Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)

[MAPK phosphatase]

Not to rain on you guys' parade (really, it's interesting), but have you considered the prospect that the archers were shooting at the knights' horses?

Well I mean that would be a bit of a dick move, wouldn't it? But seriously, horses would often be armored, albeit with more gaps than people armor. You are correct to point out the vulnerability that horses had.
Historian John Keegan talks specifically about this in respects to the battle of Agincourt in his book The Face of Battle. It mentions how the longbow's influence in countering the french cavalry charge was primarily by injuring the horses, which were armored in the head only. They would get hit, panic, and run back through the french's own advancing infantry, trampling them.
What this meant was that they had to approach on foot, through the mud, wearing heavy armor, under a constant hail of arrows. Doing this for 1000 yards (give or take) is fatiguing, so by the time they got to the other side the not-fatigued archers had the advantage in a melee.

 

[Corn Flakes]

What this meant was that they had to approach on foot, through the mud, wearing heavy armor, under a constant hail of arrows. Doing this for 1000 yards (give or take) is fatiguing, so by the time they got to the other side the not-fatigued archers had the advantage in a melee.

And let's remember that archers, particularly ones that could use English longbows proficiently, would be pretty beefy guys. So it was fatigued, disorganized, likely also wounded and demoralized men-at-arms, vs. fresh, well-motivated archers. No wonder the battle ended as it did.

 

[WinchesterPremium]

Not to rain on you guys' parade (really, it's interesting), but have you considered the prospect that the archers were shooting at the knights' horses?

Wikipiedia says its another possibility. So sure.

In context the horse and rider would be the same thing, though it doesn't sound like the Centaurs are heavily armed.

 

[ZMOT]

At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if this was an actual announcement press release for 6th Edition D&D.

If WOTC keeps going woke with D&D, I expect 6th Edition to bomb even harder than 4th Edition

Still, I don't see a new edition coming out until 2022 at the absolute earliest, and depending on how the remainder of 2020 plays out, Woke Leftism might no longer be in vogue.

If I were in charge of Hasbro, I'd fire the bulk of the wokesters at Wizards, officially retcon all the recent changes made for 5th Edition in the last two years and then work on a 6th Edition for the 50th Anniversary of D&D in 2024.

iirc DND5 is their most successful edition attracting shitload of normies, they gonna milk it till it's dry. early dnd was also very problematic made by cis white men, so it can't be celebrated. the closest you'll get is a "dnd 5 anniversary edition" with a fancy new cover.

And let's remember that archers, particularly ones that could use English longbows proficiently, would be pretty beefy guys. So it was fatigued, disorganized, likely also wounded and demoralized men-at-arms, vs. fresh, well-motivated archers. No wonder the battle ended as it did.

remember reading some western isekai timetravel novel, where the main dude commented even while he was doing sports it was nowhere near comparable to someone training and using a longbow (which apparently needs more strength to pull) all his life. no idea how realistic it is, but it would make sense. modern law enforcement etc has their drills and stuff, highly doubt they didn't have something similar to get good with their gear back then, especially when their lives depended on it.

 

[Syaoran Li]

iirc DND5 is their most successful edition attracting shitload of normies, they gonna milk it till it's dry. early dnd was also very problematic made by cis white men, so it can't be celebrated. the closest you'll get is a "dnd 5 anniversary edition" with a fancy new cover.

True but at the same time, I could see them doing anniversary reprints of the "problematic" older editions for something as big as the 50th Anniversary of the very first tabletop role-playing game. To be honest, I also think Woke Leftism will be in severe decline by 2024, if not outright deader than the fundies. Especially if Biden loses since the corporations/DNC will throw the Woke Left under the bus and won't be able to rely on China like before.

There's also the issue of WOTC being based in Seattle, which Hasbro might put the kaibash on and relocate WOTC to somewhere else if Seattle continues going to shit and keeps good on their promises of defunding and abolishing the police

 

[Adamska]

True but at the same time, I could see them doing anniversary reprints of the "problematic" older editions for something as big as the 50th Anniversary of the very first tabletop role-playing game. To be honest, I also think Woke Leftism will be in severe decline by 2024, if not outright deader than the fundies. Especially if Biden loses since the corporations/DNC will throw the Woke Left under the bus and won't be able to rely on China like before.

There's also the issue of WOTC being based in Seattle, which Hasbro might put the kaibash on and relocate WOTC to somewhere else if Seattle continues going to shit and keeps good on their promises of defunding and abolishing the police

You'd be surprised at how willing to commit business suicide these retards are.

A smart person would've printed a 50th anniversary errata or special run book, or a new short splat compendium of all the odd rules but reworked for 5e (allignment languages, miscibility, spell volume, THAC0). Or just print out the more popular with a few lesser known modules, like Keep to the Borderlands or Greyhawk 2000.

But woke thinking means you don't think about product, you think about preaching with product, and money doesn't factor for these mongs.

 

[MAPK phosphatase]

remember reading some western isekai timetravel novel, where the main dude commented even while he was doing sports it was nowhere near comparable to someone training and using a longbow (which apparently needs more strength to pull) all his life. no idea how realistic it is, but it would make sense. modern law enforcement etc has their drills and stuff, highly doubt they didn't have something similar to get good with their gear back then, especially when their lives depended on it.

When the value of longbowmen was known (about the 13th century during the hundred year war) it was mandated by law in England that men practice with a longbow on Sundays and Holidays, and they probably practiced more often. The constant use of a longbow was so intense it altered their skeletons. We can tell which people were longbowmen and which weren't by looking at their bones. Because they trained from a young age, the constant strain of using a longbow meant that bones in their shoulder never fused (something that happens around the age of 18 ). Their bones were (and I guess they still are) physically bigger than the bones of people who don't do constant, strenuous strength training. I don't know if the book is accurate, but shooting high poundage longbows is strenuous and difficult.

 

[LTO Data Cartridge]

but shooting high poundage longbows is strenuous and difficult.

It's pretty simple, since all the force of the arrow has to be produced by the bowman, but I imagine that the fantasy image of the "thin agile elven bow user" has become ubiquitous enough that people don't think about it.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

DnD 6th edition will come prepackaged with a free dilator.

 

[Juke and Jam]

DnD 6th edition will come prepackaged with a free dilator.

And a noose made from fifty feet of hemp rope.

 

[Coffee Druid]

Saw this cross my social media site of choice today. The sculpting and details are all really good, I'll give it that. The cleric (top right) creeps me out though. And I would never tell a player they can't play a character in a wheel chair. But...logistically they would not beas helpful. For a magic user who stays back and casts spells or summons creatures to fight it would be fine tbh. But when you get into melee fighters on wheelchairs, how? Don't get me started on the rogue in a wheelchair...

What's their movement speed in these? It would also occupy their hands if they ever need to use them for weapons, tools, or spellcasting while moving. Maybe they move by "magic". Either way I'm not talking about actual people who need chairs. I'm just wondering how characters like this in an action setting would be as useful. I dunno. The original page that posted this is getting super butthurt over people even just asking "why?" or pointing out questions they have.

Edit: plus there's also a ton of people saying "well that's nice, but what about canes, service dogs, blind characters/missing limbs/etc etc."

 

[WinchesterPremium]

Saw this cross my social media site of choice today. The sculpting and details are all really good, I'll give it that. The cleric (top right) creeps me out though. And I would never tell a player they can't play a character in a wheel chair. But...logistically they would not beas helpful. For a magic user who stays back and casts spells or summons creatures to fight it would be fine tbh. But when you get into melee fighters on wheelchairs, how? Don't get me started on the rogue in a wheelchair...

What's their movement speed in these? It would also occupy their hands if they ever need to use them for weapons, tools, or spellcasting while moving. Maybe they move by "magic". Either way I'm not talking about actual people who need chairs. I'm just wondering how characters like this in an action setting would be as useful. I dunno. The original page that posted this is getting super butthurt over people even just asking "why?" or pointing out questions they have.
View attachment 1522514

"Is this dungeon wheelchair accessible?"

"No, the Dark Lord specifically has all his important equipment up a flight of stairs because he is ableist. Roll to climb up with your arms?"

Disabled characters can work like any other character flaw if the setting and disability is right. DnD attracts the most because of NORMIES REEE, but it doesn't really fit well given that most disabilities can be cured with the snap of a finger with magic that any decent adventuring party will run into all the time. If you wanted to play Professor X in say, Call of Cthulhu as someone who is more cerebral and not expected to go somewhere you need feet for you could make an interesting character concept out of it. If you wanted to play a blind character you could roll up an Astropath in RT. Both are on opposite ends of the spectrum, one gives you a legitimate handicap from your handicap while the other is superficial and basically fixed by magic (like this wheelchair design is going for). These designs are well made but kinda square-peg-round-hole thing. There is no reason to put resources into building a magic wheelchair when anyone who would have access to a magic wheelchair would have access to someone who can just cure their legs. Unless its like a Freeza thing and they're just too lazy to walk.

It would be like me showing up to your game and insisting you give my character modern firearms in your setting just because I like them despite it not making sense with the rest of the world. Its probably something that you could get away with in a loony/wacky game but I don't see you using the exact same stick enough times that you would benefit from buying a miniature and it definitely wouldn't work for a serious "disabled people awareness" thing.

Like you want to play a more or less serious disabled person in an RPG? Pick the CoC example up there. Play Feng Shui and invent wheel-chair fu (I think this was in some of the art). Play Hunter the Vigil as a first/second tier - you know how Onyx Path is so they made rules for disabilities that you can get points for. There are plenty of games with your choice of anything from "this wheelchair doesn't hold me back!" to "Oh my god they're gaining on me I wish I could run for my life". There just...isn't any reason to play a wheel chair in any setting where people can casually replace lost limbs unless you just want to be a special snowflake.

 

[Coffee Druid]

"Is this dungeon wheelchair accessible?"

"No, the Dark Lord specifically has all his important equipment up a flight of stairs because he is ableist. Roll to climb up with your arms?"

Disabled characters can work like any other character flaw if the setting and disability is right. DnD attracts the most because of NORMIES REEE, but it doesn't really fit well given that most disabilities can be cured with the snap of a finger with magic that any decent adventuring party will run into all the time. If you wanted to play Professor X in say, Call of Cthulhu as someone who is more cerebral and not expected to go somewhere you need feet for you could make an interesting character concept out of it. If you wanted to play a blind character you could roll up an Astropath in RT. Both are on opposite ends of the spectrum, one gives you a legitimate handicap from your handicap while the other is superficial and basically fixed by magic (like this wheelchair design is going for). These designs are well made but kinda square-peg-round-hole thing. There is no reason to put resources into building a magic wheelchair when anyone who would have access to a magic wheelchair would have access to someone who can just cure their legs. Unless its like a Freeza thing and they're just too lazy to walk.

It would be like me showing up to your game and insisting you give my character modern firearms in your setting just because I like them despite it not making sense with the rest of the world. Its probably something that you could get away with in a loony/wacky game but I don't see you using the exact same stick enough times that you would benefit from buying a miniature and it definitely wouldn't work for a serious "disabled people awareness" thing.

Like you want to play a more or less serious disabled person in an RPG? Pick the CoC example up there. Play Feng Shui and invent wheel-chair fu (I think this was in some of the art). Play Hunter the Vigil as a first/second tier - you know how Onyx Path is so they made rules for disabilities that you can get points for. There are plenty of games with your choice of anything from "this wheelchair doesn't hold me back!" to "Oh my god they're gaining on me I wish I could run for my life". There just...isn't any reason to play a wheel chair in any setting where people can casually replace lost limbs unless you just want to be a special snowflake.

Yeah. Some GMs I've played with make it so that if you get crit/hit hard enough, you may risk losing an eye or a limb. We've had a player lose a hand. That's easily fixed by prosthetics (magic or otherwise) or just sucking it up and not using two handed weapons anymore. If a character cannot walk, why even use a bulky wheelchair? Why not just make it so you are able to teleport, fly or levitate instead? Maybe ride a mount that can actually attack and carry your gear too? There's lots of options tbh.

Maybe I am a "you can't have fun" person. Like I said before I really don't care if a player makes it work for them and it doesn't get in the way. But if it slows down games or we have to keep figuring out how to get this character places others can go just fine, it could get a little tiresome.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

Saw this cross my social media site of choice today. The sculpting and details are all really good, I'll give it that. The cleric (top right) creeps me out though. And I would never tell a player they can't play a character in a wheel chair. But...logistically they would not beas helpful. For a magic user who stays back and casts spells or summons creatures to fight it would be fine tbh. But when you get into melee fighters on wheelchairs, how? Don't get me started on the rogue in a wheelchair...

What's their movement speed in these? It would also occupy their hands if they ever need to use them for weapons, tools, or spellcasting while moving. Maybe they move by "magic". Either way I'm not talking about actual people who need chairs. I'm just wondering how characters like this in an action setting would be as useful. I dunno. The original page that posted this is getting super butthurt over people even just asking "why?" or pointing out questions they have.

Edit: plus there's also a ton of people saying "well that's nice, but what about canes, service dogs, blind characters/missing limbs/etc etc."
View attachment 1522514

The design is pretty cool. You have to give them that. And I could see this being a nice thing for someone who is in a wheelchair, not so much to play but rather as a nice little miniature to paint and maybe use in a diorama or something...

But in terms of a player character? Hoo boy. Outside of some silly gimmicky one-off adventure, I can't see why this should exist based on what @WinchesterPremium already said.
Fantasy/Medieval settings don't mix with this stuff. Either you got magical means to heal people or you've got no means to heal them and they are a burden to an adventuring party, which no one would want to deal with. Even if it's just a caster that stays back during combat, what when you have to travel to another city, what when you have to flee through a mountain forest?

This might be a great character concept for a game like Shadowrun, where you're playing a quadriplegic Rigger, that controls robots and hacks into systems while being bedridden. But with fantasy, the concept doesn't mix at all.

 

[Memento Malum]

My issue isn't even the whole "Is this practical" thing. It's that, if you have a disability like that, why the hell would you want to play a character with the same disability? Wouldn't you want to play somebody who is good at what you personally aren't? We're in a fantasy world where the only limit is your imagination and these idiots want to be restrained by their own physical limitations! What?

 

[MAPK phosphatase]

What's their movement speed in these?

Spoiler: GURPS Autism

In GURPS you have a ground move of 1/4 ST (round down) yards per second. So If you are an average Joe with 10 strength that's 2 yards per second over ideal terrain, such as a level sidewalk. Corollary to that is staircases, steep curbs, and narrow-doorways cannot be negotiated. You are at a -6 to use any skill that requires your legs, meaning melee weapons and unarmed combat but not ranged combat.
There are also rules for magical or high-tech/ultra-tech assistance and four (technically five) different variants of "legs don't work", but I'm not going to get into those.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Alright, time for some sperging...

Skyrim's guards didn't say "I used to be an adventurer like you, then I took an arrow to the knee. Then I kept being an adventurer on crutches for another 30 years, retired with a small dragon's hoard and I'm now a guard just to pass the time". The arrow to the knee was enough to cut their career short because it hobbled them and made it so they couldn't keep fighting properly. It gave them a handicap. Despite the current fascination with "subverting expectations", not every handicap makes you "handicapable".

And of course, no one who claims "it's realistic!" is thinking about just how fragile a wheelchair is. Even if it's made of wood and built real sturdy, you still have at least four moving parts there and the moment your character falls from any height or gets bashed around by an ogre's club those wheels are going to splinter, go flying, or the axles are going to bend. Or the thing is going to be on its side, or on top of the character. Not to mention wheels are made for smooth surfaces: all sorts of perfectly normal walking terrain like gravel, forest paths, dirt/sand floors, rough-hewn caves, fresh corpses scattered around from the previous encounter... they're all suddenly Difficult Terrain.

And if you look at the models, they all have things in their hands. How are they going to be moving with their hands full? Characters in D&D are assumed to occupy a 5-foot square because they're constantly bobbing and weaving in order to retain their AC, and also lunging and swinging when they're attacking. You can't do that on a wheelchair while also swinging a weapon or waving a staff around. You might as well just stick blades on the wheels, make a charge build and go full Queen Boudica.

In short,
It's a fucking fantasy setting. There are more practical solutions.

Just hire a half-orc/goliath to carry your character on their back until you can get their legs fixed (or the Wizard finally deigns to learn how to cast Tenser's Floating Disk). Chances are said half-orc/goliath would deal more damage than your pansy-ass character would in combat anyway. And there's a nice bonus: you get to play two characters for a while. Get some banter going between Yzma the Crippled Sorceress and her carrier Kronk the Int 5 Human Fighter.

 

[Coffee Druid]

My issue isn't even the whole "Is this practical" thing. It's that, if you have a disability like that, why the hell would you want to play a character with the same disability? Wouldn't you want to play somebody who is good at what you personally aren't? We're in a fantasy world where the only limit is your imagination and these idiots want to be restrained by their own physical limitations! What?

Now that you mention it, I've never played a character that is exactly like me. I've played almost every race in D&D, I play a badass old woman in a sci fi game setting. I've played the opposite gender, really short characters, some with scales, etc. And if you're going by things like stats, I doubt I'm actually as good in any stat in real life. With tabletop games you have the freedom to play anything, not just yourself.

 

[WinchesterPremium]

The design is pretty cool. You have to give them that. And I could see this being a nice thing for someone who is in a wheelchair, not so much to play but rather as a nice little miniature to paint and maybe use in a diorama or something...

But in terms of a player character? Hoo boy. Outside of some silly gimmicky one-off adventure, I can't see why this should exist based on what @WinchesterPremium already said.
Fantasy/Medieval settings don't mix with this stuff. Either you got magical means to heal people or you've got no means to heal them and they are a burden to an adventuring party, which no one would want to deal with. Even if it's just a caster that stays back during combat, what when you have to travel to another city, what when you have to flee through a mountain forest?

This might be a great character concept for a game like Shadowrun, where you're playing a quadriplegic Rigger, that controls robots and hacks into systems while being bedridden. But with fantasy, the concept doesn't mix at all.

I could see it working like CD said, with a Steel Ball Run solution with the characters just sitting on a mount all the time (which on its own could be an interesting character trait), or go piggy back on a larger character. If someone came to one of my Fantasy games and said they want to play a character that can't walk in a setting they can't just be healed I'd probably work something out with them.

My issue isn't even the whole "Is this practical" thing. It's that, if you have a disability like that, why the hell would you want to play a character with the same disability? Wouldn't you want to play somebody who is good at what you personally aren't? We're in a fantasy world where the only limit is your imagination and these idiots want to be restrained by their own physical limitations! What?

Some people just like to self insert. They don't want their character to be a super cool guy who walks around killing things, they want to be the super cool guy who walks around killing things. Not like we're in a position to judge over the relative lameness of those two positions.

 

[ZMOT]

Fantasy/Medieval settings don't mix with this stuff. Either you got magical means to heal people or you've got no means to heal them and they are a burden to an adventuring party, which no one would want to deal with. Even if it's just a caster that stays back during combat, what when you have to travel to another city, what when you have to flee through a mountain forest?

b-but it's fantasy, it's not realistic at all! I can be whatever I want!