Overreaction Friday - D&D goes Pathfinder

There's an interview with Mike Mearls here and some additional discussion on EN World here that spurred this post. The short version is that it looks like WOTC is adopting Paizo's core approach:

• Paizo puts out two Adventure Paths per year, with separate supporting books for players and DM's


• WOTC will put out two "stories" per year, with at least a supporting source book aimed mainly at players

Now Paizo also puts out additional material like poster maps, flip-mats, cards, and sometimes miniatures for each of their AP's but they have been doing this for a while. WOTC will likely be doing a little more than this too, from miniatures sets to a special DM screen (they did one for Tyranny of Dragons) to tie-ins with the Neverwinter MMO. 

They also note that they have plans through 2018. I think that's interesting because I don't think Paizo plans out their AP's that far in advance other than having a pool of ideas suggested previously. I suspect part of that may be that WOTC is deliberately drawing on D&D history and has a list of the first ten or so things they want to tackle while Paizo has less "legacy" to deal with given their separate campaign world. 

It is interesting too in that up until very recently all we heard was that "adventures don't sell" - yet Paizo found a way to make that work. In fact, it's to the point that now WOTC seems to be basing their whole approach around a similar adventure-centered concept. What changed? Did gamers suddenly decide to spend more money than they did in the 90's? I'm going to say no. I think building a fair amount of setting material into the adventures probably helps, as does tying a source book for players to a set of adventures. 

I also think it's interesting that WOTC's D&D team is smaller than Paizo's Pathfinder team. Both of them use a lot of outsiders/freelancers. Maybe it's just setting more reasonable expectations for tabletop D&D at WOTC - if so that seems like a good thing to me. It will also be interesting to see if it stays that way.

Pathfinder Updates

Somewhere along the way Pathfinder shifted from a side game last year into the one game I am consistently running these days. I just ran session #20 of our Wrath of the Righteous campaign. I need to get the summaries up on here sometime soon but for now some observations:

• Locally (DFW Texas area) I don't see any loss of momentum in PF as might have been expected with a new version of D&D. I think that to some degree they cater to different tastes as far as game mechanics, even if the type of games run are similar. I suspect a lot of people are playing both. Regardless, the local Pathfinder Society is adding games at more stores rather than any kind of cutback so that's good news for Paizo.
• Paizo ran a big sale in October and this forced me to think about some things. I have a "collector" impulse that flares up from time to time and with a game as big as Pathfinder that can be a bad thing. As I was about to place an order for a fair number of discounted Pathfinder AP modules I had a moment of insight that I thought I might share: I already have 5 or 6 Adventure Paths that I would like to run or am already running. Assuming it takes two years to play through one start to finish, I already have 8-10 years worth of material here! That's not even counting any kind of self-created campaign, and it's not counting any conversion of older material. I ended 3rd Edition with a lot of good adventures I never ran because we just ran out of time and moved on. There's a sort of ranking process that happens in my head  - "what would I run next?" and "what would I run if a separate group wanted to play right now?" - if I have two or three campaigns I'm looking forward to do I really need another Pathfinder campaign right now? I'm getting to where the answer is "no" for a change. There are enough "system" books for PF to keep me interested for quite a while, so I really don't need to go back and fill in all of the older AP material. the only reason would be to say at some point "I have them all" and while that's nice for research purposes, I've realized I can probably live without unlocking that particular achievement. While it is possible, given the miracle of the internet, to collect every published item from any given game system, I don't really want to turn my house into the Texas Paizo Museum.
• Playing and running in the same system really does invest you in the game. Rules we cover in one campaign inevitable turn up in the other. Some nifty character ability or item in one sometimes generates a "hmm" when I sit down for the other. There is some synergy there that I haven't experienced in a years.
• A quick rundown of the previous, current, and upcoming AP's. There plus Rise of the Runelords, Shattered Star - and maybe the Emerald Spire big dungeon - are my main Coming Attractions for PF for the near future.
• Wrath of the Righteous - awesome, epic, and a lot of fun to run so far. Mass combat has been quick and fun as well as the party invades and lays siege to the city of Drezen.
• Mummy's Mask - looks like a lot of fun with a pretty big scenery change from Fantasy Europe to Fantasy Egypt. No big rules tweak here like Mythic for WotR, just a different environment.
• Iron Gods - pretty wild mix of fantasy and tech. Lots of new stuff for technological items. Very different environments though there is still quite a bit of traditional fantasy in there, including dungeon crawls.I expect there will be a lot of SF conversions cooked up using the books here as a core. 
• Giantslayer - not a ton of details yet but it looks like this is going to be Pathfinder's "Against the Giants" and I have high expectations for it. I always enjoy running giants as a DM - I'm not sure why, I just do. The descriptions so far have me very interested. 
• Hell's Rebels - I don't know enough yet to have a strong opinion. On the surface, running around rebelling against an evil empire doesn't interest me as much as some of the others but then again it could be a decent fantasy Star Wars and what's wrong with that?
• Watching my son play alongside friends I have had for years is a pretty cool thing. It's not an indulgence on their part as far as I can tell, and it's not dragging a half-interested youngster into an otherwise grown-up party - he's old enough now and experienced enough that he can hold his own and contribute just like anyone else. It doesn't matter what game, or even really what hobby - having some shared interests and watching them grow up and do their own thing in something you both understand and enjoy is a really good feeling. 

Something New for FATE - Save Game

"Save Game" is a new campaign for FATE that caught my eye. This is the description:

A vicious computer virus threatens to corrupt the entire internet, and the only ones standing in its way are the characters from your video games.

8-bit heroes battle monsters and corrupted files—it's Wreck-It Ralph meets Lord of the Rings in a fight for the fate of the world!

I have to say that it worked - I'm interested. Interested enough that I'm reading it now. I'm thinking the younger set is going to like it on the idea alone, while the older set will appreciate some of the humor.

I needed an excuse to look at FATE again anyway - this was it. I'll have a more about it next week. If you're interested yourself it's on DTRPG here.

Motivational Monday

Happy Halloween!

Idle Thoughts - Old Superhero Figures

Sometimes I end up with a miniature that someone else painted and I wonder where it has been and what has it done. Some are painted expressly for sale, but some are clearly more refugees painted by someone to use, and then sold off at some later time. Most of the time these are D&D type fantasy or 40K miniatures but earlier this year I picked up a pair that are a little different:

I know they are 84-85 Grenadier figures, so I suspected they were from the Champions line but then I realized yellow-guy is pointing a power ring at someone and he is Green Lantern from their Justice League set. Regardless, I've had them sitting on my computer desk for a while and I wonder what their story is?

I mean, he's yellow! Was he a DC villain? Was he someone's Champions character who just liked yellow? What kind of powers did he have? You don't typically paint a superhero miniature without knowing who it's supposed to be, but these guys don;t come with a USB plug or a cloud link that tells me their story.

I have yet to figure out (heh) what set this guy is from, maybe the Champions villains set. He has a two-tone purple costume and even his oddly-shaped head is purple. Menatlist? Alien? Hero? Villain? I have no idea.

Now this won't stop me from using them for something, but it would be fun to know their prior history in some way. Even more fun would be to work it in to my own game somehow - "former heroes turned villains" etc. It's not like universe-hopping is an unusual thing in a comic book story.

Anyway, they had me thinking and I thought I would share.

Marvel Movies All Over The Place

Wow there's a bunch of stuff coming in the next 5 years - Civil War! Black Panther! Infinity Gauntlet! Details are here if you haven't seen them yet.

I'm just amazed. As a kid we were stuck with those terrible 70's TV shows I mentioned before that made the 50's Superman and 60's Batman look extra good. Now some of my favorite comic book characters from way back then are showing up in big budget movies with good actors and decent scripts and showing a lot of loyalty to the original stories that started them all ... could it be any better? It's not just Marvel either - DC is putting together a slate of movies that look "lesser" to me only in comparison to Marvel's efforts. A sequel to The Incredibles from Pixar is just icing on the cake.

I suspect there's a confluence here of a) people who grew up reading them achieving success or positions of power in Hollywood, b) other people who grew up reading them and watching cartoons being older now, introducing their own kids to the universe, and being willing to pay for movies about them, and c) special effects finally reaching a point where they look more than good - look at that gif above -  they look real!

I think of this "era" of superhero movies as starting in 2000 with the first X-Men movie and it has only gotten stronger. It may get a solid 20 year run. Is this the new "American" genre like westerns were from the 30's to the 70's? I think it could be. I also think at some point it will end, or at least decline to a much lower level, just as they did, but I suspect we are nowhere near that yet. Whether we're still in the early years, the peak, or the decline of this genre/movement/"thing" I can;t really say. What I can say is that the inner 6 year old in me, and the inner 13 year old in me, couldn't be happier with the way this is all going.

Farewell to Boardwalk Empire

I've watched a lot of HBO's series over the years and I admit I was iffy on this one. The 20's were never a period I was all that interested in exploring. Steve Buscemi is usually interesting to watch though, and HBO has put on some decent shows before so I figured I would give it a whirl for at least a season.

As it turned out, it was a good move. Even the 20's can be interesting when it's a well-done production. I felt it started off a little slow but there were a lot of characters and a lot of story to tell. Clearly, as it ended up lasting 5 seasons. A lot of the storylines wrapped up within each season but some crossed over, and some characters wrapped up along the way as well. The show mainly deals with the criminal side of life in that time but it shows some examples of "normal" life as well ... though usually not for long. Dealing with family and business are major aspects of each character's story. Prohibition is a big factor in the kind of lives the show covers and that's interesting to see at ground level, along with several other social aspects seen along the way. The final season advances into the 30's and the imminent repeal of prohibition and there are flashbacks to the 1890's for some characters so there is a wide swath of time being explored here.

It's a good show. I probably don't rank it quite as highly as the Sopranos (thought it covers some of the same territory) as that was a show about "now" and felt more relevant in many ways. It is firmly rooted in the real world so it's not really in the same ballpark as True Blood or Game of Thrones (or Walking Dead if we're talking popular shows in general and not just HBO). The closest comparison is probably somewhere between Deadwood's gritty realism (without so much of the interesting language)  and Mad Men's historical but still somewhat relevant look at modern life, family, work, and the social scene at the time. I thought Sunday's finale was fitting and solid - there's a lot more closure than the Sopranos or Battlestar.

Character-wise I really liked this version of Al Capone. The actor playing Lucky Luciano, on his way to creating the modern organized crime system, is just amazing. Richard Harrow, the wounded WW1 vet who struggles with his injury and his place in the world is an interesting character moving through the series. The whole cast is really solid.

For an RPG enthusiast this is probably the single greatest example of what kind of stories you can tell in the 1920's that's ever been put on TV. Call of Cthulu players I'm looking at you here. The high end of society, the low end, race relations, music, technology - heck, just what a street scene looks like circa 1922 is about as enlightening as you will find.There are some easily stolen characters that could be used as NPC's here too.  There are 56 episodes to soak up - I recommend you go get started.

Motivational Monday

40K Friday Returns - With More Chaos!

There hasn't been a lot of 40K action around here lately. Fall gets busy with kid stuff once school is back in session and a lot of weeknights and weekends are spent on those things. Plus the sacred Sunday rituals must be observed, especially when the Cowboys are playing well.

BUT - when we can't play, we paint! Or ... we pick up more mini's. I talked about what I was doing with my slowly growing Chaos Space Marine force a few months back  and I've made a little more progress since then. The converted spawn are coming together, I picked up some interesting cultists miniatures (already painted, thank goodness), and I've added a small contingent of Iron Warriors.

The spawn unit is 5 spawn with the mark of Nurgle. With that and the bikes it gives me two fairly speedy, tough units that can charge across the field and hopefully do some damage. They are not a complicated unit to build or to use but people seem to have decent results with them.

The cultists are painted green and white so they fit with the Death Guard theme of the army. They are not GW cultists - I like the hooded look better. Thirty of them gives me some flexibility in going with multiple squads or one big squad. Mechanically, well, they are not a power unit. They're a cheap troops choice to allow me to take other more effective non-troops units. Taking the long view though it makes a lot of sense to have a unit of cultists available.

Note: These guys also work well in a lot of modern RPGs too

The Iron Warriors came about when I started looking for ways to expand the army beyond just the Nurgle forces. IW's were huge in 3rd edition as they had some special rules that allowed extra heavy support choices compared to other chapters - more vindicators proved to be a popular choice. Armies from that era still show up from time to time on eBay. Allowing for a little "chaos" almost any IW painted unit looks right next to another painted IW unit. Going with them as an additional force alongside my nasty green marines diversifies the army a bit in both look and in the types of units each might take.

As a squad it's a mixed bag because I agree with the popular view that the traditional 10-guys-with-a-heavy-and-a-special-weapon is not the greatest anymore, especially with the lack of combat squadding for CSM's. That's how these were built though, and as I add more options I may be able to change it up some. I also know that dreadnoughts are not all that effective in the current rules but a)I've always liked them, b) that's the only combination of stock parts I like on those old metal chaos dreads, and c) it seems appropriate for Iron Warriors to have at least one.

I have acquired some unpainted chaos marines as well and some parts. Some of those may go towards options for some of my existing squads (more double plasma/melta/flamer) but I think I can put together at least one full squad and it will likely be Iron Warriors as well.

Down the road it would also make some sense to add a couple of Maulerfiends to keep expanding the "fast assault" approach I'm working on here. An IW look on those would be pretty cool. If I later decide to turn the IW into their own separate army then tanks would make a lot of sense too but that's a ways off yet.

More to come - I'm going to try and get some more painting in this weekend and see how much more I can do to get these guys ready to jump on the table.