Latest / Bards and Barrels / S2 Ep.16 - Reviewing Nations and Cannons

Transcript

S2 Ep.16 - Reviewing Nations and Cannons · Bards and Barrels

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Bards and Barrels, the podcast for Dungeons Dragons players, new and old.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Phil Boone and I'm joined by my friends and co-hosts Ross Struess and Brett Miller.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: We'll be exploring the world of Dungeons and Dragons in each episode, sharing our experiences, offering tips and advice for those who play and run this classic game.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: So whether you're a new player just starting out or a seasoned veteran looking to get a new perspective on things, Bards and Barrels has something for everyone.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: So sit back, grab a drink, and join us as we roll for initiative and embark on an epic adventure.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: And there it is.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: I had to do my own opening crack.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: That was such a good opening crack.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: I had a hard time getting my finger under the tab.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: Man.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: Oh gosh.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: Villain Ross here tonight.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: We are missing Brett, but I will do my best to channel his spirit.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: And we've got an exciting one for you tonight.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: We are once again gonna take a look at something a little different than uh than our normal episode.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: So we are gonna look at a non-fantasy, that's right, non-fantasy DD 5e setting.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: Ross, what is this?
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so uh a while back, I I believe it was on Facebook.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I I'm a big hit history buff, and and I saw, I again, no idea how Facebook knew I wanted to see something like this.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it didn't, I don't know.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Facebook listens to everything, right?
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but I saw this uh ad for a DD setting called Nations and Canons, and it is a Revolutionary War setting uh for DD 5e.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: So it uses the unlike Mercborg a couple weeks ago, uh where it's a completely different system, uh Nations and Canon actually utilizes 5e to run its game.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so what I took a look at, and I actually bought this at um Denver Fan Expo, they they uh Flagbearer Games, who makes this, had a booth there, and I talked with uh a couple of the guys that were there and just kind of got a feel for what was in this book and uh which one I wanted to buy because there's actually a couple of them, but I only bought the the core rule set, the core rule set, and then the original uh Revolutionary War campaign setting that they created.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: So are some of those other books based on like different wars?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: So no, they're actually like expansions on this, so it's still in the Revolutionary War.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: So it just like structure of the book, like it feels very similar to the player's handbook where it talks about like creating characters and then it gets into like equipment, feats, backgrounds, things like that.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: So very similar in that instance, and then at the back, as part of the the appendix, it has like some one-shots, if you will, that you can run uh that are short, like little one-hour versions.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, if I remember correctly, the other books were like longer versions that you could get and play.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like taking like maybe like a whole battle, like Battle of Trenton or something, and and like putting you into that or something in that case.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: But uh it would be interesting for sure.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just I'm thinking through this, I'm like, you know, I am not a history buff and was one of my least favorite subjects in school, but I am pretty sure that I could get interested like through something like this.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: Like I could learn stuff about the Battle of Trenton that I probably forgot like years ago.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's a cool way that you to to possibly learn about something.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I I think that's a lot of why they do this, because it it's bringing like some people who maybe were otherwise not interested in history, like yourself, and then putting them in a position where you're gonna learn something just because of playing the game, right?
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh a little background on this.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: So well, let's jump right into pros and cons because I'm gonna go through some of the highlights by doing that.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I think uh one of the pros for me is that there's quite a bit of variety as far as character creation.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: The flip side of that, and also it's a pro, but it's also a con, is that it's not your typical DD layout, right?
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like there's no races here because everybody is a human in this world.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: So you had to like rethink this a little bit.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the the first thing that they they do that's that's quite interesting is you get into heritages.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: So you can pick if you want to be a Native American, or if you want to have a Creole background, or if you really want to be a Rogue Red Co, I suppose you could be English background or or whatever the case may be, right?
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: Does that play into like how your character's designed for it?
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: So let's keep in mind here, I've not played this.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is just my knowledge from reading this, but uh from what I've gathered, it's more just flavor for your character.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like it's you know, if you're a Creole player, you you have some French background, so maybe that affects how you speak and the the the accent that you use or something like that.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: But it's not those don't affect your player directly.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what does affect your player is how they've replaced races with origins.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: So you would choose like officer, pioneer, a renegade, scholar, scout, or veteran.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: So that's like how they view those as those are like overarching character types, basically, and then you're gonna fit in classes underneath that potentially.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, interesting.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: So the the the weird thing is is like you have to have a class in mind almost to pick the right origin, though, because you wouldn't necessarily have an officer who is not a fighter of some sort, right?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, or something like that.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like it's it's a little weird how those fit in there.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they almost sound like even background-esque.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: They are, but there's also separate backgrounds within the game, too.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like it's like that's that's weird as well.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, like backgrounds, they have things like career soldier, convict, folk, uh, folk hero, fur trader, homesteader, immigrant, parishioner, son of liberty.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: And those will make probably a little more sense as we get to talking about the classes, but it's like there's backgrounds to fit, it's just very strange.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's not quite as linear as you might think.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, it's very linear, but it's not quite as uh plug-and-play, maybe as normal DD is.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, class-wise, there's um five options.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Some of these are going to sound very familiar to you.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Things like barbarian or fighter or ranger and rogue work very similar to how they do in DD.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: The interesting thing is, and some of this has to do just with the dynamics of using the 5e system.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: They talk about like in the barbarian, for instance, like they talk about when you rage as a barbarian, but in this book, they don't exactly explain how a barbarian rages.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to know that, you still need a DD 5e handbook to understand that aspect of a barbarian.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I think you might even be able to get that info from basic rules.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: Totally.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: You can get it from basic rules.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, at least you could pick that up for so that that is an excellent uh point.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I think the con in this instance is if you have never played DD, it would be very hard to pick up this book and just start playing.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: Sure, sure.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I as you're holding it there, right?
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: I see that it says like core rules on the front of it, but it also calls out that it is kind of just a campaign setting.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: But if you did pick it up thinking everything you need is in that book, I could see how you would be.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it it's still really cool, don't get me wrong.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: And and I should go back up just a step.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: The the one class that is not in DD proper is the firebrand.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: And this would be like your politician, or it could be something um like a minister, because ministers during revolutionary times certainly stoked fires of the revolutionary things like that.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: So they acted in a very similar fashion, which when you now that you know the three pieces, uh, a firebrand is probably likely a scholar or something of some sort, but then the background-wise, they're probably gonna take parishioner or something like that.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's like a very like public speaking type background, which would be similar to like a bard or a uh paladin, something with a very uh high charisma score, more than likely.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: I as soon as you said firebrander and explained that as a politician, I'm like, this is a high charisma character, and this is what Ross would play in this campaign.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Totally.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: I would totally be a fire, I would totally be a firebrand.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: You're absolutely right.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, another thing that's cool in this world is that magic exists but doesn't exist, right?
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: So only specific classes have magic, and in this setting they call them gambits.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh funny enough, it's like a certain selects amount of spells that are unique to, like, say, the firebrand.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Firebrand is one of the classes that gets these gambits.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but they're gonna get things like Vicious Mockery, which makes perfect sense for a high charisma type character or something that they could use to persuade people or something like that, right?
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the other one would be the Ranger, who in this case plays uh a lot more of a healer.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: The con to that is there's not a lot of magic in this world.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're coming into this thinking, you know, this is gonna be like DD and I'm gonna be using some magic in the real world, yeah.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: You're pulling out that med kit.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, that's exactly right, pulling out the med kit.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's just just there's not a lot there for you.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: There are feats in this game that typically center around things like uh being able to reload faster or something like sharpshooter, like those kinds of things.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so so they do it like carbine expert, so things like that.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: So pistol expert, printer's apprentice, which I thought was an interesting one.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh rifle expert kind of falls into that weapon, ruffian.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that could be like something that would go with a rogue or uh a skirmisher, and a skirmisher would be like a soldier type feat.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh without getting too deep into those.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really it's it's unique, it's cool, but it's also you need other pieces, unlike uh Mercborg, which you know had everything in that book, you needed to play it right there.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: This one, you do need some DD knowledge to be able to get into that.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: So it's fine, it's okay.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but cons that are outside my pro-cons, the things that we're doubling up.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh character building is confusing.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: If you're used to standard DD, pick a race, pick a class, pick a background, it's still kind of there, but it feels very different.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: And all those things that they have are still kind of connected to each other.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like you have to read through it all and then come back, and maybe you can build a character.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: But if you choose a barbarian and you really don't know a barbarian, you still have to go find the rules for a barbarian to understand all the ins and outs of it.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I I think uh just kind of hearing you talk about it too.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: If you were going to have a whole party play something like this, you would have to make sure that they understood like the limitations around classes.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: And and I think that's the the main thing with this.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're dropping somebody into this world, um, I I do feel like it would be very hard.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been playing like a DD campaign and you drop them, like you plane shift them and go back in time or something, right?
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: It would be fun for a short period of time because it's so different, but it would be very hard to run an entire campaign for a group of people that's so used to slinging magic and doing things like that.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: So it absolutely would, but the DM in me is like instead of like a trip to this alternate whatever plane, right?
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: You're fast forwarding in time, like into the future.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: So you're no longer in this magical realm.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: Magic has been lost.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: People don't remember how to use magic, and now you do just have this is the singular race that's left at the end, right?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: And interesting, yeah.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: Magic is gone, and these types of our character arcs or whatever, they just they don't exist anymore.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: You're now you know, like it could play out pretty I think you just came up with a cool campaign that would be cool.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: It could be done.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they show up like right in the middle of a battle.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, for sure.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it and like to me, like when I when I read through this the first time, like if you got dropped into this, it would totally be like, you know, one minute you're in water deep, and then you get you know, somebody comes up behind you and whacks you in the back of the head, you wake up and you're in this log cabin with a fire roaring next to you, and like you sit up and you're like in wool tweed clothing, and you're like, what the hell is going on here?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then like a little more, yeah, you're in New England, bro.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just picturing the first time that like someone goes to cast a spell and nothing happens.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: That would be a really fun scene to play out.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, magic missiles and wait, go, go, magic missiles, nothing, nothing comes out at all.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, I I I think there's some cool playing opportunities and cool role-playing opportunities.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think I think it just would be very hard to like just do a revolutionary war campaign from start to finish.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: I I'm not sure there's a lot of stuff here that you could really do.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: I have not read the other books, so maybe the other campaigns go a little deeper into those things and give you more stuff to go on.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um another pro though, that that is something that I one of the things when I was reading through this, I was like, also, like, what can I take out of this and bring back to DD?
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, artillery rules.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: If you want muskets, not like M16s, like modern day guns, but if you want like musket guns in your DD world and you want to bring artillery into your world, this book has the rules and stat blocks to help you do that.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Nice, okay.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because, like, if you're trying to do like major battles or something like that in Feirune, you know, feasibly you could invent a cannon, right?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: There's for a reason you couldn't.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: And then if you're gonna involve that in battle, you need certain stat blocks and rules to govern that.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: And this does a really good job with that, especially like the concepts around like needing to like you fire the cannon, you have to clean out the barrel, you have to check and make sure it's empty, you have to reload it, you have somebody that puts the igniter in, uh, and then prep the gun.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like it's just like it goes through all of those things, which is really cool.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then like the different types of ammunition you could fire, like grape shot versus canister versus round ball, all those things are in this, which is really cool.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't have even considered that, yeah.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: So that was actually one of the reasons I picked this up as well, because I was thinking of like those major battle tactic type things.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's like if this was ever in Fey Rune, like I need rules for that, and I really don't want to come up with rules on my own.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like if somebody's done the legwork, let's use it.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: And they do a really good job of that in this book.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I I think it's great.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, would you recommend this?
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: I would, uh, in the sense that I think there's a lot of pieces that you can take out of this and utilize elsewhere.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, having not played any of the one-shots, I I don't want to say whether it's like a great game system that they've created or not.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but there's definitely the pieces are there for it.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're interested in history, I think it's definitely worth picking up.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, awesome.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh any final thoughts on it?
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think so.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: I I think it boils down to to having that interest in history because it it does dive pretty deep into that.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because it goes into like some backstory, even like in the the classes and stuff where it talks about people, like examples of those classes.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, like a firebrand brand would have been like Patrick Henry or somebody like that.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay, cool.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: Or you could even go as far as saying like Thomas Jefferson could have been a fire brand.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, sure wrote the Declaration of Independence, right?
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: So things like that.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so it's really cool to like if you play DD to like make connections to actual people.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: So that's really interesting.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the one thing I would caution uh before you get this, if if you are trying to bring a party into this world and trying to like draw comparisons from like the class that they are to what their class would be here, it's a little difficult because since there's only five of them, um, and if you're not a rogue, a ranger, a barbarian, or a fighter, so if you're a paladin or a cleric, you you're gonna have to take a guess on where they're gonna go.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so that gets a little tricky, but it's not impossible.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I think you can make some interesting moves and it'd be fun role-playing.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I I would recommend this.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think it would be really cool for people to play.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it sounds like an awesome setting to try.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's Nations and Cannons by Flagbearer Games.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks again, Ross, for bringing it in.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: That is gonna do it for this episode of Bards and Barrels.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: Give us a listen anywhere that you find your podcasts and a follow and a like at Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube at Bards and Barrels.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see you soon.