tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post3403637631984705214..comments2024-03-26T15:35:56.004-04:00Comments on Delta's D&D Hotspot: Nothing Remains Interesting If Anything Can HappenDeltahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00705402326320853684noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-79696677662448385692023-09-26T08:53:40.285-04:002023-09-26T08:53:40.285-04:00This makes an interesting counterpoint to the main...This makes an interesting counterpoint to the mainstream videogame/anime leaning style of play. While I don't read medieval history, this might still be a useful approach if the "realistic" rules are explained succinctly enough not to bog down the action. Thanks.captainjapanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17426136772217346340noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-24908369014881928092021-02-11T15:12:17.585-05:002021-02-11T15:12:17.585-05:00Yeah, I seriously love that so much. Wow.Yeah, I seriously love that so much. Wow.Deltahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00705402326320853684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-85544241514025843742021-02-10T17:00:20.580-05:002021-02-10T17:00:20.580-05:00It's early days on the experiment, yet, but it...It's early days on the experiment, yet, but it's been fun! It was cool how excited my players were by the revelation that they could now roll up new characters of an entirely new race. None of my players are RPG newbies, so of course they were aware that other PC races exist in most fantasy RPG worlds, but having new ones sprung on them mid-campaign was an exciting twist on the old formula for them.The Ghoul Priesthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11076744434471847867noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-74325561501593478092021-02-06T11:45:58.143-05:002021-02-06T11:45:58.143-05:00Yeah, this is SOO much exactly what I've wante...Yeah, this is SOO much exactly what I've wanted to do, and never quite pulled the trigger on it in a campaign. Such a great idea!Deltahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00705402326320853684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-31920572285185607462021-02-05T17:53:24.140-05:002021-02-05T17:53:24.140-05:00Man, I love this post and the discussion in the co...Man, I love this post and the discussion in the comments. This is exactly my approach to things, and I'm really turned off by the current approach of having half-dragons, half-demons, and so on running all over the place and treated as normal, magic items being like the fantasy medieval equivalent of modern technology, and so forth. It makes buy-in that much harder and makes the world that much less interesting and mysterious at the same time.<br /><br />To speak to Warren's point above, I started up my own campaign (my first ever OD&D game, in fact) with PCs limited to human and halfling. Nobody any of the PCs knew had ever met any other intelligent race — though rumors and folklore abound, and goblins, kobolds, etc., are treated as known threats, if always off in the dark wilderness somewhere. The players have to "unlock" new PC races by encountering communities of them in the world and befriending them, helping them, or at least making a good impression on them. Most recently, they rescued a group of lizardmen from being experimented on by a colony of cyborgs, and so unlocked lizardfolk PCs who all come from a tribe in a nearby cavern complex deep underground. While lizardfolk are somewhat "exotic", as PCs go, the PCs had to interact with them as equals first so they now seem less alien to the players themselves. Interestingly, by a trick of luck, they got lizardfolk before even elves or dwarfs!The Ghoul Priesthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11076744434471847867noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-66620004705929485662017-06-04T20:44:30.796-04:002017-06-04T20:44:30.796-04:00Interesting observations. Obviously this blog is n...Interesting observations. Obviously this blog is not 5E-oriented, so when someone here says "baseline fantasy" we have to assume they're talking classic pulp literature (i.e., Gygax Appendix N). Deltahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00705402326320853684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-87344839253295866582017-06-04T16:14:52.408-04:002017-06-04T16:14:52.408-04:00It isn't the baseline anymore. Check out the h...It isn't the baseline anymore. Check out the home-brew stuff - always more races, classes, etc. Looking for more abilities and exotic options.<br /><br />If you follow the 5e RAW in terms of numbers of encounters per day, and the recommended XP per encounter, then you'll go from 1st to 20th level in less than 35 in-game days.<br /><br />The baseline now is the idea that hundreds of exotic races live in harmony and can be anything they want. <br /><br />Gygaxian D&D (OD&D through AD&D) was based on a low-magic pseudo-medieval tolkeinesque mix of races and such. Even though it was higher magic than those sources, it's still vastly different than what D&D represents today.<br /><br />I for one prefer the older approach. Why? Because it promotes more of a campaign/character development model. Level advancement is very slow in my campaigns, because we're focused on the characters and their stories, not getting to the next level. Nowadays, players expect to gain a level every 2 or 3 sessions. In my world they're lucky to gain a couple a year (although it's faster at the beginning).<br /><br />My campaign has been in the Forgotten Realms since it was released in 1987, but remains much closer to the lower magic Realms as originally presented. <br /><br />It takes some work to reign in some player's expectations, but overall I find it very worthwhile, and makes it much easier for me as a DM too. Most players I find are sticking with the game much longer when the focus isn't on gaining levels, abilities, or trying the latest "build" and instead focus on the world, the characters, and the stories they make.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09267051945521881482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-60022236212194013722017-03-10T12:17:45.657-05:002017-03-10T12:17:45.657-05:00I agree with that 100%. The shorter the required b...I agree with that 100%. The shorter the required backstory to get started, the better. Get the active play going ASAP. Deltahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00705402326320853684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-53096910239130244022017-03-10T12:16:29.233-05:002017-03-10T12:16:29.233-05:00My apologies, I'm currently in one of my massi...My apologies, I'm currently in one of my massive professional work back-ups!Deltahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00705402326320853684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-5469434353199718422017-03-10T12:15:56.461-05:002017-03-10T12:15:56.461-05:00Daniel is of course correct. Part of AD&D'...Daniel is of course correct. Part of AD&D's fame/infamy is that it tends to have a lot of fragmented table-based subsystems with no core mechanic. Deltahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00705402326320853684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-11196100317697579682017-03-10T12:14:23.667-05:002017-03-10T12:14:23.667-05:00Righteous, brother. :-)Righteous, brother. :-)Deltahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00705402326320853684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-57540227670117753512017-03-10T12:13:56.676-05:002017-03-10T12:13:56.676-05:00Another good point!Another good point!Deltahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00705402326320853684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-27722465410334277652016-11-07T13:51:12.969-05:002016-11-07T13:51:12.969-05:00"Give them a ground-state field of "norm..."Give them a ground-state field of "normal medieval society", and how things generally work physically, technologically, and socially in the real world, and start building fantastical elements a bit at a time from there."<br /><br />This doesn't have to be elaborate. Just a couple of quick sentences before the campaign starts. "It's real world medieval Europe with a few rare wizards and clerics bolted into the background. You've probably only met two of them in your life, and you've never seen a dwarf, an elf, or a kobold."<br /><br />As with everything else, you just have to get the player buy-in first. If they come at you with half-dragon characters born in the Abyss, raised in a floating castle, and enslaved by aboleths, you're going to have a much rougher go of establishing that faux-medieval world.Warren Aboxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07671897478928823164noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-51031191156952332002016-11-01T23:21:26.749-04:002016-11-01T23:21:26.749-04:00He does read them, though he doesn't always ha...He does read them, though he doesn't always have time to get back to people right away. Give it a couple weeks. I know he doesn't filter out Gmail, though, so if you used that you should be fine.Danhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14285793254382192231noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-6821647739579160962016-11-01T17:45:57.953-04:002016-11-01T17:45:57.953-04:00Thank you. I've pinged that address again wit...Thank you. I've pinged that address again with my questions. Hopefully I'm not getting filtered out. I appreciate you for taking the time to look our questions over.Jarrett Perduehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09781934913113611353noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-80570529216023481702016-10-30T15:23:50.845-04:002016-10-30T15:23:50.845-04:00At the top of the page click on "View my comp...At the top of the page click on "View my complete profile" for contact infoDanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14285793254382192231noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-43285282705441583322016-10-29T10:26:14.121-04:002016-10-29T10:26:14.121-04:00... or maybe there are some Book of War fans who r...... or maybe there are some Book of War fans who read the blog regularly and can help out w/ a few rules questions.Jarrett Perduehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09781934913113611353noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-5898141795963402952016-10-29T03:29:16.128-04:002016-10-29T03:29:16.128-04:00Ah, okay. Didn't know exactly what year you we...Ah, okay. Didn't know exactly what year you were talking about. Just based on a combination of personal experience and reading about other people's experiences online, I've concluded that very few people played an edition "purely" - that is to say, they carried forward some amount of throwbacks to previous editions... stuff that they picked up from the person/group who first taught them to play, even if they subsequently bought a different set of books/rules.Danhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14285793254382192231noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-31972553636973278742016-10-28T19:43:23.056-04:002016-10-28T19:43:23.056-04:00Daniel Wakefield,
You are probably basically righ...Daniel Wakefield,<br /><br />You are probably basically right. B/X didn't exist back in 1979-1980, but looking at the OD&D rules, there were ability score adjustments that seem very close to what we were using. Maybe AD&D players just adopted the OD&D rules as a meme from an older edition and almost nobody realized where they came from.<br /><br />I didn't play 2nd edition and wasn't aware they went back to 3d6 in order. That seems like it would make playing your choice of class pretty difficult. What was wrong with 4d6 drop the lowest and arrange to preference, I wonder? It doesn't create cookie cutter PCs like building characters with a pool of points.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17975141307551179641noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-26267694901075093182016-10-27T17:21:06.447-04:002016-10-27T17:21:06.447-04:00My apologies in advance for the off-topic question...My apologies in advance for the off-topic question, but I've recently purchased and played Book of War. Is there a place I can direct a few questions I have?<br />Thanks Jarrett Perduehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09781934913113611353noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-52555380380663459702016-10-27T16:12:50.029-04:002016-10-27T16:12:50.029-04:00AD&D does not, to the best of my knowledge - m...AD&D does not, to the best of my knowledge - maybe your DM back then simply used B/X character generation rules, since everything was broadly compatible? On the other hand, 1st edition defaulted to the more generous "4d6 drop lowest" schema for ability score generation (2nd edition reverted back to "3d6 in order" as the default), and Unearthed Arcana had still more generous methods of character generation; I get the feeling that the ratio-based adjustments were deemed unnecessary given the all-around better characters that were being generated at the time.Danhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14285793254382192231noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-54793390066050672552016-10-27T07:37:22.440-04:002016-10-27T07:37:22.440-04:00Gygax's claims that you were choking on gnats ...Gygax's claims that you were choking on gnats if you accepted fire breathing dragons but rejected too many deviations from plausibility never agreed with me. <br /><br />This is off topic, but I seem to recall AD&D had written rules for Ability Score Adjustments at something like a 3:1 points ratio. OD&D has rules for this. Moldvay Basic has rules like this at 2:1. Does AD&D, cause I can't locate these rules in the PHB or DMG, and we used them all the time back in the day.<br /><br />Thanks for any pointers.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17975141307551179641noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-59461509983142752822016-10-19T12:56:00.171-04:002016-10-19T12:56:00.171-04:00Rules are made to be broken, as some say, but the ...Rules are made to be broken, as some say, but the frequency and timing of when you do it is important. If you're constantly, thoughtlessly breaking the rules, what's the point of even playing the game?<br /><br />Suspension of disbelief is like a bank account. It's easy to overdraw from it, especially if you're constantly making little withdrawals and not keeping track of your balance. If you're using it for big purchases like flying, fire breathing lizards or traveling faster than the speed of light, don't blow your budget on dumb stuff like wonky physics or implausible personal interactions. BigFellahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03052419088140204154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-72981045345637541352016-10-19T12:46:43.742-04:002016-10-19T12:46:43.742-04:00"Baseline" fantasy offers something clos..."Baseline" fantasy offers something close to a perfect balance of exotic and familiar that makes it easy for people to grok. I think the only other genre that comes close is post-apocalyptic settings.<br /><br />A higher weirdness content with fewer familiar touchstones mean a player has to work harder to buy in, but I think there's an opposing principle where if the world is *too* familiar, like a game set in modern or near-future times, it restricts a player's license to try things because they fall too readily into learned behaviors from real life. BigFellahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03052419088140204154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-39357288870781861172016-10-19T09:20:22.525-04:002016-10-19T09:20:22.525-04:00Well put; I agree!Well put; I agree!Deltahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00705402326320853684noreply@blogger.com