Aaron The Pedantic

Stop Pretending Harry Potter Magic Doesn't Suck Attack Cantrips are, by far, one of the most ill conceived leftovers from 4e's combat focused design. Truly, there is no real need for them in Fifth Edition. Nearly everything that could be looked at as a gap in design that necessitates these free damage tossers is addressed by some other aspect of the game. Here's why attack cantrips rustle all of my jimmies... They Belittle Mundane Attackers First thing's first. Your level1 caster doesn't expend any resources at all when they use a cantrip.  Anyone who uses ranged weaponry is suddenly at a disadvantage if they're tracking ammunition.  If you aren't tracking ammunition, there are many knockdown effects that follow, as demonstrated here:  Youtube: Why Resources Matter in D&D .  What about the melee attacker who decides to throw a weapon?  Are they expected to track THAT ammunition?  Yes?  Why?  Why is it that arrows are expected to be infinite, b...

The Player Experience in 5E vs OSR, a Brief Comparison (Skip to next session if you want the bullet points) In Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons, player characters are heroes. From the very beginning, 5e PCs are well beyond the capabilities of the average populace.  They have above average ability scores, they get a full hit die + CON HP, Spellcasters start with several spells to choose from with multiple castings per day and cantrips they can use at-will. Martial classes start with benefits that put them significantly ahead of 1HD creatures, such as Fighting Styles, Second Wind, Martial Arts, etc. This also says nothing of the many skill proficiencies and expertise. This gap only increases as the game goes on. By contrast, games in the OSR tend to be far less charitable to starting characters. For a basis of comparison, we'll focus on Old School Essentials, as it's a direct retro-clone of one of the most foundational editions in the OSR, Moldvay B/X D&D from 1981.  Wha...

 THE QUESTION HATH BEEN RAISED!  The answer shall be found.  Hopefully. As anyone familiar with my blogging, my tweets, or my videos will know: I am mostly an amalgamation of a ton of incomplete thoughts.  Occasionally, those thoughts find something that makes sense, then they spit it out for others to see it and revise as needed.  Here's what I've got for magic items right now. 1. Risk vs. Reward This should be no surprise, especially to fans of old school gaming.  One of the things that really lights our fire for gaming is the desire to have to make difficult choices, and to see the ramifications of those choices.  This is the essence of role-playing (as opposed to telling a story/acting).  Here's your situation, what do you do?  Magic items have the capacity to introduce risk vs. reward in two ways.  Earning the magic item can be an exercise in risk vs. reward, and using the magic item can be an exercise in risk vs. reward. Perhaps th...

Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise is out!  I've got my greasy hands on the PDF and I'm going to take some time to try to give everyone an idea of what exactly this monster has.  And a monster, it is.  At 165 pages of main content and an additional 65 pages of appendices, Fuchsia Malaise gives you a hell of a lot for $15 (give or take).  Just how much quality is there in this massive quantity?  We'll see.  A few disclaimers: 1. I consider myself to be a good acquaintance of the author.  I backed the project and offered some feedback on the book during the editing process. 2. I was not given anything for doing this.  I paid for my PDF and for the hardcover. 3. The very nature of this review is going to be highly preferential.  Things that I say are something I dislike may be something that you appreciate and vice versa. 4. I'm currently running a Cha'alt game but have not (as of yet) been able to incorporate that much of Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise in my g...

  Why, Aaron, what an overly clickbait title you have, right? Reaction rolls.  If you've come across this blog, the likelihood that you know not only what reaction rolls are but also exactly how to use them is staggeringly high.  For the sake of everyone else, this is the idea. If you're unsure how a creature is going to react to the player characters, you roll two six-sided dice.  The higher the result of the roll, the more favorable they are to helping the player characters.  It uses a bell curve, so typically 7-9 is your fairly neutral average.  This is the chart from back in the early days. It may not be a surprise to anyone, but I don't use this chart exactly as it's written.  While I see the purpose of multiple rolls, I favor a single one, and I use it more than just for monsters. 2-5 Extreme hostility 6-7 Somewhat hostile 8-9 Neutral 10-11 Favorable 12 Helpful One may ask, "but Aaron!  This is completely random!  Why can't we consider ...

DISCLAIMER: ALL OF THIS RAMBLING IS SPEAKING WITH THE ASSUMPTION THAT YOU ARE PLAYING IN A SETTING THAT IS EITHER HUMANOCENTRIC OR VERY MIXED.  IF YOUR SETTING HAS ANOTHER RACE THAT'S THE MOST COMMON, SUBSTITUTE THAT FOR WHAT I'M SAYING HERE. I think there are a few reasons why people ultimately decide that they wish to play a nonhuman. 1. It sounds cool. 2. It looks cool. 3. It makes me better at something. #2, I don't really give a shit about.  There's nothing to really opine on.  You like how it looks? Awesome, go for it. Numbers 1 and 3 are where the real meat and potatoes are. It sounds cool, sure.  Why does it sound cool?  Is it because the lore surrounding the race is intriguing?  Perhaps there's a compelling history surrounding this race that strikes you as being fertile ground for a neat backstory?   Unless there are actual implications in the game world that come with being the race that you've chosen, this is little more than set dress...

Today, I had a player leave my game. For the first time I can recall, I had a player leave because he didn't like the system.  But was the system really the problem? I don't think so. He was a 5e player, incredibly excited about the idea of Lion & Dragon. He said he was excited about medieval role-playing, that he felt as though D&D didn't really scratch that particular itch for historical accuracy. I briefed him on how this would be VERY low magic and very grounded in medieval realism.  I welcomed him aboard with open arms. Problem is, he brought his presuppositions from 5e with him in spite of my warnings . I should have seen the writing on the wall after he argued with me about the possibility of a 6 INT Cleric in a game where a 6 is only a -1 and a Cleric is really a Templar Knight with miracles.  He got me very pissed off (an incredible feat) and I was tempted to ask him to leave then and there, but I deescalated and we were cool. I should have kn...

I've been utterly disappointed in Wizards of the Coasts' attempt to relegate psychic powers to subclasses. I understand why they're doing it. To put it simply, 5e is, much like 4e and 3e before it, designed around the concept that there should be balance between PCs of a given level. To tip the scales by adding more abilities for one PC while the other PCs are somewhat less equipped would feel unfair. So, by tying it to one's subclass, you're getting new flavorings that are more or less equivalent to what everyone else is getting. That's boring and uninspiring .  What if, truly in the vein of older editions of D&D, we added the potential for all PCs to have these abilities, but it's completely left to chance? This means that what you roll at character creation is MUCH more important. It means that you end up with a new dimension to add to your game. The rules will be familiar enough to be easily incorporated, but fresh enough to make their addition a sig...