Quote from: RPGPundit on March 29, 2024, 03:27:00 PM

That's exactly what I advocated for at the time. My suggestion to Mearls was that there be four core classes, and all kinds of others could be presented as optional classes in the DMG or elsewhere, for the DM to use if he wished to allow.

Or if they had just gone with some classes as subclasses instead. Barbarian, Sorcerer and Warlock.

DND will stay bad until they give us options to decide the power level (and type of power) of our homebrew worlds. Superhuman martials and wimpy casters in one campaign, wimpy martials and superhuman casters in another, or both or neither.

But of course no one at WOTC will do this. They're too stupid.

Quote from: Nakana on March 30, 2024, 12:30:19 AM
I liked what d20 Modern did with classes. Six. Each based on a core attribute. They should do something closer to that and have subtypes.

d20 Modern is a good game. It's actually, legitimately, the first and only good skills-based game derived from D&D. Certainly no BRP/Runequest, I think it's "good enough". And Urban Arcana is one of the better settings inRPG history since Shadowrun, so there's that.

Quote from: Brad on March 31, 2024, 12:00:34 AM

Quote from: Nakana on March 30, 2024, 12:30:19 AM
I liked what d20 Modern did with classes. Six. Each based on a core attribute. They should do something closer to that and have subtypes.

d20 Modern is a good game. It's actually, legitimately, the first and only good skills-based game derived from D&D. Certainly no BRP/Runequest, I think it's "good enough". And Urban Arcana is one of the better settings inRPG history since Shadowrun, so there's that.

And yet somehow White Wolf botched it with (not) d20m Gamma World.

Polyhedron showed just how versatile d20 and d20m were. Pulp Heroes. Flash Gordon style planet adventures. Cross country car racing. Mystery solving teen bands. WWII. Gundam style mecha. Trapped in VR.

Quote from: Omega on March 31, 2024, 03:27:01 AM
And yet somehow White Wolf botched it with (not) d20m Gamma World.

As a fan of Gamma World since the original edition it is hard to put into words how badly White Wolf's Gamma World was. Everything was wrong, almost as bad as KK Disney Star Wars. Such a disappointment because the author had previously written a great Pulp RPG. The only designer of that era who "got" Gamma World right was Jonathan Tweet in his "Omega World" game he wrote for Polyhedron magazine.

Quote from: Omega on March 31, 2024, 03:27:01 AM

Polyhedron showed just how versatile d20 and d20m were. Pulp Heroes. Flash Gordon style planet adventures. Cross country car racing. Mystery solving teen bands. WWII. Gundam style mecha. Trapped in VR.

True. d20 Modern was excellent, but the design flaws of d20 overwhelmed its potential as a universal RPG that could dethrone GURPS, though I thought they were on the right track. Too bad they abandoned that idea.

Quote from: MeganovaStella on March 30, 2024, 07:23:18 PM
DND will stay bad until they give us options to decide the power level (and type of power) of our homebrew worlds. Superhuman martials and wimpy casters in one campaign, wimpy martials and superhuman casters in another, or both or neither.

But of course no one at WOTC will do this. They're too stupid.

Why sit around and wait for WOTC to give you something? Run your campaign with rules that fit the style of game you like. I started tweaking 5E almost right out of the gate starting with the resting & healing rules. Published stuff is just framework from which to start. Adjust to taste until you get the game that you want.

This totally not a new edition seems to have a very different theme both mechanically (removing races as a term for example) and visually (class iconics looking like illustrated Harry Potter/D&D hybrid cosplayers)...

Quote from: FingerRod on March 29, 2024, 07:34:31 AM
I'm still on the fence with Perkins. On one hand, all of the evidence in front of my face. On the other, this dude has a true and deep love of the game. From being an absolute pest until getting his stuff published as a teenager to DM'g on stage for years and years despite reportedly suffering from crippling anxiety, my current status with CP is...complicated.

I'm taking a wait and see with this one. Although, if I pushed my chips in...my guess is he'll make all the concessions he needs to the overlords and we'll have Soy D&D.

Perkins was never "on the fence" about anyone like us.

And he is not "making concessions" to anyone. He is down for the ride. He is one of the chief instigators of 'Soy D&D'

Because D&D is now being shepherded by two homosexuals:

Chris Perkins Loves the direction of D&D:

Quotehttps://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/06/inside-dungeons-dragons-chilling-new-adventure-rime-of-the-frostmaiden/
"..."As people have grown accustomed to seeing in our books, you're going to get to see the art people of all sorts from many different backgrounds," Crawford, himself not just an openly gay man, but a champion for diversity and LGBTQ representation at Wizards, concluded. "And then also in the story, you're going to get to meet people and help people who reflect the wonderful diversity of people in our world."

"One example I love that Chris put in and he basically it was a pleasant, pleasant surprise when I came through [Frostmaiden], is you get to help a scrimshander  [someone, typically a sailor, who whittles handicrafts using materials gathered on their voyages] and his husband for one of those as standalone quests," Crawford said. "We now consider this to be a core, non-optional part of our work. And I love that, basically, if you come to one of our adventures, you're going to see a wonderful spectrum of humanity represented there."

Jeremy Crawford on the future of D&D:

Quotehttps://kotaku.com/dungeons-dragons-promises-to-make-the-game-more-queer-1798401117
In the Dungeons & Dragons adventure Storm King's Thunder, which Crawford helped publish in 2016, three enormous rocks have crushed the Osstra family's farm in the abandoned village of Nightstone, spurring them to flee the town. ... If players choose to rescue Nightstone's villagers, they'll meet the 52-year-old wheat farmer Thelbin Osstra, his husband Brynn, and Brynn's adopted nephew Broland.
"That was a nod specifically to our household," Crawford said of himself, his husband, and his nephew, who lived with them in 2016 when Storm King's Thunder was in development.

Crawford told me that publisher Wizards of the Coast is making D&D more gay, and why that's a great thing.

"Ever since we brought our adventure design fully back in-house," he said, "all of our new adventures contain LGBT characters. This is true of our next adventure, Tomb of Annihilation, and it will be true of our stories after that."

"It's important to many of us personally in the company for the game to acknowledge our existence," Crawford said of publisher Wizards of the Coast, ..."

It literally doesn't matter what "true and deep love of the game..." they may have; Because they demonstrably love their own faggotry even more.

The Future of D&D?

The Future of D&D is that it will be Fake and Gay.

I actually don't mind the inclusion of homosexual NPCs in the game save for two things:

1. When is the last time you played a game where the spouse of the NPC was relevant or even mentioned at all?
2. When is the last time you played a game where the sexual orientation of an NPC was relevant or even mentioned at all (unless your group plays it where you sleep with them, in which case do whatever)?

The whole "we're going to go out of our way to ensure we have gay representation" even when it's irrelevant is when I start to roll me eyes.

Quote from: Jaeger on March 31, 2024, 03:16:13 PM

Quote from: FingerRod on March 29, 2024, 07:34:31 AM
I'm still on the fence with Perkins. On one hand, all of the evidence in front of my face. On the other, this dude has a true and deep love of the game. From being an absolute pest until getting his stuff published as a teenager to DM'g on stage for years and years despite reportedly suffering from crippling anxiety, my current status with CP is...complicated.

I'm taking a wait and see with this one. Although, if I pushed my chips in...my guess is he'll make all the concessions he needs to the overlords and we'll have Soy D&D.

Perkins was never "on the fence" about anyone like us.

And he is not "making concessions" to anyone. He is down for the ride. He is one of the chief instigators of 'Soy D&D'

Because D&D is now being shepherded by two homosexuals:

Chris Perkins Loves the direction of D&D:

Quotehttps://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/06/inside-dungeons-dragons-chilling-new-adventure-rime-of-the-frostmaiden/
"..."As people have grown accustomed to seeing in our books, you're going to get to see the art people of all sorts from many different backgrounds," Crawford, himself not just an openly gay man, but a champion for diversity and LGBTQ representation at Wizards, concluded. "And then also in the story, you're going to get to meet people and help people who reflect the wonderful diversity of people in our world."

"One example I love that Chris put in and he basically it was a pleasant, pleasant surprise when I came through [Frostmaiden], is you get to help a scrimshander  [someone, typically a sailor, who whittles handicrafts using materials gathered on their voyages] and his husband for one of those as standalone quests," Crawford said. "We now consider this to be a core, non-optional part of our work. And I love that, basically, if you come to one of our adventures, you're going to see a wonderful spectrum of humanity represented there."

Jeremy Crawford on the future of D&D:

Quotehttps://kotaku.com/dungeons-dragons-promises-to-make-the-game-more-queer-1798401117
In the Dungeons & Dragons adventure Storm King's Thunder, which Crawford helped publish in 2016, three enormous rocks have crushed the Osstra family's farm in the abandoned village of Nightstone, spurring them to flee the town. ... If players choose to rescue Nightstone's villagers, they'll meet the 52-year-old wheat farmer Thelbin Osstra, his husband Brynn, and Brynn's adopted nephew Broland.
"That was a nod specifically to our household," Crawford said of himself, his husband, and his nephew, who lived with them in 2016 when Storm King's Thunder was in development.

Crawford told me that publisher Wizards of the Coast is making D&D more gay, and why that's a great thing.

"Ever since we brought our adventure design fully back in-house," he said, "all of our new adventures contain LGBT characters. This is true of our next adventure, Tomb of Annihilation, and it will be true of our stories after that."

"It's important to many of us personally in the company for the game to acknowledge our existence," Crawford said of publisher Wizards of the Coast, ..."

It literally doesn't matter what "true and deep love of the game..." they may have; Because they demonstrably love their own faggotry even more.

The Future of D&D?

The Future of D&D is that it will be Fake and Gay.

So you're telling me that they put a chick in it, and made her lame and gay...?

Ah, yes, Rime of the Frostmaiden... the mega adventure where the only confirmed hetero people in the entirety of the Ten Towns encountered in the first roughly 40% of the book we played through were the incestuous couple living in the outskirts of the southern most town bordering on the mountains whose residents don't like outsiders.   In other words, inbred xenophobic southern hillbillies living in abject poverty with their mutated children.  I don't think that "representation" was on accident given the political stances of the company and its employees.

You find the magic sword you've always wanted, it's intelligent, it grants flying and teleporting and summoning and can shoot a freakin laser 3 times a day...

...but it's racist and homophobic and has tourettes. come on, earn that roleplay xp...

Quote from: RNGm on March 31, 2024, 07:39:48 PM
Ah, yes, Rime of the Frostmaiden... the mega adventure where the only confirmed hetero people in the entirety of the Ten Towns encountered in the first roughly 40% of the book we played through were the incestuous couple living in the outskirts of the southern most town bordering on the mountains whose residents don't like outsiders.   In other words, inbred xenophobic southern hillbillies living in abject poverty with their mutated children.  I don't think that "representation" was on accident given the political stances of the company and its employees.

There's also stuff like this

"Tali is a neutral good half-elf researcher (scout) who is in Icewind Dale to study how changes in climate alter the nature of the animal wildlife. Tali presents as neither male nor female and requests to be referred to as "they" or by name in conversation."

Why is there a they/them who does the "muh pronouns" thing?  No reason.  There just is.  Would it change anything if you just made this character a woman?  No, not at all.  Am I going to do the whole pronoun song and dance for what amounts to a quest giver NPC who doesn't matter after you do that one quest?  No and fuck WotC for shoe-horning in this bullshit.

Quote from: Eirikrautha on March 31, 2024, 05:02:42 PM
...

So you're telling me that they put a chick in it, and made her lame and gay...?

Quote from: yosemitemike on March 31, 2024, 10:43:35 PM
There's also stuff like this

"Tali is a neutral good half-elf researcher (scout) who is in Icewind Dale to study how changes in climate alter the nature of the animal wildlife. Tali presents as neither male nor female and requests to be referred to as "they" or by name in conversation."
...

Confirmed.

Greetings!

I had a group encounter an evil Human sorcerer that was gay. The evil sorcerer was tracked down, and brought to the local Baron's castle to face justice. The evil, gay sorcerer was guilty of Blasphemy, Sodomy, Heresy, Murder, Rape, Kidnapping, Worship of the Dark Gods, Human Sacrifice, Black Magic, Treason, and Rebellion. The gay sorcerer was extensively interrogated down in the Baron's shadowy dungeon, and then promptly dragged in chains to the town square.

At High Noon, the evil gay sorcerer was publicly burned at the stake, for all to witness the fierce wages of Darkness and embracing Wickedness.

In any event, homosexual NPC's periodically make an appearance in my campaigns. I suspect, however, that the ways in which homosexual characters appear in my campaigns is very different from how Jeremy Crawford shoves them into every WOTC adventure. Very, very different. *Laughing*

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK