric's "Healing Word" spell acts as a bonus action (so doesn't take up your action), allowing the cleric to heal the party (at range, with this spell) and still take other actions -- so not sacrificing being able to take your own actions to play healbot. Probably a good mechanic for this level; we'll see if it isn't too generous at higher levels, but embedding it in the spell vice the action economy might be a good design choice.

Aside: I realize they're playing "Theater of the Mind"-style both to show that this version of D&D can handle that style of play and because the Starter Set doesn't come with any markers, tokens, or minis. It's a shame they couldn't include some punch-out tokens at the price point, though, because the amount of "Where am I?" "How far away am I?" "How many goblins are left?"questions in combat causes me to think that including visual representations is a bit more effective at teaching the game to new players.

Other Info of note (I missed a few things as I had to step away to take a phone call):

- Monsters are still being refined, other than what is in the Starter Set. Monsters won't be in the Basic Rule document released this week (though the document will be updated when that information is released).

- "Laser clerics" will have to wait; relatively few ranged damage cleric spells right now.

- Claims spellcasting isn't "strictly Vancian". I'd call it "flexible Vancian" myself from their description. You pick prepared spells but don't prepare slots; any prepared spell can be cast against available slots, so you can cast the same spell repeatedly if needed. Rituals ala 4E also remain. Sorcerers are spell points and warlocks are more encounter powers. DMG is planned to contain alternate systems (but is still being worked on so those details may change).

There will be a continuation next Monday.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I'm OK with VancianFlex for the starter set/basic, since it's aimed at newbies and VancianFlex is more gentle than Vancian Classic. But I am looking forward to using Vancian Classic in my games.

Also looking forward to using concentration as a possible mechanic to allow for spell interruption....

 

[The Hitcher]

Aside: I realize they're playing "Theater of the Mind"-style both to show that this version of D&D can handle that style of play and because the Starter Set doesn't come with any markers, tokens, or minis. It's a shame they couldn't include some punch-out tokens at the price point, though, because the amount of "Where am I?" "How far away am I?" "How many goblins are left?"questions in combat causes me to think that including visual representations is a bit more effective at teaching the game to new players.

I'm enjoying the TotM approach - it feels much more like the D&D I know and love. I don't think it's particularly more confusing for new players, and I feel like it better distinguishes role-playing from board games.

Mike said in one of the recent interviews that they very deliberately didn't include any maps or tokens because they didn't want to push new players towards the idea that combat was the best approach to any situation. This philosophy makes me happy.