Quote from: S'mon;1119350Ran my Mini Six playtest last week to iron out a few things, and starting my Mini Six Legend of the Silver Princess campaign Feb 5th - https://simonsprimevalthule.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-valley-of-scorn-palace-of-silver.html

Nice map.

What makes the obelisk impossible? I must know!

Quote from: Aglondir;1119402Nice map.

What makes the obelisk impossible? I must know!

From the Primeval Thule campaign setting:

The Impossible Obelisk: High on the slopes of the Starcrown Mountains, where the snows never melt and the rocks take on a strange purple hue, a towering obelisk stretches from deep below the ground to impressive heights. Its exterior is disturbingly smooth to touch and is carved from an unknown material; seams, tool marks, and even edges are hard to define. The obelisk itself would be remarkable, but it also seems to exert a pernicious effect on the land nearby. The structure appears to radiate a souring aura, rapidly spoiling organic matter if it's already dead. Venturing too close to the obelisk can swiftly foul an entire pack of provisions. In living creatures, this unwholesome aura triggers disturbing dreams and violent urges, causing mental distress rather than physical harm (although the latter often becomes a result of the former).

Most peculiar of all are the tales of great mysteries hidden within the obelisk. Some travelers claim that they have approached the titanic structure and found an archway at the base of its east-facing side. The contents of the obelisk differ depending on the teller of the story: Weapons of great might, scrolls of horrific portent, or even the key to immortality are said to be hidden within. The dungeons beneath the obelisk are home to a strange nonhuman sorcerer known as Tessali the MindMage. Tessali's origins are unknown, as are its connections to the building of the ancient structure, but the sorcerer has certainly inhabited the location for longer than any record can contradict. Tessali is said to welcome some visitors and enthrall others, occasionally seeking exchanges of eldritch power and knowledge. Undoubtedly malevolent, yet occasionally reasonable, Tessali is almost as mysterious as the edifice in which it dwells.

The PTCS is full of this stuff - I love it to bits.

Quote from: Spinachcat;1119397S'mon, please consider doing a thread about Mini-Six, perhaps a mix of review, actual play and evangelism for the system.

Sounds good - I'm still in the research phase, eg I only realised last night while reading a review that Perks cost skill dice, not Attribute dice.

It's not exactly that the game is just a toolkit, but I am finding I need to do a fair bit of reading up on the d6 system to understand how stuff is supposed to work. Eg Mini Six includes sci fi battleships shooting hundreds of laser cannons. Reading d6 Space & d6 Fantasy I realised that you can just take an average roll (for Mini Six, that's a "3" per die, not 3.5)  + Wild Die for each shot (& assume every 6 shots also go Wild); in fact it's perfectly possible to run battles with hundreds of ships, or have Poe Dameron take on a Star Destroyer.

My first proper Mini Six Thule session is on 5th February, can maybe start a thread then. And I'm looking at running d6 Star Wars 1e Tatooine Manhunt with some of the later innovations like the static numbers to higher wound value (4-8 over STR = wounded, 16+ over STR = dead), Force Points giving a flat +6, and the Wild Die. I think that will make for a more challenging game, deal with issues like the invulnerable Wookie, but keep the SW spirit.

Man, I can't wait till 6e comes out so all those 5e fans eat crow about how wonderful their edition is. I'll join the chorus of saying "you have to play 6e now! It is newer and therefore better!" Meanwhile, I'll just quietly keep playing my AD&D home game that I always have played!

There won't be 6th edition.  D&D is getting the full Monopoly treatment from Hasbro now.  They'll just keep putting out the same game with different skins on it forever.   They're already doing this - D&D Stranger Things, D&D Rick and Morty, etc.

Quote from: goblinslayer;1119438There won't be 6th edition.  D&D is getting the full Monopoly treatment from Hasbro now.  They'll just keep putting out the same game with different skins on it forever.   They're already doing this - D&D Strange Things, D&D Rick and Morty, etc.

3e had its Diablo supplement too so I wouldn't take the Stranger Things or R&M boxes as proof they'll never do a new edition.

Unlike Monopoly or Risk though the level of involvement in RPGs is higher and the system complex enough that it's mechanics can run with or counter to the culture's prevailing trends and preferences (ex. compare the complexity/focus of 1e to 3e to 5e)... so mechanics do need to be tweaked to keep current.

That said, I think the inevitable 6e will be more like 2e was to 1e than the radical departures 3, 4 and 5e were from their predecessors. It will most likely be some cleanup of clunky bits (ex. to-hit tables replaced by THAC0), class/race tweaks and some reorganization and new art. The end result being you can probably mostly still use your 5e stuff with 6e without too much fuss.

Quote from: goblinslayer;1119438There won't be 6th edition.  D&D is getting the full Monopoly treatment from Hasbro now.  They'll just keep putting out the same game with different skins on it forever.   They're already doing this - D&D Stranger Things, D&D Rick and Morty, etc.

I think you're right about this. You don't need a new edition, when you can just put out new PHBs for every new tie-in/campaign world. And speaking of that, I'd like to see a Karameikos D&D book soon.

If WOTC tries to keep 5E evergreen, that would be pretty cool; but it's hard to believe that at some point the SJW influencers won't feel the need to create additional safe spaces in D&D.

Quote from: Razor 007;1119592If WOTC tries to keep 5E evergreen, that would be pretty cool

My only issue with '5e 4ever' is that it's so heavily geared to a Forgotten Realms 'high magic' setting, with most PCs being spellcasters. I'd like more support for lower-magic play. It seems a bit high magic even for Greyhawk.

Not saying they will do it, but a much better option for 6E would be a "5E+" version:

- 5E brought forward essentially unchanged (errata cleaned up, very careful selection of a few problems fixed that aren't terribly invasive and can be easily explained in a page or two of text).
- Bunch of additions worked into the normal flow (extra class paths that have been well received listed along with the rest, a few more spells, etc.)
- A bigger monster manual with a more varied selection, possibly pruning a handful of the least useful creatures.  After all, the original manual is still useful if you don't change the rules.  With hindsight, should be able to do a better "first manual" for new players.
- Since they aren't redoing everything and messing up launch schedules, can release the 3 core books at once.  Which means all the optional rules can be put into the correct books, and organized more clearly.
- Then for new things, expand into a domain book, a sandbox book, a new setting, etc.   Since the above is mainly cleanup, should be able to do a new good book about every 6 to 12 months.

But mainly, fire all the idiots that write the novels disguised as travel guides, that are self-indulgent clap trap.

To go the 5e+ route... would entail *WAY* too much forward thinking. And frankly, WotC would be far more invested in simply whipping out a new edition to get the whole cycle rolling again and reprinting yet ANOTHER iteration of whatever sold reasonably well in 5e.

I think the question of the OP should focus more on whether WE will be playing 6e or *whatever else* we think we'll still be doing in the near future. The "whatever else" is far more probable for me. 4e as a set was gifted to me - 5e I bought the core books, then gave them away after realizing this game wasn't really made for me. I have zero reason to believe 6e or any edition going forward will be trying to cater to anyone but the lowest common denominator, with mechanics that are useful *more* than what currently exists in the wild.

I love your ideas - they resemble my own if *we* owned the IP. Because we care about good gaming. WotC has other dictum's in play beyond "making the game better". Or if we're being less charitable - they not interested or don't care about these things. End result is the same.

Has WOTC actually announced a 6th edition?

- Ed C.

Quote from: Koltar;1119646Has WOTC actually announced a 6th edition?

- Ed C.

Not that I know of. But a 6th edition is inevitable. Eventually the books will hit saturation and they'll have to create a new edition to sell more books.
Which I don't even mind, if they did it smart. Keep the core rules 'evergreen' and release a 6th edition with a few rules updates, new art, and hey presto.

Quote from: Ratman_tf;1119648Not that I know of. But a 6th edition is inevitable. Eventually the books will hit saturation and they'll have to create a new edition to sell more books.
Which I don't even mind, if they did it smart. Keep the core rules 'evergreen' and release a 6th edition with a few rules updates, new art, and hey presto.

Or they just wait for new people to need books... Like how monopoly sells.

Quote from: Steven Mitchell;1119631Not saying they will do it, but a much better option for 6E would be a "5E+" version.

They kind of already have. They're on the 10th printing with multiple pages of changes, not just fixing typos but actually changing the rules. If I sell my earlier printings I'll have to tape a stack of errata sheets to the inside covers.