Critical Bits for the week ending 2012-03-04
- Dungeons & Trolls: D&D-style magnetic word set, perfect for adventures on your refrigerator: http://t.co/z1sijHsZ #
- March Fo(u)rth for GM's Day sale begins at @DriveThruRPG, thousands of titles discounted: http://t.co/VUhF5t9u #
- “@SlyFlourish: Fascinated by this excellent analysis of damage per level and what it SHOULD be: http://t.co/CzRVDks5 #dnd #
- “@Official_PAX: BEHOLD the PAX East 2012 panel schedule is live! http://t.co/eOyRMJeu” #
Critical Bits for the week ending 2012-02-26
- “@AllenVarney: Kickstarter interviews Rich Burlew about his $1M Order of the Stick fundraiser – much wisdom: http://t.co/igGWHc4F” #
- Results from last week's L&L poll show that Critical Hits is the most desired feature of D&D. If only they meant us! http://t.co/9WeBV9zx #
- HOWTO make a stained-glass D20: http://t.co/rJJP4HBO via @BoingBoing #
- Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Book PDF now up at @DriveThruRPG http://t.co/acd704Pm #
- “@Philgamer: [Review] Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Game by Margaret Weis Productions http://t.co/YtM7ybRE” #
- “@Wizards_DnD: February's #DDI update is complete. Check the link for the full info: http://t.co/mPL31HPd” #
- “@saveversusdeath: Revenge of the Iron Lich: Anniversary Edition. http://t.co/nH3cg3L6 #fourthcore #dnd #4e ?? #
- “@therobotviking: Now’s Your Chance to Reshape the Marvel Universe with the New Marvel RPG. http://t.co/DsIAn68V #rpg ?? #
- “@fredhicks: New on Deadly Fredly: Accidentally Designing Marvel's Action Order System http://t.co/NQK1CSXw” #
- Official #dnd Pax East schedule released: http://t.co/sVgjrNcE #
Critical Bits for the week ending 2012-02-19
- “@SlyFlourish: For the morning crowd; Sly Flourish: Fiasco-Style Relationships: http://t.co/KS9ksn45 #dnd ?? #
- “@wordwill: Bully Pulpit Games formally announces their new game, Durance: http://t.co/20OlKtEn” #
- Legends & Lore addendum issued clarifying that ability score caps for gender will definitely not be in #dndnext http://t.co/12Ynpap7 #
- “@MargaretWeisPro: What to expect if you host or attend a #MarvelRPG Launch Party: http://t.co/8XG7oAJx (thanks @EldritchFire!)” #
- “@StvWinter: Howling Tower joins forces with Kobold Quarterly to look at mortality and heroism in #dnd — http://t.co/FhqipW9O” #
- White Wolf launches Kickstarter for Vampire 20th Anniversary Edition Companion book http://t.co/Y3l40pVV #
Critical Bits for the week ending 2012-02-12
- "Snow by Night" is an ongoing online graphic novel made by three avid gamers (including one WotC freelancer): http://t.co/tZrwARVf #
- “@LodestoneDavid: WOTC will launch KaiJudo, new CCG this year. #TF12 ?? #
- Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro Announce Kaijudo TCG http://t.co/UL6XzodU #
Critical Bits for the week ending 2012-02-05
- RT @stannex: Warrens of the Stone Giant Thane, a new adventure in the vein of the old G-Series is up on the #DnD site. http://t.co/0Cyj1Wlx #
- RT @wizards_magic: Good news! The #mtgtoolbox is now in the iOS app store! http://t.co/30UrRCtB #
- RT @Wizards_DnD: In today's #dndnext article, @brucecordell touches on the hot topic of clerics and healing. http://t.co/lqx7CA8x #
- RT @bleedingcool: When Alan Moore Helped Write A Series Of Watchmen Prequels http://t.co/JCX4dlnO (with Watchmen RPG history) #
- Re-made maps of the Caves of Chaos by @theweem , for your #dndnext or other #dnd games http://t.co/Irkhg9h9 #
- More information on the newly-released Magic Toolbox app: http://t.co/BswSuNaz #
DDXP 2012 Recap: Running the New D&D and Playing Games
This year’s DDXP was a very interesting one, as I suspected. We were actually able to get there, unlike last year, though Fort Wayne’s weather seems persistant in its attempts to keep us out. In order to help finance the trip, and because I was one of the few who had an early look at the new D&D, I volunteered to DM seven four-hour slots of the new game to eager players. While I only ended up running four games of it (mostly because I was too tired to do any more than that), I had a blast and felt good about the games that I ran. Like everyone who played, I signed an NDA (though in my case, several months ago) that prevents me from discussing the exact rules being used. What I can discuss are some general feelings after running the game, some various impressions I heard as someone not involved with the design of the game but from talking to players, and tell you about the other games I played.
Into the Caves of Chaos
As was revealed prior to the show, the adventure that most (if not all) the DMs running the playtest was the Caves of Chaos, a portion of the original Keep on the Borderlands adventure. We used the same exact map of the caves, with the statistics updated for the new system. I mentioned to some of the other DMs how funny it was to be running an adventure released in 1979 on an iPad.
To be honest, I had some hesitation about this. For one, I wasn’t blown away with the game during my one short session as a player. Secondly, sandbox-style games have never much been my thing, either as a DM or a player. Every game I run I try to include a number of elements of the PCs influencing the world, but I prefer to focus on possible storylines rather than let the game work out the stories. Thus, the Caves of Chaos didn’t strike me as an adventure I’d enjoy running. I discussed with ChattyDM and THE Shawn Merwin about some ways to jazz it up a bit, including adding some 5×5 method elements (obviously my favorite implementation of sandbox-style) to it.
Well, I was wrong. Each of the four tables I ran went great, without adding else to the adventure. Part of that is that I feel pretty comfortable as a DM and rolling with the punches, part of it was how the system does a really good job of making me feel empowered as a DM, and most of it had to do with having 100% awesome players in every game (no matter what version of D&D they liked best.) Lemme break those each down a little bit. [Read the rest of this article]
DDXP 2012: “Charting the Course: An Edition for All Editions” and “New Products” Seminars
This past weekend was DDXP, and since this the new edition of D&D was announced recently, this was both the first chance the public would both find out directly from the mouths of the people making the game what it would be like, as well as try a limited demo of the new game. Like in 2008, questions about the new game were answered, and new ones were created. And just like back then, we were on the scene to report on the goings on to try to bring you a taste of the information available if you couldn’t be there.
Aside from all the games being run (of the new D&D, 4e, and every other edition), there were also four seminars run by Wizards of the Coast staff. I was able to attend two: “Charting the Course: An Edition for All Editions” and “New Product Seminar.” Vanir attended the “Class Design: From Assassins to Wizards” seminar. A fourth was unattended by us (because we were all making our way home.)
The following is a summation of the two seminars I attended with some of our commentary and thoughts. If you’d prefer to read the entire transcript, or watch the video, those are available elsewhere:
- Charting the Course: An Edition for all Editions (transcript) (report)
- Class Design: From Assassins to Wizards (transcript)
- New Products Seminar (transcript)
- Reimagining Skills and Ability Scores (transcript)
- All chat streams from WotC
- Video recordings the last three seminars
Charting the Course: An Edition for all Editions [Read the rest of this article]
Critical Bits for the week ending 2012-01-29
- RT @StvWinter: I analyzed how #dnd attack bonuses changed over editions. The result surprised me & might surprise you. http://t.co/h5uhEHru #
- Check out "Gaming for a Cure," who run gaming events and conventions to benefit the American Cancer Society: http://t.co/7idRnQxl #
- Live tweeting of "Charting the Course: An Edition for All Editions" seminar at #ddxp to start in 10 minutes. Mute/ignore/unfollow as needed. #
- On stage for the seminar: @gregbilsland, @MonteJCook, @mikemearls and Jeremy Crawford. #ddxp #
- Charting the Course #ddxp seminar beginning. Broad discussion about #dndnext goals, challenge, etc. #
- What things the panelists would like to see carried forward: "relationship between player and DM" from @MonteJCook #
- Monte: "I also like fireballs." Mike: "Players being creative in exploring a world." #
- Jeremy: "Synthesis between toolbox for creating worlds and stories… we're making magic plus good game design." #
- Mechanical elements of D&D: Mike: "First, here's what RPGs do. Then, here's what D&D does. Then you focus on the shared language." #
- Mike: There are shared stories too, like a culture, in things like the gazebo or the Head of Vecna. #
- Monte: Designers realized that people have different desires and different needs when playing/running D&D, wanted to embrace all styles. #
- Monte: In order to start, needed to distill down to a core game, a foundation on which different modules can be added on for all styles. #
- Monte: The modules would allow you to just play the core game, or add on modules for heavily tactical games, or heavily story driven games. #
- Development team's role in the process. Jeremy: Received something from designers w/ goal, and determine if the goal is met or needs work. #
- Jeremy: Each rule is examined for potential consequences, short term and long term, and if it's positive or negative. #
- Development team also handles the number crunching, like expected monster damage by level. #
- How to reconcile a modular system with exceptations of game balance? Jeremy: Each module is more of a spectrum approach. #
- So the seeds of any potential module are placed in the core game. #
- As an example, the fighter is built on some core abilities and concepts. Opt-in to more customization to exchange core abilities for others. #
- Between the two fighters, one is more complex, but because it is a trade-off, they remain balanced. #
- Jeremy: Meanwhile, DMs also have optional modules to customize for the game they want to run. #
- Monte: DM can say that he's running a very tactical game, so it's a code for the players to make characters that work well with it. #
- Mike: Even if the DM makes a very character-driven game, a player could still make a very tactical character and know what to expect. #
- Jeremy: Modules would allow the game to shift styles in mid-campaign to react to DM and players' needs. #
- Mike: Modules could even allow rules for a single story, like using mass battle rules for a session, or customized for a campaign. #
- Monte: The three pillars have helped the designers inform class design. It gives a lens to recognize each class's role in each. #
- Monte: "Bards can still kick ass." #
- Mike: While the rogue may have a lot of exploration abilities, the customization may allow more "stabby" rogues. #
- High level play: impression that all editions break down at some level. Trying to address those issues to let high level play work. #
- All in all, sounds like they're still working on it, but part of that is where asking play testers will come in to identify issues. #
- Mike: disparities always develop the longer a games goes on, and they need to determine what that experience should feel like. #
- Monte: wants lower level threats to remain relevant at all levels. Orcs start scary, become easier, but never are irrelevant. #
- Monte: instead of increasing attack bonuses, give higher level characters more interesting things to do. #
- Jeremy: One of the reasons behind this is to provide good world-building tools for DMs. An entire realm of orcs is always a threat. #
- No matter what level, if the DM needs the party to encounter an orc, they can just open the monster manual and get a useable one. #
- Mike: Playtesting feedback will be considered carefully. The 1st impulse to feedback is to make a rule, which isn't always the right answer. #
- Mike: Sometimes the answer is to provide the DM with more tools to customize the experience instead of making an entirely new rule. #
- Jeremy: Internal playtesting has been going on ~9 months. Main lesson is how diverse people's experience is with D&D. #
- Jeremy: Of course, this means that often feedback is diametrically opposed. It's the designer's job to come up with new creative solutions. #
- Monte: Part of the challenge is coming up with identifying what the D&D version of something "is," like what a D&D wizards means. #
- Monte: Identifying a D&D ranger is like looking at whether it's best represented by Aragorn or Drizzt. #
- Designing adventures for such a wide audience? Jeremy: Sometimes you make adventures that apply broadly, and some that are more focused. #
- Jeremy: Adventures can be more customizable to account for a group's needs, and some can be more targeted to styles. #
- What kind of modules would you use in your games? Monte: Use minis, but not super-tactical. Lots of social interaction and exploring. #
- Mike: A game that starts with a simple core, then introduce new pieces as the campaign goes on. Flexibility. #
- Jeremy: Use modularity session by session. No minis or dice rolling in city, lots of dice rolling next session in big batttle. #
- Audience Q&A beginning. Will customization be more like multiclassing, or within the class itself? Monte: Both are viable options. #
- Monte: Class customization is easier, while multiclassing is a more drastic change that is more of a commitment and rulesmastery. #
- Jeremy: The playtests will hint at some of the options. For example, the fighter is also a noble which grants some social skills. #
- Support for new players? Mike: Complexity will be managed by products, all supported by the same core, and give the right experience. #
- What will empower the players to be creative? Monte: Moving away from looking at a character sheet for options, to limitless options. #
- Monte: Empowering the DM to make more rules calls allows the players to be more creative. #
- Monte: For instance some DMs make their adventures via random tables. Random tables will be back, but not a requirement to use. #
- What will be the role of random charts? Monte: There are different styles of DMs that are inspired by different things. #
- Open playtesting should begin in the spring, and will be available for all kinds of groups to run. #
- How easy it is to switch playstyles in mid-session? Mike: Modules will have a basic implementation that's easier to pick up and run. #
- How will the new edition address organized play? Mike: No specific decisions made yet. Want to make a standard set of modules used for OP. #
- Mike: There will still be room for DMs to customize in OP, but the basic implementation will be shared. #
- What's the expectation of getting playgroups together with different styles? Monte: Want to make it possible to support multiple styles. #
- Monte: So a player that wants something simple can play it, but as the campaign goes on, can decide to add more complexity or not. #
- Jeremy: A spectrum of complexity is available in 4e in Essentials vs. other classes. This spectrum will be widened in new edition. #
- How will it deal with more complex characters that take a long time to resolve an action? Monte: Big goal of design is to keep combat quick. #
- Do you think D&D has started to take itself too seriously? Mike: D&D always needs an element of chaos, that can lead to silly or serious. #
- Jeremy: Art conceptualization process for new D&D has lead to more grounded characters. Not all PCs will look like superheroes. #
- Jeremy: Some heroes who looks like they just barely survived. Some halflings who look like they ate too many muffins. #
- Will classes be specialized to specific pillars? Mike: Better at some areas, but no character ever be completely useless at one. #
- Seminar is over. Will try to get some of the questions sent to us answered throughout the show. #
- Live-tweeting of New Products seminar at #ddxp to commence shortly. Unlikely to talk much about #dndnext at this seminar. #
- Mike Mearls on stage, going through the first half of the year, mainly 4e but with elements useable for any edition. #
- New limited printing of AD&D 1e books coming in April. New cover treatments that use the original art but with added band for printing. #
- Rise of the Underdark D&D Encounters season soon, focusing on the drow. #
- Prototype covers of new Ad&D printing. http://t.co/Yp17KZzk #
- May: Dungeon Survival Handbook. More themes that tie into story elements to inform DMs of villains, plotlines, etc. #
- June will have Urban Underdark dungeon tile set, and D&D Lair Assault with drow theme. #
- Drow houses filled with intrigue, or standard PC adventure setting options. Also Forests of the Underdark map pack in July. #
- New Fortune Card type: Drow Treachery cards, using same mechanics, but cards to hurt other PCs in the group.. #
- Menzoberranazan setting book coming in August. New kind of campaign setting for drow, where the PCs can compete against each other as houses #
- So it's Ed Greenwood's vision of the Realms as it has developed in his own campaign, not necessarily the "official" presentation. #
- Fourth quarter: Ed Greenwood Presents "Elminster's Forgotten Realms." From Ed's original campaign notes and ongoing campaign. #
- Still a playable game book, but like a "What If?" version of the Forgotten Realms as Ed intended. #
- Lords of Waterdeep board game releases in March, a "euro game" style game. #
- DDI will continue throughout 2012 supporting 4e with new content. #
- Dungeon Command will have a mix of new sculpts and old (with repaints) as well as Adventure System stats. #
- Dungeon Command will retail for $40 per faction box. #
- Some Ravenloft support planned for this year on DDI. #
- Success of Dungeon Command will likely decide how many new sculpts for new minis are made for future boxes. #
- 100% committed to supporting FLGS, which drives decisions like only selling AD&D reprints through them. #
- Back catalog of older edition products being re-released (in electronic) is being planned for but nothing to announce yet. #
- There will be a Dungeon Command game day, which will kick off organized play for Dungeon Command, including tournaments. #
- Right now #dndnext is taking a lot of design resources, focusing on classic settings first, maybe a new setting after that. #
- Dungeon Survival Guide will contain themes, under dark powers, new PC races (like Goblin). #
- There will be a full kobold PC race in the Dungeon Survival Guide. #
- MM: it is not our job to tell DMs how they should feel about a time period of a campaign setting so they want to include them all as options #
- Like Star Wars, there are fans of all eras, so DMs can pick which one they want. #
- Nothing new to announce for digital (ie video games) D&D. DDO ongoing, and Neverwinter being worked on. #
- Looking at doing more collected editions of DDI material, but no changes to announce right now. #
- DDI submissions: still accepting 4e articles until they say otherwise. #
- Underdark season for organized play might look at similar events from different perspectives. Will be revealed later. #
- No further Gamma World support planned, including DDI. They consider the game complete from a product perspective. #
- No changes to the AD&D reprint content, except for the old ads in the back for the RPGA, replaced by info on the Gygax Memorial Fund. #
- Missing from the slides: Halls of the Undermountain, a big adventure that extends from the D&D Encounters season. Sandbox style adventure. #
- Nothing to announce yet about an open game license of some kind for #dndnext #
- In addition to monthly Eye on Dark Sun column, there will be a Dark Sun-themed DDi month. #
Critical Bits for the week ending 2012-01-22
- Dominion for digital devices, base card replacements, and final two major expansions given rough dates: http://t.co/pzy0pWqq #
- RT @obsidianportal: Haste! w/ co-host @DaveTheGame: WotC with #DnDnext Evil Hat Atomic Robo RPG, @Paizo's PF Battles: http://t.co/DXUljXkG #
- Green Ronin in 2012: Dragon Age Set 3, new Song of Ice And Fire Roleplaying book, more Mutants & Masterminds http://t.co/seti2pDY #
- RT @gregbilsland: D&D Playtest News for Week of January 16 http://t.co/3emlIR8b #
- WotC to reprint 1st edition AD&D handbooks to benefit the Gygax Memorial Fund? http://t.co/207A2qLc #
- Jen Page and @MonteJCook launch Kickstarter for new web series, "Geek Seekers" http://t.co/71wEfgZE #
- RT @Morrus: Wizards of the Coast Announces D&D Forgotten Realms Character Creation Contest? http://t.co/rFyHxWO8 #dnd #rpg #
- RT @MTVGeek: http://t.co/SpaWcWpe Lead Developer @mikemearls answers questions about DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS NEXT #dndnext #
- RT @Bartoneus: The folks at @catalystgamelab have released an awesome Battletech Calendar PDF, check it out! http://t.co/BfeYG8gf #
Why I Oppose PIPA and SOPA
I realize at this point I’m by and large preaching to the choir here. Wikipedia and Google are much more likely to be people who have not yet spoken out against these two bills designed to stem internet piracy but that are likely to have wider ranging, dangerous consequences. If you’d like more information, many sites are providing it today, but I really like this point by point breakdown with examples.
However, I do want to speak briefly about why I think it’s important. You see, the house I grew up in was paid for by my dad writing books. If he were still around and writing, he’d probably be concerned about piracy in the book biz too, as well as ebook trends and everything else. It’s entirely possible that piracy could be affecting my livelihood if the last 10 years had gone differently.
In the world we do live in, my day job involves posting on the internet, and obviously that’s what this website is. The house I live in now is financed by the internet. If someone were to tell me suddenly: you can’t use the internet, I’d be in trouble. [Read the rest of this article]
