Pathfinder Preview

Click here for a nice preview of the upcoming adventure deck (The Hook Mountain Massacre) for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game.

Stuff I'd Like To Do

I'm always trying to think of new game ideas for the future, even if many (most?) of them never come to pass. If nothing else, it's a fun exercise to keep the creative juices flowing. As we approach 2014, here are a few ideas I've been mulling...

• It's going to be D&D's fortieth birthday in 2014, so why not have a one-shot or mini-campaign that uses the D&D rules as they existed back in 1974? Who wants to be the "Fighting Man"?
• I have a super awesome new NPC -- a cantankerous, foul-mouthed old crone -- who would make a great centerpiece for a low-level campaign, either in the Druid Cycle or Shattered Realm setting. Like the crone herself, the adventures would be loosely derived from a Middle English adventure tale that I enjoyed from my former life in academia.
• I now have a complete Old West campaign setting for the Front Porch multiverse, and it's chock-full of cowboys, bandits, prospectors (grizzled and non-grizzled), card sharks, card sharps, women of various types of repute (including ill!), and two extra-dimensional visitors. I've taken great care to ensure that all NPCs have the most outlandishly, wonderfully ridiculous Old West names you've ever heard. (Consarn it!)

D&D Next...Summer!

D&D Next will be hitting stores next summer. Awesome! Click here for the official announcement.

Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable holiday season. I may add a few posts here and there if any big gaming-related news comes up, but otherwise I'll see you all in 2014!

Happy 13th!

It's Friday the 13th, so happy Colgate Day to Matt, Tim B, Chuck, and any other Colgate alums who may be reading this blog!

No Love for Foxglove

As I mentioned earlier this week, one of my PACG teams picked up an ally named Aldern Foxglove, who plays a pivotal role in the Rise of the Runelords storyline. I didn't have a need for that particular ally card, but I carried it for two scenarios until, sure enough, I hit the plot twist that I had foreseen. Is it a spoiler to say that now the card is really, really useless to me?

Zub Interview

Click here for an interesting interview with Jim Zub, the writer of the Pathfinder comic book series.

Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle

I was pretty annoyed when Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle, the first official D&D Next product, was available only to Gen Con attendees. Now this adventure has been released in digital format for about $18 -- much less than the print version. Click here for details.

This Guy Is Important

I have two minor quibbles with the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game (PACG). One is that too many of the scenarios rely on playing hide-and-seek with the main villain. In the long run, I think this problem will be easy to solve; as this game becomes more mature, the designers will come up with ways to build more innovative and unique scenarios. The other problem isn't a problem so much as...well...unfulfilled potential. I realize that this product was intended to be an RPG-flavored card game and not a truly "gamemasterless" RPG, but even so, it's pretty light on story. The source material for this game -- the Rise of the Runelords adventure path -- is a much-beloved and award-winning RPG campaign. I was expecting a bit more of the narrative to come through, but as it stands, the PACG doesn't really tell the story of Rise of the Runelords in any meaningful way.

However, once in a while the game does surprise me. While adventuring with my second pair of heroes -- the cleric Kyra and the monk Sajan -- I stumbled upon a fellow by the name of Aldern Foxglove. I know enough about the RPG source material to know that this guy is important.

I can't wait to see how this card affects the development of my current adventure deck (The Skinsaw Murders) and how the experience of Kyra and Sajan will be different from that of Valeros and Seoni, who do not have this pivotal NPC in their party. I won't spoil it for those who might play Rise of the Runelords in some capacity (either as RPG or PACG), but I will say that the card game may have one super-cool plot twist in store for me shortly...

Pathfinder Pairs

Now that I've played through the Burnt Offerings adventure deck four times with four solo characters -- Valeros (fighter), Kyra (cleric), Seoni (sorcerer), and Sajan (monk) -- I'm going to try pairing them up for the next adventure, The Skinsaw Murders. Team #1 is Val and Seoni. Here's the setup on my trusty air hockey / gaming table...

I've drawn the starting hands for both heroes, but I have yet to explore any of the four location decks. Running multiple characters looks to be rather more complicated than using just one!

Skull & Shackles

Coming next August is Skull & Shackles, the second base set for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. Like the current Rise of the Runelords set, it's based on a Pathfinder RPG adventure path (i.e., campaign). Looking forward to it!

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday.

And Sajan, my new monk character in the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, now has a pet saber-toothed tiger. Awesome.

Sajan

While I was in Longmont last week, I picked up the Character Add-On Deck for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. This set includes four new characters (barbarian, druid, monk, and paladin) as well as enough generic cards to expand your party to as many as six players. After poring over the new characters, I came to the conclusion that three of them were demonstrably weaker than comparable characters in the basic set. The barbarian was inferior to the fighter, the paladin was inferior to the cleric (alas!), and the druid was inferior to...basically...everyone. Only the monk, a stern-looking human named Sajan, seemed like a viable choice.

I've been playing Sajan as a solo character for the past few days and he's as frustrating as he is interesting. Like the monks of D&D-based RPGs, he's at his best when he's not using weapons. He also wears no armor and does not use spells. Sajan's character deck, therefore, consists only of allies, items, and blessings...lots of blessings. In a starting Sajan deck, a whopping 8 of the 15 cards are blessings, giving him plenty of opportunity to enhance combat and non-combat checks alike. Better yet, Sajan recharges (rather than discards) blessings used for combat checks, and he's the only character in the game who can apply multiple blessings to a single combat check. So is Sajan an unstoppable beast in combat? Well...not exactly. Fickle fortune plays too much of a role for my liking. Sajan begins play with no static bonuses, so on a typical combat check he's rolling 2D10 (1D10 for Dexterity, and then another 1D10 for the blessing that you'd invariable play on the check unless you had no blessings in your hand at the time). 2D10 or even 3D10 (if you play a second blessing on the check) is, if you'll forgive the pun, extremely "dicey" -- that is, the results are all over the map. With the fighter Valeros, I have enough static bonuses that my minimum roll is nearly enough to defeat some of the weaker monsters; in contrast, Sajan can easily fail (and has!) to get, say, a total of 14, even on a 3D10 check. Such "swingy" results make Sajan unpredictable in combat, leaving him open to crippling wipe-outs against even mediocre foes. I can beef him up with static bonuses as he levels up, but for the time being, every combat encounter is quite a wild ride!

Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition

Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition is now available for PC and Mac. When will we see the iOS version?!

D&D Next Generation

I gave Matthew a very brief introduction to RPGs about a year ago when I showed him the Pathfinder Beginner Box. At the time, he wasn't quite ready for it. Lately, however, he's been begging me to teach him how to play D&D, so over the weekend we sat down for an official adventure, this time using an extremely abridged version of the D&D Next rules. Here's the character sheet (consisting only of attack bonus, Armor Class, and hit points) for Matthew's fighter, Egerren -- named after his beloved World of Warcraft character.

Matthew requested an adventure with an arctic theme, so I picked out some appropriate maps, grabbed a few minis, and got him started in a place that Druid Cycle aficionados should recognize -- the frozen island of Dinas Cefni. He was practically giddy with excitement.

Egerren and his NPC companion, the paladin Mairin, set out to track down the goblins that were harassing some local miners. Here they are battling the first few goblin scouts.

Later, the intrepid heroes stumbled upon a small keep from which hordes of enemies began to emerge.

They managed to defeat the goblins and bugbears, but what will they find within the keep? Judging from Matthew's enthusiastic response to the adventure, it won't be long before we find out.

Happy 50th!

Happy 50th birthday to Doctor Who, the television program(me) that has done more to stimulate my imagination than any show I've ever seen.

Longmont

Longmont is a nice little town and I'm enjoying my stay here, especially because I was able to get together for an evening with Matt, who made the drive up from Denver. It was great catching up with him. We spent a couple of hours discussing family, jobs, comics, movies, games...just like old times back in Rochester. I also managed to stop by Atomic Goblin Games. The owner and some of his customers are big fans of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game and are playing through the Rise of the Runelords adventure path. I picked up the character expansion pack while I was there, and the owner highly recommended the monk class. I haven't had a chance to delve into the cards yet, but it sounds like the monk has some interesting mechanics that differ from Valeros and the other characters I've tried.

Spot It!

We had a lovely if all-too-brief visit from Timothy this weekend. We caught up with some of his Front Porch characters, and he introduced us to a simple but ingenious little game called Spot It. Matthew is already addicted to it!

Hello, Colorado!

I'll be in Longmont, Colorado, next week for a business trip. While I'm there, I'll have the great pleasure of getting together with Matt. It's been a long time indeed since we saw each another face-to-face! I'll also be paying a visit to Atomic Goblin Games. I love checking out game stores wherever I go, and this one looks very promising!

Old School D20

Check it out! Click here to see a D20 from ancient Egypt!

OyD&D

I stopped by my "local" game store (an hour away -- yes, I live out in the sticks!) the other day to pick up The Skinsaw Murders adventure for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game and I spotted the Original Dungeons & Dragon RPG boxed set ("Original Edition Premium Reprint"!) for the mind-boggling price of $150. When I asked to see -- okay, hold -- it, the gal at the game store actively dissuaded me from buying it. She saw the longing in my eyes and talked me back from the edge of the cliff. Amazon is selling it for the still-far-too-high price of $101 as of this writing. I'll buy it if it gets down to the ~$50 range.

Pathfinder Online

Check out this video clip for the upcoming Pathfinder Online MMO...


Pathfinder Online Q3 2013 Update from Ryan Dancey on Vimeo.

20 and Beyond

I think it goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that twenty years is a long time for a campaign world to last. And because I have two little boys who are increasingly interested in "Daddy's games," I don't foresee an end to The Druid Cycle. Maybe it will end when I croak, but I hope some as-yet-unborn descendant will take over and keep it going.

But that's really long-term. What about, like, next year? After our big anniversary year, what happens next? My goal for the remainder of 2013 is to drive the current storylines toward a cliffhanger, to be delivered to the players sometime around December 15. We'll then put the games on hiatus for the holiday season and pick things up again sometime in January. When that happens, I want the world to feel different. To keep the stories fresh and interesting, I want to shake things up a bit. I won't say exactly how, but by the time the aforementioned cliffhanger arrives, the players will have a pretty good idea of what's in store for 2014.

As the players know by now, their slain foe Ekhis has an extensive network of followers who continue to work toward achieving his goals. Certain players are aware of certain components of the plan, but no one has all the pieces of the puzzle. When the cliffhanger hits, all will be revealed and the scope of the enemies' plan will become frighteningly clear.

Home Stretch

It's the first of November, so we're heading into the home stretch of our twenty-fifth year of the Front Porch and twentieth of the Druid Cycle campaign world. Time for a quick recap of the year so far.

Our first big event was "When Last We Left Our Intrepid Heroes," a short story that spawned the Front Porch "multiverse" -- a formalized structure linking virtually all of our previous campaigns into a single but multi-layered narrative environment. With input from a dozen players on the characters and campaigns (including those run by Scott, Timothy, Matt, and Chris) of a quarter-century of tabletop and online gaming (special shout-out to Timothy for the treasure trove of early documents he sent me), this multiverse is not just a pleasant stroll down memory lane, but a springboard for future storytelling. As a direct result of "When Last We Left," I now have fully fleshed-out settings for mid-twentieth century Earth, twenty-first century Earth (with or without superheroes), and post-apocalyptic Earth (with or without crazy powered-up mutants), along with all-new settings like the Old West and the far future. Add these to fantasy settings like The Druid Cycle, Torchlight, and Shattered Realm, and we've got a lot of toys to play with.

Much of the rest of the year has focused on The Druid Cycle and the war against the immortal trickster Ekhis. Several epic-tier characters, heroes and villains alike, perished in the climactic battle (thanks to Jason for agreeing to sacrifice Sir Roberts!), and the fallout from the heroes' Pyrrhic victory (a term derived from the name "Pyrrhus," but not the same Pyrrhus as the namesake of our own beloved rogue who died in this battle. But I digress...), has perhaps been even more interesting than the battle itself. That wasn't the only highlight. We also resurrected (literally) some long-lost characters from an earlier Druid Cycle storyline (featuring Tim B, Chris, Kevin, and Tim W) and integrated their new adventures into the Ekhis plot. Scott (Hachulors) and Timothy (Scyld) brought back characters from the '90s, and Kevin earned a well deserved promotion for his hero Senchan, who may be the most highly respected man on the continent of First Home.

Where is this all headed? In the next post, I'll give you a glimpse of some plans for the rest of our dual-anniversary year.

...Or Was It?

Four turns. In the scenario I played last night, Seoni won in four turns. First, let me emphasize that there is absolutely no skill involved in winning a Pathfinder Adventure Card Game scenario in a low number of turns. It's simply a matter of luck; indeed, I've played quite a few scenarios in which I was sweating it out in the upper twenties (you lose the game if the heroes don't win by the end of the thirtieth turn). But even so, four turns is pretty remarkable. In this case, I encountered the main villain on my second turn at the first location, then again on my first turn at the second location, and then a third and final time on my first turn at the third location. I'm actually disappointed because it means that Seoni missed out on items, allies, and other goodies that she might have acquired if the game had progressed for a more typical number of turns. After a couple of really short-'n-sweet scenarios, I haven't picked up any cool new cards for Seoni lately. We'll see if her rather unimpressive deck comes back to bite me during the final two scenarios of Burnt Offerings.

Fastest Pathfinder Scenario Ever!

Big surprise here...I'm playing through the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game base set material for a third time. After solo adventures with Valeros and Kyra, I'm now playing as the human sorceress Seoni. I won the second scenario in record time: five turns. By the luck of the draw, the main villain was either the first or second card I drew in each of the three locations. Will the rest of Seoni's scenarios be so easy? Somehow I rather doubt it. In the very next scenario, I finished with plenty of turns to spare but was down to the last card in my deck when I nuked the dragon. Playing as Seoni certainly feels a lot different from my experiences with Val and Kyra, both of whom are armored melee combatants. Seoni seems a great deal more frail, but she can really dish out the damage with arcane magic. Even that power is a double-edged sword, however, because the constant use of her power depletes her deck very quickly, as I learned in that last scenario. Having a healer on hand would have made things a lot easier, but when you're going solo, Seoni is a tough character to play.

Monster Test

Which D&D monster are you? Click here to take the personality test! Turns out I'm a lich...

Kyra

So...how smitten am I with the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game? Over the past week I played through the whole first adventure again -- this time with the cleric, Kyra. When I get the second adventure, The Skinsaw Murders, I'll need to decide whether to continue with two separate solo adventures or combine Valeros and Kyra into a mini-party.

ComicFest Today (and Tomorrow)!

If you're into comics, be sure to take part in Halloween ComicFest this weekend. And if that isn't enough, you can read the first issue of Dynamite's new Captain Midnight series here, for free!

Halloween ComicFest

I hope folks don't mind the occasional comics-related post. I just wanted to let you know that this weekend is Halloween ComicFest, a two-day event similar to Free Comic Book Day. Visit your local comic book shop this Saturday or Sunday for free comics and various Halloween-related events. My store, Dreamwell Comics in Carson City, is also offering big discounts on all items -- your neighborhood store may have similar deals!

D&D Next Product

An official D&D Next product is now available for the general public to purchase. Click here to check out an adventure titled Vault of the Dracolich, which can be yours for the low price of $4.99!

Transformer!

Wow, check out this awesome monster for the Pathfinder RPG. A gigantic colossus that transforms into a functional castle?! I really need to use this guy somehow...

Burnt Offerings, Part 2

For the expedition against Nualia and her allies, I had to choose between three locations: an ancient dungeon, a throne room, and some monster-infested warrens. For various reasons relating to the properties of these locations, I elected to begin with the dungeon.

My very first encounter there was Lyrie, one of Nualia's henchmen. I was pleased; finding a henchman so early in the game would allow me to close out this location immediately so that I could focus on the other two areas. With a difficulty rating of only 9, Lyrie would be easy prey. I rolled Val's 2D10+5 bastard sword attack and ended up with...7. That's right, I rolled 1s on both D10s! Lyrie escaped, and Val was forced to lick his wounds in ignominious defeat. This wretched performance forced me to waste at least a half-dozen more turns searching the dungeons until I encountered Lyrie again and defeated her.

Next I turned to the throne room, where Val's hideous Wisdom roll came back to bite me again and again and again...all because of one card! This card forces you to succeed at a Wisdom check or else the card gets shuffled back into the location deck, possibly to be encountered again. In this case, I hit that card three more times (thereby wasting three more turns) before I encountered the scenario's villain, Nualia, and chased her out of the throne room.

With only one location still open (the warrens), I knew that Nualia and her other henchman, Orik, were waiting for me there. I found Orik soon enough and dealt with him, setting up a second encounter with Nualia. This villain must be defeated twice, once at a rating of 12 and then at 14. I played Val's normal bastard sword attack to beat her at 12, and then, for the second attack, I opted to recharge the card (return it to the bottom of my deck) to get an extra D10 on the attack roll. That gave me a whopping 3D10+5, needing a total of 14 for the win. The first two dice were a measly 1 and 3, so with the +5 bonus, I was only up to 9 with a single D10 to go. I rolled a 5, which gave me just enough to beat her. Whew!

With Nualia defeated, Valeros had saved the town of Sandpoint and brought the five-scenario Burnt Offerings adventure to a close. Below, I've included an image of Val's complete character deck as of the end of this adventure. Bring on The Skinsaw Murders!

Burnt Offerings

Today I completed the final scenario for Burnt Offerings, the first adventure of the Rise of the Runelords adventure path for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I elected to play through the campaign in solo mode using the human fighter Valeros as my character (I'm using the dwarf ranger Harsk in the multi-player game I'm doing with Amy, but we haven't made much progress on that one). 

Val is a great character for solo play because he's a total beast in combat. By the end of this adventure, his normal attack roll using his favorite weapon (a magical bastard sword) was up to 2D10+5. That's really good. Most monsters at this stage of the campaign have a difficulty rating of between 8 and 12, so Val can carve up foes with ease even if I'm rolling low numbers. Where Val struggles is with Intelligence- or Wisdom-based skill checks. Intelligence checks typically come into play if you're trying to acquire spells or arcane items, so I'm rarely disappointed when I botch such a roll -- what's a fighter going to do with wizard spells anyway? Wisdom, on the other hand, is essential for closing certain locations and overcoming certain barriers -- in other words, you need to succeed at Wisdom checks in order to move the story along. Often I've encountered crucial Wisdom checks requiring a roll 6 or 7; Val's Wisdom roll is a ridiculously terrible 1D4, meaning that I need to use up a blessing or an ally to give myself enough of a bonus even to have a shot at succeeding at the check. 

So that's where I stood heading into the final scenario of Burnt Offerings. After examining the adventure's master villain and her henchmen, I felt confident that Val would be able to win easily, even considering that two of them had the ability to inflict damage before the encounter. 

As it turned out, however, this scenario was anything but a cakewalk. Tomorrow I'll give you the full recap on Val's struggles to overcome some of the worst luck I've had with this game.

The Skinsaw Murders

Check out the Paizo website for a preview of The Skinsaw Murders, the next adventure for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game.

UPDATE -- D&D: Arena of War

Move along, folks. Nothing to see here.

D&D: Arena of War

Dungeons & Dragons: Arena of War is a new (and free!) game for iOS devices. I'm downloading it at this very moment...

Druid and Paladin Updates

Yesterday's playtest packet -- the last of the public D&D Next playtest -- included only updates to two of the character classes: the druid and the paladin. The druid's Wild Shape ability was toned down, so the class is no longer ridiculously overpowered. The paladin received a second build option, the Oath of Vengeance. This bad-ass build is much like the 4e avenger class and looks to be a ton of fun to play. I may well have found my first D&D Next character!

The Last Packet Is Here

This is it! If you want to participate in the D&D Next playtest, click here to download the final playtest packet.

Last Call! (For Real This Time)

The final-final-final D&D Next playtest packet will be released tomorrow, October 15. I'll post the link as soon as the new files are available. I hope you'll join me in reviewing these files and providing feedback to the development team.

Kre-No?

Okay, that was a lame title for the post. However, I stand by the sentiment. After perusing the D&D Kre-O images, I'm concerned by the distinct lack of both dungeons and dragons. Sure, they have Kre-O mini-figs for Drizzt and other prominent D&D characters, but overall the sets look more like knock-offs of the Lego Lord of the Rings line. Most of the sets are towers and siege engines. That stuff is cool, but where are the iconic D&D monsters? Where are the fiendish traps? I want to build my own Temple of Elemental Evil, not Helm's Deep.

Kre-O D&D

At last, some further news (and pictures!) of the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons Kre-O building sets. Click here to see 'em!

Upcoming Art

Check it out here...some previews of upcoming Pathfinder comic book art!

Yet Another PACG Review

Yes, here's yet another glowing review of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. Folks, I've said it before, but this is an absolutely fantastic game product and you should really give it a try.

How Flat Is Too Flat?

After all the problems we saw with the aggressive scaling of bonuses in 4e, I'm very much in favor of the flat math system they're using for D&D Next. But how flat is too flat? With the new proficiency system that I discussed the other day, characters receive a flat proficiency bonus to attack rolls using weapons with which they are proficient. This means that if a fighter and a wizard are both proficient with a given weapon, they will have the same attack bonus unless one character has a higher Strength (for melee) or Dexterity (for ranged) bonus. Obviously, the fighter is much more likely to have the higher bonus, but it seems to me that the fighter needs to be inherently better than the wizard at fighting; his superiority should not be solely a function of a higher ability score bonus. Maybe we need to resurrect THAC0 after all...

Proficiency Profligacy

Skills are back. I liked the simplicity that we saw in the previous packet, where regular ability checks were used for everything. I'm fine with adding skills as a separate module, but I was hoping they would not be included in the core game. In this latest iteration of the rules, skills are specialized ability checks. If you have proficiency in a skill, you can add a proficiency bonus to the ability check. The proficiency bonus is determined by your level; it starts with +1 at level 1, and gets up to +6 by level 20.

Proficiency also extends, logically, to armor and weapons. If you have proficiency with a weapon, you add your proficiency bonus to the attack roll. You use the same proficiency bonus for attack rolls that you use for skill checks, but there are a couple of additional points to keep in mind: The proficiency bonus is not added to armor, and characters who lack proficiency in a given weapon must also take disadvantage on attack rolls with that weapon.

I can live with all of that, but proficiency extends into other areas of the game, as well. Characters also gain (through background, race, class, feats, etc.) proficiency in various tools. A "tool" is, generally speaking, a type of equipment, but for some reason mounts also count as tools.

But wait, there's more! You can also gain proficiency in...saving throws. Huh? If I'm a bard, my character has proficiency with Intelligence and Charisma saves. I get what they're doing here -- they're providing a level-scaling bonus to saving throws -- but it's kind of clunky. I'd like to see them revisit the whole idea of "proficiency" before they release the final game product.

De-Fanged

Last night I finished up Perils of the Lost Coast, the introductory adventure for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, using the human fighter Valeros. In this scenario I had to defeat a dragon called Black Fang along with his skeletal henchmen. (Side note: This scenario is based on the adventure included in the Pathfinder Beginner Box set for the Pathfinder roleplaying game, and it was also depicted as a tale in the Pathfinder comic book. They sure got a lot of mileage out of that dragon!)

Valeros carved up monsters left and right, but his lack of a magic weapon meant that a pesky shadow could not be slain, and it ended up plaguing him several times during his exploration of one of the scenario locations. The beefed-up undead in another location also delayed his progress. Time was running out, and Black Fang was still nowhere to be found. I was exploring the final location (a temple containing numerous beneficial items to loot) when the dragon turned up on the very last card. I found this to be an amusing contrast to my game with Amy, when the villain turned up on the very first card we explored.

Now that I've completed this adventure, it's time to move on to the Rise of the Runelords adventure path!

Payback

I played through the second scenario of the Pathfinder Adventure Card game for the second time last night. My first attempt was with the cleric Kyra, and she ended up losing three times to the master villain before defeating him. This time, I went back to the fighter Valeros and he pounded that wanker into next week. I think I'm going to stick with Val as my permanent solo character for the rest of the campaign.

Thoughts on the Not-Quite-Final Playtest Packet

So I guess this wasn't quite the final packet; they're still going to send us an update for the druid. In any case, this new material includes our first look at the bard class as well as several races making their D&D Next debut. Here are my initial thoughts...

• The barbarian received a badly needed nerfing (no more advantage on Strength-based attacks while raging). Whew! Now my beloved paladin won't totally suck in comparison.
• The bard seems like a mishmosh of 2e, 3e, and 4e bards, but overall I think it works. It seems like a fun class, especially for multi-classing. 
• Speaking multi-classing...it's like in 3e, where you can pick up levels of various other classes. The only stipulation is that you need to meet the ability score prerequisites of the new class you're adding.
• I still like paladins, but they're quickly becoming a complicated class -- spells, oaths, proficiencies, fighting styles, auras! The class is also becoming very spell-heavy; I feel this iteration of the paladin is kind of "cleric-lite" with a few fighter bits thrown in. I'm also disappointed that one of the paladin's most iconic features -- his loyal mount -- is no longer a core part of the class. Apparently, the mount is going to be a spell, but it's not provided in this packet.
• Humans still get the overpowered and boring +1 to all ability scores. I think it's safe to say they've ignored the gaming community's feedback on this one.
• The new races -- dragonborn, tiefling, drow, warforged, and kender (really?!) -- seem pretty solid. However, the drow receives a massive penalty when out in the sunlight (disadvantage on all attack rolls! yikes!), so I may need to establish a house rule to avoid that penalty in the Druid Cycle world, where dark elves often go adventuring on the surface with no ill effects. 
• I love the kender's racial ability to find random non-magical items in their pockets; like the rock gnome's ability to create clockwork devices, it's a great bit of flavor will have genuinely useful applications in the game.

Fourth Time's the Charm

After playing through the first Pathfinder Adventure Card Game scenario four times with four different characters, I decided to try out the second scenario using the cleric Kyra. This scenario involved chasing a mad scientist around town, disarming his poison traps along the way. Kyra was not well suited for disarming traps, but I had enough blessings (cards that provide bonuses to various skill or combat checks) and allies to get rid of the traps quickly. Everything went off the rails, however, when I encountered the poisoner himself. He defeated me in combat three times before I finally brought him down. The poisoner was not an especially dangerous foe -- I was just rolling 1s and 2s on every die. (Now I know how Kevin feels!) The only thing that saved me from certain doom was Kyra's healing power; after each defeat, I spent a turn healing before facing the poisoner again. I may try the scenario a second time using Valeros (the fighter). He lacks Kyra's healing power, but he's off-the-charts great in combat.

Seoni Starts

Amy and I didn't get a chance to continue the adventures of Merisiel and Harsk last night, so I played through the first scenario yet again -- those bandits must be getting sick of me by now -- this time using the sorceress Seoni. This was my first game using a character who is primarily a spellcaster. Previously I had been using characters whose main attacks involved melee or ranged weapons. Those of you who are familiar with 3e D&D or the Pathfinder RPG will recall that the sorcerer class has a smaller number of spells than a wizard but can cast them more frequently. This distinction is maintained in the card game, as well, in that Seoni only had three spells but was able to "recharge" them automatically. Recharging does not, however, allow you to use a card over and over; when you recharge a card, it goes on the bottom of your deck and you may draw it again at some future point in the scenario. With only three spells, and with only one of them a purely offensive spell, I often found myself without a good magical option to play. As such, I had to burn through my hand to use Seoni's special power, which is to discard a card in order to fire off an arcane attack. I still managed to score a relatively easy victory over my bandit foes, but I don't think I'll continue solo adventuring with Seoni. As of now, I think the well-rounded cleric Kyra may be my best option for the single-player game.

Pathfinder Team-Up

Amy joined me last night for a Pathfinder Adventure Card Game scenario. We played through the first chapter of the introductory adventure -- my third go-around with that scenario, each time with a different character. This time I was Harsk, the dwarf ranger, while Amy played the elf thief Merisiel. These characters make for an interesting team because they're at their best when traveling alone. Merisiel gets a combat bonus when she's the only hero at her location, and Harsk (an expert with ranged weapons) can give a combat bonus to an ally, but only if that ally is at a different location from his own. Given their special abilities, we spent most of the scenario split up, exploring separate locations.

Our play styles turned out to be different, as well. I tended to try to close locations as quickly as possible so as to trap the villain in one place, whereas Amy was interested in "farming" the locations for possible boon cards (treasure, allies, weapons, etc.) even when she knew the master villain wasn't present. We had time plenty of time for additional exploration because of a remarkable event that happened on the very first turn. As I was explaining the rules to Amy, I flipped over the first card of the first location, and there was the master villain himself! He escaped, of course, because the game doesn't allow you to win on the first turn, but spotting him so early in the scenario allowed us to narrow down his next hideout. When we finally got around to taking him on, we had both incurred a fair amount of damage -- Harsk and Merisiel both have their strengths, but defense and healing aren't among them. Still, we took out the bandit lord without too much difficulty and now we're ready to move on to the next scenario!

Final Playtest Packet

The final public playtest packet for D&D Next has been released. Click here to visit the download page. I strongly encourage you to read over this material and provide feedback -- it's our last opportunity to help shape the next edition of D&D.

Temple of Elemental Evil

The classic D&D adventure Temple of Elemental Evil is available for free as a PDF download, but only for a limited time! Get it here.

Character Decks

Building a character in the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game entails building a small (15 card) deck that represents the character's spells, armor, weapons, allies, and so forth. I've found that building characters decks can be a fun exercise in learning the game and its tactical intricacies. After beating the first scenario with Valeros, I built a deck for the cleric Kyra and I'm running her through the same scenario. So far, she plays a lot like Valeros -- she's been bashing monsters with her mace, so I haven't yet had occasion to use her spells or healing power. I've also built decks for the dwarf ranger Harsk and the elf rogue Merisiel, as these will be the characters that Amy and I use when we try out the game from a multiplayer perspective. I'll let you know how these characters play when we get a chance to give them a test drive.

"Hey, look! A Dungeons & Dragons ride!"

Happy thirtieth birthday to the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon television series. I loved this show as a kid (confession: and as an adult!), and so did one of the writers at GeekDad.

Valeros Victorious!

Sunday night, I played through a Pathfinder Adventure Card Game scenario using the human fighter Valeros. In yesterday's post I described the setup, so this time I'll give you a narrative summary of what happened.

Tasked with defeating a group of bandits, Valeros needed to select a location to investigate. He seemed ill suited for completing (or "closing") the woods, so I decided to begin with the farmhouse. Val immediately encountered a nasty enchantress whose magic inflicted some damage that his armor could not absorb. After that inauspicious beginning, Val hacked his way through several other creatures and picked up a bit of loot along the way. His natural melee combat skill, combined with his trusty longsword, made short work of all his foes. Even the bandit leader's henchman -- the last foe in the deck -- was no match for Val.

Having cleared out the farmhouse (more like a monster hotel!), I then sent Val to the town's waterfront district. His first encounter there, on the very first card I turned over, was the other bandit henchman! That was a stroke of good luck. Val cut him down with ease, and thereby was able to close out this location without the need to explore it further. By closing these two locations, I also ensured that the master villain would be unable to escape to them later in the scenario -- Val had cornered the bandit leader in the woods.

The woods proved to be more difficult. First Val ran into a shadow that he could not defeat because of his lack of a magical weapon. His lowest point came when he failed (badly!) his combat check against a horde of rats. His armor absorbed the damage, but it was still pretty humiliating for this mighty warrior! Moments later, however, Val scored an unlikely success on a Dexterity check (he needed roll an 8 on a 1D8) to avoid a pit trap. The next card revealed the bandit leader himself. This fight wasn't much of a challenge -- Val hit him hard enough to kill him twice over. With the death of the bandit lord, the scenario was over. Val earned another treasure and claimed a resounding victory in his first adventure.

Luck played a big role, however. Had the second bandit henchman not appeared at the beginning of the waterfront location, Val would have had to face numerous other challenges that probably would have depleted his resources. I also found that a couple of serious obstacles for which Val had no applicable skills remained unrevealed at the bottom of the first and third location decks. It wouldn't have been so easy if the cards had come up in a different order.

So how was it, overall? I friggin' loved it. This game rules! I can't wait to try out other characters in solo play, and to rope Amy into joining me for a few multiplayer scenarios. I can't endorse this game highly enough. I hope you'll seriously consider picking up a copy and giving it a try.

Zero Charisma Trailer

I know I promised another Pathfinder update, but I couldn't resist sharing this information about Zero Charisma.

Valeros Ventures Out

Last night I played through my first solo scenario in the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. Shown below is an image of the prepared cards...

On the top row, on the left-hand side, we have the Blessings deck. This deck functions primarily as the timer. At the beginning of each player's turn, the player flips over a card from this deck. If the deck runs out of cards, the game is over and the players lose. In the middle is the scenario card, which describes the plot of the scenario and the various locations that I'll need to visit. On the right is the token card for my hero, the human fighter Valeros, and the deck containing cards for his weapons, armor, and other goodies. The three locations for this scenario -- the woods, the waterfront, and the farmhouse -- are shown in the bottom row. Each location contains the monsters, traps, treasure, and other cards that might be discovered at that location.

The setup takes a while. For each location, I need to draw a specified number of cards from various decks and combine them into a location deck. Cards are drawn face-down and shuffled together, so although I would know from the location card that a given location must include, say, four monsters, two allies, two blessings, and so forth, I have no idea which monsters, allies, and blessings I'll encounter, or in what order. Each turn, I can explore a location and reveal one or more cards from the location deck. If it's a monster, I need to fight it. (Fortunately, Valeros is very good at fighting!) If it's an item, I can roll to try to acquire it.

Mixed in with all this stuff are cards for the main villain and his henchmen. For my scenario, the plot is to wipe out the bandits who have been plaguing the town. There's a main bandit leader as well as two unnamed bandit henchmen. To insert these foes into the decks, I mix them up and shuffle one into each location deck. I know that each deck will include one of these foes, but until I encounter them, I won't know which foe will be found in which location.

Now it's time for Valeros to venture out in search of the bandits! How did he fare? That will be the subject of my next post!

Getting Started

I've now read through the hundreds of cards in the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, and I've given the rulebook a once-over, as well. After viewing this excellent video that explains how to play the game, I think I'm ready for my first solo scenario.

Rulebook Download

Folks interesting in the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game can download a PDF of the rulebook here. I have yet to try an actual game scenario -- I'm still poring over the hundreds and hundreds of cards.

Mazes and Monsters and Morons

I just spotted this listing on Amazon. I love Tom Hanks (who doesn't?!), but I have nothing but contempt for this movie and the book on which it's based.

Pathfinder Unboxing

It's here! Ready to see the awesomeness of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game? Here's Matthew with the box. It's a big box.

The next photo shows the inside, but before I removed the cards from their wrapping. See all the extra space? The box is designed to hold many future expansions.

This game is unlike traditional collectible card games because the players select hero characters and work cooperatively toward a common goal. In that respect, it's a lot more like a fantasy roleplaying game...but without a gamemaster! (The story unfolds as the players draw cards from various decks, but the extent to which this game can tell a compelling story without a human gamemaster remains to be seen.) The base set includes one full-length adventure ("Burnt Offerings"), the first chapter in a campaign called Rise of the Runelords. Subsequent adventures will be released every two months.

There are no rules for creating a unique character, but the base set includes seven pre-made characters who should be familiar to you if you have the Pathfinder Beginner Box or if you're reading the excellent Pathfinder comic book. Shown below is my favorite Pathfinder hero, Seoni.

As you play through the scenarios in each adventure, your heroes will acquire loot! Here's one of the all-time classic treasures, a healing potion.

Scenarios take place at a variety of typical adventuring locations. I like the Treacherous Cave because it reminds me of an episode of the old Dungeons & Dragons cartoon from the '80s. (It was the episode in which Warduke captured Dungeonmaster, but I digress...)

Throughout the scenarios, you're fighting monsters (like the bugbear below), overcoming traps, searching for treasure, etc. They really cover all the bases in simulating a tabletop roleplaying game experience.

At first glance, this game looks like a blast...and it also looks ridiculously complicated. I'm sure I'll have a lot more to say about it as I start to learn the rules and play through some scenarios. Stay tuned!

No News

No news is good news, unless you like to do blog posts about gaming news. Alas, it's been a slow week. Some good stuff on the horizon, though: my copy of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game finally shipped, and the final public playtest packet for D&D Next should be released in the next week or so. Expect plenty of posts to follow!

Great Minds Think Alike?

As you probably know, 2013 marks the twentieth anniversary of the Druid Cycle campaign world, and my goal for the year was to shake up the status quo. I want this world to feel demonstrably different in the wake of climactic events like the battle against Ekhis and deaths of Sir Roberts and Pyrrhus. Well, just wait till you see how different it's going to feel by the time 2014 rolls around, because we still have one major event -- coming up at the very end of the year -- that will change this world forever.

I've been laying the groundwork for this event all year, and it's interesting to note that the Big Two of superhero comics, DC and Marvel, have similar storylines in their current/recent crossover events. I won't say anything more, but if you've been reading comics lately, you may have a clue about what I have in store for the Druid Cycle heroes by year's end...

Hunters 2

My latest iPad game is Hunters 2, from the makers of Warhammer Quest. I've only played through the introductory mission so far, but based on every review I've seen (such as here and here), I think this game is going to rock!

Pathfinder Review

Click here to see a video review of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. Why hasn't Amazon shipped mine yet?!

Atlantis

Those who played in The Other World back in the late '90s -- or anyone who plays in future installments of modern-setting Front Porch campaigns -- will know that our multiverse references Atlantis and its fate, and even fantasy campaigns like The Druid Cycle feature the recurring theme of sunken cities. I'm pleased to report, then, that there's a new BBC series about Atlantis. Please, please don't be cheesy!

Galahad

I wasn't too interested in seeing the new Lone Ranger movie, but Matthew and I picked up one of the Lone Ranger Lego sets over the weekend (and I suspect Santa will be bringing the super-cool train set when Christmas rolls around!). We started building an Old West fort, and that got me thinking about a late-nineteenth-century Western setting for the Front Porch multiverse. The most logical location for the story would be the fictional town of Galahad, which, centuries in the future, would become the home base for the heroes in the post-apocalyptic Cyberwars spin-off, Ragnarok. I could use ancestors of the Ragnarok characters for the sheriff and other denizens of the town, and perhaps forge some links to The Ladder, the only nineteenth-century campaign we're had in a quarter-century of Front Porch action. I doubt if we'll ever get around to using this hypothetical Western setting for an actual campaign, but it may well add some interesting flavor to the growing multiverse.

Pathfinder Pre-Ordered

I just pre-ordered the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. Can't wait to dive into it!

Bastion #3

I mentioned earlier this week that I was changing the name of Elysium (the hidden stronghold of human civilization in the futuristic settings of the Front Porch multiverse) due to the recent film that overlaps with this concept. I've decided to change the name from Elysium to Bastion.

That name should sound familiar. A few months ago, I posted about adding a city called Bastion to the Shattered Realm campaign setting. Bastion is also the name of a city in the Druid Cycle setting. As a way of building up our multiverse and establishing links between the various campaign worlds, I'm going to insert a community called Bastion (some variation of the name may be necessary) in each setting. Bastion, then, will be the location where the folks are most closely aligned with the ideologies of the Ternion -- the overarching three-member pantheon of the Front Porch multiverse.

More Top Superhero RPGs

This week Timothy Callahan counts down his top five superhero RPGs on Comic Book Resources. It's a fun trip down memory lane, but he ranks Champions no better than fifth?!? Heresy!

Elysium No More!

Those of you who have played in recent Cyberwars/Ragnarok campaigns or have perused the multiverse-spawning story "When Last We Left Our Intrepid Heroes" may recall that Elysium is the name of mankind's secret refuge in the bleak, post-apocalyptic future. However, it's also the name of a space station in the new Neill Blomkamp film of the same name. Given the similarities between the two Elysiums (although it's interesting to note that Blomkamp and I are using the concept of Elysium in almost diametrically opposing ways), I've decided to change the name of our Elysium. I'm not going to go back and edit "When Last We Left" or make any abrupt changes to the campaign narratives, but you'll notice a shift away from that name in the coming months. Later this week, I'll discuss the new name for this fabled Front Porch realm.

Grand Master Senchan

Congratulations to Kevin, whose cleric Senchan -- first introduced to the Druid Cycle campaign world way back in 1998 -- was recently elected Grand Master of the Knights of Mithras.

Sundering/Saendering

All this business about the Sundering (see Monday's post) got me thinking that I had heard this term before in the context of D&D. But where? Google was no help. I racked my brain (or is it "wracked"? I digress...) until I realized that I had seen the word Sundering -- or, rather, the similar but curious term Saendering -- in Dungeons & Dragons Tactics, a turn-based game for the PSP that presents an almost slavishly faithful adaptation of the D&D 3.5e rules. If memory serves (as Chairman Kaga would say), the Saendering is a historical event in the setting of Tactics (a world that, to my knowledge, has not been used before or since this one video game) that is significant to the plot that unfolds for the player throughout the game.

4e Monster Balance

The great 4e D&D blog Square Fireballs hadn't been updated in, like, forever, but I checked it today and found one new post (dated June 12, so technically it's not new) on the issue of balancing the various categories of monsters (minion, standard, elite, and solo). If you're at all interested in the underlying logic of 4e encounter design, I highly recommend giving this post a few minutes of your time.

Top Superhero RPGs

The first-ever Front Porch campaign was not fantasy, but a superhero game. Earth Commanders debuted in 1988 and it still holds a special place in my heart, as does Champions, the game system we used for that campaign. I was reminded of Earth Commanders when I read an article on Comic Book Resources that takes a look at the best superhero roleplaying games of all time. (Matt should be pleased to note that Mutants & Masterminds comes in at #6.) Next week the author will count down his top five -- and Champions had better be #1!

The Sundering

The Sundering is an upcoming cross-media Forgotten Realms event with tie-ins that include novels, tabletop game products, and even a video game. After checking out the official website (click here), I found that the most interesting aspect of this event is the news that players of the next D&D Encounters season (Murder in Baldur's Gate) will be able to report their weekly escapades back to Wizards and thereby help determine the future of the Realms.

No More Skills...

...at least, not in the core rules. The largest and arguably the most controversial change in the latest playtest packet is the removal of skills. Backgrounds no longer provide you with a selection of skills; now, as part of your background, you gain two fields of lore (cultural lore, religious lore, etc.), which use Intelligence as the relevant ability score for the check. When you make an Intelligence check that would fall under one of your fields of lore, you gain a whopping +10 to the roll. What happened to all of the non-knowledge skills like spot, listen, perform, and persuade? You can still attempt all of these actions, but they are now firmly rooted in ability checks (Wisdom for spot, Charisma for persuade, etc.) that may receive bonuses from character class features.

Knight Moves

I loved the knight background from the previous iterations of the D&D Next playtest. Any fighter or cleric or paladin that I created was likely to be a knight. However, this background has been removed from the current materials. Now the knight is a sub-class of the fighter, and it seems to be emulating the 4e fighter's defender mechanics (i.e., disincentivizing enemies from attacking the fighter's adjacent allies). Although I prefer the new gladiator build to the knight, I really dig the knight's Level 19 benefit, which is called Coterie of Knights. This benefit allows the character to establish a knightly order (complete with heraldry and a code of conduct!) and provides up to 10 fifth-level knights as henchmen. Very cool!

At Long Last...

...the new D&D Next playtest packet is available! Click here to download it. Unfortunately, it's going to be at least a week before I can really dig into this material and start to analyze the many, many changes.

Red Box (The Good One, Not the 4e One)

Good news! The classic Basic D&D "Red Box" starter set materials are now available for download as PDFs from D&D Classics.

MAMET!

I love RPGs and I love David Mamet...so naturally I enjoyed reading this.

KOTOR KO'd

I finished up the iPad port of Knights of the Old Republic last night. What a fantastic game! I'd put it in my top ten favorite video games of all time.

Kre-O First Look

Head over to EN World and scroll down on the main page until you find some photos of the upcoming D&D Kre-O mini-figs.

Awesomeness Is in the Cards

We're getting closer to the launch of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. Check out the latest here.

The Met!

Usually when I think "The Met," I think of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Damn, I love that place! Today, however, "The Met" refers to my mother's 1954 Nash Metropolitan. That car -- along with my two little boys -- is featured today on Timothy's "other" blog, The People's Wheels. Check it out here.

d20 Street Cred

I love the Pathfinder comic book, and I love that the writer adheres to the conventions of fantasy RPGs, but the most recent issue (#8) made it a bit too obvious that we're living in an RPG world. When the heroes run afoul of skeletons, the combat turns into some sort of "d20 System 101," in which the characters start suggesting tried-and-true tactics...

• One hero urges the others not to allow the skeletons to flank them.
• One hero reminds the others to use blunt, not bladed, weapons against the skeletons.
• One hero indicates that their undead foes are immune to magical sleep. 

Then they all protect the cleric until she can use her Turn Undead ability to end the fight.

D&D Kre-O

My world just got rocked.

You know I love D&D, and you probably also know that I love Lego and other building toys. A few months ago I posted about the great line of World of Warcraft Mega Bloks sets. Since then I've been building up quite the fantasy setting, with armies of orcs and elves, plenty of heroes, and a couple of bad-ass dragons. (Thank you, Target clearance aisle!) I've been very happy with the Mega Bloks WoW toys, especially with the Lego Castle series being so expensive and unimaginative these days.

Today, I learned that Hasbro is going to release official D&D building toys as part of their Kre-O line starting in January of 2014. I'm stunned.

More details as I get them...

Fiddling With Feats

In today's Legends & Lore column, Mike Mearls discusses how his team has been tinkering with the role of feats in D&D Next. As you know, the new edition is supposed to have a modular rules system, and feats were proving troublesome to design as an optional component of the game. Their current thinking, as Mearls explains, is to give players periodic opportunities to choose either an ability score increase (+2 bonus to one ability or +1 to two different abilities) or a new special ability. You'd expect power gamers like me to always choose the ability score boost, but the two feats provided as examples are robust enough to merit serious consideration; they're far more powerful than feats in previous editions. I look forward to giving the new feats rules a spin in the next playtest packet...whenever that may arrive...

Jolee and Kilowog Are the Same Guy

I'm enjoying my romp through the Star Wars cosmos in Knights of the Old Republic, and last night I met a cantankerous old Jedi named Jolee Bindo. When he started talking, all I could hear was Kilowog from Green Lantern: The Animated Series. Turns out they're both voiced by the same actor: Kevin Michael Richardson. Check out his Wikipedia page to see his extensive body of work as a voiceover actor. He was also the voice of Sarevok in my beloved Baldur's Gate!

The DM Demands Blood!

You've probably seen this video already, but in case you haven't...

Mystara Livestream

Check out this livestream of four guys playing Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara. Maybe by the time I finish Knights of the Old Republic, I'll have a computer that can run this game...

Warlord Games

I just discovered Warlord Games. They've got some cool historical miniatures and terrain. Now they're going to do the minis for a Judge Dredd miniatures game.

Free Santiago Adventure

Visit EN World to download a free Santiago (Pathfinder in space!) adventure.

Dreaming About KotOR

If you've noticed a lack of blog posts over the past few days, it's because I've been spending much of my free time playing the iPad port of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. I've been playing it so much, in fact, that I've actually started dreaming about it! Last night I dreamed that I was traipsing around the sewers of Taris with Mission Vao and Zaalbar. I woke up before we had to face the Rancor...

The game has also influenced my plans for the sci-fi component of the Front Porch mulitverse. As you may recall, there was no sci-fi setting in "When Last We Left Our Intrepid Heroes"; the only futuristic part of the narrative was the cyberpunk bit in the Prologue and Epilogue. Knights is helping me translate my ideas for Front Porch sci-fi stories into familiar d20 System mechanics. I'm off to a good start, but it's probably going to be many months before I have a viable sci-fi campaign setting.

Knights of the Old Republic

I'm not much of a Star Wars fan (for me it's Doctor Who or nothing!), but Matt recently alerted me to the new iPad port of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, widely regarded as one of the finest computer roleplaying games of all time. I'm only an hour into the game and I can already see why. Developed by the same company that created Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights, it features great music, familiar d20 System (i.e., D&D-based) mechanics, and an interesting story set early in the history of the Star Wars universe. At only ten bucks, it's a steal. Still need more convincing? Check out this glowing review.

Sir Roberts and Leonidas

It seems like a lifetime ago, but in my first career as a scholar of medieval literature, I specialized in a fairly obscure topic: depictions of warriors' death scenes in medieval English heroic literature and how authors used those scenes for social or political commentary. (There's still an Amazon listing for the book I wrote on this topic, but holy crap it's expensive!) When I was planning the recent character deaths in the Druid Cycle, I thought back to my research into medieval literary death scenes and included some key themes (a man's undying reputation, the need for words to be supported by deeds, etc.) in the narrative of the Ekhis battle. Perhaps the greatest influence on this battle, however, was the film 300, which I watched again a couple of weeks ago to get psyched up for Snyder's Man of Steel. Although the deaths unfold very differently, I had the Spartan king Leonidas in the back of my mind when I was writing the final moments of Sir Roberts.

Problems for Baldur's Gate

The totally awesome Baldur's Gate revamp is no longer available for sale, and work has stopped on a similar edition for Baldur's Gate 2. It seems there are some pesky legal issues to be resolved, as reported here and elsewhere.

End of an Era

In most cases I prefer to let the dice fall where they may, which on occasion leads to unexpected character deaths, like that of the beloved Brewmaster General. In very rare cases, I plan a character's death as an integral part of the story, the best example of which is the demise of Priam Romlin. This time, as part of the massive epic-tier adventure to celebrate our twentieth year of Druid Cycle action, I wanted to kill off a couple of characters, but I didn't have a clear idea as to which ones it would be. 

I contacted Jason and Timothy (separately) about their elite heroes, Sir Roberts and Cathbad, respectively, and asked them how they felt about sacrificing those characters for the sake of the story (and for other benefits that I would provide to their surviving characters). Both agreed to my plan. I also had two NPCs in mind, Pyrrhus and Ariel, whom I felt were expendable. So out of that pool of four heroes, I felt pretty confident that I could get two of them killed against a foe as powerful as Ekhis. Players may have noticed that I was extremely aggressive in the choices that Pyrrhus and Ariel made during the battle, and it wasn't by accident. 

Pyrrhus went down in a blaze of glory, and as the battle wore on, it became clear to me that Sir Roberts was the best choice for the player character death. He had taken the brunt of Ekhis's attacks and had dished out more damage than any other single hero. He'd earned an epic death scene. Jason was still interested in pursuing this storyline, and we agreed that the final fate of Sir Roberts should be somewhat ambiguous. In the end, the mighty paladin was trapped inside Ekhis's mouth and turned to stone along with the monster. Can the spell be reversed? Can he be rescued or resurrected at some point in the future? Only time will tell.

For the record, here's a photo of the battlefield from the final round of combat...

Odds & Ends

A few random thoughts on the "How to Play" document from the latest D&D Next playtest packet:

• Critical hits have been nerfed big-time. Now, when you score a critical hit, you roll one additional damage die. So if you're wielding a weapon that inflicts 1D8 damage, you'd roll a second D8 for your crit roll. If your damage roll was a D8 as well as a D6, you could choose the larger damage die for the crit die.
• Negative hit points have been removed from the game, and I heartily approve. Now the 4e concept of the death saving throw will serve as the mechanic for determining the fate of characters who are reduced to zero hit points.
• They've once again changed the knowledge categories for "Recall Lore." Hobbyist lore? Seriously? The various knowledge skills have really been all over the map from packet to packet.

What the Heck Is Thaumaturgy?

Well, in D&D Next, it's a new level 0 (cantrip) spell for clerics. Similar to the wizard cantrip Prestidigitation, this spell allows the caster to perform a minor religious wonder. I think it's a welcome addition to the cleric's repertoire because it allows characters to show off their divine power (often to impress local yokels) without having to burn a precious spell slot. Among the many possible effects of Thaumaturgy are causing the ground to shake, causing a door to slam shut, or causing the caster's eyes to turn solid black.

Free RPG Day > Free Comic Book Day

My favorite comic book site has a really interesting article about why Free RPG Day is better than Free Comic Book Day. Check it out here.

Dragonspear Preview

Check it out...click here for a preview of an adventure that most of us will never see. Thanks for the tease, Wizards. Are there any other products I can't buy that you'd like to show off? Yes, I've dialed the snark up to 11, but it kind of bugs me that the first D&D Next product is available only for those who are attending Gen Con.

A Free RPG Day Without D&D...

Wizards opted to hold a D&D Game Day event instead of participating in Free RPG Day. Lame! Without a D&D or Warhammer/Warhammer 40k option, it was kind of a lackluster Free RPG Day this year. Paizo stole the show with "We Be Goblins Too," the sequel to a prior freebie Pathfinder adventure from 2011. The only other standout module that I picked up was Catalyst's Battletech/Shadowrun combo book. I also scored one of the fancy dice from Q Workshop.

Free RPG Day Is Tomorrow!

Don't forget to drop by your local game store tomorrow for some free stuff! The Free RPG Day website includes a store locator to help you find the store nearest you. I'll be at A-1 Comics in Sacramento.

Short Rest Is No Longer Short

In 4e, when your party takes a short rest to recover encounter powers and spend healing surges, the duration of the rest is five minutes. I always thought that was kind of strange -- it only takes five minutes to recover from a battle? I'm pleased to report that in the current iteration of D&D Next, the short rest requires a full hour. This rule should have lots of interesting implications for resting in dungeons and other potentially hostile locations. As with long (eight hour) rests, parties will now need to be more vigilant (finding a hiding spot, setting watches, or whatever) during these rest periods to ensure that their rest is not interrupted.

Hinder

There's an interesting new combat option in D&D Next. It's called Hinder, and it allows a character to distract, obstruct, or otherwise hinder another creature within five feet. To use this action (in 4e terms, this is a standard action that you would use in place of your attack), you describe the manner in which you intend to hinder the target (I foresee a lot of haggling with DMs here -- I think the description in the rules needs to be tightened up considerably), and then the target has disadvantage on the next relevant ability check or attack roll it makes before your next turn.

Curtains for Pyrrhus

Last night we had the first of the highly anticipated Druid Cycle hero deaths, and the doomed man was Pyrrhus, the greatest rogue in all the world. Pyrrhus, an NPC, had been a Druid Cycle mainstay since he was introduced alongside Ixion (Jason) and Hachulors (Scott) in 1994. Few characters were as fun for me to play at the table. With his annoying nasal voice and outrageously over-the-top New York City accent, Pyrrhus was as memorable for his words as for his deeds. He always seemed to be operating in a moral gray area, but there was no mistaking his allegiance at the end, when he died in battle against Ekhis.

The next major death is coming up very soon, and this time, my friends, it's going to be a player character...

Free RPG Day 2013

This Saturday is Free RPG Day. Check out the website for details on this year's offerings.

Tinker

As I mentioned the other day, the latest D&D Next playtest packet includes three new races: the half-elf, the half-orc, and the gnome. The first two are kind of bland, but the gnome is chock-full-o'-fun. (Too bad gnomes don't exist in the Druid Cycle world!) I especially like the rock gnome, who gets the super-cool Tinker ability. This feature allows the gnome to craft tiny clockwork machines, such as a marching toy soldier, a fire-starting device, or a music box. These devices are functionally similar to wizard cantrips, but with a uniquely gnomish flavor. I'm already dreaming up a gnome artificer (it may be a long while, of course, before we see this class in Next!) whose backpack is bursting with all sorts of gadgetry. My only reservation about the gnome is that neither variety (rock or forest) grants a Charisma bonus, so a gnome bard (historically a common class for this race) is sub-optimal right from the get-go.

Warhammer Quest

I'm still having tons of fun with the Warhammer Quest iPad game. I'd love to see Games Workshop re-release the mid-'90s board game on which it's based. That board game was the successor to HeroQuest, which I spent many happy hours playing in Scott's basement back in the early '90s.

D&D Next Update

There's an updated D&D Next playtest packet available with some new content, including the half-elf, half-orc, and gnome races, and some tweaks to the rules and spells. Click here to visit the playtest page.

Dead Heroes

The epic-tier Druid Cycle heroes are nearing the conclusion of their adventure on the Elemental Plane as they struggle to defeat their immortal foe Ekhis. So far it's been an evenly matched fight, but the heroes have lost a few lower-level NPC allies. Even the most powerful characters are weakening with each passing round, but Ekhis is bloodied and his henchmen are nearing death. I'll post a picture of the corpse-littered battlefield -- that is, the game map with lots of overturned miniatures -- after it's all over.

Of course, as I've hinted for months, we're going to witness the deaths of not one, but two all-time-great Druid Cycle characters in 2013, our twentieth year of play. I can now confirm that at least one of those deaths will take place during this battle. For a brief moment, it appeared that the doomed hero was Ironside, who was literally chewed up and spit out by Ekhis, but another hero quickly resurrected him. Ironside is down for the rest of the fight, but he's not the hero who will perish.

Players...anyone want to wager a guess as to who it will be?

Neverwinter Review

One of the guys at EN World has written a thorough review of Neverwinter Online, and he's not a big fan of this new free-to-play D&D MMORPG. Check out the review here.

World Building

One of the great things to come out of our twenty-fifth anniversary has been a new look at old characters. Recently, Timothy returned to a long-dormant Druid Cycle hero named Scyld (Hwaet! Take notice, Beowulf fans!), who is soon to set out on a lengthy expedition to uncharted waters. His quest is to rescue the  refugees of a natural disaster that occurred a couple of years ago in the Druid Cycle world, but it's mainly an excuse for me to expand the map of this campaign setting. Scyld and his companions are going to visit a number of heretofore unexplored islands, but their ultimate destination will be an entirely new continent. The travelers will establish a settlement there and try to build a stable, long-term community. Lofty ambitions indeed for a character who was sitting on the shelf, so to speak, just a couple of months ago. I encourage the rest of the Front Porch crew to look back on your old characters and see what new life we can breathe into them!

Questing

I spent a good chunk of the weekend playing Warhammer Quest on my iPad. I'm really digging it. It reminds me of the Dungeons & Dragons Tactics game for the PSP (which I also loved), but with its high level of randomness in the dungeons, foes, and weird side-encounters (while visiting a town to sell our loot, one of my characters got run over by a wagon!), it also reminds me of the D&D-based Castle Ravenloft board game. Now they just need to make a Warhammer 40,000 version, in which the player controls a small squad of Ultramarines taking on the forces of Chaos (or vice versa -- I know Matt would prefer it that way!).

Warhammer Quest Is Here!

Warhammer Quest is here! I'm downloading it to my iPad right now!

Jack Vance

Sci-fi author Jack Vance passed away over the weekend at the age of 96. I've never read any of his work, but the early TSR folks were big Vance fans, and some of his ideas were adapted into the D&D game rules. The notion that wizards and other spell-casters must memorize spells that subsequently disappear from their memories once cast is an idea straight from Vance. He's honored in D&D mythology by the god Vecna, whose name is an anagram of Vance.

Warhammer Quest

Hat tip to Matt for alerting me to the upcoming Warhammer Quest game for iOS devices. Check out this video preview and this review.

OD&D

Confession time: I added this upcoming D&D product to my Amazon wish list. I know it's an extravagance and I know there's no way I'll find anyone willing to play it with me, but...in my defense...the Amazon listing is much cheaper than the price listed on the Wizards site.

Arena of War

There's a new D&D video game -- Arena of War -- coming soon for mobile devices. Check out the details here.

No More Maps

One of the best parts of the Pathfinder comic book has been the removable game map that was included in every issue. Alas, the maps have been discontinued! On the plus side, the book has a new artist and I think he's off to a good start.

Nomenclature

When I design a new game setting, I like it to have a reasonably consistent nomenclature.* I may well be the only one of us who cares about stuff like this, and that's fine, but I'm just not satisfied with a setting that I've created unless I make sure there's internal consistency in how people and places are named. (In fact, probably 90% of the retconning I've done over the years, in The Druid Cycle in particular, has been to "fix" names that didn't quite work.)

Most often my game setting nomenclature takes the form of proper nouns derived from everyday words in other languages. The names in Torchlight, for instance, are entirely from Anglo-Saxon (Old English). The Druid Cycle is a mix of language traditions: Ancient Greek and Latin (Troya Nova), Welsh and Irish (Teyrnas and Annuvin), medieval Italian and German (Southern Principalities), ancient Egyptian (Tadjeser), etc.

The upcoming Shattered Realm revamp will be based on obscure or antiquated English words. Again, because this is a shared world intended for multiple gamemasters, I don't want to burden everyone with a bunch of weird names that they may not want to use. The archaic words I've chosen have a nice fantastical ring to them, but they're generic enough to remain in keeping with my design goals for the campaign setting. I don't want to reveal too much at the moment, but I can say that one of the major NPC heroes is named Caitiff, after one of my all-time favorite English words of yesteryear. Look it up!


* - Dagnabbit! "Nomenclature" is a word with a very specific and idiosyncratic meaning in Front Porch lore, and yet I somehow failed to include it in "When Last We Left Our Intrepid Heroes," which is filled with many such tidbits to amuse long-time Porch players. I apologize, especially to Scott, for this egregious omission!

Big Four

As you know, this year marks the twentieth anniversary of The Druid Cycle. Many, many people have played in Druid Cycle campaigns over the years, but no one has logged more time in this world than these four lads...

Jason, Scott, Kevin, and Timothy (shown here in a photo from way back in 1998!) are the "Big Four" players whose imagination and enthusiasm have shaped this game world into what it is today, and for that I am forever grateful (and even more grateful for their friendship). It's fitting that, in this anniversary year, all four of them are playing in the current epic-tier Druid Cycle adventure. It's been a very long time since we got all four of these guys together in the same adventure, and I'm enjoying every minute of it.