The announcement of 5th edition, or D&D Next, came with another announcement. That the Forgotten Realms would be the games default setting. The Realms is big, it has a rich history and a rich future. It has novels set in its cities and wilderness, it is the home to some of D&D's most well known heroes and villains.
And for anyone starting the game with this next edition, it will be the default world that their characters call home when they sit down to play. And, its a good world. Its big! It has a lot of preexisting resources that WotC can republish. Anything can happen in the Realms, and that's a great thing.
But, as a DM and a player, I have a small request. It is one that for WotC would have a negligible cost and would help countless DMs who are interested in world building and setting creation, those of us who want to play in our own sandboxes.
Give us professionally crafted maps of large landmasses, continents, archipelagos, sub-continents, etc. Put the forests, mountains, cities, and towns on there, fill it with interesting terrain and little dots to let us know where things are.
But don't label any of it.
The default setting of D&D should be a nearly blank map. A world mysterious to the players, full of danger and unknown terror.
A nearly blank map would give DMs creative control over their world. Don't know anything about the realms? Don't want to learn the complex political structure of Ebberon? Want to start with a blank slate and populate it with what monsters and civilizations you choose?
Here's your map. This city here, on this river, what's in it? Who lives there? Is it a city of human nobles at war with the elves in the nearby forest? Is it full of thieves and river bandits, allied with the gnolls? Or, perhaps its a city in ruins, waiting to be explored.
No presumptions on the part of WotC or the players. It is up to the DM to tell their players what they know about the world surrounding their tiny village. A world ripe for exploration.
For some of us, the Realms and other per-generated worlds don't give us the freedom we like. They have too much baggage, whether its in the form of novels or source books or even just adventures. The more the Nentir Vale got filled in with "stuff" the more I disliked it. The more crowded with other peoples ideas it felt.
A blank map though, of that area? A lovely thing.
Then you can publish cities that can be dropped into these maps, dungeons and ruins that all the DM has to to is pick a dot on his map and say "Here is where the lost ruins of Kalab'ahran, the Bright City of the Dwarves, lies."
Entire cultures can be created, free from the tyranny of published settings. Want to create an interesting clan of elves? Want to give Orcs their own kingdom where the Orc King worships Erathis? Here is a blank map where WotC and others have no assumptions or hold on you. Put them where you like.
I will admit that this desire comes from a simple problem: I am not a cartographer. I have no skill at drawing worlds. And when I do its basic colored marker and pen, on white paper. A professionally done map though? Would be an inspiration. For myself, I will admit, and others.
For those of you who enjoy published settings I do not suggest that WotC abandon these worlds. Athas, Abeir-Toril, Oerth, and even the world of the Nentir Vale all have their stories to tell us.
I would just like a blank world, or a series of them, where the only thing telling me what lies over the next hill is what I want to put there, not what someone else wanted.
Thank you. :)
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Character Archetypes, Roles, and D&D Next
4th edition introduced a new way of looking at characters in pen & paper rpgs, that of the "role". These roles weren't anything overly new to the game, but the labels were. These labels were borrowed from MMO terminology, modified to fit into the construct of a table top game, and let loose upon the world of Dungeons and Dragon's players for good or ill.
Some people used the codifying of roles as another example that 4e was "just an MMO" in paper form, forgetting that MMO's spawned from table top RPGs themselves, first as MUDs (Multi User Dungeons) and related games, and then as graphical worlds in and of themselves, each one improving (hopefully) on the last. The conceits of D&D and other fantasy RPGs were borrowed and are evident in Everquest, Ultima, and yes even in World of Warcraft.
These roles are fairly simple, for the most part.
Defender: The "tank" in MMO speak, the defender punishes the enemies for attacking his friends.
Striker: The "DPS (Damage Per Second)" class in MMO speak, also known as the guy that puts out the hurt.
Leader: The "healer" role who helps his team mates by replenishing hit points and tossing out bonuses.
Controller: the "crowd control" role in MMOs, able to impose negative conditions on enemies, and generally make the enemies life miserable.
These roles aren't all bad, in one way or another they've always existed in D&D. The fighter, for the most part, has stood in front of the mage to prevent the monsters from interrupting his spells (acting as a defender). The rogue sneak attacks the bad guys, doing extra damage (being a striker). Clerics heal, wizards cast fireballs, and so on and so forth. What MMOs had to do was enforce what was already there and make those things mechanically work within the boundaries of a video game.
What 4e did was create the labels as both a way of discussing what a class was supposed to be doing and also a way to compare classes meaningfully. If strikers are supposed to deal damage, we can compare 2 striker classes, and look at how they are accomplishing this goal, and see if its working or not. No matter how you feel about roles, from a design perspective I can't see this as being anything but useful. At least, if you value class balance. Another idea borrowed from MMO and video games. To clarify, class balance means that at any given level, 2 classes doing the same job are relatively comparable and viable. You don't want X to be so much better than Y that Y is almost never played.
Roles can also be restrictive, though. There were many people who played the fighter class as a damage dealer, choosing to be "the guy in lots of armor with the big sword". Where 4e initially went wrong was not providing options for players who liked to play a class against its stated role. And, though I love 4e and playing it with my friends, that is true. If you want to play a pure damage dealing wizard...you play a sorcerer and deal with it. That's not a game breaker for me, but for others I can see the frustration. It has made steps in the right direction with essentials and with options like the Heroes of the Feywild barbarian, but for some that is not enough.
In the Next Edition should roles stay? Yes, I think they should. Not only are they a good way to decide what type of class to play, but also a way of achieving balance. It is a good way of offering comparisons, deciding on features, and also a way to find out what a player wants to do. Some people like playing the healer, other guys just want make things bleed. Keep them. But they shouldn't be a straight jacket for classes, they should be a descriptor, flexible, and those descriptions should be able to change depending on what options you take. If they stay with Powers / Abilities perhaps each one could come with a descriptor, and then you decide what your character is by the balance of powers you take?
IE: You take 3 powers with the "Striker" label, and only 1 "Controller" power, and your character is considered a striker. Or, choose this class feature and you are a Striker, and this one and you are a Controller, or Defender.
In current 4e terminology a fighter could look like this
If you want to play a defender choose Defender Aura for your class feature. If you want to play a striker, choose Power Strike as a class feature. If you want to play a controller, choose (This Thing) as your class feature.
Not perfect, I know. But it works for the purposes of discussion.
Now, the second broad topic I wanted to discuss was archetypes are something that are very useful in D&D, and in literature in general. In some ways Power Source is an archetype in 4e. Roles are also a form of archetype.
But more broadly than that, archetype is a general descriptor that lets you know what flavor a character has. If I ask you to describe a "Rogue" you have a good idea of what that type of character is in your head. If I ask you to describe a "Mage" you also have a good mental image of what that character may look like. These images persist through storytelling, MMOs, table top games, literature, artwork, and almost anything relating to our hobby.
I posit that there are several prevailing archetypes in our hobby:
The Warrior: A person who takes up weapons and armor to engage in hand to hand combat.
The Sneak: A person who relies on stealth and deception. Lightly armored and armed, the sneak keeps to the shadows.
The Spellcaster: Wearing no armor, the spell caster wields power unknown to the common man to smite her enemies.
The Healer: The healer also wields power, but unlike the Spellcaster who uses it to kill his foe the Healer uses his powers to aid his allies.
The Archer: Just as it sounds, the Archer prefers to fight at range.
The Savage: A person of the wild, the savage shuns civilization and its traps.
Now, many archetypes are missing from this list, and others can be seen as a combination of the 2. A ranger could be seen as a Savage Archer, an Archer Sneak, or a Savage Archer Sneak. Notice that even the term "ranger" brings up a set of preconceptions when I mention it? That is a type of archetype. A paladin has a clear archetype as well, a warrior of the divine. (an archetype mixed with a power source).
Archetypes, power sources, and roles are all building blocks used to describe and differentiate characters. Race can be seen as another block, each race having its own archetypes built in either mechanically or historically.
I hope that in the next edition that we have access to all of these tools in order to build interesting stories, discuss balance and mechanics, and work towards design goals.
Some people used the codifying of roles as another example that 4e was "just an MMO" in paper form, forgetting that MMO's spawned from table top RPGs themselves, first as MUDs (Multi User Dungeons) and related games, and then as graphical worlds in and of themselves, each one improving (hopefully) on the last. The conceits of D&D and other fantasy RPGs were borrowed and are evident in Everquest, Ultima, and yes even in World of Warcraft.
These roles are fairly simple, for the most part.
Defender: The "tank" in MMO speak, the defender punishes the enemies for attacking his friends.
Striker: The "DPS (Damage Per Second)" class in MMO speak, also known as the guy that puts out the hurt.
Leader: The "healer" role who helps his team mates by replenishing hit points and tossing out bonuses.
Controller: the "crowd control" role in MMOs, able to impose negative conditions on enemies, and generally make the enemies life miserable.
These roles aren't all bad, in one way or another they've always existed in D&D. The fighter, for the most part, has stood in front of the mage to prevent the monsters from interrupting his spells (acting as a defender). The rogue sneak attacks the bad guys, doing extra damage (being a striker). Clerics heal, wizards cast fireballs, and so on and so forth. What MMOs had to do was enforce what was already there and make those things mechanically work within the boundaries of a video game.
What 4e did was create the labels as both a way of discussing what a class was supposed to be doing and also a way to compare classes meaningfully. If strikers are supposed to deal damage, we can compare 2 striker classes, and look at how they are accomplishing this goal, and see if its working or not. No matter how you feel about roles, from a design perspective I can't see this as being anything but useful. At least, if you value class balance. Another idea borrowed from MMO and video games. To clarify, class balance means that at any given level, 2 classes doing the same job are relatively comparable and viable. You don't want X to be so much better than Y that Y is almost never played.
Roles can also be restrictive, though. There were many people who played the fighter class as a damage dealer, choosing to be "the guy in lots of armor with the big sword". Where 4e initially went wrong was not providing options for players who liked to play a class against its stated role. And, though I love 4e and playing it with my friends, that is true. If you want to play a pure damage dealing wizard...you play a sorcerer and deal with it. That's not a game breaker for me, but for others I can see the frustration. It has made steps in the right direction with essentials and with options like the Heroes of the Feywild barbarian, but for some that is not enough.
In the Next Edition should roles stay? Yes, I think they should. Not only are they a good way to decide what type of class to play, but also a way of achieving balance. It is a good way of offering comparisons, deciding on features, and also a way to find out what a player wants to do. Some people like playing the healer, other guys just want make things bleed. Keep them. But they shouldn't be a straight jacket for classes, they should be a descriptor, flexible, and those descriptions should be able to change depending on what options you take. If they stay with Powers / Abilities perhaps each one could come with a descriptor, and then you decide what your character is by the balance of powers you take?
IE: You take 3 powers with the "Striker" label, and only 1 "Controller" power, and your character is considered a striker. Or, choose this class feature and you are a Striker, and this one and you are a Controller, or Defender.
In current 4e terminology a fighter could look like this
If you want to play a defender choose Defender Aura for your class feature. If you want to play a striker, choose Power Strike as a class feature. If you want to play a controller, choose (This Thing) as your class feature.
Not perfect, I know. But it works for the purposes of discussion.
Now, the second broad topic I wanted to discuss was archetypes are something that are very useful in D&D, and in literature in general. In some ways Power Source is an archetype in 4e. Roles are also a form of archetype.
But more broadly than that, archetype is a general descriptor that lets you know what flavor a character has. If I ask you to describe a "Rogue" you have a good idea of what that type of character is in your head. If I ask you to describe a "Mage" you also have a good mental image of what that character may look like. These images persist through storytelling, MMOs, table top games, literature, artwork, and almost anything relating to our hobby.
I posit that there are several prevailing archetypes in our hobby:
The Warrior: A person who takes up weapons and armor to engage in hand to hand combat.
The Sneak: A person who relies on stealth and deception. Lightly armored and armed, the sneak keeps to the shadows.
The Spellcaster: Wearing no armor, the spell caster wields power unknown to the common man to smite her enemies.
The Healer: The healer also wields power, but unlike the Spellcaster who uses it to kill his foe the Healer uses his powers to aid his allies.
The Archer: Just as it sounds, the Archer prefers to fight at range.
The Savage: A person of the wild, the savage shuns civilization and its traps.
Now, many archetypes are missing from this list, and others can be seen as a combination of the 2. A ranger could be seen as a Savage Archer, an Archer Sneak, or a Savage Archer Sneak. Notice that even the term "ranger" brings up a set of preconceptions when I mention it? That is a type of archetype. A paladin has a clear archetype as well, a warrior of the divine. (an archetype mixed with a power source).
Archetypes, power sources, and roles are all building blocks used to describe and differentiate characters. Race can be seen as another block, each race having its own archetypes built in either mechanically or historically.
I hope that in the next edition that we have access to all of these tools in order to build interesting stories, discuss balance and mechanics, and work towards design goals.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
D&D Next - The Edition for Everyone?
Warning: this blog will ramble about 5e, new mechanics, and conversations had with friends about D&D and edition wars. :)
Part The First: Begun, the Edition Wars Have.
So, Wizards of the Coast have made the announcement. 5e, or whatever they end up calling it, is official. Twitter is abuzz with #dndnext comments (and a few jokes from myself, to be compiled later), and all of the relevant websites are throwing in their 2 cents.
And, of course, the forums. A quick perusal of the Future Releases forum this morning makes my heart sink. The continued bad blood between those who dislike 4e and those who enjoy it has already started to stink up discussion about 5e. Of course, I didn't really expect any different but I can hope, right? Thank you, gaming community, to once more showing the world that we are not, in fact, above calling each other grognards and fanboys with enough vitriol to make a black dragons phlegm look positively base.
It really reminds me of a conversation I had over the weekend with a friend of mine about D&D itself. He stated, in no uncertain terms, that anyone who liked 4e was (to condense his comments) "retarded, lazy, stupid, and doing it wrong". Wow. The sticking point for him was that 4e didn't offer enough character customization, it lacked choices, and it pigeonholed. Now, I will say that there are some classes that are very tight. Too tight, too restrictive. Vampire, as silly as you are, I'm looking at you.
But, here's the rub for me, to my friend his fun in D&D, whenever I hear him talking about it, is in making the God Character. The heavily CharOp monster that gives DM's headaches and makes non CharOp players feel useless. That's where his fun comes from.
But not mine.
He also pointed out that all the power was in the hands of the player in 4e. To which I have to say "bwuh???"
Add in his "Plays like a video game, don't want to play wow on the table top" and any number of other cliched ways to bash 4e and I just get tired. And then I go on the forums and see the same thing, the same stupid, old, boring, pointless arguments going on about 5e and what should and shouldn't be included and it makes me sick.
Part The Second: Moving Forward with 5e
Now, I will say this going into the rest of this post. I love 4e. I think, with some work, that 4e has the base of a really really good system. There are a lot of things in 4e and Essentials to love, that are Good for D&D moving forward. 5e or D&D Next or Dungeons and Dragons: The Directors Cut Ultimate Edition Supreme (each book comes with sour cream and tomato) or whatever they call it, can learn a lot of things from it for making fun games.
And yes, 5e/D&D:tDCUES can learn things from older editions as well. But there are also traps in older editions, things that were cut out for 4e, that I feel still need to be avoided. Sacred Cows of D&D that I, for one am glad to see dead.
The first of these Sacred Cows I was glad to see die was Vancian magic. The "I prepare 5 first level spells, 4 second level, etc" that was a part of D&D up until 4e slit its warty throat with the At-Will, Encounter, Utility, Daily (AEDU) system.
But did 4e do it right? I don't think it did. Many people accuse 4e of playing like a video game, but I wish in this instance that 4e had gone a bit farther. Most video games use Mana (or an energy bar or some other device) to indicate how much magic energy you have to use to cast spells. I would love for 5e to have something similar, a resource to be managed that you used to cast your vast repertoire of spells from. Mana could be managed per encounter, so that you never have the "Wizard / cleric is out of spells, lets rest now guys" problem that was true of low level adventures in 3.x and prior.
I'm not a game designer, but its worked in so many MMOs and adventure RPGs that I can't understand why it can't work at a table top level.
The second Sacred Cow is the "Spell casters suck at low level compared to fighters, then fighter suck at high level compared to the god like mage". Good riddance, bad rubbish, etc. I am a fan of balance. Of being able to have fun, across the board, at any level of play. This is something they need to have in 5e. Balanced, fun play at any level, with no one feeling useless because they didn't pick "The God Class" at that level range.
There are other SC's that I don't mind seeing gone, but many of them are fluff related and not mechanics. The Great Wheel cosmology, the 9 alignments, and so on. But because they are fluff and not rules NOTHING stops any group from using them.
Now, lets move on to other things that I think 4e can teach 5e.
Ease on the DM. I have never had an easier time designing and running games than in 4e. Period. Lets keep this in the 5e pot.
Themes: I am unabashedly a fan of characdter themes. I hope they stay in, in one format or another.
Stances: One of the big things I liked about Essentials, once I looked at it, was stances for the ranger and fighter.
Now, on to some things that need to be cut or added.
Trap feat choices, feat taxes, and redundant feats. Cut them. Lets not give players false choices, or the potential to make plain bad choices. At the same time, lets not force players to "choose" something to fix the game designers bad math. That's not really a choice at all, is it?
Weapons that are not mechanically different enough having different proficiency bonuses / damage dice. So, here are your choices, a +3 prof. bonus weapon that does 1d8 damage or a +2 prof. bonus weapon that does...1d8 damage. I'm sick of all of my fighters wielding longswords. :P
Read the DMG 2. Now, take about 1/2 of that and put it in the DMG 1. All the advice for how to make a good game, say "Yes, but..." etc. Treat the DMG 1 as the "Hey, you've never ever been DM before, here's how to be awesome"
Make magic items a bonus and not an expectation in the math. Make magic items the purview of the DM, not a shopping list for the players. (unless the DM wants them to be).
Some things are themes, not classes. Remember that. Vampires and assassins, I'm looking at you.
Support for all classes and races as evenly as possible. No releasing a class (vampire!!!!) that has next to no options and then a few months later releasing yet more content for an existing class while ignoring the impoverished ones. Either publish a whole class or don't publish it at all.
Part The Third: Where I Express My Fears For The Coming Future
I will say this up front, 5e makes me worry. And not because I don't want 5e, or I think that 4e is some holy object that can't be improved upon. But because it is designed to be "The One Edition to Rule Them All". And I don't see that as a realistic design goal.
You know the saying, I hope. You can't please everyone. But that is the exact design goal of D&D: Super Ultimate Designer Edition / 5e. Make everyone happy.
I just don't see it as being achievable. Take my conversation with my friend I mentioned earlier. He is heavily into CharOp, would love an edition that gave him 10,000 choices so he could put together Monster Character and watch his madman's creation run roughshod over the DM's adventure (and if the DM can't handle it its their fault for not being creative enough to stop him, btw). I would rather have an edition with less choices, but more meaningful ones, where my non CharOp character can feel almost (not quite, though, realistically) effective as the Monster Character and where neither can run roughshod over the adventure.
Those 2 design goals are mutually exclusive. So how do you design for that?
Also, modularity can be an issue. I have friend who don't like "optional" material, such as items published in Dragon magazine. They have a variety of reasons, but ultimately it comes down to the same thing "This isn't core / doesn't feel like core, I don't want it in my game". That's fine.
But what happens when, say, 90% of the game is expressly optional modules that you can choose not to use?
How many "Well my DM won't allow me to play X because it came out in splatbook Y which is optional" will there be? I see an existing problem being magnified, multiplied, and exasperated.
I love D&D. I have loved it since the first time I put my hands on the Fiend Folio in my USAF library in Croughtan England when I was a child, to when I bought the original red box, to when I had my 2nd Edition PHB and I used a school book cover to make sure the front of it never got damaged. I loved it when I bought my 3rd edition PHB and when I bought Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms.
I have loved it from when I used any excuse to draw random dungeons on graph paper to when I picked up a the dice to play encounters.
I want 5e to succeed. I want it to be a good game, where all gamers who love D&D can engage in jovial dialogue about what makes 5e great.
But when so many conflicting opinions exist as to what makes D&D, well, D&D, and those opinions and desires are mutually exclusive (vancian spell casting vs. a more flexible system, for example), I don't see how 1 edition can rule them all.
And, as much as I hate to say it, maybe that's a good thing? Do we *need* 1 edition?
The success of Pathfinder proves there is room on gamers shelves for more than 1 edition. I have friends who own Pathfinder, reworkings of 2nd Edition, and 4th edition who would gladly play all of them for different reasons. I have other friends that are hardcore into 1 particular game system.
I don't understand why, as a community, we have to bash each other over the head with "My Edition is better than yours" arguments when they aren't true. We like different things.
And that's ok. Its time we realized it and just sat down and played some D&D without insulting each other because of what version of it we love the most. 5e, in my fears, will just make another wall instead of tearing those walls down.
Prove me wrong. Please.
Part The First: Begun, the Edition Wars Have.
So, Wizards of the Coast have made the announcement. 5e, or whatever they end up calling it, is official. Twitter is abuzz with #dndnext comments (and a few jokes from myself, to be compiled later), and all of the relevant websites are throwing in their 2 cents.
And, of course, the forums. A quick perusal of the Future Releases forum this morning makes my heart sink. The continued bad blood between those who dislike 4e and those who enjoy it has already started to stink up discussion about 5e. Of course, I didn't really expect any different but I can hope, right? Thank you, gaming community, to once more showing the world that we are not, in fact, above calling each other grognards and fanboys with enough vitriol to make a black dragons phlegm look positively base.
It really reminds me of a conversation I had over the weekend with a friend of mine about D&D itself. He stated, in no uncertain terms, that anyone who liked 4e was (to condense his comments) "retarded, lazy, stupid, and doing it wrong". Wow. The sticking point for him was that 4e didn't offer enough character customization, it lacked choices, and it pigeonholed. Now, I will say that there are some classes that are very tight. Too tight, too restrictive. Vampire, as silly as you are, I'm looking at you.
But, here's the rub for me, to my friend his fun in D&D, whenever I hear him talking about it, is in making the God Character. The heavily CharOp monster that gives DM's headaches and makes non CharOp players feel useless. That's where his fun comes from.
But not mine.
He also pointed out that all the power was in the hands of the player in 4e. To which I have to say "bwuh???"
Add in his "Plays like a video game, don't want to play wow on the table top" and any number of other cliched ways to bash 4e and I just get tired. And then I go on the forums and see the same thing, the same stupid, old, boring, pointless arguments going on about 5e and what should and shouldn't be included and it makes me sick.
Part The Second: Moving Forward with 5e
Now, I will say this going into the rest of this post. I love 4e. I think, with some work, that 4e has the base of a really really good system. There are a lot of things in 4e and Essentials to love, that are Good for D&D moving forward. 5e or D&D Next or Dungeons and Dragons: The Directors Cut Ultimate Edition Supreme (each book comes with sour cream and tomato) or whatever they call it, can learn a lot of things from it for making fun games.
And yes, 5e/D&D:tDCUES can learn things from older editions as well. But there are also traps in older editions, things that were cut out for 4e, that I feel still need to be avoided. Sacred Cows of D&D that I, for one am glad to see dead.
The first of these Sacred Cows I was glad to see die was Vancian magic. The "I prepare 5 first level spells, 4 second level, etc" that was a part of D&D up until 4e slit its warty throat with the At-Will, Encounter, Utility, Daily (AEDU) system.
But did 4e do it right? I don't think it did. Many people accuse 4e of playing like a video game, but I wish in this instance that 4e had gone a bit farther. Most video games use Mana (or an energy bar or some other device) to indicate how much magic energy you have to use to cast spells. I would love for 5e to have something similar, a resource to be managed that you used to cast your vast repertoire of spells from. Mana could be managed per encounter, so that you never have the "Wizard / cleric is out of spells, lets rest now guys" problem that was true of low level adventures in 3.x and prior.
I'm not a game designer, but its worked in so many MMOs and adventure RPGs that I can't understand why it can't work at a table top level.
The second Sacred Cow is the "Spell casters suck at low level compared to fighters, then fighter suck at high level compared to the god like mage". Good riddance, bad rubbish, etc. I am a fan of balance. Of being able to have fun, across the board, at any level of play. This is something they need to have in 5e. Balanced, fun play at any level, with no one feeling useless because they didn't pick "The God Class" at that level range.
There are other SC's that I don't mind seeing gone, but many of them are fluff related and not mechanics. The Great Wheel cosmology, the 9 alignments, and so on. But because they are fluff and not rules NOTHING stops any group from using them.
Now, lets move on to other things that I think 4e can teach 5e.
Ease on the DM. I have never had an easier time designing and running games than in 4e. Period. Lets keep this in the 5e pot.
Themes: I am unabashedly a fan of characdter themes. I hope they stay in, in one format or another.
Stances: One of the big things I liked about Essentials, once I looked at it, was stances for the ranger and fighter.
Now, on to some things that need to be cut or added.
Trap feat choices, feat taxes, and redundant feats. Cut them. Lets not give players false choices, or the potential to make plain bad choices. At the same time, lets not force players to "choose" something to fix the game designers bad math. That's not really a choice at all, is it?
Weapons that are not mechanically different enough having different proficiency bonuses / damage dice. So, here are your choices, a +3 prof. bonus weapon that does 1d8 damage or a +2 prof. bonus weapon that does...1d8 damage. I'm sick of all of my fighters wielding longswords. :P
Read the DMG 2. Now, take about 1/2 of that and put it in the DMG 1. All the advice for how to make a good game, say "Yes, but..." etc. Treat the DMG 1 as the "Hey, you've never ever been DM before, here's how to be awesome"
Make magic items a bonus and not an expectation in the math. Make magic items the purview of the DM, not a shopping list for the players. (unless the DM wants them to be).
Some things are themes, not classes. Remember that. Vampires and assassins, I'm looking at you.
Support for all classes and races as evenly as possible. No releasing a class (vampire!!!!) that has next to no options and then a few months later releasing yet more content for an existing class while ignoring the impoverished ones. Either publish a whole class or don't publish it at all.
Part The Third: Where I Express My Fears For The Coming Future
I will say this up front, 5e makes me worry. And not because I don't want 5e, or I think that 4e is some holy object that can't be improved upon. But because it is designed to be "The One Edition to Rule Them All". And I don't see that as a realistic design goal.
You know the saying, I hope. You can't please everyone. But that is the exact design goal of D&D: Super Ultimate Designer Edition / 5e. Make everyone happy.
I just don't see it as being achievable. Take my conversation with my friend I mentioned earlier. He is heavily into CharOp, would love an edition that gave him 10,000 choices so he could put together Monster Character and watch his madman's creation run roughshod over the DM's adventure (and if the DM can't handle it its their fault for not being creative enough to stop him, btw). I would rather have an edition with less choices, but more meaningful ones, where my non CharOp character can feel almost (not quite, though, realistically) effective as the Monster Character and where neither can run roughshod over the adventure.
Those 2 design goals are mutually exclusive. So how do you design for that?
Also, modularity can be an issue. I have friend who don't like "optional" material, such as items published in Dragon magazine. They have a variety of reasons, but ultimately it comes down to the same thing "This isn't core / doesn't feel like core, I don't want it in my game". That's fine.
But what happens when, say, 90% of the game is expressly optional modules that you can choose not to use?
How many "Well my DM won't allow me to play X because it came out in splatbook Y which is optional" will there be? I see an existing problem being magnified, multiplied, and exasperated.
I love D&D. I have loved it since the first time I put my hands on the Fiend Folio in my USAF library in Croughtan England when I was a child, to when I bought the original red box, to when I had my 2nd Edition PHB and I used a school book cover to make sure the front of it never got damaged. I loved it when I bought my 3rd edition PHB and when I bought Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms.
I have loved it from when I used any excuse to draw random dungeons on graph paper to when I picked up a the dice to play encounters.
I want 5e to succeed. I want it to be a good game, where all gamers who love D&D can engage in jovial dialogue about what makes 5e great.
But when so many conflicting opinions exist as to what makes D&D, well, D&D, and those opinions and desires are mutually exclusive (vancian spell casting vs. a more flexible system, for example), I don't see how 1 edition can rule them all.
And, as much as I hate to say it, maybe that's a good thing? Do we *need* 1 edition?
The success of Pathfinder proves there is room on gamers shelves for more than 1 edition. I have friends who own Pathfinder, reworkings of 2nd Edition, and 4th edition who would gladly play all of them for different reasons. I have other friends that are hardcore into 1 particular game system.
I don't understand why, as a community, we have to bash each other over the head with "My Edition is better than yours" arguments when they aren't true. We like different things.
And that's ok. Its time we realized it and just sat down and played some D&D without insulting each other because of what version of it we love the most. 5e, in my fears, will just make another wall instead of tearing those walls down.
Prove me wrong. Please.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
20 Random Dungeon Rooms and interesting things
1. The corpse of an adventurer encased in strange crystal. Arcane runes spell out a dire warning to all who would disturb the corpse.
2. A dozen jars filled with eyes of various races. With a hard DC perception check the PC’s notice the eyes swivel in the jars to watch them as they explore the room.
3. A mural depicting the adventurers being tortured by devils, demons, or aberrant monstrosities. The painting turns to dust when touched by any of the PCs, and that PC suffers from some dire affliction.
4. A roiling pillar of elemental energy, the area surrounding it is cracked, broken, and dangerous to anyone who dares tread too close.
5. A dozen humanoids hang from the ceiling upside down, their legs and arms tied. Around the room bloody butchers tools and a grisly table paint a gruesome tableau. What do the PCs do when the adventurers realize the humanoids are still alive, yet unable to speak?
6. This room is filled with the echoes of screams and combat, though no other creatures are present.
7. The corpse of an elf lies half melded with the wall of this room. Some of its flesh has been gnawed at by dungeon scavengers.
8. The walls of this room are covered with the scrawling words of some mad person. If the PCs read the words aloud they glow with some eldritch power, and something of fel and alien mien becomes aware of their existence.
9. The floor of this room is covered in teeth from hundreds if not thousands of creatures. If the PCs dig they find the floor of the room is 1 foot lower than the entrance and the floor is covered in pictures of grinning toothless fae.
10. The walls of this room are made of mirrored glass. As the PCs walk through a moderate DC perception check alerts them to the fact that as they exit their reflections remain, screaming at them to stop, turn back, and go no further before the mirrors turn blood red and vanish.
11. A blasphemous altar stands in the center of this room, and the walls depict images of Avandra in chains or imprisoned.
12. A beholder spins and roars as the player characters enter the room! The PCs attacks (if they make any) are useless. A hard DC perception check reveals the beholder is just an illusion. Phew. (If the PCs are of a level that a beholder is an appropriate challenge, a real beholder may be lurking nearby.)
13. The ceiling of this room is lit by bioluminescent fungi. As the PCs study it the fungi slowly changes color. The fungi, though it looks harmless, is releasing dangerous spores into the air. Uh oh!
14. When the PCs enter the room, the doors slam shut and an ominous voice intones “What is the price of freedom?” A difficult arcana or religion check reveals that blood (losing a healing surge) is the price that must be paid. But how many must pay it?
15. Zombies stand on a ramshackle stage at the far end of the room. When the PCs enter, they begin to act out a bawdy dance routine. They make no effort to attack and are completely defenseless.
16. The pages of a book of ribald verse litter the pages of this room, if the PCs take time to examine them all they find that one of the pages contains something useful (a ritual, a clue to their current adventure, etc.)
17. The players have found a room littered with gemstones. Too bad they are all made of glass. Or are they?
18. A table is set for the exact number of PCs in the party in this large dining room. Each seat has the characters favorite dishes arranged just for them. However, each chair is covered in razor sharp blades and spikes, and drip with a thick viscous liquid.
19. Trails of vile ooze mark the passage of some foul beast from this room to the next, and the bones of several of the dungeons most prolific (and fearsome) creatures litter the floor.
20. The ceiling of this room mirrors the night sky of the world above. As the PCs watch, night becomes day and then becomes night again, faster and faster until the sun turns to ash and the moon and all of the stars fade to nothingness. If the PCs stay long enough, a baleful green orb replaces both, and then it opens into a giant eye. They wake up somewhere else in the dungeon, and the room disappears.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Mindy Flashback Story
Originally posted to show some friends in a DnD campaign what I was looking for in a background story. This was a brief write up (which I later found full of typos) about a throw away bard character. Which, after I threw her away, I realized I wanted to keep. Some notes:
Virthel is my GFs dragonborn warden character that she was playing in this game. Her inclusion in this story was in response to an RP post.
The village of Mylta and Lost Althair are story locations. Lost Althair was hit by a shard of the far realm and Very Bad Things were happening - this was going to be the campaign story. Going into Lost Althair, defeating the aberrations plaguing it, and destroying the shards of far realm ickyness.
Mindy, along with some of my other favorite characters (including Thalnar), are working their way (in my head) through a brief story. I'm trying to actually get that put down on text, but we'll see when that happens. x.x; So, with that said some of the background info from this post may change as I type away. Hopefully I'll get a few pages ready to post in the next week or 2. comments welcome.
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Virthel is my GFs dragonborn warden character that she was playing in this game. Her inclusion in this story was in response to an RP post.
The village of Mylta and Lost Althair are story locations. Lost Althair was hit by a shard of the far realm and Very Bad Things were happening - this was going to be the campaign story. Going into Lost Althair, defeating the aberrations plaguing it, and destroying the shards of far realm ickyness.
Mindy, along with some of my other favorite characters (including Thalnar), are working their way (in my head) through a brief story. I'm trying to actually get that put down on text, but we'll see when that happens. x.x; So, with that said some of the background info from this post may change as I type away. Hopefully I'll get a few pages ready to post in the next week or 2. comments welcome.
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Mindy wandered back to the Dancing Golem after meeting most of the crew she would be joining in this desperate quest to save a town that she had once called home. She pulled her hat low, shadowing her face. With so many strangers in town perhaps no one would remember her.
"I don't believe it, it can't be." Amnete Ghersyna murmured as she stood in front of Mindy, about to ask her what she needed, good ale, a room, or food. "It is! Girl take your hat off and give ol' Amnete a hug!" Mindy sighed and peeked at the woman from under the brim of her hat "Thanks auntie, I was trying to be discreet." She smiled though, and with a shake of her head she dropped her hat on the inn's bar and leaned forward "It's good to see you again Auntie Gher."
A round of interested whispers welcomed the back of the bard as she sighed, just the smell of the Dancing Golem brought back good memories of meat pies and dancing and ol' Amnete trying to put everything right when the Millers and then the Dalesons and others went messing or had their crops blighted or worse, always keeping a smile on her face. It was taking its toll on her, Mindy could tell now. She had seen more of this world than perhaps any in this room. "Milk please, Auntie, and a sweetbread if you have some. Yours is still the best I've tasted from here to the Grand Temple." this last she said loud enough for the entire common room to hear, feeling the urge to perform in her blood. True to form, the small crowd quieted as she spun around, moving her lute into position.
"Mindy Lou you've been to the Grand Temple?" asked one man in the crowd. She nodded and smiled "Gerrald no one's called me Mindy Lou since I left this town 3 years ago. But yes, I've been to the Grand Temple and beyond." She smiled, fingers trailing along the strings of her lute creating a few stray notes. She let them linger in the air, making the audience want more.
And they did, she could tell. A sly smile on her lips as she let her fingers trail up and down the strings as they willed "Well, tell us about it then." Another demanded, gruffly. But she could tell, he was covering for his own curiosity and trying not to sound like he was begging. "Marthin, be patient. I have been on the road for weeks, rushing to get here to meet with Pyam on official Temple business, I need good food and fresh cold milk to refresh me before I can start storytelling. You wouldn't want me to leave out any details or forget now would you?" She winked and turned and nodded to Amnete, who just smiled at her. Amnete knew the game, after all wandering minstrels and innkeepers had to have an understanding. Aunty Amnete had always known Mindy was a strange one, but something had changed in the girl since she left, and only Amnete had sense enough to feel it. This was going to be special.
Mindy took her time and savored the taste of the sweet bread, she had not lied at all. There was something special about her aunts cooking, even if it the only extra ingredient was her own nostalgia. The common room waited, eager to hear what one of their own had seen and done since leaving. Finally wiping away the last of the milk from her upper lip Mindy got down to the real business.
"You all want to know what I've been doing since I left Mylta all those years ago." a chord on her lute, strummed without thinking "Well, I remember when Auntie told me I was a wild child, said it was in my blood." Many of the boys (now men, grown up now and bearing the signs of years toiling in the sun) she had grown up with and several of the waitresses nodded, smiles on their faces. "She must have been right. I left here with nothing but a dagger and good pair of walking boots and my music. And a crazy dream to go out and do something. Anything other than sit here and marry and have babies." She laughed, the music from her lute echoing her mirth.
"You would'a made a fine wife" another man piped up, a grin on his face. "To who, you Jaegan? Oh, don't think I've forgotten how you chased me, trying to get under my skirts. And you weren't the only one." Her eyes swept the crowd "Oh I count half a dozen of you here that I let chase me, but not a one of you could tame me or keep up with me at the dances. Your feet were too slow, and your hands were too fast for a lady like me." Some laughed, some blushed and drank deep from their cups "But you don't want to hear about what you already know do you? No no no" her lute echoed her no's without hesitation "You want to hear about the Grand Temple, and the dragon I slew."
This was met with laughter "Girl you didn't slay a dragon. No way no how." Marthin called out to a chorus of agreement. "Oh?" she almost purred, reaching down into her bag to produce one thick red scale, as big as her hand. "This is one of the beasts scales, plucked from its corpse. And this lute I carry is from its horde, taken after the fire-belchers demise."
"Liar, you found that scale on the ground somewhere. And that lute aint nothing but a bit of string and wood." Some in the crowd still called agreement. Mindy shook her head and slid nimbly from her seat. "Call me a liar then, do all of you? Think my tongue moves to falsehood, weaving the spider’s web to impress you?" Some nodded, others looked unsure. "Think a pretty girl can't be a dragon slayer, and should just warm your lap on a cold night, or keep food in yer bellies?" Fewer nodded now, others made warding signs against Llolth’s prying eyes at the mention of the spiders web. "Fools. Alyssya, attend please." with that a tiny mote of light sprang from the deep hood of her patchwork cloak, a tiny mote of light that soon revealed the female shape within.
"She's got a bloody fairy with her." one of the barmaids whispered.
"The straps please Alyssya." she whispered, her outraged half genuine and half mock, part of the show yet part of the reason why she had left this town to begin with. Nimbly the glowing sprite began to tug and pull at the straps holding Mindy's leather armor on, unashamed even as a few of the men had lusty eyes at the thought of her without armor. Her leathers were dusty as they hit the floor, and a thin layer of sweat still stained her shirt underneath. Cursing, in a most unladylike like (but very "adventuring bard-like") fashion she glared at her once neighbors and kin "Do you think I found these on the side of the road too?" she said, lifting up the hem of her shirt to her ribs, revealing freckled white skin marred only in 4 places by long, ragged scars, the claw marks of some fearsome beast that mast have nearly ripped her in two.
No one said anything, but several of her doubters shook their heads. Dropping her shirt, and with her familiar, bound in blood and magic to the soul of this young bard, perched on her shoulder daintily. She picked up her lute and let it settle into place "Who wants to hear about the Grand Temple and how I slew a dragon?" she asked quietly, the sly smile tugging at the corners of her mouth once again.
The crowd hardly noticed the entrance of Virthel, but Amnete attended to her herself, content to let her barmaids enjoy a story from one of their own people. Mindy glanced at the warden, granting her a small nod even as a few of the villagers nodded or called out for her to continue her story.
“Well then. Where to begin.” Mindy said, getting comfortable on her bar stool once again, her fingers began to pick at the strings of her lute, the music light and hopeful. “I left here 3 years ago to see more of the world, to learn more, and yes to come back and one day help Mylta regain lost Al’thair.” The music took a sudden down turn to sadness as she sighed, head bowed. It slowly picked back up as she continued, notes becoming more cheerful “I wandered the road to Fallcrest and beyond.” A few of the townsfolk nodded. “It was beyond Fallcrest that I found new friends. Thalnar, a surprise really. A tiefling in service to Avandra, his sword and shield ever there to protect the weak.” There was a dangerous muttering in the crowd, murmurs of devil-spawn and worse. Mindy frowned and plucked a discordant note on her lute hushing the crowd with her glare “Yes a tiefling, with a good heart. If it wasn’t for his effort I wouldn’t still be standing today. And also the twins Ayissa and Syanvaras, wild elves. Ayissa was a hunter, her bow true and strong. Syanvara danced with her swords with such grace. We four journeyed through the wilds to another small town like this one, and there we learned of their plight. The tribe of violent spite-filled kobolds had taken up a lair in the rocky hills, and had grown more bold and greedy. Traders had been robbed and murdered, they were scared. Surely, the four of us were enough to take care of their small problem?” The lutes music mocks her words, then turns ominous as her voice drops low, making the room lean forward “Small problem indeed. Kobolds, yes there were kobolds. Dozens of them. And we fought through them all. Thalnar with his long sword high, protecting us with the blessings of Avandra. Ayissa’s arrows striking swiftly even as her sister leapt and spun, her blades a blur as they spilt kobold blood.”
“What did you do?” Called out Marthin, his voice a little mocking. Mindy locked him down with a stare. “Me? Oh, not much. I just used magic to rattle and distract and to knit together my friends wounds. Not much at all really.” Her lute lets out a few notes that seem, different somehow, each one seems full of power and the crowd lets out a small gasp, each person feeling more relaxed and peaceful all at once, as the aches of a days worth of toil and work vanish in a few seconds. A small mischievous smile tugs at the corner of Mindy’s lips as she continues with her story “The kobolds were dangerous, yes. But we weren’t prepared for the driving force behind their raiding. A young red dragon, hungry and greedy and full of fury and fire.”
The music takes on an urgent tone “We were tired, and sore from the kobolds spears and traps, but we had no time to retreat and regroup. With a roar that shook us to our core the beast charged us as we entered its lair. Thalnar barely managed to deflect its jaws with his shield, his voice calling out to Avandra for her blessings as he challenged it to face him or feel his wrath. Syanvara circled around, but her swords swept too high as the beast lowered its haunches, its tail whipping about to knock her against the wall. Ayissa’s shout of fear for her sister echoed in my very soul as I reached out with my magic to distract the dragon. Thalnar pushed the beast back, through sheer force of will it seemed as we scrambled into its lair, surrounding it. Syanvara regained her feet. The dragons chest expanded as it turned, and the room filled with fire even as Avandra’s fury burned it on behalf of our paladin. Syanvara dove and pulled me off my feet just in time to avoid the worst of the dragons breath, and Ayissa managed to duck behind a bit of rock.”
The music is tense as the bard talks, her eyes are half closed as she remembers her voice low and filled with emotion. The room is silent “The fight was desperate; we came close to defeat so many times. The arrows and blades of the twins whittled away at the dragons scales, tiny rivulets of blood from a dozen wounds, my magic twisted its mind, Thalnar keeping the beasts rage focused on him as best as he could with the magic of the gods.” She sighs and the music turns even darker “The beast was almost dead, my magic waning, when it lunged at me. It had almost killed Ayissa with a vicious bite and it recognized my hand in her survival. It sought to remove me from the fight so it could more easily slay my friends. Its claws almost ripped me in half, and as I fell the world went black. I thought I was going to die, but I opened my eyes to see Thalnar standing over my body, he had granted me some of his life in order to keep me from deaths door. As the dragon tried to bite down on his shield I used the last of my magic to attack its mind and it fell, unmoving, to the floor. We took no chances; we made sure it was dead before we did anything else.” The music ends slowly, as her fingers caress the wood of her lute, remembering the fight. Remembering how gentle Thalnar’s fingers had been when he bound her wounds later. And how gentle his hand was when she had taken it in hers, whispering to him that he would never tame her. And his reply that he would not think to try. She loses herself in reverie for a moment. “We parted ways at the grand temple, Thalnar and the twins had to head north, I was needed here.” She says sadly.
“That is how I got these scars, and if you still don’t believe me then I will give you a map to the village where its skull sits above the bar, and they can tell you.”
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
The Greater Good
copied from my myspace blog
The Greater Good
C. Preston Richards
If there is indeed a greater good then we humans are, for the most part, unable to decipher it. Through the binding of the human brain to dogma and fundamentalist mythology are we blinded to the greater truth. It is only through the application of ethics and self reflection that we are able to strip away the chains of anachronistic superstition and decide, for ourselves, where Good lies. Is this process inborn? If it is then it is blocked by the cruel use of fear and guilt through misuse of religion to inhibit freewill and joyous self discovery. This process must then be taught, old behaviors and beliefs unlearned to get back at that natural ability so it can be utilized.
It is not to say that religion is an obstacle in and of itself to Good and the development of ethical thinking. It is only when the greater underlying ideas and spirit of religion get obfuscated by dogma, and myth is misinterpreted as truth, that it becomes a hindrance. There must also be made a distinction between those who are religious and those who are spiritual. Religious people are lost in dogmatic thinking and concerned with being right, whereas spiritual people taking a more personal stance on religion and the freedom to express and learn. There must also be considered the idea of the teaching of religion and shared myth to create patterns and shared values, and they can be seen as a spiritual set of training wheels, to help people learn how to think about the world around them and the concept of good. However, too many people are afraid to strip themselves of these training wheels, and are thus handicapped forever, neutered by their own fear.
The idea that there is a universal Greater Good, that all of humanity can find, is not new. This good, pure and universal, can only be found when the blinding effects of culture are stripped away, exists. However, it is nearly impossible to tear people away from those things that they are raised with, their preconceptions and biases. This will forever prevent the Greater Good from being known. Thus, even the idea of a Greater Good must be forever rendered mythical.
The Greater Good
C. Preston Richards
If there is indeed a greater good then we humans are, for the most part, unable to decipher it. Through the binding of the human brain to dogma and fundamentalist mythology are we blinded to the greater truth. It is only through the application of ethics and self reflection that we are able to strip away the chains of anachronistic superstition and decide, for ourselves, where Good lies. Is this process inborn? If it is then it is blocked by the cruel use of fear and guilt through misuse of religion to inhibit freewill and joyous self discovery. This process must then be taught, old behaviors and beliefs unlearned to get back at that natural ability so it can be utilized.
It is not to say that religion is an obstacle in and of itself to Good and the development of ethical thinking. It is only when the greater underlying ideas and spirit of religion get obfuscated by dogma, and myth is misinterpreted as truth, that it becomes a hindrance. There must also be made a distinction between those who are religious and those who are spiritual. Religious people are lost in dogmatic thinking and concerned with being right, whereas spiritual people taking a more personal stance on religion and the freedom to express and learn. There must also be considered the idea of the teaching of religion and shared myth to create patterns and shared values, and they can be seen as a spiritual set of training wheels, to help people learn how to think about the world around them and the concept of good. However, too many people are afraid to strip themselves of these training wheels, and are thus handicapped forever, neutered by their own fear.
The idea that there is a universal Greater Good, that all of humanity can find, is not new. This good, pure and universal, can only be found when the blinding effects of culture are stripped away, exists. However, it is nearly impossible to tear people away from those things that they are raised with, their preconceptions and biases. This will forever prevent the Greater Good from being known. Thus, even the idea of a Greater Good must be forever rendered mythical.
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