D&D 5E Discussion

[J1M]

We should design a 2.5e ruleset with the best of both worlds...

Get a git repo and make it open source.

 

[Sacibengala]

@Wizards_DnD posted on twitter the content of the xanathar book. I wish it has more meat by the price, but we will see if it pays off.

 

[Sacibengala]

Hey guys, aside from the settings that are being released for the fifth edition in the form of adventures, do you guys could recommend me some Cool stuff that are more focused on setting and less on adventure, preferably some original stuff, not necessarily 5th and that could be used as seeds for my own stuff? More neutral in rules would be better, because actually I am more inclined towards the 5th edition rules. Thanks in advance!

 

[Sacibengala]

Hey guys, aside from the settings that are being released for the fifth edition in the form of adventures, do you guys could recommend me some Cool stuff that are more focused on setting and less on adventure, preferably some original stuff, not necessarily 5th and that could be used as seeds for my own stuff? More neutral in rules would be better, because actually I am more inclined towards the 5th edition rules. Thanks in advance!

depends on what flavor of stuff you're interested in.

Lamentations of the Flame Princess has some interesting settings.

Vornheim - A setting book that's 65 pages long. Full to the brim with random tables of shit, shops, shopkeepers, contacts, nobles, etc.

A Red and Pleasant Land - Basically a tool box for running Alice in Wonderland but everyone is a vampire.

Veins of the Earth - It's the BEST underdark book. It can be used with 5e if you like. Really flavorful and interesting monsters. Takes the underdark into more of a "spelunking" territory with you exploring caves instead of just gigantic underground areas that are are just 2d maps.

Goodman Games produces cool setting shit, but to make it compatible with 5e, you'll need to up the damage of most of the shit.

Peril on the Purple Planet Boxed set - Basically Dark Sun meets Numenera.
The Chained Coffin Boxed set - Imagine if everyone in a certain area was a hick and they feared "witch-men" and knew folk magic to fight spellcasters and shit.

I personally don't have any restriction, if the setting is rich with creativity, I am probably in. I'm really interested now in vornheim and veins of the earth. I'll probably get those when it is possible. A red and pleasant land seems cool for the Alice part, but I need to see if the vampire stuff has some appeal, since vampire has lost its magic over the years for me. The others I never heard about, I'll check it out. Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Sacibengala]

Well, the vampires in Red and Pleasant are okay....

They're only...okay. They're not just Strahd Knockoffs, but let me be clear: Red and Pleasant is only like, 20% of the setting. There's a new class, the Alice, a whole bunch of cool monsters, a regional map(with a lot of named/keyed locations with no actual detail) and then he only really fills in two major dungeons.

Veins isn't one major regional map either, he instead gives you the ability and tools to quickly make months and months of sessions by drawing maps and interpreting them a certain way...it's actually kind of strange and hard to wrap your head around at first. He also provides a F U C K T O N of random tables for monster encounters, cave shapes, madness afflictions, random smells and sounds, etc.

Should be noted that Veins is meant to be run without darkvision. Like, money in the Veins setting is literally fuel for light sources, and gold isn't nearly as valuable as being able to see around yourself. He has regional maps and cave system maps which you can make yourself, and he provides four different cultures: the Dero, which are little mind-fucker alien things, the Deep Janeen, which are giant and annoying faerie assholes who fuck with you, the Aelf-Adal, which are like, living nightmare fuck you in the eye elves, and the Dvargir, which aren't really dwarves because they're automatons more than anything but let's call them dwarves it's easier than having to explain that.

Vornheim is fantastic, it's mostly useful for the fast mapping system for its interiors of buildings and the city itself. It comes with a lot of interesting ideas, superstitions and flavors and it comes with three dungeons and a handful of monsters.

He also published a bunch of other adventures which you can run in DnD without much conversion and have a giggle at, but be warned, they're fucking HARD.
Blood in the Chocolate - What if you were being paid to break into Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory and all of the oompah loompahs were trying to murder and rape you?
Tower of the Stargazer - excellent low-level module. Notable for its trap, which is a wizard trapped in a circle of salt. If the players are dumb enough to actually believe the wizard and let him out of it, the adventure(and campaign, maybe) ends.
Death Frost Doom - The world's first Negadungeon. The major takeaway here is that a cursed shrine is not a great place to snoop around in. There's one monster at the very end - if you kill it, 10,000 undead rise up out of the ground near the dungeon and immediately start to fuck shit up in the neighboring countryside - because what the fuck are you doing in a place you don't understand?
The God That Crawls - Interesting chase dungeon where a gigantic goo monster is constantly trying to eat and kill the players, and cannot really be killed itself. Players have to run and shit.

Is it easy to use any of this with the fifth edition? I looked at what the flame princess was all about and it seems to be more simple than the actual DnD rules, with the monster stats and other stuff being more simplified. That is the purpose of the OSR, right? Do a more classic version of DnD? It resumes to change the monster stats or I'll have more trouble than that?

 

[Andhaira]

Hey guys, aside from the settings that are being released for the fifth edition in the form of adventures, do you guys could recommend me some Cool stuff that are more focused on setting and less on adventure, preferably some original stuff, not necessarily 5th and that could be used as seeds for my own stuff? More neutral in rules would be better, because actually I am more inclined towards the 5th edition rules. Thanks in advance!

Yeah if you are looking for 5e setting material here are some good items of the top of my head:

-Primveal Thule 5e version (goto drivethrurpg.net and search there; you can also browse a ton of other interesting stuff there, including older D&D setting material)

http://www.talesofthefroggod.com/5th-edition-0

-The Lost Lands 5e version
-Bard's Gate 5e book
-The Blight
-Anything else 5e by the Frogs (Slumbering Tsar is said to be good, not sure if it has a 5e version)

 

[Sacibengala]

This is really a pretty clever way to put stats. I think I'll take the veins. And it is a miracle that I found it to buy in my country! Thanks!

 

[Andhaira]

This is really a pretty clever way to put stats. I think I'll take the veins. And it is a miracle that I found it to buy in my country! Thanks!

Not really considering Veins was written by a Swede (or Dane) AFAIK like all LOTFP products. And yes, Veins is very good.

If you are looking for more good OSR do check out the following:

-Fantastic Heroes and Witchery: The BEST OSR corebook and game in the market, hands down. The full corebook is available as a free pdf download from the authors website, but the art is low rez and it doesn't have book marks. Very worth purchasing it, at least the pdf. ( http://www.dcrouzet.net/heroes-witchery/ )

-Beyond the Wall: Another excellent OSR game. Has a lot of stuff free as pdf and has a wonderful magic system. Takes it's influence from a Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea rather than straight out Tolkien, resulting in a wonderful, low powered mix of the two. ( https://www.flatlandgames.com/btw/ )

-DCC (Dungeon Crawl Classic) great for Sword & Sorcery, great magic system and patron summoning system.

Shadow of the Demon Lord: Not D&D based but still a very good game. Author worked extensively on D&D 3e, older editions of D&D, D&D4e and WFRP2e. Game has the best mix of all, but mostly the latter (wfrp) with a streamlined system and many choices for players without getting bogged down. (and only 10 levels instead of 20, a great choice)

 

[vonAchdorf]

Lamentations is written by James Edward Raggi IV, who is a kwan living in Finland. Veins is written by Patrick Stuart who is afaik from the UK.

http://falsemachine.blogspot.co.uk

tldr; Paolo Greco is a neurotic bag of soup and Zak Smith is an insane Apergers robot man.
...
Just for clarities sake - I have regular suicidal ideation, self-harm ideation, this weird self-assault thing I picked up somewhere, regular mood swings, days lost to what I suppose must be some kind of depression since I often don't have clear memories of exactly what I did and general feelings of self-loathing.

Lamentation isn't "weird" for nothing.

Shadow of the Demon Lord: Not D&D based but still a very good game. Author worked extensively on D&D 3e, older editions of D&D, D&D4e and WFRP2e. Game has the best mix of all, but mostly the latter (wfrp) with a streamlined system and many choices for players without getting bogged down. (and only 10 levels instead of 20, a great choice)

The many mini PDFs are quite annoying though. Currently a bundle is on offer at drivethrough.

(Lamentations and Shadow of the DL both don't shy away from nudity and gore.)

 

[Quigs]

Hey guys, aside from the settings that are being released for the fifth edition in the form of adventures, do you guys could recommend me some Cool stuff that are more focused on setting and less on adventure, preferably some original stuff, not necessarily 5th and that could be used as seeds for my own stuff? More neutral in rules would be better, because actually I am more inclined towards the 5th edition rules. Thanks in advance!

Not sure if it's what you're going for or not, but props are fun. Currently playing a Dwarven Scholar. I've got a big leather bound book with locks and chains on it. Picked up a gold dragon nib pen and some ink. Got some steel dwarven dice. When there isn't a focus on me, I'm updating the book of grudges, writing in character analysis of beasts and peoples encountered, etc. Cost me less than 30 bucks altogether. Whatever you end up creating with your own imagination will always feel more real and deep than what you could pick up in a splatbook. Go all in and reward yourself for it. It's a blast.

 

[Andhaira]

I would also add the current The Dark Eye rpg 5e is also fantastic. It's the english translation of the latest edition of the famed German Das Schwartze upon which the Realms of Arkania games were based.

 

[Lhynn]

Getting quality PnP after so many years of 3.5 shit. Its enough to bring a grown man to tears.

 

[nikolokolus]

Hey guys, aside from the settings that are being released for the fifth edition in the form of adventures, do you guys could recommend me some Cool stuff that are more focused on setting and less on adventure, preferably some original stuff, not necessarily 5th and that could be used as seeds for my own stuff? More neutral in rules would be better, because actually I am more inclined towards the 5th edition rules. Thanks in advance!

People interested in portable, creative settings should also check out Gavin Norman's "Dolmenwood" zines http://www.rpgnow.com/browse/pub/5606/Necrotic-Gnome-Productions/subcategory/26251_27522/Dolmenwood.
They're written for Labyrinth Lord (B/X "Moldvay" D&D), but can be easily ported to any TSR era type ruleset, (or even gut the rules and just convert it to something good like WHFRP, or Renaissance). It's a weird, fairy-tale, acid-trip setting, full of evil druids (drune), goatmen, evil elves, decadent lords and elder things that go bump in the night.

Another great OSR rule set with a cool built-in setting that is easily mineable for ideas, is Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. http://www.rpgnow.com/browse/pub/4453/North-Wind-Adventures
The rules are sort of like AD&D, mixed with Basic D&D, but with a Weird Tales inspired setting that's the real star -- A pastiche of Howard, Lovecraft, and Clark Ashton Smith mixed with a little bit of Slainé. The 2nd edition is an all-in-one rules, bestiary, and setting book about 600 pages long, and it's chock full of amazing art (similar in style and on par with the amount in DCC RPG -- Russ Nicholson, Del Teigeler, Peter Mullen, Ian Baggley, et al.)

 

[Kem0sabe]

 

[Sacibengala]

I bought the veins from amazon and it is really great so far. The price was very high for my standards and the book is smaller in size than the average dnd book, but it is also very thick in comparison. The art is really cool, the arrange of the book is great, the text is flavour, very different from the habitual stuff. I'm reading parts of it. The cave stuff is very clever, the dark stuff is more artsy than pratical, but it is very interesting. And the tables are really great! That madness and mutation one are awesome. And what about The Rapture? amazing stuff! I am very happy with it right now! Later I will look at the other tips you guys gave me, some of it seems pretty good! Thanks for the tips guys!

 

[LESS T_T]

WotC President Chris Cocks will have "A HUGE, AMAZING ANNOUNCEMENT" at Friday:



Avalon Hills is recently released Betrayal at Baldur's Gate and D&D official account retweeted this so it's likely about D&D not Magic. (And Beamdog liked it but itself does not tell much.)

 

[Spectacle]

WotC President Chris Cocks will have "A HUGE, AMAZING ANNOUNCEMENT" at Friday:

They've figured out a way to add microtransactions and lootboxes to your home D&D game?

 

[boobio]

interesting.

 

[Havoc]

Nothing new. The tabletop rpg industry is infested.

 

[J1M]

Another case of involuntary celibacy addling the mind.

 

[Havoc]

If you don't want an infested rpg experience, READ MY CAMPAIGN JOURNAL! Write comments, brofist my ass.

 

[Melan]

Gary Gygax, gun-toting libertarian smartass, always saw through the lies of PC scum. Mike Mearls is no Gary Gygax.

 

[vonAchdorf]

Rules and lore complexity certainly play a minor role in the missing appeal of p&p games for women. What keeps them away is that the scene is populated by people who look like Mearls, a classical neckbeard, and are so socially inept that they try to white knight by insulting women's intelligence and ability to appreciate richness and complexity.

 

[Alex]

Yeah, obviously they should be playing F.A.T.A.L. instead.

Spoiler

This is just a joke by the way. Don't play FATAL. People will say a whole lot of crap about it, and it might make you check it out. But at the end of the day, it is boring, poorly edited, and just plain gross. It even makes Rifts seem like a paragon of order and clarity by comparison. I say this as someone who actually likes Rifts, by the way.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Simply put, the number one thing that has turned them off from playing table top rpgs, and this is me asking them today, around 16 people: ...

I'm surprised, yet I'm not surprised. That's actually one of the reasons I rarely play these days. All the ... strange... people in the hobby. I can't be bothered to seek them out and spend a significant amount of free time with them. Not all tabletop players are like that, but the number that are is significant.