Bill Zebub
“It’s probably Matt Mercer’s fault.”
(Many D&D campaigns shouldn't even have coffee!)
Why's that?
I hope the reason isn't because D&D is meant to represent a specific historical era.
(Many D&D campaigns shouldn't even have coffee!)
To be precise, "trade" is not the issue. Geography is. Coffee is grown at moderately high altitudes (1000 m and above) and is sensitive to frost, which means it needs a warm climate (tropical, here on Earth).Trade, specifically. How many campaigns have trade with the geographical regions where coffee first came from (or trade with cultures who have adopted it)? Dragonlance certainly doesn't. Nor would likely Athas. Nentir Vale is highly unlikely.
The Forgotten Realms does, however, as would likely Mystara, and possibly Greyhawk. Most of the home games I've been in, however, never seem to display the kind of widespread trade that would lead to coffee becoming popular in their "vaguely European medieval fantasy" worlds. Or we're in some remote area where you couldn't get it even if it existed.
Now that having been said, if a DM says there's coffee, there's coffee. But coffee has an interesting history in our world, and has even been banned at points in the past. It's just one of those things that I don't think most campaign designers think about.
On the one hand, WotC did inexplicably title the chapter of manoeuvre descriptions "Blade Magic". OTOH, I do not believe the people who came up with that nickname had ever so much as cracked the book open, so I doubt the two are actually connected.And then there was an attempt to make warriors' abilities to work like magic too. Which became infamous under the nickname of "weaboo fightan magic".
I would argue that those classes were already largely obsolete.The problem with the Book of Nine Swords is really twofold. The Warblade, Swordsage, and Crusader were far better designed than the Fighter, Monk/Rogue, and the Paladin. They could compete with the more powerful classes while obsoleting other classes.
Nobody using Bo9S could "teleport without explicit magic". The only teleport powers are explicitly Supernatural (ie, magical). All the supernatural powers were the province of the explicitly magical classes, not the Fighter-equivalent Warblade.Then add on top of that, those players who adamantly reject non-caster fighting classes (often referred to as "martials") as having any abilities that cannot be replicated in real life. They don't want people able to ignore DR or teleport without explicit magic.
The manouevre names I will kinda give you, except see my comment about about most critics of the Bo9S not actually having read it.Add the fantastic naming scheme for the various Manifester powers, which is highly reminiscent of Exalted, or the special attacks of anime characters, and the myths about the Book of Nine Swords being overpowered garbage that has no business in D&D appeared. It was a paradigm shift that many could not accept- having renewable, encounter-based resources and abilities that allowed someone to knock on the door of what spellcasters have been doing for decades.
You probably already know this, but for the record: The Bo9S was based on an early draft of 4e, which was already in development at the time, rather than the other way around. And the base did not "finally break in half", it lost a bunch of people and gained a bunch of people, just like every edition.Then WotC trotted out an entire edition based on the principles developed on Tome of Battle, Tome of Magic, and even the Warlock class, and the base finally broke in half.
And yet, WotC went to a lot of lengths to get back the lost players who went to Pathfinder 1e or back to more familiar ground like OSR games.I would argue that those classes were already largely obsolete.
Nobody using Bo9S could "teleport without explicit magic". The only teleport powers are explicitly Supernatural (ie, magical). All the supernatural powers were the province of the explicitly magical classes, not the Fighter-equivalent Warblade.
The manouevre names I will kinda give you, except see my comment about about most critics of the Bo9S not actually having read it.
You probably already know this, but for the record: The Bo9S was based on an early draft of 4e, which was already in development at the time, rather than the other way around. And the base did not "finally break in half", it lost a bunch of people and gained a bunch of people, just like every edition.
_
glass.
On the one hand, the game needs to actualize as many important narrative concepts as possible.
On the other hand, one must reduce the complexity of the gaming system as much as possible.