D&D 5E Discussion

[LeStryfe79]

INB4 Realms 40k: The Unforgotten.

 

[Andhaira]

Now that D&D 5ed has gone OGL, can it be used for making videogames withouth paying royalties to Wizards? Or this is a somewhat gray/unknown area?

Yes it's the same OGL (Version 1.0a) that was used for 3rd edition, so it can be used for computer / video games with no royalties needed. The Software FAQ (from 2004) on the WotC site explains this. Just ignore the bits about the d20 license as that doesn't apply here. The 5E SRD is now under the OGL license so all the same rules and allowances apply.

The OGL doesn't extend to electronic media as far as I remember.

Actually it does - see above!

HobGoblin42 This is your chance! You and the rest of the crew at Coreplay can port CC's engine over to this baby and release it.



VentilatorOfDoom Maybe also alert Pierre, the Knights of the Chalice guy.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

has already been posted on Pierres forums.

 

[HobGoblin42]

HobGoblin42 This is your chance! You and the rest of the crew at Coreplay can port CC's engine over to this baby and release it.

Thanks, but no, I would stick with 3.5e, which is still superior to the 4th/5th edition in my opinion.

 

[Andhaira]

HobGoblin42 This is your chance! You and the rest of the crew at Coreplay can port CC's engine over to this baby and release it.

Thanks, but no, I would stick with 3.5e, which is still superior to the 4th/5th edition in my opinion.

Since we are on the subject, have you and your team at Grimlore considered using Kickstarter/IndieGoGo for funding? With the name of Chaos Chronicles, even unreleased, and a working tech demo you guys could whip up in short order, I bet you could get a million+ in funding.

 

[HobGoblin42]

Since we are on the subject, have you and your team at Grimlore considered using Kickstarter/IndieGoGo for funding? With the name of Chaos Chronicles, even unreleased, and a working tech demo you guys could whip up in short order, I bet you could get a million+ in funding.

You mean before Spellforce 3? No, not really. And I strongly doubt you could raise a million+ with a turn-based D&D 3.5 game like Chaos Chronicles.
Seven Dragon Saga tried that and failed (100k of 450k). I think, without a known popular brand or VIP developer, it's almost impossible to exceed 250k in funding when it comes to cRPGs.

 

[LeStryfe79]

5th has about 75% of the strengths of 3X and 75% of the strengths of AD&D. BAB, buff overdose, lack of combat options for warriors, insane math, product creep, poor multiclassing, stupid emphasis on crunch sans fluff, and too wayyyy much Wayne Reynolds are huge drawbacks to 3X. 5th is like the Foo Fighters to 3X's 5 finger Death punch. Some are gonna prefer 5 finger. Not me. Also, grouping 4th/5th together (barely divided) is just bad skillz. Good lord.


People into 3X mostly spend the entire time talking about builds like nothing else matters. It's a nightmare to run too. Roleplaying, atmosphere, and fun come in a distant second in 3X. Good luck arguing against that.

 

[Alchemist]

3rd edition can become unwieldy at the table for sure, but I think it can work well in a computer game, which handles all the math / crunchiness for you. Lets face it, part of the appeal of some cRPGs is obsessively designing character builds and building the perfect party. 3E (and derivatives like Pathfinder) give you all kinds of fiddly bits to play with for that sort of thing.

That said, for real-life tabletop play I'm all about the less crunchy, rules-medium versions like 1E AD&D and 5E.

 

[Irenaeus III]

I was never into obsessively designing character builds and building the perfect party.. Maybe that's why I don't miss 3e much (and why Pathfinder looks like a godawful mess).

 

[ProphetSword]

Both 3.5 and Pathfinder can die in a fire. They're directly responsible for creating a "Player vs DM" mentality. D&D is meant to be cooperative experience, not a competitive one.

 

[Irenaeus III]

I don't mind "Player vs DM" mentality, if it's done well.

 

[LeStryfe79]

I've had some great player vs dm moments as a player (ironically in ad&d). As a DM, I'm too much of a panzy/ storyfag for it. Although I understand what ProphetSword is saying.

3rd edition can become unwieldy at the table for sure, but I think it can work well in a computer game, which handles all the math / crunchiness for you. Lets face it, part of the appeal of some cRPGs is obsessively designing character builds and building the perfect party. 3E (and derivatives like Pathfinder) give you all kinds of fiddly bits to play with for that sort of thing.

That said, for real-life tabletop play I'm all about the less crunchy, rules-medium versions like 1E AD&D and 5E.

In terms of CRPG's, 3X was a lot of fun.

 

[Andhaira]

Since we are on the subject, have you and your team at Grimlore considered using Kickstarter/IndieGoGo for funding? With the name of Chaos Chronicles, even unreleased, and a working tech demo you guys could whip up in short order, I bet you could get a million+ in funding.

You mean before Spellforce 3? No, not really. And I strongly doubt you could raise a million+ with a turn-based D&D 3.5 game like Chaos Chronicles.
Seven Dragon Saga tried that and failed (100k of 450k). I think, without a known popular brand or VIP developer, it's almost impossible to exceed 250k in funding when it comes to cRPGs.

What is Spellforce?

 

[Archibald]

Shitty strategy/rpg hybrid.

 

[Havoc]

For those interested in virtual tables. Roll20 made an update about 5th Ed. In-game getting things from their Compedium: spells with roll macros, monsters with ready attack macros etc.

 

[NatureDruid]

HobGoblin42 This is your chance! You and the rest of the crew at Coreplay can port CC's engine over to this baby and release it.

Thanks, but no, I would stick with 3.5e, which is still superior to the 4th/5th edition in my opinion.

In what way does 4e even compare to 5e?

 

[ProphetSword]

In what way does 4e even compare to 5e?

They both use dice.

 

[Shevek]

There's not much agreement about what is wrong with 5E,

There is not enough stuff.

There's not even agreement about that, you'll find plenty of people whining about "bloat" if you suggest that WotC should publish content faster

There is little to fix. It plays well at the table. People want to complain. So they complain.

 

[Volrath]

Go look on the Somethingawful thread. They hate it. (Love 4e)

That should tell you all you need to know as to how awesome 5E is. Fuck those dumbfucks over at SA.

 

[Alex]

What I heard of 5e makes it look like way better than 4e. But nothing actually made me think it was in any way better than the older editions, so I didn't even bother looking up the rules. Given that I prefer 1e, and sometimes 2e or simple Old D&D to any other edition, am I correct in my assumption?

 

[Caim]

What I heard of 5e makes it look like way better than 4e. But nothing actually made me think it was in any way better than the older editions, so I didn't even bother looking up the rules. Given that I prefer 1e, and sometimes 2e or simple Old D&D to any other edition, am I correct in my assumption?

5e is the odd lovechild of AD&D2e and 3.5e. It works, but it takes some getting used to.

 

[Alex]

Thanks! I remember one of the things that turned me right away from it was that in (one of) the playtest versions, the charm person spell had its duration greatly limited. Does the game still put too much emphasis on balancing stuff? Also, since you mentioned 2e, are monster descriptions anything like second edition's?

 

[Caim]

Thanks! I remember one of the things that turned me right away from it was that in (one of) the playtest versions, the charm person spell had its duration greatly limited. Does the game still put too much emphasis on balancing stuff? Also, since you mentioned 2e, are monster descriptions anything like second edition's?

I know that the days of CoDzilla are over (though you have infinite castings of your cantrips, some of whom do a lot of damage) and the game is a bit more balanced alright. Charm Person has a 1 hour duration flat, but can be used as a higher level spell to target more enemies (+1 enemy per level).

Monsters generally get their own page in the MM (paired with a large and generally high-quality image), unless the monster is of a particular group of monsters like angels, devils, dragons, Gith and so on that share a backstory and some rules, or if they're big monsters like Liches and Sphinges who get things called Lair Abilities which allows them to WRECK YOUR SHIT as a standard action, like how a Sphinx can de-age your ass 1d20 years and throw you back in time until his past selves killed your ass by turning you into a fetus. Or they just drop you into Demogorgon's layer in the Abyss as a standard action. Don't fuck with Sphinges in 5e, bro.

 

[Alex]

Thanks! I remember one of the things that turned me right away from it was that in (one of) the playtest versions, the charm person spell had its duration greatly limited. Does the game still put too much emphasis on balancing stuff? Also, since you mentioned 2e, are monster descriptions anything like second edition's?

I know that the days of CoDzilla are over (though you have infinite castings of your cantrips, some of whom do a lot of damage) and the game is a bit more balanced alright. Charm Person has a 1 hour duration flat, but can be used as a higher level spell to target more enemies (+1 enemy per level).

Thanks! I am not sure what CoDzilla means, but the duration on charm person tells me the guys who made this didn't get what was so nice about the way AD&D dealt with 1st level spells. Also, cantrips doing damage...

Monsters generally get their own page in the MM (paired with a large and generally high-quality image), unless the monster is of a particular group of monsters like angels, devils, dragons, Gith and so on that share a backstory and some rules, or if they're big monsters like Liches and Sphinges who get things called Lair Abilities which allows them to WRECK YOUR SHIT as a standard action, like how a Sphinx can de-age your ass 1d20 years and throw you back in time until his past selves killed your ass by turning you into a fetus. Or they just drop you into Demogorgon's layer in the Abyss as a standard action. Don't fuck with Sphinges in 5e, bro.

I see. But are the monsters entries like those in 2e? One of the things I liked about 2e more than 1e is how they had a whole lot of information about monsters, always going about their habitat, society and ecology. Also, are lair abilities something they can only use in their lair? Or is it just a weird name?

 

[Caim]

CoDzilla meas "Cleric or Druid Zilla", a reference to how the Cleric and Druid are two of the six most powerful classes in 3.5e. The others being Wizard, the Archivist from Heroes of Horror who learns Divine spells (as in, ALL Cleric, Druid, Ranger, Paladin and all other classes with a basis in non-arcane and non-psionic magic) like a wizard learns arcane magic, the Artificer (who is Batman buth with magic) and the Spell-to-Power variant of the Erudite who can rip Arcane spells from someone's mind, turn them into Psionic powers and use them as such.

Magic was quite different between AD&D and 3e. In AD&D you started out as next to useless compared to fighters and became a god leaving them in the dust at higher levels. In 3.5e however this happens earlier: depending on who you ask this either happens at level 5, 3 or even 1.

Lair abilities can only be used in a lair, yes. As for the monster thing, well, take a look at this:

There's still story to them, but it's less split up in the Combat/Habitat/Society/Ecology thing of 2e fame. On a particular note on the succubi though: note how they are now Any Evil. Up to and including 3e had them be Chaotic Evil, 4e turned them Lawful Evil and now they're Any Evil.

So you could say that they now swing both ways.