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here! | | D&D Next Chat Transcript (Mike Mearls & Jeremy Crawford) | | | This is the transcript of the D&D Next (5E) live chat held today. Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford were on hand to answer questions about the upcoming public playtests of D&D Next.
Mearls: Hello world.
Trevor: There's Mike Mearls, one of the stars of the show!
Mearls: Jeremy Crawford will be a little late. We just finished up a meeting on the playtest packet.
Trevor: You want to regale us with any playtest tidbits while we wait for him, Mike?
Mearls: Hmmm... let's see. I've been DMing mostly, and the rules have changed a lot over the past few days. Probably the funniest thing was guest starring as a librarian in a playtest game at DDXP. Also, I got to test the DR rules when the players had to cut open a dead wererat's stomach to find a gem it had swallowed. That was not how I expected to test those rules.
Trevor, you can go ahead with questions. Jeremy will be here shortly, and I can defer to him as needed.
Trevor: Alright, lets get the intro blurb in there and get started then.
Welcome everyone to the Q&A for the next iteration of D&D and the upcoming playtest! I'm Trevor Kidd, Community Manager for Wizards and D&D and I'll be facilitating the chat. Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford from the D&D design and development teams will be fielding Your questions.
Jeremy Crawford: Hello, everyone!
Trevor: This is a moderated chat, which means every comment or question you make is seen on our end of things, but you won't see it until we publish it to the room for Mike and/or Jeremy to talk about. With all that said, let me get out of the way and let Mike and Jeremy introduce themselves and say a few words. After that, we'll start fielding your questions!
And there we have Jeremy!
Alright - I'll leave the floor to you two. When you're done with introductions let me know and I'll get on to the questions.
Mearls: I'm Mike Mearls and I'm the senior manager for the D&D team. My job is to oversee the development of the game and make sure all the teams work together.
Jeremy Crawford: And I'm Jeremy Crawford, head of editing and development for D&D products.
Mearls: I also pitch in as needed to get work done. For instance, my other open window has the rules text for rituals, though those won't be in the initial playtest.
Jeremy Crawford: I do enjoy trying to get Mike to work as a writer still.  ...[Click here to read the rest of this article] | | 24 Replies | | Playtest Package Contents | | | The public playtest package for D&D Next, available from May 24th (Thursday) will contain:- Five pregenerated characters
- Two clerics to test the range of the domain/deity system. One of the clerics is more of an armor-and-mace fellow, and the other is more of a mystic.
- Also a fighter and a classic wizard.
- The five characters will feature the background and theme system that WotC has alluded to in the past few months.
- The Caves of Chaos adventure
- A bestiary to accompany the adventure
- Rules of play, both for players and DMs
The playtest is open to anyone who signs up, and the information will be available digitally. As part of signing up, there will be an online playtest agreement similar to the one used for Dungeon Command last year.
There will be many differences, both in the core mechanics and in the characters, from previous playtests at events such as PAX East. | | 6 Replies | | Live D&D Next (5E) Chat with Wotc | | | At 11 AM PDT today (that's 7 PM GMT for those outside the US), WotC is holding a one-hour live chat about the next iteration of D&D. You can access it here. Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford will be attending.
On Monday (21st May) we should - if the stars align - be bringing you an exclusive interview with Mike Mearls which you'll be able to read right here on EN World.
And then next Thursday (the 24th) the public playtest starts - and lots of NDAs get lifted! Expect the messageboards to explode in a fiery ball of a concentrated mix of both jubilation and ire.
Oh, and Robert Schwalb describes skills and action resolution in this column (which echoes strongly what I predicted in this article!) | | 0 Replies | | What's Up With D&D? for Monday, 14 May 2012 | | |  This week Mike Mearls finally weighs in about what might happen in the next edition to balance the wizard with the other classes. An excellent Dark Sun adventure by Chris Perkins is released in Dungeon as well. The open playtest is right around the corner and fans of Dungeons & Dragons are clamoring for any little bit of info they can get. Check out some of the forums to see for yourself. I am excited because in ten days we can all really start talking and making our opinions heard. Now on with the news.
- Balancing Wizards in D&D is the focus of Legends and Lore this week by Mike Mearls. I agree with Mike that some groups might not see the way wizards played in some previous editions as a problem. Most of the gamers I have played and talked with are on the other side of the issue. What I have seen so far of the next edition, and who knows how much that will change, has done a great job of getting more balance among the classes in a way that doesn’t make it all feel the same. This is really causing a lot of chatter here.
- Winning Races: Kenku by David Adams in Dragon 411 peaks into the shadows and offers new feats and powers for the flightless bird race. There is a lot of excellent background material provided for your 4th Edition game. The power to fly is also provided as a 10th level racial utility so eventually you will earn your wings.
- Cruel as a Desert Wind is a Dark Sun adventure by Chris Perkins for 6-8th level characters in Dungeon 202. This like most things in Dark Sun is a tough adventure, in fact it appears surprisingly challenging during a few encounters. The concluding the adventure part is excellent for a DM that wants to continue the story and have it roll right into the next adventure for the PCs.
- Quests for Humanity by Jeff Tidball outlines several major and minor quests for your PCs to choose from at each tier of play. The article even includes an epic destiny, God-Emperor. This is an interesting way to outline a path for your character and for the DM to perhaps work in a more personal angle for each PC. I really enjoyed this article and I hope that we see a bit of this that works for 4th Edition and has some use in the
...[Click here to read the rest of this article] | | 0 Replies | | Sneak Peek of Pathfinder Comics #1 | | |  The New Pathfinder Comic Book Series – Sneak Peak
There is a new sneak peak of the 1 st issue of the new Pathfinder Comic at Bleeding Cool. The new comic is due to be released this August – sometime around Gencon. To be published by Dynamite, Issue #1 of the new Pathfinder comic promises character profiles, game stats, a pull-out map and a poster, too! The new series, to be written by Jim Zubkavich sounds pretty cool. Moreover, it looks pretty cool, too.
It also looks pretty violent and is not shying away from an adult theme and feel, which is a refreshing change from my perspective.
There are few story details available right now, but the first 40 page issue will be set in Varisia with the "iconic heroes" battling goblins and their evil mastermind pulling the strings. The initial arc is expected to last at least six issues, and then I guess Dynamite will see if they want to continue with the series further.
The pull-out map and poster in Issue #1 sounds like an especially cool bit of promotional SWAG. Well, it's SWAG for those of us who pick up the new Pathfinder comic, that is. I admit I was on the fence, but the words "pull-out map" were enough to grab my undivided attention immediately!
[UPDATED] Paizo has announced more details on the forthcoming Pathfinder Comic Book Series HERE.
"The iconic heroes at the core of the Pathfinder's world are brought to life for the first time in a brand new story full of charm and high adventure that will please fans and entertain new readers alike. Issue 1 clocks in at 40 pages (and remains $3.99) and includes over 10 pages of character profiles and Pathfinder RPG game statistics, plus an EXCLUSIVE removable, playable tactical map and poster. Be sure to pick up Pathfinder #1 from Dynamite, coming this August to comic stores everywhere!
In issue #1, Valeros can rely on only his sword arm and his friends, the mysterious and beautiful sorcerer Seoni and silver tongued quick-witted elven rogue Merisiel, but nothing can prepare him for the dangers that lurk ahead. The scattered and chaotic goblin tribes of Varisia are changing, growing in power and unifying in ways no one has ever seen before. At the heart of this strange evolution is an ancient evil looking to establish itself anew."
...[Click here to read the rest of this article] | | 13 Replies | | Can you write code/modifications for vBulletin? | | | We at EN World have a range of plans for the future of this site, and we would like to bring a programmer onboard to help us bring these about. This is not volunteer work; it's paid work.
This isn't a full-time job - we aren't big enough to employ anybody full-time! - but we would like a good, reliable coder to come onboard in a freelance capacity. So yes, it's paid work for specific projects as-and-when we need them.
It's vital that you know how to code for vBulletin (the backend messageboard software upon which the rest of EN World is built); our planned projects will be based on this backbone just like all the other features here at EN World.
It's also important that you're a gamer: we need to be able to explain concepts to you without having to start at the basics ("This is a dice...it generates random numbers.")
It's also desirable that you have a firm grasp of English: some of the basic concepts behind programming projects related to RPGs can be difficult to explain at the best of times.
If you're interested, and can start almost immediately on an exciting upcoming project, please email me at morrus AT hotmail dot com. | | 3 Replies | | Submissions and Panels and Ceremonies! Oh my! | | |  An update from Tony Law, ENnies Business Manager:364.
That’s the number of submissions the judges have received for this year’s ENnies. In my four years of being associated with the Awards, that is the largest number of submissions I have ever seen. I would like to thank everyone involved for making this year’s process such a success.
Oh course, now the judges have to wade through 364 submissions to nominate the creme de la creme. Until that time, their lives will be hectic but completely worth it.
The actual ceremony itself is going to be held on Friday, August 17, in the Grand Hall Ballroom of the beautiful Union Station. In order to accommodate everyone this year, the Cocktail Reception and Silent Auction will begin at 6:30pm and the ceremony will begin at 8pm.
And then, on Saturday, August 18, people will have the opportunity to find out what the process is like, how reviews are done, etc, directly from the judges themselves at the Judges Panel. It will start at 2pm in the Crowne Plaza hotel, room Pennsylvania Station C.
Look for more updates as we get closer to nomination time!
PS: We’re still looking for booth volunteers, if you have the time.
| | 0 Replies | | Pathfinder Lite: New Tablet Optimized PDFs | | |  Paizo Releases Updated "Lite" PDFs - Optimized for Tablets
I was going to post up my review of Blood of Fiends tonight, but I will have to put that off until tomorrow because right now, this story seems more exciting to me. Or at least -- more timely.
Earlier this evening, Paizo released "lite" PDFs of all of their "hardcover" e-Books released to date. These so called "lite" versions are new versions of the PDFs previously released; however, these versions are designed and exported with use on tablets and smartphones in mind. While these new PDFs are "full versions" of the books and include all of the artworks that the originals do, the principal difference you will notice is that the backgrounds on the pages are far less busy. The graphical flourishes, while visible on the edge of the page, are largely missing beneath the text itself. Paizo Digital Product Assistant Chris Lambertz advises that she also tweaked various export options with a view towards making all of these PDFs work much better on tablets and smartphones.
Now, this may (or may not) be all that important to you. There are a lot of people who still prefer the feel of a book in their hand and appreciate its ease of use as a rules reference at the table. And that preference is just fine. I have multiple hard copies of all of the Pathfinder hardcovers for that purpose too.
However, for those of us who bring an iPad (or two) to games outside the home to use them as their sole source for Pathfinder rules, this is potentially a very big deal indeed. The problem so far has been that some of the "hardcover" PDFs are quite slow when used on an iPad -- even when using a high speed PDF app like GoodReader. The slow speed of the Core Rulebook, especially, makes looking up a rule on an iPad at the table quite problematic and slow. Frankly it brought things crashing to a halt. So much so, that I picked up another iPad ver 1 (used and cheap) just for use as a rules/monster reference at the table while my "main" iPad remained open at the Pathfinder Society Scenario I happen to be running. Rather impractically expensive solution? Oh, just a little.
So I downloaded all of the Pathfinder hardcovers tonight and have installed them on my iPad version 1 and ensured I had updated to the latest version of Goodreader....[Click here to read the rest of this article] | | 25 Replies | | Have you heard about the "Pathfinder Online Technology Demo" Kickstarter? | | |  Due to the increasing volume of news about Kickstarter projects, I usually put them on their own site, RPG Kickstarters. This particular project, though, I'm giving a little extra love.
Pathfinder Online was announced in November 2011. Goblinworks, the company behind the game, was founded by Paizo co-owner Lisa Stevens (Pathfinder RPG, Vampire: The Masquerade, Magic: The Gathering), game industry veteran Ryan S. Dancey (Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition, EVE Online), and experienced MMO developer Mark Kalmes (Microsoft, Cryptic Studios, CCP).
The company is now running a Kickstarter project to create a "technology demo", which will then be used to attract investors. It aims to raise $50,000 (at the time of posting this, it had already passed $30,000).This Kickstarter will fund the Technology Demo of the Pathfinder Online Massively Multiplayer Online RPG. The Technology Demo will be fully playable, integrating account management, character creation, a virtual world server, multiple simultaneously connected clients, middleware used for rendering landscapes and characters, basic game mechanics, and player communications. The demo will only support a few simultaneous users exploring a couple of small locations, so the general public won't be able to play it, but we will produce a short video of the demo that everyone will be able to experience, and a special longer video exclusively for backers of this Kickstarter.
Your support of the Technology Demo will help us raise awareness of Pathfinder Online and will show potential investors what the game is really about. Funding this demo will also signal to potential partners that Pathfinder Online has an audience that's large enough and dedicated enough to allow the long-term success of the MMO. Nothing speaks louder than a ton of people putting up money to show their support of a new concept—that’s the genius element of Kickstarter!
| | 33 Replies | | Review of Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Game by Margaret Weis Productions | | |  So here we are in the wake of the weekend of the release of The Avengers Movie - and by all accounts, the movie has broken more box-office records than Hulk has smashed New York City landmarks! As a side note, if you haven’t gone to see the The Avengers Movie yet because you can’t believe the hype, trust me, believe the hype! And go see it on the IMAX screen if you’ve got one near you, because that much action needs to be viewed on a HUGE SCREEN!
And as it turns out, not long before The Avengers Movie was released, a role-playing game was published by Margaret Weis Productions with the license from Marvel Comics under its belt. The Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Game offers players to portray superheroes from the Marvel Universe, battling against super-villains and other threats to mankind, and hopefully making the world a safer place! And with great movies like The Avengers, Ironman, The Fantastic Four, and Thor to envision, who doesn’t want to play a superhero?!
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Game
- Design: Cam Banks (lead), Rob Donoghue, Matt Forbeck, Will Hindmarch, Phillippe-Antoine, Ménard, Jesse Scoble
- Publisher: Margaret Weis Productions
- Year: 2012
- Media: PDF package:Rulebook + 3 Support Books (302 total pages) + 2 Reference Sheets
- Retail Cost: $19.99 ($12.99 from RPGNow.com)
The Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Game is a role-playing game, using the Cortex Plus game engine, of portraying famous superheroes from the Marvel Comics Universe. The PDF package includes six four booklets – MHR Basic Game, MHR Datafiles, MHR Example of Play, and MHR Random Datafiles – and two Reference Sheets – one for Players and one for the Watcher (Gamemaster). The MHR Basic Game book also includes a Mini-Event (adventure) called Breakout, based upon a comic book series of The New Avengers.
Production Quality
The production quality of the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Game has a great layout and a gorgeous appearance, but had some problems conveying the information about the game system. ...[Click here to read the rest of this article] | | 22 Replies | | Check out our sponsors! |
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