Quote from: Willmark on January 10, 2022, 03:59:25 PM
Can't wait for the rationalization on this one from the usual suspects. Should be entertaining.

Quote from: jhkim on January 10, 2022, 06:02:23 PM
It seems like the implication is "Hey, someone made a silly free mini-adventure" -- to "This is the new future of D&D".

Ask and ye shall receive!  There's no concept that the resident apologists can't grovel before...

Quote from: jhkim on January 10, 2022, 06:02:23 PM
...
It seems like the implication is "Hey, someone made a silly free mini-adventure" -- to "This is the new future of D&D".

You are assuming that the people who made the adventure, and those to whom it is targeted, regard the premise as silly...


From the comments section of the DNDbeyond link:

"refreshing to see an adventure focusing on non-combat, non-exploration encounters"
"I love this idea. Will definitely run it someday"
"This is simply delightful."
"This is everything i wanted since I created the character I've never gotten to properly play, who is a bookworm barista working in a cafe while trying to write the next Guide to Monsters."
"Oh man, I love how this adventure would work for my players, considering they haven't done much in terms of roleplaying, and probably would enjoy it! I'll be sure to run this for them on sunday!"
"Whomever wrote this did a great job!  So different to what I was expecting !"
"I love this so much! I think Strixhaven in general is really clever and amazing for turning the (kind of fair...) stereotype of a hip, classy, likely politically left college into D&D adventures. It both shows the wonder and freedom that this kind of life offers, and lightly pokes fun at it in a way that D&D rarely does."
"Stopped reading because I hope I get to play this. 100% taking the Distort Value spell and making some tips!"
"There are A LOT of new D&D players since the pandemic and many of them are younger and favor RP-heavy games (probably inspired by Critical Roll). ... I mean look at the entire premise of the adventure.  It's clear this is a college-aged and themed campaign which tend to be more the Critical Roll crowd.  When 40% of D&D players are 25 or younger it makes sense to create content for them."
"Really good I'd like to see more !"
"I spent so much time in a cafe during school that the staff adopted me, so I love this as an adventure hook."
"Nice coffee shop adventure. "
"This will slide nicely into some of my homebrew"
"Ran it for players, went over great even though it was a cold brew failure! Cant wait to sprinkle it in a campaign."
"This is such a lighthearted way to start the new adventure. My players are beyond excited to do something so uniquely different."
"What a fun little side quest. Great job!"
"This could be fun as a session zero game. My group once took the concept further in a homebrew setting -- the players decided they would open their own coffee shop in a city without coffee! So they had to do adventured to create their coffee suppliers -- an ocean voyage to the Draconic Isles (tropical) to negotiate with locals for the rights to create a coffee plantation (quest to defeat a pirate baddie to curry favor), then they had to clear their land of monsters. They had to secure shipping and shipping routes, deal with the city council and the Brewers Guild, etc. It basically became its own campaign, and they had a ton of fun."


With the current final comment written by a true hero:

"Is this a joke? This is the best thing you can come up with? Who writes this kind of drek? My god, D&D is about slaying monsters and getting treasure, not reliving the crap days of college working as a shlub."

Quote from: Jaeger on January 10, 2022, 06:50:24 PM
With the current final comment written by a true hero:

"Is this a joke? This is the best thing you can come up with? Who writes this kind of drek? My god, D&D is about slaying monsters and getting treasure, not reliving the crap days of college working as a shlub."

I think this hero poster may have actually hit on something without realizing it. You know how they say some people peak in high school and then spend the rest of their lives trying to relive those glory days?

Well, think about the trajectory of these poor liberal arts shlubs' lives; Drowing in college debt they can't even escape with a bankruptcy, no long term career prospects, no money to afford their own place... etc.

Basically, their college years were the high point of their dead end lives... so of course they desperately want to relive and recapture those times because their futures suck.

Quote from: Jaeger on January 10, 2022, 06:50:24 PM

Quote from: jhkim on January 10, 2022, 06:02:23 PM
It seems like the implication is "Hey, someone made a silly free mini-adventure" -- to "This is the new future of D&D".

You are assuming that the people who made the adventure, and those to whom it is targeted, regard the premise as silly...

From the comments section of the DNDbeyond link:
"refreshing to see an adventure focusing on non-combat, non-exploration encounters"
"I love this idea. Will definitely run it someday"
"This is simply delightful."
...

These selected comments all seem consistent with considering it a light-hearted / comedic one-shot adventure as a change of pace.

And there were plenty of negative comments, not just the final one.

This adventure will be awesome when I run it...

...using Paranoia as the ruleset.

Quote from: jhkim on January 10, 2022, 07:27:52 PM
These selected comments all seem consistent with considering it a light-hearted / comedic one-shot adventure as a change of pace.

Ahh, the patented jhkim "It's no big deal" response.

"This is everything i wanted...
...slide nicely into some of my homebrew"
...I'd like to see more !"
...When 40% of D&D players are 25 or younger it makes sense to create content for them."

Maybe you're right, and this is just a one-shot flash in the pan.

It's not like WotC would do a full color hardback of adventures where you play PC's living a magical college experience who's lives are a hot mess...

Quote from: jhkim on January 10, 2022, 07:27:52 PM
And there were plenty of negative comments, not just the final one.

Yup, and those comments were met with the stock reply:

..."The great thing is that you don't have to buy the books. Or listen to WOtC. That's one of the great things about D&D! There's a ton of freedom placed in the player's and dungeon master's hands, and we get to play how we want to play."

The "go away" and, "leave WotC D&D to us" response.

It's a beautiful thing...

Please tell me this is an April Fool's thing.

Quote from: Eirikrautha on January 10, 2022, 06:49:18 PM

Quote from: Willmark on January 10, 2022, 03:59:25 PM
Can't wait for the rationalization on this one from the usual suspects. Should be entertaining.

Quote from: jhkim on January 10, 2022, 06:02:23 PM
It seems like the implication is "Hey, someone made a silly free mini-adventure" -- to "This is the new future of D&D".

Ask and ye shall receive!  There's no concept that the resident apologists can't grovel before...

You didnt think he's let us down did you? I was (as were many I suspect many where) counting on such a response.

QuoteThe 64,000-gp question on this whole concept: Why would anyone use D&D for it?

I mean depends on how whole this setting/campaign looks that may be but one weird challenge among more conventional hack&slash&spell.
I doubt whole book, even WOTC book is about it.

QuoteAn even bigger question would be: Why would anyone use ANY RPG for it? As opposed to...you know. Taking a job in the lucrative field of coffee "artistry" and leaving TTRPGs the hell alone. 

Because people likes to play RPGs about most insane gonzo shit, like for instance being plumbers on goblin infested cyclopean space-ship.

QuoteBut in a fantasy adventure game, it's just a terrible, boring, and insulting concept. It's a joke you might have at the table while playing a real adventure.

Whole point is they trying to sell 5E as game where you can do anything.
I'm on very woke RPG group "I'm begging you to play another game..." and they are utterly frustrated by how people are trying to use D&D5e to RP anything instead of checking different systems.

How much are the filo wrapped rhubarb lemon points of Vecna? Kyuss's loquat fritters?

Quote from: RPGPundit on January 10, 2022, 08:57:29 AM
I have been saying for ages that the Wokist agenda for #dnd5e is to turn every setting into 2021 Seattle culture.
Now there's proof positive: the newest #dnd adventure is where you work as baristas at fantasy-Starbucks.

Literally not one word you said was accurate.

1) It's not the newest. This one is over a month old and other adventures have come out since then.
2) It's not from WOTC at all. It's from DND Beyond, a SF Company which isn't a WOTC or Hasbro company.
3) The author is in Los Angeles and has no connection to Seattle.
4) It's not even for sale. It's just a one-off freeby fun party type game. The kind you'd sometimes see in Dungeon magazine over the years. This one was for Christmas. In fact it's not even in the adventures section. It's literally in the "Posts" section (and not even features on the main Posts page). IE Michael Galvis just posted a freeby for people to grab for fun, in the same place they stick other normal articles and tutorials and previews.

So yeah, you got nothing correct. Not newest, not WOTC, not a published adventure they're selling but just a freeby, and not linked to Seattle at all.

Quote from: Wrath of God on January 10, 2022, 09:11:00 PM
...
Whole point is they trying to sell 5E as game where you can do anything.
I'm on very woke RPG group "I'm begging you to play another game..." and they are utterly frustrated by how people are trying to use D&D5e to RP anything instead of checking different systems.

There is something to that frustration. I can sympathize.

A lot of people currently playing D&D would probably be happier with a different system, that is more in synch with their playstyle.

But D&D's place as the market leader, and the immense network effect that comes with that, means that D&D is going to serve as a big catchall for most RPG groups.

It's just the way it is.

And honestly, it's the way that the hobby has been since the beginning.

IMHO, it's just really magnified under this current popularity boom.

Yeah, I think now it's like 10-20 times worse.
I mean in US at least, thankfully Poland is different set of problems (here everyone uses WHFRP 2E for everything)

I recall an old WFRP (2e I think) that was all about playing the staff (most were pregens with the Servant career) of a roadhouse when a bunch of weird stuff happens because someone taps a keg of Chaos-tainted beer. That had very little in common with classic heroism either...it was much more of a horror feel. I suppose the difference between a tavern and a coffee shop as a 'mundane' backdrop just depends on what your setting uses as a baseline, but the "magical coffee shop" definitely invites some ridicule d/t its association with hipsters.

Quote from: Jaeger on January 10, 2022, 10:11:50 PM

Quote from: Wrath of God on January 10, 2022, 09:11:00 PM
...
Whole point is they trying to sell 5E as game where you can do anything.
I'm on very woke RPG group "I'm begging you to play another game..." and they are utterly frustrated by how people are trying to use D&D5e to RP anything instead of checking different systems.

There is something to that frustration. I can sympathize.

A lot of people currently playing D&D would probably be happier with a different system, that is more in synch with their playstyle.

But D&D's place as the market leader, and the immense network effect that comes with that, means that D&D is going to serve as a big catchall for most RPG groups.

It's just the way it is.

And honestly, it's the way that the hobby has been since the beginning.

IMHO, it's just really magnified under this current popularity boom.

I missed out on the old AEG Stargate game, and I was never all that interested in it anyway because it was d20. When I heard a new Stargate RPG was coming out, I was briefly excited...until I found out it was going to be based on 5e.