Thursday, February 11, 2016

The Gateway

Here is an idea for introducing new players to a game world.

 A bright flash and your eyes slowly adjust to the light. You are standing in between the pillars of a ancient stone gate way. You have no idea how you got here, and you realize you don't remeber anything about yourself. A wild bearded man in tattered robes approaches loudly exclaiming. "Ah the gods have sent more to us, Welcome, Welcome strangers to our lands". "You will have many questions , yes but first you should eat and drink to regain some of your vigor". He and several others all similarly dressed drag you down the hill top to a small town and into a tavern. As you eat a hearty meal and drink some good wine or ale some small bit of memory returns.  
At this point the characters can remember their names and classes/levels (if applicable) but that's it. No other details, as they are just created characters their aren't any of course.
As you eat the bearded man explains; you have been sent to us from other places and we can help you start your new life here with us. " You are welcome to settle here if you wish, some newcomers have of course, but you may wish to continue your chosen professions as well". 

The next few days are spent teaching you of the lands and customs that they know of. This is of course the sketch notes of the world they will be adventuring in. Any gaps in knowledge can be attributed to lack of recall or something that was not known to the villagers of the gateway. I thought of this with D&D in mind but will work for any RPG. This was designed after seeing a number of adventuring groups fail to understand the world they were in. This offers an easy explanation for this lack of knowledge.

-Happy Gaming  

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

D&D 5th goes OGL? Meh, what ever.

 In case you haven't heard the news, D&D fifth edition has just been released for the OGL. My reaction is less than enthusiastic. Why? Because official D&D hasn't been my game of choice for some time now (since the switch form 3 to 3.5). The sucker punch of the official switch from one edition to another after so short of a time scale (only two years between my purchase of the 3rd Ed books and the 3.5 roll out) turned me off trying to stay current. I liked 3 rd edition just fine, but 4th just left me cold. Way too over complicated, tactically focused and just plain weird. I don't know what to think about 5th yet as I haven't absorbed it yet. But one thing I can say is that it's not my D&D. Some time ago I discovered the OSR community and found many of whom shared the desire to retain a simpler form of the rules.

 What did the OGL do for 3rd ed? Did it improve the game? Did it make it more accessible? These questions will most likely be asked of 5th ed and time will tell. But for me I see nothing but a glut of 5th ed material choking off some other possibly more creative stuff. I don't think its really good for the hobby. I see many game producers ditching their independent projects to crank out more OGL stuff. Soon the 5th ed like the Borg of Star Trek will assimilate all. Crazy talk? Maybe but one thing  is for sure, the new OGL doesn't matter much to me. You can always check out the SRD and judge for yourself. But as for me, Meh.

P.S. hopefully this post marks a return to me posting regularly