With three years of weekly games, published adventures gave me the framework I needed when I wouldn’t have the time to write up my own campaign, but in some cases modifying them took as much time as building it myself. I’ve spent these three years seeing what worked well for me with these published adventures and what did not. Adventures, as written, do not give me exactly what I want.
Upcoming 4e Item Rarities and the Great 4e Rebalancing
At the D&D New Products Seminar, and on this post from Mike Mearls, it was stated that, from Essentials on out, items would fall into categories of common, uncommon, and rare. Most existing items, he stated, would fall into the “uncommon” rarity. So why does this matter? It matters because it is the combination of item powers mixed with class, paragon path, epic destiny, and class power effects that often unbalanced the game. With these item combinations much more rare, PCs are more likely to stay balanced. Let’s look at a few specific instances where we’ll see this change.
A DM’s Look at D&D Essentials
Like many of you, I was very interested to hear more about D&D Essentials. A lot of people whisper the threat of “D&D 4.5” and narrow their eyes as they grab a hold of their wallets for fear that Mike Mearls will pluck it out of their hands. We have a lot of questions rolling around in our heads. As primarily a dungeon master, I have a lot of questions about what this will do to my game. Today we’re going to take a look at what D&D Essentials could mean for us dungeon masters.
Monster Manual 3 Interview with Greg Bilsland
The Monster Manual 3 is due for release in just a few short days. We had the opportunity to ask Greg Bilsland, Wizards of the Coast’s designer and lead editor for the Monster Manual 3, five questions related to the release of the MM3.
Review: Borderlands
Borderlands is a unique and rare game that, unlike many current games, pulls you in right away and never lets go. This Diablo-style first person shooter has all of the best elements of an action game and a loot-based roleplaying game packed with some beautiful artwork and enough content to keep you busy for fifty hours or more.
How the iPad Changes D&D
If I had to guess, I’d guess that you either already love the iPad or already hate it, and another 2000 words won’t change that. If you hate it, you might want to move on. I don’t think this article will make you any happier. What I do want to focus on are the short-term ways the iPad could potentially change our D&D games. I’m primarily a D&D 4th Edition dungeon master so this article is likely to focus on that as well.
D&D Tips from Mass Effect 2
Today we’re going to take a look how the action RPG Mass Effect 2 can make our games better as well. I will warn that, while I don’t plan on any direct spoilers in this review (omg, I can’t believe they blew up the Citadel!) I might step into the story just a little bit. If you want to be 100% spoiler free (Woo! You sleep with Miranda) you may want to read this when you’ve finished getting most of your crew killed by giant Aardvarks.
Review: “Uncharted 2”
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.
Five Things I Would Like WotC to Do With D&D in 2011
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.
Review: “Assassin’s Creed 2”
In short, Assassin’s Creed 2 is a wonderful open-world game that feels a lot like Grand Theft Auto in 15th century Italy. While the story is almost incomprehensible, especially at the end, the action and gameplay more than make up for it.
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