Will You Miss It?

4e D&D is on its way out. Wizards will continue to sell 4e products until there's no longer any demand, but come summertime and the release of D&D Next, the 4e era will, for all intents and purposes, be over. How do we feel about that?

Personally, I'm not sure what I feel. 4e was a radical departure from the traditional D&D rules and it hasn't even been around for as long as my six-and-a-half-year-old son. Some say it did a lot of damage to the D&D community in that short span of time. That's a fair argument. I've enjoyed the tactical aspects of 4e, but I'm not terribly sad to see it go. I think D&D Next will be a return to what we all believe D&D should be. My only regret from the 4e era is that I never got the chance to play in a long-term campaign. Virtually all of my 4e experience was as a DM, so all those super-awesome optimized characters I cooked up in the Character Builder are now kind of meaningless. And as much as I love the shaman character class (under-powered but plucky!), I never got to play one in a real campaign.

How do you feel? Vote in the poll! (See the very bottom of the page.) And please do vote. This question is actually the prelude to a much more important question I intend to ask before the release of the next edition.

D&D Next News

News about D&D Next is starting to trickle in...click here for a summary of topics covered during a trade show presentation about the new edition. The key takeaway for me? Their guiding principle was "What would Gary and Dave do?" If that's true, it's very encouraging.

D&D Falls

Yikes...D&D has fallen all the way down to #4 on the RPG sales chart. Pathfinder is #1.

What's the Cost?

Click here for an interesting post (and subsequent forum discussion) about the inflation-adjusted cost of every edition of D&D over the years.

Gone!

Those mysterious, tantalizing listings for D&D Next products on BN.com are now gone!

Mark Your Calendars

It appears that the first official D&D Next product, D&D Starter Set, is going to be released on July 15, 2014. Click here for the BN.com listing, and here for the new D&D Player's Handbook, to be released on August 19.

Aaron Allston

Sad news -- sci-fi/fantasy author and roleplaying game designer Aaron Allston has passed away, at the far-too-young age of 53. See this link for a nice summary of Allston's prolific career.

Back in the late '80s and early '90s, I frequented a Texas-based BBS (remember those?) called Red October, a hangout for fans and friends of Hero Games. Allston was also a user of that BBS. It took me a while, but I eventually mustered the courage to email him and express my admiration for his work, and he sent me a very gracious response.

Rock Bottom

I'm in Colorado this week on another business trip. Last night I had a very nice evening with Matt, who lives in Denver. We met for dinner at a restaurant and brewery called Rock Bottom. As soon as I saw the sign, I knew we had to eat there. Why? Long-time Druid Cycle players may recall that Rock Bottom is also the name of the seedy pub in the dwarven stronghold of Steel Mountain.

Kre-O Orcs

As you may have noticed in my last Kre-O post, the human soldiers are rather vanilla. The orcs, however, have a lot of flavor! Check out the tough customers below.

The orcs also have a number of elite or "special" mini-figs, which I've grouped together in the next image.

I'm really digging the Kre-O D&D sets, but they're all a bit too reminiscent of the LEGO Lord of the Rings line. I'd like to see some more iconic D&D characters and monsters in the next wave.

Kre-O Humans

Here's what I have so far for my Kre-O human army. First up are the men-at-arms, who are wielding bows, crossbows, or spears.

Next we have a trio of barbarians. Note the dude in the middle with the totally rad war-hammer.

And here are three knights in plate-mail. Unfortunately, Kre-O has yet to release any horses, so these guys are stuck on foot with the grunts. I look forward to the day when I can set up a good old-fashioned chevauchee.

Are these lads ready to take on the orcs? Tune in next time to see the humans' competition!

Kre-O Drizzt

The new Kre-O D&D sets are not exactly plentiful out here in western Nevada, but I'm slowly building up my forces. So far the coolest mini-fig is the legendary drow ranger Drizzt Do'Urden.

Pretty bad-ass, huh? Over the next couple of posts, I'll add some images of my human and orc troopers.

Kre-O at Toy Fair

Toy Fair is in full swing, and Hasbro is showing off lots of cool upcoming Kre-O products, including D&D sets. Click here for pics!

Kre-O Haul!

At last! D&D Kre-O building toys have arrived on the shelves of my semi-local Toys 'R Us. Check out the haul I picked up this evening!

And, as I explained to Amy afterwards, I exercised considerable restraint. There was so much more I could have bought...

New D&D Minis

Sweet! New D&D minis are on the horizon. Click here for more.

LEGO Movie

While I'm waiting patiently (okay, not so patiently!) for the D&D Kre-O toys to find their way to rural Nevada, I can at least revel in the bricktacular awesomeness of The LEGO Movie. I took Matthew to see it this afternoon and we had a blast. Highly recommended!

Invisibility for All!

I ended up getting through the buggy area in BG2: EE by turning everyone invisible and thereby avoiding the werewolves of instant death. Now that I'm back on track, I'm enjoying my return to Athkatla immensely. Playing BG2 again after all these years reminds me of how amazing this game is, and how little I care about the fancy photo-realistic graphics of today's games. Curmudgeon Card...earned!

Zoe and the Werewolves of Death

Over the weekend, I hustled to finish up the original Baldur's Gate (my third time in the last two years -- I think I'm done with this game for a while!) so that I could jump into the iPad port of Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition. Have I ever mentioned that BG2 is my all-time favorite video game? Needless to say, I was thrilled to revisit this sprawling, epic story. I got started with Zoe, my super-duper-awesome archer ranger.

Only a couple of hours into the game, however, I hit a nasty show-stopper of a bug. In the wacky circus in Athkatla, the werewolves -- who should be illusions, mind you -- now have the ability to kill any character with a single hit. Oy! It's frustrating: A werewolf runs up to one of my party members and that character dies instantly. Dispel Magic can destroy the werewolves, but my spellcasters can't get the spell off before the werewolves obliterate at least one or two party members.

I'm now thinking that Invisibility might be the key. If I have my mage dole out Invisibility spells to the whole party before we enter that room, we may be able to bypass this trouble spot. In any case, I hope they push out a patch soon...who knows what other bugs may be lurking?

Happy Birthday!

Today's the day! Dungeons & Dragons turn 40 years old today!

Hello from Vietnam!

A few pictures from my current travels in Vietnam.

Former US Army / South Vietnamese Chinook helicopter at War Remnants Museum in Saigon. 

Saigon City Hall at night. 

Chinese made military "Jeep". 

And a sneak peak a Ha Long Bay...posts to be coming shortly to my regular blog!

Another Birthday Article

Here's another article on D&D's fortieth...

D&D at 40

With the fortieth birthday of D&D coming up in less than a week, articles are popping up across the web. Click here for one from Salon. If you come across other "D&D Birthday" articles, please let me know and I'll post the links here on the blog!

King Alfred

My all-time favorite historical figure is King Alfred the Great (849 - 899), the renowned scholar-king of the Anglo-Saxons during one of the darkest periods of English history. Today there is fascinating news about the search for Alfred's final resting place. Click here to read about the discovery. The hour-long press conference (embedded in the linked article) is well worth watching, as well!

For players of The Druid Cycle and other Front Porch campaigns, Alfred's greatness (indeed, he is the only English king to be designated as "the Great") is reflected in the small number of wise and just kings, such as Glyndwr and Seren. (I tend to portray monarchs in far less favorable terms.) A character more directly based on Alfred, however, has yet to fully reveal himself...

Fernweh

Don't forget to follow Timothy's excellent Fernweh Again blog to keep up with his adventures in Hong Kong and Vietnam.

BGII

It's here! Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition is now available for iPad. Click here for the details. My only problem is that I'm now in the midst of playing through the original Baldur's Gate again...I need to finish up with this character before I delve into the sequel!

Scale

With D&D Kre-O now on the scene, you may be wondering (actually, I'd be very surprised if you were wondering, but I'm going to tell you anyway!) what will become of my legions of World of Warcraft Mega Bloks. Because the WoW mini-figs and the Kre-O mini-figs are not in the same scale, I can't use them interchangeably.

I don't want to maintain two separate collections of fantasy building toys, so which line wins? The bricks are all compatible, so there's no issue with the basic pieces. The problem is solely with the mini-figs (and their associated gear). The WoW guys have the benefit of incumbency; I already have a large collection of them, so I'd need a compelling reason to switch. However, the WoW line for Mega Bloks seems to be petering out, whereas the D&D Kre-O line is just ramping up. The Kre-O guys also get bonus points because they're in the same scale as Lego mini-figs.

It's a tough call, but I'm going with the Kre-O guys. Much like that battle-tested +1 longsword that gets cascaded down to an NPC henchman when you find a +2 longsword, the WoW mini-figs will most likely be passed on to my two little boys, who don't (yet!) share their father's idiosyncratic (but, like, entirely justified!) insistence that all toys that get used together be in the same scale. Enjoy all those orcs and elves, boys...my sights are set on warriors of a slightly smaller stature!

D&D Toys Are Back!

Officially licensed mass-market D&D toys are back...for the first time in three decades! Not since the glory days of LJN have kids (and those of us who remain kids at heart) been able to buy actual D&D figures and playsets. D&D toys have returned in the form of Hasbro's Kre-O building sets. I have yet to see these toys in stores, but I managed to snag one set from Amazon.

Who's excited about the return of D&D toys? Just ask the three lads in this photograph!

The set I bought includes an orc crossbowman, a cannon, a human archer, and a segment of a defensive wall. The orc and his cannon are shown below.

When the front wheels turn, the spears slash up and down. The spring-loaded cannon can be raised or lowered for better aim. Against this fearsome war machine, the human archer would do well to hide behind his barricade.

The wall can connect to other sets, allowing you to build larger structures. Also included are rules for a simple game in which players attempt to knock down their opponent's soldiers. Below is a picture of the character cards for the figures included in this set, and game stats at the bottom suggest that a more complex D&D Kre-O game will be included with other (probably larger) products.

Overall, it's a great little set. I can't wait till these Kre-O toys are more widely available. I have armies to build!

Hong Kong: The Return!

Timothy is back for a second go-around in Hong Kong! You can follow his exploits here.

Kre-O and Candy

If you're at all interested in the D&D Kre-O sets, check out this website for some information about the game component of these toys. It's cool to see character cards with game stats (it's not much of a game, but still...), although I'd much rather have cards with D&D Next stats.

As a side note, I'm just now reminded of the D&D candy boxes that included cards with rudimentary game info. I have a particularly vivid memory of buying a few boxes of that candy at the KB Toys store at the Arnot Mall when I was a young lad in the early 1980s.

Seven Minutes in Heaven

Did you ever play that kissy-kissy game in middle school? No? Neither did I. Anyway, my own seven minutes in heaven occurs during my once- or twice-yearly trip to the unparalleled Millennium Games in Rochester, New York. I usually get between five and ten minutes to make a whirlwind circuit around the store before our hectic schedule or cranky kids force me out the door. During that brief window, however, I try to soak up all the awesomeness. During my latest visit over the holidays, I was greeted by a brand-new bit of awesomeness -- Millennium is now a comic book store too! Heaven? I'd say it's pretty close!

Here Comes D&D Kre-O!

The first Dungeons & Dragons Kre-O building set now has a listing on Amazon! (And yes, I just ordered it.) Here's hoping we'll  one day see a Kre-O version of the Fortress of Fangs...

UPDATE: The Hasbro Kre-O website has been updated with product listings from all the D&D sets. Click here for all the glorious details.

Happy 2014!

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope we all have a great 2014!

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.