m*ke mearls happy hour regretrospective

 i was a fan of 4th edition, i like mike mearls and i liked the show he used to do on twitch and youtube, 'the mike mearls happy hour' where he would basically work on subclasses for 5th that would sort of correspond to stuff that would come out later in unearthed arcana playtest stuff and maybe even get published in books, later

theres been some movement to cancel mike mearls and he hasnt posted any official content as like, dnd news or similar for more than a year and so the mike mearls happy hour show ended back then, suddenly, the way these things go... mearls taking a much quieter role in the company where he doesnt post on twitter and youtube every week, just a much more opaque approach, an the happy hour show mostly just disappeared off of youtube and twitch and i think it just has become like very hard to find

so i wanted to write about what i liked about the show before it sort of disappears entirely because its format is kinda cool. back when he did this show it was a very clear like insight into how the design process works at wizards, but he would run you through the actual process of writing a subclass as he would do it, explaining all the design decisions that are most appropriate to make at each step

like heres an episode of mike mearls happy hour where - tbh its the only episode i can find - i cant https://m.twitch.tv/videos/233726631 find  this show anymore but it is a killer show and it has these many good qualities... anyway referring to this vide to keep a clear vision of what that show was actually like but if that episode is also removed youll have to take my word for it

so... i think every episode he would implore you to read the rules -- if  youre rewriting the rule for a thing, look up that rule, dont go off your memory of what that rule was. the show encourages the viewer to think of themselves not as players or dungeon masters but as rules designers for d&d... as generally exemplized in this practice of reading the rule youre augmenting

... i  think i remember him saying that... part of the point of the 'happy hour' show was  to create sort of an institutional memory of ...what this design process was (at wizards at that point in time) and how its done and why, but the other thingg is doing it on twitch ... makes it much more transparent and much more like a performance, seems like the most public way to make d&d content where you publish extremely rough ideas immediately as they come to you... but really does bring you into the room with the process, as he does it (this is much more like being a dungeon master than being a rules designer)

sometimes mearls would do that, sort of improvising the subclass during the stream... but i dont have those ones to refer to, theres only one episode i could find, so...

alright, in this one, he recaps about the giant soul sorcerer, a subclass he had been developing on  stream the previous week, which was later available in unearthed arcana as playtest content.

then, in the main body of this  episode, he talks about a new subclass that he's started work on offscreen - the order domain cleric, which was (much later) published in tashas cauldron of everything. I have played the unearthed arcana version of  this subclass which i think is largely unchanged in tashas. the order domain cleric gets a power where, when you the cleric cast a spell on an ally, you can cause them to make a weapon attack as a reaction. this is a great effect on rogues because 5e lets them sneak attack an extra time on your turn, ok on fighters because they at least are good at weapon attacks, but its bad on wizards imo... which is bad because you want to use it when youre healing and a wizard might more often need healing than these others. compare with the healing cleric who simply heals more, for example.

but i was drawn to this power because i like the idea of commanding the ally to attack ... mearls calls this the 'get em' ability, and this is otherwise a hard thing to do in 5e so its nice that its included in this subclass and eventually made it into print. but it does suck to use it on the wizard. anyway the order cleric you can sort of think of as a 'get em' cleric

anyway... mearls makes good on his promise to review the context within which he's placing this new rule. he talks about what is a cleric domain for this edition... like subclasses are basically feat chains, but the cleric's order also corresponds to the spheres of magic that clerics had access to in earlier editions, that served to make clerics of different deities distinct from each other...

but its not exactly a mapping to specific deities instead... theyre trying to have a system where each deity might have clerics of diffrent orders and  each order has a wide range of deities it could apply to

so the original idea for the order cleric is a sort of 'civilization' cleric for a specific deity in mearls' homebrew game, but generalising outward, hes tries to make a cleric for any sort of god of law and order... for even hobgoblin clerics of maglubiyet and so forth. broadly applicable.

-  reviews the basic powers that the cleric has, talks  about what is a channel divinity, compares some existing subclasses, talking about balance, talking about success and failure, 

anyway it was a dense resource, there are a lot of dnd youtubes but mike mearls show was unique among dnd youtubes in these respects, the things you were seeing developed might make it into  the game for everyone, showing not just how to make a thing the wizards way but going into exacting detail of why hed make it this particular way

shallow-weird vs deep-weird

so deep-weird is what im looking for because its harder to do, i dont already know how to do it.

i know i can replace a normal thing  with a mushroom- or crystal- or worm- version of that thing

but what are the implications? how does it work? what can you do with it? how does it tick?

if you're writing a table of weird things, and each thing is half a sentence, its not answering enough of these questions for me. and this is the stuff thats hard to improvise, in my onion.

i hate the 'the player can choose' 'whatever the dm wants  to do' answer to this question. why then do i need your reference. give me a deeper insight into your weird stuff. 

but if we explain all the details then the thing wont be mysterious and strange anymore?
then there was never really anything there to begin with. give me the details.

THE POST NOBODY IS ASKING FOR

i first put up this one in may of 2018, i think? thats what the interface says. idk if itll push it to the front or just republish it in 2019. i find the way that i was writing around this time pretty goofy, i was having a time, and i reverted this post and some others from back then to drafts so i wouldnt have to look at them. mostly this is a blog for me to look at, ill publish it again and see where it puts it on the blog. then maybe ill write an addendum or something. i dont really go by matt rundle anymore for trans reasons


WHO IS THIS PERSON MATT RUNDLE

i'm a game designer. i did games at uni and i got a bs in video game design. i care about games and i have made games. i come from a video games background; but RPGS is my focus, and i have studied every game. video games, board games, card games, tabletops and args. not jsut hte new and not just the old. i have studied the games i don't like. i know from what i speak.

alright, so jack macnamee, a friend from uni, the best rpg designer i have yet met, a dude i bonded with over PROBLEM SLEUTH, he came to me a couple years back with this book, VORNHEIM, by zak smith.

WHO IS ZAK SMITH?
he was very excited about this book, even though it be hard to read. i couldnt get him to shut up about it. so i bought a copy, and i played in MACKNAMEES's vornheim game locally. and over time i've come to see that it was the best rpg book that existed at the time.

vornheim led me to read zak's blog, to follow zak smith on googleplus, to follow all zak's friends also on googleplus, to play very occasionally in a couple of zak's googleplus games, to play in a bunch of other googleplus games run by and populated by key luminaries in the zak-centric old school revival FLAILSNAILS & CONSTANTCON google plus community. because ZAK runs games at wird times that also puts him in my LOCAL D&D GOOGLEPLUS COMMUNITY, which is AUSTRALIAN CRAPSACK, about which, ask jez gordon. or ANTIPODEAN CRAPSACK if you want to include scrap princess, and we must. she is the best of us. but this is also the zak community, they are the same. all of this is good and right.

i am fond of these people because they love the game, and while they are d&d experts, i was not. but now i am an expert. i've studied every edition of the game. i've studied all the key not-published-by-wizards texts about the game that i would need to study in order to know the game and how to talk about it. i have played the game. and i play it well. i know from what i speak.

but zak, and the zak community, are better than any discourse on the game that has come before. before i was into d&d i was into pixel art, roguelikes, webcomics, and making characters and maps. this is the best pre-zak discourse I had on d&d, and the HISTORY OF ART AND GAMES AND LAW AND CHAOS. this was the best discourse I had. do not fight me on this point. it was not good enough, those guys don't appreciate me and they don't even understand why i wirte the shit i do. but now i have this community i don't really need all that legacy stuff, which was only a shadow of actually playing the game.

so ZAK is a big deal for me, what zak has to say is a big deal for me. I listen to zak and i care about his opinion and i care about his livelihood (which is his relationship with women - his girl mandy morbid, who is sick, like physically ill, and also sick of being harassed by shitty games nerds. his players, many of whom make their living doing porn, including mandy).

ZAK doesnt make his living making d&d, though. I'm not sure how he does it but i'm led to believe he makes it mostly in these two other spheres: art and porn.

art and porn and d&d. they have a lot of things in common. they are a good monad: all the best ideas come out of these spheres. at the very least, ZAK comes out of those spheres.

but there's this fourth sphere we must speak about: the CONTROVERSY. and so we have a field. art and porn and d&d and the CONTROVERSY.

all this shit exists without zak smith but I must listen to zak, i'm invested in this community. we cannot fail to listen to zak.

zak's a really weird dude though. anyway i try to keep this blog for d&d, i have other blogs for art and porn and the controversy. the thing is i've backed myself into this corner where i cannot ignore zak smith. zak can ignore me but i don't give a shit about this. i will write in the zak smith style; wherever i am and without apologising for myself. I see all this shit and it goes in my head and swims around in there, i can not be rid of it. i will not go away.

i could block zak but i do not wish to. he writes well and he knows what he is talking about. he is, in his own words, the hottest designer of the season. this is not a defense of zak smith though, because zak is also wrong. he does not care about those poeple he can't understand. but he still sees his enemy, he still complains about his enemy, and he still hurts people. I wouldnt even know about any of this shit if zak did not complain about it constantly. but i have also had to listen to zak's detractors, because zak will nto shut up about them. but we must listen to zak. if i blocked zak (and i do not wish to) i would still hear all this CONTROVERSY shit through intermediaries. in fact, the controversy would exist, even without zak. zak is a maven for the CONTROVERSY.

should i keep writing about this shit? probably not. there's not profit in this for me. but i give a shit. and i do all this stuff for free anyway. i'm in this for myself and for my friends. mods bless us all.

 

 addendum (jan 2025)

so thats all from back then

to be real i dont think i know zak well enough to be a character reference for him. my work is better for having read zak's. he's an influential designer and i have benefited from reading his criticism. i think his is an important point of view and its never sat well with me the way the rpg community treated him. i never took the claims against him super seriously and i don't really believe that he did any of that shit. i belonged to a an ad-hoc community on googleplus, that community from my position was zak-centric and zak was a defacto moderator of that community. i played with him a couple times and i liked and admired him, i think he's a singular designer. as well, i think zak is kind of a shitty moderator and I think his rules for how to conduct an argument are asinine. i don't really like forums and moderation in general, i don't hope that zaks weird rules for how best to conduct a discussion are adopted more widely

he was right to identify that he was the unfair target of a hatemob and he didnt and doesnt deserve to have his life destroyed by these people. i think that this review of red and pleasant land sucks and is bad: https://daegames.blogspot.com/2021/11/a-red-pleasant-land-meaningless-modern.html i dont have any real insight into his relationship with mandy and cant speak to it

hows the familiar meant to work

ive notice that the writers of 5e (mearls, crawford, perkins, et al) are reluctant to tell you what to do with familiars and like animal companions and stuff in interviews - like i think that the strictest reading of the rulebooks wants it to be

familiars (only as a class feature, not useful in combat)
animal companions (only as a class feature, useful in combat)
and now sidekicks (anyone can have, useful in combat)

and like, as written the rules sort of deliver these things, sort of not

and in interviews they'll be like, of course, anyone can have a familiar, of course - and i can see in streams and adventures that this is the intended way to play - and now because theres an explicit system in sidekicks, anyone can have a guy whos useful - and in a game that doesn't use sidekicks, we can see the same system is still intended in late-release beastmaster class features like the ua beastmaster ranger and the artificer

and the boring answer is like, they want you, the dm, to decide, because of course i can decide stuff, i can make up whatever dumb rules i want, but hows it actually sposed to work

the sorcerer should get a sorcery point at level 1

so the sorcerer has sorcery points at every level except 1, and doesnt really get good stuff to do with it until level 3. my game i want it to be pretty high level is level 3, so i wanted to buff the sorcerer at level 1-2, give them sorcery points and a way to use sorcery points earlier, maybe this breaks the game if youre multiclassing but i dont think so, but it is a lot of stuff to get at level 1, maybe confusing for new players, to whom i say, hey, dont play the sorcerer

Font of Magic.

You have a deep wellspring of magic within yourself. This wellspring is represented by sorcery points, which allow you to create a variety of magical effects.

At 1st level, You have a single sorcery point, and you gain one additional point every time you level up, to a maximum of 20 at level 20. You can never have more sorcery points than shown on the table for your level. You regain all spent sorcery points when you finish a long rest.

Sorcerous Zeal.

Your body crackles with a magical energy that allows you strange boosts of skill at odd times. When you roll an ability check, you can spend 1 sorcery point to add +1d6 to the ability check, after the d20 roll is revealed but before the dungeon master announces the outcome.


---------
is this overpowered? you can do it once a day at level one and twice a day at level 2. or at level 2 you can get a level 1 spell slot instead for 2 sorcery points. so it kinda... builds the ramp of , hey, sorcery points, do stuff with these

at higher levels i don't expect sorcerers would use sorcerous zeal very much because it competes with metamagic and i think is less powerful than metamagic, but if they do maybe thats good, maybe youre skills more often than spells in this game and then the sorcerer gets a thing they can use in that kinda game

is it bad flavor for the sorcerer to be like a jack of all trades skills guy? does it beat the bard at the thing the bard is good at? im not sure but i think it could be good for my game, im gonna probably do something else with the bard, but i think its not better in all cases than the bard thing

fighter weapon focus

(this about 5e again)

so i wanted a thing thats more than the fighting style at level one to make the fighters seem more different than each other. ive seen a couple different approach to this - i think more likely most people would swap out the fighting style, or the battlemaster steez for this kinda stuff- but i like it stacks with fighting style, and i think swapping out the fighter's self heal for some weapon steez gives me enough space to work with, more than you get with jsut fighting style, and im playing with the essentials kit, which i like because its sort of a new basic - and essentials kit never mentions the battlemaster, so this might work in an alternate universe game where theres no battlemaster, and this 'weapon focus' ability can also round out the fighter style sidekicks in that book. ahem, 5e voice...

Weapon Focus

At first level, you can either choose a Weapon Focus or gain the Second Wind feature.  When you level up, you can choose to replace your Weapon Focus with a different Weapon Focus, or choose to swap a Weapon Focus for Second Wind, or Second Wind for a Weapon Focus.

If a Weapon focus ability calls for a saving throw, the DC for that roll is your Maneuver Save DC.

Maneuver Save Difficulty Class: 8 + your Proficiency Bonus + your Strength or Dexterity modifier (your choice).

Choose one of the following abilities for your Weapon Focus:

Trapper. When you hit a creature that is medium or smaller with an attack using a flail or whip, as a bonus action you can cause the target to either succeed on a Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. When attacking a target with a net, you do not take disadvantage on the attack from attacking at long range, or from making a ranged attack in close combat.

Secret Crossbow Arts. You ignore the loading property on crossbows. You can use a bonus action to attack with a hand crossbow you are holding.

Blood Drinker. Your attacks with daggers and darts do 1d4 additional damage. When you reduce an enemy to 0 hp with a dagger or dart attack, or with any weapon that deals slashing damage, you can immediately gain temporary hit points equal to your Constitution modifier + 1 for each level you have in this class.

Punch Through. When you hit with a reach weapon that deals piercing damage, or with a weapon that is thrown like a javelin (including a spear, trident, or dart), you can hit a second target with the attack so long as the targets are within 5 feet of one another, and you can draw a straight line from the attacker through both targets.

Rattle Bones. When you hit a creature with an attack using a bludgeoning weapon, that creature is rattled until the end of its next turn. (A rattled creature has a -2 penalty to its attack rolls.)

XVARTS

using the sidekicks ua and xvart warlock together...

ok, so the queen of these xvarts is a xvart warlock named MAJAR the UNBLINKING as in Volo's Guide with few changes, she has boots of striding and springing, a rod of the pact keeper +1 and a shield +1
35hp, ac18 with a +1 shield

 but her champion is this guy...

STRITTEN BLAXT (XVART BATRIDER HEXCASTER)
hp 10d6+10 (70hp)
a xvart warlock with 5 levels of spellcaster (cleric)
that replaces its 'spellcasting' trait
but he still has innate spellcasting which is detect magic and mage armor at will, so we'll keep him in no armor. (AC15)

xvarts have the thing where they can communicate with rats and bats, and with giant bats and rats. so i would put this guy on a giant bat mount and have him oversee fighters on the ground...

(there are like 400 xvarts in this stack, not includign the ones outlined here.)

that gives him a range of 60ft. and the bat also makes its bite attack which adds another (+4/d6+2) damage. i would let him use the xvart disengage and shove proficiency for the bat. so advantage on shoves if theres an ally in 5ft of the target. then he uses his whole move to shove and disengage, making no attacks.

give him a shortbow, so its...
(+4/d6+2) either with the bow or the scimitar ... and flavor him a sort of branding iron thing instead of a scimitar, that does burning damage.

so ill give him... does a melee attack, which is also casting a touch spell with the branding iron, the bat makes a bite attack, and disengage in the same turn.

stealth +3
give him wisdom 16 (+3) and constitution 14 (+2)
wisdom based casting (+6/ DC14)
wisdom saving throw (+6)

[1][1][1][1][2][2][2][3][3]

three cleric cantrips (thaumaturgy, guidance, resistance)
1st level spells (bane, guiding bolt, cure wounds)
2nd level spells (lesser restoration, blindness/deafness)
3rd level spell (bestow curse)

so buffs and debuffs, some touch spells, some healing.

on a short rest, recovers 5 points of spell slots.

----------------
REXVOLT, JARN and YESRA, XVART BATRIDERs
so i'll give him some level 3 lieutenants. these guys can be based on regular xvarts rather than warlocks.. with 16 dex, so ac14(leather armor) and 30 hit points each. im giving them three levels of warrior.

proficiency (+2) in athletics, acrobatics, and animal handling

theyre also bat riders, basically to confuse which guy is the spellcaster. stritten goes into stealth, these guys pop out. so they also do the disengage and shove while on bats. im picturing a lot of narrow platforms over pits in this cave.

so shove is a str-athletics check opposed by the targets dex-acrobatics check. so these guys are the best at the shove thing, having advantage +2 if an ally is adjacent to the target. the shove knocks you prone or

they make an attack or a bat attack, not both, and theres generally no reason to use the bat's bite rather than shove or arrows.

 they make bow attacks and scimitar attacks at (+5/d6+3) and also make bat bite attacks at (+4/d6+2)
they also crit on a 19 and have advantage on dex saves they can see.

then some roguey ones on the ground...

-----------------
SALM, JISBIT, SILSBY and CLAX, XVART WHISPERERs - these ones are (level 2 expert) speakers, so they speak either common or goblin. call them 15 hp.

proficiency acrobatics, slight of hand, stealth, insight, survival, with expertise in insight and survival.

they do net attacks (+4, 10 feet) or mallet attacks (+4/d6+4)... but nonlethal. but can disengage, dash or hide as a bonus action. these guys automatically crit against a foe on the ground.

------------------
okay, so the theme with these guys is theyre noble avatar smurf types who are just trying to maintain their secret homeland, but the place is also a beholder lair or such (who they sort of believe is an avatar of their god, the NIGHT HUNTER) and the beholder guy is starting to pull planar terrors into the world....

so they will prefer to scare off adventurers rather than kill them, the idea is to rough them up, dump them out of the dungeon and make it so that they dont come back. I think if they tpk the party, they will take 1 eye and dump the party outside.

treasure.... majar would have a bunch of gold jewelry covered in moonstones, 2000 gold worth. a +1 rod of the pact keeper. a +1 shield. and a boots of striding and springing.