And then it just disappeared from the map.

All the hullabaloo surrounding Fortune Cards must be taking up our communal talking space because I can’t find a blog or forum thread anywhere speculating on the subject. Am I seriously the only one who cares about this? How much hype did Hybrids stir up when they were first announced? Maybe we’re just once bitten, twice shy (or would that be twice bitten, thrice shy?) on the subject. Neither the current multiclass nor hybrid systems seem to satisfy what many feel is a true multiclass character the way it was presented in earlier editions. I believe the in-game technology now exists to correct the discrepancy but before I get into that, let’s take a short look at what does and does not need to be ‘fixed’ about the current systems as it will guide the design I eventually propose.

Entry Speed – In 3E/Pathfinder, a character must be level 2 in order to begin multiclassing by taking levels in different classes. I’m avoiding the gestalt discussion here because those characters were SPECIFICALLY meant to be stronger than a core class where as simple multiclassing is intended to be on par . Prior to 3E, a character could start as a fighter/thief, fighter/mage or whatever immediately at character generation given the right stat combinations and would gain levels in their different classes at different times. It’s much harder to make a blanket statement about progression in 2E and back as different forms of multiclassing appeared in different rulesets, but generally speaking you had the opportunity to start out as a multiclass character one way or the other. Now in 4E, you can again start as a multiclassed character at level 1 using either the standard or hybrid systems. So far so good.

Option Spread – Here again, 4E is still looking pretty good. 2E and back had fewer core classes (again, you can’t count the kits because those were not available for multiclass use) so more core classes gives you more options. 3E of course has WAY more classes and theoretically speaking every class feature could be available in full to a multiclass build, so in sheer weight, 4E falls short. Proportionally speaking, though, the current standard and hybrid multiclass systems do theoretically grant access to any power in the game and many classes have several multiclass feats, each giving access to a shortened form of a level 1 class feature so it’s not quite as bad in thorough investigation as it seems on first glance.

Option Strength – Here is where things start to fall apart for 4E. Previous editions gave multiclass characters the same features with the same numeric values and usage allowances as a single-class character. 4E is the first D&D game for which a multiclass character will, by design, be given a limited or shortened class feature. The decision was made by the devs to prevent characters from stepping on each other’s schticks too much. It’s niche protection. Though I might fiddle with option strength in a home game, for the purposes of presenting a useful product to the D&D community at large I will respect the design premise and move on.

Low-Level Efficacy: This requires some terminology definitions. By “low-level”, I mean the Heroic tier in 4E and then levels 1 to about 6 in previous 20-level schemes. By “efficacy” I mean the overall usefulness of the character for its level as well as how strongly the character feels like each of its component classes.

Previous editions of the game had few problems with any multiclassing efficacy at low-level. BAB/THAC0 simply didn’t have enough time to fall “behind the curve” in the first few levels in the vast majority of multiclass builds. Also a spellcaster would not often feel the effects of slow spell progression until (s)he failed to pick up 3rd level spells (read “fireball”) at about the time that the party really needed more daka to handle threats. You could juggle two maybe even three classes in these systems for the first few levels and not really suffer for it.

4E represents a radical divergence in results from previous editions at low-level play. It takes several levels for a standard multiclass character to really feel like a member of its secondary class(es) (one Scorching Burst per encounter does not a Wizard make!). Over the course of these several levels, the character must make a tremendous feat investiture to immerse itself in its secondary class(es) – up to 75% of its Heroic Tier feats for a non-Human! This of course puts a significant dent in the character’s ability to operate in its primary class leaving the player with a sense of loss not present in earlier editions. Hybrids do not require the feat investiture (directly, anyway) and more immediately feel like immersed members of each class but often suffer from gimped class features – particularly Defender marks. Hybrids also often have problems with MBAs, defenses and implement proficiencies. Thus one important goal of our multiclass 2.0 will be to create immersion in the secondary class(es) at low levels without burdening the character with a heavy feat tax.

Mid-Level Efficacy: “Mid-level” will here refer to Paragon Tier and levels from about 6 to 13 in 20-level schemes.

As mentioned before, the 3rd level spell bracket and a BAB/THAC0 differential of about 3 is where the edges of previous multiclass systems began to fray. Non-casters could generally multiclass back and forth without a lot of thought, but the ever-elusive fighter/mage and mage/cleric archetypes really ran into problems. At some point, you would have to jump ship and focus on one class. 3E tried to patch this by creating feats and prestige classes (Mystic Theurge, Eldritch Knight, Practiced Spellcaster) that maintained spell levels/BAB and it worked for a while. Due to the crazy permutations possible in the ever-expanding system, though, it became a chore to prop one’s stats up correctly for many builds.

Oddly enough, 4E deals with this problem pretty cleanly with Paragon Paths. No matter how few feats a standard multiclass character picks up, (s)he qualifies to take a Paragon Path of the secondary class. This is a set of 3 class features and 3 powers designed to work with and feel like a subset of the secondary class. Best of all, these powers do not get swapped out in Epic Tier and are thus built to last the lifecycle of the character. By the end of Paragon Tier, a character with only the initial multiclass feat and a Paragon Path has a E/D/U count of 1/1/1 out of 4/4/6 which is a nice dip without a ton of effort. This jumps to a possible 2/2/2 with all the power swap feats, effectively splitting the character’s powers down the middle. Include the 3 Path features built for the secondary class and that’s darn solid immersion in both classes without dinging the primary too badly. Paragon Paths are still the better option for hybrids to stabilize one of their classes as well. The paragon hybrid option is usually a trap since it gives only one (possibly gimped) class feature compared to a Paragon Path’s level-appropriate three or four. Thus we need not concern ourselves with “fixing” the mid-game so long as we provide that low-level support.

High-Level Efficacy: “High-level” refers to Epic Tier and then levels from about 13 to 20 in 20-level schemes.

Now I’ll be the first to admit I haven’t done much high-level gaming of any edition so I can’t speak with quite so much confidence, particularly in 2E and back. I suspect that if you managed to get a multiclass character to this point, the whole party is multiclassed and your progression has just been a lot slower. As for 3E, I can’t help but notice the character builds on the various gaming boards at high level. You don’t see [Class A 10/ Class B 10]. Instead, it’s [Class A 6/Class B 2/Prestige Class A 4/Prestige Class B 2/Prestige Class C 5]. Whether it’s representative of what the average player was running at any given home table I don’t know, but clearly the ‘best’ builds lost their secondary class in the shuffle somewhere, sometimes even their primary!

The question then for 4E is how much secondary class support you need at Epic Tier. Is the Paragon Path enough to carry the flavor through on its own? A level 21 character has a whopping 13 feats, jumping to a total of 17 by Level 30! Is a four-feat tax to hold on to that 2/2/2 still an issue at this point? It’s certainly an investment, but it fails to weigh NEARLY as heavily as it did with only 6 feats at level 10. Previous systems require the character to jump through a multitude of hoops to maintain a second class effectively at high levels, so I’m ok with that occuring here as well. We will keep the power swap feats in place for Epic Tier characters who really want to hold on to that premise. On the hybrdis side, only a few who exploit strong class synergy will even make it to Epic Tier. Natural selection, if you will, has culled the weak from their ranks giving us very little material to work with here that isn’t tied up in the individual classes. Thus we can leave the high-end game alone as well.

In summary we really only need to apply one patch to the whole game and let its effects percolate up the level progression to “fix” multiclassing. Low level characters need a way to get a secondary class’ iconic class feature limited to that class’ powers (generally, though there will be exceptions like the Cleric) and featless power swap.

Where have we seen featless power swaps and limited class features for Heroic Tier characters before? That’s right, folks – Themes. I believe Themes are the way to fix 4E multiclassing and I hope that’s what WoTC is up to. Next time, we’ll actually go through and create multiclass Themes for the Fighter, Rogue, Cleric and Wizard.

No cardboard pyrotechnics this week — no time– but we’ve reached a basic middle ground of me having minis and my really cool tokens each week so it’s not too bad.

The encounter this week was actually rather simple.  Two corruption corpses, a gray ooze and a mote of cold energy that are on the other side of a weakened bridge.  The players spent a bit of time at the other end of the bridge crafty enough to examine the bridge and nervous about going below.  Once they finally got across, the combat got out of gridlock and then the corpses got cut down.

One thing that I’m considering is letting characters choose who they want to use and just treat that character as fresh each session.  A lot of players want to use encounters as a chance to try new classes, and other players are showing up for the first time and then notshowing up, so it’s almost easier to treat each encounter as standing on its own and refreshing each encounter.  It might take some serious rebalancing to do that though.  Has anyone done anything similar?

Tip: Explaining the game for new players

While I’m not convinced that the player’s father will be our regular player (and that’s totally fine) I am confident that he had a fun time. I had a sense of what I could tell him as a new player and what I could not.  Here’s a list of stuff that I keep in mind when I am playing with new players:

Keep it simple to start. I try to tell players that typically what they do is decide an action, roll a d20, add numbers and try to get as high as possible.  I don’t give them much else because there are so many elements in D&D (indeed, most RPGs) that you will only cause confusion hitting them with the RPG firehose.  Start small.

Explain when it comes up. When something becomes relevant, take a break and then explain it. That will allow you to introduce everything  gradually.

Explain the impact of choices. Explaining mechanics is good.  Explaining choices and the impacts of those choices is even better.  When a player is struck, it’s fine to explain to him a few things he or she can do and then let them choose.

Don’t play the character. It’s tempting to tell the player “do this, now roll that, now do this”  and just make their moves for them; resist this urge at all costs.  No one wants to play a game where that happens.  You have to guide but never take over for your player.

What do you do with new players in your games?

As always, I run Encounters at Myriad Game’s Salem Store.

the last season of Encounters had been lackluster, with high initial turnout and then dwindling to nothing shortly thereafter. I wasn’t there for that previous season, but knew that I wanted to grow it at my store so that we had people coming in for D&D regularly.  It’s my little action that I can take to grow the hobby person by person, so I’ve got a lot of passion.

So much passion that I made 3d terrain for session five!  I’ve been getting into cardstock modelling, so I rebuilt the terrain of the encounters with some of my own miniatures and with some cardstock cliffs I made based off of templates I bought from Worldworks Games. I also have been using Gale force 9′s Dungeon Master’s Token Set, which I love!  So there was a lot of flash here.

Did I forget to mention that we had eight people? All it takes is for three returning people to bring friends, and instant playgroup extension! I was pretty surprised at our sudden growth, but I certainly wasn’t going to turn anyone away from the table. I found some extra character sheets from the previous season and tossed those out, and then I spent a few quick moments to beef up the encounter.  In the end I threw another shaman into the group for more domination hijinx.

The game was awesome.  The scenery really helped, but I was able to help the new players get into the game, and the experienced players already brought a lot of cool combat narration.  The big mechanic in this encounter was an ankheg that could be swayed to one side or the other during each round.  I played that up with players :  ”The ankheg is ravenous, but what you know about ankhegs is that they are not discriminating in what they eat, and are easily persuadable.”  This pushed the players to describe some pretty fun ways that they distract and redirect the ankheg.  That and some good rolling kept the ankheg as an ally until it needed to eat PCs.

Something else I made was some more mechanics for Rallo.  I gave him basic stats, but then I also made cards with little powers on them.  Right before the encounter,  I roleplayed with the players talking and trying to make friends with the dwarf.  Anyone who succeeded in making an impression received a card that allowed  them to trigger an ability from Rallo when his turn arrived in the initiative order.  It was a fun little mechanic in the battle and a way to drive some more roleplay into the encounters.

The session ran a little longer than I expected, but the juice definitely was worthy of the squeeze.  We might need to expand to more than 1 DM, which is so far away from where we started.

Tip: Be Flexible.

I certainly could have turned away the seventh and eighth players.  We didn’t have any character sheets explicitly for them and the encounter was definitely not balanced for that number.  But the second part of taking ownership is being flexible.  I knew that with  a little extension that I could accomodate other players so I did so.  Especially with the goal of expanding the presence of D&D at the local gaming store, it just doesn’t make sense to turn away people who want to learn the game and play.

Sometimes you get thrown a curveball.  Stay open-minded, stay fluid, and adapt.

As always, I run Encounters at Myriad Game’s Salem Store.

Art provided by Kyle Ferrin.

First, I will speak about what I didn’t do:  closely review the adventure. This is relevant because this encounter was brutal.   I think it was even more savage than first encounter in the Dark Sun Encounters.  Surprise round hilarity and monsters capable of doing solid damage in bursts equals  a ridiculously  strong encounter.  Had I taken a more in-depth look and passed thee encounter through my sanity filter, I could have been more prepared to deal with it, toning the encounter done or leaving other mechanisms in place to make it easier to deal with. I didn’t though, but I was forced to improv a solution in the form of a dwarf.

The “pre-encounter” involved the players meeting a dwarf mage named Rallo.  He spoke with the players when their foes interrupted with an attack, and he was still standing  near the end of the encounter.  Rallo had no powers or abilities statted out, so was really just there to get beat up by monsters.  In round two I realized the players where getting ready to go down so I executive-decisioned that rallo would have powers, specifically, a one-shot auto-heal to help the players out.  This worked really well, as in the fourth round all but one player was face down in the sand. Rallo dramatically called for the players to not give up, and spread arcane healing energies over them.  This one surge was all that the players needed, and the PCs rose from near defeat to victory.   It was a tense situation that everyone enjoyed.  I was able to do it seamlessly so that it felt like something Rallo could do.

Tip: Take Ownership of Fun

This brings me to a point:  via the magic of the internets, I saw that a lot of people were pretty sore at WotC for that encounter.  There weere a lot of TPKs off of this encounter.  To that I say….take ownership.  If you are running a game, you are the CEO of fun at that period of time, not WotC.  I understand that the encounter was a touch unbalanced, but there are ways that you can make that encounter fun for everybody.  You try a solution like mine, or what about selling the TPK?  A dramatic, mournful finish can soften the blow of character death.  I’ve seen pickup games  where the GM killed all the PCs and concluded with “Ok, that’s over. Sorry guys!”  To me that’s just a wasted opportunity.  Even a TPK has a chance to be awesome.  Have the players discuss last thoughts of the characters.  Describe the consequences of the failure; what happened to the world now that the players aren’t there?  Make their passing felt.  Even though the players died that death will still have meaning and still be dramatic and awesome.

Whatever you do, don’t just accept what’s going on around you.  Don’t say “there’s nothing I can do!”  Of course there is!  As GM, you have access to the pulleys and levers.   Pull the right ones to make the game mean something.

As always, I run Encounters at Myriad Game’s Salem Store.

This game started with one returning player (hey Bob!) and three new players.  Two are totally new to 4e and one of them is an enthutiastic newcomer to roleplaying in general. Wooo, new people!  Everyone except the one returning player is pretty new to Dark Sun; I take a second to explain what Athas is like then sketch the basics of 4e to those new to the system.

We start with the Fleeing the Wastes skill challenge. I pose the question:  ”What are you doing to survive?” I then tell them to flip over their sheets.  No looking at your skills! I won’t let anyone look at his character sheets, but talk briefly with each player about what his characters do within the bounds of class or personality.  We get some really good answers, answers that I know we wouldn’t get when players are trying to match their best skill to the challenge.  Skill challenges are boring when you think of them in terms of what skills to use; skill challenges are exciting when you think in terms of what you want to do in the story.

One of  the new players, using Castri the elven ranger, keys right in on the nature-loving aspect of the ranger, tracking birds to lead them to an oasis.  The group only acquired one failure when the Barcan the sorcerer failed to channel the stars for answers.

After surviving the wastes, the adventurers find themselves face to, uh…flame? with a flame spirit.  They of course do the adventurer threat-test. “Does this thing want to kill us?”  After vetting the creature’s

non-desire to kill or eat them, the players speak with it.  With no voice, the spirit must speak by using shooting gouts of flame to fuse sand into letter-shaped pieces of glass.

Which of course brings me to the question I asked each player:  Can your character read? This is of course completely off track and not at all asked for in the adventure, but I think this detail helps players invest in who the characters are. Polling them, they decide that the gladiator and ranger cannot read, but the sorceror and the ardent can, leaving the pair to translate these glass runes.

After learning from the flame spirit of the Green Age (a time where Athas was lush and verdant), the conversation fades off a bit. A bit of banter back and forth gives the players a little history lesson, but I think that the lack of familiarity with the format –was this the one encounter? Where is it? Should we move on? — keeps the group from pressing into anything deep withe the elemental.  They aren’t sure what to make or do with this mini-encounter, so time to move on to the fight! The flame spirit dissappears and the kanks — giant Athasian desert beetles — attack, presumably drawn by the flames.

The combat goes well for the players.  Being new doesn’t prevent the player using Castri the Ranger from rolling incredibly well and dealing some insane damage. The kanks definitely threaten the players, but no one drops.  The two new players have a lot of fun, and I think that we might have some newly converted 4e players!

Tip: Narrate Combat

Something I do that I believe increases fun and makes pickup style games such as Encounters incredibly “sticky” is to invest heavily in combat narration.

What’s more fun?

“You hit for 24 damage.  The kank is bloodied.”

or

“The kank grabs at you with its pincers. You weave under the attack, and catch your weapon in its soft spot,drawing blood.  24 damage and the kank is now bloodied.”

I know which I would rather hear, and I know which players like better. The latter provides texture that players want to see and in my experience enjoy.  If you’re not narrating the combat, you need to start!

Here are some tips from starting.

• Use Your Body You don’t have to improv verbally.  It can be just as exciting, sometimes more exciting, to show  the players how the enemy ducks, lunges, calls forth ancient spirits, and dies as it is to describe it.  Don’t be afraid to just act out what’s happening.
• Ask your Players Don’t be afraid to ask your players what they do, but don’t let their participation decide whether there will be description in combat.  A player may not have anything in mind, even though they delight in what you describe.  Always give players a chance and encourage them to participate in describing combat, but keep the description going no matter what. Sometimes players won’t be used to this, but by the end of the session they’ll get into it.
• Action-Reaction If you’re at a loss to describe what happens, keep in mind the basic narrative element for an action scene.  Action, then Reaction.  What does the player do?  How does the enemy react to that?  If you ask your players what happens, then you’ve already got the first half.
• Keep it Short Don’t narrate for a minute for every miss and hit. Always go for impact over detail. I would say to definitely give the least time to misses, because you can alway turn them later (see below).
• Slow it Down Give turns where something big happens more emphasis in your narration.  When a player criticals or deals a lot of damage, talk it up.  If a monster does the same, give the monster a little descriptive love.
• Turn it Around Remember how I said to downplay misses?  It’s best to downplay misses so you can turn them around when big things happen.  If a monster misses and a player then scores a critical against that monster, you can then turn that miss into an event that leads into that huge critical.  If a character misses with an attack, then spends an Action Point to hit with a daily, the former becomes a setup to latter.

What tips do you have for making exciting running narrative for your combats?

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

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

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.

• Dragon Editorial: Exclusively Yours: Chris Youngs explains how DDI Exclusive Content will work.
• Ampersand: Bill Slavicsek reminds us all that July is DM Appreciation Month. He goes on to tell us about the new Psion class which debuted in the Character Builder and on the Compendium. It is the 25th anniversary of Dragonlance, and there is a new Monster Builder coming to DDI soon.
• Character Builder and Compendium Updates: The Psion class debuts this month, the content from Eberron Player’s Guide has been added, Traps and Hazards were added to the Compendium and many other changes and tweeks were made. However, the Revenant is noticeably absent from this months update.
• The Psion: As I mentioned above the Psion class has debuted this month, being released directly into the Character Builder and the Compendium. Here Andy Collins, Bruce R. Cordell, Mike Mearls and Stephen Schubert offer their insight on how the class was designed. The Psion has a very interesting new mechanic were they augment their At-Will powers rather than get Encounter powers.
• Monster Builder: A preview of the new Monster Builder. Do I need to say more?
• Khyber’s Harvest: WotC has released their adventure from this year’s Free RPG day as a free PDF download. Khyber’s Harvest is an adventure set in Eberron, written by the creator of that setting, Keith Baker. It is designed for second level characters and includes five pre-generated characters.

Industry News

• 2009 ENnie Award Nominees: The nominees for this year’s ENnie awards have been announced. Of special note are the categories of Best Website and Best Podcast.
• Chessex: Some sad news out of Chessex this week. They will be discontinuing their line of single-sided vinyl game mats. There are still some supplies in stock, but the cost of materials has made this product line too expensive to manufacture. Note: The line of double-sided mats will still be sold, so the world is not coming to a complete end =)

Articles

• A Quick Crit Rule: RPG Blog II offers a quick idea on how to make critical hits more deadly in your 4e games.
• Mike Mearls recently shared his inspirations for the Fourth Edition classes over on the forums of RPG.net.
• The Dog Food Test: James Wyatt offers some thoughts on Google’s Chrome OS, D&D 4e, and designer/developers in general.

Podcasts

• Power Gamers: The Bear Swarm! Podcast offers some thoughts on Power Gamers.
• Barbarian: Radio Free Hommlet and Bryan from Reaper Miniatures discuss the Barbarian. Take a listen to learn about the minion propulsion system.

Tools

• Gaming Paper: A new product has recently hit the gaming scene. These are 30 inch by 12 foot rolls of grid paper specially designed for table top gaming.
• Review of Gaming Paper: Trask from LivingDice.com puts Gaming Paper to the test and offers up this review.
• Alea Tools Magnetic Markers review: Johnn from Campaign Mastery reviews the Alea Tools Magnetic Markers.

Though they haven’t gotten a date for it, the pics provided for the first in WoTC’s Adventure Tools series, the Monster Builder, is worth getting excited over.

The full screenshots are over at Wizards, and I’ve gone over them each trying to ascertain basic functionality. Here’s what we’ve got thus far confirmed.:

• Monster Search –Still having access to all those monsters at a glance is huge. By their count, it’s over 2,000 hungry critters…
• Monster Editing –not only search, but you can dissect the little buggers. It’s high school science all over again. You can tweak levels and get full re-calculations on the fly, drag and drop monster powers (your own personal Frankenstein!), and search through the powers by themselves or through the monsters they are attached with. Making variants of monsters just got very very easy.
• Scratch Building –you can of course build a monster straight from your imaginarium, which you’d expect. I don’t think I’d be far off in assuming it will do basic calculations for you based on role and level.

The only thing I’m praying for are multiple output formats. I’d like to see the usual –text, html, xml. For the HTML I hope they have a seperate .css that you can link to (or their own external stylesheet would be ultra-slick).

The short of this is, I am excited about this tool and I think you should be too if you GM at all. This is the GM’s character builder, and if it delivers even most of the way we will get a powerful tool in building our adventures.

What do you think of the screens thus far?