#dnd-4e — Public Fediverse posts

RE: https://dice.camp/@mz4250/116858167405684471

Oublivae was a cool 4e creation. It’s too bad she didn’t make the jump to 5e (as far as I know).

#DND #DND5e #DND4e

RE: https://dice.camp/@mz4250/116858167405684471

Oublivae was a cool 4e creation. It’s too bad she didn’t make the jump to 5e (as far as I know).

#DND #DND5e #DND4e

4e Design Philosophy

4th edition Dungeons & Dragons is an interesting platform to develop game material for. For a start it seems to be reasonably unpopular and the people who are looking for material for it don’t necessarily exist with the same attitude towards game design as I have.

On the other hand, it is a way to engage with a well-developed functional Dungeons & Dragons game without ever giving money to the people at Wizards of the Coast, who it seems have been doing some classic union busting nonsense lately and that sucks. I haven’t given Wizards any money for going on ten years now, I think, but that doesn’t stop me from being in their ecosystem and implicitly encouraging their presence in the hobby. To that end I just wanna remind people they abused Orion Black and they deadnamed employees who wanted to form a union.

What a bunch of pricks.

Anyway, I want to talk about some of my own philosophy for 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons.

[…]

4e Design Philosophy

4th edition Dungeons & Dragons is an interesting platform to develop game material for. For a start it seems to be reasonably unpopular and the people who are looking for material for it don’t necessarily exist with the same attitude towards game design as I have.

On the other hand, it is a way to engage with a well-developed functional Dungeons & Dragons game without ever giving money to the people at Wizards of the Coast, who it seems have been doing some classic union busting nonsense lately and that sucks. I haven’t given Wizards any money for going on ten years now, I think, but that doesn’t stop me from being in their ecosystem and implicitly encouraging their presence in the hobby. To that end I just wanna remind people they abused Orion Black and they deadnamed employees who wanted to form a union.

What a bunch of pricks.

Anyway, I want to talk about some of my own philosophy for 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons.

[…]

We are going to be playing a 4e Darksun game Saturday. We are playing the Ashes of Athas mods from the 4e organized play era.

I'm playing a Mul Warden.

#Darksun #DnD4e #AshesofAthas

We are going to be playing a 4e Darksun game Saturday. We are playing the Ashes of Athas mods from the 4e organized play era.

I'm playing a Mul Warden.

#Darksun #DnD4e #AshesofAthas

How To Be Korra (In 4e D&D)

How To Be is a series I’ve been writing for a few years now and an important part of that has been making sure there’s no strong bias towards making lots of boring dudes who hit things as their main way of interacting with the world.

Here’s a girl whose main way of interacting with the world is hitting them, and maybe hitting on them.

[…]

How To Be Korra (In 4e D&D)

How To Be is a series I’ve been writing for a few years now and an important part of that has been making sure there’s no strong bias towards making lots of boring dudes who hit things as their main way of interacting with the world.

Here’s a girl whose main way of interacting with the world is hitting them, and maybe hitting on them.

[…]

The Woman in the Well and why Corellon Sucks

Look, let me be clear: This is a safe space for the haters of Corellon Larethian. I can’t attest for how well and how long I’ve been able to hold this opinion, but after watching this lengthy video from Distracted Elf, it crystallised a whole variety of things I assumed were ‘pretty much true’ in the timeline of my experience with Dungeons & Dragons.

Corellon Larethian is an ongoing character, a god, from the Forgotten Realms. His origin is the 1980 book Deities & Demigods by James Ward and Robert Kuntz, which introduced the character, and then he – and yes, I’m using he for Corellon, fight me for the gender identity of a fictional character – was further developed by his integration into the Forgotten Realms by one Ed Greenwood.

One could pick through Corellon’s over-detailed mythic history for days, and it’s great fun to do that, because the guy sucks indescribably, and I think it’s important to hold to the actual textual values of the thing we pay money for. 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons is my favourite edition but make no mistake, it is not perfect, and because I like it so much, when I find the ways it sucks, it stings all the harder. 3rd edition was written by bozos, 5th edition is for newbies, but 4th edition shouldn’t have awful writing in it, it’s the one I like. Anything in the other forms, that’s not my circus and not my monkeys, but I know where this particular poo was flung from.

[…]

The Woman in the Well and why Corellon Sucks

Look, let me be clear: This is a safe space for the haters of Corellon Larethian. I can’t attest for how well and how long I’ve been able to hold this opinion, but after watching this lengthy video from Distracted Elf, it crystallised a whole variety of things I assumed were ‘pretty much true’ in the timeline of my experience with Dungeons & Dragons.

Corellon Larethian is an ongoing character, a god, from the Forgotten Realms. His origin is the 1980 book Deities & Demigods by James Ward and Robert Kuntz, which introduced the character, and then he – and yes, I’m using he for Corellon, fight me for the gender identity of a fictional character – was further developed by his integration into the Forgotten Realms by one Ed Greenwood.

One could pick through Corellon’s over-detailed mythic history for days, and it’s great fun to do that, because the guy sucks indescribably, and I think it’s important to hold to the actual textual values of the thing we pay money for. 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons is my favourite edition but make no mistake, it is not perfect, and because I like it so much, when I find the ways it sucks, it stings all the harder. 3rd edition was written by bozos, 5th edition is for newbies, but 4th edition shouldn’t have awful writing in it, it’s the one I like. Anything in the other forms, that’s not my circus and not my monkeys, but I know where this particular poo was flung from.

[…]

Thanks Gemini for calling my 4e D&D adventure from ~15 years ago that few probably remember a "classic." Also, nice tips on dealing with rodent infestations.

#DND #DND4E #AI #Gemini

Thanks Gemini for calling my 4e D&D adventure from ~15 years ago that few probably remember a "classic." Also, nice tips on dealing with rodent infestations.

#DND #DND4E #AI #Gemini

Nations of Cobrin’Seil: Foh-lah Rah-Jah-Pha-Urd

https://cobrinseil.invincible.ink/nations-of-cobrinseil-foh-lah-rah-jah-pha-urd/

Nations of Cobrin’Seil: Foh-lah Rah-Jah-Pha-Urd

https://cobrinseil.invincible.ink/nations-of-cobrinseil-foh-lah-rah-jah-pha-urd/

How To Be: Blue Mary (in 4e D&D)

How To Be is a blog series I created to address the claim that Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition (the Best Edition) stifles creativity and limits the kinds of characters you can make. While that’s true, in that you can largely only make Dungeons & Dragons characters (who are good at doing things for Dungeons and for Dragons), there’s still a lot of room to create in that genre. The series is therefore about picking characters to make them in Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition (the Best Edition), and I select them through a careful process of throwing a bunch of ideas into a spreadsheet and seeing which ones randomise up. There are characters who are challenging to construct, where I have to find some way to represent the aesthetics of one type of violence-doer in a system that doesn’t have them, and those are really interesting challenges that can involve creative problems that are really hard to solve.

And then there are characters I pick because I think they’re dope and they’re really easy.

That’s what we’re doing this time.

[…]

How To Be: Blue Mary (in 4e D&D)

How To Be is a blog series I created to address the claim that Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition (the Best Edition) stifles creativity and limits the kinds of characters you can make. While that’s true, in that you can largely only make Dungeons & Dragons characters (who are good at doing things for Dungeons and for Dragons), there’s still a lot of room to create in that genre. The series is therefore about picking characters to make them in Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition (the Best Edition), and I select them through a careful process of throwing a bunch of ideas into a spreadsheet and seeing which ones randomise up. There are characters who are challenging to construct, where I have to find some way to represent the aesthetics of one type of violence-doer in a system that doesn’t have them, and those are really interesting challenges that can involve creative problems that are really hard to solve.

And then there are characters I pick because I think they’re dope and they’re really easy.

That’s what we’re doing this time.

[…]

Nations of Cobrin’Seil: Foh-lah Rah-Jah-Pha-Urd

There is a timeline of empires on Bidestra. There was the First Elves’ attempts to own it; there was the Tiefling Empire, if you believe in it. There was the empire of Fuszaint, the most recent one, in its miserable decline. But before Fuszaint, there was the first great Human Empire, the empire of the creatures known now as Ogres, Ogre-Magi, Hags and their ilk; it was the Empire of the Urd. What it was, though, is not as important as what remains of its greatest seat, its capital, its palaces; for they are gone now, torn apart by nature itself, stripped of its identity, and returned in safe pieces to the loam that they once polluted. This is what remains. This is the land that outlasts empires, the trees that do not need anyone to speak for them, and the great regrowing that must be done to restore the scarred land. This is Foh-Lah Rah-Jah-Pha-Urd.

[…]

Nations of Cobrin’Seil: Foh-lah Rah-Jah-Pha-Urd

There is a timeline of empires on Bidestra. There was the First Elves’ attempts to own it; there was the Tiefling Empire, if you believe in it. There was the empire of Fuszaint, the most recent one, in its miserable decline. But before Fuszaint, there was the first great Human Empire, the empire of the creatures known now as Ogres, Ogre-Magi, Hags and their ilk; it was the Empire of the Urd. What it was, though, is not as important as what remains of its greatest seat, its capital, its palaces; for they are gone now, torn apart by nature itself, stripped of its identity, and returned in safe pieces to the loam that they once polluted. This is what remains. This is the land that outlasts empires, the trees that do not need anyone to speak for them, and the great regrowing that must be done to restore the scarred land. This is Foh-Lah Rah-Jah-Pha-Urd.

[…]

How To Be: Rimuru Tempest (in 4e D&D)

Isekai is an overcrowded genre of media in which a few works stand tall. Some of them are just enduring classics of the form, things like Escaflowne and El Hazard, works that served to crystallise a genre. Some have been successful beyond all reasonable ken, like Sword Art Online. Resultant from that has been a whole diversifying ecosystem of isekai stories that expand on the narrative wishes of their increasingly specific wants. As an example, the want to not go to work, and suddenly being hot enough to be voiced by Miho Okasaki.

That’s right, it’s…

[…]

How To Be: Rimuru Tempest (in 4e D&D)

Isekai is an overcrowded genre of media in which a few works stand tall. Some of them are just enduring classics of the form, things like Escaflowne and El Hazard, works that served to crystallise a genre. Some have been successful beyond all reasonable ken, like Sword Art Online. Resultant from that has been a whole diversifying ecosystem of isekai stories that expand on the narrative wishes of their increasingly specific wants. As an example, the want to not go to work, and suddenly being hot enough to be voiced by Miho Okasaki.

That’s right, it’s…

[…]

Nations of Cobrin’Seil: Honaj

https://cobrinseil.invincible.ink/nations-of-cobrinseil-honaj/

Nations of Cobrin’Seil: Honaj

https://cobrinseil.invincible.ink/nations-of-cobrinseil-honaj/

Nations of Cobrin’Seil: Honaj

Let me take you afar to a wonderous placeOf sunshine and flowers and sands,Where the land has a scar cut deep in its faceIt was broken, and yet it standsWhere water is bitterAnd honey is sweet,And the blade of the prince gleams brightDock your boat, come ashore,Have a drink, have one more!And begin your Honaji new life~!

Basic Island, by Mark Poole (Source)

[…]

Nations of Cobrin’Seil: Honaj

Let me take you afar to a wonderous placeOf sunshine and flowers and sands,Where the land has a scar cut deep in its faceIt was broken, and yet it standsWhere water is bitterAnd honey is sweet,And the blade of the prince gleams brightDock your boat, come ashore,Have a drink, have one more!And begin your Honaji new life~!

Basic Island, by Mark Poole (Source)

[…]

4e Druid Stuff (That I Just Made Up)

I make no secret that one of my favourite character classes in Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition (the best edition) is the druid. After a 3rd edition period where I feel that bringing a druid to the table and using it to its utmost is basically a kind of social cruelty, what with how powerful they are, the druid of 4th edition had a lot to live up to, and it couldn’t. Instead of trying to replicate 3rd edition’s quite frankly ridiculous panoply of powers, the 4th edition Druid instead is designed to be an interesting class about as powerful as the other classes which can do interesting things in its own right.

You know that thing about how when you’ve been the recipient of overwhelming privilege, any cessation of that privilege feels like oppression? That. Wizards and Clerics got it too, but fuck them. I like Druids so I’m talking about Druids this time.

The Druid of 4th edition stripped the concept back to its studs. A druid in 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons is a nature-themed spellcaster who can turn into an animal-like form, and each form is equally capable of doing things to fulfill a role on a team. The druid can be seen as a binary of in and out of wild shape, and out of wild shape, they’re basically a spellcaster. In wild shape, they are a secondary role, which is usually something like an off-defender or an off-striker. This made some people unreasonably mad, because multiclassing to add healing to a druid was an affront to their moral senses I guess.

I get pretty defensive about the 4th edition Druid, but that’s not to pretend it’s perfect by any means. In the effort to take care of things and ensure that the Druid doesn’t start climbing up the tower of its previous power, the writers glowered at it and showered it with options that were just… a little… sour.

I think that the 4th edition Druid, as much as it’s a class I love and works fine, could do with a little help in choice support, and maybe some of the options available to it are a bit crap.

[…]

4e Druid Stuff (That I Just Made Up)

I make no secret that one of my favourite character classes in Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition (the best edition) is the druid. After a 3rd edition period where I feel that bringing a druid to the table and using it to its utmost is basically a kind of social cruelty, what with how powerful they are, the druid of 4th edition had a lot to live up to, and it couldn’t. Instead of trying to replicate 3rd edition’s quite frankly ridiculous panoply of powers, the 4th edition Druid instead is designed to be an interesting class about as powerful as the other classes which can do interesting things in its own right.

You know that thing about how when you’ve been the recipient of overwhelming privilege, any cessation of that privilege feels like oppression? That. Wizards and Clerics got it too, but fuck them. I like Druids so I’m talking about Druids this time.

The Druid of 4th edition stripped the concept back to its studs. A druid in 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons is a nature-themed spellcaster who can turn into an animal-like form, and each form is equally capable of doing things to fulfill a role on a team. The druid can be seen as a binary of in and out of wild shape, and out of wild shape, they’re basically a spellcaster. In wild shape, they are a secondary role, which is usually something like an off-defender or an off-striker. This made some people unreasonably mad, because multiclassing to add healing to a druid was an affront to their moral senses I guess.

I get pretty defensive about the 4th edition Druid, but that’s not to pretend it’s perfect by any means. In the effort to take care of things and ensure that the Druid doesn’t start climbing up the tower of its previous power, the writers glowered at it and showered it with options that were just… a little… sour.

I think that the 4th edition Druid, as much as it’s a class I love and works fine, could do with a little help in choice support, and maybe some of the options available to it are a bit crap.

[…]

4e: Technical Seams

Every single time I hear people describing the wording of a 5th edition magical spell or a 5th edition character ability I feel like I’m listening to the fall of an empire and it’s because there was something that the game had solved and was good at that 5th edition seems to have wanted to throw the hell away. That is technically written rules.

[…]

4e: Technical Seams

Every single time I hear people describing the wording of a 5th edition magical spell or a 5th edition character ability I feel like I’m listening to the fall of an empire and it’s because there was something that the game had solved and was good at that 5th edition seems to have wanted to throw the hell away. That is technically written rules.

[…]

How to Be: Frieren (in 4e D&D)

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is an anime about what happens after an adventure is over and the player character with all of their level 20 powers wanders the world keeping their brains from being pickled by the feelings of losing all your friends. It’s a well-regarded, critically acclaimed series, and it’s clearly resonating with a lot of people. It’s a story about grieving and loss and finding your own purpose, as well as a story about connecting to your own emotions, and recognising the way your own life can pass by you.

It is also a story about a petite smug elf who turns into animated gifs really well.

[…]

How to Be: Frieren (in 4e D&D)

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is an anime about what happens after an adventure is over and the player character with all of their level 20 powers wanders the world keeping their brains from being pickled by the feelings of losing all your friends. It’s a well-regarded, critically acclaimed series, and it’s clearly resonating with a lot of people. It’s a story about grieving and loss and finding your own purpose, as well as a story about connecting to your own emotions, and recognising the way your own life can pass by you.

It is also a story about a petite smug elf who turns into animated gifs really well.

[…]

Nations of Cobrin’Seil: Winaleon (and Aazum)

It’s always a lovely day in Winaleon. The bees are buzzing, the fields are growing, the coin is flowing. Winaleon, Winaleon, beautiful Winaleon, with its golden days and its golden words. Winaleon is the safest place in the world, a land of gentle slopes and careful lawns, all tended and cared for, so that the children of Winaleon have so safe an upbringing that not even night itself dares touch them.

Winaleon is a land so perfect that the sun never sets on Winaleon.

Ever.

Art by Jeremy Paillotin, Shire Terrace (MTG)

[…]

Nations of Cobrin’Seil: Winaleon (and Aazum)

It’s always a lovely day in Winaleon. The bees are buzzing, the fields are growing, the coin is flowing. Winaleon, Winaleon, beautiful Winaleon, with its golden days and its golden words. Winaleon is the safest place in the world, a land of gentle slopes and careful lawns, all tended and cared for, so that the children of Winaleon have so safe an upbringing that not even night itself dares touch them.

Winaleon is a land so perfect that the sun never sets on Winaleon.

Ever.

Art by Jeremy Paillotin, Shire Terrace (MTG)

[…]

4e: The Paladin’s Engagement

Ah, the Paladin. Derived from the term, originally, of palantine, it’s interesting how these days it’s used to refer to a virtuous and usually, religiously empowered knight in heavy armour. Interesting given that its origin point was from a term for palace guards, the people closest to the king and inevitably, the kind of people you have to route around in a dramatic conclusion to a story when you’re storming the castle to interrupt a wedding at the last possible moment (but hopefully it’s the kind of story where it all works out in the end).

Perhaps I’m thinking about weddings, though, because I’m thinking about the Paladin outlined in the 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook. They are, after all, the kind of character that first and most thoroughly introduced the idea of maintaining an engagement. Thanks to their power, Divine Challenge, they were, in a way, the most romantic of the Player’s Handbook 1 Classes.

[…]

4e: The Paladin’s Engagement

Ah, the Paladin. Derived from the term, originally, of palantine, it’s interesting how these days it’s used to refer to a virtuous and usually, religiously empowered knight in heavy armour. Interesting given that its origin point was from a term for palace guards, the people closest to the king and inevitably, the kind of people you have to route around in a dramatic conclusion to a story when you’re storming the castle to interrupt a wedding at the last possible moment (but hopefully it’s the kind of story where it all works out in the end).

Perhaps I’m thinking about weddings, though, because I’m thinking about the Paladin outlined in the 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook. They are, after all, the kind of character that first and most thoroughly introduced the idea of maintaining an engagement. Thanks to their power, Divine Challenge, they were, in a way, the most romantic of the Player’s Handbook 1 Classes.

[…]

Nations of Cobrin’Seil: Xwera

Are you free?

I ask you this, I ask again, are you free?

If you live under a king, if you live for coin, if you live for a church, then are you ever truly free? You can be free to taste the boot above you, but are you free?

Can you take your weapon and your wits and walk into the wilds and make your own way, know your own self, and share in your spoils without anyone demanding or commanding how it should be done? Can you call yourself free when your own death isn’t even something you can trust, and where you might just fall because a guard or a thug or a brute took a liking to hurting you? Don’t you want the purity, the honesty, of knowing your death comes from the quarry you hunt, that you did something wrong, you slipped at the wrong time, that you weren’t as good as you thought you were, and that your death is something you deserve and that you chose?

Come to Xwera.

Be truly free.

[…]

Nations of Cobrin’Seil: Xwera

Are you free?

I ask you this, I ask again, are you free?

If you live under a king, if you live for coin, if you live for a church, then are you ever truly free? You can be free to taste the boot above you, but are you free?

Can you take your weapon and your wits and walk into the wilds and make your own way, know your own self, and share in your spoils without anyone demanding or commanding how it should be done? Can you call yourself free when your own death isn’t even something you can trust, and where you might just fall because a guard or a thug or a brute took a liking to hurting you? Don’t you want the purity, the honesty, of knowing your death comes from the quarry you hunt, that you did something wrong, you slipped at the wrong time, that you weren’t as good as you thought you were, and that your death is something you deserve and that you chose?

Come to Xwera.

Be truly free.

[…]

How To be: Sherlock Holmes (In 4e D&D)

In this project, there’s always a challenge presented by every character. Even when the character straight up ports from a piece of media based on Dungeons & Dragons there’s always going to be something that comes in the translation that has challenges going back. Usually, the problem is one of specificity, where the character is represented in a particular form that can be very clear, with fine detail — a high resolution image, as it were. If a character can leap twice their height and do a diving bomb attack with their weapon, and they do that all the time, any build is going to have to represent that meaningfully or it won’t feel like the character.

The other, rarer problem, perhaps only encountered once before with Robin Hood, is when I’m talking about a character with such vast cultural presence that there’s almost anything they could do.

The game is afoot.

[…]

How To be: Sherlock Holmes (In 4e D&D)

In this project, there’s always a challenge presented by every character. Even when the character straight up ports from a piece of media based on Dungeons & Dragons there’s always going to be something that comes in the translation that has challenges going back. Usually, the problem is one of specificity, where the character is represented in a particular form that can be very clear, with fine detail — a high resolution image, as it were. If a character can leap twice their height and do a diving bomb attack with their weapon, and they do that all the time, any build is going to have to represent that meaningfully or it won’t feel like the character.

The other, rarer problem, perhaps only encountered once before with Robin Hood, is when I’m talking about a character with such vast cultural presence that there’s almost anything they could do.

The game is afoot.

[…]

Alpha Strikes in 4th Edition D&D

It’s a new year, so why don’t we start off our discussion of 4th Edition with a bang?

A concern in the design of 4th Edition — That is, a thing that people complain about on the internet, in this case assuming good faith from people who can come up with a third topic after “it’s good but it’s not Dungeons & Dragons,” and “it’s just like an MMO,” style big-thonk thinkers — is that in 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons, too much importance is placed on the capacity of players to do an alpha strike that allows them to trivialise combat, assuming they win initiative and aren’t therefore, immediately folded by equally alpha-strikey enemies.

The notion is that if combat is extremely deadly because players are extremely powerful, then the turns that orient around when players do stuff are the most important. Players can kill things more efficiently, which means you wind up with fights that shrink and shrink, resolved in fewer and fewer turns as players level up. This concern is expressed in the form of what’s referred to as an alpha strike — a term I believe that gaming in general got from Battletech, and they got it from somewhere else, I have no doubt.

Alpha striking is the notional idea that if you spend all of your resources up front in the most decisive action possible, then it doesn’t matter that you don’t have resources to last any longer.

You have, after all, won.

[…]

Alpha Strikes in 4th Edition D&D

It’s a new year, so why don’t we start off our discussion of 4th Edition with a bang?

A concern in the design of 4th Edition — That is, a thing that people complain about on the internet, in this case assuming good faith from people who can come up with a third topic after “it’s good but it’s not Dungeons & Dragons,” and “it’s just like an MMO,” style big-thonk thinkers — is that in 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons, too much importance is placed on the capacity of players to do an alpha strike that allows them to trivialise combat, assuming they win initiative and aren’t therefore, immediately folded by equally alpha-strikey enemies.

The notion is that if combat is extremely deadly because players are extremely powerful, then the turns that orient around when players do stuff are the most important. Players can kill things more efficiently, which means you wind up with fights that shrink and shrink, resolved in fewer and fewer turns as players level up. This concern is expressed in the form of what’s referred to as an alpha strike — a term I believe that gaming in general got from Battletech, and they got it from somewhere else, I have no doubt.

Alpha striking is the notional idea that if you spend all of your resources up front in the most decisive action possible, then it doesn’t matter that you don’t have resources to last any longer.

You have, after all, won.

[…]

Nations of Cobrin’Seil: Fuszaint

Bidestra is a cradle and grave both of empires. Some are completely collapsed, gone beyond all signs or showing, like the Urd, or the First Elves, or the Tieflings. They stood tall and proud and asserted themselves rulers of the whole continent — but now, they are nothing but ancient statues in lost glades and the broken histories of deranged libraries. Only one Empire, in the history of Bidestra, has conquered the continent, and then, with wisdom and care, chose to withdraw, to become just another nation, and to maintain its place as first amongst equals, after bringing language, roads, medicine and currency to all corners of the continent, and only that Empire, the mighty Fuszainti Empire, can thank their current king for his choices two centuries past that led to this current glory.

Glory, glory, glory, to Fuszaint, and its ever-living, eternal Knights and King!

[…]

Nations of Cobrin’Seil: Fuszaint

Bidestra is a cradle and grave both of empires. Some are completely collapsed, gone beyond all signs or showing, like the Urd, or the First Elves, or the Tieflings. They stood tall and proud and asserted themselves rulers of the whole continent — but now, they are nothing but ancient statues in lost glades and the broken histories of deranged libraries. Only one Empire, in the history of Bidestra, has conquered the continent, and then, with wisdom and care, chose to withdraw, to become just another nation, and to maintain its place as first amongst equals, after bringing language, roads, medicine and currency to all corners of the continent, and only that Empire, the mighty Fuszainti Empire, can thank their current king for his choices two centuries past that led to this current glory.

Glory, glory, glory, to Fuszaint, and its ever-living, eternal Knights and King!

[…]

Dev Pile: Vampiric Update

Two weeks ago I wrote about how the Vampire class in 4th edition D&D sucks. That was an exercise in demonstrating the boundaries of a design goal, in which I laid out that I wanted a design that fit with the function of the existing Vampire and could operate in a way that doesn’t displace existing design. I then, because that article was already 1500 words, figured that I should tackle what that actually looks like later.

This post is not going to show you like, properly formatted 4th edition mechanical material, because that’s kinda wordy and it’s a pain in the arse to format and I don’t think it’s inherently interesting to you unless you’re actually here for Vampire material. Don’t worry, though, there will be a place for it soon™. Instead, this post is going to be about describing the kinds of things I actually have done and then a discussion of how to iterate on this kind of design with minimal playtesting.

[…]

https://press.invincible.ink/dev-pile-2025-48-vampiric-update/

#DevPile2025 #DnD4e

Dev Pile: Vampiric Update

Two weeks ago I wrote about how the Vampire class in 4th edition D&D sucks. That was an exercise in demonstrating the boundaries of a design goal, in which I laid out that I wanted a design that fit with the function of the existing Vampire and could operate in a way that doesn’t displace existing design. I then, because that article was already 1500 words, figured that I should tackle what that actually looks like later.

This post is not going to show you like, properly formatted 4th edition mechanical material, because that’s kinda wordy and it’s a pain in the arse to format and I don’t think it’s inherently interesting to you unless you’re actually here for Vampire material. Don’t worry, though, there will be a place for it soon™. Instead, this post is going to be about describing the kinds of things I actually have done and then a discussion of how to iterate on this kind of design with minimal playtesting.

[…]

https://press.invincible.ink/dev-pile-2025-48-vampiric-update/

#DevPile2025 #DnD4e

Cobrin’Seil Heritage: The Cwmdyri

In building out the continent of Bidestra, I found numerous places where either historically I had already placed ‘merfolk’ or ‘sea elves,’ or new places where such creatures made sense. I already have a Cobrin’Seil race of creepy, deep-sea monster people, known as the Hadalan, and I love them dearly, but they’re meant to fulfill the role of a spooky monster people. They’re not the friendly neighbourhood fish-folk, those are the terrifying fish-folk for freaks.

I needed something new to fill this space.

Some explanations first though:

[…]

Cobrin’Seil Heritage: The Cwmdyri

In building out the continent of Bidestra, I found numerous places where either historically I had already placed ‘merfolk’ or ‘sea elves,’ or new places where such creatures made sense. I already have a Cobrin’Seil race of creepy, deep-sea monster people, known as the Hadalan, and I love them dearly, but they’re meant to fulfill the role of a spooky monster people. They’re not the friendly neighbourhood fish-folk, those are the terrifying fish-folk for freaks.

I needed something new to fill this space.

Some explanations first though:

[…]

How To Be: Captain America (in 4e D&D)

Doing this kind of exercise about real long-running characters can be an interesting challenge because so many of them, with enough time, try enough things in different ways that it’s challenging to really identify what makes the character the character to everyone.

And sometimes it’s really easy because Disney makes a billion dollars selling pictures of his butt.

[…]

https://press.invincible.ink/how-to-be-captain-america-in-4e-dd/

#dnd4e #howToBe

How To Be: Captain America (in 4e D&D)

Doing this kind of exercise about real long-running characters can be an interesting challenge because so many of them, with enough time, try enough things in different ways that it’s challenging to really identify what makes the character the character to everyone.

And sometimes it’s really easy because Disney makes a billion dollars selling pictures of his butt.

[…]

https://press.invincible.ink/how-to-be-captain-america-in-4e-dd/

#dnd4e #howToBe

Dev Pile: Fangs For More

The Vampire sucks.

That’s kind of the point, but it’s also a problem for players who are interested in playing them.

I don’t mean Vampires in general, I mean the Vampire in 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. Before I start presenting changes, I want to explain how I make changes to things in games I run, and also why I bother to write about them in this way. This isn’t about how to play the game, but is instead about how to examine the mechanics of the game and how to make comparisons and alterations to a game that’s already strongly functional with well-defined mechanics.

[…]

https://press.invincible.ink/dev-pile-2025-46-fangs-for-more/

#dnd4e

Dev Pile: Fangs For More

The Vampire sucks.

That’s kind of the point, but it’s also a problem for players who are interested in playing them.

I don’t mean Vampires in general, I mean the Vampire in 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. Before I start presenting changes, I want to explain how I make changes to things in games I run, and also why I bother to write about them in this way. This isn’t about how to play the game, but is instead about how to examine the mechanics of the game and how to make comparisons and alterations to a game that’s already strongly functional with well-defined mechanics.

[…]

https://press.invincible.ink/dev-pile-2025-46-fangs-for-more/

#dnd4e

4e: The Worth of Artifacts

When I talk about 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons, I do so with an air of authority — which, in many cases, is quite reasonable. I’ve probably read more of the books than you have, and I’m very well aware of how the game runs in in situ, as someone who’s been both a DM and a player for a long time.

Despite that, I think it’s important to lay my cards on the table and admit that there’s a bunch of stuff in 4th Edition I’m not familiar with. Even the stuff I do know, I tend to interact with as little as possible. I’ve talked about this before when describing how the mounted combat rules, as written in the first version, are absolute hogwash. House ruling, in my experience, has made those rules worth having and less annoying to adjudicate — but it does so by giving players a fairly important power edge.

In this case, I want to discuss something I have zero direct experience with. Everything I know about it is entirely theoretical, and I do so with the full understanding that I’m not confident about what I have to say here. But I feel like artifacts aren’t worth it.

[…]

https://press.invincible.ink/4e-the-worth-of-artifacts/

#DnD4e

4e: The Worth of Artifacts

When I talk about 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons, I do so with an air of authority — which, in many cases, is quite reasonable. I’ve probably read more of the books than you have, and I’m very well aware of how the game runs in in situ, as someone who’s been both a DM and a player for a long time.

Despite that, I think it’s important to lay my cards on the table and admit that there’s a bunch of stuff in 4th Edition I’m not familiar with. Even the stuff I do know, I tend to interact with as little as possible. I’ve talked about this before when describing how the mounted combat rules, as written in the first version, are absolute hogwash. House ruling, in my experience, has made those rules worth having and less annoying to adjudicate — but it does so by giving players a fairly important power edge.

In this case, I want to discuss something I have zero direct experience with. Everything I know about it is entirely theoretical, and I do so with the full understanding that I’m not confident about what I have to say here. But I feel like artifacts aren’t worth it.

[…]

https://press.invincible.ink/4e-the-worth-of-artifacts/

#DnD4e

How To Be: Gideon Nav (in 4e D&D)

What a bozo!

First things first, before we go past the fold (as we normally do), I need to lay out a quick spoiler warning. I’m going to mention things about Gideon Nav, the protagonist of Gideon the Ninth and a factor in the subsequent stories Harrow the Ninth and Nona The Ninth.

What I’m going to discuss is what I consider establishing details; that is, it’s hardly really meaningful for me to tell you that Gideon Nav is a tall woman with red hair and a sword, even if, strictly speaking, those are things revealed in the later chapters of the book. I don’t intend to spoil anything meaningfully deep about why things are the way they are for Gideon, so you can read this if you want.

[…]

https://press.invincible.ink/how-to-be-gideon-nav-in-4e-dd/

#DnD4e #HowToBe