dnd-discussion

[valid geyser]

its also just a setting that has its unique lore stuff that would contradicts wotc's multiverse-forward process of inserting lore. Like they said that dragons have a counterpart in every material plane in the multiverse, but dark sun only has the single dragon and he's not related to any of that bahamut-tiamat stuff

[lavish flame]

I still figure its a lose-lose situation however they print it

[vale sage]

birthright rocks and while it has some eh stuff (all the settings from that time do) i think it’d be a much safer one to adapt in the eyes of hasbro.

also, it’s cool that it so obviously inspired game of thrones LMAO

at least from my knowledge

[uncut zenith]

Agreed. You’ll have old fans on one side who hate how WOTC reprints it to remove/rework a lot of the problematic stuff, or you’ll have the people who are upset that all that problematic stuff was left in.

[naive cedar]

True but settings like ravenloft have already been adapted and the ehh stuff isn’t as integral

[clear trellis]

@west narwhal

[naive cedar]

Exactly, and that’s not even getting into how the broader internet will react

[clear trellis]

why did this person add me

[uncut zenith]

Plus, there’s the fact that there’s no dedicated Psionics system in 5E, which was kind of iconic to Dark Sun in prior editions. As of right now, Psionics has been more of a flavor label and not its own separate system.

[slim pasture]

I got added by him too, interesting

[vale sage]

i’d feel better about upsetting a bunch of old men who are mad their setting isn’t as racist, than i would the latter but that might just be me haha

[clear trellis]

oh its a bot block it immediately

[valid geyser]

also i think wotc doesnt want to make a dedicated pisonics system 11 years into 5e. That's gonna be a mess to balance

[vale sage]

they’ve released unearthed arcana for it lol

[lavish flame]

I would love it if they did tho

[valid geyser]

yeah the new psion is just a spellcaster, which I think I prefer

[true raft]

Anyone wanna play d&d ive never actually been in a game, ive listen to and watched multiple podcast tho, and kinda know the basics.

[naive cedar]

TBF sometimes “problematic” stuff in older stories is very intentionally problematic and is sanitised to make it more commercially safe. It’s hard sometimes to distinguish legitimate complaints from people just mad that something isn’t racist anymore though

[vale sage]

i think giving it a unique spell casting mechanic while keeping mostly the same spells works well

[vale sage]

yeah, i get you

[lavish flame]

5e seems to like the "Psionics uses dice pools to enhance their abilities" method. I can get behind it, but would prefer a proper system.

[urban bolt]

How do i add stuff to my inventory in roll20?

[uncut zenith]

I can understand wanting to simplify 5E to the point where Psionics is just a slightly different flavor of spellcasting, but I also understand wishing it was its own separate sort of mechanics.

[vale sage]

that’s a roll20 question, not a 5e one

[lavish flame]

Open the Compendium and your character sheet at the same time, search for what you want, click and drag it onto your character sheet.

[dusk crescent]

The whole point of Dark Sun is that the setting is extremely grim and messed up but it's not in favor of those things. Most adventures are about fighting against the tyranny and the slavery and attempting to make things good again

[feral fulcrum]

I mean, is it Not the Edgey Post Apocalyptic "Everything sucks." Setting?

[valid geyser]

yeah I just feel like, if psionic effects are already so similar to spells, then it's not worth making a new system that does the same thing but probably worsely balanced

[atomic kayak]

5e has just been using all the methods of portraying psionics that dnd has used before

being magic
not being magic
being part of another game system
being its own game system

[uncut zenith]

Psionics imo should feel like a completely different subsystem, but I also don’t really want that sort of granular stuff in an edition that’s designed to be simpler than it was in the past

[atomic kayak]

Only real difference is that "what" psionics are has changed every edition

[lavish flame]

4e Monk my beloved

[dusk crescent]

Things are absolutely horrible in Dark Sun but that's just a conflict for your characters to try and solve

[atomic kayak]

Also honestly, in the context of fantasy there generally isn't enough of a meaningful difference between "psionics" and "every other type of magic" to be represented differently mechanically. At least not in any of the contexts DnD has used for it before.

[atomic kayak]

Especially because in non dnd fantasy psionics... is just another type of magic most often (if its even considered even slightly different at all).

[urban bolt]

I don't understand? it just shows a page with the info of the item and nothing to drag

[valid geyser]

and i feel like a psionic class not being a caster is just a thing because people misunderstood ad&d psionics
psionics wasnt spells because it was a thing any class could have in ad&d, if you have a psionic caster it doesn't need to balance both spellcasting and non-spellcasting magical effects

[valid geyser]

yeah if gaining power from a god has the same method of creating magical effects as studying the forces of the universe and writing it in a book, mind powers realistically can fit in that same umbrella

but i do also get why people like psionic guys being their own thing. A lot of flavor of psychic characters are that theyre weird, misunderstood, and different. Having weird magic that doesn't act the same can help that idea

[fossil hollow]

bring back talents

[lavish flame]

The item in the Compendium, don't just click on it. Click and drag it.

[dusk crescent]

Talents would do so much for Martials too

[fossil hollow]

Artes system when

... clearly Tales of Xillia has reworked my brain

[uncut zenith]

Right. The way it’s looked at from a meta perspective is almost like if you have any extra ordinary abilities that aren’t just physical capabilities, it’s treated as a form of casting for the sake of keeping the rules relatively simple

[naive cedar]

Tbh you can still have psions be viewed as different and “othered” in a setting, it would just be because it’s a non-standard form of magic

[valid geyser]

yeah i also just dont trust wotc to make a complex, good psionics system . Or at least I'd rather have them spend time on other things

[lavish flame]

I'd love a bunch more psychic themed spells alongside the Psion. Multiple per spell level and I'd be happier

[uncut zenith]

I think they should do what they did with Warlock spells in 2024. There are some Warlock spells that are explicitly accessible to Warlocks.

Do the same for Psions or Psionic subclasses. Give them spells that are explicitly only available to Psionic characters and that don’t appear on any non-Psionic spell list.

[valid geyser]

one of the semi-issues with psionics as spellcasting is also just a matter of the game being very old, so most casters have some access to psychic-like effects, meaning psions wouldnt have it as their niche
but even then, I feel like that issue would be a thing even if they were or werent pure spellcasters

[lavish flame]

Yeah, regular spellcasters getting Telekinesis does make the Psion feel weird

Anybody can Detect Thoughts yknow

[feral fulcrum]

And there's already the Psionic flavored sub-classes, and the various feats.

[dusk crescent]

Plenty of psychic damage spells

[valid geyser]

a lot of bard's kit involved mind effecting spells, so it's only natural UA psion has a very similar spell list

[naive cedar]

a lot of enchantment spells in general

[feral fulcrum]

The Psion class really does feel quite a bit like a very confused Wizard Bard

[valid geyser]

psionic subs and psions can coexist imo. Plenty of magical subclasses already that don't need spells for all their effects

[naive cedar]

Also tbh i just want more intelligence-based classes since intelligence kind of gets the short end of the stick nowadays

[valid geyser]

I like the idea of the psion more than i like its mechanics tbh. The psionic talents it gets mostly kind of stink and it has a lot of HD expending features which usually turns me away

[lavish flame]

I want Psion to get some changes but I want it to see the light of day

[feral fulcrum]

I like Hit Dice expending features. It's better then them returning to the "This does nothing but heal you during short rests" era.

[valid geyser]

i think i just dislike hit dice as a mechanic tbh.

also HD expenditure in my mind is very strong in low encounter days and very risky in high encounter days, which is not a balance i love

[feral fulcrum]

If they're going to have a feature, I'd prefer that WOTC actually uses it regularly. So we don't end up with Disease Syndrome, where they acknowledge it like twice, and then scrap it because "Wow, nobody uses this thing we didn't support for ten bloody years straight. What a shocker."

[valid geyser]

also i just want non-spellcasters to have more forms of healing that don't involve expending hit dice

[atomic kayak]

See: the entire history of psionics in dnd in every edition

(what it actually is is a symptom of psionics never made "as a system" for consideration from the start of an edition so the integration has always only ever been partial or lacking)

[valid geyser]

the only exception being ad&d, whose issue was more that it was just an easily ignorable, overly complicated optional rule with random stuff like psionic duels that will only ever see use if you fight another psionic monster, who is very very likely to be better at psionic than you, so you die.

and it's one of those ad&d classic features you only get if youre lucky during character creation (at best if you roll 18 int, wis, charisma you get like, a 25% chance of being psionic iirc? and you still have to roll again to see how good you are them)

[undone rain]

Ad&d?

[valid geyser]

advanced d&d, AKA 1e

[undone rain]

Ah

[reef copper]

Advanced dungeons and dragons. Old edition from like the 80s

[undone rain]

Thought yall was mixing up adhd and dnd at first lol

[reef copper]

Fair enough i guess

[ripe nimbus]

so, there was "original" D&D, they added a bunch of supplements to it and released it alongside some rules revisions as Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. alongside that there was "Basic" Dungeons & Dragons (or just Dungeons and Dragons, Basic Set) that stripped the rules down to a more rules-light system

[valid geyser]

but yeah ad&d being 1e does not make it the first d&d edition

[ripe nimbus]

AD&D got revised to AD&D 2nd edition, and then when WotC bought the IP they dropped support for the Basic line and renamed the AD&D line just "D&D"

which is why the first WotC edition is D&D 3e

[grim nimbus]

This is information I didn't know and am glad I decided to lurk

[reef copper]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editions_of_Dungeons_%26_Dragons
Imma put this here for the people curious

[ripe nimbus]

so technically, although we're on D&D 5e (2024 revision), it's kinda like the 13th or something actual edition published

[grim nimbus]

How far away from 6e do you think we are?

[undone rain]

By the gods

[reef copper]

10 years idk 🤷

[undone rain]

Well dont they do it every 10 years or so

[halcyon forum]

this time, they remastered 5e after 10 years instead of doing a full new edition

[reef copper]

Not really its very unevenly made

[ripe nimbus]

it varies by the edition's reception

[uncut zenith]

They do it whenever the edition isn’t making as much money anymore

[feral fulcrum]

Considering they'd like to milk 5E as much as humanly possibly, and remastered it very recently. Quite far, far, far away

[halcyon forum]

so I doubt we will see a new ed anytime soon

[ripe nimbus]

I think D&D 5e will continue to be the main edition for pretty much as long as it keeps D&D in the #1 spot in terms of market share

[undone rain]

Hm i thought it was like every 10th year, like 2014, 2024

[fossil hollow]

nope

5e is the exception so far

[uncut zenith]

They only revamped 5E to fix things people had been complaining about, but the changes weren’t enough to justify a whole new edition

[feral fulcrum]

Yeah, no changes to the base framework of rules, therefore not a new edition.

[reef copper]

More of a coincidence. The 10 year mark was a good time to celebrate the anniversary too and market it better

[atomic kayak]

I said this before the revision, but we will probably know if we are sticking with 5e or not until at least 2030 by 2027

[uncut zenith]

I imagine when they make a 6E, it’ll only be when 5E isn’t profitable anymore. But as of right now, according to WOTC, 5E has been their most successful edition to date, so I wouldn’t hold my breath for a 6E any time soon

[feral fulcrum]

I'm pretty sure they rushed it to hit the anniversary. Nothing was particularly ready.

[grim nimbus]

I mean there were a lot of things I've heard older veteran players complain about involving 5e my very first dm refused to do any other edition then 2nd or 3rd he absolutely hated 5e

[reef copper]

A lot point to it yeah

[undone rain]

I also thought since it was created in 1974 so i thought yk 1st edition 74, 2nd 84, 3rd 94 and so on

[hushed mason]

I only play 3.5.

[undone rain]

But now that i say it out loud

I see it dosent even add up

[reef copper]

I have heard good things on it but the playerbase seems small so probably hard to find new players i guess

[hushed mason]

Players I can find. Games... not so much.

[indigo cedar]

3.5 was a good system, but the problem was the bloat that came towards the end

[grim nimbus]

Explain wym by bloat

[hushed mason]

I run a game because I can't find one to play.
With regards to bloat... you don't have to use all the suppliments. In fact, they don't all go well together.

[uncut zenith]

The other major reason behind the 2024 revision wasn’t even just for actually revising the rules, but also for celebrating D&D’s 50th anniversary. So instead of making a whole new edition for the 50th anniversary, they figured they’d just revamp their most successful edition to date

[hushed mason]

There are a HUGE amount of resources available for 3rd edition.

[grim nimbus]

Ahhhhhh

[indigo cedar]

with bloat I mean the constant flow of new things that was stronger and better then what came before. so to avoid bloat one had to limit which books was allowed etc

[hushed mason]

Some of it, especially towards the end, has a LOT of power creep.

[indigo cedar]

the power creep towards the end was stupid

[hushed mason]

Greenbound summoning... good heavens...

[grim nimbus]

So twords the end of 3.5e they just kinda went off the rails?

[uncut zenith]

Which I think is some of what WOTC was avoiding by releasing the 2024 ruleset too

[reef copper]

5e has to little going on so i added more ”bloat” to it like critical wounds , bleed, recovery, blessings and boons from gods and mighty beings. Etc etc

Also some small changes like crit levels, advantage stacking and flanking rules

[atomic kayak]

3.X (but 3.5 especially) had a lot of content bloat and power creep. But it was ironically somewhat consistent throughout the entire edition

[uncut zenith]

Revamping the edition and resetting it to a baseline so they don’t just keep making more and more power creep over the years

[grim nimbus]

Me and my friend usually play 5e but like heavily homebrewed ngl

[indigo cedar]

The one thing I love about the 2024 edition is how it has made so many of my players willing to try new systems. Not sure it was the intention of the devs tho, but I'm happy 😄

[hushed mason]

One of the challenges in trying to find a 3.5e game is trying to find one WITHOUT a lot of homebrew or Pathfinder added in.

[grim nimbus]

That must be frustrating

[hushed mason]

It is. Quite. I just want to play with the rules that are there. I have like, one homebrew rule (bards can access Cure Minor Wounds as a cantrip). That's it.

[reef copper]

Our group just kinda robbed the 10% we actually liked from 24 and kept with 2014

[grim nimbus]

As a bard player I like this rule

[reef tundra]

I’ve kinda done the opposite

[feral fulcrum]

Boons have been official from the start though.

[reef copper]

Different kinds of boons not epic boons

[indigo cedar]

most of my players when I discussed with them wanted to just use 2014 or try other systems. before 2024 5e even getting half of them to try a different system was a challenge CR30

[grim nimbus]

So like idk if anyone shares my thoughts on this but 5e made bards a little too easy to play imo

[reef copper]

Also we have epic boons too but we see it as base game content

[indigo cedar]

I understand what you mean, bards in older systems was more interesting

[reef tundra]

Kept the opposing rolls for grappling and shoving, kept some of the stat blocks, etc, but other than that I’ve mostly made the full jump to 2024

[grim nimbus]

College of lore bards are just too op and game breaking...and this is coming from a college of lore bard 😂

[reef tundra]

I think in general 5e is much simpler than older versions

[feral fulcrum]

Things being easy to play is kind of the entire point of 5E. It is explicitly aimed at the masses and was deeply simplified from previous editions.

[reef tundra]

Yeah

[grim nimbus]

Yes ik I didn't mean too easy to play in a bad way more like modding the hell out of Skyrim easy

It's fun easy

[reef copper]

True, makes it easy to build ontop of the system too wich is nice in a way

[indigo cedar]

Not sure if simpler is the word I would use, less interesting on certain classes for sure. Things that used to be very class specific are now just spells and can be used by other classes.

[reef tundra]

Absolutely, I don’t think it being simpler is a bad thing, it’s just a case of subjective opinion

[grim nimbus]

Exactly!

[indigo cedar]

Heck I'm using a even sim pler system then 5e these days so I fully embrace simplicity

[ripe nimbus]

I don't see enough difference between '14 and '24 to have a super strong preference between them... i am sad they removed the crunchier optional rules from 24 though

[reef tundra]

I do miss them optional rules

[ripe nimbus]

encumbrance, facing, more-Euclidean diagonals etc.. I don't use all of them, mainly because my players, no matter what group, always have a preference for lower-crunch than I do, but they're nice to have as options

[reef tundra]

I liked the optional rules for the other planes

[grim nimbus]

Y'all Wanna hear about the time my friend and I kicked a knoll cub into orbit team rocket style 😂

[valid geyser]

dont those still exist in dmg24?

[reef tundra]

Fire away. I wanna hear this >:)

[ripe nimbus]

but they're still basically compatible

[reef tundra]

Now that I think about it maybe they are

[reef copper]

Did they survive being launched that hard?

[valid geyser]

yeah i think dmg24 did cut out a lot for the greyhawk gazeteer, and I think stuff like dmg14's race template blocks wouldve actually been way more useful in the 24 dmg due to the change to how humanoid statblocks work

[atomic kayak]

Yea those have existed for a long time in 5e too

[ripe nimbus]

oh, Diagonals are, just checked. nvm on that one

[grim nimbus]

So like we had just killed yonogu and taken over the 5th demon realm and we wanted to demonstrate what would happen if the citizens tried to rebel so we both rolled to punt the damn thing and we both rolled nat 20s 😂😭

[lavish flame]

I agree that they cut a fair bit for Greyhawk, which sucks because I don't run in Greyhawk.

[reef tundra]

Dayum. Metal af

[lavish flame]

I'd kill for a dedicated homebrewing book

[valid geyser]

also to put in stuff on how to actually guide how to be a dungeon master

[spice stump]

What if there was a npc named john dungeon

[reef tundra]

I’ll kill alongside you

[spice stump]

Like john kaisen and john dragonball

[reef tundra]

From what I read the 24 DMG did include a little bit of that but not enough IMO

[grim nimbus]

Not John dragonball 😭😂

[spice stump]

John dungeons and dragons, he's super duper humble but is also the bbeg

[reef copper]

24 is still a work in progress so might come later

[spice stump]

His signature quote is "it's dungeoning time!" As he dragons all over the place

[valid geyser]

its probably never gonna happen but i want another dedicated monster lore book like volos or mordenkeinens tome. WOTC is commited to setting neutrality but setting books wont want to use page space to explain how specific monsters operate in the setting so its kind of a lose/lose scenario for creatures like merfolk who will probably forever have just like 2 sentences on them

[reef copper]

Not in the dmg though i assume

[reef tundra]

I find that wording a little strange, but I get the gist

[uncut zenith]

Another instance of them trying to honor D&D’s 50th anniversary. They wanted to dedicate some space for the first official setting and showing how you don’t need a full campaign setting book to have plenty of info to run

[worn lagoon]

One time I wanted to convert another system into DnD. Then it escalated and now it is its own tabletop system.

[reef tundra]

I mean, technically it’s right, actually

[grim nimbus]

I would only be interested in dungoning with him if goblins were involved

[uncut zenith]

The good news is a lot of the 2014 optional rules still work for the most part in 2024

[fossil hollow]

goblins slayer moment

[reef copper]

2024 kinda released with half the content missing so i assume they will add stuff overtime

[simple meadow]

True, makes it easy to build ontop of the system too wich is nice in a way

[grim nimbus]

Correction it's worse I prefer the abridged version

[atomic kayak]

Bigby's and Fizban's?

Its the exact same style of book

[reef tundra]

Well, you’re not wrong

[fossil hollow]

oh boy, in for a treat

[grim nimbus]

STINKIN GOBLINS ALWAYS GOBLINATING THINGS

[valid geyser]

i mean those did release pre 2024, and also are more laser focused on one creature variety

but those are decent books, and id love to see more of those too

[atomic kayak]

Still, you say "never gonna happen" but they (particularly Bigby's) were like. The last releases before the revision dropped

[spice stump]

Goblins are involved including the famous "john goblin"

[grim nimbus]

Oh imma slay them all

[spice stump]

Also known as "joblin" the only employed goblin

[spice stump]

Noooo john goblin is an upstanding member of society!

[valid geyser]

i mean i think we can have a book that covers multiple kinds of monsters

[fossil hollow]

Im waiting for an Elemental focused book. Songal's Elemental Manuiscript or something

[grim nimbus]

I'm glad I found this group today I've made new friends

[uncut zenith]

I way prefer getting books dedicated to a specific type of monster with setting agnostic lore and new mechanics, similar to Fizban’s and Bigby’s

[valid geyser]

both can exist I think. I want monster books not based off singular monsters so we can at least get some stuff for the less popular monsters that don't need an entire book's worth of info

[reef tundra]

I need more stuff on angels and Yugoloths. They are so neglected

A whopping 3 angels with vague lore and an astounding 4 Yugoloths in the MM

[valid geyser]

and books like that can be themed. Underwater adventures supplement which could have info and lore for merfolk, sahaugin, krakens, kuo-toa. It can work

[reef tundra]

I heard there’s more Yugoloths in other books but I still need to find them

[uncut zenith]

I mean, that’s kinda what those two books did. They talked a lot about a single type of creature, but Fizban’s and Bigby’s both had plenty of dragon and giant adjacent creatures respectively too

[valid geyser]

dragon and giant-adjacent, yeah.

[uncut zenith]

Idk I guess I’d rather just have a monster book with a single cohesive theme

[valid geyser]

and again, I think you can have a themed book in that regard without being so laser focused on a specific variety of creature

[umbral girder]

Miffed but amused with my DnD session yesterday

Boss had a mechanic where he drops to 0hp and sucks a lot of hp from people within 5ft of him. The players didn’t know this.

So the swords bard and fighter were next to him on his last 90 hp giving him a ton of HP.

Until the warlock Eldritch blasted him to be 40ft away from them.

And the Bard used PWK.

I was so close to greatness. Half or all their HP would have been theirs

[glad glade]

Hello

[valid geyser]

and I think there could be books based on a creature type that aren't so laser focused as giants and dragons. With those two, the creature type is split between the "true members of the creature type" and the "lesser giants/dragons" and with creature types like fey and elementals that's less of a case

[glad glade]

How do I get the dm tag on here

[halcyon forum]

id:customize

[uncut zenith]

At that point, I’d almost just rather have more Monster Manuals

[valid geyser]

i would kill for a fey book actually. For as much wotc loves fey, they don't give us enough lore on specific fey creatures, nor do we have enough high CR fey

[glad glade]

I did that I did all I am a player and a dm

I still cant post looking for player

[halcyon forum]

follow the instructions carefully in #find-a-game

[valid geyser]

my priority for this idea is mostly lore focused/giving us adventure inspiration and plot hooks based on creatures that might be overlooked or seen as boring. having cool mechanics is good, but without good writing on it it's all just a stack of numbers to me

[meager fractal]

Shattered obelisk is sooooooo boring. So much meaningless filler

[glad glade]

I did that it still not working

[tawdry sentinel]

Better monsters on Reddit has some fantastic stuff.

[umbral girder]

More like it is it's own story using Phandelvar as a setting.

[uncut zenith]

Your server role shouldn’t prevent you from posting in looking for players. You just need to look at the rules for how to post using the bot

[harsh hollow]

I do think it's interesting that 2024 is getting the monster species in roundabout ways. It got Boggart before an official reprint of Goblin.

[uncut zenith]

You can’t just freehand a LFG post in this server, it’s all bot powered

[umbral girder]

Boggart? From what?

[halcyon forum]

you clicked on "/looking for DM" and then pressed enter?

[valid geyser]

boggarts are goblins. Mechanically and lorewise but yeah

[harsh hollow]

The Lorewyn part of the recent Faerun book.

[umbral girder]

Ah got it.

[valid geyser]

lorwyn first light is an unrelated book to the faerun book, just sold on ddb alongside faerun, even falsely advertising that lorwyn would connect to FR, when it doesnt

[harsh hollow]

Ahh, it was basically billed as DLC for it originally if memory serves, like the Astarion book.

[uncut zenith]

It was a preorder bonus with the FR books

[umbral girder]

Its side content for DDB.

[uncut zenith]

But they decided to make it a separate book on DDB because it was originally supposed to be its own setting book. Then decided to make it more of a setting booklet as a FR preorder bonus. I imagine cuz they didn’t have enough preestablished content to make it its own separate full campaign book.

[umbral girder]

Like that one shot that came out same as Vecna.

[harsh hollow]

The carouser background from the Astarion book with a human that has Musician seems like it'd be a nice loop of inspiration by the way.

[valid geyser]

i do think that the astarion book and netheril's fall are good minibooks, and I hope wotc does more of them, but lorwyn was a swing and a miss

[elder holly]

Yeah, that’s what I remember too. It was originally marketed more like DLC rather than a full standalone

[valid geyser]

the species introduced are really awfully designed
lorwyn changeling notably getting a useless feature RAW of reaction dash action

[harsh hollow]

The Lorewyn changing does, to be fair, seem to be a completely different creature from regular changelings.

[valid geyser]

it is a different creature yeah, but it's still badly designed

[harsh hollow]

They've got Beast Boy "always green" disorder.

[valid geyser]

also flamekin/rimekin feel like they were made in 2016. theyre such boring species

[harsh hollow]

They're basically just supposed to be genasi I think.

[uncut zenith]

I feel like a lot of the Lorwyn options weren’t really necessary at all. They could’ve either said “use MotM options” or reprinted, but I think both options would pissed people off either way. Cuz the former option means you need another book, but the latter option means you’re paying for content you may already have.

[valid geyser]

yeah but i think "you get a resistance, and some 1st-3rd level fire/ice spells" is the most bland and uninspired design for a fire/ice themed species ive seen

[halcyon forum]

I do like my faeries getting 120 ft darkvision for no reason lol

[harsh hollow]

I hope if/when they reprint Hobgoblins they treat the Military Society and Power of Friendship versions like different subspecies.

[uncut zenith]

I’d rather not having a militaristic thing be a part of them as a species

[harsh hollow]

Maybe give the former weapon masteries to match the latter's Gift Power.

They made them so different but it feels like there's room for both.

[elder holly]

Yeah, I’m with you on that. Just slapping on a resistance and a handful of low-level fire/ice spells feels incredibly bland for something that’s supposed to be elemental themed

[halcyon forum]

maybe do a more neutral "power of the many" ability

[uncut zenith]

Being militaristic is a cultural factor. And the version in MotM still accentuates the magical camaraderie aspect of them, whether that’s flavored as friendly or militaristic is up to the player

[valid geyser]

mm25 made hobgoblins into a primal nature spirit type being of growth and control

[harsh hollow]

I get the reframing of Fortune of the Many, but the gift power for Help is entirely different.

[elder holly]

Exactly. Militarism is a cultural lens, not an inherent trait. The MotM version still emphasizes their magical camaraderie, whether that comes across as friendly or regimented is really up to the player

[uncut zenith]

A militaristic hobgoblin using Help on their fellow soldiers is still 100% in line with the old framing of hobgoblins

[glad glade]

I see I got it now thank you

[harsh hollow]

Yes but the old framing didn't get the actual powers that affect it. The entire framing is very different.

[valid geyser]

i think we'll get playable goblinoids in 2024 eventually, but wotc did make goblins into planar beings who represent an abstract concepts in the monster manual, so theyre gonna have to figure out how to deal with that issue they made

[fossil hollow]

what

[harsh hollow]

I don't think the new Hobgoblins would do what created regular goblins under the old lore now, but maybe they'll change that up.

[fossil hollow]

AH, yeah reckless ruin?

[valid geyser]

Hobgoblins embody the primal urge to grow and spread, expressing such drives by bending the world to their whims
Goblins are Feywild embodiments of recklessness and ruin.

[fossil hollow]

I feel like thats just leaning more into the chaotic ness gobbos always had

[atomic kayak]

P much yea

[valid geyser]

yeah they didnt wanna keep goblinoids as humanoids so they could still be in the MM

[fossil hollow]

I still dont get how that conflicts with making them playable??

[harsh hollow]

That seems like a silly reason, are there not human bandits in there?

[fossil hollow]

there are Humanoid bandit statblocls there

[valid geyser]

yeah, but humanoid statblocks no longer represent a specific species

[atomic kayak]

Goblinoids (despite a loud contingent online refusing to believe it) have always been from a different plane (in the FR bare minimum: which is really the only angle people have been complaining about lore "changes" imo) and one that was heavily implied to be the feywild still

[fossil hollow]

But the Humanoid statblocks have never been only humans

its never been human only

[harsh hollow]

I didn't mean only, I just figured being humanoid didn't exclude you from being in the MM.

[fossil hollow]

in 2014, you were literally told to slap on some racial features on top of the statblock

[valid geyser]

not saying you're wrong, but I don't remember there being anything of the sort at least in pre-2024 5e to really suggest goblins have always been extraplanar in nature

[fossil hollow]

Fey Ancestry is right there

[harsh hollow]

I do remember there being a bit of an uproar when the goblinoids were all made fae.

[atomic kayak]

I can't recall specifically in 5e (although I believe that it has still been implied), but at least in 3.5 the FR guide specifically says they came from another plane (aka: not the material plane)

[harsh hollow]

Or I guess if that was always the case, more explicitly fae.

[fossil hollow]

From MoTM

A subterranean folk, goblins can be found in every corner of the multiverse, often beside their bugbear and hobgoblin kin. Long before the god Maglubiyet conquered them, early goblins served in the court of the Queen of Air and Darkness, one of the Feywild’s archfey. Goblins thrived in her dangerous domain thanks to a special boon from her—a supernatural knack for finding the weak spots in foes larger than themselves and for getting out of trouble. Goblins brought this fey boon with them to worlds across the Material Plane, even if they don’t remember the fey realm they inhabited before Maglubiyet’s rise. Now many goblins pursue their own destinies, escaping the plots of both archfey and gods.

[uncut zenith]

Yeah pre-2024 goblins weren’t particularly fey adjacent, but that’s mostly because up until recent years a lot of 5E lore was FR centric. With the shift towards setting agnosticism, they decided to emphasize goblinoids’ fey origins.

[atomic kayak]

I wouldn't say they weren't, it was just less explicit

[valid geyser]

how is that a setting agnostic thing?

[atomic kayak]

Across the editions, 5e included, goblinoids (and particularly goblins) have always been heavily associated with the fey, particularly the unseelie court

[atomic kayak]

feywild is multi setting

[uncut zenith]

We also have to remember that up until recently, WOTC was very hesitant to make playable species anything other than humanoid

[fossil hollow]

yeah, we just got Construct Warforged, Abberation Kalashtar

[jovial shadow]

They do what they have to do to stay in the black

[fossil hollow]

Still conflicted about warforged being constructs though

[feral fulcrum]

To the point that I was suprised that Centaur's got Fey typing.

[atomic kayak]

Well, thats not very true. They've been doing non humanoid PCs pretty regularly since... 2018? When did Ravnica come out?

[fossil hollow]

2018 aye

[uncut zenith]

I said they were hesitant, not that they weren’t already doing it

[atomic kayak]

I think they have been far too consistent with doing it to call it hesitant tbh

[fossil hollow]

Huh, Theros was only 6 years ago?

[prime pewter]

Time for my cranky tanky shroomy doomy wizard (druid) lizard

[jovial shadow]

I personally don't like the idea of monsters being playable charcters (to me a monster is anything other than the traditional core races/species)

[valid geyser]

please correct me if im wrong, but isnt maglubiyet considered a dawn war diety? I don't think having a dawn war god originator is a sign of being non-setting agnostic

[jovial shadow]

But I understand why WoTC did what they did

[fossil hollow]

The Dawn War pantheon was a pantheon of gods worshiped on the worlds of Nerath, Exandria, and other worlds of the multiverse.

[uncut zenith]

Dawn War gods are to a degree setting agnostic. They’re all gods from specific settings who were brought together into a single pantheon for 4E

[atomic kayak]

While I agree in naming specific gods in a lot of species war detracts from it (Gruumsh in the orc stuff and the framing therein has that particular issue as well), unfortunately it still fits into the greater narrative of how the gods in the multiverse are considered.

[fossil hollow]

Mag though isnt part of the Dawn War

[valid geyser]

ah, thanks for the correction

[uncut zenith]

Ah I’m thinking of Bane

[undone rain]

Idk ive always liked playing monsters. There smth about them that makes em so cool

[fossil hollow]

Bane and Gruumsh are the closer we got to Mag in dawn war

[undone rain]

Like hobgoblins or bugbears

[uncut zenith]

But yeah, the Dawn War pantheon is kind of its own thing. Especially considering they also have the Raven Queen and Vecna as gods, both of whom aren’t quite gods in all worlds

[fossil hollow]

Tharizdun i also feel is not exactly a god either

[uncut zenith]

I think Bane is specifically the god of goblinoids in the Dawn War pantheon

[ripe nimbus]

honestly, I agree, but conversely also don't like the idea of there being monsters who are clearly just a funny looking kind of people

[uncut zenith]

Yeah, Tharizdun is closer to an elder evil, maybe even just an inexplicably powerful elemental

[ripe nimbus]

my solution is that I just don't use goblins in my setting

[fossil hollow]

which is fine, but not every table plays like yours

[harsh hollow]

I mean to be fair there are a lot of humanoid species, do you just cut them all out?

Arguably elves are just funny looking guys too.

[atomic kayak]

I have horrible news for you about halflings in most settings

[valid geyser]

DMG24 calls tharizdun a god and an elder evil

[ripe nimbus]

I'm using monsters in the sense lich lord used it

[harsh hollow]

That too. Gnomes.

[undone rain]

Ahhh goblins, the literal punching bags of dnd

[tepid wyvern]

Im looking for max 2 players to join my curse of strahd campaign in a couple hours as i just had someone drop out.

[atomic kayak]

Tharizdun is one of those things that has been a god but then also been other things sometimes

[harsh hollow]

#looking-for-players

[ripe nimbus]

basically, the way I play is that PHB races are the only intelligent "people" races in the setting.

[harsh hollow]

I feel like that could get problematic fast. x3

[fossil hollow]

Eh. Goblins slayer exists

[valid geyser]

which is true, i just figured that dmg24 is the most recent canon source on what he is.
either way dmg24 says elder evil is a blanket term which can include far realm beings, evil gods, or primordial elementals

[ripe nimbus]

I think there's something kinda racist about a monster-only people-like race, and I don't love kitchen sinks where every possible fantasy creature is there

[uncut zenith]

He’s worshipped as a god per the 2024 DMG, but he’s primarily described as ancient force of entropy

[harsh hollow]

I get the idea that some tables just want enemies to fight but I find the idea of being faced with them being people too interesting.

[atomic kayak]

that still runs into issues with what you are saying too fwiw

[uncut zenith]

Calling him a god doesn’t necessarily make him a god

[rough basalt]

Well all playable species aren't in the PHB for size reasons.

[fossil hollow]

also money reasons

[harsh hollow]

And just "thought of it later" reasons.

[uncut zenith]

Like Vecna and the RQ

[ripe nimbus]

I mean, I am not saying this is the correct way to play, I am totally fine if I join someone's game and every intelligent person-like race is an option

[rough basalt]

And some species being setting dependent

[ripe nimbus]

or if a specific setting has more or less species options

[rough basalt]

I do like they made Khoravar the '24 option for half elves

[undone rain]

Isnt that show problematic

[rough basalt]

Not really

[harsh hollow]

The only species I maybe get people having big issues with are the robots and even then I think if you're creative you can still fit them in.

[fossil hollow]

its edgy sure

[harsh hollow]

It's like how Artificers don't have to be steampunk.

[fossil hollow]

If were calling anything with mature topics problematic, sure

[undone rain]

Idk i heard about some problematic scene. Forget it

[rough basalt]

It's first episode is infamously edgy and screwed up but the show doesn't animate alot of the even worse stuff in the manga.

[valid geyser]

it's vague at least

and i dont even think the dmg has a definition on what a god is

[crimson gulch]

Tharizdune is fun, I have made him a big bad evil of a campaign before

[rough basalt]

After the first episode It's more of an edgy dark fantasy show with lighthearted moments.

[uncut zenith]

“God” is basically a job title in 5E

[worn lagoon]

if you only have a vague idea about something and that's that apparently being problematic, most of the time it's not

[fossil hollow]

you can still have problematic moments and have it in a way where its not oh i dunno. Advocated for

[uncut zenith]

As long as some powerful force is worshipped as a god in mass, it’s at least a god to some. Even if not to others.

[ripe nimbus]

so, I mean, consider lord of the rings, right? in that setting, there's Men, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, and Orcs. Orcs are treated in a racist way, of course (though I think Tolkien later wrote that he regretted that), but my point is that Lord of the Rings is an interesting fantasy setting which only has those five person-like races. and in fact, I think it's more interesting because Tolkien can go a lot deeper with them than he could if he were trying to fit in every possible fantasy creature as its own race.

or Delicious in Dungeon as a more D&D-inspired setting has Tallmen, Elves, Dwarves, Half-foots, Orcs, Ogres, Kobolds, and Beastmen. It's a limited list, and it's able to, just in the space of it, create really interesting interactions and depth to each of these

[valid geyser]

oh, wait. Tharizdun is put in the gods section of the greyhawk gazeteer

[fossil hollow]

Dungeon Meshi is more Wizardry but yeah

[harsh hollow]

Gods in settings like this are funny to me because they have very openly tangible effects so you can't sensibly be fully atheist so the equivalent is that you know they're around but you hate them.

[rough basalt]

Tho if you go into 5e expecting to kill and cook kobolds to eat you might get a realization

[fossil hollow]

I also thought their beastmen were more magical accidents/experiments.

Kobolds being floofy doggo people is also fun

[tall siren]

#looking-for-dm

[undone rain]

Can never be too wary is all

Especially with the shit i hear

[fossil hollow]

sure. But id at least put research. People will always say shit

[ripe nimbus]

I feel like kitchen-sink settings where every species option is open to choose and common make it really hard to create a cohesive world. So I like limiting the playable and common species. And I don't like when some clearly intelligent person-like species is designated as "monsters, not for players," because that's racist--like i think goblins, conceived of as "embodiments of recklessness and ruin" and not meant for players, are kind of a racist concept, right?

[fossil hollow]

especially in online spaces

[rough basalt]

It's just a very dark and messed up Manga that an animation company decided to animate

[harsh hollow]

Like RuneScape had them warring on the streets and the unaligned faction was "Get them out of here."

[rough basalt]

But they cut out the even worse stuff after the backlash of the 1st episode

[undone rain]

Well if you say so, ill go and take a look

Need a good fantasy anime anyway

[rough basalt]

Imo they just shouldn't have animated it, but I guess they wanted it to be the next Berserk, something very dark with mature themes on screen that's well received

[fossil hollow]

im not denying it doesnt have extremely dark or CW worthy content though

[rough basalt]

Yeah 1st episode especially

[fossil hollow]

its just. People tend to make more problems out of mature themes more than its worth...

[rough basalt]

1st episode is why I never watched it, but I don't hold it against the work.

[undone rain]

Yeah and thats what im worried of

[atomic kayak]

LotR has way more than that tho

[undone rain]

Especially with how people romantasize such things

[valid geyser]

yeah people are allowed to deal with tough themes but you also just have to know when to use it and do it for a purpose/with nuance, which is why its hard to do that stuff in d&d

[rough basalt]

Well the anime does not do that

[fossil hollow]

its was a bit too graphic no? I dont think it was romanticizing it.

[rough basalt]

Yeah just too graphic

[undone rain]

Idk i dont really like such things in my shows even when its not encouraged

[fossil hollow]

ive only read the manga, tried to watch the anime too, but i felt like i didnt need to with the anime

[valid geyser]

usually just shock value is not a good purpose

[fossil hollow]

and thats fine. People have boundaries

But GS is def one of those shows that just. does darker themes

[undone rain]

I see, well i think ill skip out on that. I like dark just not that dark

Makes me uncomfortable

[fossil hollow]

thats fair. im too jaded by twitter people making arguements about shit theyve never seen

[undone rain]

Euu twitter

[naive cedar]

from what i understand the issue was that it felt gratuitous, not that the show was glamourising it

[fossil hollow]

i wish there was a better place for me to follow my artists. But Bluesky is not it

[undone rain]

And definetly not reddit

[naive cedar]

bluesky is alright for a social media website

[hot marlin]

Berserk is my comfort reading. I found GS to be rather tame, all things considered. Yes, there are those events in the first episode but then it just becomes a very ordinary slice of life where nothing interesting really happens, for me. The dark themes are kinda forgotten and not used or examined meaningfully

[naive cedar]

i love berserk but ngl the earlier chapters were a bit gratuitous with that as well

i thought goblin slayer looked boring although the dudes design is cool

[undone rain]

Id pick no wifi for the resf of my life then reddit

[hot marlin]

There is still something comforting about stories that...Wallow in that kind of darkness for the first few chapters before rising above it.

[undone rain]

Only reason i have reddit is when i need questions answered

[rough basalt]

Yeah it was some George RR Martin level hamfisting mature themes I'd say

[pearl spindle]

It’s really hard because most social media platforms are heavily anti art atm, even places like deviantart and artstation.

[hot marlin]

Leave GRRM out of this

[naive cedar]

i love dark stories but i think a problem a lot of authors, especially back in the day (GRRM also comes to mind), is that their idea of making things dark and edgy is very specific and tired tropes

[hot marlin]

There is nothing gratuitous in his writing.

[fickle heart]

Honestly, it's one of those subjects that is so often discussed reductively that the juice isn't worth the squeeze, but the short answer is: "It's complicated, because it's not inherently problematic to have a 'bad group' that is seen as such, and the problems arise when the 'bad group' is approached from the perspective of real world peoples."

[rough basalt]

Frieren probably does it best even tho Twitter still hates it lol

[naive cedar]

i like grrm but uh. he definitely likes to repeat certain dark subjects that gets old after a while. although hes better about it than other authors

frieren is goated

[undone rain]

Now thats a show i need to watch

[rough basalt]

It's the same issue they have with Warhammer

[naive cedar]

tbf theres a lot of weird warhammer fans, speaking as a warhammer fan

[fossil hollow]

Warhammer is a blatant parody/satire no?

[naive cedar]

not everyone realises its a satire which honestly blows my mind

[rough basalt]

Yeah, but thing is people who don't play Warhammer say that the Xeno species are meant to be real life whatchamacallits

[fossil hollow]

we dont talk about the one with the Nids

[naive cedar]

tbf a lot of people dont realise fallout is a satire either and its about as subtle as warhammer

[valid geyser]

and i think for bad guys you dont need to feel remorse about killing, it is also a matter of player buy in and tone of game. If people just wanna fight stuff, it might not really matter to them

[pearl spindle]

Fallout is not just satirical but deeply critical of the modern world

[rough basalt]

Like people who understand it correctly its "yeah everybody sucks, it's just the Imperium sometimes sucks less"

[glossy otter]

iirc fallout I would honestly argue is a pure satire of our current world

[naive cedar]

thats what i mean by it being about as subtle as warhammer. its even harder to miss the satire because its about the real modern worl, as opposed to warhammer where i can understand people missing it somewhat because its fantasy

ive just come to the sad conclusion that a Lot of people lack media literacy

[fickle heart]

The reason why the topic is complicated and often not worth it is because there's underlying knowledge required to understand how various types of stories are created, without which people don't even understand why a story would need such an antagonistic group. The more that the antagonistic group is humanized, the deeper the explanations are required for said antagonistic group, which also means the story often requires a deeper thought-process to engage with, which ends up being both harder to write, and harder to engage in by an audience.

[rough basalt]

It's easier to give a reason to fight something that exists just to devour life than a group of people with an opposing ideology

[fossil hollow]

Has human history not just been that though

[hot marlin]

Or not even an ideology but interests. They're the people of the other village, same as yours. They're raiding your lands for your stuff, you're raiding their land for their stuff.

[rough basalt]

Yeah but modern humans are connected to each other in ways they never were.

[glossy otter]

TBH it's a tragedy that there are people who don't see stuff like that and starship troopers in that light. But I suppose that's something for another place

[rough basalt]

While there's plenty who'll still say theyll go to war for any reason there's about the other half that are like "why?"

[fossil hollow]

Starship and Helldivers yeah lmao

[naive cedar]

the lacking in media literacy problem isnt even specifically about satire. i see so many comments and takes on media that are very clearly just people not paying attention to what they're watching/reading/playing

[pearl spindle]

It’s so obvious that Super Earth are the bad guys in the game’s universe

Like good god

[fickle heart]

"These monsters are smart enough to be dangerous, but lack certain qualities that allow us to humanize them" is that middle point that many stories rely on. Plenty of stories also are told directly about that middle point from the opposite perspective, where that lack of qualities is based on perception/bias/lack of understanding.

Heck, if we didn't have stories with "bad close enough to people" enemies, the stories where it's "unjustly underestimated and judged close enough to humans" would be significantly less compelling.

[pearl spindle]

Planetary genocide and enslavement of an entire sapient species so they can produce more oil for war machines

[fossil hollow]

and thats how you know that the propaganda works unfortunately

[hot marlin]

I like to see stories like Starship Troopers as a social experiment. If someone watches it and ends up cheering, that shows what kind of person they are in tough times. It's something I've seen in moral dilemmas in TTRPGs all the time

[naive cedar]

well in the case of dnd specifically, and games in general, thats largely the result of needing generic enemies to fight that players wont feel bad about slaughtering

[hot marlin]

It just...Ends up showcasing that some people just don't think in terms of ethics and principles. Just in terms of "my team" and "their team".

[naive cedar]

starship troopers wasnt even originally a satire lol. the book was dead serious

[rough basalt]

I mean it's pixels.

[naive cedar]

the movie adaptation made it a satire

[fickle heart]

Aye, that's where the knowledge of how stories created is needed.

[crimson gulch]

The book was so good

[hot marlin]

How people deal with ambiguity shows what they are, you know? It's a bit like... Okay, ever played Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree?

[rough basalt]

There's a lot of people who do some of the most heinous stuff imaginable in video games but they can't even hurt an animal let alone a person unless they absolutely had to

[raw sierra]

i have a question
we're playing in a homebrew world with 5 "countries" one of them is an expansionist state that is actively researching "forbidden" magic
early on we got a magical pool that could be used to transmit a message to every person in the continent we're playing in
what could we say to make that expansionist country an enemy of all?, just the truth that they're researching forbidden shi?

[naive cedar]

thats me lowkey but i know its dumb edit: i thought you meant hurt animals in games lol mb

[fossil hollow]

cough Sims players cough

[naive cedar]

sims players scare me

[hushed mason]

I play The Sims...

[hot marlin]

Do you have proof?

[fossil hollow]

[Frightened condition]

[raw sierra]

yes

[hot marlin]

Then give that proof, and hope for the best

[hushed mason]

When I play the Sims, I use Hesiod's Theogony and populate the world accordingly. I start with 4 and end up with hundreds.

[hot marlin]

I play Dwarf Fortress. I have made soap out of invaders. This game turned me into a worse monster than the Sims ever could

[hushed mason]

So, I don't just play The Sims. I play it in a super geeky way.

[raw sierra]

they're already in the middle of the war with the 2nd super power
but we need them to lose an ally that is actively helping them with artificer-type magical tools

[fossil hollow]

[Who casted Turn Ti-Moth, Illmater please pick me up]

[raw sierra]

im thinking of using propaganda to claim they're actively using this forbidden magic to resummon a world ending being

[naive cedar]

i need to play dwarf fortress lol

[hushed mason]

What made you bring up The Sims?

[fossil hollow]

this comment

[hushed mason]

OOOOH. I don't kill off my Sims.

[naive cedar]

ive played the sims a bit and i get bored with it quickly but it is fun

[hushed mason]

I like simulation games. 🙂

[hot marlin]

Anyways! First off: Be careful against moralizing stuff. Someone writing horrible stuff happening, or doing horrible stuff in a video game, is not doing a bad thing.

[fossil hollow]

im not saying they would kill Sims, per se

[rough basalt]

To use Helldivers 2 exactly.
I'm loving it, and engaging with it, but if I ever got to meet another species that can think, feel and reason, I don't think I could raise a hand against them like I can't humans or most animals.

[raw sierra]

i recommend factorio

[fossil hollow]

more... go mad scientist with it. My sister was horrifying to watch play

[naive cedar]

id be more into simulation games if there were more fantasy themed ones or something (that are good i mean)

[rough basalt]

A game like KCD but fantasy would be really fun

[naive cedar]

Yeah thats what i mean. people really let their inner "i have a group of people ican control" out with the sims (not that that's a bad thing ofc. its a game)

dnd themed the sims

[fossil hollow]

i hope my sister doesnt ever work for vault tec

[rough basalt]

Yeah I'll ignore babies in the Sims, but I can't ignore someone crying irl.

[naive cedar]

ill happily slaughter every goblin i come across in a game but i felt bad when i had to break a plate for an art project irl

[worn lagoon]

It's an upbringing thing

[tame solstice]

My D&D club is starting a pokemon D&D campaign and im going to play as a ditto .But we are still figuring out how to set these characters up as it may work a bit differently... Ditto only has one move , transform. I was considering Ditto only has a limited about of pokemon it can turn into. Please give advice on what I should add or change

[rough basalt]

But I think we've well iterated that just because someone will do something in fiction doesn't mean they'd do it for real.

[worn lagoon]

A farmboy who's accustomed to slaughtering chicken and ducks will have an easier time killing small animals than a city dweller

[rough basalt]

After all that's what protests against DnD and Video games was founded on.

[hot marlin]

Have you considered just using the Pokemon TTRPG?

[worn lagoon]

The dnd in-universe people are more... hip-deep in gore on a day-to-day basis than we are

[fossil hollow]

unless its mice or roaches. flashback to the Philippines

[tame solstice]

wait , there is a TTRPG?

[fossil hollow]

always assume someone tried making a TTRPG of a hit series/IP

[naive cedar]

I think it’s funny that everyone gets mad about killing people in video games but nobody cares about Link from Zelda constantly breaking into peoples houses and damaging their property

[rough basalt]

Like in my world, the only reason the Arcanian people kept fighting the world after a certain point was cause the Archmage's council at the time had mass enchantments on the populace so that they'd stay loyal.

[tame solstice]

i forgot they existed for a second

[rough basalt]

Not that they were an "evil people"

[hot marlin]

Everyone gets mad about killing people in video games? What?

[naive cedar]

I’m being hyperbolic but I mean the discourse about “video games make people murder people”

[worn lagoon]

Parents and adults who didn't play video games, mostly

[naive cedar]

but nobody says “Zelda makes kids break people’s pots!!!”

[rough basalt]

Nah they break pots cause kids are jerks

[fossil hollow]

i dont recall much about kids breaking pot as much as they are-

[hot marlin]

Who even has clay pots at home?

[rough basalt]

Only "video game causes something" i experienced was my little brother jumping off the couch and piledriving me

Tho you could argue it was wrestling itself

[hot marlin]

You know, they say TV makes people violent. But not having my TV is what makes me super violent.

[ripe nimbus]

if this is about me, I don't think I'm moralizing stories for including people doing bad stuff or players for having their character doing bad things. I do think that settings that uncritically present an intelligent people that can think, feel, reason, have families, have needs, etc. as irredeemable monsters are worse off for that, aesthetically if nothing else

[fossil hollow]

"That was. A 40 inch. Plasma screen TV"

[glossy otter]

They say that, yet it has been disproven so many times. Much like dnd being an unholy game

[rough basalt]

I think lack of stimulation is actually a pretty strong feeling to make someone aggressive.

Not violent, but upset

[hot marlin]

On that I agree

[naive cedar]

And I’m Carmen Santiago! Guess where I am!

[fossil hollow]

oh god, theres another person who gets me

[rough basalt]

Like if I get bored for too long I get angry, I don't get violent, but I am upset.

[glossy otter]

Time to track IP addresses
Huh, funny. It says you're at the south pole XD jkjkjk

[naive cedar]

Tbh modern media isn’t even that violent in comparison to entertainment of the past

[fossil hollow]

cough gladiators*

[glossy otter]

We need how menzobarranzan gets it's entertainment

[rough basalt]

Tbh we still have that nowadays.
It's just not as deadly

[glossy otter]

eeh, then is it really true entertainment

[naive cedar]

Gladiators are part of it but even fictional entertainment of the past is filled with violence

[fossil hollow]

im just thinking about old school Looney Tunes, yeah

[hushed mason]

Do you know anyone that has actually killed another person for "fun"? Because I do. Maybe time for a new topic.

[naive cedar]

I’m going much much further back than that but yes, that is an example

[fossil hollow]

what was the name of the games in the DND Movie again in Neverwinter?

[glossy otter]

I think the Highsun games

[fossil hollow]

perfect, i think its time for Halaster to make his own Moonset Games

[glossy otter]

Woudn't his be the Lowrock games?

that or Lowstone

[fossil hollow]

Nah, he's feeling to lazy to make it a unique name

[rough basalt]

Makes me wonder what kinda jokes are made in-world based off famous people

[clear trellis]

anybody got like any experience at all with artificer? would really appreciate it if you did

[glossy otter]

The only one I can think was Vecna being an anagram

[rough basalt]

Call me Laeral cause you're about to get these Silverhands

[glossy otter]

I might be old, but I'll be gnawing on your bones by the end of this fight

might've not worked as well but I tried

[rough basalt]

A ten town should've named itself Alwayswinter

[stiff frigate]

Hi! I just wanted to share this mini story that I made with a group that might enjoy it. 😅
The party enters a cave. Unbeknownst to them, the cave is false in its entirety; made only by hands of men who wished to seal their treasure away until the days of dying earth.
Not three steps in, and the floor gives way, dropping each member into an individual tunnel.
They fight through hordes of monsters, and some fight their own minds through the form of puzzles surrounded by skeletons of those past.
When the team rejoins, the druid is seen carrying a small chest under their arm.
Curious, the rogue gestures to the coffer in interest. "What's with the chest?"
Excitedly, the druid holds up the chest with both hands and a smile on their face. "I found a new friend!"
The chest opens, allowing a purple tongue to roll out between sharpened teeth.

[fossil hollow]

-# #tales-from-the-table

[glossy otter]

I suppose to start something up, anyone know any disney villains who seem closely identical to dnd monsters?

[rough basalt]

"Come to Thay for Szass Tam's new sweet that'll have your kids screaming like Banshees! Be the first to get ahold of Taffy Tam's Taffy, only in the Thayan Citadel!"

[glossy otter]

"Caution, there might be bones from the flesh we peeled to make this taffy"

[rough basalt]

Hmm a villain.

[glossy otter]

Because I remembered The horned king from the black cauldron was essentially a lich and it had me thinking

[rough basalt]

Running a Disney villain in a campaign?

[glossy otter]

Nah, just had the thought

[scenic gyro]

It’s D&D day! Opening up a new spelljammer campaign by rolling characters and watching Flash Gordon.

[hushed mason]

It's D&D day?

I'm watching Battlestar Galactica (2002).

[glossy otter]

thats July 27th

A bit early on the date

[scenic gyro]

I don’t believe in time.

[hushed mason]

Merry Christmas, then!

[scenic gyro]

And a happy new years to you!

[glossy otter]

Happy easter

[hot marlin]

Fun fact about time!

In the Elder Scrolls lore, a big "secret" (if you can call it that, it's not known by people in the setting) is that the god of time and the god of space are actually the same person

And I just love that.

[naive cedar]

Elder scrolls lore is so great

I think it might have the best lore of any video games franchise tbh

Also, happy Halloween

[random osprey]

does anyone have any tips to get my friends to play dnd again, we haven't played in 6 months and when we play two of my friends just argue?

[misty yacht]

Does anyone else find grim dark overdone and exhausting

[fossil hollow]

i dont usually try joining grim dark, so no

[hot marlin]

Depends. What kind of grim dark?

Berserk? Early chapters, golden age, conviction or elfland? 40K? But 40K Rogue Trader or 40K Ciaphas Cain or 40K Horus Heresy or 40K Helsreach?

[crimson gulch]

no, i just avoid it other that warrhammer memes that come across my feeds

[hot marlin]

Grimdark is more than one thing. It's a lot of things. And again, I will reiterate: Sometimes wallowing in darkness is good for you

[fossil hollow]

id rather not

[wise mica]

Wotc are theives

[clear trellis]

heya i kinda need some help

[fossil hollow]

im fairly sure theyre Wizards

[clear trellis]

do you know alot about D&D?

[glass granite]

Ask them

[hot marlin]

Some wizards are thieves! Wait till you see me plunder every other wizards to steal their spellbooks and scrolls

[fossil hollow]

Tasha would never

[hot marlin]

... I'm sorry, are you implying that there is anything Tasha wouldn't do on moral grounds?

[fossil hollow]

Tasha would never try stealing from lowly wizards

[glass granite]

You have summoned the wife

[reef tundra]

Tasha is too good for them <3

[reef tundra]

Yup

My wife has broken many laws

[fossil hollow]

what laws?

[reef tundra]

I ain't gonna snitch

[hot marlin]

Whose laws?

Laws don't exist in a vacuum. Someone writes them, someone enforces them, someone interprets them.

And who those people are informs the laws more than their actual content

[prime pewter]

Guess who's dm just said yes to letting their spellbook be a deck of tarot cards?

[fossil hollow]

Incubus?

[prime pewter]

No uh me

[hot marlin]

Incubus is currently relaxing playing Planescape Torment after a long day.

You know, Planescape: Torment. Great game. You should be playing it

[prime pewter]

Isn't that the one with fantasy new york?

(Sigil)

[fossil hollow]

Gimme RAM sticks and i will

[hot marlin]

Nobody needs RAM sticks to play Planescape Torment, the game literally uses less RAM than discord

[fossil hollow]

shhh

i need a new PC. And prices are exorbitant

[hot marlin]

I refuse to believe your current PC can't run Planescape Torment

[hot marlin]

Yes it is set in Vigil

[misty yacht]

all of it if someone describes a thing as grimdark i just feel so meh also grimdark is a genre what you gave were examples

[fossil hollow]

theyre asking what type of grimdark

[misty yacht]

yeah those aren't types those are just examples of grimdark media

a type would be scifi grimdark or apocalyptic

[hot marlin]

You misunderstand

I am saying that "Grimdark" is handled extremely differently by different properties, to the point of being unrecognizable.

It is not a genre as much as it is a tone. But even within that tone there are lots of nuances

[small heath]

Question: is there any crossover material between D&D and Runescape that's official?

[misty yacht]

Yeah but my statement is that its not the exhaustion of specific propterty that I feel. Rather it is towards the genre as a whole. And I can make the there is alot of nuances to [Genre] because properties within genere are diverse and media rarely adhre to fill a structure. But we still can identify the signifiers of a genre.

[naive cedar]

planescape torment is one of the best RPGs ever made tbh

[naive cedar]

I think there’s exhaustion with overtly dark media nowadays in general

[misty yacht]

You clearly enjoy and are knowledgeable of alot of different grimdark setting and that gives you an understanding of their nuances that I don't have but my point is that as a genre the setting has been done to death. However, your knowledge of the specifics of the nuances does not omit that a genre exists to categorize them.

It would be like someone going I hate romcoms. and me going which ones

Bride wars, my best friends wedding, my big fat greek wedding, maid in manhattan, mamma mia, how to lose a guy in 10 days

[hot marlin]

Actually grimdark is not exactly comparable to romcoms

Grimdark is a very ill-defined subgenre, still subject to debate as to its definition. And it is a subgenre defined by its tone rather than any actual content

While Romcom is not a subgenre, it's a genre.

[flat glade]

Hello chat, hows it going

[hot marlin]

And romcoms are not defined by their tone, they're defined by their content

So no, the sentence "I hate romcoms" does not require as much precision as "I hate grimdark". Because grimdark is a subgenre defined by tone, romcoms are a genre defined by storytelling conventions, aesthetics, tone and structure.

[naive cedar]

I feel like grimdark is also usually used as a prejorative

[dire berry]

I love Grimdarks in the setting of Warhammer 30k/40k, just because it suits.

[uncut zenith]

Only by people who don’t like it. No different than people who use it non-prejoratively when they love it

[naive cedar]

That being said, “I’m tired of overtly dark-for-the-sake-of-it media” is probably what people mean when they say “I hate grimdark”

[naive cedar]

What I mean is that people who use the term “grimdark” tend to be using it as a prejorative. Maybe it’s different nowadays, but people who like media that is often called “grimdark” don’t call it that from what I’ve observed

[hot marlin]

I admit I haven't been exposed to media I would call "dark for the sake of it"

[naive cedar]

Not sure if I can elaborate here but as someone who enjoys dark media, I definitely have

“Dark for the sake of it” is also somewhat subjective though

[hot marlin]

Indeed. And it's a bit strange on its face because you don't really see people complain about stuff being "light for the sake of it"

[naive cedar]

That is true but I do see people complain about media that is too idealistic or simplistic in its morality

[uncut zenith]

Idk, guess your experiences and observations have just been different from mine

[misty yacht]

romcom is a sub genere of romance movie and comedy movie

[naive cedar]

You could also call it a hybrid genre

[misty yacht]

romcoms are defined by their comedic tone

[uncut zenith]

Not to be a jerk, but maybe the classification of genres and whether they should be considered a genre or a subgenre is probably better suited for #non-dnd-topics

[misty yacht]

oops sorry didn't realize how far I have gotten from the topic 👀

[uncut zenith]

Again, not trying to be a jerk. But if the convo isn’t directly related to D&D, I’m sure the mods would want us to redirect unless we can tie it back into D&D.

[misty yacht]

no you're completely right and thats a fair point.

I will redirect to dnd, I wanna run crooked moon as a folk horror game with an adhrenece to what adam scovell's book on the genre should look and feel like but I don't know how to pitch this to players without them bringing grimdark backstories to the table.

[uncut zenith]

iirc Crooked Moon’s intro does a very good job of describing the general tone of folk horror

I think it also gives a couple of other forms of media used as inspiration, like Over the Garden Wall

[violet cave]

Out of curiosity, how many of you have played an evil alignment character in a campaign?

[uncut zenith]

I have

In fact, I still often do

[fossil hollow]

i have not ever touched an evil char

[violet cave]

evil characters are tricky cause you gotta make sure it fits with the campaign and that they don't clash too much with the rest of the party

[minor cargo]

I DM’d one that lasted like… 2 or 3 years. I learned a lot!

[still plover]

Yup. My Lady Reylana started as LE.

[lean wigeon]

i have once and it's with the intention of redeeming him in the story. everyone also knew this character is evil OOC
campaign ended before anything interesting happened with the character though cuz 📆

[lavish flame]

Only once, for an all-evil one shot. It didn't go well.

[karmic pendant]

I have never done this but that's because I don't like the idea of playing an evil character

[still plover]

Unlucky. At least it was a one-shot.

[uncut zenith]

Yep. Gotta give them a reason to cooperate with the party. So long as they’re not disruptive and/or causing problems for the rest of the party, it’s not that big a deal.

[minor cargo]

“Evil” was not necessarily the way the characters would describe the campaign I ran. The players and I would, but in the game, they were “agents of chaos” or “agents of vengeance” or “agents of freedom”.

There’s a lot to be said about bucking what society says you should be.

[uncut zenith]

In my opinion and experience, the problem with evil characters isn’t the alignment itself. It’s players who want to play “evil characters” as an excuse to play murderhobo-ing chaos engines who ruin the fun for everybody else at the table.

[karmic pendant]

The best way i can think of to make an evil party cooperate is make them all henchmen of a bbeg

Or take the suicide squad approach

[minor cargo]

It’s a great way to frame it! But same would go for “good” characters. “Henchmen of the Forces of Good.”

[violet cave]

yeah, more neutral and lawful evil characters tend to go a lot better than chaotic ones, though you still gotta have a reason why the rest of the party tolerates you

[marble lion]

i know plenty of people who use the term grimdark for stuff they like, but most longterm fans dont use the word much because its so overused that saying it makes you doubt people take you seriously

i dont use the word for anything anymore because of how memed and stereotyped the word is now

[uncut zenith]

Another thing that people tend to forget is that “evil” characters still tend to have loved ones. So even if the evil character may be with the party for selfish reasons, that doesn’t mean they can’t grow to love and appreciate everybody else in the party and want to help them too.

[prime pewter]

Wizard players: what's your unconventional spellbook?

[warped jay]

Ok so these adventure books read horribly, are there better resources or like fan-made rewrites of modules like Waterdeep: Dragonheist?

[still plover]

De Vor never got an alignment written down, but she could be a handful. The party tolerated her because tieflings gotta stick together, she had useful skills and she had their backs in a tight spot.

[uncut zenith]

A bag of spell-infused marbles

[marble lion]

could you point out your issues so people know what youre looking for? i really like how theyre written

[prime pewter]

Yum 😋

(Genuinely super cool)

[eager marsh]

supposedly, I had heard claims that adventuring books were written not from what makes the most sense to run them as a DM, but more to be read through like a book casually for someone that would buy the book to read and then never actually play it

[warped jay]

This makes tons more sense. I'd much rather have it it be presented as a reference document instead of with a particular "prose" though. The players don't get to read and it takes longer to learn. A mistake from my pov.

[eager marsh]

wotc makes many mistakes sadly

[marble lion]

from the little reading ive done with them, i dont think thats true

[feral fulcrum]

You know it's quite funny when your food fights back, and gets halfway through swallowing you whole. Pick fights with Enlarged sentient mushrooms.

[hot marlin]

Yes. Among every other thing I listed.

[eager marsh]

I'll offer up elemental evil as an argumet that it's true because I tried running that straight from the book and teh first area had 3 entirely separate sections of teh book with relevant information for the areas around and backstory. it was annoyiung af

[marble lion]

they definitely try to make them more fun to read

[misty yacht]

I think they said this convo should stay on topic

[hot marlin]

And I missed it, my bad

[marble lion]

i found the book structure quite intuitive, but yes you do need to go between sections regularly

i see that as a necessary evil though

if you want to structure things intuitively, its hard to also keep ALL info in one place

[eager marsh]

It's not actually

[naive cedar]

That makes sense

[marble lion]

the segments arent ordered in "everything for this part" but rather go by category

[uncut zenith]

I will say, the later adventure modules read better for the purpose of actually running the adventure, though some people online have complained about it being too “railroad-y”

[eager marsh]

ToA and even DoMM did that just fine

[marble lion]

here is the story
here is the regions
here is the trade stuff
here is the monsters
with only references within the actual story parts to the relevant things, and you then look them up in the book

i find that much smoother than if you actually put everything about each section into that part of the book

it reminds me of my personal notes i make for my own campaigns

i havent read the ones youre describing though so im shooting in the dark here

[crimson gulch]

I think waterdeep dragon heist was my least favorite campaign book to run

[eager marsh]

the 'seasons' thing from what i have heard about it alters everything and thus means every section would need 4 subsections?

[fossil hollow]

hoeh? Its one of my favorite modules

[marble lion]

the seasons are definitely a factor

[crimson gulch]

How many different ones have you ran again?

[livid owl]

I have run only one module before and it was for my family, the stranger things adventure book.

My dad set a room on fire as one of the first things they did in the dungeon 😭 I was , nice, and said the friendly goblins in the next room put the fire out while they took a long rest.

If I was really evil I would've had them suffocate & restart the adventure with a new team lollll

[fossil hollow]

Ive ran i think 2... 😭
But im more curious as to why

[livid owl]

Really good for starters I think

[crimson gulch]

Ah, like it's still perfectly good and I ran a great game with it, by design you just don't "get" to use enough of the dungeons

[livid owl]

Although it didn't give a lot of advice for if they go through the dungeon in the unintended order, so I feel like a new dm might panic?

[crimson gulch]

Extending the campaign into the dungeon of the mad mage was the best thing for that campaign imo

[fossil hollow]

ic ic

[livid owl]

Still very bite sized and manageable

[fossil hollow]

that is my current plan for it

[crimson gulch]

Dungeon of the mad mage had been soooo fun

[worn lagoon]

I don't have a non-evil character

They're not genocidal murder hobos that ruin sessions, they're usually just ruthless and profit-oriented

[livid owl]

Folks, what're your favorite character archetypes to play? The quiet and strong one, mischievous thief, the white knight etc. etc?

I haven't figured it out for DND yet but for writing in general I have the most fun with egotistical jerk characters. Someone who likes to hear their own voice-- mostly because I like watching them Suffer from their Own Actions

[worn lagoon]

spoilt noble and hedge wizard are two of my faves

[river wedge]

I haver a question, has anyone ever had custom coins commisioned for a prop at a DnD table?

[hallow drift]

I recently got the heroes of faerun book and I am loving it. But I really wish Astarions book of hungers had a physical release. Even if just as a small booklet like how fated flight of the recluse was released. It would be nice to have

[hallow drift]

My PCs usually end up being chaotic messes regardless of anything. They just devolve into that

[marble lion]

selfsacrificial quiet guy

its usually upon me to be the face though so thats a hard one

[hot marlin]

The arrogant severe one with a short temper and a deep attachment to specific conducts of behaviour, the slimy, political-minded manipulator, the old defender of the people...

[livid owl]

See I want to play someone that's a mix of the first two you listed there but I'm bad at being mean to people over voice 😭

[hot marlin]

The devoted one who speaks highly of their lord and master...

[hallow drift]

My advice: be mean to their characters, not them

[merry timber]

Nom :3

Haii peoples!

[livid owl]

Well yes that's the typical idea I just have a terrible time judging how personally they'll take it if my character is mean to their character 😭

[hot marlin]

I know one player who has... Never played a character anyone could like.

[livid owl]

LOL

[hot marlin]

In the last campaign I was with him, his character was murderous, impulsive, a general liability, cruel and idiotic

[hallow drift]

I get that. I guess for me making it clear ahead of time that "if I am mean to your character that is not directed to you as a player" is key if you want to play a very arrogant character. As long as the line between player and pc is drawn it should be fine

[hot marlin]

Let me tell you: Every session consisted of forcing myself not to go to the conclusion that my character would kill his

[hallow drift]

YIKES

[hot marlin]

And yeah, it was absolutely the conclusion. My character would have, should have killed his.

[fair oracle]

Hello, D&D people, I'm just visiting but I thought you guys could help me with a query.

What is the simplest way you can explain the difference between Neutral and Chaotic?

[livid owl]

I think the issue I've had thus far is my character in mind is a manipulator, very much a sweet-talker to avoid making enemies so balancing when he blows up/slips up has been difficult (that and his campaigns have never lasted past 3 sessions 💀)

[livid owl]

Neutral: Typically doesn't sway outside of their normal behaviors

Chaotic: Typically has wildly different methods from situation to situation

[fair oracle]

Hmm

If that's true then my character is indeed Neutral.

[violet cave]

a neutral character is someone who doesn't follow a strict code, but they will follow rules as long as they find them necessary

a chaotic character is someone who believes in personal freedom over rules and doesn't let others expectations or commands influence them, often times going in direct opposition to them

[fair oracle]

That's the explanation I had, but can a chaotic character still believe an institution is good but flawed or would they want to tear it all down?

[limber trail]

Lawful typically is a strict adherence to a set of guidelines, rules, or belief (internal or external). Chaotic, is a rejection of those sort of guidelines for the most part, instead taking things on a case by case basis. More likely to act independently in each situation. Not necessarily chaotic/unpredictable, just less bound to follow defined patterns. Neutral is somewhere in between. They have rules they follow, until they don't. Like a lot of people, neutral characters could be really simple or complex regarding that

[fair oracle]

This is a great explanation! So, a Chaotic character could choose to follow the rules if it's what he believes is best for the situation.

[violet cave]

depends, chaotic is somewhat of a blanket term

you could have a chaotic character who is a complete anarchist, or you could have someone who is part of an institution but generally tends to break it's rules whenever they feel like it

[limber trail]

A chaotic character for sure could belive in the power of an institution. They're probably less likely to run open arms to one, and base their entire life around one, but yeah they could value one for sure

[fair oracle]

Oh nice.

[limber trail]

I will say, a strict adherence to an institution is more of a lawful trait, but it's not exclusive and there's complexity to all nine alignments (contrary to what chaotic evil players might make you think)

[fair oracle]

In the proper context, my Jedi Master ultimately believes the Order is good to exist but parts of the code should be changed or rebelled against.

[limber trail]

sick

[fair oracle]

Thanks doode, for the explanation too.

I'll likely set him as Chaotic Good then.

[limber trail]

yeah for sure

I mean jedi like Anakin and Qui Gon themselves would fit that chaotic good archetype

[fair oracle]

Yuh

I also had the joy of running a Lawful Good Sith too

A light in the darkness sort of reformist.

[calm garnet]

I was looking forward to D&D all week, and the second before my husband started to get his dm notes ready, half the group was called by my stepson's mom to run errands for her. So they left, saying it was going to be quick and now it is, two hours later.

It is like they didn't even really care about D&D.

We are just probably going to cancel this week.

I'm dming next week- my one shot, and then it's my birthday. It seems like they don't even care unless we have snacks or make dinner and we just can't afford to all the time.

[livid owl]

Ohhh that sucks 🫂 I'm sorry that happened.

Sorry if I'm misreading it but have you considered playing DND outside of your family? And/or finding a more dedicated group.

[calm garnet]

It's just a couple who happens to also be friends with my stepson's mom. We only have 4 people in our group. 3 people and my husband as the dm. 2 people is 1/2 the group

We just don't have friends anymore since our last group split and went on with their lives

[iron herald]

I'm going to be playing one in a few months, starting chaotic and moving toward lawful. She's an Oni barbarian who is happy to beat the hell out of anyone who gets in her way, but doesn't go around psychopathically murdering everyone for no reason.
But over time I'm going to make her lawful evil as she develops a moral compass - which she gleefully enforces with an iron fist kanabo as a brutal punisher.

[livid owl]

Ahhh, yeah that'll do it. Again I don't know what really to suggest other than looking for someone else to play with if you truly think they don't care about the game. If it's just this one time occurrence then maybe give them another chance, but if they've had a pattern of not showing as much interest in the game as you'd like I don't think there's anything wrong in finding new players.

If not irl then maybe an online game- though that has its own problems of course

[livid owl]

I know game stores sometimes host DND nights and games, which is a good way to meet new friends with a shared interest. Online is also very viable for making new friends through even if they're not in your immediate area

[noble pine]

What do I need to do to get my character encumbered

[feral fulcrum]

Carry lots of heavy things.

[livid owl]

500 boxes

[noble pine]

What

[feral fulcrum]

500 boxes are heavy.

[noble pine]

Uncumbered

[feral fulcrum]

Unecumbered. Get rid of all the heavy crap you don't need that you're carrying around.

[fossil hollow]

you need tungsten

[livid owl]

I have a character who canonically carries around a tungsten cube in his backpack

or was it marble

it might've been marble actually
"Why do you need this"
"I will sculpt something beautiful someday! Don't want to be unprepared!"

[limber trail]

How else would you bludgeon an enemy to death or replace the pressure plated tungsten-weighted artifact

[hot marlin]

Normally I just take the artefact and try to take as many poison darts as I can. Then I grapple someone while I'm a pincushion

[turbid totem]

Hey, is there a system for ammo consumption and reservation? Like- monitoring how many arrows you have in your quiver or something? And having to scavenge for more?

Cause I was just thinking of making my own for a shotgun.

[cold sentinel]

Yall I I’m new to dnd and I’m not good at making characters and I made Rasputin as a dnd character if you want the build to look at it or js want it I can give it to you

[noble pine]

How do you carry more equipment/stuff

[noble pine]

I wouldn't mind

[feral fulcrum]

Increase your strength. Pick a race with something like Powerful Build or whatever it's called that treats you as a size larger for carrying capacity. Use Bag of holdings. Acquire a Wagon and horses to hold your unneeded junk and loot.

[cold sentinel]

Wait would I get banned if I sent a link to 5ecompainion?

[ripe nimbus]

buy a horse

or a mule

[hearty bay]

I have discovered a strange bias within

[hidden spindle]

Abacus?

Yeah, you should make your own!

[ripe nimbus]

that might sound silly but that really is 90% of what they're meant for and why they (and their carrying capacities) are in the equipment section

[hearty bay]

while I can see pretty much any class as any gender, somehow, I can't find male monks interesting

[feral fulcrum]

I mean they're also for the barely supported Mounted Fighters.

[turbid totem]

What's Abacus?

[ripe nimbus]

that's the 10%

[hidden spindle]

Make it a butler

[hidden spindle]

An ancient calculator of sorts

[ripe nimbus]

but yeah really if encumbrance is weighing you down, get a horse and dump your stuff into bags on the horse

[pastel sand]

Just wondering if anyone has a current campaign myself and my fiance can join? Were having issues with the one were in but I wanna find one before I leave the other one

[ripe nimbus]

an abacus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abacus

[noble pine]

What is push /drag/lift

[turbid totem]

Ooohhhh, huh, I was thinking more of a scavenge system along with a max bullet amount you can have in your inventory.

[turbid totem]

Oh I see!

[ripe nimbus]

the weight of objects you can easily push, drag along the floor, or lift above your head for brief periods of time. equal to twice your carrying capacity.

[stark maple]

I dmed too many people in a short amount of time and now im marked as a bot/spammer

[livid brook]

if i wanted to make a character thats primarily using a bow what would be better (assuming arcane archer/circle of stars/Battlesmith

artificer/druid
fighter/artificer
Druid/fighter

[hearty bay]

A bard. You always bow to your audience

[green gale]

Hey! Wasn't my first rodeo but I just posted in the find-a-game for the first time.

I felt like paid was my best option because I want to find serious DM's that want to commit to their passion and storytelling.

That said. What is the best way to document and showcase my experience? A traditional resume seems strange. No?

I just want to show that I am also an equal serious roleplayer.

Ive attempted to roleplay in warhammer40k, VTM, Starwars and other universes.

I'm also coming back to dnd to get a break from the others. 😅 after 5 years.

[karmic pendant]

Any of the classes that tends to use dex a lot could use a bow

[vale sage]

Ngl i just had an idea for a questionably horrifying villan

[glass granite]

Personal fav is fighter/druid there. And use guiding bolt as the arrow

[vale sage]

A lich/ vampire woman known as the "Mother of the lost" who takes children who have been abused or left without family and she concerts them into vampires ,they forever play in her "garden" aka a massive forest

The song "Come little children" is a major influence

[livid brook]

is there a feat that grants limitless arrows

[glass granite]

No

[livid brook]

unfortunate

[glass granite]

Indeed

[vale sage]

The kids wouldn't necessarily be evil but they wouldn't be human anymore,their lost to the shadows

[noble pine]

So a person has 18ib weight carrried but 150ob encummbered and 300ibs of the push/drag/lift

[vale sage]

They get to play forever without the pain of being unwanted

[hearty bay]

I had an idea for a horrifying pun out of that villain

[vale sage]

But,she sometimes takes kids who are lost in her forest who have good parents

She kills any adult that wonders to close

She would definitely be evil but in a lawful evil direction

[hearty bay]

Even the good parents?

[noble pine]

Are weights really important

[vale sage]

Yes

Or at least she would force them out

[hearty bay]

Without the kid, I assume

[vale sage]

She only has compassion for children and the lost

If you don't belong in her garden of shadows she won't take you to be one of her children

[hearty bay]

I could see that villain if one of a pc's kids is in the garden

(specially if, I meant)

[vale sage]

The lost as well can be adults but it's really gotta be specific

Like,if your a warrior who's lost their cause and purpose in life she will take you

[noble pine]

Are weight really important

[vale sage]

But if your some lord who's trying to cut down trees and sunder the land for your own greed she will drink you

[ripe nimbus]

depends on the DM

[hearty bay]

An alchemist who loses themselves to her garden often due to an awful sense of direction and, somehow, often visits her because of it

Initially she guides them out, since they're literally just wandering around

But upon enough transgressions, she lures them in

[hidden spindle]

Yes. For the most part, its largely ignored until it matters

[noble pine]

So a person has 18ib weight carrried but 150ob encummbered and 300ibs of the push/drag/lift

[vale sage]

If your a parent who's lost their family and their gone gone,like dead, and your grief is destroying you she will take your pain away

[ripe nimbus]

it's lbs, not ibs. lbs is libras, it's a Latin word for "pound"

[hearty bay]

Turns out the person in question is screwed up in ways it would make the entire garden pale(r)

[vale sage]

" Hush now child, your pain doesn't belong here, the shadows welcome you 💜 "

[hearty bay]

And they claim their map just guides them to her

[lavish flame]

"Depends" is the best answer. Some DMs will make a point to keep track of weight, some DMs won't. I personally keep track of Carrying Capacity, but not Push/Drag/Lift weights.

[vale sage]

Yess,I love it

[ripe nimbus]

if you're only carrying 18lbs then you really don't need to worry about encumbrance, you're nowhere near encumbered

[hearty bay]

When she asks them the map. The person kneels and asks for her to take their heart

[ripe nimbus]

but also why are you only carrying 18lbs

[vale sage]

I definitely feel like she can deal the difference between someone who belongs and who doesn't

[hearty bay]

And they become her arch follower

[ripe nimbus]

just food and water for a few days journey, plus a couple torches for a dungeon crawl, will get you above that

[hearty bay]

This would be a special case

Trauma buried deeply enough

[noble pine]

That's what the ammount the person has

[vale sage]

I feel like she would definitely be a reaper type character

[hearty bay]

Slowly surfacing as they fail over and over to get into her garden

[vale sage]

A guardian of the eternally dead

[ripe nimbus]

is it a game set in a city?

[vale sage]

Ngl highlander if your a DM feel free to use this

Or expand upon it if you want

[hearty bay]

I ain't, I just like making stuff up

[vale sage]

Fair enough lmao

[noble pine]

No that's what her character sheet she created says

[hearty bay]

I was gonna make a pun inspired by your character description

[stark maple]

guys why does a greatsword cost more then a maul

[hearty bay]

Like, imagine a vampire/lich who kills people with cursed cutlery

[vale sage]

I feel like she would definitely take the old and the sick

[hearty bay]

Name them Reese Witherspoon

[ripe nimbus]

are you the DM for this game?

also, is it 18lbs or 180lbs she's carrying?

[vale sage]

She definitely would sing like a siren

When she sings her children are drawn to it ,they sing with mother darkness

[hearty bay]

As soon as I've learned I can make character concepts on the fly, based on real actors or other characters, I really can't help but consider some as basis for my rpg characters in general

Had this diplomat/bard sort of character and couldn't build a visual concept for them in time for session 0, so I just slapped a picture of Saul goodman on my profile and rolled along until I could sketch something else

He became known as Mr goodman, until I decided his first name would be argenti

[gritty plover]

Hey guys?

[feral fulcrum]

And that's today's session wrapped. Didn't expect a giant horde of angry, armed mushrooms.

[gritty plover]

I'm very very new to this can someone help?

[noble pine]

I'm the dm for the campaign but new but she wants it for one shots too, I think it's 18 could be 180

[ripe nimbus]

ah, you don't have access to the sheet right now im guessing cuz it's with the player?

[noble pine]

Yeah

[ripe nimbus]

what's her class? @noble pine

[noble pine]

Wizard level 1 background sage

And high elf

[lavish flame]

Oh, a Wizard only carrying 18 pounds of equipment fully makes sense

[autumn goblet]

Consider the following everyone

Lichs

• Deals in souls
• Effectively immortal
• Need to destroy a phylactery to kill them
• Enslaves damned souls to work for them as underlings
• Sees any adversary as playthings
• Takes on the appearance of the necrotic energy they surround themselves with
  . .

Davey Jones

• Deals in souls
• Effectively immortal
• Need to destroy their heart to kill them
• Enslaves sunken souls to work for them as underlings
• Plays twisted games with anyone who poses a threat
• Takes on the appearance of sea creatures and other ocean dwelling animals they surround themselves with

In conclusion

Davey Jones is a nautical themed lich

Thank you for coming to my TED talk

[ripe nimbus]

even if you ignore the doubled-up equipment between background and class (i.e. give her 1 quarterstaff and 1 robe instead of 2), a Sage Wizard's starting gear should be 55lbs

unless she took the gold and bought some equipment herself

[still plover]

What do you need help with?

[gritty plover]

Idk how to play at all 😭

Idk I saw two books someone gave me

Thought it seemed cool

[still plover]

You'll be wanting the #dnd-newcomers channel.

[ripe nimbus]

i agree that "wizard carrying 18 lbs" is not nearly as shocking as "paladin carrying only 18 lbs" would be, though...

[gritty plover]

Okay!

[rough basalt]

Time for a nautical game that rips off Pirates of the Carribean two.

[limber trail]

now I want to run a pirate campaign....

[noble pine]

It just has Uncumbered weight

[autumn goblet]

Pirate campaigns are always fun

[limber trail]

scrapping all my campaign plans we're plundering the seven seas now

[autumn goblet]

I remember one time a party of mine all had the brilliant idea to play as pirate themed characters

We had me, classic swashbuckler rogue the captain
The barbarian used an anchor as a weapon and the heavy lifter
The druid was the navigator and foreman, had a parrot too
And the artificer had a walking cannon piece

[rough basalt]

I feel like I see a lot of talk about nautical games but never being ran

And I think it's cause of how much you need the right players

[noble pine]

@lavish flame this is one of my level 1

[autumn goblet]

Everyone wants to play them, but again its a DM shortage on someone who'd prefer to run it and not play it

[rough basalt]

Yeah and it can run into the issues sandbox games do

[autumn goblet]

The one I mentioned stopped short because the DM got burnout

[rough basalt]

Where the players don't have the ability to engage with a sandbox well enough to drive the game forward.

[rough basalt]

One I was in we never were actually nautical

We were shipwrecked on an island with one town and most of the townsfolk wouldn't speak to us and nobody would give plot hooks.

I spent like 2 sessions fishing and was like "yeah I'm out"

So needs the right DM too

[autumn goblet]

I tried another sea themed game

But 2 sessions in the DM said "thanks for playing the trial, now its 3 usd a session" (for a once a week game)

Never talked to them again

[noble pine]

I work on a campaign

[autumn goblet]

I like dnd games that are passion projects and fun to WANT to come back on your own

Not a subscription based game

[olive sky]

Anyone have any tips for a <18 yo. player looking for a dm?

[karmic pendant]

Try finding a campaign that doesn't say 18+ or just ask if there's an age limit on looking for players posts

[olive sky]

Thanks!

[livid brook]

is it possible for druid to get access to arcane eye or no

[mighty kestrel]

That's awful

[oak wasp]

And that's today's session wrapped. Didn't expect a giant horde of angry, armed mushrooms.

[worn lagoon]

if you weren't informed beforehand that's vile

[broken imp]

yeah

[autumn goblet]

I think his strategy was to get us invested early and attached to characters
But still, d*ck move

[limber trail]

that's crazy work

I'd quit on the spot right there

[livid brook]

how?

[autumn goblet]

I understand people wanna get paid for what they enjoy doing
And that people have bills to pay

But I feel like TTRPGs being subscription based isn't something that should be entertained

[limber trail]

You'd need to multiclass to get access to it

depending on the DM you might be able to find a magic item or spell scroll that lets you cast it

[autumn goblet]

The only time you should pay to play dnd

Is if you're buying snacks

[limber trail]

I think it's fair to charge for DnD but you gotta make that clear up front

[autumn goblet]

If it was like a famous person running dnd then hells yeah id pay to play

I want Morgan Freeman to narrate my game

[limber trail]

I mean there are some DMs out there who run high quality, professional level games as a service

but it's a different type of campaign style

[rough basalt]

Wait did he just drop the price on yall out of nowhere?

[livid brook]

is there an item or spell that works similar to arcane eye? (360 degree vision)

[autumn goblet]

Yes

[rough basalt]

Yeah that's dumb as hell

[autumn goblet]

Robe of eyes

[rough basalt]

I've had a dude try that before but he couldn't wait until the 1st session

He suddenly dropped "oh no me dm need 70 for this session" and I just laughed

People who try to scam using paid DnD aren't terribly common at least I don't think

Yeah it's a much worse problem in other systems

Where the only GMs want paid for running them cause they know there's no free GMs

[marble lion]

Its fine to run paid games, but certainly an atmosphere i dont want

Pitching in money for books or subscriptions is different

Dnd to me is way too shared and casual to have someone there who gets paid for it

I want to feel like were all doing this because want to do it with each other

[rough basalt]

I hope for their safety it's not an IRL game

Cause I could see some irl rolling initiative for that

[dusk crescent]

99% of DMs are not professional enough to be making their players pay them directly to play

[rough basalt]

At the very least, letting the local dnd community know he's a scammer so he can never run dnd games again unless he moves

[dusk crescent]

Nor do I think D&D campaigns should be something that should treated like a business

[rough basalt]

DnD can be a very expensive hobby so I don't think paid games are wrong either.

We spend money on outside entertainment all the time, it's just one of those cases

[glossy otter]

Hey guys. An odd question but one that's related to dnd, what do you guys think defines a mad god?

[noble pine]

What class are Goliath's

[marble lion]

Ive never met someone who feels that way about cooking or painting

[fossil hollow]

what?

[rough basalt]

They're a species not a class

[hushed mason]

One that is angry. 😄

[fossil hollow]

A goliath can be of any class

[marble lion]

Dnd is a direct personal interactive activity
You cant compare it to those

[dusk crescent]

Loads of high quality custom assets, very consistent scheduling, plenty of pre-planning, quality writing and world-building, etc.

[glossy otter]

Goliath's can be any class, they're a race/species

[rough basalt]

Cooking can be a very personal interactive activity, same with art

[glossy otter]

Oh hardy har har. Very funny 🤣

[marble lion]

But generally isnt

[noble pine]

What class dobplaywrs usually play golaths as

[grizzled lance]

Where’s the 3rd party channel

[fossil hollow]

#third-party