Author [EN] [PL] [ES] [PT] [IT] [DE] [FR] [NL] [TR] [SR] [AR] [RU] [ID] Topic: D&D  (Read 18980 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Jazz Paladin Productions

  • Vampire Hunter
  • ***
  • Posts: 269
  • Gender: Male
  • I was summoned here to pay tribute
    • Jazz Paladin On Facebook
    • Awards
  • Favorite Game: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1/SS)
  • Likes:
Re: D&D
« Reply #15 on: December 08, 2016, 12:59:33 PM »
0
5th Edition is by far the best in my opinion. But a few factors are behind this, in my view. Firstly, it is by far easier than 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, or 4e. It's relatively easy to learn, and doesn't have heaps of compounding variables needing to be calculated (or miscalculated) like 3rd edition rulesets.

The character classes (except ranger, which is being fixed) are all good, and backgrounds help to make the character "yours"

I have almost all of the 5e materials so far, and even a new 1-20 campaign from a 3rd party called "Legacy's Wake". And to add more fun, I am painting minis from Super Dungeon Explore to use for my 5e stuff. There is even a "Castlevania" module for Super Dungeon Explore that I plan on using for the "Dracula" world of DnD (Curse of Strahd). 

I'll post some pics as soon as I get the Dracula SDE stuff painted. It's fun, definitely inspired by Castlevania. There is even a "Belmont" character with whip, and a vampire who shapeshifts into something that looks just like the shapeshift bosses from CV1/Rondo.

Jazzyvania: Symphonies of the Knight now available on CD/ Digital platforms! Groove on!

Offline theANdROId

  • Master Hunter
  • *****
  • Posts: 1001
  • Gender: Male
  • Raiding the Castle's Treasure Room...
  • Awards 2014-12-FoodItem Sprite Contest 3rd Place Winner
    • Awards
  • Favorite Game: Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness (N64)
  • Likes:
Re: D&D
« Reply #16 on: December 09, 2016, 04:41:21 PM »
0
I know I'm pretty hooked.  If my gaming hobby wasn't already eating most of my spare cash (what little I have), I'd have another hobby to spend on now.  I can hardly wait to play again, but sadly it'll easily be January before the 4 of our schedules align again.

Offline Jazz Paladin Productions

  • Vampire Hunter
  • ***
  • Posts: 269
  • Gender: Male
  • I was summoned here to pay tribute
    • Jazz Paladin On Facebook
    • Awards
  • Favorite Game: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1/SS)
  • Likes:
Re: D&D
« Reply #17 on: December 09, 2016, 07:48:54 PM »
0
DnD and board games have pretty much replaced video games for me. Never thought I'd see the day, but I find all the recent video games I've tried to be pretty lifeless, especially MMO's, where it seems that there really isn't any meaningful story and/or goals. Quite ironic given the graphic superpower of modern consoles, I mostly play 16/32 bit era stuff....

I used to be quite the gamer in the day, won quite a few competitions in my state, so I am rather surprised myself that I seem to have moved to something else. I still follow a few things, Castlevania (or more aptly Bloodstained), but things like Final Fantasy seem to be rather....uninspiring...in their more current iterations.

So I enjoy DM-ing , making custom maps for dungeons in PnP, and in general immersing people in a new world.

What campaign were you doing for 5e, by the way? I hear you about conflicting schedules , it is such a pain to get a consistent group to play with. I think it would be easier if there still wasn't a bit nerdy stigma about this particular pastime, because I think people who otherwise wouldn't play it would find it quite enjoyable once they got into all the wonderful and infinite options available in the world of PnP rpgs.

Shadowrun was mentioned earlier, also quite fun indeed.

Jazzyvania: Symphonies of the Knight now available on CD/ Digital platforms! Groove on!

Offline Jazz Paladin Productions

  • Vampire Hunter
  • ***
  • Posts: 269
  • Gender: Male
  • I was summoned here to pay tribute
    • Jazz Paladin On Facebook
    • Awards
  • Favorite Game: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1/SS)
  • Likes:
Re: D&D
« Reply #18 on: December 10, 2016, 09:49:27 AM »
0
If you ever need cheap minis for DnD, a lot of people these days(myself included) use the ones I mentioned above from Super Dungeon Explore sets. Really great bang for the buck, you can get quite a lot of minis for the price of what you'd pay for one from other "official" sources.

Here are some examples of the "Belmont" / Castlevania tribute the game has. The pack also has tons of skellies, which are also great since they are a staple of low-level DnD adventures.

Jazzyvania: Symphonies of the Knight now available on CD/ Digital platforms! Groove on!

Offline Ratty

  • A Little Pile of Secrets
  • Global Moderator
  • Master Hunter
  • *****
  • Posts: 1850
  • Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.
  • Awards The Retro Gamer: Has a heated passion for the oldschool VG Titles. The Great Defender will always defend the object of his or her fandom.
    • Awards
  • Favorite Game: Other (?)
  • Likes:
Re: D&D
« Reply #19 on: December 10, 2016, 12:43:55 PM »
0
If you ever need cheap minis for DnD, a lot of people these days(myself included) use the ones I mentioned above from Super Dungeon Explore sets. Really great bang for the buck, you can get quite a lot of minis for the price of what you'd pay for one from other "official" sources.

Here are some examples of the "Belmont" / Castlevania tribute the game has. The pack also has tons of skellies, which are also great since they are a staple of low-level DnD adventures.

People pay crazy money for minis. Those are neat, would love to get the Belmont one. If you want to have minis though, and D&D5e doesn't require them like Pathfinder/D&D4e/D&D 3.5/3.0 do, probably the best deal I've seen is the Pathfinder Beastiary box series. Yeah they're cardboard cutouts, but they're entirely functional as visual aids. Though you would I imagine still want to scan them in so you could print out and duplicate more of a monster you needed. and organizing them after you've punched them out is probably a bit of a pain. Still, 250 - 300+ monsters for a little over 30 or 40 bucks isn't too bad a deal.
https://www.amazon.com/Pathfinder-Pawns-Monster-Codex-Box/dp/1601257171/ref=pd_sim_21_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1601257171&pd_rd_r=F0S47KE6BA0APG1NMYN0&pd_rd_w=BqOh1&pd_rd_wg=4sTMQ&psc=1&refRID=F0S47KE6BA0APG1NMYN0
« Last Edit: December 10, 2016, 01:00:03 PM by Ratty »

Offline Jazz Paladin Productions

  • Vampire Hunter
  • ***
  • Posts: 269
  • Gender: Male
  • I was summoned here to pay tribute
    • Jazz Paladin On Facebook
    • Awards
  • Favorite Game: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1/SS)
  • Likes:
Re: D&D
« Reply #20 on: December 10, 2016, 01:06:55 PM »
0
People pay crazy money for minis. Those are neat, would love to get the Belmont one. If you want to have minis though, and D&D5e doesn't require them like Pathfinder/D&D4e/D&D 3.5/3.0 do, probably the best deal I've seen is the Pathfinder Beastiary box series. Yeah they're cardboard cutouts, but they're entirely functional as visual aids. Though you would I imagine still want to scan them in so you could print out and duplicate more of a monster you needed. and organizing them after you've punched them out is probably a bit of a pain. Still, 250 - 300+ monsters for a little over 30 or 40 bucks isn't too bad a deal.
https://www.amazon.com/Pathfinder-Pawns-Monster-Codex-Box/dp/1601257171/ref=pd_sim_21_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1601257171&pd_rd_r=F0S47KE6BA0APG1NMYN0&pd_rd_w=BqOh1&pd_rd_wg=4sTMQ&psc=1&refRID=F0S47KE6BA0APG1NMYN0

Yeah, 4.0 was built around the need for tiles and minis. I liked 4.0,  but all those tiles and figures do take up a lot of space, whether in or out of storage...

My players still like minis , so I try to use those for smaller dungeons. It was also hard to find a brass dragonborn monk for my wife to use, so the super dungeon explore set actually had a scaly kobold that I could paint the appropriate color and it really matches to her role quite well.

And for maps, rather than tiles, I usually just hand-draw the map ahead of time and laminate it so that way I can use a wet-erase marker to denote locations. While theater of the mind has its perks, I do find that having a visual approach helps to determine line-of-sight and blast radii for fireballs a bit better as not to have a heated debate ensue as to whether a player gets hit by something or not.

Jazzyvania: Symphonies of the Knight now available on CD/ Digital platforms! Groove on!

Offline Ratty

  • A Little Pile of Secrets
  • Global Moderator
  • Master Hunter
  • *****
  • Posts: 1850
  • Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.
  • Awards The Retro Gamer: Has a heated passion for the oldschool VG Titles. The Great Defender will always defend the object of his or her fandom.
    • Awards
  • Favorite Game: Other (?)
  • Likes:
Re: D&D
« Reply #21 on: December 10, 2016, 01:15:18 PM »
0
Yeah, 4.0 was built around the need for tiles and minis. I liked 4.0,  but all those tiles and figures do take up a lot of space, whether in or out of storage...

My players still like minis , so I try to use those for smaller dungeons. It was also hard to find a brass dragonborn monk for my wife to use, so the super dungeon explore set actually had a scaly kobold that I could paint the appropriate color and it really matches to her role quite well.

Yeah I've heard that. You'd think as intent as Hasbro was on shoving the Dragonborn into the game as a core race (and into decades old campaign settings where they didn't belong) that they would've supported them with more/a larger variety of minis. To be honest I was immediately turned off of 4th edition as soon as I heard Dragonborn were replacing Half-Orcs (my favorite core race) in the players handbook. It was a really cheap way to force people to buy the player's handbook 2 just to get actually core classes and races. Demonstrating why 4th edition was too much "Magic the Gathering" and not enough D&D for many people, myself included.

As for the maps, I'm personally I'm planning on just getting a chessex wet erase grid mat if I ever get a local game going. That's what we always used when I was in college and they worked great.
« Last Edit: December 10, 2016, 01:17:24 PM by Ratty »

Offline theANdROId

  • Master Hunter
  • *****
  • Posts: 1001
  • Gender: Male
  • Raiding the Castle's Treasure Room...
  • Awards 2014-12-FoodItem Sprite Contest 3rd Place Winner
    • Awards
  • Favorite Game: Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness (N64)
  • Likes:
Re: D&D
« Reply #22 on: December 10, 2016, 01:32:36 PM »
0
Dang!  I might buy some of those minis just because of how awesome they look!!

I couldn't answer about what campaign we were using.  I remember that at one point my friend said that since 2 of the players were new to the game, he was gonna do a story that he'd made up.  I would guess that means we weren't doing a specific campaign, but I'm also not sure I have that firm of a grasp (yet) on everything D&D.  I feel like what (I think) I understand is still only loosely connected until I get more opportunities to play.

Offline Jazz Paladin Productions

  • Vampire Hunter
  • ***
  • Posts: 269
  • Gender: Male
  • I was summoned here to pay tribute
    • Jazz Paladin On Facebook
    • Awards
  • Favorite Game: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1/SS)
  • Likes:
Re: D&D
« Reply #23 on: December 10, 2016, 03:11:54 PM »
0
Ah. Home brew is also fun!

I haven't come close to painting everything from the sets that I have from SDE so far, but I've done about 20 so far. This red knight makes for a cool paladin/knight, and I can use the big purple dude as a bug bear.
Jazzyvania: Symphonies of the Knight now available on CD/ Digital platforms! Groove on!

Offline Ratty

  • A Little Pile of Secrets
  • Global Moderator
  • Master Hunter
  • *****
  • Posts: 1850
  • Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.
  • Awards The Retro Gamer: Has a heated passion for the oldschool VG Titles. The Great Defender will always defend the object of his or her fandom.
    • Awards
  • Favorite Game: Other (?)
  • Likes:
Re: D&D
« Reply #24 on: December 10, 2016, 03:28:36 PM »
0
Dang!  I might buy some of those minis just because of how awesome they look!!

I couldn't answer about what campaign we were using.  I remember that at one point my friend said that since 2 of the players were new to the game, he was gonna do a story that he'd made up.  I would guess that means we weren't doing a specific campaign, but I'm also not sure I have that firm of a grasp (yet) on everything D&D.  I feel like what (I think) I understand is still only loosely connected until I get more opportunities to play.

Yeah I like homebrew campaigns because you're not constrained by the expectations of a module/adventure path, so the GM can improvise more if the party does something they didn't see coming.

Some terms (I don't know how much you've read or is spelled out in the 5e book so sorry if it's all redundant to you):

Campaign: The connected series of game sessions that tell a story. The term is a holdover from the war games that D&D sprung out of in the 1970s. Campaigns can last a few games or they can last decades. A game that only lasts one session is a "one-shot".

Campaign setting: The world the game takes place in. D&D 5e's default setting is the always popular "Forgotten Realms", but there are many other notable D&D campaign settings. (Dragonlance, Greyhawk, Ravenloft, Planescape, Eberron, Dark Sun etc.) I think most DMs just take what they want from the core books and build their own world though. But if you want to get immersed in a given pre-published campaign setting there's lots of stuff out there. Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance in particular have hundreds of books and games based in them.

When he said campaign though he meant an "Adventure Path" which is a pre-published campaign/story designed to take your whole party from the beginning of their adventuring careers to the end of them. "Adventure Paths" are as far as I can tell a relatively recent phenomena, with most pre-published adventures in the past and today being "modules". Modules are shorter (often stand-alone) adventures designed to only take your characters through a level or a few levels. An Adventure Path is or can be a sort of a compilation of modules. Not all Dungeon Masters use pre-published modules or adventure paths, many prefer for the story to come more directly from the player characters and/or the GM's own ideas.
« Last Edit: December 10, 2016, 03:30:16 PM by Ratty »

Offline Jazz Paladin Productions

  • Vampire Hunter
  • ***
  • Posts: 269
  • Gender: Male
  • I was summoned here to pay tribute
    • Jazz Paladin On Facebook
    • Awards
  • Favorite Game: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1/SS)
  • Likes:
Re: D&D
« Reply #25 on: December 10, 2016, 05:55:56 PM »
+1
You'd think as intent as Hasbro was on shoving the Dragonborn into the game as a core race (and into decades old campaign settings where they didn't belong) that they would've supported them with more/a larger variety of minis. To be honest I was immediately turned off of 4th edition as soon as I heard Dragonborn were replacing Half-Orcs (my favorite core race) in the players handbook. It was a really cheap way to force people to buy the player's handbook 2 just to get actually core classes and races.

As for the maps, I'm personally I'm planning on just getting a chessex wet erase grid mat if I ever get a local game going. That's what we always used when I was in college and they worked great.

Yeah, that was rather strange forgoing the half-orc...I'd forgotten about that! But it was also weird with them throwing in Warforged in other handbooks...This wasn't Eberron. No explanation as to why WF suddenly are there, either.

The old dragonborn art was pretty ugly too...

I pretty much sold all of my 4e material as soon as I heard 5e was coming out. It was a gamble but I figured that WoTC had realized they had blundered big time and needed a fix. And they'd need something GOOD that evoked classic feel and kept people involved for many years--after all, people simply aren't going to fork over money for a new edition every couple of years, and the time span between 4e and 5e was pretty thin...

I'm glad I sunk heavily into 5e now that it's all said and done. It has the feel of 2nd edition, and some fairly good class building options--but none of the clutter of 3rd edition calculations.

And it's back in Forgotten Realms! Big plus!

I do like how in 5e they are finding ways to cross over to old modules/paths in other settings like Ravenloft and Greyhawk. Hence Temple of Elemental Evil and Curse of Strahd books that were released for 5e. I like those two a lot!



Jazzyvania: Symphonies of the Knight now available on CD/ Digital platforms! Groove on!

Offline Ratty

  • A Little Pile of Secrets
  • Global Moderator
  • Master Hunter
  • *****
  • Posts: 1850
  • Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.
  • Awards The Retro Gamer: Has a heated passion for the oldschool VG Titles. The Great Defender will always defend the object of his or her fandom.
    • Awards
  • Favorite Game: Other (?)
  • Likes:
Re: D&D
« Reply #26 on: December 10, 2016, 09:35:47 PM »
0
Yeah, that was rather strange forgoing the half-orc...I'd forgotten about that! But it was also weird with them throwing in Warforged in other handbooks...This wasn't Eberron. No explanation as to why WF suddenly are there, either.

The old dragonborn art was pretty ugly too...

I pretty much sold all of my 4e material as soon as I heard 5e was coming out. It was a gamble but I figured that WoTC had realized they had blundered big time and needed a fix. And they'd need something GOOD that evoked classic feel and kept people involved for many years--after all, people simply aren't going to fork over money for a new edition every couple of years, and the time span between 4e and 5e was pretty thin...

I'm glad I sunk heavily into 5e now that it's all said and done. It has the feel of 2nd edition, and some fairly good class building options--but none of the clutter of 3rd edition calculations.

And it's back in Forgotten Realms! Big plus!

I do like how in 5e they are finding ways to cross over to old modules/paths in other settings like Ravenloft and Greyhawk. Hence Temple of Elemental Evil and Curse of Strahd books that were released for 5e. I like those two a lot!





Yeah I've been debating over whether I should try pathfinder or D&D5e. I have mixed feelings about D20 but when you can wrap your head around it the customization is very rewarding, though I think it inevitably shifts the emphasis away from roleplaying into min-maxing for combat. I'll get 5e probably. Though I'll probably be a little nostalgic for the minis and grid combat even if it bored me to tears sometimes in college. Heck I'll probably wind up getting both. Since they released a lower cost paperback version of the Pathfinder corebook and beastiary ahead of the next Pathfinder game (Starfinder, Pathfinder IN SPAAACE!) you'll probably be able to get those for $15 apiece in a year or so.

Also hey speaking of minis, this looks like a pretty cute mini resource, especially for starting DMs. Some nice looking free printable miniatures. https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/5gpodp/oc_free_dd_paper_miniature_resource/ http://printableheroes.tumblr.com/
« Last Edit: December 10, 2016, 09:45:46 PM by Ratty »

Offline Jazz Paladin Productions

  • Vampire Hunter
  • ***
  • Posts: 269
  • Gender: Male
  • I was summoned here to pay tribute
    • Jazz Paladin On Facebook
    • Awards
  • Favorite Game: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1/SS)
  • Likes:
Re: D&D
« Reply #27 on: December 10, 2016, 10:38:20 PM »
0
Yeah I've been debating over whether I should try pathfinder or D&D5e. I have mixed feelings about D20 but when you can wrap your head around it the customization is very rewarding, though I think it inevitably shifts the emphasis away from roleplaying into min-maxing for combat. I'll get 5e probably. Though I'll probably be a little nostalgic for the minis and grid combat even if it bored me to tears sometimes in college. Heck I'll probably wind up getting both. Since they released a lower cost paperback version of the Pathfinder corebook and beastiary ahead of the next Pathfinder game (Starfinder, Pathfinder IN SPAAACE!) you'll probably be able to get those for $15 apiece in a year or so.

Also hey speaking of minis, this looks like a pretty cute mini resource, especially for starting DMs. Some nice looking free printable miniatures. https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/5gpodp/oc_free_dd_paper_miniature_resource/ http://printableheroes.tumblr.com/

Cool resources on the paper minis! Look pretty usable!

Actually the ONE thing that I did keep from 4E were all the monster and npc tokens that came in some boxed sets. Those things were pretty good art, and I'd bet they are pretty dang cheap now on Ebay.

Pathfinder vs 5e may just as well be like comparing 3rd edition to 5th edition from what I hear. Although I haven't played pathfinder, I hear it is pretty much DnD 3.75 and lifted just about everything from the 3.5 mechanics and added a facelift. Maybe some theoretical "balancing" issues, but from what I've heard the "rebalancing" just shifted game-breaking features elsewhere into other classes. And if you are familiar with 3.0 or 3.5 rules, there's still all that 17 +12+12+4+8+22 (oh wait, I forgot the plus 2 circumstance bonus, we gotta add the numbers again!) malarkey.

The key term that 5e developers described when making the system is "bounded accuracy". So there aren't any insane calculation bonuses to apply. Characters get better over time, but there is a reasonable limit on how many mods you will be applying to rolls. In addition this new feature called Advantage/Disadvantage really makes for a great game mechanic that is very well balanced in the context of the game. If you have Advantage on a roll, you get to roll two dice and use the higher result ; disadvantage uses the lower roll. If multiple circumstances give both advantage and disadvantage, all of those circumstances simply cancel out and you just do a regular old roll. 



Jazzyvania: Symphonies of the Knight now available on CD/ Digital platforms! Groove on!

Offline Ratty

  • A Little Pile of Secrets
  • Global Moderator
  • Master Hunter
  • *****
  • Posts: 1850
  • Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.
  • Awards The Retro Gamer: Has a heated passion for the oldschool VG Titles. The Great Defender will always defend the object of his or her fandom.
    • Awards
  • Favorite Game: Other (?)
  • Likes:
Re: D&D
« Reply #28 on: December 11, 2016, 09:42:31 AM »
0
Cool resources on the paper minis! Look pretty usable!

Actually the ONE thing that I did keep from 4E were all the monster and npc tokens that came in some boxed sets. Those things were pretty good art, and I'd bet they are pretty dang cheap now on Ebay.

Pathfinder vs 5e may just as well be like comparing 3rd edition to 5th edition from what I hear. Although I haven't played pathfinder, I hear it is pretty much DnD 3.75 and lifted just about everything from the 3.5 mechanics and added a facelift. Maybe some theoretical "balancing" issues, but from what I've heard the "rebalancing" just shifted game-breaking features elsewhere into other classes. And if you are familiar with 3.0 or 3.5 rules, there's still all that 17 +12+12+4+8+22 (oh wait, I forgot the plus 2 circumstance bonus, we gotta add the numbers again!) malarkey.

The key term that 5e developers described when making the system is "bounded accuracy". So there aren't any insane calculation bonuses to apply. Characters get better over time, but there is a reasonable limit on how many mods you will be applying to rolls. In addition this new feature called Advantage/Disadvantage really makes for a great game mechanic that is very well balanced in the context of the game. If you have Advantage on a roll, you get to roll two dice and use the higher result ; disadvantage uses the lower roll. If multiple circumstances give both advantage and disadvantage, all of those circumstances simply cancel out and you just do a regular old roll.

Yeah 3.5 is the only one I've much experience at all actually playing back in the day. I never did get my head completely around the d20 system back then, and it's probably too crunchy for me to really enjoy playing now. Since as you said, combats in 3.x drag on forever as every player has to calculate a dozen different modifiers and look up rules in the book.

5e seems to be a much more rules lite, streamlined and modern system. Which is right up my alley. After all as is often noted, the fun of role-playing, as opposed to "roll-playing" (which I find more suited to board games anyway) is to use the power of your imagination. The rules should be a tool to aid you, not something to constrain you.
« Last Edit: December 11, 2016, 12:06:12 PM by Ratty »

Offline theANdROId

  • Master Hunter
  • *****
  • Posts: 1001
  • Gender: Male
  • Raiding the Castle's Treasure Room...
  • Awards 2014-12-FoodItem Sprite Contest 3rd Place Winner
    • Awards
  • Favorite Game: Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness (N64)
  • Likes:
Re: D&D
« Reply #29 on: December 11, 2016, 01:20:07 PM »
+1
The help is not redundant at all, so thanks! :-)

Tags: