|
gradenko_2000 posted:It should come as no surprise to anyone by now that those skill check DCs are straight out of the 3.5e PHB. It even shows up in the d20srd, and they didn't change numbers any, so the Jump check is still DC 30 across both editions.
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 22:41
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 18:47 |
|
|
If you want to be the jump king in 3.5 you're stacking so much poo poo by that point you can hit 50 without really trying.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 22:46
|
|
|
goatface posted:If you want to be the jump king in 3.5 you're stacking so much poo poo by that point you can hit 50 without really trying. Reminds me of the old jumplomancer build where you could jump so impressively that every person who witnessed the majesty of your jump instantly became a fanatical follower no matter how hostile they were.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 22:52
|
|
|
quote:I am amazed at how badly D&D was run at GenCon compared to Pathfinder. I did the Thursday night epic, and I think I'll stick to Pathfinder from now on.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 12:50
|
|
|
quote:Yeah, they turned off the lights with 200 people sitting down in the hall. Hahaha, seriously?
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 13:03
|
|
|
AlphaDog posted:Hahaha, seriously? Yeah. They are blaming the convention center.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 13:42
|
|
|
"Turn all the lights off" is the exact opposite of the way closing/cleanup started at all the venues I've ever worked at. Maybe things are different there, I dunno. Did people at least get to finish their games? Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 14:12 on Aug 6, 2015 |
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 14:08
|
|
|
Sure they did, almost everyone has darkvision in 5e.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 14:12
|
|
|
gradenko_2000 posted:Sure they did, almost everyone has darkvision in 5e. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 14:47
|
|
|
I know I'm late to the party, but I only just recently read (borrowed) 5E books. I was following a pretty good let's read of the Monster Manual over on RPGnet, and while he tries to be upbeat about it, he posted excerpts from a full-on review he's writing that kind of sums up how poo poo this crap is:quote:Organisation quote:The Fluff quote:In addition to that, there is the much-discussed Bag Of Hit Points issue. There is nothing wrong with simple monsters, but did they really have to take away stuff like the owlbear's signature owlbear hug? I can always strip monsters off their special abilities, but adding special abilities is way harder.  They saved D&D!
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 15:51
|
|
|
Plague of Hats posted:They saved D&D!
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 16:14
|
|
|
Trip report on D&D weekend: The campaign was broken into 2 groups running simultaneously with separate DMs in separate rooms with text contact between the DMs. While an interesting concept, having intertwined campaigns while expecting the groups to progress at similar real-time paces proceeded predictably poorly. Our group was a smattering of pre-gen and self-gen 3rd level characters, none of which was quite up to speed or designed in the same format. I don't think any of the players had touched 5E before and I'm almost certain that one had never played an RPG of any type. Some were endlessly quoting 3E rules only to be told they didn't exist anymore. There was little to no RP and the entire campaign was a series of combats with no real breaks, therefore no rests. In total, I think we muddled through the first portion of 5 combats in about... 6 hours? I didn't really pay any attention to time, and that was probably for the best. We had: Barb - Who did about 70% of the party damage and was virtually unkillable. Player was functionally illiterate and would routinely roll a d12 to hit and be unable to determine the difference between his attack bonus and damage dice on his character sheet. Complained that all he did was hit things with an axe. Thief - Who did about 25% of the party damage and was 1 swing away from death. Fighter - Who, despite spending hours in the weeks leading up telling us what a badass his Eldritch Knight was going to be, effectively did nothing the entire game. Cleric - Who we thought was a Paladin since he only ever cast offensive spells and never healed. Also, a non-factor. Wizard - Me. I spammed cantrips that never hit for minimal damage. None of my non-combat spells ever really mattered. Combat was a clusterfuck. The monsters were all giant sacks of HP and armor that we just chewed on forever, and all damage was effectively permanent, since we didn't have a healer. The Barb and Thief appeared to have perma-Advantage and just beat on things forever while either taking half-damage with a massive HP pool (Barb) or just not being focused by the DM whatsoever (Thief). As a Wizard, I was pretty much told I never had advantage and that it was "just my bad rolls". I didn't have the heart to explain the statistics to him, but when you have a sub 50% chance to hit (either +5 Ranged Spell Attack vs 18AC or 13DC saves vs. +3 roll) and your spells only do 1d6 or 1d8, then your expected sustained damage is around 2HP/round, so those 30 HP meat slabs (we had 3 of those at a time as the minor enemies accompanying a leader) would take me 15 rounds each to kill unassisted. The final encounter of the first campaign was a Helmed Horror(?), a construct that gained advantage on all magic DCs and had 20+ AC and was immune to CC. I decided to see how much beer I could consume while waiting for the others to do whatever it was they did. That said, the Barb was constantly rolling Advantage on a +6 (I think) roll for 1d12+5 damage and the Rogue was popping sneaks/assassinations all day for advantage and 4d6+x damage so... Rolling a Wizard in a no-rest campaign felt completely useless as I could have just unloaded my 7 spell slots in 1 combat for half a trash mob's health and then had nothing but cantrips for the rest of the day. I gave the DM some feedback, but I don't think I'd be inclined to try something he ran again until I was confident that we had a group with a bare minimum understanding of RPGs and that the DM understood that there was a whole world of gaming somewhere between CONSECUTIVE SERIES OF COMBATS and I GET DRUNK AND SHOOT MY MAGIC MISSILE AT THE SERVING WENCH.\\
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 16:18
|
|
|
Jeremy Crawford was interviewed at Gencon Highlights: quote:The past year has been great for D&D. They decided that for Gen Con this year, the focus would be on playing with a huge play area and 200 DMs. They also decided to replace panels with free Q&A sessions in the midst of the play area where designers would be available for set periods to answer questions. Also Gen Con is more about playing games, while PAX is more about panels with up to 600 people at D&D panels.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 19:00
|
|
|
I wonder how much they pay to do the PAX live-game and panels things.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 19:04
|
|
|
wow so people paid $150 for that gencon debacle and got poo poo on just like the $40 players http://dyverscampaign.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/was-dungeons-dragons-adventure-league.html
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 20:20
|
|
|
alg posted:wow so people paid $150 for that gencon debacle and got poo poo on just like the $40 players Yes. The eventual resolution after a complete shitstorm on the gencon forum is this: http://baldmangames.com/2015/08/gen-con-2015-all-access-update/
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 20:27
|
|
|
So weird to hear that the Season 2 epic was poorly done. It seemed like they did a very good job with it at Origins. Wonder if it was the addition of so many more tables? edit: the VIP poo poo, sure I guess. But really, who pays $150 plus whatever else they have to play for 5 sessions of D&D? \/\/\/ for real. My money was on facility staff or some automated timer. edit:\/\/\/ fair enough, I didn't read what was promised for this year to determine whether $150 was 'worth it'. shoplifter fucked around with this message at 20:45 on Aug 6, 2015 |
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 20:36
|
|
|
^^^^ Doesn't seem like an awful deal if it can net you $100 of new books, including one that isn't available for retail yet.alg posted:wow so people paid $150 for that gencon debacle and got poo poo on just like the $40 players Why do so many people assume the convention staff would just shut off the lights on a room filled with 200 people? I mean, it's loving bizarre for the event runner to do it, too, but it seems that every time it comes up someone pins it on con staff. Did a GenCon representative say "oops sorry" for it?
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 20:39
|
|
|
Plague of Hats posted:Why do so many people assume the convention staff would just shut off the lights on a room filled with 200 people? I mean, it's loving bizarre for the event runner to do it, too, but it seems that every time it comes up someone pins it on con staff. Did a GenCon representative say "oops sorry" for it? Speaking from a Convention Management perspective: Shutting off the lights in a large hall is almost assuredly 100% out of the control of both BMG and Gencon staff. It would have had to have been ICC staff and to do it on purpose would be begging for a firing just on liability issues. Somebody just hosed up and hit the switch while going through their end-of-day.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 20:43
|
|
|
alg posted:wow so people paid $150 for that gencon debacle and got poo poo on just like the $40 players quote:Our goal was to provide a premium gaming experience and while I firmly believe we hit that on some marks, we obviously missed on others. We tried some new things that went over well for some and were viewed as worthless by others. Some valued their great DM’s highly and did not care about additional items while others rated them lower and wanted more ‘stuff’. Others ranked a separated play space with a barrier as the things they valued most and for many the noise of the hall was just too much for any amount of additional perks to overcome. At no point did we intend to deceive, trick, or pull a switch-a-roo. Every year the program has provided different things and the attendees have each valued them in their own fashion. Things change each year on what we can and cannot provide. Many want to know why we could not do this or that, or why something changed. At the end of the day those details do not matter. BMG thought we had a pretty good line-up this year within the framework we had to work in but once again we obviously need to relook at the program from the ground up. I also like the part where he says that they were giving better and better rewards every year and that that wasn't sustainable, conveniently skipping over the explanation of why the answer to that problem is to give them nothing at all.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 20:45
|
|
|
Nihilarian posted:no, guys, really, it wasn't that bad On top of that, for paying $110 extra you got (apparently) nothing out of it. Now they make it up to you by giving you $85 retail worth of swag, none of which is in any way con-exclusive. It's better than nothing but anybody who thinks this is a grand gesture is really unfamiliar with how this sort of thing works. In terms of convention swag this is beads and mirrors.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 20:55
|
|
|
Yeah my opinion of WOTC and 5E keep going lower and lower in ways I didn't think were possible...
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 21:14
|
|
|
The phrase "Piss up in a brewery" comes to mind.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 21:21
|
|
|
Nihilarian posted:were viewed as worthless by others. Some valued their great DM’s highly and did not care about additional items while others rated them lower and wanted more ‘stuff’.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 21:54
|
|
|
You're kind of damned if you do, damned if you don't. Everyone knows that the quality of con GMs (who are typically volunteers) tends to vary wildly. It also doesn't sound like BMG made any kind of promises (correct me if I'm wrong here, please) as to swag and those expectations were set by the people that purchased in prior years. Would BMG have been better off specifying exactly what they were doing to make the pass special, and then making sure it came to pass? Yes, absolutely, and I suspect they'll be doing just that in the future. I don't know David on a personal level, but he has always seemed to be a good guy when I've interacted with him at events in the past. I just can't figure out why someone would have paid the additional fee with the expectation of something that was not offered then get pissy about it. lovely/non-prepared GM, I can totally understand being upset about. I'd expect that my money would be getting me the 'best' GMs in BMG's pool, of which I know there are several good ones I've played with in the past. The quality of the adventures are entirely down to WotC's AL staff, not Baldman. Like I said, I actually enjoyed the Season 2 epic when I played it at Origins, yet there seem to be lots of complains about 'quality'. BMG ran AL at Origins as well, at everything was pretty smooth there, but they didn't have the crazy $150 pass either. shoplifter fucked around with this message at 22:06 on Aug 6, 2015 |
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 22:02
|
|
|
Personally I've really enjoyed 5e and vastly prefer it to both 3.5 and Pathfinder, though from what I can hear it's good that I've steered clear of organized play and stuck to playing with my friends. From a DM perspective I like being able to just hand out advantage and disadvantage when appropriate, and I've found that outside of a charop-heavy environment most of the character options (with the exception of the beast master ranger) have felt able to contribute well to combat. But then I tended to ignore particularly complex portions of the rules in older editions as well. I'm probably somewhat more on the casual side than the thread consensus, so that's probably why I have the bad and wrong opinion I do.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 22:07
|
|
|
I find myself wondering now how long until the guys in the MtG part of the company make their own RPG as a side project.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 22:22
|
|
|
shoplifter posted:I just can't figure out why someone would have paid the additional fee with the expectation of something that was not offered then get pissy about it. lovely/non-prepared GM, I can totally understand being upset about. I'd expect that my money would be getting me the 'best' GMs in BMG's pool, of which I know there are several good ones I've played with in the past. The quality of the adventures are entirely down to WotC's AL staff, not Baldman. Like I said, I actually enjoyed the Season 2 epic when I played it at Origins, yet there seem to be lots of complains about 'quality'. BMG ran AL at Origins as well, at everything was pretty smooth there, but they didn't have the crazy $150 pass either. Why did they keep the price the same but offer a lot lot less over previous years?
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 22:23
|
|
|
This was my 3rd year doing the VIP d&d event. "All Access." The first two years were awesome. Year one was a 32-hour marathon. There was a free included d&d party with the top floor of a hotel decorated as streets of baldur's gate. It wasn't nearly as dumb as that sounds. Year 2 was the 40th anniversary of d&d and the release of 5e. PHB and MM were included in the ticket price, along with a d&d blockparty for the release of the Tiamat storyline. Another awesome year. Year 3 will be more of the same, right? Nope. WOTC didn't really show up (we knew this was happening) but the company running things didn't have their poo poo together at all. And this year, I came with a group of 5. After the con they all did chargebacks and got their money back via their bank/credit card companies. I didn't yet, probably won't now that they are making up for the suck with some freebies. A ton of other cool games happened this year at gencon, full trip report here so you don't think it was just a 5e shitfest. The d&d event was the one thing that sucked.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 22:28
|
|
|
shoplifter posted:I just can't figure out why someone would have paid the additional fee with the expectation of something that was not offered then get pissy about it. If you charge $150 for something then the expectation is that you'll be getting something more for your money than the people who payed $40 for the exact same thing. Whether BMG specified exactly what that extra value would be is beside the point, the $150 tickets were apparently pitched as some super premium thing and it turns out that the "premium value" was for a handful of certificates so you basically paid $100 for some pieces of paper. By all accounts it sounds like the folks who paid $150 have every right to be "pissy" about this. Also blaming peoples' expectations from previous years is asinine. Yes, we charged the same as last year but gave people who paid for premium event tickets much less value for their money this year but really it's their fault for making assumptions, and furthermore
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 22:28
|
|
|
Oh yeah, the lights-out thing. It happened at exactly midnight. I suspect some program error, the timing was perfect and I doubt convention center staff (who work there year-round) would gently caress that up. But the conspiracy theory is that the D&D organizers did it on purpose, not realizing you can't just turn those types of bulbs back on. The epic they were running centered around preventing the destruction of Mulmaster (a city in the Realms). The module was fantastic - you had to hijack some giant vultures to catch up to a flotilla of airships with siren-charm-powered sailors and air cultists led by a kenku. They were going to take out that city. One of the groups apparently hosed up and took the explosive mcguffin into the city, so it was basically nuked at the end and destroyed. Lights out. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 22:41
|
|
|
Roadie posted:I find myself wondering now how long until the guys in the MtG part of the company make their own RPG as a side project. You don't want this. That side of the house is notoriously incompetent at literally everything that is not making Wizard Poker Cards. See also: Magic Online, Magic Event Coverage, GLEEMAX
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 22:46
|
|
|
Toshimo posted:You don't want this. That side of the house is notoriously incompetent at literally everything that is not making Wizard Poker Cards. See also: Magic Online, Magic Event Coverage, GLEEMAX Bonus points if it's an even worse game than D&D 5e.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 23:18
|
|
|
Quorum posted:Personally I've really enjoyed 5e and vastly prefer it to both 3.5 and Pathfinder, though from what I can hear it's good that I've steered clear of organized play and stuck to playing with my friends. From a DM perspective I like being able to just hand out advantage and disadvantage when appropriate, and I've found that outside of a charop-heavy environment most of the character options (with the exception of the beast master ranger) have felt able to contribute well to combat. But then I tended to ignore particularly complex portions of the rules in older editions as well. I'm probably somewhat more on the casual side than the thread consensus, so that's probably why I have the bad and wrong opinion I do. This isn't surprising at all. 2E and 3E function just fine if you selectively ignore vast portions of the rules like you and so many others have done. But if you're going to ignore all the complicated portions of the rules, why not just play MicroliteD20 with advantage-disadvantaged tacked on to save $20-$150 on rulebooks. So it sounds like you're good with RPGs but bad with money.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 23:43
|
|
|
Kai Tave posted:If you charge $150 for something then the expectation is that you'll be getting something more for your money than the people who payed $40 for the exact same thing. Whether BMG specified exactly what that extra value would be is beside the point, the $150 tickets were apparently pitched as some super premium thing and it turns out that the "premium value" was for a handful of certificates so you basically paid $100 for some pieces of paper. By all accounts it sounds like the folks who paid $150 have every right to be "pissy" about this. That I can agree with 100%. If what they got was exactly the same as what a $40 (I'm assuming that's basically event tickets only?) person got, they should be pissed. I just don't think that 'where's my physical stuff' is the appropriate avenue to be pissed about when no stuff was offered up front, regardless of what people got last year. I'm not sure what certs were handed out, but people have and will continue to pay sums of money for charity, etc., to get unique certs. My expectations if I were paying for a 'premium' experience with no physical goods offered: 1) Private gaming space 2) well regarded GM(s) that are dedicated to my table or selected module 3) food & refreshments available / private lounge 4) facetime with a personality or some other unique experience that you can't get otherwise ritorix posted:The epic they were running centered around preventing the destruction of Mulmaster (a city in the Realms). The module was fantastic - you had to hijack some giant vultures to catch up to a flotilla of airships with siren-charm-powered sailors and air cultists led by a kenku. They were going to take out that city. One of the groups apparently hosed up and took the explosive mcguffin into the city, so it was basically nuked at the end and destroyed. Yeah, the season 2 epic is actually four separate modules that each centered on a single element, and the ongoing results of one track have an effect on a different track at various points. I'm going to guess that some of the bad experiences around it were the result of a GM having to switch which track they were running at the last minute, having prepared for a different one. shoplifter fucked around with this message at 00:07 on Aug 7, 2015 |
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2015 00:02
|
|
|
shoplifter posted:That I can agree with 100%. If what they got was exactly the same as what a $40 (I'm assuming that's basically event tickets only?) person got, they should be pissed. I just don't think that 'where's my physical stuff' is the appropriate avenue to be pissed about when no stuff was offered up front, regardless of what people got last year. I'm not sure what certs were handed out, but people have and will continue to pay sums of money for charity, etc., to get unique certs. Well by all accounts people who paid $150 for premium event tickets didn't get any of that poo poo either. Nor was any of that stuff really offered so, I mean, would you feel pissed if you dropped $110 extra dollars for precisely nothing even if none of that stuff was offered up front? Your argument is kind of disingenuous, "where's all the stuff I paid $150 for?" is a perfectly reasonable response when the previous two years offered premium ticket buyers a bunch of stuff, including physical swag. The onus was on BMG to make it clear what they were offering fro $150 (nothing), not on customers to anticipate that in advance.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2015 00:25
|
|
|
For what it's worth, it looks like David posted this in May:quote:Some people are happy with the swag level and some are not. No amount of swag or changing of the price point will really change the fact that no matter where we draw the line there will be people standing on either side of it. It also sounds like WotC donated the books in the past, so I do wonder if he posted this after being told by WotC that no even support was coming.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2015 00:45
|
|
|
See, an MtG RPG would work fine, because everyone is a wizard.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2015 03:09
|
|
|
Vanguard Warden posted:See, an MtG RPG would work fine, because everyone is a wizard. No, everyone is a planeswalker.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2015 03:28
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 18:47 |
|
|
MtG nerds have been pining for years for someone to create an RPG based around the old Arena series of novels where spells were something you could physically trade and acquire. WotC Brand can never allow it, especially now in a post-Planeswalker world, but demand has never waned.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2015 04:06
|
|