Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
318 | 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide Preview, Discworld RPG, D&D Accessories, and more!
Sun, 06 Oct 2024
This week, Morrus, PJ, and Jessica talk about all the week’s tabletop RPG news including previews of the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide, a look at the Discworld quickstart, new Dungeons & Dragons accessories, and more! -------------------- News [2:24] Longshoreman strike ends after 3 days with tentative agreement in place until January 15 https://www.enworld.org/threads/follow-up-longshoreman-strike-ends-after-three-days.707125/ [4:49] UK hands over Chagos Islands to Mauritius https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c98ynejg4l5o [7:34] Discworld Quickstart and trailer released by Modiphius https://www.enworld.org/threads/modiphius-discworld-rpg-has-a-quickstart-and-a-trailer-and-its-very-pratchett.706994/ [15:29] Advanced Fighting Fantasy on Kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2036759092/advanced-fighting-fantasy-dark-dungeons-the-boardgame [18:44] PETA releases three new D&D subclasses https://www.enworld.org/threads/peta-releases-three-new-dungeons-dragons-subclasses.706997/ [22:02] Baldur’s Gate 3 cast reunites for MCM Comic Con London D&D Live performance https://www.enworld.org/threads/baldurs-gate-3-cast-reunites-for-d-d-live-at-mcm-comic-con-london.707046/ [23:40] WizKids releasing Baldur’s Gate 3 miniatures https://www.enworld.org/threads/wizkids-to-release-baldurs-gate-3-miniatures.706945/ [25:27] Catalyst Game Labs announces Voltron RPG https://www.enworld.org/threads/theres-a-voltron-rpg-coming.707064/ [26:39] Cubicle 7 Warhammer Day Sale https://cubicle7games.com/warhammer-day-sale [30:22] Candela Obscure gets first official adventure book https://www.enworld.org/threads/candela-obscura-gets-first-official-adventure-book.706958/ [32:46] The Beacons Are Lit Bundle benefitting Owen KC Stephens medical expenses https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/493349/the-beacons-are-lit-bundle?affiliate_id=36142 [34:15] Mongoose acquires rights to Twilight 2000 and 2300AD https://www.enworld.org/threads/mongoose-acquires-twilight-2000-and-2300-ad.707036/ [36:13] FiveEvil Splingers on DriveThruRPG https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/495664/fiveevil-splinters?affiliate_id=36142 [38:38] New licensed accessories for Dungeons & Dragons announced https://www.enworld.org/threads/multiple-officially-licensed-dungeons-dragons-accessories-announced.707127/ [42:19] ‘Dungeon Crawler’ added to Merrium-Webster Dictionary https://www.enworld.org/threads/dungeon-crawler-is-now-part-of-the-english-dictionary.707083/ [43:05] Zombie Road on Gamefound https://gamefound.com/en/projects/dragonmount-press/zombieroadrpg [46:31] Dragon Reflections #8 by M.T. Black about the mentioned issue of Dragon https://www.enworld.org/threads/dragon-reflections-8-%E2%80%93-a-whole-new-multiverse.665643/ [52:32] New Dungeon Master’s Guide art and details revealed https://www.enworld.org/threads/new-dungeons-dragons-dungeon-masters-guide-art-and-details-revealed.707042/ [61:07] Dungeon Master’s Guide Bastion System https://www.enworld.org/threads/dungeon-masters-guide-bastion-system-lets-you-build-a-stronghold.707068/ -------------------- 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
hi this is chris birch from modiphius you are listening to morris's unofficial tabletop rpg talk this week morris pj and jessica talk about all the week's tabletop rpg news including previews of the 2024 dungeon masters guide a look at the disc world quick start new dungeons and dragons accessories and more this week on morris's unofficial tabletop rpg talk
This week, the podcast is sponsored by the Imperial Bank of Botherton. If you have a mountain of gold coins looted from an unfortunately deceased goblin tribe, or a cache of valuable gems liberated from a sadly-demised commune of bugbears, you'll find no better place to store it.
The Imperial Bank of Botherton's vault is guarded by nuclear bear owls, and its adamantine doors are enchanted by the greatest mage in all the... Oh, wait, I think there must be an error. I'm the greatest mage in all the world. Who is this pretender? Who? Who? I demand to know!
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to Morris' unofficial tabletop RPG talk. I am Russ, a.k.a. Morris, or Morris, a.k.a.
Russ, and with me this week is... PJ Coffey from the Southampton Guild of Roleplayers. Russ, how's it going? I am delighted to be here. And joining us this week, is she feeling French? Is she feeling like an old-timey burglar? Who can say? All we know is it's...
c'est moi Jessica from Ian Publishing but no you need the beret I have a beret somewhere well there we go podcast hats we should make make them a comeback I prefer the burglar idea with a sack that says swag on it I probably have that too I could I mean could have a beret and a little domino mask and a bag that says swag on good too I feel that would that would tick a lot of boxes hmm
Let me tell you the thing that I'm most excited about that's happened this week.
Oh, we're on to actual news now?
Yeah, news, if that's okay. So we talked last week, there's the International Longshoremen's Association was having a port strike in the US, which is valid, fair, love a union, love a strike, all for that. But that would mean that would significantly impact a lot of imports and exports, particularly things coming from Europe to the east coast of the US. And of course, of course...
That is something us at EM Publishing are just finishing printing something and sending it over. But yeah, so I was a little bit worried about that. And on Monday of this week, we were seeing if they were going to reach a resolution, but they didn't. And so the strike happened. But now, as of today, they have reached a tentative deal to end the strike.
So it's not signed and things yet, but it means they have suspended the strike until January 15th so that they can negotiate it properly. And get everything signed. But. This means the strike. Is ending. And people are going to be going back to work. Which. First of all. Good for the people on the strike. Because it seems like they have. A deal that they are happy with. Yeah. And second of all.
Good for me. Because I was quite stressed about. As a person that manages shipping and operations. But yeah.
But of course. January the 15th. We'll probably have another Kickstarter. So. Let's hope the same thing doesn't happen in January.
Let me just enjoy the moment. Let me just enjoy the moment. And yes, we will have a shipment, but our other shipment could go around the West Coast instead.
Top tip, hair dyke is a multitude of grey hairs caused by stress on one leg.
Yes, but no, it's fine. And luckily, I mean, I told our supporters and everyone was like, yeah, fair enough, because I mean... What really can we as a tiny company do? Things like that. And like, you know, so many people. I think it was like three billion a day it was costing the economy. So like so many people were affected. Yeah.
And apparently the two products that were panic bought most in America as a result of this was milk and toilet paper. And those are two products that are produced domestically and would not be. Yeah. would not be affected by the strike.
Certainly one of those I really, really... One would be annoying to run out of. One of them I really, really, really don't want to run out of.
Russ is, as we know, a big milk drinker.
Yes. Well, the thing is, I remember in the beginning of the pandemic, toilet paper was the thing that everyone panicked for. It's the go-to thing.
The shelves were empty, weren't they?
Everyone's like, this is what I cannot live without.
I mean, that's fair. I mean, you can't live without it.
Um, I don't know. You can have a good day.
Zombie apocalypse comes. I am screwed. Why don't we just skip over? Okay. I've got some good news, bad news.
Okay.
We're looking at world events.
Yes. Well, is it related to tabletop RPGs?
Because, like, if we open the scope... It's really key to tabletop RPGs. I mean, there is a lot of bad news in the world. Yeah. It's a fact. Well, I mean, yeah, sure. Okay. Yeah. that the agreement is we try and stick to topic and this is pretty like it's the UK's fault so we're sorry about that rest of the world but the UK is doing a good thing You may never have heard of the Chagos Islands.
They're like little islands near Mauritius, basically were stolen by the UK.
That does sound like something we'd do.
They took people off them and have dragged them to Britain and they've been... having a terrible time haven't they been kept in the uh in the museum for like the last 200 years are you thinking the british museum yes no no this is like you know a whole bunch of people who who basically got displaced by the uk so the good news is that the chagos islands are being given to mauritius
for various reasons, like the UK having its arm twisted about the matter, which is great. But as we all know, .uk and .fr, these are the domains for UK and France, right? Would you like to have a go and guess what the domain suffix for the Chagos Islands are? No. .ch? .io. Oh, okay.
So if we were to know any famous role-playing game distribution networks which had a .io suffix, that would be quite important. And the reason this is quite important is because this puts the .io suffix, the top-level domain, into dispute. Like it may stop being a valid top-level domain. Oh. So...
Like I say, this is... And itch.io is a big sales platform for TTRPGs, so that's the... Yeah. Oh, okay.
Second only to OneBookshelf and DriveForRPG.com. So, yeah, it's kind of a big deal.
Hmm. So they might end up having to change their URL, basically.
Yeah, which is suboptimal if you have lots of links to it. Yeah, not ideal. So, like I say, that's a real good news, bad news situation. Good news for Chuggles Islanders, bad news for Itch.io. I mean, nothing is set in stone. Money is always a powerful argument and so forth. A lot of Bitcoin people...
and that sort of thing they quite like the .io domain but just to let you know it is potentially in the trap so I thought that was interesting and yeah there you go oh yeah alright Discworld Discworld Discworld we talked about it last week we did and then the quick start has come out during the week and a trailer in fact and I have looked at the quick start so now I know how the Discworld RPG works please tell me because I haven't had the chance I haven't made the time to look at it I am a world leading expert
along with everybody else who's looked at the PDF, in how this world RPG works.
Fast surpasses my knowledge, so I'm impressed.
Yeah. So, interestingly, there isn't a lot more to it than what we said last week.
No.
Okay.
That was pretty much a pretty full summary of the rules. Which was to recap, listeners, for whatever reason I haven't heard, the Turfu Naritidium engine... uses a tag system where a DM assigns arbitrarily a default... Traits, they call them, yeah. Traits, yeah, against this slash trait, and then they themselves roll a d8, and whoever wins the roll off... Yeah. So the traits...
I mean, it's sort of like a 60-odd page, or was it 40-page PDF. So there's quite a lot of stuff in there, but half of it's an adventure, which looks pretty cool. It's members of the Watch, and you're investigating a crime. I think it's a break-in. You're investigating a break-in. So half of it's an adventure.
There's a bunch of pre-generated characters at the back, and then the rules, obviously, are the first. And then there's a whole what is Discworld and what is an RPG bit at the beginning. And then the rules bit is pretty short. So, yeah, so these traits are things like the watch is a trait in there. So you're a member of the watch.
You can put on that trait and, you know, it means you probably have a sword and you can probably get the ear of the watch commander or, you know, things like that. Other ones are sort of like troll born to loving parents or, you know, it's a whole load of stuff that can be traits. It's like they're usually sentences rather than just words.
There's loads and loads and loads of stuff that could be a trait.
So kind of like fate, when you have the... It's not called tags, is it? What's it called? Aspects in fate?
Yeah, yeah.
What are they called? Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's very... The PDF has lots of footnotes in it. Very, very tragedy as you read through it. It very much, very much encourages on...
the silly and the absurd and it just says the more silly you are the more absurd you are the better especially when it comes to explaining why your trait is relevant the more ridiculous you can be the better it also very specifically says this game is designed for one shots it's not really set up for long term play that makes sense
Yeah, so it's like play it in between two campaigns in something else. But it's really, really not a game designed for proper campaign-length stuff.
That makes sense, because that kind of humour is, like you say, funny for a one-shot, but I imagine... could drag after a year or two you know like yeah i do like comedy rpgs for a one shot like being silly and things for one session sure i could spend a few hours doing that but yeah i don't i don't think i'd want every other week or every week to be doing that myself
yeah yeah i mean it all does i mean the system itself is very very very light it's like about as light as you can get with a with a game system yeah unless yeah unless you're going as light as dread or something which is the jenga tower thing it feels like there's a lot of chaos maximization yeah it is very much is the gm impressed yeah basically and yeah
I guess because it's a one shot again there'd be less frustration potentially of the mechanics of that because if it's just for one night you're like okay fine but yeah in a campaign like we talked about before if there's you know if the rules aren't as tight and doesn't feel fair for everybody, that could become a real point of contention long-term.
If it's just for one night, it could be something you brush off and let go, I guess.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And of course, the other interesting thing was there's no combat rules in it, which they pointed out last week, but there's no combat rules in it. No, no way of resolving a fight. Yeah.
I guess you'd just do it narratively, wouldn't you?
I guess so, yeah.
So you'd just say, I attack the... You could do it like Everware, which is a tarot card.
There's no robots in this world. There could be. It could be golems. But there's other games where combat is just one roll. Not all games have you moving 30 feet at a time. They literally say that. You're not going to move 30 feet at a time and roll to hit and do some damage and reduce hit points. You're not going to do any of that stuff at all.
Yeah.
I guess to me, I really like it. It's a gorgeous PDF as well. It's very pretty. It's evocative. It works really well. It conjures up the spirit of Pratchett, in my opinion, well, in the writing style, with the footnotes, the art, everything. All does that. The adventure seems to... I'm not going to spoil the adventure. I'll just say it's an investigation into a break-in.
It covers a bunch of different locations, silly situations and feels Pratchetty to me. Hmm. So, yeah, I like it from that point of view. I mean, the system itself, take it or leave it, it's not much to say about it, really. But, yeah, I like it. I mean, I think I'll back it.
Yeah, yeah.
Just because I like the look of it.
And the art in the books will be nice, and there'll be lots of lore, I expect. There you go. Yeah. That sort of thing, then. Good times. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, good.
Please hear it. I wonder if it'll be another million dollar one.
Oh, maybe. Maybe.
Monty Python 1 did, this might.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, Terry Pratchett.
Tell you what, if you tuck in a load of Discworld slash Pratchett collectibles in there, that'll explode.
Because people will back it just for those.
Yeah.
We'll have to see what Modiphius does with it. They definitely have the muscle to provide that sort of thing. So let's see what they do with it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah. And the trailer, of course, as well. It's quite fun.
Yeah.
The trailer just has the turtle, elephant and discord combination swimming slowly across the screen while the narrator attempts to narrate something, but the music keeps swelling up and you can't hear the narrator and he starts getting upset and says, turn the music down. It's funny. Yeah. It's a little thing, but it's funny.
Yeah. Love that. All right. When does that come into crowdfunding?
I'm not sure what date exactly really soon though really soon
think it's like in the next couple of weeks oh nice okay i'm not 100 sure the problem is this is a piece of information i did know and i've forgotten it i feel like it was october i think october was the month i had in my mind is is kind of yeah i feel like mid-october but i must emphasize that's just a feeling that's what we believe in our hearts all right okay we'll look out for that and we'll let you know on here the week it comes out so you'll be aware so you will not miss it yeah
I have a bunch of stuff I could talk about current exciting sales massive value bundles and a real blast from the past all intriguing PJ Oh, any particular things you'd be interested in hearing about from that list? Let's start with the blast from the past. Blast from the past it is then.
Okay, so those of you who used to enjoy the works of Steve Jackson and Ian Levy Stone will doubtless be aware of Fighting Fantasy. Oh yes, I am very aware, yeah. Yeah, we've got advanced Fighting Fantasy. Dark Dungeons Online. Advanced Fighting Fantasy hyphen Dark Dungeons colon The Board Game. There you go. That's a decent level of penetration, eh?
Yes.
It's just been released. Just spotted it. UK-based game company. They are looking for £20,000, which is a fair chunk. But they're about halfway there. We're three days down.
Yeah, I think it looks like that will fund. That would be my bet.
Yeah, yeah. Graham Botley, a fairly well-established creator. I believe also Walker or various things. I'm thinking Graham Wormsley, my bad. But still, Graham Botley has been running Aryan Games for quite some time and they've been doing some stuff. So yeah, up to six players. It's very classic black and white, old school surf. You can pick it up in the US for, what, 60 quid in American for us.
75 dollars yeah it's about 75 dollars but yeah if you enjoyed that if you enjoyed that sort of thing then uh they've got like a little set dungeon tiles and everything um you can It says it's a board game, but quite frankly, it looks like a role-playing game to me.
It feels like HeroQuest-y to me. Very HeroQuest-y.
It's £35 for the board game. £15 in shipping. And then you can get two of them for £65. Actually, that's £75.
That's probably about £60 on the market.
Anyway, yeah, that looks pretty cool. Yeah, I thought so.
Yes, I may be tempted by this.
I'm tempted as well. Whether I get a chance to play it, that's the problem.
Yeah, it's... I feel familiar with Betrayal at House on the Hill. It looks like... Yeah, I am. With, like, the dungeon generation being back and so forth, which is not a bad way to do it, to be honest. So, yeah, that looks like a... But, I mean, it's... Like, the rules are super quick to learn. You do not have to be a role-playing rules lawyer guru to pick up a dance fighting fantasy.
I assure you. And, yeah, a bit of old-school messing around, to be honest with you.
Yeah, I fancy that.
I thought it looked jolly.
Do you know what? Yeah, thanks for bringing that attention. I have backed it. I've backed it.
Live on the show?
Yeah, live on the show.
I used to have all the fighting fantasy books, and I've still got Warlock of Firetop Mountain, but I think that's the only one I've got now. Do you know what happened to them?
I have a nephew that really enjoyed HeroQuest, and now he's a bit older. He's playing RPGs and things, so I think this might be that nice intersection.
Yeah, yeah. Like, if you, by some chance, and this is a very low probability, see the original Warhammer Quest,
totally recommend picking that up not so keen on the latest edition oh really it's not it's not capturing the same vibe but if you you're like you come across a car boot seller you're like oh what's this what happened quest what's that about just just just grab it i have heard tales of this yes yeah it was immensely fun the invitation of hero quest is you have the static board and it is yes is what it is but you know with the tiles and things that makes it new and exciting every time yes yeah hmm
Ooh, right. Next bit of news. We all are, I take it, familiar with the organisation PETA. Not Peter, PETA.
P-E-T-A, as in People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
I talk about the people who give vegetarians a bad name. Yes.
So they're a somewhat controversial organisation, anti-animal cruelty, but I'm not as familiar with this as probably you might be, but make some ethical choices which a lot of people really, really, really disagree with.
um i am very much against animal cruelty but like yeah but i think it's something like they do they have a lot of like kill shelters for pets or something or something like that a lot of euthanizing that doesn't need to be done or something like that i'm not sure exactly i don't know about them because every time i've looked at them they've been saying things which have hurt which have hurt my brain and made me sad i'm just like no i do not need to know about these people
Yeah. Well, they have popped up in the RPG news sphere because they have released a 5e supplement. Certainly a little one. It contains three subclasses. Okay. So it's a little more of a leaflet than a supplement, I suppose. Okay. I mean, it still counts. I mean...
Yeah, it is. Can I ask for details?
Well, it's free PDF. Always good price, yeah. The three subclasses are a Oath of Animal Liberation Paladin, a Warden of the Wild Ranger, Warden of the Wild Ranger, not Warden of the Wild Ranger.
I mean, them wild rangers do need protection.
Somebody needs to control them, yeah.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, and the Circle of Empathy Druid. Fair enough. Yeah. There's also a couple of new spells, one of which opens any cages or restraints on animals. And the other one gives a crimson mark to those who hunt or otherwise harm animals. Yeah, so anyway. Anyway, anyway, anyway. That is a thing that's happened. And I know that PETA itself is definitely a controversial organisation.
Yeah, organisation. But, you know, it's news, so we have to report on it. And we have now done our duty and done so.
Of all of their campaigns, this doesn't feel like an extreme and controversial thing, though. It's, you know, by comparison. In the bigger picture, this doesn't feel like, yes.
Yeah. I mean... Americans out there will know a lot more about this than we do.
Yeah, that's true.
It's an American organisation. Yeah. They're definitely... They're definitely not been... I've definitely not seen that much stuff about them over in the UK.
No, not at all.
So hopefully they won't send us pipe bombs. That would be nice. Well, that would be rude, I think. Not out of line with what I hear.
But anyway, it's free to download on Peter's website and the link is on ENworld if you would like to have a look at it.
Yes. Okay. All righty.
Is it time for me to do my weekly excuse to talk about Baldur's Gate 3 on the podcast?
There's two reasons to.
I know. so one thing is for those that are going to the MCM Comic Con in London so that is happening later this month in October 27th they are doing the cast of Baldur's Gate 3 will be performing a D&D live show at the Comic Con so it has Neil Newman who plays Astarion Devorah Wilde who plays Lazelle Theo Solomon, who plays Will, and Samantha Burt. Is it Burt or B-Art? Who plays Karlak?
I can't remember. It looks like Hart, which I love about her name because of the Karlak thing. But anyway, but they're all playing in a live D&D show. And, yeah, it looks really cool. Yeah. You have to buy a ticket to the show. It's at 11 a.m. And, yeah, that's it, really.
They're playing their own characters, I take it, the ones that they voice.
Yes, yes.
It'd be quite funny if they decided to all swap around.
That would be funny.
I was enjoying that.
But yeah, and Wizards was tagged in the show, so I imagine this is another promo of the 2024 D&D rules or something. No word on whether we'll see anything about the VTT, because they did that last time, but I haven't got any confirmation that that would be the case.
That seems like the sort of thing you would do that at, because the VTT looks a bit like Baldur's Gate. It seems like a good place to showcase it.
They did it previously at Gen Con.
yeah but maybe it's the in the development time scale it's not doesn't work or i don't know i don't have details whether it will or will not but i know that the the actors will be there and they'll be playing that so that'll be fun so if you're fans of them and i imagine they'll also be at the show if you like signings and things also in other bolder skate news so whiz kids have released some bolder skate 3 miniatures it's got seven of the characters so it's kind of the core companions
So the core kind of six companions you get in the game, plus Withers, because who wouldn't want him? And they're pre-painted, Russ, so no painting needed. And they look really good, actually. They look... Yeah, I looked at them. They look... Yeah, that's what I'd want from a miniature of them, really. I don't really have much more to say about it other than that.
So the box, they'll be released in February 2025, and you can pre-order on the website. They're going to have two of them, I believe, but... Yeah, it looks good. I don't really have much more to say. There's minis from Baldur's Gate 3. Cool. So I wonder if this will be a thing that people get as a collector's thing if they just play the game.
Are you going to get them as a collector's thing because you play the game?
I hadn't planned on it. It depends. Because like I say, I have my little gaming budget each month. And also, I don't use a lot of minis when I do gaming at the moment as well. Well, yeah, I mean, a lot of my gaming is online, so... Yeah, so some of it's online, or some of it's using systems where you don't need to move 30 feet and measure and things like that, so that's not... it's not a thing.
Or a game I'm running a lot is I'm running games when I do one-shots events, I'm using the starter box sets that we have, and they come with little tokens. So... Fair enough. I haven't indulged in that puppy enough yet. But that's my Baldur's Gate 3 news for this week. Should we get a jingle for that? Jess's Baldur's Gate 3 news.
Do we need one?
Yeah, I think I'll chat to Daryl.
I don't know. Hey, hey, hey. Prepare to hear about Baldur's Gate 3. With Jessica Hancock. There you go. We have a jingle.
I love that. Done. Okay.
Okay. 80s cartoons. Voltron. Who remembers Voltron?
I was only briefly present in the 80s.
Well, I don't remember Voltron. So it was a cartoon like in the 80s and apparently there's been spin-offs and different ones ever since. And there is going to be a tabletop role-playing game of it by Catalyst Game Labs.
Nice.
Those who make Shadowrun and Battletech. Oh, well, there we go, yeah. I mean, if the people who make Battletech do a big robot game, I'm expecting more big robots. It seems on brand, yeah. They know what they're talking about, yeah.
They know they're big robots. Yeah.
I mean, this is launching next week, so really, really soon, and it uses a new system, which they call the Dice Core system, but I don't know anything about the Dice Core system, and they haven't revealed anything to my knowledge.
Maybe when the Kickstarter goes live, maybe there'll be some info.
Yeah, but it's not either their Shadowrun or Battletech systems, so... Maybe cause new punk as a suffix, you can say. Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe. But they adopt the aesthetic of rolling dice.
That looks cool. Why not?
If giant robots are your thing, that is definitely a thing to do. If giant robots aren't your thing, may I draw people's attention to the fact that we currently have the Warhammer Day sale. It's only going until the 7th of October, but they are currently doing 25% off. Nice. This is cute because I'm doing 25% off on all their role-playing game products.
So I am looking at it thinking, oh, I do quite like the look of the Imperium Maledictum Collector's Edition Core Rulebook, which is an absolute beast and is discounted quite heavily from £100 to £75. So I'm like, I do like the look of it. It's very pretty.
Does that include Age of Sigmar things?
Yeah, yeah. Age of Sigmar. Is it everything? Collector's Core rulebook is £75. You've got Soulbound, £33, £74. I believe these are the hardbacks which come with PDFs as standard. And you can also pick up the PDFs. They're also discounted.
Oh, maybe a quick, maybe a cheeky PDF on a discount.
Yeah, they've got pretty much everything there, yeah. Yeah, they've got starter sets for Foundry modules, Foundry core modules.
Nice.
Warhammer Age of Sigmar, Soulbound, Foundry core module, 1234. So, if you're a Foundry player, then this could be a good time. Those collector's core warbooks are very nice looking. I know. I'm just like, that, I'm just torn because it's like, it's a lot, I wouldn't spend that much on decoration, but also, I'd use it, but.
also with i but also it's right yeah i'm torn rest torn no no i get it i get it it's whether or not you get use out of it and would you get 99 pounds of use or 74 in this case pounds of use out of it well uh maybe
Yeah, I mean, it's like, yeah, I could see myself using it. I've got a couple of days to make up my mind. You do, listen, I may have less. And you know, people always make really nice stuff. Do make really nice stuff. And it's basically, I had a look at the character sheet because they kindly lent me a copy, thanks Lee Donovan. And I'm like, oh, that is much nicer than Dark Heresy.
So I think they sort of revamped it. So it should be, Good question, Mark. I don't know. I really enjoyed Dark Heresy when I played it. I enjoyed Death Watch when I played it. Never got a chance to play Rogue Trader.
Warhammer 40k always feels to me like the sort of thing I would like, yet I've never...
gotten into it not through i've tried to and it didn't grab me just it's just never yeah really happened i think the only warhammer 40k i've ever played is one single and this is the tabletop battle skirmish war game thing not the role-playing game one single game of that and that's it that's all i've done yeah i suppose depends on who you're mates with
Have you ever played any 40k of Fantasies, Jess?
I'm in a Warframe campaign, yeah, that I play every other week. So I play that. I've already got the rulebook for that PDF. I haven't played 40k, but some friends of mine are in a long-running campaign of it, and they really enjoy it. They really like the setting and the world and things, and they're having a great time with it. But the 40k thing doesn't appeal to me as much. I don't know why.
I've never just been like, ooh, that's what I want to play. But Age of Sigmar, I did an interview, I think last year? Maybe the year before that.
uh with cubicle 7 and it did pique my interest and seemed like the sort of thing that would be for me but i've not dived into it just yet yeah so basically they got like this imperial maverickton which looks like a cleaned up version of the d100 series and they also have wrath and glory available as well so yeah that's uh That does look like a strong offer. Cool, cool, cool.
I have another offer sitting at some pre-order that I wish I had known about a couple of weeks ago. Because a friend of mine is running a little Candela Obscura and loves it. And now there is a Candela Obscura adventure book. It's by Beadle and Grimm, so it's luxury. So it's got...
216 page book with eight different assignments which are like the adventures that you have it's got a premium edition standalone version of the book it's got region maps gm screens props it's got art cards there's handouts linen bound foil stamped hardcover but like it's it's a pretty collection of stuff and the maps look really cool as well
Yeah, and so... How much will my wallet stream in pain?
£140.
Okay. Yeah. Alrighty.
And that's on sale?
£154.
This is in Great British Pounds, so please translate to your local thing.
It's like $200 or something.
Yeah, and it will ship in February 2025.
but yeah it does look there's a lot of stuff in and i see why it costs that much because there's loads of there's loads of maps there's a gm screen there's the adventure there's loads of handouts there's art cards as well so you can show and this is the person you're speaking to so it is and there's props as well it looks like one of them's like a necklace and amulets and things like that so it has the stuff in it comes with all the digital tools as well so you can play it on demiplane and
So it does have all the stuff you'd expect. It is like a pretty penny, but if you have... I mean, yeah, but it's big and grim.
It's a premium product, but you do get value for money, I think.
Yes, I think so, but yeah.
They don't... They never struck me as a, what's that, a corner-cutting bro. So, you know, I respect that, you know?
This feels like a great gift for somebody that's enjoying Candela Obscura, to be honest. This feels like a good, like, get together your friendship group and buy it for somebody sort of thing. And I wish I knew about two weeks ago, because it was that friend's birthday two weeks ago, so how do I know? Could have had a whip around for it, but never mind, alas. Yeah, no.
but yeah that is happening now so yeah so by Beadle and Graham they said they have an arrangement with Darrington Press but they haven't announced who the design team is or who you know wrote things and stuff yet but it is a thing that exists that you can get I've got some good news if people would like to hear I love good news it is pretty good news Owen Casey Stevens has been cleared of cancer
Oh, good. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, it's nice to actually have like a happy ending to something. Yeah. As opposed to things getting worse. God forbid. Yeah. Sadly, he does live in America where they believe in like massive, massive bills. But there is still that bundle that's on that has been helping him out quite a bit. It's on DriveThruRPG. I'll just pop a link in the show notes.
For $1,271.93, that's how much it's worth, you can pay $29.95. Yeah, okay. And get that much worth of new product. More Pathfinder and Starfinder. Nice. You know, it's going to be good. I can't even imagine how many pages this is. And there's like, I don't know, 20, 30-odd creators who are all pitching in to provide.
Yeah, well, they have a lot of big bills to clear. So it's definitely, you know, just because he's now clear of cancer, which is amazing news, doesn't mean it's time to stop supporting him.
Oh, absolutely, yeah. It is a sad time, but yeah, he's pretty cheered. Yeah. He was able to ring a whole remission bell and everything, so yeah. Yeah. Owen, if you're listening, we're all very glad for you. Yeah.
Yeah. Right then. Mongoose Publishing, you know, they acquired Traveller recently.
Yes, instead of being licensed, they own it, own it.
And I'll own it, yeah. Sorry, I'm laughing because the people on Ian World had all sorts of conniptions, most of which could be resolved by scrolling up. Anyway, yeah.
So they acquired Traveller. It was a couple of weeks ago we talked about that, wasn't it?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I remember this. But now they've also acquired Twilight 2000 and the 2300 AD role-playing games. so Twilight 2000 yeah originally in the 80s it's a post-apocalyptic game set after World War 3 and 2300 AD is set three centuries later and like humanity has like recovered from the war and is now out in space doing space stuff
So Mongoose has been publishing 2318 material since 2007 under license, but they now own the property. Nice. Free League currently produces Twilight 2000. Yeah, yeah, that's right. And Mongoose has indicated that even though they now own the property, that arrangement, they expect that to continue.
Okay.
Makes perfect sense. Like, presumably they get a bit of a kickback. Twilight, is it Twilight Struggle? Have I got that right? Twilight 2000. Twilight 2000.
2000 fans can continue to enjoy excellent quality uh books and uh really stuff yeah yeah i mean perfect i mean is there any downsides that you can detect for us not really no no all sounds quite nice then really yeah yeah yeah just there's some there's less admin i guess now that mongoose is doing all this stuff directly well yeah yeah
A little bit. We don't know. We don't know. One fewer line on a spreadsheet somewhere.
Yeah, yeah. Oh, as we are in October. We are. People do enjoy their talk of Halloween slash spooky slash spooky season.
we uh i did see quite an interesting take available on drive for rpg let me whack a quick little it's called five evil splinters for dungeons and dragons and what that is is someone has um taken a look at 5e said this isn't practical horror morgan davies uh from the morgue if you're familiar with
that name and what they've done is they've taken that out and put in sort of like a skill challenges in place of combat to represent the dealing with the absolute uh terrifying horrors that are contained um monday horror inspired by the works of say stephen king and things like The Ritual, Descent, Jacob's Ladder, and things like Midnight Mass and Scarcity Twin Peaks episodes. So, yeah.
I came across it because John Hodgson, who we know from Handiwork Games, which I believe, yes, Handiwork Games is publishing it, was mentioning it. And I was pretty intrigued, to be honest, because Handiwork Games is also the people who did Benz.
Yes, also made the Level Up Advance 5th Edition logo for us.
Yes, indeed. They produced a lot of Roroks and stuff, and I was thinking, interesting. So what I'm hearing is that as we approach closer to Halloween, I could inflict a sort of potential dream sequence on my players who are very used to crushing all before them, and make them do skill challenges for their Advance 5th Edition game. That would go down well. I'm sure. Oh, dear me.
I mean, it is free, so you can't argue with that price.
It's a very tough price. It's a good price. It is a good price.
I'm sure someone will complain about it, though.
Oh, well, somebody already has. Someone's given them a free star review. There's two ratings with five stars from people who've had something to say. There's one random freestyle rating in there just to help ruin the review scores, which is just one of those charming little things about publishing on Drive for RPG. We get that sort of person who comes along and does that.
Just a little review bomb, just for the reward of having put out a free product. Love it.
I do not love it. There's a whole load of, well, not a whole load, a small handful of licensed D&D bits and pieces coming up.
Yeah.
So one of them from Penguin Random House is a book, a pocket-sized book called Dungeons & Dragons Pocket Expert. And it's just like this pocket-sized book just full of like lore and facts about D&D.
Okay, so like locations, magic, NPCs.
Yeah, it tells you what a Mind Flayer is. It tells you what the Forgotten Realms are, what the difference between a rogue and a ranger is, that sort of thing. So it's very much a sort of top-level, basic introduction to what D&D is, I guess.
Right, right. I guess it's a nice Christmas stocking filler or something. That's what I was thinking, yeah.
$7.99 is coming out. next week written by stacy king you know yeah it sounds exactly like that stocking for the type christmas thing yeah yeah okay yeah one thing on this list i am excited about though
of like dnd merch coming out is there's some beholder dice and they do look really cool they're like some clear dice and inside there's a little beholder inside and it looks really well done actually and um nice it's 24 25 dollars for them so actually it's for a set of like luxury nice dice isn't that isn't that bad yeah
I know I've paid that much for dice in the past there's like seven beholders there just trapped inside these plastic dice prisons yeah that's what I like it feels powerful forever you could bust them out for when it's like you know the boss fights game series yeah I think a beholder could bust itself out really let's hope not disintegrate right Yeah.
Otherwise you have like, I don't know, would a disintegrate ray hurt if it was from like a really tiny beholder? It is a tiny one, yeah. It's like, ow, quit it. Ow, ow, quick, quit it. It is a very, very small beholder. Unless you have one hit point. It's like, ah, stop it.
But yeah, that was one on that list of random D&D merch things coming out that I thought, oh, that does look nice.
The other thing is a bunch of book tabs. Oh, like bookmarks. So these are like tabs you could just put in your book. Yeah, like bookmarks you can put in there. There's a P8. Well, there's one for each of the Player's Handbook and DMG, the new 2024 ones. The Player's Handbook one has 12 tabs. The Dungeon Master's Guide one has 24.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, I personally am a big old-fashioned geek and would use stuff like a sticky note or like all those little multicolored tabs. But we like a ribbon.
Well, ribbon bookmarks are great as well.
Ribbon bookmarks are the type of product.
Little clothing pegs, you know, the mini ones you can get, like in a stationery accessory thing, you can get them in multiple colours. And then I use that on the page. It usually works in a softcover book, just if I'm running to flip through an adventure. Yeah, yeah. And then I use a coloured pen that matches that to write what it is. So I, yeah, I'm that person. That sounds great.
That sounds great. A good organisation, a much underrated DMing virtue.
Exactly, yeah, I love that. Yeah. Okay, so that could be some cool bits as, like, Christmas gifts for a D&D fan in your life. Yeah.
Yeah. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary has added the term dungeon crawler. Oh. Which is now officially a word, I guess. Hmm. A dungeon crawler is a real thing. Nice, nice. It defines it in video game terminology.
Yeah, yeah.
But I think it predates video games, definitely. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it's technologic for a start. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so that's very good. So if you talk about dungeon crawler, now point to the dictionary definition.
Yes. But only the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Yes.
I'm sure the others will catch up eventually.
Hmm. we have not discussed well yeah there's the big news about the Dungeon Masters guide Dungeon Masters guide that we're leaving for last I don't have any other news beyond that so the only other thing I've got is one Kickstarter that I noticed oh yeah so this is called the zombie road We're playing a game by Dragon Mount Plus. And the fun thing about this one, it's on GameFound.
It's not on Kickstarter. It's on GameFound. And the fun thing about this one is that you play yourself.
Oh, I don't want to do that. I'm myself all day.
Well, I don't know how that works exactly. I don't know how they get the statistics of yourself. Oh, gosh, yeah. I've got no idea. It uses a D6 system.
Mm-hmm.
And it's mainly thrilling one-shot missions carried out in a single session, it says, rather than long campaigns. But basically, you play yourself in a Walking Dead-style post-apocalyptic zombie world. You're a small group of survivors.
Immediately dead. Yeah. It's the answer to that. Pretty much.
Yeah. I really want to know how the stats of you yourself are determined in this game. I'm looking through the page and I can't... See it there. But that is... Yeah.
There is a website where you can do your D&D stats, and there's a questionnaire it takes you through. Me and my friendship group did that, but my gaming group at the time... Was it very depressing? Well, there's a lot of chronically ill people in my gaming group, so the constitution was like, five. Wow. But yeah...
Dragon magazine posted an article years and years ago, probably in the 80s or so, on how to work out your own stats. And it was quite sort of very old-fashioned and deterministic. But it was things like, take your IQ and divide it by 10. And that's your intelligence score. I don't know what my IQ is, though. It was, what can you bench press? Divide that by 10 and that's a strength or something.
I can't remember.
Bench press? Why don't they do squats? I'd do better with that. Squats or deadlifts?
but um um yeah for each stat they basically had a basically a a test i guess um where you derive your actual score i don't know how they handled like charisma and things like that i can't remember now but um how many friends do you have you don't have two fingers friends loser get out
Malek the Maleficent here. If, like me, you're enjoying this podcast, please consider subscribing on Patreon for exclusive bonus content every week and the warm, fuzzy feeling of knowing you are helping to keep the show going. Subscribe at patreon.com slash maleficent.
like that now the things i do all right all right don't forget patreon.com slash morris can i go now i found that dragon magazine article so oh yeah
Yes, so that Dragon Magazine article, it was the eighth issue of Dragon Magazine. It was called So You Want Realism in D&D.
No, no, I do not.
Absolutely not. LAUGHTER But this is how they did it, okay? Strength. Military press as much weight as you possibly can. Divide the number of pounds you lifted by 10. The result is your strength score.
What's a military press? She says eating a cookie.
I am not entirely sure. Uh... Overhead press. Oh, really? Yes. Oh, right, yeah.
It's an overhead press with a bar.
Shoulder press. It's a shoulder press.
Oh, okay.
Apparently. Yeah, shoulder press with a bar. There you go.
Mine would be very low, though. If you're deadlifting, I'll be okay.
It doesn't say deadlifting, sorry. It doesn't say deadlifting. Dexterity. Run 440 yards. What? subtract your time in seconds from 80 and the result is your dexterity rating.
That's not dexterity, that's athletics. That's like, what? Surely dexterity would be like, can you do the coin thing with your fingers? Or like, I don't know.
Yeah, or like... Have someone throw things at you.
Can you jump out the way?
I'm just a messenger. I'm just a messenger.
I disagree. Let's make our own.
Constitution. Figure out the number of consecutive number of months you have gone without missing a day of school or work due to illness. The number of months is equal to your constitution rating.
What? The number of consecutive months you've not missed any days of school? Yes. Is this something like 20 for most people? I don't know. I'm not sure.
But that means if you miss one day, suddenly your constitution score goes down to one. No, it goes down to zero. And then you have to rebuild it up again a month at a time without taking a day off.
It doesn't really account for somebody if you're managing a long-term chronic illness. With work, I don't miss work, but I do my hours as and when over the week that makes sense. So technically... The last time I missed it was June when we had COVID after UK Games Expo.
So, July, August, September, October. So your constitution score is four.
Sounds about right, to be honest. Like... Someone with an autoimmune disease, like, not... No.
Not naturally resistant to poisons, actually.
No. Intelligence. The most recent IQ test you've taken divided the result by 10. That is your intelligence rating.
Wow, that's just stupidity. IQ tests aren't worth the paper they're printed on.
I don't think I've ever had an IQ test. Because why?
I've done a couple of them. Not worth the time.
Yeah, but I don't know what purpose I'd use it for, because academic things, like getting my academic qualifications, there was a reason for it.
I did a couple at school.
Did they ask you to? No, it was for laughs. No, it was for laughs.
We need to check something, can you please?
yeah um the thing about iq tests is it just measures how good you are at iq tests and if you do a few of them you they're the same sort of puzzles and you start to get good at those sort of puzzles the questions are very like neurotypical and culturally based as well so if you don't have the cultural context then yeah you can get different ones these days i think
But I don't know. It's all based on the concept of there being a general intelligence, G, which there is no evidence for. The person who proposed that there was a general intelligence that could be measured invented a whole branch of statistics to try and justify it. And people redoing it were like, that looks like a statistical artifact that comes after this. There's no evidence to support it.
Are you a robot things? And you have to identify fire hydrants. But it's like... I think I'm a robot. Yeah, it's like, but we don't have those. So basically you're testing my knowledge of American films now as to whether or not I'm a robot, basically, because... You know, we have those.
Yeah. I mean, it's like, it's all standardised with a bell curve, with a median of 100, and then like 15, 115, but you're a standard deviation of the rest of the population. So, like, it just gives you ridiculous numbers, like three, four standard deviations of the population. We all agree it's nonsense.
Yeah. Wisdom, though. Calculate the average number of hours you spend playing D&D or working on your D&D campaign in an average week.
that one I like that one's a bit funny subtract the resulting number from 20 and this is your wisdom that's I like that that's funny that's silly that's so the more you play D&D the lower your wisdom basically am I saying I think that's probably the only uncontroversial one that they proposed yeah I like that because what other measure would you have is like how many times a week do your friends say really again like minus your score based on how many of those you get hmm but what if you've got terribly stupid friends yeah
praise the results right off. Well, if they say it at you, you know.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Christmas, that's the final one.
Oh yeah, what's the measure on that?
Count up the number of times you have appeared on TV or have had your picture printed in the newspaper. Multiply this number by two.
What if you were, like, in Cops or something? Like, we have apprehended a suspect. You know, you're technically on TV, but it's not because you're charismatic.
Still charismatic. You're not going to appear on Cops like 18 times.
I bet there are people that have. I bet there are serial offenders. That guy, what's his name? Florida Man. He gets up to a lot.
Oh, yeah, yeah. This conversation is very, very silly. Okay, shall we get on to this Dungeon Master's Guide stats?
Yeah, how do they calculate the stats? Yes.
no okay well it turns out that's page one and we're actually we're talking about some like real latest no no we're not yeah so do we have any text from Dungeons and Masters guide what do we even have an index what's going on tell me well they just started doing it this week their promotional stuff and if you remember for the player's handbook it was lots and lots and lots of videos yeah yeah and it was like it's gonna be the same again because this week came out two videos
So the first one was kind of an overview. It's called Everything You Need to Know about the Dungeon Master's Guide 2024. To be honest, a lot of it was stuff we already knew. Okay. We have, like, covered a lot of...
tidbits and bits of information about this like over the year so it's pretty much i mean we we already know what the chapters are and what's in each chat we know so much stuff about it at this stage so i think this one was more for people that haven't been like following every breadcrumb of information up until now yeah it's kind of an overview but it didn't show a lot of new art and some of the art was really nice
I did like the art. Yeah, I mean, let me show you the art. Yes. Here we go. Yeah, I've got the link. Have a look at that. So we've got a new map of the planes. We've got Bobby the Barbarian and Hank the Ranger avoiding a trap and arrows as arrows come out of the wall at them. Yeah. We've got a nice picture of a walled city with a port of some kind outside it.
Hmm. That dragon's looking very dragonfly.
Hmm. Yes, it is, isn't it?
It's quite a... Maybe not dragonfly, more butterfly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like some kind of fey dragon maybe or something. Hmm. If it is a dragon.
It looks like a dragon.
Funny wings though. Yeah.
I like the artwork of a cool D&D setup. There's like a table with a castle and pieces on it and a portal and little clipboards on the side attached to the table which have maybe what would be character sheets I guess.
Yeah.
And side tables for drinks and stuff.
As someone that spent a lot of money on one encounter.
Yeah.
Yeah. But here's an overview of the DMG. It mentions that the Bastion system is going to be in it from Erna Tharkana, and there's a whole separate video about that we can get into in a second. There's going to be a DM's toolkit arranged in alphabetical order, going from, apparently, alignment to traps. Mm-hmm. The whole gamut from A to T, right? Yep. So basically it's a glossary.
I mean, like, there's going to be a rules glossary in the Player's Handbook. There is. There's going to be. It's out now. A rules glossary in the Player's Handbook. So I guess it's similar to that, I guess. 400 new and improved magic items.
That's a lot of magic items.
Stuff like Greyhawk, which we know about. The crafting rules are in it. A lore glossary. A full chapter about the D&D cosmology.
I guess they're not fixing experience. Are they giving advice on how to balance encounters? I don't know. Something with samophiles. I don't know.
The way they've been talking about it in the chapters, it seems like they're moving to do a bit more of how to use the tools in this book than they previously did. Because before, it was very much, these are all the tools. But if you were new and picking it up, you're a bit like, oh, I feel overwhelmed. So I think this book is going to be a bit more, and this is how you use it in this example.
So that's the vibe I've got from when they've been talking about it. But I've not seen the text to...
confirm if this has been realized but i think that is a good idea because the hobby needs more people to run games because i know so many people that want to play that don't want to run that want to play and try it out but there's not enough there's not enough people running games in the hobby it's unreasonably hard to run in my opinion like i've run a lot of games i've played a lot of games and
So far, it has not been easy to, like, yeah, there are many games that were easier to run than 5e, and 5e's not even that complicated.
Yeah.
But it's just like... But a well-crafted DMG goes a long way to helping with that.
Yes, it would, yeah.
I mean, I've looked at... Many people recommend the 4th edition DMG to me, and I have never, and I've got to be honest, will never run 4th edition. I read it. I was like, this is full of great ideas.
Yeah, it's got a lot of sort of generic GMing advice in there.
Which, yeah, really good GMing advice. I'm like, okay, yeah, that is actually top quality stuff, and Like, you know, I am a big nerd and like to read about as much of the stuff. I thought it was really good. So, you know, 4 EDMG, the mechanical bit's not so much helpful, but a lot of the rest of it, you know, real gold stuff was the 5 EDMG for 2014. Not hitting it.
Not hitting it. It's quite interesting when you compare it to the AD&D 1e DMG, which is basically a big tome of rules that the players aren't supposed to see. And it even says in front of it that players shouldn't be allowed to look at these rules in this book. And it's just like all the rules. It's not advice-y. No. It's written in Gygaxian prose, so it can be quite dense to pass at times.
I remember when I was a kid, I'd sit in my bedroom and there was a section on invisibility. And I'd read it and reread it and reread it and reread it, trying to work out exactly how invisibility works. And it was like half a page of text. Yeah. trying to pass that half-painting test, trying to work out exactly. And I don't think I ever did figure it out.
Still to this day, not clear how it works.
Still to this day, yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
And I think it's really valid because a lot of people, when they come to the hobby, it's just their group of friends. They're like, we want to start playing. Let's try it out. And one person goes, okay, I'll give it a go.
and they just they're left on their own and this book might be the only resource that they have because they might not know about online communities and things like i'm very lucky i joined rpgs as a player became part of a community and be able to be a player and learn things for a decade before i even started trying to run games
I think these days probably people will go straight to Google, type in, how do I play D&D, and will be presented with 10 quadrillion videos, though. So it's definitely easier now, I expect, to find the stuff you need.
But that is still very overwhelming, because, you know, like, which video do I watch? And then you get all these click-based YouTube videos that are, never make this awful DM mistake, and things like that, because that's what the algorithm favours.
there are people who will put things that will set your house on fire if you try and wire a plug in the way they insist is like a legit way to do it and there are people who are producing I only can presume it's deliberately bad GM advice either that or like they are literally the worst people who can say and equally not necessarily bad but controversial because they're clicking yeah we rage baiting yeah
yeah equally as well with with gm with jamming there is so many different it's hard to do because there are so many different type types of styles of doing things like i know there's a lot of one true ways about it as well i know the three of us the way we all run games is very is different i'd say we all three of us have different styles of running games and it's not that one is right or wrong it's just that's the what works for us and some people will like it and some people won't
In the same way that there's different genres for storytelling and some people like some more than others. And I think that gets lost sometimes as well.
I think because we basically agree that the idea is that all the players should be having a good time. No, I don't agree with that at all. Yeah, I know.
I want them to be weird.
Everyone, including the GM, should be having a good time.
Including the GM. I think that's the bit that gets left out a lot. It's like, what's your job? Entertain us. Dance, GM.
there's plenty of people I see their opinions and it's like wow you do not play this game they've got very strong opinions about how GM can never say no to it I'm like well we're going to have to disagree on that yeah because sometimes yeah sometimes no
I'm a big fan of no, but. Absolutely.
If GMs never say no to anything, that brings us nicely onto the Bastion system.
Oh, disgust.
There's a line in the thing about the Bastion system that's got a few people up in arms.
What does it say? Tell us.
Hmm. well i'll rewind slightly and then we'll get to it let's give it some context we've got to lay down the bed before we plant the flower okay okay so the dungeon master's guide is introducing a new bastion system
correct tell me more yes so this is basically the equivalent to our stronghold system yeah in level up yeah yeah so basically characters can build a base of operations that's how it works so you can acquire a bastion at fifth level okay And then each week of game time, the Bastion has a Bastion turn, and you can give the Bastion an order.
So I haven't got the exact details of this, or whether it's got things like you have to be at the Bastion, or you can send a pigeon, or whatever. I don't know how that... But each week, I assume you just control it, and you've got someone running the Bastion back at home when you're not there. Some sort of steward. Yeah. Alfred the butler.
Yeah. Yeah.
And so the Bastion will take a turn and can, like, take an action. And it might be crafting or recruiting or research or trading or something like that each week. Right. Also, Bastions contain special facilities. Yeah. So you've got your Bastion. And then at fifth level, when you get your Bastion, it has two special facilities.
Mm-hmm.
And then every few levels it gets some more up to six at 17th level. Right. Special facilities. And these are kind of like things like armories and workshops and laboratories and stables and menageries and stuff.
Right.
Within your bastion. There's about 30 of them, and you can choose from them.
Are they adopting the Sweet Crib model or the Clubhouse model? Because I know that Sleeveler has the Sweet Crib model, where it's like an individual thing, whereas I do feel like the Ganghouse model does have a Clubhouse model, does have something to it.
Don't know. Okay. That's the answer to that question.
Very honest of you. Thank you.
I have no idea. No, absolutely no idea. We don't know. All right. We don't know. But there is a line in there that says that the Bastion stuff is basically for the players to do. Yes. Nice. And it's completely off limits to the DM. Okay. Well, yeah, fair enough.
That's a real collaborative.
Some people have gotten quite upset about that. They're saying, what, so I can't put a plague or have someone attack the Bastion or I can't do anything like that. It's designed as a player side thing that the DM apparently can't get involved in. Why would you put that in there?
I think I'm going to be kind.
I'm so confused.
I'm going to think the intent is to be, do you know what? Managing Bastion seems like a whole thing. We want to take some work off the GM. Because as we just mentioned, running a game is a lot of work and you're doing a lot. Maybe things for players to do. So I'd understand that intent. So it'd be like mechanically, this is something that the players sort and resolve and do.
And they have their actions and stuff they can do. And you don't have to worry about it as the GM. Maybe that's kind of the intent. But the way that's phrased does make it seem very...
GM versus the table and yeah I think well in my opinion a good gaming group it's we're collaboratively telling a story all of us as a table and and sometimes the ideas come from the GM they're running sometimes it comes from the table yeah and I did I did not sign up to role-playing games
for my friends to hate me personally because I am the opposition. Not a thing that I am interested in.
Like... Yeah. My friends already hate me. Why do I need to run again?
That's my point. As I'm like... I want people to be, like, cursing my ingenuity and stuff, but more to be like, okay, well, that's fair enough. And for me to be like, well, I'm a fan of the characters, but the rules are the rules, and this is how we're playing. So, you know, like, well, sorry. Like, I would, like, just on Wednesday, ended up doing, like,
80 points of damage to someone's character over a couple of turns which was quite worrisome for them and they managed to double one a death saving throw so they were not having a good time and they had advantage of it so double one was really unlucky And they were very nervous about it. But I wouldn't want to feel that they were holding me personally responsible.
I'm like, this is why we're all nervous. This is just dice. This is not the thing to do with me. And they managed to save them. And it was awesome. And they had an exciting time and a good session. But to worry about feeling like, oh, I shouldn't be doing anything with this. I can't. I can't do this. I can't throw some extra stuff at it.
Interact it and have the world impact it, I think would be... I guess it needs more context and we don't have the context. I was trying to be generous and think maybe the intent is something like this is something for the players to take ownership of and manage. That's one less thing for you as the GM. I'm hoping that's what the meaning is.
I think there was some comment about the phrase used as a knife against the players or something. It's not supposed to be used against the players. Got it.
That I understand. So it's not something you want to make their life more difficult. This is, yeah. this is meant to be something that's a positive thing for them mechanically. Like they get facilities at different levels so they can get an armoury or a workshop and you'd want that to be something that gives them a bonus.
It's not like, oh, well now you have to run around finding enough iron to make it work. You don't want it to become a slog.
Surely sometimes you want sort of like the neighbouring lord has taken offence to you and has sent troops to start raiding your bastion or something like that sort of storyline. Does it prevent that? Or I don't know.
Until we know more, it's hard to say. I'm going to decide that it's meant in the best way and that line is just misleading.
And it might just be advice as well. It might not be a rule.
The thing about D&D is that Wizards of the Coast cannot come to your house and tell you off for playing it wrong.
Um, Pinkertons.
Fair. Not Wizards of the Coast though, is it? And if you're playing online, then I suppose you can catch your behavior monitors as well. So it's a pain to think about.
No, no. Yeah. I mean, like, like with any role-playing game system, people like, if you don't like the role, don't play. And that's always true. Cause it's like, you know, yeah, fine. But yeah.
I'd just appreciate it if they'd actually explain what the thinking was. That would do a lot for it. Maybe there's a sidebar. Maybe. We'll look at it and be like, oh, of course.
We don't have the books.
We don't have all the context. We don't have the text. All we've got is a comment by one of the designers in a video. And that's literally all we've got.
So it could be... That's why I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt. Yeah.
It might not even be in the book. You might just be talking about the intent.
Yes.
You know, I don't know. Okay.
Yes.
Well, fair enough.
Anything else about the DMG then?
That's pretty much it. That's it pretty much so far. I mean, it's going to be something every week pretty much from now until it comes out in November, which isn't far off, to be honest, isn't it? What, six weeks away when it comes out?
Gosh.
Or even earlier if you're in America and have a local game store.
Yeah. Yeah. Maybe we're speaking to your local game store now so they can make sure they have a copy put aside for you or something.
Yeah, when is it? So it comes out November the 12th on general release. Right. And it will be two weeks earlier in US local game stores. So that'll be October the 29th. So that's really soon. Yeah, that is recent. Three weeks. Just over three weeks. All right. Well, with that, I think we're probably done then, aren't we?
Yeah, I think we're done on that note.
We are so done.
All right.
Bye.
Wow, wow. That was inspiring. I'm inspired. Well, that's the best sign-off we've done in like seven years.
What's that charisma score you think going to be now? That's what they do. Get several people to listen to your podcast sign-offs and decide what your charisma score is.
But when it goes below zero, how do you go from negative number? What do you do then? Do you have to go through imaginary numbers? Yeah.
Your charisma is the square root of two.
That feels like a vicious mockery thing. Your charisma is the square root of two. What?
Yeah. All right, let's get out of here. Bye-bye. See you all next week. Bye-bye.
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If I'm time-travelling and I want to find out information about the future, I don't think information about the D&D Dungeon Master's Guide is probably going to be my first point of call.
Are you lottery ticketing?
And lottery ticketing is definitely on that list.
I mean, technically, we're all time-travelling, so we'll find out about the future eventually.
I think we should list what last week's lottery tickets were, just in case that happens now, and one of us finds ourselves back in time. Then that person can then dig up this podcast.
No, but if we say on the podcast, all the time-travellers will use it, and the value will be much lower. Do your own work, time-travellers. It's trouble. No time-travellers want to work these days.
Are they, right? Can't get the help.