Jan 6, 2009 0
The players and I are still working out who and what they wish to be. Most of my work at this point consists of providing a platform with boundaries to shape the world. Part of this providing the characters with a list of eligible races for the game. Knowing that you can play a goblin or a genasi can change what you want to do with your character considerably. So here is the “palette” of races for the Slaughtervale. Read the rest of this entry »
Jan 5, 2009 0
The new PHB2 preview we have from WotC is the Warden. I’d been curious to see what they were going to do. The Warden is a Defender with the new primal power source, is essentially a nature knight. Instead of donning heavy armor though, tapping into earth energies gives the Warden increased AC, supplementing the light armor he is given by the class for default (and sorry folks, but he loses the ability when he puts on heavy armor, so save that feat!). Where fighters harry their foes with martial skills, Paladin invoke the wrath of their gods, and swordmages ensorcel their opponents, wardens harness the earth’s power. They pull rocks and vines forth from the earth to trap and bind foes. They are built super tough –17 starting HP and 9 surges! –and have one ability that my players are wishing over after being caught in some nasty ongoing effects recently. Wardens get two saves per turn! One save happens right at the start, before effects are applied, and the other is the normal save. The class also gets a nice marking ability. Once a turn, mark all adjacent creatures. The punishment aspect isn’t nearly as strong as the other defenders though.
Out of all the defenders, Wardens thus far feel the most solid “tank” released so far. These guys are the most durable class I’ve seen yet, and combine them with the race that seems to love them most — dwarves — your party’s warden is going nowhere. No. Where. The wardens don’t do nearly the damage of the other defenders from the preview I’ve seen, but when you have some of the abilities above, plus the ability to add either your Constitution or Wisdom to you second wind defense bump, you are getting very high, very quickly into the realm of super defense (and when you’re a dwarf, it’s a minor action…)
I was ‘meh’ on the invoker, but the Warden preview gets a big thumbs up.
Jan 5, 2009 7
Here’s my pitch for the Slaughtervale, the setting for my online game.
Long ago, this realm had another name. That was before the Elemental Chaos and the Astral Sea creaked at the barrier of this world. Sensing the ending of this realm, many fled. They fled to echoes of the region in the Feywild and the Shadowfell. Some fled to other parts of the world. Others stayed, unbelieving the words of sages who foretold the doom of the land. Read the rest of this entry »
Jan 3, 2009 0
Mobile post sent by gamefiend using Utterli. Replies. mp3
Jan 2, 2009 5
…so we’re going to need a bigger one. The Fine Art of the TPK brings us this great skill challenge where the players catch a monster fish:
The fishermen of Whisker Lake beseech you! A monster fish from the lake’s black depths has come, and is eating all of the fish! Old Jack Lefty has made a heavy line to hook the beast with, but none of the fishermen will go back into the water. “Please, we are humble folk without the courage to face such a monster, will you help us?” they beg. Your reasons are your own, but your group decides to help…fish the monster out.
Check it out!
Jan 2, 2009 0
It’s a New Year, and at the turn of each year we plot out where we want to be –yes, it’s resolution time…in no particular order:
1. Play something besides 4e. You won’t be hearing about it on this blog (see below), but I have a large RPG collection. The must plays on the list are Fear Itself/Esoterrorists (think CSI meets Chill), Werewolf: the Forsaken, and Dark Heresy.
2. Network more. In an ideal world I would know enough gamers to run or play whatever types of games I want at the drop of a hat. I need to post up
3. Get more Twitter friends. This is a goal and also a call to action. I’m gamefiend on Twitter, friend me! I won’t twitterspam and like to thank I’m pretty interesting. I’ve had a lot of interesting conversations and activity over twitter, and would love to connect with more of my readers through it.
4. Start yet another blog. Yes, I’m going to start another blog. I tend to keep my blogs separated by topic and very very specialized. My next project I’m thinking about might be an exclusively audio blog on a few other RPGs.
5. Collaborate more. I’ve already done some great collaboration with The Core Mechanic and Mad Brew Labs (hi guys!). And would love to work on more projects with more people.
6. Get published. Working on this with the collaborators above. I’ll keep you informed how this is going.
7. Design and publish a game. Right now I am obsessed with zombies, so I’d like to make the zombie game I’ve always wanted to play.
8. Increase readership. Yes, I want more readers! I figure this will be an by product of me producing useful content, so I keep my focus on that and let the rest sort itself out.
9. Write more. A simple goal in theory, but it can be hard in practice. I’ve gotten a lot better at carving out time, and have established a proper rhythm for blogging, so I’ll just keep that up.
10. Have fun! This is my resolution every year, and I see no reason to change it this year.
What are your gaming resolutions? Please share.
Jan 1, 2009 0
GMs do a lot of things. We organize the games, we read the rules, we create the stories, manage players, arbitrate rules, make maps, etc. The most fundamental activity amongst all those activities, is idea generation. Before you perform any of the tasks mentioned, you have to have an idea. It doesn’t matter whether you had the idea two weeks in advance or the night of the game, ideas run our hobby.
Ideas are often ridiculed, or placed low rung on the ladder of importance. Anyone can have an idea, after all. That’s true. What’s really important is getting an idea into the world. Ideas are so common that you could just get them out of a vending machine and focus on implementation.
I disagree with that thinking, which I guess, as something of an “idea guy” makes sense. The first point of contention is the hierarchy of ideas. While there are infinite thoughts and ideas out there, you can definitely rank ideas as good or bad, as amazing or god-awful. In the sea of thoughts, not every idea is a fish that you wish to pull onto your boat. Some are functionally similar to the other fish you’ve caught, while others are so huge you’ll just never be able to take them aboard. Some simply stink or are known to taste horribly.
The quality of your game starts at the quality of the ideas you begin with. The ideas and imagination poured into your setting and story are going radiate outwards, influencing your players and the overall quality of the stories that can be told.
And as GM, you’ve got to take ideas and shape them into actionable items every session! That’s the other thing that people forget. Everyone can have an idea, supposedly, but how many can have strong, amazing ideas consistently? Not as many as you think.
In my experience, focusing on idea generation is the first thing a good GM has to get control of. Every GM has experienced themselves at a lack for them, and everything else stalls. What is the NPC reaction to X development? What should the next adventure be? When you freeze at these points, your prep stalls. Sometimes the best thing to when you’re stuck is to just trust yourself and wing it if you trust your sense for improvisation. But what if you don’t, or just wish to have a fair amount of prep ready for session?
That’s what this series for: we’ll cover some of the best ways for pulling ideas out of your brain and putting them into play for your sessions.
Next article you’ll meet your new best friend.
Jan 1, 2009 0
So, you say you want more info on dragons. Well, we’ve got red dragons, black dragons, white dragons, green dragons…and purple dragons, and brown dragons. We’ve got all the chromatic dragons you might happen to want or need to know about in this little Draconimicon. We’ve got undead dragons, blight dragons, blazewyrms, more kobolds…really, a lot of information.
Personally, I never really thought I’d need as much information about dragons as this book supplies. You can find everything from dragon wingspans to mating habits. Don’t think that I’m complaining though –it’s actually terrific.
See, Draconimicon is a GM book. It’s not for players, so the more fluff, the better. As a GM I want as much info and fluff as I can get. I’ll take the best bits and use them in my games. I don’t know, typically until I sit down at the PC and start typing, what bits will stick and what will fall away.
So, I’ve got this book in front of me. It has sample lairs (with maps –I’m a map junkie), ideas for using dragons in campaigns, and a huge bestiary on dragon variants and dragon-related creatures.
One of the great things about dragons is that they’re set up now so that you can use them at all levels. From level 1 to 30, you can find a suitable range of draconic mayhem to unleash on your players. If you want to keep it strictly epic, of course, you can save it for later…but there’s still a lot of good info here.
In short, this is my sort of book. I’ve already used a good chunk of the material in my current campaign and will be using quite a bit more.
If you’re not doing anything with dragons in your campaign, you can definitely hold off. Otherwise…get this book.
Dec 31, 2008 0
I’m sure some of you may have noticed your comments being linked to a different post then you might have intended. I thought it was a minor glitch at first, but it appears to be a pretty big issue. Needless to say I’m working on it and will get if fixed soon.
Dec 31, 2008 0
As the year draws to a close, I just want to wish everyone a happiest of times. It’s been great creating and chatting with you all these past few months.
The best is yet to come!
Thanks for reading. To close out here are some of my favorite articles I’ve written. Enjoy, and have a happy and safe New Year!
Recent Comments