Jester David
Hero
In another thread, this was posted:
But what if it was presented as a hacker's guide? A book on customizing and homebrewing the game, with more discussion, advice, and suggestions on design. More peaks behind the curtain at game design and the nuances of 5e, along with the homebrew advice in Unearthed Arcana. Each class could have a little discussion on balance and the design along with examples of tweaking, using the crunch of past campaign settings to demonstrate how the class was adjusted in the past.
Like how the eladrin and aasimar were in racial examples. But expanded to classes, with far more options.
So a wizard section would describe different portrayals of wizards and different ways of flavouring the class or subtly altering it. And some talk on the balance of schools and the class. Plus options for Dragonlance moon magic, Dark Sun defiling, Forgotten Realms shadow weave and spellscars, etc.
So the book appeals to fans of all settings, fans of generic settings looking to homebrew, and players just looking for crunch.
Would this be a book that appeals to you? Should this be what we're suggesting to WotC and pushing for?
I like this idea of an all-in-one crunch book. But the theme of "here's the crunch for settings" is a little weak.For player mechanics, I also don't want a UA or PDF. Instead... I want to see the new WotC "Big Book Of Mechanics" or "Player's Handbook II" or whatever you want to call it that they apparently are working on or thinking of working on... to include the required mechanics (races, classes, subclasses, backgrounds etc.) for ALL of their primary campaign settings.
That means psionics, that means the four Eberron races and the Artificer, that means Dark Sun's races plus defiling and preserving, that means Dragonlance's three wizard schools, that means Greyhawk's backgrounds, that means Planescape's factions, that means stuff for Mystara and Birthright... etc. etc. etc.
If WotC is going to produce a book of player game mechanics, there is absolutely no reason NOT to include all these setting required stuff in one single book (on top of a lot of universal or generic player stuff too of course) that they can release for every fan at one moment in time... rather than spreading it out over the next two to six years, pissing off fans of certain settings who have to wait for year four or five, while other fans get their setting material done right off the bat.
But what if it was presented as a hacker's guide? A book on customizing and homebrewing the game, with more discussion, advice, and suggestions on design. More peaks behind the curtain at game design and the nuances of 5e, along with the homebrew advice in Unearthed Arcana. Each class could have a little discussion on balance and the design along with examples of tweaking, using the crunch of past campaign settings to demonstrate how the class was adjusted in the past.
Like how the eladrin and aasimar were in racial examples. But expanded to classes, with far more options.
So a wizard section would describe different portrayals of wizards and different ways of flavouring the class or subtly altering it. And some talk on the balance of schools and the class. Plus options for Dragonlance moon magic, Dark Sun defiling, Forgotten Realms shadow weave and spellscars, etc.
So the book appeals to fans of all settings, fans of generic settings looking to homebrew, and players just looking for crunch.
Would this be a book that appeals to you? Should this be what we're suggesting to WotC and pushing for?