D&D Test Drive

2009 April 30
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by Stupid Ranger

WotC has created a set of test drive tools for 4E, giving everyone an opportunity to try the new edition for free.  The Test Drive site includes Quick Start Rules, the Keep on the Shadowfell module and the Character Builder.

The Test Drive Basics
If you’re new to 4E or to D&D in general, this set of tools was designed for you.  The Quick Start guide is designed to give you the rules you need to play the module, including some pre-gen characters.  Though since the Character Builder is included and will let you create characters level 1 to 3, you don’t have to use the pre-gens.
As a player currently in the middle of the Keep, and I can say that the module is pretty entertaining.  Who doesn’t love a dungeon that starts with goblins?
The Character Builder is pretty easy to use.  It may take a while to install, but in the end, for those who want to quickly put together a character, it walks you through all the steps.  It includes character options from the PHB, PHB2, Monster Manual, DMG, Forgotten Realms guides, as well as several other sources.  Based on your choices, it will fill out your character sheet and provide you with power cards to print for your character.
The Quick Start Rules documents contains 15 pages of rules and guidelines, followed by 12 pages of pre-generated characters.  The Quick Start rules provide a lot of good basics, including descriptions of what happens in combat.
Even if you have been playing 4E for awhile, I like the Quick Start guide as a small reference guide.  It’s got a lot of pages from the PHB that come in handy, like the conditions and combat actions.

from → 4e, rpgbloggers, Stupid Ranger

Behind the Screen: The Joys of New Experiences!

2009 April 28
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by Dante

At long last I emerge from my programming cave to post again! Special thanks go out to Stupid Ranger for pulling some of my weight the past few weeks while I work through a particularly thorny set of work responsibilities!

Learning by Doing

As those of you that follow us regularly may remember, we are experiencing 4th edition via the excellent Keep on the Shadowfell module. This experience has been heightened by the addition of the PHB2, which we reviewed thoroughly last month. During this process, this module has provided a buffet of 4e goodness.

It is interesting to behold the group dynamics that take place when different aspects of the adventure present themselves. Two weeks ago, our group found a secret door that led them into an adjacent room with an illusory wall. The rogue in our group got his moment to shine as he found the secret door, checked it for traps and led the group through into that portion of the module. The player of said rogue had a giant grin on his face the whole time.

In that same section, Stupid Ranger’s character used Tenser’s Floating Disk to bypass some terror runes that were carelessly strewn throughout that portion of the dungeon. I’ve not read all the errata surrounding the disk, but I decided to allow them to step over it to avoid the trap since it was an interesting use of that ritual. She was very pleased about this.

The group ran into their first encounter with a time-resetting trap that spewed skeletons, which was mildly annoying but they quickly dispatched their foes and pressed on into the dungeon without their coveted five minute rest to solve that encounter handily.

Finally, I got my moment of learning and enjoyment out of a negotiation style challenge with what could have potentially been a game-ending encounter with a fallen knight. I found this challenge mechanism incredibly fun to play and very engaging for the players as well, so I count this as a success.

Shared enjoyment for all!

So what’s the point of listing these various encounters? Mostly, I want to illustrate the variety of good stuff to be had in Keep on the Shadowfell thus far and I also want to point out the “shining moments” of our last few sessions so you might incorporate some of the same aspects into your games.

Because I haven’t played in groups with very many rogues, I was slightly surprised by the visceral joy to be had by the player of our rogue when he found that secret door. Stupid Ranger got her classic “I really showed you, DM!” smile going when she dreamt up riding that disk a short distance to avoid the terror runes. Even I got a moment of happiness to try a different style of encounter in that negotiation (and I think our group enjoyed it as well!)

So get out there and try some new things throughout the course of your normal campaign. If you’re stuck in the same “find enemies/kill enemies/loot treasure” cycle it pays to break it once in awhile with a new experience.

from → behind the screen, Dante, DM Advice, rpgbloggers

Review of 4E Power Cards

2009 April 24
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by Stupid Ranger

For my birthday last month, Vanir and his wonderful wife, efreak, gave me a set of 4E Power Cards for my Wizard.  I had been using a some handmade cards for both my wizard and my bard, but writing out the power descriptions on note cards every level was a bit tedious.

The Cards
The set comes with 100 cards, including all the powers in the PHB plus a handful of blank cards to customize.  They are color-coordinated to match the book: Daily powers have a gray border, At-Wills are green, Encounters are red.  Utilities powers have a blue border with a checkbox indicating if it is a Daily, Encounter or At-Will power.
The flavor text is across the top, the keywords are just blow that, then all the details.  The class is listed on the very bottom of the card and on the back, so if you are running multiple characters, you can easily tell which powers belong to which characters.  The cards are easy to read and include all the details you need without having to flip through the book.  They are coated, so they have a pretty durable feeling to them.
My One Regret
The coating on the cards prevents pencil marks.  To really make these versatile, it helps to have your attack and damage stats already included on the power card so you don’t have to figure them out every time.
To combat this deficiency, I grabbed my tape.  By adding a couple of strips of tape to the bottom of the card, I could add my stats in pencil.  I also added notes on bonuses that contributed to my numbers.  I made sure to leave a tab on each strip so I could remove the tape later if necessary. This is what my Flaming Sphere power card looks like:

You can see a close-up of my tape additions here.
Thanks to Martin from Gnome Stew, I have also confirmed that the power cards will fit in Magic-sized sleeves.  This can give an extra level of protection to your power cards, and you could use tape strips on the protector instead of the card itself.
Overall
I have found that I cannot stay sane during combat without my hand-made cards.  These new power cards are really nice and a great time-saver.  At about $10 per class, they are a reasonably-priced addition to your gaming bag for your PHB classes.

from → 4e, reviews, rpgbloggers, Stupid Ranger

New Player’s Handbook Heroes Minis

2009 April 22
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by Stupid Ranger


Martial Heroes 1
Originally uploaded by stupidranger

Dante & I received some of the new Player’s Handbook Heroes minis this week. There are six total packs, and we got four to enjoy: Martial (1), Arcane (1), Divine & Primal.

What I Like

  • Each pack has three minis, and one is a female; it’s great to have some feminine representation in the new minis. And they are mostly dressed sensibly, which is a bonus.
  • The Arcane set has a bard. It’s been really hard tracking down a bard mini.
  • Each mini has a unique power card, giving you a great opportunity to jazz up your character.

What I Don’t Like

  • The minis are obviously mass-produced; not all of the painting is clean and neat.
  • While I appreciate they are trying for some variety, some of the race/class combinations don’t really seem to fit: Dragonborn Rogue wasn’t high on my list of character options… I like my rogues a little more unnoticeable.
  • I realize there aren’t a lot of Divine or Primal options, but seems to me like they could have put in a third class instead of have two Clerics or two Barbarians. They could have had an Avenger for the Divine pack and a Shaman or a Warden for the Primal pack, which would have eliminated the duplicates.

Overall

The Arcane set is currently high on my list since it has the Female Eladrin Wizard. Now I can use that for Eaerenel instead of the Male Human Wizard mini I’ve been using. And even though the Bard is a male, I’m probably going to use that Half-Elf mini, which will be significantly better than the Dwarf Fighter I’ve been using. I’m very happy to have minis that mostly represent my characters.

from → 4e, reviews, rpgbloggers, Stupid Ranger

Adding Some Color to the Tavern

2009 April 20
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by Stupid Ranger

It’s a classic staple of D&D adventuring.  The Tavern.  Whether it’s just a stopping place for the night or a stepping stone in your quest to save (or destroy) the world, it’s one of the first places you look for once you get back to town.  The second, of course, being the merchant, ‘cuz saving the world doesn’t always pay well unless you sell your fallen opponents’ stuff.

The tavern is a great place for the roleplayers to interact with the other people in the environment; there’s always someone at the tavern willing to chat with a group of adventurers.  Sometimes, he’s very obviously giving you information to begin/continue your quest.  But sometimes, he’s just local color.
For those of you looking to interject a little bit of color to your taverns, whether they are home-brew breweries or established drinking establishments, Alric over at The RPG Athenaeum posted a great list of 100 subjects that might be overheard in a tavern.  This is a great list, and it’s a handy DM resource to keep the tavern environment light and entertaining, especially for your roleplayers.
If you’re looking for a new tavern-based ways to begin your adventure, Nicholas over at DungeonMastering.com shared a few ideas.  After all, the tavern is the best place to start a campaign.  There are some good ideas here that give you an alternative to the general “you’re sitting at the bar… introduce yourselves” kind of tavern-based start.
If you’re looking for more ideas, there are a couple of fun articles published in the Open Game Table that have some fun ideas to add flair to your tavern.

from → roleplaying, rpgbloggers, Stupid Ranger

Google & Campaign Communication

2009 April 14
4 Comments
by Stupid Ranger

Our current gaming group has been meeting about every other week.  To maintain communication with our group members, we’re using a handful of Google products.

Scheduling with a Google Calendar – We have a calendar for our group on which we mark the next scheduled session.  It’s working fairly well for us.
Email Communication with a Google Group – We created a Google Group and included everyone’s email, so with one quick address, everyone is included in the email communications.
Campaign Notes with a Google Site — Thanks to a post from a fellow blogger a few months back, I discovered how easy and how useful Google Sites can be when keeping track of campaign information.  We have a page with the group calendar, as well as a page set up with a list of PCs and NPCs (perfect for keeping track of that one guy whose name you can’t remember).  One of the best features of our site is our Files & Journals page, where we keep in-character journals (many are linked Google Docs), our session notes file that everyone can update, and a party fund file where we keep track of the loot we’ve accumulated.
With a smallish group (five of us total), it isn’t usually too hard to keep everyone informed, but these tools have certainly made it easy.

from → rpgbloggers, Stupid Ranger, tools

Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire

2009 April 13
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by Stupid Ranger

Dante & I watched the premier of Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire last Thursday.  I had high hopes for this show based on the commercials and the preview from ComedyCentral.com.  And my expectations were more than met.

ONLY VERY MINOR SPOILERS TO FOLLOW!
The opening is classic: we are introduced to the group in… a tavern!  Kröd needs to get the keys to the dungeon to rescue his mentor, General Arcadius.  And the adventure begins.  The good guys strive to overthrown the bad guys.  The bad guys randomly kill people that get in their way.  And periodically, Kröd’s sword is enveloped in flames.
There were moments while watching this that reminded me so vividly of fond memories of old campaigns.  The crazy plots to break someone out of prison.  The random NPCs who help out along the way.  The occasional (usually accidental) shooting of a party member with a light crossbow.  The overwhelming revelation that your party will have to save the world as foretold by the prophecy.
But if I could make one change… I would change the character of Aneka a little bit.  In my opinion, she’s a little too much.  I feel that she’s a bit too in touch with her sensual side.  I think it’s great to have an female character who isn’t a damsel in distress, but her habit of having relations every man she encounters is a little too much.  I’m sure there are some out there who will disagree with me, but if you take a look back at what I said, you’ll see I started with “in my opinion.” 🙂
So far, it’s a very entertaining adventure, and I will be watching again next week.  Because the best part of an adventure is continuing it next week.

from → reviews, rpgbloggers, Stupid Ranger

The Great PDF Screw-up…

2009 April 10
7 Comments
by Dante

This week WotC announced that it has decided to suspend sales of their PDF offerings. It has taken me a few days to formulate my thoughts on this matter, so here we go. Honestly, it’s this post from Critical Hits that finally got me off my duff to write this down.

Before I diverge from common opinion…

I agree with the common consensus. Shutting down PDF sales from external sources isn’t a cool thing to do with almost no notice. What you’re seeing likely indicates the beginning of WotC providing official PDFs via their site, which I suppose is their perogative.

I’ll get the obvious stuff out of the way: a DRM protected solution is not the right path. Taking away choice from the consumer is bad. Leaving the consumer without an option to legally purchase something that they know is available doesn’t really lead to additional sales in my mind.

And here’s where I get angry letters from the public.

All that stuff aside, I don’t care. I was scarcely aware that legal copies of the WotC books even existed, and to be quite frank I’m not about to pay anyone for the pleasure of a digital copy of a book that I already own. I’ve never looked for them to buy because I haven’t ever wanted them.

I MUCH prefer to use actual physical books in my campaigns. If I only need one or two things from a book I tend to “wing it” anyway and make up what I need along the way. The only downside is having to haul the books around, but these days I can make it by with just the core rulebooks in tow.

Now I appreciate why others love having the digital copies. I might even use them if they were provided in some fashion for free with purchase of my physical rulebooks. I might be willing to pay a small amount if I got some other benefit from paying… like with a DDI subscription as Dave suggests.

I also agree with him on this point: free is definitely better and would repair this PR catastrophe. This also makes it pretty official: A LOT has gone wrong with the 4e rollout.

I await your flamethrowers!

from → Dante, rant, rpgbloggers

Goodbye, Dave Arneson.

2009 April 9
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by Dante

Our hobby had two kings and now they are both at rest: sadly, word reaches us tonight that Professor Dave Arneson has passed away.

Dave Arneson was the quiet force behind this hobby that we love so much and we are sad to hear of his passing. What amazed me about Dave was how approachable he was, in recent years sitting dutifully at his booth selling the newest incarnation of Blackmoor. As I mentioned yesterday, it was one of the highlights of my nerd-life to meet him each of the last two years at GenCon. He was always talkative and friendly, willing to trade a story or two about his many gaming experiences.

You will be sorely missed, Professor Arneson. I hope that all of the love and respect that was poured out onto the Internet eased your pain in your final hours. Our hobby will not be the same without you!

Thank you to Dave’s family for providing information on these developments over the past few days, our thoughts and prayers remain with you during this difficult time.

Funeral plans are being arranged, and letters and cards can still be sent to:
Dave Arneson
1043 Grand Avenue
Box #257
St. Paul, MN
55105

from → Dante, rpgbloggers

Score one for positive energy! Dave Arneson is still with us!

2009 April 7
2 Comments
by Dante

Thanks once again to the RPGnet forums and RPG Blog II, we receive some positive news regarding Dave Arneson’s health:

From the Arneson family:
As of this writing, Dave is still with us. We have moved him into a facility where we can focus on keeping him comfortable. We have been and will continue to watch the forums and blogs and are passing along everyone’s thoughts and prayers. Right now our focus is on getting Dave into the best possible position to maintain his comfort and his dignity. We will update the community as we can. We want to thank everyone for your thoughts and prayers and ask that you continue to send Dave your support in whatever form that means to you.

An address has been established to receive messages to Dave.

Dave Arneson
1043 Grand Avenue
Box #257
St. Paul, MN
55105

I had the good fortune to meet Mr. Arneson two years ago at GenCon quite by accident. I had wandered into Crazy Igor’s booth to ask about the providence of my OD&D books and Mrs. Igor pointed Dave out to me. He was kind enough to sign my books and chat with SR and I about this very website. It was an honor to meet a gaming legend like him.

He, along with Gary Gygax, created this playground for us all to play in and I highly recommend taking a few minutes to let Dave know how his contributions have positively affected your life.

Dave, glad you’re still with us and thanks for everything! You’ve given us a hobby that has brought us many friends over the years and there’s no way to thank you enough for that!

from → Dante, rpgbloggers

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