#aggressivethoughts

[aggressiveworldbuilding]

Dungeons and Dragons is a terrible role playing game.

A thing that bothers me a lot about dnd is that people like dnd because it doesnt hinder them with things like 'rules for rp' and lets them make up their own, when in actuality that is a the halmarks of a Shitty RP game.

The reason its like this? Because dnd is a terrible roleplaying game, but a Fantastic dungeon crawler. Thats what it was designed as after all, a dungeon crawling game with very little character creation beyond crunching numbers - so your characters can be swapped and replaced as needed.

Another modern ttrpg that is like this is Cyberpunk Red (and cyberpunk as a whole) because your characters die super easily in those games. They have to be (relatively) easily replacable.

So when Dnd totes itself as the World's Greatest Role Playing Game (as they do on all their books) I want to rip my eyes out and eat sawdust.

The absolute best example of this? RAW (rules as written) never awards experience for solving problems with roleplay. They provide no guidance for social encounters and how to have meaningful level progression in diplomatic situation beyond "Roll Charisma" or whatever.

Roleplaying game my ass.

[aggressiveworldbuilding]

suggestion for dms - do 'group checks'

when i run skill challenges i often alternate between individual checks, and more 'turnbased' checks. its a little like pathfinder's skill challenges but simpler.

essentially, choose a dc. i usually do the check DC x number of players.

so if i want have 4 players, and want them to have a high chance of success I would do 10 x 4 = 40.

the challenge dc for that round is 40. you can either keep it a secret or tell the party. either is good. everyone has to make a skill check, using an ability they get to decide, so long as they can think of a way it will help.

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Scenario: The party is trying to escape the BBEG with a mcguffin. the barbarian has the item and is running.

Barbarian makes an athletics check to push through the crowd Warlock uses intimidation to clear the road of pedestrians Cleric uses perception to yell directions to the barbarian as they run. Druid uses a spell slot to cast mist wall to distract the enemy.

End Round: Add all results and determine success or fail of that round.

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Even if one of the players fails, there is the chance that the others will help. If a player uses one of their class abilities/spell slot it is an auto success on their individual check.

I usually have between 3-5 rounds of this sort of 'combat'; it makes everything feel more chaotic, and is super versatile for a lot of different situations.

it also allows players to make their own decisions, and become more invested in the scene. maybe the rouge has a special skill they haven't ever been able to use until a chase, or the bard comes up with an elaborate multi-round distraction.

This ensures that there is a higher success rate for them, with help from their friends.

[aggressiveworldbuilding]

Can you rant about WotC's Orcs, please?

Orcs are such a fucking waste and also a byproduct of the Tolkenization of dnd. Orcs are - from LOTR - corrupted elves who chose to become servents of Saron's sugar daddy Morgath or whatever the fuck (can't be bothered to look up the asshole's name rn) so the reason they are 'evil' isn't bc they are biologically bad because they are orcs - its because they chose to serve the Big Bad Evil TM. or were tortured? p sure the first ones chose to but not the point

There are So Many cool monsters mentioned in passing in one of the books and the most mudane boring bland ass 'hur dur they evil' tone to all of the descriptions. WHy. You are telling me there is a whole section on orcs that ride flying bats and you made it immediatly unappealing? Your telling me there are badass women who grow out their nails to claws to worship their god and you made them BORING???

The only things i would keep about orcs is their religious fanatisism. I like that about them - i think they deserve a whole well thought out religion, whether it be a highly organized church or a more nebulous worship. A whole pantheon of gods and such. Give it to them. As a treat. Lord knows they need sometjing to validate their holy wars.

Another thing is that it is mentioned that women in their culture are oppressed. Arent you tired of oppressing women WotC? Like - yea okay sure sexism is Yet another thing we should discsluss but why is it the Catholic brand of 'women is object'? If ur gonna fantasy my real life issue, at least consider in the context of the culture Why that is.

Halflings in my lore are sexist towards women, because rhey have a patriarichal monarchy. HOWEVER. It isnt the same as 'women opressed and must obey man'. Female halflings arent so much as oppressed as forgotten. They are a legal loophole - many rights (and offenses) simply doesnt apply to half the populatuon because the inheritance of property is so important to them - ans can only be passed on by men.

Is it good? No. Is it right? No - but thats not the point. No society is "good or bad" inherantly. Its how a society interacts with the morals ans values of another that dictates how it is perceived. So Orcs are likely 'evil' to creatures who dont beleive in their holy violence. But that doesnt mean they eat babies or whatever.

Tldr: orcs are to evil what elves are to good - a rip off and cop out. Use ur brain ans actually tell me sometjint abt them besides rhey kill people and are religious - you just described Paladins and Clerics!!!! And also catholics

[aggressiveworldbuilding]

i hate elves.

i say this, having played an elf before so i know why powergamers like them. there is nothing wrong with enjoying the aesthetic of 'twink with a sword' or 'elven accuracy go brrrr'.

but having read the 'elf book' (i think it was the same book as them releasing all the new variants of tieflings? i cant remember now) i was underwhelmed.

Elf lore is that they are basically No Name brand Tolkien elves with none of the interesting, ethereal bits and all of the xenophobia. Which - wanna preface this - there is nothing bad about exploring themes of discrimination in ttrpgs. It just. has to be handled with something other than misinterpreting or straight up copying Lord of the Rings?

I cannot for the life of me find the book it was in, but i remember reading that elves want to travel back to their homeland or feel a call to the beyond or something like that. Which is just. LotR elves but less interesting.

My main issue is that elves in WotC worlds offer nothing new to the genre. They are generic, easily digestible, bland ass creatures. I'm not as familiar with Pf2e lore but at least they actually bring up the problem of different lifespans in their description. Also! Elves change in appearance in pf depending on where they live. so we don't NEED 700 different kinds of elves.

Doing a cursory glance at a wiki (which is sad that only Fandom has info on WotC. one would think they would care more about their lore.) I get this.

This is everything they have on the general culture for elves. If i click into the lore sections for Sun Elves, it provides me with a little bit more - which is nice.

only issue is that Sun Elves aren't a thing anymore.

The most expansive lore for elves is. Drow. Eughhhhhh spider sex cult.

anyone who knows me irl has gotten the Drow Rant before; but recently I changed my mind. I don't hate Drow for what they do - but rather how it is presented.

Drow are an 'Evil Race' - although not Naturally Evil like Orcs (which was wild to read and i have a bone to pick abt that)

Yet their lore emphasizes that 'all' drow have a massive superiority complex, a lack of conventional morality, are vengeful, taught to be power hungry, and mistrust everyone around them - even the ones that don't want to be 'evil'. And you know what?

Thats rad! I like that!

There is a non-perfect society that doesn't always get along with itself. Granted the reason they provide as to why Drow haven't just killed each other is kindof a cop-out but with very minimal tweaking you might actually have something. The only thing i don't really like abt drow is that there is no 'good' or redeeming traits about them. Culture is 2 sides of the same coin; for every horrible policy, there was something relatively good. Maybe their judicial system is tight. Maybe they have great infrastructure. Idk but I want to know more.

i should make a post abt them.

Anyways TLDR: Elves deserve better. I find them bland because they are just empty husks stolen from Lord of the Rings, and half their lore no longer applies to modern dnd. Drow are the only semi-fleshed out elves and that scares me bc they are a spider sex cult. ;/

[aggressiveworldbuilding]

ttrpg creatures are interesting - in that there is a lot you can do with them.

ill use kenku/tengu as an example. wotc made it (at one point) that they can only mimic noises and i think thats neat. but why don't they go further with their obsession with sound?

why not make their clothing have beads on them that make noise - and its a fashion statement to make specific noises? why not make kenku have names that are onomatopoeia of sounds they like?

it seems like a waste to put something so integral to their species as a throwaway line that the company inevitably got rid of bc it made them harder to rp.

[aggressiveworldbuilding]

A follow up on Drow: How I would write it

a quick post on drow - which i had to delete from the 'elf' post bc it was getting too long. if i were to re-write drow i would:

a) give them more choice for religion. I don't mind a domineering religion but for me - personally- its a bit overused. If you like that, go ahead. Keep the competition, keep the backstabbing and the power-hungryness of the culture. Contrary to popular belief, you don't need a evil deity to have a backstabbing subterfuge plotline.

for player interest, this lets people play the character they want to play while still being thematically relevant to the story you are telling.

b) figure out their hierarchy. exactly what kind of hierarchy drow use. Is it a caste system? do they use ascribed or achieved status? To what extent is there social mobility? what sort of judicial system do they use? Is there any way to progress beyond owning material things?

Most players don't have to adhere to this rule. I would make a General Cultural rule for that group if a player wants to get the 'vibe' of the group. It doesn't work like that in real life - but thats the limitations of ttrpgs.

c) Decide your personal stance on slavery in ttrpgs: It is mentioned that slavery is used by drow, and then never really expanded on. Understandably WotC doesn't want to touch on this - with the backlash that Paizo received. Slavery - like discrimination - is something that can be discussed in ttrpgs. it has to be handled with care and respect, which can take a lot of research.

But removing it entirely also doesn't solve anything. You can run an entire campaign where the players are fighting against slavery. Hell, Out of the Abyss starts with the players escaping confinement themselves. If you don't want to use that idea then, again, no one is making you use it. But it is something you have to decide on in the beginning.

A side note: idk why drow bother to go on surface raids to capture people why they already have a hierarchy system, which has people in lower social statues.

If i had to choose cultures to research with regards to that, I would look to Mesoamerica, specifically Aztec indentured servitude within their own people and the Roman Empire. (if you think all of Mexico was Aztec, you are wrong and i encourage you to do your research

[aggressiveworldbuilding]

I dont get why languages always play such a small part in ttrpgs. I think the best ttrpg ive played with regards to how language is handled was call of cthulu. Cthuhlu. Whatever.

Since its a d10 system, its percentage based which is great. "Hell yea i speak 25% french. Let me be the translator. What could POSSIBLY GO WRONG?"

I wish that ttrpgs focused more on language families and dialects. I love the idea that kobold draconic and dragonborn draconic are at their core the same, but the two wouldnt understand one another. Or like Sylvann and Elvish being similar to German and English. The basics are similar but when someone starts speaking fast i have No Idea what is Happening.

In my personal worldbuilding, Goblins are the oldest sentiant creatures, so most later languages evolved from it. That way, many cultures can sort of understand one another - making obscure languages like Giant less useless to players.

- Infact, a lil fun fact is that Ancient Goblin dialect is the native language of Dragons, who only learn draconic to communicate with kobolds or dragonborn. I just think its a wasted opportunity.

TLDR: Give me Fantasy Quebec French vs Fantasy France French in ttrpgs..make them fight. Or kiss. Or whateve

[aggressiveworldbuilding]

HALFLINGS. Why they gotta be so damn nice?

imma be real I haven't read halfling lore for the most part in pathfinder - but DnD! WHy Did you do it like that!

Its Fucking ELVES all over again! FUCK!

Yes hobbits are from LOTR but i prommy you can change them from the original concept. WotC designers are you at gunpoint. I imagine you are all very creative talented people. Why do you keep reusing ideas??

Anyways.

I like the concept of halflings, more than the execution. If i were to rewrite them (i have, and ill get around to posting all my ideas one day) i made them much more feudally organized, with houses and lords and a King of the Halflings. I made them community focused - less on supporting the whole and more about supporting "us" rather than "them".

I also did a LotR, but as a steryotype of halflings. Halfling honor dictates that they acheive perfection in their chosen job - usually associated with their house. In halfing society, a halfing isnt punished for what they were trying to achieve, they are punished for failing to do it.

So a thief is a perfectly respectable career path, so long as the thief isnt the initiator of the crime. Hes basically a paid contractor who is only punished if he fails to steal. The person who hired him (and i say him for a very specific reason ill get into when i Get My Life Together) is the one who is persecuted.

So a halfling assassin or thief in human society would behave very differently to being caught than a human would. They are a lawyers worst nightmare

REMEMBER. NEVER ADMIT YOU ARE GUILTY YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO SHUT THE FUCK UP.