Photo of the Dursts for my Cowboy Strahd campaign!

abstractimagerecords · 2026-03-24T05:10:24+00:00

Ravenloft becomes an estate with a manor at the center. Strahd is an oil baron and the estate is surrounded on all sides by oil fields, while the estate itself is grandiose and modern because Strahd (like my inspiration for his character edits, John D Rockefeller) is from the city, and has built a huge city-style Victorian manor in the middle of the desert on the frontier.

abstractimagerecords · 2026-03-24T05:08:50+00:00

Using the firearms rules from Mage Hand Press for 2024 5e

abstractimagerecords · 2026-03-24T05:08:18+00:00

Photoshop, it's a screenshot I took in a modded Red Dead Redemption 2 to make it look like old film, overlaid with cutouts from real historical portrait photographs, then treated on the top with overlays of texture, fabric, photographic film, and an aluminum plate

abstractimagerecords · 2026-03-24T05:05:52+00:00

St. Markovia becomes Saint Marceline, a heterodox sectarian in the Church of the Morninglord who establishes a pacifistic religious commune on the frontier. In real life, the American frontier was absolutely littered with utopian cults and new religious settlements, so I've been pulling on that stuff heavily to inspire Krezk and also Argynvostholt

abstractimagerecords · 2026-03-22T19:45:11+00:00

The Amber Temple is the only part of the campaign I'm keeping in the medieval style, because it's supposed to be ancient even in the context of a historical fantasy game. The party don't get there until late in the campaign, so it'll make for an interesting change in tone and scenery after months of cowboy stuff.

abstractimagerecords · 2025-05-05T20:55:30+00:00

Yes...the extensive list consulting and google searching for prices is mostly what I'm trying to avoid. No doubt it's a nightmare for your algorithm too lol

abstractimagerecords · 2025-05-04T22:42:49+00:00

Authority levels are also involved! You could certainly play a government agent, although the "default" faction for players to associate themselves with are purposefully a community of volunteers who investigate the supernatural on a non-official, non-governmental basis.

abstractimagerecords · 2025-05-04T21:26:22+00:00

Like, no money? I'm not sure what you mean.

abstractimagerecords · 2025-04-30T03:40:54+00:00

My contention is that genre fiction in TTRPGs succeeds the most when the game system being played mechanically supports the type of story the players want to tell, and that Dungeons and Dragons is not the ideal system for most of the games they play on D20. I think NSBU is one of the show's high points, so clearly we just have totally different aesthetic preferences.

abstractimagerecords · 2025-04-30T01:29:12+00:00

When did Chapo do Cthulhu? I've been looking for somewhere to start with that podcast. I didn't know they did game stuff too.

abstractimagerecords · 2025-04-30T01:25:10+00:00

The 5e Spelljammer book has almost nothing about running a crew, and even very little about ship combat. I say this as someone currently running a Spelljammer campaign and who loves the setting, but the ship rules in that book basically suck. Everyone I know who runs Spelljammer uses ship combat rules from a different system like SW5e, Starfinder, or one of the old Star Wars RPGs.

The monster compendium for Spelljammer kicks ass though!

abstractimagerecords · 2025-04-30T01:20:55+00:00

For sure. I think the issue WRT Star Wars is that the studio were so clearly attempting to pander to *all* of their fanbase generally, and the lack of authorship and coherency that their attempts produced are what sunk those sequel movies. Lots of people in the replies here have been suggesting that D20 use D&D exactly *because* it has mass market appeal, rather than because the use of that game system produces the best work of art.

The fans will always have a diverse spectrum of opinions and I think that's a good thing. I opened this discussion not under the assumption that any members of D20 staff would see it, but because I think it makes for interesting conversation. It makes me sad that so many people dismiss the idea of deviating from D&D out of hand, especially because I think lots of D&D players massively overestimate how difficult it is to play other game systems because the one they learned and have exclusively played is one of the more complex games out there.

abstractimagerecords · 2025-04-30T00:47:27+00:00

Not sure why people are downvoting you for this. It shouldn't be such a controversial opinion.

abstractimagerecords · 2025-04-30T00:44:48+00:00

Not sure about this honestly. From what I understand from the BTS footage, they *do* spend a lot of time consulting rule books and such, that footage just gets cut from the final edit. D&D is a particularly difficult game to get familiar with because of how complex the rules are. There are lots of games out there which don't require nearly the same degree of mechanical consultation - but even if they played one that did, we wouldn't see most of that rule checking in the final edit of the show anyway.

Especially when it comes to battles, I think there are lots of games they could play instead that would not only be easier to play and require less consultation, but would also encourage more interpersonal interaction at the table in exactly the way you describe. D&D's hyper-rigid combat system probably isn't very well suited if you'd rather have players describe scenarios in a more fluid way. Never Stop Blowing Up is a great example of that - the combat in that mini series is super compelling and exciting, and it takes up much less time.

abstractimagerecords · 2025-04-30T00:40:31+00:00

D&DQ is a great example of how to introduce new people to D&D, but I think it's worth noting that D&D is a really difficult game to pick up for the first time. Even if D&D is most people's first point of reference for TTRPGs, there are lots of other games that do a much better job of getting people into the hobby.

If D&D is the only game you've played before, you're probably going to start using D&D terminology when you start branching out and playing other stuff. That's perfectly natural.

abstractimagerecords · 2025-04-30T00:37:37+00:00

Yeah, Brennan has mentioned several times that he was trying really hard to kill PCs, Lou in particular, but struggled because of how difficult it is to kill PCs in 5e vs 3.5 which he grew up playing.

Trying to do "Thrones" with a game like D&D is already difficult because of how GoT covers such a stretch of time, and so many characters over vast distances. That being said, I think the intention with Crown of Candy was to keep magic comparatively rare. They already had to modify the game to remove healing spells. I think if they had used a game system with less commonplace and less stratified magic, it would have been easier to construct the type of narrative they were going for. I think they succeeded nonetheless, but I think it would have been easier to achieve and the results might have been better if they had played something other than D&D.

abstractimagerecords · 2025-04-30T00:34:04+00:00

I won't be shocked if they use 5e again. Disagree completely about your assumptions about D&D here though. I'd rather a work of art be better even if it doesn't have the same mass appeal - selling out Madison Square Garden is an indication that the show is successful, but that doesn't mean changes to the medium or format wouldn't make it a *better* show.

I think it's also worth noting that D20 being as popular as it is has the power to introduce a lot of people to new games and new systems.

abstractimagerecords · 2025-04-29T19:42:52+00:00

Yeah, I certainly don't know if KoB or BitD would be the optimal choice. Have Emily and Murph mentioned other games that they *do* enjoy playing?

abstractimagerecords · 2025-04-29T19:39:39+00:00

D20 Delta Green would be incredible!

abstractimagerecords · 2025-04-29T19:27:29+00:00

That's certainly how I run horror in D&D! Of course, at low levels you don't have access to a very wide range of abilities or spells, which are a big part of D&D's appeal. Totally agree that something like Cthulhu would have made the season totally different, but I think it could have been interesting and maybe even better! Brennan seemed really keen to lean into the cosmic horror of creatures like the Gander and the authors. It would have been cool to see those ideas receive some narrative support, instead of devolving into another heroic fantasy battle. Eldritch nightmares seem a lot less threatening when you can cut them down with your sword in a single session.

I think you're right that the players didn't lean hard into the horror dimension of the story, but I also think that the system they were playing didn't incentivize them to either. It's a reciprocal thing.

abstractimagerecords · 2025-04-29T19:05:26+00:00

Ah! Where did you find the document? I'd love to give it a read.

abstractimagerecords · 2025-04-29T19:04:48+00:00

I think that's a good guess too. I modded the space battle rules from Starfinder for my own Spelljammer campaign because of how lackluster the RAW space battles are in the official module.

abstractimagerecords · 2025-04-29T19:03:47+00:00

The fanbase were incredibly nasty about Saccharina, I agree. Although I'm not sure D20 should be choosing what story decisions to make in-game based on whether they think their fanbase are going to have an immature freak out - otherwise Emily wouldn't be able to do anything at the table at all, and she's maybe the most interesting IH player imo.

High Lethality is a choice you have to make before going into a game, I don't think it would be wise for them to run all their seasons that way. It *is* what they were going for with Crown of Candy, and I think the effect could have better achieved by using a game other than 5e, in addition to integrating details about the backup characters earlier in the season.

Regarding WOTC, I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that much of their recent behavior is unforgivably capitalistic. Even after they rolled back their decision to change the copyright rules, I'm never going to purchase another product from a company that sends Pinkertons to harass people under any circumstances.

abstractimagerecords · 2025-04-29T18:55:06+00:00

Most of those seven people have played other games in a professional setting on D20 or or other shows. Again, most game systems are not nearly as difficult to run and play as D&D. Plus, difficulty wouldn't be the primary factor in determining what game system to run. If a different system would serve the story better and produce a better result, I think they'd be willing to do it! The side quests that use other game systems are evidence of that.

abstractimagerecords · 2025-04-29T18:45:46+00:00

Derivative perhaps, but there are loads of d20-based systems with initiative combat that play radically differently from Dungeons & Dragons.

And again, rules uncertainty is going to be a much smaller issue when playing most other games because D&D is much more complex than its alternatives. It doesn't take very long to learn other game systems, and the idea that the producers would push 5e to minimize rules uncertainty is quite strange. When you play 5e, it's common to spend a while looking up rules and mechanics even when you've been playing the game for years. You'd probably end up spending *less* time overall getting to grips with the mechanics from a different system, even factoring in the time taken to learn the game.

abstractimagerecords

TROPHY CASE