D&D General Do people like re-skinning?

[The Crimson Binome]

That last post of mine was my way of saying, "Hey, we do things differently. But so long as you're having fun that's okay." Think about that next time you decide to double down on the negativity there.

And mine was saying, "Just because it isn't important to you, that doesn't mean it isn't important in general."

 

[MichaelSomething]

I bet you could reskin this thread by replacing "Psion" with "Warlord"...

 

[Maxperson]

And mine was saying, "Just because it isn't important to you, that doesn't mean it isn't important in general."

You should really look in the mirror when you say that. Just because careful building of every monster from ground up is important to you, doesn't make it important in general.

 

[FrozenNorth]

I both like it and don't like it. I like it when as you mention, the fluff and mechanics complement each other. if they don't, it creates a disconnect. However, it's pretty easy in many cases to create new and different complementary fluff for a set of mechanics. If a player had an idea for a PC of a race that doesn't exist, but is mechanically like an elf, but came up with new fluff explaining the elven abilities, I'd allow it. If the player wanted a two-handed dagger doing 2d6 points of damage as a heavy weapon(a refluffed greatsword), I'd say no. Daggers don't hit that hard, so the fluff doesn't match the mechanic.

Unless wielded by a rogue of course, in which case they frequently do more damage, so YMMV on the whole verisimilitude thing.

 

[FrozenNorth]

I can’t reskin a rapier as a versatile weapon. There are versatile weapons, and they do things the rapier doesn’t, thus it isn’t versatile.

What about reskinning a rapier as a boarding pike and having it take two hands?

 

[Fenris-77]

What about reskinning a rapier as a boarding pike and having it take two hands?

Or reskinning a raven as a writing desk? Can't tell if serious.

 

[Umbran]

You've already admitted that you don't actually care about what the mechanics actually mean, or the integrity of the process.

"Integrity of the process"? Are we talking about the same game? The game that is built on the tradition of Making Stuff Up? Because.. folks have been hacking together, home-brewing, and just making things up out of whole cloth in this hobby from day one. It would not be unreasonable to say that the initial RPG was really just a reskinned wargame!

The process of D&D traditionally has as much integrity as Frankenstein's Monster - only so strong as the stitches holding the thing together.

So, if there's some stuff that matters to you, it matters to you. But, just as you note that, "I don't care, so it doesn't generally mattter" is false, so it is with, "I do care, so it does generally matter."

 

[FrozenNorth]

Or reskinning a raven as a writing desk? Can't tell if serious.

I reskinned an elf bladedancer PC into a gish elf with a nautical theme and replaced their rapier with a harpoon (a reskinned rapier that used two hands).
If you can’t tell if you yourself are serious, then this thread has become very silly indeed.

 

[Fenris-77]

I reskinned an elf bladedancer PC into a gish elf with a nautical theme and replaced their rapier with a harpoon (a reskinned rapier that used two hands).
If you can’t tell if you yourself are serious, then this thread has become very silly indeed.

Well, I was actually unsure about your post, not mine. What you actually did seems pretty reasonable, but it could have been a joke. That said, I am detecting high levels of silliness, with some additional hints of oaken nuttiness.

 

[Istbor]

Goblins and automation are so far apart from them wise why even call them automation if they aren't going to act like automation? It's going to feel unfair like the players have lost their ability to direct how things play out. Like a player will see of we are fighting a clockwork automation and they will be like let's use the anti clockwork spell, but it won't work because they are actually fighting a goblin.

I don't know MGibster's original intent here, but I think this was mostly just an example. I thought it went without saying, that if obvious tweaks were needed in the reskin, then they are done. It was a for instance, not meant to be scrutinized on such a granular level. Maybe I am wrong there, and he did want automatons just the same as goblins.

But holy crow, I figured this would be a lighthearted romp into what other DMs did for reskins, not turn into yet another my fun is better than your fun.

Good gravy.