Building Dungeons with Master Mike Mearls

September 29, 2017Zoltar Leave a comment

making one the classic way of bringing a good story to a dungeon is you just make a unique dungeon it has something about it that no one’s seen before I think back to Raven off the original adventure it really is giant dungeons it’s a haunted castle but it has an interesting story of the vampire who lives there you can do something gimmicky you can have a dungeon that’s flooded you could have a dungeon in a volcano and a lot of their stuff and that’s been done a lot and that’s a reason isn’t that a lot so it works now channel is just coming up with something unique but luckily most Dungeon Master’s you’re not trying to publish an adventure you’re trying to impress your players so as long as they haven’t seen it before it doesn’t matter how many times it’s been done it’s unique to your group so therefore it can be interesting the other way you can make the dungeon interesting is by making it part of a narrative of your campaign you know it’s a place the players have to go alright because they want something there or there’s someone or something there they want to defeat so if the players know there’s a dragon that’s been causing them trouble since first level we finally track a player down well that’s a dungeon right and even if it could be a fairly standard dungeon but if players they really want to find that dragon and defeated that done is now he’s no interesting to them and then the third way is the idea of a dungeon for me and there’s a billion ways we just add 3 to talk about of a dungeon of the location the tomb apart-er is being a great example of that it has a reputation in a place on your worlds mythology that makes it memorable you could stand out that’s tricky to pull off because you have to sort of reinforce it again and again without getting too obvious of the players but that’s the kind of dungeon where when the players find they have to go there they go right it’s an interesting like oh yeah I’m going to find it or like we know what’s deadly and so you know I think the long and short of it is you talk about the story of a dungeon it’s not just here’s a narrative it’s just what’s the stuff around the dungeon but what before during after you play it that’ll make it memorable for the players a lot of ways it’s like what makes a good story you know like what are the things that just make us stand out

Fighter: Cavalier In Xanathar’s Guide To Everything

September 27, 2017Zoltar Leave a comment

So the cavalier appears\Nin Xanathar’s guide and it is a subclass\Ninspired by a character class that goes all the way\Nback to first edition D&D. The cavalier in first edition D&D appeared in the original book “Unearthed Arcana.” So, in a way, when we were doing our “Unearthed Arcana” series\Nof subclasses we thought “Well, of course, in a series named after the book, ‘Unearthed Arcana’ we should have the cavalier in it.” Although, we didn’t end\Nup including the acrobat which was another option in that book. So, the cavalier is in many ways the classic knight in shining armor with the added twist of being outstanding at horse back riding. Now, many people might think “Well, the game already has the classic knight in shining armor, and that’s the paladin.” The big difference between\Nthe cavalier and the paladin is that the paladin is a holy warrior usually dedicated, if\Nnot to a particular god, to a cause of some kind, to\Na great concept like justice. Whereas, the cavalier is\Na non-magical warrior. One who can be just as\Nhonorable as a paladin but who might be driven by allegiance to a particular monarch,\Na particular kingdom, to the cavalier’s family,\Na particular town. So, it has, in a way, more\Na grounded earthy feel than the paladin, who again is often this figure associated\Nwith these high ideals and divine magic. So, we actually showed\Noff more than one version of the cavalier in our\N”Unearthed Arcana” series. Both version actually got\Nkindof a mixed reception, to be honest, from fans good enough to make it into the book. But, each time the score,\Nthe satisfaction score was just on the line\Nenough that we kept saying, “Okay, we’ve got to do more work.” And really, the dissatisfaction\Ncame down to the fact that the cavalier relying on\Nthe use of superiority dice which is a mechanic that we borrowed from the “Battle Master” one\Nof the fighter subclasses in the player’s handbook. Now, we thought people might be interested in seeing this mechanic\Npropagated elsewhere. But, instead, often\Nthe feedback we got was “No, that’s the Battle Master’s. We don’t want to see it in\Nother fighter subclasses. We want to see them do their own thing.” Feedback on the cavalier also at times was very anxious about the\Nrole of the cavalier’s mount because, as cool as it\Nis to be on horseback, or dragonback or griffinback, or whatever it is that\Nyou are riding in D&D people know that often, if\Nyou go into a tight cave or a dungeon that mount is not\Na whole lot of good to you. And, so it then becomes\Nproblematic if too much of your class features rely\Non your mount being present because you could potentially wander into a particular environment and feel like “poof”, half\Nyour character’s abilities just got turned off. We wanted to make sure\Nthat in the final version of the cavalier, the version that appears in the “Xanathar’s Guide”\Nwe address those concerns. So, in the version that’s in the book is actually quite\Ndifferent from any version that people saw in the\N”Unearthed Arcana” series. What we ended up doing\Nis, we took the parts that people liked best about the cavalier. Then, we looked at some\Nof the other subclasses we really released on the\N”Unearthed Arcana” series for the fighter, and that was the knight. And the knight and the\Ncavalier were super close to each other in terms of story. And again, story is our\Nstarting point with design for our subclasses. And we know as we were thinking about what was going to\Nmake it into this book very unlikely that both the cavalier and the knight were going to make it in. And, in fact, their\Nscores were really close and the cavalier just\Nedged out the knight. And that’s why the cavalier\Nended up being the one that went in. I have a feeling the\Ncavalier edged out the knight partly because of the nostalgia some people have for the name. You know, it goes all the way\Nback to the first edition. It’s also a name that appears in the “Dungeon’s and Dragons” cartoon. Granted, for probably the\Nmost unlikable character in the show. (laughs) – [Todd] It was like\Neveryone’s least favorite. Or at least he should be. – The strange cavalier who does\Nnot have any kind of weapon and also does not a mount. – [Todd] Yeah. (laughs) – Poor Eric. – [Todd] It’s a rough role to play. – What we ended up doing\Nfor the final version is we went to the knight\Nand looked at the features that people like the\Nbest there, took those, took the best features of the cavalier and wove them together into essentially a brand new subclass. And really, the theme of this subclass and this is something that came up in both the cavalier and the knight in their previous designs\Nis that they are all about protecting others. Because, again, these are knights. Even if they are not, even\Nif a particular cavalier isn’t a paragon of good, the cavalier is going to be\Nabout protecting property, people, something. And so, the cavalier has class features that are about protecting\Nthose around him or her. And then we also have a few\Nfeatures related to the mount, but we made sure that the mount is always, sort of like, a little extra. For most of the features\Nthe mount is not required. But the cavalier will always be happy when the mount gets to shine. But, in a way, the mount\Nis kind of frosting. And also, it is important to us that the cavalier has\Nan identity of its own. That’s not reliant on this\Nother creature being present. Because even in history\Nwhere we had cavaliers there was so much more\Nthan horse-back riders. I mean, they were knights with many other responsibilities\Nand martial abilities. Although, we do point\Nout in the book and this was something we pointed in\N”Unearthed Arcana” as well that the cavalier is not meant to be an accurate portrayal\Nof cavaliers in history. And that’s true for anything in D&D. D&D is often filled with\Nthings that were inspired by things from real world history, myths from different human cultures, and D&D always sort of takes\Nthem and transform them, and often turns them\Ninto an archetypal form that feels natural in high fantasy. And that’s really what\Nwe’ve done with the cavalier who is now this mighty protector, awesome at holding the line\Nand locking people down who try to run away. Really great at charging into battle whether on foot or on horseback and doing mighty initial strikes. I think people are going to enjoy what emerged from the\Nkind of revision process that we went through over\Nthose multiple versions that appeared in “Unearthed Arcana” and then culminating in the version that appears in the book. – The cavalier is part of\N”Xanathar’s Guide to Everything”. You can purchase that\Nbook on dndbeyond.com in the link provided in\Nthis video description. I’m Todd Kenreck. Thanks for watching.

Jared Knabenbauer on Dice, Camera, Action and Characters

September 16, 2017Zoltar Leave a comment

Jared Knabenbauer on Dice, Camera, Action and Characters @ProJared #wafflecrew https://t.co/H9BcRI3Hos

— D&D Beyond (@DnDBeyond) September 15, 2017

Anna Prosser Robinson on Paladins, Evelyn, Streaming

September 15, 2017Zoltar Leave a comment

Anna Prosser Robinson on D&D Paladins, Evelyn, Streaming https://t.co/3RbFRFj0Wu

— D&D Beyond (@DnDBeyond) September 14, 2017

What are The Forgotten Realms of Dungeons&Dragons?

September 14, 2017Zoltar Leave a comment

Much of D&D’s Fifth\NEdition books take place in the the Forgotten Realms. Now, if you’re a new\Nplayer you might not know what that means. And, if you’re an old school\Nplayer you might just be surprised about what new\Nthings may be discovered. – So, the Forgotten Realms, as a setting, it’s an old medieval world. So old that all of the\Ncivilizations that we know exist in the world today are\Nbuilt upon the bones of empires and\Ncivilizations that the world has forgotten about. – It’s this giant playground. And, I think that gets us, like\Nwith what we’re dealing with now it’s sort of like how\Ndo we put it to full use. – Take, for example,\Nthe city of Waterdeep. It is a metropolitan, coastal\Ncity on the Sword Coast. It has hundreds of thousands\Nof people living in it. But, what people don’t\Nrealize and what few people in Waterdeep actually remember\Nis that it is built on top of a dwarven city, which was built on top of an elven city. So, if you delve into\NWaterdeep far and deep enough you will discover these\Nforgotten realms underneath it. And, that’s sort of a\Ntemplate that carries through the entire setting. You can look to pretty much\Nany place where civilization resides now and say there was\Nsomething else there before. What is that and what\Nmysteries does it contain? And, that’s sort of a\Nkey theme of the setting. – It also could harbor\Nthings that are kind of like canon from different\Neditions and all kinds of things like that. So, I think when we work\Nwith it we just try to like squeeze the best out of it. But, it’s so sprawling. Like, it’s just so big. – I want to be like what\Nin there, there’s something that’s sticking out of\Nthe ground and that cannot be explained and it’s\Nnot a part of any realm you know of or you’ve\Nread about in the books. It’s something that is\Ncompletely forgotten and you don’t know what it is. And, it’s out of the\Nlore and what the heck is that thing? So, Richard and I, we talk\Nabout this and we’re like we wanna put something\Nin the realms that is truly forgotten, that\Nyou don’t know about. And so, as I’m going along\Nto my D and D career here I’m gonna get a chance to actually write my own adventures and work with the team and create these things. And, I’m gonna put some\Nthings in the Forgotten Realms that you don’t know about. You’ve read all the books\Nand you’ve never heard of this thing before and nobody has, because I love that. I think when something\Nis mysterious and unknown it fires up the imagination. And, it sparks, it’s\Nmakes it like as we do our little fearful quest through the world to make everything known is to like create this sense of security. But, when something is\Ncompletely unknown it’s like, “Whoa, where was that,\Nwhere did this come from?” And, it’s why I love\Nthings like the pyramids. Like, there is this thing\Nthat actually exists in the world that people don’t know how the hell it was done. People theorize about it, but\Nit’s still a giant mystery. And, I love that. I love that actually exists in reality. – Now take for an\Nexample the current story Tomb of Annihilation which\Ntakes place in Chult. One of the key features\Nof the story is that you discover a lost city in the jungle that belonged to an\Nancient Chulton Kingdom that’s never been described before. We wanted to actually\Nplay out this idea that nobody knows anything about this place. And so, it just heightens the mystery. But, as you explore it\Nyou learn, or you start to sort of unravel clues\Nof how this place fell. And, without giving away too\Nmuch this Chulton Kingdom once worshiped a god called\NUbtao who abandoned them. So, they took on, these\Nother gods came to sort of fill the spiritual vacuum\Nand they turned out to be trickster gods who kind of misled this culture into sort of\Na self destructive course. I won’t spoil anymore\Nthan that, but I mean, you can meet, you can\Nfind the bones of one of the old queens under the city. And, that sort of illuminates\Npart of the story. I think that what makes the\NForgotten Realms interesting is the discovery of the ancient.

Holly Conrad on Strix Cosplay, D&D and Player Advice

September 13, 2017Zoltar Leave a comment

A Strix: The Trash Witch @HollyConrad spotlight arrives tomorrow on D&D Beyond. pic.twitter.com/Q8s63kLiAc

— D&D Beyond (@DnDBeyond) September 12, 2017

Creating Characters with Master Mike Mearls

September 12, 2017Zoltar Leave a comment

the most exciting things that can happen in any DD campaign is that moment you find a magical item especially if it’s rare so I talked to Mike murrells about how magical items can enhance your campaign I find a lot of the items that I’m drawn to are ones that have really big impact and that are very flexible I like items that function like you think of superheroes we have items that are iconic I like magic items that feel that way that really helped define your character who they are but that also by necessity means you don’t want to have like a need of them you know it’s something where the course the campaign you and have won so I like things like the rod of lordly might is interesting so there’s lots of things that can do I like items like arrondissement parks because it has a naturally has a story embedded within it can do a lot of things but then there’s the test of can you actually find all the parts of the thing so I like items that change the character in an interesting way especially in a way that sits outside of like this typical like I’m just gaining experience levels you know so like a +2 sword is fine but a you know a magic sword that lets a fighter become like much smarter than you’d expect in the cast spells but that’s kind of interesting cuz it’s very different fighter you know and it’s fun as a dungeon master extend you can put that in the game and you can kind of break the game by giving players things that are true powerful but you’re the one doing it so you can always just account for it you know it’s up to you whether you want that in your game so a magic item design is very hard so I think if you did for me at least read and asked me to write a bunch of magic items to publish I’d probably make items at most DMS really wouldn’t find useful or it would be like oh that’s too good right and but to me that that’s fun that’s what makes that magic item such a something fun to strive for as a player

Monsters and Villains with Master Mike Mearls

September 8, 2017Zoltar Leave a comment

monsters and villains are essential to any being to adventure so I talked to Mike Merle’s about his favorite monster what he likes most about villains so everyone I get asked this question a lot my answers always the ogre mage I love ogre Magi which I’m gonna call them Ionian fifth edition because it’s a big brutal monster that can cast spells so you get the best of both worlds they can fight well and it can plot and scheme and it’s a shape changer and when in doubt it’s always cast code of cold and ruin people so that’s means the fun monsters they can do a little bit of everything but the thing is Oni slash pilgrimages are still they’re not like a top tier monster that people think of so it’s still a surprise like I abused organ ages and whilst every campaign ever on the past five or ten years and it still always always surprises people when the halfling turns out to be an ogre mage right oh I didn’t see that coming yak is like for whatever reason these guys even though they’ve been in the game since the seventies people always forget about them so so it’s fun right like it’s super classic and people forget about it and they’re just they’re kind of like in the background and they have a really fun kit to play with of the dungeon master making the villain a villain has to have an interesting personality right the villain who is just sitting in the back lobbing fireballs at you like that’s really boring I like villains that have personality and style or that have like an interesting like backstory to them the players when I delve into that makes them hate them one of my most enjoyable villains to play was a dwarf assassin that I played a few had their campaign a few years ago and what made him fun was he was outrageously lucky now I say outrageously lucky not offense I just decided he was lucky it was more like know whenever I would roll my dice out in the open and it was always crit I was gonna hide that 20 right like this guy just had ridiculous luck in the players hated him my current campaign there’s a there’s an evil albino elf the players are dealing with and he has not said like a single word to them they have seen him once he was on this weird crystal swan boat that and they saw him off shore and he conjured a bunch of sea creatures don’t eat them and that was a first level they have not seen him since and they hate the guy they want to kill him so badly because they keep running into people that he sent after them I’m going to connect it to him he has never said a word they’d learn and very little about him other than is his name and they know he’s plotting to destroy the CID the the city they live in though they don’t even know why he’s conjuring this massive chaos storm to devour it and they hate the guy and it’s great like I hate was like the easiest thing doing a campaign at a bear I barely put any work into him and the players just quality hate this guy they want to stick it to them

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Building Dungeons with Master Mike Mearls

Fighter: Cavalier In Xanathar’s Guide To Everything

Jared Knabenbauer on Dice, Camera, Action and Characters

Anna Prosser Robinson on Paladins, Evelyn, Streaming

What are The Forgotten Realms of Dungeons&Dragons?

Holly Conrad on Strix Cosplay, D&D and Player Advice

Creating Characters with Master Mike Mearls

Monsters and Villains with Master Mike Mearls

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