Some of you may know that D&D Next Playtest material launched this week. Here’s some rare snippets of useful commentary I’ve seen on it.
Math Behind Advantages and Disadvantages
The mechanic that I like best from D&D Next is the Advantage/Disadvantage mechanic. Essentially, if you have an advantage or disadvantage, you roll 2d20, and take the better (or worse).
This is one of those things that tickles my fancy because it is easy to remember and sounds elegant. But as I’ve been pondering what impact it would actually have, others have been doing the math for me. Turns out, most of the time, this mechanic works out to a +/- 4 or 5. Thanks, OnlineDM1, for doing the work so I don’t have to!
Roger the GS does some similar analysis at Roles, Rules, and Rolls, and presents a helpful visual that compares D&D 3E to D&D Next.
Links
- Advantage and Disadvantage in D&D Next: The Math from Online Dungeon Master
- D&D Next: (Dis)advantage from Roles, Rules, and Rolls
How to Playtest
Dave Chalker has fantastic advice on how to helpfully play test a game at Critical Hits. It’s refreshing to see someone provide this kind of commentary when there is so much drivel around gaming blogs about what’s wrong with D&D. (No offense, Chase… I appreciated your article on departures at Wizards, and you helpfully identified what was factual and what was editorializing!)
Needless to say, if you plan to play & offer feedback, I’d recommend reading this first.
Links
- Playtest D&D Next Like A Pro from Critical Hits
- Wizards of the Coast Departures from Intwischa
Anti-GM protests
Couldn’t help myself. This showed up in my “recommended tweets” feed, and I wondered why the hell the Brits were protesting game masters. I mean, I’ve had some bad GMs in the past, but protests?
Context is everything.
Link
Anti-GM protest halted by the police from BBC News
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[...] CWhite @ Intwischa came up with a list of links about D&D Next and there are a few good links – including one about protesting bad GMs. (No, not really, but it’s pretty funny!) [...]