I’ve been seeing a lot of stuff, including the Unearthed Arcana Playtest 8 Bastions materials, that just makes me wonder if Dungeons & Dragons PLAYERS and DMs have completely lost their way. Have we forgotten what the game is about? I’m even starting to wonder about Wizards of the Coast after seeing the Bastion System (*BS for short from now on.)
I’ve seen the barmaid, shopkeeper, soothsayer (fortune teller,) brewer, and a story about one Bard character who was more interested in running for mayor. Why not just go all out and make a cobbler, farmer, or baker? Who in their right mind plays D&D to play a politician in a town about to be overrun by goblin barbarian hordes?
I personally don’t see the appeal.
I’d do a game all about non-adventuring peasants maybe as a One-Shot just for fun over the holidays. Make it a nice, non-violent family game to run with my kids. But a whole campaign? Let’s look at the name of the game for a second: DUNGEONS & DRAGONS! What part of this title makes anyone think we’re playing a game about watching crops grow?
I’m not saying you can’t play the game that way or that you shouldn’t. Your table. Your rules.
Maybe if it was a non-adventuring game about being a barista in a Planescape coffee shop? I heard that’s a thing. If the expectations are that we’re playing characters that are never going to leave town, have no expectations of finding combat or exploring, then okay. My game does not run this way, ever.
As much as a like a good political roleplaying session, it’s not an everyday occurrence.
I run D&D type fantasy games full of exploration, combat, and adventure. Yes, there is an expectation of people roleplaying their character’s personalities, backgrounds, etc. That’s a part of the game.
If a player came to me at Session Zero talking about being a barista, merchant, or town guard, I’d ask if that was the character’s background. I would actively discuss the notion that I, as a DM, expect my party of adventurers to go out and DO things.
I’ll give some credit to the Merchant idea.
If I recall correctly, the Master Merchant was a character concept back in the days of Original White Box D&D, but it never gained any steam and was later dropped. The idea of an adventuring merchant would be helpful to the party by peddling their wares and other non-combative functions. There’s also the problem with that character’s cumbersome amount of kit and probably lots of retainers.
Then we’re back to the BS with all of its non-adventuring encouragement. Why go out and plunder tombs and explore catacombs when you can have a veritable magic item factory right within the walls of your own bastion? There can also be an inn and a meditation chamber for your character to “explore.” All references to the impending VTT tie-ins aside, it just sounds like a bad idea.
Back in ye olden days of D&D, characters built up a bastion or castle that they likely had to conquer or clear themselves sometime before retirement. This was especially true of Fighters after they started having followers to look after. Now? 5E has overcomplicated things and we have the BS to look forward to in the newest iteration of the DMG.
The sedentary life is not for the adventuring sort.
If a player absolutely must make a homebrew class, there are several dozen adventuring types out there. Barista, shopkeeper, or brewer are not among them. They make for great backgrounds, though. If your character needs some downtime gold, then great. I prefer the Shadowdark carousing rules myself, but I guess having a little professional side income might be okay if it doesn’t distract from adventuring.
Who in a medieval fantasy European setting would sit around dreaming about being a shopkeeper? The merchants, vendors, and barristers were typically looked down upon in a lot of developing cultures around the real world at differing times of their development. It’s probably a lot like we frown on billionaire CEOs and lawyers now. I’m pretty sure the notion of picking up a sword and looting some long forgotten ruin for riches beyond one’s wildest dreams would take precedence over making and selling shoes all day.
Let’s add magic to the equation. Who is going to want to sit around making and selling candles all day if they can learn to cast Light or Produce Flame? Why aspire to be an apothecary dabbling in salves and balms all day when you can serve (some deity) and heal, cure, or regenerate almost anything? Magic makes long, laborious medieval peasant professions look weak by comparison.
If you think letting the group play house is fun, by all means let them.
Again, as I said, it’s your campaign. Allow whatever you like. The shopkeeper type classes are not for me or any game I might be running. The shiny new BS isn’t going to fly at my table. Your mileage may vary.
Go explore. Go pillage those long forgotten ruins for untold amounts of loot. Save that Dragon from the Rampaging Princess. (I said what I said.) That’s what D&D characters (or Pathfinder, Shadowdark, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Old School Essentials, etc) were designed to do. Why mine for iron when you can find chests full of gold in some forgotten tomb?
Particularly wrathful DMs/GMs will let the characters know they’ve made the wrong decisions. You want a village to be destroyed by an angry dragon if the players sit for too long. It’s pretty hard to be a cobbler if there are already dragons fighting
Thanks for stopping by. Lots going on for the next 4 days. I’ll still be on, but it might be shorter content.
Jeff's Game Box 