Gamestorm!

Sadimac and I will be at Gamestorm all weekend. I'll try to do some posting at the con, but I might not be doing anything here until Monday.

There's a 4E D&D game that Captain Zippy and I are taking part in. I'll be doing a write up of that, and any other experiences worth mentioning.

See everyone soon! If you're bored, go to io9.com, where there is a wonderful fountain of some pretty smart geekery flowing.

Paizo: The Golem's Got It (Right)

Over at Paizo, they haven't given up on Dungeons & Dragons 3.5.

They used to be the publisher of Dragon and Dungeon Magazines before Wizards pulled the license and moved them to online only (as I griped about last year), although thankfully they had expanded to selling all manner of games and accessories online, as well as some publishing of their own.

When the magazines folded their tents, Paizo announced the Pathfinder monthly supplement, and while it was too rich for my blood ($20 a month), I was glad to see them doing something with their staff rather than laying them off. I was also pleased that they did not immediately jump on to the 4E bandwagon, and said they would bide their time and make their decision on which way to go later.

They've made their call, and they've decided to stick with their 3.5 guns. They've announced the Pathfinder RPG, which is a backwards compatible tweak of 3.5, rather than the complete overhaul that is 4E.

The really good thing about this though, is they're showing their hand. They've released a free PDF of their alpha, invited the public to play test it, and give feedback. The final release date is a full year and a half off (August 09), so lots of time to play around before the final hits the street.

I hope our group decides to use the new Pathfinder rules. That fighter I've been wanting to play suddenly seems a lot more playable...

Paid Vacation

I'll be taking my first paid time off in about eight years so I can actually enjoy Gamestorm this year. Drinking beer, rolling dice, trashing D&D 4E, all on BLB01's dime. I couldn't be happier.

Turns out that BLB is pretty generous with the paid vacation (Union!), and I've already accrued more than 63 hours of it. Between additional time earned and what I have in the bank, I should easily be able to take the time I need for SN/EN in June and Orycon in the Fall.

The last time I took paid time was when I spent a week in 2000 to basically goof off at home. I drank a little (OK, a lot of) beer, hung out with my neighbors, and did nothing. My only goals were to have fun, and not drive the car for at least a 24 hour period (I managed to go 36 or so before I realized that I would need to make a beer run).

I don't think I'll have a vacation quite like that again. While it was fun and all, I find myself craving events with a few beers rather than sloth with an astounding amount of beer.

I'm not saying that I won't be the floor show again (any one who saw me Friday night at last years Orycon knows what I'm talking about), but I prefer a coherent memory of the good times over a dull sense of having had fun the night before coupled with a hangover

Weirdness, Death, and Change.

So, E. Gary Gygax died on Tuesday, which was the beginning of the oddness.

Gary Gygax was, for those that don't know, was one of the creators of Dungeons & Dragons. He built the platform that my imagination has been using as a spring board since the 80's, and while he hasn't worked on D&D in quite some time, he was still the grandfather that all RPG players and designers paid respect too. I shall miss his presence, regret the fact that I never got to meet him, and always remember him fondly.

My father used to joke that I was putting his kids through college. In a way I suppose I did, me and a million other starry eyed little geeks out there who loved to get away from reality a few hours at a time.

Goodbye Gary. We'll miss you.

In other news, my work schedule has changed. I no longer work until 10 on Fridays, and 11 on Saturdays. I'm opening both days now, which requires a whole new sleep schedule, learning a new bus schedule, and so on. It's worth it though. More time awake at home, and only one night a week of making arrangements to feed the cat.

The crazy was provided by some of the customers at BLB01 in the last couple of days. Some examples:

• A woman approached me at the info station and said she had just finished Three Cups of Tea, and said she was looking for something inspiring. Now, I haven't read the book, and am not likely to. It's not my cup of tea, if you will excuse the pun. She kept grilling me though, expecting me to magically pull a book title out of my ass based on no information. When I tried to pawn her off on the Red Room info desk, at which point she got snappy, and said "You don't read much do you?" I resisted saying "I do ma'am, just not the boring shit that you read", and pointed her in the direction of Eat, Pray, Love, and helped the next customer.

• The guy who bought $47 dollars worth of books with $2 bills

• The nearly falling over drunk guy asking for books in Spanish

• The woman who put what looked to be a sack of garbage in the bag check

• The two guys who came in to sell books that came in the wrong door, opted for an escort instead of going around, and when I did escort them, thought it was a good idea to leave a box right in front of the elevator doors so they could go back for it

• And of course, the woman who when given directions to the elevator, said "What the hell is a mezzanine?"
  

D&D 4E, or why I stopped giving WoTC my money

As I mentioned previously, D&D 4th Edition is coming out next year. Now that I know a little bit more about it, I feel comfortable putting some of my concerns/bitter hatred in a more cogent form.

It seems that the mechanics of the new Star Wars RPG is pretty close to what we can expect from 4E, and I've reviewed some of that material in the last couple of weeks. I am not impressed.

Some of the ideas are fine and good, and might even find themselves house ruled into our game (Combining all of the sneaking skills into a single skill is okay, being able to spend skill points to improve initiative is long overdue in my mind, and nobody can argue with more stat bumps), a lot of them are just a mess (starting first level with 30+ hit points is excessive, I think the combining of skills went to far: Bluff, Diplomacy and Intimidate are not the same thing, neither are Spot and Sense Motive, and eliminating Saving Throws in favor of three different AC's is just going to breed confusion).

These things could have been released as an alternate rule book (Unearthed Arcana II or whatever) and priced at $25 to $30 bucks. About 50 to 80% of players would pick it up and use about 20 to 30% of the book. Everyone would use a different 20 to 30% (except for the initiative as a skill and extra Stat bumps: everyone would use those), and we'd all be happy.

But no, they have to make 4E to try and sell us three $40 dollar books, and render the rest of our collection obsolete. Frak that.

Then there is the online component. Not so long ago D&D had an ad campaign encouraging gamers to leave their basements and play in a social setting. The new business model trashes that and tries to chase everyone back to their computers. You can play entirely on line (if you pay the ridiculous $10 to $15 a month fee) if you like, there fore crippling the vital social interaction aspect of the game. WotC claims that the game will still primarily meant to be played at the kitchen table, but this is largely bullshit. So much of the game is now tied up with the online aspect that it just encourages people to stay locked up in their homes. They are trying to emulate the WoW model, and they will fail.

Oh, and if you have a Mac you're apparently not part of WotC's glorious vision of the future. The key elements of the online D&D experience will only run on a PC, with the informational stuff being all that a Mac user can access. More short sighted mistakes that will cost them a lot of players in the future.

I will continue to enjoy my 3.5 D&D, thank you very much. I won't cry too much when this grand experiment that WotC is embarking on fails.

Session one part two, The Plague at Falcon's Hollow

The three of them journeyed out to Falcon's Hollow, and when they arrived they found a town striken with disease.

An infected well and sickened 40 of the townfolk a lung fungus called Blackscore Taint, and while the local herbalist had a cure for it listed in her impressive book of herbal cures, some of the ingredients were hard to come by, and no one was about that could make the journey into nearby Darkwood. Soren volinteered the group for the task immedietly, and huddled over the book with Laurel, the Herbalist, to see exactly what was needed.

The three ingredients that were to be gathered were:

Elderwood Moss: A moss that grows only on the oldest tree in the forest

Rat's Tail: A specially pickled root that took a good deal of time to prepair. The old witch of the forest Umazila would likely have some, but she was notorious for driving a hard (in fact, cruel) bargain.

7 Iron Blooms: a rare mushroom that would only grow in dark places thick with metal. Laurel stated that there was an abandoned Dwarven monastery at the foot of the mountains on the opposite side of Darkwood that would be a likely place to find them.

Soren, enamored with the book, asked if he could copy it when they returned. Laurel agreed, and Kalvik saw that as an opportunity to seek payment for the journey. A fee was negotiated, and they were off.

There first stop was to find the woodsman Millan Rollen, who would know the best routes to get where they needed to go. What was a nice walk was slowly spoiled as they saw how agressivly the local lumber baron had been logging the forest. Rossthaylock, her people having been brought into the world was particularly upset by the devastation. They began discussing what could be done about the abuse of the land, and walked on to find Rollen.

The woodsman did indeed know the way to the oldest tree, the witches hut, and the monastery. Eager to help in any way he could to cure the taint, he drew a simple map to all three. He warned the group of some of the dangers that they faced in the woods (Hobgoblins, snakemonsters, etc.), and bade them good luck.

The first stop was to the oldest tree in the woods. On the way there, the group came upon a small fox stuck in a metal jawed trap. We freed the little guy, and then got attacked by a Hobgoblin, which was a really bad idea on his part, as he was outnumbered 3 to 1.

After the Hobgoblin was killed, the fox, now named Foxyfen, came with them.

They found the oldest tree early the next day, and was attacked by a snake monster while gathering the moss. It was a short battle, with the snake being quickly dispatched.

Next was the Rat's Tail, at the witch Umazila's hut. A day later the group found that the place was booth creepy and seemingly abandoned. The door was forced open, and we found what looked like a body in a chair, an old cauldron, and hundreds of jars of roots and herbs.

Kalvik went in first to check the body, and as soon as he touched it, the cauldron sprang to life and attacked him. A brief battle followed, the animated cauldron was soon defeated, and the rat's tail was found.

From there, it was off to the monastery. An assortment of undead, Darkmantles, and a Worg (a large, evil wolf with the power of speech) awaited us within, but we defeated them and gathered the Iron Blooms.

We returned to Falcon's Hollow with the ingredients, and stayed for a couple of days to rest and make sure the plague was truly at an end. Our job done, we collected our rewards, accepted the people's gratatude, and went back to the big city

Next, session 2

4th Edition? Damnit!

About a month ago I posted about my general D&D love, and in that post I whimsically mention the future 4th Edition. Yesterday, the D&D home page was replaced with a strange page titled “4dventure" that had a countdown that ended at 3:30 today.

At the end of that countdown, the D&D website, of course, crashed. Once it came up, I saw this:




When yesterday's countdown page went up, I knew. But it wasn't in stone until the image you see above popped up. I find myself a little heartbroken, as 3.5 wasn't tired, or played out. It has plenty of life in it in my opinion, but no, they're going with a new frelling edition, as of May 2008.

It's all about money, I know; It just won't be ours. Oh, I'll read them (Arghh ye matey!), don't get me wrong, I just don't see myself playing 4E, at least for quite some time.

In the meantime, for now at least, roll the dice baby! We'll give up 3.5 when they pry it from our cold, angry, undead fingers.

Update:

As Sadimac said in the comments, WoTC just lost us as customers. Unless they do some major changes to what they propose, we'll be pirating, copying, or buying things used from this point forward. I'll put up a full review of what they're doing next week some time.

It's not just a new edition, it also smacks of extortion. More later.

Meet the New Guys: Now with added bonus footage!

Work has been well, work so I haven't been able to finish up the wrap up of our last campaign yet. I'll finish that up on Sunday morning with one more grand post, and then the first session of the new campaign recap should go up Monday afternoon.

In the meantime...

The new characters for our D&D group will be starting their grand adventure on Saturday, so I'm going to go ahead and give a primer on the who is who and what is what.

First we have my character, Soren Ashwind an Aasimar (Human with angelic ancestry) Cleric devoted to the elemental forces of the universe. He had a rough childhood, with a mother killed by dragon fire and a father who's reaction to that tragedy was to become a drunkard. After bouncing around a bit (and his father died from a fire at the jail he was being held in for theft), he found himself in a small seminary in a remote village. He learned the ways of the priesthood, married, and settled down to start a family.

Then his wife gave birth to a son that was definitely not his. The marriage quickly dissolved, and Soren, not able to bear the sight of his ex-wife living with the biological father of what was supposed to be his child, decided to take up a spear and become a wandering priest.


Next, there is Erich's character Kalvik, a Bugbear gladiatorial slave who is fresh off of gaining his freedom by killing his master and guard after he over heard them discussing how he was to be traded to a notoriously cruel slave master for a Minotaur.

Kalvik's life has also been hard, much harder than Soren's in fact. Gnolls slaughtered his tribe and dragged the survivors off to sell into slavery, stopping to eat one of them when they got hungry. Kalvik was sold to a Halfling (Hobbit) slave master who trained him to fight. That same slave master's daughter taught him to read, write, and speak the Halfling language, which is how he learned of his impending trade, which caused him to fight for his freedom.

Then we have Sadimac's Rossthaylock. She's a Killoren, which is a type of faerie that the world made in a fit of grief over the extinction of a fragile plant species. They are a young people, and are just now sending the their first members out to the world at large. She is impetuous, affectionate, and a bit naive. The defining trait of her people is that each day they can take on a different personality aspect: either the Ancient, the Hunter, or the Destroyer.

She has been teleported to "civilization" with all her gear, and her beloved pony, Pony. She is meeting her first people outside of her own kind, and she's already found a bit of trouble...

and now, a the tale of how the Kelorian came to be (by Sadimac):

The Lost Elves

In the year we were born, the wood elves left this island and this is why.

The young of the elven village had a talent for sorcery. When their mainland kinsmen warned of a horrible war and called all the elves to give aid, the village elders sent the youths out of the village to hone their arcane battle skills.

"Prepare to fight," they said. And "take care you do not harm the birds or the worms or the delicate young vines. Be wary of infecting any babes still in womb or egg with unnatural power."

And so the group of mages found a desolate scrub. They saw no tails or leaves. They heard no songs. They could not smell even the smallest hint of turning earth. Being sylvan elves, they were certain The World had given them the keenest senses. Cry for the pride of the elves, who sent not a single druid to temper youthful determination. Laugh with The World for She always has the final word.

All day they blasted, and took notes, and argued, and made plans.

"When the foul army does this, we shall do that. The greatest wizards of the cities will be stunned by our precision, by our deadly force."

Through the starlight they developed secret signals, thinking themselves subtle. But they never saw the seedlings.

What seedlings? This all happened before we were made, so we have no name for them. The sprites tell us they smelled a new smell. The rocks sing only an echo of those seedlings' song. Even the birds cannot find just that shade of green in all the world. They were new, the World's latest offspring, our elder brothers. And they were young, still just two birth-leaves each. And then the ice and fire and lightning flying out of the elves struck them down. Every little one killed. Dream of their screams, dance for their short lives.

Now The World is love and loves all the children upon Him, the elves no less than the mightiest waterfall. But the murder of the seedlings turned love to grief. And in Her grief, The World sent Her hunting beasts to kill the sorcerers in their blankets. She called the village's companions back into the forest. Only the magical beasts born of elven wizardry stayed. She blocked their clerics from harnessing any natural domain. She turned their crops and gardens to dust. She let every beast they hunted escape. The dryads say they saw a unicorn kill his paladin maiden. And the druids who were so neglectful of their duty to guide were stripped of every gift She had given them, returned to a child-like innocence with no knowledge or power.

But The World is love and He loves the sylvan elves, with their careful balance of learning and wisdom. He gave them one last gift. He let them find the scorched field of elven corpses. In that field, they saw vines bearing large fruit. The fruit pulsed with life and sang a song even the densest of them heard. The vines burrowed their feeding suckers into the sorcerers' remains and the village fled, pursued by a primal fear.

"Remember the fear," the fruit sang. "Tell all the humanoids - When you needlessly kill a blade of grass, you poison your kingdoms at their roots. The World is making new children to show you how to heed His call."

In less than a sweet-fly's lifespan, the entire village sailed away. The fruit continued to grow and grow and grow. Soon, the first of us broke through the peels. The birds gave us eggs, the trees gave us flowers, the worms came willingly to our mouths, and so we grew. The World has taught us for sixty-four seasons. We shall go out from this island to see if people have learned the lost elves' lesson.

What we did to Save the World part II

Amongst our travels, we came to a spot where we needed to train young James for a period of months. Preparations were made, and we took him to another temple to learn. Jolene was also to seduce him while we were there (which due to her religious vows she did NOT want to do).

He already had received training from Jolene about faith and knowledge of all sorts, particularly the nature of the undead; about combat, sneakiness, and toxins from (a well disguised lest the followers of the Beloved realize that he was "god") Gaerdin; and how to be an arrogant shit (as well as some assorted arcana and more sneaky stuff) from Tobias.

Soon after arriving, Tobias pulled Gaerdin aside to have a private conversation. They had a discussion about how they put the fake church together, with Tobias strongly suggesting that it was mostly Gaerdin's doing.

Gaerdin, while being incredibly selfish, wasn't one to really take credit for other's ideas. Feeling safe in the out of the way corner they were speaking in, Gaerdin did something he usually doesn't: tell the whole truth. He reminded Tobias that while some of the more devious touches were indeed his (such as the secret vault of loot designed specifically as a retirement fund), the idea, and most of the details of the religion were Jolene's doing.

It turns out that James heard all of that because Tobias set it up for him to do just that. He flipped out, found the chest full of the (kind of really evil) equipment we had for him, took it all, and ran off, leaving a note saying "how could you do this to me?" scrawled in a copy of the cult's religious text and left for Jolene to find.

Oh, and he also murdered everyone else at the temple by controlling his "mother" Hope to slit their throats. Fun.

At this point, Tobias comes clean, and Gaerdin nearly kills him for the betrayal. They use some divinations to determine that James/V was on the Abyss (plane of reality where Demons rule) and was therefore out of our reach...

I'm going to part III, and maybe part IV this, so the grand adventure should be done by Thursday or so.

But, as some folk seem to be enjoying this, I'll start doing a recap of our (mostly) weekly sessions on Mondays, with the first one being next Monday the 13th. I'll have a meet the characters post sometime late this week.

For you non D&D fans I'll have a little something in the next couple of days.

Dungeons and Dragons, or why I have more dice than the average small town.

I Play D&D, and so, thank the heavens, does Sadimac. It's our bowling, our golf, our heroin, our whatever (except it's not our alcohol, we have alcohol for that).

Warning: I am about to talk about my D&D character. Those of you that are bored senseless by this will want to skip the next paragraph or so.

Last chance to look away...

Through a combination of skill, luck, DM generosity and the party springing for a resurrection that one time, I have a 20th level character. Gaerdin Barradawan, Chaotic Neutral Human (with Gnomish blood) Ninja 18/Fighter 2. Excellent stats, a host of top notch magic items, and the sword: a +4 Keen Flaming Burst Ghost Touch Gromasha Wood Katana. He ate a fruit from the grandmother tree of his people's legends, can see things others can not, as well as other stuff I can't reveal because my DM swore me to secrecy (Sadimac reads the blog). He is a ritualistic cannibal, a cheat, a thief, and is frelling awesome.

There, I'm done you can continue reading.

I've been playing pretty consistently since Jr. High school, although I first played in about sixth grade with some kids that kind of had a tough time grasping the concept, so I got bored and didn't try it again for a couple of years. I've played in great campaigns, lousy campaigns, and through stuff I'd rather forget. Even when I didn't have a game going, I still read the magazines, picked up the occasional book, and constantly made characters that would never be played.

I've been through all 3 and a half editions, dragged kicking and screaming into each new edition, only to admit after a couple of months that it was an improvement each time. I say now that if there is a 4th edition I'll never play it, but I expect that I'll change my tune with in two years, just like every other time.

There are now a total of 6 characters that I've played that are truly memorable(Niche the Halfling Rouge, Sira the Half-Elf Wizard, Voldam the Human Cavalier, Velsos the Elven asshole Archer, Dila the Dwarven Psionic, and Gaerdin), followed by dozens that are half remembered puzzle pieces that have become a jumble in my head.


Now, our current campaign is at end game. Our characters are incredible (If you think mine sounds impressive, you should see Sadimac's Necromancer, Jolene), and next Saturday we'll go and fight something that we'll probably not all survive. It will be immensely satisfying, and it will be over.

But you see, I have this new character...