D&D 5E Discussion

[dibens]

What luck have you had putting skill challenges in 5e? People love to talk about it, but there are rarely any good examples that dont feel super gamey.

So far I've presented it as group stealth check but party tries to achieve something else than stealth and each player chooses what skill checks to roll depending on the situation. 2/4 is basic success, and extra fail/success rolls have additional effects.

 

[Alex]

Skill challenges?

 

[Angelo85]

Skill challenges?

In short Skill Challenges can be used if the DM wants to speed up playing out complicated/long tasks like escaping a randomly encountered dragon, fixing a sinking ship or if that task would be boring for instance gathering evidence in a court case with a group of murder hobos. Another plus is that basically all players are involved, can participate and come up with creative solutions because players can usually utilize their skills/tools/spells pretty liberally - but each skill only once per player - to accumulate X (determined by the DM according to the difficulty of the challenge) successes or until X failures are accumulated.

Here's a video about them by the venerated Matt Colville:

 

[infidel]

People love to talk about it, but there are rarely any good examples that dont feel super gamey.

How would replacing players thinking shit up they can use their skills for with DM describing exactly how they can use their skills in a given situation not feel gamey? And also somewhat boring as a result.

Even the guy in the video had to think up a scheme with some rolls to then push his players to actually think outside of it to have fun.

 

[WhiteShark]

What luck have you had putting skill challenges in 5e? People love to talk about it, but there are rarely any good examples that dont feel super gamey.

So far I've presented it as group stealth check but party tries to achieve something else than stealth and each player chooses what skill checks to roll depending on the situation. 2/4 is basic success, and extra fail/success rolls have additional effects.

No experience with them in 5E but I tried a bit in 4E. I don't think it's really a good mechanic, and I agree that it feels very gamey. I think the better way to do it if necessary is to have a clock that progresses when players take meaningful actions towards a specific goal but don't manage to outright accomplish it, and another clock that progresses towards a fail state (based on passage of in game time and/or disastrous skill failures). Superficially similar to a skill challenge but you don't have to force people to take turns or figure out how to shoehorn their best skill into the challenge, and you leave the option of cutting the Gordian Knot and solving the problem directly on the table.

 

[Cryomancer]

Anyone here owns this book? Who's doomed: The lords of Ravenloft. And ran a campaign of it in 5E?

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/321149/Whos-Doomed-The-Lords-of-Ravenloft

Featured darklords include:

• Azalin Rex, the once and current ruler of Darkon
• Lord Soth, the former darklord of Sithicus, and his replacement Inza
• The dread wraith Saidra d'Honaire, the Red Death
• The flesh golem Adam along with his creator, Victor Mordenheim
• Gabrielle Aderre and her treacherous son, Malocchio
• The misanthropic necromancer, Meredoth
• The ancient mummy, Anhktepot, master of the desert land of Har’Akir
• Mistress of the Trial of the Heart, Chakuna
• The cunning doppelganger Sodo, ruler of the city of Paridon
• The cruel living puppet Maligno
• The powerful illithid God-Brain of Bluetspur
• And, of course, Strahd, who has been boosted in power level to be closer to his presentation in the campaign setting

I'm really curious on how this dark lords would be in 5E.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Anyone here owns this book? Who's doomed: The lords of Ravenloft. And ran a campaign of it in 5E?

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/321149/Whos-Doomed-The-Lords-of-Ravenloft

Featured darklords include:

• Azalin Rex, the once and current ruler of Darkon
• Lord Soth, the former darklord of Sithicus, and his replacement Inza
• The dread wraith Saidra d'Honaire, the Red Death
• The flesh golem Adam along with his creator, Victor Mordenheim
• Gabrielle Aderre and her treacherous son, Malocchio
• The misanthropic necromancer, Meredoth
• The ancient mummy, Anhktepot, master of the desert land of Har’Akir
• Mistress of the Trial of the Heart, Chakuna
• The cunning doppelganger Sodo, ruler of the city of Paridon
• The cruel living puppet Maligno
• The powerful illithid God-Brain of Bluetspur
• And, of course, Strahd, who has been boosted in power level to be closer to his presentation in the campaign setting

I'm really curious on how this dark lords would be in 5E.

Who comes up with these names?
Meredith, dark lord of Neebletoad
The ancient mummy Ankh-Teapot
Maligno, cancerous second cousin of Magneto
Pinnochio's bad boy half brother Malocchio

God this fanfic tier wank. I can't even.

 

[mediocrepoet]

• Azalin Rex, the once and current ruler of Darkon

Victor, I'm sorry if my previous post was overly dismissive of this book and its contents. But I really must know, is Azalin Rex's nemesis the Clapper, the once and current ruler of Lightson?

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Featured darklords include:

• Azalin Rex, the once and current ruler of Darkon
• Lord Soth, the former darklord of Sithicus, and his replacement Inza
• The dread wraith Saidra d'Honaire, the Red Death
• The flesh golem Adam along with his creator, Victor Mordenheim
• Gabrielle Aderre and her treacherous son, Malocchio
• The misanthropic necromancer, Meredoth
• The ancient mummy, Anhktepot, master of the desert land of Har’Akir
• Mistress of the Trial of the Heart, Chakuna
• The cunning doppelganger Sodo, ruler of the city of Paridon
• The cruel living puppet Maligno
• The powerful illithid God-Brain of Bluetspur
• And, of course, Strahd, who has been boosted in power level to be closer to his presentation in the campaign setting

Who comes up with these names?
Meredith, dark lord of Neebletoad
The ancient mummy Ankh-Teapot
Maligno, cancerous second cousin of Magneto
Pinnochio's bad boy half brother Malocchio

God this fanfic tier wank. I can't even.

Meredoth: Anne Brown for RA2 Ship of Horror, 1991
Anhktepot: Bruce Nesmith for the Ravenloft: Realm of Terror boxed set, 1990
Maligno: Bruce Nesmith for RM2 The Created, 1993 [Maligno, originally Figlio, is the Pinocchio]
Malocchio: Steve Kurtz for The Evil Eye, 1995 [the domain Invidia was briefly mentioned in the original boxed set but not Malocchio]

From the inception of the campaign setting, Ravenloft contained many names derived from horror-related common words, whether places --- Darkon, Invidia, Forlorn, Dementlieu, Keening, Morden and Lamordia, Sanguinia, Falkovnia --- or people.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Featured darklords include:

• Azalin Rex, the once and current ruler of Darkon
• Lord Soth, the former darklord of Sithicus, and his replacement Inza
• The dread wraith Saidra d'Honaire, the Red Death
• The flesh golem Adam along with his creator, Victor Mordenheim
• Gabrielle Aderre and her treacherous son, Malocchio
• The misanthropic necromancer, Meredoth
• The ancient mummy, Anhktepot, master of the desert land of Har’Akir
• Mistress of the Trial of the Heart, Chakuna
• The cunning doppelganger Sodo, ruler of the city of Paridon
• The cruel living puppet Maligno
• The powerful illithid God-Brain of Bluetspur
• And, of course, Strahd, who has been boosted in power level to be closer to his presentation in the campaign setting

Who comes up with these names?
Meredith, dark lord of Neebletoad
The ancient mummy Ankh-Teapot
Maligno, cancerous second cousin of Magneto
Pinnochio's bad boy half brother Malocchio

God this fanfic tier wank. I can't even.

Meredoth: Anne Brown for RA2 Ship of Horror, 1991
Anhktepot: Bruce Nesmith for the Ravenloft: Realm of Terror boxed set, 1990
Maligno: Bruce Nesmith for RM2 The Created, 1993 [Maligno, originally Figlio, is the Pinocchio]
Malocchio: Steve Kurtz for The Evil Eye, 1995 [the domain Invidia was briefly mentioned in the original boxed set but not Malocchio]

From the inception of the campaign setting, Ravenloft contained many names derived from horror-related common words, whether places --- Darkon, Invidia, Forlorn, Dementlieu, Keening, Morden and Lamordia, Sanguinia, Falkovnia --- or people.

Fair enough, I was never big into Ravenloft as a setting, though I thought certain concepts were interesting (e.g. dark lords, gypsies, the mist, etc.). These names are still pretty awful though, depending on what you want out of things. It's just that Ravenloft fans seem to take the lore more seriously than overtly gonzo settings like Gamma World or (non-D&D) Rifts and TORG.

 

[Ninjerk]

• Azalin Rex, the once and current ruler of Darkon

Victor, I'm sorry if my previous post was overly dismissive of this book and its contents. But I really must know, is Azalin Rex's nemesis the Clapper, the once and current ruler of Lightson?

Azalin this guy is talking shit

 

[Cryomancer]

Anhktepot: Bruce Nesmith for the Ravenloft: Realm of Terror boxed set, 1990

The priest dark lord also appears in the crpg Ravenloft : Stone Prophet. I never even readed the module, so IDK how accurate the game is.

Ravenloft fans seem to take the lore more seriously than

Because ravenloft is cool. Mysterious dark powers which traps evil creatures as Dark Lords and a lot of the population around the dark lord and create a state of perpetual cycle of misery. Strahd will never get Tatiana love. Meredoth will never finish his research. Each location and dark lord with a unique curse and story and a lot of mysteries to uncover.

This is the lore behind a single Dark Lord

Mr Welsh & Hour of the Raven talking about Meredoth

Two interesting comments in the second video

 

[Alex]

(...snip)
Maligno
(...snip...)
Figlio
(...snip...)
Malocchio
(snip...)

...

Do english speaking people think italian sounds scary or something?

 

[HeroMarine]

(...snip)
Maligno
(...snip...)
Figlio
(...snip...)
Malocchio
(snip...)

...

Do english speaking people think italian sounds scary or something?

Most likely related to this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_fiction#Horace_Walpole

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Castle_of_Otranto

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_fiction#Ann_Radcliffe

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mysteries_of_Udolpho

Point being: Early gothic horror novels are set many times in Italy.

 

[Bara]

New survey by wotc focusing on the PH classes and sub-classes. Smells like a 5.5 like printing might happen.

https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/6476049/classes

 

[odrzut]

I hope they make rangers suck less.

 

[Bara]

Had to share this 5e kickstarter as I found it funny how hard they're going with we're basically darksun with most of the names filed off.

RED DAWN: INTO THE DAWNLANDS

Even have Replenishers vs Ravagers...

 

[mediocrepoet]

Had to share this 5e kickstarter as I found it funny how hard they're going with we're basically darksun with most of the names filed off.

RED DAWN: INTO THE DAWNLANDS

Even have Replenishers vs Ravagers...

Maybe they'll have a computer game adaptation, Dim Sun: Haze of the Replenisher.

Even the races are the same (+ naga) when Dark Sun races were pretty distinct and specific.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Had to share this 5e kickstarter as I found it funny how hard they're going with we're basically darksun with most of the names filed off.

RED DAWN: INTO THE DAWNLANDS

Even have Replenishers vs Ravagers...

"Red Dawn is a 5E Campaign setting acting as the spiritual successor to 1990’s Dark Sun, by a team with decades of RPG experience."

Seems to be a group that would have liked to create a conversion of the Dark Sun setting to "5th Edition" and has devised the "Red Dawn" setting as a transparent substitute. Pity they didn't include Gerald Brom artwork as a stretch goal.

 

[deuxhero]

Had to share this 5e kickstarter as I found it funny how hard they're going with we're basically darksun with most of the names filed off.

RED DAWN: INTO THE DAWNLANDS

Even have Replenishers vs Ravagers...

WOLVERINES!

 

[Bara]

Welp alignments arn't dead in 5e. Thankfully wotc has backtracked in the new book.

They now all basically read creature is "Typically [Alignment Here]" as a compromise.

Hopefully they bring back the racial ASI's even if its just a "typically" in front of them or something else silly like that.

 

[Larianshill]

They now all basically read creature is "Typically [Alignment Here]" as a compromise.

But that's not new. We've had things like "usually Neutral Evil" long ago. In fact, I don't feel like checking, but I feel like creatures like orcs had "usually Chaotic Evil", not "always Chaotic Evil" in their statblocks.
Personally, I feel like this is a step back in more ways than one. I want to see alignments gone, and if it takes a manufactured racism nontroversy to do it, so be it, I do not give a shit.

 

[Morblot]

I want to see alignments gone

This is dumb and therefore you are dumb.

 

[Bara]

I want to see alignments gone, and if it takes a manufactured racism nontroversy to do it, so be it, I do not give a shit.

This is by far has the most idiotic thing you ever typed on this forum. Worse than anything I read in the Lacrymas' homebrew fantasy setting thread.

If you don't like alignment just ignore the text and continue to run the games without it or play with DMs who don't use it.

The only people it hurts by having it there are idiot DMs and nut jobs that demand everyone play the game as they do.

It hurts no one to present a optional took that DMs can quickly look at without having to read the full text if they're throwing things together on the fly.

Use alignments or don't but anyone trying to push for their removal can fuck off. It's just more people trying to control how other people should play their games while imagining they're doing some great favor to everyone else.

And I say this as someone who prefers the Chaos to Law alignments of older editions before they added good and evil to it because its more open to interpretation.

 

[infidel]

Was looking for something and stumbled upon this