My Thoughts on Monsters of the Multiverse
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- Опубликовано: 19 авг 2024
- Mordenkainen presents Monsters of the Multiverse
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aj pickett, the mighty gluestick, dungeons and dragons, roleplaying, tabletop, 5E, 5th edition, faerun, toril, forgotten realms, Eberron, pen and paper, Dungeons and dragons lore, monsters, magic, magic items, monster ecology, greyhawk, mystara, krynn, golarion, spelljammer, planescape, homebrew, live stream, Magic the Gathering, Wizards of the Coast, WotC, Ravnica, Ravenloft, Theros, Strixhaven, Fizban, Mordenkainen, Drizzt, cosmology, planescape, spelljammer, lore, stories, outer planes, elemental, artifact, toril, faerun
I agree with your mentality on this. I am not the biggest fan of the choices they are leaning into for this for my own personal campaigns, but like with everything, I do not have to use them. If players are more used to a more blank slate for races, it only means its pretty much easier for me to use homebrew settings or alter "lore" as I see fit for my own games. I've leaned too far into 3rd party content at this point to be overly concerned about what wotc does but I do feel like they are just missing the opportunity that exists with worldsettings and how inspired they can make both DMs and players feel about participating in a campaign.
Exactly.
@@AJPickett Not really, from a business perspective, or players economic perspective, they should have done this from the get go. They've re-released content that most players already have, and some of them were literally released only months ago with WBtW. We've had an astoundingly small amount of new content in 5e which is the largest complaint across the board, only exacerbated by wokeness, balance issues, and the odd choice to cap most content at 12th level. Fact is this book is trash, it's got watered down races from other books to remove "insensitive lore", and otherwise adds the same stat block. This could be done for free with an errata, and already was in the case of Volos, Tashas, and MtoF. You're being sold old contents at full price with a spiffy bow tie. It's pretty shitty.
@@GrandBreaker they are releasing new stats and mechanics, updates as well for what around 300+ monsters that have existed since the monster manual, to bring them more in line with their current design philosophy and likely to adress the power creep that is beginning to be evident. While i could understand the frustration, i dont quite agree with the decision to simply launch a series of wide spread errata, when the amount of work it will likely take anyway, would be so extensive(depending on how much they are changing, if its like fizbans treasury and we are getting full indepth lore, treasure possibilities, personality charts etc then that would be great i think we can agree) that id feel kind of bad not paying for such a volume and supporting a hobby with which i have held dear for nigh a decade.
The one thing I miss most from previous editions that I feel would be right at home in 5e is gimmicky racial features. One that resonates me is the old Modron racial ability of having a set initiative. These gimmicks can allow races to remain separate without railroading players into a specific playstyle.
I agree
I wouldn't call them "gimmicky", but I'd say that it would be really cool to see more mechanics-centric or creative racial and gameplay options! I've always believed that mechanics define a games narrative, so you should be able to start design from mechanics and inform narratives from it!
I agree.
As far as the Phlogiston/ transitive planes issue; I've never senn it as a this or that kind of thing. When I started back in Advanced, there was this idea of the Ordinal plane. A speculative 3rd transitive plane that should of, by the rule of threes, existed. It was presented as planar folks in Sigil trying to explain the phlogiston they had heard of, but never seen. I also remember reading about a tavern in Sigil called "The Portaljammer" that was converted from a spelljammer ship that had literally gotten jammed in a portal.
Portaljammer sounds dope as hell. But it makes me wish that there was more interplay between the spelljammer and planescape settings. Like portal using spell ships or something.
“Doesn’t change much in practical gameplay”: excepts strips the flavor from them wholly.
What about the actual features? Aren’t those more important to flavour given that they go deeper than fairly arbitrary ASIs?
@@OakenTome depends how one defines “flavor”, I suppose. It is all option at the end of the day, but there is a difference in quality between rotgut and elven wine. Sure, they’ll both get you drunk, but one is far more enjoyable. Take a 3.5 vampire for instance and compare it to a 5e vampire. There’s no denying which is more flavorful. But some people prefer the cardboard box taste of TV dinners over fine cuisine, as weird as that is.
I think I have to disagree on the “these are just options, they can’t hurt you.” While, no, they cannot physically hurt oneself, what this book presents (and this is illustrated by a few others in the comments below) is a divide in play. Between low magic and high magic. Further, it presents a mechanical divide between player options. Such a divide may well indeed create pockets of players and DM’s who ONLY use the pre-multiverse rules, and those who ONLY use the post-Multiverse/MtG integration rules. Thereby decreasing the overall player pool (especially online) that any one GM or player can pull from that fits their particular leanings. So while they can’t physically hurt you, these rules options might actually harm one’s ability to find groups.
Let alone the money grab that is this book not shipping on its own in any form for the next 3/4 months, which only increases a lot of player/DM animosity toward the release of the product and may be coloring the way we all see these new rules additions.
That being said, great video and good take AJ. Keep ‘em coming!
Agree with this 100%. I’m an old school player and I play in games with people who use these new rules. It makes playing with them so difficult because they simply have such a different mindset of how the game works.
I've always been a 3.5 or die kinda guy. I never minded the steady progression of a character because it makes it feel more satisfying when you reach the upper echelons of your class. If I'm playing as a Druid who wants to become a member of the Verdant Grove, I gotta EARN the right to make the forest move, I don't want to get it sooner than later. However I also understand WOTC's desire to get more people playing. If they need to make things "easier" so be it, but we don't have to swallow that pill if we don't want to.
Thanks for this AJ! I admit I am a bit reluctant to accept the loosening of the lore effects on game mechanics. I find that more often than not I look to 3.5e as the most comprehensive version as far as lore is concerned, thus a more fertile ground for drawing ideas from. When I think of D&D narratively, the lore of 3.5 just seems to fit the best in my opinion. Maybe that is just a knee-jerk reaction to new stuff, but I kind of feel that things are getting watered down a bit in the interest of accessibility. Characters feel more like anime protagonists, destined for great things, rather than just ordinary people in a fantasy world who can become great through hard work and sacrifice. I hope that makes sense.
Oh it does, I get it, I'm just in the habit of going with the new books and developments and seeing where it all ends up :)
I think it is and that's okay.
We haven't lost 3.5 (I see lfg chats with crossed out 3.5 games all the time)
But gained 5e and 5.5
I could not get my husband to play 3.5 for years but 5e was the gateway (we now play FATE but that's besides the point)
Really? I kind of feel the opposite. Old mechanics (and thus lore) on alignment was massively proscriptive rather than descriptive. Making a "good" character meant that you were destined for "good" things unless your DM was willing to have a gross moral argument with you at the table.
Also, which lore? DnD has always had many settings, so why bother favoring one when you have multiple IP's? I'm a big Eberron fan over FR, so having people come at me saying "orcs have to be evil!" just kind of seems like the whining of a spoiled kid who isn't being the only one specifically catered to for once in their lives.
I started with 2ed, but I've played all of them, even if retroactively. I agree that 3/3.5 felt like a real sweet spot between the lore/mechanics, fluff/crunch aspects of the game. Not trying to start an edition war though 😅
@@monsieurdorgat6864 At my tables, moral alignments were always just guidelines; what does good look like order/chaos being how an ethical code either externally or internally.
Take a lich for example and compare how a lawful lich might look; perhaps the lich keeps an extensive codex of laws but a chaotic lich does whatever they feel appropriate for a situation. A very simple example but I hope I make the point: for me, alignment is descriptive of how a being defines their morality or ethical process, not an inherent property of the setting that yanks the character around as if they had a leash.
I do agree with the many settings comparison. An FR orc isn't necessarily the same as an orc from any other setting. Generally, with organic entities, I try to not think of them as a monolith. Humans aren't a monolith, so why should any other race? Dragons are perhaps the only group where I'd be a bit more fixed on how an individual should act. A black dragon from any setting is going to be a mean S.O.B., regardless of the setting. It would be nigh impossible for me to envisage a good or lawful black dragon. Something intensely magical would have had to take place for something like that to happen, in my opinion.
Hmm for thes past 3 so years it has been feeling that 3 party books have been offering far more solid, interesting and creative content compared to the WotC crew has given at same time frame.
I have used lot of those tools more and often has been far more help full in home brewing.
Agreed
It's why I'm writing my own setting guide.
I’m writing my own, mostly outta spite, not at WOTC but at someone who got offended that I basically made a Tribal lizardfolk.
@@harrygunter6805 that is a weird thing to get upset about. They've always been tribal haven't they?
@@DreadnoughtFiend I know which is weird, but this friend also is offended by people saying skinwalker and other stuff which explains a lot to me.
"....everything in these books are just options. They can't hurt you..."
Might be the best AJ quote ever
They can’t hurt you but they can hurt the game. Most tables run official content and it becomes the norm.
The “it’s no big deal bro” argument is mentally lazy.
Eh good point, i guess between star wars, star trek, the elder scrolls, warhammer, MTG, never mind my comic books, and D&D ive felt like nerd culture going mainstream is the worst thing that ever happened to it. Somehow Battletech remains the last one unaffected by modern meddling. I miss when we were merry bands of misfits who welcomed anyone or anything that was a black sheep. Its surreal hearing time and again some modern push to do away with the established fan base. I miss when local gaming clubs were just a nice place to gather and paint miniatures and all the crap of the outside world stayed outside.
@@Kiyomoto657 It might hurt "the game", but it doesn't effect my game, at all. I have never played D&D to conform to anybody's norms, nor has anybody I've ever played with, so that point falls a little flat. If I hate everything WotC puts out from now until the heat death of the universe, I'll be just fine. Ffs, when I was 11 and my nephew was significantly younger, we authored a rudimentary ttrpg and had a blast playing it. I feel like if all of D&D goes completely to hell, I can just continue playing what 5e I'm currently using indefinitely, or just come up with my own, and so can almost anyone else. It's actually no big deal, bro
@@mikewaterfield3599 I agree completely. I knew when D&D got mainstream attention that people would start taking umbrage with certain aspects of the lore and mechanics and try to fix what isn't broken 🙄
@@mikewaterfield3599 it really is the worst thing that happened to it.
As someone who's been a long time fan of both D&d, AND Mtg, which I have been playing since I was 6 years old, I have to say I am glad that they are trying to expand their horizons. Back when I first started D&d, in 3.5, it always felt like there was only one world you could even play in, or you weren't playing D&d. I was so excited when GGtR came out, as that was, by far, my favorite plane of existence from Mtg, and relished the idea of seeing in-world characters from that plane in a D&d game. I get that not a lot of people like, or are into, Mtg, but knowing what I know(from having read the Mtg comics and novels), there is a plethora of insanely good stories and campaign settings to still introduce. And with the way places like The 9 Hells, The Abyss, and other similar "extra-planar" places already in D&d lore, Mtg has similar already, so it would be an easy conversion, with many fun things to see and experience. And there's no shortage of multiversal threats, either, ranging from Eldrazi, to Nicol Bolas, to Phyrexia. I personally hope they do come out with more Mtg based books, as I'd gobble them up like candy.
Edit: Spelling correction.
Hey AJ, interesting and informative video. Hadn't seen the cover yet. That flying horse on the cover, love that look and feel. Scared and curious of the future of D&D.
Thanks AJ, you have a wonderful day!
That flying horse is a Ki'rin, a kind of celestial dragon horse champion and fighter of evil, highly intelligent non-humanoid race.. Mordenkainen undoubtedly is using some sort of mind control magic on it, because he is dodgy as hell.
@@AJPickett Or is it possible (and thus potentially horrifying) that this Ki'rin is itself a dodgy bastard?
@@dhalterman We better check that horse-dragon's search history.
My only concern with going to a more MtG centered approach is that so far the MtG books have been either ok or felt a bit undercooked.
I don't think straight copy/pasting the world's into D&D will resonate as well with the sort of narrative storytelling you mentioned. MtG always struck me as nothing much happens until the world damn near ends.
Melodramatic and exciting, yes! Chance for some slice of life and character driven narrative? Didn't see a lot of that in the Ravnica book, but I may need to give it another read.
Yeah, Ravnica is a three book setting crammed into a too small book, its begging for expansion.
I've used the Plane-shift MTG that WotC published for 5e to spice up my games.
Ixilan, Theros, Amonkhet, along with inspiration from Mummy 2, Peter Jackson Kong and others made Chult very scary for my players.
@@AJPickett agreed. And like it's fine if they just want to give us broad strokes books, show us a lot of a world, but the best parts of Wizards books for me have always been the tiny bits of character the writers put in.
Gnome illithids in Frost Maiden, the magic academy and Alterdeep in Undermountain (also sports-commentating Hallister... Really just all of Undermoubtain), a gold dragon that runs a used bookstore called Bookwyrm, giant spider-web skating goblins or a giant overfed cat of a dragon from Abyss...
Also the small bits that don't really matter to a quest like meeting a tavernkeeper who lost her wife in Storm Giants, then finding her wife in Undermountain, or the toy maker that makes incredibly goth toys in Strahd.
I worry we aren't gonna see a lot of that time-wasting nonsense in new books.
I really hope that the older DnD settings get some more love before anymore MtG stuff. We need Oerth to Athas Spelljammer routes!
I will always lament the death of crunch but this really just seems to be keeping in line with what Wizards has been doing for the past few years. Honestly at this point, I'm just happy that we're still using numbers and stats and haven't moved to Skyrim-esc or to a Fate style of RPG.
I will probably always be in the 3.5/Pathfinder camp but people like you, Mr Rhexx, and others got me past my predispisitions to even try 5e.
This is the obvious choice that Marvel and DC have both done. It's business motivated. They want to release 5 new books a year. That's difficult to do when it's all Sword Coast connected. Now they can release three different settings right in a row.
They bring back old D&D stuff because the reboot is the common move now.
I love that you jump into videos and get right to it. then when you said what you need to the video ends no fluff. I’m glad to see there getting more open ended. I love keeping my game open ended if my players wanna leave my home brew world and find a new one they certainly can
I'm excited to see how the franchise expands. There are so many community supported projects out there. I feel that an official book referencing the multiverse reinforces the vast community aspect of the game. Feeling excited for the future.
of course my mans first question is lore, never change AJ, never change
I'm excited for the expansion. I'm happy to see more settings as I'd been treating the various settings at a multiverse anyway.
The only thing I don't like is the stripping away of flavor in favor of universal application. Settings imply theme. If they want to have the playable races be made more blank slate in their base game they'd better have variant features available by setting. Otherwise they're just watering down the settings to make them easier to fit together and that doesn't make for a fun multiverse. Would Loki have been as fun if the variants were all the same? Heck no! We need old loki, president loki, gator loki, etc to make everything feel interesting.
Oh well. On a positive note, this keeps my dream of having a big 5e/MtG crossover event where the Phyrexians are the multiversal BBEG.
Phyrexians in DnD is hype.
As for setting-specific rules, it kind of seems like they're interested in shoehorning that stuff into setting-specific DM books. This way, player materials and infrastructure are universal for all games, while DMs inform players of the setting-specific adjustments for the setting they want to use.
Think of setting-specific races and classes from previous setting books they've released. The entire thing is meant to be pretty modular.
@@monsieurdorgat6864 I hope so. What I'm seeing so far is the setting flavor stripped out without it really showing up elsewhere, but this is also the first step into these new style of books so I'll remain hopeful.
@@DStrormer I mean, I'm an Eberron fan and I there are already official Eberron source books that detail what to expect from different races of Eberron, which have always been different from Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk.
Now Eberron and various other settings are on the same playing field as those other two settings. It's not stripping out flavor, it's not assuming a default (a huge plus in a community that increasingly focuses on different or homebrew settings).
The problem is the more open it is the more replaceable with homebrew it becomes. I'm slowly seeing less point in buying the new books. Would be a pity if that's how it ends bababa
I think they could go a long way further in supporting homebrew play, after all, they KNOW that the majority of their customers end up playing that way.
@@AJPickett true! Always hoping for a good outcome for a game we all love
For what the opinion of someone who has watched/read more dnd content than played is worth, I feel the same way. You can pick and choose what mechanics and lore suit your table the best so the more dnd does to make that easier, the better.
As with all rules, stats, and lore presented in a book, if I don't like it, a post-it note filled with my version will end up stuck over it, thus making it palatable and playable.
That's kind of the point. They give you a framework, and you make of it what you want.
@@monsieurdorgat6864 if that's what you end up doing, there's no reason to buy any of the books.
@@TheWonkster No, you get some books for the framework and other books for the specifics.
You still need the PHB, DMG, and MM for most things. If you want setting-specific information, you get it from a setting-specific book.
Or, if you're really opinionated about something, homebrew as always.
As someone who has spend years struggling to make my D&D world a very low magic game where races are naturally evolved and real creatures I find it to be disturbing that they’re leaning even heavier into all things being magic in 5e. I will not be buying any more 5e books or allowing use of anything past Strixhaven in my world but I hope those who enjoy high magic settings find joy in the new multiverse norm if the setting.
As per another person's comment, it's not about conforming to specific settings - it's the opposite. They want to be able to release books about different settings in their IP portfolio but have their core rulebooks and player options cover all of them so that DMs and players feel empowered to pick and choose what they want.
I wouldn't be shocked if they did include some lower magic settings in the future. As you noted, the Acquisitions Incorporated/MTG style games are popular but not necessarily definitive.
I mean it doesn't even seem like that much of a challenge to run a low magic game. Homebrew some rules limiting how your players regain magic slots or perhaps limit magical items or such really nothing too hard about it
I don’t know why people insist on putting a bunch of work into making D&D low magic. Play a different system, lmao.
Less work, more fun.
@@brontsmoth671 while i agree at face value, i dont think that the act of making a setting lower magic should even be much work at all. Like if i wanted to i could run a game just like lord of the rings the hobbit, or the main trilogy and just end it around say 10th level then move on. its really simple.
3:33 Phyrexians must never find Atropus!
Really dig your point-of-view on this. And "they can't hurt you" sealed the deal on this fantastic informational review. Cheers, my friend!
Except it’s not true. It’s putting a solid divide down the middle of the player base, which is hurting people’s abilities to find games they enjoy playing in. It’s hurting people alright, just not how you’d expect.
And, more because my side of seeking coherence, I do think the ASI should be fixed *but only in the physical attributes.*
Because the reason is that your race represent your biology and the biology of a race is *constant*.
Not really elaborating something, but could be:
Medium Size Races: +2 to STR, CON or DEX and +1 to any mental attribute of your choice.
Small Size Race: +1 to STR, CON or DEX and +2 to any mental attribute of your choice.
That would work much better as a rule not allowing certain stats to be below 10 for certain races. Like if your orc is a wizard that trained as a wizard all their life then by all means give them a +2 int and +1 wis. But I guess that means Cha and/or Dex are going to be your dump stats because your Str and Con can't be lower than 10.
While some things are good I'm worried that there will be less "flesh" to a lot of the content going forward. While they make races less restrictive, I feel a lot are missing a bit of fluff along with that lack of restriction. Specific a lack of "culture" of that race. While it can be understood that in a diverse society a specific culture a race has may be unusual, they don't seem to be replacing it with separate cultures, i.e. the people of X territory, etc.
I get the feeling they are leaving more and more up to DMs to craft their own story and while positive to some, it also leads me to think....why buy their stuff if they're just going to have us make up most of it anyways.
I think there will be a lot more "stuff" in the future but it will be very shallow. Like "here's a Frog race." "Here is an owl race" "Here is a werebear monster" "here is a magical sword with X properties" but no more than that.
I like having some depth that allows me to work things into a story, like weaving in existing lore into a narrative I create. If they are shallow it just becomes putting something down here and there and that's it.
Or go a little further and give us a world builders system, random roll tables for everything! Also, random roll system for demon mobs would be handy.
@@AJPickett I don't mean to be negative but I think that's wishful thinking, I agree with tear they have in the past had the ability to do this but haven't, and the tables they have made so far are rather shallow and one note, Wolc has gotten pretty lazy about details, I'm not saying everything they make is that way but it's still alot of stuff that just is boring or a super small list of things
I just hope I'm wrong and they step up there game
Thanks for the video. I’m really curious about getting this book, but I’m also very hesitant due to the fact that they’re gonna be changing things and they’re being vague about what is coming. I don’t wanna keep pumping money into a system that is going to take a left turn, though I doubt they’ll depart from 5e that abruptly.
Long time listener and lover of your work AJ! Keep up the awesome work my friend. I'd love to hear a lore dump of Asmodeus from you!
I am surprised they included changeling and shifter but not the warforged as those are both more lore imbedded in there setting and as you (AJ) have pointed out warforged work veryy well in other places wit very little if any change.
Also they are trying to use the rules for the Ebberon doppelganger derived changelings to stand in for the fey derived creature of myth which should have different stats and in fact there is a version from 2e that are descended from hags and fit the myth and is nothing like the Ebberon changeling.
I'm very happy the amount of races that they put in there, but I do wish they didn't stop so soon and placed all available races in the book. It would be less books to carry from place to place for me. Loxodon and Warforged would have been a great insert for the book. I love those races.
I find it ironic that they proudly proclaim this book makes all of the content within setting agnostic, but then go on to add a new aspect to goblinoids (having fey origins), which is a detail that can mess up the lore of some settings. They did the same with the material plane origin story in Fizban's. They claim one thing, but their actions are different.
I think that they simply do not care about existing old lore. Let them shift to new settings and not mess up the old ones. I dont have to accept new lore from someone who isnt at al concerned about old.
@@Xardis True
Your goblins don't have fey origins? Mine are related to the wild elves. Quick-breeding and highly mutable, unlike their elven cousins.
Yeah i work with an older guy who has been in it since the start almost. He looks at me like I'm nuts for some of my more out there epic setting ideas.
I prefer this, tbh. What I love about Forgotten Realms is primarily and solely from the novels that I grew up reading. Very little of it makes it to the tabletop material, for example the culture of the Vayemniri of Djerad Thymar was entirely missing from the dragonborn section of Fizbans…which also tried to say song dragons weren’t real…bruh….Elminster had a daughter with a song dragon and another song dragon took part in ending the dragon rage mythal…don’t tell me they don’t exist…Anyway!!! This book can be used as a retcon buffer,
You should make a video on some of the monsters from van rictan guide to ravenloft, would love to see a vid on some of the new vampires such as the Nosferatu or strigoi, or even the vampire mine flayer!
I might indeed.
Damn it maybe I'm too DC comics but I just want some kinda clear multiverse rules or something. Yes I am an A55H0L3
But DC changes their multiverse rules with every single multiverse-spanning event lol
@@TheMightyBattleSquid well those have been few and far between and the rules of timelines are still the same it’s a cross between back the future and dr who but leans towards back to the future
No phlogiston in the new books, but crystal spheres might make an appearance somewhere.
If it were me, I’d place a sci-fantasy world in a crystal sphere in the far realm. The Crystalsphere is a bastion against the madness of that plane and various epic treasures are hidden on that world. So a spelljammer crew might get carried to the far realm and find a safe port in the one island of sanity, then spark a gold rush for the treasures there.
That world could even be Athas, with the gods absence explained as them expending all their power to create the sphere and the depravity and Psionic mutation common there being the proximity of the far realm just beyond the sky.
I do like that idea. I had a crossover game called Dragonhammer where a team of space marines arrive on Toril as it has just emerged from spending tens of thousands of years in a warp storm... so, it fits.
Thank you! Just smoked and cant wait for your voice🤓🖖
Hmmm a book with a three-word alliteration title 🧐🤔
Hi I’m a new dungeon master and I’m running a campaign with a young deep dragon that is going to be there first big boss and I wanted to ask if you could make a video about them and how to role play them
the only thing I wish they didn't do is discontniue the old books on D&D beyond they should have both for sale or give the old book out for free for a little bit for some people to get it if they want the old lore.
100% this. them discontinuing and locking the rules away for only the people who bought them previously is just wrong. Almost comes across as "These are our updates, these are better, you wanna play with the old stuff? too bad, ask your dm and don't use our character creation tool."
I hope you're on the right scent. I love FR and Greenwood's works, but when I first came into DnD, it was during 4e in the setting of Nerath. Then in the transition to DnD-Next and the eventual 5e, whether it be for creative directive reasons or catering to the old school player base (who I absolutely love btw, they are the keepers of the lore), WoTC got shunted into FR. I was disappointed because Nerath was barely scratched imo. There was so much more to see and explore. In 4e vernacular, I'm an explorer player; I love seeing new places, meeting new people, learning new cultures & histories. And between the game, the literature, and the live shows, I feel like FR has been beaten to death. Not saying that I want Nerath in particular to make a comeback (tho that would be awesome) but i hope for a new-Nerath, a new horizon, a new world.
It may interest you that, after conducting a big survey of D&D players, it turns out the "Pyramid of interest" for a D&D game is 59% NPC interaction and Roleplaying, 27% Exploration and Investigation, and 14% Combat. Sounds about right to me.
@@AJPickett that would explain the rules shift and the grinding of the older guard. Though I might just toss a few rule in my book to give em options to bring that older dnd feel.
@@AJPickett should a game be made to make the desired interaction more mechanically satisfying?
ie: should getting what you want via communication or exploring/survival be as mechanically robust as combat?
Not an @ but something I find myself asking as a designer, as the game I like may be far different from what others like.
@@AJPickett that's fascinating. I know that in recent years roleplayers have taken the stage front and center, but I'm frankly shocked that the explorers surpassed the combatants by that wide of a margin. Was this a survey you did?
As someone writing a Setting guide, I find this shift twoard more fluid stuff just kinda.... well Skyrimy. Like folks want different fortnight skins in dnd and not actaully try and get a feel for how a race is, how they interact with the world. Plus they books barely help the DM and force them to do all the work. No random tables for when you need a quick fight, no examples of where these things live, no tools for crafting a world. I hope to help with that with my book, well at least making sure there are rules for when people ask questions or you want to actaully challenge your characters. Or need environment labels, like for a map, seriously 5e literally doesn't have environment labeling system in the core rule books like they used to. What lives in a swamp? You have to read it to get an idea.
As for weather or not they will answer they flotsam question. My guess is they'll probably use the MtG way of planar travel, though the Baldars Gate 3 did have that Mindflayer ship. Honestly don't know if anyone on board at WotC still cares about the old lore, or if they have been over run by Cali folks who have Opinions so strong they'll fire you over em.
Its hard to tell, I do hope they straightened the main sails and don't pull a Games Workshop, I also hope they don't just pivot hard to Video Games(with the rumors of them being bought by Microsoft or Sony floating about im worried.)
Eitherway I do hope they put actaul work in their setting expansions, cause everything feels so empty. And sad.
There is a bunch of environment based lists for the monsters from the monster manual, for some reason it's buried in the middle of the DMG.
Hopefully your book turns out good, it'd be nice to have a 5e equivalent to stuff like Stormwrack or any of the old race books from 3.5
@@whiskeyhound never heard of Stormwrack, ill have to look into it. I'm actually seeing if I can bring back some older rules. Like size connected to height.
Possibly traits, though I think that is pathfinder. I sadly missed the 3.5 hay day and only got to play a single partial campaign of Pathfinder, though I loved the tools in each book.
@@DreadnoughtFiend Also check out Sandstorm, Frostburn and Cityscape if you're looking for more exploration/environment mechanics and material.
I came into d&d in 5e, it's honestly depressing looking at the 3.5 material and seeing just how bare bones 5e stuff actually is, if it wasn't for the 5e classes being a better system for customisation than 3.5, I'd have swapped to playing 3.5 ages ago.
It seems like they’re trying to copy Pathfinder 2e. It’s obvious just hearing about it. Not a ttrpg player, but Pathfinder 2e allows more customization while keeping ancestral skill points. Not to mention backgrounds give characters skill points too to increase ability scores. The class the player chooses also has an effect too.
Just saying that these changes that WOTC are pursuing may be detrimental. Also, pandering to psychos on Twitter will lead to great financial loss.
I don't think this product is pandering to anyone really.
@@AJPickett true, but who says their other products won’t though.
@@AJPickett lol, seriously, it really is though.
Honestly, I think this just allows them to get more creative with the type of content they can create. As much as I would love to see many of the old world settings get officially republished for 5e by WotC, those settings and all of that lore is still available to most of us from the content of older editions, and much of it is made freely available to us online by people like AJ. One of the nice things about 5e is that it is easy to create and homebrew content for, especially if you already have old content to use as a model. I personally would like to see more new content, new worlds, new races, new monsters, and new ideas introduced into the game, because I think that has a lot more potential to add more interesting settings and options that we haven't experienced yet, rather than just rehashing old content. I like to homebrew, so I'm always a fan of new ideas to introduce into the game.
That feel when no official Thri-Keen yet.
I just want my Mantis bug bois who like to monch elves.
Also I really want 5e Athas too.
Cheers, as always, for having a relatively level head on this. One of the downsides of DnD being a game that allows people to shoehorn their "objective morality/worldview" into the game itself is that people get VERY passionate about being very specifically catered to by the "official authority". It's nice to see takes that aren't attempting to make a change towards the freeform into the apocalyptic.
Since the middle eighties, I've been nuts deep, in Dungeons and Dragons. A Dungeon Master, since first edition. I've read hundreds of books. I come HERE, for knowledge. Thank you! =)
*bows* I thank you.
@@AJPickett I look forward, to your teachings. I get excited, when you post. You would have been my best friend, had we crossed paths.
@@AJPickett I have to second that. I started in '83 and you're my own personal Candlekeep.
D&D 6e multiverse monster manual vol.1, vol.2, vol.3, etc…. I can already see it 😁
I have sing a lot of your videos on many different races. But there are 2 that I am interested in that you haven't talked about and I was wondering if you would do a video on them. The Dragonkin, and the Dracon.
Add high-pass filter on your VO recording, set it to 90hz. You can thank me later.
As normal AJ sums it up just right. I was kinda thinking the same... WOTC needs to let us know a general direction.
I don't think your gonna get clarification. Your gonna get more vauge inoffensive lore and simpler mechanics till we just get battle madlibs or something
🤣
I've played a few RPGs that are just like that. (Fiasco for instance)
@@AJPickett
Is Fiasco any good?
Second. The main appeal of dnd to me is the history and lore that makes each setting, race and monster unique and fascinating. And the sheer variety of different things for something as simple as a rat or goblin.
But now their going in a direction that shaves off what makes it unique in favor of fewer, blander generic options. They may as well have sold a book of blank stat sheets. So at this point why care. If I ever play again it will probably be so homebrewed I'll basically be playing something else.
Idk. Everything is going this way hers hoping the lore vids y'all make don't lurch the same way. and that they don't get stuck down the way gw has with Warhammer content recently.
I'm stating to DM a campaign, my first in close to 20 years. Your episodes of tmg are a horde of excellent information, grattitudes. I'm designing my campaigns forADnD era rules and rollplay.Its a campaign over 20 years in the making.ID be very excited to hear thoughts and examples of how that era translates into 5e campaigns and scenarios, specificallywhere has this been done, what path has been outlined that might make something publishable as off brand but coherent to DND? Please enjoy a good beverage as you reply, mate!
"Setting-Agnostic" is just the best phrase and I am stealing it.
Very well said. I've been lamenting lack of lore in 5e since I properly started collecting it, but I always *understood* it. Here's to more directing new fans to old pdfs of books, and things like this channel, I guess.
Suits me :)
D&D where a dog and a cat have the same stats (Elf and a Dwarf).
Perfect example, *takes breath* Are you telling me then that a Saint Bernard has the same Stat bonuses _as a Chihuahua?_ But they are both still dogs.
“Everything in these books are just options they can’t hurt you” depend on if they remove the older version of monsters and races with Errata. That’s the main fear of us Kobold fans
Those older lore bits are still around even if they're no longer canon for this specific version of this specific edition lol
@@TheMightyBattleSquid like I said. We fear the errata, in particular that the old pact tactics kobold is errata out of existence you likely won’t be able to play it at most tables. What dm would let you play something WOTC turned their back on?
While at TTRPG’s the dm makes the rules most games have the understanding that an update means the previous version is invalid, especially when that update involves balance. When was the last time your DM let you do the healing sprinkle with healing spirit?
Some people might take that perspective from MotM, but most will only make that kind of "no old kobold" if there is an Errata and the Kobold isn't in the newest version of Volo's
i dont like some races losing some key featrs that difien the monster pcs like koblods with pact tatacis
Please, just please, for all that is holy, give me a magic style based on MTG instead of the vancian model in a core ruleset... Also, martials getting buffed to compete with magic users would be nice, but that's stated with much doubt as to whether it will occur.
Can you talk about Dire Corbies? I feel like I have no idea what's going on with them or what their for. Something about wars with bats? Also, why do they look exactly like Kenku?
I can look into the dreaded Underdark bird folk for you.
My opinion used to be more split on the flexible ability score increases but now I'm all against it. Power gamers are going to abuse it to no end.
As for the new hobgoblins, I just wish that WOTC made them a collection of linguistic, ethnic, religious grupes and tribes who are the reminents or the descendents of pre Maglubiyet hobos (sorry if I appear like I'm trying to sound like a psudeointellectual).
As a whole Monsters of the multivers given that it's mostly an errata of MToF and Volo's fells like a money grab.
How players build their characters shouldn't matter to anyone but them. Why pigeon hold races?
@@catcha4289 Power gamers gonna power game.
I can understand why removed alignment and honest I do not care so much while a player. But as DM, I'm just never bring any of that races as plot, they are so vague and humans with different skins that I'm just prefer to bring the plot with humans.
Nothing wrong with that, Humans are always up to something...
Races became skins
Succinctly put.
my thoughts is this book makes it harder for new dms and new players. making the game even more intimidating for them to get started. tooooo many choices and now tooo many variations.
It's not even the Forgotten Realms, it's been almost all JUST THE SWORD COAST.
Well, there have been quite a few sourcebooks on the DM's Guild and DriveThruRPG.
@@AJPickett That's true, but you know what I mean AJ. Official material is always set on the Sword Coast. Even TOA, it's just further south on the SC. The setting is so much more than that.
There are some aspects of this book that I'm excited to see once it releases in May (no way in Hell is WotC getting me to pay nearly $200 for one new book and two books I already have just to get the new book early). I'm most excited by the comments acknowledging the goblinoid races' history with Maglubiyet as a conquering god, rather than their original deity, and I'm hopeful in future that we can get some information on what their old gods were like; and the tying them into the Feywild is just a logical step to me given their creative origins.
On a more mechanical side, I'm glad that a d6 is becoming the standard damage line for natural weapons, though it is going to render d4 weapons like the dagger even more irrelevant than they already are. Overall, excited but cautious is how I'd say I feel on this book's updates.
Oh, I should grab my Demihuman Deities book and make a video about the old goblin gods!
Have you already talked about the Titans
My problem with everything becoming so unconnected to the lore with next to no restrictions is that i feel like races, classes and everything literally don't matter narratively anymore. They have become just sets of rules. You no longer choose an elf,you choose what an elf can do. This is not strictly bad but i personally feel like the close about any lore being fluently changable on a dm discretion does the same thing without decreasing the level of individuality races have.
Exactly. It doesn’t encourage storytelling. It just encourages making a character that performs well, mostly in combat.
1:39 *Hears ".5" mentioned. 3.5 Fandom starts vibrating with excitement. :DDDDDD
Ironically, the more restrictions WotC removes from racial traits, the more restrictive characterization will be. Game mechanics are the thing that distinguishes characters from playing just like each other. As mechanics get stripped out, every character will begin to resemble every other, more and more.
maybe, we shall see.
I think the specific exclusion of races like Warforged is a bit odd.. wanting to keep them setting-specific doesn’t hold a lot a water in my eyes, as their stats are plenty sufficient for generic playable constructs. Same could be said for just about any 5e race, as unique as some might be. If it’s meant to be a compendium of the stuff so far (ie. nothing currently in UA like Thri-Kreen), make it one.
The cynic in me is thinking it’s to encourage people to pick up their respective books for the sake of completion, and that part of me also wouldn’t be surprised if they left a few out to maintain the holy number of pages.
Either way, I’m not the audience for this book given that I own everything in it already, so no skin off my back.
Can't argue with you there.
Really excited for the spelljammer expansion that almost *has* to exist due to the design structure. Wanna go to a different world without using a 7th level plot dependent spell? Hop on my Space Hippo Ship!
They streamlined everything, removed everything that made monsters unique.
Switching to pathfinder 2e, WotC does not deserve my money anymore.
There are a great number of alternatives to D&D for fantasy gaming, Fantasy AGE is a great system with good rolls earning "stunts" which make for dynamic play. Basic Fantasy encapsulates the best of OSR style with modern gaming improvements. Lamentations of the Flame Princess is real old school gritty fantasy gaming with a bit of dark humor, then there is always Warhammer Fantasy, still going strong, or Tunnels and Trolls if you want some real history :) If you _really_ love rules crunch, try Palladium Fantasy RPG, the good side there is its a megaversal rule system, so you only need to learn one palladium RPG to play any of their RPG setting books (and there are MANY)
I'm all for a condensed version for races, but I can't help but be annoyed by the ASI for the races. The whole idea of the stat differences for races is to distinguish how that race on average differed from the average human. Dwarves are generally stronger and more hearty, but more gruff than humans (+ to con and str, - to cha)... elves are more agile and educated, but frailer (+ to Dex and Int, - to Con), etc. I'll get over it eventually I'm sure as I acknowledge that those generalities may not apply to a given setting, but it tends to hold true in most that I'm familiar with, so.... harrumph.
That said, I hope this, combined with that UA that came out late last year, means we're bringing back spelljammers, because I'd love to see a canonically established 5e way to transit between crystal spheres besides 'Dream of the Blue Veil' from Tasha's. I've got a PDF that does the work of adapting old spelljammer rules to 5e, but having WotC do the work would be nice and I'm excited to see what they do.
That's just it, the *average*. The thing is PCs were already considered abnormal most if not all of the time for the sake of the story. Some races, like orcs or lizardfolk, tend to get int and/or wis boosts for example.
@@TheMightyBattleSquid that's my point. On average, these different races (species) vary away from the human norm in the following XYZ ways. All races have 10 in every stat, plus or minus racial modifiers. PCs roll for stats.... THAT'S the real variance
@@popularopinion1 To me, the differences in races are much better represented by the abilities you give them. Races that are more physically or mentally inclined inevitably have abilities that suit those traits, so set ASIs look a little redundant. An Orc’s traits already heavily emphasize melee combat, do they need ASIs that make them weaker at non-melee classes than others too?
The forgotten realms has been presenting outliers of races or whatever you'd like to call it since DRZZT!
Yeah but the Cali Newbies only care about what their friends think, or what some nutter on their favorite gossip site says. And they say Drizzts doesn't exist and orcs are black people XD.
Give em time, once something new rolls around they'll float away to that, or actually read a few books XD
It's good to see a calm, easygoing nerd in a world where it seems nerds are supposed to fly off the handle at every little thing.
I reserve that for dancing to dub step while cooking chicken curry.
Well, it sounds like they’re reinventing Spell Jammer to a certain extent.
I think you can probably retain all the stuff that is the most fun in Spelljammer, but shift all the action to "realspace" and portals into the Astral Plane or deep ethereal for the Phlogiston type stuff.. plus, now you can have Demiplane space ports!
I think you can probably retain all the stuff that is the most fun in Spelljammer, but shift all the action to "realspace" and portals into the Astral Plane or deep ethereal for the Phlogiston type stuff.. plus, now you can have Demiplane space ports!
@@AJPickett I see what you are saying but in my opinion that will just not feel the same from a lore perspective. that said it is true it would clear up some weirdness in the lore when you look at both spelljammer and platescape at the same time. On the other had that separation and weirdness is what makes the pirates of Gith so cool to me and makes spelljammer not just feel like a planespe backwater as most cutters are as dim as a groundling for space and a seasoned spacer is little better than a berk when wandering the planes.
With all the great 3rd party and homebrewing going on this just seems like a natural progression into expand the uni.. I mean multiverse
I was just kind of listening along as usual but really perked up when I heard "Shifting away from the Forgotten Realms".
Nothing against the Realms - this is after all a Realms channel so I would hardly be listening to it if I fundamentally abhorred it - but it's been over-explained yet underdeveloped and would probably best be split up into 3 main settings designed from the ground up around monsters, items & locations. If you want to have an official _setting_ that people pay for make it coherent.
Also, bring back Mystara already.
since some people make a big deal on what WotC is doing I'd like to state this:
DnD has been an infinite multiverse from the very start and WotC/Hasbro have no authority beyond what a Dungeon Master gives them, beyond maybe some of the very core mechanics of the game (even then said mechanics have been around long long before WotC); any and all lore both exists and does not exist in an infinite multiverse, determined solely by the Dungeon Master.
players are of course welcome to play as they want but they should never fall into the trap of thinking every change in lore made by WotC/Hasbro is absolute and must be obeyed; the core of DnD is taking bits and pieces you like and working them to make a unique world and game for yourself and players.
they could quite literally make My Little Pony canon to DnD (or any other Hasbro property) and you are under no legal obligation to use them.
I'm lukewarm on bringing in a bunch of Magic the Gathering stuff but I'm not gonna carp to much about it since I can literally take it or leave it. Plus if things get to loosely goosey there's always Pathfinder and other games, so might as well let them experiment.
True, WotC is certainly not hurting in the cash department at the moment and Pathfinder could use a boost. I like a bit of competition in the market place.
This will affect everything from artwork, to books, or any other content that comes from WotC. I believe the reason people are upset, whether they realize it or not, is the simple fact that from here forward, there will be no more content that resembles traditional settings. That means if I am running a Forgotten Realms campaign, the content that WotC puts out from here on will no longer be canonically compatible. Could people modify it to fit their traditional campaign? Yea sure, but the whole reason many people buy modules and such is because they like it ready to go out of the box.
I personally run a homebrew campaign. I am just trying to state the proverbial elephant in the room here. I understand the plight of people who are openly complaining about WotC's shift in lore. The new content isn't harmless, it affects people, in so many ways.
Thank you for saying it! It pains me to see where this shift is going. I put so much effort into researching the lore of this world for my games/characters and now I’m having to watch it all get tossed out…it makes me so angry.
While you are correct, some people believe it shouldn't be a choice, both on the old school and new school playerbases. The problem comes when wotc starts picking sides and saying you can't play that way, many tabletop games have gone that way, mostly catering to the crazys who think orcs are supposed to be racial stereotypes of black people and that differences of any kind between in-game races that might disadvantage some players, or in some cases disadvantages of any kind are abelist, also no dark skinned people/"racially insensitive" beings with cultural or macikaly/biolocical propensitys for evil i.e. old dark elves/orcs.
Got to love WoC, selling you the same stuff you've already bought ...
Did you call Limbo a "transitive plane"?
But, Limbo is a plane of chaotic trans- *mutation,* not travel trans- *portation* ! Maybe the Celestial Staircase or Outlands could be used for that, but Limbo?!
garbage (and wonders) from the multiverse ends up in the churning misty junkyard of Limbo.
Whereas I *like* more flexibility in character creation, and have personally removed alignment from my table (way back in 2017), I have issue with having to buy ANOTHER tome that duplicates previous information or acts as errata.
"Remember how you paid basically 70 bucks Canadian per book back then? Yeah, you gotta do that again because we changed our minds on how species work."
Fuck that noise.
I'm also fine with moving away from the FR. The world makes zero sense politically, environmentally, etc. Hell it has an Apocalypse every 2 years and somehow never changes.
By no means does that mean I want MtG worlds to play in. They're all ripoffs of something else already, be it Harry Potter, Barovia, ancient Egypt, Greece, etc. Hell, they even ripped themselves off with a MtG version of Eberron. God's forbid they try something original.
While I generally like the changes, I am pissed at what a ridiculous cash grab this is. I’m more than happy to buy Monsters of the Multiverse for the updated races but WotC is making us wait until May to buy that separately. In the meantime, they expect us to pay $160 for a set with 2 books that we already own. I don’t think so.
So, fans complain about a lack of their material on the Realms, so they double down and go further away. Seems legit lol
It's cool there getting away from sword coast of faerûn vanilla stuff and getting into more monstrous races I feeling it allows more creative licenses for the players and I'd love to see wotc getting into MTG settings I'd love to see modules based in ixalan or Ravnica
I believe there is one for Ixalan from when they released the PDF for it.
There's also a full conversion for Curse of Strahd for Innstrad.
I know I’m being nitpicky, but these monstrous races have been around essentially from the start, as early as 2015 if you count the Elemental Evil Player’s Companion. Volo’s added loads, though they some got more attention than others and it shows. Nothing in this book besides one or two monster statblocks is wholly new, just tweaked and in some cases much improved versions of pre-existing races. It’s like the reprinting of setting-specific subclasses like Spore Druid.
Phyrexia!
added/kept animal races...immersion breaking silliness
I'm still pretty new to D&D so I don't have the same emotional attachment to old rules/content but overall I like the changes to playable races. Portraying their differences as +1's and +2's is kind of boring compared to the sort of abilities that come with FTD Dragonborn or the VRGR Gothic Lineages.
I agree
And yet it strips the race of any more that asks “where did this ability increase come from?” It’s completely stealing all the uniqueness of each race and offering a cardboard cutout that you get to decorate however you’d like instead. Sorry, I know there are people who enjoy this style of play, but I play this game because I’m a lore goblin and it hurts me to see what they are doing to it.
Limbo really need some more love, by which i mean more monsters other than slaadi and gith
And those Grey-Gem abomination things from Dragonlance
I agree.
Older D&D players don't generally rag on newer plays for merely being new (or any manufactured stupid reason -_-), it's largely because they make characters without thinking (that can be fine lol) and also RP really old tropes the older players grew out of. Just typical generational stuff.
Wankers of the Crotch: it's been two steps forward, five steps back since the advent of 4E. I'm Old School and 3.5E & Pathfinder 1 are about as far as I care to go. With the passage of time, I'm becoming less and less interested and connected with what they are offering.
I love that they are moving to a multiverse setting. Gives me (the DM) all kinds of tools and hooks to start somewhere new, planar travel to a different setting or strait up surprise the characters with something completely unexpected. That said; they are still using the name (and character) of Mordenkainen. If they really want to jump ship, probably should add some new figure that is in tune with that message. Maybe some figure from Planewalkers? Personally I don't know any, but good chance to get my attention. Anyway, hello, thank you, and good night everyone.
Ugin Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse.... that could seriously work :)
@@AJPickett Yah. Maybe it doesn't have the same ring to it does it? Then again, I might be a little bias.
I do have mixed feelings about it, the general concepts of adding multiverse based approach, and increased flexibility with approaches to racial stats to make it easier to play any class and any race combined is nice. But at the same time I feel like some races like kobolds have had their identity weakened in some ways by the changes.
huzzah
It seems like WOTC just wants all player characters to become one *boring* gray mass.
Dnd has always been "whatever the DM says" and that used to be inductive, now it's getting more and more deductive and if the DM wants to place restrictions on all of the retcons WOTC is coming out with, then they look like a jerk. If they really want to overhaul the game, they should just release One DND already so DMs can stick to editions they like. For my part, between the OGL, this stuff, and getting rid of half-races, I'll be switching to Pathfinder 2e
I quite like Fantasy AGE, Palladium Fantasy, Lamentations of the flame Princess, and a few others. Plenty of options to explore.
I'm really beginning to get sick of WotC's business model the past year or so. Monsters of the multiverse is alright, but the marketing for it and it's reasons for being are really scummy in my eyes. This is exactly what I was worried about with Tasha's, and then Fizbans exacerbated it.
I'm all for it, and I agree with everything you said.