You guys got all excited about Chains of Asmodeus...and didn't talk about the co-author Adrian Tchaikovsky. The man has 3 Hugos and a pile of other awards. he's one of the best authors to touch a D&D product in years.
James Ohlen's first DMsGuild product was Heroes of Baldur's Gate followed by Minsc and Boos Journal of Villainy. So, Chains of Asmodeus is Ohlen's 3rd product.
I own them all and can highly recommend the first 2, I haven't had a chance to really read through the Chains of Asmodeus. Interested to see how the encounters are balanced- given the high variability of power levels for groups, let alone at higher levels.
Warduke and all of those characters were published in some OD&D Products after the action figures came out. The Shady Dragon Inn and Quest for the Heartstone.
Always be car designing Evermore for gamers. Hey I just keep living my nearly optimized professional quest. Really saves that useless vehicle wait. Xylophone...
While I agree production value is important (especially sound quality) in actual play streaming, I prefer to hear a good story than be wow’d by set design. After years of impressive sets and filmed vignettes to support the LA by Night and NY by Night games (whaddup vamily) the Seattle by Night game on Penny Arcade is just a intimate table telling a good story, and it is better than ever, I think.
I agree 100%, I really don't care for all the light and sounds and theatrics. I prefer actual play to be more like what I have in my home games. I am there for the story.
As a DM, I encourage players to explore creating the items they would like to have. With this, I will create a components list that will be needed to craft these items and let the players learn what they will need as the campaign progresses. I will sprinkle these components throughout the campaign in treasure hordes, or side quests that they are told about that will lead to a particular component, and the like. I like doing this, as it makes the items feel like they are much more amazing and... well... magical. This particular approach also allows you to tailor it to the particular theme of whatever kind of campaign you are running, whether it is dark horror, whimsical feywild, gritty realism, high magic fantasy, steampunk-ish(like Eberron), etc.
Elmore and Easley were great, but I'm also quite partial to Tony DiTerlizzi, glad he came back for the special edition Planescape. And I could totally handle a Brom edition.
I would like to see a magic item creation guide, that way I can make it more of an adventure that they need to go out and look for components and such.
My suggestion would be look at the 2nd edition Book of Artifacts. There is a whole section at the back of the book about creating magic items in very much detail. You would need to adapt some rules to suit you and 5e, but should give some nice ideas.
My suggestion is about making adventures for magic items. The book of Artifacts gives advice how to make ingredients and searching for said ingredients to make magic items, example is a gem hatched from a basilisk egg and I agree with you about the 3.5e ruleset @@krim7
The sekers guide to enchanitng emporiums going to kickstarter so soon after the wanderers guide to enchanted emporiums form a much smaller publisher is a very unfortunate coincidence
I really like what Cypher system does with magic items, i.e. cyphers, they are plentiful however one use. That way you get to doll them out and not worry about screwing over long term balance.
At 53:05 James talks about the non-canonized secondary characters from the D&D cartoon (Warduke, Strongheart, etc) that were also action figures. These were first canonised in the TSR module adventure: XL1 Quest for the Heartstone, written by Michael L. Gray. It is fun to play and run, has a lot of great art (Jeff Easley), and it provides stats for all the cartoon action figure monsters and characters (my favourite was the Hook Horror). Many of the characters have been snuck into TSR/WotC products since. :)
(pushes up glasses) Warduke, Strongheart and company first appeared in the 1983 TSR "Game Accessory" (which means just a bunch of pregenerated characters) called The Shady Dragon Inn by Carl Smith. Quest for the Heartstone was published by TSR a year later, in 1984. That said, I very much echo your sentiments about Quest for the Heartstone being really fun and having excellent art by Jeff Easley.
That was an incredibly fun and underrated set of live plays, with a number of cool guest players like Janina Gavankar, as someone noted in the comments last week the Veep actor Sam Richardson, and even the director Kevin Smith. She’s also done some great DMing for the Lost Odyssey charity streams and was a player on the Spelljammer-themed, Legends of the Multiverse live play. She portrayed one of the main PCs on the official Tomb of Annihilation live play, Force Grey: Lost City of Omu, along with Joe Manganiello, Brian Posehn, Utkarsh Ambudkar (yes, Bordor, you critters) and Dylan Sprouse. She’s been active in the scene for years. Like so many of the prominent guests actors listed in the rundown who have been part of wizards streams before.
My DM had an interesting approach. A guy with a wagon that had a magic shop inside it (think the inside of a Tardis) approached us. We bought what we wanted, but he also started giving us free magic items. We thought, cool, we earned the item because we've been working hard. Nope, that wasn't it. We learned much later that the shopkeeper was actually a minor deity who was trying to indirectly save the world by empowering us. I don't remember what he said his name was. We always called him "the Magic Man." In any case...in a general sense, I usually have my characters earn magic items. I just made them custom ones, and the Bard is freaking out about the Encore Bow. Can't wait to see it in action.
Love the show. I just wanted to point out that Ben’s only reference for the “shop the wasn’t there yesterday” trope is the satire/homage to it and not any of the classic works. For the love of Pete, the Rick and Morty episode is titled, “Something Ricked This Way Comes.”
I used to feel weirder about magic item until i figured out how they kinda are balanced around players levels. Which each magic item rarities maximum power reflects the power level of when the PCs would get them. (From the DMG p285) Common max power is 1st-level spells Uncommon max power is 3rd-level spells Rare's Max power is 6th-level spells Very Rare's max power is 8th-level spells Legendary's max power is 9th-level spells In the distribution table, once you enter the tier of play where characters innately have a certain spell level of power pretty much at will, they start to give you a lot of magic items of that rarity, you can see this in the Magic item tables distribution, and in Xanathars when they laid it all out. Ive been following this ever since just giving them magic items when they get access to those spell levels, made me realize the progression of when they expect you to get some rarities(you can see this in the distribution tables), is like this. 1st-level. Common Permanent/Major Magic Items, Uncommon consumables/Minor Magic Items.. 5th-level. Uncommon Permanent/Magic Magic Items, Rare consumables/Minor Magic Items. 11th Level. Rare Permanent/Major Magic Items, Very Rare consumables/Minor Magic Items. 16th. Very Rare Permanent/Major Magic Items, Legendary consumables/Minor Magic Items. 20th. Legendary Permanent/Major Magic Items It works surprisingly well, give it a shot.
Great discussions! I love that you talked about the over all art style of each edition. I grew up with the 2nd & 3rd editions, so those are my faves (and man, do I miss seeing the amazing setting logos on covers, like Ravenloft, Dragonlance, etc.), but every edition for sure has its own personality. I loved the Wayne Reynolds covers of 4th edition, and I do think 5th edition has a LOT of great artwork, though I agree that it's very kid-friendly... which makes sense, but still, my personal preference is grim, adult, childhood-scarring, etc. :) #WardukeForever
Magic item shops made a lot of sense in 3.5 and 4E because the game was overflowing with magic items of all different power levels and usefulness. 5E pulled way, way back on magic items and so stores selling items feels out of place because there is a decided lack of variety in the core rules. Not to mention a lack of listed prices in the items’ stat blocks
In a world with magic, there is no reason for there not to be magic shops. Even if you run / are in a game where magic is extremely rare, just like we have collectables shops, those should exist as well. Especially in more populated areas. And even more so in the underground. A short search and you can pull up Magic in Ancient Greece and Egypt, and in our world there were "magic shops". Not unlike the New Age stores we have today. And in Ancient Times, more people believed in the power of magic. Amulets, potions, spells, prayers, curse tablets, ect....
@@jimmyrepine8952 I totally agree with you. As a DM I find such shops to be much less interesting & fun in 5E as compared to 3.5/4E due to the lack of items in 5E (unless you use third party material)
@@krim7 I've been running games a while, and I have notebooks full of magical trinkets and such to pull from. For example- a Hair Brush + make up set that will do your hair and make up anyway you'd like. It was fun, for the dozen or so times it came into play over 5 years it really added a lot of flavor and creativity on the players part.
Ben, if you haven't seen it, you might enjoy (and agree with) Professor Dungeon Master's video about the evolution of art in D&D over the years/editions.
I have to admit that I appreciate the more PG art work, partly because I am a parent and want my kids to play as well and if there was scarier artwork, they would be less likely to play or use those monsters.
Well when they announced the book releases last year like bigby's, book of many things etc. They also had a second flash card up with other titles we haven't seen yet, a book of Vicious Mockery, and a Battle of Barovia sequel to Curse of Strahd.
37:29 ah lion’s gate, our local studio that made a name for itself. I will not be surprised if these shows are kept on… and somehow these stream shows become an advertisement feeder program for guest appearances from whatever slasher/horror film Lion’s Gate is making at the time. I think they were involved with properties like Power Rangers the movie previously as well, so there could be some “inside baseball” happening between hasbro and lion’s gate in that eons deal… formalizing eone as an in-house of Lion’s Gate to reduce costs in some measure, but still maintaining all the power relationships previously involved.
"Art from 4th seems pretty distinct from art from 5th edition." Mostly true! Except, you know, when 5e reuses art from 4e, sometimes for things totally unrelated to the original context. Not that I'm against reusing old art or anything. I just figure that is something noteworthy.
The streams that are successful are ones that have gamers first, and just celeberties first. Also, they are the ones that naturally transition between humor and serious drama. The streams that focus on just being funny or big names all fall flat in my opinion.
There was also a Module the "action figures" were in: XL-1 Quest for the Hearstone that also tells the story of how Strongheart and Warduke were originally friends. And I believe the Action Figures got stats in an NPC book in the early 80s.
Regarding the art: I'm with you, Ben. They are marketing D&D to younger audiences, striving for G and PG markets, making death a temporary inconvenience, and making sure the players have more power so they always win. I would like to see heavier consequences become a thing again. I would like players to have some fear when facing a powerful enemy and honestly question, "Can we do this?" rather than assuming they'll hear, "How do you want to do this?"
Yeah. I feel like while making everything PG might help with younger audiences, leaning too far in that direction takes away some fear and grandeur of monsters. I think about Baldur's Gate 3 and how the devs added extra scenes that depicted gruesome ceremorphosis right in the tutorial. That scene really was necessary just too establish the danger and I'm glad they went and added it. If a mind flayer eventually just becomes colloquially knows as more of an octopus-headed caster, it really doesn't strike the same note as the body-hijacking alien parasite threat that they're supposed to be.
...and scarred adults, I don't remember that 3rd edition Drider artwork and as an arachnophobe, I really didn't need to know of its existence ;-) But year, I get the point, that artwork tells a lot more of a story...
I don’t provide or sell magic items to players anymore. Now, I provide magical crafting materials and encourage them to commission or craft the items that they want. A crafting oriented reward structure creates more room for player expression and ensures that the items they get reinforce their character fantasies.
While I agree with this in principle, I would advocate for weird magic items that players never, ever would craft if given the chance. Items that add to the story telling and could come in clutch in a weird moment. Like a Rust-colored Bag of Tricks. never would I have ever crafted that but we found it in a dungeon and the black bear I pulled out of it saved the party’s lives. Or the time we found a swan boat feather token. No one would craft that but because we had it, we were able to infiltrate an enemy base that was out on an island, complete with all of our mounts and our NPC warrior-compatriots 😅
@@krim7 I think that’s a great point! I definitely still give out weird utility items. Like a couple of months ago, I rewarded one player with a quill that can be used to draft unbreakable contracts and another with a knife that can be used to cut 1 minute in the past once. I think item crafting is a better solution for specifically character defining magic items.
Most of the action figures appeared in the cartoon, and the basic D&D supplement The Shady Dragon Inn during the 80's. They were also used a lot in all of the marketing products like beach towels, shrinky dinks and things like that.
Magic item “shops” per se don’t exist in my campaigns. However, PCs can have items created out of “harvested” monsters or mundane armor/weapons by seeking artificers, blacksmiths, wizards, or relevant crafters Typically per the XGtE prices and times.
Technically speaking, the AD&D action figures from LGN in the 80s did include a figure for a character that appeared first in the game: Melf. The figure was named "Peralay" for the toy line for whatever reason, but the design was taken from the description of Melf.
My personal take on Magic Items shops is based on how I use economy within my games. I make my players take time and that time costs GP to level up time for training, gold to hire trainers and the cost of living expenses so players need to be saving gold if they want the benefits of levelling up. This feeds into my magic item shop allowance they do exist but if you are spending huge sums on a magic Item you may not be levelling up to level 5 until you are already mid way through level 6. This encourages my players to consider carefully their priorities when using party funds, and let me take this opportunity to shout out to Timothy, the Awkward Ettercap, whose shop with so many trinkets and just the occasional actual item has been the source of so many rp moments.
I wish D&D art was like old editions and old Magic the Gathering (from Alpha to Tempest edition). Now it's all about being flashy, comics books and manga like and of course woke as hell...
The 5e artsyle is just meh. Its fine, it's pretty but its hardly what I would call distinctive to D&D. 4e art on the other hand. Everything I see from that is just epic. As for the 2024 product slate, do we really care until after the 2024 5e refresh? That is what we are all waiting for, and we have all talked that to death so what really needs to be said?
I hate to break it to Ben, but WotC D&D IS PG rated. The art is "toothless" because it's meant to be. If you want scary D&D, play something else, like maybe Grim Hollow or something...
IMO, 3 problems WoTC faces with players losing interest after 10th level is the structure of level advancement, CR system and the number of different challenges players would face past say 12th level. These add up to: Players don't feel like death is still around every corner once they get past 10th level. The CR system has helped to create that vibe because the DMs as a whole just run with the existing CR system. But the biggest problem is with the younger generation. THEY SEVERELY LACK THE ATTENTION SPAN to stay involved in a campaign that goes into the 20s. They are the victims of Video Games, Social Media and the internet (give it to me quickly) culture. And WoTC, like many other things, has failed to recognize this.
Every time edition of the game breaks down somewhere in the teens. This is not a generational issue or an attention issue or anything else. The designers have never emphasized high level play, they do not really plan around it or design for it. 😢
@krim7 I respect your opinion and to some degree I agree with you. Have you played 1st, 2nd or 3rd edition? I started DMing in early 80s. Our campaigns went well into the 20s. This generation doesn't have the attn span we had back in the day. They just don't. Ur right about the designers tho. Majority of them are young video gamers who are being told to focus their efforts on lower level adventures.
You guys got all excited about Chains of Asmodeus...and didn't talk about the co-author Adrian Tchaikovsky. The man has 3 Hugos and a pile of other awards. he's one of the best authors to touch a D&D product in years.
The Children of Time author!? Holy crap! That's amazing!
Really liked Children of Time book, smart book with good imagination.
YEAAAH MORE NINE HELLS!!
James Ohlen's first DMsGuild product was Heroes of Baldur's Gate followed by Minsc and Boos Journal of Villainy.
So, Chains of Asmodeus is Ohlen's 3rd product.
I own them all and can highly recommend the first 2, I haven't had a chance to really read through the Chains of Asmodeus. Interested to see how the encounters are balanced- given the high variability of power levels for groups, let alone at higher levels.
Warduke and all of those characters were published in some OD&D Products after the action figures came out. The Shady Dragon Inn and Quest for the Heartstone.
Great supplements/adventure modules!
My players love stopping in to Fantasy Bunnings for all their magic item needs. Plus, grabbing a sausage in a bun of course.
Things only the Aussies will understand. 😂
@@GhostfirePodcastsexcuse me! We have Bunnings sausage sizzle in New Zealand too.
Always be car designing Evermore for gamers. Hey I just keep living my nearly optimized professional quest. Really saves that useless vehicle wait. Xylophone...
While I agree production value is important (especially sound quality) in actual play streaming, I prefer to hear a good story than be wow’d by set design. After years of impressive sets and filmed vignettes to support the LA by Night and NY by Night games (whaddup vamily) the Seattle by Night game on Penny Arcade is just a intimate table telling a good story, and it is better than ever, I think.
I agree 100%, I really don't care for all the light and sounds and theatrics. I prefer actual play to be more like what I have in my home games. I am there for the story.
As a DM, I encourage players to explore creating the items they would like to have. With this, I will create a components list that will be needed to craft these items and let the players learn what they will need as the campaign progresses. I will sprinkle these components throughout the campaign in treasure hordes, or side quests that they are told about that will lead to a particular component, and the like. I like doing this, as it makes the items feel like they are much more amazing and... well... magical. This particular approach also allows you to tailor it to the particular theme of whatever kind of campaign you are running, whether it is dark horror, whimsical feywild, gritty realism, high magic fantasy, steampunk-ish(like Eberron), etc.
The best artwork came from 2nd Ed from the four horsemen of Elmore, Caldwell, Parkinson, and Easley. I want to see art like that again.
Elmore and Easley were great, but I'm also quite partial to Tony DiTerlizzi, glad he came back for the special edition Planescape. And I could totally handle a Brom edition.
@@beavschannel5217 I really like deterlizzi and brom as well
I would like to see a magic item creation guide, that way I can make it more of an adventure that they need to go out and look for components and such.
3.5 had good creation rules but they are clinical and lack the verisimilitude that many want to see included in a robust magic item creation rule set
My suggestion would be look at the 2nd edition Book of Artifacts. There is a whole section at the back of the book about creating magic items in very much detail. You would need to adapt some rules to suit you and 5e, but should give some nice ideas.
My suggestion is about making adventures for magic items. The book of Artifacts gives advice how to make ingredients and searching for said ingredients to make magic items, example is a gem hatched from a basilisk egg and I agree with you about the 3.5e ruleset @@krim7
@@krim7 Thanks, I will take a look.
@@fhyppa Thanks, I will take a look
The sekers guide to enchanitng emporiums going to kickstarter so soon after the wanderers guide to enchanted emporiums form a much smaller publisher is a very unfortunate coincidence
Congrats on the Arora adventure, Mr. Merwin!
James' shop and trading system for magic items is dope af
I really like what Cypher system does with magic items, i.e. cyphers, they are plentiful however one use. That way you get to doll them out and not worry about screwing over long term balance.
At 53:05 James talks about the non-canonized secondary characters from the D&D cartoon (Warduke, Strongheart, etc) that were also action figures. These were first canonised in the TSR module adventure: XL1 Quest for the Heartstone, written by Michael L. Gray. It is fun to play and run, has a lot of great art (Jeff Easley), and it provides stats for all the cartoon action figure monsters and characters (my favourite was the Hook Horror). Many of the characters have been snuck into TSR/WotC products since. :)
(pushes up glasses) Warduke, Strongheart and company first appeared in the 1983 TSR "Game Accessory" (which means just a bunch of pregenerated characters) called The Shady Dragon Inn by Carl Smith. Quest for the Heartstone was published by TSR a year later, in 1984.
That said, I very much echo your sentiments about Quest for the Heartstone being really fun and having excellent art by Jeff Easley.
Beat me to it, but I was sitting thinking...."I have that adventure sitting on myself with them in it... what is he talking about?"
Just checking but you meant: "sitting on my ," right? @@themagickdoll
lol, yes. Sitting on my shelf. Bit of auto correcting error. @@socialcommentary
Ms Kingsmill's comment at 4:00 reminds me of Goblin Markets from Changeling: The Lost.
Deborah Ann Woll's Relics and Rarities was her dnd show (available on TH-cam)
That was an incredibly fun and underrated set of live plays, with a number of cool guest players like Janina Gavankar, as someone noted in the comments last week the Veep actor Sam Richardson, and even the director Kevin Smith.
She’s also done some great DMing for the Lost Odyssey charity streams and was a player on the Spelljammer-themed, Legends of the Multiverse live play.
She portrayed one of the main PCs on the official Tomb of Annihilation live play, Force Grey: Lost City of Omu, along with Joe Manganiello, Brian Posehn, Utkarsh Ambudkar (yes, Bordor, you critters) and Dylan Sprouse.
She’s been active in the scene for years. Like so many of the prominent guests actors listed in the rundown who have been part of wizards streams before.
Monster art: original Fiend Folo, some of that was so creepy. 😊
My DM had an interesting approach. A guy with a wagon that had a magic shop inside it (think the inside of a Tardis) approached us. We bought what we wanted, but he also started giving us free magic items. We thought, cool, we earned the item because we've been working hard. Nope, that wasn't it. We learned much later that the shopkeeper was actually a minor deity who was trying to indirectly save the world by empowering us. I don't remember what he said his name was. We always called him "the Magic Man." In any case...in a general sense, I usually have my characters earn magic items. I just made them custom ones, and the Bard is freaking out about the Encore Bow. Can't wait to see it in action.
I look forward every week to hearing what you guys are going to discuss. Always good stuff. Thanks!
I like how Matt Colville has the powerful groups of people have a collection.
Can we get an isolated clip put up of Dael's amazing speech last week?
There's bound to be a video on the Monarch's Factory channel with that topic at some point!
Love the show. I just wanted to point out that Ben’s only reference for the “shop the wasn’t there yesterday” trope is the satire/homage to it and not any of the classic works. For the love of Pete, the Rick and Morty episode is titled, “Something Ricked This Way Comes.”
I used to feel weirder about magic item until i figured out how they kinda are balanced around players levels.
Which each magic item rarities maximum power reflects the power level of when the PCs would get them.
(From the DMG p285)
Common max power is 1st-level spells
Uncommon max power is 3rd-level spells
Rare's Max power is 6th-level spells
Very Rare's max power is 8th-level spells
Legendary's max power is 9th-level spells
In the distribution table, once you enter the tier of play where characters innately have a certain spell level of power pretty much at will, they start to give you a lot of magic items of that rarity, you can see this in the Magic item tables distribution, and in Xanathars when they laid it all out.
Ive been following this ever since just giving them magic items when they get access to those spell levels, made me realize the progression of when they expect you to get some rarities(you can see this in the distribution tables), is like this.
1st-level. Common Permanent/Major Magic Items, Uncommon consumables/Minor Magic Items..
5th-level. Uncommon Permanent/Magic Magic Items, Rare consumables/Minor Magic Items.
11th Level. Rare Permanent/Major Magic Items, Very Rare consumables/Minor Magic Items.
16th. Very Rare Permanent/Major Magic Items, Legendary consumables/Minor Magic Items.
20th. Legendary Permanent/Major Magic Items
It works surprisingly well, give it a shot.
Great discussions! I love that you talked about the over all art style of each edition. I grew up with the 2nd & 3rd editions, so those are my faves (and man, do I miss seeing the amazing setting logos on covers, like Ravenloft, Dragonlance, etc.), but every edition for sure has its own personality. I loved the Wayne Reynolds covers of 4th edition, and I do think 5th edition has a LOT of great artwork, though I agree that it's very kid-friendly... which makes sense, but still, my personal preference is grim, adult, childhood-scarring, etc. :) #WardukeForever
Magic item shops made a lot of sense in 3.5 and 4E because the game was overflowing with magic items of all different power levels and usefulness. 5E pulled way, way back on magic items and so stores selling items feels out of place because there is a decided lack of variety in the core rules. Not to mention a lack of listed prices in the items’ stat blocks
In a world with magic, there is no reason for there not to be magic shops. Even if you run / are in a game where magic is extremely rare, just like we have collectables shops, those should exist as well. Especially in more populated areas. And even more so in the underground.
A short search and you can pull up Magic in Ancient Greece and Egypt, and in our world there were "magic shops". Not unlike the New Age stores we have today. And in Ancient Times, more people believed in the power of magic. Amulets, potions, spells, prayers, curse tablets, ect....
@@jimmyrepine8952 I totally agree with you. As a DM I find such shops to be much less interesting & fun in 5E as compared to 3.5/4E due to the lack of items in 5E (unless you use third party material)
@@krim7 I've been running games a while, and I have notebooks full of magical trinkets and such to pull from. For example- a Hair Brush + make up set that will do your hair and make up anyway you'd like. It was fun, for the dozen or so times it came into play over 5 years it really added a lot of flavor and creativity on the players part.
Plus gives something to spend gold on, this doesn't mean every magic item is buy able tho
Imagine an edition illustrated by rob leifield.
Please no
Question- what dose the wizard employ rules mean for Odyssey of dragonlords and raider of serpent sea going up on dndbeyond?
Ben, if you haven't seen it, you might enjoy (and agree with) Professor Dungeon Master's video about the evolution of art in D&D over the years/editions.
I have to admit that I appreciate the more PG art work, partly because I am a parent and want my kids to play as well and if there was scarier artwork, they would be less likely to play or use those monsters.
Magic item shops with character can offer a lot to a campaign. Something with its own internal lore, like the Black Emporium from Dragon Age 2.
Well when they announced the book releases last year like bigby's, book of many things etc.
They also had a second flash card up with other titles we haven't seen yet, a book of Vicious Mockery, and a Battle of Barovia sequel to Curse of Strahd.
I'm waiting for print on demand for Chains of Asmdeus.
37:29 ah lion’s gate, our local studio that made a name for itself. I will not be surprised if these shows are kept on… and somehow these stream shows become an advertisement feeder program for guest appearances from whatever slasher/horror film Lion’s Gate is making at the time. I think they were involved with properties like Power Rangers the movie previously as well, so there could be some “inside baseball” happening between hasbro and lion’s gate in that eons deal… formalizing eone as an in-house of Lion’s Gate to reduce costs in some measure, but still maintaining all the power relationships previously involved.
Relics and Rarities! What a gem of a show
I shall not stand for this Warduke slander! 😠
what a great way to end the episode. more children need scarred by media :D
"Art from 4th seems pretty distinct from art from 5th edition." Mostly true! Except, you know, when 5e reuses art from 4e, sometimes for things totally unrelated to the original context. Not that I'm against reusing old art or anything. I just figure that is something noteworthy.
The streams that are successful are ones that have gamers first, and just celeberties first. Also, they are the ones that naturally transition between humor and serious drama. The streams that focus on just being funny or big names all fall flat in my opinion.
Vaiggedda vaiggedda? Oh! It's Dael - she said "vague and evocative"!
Back to concentrating on the show...😅
Great podcast.
Picked up Piranesi after hearing you talk about it on MF! Absolutely loved it!
WHERE will we find the D&D streaming at?
Always be car designing everywhere friends go
Always Be Car Designing Especially For Grim Hollow.. ABCDEFGH.. that's as far as i got without resorting to cheap tricks.
A little childhood trauma is always good!
FEAR is a healthy self defense mechanism :D
would love to know more on how 5e adventures translate to adapting them to black flag
Holy crap I remember Warduke from my youth. Had no idea that was his name lol
the tail eating the snake
most magic items are made better for having to seek out Hattori Hanzō for special item.
Art style won't change much if at all because they are also using a bunch of the old pieces, especially for the MM.
I would watch the hell out of the cooking show
There was also a Module the "action figures" were in: XL-1 Quest for the Hearstone that also tells the story of how Strongheart and Warduke were originally friends. And I believe the Action Figures got stats in an NPC book in the early 80s.
November 8, 2027 - Ask about Shawn's NDA information now that it's expired.
Regarding the art: I'm with you, Ben. They are marketing D&D to younger audiences, striving for G and PG markets, making death a temporary inconvenience, and making sure the players have more power so they always win. I would like to see heavier consequences become a thing again. I would like players to have some fear when facing a powerful enemy and honestly question, "Can we do this?" rather than assuming they'll hear, "How do you want to do this?"
Yeah. I feel like while making everything PG might help with younger audiences, leaning too far in that direction takes away some fear and grandeur of monsters. I think about Baldur's Gate 3 and how the devs added extra scenes that depicted gruesome ceremorphosis right in the tutorial. That scene really was necessary just too establish the danger and I'm glad they went and added it. If a mind flayer eventually just becomes colloquially knows as more of an octopus-headed caster, it really doesn't strike the same note as the body-hijacking alien parasite threat that they're supposed to be.
James, did you mean "Relics and Rarities"
...and scarred adults, I don't remember that 3rd edition Drider artwork and as an arachnophobe, I really didn't need to know of its existence ;-) But year, I get the point, that artwork tells a lot more of a story...
I don’t provide or sell magic items to players anymore. Now, I provide magical crafting materials and encourage them to commission or craft the items that they want.
A crafting oriented reward structure creates more room for player expression and ensures that the items they get reinforce their character fantasies.
While I agree with this in principle, I would advocate for weird magic items that players never, ever would craft if given the chance. Items that add to the story telling and could come in clutch in a weird moment.
Like a Rust-colored Bag of Tricks. never would I have ever crafted that but we found it in a dungeon and the black bear I pulled out of it saved the party’s lives.
Or the time we found a swan boat feather token. No one would craft that but because we had it, we were able to infiltrate an enemy base that was out on an island, complete with all of our mounts and our NPC warrior-compatriots 😅
@@krim7 I think that’s a great point!
I definitely still give out weird utility items.
Like a couple of months ago, I rewarded one player with a quill that can be used to draft unbreakable contracts and another with a knife that can be used to cut 1 minute in the past once.
I think item crafting is a better solution for specifically character defining magic items.
Most of the action figures appeared in the cartoon, and the basic D&D supplement The Shady Dragon Inn during the 80's. They were also used a lot in all of the marketing products like beach towels, shrinky dinks and things like that.
Magic item “shops” per se don’t exist in my campaigns. However, PCs can have items created out of “harvested” monsters or mundane armor/weapons by seeking artificers, blacksmiths, wizards, or relevant crafters
Typically per the XGtE prices and times.
Technically speaking, the AD&D action figures from LGN in the 80s did include a figure for a character that appeared first in the game: Melf. The figure was named "Peralay" for the toy line for whatever reason, but the design was taken from the description of Melf.
My personal take on Magic Items shops is based on how I use economy within my games. I make my players take time and that time costs GP to level up time for training, gold to hire trainers and the cost of living expenses so players need to be saving gold if they want the benefits of levelling up. This feeds into my magic item shop allowance they do exist but if you are spending huge sums on a magic Item you may not be levelling up to level 5 until you are already mid way through level 6. This encourages my players to consider carefully their priorities when using party funds, and let me take this opportunity to shout out to Timothy, the Awkward Ettercap, whose shop with so many trinkets and just the occasional actual item has been the source of so many rp moments.
I wish D&D art was like old editions and old Magic the Gathering (from Alpha to Tempest edition). Now it's all about being flashy, comics books and manga like and of course woke as hell...
Why *isnt* everyone talking about this D&D adventure?
I'm ONLY liking this video to scar little children like Ben told me to.
@17:04 did you say ShiPP-Grave Reef? Watch that diction buddy!
so why wont you let me give you my money now
The 5e artsyle is just meh. Its fine, it's pretty but its hardly what I would call distinctive to D&D. 4e art on the other hand. Everything I see from that is just epic.
As for the 2024 product slate, do we really care until after the 2024 5e refresh? That is what we are all waiting for, and we have all talked that to death so what really needs to be said?
The title is about The Chains of Asmodeus. 14 minutes in and nothing yet. I call cap.
I hate to break it to Ben, but WotC D&D IS PG rated. The art is "toothless" because it's meant to be. If you want scary D&D, play something else, like maybe Grim Hollow or something...
IMO, 3 problems WoTC faces with players losing interest after 10th level is the structure of level advancement, CR system and the number of different challenges players would face past say 12th level. These add up to: Players don't feel like death is still around every corner once they get past 10th level. The CR system has helped to create that vibe because the DMs as a whole just run with the existing CR system. But the biggest problem is with the younger generation. THEY SEVERELY LACK THE ATTENTION SPAN to stay involved in a campaign that goes into the 20s. They are the victims of Video Games, Social Media and the internet (give it to me quickly) culture. And WoTC, like many other things, has failed to recognize this.
Every time edition of the game breaks down somewhere in the teens.
This is not a generational issue or an attention issue or anything else. The designers have never emphasized high level play, they do not really plan around it or design for it. 😢
@krim7 I respect your opinion and to some degree I agree with you. Have you played 1st, 2nd or 3rd edition? I started DMing in early 80s. Our campaigns went well into the 20s. This generation doesn't have the attn span we had back in the day. They just don't. Ur right about the designers tho. Majority of them are young video gamers who are being told to focus their efforts on lower level adventures.
@jamesjhaeck Relics and Rarities. Anyone who has not seen that show. Go watch it.
Nentir Vale, maybe?