WotC James Wyatt is on the Dungeons & Dragons Team Again

[cavalier973]

yea! I’m going to have to go back and relisten.

I wonder if he ran 4e more like the ur D&D, that 5e is closer too imho, like Chris Perkins did.

What is funny is that Wyatt advises the players that some option was available to them (charging attack, or something like that) that Chris forgot to mention. They then said "the other DM [Chris Perkins] was bush league".

Ha!

It's like, I don't know, rain, on your wedding day, or good advice, that you just can't take, or something.

It's "Keep on the Shadowfell", for what it's worth. Chris did the brilliant thing by starting them straight up in the dungeon. "You've been searching around for a goblin leader called Irontooth, but have been having trouble finding him, and then you run across this place..."

No "kobolds attack you on the road" encounter to slog through. That was pushed to recent backstory.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

TEEF-LINGS, or just go with German where it would be "Teufel-Ling" though spelled Teufelling because I think German grammar rules say you contract words together.

Tief(low)lings for lower-planestouched, Teufel(devil)lings for the Asmodean varient.

 

[Aldarc]

2. I hate the 4e Bael Turath monolith (though if that continued through the rest of the books in 4e, I have no idea, I was turned off immediately by the style of 4e).

I loved the Bael Turath backstory in 4e, because it gave them a history, hooks, and a connection to the world of the Nentir Vale and the World Axis.

(Applying the loaded "monolith" language to the Bael Turath backstory now instead of Asmodeus, doesn't make things much better.)

3. I absolutely hate the appearance promoted in the 4e PHB, and that the diversity was removed.

I loved the tiefling appearance promoted in the 4e PHB, and it was the first time that I wanted to play one. In general, I was drawn to the 4e art style, particularly of the playable races.

 

[dave2008]

2. I hate the 4e Bael Turath monolith (though if that continued through the rest of the books in 4e, I have no idea, I was turned off immediately by the style of 4e).

It is worth noting the Bael Turath version was only the lore of the "default" Points of Light setting. IIRC the origin for Tieflings was different in the FR and Eberron campaign guides.

EDIT: I just confirmed there is no mention of Bael Turath in the 4e Forgotten Realms Player's Guide. From a quick skim it doesn't really get into their origin.

 

[darjr]

What is funny is that Wyatt advises the players that some option was available to them (charging attack, or something like that) that Chris forgot to mention. They then said "the other DM [Chris Perkins] was bush league".

Ha!

It's like, I don't know, rain, on your wedding day, or good advice, that you just can't take, or something.

It's "Keep on the Shadowfell", for what it's worth. Chris did the brilliant thing by starting them straight up in the dungeon. "You've been searching around for a goblin leader called Irontooth, but have been having trouble finding him, and then you run across this place..."

No "kobolds attack you on the road" encounter to slog through. That was pushed to recent backstory.

Yea, it was a great idea to start them there. I'd love to hear Chris commentary on each WotC adventure or how he'd run it, or maybe a live play of him running the book.

 

[Scribe]

I loved the tiefling appearance promoted in the 4e PHB, and it was the first time that I wanted to play one. In general, I was drawn to the 4e art style, particularly of the playable races.

Fair enough, I have the opposing reaction to the whole visual style of 4e pretty much.

 

[dave2008]

Fair enough, I have the opposing reaction to the whole visual style of 4e pretty much.

I get it, I skipped 2e in part because I didn't like the art and graphic design.

 

[Scribe]

I get it, I skipped 2e in part because I didn't like the art and graphic design.

I think it was you that gave me some recommendations the other day on 4e books to read. I honestly struggle to get through them due to this. Not even just the art (is subjective, etc etc) but the layout, the design. I really just cant connect with it.

 

[dave2008]

I think it was you that gave me some recommendations the other day on 4e books to read. I honestly struggle to get through them due to this. Not even just the art (is subjective, etc etc) but the layout, the design. I really just cant connect with it.

I think that was @Mistwell actually. I had the opposite reaction, 4e graphic design seemed like a breath of fresh air to me. I'm an architect and a bit of a graphic designer and it it just appealed to my training and taste.

On the other hand I had real trouble with the 2e and then 3e graphic design. They were big reasons I didn't play those editions. I am using the 3e Epic Level Handbook to update some high CR monsters and stuff like this drives me crazy:

and this:

But everyone has their preferences, and that is OK.

 

[tetrasodium]

It is worth noting the Bael Turath version was only the lore of the "default" Points of Light setting. IIRC the origin for Tieflings was different in the FR and Eberron campaign guides.

EDIT: I just confirmed there is no mention of Bael Turath in the 4e Forgotten Realms Player's Guide. From a quick skim it doesn't really get into their origin.

The 4e eberron campaign guide literally rewrote eberron's cosmology to fit the asmodeous metaplot and added a whole new nonsense plane he ruled so he could still rule the same plane under a different name. 5e eberron shelved all of that nonsense with midichlorians under the atari ET landfill & wrote about their origin in both Morgraves misc as well as Rising from the Last War here's a 2017 summary from Keith that roughly amounts to something else in your blood & possibly because you were born in/near a manifest zone that tainted you with planar energies.