DnD 4 Countdown 6 - I'm afraid I have to use the word Awesome!

Todays post will be short, at least my part of it. On rpg.net, a poster by the name of Mostly_Ghostly presents a setting he calls Nifflas. This is among the best and most interesting settings I've seen so far. This incudes most commersial settings as well. So, instead of talking to you myself about it, I'll provide you with the link.

Nifflas

I know the guy wrote it and had 4th ed in mind, but I can't help but thinking that it would be equally awesome (see, I had to use that word) using Spirit of the Century, Savage Worlds or even a version of Castle Falkenstein.

DnD4 Countdown 7 - The sergeant shouts: Stand up and fight

Yesterday I experienced an eye-opener that showed me the use and role of the warlord in 4th edition.

First, let me point you to a thread on rpg.net where they describe what the warlord really is: He is the drill sargeant, the tough coach, the squad leader shouting orders to his troops.

Lots of his powers let another character use a healing surge, or make an extra shift (sometimes more than 1 square) or just give them a bonus to hit.

As I said, read the thread for great examples of how to play the warlord.

Now, back to my eye-opener. Yesterday we played in our regular game of Living Greyhawk. We faced a rather nasty monster (a werecat on steroids, basically), and our fearless Fighter charged before anyone else of us had a chance to do anything. Turns out the monster was a bit to much even for our lvl 12 fighter. It made huge amounts of damage, and had a reach of 15'. So, our fighter got heavily wounded, and tried to get away. A five foot step wasn't enough, because of the range, and if he tried to make a move, he would provoke an attack of opportunity. So, basically, he was stuck with the monster and it looked pretty dire for a little while.

Now, this is where the squad lea - sorry, warlord would come in handy. Imagine if the fighter charged and tried to attack. The warlord could then shout (on his turn)
"FIGHTER, YOU ARE BREAKING RANK! FALL BACK!"

This would give the fighter a free shift out of range for the werecat. The group then can attack as a team. The warlord/ commander saves the life of the fighter once again

DnD4 Countdown 8 - Roleplaying pt.2

Yesterday I wrote a little about roleplaying and what I consider roleplaying is. This started with the notion that DnD4 is mainly aimed at combat in it's rules.

As said before, the proponents of this say that we need complex rules to simulate combat, but the rest can be freeformy, improvisational.

What I would like is more rules that simulate other aspects of the character than just his combat ability. Why is this? Because, if I have a character with a certain background or fluff, I want this fluff to have a mechanical effect. I want the game to support my persona, my character from multiple angles.

This can mean a lot of things, all from the Journal-based character sheet in Castle Falkenstein to the insanity-rules in World of Darkness. Another example that I still remember fondly is the Campaign Ratings in Golden Heroes.

I think what I'm trying to say is the following: While some people say that the only areas that need real rules are combat, I believe that there are areas outside of combat that benefits from having some kind of framework of rules, methods or guidelines.

Examples of what I mean (with that I don't say that all these have to be in DnD4):

• An interesting flora of skills and abilities that are not just combat oriented
• The Virtue/Vice-system and it's effect on willpower in World of Darkness
• The long-term rules from Ars Magica, including magical research and keeping up your village
• The exploratory magic in Mage: the Awakening
• The company rules in Reign
• The rules for Karma, Popularity and Resources in Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game
• The generic rules for all kinds of conflict in Heroquest

DnD4 Countdown 9 - Roleplaying

One discussion that is taking place on enworld and rpg.net as of now is whether dnd4 is just a combat-game without any support for roleplaying. What people are saying is that it seems that the classes are defined by their role in a combat situation, and also that the powers are focused on combat and encounters.

The counter-argument is usually that we need rules for tactical combat, but we don't need rules for "roleplaying". Rules for roleplaying only hinders actual roleplaying more than it helps. It's in this assumed that rules for roleplaying equals social interaction rules.

My take on this is that I share the worries that DnD4 is heading towards to much of a tactical miniatures game rather than a roleplaying game. When I look ahead in the pipeline for what's coming later this year, there is the Martial book and a book about magical items. The first one is more combat powers, more martial classes and paragon paths etc. The second is, well, more magical items.

So, yes, I'm worried that DnD4 is slowly moving away from what I consider to be an interesting rpg. I'll still play it, and propably enjoy it, but I'm glad I'm playing in two campaigns at the same time, so that I don't have to rely on DnD4 for my rpg-fix.

However, I think it's also fair to establish what I consider to be roleplaying. It's a very wide term, of course, but if I should trim it down to one sentence, this is it:

Roleplaying is expressing what and who the character is!

This means that roleplaying isn't just limited to social interaction. You can roleplay in a combat situation, for instance. This includes, but is not limited to, describing what the character does in a more colorful way. It can also be using special maneuvers, adapt a battle-cry etc. Nothing fancy, but the possibilities are there.

By the same token, social interaction may very well be a very complex struggle in real life. This is something I as a player isn't very good at (being the classical geek, I'm not that skilled in diplomacy or the finer details of the social game), so for me having a fairly firm ruleset regarding this kind of conflict is good, because I'm not automatically hindered for not being the socially skilled. It's the character that makes a difference, not me.

This discussion will be continued tomorrow

DnD4 Countdown 10 - Oops, there's a leak in the dam.

Apparently, some retailers, both online and stores, havn't been paying attention to the release date of DnD4. So, a number of happy campers (or gamers... I don't think gamers are much for camping, unless it's outside a gaming store or cinema) have gotten their copies already.

So, for interesting info, there are threads on both rpg.net and enworld.

• I have them - 4e Core set; rpg.net
• 4E - I also have the books (info on upcomming Power sources and more); enworld
• 4E - Just posting to make you all jealous, I HAVE THEM; enworld

On top of that, some posters also claim that stolen pdf print-files can be found on the internet.

Although I can see that both things (leaked books and pirated pdf's) are a bad thing, I'm sorry to say I'm not surprised. To a certain extent, I'd say that WotC have made some choices that increased the incentive for these kind of things.

As some of you may recall, the first publishing plan was to release the PHB in April, the DMG in May and the MM in june. They got some criticism for releasing the books spread out over time. So, WotC respons to this was to move all books to june, the last date in the publishing plan.

So, instead of giving people the opportunity to choose if they wanted to buy them on a 1-by-1 basis or wait until all books are published, they are "forcing" people to wait as long as possible. At the same time they are showing of the books at shows and whatnot. So, we know they have got the books, they just won't sell them. This feels very arbitrary.

If I may point at a parallell process. slightly less than a year ago, Apple released the iPhone. It was bound to one operator, and only to be sold in the US. It took quite some time before it was released in the first european contries. However, by that time, I already had met people here in Sweden (where it's not even released yet) with iPhones and swedish operators. After a while, there was repors about 1 in every 3 iPhones sold worldwide was used outside of the "official" countries, running hacked versions of the OS and connected to local operators.

I'm not saying this is a good or bad thing, just that when companies make these kind of arbitrary decisions, there will be a counter-reaction.

DnD4 Countdown 11 - The online applications

One of the main points when DnD4 was presented was the online applications. Basically all the rules will be online, and you will be able to create characters, build virtual minis and even play a full game of DnD online.

All this is good, and I'm looking forward to trying it out. However, there is one thing I hope the staff at WotC takes a good look at.

That is d20srd.org. Nothing more than the d20 srd online, thoroughly hyperlinked. Simple, elegant, fast and usable. There is one hidden feature though. You can generate die-rolls for skill checks, damages etc if you click the correct value. For instance, if you click the Initiative-value for a creature, an initiative-roll is made and shown in a popup window.

So, why do I bring up this? Because this is what I want the online dnd-books to look like. Before trying to add a lot of eye-candy, make sure that the base-line functionality is solid and transparent.

Having said that, the online initiative is interesting, and I do believe that it can add interesting aspects to roleplaying, as long as it's executed well. My only real worry is the pricing. It seems like it will cost about the same as major brand MMORPGs, and to me, that is a tad to much. I now that you get a lot with that subscription, but paying 10-15 dollars/ month for something that is mainly game support is to much.

With that said, I do wish them good luck with the project, and hope that other game publishers follow suit in one way or the other.

DnD4 Countdown 12 - Supers and DnD4

One of my favorite rpg-genres is Super Heroes. After playing a short session of Mutants and Masterminds the other day I started to think about what the design principles of 4th ed would mean in a super hero game. What I came up with did leave me intrigued.

Power levels
It seems like the three tiers of play as they are presented in DnD4 could scale fairly well to a super hero game.

Lvl 1-10 would mean street level super heroes, sidekicks and unexperienced heroes. They are still more than the average Joe, but they havn't reached the higher power levels yet.

Lvl 11-20 is equivalent to most Marvel heroes, like Spiderman, X-Men or most parts of Avengers. Powerful with the ability to make a difference, but not earth shattering really yet.

Lvl 21-30 is where your cosmic powered semi-dieties come in. Either that, or very experienced characters. One could argue that Batman, for instance, would fall into this category because of his immense experience, even though he technically is a normal human that falls into the Street Level category. Other examples are the Silver Surfer, Thor and Superman

Power sources

The list of power sources for the different classes could include (but not be limited to) the following: Intense training, energy, brute force, psionics or robotics

Powers

In DnD4 there are three types of powers, at-will (usable every turn), encounter (usable once per encounter) and daily (usable once per..well.. day).

At first glance this doesn't seem appropriate for a super hero game. In the comics they never talk about that they only use a certain power once etc.

However, in practice, this holds true fairly often. To me, it seems like they are not using their most powerful attacks at all times, rather the opposite. They seem to hold these of just until they really need them. Instead, they rely on common attacks most of the time, and then once in a while they activate their magnocapacitorblast or whatever they may call it.

In the comics, I guess this could be explained with that the power takes a lot of energy, or that it is risky or whatever. In game terms, however, it just means that the power is a daily or encounter power.

Sample classes

• Super-soldier
• Intense training/ Leader
• Elemental
  
• Energy / Striker
• Brute
• Brute Force/ Defender
• Cyborg
• Robotics/ Defender
• Beastial Figher
• Intense training/ Striker
• Master Archer
• Intense training/ Controller

DnD Countdown 13 - Now you've won.. what's next?

Todays post is not so much about D20 as it's about Roleplaying in general. My hope is that it can lead to some interesting ideas no matter what the game system though.

Latel I have read a fair amount about the Gumshoe system (as can bee seen in some of my previous posts). One of the core ideas in that game is the following:

- If a scen contains an important clue for the procedure of the module, the characters will find it! The challenge lies in what to do with the clue when it's found.

Now, let's make the following thought experiment: The characters will win all combats. They are accomplished fighters, and can take care of themselves.

This might make for a very boring RPG. A lot of the excitement comes from the uncertainty of combat. So, what do we do to not make it boring?

I have a few points that could serve as a starting point for further development of the idea

• Add a condition to the victory. The fight isn't about winning, but finding out what the character must sacrifice or do to win the fight. A character with a non-killing code might realise that the only way to win is to kill his opponent. Or perhaps in order to win the character will have to leave a loved one in danger.
• Just as when it comes to the clues in Gumshoe, ask the question: "You will win, what will you do with your victory?" Will you release your opponent, letting him spread the rumour about you? Or will you torture him to get more information? Will you convert him to your ways and have him as disciple?
  

To sum them up the first point is about what you want to pay to win, the second point is about what you want to spend your victory.

Even if you don't want to go with the "always win"-idea, perhaps these other points can serve as a starting point on how to make your regular combats more interesting.

DnD4 Countdown 14 - Swarms and minons

This week we have seen the rules for minions and swarms. I'm farily fond of the later, but the former still leaves me with some doubts.

Thing is, the purpose of minions in movies is to either threaten supporting cast and/ or to make the heroes shine. For instance, stormtroopers are not a particular threat to Luke & the gang, but they manage to destroy (although temporary) C3P0. Same thing goes for orcs and uruk-hai in LotR. Aragorn fight them of by the dozen, but Merry and Pippin are captured by them.

Problem is that you don't "shine" in an RPG the same way a hero does in a movie. Most of the time, using minions that don't threaten the character just results in a couple of pointless die rolls. This is called "waste of time" and not "letting the heroes shine".

So, my suggestion is to go with the same principle as with investigations some time ago: If you want the character to easily fight of these minions: Let him! Just narrate it and move on to the bigger battles. If you wan't it to mean something just make a small damage roll and remove some resources. Then, spend time on the important battles.

The swarms, however, seems mighty cool. They look like a real threat, and convey the feeling I get from movies like the Mummy (the scarabs) or the small dinosaurs in Jurassic Park II.
One of the sample swarms has knock prone as a special effect. I like this a lot, it simulates what you see in the movies in many occcasions. Someone is run down by a swarm of something, trips and is then engulfed completely by the swarm. Very Nice!

And on another note: Today it's exactly two weeks until the release!

DnD4 Countdown 15 - Quoting Bon Jovi

We are halfway there, living on a prayer. My countdown is now halfway through. We have seen some interesting stuff the last couple of days. The most intersting must have been the Keep of the Shadowfell. In addition to that, today the character sheet of 4th ed is available for download.

So far my impression of the game can be summed up in the following points

• There is much more emphasis on movement around the table. I expect the battles to be much more flowing and dynamic due to this. Many different attacks give extra movement, either to you or your allies.
• Group dynamic is much more important. In 3.5 coorperation was an option, in 4th ed it seems like it's almost mandatory. Just as with movement, there are many feats that not only affect you, but also helps your allies.
  
• The exception-based framework allows for an almost infinite expansion of the game. Just add more powers, paths or epic destinies. This held true for 3.5, but my impression is that it's even more so for 4th ed.

While I look forward to the game, there are also a few things that make me worried

• It seems like much of the fun stuff is combat or encounter based. This could mark a move towards more tactical gaming and less roleplaying.
  
• The potential for infinite expansion could mean that all future expansions focus on just adding more powers, paths or epic destinies. Hopefully they will also add interesting rule-packages like sea combat as well.
• I have a slight fear that characters can end up looking a lot like each other, especially at lower levels. To some extent it depends a lot on the number of powers available to you at chargen, but on the other hand it can get a bit boring if that's the only differentiating factor as well.

With those random thoughts, I'll sign of for today. See you tomorrow.

DnD4 Countdown 16 - All these previews

Beginning with the DnD Experience earlier this spring, Wizards have been rather generous with their previews. Generous enough that people already have been able to play simple games with the rules. I'm not only talking about games at cons with DMs from Wizards or so, but also home games using the content that is published.

I think most of us that are interested in 4th ed have a pretty good idea about what it's all about. We don't know all the rules, but we have a fair grasp of what's going on. This goes equally for the basic setting and the Forgotten Realms.

Earlier today I read a forum post on rpg.net that explained parts of the "generosity" for me. Funny thing, the post didn't try to explain it. Instead it expressed a suspicion that perhaps DnD has changed to much, and people won't recognize it as DnD anymore. The poster drew parallells with another game that was released, a game that had changed to much for it's fans.

With that in mind, I think I know one of the reasons behind all the previews and excerpts. Wizards are making us getting used to all these new ideas. Yes, it's true that they may turn some people away, but for the most part I think they are slowly making us getting used to all the new ideas in the game, so when we get it or play it, we won't be surprised or getting caught of guard by the game. It will already feel familiar.

In the long run, I think it's a good business strategy. There may be some lost sales, but as a whole, I think they will profit from it.

DnD4 Countdown 17 - Fourth ed will save roleplaying

Well, maybe not... but perhaps. If roleplaying needs saving.

First of all, before I proceed, I'd like to point out that I'm now back on track. Perceptive readers have probably noticed that I've been one day behind on my countdown the last couple of days. I blame a couple of stessed out days at work, but as of this post, I'm back on track.

Now, where was I? Yes, I was about to talk about that DnD4 could save roleplaying as we know it. Actually, I wasn't... but I am about to present my own opinions on what the effects of DnD4 will be. I've heard a number of different scenarios, and I have some opinions on them that I thought I'd share.

From what I've come to understand, WotC hopes that DnD4 will bring back a lot of "lost gamers". One of their means is their online system, another is a shorter setup-time. From what I've seen, it should be possible to make characters and start gaming in one session. I guess that they might succeed with this in some degree. I've seen a couple of posts on rpg.net from guys talking about that they havn't gamed for the last 10 years or so, but this 4th ed sounds interesting and they want to know more about it. With that said, I don't think it will be a massive return of the prodigal sons. As for the online tools, while I like them and probably will be paying for them, I guess the price tag is a bit to steep for someone just returning to gaming.

As a counter-theory to the above, some people believe that DnD4 will drive a lot of players to other gaming systems. This can be compared to a sudden increas in Apple Mac sales when Windows Vista was released.
There is, however, a flaw in this theory. If you are happy playing 3.5 and don't like 4.0, you still have a huge amount of books available to you. Games, as opposed to computers, don't grow old. You will be able to play 3.5 in 20 years from now if you want to. There is nothing forcing gamers away from a particular system just because the publisher has gone with a new edition.
Another problem with that theory is that there is no where else to go.

Now, before you get all upset: I know that there are a huge amount of games out there. I own a great deal of them myself. From what I've come to understand, there is a large population of DnD-gamers that equates RPG's with DnD. They are the ones that perhaps heard of Vampire or Rifts, but that's about it. This is especially true if you consider that apart from DnD there isn't any well known straight up fantasy RPG's out there. Yes, I know... there's Castles and Crusades, True20, HARP, Rolemaster, Exalted etc etc etc. To that, I still believe that many DnD-gamers don't know about these games. Perhaps Exalted, but I'd be hard pressed to consider that a ordinary fantasy game. So, as opposed to the guys switching to Mac or Linux, there is basically no option for the average gamer-Joe. His options are 3.5 or 4.0.

So, will DnD4 save the industry, or be a total fiasko and drag WotC and the rest of the rpg industry down with it?
I'm guessing neither. I'm totally convinced that 4th ed will sell, and sell good. At least the first core books. This will in all probability be good news for the rest of the RPG industry, since sales generate sales. I listened to an interview with Luke Crane (of Burning Wheels), and his experience was that when DnD sells well, other rpg's get higher sales as well. So, in the short term, I think DnD4 will boost the sales of other games as well, thus helping the industry slightly.

In the long run, however, I don't think there's any specific game that will "save the industry". I'll go out on a limb here and say that the problem isn't the games as much as it is us gamers. It's up to us to invite collegues or friends to try out new games. No game will change that in the long term run. I believe Vampire did bring in some fresh blood to the gaming community, as did 3.0 when it arrived, but other than that, I think that most games are bought by gamers, not by newbies. The only way to have more gamers in the community is to invite them and not to hope that they will show up anyway.

DnD4 Countdown 18 - Minions

The latest excerpt from WotC is about minions. The idea behind minions are to simulate crowds of faceless opponents without a name or role in like a movie or a game. The Stormtroopers in the Star Wars movie is perhaps the iconic example of this.

Many games have tried to simulate this in different ways. Most of the time the solution is to make mooks go down after one hit, or to make them deal less damage etc. The problem with this, as I see it, is that mooks in fiction and mooks in games have two very different effects. In the movies the mooks often serve as a chance for the heroes to shine, and possibly to wear them down a little before the final battle.

In games, however, there is a big risk that the main effect of minions is having to roll more dice without any particular purpose.

What to do about this then? Unless you have a particular purpose with playing the combat out, just let the character describe how he pushes past the guards and focus on the main fights. If it's a particularly nasty fight, you can hand out damage or remove some resources, but other than that, just move on to the main event.

This would make it not to far removed from the ideas I presented on investigation a couple of posts ago. The idea was more or less stolen from the Gumshoe system. But in this case, instead of not getting stuck because of not finding clues, you prevent the game being dragged down by pointless fights.

DnD4 Countdown 19 - Listen up

Last year I discovered podcasts and their use. This especially goes for RPG-based podcasts, and it's a way for me to keep up with events, get an insight into the industri and generally listen to people talking about interesting subjects. For instance, my opinion on WotC has changed (at least on the guys working there) since I started listen to the WotC podcast.

My main time slot for listening is when I'm out walking or jogging. Since I've got a 40 minute walk to my job, and I try to go for 30-45 minute jogs, that time is perfect for most gaming podcasts that I listen to.

This has among other things led to the funny effect that I associate certain parts of my hometown with gaming and games more than anything else, since whenever I'm there, I listen to podcasts about gaming.

I won't list all my podcasts, but here are a few of my favorites

2D6 feet in a random direction
This is a very well made podcast, where one of the guys owns a gaming store. This gives not only a gamers perspective, but also some interesting insight in the commercial side of gaming
Fear the boot
A definate favorite. I may not agree with them at all times, and sometimes I think that the show is a litle unfocused. However, these guys are enthusiastic, love what they are doing and they are very personal. It doesn't take long until it feels like you know them. Also, this podcast is regular, with new episodes published every wednesday.

the Wizards podcast
Not very regular, at tops 1 episode/ month. These episodes are very good however, and has made me change opinion on at least the people working there. It's interesting to hear them talk about why they do certain things, why they decided to design a game they way they did etc.

Dragons Landing inn
Not as personal as 2D6 feet or Fear the boot, but they have been podcasting for a long time, and they have a well produced podcast

There are other podcasts that I listen to at times, but they havnt caught my attention like the ones above.

The Games the thing
Sons of kryos
Have games will travel
Order 66

DnD4 Countdown 20 - DMG then and now

I didn't play much AD&D when I was younger. Apart from the odd adventure or two me and my gaming group stuck to other games like Gurps or MERP.

However, I could spend hours creating random dungeons and random "summoned creatures" using that book. Somehow within those covers lay the promise of adventure and excitement.

When I bought the current edition 3.5, I expected that same sense of adventure. I was, however, disappointed. I can't put my finger on it, but something was lacking. I didn't really get that same sense of adventure.

What I read about 4th makes me optimistic though. Things like quests and skill challenges looks like they are interesting, and overall I get the impression that DnD4 DMG wont let me down.

Now, DM-books (or GM-books, for those who prefer that) are often quite generic, so I thought I'd list other books that have influenced my GM-ing.

• Robin Laws guide to Good gamemastering
• Listen up you primitive screwheads (for Cyberpunk 2010)
• Theatrix (a dieless RPG. Can be read as a game or as a very good GM Guide)
• Gurps: Illuminati
• Werewolf storytellers guide (for old World of Darkness)
  

DnD4 Countdown 21 - My first character

This is an attempt to recreate one of the characters mentioned in the Hall of Fame-post, using the compiled preview of the PHB.

I tried to find powers that dealt with moving around and attacking in close combat, and from what's out there already I think I succeeded quite nice. Only problem is that I couldn't find many Half-elven powers or any melee based daily power for the ranger.

The experience in itself was straightforward, and if the previews are any indication on how chargen will be in 4th ed I'd say it's a lot easier and smoother. I'm guessing that a lot depends on the amount of feats/ powers supplied with the books. To few, and I believe that you'll feel a bit to limited in your choices, resulting in many characters looking the same.

Rahnasto
1st lvl half-elven Ranger

Str: 12/ +1
Dex: 18/ +4
Con: 12/ +1
Int: 12/ +1
Wis: 14/ +2
Cha: 12/ +1

Defence
AC: 16
For: 12
Will: 12
Ref: 15

Healing Surges: 7
Hit Points: 13

Feats
Group Insight

At Will Powers
Nimble Strike
Hunters Quarry

Encounter Powers
Fox's cunning

Daily Power
Split the tree

Skills
Nature + 6, Acrobatics +9 , Athletics +6, Heal +7, Perception +7

Weapon
Rapier +4, Dam 1d8+1

Armor: Light leather armor

DnD4 Countdown 22 - First official item in my hands

Today when I got home I saw a letter from RPGA. Opening it, I saw a couple of reward cards from RPGA. Nothing special about that, it's not the first time I've recieved reward cards. However, when I looked closer at them I saw that they had the new D&D logo. The text on the cards also reflected this, dealing with at-will powers and suchlike.

So, I have recieved my first items that are part of the 4th edition. Nothing revolutionary, but cool nevertheless.

In addition to this, a renewed and expanded pre-vis PHB has been published on dnd4.com. With this it seems that it should be possible to build a simple character. With that in mind, I'll take a look at that and try to make one of my Hall-of-Fame-characters using what there is of the 4th ed rules. The character of choice will be the half-elven ranger Rahnasto.

DnD Countdown 23 - Memorable moments

When I look back at my gaming life, I have certain moments that I still remember clarly as interesting, intense and exciting. One thing that strike me when I look back at them is that they have very little in common. Some of them happened in very low key settings, others in high-action, epic drama.

So, what makes a moment memorable? I don't know actually, and perhaps it's something that you cannot pin down with a formula.

• Long ago, my character was executed for a murder. It was a very low-key, realistic setting. In a tense mystery/thriller-adventure he finally had to murder a man to stop a mob lynching a young man. He did however get buried according to his religion, courtesy of the nobleman whose son he saved.

• The players in a Mage-campaign once had to kill an entire town in order to challenge an ancient dragon spirit.

• In a Marvel game, one of the heroes was a flyer with wings. No particular strength or protection. When a (small) comet fell against the earth he flew up to counter it, sacrificing himself. An extremely good roll (actually, draw of the cards, this was Marvel Saga) resulted in that he charged the comet, protected himself with his wings and managed to charge through the comet, splitting it into small pieces.

• Not a moment, but a character. In Everway, I once played a small halfling-like character called Fourclover. He was a storyteller with hidden wisdom, combined with the ability to control smoke, making it form pictures from the stories he was telling. Something with him just clicked, and even though I just played him a couple of sessions, he has stuck with me since.

These are but a few of my roleplaying highlights. The list is longer, but the only thing the different memorables have in common is that they are of different scope, genre and category. What they do have in common though is that they are personal, intense and dramatic.

DnD 4 Countdown 24 - Don't be such a square

One of the changes in DnD4 vs. earlier editions is the simplification of diagonal movement. It's a subtle but interesting change. Earlier when you moved diagonally, you counted 3 squares for every 2 squares you moved. If you wanted to move 5 squares diagonally you counted [1] [2,3] [4] [5,6] [7] (each bracket representing a square), so it took 7 steps to move 5 squares.

In the next edition it is a straight 1:1 relationship. For each square it's one step.

With this in mind, why not abandon the square maps altogether? There are two other ways to do things, both which are actually more suited to the 1:1 relationship.

Hexagonal maps

During the 90s, my big go-to-game was Gurps, which used maps with hexagons. I can't see any problems with using hexagon maps in DnD4 at all. The hexagons allow for more freedom of movement and it's easier to visualise blast areas and cones (for instance). I definately get a more "organic" feel from the map when I'm using hexagons instead of squares.

I can only see two drawbacks of it, neither which I consider being a major problem. The first one is that you can only group up 6 against one opponent (since a hexagon always has six neighbours, instead of 8).
The second is that it can be a bit more cumbersome making maps with straight lines (corridors, halls etc).

No grid at all

Another option is to use no grid at all. Many wargames use this, so it's a tried method. It's a bit more loose than using a grid, but it should still be manageable. What you need is a piece of string for measuring distance travelled. If you wan't to move from point a to point b, you measure how long you can move on the string, and then place the string between A and B to see if you can get there.

Blasts and cones don't have to fit into a grid, but instead you just use circular or conic templates. ZoC are measured with a 1" marker or similar.

There might be a bit more decisions to be made with this method, but I believe it's perfectly usable.

DnD 4 Countdown 25 - Things that are not DnD

For many of us, the advent of DnD4 is one of the real big things this summer.

However, there are other things, and to remind myself that there are more to life than DnD (World of Darkness, for instance ;-) ), I thought I'd list a few of my highlights this summer

• European Football Championships (that is: soccer, for those on the west side of the pond).
  
• I guess that we won't last long this time, but we are there. England isn't... (also, I want to add that last time England qualified for a big championship, they had a swedish coach). And neither is Denmark.
• The 2008 summer olympics
• Yes, I know... china is oppresive, it's a lot of politics and controversy. I'm still looking forward to it. Sports is always sports
• Hunter: the Vigil
• I never really liked the oWoD-Hunter. The descriptions of this so far seems to rock on toast (and other silly expressions).
• The release of the Force Unleashed on Xbox360 (and other consoles).
• Ok, I know it's not released until September, but it's close enough.. and I will be looking forward to it the entire summer.
  

Apart from these things, there are a couple of nice movies as well (Indy, Batman, Wall-E, Kung Fu Panda etc)

And of course, there is the regular things like going to the lakehouse, swimming in the sea and having ice-cream.

So, in short: It's summer, where I'm from, that is a treasured season.

DnD Countdown 26 - Investigations

Last year, a series of indie-games was released. They are aimed at investigative play, and the core idea is that IF you are at a scene and IF you have got the relevant skill, you always find the core clue of that scene. No roll or spending of points needed. With the spending of points (the GUMSHOE-system is point based) you will get additional information that will perhaps help you later on, but the core clue that let's you go through the mystery doesn't require a roll, just the relevant skill.

The reasoning for this is that it makes for a very boring and frustrating game if you fail a roll and miss the important lead that moves the plot forward. The real challenge is not finding the clue in these games, but putting them all together (which is still up to the players).

After reading about the system, I thought a little about if this could be implemented in a D20-game of any kind. If you have ranks in an ability, and a total skill bonus of at least +5, you will get 15 when taking 10. So, let's assume that the DC for finding the core clue in a scene always is 15. If you then let the players take 10 when searching for a clue, they will always succeed as long as they have got ranks in the skill. In practice, it means that they have spent at least 3-5 points on the skill, which would represent a bit more than just casual training in the skill.

To find additional clues as mentioned above, you have to make a roll against a DC that the DM decides. This is, however, in addition to the core clue, but it can only be made once (to avoid someone rolling until the cows come home just to get that extra little tidbit of information).

Example - The death of Darl

Alain and Reth sits at the local tavern, drinking their ale. They have a reputation in this town as problemsolvers and investigators. Alain is ordained by his church as a cleric and Reth used to be a thief and a scoundrel before meeting up with Alain and deciding to use his skills for solving problems instead of causing them.

Suddenly a small kid enters the tavern and runs up to them

"Darl is murdered"

Reth muttered under his breath. Darl was the local arms dealer, and he had helped them at several occasions.

A few minutes later they both stood in Darls warehouse, looking down at the mutilated body.

Alain has Knowledge: Religion +8, which is more than enough for a take10 according to the suggestions above. He is also an accomplished Healer, and knows how the body works.

-This is strange, Alain said. His body is mutilated, and while there is blood around, there is a lot less of it than it should be. I think most of these wounds where made after his death. Wierd thing, they have stabbed him multiple times in the left side of the waist, but there is no blood around the wounds.

If he had made a Heal Check of 25, he would also have noticed that amongst all the knife-wounds, there is a strange cross-shaped wound.

Reth looked down at Darl. Who would have wanted to kill him this way. They hadn't even bothered to hide his body.

Reth is a Rogue good at finding hidden things (among other skills). He is also knowledgeable about current rumours and affairs in the town.

-Look, what'ts that in his pocket, Reth said.
Alain picked up a piece of paper and looked at it.
-A note with a lot of numbers on them, he said.
-Not just any note, Reth replied. It's a note for a gambling debt. Normally it's kept by the one who is owed money. It's returned when the debt is repaid. -Do you know who he owed money? -No, but I can easily find out. Come, let's go! --- And so the mystery continues. They may take different routes to reach their goal, and it will definately be dangerous at times, but there must always be a next action to do, another clue to follow.

DnD4 Countdown 27 - Small Hall of Fame

For todays entry, I want to share with you two characters that I have used over the last couple of years. They are all Living Greyhawk characters, and since I like them, chances are that they will be reincarnated in 4th ed.

Rahnasto the Lost

Rahnasto was born to a human mother and to an elven father. He never really remembered his father. His only image was of a man of light and beauty.

When his mother died, he made a pilgrimage on his own, tapping his own ancestral memory, dreaming of elven martial arts and wisdom. Both in his dream and when awake, he practiced. His movements where fluid and his accuracy uncanny. After several years of solitude and meditation on who he was he returned to civilisation.

Today, he feels very insecure around other people. Neither men nor elves are his people. He is, however, very loyal to his friends, and his strange, etherial fighting style has helped them more than once.

Rahnasto is a half-elven ranger, skilled in two weapon fighting. He uses a rapier and a short sword as his weapons and with his keen rapier, he can strike with a deadly accuracy.

Lanian the Wise

Lanian is one of the few people that actually calls himself the Wise. Others would sooner use other words. Not to his face though.

Lanian is a wizard and a scholar. Problem isn't that he isn't a knowledgable scholar, but rather the opposite. He has spent years and years reading about different gods, cults, demons and traditions. In his mind, there are signs everywhere. For each day, there is at least one strange tribe or cult that has a holy or haunted day.

And to his friends woes, he is more than happy to point out that they shouldn't wear red today, because it's the day of Ghulhuthu, or that they shouldn't speak at all since he saw five geese flying north in the morning.

He always carries a number of strange books with him, and around his neck he has at least seven different holy symbols.

If it wasn't for the fact that he wields incredible command over fire and lightning, he probably would be kicked out of his group a long time ago. But, now he is powerful, and his foes are struck down by his devastating bolts of lightning and rolling balls of fire.

DnD4 Countdown 28 - Skill Challenges

For today, I have made a couple of attempts on Skill Challenges. Overall I like the idea, and I'm looking forward to see the implementation in more detail.

Skill Challenge 1: The Root of All Evil
Not far from a village there is a small lake. Normally the local shepherds let the sheep and goats drink from it, but lately animals and plantlife around the lake has begun to die.

Setup: The poisoned waters are a side-effect when the deadly Tar Root is dug up and prepared. A foreign spy/assassin intends to use it to kill the commander of a fort. A complete success let's the character realise that something bad is going on.

Complexity: Requires 5 successes before 2 failures

Primary Skills: Nature, Perception, History

Nature (moderate DCs): You realise that this area holds many rare plants. Many of them poisonous.

Perception (hard DCs): You notice that someone has been climbing down into the water at a particulary rough area. Both the plants and the soil is disturbed here.

History (Hard DCs): You know that there are rumours of an ancient cult that used to use this place for sacrificial murders. This skill is only usable once.

Success: The PCs realise that someone has picked and prepared Tar Root. The tracks then lead towards the fort.

Failure: The characters don't get enough clues to realise what's going on. The local commander is murdered, and the stability of the area is threatened.


Skill challenge 2: Chase over Rooftops

You spend the night at a tavern. At around midnight, you are awakened by the sound of someone climbing out of the window. A thief! Quickly you leap after him!

Setup: A thief has stolen some valuables from the PC. He now tries to escape over the rooftops in the city.

Complexity: Requires 8 successes before 4 failures

Primary Skills: Athletics, Endurance

Acrobatics: You manage to take advantage of a tricky short cut. In order to use this skill you must have made a successfull perception check. You can only use this skill once.

Athletics: You are using your speed and agility to try to catch up with the thief

Endurance: You may not be faste than the thief, but as long as you don't tire, you'll catch up with him

Perception: You spot a short cut. After the first success of this skill you cannot use it anymore. The first success of this skill allows one Acrobatics Check.

Success: You catch up with the thief and retrieve you valuables.

Failure: The thief manages to get away with some of your valuables

Related links

• The Wizards excerpt on skill challenges
• A thread about skill challenges
  

DnD4 countdown 29 - Starting settings simple

When I was younger, I had a tendency to try to create elaborate worlds and settings. I preferred starting drawing this big map, and then I added cities and states to these. History was deep and detailed and the relations between the actors in the world where comples.

And 9 times out of 10 one of two things happened:

• Somewhere along the I sidetracked and lost interest
  
• Just a small fraction of my work actually showed up in the campaign when actually playing

Lately, I have approached setting/adventure-design in another way. Basically I have gone from a top-down approach to a bottom-up approach, although I don't think that I'd fit in any of those two categories to a 100%.

Basically what I do nowadays is to find a starting place, define what's around the starting place, add some far-away rumours and finaly some drama/conflict.

From this small framework I add things as the campaign progresses and this growth makes the worldbuilding a lot easier, and many times the result is more intricate and dynamic than what I ever managed to do when trying to map everything out from the beginning.

For my first campaign, my aim is to start with the following basic setting

Simple Setting Sample
The campaign starts in the Village. A small place with 100 or so inhabitants. The village is a part of the Kingdom, and there is a big City up north, where the King lives.

To the south of the village is the Dark Forest, to the east are plains, and then the big mountains. The villagers don't venture that far, but there are rumours of strange people in those mountains.
West of the kingdom there is another kingdom. These two kingdoms are at war.

There is a small farmed area around the village, and outside of that area there is wilderness.

Examples of conflict and drama

• A young couple eloped into the woods to the south to get married. They are not heard of since, but a bag belonging to one of them drifted by on the river that runs from south to north just outside the village
• A spy from the other kingdom comes to the village and pays a lot of money to setup a small, secret base of operations in the village.
• A child that strayed to far found an old amulet in one of the nearby ruins. This awoke the ghost of an old nobleman and he haunts the village to find his heirloom

Even with a simple setting, there are opportunities and openings, and I prefer to keep it like that, and then add more detail as needed and when it feels natural. This maybe doesn't make for a unique campaign that has never been seen before, but it will be a playable game that will include different interesting and exciting situations.

DnD4 Countdown 30 - Modern sources and classes

The classes in DnD4 are based on two things, a power source and a role. For instance, all fightery-types use Martial as a power source, clerics use Devine powers etc. There are four sources confirmed (Martial, Devine, Arcane & Psionic) and some others hinted at.

So, what would similar sources for a modern day/ sci-fi campaign be? And what classes would there be? Well of course we don't know. That, however, won't stop me from making my own list of sources and classes. I'll keep with the established roles though.

Sources for modern/ Sci-fi settings

• Martial
• All kind of fightery types
• Determination
• Modern litterature is filled with characters whose main force is their determination and willpower. Be it a priest that holds steadfast to his faith or a man that lost his family to the mafia.
  
• Occult
• For modern horror campaigns. This is a catch all for modern witches, new agers and dark warlords
• Psionics
• Technology
• Inventors, engineers and demolitionists. At higher levels, these classes could actually use super-science.
  
• Computers/ cybernetics
• This is the hackers and netrunners.
  

Sample classes

• Officer
• Martial Leader
• This is basically a modern day version of the warlord.
• Ninja
• Occult Striker
• This version of the ninja is a trained human that has gotten supernatural abilities through training, witchcraft and deals with otherworldy beings. He strikes from the darkness with swiftness.
  
• Sample powers would be teleportation (only in shadows and when not seen), invisibility, poisonous strikes and shurikens that hit secret energy points at the opponent.
• Streetfighter
• Determined Defender
• This is the guy that grew up on the streets. He learned fighting as a kid, and he is the best at what he does simple because the ones that aren't, don't live anymore. Sometimes he works as a boxer and sometimes as a hitman. It's all the same to him, it's kill or be killed no matter where the money comes from.
• This class can takes loads of punishment. One of his feats lets him pick up any improvised weapon and use it to deal out large amounts of damage.
  

Related Links

• Power sources
• A long thread on what sources are confirmed or hinted at in 4th ed
• D20 Modern 4e
• The possibility of D20 Modern updated to 4th ed is discussed here
  

31 - My first character

After hearing about 4th ed last summer there was a couple of things that did pop up in my mind. One of those things was how flexible the new classes could be. For instance, in 3.5 I find it really hard to make a decent Fighter that uses light weapons, like a swashbuckler or similar. This still holds true even though later books added some classes and feats to go in that direction.

So, I decided to find out as soon as possible how a decent light weapons-wielding, dexterity-based Fighter would look like in 4th ed.

When the early previews of the classes arrived, I was a bit disappointed. With the advent of roles and sources, the classes felt almost more limited than before. Each class seems to have a specific funtion on the battlefield. A fighter, for instance, is a Defender, being able to hold of opponents with great defensive skills and good attacking capability.

Thing is, that is now how I envision my little swashbuckler. I want him to be nimble and quick and to attack with skill and speed rather than brute force.

So maybe I shouldn't hold on to the names of the classes, but rather what their roles and sources are. Since I don't want him to use any supernatural help (at least in the beginning), I'd use the Martial source.
As for the roles, consider this: the swashbuckler controls multiple opponents at once with speed and skill. With that in mind, my first attempt would be to choose a controller class. Unfortunately there isn't a Martial Controller class described yet, so it seems that I'll have to do with Martial Strikers if I want to build my first swashbuckler. I pick striker because I like the idea that the Swashbuckler is someone that lashes out at an opponent, striking vital parts and then quickly withdrawing. That leaves me with either a Rogue or a Ranger. After reading through the descriptions of both, I'd guess that if you want to do a fast, swashbuckley-type character, then a Ranger could very well be the way to go.

Related links

• A thread on swashbucklers
• The thread is about how Swashbucklers could be a class of it's own. The author looks at them as Martial Controllers, which sounds like a good idea to me.
• A short intro on classes
  

DnD4 Countdown

The release of DnD4 is now just a month away. Due to this, I will have a simple DnD4-countdown on the blog. My goal is to publish a short post each day that is related to the game in one way or the other.

Among the upcoming subjects are a look on classes and roles, a small Hall of Fame of 3.5-characters that I wish to update to 4.0, thoughts on roles and classes in a modern setting and much more.

Enjoy!