D&D (2024) I have the DMG. AMA!

[Micah Sweet]

I mean we're talking about what they're doing in terms of game design, no?

I've got my own cooking, but I'm not here to shill my own work.

I'm happy to review and use any material that works for my game, no matter where it comes from.

 

[The Soloist]

If I had a story as flat as the original cut of Star Wars I wouldn't. Lucas put together an amazing team. But the Lucas of "Han shot first", "Sand. I hate Sand." And "The Death Star just hangs there in space doing nothing before the second trench run so the editors are going to splice in an alternate take of the Alderaan firing sequence to add tension" was fortunately not all we got. Great worldbuilder and team builder.

Excellent.

It's better to shoot more and cut back during editing. Editing showcases the plasticity of filmmaking.

It's the part I most enjoyed when I made films. I once 'deceived' the film teachers I had gained access to the port of Montreal to film the exit from a cruise ship, when in fact I had used shots with my characters near an ultramodern church exit ramp. The editing sold the scene.

 

[Maxperson]

For the record, I've played classless D&D. Or at least, there was just 1 class, and it just got feats.

That sounds like a blast and I'd love to try something like that, but it's clearly a VERY homebrewed system. My impression is that @mamba was referring to RPG systems as written. Some are classless, D&D is not unless you count the murderhobos. Them guys ain't got no class.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Your desire to just pick whatever powers and ignore any worldbuilding while doing so to me is very much a superheroes thing, they are all just individual mutants who ended up getting powers and not owing anything to anyone (there are exceptions too where your powers were granted by something in some form and you still have obligations too)

Oh my god, can you not use 'superhero' as a terrible buzzword?

Especially when you immediately reach for a group of characters from the genre (Marvel's mutants) who are in fact very much the product of specific thematics and worldbuidling? Mutants are unified by a shared background of discrimination and the need to train inborn powers that manifest either at puberty or infancy and the trauma that comes with it.

Like you could not have chosen an example that proved how terrible your attempt at a jab actually is.

Meanwhile, what I'm talking about with class as toolbox has nothing to do with ignoring worldbuilding and everything about not making a game element a literal job in-universe. Being a light mobile guile fighter doesn't mean you have 'rogue' on your business card, nor does having a divine connection mean you're literally a priest specifically anointed by a given god-- you can be a nascent demigod or a misguided fanatic, or --and this is a concept D&D used to remember it invented in the Ur Priest -- you're stealing that power. Shackling and brainboxing classes to a single concept benefits no one.

 

[mamba]

For the record, I've played classless D&D. Or at least, there was just 1 class, and it just got feats.

whatever that was, I would hesitate to call D&D, it clearly resembles no official version

 

[Maxperson]

I think there were a lot of players who bounced off earlier editions of the game because of bad rules and bad DMs.

Some for sure. A lot? No. I played 1e and 2e here in Los Angeles where there were tons of D&D players. I went to game conventions and played with strangers. I talked to people about D&D. Not once did I encounter someone or even hear about someone who quit over bad DMs or bad rules. We just ignored or changed the bad ones.

If there were lots of players that quit over those things, I'd have heard something from someone somewhere.

 

[Vaalingrade]

whatever that was, I would hesitate to call D&D, it clearly resembles no official version

Shall we dispatch the D&D Orthodoxy to destroy them for their unforgivable sin?

 

[Maxperson]

To be fair to Crawford, that comes with the mantle of Sage.

Making ridiculous rulings that are nonsensical on their face?

 

[Maxperson]

The drowning out of discussion started at like page 14. Sadly, that's Enworld.

Making it to page 14 is actually impressive and a testament to how interesting the thread was.

 

[Maxperson]

Both are "valid", but certainly within my lifetime, operating a manual has moved from a skill most people were expected to have to being primarily a skill held by older people and specialists.

That change in expectation over time is a pretty good analogue to the changes in the defaults expected for the player base for D&D.

This meme exists for a reason.