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

QOTD: What creature, which book, and what edition is this image from?

Bonus points if you can name the artist.

Quote from AEDorsay >>

QOTD: What creature, which book, and what edition is this image from?

Bonus points if you can name the artist.

 I’m not going to even try to guess. All I want to say is this looks like Gollum if he was a bird.

Quote from AEDorsay >>

QOTD: What creature, which book, and what edition is this image from?

Bonus points if you can name the artist.

 My best guess would be a 2e Vrock from possibly the Monstrous Compendium 8 or 14 if I'm right for the creature.

I've only ever played 5e, but I know that most 1e art was traced from comic books, while they got actual artists for 2e and the dragon magazines.

Quote from Baalzeboop >>

Quote from AEDorsay >>

QOTD: What creature, which book, and what edition is this image from?

Bonus points if you can name the artist.

 My best guess would be a 2e Vrock from possibly the Monstrous Compendium 8 or 14 if I'm right for the creature.

I've only ever played 5e, but I know that most 1e art was traced from comic books, while they got actual artists for 2e and the dragon magazines.

Sorry, that is not the creature, the book, or the artist.

The artist was hired as the original box set was being created, and he joined the original stable of artists that had been with the game since the earliest moments, such as Trampier. these original artists did not trace a lot of stuff because there wasn't anything to trace -- no one had ever drawn a lot of the stuff. This was especially true by 1975, when all art had to be original. by the time of 1e, in 1978/79, it would have killed the game to use traced art, bu also, they essentially created the modern visual depictions of most fantasy creatures.

I do find it interesting that you say "traced from comic books", given the particular artist involved, though. He didn't trace anything -- he drew it. 

And, as a reward for guessing, an extra hint: this creature was one of the earliest entries in the first major book to emerge from the failed effort to merge with another company to handle overseas sales.

One more guess and I'll reveal the answer.

Quote from AEDorsay >>

QOTD: What creature, which book, and what edition is this image from?

Bonus points if you can name the artist.

 I want to say this is the 2e version of the Aarakocra from the Monstrous Compendium? I'm not sure of the author though. (I might also be thinking of the colored version of this art so that might be throwing me off)

Quote from Coronet0 >>

Quote from AEDorsay >>

QOTD: What creature, which book, and what edition is this image from?

Bonus points if you can name the artist.

 I want to say this is the 2e version of the Aarakocra from the Monstrous Compendium? I'm not sure of the author though. (I might also be thinking of the colored version of this art so that might be throwing me off)

You are super close!

The answer is that it is the 1e version of the Aaracockra from the Fiend Folio, and the artist is Jeff Dee -- the youngest artist working in gaming at the time. He went on to co-create the superhero game Villains & Vigilantes while working for TSR, and left around 1981 as a result of the success of V&V.

V&V itself was more or less knocked out by Champions as the top Superhero genre game of the day, and was described often as "too D&D-like" in its resolution mechanics.

Quote from AEDorsay >>

Quote from Coronet0 >>

Quote from AEDorsay >>

QOTD: What creature, which book, and what edition is this image from?

Bonus points if you can name the artist.

 I want to say this is the 2e version of the Aarakocra from the Monstrous Compendium? I'm not sure of the author though. (I might also be thinking of the colored version of this art so that might be throwing me off)

 

You are super close!

The answer is that it is the 1e version of the Aaracockra from the Fiend Folio, and the artist is Jeff Dee -- the youngest artist working in gaming at the time. He went on to co-create the superhero game Villains & Vigilantes while working for TSR, and left around 1981 as a result of the success of V&V.

V&V itself was more or less knocked out by Champions as the top Superhero genre game of the day, and was described often as "too D&D-like" in its resolution mechanics.

 
Damn, I actually knew the answer, though not the extra credit answer, but missed posting it be 24 gorram minutes! 😂😂

Same.

V&V was a lot of fun. I wish I could find my rules.

it is the 2020's, and the internet is vast and broad. 

wink, wink, nudge, nudge

So, due to not being constrained by the "standard" cosmology, I have several different forms of energy that I can use for things like that:

• Celestial (regular game "radiant") -- sunny, star like, stellar
• Infernal -- Smokey, fiery, burning
• Radiant -- Alters luck, very bright
• Necrotic -- the energy of death (and life)
• Shadow -- Dream energy, one of my catch alls for shit i want to do something with
• Nether -- Psychic equivalent
• Spectral -- Astral/Ethereal/Ghost-like
• Palescent -- the closest to the "magic of life on this plane" and a catch all for just whatever.

I have a few others as well (Manic, Corruption, Pain, Heart) but they are way weirder.. One odd thing I did was that while my elements don't play rock-paper-scissors, my energies do. So I presented the above in pairs -- each pair opposes each other, and then the pairs themselves oppose:

• Celestial+Infernal opposes Shadow+Nether
• Radiant + Necrotic opposes Spectral+Palescent
• Shadow+Radiant opposes Nether+Spectral

and so forth.

So perhaps sit down and come up with a kind of system for different damage types, or energy types, and then assign them "counter-Types" and effect? Just to see what you can come up with and how that might expand possibilities?

Also, my 3 day was put in as a 7 day until I asked why, lol

Both of those sound awesome.

Quote from Gnomarchy >>

 

 

 
I don't hate this! My idea of using hollowed souls feels like your spectral damage type. My concern is that I do intend for this to be 5e compatible. Also, I'm less interested in what damage type the weapon does than what unfortunate outcomes its victim faces. In a game like Invisible Sun, it'd be easier because there are mechanical changes associated with characters feeling emotions, while despair essentially means nothing in a D&D game. And the idea of Anguish is that it captures the pain of an angel that has forever fallen from the light of its god.

That's where the part about Conditions comes in.

You can give them conditions and stay within the 5e framework.

For example: "electricity damage also caused the paralyzed condition for one round" is easy, and you can create conditions for things. 

The only catch to any of that kind of creative use is something like DDB -- where you can only function within what's been programmed and allowed so far; but that applies to any programmatic situation where you can't create it all yourself.

Radiant energy, for example, can actually cause advantage or disadvantage -- or remove them. As well as hurt. Celestial damage can burn and cause heat exhaustion and fatigue penalties. I even have a condition called shocked that is the same practical condition as paralyzed, but comes from exposure to certain electrical attacks.

So,I'm doing some little minor work around encounters and building stuff out and something struck me as very odd about the default CR system.

It is not the usual thing, though, lol -- it isn't about how monsters are set up, or about the 6 to 8 encounters per day thing.

It's that based on the Adventuring Day Table and the Advancement table, it takes 33 days for a PC to reach 20th level.

Could be just me, but that seems rather quick.

This also raises the usual questions about the number of encounters.

Now, if you use the "gritty realism" rules, it becomes 33.4 weeks, which is a bit more "seems ok". And if you stretch your adventuring day out to a month, then you have 34 months.

Quote from AEDorsay >>

So,I'm doing some little minor work around encounters and building stuff out and something struck me as very odd about the default CR system.

It is not the usual thing, though, lol -- it isn't about how monsters are set up, or about the 6 to 8 encounters per day thing.

It's that based on the Adventuring Day Table and the Advancement table, it takes 33 days for a PC to reach 20th level.

XP / Adventuring Day	XP / Level (base)	XP Needed to Advance	Encounters / Level
300	0	300	1.0
600	300	600	1.0
1,200	900	1800	1.5
1,700	2,700	3800	2.2
3,500	6,500	7500	2.1
4,000	14,000	9000	2.3
5,000	23,000	11000	2.2
6,000	34,000	14000	2.3
7,500	48,000	16000	2.1
9,000	64,000	21000	2.3
10,500	85,000	15000	1.4
11,500	100,000	20000	1.7
13,500	120,000	20000	1.5
15,000	140,000	25000	1.7
18,000	165,000	30000	1.7
20,000	195,000	30000	1.5
25,000	225,000	40000	1.6
27,000	265,000	40000	1.5
30,000	305,000	50000	1.7
40,000	355,000	--	--
Total Days			33.4

Could be just me, but that seems rather quick.

This also raises the usual questions about the number of encounters.

Now, if you use the "gritty realism" rules, it becomes 33.4 weeks, which is a bit more "seems ok". And if you stretch your adventuring day out to a month, then you have 34 months.

 I just use milestone experience.

I use a modified Milestone (based on the way that I construct my adventures), but to figure out the CR budget for an Encounter you have to use XP.

Which is why I was looking at XP.

I'm doing it so I can do a better job at building out my adventures and campaigns, kind of systematize things that I do a bit.

Was just a quirk that popped out to me. 

However, it led me to look into creating a "realistic" XP set up, lol. One where you aren't trying to create two 40,000 XP value Encounters at 20th level.

Yes,5e especially you can progress really fast. Gritty realism does extend it to about 3 years but that is still pretty fast. If you’re running different campaigns and worlds with different characters fairly regularly it’s not a problem. If you’re running a single world with all the campaigns set in it there can be a problem. You’re almost forced to generate some sort of epic campaign rules to handle PCs that hit L20. In my world I’ve mostly turned such characters into NPCs but they still impact the world and level/power up.

Quote from AEDorsay >>

So,I'm doing some little minor work around encounters and building stuff out and something struck me as very odd about the default CR system.

It is not the usual thing, though, lol -- it isn't about how monsters are set up, or about the 6 to 8 encounters per day thing.

It's that based on the Adventuring Day Table and the Advancement table, it takes 33 days for a PC to reach 20th level.

XP / Adventuring Day	XP / Level (base)	XP Needed to Advance	Encounters / Level
300	0	300	1.0
600	300	600	1.0
1,200	900	1800	1.5
1,700	2,700	3800	2.2
3,500	6,500	7500	2.1
4,000	14,000	9000	2.3
5,000	23,000	11000	2.2
6,000	34,000	14000	2.3
7,500	48,000	16000	2.1
9,000	64,000	21000	2.3
10,500	85,000	15000	1.4
11,500	100,000	20000	1.7
13,500	120,000	20000	1.5
15,000	140,000	25000	1.7
18,000	165,000	30000	1.7
20,000	195,000	30000	1.5
25,000	225,000	40000	1.6
27,000	265,000	40000	1.5
30,000	305,000	50000	1.7
40,000	355,000	--	--
Total Days			33.4

Could be just me, but that seems rather quick.

This also raises the usual questions about the number of encounters.

Now, if you use the "gritty realism" rules, it becomes 33.4 weeks, which is a bit more "seems ok". And if you stretch your adventuring day out to a month, then you have 34 months.

Something to note is that the adventuring day xp budget is based on the modified encounter xp, whereas the actual xp that you're supposed to get is just the xp of each monster added up (plus other sources as decided by the DM).

Quote from Gnomarchy >>

Anything surprise you all about the DMG reviews?

 Haven’t seen them yet. I’m guessing they are surprisingly negative?

Quote from Gnomarchy >>

Anything surprise you all about the DMG reviews?

 
I hadn't seen the alt-cover with Lull on it.

First review I read pissed me off when it said "you don't have to buy this to play the game, even as a DM."  I swore out loud, and mentally envisioned the author being sucked into the Abyss.

Some of the things I didn't like about Bastions are still in there -- but the art is pretty.

I was surprised to hear about Woll being asked to take part -- not so much the others, though. Wizards has done that kind of thing since thy bought the game -- and the "celebrities" in the eyes of the authors and major writers were always involved (MAR Barker, Vance, and that idiot from the early days of the IFGA were all part of the 1e AD&D books).

Oh, there's a surprise: This is Perkin's last go round. He won't be Product Head any longer in the books.