The Grumblin' Grognard

D&D was a Wargame

2009-07-11T15:37:00.000-07:00

I have been giving this one some thought recently. I was first introduced to wargames, and it was only afterwards that I started into D&D. The concept of the mega-dungeon strikes me as a bit of a wargame. The object of a mega-dungeon is to explore and eventually conquer it. It is designed to be tough. There will be character deaths. It has a players vs. GM mentality, in that the players are actually trying to beat the dungeon. Sure it’s just a game, but the object is to beat the dungeon. This creates a sense of accomplishment, and provides a reason to play the game. There is a winner. This is all good stuff.

As I read through the old school blogs and dig into the history of the game, I get a sense that this is where the game started. It was a game of exploration, and about defeating the dungeon. It was a small scale wargame, in that there were not armies involved, but rather the characters where a small band of explorers. I get the feeling that characters where meant to be plugged into the adventure and they were kept basic on purpose. They were meant to be slightly better than normal men at arms, and one could consider them as leader types with special abilities. When I read through the original rules, I am struck by the notion of how vanilla they are. This idea supports the notion of simple characters, as they are meant to die. Why create a complex character that was not likely to survive the mission. We are not suppose to fall in love with them. They were there to fulfill a mission, and success was based on player interactions, not on character feats and abilities. This is the core of old school gaming. It’s a de-emphasis on creating super heroes. Characters were not meant to be points of light.

But, something happened along the way, and I think this is when D&D moved away from being a wargame, and turned into something a bit different. Looking at it, I think it was really unavoidable. As we played with our characters, we fell in love with them, and we wanted a bit more. This in turn led to an inflation of character abilities and the development of a campaign as a story. Why? Because role playing games pull players into their character. The game encourages players to become their characters, and no one wants to play just an ordinary character.

When I look over the various editions, that is the first thing that really pops out at me. The character classes have expanded in terms of options and abilities, and with the latest releases, they can become quite customized. I will go as far as to say that companies have made a living off creating new and expanding classes. TSR and latter WotC quickly realized that splat books sell very well, because players love their characters.

And to be honest, there is really nothing wrong with that. I think it’s a natural evolution of the game. As folks play with their characters, they become more attached to them. For example, one of the folks in my gaming group played with a character for a long time, and when his character died, he stopped playing for a long time. Subconsciously, the character became a part of him, and with his character’s death, it was like losing a long time friend. There was a sense of loss. Now I am not sure that he would phrase it quite like this, but I think its there.

I have written a bit on the evolution of D&D, and I will write a bit more on this. I suspect that as one plays, no matter how basic you make it, there is a natural tendency to want to move to a story-plot with characters that have more options.

I think this goes back to the question of why do we play the game? How is fun created? I have read that fun is not the responsibility of the GM. I am not exactly aligned to this. If the game is not fun, then why are we playing?

The answer to this question is really determined by the makeup of the group. I suspect that wargamers are more inline with playing D&D as a wargame, and have no problem with character death. On the other side, there are a folks that really enjoy role playing and want to immerse themselves into their character. These folks are going to have a tough time with character death. Now I have just painted a black and white view of the D&D player population, and I am sure that there are plenty of people that are in the middle somewhere.

With this said, I think it is interesting to note that the hardcore wargamer is going the way of the dinosaur, if one is to believe the sales numbers on wargames. Sure board games in general are probably doing ok, but the players that like games such as Squad Leader, Panzerblitz, and other Avalon Hill classics are becoming rarer. Part of this is because of the demands on adulthood, which limits the time available to play. Part of this is having trouble finding consistent opponents.

To go back to my earlier comment, D&D has a fan base that is greater than that of wargames. The focus of enjoyment is very different, and it resonates better with more folks. I suspect that is because the enjoyment of D&D centers around the shared experience of being the hero. There is an element of escapism, and the idea of knights and dragons scratches a certain romantic itch that quite a few folks have. To put it bluntly, we want to believe in magic. Disney has made a fortune on this. This is very different than the concept of D&D as a wargame, and I think explains the popularity of 3rd edition and 4th edition D&D.

Anniversary

2009-07-11T14:23:00.000-07:00

Today officially marks our 18th Anniversary. Time really flies by as you get older.

4th of July

2009-07-05T19:04:00.000-07:00

I would be remiss if I did not comment on July 4th. Officially it marks the birthday of the United States which is recognized as July 4th, 1776 when the Second Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain. When I look at this document and the Constitution, I am continual amazed at the thought that went into this documents, and I firmly believe that these are two of the most significant documents created by man, particularly with regards to self governing. They were cutting edge for their time, and are still highly respected to this day.

Consider the first couple of lines from the Declaration of Independence:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Wikipedia has this to say about the second sentence, which I have highlighted above:

This sentence has been called "one of the best-known sentences in the English language" and "the most potent and consequential words in American history". The passage has often been used to promote the rights of marginalized groups, and came to represent for many people a moral standard for which the United States should strive. This view was greatly influenced by Abraham Lincoln, who considered the Declaration to be the foundation of his political philosophy, and promoted the idea that the Declaration is a statement of principles through which the United States Constitution should be interpreted.

That is high praise indeed.

It is no secret that I am a big fan of heroic fantasy. It’s in the struggle between good and evil that everyday people step up to answer a bolder challenge than what they have previously expected. Heroic fantasy is centered on the hero answering the call and getting involved with something larger that self, and with it comes the recognition that this is worth fighting for, and if needed, to die for. It makes for exciting reading, and I never grow tired of this theme. This is exactly what happened in 1776.

When I read the above quotes from the Declaration of Independence, I know why ordinary men and women gave their lives so that we could have freedom today. Back in 1776, it was not a given that the colonies were going to win. It was a bit of a gamble, but the ideal of freedom was strong in the hearts of the leaders at that time. The founding fathers needed ordindary people to take up arms against their mother country. Not an easy thing to ask of, but the principles of the argument carried the day, and ordinary folks stepped up to the call. Of the 56 men that signed this great document, John Hancock deserves a special note as his signature is nearly 5 inches long, and I am sure that the King of England did not need his glasses to read it. He was not afraid to make a statement on what he believed, and it was quite a statement. In many ways, the American Revolution was a victory for the principles that the Declaration of Independence stood for, and I think this is what makes the United States a special place to live.

Xi'an - Terracotta Warriors

2009-07-05T18:19:00.001-07:00

More pics from Xi'an. This time the terracotta warriors.

Review: Pathfinder #7 - Edge of Anarchy

2009-07-01T13:53:00.000-07:00

Introduction

This is the first installment of the Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path, and I will be writing up reviews on all six parts with a final wrap up, very similar to what I did on first Adventure Path series. This adventure path returns to Varisa and centers around the city of Korvosal, with its troubled monarchy. It is interesting that I just blogged a bit about Cersei from Martin’s work, as there is some similarities between the two Queens. This adventure path has a number of tie in products to support it, which offers creative GM’s a number of add in options, which should enhance play. This series also contains quite a few special features that I think should raise the interest level for groups that like to try new stuff.

Nick Logue

I wrote a bit about Nick in my review of Pathfinder #3, which he wrote, so I will try not to repeat what I wrote earlier. It was about a year or so ago now that he accepted his current job with a college in England, which has taken him away from writing. This Pathfinder represents his last adventure write up for Paizo, but I would not be surprised to see him surface again. Right now he is a bit behind on his publish of Razor Coast that has a number of us chanting, “just write the book Nick.”

Layout

The layout for the new series offers a new and improved look. From its crimson red cover, to the new font, the layout is a lot nicer than the first series. The font on the earlier AP took a bit of criticism and it has been adjusted, which makes it a bit easier to read. The book itself is very similar to overall terms with the earlier series in that it is 96 pages not counting the covers, with the actual adventure taking up 51 of these pages, with an approximate word count of ~40,000 words. The book is divided up into several sections including the main adventure, two supporting articles (Harrow and People of the Road), the Pathfinder Journal, bestiary (six monsters) and the pregens.

One of the layout features that I like is the different colored heading bar and footer bars to differentiate the different sections of the book. The previous series had a color tab on the side, but I like the header and footer bars better.

It is also worth point out that the Pathfinder Journal is a bit cleaner in look than the first series.

Artwork

As with all Pathfinders published to date, this one is in full color. Wayne again is the cover artist and has drawn up an otyugh bursting out of the sewers with the ionic paladin taking center stage. The interior art is excellent, and I do want to call out a couple of specific pieces. I like the shark on page 14, but then again Discovery Shark Week is a must see for me. The art in the bestiary is very good and is probably the best section of the book from an art stand point. It is also worth pointing out that the size chart at the beginning of the bestiary is discontinued, and is replaced by a specific art piece, which in this case is a devilfish attacking a small boat.

Summary

This first module in the series is an urban adventure and the campaign kicks off with the characters hired to go after a local criminal. The characters then discover a mysterious Harrow Deck that will stay with them throughout the campaign. Things pick up as they find a brooch that belongs to the queen. The characters find out that the King has died, and they are recruited by the Korvosan Guard to apprehend a woman named Trina Sabor. In the last part of the adventure the characters need to recover the missing body of a Shoanti warrior in order to stop a war. In the final moments of the adventure, the characters witness a heroic rescue by the legendary Blackjack and mysterious black ship approaches Korvosa.

Key features

There are a number of features that this module provides that I am going to list out below:

1. The Harrow Deck, which provides more than a bit of flavor to the adventure.

2. A fully mapped out city, which is supported by the Pathfinder Chronicles Korvosa supplement.

3. Imps and Dragons. This is just wonderful flavor that defines Korvosa.

4. A roof top chase, along with rules on how to play it.

5. Six new monsters, of which the reefclaw and the raktavarna are two of my favorites of the Pathfinder monsters.

6. The Pathfinder Journal, which continues the chronicles of Eando Kline.

Final notes

Let there be no mistake in that this is an urban adventure. Folks looking for a traditional dungeon crawl will be a bit disappointed. There is a lot of fluff included in the adventure write up, which supports more role play than roll play. Some may be turned off by the heavy story elements, which are significantly stronger than in the first AP. On the flip side, this AP hangs together better than the other series, with well defined tie ins to the following adventures in this series. The Harrow Deck and roof top chase provide something a bit different for the experienced group, and I applaud the Paizo team for adding these features into this adventure. The Harrow Deck will continue to be used throughout the campaign, and I think it is a very interesting feature. There is one small dungeon in the adventure that is at the end. Most groups should be able to finish it within a session or two, as it is not very big.

Overall, I do give this module a thumbs up, but I recognize that this particular adventure is a bit of a mixed bag. Groups that really like story heavy urban adventures are going to be really happy with this one, while groups that enjoy the traditional dungeon crawl are probably not going to like it. I personally really like the way in which the Harrow Deck is used, and that makes this a more intriguing adventure to run.

Rating: 3.5 Dragons (on a scale of 5)

A Feast for Crows

2009-07-01T13:29:00.000-07:00

I just finished A Feast for Crows, and I really enjoyed it. A number of folks had said that this was their least favorite of the four books, as it has a lot less action than the previous 3 books. Some of the stuff that had been mentioned was that it was slow, and the previous POV characters were replaced by newer lesser characters. Needless to say, my expectations were very low when I started digging in, and I ended up being pleasantly surprised by the end.

While I agree that this was a slower book in terms of action, I really enjoyed the scheming that was present throughout. I especially enjoyed watching Cersei self destruct. She is probably the character that I love the hate the most out of all the characters in the book, which is quite a few. I am still hoping that she makes it to the end of the series, as I would hate to see the train wreck that is Cersei end early. I also hope all the Frey’s end up as fish food, which I think will happen.

Westeros is a web site that is devoted to discussions on A Song of Ice and Fire, which I visit from time to time to keep up on the latest discussions. The site is very good and contains very good discussion on the series so far, along with a number of possible theories on what could happen. I will also admit that after reading some of the posts on the message board, it feels like I missed just a ton of stuff that are in the books. This is probably why I do not post there, in fear of someone telling me to go re-read the books. It is truly amazing what Martin puts into his books. It’s the big things and all the little things, that makes this such an enjoyable read. I suspect that once all the books have been published, I will re-read the series, and I might actually take some notes

As a final note on this topic, GRRM posted an update on his blog back on 6/22 which seems to indicate that he is making good progress and the book could be done in the fall. This supports yesterday’s prediction of a 2010 publish, and I am holding this bold and fearless prediction.

Martin v. Tolkien

2009-06-30T20:58:00.000-07:00

Martin has written more and has Tolkien beaten on sheer size, but he is also a Jets fan, so he loses points on this score.

Time has called Martin the “American Tolkien,” which is an interesting comparison between two great authors. However, they are very different in terms of style and flavor. Tolkien is the master as epic high fantasy, bringing forth noble ideals of good and evil. He writes with a style similar to the sagas of old, and is closer to mythology in terms of content and flow. Martin is writing a fantasy soap opera that specializes in political intrigue and ambiguous morality.

I am almost done with A Feast for Crows, and I suspect that I will be done before the weekend. This will mean that I would have read it in just under 3 weeks, which is pretty good considering it is just shy of 1000 pages. Unfortunately, Dances with Dragons is not out yet, and my bold and fearless prediction is that we will see it next year. While I have no inside knowledge on how the book is coming, I suspect that it is about 80% complete, and that Martin is struggling with completing the final 20% or so. With a work as monstrous as A Song of Ice and Fire, getting the internal consistency right is probably a major under taking, and is easier said than done. It sounds like he worked hard on Dances in the first part of last year, and then slacked off in the second half of the year. I am not sure how he is doing this year, but I have not heard any significant updates, which means that he is still working on it, and it is going slowly. I am hopeful for a 2010 release. As for the final two books, hopefully we will see them before 2020.

I started reading A Game of Thrones about a year ago, and now I finishing up with Feast, which has given me time to reflect over the body of A Song of Ice and Fire. Without a doubt, it is a very ambitious project. In The Lord of the Rings, the scope of Middle Earth is epic, in that the entire history of the work has been laid out, and there are tales within tales of heroes and their triumphs and tragedies. Tolkien’s appendix found at the end of The Lord of the Rings and his companion works, contain exhaustive details on Middle Earth, and contains a very extensive time line of events. This goes to show the amount of detail that Tolkien put into the overall world. There is a depth of history and story contained within their pages. At its root, it is a tale of good and evil, where both are clearly defined, and their struggle is eternal. The theme of corruption is woven throughout the story, and the tragedies are in watching good men fall in with the manifestation of evil.

Martin is completely different. I used the term fantasy soap opera to describe A Song of Ice and Fire, which I think is very accurate. While there are struggles between the various houses, the story is really about the characters. The people in the story are neither good nor evil, but are playing the hands that they are dealt with to further their own person agendas. It feels like the young are innocent (or good), until they fall into their own ambitions of status and power. Once this happens, they fall into the inbetween category that can only be classifed as grey. Even the worst of the characters are not entirely evil, although, some of their actions are extremely vile. It’s this fuzzy nature of the morality of man that holds appeal, and that I think makes the story work. The reader can relate to the characters making mistakes, as there is a reflection of real life woven into the plot.

Martin has a number of strengths as an author, but his ability to turn a line is amazing. He can be funny, witty and sharp all in the same paragraph. His writing has an edge to it that makes it a very enjoyable read. Tolkien’s writing does not seem to have quite the same sharpness that Martin has, but it is still elegant and at times it is very bold in narrative. Tolkien really shines when the main character, representing the force of good, confronts the darkness and calls out the foulness of its being, often with reference to earlier heroes. In this regard, Tolkien is more related to Milton than to other writers of the fantasy genera. There is deepness to his story that is not commonly found in other writers.

With A Song of Ice and Fire, Martin has woven a tale that could easily have been pulled from medieval Europe. There is a certain attraction to the pageantry of the various houses and knights, and I found myself wondering what the jousting tournaments of Europe were like. This element clearly added to the enjoyment of the story.

One of the first 1000+ page novels that I read was Shogun, which checked in at about 1210 pages. To be honest, I read it after seeing the miniseries back in 1980, and I think it took me several months to read the entire thing. Shogun is just a massive literary work. I really enjoyed the political jockeying that was present between the Toranaga and Ishido as they fought for the right to be called Shogun. Now there were other factions present, including the Roman Catholic Church, which exercised considerable power in a non-Christian country, which I found very interesting, but Toranga and Ishido were the major players in the book. In some ways, A Song of Ice and Fire is very similar to Shogun, and one can see a number of common themes between the works.

As a final note, George, just write the book.

Homecoming

2009-06-28T15:26:00.000-07:00

It’s good to be home.

I spent a number of years in the Navy, and the return from deployment was always special. There was a special feeling that accompanied stepping off the plane and on to your home ground. I would picture it similar to the feeling of knights returning home to their lord’s castle after a successful campaign. For that brief shining moment, there is a heroic feeling. There is a taste of victory and accomplishment. Now I can say that after being in the business world for a number of years, there is nothing that compares to that feeling. Yes, we have good quarters, and yes it is good to get a big bonus, but nothing compares to the feeling of stepping off the plane, having your commanding officer telling you “well done,” and having friends and family greet you. It gives me goose bumps just thinking about it. Its a great feeling.

So coming home from China was not quite like that, but it was still a good feeling.

At last they rode over the downs and took the East Road, and then Merry and Pippin rode on the Buckland; and already they were singing again as they went. But Sam turned to Bywater, and so came back up the Hill, as day was ending once more. And he went on, and there was yellow light, and fire within; and the evening meal as ready, and he was expected. And Rose drew him in, and set him in the chair, and put little Elanor up his lap. He drew a deep breath. “Well, I’m back,” he said. Lord of the Rings - JRRT

This is perhaps one of my favorite paragraphs in all of literature. Sure one can argue that there are more heroic passages, and there are. One argue that there are passages that more elgantly captures the spirit of humanity, and there are. One can easily argue that it is not written very well, and I agree with that too. But this paragraph captures that special feeling that comes with homecoming, and there is nothing better.

Final day in China

2009-06-26T03:19:00.001-07:00

A year goes by very quickly. We are in the middle of packing our suit cases and we just have stuff everywhere. I suspect that today will be a long one. It seems like every time we travel the night before is always a bit crazy. I will be glad when we are safely back in the US.

I started blogging a little over a year ago partly to document my time in China. Once I started to blog, I realized I wanted to blog about a number of topics, but mostly about game related stuff. Next week I will return to blogging about game topics, but I will also post some additional pictures from China. I have a long list of stuff that I will be covering, and I should have plenty of time to cover this stuff!

Xi’an – The City Wall Pictures

2009-06-22T16:39:00.000-07:00

Enclosed are more pics from Xi’an. These were taken while walking on the wall and in the park at the base of the wall.

Xi'an

2009-06-21T05:48:00.000-07:00

Just returned from our trip through Beijing and Xi’an, and I have to say that it was awesome. Everyone knows Beijing, but not many folks may know about Xi’an. Sure folks know about the terra-cotta warriors, which are really cool, but the city itself is amazing. The inner city is surrounded by a 600 year wall that is still in great shape. The enclosed picture is from the wall. I probably could have spent the entire day taking pictures of this wall. Wikipedia has a nice summary of the city. As a quick footnote, the “X” is pronounced as “SH,” so Xi’an is pronounced “she-ann.”

Expect to see more pictures this week from Xi’an.

This one is taken from just outside the wall.

The Great Wall - more pics

2009-06-17T05:31:00.000-07:00

More Great Wall pics...

Enjoy!

The Goblin Cave…A study in over design

2009-06-16T07:47:00.000-07:00

It was almost a year ago, well maybe more like 10 months ago, I had this idea for creating a lead in dungeon for my 2009 Golarion Campaign. I wanted to begin in the middle of things, and basically be able to tell the players to start rolling initiatives because they are under attack, and then fill in the details afterwards. I was leaning towards using Paizo’s upcoming Council of Thieves (CoT) as the basis for my campaign. It was going to be the first AP specifically written for the Pathfinder rule set, and I was excited to use the new rule set with the new adventure that was written for it. No problem..right?

I started out with an idea of creating a small two level dungeon, which would just serve as an entry point to the larger Adventure Path. As I was designing it well ahead of time, I could run my son and his friends through it and get some feedback on it. The idea was to keep it fairly generic, in order to maximize its use as both a small stand alone dungeon, and a lead into to the larger adventure path.

As I was getting more and more into the creation phase, I realized I wanted to add a mega dungeon into AP, as I wanted to have both an AP and a sandbox, just to give the players more choices. With this in mind, I started thinking about linking the dungeon to other dungeons. All of a sudden two levels did not seem like enough. Two levels became three, but I was not fully happy with the way they ran together.

The more I read about Council of Thieves, the more I decided that I did not want to run a strictly urban adventure. I wanted a bit more diversity than just an urban adventure. In general, I like a good mix dungeon and wilderness adventures with a little bit of urban thrown in. Now I have not seen the final AP, so I could be totally off base.

I have just recently decided to go with Legacy of Fire (LoF), which of course required a bit of a re-write to align it to LoF and to give it an Arabian and Egyptian feel. Ten Thousand words has quickly become sixteen thousand, with more being added every day. Now just this past week, I am leaning towards adding potentially two more areas, which would mean at least another four thousand words, and I am not finished will all the hand outs. I have some rough sketches that I am still playing around with, so we shall see how it all plays out.

As I am not slated to start until August, this means I have another 2 months to think about this. As I am fleshing out this out, I am finding myself going back and adding new stuff to the older levels. For example, I really like the idea of the Harrow Deck, so I just added that as one of the magic items that could be found. I have a really cool idea on how to add this in, which I am rather excited about.

Of course I suspect that once I get back to the US, and start looking through my other books, I will add even more stuff. And this hits on the theme of the blog. I think that things tend to grow as you have more time to just think about them. With a year to think about a dungeon, it takes a life of its own. A couple of months ago, I thought I was basically finished except for the handouts, which I knew would be the last things I would be finishing. I have a tendency to just keep adding more and more stuff right up until the last minute. I am wondering if I am not alone in this?

What once started out as a small simple dungeon is now turning into its own mini mega dungeon. I suspect that my players may not get much past level 2, but that does not appear to be stopping the construction project that has become The Goblin Cave.

The Great Wall

2009-06-15T07:22:00.000-07:00

WOW!

That’s a big WOW, not a little wow. The Great Wall is just impressive. Pictures do not do it justice. It is a wall with numerous guard towers running along the length of it. The terrain that it sits on is rugged hilly terrain, which makes it all the more impressive. When one is actually on the wall, the verticle nature of the wall as it climbs the hills is an amazing view. Needless to say, it is a bit of a bear walking up and down all the little steps, but it is a great workout.

Now I have a soft spot for the European style castles. I love everything about the old castles, and Europe has a number of really interesting ones. The multi-floor designs with the guard towers resonate well with me. One can picture knights going forth into battle with their pageantry held high. It’s all good stuff.

But the Great Wall is a bit different than that. Looking out over the hillside is an awesome view. A number of trees have grown up very close to the wall, which I suspect were not there several centuries ago, add to the scenic view. It seems hard to believe that this was built so long ago. It would be quite an undertaking now to build something that is 4000 miles long with modern tools and equipment.

I found the guard towers to be very interesting. The inside was not just one big open area, but rather bunch of smaller areas. There where a number of walls in the towers that divided up the inner area. In most of the towers, there must have been ladders leading to the roofs, as they were all gone, except for the open hatch that lead to the roof. I was actually a bit disappointed that a ladder way was not still present to climb up to the roof.

I have enclosed a number of pictures that we took today, and I will try to post some more within the next day or two.

Enjoy!

Enclosed is a snippet from Wikipedia.

The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built, rebuilt, and maintained between the 5th century BC and the 16th century to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire from Xiongnu attacks during various successive dynasties. Since the 5th century BC, several walls have been built that were referred to as the Great Wall. One of the most famous is the wall built between 220–206 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. Little of that wall remains; it lay farther north than the current wall, which was built during the Ming Dynasty.

The Great Wall stretches over approximately 6,400 km (4,000 miles) from Shanhaiguan in the east to Lop Nur in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia, but stretches to over 6,700 km (4,160 miles) in total; a more recent archaeological survey using advanced technologies points out that the entire Great Wall, with all of its branches, stretches for 8,851.8 km (5,500.3 mi). At its peak, the Ming Wall was guarded by more than one million men. It has been estimated that somewhere in the range of 2 to 3 million Chinese died as part of the centuries-long project of building the wall.

China - less than 2 weeks to go

2009-06-14T07:23:00.000-07:00

China – 2 weeks left

Well two weeks left in China and then I head back to the US. It has been a fast year. There are going to be things that I will miss and there are things that I am looking forward to back in the US. Shanghai is actually a very interesting place to live. My boss has a saying that all things are possible here in China, but not necessarily easy.

I suspect that my blogging over the next two weeks will be rather light, as I work on getting ready to leave. Once I get home, I should be back to my normal schedule of blogging. We are spending this week in Beijing and Xian, which will be our last trip we take inside of China. We waited until the last minute to travel to Beijing, but we wanted to make sure that we visited the numerous sites about Beijing, including The Great Wall, prior to coming home.

Overall, I think this has been a good experience for the family. I think the kids will really appreciate it as they get a bit older. I think any chance to do something a bit out of the ordinary is a good thing.

Paizocon

On a similar note, one of the things that I am missing this week is Paizocon. There were a couple of conventions that I really would have liked to have attended, and this was one of them. Gencon will probably be the only convention that I will be able to attend based on my schedule. Next year, I am hoping to attend this one, as well as a couple of other ones. One of the things that I do like is the number of postings on the Paizo boards about the various updates and such.

This brings me to a general comment on conventions. One of the things that I really enjoy about a good convention, besides meeting tons of folks that like gaming, is attending the seminars. I will be honest on this one, playing the games is fun and all, but I really like attending the seminars that give an inside look at what is coming down the pike. For some reason, and I maybe totally alone on this one, I really like hearing about all the new stuff, and in some cases being able to buy advance copies of gaming material before it hits the shelves.

The second thing I really like about conventions is wandering about the vendor booths and talking with the folks that actually are creating the material. I could spend hours just looking at the miniatures on display. The stuff on display is just stunning to look at. At my last Gencon, I stopped by the Green Ronin, and ended up talking with one of the folks there about the Dolphins for about 30 mins or so. It’s all good stuff.

As a final note, yes living here in China is cool, but I am looking forward to getting back to the states.

The Fantasy Internet of Magic

2009-06-12T06:52:00.000-07:00

Magic is such a great topic to blog a bit about. I think everyone thinks about it a little differently. I was skimming through the Paizo message board and one post popped out at me, so I will write some of my thoughts on magic in general.

One of the things I actually liked about Forgotten Realms was the way they approached magic. Basically the premise was that there is a weave that flows through everything, and magic users tap into it to perform magic. There is probably more to it than that, but that is my take away on it. This is a simple, yet elegant way of describing how one can access magic. What I really like this is that it becomes really easy to show how dead magic areas can come about. The weave goes through almost everything, but there are some areas that the weave does not go through, and in these areas, magic is not accessible. In modern terms, it’s like not having good reception on your mobile phone. In some areas, the reception is just terrible. As an aside, I am sitting in my concrete office and the mobile phone reception is horrible. However, my internet connect is great as my wireless router about 2 feet from my notebook. This is basically how I think about magic. You are tapping into a magical wireless internet.

In the real world, sometimes the internet connect gets a bit flaky. I see magic the same way. Sometimes things do not quite work the way you expect them to. It’s not really explainable, it just is. I really like the idea that there is always a small chance that magic just does not work right. In 20 sided die terms, I am thinking a 1 or a 2. If the player or GM (for monsters/NPCs) rolls a 1 or a 2, nothing happens. With a roll of a 2, nothing happens, but the character does not lose the spell. With a roll of a 1, it’s a total dud, and you lose the spell. Same with monsters. Now as I take away, I have to give back. With a die roll of a 20, the effect or range or duration is doubled. I like that randomness of this. It’s a bit like critical hits and fumbles, only with spells.

On the Paizo board, there are folks that like this type of mechanic for magic, and there are some that just hate it. I like it as it adds a bit of flavor to magic. There is an unpredictable element to it. It is powerful, but at the same time sometimes it is a bit flaky. Now I totally understand some folk’s opinion that this punishes the magic user. So I have to agree with this, however that is why I like the idea that a natural 20 is like a critical hit.

In my games, a 20 is a critical hit in terms of using weapons, and a roll of a 1 or a 2 is an automatic miss. The concept here is that no matter how good you get, there is still a 10% chance that you miss regardless of how many pluses you have. Nothing is a sure thing. Now, the probabilities maybe very good, but they will never exceed 90%. I personally think this is a good thing. Hits should not be automatic. There should always be a chance of failure. If there is no chance of failure, then the game loses something. That feels too safe. When I play D&D, I want to know that I have accomplished something in game, and to have that feeling, there has to be a risk, otherwise the reward does not mean that much. It always feels better to earn something, rather than just be handed something.

I feel the same way about magic. I do not like the concept that it always works. I think that’s because in real life, there are no guarantees. There are no sure things. You have to weigh the probabilities and take some chances. I think this adds a dimension to D&D, and does not detract from the game.

However, with that said, I do understand the other side of the argument which says that this penalizes magic users and hurts the group. So this argument has merit. That is also why I like the idea that a roll of a 20 results in something very favorable. It becomes a bit like gambling. The payoff is huge, but there is a chance that something could go wrong. I also believe that it is the players that make up the game not characters. As the players start to run low on resources, they have decision to make. It does not mean that they have to pack it up. I am a believer that if there are any specialty item required, it should be found in the dungeon. A dungeon should not be just a hack and slash fest, but rather should have interesting and challenging rooms that require something more than just a strong sword.

Anyway, I will be adding this as a house rule and we shall see how it plays out.

The Hobbit Updates

2009-06-12T06:49:00.000-07:00

Last week the packers came to pack up our stuff to take it back to the US, and unfortunately I had to pack up my copy of The Hobbit. I will be back in the States in about 2 weeks, and then I will start blogging again on The Hobbit. My goal is to write a blog on each chapter, which might take awhile to write up, but that is still my goal.

The Future of Gaming

2009-06-10T19:36:00.000-07:00

This week, I have been thinking a bit about the pace of technology and its effect on gaming. Clearly video games have been getting better as the hardware has been more powerful. I can remember when my buddy Doug’s dad bought their Apple II, and a new game called Ultima. Ultima was cutting edge at the time, and we all would spend hours watching him play. Doug was a good sport, and we took turns getting behind the keyboard. Fast forward ~25 years and the graphics in today’s games are just eye poppingly good. Today I do not play computer games that much, although I am looking forward to seeing Bioware’s Dragon Age game. I am sure that I will be spending some time playing around with Dragon Age. But gaming is more than just computer gaming, even though that is the obvious example.

When D&D first hit the street, the PC had not yet hit main stream. It would be the introduction of the Apple II that really got the ball rolling. Since then, everyone has a PC, and in most cases folks have a notebook computer that they send a significant amount of time on. The emergence of cloud computing has led to a dramatic increase in the ways that we communicate and share data. When I think of the greatest inventions of the past 2000 years, I have to rank the personal computer, and by extention the internet, in the top 10. Our ability to collaborate without even seeing the other person we are talking to is amazing when you think about it. I suspect that this trend will continue.

But what does this really mean at the game table? I am not sure, but it is interesting to speculate on what it could mean.

1) Technology has enabled virtual gaming. One can host a game over web with folks in other countries. I see this trend increasing. WotC is trying to get their hands around this one with their DDI, as they see possibilities of the virtual game table. I agree with them on this point. However, virtual gaming leaves me a bit cold. I like the direct interaction around the table, and virtual connectedness lacks something. It’s just not the same. But, if one cannot find a group in their local area, virtual gaming creates possibilities. My gut feel though is that computer games like WoW will rule this space, as the user experience is better.

2) Information sharing through the web. If one goes back 30 years, there was no internet. To be honest, looking back at that period it feels like the stone age. It is amazing at what is available at my finger tips in seconds. I just have type an idea, and content is available instantly. As a result, our ability to react to this information has become a lot faster. Scanning through message boards and blogs, I can find a number of good ideas for game encounters. If I am willing to engage, I can get more insight on the information that is being presented. This brings me to the topic of data. Data is just that …data. Not very useful in its raw form. The key to data is to transform it to information and to insight. The tools on the web allow us to do that very well. This really has created cloud computing.

3) The tools are changing. When I first started playing, there were no computers at the table. Now it seems that most tables have at least one, and I have seen tables with multiple computers on it. The notebook is an amazing tool to bring at the table, but it can also be a big distraction. Where I work, meetings are an interesting experience. Everyone brings their notebooks, which as a result, most folks are paying more attention to their notebook than to the speaker. The notebook brings distraction with its email, web surfing and IM’s. I can see this play out at the game table too. I mention notebooks, but the smart phone falls into this category too. This challenge will increase over time.

There are some advantages to having these tools at the table, so it’s not all bad. Regardless of which version of D&D one likes, there is a significant amount of material available. Let me say it like this. I suspect that no one has a complete collection of everything D&D. It’s just too much. However, most of us own an embarrassingly large collection of D&D material, most of which we probably do not even use. The ability to use technology to shrink the number of books used at the table is a good thing. In my lat campaign, I had a crate of 10-15 books which I had standing by for reference, as well as my notebook computer for taking notes and cross checking my campaign outline. Management of the data was critical. For my next campaign, I will greatly simplify which books I am going to use.

Staying on this subject, I am very curious to see how folks will use smart phones and netbooks at their table in the future. They are limited in what they can do, but they are highly portable and can be used to bring up specific information very quickly. I suspect that they will not be a standalone tool, but they can augment what is already being used.

4) Tactical mapping. One of the comments I see again and again pop up is that folks want tactical maps. 20 years ago, we just scribbled on a piece of paper and that was good enough. We have always had strategic maps that showed an overview of a town or a wilderness area, but these were not tactical maps. It seems like most tables have some sort of battle mat tool to help with combat. I am going to go out on a limb and say that 4th edition was designed with the battle mat in mind. That was a core feature that they wanted to include in the game. It was with the 3.5 edition that the battle mat was recognized as a highly recommended tool, and that diagrams were shown with the grid lines. Even though some us (me included) will rant against this, when push comes to shove, we will be cranking out our mats and putting the mini’s on them. To be perfectly honest here, I have 2 large battle mats. I suspect I am not alone here.

5) On demand printing. Printing is an interesting beast. Everyone has a printer. Anyone can print out a nice looking document. However, what has really exploded is the digital document. With the digital document, one does not have to print it out. With a digital document, a 3rd party can print in a variety of formats and send out to anyone. I am thinking of Lulu, but I think there will be other companies that will offer this service. Print on demand offers a number of benefits including lower inventory costs, and custom print solutions. It will be interesting to see what the effect of this new print model will have on the gaming industry. Potentially we could be moving to the growth of the smaller game publishers which can take advantage of these new tools and effectively out maneuver larger companies in some niche areas.

2009 Golarion Campaign – The Forgotten Gods

2009-06-06T06:09:00.000-07:00

I have a working outline for my campaign which will formally kickoff after GenCon. I will be using the new Pathfinder rule set and I will also have a set of house rules. Once I have the new rules in my hands, I will be finalizing the house rules. There is a certain feel that I am looking for. As I have stated in my earlier blogs, I want an “Indiana Jones” feel to the campaign. By this I mean that the characters are explorers rather than heroes, each with his/her own reason for wanting to explore. I will be using guilds, and the two that I am thinking of introducing right away are the Pathfinder Guild and the Delver’s Guild (from Ptolus). I like the concept behind them. The Pathfinder Guild is about exploring to gain knowledge, particularly lost knowledge, while the Delver’s guild is more about exploring in general. It’s this gritty hands on passion for lost treasure and artifacts that I want to be the player’s focus.

I finally decided on a name for the campaign, “The Forgotten Gods,” which I think sums up the overall plot arc very well. I like to have background plot arc that helps to give the campaign a bit of flavor. My last campaign was called, Rise of the Chaos Lords, in which a number of Chaos Lords from the abyss where making a power play that was spilling into the material world. While the adventure was centered inside the city of Ptolus, there were a number of chaos factions both inside the city and outside the city that ultimately had an impact on what was going on inside Ptolus. In essence, Ptolus became a smaller version of the larger conflict. It was this larger conflict that gave context to smaller things that were going on. I thought this worked out very well, and it was very interesting listening to them try to put the pieces together.

For this campaign, the overall plot arc will take the characters through Legacy of Fire (LoF) and on to Necropolis, with a stop in the City of Brass. This will campaign will definitely have an Arabian Nights/Egyptian feel to it, which will a first for me. In the past, I have run European style campaigns, so this is definitely new territory, which I think is good. One of the strengths of D&D is that one can pick from any number of settings, and each has a different feel to them. At some point, I want to run a Viking style adventure, but that will probably be a few years out.

The campaign will start out in media res, meaning that I will start them right in the middle of the action. One of them will have acquired a “treasure” map that leads to a lost artifact called the Rod of Rahotep, which has lead them to northern Katapesh and the Brazen Peaks. The actual starting point will be in front of small hidden cave that leads to a multi-level dungeon that has the working title of “The Goblin Cave.”

The Goblin Cave started out as a 3 level dungeon, but I have expanded upon it quite a bit. Now that I have decided on an overall campaign arc, it is undergoing a face lift to give it the appropriate feel of dungeon in northern Katapesh, as well as tie it in to the overall campaign. At the moment it is 15,000 words, and growing.

From here, the characters will meet up with merchant princess Almah and that will formally start the Legacy of Fire AP. Now I want to play the AP very loosely, meaning that if they want to deviate from the plot line, I am going to let them. There are a number of breaks in the AP, and I have plans to fill them with smaller quests and adventuring possibilities. Through all of this, I want to keep to the theme of Indiana Jones style adventuring. Without giving away too much, I can say that there are a couple of artifacts that play a major role in LoF, which I think will work out well with the feel that I am trying to capture.

Once LoF has played out, it is off to Osirion and the providence of Khemit, which will host the mega-dungeon of Necropolis. Necropolis is a very challenging dungeon in terms of play for both the players and the GM. After Necropolis, I have a couple of ideas kicking around, but I probably have a year or so to think about that. My thought is that after Necropolis, the characters would be 20th level, and it would be time for some epic adventuring.

One of the things I want to be very careful with is the LoF AP. While I want the players to go through it, I do not want to create a rail road that handcuffs them. With this in mind, I have a couple of ideas. The first part of LoF is actually rather loose, with plenty of options available to the players. With this in mind, I want to create meaty side treks that they can explore as much or as little as they want. I am also thinking about creating a completely different alternate adventure option that is more of a sandbox just in case they just really want to do their own thing. In other words, their participation in LoF is really up to them.

We shall see how it all works out. I have another two months to bring it all together.

General Stuff

2009-06-06T01:52:00.000-07:00

I have been fairly lazy with my blogging this week. My motivation has been lagging a bit with the other activities that have been occupying my time. I have three weeks left in China before returning to the US. My remaining time left will just fly by. Yesterday the packers came and now we are living out of suitcases until we leave. Most of my game stuff that I brought with me will be intransit for the next 2 months or so. Hopefully we will get it soon, along with the rest of the stuff.

I was also able to close on my new car when I get back to the States. I had sold my old one before going to China, so I need a new one when I arrive back. I am picking up the Toyota Venza, as it is a good mix between fun and utility. Yesterday I received confirmation that they had acquired the car I was looking for and it will be ready when I get back. I am actually really excited about this. While I do not consider myself a car buff by any stretch of the imagination, I do enjoy getting a new car. I have a tendancy to keep cars for ~8 years, so this does not happen that often. At the moment, I have a driver and a silver mini-van, so it will be fun to get behind the wheel again. I am convinced that in China, mini-vans only come in one color and that is silver. Although, there are a couple of blue and white ones, but for the most part, they are silver.

My son has been getting back interested in playing D&D again. With him, his interest comes and goes, but he has been back interested again. When I mentioned in passing Tomb of Horrors, he immediately wanted to play through. I did give him fair warning. He and his friend created 4 10th level C&C characters, and I am using the 3rd edition version that was published on the WotC website. We played for an hour or so this morning, and they have figured out the right entrance to in, after hitting the traps on the other ones. They know to look for traps, and they have found a couple, so we will see how it goes in the next session.

Pictures and Such

2009-06-02T07:57:00.000-07:00

Just because I am feeling lazy today. Enjoy the pictures!

As an aside, these guys really know their bamboo!

The Hobbit – Riddles in the Dark

2009-05-30T23:18:00.000-07:00

An aptly named chapter that hints at the darker nature of man.

Chapter Summary

Bilbo finds a magic ring and then plays a riddle game with a odd creature called Gollum. Bilbo wins the contest with a questionable riddle, which Gollum does not appreciate. After a chase through the goblin tunnels, Bilbo eventually makes his way to freedom.

Analysis and Discussion

This is the famous chapter in which Bilbo finds the Ring. The Ring in The Hobbit takes on the appearance of a simple magic ring which grants the wearer invisibility. The true nature of the Ring is not full revealed until the Lord of the Rings. With the writing of the Lord of the Rings a substantial rewrite of this chapter was required to bring it in line with the larger story of Middle Earth.

Most of this chapter consists of the riddle game between Bilbo and Gollum. Although all of the riddles told are well known at this point, it is an interesting read through none the less. The game of riddles is an old one, with riddles appearing in a number of works with perhaps the most famous of the older works being Oedipus and the riddle of the Sphinx. I suspect that the good professor took a lead from Norse mythology, of which he was very acquainted with, as the riddle game appears in a number of the Norse mythologies. This is clearly a nod to the older works.

In The Hobbit the theme of greed and the destruction it brings, is liberally sprinkled throughout. The dwarves are haunted by it, and it is gold that is at the very core of their journey. The Ring is also gold, and as the text points out it was a very beautiful golden ring, and it inspires a similar type of greed. The full back story of Gollum is not shared in this story, but there are some bits and pieces scattered about. The narrator describes Gollum as “…old Gollum, a small slimy creature.” The key descriptors here are old and slimy. Forgotten by all, but possessing a mighty treasure with the power to conquer Middle Earth, yet Gollum is possessed by small greed, and he has been forced to live life buried in the bowels of the Misty Mountains. He has become slimy and can no longer be considered clean.

The question of the Ring is whether it creates greed in the possessor or simply brings it to the surface. I would argue that man’s sin of greed is already present, and the Ring brings it to the forefront is a horrific way. Gollum was once a hobbit, but that can now no longer be said of his current condition. He has been transformed into something else entirely. The sinful nature of greed has now been moved from an inner vice to his outward appearance, which is a reflection of his inner flaws. He can no longer escape what he has become. Such is the power of greed, and this is what the Ring brings out in people. I call Gollum’s greed “small greed,” as he does not wish to conquest, but rather he wants to possess that which does not belong to him. His mind has warped events around the Ring coming into his possession, and remains convinced that it was rightfully his birthday present. It is interesting how things can become twisted as we try to rationalize events in the past, which clearly has happened, and even the narrator remains suspicious of Gollum’s birthday present claim. Even the name he gives the ring, “my precious,” hints at the greed that is in his heart. It is a frightening reminder that even little character flaws can have terrifying results. Fortunately for Bilbo, he does possess good character, and does not possess the Ring long enough to fully corrupt him. Although, one does not half to look very far to see what would have happened if Bilbo held on to the Ring longer than he did.

The back and forth that follows turns into a tense game with freedom or something worse as the stakes in the game. Bilbo holds his own well enough, as he is in the hot seat throughout the game. With the game lasting longer than Bilbo would have liked, his luck runs out as it is his turn, and he does not have a riddle to ask. He blurts out a question that Gollum takes as a riddle. The questionable riddle is now on the table, and Gollum knows that he been played unfairly. Not at all happy with the way the game has turned out, Gollum retreats back to his hole in hopes to find something to even the score, only to find that he no longer possesses his “precious.”

A cat and mouse chase leads Bilbo to the exit. Bilbo finds himself behind Gollum, armed with a sword and a magical ring, with freedom just up ahead. It would be a quick end to a pitiful creature, but something stays Bilbo’s hand.

“A sudden understanding, a pity mixed with horror, welled up in Bilbo’s heart: a glimpse of endless unmarked days without light or hope of betterment….All these thoughts passed in a flash of a second. He trembled. And then quite suddenly in another flash, as if lifted by a new strength and resolve, he leaped. No great leap for a man, but a leap in the dark.”

That is quite a paragraph. Pity stayed his hand. It was the realization that Gollum was a victim of his own selfish nature, and the punishment was a severe one. Bilbo probably thought that he was unworthy to overturn a judgment that had been made. Whereas a knife in the back would have been so easy, he finds that he cannot do it. He takes a higher road, and with this realization comes strength and resolve. It was not a great leap, yet it was still a leap of faith into the unknown.

It is at this point, that marks a turning point in the journey for Bilbo, and he has moved from a passenger on a journey to an active participant in his own development. This is not to say that he does not face self doubts, or nagging notions of smallness, but rather he has discovered an inner source of strength that will guide him well in the trials that await ahead of him.

2009-05-28T01:54:00.000-07:00

James over at Grognardia stirred up a hornet’s nest with his “More than a Feeling” blog. His basic premise was that old school play is more than just a nostalgic feeling, but rather it is a certain style of play that was very common back in the early days of D&D. He goes on to say that if old school really is just a feeling, then it would be difficult to argue what is really old school, as feelings are very subjective and almost impossible to quantify objectively. James strikes me as a guy that likes to look at things through an objective lense, and shies away from subjective feelings, which is difficult to form a defensible position in which to engage in a meaningful debate.

I agree that D&D is game that when it was introduced was like nothing else on the market. Created by wargamers for wargamers, it offered something very different from the traditional wargame that featured cardboard counters or historical miniatures.

But, with that said, it is still a game. New school or old school, whatever you want to call it, this is still a game. With that in mind, the enjoyment for me, comes not from the rule set, but from the folks around the table.

Originally, I was going to call this blog, “It’s all about the GM.” In my mind, the GM holds a significant place at the table. The GM is one part referee and one part story teller. There are GM’s out there that I would join up in a heartbeat. They have a special knack for pulling the players into the game. Not everyone has this. Their ability to provide that magical touch transcends rule sets. When I was younger, there was a GM in our group, Mike, who was amazing. Sure his stuff was completely off the wall, but he could weave a good story. He liked the high-level epic stuff, and it was frequently said that his adventures were the only ones in which a death salad was a wandering monster. He did not run 1st level adventures. When you joined his game, you knew that it was not going to be a standard adventure with orcs and trolls. This was going to be something else entirely. And by the way, characters died on a regular basis, but the treasure was always very cool. I lost an 18th level paladin in 10 minutes in one of his adventures. It was crazy fun, and it was his style of play that made it fun.

But that is really only half the story. For the GM, the fun is with the folks around the table. Nothing makes me chuckle more than when the characters blunder into something that turns out to be rather funny (like when paladin walked into the goblin trap that dropped a bunch of poop on his head - that was some funny stuff). To me, D&D has become the replacement for the guy’s poker night. Of course I like playing poker and drinking a beverage of choice as much as the next guy, and in that environment, it is still about the folks around the table. Winning the big hand is always a lot of fun. With the right folks around the table, D&D is a lot like that.

Now I will be the first to admit that there is a bit of nostalgia in those early games, and it is really hard to recreate that. I suspect that there are middle aged guys out there that played in the 80’s that are looking to recreate that spark, and my theory is that in some cases, this is what provides the fuel to the old school movement. This is definitely a feeling. But that feeling is hard to recreate without understanding what created that in the first place. I agree that the original rule set and the open style of play is at the heart of those early days. Everything was a bit looser, and the GM’s just made up stuff on the fly. This was all good stuff.

I think there is a natural evolution that creeps into games like this, and when more and more stuff gets published, the rule set gets longer and longer. I think that is the nature of the beast. With more rules, there is a sort of role playing physics that is created. Everyone knows the physics, as we all have the games. GM’s that deviate from these rules leave us a bit confused and may even create anger and disappointment. Things are not suppose to work like that we would argue. Magic ceases to be magic, and instead becomes physics that can be defined within a set of rules. I think there is a bit of fun that escapes when this happens. Rules Darwinism will eventually stamp out magic altogether, and the game magic that existed in the early days will go the way of the dinosaur, which would be a sad day indeed. Sometimes magic just needs to be magic.

So to come full circle on this blog post, it’s the people around the table that make the game fun. If you are going to spend 4+ hours playing this game, you really should like the folks you are gaming with. I definitely like a looser game, and I want to keep the magic in D&D. When I GM, I want to be fair and consistent, and I also want to be able to just wing it, and say “its magic” and not have to explain the theory behind it. In the early days, there was a feeling of adventure where anything could happen, and everyone at the table was aligned to this. The GM promised to bring the magic, and we promised to buy into his adventure.

In the early days, the fun was created by the people around the table, and today, for me, it is still about the people around the table.

Pandas

2009-05-27T23:16:00.000-07:00

So this weekend is Dragon Boat Festival in China, so we are off to Chengdu to see the Pandas. For the pricy ticket of 1000 RMB ($145 USD) one can hold a panda and get a picture taken. This compares to the free price to wander around with the kangaroos and the $20US to hold the koala in Australia. It appears that China has Australia beat on market economics.

With this in mind, I will post today, and then it will be a couple of days before I can blog again.

1 Page Dungeon Monstrosity - The Dwarven Hall

2009-05-26T01:43:00.000-07:00

My 1 page dungeon monstrosity

I have noticed that other are posting their 1 page dungeons, so I will follow suit. I was going to wait until after the competition was done, but it since other are posting I am going to go ahead and post mine.

As one can tell, I squished a lot into this 1 page dungeon. As one is looking through it, note the color coded locks, which I think is one of the more interesting features of this dungeon. And of course it has a dragon as the final encounter, which I thought was appropriate!

Enjoy!

The PDF version is a little easier to read, so if anyone wants the PDF, just send me an email, and I will send it off to you.

As a final note, Chatty has posted the complete list of everyone who entered, and folks are adding their websites with their 1 -page entries. I am looking forward to reading through all the entries!

The Children of Hurin

2009-05-24T05:36:00.000-07:00

As I am re-reading The Hobbit, a number of other bloggers are posting their commentary on The Children of Hurin, which is an altogether different book. The Hobbit is quite a bit lighter compared to the tragic tale of Hurin. The Hobbit is more of a standard work of fiction that flows with voice of the narrator, and makes it a very easy read to enjoy. The Children of Hurin reads like a legend of old, which is appropriate as the subject matter is from the first age, when gods walked with men, and the elves where at the height of their power. The Hobbit has an upbeat tone to it, and can be seen as having a positive ending with the defeat of Smaug, the return of the dwarves to the Lonely Mountain, and the Men of Lake-Town seem to be destined for better days ahead. I suspect that because of this, Tolkien is thought of as a lightweight story teller. Nothing could be further from the truth. Hurin is a tale of tragedy, with its dark foreshadowing of things to come. It is here that Tolkien's vision of the first age comes full circle when added to his earlier Silmarillion. Its heroes are beings of legend, and its villians are the darkest of foes, which are committed to the destruction of elves and men. There are very few books that can boast piting their heroes against gods, balrogs and dragons, and even fewer authors willing to let their heroes suffer the fate that befalls Hurin and his sons. Beowulf would be humbled in such great company.

Enclosed are links to 3 essays by Brian Murphy and Deuce Richardson

Brian’s review
Brian’s Top Fantasy Battles #7
Deuce’s review

Enjoy, as they are very good reads.

The Hobbit – Over Hill and Under Hill

2009-05-23T07:12:00.000-07:00

Enter the goblins.

Chapter Summary

Crossing through the Misty Mountains, Bilbo and the dwarves are captured by the goblins. Gandalf comes in and saves the day, leading the dwarves to safety. However, in the final sentences, as they are making their escape, Dori loses Bilbo and the chapter ends there.

Analysis and Discussion

The Misty Mountains serve as a physical boundary that separates the civilized from the wild. On the other side of the mountains one can find the appropriately named Mirkwood, which implies something quite sinister, and of course the dragon. It is fitting that Rivendell represents the calm before the storm, as a terrible lightning storm confronts the party in the opening pages of the chapter.

One of the more interesting bits in The Hobbit is the description of the storm in which stone giants are tossing rocks at each other. This is the only place that I know of where the stone giants are mentioned. The mental image of the giants throwing rocks as the lightning flashes is quite vivid, and gives the storm a more ominous feel to it. It is as if the giants are part of the storm, not just merely passive spectators to nature’s fury. It also raises questions as to whether the storm is natural or unnatural. In the follow up Lord of the Rings, again the Misty Mountains serve as a barrier, and it is a snow storm that confronts Frodo’s party, forcing them to take an underground route. The implication in there is that the storm is a product of something malevolent, and not the work of the natural world.

As Bilbo’s party takes shelter from the storm, they are confronted and captured by the goblins. Throughout The Hobbit, the term goblin is used, while in the larger follow on work, the term orc is used. One frequently used explanation is that Misty Mountain goblins are smaller than orcs, and are more concentrated in the mountains, while the orcs range throughout Middle Earth. In The Hobbit, the goblins appear almost comical when compared to the orcs found in the Lord of the Rings. I suspect that nature of The Hobbit as a whole is intended for a younger audience, and the term orc is meant to imply something a bit darker and fouler than what is found the earlier work. This supports the claim that Tolkien meant for the Lord of the Rings to be a deeper work than what is found in The Hobbit, and as such tackles grimmer and grittier themes than those present in The Hobbit.

In the previous chapter, Elrond identifies the elven swords Orcrist and Glamdring. It is interesting to note that even Gandalf did not know of their names nor of their history. I suspect that he had a good idea of where they came from, but clearly the details eluded him. When Orcrist is presented to the great goblin after the dwarves were captured, he immediately knew what it was. I find this point very interesting, and worthy of some further discussion. Often in literature, the heroes of the story do not realize the tools that they possess to get some particularly difficult task accomplished. This is frequently used to create a story arc of discovery which unfolds as the heroes progress through the story. While the heroes may not understand what they possess, the villains always know. There is this theme in literature that suggests evil understands the power of good, and cannot stand before these instruments. They intuitively know, and shy away from these instruments. In this tale, the Great Goblin, and the rest of his pack understand what Thorin is carrying, even if Thorin does not. Their reaction is immediate.

“Also, he has not explained this!.....The Great Goblin gave a truly awful howl of rage when he looked at it, and all his soldiers gnashed their teeth, clashed their shields, and stamped. They knew the sword at once.”

This reaction is similar to how a vampire would react when confronted with a holy symbol. The reaction is immediate, as the revulsion is powerful.

“They hated it and hated worse any one that carried it.”

Gandalf appears, and rescues the dwarves from certain death. The goblins take chase, and Tolkien gives us an insight into the nature of goblins with his description of the chase. He uses the phrase, “..flap of the goblin feet, many many feet..” This gives an image of rodents scurrying through an underground tunnel, which I suspect was done on purpose. In the short story The Rats in the Walls, Lovecraft weaves a tale of horror based on the sound of rats racing behind the walls. While I am not sure if Tolkien ever read this tale, I can say that he was clearly tapping into this imagery with this choice of words, and the comparison between goblins and rats is an interesting one.

Monstrous Discussions – Goblins

For the record, I really like goblins. They are small creatures that inhabit caves and other dark places. They are not as fierce as their larger cousins, the hobgoblin or the bugbear, but there is still something special about them. They can be played serious or they can be played light and humorous, as they are meant to challenge low level players. I really like Paizo’s reimaging of the goblin that they did for Pathfinder #1, and expanded upon in their Classic Monsters Revisited.

In this chapter, I think Tolkien was looking for something in between sinister and comical. He was considerate of the younger audience when he wrote, yet he did not water the content down too much. The goblins in The Hobbit are not simply mindless beasts, but they do possess some level of rational thought. The Great Goblin could have had them killed right away, but he was willing to trade words with Thorin, before deciding that they would be better off dead.

This feel of the goblins still colors my image of them, and in particular, it is the animated version of the goblins that has stuck with me throughout the years. After the Fellowship movie, smallish creatures that can climb walls like vermin has given me another dimension to add to the goblins. This goes back to the comparison to rats, which resonates rather well with me. In some ways, I do consider goblins to be the rats of the dungeon.

Chordille Keep - The Goblin Lair

2009-05-22T06:06:00.000-07:00

The Goblin Lair (areas 13-16)
This series of rooms now hosts a goblin war band led by a goblin brute. All the goblins in the area fear the brute, as his reputation is much greater than his actual fighting prowess. Most of the other races that make up the bestial host leave him alone, as he is particularly difficult to work with. As the characters wander into this area, it is likely to become one large melee as the goblins will join in any fight, as they do not want to face the wrath of the brute. In any combat, after 2 rounds, all the goblins in these rooms will come out to investigate. Once the goblins in the barracks join in any fight, roll once on the random re-enforcement chart to see what additional re-enforcements are available.

13. The Goblin Brute.
This is where the goblin brute can be found with his two body guards. As soon as an intruder enters, the goblin body guards will attack immediately. The goblin brute will attempt to attack the weakest party member, in order to preserve his combat legacy. The goblins in the neighboring rooms will come and investigate in 2 rounds.

1 goblin brute. AC 17, HD3, HP18, Dam 1d6+1 (short sword)
2 goblins. AC 15, HD1, HP5, Dam 1d6 (short sword)
Treasure: 4d6 gold, potion of bull’s strength

Goblin barracks (Area 14 & 15).
Areas 14 and 15 are the goblin barracks. At any given time, there will be 2 goblins in each room, with a 20% chance of additional goblins being in the rooms or close by. Each goblin has 1d4 gold. Once combat is joined, there is a chance that additional goblins join in. Roll once on the chart below to see what re-enforcements are available. The concept is to provide a larger scale battle with random re-enforcements joining in.

Re-enforcement chart (roll once)

Die Roll (1d8) Re-enforcements

1. No further re-enforcements
2. 1 additional goblin joins in 1 round
3. 2 additional goblins join 2 rounds after combat starts
4. 3 additional goblins join 3 rounds after combat starts
5. 1 goblin riding a goblin dog joins in 3 rounds.
6. 1 goblin joins after 1 round, and another goblin joins after 3 rounds.
7. 1 additional goblin joins in 2 rounds
8. No further re-enforcements

14. Goblin barracks
2 goblins. AC 15, HD1, HP3, Dam 1d6 (short sword)

15. Goblin barracks

2 goblins. AC 15, HD1, HP3, Dam 1d6 (short sword)

16. Goblin Kennels
This was once a small guard post, and is now a kennel for goblin dogs. A particularly nasty smell comes from this door, with characters having a 25% chance of noticing it prior going into the room. There is nothing of value in this room, as the goblin dog has made a complete mess of the place.

1 goblin dog. AC 13, HD1, HP8, Dam (bite) +2 1d6+3 plus allergic reaction. (See Pathfinder #1)

Revisit.
As long as the goblin brute is still alive, the areas 13-16 will re-populate with additional goblins. Once the goblin brute has been defeated, the remaining goblins will leave the area, and rats will move in.

Fanzines

2009-05-21T17:24:00.000-07:00

I really like Fanzines, and I believe that they are critical to the success in any hobby. Since Dragon was pulled back by Wizards of the Coast, they have been popping up everywhere. I think Wolfgang was the first to launch KQ, which is a really slick magazine, and I believe it is the spiritual successor to The Dragon. I also buy PDF’s of Knockspell and Fight On! The other day, I downloaded Knockspell volume 2 and I am in the process of reading through it. Knockspell is quickly becoming one of my favorites of the Fanzines. There is something about its old school feel that I really like. In the intro editorial, Matt makes a comment that he will be supporting both S&W and OSRIC in Knockspell going forward, which really made my day.

As I look over the landscape of the publishing industry, it is increasing easy for Fanzines to be created, and with print on demand capability available, costs can be kept down and access is available across the globe. I suspect that the print on demand industry is a growing one, and that we will see more changes to the way that content is brought to the end user. The PDF industry has taken off, and as I remarked in my blog a couple of weeks ago, products like Kindle make electronic books a lot friendlier to use. Reading books on a computer screen is a bit clunky, but reading them off a light weight device that is optimized for reading books is altogether different. I still believe that a color Kindle is on the horizon, whether it is produced by Amazon or another company makes no difference, as I think it is only a question of time.

It is interesting how technology has changed the way we view things. Digital content is becoming increasingly important. The printer is really taking a backseat to digital storage. Why print out pictures when one can simply store them on a website or a sharedrive/sharepoint. While I love my notebook computer, it’s the harddrive that I really care about. I almost always have my external harddrive with me for back up and to store pictures and my multitude of game stuff, which now takes up 4 gigs of space, and is growing almost daily.

It is interesting to ponder what would D&D have looked like if Gary and Dave had created it today instead of 35+ years ago.

The Hobbit – A Short Rest

2009-05-20T07:50:00.000-07:00

With this chapter Tolkien introduces us to Elrond and the Rivendell elves. Elrond comes across as the wise old scholar that puts names to the swords that were found in the previous chapter and shows Gandalf and crew the moon-letters on Thorin’s map.

What I found most interesting about this chapter was how the elves were described. The party encounters the elves just outside Rivendell laughing and singing silly songs.

“So they laughed and sang in the trees; and pretty fair nonsense I daresay you think it. Not that they would care; they would only laugh all the more if you told them so. They were elves of course.”

“Then off they went into another song as ridiculous as the one I have written down in full.”

Compare this to the more somber elf found in the Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. There is no talk about the long defeat, or about the tragic history of the elves. These elves are a kin to happy-go-lucky types, that do not worry about anything. Silly songs do not portray a race in decline and that will eventually pass over to the west. The heritage of Gondolin is only briefly mentioned and is left for the reader to decide what kind of legacy it is. It is only years later that the fully glory of what was Gondolin and its tragic downfall were made public with the publish of The Silmarillion.

There are points in the book where it is clear that this is a children’s story, and this is one of them. It feels like when the good professor first wrote about the elves, he had a lighter vision of them and turned much darker the more he wrote. Galadriel’s discussions with Frodo are in stark contrast to what we find here in beginning of Chapter 3.

Elrond takes center stage in the back half of the chapter, and he is described a bit differently than the elves that were encountered earlier.

“He was as noble and as fair in face as an elf-lord, as strong as a warrior, as wise as a wizard, as venerable as a king of dwarves, and as kind as summer. He comes into many tales, but his part in the story of Bilbo’s great adventure is only a small one..”

There are no silly songs in his make-up. As Elrond looks at the map, we gain a sense of his character.

“He took it and gazed long at it, and he shook his head; for if he did not altogether approve of dwarves and their love of gold, he hated dragons and their cruel wickedness, and he grieved to remember the ruin of the town of Dale..”

There is a note of seriousness to him, and a compassion for those that have been wronged by evil. The fact that he grieves for Dale shows his human side and that he does care about the affairs of men. As was stated by the narrator, his part in this tale is small, but there are hints of his larger role in the history of middle earth.

Monstrous Discussions – Elves

Elves have always been one of my favorite races. That is probably akin to saying that dwarves are not one of my favorite races, which would be true from a player’s perspective.

I am of the opinion that D&D elves borrow quite a bit from Tolkien’s elves. Tolkien’s elves come in a couple of different flavors, but in the hobbit we see a distinction between the high elf of Rivendell and the wood elf of Mirkwood. In D&D terms, I would call these high elves and wood elves. Since the creation of the AD&D monster manual, the number of elf subtypes has grown considerably, but I would still argue that most are a spin off from the civilized high elf and the more savage wood elf. I have to admit, that when I think of the D&D elf, they have a Tolkien flavor to them. Some may disagree with me, but I cannot shake this from my mind. Tolkien in The Silmarillion, gives the elves a noble and heroic face, and this resonates with me. The elven heroes described are beings of legend that went toe to toe with the worst of Melkor’s servants, and frequently emerged victorious from these battles, although in some cases the scars of battle would remain with them. These were mighty beings. While I agree that this type of heroic elf does not fit well in a D&D world, I find that there is a place for their spirit of nobility.

As a final thought, in early D&D elves were both magic users and fighters. This combined legacy would stay with them up through 3rd edition. In 4th edition, this legacy gets split apart and the magic using elves now become eladrin. From a mechanics stand point, it makes perfect sense. In essence, eladrin now replaces the high elf and the wood elves are now just elves. From a flavor stand point, I think we have lost a little. I suspect this is because eladrin just does not sound very Tolkien to me.

Just call me old fashioned.....

Work really interferes with fun

2009-05-20T06:14:00.000-07:00

After a hectic week followed by a vacation in Hangzhou, I am ready to get back to blogging. I actually feel very guilty if I do not blog for a couple of days, and I meant to write some stuff up on Monday, but I just did not get there. Last week I was hosting a summit with all our regional partners, and it just chewed up any time I had.

Over the weekend my family went to Hangzhou which is a beautiful city located about 3 hours south of Shanghai. The city is centered around West Lake which is a good sized lake. Once it was the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, before the Mongols came and then the capital was relocated to Beijing. It is rumored that Marco Polo visited the city and called it the finest city in the world. Without a doubt, the area around West Lake is very stunning. Wikipedia has a good article on the city, and can be found here.

Now that I am back, I will start posting again on a regular basis.

Chordille Keep - The Grand Entrance

2009-05-10T05:05:00.000-07:00

12. Grand entrance to the keep.
Once the grand entrance to the keep, now it lies as a burnt out hulk of what it once was. The main double doors are mostly destroyed and only parts of the doors remain hanging on their hinges. The charred remnants of a red carpet are lie on the ground, as a bitter reminder of what was. The Bestial Host has posted a pair of goblin guards and a goblin dog. If confronted by an opponent stronger than themselves, they will run to the goblin lair that is located in areas 13-16.

2 goblins. AC 15, HD1, HP3, Dam 1d6 (short sword)
1 goblin dog. AC 13, HD1, HP8, Dam (bite) +2 1d6+3 plus allergic reaction. (See Pathfinder #1)
Treasure 1d6 gold

Revisit

On subsequent revisits, if the goblins in areas 13-16 have been defeated, a band of orcs will have moved in, otherwise the goblins post another 2 guards and a goblin dog.

4 Orcs. AC 16, HD1, HP5, Dam 1d8 (long sword)
Treasure: 1d10 gold

Amazon’s Kindle Reader

2009-05-10T04:53:00.000-07:00

So I was updating my wish list yesterday at Amazon, looking forward to getting my next batch of books upon my arrival back to the States, when I noticed Amazon’s ad for Kindle DX. Sure I knew that Amazon had launched Kindle, but to be honest, I did not pay that much attention to it. But something caught my eye yesterday, and I looked a bit deeper.

The DX version is due to be released shortly, and it is slightly bigger than the earlier version. According to Amazon, there are over 275,000 books that are available in this format, and it can read PDF files. It is very thin and light, and looks like it is easy to use and to carry around. Interesting stuff. Clearly this is the shape of things to come.

However, I do have some concerns. Its price is a bit steep at nearly $500. One can buy a notebook computer for that price. Netbooks are pushing the $200 price point, so this feels overpriced in comparison. Its screen is black and white only. To be honest, I am a bit shocked on this. Most LCD/LED screens are color, and I am not sure why this is not color. While B&W is fine for most things, there are a number of books that are fully color. Its internal 4GB storage is a bit light too. From what I can tell, the device is suppose to contact one’s Amazon account and access the various books that have been saved there. This requires wireless access, and I suspect that the actual book one is reading is Kindle’s internal storage.

It is an interesting idea, and I suspect that at some point I may even buy one. However, there are a couple of features that I would like to see added. Color, larger internal flash or HDD storage, and compatibility with one’s notebook. What I mean by this last statement is that in addition to accessing one’s web page, one should be able to drop and drag from the notebook to the Kindle device. I was reading a bit on PDF’s, and I would like to be able to select the PDF and drag to the Kindle. From what I could tell, one has to email the PDF file to an account in order to make it available. For the larger PDF files, this seems easier said than done.

Anyway, if anyone has actually used this device I would be interested to hear your feedback on it. I do suspect that this is the shape of things to come.

The Hobbit – Roast Mutton

2009-05-09T06:15:00.000-07:00

Running late in the morning, Bilbo joins the dwarves and they end up in sacks, captured by trolls.

While that is an accurate summary of the chapter, I want to dig into the encounter with the trolls as that dominates the chapter. Cold and hungry, the dwarves send Bilbo to check out the fire in the woods. As it turns out, the fire belonged to three trolls – Bert, Tom, and William, who are sick of mutton, and would like a different type of meat on their patter. Tolkien describes the trolls as “Three large persons sitting round a very large fire of beech-logs.” To be honest, this description is rather blasé. This begs the question of, when one thinks of a troll, what image pops into mind? I suppose it depends a bit on what mythology one looks at.

A snippet from Wikipedia:

A troll is a fearsome member of a race of creatures from Norse mythology. Originally more or less the Nordic equivalents of giants, although often smaller in size, the different depictions have come to range from the fiendish giants – similar to the ogres of England (also called Trolls at times, see Troller's Gill) – to a devious, more human-like folk of the wilderness, living underground in hills, caves or mounds. In the Faroe islands, Orkney and Shetland tales, trolls are called trows, adopted from the Norse language when these islands were settled by Vikings.

Nordic literature, art and music from the romantic era and onwards has adapted trolls in various manners – often in the form of an aboriginal race, endowed with oversized ears and noses. From here, as well as from Scandinavian fairy tales such as Three Billy Goats Gruff, trolls have achieved international recognition, and in modern fantasy literature and role-playing games, trolls are featured to the extent of being stock characters.

Again from Wikipedia, the Tolkien troll:

In J. R. R. Tolkien's world of Middle-earth, Trolls are very large humanoids of great strength and poor intellect. While in Norse mythology, the Troll was a magical creature with special skills, and are so accepted to this day in Scandinavia, in Tolkien's writings they are portrayed as evil, stupid, with crude habits, although still intelligent enough to communicate with a known language.

In The Hobbit they speak with very thick Cockney accents. They turn to stone when exposed to sunlight and they enjoy eating meat (such as mutton, hobbits and Dwarves) and drinking beer. While threatening, the trolls in The Hobbit serve as a comic element. They even have normal names: Tom, Bert and William (Bill) Huggins (the only one with a given surname).

The fallen Vala and first Dark Lord, Morgoth, created the first Trolls before the First Age. They were strong and vicious, but stupid creatures. The major weakness of at least some Trolls was that they turned to stone in sunlight. Nobody knows how he managed to breed them, though it is stated by Treebeard of the Ents that Trolls were "made in mockery of" them, as Orcs were of Elves, though not necessarily from Entish stock. However, they are likely a corrupted form of some other race of Middle-earth, as neither Morgoth nor Sauron have access to the Secret Fire, and cannot therefore create things; only corrupt that which already exists. There is reference that sunlight will return them to the stone from which they were made in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

I cannot help but notice the differences between the trolls from The Hobbit and from The Lord of the Rings. The trolls from The Lord of the Rings are terrifying creatures that are instruments of war, while in The Hobbit they come across a bit differently. Now part of this is due to the difference in the tone of the stories. The Hobbit is a much lighter tale, when compared to The Lord of the Rings, and there are parts in The Hobbit that make it feel a bit disconnected from the larger work. The narrator’s voice in The Hobbit gives it a story book feel, and insulates the reader from the grimmer nature of the larger work.

As stated in the above quote from Wikipedia, the trolls in The Hobbit, while fierce and dangerous in their own right, come across as a bit comical. Upon reading the description from The Hobbit, I have a mental picture of a hillbilly like giant, not entirely unlike the giant from Jack in the Beanstalk. Even their names, Tom, Bert and William come across as rather plain, and uninspiring. I am not struck with notion that these trolls are the elite of Dark Lord’s army. Gandalf easily tricks them into staying up all night until the dawn turns them to stone, and he does not come across as sounding concerned that there was going to be an unfavorably outcome. Clearly he was concerned when he heard that there were trolls in the area, and he hustled back to check on Bilbo and the dwarves, but I get the feeling that once he saw what was going on, he easily took control of the situation. Once again, Gandalf steps into the role of the supernatural aid, coming to the rescue in the nick of time, providing aid to an otherwise hopeless situation.

With trolls defeated, Gandalf leads the group to the trolls hideout, and they find a number of strange weapons. In the next chapter, Elrond will identify them as elvish blades that date back to Gondolin, which I found to be a nice tie into the larger story that is Middle Earth.

Monstrous Discussions – The Troll

To go back to the discussion on the trolls for a moment more. The D&D troll is a green rubbery creature that has powers of regeneration, and it harkens back to an earlier time in literature. The D&D troll feels a bit like a solitary creature that does not naturally interact well with other humanoids. The D&D troll just does not feel like the Tolkien troll, which has always left me scratching my head. There is a part of me that really likes the idea of the Tolkien trolls which is a beast of war that fights along side the orcs. The orc is a great humanoid opponent for low to mid class characters. However, sometimes one needs to step it up a notch and provide a similar yet different experience in an encounter. This is where the Tolkien troll would fit in well. Now, one can argue that the ogre fits into this category, and I would be inclined to agree. However, there is something about the Tolkien troll that I just like.

In the animated Hobbit, one of the trolls had tusks, and I rather liked that look. I do want my trolls to look rather bestial, and not just like large humanoids. In Peter Jackson’s film version, the trolls looked like monstrous humanoids, with the emphasis on monstrous. I my own mind, I picture them as something in between. Upon further consideration, I just like the tusks.

Since the troll’s first appearance in the monster manuals, there have been a number of sub type trolls created, which allow for plenty of diversity, and I suspect that everyone has their favorite type of troll. There are also a number of different kinds of trolls in Tolkien’s work. Perhaps my favorite type from Tolkien is the Olog-hai.

Olog-hai from Wikipedia:

Olog-hai were "strong, agile, fierce, and cunning" trolls created by Sauron, not unlike the Uruk-hai, and were able to withstand sunlight while under the sway of Sauron's will. They seldom spoke and were said to know no language other than the Black Speech, in which Olog-hai means "troll-folk" (singular Olog "troll"). Because of their cunning, they were thought by some to be giant Orcs, rather than trolls.

I know there have been a number of different types of half orcs created in D&D that captures the essence of the Olog-hai, with the half orc/half ogre being the closest to this. With that said, I think need to sneak a couple of these trolls into my next campaign. These would be perfect in a mega-dungeon that features a large number of orcs.

Dragon Age

2009-05-08T08:06:00.001-07:00

Well I am a bit behind on my reading, and of course I will blame work. This week was a short one, and next week I am hosting a conference all week, which will chew up a significant portion of my time. Bummer!

I am hoping to post 1 or 2 Hobbit summaries this weekend, and next week will be light on the postings.

In other news, Green Ronin will be making a pen and paper RPG of Bioware’s Dragon Age. I am not a huge computer gaming person. Job and family responsibilities chew up most of my time. When I was younger, I did play a lot more. The Ultima series was one of my favorites, and I hope to post a blog about that soon. Bioware has put out a number of games, of which Neverwinter Nights was one of my favorites. I have played Neverwinter Hordes of the Underdark quite a bit a number of years ago. I have Neverwinter 2, but I really have not played it that much. I will probably buy Dragon Age, but I am not sure how much I will really get a chance to play. I was a bit curious when it was announced that Green Ronin would put out a pen and paper version that will go on sale in the fall. I am hoping that this is at Gencon, as I would look forward to talk with Chris and his team about it. I am not sure that I will buy it, but I do want to flip through it.

The Hobbit – An Unexpected Party

2009-05-05T04:54:00.000-07:00

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”

There are a number of books that one can recognize by the opening line, and The Hobbit is one of them, which just goes to show how popular this tale is. The narrator goes on to describe hobbits and their holes, which is painted on the page in a way that one can picture a comfy little home, not unlike what we can see walking through our neighborhood.

In my mind I see Bilbo as young adult that is moving closer to middle age, and in some ways he might already be there. I also picture Bilbo as slightly pudgy, and a tad out of shape, as his comfortable life is getting the better of him. The narrator makes it clear that hobbits are not ones for adventure. They like things that are comfortable. Men, elves and dwarves live beyond the Shire, and the hobbits are very happy about that. In short, they live in a suburbia that is removed from the hustle and bustle of the big city. It’s about two pages into the story when Gandalf shows up, and then Bilbo’s life gets turned upside down.

A nice little story, but one that I think hits very close to home. How many of us are in our middle ages and comfortable with the way things are? Gandalf, in The Hobbit, represents supernatural aid which is a concept that is found in all the great epics and a number of lesser works. He is a part of the world, yet separate, and clearly possesses powers and wisdom that are beyond the normal person. The book does not go into the details of Gandalf’s history or background, which is saved for The Silmarillion, and to be honest, it is not necessary for this book. When Gandalf comes visiting, he is not there just to catch up on the local gossip. He is there to call Bilbo to become something more than he is now, and that means moving out of his comfort zone. Bilbo struggles with this throughout the second half of the chapter. It’s his Tookish blood that contrasts sharply with his natural hobbit sense of proper being. While we do not have Tookish blood in us, we can still relate to Bilbo’s inner conflict.

One of the more interesting parts to this first chapter is that Gandalf not only chooses Bilbo, but also goes as far as to mark his door, so that the dwarves can find him. So, Bilbo is both chosen and marked, and as a result he is called to be a hero. The call of the hero is used throughout literature, and the examples are too numerous to count. In literature it is easy to identify the call, as this is clearly called out. In real life, it is a bit different, and sometimes not so obvious. Often the call comes unexpected times and in unexpected ways. I think inside each of us, there is part of us that wants the adventure and wants to move out of our comfort zone. However, we have the grid of life with bills and family to support and the responsibility of getting a job to take care of these things. Quitting the job to go off on a crazy lark, is not something that responsible folks do, and this prevents us from moving too far from that comfort zone. This is where Bilbo is.

Enter the dwarves. As an aside, I find it interesting that both hobbits and dwarves live in holes underground, and it serves as a sort of common starting point for character development.

In the second half of the books we get introduced to the 13 dwarves and their leader Thorin Oakenshield. Throughout the book, Bilbo and Thorin are the main characters and we see Bilbo grow while Thorin never moves past his own paradigm. The dialog between them provides a means for us to understand their outlook on how they perceive their situation, which provides an interesting commentary on personal growth and internal paradigm shifts (or the lack thereof).

Thorin quickly establishes himself as a dwarf on a misson, and he is really not interested in what others have to offer, nor is he interested in changing his view on things. When Gandalf pulls the map out, he immediately reminds Thorin that he should be thanking him, not accusing him. Gandalf is working to create value in the conversation however, Thorin continues to remain suspicious throughout the conversation.

“But apparently they made a map, and I should like to know how Gandalf got a hold of it, and why it did not come down to me, the rightful heir.”

The implication of privilege, rights and a bit of selfishness is clearly evident here, and a bit of verbal waste is being created.

As Bilbo gets into bed, he hears Thorin humming about their long-forgotten gold, and “…it gave him very uncomfortable dreams.” A bit of foreshadowing is present here along with a subtle jab at the selfish nature of greed. Apparently Thorin’s conscious is a bit less disconcerting than Bilbo’s, and already we see the gap between the two perspectives.

Game commentary

There are folks that say that Tolkien did not have a significant impact on the creation of D&D. This is a fairly held view as Gary remained adamant that Tolkien was not a significant source of inspiration. After rereading the first chapter, I would like to poke on this statement a bit.

The start of an adventure is usually a bit of a struggle for the DM. Why is everyone together, especially considering that a party normally consists of races and classes that are all over the place. The typical starting point is in a tavern sharing a beverage of choice, and there is nothing wrong with this approach, except of course that it remains very much over used.

When I look at The Hobbit, I see a bunch of dwarves (and a wizard) converge at Bilbo’s “tavern” for a bit of tea. They are looking for a burglar (thief/rogue) to round out their party to go off in search of treasure. They possess a secret treasure map and proceed to start to plan their journey to defeat the dragon and take its treasure, which they are claiming rightfully, belongs to them. They have to plan an overland trek followed by a small dungeon that contains the actual treasure and the dragon. I am summarizing a bit, but I think I have captured the essence of the main points. I think that most would agree that this feels a bit like the start of a D&D adventure.

Chordille Keep - Inner Keep (area 11)

2009-05-04T05:25:00.000-07:00

11. Ruined room
With the razing of the keep, and number of rooms were totally destroyed. In the case of this room, most of the ceiling has collapsed into the room, creating a mess. Most creatures avoid this room, although there is a 10% chance of a vermin crawling in through the hole in the ceiling to come searching for food or to just hide. Other than that, there is nothing of significance in the room.

Tolkien Updates

2009-05-03T18:55:00.000-07:00

Apparently May is Tolkien month. I had no idea....

On Sunday, the short film The Hunt for Gollum was released and is available for viewing here. I just finished watching it, and it is not bad. It is worth taking a look.

On Tuesday, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun by JRR Tolkien and edited by his son Christopher will be released and it is up on Amazon for pre-orders. I have just added it to my wish list, and it will be part of my June Amazon order.

And last, but certainly not least, I am reading The Hobbit, and it will feature heavily on my blog over the next 2-3 weeks.

Chordille Keep - Inner Keep (area 10)

2009-05-03T06:13:00.000-07:00

10. Hobgoblin guards
The fire damage to this room makes it impossible to determine what this room was used for prior to the razing of the keep. A small band of hobgoblins have moved into this ruined room, and have staked a claim to it. The sergeant in room 9 is ok with this development as it allows him to keep a close eye on his small band from the bestial host. There is some wreckage that remains in the room, but the hobgoblins have made it a point to remove most of it to make room for their bedrolls and such.
5 hobgoblins. AC 15, HD1, HP6, Dam 1d8 (long sword)
Treasure: 2d10 gold

Revisit
On subsequent revisits, if the hobgoblins have been defeated, a band of orcs will have moved in.

5 Orcs. AC 16, HD1, HP5, Dam 1d8 (long sword)
Treasure: 1d10 gold

The Hobbit – Initial Thoughts

2009-05-03T05:58:00.000-07:00

I thought I would offer my initial thoughts about The Hobbit before I actually start reading. It has been a number of years since I last read it, and I am looking forward to reading through it again. Tolkien remains one of my favorite authors as I continue to be amazed at the detail that he put into Middle Earth.

I remember my first introduction to The Hobbit was the Rankin/Bass version in 1977. I was fairly young at the time, and I had not seen anything like it prior to that point. Needless to say I was fascinated by the entire thing. Looking back on the animated show through a much more mature lense, the gaps and short comings are fairly obvious, but at the time I thought it was great, as it captured my imagination like nothing else had. I also remember my father hinting that there was more to the story, but would not elaborate more than that.

It would be several years later that I actually had the book in my hands, which was the soft cover illustrated version from the Rank/Bass production. While I enjoyed reading that particular book, as some of the illustrations were quite striking, I will say that the binding on that version was crap and it promptly fell apart. It would be a significant number of years later before I would pick up a sturdier version which matched my hardcover Lord of the Ring editions. I am happy to report that the matching sets still sit on top of my small bookcase that is in our bedroom next to my bed, and I do not expect to be moving them any time soon.

Just recently, I bought the annotated version for my son, which he has read through, and now I find myself running short of books to read here in China, prior to my return to the States which is scheduled for late June, making it a good time to pick it up and read through again. As an aside, after this book, I will have 2 more books left from the bunch I brought that needs to last me two months. Now one of them is Martin's A Feast of Crows, which comes in at almost 1000 pages, so all is not lost.

While Tolkien wrote The Hobbit as a children’s story, it is one of those books that appeals to a wide range of ages, as it is a simple tale at its heart which the younger folks can enjoy, and it provides a deeper reading for the more advanced reader. The language and tone of The Hobbit is a softer voice when compared to the more serious tone of its sequel, but that does not take away from the enjoyment of the book no matter what the age. The style of prose between the two works is an interesting contrast, and I will be commenting on that as I make my way through the book.

So with that, I am looking forward to flipping through the pages of the annotated version and once again visiting Middle Earth.

Dungeon Contest - Submitted!

2009-05-03T01:44:00.000-07:00

Now I can say that it is complete, and it has been mailed in!

Hobbit Re-read Project

2009-05-02T05:44:00.000-07:00

I am almost done with Bran Mak Morn By Howard, and I am getting ready to re-read The Hobbit by JRRT. I am reading the Del Rey versions of Howard’s stories, and I cannot say enough good things about them. The Del Rey team just did a wonderful job with Howard’s books, and I would recommend them to anyone. I liked Bran Mak Morn a bit better than Howard’s Conan stories, as I think that Worms of the Earth is probably one of his best works. As an aside, one of these days I plan to write up a blog on that story, as it is very good. Howard only really wrote six Bran Mak Morn tales, which is a shame as I think the main character is very compelling and I would have liked to have seen more tales written, especially if they could have as well written as Worms was. That being said, I have a soft spot for Howard’s Solomon Kane stories, and I really wish he wrote and developed Kane more. When I get back to the States, I hope to pick up Kull, which I hope is as octane heavy as Howard’s other works were.

I have probably read The Hobbit two times, compared to The Lord of the Rings, which I have read at least four times, and some sections I have read a lot more than that. JRRT remains one of my all time favorite authors, as the depth of his Middle Earth creation is nothing short of amazing. As I am reading The Hobbit, my plan is post blogs on the various sections and offer up my commentary on them. Early next week I plan to post my first blog which will represent my initial thoughts on the work as a whole, and then I will start digging in.

Dungeon Contest - Done!

2009-05-02T03:27:00.000-07:00

…Well almost done.

I am going to sleep on it and take one more read through to make to catch any lingering items, and then I will submit it tomorrow. Once the deadline has passed, I will be posting it on my blog. The current title is “The Dwarven Tomb,” which I may change to “The Dwarven Hall,” as there are no crypts in it, although I was originally planning on having 2 crypt areas. I designed it using excel and power point, and I am happy with the overall dungeon layout. I was able to do just about everything I wanted to. Even though it is basically one level, I was able to create vertical separation in the level, which I think adds an extra element to a dungeon level. I was also able to add a color key concept that would create a bit of a puzzle for the players. The challenge with a one page limitation is that the designer has to keep the design tight, especially considering that the dungeon layout takes up a significant bit of real estate on the page. I suspect that tomorrow I will try to add some last minute content into an already full page.

I will be the first to say that this is a hard dungeon, and is probably a bit harder than I was initially thinking. My gut feel says that this is for 10th -12th level characters. There is a wide range of encounters, with some easy ones and some very challenging levels, which I am very happy with. Also, as a bonus I added a wandering demon grue into the mix, which the GM can have some fun with. As I am writing this, I think I will add another comment in my write up on this as it is just too fun not to.

Looking back on the contest, I had fun creating it, and we shall see what the judges think. I am very interested to see what everyone else is creating as I imagine there will be some very creative designs. My thanks go out to Chatty and team for creating the contest. My personal thought is that this is exactly the type of thing that WotC should be running to generate interest in the game. Paizo doing something a little different as they are running their RPG Superstar contest which is a great way for them to find new talent for their own in house projects. For a design house that needs to stay lean, they need to makes sure that they have a steady pool of designers to tap into. This one page contest is perfect for the fans to get involved in, as it is fairly easy to create. I suspect that this is the first of a number of contests that will in the offering as summer comes along, which I think is great.

Dungeon Contest - Update

2009-05-01T06:31:00.000-07:00

This weekend is a 5 day weekend in China. My goal is to finish up my 1 page dungeon. At this point it is basically done. I have it mapped out and I have made my first pass through all the rooms. I do want to have another review before I submit.

Tomorrow I will post a longer blog.

The Hunt for Gollum

2009-04-29T22:15:00.000-07:00

I am always amazed at what fans can do, when they put their minds to it. I have seen a number of fan made videos, and some of which are rather good.

The other day I came across this fan site that is putting together a 40 minute film titled Hunt for Gollum. They have two trailers up, and the release date is May 3rd. This actually looks very good, and is worth checking out.

Chordille Keep - Sitting Room (area 9)

2009-04-27T06:28:00.000-07:00

9. Sitting room.
This was once a formal sitting room, which included a grand piano and was used to entertain guests. Now the furniture is in terrible shape and the piano is a broken wreck in the corner of the room. A hobgoblin sergeant makes his home here, and holds his own sort of entertainment in this room. There is a bedroll in the corner that serves as a bed for the hobgoblin.
1 hobgoblin sergeant. AC 16 (buckler), HD2, HP16, Dam 1d8 (Masterwork long sword) or 1d6 (light crossbow)

There is a 25% chance that there will also be a female hobgoblin in the room.

1 hobgoblin (F). AC 13, HD1, HP4, Dam 1d6 (short sword) or1d4 (dagger)

Treasure: There is a small chest (Hardness 5, HP 10) in the room that is locked (pick locks: DC 14, CL2). The key is on the body of the sergeant hobgoblin and contains 1d12 gold.

Revist
Once all the goblins on the surface level have been defeated, an orc band will move in, and an orc sergeant will take up residence here.

Legacy of Fire

2009-04-27T05:39:00.000-07:00

I spent the majority of this weekend reading Pathfinder 20 & 21. The mail to China is a bit dodgy, and one can never tell how long it is going to take to get something in the mail. I have had my Pathfinder shipments take a week to get to me, and I have had them take over 3 weeks. Pathfinder 20 took well over 3 weeks, and Pathfinder 21 took about a week so they arrived a day apart, even though they shipped 3 weeks apart. UPS ground is something I miss being here in China. In the US, I know that my UPS shipment will arrive on my doorstep in 5 working days, and I can check on the progress on the UPS website. I am not suggesting that UPS is the best, but it is only slightly more expensive than priority mail, and I can track my packages. For my China packages I have no idea and when I am going to get them. I will say that so far, I have received every Paizo and Amazon package that has been sent to me. Now when it comes to magazines, I have no idea where they are going, as I have yet to receive one of my subscriptions. Brutal.

Once Paizo has finished with their Legacy of Fire series I will post my more in depth product review. However, I will say that they are very attractive looking books, and their art director Sarah Robinson has done an amazing job. By far, this series is one of the best looking RPG products on the market.

Decent into the Dungeon (part 2)

2009-04-25T06:46:00.000-07:00

In Dante’s Inferno, Dante's journey starts with him being pursued in a dark wood that would lead directly to the gates of hell. One could argue that this represents the ultimate dungeon experience, as it is not just a cave that Dante is entering but it is actually a portal to another place. In essence, the entrance represents a transition from the real to that which is supernatural. I find this imagery particularly interesting.

When I played my first game, the dungeon entry way was a portal into another world, in which all things were possible. Outside the dungeon was a fictional historical European environment. In that first campaign, we did not spend a lot of time exploring outside the dungeon. The game existence was the dungeon for all practical purposes.

This leads to an idea that outside the dungeon is rather, dare I say, dull and routine, and perhaps even a bit of a grind. The monsters, magic, treasure and other out of the ordinary experiences all existed inside the dungeon. It is this concept of transition from normal to supernatural that exists in the entry way of a dungeon that I find to be very powerful imagery. Once we pass from outside to inside, we leave the natural behind, and anything can happen once we have past the threshhold. It is the wardrobe of the game that separates the rather dull to the exciting.

That was in the old days. In the current times, this has been dropped, as we have turned to world building in which even the outside of the dungeons have become fantasy worlds where the supernatural also exists. I often wonder in our attempt to create a world, are we losing this powerful symbolism of the dungeon entrance?

I think there is a natural urge to world build and give our creations context for existence. Once could argue that when one steps into the game as a whole, one is escaping the current reality and entering a world that offers something exciting. Gaming should be fun, and should offer a entertainment right from the start, and I agree with all that. However, with this methodology, we lose that stark contrast that the dungeon mouth represents. As the treasure hunting adventurers enter the dungeon, they are entering into a place that is far more dangerous and exciting than exists back in the home town.

I suspect that my initial experience in D&D is similar to that of others that began around 1980. The adventures centered around the dungeon, and the goal was to get there as fast as possible, as that was really the point of the game. As time went by, the experience rapidly moved away from the dungeon and expanded like a genesis device to populate an entire area and eventually the entire world.

This goes back to my comment yesterday about magic. Initially, magic was only found in the dungeon. Now, the concept of a magic shop is a fairly well used idea, and can be found in almost every adventure that has a significant sized town. With magic becoming widely available, I would argue that it has lost some of its magic and become a bit mundane. If one has enough gold, why even bother going to the dungeon at all? Just go to the local store, grab a cart and start shopping. I think we are losing something here.

Now I realize that the ship may have left this pier many years ago, and I think in some ways some of the magic has also left. The unknown isn’t really unknown any more. Where once someone may have thought the drow were cool and mysterious because no one really knew much about them, contrast that to now where they mainstream and very well known, even by non-players.

I think this is one of the major reasons why I love the dungeons. There is still a bit of uncertainty about what lies in them. There is still excitement walking down a long hallway, wondering what traps lie up ahead. Finding that room in which an ancient tomes hint at something powerful is waiting a few levels down. Knowing that character survival is a precious thing and that luck favors the well prepared.

But, it is that dungeon entrance, that portal into darkness that symbolizes the transition from the dull real world to that which is magically supernatural, that holds special interest for me.

Descent into the Dungeon

2009-04-24T02:59:00.000-07:00

After a full week of conf calls until 1am, I am ready for the weekend.

Earlier in the week, I was flipping through FFG’s website and I noticed a new release of their excellent Descent game. They plan to publish a Quest Compendium, which will be a collection of scenarios written by some well known names in the industry, including Monte Cook and Keith Baker.

I am a fan of the game, but I realize that it is a bit limited in that the characters are pre-made and there is limited growth opportunity. It plays a bit like a miniature game as a result. With all that said, it is still a fun game that provides an evening of dungeon crawling, and can serve as an introduction to more complex games.

In thinking about Descent, I have come to realize that of all the D&D adventures out there, I really like the big dungeons. The murder mysteries are fun, and the outdoor quests are interesting, and the small side dungeons or a ruined building are kinda neat, but what I like is the big multi-level dungeons with a castle ruin sitting on top. I like playing them, I like reading them, and I like refereeing them. There is just something about a big dungeon that resonates well with me. I remember the first time I played, and I was exploring a dungeon. It was the excitement of exploring knowing that something cool was right around the corner.

This brings me to the topic of magic. I am not a big fan of the well stocked magic store. The dungeon should be well stocked, but not the store. The idea that one can go into a store and buy all sorts of magic items, takes a bit of the mystique away. Dungeons should have a good assortment of magic items that are found frequent enough to keep the players engaged and wanting more. Magic serves as the ultimate reward for exploration. By putting magic in a shop, or allowing characters to create magic, takes some of the luster away. The magic does not glitter like magic should. The dungeon should be the place to find the magic, as it represents a descent into a realm where anything is possible, with luck finding favor with the well prepared.

I have a couple of additional ideas on this theme that I think I will post tomorrow.

Chordille Keep - Blacksmith and Stable Areas

2009-04-21T07:29:00.000-07:00

Chordille Keep - Blacksmith and Stable Areas

On the western side of the ruins, there is a series of three building that once supported the keep’s stables.

6. Ruined blacksmith shop
The first building in this section is the ruined blacksmith shop. The door is torn of the hinges, and the shop itself shows signs of significant fire damage. The building is still recognizable as a blacksmith shop, but just barely. Other than damaged tools and wrecked forge, there is nothing else of value here.

7. Storage area.
The middle building was once a storage area which serviced both the stables and the blacksmith shop. Surprisingly enough, this section has survived and is in good shape. The crates and barrels are broken, but the area itself is in good shape. There are a number of dry goods here, which is clearly attracting vermin. A medium sized centipede is currently crawling through the barrels, and will attack if disturbed.
Medium Centipede. AC 14, HD1, HP4, #Att 1, Dam 1d4+ poison

Revisit
If the characters defeat the centipede, another vermin type will move in to feed upon the dry stores that are still present in this room.

8. Stables.
This was once the stables, and is now being used as kennels for the Bestial Host. As long as the Bestial Host is present in the surface level of the keep, there will be wardogs present here. Use normal wolf stats to represent the wardogs.
1d6 Wardogs (wolves). AC 13, HD 2, HP4, #Att 1, Bite - Dam 1d8, SA trip attack

Revisit
Once the Bestial Host is defeated, a giant spider will move in and make its lair here.

Green Ronin Podcast

2009-04-21T06:18:00.000-07:00

Chris Pramas has posted episode 9 on his Green Ronin website with the subject of "Game Publishing Goes Digital." The podcast is almost an hour long, and it is interesting to listen too, especially considering the recent actions by WotC.

One Page Dungeon Update

2009-04-20T07:23:00.000-07:00

The map is done, and I have basically completed all the formatting. It came in at 37 encounter areas, and I am working on populating the dungeon. This will be a packed one pager. I will post my dungeon on the blog as soon as the contest is over.

Review: Dragon's Revisited

2009-04-19T04:03:00.000-07:00

So it beings…

“A whirring noise was heard. A red light touched the points of standing rocks. The dragon came.” The Hobbit

Introduction

I read Beowulf today, so it seems only appropriate that I review a product with dragons in it. It has been written somewhere, that products that center around dragons sell better than any other products. Folks love dragons. It’s in the name, and I can safely say that I fall into this category.

The mythology of dragons has been with us a long time. Earlier today, I was thinking that there are two basic types of dragon mythology, the western dragon and the eastern dragon. Being in China, this is how I am thinking about them. I just flipped through to Wikipedia and here is what they said:

The dragon is a legendary creature with serpentine or otherwise reptilian traits that features in the myths of many cultures. The two most familiar interpretations of dragons are European dragons, derived from various European folk traditions, and the unrelated Oriental dragons, derived from the Chinese dragon.

I remember when I first saw the 1st edition MM, I flipped right to the section on dragons. Since that time, whenever I see a new MM, the dragon section is always one of the first sections I go to. Now I will be the first to admit that we probably do not really need any books that are focused solely on dragons. The 3rd ed Draconomicon was an excellent resource for all things draconic. It had fluff, it had crunch, it had new classes, it had art work by Todd Lockwood, and it was probably a bit too much.

So what does Paizo’s Dragons Revisited have to offer that has not been already covered? Well, let’s get into it.

Layout

The layout is exactly like Paizo’s earlier Classic Monsters Revisited. The book covers the classic ten dragons, giving each dragon a six page spread with a sample dragon at the end of each section. The first page of each section has a half page art work of the dragon followed by an inspirational quote to build up the theme of the dragon.

Artwork

Let me first say that the artwork is very good. Paizo has given each dragon a different look than the 3.5 edition imaging. If one is a big fan of the 3.5 look, then one may not like the new dragon looks of Paizo's dragons. I will be the first to say that when it comes to dragons, the art work is even more important. The dragon is such an iconic figure in fantasy lore, they need to measure up to these lofty standards. The dragons by Todd Lockwood clearly do, and the other artist that Wizards employed try to measure up to his high standards, which is no easy task. Paizo makes liberal use of Hou, Wooten and Concept Art House, and these artists are also very good, but the dragons look different than what one sees in the books by WotC.

With this said, there are a number of great pieces in the book and I will list out a couple that stick out in my mind:

1. The black dragons on page 3 and page 6 are excellent, and I think I like these better than the 3.5 edition black dragon.
2. The blue dragon on page 10. Paizo blue dragon is a sleek beast compared to WotC's chunky blue rhinoceros dragon (not that there is anything wrong with rhinos).
3. The bronze dragon on page 22 attacking the shark is a very evocative piece.
4. The art piece on page 46 captures the fury of the red dragon unleashed.
5. I really like piece on page 58, with a frost giant attacking a white dragon, while another one gets ready to join the combat.

Final notes

It is important to note that this is a fluff book. Outside the sample dragons at the end of each section, the rest is fluff, which is done by design. The intent of the “Revisited’ series is to provide a new spin on classic creatures, which the emphasis on fluff rather than crunch. Upon reading through the write ups, I would say that Paizo has aligned most of the commonly held dragon themes together, and there are very few surprises contained inside. That is not to say that the write ups were predictable or unimaginative, but they captured commonly held canon, and expanded on these ideas a bit, with a Golarion theme woven throughout. Even if one is not using the Pathfinder’s universe, the book is still quite usable. By removing the crunch, Paizo has made the book usable for all editions of play, which I applaud them for. The content was very enjoyable to read through, and although most of the ideas were familiar to me, I still found them interesting and engaging. Perhaps my favorite write up was the crafty and manipulative blue dragon, which happens to be one of my favorite of the evil dragons.

To conclude, do we need another fluff book on dragons? No, probably not. However, Paizo has done a nice job in packaging this one, that I think will appeal to all the folks out there that just like dragons, which still seems to be a considerable number of folks. Do I think this one will sell well? Yes I do. It’s a nice book just to flip through, if you are just looking for some ideas on how to make a dragon interesting. While the Draconomicon maybe a more exhaustive tome, Paizo’s version is more of a reader’s digest version, and sometimes that is all one really needs anyway.

Rating: 4 Dragons (on a scale of 5)

Chordille Keep - The Fountain

2009-04-18T02:27:00.000-07:00

Chordille Keep - The Fountain (area 5)

This once very ornate fountain now lies in ruin. There is nothing else of interest here.

Chordille Keep - Main Defense Towers

2009-04-18T01:34:00.000-07:00

Chordille Keep - Main Defense Towers (areas 3 & 4)

The Defense Turrets
Originally the keep had four main defense turrets, however now only the two northern ones still stand. The southern two towers are now a mountain of rubble, and serve as a grim reminder of the tragedy that has befallen the keep. The two towers that still stand are very similar in construction. Each has four levels including the roof and ground levels. The first level was a general storage area, the second was the main barracks, and the third level served as a common area, as well as the command post for the turret’s defense. The roof was a look out area, and the remains of several ballista still exist on there. The levels are connected by a series of ladder ways.

3. Western defense turret.

A. Ground level. This level is damp and has a moldy smell to it. There are a number of old empty barrels and crates scattered about. On one of the barrels there is a patch of green mold, but it is harmless.

B. Second level. This room is covered with webs and a number of husks of dead beetles and rats can be seen throughout the room. As soon as the webs are disturbed, the spider comes out to attack.
1 Medium spider. AC 15, HD3, HP15, Dam 1d6 (bite + poison)
Treasure: 1d12 gold

C. Third level. The undead guards of the tower still haunt this area, and they will attack any that enter this area.
4 skeletons. AC 13, HD1, HP6, Dam 1d6 (short swords)

Treasure: 1d6 gold

D. Roof. The roof provides a commanding view of the keep ruins, and there are the remains of three ballista along with several dead humaniod bodies. This area has attracted the attention of two gargoyles that have made their lair here. There is a 25% chance that the gargolyes are out on patrol.
2 gargoyles. AC 16, HD5, HP25, #Att 4, Dam: claw (x2) 1d3, bite 1d6, gore 1d4.

4. Eastern defense turret.
This tower serves as a base of operation for the Bestial Host, with a number of goblinoids taking up residence here. The Bestial Host avoids the Western Tower as the spider that lurks there is rather well known . This series of encounters will probably turn into a rolling combat as once the tower is alerted, the bugbear captain will give the order for a mass attack.

A. Ground level. Several goblins have made their home amongst the barrels and crates. They will hide until presented a good opportunity to attack. If their situation turns bleak, they will either run out the door or run up to the second level.
4 goblins. AC 15, HD1, HP3, Dam 1d6 (short sword)
Treasure: 1d4 silver pieces on each goblin

B. Second level. This is home to a “team” of five hobgoblins. They are currently engaged in a game of dice, unless they one of the goblins from below comes up to give warning.
5 hobgoblins. AC 15, HD1, HP6, Dam 1d8 (long sword)
Treasure: 2d10 gold

C. Third level. This is where the bugbear captain can usually be found. If he hears combat coming from the floor below, he will go investigate.
1 Bugbear. AC 17, HD3, HP15, Dam 1d10 (master worked bastard sword)
4 goblins. AC 15, HD1, HP3, Dam 1d6 (short sword)
Treasure: There is a small chest in the corner, which the bugbear keeps a potion of cure light wounds along with 1d8 gold. The chest is locked, and the key can be found on the bugbear.

D. Roof. On the roof are the tower lookouts. For the most part the two goblins try to remain out of sight, and do not engage in the combat below. If encountered on the roof, they will attempt to flee by climbing down the tower. As they have done this a number of times, they know exactly how to do this quickly, and it should be considered as normal movement.
2 goblins. AC 15, HD1, HP3, Dam 1d6 (short sword) or 1d6 (light crossbow)
Treasure: 1d4 silver pieces on each goblin

Working on my 1 page dungeon

2009-04-17T05:00:00.000-07:00

Light blogging today. I am working on my one page dungeon, and I am hoping to have the graphing done this weekend, then I can spend some time on the rooms. I am about half done with the graphing at this moment.

For the weekend, I will update Chordille Keep and also squeeze in a product review.

Eye Candy

2009-04-15T05:45:00.000-07:00

James wrote up an interesting blog entry the other day, that I can summarize as "less is more." His basic premise is that the less props provided the more engaged the players will be. He goes on to say that with less props, the players need to actively image the scene, which will create a better game play experience. As more and more props are added, the lazier one can get, in terms of actively engaging their imagination and placing themselves in the middle of the game. I am paraphrasing a bit, but that is the gist of it. He raises some good points, and it is worth taking a harder look at the topic.

His post could not have come at a better time, as I am thinking about buying some Dwarven Forge terrain for use in creating a visual dungeon. Dwarven Forge is both beautiful and expensive. At almost $100 a set, it adds up quickly. In a sense, Dwarven Forge is Legos for gamers. Without a doubt, it’s cool stuff, and the eye candy factor is very high.

So the question for me is it worth the cost, will I use it, and will it add to my game play experience. Adding props to the game help anchor the game experience and provides context for the players to interact with. I have always maintained that D&D is a shared experience. In order for it to qualify as a shared experience, there has to be some commonality in the experience otherwise you have a bunch of folks just doing their own thing, and it is totally disconnected. This would not meet my definition of a shared experience.

But, I agree with some of the premise. The table top D&D DDI that Wizards was working on did not hold appeal for me. The idea was that one could use the digital tabletop to connect to folks virtually and use it as a game aid. What I saw was basically a computer generated version of their miniatures on their cardboard tiles. While I agree that using miniatures is helpful, especially in combat, I am not convinced that Wizard’s miniature lineup is the best, and if I am looking at a computer screen, I definitely want it to look better than that. In short, their eye candy was poor.

As a wargamer, I enjoy playing with games that are very attractive to look at. For example, playing Warhammer/Warhammer 40K with fully painted miniatures is very impressive, and that does add to the game play. In short, its eye candy. FFG’s board games, like Descent and War of the Ring, are very attractive due to their game pieces. For the more traditional wargames, counters that are colorful and that are played on well done maps are more enjoyable than wargames that look cheaply put together.

So back to the original question, how much is too much? I believe that you need some props to get alignment on what is going on. I have been in a number of games where the DM is trying to explain what is going on, and finally just has to draw it out, as it cannot be explained well. I do believe that the plain battle mat is great, as one can quickly draw out the room, and alignment is gained very quickly.

One of the things that I do not like about 4th ed is the heavy reliance on battle mat, due to the way the mechanics are set up. A lot of the powers and feats are tied directly to the battle mat. The battle mat goes from being a tool to tell the story to a required center piece of the game. To me, this turns the game into a miniatures battle game, not that there is anything wrong with a miniature battles game, as I like pushing the lead around as the next person, but this is different game.

When I first started playing D&D, I always thought about creating a 3-D dungeon, as I thought that would be the greatest thing since sliced bread. Without a doubt, seeing a 3-D dungeon actually all lined up is eye candy. But does it add to the game, or does it detract with the flow as one is constantly adding rooms and shuffling around pieces as the characters make their way through the dungeon? At this point, I am not sure.

I am still tempted to buy a couple of sets and see how it works out. It feels like for mega-dungeon crawling, Dwarven Forge would be perfect and would add to the game. But would it then feel like a miniatures game with the players just pushing their miniature through the maze of the terrain? In any event, it would look impressive, but is it really just a white elephant that looks better on someone else’s tabletop?

Well I have another month or two to ponder this, before I am back in the states.

Its all about the food

2009-04-14T19:43:00.000-07:00

James posted the interview with Vin Diesel and Jimmy on his blog, and Vin Diesel talks a bit about his D&D experience. It is a fun interview and its only about 5 mins long.

One of the comments that came up during the interview was food. On this, I think we just need to set the record straight. You have to have food and drink. That is just part of the game. You need the books, you need dice, you need paper, you need pens/pencils, and one can argue that some of that stuff is not really mandatory. But the food is. If you are going to sit around with a bunch of folks for 4+ hours, and possibly longer, you need food and drink.

I think of the game as something of a bard's tale. It is a shared experience of action, adventure and exploration, with the story being created based on what happens during game play. At its heart, it is entertainment that is done with a group of people. The food is a critical part of the atmosphere. There is something special about sharing food and drink. I would even go as far as to say that it is hard wired into our DNA. It adds to the fun of the game, and this is really fundamental to any entertainment event. I mean, who would go to a Superbowl party without food?

When I am hosting, I pull out all the stops. We put out a huge spread of snacks and such, we order pizza or subs, we have wings, and then my wife usually bakes cookies or brownies. If that wasn't enough, we have at least one cooler full of all sorts of drinks. I don't roll critical fumbles when it comes to the food.

While I suppose it is possible to play without food and drink, that is not really a game I want to be apart of.

Speaking of food, I think its lunch time here in China.

The Dungeon Contest is Live!

2009-04-14T06:45:00.000-07:00

After a bit of a false start over the weekend, I see that Chgowiz has posted the details of the contest.

Time to get after it!

Adding the link to Chatty's Blog, which has all the details.

Chordille Keep - Main Keep Entrance

2009-04-13T06:04:00.000-07:00

Continuing on with the description of the keep.

2. Main keep entrance.
Overview: The old path leads up to the main keep entrance. Once this was a grand entry way, but now it lies in ruins. The main entranceway shows considerable amounts of fire damage, and the main doors are just charred remnants, hanging loosely in what remains of the hinges. As one creeps closer, one can see murder holes in the ceiling above.

A. Lower guard Chamber. This chamber has pieces of debris lying all about, but is otherwise empty except for the trap. The trap is cleverly hidden in the wood and rubble that lies throughout the room. On subsequent revisits, the trap will be reset by the Bestial Host.

Trap. The Bestial Host has rigged a primitive trap here with a trip wire that dislodges a large stone that falls down on the characters, ), and also rings a bell that is located outside the entry way. Treat the trap as a 2 HD monster (BAB +2) with a damage of 1d6 (DC 18/CR5 to find, and DC12/CR0 to disarm). Once the trap has sprung, and the bell has rung, roll once on the wandering monster chart as the characters leave this area.

B. Upper Guard Chamber. The upper level was once a guard chamber, but now is filled with debris. Enterprising characters can climb up into the guard chamber from the lower level. There are no stairs in this area, as the normal way to access the upper area was through the wall walkways from the main defense turrets. The chamber is otherwise empty. On revisits the chamber will still be empty, as there is too much rubble to effectively station guards.

Chordille Keep - General Stuff

2009-04-12T06:34:00.000-07:00

Over the next three weeks or so, I will be posting an encounter or two a day. I have about 24 encounters, so I am hoping to be finished within three weeks. For the crypt, I will be posting a mini dungeon that will consist of about 8-12 encounters with the goal that a party will easily be able to finish it in one session. The idea is that the crypt will be easily transfered into any adventure that needs a short 1-shot session. It will have a Ptolus/Golarion flavor.

As a final note, for the monsters, I will be using the C&C stat block with a couple of 3rd edition items thrown in to made it easy to convert to Pathfinder/3rd or an earlier version.

Happy Easter

2009-04-12T06:27:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!

Easter is a good time to take care of the spiritual side of things. I love posting on game stuff, and I probably spend way too much time doing it, when I should be doing work or other stuff. This is a good day to reflect on the bigger picture of life.

John 3:16

Chordille Keep - Guard Towers

2009-04-12T05:52:00.001-07:00

1. Guard towers.

Overview: The path leads past two guard towers to the ruined keep. Both show signs of fire damage, but otherwise seem to be in fair shape. These towers are very similar to each other as they are two story towers with a common area on the first level a barracks on the second level, and a roof level. The second level has are arrow slits (4 per side), but the ground floor does not. There are hatches and ladders that lead between levels. The doors to the towers are re-enforced wooden doors with a hardness of 5, and 20 hps, and can be locked from the inside (pick locks CL +2, DC 15).

A. West tower. The west tower is empty when initially encountered.
B. East tower. The east tower is occupied by 6 goblins and one sergeant hobgoblin from the bestial host. There are two goblins on each level of the tower, with the sergeant on the second level. The two goblins on the roof are the lookouts to the tower, as the other inhabitants are either sleeping or playing some sort of goblin game with cards or abusing a small rat that they have captured. The lookouts on the roof are less than professional in their duties, and it is possible to sneak up on them, without being seen.

6 goblins. AC 15, HD1, HP3, Dam 1d6 (short sword) or 1d6 (light crossbow)
1 hobgoblin sergeant. AC 16 (buckler), HD2, HP16, Dam 1d8 (long sword) or 1d6 (light crossbow)

Treasure: The goblins have a total of 1d12 gold equivalent and the hobgoblin has 1d6 gold equivalent.

General tactics: The goblins are cowardly foes, and the two on the roof of the east tower will not engage foes unless it looks like they are headed to the keep, and which point they will fire from the protection of the roof ramparts. If they take fire back, they will sound the alarm. Once the alarm is sounded, the two goblins and the hobgoblin on the second floor will open fire through arrow slits. The goblins on the ground floor will guard the main door.

Revisits: Upon subsequent revisits to the keep, the bestial host will station goblin guards in one or both towers, led by a hobgoblin sergeant. Once the characters have revisited the keep and defeated the goblins three times, there will be no further guards stationed at the towers, and instead roll for a random monsters. . On subsequent visits, if the doors were destroyed, they will be replaced by a simple wooden door with a hardness of 2, and 10 hps and will not possess a lock. After the third visit, the doors will not be replaced.

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Note: For the write ups, I will be using the C&C monster stats to keep things simple, and to allow for easy conversion into other systems.

Chordille Keep - Wandering Monters

2009-04-11T04:39:00.000-07:00

This will be a ongoing series of blogs on my Chordille Keep map. First up, the wandering monster charts.

Wandering Monsters: Die roll/result (check 1/hour)

1 – No encounter
2 – Wolf pack (1-6 wolves) or Worg + wolf pack (higher level party)
3 – 1d6 Goblins or 1d6 ratlings (see Ptolus Bestiary)
4 – 1 Ogre or 1 owlbear
5 – 1 Red dragon wrymling, unique encounter. Once defeated, this turns into a “No encounter” result
6 – Evinarus (Male Elf/ Rogue 2) unique encounter, once encountered, this turns in to a “No encounter” result
7 – Ghoul pack (1d4 ghouls or ghast + 1d4 ghouls (higher level party) - night only otherwise no encounter
8 – Rodents (1d6 rats or rat swarm)
9 – 1d4 Stirges or 1d4 Nightmare bats (Pathfinder module D2)
10 – 1d4 Vermin (beetles, centipedes, scorpions or spiders)
11 – 1d4 Red Kobolds hunting party on dire weasels
12 - No encounter

Notes on Wandering Monster Chart

A. For more than 6 characters increase the monster groups by one die size (ie change 1d4 to 1d6, change 1d6 to 1d8, etc)
B. Red dragon wyrmling – A small red dragon has been seen in the area, and it is rumored that it is the spawn of Metterak
C. Evinarus – See bonus encounters at Dungeon-a-day.com
D. Nightmare bats – These were summoned by a wizard long ago, and still hunt in the area.
E. Red Kobolds – This is a band of kobolds that are descended from a red dragon. The scouts can been seen mounted on dire weasels and patrol the area around the keep. I really like the idea that kobolds are related to dragons and have dragon blood in them. When AD&D was released, they were pictured with dog like heads, and over time they have morphed to lizard like creatures that are related to dragons. By making kobolds related to dragons, then we can do fun things like give them wings and breathweapons, which really just makes my day. Obviously I am a big fan of this, and I will be linking the kobolds to Metterak.

The Creation of Chordille Keep

2009-04-11T04:02:00.000-07:00

Several folks have been asking about how I created Chordille Keep, so I thought I would give a quick overview on the how I did this.

I initially created the keep using MS Excel. I adjusted the cells to about 21 pixels a side which gave a good square size in which to build on. For the most part, Excel has a number of options that allow for drawing a keep or dungeon. I tried to use the cell border function to the maximum extent that I could, and then used drawing shapes and lines to connect everything together.

Once I had this done, I copied it as a bitmap into PowerPoint. I wanted to keep the grid formatting from Excel, and the bitmap gave me this look. Once in PowerPoint, I added a bit of color and the numbers. The new MS Office suite allows one to save documents in PDF, which is a great function, so one I was done in PowerPoint, I saved it as a PDF.

Overall I was happy with how it turned out. Next time, I am going to play with the colors a bit more. As I mentioned in my previous blog, there is a dungeon contest, and I am looking forward to apply this technique and see what I can create. Once I have submitted it, I will post it on the site.

Dungeon Contest -Coming soon!

2009-04-11T01:31:00.000-07:00

I have been asked to pull this announcement until the sponsors are ready. Hopefully I will be able to repost this very soon!

Giants of the Earth (part 2)

2009-04-09T23:13:00.000-07:00

Remembering Dave Arneson
(October 1, 1947 – April 7, 2009)

By now word has spread, and I think most have heard the news. The message boards and personal blogs with messages in tribute to Dave and offering support for his family are starting to pop up. The outpouring of support and kind words for Dave are truly inspiring, and I think the fan base recognizes and appreciates the contribution that Dave made over his life.

I never had a chance to meet him, and I am a bit saddened by this. As a co-founder of a hobby that probably has consumed more of my free time than any other hobby, I would have liked to have had met him. While Gary seemed to be at the front of the hobby, Dave was the unsung hero behind the scenes. He was a primary creative force behind the creation of the game, and without him, Gary probably would not have pulled it all together. His Blackmoor campaign was the truly the first campaign and existed before the game, and my understanding is that he was playing it until just recently, which probably makes it the longest running as well as the oldest campaign.

I sometimes ponder a bit about what those early days were like, when it was just an idea that was shared with a small group of folks. Who could have predicted that this idea of theirs would travel around the world and sell millions of copies. It is amazing to think that it started with a print run of 500 which sold in three months. The time was ripe for their idea to gain traction and it did.

Over the past day or so, I have been reading the various tributes, and I went over to Wikipedia to look his legacy and it is quite a list. I have enclosed it below as a reminder of what he gave us:

Dungeons & Dragons (1974) (with Gary Gygax)
Blackmoor (1975)
Dungeonmaster's Index (1977)
The First Fantasy Campaign (1977)
Adventures in Fantasy (1979) (with Richard L. Snider)
Robert Asprin's Thieves' World (1981) (co-author)
Citybook II - Port o' Call (1984) (co-author)
Adventures in Blackmoor (D&D Module:DA1) (1986) (with David J. Ritchie)
Temple of the Frog (D&D Module:DA2) (1986) (with David J. Ritchie)
City of the Gods (D&D Module:DA3) (1987) (with David J. Ritchie)
DNA/DOA (1989)
The Case of the Pacific Clipper (1991)
The Haunted Lighthouse (Dungeon Crawl Classics Module #3.5) (2003)
Dave Arneson's Blackmoor (2004) (lead designer)
Player's Guide to Blackmoor (2006)

I am also including an interview with him done by Gamespy in August 2004, which is a very interesting read, and does provide some insight into the history of the game.

Interview

To Dave, I thank you for all the hours of fun that you gave me in this game that you created. You shall not be forgotten.

Rest in Peace.

Giants of the Earth (part 1)

2009-04-09T06:23:00.000-07:00

It was just the other day that I learned of the passing of Steven Tompkins. Regular readers of The Cimmerian will of course recognize Steve’s name, as his essays fill their electronic tomes, but there maybe some of my readers that have not had a chance to read through his works. I never met him, I never exchanged emails with him, I only knew him through is writing, and his writing was something special. I remember my 10th grade World Literature teacher told us that one’s writing gives insight into what is deep inside a person. Writing is a special expression of a person, and some folks just have a special touch with the written words, and Steve was one of those guys.

Steve’s depth of knowledge on sword and sorcery, high fantasy, science fiction, mythology and film was nothing short of amazing. His ability to weave multiples sources around a single theme was truly a unique talent that few possess. He could wield the quill like the heroes of old could wield their great axes. It has been said that the pen is mightier than the sword, and the way he crafted his trade, left no doubt as to the caliber of writer that he was.

While the main thrust of The Cimmerian was to support the works of Robert Howard, Steve made it a point to champion numerous authors like Martin, Tolkien and Lovecraft, just to name a few. My favorite of his essays were the ones on Tolkien, as I count myself as a huge fan of the late professor, and one of my greatest disappointments will be that I will never get a chance to hear Tolkien speak on mythology and his more famous works. It is my belief that Tolkien was a very special author, and know that Steve was firmly in this camp as well. His essays on Middle Earth are just stunning, and really bring out the brilliance that was embedded in his works. Steve’s ability to turn a phrase and bring in an unexpected reference was just a thing of beauty.

The tag line for The Crimmerian web site is, “A website and shieldwall for Robert E. Howard, J.R.R. Tolkien and the Best in Heroic Fantasy, Horror and Historical Adventure.” I would argue that Steve was the anchor of that shieldwall. All the bloggers that log their craft there are very talented, but Steve just took it to another level. That is not a slight to folks like Brian and Leo, but rather just shows just how impressive Steve was.

Some of his more recent essays that I enjoyed are as follows:

1) An Early, Albeit Pagan, Christmas in the Old North
2) Lonely Mountain, Crowded Expectations; Or, Prelude as Successor

3) Long Ago, Far Away, and So Much Better Than It Is Today
4) Glaurung and Smaug Make Room for Fafnir

Several of the bloggers at The Crimmerian had wrote tributes to Steve and I will link them here, as they are very good.

Brian Murphy: Bidding farewell to the heroic heart of Steve Tompkins
Duece Richardson: His Like Will Not Be Here Again

As a final thought, the figures in heroic fantasy are always a bit larger than life. Their epic tales are a bard’s dream come true when it comes to weaving yarn to delight all within ear shot. Some of the heroes are tragic, and it is what allows us to identify with them, as not everything goes our way in life. The storm will come, and it is through this storm that character is made. There are a number of us that recognize this and see the human elements in these stories, which is why we keep coming back to them. Steve recognized the inherit value in these stories and made it a passion to express this through his writing.

Here is hoping that even as I write this, you will be swapping bardic tales with those that have gone before you. We will miss you.

Dungeon-a-day - Update

2009-04-09T06:12:00.001-07:00

A short note from Monte on his Dungeon-a-Day project:

Remember, the Charter Membership offer ends April 10 (this Friday), so spread the word, post it on your blogs, and tell your friends.

Basically two days left to take advantage of this offer.

News from Paizo

2009-04-08T20:25:00.000-07:00

A couple of updates from Paizo that I am finding news worthy. They have released the official covers of their Pathfinder Role Playing Game, and the Pathfinder Bestiary, which I have included below. Both covers were created Wayne Reynolds.

Paizo earlier today released this announcement on their PDF sale. I also received an email from Lisa Stevens, Paizo’s CEO, promoting this sale, which is a not so subtle jab at WotC. While I am specifically mentioning Paizo, there are a number of other companies that are running similar sales, and I think the message is fairly clear from the gaming community on this subject. Lisa gets it, and she was very quick to react to the public relations mess that WotC created. There is no mystery on why Paizo in five years since its founding has become a leader in gaming industry. As a final note, check out the PDF love that Paizo and a number of other publishers are offering!

News release as follows.

Paizo Gives PDFs Some Love: 35% Off!

We at Paizo Publishing understand how important PDFs have become to most roleplaying gamers. We know that PDFs allow you to easily carry around a large library of books on your laptop, PDA, or cell phone. We know that PDFs are great for searching for that piece of obscure information. We know that PDFs are a great way to keep out-of-print products available. And we know that PDFs provide a great way to check out new products.

At paizo.com, most of the roleplaying books we publish are available in both print and PDF editions. We take pride in the high quality of our PDFs and think that they are some of the best in the industry. And we would love to show you how cool they are by allowing you to buy our Pathfinder PDFs for 35% off the regular retail price through the end of April. This offer includes Pathfinder Adventure Path PDFs, Pathfinder Modules PDFs, Pathfinder Chronicles PDFs, Pathfinder Companion PDFs, and Pathfinder Society Scenario PDFs.

Just add the Pathfinder PDFs you would like to buy into your cart, and when you are checking out, type the promotional code "PDFLove" in the appropriate box. The 35% discount will be applied to your Pathfinder PDFs at that point. You can use this code as many times as you like until the end of April, and feel free to share this code with your friends.

We also invite you to check out the FREE PDF products available at http://paizo.com/store/downloads/free. These include several of our own products, such as the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Beta, our adventures Hollow's Last Hope and Revenge of the Kobold King, and our Player's Guides for Rise of the Runelords and Curse of the Crimson Throne, as well as dozens of PDFs from other publishers.

We would also like to remind you that subscribers to our Pathfinder Adventure Path, Pathfinder Modules, Pathfinder Companion, and Pathfinder Chronicles lines get FREE PDFs when the corresponding print editions of their subscription products ship just another way in which we thank our customers for their support!

So drop by paizo.com and check out all of the downloads we offer at http://paizo.com/store/downloads. The digital age is here, and we are proud to be your provider of amazing digital products for years to come.

Marketing Management 101

2009-04-07T07:30:00.000-07:00

What a mess.

Apparently I have been living under a rock for the past 12 hours or so, because I just received an email from Paizo telling me that Wizards is halting their sales of PDF’s, and that I should buy them now otherwise forget it. Of course by the time I saw that, it was a done deal. In the mean time, every blogger has already posted their commentary on the subject, and Enworld is shutting down posts on the subject that are already almost 20 pages long of folks complaining about it. I definitely feel late to the party on this one.

So I get the piracy thing. I really do. In this digital age, it is something that we have to deal with. The music industry learned that the hard way. Fans want to get their products through digital media, and through the internet is a prime way to do this. However, I do have some commentary on this.

1) It seems to me that the biggest issue is piracy on the new stuff. I am not convinced that Wizards is losing a lot of sales on the older product to PDF piracy. With this in mind, if Wizards is really concerned about piracy on PHB 2, they should delay the PDF releases until the hard cover books have been in circulation for a year or so. This is similar to what publishers do with hard covers and soft covers. The soft covers hit the street about a year after the hard covers. Let’s face it, the big sales spike is within the first 6 months of a product release then drops off significantly.

2) By eliminating ways for paying customer to buy PDFs, I think this has the opposite effect. I have no data to support this claim, but I am going to go out on a limb on this one.

3) Based on what I have seen so far, it feels like an inside job or more likely that Wizards has a problem with one of their printers illegally distributing their products before the release date. It seems like this would be a straight forward process to verify.

I also saw mentioned that Wizards wants to support the local game stores and that means limiting the availability of PDF files in order to keep sales of the books high. Again, I get this, and I think that if Wizards just delayed publishing PDF files until for a year, this could help out the smaller brick and mortar stores. However, I think it is online retailers like Amazon that is really hurting the FLGS, as they can sell it for 20-30% off the cover, and the FLGS cannot match discounts like that.

This brings me to my next point of the older material that is not in print any more. Again, I am going to go out on a limb and say that since Wizards is not selling or supporting the older products, and that the FLGSs probably do not have this stuff on their shelves, the only way to get this stuff is through PDF. Now Wizards is not doing anything to promote the older stuff, as they want everyone to move to 4th ed, so the sales potential on the older material is really just a drop in the bucket, and I suspect that piracy on the older material is very small.

My last comment on all this, is that this is a public relation nightmare for WotC. Clearly this is going to be seen in a bad light. The suddenness of it strikes me rather oddly. They shutdown everything rather quickly, and it feels a bit like a knee jerk reaction, regardless of whether or not this is indeed true. If this was a planned move, it feels like they should have immediately launched a counter marketing plan to put this in some sort of positive spin on the situation. Instead, it looks like things are getting wildly out of control. This cannot be good for business. I am not sure what’s going on over at Wizards.

This may sound strange, but even though I am not a fan of 4th ed, I do hope Wizards is successful at least on some level. Wizards is the big gorilla on the street, and I believe that it is actually in the best interest of the hobby to have a strong lead player in the market. I do believe that the current situation is not good, and it is leading to fragmentation of the fan base, which I think is bad for the hobby. The hobby is rather small to begin with, and anything that causes it to splinter off, will ultimately make the fan base even smaller, which makes it harder for companies and game stores to stay in business. Having a couple of big players in the market supporting a game system is just good for everyone, in terms of keeping interest high in the hobby, and allows the local game store to survive. The FLGS needs big brands to keep a good customer base. Without the big brand, their sales will drop off also. Just as a mall needs anchor stores, our hobby needs anchor brands. When I see fans say that they will not support Wizards, I see this as a slow death spiral to our hobby. This is a bad sign.

Now I do agree that there will be independent game designers that will publish, and that there will be diversity in choices. The retro movement is surviving on this at the moment, but I do not think this is a recipe for long term growth in the hobby. This is one of the reasons that I am rooting for Paizo. Potentially Paizo can keep some of the fan base together, as they have emerged as a strong player in the market.

So to wrap this up, I think Wizards has a mess on their hands. Yes I do believe that Wizards will pull PDF’s to their own stores to control distribution. However, this heavy handed tactic will not win favor with the fan base, and it will take a bit of work to get that good will built back up again.

Chordille Keep (ruined keep maps)

2009-04-06T04:26:00.000-07:00

In Monte’s Dungeon-a-Day, Monte references the ruins of Chordille Keep which sits on top of the dungeon. As of this point, Monte has not provided a map of Chordille Keep. The initial assumption is that it is a series of ruins with nothing significant remaining. However, given that I like castle ruins, and I could not resist drawing something up, which is what I spent a good part of this weekend doing.

Enclosed is the player’s map and along with the GM’s map, which has the room numbers on it. Even through this has been designed with Monte’s dungeon in mind, it is fairly generic and can be used for any dungeon that needs a ruined keep.

Over the next week or so, I will be providing my write ups on the encounter areas.

GM Map

Player's Map

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Permission statement

With this statement, I give permission for folks to use these maps for their own use. If this is going to see publish in another media (blog, electronic publication, fanzine/magazine), please reference this blog site and this particular blog entry.

Review: Dungeon-a-Day.com (Part 2)

2009-04-05T00:14:00.000-07:00

Continued from yesterday
----------------

Final thoughts

Dungeon-a-day is a very interesting idea. My overall thought is that the website is very slick, and I suspect that Monte will continue to make improvements over time, which means it will get better. We spend a lot of time debating the merits of one rule set over another, or discussing some optional rule set, and discussing game philosophy. It is good to see someone put all that rhetoric aside and actually start working on an ambitious project, which this is. I have to give kudos to Monte for this.

Now I do recognize that there is a bit of criticism about the subscription model. There is a feeling that what one is really getting is just fancy blog, and with the multitude of blogs out there, why would one want to pay for it. This goes back to my discussion on value, and does one consider this as valuable as a magazine subscription. With any internet subscription model, that is the basic question that one has to answer. If one is not interested in an electronic magazine subscription, then this is not for you.

There has also been a bit of discussion on whether or not this is really an old school mega-dungeon. The level maps are a bit small (38 encounter areas on the first level and 24 on the second) and the room entries are a bit long. So I do agree that the map levels are a bit on the small side, but I am ok with this, as I actually like to see more vertical orientated dungeons with half levels in between the main levels. When I am doing my design work on large dungeons, I try to incorporate as many small side levels, as I find that a bit more interesting than just one large flat dungeon. I do recognize this as my preference, and not everyone would agree with me. I think offering vertical choices are more interesting than just a standard horizontal choice.

With regards to the long room descriptions, I think that is the nature of the subscription model beast. If I am going to pay for content, then I want to see content. To put a number on it, if I am going to subscribe to something that promises daily content, then I want to see ~1K of word content. Now this does not mean that I want to see dungeon rooms come in at 1000 words, but rather I want to see a total of ~1000 words between the different articles. Different folks may have a different number in mind, but that is my threshold. Thus far, Monte’s room write ups range between 300 words to up over 1500 words. I fully agree that he could tighten up the descriptions on some of the rooms. However, he is using a room template that while easy to read and use, and does stretch out the room descriptions a bit. Also, the 3rd ed monster write ups can become very bloated, and thus far, Monte has tried to keep the monster stat blocks to an absolute minimum, which I appreciate.

One of the things I really like is the interconnectedness of the dungeon so far. There is an overall dungeon plot to it, and it is not just a collection of rooms. I think that this is truly the key to making a great mega-dungeon. It is relatively easy to create a series of maps and populate them monsters and such. However, it is quite another thing to create a tight interconnected dungeon plot that links rooms and levels together. As a player, it is more interesting to play through a dungeon, if it has a plot, and there are deeper things to discover. This concept of a dungeon plot turns into a puzzle for the players, and I think that this helps stimulate good game play, and keeps the interest going. Levels which are quite independent and divorced from one another may be interesting at first, but I think greater interest comes from dungeon plot that gets revealed as one travels through the dungeon. This is not to say that dungeon should be an adventure path, but rather the plot should be a bit of a puzzle that the players can figure out, and I believe that this leads to better game play.

The last point I do want to mention is Monte’s use of Dwarven Forge miniature terrain. I really like the pictures of dungeon with the Dwarven Forge terrain. When I first started playing D&D, I always wanted to create a 3D dungeon. I will be the first one to say that Dwarven Forge terrain is very stunning when set up. It definitely gives the game a bit eye candy at the table. I personally do not owe any, but I am giving it considerable thought. To run a mega-dungeon using Dwarven Forge terrain (or something similar) would be really cool.

Overall, I do give this product a thumbs up. I think Monte has made good start, and I am hoping that he continues to improve the site. With that said, I realize that this is not for everyone. The subscription model may not work for everyone’s budget. If one is not planning on playing through it, if may not have a high value proposition. However, if one is creating a mega-dungeon, this site has a number of good ideas that are ripe for using. With each room getting its own detailed description, there are plenty of ideas that can be used in one’s own mega-dungeon.

Rating: 4 Dragons (on a scale of 5)

Review: Dungeon-a-Day.com (Part 1)

2009-04-04T01:27:00.001-07:00

Dungeon-a-Day, by designer Monte Cook, has been now live for about three weeks or so, and there has been quite of bit of discussion on it. A number of bloggers have posted their comments, and some of the more commonly known features have been discussed and debated at length. But none the less, I will give my assessment of what has been done so far, and provide some additional insights that have come from what we have seen over the past three weeks, that perhaps were not as well known earlier. This review will be split into two parts, the first one being the more objective overview, and the second part will include more subjective analysis as well as a bit of commentary on mega-dungeons in general

As a disclaimer, I am a fan of Monte’s work. That is not to say that I like everything he has done, but I do think he is a very talented writer, and has a good understanding of the mechanics of the game, that comes from designing games for TSR and for developing the 3rd edition version. His list of published works is impressive, both in terms of quantity and quality. I do not own everything that he has published, but I do own a number of them. In this review, I will try to maintain an objective eye at the whole thing. With that said, let’s get into the actual review

Concept

The overall concept is very straight forward, as it’s a web based subscription model that is based on providing content five days a week. The content comes in terms of a room and usually something else, which has included blog entries, pod casts, maps, handouts, bonus encounters, new monsters, and glossary updates. There are hyperlinks throughout the website that allow quick access to addition information. For visitors to the site that are not members, there are a number of areas that can be accessed to help one determine if this is something that they want to sign up for. Monte has a number of subscription plans available, and signing up for a year subscription is clearly the best dollar value, which equates to about $7/month, or a little more than a subscription to a magazine. I am estimating the current price of a year magazine subscription to be at about $5/month for a year, and this does depend on the magazine as some maybe a bit cheaper than this, but there are some that are more than $7/month. I bring this up, as I think this becomes a good bench mark in determining if this something that one wants to sign up for.

The Good

There are a number of features that I think are very solid:

1. Maps done by Ed Bourelle. Ed is the owner for SkeletonKey Games, which specializes in maps and tiles for gaming. Ed’s cartography is very solid work.

2. The main map now has the function in which one can click on a room and be taken directly to that room.

3. Pictures of the rooms created with Dwarvenforge to give a 3-D feel for what the room looks like, in addition to the standard map. I personally really like this.

4. Interesting room ideas. Monte has clearly put some thought in the room design, and there are plenty of good ideas that have been written into the dungeon.

5. The website is focused on the dungeon, and everything is built around this concept.

6. Monte has an expanding list of sponsors, and I suspect that this will grow over time. Paizo just signed up this past week, with Jason Bulmahn agreeing to write a monthly blog to support Monte. I actually think this is very cool, as Monte was acting as a consultant for Jason for the creation of the Pathfinder rules, and with this move, Jason is returning the favor. Very classy.

7. There is an active forum in which subscribers can provide feedback to Monte, and he has taken action on the suggestions that have been made.

8. An overall dungeon plot, with foreshadowing, hints and clues to what exists below.

The objections

These are some of the items that have thus far received the most criticism:

1. Cost. The cost is more than a magazine subscription.

2. Monte is using the 3rd ed rule set as the basis with which to write this, and some folks may no longer be using this rule set.

3. The content is being provided one room at a time, and there is no updates being made over the weekend.

4. At the moment, there is no compilation as the levels are finished. This may change, but right now there are no plans.

5. I personally do have a minor quibble about the site organization, specifically with regards to the key reference materials. I would like to see the navigation menu beefed up a bit more, but I do suspect that this will be improved. My general thought is that one should be able to get to a key reference page in one click, and it should be very intuitive as to where it is.

For tomorrow, I will post part two, which will include my final thoughts on Dungeon-a-Day.

Mr. Styrofoam Man

2009-04-03T00:29:00.000-07:00

More ramblin' about China.

China is an interesting place, in that just when you think you have seen it all, up pops something that you would never expect. When I go to work, I sometimes stop by to pick up some Starbucks coffee in the morning. If I get there early enough, I get to see the Chinese old folks practicing their Kung Fu (although, it could be Tai Chi) with swords (or fans) right in front of the mall where Starbucks is located. Its a bit of a kick to see the gals out there swinging the swords or snapping their fans. Just recently, an old western guy has been trying to join in. The leader of the group has been very patient with trying to teach him the various maneuvers. I get a chuckle at watching this every morning. Apparently the western guy is making some progress, as his Chinese teacher was giving him a thumbs up on one of the things that he was trying to do.

This brings me to Mr. Styrofoam Man. There are these old guys that ride these beater three wheel bikes that some times are motorized, and sometimes are not. Mr Styrofoam Man rides one of these bikes and he has a mountain of styrofoam that is piled 20’ high. I do not exaggerate. It is just plain scary how high this stuff is piled. He has it all bundled up and it looks like a white mountain making its way down the street. Sometimes the stuff is piled on such that the white mass of styrofoam looks like it is about to envelope Mr. Styrofoam Man. When you look at him, he has this crazy grin on his face that is never changing. The truly scary part is that he is very quiet and does not stop. Nothing stops him. Traffic stops for Mr. Styrofoam Man, but he does not stop.

I was out to lunch with a colleague the other day, and I was coming out of the restaurant and I was about to cross the bike path, which runs beside the road. I looked right and then I looked left and there he was. He was barreling down the bike path at a good clip, and he was upon us in an instant. I shudder to think what would have happened if I had actually stepped out on to the bike path. Nothing stops him, and his ability to pop up out of nowhere is a bit uncanny. Truly an amazing sight.

Nostalgic games from the early Dragons

2009-04-02T00:24:00.000-07:00

There was something special about those early Dragon magazines.

I can still remember when I saw my first Dragon magazine, and I thought that it was one of the coolest things ever to see print. One of the things that I really liked in the early days was that Dragon was not just confined to D&D, but rather covered a wide array of games. This is probably the result of the wargaming roots of the game, and the creators were fans of these types of games. I clearly fall into this category, and I enjoyed reading these other articles. D&D in those days was really just a handful of books, so Dragon magazine was the only resource available to go to for experimental/optional rules and the general state of the game. I miss that, and I appreciate what Wolfgang is trying to do with KQ.

One of the really cool things that the early Dragons included were adventures and other fun games. There are a couple that really standout for me, not so much that they were truly great games, but that they were short and fun to play.

The Awful Green Things from Outer Space

First seen in Dragon 28 (1979), The Awful Green things made their start, and have become something of a cult classic. TSR would go on to publish this as a box game, which enjoyed some success before the rights returned to its author Tom Wham, who eventually worked an agreement with Steve Jackson Games for further publish.

My buddy Doug bought the game, and I played several times, mostly as the Awful Green Things. This game is just a lot of fun to play. I remember the first time I watched my friends play, as the crewmen won with the help of the fire extinguisher that turned deadly to the Awful Green Things, and the crew was able to contain the green menace.

The game is not that hard to play, and the basic premise is very straight forward. The Awful Green Things have invaded the spaceship Znutar, and the crew needs to defeat them. The Awful Green Things have the advantage as they can grow and replace themselves, while the crew cannot, so the crewman are fighting against the clock as they have to act quickly or become over whelmed. The weapons have unknown effects on the Awful Green Things, which is part of the appeal of the game. Until you use the weapon, one has no idea what they will do. For the crew, they need to pick up the area of effect weapons, and hope for the best. For the Awful Green Things, they need to multiple quickly and use their numbers before the crew finds a killer weapon to use against them.

All in all, just a fun game to play

Snits revenge

First seen in Dragon 10 (1977), and the Snits have running around ever since. This game has a similar fun feel as The Awful Green Things. Initially it was an insert into Dragon magazine, and then later sold as a box game by TSR. Eventually, the game license returned to Tom Wham and is now produced by Steve Jackson Games.

The plot of the game involves the large Bolotomi that enjoy smashing Snits as they run up on to the beach to reproduce. Well after a bit of that nonsense the snits decide to lead a counter attack against the Bolotomi, by attacking from inside the Bolotomi. The game itself depicts this internal battle inside of the Bolotomi. One player is the invading snits, and the other player is the bodily defenses.

For the Snit player, the game is very straight forward, in that there mission is to kick a number of internal organs or find the spark of life and destroy that. For the Bolotomi player, the goal is to create Runnungitms that can counter attack by chomping the Snits. The game then becomes a battle of kicking Snits vs. the chomping Runnungitms. The challenge for the Snits is to cause as much damage as fast as possible, before they are over whelmed by the Runnungitms. The Snit player starts with a fixed quantity of Snits, while the Bolotomi can create more Runnungitms. As organs are kicked and the Snorgs are destroyed, the Bolotomi player has to decide what to create with his Compositor organs, either Runnungitms or Snorgs to man up the internal organs.

While both games are a bit whimsical, they are fun to play and the games can be completed within an hour.

One can argue that the production values are better now days, but there was a certain fun factor in the early days of Dragon, which I do not think has been captured since.

Dark Sorcery

2009-04-01T01:27:00.000-07:00

One of the things that always strikes me about the older pulp sword and sorcery stories is the use and the role of Dark Sorcery.

In D&D terms, magic is usable by good guys, and I classify this as your basic high magic that is neither good nor evil. One of the things I like about the Forgotten Realms campaign world is the definition of magic and its relationship with the weave. To me, this just makes a lot of sense. In a nut shell, the weave moves through all things, and one needs to just tap into it to work magic. Dead magic areas are locations that the weave does not go through. I am probably over simplifying it, but I think I have captured the essence of it. I am definitely a GM that likes everything to fit together well, which plays to my internal sense of an orderly reality. Magic, while outside the normal rules of physics, should be consistent when compared to itself. With that said, I do appreciate the concept that magic should be magic and not entirely explainable, which adds to the fantasy element of D&D.

Now Dark Sorcery is something else entirely. The current book I am reading is by CS Friedman, called Feast of Souls, and it was a very interesting approach to sorcery. I am actually a big fan of her work, and I really enjoyed her other fantasy trilogy, The Coldfire Trilogy. In her current book, sorcery is fueled by a person’s life force, either one’s own life force or another’s life force. This is a new spin on the idea of Dark Sorcery, which I am finding very interesting.

To me, this harkens back to the pulps, where Dark Sorcery was something evil, and with it came the corruption of men’s souls. The temptation is power, but clearly there is a price to pay. So the question becomes, how does one incorporate that into a game? With NPC’s it is easy to introduce. With players, it is a completely different story. I do want to introduce the concept of Dark Sorcery into my game as something that the bad guys use, and something that the good guys can use also, but there is a price to pay.

I have always enjoyed reading about the struggle of good characters with regards of using evil tools to defeat evil. It is the age old question of does the means justify the ends? The purists among us will clearly argue against this, but there are some that will say that the only thing that matters is the end result. To take another example, in the Eisenhorn Trilogy, we watch the puritan inquisitor come to grips with the question as he uses the tools of chaos to combat chaos.

With this in mind, I have been thinking how to create this for the characters and have the players really wrestle with this. Clearly Dark Sorcery holds power for those that embrace it, but there is a cost. The challenge is not only how to create this conflict, but how to keep the game relatively balanced regardless of the decisions that the characters make.

A couple of months ago I did a product review on Chaositech by Monte Cook, which provides a good mix of fluff and crunch on how to introduce a type of Dark Sorcery that Monte calls chaositech. Monte in his Ptolus campaigns mixes this in, and I was able to use some of it in my last campaign. I wanted to do more with it, and I am hoping to introduce it back into my next campaign, regardless of what that is. Even though Chaositech is written for 3rd edition, the concepts are clearly portable into any edition.

I have also been kicking around the idea of corruption points. I also mentioned this in an earlier blog. I really like the concept, as it allows for characters to use Dark Sorcery, but there is clearly a cost for long term usage. I think this captures the essence of what I am looking for. In my experience, just having a role playing penalty is not enough, there needs to be some sort of mechanics attached to this, as this will naturally force role playing through the decisions that the players will have to make that will ultimately affect their characters.

I will probably be blogging more on this topic, as I think it adds a dimension to the D&D game, and it is keeping with the pulp fiction roots of the game.

Review: Rise of the Runelords – Final Thoughts

2009-03-29T04:43:00.000-07:00

I have spent the past two months or so reviewing Paizo’s first Pathfinder Adventure Path individually, and I thought I would provide some overall commentary on the entirety of it.

It is well known at this point that when WotC pulled back the Dungeon and Dragon magazines, Paizo had to come up with a replacement. While I am not sure what the revenue numbers were, I suspect that it was substantial, and I will go on to theorize that Paizo really needed something to replace the magazines in order to continue to grow as a business. This lead to the decision to launch the Pathfinder AP, and with it came a number of other related products.

While Rise of the Runelords was not the first AP ever created, it represents the first dedicated effort to launch a sustained effort to promote the AP model with a series of specifically designed books. One can go back to the days 1E, and look at the GDQ series, which I believe is the first attempt at creating a campaign arc. When they were first published, the link between them was rather loose, and then with the publish of Queen of the Spiders in 1986, the link was strengthen with additional material, and there was an effort made to make it a follow on to the A series, which was a much smaller campaign arc that was based on a series of tournament modules.

The 1980’s also saw the rise of Dragonlance, which I believe created the story driven plot lines, and was clearly very successful, with numerous modules being created. Fast forward to 3rd edition, in which Paizo coined the term Adventure Path with their publish of Shackled City, followed by Age of Worms and Savage Tide in their Dungeon magazine, which were also very popular with the fans.

Looking back over this history, we see that while D&D started with the sandbox campaign, the Adventure Path has gained considerable popularity among the fans, and made its case as a viable adventure design. I would even go as far as to say that even in the old days, there was talk about combining modules or adventures in order to create a super campaign in which to take characters from 1st level to a much higher level, providing they survive the journey, and the players continue to stay disciplined in playing with a particular set of characters. It is a natural desire of players to see their characters rise in power, and I would argue that this is one of the reasons to play the game as a player.

Now we come to Rise of the Runelords, which represents the latest attempt to create a campaign arc in which characters can go from 1st level to 15th level. Based on today’s sales figures, which are quite a bit smaller than the Golden Age of D&D in the early eighties, it has proven to be very popular. There was a poll on Enworld a year or so ago, asking which 3rd edition product was the most popular. While the poll cannot be taken as an extremely accurate assessment of the entire fan base, it is worth mentioning that Rise of the Runelords did very well, getting into the final rounds. I think this does re-enforce the notion that there is considerable fan support for quality adventure paths. With all this said, I think that this does lend legitimacy to the adventure path as a valid design method.

Looking over Rise of the Runelords, I have given the individual books fairly good reviews, and there is a lot to like about the series.

- Well laid out, all color books
- A number of well written supporting articles
- Gazetteers of the key towns involved in the adventure path
- Lots of variety of play, ranging from a small seaside village to a lost city up in the mountains
- A number of dungeons for exploring
- A haunted house
- A fully mapped out fort
- A very logical goblin-ghoul-ogre-giant monster progression
- Solid adventure hooks linking the books together
- Very active message board with over 16,000 posts on this Adventure Path

On the downside, Adventure Paths do lock the characters into following a specific plot, and has a tendency to pull the characters along, rather than having the characters create their own destinies. This specific Adventure Path is very guilty of that, as it has a very strong overall pace, which does not leave a lot of room for side adventures. This is not to say that there could not be any, but a heavy handed GM can make this seem like the characters are on an E-ticket ride at Disney.

Taken as written, and considering the adventure path genera, this is one of the stronger entries in this class. For the players and GM’s that like this type of adventuring, this particular series is very good. The strength of design and the diversity of the modules are such that it should keep players interested for the entirety of play.

For those GM’s and players that do not like the Adventure Path concept due to its forced execution, can still take away bits and pieces, as I think this series is very modular, and sections can be broken off and fit into existing campaigns. In particular, the dungeons are small, which means that they can be ported off and used in a number of different ways. The towns that are described can also be used elsewhere. The haunted house in PF#2 would make a great one shot Halloween special.

Overall, I do recommend this Adventure Path, as I think there are enough good ideas contained within, to make up for any short comings that exist.

Rating: 4 Dragons (on a scale of 5)

Dark Continents

2009-03-26T05:38:00.000-07:00

Being here in Australia, I have given a bit of thought to the concept of Dark Continents and its impact on Sword and Sorcery genera.

Clearly the orgins of the term come from the 19th century, when map makers were unsure of what was in the interior of the continent, so would just leave it blank or "dark."

Nowdays, most folks would still naturally think of Africa as the Dark Continent, for obvious reasons. It is easy to get caught up in the mythology that surrounds Africa with its steamy jungles, Serengeti Plains, and the Sahara Desert that empties into Egypt with its pyramids. There is something quite primal about this backdrop that makes for great story telling. Howard made liberal use of this in his Solomon Kane stories, and Conan borrowed bit and pieces here and there to fill out the Hyborian Age in order to set the right atmosphere.

While the wild animals of Africa make for great stories, of which The Man-Eaters of Tsavo is one of my favorite tales, with its rogue man eating lions. It is perhaps the only place on earth that large animals still range free. The dinosaurs have been extinct for a good 65 million years, but elephants and the other great herd animals still tromp around, giving us but a glimpse of what it would have been like to see large beasts wandering about. Still it falls short of seeing an actual T-rex, but this is the best we have in the modern age.

With all that said, I think the key to the draw of Africa is the idea that older civilization once lived here. The mysteries of the pyramids still remain with us, and are not fully understood. When Europe became aware of Africa, it was a new civilization meets old civilization, and with this, concepts and ideas become possible. It is here that Sword and Sorcery can take root, and creative writing can fully blossom. It is the unknown that defies traditional thinking, allows for the possibility of fantastic stories, and has become a fertile field for numerous authors to plow away on, which they have.

But, Africa is not the only Dark Continent on our planet. One could argue that all the continents have some mysterious past, which begs for exploration by creative authors. The Indian myths of North and South America, the Dark Ages of Europe, the Chinese and Japanese dynasties, just to name a few. This brings us to Antarctica and Australia.

Antarctica is a difficult beast to write about, as no one really lived there in ages past. One has to create a past and give the readers context in which to believe in the possibilities. There have been a number of authors that have succeeded in creating this plausibility for the audience. John Carpenter’s The Thing created the idea of an alien in the ice that goes on to terrorize a group of researchers. This idea of aliens in remote places is not new, and earlier authors, most notably HP Lovecraft, made generous use of this idea, and I suspect that Carpenter was well versed is Lovecraft mythology. Chris Carter’s X-Files borrowed this idea for his first movie with Molder and Scully chasing alien space craft under the frozen ice. Antarctica does work, but one has to set the stage and tap into our primal subconscious, as it does not exist naturally.

This brings us to Australia, a sort of forgotten island in the South Pacific. Australia is a place where civilization exists on the coast and a rugged outback exists in the middle, which to this day is sparsely populated. Lovecraft used Australia as the backdrop for the end of The Shadow Out of Time, as the main character was looking for the remains of the ancient Great Race. Clearly the remote outback, with its unique and dangerous animals, rivals that of the remote plains of Africa. But perhaps where Australia has Africa beat is with its legendary great white sharks. That is not to say that Africa does not have any white sharks, as indeed it does of the off coast of South Africa, but I think most folks, if asked the question, would respond with Australia rather than Africa.

Today, I was out at Bondi Beach, and I could not help but think about the sharks off the coast, as they are out there. My thoughts drifted a bit to Nick Logue’s Razor Coast Adventure which is due out soon (hopefully before Gencon). While I have not seen any of the manuscripts, and what I know from Nick’s website is that it makes liberal use of shark and Lovecraft mythology. I am looking forward to seeing the final product, and my trip here has only heighted my anticipation for this upcoming release.

To return to the opening theme of Dark Continents, this is one of the cornerstones of the early Sword and Sorcery pulps. It’s combination of familiarity and mystery, which lend themselves to be harvested into a new creation that plays right into a reader’s mind. With but a sentence or two, an entire stage is set, and the author has the reader hooked. Blend in a bit of fantasy, and the sword and sorcery story comes alive. To bring this around full circle, I would say that all the major world campaigns have borrowed from this, and one can clearly see where the real world has intersected in the creation of these campaigns.

Wildlife in Australia

2009-03-24T05:11:00.000-07:00

Continuing on with the vacation theme, I will take a break from my normal blogging on gaming and write about the real reason we work, which is to have fun and go on vacation. Next week I will get back to gaming and such.

There is something really cool about seeing wild life up close in Australia. While one can always go to the local zoo, there is nothing like actually being in one of the more exotic spots on the world and seeing the native animals up close. Australia is one of those far away places that one see’s on Discovery, but only very rarely one gets to go there. From the US, it is a good 12+ hours away from the west coast. Even from Shanghai, it is still 10 hours away.

Today we zipped up to the Reptile Park for some up close animal encounters. Its name suggests that it specializes in reptiles, but the coolest thing about the park were the kangaroo and koalas. To be honest, I was actually a bit disappointed with the reptiles that they had, as I thought it paled to what is available for viewing at the San Diego zoo, which really is one of the nicer zoos in the world. Of all the zoos that I have been to, which are quite a few, I would rank the San Diego and Washington DC zoos as the top two.

In the greater Sydney area, there are a number of places that you can hold and get your picture taken with the koalas. Without a doubt, koalas are rather cute looking. They just sit there, so they are perfect getting the entire family up close with one. The Reptile Park had a number of them, and we were able to spend a good 10 minutes with one up close. This was a big hit with the family.

They also had a large open area that had a number of free ranging kangaroos. Kangaroos are also surprising very cool. The ones at the park were very friendly, especially if you had food, and they would let you get really close. They had a number of red and grey kangaroos that wandered about. The reds were a good 5+’ tall and the greys were a bit smaller, coming in around 4’ tall. I am sure that there is a more scientific name, but for the purposes of this blog, I will still to describing them as the red ones and grey ones. I was expecting to see them hopping around, but for the most part they did these slow hops and moved rather slowly. The fastest I saw one of them move was when a loud duck charged one of the red males, and he hopped away pretty fast. It was funny to see this much smaller duck frighten off a big kangaroo. To be fair, the duck was rather an ugly one, and seemed to be a bit upset at the kangaroo for some reason.

Now the kangaroos were very friendly if you brought food to them and would eat out of your hand. Well my young daughter I think tried to hug one of the smaller greys, and promptly ended up on her bottom as the grey gave her a bit of a shove. Apparently she was not interested in little people without food. She was a bit stunned that the kangaroo gave her a push, but otherwise she was ok.

There was another grey female that had a joey in the pouch. One would think that the joey would have its head sticking out and be looking about. However, this one only had its big ‘ole feet sticking out, and eventually stuck its head out. It was rather funny looking at the grey with the feet sticking out of the pouch. As a side note, they really do have incredibly big feet.

Right behind the main store they had a very large American alligator pond with a number of alligators swimming about. It was rather amusing to see Mississippi alligators in Australia, but there they were. As we walked down the path that ran alongside the alligator pond they had a sign post with a memorial to Steve Irwin. Apparently, Steve liked to come to the park to look at the alligators, and was a regular visitor. I liked his shows, and it was easy to get wrapped up in his over the top style. He brought a certain excitement to life, which I found very refreshing.

On our way out the door, my daughter spotted a stuffed animal snake that she just had to have. After a couple of attempts to return the snake failed, it ended up going back to the hotel with us. Needless to say she was very happy, and sang the snake song all the way back to the train. Even as I write this blog, she is still holding it while watching TV. I suspect that she got the snake gene from me.

Airports

2009-03-22T03:09:00.000-07:00

Since I am on vacation, I thought I would give my thoughts on some of the various airports that I have flown through.

Shanghai – The first time I flew through Shanghai it was a bit of a mess. It was just after the bird flu of 2003, and it took forever to clear the health quarantines, immigration, baggage pickup, and customs. I arrived at 5pm, and I think I finally arrived at the hotel at 8pm. Truly a miserable experience. Fast forward to 2009. Checking in and out is now a breeze. The check in is very fast, and they have streamlined the arrival set up. Usually I am flying in through terminal two, and it is radically easier than back in 2003. My boss had an interesting discussion with some Chinese government officials, and their goal is to make Shanghai the equivalent of our NYC. That is how they think of Shanghai. As a final note, the 2010 World Expo is going to be held in Shanghai, which I believe will be a great event. China is doing a lot of work to make Shanghai ready for the Expo.

Sydney – It was good. They are picky on their customs clearance procedures, but all in all, it was not too bad.

Singapore – Although this was a very clean airport, I was not a fan of their departure procedures. I did not like the way they managed their gates, but I may just be being too picky on this. BTW, Singapore is beautiful.

San Diego – Having spent a number of years in San Diego, I have a number of things to say about this one. The short version is that it is too small, and the location stinks. They only have one runway, and it is right on the coast. While one can argue that it is located right in the middle of San Diego, there is no room to expand. The airport really should be located out near Miramar. The Marine Corp (ex-Navy) Airbase is a great location, and the civilians should have taken some pointers from the military chaps.

LAX – I am just not a fan of LA.

San Francisco – This airport is ok. If you are flying out of the international terminal, you have a long walk, unless you can find the bus which cuts across to the international terminal. The only issue I have with this, is that it is easy to miss, if you do not know about it.

Denver – I love the Denver Airport. Even though it is located well outside of Denver proper, there is plenty of room for growth, and I think they could probably put 10 parallel runways in.

Chicago – This is airport is ok for summer travel, but I cannot recommend it for winter travel. I had one flight that was stuck until well after midnight waiting for weather to clear. During winter, I try to avoid that one like the plague.

Swords &Wizardry - The hardcover version

2009-03-22T02:54:00.000-07:00

It was a about two weeks ago that I bought and printed out the new S&W v2 PDF, and I was going to leave it at that. Then I happened to read Chgowiz's blog, which has a picture of the hardcover version.

I think I just failed my will save on this one.

Hardcovers are just plain sweet.

Vacation

2009-03-20T19:55:00.000-07:00

Blog entries will be a bit slow this upcoming week, as I will be on vacation in Australia. But, I will try to post a couple of entries while I am away.

Weekend game in review

2009-03-18T21:29:00.000-07:00

A little late in coming, but I have a couple of minutes to write up what we did this past weekend. Work keeps me way to busy, when I really would rather be working on fun stuff.

So my son invited a couple of his friends over and they wanted to go through a dungeon. It is interesting in that they go through phases where they want to play all the time, to phases where they just want to do other stuff. We decided on using the C&C rule set, and they made up new characters. Since having newly signed up for Monte’s Dragon’s Delve, I thought that I would sent them through an old fashioned dungeon crawl and see how they do.

Dragon’s Delve starts with the stairs going into the dungeon. I wanted to provide a bit more than that, so I took my ruined stockade from my Winter of Darkness campaign and placed it on top of the dungeon to create the classic castle and dungeon adventure site, and that worked out rather well. The stockade is not that big, but there is plenty of encounter areas for characters to go through, and they can pick and chose which areas they want to explore. Since it is ruins and fairly open, it does not force the players to a linear progression.

They probably spent about an hour or so going through the surface ruins before finding the entrance into the dungeon. As we were tight for time, they only made it through about 5 of the dungeon rooms. They have run into a couple of the traps and defeated some orcs, but that is about it. So far, they are still alive, and actually still in good shape.

I have a couple of observations after watching them go through this dungeon.

1. Clearly the concept of an old school dungeon is new to them. They think about the game differently. For a dungeon crawl, it’s about enjoying the exploration, finding plot threads in between encounters, finding the secret doors, solving the puzzles, etc. They think in terms of treasure and killing monsters.

2. They will actually run from encounters that they deem too tough. In one particular encounter with an orc leader and a couple of body guards, they ran first, and then came back later with a more organized approach, in which they were able to defeat the body guards, but the leader ran away.

3. They sometimes come up with some really crazy ideas. This is not always a bad thing. Sometimes it is kind of fun to watch.

4. They have not figured out the concept of traps and how to avoid them yet. They see to stumble into them quite a bit.

After the game, my son was flipping through the 4th ed Dungeon Master guide, and he stumbled on the section which described the different types of players. Now in general I would say that the 4th ed DMG is fairly light weight when it comes to actually content, but this section is rather interesting as it describes a number of different styles of play, and it attempts to provide insight on what these types of player like. While it is not anything new, it is still a nice summary and encompasses a large number of the frequently encountered play styles. My son read through this section and then asked me what type of player he was. I told him that I thought he was more of the power gamer, as he has a tendency to focus in on the class and race abilities, rather than focus on the player skill. He thought about this for a moment, as I think my answer surprised him a bit. Then I proceed to give him examples of a power gamer and they enjoy. I was intrigued by his questions and the fact that he is now starting to think about the game in a larger context, and that folks play for different reasons. We also talked a bit about his friends and what category they belong to. It was interesting to watch him think through this, as I do not think he even thought about this much prior to reading the chapter in the DMG.

After that discussion, I am looking forward to our next game to see how that effects his play and how that will influence how the group interacts with the dungeon.

Review: Pathfinder #6 The Spires of Xin-Shalast (Part 2)

2009-03-16T05:59:00.001-07:00

Continuing on with the review from yesterday.

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Artwork

As with all Pathfinders published to date, this one is in full color. Wayne again is the cover artist and has once again drawn up the giants, this time swinging the big sticks at the iconics. The interior art is excellent, and I do want to call out a couple of specific pieces. The opening picture on page 6, really sets the tone of the adventure with a shot from downtown Xin-Shalast. Its mountain top local, and along with its Asian flare are clearly visible in this work. Considering my current location, I am very fond of this piece. In addition, all the monsters in the bestiary have been drawn with a certain style, that I just really like. I am somewhat embarrassed to say that I am not sure which of the artists actually created them, and I wish that the artists names were more clearly indentified. I have to give props to WotC for listing out the artist next to their art in the 4th ed books, as I do think this is a nice touch, and it gives clearly gives credit where it is due.

Summary

With the completion of Pathfinder 5, the characters are well equipped to challenge Runelord Karzoug, in his mountain top abode. The only problem is that the exact location of Xin-Shalast is a bit of a mystery. A series of clues with lead the characters up to a dwarven outpost up in the Kodar Mountains. The characters arrive finding the place deserted of living creatures, and haunted by some dwarven ghosts. After defeating the an ancient terror of the mountains, and a bit of sleuthing, the characters find the map to Xin-Shalast. The trail takes them up through the mountains to a hidden trail that leads into the lower section of Xin-Shalast. Finding unexpected allies, the characters take to ascending the spires of Xin-Shalast to the final showdown with the Runelord.

Key features

There are a number of features that this module provides that I am going to list out below:

1. A lost city adventure, taking a new spin on a classic theme

2. A high-altitude adventure, with specific rules on how to give flavor to adventuring in this environment.

3. An expanded set of Lamyros (Lamia-kin), which greatly expands upon the fluff of the Lamias.

4. A fully mapped out lost city.

5. A bit of Lovecraft mythos included with a number of references to Leng.

6. The Pathfinder Journal, which continues the chronicles of Eando Kline.

Final notes

I really want to like this module more than I do. As I stated earlier, I have a lot of respect for Greg, and in general I really like his work. Clearly he put in a lot of effort on this one, as he practically wrote the entire thing. The lost city theme is a classic, and one that continues to be used in just about every entertainment media from movies, to books and everything in between. I really like the concept, with the Asian flavor. I also like what Greg did with the rules around adventuring in the mountains. I would be remiss if I did not mention the bestiary which is excellent. I can really appreciate the theme of the monsters as they are all excellent.

However, there are a couple of parts that seem a bit disjointed to me. Even though I am a fan of Lovecraft, the Leng story line feels a bit out of place. Likewise, the dwarven outpost encounter which is required to find the map to Xin Shalast feels a bit forced.

Overall, I do give this module a thumbs up, as there are a lot of things I do like about the module, which offsets some of the other items that feel forced.

Rating: 3.5 Dragons (on a scale of 5)

Review: PF#6 The Spires of Xin-Shalast (Part 1)

2009-03-15T05:08:00.001-07:00

I was planning on just doing this in one blog post, but the finished write up came in at over 1400 words, so I thought I would split it in two parts to make it easier for the reader. I will post part two tomorrow.

Introduction

This is the final installment of the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path, which is the first in the Pathfinder product line, which I have been reviewing over these past two months. I have been looking at these modules singularily, and in my next product review I will do a holistic review of the entire adventure path, and give my perspective of it.

For this last module, the focus is two things; the exploration of a lost city, and the final battle with Runelord Karzoug. These two focus points dominate the book from front to back. The lost city of Xin-Shalast, with its double entendre of an Asia city and its pronunciation of “sin-shall-last,” is meant to foster images of ancient city teeming with gold and lost treasures. Lost cities are a classic in the lore of pulp adventures, and it always seems as though the hero is stumbling on to a forgotten city, with an ancient evil beginning to stir. Whether the lost city is on a deserted island, deep in a dense jungle, in the underdark, or high on a secluded mountain top, one does not have to look very far to trip over numerous examples located in all of these remote locations. The old school modules in the early days of D&D, made ample use of this concept, and I cannot fault any new designer for following this well established trend. The challenge is to provide a different twist on this old idea.

Greg A . Vaughan

Greg is another one of the group known as the Werecabbages, whose elite membership includes some of the more active writers/free lancers in the role playing industry. Paizo has had a history of tapping into their talent pool, and has continued this trend through the Pathfinder lineup. I can remember seeing the term thrown around on message boards and in chat rooms, and I had no idea of what the story was behind the group. Eventually I stumbled upon their website, and was immediately impressed with the number of names that I recognized. Their current membership stands at 42, and I think most active and well read members in our hobby would at least recognize at least a name or two.

Greg recently caught my notice with his publication of The Skeletons of Scarwall, in Pathfinder #11 which is just brilliant. Since then, I have been backtracking through some of his other works, and I have been impressed with a number of his works. James Jacobs raves about his map cartography, which he claims is just stunning. He compares this with some of the other Cabbages, whose map work is less than stellar. I will protect the guilty and not mention any names. James in the forward of Xin-Shalast, has some nice things to say about Greg’s map turn over for this particular module. In light of this, I can see why he continues to be featured heavily in the Paizo rotation. I would go as far as to say that in this particular adventure, he wrote almost the entire book, including the supporting articles and the bestiary.

While I have never personally met him yet, he is one of the writers I hope to run into at Gencon. Based what I have seen from his comments on the Paizo message board, I suspect that he is quite the prankster and has a good sense humor. His frequent poking at Nick and Rich always leaves me chuckling.

With that, let me start in with the review of the book.

Layout

Not much new to add on here. The layout is very similar to the earlier Rise of the Runelord Pathfinders, and I am including the text here for completeness. The book comes in at hefty 96 pages not counting the covers, with the actual adventure taking up 56 of these pages, with an approximate word count of ~40,000 words. From strictly a page count perspective, this is one of the longer adventures of the first series. The book is divided up into several sections including the main adventure, two supporting articles (Karzoug the Claimer and Hazards on the World’s Roof), the Pathfinder Journal, bestiary (seven monsters) the pregens, and a teaser for the Curse of the Crimson Throne.

This adventure shares the same criticism as the other in the series with regards to the small font and the ease of reading. I personally did not find it that bad, but I can see how this could be a valid criticism. There have been a number of modules created with small font, and this module is not any worse than some of the others that I have seen.

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For tomorrow, I will continue with the review and post my final thoughts along with my overall grade for this module.

Playin' with the kids

2009-03-14T01:28:00.000-07:00

Not much of an update today. My son and his friends want to play, so I will be running them through Monte's Mega-dungeon. I have stockade ruins that I will use as the surface level, and then use Monte's first level. I will post an after action report tomorrow.

The March Mad Mega-Dungeon Month

2009-03-12T08:41:00.000-07:00

March.

Signs of spring. One can feel it in the air. March is the month for March Madness and the college basketball NACC Final Four Tournament. It’s the season where everyone puts together their brackets and after two rounds, it looks like a complete disaster. And it’s also the month of mega-dungeon madness. I had no idea, but apparently this is true.

As a self admitted dungeon addict, this is all good stuff. Why should I have to eek by with just one mega dungeon, when I can have 2 or 3 or even 5? Who cares that I might not run any of them! I am the type that will look at a small dungeon and say, “size matters.” That was probably harsh say about all the small dungeons out there. But I am really sorry you are small. Like’em big! Really big! I think the Texas mentality is starting to really set in, as I feel comfortable saying that.

So let’s bring it on.

In my mind, the biggest issue with mega-dungeon campaigns is how to keep them fresh and exciting for long periods at time. If we say that the average campaign goes about 18 months, then there has to be enough interesting stuff to keep the interest there, and not turn it into a meat grinder. Going back to the 18 month concept, if one meets 1/month that means 18 sessions of about 10 encounters each, which would be about 180 total encounters. If a group meets 2/month, that number clearly doubles, and at 4x/month the number doubles again. For the purposes of this discussion, let’s go with 2x/month, so roughly 360 individual encounters total. And, yes, I have a tendency to get wrapped around the numbers, as I am a numbers guy (but not a bean counter).

360 encounters..let’s think about that some more.

Assuming that not much action happens in the town, which means the 360 encounters happen either near the dungeon area, or in the dungeon. If we say that a level has 36 encounter areas, then that would be 10 full levels. Now in a mega-dungeon environment, there will be a number of rooms and encounters that the party never sees, so that could add another 50 encounters, if we assume another 5 encounter areas per level that the characters never get to. Now let’s suppose that there are some hidden levels, or it is possible to skip levels, then that would mean another 2-3 levels that would have to be designed also. This puts us near 500 total encounters for a 13 level dungeon that the players would hit 360 encounters or about 2/3 of the total encounters would be discovered.

So where am I going with all this? Good question.

If we take it at face value that we are going to need to design 500 encounters, they had better be interesting, or the players will not make it to #25. That is the challenge for the designer. How to make 500 encounters interesting to support a campaign that meets 2x/month for 18 months.

Last December I wrote a bit about mega-dungeons, and I covered some design tips to think about when creating them, and I stand by what I wrote. I do want to hit on a couple of additional items about mega-dungeon design that I like that helps keep 500 encounters interesting.

I like interconnected details. I appreciate the work that my fellow bloggers have done in terms of creating summary pages that allow for quick creation of mega dungeons. There are a number of my peers that will spout the virtues of randomness, and there is nothing wrong with this. However, I like a bit of extra detail thrown in. There has to be a plan to the madness. With that, let me begin my list:

1. Keys – I like keys that go to rooms that are located on different levels

2. Maps – I like to find maps to secret areas

3. Unique magic items – I like to find special unique magic items, especially when it comes to magic swords. Magic swords that have a special ability are the best! They just rock. Talking swords are even better. I am not sure why I like talking magic swords, but I just do. As a GM, obnoxious talking swords provide me with hours of entertainment at the party’s expense, especially when they are cynical and sarcastic. But I digress…

4. Special magic items – Items that provide a foreshadowing of things to come are awesome too.

5. Notes – Notes that provide insight and impart knowledge, especially when combined to form bigger notes. This works well with maps too.

6. Castle ruins on top – Castles with dungeons just ooze classic game play.

7. NPC’s in the dungeon – Chances to interact with the players is a must, otherwise it turns into a hack-n-slash fest

8. The hidden stalker – These guys are great to set the mood, and they do not even have to actually engage the party. It’s the footsteps in the dark.

9. Walls with eyes – related to number 8 above, there should be a feeling that the bad guys are always nearby.

10. The treasure horde – There has to be some massive treasure haul at the end to make 18 months of slogging through the dungeon meaningful.

More thoughts on mega-dungeons to come.

Dungeon-a-day - First look

2009-03-10T08:42:00.000-07:00

This is just a quick post to say that Monte's Dungeon-a-day is up and running, and it is impressive. I encourage everyone to just take a peek at what he has done, regardless of whether one is planning on subscribing or not. It is definitely a one of a kind web site that he has put together. There are a couple of things that I find interesting about what he is doing:

1) He has put together a website that has all sorts of built in links to tie everything together

2) He has multiple sections to page through

3) He has pictures of what the dungeon looks like using Dwarven Forge terrain

4) He has both a blog and a forum

5) Lots of art work

All in all it is very cool. Now some folks may not find it that useful, and that is fine. I am sure that numerous reviews will pop up all over the net over the next week or two. After I have used it for a week or so, I will post more thoughts and a more formal review.

Anyway, take a look, and feel free to post your impressions here. I am curious to see what everyone thinks of it

Review: Pathfinder #5 Sins of the Saviors

2009-03-09T07:16:00.000-07:00

What if the players had to use evil things to defeat the bad guys? Does the means justify the ends? Interesting question. In a game setting, maybe it is not much of moral dilemma. In real life, this is a completely different story. In a novel or a movie, moral dilemmas are what make the movie. Seeing the hero come to grips with choices and how they will effect the end result is why we are watching the film or reading the book. Throw the hero a set of crappy choices and see how they react is what pulls us into the story, and this is how we can identify with the main character. Life is not always about easy situations and easy choices. We can relate to the main character when things go badly.

But in a game, it is entirely different. A game is a different form of entertainment. For players that are not invested in their characters, moral dilemmas may not be that interesting. For players that are very invested in their characters, and have been playing them for awhile, moral dilemmas may become very interesting to role play through.

In Pathfinder #5, Sins of the Saviors, Paizo is attempting to create a moral dilemma for the characters. The adventure revolves around the characters attempts to create special magic items in order to defeat the Runelord, the only problem is that the weapons are created by a corrupt instrument of the Runelords.

Layout

The layout is very similar to the earlier Rise of the Runelord Pathfinders, and I am including the text here for completeness. The book comes in at hefty 96 pages not counting the covers, with the actual adventure taking up 50 of these pages, with an approximate word count of ~40,000 words. The book is divided up into several sections including the main adventure, two supporting articles (Magic of Thassilon and Lamashtu), the Pathfinder Journal, bestiary (six monsters) and the pregens.

This adventure shares the same criticism as the other in the series with regards to the small font and the ease of reading. I personally did not find it that bad, but I can see how this could be a valid criticism. There have been a number of modules created with small font, and this module is not any worse than some of the others that I have seen.

Artwork

As with all Pathfinders published to date, this one is in full color. Wayne again is the cover artist and has drawn up a great action scene showing a white dragon attacking Paizo’s iconics. Being a fan of dragon art work, this is a winner in my book. The interior art is solid, with the color maps of the dungeon areas dominating the adventure section. The artwork and layout of the Magic of Thassilon is very good, and I found this to be one of the high-lights of the book.

Summary

With the defeat of the giants, an earthquake hits Sandpoint opening up a hidden dungeon that is really a shrine of Lamashtu. The Characters investigate and find the location of the Runeforge, and with it the secret of defeating Runelord Karzoug. Following the clues, leads the characters north to the mountain Rimeskull and the massive dungeon underneath, which contains the Runeforge. The characters quickly realize that the dungeon is not empty, but is still tended by the Thassilonian wizards from an earlier era. As the characters move through the dungeons of sin, they uncover the secret of creating weapons using the Runeforge to use against Runelord Karzoug.

Key features

There are a number of features that this module provides that I am going to list out below:

1. A number of fully mapped out dungeons for exploration

2. A cunning white dragon that is sure to cause a party fits

3. The puzzle of the Runeforge and the ability of the characters to make special weapons.

4. A very well written article on the Magic of Thassilon, along with a web supplement on this topic.

5. An article on Lamashtu.

6. The Pathfinder Journal, which continues the chronicles of Eando Kline.

Final notes

The main focus of this adventure is the dungeons of sin, which should provide 3+ game sessions for the characters to go through. I will say that the main dungeon is fairly flat, and I think the author should have created more vertical movement possibilities. While the dungeon is separated into sections, I would have liked to have seen some vertical separation included. The Runeforge and the possibility to create special weapons is a plus, which the characters should enjoy piecing together on how to accomplish this. The moral dilemma that I opened the review with, adds an additional twist to the adventure, although most parties will probably not think about it too much. Over the course of the adventure path, this is something that the GM can build up to, but it does require a fair amount of upfront work to successfully pull off.

Overall, I give this module a thumbs up, as the design is solid.

Rating: 3.5 Dragons (on a scale of 5)

Value

2009-03-07T22:50:00.000-08:00

I was planning on writing up a review today, but I think I will push that to tomorrow. I have a couple of smaller blog posts that I would like to make first before hitting my weekly product reviews. With all the excitement around mega-dungeons and old school, I thought I would post a couple of things first before hitting the review.

Before we get into mega-dungeons, I want to blog a bit about value. From a consumer perspective, value is what a consumer desires and is willing to pay for. I use the workd desire to include both needs and wants. Needs are the things that a person requires to survive, things like food, clothing, warmth and shelter. I will also use the term expanded needs to include things that are needed for a person to get and keep a job. These include education, transportation, special clothes, and other equipment or tools. While they are not specifically needed to survive, one needs them in order to make money to buy things to satisfy the basic needs. Desires also include the wants. Wants are basically anything that a person has a desire for, but are not directly tied to the basic needs. Entertainment and gaming falls into this bucket.

With this in mind, I want to hit on the concept of paying for value and how it relates to gaming. WotC recently launched its digital initiative that included Dungeon and Dragon magazines. The concept they had in mind was to create an online subscription service that folks would want to buy into. While I have no idea on the numbers of the subscribers that they have, their digital initiative holds no value for me. During the launch of 4th ed, they offered a free trial for folks to take a look, which I did, but there was not a consistency of content that was of value to me. Now it is fairly easy to point at the current short comings, but I think that one of the fundament issues with their digital initiative, is the complete lack of content for the earlier editions. They are focused on one thing, and that limits the possibilities of truly creating value for the hobby. To me, the value proposition is not there for me to invest in a subscription.

Wolfgang Baur kicked off this Kobold quarterly a while back (~ 2 years ago), and it has received rave reviews. His offering not only supports his Open Design work, but it also includes a wide variety of topics and supports several editions. He is creating value for the gamer with the depth of his offering. There is also the feel that this magazine supports the hobby, which is important to me. I usually buy the PDF version, and I have been happy with the content. I wish Wolfgang continued success with his project, as I believe that this is filling the niche that Dragon magazine has left.

I have been very impressed with the Fanzines that have recently popped up. Fight on! has lead the charge, and that has been followed by Knockspell and Weredragon. I would not be surprised to see more pop up. Fanzines offer a collection of fan created material, that are not necessarily tied to anything in particular. Fanzines offer value in a number of areas, which include a chance for unknown authors to get published, they generate interest in the game, and they push the more established magazines on the quality that they put out. They fill a very important role in any hobby, and are indicative of the over health of ours. I am buying the PDF's as these fanzines are of value to me.

This brings me to Monte and his recent announcement. Monte is basically a free lancer that has made quite a name for himself. The niche that he has filled with his own imprint was in providing different material that is a bit off the main stream path. He is style is a bit different, and that is by design. He is not an old school gamer, but I think he appreciates industry and its history, which he has been apart of. His newer products are very polished in terms of layout and art work, and he has access to one of the best editors in field. Just last week, he announced that he was going to launch a web site that offers a dungeon-a-day for a monthly subscription rate. He threw out a teaser on his blog, but until anyone sees his product, none of us really knows what’s included. There has been some discussion on the boards about his announcement, which has prompted me to write this blog. Monte is part of the industry, which means he is a professional and needs to make a living. He is trying to create value through this new project, and only time will tell if he can be successful. The ultimate question will be, do the fans believe that he is creating value to be worth the subscription price. He is surely capable of creating good content, but will it be deemed valuable?

James, over on Grognardia, looks to be doing something similar. Monte’s announcement has pushed him to seriously consider creating a site to post content related to mega-dungeons. James has stated that he is going to do this for free. Interesting. If James carries through with this, it does put pressure on Monte to deliver value over and above whatever James does, as if he does not, the customer base will flock to James’s web site. This will create an interesting dynamic. I want to go back to the statement about “free.” While I think it is an extremely generous offer of James to provide significant content for free, we need to consider what he is providing. It sounds like he is providing a dedicated website, he will invest a significant amount of his personal time, and he will have to generate content on a regular basis. As I stated earlier, this is a generous offer. But if indeed James does create value in this project, could he charge money. Absolutely, no question. Would he be successful if he did? I think he would. As I suspect he will not charge, I do believe that he will have a “donate” button on this website. If the content is good and consistent, I will probably make a donation, as this will be of value to me, and I want to show my support in his efforts.

As I have mentioned in my posts on various blogs, I think this is an exciting time for our hobby. The recent announcements have created buzz, which I think is a good thing. I do wish Monte, James, Wolfgang, and all the rest of the creators of content and value the best of luck, and I sincerely hope that this will ultimately create a stronger game as a result, and I believe it has already.

Monstrous Discussions: The Gnoll

2009-03-06T05:30:00.000-08:00

These guys are just plain nasty, filthy animals, and I am comfortable with this.

Paizo will be launching their new adventure path, Legacy of Fire, later this month, which will have gnolls as their featured villain. With villain names such as “The Carrion King,” I will be looking forward to see how it all fits together. With that in mind, I thought I would step back and review the gnoll and give my thoughts on its development and why I like them.

In the beginning (c1974), gnolls began life as a cross between gnomes and trolls, which is where the name came from. Huh..what? Wait. Gnomes and trolls? Are we talking about small elvish fey and big green monsters mixed together? To be honest, I am struggling with this combination. It’s not quite the classic peanut butter and jelly combination. Are we talking about small green guys with pointed ears, or are we talking about giant green fey, or are we talking about the green goblin? To be honest, I am not sure what this looks like. While it is probably better than the flumph, it still feels a bit like (green?) mashed potatoes to me. By 1st ed, the gnoll had turned into the familiar hyena humanoid, and this version has stayed with us to the present day. So to summarize, in the span of just a few years, we have gone from a green goblin thing to a nasty, filthy humanoid monster, which I will mark down as progress.

One of the issues with the humanoid monster is how do you differentiate it from each other. We have the orc, half-orc, goblin, hobgoblin, bugbear, troglodytes, ogres and the gnoll all occupying the same space. If we expand this category a little more to include just humaniods, one could add humans, drow, and dwarves. If we include animal humanoids, we could throw in lycanthropes, lizard men, beastmen, ratmen, and a host of other critters. From a mechanics point of view, they are all very similar, and I would argue that one can stat them up to look almost identical to each other. So back to the question of how do we make them look and feel different? This is a tough one.

I think in order to really answer the question, one has to understand what exactly is a gnoll. I am going to stick with the newer version of the gnoll, as I like this one better, and I think this is what most folks think of when they think of the gnoll, which is a nasty, filthy animal.

In the gnoll’s most basic form, it is a smelly, stinking, beast like humanoid. What’s not to like? In retrospect, having the gnoll based on a hyena, was brilliant. There are a number of wolf or dog creatures already in the game and in literature, so the hyena-humaniod is similar but different. On a side note, I was reading a fan created dungeon that I think was sponsored by the fine folks over at Enworld, and they had created a dungeon, in which the gnoll barracks had beds. I am not thinking that they sleep in beds, but that is just me.

In first edition, the link between gnolls and demons was firmly established by the presence of Yeenoghu, the demon prince of gnolls. With this link, their alignment as chaotic evil was the natural fit. With the appearance of the D series, the drow took center stage and their culture defined chaotic evil. The drow’s form of chaotic evil is a cruel society in which the matriarchs wield power, and everyone watches their back in fear of an assassin’s blade or worse. Gnolls version of chaotic evil is very different.

Paizo, in their Classic Monsters Revisited book, dedicated a chapter to fleshing out what gnoll culture is like. True to their animal heritage, gnolls are vicious pack animals that live by the law of the pack. Their slant on the gnoll resonates well with me, as it draws on the culture and image of cannibalistic tribes, and the hunter/scavenger nature of the hyena. The flavor hangs together very nicely.

However, after spending some time reading through this, I start rethinking their alignment of chaotic evil. For the most part, the write ups in the various clearly show the gnoll as a pack animal. This feels more like lawful evil to me. Clearly their pack is ruled by the strongest alpha male, and to compare it back to the drow, feels completely the opposite of their culture. Now with this statement, I do not mean to imply that just because there is a stark contrast between the two, the gnolls would be by definition lawful evil. But this pack society with an implied law of the pack, feels a bit like lawful evil rather than chaotic evil. If we extended on this line of reasoning, it would question the categorization of Yeenoghu as a demon prince. Wizards published an interesting article on Yeenoghu in Dragon 364, which is available as a download from their website, that provides some insight into Yeenoghu. While this article is written for 4th ed, there is still some good fluff that can be pulled out and applied generically to any previous version of D&D.

To circle back around to the question on differentiation, I think it’s the link between them and the hyena, that helps to separate them from the other humanoids. Very rarely is the hyena seen as the good guy, and the pop culture view of the hyena is something that can be built upon. The Lion King is an excellent example as the hyenas are the servants of Scar, and are the embodiment of evil. Even their nature as scavengers of carrion brings up images of a savage beast. To be blunt, they are smelly, nasty animals.

If I get a chance to GM with gnolls again, what I would like to do is mount them on dire hyenas that look very similar to the wargs in Lord of the Ring movies. While I have mixed feelings about the depiction of them in the movies, if I take that warg and put a gnoll on it, now we have an interesting mounted warrior to use against the characters. The nomadic gnoll tribe now would have a quick striking arm that could run down characters that try to get away. I like it!

General News Items

2009-03-06T04:39:00.000-08:00

This week was a busy week for announcements and such. Enclosed is a quick summary of news worthy items:

1) WotC announces a new GSL.
2) Clark from Necromancer Games announces that he is working on a 4E Classic, and has set up a forum to discuss this on his boards.
3) Paizo announces two new licenses for their Pathfinder line. The first is a compatibility license and the second is a community use policy license.
4) Fight on! volume 4 is released
5) Monte Cook is announcing his new Dungeonaday web site which launches next week.
6) We are getting closer to the publish of The Anthology of Roleplaying Game Blogs, with most of the work being done by Jonathon Jacabs, over at The Core Mechanic. Catch up on the latest news here on the project.

While not everyone may be interested in all these items, I think anything that creates buzz for the hobby is a good thing. As weeks go, this one was a good one for our hobby.

Remembering Gary Gygax – 1 year later

2009-03-04T07:24:00.000-08:00

I actually met him at Gencon 2007. He was hanging out at the Troll Lords' booth and I had him sign a couple of items for me. That was a cool moment.

The first D&D book I ever bought was the 1st ed Monster Manual. That book will always be special to me. It’s corny, I know, but it’s still true. I remember when my buddy first bought it, and there was a bunch of us drooling over it. It was one of those, “Wow, this is really awesome” moments. That was back around 1981-ish, and I think I bought my copy about a year later in 1982. Yikes, that was 27 years ago! Looking at that book 27 years later, I can honestly say that one has seen more use than any other D&D book, and it has held up rather well all things considered. Having Gary sign it was really cool. I have to admit that my 1st ed Unearthed Arcana book is not quite as old as my MM, is slightly less used than my MM, and it is falling apart. When I mentioned that to Gary, he had a quick response to that. Some things are hard to let go of, even after 25 years.

I was in middle school when I first started playing, and that was with the Holmes edition, but we quickly moved to AD&D. I had some exposure to the revised Basic D&D and Expert D&D, but at the time, I did not like either one. A good buddy of mine at the time started out playing the Expert rules, but that rule set never caught on with the group that I did most of my playing with.

It did not take long for us to realize that Gary was the co-creator of D&D and that all the AD&D core rule books had his name on the cover. I remember thinking that Gary must be a really cool guy. Since I liked the game, and his name was on the cover, I naturally had a high opinion of him, even though I had never met him. One hears rumors and such, but I always dismissed them. I was wearing rose colored glasses, and I saw no reason to take them off.

Second edition came out about the time I was graduating from High School. I never bought any of the core second edition books. I liked AD&D just how it was. It was not until 1991 that I started buying some of the 2nd edition supplements. I enjoyed Ravenloft, so I bought a number of those products. I also started buying some of the monster books and page packets. The monster binder was an interesting idea. I like the books better, but if I was extremely organized, I could pull the monsters out that I wanted and put them into a smaller binder and have them ready for use. It was not a terrible idea, just a bit different.

It was around 1993 that I first heard that Gary had left the company. One of the folks I worked with was very familiar with the story, and he filled me in on what had happened. To be honest, I did not know what to think. It was as if I was hearing about something happening in a parallel world. Here was a guy who created D&D, then was forced to leave the company, and he did not own the rights to the game he created. My reaction was “What?!?” That can’t be right. It does not make sense. It was like listening to an old record that the needle just fell off of. As it turns out, it was right, and it still did not make sense. Even thinking about it 16 years later, it still does not make sense. How could something so good, end up in such a mess?

As the 1990’s went by, I was more of a collector rather than a player. I bought a bunch of stuff, but I did not really play. I was hearing that TSR was in big trouble. The brand was dying. It was a bad time to be a fan of the game. Then 3rd ed was launched. I remember when it was launched. I remember that WotC put a lot of energy into relaunching the D&D brand. They had to. The brand was circling the drain.

For the first couple of years, I did not pay much attention to 3rd ed. I knew there was a D&D website, and that WotC was updating it on almost a daily basis. But that was about it. It was not until 2002, that I really discovered 3rd ed. I was surfing the net at work, and I found a lot of sites that were supporting 3rd ed, and that there was tons of fan created free material. So I started collecting and reading D&D stuff again.

I am a bit embarrassed to say that between 2002 and 2008, I bought tons of stuff. I probably bought too much stuff. But, most importantly, I started playing again. 3rd ed encouraged me to play again. That is not to say that I liked everything about 3rd ed, but the timing was right for me to start playing again.

That brings me back to Gary again. One of the things that I was pleasantly surprised to see was that the fans of the game were reaching out to Gary, and Gary was making himself accessible to them. Before I met Gary at Gencon, I had traded several message board comments with him. I enjoyed reading his take on what was going on with the hobby, and his own historical perspective on why things were designed the way they were. While he was not interested in 3rd ed, I think he was supportive of the activities that were going on around him. Now I could be totally wrong on this last part, but I think at the end, he appreciated the legacy that he was leaving behind. While he did not own the rights any more, the fans still considered him the rightful owner of the game. I think he recognized that. I can pull just about any game supplement, adventure or rules book and see Gary’s name acknowledged in the credits. Just to prove that, I pulled down the Pathfinder Campaign Setting, and on the credits page, one can find the text, “in Memory of E. Gary Gygax.”

While Gary was not perfect, and I think some of his flaws are fairly well known, I think fans are willing to both acknowledge that, and they can still appreciate the contribution that he made. I am not one to look at things with rose colored glasses, and indeed, I like to think of myself as an realist, but in this case I am ok with putting my high-school rose colored glasses back on.

Did I mention that I actually met him at Gencon 2007 and that he signed my 1st ed MM?

Thanks Gary!

4th Edition "Classic" – Necromancer Games

2009-03-03T06:29:00.000-08:00

Last week I posted about the Beta testing that Paizo completed with their Pathfinder Role Playing Game (PFRPG). I remarked that this was a significant event, and that I thought it was important for businesses to actively seek feedback from their customers. There are a lot of businesses that claim to put their customers first, but with this open Beta testing Paizo is backing up their claim with action. With that said, there are probably dozens of companies that would like to do something similar to what Paizo did, but lack the resources or expertise to make this happen. I closed with a comment that this maybe the start of something new in this industry.

After posting two blogs on the topic, I suppose I should not have been surprised to see the announcement on Necromancer’s board that Clark wants to follow in Paizo’s footsteps with open playtesting. Clark "Orcus" Peterson is the CEO and founder of Necromancer Games, which was created around the time of 3rd edition. Necromancer’s tag line has been 3rd edition rules, 1st edition feel. It’s a catchy slogan, but it captures what Clark and team were trying to do with they started up Necromancer. They are old school gamers that wanted to apply the same philosophy to the new rules. Were they successful or not, that is probably the topic of another blog, and depending on who you ask, you will probably end up with a different answer.

Now, whether or not one agrees with their slogan, one has to give props to Clark for engaging with the fan base and Wizards of the Coast, and really being an advocate for both. He has always said that he is a gamer first, business man second. This is true as he has a full time gig as a lawyer, and I suspect he is a very good one, and Necromancer is more of a hobby for him. This puts him in a good spot to reach out to fans and to the larger companies. On the message boards, he comes across as someone that cares about were the game industry is going, usually offers well thought out positions with some insider insight. As a result, he has created a significant amount of good will for himself. He is probably one of the few folks that can just call up Scott Rouse and tell him what he thinks about Wizard’s latest GSL, and Scott will actively listen and engage in the conversation.

One of the foundations of Necromancer is to support the latest version of the game, and impart into it old school feel. To a certain extent, this is the theme of my blog as well. In my “What is D&D” series, I posted a bit about adventure types, character roles, and mechanics. One of the questions I was asking in the series was on the topic of evolution and is it good or bad. Clark holds the position that evolution can be good. Mechanics can be improved over time. I actually hold a similar view in that mechanics can be improved, but that not all new mechanics are good. Clearly not everyone agrees with this line of reasoning, which is fine. This is not to say that I would not argue a rule over two at Gencon (or any other convention) over a beverage of choice, but I digress.

Even before the announcement that 4th ed is here, Clark had stated that he would support the new rules. Initially the GSL was delayed, and then the first iteration was terrible, but it now looks like we have a version that is usable. That is not to say that it is perfect, but some of the objectionable sections were removed. My understanding is that Clark was able to get a preview copy of the new GSL, and he deemed it acceptable to move forward on. With a new GSL in hand, Clark is basically relaunching his web site with the announcement that he would be working on his own version of 4th ed, which he is initially calling 4E Classic. It feels like what he is trying to do is come up with a supplemental Player’s Handbook that would a move 4th ed closer the old school versions of the game. As he says, he wants the old school feeling, but with the new tech. In order to accomplish this, he is opening up his forums for feedback on the concept. He wants to run this exactly like how Jason ran it over at Paizo. Since he just announced it, I will cut him some slack on the organization side of things, as I am hoping that he puts some structure around this, and he makes an Alpha document available for review.

While I am not ready to jump right into a 4th ed campaign, I applaud Clark for taking a stab at making a 4E Classic. I have no idea if he will be successful or not, but to be honest, it almost does not matter. He is following Paizo on the path of open play testing, and who knows if other companies will also follow this lead. If this becomes a trend, perhaps we will see WotC open up play testing for 5th ed, when ever they decide to move in that direction. At this moment, I believe that this is a win for the fans of the game, as it means we can have some say in the direction of our game design and development.

As a final thought, I would like to welcome Necromancer Games back into the hobby. They have been very quiet since late 2007, and I suspect that they will be updating their product schedules, and maybe, just maybe we will see something from them come August. In any event, I will be watching them very closely to see how this all plays out.

New GSL is posted

2009-03-03T01:38:00.000-08:00

Lots of news to report. But first and foremost, Wizards has posted a new GSL that seems to be more user friendly. While not perfect, this is moving in the right direction.

I will have more analysis on this later in the week. I have another post to make first.

Review: Pathfinder #4 Fortress of the Stone Giants

2009-02-28T23:13:00.000-08:00

Introduction

Every weekend, I am going back through my massive collection, and it seems to be getting bigger each week, of D&D goodness and reviewing some of the adventures and supplements that I have enjoyed throughout the run of D&D. I started with some old school classics, and then mixed in some new school stuff. I have found a great deal of satisfaction flipping through the dusty tomes in my library, and I look forward to continuing to do this on a weekly basis. One of the ultimate classics is the G-series from early in the life of AD&D. It starts with Hill Giants, then moves to Frost Giants and finishes up with Fire Giants, and it is literally a tour-de-force of giant proportion. I must admit that the Frost Giants are hands down my favorites, as I am a giant Viking fan (not to be confused with the football team). When it comes to frost, fur and fang, I am signed up.

This brings us to this week’s review which is Pathfinder #4 Fortress of the Stone Giants, Wolfgang Baur. This Pathfinder is a new take on the older concept, which was by design. The Paizo team was looking to create a new spin on the older giant modules. Stone giants were left out of the early trilogy, and they never seem to have broken free of the shadows cast by the giants featured in the earlier series. As it turns out Wolfgang has a thing for giants, so this was a perfect fit for a re-imaging of an older tale.

Wolfgang Baur

Wolfgang is a bit different from the previous two authors, Nick and Rich, who I high-lighted in my previous Pathfinder write ups. Wolfgang started out his gaming career working on Dungeon and Dragon magazines. He then switched jobs and went to work for Wizards of the Coast. As he states on his web page, the constant layoffs drove him crazy, so he set off on his own. In addition to the numerous side gigs that he does, he is the editor and chief of Kobold Quarterly and he started up his own design shop called Open Design, which is adventure writing for paying patrons. He strikes me as someone that is incredibly organized and methodical when it comes to designing dungeons. Having never seen him work, I may be totally off on this last assumption, but based on his work with KQ and OD, I think it is a safe assumption. I am going to plug his KQ magazine, as I agree with many folks that this is the spiritual successor to Dragon magazine. This is not to take anything away from the fanzines that are in production at this moment, as the work done on those smaller fanzines is also very good.

Layout

The layout is very similar to the earlier Rise of the Runelord Pathfinders, and I am including the text here for completeness. The book comes in at hefty 96 pages not counting the covers, with the actual adventure taking up 46 of these pages, with an approximate word count of ~40,000 words. The book is divided up into several sections including the main adventure, two supporting articles (Born of Stone and Dragons of Golarion), the Pathfinder Journal, bestiary (six monsters plus one template) and the pregens.

This adventure shares the same criticism as the other in the series with regards to the small font and the ease of reading. I personally did not find it that bad, but I can see how this could be a valid criticism. There have been a number of modules created with small font, and this module is not any worse than some of the others that I have seen.

Artwork

As with all Pathfinders published to date, this one is in full color. Wayne again is the cover artist and has drawn up the giants doing what they do best, which is throwing rocks! The interior art is excellent. Holistically, the art in this Pathfinder is the best of the series so far by a comfortable margin. Considering that the art in the other modules is very good, goes to show how much I think of the art work in this one. There are a number of evocative pieces that capture the theme of the adventure. The supporting art in the article on dragons is just plain sweet. The Paizo team really hit their stride with the art work on this one.

Summary

The action starts with the characters taking part in defense of Sandpoint, which is coming under attack from a group of Stone Giants and their allies. As it turns out, this was just a scouting party and the full army is gathering at the giant fortress called Jorgenfist. The characters launch a daring raid against Jorgenfist hoping to defeat the leaders and stop their assault on Varisia. During the course of their raid against the Stone Giants, they find out that the giants are pawns of the Runelord Karzoug, and that they must destroy the runewell to truly defeat Karzoug.

Key features

There are a number of features that this module provides that I am going to list out below:

1. An adventure starring the Stone Giants, which is a new spin on the classic Against the Giants adventure.

2. A full scale assault by giants on the village of Sandpoint, which the characters play a major role in Sandpoint’s defense.

3. Fully mapped out giant stronghold, complete with a dungeon underneath it.

4. A very well writing article on Stone Giants by Wolfgang.

5. An article on the dragons of Golarion, which is excellent.

6. The Pathfinder Journal, which continues the chronicles of Eando Kline.

Final notes

Wolfgang has done a descent job of breathing life into the Stone Giants, and to create an adventure that hangs together well. This adventure includes what I would consider the big reveal in that the Runelord Karzoug is the BBEG of the series and that the characters have to arm themselves with special weapons if they hope to defeat him. While the adventure is decent, I think the real strength of this Adventure Path is in the supporting material. The articles on the Stone Giants and the dragons elevate this module to a higher grade than I would have assigned it without them. I really liked both articles, and they add considerably to the final product. The bestiary is big, coming in at six monsters plus a template, so all the monster fans out there should enjoy that.

Overall, I give this module a thumbs up, especially considering the support material that is included. The adventure is solid, and it does satisfy the nostalgic itch for another giant adventure. Fans of the original G- series, should like the new school spin on the classic adventure.

Rating: 4 Dragons (on a scale of 5)

Conan - First Impressions

2009-02-27T20:27:00.000-08:00

I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that I finally read my first Conan anthology last weekend. I feel like I am late to a party that has been going on for several decades. I realize that in some circles it is fashionable to be late, and I hope that I can sneak into this category. With this in mind, let me throw my measly coppers into the mix of this on going discussion.

The version I read through was the Del Rey version, which contained the original stories along with a number of unfinished drafts and his notes on the Hyborian age. This version is illustrated throughout by Mark Schultz, whose work is excellent. I can not say enough good things about his quality throughout the book.

Numerous articles and blogs have been written about the character of Conan, and the commentary that REH was making through Conan. His not so subtle bashing of civilized man and the praising of the savage are well known. I enjoyed reading such quotes as:

When I was a fighting-man, the kettle-drums they beat,
The people scattered gold-dust before my horse’s feet;
But now I am a great king, the people hound my track
With poison in my wine-cup, and daggers at my back.
— Robert E. Howard, "The Phoenix on the Sword"

And

“ ”I am no dog,” the barbarian muttered. “I keep my word.” ”
— Robert E. Howard, "The God in the Bowl"

And further:

"Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content..."
— Robert E. Howard, "Queen of the Black Coast"

I could go on and on with the countless other jabs at the flaws of civilization in general. Speaking of Civilisation.

I am reminded of reading Sir Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation back in high school, and the drone of his endless discussion on art and culture. While his TV documentary series was popular in 1969, the book was a bit dry, and I am not sure a good helping of British tea (or Chinese tea for that matter) could have made that text a bit more engaging. I think I must have blotted out the memory of that book, for it was not until I was reading Conan that those images of long ago came back to me. Conan is such a stark contrast to Clark’s work that I could not help but chuckle as I was reading it. I suspect that if REH wrote The Skin of our Teeth, the theme would have been slightly different. Clark’s stoic patrician demeanor clashes nicely with REH.

"Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing. "
— Robert E. Howard, "The Tower of the Elephant"

While one could argue that Howard’s Conan is a bit formulaic, and his stories follow a perdictably familiar beat. That is a fully valid point, but there is certain prose interwoven with his jabs at society that makes it bit more than just a pedestrian teenage series in the vein of The Hardy Boys. His Conan is not the traditional hero that tends to dominate literature, but rather he is grizzly protagonist that reminds me a bit of the hero with no name and the anti-establishment hero.

While I cannot say for certain if Clint Eastwood ever read any of the Conan books, but I can say that his cowboy flicks that include, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, For a Few Dollars More, and Pale Rider have more than a little bit of Conan in them. In a number of the REH’s stories, Conan is a stranger that happens on to the scene, and has to introduce himself into the action, but once he is introduced, he is a force to be recognized with. Often Conan is on his own, running from something, or a part of a mercenary group that splits apart to join in the tale that is unfolding. Clint as Dirty Harry is the anti-establishment hero, and is called a dinosaur, but he might as well be called a barbarian, as that is how the department sees him. A throw back to an earlier era that is not fit for civilized society. As with Conan, Harry has a strong sense of right and wrong, and knows a corrupt system when he sees it. He has no time for idiots and neither does Conan.

“ ”Save your bullying for the fools who fear you,” he growled, blue fires smoldering in his eyes. “I’m no city-bred Nemedian to cringe before your hired dogs. I’ve killed better men than you for less than this.” “
— Robert E. Howard, "The God in the Bowl"

I am not sure if these words were spoken by the characters that Clint took on, but you can see that same theme and tone in the acting.

I suspect that this will not be the last time that Clint or Conan makes it into the blog, as their high testosterone, anti-establishment, bigger than life exploits are the type of thing that resonates well with me.

Beta testing and Feedback (part 2)

2009-02-27T02:57:00.000-08:00

I was reading through my blog from last night, and I want to expand upon an idea that I do not think I emphasized enough, and that concerns feedback.

The biggest advantage by far to beta testing is feedback. Feedback is a powerful tool by which we can make improvements to products, systems and processes, but it does not have to stop there. Feedback can also shape behaviors. As I stated yesterday, in this information age that we live in, we can get immediate feedback on just about anything. In order for feedback to be effective, an individual or organization has to be receptive to this feedback. They have to put themselves in position to accept this feedback, as constructive feedback is not always pleasant to read about. Soliciting feedback is the easy part. Reading through it without getting overly defensive is something else entirely.

I think there is a natural reluctance for organizations to share too much and to open themselves up for feedback. The fact that Paizo did this is significant, which is the point of my blog yesterday. It was an ambitious under taking. WotC also did testing, but it was on a smaller scale. It was not very ambitious.

Today I as arrived at work, I saw several examples of feedback at work. Which I will highlight below:

1) As I booted up my computer, the MSN news page popped up, and there was an article about Facebook. Facebook is a very popular social networking site that facilitates information sharing. Recently they tried to change their policies on the ownership of user content. The users immediately sent tens of thousands of complaints, and Facebook went back to the older policy.

2) Product quality is another example. When there is a quality issue, it immediately pops up on blogs, message boards and YouTube. Companies need to understand how this impacts them, and how to quickly respond to this feedback.

In this age, companies that can take advantage of customer feedback and learn how to utilize the feedback potential will find themselves better positioned in the market place. While a lot of companies say that they put customers first, I wonder how many really know how to do that.