Some thoughts on 5e

I've missed the last few sessions of 5e with my gaming group. Its a shame but as always real life intervenes at times.

Regardless I've played enough to have a few opinions on 5e. In case anyone is wondering I'm playing the Pre-Gen Elf Wizard from the starter box.

1st, Its a  very good system. Well thought out, scales well, plays well and is indeed an excellent D&D.

2nd -- Wizards are quite powerful in this addition, more than 1,2,3 or 3.5/PF. I can't speak for 4e (never played it) but my wizard is magically mighty even at L1 and decent with a sword, not that I've used one,  do to his racial abilities.

3rd -- I like the magic item system a whole lot. It even scales well in that Ican see my characters best  loot thus far A Staff of Defense having value well into late game.

Now there  are some  things I just don't like.

1st- The bounded skill system is just fine but I'd really have preferred a little more complexity. Adventurer Conqueror King offers a three tiered system, roughly Apprentice, Journeyman, Master for non combat , non adventuring skills . I'd have preferred something like this for 5e as I think it would have added to that aspect of play . I might try and adopt ACKS's system , the cost of stuff is quite similar so wages should work out fine but its tricky with "bounded" skills

2nd - There really isn't a good "fight defensively" rules . I'd like a more versatile system than "give  up your attacks to impose disadvantage" which I don't think anyone would use  I might adopt my own system lightly changed though and  it should work out fine

3rd -  Maybe I've played far too much D&D, maybe its the Mines of Phandelver adventure or maybe its the newish DM (I don't think so, his homebrew Pathfinder rocked) but 5e isn't  terribly exciting in actual play. Its stolid and  it feels like D&D, its just not especially exciting for some reason. Substance is great, the sparkle is lacking.

That said I can recommend 5e and when  I can I will return to the game.

5e killed my retro clone and I am glad and a blog change

Like a lot of bloggers in the OSR community I've had the notion of rolling my own clone game.

I've done this before as a kid adapting AD&D to various genres and so somewhere deep inside my inner 12 year old is the silly idea that I can do it Better!

Well to be honest, while I could write Yet Another Retro Clone, there is nothing in my idiosyncratic edition that would be meaningfully better than anything out there.

In fact most of what I might want to do in my game, backgrounds, no magic items by  default, simpler char gen and so on have been nicely covered by 5th edition.  What little I lack is a paragraph or two of house rules. That's it.

Having gone through all the fantastic retro clones, Swords and Wizardry. Labyrinth Lord, Fantastic Heroes of Swords and Witchery , Grey 6 and many other great games  I haven't mentioned  and don't mean to denigrate  or ignore  I realized that the most current edition, #5  works well for me.

 Therefore it makes sense for me to not make another game and to instead support and existing one and as  such I'll support 5e on the occasion I write posts

Old stuff (like OS2 Warped) and Pathfinder stuff will stay up and of course GURPS stuff and other non D&D games won't be effected but until further notice 5e is my default with generic OSR stats where appropriate .

Hope you'll stay with me and good gaming.

A minor change and a major one

I've removed Grognardia from the list. It was a fantastic blog but alas the operative word is "was"

I've instead added Hack&Slash which has groovy 5e and OSR content.

Also expect to see some 5e things in lieu of or perhaps in addition to old school and Pathfinder stuff. 5e is looking to meet both my old school and new school needs in one package and as such it seems like the game to support.

On transgender inclusiveness in 5e and Pathfinder

I don't like politics or edition bashing on my gaming blog so I'll keep this short, I don't care.

OK, a better explanation 

I actually think the Pathfinder Iconic Shaman being TG is kind of cool . Its fits the archetype well and is actually interesting and somewhat historical 

5e defaults to the Forgotten  Realms which is a pretty sexed up , diverse and tolerant place too. so the "sexual preference advice" in char gen its fits there decently as  well. In both cases it was handled in an inoffensive way and if catering a bit to the current progressive shibboleth helps sales, so be it.  

After all  doesn't hurt the game, make my game any less Conservative (gaming is fundamentally Conservative which is a topic for another post) or hurt the hobby, so what the heck. What'evs, lets roll some dice. 

5e! Wow!

I don't write gush posts very often but having looked through 5e basic, the free Wrath of the Dragons stuff and of course the playtest files I am almost jittery with anticipation for 5e.

It seems to hit all my OSR buttons and most of my modern game buttons as well and it looks like it could replace 2e as my favorite D&D.

Now its not perfect, I think I slightly prefer the assumed base numbers of Pathfinder low level skills (5 is basically a journeyman) and I  can see a few bits a bobs I'd like to tweak ,very few which is a testament to game design .

Still there is nothing in there I can't live with, very little to fix and a lot to love (scaling spells Woot!)

So yay 5e!, Basic set and PH you will soon be mine!

A few thoughts on GURPS

This one is simple.

In my not so humble opinion  GURPS is never the wrong choice but its not always the right choice.

Its very good at any game that demands verisimilitude or some  grades of cinematic play but its not great for supers or for relationship driven story games. It can do either of those to some degree but often not as well as a dedicated game would.

Whats up with 5 Stone

Just a short personal note.

My current gaming calendar is pretty busy. I am running Buffy (well Angel more or less) Fridays   having finished 2 sessions (1 episode really) I will either run 2 more or run something else.

I am also doing some OSR playtesting . Right now I am helping playtest  a new supplement for  Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures. I am on the QT about this one but I can tell you its excellent and aficionados of that game will love it.

This is plenty to keep me busy I can tell you but I will manage a few blog posts too so no  worries and thanks for reading!