ONE D&D: What Changes Are Coming In The New Edition?

Today, Wizards of the Coast announced the inevitable: A new edition coming to our beloved Dungeons & Dragons. If you’re a grognard like me, this will be the fourth time this has happened to you, and it can be an unsettling experience for those who aren’t used to it. Even then, it always makes me nervous.

Dungeons and Dragons is more than a game I play. It is a part of my way of life. I’ve been playing since I was eight years old, and have loved it just as long. It’s at these times of transition that I realize that my way of life is essentially in the hands of people who are strangers to me. Sure, I can play an older edition, and sure I can and do play other games, but major changes to the primary system hold the potential to cause me great distress or joy depending on the quality of those changes. It’s an unusual situation to have a group of strangers who may not share my world view or motivations change up something very central to my recreation and my identity.

New editions are inevitable and always carry potential. Fifth Edition brought in a lot of new gamers, and the popularity of Dungeons and Dragons and role-playing in general has increased over the course of the past several years. The accessibility of Fifth Edition, ease of play, and low barriers to entry really brought a lot of new people to the table. This is great, as we should all love to share our hobby with a new generation, especially when the alternative is for the hobby to die out.

Game companies also have to make money. While supplements often can be profitable, core books are always the big money makers, hence Wizards decision to create the Open Game License with third edition, which benefits many of us to this day in the perumtations that have arisen from it (like our personal favorite, Dungeon Crawl Classics, which borrows heavily from the system with some amazing varitions). So, there is always a corporate incentive to justifying a new run of core books. I’m not sure this is necessarilly in the players best interest, but part of that will be determined over time.

What is often concerning is the lifespan of an edition. Original Edition D&D was created in 1974 in a few small books in a tiny box, and was published cleaned up as AD&D in 1977, which was the chief system until 1989, when 2nd Edition was published. 2nd Edition was modified in 1995 with what we alwasy called 2.5 or Skills and Powers, which gave a lot of optional versatility to the game. Third Edition was published in 2000, with a revised edition (3.5) in 2003. 4th Edition was published in 2008, and 5th published in 2014.

I would tend to group that more or less like this:

AD&D and variants – 15 years

2nd Edition – 11 years

3rd Edition and Variants – 8 years

4th Edition – 6 years

5th Edition – 8 years so far (and will be 10 years by the time the new edition publishes).

So, we’ve had a good run with 5th edition. With any new permutation, there will be some haters. Time will tell whether the changes coming are good and necessary ones, or if they are a misstep. Wizards promises that this process is one where feedback is involved, and the playtest rules are available for free on D&D Beyond.

We’ve looked at the changes proposed and will summarize them here. There may be more that we haven’t noticed, so make sure you let us know in the comments.

WHAT’S CHANGING?

Backwards Compatbile – First, we should point out (as Wizards was careful to) that all products are going to be backwards compatible, so that adventures purchased today can be played in the new edition with little to no modification. I expect powers might have to be added (like the dwarven ability to tremorsense, see below) but theres no need to throw your books in the garbage just yet.

Racial Changes – The design philosphy espoused in the promotional video has indicated that an emphasis on different sorts of characters acting as heroes should be more possible and more accesible to players. This telegraphs something indicated in the first playtest pdf, which is the first major change.

RACES DO NOT CONFER ABILITY SCORE BONUSES OR PENALTIES

Races do differ in a number of ways from their previous incarnations. The short list is as follows.

Humans – Can choose to be small or medium size (as short as 2 feet tall, apparently); gain inspiration after a long rest (standard rule is to lose it now after long rest); Extra skill proficiences; Gain the Skilled feat or a feat of your choice.

Ardling – This is a new PC race for the upper planes. These animal headed creatures have different forms, but share the ability to fly for limited periods of time, and gain some inherent spell casting abilities based on their type.

Dragonborn stay very similar.

Dwarves are similar to 5th edition, but gain the ability to tremorsense for short periods of time each day.

Elves – Are divided in to three subraces, drow, high and wood and are tied to different regions. Each subdivision gets their own bonus spells based on their region, and otherwise have very similar abilities to previous incarnations.

Gnomes similar to previous editions as well.

Orcs – Listed here as full orcs, not as half orcs, which is an interesting change. Orcs add the ability Adrenaline Surge which allows the granting of temporary hit points during the use of a dash action, which can be used a few times per long rest.

Tieflings – Perhaps the most extensive changes, tieflings now have three variations – abyssal, cthonic, or infernal. Each carries with it some inherent spellcasting abilities and resistences. They all get thaumaturgy.

BACKGROUNDS

There is a new emphasis on backgrounds, which have become more than just a skill and a minor power. These are the major changes:

Stat bumps – It is now your career, not your race, that conveys a stat bump. You get a +2 to one stat and +1 to another.

Tool Proficiency – Each background gains a tool proficiency specific to their type.

Language: You gain a language based on the Background. Sign language has entered the language group as well.

Skill Proficiencies: This has remained essentially the same.

Bonus 1st Level Feat: Each background carries with it a feat appropriate to the background.

Starting Equipment – Starting equipment is now determined by your job.

These are most of the visible changes. However thre are a few other tweaks.

DRUIDS – Now cast from the Primal spell list, which is still essentially the druid spell list of old, but not characterized as divine spells. Too early to tell if this has other implications.

GRAPPLING – Always has been a headache. Now, a successful grapple reduces the grappled parties speed to zero, and imposes disadvantage to attacking anyone but the grappeler.

INSPIRATION – goes away after a long rest (except or humans).. You can inspriation at the DM’s whim, or if you roll a Natural 20.

DIGITAL OFFERINGS – Last but not least, Wizards is once again threatening to create a digital table top, as well as digital copies of the books coming with the physical copies. Digital copes of books are great, though it’s not clear how it wil affect local retailers. The Virtual game table has been threatened for years, but I’ll believe it when I see it. In the end, this isn’t that big of a difference from the current arrangement as most have played online with services such as fantasy grounds or Roll20. It’s really almost embarassing how Wizards has failed to meet the need in the marketplace for something like this, but previous attempts have been utter disasters. The groundwork has been laid by many, now, so we’ll see this endeavor when it really gets going.

We’ll continue to update as playtest items roll out and ONE D&D moves forward.

Review: Xanathar’s Guide to Everything

TLDR: You’re going to want to buy this.

There was a lot of buzz for Xanathar’s Guide to Everything before it was even in print, so I anticipated this was going to be worth a look.  It reminds me a lot of what Unearthed Arcana (the book, not the webcolumn) was like for 1st edition.  Was it optional?  Yes.  Would you be missing out on a lot of content that is considered generally mainstream to play without it?  Heck yeah.

General Details

Xanathar, a secretive beholder crime lord, keeps notes on everything (he believes).  Hence the name of the book (his goldfish is his most prized possession, and that’s what’s on the stylized cover you see above).  As with Volo’s Guide to Monsters, there are little notes that run as commentary throughout the book, usually a sort of joke or snipe about the subject matter.  As the material is largely mechanics and game lore, it’s less relevant than with Volo’s but still fun.

The book is 192 pages, full color, lots of art, slick non-glossy pages (which I like).  You’re going to get this and think it feels kind of thin, however.  While the book feels light, it has a lot of content, and they pack quite a bit in those pages.

The book has three major division: Character Options, Dungeon Master Tools, and Spells, but also has two valuable Appendices.  Here’s the breakdown of the sections.

Character Options

Subclasses

By far one of the most valuable sections of Xanathars is the Character Options chapter.  This opens 31 new subclasses for the primary classes listed in the Player’s Handbook.  That’s right: THIRTY ONE.  Note that’s not 31 new classes, but subclasses (like Bardic Colleges, or Barbarian Primal Paths, etc).  I like this because I think that too many primary classes waters down your base classes and leads to unexpected bloat.  Some of these may be familiar as they have rolled out through playtesting in the Unearthed Arcana column.

A few favorites include the Bardic College of Whispers, the Grave Domain Cleric, the Samurai and Cavalier Fighter archetypes, the rogue Swashbuckler, and the War Magic Wizard. Adding rules to differentiate these classes and giving them a new feel works well, without making a GM learn entirely new modes of play functionality.

Flavor – Charts – This is Your Life

In addition to subclass details, they also offer fluff fans fun and interesting (but very brief) charts for fleshing out details about their characters and their backgrounds.  More experienced players may feel these sorts of things are unnecessary, but it definitely gives some players new ways of looking at details about their characters that will flesh them out in interesting ways.

Some sections are meatier than others. The Druid Section of the the Character Option chapter lists charts, for example, of what beasts you encounter in what environments for the purposes of exposure to allow wildshape.  You could make it up, but this is just damn handy.  Other elements, like how you learned to be a druid, are more storytelling.  Each class has this sort background material.

This culminates with a subsection called “This Is Your Life” which allows your background to be determined by charts, at your option.  This goes through siblings, parents, family history, and motivations based optionally on class or background.  I’ve always been a fan of a certain online character background generator myself (NSFW for language).  I seem to recall something like this in an older volume of D&D (maybe player’s handbook 2???) but can’t remember which book.  If you know, post in the comments.  In the end, it can be fun, and they’re clear not to be pushy about using it.  Do it, or don’t if you don’t want to.

Racial Feats

One thing you won’t hear me complaining about is more feats.  I especially like the idea of Racial Feats that continue to expand the characteristics of the races in game.  These add additional ways for characters to stand out and differentiate themselves from one another given the more simplified options of 5th edition over early incarnations like 3.5 and 4th editions.

Dungeon Master’s Tools

Rules Clarifications

As a gamer who runs a lot of games, this section is precious to me, as it answers some questions that speaks more to design philosophy on dealing with rules questions. This chapter shotguns out some rules issues right off the bat with little ceremony, including:

• Simultaneous Effects
• Falling (over time and large distances)
• Sleep Details – Involuntary Waking, Sleeping in Armor, Going Without Sleep
• Adamantine Weapons
• Tying Knots (both tying and slipping out of them)

There are two larger sections that go into greater detail as well:

• Tool Proficiencies – This large section rethinks Tool Proficiency, going into specific items included in certain kits, and spelling out what a player can do with skills and tool proficiencies.  A valuable section that will assist GM’s and players alike in seeing how these should be played.
• Spellcasting – Concealing and identifying spellcasting, measuring ways of determining gridded templates (with illustrations)

 

Challenge Ratings

One of the most important changes listed here is the Encounters Section.  This lists a new way of calculating encounter challenge ratings that seems to more accurately address the threat of solo monsters based on group size, as well as other types of encounters.  This section probably is an admission that prior CR calculations were not correct and did not accurately reflect appropriate difficulty.

Paired with this is a comprehensive list of wandering monster encounters by level and geographic environment.  For those that use such charts, it’s a masterpiece.  Very convenient.    While not previously a fan of wandering monsters, I’ve found it a useful tool when players are lollygagging or doing things in a stubborn and ineffective time-consuming way (i.e. camping after every encounter, spending an hour bonding with items in a dungeon, camping in a dangerous place, etc).  The lists are detailed, and the setting dressing it provides also fleshes out your world and the creatures in.

Other Sections

Traps Revisited — A sizable section deals with how traps should be dealt with to make them interesting, including details about constructing elaborate traps and the rules that tied therein.  This is more interesting in that it seems to suggest that the standard application of a rogue disarm role should be avoided in favor of a more descriptive approach.

Downtime Revisions –  This section elaborates on revised downtime rules, including the development of a rivalry, buying magic items, carousing complications, and so on.  Helpful if you find yourself using these rules.  We never seem to get to them in my groups, however.

Magic Items – A section here on magic items deals with suggestions on awarding magic items as a GM, and a type of common magic item that has magical effect and flavor without game-breaking power.  A new relisting of magic items by type and rarity, with notation as to whether those items require attunement, is a handy reference.

Spells

With over 90 additional spells for all spell-casting classes, this chapter alone makes this book a must-have. I haven’t combed through these to see if they have been duplicated in other volumes, but there certainly enough new ones to make it a reference for any spell-caster when picking their list.  Some of these are old classics that have been revamped for 5th edition, others are brand new.

Appendices:

Appendix B is a voluminous list of names from different cultures to help players with naming a character.  It’s a great list, as it goes, with real world cultural names as well as fantasy names.  This is going to make one of your players very happy.

but more importantly, Appendix A is about Shared Campaigns.  

Shared Campaigns

Skyland Games originally began as a gaming group that decided to split off from Living Forgotten Realms organized play to start our own shared campaign.  Part of this split was because of frustration with the management of LFR and the various bookkeeping requirements thereof (and scenario quality, truth be told). We started our own round-robin style of gaming allowing everyone to get some play time, as well as build a common story together.  We’re big fans of it.

What’s proposed here contemplates a Living campaign like Adventurer’s Guild, but could be used for a round-robin home game as well.  It makes use of a benchmark system for leveling based on the number of hours a scenario is designed for and its relative challenge level rather than on the XP value of monsters.

Common rewards are determined at levels, including a treasure point system for awarding magic items from a pre-determined list of magic items agreed upon by the collective DM’s of the campaign. Gold can be spent on common items and maybe a small list of alchemical items.  Major magic items require treasure points, earned through play.

This appendix, however, poses a question: Is this the future (or maybe the present) of Adventurer’s League?  I haven’t been to a game in ages, so I couldn’t tell you if they had moved to this system.  If so, does the abstraction make the game less enjoyable?  I think each player might have a different answer to this question, but if everyone can pay their dues and get the items they want in a timely enough fashion, the abstraction may be worth it.  These guidelines won’t make you purchase the book, but are worth a read for any player.

Summary

Xanathar’s Guide to Everything seems largely about utility and fleshing out things that originally were left to player and GM to determine.  Some might see that as an imposition, but I find it incredibly useful.

A complaint I’ve heard about 5th edition is that the lack of specialization makes many characters seem the same.  I’d point out that, as a player for three decades now, we started with a lot less and never really thought to complain about it.  5th edition is a great expansion on what we started with, but doesn’t lend itself to the hyper-specialization that you see in 3.5 Edition D&D or Pathfinder.  These new subclasses, feats, and spells in no way serve to make 5th Edition D&D more like 3.5 or Pathfinder, but they do give a greater degree of options to make a character stand out and build on unique themes.  The content provided in this tome is very significant, and is a should-have if not a must-have moving forward with 5th Edition.

Princes of the Apocalypse Review PLUS Converting the Temple of Elemental Evil: T1 – The Village of Hommlet to 5th Edition

First, let’s talk about Princes of the Apocalypse:

I picked up Princes of the Apocalypse a few weeks ago, after we had completed the Hommlet section of Temple of Elemental Evil.  In case you weren’t aware, Princes of the Apocalypse is 5th Edition’s campaign for this year, and is not a reboot of the classic module, but derives core ideas and starts a series of entirely new adventures.  They’ve done good work in not respawning the old story, but creating a new story with continuity to the old.

The philosophy is that Elemental Evil is something that transcends existence, touching down on various worlds through sheer force of will, infecting different communities with its blight.  Ergo, Greyhawk is one of the first places to suffer its wrath, but this time it has found the Forgotten Realms.   I can buy that, despite my intense love for  Greyhawk .

Fortunately, they have a simple and clever conversion guide showing how to place the new events of the Princes of the Apocalypse in Greyhawk, Eberron, Athas, and other worlds.  They translate factions to local entities, making the Harpers equate to the Circle of Eight, the Zhentarim to the Greyhawk Thieves Guild, and so on.

I love the old Temple of Elemental Evil, but as my group stares down the barrel of its 300 room dungeon, I am reminded now that my love is rooted in nostalgia that newer players will likely not appreciate.  Accordingly, it is perhaps necessary for a more modern take on game design be applied to a new module.  The designers nod to the old module, directing you how to get a copy and advising the ease of conversion (which is somewhat true).  I think they have narrowly avoided angering grognards and new players alike by pumping out a spruced up but changed Hommlet and Temple.  They’re not imitating the past, they’re building on it, depriving us curmudgeons of an opportunity to bitch about how they messed everything up in the reboot. So, well played, sirs.

Princes of the Apocalypse contains several new regional settings, great maps, and a story that crosses boundaries, suggesting a unifying element to Elemental Evil.   The remainder of the book contains items make this a must-have for those converting the old Temple.

First, there are several stat blocks for elemental priests and acolytes.  These are kept in a separate section of the book, and are easy to reference.  This is going to save you a fair bit of time when going through the various sects, with stats for elemental creatures as well that are completely new, but add nicely to the campaign world.  Temple of Elemental Evil suffered from a problem of having somewhat limited options (Monster Manual I) for filling the monster hotel.  Choice replacement may spice things up a bit in making your conversion, so I recommend you look at what’s here.

Secondly, Spells, many of which are fairly classic, are found in this book.  I did not pick up the Tyranny of the Dragon Queen, and I’m starting to worry that key and classic spells are going to start to appear in the back of numerous $50+ books, pushing players to collect them for  just a section of the book.  That may be the new way, unless they can be found elsewhere on a legitimate basis.  It’s not a good way to collect information, but I anticipate increasing web resources to fill that gap.

Third, Magic items are found in the book with details on several weapons of great power (artifacts) which I am going to place into my game in key places. Other more miscellaneous magic items also exist, fleshing out the DMG’s selection and providing thematically entertaining tools that keep the mystery of magic items alive.

For those reasons, I would recommend checking it out.  It’s good in it’s own right, and is  a truly epic campaign (taking the players up to 15th level).  I think that you’ll want to have it if you’re doing the old Temple, and see what you want to bring to it or change.

CONVERTING T1- THE VILLAGE OF HOMMLET

We’ve just finished this part of the module, so I can place the conversion material here now.  NOTE THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD so anyone getting ready to play the old T1: Village of Hommlet should stop reading now.  Below are a complete list of monsters found in the Moathouse and their page number in the Monster Manual. Some are quite obvious, but others not so much. I found these to most closely match the original intention and play of the first mod, and the challenge seemed spot-on.

• Brigands p. 343
• Bugbear p. 33
• Crayfish, Giant  = (as Giant Scorpion p. 327 but no sting attack)
• Frogs, Giant (Large) = Giant Toad p.329
• Frogs, Giant (Small) = Giant Frogs 325
• Ghouls p.148
• Gnoll p.163
• Green Slime DMG p.105 (it’s a hazard now)
• Guardsman = Guard p.347
• Lareth the Beautiful = See below
• Leader = Berserker p.344
• Lieutenant = Bandit Captain p. 344
• Lizard, Giant = p.326 but add 2 to AC because of magic shield in its belly. Stupid, but true to form.
• Ogre p.237
• Rats, Giant p. 327
• Sergeant = Thug p.350
• Snake, Giant p327
• Spider, Huge p.328
• Tick, Giant = See below
• Zombie p 316

---

Giant Tick

Reaper’s Giant Tick

Medium Beast, unaligned

AC 16, HP 22, Speed: 20′ Climb 20′

Str 14 Dex 8 Con 16 Int 2 Wis  8 Cha 6

Senses: Darkvision 60ft , Passive Perception 9

Languages — None

Challenge 1/4 (50XP)

SA: Blood Drain Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft, one reature. Hit: 1d6+2 piercing damage, and attaches to target.  While attached, Giant Tick doesn’t attack, each round target loses 1d6+2 for bloodloss.

Giant Tick can detach itself by spending 5 feet of its movement.  Drops off after draining 15 hp.  DC 14 Str check to remove)

---

Lareth the Beautiful

Medium Humanoid (Drow Elf)

Lareth the Beautiful

Level 5 Cleric – Proficiency bonus +3

AC 21 HP 55 Speed: 25′

Senses: Darkvision 120′

Special Abilities – Sunlight Sensitivity, Channel Divinity (Trickery), Divine Spellcasting, Blessing of the Trickster, Invoke Duplicity

Str 18 (Save +4)

Dex 17 (Save +3)

Con 16 (Save +3)

Int 14 (Save +2)

Wis 18 (Save +7)

Chr 18 (Save +7)

Skills: Deception +7, Insight +7, Persuasion +7, Sleight of Hand +6

Abilities: Dancing Lights 1/day; Darkness 1/day

Attacks:

Staff of Striking [DMG p. 203] (+10 to hit, 1d6+7 plus 1d6 per charge expended)

Inventory – Plate Mail +1, Shield, Staff of Striking, Silver Holy Symbol, etc

Spells (DC 15)

Cantrips –  Guidance, Resistance, Sacred Flame, Thaumaturgy,

Level 1 –Bane, Charm person, Disguise Self, Healing Word, Inflict Wounds

Level 2 – Blindness, Hold Person, Silence

Level 3 –Animate Dead, Bestow Curse, Mirror Image, Pass without trace

Back to the Classics: Returning to the Temple of Elemental Evil

The Temple

When I realized the 5th Edition was built with a mind to accommodate classic concepts, I started thinking what I do when any edition of D&D comes out…. TEMPLE OF ELEMENTAL EVIL.

I love this module, LOVE IT.  When I was a kid I played it three times, read it cover to cover, and played it a few more times over the intervening years. I ran it for a group in college, and some variation of those characters and that group for 15 years.  It, like the other classics of D&D (Slave Lords, Giants, and Demonweb Pits, to  name a few) are amazing, iconic stories that are world defining.  When I realized that quite a number of our local grognards had somehow missed the opportunity to play this classic, I knew it was time to see what 5th Edition Temple looked like.

Conversion to a new system is always a crap shoot.  There is always a temptation to convert straight over from the original, without considering the change in difficulty from older editions of the game to the new.  Right now I’m in the early conversion stages (having converted over the Village of Homlett) with a tentative readiness to recalibrate everything after the first TPK. The problem for me is that 5th Edition is so new, and my experience with it so limited (Beginner Box and a couple of Adventurer’s League mods) that am not sure how powerful I can anticipate the players will be.  I know that in the Beginner Box, they took on and defeated a monster or two that I would never have thought possible at that level in any other edition.  5th Edition has a way of letting half the party get knocked to negatives in any combat but suddenly be all up and triumphant by the end.  It’s really confusing to plan around for a conversion and CR’s seem almost irrelevant.  So far, I’m doing a straight conversion to what’s in the monster manual and waiting to see what happens.  I anticipate things are going to become unhinged when they walk into their first room full of bugbears, as apparently 5E thinks very highly of bugbears.  Very highly.  But Temple was tough, and characters died. And that’s something that’s been missing from games for me lately… I’m a little worried death won’t even be a concern in 5th edition, but the Temple always seems to come through in that department, so for now I’m relaxing and seeing what happens.

There are a number of encounters that I look forward to running that genuinely kicked the crap out of my characters every time we went through them, and I’m sure the first encounter most people remember from this series is the most deadly.  I remember our cleric casting his two healing spells and limping back to town and sleeping for three days . Strange though it may sound, it’s exactly that kind of experience I want my players to have…  Not the hopeless slaughter but the challenge and the peril and the overcoming of incredible obstacles.  I want them to never think about a giant tick as being something to sneeze at.  I want them to start carving up the bellies of each monster they find in the hope that there is hidden loot inside.  I want the citizens of Homlett to come alive and become single name icons for a type of character or personality trait (‘Stop being such an Elmo’). Some of the oddball characters that can rise to the fore in a game like this can be surprising.  A few bad guys became good guys in our campaign, and a few good guys became bad guys in others.  Some nobodies became demi-gods (Gwyneth Lilburne, the Silver Stitch; Black Jay, the Patron Saint of Gnollish worship of St. Cuthbert….. yeah, that). I want it to breathe for them the way it breathes for me.

The thing about Temple of Elemental Evil is it is largely a sandbox.  After playing Paizo’s adventure paths for years, it’s refreshing to play a sandbox game where you can really open up options to the players.  I was surprised and amused when one player expressed slight concern that it was ‘too sandboxy’.  I was puzzled that it could be a downside, but I think that kind of freedom can be a little daunting when you’re not used to it.  I think after getting  a taste of it, people are going to wonder why they ever did it any other way.

However, I will say that I have a few fears and reservations.  Going back over the module and reading the campy box text about seeking fame and fortune, I noticed that a lot of the memories that were in this mod were placed there by great GM’s and great players.  Many towns folk are just named ‘Farmer’ and ‘Wainright’.  Much of the rich story has been added in my brain, and the justifications elaborated on to the point where memory greatly surpasses the actual published text.  What if you can’t go home again? What if you can’t go back to Homlett? There’s a legitimate fear there, that maybe this module doesn’t stand up to the test of time, that others might not appreciate it for what it is.  Maybe my low standards and youthful enthusiasm made up for a lot of shortcomings that my older self won’t enjoy.  My feeling is it will prove itself, but there is that fear.

The Good Ol’ Moathouse

Wizard’s announcement that the Temple of Elemental Evil was going to be a feature of this season’s campaign theme strikes me both as a sign of the merits of this series and also as a maybe an unwelcome travelling companion on this journey.  If they redo it, what will it be like?  Will it distract from, enhance, mitigate or overdevelop elements of my story, the old module, the known universe?  Will it be set in my beloved Greyhawk? What will it do?

Temple has been a known quantity for over 20 years.  Changing the mythos tempts fate.  Maybe they do it right, maybe not.  My understanding is that the new material is different than the Temple itelf  Maybe that falls in line… complimenting, not changing.

While this blog post is about the why of starting up Temple, future ones will be the how.  Look back for conversion tips from the Village of Homlett under the category Elemental Evil.  I’d post more now but Wednesday, we head for the Moathouse!

Dungeons and Donations

This post, brought to you by Guest Blogger, and resident gamer girl, Brett!

Greetings Gamers!
Would you like to give back a little this Holiday season? Pay it forward? Do the right thing? Milk of human kindness and all that stuff! It’s called DUNGEONS & DONATIONS!

Our local Gaming establishment – The Wyvern’s Tale, is having a 24 hour Pen and Paper Game-a-Thon for the Children’s Miracle Network! HERE’S THE BLURB!

 
The evil lich Acererak has kidnapped the children of Greyhawk, and holds them hostage within his Tomb of Horrors! Heroes throughout the land journey to their rescue–will you answer the call?

 
We’ll be running a 24-hour live Twitch stream of heroes trekking through the classic deadly adventure module Tomb of Horrors! $5 gets you a seat at the table, but how long can you hold it? If the perils of the Tomb prove too lethal for your character, you’ll have to pay to keep your seat–or yield to the next player in line!

 
Spectators will have the option to donate various amounts to help or hinder the party on their path. Will you give them the boon of a much-needed potion of healing–or would you rather send them a Beholder instead?

 
ALL money raised will go to Extra Life, benefiting Children’s Miracle Network! Come join us for 24 hours of perilous (and charitable) fun! Our Extra Life page is here

 
As a personal note, I’ve contributed to several Extra Life 24 hour game-a-paloozas, hosted by TheZestyMan and emilieraptor on Twitch. I’ve even been in a few of them, though never hosted one myself. If you have a tiny bit of tech savvy and are willing, it’s a great way to help out the Children’s Miracle Network.

 
You don’t have to watch all 24 hours, but checking in every now-and-again to see how your favorite heroes are doing is a lot of fun!
p.s. – The Twitch app for Android works pretty well. (Editor’s note: and iOS!)

5e pregens – Arcane Elves

Half Moon Elf Ranger by Aaron B Miller

One of the strengths of the Players Handbook is the amount of options included for both classes and races. Not only are there all the major races that you typically think of when you think about D&D, there are subraces that allow for the different types of those races that have been portrayed over the years and worlds of D&D. One of the most enjoyable long-running campaigns I’ve ever been in was a party of dwarves (and an adopted gnome with a fake beard.) Being from the same dwarven clan was a fantastic reason to have the party adventuring together, and strengthened the bonds between the PCs.

In the spirit of a racially themed party, I’ve created a party of elves that use the standard array of ability scores, and form a complete, diverse party, despite all being elves. Since they do use the standard array they would all be Adventurer’s League ready, if you needed a character fast and didn’t want to use one of the established pregens.

Elves in 5e come in three flavors: High Elf, Wood Elf, and Dark Elf (Drow). I tried to avoid the typical elven archetypes with one exception: the Ranger. You can’t have a party of elves without a Ranger! Being elves, they are all inclined towards magic, and by 3rd level, every one of them can cast spells of some type. I’ve included both the 1st level and 3rd level pregens, as I’ve found most classes don’t really hit their stride in 5e until about 3rd level. (Maybe a sideways homage to Dark Sun?)

I’ve chosen to create a High Elf Eldrich Knight (one of the fighter archetypes), a Dark Elf Fey Knight (or Green Knight, Paladin Oath of the Ancients), a Wood Elf Cleric of Nature (like a druid, but more armor and less shape shifting), a Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter, archer-supreme), a High Elf Rogue (arcane trickster), and a Dark Elf Sorcerer (Wild magic).

It was fantastically fun to use the backgrounds to create personalities, bonds, flaws, and ideals for them. High, Wood, and Dark elves probably have less in common with each other than Mountain and Hill dwarves, but I leave it to you to flesh out any backstories of how they met and began adventuring together.

Without further ado, the Elves:

1st Level Sorcerer Rogue FeyKnight Ranger NatureCleric EldritchKnight

3rd Level Sorcerer3 Rogue3 FeyKnight3 Ranger3  NatureCleric3 EldritchKnight3

 

 

To Grid or Not to Grid

Tactics.

‘Tactics’ has meant different things over the years in the context of fantasy RPG’s.  In first and second edition Dungeons and Dragons, tactics meant techniques and abilities, and were fairly rudimentary, getting a few bumps from various splatbooks and later with the Skills & Powers books.  In versions 3.0 to Pathfinder, however, tactics became more closely associated with tactical movement, movement on a grid, and it became fairly critical: flanking, five-foot-steps, attacks of opportunity, and templated spell effect areas could all mean the difference between life and death on the battlefield.

I remember starting to play 3.0 many years ago now and thinking, “Man, this combat is almost like playing an additional game or mini-game” which shows what a break it was from older editions.  It was thrilling at the time, but as time has gone on, the pros and cons of the grid weigh on me as a player, but even more so as a GM.

This came into sharper focus recently with our trial run of the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Starter Set.  We played with very vague illustrations of the rooms we were in, didn’t count squares, and approximated distances.  The game flowed well, played quickly, and we didn’t run into any problems. Players continuously improvised and thought outside of the box, trying to obtain ‘advantage’, where two dice are rolled taking the higher result (a primary 5E mechanic).

By contrast, the following week we returned to our Reign of Winter game where we encountered creatures that could create a cage of bones over the players with a touch attack.  The grid lead to accurate depictions of positioning, but as a result, a horrible slog ensued where players couldn’t act effectively due to the specificity with which we were able to chart their positions, many of them being out of reach of their opponents and of other players.

Some of my players hate the grid.  Kevin, for instance, and increasingly, Michael, find it frustrating.  We’ve played a fair amount of Dungeon Crawl Classics, and reversion to the grid has always been a mistake in that. DCC plays fast and loose, with crazy things happening all the time, and counting squares runs afoul of it’s old school roots and free wheeling ‘sure, try it’ attitude. Accordingly, they don’t recommend it.

Really, any time you’re counting squares (especially Pathfinder’s diagonal movement rules) you’ve stopped the creative flow of the game and the action, and have approached minutia that is probably  not enhancing the actual play of the game.

That said, sometimes you want something technical.  Sometimes being a few inches outside of that explosive radius is a high-five inducing event.  The grid keeps things fair, for both GM and player, and that can be important with the right group (and even more important with the WRONG group).

THE EXPERIMENT

So I decided to try 5th edition with various gridded and non-gridded play areas to see how the party responded.  At the table, we had old and new players, and players that were both for and against gridded combat.  The results were interesting.

THEATER OF THE MIND

First, I ran a session with no map.  Just words.  This is commonly called “Theater of the Mind” and worked well enough.  Play was quick, but in the end fairly featureless.  For whatever reason, players didn’t seem to put much into the attacks or the environment that brought anything new to the game.  I think, in some games, like DCC, you might see Deed Dice rolled that create critical hit scenarios that add flavor, but for the vast majority of games, TOTM combats really reflect the skill and energy of both GM and player.  The more player’s or Game Masters drop the ball, the less engaging that combat is going to be.

DWARVEN FORGE

I wanted to use maps or illustrations in my games to supplement game play, and avoid a lot of repeated questions about positioning. So, for the next encounter, I used a grid in form of Dwarven Forge game tiles.

If you haven’t been fortunately enough to get in on Dwarven Forge’s Kickstarters , you can still pick them up at their company store.  They are beautiful.  Perhaps their biggest shortcoming in my mind is they have partial squares against the walls, which make spacing a little vague, upon occasion, but that worked for the experiment.

Players were pleased to see the high-detail mapping, but quickly became constrained by the nature of the gridding.  Bottlenecks occurred frequently, and play slowed down significantly.  Further, players stopped jockeying for advantage and improvising, and fell back into the rather stolid roles of ‘move and attack’. It drained something out of it, despite the verisimilitude of the map dungeon dressing.

Ironically, I should note, that the bottlenecking served to help the party tactically.  Tactics sometimes help the character but detract from the player’s experience, which arguably is a lot more important.

PRINTED – NOT TO SCALE

Third, I used a printed map, but not to scale:

I found a few interesting things in this scenario.  My map had a grid, but I told the players it was not to scale (being 10 foot squares) and to disregard it.  Despite that, players still tried to force themselves to the grid.  Combats began to feel tight, despite there being plenty of room, and other distances got confused as players tried to leap over 20 foot chasms before remembering the distances involved.

Perhaps the worst part of this was a final confrontation with a dragon.  Players became lazy with positioning their miniatures.  When the dragon turned to use its breath weapon, revisionist history began to play a role:

“I wasn’t standing there, I was behind it”

“I would have been around the corner”

“I’m too far away”

I had to play evil GM (the “Dog” as we call it) and explain that based on their descriptions of their actions, these players were within the deadly area of this blast.  Some players took it in stride, others grumbled a bit.  I appreciated their frustration, as things got murky on this particular battlefield.

QUICK SKETCH ON TACT-TILES

Lastly, combat took place on set of Tact-tiles, with crappy hand drawn maps by me:

These expensive little guys have been in my collection for about a decade, and despite the upfront costs, they’re the best thing going.  You’ve just missed the kickstarter, but hopefully they will have fixed their supply issues and be back on the market soon.

Strangely, this hand drawn map did the trick. Noting that everything was only approximately to scale, we quickly worked to move miniatures without counting squares but being fair and mindful of the speed limitations of the character.  As GM, I attempted to err on the side that permitted the character to make the most of their turn, within reason, and sometimes adding complications along the way.

5E’s greatest strength will likely prove to be the advantage/disadvantage mechanic replacing a lot of detailed hand-wringing rules that discourage improvisation in the interest of fairness.  If the halfling wants to dash over the slick cobblestones to dive into range to throw his dagger, 5E lets that dramatic scene happen, and as GM all I have to do to comb in the complexity of that is to have them roll with disadvantage.  It’s a signficant penalty, but not insurmountable, and a hell of a lot better than saying, “No.  You double move and that’s it”.

There was enough accountability with my crappy hand drawn map that if there was an area of effect ability in play, the square counting got a lot more precise, with ties going to the player where a close call was concerned.  No one had difficulty with the rulings, and the game continued quickly.

THE TAKEAWAY

Your mileage may vary, but I saw merit in both systems at their appointed times.  A lot of this depends on your group: A Good or fair GM might be trusted by his players to do everything in the theater of the mind, with not even so much as a map or sketch to give players an idea of what was going on.  This can be excellent in more routine or featureless situations where players don’t need to know ranges, tactics are simple, and game play more fast and loose, but falls short where terrain features a large role in combat, or where positioning and visualization of the flow of combat is highly relevant to the outcome.

Off-scale maps seemed to create more of a problem than they solved.  Unless the map is to such a scale that players can’t try to position themselves on it with any relevance, I think it’s to be avoided.  Best to show a small scale map and then ‘explode’ the scene into something tactical when necessary.

My vague map seemed to work the best for this group, but I think probably with other groups or more technical situations, this could be problematic as well.  If it really comes down to a game of inches, GM and player alike are going to feel either guilty or cheated if a fireball catches the character and roasts them to ashes based on a flimsy or hypothetical map or position.

My solution is this: Map as little as necessary, but with precision for critical combats. Positions where combats are melee only and non spell effects or powers that relate to range are good for loose maps where position isn’t key.  You may still run into problems now and again, but the time you save and flexibility you pick up from that fast and dirty map is going to be worth it 9 times out of 10.

If instead you’ve got a boss-fight, a fight where terrain plays an interesting role, or where flanking and areas of effect are going to be repeatedly relevant, draw it to scale and play it to scale.  This requires a little foresight, but speed of play is key to keeping people entertained, and precision and tactics become highly relevant and add to the game where the single combat or combatant are the focus and potential endgame.

Future expansions of 5E have been rumored to contain additional tactical combat rules.  If so, you’ll be able to choose how that game, at least, gets played. We’d love to hear your thoughts about whether you prefer the grid or not, and why.   Let us know, and maybe I’ll try that out with my poor poison-cloud-choked adventuring group in a few weeks.

 

 

 

 

Asheville Comic Expo (A.C.E.) 2014 Preview

Just one month until the 3rd Annual Asheville Comic Expo! Once again, the Skyland Games crew is organizing the RPG gaming, and just like the rest of the show, tabletop RPGs will be bigger and more diverse than previous years! We’ve got a warhorn going so you can reserve your spot at the table. This year we’ll have Star Wars Edge of the Empire and Age of Rebellion, as well as several Dungeon Crawl Classics tables, a 5E starter set table for those eager to try the newest edition of D&D, and of course the ever popular Pathfinder tables.

In addition to the awesome artwork on display in artist alley, a lot of special guests are attending this year. It’s a great opportunity to meet writers and artists from Marvel, Dark Horse, IDW, DC, and some really great indie work!

Of course it wouldn’t be ACE without comics and a lot of awesome cosplay. Get some more use out of that awesome get up you made for DragonCon or GenCon and enter the costume contest! It has been a really impressive showing in previous years.

This year the convention will be upstairs in a larger space! Previous years it was held in what can generally be described as the basement of the Civic Center, but no longer! 2014 we are moving out of the basement! Check out the awesome comics, elaborate costumes, gorgeous art, and play some games! Come out and support this awesome endeavor to make ACE 2014 the best yet! See you there!

5E & Me

Last week, Scott D wrote his ARTICLE about the pleasant surprise he experienced with the D&D 5TH EDITION STARTER SET. Well, I was there! He was the Dungeon Master and I was actually playing; enjoying it all. (Having been unable to consistantly play RPGs for a little while, it was refreshing to be able to play.)

I will say that I purposefully did not partake in the playtest of 5th edition in the last year or so. First off, I was playing other stuff like Pathfinder and Edge of the Empire and Dungeon Crawl Classics. Secondly, I did not want to be one of those guys to be sitting at the table and say, “Oh, that changed from the second revision? Well, that totally screwed up my strategy.” And finally, I just did not know if I believed in Dungeons & Dragons anymore.

While playing the Starter Set I came to the conclusion that I liked the new edition. It fits right in the middle of everything that is out there right now. You do not have to be a calculus professor to crunch the numbers and you do not have to rely on the dice for every single decision that is made about your character. It fits in between all of that, with, from what I could see, the potential to swing in either direction, depending on your group’s play style. It has easy to understand mechanics and more story-telling opportunities over the long term that could easily entice new players to join the fold.

I jumped at the chance to play because it was so new to me. I had only downloaded the BASIC RULES that day to familiarize myself so I would not slow play down and became hooked (Especially when I got to character creation; more on that later.). See when I play Pathfinder and see the problems that so many have with keeping the rules straight from 3.0 to 3.5 to Pathfinder, it is sometimes a turn off. Especially if it takes 10 minutes to find the correct rule. And then there are the arguments about which edition is better. I was not looking for that; I wanted that fresh RPG feeling. And I think I got it.

Honestly, I was not sure that I believed in Dungeons & Dragons any more. My personal RPG journey did not start like most did in Dungeons & Dragons (I actually started with TMNT), so even when I played it, it was always reluctantly. I went through a tiny bit of AD&D, 3.0 quite heavily and then onto 4th Edition. Now do not get me wrong, I enjoyed the vast majority of my experiences with D&D, but I always felt like there was something out there that had to be better and more fulfilling than the current edition. I know I just played one session of 5th Edition, but it has something about it. I just cannot put my finger on it… yet.

Well, enough of all that sappy, critical thinking mumbo-jumbo. Let us get to the fun stuff! I thought the pre-generated characters in the Starter Set were interesting, but they lacked oomph. They lacked complexity. They lacked… my touch. So I took the bare-bones character creation rules in the free rules set (Those are the only rules available right now; payday cannot come quickly enough for the PLAYER’S HANDBOOK.) and turned them upside down. My first creation attempt was lacking until I decided that there just had to be an entire party created.

I only provided blurbs about each character because I wanted you to get a general sense of who they were but not totally define who they are and how they came together. Every DM and every group would play them differently. And that is why I am liking this 5th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons; definition without definitions.

For your enjoyment:

• Sgt. Carse Youngblood is a young, upstart officer in the king’s army charged with investigating arcane threats to the crown.
• Azure is a somber elf obsessed with exacting revenge on the dark elves; all in the name of Shevarash.
• Bilgar Hilrock is a studious dwarf bent on reviving a university dedicated to dwarven warfare.
• Gilygan Hairyfoot is a tender-hearted Yondalla-loving halfling cobbler who once stood up to a greedy tax collector.

Download their character sheets HERE!

Free RPG Day Reviews – Cosmic Patrol and Valiant Universe

On our fabulous free rpg day, I managed to pick up a few free things I had had my eye on. Namely, Cosmic Patrol and Valiant Universe quick start rules from Catalyst Game Labs. Cosmic Patrol looked very similar to last year’s offering, but in fact has a different adventure in the back, and Catalyst was kind enough to provide a free PDF of last year’s Cosmic Patrol. You can also find the offering from 2012 and blank character sheets on their downloads page.

It was not until I started reading the Valiant quick start that I realized how similar these books are. Even copying text almost word for word in places, as both books essentially use the same system. Characters have dice assigned to their various attributes, the higher the die, the better your character is in that stat. This is very similar to the cortex plus system used in Leverage and Marvel Heroic Roleplaying by Margaret Weis Productions. The main difference is for non-combat checks you roll a d12 + the appropriate stat die for the test vs. 1d20. Combat checks are always opposed rolls between the two combatants without any d20s or d12s. I could see this making combat very fast, and cinematic, but the skill checks seem a bit more arbitrary. For instance, if a Patrolman were to pick a lock (as is the example in the book, actually) he rolls 1d12 + brains (1d8) vs. 1d20. If his 1d12+1d8 beats whatever comes up on the 1d20, he succeeds. If a 19 comes up, that lock is suddenly the most advanced lock possible, if a 2 comes up it basically has a piece of twine holding the door closed. It seems to me like objects in the adventure should have set difficulties, otherwise there is no way to measure how difficult something should be.

Something very intriguing about the system is that it encourages rotating the GM-like position (called Lead Narrator) between scenes. This allows the narrator to play as well as run, something that can be challenging in other systems. Both books do specify you can have a designated LN, but are encouraged to pass the book around the table. I’m not sure how this would work out during play, but seems like an interesting concept. Recently, at the end of running the very entertaining Age of Rebellion beginner box, the group started to talk about what we wanted to play next. The usual suspects came up, Pathfinder, Edge of the Empire, DCC, and when I mentioned the stack of unrun DCC modules I own, Mike mentioned, “Don’t you ever want to play DCC?” Which is a fair point. It would be interesting to be able to both run, and play in a meaningful way. Most often GM-run characters can’t participate fully because of GM knowledge about the adventure. I wonder how that plays out in this system.

Overall they are both really interesting adventure starters with a pretty easy system to pick up quickly and run with. Catalyst is also supporting both of these releases with a raft of other free PDF downloads for both Valiant and Cosmic Patrol. I don’t know that I’ll be able to play either for awhile as the current gaming docket is full with Jewel of Yavin for one Star Wars group, and Operation: Shadowpoint for the other. Also I’d like to try Dungeon World at some point. Oh, and some little company called Wizards of the Coast is releasing the basic rules for the latest version of D&D on July 3rd. It’s going to be a great summer for gaming!