On Twitter, I give out little tidbits about D&D history as I know it or experienced it. This means I might not always be right, but at least it’s interesting. You can challenge me on twitter or by email.
Here’s the May 2010 D&D trivia archive.
- Even the greatest DMs, such as Monte Cook, fail to keep it all straight sometimes. Ask him, and he’ll tell ya. Relax and enjoy.
- My understanding–D&D R&D DMs identify minions as such in some way. The assumption: skilled combatants can identify mooks.
- Minions had higher HP, near PC at-will damage, at one stage. Development shaped the 1-HP minion for easier tracking.
- D&D trivia tells us that trolls always follow string because they know every string ends in meat.
- D&D trivia also tells us you can only make chewing gum from troll flesh. Tastes like chicken.
- My defiling design for Dark Sun was meant to be as (or more) tempting as the force’s dark side. Hope the final version still is.
- The convention previews of Dark Sun might not be the final version. The books are just wrapping up preprint production.
- I helped make the crazy D&D editing test @loganbonner took to hire on at WotC, and I helped evaluate those tests.
- When @loganbonner started, I was happy a new person (like me!) entered the industry. Weird we both got laid off the same day.
- Aside: @gregbilsland is another new game-industry person.
- Eric Holmes, the author of the the first D&D “blue box” basic set, passed away on 3/20 at age 80. http://bit.ly/cmD2K0
- 3e Monster CRs (as much art as science) are still in 4e. The design team just decided to use “level” as the 4e word.
- Level was the default for anything related to level for powers, items, and monsters. Smart choice IMO, and one I wasn’t part of.
- The powers of 4e were in the earliest playtest I was in (early 2006?), but I wasn’t there at the beginning.
- Powers evolved from Heinsoo crazy (6d12? Really?) to the versions you see today. The early mandate was to push limits on design.
- FYI, Heinsoo crazy refers to wild-man designer Rob Heinsoo, and his sort of design crazy ain’t a bad thing in early stages.
- The Ki power source was going to be home for classes such as the ninja, samurai, and so on. Then @aquelajames and others realized we were about to isolate those classes.
- The team decided that the monk, samurai, ninja, and so on, could occupy neat spaces in other power sources, such as the psi monk.
- Or that it’s possible that those classes already exist. @aquelajames didn’t want another Oriental Adventures.
- I doubt you’ll see a whole book just about Eastern fighting techniques. It’ll be integrated with a D&D spin.
- Monsters evolved to be simple to run and easy to design for flavor. R&D intentionally ditched the PC-like 3e design framework.
- It’s a mistake to rely on play feedback only from extremely sharp players. They outperform normal players, skewing perceptions.
- The initial 4e Monster Manual draft had more fluff. It was cut, I guess, to fit more stats. But monster powers alone are often evocative.
- I’ve had players attest to the evocativeness of monster powers. One even asked me to tone down the evil critters.
- Each good player power was similarly designed to tell its story with mechanics and brief flavor. Is it enough fluff? IMO, yes.
- Many D&D R&Ders boggled at brand policy, but D&D and MtG worlds are kept strictly apart. Lorwyn campaign for D&D? Made of win!
- 3e D&D crit confirmation rolls had obscure mathematical reasons, but we R&Ders and players saw it as post-crit denial. No fun.
- 4e was also built to better control PC and monster crit ranges.
- A discussion was had in D&D R&D whether the revenant would be a bloodline, like the dhampyr by @brianrjames. I still think so.
- The view that won out, based on desire to do revenant minis, was that the revenant should be a unique Medium race.
- The D&D world is not our world. Some aesthetic choices were made based on that idea. Take the assassin. The invoker, too.
