Happy 2024: 3.0 DMG advice part 1

 

The DMG from the edition that changed the game irrevocably and ushered more "crunch"

It may be strange for me to be wishing readers a Happy 2024 in March, but the Nexus blog had been more focused on my mmorpg gaming late last year when I was trying to enjoy my Everquest and wow subscriptions.

I even had a post from January about my mmo gaming goals in 2024, goals which so far gave gone unmet due to the fact my internet connection has been quite poor since I moved in Northern California to my new place mind 2023. As a result, I have been recently trying to boost my signal, something not easily accomplished in rural areas, to be sure. So I abandoned most of my mmorpg gaming and have been primarily focused on running my weekly 5e game.

Last weekend I traveled to Santa Rosa where I frequented some used bookstores and came away with some really cool finds, among them was a pretty clean copy of the 3.0 D&D DMG and the 3.0 PHB at a very reasonable price. 

This led me to want to continue and pick up a project I started during the pandemic years, three years ago when I was examining all the printed DMGs dating back to the TSR era (As D&D has been my primary gaming hobby since the 80s; yes I am old) I thought it would be instructive, both to myself and others who may stumble upon this blog, to examine in great detail, chapter by chapter if need be, some of the information and sage advice available to DMs and wanna be game masters from the pages of all these wonderful and entertaining tomes. 

I had started with the more accessible 3.5 guide, but since I recently acquired the 3.0 guide in the aforementioned book store, I thought it would be fine to start with this one instead while concurrently comparing the info found in both. Do they repeat? Are there new nuggets of information presented in one that they didn't include in the other? Well let us find out.

From the first chapter, the authors advice DMs not to worry about teaching the players all the rules ahead of time. They suggest that all they truly need to know are the basics that apply to understanding their characters (i.e  how spells work, what AC means, how to use skills etc.) and they can pick up this information as they go along. This seems like sound advice when you consider how much more of a "crunchy" system D&D 3.0 and 3.5 are, compared to other systems like 5e and/or Pathfinder 1st edition.

There is a brief discussion of determining the style of play in your games and campaigns, such as what they call "kick in the door" style of play, advice on whether you should take a serious versus humorous tone (personally I prefer the former rather than the latter, but not to the exclusion of occasional mirth and in jokes at the table), table rules, how to integrate new players into an existing game or campaign, and other considerations for running a game including whether or not to use a DM screen, the role of computers in Dming, and the pros and cons of employing miniatures and counters.

An interesting aspect of this chapter is the inclusion of a section dealing with mapping. Mapping is a convention that seemed to be more integral to the earlier editions of the game and which has been somewhat lost in the modern era of virtual table top apps like Owl Bear and others. I remember reading the basic D&D BECMI manuals of the early 80s and even AD&D first edition, where it was recommended or encouraged that a player take on the role of "mapper." Again, this convention seems to have mostly gone the way of the dodo in modern times, probably due to the inclusion of detailed DM and maps for the players that are so detailed, most gamers make use of them without tweaking much, or without having a party explore an area on their own. The 3.0 DMG seems to encourage the older style, even though I am not sure if there were a lot of premade dungeons in this edition, versus the myriad of complex dungeon "hex crawls" of years past. I simply did not play the system enough when it came out in the early 2000s to give a more informed opinion.

As mentioned, this DMG seems to espouse the earlier convention in favor of the DM describing a layout of the place in as much detail as he/she/they want, including room dimensions and confusing maze like dungeons.

 

Before wrapping up this first part I will add that I will limit the scope of this analysis of D&D game guides to official TSR and WOTC products, even though I fully realize that there are many wonderful and helpful third party guides for novice, burgeoning game masters, but I do not own many, so I won't include them, with the possible exception of Sly Flourish's "Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master" since that specific reference is talked about a lot with high regard in the RPG community, and I actually own that tome. 

If you enjoy podcasts or audio discussions of geek culture topics, consider tuning in to www.kpfz.org an listening to my weekly show "The Nexus of Geek." Fridays at 4 PM PST. It is a diversion of mine which I do with my gaming friend and fellow geek Bo on the local community PBS style radio station, many topics that interest me from Superhero and genre film to fantasy fiction and of course gaming are presented. We welcome new listeners and fellow game geeks. 

Speaking of podcasts and/or non print material, I rather agree with this youtuber's take in defense of third edition.  Enjoy!

Video of the week: Which version of Wow should I play in 2023?

 

Force Gaming's video on Wow is my pick for video of the week, considering I am planning to play wow again in the coming year. First up, apologies for the very infrequent posts this season, but when RL gets in the way, social media becomes an easier way to communicate and to get my message across, especially when my Youtube hasn't been updated.

So I got the itch to venture back into mmos, specifically Azeroth. The main reason I had stopped playing it was due to the fact I was getting too many disconnects at my new place where the internet is not optimal. 

That and the fact I found a regular gaming group IRL for a weekly D&D table top role playing game session.

Prior to this I had been playing hardcore in non-official servers but Blizzard finally realized how popular (and lucrative for them) that game mode has turned out to be and they finally created official hardcore servers.

On the retail side, I leveled up my undead rogue up to 18, but I am interested in trying out Chromie time and replaying some of the old content, even though in order to do so you need to have at least one character at max. Nevertheless, despite having to start on Battle for Azeroth, whose starting zone is my least favorite one for horde, I managed to have fun chatting my friends on discord and enjoying some game time on Christmas vacation.

So which game will I play moving forward? I am thinking classic hardcore, even though it requires a subscription, that game mode is great for the same reasons I think D&D old school is great: A more dangerous game and therefore more of a challenge than easy mode. What gamer doesn't love a challenge if given a choice? In fact this type of permadeth gaming has been around for a while, I remember blogging about it in the past for games like DDO, for example.

I also heard that it was announced in this year's Blizzcon that the next three expansions of the retail version of the game will all be interconnected in terms of story. This is a mixed bag as far as I am concerned. For the little I played of BfA, the story wasn't great, it was just OK. The jailer is only a meh villain, even though what they did with Sylvanas was interesting. I don't admit to be very knowledgeable about that, although I really like the lore of the game, especially when it comes to the horde, that was never the sole sticking point of venturing in Azeroth for me. The interactive experience of figuring things out and later seeking out a guild to play with, that is the social aspect of mmos is what I mostly look for in these types of online activities.

"Season of discovery" mode is also interesting to me because I have not tried it out. The idea of discoveries in game is not new, I have encounter similar experiences in other games, but the way Blizzard is implementing with open world pvp events really appeal to me because I love pvp, but not necessarily pvp servers. Not to mention the open world pvp zones in classic and the progression servers where you can play Cataclysm and older expansions. 

I want social interaction in my mmo? Weird I know. I will have more to say about this in future videos. Happy Holidays to all. 

4E PHB vs. 5E which one is the better resource?

 I think the 4E nudges the current one by just a bit, what do you all think?

Emergent story and different modalities of D&D

image courtesy of Patrick O'Neill Riley, Britannica

 I am sorry that I have neglected this blog of late.

My goal for the balance of this last quarter of the year is to update more often with my ruminations and thoughts about the games I am running or am participating in.

These days that means D&D, 5e is still at the top of the mountain for TTRPGs as far as I am concerned and even though I will be taking a more detailed look at Wotc's UA for the new system they are going to roll out next year, or whenever, I have invested heavily into 5e, as have many others and I don't really see myself stepping away from it anytime soon, similarly to how it took a while to transition from 4e to 5e. 

Of course, things have changed a whole lot in the hobby in the last 15 years or so since we bid adieu to 4e and embraced the "new" edition.

But the more things change, the more they stay the same. In some ways, some things have not really changed. For example, today I carved out some time to play at my local game store when I found out via text message that they were offering free space and tables at which to participate in regular games. 

When I arrived however, the guy at the counter told me that no one else had shown up, and after his lunch hour he was going to reopen to see if anyone showed up for a planning session. So this illustrates how hard it is to find a regular group initially, which has traditionally been a recurring problem to a lot of enthusiasts of D&D and games of a similar ilk.

Now it is immensely easier to find a game online utilizing digital platforms such as Owlbear and Roll 20, which is exactly what I will be doing tomorrow night as I have been invited to rejoin a group which is play testing the new UA classes and mechanics in a digital format. I engaged in this once before earlier this year before things became too hectic, but now I am carving out some time to do it again before the new system drops in 2024.

Different modalities of D&D and running game sessions

Recently I have become very interested in becoming a better DM for the group I have been running game sessions for now for over a year and a half. We play every other week, which sometimes feels like a lifetime when it comes to immersion and having a pause in the narrative, but in my spare time I was doing a lot of prepping and studying how others engage in this same exercise, trying to run the perfect game session. Nowadays rather than having a strict linear adventure, I am really wanting to run games with a more emergent story. I have learned a lot and will probably elaborate more on this topic as part of a more in-depth blog post.

For now, I will leave by saying, I am not sure who, if anybody, is reading this blog on a regular basis, but to you out there who may have stumbled upon it, welcome. And may the rolls be with you.

I do however want to share with some very interesting channels and forums which expand upon these topics which I find interesting starting with: 

D&D box sets: Retro component review

 A little over a year ago I looked at the 3.5 boxed set for D&D from 2006 by Wizards of the Coast and the 2010 set which went along with the 4e Essentials line. Both really nice boxed sets in my opinion and both better than then 2022 Starter Set: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle, if you are going by components and a few other factors. The best boxed set adventure for my money remains the 2014 5e Starter set adventure, it's hard to beat that adventure for both new DMs and players getting into the hobby, but as far as starter box sets go, these are some good ones. 

I will have a new video soon going more in depth into some of these boxed sets, but for now I enjoy looking back at this video, sorry for the quality, I was having trouble focusing using my new SLR at the time. 

Combat in 5e is broken?

 

I have been playing D&D 5th edition on and off for over two years now and have been DMing in a biweekly group since last June and I can honestly say that I believe I had more fun as a player than running campaigns, primarily because I believe the 5e combat mechanics are broken in comparison to older editions of the game.

Now I am no grognard, but I will preface this post by saying that I have played first edition games and ran some basic D&D games (mostly the Meltzer or what gamers call BECMI nowadays) and this is the version I seem to like the most, outside of AD&D first edition.

Why do I say that D&D 5e's combat system is broken? Well let's take a look at page 9 of the Rule book from the new starter set (which basically just condenses some of the key rules from the 2014 PHB) where combat is covered and you will find what I think is the biggest culprit: Step 4 which states that after rolling for initiative, each participant in the battle takes a turn in initiative order. The problem is that by the higher levels, (my players are level 7 now) they have amassed so many abilities and powers, that even a single monster with a CR a level below or above will present little challenge if played as written in their stat block. 

Well you might say that the answer for the DM is to have more of the same types of monsters attacking the party, but this is not always optimal in practicality or even possible due to narrative reasons. Today the party travelled north in the Forgotten Realms and squared off against a B'rohg which was about twice the size of one of the party members, our barbarian, whose pet is a two headed hell hound, never even broke a sweat. Even though the creature has the ability to hurl boulders from a great distance and does possess multiple attacks, it was no match for the party, usually the more members of the adventuring group in a fight, the bigger the advantage they possess due to the sheer number of turns vs. the creature they are fighting, even if the creature has immunities and multiple attacks. 

So in this case, a CR6 monster against a full party of 7th level characters did not stand a chance. Granted, it was only one creature, but usually the party is so much more powerful collectively that if you have a group vs. the characters, the results will be the same, only combat may take slightly longer because you are reducing the health of monsters with slightly over 400 hp instead of the long combatant with only 136.

So even if the creature were to attack with its rend power which can make 49-85 worth of damage in a single attack, it really doesn't matter if the creature rolls low on initiative and never gets a turn at bat. 

The B'rogh doesn't stand a chance even as an expert rock hurler against a full party if he goes up against them alone, even with its large stature and fearsome frame with multiple arms and multi-attack because the players are much more powerful at higher levels and they collectively have more turns to attack it. 

Health and dying

Another problem with 5e which has been well documented and which I won't rehash too much here has to do with the relative ease in which the adventuring group can heal and recuperate health. If they have a cleric in their midst, this procedure is even easier, but let's say that the character is reduced to zero h.p. and fails its death saves (unlikely because the game is set up for recovery of health vs. permadeath), spells can always bring the character back from the brink or even from death itself. What's worse, the short rest and long rest mechanics allow for faster and more effective heals and recovery of spell slots. Of course, in older versions of the game material components were required to perform some of the more intricate spells, but that has been mostly done away with at the DM's discretion. Mostly the spell caster will use a spell focus in lieu of required components.

Lastly, spell casting classes are a bit broken too, with cantrips being powerful at times and which can be repeated over and over without the need to spend spell slots. 

But for me, the most broken mechanic is still the unbalanced combat system. So much so that it has me longing to play BEMCI or a more challenging OSR version of the game. How do all of you out there ameliorate this faulty combat mechanic?

Retro vid: The 80s D&D cartoon. Memorial Day Weekend 2021

A little over two years ago I watched and reviewed the pilot episode of the D&D cartoon entitled "The Night of No Tomorrow"