Three Defining Features: D&D 5th, July 23rd, 2014

3 Defining Features: Dungeons and Dragons 5th (Basic)

(Same Post at my Table Gaming Blog)

3 Defining Features is how I give the quick summary of what a gaming system is about.  Its designed for people that know a little bit about table top RPG's, but perhaps are not GM's.  It presents what I deem are the 3 defining features of a game for quick assessment by the reader, without getting into the rules, math or details.

Defining Feature #1: D20 Base

This is Dungeons and Dragons that feels like Dungeons and Dragons.  This is accomplished by being rooted in 3.X's D20 system.  Grid combat and 4th Edition ability systems are thrown out and we go back to the evolution of 1st(through Unearthed Arcana), 2nd(through revised) and 3rd's game systems.  You have your 6 Abilities, you have saving throws(though now based on your 6 abilities), you have DC checks.  Your characters level, and have a class.  Combat is a round consisting of turns taking in initiative order.  You roll D20 to make your attacks, to make your saving throws, and to determine outcomes of various types.  You characters have hitpoints and fight with monsters to reduce one side's hit points to zero before the other.  You have armor classes and dexterity bonuses for avoiding damage.  If you've played Dungeons and Dragons, you pretty much know how it goes.

Defining Feature #2: Advantage and Disadvantage

When I read people's reactions to Advantage and Disadvantage at first, they think its just a simple re-roll gimmick.  They assume its a Savage Worlds "Benny" mechanic or some sort of Fate thing.  They are right to an extent, but what you're not prepared for is how pervasive the Advantage and Disadvantage system permeates the game.  Basically you roll 2D20.  If you have Advantage, you take the higher number.  If you have Disadvantage you must take the lower number.  You think this is mainly for combat, and you'd be wrong.  If you help someone with a skill, you give them Advantage.  If you get distracted, you get Disadvantage.  See in the dark?  Advantage.  Dwarf inspecting Dwarf ruins?  Advantage.  If another player inspires you, you get to use Advantage.  So much math and sub-system equations are eliminated by the use of Advantage and Disadvantage.  The best part?  It scales PERFECTLY.  In former games, if you get a +2 for helping, eventually you out-level that, and a system has to be placed in so that at higher levels you get more.  At low levels a -2 to hit on a creature is a huge deal, but later you basically ignore it.  With Advantage and Disadvantage, they stay the same from level 1 to level 30.  Having disadvantage sucks just as much at high levels as low levels, without the need for modifiers.  Having Advantage is awesome no matter when you get it.

Defining Feature #3: Backgrounds

The new character creation system was invented to satisfy the old fans and the new when it comes to role-playing.  A full new genre of games is very popular, and there's an argument that "story telling" games are a rejection of the miniature wargame style rules of D&D 4th.  Role Playing gets put back into the game with 5th.  When you make a character, you choose a Background.  These Backgrounds supply an origin story, a personality, an ideal to live by, and a flaw that hinders you.  Maybe you are a folk hero, a peasant that saved a town through your brave action.  Maybe you are a criminal, a forger of documents that guilds turn to for their services.  Maybe you were raised in a demon church and now reject their teachings.  Backgrounds are great and they affect your choices for skill and equipment use, and guide you in making your decisions while playing.  I can see companies making entire books of backgrounds with the random tables that help you create your character as presented in the Basic PDF.  I would buy it, and I know many others that would as well.   As presented, Backgrounds are more guidance than hard rule, but with a few tweaks you will have your Role Playing tied to your Roll Playing very easily.

July 23rd, 2014

So for some reason, Japan is going absolutely bonkers for french fries.  I do not mean that they are suddenly really popular, or that they are taking french fries to new heights of culinary bliss... they have an obsession with large amounts of french fries.  Teenagers and 20somethings have started a trend of getting a huge tray and making a mountain of french fries that everyone at the table eats.  Now, I know what you're saying "aren't you the one that says foreign "weird" stories are exaggerated and sensationlist" but... I mean, McDonalds has gotten on the bandwagon, selling french fries at huge discount so that fans of this trend can achieve their vast fields of fries.  Now I am reading that entire restaurants of "all-you-can-eat" french fries are starting to open up where this trend is popular.  The trend is gaining enough traction to support whole businesses.  On a side note; Japanese all-you-can-eat restaurants are known as Viking Lunch in many places.  The Japanese man that popularized the buffets thought that Smorgasbord was too hard for people to say, so he named it Viking since that's where the vikings come from the area.

You know, I've finished much of the Arcade Project in my other blog already.  In it I tried to convince myself that Gauntlet Legends is the way to go for the big multiplayer game.  I mean, I've got the set up figured out to have my favorite beat'em up on a larger screen, and with all the players.  Gauntlet Legends has replay value like Diablo has replay value, plus another cool thing about it I'll leave for when I post it up top.  But the thing is... little got me as excited about video games as the original Ninja Turtles arcade game.  So, I think I have to concede that in my own personal arcade, I would totally have to shell out the ridiculous price for a 4 player Ninja turtle arcade.  Its just that when I see Gauntlet Legends I'm going to think of my teenage job at a movie theater.  When I see Ninja Turtles, I'm 10 years old at Walmart and have more quarters that I could ever imagine.

Wow.  So did you know that experts of the subject are convinced that they have ashes, remains and posessions of Buddha are real?  I just watched a documentary on Netflix about it.  Now, believe me, I've watched enough documentaries to know they are colored in the favor of whatever the film maker wants you to believe, but apparently outside of the documentary, many are convinced that relics found at Piprahwa have a high chance of being the remains thanks to things like period correct carved heiroglyphics, and period correct records of the time, and everything matching up.  Like, there are relics of Christianity that are believed to be real by millions, but almost no evidence exists to make many of them even remotely accurately placed or verified.  There are enough "true nails" of the Crucifixion to build a house.  Peter the Apostle apparently needs 5 arms to supply the amount of finger bones claimed to be his.  There's like 5 Spears of Destiny and somehow they all traveled time so that First Century Romans somehow got weapon technology a thousand years advanced from themselves.  Real, credible scientists and scholars claim that the relics, the writing, the materials date to the correct time, only stopping short of saying the ashes and bones are real since we can not DNA test them against anything.  Only that if everything else is authentic, we're as close as we will ever be able to get to verifying.