The Hoard Potato: Baby, It's Better/Down Where It's Wetter

[athelind]

Dungeons & Dragons is infamous for having a lot of minutiae that "nobody's ever going to use".

This is a long-standing tradition in the game: as a single example, Greyhawk, the first supplement to the original D&D rules, contained elaborate modifiers for comparing specific weapons to specific kinds of armor that almost every player dismissed as

Comments

[porsupah]

Pepperoni, anchovies, and capers make for quite a superb pizza, I'll have you know. ^_^

Whilst I'm not a board gamer (other than Pandemic, which I thoroughly enjoy, and - okay, it's not a board game - Exploding Kittens =:), and am not generally one for mediaeval settings, I wonder if HC SVNT DRACONES or its forthcoming extension offers much for aquatic adventures, not just nominally aquatic species. Might you be familiar with the title? The ongoing Kickstarter is only for its expansion, which doesn't stand alone.

[athelind]

HSD, alas, is science fiction, set 700 years in the post-human future. Really, it's not a search for a GAME; there are plenty of game systems that could handle the concepts just fine. I simply haven't seen anyone implement them.

Really, for me, this is an idea that is most intriguing and appealing for Pathfinder or other D&D-derivative games - not just because the material is already there, but because it’s taking those familiar tropes and mechanics and putting a new spin on them.

[athelind]

Also, the horror is not necessarily the presence of anchovies.

It's the UNEXPECTED presence of anchovies.

The unexpected appearance of anchovies....

[kolchis]

in your Mac and Cheese!

More seriously -

Great article, Athe. Thoughtful all the way through. I seem to recall that White Wolf had its poorest selling supplement also about the bottom of the ocean in the World of Darkness... along with some particularly terrifying lovecraft-derived ones. (Zeke nearly got stampeded to death by one!)

[stalbon]

I have a particular encounter always brewing in my mind where a party of adventurers are going to a sunken temple, only the main way of getting there is to hop across pillars that are only just above the waterline. And of course, the lake the temple's sunken into is the home of a green dragon. So while not necessarily underwater, it's a very 'Jaws'-esque sort of encounter that will punish just about anyone, since no one is prepared to fight underwater.