Review: “The Hidden Current” 4e Adventure Module
“The Hidden Current” is the first chapter of the Dark Veil Campaign arc for 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons that promises to take players from level 1 to level 30 published by Blackbyrne Publishing. It was written by Jeff Gupton and is a 34 page long, full-color adventure module with an additional 40+ pages of color maps (1″ scale) that can be printed on 8.5 x 11 paper for use with the adventure. Though the adventure module is a bit amateur in presentation and some of its elements, it more than makes up for that with its original ideas, good writing, and an exciting series of adventures for your players to enjoy!
Note: I have not had a chance to run or play in this module yet, but I can tell simply from reading through it (as any DM should be able to) that I would enjoy running this module for my friends and that it would most likely be a lot of fun for everyone involved.
“The Hidden Current” starts with a summary of exactly what the adventure is – an adventure for a party of 1st / 2nd level characters, and the history of the towns and region that the adventure introduces. The writing of the module is a compelling combination of classic D&D ideas and elements that grabbed my interest very quickly. While the types of locations and monsters used should be familiar to any D&D player, there was never a moment where I groaned or found something too cliche like I have with many other 3rd party products. “The Hidden Current” keeps things relatively clean and simple, which seems to be a winning recipe for quality modules that DM’s will want to run and players will want to play. [Read the rest of this article]
Gears of Ruin: Sabotage! Part 1
(Picture the Beastie Boys song playing in the background throughout the game report)
We sat down early in May for our 1st D&D session in nearly 2 months. We were all rusted and excited.
Mike and Stef were both missing. By one of those bizarre coincidences, both were sent to Halifax, Nova Scotia (home of exploding boats, Alexander Keith’s beer and awesome fish and chips) for work. As I mentioned in the past, our Social Contract makes it that should have at least 4/6 players we play. So play we did.
The adventure plan
As my various posts leading to the game could attest, I had strange and cool ideas for my new adventure. The planned synopsis came down to this.
Brought together to oversee the security of crucial peace talks, the PCs are faced with sabotage at 20 000 feet over the jagged surface of a world torn by 8 years of global conflicts. One of the diplomat factions turns on the other while demon-summoning clockwork bombs explode on the Gnomish airship housing the peace negotiations. Our heroes have to keep the negotiators alive.
The two sides were:
- The Melorians, a technology hating militant order dedicated to reclaiming the planet from its exploiters
- The Bloodbanes, a fanatic sub-faction of the warforged, known for their brutality and savageness in the war.
The adventure was built according to the formula that my friend Franky described as being “perfect for us” which was: 60 minutes of story-setting roleplaying and 2 hours of killing bad guys.
It worked beautifully.
We can see it coming…
The adventure started with our newly “dinged” 16th level PCs on their brand new, yet unnamed airship. They were tasked with escorting one Count Sakran, patron and trusted representative of Baron Falkenstein to a Gnome privateer airship to mediate the final negotiations that would hopefully put an end to the Great War. Once there, they were to oversee the security of the proceedings.
As we set up this story-focused scene, I went around the table with a prequel scene, asking what the PCs did over the last 8 years. Details are fuzzy (we played 2 weeks ago, seminars still intruding in my writing groove) but here are some of the elements I got.
- Magma (Genasi Swordmage): I fought on whatever side I felt needed it the most whenever I walked on a battle field. The only exception was when I fought near Holy-Clank, where I was always fighting by his side as he’s my brother in arms. I also spent long months in Earthform, reflecting on my inner chaos.
- Wrath of Melora (Deva Avenger): I walked the earth, causing as much trouble on the so-called sentient machines and technologically-inclined powers. Only when I witnessed some Warforged fighting to protect humanoid children did I start to see them as worthy adversaries and potential allies… but don’t count on me to be all political and nice.
- Holy Clank (Warforged Hybrid Fighter-Cleric): I was actively involved in the war to bring it to an end as fast as possible. I was a key player in forging the alliance between the Baron and the Warforged (Clank gave them sentience) and then championed the defence of all sentient forms of lifeforms, whatever their origin, natural or otherwise.
- Rod Stone (Goliath Warden): Dude that patent agent test was BRUTAL.
(Scratching record sound)
Math had been studying hard these last 2 months to pass his exams and I knew he was going to be brain-dead for this game session, so I had a pre-made story packaged for him. In fact, his was the core plot of the adventure.
Chatty: All right man, here’s the thing. Your home city was “captured” late in the war, like may other Goliath outposts, by the forces of an Elemental Chaos Efreet prince. It now flies the flag of the City of Brass.
Math (Deadpan): It does not!
Chatty: Yup, and remember that Goliath chick you listed as a ‘friendly’ NPC in our party template, the one that made you leave your town in the first place? Well rumours are that the prince has her now and married her.
Math: That’s it boys, we know what we’re doing tonight!
Chatty (laughing): Not quite, you’ve been sticking around with Count Sakran (The baron’s brother in law) because he promised that if you helped him end the war, he’d do everything in his power to get the baron to free your city after.
Math: Works for me, we’re patient people.
Chatty: So mostly, during the war,your efforts have been focused on protecting the Count’s son.
Math: Wha?
Chatty: The viscount, Daven Sarkan is this typical playboy noble with too much time, idealism and money. He ALWAYS gets in trouble with all kinds of splintered political parties, 2-bit terrorists and weird new-agey (in a steampunk-fantasy way, whatever that may end up meaning) cults. The count asked you to keep him out of trouble and make sure that he stayed alive.
Math: All good, and where is the Viscount now?
Chatty (Smiling): Why, on the gnomish ship, preparing your arrival, where else?
Players: Go to hell Phil!
Prequel scene: Priceless.
Up next: Exploring the ship and all Hell Abyss breaks loose.
Tabletop RPGs and Music: The Beautiful Thieves
Inspiration for adventures, campaigns, and characters oftentimes come from the same shared geek sources. If your play group is a mirror of your social circle, chances are you share the same touchstones of inspiration: Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, a few book series, some choice TV shows, and shared experiences from the past. As such, if I were to introduce a debilitated gunslinger to my RPG group the would roll their eyes at me and say “Doc Holiday from Tombstone, AGAIN?!” While it’s perfectly legitimate (and even encouraged!) to use shared sources as fodder for your RPGS, sometimes using an unusual source subject to interpretation is superior. Music can be evocative of particular emotions and aesthetics, but possess lyrics sparse enough to spark imagination and allow you, as the GM/DM or player creating a character, to own the concept while still owing your inspiration to another source.
Every RPGer struggles to make their game special. No one wants to run a forgettable, generic game. In my opinion, music can very easily fuel ideas for unique campaign settings, adventure, or character concepts. As a player, in TheGame’s notorious Kitchen Sink D&D game, I chose Frog from Chrono Trigger’s theme song for my idealist psionicist team leader, Levi Black (kudos if you figure out where I ripped that name off from). Hearing that song, even today, really puts me in the character’s shoes (sorry Frog you were great too!) As a GM I offered an XP bonus to anyone that picked a character theme song and explained to me why they chose it. When I was planning adventures I’d key up those songs to help me evoke the character and their attitude and persona. [Read the rest of this article]
The KFC Double Down – The End of Humanity
O Humanity, I always knew you would bring about the end of yourselves. Not by war, or nuclear fire, or grey goo. Not even by capricious use of antibiotics do you bring your end. Nay, your end is far slower. Far rounder. Far more…. corpulent.
Our race has bravely survived such threats before: the coming of the Dread Arches, the Lich-King of Burgers, even a burger so terrifying that even the other burgers branded it a Monster. Yet we still stand (albeit in roomier battle-pants). This spring, everything changed. On the twelfth of April in the year two thousand and ten, KFC unleashed its greatest creation: the KFC Double Down. Simple is its payload: two breaded boneless chicken breasts, cheese, bacon, and some sort of evil mayonnaise to make it (and humanity) go down that much easier.
Yet, it is not the Double Down itself that will destroy us. Nay, it is what it represents.
Through all previous crises, humanity was simply enticed by value. More food for a higher price. This upping of the serving-size ante continued until 2004 when the Arches seemingly suffered a crisis of conscience and eliminated their Super Size choices from their menu in lieu of a more reasonable Large. Though the actual fat intake was only a few grams lower and it is widely thought the Arches were only doing this as a public relations manuever, humanity’s death clock was nevertheless set back five full minutes. The Double Down seeks not only to move the Death Clock forward those five fateful minutes, but also to overclock it. Death may be the only fast thing humanity ever does again.
BEHOLD! The abomination eschews bread, known for centuries as the only part of the sandwich typically not fried in something. The victim is forced to grasp the destroyer directly by its fell meats, poisoning the soul, damning the consumer forevermore. For now it is proven that a man’s dignity is not greater than his carnal lust for fried food, and his willpower not even enough to lift a finger toward a napkin. Now they have us – and, despite their greasy talons, they will not let us go.
Woe betide us! The seventh seal is broken, and Fatnarok begun. The seas will run nuclear green with Dew, and the dead will wake, but be unable to rise from their graves. The world-serpent Jörmungandr will finally begin to consume his own tail, and discover he is incredibly caloric.
We are undone. Soon also will be the seams on our pants – and our lives. This is the flavor of our end.
(Photo courtesy http://www.flickr.com/photos/djjewelz/4509710783/ and, no doubt, copyright the dread KFC.)
Inq. of the Week: The Frogurt is Also Cursed
In the last Inquisition, Danny solicited ideas for relieving us of all this stuff we’ve accumulated. We’re definitely going to moving ahead with a few of those ideas (one announcement to come this Wednesday), but please feel free to go there and suggest more!
Let’s talk cursed items for a minute. You remember those, right? Those items you found in random treasure piles that you think might be awesome, and before you know it, they’re changing your gender or biting your back. That helmet that you risked life and limb against a dragon to recover? Your Paladin puts that sucker on, and BAM, Chaotic Evil, lose all powers, and start making sinister shifty eyes at the rest of the party. That Sphere of Annihilation? It’s now coming for you and your stuff.
Some lately have tackled the idea of cursed items for 4e. Scott looked at the results of magic items found in the cursed lands of Martidge. Quinn of At-Will has used his Tragic Imprint series to look at what works and what doesn’t in cursed items and give some examples of items that give power at a price. I’m sure there will be some more takes on the concept coming soon.
Here’s the question then, about the use of cursed items in your RPG campaign:
Loading ...
Critical Bits for the week ending 2010-05-09
- RT @NeoGrognard: Early D&D maps were blue to limit piracy. Did they work? If you were a pirate why would you plunder? http://bit.ly/dh72RF #
- Publishers, Bloggers, Podcasters, et. al: you have only until this weekend to enter your product into the Ennie Awards: http://is.gd/bSpMX #
- Green Ronin to Release DC Adventures RPG (based on Mutants & Masterminds) http://is.gd/bSpR4 #
- "Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty" Zerg rushing retail July 27 http://is.gd/bSKxf (via @joystiq ) #
- RT @AllenVarney: The Escapist has posted my profile of @avantgame, "Jane McGonigal Lives the Game": http://bit.ly/cJBvEC #
- RT @gregbilsland: #Dnd rules updates are up. http://is.gd/bTPil A complete archive of older updates will be up shortly #
- Rules updates provide clarification on a number of core statuses, and makes an unexpected major change to the "Aid an Ally." #
- RT @AllenVarney: RPG=Role Playing Girl seeking contributors for issue #2 http://rpgirl-zine.blogspot.com/ #
- Interview with @davethegame about Critical Hits (that's us!) over at Wizards of the Coast http://is.gd/bUAlq #
- RT @deadorcs: Smoky Mountain Terrain Powers. Get 'em here! http://initorwhat.blogspot.com/2010/05/4e-vacation-smoky-mountain-terrain.html #
- RT @AndrewLooney: is happy to announce that Looney Labs will be publishing "Back to the Future: The Card Game" in September! #
- Scientist attains ultimate polyhedral dice-density with d4s http://is.gd/bVpaE #
- RT @JaredvonHindman: Holy Crap my D&D Swag is Jinxed (and for Sale)! http://www.jinx.com/collections/dungeons_and_dragons?tcid=1 #
- Guide to 4e Accessories updated with a few more items (but not all) http://is.gd/bVVMo , Skill Challenges updated w icons http://is.gd/bVVNj #
- RT @WyattSalazar: Hidden Kingdom Module Devblog: Encounter Design: http://wp.me/po2FO-FG #
- RT @CharlesMRyan: An 18-year-old is nominated for an award for (among other things) setting up a D&D club. Cool! http://bit.ly/crBE37 #
- RT @rdonoghue: Today is all about what page 42 means to me. http://is.gd/bWVLk #
- GenCon announces the "SPA Icon Contest" to replace existing logo, must have sense of whimsy and not be gender-specific http://is.gd/bYvu1 #
- RT @jachilli: If you haven't read about me carping on NPCs, you just haven't lived, my friends. http://bit.ly/9D9zKt #
- RT @ENnies: End of the day tomorrow, May 8th, is the deadline for submitting your products. http://bit.ly/bAoMJi #
- If Super Mario Bros. was Made in 2010 http://bit.ly/9lTDVO (via @Highmoon) #
D&D Trivia Archive 1
On Twitter, I give out little tidbits about D&D history as I know it or experienced it. You can get yours quickly by following me on twitter or emailing me with a question. I’ll also be archiving each month’s tweets here on Critical-Hits!
Here’s the April 2010 D&D trivia archive.
- Tiamat is one of the major gods in the core D&D pantheon; she’s a “god” rather than “greater god.”
- As Splug’s creator (in a 4e playtest, actually) @mikemearls must join #TeamSplug!
- Rich Baker did a lot of work on the warlord, with power names such as “Feather Me Yon Oaf”–any guesses what it did?
- One piece of #dnd trivia some folks seem to doubt is that all the peeps in (and once in) D&D R&D play and love D&D in multiple editions.
- I created the Worm of Ages (E1 Death’s Reach)–a solo + encounter environment–but it’s based on the original 4e purple worm.
- Vedic spirituality (and its heir Buddhism) and cross-cultural animism/ancestor reverence mix in “Ecology of the Deva” article.
- Trivia with @gamefiend’s diversity theme: Feudal Japan mixed with a li’l Rome and Vedic warrior ways helped form my take on dragonborn.
- Rich Baker created much of the Nentir Vale and Fallcrest in the 4e DMG. His hand-drawn map of Fallcrest was amazing!
- “Lord of Battle” was Combat Challenge’s working name. My group pictured a well-armed warforged on a Riverdance-like t-shirt.
- Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Martian novels influenced Dark Sun back in the day, as did Richard Corben’s Neverwhere (Den).
Rewarding The Risks
Something Different
Hello everyone, due to joys of moving, I’ve decided to take a step back from my weekly flavour filled ranting this week to share with you all a little mechanic that has improved my game tremendously. I am going to assume you are aware of Chatty DM’s “Say Yes, But…” philosophy. With this notion in mind I have been letting my players run amok and off course for a long time. Everything they have asked to do, and everything they have verbally dreaded has been accepted and used in the game. Although even with this freedom I started to feel restricted with the pass or fail outcomes I had available to me when dealing with the players crazy plans or heroic actions. That is when I decided to employ a risk reward mechanic within my game. The Risk/Reward mechanic requires d% (2d10’s or a d100), a little improvisation and whole lot of fun.
Your Risk, Everyone’s Reward
If you have ever thought that Pass or Fail was not a broad enough scale to cover the amount of scenarios that might occur from your players actions. The Risk Reward mechanic offers a total of 6 categories into which your player’s actions may fall:
Spectacular: A miraculous achievement, through either undoubted skill or blind luck, so spectacular that it not only improves the character’s situation, but also the situation of the entire party.
Amazing: Completing an objective so easily and with such skill that there are no possible negatives in the outcome.
Pass: Achieving the objective with ease and without hassle, in just the right way that nothing detrimental or overly rewarding will happen to the party.
Fail: Achieving the objective even after a series of mishaps and stressful situations, the task may be completed, but it was done very poorly.
Awful: Failing to achieve the objective through a mistake or unforeseen circumstance that hinders or alters the party’s progress.
Horrible: Failing an objective so badly that the outcome negatively affects the entire group.
With these 6 categories expanding upon the initial Pass or Fail scenarios, I have been able to allow my players to achieve heroic and unbelievable actions (Killing a Elder Dragon in a single blow comes to mind), as well as watch them fail so miserably that it changed the whole course of the game in a single roll. The most enjoyable part for both my players and myself is knowing that no matter what idea they have at the table, this mechanic can adjust to accommodate it. With this freedom of action instilled in their minds, I have had the joy of watching some of my most cautious and withdrawn players speak up and offer their ideas with the confidence that no matter what their idea is; there is possibility it will not only work, but they know that I, the DM will accept their idea and let the dice decide the severity of the outcome.
How To Use The Risk Reward System
To use the Risk/Reward mechanic, you simply assign the 6 categories into a bracket within the range of a d% (I prefer d% for my own inexplicable reasons, but a d20, d12 or even a d6 could work for you). [Read the rest of this article]
Early Friday Chat: Embarassing Campaigns, Geek Influences, and Kitchen-Sinking
(Editor’s Note: Dave and I switched places for this early Friday Chat, hope you enjoy it.)
Though you might have been bombarded with it already, I was the subject of an interview from Wizards of the Coast’s web content guy Bart Carroll. It was especially cool for me because it allowed me to explore my gaming DNA a bit in a way I wasn’t expecting. In fact, I’ve tried to write posts about it in the past, but never really succeeded… which is weird for me since I generally have no problem writing about myself (as might be evident from the interview.)
(Editor: And you accuse me of always doing it? Pfaa!)
Two of the more interesting questions in it were about my early campaigns and how important other geeky influences are on RPGs. Maybe it’s because my early gaming experiences were at science fiction conventions (which definitely included plenty of outside influences) that like to weave in plenty of “winks” into my campaigns and lift shamelessly from pop culture so much.
Yet at the same time, I’m clearly embarrassed by some of the elements that have made their way into my campaigns. One of my favorite characters to play at conventions was a direct Indiana Jones rip-off named Illinois Smith that used a whip and magic dice. I’ve also mentioned my first campaign that was a disastrous D&D/Doom mashup, and the following campaign that featured everything from Lord Invader and his 12 Penetrators to Gigantor the great big robot. One of my friends played Doctor When the Chronomancer while another one was Arcanus and one a Dwarven master of Blitzes. These PCs would eventually go up against the spacefaring, honorbound Klangrion Empire.
These games were run nearly 15 years ago, and yet, I still cringe when I think about them. Many of the players in my current campaign were in those same campaigns with me, and so we smirk about those old campaigns a lot during our current games.
Now here I am, all this grown up and wise, yet still introducing Sir Mixalot as a major NPC and playing Istarya (Elven for “Wizard Who“) the wand-wielding Eladarin Time Wizard in Bartoneus’s game. I am generally not a fan of kitchen sink settings- every time I’ve played RIFTS or World of Synnibar (yes, I’ve actually played it, multiple times) I don’t enjoy it. Still, my brain continues to mash things up into D&D and make it seem like the coolest, funniest thing in the world.
Thus is my dilemma. Ashamed of my gaming past, willing to cast hypocritical dispersions when done by others, and continuing to do the same thing with no signs of changing. I wonder, how many others feel this way? How many of you have your immersion in a game broken when you find your game rick-rolled? How many of you mix your genres liberally together? Do you have anything you put in your game from elsewhere that you look back on and shake your head in shame? (Don’t worry, I won’t judge, we’ve all been there.)
Do tell! (and thanks to Chatty for giving me the opportunity to borrow his soap box to ask)
(Editor: No problem friend. Wait, dude! Where are the 700 missing words? Sigh…)
Review: Borderlands
Mike’s One Minute Review
Borderlands is a unique and rare game that, unlike many current games, pulls you in right away and never lets go. This Diablo-style first person shooter has all of the best elements of an action game and a loot-based roleplaying game packed with some beautiful artwork and enough content to keep you busy for fifty hours or more. With a recent price drop to $37 for Xbox 360 and PS3 versions and under $30 for the PC version, Borderlands is a steal. I highly recommend it. [Read the rest of this article]
