Stealing From Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom for your RPGs

Dinosaurs have been a part of the Dungeons and Dragons experience for decades. this wiki stub provides a brief breakdown but falls to include the new 5e product Tomb of Annihilation which features more dinos in the jungle.

But what does that have to do with the new summer blockbuster Fallen Kingdom? Let's see what you can easily steal from it:

1. Fallen Kingdom: Have the players or the people in the campaign run through an area that has now fallen into ruin? Did an old campaign fail with the players not saving Waterdeep? With Shadowdale being destroyed? Have the new players go through those ruins. Have them see the price of failure.

2. The environment as a challenge: While 4e may be hated for many reasons, it's skill challenge system had some potential. It allowed your characters to try and succeed at something with a certain number of successes needed before hitting a certain number of failures. Need to jump onto a crumbling spiral stairwell while lava burns through the roof? Need to dodge falling boulders while driving a carriage unto a boat that's leaving dock? Set some skill checks and devise some penalties for each failure. Maybe you get splashed with acid. Maybe you get jostled on the vehicle. Maybe a nearby monster gets to take a bite at you.

3. Minions: While it's great to give players equal opposition and sometimes even have them go against stronger foes, giving them numerous opportunities to knock out weaker foes gives them a chance to flex their own physical prowess.

4. New Enemies: In a game like Dungeons and Dragons, one of the most iconic monsters is the owlbear. Fallen Kingdom introduces the much cooler indoraptor, a super raptor.

In a game like dungeons and dragons where half-orcs, half-elves, half-dragons and more often hit the standards as a player race, well, seeing some new and unique type of dinosaurs is an almost assured thing. More importantly, though, it should serve as an example of making your own mark on a campaign. Has a new wizard decided to follow through with owlbear variants? Has a new dragon cult determined that dragons crossed with demons are stronger than those crossed with devils? Many many moons ago, Mongoose Publishing created a book dedicated to this type of monster creation, Crossbreeding. Well worth a look for ideas.

5. Random Events: The biggest failing for me of Fallen Kingdom is the surprise savior bit that keeps getting played out over and over. Hero comes to save kid! Blue comes to save hero! Love interest comes to save both! But from that idea, comes the idea that if the heroes and villains are fighting in a wilderness-based area, perhaps there are other things out there that will gladly take turns and bites out of both groups?

6. Unique Features: The inoraptor has a distinct feature, outside of its own unique look. It taps one of its talons on the ground. It's something that instantly gives it personality and character. The raptor blue has enough features that it's no longer 'just' a raptor, it's a character. The big old T-Rex that's been around forever? It's now scarred but still standing and still doing its iconic poses and roars. Try to remember when the party isn't fighting nightless hordes to give them something to remember about the encounter.

7. Feature Expansion: At the end of the movie, the 'genie' is out of the bottle. Even though, you know, as technology progressess it would've been out of the bottle years ago. Dinosaurs are hinted to be at a much more involved state of the world. What if in most fantasy setting with a demon infestation that infestation explodes outwards? Overall perhaps smaller but in more 'mundane' areas? What if that magical desert starts spiking out in odd growth patterns and intrudes in other rareas? What if an outer planar feature that was just a portal becomes a city or opens up for much longer? Some huge ramifications and some serious thought should be given to such an event.

Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom isn't perfect but it's a fun summer film and can provide numerous opportunities to add fun elements to your own campaign.

And a Fifth Horseman Shall Appear and his name shall be Next

I'm going to admit it right up front, I haven't been paying much attention to what's going on with Dungeons and Dragons. When they dropped 4th edition and dropped Dungeon and dropped Dragon, neither of which I'd been subscribing to for a while, I pretty much lost interest.

But lo and behold, the internets are ablaze with the new information about 5th edition. The obvious news? It'll be at Gen Con, or at least, one of the books will. That strikes me as odd since AFAIK, the books are not printed in the United States and any changes that need to be made aren't going to get incorporated into the later books anyway. Live by the China, die by the China.

In addition, the price point for the core set is too high. Mind you, let me be clear, that's my opinion. I also don't think it will hurt initial sales at all. I think that there is every possibility of a sell through at Gen Con. Right now Amazon has the Player's Handbook for just under $30 bones. That's $10 more, at Amazon, than 4th edition.



For those that find that too expensive, there's even a starter box set that's under $13 right now. There are supposed to be some online rules to complement that which allow some further play than just the boxed set itself.



Let me be clear. It's not that I think these are bad values mind you. For $150, if you're only getting the core three books, you can probably get many moons of game play from.

But well, that $150 can buy a tablet. It can buy a few board games. It can buy dozens of supplements for free rule sets of the OSR that are readily available right now.

Mind you, some will point out that Amazon discount brings that down to $90 if you get them all at a heavy discount. But that's now. What happens if Amazon tells Hasbro they want more money like Amazon has done with a different publisher and cuts their deep discounts out? Companies need to stop pricing their books to account for the Amazon discount if they don't want to be beholden to Amazon's pricing.

Anyway...

It's not that it's a bad price, I just think it's a bad price for the core books for Dungeons and Dragons. Pathfinder has a core book that is the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide combined. If $100 for two books is great value, what does that put the Pathfinder system at? Awesome value?

In addition, there is some weirdness going on. Let's look at the adventurers. For many people, the adventurers of a system are what a system lives and dies by. People talk about great campaigns for decades after the games have been run. It doesn't matter what system either. Talk about Warhammer and people will instantly pipe up with The Enemy Within and their favorite parts of that, or even smaller adventurers like The Three Feathers. Others will mention things like the Orient Express for Call of Cthulhu.

Both third and fourth edition didn't necessarily have a lot of great adventures in that vein. Wizards of the Coast has a real weakness when it comes to doing adventure paths. When they lost Paizo, the former caretakers of the print magazines Dungeon and Dragon, they lost the ability to do well regarded adventure paths, which for better or worse, are a standard for Dungeons and Dragons or D&D like games these days.

But the new edition has some starting adventures. In this instance, done by Kobold Press, a company that has supported Pathfinder, 3rd edition and even 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons. The first I believe is Hoard of the Dragon Queen, but that strange Amazon pricing comes through as this book is over $25 dollars and only has an 11% discount. Are you going to pay almost as much for a single adventure as you are a core book, with discount?

Strangely enough, despite being done by a third party and published by Wizards of the Coast, indications seem to be that any OGL will not be immediate.

That makes me wonder why then they picked Kobold Press. Let me be clear. It's not that Kobold Press is a bad publisher. They have a wide range of products and a wide range of materials ranging across different editions.

But not everything has gone smoothly.

Take their recent book Deep Magic for example, is a weighty tome available in hardcover and PDF. But right after it came out, there was an addendium. That's not a good sign.

Or how about some of the material that's currently late for their Kickstarter projects? For example, if you backed their adventure anthology, Midgard Tales,  you've been waiting for Freeing Nethus for over a year.

If you backed the kickstarter for the miniatures for the Midgard setting, those were due either a year ago, or just under a year ago.

And Wizards of the Coast chooses them?

I'm sure that they'll pull through and that the various issues that Kobold Press is having with those different aspects are aberrants and of course, not standard practice, but if you've been waiting for either of those and you see their name associated with the new D&D that may not give you the warm fuzzies.

I think that not supporting an OGL right off the bat is potentially disastrous for Wizards of the Coast in terms of longevity of Dungeons and Dragons. Mind you, if they have their character creation software so heavily integrated, it might not matter anyway as that more than the limited third party support 4th edition received, keep players I know from buying material that wasn't in the software.

Why buy Goodman Games or other material that you would have to manually tally when everything else was so fairly well done within the system itself?

If you're a new player and you see Dungeons and Dragons and limited support only through Wizards of the Coast, and you see Paizo and Pathfinder and you see dozens of publishers being actively supported by Paizo, on the companies home page and receiving high praise from many of the people who make Paizo the community it currently is, which company are you going to buy from?

Mind you, there are some people who dropped buying things from Wizards of the Coast when WoTC stopped printing physical copies of Dungeons and Dragons magazines. There are some that stopped when WoTC pulled down the PDF's. There are some who stopped when WoTC dumped 4e and went with Essentials editions. There are some who stopped when WoTC took their character generation from a downloaded software to an online only software.

Here's the thing. Many of those players are NEVER coming back. Either they've fond something that met their fantasy need, ranging from Pathfinder or 13th Age for 'new school' players, or any one of the many OSR products already out and fairly compatible with the hundreds of 1st and 2nd edition products already out in the wild.

Me? I've got the boxed set and Player's Handbook preordered. I'm not a 'D&D' player do or die or anything like that. Those reading the blog on a regular basis know I'm a player in a Warhammer 2nd edition fantasy campaign. And if you look at that, an old system that's not supported and was replaced by Fantasy Flight Games with weird dice and an expensive core book, you might see some potential futures for a new edition of Dungeons and Dragons that doesn't' take into account that not only are they not the only fish in the pond in terms of what people can spend their money, and more importantly, their time on, their not the only Dungeons and Dragons game that people can spend their money and time on.

Look what's shipping: Premium Original Dungeons & Dragons Fantasy Roleplaying Game (D&D Boxed Game)

As a certain Professor would say, "Good news everybody."


In this case, my Amazon order for the Premium Original Dungeons & Dragons Fantasy Roleplaying Game (D&D Boxed Game) reprint of the original, or at least some of the original Dungeons and Dragons material, has shipped.


I know a lot of people put in orders to Amazon for this product and were annoyed, at best, with the numerous delays.


For me, I had the opportunity to cancel. I know a few people over on RPG.net did so and ordered it from Barnes & Nobles online and have already had it for a week or more.


But since my playing schedule is erratic at best, I didn't see any need to make a big deal of it. If it shipped, great. If it didn't, I could always save the money.


For those who don't know what's in this reprint, taken from the Amazon page itself:


A premium, deluxe edition of the Original D&D® "White Box"!
It's the original Dungeons & Dragons game, packed with more content than ever before.

The original Dungeons & Dragons boxed set was published by TSR, Inc. in 1974 and was the very first roleplaying game, introducing concepts that have persisted throughout later editions. It included three small rules booklets in a white box.

This deluxe, premium reprint of the original "White Box" features new packaging and includes the following seven booklets:

 Volume 1: Men & Magic
 Volume 2: Monsters & Treasure
 Volume 3: Underworld & Wilderness Adventures
 Supplement I: Greyhawk
 Supplement II: Blackmoor
 Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry
 Supplement IV: Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes

Each booklet features new cover art, while the interior retains nostalgic original art. Booklets are packaged in an engraved illustrated wooden storage case.


So for those who kept their orders at Amazon, have you got a shipping notice yet? Are you looking forward to having it as a bit of nostalgia or are you going to play with the rules? For me, it's definatly nostalgia. My limited time and my friends bouncing from system to system makes it difficult for me to schedule something like this in when they're chomping at the bit to run Numera and other new games.

Random Observations on 4e

Over on RPG.net, there's some talk about Paizo Pathfinder and WoTC 4e.
http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?670531-Comparing-the-D-amp-D-and-Pathfinder-Product-Lines-to-Discern-Why-4E-Failed

Here's what I posted there and my take on it.

Why 4e 'failed'? Well, it failed WoTC that's for sure. For anyone else it would probably have been like Nirvana but here's my 'gamer' theories.

1. Reputation. Firings every X-Mas. Taking down the DDI and claiming about 6 different reasons why but boiling it down to "thieves in the temple!", calling your consumers thieves on the PDF front and taking your toys and going home with them. Minor things but...

2. PDF Consumption. While we can say that the DDI takes the place of PDF that's not quite true. After WoTC sold out of PHB2 they claimed to have suffered damages by PDF files that were released into the wild that were legally bought and cancelled that line of revenue NEVER to replace it directly.

3. Adventure Support. There was one print adventure path and it was not viewed well. There was Dungeon online and it's one adventure path... also not viewed well. In print adventurers, especially towards the tail end?

4. OGL. While Paizo is the big dog, they've done a lot of enhance the OGL and have been very friendly towards 3rd party publishers. This includes putting their products on the front page of their own web site and talking them up. WoTC took interest in the GLS out back and shot it in the face. When Necromancer Games goes, "I will support 4e or nothing at all" and it turns out to be nothing at all? You know WoTC done fucked up.

5. Setting Support: That solution they had of fire and forget wasn't going to make a lot of people happy.

6. Setting Support 2: Trashing the Forgotten Realms YET AGAIN did nothing to help convince older players that may be coming back that this is what was needed.

7. Rule Mastery Failure. The first printings of the first few books are compatible with later books but there are a ton of errata's and updates and the monster math changed greatly from the original MM to MM2 to MM3. People felt robbed. It's been a while but I also believe there was some flubbing with the new introductory boxed set with the Larry Elmore cover of classic days.

8. Essentials or "Which way am I walking?" Initially announced the changing of product lines to smaller books that lasted for about ten seconds.

9. Release Schedule Panic: People like some steady releases and like to know when they're coming out. Cancelling books left and right and reshuffling them looks like something a small third party company would do, not the leader of the pack.

10. Novel/Tie in Support. The comics weren't bad but not huge sellers. Their book selection has bounced a bit and while there were a few series set after the Spellplauge, it was nothing like it was when it was at its peak.

11. Dungeon and Dragon Utility = m'eh: When they took the DDI off the download, I still had like two months on it. I was NOT impressed with it as it lost a lot of utility it used to have. I understand that came back but in the meanwhile, for a while Dragon and Dungeon were simply put, not good values in and of themselves. The adventurers were okay, the format kept changing, the focus keept changing, the magazines had articles late, and hey by the way, for "your convenience" we've gotten rid of the compiled issue and you have to download articles individual one by one. I think they've back pedaled on that one too.

12. DDI Misses: I went to an interview with the guys doing the DDI before 4e launched. You can read about it on EN World from back in the day. But there were a ton of things that were supposed to be there at ground zero that I think are only NOW starting to pop up like the VTT.

13. Miniature Mishaps: Hey, we're going to introduce two brand new races to the game and make almost all the miniatures for at least one of them super hard to get. Sure, you can sub for them but really, is that what the consumer wants to do? What? They don't want to pay inflated prices for repaints? What? They're not happy with the massive drop in quality that accompanied several price increases? They want to know why the adventurers never have miniatures to go with them and that those miniatures come out months or years later? Foolish mortals! It's hard keeping communication lines open in a big company. We have no idea what games are being written or what core races are in the book.

14. Holding back material to boost further sales. In the 3.5 era, the PHB2 was a massive seller. MM2 and others... not quite so much. In order to boost sales of future core books, Gnomes, barbarians, frost giants, and a host of other material was deliberately split from the 'normal' core material and put into future volumes. Nothing like forcing people to pay for a few monsters more eh? Anyone remember the old 1st edition Monster Manual where you had Orcus and Asmoedus? Dispather and Demogorgon? Stop holding back the goodies dudes.


WoTC as a company has been handicapped in competitng in what is a niche industry. Their main benefits are useless when the main competition has access to all the same resources as you. Wayne Reynods? Monte Cook? Other fan favorites? Being the people who saved D&D only gets you so far when you showcase that hey, you're not a niche industry provider, you're a corporate entity that must met X, Y, and Z goals and your lengths gone to to protect your IP are hurting you among the people in the niche fandom. You know, the very same people you're trying to sell to? Yeah, them!

But again, those are gut shots from a fan, nothing more.

2012 Lookback aka "Not in the Face!"

2012 was a year that put a lot of challenges to me.

For one, my job kicked into overtime. There were bits that I could have done better but I've tried to run the show as a guy who keeps things moving as opposed to smashing one particular group over another because the blow back for such deeds is usually not worth it.

I initially wanted to pull back and do less in terms of the amount of hours I worked. Turns out this year I've worked more hours than I ever did in the past. Working seven days a week was not an unusual thing. Wasn't necessarily a bad thing either but I did fool myself into thinking I was making more than I was. Damn you taxes! Anyway, that cut seriously into my 'me' time.

This meant less reading, less gaming, less painting, less watching movies, less going out, less socialization, and well, more being a sarcastic crab ass just when I thought I'd reached the pinnacle of my skills in that field.

I don't know what 2013 will bring in those regards but I'm going to try and achieve a finer balance in the home life and work life.

Another problem with the dreaded mom. She visited my sister for a few months and neither one of them is used to the other. This lead to some interesting situations and while I tried to give my sister some advice, it was too couched in my smart ass ways for her to take it as seriously as she could have.

And then there are other complications with my mother's health right know which I'm not going to delve too deeply into but suffice it to say it's been stressful for both my sister and I, and I'm sure much worse for my mother herself.

Thankfully, my boss has been very supportive in terms of allowing me to move my time around. Mind you, as it's only recently been an issue and I've been doing a LOT of overtime, we'll see how that scales in 2013. Hopefully things continue going well in the field at least.

Fiction wise, while I enjoyed several books, none really 'broke' out for me. I can name some characters and some bits, but for the most part, it's mostly a blur of 'grimdark' or pseudo grimdark where the author didn't really have the stones to push it to that next level.

Not that they necessarily need to. Even the most harsh of novels and deeds and characters can just get boring after a while. You have to wonder why not one just goes, "Really? Really?"

In terms of gaming it's been a bad year. I've hung out with my friends on numerous occassions and played in the Shackled City. One of my friends has had a few near TPKs and some interesting times with it but again, it's not his DMing style or skills that have kept me from the game, it's been work.

One of the things that's odd, is that the guys I play with went from 4e to Pathfinder without missing a beat. It was like returning to visit a really cool old friend. Turned out some interesting learning experiences for me with the cleric and wizard I played as they were different enough from their 3.5 versions that there were some, "Oh that's cool".

In terms of 5th edition or Dungeons and Dragons Next... no habla. I've thought WoTC has done a terrible job with the mantle of D&D for a while now and well, I figure I'll just let the new edition surprise me.

In terms of new games or games outside my range... didn't happen. There were a ton of games I wanted to check out and play like Goodman Games Dungeon Crawl Classics. No time. I even have the Adventurer Conquror King first book and will soon have the companion. Again, no time.

Strangely enough, that hasn't stopped my supporting of the Kickstarter model. For me, it's a preorder system. I know some people have pointed to KS itself and their words of wisdom that it's not a preorder system despite the fact that KS itself says you HAVE to deliver the goods or pay the money back. So it's not a preorder system but you have to deliver something? Yeah, we'll see how that plays out.

I initially thought that RPGs were money went to die in terms of the KS model. Still do. Way too many projects absurdly late on these things. So late that if these were people you know, you'd be wondering why they're walking across the street pretending they don't hear you.

But now I'm starting to think most niche things, like miniatures as well, are going to have further problems. While Coominiornot has done some good things with Zombicide, their second project is late. Will their third and fourth be late? Reputation is going to start being a HUGE thing on KS, especially if you switch backers and partners to try and look like you're now 'professional' while still not delivering on the previous KS. It'll be interesting to observe while I can.

For miniature games, one of the people I know from my friend's old store, Black Sun Games, has been a machine. Me? I've gotten like two games of Song of Blades and Heroes in. Over the course of the year. Can you say pitiful? What's worse is the amount of money I keep spending on the hobby like I'm really going to delve into Warhammer with my Elves or Deepwars with the Dark Mariners or any of the other games I'm painting or backing.

For painting? Again, time not there. I bought an air brush and while I love using it to lay down base coats, I haven't had enough time to do anything else with it. No time to practice and no time to try out different techniques. I'm happy if I can do three layers and a wash or two.

In terms of buying locally from say, stores like Games Plus, man did that take a hit. I deliberately went then on their Thanksgiving Saturday bit to throw some money their way because I'd be spending so much on the whole KS model. Ouch. My wallet is still recovering.

I know I sound like I'm bitching a lot. On the other hand, I could afford to spend money on my hobbies. My mom is still kicking and while not doing well, is on the road to recovery. Her being sick has actually brought my sister and me a little closer. Work is busy but I'm glad to have a job where I can work overtime and still get paid for it. There are many good things about life and while I've had some challenges, I'm hoping to make life more to my liking in 2013. I hope everyone else has that opportunity as well.

Not onwards 2013 and remember, "Not in the face!"

Monsters Resurrected: Terror Birds

Walking with Dinosaurs and others are shows that I enjoy. Monsters Resurrected is in the same vein if a little less impressive and cool. For one thing, it reuses the same footage over and over again. I get it, you're going to recreate the animal and you're going to show how awesome it was! But after you see the same elements over and over again, you're like, give me a damn break about it already eh?

Anyway, the first episode is about terror birds. I've seen these in D&D with all sorts of names including Axebeaks for example and there were probably several varieties of them in 3.5 with the utility of the OGL.

One of the interesting things about fantasy campaigns, Dungeons and Dragons in particular, is that the game isn't worried about the 'real' ecology of the landscape. Sure, Dragon magazine back in the day used to have some great ecology articles, and Kobold Quarterly has taken up that mantle, and even Paizo has their various 'revisited' lines. But to think that a setting could support as many giant, super predators as the typical fantasy setting has in it's back yard? Probably not going to happen.

Even here when talking about the terror bird and how it was an apex predator and had an impressive length of time as king of the wheel, it's two main competitors for food were not things like T-Rex or tool using man, but rather, sabertooth tigers and wolves. Turns out that not having teeth, being a solitary predator and laying eggs on the ground are possibly reasons why the wolves managed to use pack tactics, use packs to keep the young alive, and well, have really good teeth that can quickly down a meal before other predators come by.

To me, I always figured it was more like cow tipping. With those tiny little arms they probably got pushed down by proto-cavemen who were bored and couldn't get up like a little turtle on its back.

But no, seriously, when looking at these monsters with their razor sharp beaks and ability to inflict tremendous damage, with great eye sight, with fantastic hearing, and with great speed and stamina, in a fantasy setting, they would make for some great mounts. As meat eaters, they could dispose of any left over orcs, or if the orcs are riding them, any left over humans. In some aspects, they might make better beasts of burden for monstrous riders as those monstrous humanoids probably wouldn't feel too squeamish about feeding them any wounded on their side either.

Still, with the sheer variety that terror birds have been visualized with, its not that difficult to see different variants of the bird serving one master while another variety serves still a different one.

Another interesting aspect of these creatures, is that like with most ancient and old entities, they are always finding or testing out this theory or that, or how the animal might have lived and fought including some impressive kicking skills and larger speciemens.

Lesserton and Mor by Joel Sparks and Jeff Sparks

I picked this and a few other OSR books up at Gen Con last year but haven't really had a lot of time to dig into it.

While waiting for some glazes to dry on some Khador models I'm working on, I figured I'd hit the Referee's Guide a bit.

One of the things I thought interesting, is that while there are 'half orcs', they don't call them that here. Instead, it's orckin. A simple enough change, but one that makes a lot of sense. There are so many half-X races in D&D and other fantasy games, that it seems lazy to just call a half orc or half elf by those names. One of the neat things about the Dhampyr is a unique sounding name that's still pretty recognizable if you know where its coming from. When using such races in your own setting, try to give them their own name.

Another neat little aspect, is the trade game. A lot of the humanoids here are known for their mastery of one particular type of large vermin; bees, crickets, frogs and spiders. Each one has its own economy of sorts but its all based on the barter system. Each tribe having its own specialty. A clever group can make some 'real' money on the small level if you will, but it can work.

One of the reasons it can work, is because like many older editions, the game focus isn't necessarily on money as a means of purchasing magic items so that you retain game balance or can overcome damage resistance.

This allows the authors to do some fun things that normally they might not be able to do without stressing the simple system to see if its going to break the economy of the game and push the players in one direction or another in terms of their relative power level.

In addition to playing various editions of Dungeons and Dragons, I hope that 5e design crew is scrutinizing what the current publishers and supporters of the OSR are doing and can take those best bits and learn from them.

The Hammer by K. J. Parker or more blathering about 5h Editio

The Hammer, by K. J. Parker, is another done in one book that I found well written and entertaining. While it takes place in some psuedo-historical context and doesn't necessarily involve any magic or fantasy elements, it is engaging reading.

In terms of pricing, well, I bought it during one of the Borders Bookstore closings with others at something like 4 books for ten dollars so say, $2.50. Which is a shame because I see the ebook is something like $10 in and of itself. A further shame because my local Half Price has numerous books by the author, and while I'd love to directly support the author, as Cage the Elephant would say, "Ain't no rest for the wicked, money don't grow on trees' so instead of paying $9.99 for an ebook, I'll pay $3.49 for a paperback that the author gets zero of. Not what I want to do but hey, the publisher has right now four books on sale for $2.99 so they are fully aware of the pros and cons of various models of pricing.

Anyway, onto gaming thoughts.

Like The Folding Knife, I initially didn't see a lot of room where the material could be considered inspiring outside of getting the reader thinking and engaged with the book and working on the readers own thoughts and awareness.

But as I continued to read, and this might, in part, be caused by all the talk of 5th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons, I came to some interesting observations about what one might look at in terms of making the new edition more playable, that takes its pages from some of what 4th edition did.

In the Hammer, Gignomai or Gig, is a member of the met'Oc, a family of nobles in exile on an island colony. This island colony pays dues to 'The Company'.

Gig though, hates his family. They are not good people. Having been out of contact with the mainland for so long, they have grown decadent and survival is a daily struggle in the overall reach of things. The implications of such struggle are showcased through a variety of methods but...

Looking at 4th edition, there was a bit of a setting called a 'Points of Light' setting. It was supposed to be where things were dark and dangerous and could be problematic.

The problem was that actual game play didn't necessarily feel like that in the games I played or those I've heard of. This is for the most part mind you. In older editions, there were tons of random encounters and these random encounters didn't necessarily rely on the player character's level, they relied on where they were at. Only 3rd level and going to the old dwarf ruins some two weeks travel out of the city? Wandering encounter says you encounter a group of stone giants with two cave bears. Roll for imitative.

The sheer random chance of such an encounter was part of the danger inherent in the setting. On the other hand, you could encounter a group of giant rats or one cave bear by itself. There needs to be more random elements to things while providing players, in the option of the stone giants, with the opportunity to retreat if and when needed.

Another aspect of The Hammer, is that Gig is different. The whole 4e thing should have been the players were rising in a world of decay, not one that was necessarily full of decadence or evil, but one that needed new blood, new ideas and new methods to get things moving. In some instances, this might not even be new methods or new ideas, but motivation and energy. By having the players be the ones who are adding and changing the scenery, the GM is giving them  far more power than giving them a slightly magical sword or dagger.

For example, in The Hammer, Gig creates a factory and with it, guns. This isn't new technology to the setting. It's not a new method. But no one has done it before because no one thought of it. No one took the time to do it. No one was interested in it. Everyone was interested in keeping things the exact way they were, fighting that inevitable decline of their ways as society collapsed slowly, ever so slowly about them.

This, the spirit of exploration, the spirit of fighting against the standard, is what D&D can be about without changing game mechanics and instead working on the settings.

But in order to do that, there would have to be some changes to the core structure of the game.

As much as I enjoy magic, and magic item shops, and schools of wizardry, to get the new feeling, to get the 'shinny' feeling, Dungeons and Dragons has to drop kick it to the curb. Oh sure, in an appendix, perhaps next to the wandering harlot one, put some notes about adding colleges of magic and magic item shops, but for the most part, in order to keep magic different and new and special, it has to be extremely limited and random.

When you provide the opportunity for players to buy anything other then the most mundane of magic items, you've destroyed magic. Now mind you, for many genres and games, this is perfectly acceptable. Magic in and of itself becomes another form of technology.

But then you need to drop the whole concept of a dark savage age where a few independent city states struggle for survival because when players can go to a magic shop and pick up an enchanted sword, if the local government isn't doing something with that magic to safeguard the people in the first place, that logic is flawed.

And magic colleges? Part of the problem with spellcastersspellbooks, and the numerous costs associated with all of that ranging from the inks used to copy the spells, to the spellbooks themselves.

On the altar of game balance, those flavor elements have been fairly neutralized but in exchange, the wizards have become nothing more than fighters that don't use a sword to attack people but rather use spells that do similar damage and have similar effects.

Limiting spell selection, limiting the ability to buy spells, limiting the number of spellcasters in the setting, these all go a long way in making magic, well, magical again.

As I think of it, limiting the scope of what the players can access, when they can access it and how the can access it, is far more of a campaign element than what rule system you're using. If plate armor is something that only the highly skilled can create, then towns and villages won't have it. If players are looking for magic items, they have to hunt down rumors of such and hope that the gods are kind to their request when they hear of haunted ruins where an ancient elf crafted drifted in madness but may, mind you may, just have something similar to what the seeker wants.

And speaking of seeking out magic items, here is another area where I think earlier editions were able to throw in a bit of fun. Magic items tended to be a little more random in their power and abilities prior to 3rd edition and this allowed paladins, who always seemed to have holy avengers, have this iconic weapon with them, despite the fact that it was such a powerful magic item and probably level inappropriate. It allowed White Plume Mountain to be stacked with items of vast and great power. It allowed rings of wishes to wind up as random treasure.

Game balance may have to take a couple of blows to the face in 5th edition if Wizards of the Coast is serious about uniting fans of all editions and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Paizo and Open Design versus Wizards of the Coast: Round one: Monsters

For some, when it comes to game mechanics, less is more. For example, when looking at 3rd edition, on one hand, one of the things many people say it did right, was make things more universal. While there are benefits to having one method of creating an NPC that will match up with a player, and of having standards for lowering and raising monsters, either based on hit dice or giving then levels, the problem almost becomes that you are no longer player Dungeons and Dragons.

Because you know what other systems use such a methodology? GURPS, Hero, Mutants and Masterminds, and I'm sure many others. But in Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition, the player creation aspect is so highly specialized and customized that for the Game Master, to honestly use it all the time, can be nightmarish. This isn't to say that many Dungeon Master's don't love to tweak or design or create. In some venues, this is WHY they are Dungeon Master's. In other's, because they are Dungeon's Masters and not playing, they get to tweak that part of the game like a player gets to do so with their character.

Each player though, generally only controls one character. If a Dungeon Master is making highly unique and customized characters and monsters each game, even if his enjoyment is high, his prep time is going to be huge. And taking up large chunks of prep time is never seen as a good thing.

So 4th edition went back to the drawing board on the monster side, and in terms of how monsters work, I think they largely succeeded. Oh, they screwed up the damage dealt and hit points possessed, but those aspects are able to be tweaked fairly right away. The presentation, the building, the roles, these things are shorter and sweater.

Yet in terms of Monster Manuals, after the third one, WoTC went back to the drawing board to tweak monsters because of the tweaks they did to the players in the relaunch of the Essentials line. It was another case of, "We're not going to reprint the core book because that's unnecessary, but here, have a book that fills the exact same role, including takes on all the old stuff, but is not actually a reprint." They followed up that Monster Vault boxed set with another monster product that failed to go epic but was well received due to the amount of information each monster had. It was almost like world building through the monsters. Very well done and very well received.

In terms of making monsters more, Open Design has their own Ecologies compiled from Kobold Quarterly. Paizo, while publishing Dragons and Dungeons, printed a compendium of Ecologies. Currently Paizo has a line of products that revisits monsters and expands them. The focus isn't on the game mechanics, its on making the monsters more useful to the Game Master by expanding information on where they live, how they live, why they act the way they do.

This was a fairly regular feature back in the day for Dragon magazine. Wulfgang's Ecology of the Ghoul is still one of my favorites from 2nd edition.

4th edition may have had some, but I honestly cannot recall Dragon online having any great impact on how I look at monsters. It's focus has been weak. There was a brief time when they created a new feature called Creature Incarnations. It featured a variety of monsters pulled from one monster.  You can see one free article of it here. Its not bad in my opinion but...

I've mentioned before that Dragon Magazine used to be a fantastic resource for Dungeon Masters and players and I feel its become a little more than a preview and feedback machine. Back in 'my day' we had The Dragon's Beastiary and Ecology articles. When Dragon was feeling real generous and wanted to make the reader feel he got a huge bonus, we'd get a Creature Catalog, almost like a miniature sized Monster Manual.

If Dragon continued to support and publish the Incarnation articles, that would be one thing. You could say that they went in that direction. In the years, and its got to be going on something like four years, so over forty eight issues,  there are less than twenty articles that fall in the heading according to a search on the article compendium.

When other companies are publishing books, in what is supposed to be a depressed buying market, especially for what are niche products, products that focus on the background and organization, and methodology, not on new game stats, if Wizards of the Coast is serious about learning from its past efforts, this is one of the directions they need to embrace.

The Folding Knife by K. J. Parker

The Folding Knife is a powerful story well told. The thing is, while I enjoyed it immensely, I can't really point out too much that works in a standard Dungeons and Dragons game.

And that's a problem with Dungeons and Dragons. Make no mistake, I love D&D, but 3rd and 4th edition did really one thing very well and that's allow heroes to explore dungeons and battle monsters. While I'm not advocating that earlier editions were all about controlling the fate of nations via finances or that leadership was more that a feat, it was a 'name' level bit and that you had to work with hirelings, mercenaries and more, there is some truth to that. Sure, it was a bloody free for all in many ways and it didn't really work in many aspects but it allowed a GM who had players that wanted a different sort of end game, to not worry about killing Orcus to save the multiverse, but to pave roads and place more catapults onto the castle in order to protect it from the invading orcs.

Others have spoken more eloquently than I have on the 'end game' of the editions and I believe that while looking at opportunities for 5th edition, a hard look needs to be determined in what types of games people can play with it. If it stays focused on the slaying of monsters and the gathering of treasures, it needs to work damn hard to make sure those treasures are magical again. 3rd and 4th edition did a fantastic job of breaking things down into their numeric components but on the way, held firmly to the road by game balance, lost a lot of the magic of the game. Things like getting a Ring of Wishes or Blackrazor at 6th level, as it's old 1st ed stats were, unless you had a GM who loved to wing game balance, were not happening in 3rd and 4th. And maybe they need to.

Another benefit of the non-Epic fight game ending, is that like in the Folding Knife or hell, even in say Beowulf, it allows for some time gaps to fill in the years. Some of the Paizo adventure paths in Dragon magazine felt extremely rushed in terms of what the players were supposed to do, when they were supposed to do it, etc... Mind you, they always offered things that players could do to fill time, to fatten out any levels they needed due to missing a sequence of a dungeon, etc... but I remember reading one of them where the characters are out and about and as they return home, their home base is literally burning! Yeah, not a lot of downtime there.

Another aspect of the Folding Knife that is fairly not D&D, is that the main character, Basso, is a lot like a GURPS character or a Champions character. While he certainly has many numerous positive traits, he has several negative ones, including an inability to use his left hand, which suffered serious injury in an attempt on his life. These negatives and positives might be 'role played' and indeed, 2nd edition was famous, or perhaps infamous, for using role playing penalties to counter real game mechanic bonuses. I'm not certain how 5th ed could get around such an issue, but the fact that so many games build them into the core system should provide some insight as to how it can be workable.

While not a short story or one of my favored popcorn reads like those books in a Forgotten Realms or Warhammer series, The Folding Knife is a done in one which means I can now move onto another book or perhaps one of those epic series. If you're looking for something that is gripping, well written and shows how another end game style might look, then The Folding Knife is for you.

DDI versus OGL

I'm reading The Folding Knife by K. J. Parker. I bought it when Borders was closing. I also have The Hammer. Man, this guy can write. It's almost all character based. There are no elaborate magic systems like the Mistborn series and no big epic arc like too many fantasy series but it's going quick and well.

But as I'm reading that, and reading some Pathfinder material, I'm also wondering about the future of Dungeons and Dragons.

While much has been made of the OGL versus the more restrictive license the GSL, I think that in terms of overall utility in getting people to buy material, the DDI also played a role.

When you have a massive database for creating characters or looking up monsters or finding rules, but it only covers those rules that are official, what are the chances that you're going to put a lot of effort into getting 3rd party sourcebooks and supplements? For me as a player its not a huge issue to write out something and as a GM its again, not a huge issue.

For others, well, if you're paying a monthly fee to use something, why punish yourself with material you can't use?

I believe that if WoTC is serious about uniting the fan base, one of the things they'll need to do is have a license that allows 3rd party publishers to upload their game mechanics to the DDI.

Crazy? Possibly.

Worth WoTC time and money to invest in that and monitor it? Probably not.

Something that the gaming community would benefit from? Yup.

It's one of those things where I honestly don't think WoTC is going to be able to push aside corporate interest in the name of gaming interest and that as a whole, will be another missed opportunity.

Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition unite all fans tip or Orcus isn't covered in gold

In my previous post, I mentioned some of the things that Wizards of the Coast could do in order to improve their relationship to the fans who will make or break the game.

The other thing that has nothing to do with game mechanics, is stop acting like Orcus, Asmodeus, the Slime Lord and the other numerous demons and devil higher powers have been dipped in gold and that we mere mortals are lucky to get one set of such stats per monster manual.

2nd edition pretty much skipped out on these big bads entirely. There were a few reasons why but in the end, it was just plain stupid. Mind you, in the end, it didn't really matter because the differences between 2nd and 1st edition were so small that if you couldn't run a game that incorporated both elements into your own campaign that you had more serious problems.

3rd edition though? Thank god for Necromancer Games and Green Ronin. They provided a ton of game stats that lasted a good long while even as WoTC hoarded the game stats for Orcus and other bad boys for the Book of Vile Darkness that was 3.0 and immediately had to be updated in books later on down the road.

4th edition was even worse in this regard as they decided one demon lord was enough and hey, a Legend and Lore book where you could throw down with Thor or other popular characters? I mean, we all know that there was a Thor movie that mad a ton of cash recently right and that the character is going to be in the Avengers movie? Apparently that was too much for 4th edition.

5th edition, right out of the gate, should look at the 1st edition Monster Manual and go, "If it was good enough for Gary..." and while perhaps not everything was, the demons and devil section of that old book wasn't afraid to tell you how many hit points those demon lords and devil princes had in the first core monster book.

WoTC has some interesting decesions ahead of them. If they are unable to put out quality material that can expand their reach past the core books and decide that the only way people are going to be interested in a Monster Manual 2 is if they piece meal out the game system, they are DOA in uniting all gamers.

5th Edition D&D Already?

In looking at the various news posts today relating to Dungeons and Dragons, it looks like 5th ed is on the way. This is way too soon in my opinion. We didn't get 3.5 this quickly. Mind you, I'm of the firm opinion that the Essentials were a ".5" edition so the cycle does seem to be quite short this time around.

WoTC talks about uniting the fans of the brand behind "one ring" so to speak. Won't happen. While 3rd edition had a lot of the elements that made D&D what its known for, 4th ed went a completely different path. Not necessarily a bad one in terms of game design, but rituals, spells, and magic items were all lain down and sacrificed under the banner of balance. You will not be able to make people who want to play a powerful wizard who is weak at low levels happy at the same time you make those who want all of the classes to retain equal utility throughout the entire careers. Not going to happen. End. Fini.

There are some things that I think WoTC should do that could help reduce the issues that will crop up during this time. Many of them have nothing to do with game mechanic design and I've mentioned them numerous times before.

1. Know what the hell you're talking about. When 4th edition was in the pipeline, the VTT (virtual table top) along with other bits of the DDI were supposed to be seamlessly integrated into the edition. A recent article by Ryan Dancy further illustrates how this was supposed to happen. Not only that though, but anyone remember 'The Rouse'? He was a great guy from WoTC and was talking about how there would be codes you would get from buying the books that would allow you to buy a PDF for "a buck or two." None of that happened. Mind you, by shutting the hell up, you'll cut off some potential communication between players, buyers, and the makers, but people want what you tell them they'll get. Is it entitlement? Probably. Is it human nature? Definitely.

2. Bring back PDF's of all editions. Even if you have to hire someone from India for $1  a page to convert the material, bring back every old book. WoTC has been talking about a solution to the piracy and PDF problem ever since the Player's Handbook 2 came out. Anyone remember that? that the PHB2 sold out but PDFs were undercutting sales? So PDF sales were undercutting sales of a book that physically sold out? Here's something to think of. According to an article on ye old internets, digital sales have surpassed those of physical sales. Provided a legal alternative that people can use for a 'fair' price and people will buy.

3. OGL all the way. Not only does 5e need to embrace 5th edition, WoTC needs to give 'seed' money to companies like Green Ronin, Frog God Games, Malhavoc Press and others to support it. The GLS was a complete and utter failure. By not embracing the OGL, WoTC not only allowed, but essentially actively encouraged Paizo to come out with Pathfinder. And the other editions that WoTC now talks fondly of? Chances are there is a retro clone of it, and chances are there's a GOOD retro clone of it. The old editions don't need WoTC support as people who want to play an older edition have a ton of choices. Now if WoTC supports the OGL, and does so by allowing third parties full access to the material before its printed, WoTC can concentrate on a certain 'style' of D&D while others fill the void. I like many aspects of 4th edition but find it silly that there are still no official rules for firearms. I like some of what WoTC has done with say, Dark Sun, but miss the dozens of options I once had in terms of setting support such as the Scarred Lands.

4. Playtest Intensively. 4e suffers from the Hero/GURPS effect in that a lot of the powers and abilities are the same but due to the way they were written, instead of having a master list of such abilities and powers that players could select from, each class gets its own write up providing monstrous bloat to the system. This doesn't count things like how the first and second 4e Monster Manuals are, I don't want to say useless, but their utility was greatly diminished when the 3rd Monster Manual came out and basically said, "Yeah, we don't know hot to calculate damage so try these numbers instead." And other bits like magic items and rituals and spells? Things that we used to see numerous articles for in Dragon like Pages From The Mages and Bizzar of the Bazaar among others? DOA.

5. Pull in One Direction. It does no one any good to have several people who work at WoTC talking about the Character Builder going online because it makes things more compatible among the various types of computer users and then in an podcast have another person talk about how all the customers are thieves and the reason that the Character Builder is going online is because its the only way to fight piracy. Pull in one direction or risk making yourself look like a gigantic jackass.

6. Examine HTML 5 for the DDI. I'm not a computer expert or anything, but with Tablets and Android becoming larger and larger means of accessing the internet, it would seem that HTML 5 offers a lot of benefits that Silverlight does not. Once again, not a programmer, but when you see tablets talking the place of notebooks, the whole thing about making the DDI something you can access from anywhere becomes more hallow unless its something people using an iPad or android tablet can access.

7. Review your ebook pricing. I'm not saying that every book should be cut to $2.99 or anything like that. but... if you haven't made your money back on the Crystal Shard, or you still don't collect the omnibus editions for online selling, well, when looking at epic fantasy on the kindle and the first WoTC book pops in at #73, well after numerous authors selling their books for less than $6.39, what does it hurt to test out different prices? It's not like you're going to be crushed by returns of unsold books. If the new price points don't work and don't increase market penetration, move back to the old prices.

8. Stop making promises. This one is hard because different people have different definitions of what a promise is. For example, when asked if WoTC was going to reprint the Player's Handbook with all of the errata in it, a thing that would be useful since there were dozens of powers and abilities that were changed with errata, the initial reply was that there was no plan to do so because they had done such a massive print run but when the time was right.... well, after WoTC changed things up with the Essentials, when do you think that time was right? WoTC has to be able to react to market conditions and if those conditions tell them to cancel the first quarter of products, then that's what they need to do.

9. Make Dragon and Dungeon real magazines again. I hear some laughter out there, but seriously, the things have gone to waste when compared to the proud legacy they used to have. There was a time, for those who came into reading these magazines, that they were not just little magazines that were used to preview upcoming game material. They brought their own value. When WoTC doesn't provide epic support because of some unknown factor that its not viable, there was easily the opportunity to do The Dragon's Bestiary or Creature Catalog. When people talk about the lack of spell selection, as I mentioned earlier, even if keeping it in game balance, pages from the mages would easily fill that need. When discussing unique characters and characteristics of characters, Legend and Lore, where heroes of myth and legend are given game stats, would provide GMs with opportunities to see how professional game designers handle weapons like Excalibur and provide a quick round of NPCs that the GM can use if he's running a specific type of campaign, such as an Arthurian one. And for god's sake, stop with the nonsense about people reading individual articles and compile the magazine at the end of the month. Seriously.

10. In terms of print products, remember to support the GM. The GM is the one who makes the game work or fail. While it is great that players have ten thousand options for their characters, if there are not a wealth of adventurers for every level, then the GM has to work. When there are more options for a particular level than another, GMs will cluster around those levels. Support the GM and he will support you. Paizo does an excellent job of this with various books that build on the game setting, such as their recently released mythic monsters revised, as well as single adventurers, and adventure paths. Throw in their maps and other GM focused aids and you can see why GMs, despite the complexity of 3.5, stick with it.

11. Hit 'em With the Classics Right Away. For all the talk of the 'shared experience' that WoTC likes to parade like a show dog, there are dozens of adventurers that haven't seen a 4e adaptation. When launched 5e should come out the door with several options for the GM including a boxed set that has something like In Search of Adventure. In addition to adventures and other classics of setting, for god's sake, throw some money at the old artist that made D&D the sensation it was. The fact that you can see Larry Elmore's art on miniatures and posters but outside of the one cover we got on Dragon when the introduction boxed set came out, is a damn shame. There are numerous artist who should be getting work from WoTC just to showcase their ties to the community. If Kezner and Co can hire a certain artist to do the cover of Hakcmaster basic, there is absolutely no reason WoTC cannot.

12. A decent starter box. WoTC, your started box was inconsistent with the core rules that came out shortly thereafter. Look at what Paizo did. I'm not saying it's perfect, but damn is it better than yours in almost every way that counts.

13. (I knew I forgot one) Don't dick around with the content. What do I mean? When 4e first came it, there was a deliberate decesion to without certain material from the first core books like the Player's Handbook and Monster Manual to 'encourage' buying of future books. Want the Frost Giant? Sorry, not in the core Monster Manual. Want to play a barbarian? Not in the first Player's Handbook. Listen, if your future content can't stand on its own two legs, then its worthless regardless of how you dress it up. What's worse, letting people know ahead of time that this is some dicking around to get money? Another bad marketing decesion.


I'm sure I'm missing some very obvious things or some people will disagree with me, but I think if WoTC can get out of its own way and stop being a corporation long enough to be, and let's be honest, this is what it probably needs to be, a game company, than 5th edition can succeed. Mind you, I personally think it may be too late. The days of Dungeons and Dragons being able to hit the types of goals necessary for it seem over. Look at it this way. If WoTC tells us that 4th edition did better than 3.5 which did better than 3.0 and its still not hitting its target numbers... well, that writing may not be on the wall but it certainly can't be fair away.

The Chronicles of Rus (A tale of my D&D character!)

This is just my weekly recap of the game. I'll throw some 'meta' comments in there as well. For those who find it boring, let me know. For those who find it interesting, let me know. I always encourage the players to take notes when I run a game. It makes for some interesting observations seeing how people write things down according to their own perceptions. Unfortunately, while everyone comes up with some great background in the group I play with, I'm the only one whose has a chronicle so to speak.

We play every Friday, or almost every Friday, at Black Sun Games. The game moved from one GM to another. My initial character didn't have background or much to him because the first GM was a more or less 'popcorn' style guy who I knew wouldn't run long and the game probably wouldn't be very serious. In his kuddos though, he did keep a much better Obsidian Portal account then our new GM.

Anyone looking for more background on my character can hit out the messages boards or the game store or go here for my background.

The initial style of the character was based on my appreciation for the dreaded 'two handed sword' aka in 3rd and 4th ed, the greatsword. that probably started with Elric, but characters like Guts from Berserk and various Manga probably didn't hurt either.

Our GM tends to have us fight small groups or solos so most of my abilities tend to focus on dishing out as much damage as possible. He's also not real tight with magic items or wealth, but getting to find a place where one can get magic items or spend the wealth is another subject.

I'm 12th level now. I've been playing him since 4th level.. I've been playing this character in some form or another since 4th ed started. One guy ran a few sessions of Keep on the Shadwofell when 4e first game out, stopped. Another guy started a homebrew, stopped... so I've run the same concept through again. Of course with the various options and abilities out now, it's not like it's exaclty the same character, but it is the same concept; a guy with a big sword who chops things up.

Our group is currently trapped in Ravenloft. I know several GMs who love its atmosphere and other bits. Never been a huge fan of it myself, but I do get the appeal. We were sent on a mission to kill a hag in order to speak the language of the land. We're in Sithicus, the domain of Lord Soth, which is being run by a badger lycanthrope whose already robbed us. This is what happens after we get back to the Vishanti, Ravenloft Gypsy take, after killing the hag...


After hours of celebration, I decide its time to retire. For the first time since we’ve been here, in this strange and dark land, I feel almost at ease. In the morning, I feel the pain of drinking too much. I go outside and try to ease my muscles up in the morning with some quick katas.

As I get used to the sun, which doesn’t shine here as it does even in murky Mulmaster, I decide that it’s time to payback some of the hospitality I’ve enjoyed here. I prepare to offer my services to the camp, cutting firewood or gathering logs or other such activities.

But a scream cuts through the silence.

Grabbing the Great Leveler,I rush towards the sound. In one of the wagons, the hacked and pale remains of the war priest, Torque, the dog brother remain. No blood either. I suspect the vampire blade. It too left no blood for its wounds. On the other hand, as someone who has dealt death and been on the receiving end more than once, these wounds don’t look like that. They look too crude in nature, as if dealt with by a hand axe in some hacking fashion.

The Avenger and remaining dog brother, Tor, does not take the news well. We gather the bits and pieces of Torque and proceed to burn them. There are far too many undead in this land for me to not take this precaution.

The dead war priest was one of the other party members who seems to insist on making a new character every time something catches his eye. His first one was a swordmage, which he thought too weak. His next one was the war priest, who crossed over a little with our current priest. His fourth one was a bard whose skill sets made him an asset, but whose combat ability... and well, then it was back to the war priest. But recently the Hex Blade, in 4e, a 'build' for the warlock came out and well, his Character Attention Deficiancy picked up again and so he allowed his character to die to build suspense and prepare the way for his new character. Out of character the game I even said, "Oh, X must be making a new character." which meet with many guffs.

After this grueling work and enduring the stench of the dog brother’s burning flesh and organs and bones, I decide its time to eat. All of this manual labor has built up an appetite. Tor heads off to seek some answers. I wish him luck on that quest.

That night, the gypsies throw a celebration for Torque. It’s loud and obnoxious and wild. Tor is the center of attention that night. The ladies console him, the men wish him good cheer. The tales are told of the deceased dog brother, some of them so bawdy they would make a bard blush. Even Pela the bard and Brother Johnathon drink to honor him. Tor moves the celebration more into the realm of Tempus with a wrestling matches. I do as well but hold back. I'm not here to break bones or set us against these people.

The gypsies bid us farewell the next day. The paladin still bemoans the lack of magical might. Her old sword was formidable but cursed. Her new one, an oatblade, has a minor enchantment so its better than nothing. Tor seeks a map of the lands and more information but is only given general directions as to where we need to go. Some elf city, one of the few cities and one of the few elf settlements of all.

We hit the road. Once again, almost as soon as we’re out of sight of the gypsy camp, the rain and frost and fog come. Lousy weather seems to be nothing new here. At our lunch break, we are meet by Dorian, the deva evoker, who travels the land in the form of a large raven. He speaks briefly of the elves, a race unlike those from where we come from. He tells us that they reflect the land and that this is a dire land indeed. As if to prove his point, the rain increases its tempo with the storm sending down sheets of water and hail against us.

The paladin leads us uphill. She hopes that the greater elevation will enable us to keep an eye out for any potential problems. I dread having to take a night watch. I’ll have to use the stone. The stone which requires me to kill least it become angered with me. I clench my fists wondering about the eventual consequences of using such an item. It’s not that I mind the murder, it’s that I mind the potential betrayal of the jet black stone.

I clean off the mithril scale armor, and insure that the blade is firm in the scarlet scabbard.

I wake up to Dorian shaking me. “The dog brother is in trouble.” I blink out the sleep and can make out Tor fighting some woman covered in wooden spikes that she’s using to impale him. “How lovely” I mutter under my breath as I reach for the Great Leveler. No time for armor but then again, between my stance and the blade, even the finest armor doesn't tend to do me much good anyway.

We charge forward. She manages to knock out, or possibly dead. She cackles madly and throws a small forest at the priest of the moon and the paladin. They don’t take it well. I charge past that and using the flat of my blade, smash her face, knocking her to the ground. She doesn’t look pleased. The paladin and priest struggle with the forest.

She rises hissing at me. She essentially throws the forest at me and the red haired rogue. I struggle to break free but the woods hold me tight, piercing my flesh. She doesn’t bother to try and finish me off. Rather she moves closer to the paladin and the priest and begins rending them with wooden spikes and razor sharp talons.

Dorian decides to make an appearance and casts flames upon the woods pinning my comrades. The stench of burning hair and flesh is never a pleasant experience but I’m thankful that its not me. Then more surprises. Torque shows up in a haze of grey and green ghostly translucent magnificence and waves at her and she seems in write in pain.

She moves forward to attack the ghost and as she does so, I feel necromantic energies seeping into me. She continues to wreak havoc on the group as they struggle free from the burning branches. Dorian decides to return the favor for me as well and I also burn. The burns also handle the vines.

I move forward and bring down the Great Leveler but miss. I move around her and swing again. The blow is a glancing one, but my first strike set her up for the second and she staggers under the onslaught.

She moves away from us and I slash into her again. She grabs our local red head and leaps into the trees, appearing somewhere else and they both look alike. I charge both and with an overhead strike hit both of them. The hag decides to drop the disguise and punctures red with more vines and prepares to move away. I slash at her again and she’s not expecting it and moves away from me back to the rest of the group.

I reach on down and roll out the bandages. The group is so used to magical healing that I almost forget the basics of banding the wounds. My own blow against red wasn’t too bad, a fairly shallow but long cut. The burning and other wounds she’s suffered though…

I turn back to see the group engaged and notice that somehow the dog brother is in the midst of combat again. I didn’t even realize he was still alive. I suppose that yell of Tempus didn’t come from my lips this time.
I move back into the fray. The blade runes begin to flare and I grind my feet into the ground to get a better grip on my handle and increase the force of my blows. Her necromantic aura clashes against the ruins flaring on the blade and I laugh and laugh and laugh even as I’m bringing the blade down upon her and pinning her to the floor as she writhes underneath it. The others, the ants, the fleas, those with no heart, begin moving around trying to live through the necromantic aura.

We joke at the table that when I use my stance and my daily berserk ability from the sword that I go 'Super Sayian'. With the power attack and other bonuses, I'm probably doing as much damage as a strikerer every round. In addition, because I use a fullblade and I managed to crit her twice, even though it was on opportunity attacks, she wound up taking most of the damage in this fight from me.

This dry tree lady doesn’t appreciate the fleas running from her and raises a hand, exploding more vines laced with dark necromantic energies from Pela. Poor paladin. Ever since she gave up her dark long sword that drank blood, she just hasn’t been the same. But in doing so, she’s opened herself up to attack by not only myself, but by the dog brother and Dorian. Our attacks hack away the withered gray bark surrounding her.









Because our games tend to have only a fight or two in them, I always wind up using my dailies. No point in not doing so. Ditto for the action point. I have an ability called Bone Crusher that provides a vulernability 10 to weapons so I use that and then do an action point and make another attack. Very potent bit there.









Well, there's a taste of my character at the 4e game I'm playing in. I'll leave off with my stats from the old, downloaded Character Builder that I paid for during many years of service and if I start hearing good things about the online one, despite Black Sun not having wi-fi, may have to pick up again. I iz lazy!

====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======

Rus Connor Norach, level 12
Human, Fighter, Kensei
Build: Great Weapon Fighter
Fighter: Combat Agility
Fighter Talents: Two-handed Weapon Talent
Kensei Focus: Kensei Focus Fullblade
Human Power Selection: Bonus At-Will Power
Background: Occupation - Military

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 23, Con 17, Dex 11, Int 11, Wis 12, Cha 9.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 18, Con 14, Dex 10, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 8.

AC: 30 Fort: 28 Reflex: 20 Will: 21

HP: 108 Surges: 12 Surge Value: 27

TRAINED SKILLS
Endurance +14, Streetwise +10, Intimidate +10, Heal +12

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +6, Arcana +6, Bluff +5, Diplomacy +5, Dungeoneering +7, History +6, Insight +7, Nature +7, Perception +7, Religion +6, Stealth +6, Thievery +6, Athletics +14


FEATS
Human: Toughness
Level 1: Fighter Weapon Specialization
Level 2: Weapon Proficiency (Fullblade)
Level 4: Weapon Focus (Heavy Blade)
Level 6: Power Attack
Level 8: Powerful Charge
Level 10: Weapon Expertise (Heavy Blade)
Level 11: Blood Thirst
Level 12: Marked Scourge

POWERS
Bonus At-Will Power: Wicked Strike
Fighter at-will 1: Sure Strike
Fighter at-will 1: Knockdown Assault
Fighter encounter 1: Steel Serpent Strike
Fighter daily 1: Savage Advance
Fighter utility 2: Battle Fury Stance
Fighter encounter 3: Dance of Steel
Fighter daily 5: Nimble Bladestorm
Fighter utility 6: Unbreakable
Fighter encounter 7: Reckless Strike
Fighter daily 9: Bone Crusher
Fighter utility 10: Mighty Surge

ITEMS

Adventurer's Kit, Javelin, Climber's Kit, Journeybreads (10), Longbow, Potion of Vitality (paragon tier) (2), Jet Black Ioun Stone, Berserker Fullblade +4, Tattoo of Bloodied Chains (paragon tier), Mithral Scale Armor +4, Belt of Giant Strength (paragon tier), Amulet of Life +3, Sapphire Scabbard (paragon tier)






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The Way Of the Samurai

Different cultures place different values on different actions. One way to showcase these changes to a default setting is to allow players to see the action prior to becoming involved with it.

For example, if the players are the 'strangers in a strange land', they may find it odd that an older samurai suffering from a disease is determined to die in combat. On the other hand, as default Dungeons and Dragons tend to have knights, who have their own brand of honor, the idea might not seem that strange to them.

Stan also is able to use the visual medium to showcase daily things that the samurai do. For example, when Usagi is speaking with General Oyaneko, the general is polishing his sword with great care and dedication to the blade which he refers to as his 'soul'.

These visual and verbal clues can be great aids to players new to role playing as it allows them to see and experience how others in the setting go about their daily business.

For more experienced players though, they may need a little more out of a meeting with a general. For Usagi, part of it is that the general has reknown. For players in the campaign, this can be copied a bit by either having the players meet famous NPCs of the setting, if they enjoy that vein of the game, or by having them meet their old characters or versions of their old characters, who have gone on to different things.

When the general engages Usagi in a duel, the two don't actually battle. In 4e, or with the right frame of mind and the right skills in play, 3e, this might be considered a skill challenge. Usagi uses old samurai wisdom to counter the codes of bushido that the general uses to justify his action. In a 4e situation, if Usagi failed to make his appointed number of rolls, then it would go from a skill challenge to actual combat. For players and

Game Masters more comfortable with role playing, if the players can provide an out for combat, especially against one they admire, they should role it out to the nines so to speak. Having game mechanics in place for something is not necessarily always the way to run the game if your group is comfrotable with other methods and it doesn't impact the group.

If that in and of itself isn't enough, there is always the set up for the next adventure. Here Usagi learns of a samurai who was framed and now seeks revenge. A samurai who travels with his son. A samurai commonly known as Lone Goat and Kid assassins.

Usagi Yojimbo 2: Samurai

Usagi Yojimbo 2 has a massive section devoted to the backstory of our wandering ronin. The background though, starts with an encounter that is witnessed by Gen.

Seeing the fight, Gen inquires about the reason behind the duel which allows Usagi to launch into his background.

In doing so though, Usagi also fills out background for other characters in the series that have already been introduced, as well as introducing still new characters.

Some of these bits are closed back ground elements like his lord, who readers from the first graphic novel will realize is deceased, while others, like his mentor, appear to be open.

If players are joining the campaign and leaving the game, if the players between themselves can come up with reasons why their characters know each other that does not invalidate the previously established background, then the GM should be willing to work with them. It provides greater context to the characters relationship and allows the players to engage in some small elements of world building and ties their own investment into the campaign higher.

In other aspects of Stan's work, he does a fantastic job of illustrating the world as more than just the characters. There are bridges they walk across. There is a lush background they stand against. There are fruit trees that they eat from. The characters are not merely talking heads with no context behind them.

When running the game, try to remember the little elements around the characters. If playing in something like a default points of light setting, how are the roads? Has there been effort to fix them that has run out of funds and manpower? Are there abandoned keeps and towers? Are ruined wagons left on the side of the road? Are there famous spots in the byways that showcase the might of arcane users dueling that have never been repaired that require wheeled wagons to go far around them?

The background of the setting in little details can have an enormous impact on the game without being something that grants a bonus or hinders the characters with a penalty. It can add its own character to the setting and remind the players of where they are.

Usagi Yojimbo Book One: Bounty Hunter I and II

Usagi meets quite a few interesting characters in his time as a wandering samurai. One of those he meets is Gen, another masterless samurai like himself.

Where the two differ though, is that Gen is more 'realistic' about how the world works versus how Usagi would like the world to work. He has no qualms about robbing the dead, even honored samurai dead. After all, they have no future use for it right?

And where Usagi is on a journey to increase his own swordskill, Gen is a bounty hunter.

Ever since a green covered book by Bard Games called the Compleate Adventurer introduced me to the concept pf the Bounty Hunter, a subclass of the hunter in this optional AD&D compatible rule book, I loved the idea.

Bounty Hunters are perfect arch types in many ways for players to follow. They are often on the move. They have to go where their bounty is. They may be feared and needed by the local lords, but at the same time, they are not wanted. It could be considered a show of weakness that the lord cannot handle a particular issue himself, or it could be that the bounty hunters outstay their welcome or any number of social issues that happen when you have masterless men who are skilled with weapons around with no steady work.

Gen and Usagi have an interesting relationship at first. In many ways, they could both be player characters if the two players were friends. You see, Gen and Usagi, at first at least, have a bit of pranking going on. For example, Gen sticks Usagi with the bill the first time they complete am ission together. The second Usagi returns the favor.

Gen is a good recurring character because he is not 'bad' and is trustworthy even when he is not necessarily doing things the way Usagi would prefer.

When making allies and enemies for the players, you don't always have to go for the extreme. The players may be able to handle an ally who occassionally uses them for his own needs, as long as that same ally doesn't take dramatic action when the players do the same to him. And its up to the GM to provide the players with the opportunity to do the same with him. No one likes getting made into a chump multiple times by the same person and in a RPG setting, swords and spells can easily become the solution to that particular problem or worse yet, they ignore the NPC because they're just tired of him.

When players engage in this sort of behavior, the GM has to decide ahead of time where he's comfortable with it. Discussing it with the players before hand is not a bad idea in any case. If one person is playing a paladin and another plays a sneaky rogue whose still got a heart of gold, if the paladin insist on converting or killing the rogue when they first meet, there is likely to be party friction in such an instance. Try to remind the players that it's not always necessarily about "what their character would do", but how the game itself needs some trust between the party members if things are going to get beyond the killing of players by each other. While it's entertaining to read about PVP in places like Knights of the Dinner Table, it's not one of my preferred activities. I've got enough monsters and obsticles for the players to overcome.

Putting the players in a lurch can be a difficult thing to accomplish without going too far, but when done well, the players will remember and be looking for their own payout.

The Burrowers

Ah, the modern use of the internet. One of the people I follow on Twitter mentioned that the Burrowers was worth a viewing, and it was indeed. Not a modern masterpiece of Western Horror but filled with some interesting ideas.

Some of these ideas are not new mind you. Looking at the first one where man is often responsible for his own plight. This was true when I was a young man watching reruns of movies like Them and Food of the Gods, to the Burrowers. In the former movies, it was often man's entry into the Atomic Age that caused natured to rebel against man and to spew forth giagantic and horrific monstrosities.

In these cases, its easy to see why man is responsible. Often these are thinly disguised lectures about the dangers of things man does not and perhaps was not meant to know. In fantasy settings, this is often replicated with some type of fantasy holocaust. Eberron has its Mournlands, the Forgotten Realms has Thay, now a land of the undead. There were several sights in the Forgotten Realms that because sources of Wild Magic during the Time of Troubles, the recent Spellplauge has added its own areas of unrest, and the examples flow from there.

These magical regions of chaos are usedful when creating new monsters, when providing a location for monsters, or for providing a safehouse that only a madman would use. In Eberron, the Lord of Blades has picked his home quite well.

In the Burrowers on the other hand, prior to all of this atomic age stuff, man was still doing bad things. In this case, the Burrowers, used to feast on the buffalo. Western settlers are responsible for the destruction of vast herds during their settling period and well, in this case, the Burrowers still have to eat. Next up on the food chain? Why man of course.

Another problem that is brought to light here, is that man often thinks he knows more than he does. In this case, those who investigate the Burrowers, by proxy of a missing family, think that it's a native attack and kidnapping which leads to the creation of the party of rescuers. There are small signs at first that things are not what they appear to be, but these go unheeded.

In this case, the casting of stones, the thinking that the Native Americas are to blame, leads to several gun fights with the Natives as well as casualties on the 'heroe's side. In a role playing game, this might be done through the use of red herrings. In this case, it's easier to ignore the tell tale signs that something different is about than it is to think that something unknown and unknowable is out there.

The ignorance is eventually lifted when the party encounters the Burrowers. These are some strange creatures that move about on all fours and use a poison that could be similiar to spider venom in that it essentially makes people easier to eat as it turns them... soft after a period of several days. Depending on the dosage, the individual may become completely paralized. In Dungeons and Dragons 4e, this might be represented with something like a disease track where after missing so many saves, essentially you're finished. Might start with Dazed, then Stunned, then Stunned and Immobilized. Not a good thing but in a system that features magic cure alls, not as bad as it would be in a historical setting.

In many adventurers though, the players are not allowed to stay in ignorance. The lifting of ignorance can be brought about by several means. One of those found most often in Call of Cthulhu games includes research into tomes, papers, recordings, and interviews with people who may be knowledable about the situation. In this case, the information comes through in bits from several natives that try to warn the search party away from the Burrowers and to go back to their homes.

The interesting thing here though, is the addition of the language barrier. When there is a language barrier and only a few characters can speak with the knowledge base, they are now on a different level of power. If that is the Dungeon Master's intent, he should go with it, providing the answers to any questions in written form only to those who understand the language being spoken. In some instances, such as the movie, where the one of the searchers is essentially finished from poiosning, he keeps that secret hoping that he can find a cure.

Another twist on things is the use of bait. In one scene, two of the characters wake up and realize that their leader has left the fire growing untended which makes them an easy target in the darkness. Latter on this circle is carried around as that leader is then poisoned and left for bait for the burrowers. It's a tactic used in the post apocalyptic Tooth and Nail as well. By poisoning a food source, the players can gain an edge up against thier enemies and the GM shouldn't hold that smart thinking against them.

The movie ends of a down note though as the last surviving character learns that his own guide to killing the Burrowers and his allies, have died under circumstances best described as embarrisngly stupid which leads us back to point one where man brings a lot of the pain he suffers in this movies upon himself.

In the end, The Burrowers showcases what could very well be a group of standard adventurers, each of them men with weapons enough to kill a dozen men over, meeting something of the supernatural and the horror of things man was not meant to know.

Oath of Gold; The Deed of Paksenarrion Book III by Elizabeth Moon

Oath of Gold is the third and final book in The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon.


So what did I think of when reading it?

Don’t be surprised if the readers, aka the players, figure out your plot points and hidden agendas before you’re ready for them. I knew what the big twist here was probably fifty to sixty pages before it was ‘officially’ revealed in the book and those parts I read in between the figuring it out and the big reveal were almost ‘wasted’ to me.

If the players figure out that the local Duke they’ve been working for is actually a lost half elf heir, then run with it then. Don’t make them travel all around the campaign setting collecting little clues and bits of lore to verify it unless you are absolutely certain those pieces of the puzzle are going to blow the players out of the water. You don’t want to bore the group with how smart you are.

In terms of the lost heir, this is a common theme and dates back to the big baddie of them all, the Lord of the Rings. This is not a problem. Some Game Masters are unhappy if their campaign has any links to the original material. They feel that elves, dwarves and Halflings are all overdone and that only by having a ‘pure’ campaign setting, can they ‘evolve’ their campaign.

If you’re playing with new people who’ve just seen those movies on Blue Ray though, they make excellent ‘touch’ points. The reason authors like Terry Brooks and Dennis L. McKiernan are essentially able to add fan fiction additions to the setting and sell, is because people like these common fantasy themes. Some of the more esoteric settings like Talislantia and Journe might be so off the path that none of the players can relate to them and thus languish.

Use that enthusiasm the players bring to the table and when possible, provide them your own recommended reading or movie list if you find that those ‘old styles’ don’t necessarily mesh with your own campaign running. Nothing worse then bringing new players to the game who are eage to play reclusive elves who are master of the bow only to learn that in your setting based on Dragon Age that all elves are slaves.

Another thing I though, was that songs are a part of many a campaign setting. While I’m not saying you as a GM need to write out some golden oldies hits, songs are like legends and lore in the campaign setting and can reveal the character of the setting itself. By writing out a few songs and insuring that the players know them, the GM can provide further bits of culture to the players so that they have a better, firmer grip of the setting they live, fight, and die in.

In terms of power source, Paks, being an unordaned paladin in any official church sense, is accepted by the official members as her powers are given to her straight for the deities. She gains a sense of purpose and a sense of right and wrong that make her know where she should be and where she should go.

In Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition, and to a lesser extent previous editions, characters are defined by their power source. Paks would be ‘divine’. In such an instance, the Game Master can use that divine power source as a source for pushing the party in a certain direction. It allows the players to have a patron larger than any one particular individual while still giving them plenty of space to work.

4th edition for example, has tied psionics into the Far Realms and the GM could easily substitute a call to action against local aberrations as opposed to a paladin being nudged to go a certain direction.

In terms of Paks abilities, one of them is to sense evil, or at least powerful evil. When she meets the Duke’s intended, the woman sets off the alarms in Pak’s head. If Paks had just been a regular warrior, then that plot line could’ve have gone on for several books being built up in the background. Paks takes care of it in a few pages.

This is just a reminder that you need to refresh yourself with the abilities of your players. If you design an adventure around certain plot points that the players are able to easily overcome or avoid thanks to their abilities, you’ve missed something in the preperation. While some GMs are happy with a result like this because it can showcase the players own unique talents and abilities, be sure that’s why you’re designing the encounter that way in the first place.

As a game master, the weight of the game often falls upon the game master’s shoulders and to create what is not needed is essentially a waste of time.

In the end, the three volume series, The Deed of Paksenarrion costs me $3.00 from Half Priced books and was well worth those funds. If you’re looking for something that has echoes of The Lord of the Rings with a more military ring to it and a quicker progress, you might enjoy the Deed of Paksenarrion.