Tabletop Games Thread

[Twi]

Another Sunday, another day of barely surviving. So, after I make the mistake of splitting the party to get two tasks done at once, searching for a missing Harper and dealing with Giant Rats, we end up going against a Doppelganger and Wererats. At best we only managed to survive because I managed to stop the Doppleganger from killing our Rogue with Command "Halt" and then running with the hostage, while the two Dragonborn nearly got ganked by the halflings until they managed to kill the leader and force the others to run.

[warellis]

Anyone here ever hear of Rex Draconis? It's a new setting for Pathfinder & 5e D&D, made by Richard A. Knaack who is most famous for several Dragonlance novels.

And yes, one of its races is best described, from the racial blurb, as being like kender with porcupine quills for hair.

[Deathhappens]

I have the kender disposal manual lying around somewhere and I never did get to put it to use.

[Twelveseal]

That thing seems at first glance to be pretty much just Dragonlance. Certainly modeled on some of the same concepts and featuring some of the same elements...

[Sesto]

to me Richard A. Knaack is the guy who made some shitty warcraft novels

[Deathhappens]

Serious question: Are there any non-shitty Warcraft novels?

[Sesto]

the last guardian is kino and works as a good standalone fantasy novel. lord of the clans and rise of the horde are also great

everything else ranges from shit to ok

[warellis]

That thing seems at first glance to be pretty much just Dragonlance. Certainly modeled on some of the same concepts and featuring some of the same elements...

I think it wants to be sort of a new Dragonlance. Because the old Dragonlance is probably not really going to be supported or anything anymore.

[Twelveseal]

So... it's to Dragonlance as Pathfinder is to 3rd Edition.

[warellis]

So... it's to Dragonlance as Pathfinder is to 3rd Edition.

So it seems. Obviously with some different elements of its own.

Like the elves in Dragonlance hadn't enslaved the dwarves in their past, for example.

[warellis]

For 5e D&D, what do you guys think of the cyberpunk games that have already come out, or are upcoming releases?:

Genefunk 2090
Neurospasta (Also has a Pathfinder version)
Carbon 2185

[Deathhappens]

Never played them, why would I bother with hackjobs when there are perfectly functional systems built specifically around cyberpunk thematology? Just incorporating simple things like firearms and vehicles is already a pain in D&D, imagining how they'd hack around things like body modification or the Internet gives me a headache.

Just play Shadowrun lol

[Saiga]

isnt shadowrun notoriously poorly written in terms of understanding the rules

[SpoonyViking]

Even when understood, the system is cumbersome. Another case of an interesting setting brought low by the rules system, sadly. Great magic system, though, and I'm sure there are conversions floating around for GURPS, Savage Worlds, or even D20.

[Deathhappens]

The system itself is fiiiiiiine. The main problems of the current edition were a very poorly organised and clunky rulebook and some splat bloat that contradicted itself, and both were problems the community solved easily enough.

Although if I recall correctly a new edition is either in the works or already out, so maybe that's a moot point now.

[SpoonyViking]

To be fair, I wouldn't know, the last SR edition I played was the second.

[warellis]

I have the kender disposal manual lying around somewhere and I never did get to put it to use.

That thing seems at first glance to be pretty much just Dragonlance. Certainly modeled on some of the same concepts and featuring some of the same elements...

Yeah here is their description:

The Kwillum

Small and quick, kwillum are often mistaken for small human children with wild and thick hair. It is only when examined more closely that the differences become apparent.

Growing to barely four-foot tall at maturity, these nomads of Tiberos have a long mane of ‘hair’, which grows from their head, down past their shoulder blades and ends on their lower backs. As a defensive mechanism, kwilum can induce this mane to stiffen into damaging needles, much like a porcupine. Fights with kwillum often end with the kwillum hunched over, needles erect, and an unsuspecting combatant holding his hand in agony.

They have a racially-inherited obsession with searching for ‘what they are looking for’ that often leads them, innocently or not, onto the wrong side of the law. They claim that their hands seem to act on their own accord, picking pockets, lifting random objects from market stalls, and playing with expensive items, all without the kwillum’s knowledge. Seen widely as nuisances, thieves and disruptors, kwillum are often escorted out of any town they can be found in, if they can be caught.

You even get framed at one point thanks to a kwillum dropping some loot at your feet in the starting adventure, because "it's not what I'm looking for.":

The Avondale Market is lively today, as nationalities of all sorts banter, bicker and barter. You see great arrays of colors splashed across the crowd from their many exotic garments. Cheers and jeers of gambling games rise up from somewhere to your left. A large Minotaur pushes past you, then disappears into the crowd. The day is warm for this time of year, and aromas of freshly baked breads and pastries fill your nostrils. As you take it all in you suddenly hear a shout from ahead, “Thief! Thief! Pickpocket! That way! Guards, guards!”

The crowd ahead splits suddenly as a small figure, about the size of a ten year old human girl, swiftly darts in your direction. Her red, glistening mane of razor sharp hair alerts you that she’s not a child, but instead a kwilum! She stops right in front of you and looks into the pouch.

Disappointedly, she says, “Eh, it’s not what I’m looking for” and drops the pouch at your feet, before deftly disappearing into the crowd.

and you have to confront guards thanks to it:

Many city guards appear from the market’s rabble. They hold spears, shields and wear plate armor. One of them steps forward; a red cape adorning one shoulder. He is obviously the guard sergeant of this district. He eyes you, up and down, and then his eyes catch sight of the pouch. The sergeant grins and commands his men, “Arrest these felons, on charge of theft!”

[Ratman]

to me Richard A. Knaack is the guy who made some shitty warcraft novels

He also wrote one alright Diablo book! And two shitty ones. Good thing Blizzard wouldn't dig that IP out of the dirt, eh?

[SpoonyViking]

Kenders are a nice addition in theory, but I've rarely seen them played well.

[warellis]

Kenders are a nice addition in theory, but I've rarely seen them played well.

Frankly, Kenders should probably be played as the kind of person who has innocuous stuff like glass baubles migrating into their pouches, because they're shiny, in addition to say stealing some bad guy's magical staff that proves useful later on because the bad guy is now wanting their missing staff and it's the macguffin to the plot of the quest.

But, they are written in ways, in their description, that does give ammunition to assholes to play as them.

Honestly kender, tinker gnomes, and especially gully dwarves (who were made pretty much only to give Raistlin *some* humanity), probably shouldn't be playable races.