Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
What type of ranger would your prefer for 2024?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Emberashh" data-source="post: 9066722" data-attributes="member: 7040941"><p>Yes, and this is not a given in a particular ruleset. How DND currently does it is not something we need to assume will still be the case, especially in the context of a rules update to the game (of which economy overhauls is precisely the type of thing that should be happening)</p><p></p><p></p><p>I'm using my own RPG to illustrate the ideas I'm conveying about integrating the gameplay loops. It pays dividends to engage with crafting because that loops back into your ability to be good at Combat twice over; first in the items you create and second in the Stats you get for leveling up your skills. As of this writing, maxing out your Mining skill would give you an effective +7 on its own to your Strength, meaning if you trained nothing else you'd have +7 to your Wrestling, Heavy Weapons and Heavy Armor skills. Max those, and you get up to a cumulative +30. </p><p></p><p>And then by integrating those skills alongside those associated with Dexterity (Stealth, Light Weapons, Light Armor, and Sleight of Hand) and/or Endurance (Conditioning, Animal Handling, Athletics, Smithing), you start building up your Energies, which for a character interested in these would be mainly your Composure (HP) and your Stamina (SM). Increasing both of these not only gives you more resources to spend on Combat, but also makes your abilities stronger because your current Energies (IE, you're current HP or current Stamina) are what you base your Saving throws on, so having them high is not only good because you can do more, but good because you do more with what you do more.</p><p></p><p>And by engaging with all of those skills, you're now engaging with quite literally every "Pillar" in the game. You're not just a one-note character that only does what those in the Ivory Tower deemed to give you, you're able to do quite a lot across a lot of different scenarios. </p><p></p><p>And the best part is, <em>you don't have to engage with anything you don't actually want to engage with, </em>but you are encouraged to give things a try for the same simple reason you don't have to engage with them in the first place. You can shift your Skill points around (with relatively little cost to time or gold), which not only lets you take random scraggler points (like say you had to roll, lets say, Tactics, for some reason and thats not what you're wanting to focus on, and yet you now have a skill point in it. Spend some time, and you can shift that Skill point over to a skill you actually want to use) and assign them elsewhere, but also lets you even shift focus if you don't want to engage with something, or just want to change. </p><p></p><p>Its a very flexible and ultimately forgiving system. You are directly allowed to get as much optimization out of it as you care to have because I'm going out of my way to give you ways to not have to be optimized, and not have to spend precious cognitive power on engaging with everything in the game, and to not have to spend an egregious amount of cognitive power on these things even when you do decide to engage with them. </p><p></p><p>I know my game is a very substantive cognitive shift in how TTRPG's are thought of, but one should try to keep an open mind. </p><p></p><p>There is no minimalist answer that's going to solve all of these problems in one sentence, and too many (not necessarily you) seem obsessed with trying to find a proverbial White Whale. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Yes. And also other things. A simple example is Rock Monsters; have to break them with a pickaxe to actually put them down, and you can then take that basic conceit and design what you might call a "Skilling Boss", to borrow a phrase from video games. </p><p></p><p>The same basic Energies that feed into Combat are also just as relevant whilst using your Skills; having a high Composure and Stamina is going to be important for Mining and Smithing even if you're not facing some bonkers Rock Monster that you need to carve a hole into so you can stab its fleshy molten core. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>As simple as <em>necessary, </em>is what you should say. You can go too far in the other direction, and 5e is actually littered with examples of why chasing minimalism isn't a good idea.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Emberashh, post: 9066722, member: 7040941"] Yes, and this is not a given in a particular ruleset. How DND currently does it is not something we need to assume will still be the case, especially in the context of a rules update to the game (of which economy overhauls is precisely the type of thing that should be happening) I'm using my own RPG to illustrate the ideas I'm conveying about integrating the gameplay loops. It pays dividends to engage with crafting because that loops back into your ability to be good at Combat twice over; first in the items you create and second in the Stats you get for leveling up your skills. As of this writing, maxing out your Mining skill would give you an effective +7 on its own to your Strength, meaning if you trained nothing else you'd have +7 to your Wrestling, Heavy Weapons and Heavy Armor skills. Max those, and you get up to a cumulative +30. And then by integrating those skills alongside those associated with Dexterity (Stealth, Light Weapons, Light Armor, and Sleight of Hand) and/or Endurance (Conditioning, Animal Handling, Athletics, Smithing), you start building up your Energies, which for a character interested in these would be mainly your Composure (HP) and your Stamina (SM). Increasing both of these not only gives you more resources to spend on Combat, but also makes your abilities stronger because your current Energies (IE, you're current HP or current Stamina) are what you base your Saving throws on, so having them high is not only good because you can do more, but good because you do more with what you do more. And by engaging with all of those skills, you're now engaging with quite literally every "Pillar" in the game. You're not just a one-note character that only does what those in the Ivory Tower deemed to give you, you're able to do quite a lot across a lot of different scenarios. And the best part is, [I]you don't have to engage with anything you don't actually want to engage with, [/I]but you are encouraged to give things a try for the same simple reason you don't have to engage with them in the first place. You can shift your Skill points around (with relatively little cost to time or gold), which not only lets you take random scraggler points (like say you had to roll, lets say, Tactics, for some reason and thats not what you're wanting to focus on, and yet you now have a skill point in it. Spend some time, and you can shift that Skill point over to a skill you actually want to use) and assign them elsewhere, but also lets you even shift focus if you don't want to engage with something, or just want to change. Its a very flexible and ultimately forgiving system. You are directly allowed to get as much optimization out of it as you care to have because I'm going out of my way to give you ways to not have to be optimized, and not have to spend precious cognitive power on engaging with everything in the game, and to not have to spend an egregious amount of cognitive power on these things even when you do decide to engage with them. I know my game is a very substantive cognitive shift in how TTRPG's are thought of, but one should try to keep an open mind. There is no minimalist answer that's going to solve all of these problems in one sentence, and too many (not necessarily you) seem obsessed with trying to find a proverbial White Whale. Yes. And also other things. A simple example is Rock Monsters; have to break them with a pickaxe to actually put them down, and you can then take that basic conceit and design what you might call a "Skilling Boss", to borrow a phrase from video games. The same basic Energies that feed into Combat are also just as relevant whilst using your Skills; having a high Composure and Stamina is going to be important for Mining and Smithing even if you're not facing some bonkers Rock Monster that you need to carve a hole into so you can stab its fleshy molten core. As simple as [I]necessary, [/I]is what you should say. You can go too far in the other direction, and 5e is actually littered with examples of why chasing minimalism isn't a good idea. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
What type of ranger would your prefer for 2024?
Top