Dungeons and Dragons Sunday Link Smashup for May 17, 2008
Hi, everyone!
I’ve had a heck of a busy week, but I’ve still managed to find you all a few useful links. No commentary on them other than to say that there are a wide variety of 4E opinions in these links - on purpose.
Next Sunday’s Smashup should be good, as we’ll start to see more and more from the 4E preview module!
Name This Blog, and Win a Prize! (Like you haven’t already done this)
Dungeons And Dragons The Gathering
Why is charisma a primary attribute?
4th EDITION: DISSOCIATED MECHANICS
Ten Words to Victory, Winners and Runner Ups All Together!
Mike Mearls 4E Temple of Elemental Evil campaign diary
Why superheroes are fantasy fiction
Use That D20 For Something Besides Killing Orcs
Sharing some “Getting Started” Advice
Role-Playing Games Writing Contest / Guest-Posting at The DMs Blog
Hi everyone!
Just a couple quick unrelated notes today.
First: you want to make sure you check out this week’s writing contests at Helium. There is a contest specifically on Role-Playing Games. I wrote most of the topics and can’t enter, so I’d love to see one of my readers get 75 big ones this week. There are other cash prizes, but really, you want the $75, right? I’ve got tips on winning those contests over at The Writing Journey. Good luck, all!
Second: I’ve decided I want to try to increase the frequency again with which I update this blog. if you’ve got something you want to say about D&D, RPGs or just life in general, please let me know and I’ll feature it in a guest post!
How To Kill Your D&D Game Without Really Trying
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I’ve ended some campaigns in the past. My good friend Greg reminded me, right here in the blog, about the now-infamous Winter Court fiasco, for example. It occurred to me that maybe there is a lesson or two I could share with you all. Maybe if you could avoid the mistakes I made in that campaign, you can be spared the frustration and anxiety I experienced.
To give you some background, I decided in the fall of 2003 that I was going to start an Oriental Adventures campaign. Specifically, I decided I was going to start a Rokugan campaign. See, I’d been exposed to the Legend of the Five Rings settings via the collectible card game at Gen Con, and was truly enamored with the Clan system. I even bought the Clan Wars miniatures set and painted 40 some-odd samurai figs. Here was the first problem, though. Did you see it up there? *I* decided.
Step #1: Choose a campaign setting your players aren’t into.
Now, let’s not jump to any conclusions. I didn’t force-feed them Rokugan. In fact, I took a good three weeks to poll my players, dig into their collective brains, and try to decide on what campaign setting they wanted. There wasn’t a true consensus; there was a slight preference for Colona, my self-designed campaign world, with the Realms coming in a close second. Rokugan was in the bottom half, although no one outrightly opposed it. And, they preferred it to Ravenloft.
But they weren’t into it. See, Rokugan is a tough setting to play if you’re not really into it. The core classes are different, magic works differently, and you’ve got things like clans, honor and taint to deal with. And my players are loyal to a fault and willing to try anything, but they didn’t want to spend hours learning all of the intricacies of the world. So, I wound up with Shugenja casting standard-world spells like flaming sphere, and Samurai with a level of core Ranger so as to get the two-weapon bonus (this was 3.0, pre-nerfed Ranger). Mechanically those things work, but they killed the flavor.
But, that wasn’t the only thing that killed that particular campaign. See, I really have to give some credit to the only two words my players use today to describe the campaign: Winter Court.
Step #2: Force-feed good role-playing
photo credit: saintovbastards
Sometimes, you just can’t move your players.
Winter Court was a single gaming session that lasted about 5 hours. During that time, the idea was that the characters had to do just a shit-load of role-playing. They had a variety of objectives, including solving a murder, courtship, diplomacy and others. It was, in many ways, the opposite of the Warcraft Miracle Night (I’ll explain that one another time.)
At any rate, there were so many role-playing hooks that I couldn’t seem to present any of them in a way that engaged my players. Add to that the fact that, at the time, I had a couple of hack-and-slashers as players (No, Greg. Not you. I’m talking about Swamp Beast and the Big Red Dog). That certainly didn’t help things.
The result of that session? Everyone. Was. Bored. Out. Of. Their. Minds.
Had I stopped right there, we probably could have ended the game and moved on. But, I was determined. You see, there were good reasons, both before and after Winter Court, for me to move on. I completely missed them.
Step #3: Ignore the warning signs
I remember having to explain honor and taint at least once a session, sometimes twice. No one was listening. Not because they were rude (they weren’t, necessarily) but because they weren’t interested. Explain something once and they get it, that’s great. Explain it twice, that’s fine too. Probably a learning curve. Explain it six times and it must, by definition, be uninteresting and forgettable.
Now, I get that players sometimes have to miss a game. But with Rokugan, it seemed like we had at least one player gone each session, sometimes two. Sometimes, that happens. But not for six sessions in a row. The fact that people were skipping out on D&D night to go out to dinner with an uncle should have been a sign. In fact, it was a sign. I just missed it.
My players kept trying to back out (individually) due to scheduling reasons. I kept trying to accommodate them. That caused yet another problem.
Step #4: Get off schedule
Randy and I are opposites, in many ways, when it comes to DMing. Randy is a schedule Nazi. He plays, every two weeks on Friday, come hell or high water. And, if you can’t commit to that schedule, don’t even think about joining his campaign. I, on the other hand, tend to take the “we’ll play whenever” approach.
I really don’t advocate either approach. I think you have to have a routine, but I also think you need to have some flexibility built into that routine. How you do that is the topic of another blog post, someday.
Anyways, the result of “we’ll play whenever” became “we’ll play in 4 weeks,” and then “we’ll play in a couple of months,” and then, “Hey. Anyone want to start a new D&D campaign? I’m thinking Realms.”
Step #5: Fizzle out
D&D campaigns rarely die quickly. I told you before about the big blow-up we had during my wife’s campaign. That blow-up didn’t end things. It was a blowout that we patched. D&D campaigns end more like a slow leak. To mix metaphors, D&D campaigns don’t get the luxury of decapitation. They bleed out. Or better yet, they get a festering sore that starts on the ankle and winds up in a leprous coating over the entire body.
Ew.
Maybe we’ll just say they sort of fizzle out.
And it did. That’s what happened to my Rokugan game. What did I learn from the experience? Like the headline says: I learned how to kill a D&D game without trying.
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I also learned some important lessons about my group, my own personality, life, and even some lessons about running a small business from this experience, by the way. See, in any endeavor, especially a business, you can’t ignore your customers’ input. You can’t force your customers to want your product. You have to watch for warning signs that something is wrong, because some customers just won’t come out and say it. And you’ve got to be diligent about deadlines and follow-up, or you’ll never have them as a customer again.
Spell names in Dungeons and Dragons
photo credit: super-structure
While we’re on the subject of magic, I thought it’d be worth it to revisit a topic I covered on the articles side of the blog a while back, but haven’t done here:
Here’s a list of some of the names in Dungeons and Dragons that have been passed down to the present day. For most of them, we have Gary Gygax himself to thank. Most of the names came from the original Dungeons and Dragons Greyhawk campaign in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, when Dungeons and Dragons was in its infancy. Read more
Game Masters Day - Better Late Than Never!
I had intended to observe GMs day in much grander fashion than last year, but with Gary leaving us it didn’t seem right.
In retrospect, maybe he’d have wanted it that way. At any rate, my loving wife made a cake on GMs day. Here it is:
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.
Minis feature - Reaper.
This is another Reaper Mini that I painted around five years ago. Reaper makes the best minis on the market. D&D Minis are fine, but you just don’t get the detail with plastic that you get with pewter. Other brands have come close, but none have had the consistent quality, in terms of detailed molds, that Reaper has.
I’ve always liked this one, until today. My wife’s new camera shows all of the mistakes, and I’m not good enough with Photoshop to touch them up yet!
Anyways, enjoy these:
COME TO ME, MY SERVANT!
Looking at this one now, I’m wishing I’d have done more with the eyes. Still, I LOVE the texture on the wings.
You can tell he’s evil ‘cuz his ax has a skull.
Again with the wing textures. Very cool stuff.
Friday Fantasy Fun - D&D Links to Finish the Work Week: February 22, 2008
First, a video, discovered first by Kimmie:
I know I’ve featured it here before, but I have to read Dark Dungeons at least once a year. Yes, I know, linking just encourages them. I can’t help it.
Yax linked this one on Monday, but I’ll echo his sentiment here. Critical Hits has an excellent discussion of the 4E/WoW/MMORPG controversy. I can’t go whole hog with what he says, but he’s at least 80% on.
I’ll go even further back, a whole three weeks, to a post at Scholars and Rogues. I am a Geek in a Jock Culture is a fun, if slightly depressing, read.
Shamus over at Twenty Sided offers a look into the kooky costuming of Cosplay. Warning: his link goes to a site with Cosplay girls hot enough to make you want to dress up like Lacus Clyne.
My new friend Kam (I can call him that, he even said so!) has a review of the Dragonlance movie. I haven’t seen the movie yet, but Kam’s review suggests that it is not surprising, even if it is disappointing.
I’m sure you’ve been reading The Chatty DM for a long time now, but I have just found him in recent weeks. If you haven’t read Phil’s work, or even if you have, check him out. I especially like his RPG Tropes series.
A last minute addition today is from the Encounter-a-day blog. Yep, that blog is just what it sounds like: every day, Monday through Friday, Ian Toltz provides an encounter of some sort, grouped by themes and such. Thursday’s entry, Specters of Ptolan have me intrigued with this one. If nothing else, the site might be a great resource for inspiration, if not for usable ideas.
I’ve got one dishonorable mention. Trask over at LivingDice.com had a post Wednesday about how recent world events have inspired him as a DM. You know, recent events like “the attempted assassination/coup of the East Timorese president and the official secession of Kosovo from greater Serbia.” DUDE! That’s your reaction?!? “This would make a great D&D story?!?” What are you THINKING?!?
Look, Trask. If you tell players where you get your ideas, they’re liable to watch the news, figure out all of our plots, and bring about total game destruction. Shame on you. 
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.
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