My new game Sky..(mumble)...

So I got a new game over Christmas.  It is very popular and has may RPG elements in it and you get to fight monsters and explore an expanding world and I am already 3rd level and addicted to it.  It is called Skylanders.

Were you expecting a different "Sky" named game?

Well Skylanders is cool all the same.  We have been playing it on the Wii and there are all these little figures you can collect and use in the game in addition to magic items, new lands and all sorts of things.

My boys have had the game for a while, but since they know I love witches they got me the figure Hex for Christmas. She is Drow Dark Sorceress whose "element" is "undead".  The game play is fast and really fun.  Simple enough for the young kids to figure it out, yet enough detail to keep me entertained.  In fact I was killed at one point because I was paying too much attention to the details of the game.

Here is my character, Hex, done up as a 3rd level D&D4 Witch.
I decided she is a Drow. Not the best choice for a witch, but it works well for the story.  She has lower than average Dexterity to reflect her lower than average Agility.  She has a floating skull familiar (like in the pictures) and I figured she was cultist. Her Charisma is lower than one would expect for a Drow due to all the evil undead stuff about her.


====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======

Hex (witch), level 3
Drow, Wizard (Witch)
Moon Coven Option: Dark Moon Coven
Dark Apprenticeship (+2 to Bluff)
Theme: Cultist

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
STR 10
CON 10
DEX 9
INT 18
WIS 13
CHA 12

AC: 16 Fort: 12 Ref: 16 Will: 16
HP: 28 Surges: 6 Surge Value: 7

TRAINED SKILLS
Arcana +12, Dungeoneering +8, Insight +8, Intimidate +11, Religion +10

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +1, Athletics +1, Bluff +4, Diplomacy +2, Endurance +1, Heal +3, History +5, Nature +3, Perception +3, Stealth +3, Streetwise +2, Thievery +1

POWERS
Basic Attack: Melee Basic Attack
Basic Attack: Ranged Basic Attack
Cultist Attack: Master's Eye
Drow Racial Power: Cloud of Darkness
Wizard Utility: Augury
Wizard Utility: Ghost Sound
Wizard Utility: Spook
Wizard Utility: Mage Hand
Wizard Attack 1: Dread Presence
Wizard Attack 1: Phantasmal Assault
Wizard Attack 1: Witch Bolt
Wizard Attack 1: Ray of Fatigue
Wizard Utility 2: Shield
Wizard Attack 3: Grim Shadow

FEATS
Arcane Familiar (Floating Skull)
Level 1: Shield of Shadows
Level 2: Disciple of Death

ITEMS
Battle Staff +1 x1
Delver's Cloth Armor (Basic Clothing) +1 x1
Cloak of Resistance +1 x1
Cloth Armor (Basic Clothing)
Adventurer's Kit
Staff Implement x1
====== End ======

Pretty good fit I think.  I might have her show up as an NPC sometime.  My boys would get a kick out of that.



Oh. And we got Skyrim too.  Just what I need, more distractions.

DriveThruRPG/RPGNow December sale

It's that time again for the DriveThru RPG monthly sales.
They give me codes to pass on to you for deals on products.
Here they are.  This month I wanted to add a bit more than just list the products.

• Adventure Companion  for FantasyCraft
  Some more tools for the tool-kit game Fantasy Craft. I have not played Fantasy Craft, nor do I own the books. But what I have seen looks very cool and looks like it is a neat extension of the basic d20 rules. If you have played this or bought this, let me know what you think!
• Age of Cthulhu 5: The Long Reach of Evil for Call of Cthulhu
  An adventure from Goodman Games and for the Call of Cthulhu system. 5th in the series. Looks cool.
• Smallville: The Watchtower Report for Smallville
  Part "Bad Guy Sourcebook" and part "Season 10" update. This is the book that makes Smallville feel more like a Supers game to me. If you are a fan of the Smallville RPG, then this is a great choice.
• Huxtropy for D&D 4e
  I had not seen this one till getting ready for this post. It is an interesting concept to be sure. It is well done and a neat addition to magic rules. The book itself is nice looking and certainly "looks" like it is worth more than the 5 bucks (or 4 bucks for you using the code below) they are charging. I will consider using this in my games.
• Shambles for the Brains (?!)
  Interesting take on the latest round of Zombie craze. The twist here is you get to play a zombie. I got it as something to mine for All Flesh Must Be Eaten, but it is a good game in it's own right.

Here is the code that gives 20% off the entire list above: HolidayHooplah2011
This is good until January 18th, 2012.

Enjoy!

Kid's Games

I have signed up to run some games at my kids' elementary school.

It is part of their after-school program.  So in February I am running 2 sessions of two-weeks each of D&D.  Totally introductory, 1st level.  I am even going to buy dice for the kids.

My plan was to run D&D 4e out of the new Red Box.  But this weekend I also picked up the new Pathfinder boxed set.  It is really, really nice.

The two are comparable on every level to be honest.  Figures or tokens for characters and monsters, maps, player's books, DM's books, a starting adventure.  Nice sturdy box and dice.
But now I find myself in the situation of which one to run?

Both have their merits and I know I could both justice and my audience justice with either.

I was talking to my friend Greg who runs a Pathfinder game with my son and his own kids.  He suggested run both, D&D4 one session and Pathfinder the next.
I think that is a great idea to be honest.  Though it is twice the work for me.

I would run the same adventure for 1st levels. So I might have to make something up.
Here is what I am looking for:

• Appropriate for new players 
• Plenty of chances for everyone to be a hero
• Should include teamwork
• I'd like them fight a dragon, even a small one, at the end

I guess the Pathfinder adventure is the box is close to that, but I have not checked it out in detail yet.  If so doing a 4e conversion will be easy.

Now before anyone says "Why aren't you play XXXX game?", simple, these are the ones I have chosen.  These are the ones that have the mainstream appeal and the kids will be able to then later go to the store and get them.  I am trying to entice the next generation of players and to do that I need to be able to steer them to product they can play on their own in their own groups.

I'll keep you all posted on what is going on with this.

The Witches Three: 4e v. Pathfinder v. OSR

We are at an an interesting time in the history of D&D.  Today we have two games, but fun and great to play, that are the heir's of the legacy that is D&D.  The first is a direct descendant of the previous version with some of that version's best and brightest minds; Pathfinder.  The other bares the name, but is very different in structure and play, but no less fun and no less of an adventure: Dungeons & Dragons 4th Ed.  BUT that is not all, like buying two and getting the third for free we also have the large and chaotic mass that is called the OSR.  In it are many games that also claim rights to the throne.

I am not going to delve into the relative merits of one game or the other. Or even talk about play style or anything else.  Play the game you enjoy, the way you enjoy it.  Personally I like to play all of the above.

No today I want to drill down my attention on one thing in particular.  How the witch class is presented in the rules in these games.  For the first time we have what can amount to an "Official D&D Witch Class".

The 4e witch was just introduced in Heroes of the Feywild and the Pathfinder witch was introduced in the Advanced Players Guide.
For the moment I want to recuse myself from commenting too much on the OSR witches.  Both "The Witch" and "Eldritch Witchery" are off to editors, but still I don't think it would be the most proper thing to do.  That all being said I don't have issues commenting on these witches since a.) they have already been written and published and b.) all my ideas are already on "paper" and sent off, so I am not likely to change anything at this point.

So what do we have here?
Both the 4e and Pathfinder witches use Intelligence as their prime ability and the one tied to their spellcasting.
Both require the use of familiars to learn their spells.
Both can form covens for an added benefit or coven related benefits.  The 4e witch handles covens a bit like builds.  The Pathfinder witch can only join a coven with a hag.  I don't like that at all really.
Neither offer much right away in terms of higher level class options; ie no Paragon Paths (outside of the Legendary Witch) and no Prestige Classes.

The 4e witch, as mentioned previously, is a "type" of Wizard. This bugged me at first, but I got over it once I saw the advantages.
The Pathfinder witch is a base or core class.

The 4e powers are very much in line with charming, controlling and turning enemies into animals.  There are some "striker" like powers, but not many really.  The authors took care to make the distinction between Witch, Wizard and Warlock a lot clearer.

The Pathfinder Spells are similar, but lot are pulled from both the Arcane and Divine lists.  The Pathfinder witch with Hexes and a familiar gets an absolute ton of spells.  I'll need to go into detail on the Pathfinder witch on a later date.

I am using my checklist from Tom Moldvay as a means to identify how witchy these classes are, at least for a start.

Ability	4e Witch	Pathfinder Witch	Basic Witch
1. Ability to use Herbs	skills	skills	ability check
2. The Power of Fascination	powers	spells	spells
3. Clerical and Magic-User magic	Yes	Yes	Yes
4. Sympathetic Magic	limited to powers	limited to spells	new spell mechanic
5. Worshipers of forbiden religions	yes	yes	yes
6. Powers based on natural cycles	"Moon" builds	no	spells
7. Covens	Yes	only with hags	Yes
8. Ritual Magic	In PHB I only	limited	Yes

Based on that, the Pathfinder witch is a little short, but nothing that can't be fixed with role-playing and some supplements.  I do notice that Moldvay's list does not include the ability to use familiars.  I think that is rather important too.

I am getting a chance here in a bit to play some more of the 4e Witch so I'll know better how she plays out.  I am still looking for a chance to play the Pathfinder witch some more.

Negatives
Here is what I don't like about the classes.

4e Witch: There is still some confusion over the roles between a Witch and a Fey Pact Warlock.  Maybe this is on purpose.  Warlocks and Witches should have animosity towards each other and this could be where it comes from.
While it is nice that the Witch has some of the same options as does the Wizard, it also means the witch can take "Fireball" or "Lighting bolt" as spells.  Two very iconic wizard powers.

Pathfinder: I hate what they have done with covens for the Pathfinder Witch. It robs the witch of one of her key elements to be honest.  The hexes are cool, but some of them are too focused on curses and less on the other aspects of witches.
Where are the Prestige classes?

Both/Either:  Intelligence as a prime stat?  I can see why, but really it should be Wisdom or maybe Charisma. They supposed to be members of the craft of the wise.

In any case it is an embarrassment of riches. I am not sure if I'll ever have enough time to play the games I have now, let alone anything released in the future.  I like both of these classes and would love to see more for both of them.

It's a good time to be me! ;)

Baba Yaga's Hut

It has been a cornucopia of witchy goodness from Wizards of the Coast over the last month or so.

First we get a new Witch class which I have to admit I rather like and one that works well with the older material. We also got a version of Baba Yaga, and now we get her infamous hut too as a new adventure.
I'll have to print it out and see how it compares with versions from the past.

I think WotC did a good job of integrating this version of Baba Yaga and the Dancing Hut into the D&D4 Feywild.

My only gripe.  It's supposed to be chicken legs.

BTW: Still coming up with some background on Father Nyaga.  I know he was someone important in Baba Yaga's life many, many years ago.  And I have settled on the fact that he is good, or at least not-evil.

Baba Yaga

WotC has put up the 4e stats of Baba Yaga, the Hungry Witch, up.  You will need DDi access.

http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/dun/201111courtofstars#77691

Baba Yaga has been part of the D&D universe since the beginning.  Eldritch Wizardry and the DMG featured stats for her Dancing Hut and there have been adventures to feature her over the years as well.  The great D&D witch Iggwilv is said to have been one of her students.

It's a good article.  Reading it I do notice that WotC falls into the trap we all do, making any mythical NPC just really, really powerful; she is a 27th level opponent here.

I think I should stat her up for "The Witch" and see if I can get by with less level, but still give her the power she needs.

ETA: The oddest thing just occurred. I was reading my post in Google Reader with auto translate on, and it changed "Baba Yaga" to "Father Nyaga".  I think I need to come up with a male witch that is Baba Yaga's counterpart, or enemy or something.  Maybe he is a wizard and thousands of years ago, so long that even he and Baba Yaga were young, they were lovers.  I like that idea.

4E: Witch Paragon Paths

Last week I discussed what I thought about the new witch class for 4E.  One of the slights I felt was the lack of some good witch Paragon Paths.  Obviously the Essentials format now includes a "default" Paragon Path and the book could not include multiple Paragon Paths for all the classes.    So I am going to take something I thought was a weakness of the class and turn it into a strength.  Today I want to look at what sort of previously published Paragon Paths work well for the witch.

First up, the Legendary Witch from Heroes of the Feywild is a perfect fit.  It really just extends the Heroic Tier witch and gives some power based on the coven the witch is in.  Nothing fancy really.

Starting with the core rule books (PHB and Essentials) and working out here are some of my choices.
The Blood Mage and Spellstorm Mage from PHB1 are good choices.  With a bit of fluff, these can become a Blood Witch and Tempenstarii with no changes to crunch.

Arcane Power gives us a number of options as well, but really only one Paragon Path stands out as sufficently "witchy".  The Weaver of Chance has background that is compatible with the witch's and the powers work well too.  In fact with this Path you can finally make the Scarlet Witch character you always wanted.

Moving out to the Campaign Worlds we get more choices since they are designed to be something more akin to what Prestige Classes were in 3e.  The Forgotten Realms is full of wizards, and even the Hatharans and Simbul are more or less witches. The Simbul is even called Witch Queen of Aglarond and the Paragon Path based around her, Simbarch of Aglarond, is a great one for a witch to take. Another nearly perfect one for the witch of a Full Moon coven is the Silverstar.  Neitehr of these need to be changed in terms of fluff or crunch.

From the sister book Heroes of Shadow, the witch can take on powers of Necromancy or Nethermancy as she chooses.  There is also the Ravenkin path as sort of a dark parallel to the Silverstar.  The Shadowthief and Shadow Shaper are also decent choices.

Moving on to the issues of Dragon, we have the Vistani Execrator (#380), which is thematically a good choice if your witch has some Vistani blood.  For witches that focus on their familiars there is the Familiar Keeper (#374).

There are others, based on races and skill or feat choices, but these look like they are the best to me.
Now the Legendary Witch doesn't look so lonely.

Heroes of the Feywild: The Witch

So I picked up the Heroes of the Feywild a while back.  I had been looking forward to this one for a while, especially when I saw that the Witch was going to be one of the character class options.
I then spent some time working on various witch characters and builds (and yes I did them all by hand). Here are my insights.

In General
Like Heroes of Shadow, Heroes of the Feywild assumes that these characters are either from or have strong ties to their "homeland" in this case the Feywild.  IF you have any interest at all in the Feywild or any sort of land of the Faerie (such as Avalon, Alfheim or any number of others) then this is a good book.  While not really compatible with older editions of D&D there is still plenty that can be used.  The feats even are written that they could even be used with Pathfinder or D&D 3.x.  I found plenty I can use for my current 3.x game that I run with the kids and Ghosts of Albion.  I actually ended up liking this book more than the Heroes of Shadow book out earlier.

The Witch
The witch is a new "sub-class" of wizard that basically learned in the Feywild.   On one level I didn't like this since the witch isn't really a type of wizard.  But in reading it I can get past it since the witch is only a type of wizard "mechanically", she uses the same rules as a wizard and thus all the same powers, feats, magic items, Paragon Paths and Epic Destinies the wizard can use.  In this respect it makes her more like what I have done in the past where wizards and witches are both a type of "magic-user".   It gives the witch a lot of power to choose from.

The witch has two builds or covens she can choose from, a Full Moon Coven and a Dark Moon Coven, or if you prefer a good witch and a bad witch.  The covens have some powers associated with them, but the witch is still free to choose powers as she sees fit.
Only Paragon Path is given, the Legendary Witch, and it focuses on the two covens.  It lacks any strong thematic element, but this is a complaint I have had of the Paragon Paths of the post Essentials line.
The Epic Destiny, the Witch Queen, though is quite good.  I had done something similar as a Prestige Class for 3.5.  This one is different but there are some interesting powers and effects.

Powers and Spells
What sets this witch apart from another Wizard or a Warlock are her spells and powers.  The witch relies on her familiar to learn magic.  Something I have seen more and more of late in FRPG versions of the witch. Her magic has a distinct feel to it different than that of the warlock, even if there seems to be some overlap.  Witches do get a minor healing power from the Full Moon Coven, and her magics in general are more subtle. She does not for example have a fireball like spell, but she can change monsters into other animals and they take damage for it.  Heavy on the charms and transformations.  Lots of powers with the Psychic key-word.  Some are similar in theme to the Warlock; Horde of Puckish Sprites is not too different, save in level, than Pixie War Band.

I would like to see more on the relationship of Witches and Warlocks.  Especially given the Fey commonalities and interactions with Patrons.  I think I'll have to write that myself.

Non-Witch Material
There are three new races to play that are well suited to a Feywild/Faerie World sort of game.  The Hammadryad, the Satyr and the Pixie. All have something very interesting about them and I'll stat up some witches for each race as well.  There are other class builds as well the Berserker (Barbarian), Protector (Druid) and Skald (Bard).  All great for a psuedo-Celtic themed game of D&D.  Just add Player's Handbook 2 to the mix to get the base Bard and Gnome and you are set.  Honestly there is enough here to run a high-magic game and never leave the Feywild.

Overall I am very pleased with this witch class.  It's not perfect, but it is very, very close.  I might try a multi-classed warlock, but that might be splitting my roles a bit too much.

Wizard's Witch

Wizards of the Coast put up their preview of the new Witch class, er sub-class, for their Heroes of the Feywild.

http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ex/20111024#76933

So far I like what I see.  The witch uses Intelligence and Wisdom as her primary abilities with high scores in Charisma and Constitution being favorable.  There seems quite a bit of overlap in the role (small r) of the witch and the warlock, but that only gives me a lot of ideas.
Witches do not gain the Ritual Caster as do Wizards, but given the way Essentials has downplayed the rituals I think that it might be fine.

There are some loosely defined covens (Dark Moon and Full Moon) which act mechanically like the Warlock Pacts, but thematically are different.

When the witch is out I want to start comparing it to the warlock and to my own witches.

I think the 4e witch is positioned to more of a direct competitor to the Pathfinder witch.

What I dislike about it is that the Witch is just a sub-class of the Wizard.  But I guess I shouldn't complain.  We are getting a witch afterall.

The Kids Are Alright

With my wife down from her surgery I have been left to do all the things she does, take care of her and still find the time to squeeze in "my" stuff.
One thing though (of many) that has taken a hit is my game time.

I have no idea really if I'll get back to my Pathfinder game; things are just too crazy on the weekends and my regular game with my kids has been hurting.

My son though REALLY wanted to play.  I couldn't so he sat down on his own and wrote an adventure involving finding a lost King and defeating the monster that took him.  It was simple really but he hit it with enthusiasm.  Remember, all those things we in the older guard consider cliche or even passe are still new to someone.
He then proceeded to grab my books, roll up some characters (it was a 1st level adventure) and play with his brother and a friend.  They were in my kitchen while I worked so I got to hear it all and answer

They spent some time looking for equipment, managing their funds and complaining about the high cost of cross-bow arrows in this land.  They heard rumors, interacted with townsfolk and then went on their quest.

They were attacked by goblins, but found clues that lead them to a treasure trove, the King and a green dragon holding him hostage.  The dragon was a youngling and not very skilled.  The fighter and the thief nearly bought it a couple of times, but they had some help from their retainers.
The king was returned safe, the gold from the treasure returned to the merchants' families and the King gave them all a reward for bravery and honor.

Not bad for a few hours of play.  And certainly not bad for their age range (8 to 11).

So when people are worried about whether kids have the interest in D&D anymore, I have to think of "The Forrest Quest".

Now good readers.  Can you also ID what version of the D&D game they were all playing?

Witches of the Coast

Since D&D 4 came out I have played with the Warlock class.  It was not exactly what I wanted in a witch class, but it was close.  Close enough that I wanted to play it right away and I did not feel the need to make a Witch class for 4e.

Well now even that option is filled.

In November WotC will release their "Heroes of the Feywild". I am expecting it to be like their "Heroes of the Shadowfell" which despite not talking about it much here I liked.

Included in it will be a new "sub" class, the Witch.
http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4pr/20111007#76692

The witch looks like it fills the niche of a warlock that is more like a wizard.  Pretty awesome.
They are playing up the fey parts a bit, just like I did with my Faerie Witch from my various books.
So far I really like what I see and I am looking forward to this book.

I'll have to stat up a witch and a warlock side by side to see how they stack up against each other.

Maybe I will produce a 4e Witch and Warlocks book with some options after all.  Who knows.
But not till next year.

Oh Hell!

There are some new posts over at The Land of Nod about Hell:
Going to #&!!
Ruminations on the Netherworld

I like what he has so far.
I have been going on a similar path myself:
Going (Up) to Hell? Cosmology
Post 666

Let's be honest here.  Hell is interesting.  It is the ultimate mega dungeon  Everything there can be killed and not only that, it is a good thing to do!

What I have been struggling with though is cosmology.
IF there is a multiverse in my game (and there is) then does each world have it's own Hell?  Or do all Hells connect to each other.
Obviously one answer is that in the core of my world there is my Hell and in the core of the Land of Nod there is another Hell and so on...  Another is they are all the same place, just different points of view and different access points.

The other issue I still have is how to get Hell and the Abyss to work together.  Sur eI could make the same place and have the demons be the thralls of the devils, but that robs them of some of their chaotic power.

I should figure this out soon.  The Dragonslayers are about to get a copy of the Demonomicon and I want to do an whole arc where they fight Orcus.

Could the Antechamber of Hell/Limbo also be the Abyss?  Is it big enough to support all the demons I need? The Earth currently is home to almost 7 billion people.  How many demons then are there?   According to many of the myths of the time there is anywhere from 6,666 to 133 million demons, with up to 72 demonic leaders.

According to the 4th ed Manual of the Planes Hell is a planet that is 7,000 in diameter. If my world is roughly the same size as Earth then Hell can be inside the Earth with 460 some odd miles between the the two surfaces.   The deepest part of the Earth is under 7 miles deep and I recall reading somewhere that the deepest we have ever dug is 2 miles.  So plenty of room for demons, devils and all sorts of beasties.
Even if the Underdark is 10 miles deep that is still a lot of room.

So I think I have enough room.  Now where to put them all.

Other useful links:
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/dra/400ninehells
http://kotgl.blogspot.com/2010/01/kill-planes-abyss.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_(Dante)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell

Quintessential D&D (Half-baked ideas), Part 2

So building off of my "Half-Baked Adventure" and my sorta-update here is a plan.

Here is what I have at the moment.

Basic:  B1 In Search of the Unknown
AD&D 1^st Ed: C2 Ghost Tower of Inverness
AD&D 2^nd Ed: RM4 House of Strahd. Total cheat I know, but I'd run it as if it were in Ravenloft.
D&D 3^rd Ed: Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk
D&D 4^th Ed: The updated Tomb of Horrors

So some remakes and updates.  But all with classic roots.
Now to buy a copy of Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk.

Quintessential D&D (Half-baked ideas)

So building off of my "Half-Baked Adventure" a couple of days of ago I have decided that I want to choose good dungeon crawl 1-shots from each system.

So here is what I have at the moment.

Basic:
AD&D 1^st Ed:
AD&D 2^nd Ed:
AD&D 3^rd Ed:
D&D 4^th Ed:

Not much.
Basic might be the easiest.  B1 In Search of the Unknown is my go to adventure of choice and totally sandbox.  I can fit it to anything really. Plus it is simple enough to get through in a session or two.
AD&D 1 I am aiming at 4-7 level ranges, so that is not so bad either.  Ghost Tower of Inverness might be good.
AD&D 2 would be above "name level", so above 10th level to 14th or so.  Something from the Forgotten Realms might be good.
D&D3 would need to be above that but not yet 20th.  The 3.5 update to Tomb of Horrors fits here.
D&D4 would be above 20th level. The 4e update to Tomb would also work here.

Using the updates might sound cheesy, but I want it to be an epic adventure and I want it to tour the history of the game.

Still planning!

Gen Con 2011 - Recap, D&D games

Every year I look forward to playing D&D at Gen Con.  Whether it is with friends, my kids or at the RPGA room. To me it is what Gen Con is about.  Of course I got that chance.  But...not all D&D is created equal.

Legend of Drizzt - D&D Board Game
Thursday I played the D&D Board Game The Legend of Drizzt.  I signed up for this because I wanted to get a better feel for the game and I thought it would be a fun game to get my wife to play with us.
Well our "GM" (and to be fair the game does not need one, but they had people playing that role to show us how to play) was so busy doing other things that she never could really focus her attention on us.  We didn't get started till 30 minutes after the start time and the pieces were never really set up for us.  Like D&D4 characters get daily, utility and at-will powers.  We had played Ravenloft before so we knew to expect that.  We got our power cards, but it was never explained what they were or how they should be used, or even that we were not to use all the ones we were given.  Later we discovered that many of the powers for our characters were left in the box including a trap disabling power that could have saved two of the characters.
The GM was very unclear on the rules and went back and forth on what constituted a "tile", and was rarely available to answer our questions leaving my wife and I and the other player going through the rules on our own.
All in all, a very disappointing experience.  If WotC was trying to sell me a game didn't quite do it.  I wanted to pick up Wrath of Ashardalon, but now I want to wait till I play some more Ravenloft first.

D&D 4 - Living Divine
Ok this game ran much better. The DM knew her rules, had a great grasp on the concepts and introduced a new interesting concept.
However.  I have some issues with the adventure and the Living Divine play-ability.
First, the concept of Living Divine is pretty cool.  I like the idea and I like what they are trying to do.  It just was not a good idea for a con game where we can't invest in the character and enjoy in their divine growth.
Secondly, and most importantly, I didn't like the adventure itself.  Basically the point of the entire adventure was to kill a bunch of scared villagers so we take a baby from her parents to give to a demon.
I'll give my son credit, he didn't want to do any killing.  He was more than happy to attack the demon, but killing people that were basically afraid of us was not something he was cool with it.
My issue with it was simply we had no effect on the outcome or overall plot.  We had no real chance of killing the demon or altering the effect of what will happen with the baby.  Honestly in that situation my character would have taken the baby to raise, but that wasn't really an option.  The DM was passionate about her creation to be sure, but we had only a small part in her world.

For me, I like run games at Cons where the players feel like they are the most important people in the world.  They are the ones between the innocent and the darkness AND I want to be sure when we are playing I know my rules upside down, backwards and forwards and if the players have a question then I need to be able to answer it.  I am not just representing the game I am running, but myself and the company I am running for. I want people to leave my table saying they will buy that game or tell me they are going to play my games next year.

Sorry WotC, I am a HUGE fan, but I can't say that about these games.

Special Mention.  LEGO - Heroica
We also played a demo game of LEGO Heroica.  This experience was everything the others were not.  The guy demoing the games took the time to explain everything to us including all the rules our goals and how we needed to do everything.  He lots of other tables, but he didn't leave till we told him we were good.  He also came back many times to check in on us.  The game we played was sold out...so we bought 3 others.  That's how much fun we had.

Half Baked Adventure idea

So while driving home from Gen Con I had this idea about running a multi-adventure mini series using all editions of D&D.  The plot hook is that the Great Librarian has died and the walls between realities have weakened (which one causes which? have to play to find out!) the character need to collect the Three Great Books and return them to Library or all reality is lost!

Part 1 where the characters are summoned and tested would be played using Basic/Original D&D.
Part 2 where the characters find the first Great Book would be played using AD&D 1st ed.
Part 3 the characters must seek out the second Great Book and would be run using AD&D 2nd ed.
Part 4 a new threat is found, but the characters also gain the support of a mysterious cabal of Wizards located in their rain soaked tower on the Coast.  They must find the third great Book and is played with D&D 3rd ed.
Part 5 the characters, now powerful indeed must return the books to the Library, but the dangers would be great.  This would be played with D&D 4th ed.

I would like to use the basic archetypes for this, a cleric, a thief (maybe a halfling here), a fighter, a wizard and an elf fighter/magic-user and feature something that highlights the benefits of each rule-set.

Could be great fun for a Gen Con based game where everyone plays every night.  Maybe even with the right crowd each person could rotate GM duties and pass their characters around.

Like I said.  Only a half-baked thought at the moment.

EDITED TO ADD: My son says that in each part the characters need to fight one of the five chromatic dragons.  So a white first and ending with a huge, ancient red.

But....I am not done yet!

Very busy day.  Everyone has crashed early.  I am taking some time to sit down a look over the campaign material for the next few adventures comparing it with all the material I want to use and something dawned on me.

I am not quite ready to give up 3.x just yet.

Don't get me wrong, I love my 4e game and my Pathfinder playing helps fill some of that need.  But as a DM there is still so much ground to cover, so much I can still do.

Maybe it is just the lack of caffeine or just having a huge investment of 3.x books looking back at me.

I am sure I'll find something to do with it all.

The Dragonslayers vs. The Lost Caverns of the Tsojcanth

Today the boys wanted to play some D&D for Father's Day.  Really, how could I say no?

So we wrapped up the last bits of the return from White Plume mountain.  The boys went and visited Crazy Omar to collect their reward.  Omar got Whelm, as he wanted.  They traded Blackrazor for an equally notorious weapon from my world, the crossbow "Bessie Mauler" (yes, yes stolen from the Riftwar Cycle, but to be fair I stole it from my old DM and I had no idea he had stolen from somewhere else).

I also wanted to point out that they now had a crowd following them wherever they went.  After all they were the heroes that freed the Silver Princes and defeated Dragotha.  They are a long way from The Caves of the Stinky Goblin (the first adventure of the Dragonslayers).  I wanted them to feel like heroes.

Of course now they are a day's ride to the Horn of Iggwilv.  Omar has told them that great treasure awaits them in Iggwilv's lair.  They are free to keep the spell books, but Omar has his sight on "Iggwilv's Greatest Treasure" something so precious that she "wrapped in in gold".   Well Omar, or the boys yet, don't know that the rumors of the greatest treasure are referring to Drelzna and she is wrapped in gold.  Gold armor to be exact.

The made it up into the mountains.  They know there is a Gnome kingdom located in the mountains and they have just been abused by a group of Stone Giants tossing boulders at them.

I have had S4 forever and it is great to finally get a chance to run it.  I am using the original AD&D 1st ed version of this, along with the Iggwilv's Legacy update from WotC from 2007 (no longer online) and will include the Lost Temple of Tharizdun IF it seems like a good idea.  This adventure should take us well into Gen Con.

There is a blue dragon in this adventure and one in the next one I am planning, Death's Ride.  I am going to make them the same blue dragon.  It would be good to give them a reoccurring enemy.  And who better for the Dragonslayers than the Huge Blue Dragon Korbundar?

I am not planning on having them run into Iggwilv just yet.  Mostly I am torn on whether or not to make into a witch (one of my versions) or make her into a wizard.  She did study with the Circle of Eight and she does seem to be in every respect a wizard.  The easiest thing to do is cheat and wait till I am running 4e and just make her into a Warlock/Wizard multiclass.  A person of such history would be great to have in my games.  Wilva though is not a do-er, she is a manipulator. She has pawns.  I think this pic sums her up best.

I still have my Big Plan^TM in motion for 4e and Iggwilv is a part of that.  So she is manipulating the Dragonslayers now to get them in place for her take over of the Abyss.  Turns out it will be their kids, but she can wait.

I just don't know if I can!  I want to play this all now!

Been Caught Stealin': Free RPG Day

In case your forgot today is (was) Free RPG Day.   Took the boys to my our favorite local game store and here is our haul.

We each got two things, the limit.  But it is a good set of things.

I might use them all together.  No idea yet.
They are all high quality products.  The DragonAge one is the thickest, the D&D and Pathfinder ones are full color, DCC really does look very, very old school, only with better production values.
The AFMBE one (the only non-D&Dish thing here) is really fun of course.
The d10 is also very nice to have.

All are intro adventures so not really good for the Dragonslayers at this point, but when we start up again with 4e I can certainly use them.

Could WotC support ALL D&D?

There is an interesting post on Wizard's site today where Mike Mearls discusses (basically) gaming style and which version of D&D best fits that style.
http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ll/20110614#74972

It is worth a read and reminds me a bit of the old GNS Theory that was so popular a few years back.

I am not going to get into whether or not X version of Y game fits where on Mearls grid or even Edward's GNS.
I don't particularly care about those sorts of things since they all take a back seat to the more important questions to me: "Is Game X fun?  Will I have fun with Game X?  Do I own Game X so I can find out on my own?"

Which gets me to my random though of the day.

Should WotC support ALL D&D?  

As a business model it is a flawed one, the cost to produce physical products for a game that is 10, 20 or even 30 years out of print is pointless.  But what about using their own electronic distribution?

Recently WotC has seemed open to print 1st and even 2nd and 3rd Edition related material.  Why not take that that a step further and offer a "Classic D&D" subscription.  You pay (or maybe it is part of the DDI) and get new material for your game.

Of course readers of this blog will see the error right away.  There are a ton of blogs out there now, producing for free or very, very cheap, material for those older games.  And thanks to the OGL WotC (unlike TSR in the past) is perfectly happy that we continue to do so.

But what WotC adds to the mix is something we as a group do not have.  Brand recognition.  I can say "my magic hats is for people that ply Basic Era games" (nudge nudge wink wink implied).   Only WotC can say "this is for you people that still love to play Basic Dungeons & Dragons".

Obviously there is cost.  Someone has to write and that someone has to be paid.  Art is a very important part of what WotC can bring to the table that a simple blogger or one-man shop can't do as well or as cheaply.  Of course art is still not cheap.

I am sure that a cost benefit analysis would need to be done.  How much would it cost versus how much return they could get.

So let me throw it all out to you.

Would you pay WotC for regular content for your particular favorite Old School D&D product?
How much would you pay?
Per product or monthly?
What would you want to see to make you seriously consider this?

Now keep in mind this is NOT market research.  You all are not a random sample. You are a sample that is used to get a lot of material free (if not her, then other places) but you are also a sample that is interested in this older games AND a sample that is open to other games.  You read my blog afterall, I talk about a dozen or so different games here and about a half dozen on a regular basis.  You answers are different than those of say the regular reader of Dragonsfoot or Grognardia or ENWorld.

Let me, and the world, know what you think.