D&D 5.5, Sort Of

Visited my FLGS the other day and saw that they have the new Player's Handbook. I wasn't really planning on getting it, but I do like supporting the store and honestly the book looked pretty good. So I impulse bought it.

I've barely begun reading it, mostly just thumbed through appreciating the art and layout. Here are my initial thoughts:

It is well laid out.

The art looks good.

It's thick, but feels about right.

It is much better organized.

It is more similar to 5th edition than 3.5 was to 3.0, so it is a stretch to call it a new edition. "5th Edition Remastered" might be a better term.

I'll have more thoughts once I finish reading it and play a few sessions. So far so good.

Disambiguating B/X Damage Types

I was reminded of how far ahead B/X was for its time while reading the monsters section in the Basic and Expert books for research for the monsters in Gunslinger (where they are called Critters). Different types of damage are succinctly described in game terms as a handy reference. This is the beginning of the systemization of damage in D&D. Comparing this with damage types in 5e there are only a couple in common, and arguably a third.

B/X	5e
Acid	Acid
Charge	Bludgeoning
Charm	Cold
Continuous Damage	Fire
	Lightning
Energy Drain	Necrotic
Paralysis	Piercing
Poison	Poison
Swallow	Psychic
Swoop	Radiant
Trample	Slashing
	Thunder

5e has come a long way in clarifying and categorizing damage types, while B/X conflates damage types with attack types and with what would come to be called Conditions. The only shared damage types are Acid and Poison and possibly Energy Drain. Of the remaining types Charm and Paralysis are Conditions in 5e. Charge, Swallow, Swoop, and Trample are combat attack actions. 

This leaves Continuous Damage and Energy Drain. Of these two types Energy Drain has fallen out of favor (as if it was ever in favor!) and Continuous Damage which is really something of a modifier you could theoretically apply to any damage type.

If we look at Energy Drain a little closer it does exist in 5e, but in a very different form called Life Drain. It is sort of a condition/action hybrid. As a damage type it is similar to Necrotic damage. This is what it does:

Life Drain: Necrotic damage. The target must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or its hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the damage taken. This reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0.

At first glance reducing hit point maximum may seem a bit lame, not as scary as losing a whole level like in B/X. But it is far easier to calculate and more immediate, you can lose quite a bit of time looking up what it means to reduce a character's level. Also, it is scarier than you might think to the player as it reduces how much they can heal.

To disambiguate the Damage Types as listed in B/X it would look something like this:

Damage Types

• Acid
• Continuous Damage
• Poison
• Energy Drain

Conditions

• Charm
• Paralysis

Attack Types

• Charge
• Swallow
• Swoop
• Trample

I quite like this list and think it is a good start to creating a system of damages, conditions, and attack types. There is a clarity of thinking here that 1st Edition AD&D could have benefited from. Well, we did eventually get that in 2nd edition. Maybe a bit too much.

One other interesting note is the order the damage types are described in. They are not alphabetical in the book, so they come across as random train of thought. What is it about those early D&D books and the random inconsistent use of alphabetizing?

Castle Amber - Goodman Games Version

If there is anyone out there who has excelled at the nostalgia game beyond wildest expectations it is Goodman Games. They seem to nail the aesthetic just right. That marriage between the amateur press quality of old school RPG's from the 70's and early 80's and modern production values.

It is with great interest I've noticed their Original Adventures Reincarnated line, while resisting purchasing any of them for as long as I could. But the temptation proved to be too great and I recently picked up Castle Amber. And it's a beauty.

Clocking in at 268 pages it is chock full of material from a history of the module, the influences of Clark Ashton Smith, loads of new art and fold-out maps, a perfect clean reproduction of the original module, a 5e conversion, and lots more.

Overall I'll say it is a good purchase and a good deal, and an opportunity to play one of the great old modules using the 5th edition rules.

On a side note at the same time I also picked up the Neon Knights DCC adventure.

Because Black Sabbath is my favorite band and the cover and name were so enticing. It is a little weird that the cover is an homage to Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (Ozzy era) but the title is from a Dio era song. And the adventure seems to have nothing to do with the music, not even a wink and a nod. It makes me want to make a real homage someday. Alas, I have enough plates spinning.

Thrud - Daughter of Thor

Part of the Valkyria: Shieldmaidens of Asgard project is defining all the Valkyries, and several other Norse Mythology characters and creatures, in both 5th Edition and OSR.

Here is an attempt at writing up Thor's daughter: Thrud using 5th edition. It is quite a bit of work and the layout is a bit tricky, but the results are pretty rewarding. She is probably one of the more powerful Valkyries I'll be designing for the book.

Geiravor the Spear-Bearer

Here at the Denmark household we've been playing a Norse themed campaign with 5e D&D, of course giving it a little OSR flavor. This is in conjunction with a project that has been in development for a couple years; a Book of Valkyries. While some Valkyries are only mentioned by name research reveals a fascinating variety of details beyond just the evocative name for many mentioned in Norse Mythology.

In terms of a D&D campaign there is a lot of room for interpretation and extrapolation by digging deep into the lore. Here is my first attempt at doing a 5e style layout with one of the Valkyries; Geiravor the Spear-Bearer:

This Patreon is a place to get Norse Mythology inspired art as well as related gaming material.

5th Edition Character Sheet - Family Friendly II

I listened to your feedback on my previous character sheet post and added Skills and Passive Perception. Many sheets put the skills grouped with their Ability score, but I find it easier to look them up alphabetically.

Here is a full rez printable version:

5th Edition Character Sheet - Family Friendly Version

I've been playing the 5th edition with my kids and for the most part we're all enjoying it, but it really feels unnecessarily complicated in many ways. In particular character creation is excruciating. The idea is that most of the calculations and work is upfront so that during play things go much more smoothly.

We found the basic character sheet to be way too busy and hard to read. I made a version that removes much of the clutter and improves legibility. It doesn't have every single thing from 5th edition, but it does have everything you generally need while playing. Making this sheet a much more kid-friendly version. Here is a relatively high rez version you can download and print out for your own games:

Edit: yes, skills are missing. I'm an advocate for players solving problems through clever game play rather than relying on a die roll and a solution on their character sheet. There is room for indicating important skills in the abilities section. It says Ancestry instead of Race because we've been exploring genres other than fantasy. It says Life Saves rather than Death Saves because not only is it a more kid friendly term but it is more accurate as to what the game mechanic does; it saves your character's Life.

5th Edition Character Creation Needs Reorganization

Thanks to Stranger Things my daughters want to play D&D. We've tried out classic with B2 Keep on the Borderlands, which went ok.

Then they got the Stranger Things box set which uses 5th edition. I could write a whole review on that product. It's a pretty good introduction to 5th edition, but NOT a good Stranger Things game. Overall disappointing.

So that got us into 5th edition. We've tried a few times to make characters and each time it is a grueling and labor intensive process. The organization and steps are just not smooth at all. Especially confusing to young players. I took to finding some good simplified step-by-step summaries online and found a few, including some pretty good character sheets, but none of them really satisfy the need to quickly and clearly create characters. I mean really you should be able to generate a character in 15 minutes. Instead it seems to take an entire gaming session.

This is one of the better ones I've found: https://www.dmsguild.com/product/245446/Kid-Friendly-Character-Sheet

I'm thinking of writing up my own character creation quick start pamphlet. I'm finding things I like about 5th edition, some of the mechanics like advantage/disadvantage dice, inspiration, proficiency, and saving throws work pretty well. But character creation isn't one of them.

The Sentinel

35 years ago in the September 1984 issue of Dragon Magazine #89 appeared an article describing the Sentinel character class. Back then Dragon regularly published non-player character classes; unofficial characters classes meant only as NPCs. Of course most of us tried these out as player characters and often found them either way over, or under powered, but that didn't matter. Was the class cool or not was all that did.

The Sentinel wasn't exciting by any means. No unusual powers or spells. No weird or exotic flavor. Just a straight forward guard who took his duty seriously. And I always liked them! Maybe because Judas Priest had a cool song called The Sentinel released that same year on their seminal Defenders of the Faith album.

I've done a few revisions and updates to the class over the years, including one I blogged long ago when I first dived into the OSR. Now with the Sentinel's 35 year anniversary here is a new O5R version, optimized to fit on a bookmark similar to the Bookmark Dungeons I've been drawing lately.

Here is the text if you want to copy and paste and fiddle with it to your own taste.

The Sentinel
An alert fighter class.

LVL XP PB Features
1 0 +2 Hear
2 1,750 +2 Defense
3 3,500 +2 Find Hidden
4 7,000 +2 Ability+
5 15,000 +3 Veracity
6 30,000 +3 Ability+
7 65,000 +3 Detect Invisible
8 140,000 +3 Ability+
9 295,000 +3 Gut Feeling
10 455,000 +4 Wary

(PB = proficiency bonus, Ability+ = gain 1 point to put on any ability)

HD: d10 Armor: All armor, no shield Weapons: Simple weapons, Martial weapons Tools: None Saves: Strength, Dexterity Skills: Athletics, Insight, Intimidation, Investigation, Perception

Features
Hear the sentinel has keen hearing, +2 and advantage to all rolls involving hearing.
Defense +1 bonus in armor
Find Hidden +1 bonus to find hidden objects on a person or in a room.
Veracity can tell when a prisoner is lying in interrogation.
Detect Invisible can sense where an invisible creature is within a 10’ radius.
Gut Feeling can tell when something is wrong or doesn’t make sense, even if they don’t know exactly what it is.
Wary cannot be surprised.

If the class feels underpowered you could change Veracity to Extra Attack, like a regular fighter has. And/or give it access to Martial Archetype features, but then it is just changing into a regular fighter.

If you're curious about the art, I stumbled across an old sketch of a knight I did many years ago, and recently did a repaint on it for fun.

As a side note, the cover of Dragon #89 was one of Den Beauvais' epic Fantasy Chess covers. Here is as high resolution image of it as you'll find anywhere. The original sold a while back for nearly $4000.

Dungeon Module ZX8 Abandoned Glacial Rift of Blurut of the Crepuscular Claw

In September I wrote a little Twitter bot that randomly generates Adventure Names and posts hourly. It has come up with some wild ideas, a lot of silly and wonky ideas, and a few that were very cool. I said I'd create an adventure out of the name that was most liked and retweeted. The results are in and Dungeon Module ZX8 Abandoned Glacial Rift of Blurut of the Crepuscular Claw is the name that won!

It's not going to be very long, probably only a bit longer than a one-page dungeon, but it will be a fun one. It will be available for free on DriveThruRPG when it's done.

Some of my favorite other adventure names it generated are:

Dungeon Module E15
Fetid Grove of Gunthar the Boneless Blight

Dungeon Module KP11
In the Moon of Vulframn the Sunless Stalker

Dungeon Module KT16
Sunless Abyss of Eberwulf the Red Princess

Dungeon Module YA2
Strange Fort of Adalbert the Dark Duke

I'd like to figure out how to make this bot run on Google+, so if anyone knows how to do that let me know.

Adventure Names Bot

I made a Twitter bot that creates a new Adventure Name each hour. If you're on Twitter be sure to follow it. At the end of the month the Adventure Name with the most likes I'll turn into an actual OSR adventure with Original and 5th edition stats.

Some examples:

• Apocalyptic Castle of Tugark the Last Devil 
• Corrupt Bastion of Crosdo the Desolate Warlord 
• Chaos Bastion of Braakurk the Trickster Queen 

https://twitter.com/AdventureNames 

@AdventureNames

Ability Scores

Look at just about any RPG and you'll see little variations of what are essentially the same stats defined by Gygax and Arneson in the original Men & Magic book. This set of abilities has not been improved upon by any other roleplaying game. DC Heroes came close with its 3×3 grid of physical, mental and mystical/social character stats that expressed precision, force, and resilience in each area. Which was clever and novel, but really so specific to the DC universe it wasn't widely adapted to other genres, though the idea of each number being twice the power of the previous number so as to accommodate a game with characters as diverse in strength as Robin and Superman is an admirable design feature.

Taking a look at the wording on pages 10 & 11 of Men & Magic it is really quirky and awkward. First of all the order of the stats is random: Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Constitution, Dexterity, & Charisma. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to this order. It's not alphabetical. Not grouped in any meaningful way like physical/mental, or in order of importance.

Greyhawk mixes it up even more randomly: Str, Int, Dex, Wis, Chr, Con. Blackmoor doesn't really discuss abilities, and Eldritch Wizardry only touches on Dexterity with a lengthy addition to its effects in the game.

It is funny that this order remained like this and carried all the way through to 1st edition with one weird difference: Constitution and Dexterity are swapped. Why? Oh, just because. This little change seems to have first appeared in the Blue Holmes basic edition.

At least in 2nd edition an attempt was made to organize them by physical and mental stats: Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Chr, but strangely still not alphabetical. You can still see the original order lurking in there. All recent editions keep this odd order. Shouldn't it be: Con, Dex, Str and Chr, Int, Wis? Or even better with mental first and then physical (M before P). This is mostly cosmetic and doesn't affect the game however it is just another example of the chaotic roots of the rules and as much as things have been polished and organized these little artifacts still linger.

Here's a little chart to make it easier to see:

-->

Original	Greyhawk	Basic	2nd +	Suggested
Str	Str	Str	Str	Chr
Int	Int	Int	Dex	Int
Wis	Dex	Wis	Con	Wis
Con	Wis	Dex	Int	Con
Dex	Chr	Con	Wis	Dex
Chr	Con	Chr	Chr	Str

What is perhaps most interesting about reading the ability descriptions in M&M (Men & Magic) is how little useful game information is really given. Their primary purpose seems to be to provide bonuses to XP for class prime requisites. Beyond that only cursory and vague game information is provided.

Strength. Does any RPG not use the term strength? Grab any random rulebook, I happen to have Symbaroum at my desk. Alright it uses "Strong" not "Strength", but basically the same word. Runequest uses it. Even GURPS with all its effort in making everything advantages, disadvantages, and skills uses Strength.

Intelligence. Alright, GURPS uses IQ which I always thought sounded a little lame, but nearly every RPG has a version of this stat. In Men & Magic a lot of leeway is given to the DM to adjudicate the player's use of this stat. If a player wants to do something clever the DM can just say his character is too dumb to think of doing that, sorry tough luck!

Wisdom. This is expressed in a lot of different terms in various RPGs, but really what word is better than Wisdom to describe this ability? In M&M Wisdom doesn't seem to do much of anything though, the book basically says its the same as Intelligence.

Constitution. Of all the terms this one is probably the least used in other RPGs. Usually something like Stamina or Endurance or Health. I have to say this is my least favorite of the ability names and I was very confused when I first encountered the game. I thought the player had to write up a constitution for the character that represented his fundamental principles! Hah, how silly I felt upon learning it meant the character's health stat and was just another number. In M&M this stat is given some meaty useful game purposes: bonus hit points and resistance to paralyzation and petrification.

Dexterity. A good enough term. I might prefer Agility, but no qualms here. This is certainly one of the most basic stats that all games use. This provides a lot of oomph to a character and especially with Eldritch Wizardry is expanded into the most useful ability. Perhaps overpowered even. Hard to not make this overly useful and balanced with the other stats.

Charisma. Ah, the classic "dump" stat. I suspect in the early days this might have actually been one of the most useful ones as you could use it to recruit lots of hirelings and henchmen in the exceedingly high casualty games of the day. This one is also the most controversial. Does it represent physical beauty as well as force of personality? M&M certainly indicates that, but it becomes problematic because those are two very different things with sometimes related but mostly disparate effects. The addition of Comeliness (what an awful term!) in Unearthed Arcana tried to fix it, but was a disaster in terms of usefulness in an actual game that only served to show how well constructed the original list of six abilities actually was. Physical appearance is better expressed as an advantage/disadvantage not an ability stat all of its own.

In conclusion, not my most useful post here, but I've had these thoughts bouncing around in my head for a while and I needed to get them written down. I think the original six stats from the original rulebook are one of the best and most enduring elements of the game and I can't think of any RPG that does it better. While I've played a lot of RPGs my experience isn't comprehensive as I'm sure few people have played every RPG ever made, would that even be possible? Let me know what you think in the comments below or in discussions on G+.

ps. I did mean to mention the Size stat in Runequest which I always felt was clever and a much better solution to the Size relationship problem in combat. Early editions of D&D tended to complicate this with different damage values depending on small or large targets. Later editions have cleaned it up significantly, but still isn't the most elegant game mechanic. You could argue this is one improvement over the original six stats.

pps. The most obvious order for stats is just straight up alphabetical, because there isn't really any game mechanics associated with organizing them by mental and physical stats. So: Chr, Con, Dex, Int, Str, Wis.

5th Edition? Really?

While reading some discussions about which D&D game was the bestselling it occurred to me that the edition numbers are really misleading. In fact there have been at least 25 editions of D&D in the English language alone.

"Basic" D&D has gone through 19 iterations, while AD&D has had 6 iterations (1st edition, 2nd edition, a "2.5" edition - the black covers, a 3rd edition, a 3.5 edition and the misnamed 4th edition - the correct name being "D&D but we really want to be WoW".)

D&D was conceived by some incredibly creative guys: Gygax and Arneson. And this genre defining idea was mismanaged by a series of incompetent doofuses for decades until Wizards of the Coast got a hold of it (to be clear I am talking about the doofus execs who managed TSR, not the hardworking designers). The game was given to a brilliant team of game designers, but I think these designers looked down their noses at the original 3 booklet set. They couldn't see past it's crude presentation and terrible organization to the core of the game which had a unique and brilliant heart.

I can't blame these designers, while I've always enjoyed the original it took the release of Swords & Wizardry for me to truly -grok- the brilliance, elegance, and genius of the original white box set.
What we got in 3rd edition was an overly complicated permutation of 1st edition D&D with a hybrid of Runequest (quite understandable since the chief designer was a long time fan of Runequest). Still, it was a vast improvement over 2nd edition, and to a generation hungry for the game of their youth it was a hit.

Apparently the bestselling D&D set was the Basic D&D Black Box.

Yeah, I'm shocked too. As a geek and collector, this is one of the sets I've had zero interest in acquiring. Perhaps it was a quirk of history with the generation after the D&D cartoon era being influenced by their older brothers?

If "D&D Next" is really 26th edition return to the Original - then you can bet I'll be buying a copy and getting all my friends to play.

If it is another ill conceived piece of marketing dung in the vein of 4th you can bet I won't waste my time.

BTW. I don't think I've ever even seen this version anywhere, ever.

D&D Next

Kevin Ohannessian "By creating D&D Next (as it is currently codenamed) with a simple base, akin to the originalD&D from the '70s, and then designing optional rule modules to support more complicated systems akin to the additions that came with each new version over the years, the company is hoping to appeal to fans of each edition."

I like these words.

dungeons-dragons-next-creators-look-to-simplicity-open-development-to-regain-lost-gamers

Pleasing all of the people all of the time?

All across the intertubes news of 5th edition has spread, from no less a luminary source than the New York Times to the humble Grognardia blog and everything in between. It is quite surprising to me that news of an update to a little hobby game from 1974 should receive such attention in 2012. The year of doom. The dead rising from the grave!… Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria! and 5th edition!

This announcement should be no surprise to those who noticed that Monte Cook went back to work at Wizards. I really enjoy his writing and design work, so am pleased as punch to hear this. There is also some excitement that Robert Schwalb has joined the 5e design team as well. I'm less familiar with his work, but this does sound promising from what I have read.

The biggest news, for those of us who care, is that Wizards is sending out all the right signals that this edition will be a game designed with the intention of uniting the various factions of D&D players. I am very happy to hear the plans to make 5e more modal with a basic system, and branching out to service individual niches. It sounds like a return to form. I don't think any system can ever pull together the disparate forces that comprise the D&D fan base. Monte Cook is certainly a good choice for the task though.

Robert Schwalb

As you have no doubt read, our primary goal is to produce a rules set that speaks to every incarnation of D&D. So if you are a diehard BECMI/Rules Cyclopedia enthusiast or have embraced 4th edition, loved 2nd edition, 3rd edition, or never moved on from 1st edition, we’re creating this game for you. Imagine a game where you can play the version of D&D you love best. And then imagine everyone plays at the same table, in the same adventure. We aim to make a universal game system that lets you play the game in whatever way, whatever style, with whatever focus you want

A noble goal indeed! But I can't help but think they are trying to build the ultimate Swiss Army knife. The product that does everything!

Perhaps a better analogy is the spork. The spork is intended as a system to be faster and less cumbersome than it's fork and spoon predecessors. Thus it is demonstrably better, mechanically, than previous utensils. Right?

Whatever happens, I really do wish Wizards all the success in the world. Because the success of D&D directly affects the hobby gaming business in general. None of us likes seeing local game stores closing down, we much prefer them to be vibrant and funded well enough to maintain a place where we can go play some games and see new games physically in person before purchasing.

5th Edition Sneak Peek