Tomes of Magic: Upcoming Campaign

Despite the name of this post, I am not going to call my new campaign Tomes of Magic. For one, it's far too on-the-nose, and it's just unimaginative.

However, magical works of writing will play an outsized role in the campaign, with the primary method of discovering new spells consisting of stumbling upon them in ancient lore or finding them scrawled on prehistoric tablets and scrolls. In fact, the PCs will be questing for the correct magical knowledge to take down whatever big nasty they may be facing as they progress through their careers (if they don't DIE of course).

In the spirit of this new campaign idea, I offer you a new magical tome, described below.

CROWN AND INFERNO

Author: Unknown

Crown and Inferno is large at 18 inches tall and 12 inches across the front cover, and is bound in red dyed leather with luxuriously smooth vellum pages. The tome seems ageless, remaining like new even over years of use and storage, with no fading inks or colors, and no wear to the binding.

Within the book, should a character peruse its contents, the hierarchies of Hell are explained in great detail, and the text abounds with purported True Names of demons, along with instructions for summoning their kind to the Material Plane. If the characters research the book before they attempt to read it, they may find out (an Intelligence check with a positive or negative modifier, depending on the accuracy of the research materials) that it may help to be warded against evil when reading. Just the first few paragraphs of the book are enough to potentially leave a character open to demonic possession. The GM is free to use the rules he likes for possession attempts, since many of these rules exist in different games, and many will work with old style rules.

Should the character(s) reading the text avoid any possession attempts that may befall them, they will be able to identify 1d4 different spells of any spell level, providing these spells can help in attempting to summon demons or extraplanar entities. The GM should choose the spells from the game rules he likes best, as long as they contain spells for demon-summoning. These spells may be transferred to a character's spell book in the usual time frame, and the spells may not be used from the book as a spell scroll would be used.

Only one attempt at spell discovery per character is allowed, and each will have to defend against demon possession. After the spells are discovered, the book remains in their possession, but is useful only as a reference for future research. It does not radiate magic, since it merely contains instructions for magical rites.

OGL 1.1 - An Article that Mimics My Own Thoughts on the Matter

Head on over to Grognardia and read what James writes about the OGL move WOTC recently made. His thoughts are right there with mine.

Here is your link.

Monte Cook Agrees About Game Balance

This will be old news for some of you out there, since the book has been out a while, but Monte Cook authored the following in the Complete Kobold Guide to Game Design put out by Kobold Press. He strikes all the points I've been trying to make on this blog in the last couple of months very succinctly:

"The second type of balance, dealing with characters and challenges, may seem related, having to do with characters being either too powerful or not powerful enough. At its core, though, such balance is a different issue because it has less to do with the players and more to do with the GM. 

After all, it’s the GM who is responsible for providing challenges for the characters—and the GM has no boundaries or limitations. When GMs complain about unbalanced characters running roughshod over their campaign and how that’s the fault of the game, there is a misunderstanding of the role of the GM. You don’t bring a knife to a gunfight. If the PCs wipe the floor with the vrock, give them six vrocks to fight next time. Or a nalfeshnee.

No, it really is that simple. For every spell, there’s a counter. For every monster, there’s a tougher monster. If the players raise the ante by creating characters who are too powerful, the GM can simply use the sliding power scale of the game (which has no upper limit) to bring things back into balance.

What’s more, the GM is also the arbiter of the rules at the table and can disallow options. Ultimately, it’s the GM who truly understands what’s going on at the table, not some game designer thousands of miles away. No matter what the designer does or doesn’t do to balance the game, it’s a moot point. An illusion at best. It’s what the GM does that provides the balance."

All the points I've been making since I started writing on this blog again are made wonderfully and clearly in the text above.

Players Obsessed With "Balance"

Get ready, I get a little mean here. I'm having a get-off-my-lawn moment.

I've said before in this space that game balance is essentially an illusion, and that any DM worth his weight in rulebooks will be able to provide ample challenge for any so-called "build" at his table. My recent foray into all the fan-produced works in the Fifth Edition sphere has brought up a pet peeve of mine: players insisting something is under- or over-powered. 

Essentially it's all crap - concepts cannot be overpowered. Roleplaying starts with a character concept, a dramatic persona, and the rules are simply mechanics to bring that persona to life. This "game within the game" of what we used to call min/max-ing or power gaming back in the days prior to the OGL has become rather ubiquitous since the days of 3.0/3.5, then seemed to intensify a bit with 4th Edition since the building blocks of that particular system seemed to enforce this way of thinking. Honestly, I blame modern video games, but we'll not open that can of worms.

5th Edition has seen the same problem, even though it's much more of what I would call a freeform system (but not rules-light, obviously). Gone are the mental gymnastics and algebraic calculations of 3rd Edition (which really became heavy at high levels), where one shift in ability score affected about 8 or 10 different fields on the character sheet. It's not exactly BECMI, since there are a lot of fiddly parts still, but it's easy enough to modify on the fly and it seems to really embrace "rulings not rules." 

That may well be the issue for a lot of modern players. They seem to want it spelled out in some sort of official format, and make the game's rules a substitute for skilled play and their own imaginations. RPGs are an exercise in limitless imagination. You can do anything. The rules are just a framework for your character concept, not to ensure you have an average damage on par with other classes. That's just silly. All the complaining about the Ranger over the last few years is a good example of this. The DM ought to provide ample opportunity to use these abilities, even in dungeon settings. If he's not, he's not engaging his table properly. The player also has the responsibility to think creatively, since RPGs are a creative endeavor, not a video game where a player simply reacts to pre-programmed situations. Sometimes an ingenious plan works better than any ability the rules provide. It's not a suboptimal class, some players just have suboptimal imaginations and an expectation that the rules will provide for every circumstance that involves their character.

These sorts of issues were raised in the early days of D&D, but it seems it happened with less frequency and vitriol - not once did my group complain about 2nd Edition characters being "unbalanced". Of course, in the old days, a DM would just DO HIS JOB and change the game to his liking. A lot of modern players have either not figured this out, and are obsessed with rules-as-written, or perhaps aren't skilled enough or lack enough ingenuity to think outside the box and make their "suboptimal class/build" an enjoyable experience. Play the CONCEPT, not the RULES. That is the most important part. If a player feels like he want to makes a change, ask the DM. Players could also lobby for the kinds of adventures that their characters are geared toward. DMs often plan a world in a vacuum made of their feverish imagination, not considering the characters that are going to be created, and then toss a bunch of wilderness types into a dungeon, where they may not be in their element. 

Remember - imagination, skilled play, thinking outside the box. They all help. The rules are simply a malleable framework for a STORY. Remember that. Play the character you LIKE, not what you think is EFFECTIVE - just forget all that garbage about "builds" and "balance". You'll be much happier.

5th Edition: Bustin' at the Seams and Better for It

I was skeptical of 5th edition for the first several years of its existence. I liked the chassis it was built upon, since it wasn't terribly different from my favorite editions (BECMI and 3.5). I'll say now, nearly 10 years on (or has it been 10 already?), that 5th edition almost rivals the aforementioned BECMI as my favorite iteration of the game.

One thing I think that's really made it fun for me is the absolute avalanche of 3rd party and fan content. The OGL was key in this respect, much as it was for the popularity of 3.5 (and for the birth of Pathfinder). I've recently been digging into years of PDFs that I've accumulated and never really flipped through as thoroughly as I should have, and I've got ideas busting at the seams. Some of my favorite material are the classes that just regular ol' folks like me have created. I'll decline to list them - the discovery is the best part. Go and find yourself some gold!

Some people get all weird about materials that haven't been thoroughly playtested, and aren't comfortable using unofficial rules. I say this to them: you aren't having enough fun. If I, the DM, cannot contend with something a player brings to the table, then I didn't vet it thoroughly enough to begin with, thus not doing my job, or I'm not planning properly for the character in question - again, not doing my job! All these options, subclasses, extra spells, magic items, and extra rules allow me to choose whatever I would like and build my world upon it. Sometimes someone else's concept or rule will spark a wild idea that spurs an entire campaign arc to be written. House rules are fun. Do your job as a DM, vet what hits your table thoroughly, and above all, PLAN FOR WHAT IS ON THE CHARACTER SHEETS.

That said, I'm toying with a few campaign ideas now, that will eventually be detailed here as a way to keep track of it all. One campaign I'd like to get off the ground would center on the accumulation of occult knowledge, and the key to it all are dusty tomes hidden away in ruins and tombs. I'm gathering all the material I can that's been written about books and libraries in D&D, as well as magical items in book form, or lists of titled books - it seems there is no end to the products geared toward this subject on the internet. The characters would always need to quest after knowledge of some sort in order to fight against whatever threat has reared its head, which will always have a vulnerability to exploit via magic, but the magic itself could be half a continent away, or held as a secret by something even worse than the threat they're currently facing. In other words, +1 swords and magic missiles will not feature, but complicated rituals that exploit the fabric of the universe, will. I know it's all vague, but so are my ideas right now!

Another idea I'm toying with, because I've watched so much Supernatural apparently and I can't get enough of the angel characters on the show, is an Ultramodern 5 campaign (maybe - D20 Modern is just as good in my eyes), centering around the wars angels and demons fight in the spiritual realm that spill into the material plane. I've been collecting all the 5e material I can get my hands on that has embellished on the subject of angels in the game, but I've also been reading the D20 version of Engel, SJG's In Nomine, C.J. Carella's Armageddon, and the Malhavoc Press supplement The Anger of Angels. There are some other 3rd edition era books I need to find to further research all of this, as well, but they slip my mind. I've also been delving into Old Testament pseudepigrapha that happens to have a lot of detail on angels, mining it for subject matter. As for 5e supplements, I've found some excellent fan-made materials on the subject, and I can't wait to see what else I find.

Both of these ideas were born of the fan-made and DM's Guild supplements that I've read and enjoyed. This is why house rules are my favorite artifacts of D&D, and it also gives me a window into how other people are playing the game we all love. I can't get enough.