D&D NEXT: Infinite Posts of the Abyss

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > D&D NEXT: Infinite Posts of the Abyss

MonsterEnvy: Feb 4, 2012; Shocked I tell you

Darwinism posted:

An animated TV series could potentially be good, where LA D&D stuff... well, we all know how that ends up.

I'd give my firstborn for a Fell's Five TV series.

Well an LA D&D movie is being made right now. And from reports they are confidant it's going to be the best D&D movie yet. (Which they also admitted is not a very high bar to clear.)

MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 00:17 on Aug 27, 2017

# ? Aug 26, 2017 22:58

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# ? May 30, 2024 23:56

Mr. Tambo: Feb 7, 2015

Put in "warlord" as one of my favorite classes (along with druid and wizard).

# ? Aug 27, 2017 00:06

MMAgCh: Aug 15, 2001; I am the poet,
The prophet of the pit
Like a hollow-point bullet
Straight to the head
I never missed...you

Mr. Tambo posted:

Put in "warlord" as one of my favorite classes (along with druid and wizard).

"Any that offer diverse and interesting options beyond the usual class paradigm, like the Battle Master fighter" was my write-in answer to that question, but in hindsight I fear it's not a very good one. :ohdear:

# ? Aug 27, 2017 00:12

Sage Genesis: Aug 14, 2014; OG Murderhobo

Mr. Tambo posted:

Put in "warlord" as one of my favorite classes (along with druid and wizard).

I did the same. (Albeit with monk and wizard, instead of druid. My love for wuxia is too strong.)

# ? Aug 27, 2017 00:12

Cool Dad: Jun 15, 2007; It is always Friday night, motherfuckers

I demanded 5e Spelljammer.

# ? Aug 27, 2017 00:34

Elector_Nerdlingen: Sep 27, 2004

Enola Gay-For-Pay posted:

I demanded 5e Spelljammer.

This would probably be worth it just for the art.

# ? Aug 27, 2017 00:40

FRINGE: May 23, 2003; title stolen for lf posting

rumble in the bunghole posted:

Charisma is force of personality, so

This is one of the obnoxious things (to me) that WotC/3e did. Make charisma a magic attribute for anyone besides bards.

# ? Aug 27, 2017 02:16

RC Cola: Aug 1, 2011; Dovie'andi se tovya sagain

Admiral Joeslop posted:

If this is the NPC I'm thinking of, my group of level three PCs (there were four or five) managed to kill it without anyone else dying.

Granted, the GM was very inexperienced and wasn't running the fight efficiently at all. You're probably hosed.

Update. I won. I chain stunned him to death and landed some crits. Also using elven accuracy from UA. So I was rolling 3 times each attack while he was stunned

# ? Aug 27, 2017 02:19

Subjunctive: Sep 12, 2006; ✨sparkle and shine✨

FRINGE posted:

This is one of the obnoxious things (to me) that WotC/3e did. Make charisma a magic attribute for anyone besides bards.

More spells need Cha saves.

# ? Aug 27, 2017 02:32

tweet my meat: Oct 2, 2013; yospos

Just did my first full session as dm. It actually went really well. We were running a free adventure called Mad Manor of Astabar which is a haunted house thing with a lot of interesting fights and puzzles. It's also really simple so I wound up getting some improvisation practice in there when I was changing fights and enemy stats on the fly to be a bit more challenging for our party.

Is there a good reference sheet somewhere that has most of the common things a DM will need throughout gameplay?

# ? Aug 27, 2017 02:45

Splicer: Oct 16, 2006; from hell's heart I cast at thee
🧙🐀🧹🌙🪄🐸

Mr. Tambo posted:

Put in "warlord" as one of my favorite classes (along with druid and wizard).

Damnit, I knew there was something I wanted to put in there. I put in "4E Fighter".

# ? Aug 27, 2017 02:52

gradenko_2000: Oct 5, 2010; HELL SERPENT; Lipstick Apathy

Pros: they finally make 5e Spelljammer or 5e Dark Sun

Cons: it becomes retconned to be part of the Forgotten Realms all along

# ? Aug 27, 2017 02:55

420 Gank Mid: Dec 26, 2008; WARNING: This poster is a huge bitch!

tweet my meat posted:

How good would Curse of Strahd be as a starter campaign for a pretty inexperienced DM (me) and a mostly inexperienced group? I love the gothic horror feel of an evil vampire, and everyone else seems to like the basic idea of it.

This is my first time running a campaign in 5e that went beyond a single session and I think its safe to say my group and I are having a great time with Strahd. You dont have to worry about "railroading" the adventurers because they know they're trapped in horror-land and there is always a clear objective or an evil badguy or a horror movie cliche around the next bend in the woods. There's a wealth of sources to steal bits and characters from.

doctor 7 posted:

Is Curse of Stroud just a "walk 10-20' then get attacked by ghosts/ethereals/walls/whatever you can perception check"? Because gently caress me.

Literally does any DM use random encounters as if they were just some kind of RNG for a JRPG?

# ? Aug 27, 2017 03:44

Darwinism: Jan 6, 2008

gradenko_2000 posted:

Pros: they finally make 5e Spelljammer or 5e Dark Sun

Cons: it becomes retconned to be part of the Forgotten Realms all along

Wasn't there already Spelljammer up in FR? I distinctly remember one of the old FR run of novels including an elven Spelljammer ship hooking up with the FR elves around Evermeet or some crap.

# ? Aug 27, 2017 04:30

Cool Dad: Jun 15, 2007; It is always Friday night, motherfuckers

Spelljammer's cosmology was designed to plug into all the settings, IIRC.

# ? Aug 27, 2017 04:44

Otherkinsey Scale: Jul 17, 2012; Just a little bit of sunshine!

Yeah, the base of Spelljammer was Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance.

I took the opportunity to say "I played 5e once, and the only thing that could get me to play it again is 5e Spelljammer. Maybe Planescape."

# ? Aug 27, 2017 05:01

Krinkle: Feb 9, 2003; Ah do believe Ah've got the vapors...
Ah mean the farts

I said I liked everything equally and to not change a thing

# ? Aug 27, 2017 05:43

MonsterEnvy: Feb 4, 2012; Shocked I tell you

Krinkle posted:

I said I liked everything equally and to not change a thing

Mention anything about settings or extras you would like to see.

# ? Aug 27, 2017 05:55

Lurdiak: Feb 26, 2006; I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people that do.

Told them they're stupid for getting spooked by piracy and shying away from PDFs and digital support, and that they should really think on why podcasts of people playing dnd are more popular than their dnd books.

Reene posted:

Cool. Used the comment box to say I'd never buy another D&D product as long as Mearls continued to work on it and/or they failed to repudiate their association and protection of Zak S and RPGPundit.

Good woman.

# ? Aug 27, 2017 06:35

FRINGE: May 23, 2003; title stolen for lf posting

gradenko_2000 posted:

Pros: they finally make 5e Spelljammer
Cons: it becomes retconned to be part of the Forgotten Realms all along

quote:

Geography

The Forgotten Realms world of Abeir-Toril is but one of several other worlds in the Realmspace crystal sphere. To the natives of Faer�n, the wildspace above their heads is known as the Sea of Night. The two closest worlds to the sun in the middle of Realmspace are known as the Dawn Heralds, and they are barely visible only at sunset or sunrise. Beyond Abeir-Toril further out in the crystal sphere are the Five Wanderers, five worlds which flow through star-rivers in an uneven course through wildspace. Some of these worlds are inhabited by humans, dwarves, and orcs, but also more sinister races such as illithids and beholders.

History

It is said that in the beginning Ao created a crystal sphere called the Sea of Night, which he created from the raw material of the Phlogiston (the material between crystal spheres). Within this realm drifted several lifeless worlds, and it was from the remains of this creation process that two twin beings formed, one of dark (Shar) and one of light (Sel�ne). These two beings set in motion a series of events that resulted in life on these barren worlds.

Exactly when the natives of Abeir-Toril themselves began to traverse wildspace is unknown, though it dates back to at least the era of Cormanthyr. The elves have always been known to have a strong presence in wildspace.[citation needed]Miirphys Irithyl (reign −1338 to −791 DR), an early coronal of the elven nation of Cormanthyr, was a supporter of the elven high mages desire to launch more spelljammer ships. The High Magic elaorman ritual was often used in the construction of the elven crystalline spelljammer ships, and was a requirement in the construction of the Monarch spelljammer ships.

The reason that the elven high mages were so keen on creating more spelljammer ships was in order to counter the Netherese expansion into wildspace. The Netherese had been dabbling and exploring Realmspace for a while. The elves suspect that the Netherese discovered the magic of spelljamming as early as −1114 DR, though in truth it was much earlier since the epic spell Proctiv's breach crystal sphere was created in 1808 NY (−2051).

The Netheril mage Oberon (2839�2905 NY) is said to be the founder of Netheril's spelljammer industry, the "Father of Realmspace" (or so his followers claimed at least). Oberon was born into the shipbuilding industry, his father having been a shipbuilder before him, and he dutifully followed in his father's footsteps. Unlike him though he imbued his vessels with magic, and it is claimed that he led the other mages of Netheril into building spelljamming vessels.

It really wasn't until 2795 NY (−1064 DR) that the Netherese officially launched themselves into wildspace with serious intent. They found it to be an abundant source of wealth. The city of Yeoman's Loft became the center of Netheril's Realmspace activities.

However, the Netherese also found the expense of maintaining the docking stations and spelljammer ships too high and the danger too great, and they stopped all spelljamming activity in 2895 NY. The Elven Imperial Navy (a conglomeration of elven interests in space, much bigger in scope than just Cormanthyr's spacefaring) is said to have constantly harried the Netherese as well.
Man-o-War

During the Weeping War in 714 DR, a series of short battles are known as the "Three Greenwing Wars" by the elves�named as such for their ally an elven man-o-war ship. The Elven Imperial Fleet of Realmspace sent the Monarch Mordent, a green-winged man-o-war spelljammer vessel captained by Oncith Ilbenalu. The Monarch Mordent provided heavy artillery and a crack crew of archers, bards, and wizards, which aided to briefly turn the tide of war in the northern forest. The ship fell in the last battle into the tree canopy below it. Its crystalline and photosynethetic wings continued to grow however, and a large web of thin crystal grew to wrap around that part of the forest in what is now called the Monarchs Fall glade.

https://www.amazon.com/Realmspace-Spelljammer-Dale-Henson/dp/1560760524/

Also more nerd stuff:

quote:

TSR spent ages tying together all different settings, but then WotC tried to create unique cosmologies. A lot of people think this breaks the connection between Spelljammer and Forgotten Realms (and Greyhawk and Dragonlance). I don't agree. The new cosmology might cause problems for relationships between Planescape and Forgotten Realms, but Spelljammer always had built in mechanisms to separate the different campaign settings.

The main rule of Spelljammer is that the influence of gods ends at the crystal sphere. So within Realmspace the gods of Forgotten Realms (including the gods of Maztica, Al-Qadim and Kara-Tur) are in control and in other crystal spheres they are not in control. If the planes change for Forgotten Realms 3e, they can change for all of Realmspace. Each crystal sphere can easily have its own cosmology. This isn't something that WotC have developed, they have pretty much ignored Spelljammer. But they have never said it no longer exists.

Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting actually supports the existance of Spelljammer (and Kara-Tur, Maztica and Al-Qadim). Read the section called The Sea of Night on pages 230-231.

The only thing the ruined Spelljammer was the same thing that ruined Planescape. WotC.

# ? Aug 27, 2017 09:47

gradenko_2000: Oct 5, 2010; HELL SERPENT; Lipstick Apathy

I was making a joke about how all 5e setting material ends up making that setting become a part of FR, but okay, I'm talking out of my depth. I'm sorry.

# ? Aug 27, 2017 09:57

Serperoth: Feb 21, 2013

Lurdiak posted:

Told them they're stupid for getting spooked by piracy and shying away from PDFs and digital support, and that they should really think on why podcasts of people playing dnd are more popular than their dnd books.

Good woman.

Ah drat, I didn't mention that. I did tell them that their competition is doing a lot better than they are, and also that short of a major overhaul, I don't think I'd buy another 5E book with so many better options available.

# ? Aug 27, 2017 10:17

CDW: Aug 26, 2004

Update to my Friday game: A player revealed a Strangling Rug, went back into the room to "tie it up so we can use it" and then was strangled and beaten to death by us trying to help him. A+

# ? Aug 27, 2017 15:12

mango sentinel: Jan 5, 2001; by sebmojo

CDW posted:

Update to my Friday game: A player revealed a Strangling Rug, went back into the room to "tie it up so we can use it" and then was strangled and beaten to death by us trying to help him. A+

It's what he wanted :wink:

# ? Aug 27, 2017 15:59

Panderfringe: Sep 12, 2011; yospos

Reene posted:

Cool. Used the comment box to say I'd never buy another D&D product as long as Mearls continued to work on it and/or they failed to repudiate their association and protection of Zak S and RPGPundit.

I have no idea what the problems with these things are.

# ? Aug 27, 2017 16:41

gradenko_2000: Oct 5, 2010; HELL SERPENT; Lipstick Apathy

Panderfringe posted:

I have no idea what the problems with these things are.

One of the credited consultants for 5e is a serial sexual harasser, the other is a right-wing nut who drove off the only other lead designer of 5e via death threats, and Mearls, the remaining designer, both lured out the former's victims and then proceeded to. disregard their stories while coddling their harasser.

# ? Aug 27, 2017 16:49

doctor 7: Oct 10, 2003; In the grim darkness of the future there is only Oakley.

Darwinism posted:

An animated TV series could potentially be good, where LA D&D stuff... well, we all know how that ends up.

I'd give my firstborn for a Fell's Five TV series.

Between Vikings, The Last Kingdom and Game of Thrones I think LA could be genuinely good if they invest a lot of money in the show and prepare to take guaranteed loss for the first season. Hoping to then make money from season 2 onwards, and increased D&D sales.

doctor 7 fucked around with this message at 18:32 on Aug 27, 2017

# ? Aug 27, 2017 18:29

Nickoten: Oct 16, 2005; Now there'll be some quiet in this town.

LA D&D should be The Goonies but with adults in leather armor who really, really don't want be serfs for their living.

# ? Aug 27, 2017 18:35

Darwinism: Jan 6, 2008

doctor 7 posted:

Between Vikings, The Last Kingdom and Game of Thrones I think LA could be genuinely good if they invest a lot of money in the show and prepare to take guaranteed loss for the first season. Hoping to then make money from season 2 onwards, and increased D&D sales.

The thing is that all of these things are very low-magic at the most, even the most fantastical GoT gets is nothing compared to what people expect from D&D.

So when a live action D&D thing happens, you have spells being thrown around, magical armors and weapons, far more common magical beings of different types, etc. All of this is a lot more expensive to CGI or practical effect in and very difficult to do in a manner that's convincing. And while D&D has the name recognition in the public sphere, it really doesn't command budgets high enough to do this in the Western movie economy.

# ? Aug 27, 2017 18:57

Panderfringe: Sep 12, 2011; yospos

gradenko_2000 posted:

One of the credited consultants for 5e is a serial sexual harasser, the other is a right-wing nut who drove off the only other lead designer of 5e via death threats, and Mearls, the remaining designer, both lured out the former's victims and then proceeded to. disregard their stories while coddling their harasser.

... huh. I had no idea WOTC was full of pieces of poo poo.

# ? Aug 27, 2017 19:30

MonsterEnvy: Feb 4, 2012; Shocked I tell you

Panderfringe posted:

... huh. I had no idea WOTC was full of pieces of poo poo.

To be exact their names are just the PHB among other people as being consulted with the game. And they have not been involved since.

MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 19:39 on Aug 27, 2017

# ? Aug 27, 2017 19:34

Spiteski: Aug 27, 2013

MonsterEnvy posted:

To be exact their names are just the PHB among other people as being consulted with the game. And they have not been involved since.

Can't exactly say mearls hasn't been involved since...

# ? Aug 27, 2017 19:36

MonsterEnvy: Feb 4, 2012; Shocked I tell you

Spiteski posted:

Can't exactly say mearls hasn't been involved since...

Was talking about Pundit and Zak.

Mearls is still involved yes.

This is a banned topic anyway. So lets leave it. It just causes issues.

MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 19:40 on Aug 27, 2017

# ? Aug 27, 2017 19:37

FRINGE: May 23, 2003; title stolen for lf posting

gradenko_2000 posted:

I was making a joke about how all 5e setting material ends up making that setting become a part of FR, but okay, I'm talking out of my depth. I'm sorry.

I mostly thought it was funny, because as usual it was a thing that already existed before WotC tried to pretend that a 100' thick pile of material never existed.

Also I have a fondness for how inclusive and weird FR is if you dig through all the material, and not just the video game setting areas (Sword Coast/ Balders Gate/ Neverwinter) which are all "comfortable" and stay on well worn paths.

# ? Aug 27, 2017 20:33

ProfessorCirno: Feb 17, 2011; The strongest! The smartest!
The rightest!

Aiming for the "GoT" crowd would be a huge mistake. People don't like Game of Thrones because they love fantasy as a genre, they do it because it's schlocky and cheesy. They do it because it's a prime time soap opera with more blood and titties. You point to Game of Thrones, I point to the Warcraft movie.

The actual main problem in any kind of D&D TV show or movie - people don't really give a poo poo about your generic fantasy story with generic evil guy to be defeated, and yet that's what basically any mainstream D&D story is going to end up being. It's a movie with no hook. D&D is in a hilariously difficult place of their own construction - they need a movie or TV show to better sell their brand, but their brand has negative association in film, and none in TV (nobody remembers the D&D cartoon fondly enough for it to be a selling point, sorry). And worse, the very nature of their product works against them; there aren't really any characters in D&D to utilize or push forward. You have a few villains...but then, do you, really? What D&D villains are memorable? Strahd, who's just Dracula Again? Tiamat, who's exactly the generic evil bad guy nobody's going to remember? Ok, well at least they have a setting, right? Wrong, Forgotten Realms at a first glance is deeply boring and generic, and anything interesting about it is going to take WAY too loving long to actually explain to an audience before you even have buy in.

Notice I use "generic" a lot? For a long time that's been D&D's STRENGTH as a tabletop game. It was "good enough" to cover a lot of ground, it's stories easy enough that anyone could jump in and play them. But that becomes a massive weakness when you try to enter a field where you actually need selling points to your story.

# ? Aug 27, 2017 20:47

PupsOfWar: Dec 6, 2013

Darwinism posted:

So when a live action D&D thing happens, you have spells being thrown around, magical armors and weapons, far more common magical beings of different types, etc. All of this is a lot more expensive to CGI or practical effect in and very difficult to do in a manner that's convincing. And while D&D has the name recognition in the public sphere, it really doesn't command budgets high enough to do this in the Western movie economy.

D&D could be done as Low Fantasy, if they went OSR about it. A group of four idiots deciding to loot the nearby tomb doesn't entail a high budget.

The trouble with that is like
can you make killing bugbears in 10'x10' rooms interesting to a tv audience? Probably not, or, if so, it would be hard & would require talent of a type that is not normally invested in genre tv shows.

# ? Aug 27, 2017 21:06

Zomborgon: Feb 19, 2014; I don't even want to see what happens if you gain CHIM outside of a pre-coded system.

PupsOfWar posted:

D&D could be done as Low Fantasy, if they went OSR about it. A group of four idiots deciding to loot the nearby tomb doesn't entail a high budget.

The trouble with that is like
can you make killing bugbears in 10'x10' rooms interesting to a tv audience? Probably not, or, if so, it would be hard & would require talent of a type that is not normally invested in genre tv shows.

There's a reason why XCRAWL exists, since the best analogue to "D&D but televised" is blood sport style arenas, perhaps like a more violent form of American Gladiators.

e: That is, D&D in classic dungeon-crawling at all times form. Otherwise, you end up with more focus on the world and a more journey-based story.

Zomborgon fucked around with this message at 21:41 on Aug 27, 2017

# ? Aug 27, 2017 21:35

MonsterEnvy: Feb 4, 2012; Shocked I tell you

The upcoming movie is supposed to be in the Forgotten Realms. Waterdeep and Undermountain in particular it seems.

# ? Aug 27, 2017 21:38

Gumdrop Larry: Jul 30, 2006

I could very easily envision a D&D movie in the vein of the first Pirates of the Caribbean as a fun fantastical adventure thing but that would entail a big budget and competent writers and actors and director, and why on earth would you commit those kinds of resources and effort to D&D

# ? Aug 27, 2017 21:39

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# ? May 30, 2024 23:56

MonsterEnvy: Feb 4, 2012; Shocked I tell you

Gumdrop Larry posted:

I could very easily envision a D&D movie in the vein of the first Pirates of the Caribbean as a fun fantastical adventure thing but that would entail a big budget and competent writers and actors and director, and why on earth would you commit those kinds of resources and effort to D&D

Appearntly they want to go for a Guardians of the Galaxy type tone. As for why it's pretty notable Brand that has gained a lot of popularity recently.

# ? Aug 27, 2017 21:39

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