Ten Questions with ... Barking Alien

Barking Alien asked some questions over the weekend - questions that demand answers! So here we go...

Stolen straight from the source...

1) What is the most common type of environment or terrain encountered thus far in your current or most recent campaign?

Space Station corridors in Star Wars. "Dungeon" in RtToe 4E. A warehouse in ICONS - hmmm, lots of interior stuff going on there.



2) What is the most exotic or unusual environment or terrain encountered thus far in your current or most recent campaign?

I had the flooded interior of a wrecked spaceship in Return to the Ruins of Adventure. Full of crew members who were killed or mutated in bizarre ways.



3) What environment or terrain type have you never used but always wanted to? Why haven't you?

I haven't run an underwater adventure in years and years but that may change soon. I also like the volcano fortress-lair too but haven't had an excuse to use one. Too much low-level D&D - volcano was on the menu but TPK's have a nasty way of interfering with your plans.



4) Do you have a combat rule or mechanic from another game system you are using in the game system you currently play, played recently or generally play?

I love the "Epithet" from ICONS (basically a Fate-esque Quality) and I'm trying to drag that into all of my games. I even included it in my proposed West Marches style game.



5) In your opinion, what genre has received too little attention in regards to RPGs based on that subject?

A few years ago I would have said "dark space fantasy" but the surge of 40K games has that handled now. Now I would say games based on the Classical Era - Mythic Greece, the Roman Republic & Empire. There are a few out there of varying quality but there isn't one that relly grabs me, which is why I keep trying to convert D&D to cover it.



6) If a quality RPG on the aforementioned neglected genre came out tomorrow, what would make you buy it? What would prevent you from buying it?

What has prevented me from playing some of them, even after I bought them, is crappy rules. I want serious attention to historical detail, and then I want good, tight mechanics, preferably for an existing game like Savage Worlds or D&D - we don't need to reinvent the mechanics just to be different.



7) Do you find it easier to learn the rules of a game by reading the rule book or by sitting down and just playing it?

I'm a reader. Reading the rules tends to inspire me and influence the kind of campaign I want to run. Even if I'm playing and not running, I still like to read the book before I sit down to play.



8) Name a currently available artist not normally associated with RPGs who you'd love to see do some RPG work.

Jack Kirby. Ah, currently available. Frazzetta. Darn. Not sure, as I tend to become aware of artists because they are associated with an RPG rather than the reverse.



9) What one book, movie, video, etc. that is not an RPG that you think should be.

I think a game roughly based on "24", with some kind of random plot turn element or maybe a player-controlled mechanic for it,  and an emphasis on time pressure - say solve it in a single session, could be a lot of fun and have a different feel than the typical campaign session.

 I know it's old school but an official Thundarr game & setting would be cool (Icons?). A new James Bond would be fun for some of us. Modesett's Recluce books might be fun. The list gets a little longer if you change that to "not an RPG that you like" as I think the "Savage Worlds of the Savage Sword of Conan" would be awesome and better than the d20 version.



10) Can you think of an RPG you've run or played in which the GM (be it you or someone else) used/referenced non-game related books to run the campaign more often then game related books?

I've used a lot of Atlases over the years to run Rifts and Twilight 2000. I've used some of the non-gaming Trek books when I've run and played Star Trek, largely for ship names and illustrations of ships and planets. I've used similar things for Star Wars too. If I ever get to run a WW2 Supers game I have a pile of books to use for that, as I do for a Greek or Roman or Norse campaign too.

More stuff about the next D&D

• A video game art studio from China has been hired to fully detail the Realms.

Eh, what? Oh sure, because when I think Forgotten Realms I think of videogames. And China. Were there really not enough artists available who actually might play D&D or know people who do? Was this a volume thing or an expense thing or getting a unified look or what? 

For all the hubbub about accomodating the tatses of lapsed players not all of this is looking too retro:

• So what we want is to empower DMs and players so that if you want to attempt to do something "I want to open the door" then the DM doesn't have to even have you roll, he can just look, see you have a 17 strength and says "Yeah, you burst through that door". We want to get past some of the mundane rolls and not tie up a lot of table time with that and move on to the more interesting stuff and the table narrative. 

Every edition of D&D has included a roll to bust open doors. Early on it was a d6 roll based on Strength, later it was a fixed DC by door type that was attempted on a d20+Str mod  roll. Apparently we're moving to a "Str X = broken door" which I admit does make some sense and does eliminate some of the more mundane rolls, but it's definitely not "traditional D&D" in any sense.

• Monte: Making a saving throw against something has become something that's really a part of D&D. So again, what we've done is tie those into the ability scores. For example you'll make a strength saving throw or wisdom saving throw against a certain effect and so far it's become a big part of some effects and abilities. The attacker makes a check and that sets the DC for your saving throw.

I can see bringing saves back in a more prominent way but it seems like all we're doing is changing for the heck of it: AD&D was a defensive roll against a fixed attacking number, 4E went to an attacking roll against a fixed defense, now Next appears to be going for mutual opposed rolls. >Shrug< OK, I suppose we can do that.

• Bruce: Looking at the playtest characters here, you might have noticed that a class or a theme might have given you a bonus to skill, but you didn't have a skill list. Normally if you were to call for a check, you would just call for the ability score - like a dexterity check for sneaking up. But if you have a class or character feature that gives you a bonus to sneak, you would add that in. There are a lot of different expressions for skills. Trained, sneaking at full speed (stealth twice). Lots of options.

 I can see this working, but I'm not sure it feels a whole lot like D&D. Flexible, easy, sure. Have to wait and see on this.

• Bruce: One of the things we're doing is moving things more to a silver standard instead of a gold standard. 

I know this is a mere technicality, but seriously? Every edition of D&D has used the gold piece as the standard - every edition. You can't say that for saves, turning undead, classes, races, or nearly anything  else in the game, yet someone thinks it's a good idea to change it? Why would you do that? So much of what I'm seeing sounds good, and then I see stuff like this that seems like a spur of the moment decision or an answer to a question that no one was asking. 

Argh.

Back to planning Star Wars and more 4E  - for now.

Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium - Win!

I see a 4E Greyhawk Campaign coming soon...

I finally got around to picking up this book. I had not heard much about it, and maybe you haven't either, so let me share: If you've been playing (and liking) D&D for more than 1 or 2 editions, go get it. It's the missing piece to make an old-school flavored 4E campaign really hum.

The book opens up by adding in the missing armor types from older editions - studded leather, ring mail, banded mail, splint mail, full plate - I like that it's here, and I like the way it is handled mechanically as there is more too it then playing around with AC bonuses.

A lot of the book is magic items, namely old school magic items like the flametongue and frostbrand swords, the necklace of missiles, and the wand of fire - those kinds of things -but it's more than that. It also adds in potions, as in heroism and giant strength, and the cure light wounds/moderate wounds/serious wounds ala third edition.

The best part though, is near the end. A section on hirelings, henchmen, and pets is a nice warm-up, including rules and details for the hirelings and pointing to the DMG 2 rules for the henchmen and pets while giving some nice examples (including statblocks) for each. Then, we get to the equipment section: 10' poles, caltrops, ball bearings, hammer + iron spikes, jar of glowworms - it's stuff straight from the Basic & AD&D equipment lists and there are mechanical effects for all of the ones that need it! Hammering a spike into a doorframe boosts the DC to  open it by 5. Dumping some ball bearings in a square makes it difficult terrain, a crowbar gives a +2 bonus to open doors or chests - all very simple stuff that gives players a good reason to take the gear.

So I have to say I am 100% happy with it and it will be getting used as soon as next week, as some of this gear will be appearing in me 4E Temple of Elemental Evil campaign. It makes translation to 4E that much easier. I am also planning the new "main" D&D campaign to play with the regular group and I have to say an old school flavored Greyhawk game is in the lead as of now, mainly because I see more and better ways to handle it with this book on my shelf.

Very nicely done!

Motivational Monday

Weekend Notes - DDXP

It's a kid-free weekend here so not a whole lot of time to post but I have seen a few things:

From the DDXP this weekend:

• Elminster's Forgotten Realms in Quarter 4. We basically went to Ed and said hey, why don't you take all your campaign notes, all the information you've been putting together for your FR campaign and lets compile it into a book. Show us the realms as you've developed it in your campaign setting and lets get that to everybody. It's our celebration of the Forgotten Realms and pulling back the curtain to show you what the designer of the campaign setting has done.

• Any plans to rerelease the other products for 1E and 2E and other editions, either in print or electronically? We are looking at making a lot of that older material available to you, but we want to make sure we do it right for you guys and for Wizards. We'll have more news on that. 

They also mention that the FR stuff should be largely system-neutral. That sounds pretty interesting. I'm curious to see what it looks like.

As far as the second point - people are making money off of the old editions, why shouldn't WOTC get in on that?

Bad Game Ideas for Wednesday

Finding some system that lets us play a coherent game of Rifts has long been a dream of me and some of my players. Hero is the obvious choice and will do it, but you have to have players that can accept a 300 point differential in character values and that's ... unlikely.

GURPS can probably do it too but that means a lot of time spent with GURPS vehicles and I did enough of that in the 90's. It is fun to hear people argue about what's realistic when trying to turn Rifts into something that fits into a formula though...

Mutants and Masterminds I am almost certain will do it but I haven't tried, and I think the power levels might make it tricky. Perhaps another day...

The best answer is to stop trying to fix it and just embrace the madness - it may have the DM pulling his hair out at times but once again it leads to awesome player justifications for why that horrible thing that just happened couldn't actually possibly happen "because it's not rrr...rrrr...rrr...this system sucks!"

If you can't just ride the wave man ... well ... I've been having dreams about converting it to ICONS. Yeah, yeah, it's a little weird, but I think that the less detailed take of ICONS might be just the approach that handles the ridiculous levels of relative power without making the squishies feel overshadowed. You just assume that normal weapons are completely ineffective against everything in the Rifts universe and start with a rough conversion of something like weapons get half their dice as a power level and 1 level of Invulnerabilty per 100 MDC - like I said it's a rough idea right now. It keeps popping into my head though, demanding some kind of escape. Maybe if I just start with the main rulebook ...

Not so different is it?

 

ToEE 4E Session 4 - The Green Slime

This was a short session but it was time to get things back on track. After the death of the Dragonborn Paladin last time we needed a replacement and this came in the form of a Dragonborn Sorcerer. Names have been omitted to reduce boredom and annoyance - this is the Apprentice campaign after all and they are still finding their feet with the whole naming thing. I will say though that they aren't any worse than a lot of the names I see and hear so I probably shouldn't slam them for it.

Much time was spent in Hommlett (in this campaign it's in Mistledale - see here for details) shopping, trading, haggling, and outfitting. Now better equipped and riding horses for the first time the newly reinforced party heads for the Moathouse.

Once at the Moathouse, they decided to head down the stairs to explore the lower level and were promptly attacked by Green Slime. Now this stuff used to be pretty nasty in AD&D, then it was changed to a hazard in 3E which was a little less satisfying in some ways. Well it's back in 4E and it can move and attack and inflict ongoing 10 acid damage if it gets lucky, so it's pretty nasty.  Three of them in a confined space like a stairwell is especially nasty, but they handled it very well. As the battle opened, we discovered that the Dragonbron breath weapon is pretty nasty in confined spaces too, and it just makes Po's defense boost that much easier to hang onto.

So in a 6 round fight the party cleans house without taking too much damage (no drops and no kills for Team Monster) and then fans out to explore the big empty room at the bottom of the stairs. That's also where we had to stop as our time ran out - Short rest, we will pick it up next time!

Bad Game Ideas for Tuesday

The stack of game books next to the computer has been growing some - new year = new ideas. Feng Shui, Reign, Pendragon, Rifts Ultimate, and some 3E Necromancer games modules are all in there. So I'm getting a lot of cross-pollination. The main focus has been boning up on Star Wars Saga, but I've been having some strange campaign ideas so I'm going to share:

Idea I might try to run: A Pendragon campaign set in Warhammer's Bretonnia using the WFRP 2E mechanics but with Passions and the family thing grafted on. I need to re-read Pendragon as it's been quite awhile (that's why it's on the stack) but I've been obsessed with mixing it into Warhammer and I don't have a really good reason for that. I really need more time to run these things.

Idea discarded on Day 1: Converting 4th Edition D&D modules back to Basic D&D. It can probably be done and it would make a nice story to share, but I realized that was my main motivation to do it: to be able to say that I did it, rather than because I think it would be a quality gaming experience. So after looking at some monster lists and the like I let it go. The world is probably better for that.

A Brief Note on WOTC Republishing the 1E Hardbacks

'Shrug' - OK

Alright, maybe that's too brief.

4E players probably don't care, annoyed 3E players probably won't be mollified by books for another game, and die-hard old-schoolers won't give them the time of ... what? Wow, I didn't think they were that easily appeased.

From a business perspective I can see wisdom in catering to pent-up demand. There's a seemingly healthy old-school movement that thinks AD&D was the apex of design (exeept for the parts they keep tinkering with)? Why not put some of those old products back into print? It makes your customers happy and makes them your customers again! I think they're stopping short -why not put some of every edition back into print? Look at the prices for 3.5 Player's Handbooks on eBay! Look at the sales for Pathfinder! Why not grab a piece of that action? Put the core books for each edition back into print, some of the bigger-deal adventures (or a bundle of the old adventures in a hard or soft cover book) and make some money! Do it year by year - make 2012 the 1E revival, 2013 the 2E revival, and 2014 the 3E revival. Make it an annual celebration of each edition leading up to the 40th anniversary of D&D! Quarterly at least! Try to make everybody who has ever played the game hear about it and think about it one more time - it might turn into some money. Plus it looks to me like the opening salvo of a barrage of olive branches to soften things up for D&D Next. That's a good move.

As someone who is more D&D focused than edition-focused and who has run multiple sessions of at least 3 different versions of D&D in the past few years I'm less impressed. My 1E books are in great shape - those things last - and the extra copies of the PHB that I picked up last year were all in pretty good shape and let me tell you, I didn't spend over $12 on any of them. So even now, AD&D rulebooks are both plentiful and cheap - why would I go buy a new printing?

Gamers are notoriously cheap. Beyond eBay and used bookstores there are PDF's of everything floating around for free plus there is OSRIC so I don't even really need any of those other options if I just want rules. Assuming I am someone actually trying to play the game there are all of these other options from free to cheap that get me what I need, so why would I buy a new printing?

If I'm a dedicated old school gamer who's been unhappy with TSR/WOTC/Hasbro since Gary left then I'm probably not going to trust anything "they" do to try and convince me to play anything less than 23 years old - or 30 if I'm Truly Oldschool. I'm just going to gripe about it online for now and see what happens.

The only reason I myself might buy it is because it's helping a good cause in the most obvious and appropriate way and I'm impressed that WOTC got on board with it in this particular way. I think it's amazing and it's the only thing that's going to convince me to spend money on a reprint of a book when I already have at least 5 copies floating around the house. So somewhat to my surprise I have a thumbs up for this - a big thumbs up. Nice job WOTC.

Motivational Monday