My blog is mostly movie reviews and whatever random story idea I post a chapter at a time. Though sometimes I also talk about politics, my dreams, or anything else on my mind.
I have been
writing about Dungeons and Dragons semi-regularly this year and in the course
of writing those I found a 30-day blog challenge. As I have done those a couple times before it
seemed remiss not to jump on this one.
I had a
subscription to Dungeon magazine and enjoyed reading it and breaking up the
individual encounters and maps, but I rarely if ever ran an entire mission as
presented. The adventures tended to be
meat grinders.
Published
adventures always seem to be much harder than advertised, I guess when you
write rules for a living you worry about not providing a meaty enough
challenge, and then you decide to get super clever. The problem with that, is that guys like me
who only run a game once a week are less able to deal with “clever”. Hence why I need to pull these things apart into
more digestible chunks.
My favorite
adventure in theory is “The Shackled City”.
This full 20 level campaign gives you a really interesting giant city
around which all the action turns and a whole cadre of supervillains working
toward an interesting goal.
“The Shackled
City” did so well that (I get the impression) it is regarded as the best thing
Dungeon magazine produced for 3rd edition, and it gave so many
credibility points to the magazines publishers (Paizo) that they had the clout
to release “The Age of Worms,” the other best adventure ever for 3rd
edition (though far less lauded).
Those
adventures doing so well (and Wizards of the Coast leaving Paizo holding the
bag in regards to 3rd edition ending and Dragon and Dungeon magazine
being canceled) left Paizo in a position to create Pathfinder. The Pathfinder books were a continuation of
the 3rd edition rules that were so well produced art and supplement
wise, that they threw 4th edition on the ash heap of history. Pathfinder is still going, while 4e was
replaced by 5e two years ago.
That is
right, “The Shackled City” was so good, it could be given some credit for 4th
edition being a failure.
Coming Tomorrow
Tomorrow I
am going to talk about The Craziest thing to happen outside of the Game.
______________________________
If you
like or hate this please take the time to comment, +1, share on Twitter (click
that link to follow me), Tumblr, or
Facebook, and otherwise distribute my opinion to the world. I would
appreciate it.
I have been
writing about Dungeons and Dragons semi-regularly this year and in the course
of writing those I found a 30-day blog challenge. As I have done those a couple times before it
seemed remiss not to jump on this one.
There are
10,000 monsters in this gods damned game.
Expect several top 5 lists this week as there are not too many specific
“favorites” more like “preferred”. Today
is Humanoids and Giants.
I have
already talked about giants a bit back in my extra-long discussion about
“Exotic Monsters” and how I prefer to see them as elemental beings. Pointing to the oft maligned 4th
edition as having the best giants compared to the 3rd and 5th
editions might rob me of some credibility in the eyes of readers. Truth be told that edition had plenty of good
ideas that are getting overlooked because people have a hard time parsing good
ideas from bad ones.
Eat your vegetables and one day you'll be a TITAN!
Humanoids
have been mentioned in the context of “My Favorite Fantasy Races”. Since we don’t really need me talking about
how cool Warforged are again I will try and keep things fresh. What is a good way to spin this? How about “Best Evil Fantasy Races”
Let’s go.
#6: Orcs
I mentioned
how you might change Orcs to make them more objectively monstrous back in my
“Exotic Monsters” blog. I pointed to the
Orks of “Warhammer 40k” as an example of how it might work. The typical Orc in Dungeons and Dragons I
feel has become really old hat.
Am I supposed to be viewing this image as if it were at some kind of Dutch-Angle?
Cause it looks like the two on the left are about to fall over.
Orcs have
just been done to greater effect in other games, and as far as having a
barbaric race that are in a state of constant war with everyone else, these
guys are too much the dumb brute to be interesting. Without a lot of reworking or making them the
servants/minions of a more complex and interesting other party (see: Sauron and
Saruman) they are too much the “Crush-Kill-Destroy” type opponent and they need
to be better than that to be as prominent in the game as they are.
As is, Orcs
are not inhuman enough, nor complex enough, to work for me as bad guys unless
they are in the very narrow role of goon.
I think the black-white-silver color scheme is also a strong factor in their success.
Color theory in regards to character design is a topic worthy of more discussion.
#5: Drow
Another
group (I think) that has been done to death.
At the very least they do it better than Orcs. They have all the smarts, arrogance, and
elegance of an elven race, while being coupled with monstrous elements like an
insane god (Lloth), creepy sidekick monster (spiders), and an exotic location
(Underdark).
I can’t
deny the popularity of the race and I would be stupid to deny the appeal of
Drizzt Do’Urden which has become the quintessential example of heroic outsider
(he is beaten out in name recognition only by characters like Ben Grimm or the
Incredible Hulk for heroes who have sad music playing for them about the tragedy of their situation).
Really my
distaste for them comes more from seeing them so much. Kind of like how I used to really like
certain songs… Till they were the song I heard everywhere and eventually they
lost all appeal. It is just a matter of
overplay. The fantasy equivalent of the
Chainsmokers.
Maybe I just think of these guys as assholes because "The Lion King" was big when I was growing up.
#4: Gnolls and Animal People
I think I
might be the only person who is open to more animal-people being put into
Dungeons and Dragons. Aside from Gnolls
and the occasional Jackal Headed humanoid in an Egyptian style area there aren’t
any I can readily think of. Rakshasa
maybe, but they are so powerful they don’t get played by players. Lizardmen, Dragonborn, and Minotaur I guess
too. Though I think Minotaur were only playable
in 4e, the Bermuda Triangle of good ideas.
Maybe there
is some kind of stigma against it. Maybe
there aren’t enough of that type of fantasy race in conventionally Western
folklore/mythology for it to be seen as a necessary aspect of the game. Pathfinder was better at this I think. Grippli and Vanara had great art in their
Advanced Races Guide. This section is
turning into “My Favorite Fantasy Races” blog entry. Let’s just move on.
I want to emphasize the version on the left. Which I have dubbed, "the good version".
#3: Goblins
Much like
Orcs I talked about Goblins in my “Exotic Monsters” blog entry with an emphasis
on making them more like a manufactured race of creatures. I also made fun of how unremarkable the
yellow versions of the race were in 5th edition (I stand by
that). No, the Goblins I really like are
the Pathfinder Goblins, which are as Ugly-Cute as a pug dog and pretty much the
mascot of their whole game.
This is the
sort of fun emphasis I really like and sometimes feel goes
underappreciated. They are vile and
dangerous, but they are so goofy looking and acting, that aspect of them livens
the game up, and creates more of an impact when things do take a turn for the
serious. Right now, with the possible
exception of the Flumph (who are good guys), there doesn’t seem to be too many
silly monsters running around in Dungeons and Dragons. Pathfinder does not have that problem.
We have complex tactics by the standard of 4th edition, and compared to 5e we are intensely interesting.
#2: Kobolds
I talked
about these guys and how I see them at length in another Blog entry. My feelings toward them haven’t changed, so I
will reference that and say only this, “Another thing that 4th
edition did right were the Kobolds.”
These guys,
aside from a brief collaboration between Dungeon Magazine and Dragon Magazine
back when magazines were still a thing, are under used. They have a cool back story as the first race
of humanoids enslaved by the Mindflayers.
They have cool surrounding lore, in that they live in the Astral Plane
on the corpse of a dead god; have a pact with Red Dragons for mutual
cooperation; they are part of a splintered society with their cousins the
Githzerai living in the plane of Limbo as peace seeking monks; and they are
ruled by a Lich Queen who eats the souls of any member of their society who
grows too powerful.
Generally
speaking, the Githyanki have all the best cultural and game play markers of the
Drow (replace Lloth with the Lich Queen, replace spiders with Red Dragons,
instead of good elves there are the Githzerai, replace the grab bag of magic
powers with a grab bag of psionic stuff, and the Astral Plane is the Underdark
of the Multiverse) but they are 100 times more exotic and lack all the baggage that
comes with the fan favorite Drow.
I feel that
if you enjoy using Drow in your games that you may want to give more time
toward these guys should you ever want to expand your games to the multiverse
rather than staying on the material plane.
It will take more work, because their lack of use means you will find
fewer premade dungeons and stat blocks, but you might not feel weighed down by
expectations and still able to throw some curveballs in regards to behavior and
locations.
Coming Tomorrow
Tomorrow I
am going to talk about Dragons.
You knew
they would eventually make an appearance.
______________________________
If you
like or hate this please take the time to comment, +1, share on Twitter (click
that link to follow me), Tumblr, or
Facebook, and otherwise distribute my opinion to the world. I would
appreciate it.
I have been
writing about Dungeons and Dragons semi-regularly this year and in the course
of writing those I found a 30-day blog challenge. As I have done those a couple times before it
seemed remiss not to jump on this one.
There are
10,000 monsters in this gods damned game.
Expect several top 5 lists this week as there are not too many specific
“favorites” more like “preferred”. Today
is Evil Outsiders. That will primarily
mean Demons, Devils, and Yugoloths.
Really, any
one of those species of evil could have its own top 5 and there are evil
monsters in the multiverse that aren’t of those groups. This is a massive category. I considered just talking about the biggest
of the big evil outsiders, with Demonic Princes and the Dukes of Hell, but in
my perspective, those tend to have too much coverage and emphasis. Better to, again, look at those monsters that
lend themselves to interesting encounters, interesting long term villainy, or
just have the coolest looks to them.
DOUBLE
TWIST, while writing this I decided to only do a Top 3 and then do a heavy
discussion about 2 “Dishonorable Mentions” because I think there is something
that needs to be talked about.
They fly,
they have spores, they look like the Skeksis from “Dark Crystal”, and they
scream so loud it physically stuns people.
In 3rd edition a group of them working together could create
a lighting explosion. What more could
you want from a giant demonic vulture thing?
Cause they kind of cornered the market on weirdness.
Anyone else recall the "Dark Crystal"?
It was alright. Little too much enamored with the novelty of an all puppet movie.
Like most
demons, Vrocks are dumb and guided entirely by self-interest to the point of
self-destructive behavior. I have used
them in the past but never to great effect.
I think that getting rid of the lightning explosion for 4th
and 5th edition was a wise move, it was a distracting ability
pulling them away from the more interesting shrieking and spore blasting.
This one
owes a lot of its success to the cool art.
Chains have numerous connotations related to domination both of one’s
self and others. At the same time chains
are analogous to sins, heavy and forged link by link (am I the only person who
remembers Jacob Marley’s speech to Ebenezer Scrooge about why his ghost was
covered in chains?). There is also just
the general kinkiness factor, I was surprised not to see all that much fan
artwork of the Chain Devil while pondering this blog entry.
The Kyton in
5th edition is all about making lots of attacks from numerous points
around the room by animating chains.
Like a cenobite from “Hellraiser” the chains become barbed and reach out
to touch people. They can also make
scary faces to frighten the PC’s, either by appearing as a loved one or hated
enemy, I kind of like that idea, the idea that your loved one ended up in a
kink dungeon in Hell and is now trying to kill you is kind of awesome.
I would like to make a suggestion that this sort of head cage should be used in future Kyton images.
This seems like an obvious way for the whole "face of a loved one" could appear.
4th
edition kind of stands apart in that he was more about moving around with lots
of attacks but I want to say that all iterations are missing something I always
assumed they had: A Climb speed. I guess
when I pictured these guys I see them as swinging from chain to chain, the
chains hanging from a place so high up that you can’t see it, and going down so
low that the bottom is cloaked in darkness, their victims twisted up in chains
like flies in spider silk. Oh well, my
mistake.
This is a "Horned Devil".
Because if there is one trait that would be unique enough to comment on with DEVILS, it is the horns thing.
No other Devil would have those.
#1: Horned/War Devil (Cornugon/Malebranche)
This guy
has an interesting journey that consists primarily of being a big dude with a
trident. His art ALWAYS looks awesome
and that is really all I care about in regards to him. He is a big, solid boss monster that looks
cool.
I have no
idea why the names of this thing are so all over the place. In 3e it is a Horned Devil (Cornugon), in 4e
it is a War Devil (Malebranche), and in 5e it is a Horned Devil (Malebranche). I guess when 6e rolls/roles around (I am
guessing around 2022) it will be the War Devil (Cornugon).
This is a Sex Demon.
This will be uncomfortable to talk about.
Feel free to tell me I do not know what I am on about.
Dishonorable Mentions (Cause Demons): Succubus and
Incubus
Yes, I need
to talk about the personification of sexual “seduction” that was a Demon in 3rd
edition, a devil in 4th edition, and in 5th… they “play
for both teams”. The Succubus is now not
just a sexy lady, but can also be a sexy fella in the form of an Incubus. I think this might illicit some criticism in
the form of, “Depraved Bisexual”. I
don’t think it does, but only because there are so many pansexual and bi-sexual
characters like Queen Morwel and arguably the rather gender ambiguous nature of
the Elf gods. Instead I want to talk
about a different issue that I feel is not clearly appreciated.
In 3rd
edition the Incubus was a separate demon from the Succubus. Making them one creature which has a term for
their female and male manifestations is a change for 5th edition…
Holy shit is it a change. And that is
the thing I want to talk about. Cause it
is something that kind of bothers me!
Like more than I realized when I started writing this blog about demons.
Let’s all
take a look at Dragon magazine #353 from March 2007, it was a month that
featured a cover illustration and focused article on the Demon Ruler of the
Succubi and on page 33 they had the 3e version of the Incubi. I will take an image DIRECTLY from there
along with the relevant roleplaying information. (Click for Full Size).
YEESH!
“The
Incubus is a physical manifestation of male sexuality given human form… Whereas
Succubi seduce their victims… Incubi see what they want and take it by
force.” They are RAPE DEMONS. OH MY!
Hash tag “Not all Demons” I suppose.
Take a look
at the combat description too. “They
gang up on single targets… Most incubi fight with a single longsword, often using
the weapon with both hands to strike their foes.” I can't be the only one thinking about that classroom scene from "The Wicker Man"?
Phallic Symbol! Phallic symbol!
Woof! Am I the one reading into this too much? I think the writer might not have thought it
out enough. 2007, a shockingly different
era now that I think about it. Here is
the thing though: The Succubus kissing someone into a mind controlled stupor
and then having sex with them, that is also a rape demon! It is just more of a date rape demon.
This is one
of those things that I sometimes feel people do not appreciate when talking
about these things in modern myth. It is
not good to be held down and fucked to death.
I find it strange that I have to be so blunt, but these things keep
cropping up in pop fiction. Morrigan from
“Darkstalkers” being the best example, but there are others, especially in
anime. These things that portray the
succubus as unironically seductive. That
is messed up.
They are
evil. They manipulate, use, and destroy
things. And, you know, rape, lots and
lots of rape. It’s an icky villain. I would recommend not using them. Because, they’re role is INTENSELY
misunderstood and weird.
If you
like or hate this please take the time to comment, +1, share on Twitter (click
that link to follow me), Tumblr, or
Facebook, and otherwise distribute my opinion to the world. I would
appreciate it.
I have been
writing about Dungeons and Dragons semi-regularly this year and in the course
of writing those I found a 30-day blog challenge. As I have done those a couple times before it
seemed remiss not to jump on this one.
This is one
of those times in which I will go beyond the original framework of this 30-day
challenge (spoilers: I already did that by reordering and retooling the
original prompts). Like I mentioned too
many times before I am often the DM and beyond that I like players who work
together and judge them on those criteria.
What is more, there is really no way to write this that won’t be
slighting one group over another.
But, here
is the thing, I am also a part of this.
I can’t really award one group I have played with all the cookies
because they got me at a different point in my life. I was more mature, more level headed, or just
had more time to write and think things out.
So, when I point to a group I had in 2014-2015 as the best experience,
it had a lot to do with my ability to give them what they were looking
for. It is the single longest campaign I
have ever run at 18 months which also had a mid-season finale and a series finale
that were both super satisfying. It was
a good experience.
The
characters were a Kenku Druid named “Talon Greyfeather” or as I would make
funny of him, “You basically named your character ‘Bird Bird’.” An Oread Monk named Adrian, because he wanted
him to be Adrian Monk (like from the USA show “Monk” which I guess is better
than Bird-Bird). And a Catfolk Ranger-Archer who had a normal goddamn name, which I have no complaints about.
Remember
when I mentioned “Go weird or don’t bother not being human” a couple days
ago? They decided to go weird. I had bought the Advanced Races Guide to go
along with my 3.5 edition books and it allowed for some uneven but interesting
elements to be brought in. Typical for a
3rd edition game, the rules were insanely detailed… To the point of
it being hard to smoothly mix things in, even when they were supposed to be
completely compatible.
They
managed to go thru numerous adventures that were totally my idea, let me know
what kind of adventures they would like to go on, met 3 dozen different named
NPC’s that they grew attached to on various levels, and made a name/place for
themselves in the world they ventured in.
There were some people we gamed with along the way and some afterward
that I think would have been great to have along on a more permanent basis, but
circumstances kept them from showing regularly.
It is a shame, but that’s life.
I am still
friends with the players from this group and took the lessons I learned from
their playing and have done my best to apply them to my modern attempts at the
game.
We should
all try and learn to be better at what we do.
Coming Tomorrow
Tomorrow I
am going to talk about a character I will not play again.
______________________________
If you
like or hate this please take the time to comment, +1, share on Twitter (click
that link to follow me), Tumblr, or
Facebook, and otherwise distribute my opinion to the world. I would
appreciate it.
I have been
writing about Dungeons and Dragons semi-regularly this year and in the course
of writing those I found a 30-day blog challenge. As I have done those a couple times before it
seemed remiss not to jump on this one.
I have
mentioned this before but I am much more about being the guy running the game
as such I just don’t have a lot of time spent as a player. When I am GG’ing my games tend to have lots
of diversity in regards to the creatures and races my players encounter.
Regardless
of my ability to provide a big range of stuff when I have access to the whole
world, typically when I play I go the boring route and play a human. The small amount of customization allows me
to do what I want with nearly any character type, and since Humans are by the
conceit of the game diverse and able to have numerous cultures and world
perspectives that means I have plenty of freedom when designing my guy.
This boring
streak goes a little deeper too. I would
be okay with humans being the only option in a campaign. “Game of Thrones” style baby! And I don’t just mean the sex!
Think of
all the chaotic things that have happened in our world in regards to culture
clash, oppression, fetishizing, and exploitation and everyone in this world is a
human. The idea that someone could live
to be 300 years old, or be able to talk to animals, or have body types and
chemistry that were wholly different from humans, those alien perspectives are
hard for me to comfortably envision. I
think very few players are comfortable envisioning them.
Any attempt
to illustrate those vast differences via lore or the player trying to explain
them, they’re often underwhelming, “Elves value personal freedom” they say,
“How exactly do they do that?” I ask, “A bunch of them play the harp and they
tend to live in treehouses.” Can you see
how I might not consider that to be too big a deal?
Humans can play the harp and value personal freedom.
I don’t
need that sort of halfhearted “we’re different” for a game to be
interesting. +90% of the time I doubt
most players can really appreciate the magnitude of such alien perspectives and
just play the characters for a rules benefit.
So why bother with them being non-human?
The obvious
answer to my flippant question is, “It’s Fun”.
I am not stupid, I am just trying to illustrate my world view, “if you
and your players are not going to do anything with an idea why bother with it?”
seems like a logical question to ask when it comes time to edit something.
Fun Playable Races
I have
already mentioned my love of the Warforged in the context of talking about Eberron
and exotic races of monsters in general.
Maybe the way to make these player races more meaningful is to push the
envelope and MAKE THEM REALLY STRANGE. So,
I will mention some other possibilities that I think would help.
I like
Gnomes because of their penchant for their gadgetry and being uncomplicated
good guys 90% of the time. I like
Kobolds as (sort of) bad guys, as I spelled out in another blog which was all about Kobolds. I like what they did with
Tieflings and Dragonkin, devils and dragons are cool fantasy elements and (to
me) make more sense as fantasy races than Elves, Dwarves, and Halflings in most
cases. I also have a soft spot for
Dhampir, the quasi-vampire player race, I wish they had been in the core book,
much like I wish more mentions of Ravenloft were in there, they are in the
Races Guide for Pathfinder, they should be present in DnD. That Pathfinder Race guide also has Grippli
and Vanara who look awesome.
This kind
of goes back to my discussion of the various published settings and my “Imaginatives”
designation. I personally put a much
greater emphasis and have more affection for the exotic worlds, and while I
think that an all human interpretation of those worlds would be fine and even
if I don’t often play them or see them as flawed (Dark Sun) I still prefer them
because they are so different.
So rather
than having the typical races which all look similar, having the core races be
Humans, Gnomes, Warforged, Tieflings, Dragonkin, Dhampir, and Kobolds sounds
like a much more interesting world than the standard assortment of “White
people of various heights and ear pointiness”.
This this is such a well colored and illustrated image that I keep using it.
The core
races as they exist are bland. They did
some work to address it with all of the subraces and having as many exotic
races in the Player's handbook as they do, but that doesn’t change the fact that
Elves are just done to death at this point and more interesting options should
be looked at, Elves are not inhuman enough to peak my interest. Call me crazy but the idea that someone definitely
NOT BEING HUMAN is interesting enough to notice. Speaking from the experience of running a
game with the Pathfinder Race Guide, NO ONE PLAYED A HUMAN OR TYPICAL CORE RACE.
Maybe I am
just too outside the typical consumer for my opinions to be considered as good
advice on the topic?
Yeah, maybe we don't need the Shardminds.
But, I am sure putting them in the Player's Handbook 3 didn't do them any favors.
Coming years after I initially wrote this, there was a fun little song released for this concept. Enjoy.
Coming Tomorrow
Tomorrow I
am going to talk about my favorite class.
______________________________
If you
like or hate this please take the time to comment, +1, share on Twitter (click
that link to follow me), Tumblr, or
Facebook, and otherwise distribute my opinion to the world. I would
appreciate it.
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