News Archive #15 October 2000 News from October 2000: October 31, 2000 PHB 2nd Printing "Bonus Supplement" Will Be Available Online: WotC's Anthony Valterra indicates that the "Bonus Supplement" included with the next printing of the PHB will also be posted for download at the WotC website. Anthony also mentions that the "2nd print run will have the same price" as the first print run. He adds, "I can make no guarantees for the third." (on DND-L, thanks to Pat for the scoop) New at WotC: Thanks to the many scoopers who e-mailed about these new items... WotC offers us a Halloween treat with the final free map for the month, a haunted house. A new spell, Arcane Bolt, which is a variant of magic missile that does more damage but allows a saving throw. New portraits from Tony DiTerlizzi. Playtest Group of the Month continues to focus on the Forgotten Realms playtest. Sounds like the playtesters have been asking some good questions and catching mistakes. October 30, 2000 New in the Conversion Library: Demons, and the Paladin as a prestige class. FR's New Look: Wondering if Elminster has been dipping into the Grecian Forumula, or why Manshoon has been shopping at Big-Puffy-Gowns-R-Us? WotC's Jim Butler explains (on REALMS-L, thanks to Pat for the scoop): So, the big question everyone is asking is why we're changing the look of the Realms. I'll try and comment on that below. Note that I'll be making some generalizations and I understand that some of you may disagree with my points. First and foremost, the Realms is classic medieval fantasy. Swords and sorcery, dragons, noble heroes, terrifying villains--they're all here. These popular iconic images are also used in the core D&D game, so they need to mesh together. You shouldn't be shocked to see an FR dragon come into a generic D&D game, nor should you be shocked to see the reverse happen. We're all one big happy family. We also have to accept that art styles have changed over the years. The look that we established at the old TSR with the fantastic fantasy artwork was quickly adopted by everyone as the de facto standard for medieval fantasy. It all started to look the same. Even the woodcut illos that the Realms adopted started appearing all over the place. Now, in a field that is populated by lookalikes, it's time for us to lead the change and establish a new look for the Realms (and for D&D). There's too much stuff on the shelves nowdays for lookalikes to ever break from the pack. When I sat down and started making a list of the notable heroes and villains of the Realms, there were some striking similarities between them. With the exception of a flowing beard and white hair, there isn't much difference visually between Elminster and Khelben. Add Halaster, Vangerdahast, and a few other "Gandalf-like" wizards and you can start seeing the problems. So, I told them to give El the Lion Sword and change his looks a bit. Trim that beard, give him some new duds.. but keep the old El, too. This process has been repeated for every single villain and hero. We gave the artists the original art that we felt best represented the villains and heroes and then told them to get to work. It's been a painstaking process, and we've rejected more sketches than we've accepted. The final sketches that you're seeing now give a good general representation of what you'll see when the color comps are completed. But they're not the finals (we'll be a lot more picky with them). I realize that art alone isn't going to remake the Realms into something that every college gamer wants to adopt. But it's one more piece of the puzzle in changing the Realms for a new generation of gamers (while hopefully keeping the old). I started playing in '76, and I realize along with the rest of you just how hard change can be. But if we're to celebrate the Realms in the future with new friends and adventures, we need to cultivate those relationships now. D20 Cthulhu Authors: As revealed in this "Out of the Box" column, Ken Hite and Monte Cook are authoring the WotC D20 Call of Cthulhu book. (thanks to tsadkiel for the scoop) PHB 2nd Printing "Bonus Supplement": Here's what you can expect to see included in the second printing of the Player's Handbook to replace the "2000 Survival Kit," according to WotC's John Rateliff: Here's the contents of the new "Bonus Supplement" that accompanies the 2nd printing of the PH. two pages of stat blocks for familiars, a sample animal companion (wolf), and summoned creatures (from summon monster I). two pages explaining how attacks of opportunity work (with diagrams). eight pages of Sage Advice questions and answers clarifying various points. interspersed with this are "Powerplay" sidebars, giving advice on good combos of feats, skills, etc. two pages giving a filled-out character sheet [Regdar the fighter at 1st level] (this is in addition to the blank photocopyable sheet that precedes the whole section). ads for DRAGON, DUNGEON, D&D minis, & the RPGA. There's also a mail-in survey card and DRAGON (US & UK) subscription cards, all perf'd. This printing also includes the free cd rom Character Generator disk (version 1.2). All in all, should be pretty useful both for people switching over from earlier editions and new folks puzzling out some of the trickier rules. Electronic Gizmos: A couple of new D&D programs for your computer: Jamis Buck's NPC Generator has left beta. Not only can you access the online version, but you can also download it as a Windows app. It includes races from the Sword & Sorcery Creature Collection and the Monster Manual as well as the PHB. Byngl has created a program to edit the info in the D&D Character Generator program. This isn't for the faint of heart. :) Cliffhanger Concluded: Part 8 of "Village of Camiram" has been posted at WotC. (thanks to Dark Blackshield, nobody, Tom, and Michael Carter for the scoop) Arduin/D20 Update: I've posted a minor update to Saturday's news item about the rumored demise of the D20 System License Agreement. Scroll down to October 28's news for more details. October 29, 2000 New in the Conversion Library: Hospitaller, Chevalier, and Templar prestige classes, plus updates to two others; Mindstalker prestige class; Arch-Devils from first edition; a conversion of the Reaver from Ravenloft. Gaming Outpost Wants You: The Gaming Outpost website is seeking fan-created materials for their archives. To all Role-Playing fans: I would like to announce a new endeavor of the Gaming Outpost (www.gamingoutpost.com), A Fan Based Gaming Library. The intent of this Gaming Library is to amass a series of fan based articles on Role-playing, Adventures for Role-Playing Games, and other Miscellaneous things. If anyone would like to send in an adventure they made for Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition, please send it to Dak@gamingoutpost.com. We will feature the articles which shine above the rest on our front page and put the rest in the Vault. So submit yours today. Thank you for your time, Nick LaLone Gaming Outpost-Business Relations Wyatt on Class Combos: James Wyatt's "Class Combos" article in this year's Dragon Annual is a real treat. In it, he gives suggestions on how to make unique characters such as the Champion, Nature's Champion, Scout, Skald, Spellfilcher, Spellsword, and Tracker using only multi-classing with the PHB character classes. He also discusses the tradeoffs one has to make in order to follow these paths, and provides suggestions on Feat and Skill selections. Each combo presented includes a character chart showing how these characters might progress from levels 1 through 20. If you like this sort of thing, you're in luck. James e-mailed me to mention that "you're likely to see more articles along those lines in Dragon over the next several months. There will be one on dwarf class combos in this fall's dwarves issue, and I'm ... working on one for elves." Community News: The Blind Bard is a D&D and AD&D resource site with a section on 3rd Edition. Rokugan is a D&D campaign world site with an oriental flavor. PHB Errata Lists: A couple of fans have taken it on themselves to try to make the PHB errata lists more user-friendly: "Korath" has divided the errata list into three sections (Rules Corrections, Clarifications, and Typos) and has color-coded the entries for easy reading. You can download Word or PDF versions here. "Leenar the Green" has posted a web page that contains what he calls "The Condensed Crucial Errata of PHB 3E." October 28, 2000 "D20 Dead" Rumor Debunked: This Arduin fan website recently posted the following "news" (UPDATE: As of 10/30, the item had been removed. This thread over on RPG.net's forums has more information on where and how this rumor got started): 10-28-2000 D20 Dead; Arduin on Hold! I have just received confirmation that Wizards of the Coast will not be approving the use of the D20 logo by other game publishers. That means that all those companies who have published material with the D20 logo on their covers will have a choice of either: a. Pulling the products from the retailer`s shelves; or b. Paying Wizards of the Coast royalties for using their registered trademark (assuming they "APPROVE" your material in the first place). As a result, Emperor's Choice has decided to return to their original plans to release Arduin under a state of the art, percentile based gaming engine that expands on Dave Hargrave's unfinished works. So, is D20 dead? Not by a longshot, according to WotC's RPG Director, Keith Strohm (as posted to RPG.net's forums): Wow. I just don't know what to say. Ryan Dancey and I have been working very closely on the D20 license since our transition. Unless someone has decided to push me into an alternate universe, I'd have to say that this information is false. I'm home right now, but unless anything has changed regarding this license since 5:00 on Friday evening and no one though to inform the Director of the RPG business about this change in status, I'd say that there is somethign fishy going on. Let me make this as clear as possible: 1) There are no plans to make anyone pay a royalty for using the D20 license 2) There are no plans to have anyone submit anything for approval that comes out of the D20 license. 3) The D20 License IS NOT dead. FR Survival Kit, Revised: As mentioned below, this year's Dragon Annual includes the Forgotten Realms Survival Kit, which is very similar to the one that was presented on the WotC website sometime back. I'm noticing a few changes, particularly to the regional feats, that seem to indicate that the power of these feats has been toned down a bit. Let's compare, shall we? FR Survival Kit, Regional Feats: Comparison Website Version Dragon Annual Version Luck of Heroes [General] Your people survive when no one expects them to come through. Regions: Aglarond, Dalelands, Tethyr, the Vast. Benefit: You get a +1 bonus to all Fortitude, Reflex, and Will saves. Luck of Heroes [General] No change. Mercantile Background [General] You come from a family that excels at a particular trade. Regions: Gray Dwarf, Impiltur, Lake of Steam, Lantan, Sembia, Svirfneblin, Tashalar, Tethyr, Thesk, the Vast. Benefit: Choose a Craft or Profession skill. You get a +3 bonus to all Craft or Profession checks for that skill and a +3 bonus to Appraise checks involving items relevant to that skill. Mercantile Background [General] You come from a family that excels at a particular trade. Regions: Gray Dwarf, Impiltur, Lake of Steam, Lantan, Sembia, Svirfneblin, Tashalar, Tethyr, Thesk, the Vast. Benefit: Choose a Craft or Profession skill. You get a +2 bonus to all Craft or Profession checks for that skill and a +2 bonus to Appraise checks involving items relevant to that skill. Thug [General] Your people know how to get the jump on the competition and push other people around. Regions: Calimshan, Dragon Coast, Moonsea, Pirate Isles, Unther, the Vast, Vilhon Reach, Waterdeep. Benefit: You get a +2 bonus on Initiative checks, a +2 bonus on Intimidate checks, and a +1 bonus on Reflex saves. Thug [General] Your people know how to get the jump on the competition and push other people around. Regions: Calimshan, Dragon Coast, Moonsea, Pirate Isles, Unther, the Vast, Vilhon Reach, Waterdeep. Benefit: You get a +2 bonus on Initiative checks, [and] a +2 bonus on Intimidate checks, and a +1 bonus on Reflex saves. There are some other minor changes (racial modifiers for a couple of the races), but otherwise the article in the Annual is essentially what's on the website. New in the Conversion Library: Four converted dragons, another Bladesinger, and the phoenix. The conversion library now has over 100 files for your reading pleasure. Dragon Annual Preview: Scooper Bobby Jennings received his copy of the Dragon Magazine Annual, and shared details of the contents: There are two beginning articles: By any other name. The first one is sages, shops and smithies. Random generator(s). The second (part two) is taverns. Nifty. Next article is Fresh starts (or 20 new ways to launch new adventures). Very cool, especially for us DM's. Rays of Light is an article about Meldar the Great. It highlights several ray spells he created, like Ray of Flame, Ray of Light, Stun Ray, Targeting Ray, Rust Ray. Bazaar of the Bizarre, with the Secrets of the Master Smiths, which deals with Masterwork weapons and armor. The children of Tharizdun... heh...4 very bad monsters for your party. In the middle is of course, a Dungeon adventure. This one is Gorgoldand's Gauntlet. Designed for 4 first level pcs. But can be scaled up, if need be. A great article about making D&D maps the WotC way, All over the Map. After the Dragon, by Ed Greenwood. Cormyr after Azoun's death. 11 pages, one of the largest articles in the mag. Mentors. A nice article about working mentors into your campaign. One of my favorites, so far heh still reading, 101 Evil Schemes. 101 (mostly) foolproof plots for villains. Class Acts, adds a new prestige class, the Gnome Trickster. The Royal Heralds. An article about the secret service for Queen, and report Lord Chamberlain Kell Fleming. It also has a nice prestige class to go with it. Here's an evil article about Class Combos, by James Wyatt (one of my favorite authors). Talking about the different combos people can come up with in multiclasses. Like the Champion (cleric/fighter). It weighs the pluses and minuses of some the classes combinations. Creature Codex, the ecology of the feyr. Oooo scary stuff, no really, it is. The FR 2000 Survival Guide. Nice. Small but nice. And then Rogues Gallery, spot lighting the "heroes" of Myth Drannor, a nice tie in to the new Pools of Radiance game. October 27, 2000 Fiend Ships Galal's Grave: Fiend Games, a D20 System publisher, is currently printing their new adventure, Galal's Grave. It can be preordered through Wizard's Attic and is expected to ship in November. Monster Madness Contest: DiTerlizzi.com is sponsoring an art contest. Draw your version of a classic D&D monster and win a copy of the Monster Manual autographed by Tony DiTerlizzi. Fiery Dragon Ready to Ship NeMoren's Vault: Fiery Dragon Productions, a D20 System publisher, says it has shipped their new adventure, NeMoren's Vault, to Wizard's Attic, which is where you can pre-order a copy. James Bell of Fiery Dragon estimates that they should be ready to ship on Friday, November 3. MT Update: If it's Friday night, it must be time for the Master Tools update, delivered this week by producer Wayne Cline: This week at Fluid has been bizzee. First, we’ve got the rough beginnings of the Monster Generator working. It’s very preliminary, but we’re able to put in the name, stats, HD, attacks, special qualities, descriptive text, and all the other details that go into making monsters. With the MG, we’ll be entering in all of the monsters from the Monster Manual for you to use to populate your adventures. It’s also how you’ll be able to create all-new monsters yourselves. Also, a lot has been going on with the Mapper, a big topic of discussion around the MT groups. The main question I’m seeing is, “Why 3D?” and “Will I be able to map in 2D as well?” I’ll answer the second question first. YES! You will most definitely be able to map in 2D. Actually, I prefer it. Even though the Mapper is also in its early stages, I used it to map out the dungeon in the back of the Player’s Handbook. I used the 2D perspective to lay out the walls and the floors, but then it was VERY cool to go to the isometric perspective to check the layout as it may look to the characters. You will also be able to look at a print preview of how the dungeon will print to paper. Another hot topic has been about the scanned minis. Just to clear up any confusion, what we’re doing is having a company called Scansite scan about 50 of the WotC lead figures and then we’re going to paint them using Maya. In addition to those, we’re going to model more monsters from scratch. For any characters that we are not able to create a unique mini for, we’ll have a default representation for each of the seventeen different types of monsters. These minis will then be used to populate the dungeon. You can also import your own images (both portraits and minis) if you’d like. Finally, there have been many questions about MT vs. Neverwinter Nights. NWN is a computer game. Yes, one of the players will be able to DM the game and create adventures, but the other players will play the adventure in the game on their computers. Master Tools is being designed to help DMs and players prepare for a tabletop game. Do you need a computer at the table? No, not at all, but it might be cool if you had a laptop. You could show the players how a particular room was laid out or maybe play a sound effect (like a creatures battle cry) to add to the mood. That’s it for now. Happy Halloween and all that! Wayne Cline Fluid Entertainment, Producer New at WotC: Lotsa new stuff posted just recently (thanks to sk0766 and Dark Blackshield for the scoop): Unabridged PHB Appendix: No, it's not painful surgery, it's the uncut version of the appendix from the PHB. Apparently some of the definitions in the glossary were trimmed down or eliminated due to space constraints, but you can read the whole thing online right here. (Here's the "printer friendly" version). For example, check out these definitions that didn't make it into the glossary: attack action: Any one of the following physical attack types: melee attack, ranged attack, unarmed attack, charge, or full attack. The first four of these are standard actions that combine a single attack with a move. A full attack action is a full-round action enabling a creature with multiple attacks to use them all, but limiting movement to a 5-foot step. An attack action is resolved by one attack roll per attack. Illusion: A school of magic focused on spells that alter perception or create false images. Illusion spells work by deceiving the senses or minds of others. They can cause creatures to see things that are not there, not see things that are there, hear phantom noises, or remember things that never happened. The subschools of the Illusion school of magic are figment, glamer, pattern, phantasm, and shadow. New PDF Adventure: You can download "Base of Operations," a free short D&D adventure for 5th level characters written by T'Ed Stark. Classic Module: You can download the sequel to the classic Ravenloft module, Ravenloft II: The House on Gryphon Hill. Terror Trax: You can download the audio adventure "Track of the Werewolf." Requires RealPlayer 8 to play the audio files. Dark Sun Downloads: Free downloads for the Dark Sun campaign setting, including Forest Maker, Mauraders of Nibenay, and Psionic Artifacts of Athas (you'll need to scroll down after clicking the link). LG Gazetteer Preview: Issak Haywood has scored an early copy of the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer and offers his thoughts on the product (special thanks to Erik Mona for providing the new cover images): I got hold of the new Living Greyhawk Gazetteer. Below is a break down of the chapters, with how much of the chapter is new information. I only have had a few hours to go over it, and most of that was dedicated to finding out more information on the Theocracy of the Pale and Pholtus, but from the other sections that I skimmed through and others that I have read, below is what I have found. First off the cover is not like that that is pictured on the website. On the bottom a Black and Gold Dragon are facing each other. Mordenkainen stands above them dressed in blue robes and holding a staff. In the clouds you can see someone in armor carrying a sword. The last part of the cover brings back images of the old Deities and Demigods. The inside covers have the heraldry of the many nations of the Flanaess, and holds the map ( which is very hard to get out). The map is similar to that which is in the D&D Gazetteer, but shows hexes, as well as more islands in the Dramidj Ocean. Surrounding the map is the holy symbols of quite a few gods (none of them Pholtus, which is disappointing). Overall the Map is a good addition to the collection that is already available. Chap. 1 Greyhawks World: This gives a small explanation of the heavenly bodies of Luna and Celene and their movement across the sky. Included in this area is a small blurb on the climate and seasons, as well as a break down of the nine major geographic regions. 95% of this is a re-hash of the WoG Boxset, FtA, and TAB. Chap. 2 Folk of the Flanaess: The first part of this section goes into the best detail I have seen about the 6 major human races of the Balkan, Flan, Oeridian, Olman, Rhennee, and Suloise. Next are the olve (elf), dwur (dwarves), noniz (gnome), hobniz (halfling), kell (gnolls) and the rest of the major humanoid races (all with their Flan names as well). The last section covers the five major languages, as well as brief explanations of a few of the more ancient and lesser-known languages. 75% or more of this information is somewhat new, or at least better detailed than in the past. Chap. 3 The Path of History: This is a brief overview of the history of the Flanaess for the past 1,000 years. It is broken down into Disaster and Migration, Keoland and Aerdy, The Ivids and Iuz, Storm Clouds, The Greyhawk Wars, and finally Recent Recovery. 98% of this is a re-hash of the 3 major past books, including a picture that was re-done from WoG, that has a man standing in a tower watching the Rain of Colorless Fire. Chap. 4 Gazetteer of the Flanaess: This is what everybody is looking for! The information starts on page 17 and goes to 138. The first part of it is very similar to that of the D&D Gazetteer, explaining certain things that aren't included and why. Next it explains how things are listed, everything from D&D Gaz. Page 20 is a full size picture of Overking Zavener of Ahlissa, which starts the really good parts of the book. From the readings that I have gotten through, there is a lot of information on each nation, most of it a re-hash of all previous Greyhawk information books. However, there is enough new information here to keep all Greyhawkers happy for about 2 weeks (we always go over the books quickly). One of the most interesting areas is the Bandit Kingdoms, which is broken down even further into the different factions governing the area. Very cool. Some of this stuff could be found in the old Dragon Magazines, but most will find this to be new information. Keoland is also very well written, and with the LGJ#1 and the Keoish Triad website, many happy hours of gaming will be had (I believe that Gary Holian did an awesome job here). The rest of this section devotes about 1 -2 pages per nation (which is a vast improvement from the past books, which you could find something like 5 paragraphs depicting an area total using all books and 4 of them would repeat the same information). Overall this section has about 50% or more new stuff. Even if it is less than 50% new, this is what you're buying and this is very informative. If you don't have WoG, FtA, or TAB - then you better pick this up. If you have all those and more, you don't want to miss out on what you don't already know! Chap. 5 Geography of the Flanaess: The sections include Forests, Mountains, Hills, Islands, Seas and Lakes, Wetlands, and Wastelands. I have not yet looked into this section at all, but it seems like a major re-write of what's already out. Chap. 6 Power Groups: Again I have not read this area either, so I will only list the headliners here: Circle of Eight, Horned Society, Knight Protectors of the Great Kingdom, Knights of the Hart, Knights of Holy Shielding, Knights of Luna, Knights of the Watch, Mouqollad Consortium, Old Faith, Old Lore, People of the Testing, and the Silent Ones of Keoland. Chap. 7 Greyhawk Gods: This is a very good section depicting the Gods of Greyhawk. St. Cuthbert no longer exacts revenge / retribution as the PHB states, and that is given back to Trithereon. Most of the gods listed are similar to the write-ups in FtA, with some new information. I was personally hoping that the writers would have consulted with Tal Meta in writing these gods. He did the best job I have seen in his work on the Greyhawk Gods, and urge Erik and Gary to consider using his information next time. Or better yet, come out with a Priests and Powers (that is how Greyhawk relates to their deities) book based upon his work. Overall this is 25% or less new information. WotC's Sean Reynolds comments: "Erik Mona was quick to point out that Tal Meta's deity writeups use the *Runequest* rules (to say nothing of the fact that we couldn't use his material without his permission)." More from Sean: "The chapter has 71 deities, 21 of which have been detailed officially for the first time ever, including several little-known deities that only existed as a name/alignment/portfolio in 2nd or even 1st edition AD&D. Add to that the fact that for many of these deities you're seeing have their philosophy, roles of clerics, holy symbol, and other details for the first time, there's much more new material there than the reviewer is acknowledging." Appendix: The Living Greyhawk Campaign This is a promotion for LG, and the RPGA, and if you have the D&D Gaz, or any of the recent Dragon Magazines then this is nothing new. Overall I believe this to be one of the best informative books that we have for Greyhawk, that doesn't revolve around the City of Greyhawk. If you don't have the old books or can't afford them on eBay, then definitely pick this one up. If you have all the books, pick this up anyway as it has some very good information on the lands of the Flanaess. This is definitely worth the $27.00 sticker price. MM Review: You can read a mostly positive review of the Monster Manual at the Blog of Holding website. Winter Fantasy: You can preregister for the Winter Fantasy gaming convention over at the WotC RPGA site. NWN Preview: RPG Planet has posted a "first look" at Neverwinter Nights, a D&D Forgotten Realms CRPG that uses the 3E rules. (thanks to wsmith for the scoop) Unarmed/Armed and Magic: Scooper Jason Saving recently got some clarification from WotC's Skip Williams on the subject of combat-enhancing magic: Since the PH generally treats hands as just another type of weapon, can hands be affected by spells such as 'bless weapon'? If not, could a character get around this by wearing gauntlets? Skip: "Hands are a natural weapon, so you'd need magic fang, not bless weapon. A monk wearing gauntlets would be 'armed' and would have to use his base attack, not his unarmed strike, but could get the benefits of bless weapon." PHB Errata in Word: If you'd like a nicely-formatted list of the PHB errata provided by WotC, you can download this 14-page Word document prepared by Mark Maggard. New in the Conversion Library: Monsters and more monsters, plus another stab at the Psionicist. Anakin's Stats: You can find the stats for Anakin Skywalker at the official Star Wars RPG site. October 26, 2000 Horror of the Frog: Team Frog, a D20 System publisher, has posted a very brief PDF preview of their forthcoming adventure, The Horror Beneath, due in November. (thanks to Michele Bonelli di Salci for the scoop) Software Updates: Two fan-created electronic gizmos have been updated: The Stat Block Generator now has more room and more fields. Jamis Buck's NPC Generator (Beta) now allows multiple NPC creation and includes the NPC classes from the DMG. (thanks to Mark for the scoop) D&D Movie Trailer: The trailer for the D&D movie has been posted in several sizes at www.seednd.com. (thanks to dozens of scoopers) Star Wars RPG Review: Zealot.com has posted a review of the yet-to-be released D20 System Star Wars Roleplaying Game from WotC. Here's a snippet: The Force itself is presented well, with a couple of limitations. The rules could have been clearer. Force abilities are divided into Feats and Skills; basically, Skills are easier to learn and develop than Feats, which increases flexibility in developing the character, but using two sets of rules to govern use of the Force can get overly complex and research-heavy. On the other hand, there is an entire chapter dedicated to the interaction between Jedi and the Force, with guidelines to roleplaying Jedi, how Force-users can slide from the Light side of the Force into to Dark Side, and how they can come back over if they want. New in the Conversion Library: Conversion of the second module in the Against the Giants series from 1st Edition. D&D Reviews: The 3rd Edition has posted a review of the Player's Handbook. Roleplaynews.com has posted a review of the Monster Manual. (thanks to elrics for the scoop) Official Updates: New stuff at WotC. (thanks to Dark Blackshield and Tom for the scoop) New Map: The Haunted Temple. Third installment of In Darkest Days for Dragonlance. October 25, 2000 Master Tools Announcement List: Want to stay up-to-date on Master Tools but don't feel like wading through dozens of postings from DNDMASTERTOOLS-L? List administrator Pat has some good news for you: I have received a ton of requests asking for if there is a way to get announcements from WotC regarding MT. I have set up an announcent list for people who want just this. Anything that WotC and Fluid will be forwarded by me to this list so you will not miss these announcements. Be warned though, this will be only for announcements _only_. If you wish to discuss MT, this is the list for that discussion, and not on the list that I have made up. Also, there may be an actual delay, by a day or so, as I am not monitoring my email 24/7 before I can actually forward emails from WotC and Fluid. Here are the directions on how to subscribe and unsubscribe. Just send a blank email to: Subscribe: MT_announcements-subscribe@egroups.com Unsubscribe: MT_announcements-unsubscribe@egroups.com or visit: http://www.egroups.com/group/MT_announcements New in the Conversion Library: Illusionist class variant based on the 1st edition version; ghost template variant converted from Van Richten's Guide to Ghosts, and a mystic prestige class based on the kit from the Complete Wizard's Handbook. Stunned and Butterfingered: Regardless of the fact that it isn't always mentioned every time it's brought up, "You dropped things when you're stunned," according to WotC's Skip Williams. This is mentioned in the PHB glossary (p. 282), for instance, but not in the DMG "Condition Summary" (p. 85). (thanks to Pete for the scoop) Community News: A Touch of Evil is a D&D campaign site featuring new skills, feats and prestige classes. The 3rd Edition has posted an article on charging in the 3E combat system. Claudio Pozas Art & Design has a couple of original illustrations for 3E. D20 Cuthulhu: GamingOutpost.com is reporting that WotC will be publishing a D20 System Cthulhu rulebook in cooperation with Chaosium, the publisher of the Call of Cthulhu RPG. It will be released in Fall of 2001. Read the report here. Chaosium has previously announced a D20 Dragonlords of Melniboné product. (thanks to Piratecat and Michele Bonelli di Salci for the scoop) In addition, the president of Chaosium posted this notice in reference to the deal: Some time ago Wizards of the Coast approached us about the possibility of releasing a special d20 edition of the Call of Cthulhu rulebook. We considered their offer, and have agreed, with some conditions. This is a one-book deal. WOTC will not publish supplements for this book--we wanted to retain those rights. We felt that this is a great way of approaching a huge portion of the roleplaying market, using the distribution power of WOTC/Hasbro. We also wanted a minimum retail price, since it would do us no good for them to seriously undercut our game. I know that many of you will have bad thoughts about this, and we certainly have proceeded cautiously. It is a good deal for Chaosium and holds the real possibility of bringing Lovecraft's vision to more gamers. Hero Builder's Guidebook: WotC's Dale Donovan provided a summary of what you can expect to find in the D&D Hero Builder's Guidebook, set for a December release (thanks to sk0766 for the scoop): Here at the WotC RPG R&D office, we just got (advance) copies of the above-named product, a 64-page accessory almost exclusively devoted to character background, advice, and roleplaying by Ryan Dancey, David Noonan, and John D. Rateliff. This book has chapters on ability scores, race & class, personal history, alignment, your PC's future, and an appendix of racial names from which to choose. These all help flesh out D&D game PCs. With its advice (each race and single-class combo possible in the game--for example), tables (which you can choose to roll or choose from), and other info, this books helps gamers both old and new to create well-rounded, in-depth characters that are more than just a collections of numbers. And good characters make for good roleplaying and good gaming. This product will be in stores in December. If what I've said sounds interesting, please seek it out. Forgotten Realms, Illustrated: WotC has posted an update to the Realmswatch section of the D&D FR site -- a selection of concept art for FR 3E. (thanks to Dark Blackshield and Sonny Mendoza for the scoop) October 24, 2000 Creature Catalog CR List: Okay, so you have the D20 Creature Catalog from Sword & Sorcery Studios, but you wish you had a list of its monsters arranged by challenge rating. Well wish no more -- Quentin Schilling has put together such a list. You can download the Word version here, or the plain text version here. Master Tools Models: WotC's Jim Bishop offers some elaboration on last Friday's Master Tools update in which he posed the question of how to best handle the issue of markers for monsters in the mapping tool. Jim had mentioned "laser scanning" a bunch of miniatures, but ... (thanks to Pat for the scoop) ...just exactly what did I mean by laser scanning, and are they 3D objects or not? The Arcanum engine does not support true 3D objects. Instead, like many other RPGs (Baldur's Gate and Fallout come to mind) the engine has a certain number of views of each model: think of them as corresponding to the points on a compass. When the model is facing a given direction, the application displays the appropriate "snapshot" of that model facing in that direction. It gives the illusion of 3D without the image having any depth whatsoever. So back to the miniatures. We've got this big box of D&D minis that we're going to scan in, creating true 3D objects. The artists will then paint these 3D objects and take snapshots of them in the four poses we're planning to support (NW, NE, SE, SW). These snapshots are what will actually go into the product as art assets, and what you'll be dropping into your maps to build encounters. In a couple of days we should have downloadable .avi's of some of the scanned figures available for download off the Master Tools page, just so everybody can see how cool they look. Community News: At Fantasy has posted a Revenant template for your Halloween pleasure. The 3rd Edition has posted a review of the D&D Adventure Game. One More GenCon Pic: Okay, GenCon 2000 is long past, right? So why am I posting this picture? Well, I'm one of those people who has to go several months before using up a roll of film. I'm sure you know the type. Anyway, this has been added to my GenCon report for posterity. :) New in the Conversion Library: Priests of Tharizdun for the Greyhawk campaign setting, aarakocra conversion, and variants of the flesh golem and the yeth hound. New at WotC: Not only has WotC released their PHB errata list (see below), they've also posted some other new goodies. (thanks to Tom and one other guy for the scoop :) Corrected Barbarian Character Sheet (60kb PDF, just the front side with the error) Generic D&D Character Sheet (950kb PDF, two pages) New Portraits (Mages and Rogues) by Tony DiTerlizzi Pool of Radiance II Delayed: RPG Planet's Pool of Radiance II fansite, The Scrying Room, is reporting that the game will be delayed until Q1 2001. PoR II will be the first CRPG released to use the D&D Third Edition rules. (thanks to Steve Vogel for the scoop) Jonathan Tweet at Amazon.com: D&D game co-designer Jonathan Tweet was interviewed over at Amazon.com. Here's a quote to whet your appetite. (thanks to Oren Douek, Therese Littleton and David Caveney for the scoop) Amazon.com: Why did monks and paladins need to be reined in? Tweet: Paladins and monks didn't need to be reined in. Playtesters just objected to the idea that they could multiclass without restriction. They see these classes as more narrowly devoted to their careers than other classes. It's a flavor issue. Stat Block Generator: You can find a nifty little Windows utility that allows you to type in character and/or monster stats into a form and save the data in standard stat block format. The Stat Block Generator (180kb .zip) was created by Blake Whitelaw. Official PHB Errata Posted at WotC: You can find the error corrections list for the first printing of the PHB at the official D&D site (here's their "printer-friendly version"). (Thanks to Russell Crawley, Larry, and Anders for the scoop) October 23, 2000 NPC Generator: Computer whiz Jamis Buck has created an online NPC generator. It allows completely random generation or control over gender, race, alignment, classes and levels for generation. It's a beta version, and he's looking for comments, so head on over and give it a try. New in the Conversion Library: Two genies (dao and marid) converted, and a Bladesinger variant known as the Arcane Fighter. Community News: DNDFiles.com has posted several monsters for download, including Archvile, Per, Avernos Dragon, and the Utah Raptor. RPG Archive, long a well-known repository for homebrewed RPG materials, has added sections for Third Edition D&D NPCs and Adventures. Gygax Interview: WomenGamers.com hast posted an interview with everybody's favorite guy, Mr. Gary Gygax. (thanks to Allan Grohe for the scoop) DiTerlizzi Uncovered: One of the illustrators for the Monster Manual, Tony DiTerlizzi, has posted a couple of his MM illustrations -- the tiefling and the treant -- with comments. (thanks to Ben Johnson for the scoop) Official Updates: WotC has recently added part 7 of Village of Camiram, as well as another Pool of Radiance II interview. (thanks to Dark Blackshield, Issak Haywood, Bertman4, and Csana for the scoop) October 22, 2000 Save the Squirrels! If you're one of the many people who thinks squirrels are under-represented in the D&D rulebooks, you'll want to sign Squirrel Nutkin's petition, found here. Adventure Font: An alert scooper has found a place where you can download the font that contains six symbols used in Dungeon Magazine to highlight encounters, towns, traps, treasure, etc. (thanks to Toft for the scoop) Eric's New E-mail Address: Due to a royal screw-up with my home e-mail account, I'm going to have to rely on RPG Planet's e-mail service for the time being. Please e-mail me at MrNoah@rpgplanet.com rather than my old address (which will soon be out of service). Thanks! New in the Conversion Library: Limbant (Greenwood Ranger) prestige class, and conversion of a critter called the Tressym. Free Maps at Necromancer Games: You can find two free player's maps from Necromancer Games' forthcoming adventure, The Crucible of Freya. (thanks to Clark Peterson and Steve Vogel for the scoop) October 21, 2000 MM Errata -- Energy Drain: On p. 8 of the Monster Manual, under Energy Drain, you should strike out the part in parentheses in the following sentence: "For each negative level inflicted on an opponent, the draining creature heals 5 points of damage (10 on a critical hit)." Skip Williams says, "The parenthetical should be struck (it's a leftover from an earlier draft of the rules)." (thanks to Michael Cyr for the scoop) News from MAG: Jason Klank of Mystical Alchemy Gameworks, one of the D20 publishers, fills us in on what's been going on recently: I wanted to drop you a line and let you know that MAG is not dead. We'll be doing a re-launch of our website with updated schedule and new product information. We'll be releasing the Aldor Map for FREE to everyone on the net, both in Campaign Cartographer 2 and PDF format. Our Aldor Player's Guide will now be merged as one book with the DM's Guide for one source of reference for the world of Aldor. More information will be posted at our relaunch - but a quick tidbit - the Aldor PG has been rewritten to accommodate the RELEASED 3E rules, and not the playtest versions (of which, we had it based upon). We also are looking at small print-run materials for in-hand product, as well as less expensive online-release. New in the Conversion Library: 3E version of the classic DM's Adventure Log sheets. Electronic Wizardry: A couple of fan-created electronic gizmos to help you with your D&D game... Alan Hickman has posted an online Encounter Generator. Pick a number of critters, Encounter Level, and terrain, and get a list of monsters. You can filter by alignment and whether you want to include outsiders or not. Liquid Palm has released a D&D character sheet for those little hand-held computers. If you fork over the $10 for the full program you "get the bonus applications: Spellbook, SkillPack and Monster Catalogue!" (thanks to Roland for the scoop) October 20, 2000 D&D Part III: Gamers.com has posted the third part of their D&D extravaganza. You'll find a Dave Arneson interview, as well as Mists of Vok Delor, a D&D adventure with maps and all the trimmings. (thanks to Ian "the Mad," the first of several scoopers) New at WotC: Official updates... Up on a Soapbox Survey: "Be the first to tell Gary Gygax what you think makes a roleplaying game. He has come up with a list of 16 elements that you might think are an important part of your roleplaying experience." Imperial Capital from D&D Movie: Dave Arneson describes a city that will play a prominent role in the forthcoming D&D film. Al-Qadim Downloads: Download free PDFs of Corsairs of the Great Sea and Caravans. MT Update from Jim Bishop: Jim has posted the weekly Master Tools update over on my message boards. It's more of a question than anything, about how to create monster symbols for the mapping portion of the program... This week we got the go-ahead to laser scan about fifty D&D miniatures, and it prompted a lot of discussion about how we represent monsters in the Master Tools. The sheer number of monsters in the Monster Manual (something like 560) is a real problem for software development, since we just don't have the art resources to do unique models for every single monster. So we have some hard choices to make: Do we divide the monsters into High and Low priority, with the Low priority monsters represented only by their Type (Animal, Aberration, Construct, etc.) and High priority monsters represented in exact detail? This option is similar to the character generator demo, in that certain pieces are lushly illustrated and others just have the "demo" tag. As an example, a Red Dragon would be uniquely modeled and painted, and would exactly represent the illustration in the MM. By contrast, a Chuul might be represented as a pewter-colored Beholder model, a "generic Aberration." All Animals might be represented by a Wolf model. Or do we try for something in the middle, with models that are less generic than simply by Type, but more generic than the high-detail monsters from the first option (Medium Humanoids, or Large Animals would be examples)? This would create a smaller number of total models, but only a few monsters would be exactly represented. As an example, all demons would share the same model, as would all devils and all dragons. No It's Not Just You: The message boards are indeed flaking out on us a bit and have been (even moreso than usual) for the past couple of days. They're not down all the time but neither are they functional all the time. "Keep trying" is my only advice for now. Thanks for your patience. New in the Conversion Library: Homunculus revision and variants. October 19, 2000 D&D Review: Red alert! Red alert! A new review of the D&D game has been detected off the port bow at SciFi.com! Arm photon torpedos! (scoop transported by Bertman4) Balancing New Rules: WotC's Keith Strohm dropped by my message board and wrote about how future rules will be worked into the existing core D&D system: As far as the non-core material being unbalanced, I have to say that we have built a clear strategy internally around the relationship of non-core rules and core rules. To the best of our ability, R&D is making sure that all new rules and "options" presented are in balance with the core or clearly labeled as potentially "dangerous" to campaigns. We actually have a Rules Council made up of R&D designers whose job it is to make sure that new rules are balanced and reflect the design philosophy and strategies of the 3rd Edition design. That means that all new rules, regardless of where they are created, that are labeled as official (ie., labeled clearlyt in Dragon or in a for-sale product) must be approved by the rules council. So, the Feats that playtesters saw in the FR book had not yet gone to the rules council. The FR material is currently under review and will be balanced with the core. It is probable that some of the feats and spells will be retooled to bring it in line with the core rules. The same holds true for additional systems to the game (like Psionics or Epic Level play --above 20th-level--). The foundations for their design have already been laid, well before the actual design had started, and these systems also need to be approved by the rules council. I hope this sheds light on what I believe is a very important issue regarding playability and non-core rules. New in the Conversion Library: Legion of Steel prestige classes for Dragonlance, and Demihuman, Humanoid and Monstrous Deity info from Monster Mythology. German-Language PHB Delayed: Amigo Spiele in Germany has announced that the release of the German 3E D&D PHB, originally scheduled for October 26, has been postponed. No new release date has been set yet. Amigo says that the release has been postponed to assure that the final release is of the highest quality possible. One scooper indicates that they may be waiting until some of the things planned for the 2nd printing of the English-language PHB (such as the promised Attacks of Opportunity explanations and possibly errata corrections) are complete. (thanks to Mark Oliva and Frank Reiss for the scoop) Sword and Sorcery Open Call for Writers: Have a neat magic item or spell you've developed for 3E? Sword and Sorcery Studios wants your work for an upcoming D20 System product, and they're even willing to pay. Click here for instructions on how to submit your work. Deadline is October 31. (thanks to Jim Morris for the scoop) D&D Treasure Generator for Mac: Russell Mirabelli has developed a Mac port of Jamis Buck's downloadable D&D Treasure Generator program. You can grab both the Windows and Mac versions at the Treasure Generator site. New at WotC: A new map (The Old Tower), Forgotten Realms Sneak Peek (Gold Dwarves, a racial variant), a new episode of In Darkest Days for Dragonlance, and Forgotten Realms Roundtable have been posted today. (thanks to Michael Phyle, Dark Blackshield, el Bob, PLCM, Issak Haywood, Colin Tan, Steve Vogel, Joel Flank, and Anthony Pitman for the scoop) Keith Strohm Q&A: I had a chance to ask WotC's RPG and Miniatures Director Keith Strohm some questions about his role in the company and about some rumors going around. Kind of a mini-interview, if you will. Thanks to Keith for taking the time to provide these informative answers. Now that D&D Brand Manager Ryan Dancey has moved on and up, what is your current role at WotC? Recently ... I was given the opportunity to manage both the RPG and Miniatures Categories at Wizards of the Coast, as well as assume Ryan's responsibilities as brand manager of D&D. Ryan was assigned to a special project for the president of the company. Far from being punishment, this move was a recognition of Ryan's hard work and value to the company, and I'm sure he'll be working on something even more challenging than the resurrection of the RPG business real soon. Because in corporate speak, my new position is a Director-level position, my new title is Director, Tabletop RPGs and Miniatures. Your debut adventure, "The Dead of Winter," was very entertaining. It seems to have a lot of classic fantasy elements. What was it like being on that end of the product? Any interesting stories about writing it? Thanks for the kind words. Previous to my work on Ryan Dancey's team, I was an editor and sometime designer on the R&D staff both at Wizards of the Coast and TSR in Lake Geneva, so the creative side, while always a challenge, was not necessarily something new for me. I've always been fascinated by winter (I know, it's a weird thing to be fascinated by), especially winter as its used in fantasy settings or scenes in fantasy fiction and RPGs. I was running a 2nd Edition Campaign several years ago set in Corum (the background land for the Dead of Winter module), and I created the adventure originally for that campaign. Chris Perkins, the editor of Dungeon Magazine was a participant in that campaign and really seemed to like the adventure. It was chilly, windy, and rainy in Seattle around that time, and if it wasn't exactly like a Wisconsin winter, the adventure fit the mood of the natural elements around us, which enhanced the experience overall. As to how the adventure made its way into print, I'm afraid that it was a simple matter of economics. I was planning a wedding at that time and desperately needed the money to afford things like food and a place to hold the reception. Since I new Chris had liked the adventure, I typed it up formally, made some additions, and set it in. Chris, a kind-hearted soul, decided to accept the story. And that's the last I saw of it for almost a year and a half. I quietly went about my business thinking that Chris had accepted the adventure out of a sense of duty and friendship, meanwhile keeping the damn thing hidden away at the bottom of the "never-to-be-printed pile." As it turns out, he liked the adventure so much that he felt it was a perfect candidate for the premiere 3rd Edition adventure that would go on the Character Generator demo CD-ROM. And the rest is history. Having it go out on that CD probably made it one of the most read (if not actually played) adventures ever published. I'm quite happy with the feedback I've received about it. Q: How does it feel to have the final core D&D book, the Monster Manual, out the door and into our hands? There is a tremendous sense of relief and pride. Although the folks who did the real work are actually down in R&D and on the rest of the Cross-Functional team, I have a lot of proprietary feelings about 3rd Edition. It's funny because out of everyone responsible for making this happen, I probably did the least amount of actual work. But there it is. I'm really gratified (and professionally overjoyed) at the success of the new D&D. Senior management took a chance with the RPG category, and to a certain extent, the 3rd Edition launch was probably a make or break time for the category. Q: I was wondering if you'd be interested in responding to a rumor: "Creating and printing the PH and DMG cost WotC a ton of money -- a lot more than was first planned -- and at $20 a pop WotC is losing money. WotC executives went through the roof when they learned this." Absolutely not. We managed the development of these books very carefully, using the skills and processes that we had developed while trying to run a business that has, in comparison to just about anything else at WOTC, low-margins. We are not losing money on every sale. I will say that senior management would have probably liked the price to be a bit higher on those books, but I think that the current price is accomplishing its strategic goal: to reduce the upgrade barrier for existing 1st- and 2nd-Edition D&D players. The results have been tremendous. Q: How's the FR book coming along? The FR book is coming along just fine. I'm very excited about the direction the FR team has taken regarding the new Realms RPG book. I think a lot of that credit goes to Rich Baker, the Creative Director for Realms RPG product, Anthony Valterra, the Business manager for FR RPGs, and Jim Butler, D&D Worlds brand manager. October 18, 2000 ESD News: WotC's Jim Butler has posted new and updated lists of D&D products that will be available as downloads either for free or from the Wizards Online Store. There's been one minor change to the Forgotten Realms ESD list, one minor change to the Dark Sun ESD list, and here are the lists for Al-Qadim, Maztica and Kara-Tur. Note that all of these campaign settings are located on the same planet as the Forgotten Realms. Also note that some of the products are scheduled for free release and some are not. (thanks to Black Moria for the scoop): SKU AQ Product -- Free Release Date 9449 Corsairs of the Great Sea 10/20/00 9459 Caravans 10/20/00 SKU AQ Product -- Pay Release Date 2126 Arabian Adventures 10/27/00 2129 MC Appendix 13 10/27/00 1077 Land of Fate 11/3/00 9366 ALQ1: Golden Voyages 11/3/00 9431 ALQ2: Assassin Mountain 11/10/00 9432 ALQ3: A Dozen and One Adventures 11/10/00 1091 City of Delights 11/17/00 9440 Ruined Kingdoms 11/17/00 2146 Complete Sha'ir's Handbook 11/22/00 9467 Cities of Bone 11/22/00 SKU Maztica Product -- Free Release Date 1066 MAZTICA boxed set 11/10/00 9333 "FMA1, Fires of Zatal" 11/10/00 9340 "FMA2, Endless Armies" 11/10/00 9349 "FMQ1, City of Gold" 11/10/00 SKU Kara-Tur Product -- Free Release Date 9242 "OA5, Mad Monkey vs. the Dragon Claws" 11/3/00 9257 "OA6, Ronin Challenge 11/3/00 9258 "OA7, Test of the Samurai" 11/3/00 SKU Kara-Tur Product -- Pay Release Date 9164 "OA1, Sword of the Daimyo" 11/3/00 9186 "OA2, Night of the Seven Swords" 11/3/00 9195 "OA3, Ochimo, the Spirit Warrior" 11/10/00 9203 "OA4, Blood of the Yakuzu" 11/10/00 1032 KARA-TUR boxed set 11/10/00 9402 "TM5, Kara-Tur Trail Map" 11/17/00 2116 "MC 6, Kara-Tur Monstrous Compendium" 11/17/00 9307 "FROA1, Ninja Wars" 11/17/00 New in the Conversion Library: Two Greyhawk prestige classes, three ranger "variant" classes based on 2E kits, and conversion of the classic 1st edition module G1: Steading of the Hill Giant Chief. New Portraits: WotC has posted a few new PC Portraits from the talented Mr. DiTerlizzi. (thanks to Issak and Kyamsil for the scoop) Luck Domain: Pop quiz, hotshot: You're a cleric. You have access to the Luck domain; this domain's granted power "allows you to reroll one roll that you have just made." Does this apply to when you roll hit points when you go up a level? WotC's Skip Williams says, "No. It's supposed to be a check, attack, or save." (thanks to Juzah for the scoop) Master Tools Tidbits: Jim Bishop on a variety of topics (thanks to Pat and Patrick for the scoop): Master Tools and CC2: When I spoke with Simon at ProFantasy about this issue some time ago, I told him I would be willing to share our mapping format with him, so that CC2.0 could possibly be able to import Master Tools maps. Since the mapper is still being modified, we're not at a point where we can even begin this yet. Note that we have no plans for importing CC2.0 files into Master Tools--this would be a one-way 'port only. Master Tools and CR2: As for Core Rules 2.0 files, we have no plans to build any sort of import utility for these files. It would be an incredible amount of work for what we felt was a small payoff. There are just so many exceptions, soft-logic decisions, and creative modifications between 2E and 3E that we decided to throw our full weight behind building a 3E application from scratch. Master Tools and Macs (How Many Sigs Needed on the Petition to Port MT to Mac): I need roughly 4,000 to break even on our 'port costs, so it's safe to say "more than 4,000." Town Generator: Bruce Gulke has created a table for his TableSmith program that will generate random towns using the DMG rules. You can find out more about TableSmith here and grab the table itself here. Community News: Necromancer Games and Sword and Sorcery Studios are producing a d20 adventure, The Crucible of Freya, which can be preordered at White Wolf's online store. Dusk, one of the hosted sites at DNDWorlds.com, has designated October the Month of the Rogue. They've posted a new skill, feat, spell, monster, magic item, and character related to this theme. Updates at From the Ashes and DNDFiles.com. Roleplayingtips.com is a general RPG advice site for game masters. You can find short articles such as "7 Tips For Fast & Effective Note-Taking While Game Mastering" or "How To Fix Botched Encounters In Mid-Game." 3rdedition.org has added a reader review function to their product listings. October 17, 2000 Living Greyhawk Journal #1: The first issue of LGJ (aside from issue #0, included in a recent Dragon Magazine) is appearing in the mailboxes of RPGA members. Two fine folks have written to divulge the magazine's contents. (thanks to Erifnogard and Elric for the scoop) Here's the Table of Contents: Features Places of Mystery by Erik Mona Oerth stands on the axis of a multitude of worlds. These two sites provide gateways to the adventurous realms on the periphery of reality. The Kingdom of Keoland by Gary Holian One of the oldest kingdoms of the Flanaess has remained a mystery for years. Journey to the most influential provinces of the Kingdom of Keoland, where politics & superstition make dangerous allies. Playing Pieces: The Despotix of Hardby by Fred Weining The matriarchal leaders of Hardby have long played a subordinate role to the mayors of Greyhawk. The city's current ruler, however, has some interesting plans about how the tables might be turned. Departments Campaign News Character creation, campaign updates, and our first contest! Enchiridion of the Fiend-Sage by Sean K. Reynolds The first in a series of articles revisiting some old monstrous friends in the new edition of the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS(R) game. Plus, meet the Nauskiree, scourge of the northern forests. The Enchiridion includes stats for the following monsters: Greyhawk Dragon, Nauskiree, Son of Kyuss, Xvarts. Dispatches Coat of Arms for 24 of the various kingdoms of the Flanaess. Stat Block for Son of Kyuss: Medium-Size Undead Hit Dice: 4d12+3 (27 hp) Initiative: -1 (Dex) (typo in article says +1) Speed: 30 ft. AC: 11 (-1 Dex, +2 natural) Attacks: Slam +2 (base) +4 (Str); melee Damage: Slam 1d6+4 (Str) Face/Reach: 5 ft. by 5ft./5 ft. Special Attacks: Kyuss' Gift, create spawn Special Qualities: Undead, regeneration 5, turn resistance +2 Saves: Fort +3, Ref +0, Will +4 Abilities: Str 18, Dex 9, Con -, Int 6, Wis 11, Cha 14 Skills: Hide +4 (-1 Dex), Jump +4 (+4 Str), Move Silently +4 (-1 Dex), Spot +6 Feats: Toughness Climate/Terrain: Any land and underground Orginization: Shamble (1-3) or horde (1-3 plus 1-6 huge or larger zombies) Challenge Rating: 5 Treasure: None Alignment: Always chaotic evil Advancement Rangs: Small 5-6 HD (Small); Medium-size 5-8 HD (Medium-size); Large 5-10 HD (Large) Stat Block for a mature adult Greyhawk Dragon: Greyhawk Dragon (air) Hit Dice: 22d12 + 88 (231) Speed: 60ft., fly 200 ft.(poor), swim 30 ft. AC: 29 (-2 size, +21 natural) Attack Bonus: +28 Saves: Fort +16, Ref +12, Will +16 Breath Weapon (DC): 7d6(25) Fear DC: 21 SR: 28 Abilities: Str 23, Dex 10, Con 19, Int 20, Wis 19, Cha 18 Special Abilities: Polymorph Self, Poison Resistance, Minor arcane shield (+10 SR vs 1st and 2nd level spells), Moderate arcane shield (+10 SR vs 3rd and 4th level spells), Enthrall, Charm Person, Damage reduction 10/+1 Caster Level: 13th Breath Weapons: A cone of corrosive gas and a cone of poisonous gas (one at a time). Climate/Terrain: Any city CR: 11 Alignment: Usually Lawful Neutral, often Lawful Good Community News: Rolegamer.net has posted a troll/fiend creature for your reading pleasure. The Sleeping Imperium campaign site has posted race and magic rules. The Boneyard is a D&D site that "contains monster conversions from Alternity and some homebrew monsters as well. It also sports conversions of Alternity Cybernetics and Gamma World Alternity mutations for use in D&D." Bradley Beth's D&D Page is a campaign site, with some MS Word downloads of blank grids and objects to use in miniatures combat. City Map Site: A little off topic but still very neat, take a look at this site's historical city maps. Pretty! (thanks to Peter from Denmark for the link) Creature Collection Review: You can read a review of Sword & Sorcery's Creature Collection book for the D20 system right here. (thanks to Brennan M. O'Keefe for the scoop) PHB Erratum -- Two-Bladed Sword Weight: Scooper Ben Kosse wrote to Skip Williams to ask about the weight of the two-bladed sword (given as 30 lbs. in the PHB). Skip's reply: "No, it's a typo. The correct weight is 15 lbs." October 16, 2000 Community News: A Player's World is a site for historical Medieval information that might come in handy for D&D games. Chicopee Gaming Group is a D&D campaign site. DNDWorld.com has posted a new race, the Half-Nymph. New FR ESD Products: You can download PDF versions of Waterdeep and the North and Empires of the Sands at the WotC Online Store. (thanks to Vonschlick for the scoop) Monster Manual Survey: Now that the Monster Manual is out, take part in WotC's survey for a chance to win an autographed copy of the D&D Hero Builder's Guide. New in the Conversion Library: Six converted kits from Greyhawk, presented as prestige classes. Dragon #277: Today was a double blessing for me -- not only was my Monster Manual waiting for me when I got home, but so was the November issue of Dragon Magazine. Here's a preview of what's in this issue: Profiles: Editor Kim Mohan talks about his involvement with the development of 3rd Edition. Countdown to the Realms: On the role of PCs and NPCs in the new Realms: "I want the spotlight to be clearly on the player characters," says Creative Director Richard Baker. He's keenly aware of the criticism that luminaries such as Elminster and Drizzt have sometimes cast long shadows over PCs. Prestige Classes: Fifteen of them are listed, including Archmage, Champion, Devotee, Disciple, Giant-Killer, Harper, Hathran (Witch of Rashemen), Hierophant, Purple Dragon Officer, Red Wizard, Runecaster, Seeker, Shadow Adept, Shadow Thief, and Spellfilcher. New Villain: We're briefly introduced to Scyllua Darkhope (LE human female, Pal5/Rgr4/Blk6), a fanatical unholy warrior. Greyhawk 2000: Running D&D games in a Modern Greyhawk fantasy setting, complete with maps and stats for modern firearms. A companion to "Alterations," an adventure for this setting that appeared in Dungeon #83. Unusual Suspects: James Wyatt runs through unusual race/class combinations for Bards, Sorcerers and Wizards. Includes stats for unusual familiars such as chipmunks, groundhogs, and otters. Vs. Orcs: Rich Baker offers strategies for defeating these common foes. Bazaar of the Bizarre: A bunch of new magical swords from the Forgotten Realms. Rage Mage Presige Class: Monte Cook offers up a barbarian/spellcaster combo who can fly into a rage when casting spells and somewhat overcome the restrictive effects of wearing armor. AoOs: Jonathan Tweet uses illustrations to show some common situations that provoke Attacks of Opportunity. It covers the following situations: The basics of Making and Provoking AoOs Example of Provoking AoOs by Acting Example of Provoking AoOs by Moving Exceptions to the Previous Rules (Flat-Footed, Cover, Combat Reflexes, Casting on the Defensive, Move-Only, and Five-Foot Step) Example of a Five-Foot Step Example of Move-Only ("Disengaging") Sage Advice: In addition to the typical rules Q&A, there's some errata regarding the "Right Tool fo the Job" article (which presented several new exotic weapons): Crescent Blade: Change the last sentence so it reads, "Each attack is resolved separately, but only half of the applicable Strength bonus to damage is applied to any hit." Scourge: Add this sentence to the first paragraph: "Do not apply your Strength modifier to damage with the scourge." Bunch of Other Stuff: Plenty of articles I haven't mentioned -- Dungeoncraft, two more alternate setting articles, Rogue's Gallery, that sort of thing. Preview of #278: December's issue focuses on Dwarves. Preview of the Dragon Annual: strategies for multiclass combos from James Wyatt, a beginning level adventure, stuff about Cormyr from Ed Greenwood, more. New at WotC: You can find the next part of the Cliffhanger adventure and a new screensaver on the D&D site. Also read up on the shenanegans going on at the Celebrity Game Table. (thanks to Erik White and House Rookhaven for the scoop) MM Art Gallery Links: If you've visited the Monster Manual Art Gallery, you've no doubt noticed that some of the links don't work. Scooper Art Braune has come up with the correct links: Krenshar Lolth Githyanki Kobold/Lizard Man/ Troglodyte/Urd Lizard Man Male PC Race Lineup October 15, 2000 MM Art Gallery: You can find a bunch of the original Monster Manual concept art in a new art gallery at WotC's D&D site. (thanks to Kyamsil for the scoop) Monstrous Favored Classes: ArchonOfDemise sends this scoop from the Monster Manual (set for release tomorrow) -- a list of monsters with their favored classes: Bugbear: Rogue Centaur: Ranger Gnoll: Ranger Goblin: Rogue Grimlock: Barbarian Hobgoblin: Fighter Kobold: Sorceror Kuo-toa: Rogue Lizardfolk: Druid Locathah: Barbarian Merfolk: Bard Sahuagin: Ranger Troglodyte: Cleric Yuan-ti, Purebloods and halfbloods: Ranger Yuan-ti, abomination: Cleric D&D Umrechnungshilfe: There's a German-language version of the D&D Conversion Manual (PDF, 1.4 MB) available at Amigo-Spiele. (thanks to Mark Oliva for the scoop) Contest: RPG Gateway is running a contest that includes D&D Third Edition manuals as some of the prizes. Wyatt's Update: WotC's James Wyatt has updated his personal 3E page with annecdotes from recent game sessions. (thanks to James Wyatt and Michael H. for the scoop) D20 Publisher News: OtherWorld Creations has a new feature on their website -- Tales from Diomin, fiction set in their forthcoming D20 System campaign world, Diomin. Fiery Dragon's first D20 product, an introductory adventure called NeMoren's Vault, has gone to press and can be ordered at their website. October 14, 2000 Official Updates: WotC's D&D page is sporting a couple of new items. (thanks to Kyamsil for the scoop) Fight Club: This month's NPC is Ryershil, a tiefling shadowdancer. He starts as a monk and multiclasses into the shadowdancer prestige class after 7th level. Monster Mayhem: At the Monster Builder's seminar at GenCon 2000, I watched as Skip Williams and Jennifer Clarke Wilkes (author and editor of the Monster Manual, respectively) and James Wyatt (co-author of Monsters of Faerun) took audience suggestions and built a brand new monster using Skip's "How to Create a Monster" article that would later appear in Dragon Magazine. WotC has posted the results, a weird little aberration called a diamondback viper. It's stranger than it sounds -- go take a look. October 13, 2000 Fluid on the Boards: It's been a while since I've been able to say this, but the fine folks of Fluid Entertainment have posted a Master Tools update over on my message board. Here are some snippets: From Wayne Cline, Producer: Scott has finished the full design for the Monster Generator and Andrew Howat (the lead programmer) is getting started on making it work. The Monster Generator will not only allow you to load any of the monsters from the Monster Manual and edit their stats and abilities, but you can also create a brand new monster from the ground up. Since many people are anxious to know just what the heck is going into MT, here is the list of components in the order that we’ll be tackling them: Monster Generator, Mapper, Item/Treasure Generator, Character Generator, Random Encounter Generator, and Printing/Customization. You should think of these items as the “big ticket” items, with all the little details falling under one of these headings. There’ll also be a whole slew of art and sounds so that you can lay out your dungeons just the way you want them. From Scott Mathews, CEO: Yes it’s true! Fluid made the coup of the decade by pulling Wayne away from Lucas. Wayne is a great guy and we are really honored to have him here. Please welcome him and tell him what you needs are. In that order. ;) Star Wars Review: A "review" (more of a description of the contents, really) of WotC's D20-based Star Wars RPG has been posted at About.com. Here's a quote to whet your appetite: Chapter Twelve is the obligatory "how to gamemaster" chapter, with a few charts (encounters, experience) and, more usefully, a number of prestige classes and professional classes. The prestige classes—classes characters can adopt after fulfilling certain requirements—include bounty hunter, crimelord, elite trooper, starfighter ace, and officer. Professional classes include diplomat, expert, and thug. This chapter also includes information about terrain and environment. New in the Conversion Library: Another Kensai, a Gladiator, the humans of Oerth and their Gods, and updates to some files. Gygax Interview: Rolegamer.net has posted an interview with Gary Gygax. The Anonymous Lich: Just in time for Friday the 13th, Anonymous has sent along details of the Lich template, which can be found in the Monster Manual. Liches are undead spellcasters, usually wizards or sorcerer but sometimes clerics, who have used their magical powers to unnaturally extend their lives. "Lich" is a template that can be added to any humanoid creature (the character), provided it can create the required phylactery. The creature's type changes to "undead." It uses all the character's statistics and special abilities except as noted here: Hit Dice: increase to d12 Speed: Same as character AC: +5 natural, or the character's natural, whichever is higher Damage: Creatures without natural weapons gain a touch attack that uses negative energy to deal 1d8+5 points of damage to living creatures; a Will save with a DC of 10+1/2 lich's hit dice+lich's Charisma modifier halves the damage. Creatures with natural weapons can use those, or the touch attack, as they prefer. Special Attacks: The character retains all of their special attacks, plus gains the additional ones below. Saving throw DCs, where appropriate, are 10+1/2 lich's hit dice+lich's Charisma modifier. Fear Aura: Creatures less than 5 hit dice within 60' of the lich must succeed at a Will save or be affected as though by fear cast at the Lich's level. Paralyzing touch: Any living creature the lich touches must succeed at a Fortitude save or be permanently paralyzed. Remove paralysis or any spell that can remove a curse can free the victim. This effect cannot be dispelled. Anyone paralyzed by the lich seems dead, but a spot check (DC 20) or heal check (DC 15) reveals that the victim is still alive. Spells: The lich can cast any spells it could cast while alive. Special qualities: The lich retains all of the character's special qualities, plus those listed below, and it gains the undead type. Turn resistance: A lich has +4 turn resistance. Damage reduction: A lich has damage reduction of 15/+1 Immunities: Liches are immune to cold, electricity, polymorph and mind-affecting spells. Saves: Same as character. Abilities: A lich gains +2 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma. It has no Constitution score. Skills: The lich gains +8 racial bonus to Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Search, Sense Motive, and Spot checks. Otherwise same as the character. Feats: Same as the character. CR: Same as the character +2 Treasure: Standard coins, double goods, double items. Alignment: Any evil. Advancement: By character class. The Lich's phylactery: An integral part of becoming a lich is the creation of a phylactery in which to store it's life force. Unless the phylactery is destroyed, the lich will reappear 1d10 days after its apparent death. Requirements: Craft Wondrous Item, Wizard, Sorcerer or Cleric level 11, 120,000 GP and 4,800 experience points, caster level equals the level of the creator at the time of creation. A typical phylactery is a small metal box containing strips of parchment with magical phrases written on them, and has a hardness of 20, 40 hit points and a break DC of 40, but the phylactery could also be a ring, amulet or similar item. October 12, 2000 New in the Conversion Library: Pirate prestige class, Dragonlance characters, and Secret of the Slavers Stockade conversion notes. RPGA Living City to Convert to 3E: The original plan for RPGA's Living City campaign was to wait until GenCon 2001 to convert to 3rd Edition. Apparently, that plan has changed, according to an e-mail from Robert Wiese. Here's the relevant snippet, and you can read the full text of the e-mail here. Note that this means that there may be some tantalizing Forgotten Realms tidbits floating around as early as November. We are converting the Living City campaign to 3rd edition as of Winter Fantasy 2001. Yes, in 3 months and a few days. This is bound to be a surprise to some, and seem like an impossibility to others. But bear with us, as we have a good plan. [read more] Community News: New websites for 3E... Nasha-Koria: D&D campaign site. Realms of Lore: D&D resource page, includes monster conversions. Gygax Interview: Gamespy has posted a new interview with the grand-daddy of D&D, Gary Gygax. (thanks to Meander for the scoop) PHB Giveaway: If you don't have a PHB yet, you may want to head over to the Majesty website, where a contest to give one away for free is underway. Here's the info. (thanks to Jay Adan for the scoop) Creature Collection Review: Clinton Nixon has posted his review of Sword & Sorcery's D20 monster book. Monster Manual Sightings: Lots of e-mail from people saying they've been able to pick up their copy of the Monster Manual from their local game shops. The MM has been available in Europe for about a week, and has appeared in US locations in the past few days. On the other hand, I've also gotten word that some shops are experiencing distribution problems and won't have them until after Monday, the official release date. Official Updates: New stuff at WotC's official D&D site. (thanks to Dark Blackshield, Issak Haywood, Kwalish Kid, and John William Grigsby IV, the first of many scoopers) Map-A-Week: A new map has appeared over at WotC. Elminster Speaks: This installment includes stats for an old Realms favorite, the Helmed Horror. Realms Roundtable #2: FR designers answer the question, "What's the coolest thing about the new Realms?" Mage-Hunt in Ansalon: "One of the darkest eras in all of Krynn’s history was the mage-hunt launched by the Kingpriest in the days before the Cataclysm. Dragonlance fan John Grubber provides us with a look at the agents of this mage-hunt: the Priesthood of the Moons." October 11, 2000 Conversion Library Update: Yet another Bladesinger and another Cavalier. Sunless Citadel Review: The Third Edition has posted a review of the first core D&D adventure, The Sunless Citadel. Monster Manual Tidbits: If you have the DMG, you know some of the information presented below, courtesy of Anonymous: Aasimar (Planetouched): +2 Wis, +2 Cha +2 Spot, +2 Listen SA: Light (use light spell 1/day as a sorcerer of their character level) SQ: Acid, cold & electricity resistance 5 Favored class is paladin Tiefling (Planetouched): +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Cha +2 Bluff, +2 Hide SA: Darkness (use darkness spell 1/day as a sorcerer of their character level) SQ: Acid, cold & electricity resistance 5 Favored class is rogue October 10, 2000 Town Generator, Spell Picker: Two new free online computer gizmos for D&D: John Dell, the man who brought you the Encounter Calculator, has devised a Spell Picker. Just enter a class and a level, plus any pertinent info on domains or specialty schools, and on the next page select your spells. The third page gives you a nice grid with spell info and page number for each spell you've picked. Handy addition to a character sheet. Jamis Buck, the man who brought you the Treasure Generator, has devised a Town Generator. Just select the type of community you want and the computer randomly generates population, number of characters of a given class, power structure, and wealth. Official Updates: New PC Portraits over at WotC. Star Wars RPG Interviews: WotC has posted interviews with Art Director Sean Glenn, and Star Wars Gamer editors Jeff Quick and Chris Perkins. There's also a Preproduction Art Gallery with some sketches of iconic characters from the forthcoming game. (spotted at RoleplayNews.com) Conversion Library Update: Another version of the Bladesinger prestige class. (If the author would be good enough to contact me -- I accidentally deleted your name and e-mail address and would like to include those in the listing -- thanks.) October 9, 2000 Official Chats: Here are a couple of official 3E chats you might be interested in attending: D&D Monster Manual. Skip Williams -- Fri. 10/13/2000 5-6 pm (PST): "Old enemies and new threats. The Monster Manual has 350 baddies just waiting to populate your campaigns. And, for those of you who were little monsters growing up, relive your childhood--the creatures now have character stats so you can play them as well." Realmswatch: Why a New Realms? Jim Butler and Sean Reynolds -- Fri. 10/20/2000 5-6 pm (PST): "We look put the reasons behind the decision to create a ""new"" Forgotten Realms, beyond the obvious ""It's updated for Third Edition."" Jim Butler, brand manager, gives the overall perspective, while designer Sean Reynolds takes on the details about creating a new look for this classic campaign." Strohm Speaks: WotC's Keith Strohm discusses his future in his new role(s) at WotC now that Ryan Dancey has "moved up in the world" (on DND-L): Ryan and I have been working toward this transition for some time, and so this represents the fruits of our labor these past twelve months. We're both pleased and excited by the opportunities ahead. I have always been active on the 'net. Answering questions and interacting with fans. I love to do it and I do not see that changing anytime soon. I have learned a great deal from you all. In addition to my responsibilities with the Tabletop RPG business, I am also taking over the miniatures business at WOTC. There is a temendous amount of work to be done--especially in the short term--and so I shall be as active as my schedule allows. Here's to the future of RPGs and miniatures!! Creature Collection Reviewed: Sword & Sorcery's new D20 System monster book, Creature Collection, is reviewed over at AtFantasy. Here's a snippet: The perfect supplement for the new 3E Monstrous Manual, this collection of monsters will provide Dungeon Masters and Players with years of useful and original encounters. The book, which was released late last week, can be purchased online through White Wolf among other places. FR Cover: WotC's Ryan Dancey talks about the cover for the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting book, due in June 2001 (on REALMS-L, thanks to James "Da Man" Hoover for the scoop): The mockup of the cover was done with art so people in the company could see how the product line might look. The core book itself will not have an illustration, but will have a cover similar to the core D&D books. Dark Sun Free and ESD: WotC's Jim Butler posted a list of Dark Sun products that will be made available as downloads at WotC. Note that the first chunk is the list of freebies while the second is the list that will be available at the Online Store. (on DND-L, thanks to Pat for the scoop): As promised, here's a list as to when you can expect your favorite DS product to come out at the online store and for free on the website. The date listed is the latest date we expect the product to appear. They might appear earlier. Keep in mind that this is the Dark Sun release schedule only. Please don't write me asking when I'll have the Greyhawk, Planescape, or other world release schedule completed. I'll post Dragonlance next... SKU Free Webpage Titles Release Date 2446 Psionic Artifacts of Athas 10/27/00 2430 DSS4: Forest Maker 10/27/00 2424 DSM3: Marauders of Nibenay 10/27/00 2428 DSE2: Black Spine 11/3/00 2421 DSM2, Merchant House of Amketch 11/3/00 2444 Mind Lords of the Last Sea 11/3/00 SKU Online Store Titles Release Date 2400 Dark Sun CS 11/10/00 2401 DS1, Freedom 11/10/00 2404 DSR1, Slave Tribes 11/17/00 2405 MC12, DARK SUN MC 11/17/00 2406 DSQ1, Road to Urik 11/22/00 2407 DSR2, Dune Trader 11/22/00 2408 Dragon Kings 12/1/00 2410 DSQ2, Arcane Shadows 12/1/00 2411 DSR3, Veiled Alliance 12/8/00 2412 DSQ3, Asticlian Gambit 12/8/00 2413 DSR4, Valley of Dust and Fire 12/15/00 2416 DSE1, Dragon's Crown 12/15/00 2417 DSM1, Black Flames 12/22/00 2418 THE IVORY TRIANGLE boxed set 12/22/00 2419 The Complete Gladiator's Handbook 1/5/01 2420 DSS1, City-State of Tyr 1/5/01 2422 DSS2: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water 1/12/01 2423 DSS3: Elves of Athas 1/12/01 2431 The Will and the Way 1/19/01 2432 CITY BY THE SILT SEA boxed set 1/19/01 2433 DARK SUN MC Appendix II 1/26/01 2437 Thri-Kreen of Athas 1/26/01 2441 Beyond the Prism Pentad 2/2/01 2438 DARK SUN Campaign Setting, Rev. 2/2/01 2439 Windriders of the Jagged Cliffs 2/9/01 2445 Defilers & Preservers: Wizards of Athas 2/9/01 On a related note, Butler posted a revised list of the Forgotten Realms ESD products on DND-L. You can find the current list here. On another related note, The Will and the Way, one of the DS products mentioned above, can currently be downloaded from WotC at the following links (thanks to Scorpio for the scoopio): Text from the Book http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/TWatW.rtf Front Cover http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/twatw_fc.gif Back Cover http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/twatw_bc.gif Interior Art Part 1 http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/twatw.zip Interior Art Part 2 http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/twatw2.zip Conversion Library Update: A revision of the DMG witch class, converted monsters (death knight and shade template), a "classic" version of the cleric class, and and a kensai prestige class. Cliffhanger Continued: WotC's current Cliffhanger Adventure has been updated. (thanks to Art Braune and Mr. & Mrs. Bowman for the scoop) October 8, 2000 Conversion Library Update: Chosen of Mystra prestige class, Inquisitor class, more Planescape races, Planescape equipment and skills. CC2 in 3D: If you have lots of overland maps made with Campaign Cartographer 2 (for instance, Forgotten Realms Atlas maps by the dozen), you might want to look into a soon-to-be-released product that can turn those maps into 3D worlds that you can walk or fly through -- Realm Overseer. It's not ready yet, but you can download some demos to play with. (thanks to "D. Minky" for the scoop) Half-Celestial Template: Anonymous dropped off a Monster Manual goodie to share with you -- the template for Half-Celestials: No matter the form, half-celestials are always comely and delightful to the senses, having golden skin, sparkling eyes, angelic wings, or some other sign of their higher nature. Though noble and compassionate, half-celestials are often dismayed at the evil among their kin, and take a stern, sometimes harsh, view of base instincts or malevolent actions. Never truly fitting into any mortal society, half-celestials are usually loners and wanderers attempting to right wrongs wherever they can. Speed: There is a 75% chance that a half-celestial has feathered wings. The cretaure can fly at twice the base creature's normal speed (good manoeuvrability). AC: Natural armor improves by +1. Special Attacks: A half-celestial retains all the special attacks of the base creature and also gains the supernatural ability to use light at will as the spell. Half-celestials with an Intelligence or Wisdom score of 8 possess the following spell-like abilities, using their level as the caster level. Unless otherwise indicated, the ability is usable once per day. Level 1-2: Protection from Evil 3/day, bless Level 3-4: Aid, Detect Evil Level 5-6: Cure Serious Wounds, Neutralize Poison Level 7-8: Holy Smite, Remove Disease Level 9-10: Dispel Evil Level 11-12: Holy Word Level 13-14: Holy Aura 3/day, Hallow Level 15-16: Symbol Level 17-18: Summon Monster IX (celestials only) Level 19+: Resurrection Special Qualities: All the abilities of the base creatures, plus low-light vision. They are immune to acid, cold, disease and electricity and gain a +4 racial bonus to Fortitude saves vs. poison. Saves: unchanged. Abilities: Change from base creature: Str +4, Dex +2, Con +4, Int +2, Wis +4, Cha +4 Skills: 8+Int per HD, or by class. CR: base creatue +1 Makes Me Wish I Had A Laptop: A fellow named "wydraz" has put together a neat little computer program he calls "DM Screen." It combines a die roller, essential charts, a combat planner, and other goodies together in one handy interface. You can read about it and download it here. And if you grab a copy of the Treasure Generator by Jamis Buck (download it here) and put that in the same directory, one of the buttons from DM Screen launches that program as well.

October 7, 2000 Dancey Moves On, Strohm Takes Over: I just received an e-mail from WotC VP/D&D Brand Manager Ryan Dancey, which I have reproduced below: Dear friends & family, I wanted to write and let you all know that the time has come for me to make some changes here at Wizards. Two years ago, I was tasked with figuring out what had gone wrong at TSR, developing a plan to fix those problems and move the tabletop RPG business forward, and take responsibility for managing the Dungeons & Dragons brand, including the development of the new edition of the game. That responsibility was something that I had been dreaming about since I was just a kid. Finally getting to live that dream has been one of the best experiences of my life. After a lot of hard work by a whole lot of people, all of those objectives have been fulfilled. The business is healthy and growing. We have developed a five year plan that should provide a roadmap for the exciting changes in the years ahead while still remaining true to the heart of the business. And the new edition of D&D has exceeded everyone's expectations, including my own. Now that the job I was hired to do is finished, the company has asked me to apply my skills to other areas of the enterprise that require a revitalization and a new strategic vision. I am therefore very happy to report that Keith Strohm has been appointed the head of the tabletop RPG business unit and is the new Dungeons & Dragons brand manager. The existing brand and business management team will remain in place and report directly to Keith. Keith is also going to be responsible, at least in the short term, for the Red Alert disk game, while we evaluate our long term disk game strategy. With that change in management, anyone who has any questions regarding the tabletop RPG business, D&D, or the disk games should direct them to Keith. His email address is aikiboy@wizards.com. I have been reassigned to "special projects", which is where Vice Presidents go at Wizards of the Coast when they are preparing to take on new challenges. While I have already submitted a proposal to senior management about my next role, we are still working on the details. When I have more to announce about my future plans, I will be sure to let you all know. I will continue to spearhead the Open Gaming/D20 initiative inside Wizards, working with Keith. My plan is to continue that work until the D20 trademark license is finalized and we make the release of the D20 system reference document. I will, of course, continue to develop the Open Gaming Foundation in any event. During my time at the helm of the TRPG business, I had the great pleasure to work with hundreds of people in various aspects of the business and to corespond with thousands of gamers worldwide. I hope that I have been able to return that attention and feedback with a quality product line that rewards everyone for their long patience through the dark and challenging years that Dungeons & Dragons has suffered through in the past decade. I leave this position with a sense of deep satisfaction for the work accomplished, and a bright hope that the future will be so much better than the past. Sincerely, Ryan S. Dancey Mr. Ed -- Earth, Wind & Fire -- and Los Lobos: "Harmless" was kind enough to post the raw stats for a standard horse from his copy of the Monster Manual over on my message board, which I've posted below. He's also added stats for elementals on his web site and shown an example of monster "advancement" using a wolf as an example (giving stats for wolves from 2 to 5 HD). Horse, Light Type Large Animal HD 3d8+6 (19 hp) Init +1 (Dex) Speed 60 ft AC 13 (-1 size, +1 Dex, +3 natural) Attacks 2 hooves +2 melee Damage Hoof 1d4+1 Face/Reach 5 ft by 10 ft / 5 ft SA n/a SQ Scent Saves Fort +5, Ref +4, Will +2 Abilities S 13, D 13, C 15, I 2, W 12, Ch 6 Skills Listen +6, Spot +6 Feats n/a CR 1 Conversion Library Update: A second Cavalier prestige class, and an update to the Vikings, Tieflings, and Planescape Magic conversion documents. October 6, 2000 Official Updates: WotC's posted a few new items of interest... (thanks to Steve Vogel for the scoop, I think, I can't remember now who actually sent this one in, if indeed anyone did, lord I need some sleep...) Interview with Ed "Forgotten Realms" Greenwood. Monster Manual desktop wallpapers. (Urk -- only some links work. The 1024x768 pics are linked okay, but the others are missing part of their addres. Insert /800x600 or /640x480 into the URL to those files, like this http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM_wall/800x600/devils.jpg.) Character Closeup isn't your run-of-the-mill demi-human in tights -- he's a green dragon NPC. Community News: DNDWorlds.com provides "publishing space for anyone with an interest in the Dungeons & Dragons game. Here you will find materials for published and well known settings such as the Forgotten Realms, and web-published settings you may have never come across before..." DNDFiles.com has posted new prestige classes and new feats. Crusaders of the Net have posted an Excel "Character Workbook." WotC Reacts to Monster Manual Comments: Earlier today (see below) I reported about a casual reader-review of the Monster Manual in which the reviewer was somewhat dismayed about what he perceived to be a shortage of illustrations and the omission of certain standard monsters. A few folks from WotC have had a chance to respond: James Wyatt mentions that even though the reviewer listed it as not in the MM, "the pseudodragon *is* in the new MM, though it doesn't have an illo." Anthony Valterra says, "The truth is, over here, we're all high fiving ourselves over the MM 'cause we are under the impression that it is the best of the three books." Ryan Dancey says, "By my count, these are the creatures without illos (not counting animals, dinosaurs and bugs) Ask yourself if you think the game is irreparably harmed by not having a picture of these creatures (and ask yourself if you'd swap more illos for less monsters?): Lantern Archon (a glowing ball of light) Avoral (a kind of celestial) Ghaele (a celestial that looks like an elf) Trumpet Archon (a celestial that looks like a winged elf) Astra Deva (a celestial that looks like a human with wings) Solar (a 9 ft. humanoid with topaz eyes, silvery or golden skin, and white wings) Dretch (a bloated humanoid demon) Qasit (a tiny humanoid demon with bat wings and stubby horns) Succubus (a female humanoid with bat wings) Herzou (a demon that looks like a giant frog with human arms) Nalfeshnee (a giant cross between an ape and a boar) Marilith (a half-snake (lower), half-female humanoid (upper) with xi arms. Balor (the classic "demon" - big humanoid with bat wings and horns). Lemure (blob of molten flesh) Imp (tiny humanoid with bat wings) Erinyes (beautiful humanoid with feathery wings) Hamatula (7 ft. tall humanoid covered with barbs, with tails) Gelugon (12 ft. tall insect, with tail) Barbazu and Cornugon - varieties of typical "demon" - humanoid with bat wings. Fire, Air and Water elementals Formian taskmaster, myrmarch & queen (ants) Janni (basically human outsiders) Ghast (look just like ghouls) Frost, Fire, Storm Giants Clay golem Sea Hag and Annis (though there is an illustration for the green Hag) Air, dust, fire, ice, magma, ooze and salt mephits (though there are illustrations of fire, earth, and steam mephits) Water and Dark Naga (illo of Spirit Naga) Ogre Mage (no longer an oriental oni, now just a more powerful ogre) Gray Ooze & Ochre Jelly Red, Blue and Gray Slaadi (green and death slaadi are depicted) Androsphinx, Criosphinx and Hieracosphinx "All of the creatures without illos are described in the text, so people aren't left wondering what these things look like..." D&D Reviews: Gaming Outpost has posted a review of D&D in general (as opposed to one specific book). Daily Radar has posted review of the PHB. (thanks to sk0766 for the scoop) MM Review, and Conjurers, Rejoice! A kind fellow over on my message boards by the name of "Harmless" was able to score an early copy of the Monster Manual. This benefits you in two ways: He's posted a mini-review, giving the MM a 70/100 score. A pro: "All the listings are done in a very systematic and clear way. No more guessing whether STR bonuses are included, saving throws and the like." A con: "The book is thinner than the other core books; only 225 pages. ...Somehow, that impression of austerity never quite left me when I read through it... Do you know the MM Gallery on gamers.com a few days ago? Well, it turns out that is *every single illustration in the book*!" At my suggestion he's put together the stats for the creatures that can be summoned using the summon monster I and II spells and charts from the PHB. The lists there include extraplanar creatures such as Formians and Lemures as well as "templated animals" like Fiendish Hawks and Celestial Eagles. Extra-special thanks to "Harmless" for this contribution. You will need the notes below to make sense of some of the Celestial/Fiendish "template" special abilities: Basically, they are opposite sides of the same coin, where the base creature gains (celestial/fiendish): Smite Evil/Good (Su): 1/day, deal additional damage equal to your HD to evil/good creature. Darkvision with a range of 60ft. Spell Resistance equal to twice the creature's HD. Damage Reduction and energy resistance* as follows: HD / Resistance* / Damage Reduction 1 - 3 5 -- 4 - 7 10 5/+1 8 - 11 15 5/+2 12+ 20 10/+3 *Celestial creatures gain resistance to Acid, Cold & Electricity, while fiendish creatures resist Cold & Fire. New Map at WotC: October's first Map of the Week, an overland map, has appeared here at the official D&D site. (thanks to Anthony Pitman, Art Braune, Steve Vogel, Bertman4, and Peter from Denmark for the scoop) FR Electronic Schedule: Below is the schedule of release dates for the Forgotten Realms ESD products. Jim Butler elaborates (on REALMS-L, thanks to Pat, Black Moria and Mark Oliva for the scoop) As promised, here's a list as to when you can expect your favorite FR product to come out at the online store. The date listed is the latest date we expect the product to appear. They might appear earlier (such as the Moonshaes did today). Keep in mind that this is the Realms release schedule only. Please don't write me asking when I'll have the Greyhawk, Planescape, or other world release schedule completed. I'll post Dark Sun next... You'll also note that some FR products are not in this schedule. As noted in the FAQ, we'll be waiting at least 18 months from the time the product has left the backlist before placing these products online as PDF downloads. This gives our business partners and the various hobby shops plenty of time to sell through the products they've purchased. SKU Title Release Date 1031 Campaign Setting Box 10/13/00 9213 FR1: Waterdeep & The North 10/13/00 9217 FR2: Moonshae 10/13/00 9224 FR3: Empires of the Sands 10/13/00 9229 FR4: The Magister 10/20/00 9238 FRC1: Ruins of Adventure 10/20/00 1040 City System 10/20/00 9235 FR6: Dreams of the Red Wizards 10/20/00 9252 FR7: Hall of Heroes 10/27/00 9239 FRC2: Curse of the Azure Bonds 10/27/00 1044 The Great Khan Game 10/27/00 9247 FRE1: Shadowdale 10/27/00 9248 FRE2: Tantras 11/3/00 9262 FR8: Cities of Mystery 11/3/00 9249 FRE3: Waterdeep 11/3/00 9401 TM4, Waterdeep Trail Map 11/3/00 9267 FR9, The Bloodstone Lands 11/10/00 9274 FR10, Old Empires 11/10/00 2106 Forgotten Realms Adventures 11/10/00 9281 FRA1, Storm Riders 11/17/00 9290 FRA2, Black Courser 11/17/00 9297 FOR1, The Draconomicon 11/17/00 9300 FR11, Dwarves Deep 11/17/00 9301 FA1, Halls of the High King 11/22/00 9304 FRA3, Blood Charge 11/22/00 1060 The Ruins of Undermountain 11/22/00 9341 FA2, Nightmare Keep 11/22/00 9324 FR12, Horde Campaign 12/1/00 9326 FOR2, Drow of the Underdark 12/1/00 9320 FR13, Anauroch 12/1/00 2125 MC 11, Forgotten Realms 12/1/00 Monstrous Compendium Appendix II 9346 FOR3 Pirates of the Fallen Stars 12/8/00 9354 FRQ1 Haunted Halls of 12/8/00 Eveningstar 9358 Aurora's Whole Realms Catalog 12/8/00 9351 FR14, The Great Glacier 12/8/00 1083 MENZOBERRANZAN boxed set 12/15/00 9369 FRQ2, Hordes of Dragonspear 12/15/00 9379 Volo's Guide to Waterdeep 12/15/00 9388 FR16, The Shining South 12/15/00 9389 FRM1, The Jungles of Chult 12/22/00 1085 Campaign Setting Box, Rev. 12/22/00 9390 FOR4, The Code of the Harpers 12/22/00 9391 FRQ3, Doom of Daggerdale 12/22/00 9392 FRS1, The Dalelands 1/5/01 2142 PG2, Player's Guide to FR 1/5/01 9410 Cormyr 1/5/01 1104 Ruins of Undermountain II 1/5/01 9430 FOR5, Elves of Evermeet 1/12/01 1109 CITY OF SPLENDORS 1/12/01 1111 ELMINSTER'S ECOLOGIES 1/12/01 9460 Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast 1/12/01 9465 FR Book of Lairs 1/19/01 9474 The Moonsea 1/19/01 1120 RUINS OF ZHENTIL KEEP 1/19/01 9475 FOR6, The Seven Sisters 1/26/01 1121 SPELLBOUND boxed set 1/26/01 9487 FOR7, Giantcraft 1/26/01 9491 Pages from the Mages 2/2/01 9492 Wizards & Rogues of the Realms 2/2/01 9509 Warriors & Priests of the Realms 2/2/01 9545 Prayers from the Faithful 2/16/01 9562 Hellgate Keep 2/16/01 October 5, 2000 Community News: RP Core Productions has posted a Dark*Matter/D20 conversion. Cape Cod 3rd Edition is a D&D campaign site. Luthyr's Unofficial d20 Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play site -- just what the name implies. Conversion Library Update: A Cavalier prestige class and new rules for firearms. PHB Review: Guild Companion has posted a mostly positive review of the Player's Handbook. Here's a quote (thanks to Brian Johnson for the scoop): Personally the most irritating feature of the handbook is the use of the world of Greyhawk to illustrate the examples. This world has a built in set of assumptions about the relationships between the races and their deities, as well as the use of the classes. ...I would have preferred the PHB to have concentrated on the system and used more generic examples or possibly examples from several worlds to show the possible variety. More D&D Goodness at Gamers.com: The fine folks who brought you the recent Monster Manual art gallery preview have added a series of interviews with Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams and Gary Gygax. They've also posted a "Dungeon Master's Gallery" of art and diagrams from the DMG. More ESDs at WotC: More "Electronic Software Download" products for D&D are available at the WotC online store. These include Moonshae and the original 1987 Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. Each was written for the 1st edition of the AD&D game, and each sells for $2.95. In addition, two Alternity products -- The Final Church (for Dark*Matter, $9.95) and The Externals (for Star*Drive, $12.95) -- are available for that system. To find more electronic downloads, visit the WotC Online Store, and enter "ESD" in the search field. (thanks to Vonschlick, PLCM, Roland, wsmith, and William Belcher for the scoop) Bull Rush Correction: WotC's Ryan Dancey offers up the following correction to yesterday's Bull Rush/Attacks of Opportunity scoop, which I've deleted to avoid confusion (on the D&D message boards, thanks to James Hooverand Gerard for the scoop): Ignore my previous response to this question. The design team consensus is "the chart is wrong". Follow the rules on page 136 as written. October 4, 2000 Monster Manual Available for Pre-Order at WotC: The headline says it all -- click here to order direct from WotC. Conversion Library Update: A Samurai prestige class, a psionicist class, and revised Birthright conversion notes. Message Board Misc: WotC's Ryan Dancey answered a few rules-related questions on the D&D message boards: AoOs in Darkness or When Blind: Here is the consensus of the design team: (1) Yes, blinded creatures (or those in darkness) get AOOs on creatures that pass through them, (2) They must make Listen checks (and beat the DC by 20) to pinpoint the target's location (DMG pg. 78, Table 3-15), and (3) Against opponents they have pinpointed, the blinded/in darkness creature still suffers a 50% miss chance (as the target has full concealment) on their AOOs. Against targets they haven't pinpointed, follow the last bullet on page 78 (the character picks a square to attack, not knowing if it's the right one, and the DM rolls the miss chance whether or not the creature is there so the player doesn't know if the miss is from the concealment or being the wrong square). AoOs Against Unconscious Victim? No. You can take the Coup de Grace action to try and whack the opponent in the next turn though. What About a Victim Who Plays Possum? In my book, if you're faking being unconscious, you lose your dex bonus, and can be CdG'd as well. Realmswatch at WotC: A Forgotten Realms sneak peek section called Realmswatch has appeared at the official FR site. Included are designer bios, sample game notes (we get to see what "being from the Dalelands" might mean to a PC, including a list of regional feats), and a roundtable where the designers answer the question, "What interesting aspects of the Forgotten Realms can be more fully explored thanks to the new D&D rules?" (Thanks to Marc Hertogh for the scoop) Community News: Troll Lord Games has reached an agreement to publish d20 System materials for Fiend Games. November marks the release of Troll Lord Games’ first D20 fantasy adventure, “A Lion in the Ropes,” and Fiend Games’ first D20 production, “Galal’s Grave.” Minotaur Isles is a D&D, AD&D and Dragonlance resource site. A couple of people had wondered why Chaosium's website didn't say anything about their upcoming foray into D20 publishing. Now there's a little evidence at their site -- including the cover shown below. Dragonlords of Melinboné, a D20 sourcebook, is slated for January 2001. (thanks to Art Braune for the scoop) Die Schattenhöhlen: You can download the German-language version of the D&D Fast Play adventure, Caves of Shadow, here. Click where it says Kurzabenteuer. (thanks to Mark Oliva for the scoop) DMG/PHB Errata: Alex at WotC Game Support indicates that the DC for deciphering a scroll spell using the Spellcraft skill is 20+spell's level. This is correct in the PHB on p. 155, but incorrect in the PHB Survival Guide on p. 11 and the DMG on p. 203. (on DND-L, thanks to Pat for the scoop) Pool of Radiance II Collector's Edition: Fihnakis, webmaster over at The Scrying Room, informs me that the Collector's Edition of the forthcoming Pool of Radiance II: Ruins of Myth Drannor CRPG will have some interesting contents. Core game (2 cds) Core Poster (map of MD with Monsters on back) The Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor novel by Carrie Bebris Leather Dice Bag Dice Attack on Myth Drannor D&D adventure module Soundtrack CD from the Game 3rd Edition miniature and... if you pre-order we're working on a special deal with WotC... PoRII will use Third Edition D&D rules to bring the Forgotten Realms to your computer screen this fall. October 3, 2000 Community News: Castle Steelstone: a variety of D20 and 3E resources as well as D&D campaign notes. RPG Host's Archive: "We offer an archive of downloadable 3E resources including some great character sheets." Conversion Library Update: Beau Yarbrough has unearthed some arcana with his Acrobat prestige class, a conversion of the 1st edition Thief-Acrobat. MM Sneak Peek at WotC: Let's try this again, shall we? ;) The official D&D site has posted a look at the development of the Monster Manual. MM author Skip Williams leads us through two earlier drafts of the work to finally present the final 3E stats for the ankheg, beholder (complete with eye powers!), blink dog, carrion crawler, and genie (including janni, djinni and efreeti). October 2, 2000 MM Intro at WotC? The main WotC D&D page, as I write, has a compelling new blurb about the Monster Manual and a link to a "sneak peak" page. However, the link is currently non-functional. Maybe by the time I get this posted it will be working. :) Dark Sun Freebies List: WotC's Jim Butler spills the beans about future free Dark Sun downloads (on DND-L, thanks to Vonschlick for the scoop): As promised, here's the proposed list of Dark Sun products we'll be giving away for free. All of the other products in the line will be available on a pay-for basis, just like we're doing with FR. Psionic Artifacts of Athas DSS4: Forest Maker DSM3: Marauders of Nibenay DSE2: Black Spine DSM2, Merchant House of Amketch Mind Lords of the Last Sea The plan is to get these products online at the end of this month. The pay-for products will probably appear in early November, with a few new products being added every week or two until everything is available. Community News: If you've been visiting Psi3E for your D&D Psionics-related news, you'll want to change your bookmark to reflect the new address -- http://psi3e.rpgdot.com/. Green Ronin, publishers of D20 System adventure "Death in Freeport," is offering free background material for the city of Freeport, including a description of a shop and some NPC stats. Kannik's Games Page has a D&D character sheet and a combat "cheat sheet" with brief summaries of the D&D combat rules. Return to the Dungeon has posted some new items, including a new prestige class and a new creature. Fiend Games has posted some news about their upcoming D20 product schedule. Judges Guild products will soon be published by QuikLink (publishers of GRIP), according to this press release. And in a message spotted by a scooper named Nevandar, it's possible that the Judges Guild products will be created for the D20 System. According to "Hunter" at GRIP, "The first project of course, is a new edition of City State of the Invincible Overlord, which will likely be released in D20 format." Rolegamer.net has posted a Q&A with former TSR game designer Zeb Cook. Star Wars RPG Release Date: So what's the exact date for the release of WotC's Star Wars RPG? According to JD Wiker, "November 16th, in the States. (At least, that's what I was told.)" (on the WotC Star Wars message board, thanks to Aran for the scoop) DMG Review: Roleplaynews.com has posted a mostly-positive review of the Dungeon Master's Guide. (thanks to Oren Douek for the scoop) CharGen 1.2 on BGII CD: Eagle-eyed Jeff Hoffman discovered that version 1.2 of the D&D Character Generator is on CD #1 of the Baldur's Gate II computer game in a directory called WOTCchvr. So if you didn't download it but own this game, you're in luck. Treasure Generator Downloadable: A few days ago, an online version of a D&D treasure generator by Jamis Buck appeared. Now he's created it as a stand-alone program you can download from his site. Here's a 6th-level treasure I generated with it: 1000 gp 60 gp art (finely wrought small gold bracelet) 400 gp art (silver-plated steel longsword with jet jewel in hilt) 110 gp gem (amethyst) potion: cure moderate wounds Official Update: Part four of the current "Cliffhanger" adventure has been posted. It includes stats for the doppleganger. (thanks to Dark Blackshield, Steve Vogel and Bertman4 for the scoop) Butler on FR Downloads: Jim Butler had a few comments about the recent posting of the for-fee D&D downloads at the WotC Online Store (thanks to Mark Oliva for the scoop): Downloads are PC only? We're working to get the server we need to handle Mac downloads in place. But I didn't want to make everyone wait while this new server was set up. Downloads restricted from certain countries? Well, there is some concern that we'll be trumping some of our business partners in these countries by making products available there. We're working through these issues as well. Monster Manual Art & More at Gamers.com: Gamers.com has posted a mega D&D review, including information on the PHB and the DMG. Perhaps of most interest, though is a huge (and I mean *HUGE*) gallery of images from the new Monster Manual. The fun starts right here, and in particular you may want to check out the Monster Manual preview as well as the art gallery. (Big thanks to Kraddalc for the scoop.) Dungeon #83: I've received the November/December issue of Dungeon Magazine, and it's as chock-full of goodness as ever. Dark*Matter fans will revel in the inclusion of what will likely be the final official adventure for that system; notes are included for converting it to D&D as well (monster stats, mostly). "London Calling" (Andy Collins) has the heroes investigating murders in merry old England. But of course they're not ordinary murders... "Deep Freeze" (Cameron Widen) is a Cthulhuian (is that even a word?) style tale involving a remote insane asylum located a little too near a great evil. For 2nd-level characters. In "Iriandel" (Tito Leati), heroes seek to remove a curse from a unicorn by investigating the tomb of a barbarian lord. For 4th-level characters. "Depths of Rage" (JD Wiker) is a crawl through a goblin lair, but with a twist. For 4th-level characters. "Alterations" (Philip Athans) is an adventure designed for use with "Greyhawk: 2000," a post-industrial fantasy setting set forth in an article that will appear in Dragon #277. Set in The New City of Greyhawk, the heroes will find themself battling enemies with guns, discovering bottles containing potions in pill form, and avoiding orcish motorcycle gangs. A fun read. For 1st-level characters. The issue concludes with eight pages of writer's guidelines. Again. I didn't look closely but perhaps there have been some significant changes. It's hard to get into depth with the review as I don't want to spoil the surprises for players who might end up being run through these adventures. We do get to see stats for a bunch of critters we've not seen in 3E format before: ice mephits, vargouilles, ogrillons, gibbering mouthers, crawling hands (not "crawling claws"), wraiths, wights, rakshasa, wererat template applied to a 1st-level commoner human. October 1, 2000 Community News: NPC Generator: Using the tables from the "Characters" chapter of the DMG, a fellow named Serban has whipped up a page that will generate NPCs for you when you select a class, level and race. So far only one class (Barbarian, levels 1-20) and two races (Human and High Elf) have been implemented. Town Generator: A fellow named Phred has put together a random town generator for D&D. You can download it here. When you execute the program, it writes its results to a file called cities.txt, and each time you execute it the cities.txt file is updated with the new city info at the bottom. There's currently no way to select any options -- it's entirely random at this point. Author Chad Corrie would like to invite you to read an excerpt of his upcoming fantasy novel, The Vision Made Flesh. Updates at World of Sosaria (Ultima/D&D site) and From the Ashes (Greyhawk D&D campaign site). Terror at WotC: Some official updates on the WotC D&D page. This month's theme is "Terror and Suspense," and we're told that we'll get to see a tiefling shadowdancer in the Fight Club, new Monster Manual desktop wallpapers, new maps each week, audio adventures, and a free download of the module Ravenloft II. For now, you'll have to be satisfied with a new spell called mirror move (it allows you to duplicate a feat you've just seen in action), and a selection of PC Portraits you might want to use on character sheets. (thanks to Mr. Okibi and C Roach for the scoop) Dungeons & Dragons, D&D 3E and AD&D are all property of Wizards of the Coast.