You descend a wide set of marbled steps, dimly lit by sconces crafted to look as if flame were spewing from the mouths of the iron skulls that adorn them. The low groan of metal reverberates through the chamber that is otherwise silent, aside from a muted hum sounding like thousands of gears in perpetual motion. 

You pass through a massive set of crumbling metallic pillars with reliefs depicting skeletons being crushed by massive vices, the sound of breaking bones and pained wails penetrate your mind as your eyes scan the imagery. A faint shuffling sound from across the room echoes outward and draws your attention away from the unexplained desire to reach out and touch one of the pillars. A blindfolded skeleton sitting atop a hollow glass throne deftly slides open a gilded box of cards and fans them out in a single motion, gesturing for you to select a card...

A Year of Terror!

Thank You

Unforeseen Servant (of Procrastination)

With all of the hullabaloo regarding the 5e announcement, I’ll admit it has taken me quite some time and motivation to getting around to writing this review. Not only because things have been pretty hectic and crazy in the D&D world, but also because I’ve been trying to find the right approach to tackle this book review with. Not to mention debating even writing reviews anymore, I’m not sure how well they are received by my readers or if I’m just flooding the blog community with echo-content. Let me know please, if you could take the time to do so. Anyway onto the book of the vile and the dark.

Subject matter within this book isn’t something that I think is worthy of a simple “Get it” or “Don’t get it” review, due to the content being extremely contextual to your group, your campaign, play style, and many other things. Don’t get me wrong this is definitely more tame than its 3rd edition counterpart, but not that it is devoid of foul and vile things, they are just somewhat sanitarily written foul and vile things. Regardless, this isn’t your typical D&D book.

 Summoning Inner GrumpoDaemon

The book is excellently written, as is most all of Rob Schwalb’s work, though I will say that up front there are a few things (particularly theme powers) that left me feeling a bit unsated, which isn’t to say it is Rob’s fault as it’s probably just another scrawl on my growing list of nitpicks I have for 4e. For example when reading the “Contract Killer” paragon path I got a giant rogue-boner, waiting to behold whatever blood dripping thematic elements that lie ahead – and was met with “spend an action point and gain combat advantage against all adjacent enemies!” Really?

I realize that themes are meant to be a very thin layer of mechanics to accompany great narrative, I love themes and the ones in this book are pretty great. But the overall power structure in 4e seems to be growing progressively bland. This relates to a growing concern I have with the game’s power mechanics being a flooded mess that seems to always boil down to an endless shuffle of condition mechanics and combat advantage. Seeing every other power I look at inflicting some sort of status effect or granting CA makes my head start to spin thinking about keeping track of all these things during combat.

Since I’m rarely in the player seat when it comes to 4e, I suppose some might say I have no right to complain about powers or character themes or paragon paths etc. However, as a DM I’m not a fan of keeping track of ALL THE THINGS, I want to kill or be killed and get onto the next interesting bit of the game – whatever it may be, even more combat. I’m not entirely sure why or how every fucking character in the game needs to be a conditions marker vendine machine, is this really all we can do with D&D? The answer is no.

Once again, just a minor nitpick and definitely more of a growing 4e issue for me than specifically a Book of Vile Darkness flaw. Now, onward!

Devilish Duality

The book of vile Darkness is a 2 part supplement, one small book is for players and contains themes, paragon paths, an epic destiny and some really good writing about what it is to play an evil character. The second, much thicker book contains information for the GM on running evil games, parties of evil or otherwise “bad” PC’s, and basically reads like a very long Rob Schwalb blog post – which is a good thing. The book also contains a slew of other goodies like magic items, some really gnarly terrain, and an adventure that leads players into obtaining the Book of Vile Darkness itself, which is an artifact that uses the concordance rules in some very cool ways.

The set also comes with a full poster map that coincides with the adventure within the DM’s book and is generally useful regardless if you plan on running the adventure or not.

Creating Your Evil Avatar

For the first few pages of the player’s book Schwalb delves into what it is like to play an evil character both in game and at the gaming table, his advice is solid and concise without getting too philosophical on you. The book then goes into types of evil adventuring groups and how you can attempt to make them work for your game and how to focus on group identity for your game, because let’s face it – keeping an evil band of people together for a common cause is a hard thing to pull off. Some of the cooler ideas expressed within this portion for me were Devotees of a Dark God, Family Ties, and Survivors – which deviate from the standard issue rag-tag bunch of criminals (though he covers that as well).

Another part of the evil adventurer advice section builds on archetypes such as the antihero, nonhero, and outright villainous characters. Helping you determine an evil PC’s goals, personality, alignment and more are also given at least brief mention and seeds for idea to grow in the darkened corners of your imagination. The book goes on to really drill deep into 4e’s power sources and roleplaying evil for each of those respective roles (arcane, divine, martial, primal, etc.) and then jumps onto the themes. I can say that having read every page of this book that the amount of care gone into the “fluff” of this book was not skimped out on.

Thematic Ambiance

The themes available within the BoVD are the Cultist, Disgraced Noble, Infernal Slave, Reaver, and the Vile Scholar with the Vile Scholar most definitely being my favorite. The themes in the book are evocative narratively but I honestly can’t say they do much for me mechanically, but the Vile Scholar is my favorite for the reason if it being actually somewhat new and innovative to me as far as 4e mechanics go – it has an attack power that targets 3 defenses simultaneously and provides multiple effects based on which (if any) of them hit.

To round out the rest of the player’s book, you have a small assortment of paragon paths (Blood-Crazed Berserker, Contract Killer,  Deomonologist, Idol of Darkness, and Vermin Lord), and a single epic destiny, Exemplar of Evil which unfortunately feels about as generic as the name implies (Level 24, gain “Epic Evil” power that makes creatures you kill put out an aura that gives enemies a -2 to hit until the end of your next turn!). To wrap up the book, there’s also small gathering of thematically dark feats that pair well with your new mega-evil PC’s.

The Brightest Black

The best bits of the Book of Vile darkness are within the DM’s tome, sure it has an adventure that leads PC’s toward obtaining the actual book itself, but that’s to be assumed. There’s also a lot more good advice on running evil campaigns, a bunch of truly evil quotes from some of D&D’s greatest (including Strahd, bonus points!), and a ton of fantastic artwork. But I’m not here to talk about the adventure or the aesthetics of the pages, as a wizards product high production values are to be expected, and BoVD continues the upward trend of recent D&D products and contains lots of narrative, though this is no Heroes of the Feywild.

What this book comes through with (for me at least) was the traps, terrain, diseases, and curses and other generally nasty things that you don’t nescessarily need to have a party or campaign full of evil to use. This section is entitled “Vile Encounters” and really makes me wish it would have been included in a core rulebook about 4 years ago for players who wanted threat filled options for their games, oh well, that’s why Fourthcore exists. But I’m honestly happiest with this section because to me it kind of reads like a mini ‘Fourthcore 101′ interperetation on encounter building, though still not as deadly as fourthcore – this is on the right track.

Between a curse that ages PC’s and another entitled “Sentient Tumor” and hazards/traps like Crypt Thing and the Rot Grub Pit Book of Vile Darkness pulls no punches in being one of the deadliest books ever published for 4e. Right up there next to Scott Fitzgerald Gray’s Tomb of Horrors mega-adventure. To round out all of this awesome content there’s also a good handfull of monster themes at your disposal such as the Chaos Beast, Maenads, and the Moilian Dead. There’s also some new monsters like Demons, Devils, and (Fallen) Angels.

Like Black Cotton Candy

The book is packed full of narrative fluff as I mentioned earlier, including good seeds for adventure ideas such as Rob A Grave, Spark A War, Steal A Treasure, and my personal favorite Murder A Hero all clock in relatively high on the awesome-idea-o-meter. These adventure seeds also happen to (probably not coincidentally) sound like bad ass metal ballads. You’ve also got whole campaign themes such as Conquest, and Evil against Evil - Schawlb even goes so far as to outline 2 entire campaign arcs titled “War For Hell” and “Hunger of the Nine Tongued Worm” in a tier by tier breakdown, no evil thought process required! There’s even more stuff for vile organizations, creating villains and all of the sweet magic items they may have in store for your PC’s.

Fourthcore?

It is nice to see more classic D&D ideals expressed within the BoVD as it also explores more cursed and charged items as well as “Sinister Items” which are not to be taken lightly – my personal favorite being the Girdle of Skulls which creates skeletons to fight alongside you when needed.

I should go on record that I’m not trying to sound like a pretentious douche when referring to things in this book as fourthcore, or trying to imply that wizards has borrowed wholly from the movement. I will say however, that fourthcore ideals have gained popularity, validity, and recognition among the community (see: Steve Winter, ENnie nominations), could possibly have helped wizards realize that there is a demographic of D&D players out there who want ‘hardcore’ ‘extreme’ playstyle/options, hence Lair Assault, this book, and a few other articles.

With today marking the near (it’s tomorrow) 1 year anniversary of Revenge of the Iron Lich, I find it apropos to put up this review and reflect on the ideals of ‘hardcore’ gaming. While many may not agree with my ideals on such things, labeling them as ‘fake difficulty’ or abhorring  metagame / gamist ideals at their tables, I say more power to ya, honest. But in closing I will say that I hope to see more material like RotIL, and BoVD written and released, perhaps even by third party publishers (*wink wink, nudge nudge*, WotC) when D&DNext arrives. I know many of you (myself included) may have already begun to lose steam with your 4e games since the announcement of 5e, but my advice to you is to keep on doing what you’re doing and remain positive. Put all your creativity toward newer, greater things because the future for D&D seems bright.

Sealing The Phylactery

Gotta close this with something dark after all that optimistic talk in the paragraph above, so I’ll say this – all in all, the Book of Vile Darkness is a solid enough title and I’d definitely recommend it if you are into this niche of gaming, for everyone else it may really depend on personal tastes and the current longevity of your 4e campaign(s) as to how much use you may get out of it at least immediately.

Also, I can’t help but wonder how heavily handed the editing was on this one, I imagine Schwalb had a much darker tone than what actually came out onto these pages. Regardless of whether you plan on playing D&Dnext or not,  modularity considered it should still be a book worth buying if that’s what you’re into. Damn, I suppose that was relatively positive as well. Oh well. Until next time, evildoers!

Greetings readers! I’ve recently become part of the Game Night Blog Carnival, wherein once a month some of us RPG bloggers sit down and talk about the board, card, and other miscellaneous games we’ve been playing. So today I’m going to do a quick review of Thunderstone – a very sword & sorcery flavored deck building game from AEG.

Deck Building Games

Deck building games are a pretty popular thing, the biggest contenders probably being Dominion and Ascension, having never played either of these games I can give no comparison. I can say that the themes of those games have never interested me much which is probably part of the reason I was never drawn to them, the flavor of Thunderstone however – is right up my alley. The only other deck building game I’ve ever played has been Alderac’s own Nightfall, I was drawn to it for obvious reasons (vampires, werewolves, etc.) but still, I can only say it was fun at best and at worst it seemed slightly unvaried to me. My sole con demo game of Nightfall was fun, but gives me very little ground for fair comparison though so please take my review with a grain of salt, knowing that I am a total deck building game newb.

 Look & Feel

The overall look of the game is very high fantasy sword & sorcery, all of the artwork was done by Jason Engle,  it fits the game’s theme very well. The cards themselves are a bit textured and use similar card stock to many other board and cards games out there. They are not CCG cardstock quality by any means though, but still very acceptable quality, colors are very vivid too. While opening my packs I found strange silvery debris on my hands, similar to glitter. It may have been from the cellophane they were wrapped in, a thorough hand washing fixed that problem right up though.

The overall layout of the cards can be a bit daunting at first glance, but once you have played the game you’ll easily be able to identify each one. Though I can’t help but think some clearer symbolism could have helped ease the understanding the game mechanics for new players, at least a bit.

Gameplay

The game basically emulates an adventuring party delving through layers of dungeon to smite foes and seek out the Thunderstone, which triggers the stopping point of the game. When the Thunderstone card reaches its designated point on the playing space, everyone stops and counts up their cards to see who has the most victory points to determine the winner. Thunderstone starts off as any adventuring party would, small, weak, and with very little resources who gradually grow in power, smiting monsters for fun, profit and power! There are a lot of thematic elements which affect dungeon gameplay such as how deep you delve into the dungeon affects how much light you need to properly fight monsters without incurring a penalty, some monsters can only be damaged by magic or certain weapons, spread diseases, destroy your gear, etc. This all sounds very complex, but after just a few rounds the game will click for most players, and you begin to recognize the solid, fast, and fun gameplay.

Another option you can choose to do on your turn is to visit the village, this emulates dropping by town for supplies and reinforcements such as items, weapons, spells, heroes, and more. This is really the most common way to build up your deck and acquire gold for purchasing items, heroes, and spells from the village. Aside from defeating monsters, some of which serve as “trophies” that can also give you added bonuses in combat, the village is your best bet if you want to hone your deck into a well oiled machine. There is also a third option for your turn and that is simply to rest, allowing you to ‘destroy’ (remove from gameplay) any card of your choice, namely disease cards acquired from some monsters or to thin your deck of cards no longer needed or just wanting  to streamline your deck for efficiency. Some cards have village effects, and some have dungeon effects which will only trigger in their respective environments, depending on what you choose to do with your turn. These effects really create some unique combos and opportunities for you to get your monster-slaying-and-taking-its-stuff on.

Another layer to the core mechanic of the game (killing things and taking their stuff while racing toward for the grand prize) is that once you kill monsters they also go into your deck, allowing you to gain benefits such as attack bonuses, added light for your dungeon crawls and gold generation when you visit the village. And where would killing monsters be without getting XP? You earn experience points for each monster you vanquish, which in turn allows you to level up your hero and militia cards turning them into precision killing machines of varying strengths and weaknesses.

Thoughts

The random combination of determining which cards is fun and keeps gameplay varied from session to session, however there are times when this randomization can totally bone you and leave you with very few or zero options to tackle certain situations.

For example if your random village card/hero generation doesn’t match up with your monster type generation you could wind up with a slew of monsters that only take damage from magic, yet very little or no means to actually deal magic damage to them. Though rare, when this happens combating monsters can feel a bit futile. However there are some pretty neat tools like this one (thanks @Asmor), that can be found online that will help you avoid these types of situations.

The game does a very good job at emulating the feel of an intrepid band of adventurers crawling through a dungeon in a race to find a fabled artifact, however at times this emulation can feel a bit solitary. While there are a few cards that suggest and promote player interaction like forcing other players to discard a card or two, there are not many mechanics in place to stop Thunderstone from feeling like multiplayer solitaire at times.

In A Nutshell

Overall Thunderstone is a fun game, despite its quirks and shortcomings. It very well could have been the fact that my few runs through the game were only 2 player endeavors, perhaps with more people these elements change. I plan on running it with some friends and getting a 5 player game going on, once I do I will report back here with a short follow-up. There are also a multitude of expansions out for Thunderstone which are said to improve and deepen the game which I’ve yet to be able to play, as I was only playing the base game for the purpose of this review.

AEG is also in the process of creating Thunderstone Advance, which seems to be a new starting point for the game – both players old and new should be able to jump right into this version of the game and find it both a great starting point for beginners, and an improved feel for veterans. Judging by all the awesome stuff going on, on the Thunderstone website it seems like they have really cleaned up the layout of the cards, and added some cool new elements to the game like familiars and separate sections of the village like the “armory”, “marketplace”, and the “wizard’s college”.

I’m really looking forward to checking out Thunderstone Advance when it releases, as I really liked the game and hope that this advance edition clears up some of my minor complaints.

Thunderstone does have a lot of really cool elements like leveling up your heroes, dungeon crawls, and making a mad dash for an ancient artifact against your friends. It is a solid dungeon delving card game and honestly a lot of fun, especially if you’re a fan of D&D and other fantasy RPG’s. Despite any of its shortcomings, you should definitely check out Thunderstone for yourself! You can use this link to grab it on Amazon for 29$!

Disclosure: We did receive a complimentary copy of Thunderstone to base this review upon.

I’m here at DDXP and after yesterday’s Class Design Seminar, the internet has seemed ablaze with irrationality. I’d like to quell this uprising somewhat by pointing out a few key factors. First and foremost please watch the video I just linked to in the sentence prior to this one, and watch the whole thing, not just snippets that get your underwear in a knot. Did you watch it? Okay, now that you’re back allow me to elaborate on some key points that were both expressed during the seminar and to myself personally in conversations with WotC staff.

First And Foremost

• This stage of development is PRE-ALPHA, if you don’t know what that means it basically boils down to things scrawled on napkins and then brought to fruition in a word processor. These things can and will change, this is all very very early in the design process.
• If you don’t like something once the playtest reaches you, give feedback!  Be vocal about it, be respectable, and be constructive, if you have a problem with something – try and have a remedy in mind when submitting feedback (my words, not WotC’s).
• Regarding 4e “being forgotten”, the modules for other edition compatibility haven’t even begun to be written yet, Schwalb himself says he starts that stuff “next week” during the seminar.
• Regarding how well 4e will come through into D&DNext, remember that Robert Fucking Schwalb – the guy who has cover credits on half of the books ever published for 4e is the metal loving pirate of awesome that is sailing the 4e tacticls module ship (probaly among many other 4e related things, he loves 4e).

On Vancian Magic

• Vancian magic is only being explored as one of many venues that magic will be expressed as within the game.
• That Vancian magic is being tweaked to accompany a friendlier approach, including new ways to regain spell slots other than long rests, and there was also mention of very at-will like abilities and other things I can’t tell you.
• At this point it seems only “core” classes are looking at Vancian magic
• Just because game-centric terms like “Primal Controller” will disappear doesn’t mean D&D won’t be a game.

On Tactics / Edition Compatibility / Tone

• As already mentioned above, Rob Schwalb is in charge of the 4e tactics stuff, trust in him (and the rest of the stellar design team) to do a great job bringing these things over.
• The team hasn’t even begun to write these things yet (to my understanding) and so they in turn do not have solid answers for everyone just yet, this doesn’t mean they have forgotten anyone, are trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes, or anything else ridiculous I saw buzzing around the internet yesterday.
• The tone of these guys may seem very certain as in “this is how we’re doing X in D&DNext” but you have to remember they are designers, they are programmed to feel strongly about their ideas, while they may not even be cemented to anything just yet.
• Also please, please keep in mind that everything mentioned is a very ‘at this point in time we are exploring doing X’ as opposed to “this is how we’re doing X” even if their tone may have sounded like it. These guys are only human and none of this is rehearsed, cut them a break.

Back Into The Fray!

Well that’s it for me for today guys, going to check out the Lords of Waterdeep board game, get some more interviews for Obsidian Portal, record the next seminar and wander aimlessly for a while. I hope I can help breathe some rationality into a community that is somewhat enflamed at the moment, please give these guys a chance. They are making the next edition of D&D for us, its fans. Hang in there and have some faith.

You can stay updated on all of my DDXP exploits and interviews over on the Obsidian Portal Blog for interviews, videos and more.

It shouldn’t need to be said, but I will anyway in light of recent events: don’t bother posting flametastic comments on this post, I’ll just delete them.

So when sitting down to think about the “core” of Dungeons & Dragons I thought to myself about what really makes D&D, D&D. While much die rolling and resolution mechanics came to mind I tried to expand outward more, and I think one thing I’m always forgetting about is modules. There is a lot to be learned from running published adventures and I think the core of the game actually has a lot to do with adventure modules. Here’s why…

Iconic Adventures

For some people, adventures were their entire D&D experience / heyday, whether it was Keep on the Borderlands, The Tomb of Horrors, or asmodeus-forbid Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. Adventure modules are encapsulated bundles of pure nostalgic joy for some people and perhaps the sole reason they ever gave D&D a chance, or kept them coming back to the game – because lets face it, not all GM’s are able to craft a great adventure and keep their shit together simultaneously. Adventure modules are almost a guaranteed avenue for fun and excitement for a lot of groups.

Certain adventures leave a name for themselves on the face of D&D that changes the way the entire game is perceived for some, they are constantly being updated, re-explored, expanded upon and reinvented. The modules named above are just a few examples of this, they are prolific, they are our ‘cult classics’ and they mean a lot, to a lot of people. Which brings me to my next point.

Ubiquitous Adventure Modules?

Surely when talking D&DNext I’m not ruling out that there cannot be room for new adventures to herald in another era adventuring awesomeness or become an icon, I truly hope there is. Think though, since 4e’s launch have there really been any adventure modules come out only to be marked as one of the greats? Perhaps it’s too early to tell. Personally I believe some of the best material produced for 4e has been a revisit to things like the Tomb of Horrors, Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, the Dark Sun setting and the updated Gamma World.

When things get re-written for another edition, a lot of stuff has to be approached from a standpoint of retaining that certain adventure module’s feel being carried over well into whatever the new rule set is, and as much as we’d like to think that a story is just a story – a lot of these modules brought their own mechanical feel to the game. Wether we like it or not, adventures are often tied to mechanics, so how do we write (and update old) adventures to suit an omnipotent rule set?

This isn’t really a question of adventure’s being re-hashed or new ones being created though, it is a question of how will these things be presented? Regardless of their origin, will adventures for a modular D&D need to be written in a manner vastly different from previous editions in order to pull off the one-size-fits-all approach? I think there’s a few ways this might be done:

• Modularized Adventures: Will these adventures take the “Use combat module A, Loot system C for running this adventure module” approach? Or perhaps a “This module is intended for XYZ, but if you wish to use different options consider the following…”
• Interpretive Style: Perhaps adventure modules will do something along the lines of just explaining things as plainly as possible and allowing the DM to use their box of tools and knowledge presented in the DMG to determine the best way to run things? Surely this approach would not be friendly to newbie DM’s and folks who appreciate being directed, at least moderately.
• Reprints & Conversion Materials: Will we only see reprints of old modules and perhaps a set of resources for converting them over to run. However if this is the case, what about new modules? Will they get a different approach and the left be rest behind in a sort of grandfathered method?
• Something Else: I’m sure there’s a lot I’m not thinking of here, because I’m not very bright.

What do you think? How in the heck are we going to pull this off, as gamers? As writers? Let me know in whatever way you feel comfortable.

How would you describe 4th edition D&D to a non-player.

Assuming that non-player had some working knowledge of at least how a video game RPG’s worked I’d say something along the lines of “Do you like playing [insert game name here]? Well what if you could play that game with virtually no boundaries, contraints, or invisible walls? That’s D&D.” If I were approaching someone with 0 knowledge of RPG’s I’d ask them if they liked stories, particularly the “choose your own adventure” types and present the game like an interactive story book that never has to have an ending, and with endless amount of “if you want to do this, turn to page X” options.

 

(If this answer isn’t sufficient, or not really what you are looking for, I’ve given this second answer to be more 4e specific)

 

4e D&D is a role playing game unlike any other, it really focuses on the “cool” factor of RPG’s and tends to leave out all the tables that help you determine wind direction and foliage density. It cuts straight to the chase of unravelling mysteries, epic battles, lost lore, clashing steel and zapping monsters with magic. Gone are the days of “well, I’m all out of spells for the day” and THAC0.

Do you currently play 4e D&D?

Yes, about once every other week with my wife and our group of close friends. We also play at family gatherings and basically any other time the opportunity presents itself.

How long have you been playing?

 I’ve been playing 4th edition for the past 2 years now, but I’ve been playing D&D as a whole for about 12 years.

Are you a fan of Monte Cooks Legend and Lore Colum?

Yes!

What do you like / dislike about it?

I enjoy the fact that he is openly exploring reflections of D&D design over the years, and most likely using it to help shape the future of the game. As a wannabe game designer myself I find it particularly interesting to get a sort of inside-scoop on how the game was built, and all the directions it can possibly go.

 

I do believe that you have to know where you’ve been, to know where you’re going and D&D is no exception so it’s really insightful to hear these things coming from someone who’s been such a huge part of the games development over the years. Though gaming fundamentals and mechanics are often discussed in his column, Monte manages to do so in a very conversational tone that even amateurs such as myself can absorb.

 

The polls that make up the ends of the articles are always fun to answer, and equally interesting to see the results on. I can’t help but think of the L&L articles as a design diary for upcoming improvements/additions to the game, perhaps even  5th edition.

What would be your reaction to a WotC announcement of a new edition of D&D?

I can honestly say that I would shocked, but not surprised, if that makes any sense. Not surprised because I don’t suppose WotC hired famous game designer Monte Cook to just write a weekly column or brought back greats like Chris Sims just so they could hang around the WotC offices and make smalltalk. They’re up to something, and whatever it is, it’s going to be big. I would be shocked however, because I’m afraid a ‘new edition’ of the game would be coming too soon. As with previous versions that had too quick a turnaround it would likely further fracture their fan base and the community who effectively writes their paychecks.

What is the top thing you would like WotC to change / fix in a new edition of the game?

I should say first that I really like 4e D&D, I don’t stress this enough through all of my ramblings and nitpicks of the game, but nothing is perfect. I’d really just like to see a return to the more narrative nature of older editions’ spells and abilities. I’d like to see a harmonious mix of DM and Player control in a new edition. The “DM adjudicates everything” (1st & 2nd edition) and “the rules adjudicate everything” (3rd & 4th edition) mentalities should get together and have produce an offspring of pure gaming gold. The bad part is that I honestly only think that 4e fell short of this, due to the way it presents itself in writing. The initial launch of 4e seemed to largely focus on mechanical bits and less on narrative, only to have recently changed that tone.

 

Aside from that I’d like to see more distinction between the classes and abilities, modelling the game to focus on balance seems to lead to an overwhelming feeling of ‘sameness’.  The current edition of the game only requires each class basically only excel at 1 or 2 of their ability scores, which further detracts from the experience and beauty of the games rules. The standard array of conditions imposed seem to be in a constant shuffle and the ability for every monster and character to be able to pull, push, slide, daze, stun, etc. gets boring very fast.

 

I’m a fan of variety, and if a new edition of D&D were to bring back about the feeling that each of the character classes possessed its own truly unique strengths & weaknesses, I’d surely be one of the first standing in line to get my copy. Also, no Shardminds please, stop making wacky races no one plays.

 

What do you think the D&D /RPG “community’s” reaction will be if they announce a new edition of D&D.

Initially? Polarizing, as with basically anything WotC announces. There will be vitriol and dissonance and another general division of the game’s fan base. The thing about gamers is we are a passionate bunch who are extremely vocal and ready to give our most blunt opinions about things at the drop of a hat. The thing about those opinions is we often double back to take a second look at things after we have cool off, so if a new edition were to be launched I think the community would need some time to regain its composure before forming truly fair opinions.

 

The split that divides the community each time a new edition is announced seems to only widen with each instance, making D&D one those products capable of devouring itself. We invest hundreds of dollars and hours to these books and products, feeling obligated to go out and re-buy and re-learn it all is extremely disheartening, especially so if the product feels like it could have been changed or tweaked for the better without requiring the release of completely new one.

If WotC releases a new edition of D&D what should they call it?

Technically no edition of D&D has ever had a version number attached to the title, so regardless of what they called it, most likely just “Dungeons & Dragons” people would attach “5e” to that title. Though there is goodspeculationonline that points to it possibly being touted as an “Anniversary Edition” or perhaps a return of the ‘Advanced’ prefix making it “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons”, once again. My personal guess would be one of the ladder two.

You could ask for 1 thing and be assured for it to make it in to a new edition of D&D what would it be and why?

A simplified combat system, even if it were only a subset of optional rules. Most gamers love combat, myself included, but it doesn’t need to be wargame-level intricate. Combat makes up a good portion of some gaming sessions and its never fun to feel like your game is being played in slow motion due to fiddly combat mechanics.

 

I think they could probably pull this off by restructuring, decreasing, or omitting the use of player power cards in some way. Analysis paralysis can be half the battle when it comes to the slow combat, but this on player by player basis. As with everything I’ve suggested here, YMMV and there is no such thing as one size fits all game, especially for something as dynamic as D&D.

 

Anything else you want to say or that I missed?

Thank you very much for your time, and this awesome opportunity to spread the good word of 4e D&D! I’d just like to say that D&D has truly enriched my life, and my family’s because there are many many great opportunities for so much more than ‘gaming’ when you are sitting around a table with your closest friends. I think everyone, should give the game a shot at least once and not worry about the nerdyness or bad stigma it has been plagued with over the years.

Rally Cry

I urge all of us to look upon this next edition of D&D with open eyes, and realize that we have the power to help shape the game we hold so dearly. Please retract your venomous tongues and stow your weapons, and let us make D&D our game once again, truly embrace the capabilities of what role playing games can evoke.

Let us do the hobby we hold so dearly a favor and help breathe life back into the game that created it, making it something grand and compelling once again. Make the world take second look at D&D, a thing people actually know about and look upon with intrigue and wonderment.

We are helping carry the flag now, it is time to firmly plant it in a solid foundation of community and fellowship. We are rebuilding a nearly 40 year old citadel from the ground up build up with blood, sweat, and tears. We have the opportunity to help shape a new golden era of gaming!

We are very much enjoying our “OSRIC” game we’re playing in right now but I do think it is a large leap of adaptation for both of us, and being that she wasn’t baptized in the Asmodean fires as I was at a young age, so some of these elements of D&D are still very fresh for her. So join us for the next 15 minutes or so and listen in, be sure to hit us back in whatever method suits your fancy. Hope you enjoy, and be sure to let us know what you’d like to see more of on the Dreadcast. Also, yes, she talks a lot more this time

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 Intro: ”Midnight Sun” by AFI | | Outro: ”As The Cold Rain Falls” by Tiger Army.

I know I haven’t done one of these in a while, it just so happens I haven’t played many inspiring video games lately – at least not ones that would make for a good P&P. Skyrim is fantastic, but a hill giant is a hill giant no matter where you are, y’know?. Granted the Necromorphs from dead space are basically “Space Zombies” but they are unique in their own very cool ways, let’s dive in!

I’ve done up an Infector, they are disgusting little bastards who can quickly fill a room with shambling, stabbing Slashers (which I’ll be covering next time) by skulking along and infecting those left dead on the floor. Just one of these can make for quite a nasty encounter, especially if there are fresh corpses for impregnating.

In Combat

The Infector is a bat-like bundle of fleshy wings with claws, and a proboscis that protrudes from its ‘head’ used to inject and rapidly transform its victims into necromorphs. Once a victim is latched onto, a flail of tentacles burst forth from inside, devouring and turning its prey into a animated machination of flesh and bone.

Infector’s prefer those already dead to those still living when searching for victims, often skittering around in the darkness and staying behind cover. After a victim has been transformed, the infector will quickly search for the next available target to transform until none are left, at which point it will attack PC’s directly, fighting to its death. [See An Example].

Recently, I had the pleasure of working with the fine folks over at Kobold Quarterly creating a Krampus for 4e D&D. The article went live today and I really hope you’ll check it out. It strays a bit from standard D&D 4e monster fare, in that I baked a lot of narrative into its stat block – I’m pretty proud of this guy and I hope someone other than me gets some use out of him. I know I’m writing a small Christmas adventure as we speak, should the opportunity arise when family is over this upcoming weekend, so maybe some of you guys are out there crafting up your own holiday adventures as well.

It is hard to take a creature with so much lore and put your own twist/spin on it without completely malforming it into something else entirely. The stories about Krampus are varying depending on which sources you consult – sometimes he is a red skinned devil, other times furry, sometimes he has human feet, other times they are hooved, and he’s even been described as having one of each.

Fa La La La La, Constructing Christmas Devils!

In a game like D&D 4e, I wanted Krampus to feel extra cool, a worthy opponent to some high heroic tier adventurers. Being that his primary weapons are a bundle of sticks, chains and bells that jingle, and a burlap bag…I decided he’ need a little magic on his side in order to challenge those showboatin’ godlike 4e PC’s. Being that he is a Devil, I figured this shouldn’t be too much of a problem and so 3 and a half revisions or so later and here he is.

I wanted him to be a lurker, darting in and out of the battlefield, snatching all the PC’s up and taking them back to his den for a nice christmas dinner afterward. The kind where he eats them, not the other kind where he’d end up arguing with his inlaws after too much eggnog. Anyway, I envisioned him hunched over hurriedly snatching people up and teleporting out of tough spots and using the frigid chains draped around his body to entangle and bludgeon his enemies all while exuding this preternatural aura of fear and twisted holiday cheer all at once. His bag, of course it isn’t just any old sack – it’s a big black Bag of Holding

That Brimstone Gingerbread Flavor!

Here’s some quick blurbs of flavor text to go along with his powers, sometimes I really wish these sorts of things were included with 4e monsters so – since I’m not behind any super tight design constraints here, I’ve made some up. Also, if you like this sort of thing, definitely check out Beyond The Stat Block and contribute some of your own. Enjoy!

Based on how feedback goes (not sure my audience cares for audio) we’ll see if a second episode ever arises, if that does turn out to be the case we promise to keep it brief just like this one. We hope you enjoy listening and would love to hear your feedback any way you’d like to give it to us – hit up the facebook or google+ pages, catch @momanatrix or myself on twitter, comment below, whatever floats your boat! Topics should be pretty self explanatory based on the title of the post here, maybe someday we can argue over pixies or whatever else comes to mind. Enjoy!

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Intro: ”Where Eagles Dare” by The Misfits | | Outro: ”Songs from the Earth” by Son of Sam.