Physics Sage Ability, Initial Investigation

Ludwig Boltzman, who spent much of his life studying statistical mechanics, died in 1906, by his own hand. Paul Ehrenfest, carrying on the work, died similarly in 1933. Now it is our turn to study statistical mechanics. Perhaps it will be wise to approach the subject cautiously. - Goldstein, States of Matter

I am working to add another possible player to my game, and they have chosen (in what appears to be a theme) another backlog study, this time the Illusionist study of Reality $\to$ Physics:

Physics is a sage study in the field of Reality by which the character learns the physical laws associated with the movement of bodies and objects, vibration, sound, optics and light, fire and heat, the movement of water, air and earth, flight, pressure, electricity, magnetism and many similar branches and topics that give the character insight into the way that energy (including magic) ebbs and flows through the environment. This knowledge provides opportunity for the character to understand and ultimately control, to some degree, these forces.

There is a sense in which my background prepares me well to contribute to this study. On the other hand, the immense depth of this study presents a challenge. To begin with, therefore, I'll work from a framework as follows to start developing progressively more complex abilities, relying somewhat on how I remember my own training progressing.

Identification $\to$ Manipulation $\to$ Fabrication

These won't map directly to Amateur $\to$ Authority $\to$ Expert $\to$ Sage, but I'm finding it a helpful rubric nonetheless.

Based on the description on the Authentic Wiki, as well as the typical definitions of the broader fields of physics, we can line out four distinct areas of study: Mechanics, Electromagnetism, Thermodynamics, and Thaumaturgy (the physical study of magic). My gut feeling right now is that Thaumaturgy belongs in a "higher level" of ability, and so we can start to build out our abilities structure. I'll focus on Identification for now; there is plenty of time to mull on the rest.

Amateur

• Identify Mechanics. Recognize the physical laws governing the observed mechanical effects of the movement of bodies and objects, allowing limited prediction of their origin and future disposition. Examples include analysis of a potential landslide or the stability of a built structure, or the origin of a thrown or shot projectile.
• Identify Electromagnetism. Recognize the physical laws governing the observed electromagnetic effects of natural and artificial sources of electricity, magnetism, and light. Examples include the identification of naturally magnetized lodestone deposits or the distance to a light source at night.
• Identify Thermodynamics. Recognize the physical laws governing the observed electromagnetic effects of natural and artificial sources of fire and heat. Examples include determining the temperature of a heated metal by its color or the placement of proper ventilation when making a fire in an enclosed space.

Authority

• Identify Thaumaturgy. Recognize the presence of magical energy and identify its likely intent. Examples include predicting a spell during its preparation but before its casting based on the ebb and flow of magical energy the spell's preparation produces.

We could even imagine an additional tier of identification for certain areas of physics which would be more difficult to learn, such as astrophysics (or even potentially anachronistic developments such as relativity or quantum effects).

I have more to think through on this but I feel this is a good start to the endeavor.

Falconry

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

One of my players wants to begin with a focus in Falconry. I will try my hand at expanding out the rules for the Amateur status. As an ancient and on-going pastime, there is no shortage of real-world information regarding the training and behavior of these birds.

Bird Companionship is an amateur-status sage ability where the character gains personal satisfaction and increased experienced bonuses from the presence and use of falcons. For any combat where the falconer's bird participates in the fight, the falconer receives an additional 5% experience bonus. If the falcon is killed in combat, this bonus is not awarded.

Rouse to Hunt is an amateur-status sage ability where the character may send the falcon to hunt for game food. Refer to the Hunting sage ability for the time necessary to locate a target.  A successful hit which results in a stun or kill will allow the bird to grip the game up to its own bodyweight in its talons and return to the falconer. Heavier prey which is stunned or killed must be killed or retrieved by the falconer.

Train Falcon is an amateur-status sage ability which allows the falconer to educate a young bird so that it will perform as desired. Training a bird is a long and complex process which requires near-constant attention. The process begins with either capture or hatching. A wild hawk under a year of age (a passager) is suitable for training. These can actually be easier to handle than a fletching (called an eyass) obtained either from a hatchery or a wild nest, since an older bird has had time to develop some natural instincts. Falcon training proceeds through three stages: Manning, Behavior, and Hunting. These stages are attained by a series of ability checks (using wisdom, intelligence, or charisma) made by the falconer. One roll may be made per day; the ability stat attempted on a given day cannot be the one used the day before. Each stage requires that a total of 10 successful rolls be made out of a minimum of 15. The last four rolls of the 15-roll sequence must be successes (or the last three rolls in the case of a passager). The falconer receives a +1 bonus to the check for each 20 points possessed in Falconry. Once trained, the bird may be used by the falconer or sold; however, a purchased bird will require 1-2 weeks of acclimation to its new owner before its benefits can be realized.

Manning is the process of acclimating the bird to society and in particular to the falconer. 

Behavior trains the bird to respond properly to necessary equipment such as gloves, perches, hoods, and leashes, and to follow simple vocal or visual signals. While falcons cannot be trained to the same degree as dogs, they can nonetheless learn to obey commands such as returning to glove, perching, or hovering.

Hunting trains the bird to attack ground and air prey, and to retrieve prey for the falconer when possible. The falcon will rely on its own instincts and the body language of the falconer when choosing a target while hunting or in combat.

Waken Regard is an amateur-status sage ability which affords the falconer opportunities to meet and conspire with persons of local authority. An authority not more than one rank above the character may extend an invitation to join them on a hunt.

I am not yet satisfied with Waken Regard. Perhaps it may also grant a bonus when making a request of an authority figure. However, it will need to differ at least in degree from Waken Admiration, the Expert-status sage ability.

I'm sure there are other considerations and issues which will arise, but that is part of the iterative process of design.

Weather Engine

Way back when I first started coding up this project (several years ago now), one of the first things I implemented was Alexis' weather generator.

It works pretty well. Working with real-world data as the seed input is easy. I've extended the system a little bit to make it more versatile throughout the year.

The only bits of data I need are: minimum and maximum monthly temperature in Fahrenheit (high and low), and the months in which the high occurs. I also collect high and lows for the precipitation (in mm) and the month in which that high occurs.

"climate": {
	"temperature": {
		"minimum": {
			"high": 77,
			"low": 47,
			"highMonth": 7
		},
		"maximum": {
			"high": 89,
			"low": 62,
			"highMonth": 7
		}
	},
	"precipitation": {
		"high": 126,
		"low": 70,
		"highMonth": 7
	}
}

With these numbers, it's a simple enough matter to fit a sinusoidal curve to give me the monthly average high and low for any given month. Admittedly, very few places on earth have a perfectly balanced summer/winter cycle, but this can be forgiven, and the players are unlikely to notice in any case (particularly across such a relatively small area).

A whole year of temperatures

I've incorporated a few extra bits into my version of the weather engine. The first is apparent temperature. At higher temperatures (80F+), high humidity makes the air seem hotter. This is usually reported as Heat Index. Conversely, when the air is cold, wind can make it feel even colder (Wind Chill).

Next, I used a IDW algorithm (my go-to) to spoof data for all hexes based on just a few inputs. I grabbed a few stations from around the State, but with this method, I don't need to worry about researching all 170+ points.

On one of the original weather posts, Vlad made a comment about how much rain it generates. These are some good thoughts for possible mods. I don't see that problem cropping up at the moment, but it's something I'll keep an eye on.

As another potential update, I could use a Gaussian distribution to generate the temperature for each day, or calculate the daily drift differently. But for now this works well.

Preparing a Setting

I have been working hard on a setting of my home state in another universe. It's been way too long since I've run a game and I'm getting itchy. So far, this has been a good test of things I've learned and things I'm learning, and its given me an opportunity to re-write a lot of the market code in particular. That's helped clean things up and hopefully erased some hidden errors.

I've divided up the region into nine "regions." Not kingdoms, exactly. But distinct culturally (in the real world) and thus a good proxy for translation into a fantasy version. Some populations get swapped over to halfling, elven, orc, dwarf, etc.

The main challenge now is to apply these principles to the regions. There are some differences in tech level here, ranging from a T-8 chiefdom all the way up to T-12. The danger is that I will not be clever enough to avoid "sameness" in the relatively small areas in question (around twenty 20mile hexes). Of course, sameness is not necessarily a bad thing - these regions will share trade routes as well as language - but we want the variety to mean something. Otherwise, there is no reason for them to be separate autonomous regions.

My familiarity with the real-world terrain is also a crutch. Because the farmland is so fertile, nearly every square inch of land that can be farmed is being farmed, a development only in the last 100 or so years. Reconstructing the "original" terrain for a much less populous society has been an interesting challenge.

I will no doubt continue to refine the descriptions of and relationships between the regions, and my next task will be to seed the commodity list with enough stuff to satisfy a party starting out. A work like this is never done, but I want to get it into a playable state. I also have 1mile maps ready for many of the hexes, particularly in the northern part of the state.

The Juvenis Adventure

For the last few weeks, I've been lucky enough to be a player in Alexis' reboot campaign, the Juvenis Adventure.

The experience has been quite something even in early stages. Play-by-post is a tricky mistress, and even more so when the players stretch across many time zones. Alexis' game is hard work at times, but it's different from every campaign I've ever been in.

My fresh-off-the-boat elven fighter was thrown more or less immediately into a fight which far outclassed me. The party had last left off fighting demon toads and attempting to close a gate to Hell itself. Oh sure, I've been in (and run) similar scenarios before; so what was so different about this one?

The difference crystallized in a single moment: we attempted to swing an icy gate shut and a demon teleported right next to me to prevent us from moving it. My Level 1 fighter had no magical weapons, an overly cautious demeanor towards combat, and no health to speak of. I knew this demon could kill me and cast my soul into Hell, probably all in the same turn.

And there's the difference: I had to decide to stand and fight (and protect my friends) or to run and maybe save myself. I felt real fear in the pit of my stomach - my character had no backstory to save, no valuables to protect - a coldness in my heart weighing my options. I had to overcome an actual emotion, to swallow my pride and put my body in the breach.

That is something you won't find in any other game.

Stranger Railroads

SPOILERS AHEAD

Yes, yes, I know that Stranger Things is responsible for "helping revive" mainstream interest in D&D.

Who cares?

The people making money off of D&D, of course. The hobby is not significantly enriched by this.

In fact, it's hurt.

This is the same effect that brought us the vapidity of 5th edition, reinforced by high budget dramatic productions which pretend to play D&D.

Stranger Things S3 is no different. Its heavy-handed lip service sends the message that this way to "play" is not only acceptable, but desirable.

All season long, Will wants to play D&D with his friends, who are increasingly mired with girl-problems. When he finally gets his board and story set up, he is able to force them to sit at the table. Conveniently hidden from accountability behind his screen, he railroads their characters through his plot with the subtlety of John Henry's hammer.

In the Stranger Things game philosophy, the players must dance to the DM's tune. There is no opportunity for the players to make choices. Only false choices can be presented, otherwise the "game" (of course, it's not really a game) is ruined.

Fed up, Mike makes a choice. And it's a good one! To save the village (why do they care) and become heroes (which, of course, is the only possible outcome of this so-called game), they must defeat the zombies. Mike decides that the best option is to ignite the room they are in, killing the party but also the zombies and living on forever as heroes.

Of course, in the grand scheme of the season, this is a signpost to the climatic scene. But more importantly, it's a deviation from the Supreme Overload Will's script. "You can't do that!" he whines. Why not? It's the only meaningful choice the players have made!

Without these meaningful choices, the game is not a game. It's just a series of guesses to see which way the DM wants the party to go; and never fear, you can't guess wrong. Sure, you have "agency" as long as you select from the following pre-approved list of actions.

Don't worry, you can't make the wrong choice, because all roads lead to the same point.

Which leads me to ask, what's the point?

Gimme That Old Time Religion

I'm not the first to address the issue of religion in D&D, and I'm certain I won't be the last. But I think it's worthwhile to begin thinking about how the divine works in my world, at least to form a coherent treatment of clerics, monks, and paladins (and sort of warlocks, though they are not connected with outside religion).

For the paladin, his oath is what provides his power. The cleric, however, is granted strength by a Divine Being.

Yet there are more orders of clerics than just one. How can this be in a world where proof of your god's existence is instantly accessible by any mook with a holy symbol? RPG clerics live in a world where they walk by sight, not by faith.

There are some solutions to this, of course. One solution is to make all clerics worship the same deity. There cannot be more than one.

This is a little unsatisfying. But consistent.

If we wish to have more than one clerical order, following different gods, then it follows naturally that these deities cannot be all-powerful, and therefore not gods at all. If they were all-powerful, and also all true, then they could not all coexist logically. Zeus and Odin cannot be both god if both exist (as separate entities).

Therefore, then, clerics could gain their power by belief in a localized (more or less) entity which existed on a plane above their own. This is a different level (higher or lower?) than that which a warlock patron might occupy.

Clerics, of course, are gregarious, while monks are ascetics. I'm thinking that a leveled cleric would probably be a step up in whatever hierarchy exists from the local priest, but of course could certainly take up that mantle. A priest might be able to conjure some small healing magic or other stereotypically clerical things, but for the most part is responsible only for the spiritual journey of the local flock, whatever that might mean. Clerics are holy warriors with additional training from an established temple.

I don't really like monks. So I'll ignore them for now. I think clerics fit the role much better, without the edgy Bruce Lee vibes.

So what do they worship? I was browsing around and found the Book of Urantia, an absolutely insane mystical document of no religious value, but it's got some good inspiration for worldbuilding. Paper 85 identifies 6 progressive sources of worship:

1. Stones
2. Plants
3. Animals
4. Elements
5. Heavenly bodies
6. Man

Of these, elemental forces are the most attractive to me in terms of a cosmology. However, I must recognize the extreme difficulty of putting myself in the shoes of an ancient man who worshiped, say, bears or fire. That said, I suspect the desire to anthropomorphize was still strong in those days. So the lightning that destroys trees and people becomes the Father of Storms and we'll give him a name, Ja-Pater.

Ritual worship involves invoking the power's favor or appeasing it in some way. The question arises as to whether the cleric's powers are dependent on correctly approaching the power. Would schisms arise? If so, wouldn't it immediately be obvious that one side picked the wrong theological formula? Can a rogue cleric be stripped of his magic by his superiors as punishment for some crime against the deity? Food for thought.

Ultimately, clerics must operate in some kind of organized (named) religion, whether it's a structured church or a looser collective like shamanism. I'm not sure yet how to determine a local religion procedurally, or if that's something to save for a rainy day. It's not going to matter that much for my planned model of empire growth.

Plaintext Character Sheet

I really thought I'd find something about this elsewhere. But only a few places even alluded to it.

What if, instead of complex pdfs or spreadsheets, we just used a plain, customized text file for our games?

It's not flashy. But it's easy to use, and literally in the most portable format. Gaming on your computer or phone? In any operating system? Easy. At a physical table? Just print it out and update it. All your info, history, stats, etc, can be kept, in the order you like.

But it requires something I haven't seen a lot of these days: players doing work. Many (myself included) want to show up to the table and reap the benefits of the countless hours the DM has slaved over their creation. Why is it that way?

We whine when a little bit of math is required to calculate food, or carrying capacity, etc. Don't whine! Do the work! Instead of endless masturbatory posts on r/DnD with yet another fox-tiefling genasi bard devil with a heart of gold or whatever the hell people are doing these days, put in a little effort to build a character that isn't a Mary Sue.

And I mean build. Don't sketch. Building is done in the game, and polishing between sessions. Double-check your math. Can I really carry 180 lb without slowing down? Where are all my pack animals? Did I leave my sword at the inn or not? Do we have enough rations and health to make it through the jungle?

So far, the plaintext system makes this really easy because I can compartmentalize my items, their weight, any relevant data about them. All my abilities, right there on the page. No more flipping.

It's not fancy, sure. But I don't want fancy - I want something that works. I'm going to experiment with this in a PbP game I'm playing in and see how it goes.

Ideally, you could hand draw it. That could be cool too. I want to say Alexis has a post about this but I can't remember what it is.

It really boggles my mind that there's nothing really about this - not even a "don't use them, they suck!" It's like we've not even considered it. Is it too simple?

Here's the sheet I have right now. Bit of a wall of text, but I can pull it up on my phone, laptop, anywhere.

Mnophet Setep-en-Anubis, Horadrim Initiate

Awakened Gnome

Folk Hero

Fighter 4

Cleric 1

Kills   21

AC  12 (leather armor)

HP  48/48

THP 0

HD  4+1 4d10/1d8

SAVE   OOO

FAIL   OOO

gp  1146

sp  33

cp  105

encumbered at 90 lb

heavily encumbered at 180 lb

Passive Perception 13

Prof    +3

Init    +2

Speed   25

STR 18  +4

DEX 15  +2

CON 15  +2

INT 12  +1

WIS 10  +0

CHA 9   -1

STR +7  *

DEX +2

CON +5  *

INT +1

WIS +0

CHA -1

Acrobatics      +2

Animal Handling +3  *

Arcana          +1

Athletics       +4

Deception       -1

History         +1

Insight         +3  *

Intimidation    -1

Investigation   +1

Medicine        +0

Nature          +1

Perception      +3  *

Performance     -1

Persuasion      -1

Religion        +1

Sleight of Hand +2

Stealth         +5  *

Survival        +3  *

Proficiency with brewer's supplies

--equipped-- 37.5 + 21.05 = 58.55 lb

Sandsword +1            2 lb        +7, 1d6+4 piercing, martial, finesse, light, cast sand for blindness (3 charges), DC 13 per charge or DC 15 for all 3, recharges on short rest in sand

Scimitar                3 lb        +7, 1d6+4 slashing, martial, finesse, light

Handaxe (2)             2 lb        +7, 1d6+4 slashing, simple, light, range, thrown (20/60)

Longbow                 2 lb        +5, 1d8+2 piercing, martial, arrow, heavy, range, two handed

Arrows (234)            0.05 lb

Arrows +1 (9)           0.05 lb

Leather armor           10 lb       AC 11, light

Pouch                   1 lb

Backpack                5 lb        l cu.ft or 30 lb

Fine travelers clothes  3 lb

--backpack-- 21.55 lb

Tinderbox               1 lb        action to light torch, 1 minute to light fire

Waterskin               5 lb        4 pts of liquid

Hempen rope             10 lb       2 HP, DC 17 STR to break

Poison vials (10)       0.05 lb

Healer's kit            3 lb        10 uses

Anubis statuette        0.5 lb totem of the Horadrim

Wand of Magic Detection 1 lb        cast Detect magic, 1d3 charges at dawn

Map

Ink pen

Ink

Letter to Head Priest

Scorpion shell          0.05 lb

--camel-- 107 lb

Crowbar                 5 lb        adv on STR checks

Hammer                  3 lb

Pitons (10)             0.25 lb

Torches (10)            1 lb        1 hr, 20/40 ft, 1 fire dmg

Rations (10)            2 lb

Ceremonial dagger (18)  1 lb

Shovel                  5 lb

Iron pot                10 lb

Brewer's supplies       9 lb

Chain shirt             20 lb       AC 13, medium

Iron spikes (9)         0.5 lb

Two-Weapon Fighting: When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack.

Stealthy (feat): If you are hidden, you can move up to 10 feet in the open without revealing yourself if you end the move in a position where you're not clearly visible

Second Wind: You have a limited well of stamina that you can draw on to protect yourself from harm. On your turn, you can use a bonus action to regain hit points equal to 1d10 + your fighter level. Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again.

Second Wind             1/1

Action Surge: Starting at 2nd level, you can push yourself beyond your normal limits for a moment. On your turn, you can take one additional action on top of your regular action and a possible bonus action. Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again. Starting at 17th level, you can use it twice before a rest, but only once on the same turn.

Action Surge            1/1

Battle Master:  You have four superiority dice, which are d8s. A superiority die is expended when you use it. You regain all of your expended superiority dice when you finish a short or long rest. You gain another superiority die at 7th level and one more at 15th level. DC = 8 + prof + STR = 15.

Superiority Dice        4/4

Commanders Strike: When you take the Attack action on your turn, you can forgo one of your attacks and use a bonus action to direct one of your companions to strike. When you do so, choose a friendly creature who can see or hear you and expend one superiority die. That creature can immediately use its reaction to make one weapon attack, adding the superiority die to the attack’s damage roll

Riposte: When a creature misses you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction and expend one superiority die to make a melee weapon attack against the creature. If you hit, you add the superiority die to the attack's damage roll.

Sweeping Attack: When you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can expend one superiority die to attempt to damage another creature with the same attack. Choose another creature within 5 feet of the original target and within your reach. If the original attack roll would hit the second creature, it takes damage equal to the number you roll on your superiority die. The damage is of the same type dealt by the original attack.

--Spells--

WIS +3, DC 11

0: Spare the Dying, abjuration, 1 action, instant, VS. You touch a living creature that has 0 hit points. The  creature becomes stable. This spell has no effect on  undead or constructs.

0: Thaumaturgy, abjuration, 1 action, 1 minute, 30 ft, V. You manifest a minor wonder, a sign of supernatur,al power, within range. You create one of the following magical effects within range. Your voice booms up to three times as loud as normal for 1 minute. You cause flames to flicker, brighten, dim, or change color for 1 minute. You cause harmless tremors in the ground for 1 minute. You create an instantaneous sound that originates from a point of your choice within range, such as a rumble of thunder, the cry of a raven, or ominous whispers. You instantaneously cause an unlocked door or window to fly open or slam shut. You alter the appearance of your eyes for 1 minute. If you cast this spell multiple times, you can have up to three of its 1-minute effects active at a time, and you can dismiss such an effect as an action.

0: Sacred Flame, abjuration, 1 action, instant, 60 ft, VS. Flame-like radiance descends on a creature that you can see within range. The target must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take 1d8 radiant damage. The target gains no benefit from cover for this saving throw. The spell's damage increases by 1d8 when you reach 5th level (2d8), 11th level (3d8), and 17th level (4d8).

0: Chill Touch, abjuration, 1 action, 1 round, VS. You create a ghostly, skeletal hand in the space of a creature within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the creature to assail it with the chill of the grave. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 necrotic damage, and it can't regain hit points until the start of your next turn. Until then, the hand clings to the target. If you hit an undead target, it also has disadvantage on attack rolls against you until the end of your next turn. This spell's damage increases by 1d8 when you reach 5th level (2d8), 11th level (3d8), and 17th level (4d8).

2/2

1: Ray of Sickness, necromancy, 1 action, 1 minute, 60 ft, VS, concentration. A ray of sickening greenish energy lashes out toward a creature within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit, the target takes 2d8 poison damage and must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, it is also poisoned until the end of your next turn. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 1st.

1: False Life, necromancy, 1 action, 1 hour, self, VSM. Bolstering yourself with a necromantic facsimile of life, you gain 1d4+4 temporary hit points for the duration.

Levelling Speed in Fifth Edition

My first offline campaign ran for nearly 2 years, with some short breaks. The players ran from levels 1 to 10 (and probably will continue to advance once we restart).

It only took 6 months of in-game time.

If I told you that you could train to become the most powerful actor in almost any room in which you chose to walk, and it only would take you 6 months, what would you give for that?

Now, D&D is supposed to be about heroes, right? To a certain extent that's true in 5e, though I disagree with the fundamental premise there. But if that status is available to just anyone willing to slog it out for less than a year, why isn't everyone running around being a hero?

Also, its worth noting that Mike Mearls said that characters should level every four hours of real time! What??? Unfortunately, I'm not surprised that Mearls has such a disrespect of the players of his "game." He also is a fan of the horrid blight of milestone levelling. Barf.

Taking one of the standard ability generation methods (4d6 drop lowest), the most common result is a 13. This is the prerequesite for multiclassing. Since there is no minimum score necessary to play a certain class, as in some other editions, let's assume the multiclassing minimums for a Ranger: DEX 13 and WIS 13. Up to 24% of the population could meet that requirement! For a single stat, the chance is about 48%. From a certain perspective, that makes sense. The player wants to stand out - they wouldn't really bother to play a rando with 10s down the board. Using a "meaner" 3d6, about 7% of the population could be rangers. That might be a better starting place.

This dirty analysis, of course, does not accurately reflect real world choices. Perhaps I have the dexterity and wisdom to be a ranger, but I prefer to play a rogue or cleric instead.

Similar to racial demographics, a distribution can be developed to describe a certain person's disposition to pursue a clerical or roguish career. This is not intended necessarily to place constraints on character creation, but to flesh out the NPCs a party might be expected to meet. My driving philosophy here is that any mechanic available to the party is also available to everyone else. My hypothesis is that this forces players to make conscious choices in order to bring their will to bear on the world, rather than "winning" by virtue of conveniently selecting the right options before the game even starts.

Players should become heroes (or not) based on their own choices as characters, not based on an ad hoc decision by the DM to declare them so, or to carefully place encounters in their way to gently coax them into a false greatness.

This is starting to turn into another post, similar to this one (as usual, Alexis is eight years ahead of me). However, here I want to call attention to the inadequacy of 5e to really describe a population. Mearls (et al.) is clearly not interested in creating believable experiences. Maybe he doesn't need to be. But it's up to the DM to be aware of what they're signing up for, and how much work it's going to be to hammer the 5e "ruleset" into anything resembling an actual player-agency rule-defined game.

I don't have good answers for either of these problems right now. I'd rather leave the level speed as is right now (I have enough work to do without redesigning the whole game), but I'd like to take another look at how those rules affect sensible demographics. When the party rolls into town, who meets them?

Is It Even Still a Game?

"Rule of Cool."

"Just have fun, that's the most important thing!"

"I use milestone levelling and [I cheat my players because] they seem to have fun doing it."

Are these people, in fact, interested in playing a game? Or are they more interested in a collaborative improv session (if they're lucky). If they're unlucky enough to be a player in one of these campaigns, they're at the mercy of a hopefully uncapricious DM, but certainly at the mercy of trying to impress them so they'll be allowed to level up.

I'm sure this won't be my last rant on this subject.

The rules don't make sense. Nothing makes sense. The "world" bends over backwards to keep the players safe and entertained.

I try to say that I'm ok with people playing the way they want to, and that there's really no wrong way to enjoy yourself on a Saturday afternoon with 4 friends. But the "advice" I've been reading from these proclaimed RPG geniuses is quickly convincing me that there is, in fact, a wrong way to play. At least, as long as these actors continue to insist that they are playing RPGs, and not just performing for each other.

"Hey! My game has struggle and the risk of death! I just like a little fantastical element now and then!" Risk of death? If the DM of a game ever even feels the need to ask the question "What can I do to not kill this character?" then there is no risk of death. If the rules can be ignored on a whim just because someone got attached to a Mary Sue character for whom they wrote 50 pages of crafted backstory, then you aren't playing a game. That's not necessarily wrong - you're perfectly free do to whatever you like. It's just not a game. Yes, yes, cue r/gatekeeping. Alexis makes the point that these characters are fundamentally dead.

And I have fallen into these traps now and again. This is one of the reasons I stopped using a DM screen. I fudged rolls, lied about motivations, made stuff up on the spot just to please players. I forgot that the players don't exist as my pawns. Rolling in the open put their fates in the hands of the dice, which are (probably) impartial.

One of the worst things I read in game stories is the player proposing some inane rule-break, defying not only real-game physics but the specific established physics of the game, ignoring all previously established methods of the DM and sociological attitudes of the setting's population and ecology, and the DM says "You know what? Sure, go ahead!" As we all know, D&D is explicitly designed for character advancement and achievement by impressing the DM with your clever antics. After all, the DM exists to entertain you (makes me sick to type that).

The party lines appear to be hardening between the grognards and those who insist on calling their group improv a "game", even going so far as to use the name D&D, despite it having very little resemblance to any kind of conflict-based game. The culprits here are entrenched in the powers that be. Thankfully, some still exist who remember that mechanics are essential to gaming.

Imagine if, in our hyper-game saturated culture, we played literally any other game this way? If, in the NFL Super Bowl, upon which millions of dollars hang, the ref awarded a technically illegal touchdown "because it was cool?" (OK, maybe a bad example, since no one can agree on the rules for a catch). If, in the DoTA international championships, a kill was reversed because it wasn't fun for that character to die at that moment? If, at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Messi was allowed to pick up the ball and throw it into the goal, and we all just were ok with that because, hey, he worked hard to get where he is and what do rules matter anyway?

If we wouldn't accept such rule-breaking in any other game, why would it be acceptable in D&D?

Perfection

There's a common theme these days in the gaming community, characterized by the phrase "I have a new idea for X."

This is very interesting, because very often these people do not in fact have new ideas. They are old ideas, old cliches, recycled for one person's specific fantasy.

I don't have a problem with that. I'm certainly not original. What I do notice about this is that no one seems to be concerned with perfecting their craft. This is less of a concern for players, who regularly churn through characters in the course of gameplay. However, it nags at me that there are worldbuilding DMs who create something arguably new, only to slap a "finished!" label on it and move on to something else entirely six months later.

(Of course, I'm guilty of this as anyone, only I never declare it finished, merely forget and move on.)

Now, I'm not saying there's not a place for that. But we need more DMs who totally devote themselves to the perfection of their craft. That seems to be rare these days, and that's a damn shame.

Commitment is hard. That's why we don't do it anymore. But maybe we should.