DiasExMachina 4ED Update

[Dias Ex Machina]

There was a question on Gleemax on the extent of Amethyst's compatability with future DND books. I thought the answer deserved to be reposted here...

There are two forms of Amethyst: Mine and yours. I can declare what is in the official Amethyst and what is not. That does not change what you do with your game. I got a guy on the playtest who has a group including a Kodiak and a Gimfen from Amethyst gaming with a Dragonborn and Tiefling, which would never happen in the real Amethyst as there are no Dragonborn and Tieflings in Amethyst. You play your game as you wish.

The 3.5 book detailed what monsters were in the official version of that game. Since we are making a lot more original monsters, the number of official DND monsters has decreased substantially for the 4ED game.

This spreads to the Player's side as well. The official Amethyst has no Clerics and no Warlocks but it won't stop a DM from allowing it in his or her game. It all depends on how much you want your game to match what's presented in the book. So for the 4ED core PHB, we said Fighters, Rangers, Rogues, Warlords, and Wizards are in. The others are out. We also said certain Rituals were out. We declared ALL PHB races were out, replaced by our own. So that answers part of what people may be asking. Unlike Eberron, which was "everything included and more", Amethyst is attempting to be a totally original fantasy setting, which means certain elements have to change.

But you asked about future books...and that is a point we discussed at length. This is why we didn't bother making a single new fantasy class. Why bother? WOTC will do it for us and we can support the DND franchise that way. There are rumours PHBII will have Barbarian, Druid, and Monk among others. A DM is can make whatever judgement calls he or she wants for their game. I can safely say that all Martial class will be welcome. Druid may be as well. Any spellcasting classes will be problematic (given our definition magic). Our setting has its own races, so any monster or races that have developed an actual civilization won't appear in the official Amethyst. As these future books are released, we'll post on our site what elements can appear in a "canon" Amethyst game. I imagine some buyers may care while others will do as they like. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, someone might just buy the game and pull out our techans classes and create a science-fiction RPG with no fantasy elements whatsoever—which is starting to look like a selling point.

If there is a weakness with Amethyst, it is because it is not designed to be a modular 100% compatible DND role-playing game (like Eberron). It is designed to be a story setting where you can have role-playing adventures within it (closer to Midnight in its application). As the game has been developed over SIX YEARS...(cough), it has been modified repeatedly to make it more original, which has resulted in many of the DND and clichéd fantasy staples being removed. The first game, as it was built in 2002, was just like Eberron. It has evolved since then to be more than a simple RPG campaign setting packed full of dungeon crawls. It’s meant to be a plausible, living, breathing setting with its own distinct voice.

So...ahem...yeah, there will be opportunities to use future DND books with Amethyst but we can't say for sure as to what extent until we read them.

That’s a page long explanation for me saying, “I dunno.”

 

[Dias Ex Machina]

Let’s talk competition.

I began working on an entry dealing the origin of Amethyst. It got to three pages and decided I would break it up for future posts.

I have often fielded comments comparing Amethyst to a variety of other fantasy/science-fiction settings including Rifts, Shadowrun, Final Fantasy, and Arcanum. I have often found it odd that my friends and I differ on what franchises we defend Amethyst against. I guess it depends on what we take personally. The first accusation (and the most prevalent) was Shadowrun, a game I never actually played. Not only that, I never even read any books on it. I was aware of the setting and knew it was a fantasy/cyberpunk. The concept is neat but it’s not Amethyst. The big difference being is the stark division between science and fantasy. Disruption is a core pillar of the Amethyst setting. The fantasy side was a true-to-book mystical world against the bastions of technology trying to survive. Like Shadowrun, it was set in the real world but Amethyst takes it to a level of detail reaching an obsession. There is a difference between a story being set on Earth and a story being set in the real world. Everything in Amethyst had to make sense and be plausible. Amethyst was not only Earth, but also our world—a world with D&D and Lord of the Rings, a world with increasing ethnic violence and greed over dwindling resources. Amethyst was going to inject a side of philosophy and symbolism in its setting readers could discover if they looked beyond the first later. I always found the Shadowrun accusation more bothering than the others did did.

Now Rifts is also set on Earth and set a long time in the future, enough time for the world to forget how it was before (same as Amethyst). My friends never liked Rifts but I always thought it was neat (though I never really ran it enough to even justify the cost of the first book). When comparing it to Rifts, my friends would often be the ones getting bent out of shape. Rifts still had a merging of technology and fantasy in some areas. There was still not the divide that Amethyst was boasting. Rifts was also a dark cyberpunk-styled world and Amethyst was promoting more of a world of wonder outside the walls of technology.

Few people ever made Final Fantasy comparisons. Even more than before, Final Fantasy always had a mixing of magic and technology where Amethyst had none. Now Arcanum….man oh man. I never even heard of this game until a few months ago. Hell, I never even played Fallout (same developer). Arcanum is a PC game that was released in 2001. It was a fantasy RPG set in a fictional world. Now this game does have fantasy and technology and actually has disruption. Here was a similar setting I am willing to admit, albeit coincidentally. Where Arcanum differs is that their setting is a fictional world where magic dominated and technology has emerged in its infancy and as it grows, magic fades. Amethyst is the mirror opposite in application. Once again, it is set in the real world and magic is returning to it after man had reached a significant level of technological development and has been fighting a losing battle ever since. Because of my obsessive compulsion about detail, Amethyst also deals with layers of philosophy, chaos theory, particle physics, racism, sexism, and various other issues being tossed around a lot these days. It actually contains sidebars where scientists try to explain the outside world and how it interacts with what they call “reality.” I am hoping people who play in the setting try to make something more out of it other than a simple dungeon crawl. The races are presented to be more than a listing of stats. As stated with a previous post on Damaskans, there are benefits and consequences to every race in the setting. Not only that, but a principle pitch of the setting is the asking of a simple question: Would you give up? Central heating? Internet? Cable TV? Automobiles? Refrigerators? You would have to if you wanted your elves, magic, and dragons. Suddenly, the setting forces people to look at the real-life consequences of their actions. On top of this, you have the world of fantasy broken into a one of chaos and one of order where the order is the corrupting force of evil and the force of chaos is the power where all magic and life stems from. You wrap that all up together; you have a setting, which, I hope, people will look to for something beyond a simple dungeon romp.

Of course, if you still want to buy it for you dungeon romp, that’s ok to.

 

[Dias Ex Machina]

THE BIG NEWS. TECHNOLOGY IS HERE IN 4ED

We’ve spent the better part of a month on nearly 100 pages of new crunch dealing with the other side of the coin—techa. This is the side of humanity that refuses to accept the new rules of fantasy and clings onto the old-world of science and normality. These rules were developed to be independent to keep the worlds of reality and fantasy separate. In Amethyst, the disruption of technology by fantasy is a core tenant of the setting. It is not placed there entirely for balance issues (although originally, it had its genesis in that reasoning). It is meant to create a setting that is different from other techno-fantasies.

Disruption only occurs one way. Magic breaks down science. This is because the setting is about the assault of one world by another. If they both broke each other down equally, eventually there would be a harmony, as a balance would eventually form. Magic is not really magic, but the invasion of ulterior rules of science. These alterations cause disruption. Disruption is not some magic wand—wait…technically, it can be. Let me try this again. Disruption is not some undefined radius of voodoo that makes machines go wacko. It is a side effect of these new and changed rules that allow effects that people can ascribe to magic. As a result, there is no way for technology to radiant some normality about it. This is part of the core idea of chaos within the setting. There is a conflict of order and chaos. For order to win, everything must be the same and perfectly organized. For chaos to win, it only needs to change…one thing. This is why technology always loses. The only way for technology to win against magic is to push out all the users of magic from the land…or wipe them out altogether.

The flow from the chaos gate of Attricana reflects off the living and not the dead; so, push out the magical creatures and the overall intensity of magic drops. If they were equal, this conflict would not seem so desperate for the side of technology. The setting makes it perfectly clear that technology has been fighting a losing battle for nearly 500 years and has only reached a stalemate by throwing up walls and keeping all the magic users out. Those inside the walls either live out their lives in ignorance or take an interest in this outside world by either joining it or plotting out its destruction. This is where the title of the book comes into play (but more on that later).

We considered reducing disruption as an annoyance but in the end, it came back to the foreground, albeit now as a single roll. It only affects technology and not fantasy and the higher the tech, the greater the chance of disruption. Disruption can cause items to not work for several rounds or an entire encounter. It may also cause an item to break down completely.

Is it required for gameplay? Technically, you don’t have to do anything in your game. Once again…my Amethyst…your Amethyst. I don’t believe the techan game is broken if you decide to forget the rules except that a pillar of the setting is their separation, meaning I would still not recommend clerics with plasma blasters or paladins with an enchanted Holy Railcannon.

Could you remove the techan section and create your own science fiction game? This is the most asked question of late. And the answer is ABSOLUTELY. Rules dealing with disruption feature only heavily in one class, but it is still only half that class. With the wonders that are available power options, simply don’t select the powers dealing with disruption. The other classes rarely mention disruption at all.

So we have created a (hopefully) 100% compatible Science Fiction 4ED plug-in for all your 4ED needs. I will say as a disclaimer (despite what some have said or read), that this is NOT 4ED Modern. It just isn’t. It’s a science fiction add-on. You cannot be a 28th level Personality or Negotiator. We have not offered a +6 .357 magnum or a +5 Flak Jacket. You also cannot create a first level character with powered armour and a plasma carbine. It deals with scaling technology, meaning Lasers are +4, +5, and +6 and traditional firearms are +zero, +1, +2 and +3. Of course, this system could be house ruled to just say a +6 .357 magnum exists…but for balance sakes, you have to explain why it also costs a million gold.

Still, as stated, it is a complete Science Fiction element that can actually stand on its own. It’s designed for Amethyst but you can insert the techan classes into ANY D&D game. We have not added any new rules to the fantasy side to make techans incompatible with other D&D games. So drop some colonial marines against some demons, throw some Mobile Infantry against some kruthik—there is no limit of what you can do.

 

[Dias Ex Machina]

TECHANS REVEALED

In total, there are four techan classes. Like D&D, they are the best of their profession and are combat orientated. They have a handful of their own feats but not as many as you might thinkg as many of the D&D feats still apply. The same goes for skills. 4ED intentionally made skills compact and streamlined rather than convoluted. So we only have 4 new skills (Demolition, Engineer, Sciences, and Vehicle Operation). On the other hand, we have 36 pages of weapons, grenades, and armour. Weapons are offered through a narrow spectrum of enhancement. Plasma weapons are not available until +5. Revolvers are available at +0. Magnetic weapons have bonuses against cover and have a high-crit. Plasma weapon can inflict additional fire damage on a critical hit. These are but some of the many weapons offered.

Tactical Body Armour is available at +2 and Power Armour starts at +3. Of course, you don’t have to have Power Armour. There are stealth suits as well. We have about a dozen vehicles but all the city transports are gone. All we have now are the lumbering, echan transports, which basically start as giant caravans that reach to sizes that would make Jawa Sandcrawlers weep.

So with no more gilding the lily and no further adieu, I present to you your techan classes.

Grounder: The grounder is your primary hitter. As a grounder, your speciality is with wearing the most powerful armour and wielding the most powerful weaponry. Everyone has firearm proficiencies but you are adept with the use of auto weapons. With auto and heavy auto weapons, you can perform ranged burst attacks and create area denial zones enemies cannot pass through without getting hit. Your utility actions are mostly ally based where you can support adjacent friends when they are hurt including moving them from combat. A group of just Grounders is not worthless as they can support themselves on the front line.

Marshal: Often the commander of a group, the marshal is the observer and controller, and often enough, the puppeteer. As a marshall, your attacks are related to the grounder’s, save for the area effect attacks from heavy auto weapons. You hit as hard with the same weapons but your strength comes with your application of combat tactics, allowing you to shuffle allies and even enemies around the battlefield (although more the former than the latter). You also have a lot of combat boosting powers to keep allies alive. The others will not complain about you pulling your weight when you use a power that allows everyone else a bonus ranged attack.

Operator: The operator is the support member of a group, though not a slouch at all in combat situations. As an Operator, you have the biggest responsibility. This is because you are not a specialist. You are a generalist. Not only can you handle yourself in combat, you are sole the one person that can keep technology functional. You know how to recover items from disruption and make quick repairs when an item breaks. That’s not all; you are also gifted with medical training and can heal nearly as well as any divine holy man. Not enough, well how about the fact you can modify your weapons to fire further with more damage. Did I mention you probably also drive the car?

Stalker: Stalker is all about the being on your own. Though still a part of a team, you are best when separate. This comes from two distinct build options. The first is fast movement and close burst attacks from small arms. You can slide through enemy lines and fire multiple shots at point-blank range. You can break up an enemy flank dramatically this way, or you can be more subtle. This comes from the second build…sniper. You can take on the role as the long range support specialist. You can fire at distance, causing debilitating effects on enemy targets before they even get in range. Further options include moving by stealth and delivering a single kill on a target before the encounter can even begin.

As you move into Paragon paths, there are thirteen available including two snipers paths, two pistol/gunslinger paths, a medic, a mechanic, an infantry support specialist, and one that simply likes breaking people’s necks.

Of the eight epic destinies we’ve offered, five of them can apply to techans including a military promotion, free company general, and my personal favourite…machine of war…

Immortality? Heck no…you’re a nihilist.

That’s 4 classes with nearly 300 powers, 13 paragon paths, 5 epic destinies, all adding up to a pretty cool techan section, and I hope worthwhile of your investment…


I’ll end this with a few of my favourite powers:
Just Got the Wind Knocked Out Grounder Utility 22
What? Nah, nah, I’m doing just fine.
Daily * Healing, Martial
Immediate Reaction Personal
Trigger: You suffer damage from any attack.
Effect: You ignore the damage and any effects from that attack for as many rounds as 2+ your Constitution modifier.
Special: After the time period expires (or at the end of the encounter), you suffer the damage and the effects from the attack.


Watch Your Back Marshal Attack 13
You call for an assist from a comrade that takes care of the enemy behind you
Encounter * Martial, Weapon
Standard Action Ranged Weapon
Requirement: You must be flanked by two creatures.
Target: One creature flanking you.
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Hit: 3 [W] + Dexterity modifier damage.
Special: Any ally in line of sight makes a ranged basic attack on the other creature flanking you. Ally receives a +2 bonus to attack.


Gauss Weapon Tweak Operator Attack 27
You play with the accelerator, increasing the kinetic energy of the weapon. You think it has something to do with the linear or homopolar motors powering the magnetic…honestly, you’re not exactly sure.
Encounter * Martial, Weapon
Standard Attack Ranged Weapon
Requirement: You must be wielding a rail or coil weapon.
Target: One creature
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC. Ignore all cover penalties.
Hit: 4 [W] + Dexterity modifier damage and the target suffers 10 ongoing damage.


Clean Kill Stalker Attack 29
The first shot wasn’t intended to kill the target but just to bring its head around for the final shot.
Daily * Martial, Sniper, Weapon
Standard Action Ranged Weapon
Target: One creature up to double your weapon’s long range.
Attack: Wisdom +2 vs. AC
Hit: 2 [W] damage.
Effect: If the first attack hits, make a follow-up attack. The target is helpless for this attack and it follows the effects of a Coup de Grace.
Attack: Wisdom vs. AC
Hit: 3 [W] + Wisdom modifier damage
Miss: Normal damage with the first strike. No secondary strike.

 

[Dias Ex Machina]

Making things more difficult...

If you open the player’s handbook, you will see two pages that represent the elvish and dwarven scripts—-the basis of their written language. Of course, what it really boils down to is just a simple substitution cipher. Twenty-six letters and 10 numbers. Why is that? Ten digits, sure, but 26 letters. Less than a half-dozen languages in the world are like that (go head, check…I’ll wait). So why would a fantasy language have to follow that form.

To that end, we are redoing ALL the languages in Amethyst. Gone are EVERY language from Players Handbook. Yup, all of them. You can make up any excuse you want for when you you include monsters from the Monster manual. Here is our list: Adonnic, Argose, Chaparra, Corrupt, Damasan, English, Englo-Lingo, Ferran, Guttoran, Ignotan, Indic, Laudenian, Narroni, Old Fae, Onsespeak, Paggin, Romanic, Semetic, Sinitic, Slavic, and Tenenbra. Each language is described, explaining if it is a pictographic language or a logographic language, whether it is stress-timed or syllable-timed. Point is, these fae languages are not English-based, another cliché I want to smash. Seriously, though English is the most widely spoken language on Earth, but it is not the one language the majority of the planet calls its mother tongue. On that list, its third. Yup, third. Guess what the other two are. Chinese? No good, specific. Mandarin. Better, guess the second. Punjabi? Wrong. Arabic? Close but no. Think about conquering empires. Spanish? There you go. Remember hundreds of years ago when Europe divided the planet? Spain got all of South America…you know, not counting that teabag part of Brazil that speaks Portugeese (my parent’s tongue). To that end, some Fae languages’ written form resemble Chinese or Japanese; the narros script is based of Korean. Laudenian is based off of Aramaic. The Tenenbri tongue is part of their echo-location. The new draconic language, Adonnic (also called Pleroma), rises from the page in three dimensions, making its natural development a virtual impossibility.

I hope this begins to shed light on how we are approaching this setting—-by taking every single cliché of fantasy, and DnD specifically, and turning it on its ear. By addressing the setting as a real-world concept, we must look at issues like this.

Oh, and did you notice there was no Common?

 

[Dias Ex Machina]

There have been a slew of 4ed products released as well as on the horizon. I kept a keen eye on these releases and wondered how they could release them so fast and be safe from the inevitable erratas on their product. Then I realized how many pages they were and are...48, 60, 105.

30,000 words. 70,000 words.

Then I felt better why we were not going to make the October minimum release date for GSL compliant products. At its current count, the Amethyst 4ED core rulebook passed 204,000 words today, which would make it larger than the DnD Player's Handbook. I can't really give a page count estimate because we have no finalized art and no layout. I mean, if you add it all up, it ends up around 235 but that's not including an index or contents or the afortmentioned artwork...and the book is still not done.

Yessss, yes, yes, yes--I know the 3.5 Amethyst had 373,000 words and 399 pages but we really don't want our readers to go blind. I think, honestly, one of the reasons we didn't score more noms for the ennies was that no one wanted to read a 400 page book in a week (keep thinking that, buddy).

So, the writing continues. Obviously, some of this is being held back. Even now, we are planning on more monsters above the budgeted ones already set aside for this book. The issue I have is that, as I said, I am still not done. Not only is there background fiction for monsters yet to come, but we also plan on an adventure to be included in the book as well. I'll keep you guys and gals informed on how this plays out...

Me out.

 

[Dias Ex Machina]

"Do you accept electrum?"
"We accept silver, copper, gold, and huge bags of sh#$, but no sir, not electrum."

Blatant clichés aside, I am here to talk money, specifically the point of currency. Now, we're not going to remove the gold piece or the copper or the famous platinum. A stamped piece of currency worth its weight in the mineral it is made from is actually a realistic approach. So in that regard, things don't change. We do have names for various coins just for giggles and fluff.
Copper/Brass/Bronze Coins (=1 CP)
Abidan / Limshau / Gimfen Penny
Baruch Malkut Copper
Kannos Kuedo
Narros Copper Tooth
Orchis Casten
Torquill Pence

Silver Coins (=1SP)
Abidan Dagot
Kannos Kroenan
Baruch Malkut Silver
Gimfen Pebble
Limshau Carmot
Orchis Noman
Narros Silver Finger
Torquill Tence

Gold Coins (=1GP)
Abidan Sovereign
Kannos Kannon
Baruch Malkut Dollar
Gimfen Gold Stone
Limshau Chryso
Narros Golden Foot
Torquill Pound

We did have an issue with techan currency and we added rules dealing with that.

It would be great to think that one could pass into the walls of a city of industry with a bag of gold and buy a laser gun. Alas, it is not that simple. Not only do bastions not accept gold, but they also do not accept tender from other bastions. Because of bastions' desperate need for resources, currency is printed on the cheapest of materials. They all commonly feature a half-plastic/half paper medium impossible to copy with more than 300 counterfeit measures including holographic imagery and computer encoding. Each has special imprinting from its home Bastion. For the sake of clarity, these moneys are given the term Universal Credits, for they represent the legal tender of all bastion currency.

Various Bastion Currencies: Angel Dollar, Mann Credit, Sierra Madre Bar, Selkirk Pound, York Dollar.

Although you cannot trade one bastion currency for another bastion currency, they are all considered equal in value in regards to echan currency. You may not convert UC to echan currency but you can convert echan currency to UC. This is because echan currency is worth the value of its mineral and since they are usable materials, bastions are always in the need for them.

The Unfortunate Side Effect of Treasure: Alas, unlike echans, techan characters will seldom (if ever) find their technology in the lair of a dragon or any other creature for that matter. This means techans must return to a bastion to re-arm and upgrade their technology. Nothing they find in field will applicable to them. If they gain a level in a dungeon, they won’t conveniently find a higher level weapon after they slay the next big monster. In long, protracted adventures, this may create problems. Vehicles are a wise base of operations as they may hold many times over the ammunition capacity a single techan character. This may solve the unfortunate issue of ammunition but not about the eventually need to upgrade technology and the lack of being able to apply found treasure immediately in the field. Alas, the echan wilderness is not called a wasteland by the techans for nothing. The DM has options to offset this. In the end, very little is more satisfying than returning to a bastion with your holds overflowing with gold.

Note: One final word. Just a shout out to Scott Rouse for his efforts with the GSL. Amazingly enough, we at DiasEx found the confines of the GSL a catalyst for a more original setting and hope he understands there are many of the silent masses thanking him for his work on the revision--an appeasement Wizards was under no obligation to offer.

 

[Dias Ex Machina]

History of a Game. Part 1:

I wanted to take a moment to talk about the history of Amethyst…in the real world, that is. Amethyst began in the shower after I had watched the film Dragonslayer. Yes, that long ago. Okay, the film was on CBC and it was probably 1994 or ‘95. I had this strange habit when I was young where I would take ideas I had seen on television that was not science fiction and skew it into science fiction. I considered a setting where dragons would rise up from the ashes of a nuclear holocaust and humans were forced into walled cities to survive. Now, this was years before the film Reign of Fire would be released. There was no real fantasy in the setting save for the dragons. All the human characters lived in the various walled cities scattered over the planet. There were no elves, no demons, and no disruption. These dragons were not just monsters but the classic fantasy iterations with heightened intelligence, shape changing, and basic magical powers. They could speak and were both benign and wicked. The story dealt with one bastion, Angel, and its constant attack from a family of evil dragons to the south. There was an Asian city within Angel where a Chinese dragon was thought to be hiding. That creature was the one called Amethyst. I honestly could not tell you why I thought of that name at the time. Maybe I thought it was just cool. I wrote a short treatment and had some ideas in mind. I shelved the idea as I was trying to be a screenwriter (and that worked out AMAZINGLY) and Amethyst was a little much for spec script.

Then Reign of Fire came out and I got annoyed and forgot about Amethyst, I thought permanently. Now, I had given up role-playing. I did not have a reliable group anymore and a girlfriend at the time that didn’t approve of it. The last game I had done was one from the late ‘90s. It was a science fiction game called Pathfinder (seeeeeee…). It ran for nearly two years and collapsed before its final plotline could be resolved. That’s a common point for many RPG campaigns (am I right, DMs of the world?). Not long after, I was forced out of my gaming group because of internal politics (It’s an old story. Gamers start dating, wackiness ensues, etc). I had attempted it again but every time, it never lasted more than a session. I figured I had outgrown it. Then 2002 came. About this time, my friend, Chris Brown, returned from the south, hoping to rehook with old friends and start gaming again. He really wanted to try the new version of D&D everyone had been playing where he lived. I was never as much a diehard fan of fantasy like I was for science fiction. I agreed to do my Alien-FUZION game for him and a few other friends. It was an enjoyable game that ran for over a year. By the end of the Campaign’s 2nd season (I had planned for four…yes, that’s how I run my games), Chris convinced me to take a short break and run a D&D game. He claimed the new 3.0 rules had resurrected the franchise. In the end, the Alien-FUZION game collapsed (as they always do, right? RIGHT?). One player lost his backbone and dropped out from spousal pressure. The others wanted to try something new. I insisted on bringing in a friend from a previous game, Brian Duffels. With Glen Waughtel, Chris Brown, and Mike Alborn, we had a group. I wanted some originality with the setting so I looked over my old story treatments for inspiration…and Amethyst was the only one. Chris quickly kyboshed the idea of creating science fiction characters because he really wanted to play a mage. So instead, the setting became Amethyst with the 3.0 D&D setting crammed into it. I didn’t even change the names. Monsters were everywhere and bastions had a real hard time surviving. We introduced Saints as a science fiction villain and gebermach as a demon armor that killed Brian’s character’s family. Straight forward enough. Fairly soon, Mike would leave, Glen would leave, replaced soon by Conan Veitch and Rene Landry. At this point, it was still a traditional techno fantasy, where wizards could wield lasers if they wanted to. One player did, and I quickly found out how broken the game could get when technology and magic was used side by side.

 

[Voadam]

There have been a slew of 4ed products released as well as on the horizon. I kept a keen eye on these releases and wondered how they could release them so fast and be safe from the inevitable erratas on their product. Then I realized how many pages they were and are...48, 60, 105.

30,000 words. 70,000 words.

Then I felt better why we were not going to make the October minimum release date for GSL compliant products.

Is there a current anticipated release date? December or so or 2009? October but not on the 1st?

Anything like "not sure, depends on a lot of things, but definitely not before X"?

 

[Dias Ex Machina]

Is there a current anticipated release date? December or so or 2009? October but not on the 1st?

Anything like "not sure, depends on a lot of things, but definitely not before X"?

December or so or 2009 maybe? Not October.

Not sure, really. It depends on a lot of things, but definitely not before X--I-I mean...

To be perfectly honest, I cant be perfectly honest. Give me a few weeks.