Delve

Weekend Fling with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 15:34:49 GMT

Yesterday I played some Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd Edition with Rodney Thompson, Logan Bonner, and Chris Tulach. It’s something that I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. I’m a big fan of the minis game, I like the Warhammer franchise (though I like the 40K franchise better), and recognize a lot of great and revolutionary things that have helped sharp RPG design that came out of the original game. I’ve been following the design journals put out by Fantasy Flight with a mix of awe and WTF. When Rodney told me he was getting a copy, I browbeated him for months into running a game.

Anywho, someone on Facebook asked me about Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd Edition, so I thought I would share here as well in a slightly expanded form. If WFRP1 or 2 got drunk, and met D&D 4e at a bar, they fucked all night, but 4e scooted out the next morning before WFRP 1 or 2 woke up without leaving a phone number or a note or anything, WFRP 3 is what happened after 9 months of "development” and a few years of being raised by its step daddy – Mr. Board Game. It’s not a boardgame, though. It is purely an RPG with a bunch of board-game-like pieces. Many of the pieces help information flow. Some are just bits porn. It keeps some of the core conceits of WFRP, but improves the encounter flow. It musters and army of new tech some of which works. Usually what works are the parts they swiped from D&D 4e, but there are a few interesting ideas new ideas in there as well (their solution for “feat stacking” is truly inspired). There’re a handful of things in the game that are probably design dead ends. Their movement is bitsy and annoying. If they didn’t want to go with a grid, they should have gone with zones (a.k.a. a larger grid) but it’s pretty easy to fix that (as I am sure some groups already have done so). The tension meter is bullshit, and no good GM will every use it unless he is running a game for a group of fuckwits, hates himself, or both. I think that boons and banes, at least their relationships in the dice pools and within actions, are clunky and sometimes just aggravating. I need to do more research on it but I have a suspicion they are bad mechanics hiding in rules arcana. I am not nearly as impressed with the party card as I wanted to be. Having unifying adventuring group mechanics is a seemingly interesting idea that always ends up becoming meh in application. I think this game’s no different. I think it might be hard to write adventures for this…but I’m not sure…yet.

All that said; I like the game. I think it is a good RPG that I’ll end up buying and playing. I’m interested to see how campaign play works, and there are parts that I really want to explore, take apart, put back together, and fiddle with.

If you like fun, don’t mind bits, and are hip with the newer directions tabletop RPGs (and tabletop games in general) are taking, you should check it out. At least play it once. If your one of those “theater of my mind” troglodytes that think cards and pre-paint plastics rot your imagination or soil the grand Gygaxian tradition of RPGs (your wrong BTW) just give this one a pass.

BTW, if you want to read Rodney's thoughts on the game, you can find his journal entry here: gamescribe.livejournal.com/113154.html

For Good Again

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:18:17 GMT

Holy crap, I’m going to get really long-winded here, so if you just don’t want to deal with that, there is a CliffsNotes version of this novel at the very bottom. Scroll down, you’ll find it in bold and with bullet points.

I started working at Wizards of the Coast in August of 2000. I was hired on as an editorial assistant for Polyhedron and Living Greyhawk Journal magazines, I went on to briefly become the assistant editor of those publications, and then when those publications were absorbed into Dragon and Dungeon magazines, I stayed with the RPGA, held titles like Games Coordinator and Content Manager, and probably a couple of others I don’t remember. All those titles were just were just a smokescreen for shifts in business philosophy through the various reorganizations I’ve witnessed at Wizards (grand total, I’ve seen 9 rounds of lay-offs while working for Wizards…the last one got me) and while my title changed, my job was always “keep the RPGA juggernaut going with far less resources than you have or want.” I left that job in 2006. I just quit. I turned in my two-week notice, was asked to reconsider, promptly said no, and walked out the door to become a “civilian.” As I told my friends, when you have one too many Office Space moments, it’s time to go. I had a good six months away from the company, doing whatever the hell I wanted. After six years of Sisyphistic rigmarole (I would of rather it have been Quixotic rigmarole, and treated it like it was for many of those years) I needed a detox. It was one of the best things I ever did. I was able to get a better piece of mind and shed some unwanted pounds that only cube life and bad eating habits can pack on. I felt so refreshed, after six months I accepted a position at Wizards again, this time in RPG R&D to work on 4e.

It was an exciting period. There is nothing more exhilarating, more challenging, and more nerve-wracking than working on a new edition of the game. There were many arguments, and I lost quite a few, won some, and had some very talented people challenge me to rethink old assumptions about RPGs and games in general. To date, it was the highlight of my career, and I would do it over again in a heartbeat. I’m very proud on the impact I’ve had over the years on 3e, 3.5e, 4e D&D, but especially the work I did on 4e. I think it is the greatest RPG ever produced, though I’m admittedly biased.

That said, there are things I wish “we” did differently. (After so many years working at Wizards, it is going too hard for me to stop using “we” when referring to Wizards…I will only use it here to put it in historical context). I wish the GSL were more inclusive and was so from the very start. I always admired the OGL and d20 System license, thought they were good for the D&D game and the adventure game industry in general, and wished we could have continued with that kind of open relationship with the fans, amateur designers, and 3rd party publisher.

I don’t like how the whole PDF thing panned out. I understand the desire to protect one’s self from illegal pirating, but I just wish it was handled differently. Let’s just say I didn’t agree with Sherman Alexi when he was on the Cobert Report a little while back (I still think you’re the bomb, Sherman!)

There were some so-called sacred cows in the rules that I wished we could have kept sacred. Now if any of my students are reading this, I’m sure they might be tempted to spit out their pop or coffee all over their screen. They know I don’t mind grinding sacred cows into tasty hamburger. You should always question dogma when it stands in the way of fun and innovation, but at the same time some sacred cows are there because they were fun and innovative from the start, and continue to do yeoman’s work in that regard. I will not go into what particular ones in detail, but I’ve been playing D&D since 81, so some of you might be able to make reasonable guesses on the subject.

So why am I telling you all of this? Because I can. I’m very self-indulgent, so if you’re reading the long version you’re just going to have to bail out or keep on reading. But there is also a lesson here. When you make games you only one real job – make fun. Anything that detracts from that will ultimately hurts you. Some will counter that your chief job is to make money -- that’s bullshit. I think if you make fun you will be more likely to make money, but hobby game marketing (at least in its current incarnation) is quicksilver, most of the marketers are alchemists keeping their formulas hidden with code, but in doing so obscuring the truth. There is no magic formula, there is not even a mundane one. There are only good games, clear lines of distribution and the ability for your partners to buy and warehouse what’s not flying through the channel…oh, and that fun thing.

So, what am I going to do now that I’m no longer at Wizards again? In the words of Bam Margera, “Whatever the fuck I want.” My birthday is coming up (some of you celebrate it as Christmas) and I am going to travel down to my favorite place on the Oregon Shore, spend some time with my wife, drink some of the best beer in word (all hail Pelican!), catch up on my reading (Jeff VanderMeer’s “Finch” Charles Stross’s “The Atrocity Archives” are top on my list, but finishing the Horus Heresy novels will undoubtedly come next) while watch the storms roll onto the beach.

I’m going to continue to run my two Days of Long Shadows campaigns, paint some miniatures, play some minis games, play some XBox, and look for another job. Right now I have more people sending me job listings and offering to collaborate with me than I know what to do with. There is some exciting stuff in that jumble… but first thing’s first. Time to relax. Detox. Smile and game.

Please do the same this holiday season and beyond.
The CliffsNotes Version

· I left Wizards again, this time I got a severance package. A good one!

· I’m very proud of the work I’ve done for Wizards and my contributions to D&D 4e. I think 4e is the best RPG produced to date.

· I wish there were things that were done differently (I list some of them).

· Now I’m going to do whatever the fuck I want.

Time Flies...

Fri, 15 May 2009 05:30:51 GMT

…when you are spending the majority of your time on other social networking sites. It doesn’t mean that I’ve abandoned this one, but if you want to see what I’ve been up to lately, either friend me on Facebook (Stephen Radney-Macfarland), on Twitter (http://twitter.com/SRMacFarland), or check out my Obsidian Portal campaign wiki’s (http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/days-of-long-shadows and/or http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/season-of-long-shadows-tan-group) , and feel free to friend me there too.

In the mean time, I’ve started up a second group for my Days of Long Shadows campaign, organized a monthly miniatures painting workshop at Wizards of the Coast, took a mini vacation to Pacific City Oregon, and have been busy developing and designing D&D books. But more on that later.

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 02:07:03 GMT

I know. It's been a long time since I've blog'ed, and there has been a lot going on recently, but this is something I think I must share.

If you have not seen, picked up, or played the game Pandemic yet, do yourself a huge favor and do it. The game is brilliant. It's simple, fun, highly addictive, and...cooperative. You always make interesting choices, and you always have fun, even when you lose.

Better still, the game's designer, Matt Leacock talks in-depth about the design and development of the game in this video. It is long. It's at a seminar, so he's not trying to entertain you, but it is (if you are like me and a huge game dork) fascinating.

Alright, I am out. I’ll try to blog more. Maybe over the holiday break.

Thanks for the Fish

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 00:35:44 GMT

So I am pretty sure that You Tube is a sign of the apocalypse. Specifically, I think it is the Whore of Babylon; but before first Beast rises up from the sea all heady and horny, it's best to just enjoy what’s on there. Here’s a D&D bit from Screaming Halibut.

Journal of Lysander (Aidan) Jayden

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 05:15:25 GMT

Entry I

I write these words only to have a record of my journeys; if I should fall, it’s my hope that someday my father will find this...

To the World I am known as Lysander Jayden but in the Feywild, I am Aidan. I am gra o'broin—born of an elven father and Eil mother. My father is Mercanan, a warlock from Lyrsian Enclave. My mother a mercenary captain of the Ursidae named Trista Jayden. From my mother I learned the warrior’s way and mastered the art of war. My other talent, the touch of fey magic, I have learned from my father's teaching, but I fear it has been corrupted by another.

I was a young man when my mother died. It was during the Summer of the Wild Hunt, when the fey went mad and the mists swirled over Fadail. The Ursidae was hired by the Compulsor to protect Eilthir from the fey marauders, and I accompanied my mother to fight in the battle at the frontiers of the town that is no more. To this day I remember very little of the battle, but I know the following. My mother fell trying to protect me from crazed wild men from the Feywild who sang, danced, and killed. And when she fell, I was afraid that I would suffer the same horrid fate, but I was abducted by a satyr who took me into the mists. There the satyr took me to a castle atop the mountain. I believe it was the castle of the enchanter, Koschej. That strange eladrin took my hand and burned a strange and complicated symbol onto it. And with a wave of his hand he cast me from his sight. I fell for what seemed like days through the mists, and then the world went black. I awoke on the outskirts of the Aog Marsh, not far from Keir Treasa.

The rune holds power; I know that. Every sage and mage who has spied the symbol senses its power but so far none have a clue to its meaning or significance. It did change my arcane talents. While my father taught me the warlock spell eyebite, after the marking, when I call upon my pact power, a halo of flame wisped around my enemy, and if I am attacked, the fires burned stronger like some hellish rebuke.

Seeking to find the reason for my abduction, the mark, and the fiery manifestation of my arcane powers, my father became obsessed with the Feywild and the Enchanter of the Mists, and sought to obtain the power to travel there. But even to a Lyrsian elf, the path to Verdant Shadow. Many years past without my father any reason for my abduction, the nature of the mark that scars my hand, or even finding a safe path to Koschej’s realm. In the meantime, I became a magnet for strange events. Monsters seem to find me, and strife occurred wherever I traveled. It was only my mother’s training and the strange twisted rebuke that saved me from some close calls. Even with Koschej's dark taint on my warlock powers, I have been called a hero by some, and have done much good in Eilthir.

About a year ago, my father left in search of a ritual to create safe passages to Koschej’s Feywild realm (or rather to create ways back once the mists were entered). He believed he finally found what he sought. He told me that the solution was so simple, so obvious, it just require courage. He said that his first stop would be to see a wise wizard and old friend named Rijkardus, who I have meet several times in my youth. But he never met Rijkarsus, and no one has seen him for the past year.

As I reach my twentieth summer, it is my goal to find out what is happening to me, find my father, and seek my ancestry in the Feywild. I know my father asked me to stay out of this and let him solve this riddle. I may never find him but I must try. He is in trouble and I can sense his peril. I must find some way to do this on my own one way or another...

Lay of the Land

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 18:10:50 GMT

So, as promised here is the starting campaign map for Days of Long Shadows...at least the map of the point of dim where the whole story starts. Later today I'll post Lysander's first journal entry.

The Campaign is So Close...

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:57:06 GMT

Actually the Days of Long Shadows campaign is so close that we have already had two full play sessions. We ended up starting a little earlier than I had originally some of the players were getting antsy (and I was getting tired of running Dark Heresy). So, below you’ll find the player’s information on races in Eilthir, and here is the semi-final cast of characters.

· The Esteemed Ambassador Frenoss (male dragonborn fighter with the Ambassador background) played by Aaron

· Lysander (Aidan) Jayden (half-elf warlord [warlock multiclass] with the Explorer background) played by Jeremy ( jeremy_bear_kim)

· Nayalil (female elf rogue with the Mercenary background) played by Lisa

· Odion (human [Eil/Vold mix(?)] rogue with the Hexed background) played by Otto

· Rijkardus da Zendria (male human [Vold] wizard with the Seeker background) played by Mike.

Races in Eilthir
Dragonborn: Dragonborns are nearly legendary beings in Eilthir. To most, they’re nothing more than a rumor from some far-flung corner of the World, or—once confronted with their reality—a spectacle.
There’re no native dragonborn living in Eilthir. You can take this race only when taking either the Ambassador or the Mercenary backgrounds.
Dwarf: Even before Vold rule, the dwarves of the Granite Halls have traded in Eilthir. Until recently, much dwarfcraft was brought to Keir Treasa and sold in the local markets or shipped down the river via halfling barges for eventual sale in the markets of the central Vold. The dwarves who traded in Keir Treasa clannishly watched over their own interests, precluding other races from even the most menial employment within their businesses. But now the dwarves are leaving Eilthir for reasons they stubbornly refuse to share with Eil, Vold, or even halflings. Despite their brusque manners and stone-cold stoicism, their business has been a boon for the region, and no one thinks their exodus bodes well for Eilthir.
Picking a dwarf character means that you’ll know the reason for the retreat to the Granite Halls. Picking a dwarf character means that you could never tell a non-dwarf.
Dwarf characters can take the Agent or the Mercenary background, but it’s not required to take a background to play a dwarf character.
Eladrin: There’s a Vold saying that, “anywhere the Verdant Shadow touches the World, the eladrin meddle.” The true children of the Feywild, local eladrin holds lie beyond the forbidding emerald curtain of the Ealbhar Forest; their realms coming into contact with the Smiodan Mountains where the clouds touch those ancient peaks.
The eladrin are insulated from human contact by the Lyrsian Enclave of elves that rule the Ealbhar and have served as guardians to the standing gates in the Smiodan for over a millennium.
Eladrin characters come from one of numerous eladrin estates that touch the World among the mists of the Smiodan Mountains.
Eladrin characters can take the Ambassador or the Explorer background, but it’s not required to take a background to play an eladrin character.
Elf: The elves of Eilthir are predominately part of the Lyrsian Enclave of the Ealbhar Forest, a confederation of elven clans dedicated to the preservation of the forest and the protection of passages into the Feywild. While there is no love lost between the Lyrsian Enclave and the Vold, the elves have good relations with the Eil, and there are many popular, albeit melancholy and often tragic, rondeaux and leis of famous love affairs between a member of the Enclave and the Eil.
The elves of the Lyrsian are not the only elves of the region. There are strange and scattered tribes in the Wyrm Wood who are said to worship dragons.
Elf characters can take the Explorer or the Mercenary background, but it’s not required to take a background to play an elf character.
Gnome: The Feywild is as vast as the world—maybe even vaster. In the places where the Feywild touches Eilthir, there are no known gnome settlements, though it’s rumored that a long-lost clan of gnomes—the brunaidh—once dwelt in the region of the Feywild now ruled by the Mist Mage, Koscej. But that strange creature’s realm is closed from the rest of the Feywild, and the only way to enter it is to enter the strange swirling mists that serve as boundaries to his realm in the World. While not everyone who enters the mists is lost, few leave Kosciej’s realm unmarred in some way.
You must take the Explorer background to play a gnome. If you play a gnome character, it’s one of your personal goals to find the fate of the brunaidh.
Half-Elf: Usually a cross between an Eil and an elf of the Lyrsian Enclave, half-elves are sometimes called gra o’broin, and old Eil phrase meaning, “laughter from sadness.” Treasured for their talents and wisdom, their mixed blood means that they are never truly a part of Eil or elf society. Furthermore they’re often mistrusted by the Vold, who view elves and eladrin as rivals, and thus they are suspicious of a half-elf’s true alliance. This is especially true after the last compulsor of Eilthir was killed by his chief advisor, and supposed best friend, the half-elf Fealltor. Unbeknownst to the compulsor, Fealltor was an assassin trained and sent by Prince Iydthen, an eladrin lord of the Smiodan who sometimes meddles in Eilthir politics.
Half-elf characters can take the Explorer, the Hexed, or the Mercenary background, but it’s not required to take a background to play a half-elf character.
Halfling: Few Halflings call Eilthir home, but few halfling call anywhere home. The clans of Karith have traveled up and down the rivers of the northern Vold for centuries, and their barges been the chief method for Eil and dwarven goods to reach the central Vold.
Halfling characters can take the Agent or the Mercenary background, but it’s not required to take a background to play a halfing character.
Human: While there are many tribes and nations of humans in the World, each varying in looks and customs, there are only two types populating Eilthir in any great numbers—the Vold and the Eil.
Vold: The Empire of the Vold rules over many nations, which after the conquest they call provinces of the Empire. Eilthir is just one more than two score current provinces. A century ago the Vold ruled over almost a hundred, but lost a number of them when the mage city of Karaius fell to demons.
A race of tall, fair, and powerful humans, the Vold see themselves as the pinnacle of human civilization and consider it their duty to spread the boons of their civilizations to all the human people of the World. Even after the destruction wrought by the Fall of Karaius, the Vold are still the undisputed masters of arcane magic among the human peoples. And that mastery of the arcane has help them create a large and efficient bureaucracy, army, and method of trade—including a stable network of portals open to all citizens of the Vold Empire.
Eil: The original human people who settled the Eilthir valley, the Eil were conquered centuries ago by the Vold. With the exception of a secret society called the Swords of the Hidden Warlord (or the Hidden,
as it is usually called) the resistance against the Vold is over. Even the Hidden avoid direct conflict with the compulsor, preferring to aid downtrodden Eil sabotaging the collection of the Vold-Teind; a one gold tax levied each year.
People of ruddy skin and dark brown or red hair, the Eil are shorter than the Vold, but unlike their haughty overlords, are a people of fierce emotion and quick with drink, dance, and brawling.
Human characters can take the Ambassador (a human that is neither Vold nor Eil) the Hexed, the Mercenary, the Orphan (Eil only) or the Seeker, but it’s not required to take a background to play a human character.
Tiefling: Like dragonborn, the tiefling are a rare race in Eilthir. Sometimes called the Fallen, they migrated from a place far to the reach, beyond the Dragonteeth Mountains. Rare communities of tiefling are scattered throughout the Vold Empire, but most tiefling adventurers are loaners. They tend to be mistrusted, disliked, and even feared by common people.
You can only play a tiefling if you take the Hexed or the Mercenary backgrounds.

Later this weekend, I'll post the map, Lysander's background (thanks

jeremy_bear_kim for sending that!) and continue on next week with Lysander's journal.

Need help with your roleplaying? Get Tips from Sir Ian

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:26:39 GMT

Recently I put finishing touches on a Save My Game column about how to promote roleplaying and story interaction in your game, but a dear friend of mine, the great Native American literature professor and writer (oh, and college RPG buddy and the guy who had the "privilege" of marrying Sky and I...but not in that weird polygamist way...that whole he was the priest way), Daniel Justice, introduced me to this little bit of acting advice from Sir Ian McKellen. Most of it is good roleplaying advice, also.

That's right, kids. Instead of an honest to goodness blog, I'm just grabbing more funny crap off the Internet. Yay for me!

Required Reading

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:13:39 GMT

Were does the time go? Must blog, must blog...but until then, check out this required reading over at Wired.com. Lore Sjöberg muses on D&D, cooking, and the potential crossover of fandom.

It's a hoot and strangely full of widom.

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/commentary/alttext/2008/06/alttext_0618

Great Questions, Quick Answers

Wed, 07 May 2008 02:25:24 GMT

Wow, my last post has already generated a number of questions and feedback. Thanks, all! Let’s see if I can’t answer the questions quickly, before I go home for the evening.

Dru

I don’t think I would be opposed to running this campaign on the Digital Game Table. I’m trying to design it so that I can run it multiple times and it never runs the same way twice, so running another campaign DGT would bee a good experiment. Let’s talk when that thing is up and ready to rock.

Iridanum

Welcome! Glad to have you lurking. It’s been great fun teaching game design at the Art Institute of Seattle over the last year, and I have had some fantastic students that I think I have learned just as much from as I’ve taught to them. I’m sure that goes for your girlfriend.

There is no such thing as a presumptuous question, so always feel free to fire away.

I do hope it’s a fun campaign. I like the start, but then I guess I’d better…I made the damn thing. As for the question of how one ends the campaign, here’s my theory. Campaigns end much like a story—when the goal is reached. And just like a story, the first part of it is often finding out what that goal is. So first we have the journey that finds its destination. Then we reach the destination. Of course, campaigns are also a lot of mini stories, so you do this again, and again, and again, but I think there has to be a meta plot also. Right now I know how the campaign starts. I know how the campaign ends (or rather I know the end game, the players will determine how it actually ends with their actions), and I know where the breaking point lies. The between parts are as malleable as clay…well maybe clay with some dry chunks in it. As far as the end, realize the goal, don’t try to create the outcome. Let your players find the goal, challenge the goal, and then see if they can defeat the goal, then your ends will not seem contrived, they will be fulfilling.

Anonymous

Norkers are not in the Monster Manual, but Mike Mearls every so often will go into fits of repeating the word “norker” over and over again…sometimes while he is hoping on one leg. I don’t know what this strange and disturbing behavior means (Mearls’s ways may not be subtle, but they are esoteric at times), but I’m sure we’ll find out some day.

The norkers in my game are of my own design (they may be norkers in name only). I’ll talk more about them in future entries.

As far as blood wolves, sometimes called demon dogs, they’re fearless, vicious, and resilient wolves with russet fur and needlelike fangs. They hunt in packs that are dominated by powerful matrons, and occasionally a dominant, black-mane male. I’ll post more on those critters sometime in the future. Probably after the GSL is released. They are basically a take on world flavor that takes advantage of the new monster design philosophy of 4e.

MerricB

Ah, Greyhawk. It’s one of my favorite places to run a home game. I just had an itch to write my own world this time.

Your tip of the day is good, but I’ve broken that rule and the campaign survived and was even better for it, I think. The last 3.5 campaign ran (not counting the Age of Worms one I am currently running online) I had a TPK in the second session. Those dead characters became part of the back story in some fun and disturbing ways. For instance, when the bad guy that killed the original PCs showed up again, he was wearing an powerful defensive amulet that was crafted from the mummified head of one of the original PCs (an elf PC, of course, if you can have an elf’s hand be the principle component of an amulet of mage hand, just think what the head could be crafted in to…). Let’s just say my players were both disturbed and delighted, and had interesting discussions on what to do with the magic item made from a former PC's head (they ended up burying it--it was a very dignified ceremony). If it happens you can make it work for you. In fact, that’s always the imperative of the DM, always make it work whatever happens.

How many players? Six, as long as I resist the urge to invite some other folks itching to play, which I should…seven players are one or two too many. I’m no to worried about PC backgrounds. I’ve already told the players that if they pick a background it will help tie their character closer to the campaign’s plot. The first question one player asked is if the backgrounds granted any kind of story immunity—that is, would the character be so crucial to the story that it could not die without ruining the plot. My answer was a quick and deliberate no. Then she complained that she has never had a character survive one of my campaigns. I just laughed. I think she threw something at me. ;-)

Enter the Long Shadows

Tue, 06 May 2008 17:42:30 GMT

Well, I’m happy to report that yesterday I received my copies of the three new D&D core rule books. It’s a thing of joy to see something you’ve worked on for well over a year in its final form. I can’t wait to share it with my group!

And speaking of that very thing, I’ve been steady working on my first 4e campaign. Titled the Days of Long Shadows, there are quite a few things I want to accomplish with it. Here’s the short list:

First off, I want it to fully embrace the 4e rules and setting assumptions almost in its entirety. And because of that I made my own points of light setting that integrates the themes and cosmology of the 4e game.
I want a campaign that I can run from levels 1 to 30 that has a definite start and end.
I want to experiment with a dynamic plot matrix where player choice is more robust than picking which door they go through first. I want the players constantly affect the story rather than just interact with it.
Starting with character creation, I want players to make choices that affect the story.
It has a good mix of story and action.
It’s gotta be hella fun (that’s right, baby, I said hella!)

The campaign is set (at least at its start) in the river valley of Eilthir, sometimes called Three Rivers Vale, a far-flung province of the once powerful but now declining Vold Empire. Eilthir is my starting point of light…although it may be more correct to say it’s a point of dim, as the region is filled with dangerous sites of its own, like the strange and savage, Earthscar, the Twilight Vale and the Mount of Mists, the Aog Marsh, and the elf-controlled Lyrsian Enclave (not a point of light unless you are an elf or a known friend of the Enclave). These shadowy locales that hover around Keir Treasa (the fortified capital settlement of the region) and the villages that surround it aren’t the only things that make this place a point of dim, strange things are afoot in Eilthir. The dwarves, as a people, have all but abandoned the region, quite suddenly, and for reasons they’re not sharing. Norkers—goblinoids once believed to be utterly eradicated by the armies of Vold—are raiding again from the Earthscar. And there’re reports that the three gods of a lost faith are walking the Aog.

Trouble is brewing in Eilthir, the kind of trouble foretold by prophecy, the kind of trouble that can’t be solved with one adventure, the kind of trouble that makes a campaign.

So, the setting itself hints at bigger things on the horizon, but adventures (and adventurers) have to start somewhere. The campaign starts with an investigation. In true 4th Edition fashion, the PCs start as heroes; or, at the very least, skilled reprobates. They’re talented individuals know to the Compulsor (a Vold title, roughly equivalent to governor) of Eilthir. He recruits the PCs accompany him to the site of a caravan attack. The caravan, recently returning from the strange and savage northern steeps via the Passage of Dumathoin, lies destroyed and scattered across the rugged grassland of northern Eilthir and its remains are being picked over by a large pack of savaging blood wolves from the Earthscar. The wolves defeated, and the site investigated, questions abound, and the PCs have to decide which of the many threads they’ll pull on.

Before all that occurs, there’s character creation. I am putting the finishing touches on a brief campaign guide that introduces Eilthir, discusses character creation, expands on where the campaign and the setting strays from the points of light or even normal Dungeons & Dragons assumptions, gives a list of house rules, and presents a chest of toys.

A few objects in that toy chest are premade backgrounds for the campaign. Each background is something that the players can pick, if they so choose. The benefit is that it ties their character in closer to the themes of the campaign (or at least the beginning of the campaign) but they are loose enough to serve more as an inspiration than a straightjacket (or at least that’s the idea). Here is the list of backgrounds. It starts with title, followed by restrictions (usually racial) the background has. Then it gives a brief overview and some advice on why this background might be a good pick for your particular kicks and play style.

The Agent

Dwarf or halfling

Strange things are afoot in Eilthir. Your character is an agent of a dwarf or halfling power group from outside Three Rivers Vale; a group with its own agenda relating to its race’s plight in the region. Particulars depend on the race you choose.

Choose this background if you like to play dwarves or halflings, or if you like a character who has its own agenda and secrets that other characters can’t know.

The Ambassador

Dragonborn, eladrin, or human (not Vold or Eil)

Shunted to this edge of the Vold Empire—maybe for some slight against a powerful person in your own land—you are searching for a little excitement and maybe some way you could possibly advance your people’s influence or standing in Eilthir.

Choose this background if you want to play a character from an exotic culture with its own cultural norms, or you like characters that have to find their place in an alien culture.

The Explorer

Eladrin, elf, gnome, or half-elf

You’re an explorer looking for permanent overlaps between the Feywild and the World. You’ve heard stories about the Twilight Vale and the Mist Mage, but have yet to visit the mist-enshrouded valley or its strange eladrin master.

Choose this background if you like fey-connected characters, or you like characters driven to explore their environment.

The Hexed

Half-elf, human, or tiefling

You are cursed by a mysterious master, so mysterious that you don’t even know his identity. All you know is that his raspy voice occasionally compels you to do things, sometimes terrible things, but worse things happen when you refuse.

Choose this background if you like dark, tormented characters, or you like characters with conflicting motivations.

The Mercenary

Dragonblood, dwarf, elf, half-elf, halfling, human, or tiefling

An indentured mercenary bound to the Compulsor of Eilthir, your freedom is only two years away unless you can find a way to end it sooner.

Choose this background if you like playing a character with a strong and visceral (some might say selfish, or even mercenary) sense of purpose, or some form of exotic warrior.

The Orphan

Human (Eil)

You’re an orphan of the disappeared village of Fadail. A wandering oracle of Ioun prophesized that Fadail could only be found and reunited with Eilthir by its last scion. Presumably that last scion is you.

Choose this background if you want to play a character moved by (or struggling against) the weight of prophecy.

The Seeker

Human wizard

You’re on the trail of Rassallian of Quince, or, more precisely, the book of spells he secreted away from poor, doomed Karaius. According to the Lexicon of Nyms the Blackhanded, Rassallian was heading to Eilthir, the home of his ancestors when he escaped Karaius.

Choose this background if you want to play a scholar or a power-hungry character looking for long-lost power.

You’ll notice that even from the start, some of the backgrounds spur more questions than give answers. That’s on purpose. Right now we are in the beginning of the story. We are getting our footing. Everything is new, strange, and (hopefully) interesting. Things will get more defined, but while I am the architect of this monstrosity, I am not its only builder. My players will ask those questions, discuss the ideas they have, and I can shape the plot, the story, and the background in ways great or small based on their feedback. I can do it not only to respond to their desires, but also to create tension and conflict as they find out their assumptions are not always truths. This is because backgrounds aren’t just a tool for the players; they’re also a tool for me when it comes to outlining and writing adventures. I can come up with the skeleton of a story and brainstorm all sorts of ideas of how different adventures and storylines can be tweaked or expanded based on the backgrounds I’ve put out there. Once my player picks a background, my job get’s that much easier...or at least that’s the theory.

Anyhow, that’s the start. As we get closer to the campaign start, I’ll post more information, but I’ve also made another site just for the campaign, that will feature more information and hopefully reports from the players as this thing gets rolling. You can find the Days of Long Shadows site here. There is also a link in the sidebar.

Iron Man

Fri, 02 May 2008 15:38:39 GMT

Iron Man

It’s metal, baby.

The entire development pit went to go see this gem last night, and survey says—brilliant! And this comes from a DC guy (Batman’s the bomb, yo!).

Robert Downey Jr. is a fantastic Tony Stark, and his performance is worth seeing alone. Add great performances from Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, and even Gwyneth Paltrow (yes, even Gwyneth Paltrow), sprinkle explosions and CG eye candy abound, and top off the concoction with excellent directing and one humdinger of a script, and you create something so geektastically filling that even Jeff Albertson will be sated. So put down Grand Theft Auto IV for a couple hours, get yourself some tickets, and enjoy.

Oh, and all you Marvel geeks, sit through that endless stream of credits. The footage at the end will give you a nerd-gasm. I haven’t heard Andy Collins yell that loud since he told some idiot to shut the something up at the end of Cloverfield.

Happy Accidents

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:26:31 GMT

In a response to my last blog, merricbasked what I meant by “sweat spot.” Well, to be honest, I just misspelled sweet in my last post…but the more I ponder on my mistake, I think that actually sweat spot might work better. We’ll call it—exhuming Bob Ross—a happy accident.

I’ll elaborate.

So, with any kind of resolution system there's a sweat spot of the frequency of success and failure. It can be somewhat tricky to find, and difficult to maintain, especially in RPGs. Systems with too high a frequency of success make you feel like you’re cheating (you’re not sweating it at all), and while you might continue to play, you’re also more likely to abandon the system because you don’t feel challenged. System with too low a frequency of success are just downright frustrating (you’re either sweating it too much, or not at all because you just friggen’ aggravated). You want a middle ground. And where exactly that middle ground lies depends on other factors in the game—compare the frequency of success between D&D, World of Warcraft, and any sort of successful casino game…different environments, different needs, but all have pretty stable, functioning, and playable “sweat spots”. Finding that sweat spot is the greatest tools outside of narration and story (or greed and alcohol, in the case of Vegas) for building tension and excitement.

In Dark Heresy, since you have to roll Tests under your attribute (or half your attribute if you are untrained) on a percentile die, and you typically start with one that hovers around 35, that means that you have a 35% chance of doing things you were trained to do. Wow that's a beating. There are modifiers in the system. Different types of attacks grant anywhere between +10 and +20 percent bonuses (and some have negatives, and you can have other effects that can grant even more bonuses, but they tend to be environmental), but even then, you have a 45 to 65 percent chance to do something you are trained in during favorable conditions. It’s worse than flipping coins most of the time. It's not only frustrating on the player's side, it doesn't make sense, especially when you realize that creatures have active defenses and there is a chance (albeit a small one, most of the time) to negate your beating of the odds. Frustration mounts. You aren’t sweating, because you expect to fail. You’ve reached acceptance in the stages of grief. In gaming, there is a sixth stage, and it's moving on.

Here’s the good news—opponents suck as much as you do, but this only compounds the problem, as you unload round after round of unloading ammunition into the air, enjoy the sound of whooshing claws and or the hum of a power sword as it cuts through the air. The opponents aren’t building tension, because they can’t make you sweat, unless they are demons, and have things that are next to impossible to counter, which just makes the game arbitrarily deadly (save ::cough:: or die ::cough::). Dark Heresy is truly one of those old-style games where you wade through the combat system to get to the fun—that’s until you find out the non-combat applications of skills have an even greater chance of failure. Well, I guess there is always pure roleplaying. Every RPG has that fun built in naturally. “Let’s pretend” is something almost all humans do naturally, whether they know it or not.

Later on, as the player works session by session to get advances, they can increase that 35 to a 55 (or maybe even higher). But by that points they’ve scoured the rules to get every single bonus you can in most situations, which means they’re typically getting a 65, 75, or up to a 115 percent chance (of course not considering auto fails) to succeed. And so do the bad guys. Put on active defenses, and you quickly go between the extremes failing a lot, to almost always succeeding. You foes just mimic your progression (or fall slightly behind it). In the end, the GM has to do a lot of rules maintenance in the other direction just to create the fun and tension that the rules system should strive to do for you. I am s strong believer that a GMs work is making a good story and good encounters. Let the game system (and its designers and developers) find the sweat spots so that the mechanics can serve as tools to build the masterpiece of the weekly game session, not rickety edifices you have to build around.

I am sure that there will be some folks out there who will argue that the Dark Heresy (and the Wahammer RPG systems in general) is “realistic.” Well frankly, I don’t want realism in my games. I want fun and cools stories where I can do things that snatch victory from defeat through good play and a healthy dose of luck. The same stuff I read in the novels. I want a good story, with group interaction, and dramatic consequence for gutsy actions. That’s an RPG in my book! If I wanted realism I would go play in traffic or dodge bullets. Maybe that’s just me.

In his response, dru_mooretalks about his experience with Dan Abnett. There is definitely a cult of Abnett out there, and right now I'm an initiate (they gave me a sacrifical dagger and everything). I’ll try not to gush over him to much when we go out for drinks next week (glad to hear you’re coming to town, BTW. I’m looking forward to seeing you!). I am sure that some of his works will seem like rehashes of older stories, because the man just churns out work. I read and interview where he explains that he wakes up in the morning and writes at least 3,000 words, and as much as 6,000 words for novels, and then he works on comic books in the afternoon. And IMO they’re really good words, not the so-so ones I spew out in my blog. The man’s a work horse, and keeps me turning pages. Color me f-ing awed and inspired.

For the Love of Abnett!

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 01:01:20 GMT

Okay, so for the past…well…I guess it’s been a year or so, my regular gaming group’s been playtesting 4e. Now that’s been fun, but there is a point in time where a group get’s sick of the topsy-turvy world of playtesting, and wants to play in an honest-to-god campaign. I’ve them we would do exactly that when the books are released. So far, they’ve been dealing with numerous draft documents, careful replace into a secret vault within the confines of my home, and I really wanted them to be able to really take a full and relaxed read of the books before they made a character that ( gods of 20 sides willing) they will be advancing from level 1 to 30 in the way D&D should be played.

But before that happens, we’ve decide to clean our gaming palate with another game—the recently released, deceased, and resurrected Dark Heresy. So far I’ve found the game to be a mixed bag.

I find the rules for Dark Heresy to be ponderous, outdated, and—sans judicious GM fudging—frustrating as hell, but the story behind the Calixis Sector in particular and the Inquisition in general is absolutely superb. This is especially true if you’ve read either of Dan Abnett’sEisenhorn or Ravenor series of 40k novels published by The Black Library. I’m in the middle of the former's omnibus, my friend, and a long-time player in my various campaigns, Lisa just started with the latter's first novel, and both of us are absolutely enamored by Abnett’s pacing, prose, and his ability to absolutely inhabit the subject matter with an ease that would make you think that he actually lives in the 41^st millennium...or at least one of his clones does. That chap has mad writing mojo.

I have to admit that when I first heard that the long-awaited Warhammer 40K roleplaying game would be Inquisition based, I was a little disappointed. I really wanted to play Space Marines, Eldar, Orks, and all the things I was used to in the minis game. Now, that I have spent some time reading the material, I see the wisdom of the move. With so much of that much Dark Heresy “fluff” based on Abnett’s Inquisition novels, you just can’t go wrong.

In fact, I think being an inquisitor for the Ordo Hereticus just might be my dream job. I’m only half joking. It’s definitely an adventurer’s dream job.

I just wished the rules were better. What do I mean but better? Well there are definitely a lot of character options…that’s not the problem. I like character options, and it has always been something the Warhammer RPG has excelled at. (Compare the 1986 RPG with the 2nd edition D&D Player’s Handbook, you’ll see what I mean. When it was first released, the WHFRP system was fairly revolutionary, if not deadly as hell.) But the percentile system is extremely limiting and ensures that you really suck early on and that you are really too fricken’ good at higher advancements (if you ever get there). There’s no real sweat spot unless the GM goes out of his or her way to create that spot, which takes attention and constant maintenance, which, oddly enough, the rules support him or her doing in clunky spades. But that’s the second problem. You spend a lot of time layering on exceptions before a die roll, often just to find out you missed or failed…again. Oh, that and much of the rules are there to help the GM tell the PCs how bad their character is screwed when they fail big. Yeah, that’s fun. We just rolled a bunch of dice to find out that you can’t play anymore and there is no way to help you. Yippie!

I pay other games that are like this…on occasion. I play the Call of Cthulhu RPG…but there I know what I am getting into. Hell, I’ve read Lovecraft; I know shit doesn’t end well (or sometimes even start well, or have a middle that's anything remotely close to well) anywhere in the Mythos. The Warhammer universe that Dan Abnett describes is scary and dangerous, but it is also heroic, active, and fun. At least it is for the main characters. And PCs should be main characters, at least in the stories you bell up around the game table to tell. I find that the system is not up to running the stories in the novels that I find truly inspiring. That’s just downright disappointing. But hey, pretty soon my players will have their 4e books and our little side-game downtime will be over. I wonder how many characters they’ll go through in the process.

On the flip side, playing this game introduced me to a fantastic fiction writer. I just ordered the Ravenor trilogy, the first novel of the Horus Heresy series, and the two Gaunt’s Ghost omnibuses (omnibi?)—so it looks like I am going to be reading a lot of Abnett in the next few weeks, and I don’t think I’ll get sick of it. He’s really that good. Oh, and he writes comics too...awesome!

Maybe I’ll just see if I can’t cobble together a Dark Heresy game with the 4e rules. Now that would be really be fun! Next campaign, maybe: The Days of Long Shadows has not yet begun.

WTF?

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 22:10:08 GMT

So my good friend Jason Bulmahn of Paizo fame posted some pictures of his cube. I found one of the photos particularly interesting…

I know that Jason’s a huge D&D fan, but I am just wondering how he got a copy of the 4e Player’s Handbook before I did?

I guess he knows someone over at the printer…. ;-)

Even worse is the picture that Rodney Thompson found here.

A Weekend of Saying Goodby by Having a lot of Fun!

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 00:16:41 GMT

Just in case any geek in the free world hasn't seen Mr. Colbert's tribute to Gary. Here it is.

Other than the normal rounds of household chores and such, I've spent some time today reading Saga of Old City. It's been a number of years since I've read the book, and thought today was a fitting one to start reading it again. Tomorrow I play D&D, set in Greyhawk, celebrating Gary and what he gave us.

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 19:36:19 GMT

So I’ve read Jason Bulmahn’s review of his 4e experience at Dungeons & Dragons Experience. And all I have to say is what a whiny frigg’n bastard.

Okay…Full disclosure here—Jason’s a good friend. I love playing games with Jason. He’s played in my campaigns, I’ve played in his. We get together on occasion to play board or miniatures games (as we are doing this weekend) and we tend to have very similar likes, dislikes, and ideas when it comes to games. Not identical, but pretty similar. Jason and I also love talking shops. Often we nod at each other in agreement, sometimes we have knock-down drag-out verbal scuffles, but we always have a good time, and I always feel enriched by our conversation. Even if that enrichment comes in the form of one-liners that I can steal from him—Jason’s a very funny guy.

Needless to say, I love to give Jason a hard time…and I can always count on him to return the favor.

I do have to admit that the past six months or so have been a little trying on our friendship. Because of that fickle bastard called business, I’ve been working on a game that I can’t talk to about. I would love to talk to Jason about it because I think he’ll really enjoy it and I am always interested in his opinion. I know him well enough to anticipate the points in our conversation that he’ll give me that strange little curl of the lips followed by a skeptical star, but I am ready for the great game theory conversation that will follow. Jason wants know about that game for personal and business reasons. Much like me, the man practically he bleeds D&D and he also works for Paizo—and Paizo of course wants to make business decisions based on the future of D&D. All that and we end up talking about the weather. Frustrating!

Well, things have loosened up a bit. Jason’s played some 4e. There is information on the intra-webs, and while I still can’t invite him over to my house to play the game, that day is not to far off. And Jason’s learned enough about the game to form his first opinions. Yippie! Fantastic! I just got some fun back!

Now I’m really looking forward to playing board games with Jason this weekend. Partially because I’m sure we’ll spend some time talking about Jason’s experience at Experience in detail (as our ladies roll their eyes and call out “would you too roll the dice already!”), but I thought I would give you all a preview of my “talking points” (gee…I feel like I’m running for office) because I am sure that some of you will find them either interesting or frustrating…or both. I know Jason will. Oh…and in the spirit of our political season, you bet I am going to cherry pick the responses for this column. See, I’m a bad, bad man!

Iuz the Evil sayeth:

“We all had a class-relative action to take pretty much every round. In 3.5, you would sometimes get forced to perform actions that were not part of your core character concept, such as having the wizard attack with a crossbow. While I consider this a plus, it did lead to repetitive action (something I was hoping 4E would avoid) after you used up your more limited powers. In other words, once I ran out of my per encounter powers, I pretty much used the same at-will power over and over because it was the best option I had.”

A first level character gets a basic attack, a couple of at-wills, an encounter power, and a daily power. Each encounter a first level character can do at least four different attacks before they have to repeat an action. Some characters can do five. And if you blow your daily, you can do six or even seven. Add to this mix the various generic action types (or, as I like to call them, not-so-basic attacks) and I think you have a pretty good repertoire of non-repeat action each encounter.

Furthermore, having a best option is a lot different than having little to no option. Once your spells are finished in 3e what did you do? You shoot that crossbow you were talking about and whine to the fighter about taking a nap. How many options real did your fighter actually have in 3e? How many times did you just swing your sword in the same run-of-the-mill fashion you did last round? The difference between 3e and 4e is simply you have an optimal choice you get to repeat, not just an action you always get to repeat. How many frigg’n powers do you want, Jason? ;-). Don’t worry; you get more as you level!

And with a crooked finger, Iuz the Evil produced the following power words…

- Once you face a monster, you know what to expect the next time you face that monster. This was very true in Scalegloom Hall. We faced the same kobolds again and again, and they performed pretty similarly over and over again. Since monsters do not have as many options available to them, they really only have a few things to do. This may be a factor of them being low level, but looking at the Pit Fiend post, I kinda doubt it. There were some variances, due to the room set ups (like swinging skulls and a rolling boulder), but setting those things aside, the kobold slingers did the same thing in every fight we faced them. I am not sure I like this, but there are worse things I suppose.

Now I have not had the chance to read Scalegloom Hall cover to cover, but I know some of the challenges…Mearls sits right next to me and screech like a cacklefiend hyena every time he finishes an encounter. But you are right. Monsters do what they do with the exact amount of complexity necessary (IMO). But there is more than just environmental variance, there is also monster group composition variance. You may not have seen that as much in Scalegloom Hall, because that adventure was written to teach the game (not only to players but also Dungeon Masters) and it uses a very simple sample of creatures and combinations (not to mention, you just have a smaller sample at 1st level, no matter what edition you’re playing). But let’s take a look at what I ran two weeks ago in my Castle Greyhawk game to illustrate the mix of roles and creatures that create interesting encounters.

Basically Iwanted to test my 13^th level characters and their savvy players. The following was one encounter split into two waves. It lasted about 12 rounds.

First wave

7 Azer minions (popcorn! – a bit of soldier)

1 Azer rager (brute)

2 Magmin (artillery).

Second wave

2 Large fire elementals (skirmisher)

2 Azers (soldiers)

1 Dragon wyrmling (elite soldier)

1 Adult red dragon (solo – soldier-y)

The azers have similar tendencies, but the minions, the soldiers, and the brutes have their own places on the battlefield. And while all of these critters are fire related, there were enough surprises to keep the PCs on their toes.

(Oh, and BTW, please do not take my list here as a preview of the Monster Manual; some of the monsters were of my own design, though they take “classic” shapes).

As a DM, I find the ability to have large and interesting battle like this very exciting and the relative ease of the creatures is very liberating. I can challenge the PCs in a larger and more dynamic nature, as I don’t have to put all my eggs in one basket of hit points and keep the action going longer. I have to worry overly much that I am not playing the monster optimally and I don’t fret over monsters that have two or more roles on the battle grid because of some strange bit of legacy design. Ahem…demons ::cough, cough:: devils!

By the end of the battle, most the PCs were out of healing surges, all the encounter and daily powers were used up, and most the PCs were in single digit hit points. They felt challenges and sure as hell didn't find the monsters boring.

Iuz the Evil muses about death he's about to inflict…

“- I am not sure you can die in 4E. Let me clarify that a bit. I am sure you can die, but it seems to me that you need to throw a vastly overchallenging encounter at the PCs, or you need to be a bit of a jerk.”

Oh, yes Jason, you can die. Wait until this summer. I’ll show you first hand. ;-)

Okay, I see your point, that was a bit jerky. Is it harder to die then last edition? Yes, but that’s a feature rather than a bug.

Roleplaying games are the exact opposite of Vegas—the house always loses (or often loses). It’s the DMs job (and one of his most important jobs) to create encounters that often put the PCs on the brink of losing, but without having them lose or lose too much. Many DMs fool themselves into thinking this isn’t the case, but much like using an Ouija Board they are just deluding themselves. Roleplaying games are fun because of tension. Tension is the risk of defeat. Create tension but always have ways for players to snatch victory from defeat. But what is defeat in D&D? Is it character death? It can be, but it should be the rarest form, the most viceral form of defeat. In fact, as DMs, game designers, and game developers I think it behooves us to find more story-specific forms of defeat for our adventures and our campaign. I think we've found ways to create interesting mini-defeats in the game, but that’s a deeper discussion. The fact is, death (except for tournament-style D&D play where I think it has its) is the most disruptive form of defeat for both the players and the DMs. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have its place. It just means that it should be as rare as possible—so it doesn’t disrupt campaigns (by far, the most common and some would argue satisfying form of D&D play).

It’s not like we are designing a video game here and we have tools that allow death to be somewhat common but only mildly debilitating. D&D, like other tabletop roleplaying games are a little more narrative and it is a lot harder to hand-wave death. Those are the main reason why we made an effort to make character death harder to occur. This has been a constant problem that various versions of D&D have tried to solve. You can see that by taking a look at the death and dying rules from edition to edition.

Wow, I feel like I could say a lot more on that point. I know that Rodney Thompson and I have had some interesting discussions on the subject (happy birthday Rodney!). I probably will at some point.

Well that’s all I have time for now. I am sure that Jason and I will chat more this weekend, and produce many points and counter points. I must admit that I am very excited that folks have actually had a chance to play this game and are making comments and starting discussions. It’s one thing to speculate, it quite another to share experiences. I think you learn more from the latter.

Zagig is Dead, Long Live Zagig!

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 23:57:00 GMT

I vividly remember the first time I heard the word “Gygax” uttered. I was 11. It buzzed around Wes Kelison’s kitchen table in a low and reverent hush during Wes’s birthday party. At the time I was playing my first profoundly fun and somewhat bewildering game of Advanced Dungeons & Dragon, exploring a strange wooden building filled with hill giants and orcs called the Steading. There were a lot of new and interesting words and phrases being tossed around that table, but Gygax seemed the most revered…if not the strangest.

All through the game I had no idea what a Gygax was, but my imagination was alight. Was it a monster? Was it a god? Was it an instrument of wonder? I didn’t ask during the game. I was already enough of a n00b, and I was desperately trying to keep up on the actions and the rules.

It turns out the answers to all of these questions were yes…at least in a very broad sense.

As Wes was kind enough to illuminate after the game, E. Gary Gygax was the mastermind behind this strange new game that I was immediately addicted to. Sure, there was this Arneson guy, but E. Gary Gygax was on the name of all of the AD&D books Wes owned. By the time I started playing Dungeons & Dragons, Dave Arneson was a whisper. Gygax was the man. (Sorry Dave, I know you’re awesome too! It’s was just timing, man.) And as my infatuation with D&D grew, I also became a full-fledged acolyte of the cult of Gygax.

As I dug deeper into Gygaxian mysteries, I put on all the trappings. I set my campaign in the World of Greyhawk. I eagerly awaited the releases of Unearthed Arcana and the long-awaited T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil, bugging the poor folks working at the Fantastic Store of Staten Island, New York on a weekly or an even daily basis until the days they finally arrived. I read all the Gord the Rogue novels (both TSR and New Infinities), and read them again. And I kept a notebook full of all the stray little bits of Gygaxian lore that I could find. And though my first love was his co-creation, I truly was a Gygax nerd of the first order. Through the fervor of my faith has waned over the years, there’s a part of me that still is. And that part was hit hard today.

I have had the privilege of regularly playing four editions of D&D and working on two of those editions. Each day I am keenly aware that I stand on the shoulders of giants. Today the greatest of those giants has left the Prime Material Plane.

This weekend my players will delve deeper into the ruins under Castle Greyhawk during my 4e paragon-level game. Their mission: to debunk the rumors that Lord Mayor Yragerne Zagig has finally met his demise somewhere within those twisted ruins, as the remaining members of the city’s Directing Oligarchy have decreed (yes, I am playing in the Greyhawk of the past). Like the connection between Zagig and his dungeon, Gary will live on as long as we keep exploring his creation.

I implore all of you to take some time this weekend to play a game of D&D. It can take the entire day or just an hour or two. It doesn’t matter which edition you play. It doesn’t matter whether you belly up to the table or play it on the computer. It doesn’t matter if it’s a game full of intrigue and problem solving in a world so realistic you’ve figured out the intricacies of its global economy or a it’s a rambling dungeon delve where a group of hostile elves dwells down the corridor from a tribe of pig-faced orcs. It doesn’t matter if you play it with the skill of a seasoned thespian or with a pile of pretzels and a bunch of (root) beer belching out your actions each turn and laughing like a teenager. Dungeons & Dragons is—and always has been—a game that can take all comers.

I can think of no better tribute to Gary Gygax than playing the fantastic game that he has bequeathed to all of us.

It's MeetUp Time!

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:47:05 GMT

I’ve known about Meetup Groups for a long time, and I’ve been on the rosters of the very large (over 600 members on their lists!), active, and—from what I’ve heard—fantastically-run Seattle Dungeons & Dragons Meet-Up for a couple of years, ever since I stumbled upon it one day while browsing the intra-webs. To date, I’ve not had a chance to attend one of their events. Lucky for me, Sky has a work meeting this coming Saturday, which also happens to be the first day of the Seattle D&D Meetup Group’s large two-day Free RPG Mini Con, so I’ll get to go to…well, some of it…at least enough to check it out before Sky’s meeting is over and we are off doing all sort of married couple weekend chores and stuff so I can run my Castle Greyhawk paragon-level 4e playtest game on Sunday. The life of a married gamers is always full of such dilemmas and compromises. It’s a hard life.

I’ve also never been to Fantastic Games—the store hosting the event—so I am looking forward to checking out a new (to me) game store. That’s always a thrill to a snarling geek like me. And since Sky won’t be with, I can take my time soaking in the ambiance.

And if I’m a good blogger this weekend (which I really have not been lately), I’ll report what I find. I’ll definitely bring my camera and snap some photos of my fellow geeks in their natural habitat.

If you’re in the Seattle area and looking for a gaggle of like-minded goobs, or want to stop by and chat with me for a while early Saturday morning, check the event out. If you’re looking for regular and friendly D&D game you also may want to check out the Seattle Mob, a fantastic local RPGA club run by some friends of mine. They meet the second Saturday of each month at one of my usual game store haunt—Genesis Games and Gizmos in Redmond.

Hhumm…maybe I should work on getting these two groups together….

Long Time, No Blog

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 23:10:29 GMT

Wow…I really go a long time without blogging at times. Sorry about that, things have been really crazy with my life. Not only has 4th Edition development, miniatures development, Star Wars Saga Edition development, a new round of paint master for D&D Miniatures, and my class at the Art Institute of Seattle taken a lot of time, family matters have taken me to Denver for a bit, I participated in panels this past weekend at Orycon 29 in Portland, OR (a shout out to all my wonderful fellow panelists—Kelly Bonilla, Rhiannon Louve, Andrew Nisbet III, Anthony Pryor, and Sean Wells--it was a treat to chat with all of you), and have been writing a few articles for the website.

Last week saw my second “Save My Game!” column, where I make the somewhat startling statement that running a D&D game is more like running a reality show than it is writing a book, but I am also asking folks for good table management ideas to feature in the next article. So, check it out and send me your ideas!

My newest article, a “Design & Development” article about terrain in 4th Edition D&D, just went up today, and has already spurred a good amount of discussion on EN World. The chat there is really indepth and worth checking out, though I am not going to comment on most of it. I was just thrilled that the newer articles let me talk a little more (and preview) mechanics...something we haven't be able to do a lot of until now.

I’ve written another article on a certain paladin power, that one should be up in a couple of weeks, so look out for that one.

Well, I am back at it. I have a development meeting on a book that comes out after the core books...and that's about all I can say about that one...but it is the first book that I'll be lead developer for, so I am excited about it. I have to do some trap development over the weekend...I do love making traps deadlier.

I am hoping to play some Warhammer 40k this weekend…my Black Templars against Jason Bulmahn’s (of Paizo fame) Necrons in a tiebreaking grudge match. Wish me luck; I think I’m going to need it.

Maybe I’ll post the results here this weekend.

What I did Saturday Night!

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 06:34:04 GMT

After talking and playing games with the great teens and parents at the South Hill Library, did I go out and get wasted? No... I did this:

At least that's my view of the gaming table at the headquarters of House Mearls (a little known Suel house of great magical power and subtle deviltry). Oh, and don't worry, Peter and Logan didn't come to blows over their rules dispute...this time.

In case you don't recognize it, we are playing the newest version of the Talisman board game by Black Industries/Games Workshop. You can read more of my thoughts on this game here.

There will be more.

What I Learned from Teenagers

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 06:01:53 GMT

No, its not like that My Chemical Romance song.

On Saturday Bruce Cordell and I went to the South Hill Library to talk to folks for their Teen Read Week. We really didn’t know what to expect of this, one of the first visits for Wizards of the Coast’s fledgling library program. When I exchanged e-mails with the librarian, she told me that it could be four people showing up, and it could be 60. That’s a lot of variance.

We ended up with about 20 or so folks, most kids, some interested parents, and at least a couple running a little late because the traffic in South Hill, WA is oddly congested. Heck, I was almost late to this thing. South Hill is about halfway between Seattle and Mt. Rainer, and you wouldn’t think it was a high traffic area, but you would be wrong. The last time Sky and I were in the area we were traveling to a place called Northwest Trek, a very cool wildlife refuge and park, and found the same strange congestion, but figured it was a fluke. It wasn’t. If you ever have to travel through this place, start about a half hour earlier than you normally would.

The crowd was great. There were a handful of teens that have either heard of or played D&D before, but most were video game junkies. Bruce and I told them what we do—and that we don’t design video games. Luckily none of them seemed disappointed by that.
I brought a few things to illustrate the history of D&D and gaming in general. First and foremost was my old basic set—the one I started the game with, compared to our newest one. I even brought some old unpainted metal minis to show them how those suckers have changed since I was their age. Last I brought some minis to give out, and a copies of the new basic game to view and play!

Man, I felt like an old coot, mostly because I could see myself, even across that great divide of decades, in the eyes of these young women and men.

Sometimes gamers, especially D&D gamers that have been playing since the earlier editions, forget what a real revolution D&D was (and still is). Unless you were exposed to miniatures wargaming, there was nothing like it. And even then, the fact that miniatures were just an aid and not a driving impetus of the game, it was pretty revolutionary to those folks too. It was nothing short of the paradigm shift for games, and read testimonial after testimonial from video game designers and a lot of them started with playing D&D.

Hell, there’s a good amount of the New Weird of fantasy fiction that’s being revolutionized by gamers. Works like Perdido Street Station and the City of Saints and Madmen are a testament to that. I had the opportunity to meet Jeff Vandermeer (the author of the latter book) at Seattle’s fantastic Bumbershoot music and arts festival this past year, and in his words he, “grew up on a steady diet of Dungeons & Dragons." (BTW if you have not read his books, do yourself a favor and pick them up, they are nothing short of phenomenal).

Today, so many games take for granted the assumptions and premises that D&D boldly clawed forward into the mainstream gaming consciousness. Those assumptions are the basic rules for game design today.

But here’s the kicker. Those kids and teens who have been weaned on video games are still so receptive to D&D. There is something thrilling about all the arcane lingo, the strange and esoteric formulas, and the idea that an entire world is open to them, anything the DM thinks up they can interact with. It’s not some story that everyone can play; it’s their own unique story, presented in a way that no computer could ever replicate. As I found myself talking to these teen, and playing demo games after our Q&A was over, I could see the excitement of the new and fascinating game that is D&D spread to them. But the time I was done running games, a good number of them asked if I would come back to run the game again. They had always been interested in playing D&D, but had no one to show them how to do it.

I'm hoping to go back and teach them the game (if the South Hill library will have me...hint, hint), just as someone was nice enough to teach me more than two decades ago. Too often I see older gamers blow off younger ones. I get it, there are plenty of reasons to do so. They’re not mature enough, they tell dumb jokes, and they ask too many questions, they like to bleach after drinking too much soda. Young people slow down the game.

Then again, I don’t get it, blow all those lame excuses out your ear! (And by ear, I mean ass.)

D&D has enough barriers to entry...especially in this digital age. It’s not that easy to get into. Don’t make it harder. The game would slow to a craw without them as sometimes even the most dedicated gamer finds she has less time for it after having kids or that great promotion that just made weekends null and void.

And remember, most of us had someone who taught us how to play…or remember one jerk who wouldn’t take the time.

Don’t be that jerk.

Supplemental - I Have 3e Love...And You Should Too.

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 21:01:59 GMT

Hey everyone On the off chance you didn't know this, 3rd Edition D&D is still a great game, and we still play it here at Wizards of the Coast and so should you.

I just needed to say that. I’ve read too many discussions online about how folks are stopping gaming in anticipation of 4th Edition and I’m here to say that’s...well...bullshit. I know, that it’s very easy to assume that just because we're excited about 4th Edition D&D--are eager to make it better, more fun, and have it simultaneously be richer and simpler than the last edition--that we are a bunch of 3rd Edition haters. Nothing is further from the truth.

Of the four (soon to be five) campaigns I am participating in, two are 3rd Edition campaigns (one is a Star Wars “Dawn of Defiance” game/playtest, run by the legendary Rodney Thompson, the other two are 4th Edition games). Both of my 3rd Edition games are wicked fun.

The first of those two 3rd Editions campaigns is an online Age of Worms game using the Fantasy Grounds II software.

I started running this game in June of this year for a few reasons. First and foremost, I’d been drooling over the Age of Worms campaign from its inception. A high-adventure, revised-Gygaxian (more brown-boxed set and Gord the Rogue than Castle Greyhawk) Greyhawk grognard at heart, I love the tone, story, and play of that campaign.

Secondly, with the promise of our upcoming digital desktop play, I wanted to become conversant in running D&D digitally. After shopping around a bit, Fantasy Grounds II was the program that interested me the most. It really is a fantastic product. Sure, there are some things about it that bug me, but the pros far outweigh the cons. Consider me a fan.

Lastly, I wanted to take a shot at reforming my college group. One of my buddies, a truly drooling geek (and I mean that in the best possible way) named Rob had talked me into starting World of Warcraft about a year ago, and had often brought up on how he would love to play D&D again, but had no group—so I knew he’d be game. I knew I could get both my brother, and the RPGA Web Gnome—Jeff Simpson, now living in NYC—on board (yes, I went to college with both), so that is three out of the I don’t know how many folks who played in my game during collage—not bad. I rounded out the game with some local talent (Lisa and Aaron), and we were off to that crazy little town called Diamond Lake. And since three of the six of us were in different time zones (Luc and Rob in Mountain, Jeff in Eastern), the group would give me some good anecdotal information on how easy or how hard it was to schedule and play games online. Turns out, it has the same bumps in the road that a normal game does. There's really very little difference.

Because one of the players (my brother Luc), is, at best, an occasional player of D&D (he’s a Games Workshop goob, some of you might recall), and Rob had not played D&D since 2nd Edition, we decided to stick mostly to the three core rulebooks, at least to start. After creating a Google group to serve as a campaign website, message boards, and wiki, get the Whispering Cairn adventure uploaded into Fantasy Grounds, and figure out what chat client we were using, we suffered only a minimal amount of tech problems before we were playing each Wednesday night for three or so hours a session after I get home from work. I’ve always been surprised how much I don’t miss having an actual face to face game. Sure, the VoIP client gives us some strange echoing, and yes, there are some times we get booted off the server (but those have been few and far between), but those things are manageable. Overall playing online has been surprisingly similar to playing at my house or at WotC…I just have to do less clean-up after the game’s done.

So far we’ve played 12 sessions. We've finished the Whispering Cairn, and a good chunk of Three Faces of Evil (I have a good time updating Mike Mearls on that game every Thursday morning; Mike sits next to me in the development pit), and a good time is being had by all. The character's have just reached 4th level (after a particularly hard fight with the Hextorian faction of the Ebon Triad temple under Diamond Lake), and are really coming into their own roleplaying- and tactics-wise. While I don’t know where the campaign is going to be next June, I doubt it'll be over. And I don’t think I’ll convert it to 4th, so I’ll be playing at least one 3rd Edition game past the release of 4th.

In my other 3rd Edition game, I'm a player. Chris Lindsay up in Easy Company (my pet name for our wonder E-Commerce and Customer Support team) is running Pathfinder: Rise of the Runelords as a Wednesday lunchtime game. He talks a bit about it (and the almost TPK) in his own blog.

In Chris’s game, I play a Chelaxian human knight 2/fighter 2 named Liinaus Sain; a vision-tortured ex-Hellknight (download and read the Player's Guide here, Hellknights are mentioned under the paladin write-up on page 8.), who doesn’t know if his vision come from his old master, Asmodeus, or from Iomedae the goddess of valor and honor (though his companions are fairly certain they don’t always come from the latter). Because of before mentioned almost TPK, this week I played Shalelu Andosana, one of the Sandpoint's NPC sent to save our primary characters from the clutches of Naulia—a demon tainted aasimar who kicked the crap out of us the week before. Though Shalelu doesn't have the charm of Liinaus, the game was a hoot, as Chris came up with a fantastic way to salvage the campaign from a string of poor tactical decisions (on our part) and fantastic die rolling (on his part).

The Pathfinder adventure path has been a blast (hats off to James Jacobs and the rest of the talented and fun Paizo crew). I’ve enjoyed the adventure (though I really dislike the goblin dog's concepts and abilities…sorry James), and It’s always fun to play with Chris (who I’ve had a Spy vs. Spy relationship with for years, as I beat up on his characters in my game, and he retorts soundly in his), Sammy, Trevor, Vincent, and Bernie from Easy Company.

It’s also the first time I’ve gotten to play the knight class, which I like a lot (well I like it after flavoring it with a few levels of fighter). It works really well with a lot of the feats out of Player’s Handbook II, and is really a good and interesting flavor or martial (to use a 4e-ism) character. And is really effective, at least it is after I spend some time warming up my dice.

So, Wednesday are 3rd Edition fun day for me, and will be so for the foreseeable future. Heck if my wife would let me join another game, I would love to wind my way through Expedition to the Ruins Greyhawk too. There is never such thing for too much D&D (unless you are a gaming widow, I guess) so get out there and keep playing!

Fridays and weekends on the other hand are 4th Edition D&D days, so excuse me while I go and review Adelmo, my halfling ranger, who is on the King's Road somewhere on the way to a place called Winterhaven.

Good gaming, and may rolls end up 20s! Oh…and viva la Rob Watkins.

Yippie! On Gleemax Now!

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 16:25:10 GMT

So, I was talking to Mom about 4^th Edition…

No. I don’t talk to her about 4^th Edition, silly.

But I did get an email from her the other day, and among other things she asked why I hadn’t blogged in over a month.

Had it really been a month? I guess it had.

Well, there were a lot of reasons, actually. First and foremost I was really, really busy for a while. Not only was development on the Monster Manual and Player’s Handbook kicking my butt; I was getting up to speed on the new D&D Miniatures Game so I could help develop it (which the game rocks, BTW); working with Didier Monin to work out some database kinks; starting a new quarter teaching a class on roleplaying game design for the Art Institute of Seattle. I was also working on the new incarnation of the “Save My Game!” column for Dungeon magazine, which debuted this week; writing and picking out miniatures with Steve Winter (a personal hero of mine ever since I saw his name in the old brown World of Greyhawk boxed set, and just a fantastic guy and fellow minis goob) for a minis in D&D retrospective that’s going up on the website soon; working on getting errata for Magic Item Compendium, Spell Compendium, and Player’s Handbook II out the door (thanks for taking that over, Greg!); settling into my new role as R&D liaison for events; painting a special miniature for Mr. Rob Watkins (a Star Wars Miniatures god…at least to those dwelling in the far-flung reaches of Quebec and other spaces Canadian); going to the Arcade Fire concert with said god-who-walks-among -us, Watkins (that band will just might change your life!); attending Mike Mearls’s wedding (congrats Mike and Heather!); dealing with my wife’s budding World of Warcraft addiction (don’t worry honey, this is what we call an intervention…); eating steak and playing a couple of games of Warhammer 40K with Jason Bulmahn when said wife was out of town participating in the Race for the Cure in Denver; getting a trip to Denver over Christmas shored up; and bring my online Age of Worms game back on track (including updating four sessions of game notes on the campaign Google Group).

Yeah, I was a little busy. Now I just have to do more minis development, Dungeon Master’s Guide development; go speak to at a local library with Bruce Cordell for Teen Read Week; kick off my H1 Keep on the Shadowfell playtest this weekend; plan a trip to Las Vegas next March so Sky can play bridesmaid at a wedding; and prepare for a guest stint at OryCon 29 in Portland next month. Oh, and I just got a slew of upcoming D&D miniatures on my desk for paint masters. So things are slowing down a little.

All that said, I am very excited because this afternoon, after many thwarted attempts, I finally got into my Gleemax account. I’ll be honest with you, I have other blogs done, or almost done (including the first of my Oregon blogs) but I was sick of putting them on the message boards. I wanted to get these suckers up on the new toy, to be part of this new community. I am very excited about Gleemax as a concept, even thought its application has frustrated me a little in the last couple weeks (If I saw that stupid “Unexpected Error” screen one more time I was going to drain the Mountain Dew from that frigg’n brain in a jar!). My passion is games, and it is good to finally have a social networking site dedicated to that passion.

So those of you who are new, welcome to my blog…and welcome to Gleemax. Don’t mind all the construction going on around you, and watch out for that bucket of hammers teetering precariously from the step ladder, it’s a fine place to hang out, and will be the Roxzor (or whatever it is the kids say nowadays) when it’s done.

Well that's it for now. My notes on exploring the wilds of Oregon should be up this weekend, and I'll have notes on my Warhammer 40K game with Jason, WoW the addiction (now with wife!), what I learned from talking to teens at the library, and some thoughts on virtual tabletop RPG play from my Age of Worms campaign.

Oh, and I may start a little temple to Rob Watkins. I am hoping that if I mention him enough, one day he will be summoned to Gleemax. Do me a favor, help me out, and mention him (randomly if you have to) in your blog posts. Thanks!

You can find my gleemax blog here.