Tyranny of Dragons

Here's an update on my post from earlier today: Wizards has a brief article explaining their upcoming Tyranny of Dragons brand-wide storyline, so click here for the details.

Holy Crap! Here Comes D&D Next!

All of a sudden, a massive list of upcoming D&D Next products has been released! Check out the Wizards of the Coast product catalog page (here) to see the cover art, price, and tentative release date for the first wave of D&D products. First up is the starter set, which arrives on July 15!

Kids Track

Kids Track (click here for more info) is an interesting "lesson plan" for teaching young children how to play the Pathfinder roleplaying game. I've spent some time teaching Matthew (currently age six) about RPGs, but what I like about the Kids Track is that it's very well organized and presents the core concepts in discrete, manageable chunks. I'll definitely keep this document in mind when it's time to introduce Nathaniel (age three) to these games.

Mech Maker

I've never contributed to a Kickstarter project before, but...design your own mini? 3D printing? It's tempting...click here for details!

Heroes of Magnimar Reminder

It's been a slow couple months for gaming news, huh? I suspect all of that will change once we start getting more information about the release of D&D Next. In the meantime, don't forget about the relaunch of the Pathfinder comic book, and the coinciding in-store game events that will be held all across the country this month. Click here to find a participating game store near you!

FCBD Update

Score! My local comic book store held a drawing for a $50 gift certificate, and I was the lucky winner!

Head Over to Your Friendly Local Comic Book Store!

That's right, it's Free Comic Book Day today!

Free Comic Book Day 2014

Don't forget about Free Comic Book Day! It's coming up this Saturday (May 3) at comic stores all across the country. Click here to learn more!

National Superhero Day(?)

Apparently it's National Superhero Day. Why was I not informed?! Click here for CNN's coverage.

Heroes of Magnimar

Hey everybody! Here's your chance to get one of your characters into the world of Pathfinder! Click here to check out a contest involving the upcoming relaunch of the Pathfinder comic book from Dynamite. The deadline is July 1, so act fast!

Pathfinder Legends

The first installment of Pathfinder Legends arrived today. I look forward to listening to the epic Rise of the Runelords saga on my way to work each morning. My commute to the office is only five minutes, so this should keep me busy for a while!

Tyranny of Dragons

Click here for an article discussing "Tyranny of Dragons," the first storyline for the upcoming D&D Next. Interesting stuff!

Pathfinder Comic Review

Click here for a nice review of the first issue of the relaunched Pathfinder comic book series.

Booty!

Once upon a time, in an alternate universe (or perhaps it was, like, 2004), I was a college literature professor and I was leading my students through Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain. The text was originally written in Latin, but we were reading an English translation. One of the students timidly raised his hand with a very strange question about a seemingly straightforward passage. As it turned out, the translator had used the word "booty," meaning "plunder" or "treasure." My student had thought it was a reference to a completely different kind of booty. True story.

Anyway, that's a long-winded introduction to the real reason for this post, which is to point out the awesome-looking campaign coins available on the Paizo site. Click here to see examples of fake coins that you can use to liven up your gaming experience. I may pick some up for my boys, who love that sort of thing. Who doesn't love booty?

Back on the Path

I took a break from the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game to play through the iPad port of Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition. Now that my sassy archer Zoe has defeated Irenicus, I've gone back to PACG and picked up where I left off, with The Hook Mountain Massacre adventure deck. It's been a couple of months since I last played, but the break has done nothing to diminish my admiration for this game. If you haven't tried it yet, you really ought to give it a shot.

Table Top Day

It's International Table Top Day, so do as Wil Wheaton commands and go play some board games!

Pathfinder: City of Secrets

Awesome! I just saw on the Paizo site that a nearby comic book store is hosting a Pathfinder: City of Secrets game event. Click here to see if there's a participating store near you!

Fighter Details

For anyone who was following the D&D Next playtest, here's a look at how the final draft of the Fighter class is shaping up.

D&D Attack Wing

Click here to check out the upcoming D&D dragon-versus-dragon miniatures game!

Pathfinder Legends

Give Paizo a lot of credit for their outside-the-(game)-box thinking. Now there's a new way to experience their award-winning Rise of the Runelords storyline -- through audio dramas on CD! The new Pathfinder Legends series is produced by Big Finish (creators of the Doctor Who audio adventures). Click here for more details.

Tolkien and Beowulf

This May, J.R.R. Tolkien's translation of Beowulf will be published, some 90 years after he completed it. Click here for the full story.

Tolkien, of course, is a figure who looms large over D&D and, indeed, over the entire modern fantasy genre. As a long-time Dungeonmaster and creator of numerous fantasy worlds, however, I've tried strenuously to distance myself from Tolkien. If you've played in any of my campaigns, you've probably noticed that halflings (derived directly from Tolkien's hobbits) do not exist, and unlike certain D&D worlds I could mention, there is never ever a character who resembles Gandalf. (*cough* Elminster *cough*)

Why the deliberate rejection of Tolkien? I'm not entirely sure. Although Lord of the Rings never resonated with me (it's one of the many instances in which this former English professor actually likes the movie better than the book!), I have a deep respect for Tolkien as an intellectual. He was a professor of Old English and wrote an article on Beowulf (titled "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics") that changed the way scholars view this poem. I'm very excited to read his translation of my all-time favorite literary work -- a work that has stimulated by creativity like no other over the past two decades.

Pathfinder Comics Return

Pathfinder comics return in May! The new series is called Pathfinder: City of Secrets (from Dynamite Entertainment), and it debuts on May 14. The comic will include RPG content as well as the awesome removable tactical maps that were discontinued from the previous series. Even better is the news that Paizo is teaming up with comic book stores nationwide to host in-store Pathfinder RPG events to get people interested in the game. Click here for more information.

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!