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Here's a form to get a free 5e product about seafaring. I've just skimmed the 100 pages. It has a mix of spells, monsters, a travelling merchant, and an adventure. It's not amazing so far but decent. And Free (other than they collect your email address).
 
Stan Stan I was thinking of your XP ruling the past few days and I like it. Instead of tying it to max XP in the group I prefer that when a player's character dies, their next character starts with 10% of the deceased's accumulated XP. I think it fits in nicely with the Roguelite design philosophy.

This is assuming a soft cap of 6th level, I haven't worked out the implications at higher levels.
 
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I am considering a rule to make 5e evoke the survival horror vibe I am going for. Every time a character goes below zero hit points they fill in one of their bubbles for death saves. Essentially it is a permanently failed Death Save. Once all 3 are filled in that's it, they are dead the next time they reach 0 hit points. Thoughts?
 
I am considering a rule to make 5e evoke the survival horror vibe I am going for. Every time a character goes below zero hit points they fill in one of their bubbles for death saves. Essentially it is a permanently failed Death Save. Once all 3 are filled in that's it, they are dead the next time they reach 0 hit points. Thoughts?
Damn. That's hardcore. Not for every game, but I could see that for gritty game. Is revivify available? If so, how does it interact with this rule?

On the world building side, it would account for more former adventurers. "I've seen too much. I get the shakes just thinking about going down there again. " "After seeing all my buds die and me being unconscious for a while, I just knew that I'd be next."
 
Damn. That's hardcore. Not for every game, but I could see that for gritty game. Is revivify available? If so, how does it interact with this rule?

Great question and I am glad you asked. Short answer, right now I think the revivify should still work RAW even on a character who has lost all their Death Saves and reaches 0 hit points (it also works on a typical NPC with no death saves).

The long answer is, playing a cleric in my upcoming game is choosing to go all-in on the losing side of a cosmic war. These monastic warriors are akin to the grim Space Marines and Inquisitors of the Imperium in their hopeless fight against Chaos. Battlefield victory only delays the inevitable end. There are perhaps a dozen of these monastic orders active on the planet and few of their number wield the awesome powers of 3rd level spells. Needless to say, diamonds are hoarded by those in the know and worth far more than their mere monetary value suggests. When viewed in this context, I do not think the revivify spell will break the world.

On the world building side, it would account for more former adventurers. "I've seen too much. I get the shakes just thinking about going down there again. " "After seeing all my buds die and me being unconscious for a while, I just knew that I'd be next."
Exactly! I think this is best illustrated by a quote from Colonel David Hackworth, one of the most decorated soldiers in the history of the US Army.

Over time I concluded that a man is like a bottle. On the battlefield, fear is what fills him up and fuels him to perform. But some bottles are smaller than others. When a guy becomes unglued during a firefight, it’s just that his bottle has filled up and overflowed; it’s time for him to get away and let the fear drain out. But even when it does, there is a catch: from that moment on, the man is like a spent cartridge, and no amount of gunpowder will ever make him a real fighter again.
 
For a grittier game, I’d be tempted to use the “Wound and Vitality” system from the Star Wars d20 system.

Basically, a PC has a number of wounds equal to their Constitution score. This never changes. Vitality is their HP, and is luck, fate, combat stamina etc. Damage takes that down first, then it goes to Wounds, which are actual meat points.

Critical hits, or being struck while helpless, takes down their Wound points, regardless of how much Vitality that they have. Those reach zero? Death saves, baby.

Poison might hit Wounds as well.

This “fixes” the issue of D&D characters never being afraid of anything. A mob of town watch pointing crossbows at your face? Your 100+ HP won’t save you.

Makes fighting a little bit more dangerous, frankly.

Or I’m sure that it would break the game, I guess.

edit: this thread discusses it: https://www.enworld.org/threads/5e-wound-vitality-system.595731/ the consensus being that it doesn’t work, but we enjoyed it in Star Wars “shrug”. I guess 5e really IS as hit point bloat game. Once again I think of ways to “fix” 5e to my liking and realize that I should just play something else.
 
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Has anyone found any good reviews of the Hellboy 5e game?

I backed the Kickstarter and have the book. I have my own opinion (mostly negative) but was hoping to: find SOME gold in those page and confirm my disappointment.

I both love and hate the Ingenuity/Doom system. Like the way Ingenuity kind of makes the concept of meta-currency (eg "Inspiration") a bit more prevalent or "visible" to players (and I love exploding dice). But I HATE the doom mechanic (yet another thing for GMs to keep track of, to get "permission" to make things happen).

I found one review that isn't just gushing about 5e's perfection ("please send me review copies! I promise I will only say nice things about WotC!"), particularly the sole comment on the article: https://www.geeknative.com/130813/dungeons-doom-a-review-of-the-5e-powered-hellboy-rpg/ . I'd like to find more reviews, but Bing and Google seem to like to hide the "sort by date" filter, so mostly all that I see are "reviews" prior to or during the Kickstarter campaign (ie, paid advertising masquerading as critique).

TristramEvans TristramEvans did you ever write that review?
 
I am considering a rule to make 5e evoke the survival horror vibe I am going for. Every time a character goes below zero hit points they fill in one of their bubbles for death saves. Essentially it is a permanently failed Death Save. Once all 3 are filled in that's it, they are dead the next time they reach 0 hit points. Thoughts?
I like it. I'm building a house rule doc to present to my gaming group and I snuck that one in. We'll see what the group thinks about it. :grin:
 
My experience of 5e is that the sweet spot is from about level 3 up to maybe 8 or10. I've played in a couple of games that went up to about 15 or so but I think it's getting into diminishing returns at high levels.
Yeah, I wish they would sell a Player's Handbook Basic with all 12 classes and stuff, but all of the level 11+ stuff removed. Why clutter up a book with stuff I don't ever use? (Actually, I'm planning a higher level game for the first time in the 8 years that 5E has been out. Irony that I will actually use the stuff that I want gone.)
 
Yeah, I wish they would sell a Player's Handbook Basic with all 12 classes and stuff, but all of the level 11+ stuff removed. Why clutter up a book with stuff I don't ever use? (Actually, I'm planning a higher level game for the first time in the 8 years that 5E has been out. Irony that I will actually use the stuff that I want gone.)
But Basic would be levels 1-3. :tongue:
 
Last weekend my players encountered a band of ogres that had taken over some ruins in a swamp. The PCs heard voices arguing (one of the ogres had finally figured out that it’s hard to raid passing travellers when you’re lurking in a swamp and was trying to convince the others).

The PCs are all ninth level and there are 7 of them, so I figured this would be a minor speed bump for them. But I was quite pleased to see that a handful of ogres (mixed types of regular ogres, a bolt thrower, a battering ram and a chain brute) gave them a good battle where they had to use team tactics to prevail.

And it wasn’t just good/bad dice rolling, either. Even at 9th level, they don’t all have high ACs, so the ogres (with a +3) were still able to connect.

5E is not my favourite edition by any stretch, but we’ve had more fun in this D&D campaign than we’ve had since back in the 1E days.
 
Yeah, once you've played with someone, like me, who really knows how to use the basic illusion spells, a lot of GMs get gun shy. Adjudicating that character is hard, but it's constant, and it's way outside what you need to do for most D&D characters. So while that PC, and my comments and experiences playing it, are based in pretty standard RAW readings of the rules, it just adds up to a lot of bother.

Divination, Illusion, and Enchantment spells are pretty much made of the clever secondary effects and implied utility that Wizards of the Coast has been actively stripping out of Evocation, Conjuration, and Transmutation spells for the past twenty-five years-- largely because if they stripped those uses out of the former, there'd be nothing of those spells left.
 
Has anyone found any good reviews of the Hellboy 5e game?

I backed the Kickstarter and have the book. I have my own opinion (mostly negative) but was hoping to: find SOME gold in those page and confirm my disappointment.

I both love and hate the Ingenuity/Doom system. Like the way Ingenuity kind of makes the concept of meta-currency (eg "Inspiration") a bit more prevalent or "visible" to players (and I love exploding dice). But I HATE the doom mechanic (yet another thing for GMs to keep track of, to get "permission" to make things happen).

I found one review that isn't just gushing about 5e's perfection ("please send me review copies! I promise I will only say nice things about WotC!"), particularly the sole comment on the article: https://www.geeknative.com/130813/dungeons-doom-a-review-of-the-5e-powered-hellboy-rpg/ . I'd like to find more reviews, but Bing and Google seem to like to hide the "sort by date" filter, so mostly all that I see are "reviews" prior to or during the Kickstarter campaign (ie, paid advertising masquerading as critique).

TristramEvans TristramEvans did you ever write that review?

I started writing it, but honestly just got a bit exhausted by the negatvity. Unlike other games where I get a darkly humorous joy ranting about them (my ongoing Champons Now review that I occassionally work on in spare moments has ballooned to an as-yet twenty page rant), I get actively angry every time I crack open the Hellboy RPG rulebook. Mainly because it is a character and comic that I care deeply about - and if there's one tl;dr summary of my thoughts on the game it's that it was written by people who don't care about, understand or know the comics. Every time I look at it, I find some new bullshit.

I remember the last thing was them using Roger as an example of how open-minded and inclusive the BPRD is, showing that they'll put their trust in any nonhuman agent, which borders on irony, as in the comics the main reason Hellboy left the BPRD was because he found out that they trusted Roger so little that they secretly put a bomb in him.

I'm not familiar enough with 5th edition to know what's a criticism of that system vs what is presented in the Hellboy rulebook, but it is a mess. At first thought the advantage/disadvantage dice roll was a great idea to streamline play and get rid of the need to calculate a bunch of fiddly modifers to a roll, but here we have both the advantage/disadvantage dice on top of a whole bunch of fiddly modifiers, so it ends up just making the system unnecessarily more complex instead.

The presentation of the book is, IMO, actively hostile to new players, as you have to wade through 96 pages of incomprehensible crunch just to get to the point where they describe the base mechanics and what all those post-Gygaxian termis they've been liberally throwing around mean. Doom & Ingenuity are mechanics from the board game just lifted wholesale and slapped onto the 5e system ....uh because reasons? They just really liked their boardgame system ? I dunno, it's just poorly integrated additional crunch.

The character write-ups seem nonsensical, again apparently done by someone with no knowledge of the comics. I don't understand what the 5e ratings mean in real world terms, because apparently there's only one point difference in Strength between Rasputin and a bear? Rgoer, again, is given the skill "Acrobatics" which is just bizarre for a character whose defining physical traits in the comics are being oafish, clumsy, slow, and ackward.

and apparently someone decided the best way to model faeries was to wholesale lift the mechanics from Changeling: TheDreaming, never mind it in no way represets the fae as presented in any of the comics.

The comedy rules - Jesus Christ, I've tried to avoid commenting on the writers blatantly inserting their ideologies into the game, but they made rules for telling jokes (so if you "punch down" you cause psychic damage to your teammates) (groooooooaaaaan)

Eh, even just writing all this is pissing me off.

It's unfortunately a giant pile of shit. And I don't even take any pleasure from saying "I told you so" because I was cynical about it from the moment it was announced they were using the 5e system. But it didn't have to be horrible. There have been adaptions of D&D's system that worked - maybe not perfect or not my preference, but they still successfully adapted the system and reworked it to fit a new genre or IP - I'm thinking D20 Modern, Mutants & Masterminds, WoTC Star Wars, etc. This is so far from that it's not funny. This is a hack job written by idiots who didn't know or give a shit what they were doing.
 
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I started writing it, but honestly just got a bit exhausted by the negatvity. Unlike other games where I get a darkly humorous joy ranting about them (my ongoing Champons Now review that I occassionally work on in spare moments has ballooned to an as-yet twenty page rant), I get actively angry every time I crack open the Hellboy RPG rulebook. Mainly because it is a character and comic that I care deeply about - and if there's one tl;dr summary of my thoughts on the game it's that it was written by people who don't care about, understand or know the comics. Every time I look at it, I find some new bullshit.

I remember the last thing was them using Roger as an example of how open-minded and inclusive the BPRD is, showig that they'll put their trust in any nonhuman agent, which borders on rony, as in the comics the main reason Hellboy let the BPRD was because he found out that they trusted Roger so little that they secretly put a bomb in him.

I'm not familiar enough with 5th edition to know what's a criticism of that system vs what is presented in the Hellboy rulebook, but it is a mess. At first thought the advantage/disadvantage dice roll was a great idea to streamline play and get rid of the need to calculate a bunch of fiddly modifers to a roll, but here we have both the advantage/disadvantage dice on top of a whole bunch of fiddly modifiers, so it ends up just making the system unnecessarily more complex instead.

The presentation of the book is, IMO, actively hostile to new players, as you have to wade through 96 pages of incomprehensible crunch just to get to the point where they descrie the base mechanics and what all those post-Gygaxia terminology they've been usig the whole time means, Doom & Ingenuity are mechanics from the board game just lifted wholesale and slapped onto the 5e system ....uh because reasons? They just really liked their boardgame system ?

The character write-ups seem nonsensical, again apparently done by someone with no knowledge of the comics. I don't understand what the 5e ratings mean in real world terms, because apparently there's only one point difference in Strength between Rasputin and a bear? Rger, again, is given the skill "Acrobatics" which is just bizarre for a character whose defining physical traits in the comics are being oafish, clumsy, slow, and ackward.

Apparently omeone decided the best way to model faeries was to wholesale lift the mechanics from Changeling: TheDreaming, never mind it in no way represets the fae as presented in any of the comics.

The comedy rules - Jesus Christ, I've tried to avoid commenting on the writers blatantly inserting their ideologies into the game, but they made rules for telling jokes so if you "punch down" you cause psychic damage to your teammates (groooooooaaaaan)

Eh, even just writing all this is pissing me off.

It's unfortunately a giant pile of shit. And I don't even take any pleasure from saying "I told you so" because I was cynical about it from the moment it was announced they were using the 5e system. But it didn't have to be horrible. Tthere have been adaptions of D&D's system that worked - maybe not perfect or not my prreerene, but they still successfully adapted the ystem and reworked it to ft a gene or IP - I'm thinking D20 Modern, Mutants & Masterminds, WoTC Star Wars, etc. This is so far from that it's not funny. This is a hack job written by idiots who didn't know or give a shit what they were doing.
It’s okay: you DID say “I told you so” and I’m so disappointed in the game that I only feel regret that I hadn’t heeded your warnings.

I’m probably just going to sell the book, to be honest! It isn’t even pretty enough as a coffee table book. The writeups aren’t accurate as an “encyclopedia” on the Mignolaverse, so it’s not valuable as reference material.

I liked the board game quite a bit and I guess that I was naively hopeful…
 
It’s okay: you DID say “I told you so” and I’m so disappointed in the game that I only feel regret that I hadn’t heeded your warnings.

I’m probably just going to sell the book, to be honest! It isn’t even pretty enough as a coffee table book. The writeups aren’t accurate as an “encyclopedia” on the Mignolaverse, so it’s not valuable as reference material.

I liked the board game quite a bit and I guess that I was naively hopeful…

at the very least I got a nice bag and miniature furniture out of the KS I can use to decorate the boardgame (which, at least, is still awesome, really looking forward to the Hell on Earth expansions later this year)
 
I'm not familiar enough with 5th edition to know what's a criticism of that system vs what is presented in the Hellboy rulebook, but it is a mess. At first thought the advantage/disadvantage dice roll was a great idea to streamline play and get rid of the need to calculate a bunch of fiddly modifers to a roll, but here we have both the advantage/disadvantage dice on top of a whole bunch of fiddly modifiers, so it ends up just making the system unnecessarily more complex instead.

The presentation of the book is, IMO, actively hostile to new players, as you have to wade through 96 pages of incomprehensible crunch just to get to the point where they descrie the base mechanics and what all those post-Gygaxia terminology they've been usig the whole time means, Doom & Ingenuity are mechanics from the board game just lifted wholesale and slapped onto the 5e system ....uh because reasons? They just really liked their boardgame system ?

I got it in pdf only as I wasn't psyched from the beginning. I haven't written anything about it as I still haven't read much of it. I confess the structure was not great.

I'm not a WOTC insider but I think the point of advantage/disadvantage was to get away from a ton of modifiers like 3e/PF. Adding more modifiers misses the point.

It's been a couple of years but I remember liking the boardgame. I wonder of someone could put together a few pages of rules for campaigns and use with a gm and calling that a light Hellboy rpg?
 
I'm not a WOTC insider but I think the point of advantage/disadvantage was to get away from a ton of modifiers like 3e/PF. Adding more modifiers misses the point.
Right?! Their intent was clear.

On occasion Advantage/Disadvantage will get wonky and some people will try to game it. For example, multiple advantages/disadvantages do not stack and one advantage can wipe out a dozen disadvantages. This can lead to some weird situations. It's the cost of simplicity.
 
This “fixes” the issue of D&D characters never being afraid of anything. A mob of town watch pointing crossbows at your face? Your 100+ HP won’t save you.
D&D 5e RAW won't save the character either. Might take a handful of rounds but that character is going down using 5e. Certain classes and options may do better but the reason will not because of a high number of hit points.

The basic issue for that high HP character is the fact that individual members of the mob has a decent chance of hitting you. Face say 20 guards

1660618285794.png
Armed with this
1660618330996.png

That 20 attacks at +3 doing 1d10 damage coming at you. A high level character might win but they would have to be lucky to be in any kind of shape afterwards. Especially if one's campaign changed up the rest rules to use one of the options from the DMG.

For example of the possibilities look at this account from one of my players, Douglas Cole Douglas Cole starting with this post.

Hey Squirrel, We shot the sheriff!
Reflections on a Majestic Beat Down
Do you hear the People Sing?
The Siege Ends
We're all only down 3 HP
Fosco Chubb Summons Popcorn

This is the Knight Killer Crossbow that is mentioned in some of the posts
Crossbow, Knight-Killer, Ranged Weapon Accuracy Bonus: +4, Range: 150 ft./500 ft.. Dmg: 13 (4d5+3) piercing; Heavy, Loading (takes 10 Use Object actions to crank ), Range, Two-Handed.
 
Bree not the Shire.
Huh, I looked through what I had and realized I was confusing TOR and AiME items - I have them in the same folder and the lore sections are interchangeable so I confused the sources. It looks like AiME covers Eriador and Bree but not the Shire specifically. The starter set has 56 page book on the Shire.
 
Huh, I looked through what I had and realized I was confusing TOR and AiME items - I have them in the same folder and the lore sections are interchangeable so I confused the sources. It looks like AiME covers Eriador and Bree but not the Shire specifically. The starter set has 56 page book on the Shire.
TOR 1e? or 2e? I didn't think there was anything on the shire other than what was mentioned in the Eriador supplements from Cubicle.
 
TOR 1e? or 2e? I didn't think there was anything on the shire other than what was mentioned in the Eriador supplements from Cubicle.

2e. I missed out on 1e then went for all the pdfs in 2e kickstarter. From what I have, it looks like only the starter box has Shire material. All but one of the pregen characters are also Hobbits.
 
D&D 5e RAW won't save the character either. Might take a handful of rounds but that character is going down using 5e. Certain classes and options may do better but the reason will not because of a high number of hit points.
In my personal experience, both as a player and as a GM, the bloat of HP was definitely a cause for diffusing tension. Not the only cause, mind you, but a major one.

The only times I can remember the players started to get worried were:
  • when monsters were of a higher CR (ie, "unbalanced" encounters that are typically frowned upon by the community)
  • when the PCs were out of resources (eg, at the end of a day with all or most spells and abilities used up)
  • playing a game like Adventures in Middle Earth where we didn't have spells to beef us up (ie, healing)
"White room" analysis can really make it seem like 5e is pretty deadly, even at higher levels, but that isn't how it has felt for us at the table from actual play. Only by "breaking" some key D&D-isms (ignoring CR, having encounters after all resources have been used up*, or playing in a magic-less variant) did we ever get worried about our survival.

* one could argue that this is working as intended, but it gets really tedious having to whittle down the party before feeling any tension

But to each their own! D&D 5e was once my favorite RPG, but I've noticed some things about it that just aren't to my liking anymore (both sides of the GM screen).

EDIT: my current DM is doing a great job of creating tension by making a big deal out of social/political implications and consequences of our actions. We COULD just murder the entire town guard, but that would be disastrous for our characters' reputation and standing (morally, ethically AND legally).
 
"White room" analysis can really make it seem like 5e is pretty deadly, even at higher levels, but that isn't how it has felt for us at the table from actual play. Only by "breaking" some key D&D-isms (ignoring CR, having encounters after all resources have been used up*, or playing in a magic-less variant) did we ever get worried about our survival.
This is why I made sure I included an example of things worked out in actual play. My "White Room" analysis resulted after I ran a few campaigns and wanted to know why things worked out the way they did.

I noticed in published adventures and many accounts that climatic fights don't have enough opponents. Thus giving the advantage to the PCs. Numbers matter in life and it matters in 5e. I think the 5e DMG understates the effect of having multiple opponents.

I am big fan of what I call a natural hierarchy. That a powerful creature isn't usually going to be alone.



  • when monsters were of a higher CR (ie, "unbalanced" encounters that are typically frowned upon by the community)
I am being partially sarcastic but when did you start to let the "community" dictate how you run your campaigns? Sure it is never good to be arbitrary but I have gotten a lot of mileage, regardless of the system I use, by showing that the setting has a life of its own. That it is not organized it is in neat little areas of difficulty. The reason parties don't get curb stomped in my campaign is that the mean difficulty is around what I consider to be the professional/veteran level. Which is around 75 points in GURPS, 3rd level in various editions of D&D, and so on. The bigger challenges are out there but in a way that makes sense and there are reasons why many of them existed where they are found.

I can't stress enough that an RPG system can't fix this. It is all about how the setting is set up and that is something that cut across all systems. Even systems with a brutal reputation like Harnmaster can be a cakewalk if the referee doesn't pay attention to how the setting is set up.




  • playing a game like Adventures in Middle Earth where we didn't have spells to beef us up (ie, healing)
It is more than with AiME the creatures are also tougher than their 5e counterparts. While AiME doesn't have spells, it does have bows that just about every class can use. One of my groups figured this out and every party had bows. And when they worked together they were mowing down their opponents. When they weren't well they got wrecked hard.



But to each their own! D&D 5e was once my favorite RPG, but I've noticed some things about it that just aren't to my liking anymore (both sides of the GM screen).
My personal issue with 5e is that with 20 levels it gets tiresome to manipulate for my own purposes. Plus one class, the Warlock, is a great idea badly implemented. In addition, I like a little more granularity if I am to use skills rather than the proficiency, and expertise setup that 5e has. Although I was doing the whole "any character can use any skill" thing way before 5e came out. (see Majestic Wilderlands supplement VI).

I was using a system of +4/+2/+0/-2/-4 modifiers before 5e but after using Advantage/Disadvantage and observing the player's reaction to it, I adopted it in place of that system.

I like the idea of Prepared spells and casting through slots. But I think it is a step too far away from Swords & Wizardry for my Majestic Fantasy RPG.

But having said that, I am willing to use it as the power curve in my experience is very close to what I do with Swords & Wizardry. So running stuff is just a matter using the 5e stats instead of my stats.

EDIT: my current DM is doing a great job of creating tension by making a big deal out of social/political implications and consequences of our actions. We COULD just murder the entire town guard, but that would be disastrous for our characters' reputation and standing (morally, ethically AND legally).
Nice and basically what I do. Always a fan when referees do this kind of stuff.

For me the additional wrinkle is that as a result of previous campaigns where the PCs were the Town Guards, the town guards in my setting have the equipment and tactics to take out rogue PCs parties. Don't get me wrong there would be a lot of blood on the Town Guard's part but the PCs will go down if they stand and fight.

I highly recommend running a campaign or two where the PCs do stuff like be the Town Guard, the Village Elders, etc to flesh out that aspect of the setting to the point where it makes sense in a world of D&D style fantasy. The players will use their ingenuity to figure out solutions with the resources at hand.
 
So the new Soelljammer books appear to be nothing but a cash grab by WotC, which is no surprise. Minimal combat rules for ships, including no side mounted weapons, only front and back. Very disappointing that WotC just used the Spelljammer name in order to crap out minimal usable material.
 
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So the new Soelljammer books appear to be nothing but a cash grab by WotC, which is no surprise. Minimal combat rules for ships, including no side mounted weapons, only front and back. Very disappointing that WotC just used the Spelljammer name in order to crap out minimal usable material. But hey, at least nobody on Twitter will be offended when the read the race and species descriptions, So for modern WotC that’s mission accomplished right?
You're new here, so you might want to read posting guidelines; there's a pretty strict no-politics rule. Not that I'm offended or anything, but it's something to be aware of.
 
You're new here, so you might want to read posting guidelines; there's a pretty strict no-politics rule. Not that I'm offended or anything, but it's something to be aware of.
Would it still be considered political if I said I liked that WotC removed “problematic” racial descriptions and that I appreciated them making the game more ” inclusive “?
 
Would it still be considered political if I said I liked that WotC removed “problematic” racial descriptions and that I appreciated them making the game more ” inclusive “?
yeah, probably
 
robertsconley robertsconley - 5E does indeed have a real problem with single large foes being pushovers at their CR. 5E gets a lot more deadly when you drop monsters in larger mixed groups that are actually designed to work together (like goblins and hobgoblins for example).
 
So the new Soelljammer books appear to be nothing but a cash grab by WotC, which is no surprise. Minimal combat rules for ships, including no side mounted weapons, only front and back. Very disappointing that WotC just used the Spelljammer name in order to crap out minimal usable material.
Welcome to the board! If you have the time I would appreciate more details. How useful would Spelljammer be for a GM with zero interest in the 90s setting but looking to mine it for cool and/or weird tech and monsters?
 
robertsconley robertsconley - 5E does indeed have a real problem with single large foes being pushovers at their CR. 5E gets a lot more deadly when you drop monsters in larger mixed groups that are actually designed to work together (like goblins and hobgoblins for example).
On the heels of that, low CR creatures that gain advantage when adjacent to an ally (pack tactics) can punch way above their weight when mobbed up.
 
Well, so long as No Politics is administered fairly across the board with no favoritism one way or another, then I’m happy to comply.

That's the goal, though obviously arguments come up from time to time. The mods here prefer a light-touch approach, so this board is full of refugees from places that are infamous for deranged mod power trips, partisan excess and sanctimony.

I know I'm personally very keen on this neutral ground and I would leave if I felt double standards were being permitted.
 
robertsconley robertsconley - 5E does indeed have a real problem with single large foes being pushovers at their CR. 5E gets a lot more deadly when you drop monsters in larger mixed groups that are actually designed to work together (like goblins and hobgoblins for example).
Yup agree 100%. OD&D has the same issue as well.
 
So the new Soelljammer books appear to be nothing but a cash grab by WotC, which is no surprise. Minimal combat rules for ships, including no side mounted weapons, only front and back. Very disappointing that WotC just used the Spelljammer name in order to crap out minimal usable material.

Welcome to the pub.

I'm not surprised that there are only 2 pages on ship combat. The majority of roleplayers have never been into the details of fleet combat (or mass combat on land). There's more on travelling and having encounters. All the ships are smallish (crew <30) so that ship weapons don't overshadow player abilities. What would be cool would be a slightly abstracted minis game along the lines of those for Star Trek and Star Wars.

There are 3 books, each 64 pages:
a monster book with weird monsters, most of them intelligent.
An adventure for levels 5-8 (haven't even looked at it yet).
The player book with 6 new races, including all you need for Star Frontiers, the basics of astral travel, 15 weird ships, and a brief description of a town on a rock in space. Two new backgrounds but no new subclasses.

On the whole it looks like it's made to be used, without a long geography lesson. I think most potential players wanna make a cool character (in space!), have a cool ship (in space!), meet weird creatures (in space!), and go on an adventure in space. The product covers all that reasonably well considering that it's basically a mini phb, mini mm, and an adventure book in one product.
 
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On the heels of that, low CR creatures that gain advantage when adjacent to an ally (pack tactics) can punch way above their weight when mobbed up.
Yup.

Side Note my favorite 5e ability remains the zombie ability to get up after going below zero hit points. Although it has nothing to do with this particular train of thought it was absolutely terrifying to the players when they ran into a mob of zombies in the Phandelver module.

They
...
wouldn't
...
just
...
stay
...
down.

So they ran. Thanks to the person who scanned in the WoTC Wilderness Tiles so I could use them on Roll20. I will be able to play out the entire chase without doing theater of the mind. The naunces of the situation made a simple chase a nail-biting climatic moment. The encounter started just with the top two rows of tiles.


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I'm not surprised that there are only 2 pages on ship combat. The majority of roleplayers have never been into the details of fleet combat (or mass combat on land). There's more on travelling and having encounters. All the ships are smallish (crew <30) so that ship weapons don't overshadow player abilities. What would be cool would be a slightly abstracted minis game along the lines of those for Star Trek and Star Wars.
As a lifetime SJ fan I'm getting sadder the more I hear. So it looks like they're just converting small-medium ships & some monsters, then ignoring anything that doesn't fit the 3-6 person per side combat paradigm?
 
From the little I've read, pretty much. I think most 5e players will like it but if you want a fantasy space war, this isn't that.
 
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