Shrine of the Nephilim

Let's start with a simple premise, shall we? You have a noble. You have her knight. You have the knight's squire. You have the noble's friend. Let's say a court magician. You have the magician's apprentice. They go out on an adventure! But are they the same level? Probably not. We mean, why would they be? You've a knight, trained in the sword, and lance, and horseback riding. You've a noble, who may have never had to train for anything, because she's third-or-fourth born. The noble's friend has studied magic, but not much of anything else, and then there's the squire and apprentice, who are absolutely green. Why should they be the same level? Want an example? Lord of the Rings. You can't tell us the hobbits were the same level as Legolas, Aragorn, and Gimli, and there was no hope in hell that any of them were up there with Gandalf. "But Gandalf was an NPC!" Was he? Why should he be? Why couldn't he be a PC along with everyone el...

So, we've seen a lot of push back against the 2024 Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide. Whether it's the art, or the inclusion of a 'consent' form, or certain text, there's a huge cry against "woke culture" and "politics in gaming". Yeah. There has been a change in gaming. And yeah, it falls under "woke" and "politics". There's another way to look at it, though. It's accepting that there's people beyond what's normally seen in fantasy, and that there's a diversity of cultures, beliefs, and people. It's stepping outside of the old stereotype of the 70s, 80s, and 90s, and accepting that the world is large and complicated, and that people are also complicated. And it's always been political. But we'll get to that in a minute. So. You're seeing orcs that aren't thuggish barbarians and shamans. That's good. Because societies can change, and it's a very tired stereot...

 D&D has definitely changed. For the better? For the worse? I can't say. I can say, however, that it is an entirely different beast than it was in the 80s. Someone had suggested, with the choices you now make in character creation, how you build the character you want to play, people are more invested in their characters. You have backstory, you have a feeling of who the character is - they're not disposable heroes. And thus, you don't want to see all that work go to waste by having them die. I don't believe this. I made characters with personality, backstory, a vessel for me to explore with, since the early days of gaming. Maybe not to the extent I do now, but it was there, with each hand-crafted six+ page character sheet. Death was always on the table. The first TPK I faced had my favourite character as one of the victims. That hit hard. I didn't like it. But I accept that it was a part of the game. If you don't want your character to die, you either plan ...