VIDEO
okay and welcome back to Dragon plus I’m
always looking off in the wrong way it’s
that camera oh I do the same thing where
I was wondering what are they looking at
we have no idea what we’re looking at
somebody I don’t know if it was you or
somebody else mentioned this had been my
most tense hour of the week and now it’s
the most relaxing hour of the week
because I’m not I can step away from my
desk for the next hour yeah yeah we get
to just chat about D&D yes it doesn’t
get much better than that so uh boy
where to begin obviously we have back
Jeremy Crawford I’ve got a new bio for
you because I just put it up today oh
wow Jeremy Crawford is the league rules
designer of Dungeons & Dragons in
addition to being the game’s managing
editor he led the design of The Player’s
Handbook and co-lead design of a variety
of other DMV books including it the
Dungeon Master’s guide
XANA Thor’s guide to everything and
Morden cannons Thoma foes which I even
brought with me because today’s the wide
release so of course it’s like I have to
carry it everywhere I go today now this
part this is new information for me
before coming to Wizards of the coast he
wrote for the games Blue Rose Warhammer
Fantasy roleplay and mutants in master
life you learned something every day and
I did not know any of that so I know I
might have suspected that you had other
industry but but I’ve now been a wizard
for almost 11 years working on D&D
so I mean at this point it’s just he has
made many many Dungeons & Dragons books
yeah well welcome back for folks that
were with us two weeks ago we sat down
with Jeremy and to speak about minotaurs
and Centaurs released in the latest
unearth Arkana we wanted to continue
that conversation we do have some news
and announcements leading up to the
stream of many eyes taking place boy
this weekend which
little frazzled because it’s taking
place this weekend June 1st through 3rd
in Los Angeles California we hope that
folks in the area might be able to
attend there are still tickets for these
Sunday games but please jump on those
quickly as they are getting snatched up
and you can always stream the entirety
of it on our dandy twitch channel which
you are watching right now and if you’re
there and you see me make sure to say hi
I will be there for the whole thing and
bind earth of alphabetical order you are
now our number one special guest oh look
at me well I like spotlight yes this was
the we were gonna do some new headshots
so we’re gonna schedule you for an
updated although this is quite well well
thank you but just outside my house so
Before we jump into talk we covered in
the minute our last time we were gonna
talk a bit more about the centaur other
side yes
but before we jump into the Centaur we
did have some questions as mentioned we
get great questions in the chat we don’t
always have a chance to be able to to
respond to them so we look back through
the chat logs and compile many of the
questions you did not ask you did not
like my question I created what
chiropractic care does is sent our
request maybe if there’s time at the end
of the stream I’ll get into chiropractic
care for centaurs and other hybrid
bodied beings is this personal question
because I’m in physical therapy now for
sciatica oh no oh man
what what does a centaur have to do this
is my other question true or false the
organization of evil centaurs is known
as the centaur ouch you came at me right
with the pun dagur wow man
it just it’s just so obviously but you
were so subtle I was not able to cast
the shield spell fast enough
to make it so that my my ears would not
hear it yeah there’s a reason dad jokes
and bad jokes are sounds and you are a
dad where he issued a book a book of dad
jokes yes yes I think I think so my my
stepdad in particular is amazing at dad
jokes and also at puns and I think he
was so amazing that it like it fried out
in my teenage years all of my tolerance
for it because it’s like I got the best
but I got so much of it I can’t take it
anymore
I had a university professor that if the
conversation stalled out like if she had
a question nobody was right she would
just start giving out puns until people
I stopped and they started participating
Wow well I worked well but that’s sort
of like a store cranking the music up
yes well in that case they’re trying to
get you to get get you out of the store
so we asked you last time what are you
reading watching playing do you have any
new or different answers for us as a
lead-in
yes reading cuz I’ve I’ve been kind of a
voracious reader lately so this past
week I read this charming fantasy novel
called the witch’s boy it’s by Kelly
Barnhill it’s I think written for
children but it’s a great read for
adults too about the son of this witch
who ends up having to bear her magic and
it is very perilous magic good story I
recommend it all right which is what was
the the Irish legend Oh
so yeah last year last time I
recommended that if people are
interested in learning more about Irish
mythology a fun place to start is Lady
Augusta Gregory’s book gods and fighting
men and that gives you a great survey of
different Irish myths including the bit
I talked about last time where you you
basically get a description of a bunch
of different types of spellcasters
you’ll also see different inspirations
for certain magic item
and whatnot that appear in D&D in
addition to just getting exposed to a
great myth tradition this is why I have
this live stream just so I can ask
questions as as far as playing Saturday
we played my dandy home game big treat
because normally we’re we’re usually
only able to schedule maybe one session
a month because of our schedules but
this month we got to play two Saturdays
in a row so that was a great way to kick
off the Memorial Day weekend spent good
part of Saturday with yet another crazy
session in what has turned out to be a
totally bonkers whore campaign and this
is UDM this camp yes yep this is the
campaign idea and you weave in things
that you would like to play test as well
so I guess I probably haven’t told you
before told all of you listening on the
stream that one of my rules in my home
game is that for that game this is as
opposed to games that I play here at
work because we also play D&D here in my
home game no play test material though
because I want my home game to truly be
a home game not only so I can relax
playing this game I I’ve loved my entire
life but also there is actually an
important work reason for me it’s so
that as the game’s lead rules designer I
never lose touch with what it’s like to
play the game using the material that
everyone out and out in public has to
use because not everyone listening has
access to all of the stuff that you know
we’re constantly developing I’m because
we’re working on things that won’t be
out for several years and if I had too
much of that stuff in my home game I
would really quickly there would be the
risk of me quickly losing sight of the
current state of the game as it exists
out in the world outside of the walls of
Wizards of the coast so I like to play
it in it sort of its store-bought
version although the campaign itself is
entirely homemade
and then that also means we get to relax
because you know several of my players
work here at Wizards you know Chris
Perkins is one of my players James Wyatt
is one of my players it means we can sit
down
we’re not play testing anything we’re
just enjoying Dungeons & Dragons all
right
so we did have some questions that folks
had submitted as well that we did want
to cover again before we get into a bit
of a discussion on the Descent time we
had a couple of questions come in luna
pine and ghost tack 159 i guess there
were 158 goes tax before but it was kind
of a broad question about sort of Magic
the Gathering tends to look at a lot of
different real world cultures
mythology’s areas to weave into their
various card sets on the on the D&D team
is there a similar approach are there
other cultural areas that are being
considered that have been considered how
does that work so DnB going back to its
inception in the 70s is filled with
inspiration from different myth
traditions in our world so you know
going back to first edition the game
pulled in material from Norse mythology
Celtic mythology Greek mythology
Egyptian mythology and more I mean
Arthurian legend even the Cthulhu Mythos
you know was a big part of it there was
inspiration from the the cosmos in
Michael Moorcock’s Elric novels and you
know and on and on and on and on and so
those influences have always been a part
of deities DNA and then as we’ve
developed the game we definitely
continue to dip into not only those myth
traditions but into others as well
rarely to bring them over wholesale in
5th edition we’ve maintained in the
players handbook the list of Norse gods
Celtic gods Egyptian gods and what have
you
partly because it’s traditional for the
game
we’re unlikely to do that with the gods
of other real world Pantheon’s but we’re
certainly open to being inspired by them
there there are elements speaking of
other myth traditions in Morden Kanan
stoma foes and some of our cosmic
storytelling that are influenced by Adam
Lee and my own reading of various
stories in certain Eastern religions
Adam and I have both studied Hinduism in
fact when I got my master’s degree in
religious studies the focus was on
ancient Christianity but also I spent a
fair amount of time studying vaishnav
Hinduism and so that actually influences
some of the the cosmic storytelling that
I do and I know that Adam has some of
those influences and there are other
members of the department that also like
to dig into you know the ancient stories
of our own world so that we can build
resonant fantasies stories in the worlds
of Dungeons and Dragons right I mean as
a separate world of Dungeons and Dragons
is still hard to completely divorce it
from the players the creators having a
grounding in real world pathology and
not wanting to influence it or or being
inspired by it I imagine yeah and and
it’s often found that fantasy is the
most powerful for us when you can kind
of trace a thread that goes back to
something in the real world and that can
be something cultural in the case of
myths as we’re talking about
but then something I loved that j.r.r
tolkien talked about is it also means
including everyday things fantasy often
is best when you know people are
drinking ale and in simple bread and
walking in a beautiful forest and near
the mountains like unlike science
fiction which is often filled with the
alien fantasy is often filled with the
familiar but then that familiar thing
suffused with magic and so it to me
really successful fantasy does a good
job of
balancing these ancient familiar things
you know rocks and bread and wine and
mountains and gods and mixes those in
with with magic and monsters and
adventure and it turns into this kind of
this very special alchemy that has
inspired humans for thousands of years I
know we’ve talked about this before I
mean that that point in the force
awakens with raised bread you know mmm
magic
element again it’s my story but as we’ve
discussed Star Wars certainly arguably
as strong fantasy at least in the
original trilogy is as anything else
yeah yeah electrum electric um alright
sorry
however it’s pronounced there is a
question any ideas for campaign this is
coming from a user that was starting off
dungeon mastering mmm-hmm and wants to
know about where to get started
what advice for kicking off a campaign
whether it’s running one creating one
what what might you recommend for that
wow I could do a whole series of these
talks just on campaign design maybe we
should work that in in the future once
so the really short answer I’ll give
which again could be instead a multi how
her answer is when possible start small
what you want to do is don’t design
don’t spend months and months and months
designing this math massive story only
to find in the first session that your
players are going to go off in a totally
different directions as they will
because they will what’s important is
always just have your next session
designed and and have a broad framework
of material that can lead to later
sessions and when I say a broad
framework of material I mean have some
interesting places for your player
characters to go to have a few fun NPCs
for them to talk to and have a juicy
villain or two whose motivations will
help drive the story because often I
find that if you have even just
one really good villain who has
ambitions that could drive multiple
sessions of play you will often get
weeks and weeks and weeks of D&D play
out of just that villain and that
villains minions and then you’ll start
coming up with other villains who oppose
that villain and then often your prep
well you’re as a DM we’ll just turn into
deciding before each session all right
what’s villainy doing what’s villain be
doing about it what are the the three
MPC groups doing about it and then you
basically just set them all running and
then in the session you just watch what
the player characters do in response to
all of these NPCs and villains crashing
into each other or you know going to
some interesting location like a dungeon
or a castle or a haunted temple or
whatever that location is that you’re
focused on in a particular session
I have very suspicious players I have
never started off an adventure where the
patron hiring them for the quest or
whatever MacGuffin they’re trying to get
after they are not immediately convinced
that he or she is developed somehow
they’re sure that’s that’s the one
trying to get in my way so I speaking of
that I have to be careful with some of
my long-standing players not to at the
beginning of any game have what a person
I know to be a benevolent NPC yes not to
sound too much like a hag and because I
use so many hags in my campaign that if
it’s just like kindly old woman they
meet it’s a hag
so sometimes sometimes if you use
certain tropes enough you’re it can it
can cause your players to just they
start they start thinking something is
hiding in every bush that was the
question I wrote down and because that’s
kind of the trope which is whatever half
you think you’re gonna set for your
players go this way they’re gonna go
that way
mm-hmm do you ever intentionally design
sort of quote-unquote false doors where
it’s clearly meant to be this way and
you
because you know they’re gonna take a
left turn so you’ve planned that left
turn all along and and and that false
door never really led anywhere in the
start do you do you design your
adventures anticipating players to go
off the rails almost immediately oh yeah
I and that’s why my prep tends to be
pretty light I make sure I have enough
material to improvise with for each
session but I do not fix in advance you
know what I’m expecting them to do
I’ll have kind of broad story beats and
this is again why I focus on here’s what
like the villains are gonna do here’s
the danger they’re gonna put the player
characters in and then I see what what
do the player characters do in response
and that makes it really fun for me as
the DM because then in a way I get a
show you know I even though I’m running
the show at the same time I get to watch
the show because the players are the
ones deciding what their characters are
doing and they will often come up with
things that I didn’t expect great
example of this from my game on Saturday
the group spent a good deal of the
session in the Faye wild keep in mind I
never planned in this campaign that they
would go to the Faye watt this is a
gothic horror campaign but they decided
for various reasons I won’t get into
right now because I could gobble up the
Hat you know the half an hour going into
the ins and outs of the story but they
decided to go to the Faye wild and that
ended up essentially being a session
that designed itself and all I really
had to come up with was the place that
they were gonna spend time in and the
main NPC they were going to be talking
to and their the the session unfolded
and it did end up having a hag in it I
can’t resist them so much and we and we
kind of talked about in the past when
you guys you when you design when when
the D&D team designs elements there’s
there’s no you know killed darlings
they’re just set aside mm-hmm do you do
the same thing for your own campaign in
a similar way oh you guys want to go to
the FEI wild I happen to have a file of
other
and encounters that I’ve had in my mind
I didn’t know where to plug it in but
now I can just pull that one absolutely
I save things constantly so I might
design something that the players decide
never to go visit and so I just hang on
to it and when I have a chance to use it
later I use it or I also going back to
my session on Saturday I had some
important story information that I
needed the player characters to get so
that they would know what the heck was
ahead of them at the story because I
don’t like my my player characters to be
wandering around not knowing like what
are we supposed to do but they actually
missed entirely the NPC I thought was
going to be the information givers so I
just took that information and gave it
to another NPC and they ended up getting
getting that information from a sage in
the Fae wild in Saturday session not at
all what I had planned but I liked it
better because I didn’t plan it because
then it that’s real the real magic of
this game that again I as the DM got to
watch the story unfold in ways that I
had not planned in any way so if you’re
prepped enough and you’re giving your
characters your players agency enough
then it’s it’s sort of you get to sit
back and just interact with them in a
fun and meaningful way as opposed to I
don’t know force things along
artificially right right and that’s
that’s why anytime I give people prep
advice I go again and again back to this
idea of prepare a framework don’t
prepare exactly what they’re going to do
create a set of dangers but they’ll have
to reply to create a set of NPCs that
they can interact with and create a set
of villains whom they can oppose or they
might decide to help them like I don’t
even assume that there there are some
vampires in my current campaign that I
was ready for the group to oppose a year
and a half ago when they first met them
they have yet to get into a meaningful
fight with them and I keep kind of
unwittingly helping the vampires so
again I I tried to assume as little as
possible
going into a campaign about how they
will react and then by doing that it
means I can respond very nimble II to
what the players have decided to have
their characters do because I’m not
blocked by my preconception of how
something is supposed to end up now what
that does mean though is I also keep
having my villains do their thing on the
side and so what that means is if the
players just decide never to really try
to stop them yeah
the villains can win so in a way my is
this has happened this has happened yep
so in a way Mike and my campaigns are
Lu’s abaut even though of course you
never win or lose in D&D you’re always
winning if you’re having a good time but
but I have more than once over the years
have had essentially the player
characters lose a campaign in terms of
the big story because they just didn’t
they didn’t go after the villains
aggressively enough and I just like
players you can do whatever you want I’m
not gonna railroad you but the villains
are gonna keep going I would find that a
more satisfying campaign as much as I
find that a satisfying Movies ripped as
well yeah right don’t
once again I’ve said this a hundred
times to you once I know what the heroes
are meant to do then they’re gonna do it
and I’ve lost a great percentage of
interest well and what’s also
interesting is not only is that
important to kind of constantly have
them hungry for what what are we gonna
do next what’s next what are we supposed
to do but then if they lose you know
yours later my players who are in those
campaigns we’re basically the villains
one they still talk about those
campaigns so it actually can be
thrilling when the villains win yeah
because partly because then the players
really see our choices really mattered
that we weren’t on we were not on Rails
the choices we made led to this outcome
and that is really powerful because then
there really makes it feel like you were
in a living breathing world where what
you do really matters on the flip side
that means when my players win when they
are victorious they know they earned it
that you know they made the choices that
led to this great victory and my
campaigns tend to have very epic finales
so if they are victorious they have
usually accomplished something that you
know will be remembered for the ages
nice well so electrum I hope that gave
you some thoughts and ideas for starting
up your own campaign I definitely concur
it would be great to do at least a
session dedicated to campaign design we
did have a question about adventure
design and adventure and we’ll get to
down yeah there is a great deal of even
online resources that I would like to
pull together especially for new players
new dungeon masters where do I start
what tools are available and there’s
great tools that are available between
the downloadable rules D&D beyond the
starter set obviously has lost mine a
fan delvar in it too to be able to run
it anytime so yeah so why don’t we uh
why don’t we jump into the the Centaurs
Jeremy behind the screen we’ve got –
sorry – Jeremy’s in the studio why don’t
we put up the Centaurs stat sheet and
then folks viewing from home so these
are the the Centaur traits these
recently appeared in unearthed Arkana
which is available now on the DND
website of course also I believe it is
available on DD beyond
yes it’s now and Indian beyond so for
playtesting purposes last time we kind
of walked through in particular
minotaurs that they had recently well
not recently but minotaurs had appear a
while back in on Arthur canna and then
made a reappearance and in this most
recent one centaurs have they appeared
in uh north or Canada previously nope
this is their first time to show up as a
playable option in fifth edition it’s
worth reminding everybody that nothing
in unearthed Arcana is official these
are all play test elements that we’re
trying out sometimes these elements do
end up in one of our books as you saw
with many of the options that were in
zennith ARS guide to everything so once
we put the surveys out for any of these
things do please give us your feedback
we’ve read all of it and your feedback
can help shape the future of these
options as well as the game as a whole
sometimes the options because of the
feedback they go away forever other
options we dig in because of your
feedback we make changes and they’ll
show up in a product later and become an
official option so sent our Minotaur
that you see right now again this is a
draft and we’ll see what you think
I’ve been reading feedback already on
reddit Horace that’s right that’s right
a draft horse the puns
I’ve been reading feedback are on reddit
on Twitter and elsewhere already but the
surveys are especially helpful because
we end up getting feedback usually from
so many of you all right so the Centaur
first off I should point out because the
Centaur size was a big topic of interest
when we first released this I should
point out that D&D for many years going
back at least goodness gracious at least
twenty eight so it’s been twenty eight
years at least if not longer the D&D has
actually had centaurs of different sizes
the classic monstrous centaur that
appears in the Monster Manual is large
and that’s been true going all the way
back to the first edition Monster Manual
but D&D
Dragonlance as well as in alka deem
introduced other centaurs who are medium
and in our art over the years we have
shown centaurs of both sizes we have
also when it comes to centaurs
backgrounds talked about them being
monstrosity zazz they are in the current
Monster Manual but there have been also
times in the game’s history when they’ve
been strongly associated with the Fae in
fact even in the fifth edition Monster
Manual where their creature type is
monstrosity we still talk about them
actually interacting a lot with elves
they know the Sylvan language which is
the language of many fake creatures so
they have long had this association with
the Fae and again there have long been
different sizes of centaurs so I wanted
to bring that up because some people
thought whoa this is crazy
centaurs have always been large and so
it’s important to bring out this little
history which honestly would have been a
great thing for us to put in the
unearthed Arcana article to say hey
there are both types of centaurs in the
D&D multiverse this playable version of
the centaur is focusing on the medium
type and in our last video when talking
about the Minotaur I also mentioned that
there are also game design reasons for
us to push player character options
toward the medium size as opposed to the
large size if there’s time later on in
today’s stream I can drill into that a
little more if people want to ask about
it in the stream but first I want to
talk about some other things specific to
the Centaur absolutely so yes again if
you have a question please press your
comment in the chat with a question all
caps is easy way to catch our I will try
and catch them as they come otherwise
we’ll definitely save them for for a
follow-up also I want to say in terms of
sort of different types of centaurs it’s
important to remember that
in the DND multiverse we have long had
this notion of there being different
types of the same creature you see it
actually in some of the playable races
where elves have many different
varieties and we get into the story of
that in Morden Canaan stoma foes dwarves
have different varieties and sometimes
the varieties get dramatic enough that
even their creature types can be
different we like in Morden Canaan stoma
foes we say they’re even there are some
Aladdin who have been in the mortal
world long enough that their creature
type is humanoid and there are other
elad rune whose creature type is Fae we
also have creatures that are the same
type of creature but have different
sizes and so yes in fact yes yes
hag’s we have many different sizes and
whatnot so I just want it it’s important
to have that broader context also to
address another fun thing about the
speed and this this one amused me a bit
because one bit of feedback I saw a
number of times was well son tars the
playable ones should be large because
the horse is large this is a funny bit
of feedback to me because there is no
stat Block in D&D called the horse in
the Monster Manual we have three horses
there is the pony that is medium there
is the warhorse that’s large and there’s
the writing horse that’s large so even
in our horses we have we have a variety
and one is medium and to our large also
it was funny too to see when the centaur
came up that people were kind of needing
to learn a little bit about horses
because some people I saw thought ponies
were baby horses they’re not so that
ponies are ponies are just a type of
horse that would be my immediate
assumption for respond right you’re
telling me that’s not that’s not correct
a pony is not a baby horse a pony is is
is a type of horse that is just has a
smaller body than say a Clydesdale or
another very large horse what would a
baby horse
they’re like what are they folds or is
that am i mixing up animal types but
yeah not a pony
Nicole’s the Colt thank you thank you
I’ve even watched Colts be born
no personal fact my mother was a she was
on she was an administrator at Cal Poly
and San Luis Obispo in California in the
animal science department and one of the
things I what I got to enjoy growing up
is going out and looking at the horse
unit and even that includes getting to
see them be born I’m realizing now than
the Indianapolis Colts the football team
their mascot then would be it’s a baby
horse the Chicago Cubs I you know baby
bears so I erase that right it’s not so
far afield all right so let’s so let’s
dig in so the Centaur is strong we see
strength score increasing by two and
then the wisdom score increases by one
this edition of wisdom was something I
actually did fairly late and I did it to
really dig into the fact that
particularly the medium-sized scent arts
that have appeared in dnb’s past like in
Dragonlance and Alka deme have been very
associated with nature having sort of
perceptiveness you could see them being
effective druids and Rangers so this is
one of the reasons why I gave them this
increased a wisdom in addition to the
increase to strength because of their
their mighty builds and it’s a good to
point out that often would we make these
abilities score adjustment decisions in
fact almost all of the time it’s being
driven by the DND story of the
particular species and we look at that
story and we see what would be
appropriate and also because we we lead
and this is
appropriate talking about a a people who
are part horse we like to lead with a
carrot rather than a stick and in terms
of guiding people toward particular
class options we don’t mandate that any
race option be aligned with a particular
class option but traditionally the
ability score increases sort of not
positively nudge you in particular
directions but of course you could
ignore it even though these bonuses are
to strength and wisdom you could make a
centaur wizard and we have we that’s why
we don’t handicap you from going against
type do you have a chart anywhere like a
heat chart of here are the ability score
bonuses that certain races have and
seeing okay there’s quite a few races
that are hot here and we don’t have any
race that gives you a bonus say with I’m
trying to think of it a charisma and
strength so you know you know so we all
of that stuff is in spreadsheets
suspicious especially for the official
races but it’s really good for everyone
listening to no we don’t do what I call
we don’t do fill-in-the-blank design
that’s where I was so so often fans will
point out well hey we don’t we don’t
have many races that sort of favor
intelligence for example so Wizards you
should do that
well that isn’t art design ëthis our
design athos is we design things to
reflect the story of the material that
we’re modeling in our story based game
we’re not going in and filling in a
matrix and say well we don’t have enough
intelligence races so that’s what we’re
going to do so you like the nooks and
crannies of the of the game system where
there are certain gaps that could exist
and there’s some strengths that exist
right not a need to fill it all up
absolutely not we have not designed the
game for it to need all of those little
spaces to be filled up in the same way
one of one of the one of the design
approaches that
I would bring up to the team when we
were designing fifth edition and that to
this day in fact just last week I
reminded one of our designers of this
that to always avoid needless symmetry
it’s really tempting for us as designers
as nerds too we want to fill in all the
blanks and that can lead to some really
odd design and we’ve done it before in
our department and so we very
consciously avoid that kind of you know
I’ve made a spreadsheet and I’m gonna
design something just because it fills
that spot it needs to be resonant it
needs to be grounded in a story it needs
to sing with the other parts of the game
that people already have this is peaks
and valleys I think what I was going for
instead of nooks and crannies but but
going back I used to play a game called
asteroids call mm-hmm and there are
different weapons that had different
damage types and there was always hey
there’s a lot of swords but none of them
do the blunt damage type and you know as
their swords right there never will be a
baseball bat right right
I mean similarly I get asked sometimes
you know is it intentional that some
abilities get used for saving throws
more often than others yes that’s
intentional there there are never going
to be as many things in the game that
make you make an intelligent saving
throw as there are that make you have to
do a dexterity saving throw for example
and and we’re very aware of how the
different abilities are used and you
know what what things in the game push
you toward different things and in in we
are almost never going for symmetry when
we make those design decisions we want a
balanced experience not a filled-in
matrix if that makes sense
all right let’s let’s keep going the
centaur has a base walking speed of 40
feet this is a juicy ability and
actually frankly this is where a lot of
the Centaurs juiciness is a
for some reason I’m liking juicy today
maybe I want some eye candy or something
it this is aware a lot of the appeal of
the center is that and you and where
you’d expect because this this these
people have horse like legs that a
traveling type of race yeah and so forty
feet is is fantastic now associated with
that influenced by the centaur in the
Monster Manual we have this charge
ability and by the way whenever we are
designing a playable version of a
species and are taking inspiration from
a monster stat block will often try to
echo something in that stat block it
doesn’t always pan out we will often
find in play testing will end up
flushing the thing that came from the
Monster Manual and designed something
else because frankly we design things
and monsters to work for monsters and
that’s it actually another great example
of how the game does not designed with a
bunch of symmetry in mind player
characters for instance are
intentionally different in how they
function in many ways from monsters and
so that means there are some things we
design on the player-character side
where they’re awesome as options for a
player character but kind of junk in a
monster just last week I was reviewing a
stat block for a book we haven’t
announced yet and the monster had in it
abilities that were mimicking some of
the rogues abilities in the players
handbook and I ended up cutting the
abilities and telling the writer of that
particular stat block the ability or
mimicking is great if you’re a player
with just one character to control and
you can deal with some of this fiddle
enos that’s the same set of abilities
that you put in a stat block unless it’s
a legendary creature and the DM is just
focused in an encounter on running that
one stat block that DM might have three
or four different stat blocks there you
in a particular encounter so that
ability that was great in the
player-character you suddenly put it in
a snap lock and the dm’s eyes are gonna
glaze over and say I don’t want to use
this in my game so that’s why sometimes
when we take inspiration from a stat
block for a player character option the
same kind of thing can happen where it
just doesn’t feel as natural on sort of
the other side of the DM screen so we’ll
see where charge goes I already know and
I knew this when we sent it out into the
world that some people would bulk at
this being an ability that recharges on
a short or a long rest because what we
have found and here I again I was like
to pull back the curtain when I’m on
talking with everybody what we have
found ever since the D&D next play test
is that if it’s a magical ability and we
say once you use it you can’t use it
again until you take a shorter or a long
rest
no one blinks I mean most people don’t
blink I say no one but though you know
we always get feedback of all sorts yeah
but by and large D&D players will say
yeah that’s fine mm-hmm if it’s a non
magical ability and we say the thing
recharges on a shorter or long rest
often that will be pushed back because
this is this feels like an innate
ability of Who I am and I should be able
to do this or not it it’s interesting
that when we’re in the realm of magic we
have found that players are often able
to easily suspend their disbelief about
how often things work because it’s magic
so it’s already you know not following
the rules of our world if you’re
shooting lightning bolts out of your
hands or you know transforming into a
pixie people are able to accept the the
rules of magic being mysterious right
but as soon as it’s about how your body
functions people can get uncomfortable
about well why and that’s that is always
the question I want people to ask is why
because again it’s a story game it needs
to feel natural so often what we’ll do
and it never surprises me when I see
people on reddit on Twitter and
elsewhere suggesting this as an
alternative is we will instead tie the
number of uses to an ability score
modifier or we will redesign the things
so it can be used in an unlimited
fashion
now this chargeability we’re unlikely to
let you use in an unlimited fashion it’s
it’s a little – to use today’s word of
the day juicy for you to be able to use
it an unlimited number of times per day
but we could certainly tie it to you can
use it a number of times equal to like
your constitutional modifier or
something like that and what we have
found it’s funny as soon as we do that
people are usually okay with it because
as well if they can see kind of a
narrative connection yes to your care to
your character and that’s also can be
satisfying because then people feel like
it’s something they can grow into that
as that ability goes up I get to use it
more times and one of the satisfying
things in D&D is that sense of growth so
there is a good chance that if the
Centaur keeps this chargeability at all
and if I wanted to keep it as juicy as
it currently is or make it even juicier
I will probably tie number of uses to an
ability modifier I’m thinking in my life
there’s not many activities I can do
without a short rest I think I think
often when we are doing initial drafts
we we will use just the short rest on
long rest as the recharge mechanism
partly because it actually gives us the
number of times per day maximum that we
are comfortable with but you know it
also could be the fact that many of us
who work on the game or middle aged and
maybe we we get tuckered out faster than
our younger players in da
again yes I could do this charge once
and then I’m gonna read for an hour and
then I can do it again all right let’s
go on to hooves the hooves these are a
natural melee weapon pretty
straightforward similar to the Minotaur
which you
you
because again this is Jeremy do we have
audio on when we lose audio oh did we
hit we have no sound alright are we back
are we back we’re back alright yay okay
so powerful build it we’re gonna take
this back for the last 20 minutes you
know everyone gets to hear it all over
again and I’m gonna say completely
different things alright so far it’s
tiny yes yes the center is now tiny and
has wings which that is a thing from DN
DS past weird that next time when we
delve into misstara we will get those
delightful creatures and I’m not being
sarcastic because I I have a I have a
high tolerance and enjoyment of cute
things so we are we lost from hooves
alright so hooves all I said about
hooves is that they’re like the
minotaurs horns and that you can what
people with them it’s essentially a
weapon you have with you all the time
and so I wanted to go on to echoing
build which is this really three tweets
three traits in one
so the first trait inside equine build
is basically a modified version of
powerful build that goliaths have the
main difference between this and
powerful build is powerful build in
addition to increasing your push drat
you’re pushing and dragging capability
it also makes it so that you can lift
things easier echoing build doesn’t do
that it instead just makes it easier for
you to push and drag things using your
your horse half now the next part of a
coin build is honestly something that we
could have done in the monster centaur
but didn’t bother because the monster
centaur is controlled by the dungeon
master but as soon as we take some
things that work just fine in the DMS
hands and put them into player’s hands
they will sometimes need a few extra
rules and so we realized we needed to
account
the fact that a player character who has
four horse-like legs with hooves on the
end is going to have a hard time
climbing ladders and other things that
are designed to work with human-like
hands and feet
yes that was my question kind of sent
our climb a ladder so we we had an
earlier version of this that basically
just said your DM will decide that you
can’t climb certain things but we
decided we wanted to try out this
approach of a simple rule where it just
it costs you more feet to move on
certain surfaces which is really just us
tinkering with an R in the existing rule
which I often like us to do because that
way you feel like the game is sort of
evolving naturally within itself it’s
building on itself it’s not becoming too
complex and it was also too juicy for to
resist having it cost you four extra
feet because of your 4 extra feet oh yes
I’m not kidding James James why James
Wyatt and I did that I beg all of your
forgiveness I sent our organization oh
so I am also guilty of many dead gems
all right
so finally the last bit of echoing build
this this this multi-part trait is that
a that the Centaur can serve as a mount
for another medium creature yes and we
put this in here at the last minute
because we thought oh it’s so iconic for
people to ride on Centaurs of various
sizes you know there and so we thought
well let’s put this in now I’ve gotten
some wonderfully hilarious tweets about
centaur stacks and what not about
centaurs all climbing up on top of each
other as I said by Twitter if that is
your bliss please do it D&D is your game
oh because
our medium creatures they are medium
creatures yes and so let’s take a look
at the rule here because this is
actually a great example for me to talk
about rules design so it says a medium
or smaller creature can ride on your
equine back if you allow it in such a
situation you continue to act
independently not as a controlled mount
okay one of the things that this rule is
not doing well and I will critique this
rule that I wrote which I often like to
do because as I’ve off as I’ve often
said one of the keys to being a game
designer is be ready to critique your
own stuff and kill your own stuff so one
of my critiques of this rule is it is
not obvious enough to the reader that
this is tweaking the mounted combat
rules in the combat chapter of The
Player’s Handbook it just sort of
assumes hey you have the rules in your
head reader and here’s a tweak to it so
one thing that would immediately help
people comprehend the purpose of this a
little bit about mounting is to say hey
there are mounted combat rules go take a
look at them now read this and this will
hopefully make sense because the mounted
combat rules say that for a creature to
be a mount it must be one size larger
than you it must have an Anatomy that is
suitable for you to write on it and then
once you’re writing on it that creature
then either acts independently or it is
entirely under your control okay
so what this rule is doing is it’s
saying very indirectly that when you use
the mounted combat rules you’re still
going to use those rules but with the
two exceptions that are in this role
which is you can be a mount for somebody
who’s your size or smaller because
normally the rule is they must be
smaller than you and once they’re
writing you you are always an
independent mount it is not an option
for you to be controlled by your writer
what this does not do is get rid of the
general rule about anatomy being
appropriate and so that’s why we didn’t
feel it was necessary to say
tarz can’t write each other because
they’re the general rule already covers
anatomy and that if the DM decides that
horses riding horses or horse you know a
person with a horse like anatomy riding
another person with horse like anatomy
is appropriate anatomy that is that DMS
prerogative and again follow your bliss
but it’s important to know the intent
here is that this is making two
exceptions to the mounted combat rules
which otherwise stand and that’s how
exceptions to the rules always work
whenever we make an exception to a rule
we are only overwriting the parts that
we explicitly overwrite otherwise the
other rule stands now that all said this
rule could be written better so that it
actually tips you off as a reader of oh
hey I need to go over and read the
mounted combat rules now that all said
there is a good chance that in the next
round we would just cut this this bit
about medium creatures writing these
medium centaurs unless people are jazzed
for it and then we’ll keep it alright we
are almost done with the Centaur and I
mean even how about we shall we be
naughty and go a little pest we’re good
let me let me shoehorn in a couple of
quick announcements before we finish up
with the Centaur we are in route to the
stream of many eyes many of us are there
already Pelham is already there Greg
Tito is already there
Chris Perkins might or might not be
traveling so there is no DNG news today
and dice camera action will be postponed
until the Friday dice camera action game
so I think Chris Chris is actually
taking today off to prepare for well
partly what he said this morning as
having a day off yesterday he got a
little too addicted to having a day off
it might also have been there was too
much insanity and my D&D game on
Saturday
no I think I think Chris is unbreakable
yes so uh so this will be until we get
to maze our can of this evening so no
Dean dnews no dice camera action today
we are so so we’re gonna go let’s go a
little past three oh yeah no we’re fine
going a little a little all right all
right especially since we’ve lost sound
there for a bit and we can we can wrap
up the Centaur and then maybe answer a
couple questions so maybe we’ll go
toward like maybe 310 315 sure all right
unless unless the stream says no and
hits the gong and so it gets us out of
here all right next up survivor this is
this is a what I call a ribbon for those
of you who haven’t heard this term
before this is a term I came up with
when we were designing fifth edition to
refer to any feature in a character
class or other element of the game
that’s really there as a piece of
character building a part of the world
it is almost never meant to increase the
character’s power if you’re wondering
why I call it a ribbon it it it it is
because actually I talked about it’s us
tying ribbons in the character’s hair so
you can imagine because they’re all so
often things we add late in the design
so it’s sort of like we have this fully
formed design and then often I will come
in at the end and tie these ribbons in
the designs hair and then send them out
the door I was thinking of a
participation that that you can also you
can also imagine it that way but so that
said survivor is a ribbon this is not
increasing the Centaurs power in any way
this is a power neutral ad but again is
tying in to the sort of reign jury and
druid eel or that we were modeling when
looking at the sort of medium centaurs
of our of Dandy’s past for inspiration
now we get to the hybrid nature trait
which I talked about in our last stream
about the Minotaur this is me
experimenting with the creature having
more than one type right quite honestly
since and here again you get to see game
development happening alive sin
releasing this I’m already over hyper
hybrid because because I have convinced
me last time I know I want to try and
see if there’s interaction so so I am
demonstrating live on camera killing
killing my own darlings it partly
because I did a number of studies
looking at our different creature types
looking at other ways of achieving the
design that I want us to achieve you
know and realized I can achieve what I’m
going for without walking down this
potential crazy train of giving people
more than one creature type for instance
there’s a very good chance that if we
take this centaur to the next step that
its creature type would become Fae
particularly because these medium
centaurs are based on our most fail ike
centaurs I had mentioned concerns about
having nonhumanoid player characters
particularly because of some hidden sort
of immunities you get like suddenly a
spell you know that targets only
humanoids doesn’t work on you but since
then I’ve I have analyzed all of the
options in the game that do do that and
actually the benefit you’re gaining from
that immunity is pretty low because and
also the number of monsters you’re going
to meet who rely on casting hold person
on you or something like that they’re
actually are actually quite low so it’s
a bit of complexity without a lot of
utility and so that and that’s why the
hybrid nature thing it it I am often
eager to kill design including my own
that ends up posing more questions than
it answers so a good rule serves the DMS
and the players in a straightforward way
as possible the danger with this hybrid
nature is it just starts posing all
sorts of questions and we designed our
game assuming everyone has one creature
type
that said we could make this work but
also a decision I often have to make as
the lead rules designer is what is
worthwhile for us to make work because
making these things work and have them
not disrupt the game as a whole is an
investment of time for us and I always
have to decide what’s worth it because
we want to make sure everything else is
working well and I don’t want us to have
to do a bunch of infrastructural work to
make what’s ultimately a niche option
functional when we can do it in a more
straightforward way okay finally the
these centaurs can speak common in
Sylvan very appropriate especially for
their they’re sort of Fae like origin so
that’s that’s a little a fly through the
centaur we had let’s see if we out gosh
lots of questions yes can I kind of sent
our write a broom a flying but that
might just be for that that the DM can
so in many of these many of these
questions like what is an appropriate
Anatomy for one thing to ride another
these questions actually already exist
in the game if you’re playing with just
the players handbook because of the
ability for people to change shape you
know you already there’s the possibility
that because of different body altering
spells in the game and different magic
items you can end up with an unusual
Anatomy and anytime unusual and ahead of
me meets some other object in the game
if the rules don’t say how it interacts
it’s it’s really up to the DM and in
this and there’s no real wrong answer
when it comes to crazy corner cases I
say DMS follow your gut go for what’s
the most fun for your group if you make
a decision that you regret just let your
group know and make another decision
another time there is no change in
evolving how you run your home game
always in the pursuit of what’s fun for
you and for your players let’s see some
more questions we’ve had a quick one
about you had mentioned in passing about
a book and development when will new
books be announced we will
be making announcements at the stream in
many eyes on the uprise weekend mm-hmm
yes so look for that at 4:00 p.m. on
Friday 4:00 p.m. Pacific time I don’t
think in that particular case but as far
as the the next books coming out do MMX
yes I guess there are other centaur
races that the
let’s see honey things from dnews past
oh let’s see what’s this one this is
from raving ROG Jeremy what PC race
would you want to add to 5e if you could
add any from the Indies past that is a
good question I so I love kind of all
things faith so I would just keep
bringing back certain Fae options that
have appeared in the past satyrs we’ve
had in the past yep we had Pixies in the
past all of those I think would be fun
to bring back at some point I forgot to
ask you
the Oxford comma yea or nay Oh the
Oxford comma we use the Oxford comma in
our books partly that’s because our
publishing relies on the Chicago Manual
of style and Chicago is all about the
the Oxford comma I also like the Oxford
comma because it’s hard to go wrong with
it doing ap style where you don’t use
the Oxford comma it can be very easy to
end up with with goofy constructions
where you eat shoots and leaves yes yeah
you can you have the funny thing of like
you know the valedictorian thanked her
parents Nietzsche and God and if you’re
missing the second comma then suddenly
her parents are Nietzsche and God so yet
where we are in an Oxford comma house
any potential for playable races that it
would include perhaps the gif or an Uzi
or something along an outlander let’s
say outliers on those lines possible
that’s possible yeah
like the gif which are in one Canaan’s
Toma foes again our baby that came out
today yeah if enough people want the
gift let us know and it’s possible that
it would be playable in in the future
especially if we did something in the
future that was focused on spell jammer
then there’s a really really good chance
that in a product like that the gift
would be playable hey you know we did
portals last year for extra life maybe
there’s a case to be made for something
like that as well yep
oh I see someone saying the manual
manual of style discussion is the
nerdiest part of this so watch out I
could do an entire talk on a Chicago
mobster
let’s see oh dude there was one about
playable content beyond level 20
if beyond 20 yeah
so oh here we go is there a possum Jake
for 13 question is there a possibility
of adding prestige classes or levels 21
through 30 or will we stay capped at 20
the the level cap is unlikely to go
above 20 part of that is we find and
this has been true throughout the Indies
history except for in 4th edition when
the game’s cap was 30 that very little
play occurs anywhere near level 20 and
in fact even in an Edition like 4th
edition where the levels went up to 30
it was rare for play to go beyond level
20 so we’re we’re far more interested in
just giving new stories for people to
play in levels 1 through 20 and for
anyone who hasn’t seen these options
because I discovered actually quite a
few people haven’t seen them there is a
section in the Dungeon Master’s guide
that gives a set of epic boons for 20th
level characters and we designed those
is essentially a way for you to keep
advancing at the level cap and the boons
are really neat because they give you a
set of almost superpowers where you
become this being capable of things well
beyond what a regular adventurer could
do if we find in you know the next few
years that there’s huge demand for love
for play at the level cap or beyond we
would explore options but right now
again and we’ve seen this not just in
5th edition but in first edition second
edition third edition fourth edition
like even when when
pick options have been provided that go
beyond level 20 very few people use
those options no matter how they’re
designed no matter how straightforward
they are most people tend to want to
play between about levels 1 and 10 or 12
or so and so that’s that that is where
we tend to focus our efforts but we we
do as we did in Morton Canaan’s Tama
foes make sure that we do you know each
year have something for DMS to use it at
higher levels there’s a good chance you
may or may not hear about something soon
that also has some higher level stuff in
it so but yeah keep talking to us we we
listen we it is rare for us to say we
will never do something because one of
our our main things is listening to all
of you and play we play DMD constantly
so we’re also always have our eyes out
for things that pop up in our own dandy
play and and see ha there’s a new
direction for us to go in we’ll see
maybe one more we’re getting close to
3:15 so again thank you so much for
everyone
tuning in thank you to our followers and
subscribers as always it’s all greatly
appreciated we will be seeing many of
you hopefully during the stream of many
eyes taking place in June 1st through
3rd on the DD twitch channel look for us
4 p.m. Pacific on Friday – to kick
things off and yeah there are still a
few tickets available for the sunday
games so if you are in the los angeles
area please consider a ticket and you’d
be able to get get your feet into the
set and watch a live game and get a cool
bag of dean d swag which I believe
includes a copy of Morton Kamen’s nice
yes yeah and come so you can talk to me
yes so take a look at the DMV website
we’ve got the list of special guests
that will be appearing we continue to
add to that as the
the days go by so we got one more one
more question and that will go on yes
yeah yeah up one here
rebooting settings there’s I’ve seen
dark Sun pop up multiple times so more
than once I see here is dark Sona when
not and if so in the core books we have
direct and indirect references to almost
all of Dee Dee’s classic settings and so
we consider all of them possibilities
and we we are fans of many of those
settings like I often say on Twitter how
much I love dragon lands I love
Ravenloft there are things I love in
gray Hawk and misstara and dark Sun and
you know many people in the department
have different settings that are you
know their favorites and all of those
things are are definitely in the realm
of possibility okay that that we as we
did with cursive straud you know we we
like thinking about going on journeys to
different places in the multiverse and
really it’s just about you know when is
a good time for us to do it and you know
how best can it slot in to the other
stories we’re telling because we also we
really kind of like this organic field
that we’ve started to develop of feeling
like the products tie in with each other
in various ways so I’m hearing a firm
non-committal but the doors are always
open well and I think I think you can
look at even a book like Morden Kanan
stoma phos which is filled with with
references to many different D&D worlds
that you can see that in product after
product that those pot those doors have
possibility remain open right it’s it’s
a different approach right I mean if not
a book maybe there are pieces that have
already appeared and books and continued
will continue to appear
folks moving forward yeah yeah cuz we at
the end of the day whenever I get asked
like what is what is DS official setting
and the answer I always give is the
official setting of D&D is the D&D
multiverse which includes all of the
classic worlds and it also includes your
home campaign settings that there’s this
idea that all of these worlds somehow
tie together in in the grand D&D cosmos
you know with these cosmic villains
trying to worm their way into different
worlds where you can go on you know
grand planer adventures and visit these
different places so that ultimately is
the DND setting and that’s why we focus
on the multiverse in the players
handbook because you’ll notice then The
Player’s Handbook no particular world is
focused on as like the world of D&D we
mentioned you know we mentioned
Dragonlance we mentioned Grayhawk we
mentioned the Forgotten Realms we
mentioned misstara
and more ever on and and so on and
that’s because again the setting it’s at
all of them and we’ll just see where
where the journey and that great
multiverse takes us all right and we’ll
be finding out more of that journey on
on Friday
that’s my Segway yes again thank you for
tuning in today and we’ll see you on
Friday again for folks tuning in a
little bit later here
there’s no dandy news there’s no dice
camera action today folks are getting
ready for the stream of many eyes in Los
Angeles on Friday through Sunday and and
we hope to see you then
so thanks as always if we did not get
you a question we will be going back
through and collecting them so please do
not feel that it was sent out into the
ether we do read all questions even if
we don’t have an opportunity to to
address them all all right well it was a
pleasure as always Jeremy thanks Barton
we’ll we’ll do it again real soon great
bye everyone
[Music]