Update: Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

Click here for an update on the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, which will be released in August. The price seems a bit steep to me (admittedly, I have no experience whatsoever with card-based games), but it sounds like a really great game!

Story Themes

As our anniversary story "When Last We Left Our Intrepid Heroes" nears completion, I thought I'd share a couple of key themes explored in the tale:

• People traveling to alternate worlds/universes/dimensions/whatever.
• The collapse of cities or nations and the subsequent exploits of the survivors.

Why these two themes? As I reviewed a quarter-century of Front Porch game material (thanks again to Timothy for sending me his archives!), I found these two themes recurring again and again, in my own campaigns and in the campaigns of other gamemasters. As such, I made sure to incorporate these themes (along with copious references to actual campaigns and characters) into the story so that it would feel like a genuine Front Porch experience.

Am I missing any major themes? Are there other issues or ideas that crop up in many of our campaigns?

Fall of Heroes

Surely our Druid Cycle players haven't forgotten my plan to kill off not one, but two major characters at some point this year -- our 20th year of gaming in this campaign world. Turns out I'm not the only one who's culling the ranks of heroes. DC is killing off the current Robin in a comic coming out this Wednesday. My own shocking storyline isn't quite so soon, but it's coming up faster than you might think...

Druid...and Others?

According to today's Legends & Lore column, the next playtest packet is going to include the druid among other classes. I'm intrigued. Does that mean we're soon going to see the paladin, the ranger, and perhaps even the bard?

Story Update

"When Last We Left Our Intrepid Heroes" is coming along rather well. I've completed a first draft of the text, as well as the accompanying glossary that identifies all the proper nouns. Now I'm reviewing and revising, and incorporating some new content pertaining to campaigns run by other Front Porch folks. I anticipate the story will be ready for prime time within the next 10 days.

Original D&D

A reprint of the original D&D game from 1974 will be released later this year. Check out the price tag, though...

When Last We Left...

After a lengthy and exhausting business trip, I'm now back in action and continuing work on the multiverse project that will either be the prelude to the Harbingers campaign or simply an amusing tale to celebrate twenty-five years of Porch games. The title of the story is "When Last We Left Our Intrepid Heroes," and I've divided it up into seven sections, with each section corresponding to a set of campaigns from our long history.

• Prologue: The Cyberwars / Ragnarok family of campaigns.
• Chapter 1: The Torchlight campaign setting.
• Chapter 2: The Druid Cycle campaign setting.
• Chapter 3: Shattered Realm and all the other fantasy campaigns from over the years.
• Chapter 4: 1930s and World War II campaigns.
• Chapter 5: The Other World, Earth Commanders, and the other modern-era campaigns, taking place in the Tales of the Ternion setting of Demeter.
• Epilogue: A return to the Cyberwars / Ragnarok campaigns.

So that's the basic outline. If you've played in a Front Porch campaign, you're very likely to see your character(s) mentioned in the story, or even show up in person! I've used Timothy's archives, as well as my own resources, to piece together as much of our history as possible. The finished product is still a couple of weeks away, but I'm excited about how it's coming along!

Dark Waters Rising

Speaking of the super-duper awesome Pathfinder comic, the first six issues are going to be collected in a hardcover anthology.

Backmatter

I'm still not back in action yet, but here's a cool article by the creator of the awesome RPG backmatter in the Pathfinder comic book.

Bye Week

Hey gang. It may be a week or so before I post again. In the meantime, I encourage you to check out the rebuilding efforts over at EN World.

The Archivist

Timothy is an archivist. He's highly skilled at organizing and preserving documents from the past. He has an advanced degree in this field and he's worked at many museums throughout his career. As such, it's not surprising that he's maintained the most complete archives (dude, I'm supposed to use the "s" even when it's singular, right?) of Front Porch history. I've saved a few things (maps, old character sheets, etc.) over the years, but Timothy saved everything...and everything arrived in a package at my house today. Flipping through all of his folders -- including the infamous Blue Folder that Kevin, Scott, and Jason will no doubt remember -- was like time-traveling back into our childhood.

As I mentioned the other day, I'm working on a "multiverse" project to link all the Front Porch campaign settings. I can't even begin to describe how useful these documents will be. Thank you, Timothy, for this remarkable hoard of Front Porch lore!

The Front Porch Multiverse

As you know, I'm cooking up a campaign-spanning adventure (The Harbingers) to mark our twenty-five years of gaming fun. After creating the overall storyline, however, I've started thinking that perhaps this anniversary campaign isn't right for a first step. Over the last week, I've been adding so much material from our quarter-century of adventures that what's shaping up isn't a campaign, per se, but a lengthy short story (or possibly novella! How ambitious am I feeling?). 

This story is going to be the opening salvo as I roll out a fully integrated universe -- nay, multiverse! -- of Front Porch campaigns. You'll see how our fantasy, "real world," and sci-fi campaigns are all part of the same continuity. My plan is to email this story to Front Porch players past and present. If it sparks your imagination and your interest in pursuing the aforementioned anniversary adventure, that's great. If not, it's at least a fun trip down memory lane, as well as a blueprint for how our various campaign worlds exist in a shared setting. Expect to see this story within the next month or so.

Exploration Update

Check out the latest Legends & Lore column for an explanation of why we didn't see those new exploration rules in the current playtest packet, as well as what we can expect the exploration system to look like once they roll it out.

Not Much to Explore

I promised you a post on the exploration rules in the most recent D&D Next playtest packet, but after looking through the material...well...there isn't much to explore in these exploration rules. It appears that this iteration of the playtest was focused mainly on the barbarian class. Let's hope the next packet fixes the balance issues with this class and perhaps gives us a first taste of the ranger or paladin.

Damage Bloat

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

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

The Barbarian, Part 2: The Other Stuff

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

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

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

The Barbarian, Part 1: Rage

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

Wow.

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

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

It's Rage Time!

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

Sarevok Falls Again!

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

Hong Kong Game Recap

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

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

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