Some replies on 4th ed

After posting a message about the 4th ed experiment on RPGNet, I did get a couple of replies that clarified two things for me:

• When you gain a new level, you can choose between taking a new power/feat OR replacing one of your already existing feats with an improved version of the same feat (like Toughness -> Improved Toughness).
  
• There are a couple of ways for a character to help another character make a save. There is a 1st-level cleric-spell that can give a character an extra save, and the Heal skill has "grant a saving throw" as one of it's uses.
  

The last point makes the following scenario possible: Kazakh the fighter is severly wounded, and is hit by a Blazing Skeleton, that set's him on fire. He only has 3 points left, and he knows that he propably will get more damage than that from the fire's ongoing damage.

Luckily for Kazakh, his mate Tardan the Cleric is nearby, and Tardan acts before Kazakh. So, Tardan rushes up to Kazakh and Heals him, so that he get's an extra save. Both the Heal-check and the Save succeeds, and Kazakh is once more grateful that he isn't alone on this.

This only goes to prove my impression that 4th ed is even more about Group play and coorperation than previous editions.

DnD4 tryout

This week, me and some other players in my gaming group got together and made a little experiment. Using all little preview-rules and leaks we sat down and played through a little dungeon crawl using the 4th edition rules. Using the 1st level characters that can be downloaded from the Wizards website, and a scenario we found on dnd4.com we embarked on our adventure.

Overall it was an interesting and fun experience. It still felt like DnD, but there was some differences. Mostly for the good, but there where some objections.

• When you play with 1st level characters in 3.5, your options on what to do each round in combat are rather limited. With these characters, your different powers meant that you always had an interesting option. When it came to options, I think you could compare it to 4th or 5th level characters in 3.5.
• The above point led to an interesting question: Considering the number of feats and choices at first level, how do you keep it manageable at higher levels? We compared it slightly to Exalted, where it can get quite hard to keep track of all the different maneuvers available to you.
• The system with daily, encounters and at-will powers worked very well.
• The saves are now static, and are used in the same way as AC. All attacks and spells are aimed at one of the saves. This makes things a bit smoother.
• Some attacks cause ongoing effects. The effect takes place at the start of your turn, and you get a save to remove the effect at the end of your turn. Now, consider the following scenario: You are hit with an attack that damages you and sets you on fire for 5 pts/ round. After the initial damage you have 3 points left. Now you are unable to do anything until it's your turn, and the first thing that happens is that you take another 5 points of damage. The result is that you know that you will fall unconscious and can't do anything about it. This point was what caused the most discussion and the group wasn't altogether happy with that solution.
• The hardest encounter in the scenario was the one where the opponents fullfilled their roles as intended. Our groups wasn't used to thinking in that way, on the other hand, and that made a big difference. Regardless if you like the idea of roles or not, it is something to be taken seriously if you wan't to use your characters to the maximum.
• When you go down to negative hit points, you roll a die to see if you stabilize or get worse. After three "get worse"-results you die. This makes it a bit more exciting and insecure when you go down. You can't do the accountant thing counting the number of rounds you've got left until you need to be saved. Instead you want help as soon as possible.

There was other points and interesting tidbits, but these points are the most important ones.

The main point, the way I see it, is the number of interesting options available to you each round. You always had something interesting to do. Overall, it was a fun experience, and it raised my expectations on DnD 4th ed.

I have played 4th Ed!

Well.. more or less at least. Our regular gaming session was cancelled today, so I collected all the preview bits-and-pieces there is and told the guys that I wanted to run a little test-session of 4th ed DnD.

It went well, and we had a fun evening. I will return with a bigger review very soon.

In the meantime, I can recommend the inofficial DnD4-site. They have collected a lot of info on the upcoming release.

Character Generator starting to take shape

The MnM-character generator is starting to come alive. It is still very early in the process, but some parts are coming together.

All important tables are created and filled (like lists of skills, powers and feats). Many of the basic relations are formed. For example, by now, it's possible to enter a character with feats, skills, saves and powers. Skills and saves are calculated from the correct ability modifier and the number of ranks.

Powers are implemented, and it's possible to add feats, extras and flaws to the powers.

The next step is to implement power-specific feats, extras and flaws (like Gliding for Flight). This turned out to be a bit trickier than I expected.

Other things to solve

• Conditions
• Controls so that you only can build legal characters
• Calculations
• Calculations of point cost
  
• Calculations of bonuses and secondary effects.
• More detailed choices in powers
• Implementation of skills that need to be specified (Knowledge etc)

With that, I bid you farewell for now and will keep you posted on this and other matters.

Database character generator

There are a number of character generators on the Internet that use
Microsoft Excell as their platform. Heroforge being one of the more
developed ones.

Some time ago I started to think about if it was possible to use
another platform efficiently to make character generators (and other
RPG related applications). One of my demands was portability and
cross-plattform compability. Another was flexibility and the ability to
work with data in a dynamic way.

As I have worked a fair amount with databases earlier, going down that
route seemed like a natural way to go. Some advantages are:

- Once you have a relational structure designed, you can implement
that in any database engine (MS SQL, MySql, Oracle). You can also make
it web based if you wanted to.
- There are powerful, open-source applications for building databases.
- With the right design, most things can be modelled in a relational database.

There are also some drawbacks that I can think of

- Some problems are a lot more straightforward to solve with Excell. Databases can be a bit awkward for some situations
- Designing a relational database does require a bit more design
skills than putting together an Excell sheet (and by this, I do not
bash those who put down hours and hours of work on apps like Heroforge
and others).

For my pilot, proof-of-concept project, I have embarked on the creation
of a Mutants and Masterminds chargen using Microsoft Access.

The areas implemented so far are

- Attributes, including calculations of cost and attribute modifiers.
- Skills, including calculations (rank + appropriate attribute modifier)
- Feats

There is a conceptual design of how powers should be bought and
represented within the database, and implementation is slowly taking
place. Updates will follow.

A small farewell

I'm not a big fan of the D20-system, and I never played original DnD. I do, however, recognize that Gary Gygax was one of the pioneers in a hobby that I have loved for more than 20 years.

My thoughts go to his family and friends. He will be missed!

Slight interface change in Mutants and Masterminds

In the Green Ronin game Mutants and Masterminds, you buy your stats and modifiers with points. This includes your Attack Bonus, which is bought independently of your stats.

Each level of Attack Bonus costs 2 points, and encompases both Melee and Ranged combat.

Later on, when you are buying feats, it's also possible to buy a particular feat that lets you add 1 to either melee och ranged combat. This feat can be bought multiple times, adding one to either combat type per level. Each feat costs one point.

From a user standpoint, this means that if I, for instance, want to build an archer I might reason that an archer needs to have a good Attack bonus, since he is a good shooter. So, I spend points on getting a high general attack bonus.

What I should have done instead is get a low attack bonus and then increase the ranged attack bonus with the feat. This way of thinking, however, isn't clear in the book.

Consider this instead:

Attack bonus is bought for Melee and Ranged attacks separately. Each level costs 1 point. The feat that lets you specialize is removed entirely (since it's no longer needed).

The effect of this gamewise is exactly the same as the original rules, but it's much easier for me as a player (especially as an inexperienced player) to think about how to build my character. Using the example above, I it feels natural to get a slightly lower melee attack bonus and a higher ranged attack bonus.

This changed doesn't change the behaviour or the implementation of the system, but it does change my perception of it, making this a change at the User Interface/ Presentation level that I would say makes the game easier.