How WotC Doomed Us All By Making The Fates Do Way More Work
There sure are a lot of angry geeks out there. I’m not sure what it is about our particular demographic, but boy, do we get unreasonably angry about things. Maybe it’s the relative anonymity of forums. Maybe it’s emotional attachments to brands and products that have been around in some form since we were children. Maybe it’s attempts to apply logic to subjective matter bent to suit one’s cognitive dissonance between their opinion and the limited and/or flawed information available. Or maybe we all have tiny fire elementals in us that only come out on the Internet. It’s been like this a long time. With each iteration of D&D, each generation of game consoles, and each new Batman, the flames rise. They never really go out completely. I still know people who make sour faces when D&D 3rd Edition gets mentioned, grumbling about the glory days when there was only one Tarrasque and THAC0 was king.
One of the nerd-infernos currently blazing on the forums is about the new Fortune Cards. I hear the same arguments that I did last year about the Gamma World booster packs.
- “ZOMG! WotC IS TRYING TO TURN D&D INTO MAGIC!”
- “ZOMG! YOU CAN JUST BUY AN ALL-POWERFUL CHARACTER!”
- “ZOMG! MONEY GRUBBING OMG NICKEL AND DIMING US ALL OMG OMG!”
I can understand concerns about a system that allows your character to be more powerful simply because you bought more stuff with real money. I do have an issue with the Fortune Cards in that you can tailor a deck to your character’s strengths and give yourself an unfair advantage over the other players. Either the other people at the table follow suit, or they suck comparatively. Granted, it’s not like you “win” D&D like you might a game of Monopoly (although the concept of putting hotels on one’s bracers of defense is intriguing) – but, as any seasoned World of Warcraft player can tell you, within every human being lies the desire to beat an obsessive-compulsive minmaxer into unconsciousness in the absolute least efficient way possible. [Read the rest of this article]
Inquisition: The Cataclysm is Nigh
Our previous Gamma-tastic Inquisition had an incredible number of votes, sailing past the 700s. Our top mutant would be an Android Engineered Human (presumably a cyborg of some kind.) Then we’d have a Hypercognitive Telekinetic who could do all kinds of things with the power of his brain. After that, you’d have a Yeti Electrokinetic- maybe all that fur generates static shocks. The least popular mutant? The Seismic Hawkoid… which is the Gargoyle example in the book.
As many of you know (hell probably everyone), today was the launch of Blizzard’s latest World of Warcraft expansion: Cataclysm. More than mere increasing of the level cap with new races and new zones, this expansion rests on a new world shattering storyline that changed the look and feel of the game for all players, regardless of what version they currently play.
Old zones have been changed, new start areas for Gnomes and Trolls as well as thousands of new quests await current and returning players, irrespective of buying the expansion or not. Those that do obtain it get access to 2 new races: Goblins (Horde) and the Worgen (Alliance), new adventuring zones and an increased level cap to 85.
So our poll question for you is: [Read the rest of this article]
How Do You Turn a GM Off the Tracks Onto a Dirt Road?
As part of running Roleplaying Tips, I often receive questions about common gaming problems.
One reader sent me this question recently, which might have come up in your gaming group:
“How do you wean a GM off of a cinematic/railroad style? In a recent game, the GM railroaded the characters onto his plotline. It was evident enough that we felt we could hear the steam engine. What is a good way from a player POV to get him to let the players succeed or fail in his plot by themselves?”
That’s a tricky one because there are many possible reasons a GM might railroad: [Read the rest of this article]
Inquisition: Your Mutant Origins
Our Essentials poll ended up yielding one of our biggest turn-outs ever. 43% of you were very interested in Essentials, 19% of you were mostly positive, and 15% had no particular opinion. 9% are mostly negative, and 8% are totally down on them. Most interestingly, 6% of you said you weren’t 4e players but were going to give Essentials a try. Not a particularly large number, though maybe most of our fans are already up to date on Essentials.
Last week, as you can probably tell, we were all about the Gamma World. I reviewed the game itself and talked about the first game of it I ran. Chris Sims wrote an article about reskinning and how it can help give a different feel to your Gamma World game. Elsewhere, Penny Arcade made a comic about the game and discussed the card aspect. Greg Bilsland wrote about his GW game, and included some random background generation tables. Alphastream posted some awesome GW play-aids, especially for one-shot convention/game day games. Obsidian Portal added it as another supported system. And finally, today, At-Will has revealed that they will be releasing rules for generating random adventures.
There’s probably a bit more to come on the game from us, as I plan on running and playing it plenty more times. I’ve only played in one game and run two others, and it has yet to disappoint a single player in any of those games. I will be running at the Gamma World Game Day this Saturday, and other then what I consider a boneheaded move on requiring the purchase of boosters to play, I’m looking forward to running it for even more new players, as well as other members of my gaming group who haven’t gotten to try it yet.
And just for kicks, let’s find out what kind of mutant you are:
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Inquisition: Do You Like Essentials?
We haven’t done an Inquisition of the Week in a while, and though we don’t plan on doing them every week I will simply call this an Inquisition as we will be doing one every now and then. Today I’d like to ask all of you about the Essentials line of products for Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition that are releasing this month, starting with the Red Box (which Phil reviewed here) that is already out and continuing for the next few months with the limited run of products. This month we see the release of the D&D Rules Compendium, Dungeon Tiles Master Set: The Dungeon, and Heroes of the Fallen Lands that introduces new rules, builds, and options for the most iconic D&D classes – the Fighter, Wizard, Cleric, and Rogue.
Though a lot of what is being introduced with Essentials falls into the category of new options, there is also new errata that includes a handful of changes to the base game that bring things a bit more in line with some of the design philosophies behind Essentials. I am still on the fence about some things that are presented in Essentials but for the most part I like the changes being made to parts of 4E that I have been struggling with for the last two years such as magic items. One of the big things I am still reserved about is the new builds for classes such as the Slayer Fighter that changes the role that class fills, meaning you can have a fighter in your group that is a striker. [Read the rest of this article]
Inquisition of the Week: Best Game Nominees
Welcome to the latest installment of Inquisition of the Week, our regular column where we ask our readers a question, usually in poll form, to see what you all have to say.
Our last Inquisition was about the prevalence of magic items in your campaign, and what amount you prefer in the D&D games you play. 60% of you pegged the “sweet spot” at 3-4 magic items- few enough to keep them distinguishable, plentiful enough to get multiple effects. 24% of you prefer a “monty haul” style where characters are covered like Christmas lights, and 14% of you prefer a single, signature item.
This week, as we’ve been beating the drums, Ennies voting is going on now (obligatory plug- category #18, vote us #1 in Best Blog!) Of course, the big category, of which there are 10 nominees, is Product of the Year. These games exemplify excellence in everything from writing, design, and presentation. Though all the nominees in every category are worth notice, it is these that have some of the highest honors in the industry.
Thus, my question is about these 10 nominees. [Read the rest of this article]
Inq. of the Week: D&D and Magic Items?
Last week Dave asked about which of the big summer conventions you are planning on going to just before he set out for Origins 2010 himself (which he’ll no doubt be writing about this week). The largest group was 46% of you that aren’t planning on attending any of the big gaming conventions. The most popular convention was GenCon with 26% of you planning on going, followed by the Other response with 13% and just above Origins that 12% of you attended just last week. Dragon*Con came in at 9%, San Diego Comic Con had 5% and PAX Prime was at the bottom with 4%. We don’t take these as full proof numbers, just a decent look at which cons are more popular and get more attendance amongst you guys.
Today I’d like to touch on a topic that is very prominent on my mind lately, the topic of how magic items are handled in Dungeons & Dragons and specifically how they’re designed to be used in 4th Edition. I would imagine there is some good discussion that can be had on this topic, but between Dave and I we pretty well agree on the matter so I’m bringing it up here to hopefully open up to a larger range of opinions and see what we get. The DMG2 introduced some solid rules for skipping magic items and keeping the math intact by adding flat bonuses per tier/level so that the PCs can keep up with the monsters without the need for magical weapons and armor.
One of the really fantastic elements of D&D is that you can have one group’s campaign where magic items abound and every character is draped in more than enough of them to handle various situations, or you can have a game where magic items have been unheard of for centuries and the discovery of only one of them can change the course of the entire campaign. Of course there are always the artifacts or the healing potions which run the range from incredibly rare and powerful to common and used nearly every day but are all still magical items, but it’s not very difficult to look at any campaign or setting and figure out roughly how common magic items are in that world. With all of this in mind, I’m asking:
Loading ...Please feel free to share any details about your characters or campaign worlds in the comments. It doesn’t matter if you have a Conan-like character who doesn’t need a magical sword to slice people’s heads off or an epic paladin wearing radiant forged plate armor and a holy avenger, we want to hear about it all!
Inq. of the Week: Really Big Show
A while back, we asked about getting lost. I mean, getting Lost, and its ending. While most of you (44%) didn’t watch Lost and don’t plan to, 16% of respondents did watch it and loved it. 14% also like it but had some issues with it. The meh among you held the minority opinion.
This week sees me once again off to the Origins Game Fair, one of the big shows of the summer for us nerdily inclined. Origins still remains the smaller, slower show for me- while there are some board game releases occasionally and some interesting small press stuff, all the major releases and announcements tend to wait for one of the later shows, especially GenCon. However, there’s still fun times to be had. While there doesn’t seem to be anything as epic as last year’s Ultimate Dungeon Delve, I’m still looking forward to checking out the Evil Hat demos and swinging by to see what Buchephalus is up to, and of course, seeing old friends and new.
The question before you is thus, answer well: [Read the rest of this article]
Inq. of the Week: The End of Lost
Dave’s poll about cursed frogurt…errr, no I mean cursed items, from two weeks ago showed that a whopping 55% of you like cursed items depending upon their implementation. This kind of hesitation is exactly how I feel about them, as I know quite well how they can be used in a bad way by some DMs to completely ruin the fun of the game instead of adding to it. However, a very respectable 31% of you love cursed items in all forms and believe that the inherent risk is a part of the game! A small 8% of you hate cursed items altogether, and the remaining 6% are indifferent or some other attitude towards our not-so-pleasant magic items.
As you’ve no doubt heard by now the finale of the show Lost was on last night, and since my wife and I have been big fans of the show ever since the fifth episode (we caught up on the first four within a day or two of seeing it) we were very excited to see how things would end up.While the series as a whole had some rocky parts in the middle around late season two and early season three, for me the show has been one of the only American made shows to keep me enthralled for an entire run from start to finish. It’s even more rare that I watch a show while it is being broadcast, it’s much more likely that I catch shows on DVD years later such as Sopranos, of which we’ve just started watching the first season.
With the kinds of storytelling, writing, and topics that Lost addressed it’s really not that surprising that there are large groups of people who either loved or hated the finale. My personal opinion is that if you hated the finale then you probably weren’t a fan of a lot of elements presented in the final season, but I’m more than happy to be proven wrong on that one. I think it’ll be really enjoyable to see how the finale ranks in a poll and to discuss it with people in the comments, so please share your thoughts and feelings on it below!
Loading ...(The comments section will most likely contain SPOILERS, so read at your own peril if you haven’t watched Lost or the finale of the show yet.)
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:
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