Fourthcore Alphabet: Dark & Deadly Dungeon Design From Altars To The Zodiac

So +Lulu.com Self-Publishing is doing another sale. Something like 30% off till April 12th with the code APRIL30.

I just received some goods from the last sale they had. Thought I'd ping a review of Fourthcore Alphabet real quick so people who were interested or sitting on the fence have an idea of what the product is.

Weighing in at 66 black and white pages, Fourthcore Alphabet is an almost system free group of tables using the A to Z method to list the tables.Before it gets to those tables, it goes into a little detail about the default assumptions of a Fourthcore setting. For the players used to 4th edition and high survivability rates, well, you're screwed. The whole idea is bringing old school lethality and randomness and weirdness to 4th edition.

Written by Sersa Victory with art by d20 Monkey scribe +Brian Patterson , the book has a bit too much white space for my taste. While as I've grown older I fully appreciate a book that isn't afraid to let the reader's eyes rest, there are numerous half pages of blank text. It either needs more art, better table design, or more tables. Maybe mini-tables to go with the regular tables. For example, under O is For Overlords, on that half page, how about some random attributes of henchmen for that Overlord?

In terms of dialing it up a notch, Fourthcore takes things like the default setting in 4e, a Points of Light setting, and makes it points of light, plus oh yeah, it's really really really bad out there. There are numerous other little attitude tweaks that go a long way in establishing this isn't meant for 4th edition standard players.

In terms of the random tables, we have the following:

A is for Altars.
B is for Beasts
C is for Corpses
D is for Dungeons
E is for Echoes
F is for Fountains
G is for Gods
H is for Hellscapes
I is for Idols
J is for Jingoism
K is for Keepsakes
L is for Lairs
M is for Mysteries
N is for the Netherworld
O is for Overlords
P is for Puzzles
Q is for Quests
R is for Rewards
S is for Secrets
T is for Traps
U is for Undead
V is for Violence
W is for Weird
X Marks the Spot
Y is for YOu're Doomed
Z is for Zodiac

The tables are there to add some random fun to the game.

For example, let's take F is for Fountains.It's a d20 roll with headers of Fluids, Adornments, and Properties. You roll once on the fluids column, twice on the adornments column, and once on the properties column.

You could get a fountain flowing with liquid mithril where the fountain is etched with demonic runes that glow brightly when the crusaders draw near and a corpse lies near this fountain and those who make a blood offering to the fountain may cast a single ritual the GM determines beforehand. The crusader is considered to be trained in the ritual's key skill for the purpose of this effect. This boon functions only once.

Simple right? The tables are mostly about description and not game mechanics. This allows the book to be useful for almost any edition of the game. On the few cases when it does call for game mechanics, those are 4th edition. Again though, minimum amount of game rules here.

There's also the 'Chaos Deck', which requires you to have a Deck of Many Things. It notes that there were two, one from Dungeon 177 and another from Madness at Gardmore Abbey. At the end of each extended rest, you pull a card. This helps motivate players to maybe not make too much camping.

So over there, Fourthcore Alphabet in PDF is 99 cents. What's the one guy always saying? "Come on." Seriously guys, for 99 cents you cannot go wrong.

In print, with the discount I'd say it's worth it. It's nice to have a physical copy. The layout and design strikes a nerve with me because of all the white space and I'm sure this is actually like a 48 page product, but it's not a bad product. It's just laid out bad. (Cue Jessica Rabbit)

Freeport Versus Kickstarter

Green Ronin has been around for over a decade at this point. Their initial module setting, Freeport, was one of the first adventurers for the SRD back in the day. Now they're working on a massive update to the book on Kickstarter.

One might think that with their longevity in the game and their plethora of products, that funding would have been easily hit and made right? Apparently not. I'm not saying that it won't fund. There is still time. But let's look at some reasons why they might be having difficulty.

1. No Pathfinder brand loyalty. This may sound like heresy as Green Ronin, as I mentioned, was one of the first companies to get on the SRD bandwagon in a HUGE way. They made settings, class books, race books, and a ton of other goods including cross promotions with Paradigm Press and others. But when 3.5 died, they didn't jump on the Pathfinder band wagon. They had something like d20 age or d20 forever branding so that they wouldn't have to update their catalog. Sounds a lot like Necromancer Games before they came around ala Frog God Games. Having said that, you have no build in Pathfinder base.

Oh sure, we can get into the whole, "It's all the same!" arguments that happened with 3.0 and 3.5 and with 3.5 to Pathfinder, but if you didn't go and do the branding, getting the Pathfinder crowd to automatically leap into the frey isn't something that's going to happen easily or overnight. Am I saying that Green Ronin has zero Pathfinder products? Don't know to be honest. When I think of Green Ronin, d20 gaming isn't what I think of. Instead, we have Game of Thrones, Dragon Age, Mutants and Masterminds, and the DC comic game.

2. Goal is Too High. For a company that hasn't been backing Pathfinder since the start, and isn't using one of its licensed settings, the minimal goal here seems high. I'm not saying it's not needed for what they want to do. But when you're setting a higher bar than one of the most popular OSR projects, Dwimmermount, managed to achieve at the start of the Kickstarter craze, you might be overstepping realistic expectations.

3. Eastern Front Miniatures. This one is just a casual observation. Eastern Front as a few successful Kickstarters under their belt. But those projects are late and some of the backers are vocal about it. This may not have been the best partner for Green Ronin.

4. Pirates are played out. Well, can pirates ever really be played out? Probably not. However, there hasn't been a really popular pirate movie like the old pirates of a certain Caribbean for a while AND more importantly, people just shelled out a lot of cash for a Frog God Games pirate, in part, based project. That one had trouble funding too. Also for a similar sized product. Also for premium product. And that was by a company that has been doing Pathfinder fans right for a while now.

5. Kickstarter Sucks. Well, not really. But a lot of people are getting weary of the continued lateness of Kickstarter projects and are taking their money to actual stores and buying things. Or just downloading illegal PDFs. You know those damn kids today and their internets. When I do my next Kickstarter update, I'll actually have a few that have fallen off the list but most will not. As Kickstarter continues to evolve, people will continue to decide where their money goes in a manner that reflects not only companies, but product types as well.

I hope Green Ronin is able to pull this one off not necessarily for Freeport, but I would love to see them do compilations of their various Races, Classes, and other material that never got compiled thanks to the d20 meltdown, into hardcovers for Pathfinder.

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.

Nostalgia

I get to kill two birds with today's posting. As I've noted on a few spots, I'm trying to work less this year and enjoy life more. We'll see how long that last as my work situation could change or any number of factors outside my control can smash my plans. But until that happens...

So today was clean house day. This may not sound interesting, but if you're a gamer who has played and collected for a long time, it can lead to some interesting times. While due to space constrains I've lost, sold, traded or otherwise lost much of my collection, I still have a lot of things like my old Polyhedron magazines that I stumbled across or some maps by one of my friends.'

Jason is a great artist and a good guy and I haven't talked to him for years but hell, that's part his fault and part my fault.

I also came across some photos of my friends and I when I used to live on Mozart playing some second edition. Good times.

But on another front, nostalgia hits from a completely unexpected source; Wizards of the Coast is going to reprint the first three Advanced Dungeons and Dragons books with new covers and provide some of the cash for the Gary fund.

I noted over on RPG.net that I'm of two minds. The first is the cynical aspect that looks at this as a ploy by WoTC to sell some books at an inflated cost and notes that they completely ignore Dave, the other founder of Dungeons & Dragons. There are other bits that go clink clink in my head, but really, I'm trying to be the gamer who goes, "Wow."

WoTC probably isn't going to make much money off this. It's a limited print run that is going through local gaming stores only and no chains. They'll also be donating some money. I think that its a good move because it allows those who want the 'shinny' but also the old, to get a look at it. Mind you, if anyone really wants to get those books e-bay and used book stores probably have them at a much cheaper price. It also allows some good will to shine through thanks to the nature of the product.

There are those who see it as a money grab and as an excuse for Wizards of the Coast to strike out as games like OSIRIC and it is possible. Me? I'm hoping that its an experiment that goes well and that Wizards of the Coast does something like this for Dave and that they keep building what could be good will be doing things fans want as opposed to being a corporation.

We'll see.

Game on folks.