As videogaming and I got older, games got better features and more personality. My family got a TRS-80 Color Computer, and I got introduced to games that weren’t quite as simple. I’m not exactly sure what my first videogame RPG was, but it was after I’d been exposed to D&D. That made the whole concept of getting experience points easy to digest. I’ll never forget the day I figured out during a game of Dragon Warrior that I could just wander around in a field all day and kill slimes and eventually I’d level up and be able to fight stronger monsters than I normally would. It was my first taste of grinding, and it was delicious. After that, grinding for levels/gold/etc. became de rigeur for RPGs. After all, who wants to walk into a fight unprepared?

The first time I ever got any inkling something was wrong was when a friend of mine was playing Asheron’s Call 2, and he was telling me about making arrows and selling them to people for in-game gold. The act itself didn’t strike me as odd so much as the time comittment. I was going to school and working 3 minimum-wage jobs at the time to pay the rent and tuition, and I couldn’t fathom wasting that much time on a fake job.

As I got older, and eventually married with kids, I discovered something about my gaming habits. The less free time I have available to me, the less I am apt to do things that I don’t find fun. Actually, let me amend that slightly. The less free time I have available to me, the more likely a game needlessly wasting my time is apt to send me into a berserker rage.

This finds me doing things that would shock and disgust me 15 years ago. If I spend more than 20-30 minutes on part of a game now, I’m likely to go look up the solution in a walkthrough. The cutoff for me is when I stop having fun and start getting frustrated. Can I figure it out eventually? Sure. But between working, hanging out with my wife, and playing with my son, I only get an hour or two at night to play videogames – if I’m lucky. I’m not going to waste it being pissed off. I no longer value the title of Hardcore Gamer at the cost of having a good time.

That is why I am going to address this next part to whomever it was that decided to change the planet-scanning mechanic in Mass Effect from a one-click “Scan For Minerals” in ME1 to the giant boring tedious time-suck that it is in ME2: You’re needlessly wasting my time, and you’re making me really mad. If you’re going to have a mini-game for this, at least have the common decency to make it fun. Star Control 2 made you run around the galaxy collecting minerals too, but at least you got to fly around and run from monsters while you collected the minerals. Your scanning “game” consists of seeing how long you can depress the left trigger before you develop tendonitis – if you don’t go insane from boredom first. The excitement from finding a big cache of Iridium wears off pretty fast after the first 75 times you do it. It is a black mark on an otherwise fantastic game. It is two scoops of plump, juicy Elcor turds in an otherwise delicious bowl of Space Bran. Issue a patch to get rid of it, and we will never speak of this again. We can all deny anything happened.

I’m glad we could come to this understanding.

While reports leaked out ahead of time, it was the D&D Experience convention where a full announcement was made about a new edition of the Gamma World RPG, based on the 4e D&D rules. During the announcement came one major surprise: they would make random “booster packs” available to supplement the mutations that happen in the radiation soaked Gamma World and the ancient technology that waits to be discovered. As soon as I heard about a collectible component, I leaned over to the people sitting with me and whispered “gamers are going to lose their shit.”

The economics of producing and stocking games is complicated, to say the least, and often seems like the part that consumers easily misunderstand. In producing a game and getting it onto store shelves, there’s the costs to make it in the first place (which vary wildly due to the number you’re making), distribution costs, variety of SKUs that retailers stock… and so on and so on. All of these factor into the decision to make a game random/collectible, as well, of course, as a way to make more money.

Wizards of the Coast, if you’ll recall, pioneered the random/collectible model in gaming with Magic: The Gathering, and eventually brought it to D&D miniatures, a model that refuses to die (one other announcement was bringing back the total blind miniature boxes).

Now, there have been other CCG/RPG fusions before, but probably nothing with as much exposure as Gamma World. As I predicted as well, many gamers have not reacted well. Even Bill Slavicsek had this to say about it to defend it:

The boxed set comes with plenty of cards, but for players and Gamemasters who want to expand their options and add to the wackiness, a random booster set will be available for just that purpose.

To dispel some of the rumors that followed the announcement at D&D Experience, let me state this clearly: D&D Gamma World is a roleplaying game. The cards add a random element that is built into the game play, but it is in no way a collectible trading card game. It uses dice and all of the basic D&D RPG rules, with the added element of random cards to reflect the random mutations and technological discoveries that have always been a part of the Gamma World mythology.

So let’s pose the question to you, dear readers…

For me personally, I was a big Magic player, and a big player of a number of other CCGs, and have bought D&D mini boxes (and some Mage Knight) since the games came out. I almost never have a problem with collectible elements in games except when it seriously impacts my ability to play the game (i.e. the game is sold pre-crippled). From getting to play in a playtest of Gamma World, I know this won’t be the case with that game, though I can see people getting that impression. So what do you think?

A Melorian Siege Burrower (AKA Terror Worm)

(I just landed an unexpected, but very welcome Seminar to prep for and teach in less than 2 weeks, posting schedule will be borked. Expect shorter, less frequent articles, thanks).

Last Friday’s adventure was great.  It was mostly a 3 hour+ set-piece fight but I wanted to duke it out with the players in a no-holds barred slugfest. I cranked damage dealing to the absolute maximum I could without breaking the rules (a design goal of mine). I also did my best to screw with their game plan and use plenty of dirty tricks to give them their greatest challenge in months.

In fact, I did exactly what I wrote about last week.

It was gruesome, tensions rose and player nerves became frayed at times, but they pulled it off without making a single death save (and I tried real hard).

Someone Else is Crashing our Party

We finally started our Gears of Ruin campaign with the most awesome bunch of PCs. We started right where we left off, with the PCs resting for a few hours after their first contact with possessed military grade clanks (mechanical constructs).  They rescued one of 2 agents of Baron Falkenstein’s Intelligence Ministry who urged them to the Factory-mine, some 12 miles further, to save his colleague (he tagged along).

As they moved toward the Baron’s rebellious compound, I described the absence of further opposition.  Ad-libing 100%, I described various acid-eaten gigantic Mortars and broken Boulder-clanks.   The PCs deduced that they had been destroyed by Melorians, the savage, self-replicating, bio-contructs created in the last decade by the previous incarnation of Eric’s Deva Avenger.

As they approached the site, the signs that Melorians were also going there became evident.

Franky: Well, that’s going to be anti-climactic, we’ll get there and the whole place will be a melted puddle of acid.

Chatty: Didn’t you like sleep only 3 hours in the last 48 hours? I’m trying to work with you man.

Unidentified Plot Twist at 6 O’clock!

Shortly before they arrived at the Foundry-Mine where the psychic signal, supposedly at the origin of the Clank uprising, was located,  the Baron’s Spy NPC dropped a rock in the puddle.

Agent: My colleague just died! We absolutely must recover his Watch within 24 hours or his “Transience” (i.e. personality backup)  will be sucked in the Elemental Chas with all he knows.

Rod Stone:  How do you know that?

Agent (points at watch and grins): I’m not supposed to tell you that.

Rod Stone: Can that ‘not supposed to tell us’ tell you where your ‘not alive’ friend is now?

Agent: Wha?

Nar-Beth: Just lead the way to his body.

Agent: Huh? Yeah… That way.

The Falkenstein Works Foundry-Mines

The PCs crested a hill and came upon a the smoke-belching, clockwork-running monstrosity that was The Falkenstein Works Factory-Mines.  A series of buildings and mine tunnels sticking out of a mountain. Surrounded by an electrified, barbed wire palisade guarded by tower-turrets.  The courtyard was filled with refined ore, cranes, piles of crates and drums, huge mounds of dead bodies and clanks walking here and there, some very large.

The compound’s front gate had been crashed open but was apparently unguarded.

Holy Clank: Well, I guess we just need to see what those towers do before we charge…

A flash of light was seen to the party’s right, then a loud thuderclap was heard. A vague odor of ozone and burnt poultry reached them.

Holy Clank: Right, that’s what I thought.

Up next: Mecha in 4e!!!

Credit: Terror Worm image by artist Emerson Tung from The Wandering Men’s upcoming Untold: The Game.

Well, here’s the big factor for me: I find the “builds” of each class to be one of the more interesting parts of the game. It effectively makes each class into multiple classes, while still having a baseline understanding of how that class works and always allowing it to function in its role. The builds give more options, and open up the number of character concepts in a straightforward way. In the original Martial Power, there were a few snoozer builds alongside some awesome builds. In Martial Power 2, all the builds look fun and portray different concepts.

Let’s start there then, since it’s the most important part of the book to me. Fighters get the Brawler Style to go alongside the other Weapon Talent options. Brawler Style is for the fighter who wants to wield a weapon in one hand and use the other to grab, drag, and slam. Combat Agility is also an option for any fighter to replace Combat Superiority, which gives them a bit of a chase when a bad guy slips away (then allows them to knock the target prone.) There are plenty of new Fighter powers to supplement Brawler style (and more power support for Martial Power builds too, including some two-weapon, shield, and invigorating powers.) Fighters get 8 new paragon paths, including the Avernian Knight (a Warlock Warrior that channels infernal fire) and the Rakehell Duelist (a two-weapon classic duelist.)

Rangers get two new builds. The Hunter Ranger draws weapons quickly, and the Marauder focuses on two-weapon defense. They (or any Ranger) can give up Prime Shot in favor of Running Attack that gives bonuses when moving before attacking. Those options, plus some at-wills, give some great support to double throwing weapon Rangers, a character concept I’ve long been fond of. “Throw and Stab” is a particular favorite, where you throw a weapon and then charge. Only one of the paragon paths is based on race (Bloodfury Hunter for Shifters) but many are related to weapon style feats (discussed later.)

Rogues get even sneakier, adding a new Rogue tactic and at-will power that encourage Rogues to slip in and out of the shadows to attack. They can also replace their weapon talent feature to trade daggers and shurikens for crossbows and slings. The powers include some utilities that, to me, seem even more “Roguey” by letting them disarm traps quicker or do all kinds of acrobatic craziness. Arcane Trickster makes a comeback, only requiring a Rogue to have training in Arcana to qualify, and giving them a few magic tricks. Daring Slinger is, yes, a master of slings. Jack-Of-All-Trades gains all kinds of skill bonuses (take that, Bard.) A few others are really cool concepts too- Red Cloak and Whisperknife both grabbed me immediately. I’d say the Rogues get the best selection of new PPs in the book.

Warlords may have gotten the biggest change, finally bringing the long-awaited Archer Warlord (which Bartoneus and Wyatt tackled oh so long ago) into core. There’s a few other options to swap Warlord abilities as well, including two new presences (insightful and skirmishing), canny leader, and battlefront leader, giving more options to customize your Warlord. The powers are great too, from the quick “hey, shoot that guy!” to painting a bulls-eye on a monster for others to shoot. The powers support both the new builds and plenty for existing melee warlords, and have some of the best inspiring power names yet- “No Gambit is Wasted” and “Together We Survive” both stand out, and for powers that remind you of 80’s songs, you’ve got “Hold the Line” and “Expert Timing.” In the Paragon Paths, we get the Prince of Knaves, your classic Robin Hood-type and Captain of Fortune plays the role of a leader who has fate on his side.

The last chapter is “Martial Options.” First is a section on “the martial outlook” that is entirely rules-free: what martial characters are after, what they do doing a short rest to regain their exploits, how they fit into epic destinies, etc. Following that are combat styles, which have been previewed in Dragon but are presented in full here. There are a number of martial styles that work with particular weapons. You take a student feat which augments specific at-will powers with that weapon, and then greater style feats that change other powers. The combat styles provide an explanation of where the style came from in the game world, as well as some alternative names for some of the styles. The feats section contains a lot of what you’d expect, with a lot more options that only require being martial power source, and of course, plenty to supplement the new builds and existing builds.

Then we’ve got Martial Practices, which are the martial equivalent of rituals. I like the idea in theory, and some of the practices work fine (like a forgery ritual and a long-distance running ritual) but some start to overlap clearly into arcane territory, like being able to forge your own magical weapons and armor. I’m fine with it as a rules option for campaigns that might want to eliminate ritual magic, but as a core assumption, I’m not a huge fan. Only 25 are provided , so maybe if we get some more later it’ll work better. Finally, we get some martial backgrounds (meh, they’ve been covered plenty) and some epic destinies.

I’ll be honest: when Martial Power 2 was announced, I groaned a bit. PHB2, DMG2… no problem. And the first round of power books made sense since those kind of “splatbooks” are now a tradition in D&D. But a sequel to one? I wasn’t excited. After reading it and seeing the variety of new options, I’m totally sold. The new class options are all solid (a better selection than the ones in the first Martial Power, I’d say). Is this book a must-buy for all martial characters? No, not really- I don’t know that Beatdown Machine, my Warforged Battleraging Fighter will take anything from it. For fighting enthusiasts, however, especially to those looking for more build options and some excellent Paragon Paths, you’ll want to pick this one up.

Uncharted 2 is a great game that takes a bit of time to get its legs but delivers strong after the first couple of hours. It has the best writing and acting I’ve seen in a video game thus far and is the first time I remember enjoying cut scenes. In Uncharted 2, they learned how to keep such cut-scenes thankfully brief. The controls are a bit loose and sometimes frustrating but the puzzles aren’t bad and the combat is great fun up until the last boss who is an annoying controller-throwing pain in the ass. Uncharted 2 is likely to drop to $30 or $40 in the next couple of months at which point it will be a great bargain. At $30 or $40, I highly recommend it.

Now on to the deep pontifications.

There’s a very disturbing trend with games these days to make them more like movies. Many game publishers, marketeers, and advertisers have begun referring to them as “interactive experiences” or “interactive cinema” and often claim that their game “is the closest thing to being in a movie.” Never do they realize that this is not at all what we want. We want good games! We want gameplay and challenges and good fun. The LAST thing we want are painfully long cinemas with terrible writing, spaghetti-bowl plots, and jarring breaks in our gameplay.

The Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid franchises are some of the worst examples at this, seeming to have build up an industry of 3d modelers who think they’re Martin Scorsese. It puts a huge added cost into the budget of the game and passes that expense on to us in both dollars, and worse, time.

The recent success of Xbox Live Arcade and the Playstation Store show us that we really don’t want big cinematics in our games, we’re happy just to jump around and land on top of things. We don’t need a plot any more thick than a large orange thing that vomits up rainbows.

Because of my clear bias against cinematic games, I was clearly going into Uncharted 2 with narrowed eyes and a wrinkled nose. Lucky for the game, they did a few things right and did them right up front.

First, rather than start with a 20 minute long introduction, They throw you right into the game. You begin your adventure hanging for your life and must learn your controls from the most dangerous of possible positions. Only after you get through it does the cinematic style start kicking in. The second big thing they got right was to keep these cinema cut-scenes short. They know they need to get you in the game doing stuff as fast as possible and they don’t waste their time. Third, they keep the plot simple all throughout the game. I knew who the bad guys were, I knew what the general story was. I never got lost at all. There’s no Halo 3 style “hey look, now you’re on the side of the Flood!” twists that have us scratching our heads.

This all came down to good writing. There’s a distinct lack of good writing in video games. Video game writers just can’t seem to help themselves. It’s like they waited their whole life to tell an epic 17 book story and this is finally their chance to share it with the world. Instead we sit staring at our screens with an unused controller hanging limply in our hands while we watch a 3D rendered version of Plan 9 from Outer Space.

Good writing comes from knowing what to say and eliminating everything else. They accomplished this in Uncharted 2. It has the best writing I’ve seen in a video game.

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the control. I had just finished Assassin’s Creed 2 on the Playstation 3 when I picked up Uncharted 2 and found a lot of similarities in the games. Both games have a focus on running around, climbing up walls, and hanging off of things. Both of them have a combat system – swordplay in Assassin’s Creed 2 and gunplay in Uncharted 2.

While the gunplay system in Uncharted 2 runs well enough to not be frustrating, character movement felt loose and jerky. More than once my character would go leaping off of some rung and into space simply because the camera wasn’t in the right spot for me to see what I needed to do. Death has very little penalty in Uncharted 2 and it’s a good thing since you’re likely to die a lot.

The gunplay is a lot of fun in Uncharted but I really wish they had put in some sort of Max Payne / Stranglehold bullet-time system. Being able to slow down a fight and do some amazing gun feats would have been a nice.

While the beginning starts strong, it still requires a bit of patience for the game to get going after the first cut scene. There is one particular scene early on where stealth kills are required that apparently had many people setting the controller aside for good. Luckily it gets a lot better after that, but I can see a lot of folks never managing to get beyond that point.

The final boss is an exercise in patience. Only my commitment of 10 hours of my life so far kept me from tossing the controller aside and shelving the game. It couldn’t have been any more tedious and annoying, especially with the crappy character control, loose targeting system, and need for precise timed shots.

Graphically, Uncharted 2 is the most beautiful console game I have ever played. I picked up a Playstation 3 to have something to drive my new 1080p TV and this is the best game to show it off. Environments are lush and full of detail. The colors are vibrant and the frame rate never seems to stutter. If graphics are your thing, this game has them in spades.

As I grow older I’m coming to the realization that paying $60 for a brand new game is a sucker’s gambit. A game that comes out for $60 today will be no worse when I pay $30 for it in six months. It’s still just as good a game. Sure, I won’t be able to get on the inside of all the best Penny Arcade jokes but as I grow into a venerable old fart, I expect that gap to continue to grow. I’m coming to a even more interesting revelation. The amount of money I pay for a game directly corresponds to how much I enjoy that game. An OK game like Too Human becomes a great game when I only pay $15 for it.

For this reason, I was very happy to get Uncharted 2 on a Black Friday deal for $30 and at $30, it’s a great game. Unfortunately, the cost has gone back up to about $55 but I would expect it to go back down again.

I really enjoyed my time in Uncharted 2. With some excellent visuals, entertaining gun battles, and the best writing and acting I’ve seen in a game, it manages to get past the loose jittery controls and show off a really excellent game. Wait until the price drops to $30 and then grab it right up.

This week, with my post on prepping for my game,cramming it with all the awesome Magitek I can think of and applying lessons from last week’s posts, I caught myself asking, yet again, “Dude, aren’t you just trying too hard here?”  Chances are I’ll spend 4-6 hours of preparation for a 3-4 hour game.  While I’ll likely be setting a solid foundation for the next 2-3 session… one is left to wonder: is it worth it?

If you were to ask that question to my players, most would roll their eyes so far up they would likely pop right out. My friend Yan, Myers-Briggs Mastermind that he is, rarely misses a chance to remind me how much less time he invests in his games that are, overall, pretty similar to mine in scope and play experience, although I suspect he daydreams about it a lot.  Our other group GM, Franky, seems daunted by my dedication to put so much effort in the art of DMing. I sometime worried if he isn’t half-scared that I’ll call the GMing S.W.A.T on him during our monthly Star Wars game.

Nevertheless, when I say ‘trying too hard’,  I means prepping so much game material that an unhealthy chunk  of your free time is sucked out of your life. It also means cramming so many ideas in so few scenes that they become too tangled to play out as cool as they appear individually on paper.

Therefore, I think the question is not if I try too hard as a DM, I totally do, but why I keep doing it after having realized it?  While I almost always overprep games, I often fail to pull off all the potential awesomeness I hope for once at the gaming table.  The ideas end up being too complex, I’m more tired than expected or find myself reacting poorly to an unexpected turn of event.

Let’s not deny that prepping is fun.   If it wasn’t, there would a lot less homebrewed or adapted published adventures.  Heck, even running published ones straight need prep.  I would however  say that should prepping become more fun than actually gaming, chances are there’s a fundamental flaw in your gaming experience that should be explored and addressed before your campaign collapses. I would, however, be curious to see if some GMs would rather prep a game for a friend than run it).

The thing is, I realize as I write these lines that I mainly keep doing it because I’m wired like that and have not reached a point where the disadvantages of doing this outweigh the gains… but I must say that at times, It does.  And when I reach that point, I need to look at my way of preparing adventures and give it a good healthy kick to see what falls off and I don’t really need.

For D&D 4e I realize that weren’t for the fact that I always keep the door open for publication and appreciate having everything (stats, outcomes, descriptions, etc) in one document, I could afford to drop things like templating and as- written mechanics and just page 42 (see Dungeon Master Guide) the hell out of it all.

So what about you?  Do you try too hard and produce prepping works of art that you don’t necessary need?  Do you feel that the work you do is unappreciated by your players (see my posts about giving and receiving  feedback)?  How do you deal with that?

And for those who don’t, I have another Friday Chat brewing for you…

Alignment was supposed to inform the player what the character would do in a given circumstance, except, of course, it didn’t. Most of my friends would take alignments that impacted their gameplay the least. Tell me if this sounds familiar: “Because I’m [alignment], I can do anything I want.” “Because I’m True Neutral, I can do anything I want.”  ”Because I’m Chaotic Neutral, I can do anything I want.”  ”Because I’m Neutral Evil, I can do anything I want.” At best, they would wind up playing a variation of Chaotic Cartman.

About the only alignment that actively restricted a player’s actions at the table was the big scarlet LG, which stands for Lame Guy. This was the buzz-kill, the wet blanket. This was the droopy dog who would show mercy to the enemy, march the rogue to the authorities, and get in the way of a good torture session. He would also avoid the gambling halls and the houses of ill repute, the silly twit.

Needless to say, this was the alignment I frequently chose. And even when I didn’t, I kind of did. I had a Lawful Good Monk (who started as Lawful Neutral), I had a Neutral Good Magic-user/Cleric (who obeyed the laws of the land and preached goodness and temperance to the party), and a Neutral halfling Fighter (who would sacrifice himself for the sake of another). Yeah, I’m the dope who bought into all that heroism nonsense, who fought for the greater good, who wanted to be more than I was in this thing called “real life.”

The thing is, I would have acted that way regardless of some 2-letter notation on my character sheet. It was “me as player” getting in the way of “me as character.” I’ve played a black-hearted Necromancer who would always think of others first, a lawless pickpocket who endangered himself to protect an NPC child, and a psychotic half-ogre who became BFF’s with the party dwarf. When I have tried to be the villain, I’ve always wound up as the hero. Or failing that, as the cuddliest, wuddliest villain you ever did see.

Clearly, this is a role-playing problem with me, but I feel like I’m not the only one. I’ve known players who portray jerks and scoundrels and traitors effortlessly, and more often than not, that’s all they ever play. Every single one of their characters fit into that mold. I’m not saying these people are chaotic or evil or neutral in real life (any more than I’m saying I’m lawful or good in real life, as you know if you’ve ever driven slowly in front of me). However, these did seem to be roles that came very easy to them – that perhaps came automatically to them – and they went right into that flow. In moments of high stress, that persona came out. It didn’t matter what was written on the character sheet.

There was so much misinterpretation (or reinterpretation) of alignments, one of the Players Handbooks included a story about a how a party of nine differently-aligned characters would act inside a battle. There’s also that excellent nine-panel representation of comic book characters, with Superman as Lawful Good, Wolverine as Neutral Good, the Joker as Chaotic Evil, and so on. It even includes quotes from real-live often dead famous people demonstrating what a person of that alignment thinks. Both of these were show-don’t-tell exercises, and both were brilliantly constructed, marvelously executed, and universally ignored.

People (and I reluctantly include myself in this group) just went on playing their characters however they bloody well pleased, never stopping to think, “Wait, Chaotic Neutral means cheese-off-the-cracker crazy? You’re saying I should occasionally attack characters in my own party, just to stay in-character? That doesn’t seem fun at all.”

And it probably wouldn’t be, assuming you want to be invited back to games. DMs could make with the giant hammer of enforcement (YOU ARE A LAWFUL GOOD PALADIN AND YOU JUST COMMITTED AN EVIL ACT… PREPARE FOR YOUR JUDGMENT!), but that would only result in more people jumping over the chaos / neutrality fence. After all, if chaos equals unpredictability, who’s to say you wouldn’t help that orphanage? Wouldn’t that be unpredictable?

All of this is to propose the following: let’s just do away with alignment. Let’s have a big farewell dinner, and then shuffle alignment out the door with a pat on the back and a nice gold watch. It was great working with you all these years, you were always prompt and reliable, but we need to go in a new direction, and your time is over. Collect your last paycheck at the reception desk, and please don’t flirt with Pam on your way out.

Of course, that would leave us with a sad and gaping hole on our character sheets, and we certainly couldn’t allow that. What if we replaced alignment with something more accessible and dynamic, like Personality? Players would put a single word in here which would act as a touchstone for decisions. The word would be a suggestion rather than a mandate, and there would be no hovering punishments for players who stepped outside of their touchstone word.

For example, I could write the word Selfish or Angry or Gentle or Hopeful, and then, over the course of the game, I could think, “How would I act in this circumstance? How would a selfish / angry / gentle / hopeful person act?” While playing, I might discover an evolution in the character, as my Coward becomes Noble, as my Brawler finds Fear.

I think there’s definitely room for exploration here. More importantly, it’s a simplification of an aspect that can be opaque to new players. How is good different than Lawful Good? Why not just call it super-duper good? How is evil any different than chaotic evil? “Well, you have to understand, this one would kill you and your family and then burn your house down, but that one would do all those things AND kick the dog on the way out.”

Compare that to telling a new player, “Think about your character and come up with a one-word description.” That player might pause and then say, “Stubborn,” and you’re off to the races. I have to say, that sounds a lot easier.

Today, I’d thought I’d share a bit of my adventure prepping techniques for homebrewed adventures.  I’ll start by re-introducing my campaign world and discuss some techniques I’ve been using for planning my bi-monthly games.

Gears of Ruin: Or How Chatty Steals from Everyone for his Campaign.

As many of you know, I’m starting a D&D clockwork campaign called Gears of Ruin set on a dying, water and magic-poor world.  One where the gods nearly lost the war against the Primordials and more or less abandoned this ravaged, but resource-rich husk to its own fate.

The world’s main powers (mostly outerplanar outsiders) are the airborne Humans and their humanoid allies, the fierce native mountain dwellers (like the Goliaths) and the scheming denizens of the Elemental Chaos.

The stakes are high: mineral resources abound, water is a very scare strategic asset and the forces of the Elemental Chaos (Efreet, Demons and Slaads) want to to both destroy the whole place and (in true chaotic fashion) take control of it to invade other planes.

Furthermore, the magic scarcity of this world  has created technological and biological revolutions of such power and magnitude to rival any magi-centric civilizations. This makes the world a prize beyond belief to whomever controls it all AND a multiversal threat should that ever happen.

You can see my description of on technology here.

I’m as excited, if not more, to play this campaign that I was for my Primal/Within one.  I’m pegging its genre as clockwork rather than steampunk because I wanted a more Magitek feel. Plus on a water-poor world, steam machines are downright obscene, making them perfect villain fluff.

From Ideas to the Plan

I usually prep for my adventures on the evenings of the week leading to the game (we play every 2 Fridays baring scheduling issues). But my prepping actually starts on the week before that, I’m just not very formal about it.  When I’m done with a game and I’ve posted the game reports, I start brainstorming where the game will go from the last stopping point.

In our case, the PCs were standing in front of a factory built into the side of a mountain. They are accompanied by a wounded Intelligence Officer of their patron’s government and must recover a second agent trapped within the complex. They have also been tasked to investigate the psychic signals likely emanating from within the factory.

This signal seems to have turned all of the world’s autoclanks (i.e. or non-sentient  programmable mechanical constructs) into homicidal necrotic-powered undead killer robots. Every clank, that is, except for Holy Clank (Yan’s PC), the Hybrid Fighter/Cleric, possibly the only sentient one in the world.

From this premise, I cast out my subconscious mind with the job of making free associations and bringing me elements that would create an enjoyable level 14 dungeon crawl adventure.  My ’specs’ so to speak were to have adventure elements that called to most of my PCs. I also wanted to test explore ways to make dungeon crawling ‘work’ in 4e for me (I may explain why it doesn’t in a future post).

During that brainstorming period, I came up with the concept of the adventure’s villain, a subversion of a classic that will tie in directly with 2 PCs.  While I won’t spoil it, I’ll share the ‘pre-stating block template’ I use for NPCs during prepping:

Description: A one/two sentence describing what the NPC looks like and who he/she/it is.

Background: The story behind the bad guy and, more importantly, why his/her/its plans clash with the PCs.

Agenda: What the villain seeks to achieve in the adventure. This is very important as it will drive the decisions and roleplaying for that NPC through the adventure.

Mechanics (optional): A few notes to guide the design of the combat stat block (if the NPC will have to be fought).

Also, during that time I developed the following setting elements:

• Clanks are the setting’s mecha: all sorts of clockwork machines designed to do work/transportation.
• Auto-clanks are programmable clanks used in repeating tasks in factories and on airships.
• The ‘Baron’ (PCs’ patron) has been developing military warclanks and autoclanks.
• People live in airship cities (or fortified encampments) because raging bio-constructs roam the world, destroying everything and killing humanoids on sight!

All these ideas were obtained while woolgathering (I do a lot of that),  chatting with friends and emailing buddies.  Of course, precious little of this had been written down (this is pre-prepping after all) but by the start of last weekend, I had most of my adventure concept figured out.

For many DMs, like my friend Yan, that (along with a few stat blocs and some rewards/info packets) is enough to run a game.  I need a bit more structure. That’s where the Adventure Plan comes from.

The Adventure Plan

During the week leading up to the game, I fire up Microsoft One-Note (a note-taking application) and I write an outline for the adventure, just like I write outlines for complex blog posts and Standard Operating Procedures at my current job.

Here’s my template:

• Treasure Parcels: A bullet list of magic item levels and monetary value of each parcels.
• Dramatis Persona: List of main NPCs to be developed according to earlier template or copied there if already done.
• Existing Quests: Short list of unfinished quests that are relevant to this adventure.
• New Quests: Short description of new quests introduced in this adventure.
• Player Intro: Recap and/or intro to the adventure.

Structure of the Adventure

• Background: Just enough to remind me what the goal of the adventure is and its context  in our campaign (usually one-two paragraphs).
• Adventure-Specific Mechanics: List of things I’ll need to design in this adventure (monsters, traps, puzzles, skill challenges).

Scene Breakdown (if event-based) or Area Breakdown (site-based) or Hybrid

• Scene 1: Name of scene
  • Goals: What must/can/may be achieved in this scene.
  • Scene Summary: High level structure of the scene, including NPCs involved.
  • Complications/Rule of Cool: Elements to make things more interesting.
  • Expected Outcomes: Short list of possible conclusions and consequences.

or

• Area 1: Name of Area
  • Objectives: Why PCs explore/visit this area, what they may gain from doing it.
  • Threats and Opportunities: What populates the area and how they can be a challenge/interact with PCs.
  • Complications: Anything that may go wrong, make conflict more interesting or blow up in PCs face.
  • Expected Outcomes: As above.

Rinse and repeat.

I then go through the plan time and time again, fleshing it out part by part, adding a new scene here, a stat block there and cutting out things I won’t have time do, shifting scope and adding ideas as they come to me.   All this time, I try to focus on prioritizing what will bring me to a playable adventure the fastest. Getting lost in the details is so easy so I try to be careful lest I start botching it come Thursday night. After, if there is time, I may add more elements like complex traps and such to make things more exciting.

Often, by the time Friday rolls by, I have a nearly complete adventure that only needs minis and battlemaps to be played.  I know I tend to overprep, but I often find myself with material I can recycle into publishable material afterward, so I have an incentive to keep doing it.

What about you? What’s your prepping technique like?  NPCs? Scenes? Regardless of system, I’m curious!

My Brother, The Dragonslayer

When I was 7 years old, going to the arcade was my favorite thing to do by far. This was due in no small part to my brother’s absolute command of the hottest game at the time, Dragon’s Lair. (For those of you young enough to think Steve Jobs created it for the iPhone, consider yourself informed.) Marc had both a photographic memory and a subscription to Electronic Games Magazine, which featured at one point a complete walkthrough of Dragon’s Lair. This let him draw huge crowds as he finished the game on a single credit (an unheard-of two tokens). I wholeheartedly recommend the experience of having your older brother be completely awesome when you are 7. It sticks with you.

Encyclopedia Brown And The Case Of Who The F#*K Programmed Galaxian

Though I was younger then, I was still the kind of person who wanted to know who made the things I loved. It was more difficult before the Internet, and I usually had to settle for knowing I enjoyed Filmation and Rankin-Bass cartoons. I did know a few, though. Lorenzo Music was my VO hero, voicing both Garfield and Peter Venkman on The Real Ghostbusters. At least, until Bill Murray complained his character sounded too much like Garfield, and then 20 years later, went on to voice an extremely sub-par Garfield himself. (I am still mad at Bill Murray for this. A lot.) And it would not be until college that I would find out that the guy who voiced Lion-O was from my hometown, the incident that I believe gave me my superpowers.

Finding out about who made the videogames you played back then was pretty difficult too. In those days, the developers of console games were usually uncredited. They hated this. A lot. Sometimes they’d stick their initials or a hidden message in a game, which they’d call an Easter Egg. In fact, this whole “no credits for you” business pissed off some developers working for Atari bad enough that they jumped ship and formed Activision. Back then the company was not a gatling gun filled with sequels – it used to stand for developer recognition, great games, a game achievement system far better than what we have today, and asexual rainbows meant to display both cohesive branding and awesome power. It wasn’t until the NES came along that console gamers ever got to see the credits roll, and even then I’m afraid all I can remember is Yuukichan’s Papa from the Mega Man 2 credits. PC gaming had a few little cults of personality pop up here and there, as did the C64, but more or less you either didn’t know or care who the people were who made your games. And credits on arcade games? Practically unheard of. I don’t doubt they exist, but I’m still having trouble finding any.

Games With Frickin’ Laser Beams

Now – take this environment, and drop in Rick Dyer and Don Bluth. Rick ran a company called Cinematronics, who made arcade games. They’d had a few hits in the late 70’s from their newfangled vector graphics games, but by 1982, they were filing for bankruptcy. Rick has an idea for an automated choose-your-own-adventure game that nobody wants, and eventually realizes if this was a cartoon, it would completely rock. So he calls up Don Bluth, a former Disney animator with his own animation studio, and they make Dragon’s Lair. And, as my 7 year old self will tell you, Rick Dyer was right. It rocked. Nothing else had graphics like this. Sure, tons of other games at the times had good graphics. Some iconic characters came out of this time period. But there’s just no freakin’ way that poor Q*Bert, even a year later, could compete with a fully animated action-packed ass-kicking cartoon where a dude dies like 200 different ways. Unsurprisingly, this game blew everyone’s damned minds.

The graphics weren’t the only thing that was different. Its creators wanted everybody to know who they were. I remember Don Bluth and Rick Dyer popping up all over the place doing interviews, and every time they always talked about how they’ve revolutionized arcade games or how Atari was playing catch-up now. For a couple of years, they had us all convinced, too. But – as much as it pains me to say this – Dragon’s Lair couldn’t last because the game’s beautiful appearance was a gimmick. It played an animation, and the game tracked when and where you were to move in that scene. If you didn’t, it played an appropriate death animation. They had built in tricks to fool you into a greater sense of randomness and interactivity, like flipping the screen. Space Ace even let you take a few different paths, but ultimately you’d be still be locked into the “what is the appropriate sequence and timing” gimmick. (I would further like to go on record right now and say this is my favorite gimmick of all time.)

Was it innovative? Sure. Did it revolutionize gaming? I think it sure tried, but the only “watch the video” game anybody ever plays these days is Scene It?. (Okay, and maybe Dragon’s Lair and its ilk on DVD.) But did its creators get their names out there and get everybody to give a crap? The game was on That’s Incredible!. I’d say that counts.

The Saddest Story Ever That Isn’t About Children Or Animals

Most nerds know what a Commodore 64 is. That same company later released a line of computers called the Amiga. Those of you who know what an Amiga is are probably already crying. Why? Do you remember home videogaming back in 1985? The best graphics out there were on the NES and on the PC, with 16 colors. At launch, the Amiga could push out 4096 colors at a (mostly) comparable resolution. When VGA came out a couple years later, the Amiga smiled and busted out 16.7 million colors. I remember gettin these capabilities on our PC, too. In the Nineties. It had pre-emptive multitasking years before the Mac or PC did it, and it could do it in 250K of RAM. It was great at video editing, and they even rendered a lot of the early episodes of Babylon 5 on Amigas. The hardware was absolutely revolutionary for its time (and internally named after Aikido techniques, which is doubly bad-assed). Oh, did I mention you could get daughterboards for the damned thing so you could run DOS and Windows apps?

Unfortunately, the Amiga was more expensive than its competition, it was poorly marketed, and Commodore was too busy self-destructing to save it. Excuse me now, while I take a moment to pour this entire bottle of Mountain Dew out on the curb to remember the Amiga, the best computer ever that died too young. You’re in a better place now, my digital homey.

Was the Amiga innovative? Don’t make me slap you. Did you read the last two paragraphs? But did anybody give a crap? Only those who knew it, which were far too few to save it. I wholeheartedly believe that it was a revolutionary computer. But despite its otherworldly awesomeness, it sadly failed to revolutionize computing.

We Arrive At The Point….. er, Pad……

Ever since Steve Jobs came back to Apple and set it on a wild, touch-sensitive, candy-colored thrill ride into Berserker Gadget-Lust Valley, there has always been one thing clear to me about the company. They are not – nor have they ever been – good at actually innovating anything. They are great at making it seem like they did, but they are not. I’ll never forget when they released the AirPort card and base station in 1999, and everyone I knew was freaking out because oh my God I can use my laptop on the couch now thank God for Apple. Which was funny, because I’d seen wireless Ethernet around for several years. It’s not as if Apple lies about it, they just don’t happen to mention it existed before. Much like the new iPad. I played with a TabletPC back in 2001. It wasn’t as nice as the iPad, which probably had a lot to do with the fact that it was nine years ago.

It might sound like I’m starting up a good old-fashioned Apple-bashing troll right now. I’m not. Because I believe Apple has a purpose, and that purpose was never to innovate. I don’t think Apple even makes anything better. A lot of their user interface choices drive me nuts. (Where’s the iPod’s damned power button, and how do you find it if you’ve never used one before?!!) What Apple does do  is get everybody to give a crap about something. Before the iPhone, we had phones with touchscreens. And everybody would look at them, declare that it would be “nice to have one, I guess, what would I do with all the stuff it does”, and then walk away. Now, I’m pretty sure they stone all incoming college freshmen who do not have an iPhone (which is why I am scared to admit I own a Motorola Droid, to keep my family safe). I’m relatively sure we wouldn’t even have Android phones if we didn’t need an iPhone killer. I think the iPad is an underpowered, locked down iPod Jumbo that isn’t worth the price. Apple is going to try really hard to make sure other people disagree. My money is on this being a stepping stone to everybody wanting something similar. Then it gets copied by competitors (well, re-copied), gets a lot more flavors and a lot cheaper, and finally your 90 year old grandmother gets one and it has all these supercool features and she doesn’t even remotely care, just bring up the pictures of the great-grandkids. And if that happens, by Apple’s divine intervention or through some other means, my gadget-lust will be sated. (Until the 10 minute cooldown runs out.)

So what do you need to start a revolution? In my opinion, marketing. Just in the last few decades we have seen VHS beat Betamax, the Atari ST topple the Amiga (sniff), Blu-Ray beat HD-DVD, Sega leaving the console hardware business entirely, the Wii utterly destroy its competition in sales, and a lot of other seemingly “inferior” products become the de facto standard. It may not matter if what you have is technically the best, fastest, or prettiest. And it may not even matter if you beat all your competitors.

Just make sure somebody gives a crap. Then make sure it’s worth giving a crap about. And if you’re really ambitious, you can shoot for a nice, long crap.

With D&D XP behind us now, the Battlemind class out in the open, and the Runepriest nearly confirmed it seems like a good time to look at the Player’s Handbook 3 that is coming out in March this year and figure out which class is the most hotly anticipated. This is especially fitting because at the end of last year we ran a poll asking which D&D product all of you most want to get your hands on in 2010 and the PHB3 came out in the lead just ahead of Dark Sun!

This is a tough poll because I can’t even decide which answer to choose, but please try to figure out which one you really would be most upset if it ended up not coming out in the book. I predict Monk although its change to Psionic may cause it to be a bit less popular. Psion is most likely going to be a healthy contender with Battlemind close by because of its newness and a new defender is just plain sexy. That’s right, I went there.

Oddly enough, Dave is also credited in the rules book… and happened to suggest the game to me. 

Anyway, instead of providing another review of the game, I thought I would tell you the story of my ‘character’ to showcase how rich the game is.  Note that while I may flourish the prose of my tale a bit (that’s what being a storyteller is all about), what I will present actually happened during the game.

The Tale of Aladdin

Our story starts with a poor boy called Aladdin who dreams of leaving the city of Bagdhad and discover one of the fabled ‘Places of Power’ that legends talk about (Quest #1). He set off and traveled north through Armenia and Eastern Europe where he stumbled on a talking monkey.  Calling it an abomination upon Allah, Aladdin slew the beast and was cursed by the released demon.  Later, he met a Lost Prince, stole all his gold and got cursed again. (An old persian proverb says “You can’t get cursed twice”)

He then boarded a  an ocean-bound boat manned by a band of rogues that eventually grabbed him while on the Indian Ocean and sent him overboard. As Aladdin was drowning, hands grabbed him from below as he blacked out.

He woke up in the kingdom of the Merfolk and explored its marvels and treasures, trying to learn as much as he could from that hidden culture (Quest #1 completed). That’s where he learned that the Merfolk were preparing to wage war on the surface dwellers.  Our hero rushed back to the surface and reached a nearby Sultan to inform him of the impeding threat.  The Sultan named Aladdin as a peace emissary to the merfolk (Whoa… déjà vu!) and peace was achieved.

Our hero was bestowed the Robe of Renown just as news reached him that the Grand Vizier of Bagdhad had accused him of a vile crime he hadn’t committed.  Aladdin had to sneak back home and clear his name with the Caliph.  On his way back, he was enchanted and got lost for some time, he found some marvelous Roc eggs but had to flee before getting eaten by the mother. He also discovered the fabled Sword of Invisibility lying there on a dead man!

Dodging the guards of Bagdhad, Aladdin returned home and met a beautiful enchantress. He seduced her, she fell madly in love with him and they soon married. Our now legendary hero asked the Caliph to bless their union in the palace.  That’s where Aladdin confronted the Grand Vizier about the false accusations.  Outraged, the Caliph had the Vizier beheaded and named Aladdin as the new one.

End Credit.

I played the game with PM and things didn’t go nearly as well for him.  We’re pretty sure that the game I described above is not a typical experience but more like those people that lose 20 lbs in 4 days on so called miracle diets.  But hot damn was it an awesome game!

Pros:

I can’t describe how much glee I had while playing this game.  It is an explorer’s dream come true.  You have no idea what’s going to happen and while you get eventually are able to influence how the game goes, you are left guessing most of the time.  It feels like the whole ‘choose your own adventures’ and the various skills, statuses and treasures you accumulate allow you to shape how things turn out.

Reading from the book of tales is so cool, seeing the face of the player being told his fate is part of the pleasure of the game.  Even when things go bad for you, it’s interesting.  At least it is for now… I’ll tell you after a few more games.

Cons

The main mechanic that gives  players more control over their fate is represented by status/treasure cards that allow replaying one’s turn after knowing its outcome.  While turns are usually short (less than 5 minutes), this will create longer downtimes and slow the game, especially with 5-6 players.   Also, accumulating many status cards will complicate the game and create more delays.  A variant rule proposes to allow only one status card to affect a player.

Also, much of this game is about reading  stories.  Playing with non-native English speakers could be a challenge, as it would be with awkward, monotonal or slow readers. On the other hand, it would be great reading practice for kids… except some of the tales are pretty mature in content.  Just ask PM what he thought of his stalking love-sick hag.

Finally, the game may be a nightmare for tacticians that need to  know the possible outcomes of each decisions. With over 2000 entries in the book of tales, there’s no way to know how your decisions will shape the outcome of your many encounters.

Conclusion:

Along with Dominion, Carcassonne and Battlestar Galactica , Tales of the Arabian Nights has takes a firm place in my “Games I love” collection.  It seems to my untrained eye that we are going through a board game Golden Age, and I for one welcome our cardboard masters. 

Anyone else tried the game?  How was your experience?

• RT @Highmoon: Houses of the Blooded-powered Menzoberranzan hack cooking up. http://ow.ly/UO8X via @Judd_of_Kryos #DnD #drow #HotB #
• Sorry, working now to disable the tweets while we play around, please stand by! #
• Gotta love out of control technology. #
• Coming to Rock Band: Flight of the Conchords (including “Business Time”) should make @bartoneus happy http://is.gd/6BfoZ (via @RockBandAide) #
• RT @gregbilsland: January #dnd rules updates are live. They are few, but they are fierce. Check them out here: http://tinyurl.com/ydo6r5x #
• RT @Wizards_DnD: Okay, here it is – The PH3 Hybrid sneak peek! Have at it! http://bit.ly/8UAPI9 #dnd (DDI sub required) #
• DriveThruRPG says their servers are choking under the strain of everyone’s generosity, so “hang loose” and it will be available to all. #
• Gamers Help Haiti @drivethrurpg just crossed $20,000 raised: amazing! But can we get even more? http://is.gd/6GA2Z #
• Hahahaha. RT @GeekTyrant: FOX to Develop a U.S. Version of TORCHWOOD and possibly DOCTOR WHO http://su.pr/1bCiuy #
• RT @brandonnn: Squeenix uses Facebook to announce Final Fantasy I&II for iPhone, no one notices: http://bit.ly/8Qp4F2 #
• RT @rdonoghue: 3 things not to do when making a skill challenge: http://bit.ly/M1mSI #
• Great article by @mikemearls on running skill challenges and the issues therein http://is.gd/6Kocp (DDI sub required) #
• RT @newbiedm: RT: @Trevor_WotC: Official word on D&D Minis and the PH Miniatures line: http://bit.ly/4LHcjk #dnd #
• RT @ChattyDM: So Long and Thanks for all the Fish! My last post as a solo blogger. http://digs.by/1FU6 #
• RT @KoboldQuarterly: Get a FREE issue of award-winning #DnD mag @KoboldQuarterly! Use code KQ10 Free thru 1/31 http://bit.ly/KQ10Fr #
• RT @cordaxmike: New teaser screenshot of i4e 1.3 updated powers list http://drp.ly/h0Jb5 #dnd #i4e (for those that missed it last night) #
• RT @FFGames: You can now play Ingenious on your iPhone and iPod Touch! http://bit.ly/7dfVeh (iTunes link) #
• RT @ChattyDM: Keeping up with the PCs: Part 2, What Not to Do and Quick Fixes http://twurl.nl/jfci47 #
• RT @WolfStar76: Cant make it to DDXP, but still want to hear all the news being announced at the Seminars? http://bit.ly/cKGs97 #
• RT @newbiedm: Amazon page for D&D Gamma World for 4th Edition: http://www.amazon.com/Gamma-World-Roleplaying-Game-Setting/dp/0786955082/ #
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• Runepriest is the divine leader, Battlemind psionic defender, and shardmind last race from PHB3? http://bit.ly/bAU1IO #

DDXP 2010 Product Seminar Coverage

• Live tweet coverage of the #ddxp 2020 #dnd product seminar starting in about 10 minutes (1p est) #
• Likely, a lot of it was already revealed at GenCon, but if Amazon is right, there will be some curveballs. #
• At the podium: @mikemearls, also here Rich Baker, Kirin Chase, Bart Carroll, and @Wotc_Trevor #
• January already out: Underdark and Dragonborn. Dragonborn is experiment with low cost, softcover. #
• Blurry pic of podium and display. http://twitpic.com/106ibh #
• Rich Baker: every character supported in DDI evey few months #
• Martial Power 2- support for martial, 1 fighter build, 2 ranger, 1 rogue, 2 warlord, weapon style feats, new PPs, & EDs #
• Plus martial practices, like rituals for martial characters- non-combat options for martial chars like running marathon #
• 3 dragon ante, expansion or standalone #
• March: PHB3. Psionic powers, new classes, new races, new options. Supported by D&D Gameday #
• Classes: Monk, Battlemind, Psion, Ardent, Seeker, and ??? (rumored to be Runepriest) #
• Races: Wilden, Minotaur, Githzerai, and ??? (rumored to be Shardsoul) #
• Plenty of options for non-psionic characters too, including hybrids. Also in March: Hammerfast, softcover, poster map, near Nentir Vale #
• Mearls: Every place has an adventure hook. Tried to mimic City of Greyhawk. Also sample mini-campaign arc for Hammerfast campaign #
• April/May: Plane Above book, like Plane Below but for Astral Sea #
• Player’s Strategy Guide: aimed to be fun to read by #dnd players- essays, play advice. Not hardcore optimizing or rules. D&D celebs writing #
• May: Dungeon mag annual. Mostly adventures. The Slaying Stone: adventure for lvl 1-3, 32pg softcover w/ poster map. #
• June: Monster Manual 3- trying hard to include more flavor to monsters based on feedback. Story hooks included. (not 3-4 pages though) #
• Monster blocks will contain a section on allies, and why they work together. #
• Also releasing in June: Gargantuan Orcus. Limited edition. Base is removable. Emphasized very limited edition. #
• More in June: Tiefling book, similar to Dragonborn, written by @sernett #
• Deserts of Athas dungeon tiles in June. Demonicon in July, details Demon Lords, history of Abyss “make it adventurable”. Encounter tables #
• July: Tomb of Horrors super-adventure. 10th-22nd level. Draws on Return to Tomb. Format like Revenge of Giants #
• July- Vor Rukoth. Like Hammerfast, more Paragon-focused. Ruins of Tiefling city, east of Nentir Vale. Extraplanar bad guys #
• “Dungeons & Dragons Essentials” first product- Dungeon Tiles Master Set “the dungeon”, keep in print. Use tiles from this in advenures #
• August- Psionic Power by Rob Schwalb. 1 new build for each psionic class. Ardent- empath, Monk uses weapons, Psion uses ectoplasm for minion #
• August- Lords of Madness. Completely blind box again. 6 minis, 60 minis in set, 21.99, contain huge. One mini set per year #
• Also will be “very rare” minis of evey size. #
• August- Dark Sun. Campaign setting and Creature Catalog. Char creation, geography, adventure, dm advice, societies all in setting. #
• Gith, doomreavers, and more Athasian monsters. Also contains hazards and NPCs. Thought long and hard about where to start off. #
• Baker and Schwalb primary writers. Big release using everybody, since they all are DS fans. #
• August: Marauders of Dune Sea adventure. Set outside city of Tyr, 32pg softcover. Also new D&D dice set. #
• Castle Ravenloft board game in Aug. 1-5 players, plays in 1hr or less, 13 advenures, 42 minis, 13 tile sheets, hundreds of cards. Co-op #
• Scales based on # of players. Aimed to be for when can’t get together a #dnd game. #
• Minis with Ravenloft includes 1 huge, all unpainted. Modular board. Cards for events and monsters. Drew as much from adventure as could #
• Ravenloft will be $64.99, released at GenCon. #
• September: D&D essentials set. Looks like Red Box. Includes solo play that helps generate character while playing #
• Aimed to be entirely introductory product. Also in sept- Rules Compendium. Reference book for all rules. Not a rewrite of rules #
• Errata will be incorporated into Rules Compendium. $20, 6×9 size. Red box has tokens an maps. “crayon later this year.” also $20 #
• D&D essentials: Heroes of the Fallen Lands. Designed to be used after Red Box. New builds of existing char classes, basic char classes #
• Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, Rogue, Ranger. More walks thru chargen. Humans, Dwarves, Eladrin, Elf, Halflings. New feats Too #
• Oct: more essentials: Dungeon Master’s Kit, how to DM, sample adventures. Other Tiles master set: “the city” #
• Dungeon Master Kit is big box. Has rules compendium. Lot of monster tokens, two poster maps. $40-$45 #
• Oct: Gamma World. Uses D&D rules. Complete game experience in box. 160 rulebook included. Rooted in d&d. Chargen, how to gm, monsters #
• More on Gamma World: 10 encounters, poster map, tokens. New card mechanics. Character will be mutant. “part cockroach, part yeti” #
• In GW starter box, item cards and mutation cards that come up randomly. Some powerful, some silly. GW will have booster cards for players #
• GW booster packs will be random, only found in hobby stores (not bookstore) Will also have game day #
• Nov: D&D essentials Heroes of Forgotten Kingdoms. Introduces more classes With new builds and races (ex dragonborn and Druid) #
• Nov: Dungeons of Dragonfire Mountain (based on dragon mountain) board game. Shares some mechanics w/ Ravenloft but with twists #
• Some pieces of each Boardgame can be used with each other to expand and make bigger games. Same component #s as Ravenloft #
• Monster Vault is monster book for D&D essentials, includes one token for every monsters in it #
• December: race book for Humans like dragonborn and tiefling books. Also Gamma World “expansion” box, adventure box w/ 16 encounters. #
• December: Dungeon Tile master set “the wilderness.” #
• Most of end of the year is “Essentials” box starting with new Red Box 4e. Only 1 core d&d product, though essentials will have new stuff #
• Off-hand reference to “martial power 3″ – may have just been a joke #
• This year in minis: one core set, Orcus, and “one surprise” #
• Streets of Shadow minis set and Player’s Handbook Heroes both canceled. #
• Orcus is $74.99, emphasized very limited nature again, especially through game stores. #
• “allaying fears” – not abandoning core d&d line. 10 products in essentials then back to core. Problem was workload. “unusual cycle” #
• Online content (ie DDI) will support Heroscape/D&D links and the new boardgames #
• Side note: only two cranky messages + unfollows from livetweeting. There’s more updates to come, so choose following wisely #
• No big announcements for DDI. Working more on Adventure Tools but don’t have anything ready to announce yet. Working all the time on tools #
• Character builder will “change and adapt” to fit analogue game (ie Essentials content). Also more of the boardgames planned. #
• “How many instakills are in Tomb of Horror?” “Not enough.” #
• More seminars this weekend- Dark Sun, and “beyond the rpg” focusing on boardgames/cardgames. If I should cover those, tell me! #

DDXP Community Seminar

• http://twitpic.com/1072gq – Next session about Organized Play and Community with @christulach and @trevor_wotc. (via @geeksdreamgirl) #
• Next DM Rewards: a Dark Sun box (WAR art), plus full set of condition cards for evey condition. Pics forthcoming. #
• Dark Sun box http://twitpic.com/1073te #
• Dark Sun box opened http://twitpic.com/1073×7 #
• LFR is working to be more community driven, and is expanding play experiences, like special con experiences and new places (Raven’s Bluff) #
• Worldwide D&D Game Days: PHB3 On March 20, Dark Sun in August, D&D Red Box in Sept, Gamma World in October #
• Condition Cards that will be DM rewards (protoype) http://twitpic.com/1075ym #
• Cons will have more background to pregen characters, Ultimate Delve returns this summer, highlight new products, more DM support tools #
• Wizards of the Coast announces the end of Star Wars license http://bit.ly/94B60H #rpg #d20 (via @dorkland and @monkeyking) #
• WotC supported cons: DDXP, Pax East, Origins, SD Comic Con, GenCon, Pax Prime, NY Comic Con #
• Formal announcement of D&D encounters (read more on our site: http://is.gd/7eSEZ ) Middle ground between campaign and one-offs #
• Can earn renown points by various things both in game and out of game, which let you earn rewards. (some are like achievements) #
• D&D Encounters starts on March 17 (St. Patrick’s Day!) w/ Undermountain. Scheduling starts February 8th. #
• .@trevor_wotc is talking about featured content on community site- specifically @NewbieDM ’s group #
• Talking about @wizards_dnd feed- going to do weekly rules answers, just figuring out best way to do it #
• “when will Monuments of the Ancients, greatest adventure ever, be released into LFR?” -author @matt_James_fr #
• Second season of D&D encounters starts in June and will be Dark Sun. #
• DDXP Podcast: @wotc_bart updates us on the happenings at the D&D Experience. http://bit.ly/cMCvzV #dnd #ddxp #podcast (via @Wizards_DnD) #
• RT @KenofGhastria: My latest on Examiner.com, talking about the news from #DDXP http://short.to/1573u #

DDXP “Beyond the RPG” Seminar

• At the “Beyond the RPG” seminar at #DDXP (also reporting: @geeksdreamgirl , @wolfstar76) #
• Presenting: @mikemearls, @christulach, and Rich Baker. Talking about the new board games (like Ravenloft), 3 Dragon Ante, and Gamma World. #
• 3 Dragon Ante expansion can be played alone or combined with original. Some of the new dragons from 4e make an appearance. Can mix and match #
• Castle Ravenloft, for those that didn’t hear earlier, is cooperative #dnd boardgame, out for GenCon. #
• Combination of HeroQuest, Descent, Space Hulk, and Betrayal at House on the Hill. Hour play time, cooperative, pulled from the module #
• Dungeon is built as you go, using 4×4 interlocking tiles. 5 different characters. Scenario-driven that dictates objective and play. #
• Monsters come with a “Script” to determine their AI. Players go, then there is a Strahd turn that runs the monsters based on text. #
• Very cut down version of #dnd move and attack action, plus some extra powers. Plays fast. All scenarios form a mini-Ravenloft campaign #
• 42-44 unpainted minis come in the box. 5 Heroes, huge Dracolich, piles of monsters, and Strahd himself. Lots of tokens for traps and such. #
• And as reported earlier, “Dungeons of Dragonfire Mountain” (nee Dragon Mountain) will be released in Oct using same system. #
• Dragonfire Mountain will be standalone, then online content will provide scenarios to combine them. #
• Dungeons of Dragonfire Mountain also inspired by “Gates of Firestorm Peak” #
• Depending on reaction, DDI may also provide new characters or other options for the board games. #
• .@greywulf Sadly, the production of the game wasn’t along enough to make an appearance, so there’s nothing to show or play for it here. #
• This may also not be the only board game engine they design. So for example, they might do a “War of the Lance” mass strategy game. #
• Another possibility for playing the game if the DM kills off several PCs in a session, those players can go play Ravenloft #
• Gamma World: 30 classic monsters + a few new ones, 10 encounter adventure, rules. Self contained game to get started. 4 token sheets #
• GW: a few poster maps, and a GM’s deck of cards that includes 40 mutation cards and 40 tech cards. #
• Doesn’t necessarily use classes. Some things remain the same w/ character, some change, plus mutations of all kinds #
• Your Half-Yeti can wield an M-16 and a stop sign in leather armor. There’s also power armor, blasters, etc. #
• 120 card set, 8 card boosters for $3.99 for more mutations, tech cards, and player “personal deck” cards. #
• “Famine at Fargo” adventure released after core, featuring a giant mutated chicken. Expansion adds 10 cards. More expansion in 2011 #
• Gamma World is “very compatible” with #dnd Skill list slightly different, but D&D monsters work just fine and vice versa #
• Tech artifacts would be “spooky and scary” in D&D but they work similarly as magic items. “Radiation” as damage type. #
• “In LFR, can we use Gamma World artifacts?” @christulach shuts that down pretty quick #
• There are character themes that have elements of D&D roles- acid-spitting cockroach might be kind of a striker, for instance. #
• “Marketing guys might not want me to say this, but you don’t have to buy boosters, and you can always draw from GM’s deck.” #
• Almost entirely random character generation, you’ll have a key stat for your theme, and then stats rolled, as well as stats and mutations #
• Character creation takes maybe up to 15 minutes because so much of it is random. Equipment purchase is one of the few decisions #
• Character progression is faster than D&D, and goes up until level 10 and stops. #
• There are plans to do more “genre games” in the future, which will almost certainly use the 4e engine. #
• No further information on “Points of Light” setting novels, other than Bill S. is working on finishing the first one now. #
• However, the PoL novels will be aimed at the same core audience as normal D&D novel formats, instead of being shorter or aimed younger. #

DDXP Athas Unveiled Seminar

• #DarkSun seminar starting soon from #DDXP #
• Rich Baker’s second project when he first started at TSR was a Dark Sun sourcebook, and even worked on such books as Will and the Way #
• Rob Schwalb is a freelance designer for WotC and also took lion’s share of design. #
• Baker re-familiarized himself with the Dark Sun setting before working on it again, like visiting Athas.org conversion & Wanderer’s Journal #
• Original setting pulled more from Conan and Barsoom than LotR. Fantasy world different than what was done before. More savage & dangerous #
• Athas in Seven Sentences (pic to come later), 4e setting had to follow all of them or else they did it wrong. #
• Area covered in Athas is “smaller than the state of Texas” unlike other settings. #
• Also covering seminar: @geeksdreamgirl, @matt_james_fr, @wizards_dnd, @wolfstar76, @hommlet #
• Trying to take all the parts that original Dark Sun fans loved and take them back to their first exposure. #
• Dark Sun Campaign Guide: 8/2010, 224pgs, 2 new races, 10 character themes, paragon paths, feats, and gear. #
• Extensive Atlas of Athas, short intro adventure, plus material on DMing a Dark Sun game. Societies and flavor of the world. #
• Incorporates “Cutting edge D&D tech” incl. new traps and terrain powers, revised skill challenges, etc. #
• Theme is like a template for characters of any class. Things like Gladiators extend to all classes, so need another mechanic beyond classes #
• Themes give one encounter power, as well as powers you can substitute your class powers for. Some limits & restrictions #
• Gladiator gives a “controller theme” so it’s a backdoor way to get into a martial controller. #
• Themes might make their way into core #dnd – could represent something like a Pirate. #
• Creature Catalog: 144pg softcover, 50+ Dark Sun monsters in 120 varities. 7 Sorcerer-Kings and Dragon of Tyr. +Templates, hazards, etc #
• Retailers gave feedback that players wanted more of the description of the world in the book that they read for campaign guides #
• Insights from Monster Manual 3 design were used in Creature Catalog. More flavor, more story, integration with hazards, other hooks #
• Marauders of the Dune Sea, 32pg adventure for 1-3rd level Dark Sun characters, designed by @brucecordell #
• DDI: Monthly support for Dark Sun. Maybe not an adventure for every month, but split between adventures for Dungeon and options in Dragon #
• List of setting questions is up- pic to come later. Things like using dungeons in Dark Sun, role of Gods, handling Dragons, etc. #
• On things like gnomes that weren’t in 2e, specifically left out for DM to handle, but it’s not a core assumption. #
• Q on Cosmology: decided to include core D&D cosmology. Part of the reason was for monster origins. Not that far from original Dark Sun cosmo #
• Shadowfell is close to the Gray, magic deserts and remaining forests relate to the Feywild. #
• RT @Judd_of_Kryos: Dark Sun 4e tweets compiled http://tiny.cc/C5614 Thanks to @Wizards_DnD and the fantastic work of @criticalhits #
• Half-Giants (Goliaths) will no longer have fluctuating alignment… of course. #
• Dragonborn “aren’t just bolted on”, and Tieflings will be there as well, both with hooks back to the original setting. #
• One of the themes emphasizes Psionic wild talent. #
• Wild talents can also get some “cantrip-level” psionic talents. #
• In Dark Sun, trying to downplay the importance of magic items, and will use the options from DMG2 to achieve this. #
• Mul is +2 Con and other choice +2 Str OR Wis. Edge against condition/status stuff. #
• And that’s the end of the Dark Sun seminar. Can’t wait for August. #

Anyway, here’s the characters:

Suldin, Human Illusionist Wizard

Vinara, Human Sorcerer-King Pact Warlock

Ulieth, Elf Resilient Battlemind

Kindrok, Goliath (Half-Giant) Arena Fighter

Morg, Mul Thunderborn Barbarian

Pak’Cha, Thri-Kreen Animist Shaman

And a compiled PDF of all.

One last tidbit, for those that are into this kind of thing. Weapon breakage rules are as follows: if you roll a 1 on an attack with a weapon, you can reroll it. If you’re using a non-metal weapon, it automatically breaks after the attack if you do so. If you’re using a metal weapon, it breaks on a roll of 1-5.

During the last quarter, WotC will roll out a product line designed for new players. The game’s core is what was being called the “4e Red Box.” The prototype image was styled after the original D&D Red Box, and contains enough for a few players to play (including some tokens and maps), but can also be played solo. What was interesting to me was the “walkthrough” approach to the rules, where the book is designed to come with you to learn the rules as you play. Also neat is that the choices your characters make during the actual game determine what class you are, instead of generating a character first.

The Red Box is supposed to be the clear, introductory, “I’ve never played D&D before and want to learn” set. An emphasis was given by the WotC staffers that the bookstores (since before 4e and well into 3e) have had trouble selling D&D books because it’s not easy to recommend what new players should buy.

In September, we’ll also see the Rules Compendium which will be just the rules portions of the game available for quick reference. Like most of the books in the D&D Essentials set, the book will be $20 and a 6″x9″ softcover format. They made it a point to say that these weren’t “dumbed down” rules, but the actual 4e rules, just laid out and presented differently, so I could see this book being useful for a “4e Core” player… especially since the book incorporates the errata.

Following that are products that are clearly separated. There is the Heroes of Fallen Lands which contains rules for the players, as well as a sampling of some of the more classic classes and races. It too is designed as more of a “Walkthrough” approach to character generation instead of just picking from lists of powers and feats. They did state that the builds for the classes would be all new, and most of the feats except for some of the very essentials would be new as well, so they are still introducing new elements to the game through these products. Released at the same time, there is the Dungeon Master’s Kit, which is a big box that contains the Rules Compendium, tokens, maps, advice on how to DM, and adventures.

Then there is Heroes of Forgotten Kingdoms, which is another player book, but introduces some of the more 4e-specific stuff like Dragonborn and Warlocks as additional character options. Also included in the Essentials line are several Dungeon Tile master sets, which are sets designed to remain in-print, and will be the primary source for including maps in published adventures when they want to use dungeon tiles, so you don’t have to hunt down two of an out-of-print set to build a map they show you.

All told, the line will be 10 products this year (including the dungeon tiles), and then will be done (though I would suppose there’s always room for more depending on sales and demand.) In the Q&A afterward, it was clarified that they were not abandoning the 4e core product line/trade dress/etc. but just did not have the manpower to work on both for the end of this year. Additionally, the DDI tools (like character builder) will “work to support the analogue game line” which can easily be taken to mean there will be, at least, an “Essentials Mode.”

So that’s the big surprise product announcement from D&D XP- a small product line designed for new players. The only downside? Those of us who aren’t new players won’t get much from September to December… unless we want to go play Gamma World.

If you’d like to look back on the coverage of the seminar, you can check out Geek’s Dream Girl’s LiveBlog of D&D XP which has all the updates from the seminar in the archives.

This new program is set up for your local game store to host a short play session each week, usually 1 or 2 encounters in length, from February through the rest of Spring. They will also be giving out Renown points for accomplishing tasks in these sessions that can be traded in for in-game rewards along with the above mentioned contests for players and stores to win prizes “that will make stores an even more exciting place to play D&D. I have no idea what that could mean, but my money is on fog and light machines!

Here is the official information:

D&D Encounters:

• D&D Encounters sign-ups open February 8
• Each D&D Encounters play kit (arriving in stores March 10) comes with all the materials needed to support 12 players and 2 DMs – adventures, maps, tokens, rewards for players and DMs, and a promo poster which doubles as a play tracker
• Each Wednesday, players participate in a one-encounter D&D play session lasting about 1-2 hours
• The first season of D&D Encounters features the iconic dungeon of Undermountain in the Forgotten Realms and runs March 17 through June 2

The first D&D Encounters mini-campaign takes place in the Forgotten
Realms exploring new areas of Undermountain, with their own
characters, one they create at the store, or a pre-generated character
provided with the kit. It’s a good chance for players to experiment
with a new character…or try DMing for the first time, since there’s a
full kit of materials provided, it’s easier to get into running a
game.

In each battle, players will earn Renown Points redeemable for in-game
rewards; as players progress through the campaign, they will earn
Renown Points for completing encounters, finishing quests and engaging
in other adventuring activities. Before and during the game, we’ll be
encouraging discussion via the Web, (Twitter and the Wizards community
site) to share experiences with other players from around the world
and even get clues/bonuses for use in-game.

And to support participating stores, Wizards will be hosting contests
and promotions to offer prizes that will make stores an even more
exciting place to play D&D. Information on D&D Encounters and related
promotions (as they come up) will live at www.dungeonsanddragons.com/dndencounters.

In part 1, I described the “Secret Synergy Bonus” that made players a lot better at dealing with combat encounters that should otherwise be more challenging.  Then in part 2, I started sharing some solutions to bring challenges back to combat encounters, some bad and some easy to implement.

Today, I want to present ideas to make you think about implementing more elaborate solutions to this very interesting phenomenon.  I find the Synergy Bonus to be a very cool aspect of D&D 4e, I’m glad it exists, I just wish it was easier for DMs to deal with when it crops up.  Fortunately, the game offers the best DM toolbox ever created to deal with such issues, all it needs is some creativity and a little flair for “fun” dirty tricks.

Ruin the PCs’ Game Plan

As my players developed into elite adventurers, I noticed that there was a method to their efficiency.  They would pick or settle on a strong point on the battle map. The defenders and leaders would occupy it by forming a line against which the monsters would invariably crash.  The melee striker would then close in and create a triangle with that line, catching monsters in the middle and dishing massive damage.  The controllers and ranged strikers would just stand behind the line and deal death from afar.

I noticed that the sooner the PCs established this (or similar) pattern, the faster they took control of the fight.  That’s what I call the PCs’ game plan. It occurred to me that my goal should be to try to break that plan to swing momentum toward my monsters long enough to worry the players.  Turns out that it worked!

Examples:

• Having lurkers pop behind the ranged PCs a few rounds into the fight
• Having defenders get snatched by flying/tentacled monsters and dropped in the middle of monsters/ in a trap
• Forcing high damage striker to attack minions before reaching juicer targets.
• Traps/magical effects that hit large areas and cause forced movement, sending PCs flying all over the place

Of course the PCs will eventually reestablish control of the fight, but chances are more resources will have been spent and the players will feel more satisfied with the challenge.

Complex Encounters

As I said yesterday, mixing monsters, terrain and traps together can make for phenomenal encounters.  While you can pick and chose encounter elements rapidly as a quick fix, a DM willing to invest some more time can develop his own evil combos and synergies that will rival the PC’s.  Lots of monsters have powers that combine together and with many fantastic terrain and traps.  I personally love ‘pinball’ effects where PCs are thrown left and right on the battlefield into traps and ‘interesting’ terrain.

The trick is to combine various elements together and create interrelationships between them.  Traps are cooler when they interact with PCs and Monsters, fantastic terrain can hide a monster or push creatures into traps and so forth.

Here’s a simple example:

A cave encounter features a bunch of Kuo Toa (Insane Fish men), a few 3X3 pools of what’s apparently water and many Stalagtites/Stalagmites.

The Stalagmites provide cover and have truncated tops that are great shooting platforms for ranged creatures. They can be climbed but they are covered by some gunky sap that deals acid damage to climbers and slows climbing.

The Stalagtites have been weakened by the acidic gunk such that whenever a creature walks within 1 square of one, it falls and crashes in a burst attack (vs Ref), dealing damage and immobilizing creatures hit by it (It also creates difficult terrain).

The pools are very acidic (notice a theme here?) and slightly neurotoxic. They deal acid damage every per round (5 per tier) and slow any creatures in it  (until end of next turn).

But, in those pools are… wait for it…

ACID SHARKS! (Thank you Rich Burlew!)

They are immune to the pool’s effect and have a Grab Bite power, keeping PCs in the pool, getting burned and eaten at the same time.

Finally, the Kuo Toa leader is a Kuo Toa Whip, a controller whose power set includes Sliding PCs….into the stalagmite and pool.

Add a few Brutes, Minions, Artillery (on the  Stalagtites) or Skirmishers and you have a a challenging encounter for your players.

Of course, if your players are truly at “that point”, they’ll eventually crack your setup and start throwing monsters into the pool so THEY get eaten by a shark… but that’s part of the fun of it all no?

For a more extreme example here’s an entry I sent for the Wizards of the Coast Holiday Encounter Contest a few weeks back.   It’s a toy factory line made of dangerous traps.  All monsters have forced movement powers and the line has 2 control panels to trigger traps out of sequence or reverse the direction the whole thing is going.  Tons of fun.

Adding complex elements to split the PCs,  surprise them and screw their game is the way to catch up to them.

Make Encounters not about Combat Anymore

If the players have reached a point where combat is almost always too easy for them. You may prefer to move away from hyper crunchy encounters (like the examples above) and go another way. You might want to have encounters stop being primarily about combat.

What if combat occurred in encounters where PCs had more pressings things to do?  You create scenes where PCs need to perform critical tasks that can’t be interrupted (usually a high-tension skill challenge, one where each failure is harsh  for the PCs) and then have monsters come and interrupt the fun!  Now PCs must deal with the Skill Challenge and the monsters.

In the current issue of Kobold Quarterly, I wrote an article exactly about using skill challenges in combat (woot 2 plugs in one post) to add new dimensions to them (Woot, plug!).

Other examples:

• PCs must find an object hidden in an area, the longer they search for it, the more monsters pop out and attack
  • Indiana Jones Special: The monsters have different roles: Vermin Swarms, Defenders and Rival adventurers!
• Allied Load Bearing King just died and PCs must escape the crumbling castle or be crushed underneath it (a great Skill Challenge just there).  However, the elite guards sworn to die with their deceased sovereign face the PCs, accusing them of murder as the castle crumbles around them (Embedded Skill Challenge or Combat!)!

I could write whole posts about those 3 subjects, and maybe I will if there’s a demand for it.  This is just a few examples to get your brain going.  The Secret Synergy bonus is a great feature of 4e, it’s just that it’s a lot easier to stumble upon it than it is for the DM to master all the elements of the impressive DM’s toolbox to act as a counterweight to it.

I may also revisit this later with a post about helping players transition to the synergistic state.

Thanks for reading, I hope you’ve enjoyed my 1st full series here. I’m starting to enjoy myself a lot!

Elitism aside, I still pay attention to what WotC does with Dungeons & Dragons and I still have a desire to see them head in certain directions. I’m just not pompous enough to assume that my ideas are best for their business.

With all of the 2010 predictions going on, I thought it might be fun to look at the five things I’d like to see WotC do with Dungeons & Dragons in 2011. Why 2011 instead of 2010? It’s very likely the WotC production schedule has already fully planned out their line for 2010. Any desires I have will likely have to wait until 2011 to become reality. So I’m skipping 2010, a year filled with Dark Sun, the third set of core books, and lots of other interesting products to focus on the year after.

I will warn you now that these are likely to be contested opinions. I’m guessing every D&D player has a 3×5 note card in their back pocket with things they want WotC to do. But today we’ll simply have to suffer through mine.

Let us begin.

Publish a New Dungeon Delve

I’m a huge fan of the Dungeon Delve sourcebook but it’s quickly losing its value as I play through all of the three-battle scenarios contained within. This book has proved invaluable to me as a source for single-night one-shot adventures as well as quick additions to my own campaign. It’s a great modular book that ends up being far more useful than published full-length adventures.  I would actually far prefer WotC publishes delves to DDI instead of full-length adventure paths.

In 2011 I would love to see WotC publish a new Dungeon Delve book in exactly the same format as the first with fresh encounters, fresh environments, and fresh monsters. I would love it to continue using D&D Dungeon Tiles and miniatures available in D&D Miniature boosters. Another book like this would see a lot of use in my game.

Publish a 4e Unearthed Arcana

In 2004, WotC published Unearthed Arcana for the 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons. This rules supplement contained piles and piles of house rules one could use to modify the game play of the 3rd edition of D&D. I’d love to see a new version of this book for 4e with supplemental rules to speed up combat, increase monster threats at higher levels, simplify character design, simplify known complexities in 4e, change annoying status effects like stun, and address a lot of the other areas in 4th edition that a lot of us aren’t generally happy with. All of these rules would be optional and, unlike the errata and updated rules we find in the DMG2, they can actually modify or remove rules printed previously.

No doubt this would be politically sensitive. A lot of players might use this to shout about D&D 4.5 but making it an optional supplement would avoid that point of view in more rational thought.

Publish a Monster Manual 1 Redux

I love where WotC has taken the Monster Manual 2 and hearing about the new format for monsters in the Monster Manual 3 from the D&D podcast has sure awakened my interest. That said, it bothers me to no end that the monsters in the first Monster Manual now feel so dated. In particular, I end up having to redo the math for an elite, solo, or minion I want to use in the book by changing defenses, changing hit points, changing damage output, and in the case of solos, coming up with some wild “bloodied” ability if they don’t have it. I’ve ended up re-skinning MM2 monsters more often than using monsters out of the MM1.

There are so many great iconic monsters in the MM1 that it’s a shame to watch them gather dust. In 2011 I’d like to see WotC publish a new updated version of the Monster Manual 1 using the mechanical changes from MM2 and, assuming we like it, the new formatting from the MM3. At the very least, I’d like to see a dungeon article that rebuilds the chromatic dragons using the new mechanics. Better, though, is an entirely updated book.

Flavor Text Everywhere

One trend I would love to see WotC develop is a concept of “flavor text everywhere”. Ideally, any paragraph of fluff text in any of the D&D books should be written so, as a DM, I can read it aloud to my players without having to re-write it. Books like Manual of the Planes and The Plane Below would be a lot more useful to me if I could whip it out and read aloud a description of the City of Brass without Forest Gumping my way through it ad-hoc or having to sit down and write my own prose.

I don’t think it would work everywhere. There has to be SOME DM-focused descriptions that help us tie everything together, but there should be a lot more flavor text throughout any sourcebook that goes into descriptions I’m going to end up having to read aloud.

Make Web Products More Webby

Dave the Game wrote a wonderful article called Changing the Way We Think About Published Adventures. While I don’t share the same point of view across the board, he has one really excellent idea I’d like to see WotC tackle in 2011. Right now it makes very little sense to have a web-based publishing platform like DDI that essentially pumps out .pdf documents I’m going to end up having to print anyway. Instead, I think it would be far more useful if WotC developed a wiki-like spiderweb of mini-adventures and encounters similar to Monte Cook’s Dungeon-a-Day. While any content from this wiki-like campaign should be printable, it might work very well right off of a laptop instead, saving me hundreds of dollars in ink printing those full-color pages. As it stands now, DDI simply passes the cost of printing over to me. Why not instead give me a product that uses the web the way it was designed?

I don’t know that WotC will follow any of this advice and, as I stated earlier, I’m not thinking about it from their business side at all. I have no idea if it would be popular or start some sort of silly RPG revolt or something like that. I only know the sorts of things I really want in new products from WotC. As fans of D&D that’s really the best direction we can head – play the game we love and tell them what we love and hate about it. That’s probably the best way to impact the game we love so much.

I also discussed that while not a necessity to enjoy D&D 4e, this ‘bonus’ could sneak up on a DM and make supposedly challenging encounters too breezy to create much tension with players.

And just so you all know, I’m currently living through those very issues.  My players discovered that bonus a long time ago and now that we’re into mid-paragon level, most of our fights, while interesting, end up feeling like they could have been harder.  Thus I’ve been in solution-seeking mode for quite some time now.

Today I’ll tackle two types of solutions to bring back challenge into combat encounters with synergistic parties:  the questionable solutions and the quick solutions.  In part 3, I’ll conclude this series with a discussion on using more elaborate solutions to the issue and share some of the tips left by readers.

Less Than Ideal Solutions

When a problem crops up, humans usually look for the path of least resistance to resolve the issue.  We want a simple solution that will resolve everything.

The worse possible solution in my mind would be to try to stifle the bonus by telling players they can’t plot and play like that because it would be meta-gaming (how I hate this word). The game was designed to allow Slayers, Tacticians and Power Gamers (3 of the many types identified in the Dungeon Master Guide) to truly enjoy character creation and combat.   The synergy bonus does not prevent story-telling or roleplaying, but is likely a bonus feature for some players to discover and play with.

Also, to make combat more difficult,  the first reflex is often to play with the encounter’s XP budget and monster levels.  Logic says that if you use higher level monsters, the party will have a harder time dealing with them and thus the fight will be more challenging. However, in practice, while higher level monsters deal more damage (i.e. are more of a threat to PCs) they have higher defenses and more hit points.

So combat encounters may become more challenging, but will also be longer and potentially more frustrating.  Against higher defenses, PCs are going to miss more often and when they do manage to hit, they’ll need to dish out more damage to vanquish monsters.  This is especially true of Soldier monsters. However, some monster types like Artillery and Skirmishers aren’t so bad.  Their defenses and HP are lower to start with and they deal high damage so using higher levels ones can be a workable solution.

I’m also a bit leery of ‘multiply damage of all monsters by X’ and ‘divide all HP by Y.’  I know many DMs use them and I’m the first proponent of house rulings, but in my musings on the subject, these rules may be  patches done to sound game math, if uncalibrated for synergistic parties.

In fact, I’m beginning to suspect that while 4e is dead easy to prep for, it can lure DMs into a form of laziness that is easily exploitable by the synergy bonus.  Blindly fiddling with combat mechanics numbers to make fights more challenging (or to avoid the grind) is risky, but I believe you can do it knowingly.

Quick Fixes

The biggest issue about the synergy bonus is that players get more and more practice playing the same PCs together and become more efficient while the DM is expected to track combat, monster stats, statuses and control monsters (quick tip: Delegate to players and/or software!) The chances of a DM developing such synergies with his monsters during combat  (unless it’s pre-planned, which I’ll discuss in part 3)  is unlikely barring a Tactician DM (Oh yeah, those exist too).

Now while the fixes discussed above aren’t ideal, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t other quick fixes that can help.

First is a little secret I stumbled upon while playing with the Monster Maker Adventure Tool application from D&D Insider.  While creating monsters for my new Gears of Ruin campaign, I noticed that each attack power had 4 damage options: Low, Medium, High and Custom.  Looking at the values, I realized that the low/med/high corresponded to the chart on page 42 of the DMG (and at the beginning of the ‘Trap’ section of the DMG 2).

This made me realize that I could play around with damage outputs within the level range of the p42 chart without changing the XP cost of a monster!  So my first tip is simple:  Max out damage of your monsters attacks by giving them the ‘High’ column of the normal damage section of the table.   If the monster is already at the top, feel free to nudge it up a bit more.  Like Mike Shea of Sly Flourish mentions in yesterday’s comments: feel free to add a +5 damage bonus per tier (Heroic/Paragon/Epic) per attack.

Secondly, add damaging terrain to the fight.  If you sprinkle the battlemap with areas that deal damage automatically when entered (or when a creature starts its turn in it) then you have a more challenging fight.  Remember though, any damage you want to deal without an attack roll should be limited to 5 per tier.  Best of all, there are no XP costs for that.

If you want the terrain to deal those wonderful p42 damage amounts, make the ‘terrain’ a trap with a simple trigger (entering/starting in it), an attack bonus (equivalent to a monster of the appropriate level) and pick a damage amount  from p42 based on level.   The rule of thumb here is that the narrower the trap’s effect is, the higher the amount of damage is.  Don’t forget to factor a XP cost equivalent to a full monster (or a minion if its a one shot trap) but feel free to interpret how many ‘zones’ of damage correspond to one trap and budget accordignly.

You can also use hindering terrain that slows/grabs/restricts PC movement.  Don’t overdo it as getting grabbed/restricted repeatedly gets annoying and encourages PCs to stop moving, which makes combat less exciting for all.

Third, make sure your monster mix is focused on dealing damage.  While you can challenge PCs by stunning, dazing and restraining them to let monsters deal medium damage, this is often a one-way ticket to player frustration.  Massively going after the PCs’ hit points is the way to go here.  You need high damage dealers like Artileries,  Skirmishers, Lurkers and Brutes to worry the players.

Quick Pick Combo

Lastly, you can mix all of the above  for best effect.  Use high damage monsters and increase their damage further as per the table on page 42.  Add damaging or hindering terrain and traps.

More importantly, pick monsters with forced movement powers so they can send PCs into the damaging/hindering zones/traps,  making simple combos of your own!

I’ll get into more details about mixing other encounter elements to make fight more challenging in part 3.

In the mean time, what about your own quick fixes? Some were already posted yesterday but maybe you have stumbled upon your own and you’d like to share.

After awhile, my nephew’s utter devotion to Star Wars faded, and he got really hardcore into Transformers. Only now, he had seen the movie, and had all the new toys. Despite this, I still had a lot of incredibly information in my brain about Transformers that he desperately wanted to get out (which, despite Bumblebee’s inexplicably being a Camaro, is a testament to the faithfulness of Michael Bay’s adaptation of the franchise). Now I found myself in a very strange position, telling a young’un about how things were back in the old days before all your crazy inter-nets ruined the moral fiber of this country. However, unlike my own reaction to such stories in my youth, he thought knowing how Optimus Prime and Megatron used to look and more of the original story were fascinating, so that was what we talked about most of this year. There was a really strange and wonderful period this summer, where he got really into Ghostbusters when the (underrated) videogame came out, and he talked his parents into buying him all the old Real Ghostbusters toys I used to have as a kid. For about a month, it was all Vince Clortho this and Ecto-1 that, and it was neat to be able to dredge that up for someone who wasn’t my age and just learning about it for the first time.

The biggest shock to my system from all this, though, was at Halloween. He really wanted to be Link from the Legend of Zelda series, and his mom made him a really great costume, and he showed it off for us when we visited. So I asked him if he’s a big Zelda fan, and he looked at me funny. Turns out, his only exposure to Link was playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I think my mouth may have been open for a full minute before I was able to speak or close it. The last time I have been so shocked about something was back in college when they re-released the original Star Wars trilogy, and an Indian friend of mine who had only been in the country for a couple months went to Taco Bell with me. We got these cups with Darth Vader on them, and he points and says “who’s that guy”. 15 years later, I am still not convinced I have extracted all the taco-pieces from my sinuses resulting from that incident.

It should go without saying that my young nephew soon found himself with the means to play the original Legend of Zelda. (And strategy guides for his parents to consult, so he wouldn’t get too frustrated.) And soon we were cruising through the other characters in the game, talking about all the old games they’d been in. I’ve been hunting up as many as I can, so that he can be in touch with his gaming roots, and know why Link has so many different weapons, and why Zelda goes all ninja sometimes, and why Samus turns into a ball, that Star Fox is a lot cooler than people give him credit for, and that Snake sneaking around inside a box isn’t just randomly hilarious (though it IS still hilarious). My nephew’s reception to such old games has been considerably warmer than I had anticipated. I was expecting something along the lines of “oh my god these graphics make me wanna barf”, but he really seems to be interested in playing them (albeit, for the full attention span of someone who is 6).

I must wonder how many kids are out there like my nephew, who are aware of the existence of certain characters, but who have no idea how long that character has been around or what stories have already been told about it. I am sure one source of such shallow knowledge is comics. I remember reading the Wonder Woman: Judgement In Infinity series as a kid – featuring dozens of super-ladies, a reverse metasausagefest, if you will – and wondering two things. The first, obviously, was why Power Girl’s boobs were bigger than anyone else’s. (It is a question still worth pondering today – for approximately four minutes, depending on one’s level of physical fitness and ability to run through the stats of each creature in D&D 2e’s Monstrous Compendium 2 in one’s head.) The second was who in the hell were all these people? I’d never seen them before. But I could, for the most part, figure out where they were from, what they could do, and that they were nowhere near as important as Wonder Woman. (Except Power Girl, for obvious reasons.) I also very much enjoyed reading the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe and the Who’s Who in the DC Universe series when I was young, which allowed me to recognize most characters on sight, and to have the Cliff’s Notes version of their history up to that point. Strangely, as often as they have rebooted comics over the years, I still find this knowledge useful when my more comic-book-nerd friends give me the rundown on what horrors they have unleashed on their poor characters this week (Dick Grayson as Batman? Batman’s bat-stard son as Robin, complete with Ra’s Al Grandpa? Whaaaat?!)

Can you make a shallow-depth ensemble cast from other media? I suppose so. Alan Moore did it by turning characters from literature into superheroes in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (the comic, I hear, is better than the movie). But it takes a certain kind of character to work. Adding Anne of Green Gables to Super Smash Bros. Brawl would send the nation into mourning after thousands of children died from their eyes rolling back into their heads so fast that their brains caught fire. (Though, I do imagine her boyfriend Gilbert’s Typhoid Fever Super Smash Attack might prove formidable. Except to Dr. Mario.)

I personally would like to see every last one of the Presidents of the United States in a fighting game, their legacy distilled into a couple of special attacks. Abe Lincoln would emancipate the slaves and they would attack all his opponents. You could attack Ronald Reagan, but nothing would ever stick. Bill Clinton would do something obvious involving his genitals. Warren Harding would return everything to normalcy, and he would win the match while his opponents tried to figure out what in the hell that meant or if it was even a word. Teddy Roosevelt would win – every single match, because he was the Chuck Norris of his day and only a fool would believe otherwise. It would be amazing, and it would teach kids the right way to learn about our way of government: strategy guides.

As for my nephew, I sincerely hope his interests and mine continue to collide. But I’m a little worried, because at the rate he’s blowing through all of my childhood interests, he’s going to hit my early teen years sometime next fall. And that’s a conversation I’m not sure I want to have with his parents.