Neverwinter!

I allowed myself to get sucked in to the new Neverwinter game over the weekend. Since it pretty much filled our RPG time - Apprentices Who and Blaster joined me -I thought I would discuss it a little bit. The high points:

• It's free to play, full access to current classes and races except for Drow - they're tied up in some kind of early spending deal right now but are supposed to free up 60 days from launch. If that's a big deal for you, now you know.
• It has a good tutorial, running through the basics of characters and controls without being ridiculously tedious, repetitive, or boring. Everyone ends the tutorial at 4th, the games goes to 60th right now.
• It looks very pretty. I thought it looked more like LOTRO than some of the more cartoony fantasy games out there. The lighting is nicely done
• It's based on 4E D&D but in practice it works more like an MMO than any particular tabletop edition of D&D, including 4th

The setting is the ruined city of Neverwinter (Forgotten Realms), pretty much right out of the 4th edition D&D Neverwinter sourcebook. Having read the book I don't think there's any mechanical advantage but it is cool to recognize the names of characters and factions and locations and have an idea of what/who/where they are. If you liked that book you will probably be more inclined to like the game.
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The character options are somewhat limited right now in that there are only 5 classes and there doesn't seem to be a ton of variety within a single class. So once I've created and played my Great Weapon Fighter I'm probably not going to create another one anytime soon, but I will probably create a Wizard.

They did have some problems over the weekend with some auction house exploit and rolled things back a little bit. I lost a few levels. It's annoying but it is a very new game and I would expect a few bumps - I'm not paying anything for it so I can't complain a much.

I'd say if you're at all interested in D&D themed videogames it's worth a look - it's free and you can play 24/7 so the flexibility is certainly there. If you dislike online games I don't think there's anything here that's going to change your mind about them.

Agonizing over the Apprenitce Campaign

Some of you may remember that the Apprentices started playing 4E last year and ultimately came to an end in an ugly TPK. We then went for something different as I offered them a chance to play in a Greek Mythology campaign but they decided that wasn't their thing after all - they wanted to go back to the Realms. That's probably because they've been reading the Drizzt books over the last year but it was the Percy Jackson books and Clash of the Titans that got them interested in the Greek thing so fair is fair.

Anyway, I took my time on coming up with a new plan for their game because I want to pick something we're going to stick with this time. I find a campaign gathers momentum once it gets going for a little while and I wanted to be sure we had room to grow without having to change settings all over again. I looked through different books, adventures old and new, and eventually decided that the Temple of Elemental Evil converted to 4E was the way to go - it's a classic that I've never gotten to run and it  maps out nicely with the Heroic Tier. Plus if it goes well I can convert the G and D series modules over and have a New Old campaign arc - best of both worlds! The challenge of doing a decent conversion while staying true to the spirit of the originals sparks my imagination as well. So everything looked good for a week or two. Then I saw the info on Neverwinter.

Let's see, a brand new campaign setting for the Heroic Tier set in a classic area of the Forgotten Realms - it's like they were reading my mind! It's exactly what I needed! So I put the TOEE on hold and waited for this to come out, picked it up and ... it's not what I thought it would be. It's not bad, it's just not full of ready-to-go adventuring material. What it does have is a lot of potential as a regional sandbox campaign. Looking at the maps and things it would be pretty easy to go through and "zone"  the map like an MMO, keying each section around a given level, planting some rumors, mapping out some of the dungeons and lairs and graveyards and stocking them with nasties, and ending up with a big sprawling area full of adventure. I'm just not sure that's the way I want to go.

The Apprentices are still somewhat new to D&D and RPG's, and I wonder if a completely open conuntryside might be a little too free-form for them. I think the focus of the TOEE might work better at this stage of their experience. It's not a railroaded storyline kind of focus like Dragonlance but it is pretty straightforward - you're in the village and the big bad dungeon is that way -   so that they can concentrate on the fun part instead of arguing over what to do next (and they will argue, sheesh, sometimes at the worst possible moment - since Heroes of Shadow added vampires as an option I may see if I can talk Apprentice Twilight into playing but that's a longshot at best).

So I'm right back where I started, after leaving it alone for half of the summer. I'm going to go back to my original plan and run the converted Temple campaign, set in Impiltur. I'm probably also going to post about the process here since the players don't know about the blog, unlike my other campaign, so I can be a little more open about it.

I'm still tempted to start sandboxing Neverwinter just for the fun of it and to have another low-level campaign ready to go in the same world I've been using for almost all of my 4E games. I might also set up an open table kind of thing with it and see if the Apprentices and my regular group (and maybe some other friends) have any interest in working in an occasional mixed group outside of the other campaigns. It's not extremely likely to take off but you never know.

The Joy of Lost Cities

After looking over Neverwinter, thinking about my own 4E Phlan, and remembering some others from older editions and other games I realized that I am a huge fan of the rpg adventure set in the ruined city. For me the sense of mystery and wonder peaks with the exploration of the city in ruins, even more so than the typical dungeon or even megadungeon. Some of that probably ties into my affinity for post-apocalyptic settings where the lost ancient city looms large (like in Gamma World) and the prospect of a ruined city in a fantasy game pulls some of that PA element into it - I mean, SOMEBODY used to live there and if it's ruined now then they would probably describe it as post-apocalyptic from their viewpoint!

You don't get a ton of ruined cities in some of the classic sources - LOTR has Osgiliath, I suppose, and maybe Minas Ithil, and fairly tales and mythology don't usually get into things like that but pulp and sword and sorcery... now we have some material. The search for the lost city is a common theme in these works, from about every third Conan story to IMO the best Cthulu story - At the Mountains of Madness which is set in an ancient ruined city. Movies and TV shows tap into this sometimes too, from Sinbad to Escape from New York to Indiana Jones. It's a rich trove to mine with lost secrets of magic or technology, ancient knowledge, and terrible guardians aplenty.

I might also argue that a ruined city makes more sense than the huge underground complex, at least I would think there would be many more ruined cities than complex excavations rivaling the NYC subway system. in a typical fantasy world. YMMV of course but it's easier to explain in many ways and a little more familiar to the modern player.

Ruined cities have been well-represented in fantasy RPG's but maybe not as much as big dungeons. Some high points for me:

• The first one I would nominate is I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City, which while not extnesively detailing all of the ruins, did at least include a map of the whole ruined city. For being crammed into a small page count it does a pretty good job of setting things up.

• B4 The Lost City is an odd one as it is a city but it is also buried underground in a kind of arcology. I like it, so let's count it.

• Ruins of Adventure is in here of course as Phlan was covered in a pretty big softbound module.

So Basic and 1E were represented but 2E is a little dry. I suppose ROA was considered 2E as well so maybe it's one per edition of the game.

•  3E had The Lost City of Gaxmoor and The Lost City of Barakus from third party publishers, both of which were interesting

• Alongside 3E Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved had a really nice big adventure called Ruins of Intrigue which I really liked and would probably used if I started up a game of that - the only flavor of 3E I am interested in running at this point. There are various things living in the ruins and factions competing with each other as well in a real sandbox setting, not a linear story arc waiting to be acted out.   

• Monte Cook also gave us Ptolus, the mega-supplement, and while not technically ruined it does sit atop a huge dungeon, next to a huge graveyard, and near an evil mage's fortress, so it's not in the best shape. 

 4E has had Vor Rukoth which I understand is sort of a ruined city in a small package and it now also has Neverwinter, the inspiration for this whole discussion.

 Beyond D&D there was RQ's Big Rubble which I know little about but I do know it was a pretty popular setting for adventuring and was a ruined city.Warhammer had Mordheim which was a city flattened by a comet which left behind deposits of warpstone, a valuable magical resource that drew in adventurers from all over the world. I'm sure there were others too but I'm not remembering them as I write this.

There are several advantages to the ruined city as an adventuring environment. There is usually a small settlement of some kind or base area, and the areas near that tend to be the least dangerous, growing more and more dangerous as one ventures deeper into the ruins. This makes it easy to "zone" things so that players do not get in over their heads, but it also keeps the other areas "visible" to the players. You don't have to find the stairway down to dungeon level 9's Burial Pits -  you can see the Haunted Graveyard from the window of your room at the inn! If you think you're tough enough you can go there right now! It sets things up for a true sandbox, where the players can go where they please and into as much danger as they can stand, without neccessarily having to pass through all of the prior material, unlike a conventional layered dungeon. You can have variety comparable to a wilderness area packed into ruined city, cutting down on travel times and ration checks and letting you get to he good parts thsat much faster.

So what can I say? I like the ruined city, probably more than I like even the megadungeon, though they are really not that far apart and each can take on aspects of the other. Both are usually landmarks in the world, both tend to have factions within and without, giving the PC's something to hook in to. Both tend to cover a fairly large area physically. Both tend to cover a range of adventuring difficulty as well, from starter to veteran. Also, if you do either of them right, they will become legends among your players, not just your campaign world.

Character Themes in 4E D&D

I know these got a lot of pub from the Dark Sun book, but I haven't read any of them. My first exposure to them comes via Neverwinter and I am underwhelmed.

For those of you who don't know these are an extra thing that can be chosen at character creation in addition to race and class (and build and alignment and background feats if using them). It's kind of like a template in that it overlays your other choices and adds some small bonuses. Most of them seem to be tied to a cultural background or a profession like "Neverwinter Noble" or "Uthgardt Barbarian" or "Harper Agent". After reading through them I am wondering what all of the fuss was about - maybe the Dark Sun ones are cooler? Because I just don't think all that much of these.

 One, they don't do all that much mechanically so on some level I feel like "why bother"? Harpers get a magic item that gives them a once a day bonus on a save or something similar and can pick up 2 additional similar powers at 5th and 10th. Whee. It's a pretty small benefit in exchange for tying your character down with pre-set baggage at 1st level. Most of them get a small power or two at low to medium levels and some extra choices among Utility Powers at higher Heroic levels. It's not all that much to get excited about. Mechanics aren't everything but these just don't do much for me.

Two, I feel like Paragon Paths already do this and do it better - at low levels your character is not extremely well defined as a Heroic individual just yet and I think Race, Class, and Build, along with a possible background feat, cover plenty. By the time a character hits 11th level the player has a pretty good idea of what their character is about and can choose a path that fits the character the way they play it. Plus a character at that level is powerful enough to be worthy of some of those titles or being a part of some of those famous groups. It makes sense at that point to add another layer of detail and perhaps tie them in to the world a little more. To me a first-level character has no need for this kind of thing as the character is new to adventuring and the player is going to need some time to nail down exactly how they want to play this one.

Third, it's unnecessary baggage. When starting a new group in a new campaign area I like to have them come from outside the area. This puts them all on an even footing as far as lack of knowledge of the region, both in-game between characters and in a metagame sense for the players. They can't just rely on skill rolls backed up by "well my character is from here so he should know" type justifications. They can gain some general knowledge but the specifics come from actually playing through things, exploring and talking to NPC's - as it should be. The Neverwinter book heavily recommends that every new character should choose one of the themes in the book. There are only 13 however, so options are a bit limited. Some of them are restricted to certain races, further curtailing the choices. Here they are:

• Neverwinter noble - you're a lost heir  - humans only
• Oghma's faithful - you are tied to the god of knowledge - any race
• Harper agent - you're part of the Harpers - any race
• Dead Rat deserter - you're an ex-member of the Dead Rats thieves' guild from Luskan and a wererat - human, half-elves, or halflings only
• Illiyanbruen guardian - you're from an Eladrin hidden city - eladrin only
• Uthgardt barbarian - you're part of a particular barbarian tribe - humans only
• Pack outcast - you're a barbarian outcast and a werewolf - humans or shifters only
• Heir of Delzoun - you're a dwarf descended from a lost kingdom - dwarves only
• Renegade Red Wizard - you're an ex-Red Wizard of Thay - any race
• Scion of Shadow - you're a spy for Netheril - human, shadar-kai, or shade only
• Devil's Pawn - you've been marked by Asmodeus and a former Waterdhavian noble - any race, sort of
• Spellscared harbinger - you are touched by the spellplague - any race
• Bregan D'aerthe spy - you're a drow spy - Drow only

So if I have someone all fired up to play a gnome, or a goliath, or a minotaur, or a plain old elf, there is not a lot to choose from. See the level of baggage involved here? What if I want to be a graduate of a magic school in Waterdeep? Nothing! There's one tied to the divine - what if I want to play a Paladin? There's really only one choice for dwarves or eladrin. What about dragonborn?

In my games, if someone decides to play a rogue at 1st level and expresses an interest in joining the thieves' guild I would rather play that out than say "OK choose that theme" and have them in it from the start. Same thing with an Uthgardt Barbarian - OK, take a barbarian and we will work out the details! No longer is it enough to be a "Wizard", no now you have to play a "Renegade Red Wizard". You can't just be a human Thief you have to be a "Scion of Shadow" or a "Dead Rat Deserter" but what if I don't want to be a wererat or have ties to Netheril?

The low levels of the game are the time when things like this are explored the most and the idea that a 1st level character comes into the game with a web of relationships and obligations already in place because of a mechanical feature just annoys me. I don't know that it's wrong, but it feels wrong to me, for my games.   In other games where you start off as experienced characters (like Shadowrun) or where a player can choose exactly how they want those relationships to be defined (Hero System) then it can work but traditionally a 1st level D&D character is a neophyte looking for their place in the world and I like to keep it that way. If a campaign demands more detailed and developed characters then start at 11th level and use the ton of material we already have!

So there it is, my trashing of Character Themes in 4E. I'm not proud of it but it's how I feel as I read through these things - it feels more like chrome for chrome's sake than something addressing a real need.  If I end up playing in Neverwinter I probably won't use them - I won't forbid them or anything but they hardly strike me as anything neccessary to the game. Like many sub-systems they will strike people in different ways and I am perfectly happy living without them.

Neverwinter

I picked up the Neverwinter Campaign Setting from WOTC this week.I already knew a little about it but after glancing through it and reading the intro pages, I think it's kind of funny and kind of cool what they are doing with this. First off, I'm also amused at some remarkable parallels:

- Ruined City in the northern part of the Realms? Check.

- Citizens trying to rebuild and drawing in adventurerers to help? Check

- Factions within the city and the ruins? Check

- Levels 1 thru 10? Check?

Sounds pretty familiar to me. Anyway, it goes farther than that. here's the back cover blurb for Neverwinter:

And here it is for "Ruins of Adventure"

It's not exactly the same but it's pretty similar. One is set 50 years after a dragon attack, one is 30 years after a volcanic eruption.

Also note that there are associated computer games:

 ...and books:

 It's just interesting to me that 22 years after a somewhat fondly remembered project, we are seeing the same thing again. Assuming it was susccessful the first time, it makes me wonder why we haven't seen something like this before now? There was an effort like this with the Pool of Radiance/Ruins of Myth Drannor adventure and computer game and novel back in 2001 but the computer game tanked so hard (nasty bugs at release) that I don't ever remember hearing much about the tabletop adventure or the novel. I suppose that should count, but if that is the most recent example I might wonder why they are trying again because I do not think that project represents "success". Perhaps someone that remembers the old Pool of Radiance but was not at WOTC for the other one pushed for this approach.I think it's kind of cool so I'm interested in seeing how it goes. Does it increase sales of one componenet or all components? Does it make marketing easier? Does the "bigger" project mean more attention is paid to quality? I can only hope it does.

In the original POR, the computer game was awesome (for the time), the novel was weak [LINK], and the adventure was also weak, though a pretty faithful recreation of the computer game.

 In that 2001 POR the computer game was devastatingly bad, the novel looks to have been at least passable, and I know nothing about the adventure.

For 2011 Neverwinter I can say that the adventure looks pretty good, the novel is by Salvatore and so should be at least an OK D&D novel, and I know nothing about the computer game yet though I am interested in giving it a try.

My intention is to use this as the new campaign for the Apprentices. I was all fired up to run them through TOEE but I'm not sure I have the bandwidth to run my from-scratch Friday night game, some intermittent from-scratch ICONS, and still do a decent conversion of TOEE for the boys. It's easier in many ways to run multiple campaigns if one of them is coming from a pre-made adventure that requires a lot less prep time and that's what I am going to try. Plus I want to see what the current 4E team can do after 3 years of tweaking and honing the system from balancing numbers to how stat blocks are presented. I'm not discarding TOEE - I already worked up a pretty good set of notes converting the village and the moathouse to 4E and I will continue to work on it from time to time. When I see a chance to run it I will - just not this time.

 Soon enough, probably in September, the aspiring heroes will set out for Neverwinter and I will be recounting their adventures here - so stay tuned!