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Author Topic: DIY 5.5e of DyD  (Read 4550 times)

spon

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DIY 5.5e of DyD
« Reply #45 on: July 08, 2020, 05:14:45 AM »
Quote from: RPGPundit;1138401
"Balance" was not really a very active design goal in creating 5e.  Playability and ease of play for introductory gamers was.

And yet, I find it fairly well balanced (Compared to 3E, for example). Which is a nice bonus :-) And it is very playable and has attracted lots of new gamers. Job done - pats on the back all round.

World_Warrior

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DIY 5.5e of DyD
« Reply #46 on: July 08, 2020, 12:49:35 PM »
Quote from: GeekyBugle;1136345
What the tin says, IF you were designing the 5.5e what would you put in/take out/change/twist/etc?

What Frankenstein monster would you create and from where would you borrow, steal take inspiration from?

It doesn't have to be strictly from it's family of games.


I was originally thinking about this very thing for a video before the shut my entire YouTube channel down.

I had several thoughts about 5th edition, as well as certain issues I felt needed addressed. Part of this was due to things I wanted to see the game turn into, while also adding elements from older editions due to my increasing love for the OSR.

1. Elimination of "subraces": Subraces should either be their own fully-statted Race entry, or rolled into the main race. As part of this change, I would like to see a list of possible abilities or bonuses that could be choosen or rolled during character creation. [This might be me just agreeing with some of the issues SJW's have with the game concept of 'Race', though I want each race to still feel classic.]

2. Deletion of "Archetype/Subclass; Creation of Feat Trees: WOTC telling us back in 2014 that there would only be the core classes, and that we wouldn't see the hundreds of classes and prestige classes was a bold lie. It has been replaced with the creation of the Subclass feature within the 5e system. A 5.5e system should not outright eliminate it, but instead reduce their impact. [This idea was something I originally was going to talk about for a 6th edition.]

Classes would instead be comprised of Talent Trees [as introduced in D20 Modern and also used in the D20 Star Wars Saga Edition system]. Call them Feats, whatever. Instead of subclasses, each tree would be a collection of Feats built around a concept. So Eldritch Knight would be a tree, with access to spells and magical abilities for weapons, etc. The classic Fighter would exist as its own tree. Some packages would also be prior classes (Barbarian would now be a Berserker tree within the Fighter class; Bard could be rolled into the Rogue class). Each Class Feat would be equal to a normal Feat in 5e; there would also be General Feats in their own chapter, which are just the current Feats we have in 5e.

One neat feature of this system is that for Spellcasters, their number of spells could be smaller. Less spells per day. A Wizard, for example, would have normal Vancian magic, but just less spells. But he could choose a Class Feat tree, where each time he gains a new one, he can choose access to more spells and grow his amount of spells able to be cast per day. This would allow GM's to START with low magic settings, and they only have to limit which Feat Trees are legal in their game. Don't like the Barbarian class? Well, Fighter, the Berserker tree isn't be used... Hate Bards? Hey, Rogue, the Bard tree isn't being used for my world.

The "subclasses" (like the Fighter's Battlemaster) would now just be 'builds', taking the available Feat trees and choosing predefined Feats into a quick template for players to choose.

3. Basic D&D is like a true 5e B/X game / Core rulebooks are AD&D: For my 5.5e, I would release the 'Basic Rules' as a full book. Designed to mimic the B/X rules of the 1980's but using the 5.5e system. This book would be like what you can download on the WOTC site, but fully illustrated, with no "Blackgrounds", only the 4 basic races and classes (each class already has the classic build composed of Feats), no skills or general feats, and enough classic rules and monsters for groups to play for years. Most likely, this would be a softcover release included in the Beginner Box. I would release this 4-5 months before the core books are released. The Basic D&D game would be used as an olive branch to older players who felt snubbed by WOTC for their treatment. The boxset would also include a sandbox campaign region (something similar to Nentir Vale, with information on towns and dungeons) and an adventure that acts as a starting point for a campaign with plenty of hooks to send PC's into all sorts of follow-up adventures.

The core books would be renamed "Advanced D&D" (I get why WOTC didn't do it with 5e... but c'mon, enough people are playing it now that they should understand the reasoning behind it... The core books would be just slightly different... Player's Handook would be the same as usual (maybe have extra sections on roleplaying and general advice, rather than just 320 pages of rules).

The Dungeon Master Guide would be a toolkit for designing adventures, not something to be used during game (sorry, but the 5e DMG sucks). It needs to be bursting at the seams with charts, dungeon generators, NPC generators, and so much stuff that you could just roll up an adventure on the fly. Monster creation and general breakdown of rules would also be included.

The third book would be the Monstrous Manual (yes, like the 2nd edition MM)... This book would contain all the classic monsters from the game... it would also contain all the treasure, traps, poisons, disease, and anything else nasty for the DM. The purpose of this is for the DM to use the DMG to design an adventure... the MM is used to RUN to adventure, with all the stuff needed contained under one cover.

4. Spells written like spell cards and other odd bits: One thing that always irks me is that the books are never written to be ran. They increasingly feel like overpriced artbooks and not gamebooks. Sure, make that limited edition core set. But damn, give us affordable rulebooks... No reason why RPG Pundit can self-publish with $20 books, and here WOTC comes with $50 books padded out with long block text and artwork. Give us a damn book used to be played, not just look pretty on the bookcase.

Spells should be layout out in the book that nine fit to a page... then be photocopied and cut apart to fit into card sleeves.

Most information should be layout out to be read quickly. Use bold, italics, bullet points, and other ways to organize the information better. Have boxed texts that give quick versions of the rules to make it quickly scanned (then if you want a fully explained answer you can read it later in the rules section).

This goes for adventures! Information should be presented as bullet points. Adventures should have full monster stats... I shouldn't have to be pulling out the monster manual to get monster stats, or writing out notes. I paid $50 for an adventure... make it complete. It's different with the OSR... monsters don't have much stats... but WOTC, if you wanted to add complexity to monsters and make their stat blocks so big, that's on you... print the stats in sections where you want the adventure.

Okay, I think I'm done complaining...