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Author Topic: Just saw a flipthrough of Tasha's big bucket of unearthed arcana on youtube  (Read 6957 times)

Darrin Kelley

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Re: Just saw a flipthrough of Tasha's big bucket of unearthed arcana on youtube
« Reply #15 on: November 21, 2020, 01:44:07 AM »
The moment they release that book on Psionics also is the moment that the cycle towards 6th Edition D&D begins. Because they will have covered everything in 5th. And will start looking forward to that sweet new edition loot.

Yes, I am being cynical. But WOTC hasn't really given me cause not to be.
 

Chris24601

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Re: Just saw a flipthrough of Tasha's big bucket of unearthed arcana on youtube
« Reply #16 on: November 21, 2020, 06:09:35 AM »
The moment they release that book on Psionics also is the moment that the cycle towards 6th Edition D&D begins. Because they will have covered everything in 5th. And will start looking forward to that sweet new edition loot.
They’ve already got psionics pretty well mapped out in their Unearthed Arcana playtest material and D&D’s 50th anniversary is coming up in 2024 so I wouldn’t bet against your estimation of 6th Edition being on the horizon.

That said, I expect it to be very much a 2e to 5e’s 1e type of edition. New art, lots of rewritten fluff text to pay homage to their Critical Race gods, but mostly the same mechanics. 4E taught them that taking innovative risks is BAD and enough of their audience will castigate them for not giving them what they mostly already have to make anything more than fully integrated errata and a fresh coat of paint a finacial risk.

Armchair Gamer

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Re: Just saw a flipthrough of Tasha's big bucket of unearthed arcana on youtube
« Reply #17 on: November 21, 2020, 09:36:13 AM »
That said, I expect it to be very much a 2e to 5e’s 1e type of edition. New art, lots of rewritten fluff text to pay homage to their Critical Race gods, but mostly the same mechanics.

  This is what I'm expecting, especially considering that they won't want to rock the boat too much given 5E's tremendous success. I do wonder if they're going to try to merge the progressiveness with the 'edgy and satanic' feel the game conveyed to an earlier generation; I was spotting nostalgia for that when skimming the Art & Arcana book. 6E may very well have a more 'evil-curious', 'demons aren't all bad,' 'join Chaos and the marginalized against the oppressive forces of Law', 'raise Hell against the privileged forces of Heaven' approach.

Chris24601

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Re: Just saw a flipthrough of Tasha's big bucket of unearthed arcana on youtube
« Reply #18 on: November 21, 2020, 10:25:46 AM »
This is what I'm expecting, especially considering that they won't want to rock the boat too much given 5E's tremendous success. I do wonder if they're going to try to merge the progressiveness with the 'edgy and satanic' feel the game conveyed to an earlier generation; I was spotting nostalgia for that when skimming the Art & Arcana book. 6E may very well have a more 'evil-curious', 'demons aren't all bad,' 'join Chaos and the marginalized against the oppressive forces of Law', 'raise Hell against the privileged forces of Heaven' approach.
The problem they’re going to have with that is that Luciferian ethics and SJW-ism IS the Establishment now. Conservativism and Christianity are becoming the counter-culture and anti-establishment of society (not the staid Establishment Republican/Protestant in a bow-tie preaching weaksauce peace, love and can’t we all just get along... Trump-style counter-punching with vicious memes Conservativism and blood of the martyrs, ‘I’ll call your jyhad and raise you one crusade!’-style Christianity).

I’ve heard more than a few comments from the teens and twenty-somethings in my social corcles that Big Tech’s “This is disputed” tags on comments are becoming the modern equivalent of the old Parental Warning labels on CDs... if your comments aren’t being flagged by The Man then you’re just an establishment tool and should be ignored.

In other words we’ve already hit peak SJW because it’s become the establishment position. The only thing an SJW/hail Satan aesthetic is going to appeal to is a narrow band of Leftist old farts.

By the time WotC rolls out their Critical Race Satanic Imagry 6th Edition, current edgy will probably be “Deus Vult!” Neo-crusader aesthetics, “What Would Jesus Do?” being answered with “tell his disciples to buy swords, flip over stone tables, and drive the Godless from the Temple with a bull whip!” and a reminder that the kings of badassery known as the Horsemen of the Apocalypse aren’t demons... they were sent by God to wipe out the wicked.

Or something we haven’t even realized is going to be a thing yet because that’s what seems to happen with Pop culture.

Basically D&D6e will be everything that was peak edgy in 2019-2020 released into the market of 2024.

HappyDaze

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Re: Just saw a flipthrough of Tasha's big bucket of unearthed arcana on youtube
« Reply #19 on: November 21, 2020, 11:01:44 AM »
So I have Tasha's and I've read through it...

I don't like the way the mechanics work. Lots of stuff just works very differently from the PHB stuff. In some cases, it might work better than the PHB stuff, but it still comes off as ugly because it doesn't feel like it fits alongside what has come before (which isn't get updated/errata'd).

Examples of Tasha's tendencies:
1. Lots of things that add Proficiency Bonus to something.
2. Lots of things that are based on being able to do them Proficiency Bonus times before recharge on a long rest.
3. Lots of things that have an in-play method of recharge "recharges on a long rest or by spending a spell slot of 5th level or higher."
4. Very, very few things that recharge on a short rest.
5. Adding bonus spells to the subclasses of classes that need them (like Sorcerer) without retrofitting previous subclasses to match.

Mercurius

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Re: Just saw a flipthrough of Tasha's big bucket of unearthed arcana on youtube
« Reply #20 on: November 21, 2020, 11:55:34 AM »
The moment they release that book on Psionics also is the moment that the cycle towards 6th Edition D&D begins. Because they will have covered everything in 5th. And will start looking forward to that sweet new edition loot.

Yes, I am being cynical. But WOTC hasn't really given me cause not to be.

They still haven't really done the planes, but that is going to happen before psionics, I think. My guess would be planes in 2021-22, psionics in 2022-23. And of course there are also secondary sub-systems that they haven't really touched, and may never touch: epic play (beyond 20th), kingdom building, science fantasy, etc.

As for 2024 and the anniversary, I don't think they'll do a new edition but more of a revision. And yes, it will likely have "woke reskinning." All PCs must be gay or transgender, no races allowed except for a kind of indeterminate dark gray-beige skin tone, drow are pastel colors and live in a utopia called Wokaria, dwarfs are renamed "People of Shorter Stature" and orcs are noble and kind.

But on a serious note, I don't see a reason for them to reboot, at least anytime soon. They haven't taken the same approach of the past few editions, which requires the edition treadmill. They've found a more sustainable approach which allows them to plateau at a very high level of sales. They can keep churning out 1-2 setting books, 1-2 story arcs, and 1 rules supplement indefinitely, especially with the Magic settings to draw from.

I don't think they'll re-boot until sales start to lag, and probably only then after a downward trend is consistent for a couple years. A 2024 anniversary event--revised core rulebooks, and maybe one or two commemorative products--will delay that for another year or two, if sales start dipping by then. But regardless of what we think of their products or politics, WotC has found a really strong formula for continued success.

TJS

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Re: Just saw a flipthrough of Tasha's big bucket of unearthed arcana on youtube
« Reply #21 on: November 21, 2020, 03:52:50 PM »
"
4. Very, very few things that recharge on a short rest.

Yep.  They've designed a game that works very well for a traditional style dungeon crawl, or environment based game - but they've given up on that because very little of their fanbase is doing anything like that.

The thing that drives me up the wall is their failure to communicate the principles of their own game.  Almost everything is long rest now.  Even the Samuari, released in Xanathar's which has an ability especially designed to work with Action Surge (presumably - due to their inability to communicate they don't just come out and say so) which is 3/day.

They've designed a game that works.  They should be trying to think about how to communicate that style of play and incentivise it rather than letting it drift toward something it's not designed to do.

SHARK

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Re: Just saw a flipthrough of Tasha's big bucket of unearthed arcana on youtube
« Reply #22 on: November 21, 2020, 04:49:42 PM »
"
4. Very, very few things that recharge on a short rest.

Yep.  They've designed a game that works very well for a traditional style dungeon crawl, or environment based game - but they've given up on that because very little of their fanbase is doing anything like that.

The thing that drives me up the wall is their failure to communicate the principles of their own game.  Almost everything is long rest now.  Even the Samuari, released in Xanathar's which has an ability especially designed to work with Action Surge (presumably - due to their inability to communicate they don't just come out and say so) which is 3/day.

They've designed a game that works.  They should be trying to think about how to communicate that style of play and incentivise it rather than letting it drift toward something it's not designed to do.

Greetings!

"They've designed a game that works very well for a traditional style dungeon crawl or environment based game--but they've given up on that because very little of their fanbase is doing anything like that."

How have they given up on that?

And it makes me wonder, if very little of the fanbase is doing anything like that--(dungeon crawling and environment adventures)--what are they doing??? *laughing*

I admit, TJS, it is kind of a disturbing trend of thought.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK
"It is the Marine Corps that will strip away the façade so easily confused with self. It is the Corps that will offer the pain needed to buy the truth. And at last, each will own the privilege of looking inside himself  to discover what truly resides there. Comfort is an illusion. A false security b

Thornhammer

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Re: Just saw a flipthrough of Tasha's big bucket of unearthed arcana on youtube
« Reply #23 on: November 21, 2020, 04:52:33 PM »
- visually your magic missile can be a bunch of ethnically and genderally diverse chickens now (omg, how cool and nouveau is that?!).

Fixed that for you.

The ways of the Poultrymancer are strange and mysterious.

Necropoultrymancy brings us such spells as Chicken McNugget and the legendary Greater Chicken McNugget.

Darrin Kelley

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Re: Just saw a flipthrough of Tasha's big bucket of unearthed arcana on youtube
« Reply #24 on: November 21, 2020, 05:48:53 PM »
A physical Psionics book would pave the way to a Dark Sun setting book. Which we all know is popular. And yes, I would buy it.
 

Razor 007

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Re: Just saw a flipthrough of Tasha's big bucket of unearthed arcana on youtube
« Reply #25 on: November 23, 2020, 05:43:12 PM »
Dark Sun!!!
I need you to roll a perception check.....

spon

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Re: Just saw a flipthrough of Tasha's big bucket of unearthed arcana on youtube
« Reply #26 on: November 25, 2020, 05:35:46 AM »
Having received my (badly-bound) copy, I can attest that some of the stuff is indeed "obvious" and feels a bit like being spoon-fed. But it's only that way because I've played for so long. When I were a lad (insert Hovis accent), I had White Dwarf and Imagine, Dragon and the dungeoneer to help me with things that I now take for granted. Without stuff like "Monsters have feelings too" my DMing would be have been far poorer for far longer.
These things don't exist now - there's all sorts of stuff available on-line, but who knows whether it's any good? At least when it was in a magazine it would have been edited! So I don't mind the "filler", I'm playing/running a lot of 5th Ed, so I like to keep up with what's official, even just so I can say "no" to it if I need to.
But "obvious" stuff in a book meant to help, GMs? I'm ok with that. Just wish they'd fixed their binding problem.

Torque2100

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Re: Just saw a flipthrough of Tasha's big bucket of unearthed arcana on youtube
« Reply #27 on: November 25, 2020, 02:39:27 PM »
On a more serious note, does UA still have things like rules for Piecemeal armor, armor as Damage Reduction or other variant rules to help combat the AC creep that invariably infects DnD campaigns as the characters level up?


Razor 007

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Re: Just saw a flipthrough of Tasha's big bucket of unearthed arcana on youtube
« Reply #28 on: November 26, 2020, 01:22:19 AM »
"
4. Very, very few things that recharge on a short rest.

Yep.  They've designed a game that works very well for a traditional style dungeon crawl, or environment based game - but they've given up on that because very little of their fanbase is doing anything like that.

The thing that drives me up the wall is their failure to communicate the principles of their own game.  Almost everything is long rest now.  Even the Samuari, released in Xanathar's which has an ability especially designed to work with Action Surge (presumably - due to their inability to communicate they don't just come out and say so) which is 3/day.

They've designed a game that works.  They should be trying to think about how to communicate that style of play and incentivise it rather than letting it drift toward something it's not designed to do.

Greetings!

"They've designed a game that works very well for a traditional style dungeon crawl or environment based game--but they've given up on that because very little of their fanbase is doing anything like that."

How have they given up on that?

And it makes me wonder, if very little of the fanbase is doing anything like that--(dungeon crawling and environment adventures)--what are they doing??? *laughing*

I admit, TJS, it is kind of a disturbing trend of thought.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK


People must really love Social Interaction drama.
I need you to roll a perception check.....

TJS

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Re: Just saw a flipthrough of Tasha's big bucket of unearthed arcana on youtube
« Reply #29 on: November 26, 2020, 04:19:14 AM »
I think it's plot driven railroads with set piece combats that people are playing.  That seems to be the underlying assumption behind most of the posts on Enworld at least.  It's not that they're not doing something that might be able to be called a dungeon crawl in some sense, but it's not the old school kind of exploratory dungeon crawl.

In a way WOTC knew their audience with 4E they just marketed it badly and made it overcomplicated and too unfamiliar.

This is for example one of the issues with rests.  People think that 6 combats is too many because that means they have to have six planned encounters to throw at the party that mostly end up being unsatisfactorily easy.  It doesn't seem to occur to them that the players might make the decision about whether to engage in a fight (and that if you can take out a group of potential enemies quickly and efficiently as part of pursuing a player driven goal then that's not a boring combat that's a satisfying step forward).  It's when "bandits attack" and you spend 30 minutes fighting a boring combat for no purpose that it all falls apart.