D&D 5E MCDM Kingdoms and Warfare is out!

[Chaosmancer]

I've flipped through the book, I'm really liking it, though much of it might be used as inspiration rather than using the rules presented. The organisation rules are pretty cool, roll some dice and then later use those dice to activate abilities.

Different domains and realms and how they interact, while cool, might be more work than I really want to use in a game, same with the warfare rules to be honest. I like them, I just think I prefer a simpler system for warfare; the last I used had simple attack rolls vs. The enemy armies DC, things happened and the roll was influenced by the players taking down enemy commanders.

Don't really get the lore comments, easy enough to use the stuff in this book, no real work in decoupling lore from things which have been presented.

Well, like I said, a lot of it is baked into various mechanics. Some examples:

The Warlock commander's first ability is to create illusory soldiers. However, would that make sense for a Blade-pact warlock whose the frontline fighter of the group and never uses illusion spells? Where did they suddenly learn this skill from?

What if I've got a Ranger who is focused on melee? Why would I train my troops exclusively in archery?

If I have a hidden cult, why is one of my powers a blood sacrifice? What if that doesn't fit the type of cult we are running? Why is the thieve's guild using poisoned weapons?

I get that they had to give them something, they had to make a choice as to what these abilities were and why they were, but the assumptions of the setting can be pretty heavily baked in. Which wouldn't be as big of an issue, but it comes with a realization that I would have really loved a detailed section on making your own abilities for these things.

Actually, I just noticed this. The various unit ancestries alter their stats. I saw a line in the orc write-up, then looked at the numbers.

Human Infantry -> +3 /12 /+2 /12 / +1 /+2
Orc Infantry -> +4 /12 / +2 / 12/ +0 / +1
Elf Infantry -> +4 / 12 / +2/ 12/ +0 /+1
Dwarf -> +3 / 12/ +2 / 12 /+0 / +1

Now, the explanation given for the orcs and elves having +4 ATK is that they both have "an affinity for weapon"... which I guess dwarves don't? It also says that dwarf infantry should be the best because they have greater natural toughness than any other unit... but I highlighted the toughness stat, and they are identical. Maybe they are referring to the stalwart ability?

So, there are these assumptions baked in that I have to unbake to modify... but nowhere did they actually give us a break down if how the sausage was made, so I don't know what are typos, what I'm missing, and I end up needing to go through a lot of extra work to figure out how to reverse engineer some of these aspects of the rules.

I love the book, don't get me wrong. I just wish it was a little more generic, a little easier to figure out the math and make it work for me, instead of having to hunt it down

 

[darjr]

New stream starting right now if you wanna get in and ask questions live.

 

[darjr]