We were lucky enough to get a review copy of the Adventurer’s Vault 2, which appears to have made itself into the wild at GenCon a few days early.  There’s plenty of excellent stuff in this book to go around, I wanted to get a copy of this one badly so I ripped into it right away.

What its all about

This book is the second “arms and equipment” style book to arrive for 4th edition.  This one focuses on more magical items (hooray!) which includes two new implement types – tomes and totems – which expand beyond the implements brought to reality in the original Adventurer’s Vault.  Our good buddy Bartoneus over at Critical Hits correctly points out that this book appears to flesh out the Swordmage and Bard gear a bit.

To add some variety, this book present magical tattoos (which are pretty much self-explanatory) and a new type of consumable called an immurement which allows the battlefield to be reshaped by overlaying sections with fantastic terrain for several rounds.  I think this is a cool mechanic, which I intend to review later on this week as part of our continuing Adventurer’s Vault 2 coverage.

We also have a very special post planned to expand upon the new concept of Lair Items, which are magical items that are stationary in nature and cannot be carried around with an adventurer but affords them “comforts of home” which can extend in some ways to the battlefield.  This is probably my favorite section of items in the entire book, since I see these as more roleplaying-centric, creative oriented items.  In fact, I have a favorite item in this book and it is one of the Lair Items.  I know Stupid Ranger is going to mention this item in her post, so I won’t spoil it for now.

Item Sets

Finally, this book introduces the concept of item sets to D&D.  They are what you would expect them to be: groups of items that provide additional bonuses the more items you have in the set.  They also have the notion of a group set, which are set items that gain benefits if multiple members of your adventuring party has one.  I actually like the group set concept better, since the DM gains the potential plot hook of acquiring the group set of items and the entire party benefits from gaining them.  This seems like a simple recipe for group cohesion, infused into a handful of magical items.

Both types of sets (individual and group) are pretty incredible as a whole.  Reading through the epic group sets, I was quickly compelled to work the potential for a few of those into my campaign.  It also seems that the authors and design teams responsible for these supplements are really getting to the pulse of the favored character archetypes.  In this book are several set items designed around tinkerers or gadgeteers, which I have had in an adventuring party recently.  Also present are Battle Regalia for barbarians, Time Wizards tools for anyone that likes that sort of thing (I’ve known MANY over the years), and sets of magical stones and rings which are always crowd favorites.

Lore

One aspect of this book that I truly enjoy are the segments of history, lore, and flavor text that the authors have chosen to include.  Throughout the Magic Items sections, there are insets that describe the history or flavor surrounding certain magic item types.  Many of these insets include several plot hooks that can be used to inject a magical item into your world.  To me, this is one of the most valuable aspects of this entire book.

In addition, all of the sets – both group and individual – have Lore sections that provide increasingly specific details surrounding the history of the set.  This, once again, provides a lot of opportunity for the Dungeon Master to include these sets into the world and give the players a sense of awe when they acquire an item from the set.  Some of the Lore sections included appear so detailed as they could be the foundational points for an entire main segment of a campaign, just add water!

Continuing Coverage

We are going to provide continuing, in-depth coverage of the Adventurer’s Vault 2 this week, so check back often for more details!  If you have any questions, or specific areas you’d like us to cover please call them out in the comments and we will do our best to work it in!

Dante & I are currently waiting at the airport to board the plane that will take us away from Indy and its GenCon-goodness.  It’s always a sad time of year… that day when you are farthest away from being at GenCon again, but we will make it.

Today, we had our Out of the Box Roleplaying event, and it was a ton of fun!  Great roleplaying from our panelists, great audience participation, and tons of crazy.  I’ll have some pictures up on Flickr this week (probably tomorrow).  Thanks to everyone who stopped by and participated this morning… we had a great time, and we hope you did too!

Hope everyone has a safe trip back, and we’ll see you again next year!

Here it is, the end of Day 2 at GenCon, and oh so much has happened!

This morning dawned entirely too early after a really fun night of Zombie Murder Mystery, courtesy of Yax and graciously hosted by Avatar Art.  Turns out, I’m very good at being the secret, evil Necromancer… who knew?

I did compete again this year in the Queen of Geeks pageant, and while I did not take the crown, I did win the audience-awarded Miss Congeniality.  Thanks to everyone who gave me points; it was nice to have a great cheering section!

E and I held our Women of RPG Blogging panel this afternoon, and while there were less than 10 people in attendance, there were more than the three I half expected.  The session was recorded for Pulp Gamer, so if you missed it, you can catch the podcast from them.

We spent some time on the sales floor this afternoon, where we got a chance to chat with Shelly Mazzanoble and Ed Greenwood.  As you can imagine, it was a very lighthearted, somewhat zany chat, but absolutely fun.  We also got the chance to interview Andy Collins and Bill Slavicsek from Wizards, which was an incredible experience and will be shared in detail later this week.

Tomorrow, we have a very full, fun day planned, and if we get a chance to recap, we certainly will.  Otherwise, you’ll hear about it when we return and after we recouperate!

Stupid Ranger and I are sitting at the  Denver International Airport on the way to Gen Con 2009!

We’re looking forward to a plethora of fun and exciting events, the opportunity to meet and greet some folks from Wizards of the Coast, meeting up once again with venerable Vanir, and hanging out with the rest of the RPG Blogosphere (those that were able to attend, that is).

Over the past few years, my GenCon schedule has shifted from wandering around the sales floor in starry eyed wonderment to playing a lot of D&D with friends.  I did True Dungeon for a few years, but drifted away from that in recent conventions.  Right now I’m happy with the mix of events that we have planned, however chances are good that I won’t get out to peruse the sales floor until Saturday this year, when the Nerd Whiff reaches its apex.

Also, I’m a bit dismayed at the fact that we will arrive late to the convention on Thursday… essentially missing out on the first day of the con.  I can’t say this is a new phenominon, but the first day of the con has held a magical status for me since my Greatest Gen Con Moment two years ago.  I don’t think anything can top that moment, but I’ll keep coming back to see what happens!

It’s about time to board the plane so I’ll stop reminiscing now.  More from the con as the weekend progresses!

And now, Internets, I give you the winners of the Great Stupid Ranger Gen Con Badge Giveaway of 2009!

I must admit I was amused (but not particularly surprised) to see that more people wanted a free pass to avoid the lines rather than save money. I must also admit that having been through those lines many times myself, I deeply understand this and would likely have been in the same position had I not discovered the magic of pre-registration!

Our winners were carefully selected using an incredibly scientific process that did not, repeat NOT, involve the rolling of any dice, the flipping of any coins, or the reading of any entrails. So, without further ado, here are our winners!!

• Samuel K
  We here at Stupid Ranger are all about the business of getting new players to try things out  (and keeping them going in those awful first few sessions when you feel like you have no idea what you are doing and everyone else is crunching numbers and LOOKING AT YOU).  Samuel K is a man in such a predicament. Gen Con is a great place (maybe even the best place!) for a person to get fired up about gaming. In that spirit, we award the first of our weekend passes to Samuel K.

  Also, you can buy swords there. But I definitely don’t recommend stabbing any of your gaming group if they make fun of you for being a noob. I also definitely don’t recommend dissolving their corpses with lye so that nobody ever finds out, and I certainly don’t advise you to ventilate the area properly so the fumes don’t overcome you.

• Jess Hartley
  What’s this, you say? This person is quite capable of getting their own badge! Why would we give them a free one? I’ll tell you why. It’s not because she’s a long-time gamer and an acclaimed industry veteran. Yes, we enjoy making people like her happy because they are cool and they tend to hang out with other cool people that make us happy too. Guilty as charged!
  However, Jess is getting this pass for one reason in particular: her GenCon for the Aspiring Professional series. For bloggers like us who are quaking in our Boots of Elvenkind about giving interviews and talking to industry professionals, this series contains a lot of things our desperate little minds can cling to so that we may at least appear sane. This pass is to say “thanks” for that.

• Bill Spytma (a.k.a. Giant Sack Guy)
  It was not Giant Sack Guy’s circumstances that led us to choose him for a free weekend pass. Nor was it his skill in creative writing.

  Nay, it was that his tale was the D&D equivalent of “the dog ate my homework”. Also we enjoy calling him “Giant Sack Guy”.

TO COLLECT YOUR PRIZE: We’ll be sending the winners an email with how to contact us and collect the goods at the con shortly. Be prepared to show  some ID, or at the very least a lot of cookies to bribe us with. But be warned. It takes a LOT of cookies to bribe us.

Once again, these are WEEKEND passes. That means they won’t do you much good on Thursday or Friday. But feel free to collect anyway, and give it to someone who can use it.

Correction: These are 4-DAY badges.  So you’re set for Thursday through Sunday zany goodness. (SR)

(NOTE: Any unclaimed passes will be taken by me Saturday morning to the registration line, where I will hand it to some poor person with a kid throwing a tantrum in line. Because Pelor knows everyone involved wants him out of that line as fast as possible.)

Special thanks once again to the Procrastination Fairy for hooking us up with free passes to give out! Congrats to our winners, and we hope everybody has a great time at the ‘con this year!

It’s our second birthday!  This year has seen a lot of changes here at StupidRanger.com… SR and I moved out to Colorado, we got ourselves some wicked awesome PHB2 pre-release action, met ourselves the Geek’s Dream Girl, and had the good fortune to hang with a ton of great RPG Bloggers via our Twitter accounts.  Vanir got himself an artist for the revival of the Evensbrook cartoon, coming When It’s Ready ™.

The past year has been good for our friends.  DungeonMastering won an ENnie, there’s no reason Critical Hits shouldn’t this year.  Our good pals over at Gnome Stew just keep doing that magic stuff that they do.  There are countless other friends that have joined us in the RPG Blogosphere since we last presented the birthday cake, hopefully the coming year will see scores more.

So what’s in store for us as Year 3 dawns?  Honestly, I have no clue.  That’s the fun part.

Here’s to another year gone and a new one to come!  Thanks to all of our readers, fans, and friends that have helped us make it to the esteemed two year mark!

It’s going to be a crazy couple of days, and I’m really excited that it’s finally here!  Dante & I are arriving Thursday for the festivities, and let me tell you, I have a lot of festivities planned!

Thursday

Thursday is still up in the air for plans, what with the unpredictability of time involved in getting from Denver to Indy and then to the hotel and registration.  But I’ll be around somewhere.

Friday

Queen of Geeks Pageant (9am – noon) – Once again this year, I will be competing for the crown of Queen of Geeks.  Feel free to come fill out my cheering section!

Women of RPG Blogging (1pm – 2pm) – Several of us women bloggers will be sharing our experiences, and e and I will be discussing some of the work we’re doing on our book project.

Saturday

So You Want to be an RPG Blogger (9am – 10am) – The Stupidranger.com crew will be supporting the RPG Blogging discussion.  Good times!

Random Other Happenstances – Who knows where else I’ll be?  It’ll be a fun, crazy day!

Sunday

Out of the Box Roleplaying (9am – 11am) – Crazy, zany fun as our panel of guests play their way through our tortuous, I mean, fabulous fun.  It’ll be a fun!

And if you haven’t registered for your weekend badge, make sure you enter our contest!

The Procrastination Fairy has visited our fair website and granted us three weekend badges to GenCon this weekend.  And we decided that we should disburse the Procrastination Bounty.

Here’s the deal: Tell us why you haven’t purchased your GenCon Badge yet and why we should grant one to you.  Creativity will win you bonus points.  Contest closes Tuesday evening at 10:00 pm MST, when Dante, Vanir & I will pick our favorites.  Winners will be notified by email with delivery arrangements, so please make sure you post an email address where we can reach you.

We’re looking forward to the fun and craziness that is GenCon, and we want to share it with all of you.  So if you don’t already have your badge, thank the Procrastination Fairy and her bounty of badges!

Over the weekend, I experienced a very strange session.  Our group had just arrived at the first major town at the end of the last game night.  I had laid out several interesting places for them to hurry off to, however the group proceeded to run to the tavern and attempt roleplay with practically every person that ventured within eyeshot.  I had some roleplay encounters planned for them, however those were quickly exhausted.

In Case of Emergency, FREAK OUT

Well, not freak out exactly, but you certainly make a ton of stuff up on the spot.  In the course of one session, I had to invent three taverns, a half-orc merchant NPC, an entire structure of pages and associated low level government officials associated with the city council (thankfully, I had already planned the bones of the council), and some political plots and intrigue that even I don’t know where they will end up.

What was the hardest part?  Names actually.  The WotC name generator is pretty cumbersome.  In fact, it created some repeatedly inappropriate names (what famous noble is named Horhand, seriously?) and it was tough to rapidly use to generate a small group of names.  Thanks to the miraculous wonder that is Google, I was able to come up with this handy group name generator.  I don’t know who runs the site, but it appears old (references Netscape… retro!) but really got the job done.  A single button click got me enough names to make it through the unexpected roleplaying bonanza.

Eventually, back on track

Our group eventually grew weary of exploring the town, and one of our group members fancied a fight.  Luckily, I had previously identified “that part of town” and had a bar all set up for the purpose.  Fisticuffs were drawn, some fighting was had, and eventually the group headed back to talk to the council member that they had come to this town to visit in the first place.

It was interesting to have to flesh out a town that I had already created the bones for, and have to do so all in one session in front of my whole group.  Everyone had a good time, I awarded the group copious amounts of roleplaying experience to make up for the lack of actual encounters and much fun was had by all.  Has anyone else ever had to perform a similar feat of thinking on your feet as a Game Master?  Let’s hear about it in the comments!

ENnies voting ends in just a few short hours!

Take this opportunity to head over and vote for our friends at CriticalHits.com!  We had the distinct opportunity last year at GenCon to physically meet up with Dave the Game and Bartoneus for Drunken D&D and intend to again this year.  Those guys are some of the most prolific and nicest bloggers on the RPG Blogosphere… who are you to not believe Wil Wheaton?

We had the good fortune to participate in the launch of the Player’s Handbook 2, where the Critical Hits guys hosted a PHB2 Roundtable that I truly enjoyed taking part in.  They had been assigned to review the Avenger class, which was a great introduction.  This ended up serving me particularly well, as shortly after the PHB2 hit we had an Avenger in our group.

Seriously, if you don’t go vote for Critical Hits today I will pump Vanir full of sugar and send him to your next game session.  None of your livestock will be safe.