D&D (2024) Do you plan to adopt D&D5.5One2024Redux?

[Maxperson]

Wow. Now that's a DEEEP dive into a niche.

No wonder I never saw this or heard of it before.

Why on earth would a cleric waste a second level spell on this? Yikes.

That was the consensus of my players back during 2e. I never saw it used even a single time.

 

[Maxperson]

If someone had used the equivalent of a Viking longboat, how much do they know about a Chinese junk or a brig? How about a schooner? Do they understand how the multiple sails work when they are used to 1 square sail?

That's just types of boats. You were claiming they would know specific named ships and crew. I don't see how that is in any way a given outside of their sphere of influence and connections.

I agree with you about not necessarily knowing how to sail all ships just because they've used a viking longboat. That said, I can totally see someone having heard of some famous/infamous captain and ship from another sea.

Sailor: "I've heard of the infamous pirate captain Hershey Kiss and his great chocolate frigate that sails the milk sea. Tis said he makes his enemies walk the plank into a large vat of molten milk chocolate. I can't decide if that's a wonderful or horrible way to go."

 

[Oofta]

I agree with you about not necessarily knowing how to sail all ships just because they've used a viking longboat. That said, I can totally see someone having heard of some famous/infamous captain and ship from another sea.

Sailor: "I've heard of the infamous pirate captain Hershey Kiss and his great chocolate frigate that sails the milk sea. Tis said he makes his enemies walk the plank into a large vat of molten milk chocolate. I can't decide if that's a wonderful or horrible way to go."

A sailor may well have a better chance to know about the Dread Pirate Hershey. But so what? Knowing about someone doesn't really buy much. It's something I might provide as background for a sailor, but it's not going to get you a free ride.

 

[Maxperson]

A sailor may well have a better chance to know about the Dread Pirate Hershey. But so what? Knowing about someone doesn't really buy much. It's something I might provide as background for a sailor, but it's not going to get you a free ride.

No, but knowing about it can affect how the PCs act, which could persuade Hershey not to kill them or to give them a ride if they work, etc. The more you know about someone, the better off you are when interacting and trying to persuade.

 

[Faolyn]

In theory they could know someone. What are the odds?

If it's in their background, 100%.

If it's up to the GM only, it depends on how much the GM wants to stop the player from being cool and using their abilities.

Did you establish that as part of your backstory?

Maybe. It depends entirely on the character--and, of course, what the GM was like.

How many people do you personally know well enough that they would do a favor for you? I'm not talking just they know your name and remember you, but know you well enough to go out of their way to do you a favor? A dozen? A hundred? How many thousands of sailors are there around the world and how far away from home does that circle extend?

I, Faolyn, did not take a background that gives me an ability to call in favors. And I am far more of an introvert than the typical PC with a sailor background would likely be. Therefore, this comparison is pointless.

But you also keep changing the goalposts here.

No, actually, you just failed to understand what I was writing.

Mamba said "so you agree that the sailor would not know any ship on the south sea when he ever only worked on the inland sea?"

I replied with "Wouldn't it be more logical to say that the sailor wouldn't have worked on any ship in the south sea?" and then went on to talk about famous ships and things along those lines. Things like "Oh, everyone has heard of the famous Imperial ship the Squidsmoosher!" I will admit I didn't outright say those words, but considering I talked about transmission of information via magic, so I think I was pretty clear.

You, somehow, took that to mean specific types of ships, like longships versus cogs. The goalposts stayed in place; you just wandered off in a completely different direction.

First it was knowing something about sailing ships, then it's knowing someone, then it's knowing information in general about a locale far away from home. So what is it? Even if I knew a bunch of details about Beijing, how would that in any way help me get passage on a ship? But let's say that for whatever reason I know a bunch about China, how would that help when I found myself in Chile? Or, of course, the old standby of an alternate world where I had never been born.

Chili isn't a ship and the Sailor background doesn't say you only know about ships in a specific location. You decided to add that and then treat your own homebrew as Official Rules.

Or, to put in D&D terms, it would be like having a background that says "you know things about other countries so you can roll blah blah in order to yadda yadda" and you took it to mean "you know things about one other country that happens to be right next to yours because there's no possible way you would know anything about a country on the other side of the ocean," and then insisted that your interpretation was the only correct one.

 

[Faolyn]

Anyone can get a message to anyone else the way you described, they were approached by a stranger

There's less reason for the GM to create a contact for someone who doesn't have a feature or trait that gives them a contact.

 

[Mistwell]

After the OGL? No, I'm switching to Tales of the Valiant, I will allow my players to bring some things to the table if they want, as an experiment, but not the whole game.

Also the fact that WotC failed to address any problem with the Monk and also gave Bard subclass solely to make Monk redundant and useless rubs me the wrong way.

Uh, what? The new monk is AWESOME! What on earth is your issue they didn't address with the new monk? They completely destroy that Bard subclass now. [Edit - I see this is an old post which you probably already addressed - sorry about that]

 

[Clint_L]

deleted

 

[Scott Christian]

Well @Scott Christian claims it would be some amount more than "very little" extra work for the DM unless they are allowed to have all kinds of secret reasons to tell the player they were wrong about what their feature does, so that's what I was responding to.

Stunned. I do confess - it takes work - if the DM has already done their work! Put my quote in context please.

 

[Scott Christian]

Why does it matter when the DM makes this stuff up, and why doesn’t the player of the sailor know any of this?

It is true, if you are the type of DM that writes, works, and tries to keep a consistent world for your players; yet, at the same time, a player can ad-whim anything they want and you accept it - then it doesn't matter. If you feel your consistency matters to you and the players that care about it... Well then, it matters.
You make it sound like it can't matter. As if it is some arguing point that allows you to win. It matters to some, and doesn't matter to others. And when it matters to others - then it matters.