Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Once More Into the Breach

I received some books in the mail today so I am inspired to crush Mt. Dew and stab a goblin. I've gamed only twice in the last three years (09/2013 and 01/2016) and feel it's time to rebuild some sort of social life. Kelvin Green was very encouraging on this matter and I thank him for his advice.

     At first glance 5e looks quite serviceable, although I will never be completely comfortable with the large array of abilities that PCs have in later iterations of the game. I have learned the hard way how a player can unbalance a game through deliberate min/maxing or honest ignorance about the way an ability works.

     I'm also a bit thrown off by the various race and class options. What's a Warlock? Where did Dragonkin come from? Didn't gnomes used to have big noses? Getting older is so confusing.

     Despite my unfamiliarity with D&D after skipping the whole 4e thing, I think 5e just might help me to scratch my gaming itch.

9 comments:

  1. I've run three different 5e games of various length and intensity, and nobody has ever expressed even a tiny bit of interest in the warlock class.

    Dragonborn come from the Land of Terrible Ideas.

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    1. I would love to hear any advice you might have for a new 5e DM. :)

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    2. On the other hand, I'm currently playing a Tiefling Warlock and having a total blast with the character.

      From the player's side of things, I'll say that 5e definitely has that old-style D&D deadliness, especially for smaller groups, at lower levels. TPKs are a real possibility. I love that, personally, and I think if you just apply the same general level of judgment when designing encounters/stocking dungeons as you would with older rules, you'll be on the right track.

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    3. Thanks for the heads up on the lethality. Good to know!

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  2. Iunno, man. I don't think that playing 5E is such a different experience that you need a new set of advice.

    Hmm...I'd say know the PCs abilities well, and spells they frequently use, but that might be more of a specific player I've had and her "creative" interpretations of what her spells do and what the mechanical terminology means.

    A word of caution: you are running a game where the DMG specifically states that siege equipment is immune to poison and psychic damage. Read into that what you will.

    All that aside, I ran Keep on the Borderlands almost entirely as-written using 5E and it worked out just fine. I also started Ghost Tower of Inverness, but the campaign ended before they explored much of it.

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    1. I freaking hate it when the PCs use Psionic Blast against my trebuchet. Sons 'o bitches!

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  3. Keep it as a game with a 7-8th level cap. I found it was very nice to play 2-6 then got too heavy
    Get thru 1 quickly
    PCs will die if you want it to be like that

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  4. Keep it as a game with a 7-8th level cap. I found it was very nice to play 2-6 then got too heavy
    Get thru 1 quickly
    PCs will die if you want it to be like that

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh and feel free to limit class/race as you see fit.

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