Addendum to Adventure Prep and Open Captioned Bragging Contest
I can’t write an actual post tonight I have quite a large game to prep because my players decided they wanted to talk with a god and then have a stroll in Asgard/Ysgard…
Were I playing 2e Planescape, I could just say “Tough luck, you don’t have the proper portal key”. However, since it’s one of the first time I actually get requests from players, I just have to make an effort now won’t I?
But it so happen that I’m one of those that like to create when presented with constraints.
So here’s what I have to play with:
- I have a PC that’s missing (I still need to know if Math will show up) that was last seen fighting against impossible odds to defend Elven lives in Ptolus.
- I have a PC (Cruguer) whose past was uncovered and sits near 2 of his benefactors (Lillee and her Goddess Elhonna)
- I have a prophecy that points toward a land of Ice and a Giant’s demon killing sword
- I have players who want to immerse themselves in D&D’s version of Norse mythology
- Ysgard/Asgard is the land of ever-living heroes who ressurect from death every evening after fighting all day.
The story telling possibilities are many!
Okay, now in order to give you something amusing here, I thought I’d do a little caption contest…
Here’s my favorite picture from my webcomic:
I want you to propose the funniest word bubble(s) that you would add to this image.
I’ll create the 2 funniest with Comic Book creator and post them on the blog or forum next week with the author’s credit…
Cya!
Adventure Prep: Icing on a planar cake
This post is part of a series that covers the preparations I do for my current D&D campaign. You can follow it here.
Yay! Hopefully we’ll have a game this week. Eric, Franky and Yan have confirmed their presence, I just need Math or Stef to confirm and we’re good to go.
My players are hooked on phonics planar adventures. Since the last game, Yan loves the Beastlands, Eric wants to go visit Lillee and her goddess and Math, who missed the last game wants to swing by Arborea and go high five his god…
..and here I am stuck with a crappy published adventure… (Expedition to the Demonweb Pits).
Every time I open it to plan what’s next I’m tempted to throw it out the window and create my own… but then I sleep on it, and hacking possibilities appear to me.
Once again this week, armed with a basic idea and my friend Graham as a sounding board (and de-facto co-DM it seems) we hatched a devious game plan.
This week, I plan to play the next part of the prophecy the PCs have…
The bitter ice hides a giant’s sword to crack Abyssal Armor
So we have a land of ice and a another demon-slaying sword to fetch.
As written, the adventure follows this model:
- Get to gate to new plane
- Follow path, deal with environment
- Reach scene
- Fight monsters
- Take sword
Zzzzzzz. No decisions, no variance.
So here’s what I plan to do, in no particular order.
- Let players meet up with representative of the Powers (that’s Planescape speak for gods) of the Beastlands to get a rundown of the Demonic invasion of the upper planes. They’ll probably offer to help.
- Have Math’s character meet up with them with dire tales of Ptolus taking a serious beating and falling into Chaos.
- Use prophecy to point out toward next tool to fight the demons.
- Drop a few hints on what’s really happening and who’s pulling the strings in all this.
The idea is that the troubles need to be addressed at it’s source and not try to fight it from the bottom up.
When they’ll be ready to go after the other sword, I have a nice tribute to Advanced D&D lined up for them. Probably an adventure they’ll remember for a lonnng time.
I’ll start from an available published adventure, make it more planar than it already is, add a few story elements to tie it with the rest of the campaign and address some of the players motivations (Franky is overdue for some storytelling love).
Plus it’s going to be about ice… Yan’s pyromaniac Swordsage will have a blast, literally…
Finally I’ll need to work a way to introduce the 6th player for the session afterwards (as I think this arc will take about 2 sessions to play out).
Once again I can’t leak details as, you know, player read this… but I’m sure clever people will piece together what the players are going to be up against…
I promise a cool write up afterwards.
Inq. of the Week: Ask the D&D Designers
86% of you are looking forward to seeing my man, The Batman, return to the big screen. 81% of you are looking forward to our favorite whip-wielding, snake-fearing Archaeologist returning for another adventure. Sorry Wachowski Brothers, only 14% of our readers are going to take a ride on the Mach 5, the lowest out of the movies listed (Speed Racer).
We realize we’ve been heavy on the D&D coverage lately, but that’s what a lot of the news we pay attention to is about these days. This week, there’s going to be lots of more D&D fourth edition news due to the D&D Experience convention starting on Thursday. This will be the first chance for the public to play 4e… and we’ll be right there trying it out.
Bartoneus and myself have managed to arrange press passes, and we should be able to score interviews with the designers and developers who will be in attendance. We’ll be at the kick-off event that is usually filled with announcements. We’ll get a chance to check out the digital tools that have greater integration in the new edition. We also have a scheduled session to try one of the 4e preview events on Saturday morning.
With all that in mind… what do you want to see? What questions do you have for the designers and developers? In summation, what do you want to find out from the D&D Experience? (that we, as humble reporters, can deliver to you?)
We can’t promise we’ll be able to ask everything, but we’ll do our best!
(image ganked from Shamus Young, to go along with this week’s somewhat unrelated poll!)
Chatty’s Out of the Box #002 : Linear Thinking.
Here’s another stab at this Webcomic thing. Click on image to see full comic (and click again if it can be zoomed further).
I had a thousand ideas for the second one all to be crammed in 6 panels. Then I realized that pacing can be different in a comic and that my many gags can become a full storyline! (I’m doomed… I’ll hear PM smirking from here tomorrow).
So now we see our yet unnamed pirate looking for his first job in Chatty’s gameroom. Where will that lead?
Includes a tribute to an old webcomic favorite.
I apologize for the crappy lightning, I disabled the flash to prevent giving the minis too much of a glint. I need to try John Arcadian’s cheap diffuse photo light.
So it seems I may do one or two a month if feedback is good. I’m no Shamus Young but these are fun to do! If it does become a regular bonus feature, I’ll probably create a webpage for them and link from the blog.
I’ll need to insert some webcomic tropes in there, no?
As always, constructive criticism is appreciated, the rest I can handle myself… 
Chatty’s Review: Silvervine, Detailed Mechanics
This post is part of a series that tackles the reading review of a yet unpublished RPG called Silvervine. Please note that this game is still in development, my review is part of the pre-playtest feedback.
Last time I tackled Basic Mechanics, now it’s time for the 2nd (of 3) posts on the game’s Crunchy bits: Detailed & Specific Subsystems.
While Chapter 3 covered the game’s basic challenge mechanic Chapter 4 of the Silvervine rulesbook covers the subsystems needed to handle:
- Initiative and time
- Movement (Ground, Water, air)
- Vehicles
- Perception and Senses
- Size and Scale
- Healing materials, poison and chemicals. [Read the rest of this article]
Rogue's Gallery
For those who missed it. Wizards if the Coast previewed the 4e Rogue’s abilities.
Sticking to my low 4e hype mission, I invite you to drop by Dave and Bart’s Critical hits for the discussion.
I’ll only add that what really sparks my interest is the Attacks vs Wis, Dex or Fort mechanics thatare a nice concept over and above Attack vs AC.
Cheers.
Sneak Attack!
One more significant preview of 4e D&D has been released before a lot more is given away at the D&D Experience. The entire Rogue class has been posted for your amusement/derision.
Just a few things that stood out to me:
- No more rolling for hit points. You get a fixed amount at first level, and every level thereafter.
- Weapon groups are gone, weapon proficiencies are back.
- Sneak Attack damage doesn’t go up nearly as high, but generally works the same as before.
- Tumble skill is gone, folded into Acrobatics and can’t do the really badass “avoid attacks of opportunity” anymore. Rogues, however, have something similar as an actual ability.
- With saves and attack bonuses being more general, 4e classes are less chart-heavy.
- There’s a “healing surges” amount listed. We know some general things about other classes triggering your healing, acting similar to second wind, etc, but the actual details still are yet to be revealed.
- There are suggested Builds for classes on what feats, skills, and abilities to select. This is just like WoW. (kidding!)
Updating the social contract
Last night we spent the evening playing Magic the Gathering because 2 of our players were missing.
Our current social contract stipulates that if one player is missing, we play but if two aren’t there, we postpone the game. We’ve had this “clause” for about 5 years and it’s worked pretty well.
However, we’ve had people missing games on a recurrent basis for the past 4 or 5 sessions. Furthermore, there are signs that point toward it getting worse instead of better.
Having babies, children emergencies, business-traveling spouses to pick up at the airport, Friday workplace wine & cheeses and visiting parents are a reality of any adult gamers and a RPG gaming group needs to address this to keep the game going.
So chances are that having at least 2 missing players will increase. That’s why we need to reinforce the ‘roll call by Tuesday’ clause so I can plan the game accordingly. [Read the rest of this article]
Fantasy Flight Games Continues Fantasy/Sci-Fi Domination by Partnering with Games Workshop
To back up a second… Games Workshop has recently been working on consolidating their product line down to their core, while expanding their line of retail shops. This means they were focusing their efforts on selling Warhammer Fantasy Battles, Warhammer 40k, and Lord of the Rings. However, they did set up an imprint to handle a lot of these titles, along with some new ones. Chief among these side projects was the classic fantasy boardgame Talisman and the long-awaited 40k RPG Dark Heresy.
Then they decided, despite a lot of success with those products, to drop them in favor of focusing on the apparently more profitable Warhammer/40k book industry.
Well, turns out there was more to the story. Fantasy Flight Games, quickly becoming one of the biggest names in the adventure game industry, has licensed all of GW’s board game, card game, and rpg properties (though notes that anything primarily miniatures, like Blood Bowl and Space Hulk, are not included. Sadness for that.)
Specifically mentioned in the press release above:
- FFG will be continuing support for Talisman, including expansions.
- They are also taking over the “Universal Fighting System” CCG from Sabertooth Games. According to a separate statement, Sabertooth is shutting down after the transfer happens.
- Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, last published by Green Ronin but listed as having its license canceled, will be published by FFG. It doesn’t say if there will be a new edition, or if they’ll just pick up publication and supplements.
- Dark Heresy, the new 40k RPG (which has gotten decidedly mixed reviews), will be published by FFG. So to those of you who thought you had valuable collectors’ items… it doesn’t look like the game is going away just yet.
I wouldn’t be surprised if FFG decides to mine GW’s rich back catalog (as they’ve done before) for some new board game releases alongside all of this.
FFG clearly has talent for getting licenses, and taking on all of these already successful game lines makes them an even bigger player in the industry. This is a great move by GW too: far better than the previous policies of just sitting on these games.
The question is… will it make sense in a few years for the two companies to completely join together?
Rock Band and Portal: Two Great Tastes Together
Around these parts, Portal has seen a slight insurgence, thanks to me lending Bartoneus and Sucilaria The Orange Box. I actually had to get them to shut it down at a party last Saturday so that I could feed my Rock Band addiction and caterwaul through my rendition of Ballroom Blitz. This actually allowed them to preserve the magic a little while longer, because on Monday Bartoneus informed me that he had beaten it already (a feat that I had yet to accomplish, thanks to some damn pillars.)
So anyway, it would seem that Rock Band and Portal are at odds for our time and attention… but it need not be so! After a show by the great Jonathon Coulton (who I saw live in concert before he was popular) they busted out the RB setup to unveil that the hit credit song, Still Alive, would be downloadable content for Rock Band in the near future.
The other GDC announcement worth noting in this area is that Portal 2 is coming. But who cares about that, right?
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