D&D General How has D&D changed over the decades?

[Older Beholder]

As a DM I'm open to the players being able to write in a connection or contact to help them in the way people have been discussing. I tend to make it cost an inspiration point to do so as I think this is more interesting use than just giving advantage, I actually thought this was an optional rule, but it could just be a house rule. (I had a quick look but couldn't find any mention of it)

I think this flexibility of authorship where players are trusted with more authority to co-author things as they relate to their character is an example of how the game has changed over the decades, even if it's not something all groups do, it's more common these days. (at least in my experience, I don't recall this happening as much a decade or two ago)

I play with a group where one player will take over an NPC if the DM isn't really doing anything with them, often fleshing them out and giving them a bit of backstory which is entertaining.

 

[Hussar]

As a DM I'm open to the players being able to write in a connection or contact to help them in the way people have been discussing. I tend to make it cost an inspiration point to do so as I think this is more interesting use than just giving advantage, I actually thought this was an optional rule, but it could just be a house rule. (I had a quick look but couldn't find any mention of it)

I think this flexibility of authorship where players are trusted with more authority to co-author things as they relate to their character is an example of how the game has changed over the decades, even if it's not something all groups do, it's more common these days. (at least in my experience, I don't recall this happening as much a decade or two ago)

I play with a group where one player will take over an NPC if the DM isn't really doing anything with them, often fleshing them out and giving them a bit of backstory which is entertaining.

I would certainly agree that it is much more of a thing now than it was back in the day.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I think there's some potential issues depending on presentation and game culture.

What I mean by that is, to my understanding, feats in 5e are treated as optional. One of the effects of that is its less likely people who don't want to use them will have to deal with too much pushback if part of a player group does. There can be a different dynamic if they're presented as core.

That said, if a subsystem acquires enough momentum most people are used to using it, that only gets you so far.

You are sadly correct.

And thus, the power of the crab bucket keeps D&D from improving! Hurray!

 

[Lanefan]

This implies that asking a friend or relative is not a thing that your character would do. Which goes back to my remark about thin settings and unconnected characters. Because for a normal human being with the normal degree of social connection, no one can write all that into a character background prepared in advance.

Indeed; and if my PC is in his hometown or somewhere else he's previously spent a lot of time then the presence of friends or relatives might very well make sense. But if I'm 700 miles from home in a town where pretty much my only friends are the party I'm running with the presence of other friends or relatives is highly unlikely; and IME the latter - being far from home - is a very common situation for adventurers.

When I play my character in Burning Wheel, I only ever think about what my character would do. This includes looking out for friends, relatives, fellow members of his order, etc.

In fairness, I suspect your character in this case is a little unusual in that he has that wide-ranging order of associates to draw on if needed. It's cool, to be sure; but uncommon in that the reach of adventuring guilds or orders IME doesn't go much beyond their own town and nearly never beyond their own country.

And that "looking out" is resolved via Circles checks. In 4e D&D that could be a Streetwise check, or a raw CHA check. In 5e D&D that could be a CHA check ("Find the best person to talk to for news, rumors, and gossip") or even WIS ("Get a gut feeling about what course of action to follow"). Or of course, the GM could decide that no check is required - freeform negotiation around when checks are or are not required seems a pretty standard feature of 5e D&D.

Or just sheer random roll, not related to any specific charcter stat or ability but more based on the DM's gut-hunch odds of whether a friend or relative happens to be a) here and b) findable, based on the in-fiction situation at the time.

 

[pemerton]

I play with a group where one player will take over an NPC if the DM isn't really doing anything with them, often fleshing them out and giving them a bit of backstory which is entertaining.

I have one player who is quite good at doing this! In my Classic Traveller campaign the PCs have built up a large entourage, and I have zero interest in managing all those NPCs myself - I take control of them from time-to-time when it suits my nefarious purposes, but otherwise am very happy for the players to look after them.

 

[pemerton]

if my PC is in his hometown or somewhere else he's previously spent a lot of time then the presence of friends or relatives might very well make sense. But if I'm 700 miles from home in a town where pretty much my only friends are the party I'm running with the presence of other friends or relatives is highly unlikely; and IME the latter - being far from home - is a very common situation for adventurers.

<snip>

I suspect your character in this case is a little unusual in that he has that wide-ranging order of associates to draw on if needed. It's cool, to be sure; but uncommon in that the reach of adventuring guilds or orders IME doesn't go much beyond their own town and nearly never beyond their own country.

My PC in Burning Wheel is operating in his "home territory" ie on the Ulek-Pomarj borderlands.

The idea that PCs will predominantly be adventuring in areas where they have few or no connections is another manifestation of the "thin setting"/"man with no name" phenomenon. One way to increase player buy-in/engagement, in my view, is to let them play their PCs at home.

 

[Hussar]

My PC in Burning Wheel is operating in his "home territory" ie on the Ulek-Pomarj borderlands.

The idea that PCs will predominantly be adventuring in areas where they have few or no connections is another manifestation of the "thin setting"/"man with no name" phenomenon. One way to increase player buy-in/engagement, in my view, is to let them play their PCs at home.

Yeah, I've found myself in this boat.

I'd also point out that if you look at the 5e adventures, most of them keep you pretty much in a fairly (for a given value of fairly) small area. My current Candlekeep campaign has some adventures that are a bit further afield (the current one has them in the Shadowfell) but, most of them occur within a day or two of Candlekeep itself.

Heck, the Baldur's Gate computer game has an entire MASSIVE arc, that has the characters basically within a fairly short distance of Candlekeep as well.

The recent Ghosts of Saltmarsh makes a pretty big deal of Saltmarsh and the expectation certainly is that the group will have deep roots in Saltmarsh.

Never minding things like Temple of Elemental Evil where the entire campaign occurs within a day or two of Hommlet.

I've done the whole Tour Des Realms style campaign where the party is always on the move from place to place, but, really, I don't like it very much. I'd rather a smaller, much more detailed area than a huge, lightly detailed one.

I've never quite understood this push for campaigns to cover these vast distances.

 

[pemerton]

I've never quite understood this push for campaigns to cover these vast distances.

Ultimately I guess it's all just taste. My Traveller campaign has covered a fair suite of worlds - I guess that's Traveller for you, and also there was a misjump at one point that relocated the PCs to a new part of the galaxy.

But we can make choices here! If I wanted to increase the connectedness/engagement of PCs in my setting, then that would be a good reason to go local and focused rather than world-spanning.

 

[Thomas Shey]

My PC in Burning Wheel is operating in his "home territory" ie on the Ulek-Pomarj borderlands.

The idea that PCs will predominantly be adventuring in areas where they have few or no connections is another manifestation of the "thin setting"/"man with no name" phenomenon. One way to increase player buy-in/engagement, in my view, is to let them play their PCs at home.

As I mentioned that's generally the take that historically RuneQuest has taken, and in practice is often the way a superhero game works unless the scale is large.

The roving hero, while it absolutely has a pedigree in fiction, is hardly the only model. Its actually pretty rare in urban fantasy for example.

 

[Hussar]

Ultimately I guess it's all just taste. My Traveller campaign has covered a fair suite of worlds - I guess that's Traveller for you, and also there was a misjump at one point that relocated the PCs to a new part of the galaxy.

But we can make choices here! If I wanted to increase the connectedness/engagement of PCs in my setting, then that would be a good reason to go local and focused rather than world-spanning.

Well yes. If we’re moving away from DnD,then sure. One would rather expect a space opera game to span some serious distances.