Anything BUT whatever dumb ass 💩 WotC has recently done or is currently doing, literally ANYTHING

It remains true that one of the most important features of a good TTRPG setting is blank spaces.

The Forgotten Realms still has more than you'd think, after all this time, but the 5e version also left out some areas that had previously been detailed. Did they do it to save pages? Maybe. But either way, it works.

I did get "internet yelled at" by some young pup who was in charge of a D&D worldbuilding group or forum or something once because I never did any real "creation" work smaller than towns -- that was when I learned that bottom up types are really cranky about it, lol.

For me, it is important that a world feel lived in and feel real -- that as you walk along the markets and alleys of it in your mind, you can get a taste for what is there. It is why I try to add in stuff about clothing and architecture. But D&D is a collaborative game -- the moment I start that campaign, the world is no longer mine and mine alone -- it is a shared space, and it changes and grows and develops, and so I create that "blank space" there below the town level -- where actual play happens -- so that it can do so without feeling like a straight jacket overly much..

But it also means having some limits at times, lol -- I really don't think I could handle the 60 races currently available that I can see in the race listing here. I can maybe go for a dozen. My ideas of fantasy are not the same as a lot of other folks (especially given how many games I see are based entirely around some anime or tv show or a specific single video game or the like). That's why I collect ideas first, and get a feel for things, and then make them work together.

On the other hand, I did a stat block for the Ikon of the Sisters last night, so Imma feeling pretty good today, lol.

Quote from Nothic2SeeHere_ >>

QotD: When you DM, how do you spend your pre-session prep time?

Set up stuff, read through my notes, and order the pizza.

So, we had a lot of conversation about iit, but decided that Sorcerers need to be reworked (the Wyrlde version) as it doesn't quite work properly and is too difficult for us to really work out, since we shifted a lot of the abilities they had out.

I considered giving them the parton part, but for now, with the collapse of the archetype we were planning on using, we opted to not use them. So there will only be 18 classes to start, and I have the joy of coming up with a whole new basis.

Sigh

Also, nope. Not 2nd.

Quote from Nothic2SeeHere_ >>

Page 2? Disappointing.

QotD: When you DM, how do you spend your pre-session prep time?

If I'm running a module, usually by procrastinating if it's online and sweating if it's IRL. But I'm not in any active game now outside of the PBP one here and I'm not DM there at the moment so I'm really not doing much prep at the moment lol.

Quote from AEDorsay >>

So, we had a lot of conversation about it, but decided that Sorcerers need to be reworked (the Wyrlde version) as it doesn't quite work properly and is too difficult for us to really work out, since we shifted a lot of the abilities they had out.

I considered giving them the parton part, but for now, with the collapse of the archetype we were planning on using, we opted to not use them. So there will only be 18 classes to start, and I have the joy of coming up with a whole new basis.

Sigh 

Also, nope. Not 2nd.

It happens. If there's anyone who I'd trust to quickly or effectively remodel a class - nonetheless one that was your heavily modified version of a sorcerer - it'd be you.

For players here: do you ever look up monsters after a battle out of curiosity? I'll sometimes check out a statblock after (NEVER during the fight, don't worry) facing a monster I haven't seen before (assuming it isn't entirely a homebrew creation). Sometimes it adds a little extra spice of "oh man, I'm sure glad I passed that one saving throw."

For DMs: how often would you say you use monsters straight from sourcebooks vs tweaking them or homebrewing your own? I'm still early in my DM journey and mostly been using things out of the box but have made a few of my own monsters.

Quote from Thorrison >>

For DMs: how often would you say you use monsters straight from sourcebooks vs tweaking them or homebrewing your own? I'm still early in my DM journey and mostly been using things out of the box but have made a few of my own monsters.

I usually use them straight out of the sourcebook, although I’ll often reflavor things without changing base statistics. For example, the undead captain of a ship in a campaign/tavern I’m running has vampire statistics with a different set of weakness, and his Call of the Night summons seabirds instead of bats. His Shapechange is also tweaked. This way, I can trust that the hit points and attack damage are still balanced, but it feels like an entirely different creature to face in battle.

Quote from Thorrison >>

For DMs: how often would you say you use monsters straight from sourcebooks vs tweaking them or homebrewing your own? I'm still early in my DM journey and mostly been using things out of the box but have made a few of my own monsters.

 I use modified stats a lot. I don’t actually play D&d very much but I do have some characters on taverns. An example of a modified statblock is my character Sylvi.

Sylvi’s stats were originally a keeper of hounds from the book of Ebon Tides, but I wanted her to be a bit more melee focused, and since she’s a witch I decided to make her have an unrealistically high strength score of 26. I then replaced her Rapier with an axe and increased her wisdom a bit. For her companion Tily the wolf, Tily is just a dire wolf for now.

Quote from Thorrison >>

For players here: do you ever look up monsters after a battle out of curiosity? I'll sometimes check out a statblock after (NEVER during the fight, don't worry) facing a monster I haven't seen before (assuming it isn't entirely a homebrew creation). Sometimes it adds a little extra spice of "oh man, I'm sure glad I passed that one saving throw."

Almost never. Why spoil it for myself? That is, unless I think I might want to use it when I’m DMing for another group. But even then, it might be homebrew anyway, so I can’t without asking for it and then we’re back to spoilers.

For DMs: how often would you say you use monsters straight from sourcebooks vs tweaking them or homebrewing your own? I'm still early in my DM journey and mostly been using things out of the box but have made a few of my own monsters.

 
For run of the mill, mooks & minions I run them straight outta the books a lot of the time. For lieutenant level villains they get some customizations. For BBE (or equivalent) level NPCs I usually create them as custom jobbers for myself.

Quote from Thorrison>>

For players here: do you ever look up monsters after a battle out of curiosity? I'll sometimes check out a statblock after (NEVER during the fight, don't worry) facing a monster I haven't seen before (assuming it isn't entirely a homebrew creation). Sometimes it adds a little extra spice of "oh man, I'm sure glad I passed that one saving throw."

Not really. I have almost always read about the monster and so I don't need to look them up afterwards. If I haven't read about the monster, I don't own it so I can't.

For DMs: how often would you say you use monsters straight from sourcebooks vs tweaking them or homebrewing your own? I'm still early in my DM journey and mostly been using things out of the box but have made a few of my own monsters.

 I like to use official monsters and homebrew my own. Sometimes I completely homebrew something new, sometimes I adjust the statblock to make it more interesting, sometimes I use the same stats but reskin the monster so the players don't recognize their opponents. 

Quote from Thorrison >

For DMs: how often would you say you use monsters straight from sourcebooks vs tweaking them or homebrewing your own? I'm still early in my DM journey and mostly been using things out of the box but have made a few of my own monsters.

 Haven't used any homebrew in games yet. Mainly if I want to tweak monster sttackst I just change the damage type and the name. For example, say I want to change the zombies slam attack to a bite attack. I just rename it to 'bite' and change the damage type to piercing. (Still lackluster, since most likely it should inflict some condition or diseases or something if we want to make it more interesting, but just throwing out examples)

Quote from Thorrison >>

For DMs: how often would you say you use monsters straight from sourcebooks vs tweaking them or homebrewing your own? I'm still early in my DM journey and mostly been using things out of the box but have made a few of my own monsters.

So, the scary, sad, horrible truth is that I often use them straight of the source book. But it also depends on how "common" the monster is. THe more common a monster is, the less likely I am to use them as they are presented in the books.

It also depends on the flow of the game, though -- I might set up a scene and think "hmmm. A gelatinous cube would be great here, but they need to be much smaller, and more extrudy." Or in a warehouse scene I might have a pile of lumber be a mimic that has decided to strike out for new territory and has been very cautiously preying on the unwary.

However, there is also the whole thing in the near future where I can't use certain styles of monster, so a lot of them will be major tweaked. Zombies are much harder to deal with, for example. Demons feed on emotion, devils feed on flesh, hags feed on magic.

Wyrlde has a lot of focus on encroachments from from other dimensions, and different dimensions have their own main kind of bad guy, so those all have assorted variants that go with them -- phantasms from the Astral, Specters from the ethereal, fell and fey from feywilde, bothersome little green and red bastards called Kauns -- the first famous one of which was named Lepre Stiltskin (his brother was far nastier).

given that, I suppose I should also note the "played straight" humor thing is a big part of my monsters. I mean, if players ever do encounter the bonacon, they are so not going to be plussed by the acidic poop thing.

Quote from Thorrison >>

For players here: do you ever look up monsters after a battle out of curiosity? I'll sometimes check out a statblock after (NEVER during the fight, don't worry) facing a monster I haven't seen before (assuming it isn't entirely a homebrew creation). Sometimes it adds a little extra spice of "oh man, I'm sure glad I passed that one saving throw."

For DMs: how often would you say you use monsters straight from sourcebooks vs tweaking them or homebrewing your own? I'm still early in my DM journey and mostly been using things out of the box but have made a few of my own monsters.

 
Because I like to use monsters I've not used before for a party - as they proceed to adventure and gain levels and abilities - opportunities to use some of those monsters won't fit (not in the right environment, for example) - so I often will begin to tweak monsters to be able to use them when I can. In most cases, I am simply adjusting their Hit Points and their "To Hit" chances (and "Damage") to match what would be adequate for the level of the party. Sometimes, I may change the AC as well (if the monster is a CR 2 monster who I am converting to a CR 6 monster, for example). I also often do the reverse - if there's a CR 6 monster, I want the party to fight one - I will reduce things like AC, Hit Points, and "To Hit."

Very rarely I will give the creature additional abilities (unless I am making a climate specific creature) - for example, a band of trolls living inside a volcanic cave are no longer taking that special damage from fire since they're natively surrounded by it. I might change it to Force Damage or Acidic damage, to adapt.

Today's game is a good example - party was tracking down evil cultists - and the cultists were upped in AC, Hit Points, To Hit and Spells to match the level 8 party they were going to face - they also had with them the two-headed cerberus monster (three of them) - and all I did was up the monster's hit points in that case (I left the creature's AC and "To Hit" and "Damage" the same). Because it was a party of six level 8 characters, I just needed the dogs to have extra hit points (because I relied on their pack tactics to have advantage and at least get in some hits from time to time). It worked out nicely because two of the party members were monks who frequently stun everything - and these beasts are immune to stun. So it was just what I needed to have a challenge. The extra health pool kept them in the fight longer to take advantage of that pack tactics, while the cultists cast spells.

Quote from Thorrison >>

For players here: do you ever look up monsters after a battle out of curiosity? I'll sometimes check out a statblock after (NEVER during the fight, don't worry) facing a monster I haven't seen before (assuming it isn't entirely a homebrew creation). Sometimes it adds a little extra spice of "oh man, I'm sure glad I passed that one saving throw."

For DMs: how often would you say you use monsters straight from sourcebooks vs tweaking them or homebrewing your own? I'm still early in my DM journey and mostly been using things out of the box but have made a few of my own monsters.

 Sometimes after a session I will look it up but only if I had never heard of it before. It helps to expand my GM game.

I often use low level creatures as is. For new players, it's new to them and traditional. I want to believe that every D&D player has some sort of experience with goblins, kobolds, orcs, and taverns. For experienced players, it's a warm up to familiarity.

Higher level, I mess with a lot. I want to give players something different from what they expect. 

Quote from Thorrison >>

For players here: do you ever look up monsters after a battle out of curiosity? I'll sometimes check out a statblock after (NEVER during the fight, don't worry) facing a monster I haven't seen before (assuming it isn't entirely a homebrew creation). Sometimes it adds a little extra spice of "oh man, I'm sure glad I passed that one saving throw."

Yeah sometimes and I've seen a couple other people do it, though it can arguably become an issue if they check out the stat block of a monster they don't realize is a recurring theme in the dungeon or campaign. For instance, I was a player in The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan (from Tales From the Yawning Portal) and another player looked at the Vampire Spawn stat block after we encountered a couple. And that was kinda annoying for the DM because they had added them all over that dungeon.

But I do sometimes do this, just rarely. And I find I already know most stat blocks tbh.

Quote from Thorrison >>

For DMs: how often would you say you use monsters straight from sourcebooks vs tweaking them or homebrewing your own? I'm still early in my DM journey and mostly been using things out of the box but have made a few of my own monsters.

I usually do monsters straight from the Monster Manual, but sometimes modify things and very rarely completely make new monsters.

Sometimes I get a wild hair and need to figure out how to describe something that only I can see in my head, lol.  That, inevitably, leads me to try and figure a way to draw it out, which never ends well, since the politiest thing to say about my capacity for placing pencil to paper is that I at least understand the insult I am inflicting on the paper and the pencil.

So, Wyrlde is in a self contained "universe" of just the one solar system and trying to visualize The Firmament, which iis the whole thing of it, is a bit of a challenge -- akin to the challenge of how to explain the universe is a flat world on the back of a turtle, lol.

So, very late last night and then first thing this morning, I put some effort down to try and get a visual for it. Several iterations through Powerpoint, assorted graphics tools, and my overall goal has finally been reached:

The Firmament, as seen from outside.

Believe it or not, this shows all the planets, the peculiar cometary cloud, and of course the star at the center, and all of it started out looking like this:

Meanwhile my brother is humblebragging to me over text messages as a way of talking to me for the first time in a decade because he's in Rome at the Vatican on a vacation. It is a strange day.

Couldn't leave well enough alone, so I also did a shot of the night sky from Avilon proper -- where you can see the moon that is quite literally Iyah, lol.

When you remember that each star is not only a fiery ball of fire, but also a pocket dimension where a hero from the God's War is residing in a personal heaven, the scale of the God's War becomes pretty apparent.

Oh, and the extra bright "star" to the lower right of the big moon is the actual colony ship, still in orbit around the planet. This image would be right around the start of the game, as well -- within a couple days of the new year. Based on the phases of Coyola (the big moon) and Themis.

And yes, these posts are just to keep the thread high on the page, lol.

Quote from AEDorsay >>

 

Meanwhile my brother is humblebragging to me over text messages as a way of talking to me for the first time in a decade because he's in Rome at the Vatican on a vacation. It is a strange day.

Heh. The Vatican is cool, but most of it is just a tourist trap. Plus, it’s like 90 degrees in there regardless of the season. You’d think if he was gonna brag about something he’d pick, I dunno, the Colosseum or Palatine Hill or something.

Quote from Nothic2SeeHere_ >>

Quote from AEDorsay >>

 

Meanwhile my brother is humblebragging to me over text messages as a way of talking to me for the first time in a decade because he's in Rome at the Vatican on a vacation. It is a strange day.

Heh. The Vatican is cool, but most of it is just a tourist trap. Plus, it’s like 90 degrees in there regardless of the season. You’d think if he was gonna brag about something he’d pick, I dunno, the Colosseum or Palatine Hill or something.

 
He knows I did it in the 80's, and that I am kinda down right now, so it works, lol. he's both more religious and more politically right than I am (natch -- we've always been night and day). So this is a big deal for him.

Quote from AEDorsay >>

Quote from Nothic2SeeHere_ >>

Quote from AEDorsay >>

 

Meanwhile my brother is humblebragging to me over text messages as a way of talking to me for the first time in a decade because he's in Rome at the Vatican on a vacation. It is a strange day.

Heh. The Vatican is cool, but most of it is just a tourist trap. Plus, it’s like 90 degrees in there regardless of the season. You’d think if he was gonna brag about something he’d pick, I dunno, the Colosseum or Palatine Hill or something.

 
He knows I did it in the 80's, and that I am kinda down right now, so it works, lol. he's both more religious and more politically right than I am (natch -- we've always been night and day). So this is a big deal for him.

Hm. Well, to each their own, I guess.