4th Edition Growing Pains

As I've mentioned in a previous entry, I've been running two separate D&D campaigns for the last year. The first campaign, set in Varisia, is played with a bunch of friends and my kids using the 4th edition rule set. The other is for a group of colleagues at work set in the Forgotten Realms utilizing the new 5th edition rules. Now, I'm okay with different campaigns using different rule sets, but usually it is two completely different rules like Mutants and Masterminds for one and D&D for the other.

Races of Golarion: Humans

Golarion is home to a wide variety of different races.  From humans to elves, dwarves to tieflings, and everything in between.  It also has a decent number of human cultures.  One thing that has always disappointed me about most every edition of D&D is that the race of "human" is oh so generic and is intended to cover to gamut of different cultures.  This is perfectly fine if the game is intended to take place in one small portion of the world where no other culture could ever be found, but that doesn't ever seem to be the case in most game worlds and campaigns.

The creators of Golarion (and the Pathfinder RPG) have taken steps to help remedy this problem by providing a decent amount of source material differentiating each culture.  Further, they have added the traits system to allow a player to customize their character a little more.  Each human culture provides several traits the user can pick from if they wish.  This helps to differentiate the different human sub-races from each other.  Thereby providing a more rich world for the player's and GM to play in.

With that in mind, I propose an alternate set of Human race traits for D&D 5th Edition.  Note: None of this has been play-tested as of yet and may be updated in the future.

Campaigns: Converting Golarion to D&D 5E

I really like the Pathfinder setting of Golarion.  It provides a large number of different roleplaying styles from high fantasy to swashbuckling pirates to suspenseful horror.  Pick an area of the world and your gaming group can try something new for every campaign.  As a bonus, the amount of information out there for Golarion either from Paizo, third parties or fans is astounding which makes it quite easy to prepare for a campaign or even a simple adventure set in the world.

That being said, there is one main thing I don't like about Golarion. Most if not all of the sources of information provide mechanics for Pathfinder RPG.  I've played plenty of Pathfinder RPG and it certainly has been fun in the past, but the current amount of system bloat makes it very hard to sift through what you need for a campaign and keep it balanced.  This has lead me to do some serious thinking as I contemplate my next campaign set in Golarion.

Welcome!

Welcome to Dungeon Debris!  This is a place where I will post my thoughts on role-playing games.  Mostly table top, but the occasional video game may enter the dungeon halls.  I plan to write both fluff and crunch, reviews and walk-throughs, and maybe the occasional anecdote.  So, if your interested in role-playing games stick around as you might find something interesting.