Rethinking D&D: Design Oriented Conversations to Improve the Game

Transcribed content from our recent YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzrUgzvlYE0 Transcription Welcome back to Eternity TT RPG YouTube channel, where I talk about different happenings in the tabletop role-playing universe from D&D to the game that my husband and I have been creating. Um, if you follow the channel, you know that we did come out with a card game combat tabletop role-playing game, and it's awesome. I'm super happy with it. I think we all are. Um, but as great as the physical game is, right, we wanted to expand. So we have it online now. And in this video, I'm just gonna walk you through how to get there, um, what you see, and a quick rundown of how to play. Um, so please, uh, take the time to check out the game and we'll jump right in. So to get to the website, um, that holds the online version of [00:01:00] Emanation, you're gonna go to play.sparksofeternity.com and from there it is gonna open up with a screen asking for your email and if there's any name that you want, like, the game to call you, um, your username, and that's it. You don't need a password. You don't need a credit card. You don't need anything. It is just good to go. And then this is the screen that you get. Um, I am just gonna go ahead and run you through everything that you see, and I may start a game as well. So everybody's, um, system is gonna open up with the assassin, um, the first character alphabetically. And you'll notice at the top that you're gonna have a few different other classes: berserker, druid, judge, oracle, and summoner. Um, at this point in time, players, you and I can only play the assassin, berserker, druid, and summoner. We are currently having just the computers play as the judge and oracle. Um, at some point, we are [00:02:00] going to open those up. We're just not there yet. So on this screen, it gives you a rundown of, like, who the assassin is, um, and how many life sparks they start with, your hit points, if they're more of a tactic player, a magic player, or a mix, um, how many of the cards take a D20 roll for that tabletop role-playing feel. And not to mention you have the amazing art for it, um, that tries to depict more of what the class is Um, other thing that you're gonna end up seeing is that it tells you, like, the cards that you get as you go. So you're always gonna start with your attack, defend, no action. And then for assassin specifically, you do have lethality. But then you can scroll over and you can see all of the abilities for each class so you kind of know what you're getting into before you play, which is really neat if you ask me to get a better feel for it before [00:03:00] you even jump into a game. Um, as far as jumping into a game, there's two different ways to do it right now. You can, um, play against computers or you can share the website with a friend, start a new room, and it's gonna give you a code like this. So you would send that code off to your friend, they would input the code and then they would choose, like, their character and off you go. Um, whatever character you have up here selected is the character you're gonna end up playing. Um, for the sake of just showing you guys, I am gonna do the assassin. Um, and then let's say you don't have any friends to play with, which, you know, I don't always have friends, but that's okay. You can add computer players. So I'm gonna add like three players and then I can pick what they are. So I'm okay with the judge, oracle and [00:04:00] berserker. That all sounds good. And then this last spot here is gonna be how long you want everyone to have to choose their ability or like their action for each turn. Um, when you're just getting started and learning the game, I do recommend more towards like the two or three minutes. Of course, if you don't take that long, the game will just continue anyway. Like if everybody's selected it'll just move on. But if you need that time to read and understand, then please take more time. Um, for, you know, my sake and knowing the game, I'm gonna go with 60 seconds and then we just start the match with four players So now we're on turn one. I do have a countdown timer up in this corner telling me how much time I have left. It does do a turn counter for me. This turn will always be turn zero because you are like a level zero character in the world. You're level zero with combat, you have no actions, you're not a fully fledged whatever class you [00:05:00] are, right? So this turn I am gonna go with defend. It shows me a little bit better and I hit play it. So now everybody's thing is gonna show and they're just gonna run through everything that happens. I am not clicking anything right now, it's just doing its thing. So they all attacked each other. I'm defending. It gives me a quick rundown down here of what happens, what abilities they're gaining, and then it tells you like what happened with health as well, which I think is really cool. Now I am level one. I now have access to assassinate and it also shows me what my other opponents are gaining down below. And now I can choose stuff to play. I'm gonna go ahead and do the assassinate one, which includes rolling a D20. We're gonna play it And now healing will always take priority. So that is what ha- is happening there. And then they decided to attack. They have a passive going on, so that [00:06:00] just got rolled. And now I'm gonna roll to assassinate. I didn't hit, so I won't select a target And now they're just finishing up anything that needs to resolve and onto the next round. So as you can see, it runs really quickly, um, which is just... I think it's great, you know? I think getting to have a feel for the game and see what's going on is just really neat. Um, other thing to note as you get further in the game, you're gonna notice, like, this person now has dual wield. If I scroll over that, I see what it is. It is a passive for them. Um, and that means that it gets rolled every turn and, um, we just gotta see if they hit every turn unless somebody dispels it. Um, or in this case, this one is immune to greater dispel. You can see that at the very bottom. You'll also notice that these little cards at the top right appeared, meaning that my opponents have already picked their cards and they're waiting on me. [00:07:00] Um, I think we're just gonna try to assassinate again 'cause, you know, I'm an assassin. I think that's great. So healing takes place first again. Healing takes place first and now they're doing the rest of their actions. They're rolling their passives And then I'll try to assassinate. Man, the rolls are bad. Um, and then everything else resolves. It goes over what people are gaining, and we go on to the next round. So this goes on for 10 rounds as far as like gaining different abilities, but the game ends at round 20. Um, by round 20, you're looking for, you know, um, being the last man standing or having the most life sparks at the end of the whole game. So that is a quick rundown on how the online game works. I think it's really neat that we do [00:08:00] have the, you know, physical version of it, and now we have an online version. It's crazy to see how quick it's all coming together. Um, I'll drop the link to this down below, so hopefully you guys, uh, decide to check it out. Let us know any questions, comments, concerns. Like and subscribe, and we will catch y'all next time. Thank you

Transcribed content from our recent YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_l3hijcNcI Transcription [00:00:00] Welcome back to Eternity TTRPG YouTube channel, where I go over different things in the tabletop role-playing universe from the game that my husband and I cr- are creating, to D&D, to goodness knows what, right? Um, this go around, I am going to talk about common mistakes you find from new players or longtime players when you're playing D&D. Now, keep in mind, I have only played D&D once or twice. Um, I personally was not a fan of the system. However, these are just common mistakes you can find in just about any tabletop role-playing game when you're just getting started. So I thought they were kind of relevant. Um, so we're just gonna hop right in, and I may rapid-fire these. So common mistake number one is thinking that a nat 20 succeeds at absolutely everything. So this one I find really funny, actually, because you would [00:01:00] think that with the best dice roll, you could do anything, right? Um, turns out you can't. So as far as combat goes, um, a nat 20, it'll always automatically hit. You'll always do damage. There's no question about that when it comes to combat. However, when you're starting to look at, um, ability checks, and you're in these different, um, situations that don't involve combat, a nat 20 does not mean much. So it comes down to your DM and what your DM decides. For example, let's say that you are trying to persuade a king to hand over his whole kingdom, right? And you roll a nat 20, and you're thinking, "Yes, I did it. I have a kingdom now." And DM's like, "Uh, no, you don't." The king may be more likely to put you in a place of power in the kingdom, but he's not gonna hand over everything. [00:02:00] Um , so that just ... It all comes down to the DM regardless of what you're rolling. Um, so that is something to keep in mind, and don't get overexcited about your, uh, rolls. Never get excited about them, honestly, unless it's combat, so keep that in mind. Eternity TTRPG has released a card game battler which emulates combat from the tabletop role-playing genre. Sparks of Eternity Emanation is fast-paced, easy to learn, and features six classes from your favorite TTRPGs. Each class deck comes with its own set of unique abilities, which everyone plays at the same time, so there's never any downtime at your table. Each turn, everyone's characters levels up, giving players access to even more options. If you're interested in taking a look, we have our sales page live now, packed with details Other mistake that I find very interesting that happens a lot is forgetting that [00:03:00] your proficiency in different skills matters. Um, so when I go to build a character, I just build something that's fun and cool, and I don't really care about the stats, and that's probably something that I personally need to change. But I imagine that if I'm like that, I may not be the only one. Um, so whenever you're rolling in D&D combat or ability checks, you do add your proficiency bonuses, right? So it's almost never just the dice roll. Um , so you really should be paying attention to your proficiency, and if you wanna be someone that is really sneaky, for example, then you need to look at your proficiency in stealth because you can't be sneaky without a high proficiency in stealth. So definitely something to think about when you're building a character. Um, another Mistake that's pretty common is trying to maintain two concentration spells. Um, so [00:04:00] the misconception is that you can have one already running and you can cast another and you can maintain both. Um, actual rule in D&D is you can only concentrate one effect at a time. Um, that is very odd to me just because as a normal human being, we are able to multitask. I mean, maybe not well, but we can. Um, so that is one thing that I personally do like about the tabletop role-playing game that my husband and I are creating is that you can have multiple things that you're concentrating, um, as long as you have the proficiency to do so. But anyway, D&D doesn't do that, so don't do it. Um, let's see. Um, let's see. Um, other thing that comes up pretty often is that thinking your turn when you go to do any kind of combat is just for attacking. So this ... We talk about [00:05:00] combat, right? And all you think of is attacking your opponent, but it's really outdoing your opponent, outthinking them, and you can do other things like dodging, dashing, disengaging, hiding, searching, um, and helping others in your party, right? You don't just have to attack the boss. You can do more. So something to think about, right? Um, okay. This is a mistake that I find in every tabletop role-playing game, and maybe it's not even a mistake. Maybe it's just how people are. But I struggled with this extremely. I still struggle with it, is that to play a role-playing game, you think you have to be a professional, like a professional actor. Uh, truth is, you don't. You really don't. You can just use your normal voice. You can, like, have your normal personality. You can just put you on the paper. And that is what I did for multiple campaigns when I first started doing this kind of stuff [00:06:00] with any tabletop role-playing game. So keep that in mind. You don't need to be anything special. You don't even need to know anything. You don't have to know a single thing about the tabletop role-playing universe. Just write stuff down. Just write it down. Try your best. Call it good. You don't have to be perfect. Okay. So with all of that, like I said, rapid fire things, misconceptions, mistakes that we see in D&D and other tabletop role-playing universes. What is something that you thought before you started playing or even as you're playing or even that you see other people do that is a misconception or mistake when in your tabletop role-playing universes? Drop a comment below. Let me know. Also, let us know how we're doing. Like, comment, subscribe, and keep it going.