Dungeon Fantasy Companion 3: The Speculation Thread

[tbone]

Originally Posted by Kristoffer

I generally believe the Druid is one of the least powerful and viable adventurers in the games current form.

They do have plenty of power in the wilderness, so the weakness elsewhere is fair enough. But yeah, it still feels a little disappointing when a player expresses interest in the profession, and you have to provide a warning of "well, you'd certainly be an important specialist with a large number of players, but a small team probably needs something better suited to dungeons..."

If a future Companion volume offers a section on power-ups, a bunch of affordable animal forms, straight out of DF, would be perfect. (And maybe some that go beyond DF, like oddball plant or elemental-like forms?)

More power-ups that get away from animals/plants entirely would be good. Even if weakened a bit by a Nature's Strength penalty, weather and elemental powers would be impressive in a dungeon (as opposed to "I'll just control an animal... oh, there aren't any down here"). Building in limitations like "must be in contact with earth or stone" would strengthen the druidic feel and cut costs a little, while keeping the power viable in most dungeons.

Re dog-folk: Yes. They may be as much of a cliche as cat-folk, but who wouldn't want to play wolf-folk?

[ravenfish]

It's worth noting that, in all the editions of That Other Game (TM) that I am familiar with, the Druid is a reasonably viable substitute cleric, trading anti-undead functions for nature functions but retaining good buffing and basic healing capacities (and of course the historical druids, far from being backwoods hippies, were pillars of society in their communities and performers of all the normal duties of a priesthood, but that is neither here nor there). I don't know where the idea of "animals, plants, weather, and nothing else" comes from.

[tbone]

Originally Posted by ravenfish

I don't know where the idea of "animals, plants, weather, and nothing else" comes from.

I don't have a problem with the trope of fantasy druids as "flora, fauna, and weather priests", wherever that trope comes from (certainly not historical druids, as you note!). But I think you're right about D&D druids having far greater spellcasting breadth - even true healing spells.

Assuming DFRPG doesn't intend to unlock healing spells and other spell colleges for druids, I look forward to future power-ups that'll boost the profession even in dungeons. Affordable shapeshifter forms would go a long way; a form can be "weak", yet still offer some cool animal-based superpower (hawk vision, cheetah speed... and flight, like Beast Flight). Nature totems could be the source of even more powers, without change of shape.

So more of that. More natural preparations, too. (Unless I'm missing something, Magic Items and other books with new items haven't added any of these.) I know, natural preparations are things that anyone can buy and use, so there's nothing really "druidic" about them other than the special price. But the ability to prep the party with healing potions at half cost is worthy of respect. Adding more really powerful, expensive natural preparations would make a druid even more appreciated on shopping trips.

(Oh, here's an easily overlooked strength druids do have in the healing department: They one-up clerics with Esoteric Medicine that never shorts out, as the clerical version does when Sanctity runs dry. So, we have cheaper healing potions and more reliable Esoteric Medicine... Not exactly substitutes for the flat-out magical healing of clerics and D&D druids, but they're interesting little edges in that direction.)

[ravenfish]

Originally Posted by tbone

I don't have a problem with the trope of fantasy druids as "flora, fauna, and weather priests", wherever that trope comes from[....]

I wouldn't mind "at their best when those things are involved", but druids in the DFRPG take it to the point of "so focused as to be borderline irrelevant when they aren't". A Holy Warrior is still a capable fighter when there aren't demons to smite; a Scout is still a deadly archer when there's no wilderness to be an Outdoorsman in; even a Bard can find plenty of uses for his mind-control outside of town. The Druid's spell and ability list, by contrast, seem almost intentionally designed to be useless indoors.

[Harald387]

Originally Posted by Kristoffer

New races such as Dog-folk and the like could be fun as well.

Originally Posted by tbone

Re dog-folk: Yes. They may be as much of a cliche as cat-folk, but who wouldn't want to play wolf-folk?

Tooting my own horn a little, wolf-folk got the DFRPG treatment in Nordlondr Folk, which is written for the setting but doesn't require it.

[tbone]

Originally Posted by Harald387

Tooting my own horn a little, wolf-folk got the DFRPG treatment in Nordlondr Folk, which is written for the setting but doesn't require it.

True, we have that. I'd still welcome the series' own official take on dog-folk/wolf-folk, though.

Along those lines, it'd be fun to see DFRPG dip into the great new Furries book to introduce races that'd really set it apart from other games: Otter-folk! Hedgehog-folk! Anteater-folk!

[Kristoffer]

Originally Posted by tbone

True, we have that. I'd still welcome the series' own official take on dog-folk/wolf-folk, though.

Along those lines, it'd be fun to see DFRPG dip into the great new Furries book to introduce races that'd really set it apart from other games: Otter-folk! Hedgehog-folk! Anteater-folk!

Maybe it is time to create a Beast-folk thread

[Michael Thayne]

Going to see if I can transcribe the text in the latest Kickstarter update on the PDF challenge.

[The first page appears to have author bios, which I won't try to transcribe, but includes a partial paragraph where the words "his blog Dungeon Fantastic" are legible, one name I can't read, David L. Pulver, Sean Punch, Christopher R. Rice, and Matt Riggsby.]

Adventurers

Before an adventure can begin, there must be adventurers.

The core Adventurers book deals with this from the standpoint of what are essentially the game mechanics. What can the heroes do? What defines them in terms of core abilities? What are they good at, and what are their weaknesses?

Of course, there's so much more to being a hero than the rules needed to make (them? this?) work. On the "fluffier" side are more ephemeral considerations. What motivates a hero? Why are they doing what they do? Have they pursued this path just for a pile of gold, or are they looking to fulfill a higher purpose... and take home a pile of gold?

One of the secrets of the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Gameis that —*at its core —*it requires very little to truly work. Heroes don't need (motivations?), (kits???), spell components, or even backstories. But the game continues to work great if you add them (and that might even improve campaign longevity.)

Here, then, are some possibilities for what you might add that could be applicable to many of the core professions. Figure out your history, buy (some loadouts?), get motivated, and get to that dungeon!

[Rasputin]

The pages posted look like a bunch of recycled Pyramid articles.

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by Rasputin

This pages posted look like a bunch of recycled Pyramid articles.

Checking my Pyramid library, you're right—I knew "It's an Encounter!" and "It's a Quest!" were Pyramid articles, as was "The Mage Hunter", I'd forgotten that the original Mage-Hunter article included the Juniper Josse pregen. Also had forgotten about the article in #3/104 with the random heroic backgrounds, which looks like its getting a reprint. Ugh, I was really hoping the reference to loadouts (if I'm making out the word right) would be more or less a conversion of DF13, but it might wind up just being a reprint of the article in $3/106 and similar.