D&D 5E Let’s Read Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse.

[the Jester]

Hellfire weapons bugged me. Why do devils bargain and grant favours to gain souls, when they could just roll a Hellfire Engine through some random village?

Destroying a village doesn't actually get them any souls that they wouldn't have when the people died anyhow. Bargains and favors do.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Destroying a village doesn't actually get them any souls that they wouldn't have when the people died anyhow. Bargains and favors do.

True, but from Hell's perspective, sometimes a community just has to go to make way for the larger plan.

I imagine it like the Shadows' plan from Babylon 5. They would make deals with the Centauri to use their superior ships to annihilate the Centauri's enemies, all with an eye towards manipulating their pawns for their own purposes.

 

[Reynard]

Destroying a village doesn't actually get them any souls that they wouldn't have when the people died anyhow. Bargains and favors do.

Right. You have to get them to promise you their souls THEN kill them.

 

[Faolyn]

It is mostly for that reason. I also really don't like the philosophy behind making that change. I want things in my fantasy game to be as consistent as possible (I'm a big fan of process sim) and this very gamist "update" flies in the face of that.

I view it more as over-simlification (so you don't have to have multiple books/tabs open or... I guess, prep beforehand?) rather than gamist, but yeah, I agree.

 

[Faolyn]

Hellfire weapons bugged me. Why do devils bargain and grant favours to gain souls, when they could just roll a Hellfire Engine through some random village?

I imagine most of these weapons are used in wars against other archfiends or against celestials, rather than on the Prime.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I view it more as over-simlification (so you don't have to have multiple books/tabs open or... I guess, prep beforehand?) rather than gamist, but yeah, I agree.

YMMV but I like stuff that makes my DM job easier, whether "gamist" or not. I can come up with fiction for anything. The real world is a crazy complex place. I can only imagine a fantasy world would be moreso.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I view it more as over-simlification (so you don't have to have multiple books/tabs open or... I guess, prep beforehand?) rather than gamist, but yeah, I agree.

Over-simplification is the new motto of WotC. So glad they put out a good game before this happened.

 

[Micah Sweet]

YMMV but I like stuff that makes my DM job easier, whether "gamist" or not. I can come up with fiction for anything. The real world is a crazy complex place. I can only imagine a fantasy world would be moreso.

definitely agree to disagree on that. You are, unfortunately for me, probably in the majority however.

 

[Sulicius]

Over-simplification is the new motto of WotC. So glad they put out a good game before this happened.

Hardly new. Hasn’t just about every edition been more streamlined than the last?

 

[Reynard]

Hardly new. Hasn’t just about every edition been more streamlined than the last?

I don't think you can say 3.x was more streamlined than 2E. Yes it got rid of THAC0 and applied a roll high core mechanic, but it made the game significantly and fundamentally more complex.