Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
314 | 2024 Player's Handbook on D&D Beyond, Greg Tito leaves Wizards of the Coast, Pathfinder NPC Core Book, and more!
Sat, 07 Sep 2024
This week, Morrus, PJ, and Jessica talk about all the week’s tabletop RPG news including The 2024 Player’s Handbook is live on D&D Beyond, Greg Tito leaves Wizards of the Coast, D&D gets an official stout and bourbon, and more! -------------------- News [2:13] Not DnD – Vaesen with Nils Hintze https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErPeH9brtFE [5:21] Greg Tito Leaves Wizards of the Coast https://www.enworld.org/threads/greg-tito-leaves-wizards-of-the-coast.706433/ Greg Tito on Leaving WotC: “It feels good to do something that doesn’t just line the pockets of ***holes” https://www.enworld.org/threads/greg-tito-on-leaving-wotc-it-feels-good-to-do-something-that-doesnt-just-line-the-pockets-of.706438/ [9:45] 2024 Player’s Handbook Officially Live on D&D Beyond https://www.enworld.org/threads/2024-players-handbook-officially-live-on-d-d-beyond.706494/ Dungeons & Dragons Releases New Free Rules Based on 2024 Rules https://www.enworld.org/threads/dungeons-dragons-releases-updated-free-rules-based-on-2024-ruleset.706501/ Here’s The Full List of Changes in the D&D 2024 Player’s Handbook https://www.enworld.org/threads/heres-the-full-list-of-changes-in-the-d-d-2024-players-handbook.706503/ [21:17] 2024 D&D Character Sheets Available on D&D Beyond https://www.enworld.org/threads/2024-d-d-character-sheets-available-to-download.706499/ [34:52] Dungeons & Dragons 2024 Player’s Handbook Is Already Getting Online Errata https://www.enworld.org/threads/dungeons-dragons-2024-players-handbook-is-already-getting-errata.706523/ [36:58] Argo-0 from Hatchlings Games on Kickstarter coming soon https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tatteredbear/argonought [40:08] Legend of Vox Machina Season 3 Trailer https://www.enworld.org/threads/the-legend-of-vox-machina-season-3-trailer-released.706372/ Lance Riddick Recorded the Legend of Vox Machina Season 3 Before His Passing https://www.enworld.org/threads/lance-reddick-recorded-the-legend-of-vox-machina-season-3-before-his-passing.706417/ [41:12] D&D Is Getting an Official Stout and Bourbon https://www.enworld.org/threads/d-d-is-getting-an-official-stout-and-bourbon.706535/ [42:29] Split the Hoard Kickstarter pre-launch page https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/enworld/split-the-hoard Tabletopia Split the Hoard page https://tabletopia.com/games/split-the-hoard [44:25] Pathfinder NPC Core https://paizo.com/products/btq06x2l?Pathfinder-NPC-Core [45:32] So You’ve Met a Thousand Year Old Vampire on Backerkit https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/tim-hutchings/so-you-ve-met-a-thousand-year-old-vampire [46:58] Baldur’s Gate 3 Retrospective at PAX West https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEcb2HbZlcM [49:33] Discussion thread on EN World on Monstrous Menagerie 2 https://www.enworld.org/threads/monstrous-menagerie-ii.702741/ [53:50] Level Up Gateway September Dev Update https://www.levelup5e.com/news/level-up-gateway-september-dev-update -------------------- Please support us on Patreon at http://patreon.com/morrus Don’t forget to join the Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1033145023517295/ and join us on Discord at https://discord.gg/VAuxX8M Ask your Listener Question on Twitter, email [email protected], or contact us on TikTok at TikTok -------------------- Hosts: Russ “Morrus” Morrissey, PJ Coffey, and Jessica Hancock Editing and post-production: Darryl Mott Theme Song: Steve Arnott Malach the Maleficent played by Darren Morrissey Check out all the media content from EN World at http://enliverpg.com
I'm Phil Reed from Steve Jackson Games, and you're listening to Morris's Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk.
This week, Morris, PJ, and Jessica talk about all the week's tabletop RPG news, including the 2024 Player's Handbook now live on D&D Beyond for select users, Greg Taito leaves Wizards of the Coast, D&D gets an official stout and bourbon, and more this week on Morris's Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk.
This podcast is sponsored by Borfindel's Dwarf Spirits. Guaranteed to blow your head off. I mean, really. I've seen it. One sip and boom. I'm not entirely sure I see the point, but they seem quite popular. Anyway, order Borfindel's Dwarf Spirits now at the introductory price of 14 groats per gallon and get a pint of Goblin Spittle for free.
Oh, doggie.
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to Morris' unofficial tabletop RPG talk. I am Russ, aka Morris, or Morris, aka Russ, and with me this week is... PJ Coffey from the Southampton Guild of Roleplayers.
Delighted to be here on this sadly wet, cold, and chilly September afternoon. And joining us also today, the weather not dampening hers for it, she's quite happy to sing, dance and possibly give a little twirl around the floor. It's the only.
It's me, Jessica from EM Publishing. And I was doing a little dance before we started recording just to hype myself up. And it's a shame you, the listeners, will not see that.
Well, you know, we had to. I was touched. It was a thing of beauty. Right. Anyway, shall we get cracking? Yes. Hey, I played Vason on Wednesday. Oh, how did you find it? A game that I have wanted to play for ages. And it's my first time. Is it my first time playing Mutant Year Zero Engine, isn't it? Yeah, that's what it's called.
Yeah.
So I quite liked it. It was the Swedish folk horror set in like the late 1800s. Yeah. And basically all the myths and legends are real.
Yeah.
So werewolves are real and various Swedish monsters and folklore and stuff. It's all real. So we've only had one session so far, but so far it's been really good fun.
Yeah. I do like that system. I interviewed a creator on Not D&D, so if people want a deeper dive, there's the Not D&D episode talking about it. But what I really liked about it was the...
encounters with the beings the solution isn't always to kill them like sometimes there's like well i don't do spoilers in case you're playing again russ but like there's there's other ways that you can find resolutions with these beings that are not just and kill them we haven't met a a critter or a nasty nasty beastie yet well it's just that sometimes you know human beings are doing things that are annoying to them and if you just say hey maybe if you move you know
your lumber chopping business over here, that would solve all the issues. So sometimes it's things like that. So there's a nice investigative element with it.
I'm wondering if you're now talking about the exactly same adventure, because this one involves a number-chopping business as well.
I just made that up, so I genuinely am not.
It would annoy creatures in the forest.
Yeah, it seemed like an obvious fay forest creatures. They'd be like, hey, stop chopping down my house, please.
There's a British Isles version as well, isn't there? Yeah, I've got that one. Free League as well, same system, but there's one set in the British Isles with all the...
all the sort of fake folklore stuff from there the British ones are more creepy I'd say because the British ones are a lot like and then the thing comes and kills you whereas the Swedish ones are a bit more like oh they're a bit cheeky like haha not all of them but the British ones are really grim a lot of them are about children behave otherwise monsters will come and kill you that's the vibe of a lot of British folklore
Yeah, that's fair.
So I don't know what that says about British children and how badly behaved they are, that we need to threaten them with death. But, you know, that's one method of parenting, I guess.
I think it says more about British people not liking children that much.
Well, if they'd just behaved, PJ, then we wouldn't have to release the Kraken.
The Kraken? That's going a bit overboard, isn't it? Yeah, I mean... You could have started with a little pixie or something, but no, you went straight to Kraken.
I don't have children of my own. I think it showed in that moment. I was like, I don't know. I don't know what the appropriate level is.
It's just kind of like, that escalated quickly. Zero to Kraken in under 10 seconds.
Well, what can I say? That's my vibe.
Okay, anyway, let's do some news, shall we?
Yeah, what happened this week?
Stuff. Cool. Stuff happened this week.
Okay, and that's the end of the episode. Thank you very much for listening.
I like to keep it succinct. But, you know, Greg Taito?
Yes.
Communications Director over at Wizards of the Coast, or should I say, former D&D Communications Director. Because Greg has left Wizards of the Coast. Wow. Okay. For a job as Deputy Director of External Affairs for the Washington Secretary of State's Office. So he's gone from gaming to politics, basically.
Washington Secretary of State's Office. Yeah. Right. I mean, that's cool. I don't really know enough to say...
Well, no, I mean, he was like nine years at Wizards as communications manager, co-hosted the Dragon Talk podcast while it was on, the official Dungeons & Dragons podcast, which was around for a couple of years.
Pioneered a lot of ideas, like the teaser for the trailer for the preview for the spoiler for the announcement yeah um yes the previews of the spoilers of the teasers of the yeah yeah yeah it's like had that going on um yeah i had i had i i can see that he might be quite tired especially this past year.
Well, he certainly had a comment to make, which I'll get to in a second.
Yeah, I was about to say.
Oh, okay. Am I anticipating things? I know I'm anticipating something. But I want to say his boss, his new boss, Steve Hobbs, appeared on an episode of Dragon Talk a few years ago and is a D&D fan, interestingly. So I guess there'll still be lunchtime D&D games going on, even if they're at the Washington State Secretary's office.
Nice.
Same as the chip. I hope I'm not getting mauled by a dog. No, Marvin. Marvin, no. We're busy. We're busy.
Someone will crack and that's the only way to deal with him.
Yes. Yes. No, come on. Off you go. Off you go. But you did have something to say.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah. It feels good to do something that doesn't just line the pockets of assholes. Which is... Direct, shall we say.
He did clarify what he meant.
He did clarify... He meant shareholders, not his co-workers.
Sorry, I meant shareholders.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I... I mean, I don't know. I haven't got a quote for this, but I think... That's a hell of a Freudian slip. I think there's a lot of people working at Wizards of the Coast who are very passionate about what they do, that care about the brand, that want to be good stewards. And I think there's some...
corporate shareholderness and things like that getting in the way of what they want to do sometimes yeah i feel and we didn't go into any more detail that's managing wizard of the coast communications the last two years must have been a wild ride because like there's been a lot to communicate yeah shall we say and i imagine when you're in that job like the things that you're talking about
aren't your decisions.
No.
You know, but you are kind of getting a lot of the flack for it because you're the one doing the talking.
Yeah.
So I imagine that can be quite wearing.
Yeah.
Didn't they wheel out some guy? to talk to people after the OGL fiasco. The apology tour, as it was called. Was that someone else?
That was someone else, yeah. So they went around, I think it was like a half dozen or so YouTubers doing interviews, basically apologizing for the OGL crisis. It was an odd choice because it just felt like an apology tour. It just felt a lot. It was an interesting way to approach it. Interesting. Anyway, yeah. So there's no word on whether there's going to be a new communications manager.
I assume someone else is going to step into that role at some point.
Yeah.
But as yet, I don't know who that is. I wonder whether, you know, things will change a little bit. Whether a different style of how Wizards communicates with its fans will come along. I don't know. I mean, everyone... I don't know Greg Titor myself. Never met him. But everyone that I've spoken to says he's a great guy. Yeah. So... But we shall see, I guess. Time will tell. Yeah.
If we have news, we will report it.
Yeah. So your Players Handbook's now officially live on D&D Beyond. Yeah. The new one. 2024 Players Handbook. Yeah. Along with character sheets and the free rules.
Yeah. Basic rules. There's certainly been a lot of comment produced. I think TRPGBot was able to get a summary of the various changes that's been out already.
Well, that's on D&D Beyond. So D&D Beyond posted a full list of the changes in the player's handbook.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. RPGBot does something similar but different in that they list the changes and they look at the implications of these changes.
Oh, so an analysis. Yeah, yeah.
I always have a lot of time for their analysis and stuff because even if I don't necessarily agree with all of it, I do find it to be quite intriguing and it's definitely a consistent point of view, which I can totally respect. That's a big list. That's a lot of changes. Yeah, yeah, there's a big list and a lot of changes, yeah.
Classes, backgrounds, species, spells, stat blocks, feats, equipment, rules, new terminology, everything.
Yeah, yeah. I guess probably the thing that's struck my, caught my attention, caught my eye the most As you know, I'm quite interested in making gaming accessible to as many people as possible, working to do that sort of thing. And one of the people that I'm talking to is Wormworks Publishing, my chap Dale over there. And he had quite some things to say about the new Player's Handbook.
For instance, he liked some of the work they've done in the artwork, especially the artwork is top class. There's a lot of recognition of face differences, body proportion differences, or even things like a pigmentation variant, like vitiligo, which is where you might have, say, a black person, but they've got patches of white skin. So that's a really common form.
So yeah, in terms of artwork, they're doing well and they've even got some disabled characters in the artwork. Mm-hmm. which made the rest of it somewhat more problematic because there didn't appear to be anything like mobility aids, which was a concern. There's no recognition within the book. Like, you know, like what if you have crutches? What if you have a wheelchair? No combat wheelchair.
Yeah. I mean, not even a combat wheelchair, just like a regular one. I mean, it's not like, you know, as you say, the combat wheelchair, Mustang's art has had that out for ages. So it seems like a bit weird that there's,
nothing in there yeah because pathfinder adopted that didn't they yeah okay yeah i mean that might be the that might be the thing but yeah and obviously in advanced fifth edition there is also a wheelchair available in the equipment list as well yeah there's like not really not really much in the way for neurodivergence either which seems like a bit strange strange choice for
players recognizing themselves but probably the thing he felt most strongly about and i have to say i do i do quite agree with him is uh the complete removal of any mixed mixed heritages oh have they because we were wondering what they were going to do about that yeah is it completely gone then there's no rule for it or anything well like things like half or health and half or walk
have had sort of like problematic racist connotations yeah and they're gone yeah and they are gone like with Tasha's Cauldron for Everything they had a paragraph or two about adopting like you know ways to do it and obviously as you know I I've written a whole damn book about it. I'm likely to write more because it's something I feel very strongly about.
But he's kind of mad about the 2024 core rules because they only allow pure-blood people groups effectively gamifying miscegenation laws. They say what, sorry? The 2024 core rules allow only pure-blood people groups effectively gamifying miscegenation laws. Miscegenation is a term which means that you can't
In the real world, to talk about if a black person married a white person, some people would call that miscegenation, which is a very racist term and is not okay. It's like saying mixed races are not allowed. Obviously, we're talking about a fantasy game and mixed species or mixed heritages are our ancestries, I think is the term they use. Ancestry, yeah.
Yeah, but there's no acknowledgement of that and there's no distinction between biology and culture.
We knew that split wasn't in there earlier, didn't we?
Yeah, but they seem to have really doubled down on it and there's no suggestion.
There wasn't even a sidebar saying how to... So in the law, is it that these species are not compatible to produce offspring together? Is that the law that they're trying to say?
I'm afraid I don't have the player's handbook because I am but a British person. I'm a person in Britain, so it would not be accessible to me.
It's not for you.
No, apparently not. Apparently not. I'm definitely getting the vibe more and more from this sort of thing that... It really isn't for me. I don't think this new edition is for me. They're not really catering to my interests, which are like, actually, we should make it more accessible for people, and if people have a mixed heritage, they are welcome in the gaming space.
I find that interesting.
I mean, they do on the article point out, I mean, this is, obviously, it's not in the book, so it's not in the game, but they do say half elf and half orc from the 2014 book are still usable.
Hmm.
And they kind of specifically point that out. They've got a list of one, two, three, four, five, six, seven subclasses, two species and three feats from 2014. Yeah. And they basically, these, that's interesting. These are still usable from 2014. That's only like 10 items. Yeah. 12 items out of the entire player's handbook that are still apparently usable in 2014.
I think at this point the changes to spells, which are effectively class features, that ultimately spellcasting that as a class feature... and the spells that are available, they have undergone such major changes, especially with things like healing, that it really doesn't feel like saying it's the same edition has any validity. Sorry, I'm not trying to...
No, I get it.
I feel it's a mistake to claim it's the same edition because I would have expectations based on that. It's a completely new book.
From cover to cover, it is a completely new book. It's not an updated, revised book. It is a completely new book. And I think it's kind of really hard to say it's not.
From a third-party publisher perspective, I really wish they had said it was a new edition because it's really hard to communicate if you're doing a product for D&D, which it's compatible with. And we're trying to find a way to communicate that.
Yeah, we're trying to put this on a Kickstarter. We need to say... Something is compatible with both versions. And we're trying to come up with an eloquent and quick way of saying that. And at the moment, the best we've got is like a statement, a sentence going, compatible with both the 2014 editions of D&D 5th edition and the 2024 edition. And it's like, it's too clumsy and awkward.
Whereas if it could just say compatible with 5th edition and 6th edition, you know.
Then job done.
Yeah, but it just, it feels a little clunky. And so I don't know if any of the third party publishers are having this concern as well. Because some things, if you've historically published them, might not be compatible with 2024. And so it's important to have that distinction if people are buying third party products. And there's another problem.
If you just go compatible with all editions of D&D or something, it just sounds like you've got a rules neutral product, doesn't it?
A quote system neutral product, which is basically a D20 thing with no mechanics really.
It's basically a law book. Adventures and things like that can have that.
I'm sorry, I do apologise. I realise I sound very sniffy. I apologise. I'm not being sniffy about such things, but they're not
what i would expect from a book advertising itself as compatible i'm not expecting law i am expecting mechanics i'm expecting crunch and that wouldn't be able to deliver yeah yeah um so yeah so i think for i think really good customers for players dms um what do we call our what do we call the audience we can't call them clients that's me with my favorite the people that listen to the podcast
Well, like the people who are buying D&D books. Gamers, I don't know. Players. Nerds. Yeah. For fans of the gaming systems, then, yeah, this is confusing and it's not very helpful. And I can imagine it's going to lead to problems onboarding people into the hobby.
Because if someone turns up at a gaming club clutching their brand new 2024 Players Handbook and people are like, well, I ain't running that. I'm running 2014.
or someone turns up they've gone into a hobby shop they've seen two players handbooks neither of them says this is the new edition or the old edition on it you don't know they just say Dungeons and Dragons so you pick which cover you prefer yeah yeah so they're like oh well I like the picture on that one I'll pick that one up and they've got the 2014 one they go along to a gaming group with their brand new character they've made up and everyone's like playing the 2024 rules and it's like I don't know yeah
I imagine, call me old-fashioned, but maybe this 2014 stock is going to get discounted. So, you know, people will go and buy stuff and think they're getting something relevant, and they're just not.
I really do believe the clarity of just using an edition number would have been so much better.
Well, it would have been so much better for fans, for consumers.
It would be better for us. It wouldn't necessarily be better for Wizard of the Coast, I get that, because it would have meant that for the last two years they'd have sold less stuff. I get that. I understand why. I still... Which it wasn't that way.
Yeah, I mean, it's had a chilling effect on sales, and now it's just like, okay, great.
Yeah. But anyway, look at this list of changes. I mean, it's quite useful that they put that list of changes there. They haven't said what the changes are. They've just said what's been changed. So it's not like they've sort of said, you know, barbarian has... Oh, that's annoying. It doesn't say that. The barbarian's third level feature has changed from this to this. It's just said, you know...
It says Barbarian class features level one. The feature is Rage. It's been revised.
Yeah, but it just says it's been revised.
Oh, I get what you mean. Sorry, yeah. It does go into detail which elements have been revised and are new.
Yeah.
But yes, no, you're quite right.
Yeah. The subclass is Path of the Berserker, three revised features, but it doesn't really tell you what they are.
You'd have to read the book?
Yeah. I don't want to read a book. It's just pointing you to what's been changed. I think that's fine.
Yeah. It's stuff like removing the automatic exhaustion if you use the berserker's class feature, which was previously a problem. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, that article is on D&D Beyond. You can go and have a, you know, if you are, basically that article is there if you are migrating from 2014 to 2024. It's a helpful tool to help you do that. I think.
But there we go.
Yeah, and also you can grab the three rules, the three basic rules now, and character sheets. You can grab the character sheets now if you wish to do so.
Shall we have a look at the character sheets?
Shall we have a look at the character sheets?
Yeah.
Yeah? For me, it's something... Let me give you a... Here you go. Hang on a second.
I've got a link in the chat. So for me, I'm going to say looking at it straight away, I know it won't be a character sheet I use purely because I'm dyslexic, And the way things are laid out is going to be hard for me to scan through and find what I need. But that's a very niche thing.
So and there are lots of people that have created their own homebrew versions of it, which I find easier that have different shapes and I color things differently. But that's a very niche me thing. And I'm aware of other people. That's not a barrier.
Well, maybe, but I think accessibility does include things like whether people can read it and get access to it. Gating people out without consulting an accessibility consultant is a choice that a multi-billion company can make.
We don't know whether they consulted... And also, one character sheet isn't going to suit everybody's accommodation needs. So something that's useful for me, because I know someone, a player at my table saw my character sheet and they're like, whoa, that looks incredibly overwhelming, I won't be able to find anything, because there's different shapes, sizes and colours everywhere.
And so for them, that was...
But you know what, for me, I like that because the different shapes and colours call things out to me. So different people definitely visually work in different ways.
So I am very aware that one size does not fit all. So there's no way that wizards could make a perfect character sheet. So any criticisms I make of this, I'm very much in mind saying I know that there's nothing that would suit everyone.
Yeah, I mean, absolutely different strokes for different folks. Although, again, like...
make more than one yeah and label them as such I mean that would be yeah there's already like fan created ones out there already and there will be hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of those so yeah the D&D ecosystem does mean that everyone will be able to choose a character sheet it'd be nice if more than one came from Wizards themselves I guess yeah with again a budget for things like accessibility thinking about good design principles and yeah they could do different ones but
and leave aesthetic. And that would be like, that would have been a really amazing nod to accessibility, which would give people something to use straight from the Wizards site. And it would also, I imagine, lead to a big boom in creativity on people creating things. They'd be able to use these as templates and do whatever they wanted to prettify them up. Yeah, as it is.
We have one that looks very similar.
Well, it's down to two pages rather than three. So it's been condensed.
Yeah, yeah. I like that.
It's been rearranged a little bit. My sense of aesthetics is mildly perturbed by the way the ability scores are arranged.
I like it functionally.
Over there on the left. They should be in two even rows or columns.
But they're not even because what they've done is they've taken the ability and put the skills underneath. I understand. But it also does highlight how the skills are not equally balanced. Like, there's not many skills that are strength-based or constitution-based.
So what's interesting is... So I'm assuming from that, they're definitely not going with you can use any skill with any ability score. No.
Locking in.
Because they've literally listed each skill underneath the appropriate...
whether that will still be an option in the DMG I don't know I think a lot of people homebrew it that way even before I ran level up that would be something I'd be keen to do because there's different ways you do things it was an official alternative yeah
yeah but it seems very locked in by putting it I think when you put it on a character sheet like that you kind of lock it in as a default way of doing it and you say this is how it works or it subconsciously leans you that way anyway because you're just like because it's all there calculated for you because you would calculate your skills if I was writing this sheet up you'd do your modifier and then do the skills based on everything that's done for you so you just roll the skill
And they've taken out some of the passive skills, which actually I agree with. You don't have passive insight on that sheet. You don't have passive investigation. Because those were very strange things conceptually. Yeah, I always did. They've got passive perception. You have to have passive perception. That is like a linchpin rule almost.
If you kick out passive perception, then suddenly a lot of adventures don't work.
That's true for backward compatibility, yeah.
It's not as essential as it used to be in 2014, because in this one, you're rolling your stealth check versus a static 15. But in the 2014 edition, you'd be rolling versus passive perception.
Yeah. I mean, the thing with passive perception is about saving dice rolls. So basically, if you remove passive perception, the DM will just be asking for perception checks constantly.
Yeah.
Whereas with passive perception, they just know how perceptive people are. Yeah. And most DMs will basically just memorize the highest one in the group because that's the one that will really matter. Yeah. And, yeah.
Yeah, like if monsters try to ambush someone, then someone said, yeah, my passive perception, I've got wisdom five, I've got passive perception, I've got the alert feed, my passive perception is like 20. I know what's going on. This person does not enjoy ambushes. I will let them spot ambushes before they occur, and then they can be happy. I think that's fair enough, yeah?
Yeah. I mean, you still do that without passive perception. It's just that you're making perception rolls, which is just more clunky. Again, it's like slowing down.
That's true. Some people like throwing dice about, you know?
But anyway, they have got passive perception, so anyway, it's a moot point.
Yeah, no, I just thought it was interesting to talk about why that was important versus the other ones. Yeah.
Yeah, well, it's actually a really valid question. So thank you for asking. One thing I noticed, I mean, I can't see the whole shoot, but it does look like it's probably not on there, is how one gains inspiration.
Well, yeah, I think they've removed the boons and flaws and things. Yes.
It doesn't have the how. It's got the little spot for the heroic inspiration, but heroic inspiration is different for different classes, isn't it? Am I making that up?
Well, yeah. They've renamed it heroic inspiration. I honestly can't remember how they're handling inspiration now. I know we've discussed it before. We do know because we've talked about it before, but it's gone from my mind.
I believe different classes had different ways of gaining inspiration. Is that what it was? Am I making that up?
I don't know.
I'm now feeling very unconfident. Let's Google it. Am I thinking of just, like, level up A5E?
I think you might be thinking about destinies and level up A5E.
I think I am, and that's really unhelpful for this podcast, D&D.
Okay, heroic inspiration. Okay, let's have a look. What's changed? So, inspiration is a rule that the DM uses to reward you. Blah, blah, blah. Yep, we know that. If you have expiration, you can expend it to... Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.
how do you get here we go in the 2024 rules heroic inspiration functions similarly to the 2014 rules the primary difference being that a player can use it to re-roll any role in the game doesn't say how you gain it oh it's handed up the DM there are also new mechanics that allow players to earn inspiration in other ways for example the new champion subclass has an ability called heroic warrior that grants the character heroic inspiration at the start of a turn if they don't already have it
That's what I was thinking of. I'm glad I didn't just completely make that up.
So you were right. Yeah. Well, that's true for the fighter champion subclass.
I don't think it's true for all, hashtag not all classes. So, yeah.
It basically sort of codifies how it's been run.
Yeah.
Because like, you know, not that I'm bitter, but like, you know, playing to your bonds and flaws and doing stuff that puts you at a disadvantage. because that's playing to your heroic traits, flaws, bonds, it's supposed to gain you inspiration. And people just didn't seem to like that.
It never caught on, really.
No, no.
For some reason, it just never caught on.
Yeah. I mean, yeah. I think it's one of those things. I'm very much... I do like... I think we talked about this before, the difference of having it mechanically rewarded, of those two vibes rewarded by the GM. I do like to vibes reward the table.
So if somebody does something that, like you just say, does feel very in character and creates something interesting in the story, whether that be good, bad, or whatever... I do like to be like, here, have a cookie.
For me, it's strictly cash. You pay for your inspiration.
For me, it's have a cookie.
Russ has got a different sort of vibe going on but Jessica that was how it was in 2014 as well it was either you got it based on doing something awesome at GM discretion I was like oh like Savage World Benny's Bish Bosh I know how this works that's great or it was doing the role playing aspect and they seemed to have removed the doing the role playing aspect no no it's still there I think that is that as well I think it's just a bit vaguer it's not like you have to do it specifically according to these bonds and flaws it's just up to the DM
Yeah, but it was always up to the DM. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's like this, an NQ inspiration, or it's up to DM, which would necessarily include if you did something cool.
I think it gives you both options, really, because I think some people then could play the way I do and be like purely vibes, and some people are like, no, I want this to be... something mechanical so that it's fair and across the board. I think we did an episode where we talked in detail about the merits of both approaches.
So I guess this would give you the option to do both depending on what your table wants.
Yeah. I think it's just fairer to people to let them know what's expected of them. But that's probably due to an article I was seeing about What was it? It was how autistic people quite enjoy D&D and they've got role-playing games.
What? Who would have suspected? I don't know.
Having clear guidelines about what it is you're supposed to be trying to do in a social situation
It's kind of relaxing. And also you can try out social interactions and it's not real. So if it goes wrong, it's a lot safer of social consequence because it's your character and not you as the player doing those things.
And if you don't know what to do, hitting with your axe is always a valid option.
Yeah. And not even the worst one. Did I tell you about my fighter character? Anyway. But yeah. So what are our other thoughts about the character? I like that it's condensed down to two. Yeah.
It was only five before, which is a lot.
I think because the spell slots don't have room for you to write out what the spells are.
You just write the name of the spell.
So you're going to need to be referencing your tone. But if you're playing a wizard, that feels like a very wizardy thing to do anyway, to just be referencing things in a book constantly.
But also, I think that ties into how they expect people to be playing online an awful lot. Yes. And on the D&D Beyond character sheet, you're just going to literally just click on it and it will pop up.
That's correct, yeah.
That's... Kind of how they expect that to work, I think.
I do like they've got a big section on the front for class features and notes and stuff, so that takes up a lot of real estate, which is good, because it means you can add cool little bits that your character does, so you don't forget.
They've got quite a big space for species traits as well. Actually, it's called species traits. I think you're only going to fit names of things in there, really, though, again.
Yeah, and that's true, but again, I think so many people that play D&D regularly are using D&D Beyond as a tool, even if they're playing in person. I know there's people at my table who sit with a tablet because it is just, they find it easier. So I imagine that's the case. And I'm excited to see the rest of the community making their own
custom character sheets because that's always... Someone's already released on EN World a form-fillable one.
Perfect.
They just took that one and form-fillabilified it, which is helpful.
I love the TGF with you community because people just do cool stuff and like, here, I made this. I want to share it with everybody. And I'm like, ooh.
that's so nice of you you're such a cool person but yeah I'm excited to see all the different character sheets that come out because I know there'll be people that game that bring out one that's more dyslexic friendly and things like that and all these other things that I haven't even considered and know about yeah so I'm excited to see the community post on there so post them on EMworld if you are if you've made one or find find a cool one link it on there so I can find it so I would appreciate that yeah
There's also campaign tracker sheets that are going to be coming at some point as well because they're in the DMG, I believe, so they won't see them for a bit, I guess. Do you remember we saw those and they had the cutesy artwork around the edges?
Yes, I do remember that. It was very cute and I was surprised because from D&D I'm used to a more, I don't know, a different art style.
I think the aesthetic is kind of... Cuter. Yeah, generally cuter in these books than in previous ones.
But those sheets were, like, really cute. They were, yeah.
They were, like... They were heavy, heavy cute.
Don't get me wrong. I like that. And I'm all for that. But I don't know if I am representative of the wider D&D community. I don't... Maybe I am. I don't know. But I... I suspect not everyone wants a cute vibe in their D&D game.
No. No. It's already getting erratic, by the way, to play a Sandbrook.
makes sense I mean it's a big update and I imagine there's yeah yeah it's not it's not technically out yet really but um oh well that's all the better then before
Yeah, there's not a massive amount yet. So the giant insect spell contains a hit point clarification. They had the wrong amount in there. Shields now require the utilize action to don or doff. The Gliath's powerful build, they say, the advantage is on ability checks to end the grapple condition, not saving throws.
Ooh.
The true polymorph spell no longer runs out if the target's temporary hit points run out. And the telekinetic feat now grants an increased range to the use of Mage Ant. Oh, nice. So, yeah. I mean, say it's a rafter. So basically what this is is the player's handbook on D&D Beyond. It's where it differs from the physical book.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm. So they haven't released an Arata document, but there are just some things on the D&D Beyond where it's slightly different, and people have noticed these, and I assume that's going to be collated as Arata for the book at some point.
Yeah.
That's my guess.
Fair enough.
Yeah. Anyway, what other news have we got? I have something that isn't D&D.
Excellent. I'm a big fan of that, of things that are not D&D.
I mean, yeah, it's a little bit of a proto- kickstarter at the moment but you will recall a couple of years ago there was a game that was teaching you how to learn sign language oh yes inspirals and they got overrides as well yeah that's right yeah well they have just come out of left field and said hey how would you like to recreate ulysses 31 and other such games On the Broadway game table.
Yeah, yeah, Ulysses 31.
Ulysses, Ulysses. I can't remember the words.
Definitely. But thank you for the musical saying all the same.
I used the Paragon system.
Yeah, I'm not familiar with the system, but what caught my eye was the absolutely stunning artwork. There's a chap who, Alex Connolly, does Acid Concepts. He was the chap who did a lot of the art for Salvage Union, which was Penny Lines. Beautiful, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So that was, like, really, really solid aesthetics. And, yeah, he's done, like, what looks like a really bang-up drop here, so...
I know Fernando Salvatore also has done some artwork on this as well. So I don't know the details, but by goodness, it's going to be a pretty book. No two ways about it. Yeah.
It looks very pretty, yeah.
Yeah, yeah. Anyway, that's currently at Notify Me on launch. So it's not even a proper Kickstarter. Well, it's on Kickstarter, but it's not... The pre-launch page. I thought I'd shout it out just because it's...
Kickstarter have changed their pre-launch page, so there's a bit more info now, which is quite nice.
Yeah, they're going to be back at it, basically.
Well, yeah. But it works really well, and it is nice, because it does give you a bit more info than just a tagline. Yeah, I agree.
I agree entirely.
And as a publisher, I do like it, because it does mean I can tell you more about it. Yeah.
There's only so much information you can put in one graphic and one subtitle, you know?
I was going to ask, it sounds like you know a little bit more about Paragon because I can tell it's done by John Harper and Sean Nitler. I've never actually played Paragon, or even really heard anyone talk about it.
Do you know, I haven't actually, I haven't played it myself, but I have heard of it, and I've had people tell me they think I would like it, because it's very cinematic storytelling focused, opposed to crunchy rule system, from what I understand. Because it's quite light, more rules, and they're more intuitive, which is what I like to run.
I don't know the system at all.
But I've not played it, so I don't know a huge amount about it. But it jumped out to me because people have told me, oh, you'll probably like this when I've described what I like to run. So, yeah. That's all right. I'm fair. I have no further insight at this time.
Argo, tabletop RPG inspired by Greek mythology. A thing I like. 80s cartoons. A thing I like. Classic anime. Eh, not so much.
Do you know what? Maybe I'll contact them, have them on Not D&D and see if they can tell me more about it because I am intrigued.
Right. Anyway, news, news, news.
Any more? I have other news related to cartoons, as you'd call them. So Critical Role Season 3, we had talked about before, so it's coming out shortly. Yeah. October 3rd. And there were just some nice news on the confirmation. So one of the actors, Lance Reddick, was the voice actor who did one of the main antagonists in the series. Suddenly he passed away in March of 2023. And so people were...
obviously upset about that and obviously wanted to know what was going to happen to the character but he had already recorded his season three work so his voice will be in this series so it'll be the same actor so if you enjoy his work and were hoping to see more of it and sad by his passing it's still in this current series because of the timings of when it was recorded and made but yeah so I just thought
Put that news out because I heard about that because I didn't know. And it was related to cartoons that you were talking about.
Yes.
Animation, as others would call it.
I am now apparently a cartoon fan.
Yes. There you go. Look at you.
Look at me. Hey, you know, you can now get an official D&D drink where you have been able to before.
A new one.
You can get a stout or a bourbon from the New Holland Brewing Company.
It's called Dragon's Milk.
It's called Dragon's Milk, yes. Okay. It's called D20 Brew Bourbon Barrel Aged Stout and also an Origin Meadcast Bourbon Whiskey.
Do you know, I didn't know you could milk a dragon because I thought they laid eggs.
Now you know. Now you know.
So does this mean you could make dragon custard because they lay eggs and produce milk?
Yes.
Much like a platypus.
Sure.
Good. I can tell you both enjoy talking about this. Shall we continue this discussion?
Remind me never to eat custard that you've made.
It's part of us custard. The best custard.
It's not the first time. There was a Quest's End whiskey line for Matthew Lillard.
Yes, but that wasn't referred to as milk.
It was not referred to as milk. You're correct. It was not referred to as milk. Yeah. Yeah, fine. Anyway, you can get that. Okay. We've said enough about it, I think.
Sorry, I lowered the tone. I lowered the tone. Yeah. I have some other news, though. It's something we're doing. So I'm excited because we're launching Split the Horde, which is our first ever...
board game card game uh later this month very excited about and we finally because i've been struggling with it but i've done it it's available on tabletopia for people to play which isn't like a free online uh board game site um and so the card version of the game is available to play on there so if people wanted to try it out and see what it's about for free it's up and available now uh which i'm really pleased about because i managed to do it and hopefully there's no areas or issues with it
If there is, that's my fault. Please message me and tell me and I'll fix it. But it's my first time using online tabletop simulator things and building it. So it's been an interesting new part of publishing board games that differs from tabletop RPGs.
So Tabletopia, do you download it or is it in browser?
It's a browser-based system. You can also download it on Steam as well, but you can play in your browser and there's a free membership. There are certain games that are included for free. Split the Horde is one of them. I think there are some you need to pay for, but not Split the Horde, so not relevant for what I'm talking about. But yeah, it's just a way to play board games online with people.
um it's a bit slower than in real life because playing card games on virtual tabletop things i always find a bit more fiddly well i noticed that when we played on tabletop simulator yes and a lot of it is just fiddling just trying to i'm trying to move that oh no put that no get back yeah and trying to move stuff about and so it does waste a lot of time does take a bit longer than in real life if you're playing a card game but it is there and you can and if you're good at using those systems i imagine it's
I bet you get used to them.
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Well, when we were playing with Mark, the designer, he was very quick because he knew how it all works. And we were like, oh, how does this work here? But yeah, so if people are interested in the game and want to play it, you can. Enjoy. So that's something I've done this week.
Yeah. What else have we got? I've got a Pathfinder NPC core rulebook. Okay. What are this? Which I think is hyper useful. So this is coming out in March. It's for Pathfinder, obviously. Nice. And it basically contains hundreds of stat blocks for NPCs.
Nice.
And that's basically the book. It's a monster manual for NPCs.
Okay.
And I think it's just super, super useful. I think that's the sort of... If I play Pathfinder, that's the sort of thing that I would consider top-tier useful in terms of books.
Yes.
Yeah, there isn't one for D&D like that, is there?
There is for us.
Not official.
I don't know if it's called or where to find it. Yeah, it's not official, but it's out there.
There's lots of third-party ones, yes.
Yeah.
Yes, not by Wizards of the Coast, but yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
$70.
$70 of your American dollars. Well, there we go.
I also have a crowdfunder I'm excited about that I'd like to share. So it's So You've Met a Thousand-Year-Old Vampire, which is on Backerkit. So this is obviously the follow-on from Thousand-Year-Old Vampire, the solo RPG, which is very popular, very critically acclaimed, award-winning.
um by tim hutchings so yeah i'm excited to see that so this is from the perspective of somebody that befriends a thousand year old vampire and it's about exploring your relationship because it's like who are you to this are you their friend are you an employee are you their lover are you just their food or you know because it's solo rpg it can be purely out of your creativity so it's very interesting because the original solo rpg i played through is a lot about loneliness and connection with others and your perspective as like an immortal being
and then I think it's interesting looking at the other side of those relationships as somebody who's a mortal being trying to have some sort of connection whatever relationship that is you define with this so I think it's an interesting perspective on connection relationships yes I'm really excited about it and I'm actually interviewing Tim about it on Monday for Not D&D which is very excited because in the back of the original book actually there's an EN World article a written interview that we did back in the day when it came out so yes I'm excited for that one
And I think a lot of people that haven't tried solo RPGs, this is one that draws people in, I think, because of the theme. And the book is just a beautiful thing as well. If you've seen the graphic design and the layout, it's just very pretty.
Yeah, yeah. I don't know anybody that likes Battlescape 3, do I? Do I know anybody that likes Battlescape 3? I don't think I do. I don't think so. Not that I'm aware of. No. We should probably move on. Yeah, yeah. No one's interested.
Are you talking about the Patch 7 update? No. Okay.
I'm talking about so I'm not I don't know what that is you can tell me about that in a second if you like but I'm talking about the way Baldur's Gate 3's D&D rules differ to the actual Fibre Drop rules in some ways is that the 2014 or the 2024 rules Well, I assume the 2014 rules because they didn't have a time machine. But Larian talked about how that came about.
Okay.
Which is interesting. And what apparently they did, and this was Nick Petchanin, the design director, when they were making the game. They said basically they were homebrew rules. They said they literally combed through forums online looking for common homebrew rules and just used them. Yeah. Yeah, and that's just how that happened. Wow, okay. Which I thought that was kind of cool.
So things like the fourth relationship, that's based on pilfering from homebrew.
Yeah, okay.
Yeah, well, they've got things like, let's have a look. So, well, you know the game better than I do, but the speed at which you can drink potions was altered basically based on common homebrew rules that people use.
The bonus action, yeah.
People being doused in water, taking more damage from lightning and cold damage. Just various things like that.
That's native to the Divinity Original Sin 2 engine though, so fair play to them.
I like chucking a potion and it affects everyone in the area as well. So you smash a potion on the ground.
That is quite cool.
I love that.
Spam healing potions.
Throw healing potions.
And it splashes on everyone, yeah.
The next step is going to be a repeating potion launcher where you just load it up with healing potions and just fire it at your party just to heal them up really quickly.
I love that. But instead of being potions in glass bottles, I think if you made them in some sort of water balloon type material so that when they hit the person they don't do damage.
Maybe you should just turn it into a hose.
Yeah. like a spray that would be an expensive bit of equipment like just to load it up with all the potions yes or a water gun and you take the potions and they kind of click slot in on top so it looks a bit steampunky and then it's you know what I think we finally found a use case for the artifice that I can get alongside yes
do you know what I've been doing this week I have been approving the Monstrous Menagerie 2 manuscript I know and I'm so pleased very excited I've been really strict with myself and just like I'm not going to start looking at this book until Voidrunners is done much to my joy Yeah. Otherwise, yeah, no.
So finally, finally handed off the final sort of last bit of Voidrunnery stuff that I have to do. So I started looking at Monster Manager 2 and it's looking awesome.
Yes.
It's looking so awesome. Yeah.
Yeah. I could believe it. I mean, I've only written a couple little bits for it. But the pictures I put in, I did not think would get accepted for some of it. The ones I thought, oh yeah, I'll do this. I'll put some other ones in as a laugh. And Paul was like, no, no, I don't want your boring, sensible pictures. I want the really messed up stuff. I'm like, okay.
Yeah. And there's also a couple of little tweaks as well. So, you know, the tools that you get with every monster in Monsters from the Natural, you know, you get like the tables for Legends and Lore and Names and Signs.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Those little tools. So you've got all that on there. So you did the Legends and Lore bit where you roll to see what information you get. Yeah, yeah. Paul, who obviously is the lead designer on Monstrous Menagerie 1, Paul Hughes, and 2, has added false information for bad rolls.
Yes, I love that.
Which I think is a cunning idea.
You're confident you recall this about them. That's funny.
Although presumably you still know when you've made a bad roll.
Yeah, player and character. Unless you copy Pathfinder. Well, I mean, that's a good way to do it, build tension by asking people to do that. But if you're untrusting, you could still copy Pathfinder in the second edition and have a closed roll. Yeah, you could do that. Give me a good modifier. What's your token modifier? Yeah, yeah. You can absolutely do that.
And then roll it and say, you think this, you think this, you think this. Good times. Enjoy separating them.
Yeah. The other thing we got in there is, one, there's a much higher emphasis on higher level monsters. Yes. Good. Which is nice. It's a lot more skewed towards higher level monsters. Because we've got a lot of CR1 to like four monsters.
In the original commentary, yeah.
So we've got a lot of much higher level monsters. And also because people have been playing for a while now, we expect they're more likely to be,
so there's that there's a lot of epic like and some unique named ones which is cool but we also got these rules for what are called um horde monsters oh h-o-r-d-e not h-o-a-r-d yeah and these you could use a horde to protect a horde always valid exactly yes yes Yeah. And these are basically for large groups of monsters.
So we've got the squad template in Monsters Monotree 1 for sort of like a group of like four or five sort of thing. Yeah, it's quite effective. But this is for much larger groups of monsters. Oh. And the idea is that horde monsters, the kind of designs for like... They're kind of like minions, I guess.
They're designed to be quite easy to cut through and let you show off a bit, but still be challenging en masse.
That does sound fun.
Yeah, yeah. So, yeah. So it's like when you meet the Archlist and its horde of...
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, and things like that. Or you could have multiple hordes. You want to throw a hundred zombies on the table, go for it. We've got you covered.
Nice. That's cool. Put my fighter in there. Let her just go nuts. This is all she does.
Very much. And this is going into layout now as well, which is cool. Yeah. So I'm starting to get quite excited about this one.
we haven't got the Kickstarter pre-launch page up to follow yet but we are working on it so we should we'll put a link on here and we do probably in the next few weeks or so we should have the pre-launch page up it's definitely the book that we've been asked for most yes
Although I do want to do an NPC book like Pathfinder's done. I just think that's really useful.
Yeah. Well, we do have the Mythological Figures Level Up 5e book, but you want more. More NPCs.
Yeah.
More.
Yeah. Anyway, there's that. And the other thing I just wanted to quickly mention is we did a September dev update for Level Up Gateway.
Oh, yes.
Because we're putting that update out each month now just to say how we're doing. And the current goal is to get all the classes up to level five on there before we let people tinker with it.
Have a little test.
And we're about halfway through. I keep saying we.
The royal we.
Yeah, the royal we. Alexander is about halfway through the classes now. Been working on spellcasting classes in the last few weeks. So Wizard is now up to level five as a sorcerer and cleric are both up there as well. All the spells are in. It is just so cool. I can't wait till people get to start tinkering with it. Cannot wait.
Find ways to break it for us, please.
Oh, there will be. Yeah, there will be.
That's the point of the testing. It's like, here's this fun toy. Can you show me how you can break it? And there are lots of people who are really good at doing that.
Yes.
I can break your toy.
Yeah. Anyway, there's an update on that over on the Level Up website. The latest update.
Cool.
Lots of nice screenshots and pretty pictures. Sounds amazing. Anyway, and that's that really.
I think that's all the news. Do we have anything else?
I think we're done.
I think we're done for the week.
I think we might be.
All right.
Sweet.
Should we go have a weekend? Go play some games?
Let's do that, yeah. Let's have a nice, wet, rainy weekend.
Perfect to sit indoors and play tabletop games.
Bye for now. Bye. Yes, and we'll see you next week. Bye-bye.
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Because I was just wondering, can you get milk out of a dragon without nipples?
Oh, can we stop? No, I haven't seen any nipples on the new dragon artwork in D&D, to be honest.
Well, I guess maybe then this dragon milk might not be.
In fairness, I haven't been looking for them, I will admit. So maybe I just haven't...
You just missed them. It might be like cats all hidden away, but on the scales.
Maybe they have to have them built into the scales, like the bat nipples in the George Clooney Batman film.
Oh, okay, so they sort of like slip up and pop out.
But anyway, so Dragon's Milk, the new drink you can get as a 50th anniversary. Good, that's a good piece of news. Wow.