When a great book about RPG game design presents itself, it is time for us to practice exception-based design with our own rules. The book forcing the violation is Kobold Quarterly’s Guide to Game Design, Vol. 3 : Tools and Techniques.

If you read this site regularly, I can tell you a few things about yourself.  You like 4e D&D , but more specifically, you like to expand your game;  You enjoying tweaking and adding rules until they conform to your vision.  You like to design games, either as a rookie, a pro, or the blurred line in between. “Tools and Techniques” will be the perfect book for you, providing equal parts inspiration and guidance to your adventures in game design.

Any good book on creative arts starts by posing strong questions, which it then spends the rest of its pages answering those questions with elegance and clarity. And so Wolfgang begins in the first chapter:

“When we sit down as game designers and think about the work we do, there are a few things going on. We are imagining a particular audience with a particular set of expectations, from the reading level required to the style of game we’re considering. We think about commercial elements and audience appeal: What will draw players in? And we think about immersion and replay value: What victory conditions or encounter descriptions are most compelling?

The rest of the book sets about addressing these matter with strength, passion, and humor.  Whether it is Monte Cook sorting out fictions and non-fictions of game balance, Rob Heinsoo pulling back the curtain of 4th edition D&D’s design, or Ed Greenwood discussing plot, the attitudes and techniques used to successfully create games are captured here.

The authors avoid looking down from on high, though all are accomplished;  the tone of the book is more of a sit-down, designer to designer chat.  It’s impossible to get through the book and not feel energized to design something.

In short, buy this book! It’s the type of book that fits snugly and perfectly into your designer toolbox as if it always had a place there.  It’s a purchase you won’t regret.

It is available as a PDF now and available in print on June 18.

Time Stop can now be found on Twitter, follow @AtWillTS to learn out about a few articles each day of the week.

• Masterplan is an adventure and campaign planning tool for Dungeons & Dragons, including tile mapper.
• Gamer Lifestyle’s free PDF offers advice on how to get published in the RPG world.
• Uncle Bear calls the Ultimate Toolbox “Porn for Gamemasters“, go find out why.
• Radio Free Hommlet discusses Arcane Power.
• The Bear Swarm Podcast talks about how to deal with success and failure in role-playing games.
• Gnomestew shares how to use Dawn of Worlds to do Collaborative World Building for your next campaign.
• The Tome Show discusses the Eberron Campaign Guide and Eberron Player’s Guide.
• Kiko provides the status markers that he and the other Penny Arcade use in Gabriel’s game.
• Buy Open Game Table, “The Anthology of Roleplaying Game Blogs”. PDF for $9.95, Print for $22.95.
• These Character Initiative Cards are hung over your DM screen so both the players and the DM can see the order.

Jeff over at the Tome Show got me access to a preview snippet from the Dungeon Master’s Guide 2, and I have to share it with you.

The preview content deals with templates.  Templates were a gamemaster’s best friend in 3.5 D&D.  It was only one of the ways that you could create non-standard monsters quickly.  Take a monster cross it with a template, et voila!  Instant coolness.

This isn’t so much a factor in 4e — monster creation is much easier — but if I told you that something easy could be done even easier for equal or better results, would you take it?  I think that you would.  I know that I would. Several templates have already been provided in the first DMG, but speaking for other DMs out there I’d like to say: more please!

I present the Hellbound Soldier.

Hellbound Soldier Intro

Wizards aren’t the only ones who make pacts with otherworldy powers!  Perfectly ordinary people can get tired of having their butts kicked and then they go over to the Nine Hells for a bit of extra mojo.  As mentioned, they always live to regret their choice, which makes them interesting antagonists for your players.  “I don’t want to kill you but I must!” To me, that’s some intriguing dialgoue.  It begs your players to ask why, and from then you can expand what might be a simple fight into something more.

The PCs could hear about the pact and show no pity.  It was his choice and he is an adult, so you have to live with the consequences for your actions.  But having no pity assumes you’re winning the fight.  If the hellbound soldier is beating you down and then pauses to tell you his tale of woe, your ears might prick up a bit.

What if he wants a way out of his plight?  Let’s assume that there is something that can be done to get our hellbound soldier out of his pact. We can assume at least that he’s heard some rumour (probably from other hellbound soldiers –there is nothing sadder than hell’s barracks I’d imagine) of some way that he can get out of the contract.  Devils are evil, but they do like law, and they enjoy the….heck out of hierarchy. So here’s the rumour that our hellbound soldier heard that he repeats to the players:  one can get their discharge papers from hell’s legions if someone is willing to plead their case in the courts of the Nine Hells.

Is that true?  Is it something different?  Is the hellbound soldier purposefully lying? Pitiable or not, he is still evil.

Hellbound Stats

We’ve got a concept, but how does that help you without the template statblock?  It doesn’t too much, so here it is:

In the next few days we’ll know exactly how the material from this statblock will be used if there is any deviation from the normal process, but it’s safe to guess that you can just plug these powers right into whatever monter you already have. You could take the sample entry from a dwarf fighter and plug one or more of these powers right in pretty easily.

You’re “tiefling-izing” a monster when you slap this template on, though I’d guess tieflings would want to be this bad-ass.  Agonizing smite deals ongoing fire and dazes in addition to whatever the melee attack already did to the poor PC.  The PC receives yet more fire damage as an aftereffect of saving.

The best power though?  Devil’s Pawn, the side of insult to a big heaping plate of injury.  A hellbound Soldier, no matter how badass, plays the role of ablative armor for any devil nearby.  And certainly the devils will want at least a few of these guys nearby. I’d immediately want to pair one of these pawns with an artillery or controller devil that the party needs to get to, running interference and making a nuisance of himself.  This mechanic could also justify the scenario I brought up earlier.  How long do you think it would take you to become sick of taking all the hurt that was meant for someone else?

Mechanically, the hellbound soldier fits the bill — a warrior who does a bunch of fiery stuff, and plays second fiddle to demons.

If the DMG is filled with more goodness like this, I cannot wait.

What do you think?

Looking For More DMG2 Previews?  Check out these sites:

The Tome Show
Fist Full of Comics and Games
Icosohedrophelia
Critical Hits
Dungeon Mastering
Geek Dad
Chatty DM

Time Stop can now be found on Twitter, follow @AtWillTS to learn out about a few articles each day of the week.

• Greywulf provides a spreadsheet for the encounter groups found in the Fourth Edition Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual.
• Mike over at Sly Flourish has discussed solo monsters in a couple of recent articles: here and here.
• Grumble Mapper is a small application developed in Adobe AIR, which can be used to arrange dungeon tiles.
• The Great Debate is a podcast that pits two RPG characterss from different genres in 5 min debates. Highly entertaining.
• The Gnome Stew promises to Improve Your Game – Guaranteed.
• RPG Countdown’s Best of 2008 Special highlights the 100 hottest digital RPG products of 2008.
• The Tome Shows reviews the recent 4e book Divine Power.
• Greywulf discusses the life and death of minions in 4e.
• DM Samuel discusses how to Get Your Game Out of a Rut.
• Gabe, Tycho, Scott Kurtz and Wil Wheaton return for Acquisitions Inc’s 3rd adventure in the DnD Podcast.

Time Stop can now be found on Twitter, follow @AtWillTS to learn out about a few articles each day of the week.

• Fourth Edition game designer David Noonan discusses where roles in Dungeons & Dragons come from. (Note: links to earlier articles at top)
• Ed Healy offers some advice on How to publish a 4th Edition adventure.
• RPGMonks.com offers a list of Background Skills that can be added to Fourth Edition Dungeons & Dragons.
• Newbie DM shares his idea about Imposing a :30 time limit on 4th ed. players.
• Gabriel from Penny Arcade shares the his Free Fall Combat rules for 4e.
• Mike from Sly Flourish compares various Battle Map for your table top games.
• Newbie DM describes how to Update DDI Compendium stat blocks the easy way.
• “Skill powers are utility powers that you qualify for not based on your class, but by training in a particular skill” [Requires a DDI subscription]
• The next World Wide  Game Day for DMG2 is also Talk Like a Pirate Day. I expect many hi-jinks shall ensue.
• Make your own Gelatinous Cube Miniature.
• Matt James offers a list of D&D Campaign Hirelings for 4e.
• Chgowiz discusses Dungeons & Dragons roots in wargaming and how that effects Fourth Edition.
• Chatty DM discusses The Issue(s) of Combat length in D&D 4e.

WotC News

• Dark Sun!: Bart Carroll discusses the big news from this year’s GenCon including the announcement that Dark Sun will be coming out next year.
• August and Beyond: Bart Carroll discusses the upcoming releases from Wizards of the Coast.
• August 2009 D&D Character Builder & D&D Compendium News: Details on the latest updates for DDI, including Eberron Campaign Guide, Divine Power Dragon #376, Dungeon #167 and the Githzerai from Player’s Handbook 3.
• Art Gallery from Dragon 377: DDI subscribers can download a zip file containing all of the art from Dragon #377.
• Githzerai: This month’s Player’s Handbook 3 debut content. DDI subscription required.
• Sell Your Sole Competition Winner: The winner’s of WotC’s content to show design contest are announced. You can buy the shoes at RYZ.
• On the Set of 4th Edition: Legendary Evils: Jared von Hindman from headinjurytheater.com creates preview images for the latest set of D&D Minis. DDI Subscription required.
• Class Acts: Fighter Essentials: More details and new options for the Fighter. DDI subscription required.
• Worldwide D&D Game Day: Details on the upcoming D&D Game Day that celebrates the release of the Dungeon Master’s Guide 2. Saturday, Sept. 19, 2009.
• D&D Organized Play / RPGA Seminar: The plans for D&D Organized Play. Including details on the DMG2 Game Day, this year’s Weekend in the Realms and much more.

Exerpts from Adventurer’s Vault 2

• Excerpts: AV2 Story Items – Implements
• Excerpts: AV2 Wondrous Lair Items
• Excerpts: AV2 Ammunition
• Excerpts: AV2 Items Sets – Battle Regalia

You’re probably wondering what I did that was related to that game…what game was that?  Oh, 4e? To be honest, I didn’t attend all the 4e events. I did participate in a panel on 4e blogging, but reasoned that there are people much better suited and leveraged to give you great information as it happens.  I needed to charge my batteries –It’s been an awesome but long year. I attended some game design panels and met tons great people from all walks of gaming.

Ultimate Dungeon Delve

This is the one official event I did.  It was me, Milambus and Mike shea of Sly Flourish against the new WotC torture device.  We weren’t able to beat it, almost made it out of the fourth encounter (two hits!).  We were pretty excited about that (no one else that day made it past encounter three), but it’s still better to win!

Our party composition was:

• Half -Elf Paladin
• Human Cleric
• Drow Rogue
• Elf ranger
• Dwarf barbarian

So, three strikers  plus one leader and defender.  In a normal game I would have like to drop one striker and double up on defender or leader, but in this time-driven environment, this makeup made the most sense.

My take-away:

• There are a lot of ways to challenge players without making tougher monsters.  Make the environment tougher and you’ll challenge that players just as much if not more than with tougher monsters.
• Divine sanction rocks.
• Falling….Hurts. The ultimate dungeon delve reinforced that falling sucks, not only because you take damage, but because it puts you out of the fight for at least a few rounds.

As my only official gaming event (Chgowiz also ran a rollicking Swords & Wizardry game for us too!), this really satisfied my urge to roll dice.  Good Times!

Swords and Lasers?

People will reference Dark Sun as the big news of the con, but here’s the 4e tidbit I found most interesting…Amethyst, the new setting for 4e from Goodman Games and Dias Ex Machina.  Have you seen this yet?  It’s very ambitious and potentially very cool.  Look at the laundry list of stuff it touts:

• Six new races inspired by classic legends and literature
• 4 new technology-based classes
• 19 new paragon paths for both science- and magic-based characters
• All new equipment from revolvers to railcannons
• Listings for powered armor and futuristic vehicles
• New monsters for every challenge rating
• All new GSL-compliant rules to add technology to any 4th Edition game

Fantasy + technology?  I’m very interested to see how they integrate high tech with high fantasy.  If they find the right balance, this setting could really rock.  It’s coming out in September, so don’t be surprised if you find a review of it on the site when it’s out.

Commentary

I’ve got lots of great comments on  various posts, and I promise I’ll be getting to them in the next several days.  Thanks for your patience!

Gamefiend, aka Quinn, aka ‘the guy with the dreads’

Gamefiend, not that guy from PM Dawn

So, I’m going to wager that you can ask around Gencon for ‘the guy with the dreads’ and you’ll be able to track me down eventually.  I’m sure the dread quotient won’t be too excessive.  I could be wrong! But I’m probably not.

It’s a little hard to talk about myself without delving into third person self-referential athlete talk, but I’ll say this: I love games.  I of course am a drooling idiot in regards to 4e, but you want to talk about Burning Wheel, Shadowrun, Everway, Unknown Armies, or just about anything else?  I am your guy. Seriously.  If you don’t mind getting your ear gnawed off about any game system under the sun, I’m your guy.

Gentian, aka Anna, aka ‘Coolest. Wife. Ever.’

Anna, aka Gentian, aka my awesome wife.

It’s cool enough to get one’s wife to allow a trek to gencon, but to come along for the show?  Just awesome.  Anna is an expert all matters practical and spiritual (to prove this you can visit her site Practically Spiritual).  She is a wonderful conversationalist.

JackofHearts, aka Brett Michalson, aka ‘Mr. I’m Excited to Meet in Person for the first time!’

Brett, maintaining a cool posture in the face of epic gaming

Brett and I got to know each other through the site.  We’ve talked over the phone so I can tell you he’s got a great imagination and mind for storytelling on his shoulders.  I’ll be getting to meet him in person for the first time myself, and that’s going to be awesome.

Milambus, aka Jake Fitch, aka “Where’s the picture?”

I didn’t get a picture from Jake in time for the post, but that just adds to the mystery doesn’t it?  An enigma, Jake will be playing in a lot of RPGA events, so remember the name!

Contacting

Looking for a pickup game, or just want to say hi?  Drop an e-mail at promethean@drop.io or call 646-402-5689 x 60809 and leave a message.  I’ll get notifications of anything recieved so drop us a line!

WotC News

• D&D Monster Builder Beta Launch: The biggest news out of WotC this week is the release of the first of their new D&D Adventure Tools, the Monster Builder. DDI subscribers can download it now.
• Legendary Evils: Preview 6: The sixth and final preview for the upcoming Legendary Evils set of minis has been released, including a mini for Irontooth.
• D&D Miniatures 2009 Constructed Championship: If you play to play in this event at GenCon then be sure to check out the rules.

ENnies

• Voting for the ENnie awards has closed, but you can help select next years judges now! Take a look at the nominees and then go vote!

Articles

• The DM binder, folder, or notebook: Newbie DM shares what he puts into his DM binder.
• The Wizard Sleeve: Encounting: Luke, from The Podgecast, offers some tips for building 4e encounters.
• The One Page Dungeon Codex (and More!): ChattyDM and Chgowiz have compiled a PDF with the winners from their recent One Page Dungeon Contest. They have also compiled a PDF of all the entries into the contest. Everyone needs more dungeons, so go download them now.

Podcasts

• Radio Free Hommlet: Adventure 27 – The Druid: In this weeks episode the Hommlet cast discuss GenCon, Divine Power (briefly), The Druid, and who won their recent Reaper Minis contest.

Tools

• Stuck on Stickers: A PDF of status stickers that you can print out and stick on your minis as you play to show status effects.
• A Yahoo! group for Dungeon Tiles has existed for a year now. The group has mainly been focused on using a modified version of the Dungeon Tile app that WotC has on their site with scanned in version of the WotC Dungeon Tiles. A new application was just released into beta. PyMapper, is a Dungeon Tile application built in Python.

• August 4th’s DDI Update will include Divine Power, Eberron Campaign Guide, Dragon 376 (including the Revenant) and Dungeon 167. Additionally, it will include a new Githzerai racial entry including feats and a new paragon path.

• 2009 ENnie Award Nominees: A complete list of the WotC products nominated for an ENnie Award this year.
• GenCon 2009 Schedules: All the events that WotC will be holding during during GenCon.
• GenCon Indy Approaches: Chris Tulach gives more details on the RPGA events going on at GenCon, and provides the rules for the D&D Championship.
• D&D Minis Legendary Evils Preview: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5. Each pack will contain 1 visible huge mini, 1 rare large mini, 1 rare medium or small mini, 2 common minis (5 total per pack). There are a total of 8 huge visible minis, 12 large rare minis, 12 medium or small minis, and 8 common minis (40 total).
• Big Trouble: In this article, Logan Bonner provides DDI subscribers with alternative stats for many of the minis from the new Legendary Evils set that is about to be released.
• AV2 Excerpt: Immurements: “An immurement is a rare form of magical prison that contains a place that has been sealed away from the rest of the world.” Use an Immurement to alter the terrain of an encounter.
• AV2 Excerpt: Story Items – Armor: All good armor has a story behind it.
• AV2 Excerpt: Story Items – Weapons: All good weapons have a story behind them.
• DDI Subscriber Downloads: Eberron Campaign Guide Art Gallery, Eberron Campaign Guide Map Gallery, Dungeon 168 Art Gallery, and Dungeon 168 Map Gallery.

Other News

• ENnie Awards: Voting has begun! Have you voted yet???

Articles

• DM Tips: June 2009 Archive: Mike Shea from Sly Flourish archives the DM Tips that he sent out over Twitter during the month of June 2009.
• Familiars by Artifice: In Dragon 377, Jennifer Clarke Wilkes discusses how Artificers harness the arcane powers to create familiars. (DDI Subscription required)

Podcasts

• RPPR Episode 32: Show and Tell – Maps and Minis: Role Play Public Radio discusses the use of maps, minis, props and other gimmicks at the table.
• The Podge Cast Episode 51: The Business and Props of the Podge: After recently celebrating their 50th episode The Podge Cast returns this week with their take on using props at the gaming table.
• The Tome Episode 110: Wolfgang Advice: Wolfgang Baur, the man behind Kobold Quarterly, joins The Tome’s host Jeff to create a human warlord, discuss how to create monsters and how to give a campaign setting some culture.

Gold

• Gold: The Series recently released the finale to their first season. “Gold is a comedy series about Professional Role Playing Gamers, written and produced for the web, which premiered in November 2008.” They are currently looking for donation to make a second season possible.
• The Tome Episode 111: Gold the Series: David Nett, the writer/producer/actor of Gold: The Series, recently joined Jeff to discuss Gold, D&D, gamers, and Gold’s upcoming showing at GenCon.
• RPG Blog II: A nice article about the series.

Tools

• IniTracker: An online initiative tracking tool. It requires the installation of a Google tool.
• Fight Card: Another browser based initiative tracking tool. This one you download and have to manually configure some files though.
• Action Stands and Status Flags: A new way to track status effects from Dark Platypus Studios. Trask from LivingDice.com recently reviewed them.
• Critical Hits recently released their Guide to 4e Accessories.