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.
Minis feature - Boskan
This is Boskan. You can read all about him here.
For the Flowers and Unicorns campaign, I painted a mini for everyone’s character, and gave them out as Christmas gifts. Unfortunately, I don’t have pics of all of them; I’m hoping to get them all in the same room again one day.
At any rate, Boskan is a converted Mage Knight figure, with a Reaper pseudodragon familiar companion. Take a look:
He even looks like a jerk 
I’ve mentioned before how hard it is to get detail into a plastic miniature, and why I prefer pewter. This face pic illustrates just how bad plastic molds can be:
Just like me when I played him, I think Boskan needs to show his ass:
Shake your moneymaker, Boskan.
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.
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!
Dungeons and Dragons Trap Ideas
I’m channeling the spirit of Grimtooth today. That, and the old ‘Net Book of Traps.
Anyways, I offer, for your enjoyment, some of my favorite trap ideas. I’ve used each of these in a game, with great results:
Trap Idea #1: Fake Door
For this trap, the characters need to make a successful search check. They will find a door, hidden behind a painting, curtain, or whatever is appropriate. The door is bright orange in color, and has hundreds of lights and levers of all colors. It cannot be forced open, and scrying or teleporting won’t work behind it. When anyone pulls a lever, everyone in the room takes 1 hit point of electrical damage. The lights then change color. The door will open when the characters push a red lever to the “down” position and a green lever to the “up” position.
To make this one especially interesting, use it while the characters are running from an encounter that they couldn’t overcome.
Trap Idea #2: Invisible Bridge
This is the old Indiana Jones trick. The players encounter a chasm that they have to cross. The characters have to cross the invisible bridge. The bridge is not invisible, but there are magics that make it imperceptible to some people. To do so, they need to first discover the bridge; provide a will save for each party member, difficult enough that some will miss it and not believe the bridge is there. It will be up to the remaining party members to convince the others that it is there. Once the party decides to cross, they will, of course, have to devise a way to get across. Make the bridge slippery, very narrow, place high winds, send in flying opponents, or whatever else you need to do to make it difficult. If your party has access to fly or teleport, make it a dead magic zone.
Trap Idea #3: No Invisible Bridge
This really is probably best to do if you just hate your players. The scenario is the same as #2, but there’s really no bridge. Encourage characters that they need to all step onto the bridge together. Hilarity ensues.
Trap Idea #4: Exploding Coin
The characters enter into a room and see a single coin (or gem, or key, or whatever might entice them) laying on the floor. It can either be obvious, or you might have them make a search roll. When one of them picks it up, a delayed blast fireball of an appropriate strength for the party goes off.
Trap Idea #5: Stackable Pit Traps
This is your standard pit trap with a twist: if characters search the pit trap, they find another trap door in the floor, with hidden treasures inside. Alternatively, they find another trap door leading into another pit, and take even more damage. You pick.
Trap Idea #6: Wounded Enemy
The characters encounter an enemy who seems to be wounded. He is, of course, faking it, and will either lead the party to an ambush, or turn on them while they attempt to care for him. A variation is for the party to find a wounded ally set on betrayal or good-seeming creature, such as a fiendish unicorn.
Trap Idea #7: Alice in Wonderland
This is an oldie but a goodie. The characters enter a room with a table. On the table sits a potion that is labeled “drink me.” In the room is a mouse hole. Here’s where you make it interesting: in one scenario, the mouse hole is the only way out of a dungeon, and the characters have to shrink to get out. The problem will be undoing the effects of the shrinking potion. Maybe the mouse hole is a red herring; there are plenty of ways out of the dungeon, and the mouse hole doesn’t lead them out. In any case, once the characters are shrunken, they should have to fight the obligatory Giant Rat.
Trap Idea #8: Anti-gravity Pit
The characters come to the end of a hallway, only to find a vertical tunnel. The pit goes down as far as they can see, and 10′ up. When they enter the pit (probably with a rope) they are sucked up to the ceiling, which has a trap door with spikes or whatever other evils you can think of on the other side.
Cynical Bob Shows His Butt
First, let me give you something useful. With less than 6 months to go, I thought I’d point you all to the GenCon Survival Guide. Enjoy.
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Phil Gamer had an interesting article the other day on the (generally unspoken) code of conduct that he uses when approaching the gaming table. He’s got some pretty insightful stuff over there. I will say this, however; His “commitments” as a player really reflect what he (and most GMs) want to see from their players, rather than what players tend to like to see and do in their game. Fact is, most players don’t worry about “giving the GM a headache” or how much effort the GM has put in. It’s not that they’re malicious; rather, they’re indifferent. Just as most GMs are, to one degree or another, with their players.
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Now, I know I’m likely to generate a lot of controversy with this, much like my “open letter” from last March. I know that I’m kind of in a crappy mood today anyways. Really, I need to keep this inside my head, and wait until a better time, when I’m not edgy.
I’m not gonna do that, though.
So, I offer you my re-designed contract for Players. As a DM, here’s what I want:
Come prepared. Don’t forget to level your character, or leave your character sheet or dice in the car. I spent hours writing the adventure, and I lugged hundreds of pounds of books and shit here, you can pick a feat, roll some hit points, divvy up 4 skill points, and bring in two fricking sheets of paper.
Leave your problems at the door. Yeah, I care that your girlfriend dumped you. If you’re that affected, let’s all go get a beer and sing karaoke. But if you want to play D&D, leave the baggage outside. Or, turn those emotions into some seriously good role-playing. Either way is fine with me.
Don’t be a rude ass. I don’t care if the Paladin has taken 10 minutes to pray away the fungus from under his toenail. I’m as bored with it as you are. But if you won’t shut up and quit interrupting, we’ll never get past it.
Three simple fracking things. Think you can manage that, Poindexter? Good. Then sit down, get out your dice, and let’s get rolling.
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(As regret already sets in… Let me give a disclaimer to my local players: As a player, *I* have been guilty of every one of the above sins, more frequently than any of you. I’ve said it before, DMs often make the worst players, and it is especially true in my case. I’m ranting as much, if not more, about myself here than I am anyone else.)
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!
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