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.