How streamlined everything is. I wish it were crunchier.
We are of different mind sets, clearly. :D
The fact that it is streamlined allows the games to run smoothly.
I currently play in a World of Darkness game that is very crunchy - and I feel like that can choke the game sometimes.
I never found WoD to have that problem, but I never ran the story for that, so I only needed to know my characters’ stuff. But the Magic system in particular was simpler than D&D’s because it just had examples of stuff that you could do at various power levels and the Storyteller just adjudicated based on those. Of course, that was an older edition of WoD, I’m not familiar with the current version.
Heh. I am not the DM of the World of Darkness game. I am the player. So in the Mage game - you're right, in a way - that it gives examples of what "Mind 2" does, for example. But that also leaves it very open to interpretation.
So rather than just knowing what it does - it becomes a discussion. "Well, with Mind 2 would I be able to use..." DM considers it. Then player says, "OK, so then I would like to..." DM considers it. Rather than just, "I read his mind" (if that's all Mind 2 did). Each time something happened in the Mage game - the game halted as we all tried to figure out what powers to use, and if they'd work how we think, see if the DM agrees with how we think we can use these powers.
In the Vampire game, it's far less of a problem because spells aren't really a thing you use in Vampire. It's more about Potent and Disciplines you have. But still, even doing skill checks - why isn't JUST THE SKILL? Why if I am brawling am I rolling the BRAWL and then need to roll Strength too? Why isn't it simplified to just roll Brawl? So there's weird quirky things about that.
Imagine if in D&D - "I want to make a Perception check." "OK. Click Perception. And also click Wisdom."
Just seems like there's needless steps.
I never minded that conversation, it just seemed natural to us. Roll twice? Why wouldn’t you just grab all the dice for both and roll them all together? (Or am I missing something?) Plus, after playing for a decade we kinda just knew what we could do and didn’t even bother rolling for lots of things. Imagine using Passive scores for most things. Then, when you do have to roll for something it really wasn’t a problem.
Ah, sorry - yes. Both the Mage and the Vampire (we also did Hunter, which I immensely enjoyed) are all remote - on Roll20.
So on Roll20 - when you click Brawl, you then select the secondary attribute that goes with it. And sometimes, it makes sense. Brawl + Strength, makes sense.
But there were some rolls, where I wasn't sure why the combo was being used - but new to the system, I just did whatever the DM told me.
(DM is someone I know in person, we just found it far more convenient to play online since several people have kids and it was easier to manage online, so they wouldn't have to drive somewhere, drive back, leave a significant other with kids, whatever the case... then when some players departed, some of the new ones were completely remote - as in not living anywhere close).
Ahh, that makes sense. We played in person so we just rolled all the dice together. I loved my Fallen, Tony Martelli, a mob boss. I also loved my Vampire, a Bruja named “Broken” Eddie Jones. He was broken because when he rose his fiancé was grieving graveside and in his hunger he drank her dry. When he realized what he’d done it broke him and he spent the next 200 years enabling and then feeding off of every drunk and junky he could to try to escape his reality. It wasn’t until Tony and his crew (a Werewolf named Hurst player by one of my best friends* and her pack) found him and promised to find a way to resurrect Eddie’s beloved that he finally found purpose. God I loved those characters.
*It was her (Hurst’s player) that came up with the “in their pockets” theory I mentioned earlier. You really know your character when you can list what’s in their pockets without having to look it up or think about it.
For the Hunter game, I really enjoyed that game - because the GM for that game is (was) in my "Work Game" which has been running for ... ugh, like six? Seven? Years now... and it was him as the GM, myself, and two other players (both of which are in the Work Game I run as well) - and the chemistry between us four was epic.
In that one, I was the son of a cop - but I, myself failed as a cop so I became a security guard. But my true passion (and the reason I failed as a cop) was because I wanted to be in a rock and roll band (this came very much from my own personality). I went as far as designing a logo for my "80s Metal Band" I was still in (called "Steel Destiny") and even found a very 80s Wizard and babes on the van - and photoshopped my "Steel Destiny" logo onto the van. Each session my character wrote "lyrics" for what they endured to put on his album. And I even went as far as getting album art and making mock CD covers. I even made fake fliers for the band, photoshopped them onto telephone poles. I was very, very into that character.
Then - the GM wanted to progress the game into Mage. So the other two players dropped (to be fair one was dealing with a new job, and the other always has a metric ton of stuff going on - so they dropped from what would become Mage, because they wanted to remain committed to my game). So then Mage became, the same GM. Myself, and four people he knew (one of which I'd played virtually with when the GM ran Out of the Abyss). That game was very bumpy because of how open it was - one of the players ended up dropping (and he was probably the most funny/RP person of the bunch of us). So it dropped down to 3 players and the GM. One of the players was constantly on travel for work, so it really boiled down to me and another - plus the GM - and those were great sessions, because neither myself or the other player were familiar with Mage - so it ended up being this entire RP session that centered around Ren Fair (which my character managed one of the Ren Fairs in San Diego). That was a lot of fun. The one who traveled became a more steady player again and the GM brought in an NPC to "help things move along" - and there were some fun stories (we fought some mages were into Mortal Kombat, which was fun) - but the game really halted a lot during any session with combat because we were trying to figure out how spells work (only the GM was familiar with World of Darkness/Mage). The Mage game was my least favorite if I had to decide between Hunter, Mage and Vampire (see below for Vampire). It was the one I was definitely least connected with, as a player, even though he too (with the Ren Fair thing) had a true piece of me. I just never bonded to the character.
That game eventually came to an end - and the same GM launched Vampire - brought his wife, myself, one of my co-workers (who is also in my Work game). His wife eventually dropped (which is a shame because she was fun to RP against! She's very witty and quick!), and then my co-worker dropped - so then the GM brought in two people he'd met through an online game - and both of them were very familiar with World of Darkness and Vampire. My character in the Vampire game was essentially Johnny Cage from Mortal Kombat. He was this guy who came from Ireland, came to Los Angeles to make it big - failed - ended up in San Diego where he worked at a small movie studio (based off the same movie studio in San Diego that made Veronica Mars and the show Renegade - called Stu Seagal Studios - but I changed it to Renegade Studios). It was there he was turned during the filming of a scene where he thought he was in a thriller movie - turned out it was a real vampire who bit him, and one of the main people who runs Renegade Studios. So he has all these small bit parts - and I even parody Mortal Kombat by saying he was in a movie called Portal Combat - where people from another dimension are trying to take over Earth! (See what I did there?) I even made a movie flyer for that one (it's posted on that game's discord). With the latest arrival of the two new people, Vampire has been all right - because they're very familiar and with my guy newly turned (only 5 years) - it makes it very easy for me (on purpose) to not know all the lore and significance when things get mentioned.
I really like the lengths you go to for your characters. The band logo, the flyer, it's all really cool.I'll do that a lot too, but they're normally really low quality and I just did it cause I was bored.
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after 2e (I think, maybe 3e) mages were removed and replaced with wizards, but they did a search and replace thing, so any time the word damage was used in early copies, it said daWizard, and same with any place it says image. Illusory object had the word image in the description and was replaced with iWizard on accident, which is really funny.
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The Goddess of the Strings (thanks for the title Drummer!)
I really like the lengths you go to for your characters. The band logo, the flyer, it's all really cool.I'll do that a lot too, but they're normally really low quality and I just did it cause I was bored.
Most of the "real world" type games (such as Hunter, Vampire, Mages), I tend to put pieces of me so that I have something to connect with the character. For Hunter, it was the 80s metal band (still very much me), Vampire is was the Johnny Cage/Mortal Kombat thing as he was one of my favorite characters from the game - and it's my favorite fighting game, hands down; and for Mages, it was the connection to the Ren Fair thing (and the Ren Fair segment was my favorite part because it was mostly RP, but this was the character I connected with the least, just because of how jaunting it was each time combat started - it took me out of the game, because I'd need to look at what sphere of Magic I had, and what those did, and some of the example spells, to see if I could do something useful).
A really random fun fact: after 2e (I think, maybe 3e) mages were removed and replaced with wizards, but they did a search and replace thing, so any time the word damage was used in early copies, it said daWizard, and same with any place it says image. Illusory object had the word image in the description and was replaced with iWizard on accident, which is really funny.
Ah, and they published this out? As official books without catching that? I should check, because I have all my older D&D books in the garage. Only D&D volume I never bought was 4th Edition - because I played it for several sessions and never cared for it. It felt like an MMO on paper to me, for some reason.
EDIT: To be clear, when I was mentioning Mages in my previous post - it wasn't Mages in D&D, but mages in another setting called World of Darkness. D&D Mages/Wizards are much easier (to me) than Mages in World of Darkness.
I really like the lengths you go to for your characters. The band logo, the flyer, it's all really cool.I'll do that a lot too, but they're normally really low quality and I just did it cause I was bored.
Most of the "real world" type games (such as Hunter, Vampire, Mages), I tend to put pieces of me so that I have something to connect with the character. For Hunter, it was the 80s metal band (still very much me), Vampire is was the Johnny Cage/Mortal Kombat thing as he was one of my favorite characters from the game - and it's my favorite fighting game, hands down; and for Mages, it was the connection to the Ren Fair thing (and the Ren Fair segment was my favorite part because it was mostly RP, but this was the character I connected with the least, just because of how jaunting it was each time combat started - it took me out of the game, because I'd need to look at what sphere of Magic I had, and what those did, and some of the example spells, to see if I could do something useful).
A really random fun fact: after 2e (I think, maybe 3e) mages were removed and replaced with wizards, but they did a search and replace thing, so any time the word damage was used in early copies, it said daWizard, and same with any place it says image. Illusory object had the word image in the description and was replaced with iWizard on accident, which is really funny.
Ah, and they published this out? As official books without catching that? I should check, because I have all my older D&D books in the garage. Only D&D volume I never bought was 4th Edition - because I played it for several sessions and never cared for it. It felt like an MMO on paper to me, for some reason.
EDIT: To be clear, when I was mentioning Mages in my previous post - it wasn't Mages in D&D, but mages in another setting called World of Darkness. D&D Mages/Wizards are much easier (to me) than Mages in World of Darkness.
I'm aware, it just made me think of that. Also I may be wrong about that fact, but I'm quite sure that official releases had that, but it was fixed in later prints of that edition. I'll look it up to provide sources
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The first volume was notoriously afflicted with a search-and-replace error, resulting all instances of "mage" being replaced with "wizard", including when appearing in other words like "image" and "damage", producing such sentences as: "The tower can absorb 200 points of dawizard before collapsing."
The reason that the original magic wielding class was called "Magic-User" is that it was supposed to be the class for any kind of magic using wielding archetype. Wizards, witches, Sorcerers, and so forth. This is why Tasha is a Witch despite there never having been a "witch" class.
The "illusionist" subclass was mean as a way to show how to make a narrower style "subclass", so that you could have those witches and warlocks and such.
The Four Great Archetypes are "Person who uses magic", "Person who uses weapons", "Person who sneaks around", and "Person on a mission from God". That last one acquired a whole new meaning in the years after the release of The Blues Brothers.
D&D uses a 1/120th scale because that was the miniature scale that they all understood from their wargaming days. Attempts to reset it to a 1/36th scale were consistently blocked by Gygax himself.This is despite the fact that miniatures released for the game by 3rd parties initially and eventually by TSR have typically been 28mm to 32mm, which is 1/60th scale.
So miniatures have always been twice as large as originally intended. 120th scale is 1' = 10 feet, 1/60th scale is 1" equals 5 feet, 1/36th scale is 1 inch equals 3 feet. If you ever wonder why the rules are so wonky about moving through spaces and such, it is because the underlying mechanics had competing realities.
(side note, I switched to 1/36th scale when I got my own miniatures printer, and suddenly everything makes sense, lol. As a benefit, a 6 foot tall character is about 60mm tall -- or almost 2 1/2 inches, so they are easier to paint and you can get in more detail. Another side benefit is that the 24 inch pixie can be printed at scale.).
Between 1978 and 1996, most D&D players were of two sorts, and they often didn't mingle, and there was a bit of a friendly rivalry between the two groups. Those two groups were the Basic players and the Advanced Players.When Wizards discontinued the Basic system (starting with 3rd Edition) a lot of Basic players left the game, because they weren't going to play that "horrible AD&D".
The first setting that TSR ever published was The City-State of the Invincible Overlord. Blackmoor was published after. City-state was not a D&D campaign, in the strictest sense.
Prismatic Spray and Chromatic Orb are spells lifted directly from the books of Jack Vance -- and are the oldest spells of the game.
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Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
My insomnia has been playing up lately so I'll chip in with my own odd D&D fact! There is a reflection of Neverwinter in the Shadowfell, called Evernight, where they worshipped Bhaal and Orcus. The river that splits Material Neverwinter is made of lava in Evernight, and most of the population is undead and in cahoots with Thay on the Material Plane. I really hope the Red Wizards adventure uses it as inspiration, or a D&D movie sequel if there is one!
Doing late night update and proofreading and came across perhaps one of my more obscurely humorous bits of lore.
It helps to know the context is that of a Culture Hero in a place that is like a D&D version of the Wild West with some unusual influences.
Marlow Lovecraft: One of the most famous of the Reeves, he was said to have brought to justice more men than any lawman before or since, and that they always confessed. Some called him the Eldritch Horror. He just called it an honest day’s work.
I don't even remember writing that. But at least I know why I credited "Cast a Deadly Spell" as an influence...
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Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Doing late night update and proofreading and came across perhaps one of my more obscurely humorous bits of lore.
It helps to know the context is that of a Culture Hero in a place that is like a D&D version of the Wild West with some unusual influences.
Marlow Lovecraft: One of the most famous of the Reeves, he was said to have brought to justice more men than any lawman before or since, and that they always confessed. Some called him the Eldritch Horror. He just called it an honest day’s work.
I don't even remember writing that. But at least I know why I credited "Cast a Deadly Spell" as an influence...
Doing late night update and proofreading and came across perhaps one of my more obscurely humorous bits of lore.
It helps to know the context is that of a Culture Hero in a place that is like a D&D version of the Wild West with some unusual influences.
Marlow Lovecraft: One of the most famous of the Reeves, he was said to have brought to justice more men than any lawman before or since, and that they always confessed. Some called him the Eldritch Horror. He just called it an honest day’s work.
I don't even remember writing that. But at least I know why I credited "Cast a Deadly Spell" as an influence...
Ooh! Is that for a homebrew setting?
Oh, lol, um, yes...
(watches everyone groan)
I am currently finishing up a five year long effort to create a new setting for my next series of campaigns (and officially my last fantasy setting ). The official title is Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities.
In December, I will release the three books (PDF) for it: Codexalia Wyrldica, Incarnalia Wyrldica, and Occultalia Wyrdlica, covering the world and "house rules" (which great expand the crunchy), the character creation part, and the Magic and psionics stuff.
As I mentioned earlier, the premise is "D&D without Tolkien". It also reimagines several systems. There are 18 classes, no subclasses, I took the idea of Feats and ran with it. There are elves and dwarves, but also a construct and kemonomimi for peoples. It uses the core six ability scores and then adds three: Perception (made into its own score), Sanity (from the options) and Mana. Mana is used to generate and determine magical capability -- it is a custom spell points system. There are systems for vehicle combat, mounted combat, additional conditions, Mage Duels, crafting, spell creation, expanded elemental magic, wilderness survival, and a reworking of the CR system that allows for a slightly different encounter basis and greater flexibility of creatures.
The Seven Cities are Sibola (typical D&D fantasy standard patriarchy), Durango (cross New York and Chicago mobsters with fantasy), Lyonese (Crafters and inventors in a Rooman and Spanish blend), Qivira (a mix of East Asian and middle eastern Influences), Aztlan (a tropical, matriarchal opposite of Sibola), Dorado (the Wild West), and Akadia (a Magiocracy). Ther are a lot of other places as well, lol, but they aren't part of the Empire.
A distinct Cosmology that has 7 planes and multiple dimensions, a differently structured alignment system, and an extremely customizable structure for classes that essentially allows you to create your own special version of that class.
It will all go up for free, as well. Roughly 1400 pages of material. The website will break it down into different posts, as well, and I expect to have an index for quick reference.
Among the classes are a gunslinger, a magical girl, a jedi, a shaman, and a detective (Reeve). All the classes are completely new, though I re-use names. The world is an open world concept -- so once you create your character (which includes isekai options) it is very much up to you what you do in the world. I have the first campaign (21 adventures for 20 levels) outlined and ready, and the second one is sorta in process already. I hit pretty much every major genre along the way, and all of the adventures are based on popular films (though not usually fantasy films).
it is a lot. Even for me.
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Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
How streamlined everything is. I wish it were crunchier.
We are of different mind sets, clearly. :D
The fact that it is streamlined allows the games to run smoothly.
I currently play in a World of Darkness game that is very crunchy - and I feel like that can choke the game sometimes.
I never found WoD to have that problem, but I never ran the story for that, so I only needed to know my characters’ stuff. But the Magic system in particular was simpler than D&D’s because it just had examples of stuff that you could do at various power levels and the Storyteller just adjudicated based on those. Of course, that was an older edition of WoD, I’m not familiar with the current version.
Heh. I am not the DM of the World of Darkness game. I am the player. So in the Mage game - you're right, in a way - that it gives examples of what "Mind 2" does, for example. But that also leaves it very open to interpretation.
So rather than just knowing what it does - it becomes a discussion. "Well, with Mind 2 would I be able to use..." DM considers it. Then player says, "OK, so then I would like to..." DM considers it. Rather than just, "I read his mind" (if that's all Mind 2 did). Each time something happened in the Mage game - the game halted as we all tried to figure out what powers to use, and if they'd work how we think, see if the DM agrees with how we think we can use these powers.
In the Vampire game, it's far less of a problem because spells aren't really a thing you use in Vampire. It's more about Potent and Disciplines you have. But still, even doing skill checks - why isn't JUST THE SKILL? Why if I am brawling am I rolling the BRAWL and then need to roll Strength too? Why isn't it simplified to just roll Brawl? So there's weird quirky things about that.
Imagine if in D&D - "I want to make a Perception check." "OK. Click Perception. And also click Wisdom."
Just seems like there's needless steps.
I never minded that conversation, it just seemed natural to us. Roll twice? Why wouldn’t you just grab all the dice for both and roll them all together? (Or am I missing something?) Plus, after playing for a decade we kinda just knew what we could do and didn’t even bother rolling for lots of things. Imagine using Passive scores for most things. Then, when you do have to roll for something it really wasn’t a problem.
Ah, sorry - yes. Both the Mage and the Vampire (we also did Hunter, which I immensely enjoyed) are all remote - on Roll20.
So on Roll20 - when you click Brawl, you then select the secondary attribute that goes with it. And sometimes, it makes sense. Brawl + Strength, makes sense.
But there were some rolls, where I wasn't sure why the combo was being used - but new to the system, I just did whatever the DM told me.
(DM is someone I know in person, we just found it far more convenient to play online since several people have kids and it was easier to manage online, so they wouldn't have to drive somewhere, drive back, leave a significant other with kids, whatever the case... then when some players departed, some of the new ones were completely remote - as in not living anywhere close).
Ahh, that makes sense. We played in person so we just rolled all the dice together. I loved my Fallen, Tony Martelli, a mob boss. I also loved my Vampire, a Bruja named “Broken” Eddie Jones. He was broken because when he rose his fiancé was grieving graveside and in his hunger he drank her dry. When he realized what he’d done it broke him and he spent the next 200 years enabling and then feeding off of every drunk and junky he could to try to escape his reality. It wasn’t until Tony and his crew (a Werewolf named Hurst player by one of my best friends* and her pack) found him and promised to find a way to resurrect Eddie’s beloved that he finally found purpose. God I loved those characters.
*It was her (Hurst’s player) that came up with the “in their pockets” theory I mentioned earlier. You really know your character when you can list what’s in their pockets without having to look it up or think about it.
For the Hunter game, I really enjoyed that game - because the GM for that game is (was) in my "Work Game" which has been running for ... ugh, like six? Seven? Years now... and it was him as the GM, myself, and two other players (both of which are in the Work Game I run as well) - and the chemistry between us four was epic.
In that one, I was the son of a cop - but I, myself failed as a cop so I became a security guard. But my true passion (and the reason I failed as a cop) was because I wanted to be in a rock and roll band (this came very much from my own personality). I went as far as designing a logo for my "80s Metal Band" I was still in (called "Steel Destiny") and even found a very 80s Wizard and babes on the van - and photoshopped my "Steel Destiny" logo onto the van. Each session my character wrote "lyrics" for what they endured to put on his album. And I even went as far as getting album art and making mock CD covers. I even made fake fliers for the band, photoshopped them onto telephone poles. I was very, very into that character.
Then - the GM wanted to progress the game into Mage. So the other two players dropped (to be fair one was dealing with a new job, and the other always has a metric ton of stuff going on - so they dropped from what would become Mage, because they wanted to remain committed to my game). So then Mage became, the same GM. Myself, and four people he knew (one of which I'd played virtually with when the GM ran Out of the Abyss). That game was very bumpy because of how open it was - one of the players ended up dropping (and he was probably the most funny/RP person of the bunch of us). So it dropped down to 3 players and the GM. One of the players was constantly on travel for work, so it really boiled down to me and another - plus the GM - and those were great sessions, because neither myself or the other player were familiar with Mage - so it ended up being this entire RP session that centered around Ren Fair (which my character managed one of the Ren Fairs in San Diego). That was a lot of fun. The one who traveled became a more steady player again and the GM brought in an NPC to "help things move along" - and there were some fun stories (we fought some mages were into Mortal Kombat, which was fun) - but the game really halted a lot during any session with combat because we were trying to figure out how spells work (only the GM was familiar with World of Darkness/Mage). The Mage game was my least favorite if I had to decide between Hunter, Mage and Vampire (see below for Vampire). It was the one I was definitely least connected with, as a player, even though he too (with the Ren Fair thing) had a true piece of me. I just never bonded to the character.
That game eventually came to an end - and the same GM launched Vampire - brought his wife, myself, one of my co-workers (who is also in my Work game). His wife eventually dropped (which is a shame because she was fun to RP against! She's very witty and quick!), and then my co-worker dropped - so then the GM brought in two people he'd met through an online game - and both of them were very familiar with World of Darkness and Vampire. My character in the Vampire game was essentially Johnny Cage from Mortal Kombat. He was this guy who came from Ireland, came to Los Angeles to make it big - failed - ended up in San Diego where he worked at a small movie studio (based off the same movie studio in San Diego that made Veronica Mars and the show Renegade - called Stu Seagal Studios - but I changed it to Renegade Studios). It was there he was turned during the filming of a scene where he thought he was in a thriller movie - turned out it was a real vampire who bit him, and one of the main people who runs Renegade Studios. So he has all these small bit parts - and I even parody Mortal Kombat by saying he was in a movie called Portal Combat - where people from another dimension are trying to take over Earth! (See what I did there?) I even made a movie flyer for that one (it's posted on that game's discord). With the latest arrival of the two new people, Vampire has been all right - because they're very familiar and with my guy newly turned (only 5 years) - it makes it very easy for me (on purpose) to not know all the lore and significance when things get mentioned.
“Portal Combat,” I love it! And I totally dig the movie posters and the band flyers and stuff too. A friend of mine is hand drawing all the band flyers and posters for the band associated with one of his characters for the Cyberpunk game we’re in, so I totally respect that
Have you ever tried just playing in a WoD campaign with mixed Vampire/Werewolf/Fallen/Hunter/Etc.? It’s a lot of fun as long as you can come up with reasons for the various PCs to not be at each other’s throats.
I gotta admit I liked my Mage character the least too, she just didn’t grab me the same as my other PCs did, and that was in part due to the magic. I dunno why though, because Mage Magic and Werewolf Magic and Vampire Magic all pretty much work the same mechanically. 🤔💁♂️
Have you ever tried just playing in a WoD campaign with mixed Vampire/Werewolf/Fallen/Hunter/Etc.? It’s a lot of fun as long as you can come up with reasons for the various PCs to not be at each other’s throats.
I've asked - because, as I love Wolves - Werewolf (ironically the only one we've not played so far) is of interest. But the GM said - same thing - they're all at ends and would need to find a reason - and that in many respects there's a sense of unbalance between the different character types.
So, onc any of you have a Bastion, I need to know the answer to important questions.
Will you have a retainer in that Bastion named Atreyu?
Will that loyal, fiercely dedicated retainer have a horse named Artax?
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Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Have you ever tried just playing in a WoD campaign with mixed Vampire/Werewolf/Fallen/Hunter/Etc.? It’s a lot of fun as long as you can come up with reasons for the various PCs to not be at each other’s throats.
I've asked - because, as I love Wolves - Werewolf (ironically the only one we've not played so far) is of interest. But the GM said - same thing - they're all at ends and would need to find a reason - and that in many respects there's a sense of unbalance between the different character types.
Finding reasons isn’t that hard, no harder than a rogue and a paladin working together, or an elf and an orc. And they aren’t that imbalanced, certainly not so much that a GM can’t fix it with boons or items or something. My GM did it.
So, onc any of you have a Bastion, I need to know the answer to important questions.
Will you have a retainer in that Bastion named Atreyu?
Will that loyal, fiercely dedicated retainer have a horse named Artax?
Atreyu and Artax are much better names and characters than what I was probably going to do. Why do you ask?
Edit: changed the wording a little bit
Well, see, let me place you into the Neverending Story...
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Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
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For the Hunter game, I really enjoyed that game - because the GM for that game is (was) in my "Work Game" which has been running for ... ugh, like six? Seven? Years now... and it was him as the GM, myself, and two other players (both of which are in the Work Game I run as well) - and the chemistry between us four was epic.
In that one, I was the son of a cop - but I, myself failed as a cop so I became a security guard. But my true passion (and the reason I failed as a cop) was because I wanted to be in a rock and roll band (this came very much from my own personality). I went as far as designing a logo for my "80s Metal Band" I was still in (called "Steel Destiny") and even found a very 80s Wizard and babes on the van - and photoshopped my "Steel Destiny" logo onto the van. Each session my character wrote "lyrics" for what they endured to put on his album. And I even went as far as getting album art and making mock CD covers. I even made fake fliers for the band, photoshopped them onto telephone poles. I was very, very into that character.
Here's a post I made about it (think I shared this before on here) - http://neverendingnights.com/archives/4406
Then - the GM wanted to progress the game into Mage. So the other two players dropped (to be fair one was dealing with a new job, and the other always has a metric ton of stuff going on - so they dropped from what would become Mage, because they wanted to remain committed to my game). So then Mage became, the same GM. Myself, and four people he knew (one of which I'd played virtually with when the GM ran Out of the Abyss). That game was very bumpy because of how open it was - one of the players ended up dropping (and he was probably the most funny/RP person of the bunch of us). So it dropped down to 3 players and the GM. One of the players was constantly on travel for work, so it really boiled down to me and another - plus the GM - and those were great sessions, because neither myself or the other player were familiar with Mage - so it ended up being this entire RP session that centered around Ren Fair (which my character managed one of the Ren Fairs in San Diego). That was a lot of fun. The one who traveled became a more steady player again and the GM brought in an NPC to "help things move along" - and there were some fun stories (we fought some mages were into Mortal Kombat, which was fun) - but the game really halted a lot during any session with combat because we were trying to figure out how spells work (only the GM was familiar with World of Darkness/Mage). The Mage game was my least favorite if I had to decide between Hunter, Mage and Vampire (see below for Vampire). It was the one I was definitely least connected with, as a player, even though he too (with the Ren Fair thing) had a true piece of me. I just never bonded to the character.
That game eventually came to an end - and the same GM launched Vampire - brought his wife, myself, one of my co-workers (who is also in my Work game). His wife eventually dropped (which is a shame because she was fun to RP against! She's very witty and quick!), and then my co-worker dropped - so then the GM brought in two people he'd met through an online game - and both of them were very familiar with World of Darkness and Vampire. My character in the Vampire game was essentially Johnny Cage from Mortal Kombat. He was this guy who came from Ireland, came to Los Angeles to make it big - failed - ended up in San Diego where he worked at a small movie studio (based off the same movie studio in San Diego that made Veronica Mars and the show Renegade - called Stu Seagal Studios - but I changed it to Renegade Studios). It was there he was turned during the filming of a scene where he thought he was in a thriller movie - turned out it was a real vampire who bit him, and one of the main people who runs Renegade Studios. So he has all these small bit parts - and I even parody Mortal Kombat by saying he was in a movie called Portal Combat - where people from another dimension are trying to take over Earth! (See what I did there?) I even made a movie flyer for that one (it's posted on that game's discord). With the latest arrival of the two new people, Vampire has been all right - because they're very familiar and with my guy newly turned (only 5 years) - it makes it very easy for me (on purpose) to not know all the lore and significance when things get mentioned.
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
I really like the lengths you go to for your characters. The band logo, the flyer, it's all really cool.I'll do that a lot too, but they're normally really low quality and I just did it cause I was bored.
Your friendly trans bard!
She/They pronouns
The Goddess of the Strings (thanks for the title Drummer!)
A really random fun fact:
after 2e (I think, maybe 3e) mages were removed and replaced with wizards, but they did a search and replace thing, so any time the word damage was used in early copies, it said daWizard, and same with any place it says image. Illusory object had the word image in the description and was replaced with iWizard on accident, which is really funny.
Your friendly trans bard!
She/They pronouns
The Goddess of the Strings (thanks for the title Drummer!)
Talking about it made me dig up where I had my character "write the soundtrack for the movie" - http://neverendingnights.com/archives/4581
Most of the "real world" type games (such as Hunter, Vampire, Mages), I tend to put pieces of me so that I have something to connect with the character. For Hunter, it was the 80s metal band (still very much me), Vampire is was the Johnny Cage/Mortal Kombat thing as he was one of my favorite characters from the game - and it's my favorite fighting game, hands down; and for Mages, it was the connection to the Ren Fair thing (and the Ren Fair segment was my favorite part because it was mostly RP, but this was the character I connected with the least, just because of how jaunting it was each time combat started - it took me out of the game, because I'd need to look at what sphere of Magic I had, and what those did, and some of the example spells, to see if I could do something useful).
Ah, and they published this out? As official books without catching that? I should check, because I have all my older D&D books in the garage. Only D&D volume I never bought was 4th Edition - because I played it for several sessions and never cared for it. It felt like an MMO on paper to me, for some reason.
EDIT: To be clear, when I was mentioning Mages in my previous post - it wasn't Mages in D&D, but mages in another setting called World of Darkness. D&D Mages/Wizards are much easier (to me) than Mages in World of Darkness.
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
Hiya
I'm aware, it just made me think of that. Also I may be wrong about that fact, but I'm quite sure that official releases had that, but it was fixed in later prints of that edition. I'll look it up to provide sources
Your friendly trans bard!
She/They pronouns
The Goddess of the Strings (thanks for the title Drummer!)
Your friendly trans bard!
She/They pronouns
The Goddess of the Strings (thanks for the title Drummer!)
Trivia?
The reason that the original magic wielding class was called "Magic-User" is that it was supposed to be the class for any kind of magic using wielding archetype. Wizards, witches, Sorcerers, and so forth. This is why Tasha is a Witch despite there never having been a "witch" class.
The "illusionist" subclass was mean as a way to show how to make a narrower style "subclass", so that you could have those witches and warlocks and such.
The Four Great Archetypes are "Person who uses magic", "Person who uses weapons", "Person who sneaks around", and "Person on a mission from God". That last one acquired a whole new meaning in the years after the release of The Blues Brothers.
D&D uses a 1/120th scale because that was the miniature scale that they all understood from their wargaming days. Attempts to reset it to a 1/36th scale were consistently blocked by Gygax himself.This is despite the fact that miniatures released for the game by 3rd parties initially and eventually by TSR have typically been 28mm to 32mm, which is 1/60th scale.
So miniatures have always been twice as large as originally intended. 120th scale is 1' = 10 feet, 1/60th scale is 1" equals 5 feet, 1/36th scale is 1 inch equals 3 feet. If you ever wonder why the rules are so wonky about moving through spaces and such, it is because the underlying mechanics had competing realities.
(side note, I switched to 1/36th scale when I got my own miniatures printer, and suddenly everything makes sense, lol. As a benefit, a 6 foot tall character is about 60mm tall -- or almost 2 1/2 inches, so they are easier to paint and you can get in more detail. Another side benefit is that the 24 inch pixie can be printed at scale.).
Between 1978 and 1996, most D&D players were of two sorts, and they often didn't mingle, and there was a bit of a friendly rivalry between the two groups. Those two groups were the Basic players and the Advanced Players.When Wizards discontinued the Basic system (starting with 3rd Edition) a lot of Basic players left the game, because they weren't going to play that "horrible AD&D".
The first setting that TSR ever published was The City-State of the Invincible Overlord. Blackmoor was published after. City-state was not a D&D campaign, in the strictest sense.
Prismatic Spray and Chromatic Orb are spells lifted directly from the books of Jack Vance -- and are the oldest spells of the game.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
My insomnia has been playing up lately so I'll chip in with my own odd D&D fact! There is a reflection of Neverwinter in the Shadowfell, called Evernight, where they worshipped Bhaal and Orcus. The river that splits Material Neverwinter is made of lava in Evernight, and most of the population is undead and in cahoots with Thay on the Material Plane. I really hope the Red Wizards adventure uses it as inspiration, or a D&D movie sequel if there is one!
Resident Mushroom 🍄
Doing late night update and proofreading and came across perhaps one of my more obscurely humorous bits of lore.
It helps to know the context is that of a Culture Hero in a place that is like a D&D version of the Wild West with some unusual influences.
Marlow Lovecraft: One of the most famous of the Reeves, he was said to have brought to justice more men than any lawman before or since, and that they always confessed. Some called him the Eldritch Horror. He just called it an honest day’s work.
I don't even remember writing that. But at least I know why I credited "Cast a Deadly Spell" as an influence...
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Ooh! Is that for a homebrew setting?
Resident Mushroom 🍄
Oh, lol, um, yes...
(watches everyone groan)
I am currently finishing up a five year long effort to create a new setting for my next series of campaigns (and officially my last fantasy setting ). The official title is Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities.
In December, I will release the three books (PDF) for it: Codexalia Wyrldica, Incarnalia Wyrldica, and Occultalia Wyrdlica, covering the world and "house rules" (which great expand the crunchy), the character creation part, and the Magic and psionics stuff.
As I mentioned earlier, the premise is "D&D without Tolkien". It also reimagines several systems. There are 18 classes, no subclasses, I took the idea of Feats and ran with it. There are elves and dwarves, but also a construct and kemonomimi for peoples. It uses the core six ability scores and then adds three: Perception (made into its own score), Sanity (from the options) and Mana. Mana is used to generate and determine magical capability -- it is a custom spell points system. There are systems for vehicle combat, mounted combat, additional conditions, Mage Duels, crafting, spell creation, expanded elemental magic, wilderness survival, and a reworking of the CR system that allows for a slightly different encounter basis and greater flexibility of creatures.
The Seven Cities are Sibola (typical D&D fantasy standard patriarchy), Durango (cross New York and Chicago mobsters with fantasy), Lyonese (Crafters and inventors in a Rooman and Spanish blend), Qivira (a mix of East Asian and middle eastern Influences), Aztlan (a tropical, matriarchal opposite of Sibola), Dorado (the Wild West), and Akadia (a Magiocracy). Ther are a lot of other places as well, lol, but they aren't part of the Empire.
A distinct Cosmology that has 7 planes and multiple dimensions, a differently structured alignment system, and an extremely customizable structure for classes that essentially allows you to create your own special version of that class.
It will all go up for free, as well. Roughly 1400 pages of material. The website will break it down into different posts, as well, and I expect to have an index for quick reference.
Among the classes are a gunslinger, a magical girl, a jedi, a shaman, and a detective (Reeve). All the classes are completely new, though I re-use names. The world is an open world concept -- so once you create your character (which includes isekai options) it is very much up to you what you do in the world. I have the first campaign (21 adventures for 20 levels) outlined and ready, and the second one is sorta in process already. I hit pretty much every major genre along the way, and all of the adventures are based on popular films (though not usually fantasy films).
it is a lot. Even for me.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
“Portal Combat,” I love it! And I totally dig the movie posters and the band flyers and stuff too. A friend of mine is hand drawing all the band flyers and posters for the band associated with one of his characters for the Cyberpunk game we’re in, so I totally respect that
Have you ever tried just playing in a WoD campaign with mixed Vampire/Werewolf/Fallen/Hunter/Etc.? It’s a lot of fun as long as you can come up with reasons for the various PCs to not be at each other’s throats.
I gotta admit I liked my Mage character the least too, she just didn’t grab me the same as my other PCs did, and that was in part due to the magic. I dunno why though, because Mage Magic and Werewolf Magic and Vampire Magic all pretty much work the same mechanically. 🤔💁♂️
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
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Content Troubleshooting
I've asked - because, as I love Wolves - Werewolf (ironically the only one we've not played so far) is of interest. But the GM said - same thing - they're all at ends and would need to find a reason - and that in many respects there's a sense of unbalance between the different character types.
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
So, onc any of you have a Bastion, I need to know the answer to important questions.
Will you have a retainer in that Bastion named Atreyu?
Will that loyal, fiercely dedicated retainer have a horse named Artax?
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Atreyu and Artax are much better names and characters than what I was probably going to do. Why do you ask?
Edit: changed the wording a little bit
She/Her | Femboy Nerd
Moderator for the The 2 Story Tavern and Return of The Spider Guild
~Extended Signature~
Devilishly Cute
Finding reasons isn’t that hard, no harder than a rogue and a paladin working together, or an elf and an orc. And they aren’t that imbalanced, certainly not so much that a GM can’t fix it with boons or items or something. My GM did it.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
How's that for a question of the day?
Tolkien is so ingrained into everything that it can be difficult to untangle the skeins. Errol Flynn movies and Sinbad come to mind though.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Curious if you know the origins for those? Don't look deeply - find the source and watch it.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Well, see, let me place you into the Neverending Story...
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds