A roleplayer frustrated at the structure of our society. She/her.
Seoni, the iconic sorcerer of Pathfinder.
I’ll note that one thing that bugs me about the Sorcerer class *is* that, despite how fairly early in D&D 3e’s life there was a Dragon article talking about many alternative ways to have innate magic other than being born with it, both D&D itself and Pathfinder after it doubled down on the “magical bloodline” lore and terminology.
My preference is more “wizards have an education, warlocks have a magic sugar daddy, sorcerers have a superhero origin”.
While the Eberron setting doesn’t directly tie dragonmarks to the Sorcerer class, it does explore hereditary magic as a privilege. In general, if you’re not of the bloodlines who are “supposed to” get particular constructive magic and want to go into business using that magic, you need to either sign a contract with the appropriate Dragonmarked House or they’ll go Pinkerton on your ass. This cuts the other way, too, where anyone in the House with such powers is pressured to participate.
One idea that pops to mind is simply learning about the strange and sometimes dangerous flora and fauna of a new region… or, more fantastically, about its spirits. Rather than having the tension come from the usual “and we need to find X kind of resource to exploit in the process” (since that’s more colonialist thinking), there should be a dawning realization that the region itself is in danger from something the PCs need to stop.
Have to agree about six. The classic D&D videogames didn’t choose a party size of 6 by accident in their designs.
That being said, the push towards four instead definitely started in 3.0’s playtesting, on the assumption that parties would have one of each basic archetype (warrior, rogue, arcane caster, divine caster) for some reason. It probably also had a lot to do with how scheduling a dedicated table becomes exponentially more difficult with each added player.
Essentially, yes.
PCs having grievances can happen too, but it tends to be more of an intermediate technique than a basic one for players, and dependent on them already having a solid understanding of the setting.
The first thing to understand about how to have NPCs with legitimate grievances be a thing in a TTRPG is to imagine the world as a real one and the NPCs as people within that world. If you’re just thinking of the setting as a flat backdrop for gameplay and the NPCs as colorful questgivers whose protection is a thin excuse for the plot to happen, then you’re not going to be thinking in terms of things like what needs various NPCs might have and why they’re unfulfilled or violated.
Thing is, your typical clear-out-the-humanoid-tribe dungeon crawl could be considered pretty evil in its own right by modern standards. Just putting an emphasis on how much that old trope would actually involve disrupting lives and destroying families could be enough, depending on what she’s going for.
@ICCrawler @Zagorath
You can still buy materials from their store. I think they’re counting on that alone to prop it up.
@PugJesus
Proper alt text: A large terracotta jar sits outdoorsm next to a wall and the window the camera is looking through. From within its darkness peers a pair of feline eyes, framed by a barely-visible black cat’s face.
@caseyweederman @Aielman15
Keep in mind that a lot of people outside the hobby have never even heard of Pathfinder. Even knowing that there’s such a thing as *editions* of D&D is unusual outside the hobby.
I’m not saying that lore is unnecessary or undesirable. I’m saying that historically, it was never included as part of what counted as “crunch”, and at the time was even taken to be its opposite.
Back in the '90s, when the term “crunch” arose, “fluff” arose alongside it to describe things like background detail and other things that would be called “lore” in a post-WoW world. So it’s a little weird to see background detail held up alongside the other kinds in this article.
Only self-professed haters? Tell that to the corporations firing people to replace them with “AI” that can’t actually do their jobs correctly.
The kinds of people who find replacing artists a “desirable purpose” do not belong in a creative community.
I’m thoroughly unconvinced by the argument that because giant corporations are doing evil things, the little guy ought to as well in order to “compete”, and treating “AI” art as the only kind that will be posted either way.
It’s meant to be a high bar forever.
“Generative AI” is a scam perpetrated by people who hate artists, while envying their capacity to create art, while also not understanding what art really is. Period.
So you’re arguing so hard to replace artists because you already don’t value them?
Nope, it isn’t.
Cheaters should never be allowed to prosper. It undermines the entire idea that creative work is of value, and will inevitably lead to a day when artists are seen as as much of a piece of scum on someone’s shoe as cashiers are.
Referring back to my “sorcerers have a superhero origin” proposal elsewhere in this discussion… one of the Dragon suggestions for an alternative source of inherent magical power is being the subject of magical or alchemical experimentation.
In Eberron, since it just came out of a massive war that involved advancements in combat magic and artifice, it’s easy to imagine that type of origin specifically manifesting as “Captain America, but a sorcerer”.