Topic: The Dungeon and Dragons Thread

@Tyranexx I know Tyranny is two adventure books in one. Originally it was published as two adventures and then they republished them as one since they do got together think of it like Infinity War movies how you had part one and part two. That's why I was confused when you said you were making new characters it be like if they had Captai. America, Iron Man, Hulk etc. in part 1 and then in part 2 they brought in a total new group of heroes and didn't say anything at all as to why they changed.

The only thing I can figure is unless your DM is going to kill all your characters or something like that so they want you to have a new character ready. If that's they case then that's a DM I wouldn't want to DM. But yeah to switch characters mid campaign is just odd.

If people.dont like their class they can always just switch classes or multi class. I have had Fighters become rogues, Mages become priests etc. Switching classes also creates some interesting stories.

@Tasuki I'll admit I'm not sure on the DM's intentions, though nothing was mentioned about killing our current party at least. If Tyranny used to be two adventure books in one, I wonder if our DM isn't taking this opportunity to treat the second half as a separate adventure...new characters and all. Or if our previous party will be re-introduced as NPCs at some point. Last I knew, our existing party didn't die, but we did vamoose pretty quickly from the floating storm giant castle.

We've not had anyone fully switch classes in my experience, though one player was thinking of multi-classing their new character before settling with (presumably) their final decision.

Not sure if we're meeting this weekend or not. Unless something changes, I do know the full party makeup now. I'd say we're quite the ensemble:

• Half-Orc Oath of Vengeance Paladin
• Halfling Alchemist Artificer
• Lizardfolk Way of the Serpent Monk
• Bugbear Gloom Stalker Ranger

@Tyranexx I guess maybe that's how they saw it, I just found it odd that's all. Some interesting characters there that's for sure.

As for me, I sadly don't know when I will be gaming again or if it will even be D&D. Mainly its everyone's schedule that is keeping us from playing but also just the way Hasbro is handling D&D has been a disappointment to me. It has just become to commercialized and really generic for my take. I mean I can understand why they are doing what they are doing but to me it just isn't why I enjoyed D&D.

What I loved about D&D was the settings they built. Settings like Greyhawk, Ravenloft, Forgotten Realms etc. With 5e there just isn't any of that. Most of the adventures they put out are one small section of these settings and it just just that. Other adventures just feel as fill in the blanks with your own stuff, which again I know why they do it that way. However at the time it just doesn't feel like the same quality product that was before. Sadly I feel.that way with One D&D as well which is why I will pass on it. Who knows maybe I will look into older D&D God knows I have alot of it, or some of this newer stuff that is coming out like Kobold Press's Tales of the Valaint or something entirely different. But I will be TTRPGing in some way.

@Tasuki I can fully relate on the scheduling front. We usually don't gauge for a game until mid-week and haven't played for a bit. We understandably skipped this past weekend due to Mother's Day. I know my availability wasn't the most flexible.

I'll admit I haven't been with D&D long enough to specifically relate with you on how it's changed over time, but something similar happened with me and World of Warcraft. There are various reasons why I quit playing, but mainly I just didn't find it fun after Cataclysm (I briefly played some of the free content during Warlords on weekends, which wasn't bad, but still...lacking in some ways). I didn't like how they pruned down talent trees and preferred farming great gear, not relying on heirlooms and power leveling to the finish. The game was more about its story and PVE to me - I was never a big PVP fan - and was more about the journey than destination. Though I fully acknowledge others play for different reasons. Wasn't a fan of how they wrote some characters later on either...especially what they did to Sylvanus. Admittedly I'm not up to date on how her saga ended though.

It's been awhile since I've looked at One D&D stuff since our games very much use 5e, but I do agree there are some similarities. Seems like you miss a lot of the more original world building? Which I agree is important in any worthy setting.

Edit: I do know WoW Classic is a thing, but I'm staying away from game subs for awhile.

@Tyranexx Yep that's a good comparison. While on the one hand what Hasbro did for D&D I can't disagree with they made it more mainstream and introduced it to alot of people, it's they way they did it if that makes sense. As I said I won't stop playing it I just won't be a part of the new stuff.

My group is going to try playing via Roll20, so I'm setting up an account this weekend. Next weekend might be when the trial run is, but that isn't set in stone yet. I've heard good things about the service, and our group is small enough that we think we can get by with the free stuff.

@Tasuki I think that does make sense. In any case, it's your time, so play whatever D&D edition you like!

Sorry it's been while since I have even been on the site regularly, and our group has struggled to get together for sessions. The brief summary is that we are heading towards the final stretch of the campaign by completing the last quest for gems. Honestly, we almost could assault Strand's castle now but I think we all want another level or two just to be safe.

@Tasuki I get what you are saying, as this time around everything was based in the Forgotten Realms with a few Eberron and Dragonlance bones thrown out. I also understand their reasoning as supporting multiple campaign worlds with source material is difficult, and it dilutes the sales of those sourcebooks to just the people interested in the campaign world.

Much like you however, I am not eager to repurchase books to be One D&D compliant, and the quality of their sourcebooks have been all over the place. It is bad enough that their writers don't understand their own mechanics (perception check vs investigation check for example) and tend to make things combat oriented with little explanation of how a goblin fights differently than an orc.

But honestly, after this campaign we might be calling it quits or a break. It is getting way too difficult to get together and we are looking at playing something that we can still do if everyone cannot make it on a particular night.

@Darknyht Yeah the quality is definitely not there I have noticed, and there are so many blanks that they go fill in yourself. I know that happens when a big conglomerate ends up owning you and just uses the product as a cash cow. I have seen this kinda of thing happen to other things as well, video games, foods, household products etc it's just the nature of the beast really. They pride themselves in quantity over quality because they know people will buy it.

I don't want to sound like a gatekeeper but this is not the Dungeon and Dragons I grew up with. I grew up with rich and well thought out worlds not worlds where well we can't do this anymore because it might upset someone. A world that had Villians that you were afraid of cause you had no idea what they were capable of. Hell we knew of Vecna and that he was an evil and power God not the guy from the latest episode of Stranger Things.

As I said I glad that Hasbro took it from a niche thing to something everyone can share, but at what price.

@Tasuki I am reading a really interesting book called "Chokepoint Capitalism" that is all about how corporations insert themselves between a product and the customer and choke it through various means. Hasbro is attempting that with DND Beyond and One D&D, but they underestimated the backlash. However, they will keep trying until they break things completely and it is all buried in DRM that they control. Just look at what Amazon did with publishing, Spotify is doing to music, Google did to search/advertising, Apple and Google did to Smartphone Apps, and many other things out there.

We did manage to play and Irena has been resolved despite having a crazy celestial steal her face and having an epic battle with him. We managed to do the shove, grapple combo on him after a masterful wall of flame separated him from his minions. Then it was just a matter of wailing on him as he could not stand or move (Prone with no movement due to grapple) and was unable to break the grapple thanks to rolls and my Flash of Genius +5 bonus.

We are now on the road to get to the last gem we need to collect before facing off with Strahd.