D&D Podcast: MM2

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

That ends this discussion for my part.

Yes, I think that makes the most sense.

No need to have a WotC apologist and a WotC complainer to discussing anything. It certainly only annoys me.

 

[Drkfathr1]

Who said making errata available for those who care forces those who don't to print it out?

If they at least reprinted the buggy MM1 monsters in MM2, that would make it clear as day that yes, the MM1 hydra is buggy, and yes, we're not giving out errata for free - we make you pay to get corrections to our mistakes.

Other solutions could include having a warning icon in the monster builder, alerting the user to the fact the monster's been identified to have issues, even if no fix has been implemented. And when a fix does happen, they only honest way is to have a clear version history, so any DM can see that his notes might be outdated.

The core of the issue is transparency: the main beef about WotC's current practices is that they're underhanded. They fix the game, yes, but only if you continue to give them money, and not by making it clear the original design is flawed in any way.

Same with Expertise feats. They're presented as "more options" when in reality they're a fix.

It's a really shoddy way of doing business. Feels way too dishonest and indirect for my taste.

Yeah, it's a real shame they couldn't have playtested that material before they published.

Oh wait.

 

[Doug McCrae]

It sounds like the 4e Keep on the Borderlands will be inspired by The House on the Borderland.

 

[Henrix]

Boobs for everyone I say! (provided they are female)

How can you tell with a myconoid? Oh, I get it, they've got boobs!

But, what would a being that isn't even an animal (nor a plant) have boobs for? To lure PCs*?


* Seems unlikely that it'd work, even for PCs lost for months in the underdark.

 

[Drkfathr1]

How can you tell with a myconoid? Oh, I get it, they've got boobs!

But, what would a being that isn't even an animal (nor a plant) have boobs for? To lure PCs*?


* Seems unlikely that it'd work, even for PCs lost for months in the underdark.

Never underestimate the power of BOOBS!

 

[Nymrohd]

I am pretty sure that someone can draw a hot X-rated fungus chick. Someone probably already has. The internet after all was made for porn, right?

 

[Doug McCrae]

Zuggtmoy, Demon Queen of Fungi, is one of the less sexy female arch-demons, but at least she has naughty tentacles.

 

[Kwalish Kid]

That's far sexier than the Temple of Elemental Evil era illustrations!

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I finally heard the podcast on the way home today.
There were few interesting things...
- Regarding the errata "controversy" - it seems more as if the WotC designers seem to think as errata as a "cheap way" to fix stuff. "Oh, yeah, we made a mistake, but here's the errata, everything is fine now, nothing wrong ever happened."

- They modified the Minions in that they added roles to give them more distinguishing features and make them easier to use. They don't go much into the damage increases they did.

- They described the changes to the Solos - No more 5x hit points at Paragon Tier and upwards, instead focusing more on adding extra damage and making the monster more dynamic during fight.

- There is some talk about how the monsters background and use in a story influences its abilities, and how its abilities can be used to influence the narrative and how to use the monster in an adventure. One example they use is the Bullywugs "wrongness" and how one of the designer used them in his campaign in a "defiled swamp" scenario, where hitting and taking down Bullywugs slowly undid the curse the area was suffering from it.
Sometimes monsters are apparently still driven by mechanical concerns, but once they have made up more background fluff for a monster, they get a feeling for it and the results are usually better (in their opinion, of course.) Upcoming products will feature monsters that will work even better than the MM2 monsters as they learned more during the process.

 

[tomBitonti]

I finally heard the podcast on the way home today.
There were few interesting things...
- Regarding the errata "controversy" - it seems more as if the WotC designers seem to think as errata as a "cheap way" to fix stuff. "Oh, yeah, we made a mistake, but here's the errata, everything is fine now, nothing wrong ever happened."

Some quotes that I found interesting:

We decided not to errata that, and just, well just because we made a mistake doesn't mean we get to fix our mistake by doing errata.

I wish I had him running it before the game came out.

What mechanics make it interesting.