Dungeons & Dragons Thread

[Cyhwuhx]

Maybe I should postpone Witchlight after all...

[Sardan]

46 minutes ago, Cyhwuhx said:

Maybe I should postpone Witchlight after all...

Temple of Elemental Evil is a classic but it’s firmly old school and (having played it in 1st Ed and read several times) it’s a bit of a dungeon slog. It will take some work from a good DM to bring it to life and do the concept justice (although there are loads of resources out there to do just that). 
 

There was a 3e based PC game out that I actually really enjoyed. (I fancy playing that again actually.)

[And]

I’ve been invited to play a starter campaign. I’ve no idea what I’m doing. What rulebooks should I get to read before I play, so I might have some clue? Nearest I’ve got to d&d is playing water deep. Help me. Thanks 

[Kzo]

The basic rules are available for free: https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules

 

By no means do you need to read and memorise all of these, but useful to have a look at the race/class you want to play and chapters 7-9 (also 10 if playing a spellcaster). 

 

You can also build characters easily on the linked site and it has lots of useful articles like 101 intros to character classes.

 

Probably some good YouTube videos about too. 

[Cyhwuhx]

7 hours ago, And said:

I’ve been invited to play a starter campaign. I’ve no idea what I’m doing. What rulebooks should I get to read before I play, so I might have some clue? Nearest I’ve got to d&d is playing water deep. Help me. Thanks 

Next to the basic rules, print half of this: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AjI_ntU5ex2trYxsu7tmpJZnJDopAA

 

It’s a quick and dirty overview of what you can do during combat. 
 

Choose a class you like the look of and think a bit about its origins (do not go online to ask what is best one to play). Talk it through with the DM. Be sure to add a flaw to the character when you put together a sheet; it’s often easier to start off playing a character with it. 
 

And keep in mind the core rule of improv: “yes, and…” Accept and add to situations, don’t work against them.  The DM will let you know when to roll/check/save.

 

Buy just one set of dice. If any.   

[Sardan]

Have you ever played a (tt)rpg before?  Have any of the other players? 
 

The basic rules will give you everything you need to play. You don’t need anything more than that and fewer options are helpful. If you want more but the Players Handbook but you really do not need it. 
 

The starter campaign is great. 

[And]

@Kzo

thanks, got a lot of reading ahead of me then!

@Cyhwuhx

that link doesn’t work for me am afraid. Thanks anyway though

 

 

[Cyhwuhx]

Hopefully this does. 
 

[And]

Yep. Awesome, thanks 

[Cyhwuhx]

Quote

Dungeons & Dragons levels up by acquiring the popular digital toolset D&D Beyond.

Dungeons & Dragons and D&D Beyond have always felt like a part of the same family. That’s why we are excited to welcome everyone at D&D Beyond to formally join us at Wizards of the Coast, bringing together two teams dedicated to continuing to make Dungeons & Dragons easy to run and accessible to all!

 

https://dnd.wizards.com/news/announcement_04132022

 

Spoiler

 

[MDY]

 

[Clipper]

On 13/04/2022 at 17:01, Cyhwuhx said:

 

https://dnd.wizards.com/news/announcement_04132022

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

that's nothing , if you include Roll20 you buy the physical book , the D&D BEyond one and the ROLL20 campaign book.

 

 

[Cyhwuhx]

At least Roll20 campaigns give me ready-to-use maps.

 

But yeah, the amount of 'extra money' spend is nuts. I'm fully suspecting WotC to turn Beyond into their "D&D+", turning it into a subscription for use with any D&D session (whatever that may entail). Potentially unlocking books through an additional 'premium' fee.

[Clipper]

1 minute ago, Cyhwuhx said:

At least Roll20 campaigns give me ready-to-use maps.

 

But yeah, the amount of 'extra money' spend is nuts. I'm fully suspecting WotC to turn Beyond into their "D&D+", turning it into a subscription for use with any D&D session (whatever that may entail). Potentially unlocking books through an additional 'premium' fee.

that is what I am hoping if I am honest.

 

I might need to start subscribing to Roll20 as well as I am perilously close to my 100mb upload limit.

[Hexx]

I didn’t realise DnD beyond wasn’t linked 

[Graham S]

I’d much rather they be owned by WOTC than Fandom. Much more likely my investment in the books will continue to get updates as D&D evolves. A pity it’s taken so long, the high profile devs left some time ago and if there is a lot of ongoing work being done I haven’t noticed. 

[MDY]

 

 

[MDY]

 

[MDY]

Nice.. Reusable label creature token set and terrain tiles with reusable label scenery.. 

 

 

[Cyhwuhx]

Starting a new campaign with colleagues and being the video games nerds we are, there was a preference for the prologue to Baldur's Gate III.

 

Picked up the book for Descent into Avernus today, skimmed through the major beats, and by the Nine Hells... This is EPIC. Some real nice setups and payoffs. Looks to have enough meat to tie in some retired Lv.20 PCs as well as an encounter with "an old flame". 😈 Can't wait to dive in!

[Graham S]

Avernus got a fair amount of criticism and a bunch of people trying to fix perceived flaws. I can’t remember all the links, but it’s worth hunting them down. A couple of links I do remember:

 

https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/44214/roleplaying-games/remixing-avernus
 

https://slyflourish.com/running_fall_of_eltruel.html

[Cyhwuhx]

Thanks! Interesting to read through and pick up on some wobbly bits.

 

Although I am a bit wary of any mod trying to “open world” any of the published campaigns. 
 

I’ve noticed with ToD and CoS that players don’t seem to care about this aspect as much as these mods do.

 

(ToD locale spoiler)

 

Spoiler

For instance, the caravan section in HotDQ, trying to stay hidden while among the Cult, was one of the most fun parts in the entire campaign for us. While generally it is looked down upon as a giant railroaded flaw. 

 

I get the “lack” of visual spectacle mentioned, but I’m not sure if that will even be a moment as it’s not a character driven action. (Yet? 🥹)
 

Considering how ToD/LMoP/CoS played out at my table, showing how previous characters and choices affect the game world is a far greater priority for me.
 

(Locale/character spoilers BG:DiA)
 

Spoiler

The retired PCs of both me and another player in LMoP already have connections to Baldur’s Gate and the Guild making them excellent cameo enemies/informers. Never mind that in my own version of Baldur’s Gate there’s a hilarious running gag going on with the Flaming Fist, doppelgangers, and cheese.

 

Also, one of the retired warlock PCs of ToD turned out to be an “Asmodeusspawn”. She was helping dad get a reign on Tiamat and becoming a greater devil as a reward, which I am especially giddy about to give a cameo/plot thread here as all those pieces are in place once more.  

[Graham S]

I do find the Alexandrian’s remixes a bit much and I can’t imagine running them myself. I do think the beginning of Avernus looks a bit weak, so I do like the idea of tying in characters more deeply to the fall of Elturel. As for the Avernus-set stuff, it doesn’t look to be to my tastes at all.

 

I do think a lot of WOTC books can be weirdly fragile if players don’t do the exact things the book expects, 

[Cyhwuhx]

True, but that comes with the territory of premade I think. I do like that though. I don’t have the time to make an entire campaign, but I can happily fry up the premade leftovers into something fun. 

[Graham S]

Absolutely, there’s loads of great stuff to use. I’m just surprised they haven’t really figured out how to make the books more usable without a bunch of work, and that instead of setting up interesting situations and fronts and saying here are some things you can do if x or y happens, they’re often built on very fragile assumptions of plot. Perhaps it just doesn’t affect sales, so there’s no incentive to improve usability. And DMs are used to dealing with it. 

[Clipper]

This situation popped up on twitter and gave me food for thought. I won't link as , to be honest I can't recall where I saw it a few days ago. It has stuck with me a bit and struck a chord with me as I have run the Strahd campaign.

 

Someone is playing a character who is a Vistani (for the uninitiated, buy Strahd, but also VIstani are an analog for Gypsy in this vampire/Dracula themed adventure). THis player was told her character could not enter a town/city as her kind are not permitted* - the rest of the party could but she couldn't. Now outside of the sessions the player told the DM that she wasn't comfortable with racism being depicted in the game and it should have no place anywhere including D&D campaigns. He disagreed and she left the campaign. THat is fine everyone wants to play a certain way and some are more comfortable with certain elements being present than others. People pointed out that DM runs campaign and maybe he wants to run a campaign that has conflict like that in it and she said (backed up byu others) that there was no place for racist themes in campaigns are all and it should be an aspiration to not use those elements. She said that campaigns can have conflict etc without using regressive ideologies.

 

Now the Vistani in the original campaign are pretty much caricatures that fit most of the racial stereotypes for Gypsy and when I ran it I warned the players that I felt the gypsy stereotypes used were problematic, I might blunt one or two but I wasn't going to sanitise it because it is a Vampire/Dracula adventure and they had the loyal Romany travellers who assisted him etc. I couldn't see  a way to totally remove those elements and the players agreed.

 

But it has given me pause for thought, should conflict in campaigns (more subtle than goblins attack humans) not use regressive stereotyping of a race to make the point? Or is it a valid part of a campaign narrative. I am a bit split on it as I can see the point. Obviously campaigns need conflict and racism is one way to flavour your villain or "big bad". But we can create conflict in so many ways in our campaigns why should/would we lean on lazy stereotyping of racism or sexism to do it?

 

As I say I haven't really I think the worst I have done is lean on stuff like tiefling being "devilspawn", tabaxi being referred to as "cats" in a derogatory way etc. (in taverns etc around less worldly NPCs ).

 

Anyway the tweet has niggled at me for a short while so I thought I'd bore you all with it

 

 

* I think the worst crime here is forcing the party split as the town is important or forcing a player to miss out on RP stuff in town**

** Also I can't recall a town in that campaign that is that biased against Vistani. The only possible candidate in the far west has a Vistani hiding out there!

[Aluco]

I think there is also a gulf between depicting regressive attitudes in a campaign and subjecting a player's character to those attitudes, understanding that many players see their characters as extensions of themselves to some degree.

 

 

[Captain Kelsten]

Aren’t Wizards of the Coast doing something in the next version of D&D to address some of these things? Making orcs less like mongol hordes, that kind of thing? 

[jonnyalpha]

I'm sorry to butt in on this thread as I've never posted here before but couldn't this racist incident have been a challenge to the team to work around? Who gives in to the racism or supports it? Who disagrees with it but tolerates it and who fights against it? How do the group get around this issue? Can they get the party member into the town another way? 

 

I've never really played an rpg, I just enjoy reading the rule books, so don't have practical experience of this and could be completely wrong. 

[Clipper]

53 minutes ago, jonnyalpha said:

I'm sorry to butt in on this thread as I've never posted here before but couldn't this racist incident have been a challenge to the team to work around? Who gives in to the racism or supports it? Who disagrees with it but tolerates it and who fights against it? How do the group get around this issue? Can they get the party member into the town another way? 

 

I've never really played an rpg, I just enjoy reading the rule books, so don't have practical experience of this and could be completely wrong. 

Yep these are all valid ways to overcome the challenge and it is the point of TTRPG. However the point being made is can't it be something other than regressive themes like racism? Does racism have a place as an obstacle to overcome or should we be trying to be less "lazy" with our campaigns and find obstacles that aren't regressive and fall onto isms.

 

I am not sure I have the answer which is why I threw it open on here as I found it interesting. I think if a DM is upfront and if all players in the group are happy about the use of such themes then there isn't an issue as such (I was very clear about my use of that sort of thing in the Strahd campaign). But I think it does leave open the question of "should we still use this stuff".

 

(and yes Doctor Shark there have already been moves to make certain races less stereotypical - Goblins can now be "good" and Orcs can be a part of the world and not simply a "Baddy").