Flushmaster @ Flushmaster @ttrpg.network

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The payoff was funny but I really don't think it was worth a year of abrasive annoyance. If the secret paladin and the DM had just been up front from the beginning and made it obvious that the others were getting healed, feeling inspired, etc so that the other players could figure out what was going on sooner it still would have been funny and everybody else wouldn't have spent a year of gaming pissed off.

This is where restrictive definitions of metagaming detract from the fun of the game. Insisting that "your characters don't know he's really a paladin so the DM shouldn't even bother telling you what the effects he's buffing/healing you with are" is just BS. Maybe draw out the irritation for most of one session for the sake of a punchline but after that simply knowing that the guy is roleplaying as an abrasive ass rather than actually being an abrasive ass would allow most players to actually enjoy the experience and play along rather than getting constantly ticked off.

There's also the matter of the PCs, completely in character, not noticing that they're being healed or being emotionally bolstered against fear. Maybe once or twice in the heat of battle, but eventually there should be cases of "I just know I took a gash in my side there, I can see blood on my clothing, but the wound is closed." Presumably characters who live in a world where paladins exist would at least know what paladins are and some of what they can do even if they don't have previous direct personal experience with them. To insist that players should pretend their characters are ignorant is like telling them they aren't allowed to ask the person in robes and a pointy hat with an ornate staff and an extremely emotive and capable cat following them around if they can cast fireball because they aren't a wizard, haven't met any wizards, and clearly have never heard stories of people matching this person's description making things explode by pointing at them.

Metagaming is, by it's simplest definition, any behavior that involves acknowledging that you are playing a game. Pretending that fundamental mechanics (like healing or giving advantage against fear saves) don't exists is just an unnecessary hassle that overcomplicates things and encourages confusion. When you have to stop and think about how to describe something without using game terms, like "I feel as if two more hits like that last one could incapacitate me" rather than just saying "Crap, I'm down to 15 hp," that breaks immersion for the sake of...not breaking immersion. The PCs should have had plenty of chances to realize what the paladin was doing, and figuring that out much earlier would have made the game a lot more fun for everybody for a long time.

This reminds me of how the main character of Mistborn learns to use her powers. Her mentor praises her willingness to jump from of a high structure right away, commenting that his own teacher had to shove him off the first time.

Children can be amazingly cute and charming. They can also be vicious, sociopathic, and downright creepy because they haven't developed checks and restrictions that come with morals and general education about what is and isn't acceptable.

Sometimes they'll do both, and commit heinous acts of brutal genocide for cute reasons and in a way that makes you want to just say "awww."

I just play D&D mostly because it's popular, I know it, and I like the way the mechanics work. That being said I'm not strictly opposed to other systems (though I'm not really interested in PF2E as I've looked at it and think it's mostly just a clunkier and jankier modification to the core mechanics of 5e that many people no doubt think is better just because it's needlessly complex for the sake of "more options"). A while ago I bought a hardcopy of the core VtM v5 book and want to, at some point, try joining a game for that to explore the significantly different playing style it's designed for.

Subclasses in 5e functionally replaced 3.5 prestige classes. They specialize a character with specific skillsets beyond those of the core class. Instead of needing certain skill/feat/etc requisites you just get one upon reaching a certain level in the class, which is in line with 5e being (in simple terms) "like 3.5 but streamlined and more new-user friendly."

This makes sense, though as a cleric aficionado reading through the first UA with cleric rules made me reflexively wince several times. From a balance point of view it is much more simplified to have all classes using the same general template for progression, and the multiclassing powergamer "dip" concerns are valid for stacking benefits at first level.

OBLIGATORY PLUG: This community has it's own LFG section. Nobody's posted any game ads there yet, but it's very new. If you're looking to start up or join a game yourself, I might recommend starting there. And while you're there please consider clicking "subscribe" because new folks checking it out are more likely to post games there if they see a bigger number in the sidebar.

I haven't played an in person game of D&D in over fifteen years. The last time I played any sort of TTRPG in person with people gathered around a table was a Werewolf: Dark Ages one shot at a Fourth of July party in (I think) 2010. I had signed up on an interest sheet left at my LGS where I played MTG weekly for a game someone was looking to start up, but this was in March of 2020 and our scheduled first meeting and Session 0 was set for two days after the COVID lockdowns went into effect, closing the LGS and pre-emptively ending that game.

I do play D&D online via VTTs (mostly Roll20 but I've also used Foundry) and have done so regularly for several years now. I found my longest running game, which has been going for about two years now, on a D&D centered Discord server with a LFG channel. Lots of such servers exist and I recommend checking some out (just do a search for "Discord dungeons and dragons" (or a different game if that's what you're looking for). The other long running game I'm in actually spun off of that first one and includes mostly the same people just playing a different campaign on a different day. I also joined a third game that I found on r/lfg but I'm avoiding that right now because of the API bullshit. Did I mention this community has it's own LFG section that works pretty much just like r/lfg but with 100% less u/spez related bullshit? I have also in the past found games, mostly for one shots, on the D&D Beyond and Roll20 forums, both of which have LFG sections that are fairly high traffic.

You can just tack on that one thing about getting it for free at the beginning of a game without calling it something different. It's still functionally the same system, not some "new" mechanic. And if the person running the game doesn't keep pointing it out the players are not going to pay any more attention to it than before. Tacking on a slight addition like that will not "fix" a system if people still don't actually use it.

The problem is operator error, not design. An automatic transmission won't make a car easier to drive for a person who keeps forgetting that you have to actually press down on the long foot pedal on the right side to make it go. Much like the majority of PF, this "different mechanic" is just D&D dressed up in a new T-shirt with a different scent of perfume.

Perhaps pin that post to the top so it's readily visible to newcomers? Can you pin something to the community, so it shows up for new folks join? And I know Lemmy calls it "featured" instead of "pinned" but it still uses an icon of a pin.

You're right about the real issue being that people just don't use the system, whatever you're calling it. I just started a campaign with a new group and the DM has his own variation on it that is really just a minor tweak...except that he appears to not forget that it exists. His tweak is making inspiration a collective (and cumulative) pool for the entire party and "you guys keep track of it, I have enough things to juggle already with seven players and all the NPCs, monsters, plot, description, etc." In our only session so far he gave us two points, one I think for roleplay and the other because I posted a muscle wizard meme image in the discord while he was struggling to properly describe the second phase of the bulked up wizard boss we were fighting ("Yeah, like that! Take a point of inspiration!"). We didn't actually use any of it yet but with the fight we ended on a cliffhanger for I'm planning to be proactive if nobody else does.

Aside from the death save thing, that's really just a minor tweak on the basic mechanic of 5e's inspiration (rerolling after the fact instead of getting advantage beforehand), plus letting them stack when accumulated. The biggest problem with 5e inspiration being hoarded isn't that it doesn't stack, it's that many DMs just don't give it out with any frequency whatsoever even though the system's description encourages DMs to give it out for all the reasons mentioned (cool roleplay, clever tactics, etc). The idea is supposed to be to encourage players to "go ham" getting into character and immersing themselves into the game to earn it back after using it, not to lack such motivation because they feel safe with three do-overs in their back pocket.

The system isn't flawed, it's just underused and the slightly different version of it doesn't change anything unless the DM/GM actually gives it out. And I would think players would be more likely to ause inspiration or hero points or drama dice or epicness metanuggets or whatever you want to call it if they heard the DM say "I would give you inspiration for that but you haven't used the one you already have" than they would if they didn't "waste" that extra one by just tossing it on the pile they already have "in case of emergency" like an offline FPS player hoarding their rocket ammo but never using their most powerful weapon because they might need it all against the next tough enemy.

And I'm not saying either slight variation of the same basic mechanic is necessarily better. I'm saying that the solution the problem of it not getting used will remain the same in both unless the DM/GM takes the exact same actions with either (actually handing it out). Again, the problem isn't the system, it's operator error.

They have a campaign or two in a setting that's basically a fantasy western but with a north African flavor added to it. So African cowboy druids are a thing that happens. Edit: There's also a train heist featuring Emily Axford playing a redneck mummy paladin. It's awesome. The campaign is called Outlaws and Obelisks, with eighteen episodes to it in total (IIRC they're about 2 hours each).

If you're looking for more diverse viewpoints on the hobby I would suggest checking out a podcast titled Three Black Halflings. I first checked it out after they did an ad on NADDPOD (they've also done a couple guest appearances for things like DMing a one shot for a NADDPOD bonus episode) and I've found them to be both culturally informative as well as just entertaining to listen to. The name comes from a story about one of them noticing that they couldn't find a single piece of artwork in an official WotC sourcebook depicting a dark skinned halfling and that got them thinking about stuff like that. They don't just talk about diversity, representation, and stereotypes (which they frequently make a point to address) but they also just talk about tabletop gaming in general (mostly specific to D&D) from new releases, cool table stories, etc. I first gave them a try out of curiosity then kept listening because they're identifiable to me, a middle aged white dude, because they're fellow gamers who often think just like I do but also sometimes make me think twice about things I never bothered to pay attention to.

They do a weekly talk show style podcast where they might be discussing a new sourcebooks or UAs, any of the occasional controversies arising out of somebody at WotC doing something stupid, they could just discuss a certain aspect of the hobby they like, or a third party setting splatbook, or they might have a guest to talk about any and all of those things with. A lot of their guests are POCs but they also frequently have white people on to compare and contrast viewpoints (yes, hard to believe but actual open, honest, mutually non-judgemental and friendly conversation rather than people on any given news network breathing fire and brimstone at the people on other networks about the same general topics). The entire NADDPOD crew have all been guests (most of them multiple times) plus other big names in the liveplay scene like Matt Mercer and Brennan Lee Mulligan (Brennan actually wore a "3BH" pin -which is their merch- on his shirt while DMing at least one episode of Critical Role's Exandria Unlimited Calamity arc, which came as a surprise to the 3BH cast). In addition to the talk show episodes they frequently record and release liveplay games ranging from one shots to 10-20 session long campaigns sometimes including guest players like Lou Wilson and Emily Axford.

Good stuff, just search for "Three Black Halflings" and it'll come right up. Pretty big archive, all free to download.

Thanks!

Posted

How about a specific LFG section?

And now the group knows the DM has...that.

It usually isn't, not that that ever stops anybody from doing it.