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Post by Dave on Jul 25, 2014 7:18:56 GMT -9
All of my stuff is on sale right now at Wargame Vault: www.wargamevault.com/browse.php?manufacturers_id=2985If you've been wondering what's going on with me, here's a quick update: For the past few months I've been coasting, woolgathering, maybe even in a state of "artists' block". I still have a lot of things I want to do in the realm of papercraft, but I've also achieved a lot more than I ever expected to. I look back on my first three years designing paper terrain and I'm amazed by the results. I'm over the hump. I'm on the other side. As long as there is an internet, PDFs, and people who enjoy the papercraft hobby, I'll probably never have to pay for my own meals again. That's pretty awesome. The X-Wing Miniatures Game has captured my attention like no tabletop minis game before, and I've been busy trying to round up local players (and traveling to some not-so-local players and events). That is starting to get results, too. There's enough interest in the game that in August I'll be running an X-Wing tournament at my FLGS. In the process of meeting X-Wing players, I've also run into some roleplayers. I've had no RPG prospects since moving to Oregon in early 2013. Now I'm gearing up to run a campaign for a group of about six players using D&D fifth edition. (The fact that I'm even considering using D&D5 should be a huge endorsement of the game, since I detest the bloated rules and archaic boardgame-like elements of all of the earlier editions. D&D5 still has a few issues like that, but it's far and away the best edition so far, and in my opinion a vast improvement over the compartmentalized adventuring supported in D&D4.) Getting back into RPGs will likely put me right back in the mindset of designing paper terrain suitable for them. I don't know what my new models will be, or when the fire will come back and I'll start spending long nights with Photoshop again, but returning to the hobby that started it all for me can only result in good things. Off to happy gaming and new adventures.
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Post by wyvern on Jul 25, 2014 7:41:46 GMT -9
Now I'm gearing up to run a campaign for a group of about six players using D&D fifth edition. (The fact that I'm even considering using D&D5 should be a huge endorsement of the game, since I detest the bloated rules and archaic boardgame-like elements of all of the earlier editions. D&D5 still has a few issues like that, but it's far and away the best edition so far, and in my opinion a vast improvement over the compartmentalized adventuring supported in D&D4.) Getting back into RPGs will likely put me right back in the mindset of designing paper terrain suitable for them. I don't know what my new models will be, or when the fire will come back and I'll start spending long nights with Photoshop again, but returning to the hobby that started it all for me can only result in good things. Interested in all you're saying Dave, but especially about D&D5, as having played no D&D since 1st edition "Advanced" back in the very early '80s (I started with the original three booklets in a box nigh-on 40 years ago...), I too find I've been particularly tempted by this latest incarnation. I'm a little concerned that there were quite a few silly, fairly minor, mistakes in the adventure campaign book with the 5e "Starter Set", but am hoping that was just in the rush to get it out in advance, and that the core rulebooks will have been handled much more rigorously. Key word "hoping". And good luck rolling your D20 to use that tinderbox to reignite your Fire of Enthusiasm ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/3210488/images/5MiMMQTCgM0u6YJcjVMr.jpg)
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Post by Dave on Jul 25, 2014 10:41:30 GMT -9
I've only skimmed the adventure that comes with D&D5. I never run pre-written adventures, so I'll probably never notice the flaws in it.
After getting familiar with the Starter Set rules booklet, I downloaded the Basic Rules PDF and began to absorb that. Since I'm homebrewing a setting (much quicker than actually learning an established campaign world), I'm just going to treat D&D5 as a toolkit and will end up rewriting the races, monsters, schools of magic and lots of other stuff. Something about the way fifth edition is presented feels like a rules-light RPG, even if it definitely isn't. But it seems more malleable than earlier editions, which is great.
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Post by wyvern on Jul 26, 2014 3:44:54 GMT -9
I've only skimmed the adventure that comes with D&D5. I never run pre-written adventures, so I'll probably never notice the flaws in it. I've run all sorts down the decades, and I do enjoy reading through someone else's ideas for adventures, as you never know what you may find that's worth adopting in some form or other. The downside is that any logical inconsistencies tend to leap out at you this way too. Certainly, I'd rewrite the opening encounter from the Starter Set were I going to run it, because as presented it's a clumsy way to gift the party their opening combat victory, provide luggage-labelled Clues To What's Going On, and initial Experience Points. However, other aspects of the campaign are nicely done and eminently reusable elsewhere, should you so choose, with distinct options to expand the setting on your own. After getting familiar with the Starter Set rules booklet, I downloaded the Basic Rules PDF and began to absorb that. Since I'm homebrewing a setting (much quicker than actually learning an established campaign world), I'm just going to treat D&D5 as a toolkit and will end up rewriting the races, monsters, schools of magic and lots of other stuff. Something about the way fifth edition is presented feels like a rules-light RPG, even if it definitely isn't. But it seems more malleable than earlier editions, which is great. I came to things the other way round; downloaded the free Basic Rules, then got the Starter Set on the strength of that and some of the initial reviews online of the Starter Set. I've designed many bits of worlds over time, but I'm actually thinking it might be quite fun to see just how the world for this new edition D&D goes together for once. Even if I'd probably want to tweak aspects of it at least. My impression so far is that D&D5 seems indeed to have been usefully simplified and streamlined, with reasonable explanations offered for why the systems run as they do. So at present, I'm not quite back to the sense of anticipation the original D&D rules provided, but it's oddly not far short of it!
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Post by Dave on Jul 26, 2014 7:48:09 GMT -9
Yeah, in your case, the Starter Set's adventure sounds like the whole reason for picking up that set. I didn't know the Basic Rules existed already or I would've just skipped right to that, although it has been useful to see the basic-basic starter rules and the pregenerated characters.
I really like the simplicity of advantage/disadvantage, and can see myself using that a lot on the fly, rather than adjusting DC (which is its own thing).
I'm never going to use the Death Saves rules. I'm the GM, it's entirely up to me if PCs live or die -- unless they knowingly martyr themselves.
I might introduce something like Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay's "fate points" that will refresh each session and can be "spent" at will to re-roll a failed roll and can be "burned" (permanently discarded) to ignore fatal or incapacitating injuries. I'm thinking that lower-level PCs will have about 5 fate points to start with (might vary depending on race or class), and that they'll actually lose fate points as they advance to higher levels.
To further combat the notion that you just get better and better as you gain experience, I'm thinking about a "getting rusty" rule that kicks in every few levels. This will require you to lower one skill bonus by 1 and add 1 to a different skill bonus, or something like that. The idea is that skills you rarely use will get worse.
Another rule I'll probably borrow from WFRP will be that when a character takes damage that leaves them with fewer than [say, 6 minus Constitution bonus, minimum of 2, call it a "Wound Threshold"] hit points, they're "wounded" and will suffer some sort of debilitating effect. I'm thinking they'll never have advantage while wounded, and will suffer -3 to all rolls that involve the use of a randomly-generated hit location (head, body, left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg), speed penalties, and other effects as appropriate.
The whole point of a more detailed and punishing damage system is to give players second thoughts about launching headlong into battle. I've told my group that they should take no threat lightly, that their greatest challenges will probably come from other members of society rather than monsters, and if they are outnumbered by any enemy their best option is to run. Using surprise and dirty tactics, and fighting on their own terms, should get them to think in a way that will enrich their stories and make their successes more rewarding. More grit, I say.
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Post by wyvern on Jul 27, 2014 1:59:33 GMT -9
I understand where you're coming from in thinking about varying the combat and injuries rules. From my experience, things can get very complex very quickly once you start tinkering though. I ran something similar to your "rusty skills" concept hem-hem years ago, and found it bogged things down into a tedious administrative mess. Ditto variable wound effects and hit locations. In the end I had a complex system which was apparently a fair simulation of reality, but which was completely unplayable in RPG-terms, where combat needs to be quick, simple and deadly (if maybe slanted a little in favour of the players; it's their story, after all).
Wouldn't want to stop you enjoying yourself with the systems, of course! Just that my current impression is D&D has been through parts of this already, and come out streamlined as D&D5 by junking the bits that really didn't work.
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Post by Dave on Jul 28, 2014 18:36:12 GMT -9
I'm not really worried about breaking the game or slowing things down. It can use a little more grit. The really nice thing is that the game has clearly left room for variant and additional rules. I suspect the fifth edition Dungeon Master's Guide will include more detailed combat options anyway, but I don't think I'll even need to pick up that book.
The Inspiration rule is... not all that inspired. I'm going to use Fate Points instead, lifted almost wholly from the Warhammer 40K RPGs. They work much like Inspiration but offer players many more options for spending them, so it's an even greater encouragement to roleplay one's personality strengths and flaws.
Tweaking the races and classes has proved really fun and easy. There appears to be a weird skip in level progression. I can't remember which level requires 85,000 experience points, but it should probably be 82,000 instead to keep in step with the rest of the numbers.
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Post by room101 on Jul 29, 2014 12:15:44 GMT -9
I'll have to have a look at 5th. After 3.5 I tried 4th, and found it lacking so went with Pathfinder instead. I remain to be convinced but I'm not closed to trying it.
I play total sandbox in a self generated world so I have no ties to the Pathfinder settings or campaigns, so if 5 is a better system I can quite easily move back.
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Post by Dave on Jul 29, 2014 15:28:20 GMT -9
I play total sandbox in a self generated world That describes my gaming style exactly. Working from the 5E Basic Rules PDF, I've had no trouble tweaking the races to suit my homebrewed setting. I've expanded the weapons and armor list and found that to be pretty flexible. I added arquebuses and pistols and a 'firearm' weapon property -- no problem. My 'wound threshold' rule slots in pretty seamlessly too. (I rewrite whole sections of the rules and equipment lists as needed, so players don't have to flip back and forth at lot between my house rules and the unchanged core rules. It's all pretty much in one place.) It would be a cinch to create new races. Without the Player's Handbook, a lot of character backgrounds remain unseen so I don't have a good sense of what the 'template' for backgrounds might be, so I'm not comfortable making big changes to those yet. But once I get to a look at the full selection of background I'll be creating my own. I'd recommend taking a look at the free Basic Rules PDF available from dungeonsanddragons.com and seeing for yourself.
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Post by Dave on Jul 31, 2014 7:03:49 GMT -9
So I've taken my D&D5 experiment about as far as it can go until the Player's Handbook is released. But I have some players eager to start playing something, and fate has put a copy of the new Star Wars RPG, Age of Rebellion, in my hands. Fate and $54, to be more precise. Anyway, it's a gorgeous-looking core book and I'm already pretty familiar with the funky dice mechanics, having played a couple of sessions of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, 3rd edition, upon which it is based. The Duty mechanics are breaking my brain. Maybe I'll figure them out before it's time to create characters. Just about everything else looks good so far. Last night, even before I'd gotten to chapter 2 of the rulebook, I wrote an outline for an action-packed 10-act starting adventure. That's a really good sign, since I've usually struggled to come up with good adventures for Star Wars. One of the PCs will be a mole in the Imperial Security Bureau on Coruscant who has just gathered some important intelligence and needs to deliver it to Alliance Command right away. The other PCs will be the extraction team. The adventure starts when they meet in a bar (of course), and the action starts immediately. ISB has followed the mole and is going to try to apprehend the entire Rebel cell. Fight fight fight, chase chase chase. There should be lots of narrow escapes, and lots of out of the frying pan and into the fire situations. One of the PCs will have a good reason to betray the rest of the team, but will be able to get redeemed. An Inquisitor (thank you Rebels TV show for the idea) will be assigned to track down the Rebel cell, and should be a great nemesis for the campaign. Space battles should be fun, since we can bust out the X-Wing miniatures to help visualize the action. ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/3210488/images/5MiMMQTCgM0u6YJcjVMr.jpg)
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