tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post2725721946178937332..comments2024-03-18T21:06:37.568-07:00Comments on B/X BLACKRAZOR: A Better WheelJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-5490109271837600002017-12-29T21:42:51.211-08:002017-12-29T21:42:51.211-08:00My own homebrew D&D and world building have in...My own homebrew D&D and world building have intersected in the opposite direction. <br /><br />I started redesigning the wheel when I wanted to explore the relationship of hit dice, hit points and ability scores. Only once I started so many other aspects were affected and options became viable it essentially became a total redesign.<br /><br />Later, while designing my setting of Fon Choille, I went looking for a system to run it in. Naturally my incomplete homebrew presented itself for consideration. Now I find the two projects tied tightly together.PlanetNileshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16166553184766848116noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-13365254957522375322017-12-08T19:03:52.135-08:002017-12-08T19:03:52.135-08:00You kind of missed my point.You kind of missed my point.John Higginshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06522143715905888511noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-42306892564098054652017-12-08T16:26:54.546-08:002017-12-08T16:26:54.546-08:00Thank you for the call outs here and on the new po...Thank you for the call outs here and on the new post, JB. I'm glad that it is possible to change minds; even yours, you stubborn genius, you.<br /><br />I would counsel you not to build anything on the basis that "such-and-such" lives anywhere or does anything, and certainly not because anything is "fun." But you've read my post from Ian Bogost, where no doubt John Higgins has not.<br /><br />Make the setting that suits you, that does what you said in the post: becomes one that you want to come back to. Neither Conan nor the non-defined Fred will ever be playing in your world; so don't design a world for them.Alexis Smolenskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-8435262823607630642017-12-07T17:28:53.044-08:002017-12-07T17:28:53.044-08:00@JB:
It can be a really sticky wicket at times, d...@JB:<br /><br />It can be a really sticky wicket at times, deciding how to work out a tangle like this. Just speaking from my own experience, I'd say that you have to start from two basic considerations: (1) what do you want the setting to be like? and (2) how are you going to make a fun game out of that (or, put another way, does the setting you have in mind support something that players would recognize as "play")?<br /><br />Question (1) is, when you get right down to it, a question of art. You have a vision, you want to evoke a feel. But you can always kitbash together some mechanics to support your vision after you've decided what it is.<br /><br />Question (2) is more fundamental, because it gets to the very heart of what your game is like and about. D&D has the mechanics it does to emulate its genre (swords & sorcery fiction), sure, but they take the shape that they do to make a game first. Conan doesn't live in a world of megadungeons. Fred the First-level Fighter does, because it's fun.<br /><br />So, yeah, in some sense you do have to answer both questions simultaneously - what's the setting like, and more importantly, why is it a game? - but the fine details of the mechanics can always come after. (After all, isn't that how D&D acquired all of its mechanical cruft - organically, adding rules as they were needed?)John Higginshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06522143715905888511noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-51526959584230560292017-12-07T16:34:35.662-08:002017-12-07T16:34:35.662-08:00@ John:
Hmm, it's really two separate thought...@ John:<br /><br />Hmm, it's really two separate thoughts/issues I'm working on. The setting conceptualization (is that a word?) IS separate from the system considerations. I just want to make sure I keep an eye on both moving forward (for example, if I want to include rules for different race-class combos, I want to make sure it works within the framework of the setting). <br /><br />But the world creation...yeah, that's the important part.JBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-71694894512431511792017-12-07T15:47:58.666-08:002017-12-07T15:47:58.666-08:00I don't know if it will be of much help, but I...I don't know if it will be of much help, but I offer these two pieces of advice:<br /><br />1) Once I finally finished re-writing D&D to my own specifications, I was exceedingly happy that I went to the trouble. I remain happy with my efforts. Profit didn't enter into the equation; just the desire to run games at my table my own way. YMMV.<br /><br />2) I've become fairly well convinced that mechanics and setting aren't all that intricately intertwined. I don't think that re-writing D&D will lead you to the creation of an enduring setting; if that's your goal, delving into the mechanics would be a waste of time. But I do thing that setting is vastly more important than mechanics when it comes to producing a long-lived campaign. If that's what you're really after, that should be your focus. John Higginshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06522143715905888511noreply@blogger.com