WotC to do Old School

Woke up this morning from a crappy night's sleep to find this.

"Wizards of the Coast to produce First Edition Premium AD&D books"
http://www.wizards.com/ContentResources/Wizards/Sales/Solicitations/2012_04_17_dd_1stED_Solicitation_en_US.pdf

So not only is WotC re-releasing the the original Gygax trinity of books for sale, they are doing to raise money for the Gygax memorial fund. There will be new covers on these books and they will be limited editions.
I might have to pick up two sets (one for me, one for my kids).

Of course despite all of this I am sure people will complain about what percent will actually be going to the Gygax fund. Or about the price of the books.

The PHB product page is here, http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Product.aspx?x=dnd/products/dndacc/02410000

So basically WotC out-OSRed the OSR.

Better reserve your copies now.

And I am back

Little black out is over.

Of course I shouldn't have to mention what SOPA and PIPA could have potentially done to the OSR.  So I'll leave it at that.

White Dwarf Wednesday is back next week.

Going Black

Instead of turning off my blog today in protest of SOPA I am instead posting this message and not doing my normal posting today.

Until then read this for more details.
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout

See you Thursday.

The Dragonslayers and the Books of Vile Darkness

The Dragonslayers are currently wandering around the Greater Caverns of Iggwilv's lair (The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth).

They have been sent to recover the rumored "Golden Treasure of Iggwilv" which of course is Drelzna.  I am of course keeping all the treasure (Demonomicon, the 6 books, Prison and Lanthorn) but I am also throwing in a copy of the Book of Vile Drakness.

I have been using the 3.0 version to expand the monster choices in the dungeon, figuring Iggwilv would have bound some demonic creatures to her lair.  Plus, the original S4 introduced a lot of new demons to the 1st Ed Game and the BoVD added more to the 3rd ed game.

So I picked up the 4th Ed Book of Vile Darkness over the weekend to help buff up what would be in the game world version.

I have to admit, the 4e one does not compare to either the 3.0 version OR the 4e Demonomicon.
The 4e version is fine, don't get me wrong, but it lacks the gravitas the 3.0 version had.

It's not that the 3.0 is more graphic (graphic is not the same thing as useful or good) but it suffers from the basic fact that all the ideas that should be in have already appeared somewhere else.

I'll use the props that came with the 4e version, and I'll expand the 3.0 version to include the 4e (And really converting between the two systems is not that hard).  I'll use the monsters in the lower levels, espcially if I plan to add on the Thaizdun bits.

Plus the Dragonslayers need the book because it has a ritual to summon Tiamat.  They are all god characters, and the ritual requires the sacrifice of a "Rainbow Dragon" which at the moment they think is a Chaotic good faerie dragon.  Have not decided about that one yet.  They are just kids afterall.

Did I get my money's worth for the 4e book?  Yeah, I feel that I did. There are some very neat ideas and some cool things for a 4e game.  Not as much as I would have hoped for though.

Of course if I use the book in 3e, should I turn around and have it reappear in 4e or 5e?  No idea yet.  Let me get done with 3e first.

Oh. And my oldest son wants to go back to Mentzer Basic.  It figures really, I have tried to push Moldvay/Cook Basic D&D on him for so long that naturally he would only be interested in the one box I never really pull out.

Modular D&D? Tell me more Mr. Cook.

Monte Cook has posted a little bit about the latest incarnation of D&D on WotC's site.

http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ll/20120116

It seems, so far, that they are going to take a modular approach to the game system.  As a game designer and former computer programmer I find this a very interesting take and I am looking forward to more.

Extrapolating on this I can see the following set up:
D&D5 Basic - A basic box with all the rules you need to play. Basic classes, races and magic.
D&D5 Expert/Advanced - an addition to these rules that take the game into all sorts of directions. Added races, classes, prestige classes and the like.  Think of all the cool things from D&D Expert and the AD&D 1st ed DMG.
D&D5 Tactics - a miniature focused set of rules for players/DMs that want more definition in their combats.  Sure it makes the combats take longer, but that is the trade off.

Then splats similar to the current Heroes of the Feywild or Heroes of Shadow that expand certain "campaign free" areas of the world.

While reading the "lists of demands" in the 5e boards left feeling nothing but despair for the next edition, the official word from the actual designers is leaving me with more optimism.

What I Don't Want

I do not want 5e to be like an older edition or a retro-clone.

I own and have played every edition of D&D ever published.  I have (nearly) every retro- and near- clone there is.

5e can support older editions, it can even emulate some of the features of older games, but it should be be it's own game.

Janurary PDF items from DriveThruRPG

Here are the Janurary PDF items from DriveThruRPG.

Leverage Roleplaying Game [Margaret Weis Productions] cool example of Cortex+ in action
The Complete Book of Denizens (d20/OGL) [Inner Circle] more new monsters for your d20 games
Kashindan Main Rules [Lupus Games]
Random Encounters Remastered [Purple Duck Games] for Pathfinder, but it looks like it would work for any D&D-like game.
Legacy: Basic Edition [Battlefield Press] Play an immortal.  New version of the Legacy game from the 90s.
Mistborn Adventure Game Digital Edition [Crafty Games] based on the novels. From Crafty Games.

To get 20% off the items above just use the code: HotJanuary2012


Enjoy!