The D&D thread

So far nothing too crazy from what I've seen that's official... I'll give it the benefit of the doubt for the time being.

Sevens got a point, I always just assume they're a cut above the rest of their kind if someone chooses to be a goblin or whatever, so the removal of penalties doesn't really bother me. Some of the penalties that would make sense to me have already been removed. (Why don't gnomes have a strength penalty?) I agree with Dom also, there really is no satisfying some people. I hope that's the end of their catering to that shit. I think it will be. The bulk of their audience wouldn't take kindly to it (look at this thread), and they must know that on some level. Businesses only take these 'risks' once they've assessed their gains/losses.

As far as racism/orcs goes, that may be a consequence of the criticism directed toward Tolkien's works. More on that below of you're interested.

Phanton said:

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So far nothing too crazy from what I've seen that's official... I'll give it the benefit of the doubt for the time being.

Sevens got a point, I always just assume they're a cut above the rest of their kind if someone chooses to be a goblin or whatever, so the removal of penalties doesn't really bother me. Some of the penalties that would make sense to me have already been removed. (Why don't gnomes have a strength penalty?) I agree with Dom also, there really is no satisfying some people. I hope that's the end of their catering to that shit. I think it will be. The bulk of their audience wouldn't take kindly to it (look at this thread), and they must know that on some level. Businesses only take these 'risks' once they've assessed their gains/losses.

As far as racism/orcs goes, that may be a consequence of the criticism directed toward Tolkien's works. More on that below of you're interested.

Spoiler

This seems like a straightforward outlining of that criticism along with refutations:

Racism

Some fans and critics of J.R.R. Tolkien's works could observe several ambiguously racist and race-based elements; these go further into stereotyping or the symbolism...

tolkiengateway.net

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I'm not sure I would take this board as a bastion of role-playing and the communities around it. Especially when it comes to blatant racism. You don't have to dive too deep on FoH to find a large amount of racists.

Pancreas said:

After racial attributes are completely eliminated, codifying all 1000 genders in the literature will be next.

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Elves already have some wild-ass gender/sex related shit that allows some of them to physically transform themselves to male/female between rests. The truly 'blessed' elves can do it at will and the ability to change ones sex is revered in Elven culture.


I don't know how long that's been in D&D, but it has to be a fairly recent addition to the lore or I'm oblivious. I've been playing D&D since the early 90s and only recently noticed it. I know that stereotypical (Forgotten Realms) elves aren't as masculine as traditional men and Elves often appear fairly androgynous with fine, angular features, but growing dicks/tits on command? Eh...

Grabbit Allworth said:

Elves already have some wild-ass gender/sex related shit that allows some of them to physically transform themselves to male/female between rests. The truly 'blessed' elves can do it at will and the ability to change ones sex is revered in Elven culture.


I don't know how long that's been in D&D, but it has to be a fairly recent addition to the lore or I'm oblivious. I've been playing D&D since the early 90s and only recently noticed it. I know that stereotypical (Forgotten Realms) elves aren't as masculine as traditional men and Elves often appear fairly androgynous with fine, angular features, but growing dicks/tits on command? Eh...

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Damn, can a truly blessed elf literally fuck themselves? Blessed, indeed.

I'm looking to trade for these two PDFs. I've gone on a spending spree at DMs guild recently and need to slow down.



I have a massive collection (almost entirely D&D; of all editions) of my own PDFs, including a bunch of stuff that's out of print. I literally have thousands of dollars worth of good shit from the best authors/publishers.

Let me know if you're interested!

Grabbit Allworth said:

Elves already have some wild-ass gender/sex related shit that allows some of them to physically transform themselves to male/female between rests. The truly 'blessed' elves can do it at will and the ability to change ones sex is revered in Elven culture.


I don't know how long that's been in D&D, but it has to be a fairly recent addition to the lore or I'm oblivious. I've been playing D&D since the early 90s and only recently noticed it. I know that stereotypical (Forgotten Realms) elves aren't as masculine as traditional men and Elves often appear fairly androgynous with fine, angular features, but growing dicks/tits on command? Eh...

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that's a post 5e addition. i don't know exactly when it became cannon, but it was when the transgender movement started picking up steam. i pretty clearly remember someone in that community being pissed because they didn't have any options to play "themselves" in the dnd world...

so WOTC make the announcement that elves can change genders and all that, and i'm pretty sure every DM just sort of side-eyed the whole idea and ignored it. i have never actually even heard of any player specifically choosing to play as an elf so they can change genders every day. it's just so bizarre to me that people want to play a role-playing game, but don't want to... well, role play.

like, i'm not talking being like critical role and acting out everything that happens... i'm talking about playing a character that is different than you. listen, i play me every day. i'm kind of over it. let me play someone else for a bit.

Mist said:

Back when I was a useless hippy college student, I started writing material that would come to form the basis of a D&D campaign. It was going to be a setting where colonialism/imperialism was a big part of the story. I was going to have plot points that revolved around an Orcish slave trade as part of the extended colonialism metaphor.

After about 5 minutes of thinking about that idea, I realized that was fucking stupid and it ended up being more like a Steampunk Dune (warring noble houses and guilds with lots of resource politics revolving around pseudo-sciencymagical materials).

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I love colonialism / imperialism for a setting. A Dune setting sounds pretty awesome too. You can keep the steampunk stuff though. But, to each their own.

my dm has his own world that we all play in (there's about 5 separate groups playing in it concurrently). in the first "chapter" of our current game, we started in a country that is sort of a greek/roman amalgamation. slavery is legal and our dwarven clan owned slaves. it was actually pretty interesting to play a character that is, by the game's definition, lawful good, but own slaves. he looks at it from the perspective that dwarves are absolutely superior in every way, but that makes it their responsibility to take care of others. i mean, it's definitely racist, but it's not "evil" either. he owns slaves the same way people own pets. he gives them food and water, shelter, clothing... when one of them is sick he pays for their treatment...

it was interesting because i had never really thought about it in those terms until the dm said "in this country, slavery is legal. you as players can be bothered and upset by that, but you as characters accept it as a way of life, for now at least." obviously we faced off against a rival clan that, among other terrible things, mistreated their slaves... but it's something that i think has a lot of merit.

you can define all kinds of things about your character; looks, abilities, motives... but you can't define the world. that just IS. as characters we respond to the way the world is, for good or ill. there are cultures that employ slavery. owning a slave in that culture wouldn't be considered morally wrong. there are cultures that focus on strength and confrontation. abiding by that also wouldn't be considered morally wrong. orcs SHOULD be raiding savages. that's what they do. that's what they believe in. they don't consider their god, grumsh to be evil. obviously the poor villagers who just got decimated by those same orcs would beg to differ, but the point is that "good" and "evil" are really pretty subjective.

I just ordered the hard copy (as well as the pdf) of this -- Rise of the Drow: Collector's Edition -

It's a little pricey, but I've held a copy in my hand and it's well-made.

I'm really looking forward to weaving RotD in with Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden

for a mega campaign.

^ I'm excited for Rime of the Frostmaiden too. Chris Perkins really talked it up to be very bleak and brutal. I'm picturing north of the wall in Game of Thrones.

So I'm figurin this is as good a spot as any for this. If not sorry.

Are any of you planning on picking up the new adult size dragons and the new gargantuan size dragons DnD minis?

And if you happen to have the old ones also, how does the size compare?

Dang they are big. I have the Adult White dragon and this one looks much bigger. Actually the body is very similar size, but the wings on the new one are really large and spread out further. You can see a size comp at 2:08 here:

How do any of you handle Magic Weapons in your campaigns?

I'm running Descent into Avernus and the party needs some stuff. My options are:

• Withhold everything and make them buy Silvered weapons.
• Let them spend their gold on simple +1 weapons and armor in Baldurs Gate or Candlekeep, with the money being the limiting factor.
• Create a side quest with some monsters to fight and a big fat chest as a reward that is tailored to each character
  
  
  If anyone listens to Glass Cannon Podcast, I'm leaning on doing the side quest. They had a storyline early on very similar to that. I think it's just more fun to fight some stuff and earn a magic weapon rather than buy it. But then again I like the idea of spending gold on equipment, since I don't see much use for it otherwise.
  
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Dashel said:

How do any of you handle Magic Weapons in your campaigns?

I'm running Descent into Avernus and the party needs some stuff. My options are:

• Withhold everything and make them buy Silvered weapons.
• Let them spend their gold on simple +1 weapons and armor in Baldurs Gate or Candlekeep, with the money being the limiting factor.
• Create a side quest with some monsters to fight and a big fat chest as a reward that is tailored to each character
  
  
  If anyone listens to Glass Cannon Podcast, I'm leaning on doing the side quest. They had a storyline early on very similar to that. I think it's just more fun to fight some stuff and earn a magic weapon rather than buy it. But then again I like the idea of spending gold on equipment, since I don't see much use for it otherwise.​

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Pre level 5 I usually make them buy or limit magic items, post 5 they flow and 15+ I do custom stuff. I also like artifacts that grow with them. They create it, tell me what they eventually want it to become and I let them start with a very weak version, I create them side quests for how to improve it. Sometimes it is a piece of a rare creature, other times it is an good deed etc. Just really depends on what they have in mind. Also can leads to their prized item to be broken or stolen, creating more hooks to get them to various places.
I usually only do this on sandbox type adventures but can work with any setting.

I have been working on a 5th edition dark sun campaign for a while now where this is the case, I have some examples of how to create and grow and artifact. I plain stone when dipped in water is shines like a torch, this can turn into really anything depending on input from the player. A 6 foot long branch that weeps sap from one end, can be made into a spear that you can light tip on fire or a returning javelin that can cement it self to walls allowing you to climb.
Man I wish they did another official Dark Sun module.

As a player, early levels it's nice to have some money to buy something from a store that might have some varying options just in case I've decided to try something a little different. But as I get higher level, having the DM craft a unique item for me is really nice. It makes you feel like you're graduating into a higher tier of adventurer

Hatorade said:

I have been working on a 5th edition dark sun campaign for a while now where this is the case, I have some examples of how to create and grow and artifact. I plain stone when dipped in water is shines like a torch, this can turn into really anything depending on input from the player. A 6 foot long branch that weeps sap from one end, can be made into a spear that you can light tip on fire or a returning javelin that can cement it self to walls allowing you to climb.
Man I wish they did another official Dark Sun module.

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I've heard that Wizards will put out 3 or 4 settings in the next couple of years. Crossing my fingers for Dark Sun or just a grimdark, sword & sorcery basic fantasy setting. But I think two years is really all 5e has left.

bigmark268 said:

So I'm figurin this is as good a spot as any for this. If not sorry.

Are any of you planning on picking up the new adult size dragons and the new gargantuan size dragons DnD minis?

And if you happen to have the old ones also, how does the size compare?

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Kinda torn between how much space gargantuan dragons will take up vs. how often I'll actually be using them...

...but they're gonna be fucking amazing based on the white dragon concept design I've seen:

my regular groups play online, since we're adults and half of us live in different states now. it's really nice because even if we're on opposite sides of the country we still get to hang out with friends and go adventuring like kids.

but man... there really is something special about minis. that dragon is awesome