Played Some 5e Tonight.

Have to say I had quite a bit of fun . Our party was short a man (our two handed fighter guy off to play X-Wing)  but  the rest consisted of a Halfling  warlock, a cleric, a paladin, a rogue and a totem warrior barbarian (me)

The only house rules we used were random stat generation (which lead to pretty high stats) and a ruling that Paladins need to be Lawful but not necessarily Good. Ours is the Oath of Vengeance guy and like my totem warrior/pirate is Lawful Evil and an all around ruthless bastard, His player T and I work well together  in game so it makes for some fun play.

On the whole  system was decent, didn't get in the way and in general helped make for a fun experience. 5th edition  did its job well, which in its case was to be  D&D.

But as said  not the kind of game system  that inspires  me and honestly I think it could use more support for mundane encounters like the bandits we fought . Regardless everyone seemed to have a good time. We also now have several print Player's Handbooks at the table   so its doing well with my group. I'm happy to play it. I might even buy that PHB after all.

Mechanically  5e feats are very neat and  mine (Shield Master and Resilience) I can knock people around, block dragon breath and in general kick some backside in a strong but balanced way.

Another nice bit, the 5e Barbarian is superb, rage works well and smoothly and the other class  abilities are pretty neat . For example my guy   doesn't wear any armor and has  still an AC of 20 with his +1 shield .  Sword +Target Shield is very fun.

I might eventually want a few extra feats butt as no one gets more than 6 (5 if not human) , its not a needed thing for the  time being. I suspect a few  will end up in some clever homebrew or in Wizard's generous regular Unearthed Arcana Support long before  I need them.

Also not system related and most of all  I really like the home-brew game world, the kind of mythic fantasy meets sword and planet place called  Arlowen.

Its very flavorful and in general a fun setting  to game. my DM tonight, B is a little rough around the edges as a DM but the man is a good storyteller and a gifted world builder. Arlowen is among my very favorite game worlds and the most interesting D&D homebrew I've every played.  I love things like mummy kings, storm towers, ash covered islands, dragon people and all the rest. I want to explore and interact with more of it and I liked it in Pathfinder and I like it in D&D.

In the end I'd say  5th Edition played well, the Barbarian is the best version of the class yet and the feats are really excellent. Sure 5e is a bit of a one trick pony , good for playing its own idiosyncratic form of D&D  and probably little else unlike the more versatile older D&D or 3x variations  but sometimes one trick is plenty.

So What System Does Inspire?

My last post was just about my personal feeling that D&D 5e was uninspiring as a system.

This post is about something different. What system  does inspire?

Well push comes to shove I'd rather play GURPS where I don't have to fight the system to do what I want. Eden Studio's Unisystem  when I want fast and breezy with a bit of what GURPS does and D&D mood is on me, older forms of D&D which while they actually have less mechanical options, support imagination as the main driver  of play better than newer version.

I will say though not part of the system, the art in D&D next is amazing. It often makes me say "I want that in my game." and it actually meshes pretty well with the rules, just not for me.

Some Random Thoughts on D&D 5th Edition.

I've started a new D&D 5e game. I'm playing a Totem Warrior Barbarian/Pirate Background though I may try and talk my GM , B into letting me switch to a Storm Sorcerer. Maybe.

This is my second campaign  which has  got me to thinking about the system and D&D in general.

First  thing I noticed is that unlike 4e, D&D Next is most certainly D&D as I know it. Unlike 4e which was a perfectly serviceable and decent game that wasn't D&D but was under its moniker and siffered for it. Next is D&D through and through.

It  feels and plays like older D&D mixed with newer D&D which to my way of thinking is a design success.

Now I think  it lacks some of the individualized feel of older forms of D&D, its a very coherent system and one that is I suspect not going to see a lot of house ruling or rules add ons.

Whether this is a good thing or bad thing is a matter of taste. I'm undecided on the issue.

Now there things I don't care for.

 It feels constrained, maybe too heavily focused is a better word. I know I don't but it feels like my choices are narrow and not terribly interesting . This is not logical, 5e has load of options but it feels restrictive if that makes sense to anyone.

Don't get me wrong. its a good game and I'm fine playing it but Next lacks sizzle. It feels like a game built by a committee, a small, fairly smart committee good at its job but a committee none the less.

This is grossly unfair to the designers as D&D 5e is actually a very good game but its just feels that way.

Its just that nothing out there screams Play Me, No, No, No  Play Me. That's not an issue in older games where there was a very different play style but I think its a flaw in modern RPG's and in 5e.

Also this game just doesn't seem like something I want to DM. I don't know why and whether its me or the game but it doesn't inspire campaigns or ideas.

As such its a meh game and when I  run again Next won't make the cut and I won't be buying the Player's Handbook either. I guess I'll have to funnel some money to the fLGS another way.

Anyway that's my rant, 5e is a good game, I'll play it but its uninspiring. YMMV.

Puzzle, Person and Class in the Old School

Lauren over here mentioned her fondness for the Old School D&D puzzle solving method which is simply, you the player, who were assumed to be of above average smarts would solve  the puzzle yourself or not and the game would progress from there.

There are a lot of good things to say for this method.

#1 It take emphasis off combat and on to other aspects of the game

#2 It make players and GM's think

#3 It negates the need for a thief class  and instead just lets stat rolls handle challenges like lock-picking and lifting a purse and the player, the surprise system  handle stealth and the players handle being clever

#4 With the right kind of group its very fun.

However there are downsides.

#1 Its slow and some people may want to get onto the next part of a story or something more interesting and less frustrating

#2 Lots of groups don't like puzzles and/or really just want combat.

#3 It requires a longer attention span and more time at the table than some players these days can manage. Remember OD&D was originally created and  played by middle aged men in a world with much less distractions and spending time there was much easier without the web or face book or any of that . Sure it lead to mediocre research and bad rules, such as the lock-picking rules or the thief class in general but it lead to a much richer game and a bit of politics here, a better hobby.

#4 Pigeonholing. Simply, the old school method tended to pigeonhole players into playing certain classes.

Let me explain this. One core idea I think that has been forgotten in D&D is the idea that not every class was for every person

It was kind of assumed the tricky guy would play the Magic user, the supportive guy would probably play the Cleric and the straightforward guy would play the Fighter. Yes sometimes everybody played the Fighter, support fighters, tricky "thief" fighters and such were common but generally the MU and Cleric were played by certain type  of people .

We assume this was a bad thing and I think we were wrong on this. People generally are happier playing to type, still are.

Now I suppose folks wonder where this idea was lost, well it started to fade in actual play, probably back in Lake Geneva .

As the game went on, new classes got introduced and from what I can figure from my research, this was to address in game reissues and player demand, The Thief since people wanted to systematize the role, the Cleric (though it proved to be a solid roll in itself) to defeat a PC vampire (Sir Fang ) Monk beaus people wanted to play Kwai Chang Kane from Kung Fu  The Ranger to sub in for Aragorn and so on .

This muddied the waters a bit and in time it became assumed that the class would provide the bulk of the  abilities not the players choices.

Now that wasn't all bad, it did open D&D to a broader audience and made the game more approachable as well but maybe  the assumed high level creativity was lost.

Still that creativity is inherent in  nature of the game and if it something you want, its not hard to make it happen. After a bit of adjustment, you may find you players love it.

Or not and if Roll DC17 Disable Device to  defeat the traps suits you better, go for it.

As always the #1 rule is "if you are having fun, you are doing it right."

My Weakness, Prep.

A comment by one of my posters Lauren Farrow mentioned the puzzle aspect of D&D and that got me thinking about my weaknesses as a GM.

Simply, I don't like to prep. Most of the time that doesn't hurt my game since I am very good at improvising and am able to fake a fully prepared game off the top of my head

However that approach has  weak spot . Puzzles  . My puzzles are never as good as they could be, they aren't well drawn, very complex or the kind that require player skill to solve.

In the past this wasn't an issue since my my players weren't into puzzles and weren't that good at them.

My recent groups though,  well, they can blow through a fairly complex , multi-variable puzzle in no time flat. Being they are of the video game generation and I am not  only have they been exposed to far more visual puzzles than I have, they are actually good at them.

What this means for me is, time for me to step up my game. Do a little more prep where needed and shore up my weaknesses. This a good thing though since it will mean for for fun for everyone, me included.

Once I get past the teeth grinding boredom of prep anyway.

The Intro To My Never to Be Run Supers Game

In case anyone is wondering, this is not an April Fools post. I hate pranks.

A few posts back I mentioned that I suck at running Supers games and as such this intro won't get run any time soon.

However at one point I had planned to run a games based loosely on the Marvel  Civil War plot line.

As it happens my group plays Shield Operatives from the Reformed Avengers . There is a bit of a rotation but the consistent team leader is Shockwave, a sonic powered super with a police background played ably by my gaming buddy T.  His boss is theoretically Tony Stark when Stark is sober and functional. Since  he usually isn't ,  a powered armor super named Fireforce who was basically guilt tripped into taking over for Stark fills in.

Intro: Its about 10 years in the future and a lot is on your mind, your role in the new  metahuman registration law , budgetary issues with Shield and how not to get nearly killed on the next call out.

Exhausted and dirty you are returning from your more or less successful mission to take down the Reaver and his gang of super  powered criminals  when walking up to HQ, there is a sudden titanic  explosion

Iron Man hurtles to to the ground in a shower of sparks

Slowly lowering to the ground    with an angry plasma fire is Fireforce   the assistant Section  Leader  "Stark!" his voice  roars "You tin plated little  despot, wanna be dictator!"

Stark  fires his repulsors from the ground which hit  Fireforces force field "Nice try, Tin Man but I've made some upgrades." Fireforce grabs Iron man and hits him with a Thunder Puncher  shattering his helmet sending him into the wall."what next, Concentration camps for the powered  , you so of a ..."

War Machine, oh yeah he's called Iron Patriot now  moves quickly to help Stark

"Stay out of this Rhody." Fireforce growls as his titanic armor turns "E-Frame Go!" an Exo-Skeletal X rack attache itself to Fireforces armor. The rack looks heavily armed with energy Gatlings and some kind of rockets. It comes up to speed with an ominous whine

Roll for initiative!

So About That Bad Rep of Yours?

I promised y'all a story.

Some years ago we were playing Rolemaster Standard System  (RMMS) which is basically like D&D with more detail and realism. I decide to try a Mage which is the magic User of the setting, a generic spell caster type.

I'm 5th level which is maybe 3rd in D&D , closer to 2.5

The setting is a tavern  and of course a fight breaks out,

Soon people are reaching for blades.

Its my initiative and so I say "I prep a Frost Ball."

Now spells in RMSS require a roll to go off and the more rounds you spend on this, the easier the roll.

Frost Ball is  not a strong spell, its not a Hadoken or Kamehameha type  effect, its a modest effect more likely to stun than kill and its blast radius , 10 feet wouldn't wreck everything in sight. Its not perfect for a barfight but I didn't think a sleep spell would help at the time.

Two rounds go by and I drop the spell and simple bash the bad guy unconscious with my staff.

There after my fellow players assumed I was "That  guy who plays blast crazy  mages." all for a low level, moderately powered spell I never even  cast.

Now after some years I moved on and into my new group.

We are now playing D&D 5e . I'm playing the boxed set iconic elf wizard. I changed nothing basically.

In our explorations we run into a nasty level boss with a lot of henchmen . Seeing a real good chance we would get killed and thinking the guy we were supposed to rescue was already dead and a dwarf to boot  I use my scroll of fireball.

Now I can almost see everyone gasping but you see Evoker Wizards in 5e can exclude a number of people from a spell equal to the spells level. I make a quick judgement call, figure who can take it even if they fail the save and  use the scroll. The Dwarf Cleric in the party gets singed but the fight becomes a curbstomp. We take much less damage than we would have otherwise. In other words I did my job

But what do I get ? I'm the guy who plays crazy blast wizards.

Le Sigh ...