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02:23, 19th March 2024 (GMT+0)

Should 5e AI have it's own Game System listing?

Posted by Escribblings
Escribblings
member, 40 posts
Wed 11 Dec 2019
at 10:43
  • msg #1

Should 5e AI have it's own Game System listing?

I've just placed a post looking for a 5e Acquisitions Incorporated game to join, but noticed when doing a search I could only search on 5e.

I just wondered if AI is significantly different enough from core 5e to warrant it's own Game System name in the list?

Just a thought.
This message was last edited by the user at 12:02, Wed 11 Dec 2019.
RosstoFalstaff
member, 179 posts
Wed 11 Dec 2019
at 11:03
  • msg #2

Should 5e AI have it's own Game System listing?

I wouldn't imagine so. Are there significant deviations from the rules and enough separate interest in AI?

Otherwise it's a setting or style no?
Escribblings
member, 41 posts
Wed 11 Dec 2019
at 12:01
  • msg #3

Should 5e AI have it's own Game System listing?

That's difficult to say, I haven't had time to study it yet, although I own the digital format through DnDBeyond.

It does seem to have an additional layer to the race and class systems.

From here: https://www.dndbeyond.com/post...w-about-acquisitions


Player Options

D&D is defined by its archetypal classes. While some players like to foil expectations and create a character who defies their class’s stereotypes, many players love to dig into the high fantasy archetypes of the paladin in shining armor, the charmingly traitorous rogue, and so forth. Acquisitions Incorporated describes how characters who have been adventuring for a while can integrate their characters into an Acq Inc. franchise, and draws upon the archetypal characteristics of each class give you a few tried-and-true ways to do so.

While the book promises to include plenty of advice and “soft” character options, I know a lot of players who will be excited by the book’s crunchier options. If you watch Acquisitions Incorporated: The “C” Team, then you’re already familiar with four of Acq Inc.’s staff positions. For example, in addition to being a wood elf druid, Walnut Dankgrass is also the “C” Team’s documancer, and manages mission reports and other critical documents that must be filled out in the line of duty.

This book includes eight roles, several of which will be new, even to Acq Inc. fans. The four familiar roles of cartographer, decisionist, documancer, and hoardsperson make their return in this book, and are joined by the lesser-known (but equally important) roles of loremonger, obviator, occultant, and secretarian. The exact nature of these roles are somewhat obscure, but we do know that these roles are more than just a social feature. As you grow more and more important within the hierarchy of Acquisitions Incorporated (rising from rank 1 to 4), you also gain more traits from your role.

The occultant, for instance, gains a few bonus tool proficiencies at rank 1, as well as the ability to “Read the Kill.” The exact nature of this trait was frustratingly obscured in the images shown at the panel today, but it seems to make it easier for occultants to “determine the impact of [creatures you’ve killed] on [your] franchise’s fate.” This extra progression, independent of your class, sounds like an interesting twist on the standard faction ranks as presented in books like the Dungeon Master’s Guideand Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. Elyssa also revealed to me that the book will contain new spells—and that they may be linked to your position in your franchise!

Beyond this, Acquisitions Incorporated will even include a brand-new character race called the Verdan. Little is known about them yet—to the best of my knowledge, we haven’t even seen them in an official Acq Inc. game yet!—but I managed to learn a few choice details. The nomadic and mysterious Verdan are a new race that they tongue-in-cheek pitched to D&D Managing Editor Jeremy Crawford as "sexy goblins," and have unique powers of adaptation and evolution. Jerry Holkins (player of Omin Dran and Dungeon Master of The "C" Team) explained that the Verdan have their origins in an unresolved plot thread from season 2 of The "C" Team, when an army of goblins and hobgoblins were consumed by an eldritch power. Now reborn as the Verdan, they are emerging from the Underdark with a hunger for new knowledge, new experiences, and new cultures to adapt to.

I’m clamoring to learn more about them, and I hope that we learn more about their powers and their story in Acquisitions Inc. or Acquisitions Inc.: The “C” Team live games here at PAX East, or at least in livestreamed games in the weeks and months to come. If new races are being added to the Forgotten Realms vis-a-vis this book, then it's clear that Penny Arcade and their designers have been allowed a huge amount of creative freedom with the Realms. It can be hard to tell if streamed games are "canon" in the setting, but if Chris Perkins is to be believed, Acquisitions Incorporated is 100% canon within the Forgotten Realms. Will we see more of the Verdan in future D&D products?

Dungeon Master Options

Players aren’t the only people this book is catering to; Dungeon Masters will also have plenty of new content at their fingertips to challenge and reward their players with. As usual for DM-focused setting content, there’s a heaping helping of lore about the founding of Acquisitions Inc. and their mission, to help you calibrate your campaign’s expectations. This makes sense: this book is geared at all players, and while some of us have watched every single Acq Inc. live show, there are going to be people buying this book that have never even heard of Acquisitions Incorporated before.

I was surprised to hear that this book would contain a complete adventure! While the Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica setting book contained a short introductory adventure that showcased some of the world’s unique features, the adventure in Acquisitions Incorporated will cover levels 1 through 6. This adventure is more than an introduction, it’s a full-blown mini-campaign that puts the players’ budding franchise at the center of the action!

willvr
member, 1098 posts
Wed 11 Dec 2019
at 13:05
  • msg #4

Should 5e AI have it's own Game System listing?

I don't really feel it's different enough - I say this partly because I'm sensing a trend that 5E is going to start doing a lot of 'alternate' systems like this, and I don't think every one needs its own. Mostly, that would have been like 2E having a separate system for Ravenloft, and Dark Sun, and so forth. Sure, they do have some rules that are only there for that particular setting, but you still need to know the way the base game works first.
Escribblings
member, 43 posts
Wed 11 Dec 2019
at 13:51
  • msg #5

Should 5e AI have it's own Game System listing?

You may have a point, as I said it read just s thought.

I don't know enough about any revision, let alone 2E, to comment on that really.

But the thing that struck me was that this seems to be seeing independent.
bigbadron
moderator, 15821 posts
He's big, he's bad,
but mostly he's Ron.
Wed 11 Dec 2019
at 14:08

Should 5e AI have it's own Game System listing?

We do not differentiate  between settings within a system, only between the systems themselves.

There is a large variance, for example, between Ravenloft and Greyhawk, but the underlying system is the same.

If a GM wants to specify a particular setting or rules variation, he can easily do so in the game title, the game info, or even by editing the selected system information.
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