Damage Bloat

As I've been thinking about the new barbarian class, I keep coming back to something that bugs me about D&D Next. For lack of a better term, I'll call it damage bloat. The new edition has a large number of damage add-ons, and it's a particularly egregious issue for the barbarian. This character getes the standard weapon damage die and ability score modifier, of course, as well as martial damage dice (like the fighter), a flat martial damage bonus, and a flat rage damage bonus. That's a lot of stuff to add up.

In the current playtest packet, the designers list among the "Known Issues" that some character classes do more damage than they should. So why did they rush the barbarian into the playtest when this class is the worst offender?

The Barbarian, Part 2: The Other Stuff

Yesterday we looked at the barbarian's rather overpowered rage ability. It gets even more powerful as the barbarian advances in level (for example, gaining regeneration while raging and severely wounded). Separate from the rage feature is an attack option that allows the barbarian to gain advantage on his/her own (non-rage) attack, but grant advantage to those attacking the barbarian. As I suggested yesterday, this rule perhaps would have been better suited for rage.

Aside from the attack options, the class has typical edition-spanning barbarian features like fast movement and incentives to wear light or no armor, as well as enhanced initiative checks, enhanced senses, and the ability to incite a "mini-rage" in the character's allies.

Like the sorcerer we saw earlier, the barbarian class needs to be toned down. As it stands now, the barbarian seems far superior to the fighter, whose maneuvers simply cannot match the barbarian's impressive collection of class features.

The Barbarian, Part 1: Rage

As with barbarians in previous editions, the D&D Next barbarian is built around rage. A beginning barbarian can rage twice per day, and must take a short rest between rages. The rage ends when the character falls unconscious, after 10 minutes, or if the character fails to attack during its turn. So far, so good. While in "rage mode," the character gets advantage on Strength-based attack rolls, saves, and checks, as well as a +2 (or higher, depending on the character's level) bonus to damage and resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.

Wow.

Even just getting advantage on attacks is a massive bonus, but the whole package is...incredible! Surely, then, with so many advantages, the rage mechanic must have severe drawbacks, right? Well, not so much. The drawback is that the character can't take reactions while raging. That's it. The way I see it, this class feature is utterly broken. I heard somewhere that the designers had considered a rule that gave advantage to enemies attacking a barbarian who was raging. That's a significant penalty, but perhaps would have brought this class feature back down to earth. They definitely need to do something to rein it in.

I'll write more tomorrow about the rest of the barbarian's ample supply of goodies.

It's Rage Time!

A new D&D Next playtest packet is now available. They're really cranking these things out, aren't they? This packet includes a number of updates, including exploration rules, a conversion for the upcoming D&D Encounters season, the complete barbarian class, and clarifications to a number of existing rules. I'll have more to say later about the exploration system and the barbarian.

Sarevok Falls Again!

Having now beaten the enhanced edition of Baldur's Gate on my iPad, I can say without reservation that it's a fantastic gaming experience. If you haven't picked up a copy yet (available for Windows and iPad, with Mac and Android versions coming soon), I highly recommend it. I can't wait for an enhanced version of Baldur's Gate II!

Hong Kong Game Recap

It's bear versus alligator in the sewers beneath Riverton!

Druid Cycle players may be interested to learn that this adventure takes place some time in the future, although Timothy didn't discover that little tidbit until the cliffhanger ending. His hero, Aldwulf, was on the trail of a low-ranking follower of Ekhis, who had come to Riverton to deliver a mysterious "item" to a more senior Ekhis crony. Aldie and his loyal animal companion chased the crook into the sewers, where they ran afoul of an alligator (with whom Aldie later "negotiated" -- aren't druids great?!) and ultimately recovered the item.

As it turned out, the item was a sack containing the dead body of one of the world's most legendary heroes, but I ended the adventure before revealing the character's name. Is this the hero whose death I promised to be one of the signature events of 2013, the twentieth anniversary of the Druid Cycle game world? It sure is. And because it's Friday, and I'm feeling generous, I'll reveal one more thing: My plan is to kill off not one, but two legendary heroes this year.

Crack-O-Dawn

Pop quiz! Would your ol' pal Prester get up at the crack of dawn to play D&D? The answer, of course, is yes! It was 5 AM in Nevada and 9 PM in Hong Kong when Timothy and I got together over Skype to run a short solo adventure for his Druid Cycle hero Aldwulf. Huzzah for technology!

Greetings from Hong Kong!

Hello Front Porchers from Hong Kong! We're going to attempt a record breaking feat, as John and I are attempting to have a short gaming session from across the globe, literally! We'll keep you posted on how it turns out, but for now, here's a few images from the other side of the world.

Intercontinental Game Action

It was nearly thirteen years ago (Yikes! Was it really that long ago?) that Timothy and I brought The Druid Cycle to another country when we did some solo adventures with his wizard Cathbad while traipsing across the UK.

Very soon, if all goes as planned, we'll have our first-ever Front Porch game from Asia. Stay tuned for more details!

D&D Classics

Dudes, this is dangerous. I probably shouldn't have navigated to this site, but it's too late. Damn you, Wizards! It's been many months since I bought any D&D product, but that's probably going to change in a big way as I start picking up classic D&D modules -- now re-released as PDFs. Oh, world of Greyhawk, I've missed you...

More Lore

There are a lot of goodies in today's Legends & Lore column from D&D Next leader Mike Mearls, including an announcement that the barbarian class will be available in the next iteration of the playtest.

Nathuz

Last night Matthew and I tried Nathuz, another set in the Lego Heroica series. This adventure takes place in a series of caverns and puts the heroes up against giant bats and golems(!). Nathuz adds another character class (the rogue) and incorporates rules for purchasing additional weapons and magic items. Heroica is starting to shape up as a pretty robust dungeon crawl for kids. The only downside: epic freak-out when the five-year-old lost after a hard-fought game...

Draida

Matthew and I cracked open the first of our two Lego Heroica boxes. This set is called Draida, and the storyline is that the heroes have arrived to liberate the kingdom's harbor, which has been overrun by goblins. The Heroica game rules as presented in Draida are pretty simple, even for a kids' game. Matthew and I played through the scenario three times in a row. He mastered the rules quickly and had a blast. Still, there aren't really enough options to give this set a lot of replay value (for instance, there are only two hero characters, the barbarian and the wizard), although we can mix things up a bit by re-configuring the areas and the placement of the monsters. We're likely to see more advanced rules (such as purchasing items with gold obtained during the adventure) when we open the larger of our two sets. Good game so far...with a bit more complexity, it could be a great gateway to D&D.

Lego Heroica

Timothy, my Lego-lovin' pal, this one's for you!

Lego has a number of board games (the intended age group varies depending on the game) in which players build the board, the game pieces, and other components, and then sit down to play the game. I just found out about their series of fantasy games, known as Heroica (official site here and more info here). They looked like pretty cool dungeon-crawl quasi-roleplaying games, so I picked up a couple of them in the clearance aisle at Target this afternoon. Matthew and I will run through them this evening to see how they play. He's familiar with the basics of tabletop RPGs (character classes, rolling dice to hit, moving miniatures around a map, etc.), so I think he'll pick up Heroica quickly even though, at five, he's a bit younger than the recommended age of seven-plus.

Mumbley Peg

Speaking of Timothy's "other" blog, he's written a fantastic post about our first trip to Wales together. Long-time Porch players may recall that the language, mythology, geography, and history of Wales are the major inspirations for the Druid Cycle campaign world.

So why is the post titled "Mumbley Peg"? Well, you'll just have to read Tim's story and find out!

Even More Bloggery!

This has nothing to do with gaming, but I just wanted to share the news that our very own Timothy is now a major contributor to a great blog called The People's Wheels. If you like cars, you'll love this blog. I've enjoyed reading his posts and I continue to marvel at Tim's encyclopedic knowledge of cars. He's also spurred me to start thinking about branching out into another blog of my own. For me, the obvious choice would be superhero comic books. I'll have to mull it over...

Pathfinder's Difficult Path

Issue #4 of Dynamite's Pathfinder comic book comes out today. Naturally, I'm excited; I'll be heading up to my friendly local comic book store over my lunch hour to pick up my copy. I am a bit concerned, however, that this book isn't going to last much longer.

I took a look at the sales figures this morning. Back in August, issue #1 ranked 165th on the Diamond Comic Distributors sales charts, with 14277 copies sold. I'd call that a solid debut for a niche book from a non-Big Two publisher. Issue #2 (October) fell to 9361 copies and 204th on the list. Of course, there's almost always a decline after the first issue of a new series. Issue #3 (November) moved up to 200th but sold only 8681 books. If Pathfinder were a DC or Marvel publication, sales in this range would almost guarantee its cancellation. I'll be the first to admit that I don't have a good handle on what constitutes a good number for a smaller publisher like Dynamite, but I'll be very interested to see how #4 fares.

More D&D Next Goals

Mike Mearls has a very interesting new article on design goals for D&D Next. He gives an overview of what would be included in the basic rules package, and hints at what would be reserved for add-on modules. The basic rules sound a lot like Basic D&D from the old days, and Mearls specifically references that product in his article. I remain cautiously optimistic about the end result, especially after the major steps forward in the last playtest packet.

More Fun With Cards

Continuing our recent theme of cards and gaming, here's an article that describes a variety of uses for 3x5 cards in D&D campaigns.

"You died far too soon"

For me, the Virtual Front Porch is primarily comprised of emails  between my stalwart GM, John, and myself. Sometimes, in those thousands of emails that pass between us during a month, one touches me in a way that I can not accurately describe. This is one of those emails:

Thesan clapped Lwcus on the shoulder. "Well said. I hope for the same thing -- many years of good friendship!"

It was not many years. You died far too soon, Lwcus thought to himself, as he stamped his feet in the snow. He had not known many Knights of Mithras in his long life, so standing next to Seneschal Senchan reminded him of the time he had spent with Commander Thesan. Now, won't those blasted Naxxians give us the time of day? The children's lives are at stake, not to mention my own!

"I only hope the elves will show me the same friendship that you did," the Knight continued. "I am rather less than optimistic."

"I'll make sure they do," said Priam, from far ahead of them.

Thesan smiled. "I didn't realize you could hear us all the way up there."

"These pointed ears aren't just for show," the elf replied.

"So you heard me make a fool of myself by prattling on about courting Cerys?"

"My excellent hearing is also quite selective, I assure you."

Thesan laughed. "It's been a long time since I traveled in good company. I am more accustomed to dealing with...hard men."

"We've certainly seen more than our share of those since returning to First Home," said the elf. "With a few notable exceptions, Duke Arswyd's men are a cruel lot, especially Taro."

"I know the name," said Thesan. "Perhaps one day I will face him, and get justice for those he has wronged."

He killed you, Thesan. He killed you, but you died trying to save her. I will always love you for that.

"Let's stop here for the night," said Priam. "There are some trees up ahead; that should make a nice, secluded campsite."

"We are within a day's ride of Caer Eurfryn," said Thesan. "Those men are loyal to Duke Arswyd, are they not?"

"They are, but we chose this route knowing that we would have to pass near Caer Eurfryn. Unless you all want to press on without rest, I think we need to take the risk of spending one night in their territory."

Thank you, John, for creating a world that can bring a tear to my eye. Somehow, even knowing the outcome of this particular thread of story, the journey to that foregone conclusion is as gripping as anything else I've ever participated in.

New D&D Minis

Nice! Gale Force Nine will now be creating official D&D miniatures. Check out the pics here.

The Deck of Encounters

Reading Timothy's recent post on Spellfire got me thinking about the upcoming Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. I can't wait! But more on that in another post.

Today, I'm going to reminisce about another card-based gaming product, a little gem from the '90s called The Deck of Encounters. As part of the AD&D Official Dungeon Master Decks series, this product included dozens of index-card-sized cards that each contained the necessary information (story hook, monsters, treasure, etc.) for a single tactical encounter. The cards also identified the threat level and environment (urban, dungeon, wilderness, etc.) for ease of reference.

I loved this set. I rarely used the encounters exactly as written, but they provided the seeds for a lot of adventures. They also spurred my interest in the possibility of a "DM-less" game in which a group of players can get together, week after week, for a true roleplaying experience that requires little or no preparation on anyone's part. It's a tall order, but I'm hoping the Pathfinder game can pull it off.

2013 Game Event: Revealed!

The year-long game event to celebrate our twenty-fifth anniversary is called The Harbingers, and it's time to get started! If you want to participate, please send me an email and let me know whether you'd like to run your own character, or take part simply as an observer. If you plan on playing a character, I'll respond with a player packet that includes everything you need to know.

The Harbingers is like no campaign we've done before. It's something of a crossover of a quarter-century's worth of Front Porch campaigns and worlds, infused with the themes that we're developing in our current games. I have no idea whether or not this will be successful, but I can't wait to find out!

Spellfire

I don't remember Spellfire CCG, but then again, I wasn't as involved with D&D beyond the world that John included me in, but it's still an interesting read.

Both of these seem like something I might actually have been interested in, if only Magic hadn't been too geeky for even me.

Druid Cycle Teaser

I have big plans for the Druid Cycle in 2013! After the explosive season finale cliffhangers in the heroic-, paragon-, and epic-tier campaigns, we'll now pick up the action in our twentieth anniversary season. As I've mentioned before, one of the major characters of this game world is marked for death in 2013. Who will it be? And what other surprises are in store? Well, in honor of this milestone year, we're bringing one of the most famous player characters out of retirement, along with a well known NPC hero and one of the worst villains in Druid Cycle history. And players, you won't have to wait long to see any of them!

2013 Is Here!

Happy 2013! Ask any Colgate alum and they'll tell you that 13 is a special number. Well, 2013 is a very special year for the Front Porch Gaming Guild because it's our twenty-fifth anniversary as well as the twentieth anniversary of our Druid Cycle fantasy campaign world. I look forward to a great year!