Second Wind, Action Surge, and Being Super-Awesome at 1st Level

I've slept on it, given it time and plenty of thought.  Something just doesn't sit right with me.  Yeah, I'm bothered by a few little things.

Is this what we want out of our tabletop fantasy RPG?  Is this what the Basic version of 5e will be like?  All skills and proficiency bonuses and constant self-healing and action points?

I thought most of the 3rd and 4e D&D stuff was going to be relegated to the PHB and DMG, not the Starter Set and free Basic D&D rules online.  So, why is all this newfangled, character optimization and life-saving extra padding coming at us with the pre-gen excerpt?  Wasn't Basic supposed to be, you know, basic?  The Advanced rules were going to be included n the PHB and DMG for those who wanted them.

How's a DM supposed to cross off a half-dozen things from the pre-gen character sheet before his players even sit down and still expect the game to be 5e D&D?  Wasn't 5e supposedly influenced by the OSR?  Wasn't 5e supposed to return us to that old school style of play from the 70's and 80's?

Is this just a simple misunderstanding, a betrayal, or some kind of unsatisfying compromise?  Am I freaking out for no reason?  Perhaps, but we've only seen the iceberg's tip.  What's next?

Comments, questions, suggestions, complaints, thoughts...?


VS

D&D 5e Character Sheet

Well, the new character sheet from fifth edition D&D Starter Set is here.

It's supposed to be easy for noobs to read and understand at a glance.  Is it?  What do you think?

I know I'm number challenged some of the time and I've only read a few of the playtest packets, but I'm also trying to look at this through novice eyes.

I'm not sure how the proficiency bonus interacts with the ability scores and/or skills.  Why is the phrase "Saving Throws" at the bottom of the ability score bonuses - because they are the saving throw bonuses?  If that's true, then is there no other purpose to ability score bonuses besides saving throws?  That would be my inference.

I assume there's a +2 to Constitution on the far left and then a +4 Constitution on the bonus because of the proficiency bonus... does that mean it only grants a bonus to some Constitution-based rolls?  Assuming a Fighter starts 1st level with a full 10 hit points, does the extra con bonus not count for hp?  Why is the Hit Dice in a different box than the Current Hit Points?

Skills look fairly straightforward, your ability score bonus (I guess there is another reason for calculating them beyond saving throws) + the proficiency bonus + a d20 versus some arbitrary challenge rating, right?  Or, instead of the proficiency bonus is that a separate +2 skill bonus for the skills the character chose?  Wizards could learn a thing or two from the old Vampire: the Masquerade character sheets which give the actual numbers and choices a player had available.

Regarding Armor Class, the fighter is wearing Chain mail +1 for his Fighting Style (Defense) bonus -1 for his Dexterity (which should cancel each other out).  So, that means Chain mail armor gives you a +7 to Armor Class assuming the base is 10... can that be right?  If so, what's Plate mail?  +11?

+5 for an attack bonus, huh?  That's quite a bit for a starting character.  But only +3 for damage?  Why the discrepancy?  Is this character using his Greataxe two-handed for the extra damage (1d12... I heard from some guy named Venger that the Trident only does 1d6 one handed.  1d6!?!  Can you believe that shit?)?  I assume so, but don't have a clue just from looking over the sheet.

Now that I look at it, the "Death Saves" box looks a little tedious.  Wouldn't a single roll just be easier?  Isn't this 1st level padding simply coddling the PCs - which is directly opposed to old school D&D?

As for the Second Wind feat or whatever it's called, just how limited is this well of stamina?  Bonus action?  When, where, and how do I get bonus actions?

While I see a lot of good things here, I'm worried about the confusion factor.  If this was a grade school math test I'd write on this with red pen:  Show your work, please!   C+

Thoughts?

VS

Elfmaids & Octopi review of Purple!

It's a pretty awesome feeling to see someone praise your work online.  That's why I was overjoyed to read a review of The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence on Elfmaids & Octopi RPG blog by Konsumterra.

Check it out!

VS

Story Bible Creation

There's a nifty little D&D article in the Legends & Lore column by Mike Mearls.  Within, he talks about a "story bible".  Basically, this is a written guide where the essentials are spelled out.  The story bible can be handed out to writers, developers, or whomever so when they write an episode, chapter, adventure, campaign, or significant part of the story it doesn't break the overall continuity.  For example, if we were talking about the Thundarr the Barbarian story bible, it would probably say that magic works alongside advanced technology, Moks hate water, the moon broken in half when a runaway comet went by, etc.

If you want to make your own story bible for an upcoming campaign, consider what sort of things should be included.  Here's a guide to guide you in creating your guide...

1. Setting - Where does this story take place?  In the desert under seven suns?  Within the ice caves     beyond Thrakis?  Beneath the emerald waves where the Frog-Men rule?  
2. Locations - Where are the adventures taking place specifically?  The dark temple, inside a giant purple worm, the city-state of Koombash?
3. Races - What's different about the races of your world?  Are the Elves jealous of humanity for some reason?  Do all the Dwarves have tattoos and vibrantly dyed mohawks?  Will Lizardmen play a large role?
4. Magic - Anything particularly noteworthy about spell-casting?  You might want to create a different mechanical system for how magic works in your story.
5. History - What happened ages ago?  What happened last week?  Were all the aristocracy beheaded?  Did the Scarlet Magi cripple the assassin's guild until it worked exclusively for them?
6. Culture - Do the inhabitants of Carcosa wear yellow masks?  Why do the Hill Giants cover themselves in squid ink?  Who prays to the Spider-God?
7. Theme / Tone - What is this story about?  Big picture.  Is this going to be a campaign about knights in shining armor righting wrongs and saving damsels in distress or will this be a gritty, grimy campaign about the realm slowly sliding under a vampire's thrall?   
8. Concept art - Come up with a dozen images or so... artwork that speaks volumes about the story, who lives in it, what the mountains look like, is fire blue, and what your particular Halfling barbarians look like.  Either find some images online, create some yourself, cut them out of magazines, scan them from books, or commission them from artists you know.  The concept art can be seen by only you or the rest of your players (when the time is right).

Know these things from the start and they will help you stay consistent, inspired, and motivated to build upon your unique campaign.

VS

Conversational D&D: The Living Game

A new proclamation, a new controversy...

Yesterday, there was a panel with Mike Mearls and Rodney Thompson at the Origins gaming convention.  They were talking about 5e, of course. At one point, they said "D&D will be more of a living game and a conversation rather than Wizards dictating what the game should be."

Does this mean DMs can dictate their own house-rules, be empowered to run the kind of game they want, influence how D&D evolves through surveys, playtests, and advocacy (bitching on forums)?  Will there be D&D lobbies like Thieves and Assassins Guilds to join in the post-edition apocalypse which is surely coming?

At least on the EnWorld message board, this brought up the subject of constant updates as opposed to an entirely new edition of D&D every 5 years or so.  Assuming this is the case, some saw it as a positive, others a negative.  In such a scenario, the rules might be continually tweaked and refined a little bit at a time, as needed, online.  Like a spam or malware program that does its thing in the background, always making sure (well, most of the time) your machine is protected from the latest outbreaks of virus, hackers, or unwanted products latching on.

Those who saw this as a positive like the idea of never having out of date rules or playing an obsolete game.  Similar to those massive multiplayer online games such as World of Warcraft.  The guys who have played that from the beginning are essentially playing the same game, possibly with the same characters - it's just that the game continually updates itself around them.

Those not in favor of this would prefer one massive overhaul to a thousand tiny changes implemented over half a decade - or better yet, reassurance that 5e is it, that they got it right this time and the 5th Reich shall reign for a thousand years!

Those invisible adjustments require time and energy to notice and implement because, after all, paper & pencil tabletop roleplaying games are not the same thing as computer RPGs.  Also, if 5e becomes someone's favorite edition, what about 2 or 3 years from now?  The game could look different enough where you have inter-edition wars - a tribe of gamers who love 5e from early 2015 while a competing tribe prefers 5e from the last half of 2016.  Are we supposed to keep track, a la 5.02 vs. 5.33?

And what would this mean for the actual hardcover rulebooks many of us are purchasing this summer and fall?  Should we anticipate buying all new books with 5% changes a year from now?  Do we limp along with the same books even though 7% of the core rules have been fixed (or merely altered)?  And how does this news jive (or jibe, whatever) with the digital tools of Codename: Morningstar?

Or, perhaps, the inferred constant update thing is totally bogus.  Perhaps treating this new D&D like a conversation and living game means something completely different...


VS

p.s.  Seriously, they need to fix the trident.  The excerpt just does not do the trident justice!  As written, it's far too weak.  Very little difference between it and a quarterstaff... WTF?!?

p.p.s.  The above picture was the ONLY image I could find on the internet after hours of googling Community + D&D.  Sorry, guys.  :(

Purple in Print!

This is your first chance to obtain The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence in softcover.  It should be up on amazon and DriveThru in about 5 days, but it's available right now via CreateSpace (amazon's e-store and affiliate link for self-published authors).

As a special incentive, forward your CreateSpace order confirmation to me and I'll email you the PDF for free!


VS

Purple reviewed

Just noticed this over at the OSR blog They Might be Gazebos!  +Chuck Thorin did me the honor of reviewing The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence.  Go check it out...

VS

The Enthusiasm War

Something strange is brewing just below the surface of D&D's upcoming 5th edition.  I don't know if it's a backlash or some kind of mutant rebound backlash reverberating through the RPG echo-sphere.  Anyway, the effects are being talked about even though only a few people are addressing the problem itself.  And it is a problem, in my estimation.  Not because I have a particular view and others aren't agreeing with it, but that many gamers are fighting some invisible edition war over a set of rules which doesn't even exist yet.  It's not even a war of editions - it's a war of enthusiasm (or lack thereof).  Why?

Below are the eight camps I've seen.  Chances are, you're in one of the categories below or a hybrid of multiple categories.  Again, I don't care who is where or why... I would just like everything on the table so that maybe some civility can prevail, if not transcendent introspection.


1.  So, we've got people who are loving the promise of 5e and what it represents.  

2.  People who are tentatively optimistic but skeptical.  

3.  Those who just don't care.

4.  Those who think 5e is doing far too little, too late and are unhappy about one thing or another.

5.  A few cranks who absolutely loath 5e and what it represents.

6.  5e lovers who are sick and tired of what they perceive to be 5e hating trolls.

7.  Those disenchanted by what they've seen of 5e who just want the 5e lovers to shut up already.

8.  Cautious, intrigued skeptics who feel harassed or threatened by all the 5e love.

9.  Oops, forgot this one: individuals who are mad that 5e isn't being heralded as the awesome-est version of D&D ever!


Maybe the gaming community just needs to work this stuff out on its own by constantly arguing back and forth.  I don't know.  However, I will say that in certain corners of the internet, the trolling, flaming, petty bickering, and "threadcrapping" looks pretty ugly.

Perhaps we can agree on a few things... our very own Geneva Convention?  If one side refrains from using the phrase "OSR Taliban" and projecting that the other side "hates 5e" even though they're only skeptical or ambivalent, the other side can stop this: "Your 5e super-fandom is threatening my cautious appraisal of what I've seen so far; now I'm going to go off on it - and you!"  Sound fair?

Even though I'm pleased about what I've seen from all the articles, interviews, forum discussion, and playtest documents regarding 5e (yes, I've done the research), that's not why I'm on the + side of the debate.  Just to be clear, I'm not against debate.  In fact, I love it... when it's constructive.  Another reason I'm pro D&D is because our hobby is shrinking and could eventually die off if we're not passionate about its progression.

Now, there are many routes to rejuvenation.  5e isn't the answer to everything and, for you, it might be the wrong answer.  But at least it's something.  A step in the right direction.  Want to go a different route?  Awesome.  Do it.  Grow paper & pencil tabletop roleplaying in your own way. Just know that if you decide to do nothing, then 5e might be the only reason ordinary people know what a roleplaying game is five years from now.  "You know, like Dungeons & Dragons."

As a community, we can be critical while still being supportive; we can like what we like while understanding those who don't.  I propose we approach further discussion consciously.  Hopefully, that's not too much to ask.


VS

Purple PDF is live!

Yes, the PDF of The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence is up on DriveThruRPG (and RPGNow probably).  It may take a few hours before a title search will pull it up, so use the aforementioned link.  Or click on the image over on the right-hand side of this blog.  If you're interested in the dead-tree version, that should be available next week sometime.

This book has a little bit of everything - useful tables, optional rules, a monk character class, history, a short piece of fiction, tons of encounters, new magic items and spells, etc.  As with Liberation of the Demon Slayer (again, see right), your Purple campaign is about 85% finished for you.  The remaining 15% is for the GM to flesh out, adding his own signature elements according to personal taste.

As system neutral/agnostic as possible, it clocks in at 108 pages, lots of illustrations from a variety of amazing artists.  Ed Wedig did a great job of laying everything out.  Plus, there were many people who provided worthwhile feedback, including playtesters!  All in all, I think Purple turned out well.

For those curious, the hexes can be whatever you want... one mile, three miles, five miles, etc.  Just depends on how large you'd like the purple islands to be in your campaign world.

Also, if you'd like the giant 50mb sized color map, it's available here.  You won't be able to see it as a preview or simply click on it; however, you can download the file via dropbox and then save it onto your computer.

Sure, this means that you can pretty much have Alyssa Faden's gorgeous full-color map of the islands for frizzle (free).  Consider it a gift, a thank you, or maybe a teaser to whet your gonzo sci-fantasy appetite.  Enjoy!

If you have any questions, concerns, or problems, please let me know.


VS