D&D General The D&D Multiverse: Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die

[TwoSix]

Is it an Everything Bagel, or a Plane Bagel?

Yes.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Yes.

It's both a Plane/Plain and Everything Bagel. Both concordant and in opposition. It also hovers over a spire and has a city in its inner edge.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

It's both a Plane/Plain and Everything Bagel. Both concordant and in opposition. It also covers over a spire and has a city in its inner edge.

"ALSO POINTY! WITH A STEM! BWAAAK!"

 

[haakon1]

For OD&D/1e, we know this stuff happened, but we don't have as much anecdotal information about what worked and what didn't.

I was there, man.

And furthermore, IF they did, at some point, people did start to rebel against it. Maybe these rules just didn't really handle this stuff all that great? Great, my longsword does 1d8 damage, but you gave this guy a laser gun that does 2d10 (or whatever it was), and at some point, my guess is all this experimental genre clashing probably didn't work too well, and players and DMs realized it pretty quickly. So I'm just not so sure this stuff was that well tolerated even then.

A key point is concerns with “balance” between player characters wasn’t a thing in AD&D. If Stephen Colbert’s character in your party got the laser rifle, great - less chance of TPK. And it would run out of charges - because logistics from wargaming were still part of the game.

c

 

[TiQuinn]

I was there, man.

I was too, man.

A key point is concerns with “balance” between player characters wasn’t a thing in AD&D. If Stephen Colbert’s character in your party got the laser rifle, great - less chance of TPK. And it would run out of charges - because logistics from wargaming were still part of the game.

c

Again, not sure I agree. Balance was less of a thing but I’m not sure that it wasn’t desired by a lot of players. I would say that the lack of balance as well as options for classes gave rise to the splatbooks in 2e.

 

[Voadam]

Again, not sure I agree. Balance was less of a thing but I’m not sure that it wasn’t desired by a lot of players. I would say that the lack of balance as well as options for classes gave rise to the splatbooks in 2e.

Balance was a decent consideration for a lot of my group, we figured out angles of the system and I avoided playing straight thieves and low level MUs for a long time in B/X and 1e.

I wouldn't say balance led to the splatbooks in 2e though, they were still wildly unbalanced and required significant sifting and evaluation if you wanted to tailor things to be balanced. They did give you huge expanded options though. I wouldn't say the savage fighter type kits that restricted you to less effective stone and bone weapons and such were balanced against say the myrmidon fighter kit which gave a free weapon specialization with no real drawback, but it does give a much different flavor and built in roleplaying option.

3e is where the explicit design goal was for everything to be balanced at every level for every class.

 

[Voadam]

As far as weirdness in 1e groups I think that varied wildly table to table.

Some were playing Greyhawk as low level D&D medievalism campaigns with some orcs and elves. Others embraced the gonzo or had it as variety or high level stuff only.

You had the fairly serious baseline medieval fantasy T1 moathouse setup but also Expedition to the Barrier Peaks and the Alice in Wonderland demiplane modules all from Gygax as models of core D&D. Some embraced some aspects and others embraced other aspects.

I can remember designing Boba Fett's jet pack/grappling hook/flamethrower armor in 1e/B/X and figuring out a system of how to power it with flasks of oil from the default equipment list. I also played in plenty of 1e games with zero tech type stuff or references to other noncore stuff.

 

[haakon1]

I would say that the lack of balance as well as options for classes gave rise to the splatbooks in 2e.

1e was very different from 2e.

 

[TiQuinn]

1e was very different from 2e.

Different but I wouldn’t say very different. 2e’s purpose was to give structure to 1e and establish rules that had been introduced in 1e either in Dragon magazine, Oriental Adventures, or Wilderness Survival Guide and so on as core rules. There was still an awful lot of house rules but not as many as at a 1e table.

 

[MGibster]

t's been my experience that a lot of the stuff that we want to share with younger people isn't what they are looking for, and they have their own cool stuff... which, years from now, they will want to share and most likely will learn that most of the next generation isn't all that interested.

I still remember the first time I saw my friend's kid watching someone on YouTube play video games. It wasn't a review of the game or anything like that, he was literally watching someone else play a video game. I was baffled but I accepted that I just don't get it. Today's kids were raised on different works of fiction than I was and I'm comfortable with them liking different things. Heck, sometimes I even like the new stuff.

The latest Spelljammer was just a bad product. I don't mean I didn't like it, I mean it's a bad product. I'm not really 100% attached to any of the lore from previous editions, even for settings I loved like Ravenloft, but Spelljammer wasn't really a proper setting book. The setting is called Spelljammer, which is a magical ship that floats through the planes, but they didn't bother even putting ship-to-ship combat rules in the game.

These poor kids were never given a chance. It's like trying to get your nieces and nephews into Star Wars by showing them the Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure.