|
Post by davegibsongreyhawkdm on Sept 12, 2016 9:07:10 GMT -5
Specialization is a case of mistaken identity. Its basically a person who sticks a pommel where the sun don't shine on a nightly basis (see Archer class in DM #45 JAN 1981; Gygax on Specialization in DM #66). The way that I see ii is if you specialize and win then you're playing 2E. In original AD&D when you specialize you lose out because you can't operate any treasure because of your "relationship". In 2E when your playing a "realistic" campaign with a DM who can't handle anything magical because they're permanently wet-behind-the-ears then specialization is an overpowered boon because the fighter who chooses variety is at a loss permanently. The fighters who chose variety back in UA and prior were the ones with weird new weaponry while the specialist was stuck with the same shit for years due to advancement being based on actual tactics and not good glib conversation at the table.
|
|
|
Post by davegibsongreyhawkdm on Sept 12, 2016 9:09:27 GMT -5
I did let a PC try out the archer class in my campaign while DMing KotB. That PC died in B2 and I never had another archer PC in the campaign.
|
|
|
Post by davegibsongreyhawkdm on Sept 12, 2016 9:31:27 GMT -5
I keep hearing that 5e is a step in the right direction and closer to 1e/2e -- even close to compatible with them. But these monster descriptions... eh, I don't care for the flavor. It is like when some guy tells you "In my campaign world, elves are from this other plane, and dragons and giants are elementals and blah blah blah," and you're thinking "that isn't my cup of tea, but whatever." But the problem is now that guy is getting to imprint his own campaign world ideas onto classic D&D monsters in a core edition of D&D rules... That's not really adding anything valuable to the game. Now, if someone wants to create their own monsters and do their own "Forgotten Realms Monster Manual" or whatever, I'm fine with that. But I hate to see classic monsters being imprinted with crap fantasy.
|
|
|
Post by davegibsongreyhawkdm on Sept 12, 2016 10:17:20 GMT -5
My interest in 5e has been to evaluate if particular gameplay mechanics are improved versus 1e or not. For the 5e MM, I am therefore more interested in the monster mechanics versus 1e, for I agree that the flavor throughout the 5e MM is awful throughout.
From a gameplay mechanics standpoint, I might experiment to use modified 5e mechanics rules, monsters, and PC creation to introduce new players to the D&D game, rather than to use either basic D&D or OD&D mechanics rules.
The adventure modules, flavor, and style are other matters entirely! Gygaxian Greyhawk AD&D and also Moldvay is in a whole other league compared to 5E content!
For advanced/experienced 1E AD&D players, it would be hard for me to abandon the 1E gameplay mechanics, but there are some ideas from the 5E mechanics I would consider modding 1E with, or else use 5E with some 1E mods - I'm not sure yet...?
I am not at all experienced with 2E, 3E, or 4E gameplay mechanics - when 2E came out, I took a look but saw no reason to use it instead of 1E. For the audience that enjoyed these later versions, from what I can see there is great interest in 5E?
|
|
|
Post by davegibsongreyhawkdm on Sept 13, 2016 21:13:40 GMT -5
Ok, I dug out my UA to read through bc I didn't use it for 1E, just MM, PHB, and DMG. Didn't use FF or MMII much either, except for monsters that came up in 1E adventure modules.
Is there errata list for UA?
I was reading through cavalier class and see it has d10 hit die type character classes table on pg 12, yet pg 15 cavaliers table I it shows 12-sided dice for accum. Hit points?
|
|
|
Post by Scott on Sept 13, 2016 21:17:20 GMT -5
There was errata in Dragon. It's d10.
|
|
|
Post by geneweigel on Sept 13, 2016 21:20:08 GMT -5
There is a pull out in DRAGON MAGAZINE #103 (NOV 1985) called UNEARTHED ARCANA ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS
|
|
|
Post by davegibsongreyhawkdm on Sept 13, 2016 21:23:51 GMT -5
Ok thanks - I ended my dragon subscription sometime before then, so I had not seen UA errata.
|
|
|
Post by geneweigel on Sept 14, 2016 7:57:12 GMT -5
I think thats when I started my DRAGON subscription. Usually, I would just buy them but they started evaporating faster by 1985 either by thieves or sales in the mall bookstores. Thats what wrong with D&D today! No one wants to boost a few copies up their shirts anymore!
|
|
|
Post by geneweigel on Sept 14, 2016 9:26:57 GMT -5
I got an e-mail from ENWORLD about a free adventure: www.patreon.com/posts/into-feywild-100-6755905Well its free but they're insinuating you should pay a little. Don't bother... it's a trick.. get an axe... It definitely seems to be a "Nerf armor shinguard" thing. The map is of a hedge garden of elves called the HEDGEGROVE: "True direction and concepts of North/South do not apply to the Fey Lands. True Elves and Archfey do not use such means of telling direction. Hedegrove actively magically resists being mapped."AND "Princess Dandelion has the power to send the player characters back to the Material Plane, but is unwilling to do so until they offer their services to her in exchange. She has five specific things in mind for the PCs to accomplish: five (4?) little favors and tasks that are either beyond her ability to solve, or beneath one of her station."
1) "Recover the Royal Slippers"
2) "Wants the characters to hunt one of these elusive warthogs for her."
3) "Serve as Entertainment at an Archfey Soireé"
4) "Help a Hopeless Satyr Find Love"Ummmm... waiter can I get the check, please?
|
|
|
Post by davegibsongreyhawkdm on Sept 14, 2016 18:13:29 GMT -5
I think thats when I started my DRAGON subscription. Usually, I would just buy them but they started evaporating faster by 1985 either by thieves or sales in the mall bookstores. Thats what wrong with D&D today! No one wants to boost a few copies up their shirts anymore!
|
|
|
Post by davegibsongreyhawkdm on Sept 14, 2016 18:24:42 GMT -5
No kidding about boosting stuff up the shirt or in sweat jacket or in pants!
I was shocked when I went to shop for D&D stuff how much players in my campaign were lifting from the store while I was in it paying for stuff!
I used index card file with color coded 3"x5" index cards for NPCs & monsters stats and descriptions back in the day. One time I 'boosted' color coded index cards down my pants from the drug store felt immediately guilty about getting caught up in what my friends were all doing, but then again we had tapped into friends parents hard liquor before the heist, so judgment wasn't too good for me at the time. Was 12 years old, all of us buzzed wiped out on our bikes on way back from shoplifting in slick golf course gutters at local country club, sustaining various injuries, but no broken bones - just gashes and bruises!
|
|
|
Post by geneweigel on Sept 14, 2016 22:17:10 GMT -5
My friend took some minis from this local Queens store called the "Haven Hobby Shop" in 1983 that was prime time D&D too. The shop had shelves of D&D minis exclusively with a stack of Dragons, AD&D hard covers and modules on the counter and THAT WAS IT. The shop was D&D only. Behind the counter was a train mounted to the wall but any train stuff was long gone when I started going there in 1981.
They carried Grenadier, Ral Partha, Citadel (loooong before the Warhammer crap), make your own mini kits (I didn't buy because I saw all the failures) and the TSR line.
|
|
|
Post by geneweigel on Sept 15, 2016 7:13:13 GMT -5
This article shines some insight to whats going on at the "D&D think tank" up in Reston: VICE: I Spent a Gloriously Geeky Day with the Makers of Dungeons & DragonsLets take a look at the spoon fed text the "brand director of D&D" is referring to: Now lets look at the opening text from a more recent movie: Heh, that explains it all! The writer of the article seems to have never played D&D and seems to be assuming way too much there about the new version being easier. But, if I had a dime for every patronizing comment about my D&D habits that I've heard...
|
|
|
Post by GRWelsh on Sept 15, 2016 8:14:47 GMT -5
Here's another quote from that article:
As if the 70's weren't also an era moral ambiguity... But anyway, I always thought a big part of the appeal to D&D was that you can just say 'Oh, they're evil' in a lot of cases, and that's that. After a long week of moral ambiguity in real life, in the Friday night game you can just unwind and kill stuff. You don't have to explain why creatures like gnolls, goblins, trolls and so on are the way they are... I mean, you can do that for you own campaign, if you like ("the humanoid races were all made by Not-Morgoth in the Dark Years...") but the core D&D game as a whole doesn't need it.
|
|
|
Post by geneweigel on Sept 15, 2016 8:57:07 GMT -5
There is an ambiguity in alignment in mixed groups and considering who is running D&D these days you could get all kinds of fruity takes on what we all thought was beyond reproach: "A severed child's hand in the gnolls' pouch, you say? We should release them to let the gnoll population grow to save the environment from these breeders!"
|
|
|
Post by geneweigel on Sept 18, 2016 10:27:36 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by davegibsongreyhawkdm on Sept 18, 2016 17:43:00 GMT -5
Agree. I never liked the idea of a good Drow outcast from his people, or Drow as PCs!
|
|
|
Post by Scott on Sept 18, 2016 18:38:01 GMT -5
Good drow outcasts from their people go back to D3. They're implied resources for the PCs to figure out the workings of Erelhei Cinlu. I wouldn't let a PC start out as a drow in a standard campaign. I would let a PC bring a henchman back from the Vault. One day I'll run an Underdark campaign and drow will be an option.
|
|
|
Post by geneweigel on Sept 18, 2016 19:02:36 GMT -5
Honestly why not? If someone really wanted to play a mind flayer I would hold them to it just to see how it worked out. Not that anyone has done it but its easy being a drow because its so accepted. I had the party drag around an outcast githyanki for years. And forget about turncoat orcs they're so frequent its insane.
|
|