Tag: DnD

Twitter-Inspired Thoughts, Part I: This is Why the 5th Edition D&D Monster Manual is My Favorite RPG Bestiary @newbiedm @Dm_LSP @MerricB #DnD #5e

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Last Saturday, I tweeted the following.

All of those discussions were inspired by or involved NewbieDM, S Keldor lord of Castle Greyskull DMLSP (that’s a mouthful), Roving Band of Misfits, and Merric Blackman. I can say that NewbieDM and Merric are good at doing that; I’ve never interacted with S Keldor. Note that while I’ll be quoting them in these posts, much like my brain at 3 am acknowledged about me, I can’t do their arguments justice either. You’ll have to click through to see everything they’ve said. My only purpose here is to express my own opinions while providing context for their genesis and giving credit to those that inspired them. If you want to know what they think, click through and ask them to clarify.

To keep my posts short, each issue will be dealt with in its own post, all with this same introduction. | Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV |Part V |

Part 1: This is Why the 5th Edition D&D Monster Manual is My Favorite RPG Bestiary

The 4e and 5e Monster Manuals took opposite approaches to how they loaded them with monsters. Very generally, and something you all already know, the Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition Monster Manual (let’s just say MM going forward) sacrificed variety for detail. The 4eMM1 (get it?) was the first bestiary we had for 4e, yet it didn’t include some iconic monsters such as metallic dragons and frost giants. No frost giants?!?! Even a 4e apologist like me (stay focused!) complained. The trade off was that there was more room to discuss the ecology and history of the monsters that were included, and there were more stat blocks for each of those creatures within that group. Plus, we got humans as monsters. 😐

Bill Murray - Imgflip

5e took the opposite approach. With only a few exceptions, such as dragons, giants, and slaadi (I get a smug sense of satisfaction for knowing the proper plural form of slaad), we got no ecology or history and only one stat block per monster. This provided a lot of variety but considering how hard it is for new DMs to create monsters in 5e (compared to 4e), it was initially frustrating. On the bright side, they had room to give us the flumph. 😐

Bill Murray - Imgflip

Ironically, it would seem that WotC should have taken opposite approaches in both situations, giving us only one, easily-leveled monster for 4e, but giving us multiple monsters for 5e so that we didn’t have to figure out how to create them. But didn’t they? Foreshadowing!

Enough complaining. Considering the title of this post, there must be a happy ending. As a result of my one-stop stat blocks project, I have in my possession something that I’ll never publish: a Word document containing my treatment of all of the 5eMM stat blocks, including ones that aren’t actually in the 5eMM (i.e., variant giant lizards, diseased giant rats, cave bear, and variant insect swarms). That is, I recreated by rote every single stat block in the 5eMM and then some. That gave me some perspective that I’m not sure one can have without at least intently reading the book cover to cover relatively rapidly.

Reskinning monsters is pretty easy in 5e. Here are two examples. First, let’s look at the giants. Before my stat block project, I was arguing with a friend (let’s call him Rob #247). He didn’t like the 5eMM, and I did. He complained that all the giants were the same: weapon attack, throw a rock, and multiattack. He found it boring and uncreative. I don’t think that’s fair. First, it’s actually important that the giants are very similar. It gives a sense that the giants were related evolutionarily speaking. Granted, You have to suspend quite a bit of disbelief in order to play D&D, but when logic is successfully applied, it triggers our instincts for familiarity and order. Second, when you visit the glacial rift of the frost giant Jarl, you don’t expect to see many, if any, fire giants, stone giants, etc. Maybe you’ll see one other giant type who’s an envoy from his leader (such as the cloud giant ambassador in Steading of the Hill Giant Chief), but that’s about it. That means that you can easily adapt the stat blocks for the other giants into the ones you need, even at different CRs , without appearing to use the same stat blocks over and over. There are plenty of other creatures with similar formats (e.g., cyclopes) that can be used as any form of giant.

Let’s now consider the kraken. Maybe you want to unleash it (yeah, I know) on your PCs, but that’s not an option for low level characters. What do you do? Well, have a giant octopus capsize their raft. Still too high a level? Then have a rock capsize the raft, and send a bunch of octopuses (octopi isn’t an English word) attack them. Maybe such a low level encounter isn’t that high a priority for your adventure, making ordinary octopi (octopodes also isn’t an English word) unimportant, but if your BBEG is a kraken, they become important as a means of foreshadowing or providing a theme. Need a lower-CR treant? Try the awakened tree.

The bottom line: The stat blocks are connected in such a way that you realistically have several stat blocks at different CRs that can be trivially adapted to represent the monsters you want. Because the 5eMM went almost 100% in the direction it did, the connections are far better than I’ve ever seen in a bestiary. You don’t just have to reskin some unrelated monster. You can reskin something that’s really close to it both mechanically and thematically, no matter which one you choose. That makes the game far more accessible for DMs than it otherwise would be.

Talk about foreshadowing! My thoughts on accessibility are the topic of the next post!

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My Brief Thoughts on the Satanic Panic @WeisMargaret #DnD #RPG #SatanicPanic

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Margaret Weis, as nerds tend to do from time to time, recently reraised the issue of the Satanic Panic, sharing one of her anecdotes and inspiring others to do the same.

I don’t want to share an anecdote, but rather make some general comments. I was a victim of this bullshit. Though my father was present until the day he died, my mother did all of the child rearing, and she’s an infallibility-of-the-Pope Catholic. (She may not be because Pope Francis isn’t conservative enough, but I wouldn’t know because I no longer speak with her.) As the primary authority figure, she wasn’t fond of me playing D&D. Note well that her favorite way of disciplining me when I was too young to resist was hitting me with a metal spoon with a sharp edge to it. This was no small matter. Another way she liked to discipline me was to give my older brother a free pass to beat the shit out of me daily. They were both part of the Satanic Panic mistreatment.

I have an opinion as to why these dipshits were in such a panic. First, though, I want to assure you that I don’t want to insult the faithful generally. I’m an agnostic, but I see the value to religion, so if you’re religious, I’m cool with it. In fact, in my early days of congoing, I’ve helped make sure some of you found a church to attend in an unfamiliar city. You don’t have to be this way in order to be faithful, but some of you are.

I think D&D was seen as competition for my mother, et al. Even though I saw Zeus, Thor, Shango, and Raiden as the center of fun stories, they saw them as competitors to their religious thrones. I apologize for the offense this will cause, but I agree. They are competitors, because the philosophies, stories, and views of many of the religious even today aren’t much less ridiculous to me than those of the ancient people who would see a microwave oven as witchcraft. This is consistent with the fact that a lot of faith is placed in the writings of ancient people who, in fact, would also see a microwave oven as witchcraft. One who blindly accepts the words of people like that isn’t much better than those people.

Regardless of the psychological rationale, and regardless of your lack of experience with it, the Satanic Panic was real, as was the needless hurt it caused a lot of people. If anyone denies or understates the existence of the Satanic Panic, they’re either lying or ignorant as to its scope.

Perhaps both.

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The Best Lolth @TheRealLolth #DnD #RPG #Lolth

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Good gravy. Nerds have found yet another stupid thing to fight about. Well, I’m not one to say I’m better than anyone else, so I’m jumping into the fray.

This is the best Lolth (hyperlinked because I’m no copyright infringer!). Here’s another source in case that one disappears. That’s right. Just like the rest of the nerds, I think it’s not merely my opinion, but objective fact, and the world depends on everyone accepting that.

Don’t get me wrong. This sort of thing could be fun if you’d approach it that way. Unfortunately, the edition wars still rage on, so we’ve learned nothing.

Do you hear how ridiculous it sounds? Just because of this, I’m doing another mean post today.

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It’s Magic! #MCU #DnD #RPG

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I love merging two worlds that I love. In this case, it’s D&D and the MCU.

I think I’m getting some ideas for some characters . . . .

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An Inconvenient (Though Overblown) Truth @ITCrowdSupport #DnD #RPG #ITCrowd

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Going forward, Sundays are lazy days for me. I either post something silly or other people’s work. Usually both. Today, I deal with an inconvenient truth via a show that had some great moments.

Don’t shoot the messenger. Everyone’s doing it.

Of course, this is bullshit, as my experience has been that marriage is as common among nerds as it is among the general population.

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My Favorite D&D Classes @Erik_Nowak @WinterFantasy #DnD #RPG

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A few days ago, someone on social media asked for everyone’s favorite Dungeons & Dragons class (I know; not an original thought). I’m sure many would agree with me that the answer depends on the edition. I have firsthand knowledge that some would say it’s a stupid question. This post isn’t for you.

AD&D

I loved the monk. I don’t remember AD&D very well, but I played it a few years back on the van ride home from GenCon (which has since morphed into an annual van trip to Winter Fantasy known as Winter Vantasy, the best 14 hours in gaming). In that game, the monk seemed as effective a class as any other. This is despite things I’ve heard about how weak the class was. We weren’t 1st level, but even if the monk is weak at first level, it’s no weaker than a wizard, and the wizard has a huge payoff at later levels. As long as the monk was useful, it was fun.

2nd Edition

I started playing AD&D in 1977, but due to the Satanic Panic, I was prohibited from playing it after 1981. Ergo, I never played 2nd edition until — I’m going to guess — 7 or 8 years ago. My friend, Erik, ran a game over the course of two weekends, and I chose a bard based on my love of the bard class in 4e (the then-current edition). I enjoyed it. I played one other 2nd edition class in a 2-hour game a couple years later, and I don’t remember what that class was. So, saying the bard is my favorite 2nd-edition class wouldn’t be much of a statement, would it?

3.5 Edition

Easy choice: the Warmage. I returned to D&D in 2005, having missed 2e and 3e, and my first character was Frylock, the half-elf warmage (with two levels of rogue). He was fantastic, and no other 3rd-edition class compared. I don’t overpower my characters, so having a character that was inherently good in combat without much work on my part kept the table from being frustrated with my underpowered characters. The fact that my dice were weighted towards rolling 1s was another matter. I also liked the versatility spellcasters got, but sometimes I get overwhelmed and forget everything I can do. The warmage was much better focused, so I was less prone to forget things. Sorry, but I just don’t like playing games to be work. Maybe the 3.5e bard would have been fund, but I never thought to play one.

4th Edition

I loved playing “leaders” in 4e, and the flavor of the bard was (and remains) my favorite for role-playing purposes. My famously low d20 rolls were offset by my ability to help the other characters with healing and bonuses, so playing leaders was a win-win for the table. Me being able to roleplay an entertainer was always fun. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I enjoyed the swarm druid quite a bit, but it was no bard.

5th Edition

The bard wins again, just barely beating out the warlock. The flavor remains the same, so I imagine I’d prefer playing a bard in any edition. It’s a bit too complicated, leading me to forget, for example, to hand out bardic inspiration, but because everyone insists I cast Eldritch Blast on every turn, my warlock often gets spoiled for me.

Verdict

Clearly, the bard is my favorite in general. I never considered playing one until 4th Edition, when leaders became my thing. The AD&D bard has such huge barriers to entry that I can’t imagine many people played characters starting from 1st level that worked their way to it. Sure, it happened, but it was probably rare. The second edition bard was fun, and I never played the 3.5 edition one. Although I’m not a fan of 3.5e, maybe I’ll play again just to play the 3.5e bard.

By the way, the inspiration for this post was an article that google put in my feed: “D&D: How to Build the Perfect Bard.” If you’re interested in boosting your bardic power, maybe that article will help.

What are your favorite classes?

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#DruidWorldProblems @jwrp666 #DnD #RPG

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I must admit I never thought of this.

This meme reminded me of one of my favorite characters, who was the only druid I’d ever played up to that point. Named after Jeff Goodblum’s character in the Fly, Brundle was a thri-kreen swarm druid that could turn into small primates. In other words, he was a bug that turned into a swarm of little humanoids.

I played him in a Dark Sun campaign in which all but the human cleric were thri-kreen from the same hive. I was the middle child of the bunch (no acting necessary) and of low intelligence (no acting necessary), so everyone picked on me (no acting necessary). To make things easier on the DM, I wrote up the post-session journals but did so from the point of view of Brundle. The facts were largely accurate but overstated his importance and criticized the others as useless. Brundle was always the hero and leader of the group … in the journal.

4e swarm druids were the coolest druids.

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A Wizard’s Near Death Experience #DnD #RPG

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Going forward, Sundays are lazy days for me. I either post something silly or other people’s work. Usually both. Today, I provide one wizard’s near death experience.

May be a Twitter screenshot of text that says 'Roleplaying And Rollplaying @RRollplaying Wizard, waking up: What happened? Cleric: We revivified you. What's it like over there? Wizard: There's ..this table with people sıttıno around it...with dice...and I was a sheet of paper with numbers on it... Cleric, laughing: That's the dumbest shit I've ever heard! Posted in r/dndmemes by u/Goblynne24 reddit'

Never believe the nerdy bookworm.

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Follow Up and Post Mortem for @WinterFantasy 2021 @Erik_Nowak @DelveRPG @planejammer @SicedOne @slyflourish @rosamoonshadow @wavester71 @bethdamis @two2jimbo @ginnyloveday #WinterFantasy #DnD #RPG

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This post will make very little sense without the context of the last post. Here are just a few more notes on how this week went.

  • Dave really knows how to run these conventions. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, but you just can’t say it enough.
  • I had yet another game with Mike and Michelle, and again purely by coincidence. We didn’t plan it.
  • I played a couple of other games that, again, I doubted I’d enjoy, but I did.
  • It’s now official according to Facebook. Beth is my sister from another mister, and she knows something about me that I’ve shared with only on other person (though I think Stephen was listening in, dammit). Nobody better talk!
  • I don’t want to even look at scotch again. I had way too much.
  • I went on the carnivore diet for this week, and I again had great success with it. It’s incredible that I can eat ~1,100 and ~1,350 calories extra in the first two days and drop four pounds. I’m sticking with this until Tuesday and am still losing weight. It’s a remarkable diet, but I’m not willing to risk long-term health effects of diets that eliminate entire food groups. Maybe I’ll do it again in a year if necessary.

I may have been talked into attending GaryCon this year. We’ll see.

Thank you to everyone that was part of my convention time.

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. . . and so many more.

@WinterFantasy 2021, Online Gaming, and Online Drinking @Erik_Nowak @SRMacFarland @DelveRPG @planejammer @SicedOne @slyflourish @rosamoonshadow #WinterFantasy #DnD #RPG

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This week should have been my annual trip to Ft. Wayne, IN for Winter Fantasy. We climb into a van in Sterling, Virginia, and drive to the Arctic Circle, gaming along the way. We call it Winter Vantasy: The Best 8 Hours in Gaming. It’s essentially the only time I game all year, and virtually the only time I drink. On any given night, I have as many drinks as I drink the rest of the year. The drinking is why I go. I get to see all my friends and hang out with them at O’Reilly’s. So, my primary concern was that I could put together some Zoom rooms and hang out with friends.

This year is obviously different. Like every other industry, Winter Fantasy has shifted to online only due to the pandemic. Unfortunately, I’ve never liked online gaming, even before I stopped playing altogether, so I had little faith that aspect of the con it would work out for me.

Gaming

Surprisingly, the gaming has been better than I expected, so I’ve enjoyed it. At the last minute, I joined a table with Erik, who I always want to play with at least once. For my second game, my friends Mike (@slyflourish) and Michelle (@rosamoonshadow) coincidentally were on the same table with me. I was in Mike’s home game for years, so it was good to play with those two again. I had no games on Friday, but I’m optimistic that my two Saturday games will go well, and my Sunday game, the Eberron epic, will almost certainly be fun. The epics are always great, though I’m uncertain how much of the feel of an epic will be lost because it’s online.

Drinking

Of course, none of that matters. If all the games suck, I won’t care if I get to see my friends and down some Glenfiddich. And I’ve done that. Each night we’ve had a great time handing out. I’m fortunate to be an actual friend of high-profile people in the industry and community at large, and we’ve had a blast, but that exposes a weakness of the online experience.

The flip side to having this opportunity is that these rooms have limits. Zoom allows up to 100 attendees, but that’s impractical for anything other than a lecture. There are tons of people that I want to see, and they basically don’t fit. Moreover, because some of the attendees are high-profile, everyone wants to jump into our room. (If only they knew how heavy the conversations can get.) I keep inviting more people, but there’s no attrition. Everyone’s having such a good time that they keep coming back every damn night. Worst. First World. Problems. Ever.

There are going to be a lot of disappointed people this week, but there’s a flip side to this flip side. This doesn’t have to end this week. Many of us are trapped at home anyway. So if you’re interested in a Zoom meeting in the future, hit me up. We’ll schedule something. I’ll even drink. I bought a 1.75 liter bottle of scotch, and there’s no way I’m going to finish that this week. In fact, I want a commitment to meet up via Zoom at least once a month. That’s not hard, is it? If we meet every week, that’s fine, but I’m not asking for that as a commitment. I want us to commit to once a month. Easy peasy.

Admit it. You’ve got nothing better to do.

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