What's Up With D&D? for Monday, 10 October, 2011

This week Wizards of the Coast has been busy with several new releases to Dungeon and Dragon, a book tour, and some hilarious gaming from Pax Prime. You also get a look at a new race and a new class.

• October: In the Works by Bart Caroll informs you of what is store for you from Wizards of the Coast including The Legend of Drizzt Boardgame which looks fabulous. The sneak peak at the new PC race the Pixie and the new class the Witch will make you count the days to Heroes of the Feywild in November. Bart also talks about the Book of Vile Darkness, Innistrad the new Magic: The Gathering release, Neverwinter, statues of the coolest drow ranger of all time, and more.

• In Unearthed Arcana: A Matter of Honor appearing in Dragon 404, Chris Sims presents an honor system to use in your campaign. While the piece is obviously written with the Kara-Tur theme of October in mind, it offers several suggestions for working these ideas into any campaign including one for the Harpers those of you running a Neverwinter campaign.

• The Art Gallery for Dragon 403 is available. There are a lot of portraits of arcane characters this time around. Save these in a folder on your computer for quick and easy access when making a character in the DDI Character Builder. I love artwork and visual representation in my games.

• In The Dungeon Master Experience by Chris Perkins we learn about using Setups and Payoffs in your game. These are the kind of experiences that can really thread a campaign together. If you haven't been reading this article every week, then you are missing out.

• Jeremy Crawford gives you a glimpse in Design & Development into Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium and what went into bringing you this collection. A great look at the hard work and decisions that go into bringing you a new game product.

• Magic and Mystery by Monte Cook in his Legends & Lore article covers how we use magic items in our games and some alternate ways to think about using them. Every thing Monte says seems to get the role-playing community buzzing.

• Ed Greenwood tells us all about Spellslayer Wine and the threat it poses to arcane characters in Eye on the Realms from Dungeon 195. This is a potent poison that is great in any campaign in the hands of PC's or NPC's. It won't kill you but without those spell protections a blade can.

• If one dose of the Forgotten Realms doesn't cure what ails you, then good for you that Dan Anderson wrote Xiousing and it appears in Dungeon 195 as well. This backdrop piece focuses on a small Shou district in Marsember. Their is an excellent map of the district as well a new rare magic item, and several adventure hooks to get you started.

• Steve Winter of Wizards of the Coast asks for your feedback here with reorganizing the forum on the Wizards Community boards. He also lays out a preliminary outline to give you a starting point to help you out.
  [*]If you like a good laugh then check out the Live D&D Game from PAX Prime. Wil Wheaton is hilarious and this might not be your typical game but Chris Perkins isn't your typical DM.

• R.A. Salvatore is kicking off a two week book tour in support of his new release Neverwinter, Book II. You can check out the dates and details here. If you can't make any of the dates, there is some excellent Q & A stuff to check out there as well.

• The Map and Art Galleries for Dungeon 194 were released this week. I find these invaluable tools in my game even if I am not running the adventures they were designed for.
  If you haven't had a chance or perhaps didn't come across it yet, you should check out the 4e Fan Creations and House Rules thread here at EN World. You will find some great monsters to use in your games as well as house rules (I love reading house rules). The thread The Month of Monsters offers you a new creature to use in your game every day in October.

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This is an exciting time to be into D&D right now. They've really been hitting it out of the park lately with product releases this year. Obviously there have been fewer releases, but most have been really well done.

I was talking with a couple friends the other day who are longtime D&D players - it feels like right now WotC has been putting out some really good stuff and really pushing what 4e is capable of, whereas Pathfinder seems to be putting some weaker stuff (Ultimate Magic and Ultimate Comabat - just my opinion). Dont get me wrong, I really like PF as well, I just havent been as enthused about their latest releases. However, the recent-ish uprising of a PFS community in my area has been really fun and Ive met some great folk out there.

However, I digress - 4e has really impressed me this year - Lair Assault has been a blast to play! Its nice to see them brining the convention style nightmare dungeon game for everyone to experience. The way it has been rolled out really fosters the community and I applaud WotC on this decision, and of course the Encounters seasons have been great (Lost Crown of Neverwinter has been partivularily good). Im really looking forward to both Heroes of the Feywild and Book of Vile Darkness. So far Ive used most of the releases this year pretty fully in my home game that I DM, and its been a blast (particularily Mordenkainens Magnificent Emporium!).

Thanks for the regular updates Gaming Tonic!