1001 Bobs

Mar 30-Apr 5

Highlights from this past week include a new playtest article from Player’s Handbook 3 (3 already OMG I just got 2!), many April fools jokes including the hilarious Witchalok and stats for the Flumph amongst others. Writing this on Monday without including Monday news is a bit difficult, especially given the questionable move of Wizards to remove all PDFs of their books from all online channels including downloads of past purchases. This move was apparently in reaction to piracy, the problem is that they are closing themselves off from perfectly legal sources of revenue and will likely have no affect on piracy. Indeed those who prefer to have PDF copies of their material will no longer have a legal method of getting those files even though they have paid full price for the hardcopy.

Dragon Magazine

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

A new month of  Dragon Magazine started off with a bang. Many of the regular columns launch first with is a little odd, though I do understand why Editorials are important up front. The playtest article is the real gem this week.

Character Concepts ~ link

This article by Matt Sernet simply presents two character concepts, a Tiefling Hellock and a Drow Bard/Ranger. Matt walks us through how to change general character concepts into well developed stats across all 30 levels.  It is not a ground breaking article, it is a bit too focused on building a stat line that a well rounded character.  What it does have is some of the names of powers and feats from Arcane Power for both characters. The section on the Bard/Ranger is more interesting as Matt shows us how to achieve an arcane archer type build with the new things coming this month.

Editorial ~ link

Chris Youngs addresses a concern that strikes close to home ~ too many cool new toys and not enough games to play them all in! PH2 is out and there are so many new things to try out I need to play more. I’ve created a large number of characters already in Character Builder with it and read through the first chapter (review pending) but its not enough. My answer = join PbP games online. They move slowly so you can easily play in 10-12 at a time.

Playtest: Hybrid Characters ~ link

From PH3 – This is one of the best articles this week. Hybrid characters are similar to Gestalt characters from Unearthed Arcana in 3.5. Basically you choose two classes that you want to combine and you get a subset of the abilities from each. So the Hybrid Rogue will have some of the class features, skills, hit points, etc and when you throw that together with a Hybrid Ranger you get another subset of each to combine.  When selecting powers you have to have at least 1 of each class for each type of power (at-will, encounter, daily, utility) but then are free to select what ever you want from either. For feats, paragon paths, epic destinies, and the like you qualify as both classes and for powers that require specific class features, even if you have a hobbled version it counts.  The one thing I’m not sure about is whether you will really be able to compete with straight classes. They hybrids class features are really minor versions its like taking 25% of one class and adding another 25% which by my math does not yeild 100% of anything. This playtest article is very open to future development and the article even indicates that it will not be available in CB or in LFR either. I’m not sure what playtest they are going to achieve if two of the most powerful playtest tools are not including the rules, but hey they are worth a shot. With all the new toys from PH2, I wish those new classes could’ve been incorporated into this document too, but maybe thats pushing it a little.

Ampersand ~ link

Bill Slavicsek gives us a pretty big preview of a set of feats from Divine Power. The feats presented recreate the Domain system of 3.5.  Players of divine classes can choose a domain feat and a divinity feat from the gods they worship. The domain feat modifies the at-will powers associated with one of the domains of the god, similar to the martial styles. I’m assuming we’ll see something similar in Arcane Power and Primal Power.  The divinity feats are the same as the ones in the PH, offering another use for Channel Divinity, these based on a domain instead of a specific god. The domains presented include Civilization, Creation, and Justice.

Dungeon Magazine

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

Save My Game – The Tangle of Threads ~ link

Stephen Radney-MacFarland’s column is quickly becoming one of my favorite. Its not surprising given that the Dungeoncraft columns of Monte Cook and Wolfgang Baur were amongst the best in Dungeon’s Paizo print runs.  Stephen’s columns are reminiscent of those in the way they offer concrete advice for DMs and the problems presented at the table. This particular article is about keeping track of all the threads you are weaving with your plots, NPCs, and descriptions. A fascinating read, highly recommended.

Editorial – The Jokes on You ~ link

This month Chris Youngs talks about humor in play and creating memorable, amusing characters that keep boundaries in mind.

Wizards.com Features

April Fools Joke Articles

April 1st is always an amusing one out in the Intarwebs and this year was no different. WotC’s foray into the hilarious was topped by the Witchalok by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik of Penny Arcade. Dagger of Sorrows One Hundred Million Weeping makes the target sad! And they get Eye Lasers at will. Just too funny and they make a good companion to the podcasts and recent comics in the Further Songs of Sorcelation

• Dungeon Delve: Fool’s Grove
• PH3 Preview: The Witchalok
• Previews: Drizzt the Gathering

Excerpts: Feats ~ link

From Arcane Power – This excerpt is simply a list of feats from Arcane Power. There are no feats presented as an example.

Excerpts: Grave Caller ~ link

From Arcane Power – This is an odd paragon path for bards that present them as assassin bards who deliver their targets to the grave. Members of the Grave Callers mark those who prey on innocents and attack them from shadows. Like I said its a bit odd.

Previews for April and Beyond ~ link

We know that Arcane Power is coming up this month and we are treated to our first look at Tomes, a new implement for Wizards.  We also get a little preview of E1: Death’s Reach, the first printed epic adventure coming to 4E which involves a visit to the Raven Queen herself.  We also see a few of the prepainted minis from Arcane Heroes. All in all I’ve been less than pleased with the exceedingly overpriced poorly presented examples we’ve seen of the new Heroes line. I saw some of the new Reaper prepainted minis recently and they looked much better. In this article we also get to see the Diamond Hide Xorn and Green Slime from MM2 which looks cool. The last preview is E2: Kingdom of the Ghouls. I’m curious to see where Bruce Cordell will take Wolfgang Baur’s creation in 4E.  The Empire of the Ghouls that Wolfgang did for Open Design 3 was fantastic and I still have to read the original Dungeon adventure from issue 71.

Dungeonaday.com

Note that these articles require a subscription to Dungeonaday.com to access.

Rooms 27-31

Moving away from Serrestique’s sanctuary, the players enter an area controlled by an evil spirit with some historical ties to the ruins above.  A few traps and some zombies round out the rooms just before the stairs down to level 2.  There are still a number of rooms on level 1, so I’m curious to see where Monte will go with the rest of the level which is quite difficult to get to.

Altering Experience Rewards in a Dungeon Campaign ~ link

In this article Monte speaks of altering the rate at which characters advance in the Dragon’s Delve. The 3.5 DMG was designed with the 13 encounters per level theory, which in a dungeon setting barely comprises a third of a level.  Monte suggests halving the experience rewards to run PCs close to 1 level of advancement to 1 level of dungeon exploration. Some have also suggested the Pathfinder RPG’s slower advancement rate as a possible solution as well which is elegant. For 4E I’m going to have to see how things progress before deciding how to play it out as their rate of advancement is faster (1 level per 10 encounters) but their levels are a little shallower and spread across a gradient of 30 levels.

Using Bluesteel Doors to Your Advantage ~ link

One of the features in the Dragon’s Delve is Bluesteel doors that we’ve seen already. These doors are indestructible and require passwords to bypass. Monte encourages DMs to alter their location to channel players away from areas that are not developed yet if that is ever required. At an encounter per day I don’t know how many groups will be able to keep up with him anyways so I’ll probably just use the ones that Monte has in there to control the flow of exploration rather than cut off areas that haven’t been done yet.

Maps Update ~ level 1 & level 2

Not only are we shown an advanced preview of Level 2 which contains a large water system, but we are also given a wonderful new tool, clickable maps. This is one of the biggest requests on the boards, as people clamor for easier ways to use the site at the table. I must admit that it is a brilliant way to access the information needed if you are using a laptop or preparing for a session ahead.

Open Design

Note that these articles require a subscription to Open Design to access.

Halls of the Mountain King Progress ~ link (Open)

Wolfgang posted the covers of the Halls and updated us all on the status, join now

• Playtest 1: Dark Was the Nightlink
• Playtest 2: Dark Was the Night
• Notebook: Gefangak ~ link

Kobold Quarterly

Monster Monday: Secretion Ooze ~ link

Another icky monster by Phillip Larwood, an intelligent ooze comprised of humors secreted by the bodies of those its eaten. Ew.

Behind the Spells: Entangle ~ link

I’ve never read any of Bret Boyd’s Behind the Spells articles before. His company, Tricky Owlbear has put out a number of them. The concept is great, provide a lot of additional background on a simple, popular spell on how it developed and where it came from. Then Bret adds a twist to the spell in the form of a spell secret obtained by using a spellcraft check while casting it as well as an item or other addition. I’m not a huge fan of his writing, its a column to try again, but this week was a miss.

Blogroll

Lots of great stuff this week, most especially the Wired article on Settlers of Catan. I’ve been playing that game with my 4 year old son for a month or so now ever night. He loves it! I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t tried it. This is the best boardgame I’ve played.

• Wired – Settlers of Catan
• Encounter A Day – Setting Seeds Lingua Franca
• A Butterfly Dreaming – April Blog Carnival – Humor
• The Chapel Perilous – Jason Bulmahn to join Dungeon a day.com
• Dungeon Mastering (by Chatty DM) – Playing 4E with only 1 player
• The Citadel of Eight – Dungeon a day.com
• Mike Mearls – Skill Resolution

Podcasts

• Fear the Boot – #141 An Underserved Demographic
• Pulp Gamer Out of Character – #72 Jamaican Rum
• The Walking Eye – #3 Interview with Monte Cook

Another shorter week, I think the 2000 word target is easier to achieve each week rather than the 3000 set in the first post.  I really wish I had time to expand on why I think the blog posts and podcasts I feature deserve your attention.  Where as I’m posting almost all of the content offered on the pay sites I visit to give everyone a critical eye on what they might be missing, the blog posts are often some of the best content I read in a week. Perhaps next week, I’ll start with them and move to the other stuff if I have time. If not the the WotC content will fall to a list of links. What does everyone thing? Anyone?

Oh and I gotta start work on my April blog carnival post and continue my Quasi Elemental Plane of Ash stuff for 4E. Till next time, roll a 20 for Dave Arneson, he needs all the luck he can get right now. Here’s thinking of you Dave, get well soon.