Koumei wrote:So out of curiosity, given the discussions on classes and prestiging and multiclassing and so on, how much of this is "Frank is running basically a D&D game, using Tome stuff presumably then adding bits of other stuff later like the Hex based things, to entertain the other doctors when they're all on break hahaha just kidding, it's England, there are no breaks for doctors" and how much is "Frank is assembling a solid setting to go with the new rules he's putting together to lead the world into a golden new age of Post-Tome D&D-ish stuff"?
A little more on the latter side of things, to be honest. I've long felt that to actual move forward with D&D rather than just throw ever more epicycles onto 3rd edition that you'd have to redesign the core
challenges. That is, you have to make a new monster manual if you want to determine what kinds of spells that Sorcerers need, but you also need that monster manual in place to determine when character concepts like "Ranger" stop being salvageable.
But doing that it occurred to me that the most important question is not actually "What does a CR 11 Giant look like?" but rather "What does an 11th level
campaign look like, and are you fighting Giants in a meaningful way?" That while it's possible to present the 4th edition "Always Fighting Orcs" model with a serious of palette swapped bruiser monsters with increasingly large numbers, but that actually isn't interesting or meaningful. 4th Edition's presentation of what high level adventuring meant was so terrible that it made me physically ill to read about it. While there should probably
be some 11th level monsters that you are expected to face at 11th level, the question of what you're doing and why you might be fighting such a thing is far more important.
Questions of campaign progression also go to questions of acquisition of material wealth. Once characters
could stop fighting mummies in sewers and start pursuing other avenues of wealth acquisition, it becomes important to understand what would happen if they did that. Thus, the question of "What is the price of tea in Kara-Tur?" is actually
more important than the question of how the numbers are different on a Fire Giant and a Cloud Giant. It's the work of moments to figure out the street value of the raw materials presented after you turn a cow into salt or create a Wall of Iron from the aether - but the broader reality is that whatever the economics or the abilities in the setting
do, that players are going to be able to get the equivalent of many pounds of gold at some point if that is what they want to do.
And that's assuming that the enemies don't simply have
giant piles of gold in the first place, which is a pretty dumb assumption in my opinion.
So it means that one of the main issues that is facing medium and high level play is actually "What do high level characters do with gold?" and thus the economics of raising and feeding armies and building castles and shit is actually a significant and central point if you want to design a new edition. The reason that 3rd edition's forays into Stronghold Building and Heroes of Battle and shit were so half-assed is that the finances of such
weren't hammered in to the core rules at all. Instead we were told that a level appropriate sword for a 14th level character cost 50,000 gp, which meant that getting chainmail onto a few hundred Hobgoblins was just never going to happen and it would ballbust the expected balance points of the game for the players to even get remotely close to controlling enough wealth to seriously try.
So here I am, working on the back end of how the kingdoms work and how it would work for the player characters to raise an army and build a fortress because all of those questions have to have solid answers before it makes sense to even ask what abilities high level characters can, can't, and must have.
So yes. I'm working out how much money you could make by buying Drow-made lingerie in the Underdark and selling it in Human or Elf majority cities on the surface. And then I'm working out how many Orcish medium infantry you could hire for the proceeds. Because while I don't expect every, or even most players to spend time playing Starflight 2 and arbitraging their way to wealth and power, the numbers have to work out if that is a thing you do. And further, that whatever you do to accumulate wealth and power, whether it be founding a merchant clan or taxing a developing agricultural region, or looting a dragon's cave, the end result should be that you build a fortress and raise an army and not that you spend your every last copper piece on a shinier sword to go murder hoboing with.
Regardless, I'm aware that I'm going to need actual other authors when it comes to crunch time of filling in all the monsters and class features and shit. But for now, I'm content to sounding board broader ideas while I crunch the math on how many Goblins it takes farming rice to keep a Hobgoblin army in the field.
-Username17