Catullus64
2023-01-30, 09:52 PM
Ok, fine, I made that title a little more melodramatic than it needs to be. You clicked on it, didn't you?
I'm not quitting D&D, not exactly, even as, for the first time in nearly a decade, I will soon not be running or playing in a game of some edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Believe it or not, this is not even related to the OGL Debacle. (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?653211-Official-OGL-Discussion-Thread) At least, not directly.
For several reasons, I've been burned out on my long-running D&D campaign for a little while now, which is set in mythical-medieval Ireland. It's at that stage of campaign where the number of things to keep track of (party resources, character relationships, politics, past events) is mounting rapidly. It's also reaching the end of the 'heroic fantasy' levels, namely levels 1-10, and approaching the 'high-fantasy superhero' levels. I started to feel like I was fighting the system to run the game more than the system was helping me. But the players were still having a blast, and I did want to see the story continued.
Enter, with providential timing, aforementioned OGL fiasco. It didn't make me burn my D&D books in anger or anything like that, or even make me feel like I have no future with D&D. But it did begin to generate discussion in the community about D&D-the-brand vs. TTRPGs-the-hobby, and has spurred the announcement and development of new systems. Listening to this conversation, in particular the ruminations of Matt Colville on his company's forthcoming RPG, inspired me to dust off my own self-made RPG system, Torchlight Tales (little did I know when I named it that, it's the UK-registered trademark of a brand of light-up children's books). And after a week and a half spent homebrewing and revising and tweaking with the frenzy of a man possessed, I put the proposition to my group.
We had a really dramatic session, a faerie-courtroom trial with startling reveals and major consequences. It reinforced my commitment to this story and this group. But at the end of it, I asked my group if they would be willing to convert the game from 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons to Torchlight Tales. And they all said yes, with a swiftness and excitement which makes me glad I chose these people for my friends! So now we're doing it, and I'm immeasurably excited! Excited to really get to grips with this system for which I've only done isolated playtests. Excited to tell this story with a system that suits it. Excited to create, and to have my creations see play!
The new system has combat which, from playtesting, is tactical, while actually being well-adapted to theater-of-the-mind style play. It's deadly and suspenseful. It's got easy-to-use die resolution mechanics with a flavorful and bespoke skills system. It's got character progression that ranges solidly from slightly-above-ordinary to action-hero, without reaching the godlike character power of high-level D&D. It's got a magic system that actually reflects and captures something like *real-world stuff redacted for compliance with Forum Rules.*
As a general thing, I still like D&D, and hope to play many more games of it in the future. But I've grown enough as a Game Master that I can now capture a lot of what I love about it with my own creation, especially with recent events reminding me that the company who owns the D&D brand may not love exactly what I love.
The sum total of relevance to you, dear reader, if it comes to anything at all, is that I shall probably have very little to say in the D&D-specific fora in the foreseeable future; that game and its systems are just not going to be on my mind. So to those who mainly haunt those parts, and of whose gaming wisdom I have had the pleasure to drink, fare ye well. I say not goodbye, but au revoir.
I'm not quitting D&D, not exactly, even as, for the first time in nearly a decade, I will soon not be running or playing in a game of some edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Believe it or not, this is not even related to the OGL Debacle. (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?653211-Official-OGL-Discussion-Thread) At least, not directly.
For several reasons, I've been burned out on my long-running D&D campaign for a little while now, which is set in mythical-medieval Ireland. It's at that stage of campaign where the number of things to keep track of (party resources, character relationships, politics, past events) is mounting rapidly. It's also reaching the end of the 'heroic fantasy' levels, namely levels 1-10, and approaching the 'high-fantasy superhero' levels. I started to feel like I was fighting the system to run the game more than the system was helping me. But the players were still having a blast, and I did want to see the story continued.
Enter, with providential timing, aforementioned OGL fiasco. It didn't make me burn my D&D books in anger or anything like that, or even make me feel like I have no future with D&D. But it did begin to generate discussion in the community about D&D-the-brand vs. TTRPGs-the-hobby, and has spurred the announcement and development of new systems. Listening to this conversation, in particular the ruminations of Matt Colville on his company's forthcoming RPG, inspired me to dust off my own self-made RPG system, Torchlight Tales (little did I know when I named it that, it's the UK-registered trademark of a brand of light-up children's books). And after a week and a half spent homebrewing and revising and tweaking with the frenzy of a man possessed, I put the proposition to my group.
We had a really dramatic session, a faerie-courtroom trial with startling reveals and major consequences. It reinforced my commitment to this story and this group. But at the end of it, I asked my group if they would be willing to convert the game from 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons to Torchlight Tales. And they all said yes, with a swiftness and excitement which makes me glad I chose these people for my friends! So now we're doing it, and I'm immeasurably excited! Excited to really get to grips with this system for which I've only done isolated playtests. Excited to tell this story with a system that suits it. Excited to create, and to have my creations see play!
The new system has combat which, from playtesting, is tactical, while actually being well-adapted to theater-of-the-mind style play. It's deadly and suspenseful. It's got easy-to-use die resolution mechanics with a flavorful and bespoke skills system. It's got character progression that ranges solidly from slightly-above-ordinary to action-hero, without reaching the godlike character power of high-level D&D. It's got a magic system that actually reflects and captures something like *real-world stuff redacted for compliance with Forum Rules.*
As a general thing, I still like D&D, and hope to play many more games of it in the future. But I've grown enough as a Game Master that I can now capture a lot of what I love about it with my own creation, especially with recent events reminding me that the company who owns the D&D brand may not love exactly what I love.
The sum total of relevance to you, dear reader, if it comes to anything at all, is that I shall probably have very little to say in the D&D-specific fora in the foreseeable future; that game and its systems are just not going to be on my mind. So to those who mainly haunt those parts, and of whose gaming wisdom I have had the pleasure to drink, fare ye well. I say not goodbye, but au revoir.