Mar 9-15

I’m going to start what I hope is the first of a regular column. My past attempts at starting a regular column have all failed not due to lack of inspiration but just motivation.  The goal of the column is to review what I’ve read over the last week and ideas that sparked from the content.  I read a large number of blogs, subscribe to two paying sites (DDI and DaD), listen to several podcasts, and try to keep up with my PbP gaming. All in all its a heck of a lot of reading in a week.

Dragon Magazine #373

Note that these articles require a subscription to DDI to access.

Art of the Kill ~ link

Assassins are back in D&D. The Art of the Kill by Robert J. Schwalb updates the assassin to 4e, though not as a class option but aa a series of backgrounds, feats, multiclass weapon options (similar to the Gladiator feats in Dragon 368), equipment, and paragon paths.

Backgrounds: grant +2 to one skill or fluency in one language. Examples: bounty hunter, executioner, poison master, zealous slayer, etc.

Feats: 6 heroic feats, 5 paragon, 3 epic, 6 Guild Feats, 13 style feats. Examples: poison inured (bonus to saves vs. poison), slow fall (reduce fall damage), fey death (use fey step as a reaction to killing something). Guild Feats give you bonuses to a skill and a teamwork bonus and style feats grant additions to class at-will powers.

Multiclass: Blowgun training, Bravo (dogged pursuer?), Cutthroat, Garrote training, and Poisoner. All present an opening feat and 3 follow up multiclass feats.

Paragon Paths: Blightbeast, Nightmare Weaver. Overall not very connected to the idea of assassins.

Weapons and Equipment: Garrote, Blowgun, and a few pieces of mundane equipment, and alchemical items.

The article has some interesting discussions on how to use the material from a player perspective as it can be difficult to play an assassin hero.  I’ve personally never been a fan of assassins as a player option, leaving it more for the realm of the DM. This article does not present them as opponents with stated adversaries, though the little bit of information on the culture and background of assassins would serve a DM well.

The Brood of Alloces ~ link

This bestiary article by Ari Marmell includes several really disgusting creatures patched together by the Butcher of Nessus, Alloces. When I say disgusting I really mean it.  All of the creatures are piecemeal amalgamations of flesh and soul, like a steed that is a whole bunch of legs and arms sown together, ick.

Creeping Teeth – ooze(ish) creature made of teeth and bone.
Damned Choir – writhing mass of souls the scream in eternal torment.
Carpet of Flesh – ooze(ish) creature made of mounds of flesh. most disgusting creature in here.
Vile Host – a hulking brute made of many souls tied together. Very cool ability to split into 5 different creatures when bloodied changing the battle completely.
Shrieking Steed – mount made of human limbs all sown together. rivals carpet of flesh for ick.
Nessian Hounds – the coolest of the article, three different flavors.
Seraphic Golem – what devil article would be complete without a creature sewn together from parts of angels.

While I like the critters in here my face to face group would never go for it. I may have to inflict them on my Pbp players. The article is very well written, I like the way Ari portrays the devils, but eww. This is a companion piece to the Codex of Betrayal below.

Codex of Betrayal: Alloces ~ link

The second article in Dragon this month by Ari Marmell, whose work I am a fan of. This article details the Butcher of Nessus a Prince of Hell who descended with Asmodeus and the rest of the fallen angels.  This is probably the best article in this issue of Dragon. There are a slew of adventure ideas dripping from this one from including his creations in encounters with other Devils to tackling fleshcrafter vivisection mages and throwback beast cults.  Alloces himself is stated as a L28 Elite Controller as is his trusted servant, Machalos, a patchwork construct with the soul of a pit fiend. As with the previous article this one is full of really sick and twisted ideas that would horrify most gamers (overly so for my group) but it was so full of good material.  The writing is engaging and conveys itself very well. Note that this article is for Monday, Mar 16th, but dropped on Sunday night so I’m including it here.

Steal this Hook ~ link

Robert Weise gives us three hooks tied to the PHB2. Given all the coverage that Wizards have given us with previews and the blogs that helped propel this book to the forefront this week, I think this article is a little weak. Truthfully though, I’ve not been a fan of this series since it ran on the website and its kind of odd that it is included in the pay side of the site.
The hooks are:
Zaria’s druid grove is under assault by goblins.
A gnome bard spins tales of a forgotten tomb.
A destroyed caravan points to the local goliath tribes.

Design and Development: Deva ~ link

James Wyatt presents an interesting article on the transformation of the 3rd edition aasimar to the new 4e Deva race featured in PHB2.  The entire article guides the reader through all the various iterations and decisions that were made that resulted in the Aasimar not making it into the PHB.  James touches on how much effor they put into making them drawn to a celestial good, but are not an enforced stereotype (similar to how the tieflings turned out). Note that this article is for Monday, Mar 16th, but dropped on Sunday night so I’m including it here.

Dungeon Magazine #164

Note that these articles require a subscription to DDI to access.

Return of the Poisoned Shadows [Heroic - L8] ~ link

With the Dungeon Delve book released this month, Greg Marks provides us with an additional delve designed as a sequel to “Poisoned Shadows” from the book.  This also nicely ties into the Art of the Kill article with synergy in themes.  I’ve never run or played in a Delve so it was interesting to see how one was presented. I’ll definitely have to try one in Pbp, though I don’t think it’ll be this one.  I found that the mapping was difficult to follow as it was ties so tightly to the Dungeon Tiles line that it really hampered the presentation. The encounters were interesting and I can see potential in them, but the overall execution was lacking.

Worse than Death [Paragon - L12] ~ link

This adventure by Robert J. Schwalb has the adventurers hired to find a hedonistic noble who has been kidnapped. There is a lot of background material detailing why the noble is not all he appears to be and how he could end up on wrong end of the character’s swords.  The Patriach is the most interesting piece of the adventure and could easily serve as a tie to Ari Marmell’s articles on Alloces, especially with his bride, ew.  The other encounter that I ties closely to the themes of these three articles is the blood hag, very creepy. The background seems convoluted and it is doubtful that the party would find out much of it, especially given the tactics of their would-be rescuee during the last battle.

Save My Game ~ link

This series of articles by Stephen Radney-MacFarland are another set that were originally part of the free set on wizards.com prior to DDI. However, unlike the Steal This Hook series, I can see why they are included on the paying side of the site. These articles are a great source of advice for DMs at home with the direction Dungeon has always provided with the Dungeoncraft series.  In this article Stephen tackles the issue of naration and provides tips on how to draw players to a line of questioning that puts them in an active role. Overall a well written piece with some good advice. Reading it reminded me of the DMG2 from 3.5 and the new DMG for 4e, both of which gave solid advice on how to take on the task of being a DM.

Wizards.com Features

Note: These articles are open for anyone to read.

Interview with Rob Heinsoo ~ link

Rob was one of the lead designers of 4e and has credits such as the card game Inn fighting and Three Dragon Ante. The interview does not present much new information about the design process for 4e. Once again the interviewee talks a lot about problems with 3.5 and how those were targetted for fixes.  I’m not a fan of the message that Wizards has been using in this style of article. At first I agreed with their criticisms of 3.5 but the more I read about how a better marketing tactic would’ve been to stand 4e on its own successes rather than the failures of 3.5 I came to find these arguments tiresome.

Use This Book Tonight: Open Grave ~ link

Robert Weise gives us a rather lame encounter with some minotaur mummies and zombies when adventurers stop to ponder an open grave beside the road. The encounter was not very engaging and did not provide me with many ideas to spin it into more than a strange and out of place tomb.

Excerpts: Primal Avatar ~ link

From PHB2 – the Primal Avatar is an Epic Destiny for characters using the Primal power source.  It is exactly what I look for in an epic destiny, it has distinct flavor and really shows how a character could end their career in style. The avatar joins with the spirit world after a long life defending it.

Excerpts: Arcane Power Rituals ~ link

From Arcane Power – One of the concepts that I was looking forward to in 4e was Rituals. They are well done and remove the rarely used, but good to have around spells from previous editions making them a pay per use powers rather than something that takes the place of combat spells.  These were the spells that my wizards and clerics made scrolls of to have lying around just in case.  That said, I’ve yet to see one used in play, I think I’ll have to work on that. This article gives us the list of rituals in Arcane Power as well as two examples (Unseen Servant and Guards and Wards).

Excerpts: Sky Hunter ~ link

From PHB2 – the Sky Hunter is a druid paragon path dedicated to the power of the sky. It includes short range flight based powers and action point effects. Its okay, nothing that made me say, I need to play a druid right now.

Dungeonaday.com ~ link

Note that some of these articles are open previews, but unless noted the articles require a subscription to dungeonaday.com.

Dungeon-a-day is the new brain child of Monte Cook, famed co-designer of 3rd Edition D&D and author of the DMG 3.0.  He was one of the first to experiment with the D20 license and pdf publishing with his company Malhavoc Press. Over the years he created some of the most ambitious and well recognized D20 material include Arcana Evolved, Ptolus, and the Complete Book of Eldrith Might. Dungeon-a-day takes the world of online publishing in a new direction, offering a hyperlinked website detailing a dynamic living dungeon that will change and adapt as the characters delve deeper. Its an ambitions project that will deliver an encounter every weekday with additional bonus content as time goes on. The dungeon is presented in the D&D 3.5 rules set though the community is working on conversions to a variety of editions and alternate games.

There are a number of initial welcome articles that are open preview content that talk about the design decisions and the direction Monte will take with the project. The concept is engaging and I see great things in the future. I look forward to seeing how he pushes the format in uncharted directions.

Level 1 (Room 1-16) ~ link

The opening preview content looks at rooms 1 to 6 which present several options for PCs to explore. Right up front Monte shows us how a dungeon can be a sandbox game too, with multiple options that allow players to define their own direction, goals, and difficulty level. The maps are done by Ed Bourelle and are very well done. Monte also presents Dwarven Forge terrain laid out for the dungeon with each room.  Each of the squares on the dungeon are 10′x10′ allowing larger combat space (good for 4e enthusiasts) though some of the encounters are a bit tight.

Rooms 7 and up are closed content for members. They explore the areas radiating out from the initial encounters in the dungeon. Each encounter is dynamic and interesting.

I tried to write up brief descriptions of each of these without giving spoilers but that is not really possible. Instead as the dungeon grows I’ll try to give brief descriptions of the directions that are being taken and the evolution of the concept itself.  The rooms above vary between direct encounters with a dangerous gang of humanoids to seemingly empty rooms with strange magical effects. Each room details not only its initial occupants but also advice on how to make the encounters more difficult and possible future states when the PCs come back later. This creates a dynamic environment where players will feel that they are having an impact on the inhabitants of the dungeon.

Blog ~ link

Monte is also presenting members with comments on the direction he is taking and some of the design decisions taken in a regular blog on the site. Early blog entries are available as preview content and talk about how to use dungeons as a campaign setting and how the initial opponents can be used together.

Listen Check ~ link

In addition to all the daily content and blogs, Monte is also producing a podcast called Listen Check for members. The initial show is available as part of the preview and discusses the idea behind the site and some of Monte’s goals with the project. Give it a listen today!

Community

Built into the site, a set of forums is available for members to discuss the dungeon, provide feedback, and talk amongst members on a variety of topics.  Monte originally built the Okay Your Turn forums for Malhavoc Press which grew into a huge community of posters.  The community forums on Dungeon-a-day are taking off with several hundred posts from a number of members all within the first week of the project.  Members are creating additonal material, offering alternative maps, and providing feedback on all sorts of topics related to the project. Some members are also working on providing conversions to 4e (which is something I’m contributing to),  Castles and Crusades, and Iron Heroes.

Blog Roll

I use Google Reader to keep up on the various blogs and news sites that I’m interested in. You can follow my shared folder. I’ll try to make sure that I include all of the blog posts that I link to here in my shared page as well.

PHB2

Over the past few weeks several bloggers on the internet were sent copies of the PHB2 in an effort to create a viral marketing campaign for the book. I believe it was coordinated by Ed Healy of Atomic Array. On March 12th a slew of blogs posted reviews of the book. Many of the reviews took the form of class reviews, but some like Kobold Quarterly and Gnome Stew took their articles in a different direction.

Atomic Array ~ link
Ed Healy and Rone Barton took their distinctive style and humor strait into Wizards of the Coast’s headquarters in Renton, WA.  Interviewing Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford the pair presented another amazing episode.  Personally I find these two are the best interviewers in the gaming podcast sphere asking well timed questions, interjecting their odd humor, and drawing though provoking answers from their guests.

Kobold Quarterly ~ link
Wolfgang Baur over at Kobold Quarterly presented probably the only article that offered a negative view of some of the material. Overall the book is recommended, but in the review Wolf criticizes WotC for poor prose and weak choices that will now become core because of the book that they are in.

Gnome Stew ~ link
Martin Ralya reviewed the book from a DM’s perspective speaking of all the options that the book provides to enrich a campaign world. I think the biggest point that Martin makes is that nothing in the book will break your game.  He contends that many books in past editions introduce scope creep but that this book keeps that in check.

Class Articles ~ link
Most of the other blogs included in this marketing campaign review one of the classes that will be available in the PHB2.  All of the links are provided in any of the articles taking part in the effort as pingbacks or in Atomic Array’s episode notes. Chatty’s article is amongst the best of the run, it made me want to play a warden now!

Here are several more good blog posts this week that I recommend:

• Chatty’s Megadungeon Project
• One Bad Egg – Kids and 4e
• One Bad Egg – Considering Conditions
• One Bad Egg – Open Gods
• At Will – Skill Challenges

Podcasts

I listen to several podcasts, though my listening time has decreased steadily over the past few months because my commuting situation has changed.  I still try to get in what I can and here are the best from the week previous. Have a listen.

• Atomic Array 018 – PHB2
• D&D Penny Arcade/PVP/Wil Wheaton
• RPG Countdown – Best of RPGNow.com from Feb 25 – Mar 10, 2009
• Fear the Boot – Writing for a Con Game

OMG I read a lot! I knew I did but until I put it down like this I didn’t see it. I had fully intended to write longer reviews on the recommended blog posts and podcasts but ran out of time. In the future I’ll include full reviews of posts as well. I think the largest impact on time was the launch of Dungeon-a-day which is amazing, but had a lot of reading right up front. I’ll also include books or pdfs that I read as well if I manage to fit them in my schedule.

Filed under:
Weekly Review by Chris Cumming