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

[The Ugly One]

It's no wonder Wizards is nosediving so bad if they're pressuring writers to use AI and also turn over all of their creative output. What incentive would someone have to do anything to exercise their brain muscles if there was a chance that it was going to be stolen by their boss at some point?

Have you literally ever worked anywhere in your life? Because "creating IP the company owns" is just called "the job."

 

[Judge Dredd]

All of this could be avoided if they were willing to create and commit to a new flagship setting

Unpopular opinion, but I think they tried, but they couldn't because of what @Ghostse said.

I don't think it's a coincidence that three companies dropped settings based on multiverse hopping around the same time. I hate the multiverse, but at least it points to them seeing something popular and wanting to cash in. Same with Stryx. Harry Potter with the serial numbers filed off is not for me, but at least there was a market. They just botched it with gay prom. And of course, Radiant Citadel. Again, completely fucked by trying to make Wakanda but communist utopia.

Any new setting they made would be rejected by the fanbase. But they should do it anyway and stick to their guns. That would require them making something good, which they wont.

Autism, but if I was given the job, here's what I'd do. For a base I'd do something like Nentir Vale in terms of size and scope. I would make it an inherently optimistic setting unironically full of dungeons, dragons, and kidnapped princesses. I'd take a page from Eberron (of course) and have no powerful hero NPCs. And that do exist are busy with something else or severely limited. It's up to the PCs to save the day. One of my longest running player factions in my campaigns was a university. The players were professors, though students and support staff were an option. More Indiana Jones than Harry Potter, but there's your magic school if players want that. Finally (and most controversial) I'd introduce anaomlies or lost tech into DnD. The goal would be to introduce liminal/SCP/Creepypasta type adventures. DnD is no stranger to laser guns, mythos, and gothic horror, so some more modern genre in there wouldn't be too much of a stretch. And would be optional of course.

I hope you're wrong, but godspeed.

Thanks.

It doesn't mean I have to play 5e. It's just easier to recruit if it is.

If the contracts require exclusivity and claim ownership of all work the artists do for the duration, that's the kind of stuff Disney has been criticized for for ages now.

I doubt WotC wants to maintain a porn vault either.

Allegedly, Disney has a lot of porn of their characters in the Disney vault because of rules like that and artists drawing it as protest. Disney keeps it as per the contract.

 

[CrunkLord420]

If you really wanna play but can't find anyone you can also try Solo RPGs. But they arent everyones cup of tea and some systems arent really good for doing solo.

Soloing is underrated. Mythic GM Emulator verbosely explains a good methodology. My own methodology has largely converged back onto it, going full circle.

To evangelize, here's an example of a guy following GME rules as written while playing Classic Traveller. He does a good job demonstrating the basic technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nERZ6mLC1l0

I feel like I've had a breakthrough using LLMs and have mitigated the biggest issues. I now engage in casual conversation with the LLM, tentatively discussing scenes, asking for suggestions, estimated probabilities (interrupts) and generating d4 outcome tables that replace the use of traditional oracle tables. Hallucinations don't matter because it's just a conversation, you just say "that's fucking stupid" and move on. LLM generated outcome tables significantly increases the speed of play. Pulling tarots and trying to figure out how your scene is related to The Hanged Man (Reversed) can be tough.

If the Aslan are anything, they're lions, no idea how you could mistake the two. If any alien race would be tiger people, it's the Kzinti from Known Space. The "dolphin people" are just uplifted dolphins that know how to talk.

I just assume there's a uplifted version of all animals. Traveller is a furry game. WRITERS MODERATELY DISGUISED FETISH. It's like proto-furry before the modern style kicked in.

 

[Samuel Fuller]

What job was that?

Mopping the floors of the men's room at the Greyhound depot.

 

[Ghostse]

That's interesting, because I didn't think WotC kept a lot of artists in the office itself. It used to be (some 15 years ago, when I last checked) that they had the art director and a small team of concept artists working with him. Once they had a new set concept nailed down, they would then hand out assignments (including concept art) to the "main" artists on payroll. Those artists were given briefs outlining what to do and a deadline, and they bounced ideas with the art director until Wizards was happy with the result. Even back when they still painted on actual canvas, very few artists were actually in WotC HQ at any given time, I'm pretty sure they just mailed their finished works.

I suppose they would need a lot more in-house concept artists with how incredibly top-down and gimmicky MTG sets have been these past 10 years, but still. If the contracts require exclusivity and claim ownership of all work the artists do for the duration, that's the kind of stuff Disney has been criticized for for ages now. If that's the case, I would give them that one singular argument.

I'm not overly familiar with how WotC/MTG operates, it sounds like mostly their game company is revolting (it wouldn't so bad if they'd bathe! HEY-O!) and all the other leeches are wanting to come along for the ride.

I thought they mostly used contract artists as well for cards, but sounds like maybe they moved things in house. Which is odd because creatives are usually not unionized due to the unique personal ability nature of the work, and usually only are in guilds.

Have you literally ever worked anywhere in your life? Because "creating IP the company owns" is just called "the job."

Not always true (though mostly true now) it depends on what sort of employee you are and your contract. If you are on a salaried W-2, that is pretty much as described: your employer owns everything you make for them.
A lot of hired guns (especially the smarter ones) will retain rights to their work product: from the ability to take code or assets with them to another contact, to the ability to post code or art to a blog or social media (i.e. github, artstation) or otherwise use in a portfolio as they solicit other work.
Some hired guns in media specifically get paid wholly or partly in royalties/license, and they retain significant rights to those works as the treatment of those works influences their paychecks from royalties (And again, the smart ones have in contracts "if you want to create another Pillowbiter the Twink Tiefling novel, you must give me the developer of the character right of first refusal")

This rights morass is why media companies have decided to just put all their creatives on W-2 salaried positions. The inability of these faggots to read or think more than 5 minutes into the future is causing much butthurt as they realize they were pissing their pants in the snow taking the salary instead of the royalties.
They can be fired at any time, and left with nothing but their savings (which they have none because they are retards), instead of the old guard who would just shrug and keep cashing their royalty checks while waiting for the next gig.

anyway, in the computer janitor world, there is a clause in every job I've had for a while about how they own your work product. Having worked on a personal side project I sold to an employer (said employer was 5000% on board with me doing this. It was a risk-free way for them have me develop a thing they needed. So I got a legal professional to walk me through how to document and ensure my work product was mine and not my W-2 salaried employer, including making sure to always always always use my own equipment. Don't even plug in a keyboard and mouse from the employer. Try to not even work on it during lunchbreaks.) technically anything you make on your own time is yours, but if your employer feels like being a dick unless you have solid documentation they can try to come after to claim rights.


I also worked at a big-tech employer who explicitly said the opposite in their contract: anything outside of work hours was yours, please please contribute to as many FOSS projects as you can please please please keep your skills sharp and interact with other software writers so you can get them to give you a resume to send to HR and the company can hire them please please please please please. Please make a start up, please develop something that we can use, please keep us informed on the progress so we can buy it up early please please pretty please. We are explicitly allowing you to use work equipment as long as its not misappropriated and ownership is clearly with us. The useless faggots abusing this system are vastly, vastly outweighed by savings from productive employee morale and having candidates already lined up for openings. So please do it we are begging you.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Honestly, from how this situation reads it looks like WotC is just doing what it's been doing ever since they thinned down their recurring artist portfolio (Kevin Walker, Greg Staples, Anson Maddocks, John Avon, Mark Tedin, etc.): harvest a bunch of new and inexperienced artists from ArtStation as their first Big Industry Job™, slap an abusive contract on them while they're still all starry-eyed, milk them for all they're worth over a couple of years, then dump them and go trawling through ArtStation again when they start asking for more money or input in the product.

Wizards has perfected the art treadmill in ways only rivaled by Chinese gacha companies.

 

[Sleazy Car Salesman]

slap an abusive contract on them while they're still all starry-eyed, milk them for all they're worth over a couple of years, then dump them and go trawling through ArtStation again when they start asking for more money or input in the product.

The FASA playbook.

 

[Sayer of the N-Word]

Have you literally ever worked anywhere in your life? Because "creating IP the company owns" is just called "the job."

I've never had to sign away something so broad, it's always been "on company time or with company resources".

Finally (and most controversial) I'd introduce anaomlies or lost tech into DnD. The goal would be to introduce liminal/SCP/Creepypasta type adventures. DnD is no stranger to laser guns, mythos, and gothic horror, so some more modern genre in there wouldn't be too much of a stretch. And would be optional of course.

Bring back Blackmoor!

 

[strawberry15]

Been looking at 3.5th edition of D&D, and i feel cheated.
It has been 13 years since i last played it so my memory of it was fond but also vague. Because i have been gaslighted into pathfinder being the better game, i have been dm'ing a pf1e game for 10 weeks or so. Recently i wanted to check some 3.5 books for feats, inspirations and stuff, i noticed nearly every selling point to pathgfinder is a lie.

They fixed the martials​

they did not. they added cool options to paladins, i really like them. i like the idea that fighters can have weapon mastery etc. but they actually made it worse. because the action economy dictates fighters either need to have a full-round action or some busted combination to work. Even though classes have more feats, and of couse fighters has even more feats, but the feats are very underpowered. 3.5 did not had any feet tax as heavy as this one. combat feats are not as effective as the 3.5 edition and because of it you need to have more feats to do something you can do in 3rd edition. CMD CMB system is cool but in the long run it is uneccessary and also not scaling well. Both cmd and cmb incease in monsters outpaces the players. therefore in the loıng run, a build of trip or grapple or bullrush becomes inefficient even if you have spoent your feats to them. A medium outsider will always have a better scaling CMD and CMB than the player. so even with heavy feat taxing, you could still not reliably use manuvers against a creature of the same cr as you. even though in 3.5 rules for grappling for example seem harder because the size modifier is much more than pf, in reality it is not. Again, i still like CMB and CMD because they arte still very useful.
>They have cool classes
no they do not. they gave all classes, special tricks, a pool of powers for the sake of *balance* but it is boring. I really like occult classes as concepts, but they suck. psycic magic is so idiotic that they had to nerf other magic in a FAQ to make them seem useful. They are still idiotically bad. Classes like Magus or Kinticist is cool, they are usable, they have their niche, but i prefer 3.5 versions (duskblade etc.) still i can really apreciate how most of them are built. But classes still suffer from the dread of unbalancing, or having rerally interesting mechanics/ builds.

Casters are not overpowered​

No they are still overpowered. it is harder to deal with a caster in pf, the concentration scales automatically, and there are very few things you can do to bypass their ability to take a 5 foot step. here is a demonstration of how they devalued a valid 3.5 feat to be balanced but failed to actually effect the gameplay:

Mage Slayer​

You have studied the ways and weaknesses of spellcasters and can time your attacks and defenses against them expertly.

Prerequisite​

Spellcraft 2 ranks, base attack bonus +3,

Required for​

Pierce Magical Concealment (CAr) , Pierce Magical Protection (CAr) ,

Benefit​

You gain a +1 bonus on Will saving throws. Spellcasters you threaten may not cast defensively (they automatically fail their Concentration checks to do so), but they are aware that they cannot cast defensively while being threatened by a character with this feat.

Special​

Taking this feat reduces your caster level for all your spells and spell-like abilities by 4.

Disruptive (Combat)​

Your training makes it difficult for enemy spellcasters to safely cast spells near you.

Prerequisites: 6th-level fighter.

Benefit: The DC to cast spells defensively increases by +4 for all enemies that are within your threatened area. This increase to casting spells defensively only applies if you are aware of the enemy’s location and are capable of taking an attack of opportunity. If you can only take one attack of opportunity per round and have already used that attack, this increase does not apply.

Both have feat trees but the superior tree is also belongs to 3.5. Pierce Magical Concealment, Pierce Magical protection, blind fighting. Follow Disruptive with other feats, you would have 5 feats to do nothing worth a damn. Thank gods we do not have polymorphing CoDzillas, but now we have less ways to deal with spellcasters as martials.

Mics​

Skill system seemed nice to me, i really liked how fewer and more meaningful sıkills we have. i also believed +3 skill bonus to be superior to 3.5 but i was mistaken. First of all of course they share similar weaknesses and problems so i am not going to claim the skill system in 3.5 is the best but in many weays it is superior. it gives you more points to spend and you can actually spend them in more variety. instead of having +4 in one skill, you can choose to have +1 in 4 skills or +2 in two skills etc. Secondly, there are no rank differance between skills in pf, and i hate it. In 3.5, when you develop a non class skill in 3.5 it can at most be 11 ranks+ modifiers+ feat bonuses. while it is very low when you compare it to a class skill (23+mod+feat) you are still compotent and can even deal with high dc situations with ease, it is just that very high and above becomes more of a challange. In PF the only differance between a ncs and a cs il +3. this skill design made rogue and unchained rogue the worst class in the game even though the fans believe the unchained version is the best!!! Bards are now superior in skill, trhe sneak attack is useless and rogue overall is a dead class.
Speaking of Bards, their performance being rounds instead of x times per day is a stupid stupid thing to do. my god the class known for singing cannot sing for more than a couple of rounds, amazing. THe same thing is also correct for barbarians and their rage abilities. after the overall nerf to martial classes and rage ability, the rage powers may seem li,kle a nice buff but in reality, they maimed this class then sold it a fancy wheel chair.
The subsystems also suck. people bashed 4e for being an mmorpg, but having building points, intrigue points, hoınor points, capital points, provision points is neither smart or good. they are stupid and inconsistent idiotic systems. This is gamification in the worst way possible.
I fell into a trap, and i never even liked one ounce of pf in my entire life, but i wanted to give it a benefit of doubt and i actually called pf better than 3.5 for years. Paizo fans are retards.

 

[Adamska]

Looks like a bunch of the useless WOTC workers sent a letter to Hasbro with demands or they will strike. Their top demand is the want total immunity from being fired. For anything.

That's comical given that Hasbro actually despises that branch of their company and puts all the mongoloids there. I wouldn't be shocked if the response was just to fire them all and then fire the people who also strike. Because this is the Antarctica assignment for the company. The only reason they're even keeping it is because of magic and that's already a killed Golden goose.

Oh and Pathfinder being rebalanced? I knew that was a load of horse crap the moment I took a look at how their clerics work. They're actually more broken and they were in 3.5, and the only one of the three most broken casting classes that actually got Nerfed were druids which were the weakest of the lot to begin with.

 

[Judge Dredd]

I wouldn't be shocked if the response was just to fire them all and then fire the people who also strike.

A bit off topic, but I've noticed this with movies and video games too. Unions that are shit at their jobs and go on strike at the worst possible time. They're just asking to be fired. And if those other industries are anything to go by, they'll keep a few, fire the rest, and both sides will say they got everything they asked for.

i wanted to give it a benefit of doubt and i actually called pf better than 3.5 for years. Paizo fans are retards.

Is it possible that both suck?

 

[AnOminous]

(I am generally a fan of remote work, and I feel if remote work is hurting a company's productivity it says more about the company's management and inability to define productivity goals than it says about their workers. But I also know a number of useless work-shy faggots that really do need a boss breathing down their neck 8 to 5 or they'll get nothing productive done - and I'm assuming 100% of WotC's workforce is useless workshy faggots)

Every time I've done "remote work" it's been shit that's measurable, that is, you do X amount and you get X pay. So you get paid for what you actually do. This has to be the most fair pay scheme. Do X work, get X pay. I wish every job I had had a similar pay schedule.

 

[strawberry15]

Is it possible that both suck?

The point is not 3.5 not sucking, The point is how over the years the arguments in favor of Pathfinder is built on a lie.

 

[Ghostse]

The point is not 3.5 not sucking, The point is how over the years the arguments in favor of Pathfinder is built on a lie.

3.5 has some very.... glaring issues. Pozzio made an effort to streamline some of the.... less well-worded rules and streamline some systems. The larger issue, as you point out, is that their solution was largely just bolting on new subsystems, and I've posted before, the issue is that all those subsystems have only one meaningful way to interact with the rest of the game, and that is adjusting the result of a D20. (and what wasnt bolting on new systems was Caster Supremacy)

All that said, I hate PF and vastly prefer 3.5 as its significantly less sweaty.

I think 3.5's greatest failing is the skill system. I will say while I appreciate 4/5's "Untrained/Trained/Feat-boosted" simplicity I wish there was a bit more granulatity without the absolute infinite black hole of 3.5's bottomless pit of skill point autism.

---

just noodling on it while writing this post, I would say maybe have a "Beginner/Intermediate/Expert" level of training for skills. You get a "Beginner" on all class skills, and your subclass/Class option determines what you get Intermediate in, and have expert be... maybe something you get at certain levels in class progression? Maybe a feeat/something you can pick instead of a stat boost?
Going B->I->Ex would be exponential/logarithmic, so it'd be possible to stack class/background/race 'beginner' bonuses to an Intermediate but the jump to Expert would be nigh impossible.

 

[strawberry15]

I think 3.5's greatest failing is the skill system. I will say while I appreciate 4/5's "Untrained/Trained/Feat-boosted" simplicity I wish there was a bit more granulatity without the absolute infinite black hole of 3.5's bottomless pit of skill point autism.

Pf2es skill system is kinda good as a middle point.

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

Pathfinder 1E is a case of 'they didn't fix enough things'. Having dealt with a large pool of PF1E players, there's absolutely no argument that Paizo did not do enough to address the multiple elephants in the room.

Feat taxes, for example. The issues with mobility versus full attack. Caster primacy. I know they wanted to keep the game close to 3E for backwards compatibility, but sheesh. Multiclassing became less effective (since staying in your class meant more benefits) although clever builds could take dips to make up for missing feats and proficiencies (unsurprisingly, the fighter was a popular one-level dip).

Skills have been my special hell for 3E and PF1 for years. As far as I'm concerned, 3E's designers can eat a bag of dicks, and Paizo can have the leftovers. Huge list of skills; never, ever enough skill ranks unless you run something like a rogue or PF1's investigator. The funny part is that clearly WotC learned nothing, as getting skill proficiency's a bear after character creation n 5E.

 

[strawberry15]

Fighter should have at least 4 + int skills. Bonus feats are not a justification. Overall the skıll point distribution is bad. But i am still fond of skills.
Then again i am an ad&d dm myself so i do not play those games often.

 

[Judge Dredd]

just noodling on it while writing this post, I would say maybe have a "Beginner/Intermediate/Expert" level of training for skills. You get a "Beginner" on all class skills, and your subclass/Class option determines what you get Intermediate in, and have expert be... maybe something you get at certain levels in class progression? Maybe a feeat/something you can pick instead of a stat boost?
Going B->I->Ex would be exponential/logarithmic, so it'd be possible to stack class/background/race 'beginner' bonuses to an Intermediate but the jump to Expert would be nigh impossible.

That's basically how PF2 handles it. It has some problems, but one thing I like is the system unlocks stuff you can use at different tiers. Like new actions.

Skills have been my special hell for 3E and PF1 for years. As far as I'm concerned, 3E's designers can eat a bag of dicks, and Paizo can have the leftovers. Huge list of skills; never, ever enough skill ranks unless you run something like a rogue or PF1's investigator

I have vague memories of playing a skill monkey in one of the PF1 campaigns. The amount of skill points I ended up with was insane. Iirc I had +15 in some skills.

 

[strawberry15]

If only 4e was developed a bit more in the skill/ downtime field…

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

Fighter should have at least 4 + int skills. Bonus feats are not a justification. Overall the skıll point distribution is bad. But i am still fond of skills.
Then again i am an ad&d dm myself so i do not play those games often.

I'd offer 8 + Int mod, and here's why:

The fighter already has a tough time keeping parity in combat. But his uselessness outside of combat is just insulting. Granting him the same ranks as the rogue at least moves him into parity with that class.