Dmg II

[Charwoman Gene]

I'd like a book that lets me the Dm create core classes whole cloth and them not be completely wonky in terms of balance.

Y'see that's the rub...

It's kinda impossible to do that. The non-linear phase space of characters in D&D will make it certain that any system sufficiently powerful enough to describe all the classes you would want is going to have a loophole that causes severe wonkiness with balance in a fair number of users hands.

It's like CR's there just isn't a scientific way to do it.

 

[S'mon]

Countdown to someone insisting that they do this very thing ...

IMC (low-level) there's a 'real' blacksmith in the village - he can repair chain links and forge spear points, but he certainly doesn't make greatswords to order. He buys cut price arms & armour looted from dead monsters and sells it back to the PCs later at inflated prices.

 

[Simplicity]

Well, I find D&D a pretty silly way to be playing a "medieval" simulation. There are dragons, and floating eyeballs that shoot rays of death, neither of which played a prominent role in the Middle Ages. Maybe after losing his third child to the local fauna, the local blacksmith figured it might be a good idea to learn how to make a freaking sword.

In general, I find that people who are so fixated on the correctness of the historical details of a D&D campaign are just seeking attention by trying to show off their "knowledge".

 

[The Shaman]

Well, I find D&D a pretty silly way to be playing a "medieval" simulation.

Me, too. But that's not the same thing as using period details to give the campaign world a particular sense of place and time.

It's not an on/off switch - it's a continuum that ranges from historical simulation to the the totally wahoo. For the campaigns I run, I look for a point somewhere around the middle, maybe shading a bit toward the historical.

There are dragons, and floating eyeballs that shoot rays of death, neither of which played a prominent role in the Middle Ages. Maybe after losing his third child to the local fauna, the local blacksmith figured it might be a good idea to learn how to make a freaking sword.

Considering that the local militia likely uses spears rather than swords, and wooden shields held together with nails and trimmed with iron bands rather than metal shields, and padded armor rather than chainmail, I'm not clear on why the local blacksmith (who is found only in the largest villages or market towns, by the way - travelling chapmen sell metal goods in small villages) would know how to make a sword of freaking.

Couple that with an ecology that doesn't have an owlbear or a dire leopard lurking under every rock or behind every tree and the idea that the local blacksmith is also a skilled armorer falls away pretty quickly.

In general, I find that people who are so fixated on the correctness of the historical details of a D&D campaign are just seeking attention by trying to show off their "knowledge".

There's no need to be rude, Simplicity, nor is there reason to assume that the game can be played only one of two ways.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

You know I always thought that 'typical medieval never went more than mile' idea to be very suspect. It just flies in the face of so much that we do know about medieval culture and economies.

I mean she or he probably didn't have to move beyond that mile too often in the course of most of his or her life, but why wouldn't you go to the local Cathedral or see some of the more important local festivals or sporting events?

 

[The Shaman]

You know I always thought that 'typical medieval never went more than mile' idea to be very suspect. It just flies in the face of so much that we do know about medieval culture and economies.

I mean she or he probably didn't have to move beyond that mile too often in the course of most of his or her life, but why wouldn't you go to the local Cathedral or see some of the more important local festivals or sporting events?

Or went to war with their local liege, or courted a spouse in another village, or relocated after the plague had come...

I think 'rarely' or 'seldom' moved to another village is more accurate (especially serfs, of course, who were tied to the land), but many people would at least make the trip to a market town for religious or economic reasons. I agree that "never more than a mile" is perniciously overstated.

 

[Simplicity]

There's no need to be rude, Simplicity, nor is there reason to assume that the game can be played only one of two ways.

That much we agree upon. It was your (kind of rude) complaint that forges don't have showrooms that brought me into this thing in the first place. Though a sword of freaking does sound pretty cool...

Hmmm...

New Magical Items:

"Nabbit": Holy Longsword of Freaking Blast + 1.

The intelligent longsword Nabbit, once pulled out of its sheath, unleashes upon the enemy
a never ending stream of insults and nonsensicle words. Constantly angry, the sword takes
out its frustrations on it's enemies by cutting them to pieces and then swearing at them.
On a critical hit, the sword REALLY freaks (think Yosemite Sam), dazing everyone in a 10' radius.

 

[Simplicity]

You know I always thought that 'typical medieval never went more than mile' idea to be very suspect. It just flies in the face of so much that we do know about medieval culture and economies.

I mean she or he probably didn't have to move beyond that mile too often in the course of most of his or her life, but why wouldn't you go to the local Cathedral or see some of the more important local festivals or sporting events?

Seriously, I think that little tidbit (though you hear it all the time) is total crap. Like a peasant couldn't spare an hour in the day to go for a walk.

Sorry, can't go with you to the fair today! I'm too busy subsistence farming! I'd go, but I'd probably catch small pox just getting there!

The historian view of the Middle Ages is so ridiculous sometimes that it makes me think of one scene in Interesting Times... (I'm not sure I remember it correctly, but I think it went like this...)

There's a peasant standing to the left of his ox in a field. The main character asks him,
if he could be reincarnated as someone else, who would he like to be. His response was that he wished he could be reincarnated as someone who stood on the right side of their ox, because he'd like to have a different view.

I think historians just like to comfort themselves by making the conditions of all past eras so abominable that we must be making progress as a society. Not that I would want to live in the era of the Black Death...

 

[The Shaman]

It was your (kind of rude) complaint that forges don't have showrooms that brought me into this thing in the first place. Though a sword of freaking does sound pretty cool...

Thanks for pointing that out - I went back and re-read my post, and the tone could be taken as snide, which wasn't my intent (more of an exasperation that didn't come through).

In other matters, now that we have the sword of freaking, how 'bout a sword of superfreaky? It talks, of course: "I'm superfreaky, beeyotch!"

 

[Joshua Randall]

This reminds me of an old, old Dragon mag cartoon.

A sword has a "voice bubble": "There she goes just a walkin' down the street, singin' do-wah-ditty, ditty-dum, ditty-doo"

Caption: Ah! This must be the famous Singing Sword I've heard about.

ba dum dum CHING