Why do you Play Dungeons and Dragons?
We’ve gone, now, without a regular D&D game for several months. Mainly, it’s due to the 4E malaise, like I’ve said before. I also said before that I see myself playing D&D pretty much forever.
It almost seems like the two ideas are incompatible, at first; if I’m not playing now, what makes me think I’ll pick up dice again? Something deep down tells me I will. I don’t know if I can explain it fully; maybe it’s just that the malaise is starting to lift. Maybe I’m just basing it on past history - I’ve almost never gone for more than a little while without playing.
But why? Why will I play D&D forever, even though I’m taking a break from it for right now?
For me, I think it boils down to a few specific things:
- I play Dungeons and Dragons to spend time with my friends. Can I spend time with my friends doing other things? Of course. But some of the best memories we’ve got are D&D memories.
- I play Dungeons and Dragons because I like the role aspect of roleplaying games. I like being someone else for a while, or even just being evil Bob in a safe environment.
- I play Dungeons and Dragons because I’m a fantasy geek. Yeah, LOTR was great, but its at least 2 years until The Hobbit, and Eragon just didn’t do it for me. I need fantasy entertainment, and lots of it. D&D Novels are fine, but I like me some live action (not to be confused with LARP).
- I play Dungeons and Dragons, most simply, because I have fun. There are a handful of experiences I enjoy more, and most of them are things like spending time with my family or eating. I just enjoy the game, for all of the above reasons and for a hundred reasons I can’t even express.
So, what about you? Why do you play D&D?
What I’ve Been Up To
Toldja yesterday. It’s the hat.
See the D&D figs in the background? :)
Anywho… I came to the conclusion, a couple of weeks back, that this blog was meant to be a labor of love. By that, I mean that it isn’t going to ever be a reliable stream of blogging income in the way that Writing-Journey or TheHistoryGuru are intended to be. I’m sure it’s possible for a D&D blog to do so (How else could Yax of DungeonMastering.com give away all of that stuff?) but the ratio of work to reward is higher than I’d like it to be. And, there are so many folks out there doing it better than me. On top of all of that, I don’t want to ever have to blog about D&D. I want to do it for the fun of it. I want to do it to meet new friends like the folks at Critical Hits, Stupid Ranger, Chatty DM, Phil Gamer, the aforementioned DungeonMastering, Kimmie, Kam at Pens & Swords, and any others that don’t immediately come to mind. (If you’ve not visited each and every one of them, go do that now. Subscribe to their feeds, while you’re at it.)
Anyways, that’s why I’ve gone from 3 posts a day down to about 3-4 a week. Hobbies get less time than work. I’m also changing around my ad structure to be less intrusive. While I’m not counting on the site for income, I’d love to make enough on the site to at least pay the hosting fees. Also, over the next few weeks, I’m going to be migrating the material from the articles section of the site into the blog. New product reviews will all happen inside of the regular blog, right here. OOH, and I’ll probably be screwing with themes for a couple of days, too, so watch for that.
So anyways, that’s what the site has been up to. As for the rest of me, I’ve been working on other writing projects, and have landed a long-term project with a big client. That’s going to provide some stability to my freelancing that I’m just thrilled about. I’m thrilled with the growth at Writing Journey, and I’m hoping to be able to start my mentoring program up over there by the fall. I’ve also been screwing around on Helium.com quite a bit. Check out my latest article over there on the D&D stigma.
Our regular D&D game is in a bit of limbo, waiting to see how 4E goes. I’m going to be running H1 a couple of times, to make sure that everyone in our group gets to play at least once. I think Randy’s going to run H2 in the same way. By the time that’s all said and done, I think we’ll have a good idea of whether we’re switching for certain. I’m ready for 4E to be out, for that reason if nothing else.
As a side note: any of you writer-types reading this, you should consider getting in on Helium’s Reward-athon, contests, and marketplace. Helium is fun to write for and has a bunch of potential for creating residual income. I know one writer who brings in $300-$500 every month on articles she’s written months ago. If you decide to sign up, email me and I’ll send you a referral link. I’m looking at being the Sub-Channel Steward for RPGs, and would love to see more D&D articles on the site.
DnD 4E Rogue - join the conversation
For those of you who are scroll- or click-impaired, and may have missed it over the weekend, Wizards released the 4E rogue in all his glory last Friday. We’ve got some interesting takes on it over at Critical Hits, so I encourage you to check those out. No, really. Go now.
For those of you who absolutely refuse, here are the observations I posted on Saturday:
- Healing Surges. This isn’t new info, but I have to admit: If there is one element I’m not sure about from the 4E previews, it is this. I’m just not convinced that it makes sense, from the flavor perspective. We will see how it winds up playing out, however.
- Weapon Proficiencies. I think I am glad to see them back. As a DM, it was sometimes frustrating to watch the versatility that players had with weapon groups. MWAHAHAHA!
- Simplified Skill System. No new info here; we knew that they were going to move this direction, ala Saga Edition. I am glad to see this, in part, because I think it makes the rogue more playable, in the long run.
- Powers. I like the suggested at-will, encounter, and daily powers. This firms up the talk about power durations. I’ve been an advocate for this sort of simplification in spells for a long time, and I think it just makes sense. If you’re not a fan of per-encounter abilities, you’re not going to like 4E. For me, it’s a long time coming.
- Brawny and Trickster Builds. I like the two builds. It’s a cool way to present archetypes to new players, inexperienced players, or players that haven’t played a given class before.
- Shuriken. I’m not sure the weapon belongs in core, even if it is cool, and even if Midnight used them. That’s a long-standing complaint, though.
- Sneak Attack Damage. This seems waaay too nerfed for me. Having said that, I will have to see what a 22nd-level encounter looks like to know for sure if 5d6 is too little.
- Powers Again. I’m a sucker for flavor text, and I love the power descriptions.
All in all, I give the new rogue a B+. That could rise to an A-, once I’ve seen what he’s up against at various levels.
DnD 4E Update - The Rouge is out!
Critical Hits just caught this one. The Fourth Edition Rogue has been released!
I’ll post my initial reaction over there.
Of Markets, RPGs, and Third Parties
The Chatty DM has a guest column this morning over at dungeonmastering.com on the concept of the OGL and its effect on Dungeons and Dragons, both in terms of the effect it had on 3E as well as the possible effect on 4E.
I don’t substantially disagree with anything Phil is saying there. However, I’d like to hone in on a part of the argument he sort of glosses over:
- The OGL, at its base, is a business document. It has little or nothing do to with role-playing itself, at least not categorically.
- The negative effect of the OGL on retailers, in terms of third party products, demonstrates a weakness in the current publication and distribution channels - business factors - rather than a problem with the OGL itself. After all, comic book retailers are able to bring in titles that don’t sell on a regular basis with little danger. An aggregative distribution company for third party OGL materials could, I think, both lessen the impact to retailers, and see more consistent distribution of third-party product. Any entrepreneurial gamers out there want to start a company?
- A glut of bad products should make consumers focus on a known quantity. If there were 100 different brands of HDTVs and 84 of them completely sucked, you’d turn to the remaining 16; many people would turn to the top company, fearing the demise of the other viable 15. Who does this hurt? The 15? No; they will see increased business from people who were buying the 84, or at least level sales. And it sure doesn’t hurt the consumer.
- I don’t think we need time to know which system was best for us as consumers, if not as gamers. Competition forces the cream to rise to the top, and that is what happened with the 3E OGL. Great third parties who made great products (Goodman, Monte, etc) stayed in business. Companies that made less-than-stellar products didn’t. And WotC got a huge recruiting ground and sandbox out of the third parties, providing them with additional resources, but also forcing them to put out quality product so as to stay in the market.
What’s the point here? It’s the same point I’ve been making to my friend who believes that 4E is going to be “New Coke.” I’m not a marketing expert, and don’t want to be when I grow up. I don’t have access to industry data to tell me how things are trending, I don’t have demographic data, I only have what I read on the Internet and hear from my friends. And that is the definition of anecdotal. Most of us really have no clue what will happen when 4E comes out. We might have hunches or hopes, but it is business acumen, not gaming insight, that determines how accurate those hunches or hopes will prove to be.
The point, then, is like I said above: the OGL is a business document. Its impact on the game has to be understood in terms of how it affects the market; any other impact is, likely, minimal.
Monday Morning in Iceland
Hey all!
Dang, it’s cold here. And icy.
I will admit it. I was a bit cranky last Wednesday. Maybe it was the weather. Maybe it was the vodka. Either way, I’m over it. I think I’m ready to take this gamer contract thing seriously. The Philippine Gamer has done some excellent legwork on the question, looking at the social contract from the player perspective. While I’m going to take a day or to and work up my version of the DM’s commitments, why don’t you visit Philie G. and give him your thoughts on the social contract.
On another note, I don’t know what it is, but Yax seems to send his best stuff out on Sunday and Monday. This Sunday’s quiz was on gnomes “rarrr, I’m a monster” and hobbits halflings. I scored 60% - see if you can do better.
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At any rate, I’ve spent some time thinking this weekend about the whole GenCon situation. Something occurred to me: I’ve only been going to GenCon for six years. Yeah, I’ve been DMing for more than 20, but the Con is a fairly recent thing for me. So, why am I bothered by the hint that there might be trouble with GenCon? I feel like the experience has really enhanced my gaming, and my love for the game. It also broadened my horizons. For example:
- Prior to attending GenCon, I barely noticed the release of a new edition of D&D; I was a full year late to that dance. This time around, I was aware of the new edition announcement within hours, and have spent months researching it and planning for it.
- Prior to attending GenCon, I only ever played D&D with friends. Since then, I’ve found people to play D&D with that are, essentially, acquaintances that share a love of the game. To be sure, they almost always become friends, but this is a reversal - I used to have to introduce my friends to D&D, not be introduced to friends via D&D.
- GenCon provided me with the opportunity to explore other games. The short list of games I tried at GenCon that I never would have otherwise tried includes Magic: The Gathering, Warhammer, Heroscape, Axis & Allies, Vampire (tabletop and LARP), and even Are You a Werewolf.
- I’ve met people at GenCon who seemed larger than life in the past. Gary Gygax, for example. He’s just a regular dude. I’ve had a cigarette with him. Ed Greenwood. He’s a dirty old man. Not really. But he is funny as hell.
- I’ve learned a lot about my fellow gamers. Not all of it has been good; hygiene, for example. But overall, its been a positive experience, and I believe today that gamers are, on average, more polite than the common populace. They are also more annoying, on average.
So, what’s my point here? GenCon has been a fabulous experience for me. If you can wing it, you should go at least once. Your game will never be the same.
OOH! Before I forget. I put up an article with some ideas for traps to use in your D&D game. It’ll get buried soon with the GenCon posts, so check it out before you miss it!
Building a New D&D Campaign Diary - Entry #6: Geography
I don’t know what your favorite subject was in school. In High School, it was probably English for me; In college, it had to be History, closely followed by Philosophy. For those reasons, we’re going to hit an entirely different subject today: Geography.
You see, I had a little Philosophical fun yesterday working on my little pantheon. Before that, I put some framework in for the History of the new campaign world, and I’m sure there’s more of that to come soon. But, sometimes, you’ve got to bite the bullet, hunker down, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, taste the cheese, kick the…
Right. You get it.
Anyways, where was I? Ah, yes. Geography. Creating geography in a new D&D campaign is, for most of us, a little bit like trying to make a copy of the Mona Lisa using a Woodstock Number 5. (That’s a really old typewriter, for those of you who are keeping track at home. See, the Woodstock was an amazing and revolutionary device, created in 1922, that… Whoops. Geography. Not History. Dammit.)
My point is, most of us aren’t great cartographers. We don’t have the right tools, much less the skills, to develop the geography of a campaign world the way it ought to be developed. Still, we have to try. After all, the adventurers have to have somewhere to go, don’t they?
So, we go back to our 41 questions. What’s there? Not a heck of a lot:
*phew*. That’s easy enough we can certainly answer 3 little questions. So, here are the answers for my new campaign world:
- Yes.
- Yes.
- Yes.
Fine, enough fooling around. Let’s see what I can get, shall we?
The world of Lenryn is as sharp and dangerous in its geography as it is in its way of life. Lenryn, at least the Known World, consists of two continents, joined by an archipelago that stretches for more than 100 miles. This region is known as “The Straits of Gorana,” with The Great Sea to the North and The Lesser Sea to the South. The continents are separated East to West, and slightly North to South. More than 90% of The Northeastern continent, Gorana, rests above the equator of Lenryn. Gorana runs over 3,000 miles East to West, and 1800 miles North to South. The Southwestern continent, Alrama, is split in half by the equator. Alrama runs approximately 1200 miles East to West, and around 900 miles North to South, and is elliptical in shape. Gorana is nearly twice as large as Alrama, and therefore the Southernmost tip of Gorana lines up, roughly, with the Southernmost tip of Alrama.
In the early campaign, adventures will take place exclusively on Alrama. Specifically, they will take place on the Northwest edge of Alrama, on a hooked peninsula 50 miles wide and 200 miles in length. The peninsula, sometimes called “The Dagger” or “Alrama’s Dagger” is sub-tropical in climate, being 200 miles north of the Equator. A range of mountains sits at the base of the peninsula, isolating it from much of the rest of the continent.
The campaign begins in a central portion of The Dagger. A small town, Halvinguard, has developed at the highest elevation of the peninsula, seated on an inland lake that flows out toward the sea. There are two other towns within 25 miles in each direction, with the towns creating an archipelago of their own, like Islands seated on a vast swamp. There are port towns at either end of the dagger, and there are barges that may travel upstream to bring in commerce to Halvinguard.
Now, a good cartographer could show you that on paper. I can’t. I tried Campaign Cartographer for a while, but I just wasn’t skilled. If anyone wants to give it a go, I’ll gladly feature your work here on the web site! Regardless, you get the general idea.
So, today, you should do the same. Give us the whole world, then a continent, then a region, then a locality. This should hopefully help to bring things further into focus for you.
Free 4E core books from dungeonmastering.com
I know, I normally don’t post on the weekends… Just pretend this isn’t a post.
At any rate, I couldn’t wait until Monday to tell you about this. The hottest D&D blog out there has GOT to be Dungeon Mastering. I found Yax this week, and I’ve been eating up all of his great stuff.
Now, he’s got a contest giving away the 4E core books once they are released. For those of you who are skeptical about 4E and aren’t sure you want to buy them, you should check it out!
Squidoo Lens Update
For those of you who have a minute, go check out my Squidoo lens on 4E. I know I’ve mentioned it a couple of times this week, but I’m having hella fun putting this thing up. I’m especially interested in seeing how the “Duel” feature turns out!
What I really know for sure about 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons
You know, after playing this game for two and a half decades, I really should get the picture. The fact of the matter is, I’m a fanboy. I always have been, always will be. Let me explain.
When 3rd edition D&D came out, I was skeptical. I was happy with my AD&D, and so were my players. I had no compelling reason to switch. I wasn’t a convention goer at that point, so it wasn’t like I was being bombarded with 3E the way that sometimes happens at cons.
But, before too long, I switched.
We met some new friends who were also gamers, and they were playing 3rd edition Dungeons and Dragons. They convinced us to try it. Once I tried it, I never looked back.
Fast forward. WotC announces Dungeons and Dragons 3.5. Once again, I declared that I had no compelling reason to switch. I was happy with my 3.0. My players were happy with my 3.0.
But, before long, I switched.
You see, my players bought me the Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Monster manual for 3.5. I opened the book, recognized that, yes, Harm had indeed been broken, and was now fixed. Once I tried it, I never looked back (although, to be honest, I do miss 3.0 haste).
So, the thing is: all of this talk about 4th edition, all of the rumors, all of the cries of hatred being railed against WotC and their corporate parent, in the end, I know something.
I’m going to switch. And, unless you’re still playing AD&D (and I know that some folks are, God bless ‘em) you will to. Be honest with yourself. You’re not going to be able to help it. You’re a fan of the game. And rightly so; it’s a good game. Hell, it’s a great game.
The only real question is how long after release will we switch.
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