AMA Announcement
Added 2017-11-12 08:49:35 +0000 UTCHey all!
We're holding a public Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) on our reddit a week from now, on Sunday, November 19th, from 1 PM to 5 PM CST (though some of us will probably hang around afterwards as well!)
This is a way for us to get to know everyone a little better, and is an opportunity to be as transparent as possible with the way we do things around here. So feel free to ask questions about literally anything, from our opinions about anime or the new Xanathar's Guide to Everything, to who does which work, and how much. If this whole thing goes well, we'll try to do them semi-regularly.
If you have any questions, you can ask them early in the comments below, and I'll try to write up answers to the more involved ones in advance.
Hope to see you all there!
Comments
I really appreciate it, I mostly liked the ability to interrupt and do things to help the party when not even on my turn. I could see using the reactions for that but I don't want to break any balance.
Drew Hayes
2017-11-22 06:03:04 +0000 UTCYou know, I'm not super familiar with 4e, but I don't think we've done anything like a bow bard. I'll read up on it and see how feasible it is in this edition.
Mage Hand Press
2017-11-18 21:00:44 +0000 UTCI started playing D&D in 4th ( I know a lot of hate) but I absolutely fell in love with the Bow Bard. I loved the interrupts, buffing allies and hindering enemies, and the general fee of it as a whole. I have tried some things in 5e but nothing seems to really get the feel right to me. Did you guys ever make something in that vein that i missed( i try to keep up but i miss things from working and all) and if not do you think it's even possible in 5e?
Drew Hayes
2017-11-18 10:50:10 +0000 UTCThat’s an interesting thought, though it doesn’t solve the main down side of slowing down the game. I feel more than confident that all the members of the hand could make it balanced, their main worry is the time it takes for number calculations and subsequent turns with all the zombies. There’s not really a way around that
Wyrm_f00d
2017-11-16 14:12:56 +0000 UTCNever read the manga. I watched the original series. The new one is garbage.
Jaron Mortimer
2017-11-16 13:32:03 +0000 UTCWhy not just treat your summoned undead as your main weapon? So as you summon more undead, your weapon becomes more deadly and tougher. As your army takes attrition, your weapon loses durability and becomes weaker. Just a thought. :)
TheNightNinja
2017-11-16 13:26:33 +0000 UTCI do like the flesh sculpting wizard! I thought it was a great way to “adapt” a more Frankenstein necromancer. The closest thing that I saw to an “classic” necromancer involved sacrificing your own health to summon a number of undead (similar to “conjure animals”) and then remain concentrating. Was a unique spin on it, but still, conjure animals is already an annoying spell as a dm, let alone zombies lol
Wyrm_f00d
2017-11-16 09:09:30 +0000 UTCI tend to agree. There's no way to make player-controlled zombie armies fun and balanced in 5e. The necromancy spells and epic boons I published on the blog (and my school of flesh sculpting wizard) constitute my best attempt at 'fixing' necromancy.
The Nails of Vecna
2017-11-16 09:03:02 +0000 UTCVery true, I can see that issue. There’s just something about DnD that calls out “Necromancy” lol or maybe if the school of necromancy actually had better spells o.O
Wyrm_f00d
2017-11-16 08:46:45 +0000 UTCThere's a tough, underlying problem there: minionmancy always slows down the game, and if we somehow streamlined that, it would stop feeling like a good necromancer. To give you an idea of how hard this is, the Marshal (coming out at the end of this month) will control two characters at once, and we had to strip off all multiattack and bonus action options from the cohort, just to keep the game moving. And that's only one controlled ally. tldr; yes, but I don't think it would be very good, even with some work/luck behind it.
Mage Hand Press
2017-11-16 08:44:53 +0000 UTCHere’s one. Everybody wants a good balanced Necromancer class, whether they know it or not. Have you guys considered making one? I feel you’re the only ones that could make it fair and balanced!
Wyrm_f00d
2017-11-16 08:41:04 +0000 UTCOh, jeeze...this one’s too long to reply to here. Suffice to say, I love 5e. There’s a lot it does really well. But there’s also quite a bit that needs tweaking.
The Knuckle of Vecna
2017-11-14 11:58:38 +0000 UTCfor me its how bad Prestige classes bombed.
Cody Butler
2017-11-14 11:57:48 +0000 UTCwhat would you say is the worst design mistake of 5e?
Cody Butler
2017-11-14 11:57:07 +0000 UTCFair enough, it's not for everyone
Alexander Garcia
2017-11-12 21:49:30 +0000 UTCYeah... me too. I haven't read or watched Berserk. Most of the manga I read is slice-of-life, 4-koma and/or shoujo, to be honest. I don't think Berserk would be my jam.
The Nails of Vecna
2017-11-12 20:08:49 +0000 UTCI've never read Berserk. Personally, I'm more of a comics person than a manga person (and yes, I realize how much hairsplitting I'm doing there). I just prefer to watch anime, if I'm going to enjoy that art style. Purely personal preference. To question #2, like the Finger, I'm sure that the rest of could all talk about this at length :D
The Knuckle of Vecna
2017-11-12 20:00:41 +0000 UTCI don't have any big opinions on Berserk, but I /can/ address the second half of your question at length.
Mage Hand Press
2017-11-12 19:44:17 +0000 UTCCST
Mage Hand Press
2017-11-12 19:40:06 +0000 UTCI got two Questions. 1: How do you guys feel about Berserk, the manga, not the anime. 2: What started you guys doing this, and how could someone else get into this kind of game design, since I am looking into getting into game design myself.
Alexander Garcia
2017-11-12 19:38:33 +0000 UTCAnd then I’m on GitP as DracoKnight if you want to search me. I mostly did races and subclasses over there. I *hate* designing full classes and wish I could delete the ones I designed on my own forever...just...so bad.
The Knuckle of Vecna
2017-11-12 15:10:14 +0000 UTCThat sounds pretty cool. I don't have the patience for play by post. I get anxious if my group has lag over voice chat.
Cody Butler
2017-11-12 13:15:35 +0000 UTCShould be able to. I'm known as Ninja_Prawn on there; you should be able to find a link to my homebrew in my sig. Also there are links in there to the two play-by-post games I'm running right now, if you were interested in reading some raw campaign journals.
The Nails of Vecna
2017-11-12 13:14:19 +0000 UTCFoulest of enemies, Got it ;). Jk anyway I can search up your GitP accounts and look around at posts?
Cody Butler
2017-11-12 13:10:11 +0000 UTCWho says we're friends? :P I believe the Finger & Thumb go to the same college. This whole endeavour is their baby at the end of the day. They got together with the Palm to work on the Binder, then recruited the Knuckle and myself from the Giant in the Playground forum, where we'd built up a bit of a... reputation.
The Nails of Vecna
2017-11-12 13:08:28 +0000 UTCHow did you all become friends?
Cody Butler
2017-11-12 12:40:36 +0000 UTCWe've talked about doing a couple projects in that vein, but co-ordination is admittedly difficult: Finger & Thumb are in Illinois, Knuckle is in Texas, I'm in California, and Nails there is waaay out there in Scotland.
Jaron Mortimer
2017-11-12 12:39:00 +0000 UTCThey do the drink videos right?
Cody Butler
2017-11-12 12:01:30 +0000 UTCOh, well yeah, that sounds like fun. Unfortunately, we're all spread out. Finger & Thumb are the only ones that are really close together.
The Nails of Vecna
2017-11-12 12:01:00 +0000 UTCHa! No! That's not what I meant. I was thinking more like twitch streamers do, little boxes with each of you ( I don't know if you all are together in one location or spread out), or sit in a room goofing off playing board games or hangman or something if possible. I personally think you learn alot about a person playing board games with them.
Cody Butler
2017-11-12 11:58:49 +0000 UTCYaaay! Podcasts aren't really something we've talked about... and besides, we have YouTube. Or are you saying that you'd rather hear us than see us? :/
The Nails of Vecna
2017-11-12 11:08:51 +0000 UTCI am following you already. I just figured the site already have a built in Q&A feature. When do you all host a multiperson podcast?
Cody Butler
2017-11-12 11:06:30 +0000 UTCAsk Me Anything (though in this case, I guess it's ask *us* anything). It's basically like a crowd-sourced journalistic interview, I think? I have a Tumblr (<a href="https://nailsofvecna.tumblr.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://nailsofvecna.tumblr.com/</a>)! The others are scared of the site's interface, though.
The Nails of Vecna
2017-11-12 11:04:20 +0000 UTCThat's what I said! The Finger is based in Illinois, which is Central, but in the absence of any kind of specific information, I'll be forced to assume he's talking Coordinated Universal Time. Guess it'll be an early start the Palm (in California)! :P
The Nails of Vecna
2017-11-12 11:02:22 +0000 UTCWhat does AMA stand for? Consider making a tumblr for Mage Hand Press.
Cody Butler
2017-11-12 10:59:37 +0000 UTCWhat time zone?
John Hoffman
2017-11-12 10:39:53 +0000 UTCMy mistake...shouldn’t’ve brought it up ;) But thank goodness we get those kinds of options in XGtE :D
The Knuckle of Vecna
2017-11-12 08:55:09 +0000 UTCThey're just a completely backwards way of designing gishes! If they wanted to make gish characters into a viable option, they should have bundled it into actual subclasses (or even a base class) that supports those options, rather than creating these weird, unbalanced stubs that can be used by anyone, and are better facilitated by characters that don't fit the gish character model at all!
Mage Hand Press
2017-11-12 08:53:36 +0000 UTCJust don’t ask The Finger’s opinion on the SCAG cantrips...I made that mistake once xD
The Knuckle of Vecna
2017-11-12 08:50:59 +0000 UTC
