I bring this up for a few reasons.
1. We're talking about how the DM's Guild isn't doing very well with 5e, maybe Green Ronin will do better.
2. We've been talking about how thin most gaming religions tend to be, well this book (a redoing of their 3e version) has a whole drop-in Pantheon, complete with Myths, Doctrine, Prayers, Saints, Church Structure, Holy Days, etc, for every single god in the pantheon.
3. Robert Schwalb is on the team to update the book to 5th Edition.
Quote from: Rob SchwalbThe richly detailed and evocative mythology presented in The Book of the Righteous could have been enough by itself, but the original book went above and beyond by expressing the narrative through the lens of the Third Edition game system, leveraging the various mechanical components to provide players and Game Masters with the tools to transform characters into true servants of the gods. The holy warrior class, prestige classes, new domains, magic items, and more gave players plenty of options for expressing their character's religious devotion.
With the Fifth Edition update, my job is similar to what Aaron Loeb did during the initial design, chiefly to take the mythology and create the mechanics for the characters serving them. This won't be a straight conversion, however. Fifth Edition places less emphasis on building-block mechanics to support the story-first approach, so it lacks many of the moving parts that were central to the older editions. Rather than force Third Edition back into Fifth, we've decided to make the existing game options do the work instead.
For example, the original sourcebook used prestige classes to describe one of the three orders serving each god. We entertained the idea of resurrecting prestige classes for the newest edition, but nature of class design in Fifth Edition largely renders prestige classes obsolete. Since each class has a built-in sub-class (ranger archetype, sorcerous origin, domain, pact, and so on), we can use that architecture to express service to a god without having to build an entirely new system. We simply find the class most closely linked to the prestige class concept and build a new subclass to express its features, giving the class an injection of divine power. Characters belonging to other classes who want to express their affiliation with the god can do so my using the multiclassing rules. In this way, we capture the concepts in the original and use existing frameworks to deliver them to characters.
Another key piece of mechanical design in the original book was the holy warrior class. This new class dismantled the paladin into domain abilities. In doing so, it was easy to build a paladin dedicated to a particular deity. Like prestige classes, we considered bringing the holy warrior forward with new design, but the Sacred Oath class feature has made this approach unnecessary. We can offer the same variation by creating new Sacred Oaths that reflect the gods' interests and let the player choose.
In the end, my goal is to provide you with everything you need to incorporate all of Aaron's great content into your games, but with the added benefit of having robust mechanics you can use for any pantheon you might use in your campaigns.
So, for those who are deciding how to use 5e or how to make a particular world's gods and pantheons work in 5e, this might be a good masterclass for making stuff in 5e, especially since they throw the 3rd edition PDF in for free, so you can see them side by side and see Rob's interpretation methods.
Oh yeah I guess a link to the actual kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1780208966/book-of-the-righteous-for-fifth-edition) may have helped. :o
Long as its an actual 5e product and not another 3e SRD fake.
People say there was a d20 bust, but really, companies keep cashing in on the same products over and over. First for 3.0, then 3.5, then Pathfinder, now 5.0
Quote from: CRKrueger;8951712. We've been talking about how thin most gaming religions tend to be
WotC could fix this in about ten minutes by reprinting The Primal Order line. I have to conclude there's just no market for religious verisimilitude in D&D.
Well, Green Ronin made Fantasy Craft, so how bad can it be? Archetypes, the sub-classes within, are a great design space in which to expand. Though, I hope it isn't too much of a retread about spiffy new custom powers (Religion: the Justification-ing). We can always hope in the face of meddling by Captain Magic (the Gathering) and the Widgeteers!
:idunno:
Quote from: daniel_ream;895413WotC could fix this in about ten minutes by reprinting The Primal Order line. I have to conclude there's just no market for religious verisimilitude in D&D.
Didn't know about this, so I looked it up (in wiki, so assume cursory knowledge). WotC's first published with its president Peter Adkison. But it also says as part of the sale to Hasbro, Peter Adkison retained rights to this work as it was largely his creation.
So, I don't know if it can be republished. Depends on the relation between the owner and Hasbro?
Quote from: Opaopajr;895434Well, Green Ronin made Fantasy Craft, so how bad can it be?
I thought that was Crafty Games?
Quote from: Opaopajr;895435But it also says as part of the sale to Hasbro, Peter Adkison retained rights to this work as it was largely his creation.
Ah, I didn't know this. Well, Kickstarter then. At least then there will be an accurate gauge of interest.
If you can find a used copy, though, I highly recommend picking it up. Best set of playable god rules ever, and even if you don't use god-level play, those rules provide sensible and extensible logic for why religions are structured the way they are.
Quote from: RunningLaser;895440I thought that was Crafty Games?
You are correct.
Quote from: daniel_ream;895442Ah, I didn't know this. Well, Kickstarter then. At least then there will be an accurate gauge of interest.
If you can find a used copy, though, I highly recommend picking it up. Best set of playable god rules ever, and even if you don't use god-level play, those rules provide sensible and extensible logic for why religions are structured the way they are.
Advice taken. To the speculative collector's hell! "Oooh, my pocketbook..." :cool:
Quote from: CRKrueger;8951711. We're talking about how the DM's Guild isn't doing very well with 5e, maybe Green Ronin will do better.
Can you elaborate?
Quote from: Frey;895681Can you elaborate?
This thread. (http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?34315-WTF-is-a-quot-Battlemaster-quot-OR-I-FEEL-LIKE-FIGHTING)
So we have a thread on how 5e classes suck, and one on how RPG religions suck, I was checking up on Green Ronin and "Oh, how about that"...it just seemed topical.
Quote from: daniel_ream;895413WotC could fix this in about ten minutes by reprinting The Primal Order line. I have to conclude there's just no market for religious verisimilitude in D&D.
I still use Primal Order. Best thing WotC ever made, with Talislanta 3e close in second.
Edit: and I love the folks at Green Ronin. I'll check this out when it comes out. But I'm not backing any KS's for 5e at this point.