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GW2 D&D Questions and Advice


Kashin.7192

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@"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:It should be noted that lorewise, you must walk up to and interact with the waypoint.

Personal headcanon, but I like to think that these beacons under certain waypoints in Orr is a part of all waypoints, given post-release lore on waypoints.

They're also unstable, with them having to be replaced or moved every so often. They also do not exist in locations not yet explored by asura-funded groups (such as the Orders, Pact, or Peacekeepers). Lastly, a lot of waypoints seen mechanically likely do not exist in lore, otherwise certain storylines, such as the nobles in Verdant Brink, would otherwise make little to no sense. I treat all waypoints outside normal Central Tyria areas to be much like we see in Dragonfall - the waypoints were brought into the area by the Pact, Lionguard, etc.

So if you want, you can bring up a map of waypoints and knock off half and say "these exist, the rest do not". And if you want to force your party to take the long way instead of waypoints, you can have them malfunctioning due to aforementioned link's mentioned erosion.

Indeed, every npc we see interacting with a waypoint first had to walk directly under it. I think that post PS waypoints are like you say, brought in externally and setup similar to how they were in Orr (fun fact, in one Orr event in Cursed Shore, you escort a force to take/retake a camp. The moment the area is cleared and the waypoint becomes active again, you see reinforcements appearing though it.) Heart of Thorns areas I'd say were setup later as the regions were somewhat secured.

Course, waypoints are only good for moving people, as we've never seen them used for cargo or supplies (Or even wounded, TBH. We see wounded evacuated by Heli a lot, but not by waypoints) so you could use waypoints to quickly get there or reinforce, but to bring back treasure/supplies you'll need to hike.

@Kashin.7192 said:

@InsaneQR.7412 said:I actually wanna build my own gw2 tabletop rule book, so basically a full on pen and paper of gw2 and not just a campaign.Personally, I would deviate from the main story and explore new territories to actually make better use out of the freedom that is to your disposal. Like exploring Goemms lab in province metrica or visiting the wizard's castle and revealing his plots etc.

I actually do plan on expanding the little things like that. One of my biggest concerns was travel.. Obviously, travel is condensed in the game so people don't get bored running from place to place. For example in Caledon Forest, running from the Village Astorea to Brigid's Overlook on the North-East edge of Sandycove Beach in the game takes maybe a minute to run to if you don't stop to fight. I've worked it out to be about 2 days travel for my game and am going to use that distance as the basis for a lot of my travel times.

Now say the party was traveling through Metrica Province and they come across Goemm's Lab or Oola's Lab. They can explore, find the notes, etc. Basically, make a dungeon out of it. Something they can explore and learn about the world with. The world is full of potential plot. I am going to need to find things to fill up that empty space and give them a little adventure. And who knows, they may not sink into the main plot at all. They might even go for Elona well before they're meant to, should they figure out a way to do so, for example. Make their way across the Blazeridge Mountains, orr should they come across Zphyerites, get passage to Cantha, etc. It would lead to improvisation as I cannot find much information about those areas in general. Which should be fun!

@Turkeyspit.3965 said:Well generally speaking in RPGs, the PCs are 'heroes', somewhat exceptional compared to the rest of the population. Not all RPGs subscribe to this notion, and not even sure if 5e D&D does, but I remember 1st and 2e certainly did.So in this instance, a PC Skritt might be a genius, and therefore have average intelligence when apart from other skritt :wink:

I hadn't thought of it that way either! You are quite right that 5e doesn't make the players Heroes as much as 2nd ed, etc.

About travel times, there is actually an in universe example. I believe in Ghosts of Ascalon it's stated that the trip from Ebonhawke to AC took three-ish days, at a hard march with little breaks.

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@Kalavier.1097 said:About travel times, there is actually an in universe example. I believe in Ghosts of Ascalon it's stated that the trip from Ebonhawke to AC took three-ish days, at a hard march with little breaks.

I used the example from Sea of Sorrows. They said travel from Lion's Arch to the Black Citadel is 8 weeks march, 6 in good weather. Granted that was before even Hoelbrak was created, according to the book. So with some work, that is how I got the 2 days travel from Astorea to Brigid's Overlook.

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In the end you just have to pick a model that works for you. When you get down to the nitty gritty it feels like there is some inconsistency for how big the world is. If you compare that 8 weeks from Lion's Arch to Black Citadel with the short 3-5 days travel from Ebonhawke to Ascalon City in Ghosts of Ascalon and the multiple time zones between Divinity's Reach and Lion's Arch also in Ghosts of Ascalon you start to have trouble being exact. I think that the day-grid that I went with ended up was a middle ground between it all. It's about 8 days from Ebonhawke to Ascalon City, and about 2.5 weeks in a straight line from Lion's Arch to Black Citadel. In the end, Rule of Fun is more important than exact detail, and for many groups hand waving long trips is preferable to dragging it out day by day, but it depends on who you are playing with. I know I set out on this journey starting to DM D&D for the first time by playing in a different universe than the game is set, with different mechanics, and I learned a lot in the process. I hope your game is enjoyable!

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So the person who had been thinking about being a skirtt is changing his mind to be Kodan. Plus another person has joined the group. That gives my party:

2 Kodan2 Charr1 Sylvari2 Undecided

Going to lead to some interesting situations.

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@Narcemus.1348 said:In the end you just have to pick a model that works for you. When you get down to the nitty gritty it feels like there is some inconsistency for how big the world is. If you compare that 8 weeks from Lion's Arch to Black Citadel with the short 3-5 days travel from Ebonhawke to Ascalon City in Ghosts of Ascalon and the multiple time zones between Divinity's Reach and Lion's Arch also in Ghosts of Ascalon you start to have trouble being exact. I think that the day-grid that I went with ended up was a middle ground between it all. It's about 8 days from Ebonhawke to Ascalon City, and about 2.5 weeks in a straight line from Lion's Arch to Black Citadel. In the end, Rule of Fun is more important than exact detail, and for many groups hand waving long trips is preferable to dragging it out day by day, but it depends on who you are playing with. I know I set out on this journey starting to DM D&D for the first time by playing in a different universe than the game is set, with different mechanics, and I learned a lot in the process. I hope your game is enjoyable!

Thanks! Everyone, including myself have been really looking forward to it.

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@Kashin.7192 said:

@"Kalavier.1097" said:About travel times, there is actually an in universe example. I believe in Ghosts of Ascalon it's stated that the trip from Ebonhawke to AC took three-ish days, at a hard march with little breaks.

I used the example from Sea of Sorrows. They said travel from Lion's Arch to the Black Citadel is 8 weeks march, 6 in good weather. Granted that was before even Hoelbrak was created, according to the book. So with some work, that is how I got the 2 days travel from Astorea to Brigid's Overlook.

To clarify: the book details 2 nights (3 if you count camping right outside Ascalon City), but iirc, there's an implied (small) time skip, so we're not sure the exact timeframe but it is "at least three days / two nights"; and it wasn't at a hard march with little breaks the whole time, but rather that's just while with Rytlock's unit.

It should also be expected that traveling from Black Citadel to Lion's Arch would be harder given that they're traversing through a mountain range, compared to Ebonhawke to Ascalon City which is mostly plains and a few canyons.

(Also Hoelbrak existed during the time of Sea of Sorrows, by 50+ years depending on which section of SoS).

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@"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

(Also Hoelbrak existed during the time of Sea of Sorrows, by 50+ years depending on which section of SoS).

If memory serves, though, the book does call Hoelbrak a minor waystop at one point, or at least something indicating it wasn't yet a settlement of any major size. That might be what Kashin's thinking of.

EDIT: Chapter 27 (so 1256)- "If they made it that far, the caravan could reach the norn waycamp known as Hoelbrak before winter." But, on the other hand, the passage goes right on to say that it had a functioning asura gate already- given how expensive the novels established those are, Hoelbrak would have to already be pretty bustling.

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@Aaron Ansari.1604 said:

@"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

(Also Hoelbrak existed during the time of Sea of Sorrows, by 50+ years depending on which section of SoS).

If memory serves, though, the book does call Hoelbrak a minor waystop at one point, or at least something indicating it wasn't yet a settlement of any major size. That might be what Kashin's thinking of.

EDIT: Chapter 27 (so 1256)- "If they made it that far, the caravan could reach the norn waycamp known as Hoelbrak before winter." But, on the other hand, the passage goes right on to say that it had a functioning asura gate already- given how expensive the novels established those are, Hoelbrak would have to already be pretty bustling.

I recalled something was mentioned about it, yes. Thank you for digging that up Aaron!

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When it comes to finance conversions....

D&D usually runs on the principle of ten copper to a silver, ten silver (or 100 copper) to a gold. You could probably make a decent conversion of D&D prices to the GW2 economy by treating prices in gp as being in silver instead. So, to use 3.5 prices (which is what I'm used to) a basic weapon would be a handful of silver, a high-quality nonmagical weapon would be a few gold, while magical weapons would cost increasing quantities of gold, but still within the tens or hundreds of gold rather than the thousands.

You could potentially make a nod to the use of platinum bars for bulk transactions.

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Since mine is based on the Guild Wars 1 economy. I am using a system of copper being gold, because in the system 1000 copper equals 1 platinum. I then just converted the PHB equipment section information into platinum and moved on from there. I am trying to decide how I want to move forward. Part of me likes trying to continue to use the 5e system, and part of me wants to say enough with that and try to come up with my own system. But man that is a long process...

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If your campaign is very plot driven I’d say milestone leveling is best. It gives your players a sense of accomplishment when they defeat the BBEG of the story arc and get to level up.

Personally I think counting exp is a hassle and too micro-managey, but that’s really up to your preference and DM style.

EDIT: This sounds cool though! I wanna play in a GW2 campaign.

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We have our final tally of characters!

Charr EngineerCharr ElementalistCharr WarriorSylvari ElementalistSylvari GuardianHuman WarriorKodan RangerKodan Necromancer

Now I understand Charr Elementalist and Kodan Necromancer may not fit the Lore of their peoples. But we have some in game reasons as to why they have taken on these roles.

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@"Kashin.7192" said:Now I understand Charr Elementalist and Kodan Necromancer may not fit the Lore of their peoples.

They do. Charr may dislike magic, but they haven't abandoned it. One of the charr biography warband mates is an elementalist, even.

As for kodan necromancer: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Final_Stillness Song of Final Exile once held profession trainers before they removed that stuff with the pre-HoT traitline rework. Curiously though, there was no thief or mesmer kodan (those trainers were human and norn respectively); perhaps due to their connection to denial and chaos magic.

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@Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

@"Kashin.7192" said:Now I understand Charr Elementalist and Kodan Necromancer may not fit the Lore of their peoples.

They do. Charr may dislike magic, but they haven't abandoned it. One of the charr biography warband mates is an elementalist, even.

As for kodan necromancer:
Song of Final Exile once held profession trainers before they removed that stuff with the pre-HoT traitline rework. Curiously though, there was no thief or mesmer kodan (those trainers were human and norn respectively); perhaps due to their connection to denial and chaos magic.

Perfect! Thank you so much!

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