Dresden Files RPG

I think I've commented on how much I enjoy Jim Butcher's Dresden Files books. I recently got to read the latest release Changes, and was left wanting more for my fix... and then I was lucky enough to get my hands on the pre-release .pdfs for the upcoming Dresden Files RPG sent out to those who had pre-ordered the game from Evil Hat Productions.

According to what I've read on RPG.net the .pdfs are approximately 90% complete, with some revisions still being done for the final print release (due out around either Origins or GenCon of this year), but I'm hard-pressed to see WHERE such revisions are still needed! The game is, without question, fantastic. Previously I had held Eden Studio's Buffy RPG as the best example of a licensed product fitting its source, but I'm handing the title over to the Dresden Files RPG. (I'm going to shorten this to DFRPG)

DFRPG was written using the FATE system, just like another Evil Hat Productions RPG I've read, Spirit of the Century, but this is an updated version of FATE and has differences. Rather than compare the two, I'm just going to blab about the version in DFRPG! At its core FATE is a simple system using FUDGE dice to determine the results of dice rolls. What are FUDGE dice, you ask? They're a set of six-sided dice, but rather than pips numbered from 1-6, these dice have either a +, - , or ' ' (that's blank) on them. You roll 4 of these dice together, add up all the + signs you get, subtract any - signs from this total, and that gives you the results of your roll, which you then add to any modifiers you might have. Compare that total to the difficulty of your roll, and you've determined whether you've succeeded or not. A pretty simple core concept.

Adding depth to this system are Fate Points and Aspects. Aspects are items that add description to your character, either through a phrase, naming a person or organization important to that character, or describing a place or item that's important. Aspects are not only a way of describing your character, they're also a way for a player to tell the GM "Hey, I want THIS in the game!" In other words, if I take HUNTED BY THE BROTHERHOOD OF SKRANG as an Aspect, there damn well better be a Brotherhood of Skrang in the game, and it better be hunting my character! Beyond providing a description of your character, Aspects can also provide mechanical benefits to your character, or offer opportunities to gain Fate Points. Fate Points are used primarily to power certain abilities or to gain benefits from Aspects. By spending a Fate Point a player can invoke an appropriate Aspect to either give a small bonus on a skill roll, or allow the player to re-roll the dice for one skill roll (the player gets to choose). The GM can compel the character in some way through Aspects, either limiting the character's possible actions or introducing new elements to the game through the Aspect to make things more interesting. Players may also try to do this if they think of something neat or interesting. If a player agrees to be limited by the compel in some way, they get a Fate Point. They can choose to refuse to deal with the Compel by spending a Fate Point. I'll talk a little more about Aspects in a bit.

Characters are also represented through Skills, though in FATE skills represent a combination of actual skills (like Guns, for instance), attributes (Might as an example), and backgrounds (Resources fits this category). Skills will fall somewhere on the Ladder (a range of values from -2 to 8, with each value assigned an adjective to help players conceptualize what each value is worth), providing a base modifier for skill check results. So a character might have Guns at Good (+3), where they'll add the value of their dice roll and any other modifiers (like bonuses from Aspects) to that base +3 to get their result. The system also provides a category of abilities called Mortal Stunts that build off of skills and either enhance them (for example, providing an area of specialty for that skill), or providing new abilities to represent the character's excellence with the skill (like the ability to use Weapons to attack multiple opponents at once).

Then there are Supernatural Powers. These range from physical characteristics (Claws, Hulking Size, Wings) to shape shifting, to increased strength, speed, and toughness, to the ability to cast spells. Supernatural Powers each cost a variable amount of a character's Refresh value (the value which determines where how many Fate Points they have at the start of a session), so the more powers you take, the less Fate Points your character has to call on Aspects. (Note: Mortal Stunts cost refresh too, but it's a flat 1 Refresh per stunt, where Powers could be anywhere from 1 to... well, anything theoretically.)

To help create characters that fit in with the Dresden Files books, DFRPG provides a group of Templates that list powers the character MUST have to be that type of supernatural, as well as additional powers that fit thematically, but aren't needed. This helps players design character who fit into the power level of the game they're playing in (for example, if your base Refresh for the game starts at 6, the Wizard Template isn't going to work). Templates will also help players design their character's High Concept, an Aspect that normally MUST reference their Template in some way (for example, Harry Dresden's High Concept is WIZARD PRIVATE EYE).

Character creation is a group process, and players are encourage to figure out the title of the first "book" their character was the main character in (Harry Dresden, for example, would use Storm Front). They then summarize this book, and design an Aspect based on that bit of their background. Then the players pass their stories around the group (it's recommended that the stories get written down on index cards) so that another player may add a small bit detailing how THEIR character was a supporting character in the story, and designing an Aspect for their character based on this guest appearance. Then you repeat the process, assuming there are enough players to do so. In this way each character is tied to a couple other characters, helping to form group unity (or sometimes conflict). I REALLY like this part of character creation, as I've played in far too many games where I was left wondering why the characters were working together.

The magic system does an excellent job of emulating what we see in the books, though I would warn you that the system isn't (in my opinion) meant to be read all at once. As I read through the system I found I had an easier time digesting and processing it if I took the section in small snippets. Your experiences may vary, and all that, but I throw it out there as a point of caution.

DFRPG is being released as two books. The first book contains all the information I've discussed thus far, plus city creation rules (which is also encouraged to be a group activity), more rules on combat and other gaming elements, suggestions for building scenarios, and rules for character advancement. The second book is designed to present the setting of the books to players/gms, and is a mixture of setting material and monster manual, providing stats for every critter encountered in the books (assuming stats are appropriate for them). The layout on both books is excellent, and the RPG is presented as a project written by Billy the Werewolf (fans of Butcher's books might recognize the character), given to Harry and Bob the Skull to look over and edit. There are notes from Billy, Harry, and Bob all over the margins of both books, or provided on Post-it-notes. These notes are either amusing commentary, or helpful suggestions. The illustrations come from the graphic novels adapted from the books, and are generally very appropriate to nearby topics. Getting both books at the same time is going to set you back approximately $90, but the books are well worth it, and you'll be getting a reasonable page count for your money (the first book's .pdf weighs in at 416 pages, while the second book comes in at 272). Evil Hat also normally provides .pdf copies of print books ordered from their website (and anyone who has the "beta" pre-release pdfs will get updated ones once the book is officially released).

I'm very excited to play this game. I'm currently looking for players to participate in an online game over Google Wave (my dice roller can emulate FUDGE dice), and we've already gathered two players (not counting myself). I'm thinking about putting out an invitation on my Facebook Wall to try and gain the interest of my gaming friends.

If you're interested in reading more about DFRPG, check out the game's website at http://www.dresdenfilesrpg.com where you check out plenty of previews, read the game designer blogs, and even download copies of the character sheet, or Harry Dresden's character sheet (aw, heck, here's the direct URL: http://www.dresdenfilesrpg.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Harry-Dresden.pdf). I'll be VERY eager to pick up physical copies of this game when it releases, though of course my budget will determine if I actually can. If you'd like more information about the books that have inspired this rpg, I'd encourage you to check out Jim Butcher's website at http://www.jim-butcher.com/ where you can read previews from some of the books, check out other books by Jim, read Jim's Blog, or even listen to a podcast!

End of Demented Rambling.

Ugh, Ugh, and (guess what) Ugh...

Still in my bad habit of not updating this as often as I would like. Sorry about that folks!

My migraines continue, though most days I'm perfectly fine. Most days. Not today, but most days. Sucks to be me today. On the plus side, my doctor has had me taking high blood pressure medication as a preventative... so hopefully my naturally-high blood pressure has been coming back into the "normal" range. I keep meaning to stop by the machines at Wal-Mart or Kroger and find out, but never remember when I'm at either location.

One week till my birthday (and Cassandra's by default). And by some odd luck, our tax return money should be hitting around the 12th... just in time for me to run out and buy my birthday present... Mass Effect 2 (for the Xbox 360)! I'm excited to get it. Just replayed the first one so I'd have a save game from recent memory to import over. Eric already got the game and has been making me jealous by telling me things about it (I don't think he's purposefully making me jealous... but that doesn't help). MUST HAVE GAME!!!!

We also went ahead and told Gamefly we wanted to keep Dragon Age: Origins... good thing too, because I'd had it since before Thanksgiving! I got the codes that come with retail purchases as well, so I have the special armor available in that game and Mass Effect 2 as well as the free DLC for Dragon Age. Yay!!!

Playing so much Mass Effect has gotten me wanting to write up the setting for the Savage Worlds RPG. Why Savage Worlds? No idea, really, but I keep wanting to do it SPECIFICALLY for SW, so I think there must be a reason (seriously, I've considered GURPS, Alternity, HERO, Trinity/Aeon, etc. and nothing else appeals to me).Maybe I should post some thoughts on the blog as I actually work on it. I'll think about it.

I've also been wanting to play a game of Trail of Cthulhu (powered by GUMSHOE). I'm going to be writing my first adventure for it soon... I'm just still trying to figure out how many scenes I want, and consider a line of clues to use to help the players reach the climax. I really like the ideas behind GUMSHOE, and I think it can create an awesome game. I still want to read "Fear Itself" and "The Essoterrorists" to see some other points of view on GUMSHOE. Add to that list "Realms of Cthulhu" and "Hellfrost" for Savage Worlds... they look like great campaigns!

(y'know, there's too much RPG-goodness out there... I'd need three of me to read EVERYTHING I want to check out, much less run the games.)

That's enough for right now. Talk to you all next year (ok, hopefully not, right?)

End of Demented Rambling.

One Step Closer to Playing!

I'm one step closer to getting my Hunter game for Eric started on Google Wave! I just finished writing a document file detailing the beastie featured in the first story. I'm actually quite proud of it! If White Wolf were doing some sort of Hunter the Vigil Monster Book I'd think about trying to submit the document for consideration (or altering it for submission).

I've got a few Google Wave threads started for the game. Now all I'm really waiting for is for Eric to get done with his school work for the quarter so he can post his character and we can get the ball rolling. I've got a few trivial things I want to work on (posting a few more house rules to the appropriate thread, doing an outline for the story, developing a few background cases for him, etc), but otherwise I feel ready to go!

I'm really looking forward to this. I think Hunter the Vigil is a great game, and I've wanted to run/play ever since I read the demo at a game shop. I'm excited that I'm going to get the chance to play, and have an opportunity to try Google Wave as a gaming platform. I've been reading about the experiences other people have been having with roleplaying over Google Wave, and I think this will be fun!

I know this is a short post, but I hope to put more up later. Until then, I hope everyone takes it easy and has a good time with life!

End of Demented Rambling.

Google Wave looks fantastic!

So I've been sick. Days off of work, a bad case of laryngitis, you know.

Sick.

(Is this not how you expected this to start? It ties in together - trust me.)

After losing my voice completely on Monday of last week, I was at my doctor's office Tuesday. Got some antibiodics and a steroid prescribed to me. I then went on my way and had a week off with no talking (Lisa was in heaven). Come Monday of this week I went back to work... for a few hours, but had to leave early because my voice was failing again. Out of the steroids and concerned that there was something wrong with me other than my original diagnosis I went BACK to my doctor that Tuesday.

(Quick add: having health insurance again is a gods-send...)

So I get to sit in the waiting room for a bit, no biggie. I pick up a copy of... hmm... I think it was Time Magazine, and I notice this headline on the cover about an article on something called "Google Wave".

(Promised you it all tied-in.)

Curious I checked out the article, and... well... noted it as something for future curiosity, but didn't think much about it. Later I was speaking with my friend Eric who was really excited about having finally found a group of gamers in Madison, WI where he's going to school. He mentioned that the group wanted to try using Google Wave as a means to host roleplaying games since they all live a fair distance from each other.

Whaaaat? This bore a little more investigation.

So when I got home from getting my new steroid I did a little google-fu and quickly found Google Wave's demonstration videos. I started to watch so I could see what this app was actually meant for.

I'm impressed.

Imagine fusing e-mail and instant messaging with document publishing and pretty much every other form of communication used through the internet with the exception of voice. That's what you get with Google Wave. You start a new conversation (or as they call it, a Wave) and then add recipients who then get to see the Wave live. From this point they can send replies (like normal e-mail), if multiple Wave members are online they can respond instantly, just like an IM (and you'll actually see what they're typing AS they type it no "Grant is typing" messages that might mean I'm typing to someone else or responding to you). You can go into previous messages and post a reply mid-message to draw attention to the fact that you're only responding to that particular point (a bit more organic method than the current "all comments after the whole body of text" method we currently use). You can even go back and edit a previous post; say you're planning a trip with someone and using a Wave to create a list of activities to do on that trip... by editing the original message those new ideas can be compiled in one spot (easier to reference), and someone can post a reply right under that idea (issuing a complaint or focusing a question), or even edit your idea further to build on it. If you want to know what the ORIGINAL post (or any earlier post) looked like, they have a "playback" feature where you can revisit the history of the Wave.

Pictures can be uploaded, blogs and social networking sites can be added as members of the Wave (allowing instant posting of that Wave to the blog or network site... which others can then in turn use to interact with the Wave)... It looks like a great business application for communication and facilitation, and I can see it having a lot of private user applications as well.

So now I'm all excited about it, and want to try it out. The only problem is, Google Wave is available by invitation only, and they're hard to get. Mostly just developers and industry folks at this point. But wait, didn't I say Eric & his friends were going to have inivites? I sure did! And I coolly asked for one. The deal was this: I play in the game, I get the invite. I've accepted the offer, though I haven't gotten my invite yet (hell, the offer was just made last night at around 10:00). Just to play it safe, I've requested an invite from the Google Wave staff as well... hopefully going both routes will get me one!

(Anyone reading this have invites to send out? I'll take one!)

How would gaming work over Wave? Well, I've got a few things to iron out. First, there's no dice app. This isn't such a horrible thing; there are lots of dice apps online. Second, we'd need a way to see encounter maps... which I can post a pic, but I'm not sure about updating to facilitate combat in an organic manner, unless Wave already has an image editor built into it. (I guess I could always make the images layered and use GIMP to change different layers to match, but that will take some time.)

Other than those technical details (and I confess, they aren't insignificant) here's how I see a game session running:

(Assume that anything starting with a > would be text in the Wave.... '>' is only a place-holder to show where the Wave starts.)

1) I (assume I'm running it for the moment) start a new wave:

> Game Session October 22, 2009

2) I post a quick recap of the previous session as part of my first post to refresh everyone's memories.

> Recap of previous session: Last time you decided to explore the rumors of a haunted castle in the Thundercrag mountains. To reach the mountains you had to brave the dark forest of Venomleaf. Here's a quick list of what happened:

• You first heard the rumor while at the Greenscale Tavern in Wyrmoth; apparently the former lords had amassed a large horde and then turned on one another in greed, murdering each other. Now their ghosts haunt the castle.
• You reached the Venomleaf Forest with no problems; you had a small encounter with a merchant who tried to swindle you, but you saw through his lies and didn't buy any of his fake charms.
• You navigated the forest, but discovered that it was inhabited by a tribe of feral elves. You stumbled into an ambush (failed that Skill Challenge!) and ended up getting captured.
• The elves were going to have you for dinner, but their shaman came up with an alternative; you retake the daughter of the tribe's Chief from the green dragon Venomleaf, and they'd provide you with a guide to the mountains.
• You found Venomleaf's lair and have explored through two levels of it, facing some guardians (plant monsters and other such creatures) and traps.
• We ended the session with the party at the top of a flight of stairs going deeper into the lair, and you each made Perception checks to hear the sound of loud, heavy breathing and smell the rank, foul air down below.

3) Now I can continue with the next text in my Wave. I could either reply to my previous post to break the two apart, or just continue in the same body. We'll assume I continued.

> When you decide to go down the stairs: The darkness down below is oppressive. The stairs wind, making your torchlight's reach quite limited. Drops of condensation fall periodically, startling you at times. The air grows more foul the lower you get. At the bottom of the stairs you find a large set of double doors - wide enough for three of you to squeeze through at one time. The doors are carved with ornate images of a dragon clutching a forest in it's claws while smoke or fumes spread from it's mouth.

What do you do?

4) At this point my job is done, and the players get to interact. Now, someone might want to edit my recap and point out their favorite part of the last session; I'll represent that with a new '>' and the speaker with [name]: to represent that the Wave would identify the speaker.

> Recap of previous session: Last time you decided to explore the rumors of a haunted castle in the Thundercrag mountains. To reach the mountains you had to brave the dark forest of Venomleaf. Here's a quick list of what happened:

• You first heard the rumor while at the Greenscale Tavern in Wyrmoth; apparently the former lords had amassed a large horde and then turned on one another in greed, murdering each other. Now their ghosts haunt the castle.
• You reached the Venomleaf Forest with no problems; you had a small encounter with a merchant who tried to swindle you, but you saw through his lies and didn't buy any of his fake charms.
• You navigated the forest, but discovered that it was inhabited by a tribe of feral elves. You stumbled into an ambush (failed that Skill Challenge!) and ended up getting captured.
• The elves were going to have you for dinner, but their shaman came up with an alternative; you retake the daughter of the tribe's Chief from the green dragon Venomleaf, and they'd provide you with a guide to the mountains.

> [Eric]: I still say we could have taken them! This deal was stupid, we could have wiped the floor with them!

> [John]: You're insane.

• You found Venomleaf's lair and have explored through two levels of it, facing some guardians (plant monsters and other such creatures) and traps.

> [John]: I really liked that trap with the living vines.

> [Grant]: Me too! Had a lot of fun coming up with that one!

• We ended the session with the party at the top of a flight of stairs going deeper into the lair, and you each made Perception checks to hear the sound of loud, heavy breathing and smell the rank, foul air down below.

5) You can see above that I've included multiple responses to indicate the more organic, conversational nature of what I foresee with a gaming Wave. Future responses would be similar in nature.

Like I said, right now I'm not sure how you would handle combat maps and dice rolling... I have tools to do all of that online, but let's face it, that won't really test out using Google Wave for this sort of thing, now will it?

Another feature I like is that I could post the whole session right to this blog, allowing players to review the whole thing whenever they want, even if they're not signed into Google Wave, and also allowing my blog readers (the whole, what, 1 of you?) to see the session as well, and possibly comment.

So to sum up: Google Wave looks like a great app to facilitate conversations, and I really can't wait to try it out!

End of Demented Rambling.

Save Ohio Libraries

Ok. Anyone who reads this has likely already recieved an e-mail from me regarding this issue, but it's important so I'm going to go over it again here.

Now I understand that the Governor has a tough job. A $3.2 billion hole in a budget is a big one to fill. You have to make tough choices, you have to make people angry, something has to suffer.

But this plan is idioitic. The proposed total reduction between the losses from our reduced economy and the cuts proposed by Strickland come to a 50% revenue loss for libraries state wide. Many libraries rely on state funding to keep their doors open.

So what happens when the libraries lose that money? Well you stop getting as much new material, meaning that the libraries become outdated and less-useful as a research tool. Operations are scaled back, meaning reduced staff, shorter operating hours. BRANCHES CLOSE, meaning MORE jobless competing in what is already a tough job market. And worse, valuable programs that help raise the literacy of children and adults go away.

Unacceptable.

Libraries are more than just a place to do research now. For those who haven't been able to afford a computer, they are a needed place to produce reports and papers. For those who might have a computer but either can't get or can't afford internet access, the libraries are their only gateways online.

We have an unemployment problem here in Ohio. We've lost something like 280,000 manufacturing jobs. The decline of the Auto Industry is hitting us hard. Changes in health care could hit like a ton of bricks since Insurance is one of the largest industries in Columbus.

Part of the answer is finding the jobs that are available, retraining where necessary, and keeping up to date on innovations in your field. Library internet access can help the unemployed gain access to job search boards or access to e-mail, which is almost a necessity for communicating with staffing companies. They provide research tools so that people can retrain themselves at low cost by doing research into new fields of employment. They provide access to industry journals and books that newly unemployed workers might not want to risk spending money on, but that will keep them at the top of their game while seeking new employment.

Take away libraries and it becomes much, much harder for the poor to find work. If they don't find work then the State is stuck with rising unemployment expenses and a loss of taxpayer revenue. This isn't a stop-gap. It's breaking a limb to take your mind off of pain somewhere else in your body. It's stupidity.

My children LOVE going to the library. Our son, Caleb, can read better than Cassandra was able to at his age, and he loves reading. The library gives him new material to read so he's not just memorizing the same book over and over, without adding to our strained budget. When we bring him home a stack of books, he doesn't care what's in them, he can't wait to read them to us.

Cassandra loves to get books. Right now she's reading a High School Musical book that we're using to continue her practice with reading comprehension during the summer. She bought the book at the last book fair West Franklin held. At the same time she is reading Coraline (recommended by James Patterson's youth reading program) for fun. She just got another pile of books Monday, though we're making her wait until she's finished reading one of the other books before she devours the new ones. Last night I noticed Cassandra using the kitchen timer, and I realized she was setting it for 20 minutes... Every 20 minutes of reading lets her fill in a bubble on the reading chart she got from the library for their summer reading program.

Lex can't read. He loves books though. Apparently they taste good... I wish I were kidding. And he loves to turn the pages. The library has benefitted him though. It was through the library that we were able to get some of the "Baby Einstein" videos to show him. They've exposed him to classical music, fun sights, and there have been many times when all it took to stop his cries (he hates being placed in the play pen) was showing him the video cassette, and then starting up one of those 30-minute videos. Instant quiet, focused baby.

Through the library Lisa was able to indulge her forensics and serial killer interests (I don't mean she wants to BE a serial killer, rather she enjoys reading about them). She has gotten to find True Crime novels to satisfy the void left after mysteries became too easy for her. She recently checked out an e-book of James Patterson's and fell in love with a favorite author again. She was upset when she had to wait for another e-book to become available, one that is letting her read a variety of authors.

Part of my writing goes into trying to get roleplaying adventures published. As I've said before, the idea of combining one of my oldest hobbies and my career thrills me. But to do that I need books, books that aren't exactly cheap. I've kept my library as full as possible. Amazon gift cards from rewards points can stretch pretty well for this, but I have to pick and choose. Often I don't know if I really want a book, and I don't order it because I'm afraid it will be a waste. The library carries some roleplaying books. Not all, but they have everything for the 4e D&D product line. It was thanks to those books that I knew ordering Monster Manual 2 or Adventurer's Vault would be money well-spent. It was also thanks to the library that I realized that while Dungeon Delve is a fund read, I wouldn't really get any use out of it. On top of that I've gotten to read The Warrior by Jim Butcher, and Turn Coat, plus Butcher's Codex Alera series all thanks to the library. I'm trying to decide if I like Laurel K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series right now, something I wouldn't take the risk on if I had to buy the books.

This is what the library means to my family. You want to take that away from us Strickland? You think this protects and serves the people of Ohio.

I think you're making a mistake. I think you're hurting Ohio, and my family. And I think if this budget goes through like this I'll stop being one of your supporters, and I've been supporting you since 2000.

You really want that?

Want to tell the Governor and your legislator how you feel? Check out http://www.columbuslibrary.org/save_our_library for ways you can speak out.

End of Demented Rambling.

Addressing General Complaints Re: 4e continued

Continuing on from the last post.

4e is more about roll-playing than 3rd edition.

Bullshit I say!

I don't even understand how this claim can be made. Is there a rule in the 4e books that I haven't noticed that says "Thine adventures shall consist of nothing more than combat after endless combat?" or "Speak not with thine DM's NPCs, except to mock them as thine broadsword cleaves they're worthless skulls from their bodies?"

Ok, the above rules would be kind of funny, but they just aren't in there nor are any other rules like it.

Let's compare editions.

3rd Edition social skills: Diplomacy, Bluff, Intimidate, Gather Information, Sense Motive.

(I don't rule Perform as such because by the rules Perform checks simply generated GP... they had no actual effect in social situations.)

4th Edition social skills: Diplomacy, Bluff, Insight, Intimidate, Streetwise.

Hmmm... same number of skills.

3rd Edition Diplomacy = 4e Diplomacy.

3rd Edition Bluff = 4e Bluff.

3rd Edition Intimidate = 4e Intimidate.

3rd Edition Gather Information = 4e Streetwise.

3rd Edition Sense Motive = 4e Insight.

Ok... our skills function the same ofr social situations... Maybe the explanations for the skills in 4e say that they don't work outside of combat?

Bluff: "You make a bluff check to fast-talk, con a merchant, gamble, pass off a disguise, or fake documentation, and otherwise tell lies." (4e PHB, page 183.)

Nope... nothing requiring you to be in combat there, though they DO have rules for using Bluff in combat.

Diplomacy: "Make a Diplomacy check to change opinions, to inspire good will, to haggle with a patron, to demonstrate proper etiquette and decorum, or to negotiate a deal in good faith." (4e PHB, page 183.)

Huh. Not even rules mentioning combat. They DO mention that most Diplomacy checks will take place in Skill Challenges though.

Insight: "You make an insight check to comprehend motives, to read between the lines, to get a sense of moods and attitudes, and to determine how truthful someone is being." (4e PHB, page 185.)

It mentions that using Insight against Bluff in combat is a minor action... but that's it so far as combat goes.

I'm stopping at this point because I think my point about social skills is clear. 4e has the same number, the same uses (actually some of them do more than just social interaction... Insight can determine if an effect is illusionary for instance). And 4e characters have greater access to these skills; Fighters have Streetwise on their class list for instance, not just Intimidate. So now I have a skill meant to represent that my Fighter is competant at chatting people up in bars and town for information!

So how does 4e not facilitate roleplaying? Oh, right, it insists that you ROLL instead of ROLE play... How? Because it doesn't have a "profession" skill? Shit, that's easy. Open up the PHB2 and read the section on Backgrounds... you want to be a carpenter in addition to whatever class you are? Ok... you are! Now exactly what effect do you want that to have on the game?

The real answer is... it doesn't have one. How many times is being a carpenter going to come into play? Or a baker, or anything else that you can't ROLEPLAY THE SITUATION OUT? Having a "Profession" skill just gives you a way to roll situation away.

4e introduces actual rules for REWARDING roleplaying social situations through skill challenges. Wait, you say, those rules just encourage you to roll for results! No. Read the section again. When you make your skill checks the rules encourage you to NARRATE the results. They encourage the DM to prompt players to explain HOW they use a skill for that situation. This is roleplaying. It isn't amateur acting, but it IS playing to a role. It encourages you to use the DM's best friend rule to award a +2 or -2 to the check for creative use of the skill check (like maybe a rousing speech?). And then it tells the DM how they can award XP to a party for going through this social interaction instead of just killing the NPCs and taking their stuff.

They had rules for that in previous editions.... wait, not really. They had "story XP" that you saw in modules, but no real guidelines on how to award it.

If your group wants to run 4e as a skirmish tactical game they can... and it'll be a hell of a lot of fun for your group! If they want to narrate every conversation and ignore skill checks for the results they can, but they won't find rules for it (nor will they in any RPG that I know of). If they want to narrate their social actions and then make a skill check they can.

There's as much roleplaying as there always has been.

End of Demented Rambling.

Addressing General Complaints Re: 4th Edition

Had an online Chat with my friend Josh today where he asked me what I liked about 4th Edition D&D and listed some complaints he had with it. He had to leave to help his girlfriend with something, but I thought I'd address a couple of common issues I've heard agains the newest edition of D&D (not necessarily what Josh addressed, though some of it is the same).

4th Edition is Just a Pen and Paper MMO.

Sorry. I've got to disagree. An accurate statement would be 4th Edition uses terminology made popular by MMOs to help express elements of the game that have always been there. What do I mean? I'll start with the Roles used to define classes in D&D.

If you see the terms Defender, Striker, Leader, and Controller you can certainly draw parallels to things like Tank, Striker, Healer, etc. used by MMOs. The important thing to remember is that Roles do not define what a character is; they define what a class is BEST AT. They are hardly the be-all, end-all of a class. Here's an example.

In most MMOs, if I play a Tank I'm going to be good for only a couple of things: taking hits and pulling aggro to myself. This is because MMOs are limited by the confines of AIs and the inability of the monsters and adversaries to make intelligent decisions. Monsters et al will focus on whomever provokes aggro against them and not against the most logical target.

In D&D there are 4 Defender classes in print at the moment: Fighter, Paladin, Swordmage, and Warden. The Defender role is designed to try to focus attacks on them by forcing enemies to make bad decisions, punishing them if they attack another target. Each class also has another role that they participate in, though they are best at the Defender role.

So take a Fighter. He marks everything he makes an attack roll against, giving the enemy a -2 to any attack roll that does not involve him (or her, to be fair gender-wise) as a target. In addition, any attempt to shift away from the Fighter or attack another target gives the Fighter a free attack against the marked enemy. If the enemy provokes an opportunity attack by moving away from the Fighter (regardless of whether it is marked or not) the Fighter stops its movement if he hits with his opportunity attack, and gets a bonus to hit with those attacks.  In other words, it's like screaming at an enemy "Don't turn your back on me, I'm your real opponent!"

This is NOT the same as pulling aggro. The Fighter does not have any inherit ability to force an opponent to face him. The DM may always choose to have a marked target attack another, it just might not be a smart choice for that monster. While the Fighter does have exploits that allow him to pull a specific creature to him, the player must CHOOSE for the Fighter to have this exploit. It is the player's CHOICE to build his or her character to do that. Let's look at a specific power: "Come and Get It" (Fighter level 7 Encounter Exploit). The Fighter shifts all enemies within 3 squares of him 2 squares so they end adjacent to him and then makes an attack against all adjacent enemies (marking all of them in the progress). This is very similar to "pulling aggro" in an MMO. But I don't HAVE to pick that exploit. There are 4 other level 7 encounter exploits I can select instead that do different things; one imposes an attack penalty on the target, another increases the Fighter's AC, the third does additional damage, and the fourth lets the Fighter move without provoking opportunity attacks. In fact, looking through all the Fighter exploits in the PHB from levels 1 through 30... that is the ONLY POWER that pulls enemies to you. Every other power that causes forced movement shifts already adjacent enemies or pushes them. For a Fighter to make an enemy focus on him he must directly engage the enemy, and can normally do so against only one enemy at a time (with a few powers providing exceptions to this statement).

Not, in my opinion, very MMO-like at all.

Now let's compare roles to previous editions. We'll use the Fighter again.

What does a Fighter in 3rd do? Well, just by looking at the Class Entry we can see that he a) wears every type of armor and b) can use every type of weapon and c) gets one of the highest HD in the game. Oh, and he has NO OTHER CLASS FEATURES. In other words: Wear good armor so things miss a lot, swing heavy weapon to do damage, and have lots of hit points to soak up damage. Which is another way of saying that the default for him was to engage the enemies and take punishment otherwise meant for other party members... in other words he's a Defender, but a bad one because he has no default means of keeping an enemy focused on you (in fact if you're AC and damage are doing their jobs the enemy will want to GO AROUND YOU because there's nothing other than a single attack you can do to stop him.)

1st & 2nd Edition... the Fighter is... well, he wears heavy armor and uses a big weapon to engage the front lines of his foes while his allies attack from behind or at range.... Yup, that's a Defender. Of course they also fulfil 4e's role of melee striker because in these editions there wasn't anyone else to actually perform that role.

Let's compare other classes roles in combat (because that's as far as a role is supposed to effect a character - combat). Rogues? In both 4th and 4rd they are Strikers because their Sneak Attack class features present for large amounts of damage in specific situations, and they are lightly armored and mobile (3rd did it by making Tumble a necessity for the Rogue, 4th does it by giving the Rogue a lot of powers that let them shift to avoid opportunity attacks). In earlier editions they don't fill this role, but that's because Thieves (not Rogues) weren't meant to really do much of anything in combat, they were supposed to be checking for traps and opening locks.

Clerics? In 4th Edition they're Leaders, meaning they support other characters through providing Buffs and Healing. Really, the role should probably be called Support, but who would really be drawn to playing that? In 4th Edition the Cleric gets one of the best healing powers in the game and plenty of powers to provide bonuses to their party members in combat. Plus rituals for out of combat stuff. In 3rd? Well, their spell list DEFAULTED to healing spells... a strong indication of how they were meant to be played. They had a lot of buff spells... The only thing that's changed is that 3rd Edition Clerics were broken into being able to basically be ANY CLASS THEY WANTED because they could just buff themselves into the proper class/role. In 1st/2nd edition they were mainly walking healing potions, or a single facet of the Leader role.

D&D came up with roles first. MMOs were created to emulate elements of D&D and found terminology to help explain these elements to new players. 4e is simply taking the improved terminology back.

Your mileage may vary, but when I see a D&D class I don't see an MMO class. I see the same thing I've bben seeing since the 1980s with updated terminology and mechanics.

MMOs commonly use grinds to level up characters, or collection quests to get PCs started. D&D doesn't do that UNLESS THE DM WANTS IT TO. I'm not going to the forest and killing hundreds of respawning wolves to get that next level; I'm goin through planned encounters.

Random loot drops? MMOs stole that from D&D (go back to early edition DMGs with random treasure tables that they expected you to use and try to claim otherwise). 4e advocates pre-planned treasure parcels placed throughout the adventure as the DM sees fit, customizing them to help empower your players' choices ("I know you built your character to use an axe... but here's A SWORD instead" isn't really encouraged, and you'll never hear "I know you took a feat to use that Fullblade, but I keep rolling hammers on the treasure table!" in the 4e DMG).

Stupid AIs that say the same thing over and over again? Only if the DM is lazy.

Not being able to avoid a combat through negotiation or stealth? That's the way it flies in an MMO. 4e provides mechanics so you can still earn xp while not fighting the monsters.

Spending 30 minutes explaining raid tactics to your group while the boss is ON THE SCREEN? Again, only if the DM lets you do it (personally, Orcus is already attacking you. Keep talking if you want).

In summery, 4e's rules don't support it being an MMO any more than previous editions do. It borrows effective terminology to help explain concepts to new players (a smart business strategy), and continues to use elements that MMOs took from early editions of D&D. 

4e only plays like an MMO if you make it.

I'll continue with other points in later posts.

End of Demented Rambling.

Back in Eberron Again

I haven't written anything set in Eberron in a long time, but I just wrote the pitch for an Eberron Adventure to submit to Dungeon Magazine. With the Eberron Player's Guide releasing in just a few days and Campaign Guide releasing shortly thereafter, I think they might be looking for some Eberron-goodness in that setting.

It feels good to revisit Eberron. I really love the feeling of the world and the fact that something about it just screams "cinematic action!" to me. It's hard for me to think small in Eberron. I just want to starting blowing shit up and having epic battles on airships while dinosaur-riders swoop down on the PCs and horribly mutated Daelky-worshiping suspend captives above a large vat containing some sort of animated ooze in a chamber with large Khyber Dragonshards jutting out of the walls.

Y'know, the FUN stuff!

"Let Sleeping Giants Lie" doesn't have the best title ever, but it starts out with the inn the PCs are trying to stay the night in EXPLODING right before the PCs arrive, just in time for the PCs to see the burning body of a Shifter Druid run out of the explosion and beg them to finish her quest with her last gasp. Follow that with a battle with assassins atop a series of bridges suspended above a drop that spells certain death to anyone who falls, a dungeon crawl to stop an ancient mutated Giant from awkening and destroying Sharn, a betrayal at the bottom of the dungeon and then a rush to escape the crumbling caverns afterword...

Indiana Jones, you can take your Crystal Skull and shove it back up E.T.'s ass!

I really WANT to write this and get it published! I'm salivating at the thought! Hell, I want to PLAY THIS, right now! Bring on Eberron-goodness, now!

End of Demented Rambling.

I Love Getting New RPG Books

Just got in my copies of Adventurer's Vault, Monster Manual 2, and The Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide. I've read most of them already, but I've been checking them out at the Library. Now I don't need to worry about renewing them! Huzzah!

I'm really happy with 4e. 3.5 had a lot of issues that really killed the fun for me after a while. I'm just not a super-optimizer type of player and frankly I like playing Fighters.

3.5 Fighters are NOT fun after a certain low level unless you multi-class, and at that point you aren't really a Fighter anymore.

So 4e's equalizing of all the classes is a real feature for me, but I'm getting away from my point.

I like the Adventurer's Vault because it really expands equipment options and provides Alchemy for characters. It's not a "read from start to finish" kind of book, but it's a useful book. No matter what character you're playing, this book has something you'll find useful. Not to mention that more magic items gives me more points of comparison for determining the appropriate level for my homemade magic items.

Monster Manual 2 provides more monsters (duh) for a GM to mix into encounters. Not just ne monsters, but new types of existing monsters (more gnolls, goblins, etc.) to help broaden encounters with that monster race. Many of these monsters are high-end Heroic Tier monsters, but since DMG 2 is going to focus on play for Paragon-Tier it should be expected that they would focus more on those levels of play. There's still plenty of lower-tier and Epic monsters though. Dretches make an appearance as Level 2 Brutes, and Dagon (yes, the godlike Deep One from Lovecraft's writings) is there for Epic characters to face. There are more, but those are just examples.

The Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide presents all the information needed for a 4e Realms campaign... ok, not really... not even close really, but it DOES give you a solid start for the campaign and a method of "resetting" 3.5 campaigns to make the transition to 4e smoother. They've killed off or demoted a LOT of the gods, presumably to make it easier for players new to the Realms to get started. The old list WAS very daunting... especially if you went for the gods from every continent and not just the "main" area covered in the 3.0 Campaign Guide.

The new setting is 100 years into the future after an event called the Spellplague (started when Cyric murdered Mystra at Shar's bequest and both the Arcane Weave and the Shadow Weave came apart) has reshaped Toril and the planes. A new realm called Abeir is introduced, a mirror of Toril created by AO to stop the war between the Gods and the Primordials (which I believe is new to help the Realms fit into the backstory 4e uses). When the Spellplague changed the planes it merged portions of Toril and Abeir together. Whole regions of Toril have been replaced by regions of Abeir, also allowing the Dragonborn to enter the world (which is why we've never seen them before; it works as an explanation as long as you don't mind a little cheese in your setting). The Netherese Empire is back, and they've conquered some of the regions around them, including Sembia. Cormyr has had to claim some of the Dragon Coast, and Myth Drannor has been restored to its proper glory. The Zhentarim aren't really the Big Bads of the setting anymore... the split in their ranks between Bane and Cyric has made them unable to compete with the Netherese, and they actually help resist them to some extent (because they'd rather Bane conquer the world, not Shar). The Red Wizards of Thay are pretty much gone... because most of Thay is now full of undead thanks to the efforts of one wizard's attempts to become a Lich going awry. 

My major problems with the new Realms is the limited release schedule it gets. My wallet appreciates this, but having the Realms content limited to one Campaign Guide, one Player's Guide, and one adventure means that a lot of content is vague. In some cases this is good. I can fill in the blanks in regions, but it also means a lot more work for me. For example, I want to create an adventure in Cormyr. I want to do something in the Storm Horns. The entry on the Storm Horns mentions Eagle's Peak and Skull Crag, not to mention Castle Crag and High Horn... but the map provided doesn't list these locations. Not a big deal if you and your players are new to the setting but if I wanted to run something with Josh and Paul (who have both given me the impression that they're large Realms fans) I want to at least try and get the geography right! Why mention these areas if you aren't going to at least give me a dot on the map?

My other problem is the lack of information on the gods. The greater gods are detailed, and there's a list of lesser gods and exarchs, but little to no detail on them or which gods they actually serve. For example, Tempus is listed as an Unaligned Greater God with the Sphere of War, and whose domain is called Warrior's Rest. There is no mention of any gods who reside with him or exarchs who serve him in his entry. Looking among the list of lesser gods I see that Beshaba (Alignment: Evil, Sphere: Bad Luck) also resides in Warrior's Rest. I had to read the description of Warrior's Rest in the Cosmology chapter to discover that Beshaba is Tempus' lover. The Exarchs aren't any better; Garagos (Chaotic Evil, War), The Red Knight (Lawful Good, Tactics), Uthgar (Unaligned, Wildlands), and Valkur (Good, Sailors) all reside in Warrior's Rest... Now, I can expect that The Red Knight is an Exarch of Tempus, since they've always been connected. Garagos probably is too since he has the sphere of war just like Tempus (and since Tempus is Unaligned he probably doesn't mind having Exarchs of opposing alignments). But what about the exarchs of Wildlands and Sailors? Again, turning to the Cosmology section I see that Tempus regards the Red Knight as a daughter, but then it mentions that his other exarchs maintain their own realms... so does that mean taht Garagos, Uthgar and Valkur are exarchs of other gods?

I have no idea, and I wish I did. Since most of the Gods don't even get Channel Divinity Feats in the Player's Guide I can't even make use of them without needing to design new Channel Divinity Feats. I'd rather they had just died along with the other missing gods if there wasn't enough room to give me information on them.

Don't get me wrong. I like the book. It's beautiful and the changes are sufficient for me to feel like the Realms is a place I can make my own again instead of the "It's done, move on" feel I had in 3.5. I just wish there could be a few more supplements to help flesh it out a little more and prevent me from needing to put more work into the world. With the number of dieties in the Realms it could REALLY benefit from an updated Pantheon book describing the Greater Gods, Lesser Gods, and Exarchs in more detail, and maybe giving us a greater description of their realms. I don't want the glut of products from 3.5, just a few more to help me along my way (or else give me a REALLY GOOD set of guidelines for creating balanced Feats so I can at least create a few more Channel Divinity Feats for players who don't like the greater gods).

Maybe Dragon magazine has (or will have) future articles to flesh this stuff out. Maybe I should send them a pitch to write one. In the meantime I'll just need to pull out some of my 3.5 and 2nd Edition Realms material to fill in the blanks.

End of Demented Rambling.

The Village of Hommlet

I forgot to post this yesterday, but I got a rewards packet from the RPGA. It was sent to my parent's house (where I was living back when I regularly judged for Living Force/Living Greyhawk) a week or so back and I just hadn't gotten around to picking it up. I was expecting it to be the same old, same old. Rewards cards to open new character options in Living Forgotten Realms and some more membership cards. Considering I haven't played in an RPGA event in a couple of years I was in no rush to pick the packet up.

Imagine, if you will, my surprise at opening the envelope and seeing a shrink-wrapped 4e module inside! "The Village of Hommlet" is a reprint of ye olde Gary Gygax adventure T1: The Village of Hommlet, updated for 4e. For those of you who have never played or read through anything regarding the Temple of Elemental Evil, Hommlet was the small village laying near the temple and T1 kicked the whole adventure series off.

This new adventure is set long after heroes have cleared out the Temple of Elemental Evil, and Hommlet has been at peace all that time. But evil has a long memory, and dark forces are converging on Hommlet once again. The PCs stuble across this trouble village and must discover the secret of the evil gathering in an old moathouse. It was updated by Andy Collins and has been designed for 4th level characters.

Visually I'm impressed. It's a free product, and I can't find a UPC on it anywhere so I don't believe it was ever intended for resale. Despite that the module looks as professional as something like Keep on the Shadowfell or any of the other 4e modules, though it is primarily in black and white (not a big deal to me at all). The cover is a thin cardstock and the insides have two sets of maps printed on them. A map of the village of Hommlet, and a map of all three floors to the Inn of the Welcome Wench. Next is a 24-page booklet detailing Hommlet and the encounters. It consists of recycled black and white artwork and a lot of maps. There are 9 encounters and a couple of skill challenges detailed in this book, each with clear stat blocks from the MM. The last part of the adventure is a nice color poster-sized map, which is what really impressed me. I mean, throwing something like that into a free adventure couldn't have been cheap. This map has an enlarged copy of the ground floor of the Inn of the Welcome Wench and a large version of the map of what I believe to be the moat house (I'm still reading the adventure so I can't be sure).

This is the best reward I've ever gotten from the RPGA and I'd like to thank them. I've been thinking about getting into playing Living Forgotten Realms recently, in part because I figure I should do at least SOME playing in the campaign if I want to write for it! I'd always meant to play in it from the beginning but decided to devote more time to my family than gaming. Still, a little pick-up game every no and again wouldn't kill me!

So thank you RPGA!

End of Demented Rambling.

First Dungeon Magazine Submission is Away!

Gulp.

So I finished my pitch just a few minutes ago, and now "Foul Sacrifice" is heading through the fiberoptics of the internet to some server at Wizards of the Coast.

"Foul Sacrifice" is a side trek adventure meant for level 8 PCs. The party must stop the evil Fow'ljaaw from using stolen children as the fuel to open a portal to the Abyss, unleashing his demonic master's minions on the region. The adventure is only three encounters long. First the PCs will need to save a band of pilgrims from the gnolls attacking them, then they must track the gnolls who stole the pilgrims' children back to their lair. Inside they face another group of gnoll guards accompanied by demonic allies. Finally the PCs face off against Fow'ljaaw and his remaining servants even as the life force of the children is drained to form the ever-growing portal to the Abyss. This last encounter requires the PCs to complete a Complexity 2 skill challenge during the battle or the children die and the portal opens, flooding the area with dark energies that weaken the PCs.

And within 60 I'll either hear a request for the full manuscript or... well, I won't hear anything at all. That's the unfortunate part of this submission process. If they don't like my proposal I'll never actually hear why.

Oh well. I think it sounds like a good adventure (and I really like the skill challenge I developed to stop the portal from opening, though as I'm typing this I just thought of  few changes I can make to it). I'm going to keep working on the manuscript in the meanwhile so it's ready should Wizards contact me. And I'll keep brainstorming more ideas to send them. If they won't buy "Foul Sacrifice" they'll buy something else dammit!

(Plus when all is said and done I should have some nice adventures ready for me to run whenever I get around to starting a 4e game.)

End of Demented Rambling.