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News Archive #17
December 2000
News from December 2000:
Press Release: Paradigm Concepts: A new D20 System
publisher has appeared. Here's their press release:
Paradigm Concepts, Inc., a new entry in the adventure games industry, is
pleased to announce that our first product in the exciting Arcanis TM line of D20
adventures has shipped to distributors. "The Spear of the Lohgin" is a
32-page adventure of macabre horror and deadly intrigue. Although set
in an original Fantasy world, Arcanis,
the World of Shattered Empires
TM, "The Spear of the Lohgin" is written so
that it may be dropped into any Game World setting with a minimum of
work.
"Blood Reign of Nishanpur" and "The Fires of Insurrection", the next
two adventures that conclude the story begun in "The Spear of the
Lohgin", are slated for a March and May 2001 release respectively.
For more information on these and other products forthcoming from
Paradigm Concepts, visit our website at www.paradigmconcepts.com.
Their first adventure, "The Spear of the Lohgin," is for
4th-6th level characters and is already in some game shops. The people
of Paradigm were kind enough to send a copy my way. I haven't had a
chance to read through it thoroughly, but if nothing else it offers
several new unique undead creatures.
Press Release: Mystic Eye Games: Here's the latest news
from D20 System publisher Mystic Eye Games:
Mystic Eye Games has a few big announcements. We are happy to be going
forward into the year 2001 with great momentum and support. To start
off the new year with a bang we will be doing a couple of things.
One of the things to address is our first great contest. Our Nightmares & Dreams creature collection will be produced in 2001 and to kick start
it we will be having a creature creation contest with great prizes. We
will be rewarding the top 10 folks with stuff! At the top of the list,
the grand prize winner will get $100.00 worth (after tax) of d20
products of their choosing as well as their own copy of Nightmares
& Dreams, a framed copy of the finished creature page, a copy of
our adventure "The Pit of Loch-Durnan", and a publishing credit to
their name. The 2nd & 3rd place runners up will receive a $25.00
gift certificate to amazon.com, the framed finished page of their
creature from the book , a copy of Nightmares & Dreams, and a
publishing credit. The remaining top 7 picks will get the framed
finished version of their creature from the book, a special place in
the creature book as noted winners, and/or a spotlight on our free
stuff section of our web site. To learn more about the contest please
visit www.mysticeyegames.com.
Our second big announcement is we have posted our entire product line
(as it stands to date) for the year 2001. This will give you an idea of
our direction and our commitment to a creative, innovative, and quality
product. There is also a look at what free stuff will be coming out of
Mystic Eye Games through March.
Next, in the free stuff section you will find a new short, introductory
adventure titled "Rite of Passage". This will give a glimpse of one of
our campaign areas known as Rylonia. This is part of "The Hunt: Rise of
Evil" setting and a prelude adventure to one of our 2001 published
modules called "Blood on the Grass." [Download
Rite of Passage, 1.1 MB PDF.]
We will also be launching an e-product called "The Net Master: Gaming
Series." This series will feature adventures, monster books, class
books, etc all in a PDF or other electronic format and will range in
price from a buck to three dollars. All you have to do is supply the
paper and imagination! Most of the e-adventures will revolve around the
"Dire Port: City of Dark Dreams" product, which will be reminiscent of
a great original "City State of the Invincible Overlords" by Judges
Guild.
Well, with all the great things happening in the d20 arena the one
regret we have is we are putting the CCG on hold for a bit. We will
keep doing some work on it and you should see a final card layout some
time in 2001 but we are not in a rush.
All that being said, we are thankful for the support of the d20 fan
sites, the RPG public, and our 3rd party publishing peers who all have
had great feedback, suggestions and a great attitude. We at Mystic Eye
Games hope we all succeed and stay strong in the industry for many
years to come.
Happy New Year! May you have a safe and enjoyable
holiday. My New Year's resolution is to play more D&D. :)
Sword and Fist Too Monk-Heavy? WotC's Ryan Dancey
discusses the content of the fighter and monk sourcebook, Sword and
Fist (thanks to Gerard for the scoop):
Most of the feats in Sword & Fist
are >not< for the character who wants to kill big monsters with a
sword. Those feats are in the core book. The feats in S&F are for
characters who want to do other types of fighting; either hand to hand,
or with exotic weapons, or with unusual tactics. A feat called "Eyes in
the Back of your Head" is just as usuable by a fighter as it is by a
monk, but in practice, more monks are likely to want it than certain
types of fighters.
Community News:
- The Mabinogin is a D&D campaign and resource site.
- WotC's James Wyatt has updated his personal 3E page with
notes from recent gaming sessions and teasers about one of his upcoming
products, Monsters of Faerun.
- OpenRPG 0.7a Released: New features in 0.7a includefaster
XML parser, new and improved node applets, save as HTML, printing,
improved die roller, install tool, and an updated d20 character tool.
OpenRPG is a tool for playing RPGs online.
New in the Conversion Library: Savage Coast's
"secret passes" presented as feats for duelist-type characters, a slew
of Fiend Folio monster conversions, and notes on monstrous
deities converted from from Monster Mythology.
D20 System News:
- Green Ronin Publishing has posted new "Freeport" material: This month saw the release of Terror in Freeport, the
much-anticipated sequel to Death in Freeport. In the adventure the
characters get to know Councilor Verlaine, the head of the Captains's
Council, quite well. They also meet up with Verlaine's captain of the
guard, a man named Reikert Lloyd. Terror in Freeport does not go into
detail on Lloyd's background, and that's where this month's Focus
on Freeport comes in. Robert J. Toth, the author
of Terror in Freeport, has provided us with some background on the
tough Captain Lloyd. You can use this info when running Terror in
Freeport, or add Lloyd as an NPC to your home campaign.
- Last week I mentioned a new D20 System publisher called
Viking Games. They've released a preview of Monster Menagerie,
a monster collection set for an August 2001 release. Download the 1.5
MB PDF file here. Their first adventure, A Distant Echo, should
arrive in April. I've added the company to the D20 System Guide.
Official Updates: Download classic 1st edition adventure
module L2: The Assassin's Knot, meet a dwarf-hating bugbear NPC in the
Fight Club, read about Rich Baker's DMing style and how he slaughtered
the entire party in Celebrity Gaming Table, download stats for fiendish
creatures you can summon in Character Closeup. (thanks to Frank Wils,
Walt Starr and Dark Blackshield for the scoop)
Official Updates: The final level of this month's dwarven
stronghold has been revealed on WotC's Map-A-Week page. (thanks to
Bertman4 and Dark Blackshield for the scoop)
D20 System News:
- Goldrush Games has recently published a monster supplement
for their Usagi Yojimbo RPG. Entitled (appropriately enough)
Usagi Yojimbo: Monsters, it includes D20 System conversion notes.
(thanks to Gilvoss and Brutorz Bill for the scoop)
- "Korath" sends word of a D20 System campaign setting he's
working on (you can read his progress report on this project). He also
provides information for anyone who would like to contribute to The
Game Master's Toolkit project.
- GenCon UK 2001 will include the following D20 System event:
The RPGA UK is please to announce that
the Mega Dungeon is Back! Thanks to the team at Rebellion
(www.rebellion.co.uk) and The Galaxy's Greatest Comic 2000AD, Mega
Dungeon 2001 puts you in the role of the most feared Bounty Hunters --
The Strontium Dogs. 2000AD is available from all good newsagents.
Subscription CC hotline: 01795 414901. Here's further
explanation from "The Other Nice Man": MegaDungeon
is the UK equiv. of Dungeon Delve/Hack in the US a massive adventure
running through Gen Con UK. This year we decided to try something
different and looked at a bounty hunter theme. For those that don't
know Strontium Dogs is a comic strip in 2000AD about mutant bounty
hunters in the near future. I am currently writing a d20 sci-fi bounty
hunters games including mutants/cyberwear etc. The core system
(species, classes, skills, feats, mutants, cyberwear etc) will be
released in January. E-mail "The Other Nice Man" for more info.
Community News:
- Update at Living Dead Girl: A new
D&D-themed deadworld ... each deadworld suggests an alternate
campaign setting for the Living Dead Girl. In "Medieval Dead," she gets
whisked away to whichever D&D world the DM wants to introduce her
to.
- Strategem Ideaware's Monster Editor software has been
updated to fit on an 800x600 resolution screen.
WotC Press Releases: A couple of recent press releases
indicate that WotC is still very much alive and well. This one
discusses the future of Magic: The Gathering, noting that it's still
going strong and that rumors of a 90% budget cut are false. This one
announces that WotC will acquire the Star Wars fan club, begin
publishing the Star Wars Insider magazine, and run the Star
Wars e-commerce store. (thanks to Joel Flank for the scoop)
Reviews: Several new reviews for your reading pleasure...
- AtFantasy.com has posted a review of Necromancer Games'
Crucible of Freya.
- RPG.net has new reviews of Nightshift Games' The Horror
Beneath (D20 System adventure) and WotC's Star Wars RPG and Sword &
Fist (reviewed by Margo Schreck, whose review you can also find below
in the 12/22 news). (thanks to Bobby for the scoop)
New in the Conversion Library: Monsters (marut, algoid,
arcane, helmed horror, kaisharga), a swanmay prestige class, yet
another bladesinger prestige class, and Spelljammer skills and feats.
Dune Demise Detailed: Some quotes about the cancellation
of the D20 System Dune RPG, which apparently now appears to be as much
about WotC no longer owning the rights as it ever was about Hasbro's
financial situation (thanks to Dragavon for the scoop):
- WotC's Anthony Valterra: WOTC
does not own the license. It ended in August. Personally I sincerely
hope that someone does pick it up and do it using d20. I would also
like to see it also.
- WotC's Ryan Dancey on whether disappointment with
Last Unicorn Games' ICON version caused the Herbert estate to opt
against renewing rights: Actually, everyone at
the Herbert estate was very happy with the release of ICON Dune. They
knew that if it hadn't been for WotC, the product would never have seen
the light of day, and that in the end we ended up selling more units
through DTR and at GenCon that LUG would have sold through
distribution, based on their preorder numbers. I have to tell you that
we view the ICON Dune release as a big success, in that we completed a
project that was very important personally to the LUG team, delivered
on their promises to fans, and released a book for creative reasons
rather than profit-centric reasons. The fact that we will be unable to
bring what I personally consider a product with a much better chance of
commercial success to market in D20 Dune leaves a bittersweet taste, to
say the least.
D20 System News: Darrin Drader, the webmaster of the
Empire of Galovinius campaign setting site, mentioned a while back that
he'd have an announcement to make regarding his forray into publishing.
Here's the press release announcing this new publisher:
In 2001, the young D20
company Dark Portal Games will be entering the Role Playing Game
arena, promising to emphasize quality and innovation in its product
line. These materials will take advantage of the Open Gaming License,
and will be compatible with Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition by Wizards
of the Coast Inc. Early aspects of the product line will feature a free
adventure module and a new campaign setting called the World of
Aerekoz, which will be available for free download from the company
website. “We have innovations under review that the gaming public
hasn’t even thought of yet,” says project coordinator
Darrin Drader; the creator of several web released gaming products.
“The people working on this project have been involved in role
playing for more than half their lives. They play the games,
they’ve written large amounts for the games, and they’ve
participated in the conventions. In addition to strong writing and
creative backgrounds, they have many skills from industries not usually
associated with pen and paper role playing which will be utilized to
create a more diverse product line.” Dark Portal Games was
founded by Tony Bounds, Darrin Drader, and Dan Eveland. Our goal is to
provide high quality innovative electronic d20 gaming accessories for
reasonable prices. We strive to bring you products that are useful both
in the context of our own setting, and also be adaptable enough to
easily fit with any DM's local campaign setting.
Official Updates: While we're all lazing about during the
holiday, the fine people of the WotC web team have posted new D&D
material for your perusal. You can find a sneak preview of the Harper
prestige class for Forgotten Realms, part 4 of December's Cliffhanger
Adventure, and a new issue of Realms by Night featuring an undead
creature called the cache dweller. (thanks to Shade and Dark
Blackshield for the scoop)
New Sword & Fist Cover: Special thanks to
Margo Schreck for scanning the cover of Sword & Fist. It's
a bit different from the mockup that's been all over the WotC website,
Amazon.com, etc. Personally if I were running the show I'd try to have
the real cover up as soon as it was ready -- visually oriented people
might have trouble spotting the product they saw on the web when they
visit a store if the covers are different. But hey, what do I know?
Click the pic for a bigger view.
Master Tools Update: Friday night means an update from
the Master Tools team, this week by Jim Bishop:
Fluid turned over a milestone
last Friday, and I've spent this week going through the submission.
We've now got the first 35 sounds, first 10 monsters, and all the major
& minor dungeon features done, and a finished design for what we're
calling the race generator. Andrew also turned out an early Christmas
present for me, in the form of a mostly-done treasure and magic item
generator.
The 10 monsters look, in a word, great. Kevin and Waddy did a smashing
job on them, both the scanned-and-painted figs and the ones they did
from scratch. Here's the complete list from this turnover: Carrion
Crawler, Drider, Ettin, Formian, Worker, Hill Giant, Gnoll, Gorgon,
Grick, Blue Slaad, Umber Hulk.
The major and minor features are also excellent, thanks to the hard
work of Mike and Kevin. They managed to do some amazing work on pieces
that are small as dollhouse furniture. I can't wait until they're all
loaded into the mapper.
The first sounds came through also, and they're wildly successful. Paul
added some great touches--heavy footsteps for the hill giant, an
explosion of earth for the bulette, cool "eye ray" sounds for the
beholder, and the clang of chains and weapons for some of the
humanoids. They really make the tiny figures come to life. I'd like to
post some of the best ones to the website ASAP, to share the wealth a
little.
Scott has reconcepted the entire character generation system, and last
week he turned over one half of it: the race generator. If you look at
the monster "types" in the MM, you'll see that they work just like
classes. A magmin is a 2nd level Elemental; a nymph is a 3rd level Fey;
an otyugh is a 6th level Aberration, etc. Instead of building a
"monster generator" that includes class-specific elements like skill
ranks and purchased feats, we've divided the system into races and
classes, and included monster classes with the PC, NPC, and Prestige
classes.
So for instance, if you open "Goblin" in the race generator, the entry
won't have any skills. It will show the +4 racial bonus to Move
Silently, but the race itself doesn't have any skills. Likewise, it
won't have any ability scores in the race generator, but it will show
-2 Str, +2 Dex, -2 Cha ability score modifiers. The complete entry for
Goblin, as found in the MM, is something we'll have to build in the
character generator by importing the race and then spending the skill
and feat points it's entitled by its level in the Humanoid class.
Scott's design looks watertight, and sets the stage for an assault on
the remaining chunks of the character generator. That portion of the
design should be coming in over the next few weeks, and we'll be sure
to keep you up to date on how it's progressing, since it's such a
pivotal part of the product.
Andrew's treasure/item generator is supercool. It makes random treasure
piles according to encounter level, and allows the user to edit items
by opening a window on the item generator. I just rolled up a 30th
level treasure horde worth 1,788,464 GP, that includes an intelligent
+4 heavy mace and a cursed ring of protection, among about a hundred
other things. And I can also custom build any weapon or armor I want,
using all the rules from the DMG (droool.) The final version isn't due
until next month, so I'm anticipating great things when it's submitted.
I also wanted to thank those 50 or 60 of you who offered to help with
Access client development, and apologize for not getting back to you.
After talking it through, it looks like we're going to sit on this
thing, at least until we've got a solid map of the database structure.
What we'd really like to see isn't a generic Access client, but a
tailored app that
would allow users to build a class (for instance) with a single form,
rather than hunting through the two dozen relational tables that hold
all the data about a class. To do that, we'd need to have a final
database structure, and it's just not done yet. So please be patient,
and please keep some time open for us--we're likely to release the
structure at the same time we open the beta (no, we don't have a date
for that yet.)
That's all for now. Happy holidays from all of us at Wizards and Fluid,
and we'll see you back here next year.
Jim Bishop
Producer, Wizards of the Coast
mastertools@wizards.com
www.wizards.com/mastertools
Community News:
- Looks like the Palm character software from RealmsCrafters
is going to be called RPG
Companion™ Pro. RealmCrafters should have a website up and
running soon.
- New prestige classes at The Dungeon Dimension.
- Pen & Paper, formerly known as Bobby's Page O' Various
RPG's, has posted a review of one of AEG's "Adventure Keep" D20 System
adventures.
- A new D20 System publisher, Viking Games, has appeared on
the web. I'll add them to the D20 System Guide after I get back from
vacation.
- Scott Greene has a special holiday treat planned in his
Creature Catalog -- might want to check back later this weekend.
- Necromancer Games has posted some downloads related to
their new adventure, The Crucible of Freya.
Sword & Fist Mini-Review: Margo Schreck of The Living
Dead Girl has posted this mini-review of Sword & Fist on my
message boards:
I think it's wonderful. I
absolutely did not like what the 2E Complete Handbooks turned into, but
if Sword and Fist is any example of what the other 3E guidebooks will
be like, I'm really looking forward to them. There are so many ways
that I could review this one that I thought instead maybe the best
thing would be to just summarize what's inside and see what the rest of
you make of it.
Chapter 1 is Feats and Skills. At a glance I don't see any feats that
are out of control, which was a pleasant surprise. Some of them, if
given to monsters and NPCs, could come as a real surprise to players
who've already learned how to "work the system" in 3E combat. For
example, "Hold the Line" (prereqs: base attack +2, Combat Reflexes)
lets you make an AoO against charging opponents who enter an area you
threaten.
There aren't any new skills, but there are some examples of how
existing skills can be used in ways we might not have thought of
before. Sense Motive, for instance, can also be used as "Combat
prediction" and "Decipher strategy," both of which have an effect on
combat and are explained in detail, just as if they were new skills all
to themselves.
Chapter 2 is Prestige Classes, which is probably the second biggest
reason to buy the book. Eric's listed them before on his site, but if
you're like me then you probably didn't know what some of them were
supposed to be. Some of the less obvious ones were Devoted Defender =
bodyguard whose abilities include "Harm's Way," which lets him switch
places with his charge if they're within 5' of each other; Fist of
Hextor = mercenary soldiers who work on behalf of a temple of Hextor;
Ghostwalker = the Clint Eastwood "Man with No Name" archetype, who
reminds me of a living 1E revenant; Lasher = someone who can use a whip
to wreck just about anyone who comes near; Master of Chains = same
thing really, except with chains; Ravager = in Greyhawk, this is
someone dedicated to Erythnul and has abilities which inflict fear,
pain, and death (such as "Cruelest Cut" which inflicts temporary CON
damage); Red Avenger = think of this as a monk who's really into using
her Ki, but mostly to put the smack-down on people who have it coming;
Weapon Master = if you remember the kensai from 1E Oriental Adventures,
well, there you are.
Chapter 3, Worldly Matters, reminded me of the Hero Builder's
Guidebook. It puts the new prestige classes in context, so that players
and DMs might have a better idea of what kind of background these
characters are coming from. Thankfully, it's rather short.
Chapter 4 is The Game Within The Game. Like the HBG, it suggest
possible routes to take to create the character you're after, but then
just when you think "thanks, but I really don't need this much advice"
you get to "How to Fight Nearly Everything (and Survive)." You know
those ".Vs" articles in Dragon? That's not what this is. This is
genuine, top-down, how to go into 3E combat and get the most out of
what you can do without getting killed. It gives very good examples,
using the same kinds of maps we've seen in AoO examples, of just how
much difference a square or two can make. Then comes advice rather like
the "Power Play" sidebars, in which we see a numerical breakdown of
things like how many hits in a Flurry of Blows we can expect given the
number of attacks and the number needed to hit. It made my head swim,
but I know you guys will eat that stuff up. Wicked DMs (is there any
other kind) will also like the "Large and In Charge" approach to
monster fighters and monks, especially when you see just how ugly
things can get with a Colossal, 20th level monk. Ouch!
Chapter 5's Tools Of The Trade include new weapons and magic items,
from the harpoon and Orc shotput to a "Bow of True Arrows" and a "Vest
of False Life." Then come various vehicular rules and some specific
feats for chariots which parallel the mounted feats from the PHB. Then,
lastly, there are towers, keeps and castles: sample buildings for PCs
or NPCs, complete with detailed maps, descriptions, and prices. You get
the Border Tower, Elven Canopy Tower, Lighthouse Keep, Gnome Bridge
Keep, Bailey Castle, Dwarven Plateau Castle, Monks' Temple, and of
course the Gladiatorial Arena (which even includes descriptions of
"Unusual Gladiatorial Fights" such as Dwarf-and-Giant, Hidden Weapons,
and Chain Matches). Very inspiring stuff, which could've been taken
straight from those 2E City Sites, Castle Sites, etc. books.
So there you have it. Now I can hardly wait for Defenders of the Faith
to come out!
Official Updates: You can find an online Alignment Test
similar to that in the Hero Builder's Guide, stats for the
Arumvorax (a monster from earlier editions of the game that never made
it to the 3E Monster Manual), a new spell called mindless rage, and a
new little blurb from the Realms Roundtable. (thanks to Mr. Okibi,
Bertman4 and Dark Blackshield for the scoop)
New in the Conversion Library: Holy slayer, another
bladesinger, plus AD&D 1st edition module L1: The Secret of
Bone Hill.
WotC D20 Products -- Wheel of Time OK, Cthulhu
Pushed Back, Dune Canceled: WotC's Anthony Valterra was
kind enough to send an announcement about the state of future D20
System products:
In light of the recent
restructuring at Wizards, the TRPG business team has decided to focus
our internal resources on the production of our premiere RPG lines
(D&D, FR, & Star Wars). As a result, we are announcing the
following changes to our schedule:
The Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game is still on the schedule and slated
for August 2001 release. This product has always been intended and
designed to be a stand alone product - everything you need, including
all rules, will be available in this product. The Wheel of Time
Roleplaying Game will be a hard cover 320 page d20 product. It will be
followed in November of 2001 by a 192 page adventure product.
Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game, which was originally scheduled for
October of 2001, will be moved to January 2002. It will also be a 320
page hardback. There will be no follow up product from WOTC.
We must also announce that due to resource constraints and contractual
issues it has become neccesary to cancel the two Dune products: the
Dune Roleplaying Game and Voice from the Outer World.
Old Message Boards to Go Up in Flame: Okay, the new
message boards are working out great, and because it appears that
almost everyone has made the switch over, I'm gonna kill off the old
boards very, very soon. Either tonight or Friday night before I head
out of town for a few days. If there's something really precious you
want from there, get it quick, cause it's not gonna last!
Reviews: RPG.net has posted reviews for The Crucible of
Freya (D20 System, Necromancer Games), the D&D Gazetteer, and the
Hero Builder's Guidebook. (thanks to Bertman4 for the scoop)
Arachnemancer Correction: The Arachnemancer prestige
class appearing in Monte Cook's Dungeon Magazine adventure "The
Harrowing" (issue 84) contains a typo, according to WotC's Chris
Perkins (thanks to Shane for the scoop):
The requirement for becoming an
arachnemancer is incorrect: It should read summon monster II,
not III
as listed.
Official Updates: A new level of this month's dwarven
stronghold has been posted at WotC's Map-A-Week. (thanks to Bertman4,
Ghengis Ska and Richard Connery for the scoop)
Community News:
- King Chicken's D&D page is a Greyhawk campaign site.
- Eyru is a D&D campaign world inspired by Irish myth.
- The Netbook of Feats 1.1 (previously planned as the January
publication) has been released early. This installment has over 800
feats from more than 50 contributors.
- The D&D section of The Wolfe Den has character sheets
and other resources.
- Responding strongly to a great need in the gaming community
(particularly among those who play the Star Wars RPG), Jason Priesmeyer
has created an Excel spreadsheet tool that will help you ... uh ...
convert a d6 roll into a d3 roll.
New in the Conversion Library: Mystara races, an elven
lycanthrope from the Realms, and miscellaneous monsters.
D20 System News:
- Mystic Eye Games (a D20 System publisher) has posted a free
download, a creature known as the snowmare.
- Clark Peterson of Necromancer Games says their newest D20
adventure, The Crucible of Freya, is now available in stores. This
adventure is the sequel to their free adventure, The Wizard's Amulet.
- Reader Nik Landauer has sent along a mini-review of the
mini-adventures produced by AEG for the D20 System, a product we
haven't heard much about: The AEG "Adventure Keep" little adventures are out, I got 'em at my
local gaming shop. Each is $2.49, and eight 8-1/2 x 11 pages folded in
half (the outermost being cardboard with a glossy exterior) and
saddle-stapled. -Very- surprisingly nice production quality for a $2.50
product. I've read through half of them, and skimmed the others, and
they look -good-. Each purports to be runnable in one gaming session,
which is probably accurate, but each could also be expanded easily,
since each plants seeds for additional stories. Many of them include
new monsters, new magic items, and even a new spell in one. The back
cover of each has a player's introduction, that would often need to be
rewritten if the adventure is being set into an ongoing campaign, but
it's not that much work. The center pages of each make a full-page
(8-1/2 x 11) map, many of which could be used for purposes outside the
adventure, such as the town maps in a few of the adventures. A few very
minor irks I had: Most encounters are described tersely at best (which
would be expected from the size of the adventure, so can somewhat be
accepted), and in at least one adventure (Jerimond's Orb), there is no
map for a relevant location (Jerimond's tower, the location of the last
combat), despite keyed interior locations. Overall, these are -very-
nice, and well worth $20 for -eight- adventures.
- Eden Studios will be releasing Liber Beastarius (The
Book of Beasts), a monster book for their D20 System "Odyssey" product
line, this March. You can read about it here, and see sample pages from
the book here.
Community News:
- An update from the Netbook of Feats site: The Netbook of feats continues to push forward for the
updated January release. With over 700 feats already built into the
release file and another 200+ to go, expect to see almost 1,000 feats
in the January publication. The Feat Review Board will be swinging into
action after the January release to begin evaluating each feat. You can
download a copy of the Review Board's plans as well as a draft Feat
Design Worksheet from the Netbook of Feats website.
- Strategem Ideaware is a D&D and D20 System resource
site. You can find Wild West D20 rules, new feats, and new metals.
- Electronic Gizmos:
- Hamilton Meyer has created an online tool he calls the
D20 Base Class Calculator. I reverse engineered
all the 3e classes in the PH and have created an online calculator that
can be used for creating new Classes.
- Greg Morrow has posted a java program he calls the
Monster Editor. You can design new monsters with it using the rules
presented in Skip Williams' "How to Design a Monster" article in
October's Dragon Magazine. You'll want to set your screen
resolution higher than 800x600 for this as some of the action occurs
off-screen otherwise.
Official Updates: Part 3 of the current Cliffhanger
Adventure has been posted, along with a new monster -- the Wax Golem.
(thanks to Bertman4 for the scoop)
New in the Conversion Library: Several variants of the
brownie (including quickling, dobie, kilmoulis, buckawn, and redcap),
new prestige classes, and a martial arts system.
SaiD3U 1.1b for Palm Posted: An update to yesterday's
announcement about SaiZai's character software -- a new version has
been posted today. "New features: BEAMING,
Combat Stats screen, autoroll saves, AC, & Init. And one minor
bugfix."
D20 System Guide Updated: I've added information on a new
D20 System publisher, Privateer Press.
SaiD3U 1.0 for Palm Posted: You can download functional
version 1.0 of SaiZai's SaiD3U character software for Palm computers.
Read about it here (look at the Dec. 17th entry for the latest info).
Download it here (22kb .zip file, includes readme). See screen shots of
it here.
New D&D Miniatures Available: WotC's Chris Pramas
posted a note indicating there are nine new minis available (I believe
you can see them here -- the first nine should be the newest minis
available). We'll see a Black Dragon mini in January and then "a mix of D&D and Star Wars figs for the rest of
2001." (thanks to Nick Tompkins for the scoop)
Star Wars Errata Posted: WotC has posted the first
errata list for their D20 System Star Wars RPG. (thanks to
J.Longden for the scoop)
MM Errata -- Wraiths Spawn Wraiths: WotC's customer
service indicates that a character slain by a
wraith becomes a wraith, not a wight as printed in the Monster
Manual. (Thanks to Bob for the scoop)
New in the Conversion Library: Rules for larger-scale
combat and skirmishes, updates to Scott Greene's Creature Catalog, a
Dreamer prestige class converted from Dragon Magazine, plus
several files updated.
Official Updates: WotC has posted a new free adventure
called The Alchemist's Eyrie, which features a dwarven alchemist's
tower. You can also find some more D&D Movie stuff and another Pool
of Radiance II interview. (thanks to John Leone, Nik, Dark
Blackshield
Community News:
- Coik's 3E Primer has moved to a new location.
- The Dungeon Dimension has moved to a new location.
- New stuff from Vincent Darlage, including Santa Claus'
stats, and his interpretation of Conan the Barbarian's stats for every
level from 1 to 20.
- Jonathan Jacobs has released a new version of his Treasure
Generator. You should be able to download the new version at Jamis
Buck's site shortly.
- The RPGHost Network has two new network sites:
RPGSheets.com (which is what I now link to under Vital Links to the
left) and RPGStory.com.
- Interested in RealmCrafter's Palm software for 3E? Sign up
for their announcements and their open beta e-mail groups at
egroups.com.
WotC "Reorganization" Press Release: Here's the press
release that provides the "official" explanation of the layoff
situation and the company's future plans.
Master Tools Update: Friday's here, and so is this week's
update on Master Tools from producer Wayne Cline.
Howdy all. Well, this week we
wrapped up the scanning on the minis. For those interested, we scanned
49 figures total. Some of those figures will also be the generic
representatives for the monster types. For the mighty curious in the
crowd, here’s the complete list of the minis we scanned:
Half-Orc Barbarian (Krusk); Half-Elven Bard (Devis); Human Cleric
(Jozan); Half-Elven Druid (Vadania); Dwarven Fighter (Tordek); Human
Fighter (Regdar); Human Monk (Ember); Human Paladin (Alhandra); Elven
Ranger (Sovellis); Halfling Rogue (Lidda); Human Sorcerer (Hennet);
Elven Wizard (Mialee); Gnome Illusionist (Nebin); Animal, Eagle;
Animal, Wolf (generic animal); Basilisk; Beholder (generic aberration);
Bugbear; Carrion crawler; Celestial, Solar; Devil, Cornugon (generic
outsider); Devil, Hamatula; Dire rat; Displacer beast (generic magical
beast); Dragon, Black (generic dragon); Ettin; Gargoyle; Genie, Djinni;
Giant, Fire (generic giant); Giant, Hill; Gibbering mouther; Gnoll;
Goblin; Gorgon; Grick; Grimlock; Hobgoblin; Lamia; Lammasu;
Lycanthrope, Wererat; Medusa; Minotaur (generic monstrous humanoid);
Ooze, Black pudding (generic ooze); Orc (generic humanoid); Otyugh;
Rakshasa; Rust monster; Troll ; Umber hulk; Vermin, Monstrous spider
(generic vermin); Zombie (generic undead)
I’m extremely happy with how well these turned out. Hopefully we
can post a “before and after” image on the website and show
how a scanned image looks freshly scanned versus how it looks after our
artists Kevin and Waddy get through with it. It’s very cool.
We’re also building some figures from scratch. They are:
Animal, Heavy war horse; Ankheg (generic beast); Bulette; Demon,
Glabrezu; Doppelganger (generic shapechanger); Drider; Dryad (generic
fey); Elemental, Fire elder (generic elemental); Elf, Drow; Formian,
Worker; Ghoul; Golem, Iron (generic construct); Kobold; Lizardfolk;
Owlbear; Sahuagin; Shambling mound (generic plant); Slaad, Blue;
Stirge; Troglodyte
On another front, our Mapper programmer, Eric, has been working on
getting diagonal walls working, which is a big deal, I can assure you.
He has also implemented the ability to cut and paste sections of the
dungeon. The ultimate goal is to be able to choose which layers you
want to paste, such as walls, floors, monsters, treasure, etc. The
mapper is looking great!
Finally, there was a question last night on the Discussion board about
WotC layoffs and if they would affect MT. The answer is
“No.” There was indeed a layoff for WotC worldwide, but the
layoffs did not affect the software group, so MT is going forward full
blast.
New Message Boards! Rejoice, for new message boards have
arrived! They should be quicker and much more stable than the old
boards. Head on over to register!
I plan to keep the old boards up for a time (probably a couple of
weeks) so people can copy over any information they might want to have
on the new boards. I'll try to give you plenty of warning when the old
boards close.
Adkison on Leaving WotC: Here's the message WotC
employees got to see as a kind of farewell message from CEO Peter
Adkison (thanks to Tom Frisby, first of many scoopers):
Please feel free to forward
the following email to anyone who you'd like, or post it on any
discussion group you'd like. It's my internal post at WotC to all the
employees and sums it up pretty well:
Greetings friends,
As of January 1st 2001 I will no longer be an employee of Wizards of
the Coast/Hasbro.
No,I'm not getting fired or layed off. I'm leaving voluntarily.
I'm sure many of you will want to know why. Well, I don't think that
the core of my reasoning is any more complicated than this. When you
start a company and run it as CEO for many years you think of it as
your own. Yes there are other shareholders and a board of directors you
answer to, but your vote is always the biggest vote. Then you sell the
company and you go along trying to make the best of the situation,
telling yourself that you still have the same responsibilities as
before, plus a vote in something even bigger. That works for a while
until something happens that you object to and in spite of your best
efforts you find yourself powerless to stop it. At that point you are
forced to accept the fact that the company is no longer yours, that you
no longer carry the biggest vote, and that can be difficult to take.
I'm not naive. I always knew intellectually this was the case, but to
think you understand something and then actually experience it are two
different things.
I have several thoughts I want to leave you with.
First do not by any means feel sorry for me. I made the choice to sell
and if I had it all to do over again I'd make the same decision. I
fulfilled many amazing dreams through this company. I made a lot of
people a lot of money. I feel very good about that. And although I
didn't design many of our games, I know that I contributed
significantly to many of them, not just by starting this company and
running it well but also as a CEO who is a gamer
at heart and made for an effective sounding board with our R&D
department. In particular
I'm very proud of having written Wizards of the Coast's first product,
The Primal Order; the role I played in the publication and development
of Magic: The Gathering; the acquisition and subsequent turnaround to
profitability of TSR; and the 3rd Edition of Dungeons & Dragons, a
game I've loved since 1978.
I feel particularly privileged to have worked with so many amazing
people. Richard, Jim, Skaff, Jot, Vince, Monika, Jesper, the list goes
on and on and I can't hope to list everyone. Truly the hardest thing
about leaving is leaving the companionship I have with so many people
who are here.
What will I do next? Hard to say. Many people dream of having the means
to not work,travel around, goof off, etc. Most people don't get to do
that until they are perhaps too old to enjoy it; I'll get to try it in
my 30s (barely)! I'll stayin touch and send pictures of me rock
climbing and snow boarding in exotic places! You'll also see me around
here from time to time I suspect. I have acouple of D&D campaigns I
intend to keep running whenever I'm in town. Eventually I'm sure I'll
want to work again. I'll go crazy not being productive. And some sort
of change will do me good. I have an amazing resume thanks to Wizards
of the Coast and I hope to leverage that by either running or starting
another company someday. I have some truly incredible opportunities
ahead, and no one can take away the incredible accomplishments I can
now list on my resume.
I want all of you to understand that I still strongly, adamantly,
passionately believe that this is a very magical place. What we are
doing is producing amazing games, bringing joy to millions of gamers
around the world. Our customers are a tough crowd. They love to bitch.
But don't let that fool you.I've found that deep down inside most of
them hold us in very high respect and are truly amazed by the games we
make. And at least within the Hobby Game segment, as long as we make
money Hasbro is not likely to interfere with the way we do business.
And I hope you'll all be proud of being part of Hasbro too. Hasbro is a
great company that's produced many toys and games that we've grownup
with, like Monopoly, Clue, Scrabble, and so on. If I were someone else
and I were offered a job here at Hasbro I would be ecstatic at the
opportunity to work for such a great company and with so many great
people.
Finally I want to put in a good word for Vince, Al Verrecchia, and Alan
Hassenfeld. I'm leaving you in very good hands. Effective January 1st,
Vince will be CEO of Wizards of the Coast. Vince has been COO of this
company for several years now and I know better than anyone else that
he's fully capable of leading this company through the rough waters
ahead. Vince is also a hobbyist at heart and understands our business
very well. He's also an inspirational leader; I know,I used to work for
him at Boeing and that's why I hired him in the first place. He's also
a great friend and I hope you'll support him in the times ahead.
Regarding Al and Alan, in spite of some differences of opinion on a
couple of business issues, I have the utmost respect for both of them.
Both are men of integrity, are hard workers, have the best interests of
the company at heart,and they've never mislead me or played bullshit
political games with us. These are incredible attributes to find in the
people at the top.
Well,this has dragged on long enough. I'll be around until Christmas
break, so feel free to stop by and say hi/goodbye if you like (but only
if you promise not to cry I'm trying to keep positive!).
It's been truly an honor to serve with you all.
Peter D. Adkison
Founder& CEO, Wizards of the Coast
December14, 2000
WotC Press Release -- L5R To Be Sold: Here's the first
WotC press release that has anything to do with the layoff situation
there. Essentially, it reports that the Legend of the Five Rings brand
will be sold.
Dancey on WotC Layoffs: Here's a note from Ryan Dancey on
the situation:
I've had a long, very
stressful, and very sad day.
You've all seen the news by now I'm sure, that Wizards has gone through
a downsizing, and that some very important people have left the
company, including Peter Adkison. Today's departures included people
from every department, and were from every level of the company.
I had a long converation with Keith Strohm last night, during which we
both laughed ruefully about the fact that we knew that certain people
would take word of the layoffs at Wizards as proof that the OGL/D20
project would be killed or cancelled. Unfortunately, sometime in the
middle of the night, the hard drive that the OGF server uses for temp
storage space filled up, and the mail server spool froze. So of course,
while I was spending time in the office, the rest of you have been
waiting around in the silence for some sort of reaction. It probably
helped matters not at all that some of you heard that Wizards severed
it's internet connection for the day. While an amazing conincidence,
the downtime for the OGF and the issues at Wizards are unconnected.
As of tonight, the status of the OGL/D20 project remains unchanged. In
fact, everyone involved at Wizards has signed off on the final D20
Trademark license and Guide, and Keith is just waiting for someone in
the legal department to send him confirmation that the licenses are
approved so we can do a press release. As you will probably understand,
that department (which has been busier than I have ever seen them the
past few months) has been even more occupied in the past few weeks.
R&D is reviewing the first seven sections of the srd for typoes,
mistakes, and other issues related to the rules hygine, and once things
settle down in their area, I expect that we'll have our first batch of
"Open Game Content" to release as well.
I want to give you all a little heads up in advance of some of the
press releases coming tomorrow, since I don't know when I'll be back at
my keyboard.
Some of the d20 projects planned for 2001 are being either killed or
pushed forward into 2002. Primarily, those decisions are being made on
the basis of bandwidth throughout the company; not just in R&D.
Wizards is taking some very hard looks at how much time it spends
producing, marketing, selling, storing and shipping everything it
makes, and some RPG productshave been sacrificed on the altar of
improved efficiencies. I can't say anything more than that, because the
PR on this issue is delicate, and is being handled by the team at
Wizards with my full support. You'll get the details with the rest of
the public sometime tomorrow afternoon.
Those changes >DO NOT RELFLECT< Wizards' committment to Open
Gaming or to the D20 system, and hopefully, after a period of
restructuring, some of the projects which look questionable tonight
will go forward.
In any event, >NOTHING< on the D&D or Star Wars schedule is
being affected by these changes. Delays (if any) in those lines will be
the result of normal schedule slippages and not a strategic shift.
Hasbro is very, very happy at the performance of the RPG business this
year, and nobody either locally at Wizards or back in Rhode Island has
any interest or intent in killing or harming the D&D/Star Wars
businesses in any way.
On a personal note, I would like to say how sorry I am to see these
times come to Wizards of the Coast. Wizards is a company that acts like
a family, and there is not one single person at the company tonight
that is not feeling a sense of regret and sadness.
Thank you for listening,
Ryan S. Dancey
Strohm on WotC Layoffs: Keith Strohm speaks up on the
subject (thanks to Jim Morris and Staffan Johansson for the scoop):
I understand everyone's
concern and speculation at this juncture, and there's not a lot I can
add to the larger discussion of Wizards of the Coast, but I wanted to
let everyone know that Dungeons & Dragons and the proposed d20
strategy are alive and well. Hasbro has on numerous occassions pointed
to its strong performing brands like Dungeons & Dragons. They have
great respect for the vibrant resurgence of D&D and continually
talk about their hopes and plans for D&D as it continues to grow.
Specifically relating to the TRPG and Miniatures group, our corporate
restructuring has helped us focus on the strategies and product lines
that are the backbone of our business, and I urge you all to keep an
eye out for the plans we will unveil in the future.
I have worked at Wizards of the Coast since they purchased TSR, Inc
(where I spent two years as an editor and a designer) and have worked
on the TRPG category team since 1998, when Ryan Dancey assembled a
small group of dedicated folks who labored hard to revive a dying
business. I have been fortunate enough to learn and grow under Ryan's
tutelage, and on October 10th of this year, I assumed his
responsibilities, as well as the leadership of our miniatures division.
This leadership has not (and will not, at least for the forseeable
future) changed, and the team that I have been training and working
with on the TRPG and minis categories remains essentially the same.
There has been no corporate mandate or interference with the running of
these categories, and we are indeed looking forward to working with
Hasbro to grow our brands and the hobby industry as a whole.
The future does indeed look bright for the RPG category. Sales of Star
Wars and D&D continue to grow and the d20 strategy will officially
see the light of day (look for upcoming news about that soon).
Restructuring and reorganizing is always difficult, but the changes
that have taken place at Wizards will only enable us to perform even
better as a company that produces quality game products.
Breaking News: Layoffs at WotC: Here's
the latest on the reports of layoffs at Wizards of the Coast:
- GamingReport.com is reporting that Hasbro has laid off over
150 WotC employees and that CEO Peter Adkison has left the company.
(thanks to Blackwyrm for the scoop)
- Check out this report about the financial state of Hasbro
from a week ago at CBS Marketwatch. This isn't just a WotC thing,
apparently, it's a Hasbro thing in general. And note that
Pokémon trading cards are mentioned prominently, rather than RPG
products. (thanks to Vaxalon for the scoop)
- Gamers.com reports that the number of layoffs is around 100
and that rumors that WotC CEO Peter Adkison "quit in protest" are
false. (thanks to GSB for the scoop)
- The WotC website indicates (presumably pre-layoffs) that
the company employs 1700 people. So we're looking at between 5-10% of
the staff. (thanks to Antrion for the scoop)
- WotC's Jim Butler on rec.games.frp.dnd says, "While it's true that [CEO] Peter [Adkison] did
resign today, he didn't do so out of disgust. He posted a letter to all
of us explaining his reasoning behind his departure." (thanks to
Glyfair for the scoop)
- WotC's Jim Butler had this to say about the situation (via
the FR mailing list, thanks to coyote6 and psionotic for the scoop):
First and foremost, it is true that
there were layoffs at Wizards today. I don't have an exact count for
you, but I've been told it's in the 100 range, perhaps as high as 120.
These layoffs weren't crippling to any division, but were instead
spread out over the entire company. Products are not being cut as a
result of the layoffs, and everything we've promised you will be coming
out on time. The FR team is still intact, being led by Rich Baker,
Creative Director for the line. Skip Williams, Sean Reynolds, Monte
Cook, and others behind the design of the Realms are still here (as is
virtually every other member of R&D). There were cuts, but they
weren't catastrophic to the department.
Wizards has terminated outside web access for the day, so I can only
respond via the mailing lists (which are on internal server).
Melniboné Described: There's been precious
little information about Chaosium's forthcoming Dragonlords of
Melniboné campaign setting for the D20 System -- until now.
Here's a product description that was posted to a Chaosium discussion
group (thanks to Steve Vogel for the scoop):
Dragon Lords of
Melniboné
A New World for the d20 System
$23.95, 208 pages, illustrated
For ten thousand years the bright empire of Melnibone ruled the world.
Her soldiers were ruthless, unspeakably cruel, and well-skilled at
arms. Powerful sorcerers, magic comes easily to them, as easy as
breathing. They forged eternal bonds with the aloof gods of Law and
Chaos, with the hideous demons from other planes, with elemental lords
that are of the world itself, and with the ancient dragons that
Melnibone used to enforce her might.
But wealth and age has dulled the Bright Empire, tarnished it beauty,
and weakened its people. The empire rots from within. And outside,
young kingdoms arise on the lands Melnibone's sons and daughters carved
from the stuff of chaos that lies at the edge of the world. They are
petty, and envious of the ancient wealth of their former masters.
A pirate navy is forming, to sail against the Dreaming City of Imrryr.
Its captains hope to recapture stolen riches and to bring a hated
overlord to ruin.
DRAGON LORDS OF MELNIBONE provides a heroic setting for your d20 System
game in a complete and detailed roleplaying world developed by Chaosium
Inc. and based upon the fabulous stories written by Michael Moorcock.
The island of Melnibone and the world of the Young Kingdoms wage their
eternal battle in a fully developed and extensive storyline. Ancient
magic abounds. Sorcerous swords whisper of forgotten treasure. Spirits
and demons plague the living. . .
. . and a new albino emperor has taken the Ruby Throne, promising to
restore the terrible heritage of Melnibone and bring the young upstarts
to heel.
Official Updates: A couple of new items over at WotC.
(thanks to Bertman4 for the scoop)
- Map-A-Week: The next couple of levels of this
month's dwarven stronghold have been posted.
- New FR Art: You'll find four new Forgotten Realms
concept sketches over at Realmswatch. They're all bad guys, and each
sketch is accompanied by notes about the drawing and the character
depicted.
D20 Magazine: Well this will teach me to read the
editorials in Dragon Magazine a little more carefully... As an
eagle-eyed scooper points out, the editorial column in the 2000 Dragon
Magazine Annual reveals a new RPG magazine on the horizon:
For those who demand that Dragon
remain devoted exclusively to DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, have no fear. For
d20 games other than D&D and Star
Wars, we'll bring you a completely new
periodical named, surprisingly enough, d20 Magazine.
Watch for it bundled with an issue of Dragon
Magazine next summer.
New in the Conversion Library: A slew of converted
monsters, including a large collection of "missing monsters" that were
in the 2E MM but not in the 3E MM; conversions of the aurumvorax and
elven cat; and a new elemental template for animentals (animals that
live on the elemental planes); plus a conversion of module I2: Tomb
of the Lizard King.
Electronic D&D Gizmo News:
- Jamis Buck, the creator of four excellent D&D utility
programs, is in the midst of designing what he calls "Basilisk," a new
engine for his treasure generator. With Basilisk, he hopes to create a
fully customizable program that will allow the entry of user-created
treasure lists. Read more about Jamis' future plans for his other
programs here.
- Craft Skill Caluclator is an online program to help you
figure the cost and time to create items using the Craft skill. Created
by Jason Egger.
Community News:
- Updates at Return to the Dungeon including a review of
NeMoren's Vault (D20 System adventure, Fiery Dragon Productions).
- Winning entries from Rolegamer.net's recent contest have
been posted. You can find new monsters and adventure ideas among the
winning entries.
Restrictions to Polymorph: A while ago I reported
on some restrictions that would likely make the next PHB errata list
with regard to the polymorph spells. WotC's Skip Williams adds
to those restrictions (thanks to John C. for the scoop):
A few recommended changes that will be
hitting print soon: The new form can range in size from Diminutive to
one size larger than the subject's normal form, and can have no more
hit dice than you have, or that the subject has, (which ever is
greater), and in any case the assumed form cannot have more than 15 hit
dice. You cannot change subjects into constructs, elementals,
outsiders, or undead unless they already are one of these types. Note:
If you're using polymorph self, you are the subject.
New in the Conversion Library: Yet another version of the
Death Master from 1st edition and a bunch of races from the Spelljammer
campaign setting.
Official Updates: Part 2 of December's Cliffhanger
Adventure, "The Candlemaker's Fire," has been posted at WotC, as well
as a new candle magic item to go along with it. (thanks to Dark
Blackshield and Bertman4 for the scoop)
D20 News:
- Columbia Games, makers of HarnWorld, are releasing a d20
compatible version of "Nasty Brutish and Short," a sourcebook and
adventure module dealing with the Gargun, the orcs of Harn. This book
provides details on Gargun culture, maps of four orc colonies, and six
related adventure scenarios. The product will be available to
distributors and retailers by the 16th of December. (thanks to Edwyn
Kumar for the scoop)
- Jagged Edge Games is producing a D20 System campaign
setting called Shadowlands. Set for a January release, other products
detailing religion, magic, nations, NPCs, animals and monsters will
follow. (thanks to Daniel Thingvold for the scoop)
Contest News:
- Gaming Outpost is giving away copies of the Star Wars RPG
and the Invasion of Theed Adventure Game. It's a random drawing -- no
skill required, so head on over to register.
- Speaking of "drawing" -- the results of the Monster Manual
Madness art contest at Tony DiTerlizzi's site have been posted. You'll
see some really creative, skilled work if you head over there.
- And speaking of contests -- a friendly reminder of the
January 5th deadline for my D&D Adventure Contest.
Community News:
- The Netbook of Feats has been changed from a website to a
downloadable .pdf file. The Netbook of Feats will be updated monthly.
- Beholder's RPG Zone has D&D 3rd Edition materials.
Beholder was also kind enough to make a couple of nifty new logos for
my site.
New Scarred Lands Material: You can read about the Titans
of Sword & Sorcery Studios' Scarred Lands setting for the D20
System, and unique super-potions known as Titans' Blood.
Official Updates: You can find new maps in December's
Map-A-Week, and some "Fast Play" type downloads that tie in to the
D&D Movie at WotC. (thanks to Dark Blackshield for the scoop)
Dragon #279: The January 2001 issue of Dragon
Magazine appeared in my mail today, and as usual it's chock-full of
goodies. Let's dig in, shall we?
- The cover is a beautiful Brom painting of
everyone's favorite drow, Drizzt. Ah, no Easley sideburns on this bad
boy!
- Profiles: Jason Carl, author of the forthcoming Sword
& Fist book as well as Dungeon of Death and Apocalypse
Stone adventures for AD&D, is in the spotlight.
- Countdown to the Realms: The official start date
for the 3E Realms is DR 1372. We learn about changes in store for a
number of regions, including...
- Thay: The Red Wizards, now crafters and
merchants of highly-desirable magic items, are establishing Red Wizards
Enclaves in many major cities throughout the Realms.
- The Silver Marches: A new alliance in the North
comprised of Silverymoon, Mithral Hall, Sundabar and others, is ready
to defend against orcish invaders from the Spine of the World.
- Anauroch: The great desert will see the return
of the phaerimm and an ancient power "in the
form of a mysterious and mobile city."
- The Zhentarim: They're "back
with a vengeance" but "what none of the
Zhentarim's likely targets yet know is the cause for their renewed
fervor." [My guess? The "Dead Three" become the "Dead Two."
-- Eric]
- The article also briefly touches on The Simbul, Mulhorand
and Unther. As usual the article only provides a tiny teasing
glimpse of the future of the FR setting.
- Elf Mania: This month's theme is elves. Here are
the highlights...
- "Leaf & Thorn: The Secret Life of Elves" --
an in-depth look at elvish society.
- "Revenge of the Spider Queen" -- Monte Cook
describes a group of evil minions devoted to dishing out revenge on
behalf of Lolth. You'll find stats and backstory for several unique
foes, including a rogue succubus, a fiendish stone giant, and a
half-drow/half-dragon vampire.
- "The Elven Marketplace" -- new weapons, armor
and equipment especially for elves.
- "The Myth of Elves" -- Explores elves in our
own literature.
- "An Elven Lexicon" -- Vocabulary and grammar of
the elves.
- "Ancestral Avenger" -- A prestige class for
elves who want to slay drow. Abilities gained over time include
Underground Tracking, Drow Bane (bonus to hit and damage drow), Poison
Resistance, Spider Bane, Webwalking, Drowic Change (useful for
infiltrating drow society), and Spell Resistance.
- Unusual Suspects: James Wyatt focuses on Monks and
Druids of unusual races. Includes new fighting style feats for monks
and lists of companion animals for druids.
- Vs. Fiends: James outlines how to effectively
battle demons and devils. Casting dimensional anchor and using
holy water are two suggested strategies.
- Other Goodies: A D&D Movie article; new
Fool Wolf fiction; "Giants in the Earth" returns with D&D stats for
Xerxes and other legendary heroes of the Persian War; "The Adventures
of Volo" continues to explore Cormyr; Sage Advice; Power Play;
Dungeoncraft; and more.
- Next Month: Backgrounds for sorcerers; fun with
alchemy; tips for using polymorph spells; and invaders of the Barrier
Peaks in The Bestiary.
Wyatt on Squirrels: Squirrel Nutkin has scored a major
victory -- the D&D stats for squirrels as provided by WotC's James
Wyatt, as well as information on their role as familiars. Check out
Squirrel Nutkin's D&D Home Page for the scoop -- you'd be nuts not
to!
Master Tools Update: Regular as clockwork, here's the
latest on the status of Master Tools, from the "man with the .plan" Jim
Bishop:
This week I'd like to talk
about sound effects, and the role of sound in the Master Tools. For
many tabletop gamers, sound effects seem to be totally unrelated to the
business of building a character, a monster, an encounter, and
otherwise preparing the game.
Until this week I was, at best, a reluctant passenger on the sound
bandwagon. Scott and Wayne were more excited about it, and since they
have much more experience I reserved judgement.
This week we had our first recording session for the Master Tools, at
the Mill Valley facilities of Duff Studios, run by one Paul Gorman.
Paul had contracted time with a voice actor named Roger L. Jackson,
famous for his roles as Mojo Jojo on the Powderpuff girls, and the
voice on the phone in the Scream movies. We had a list of three dozen
monsters to record, and Paul had written a short description of the
sound he wanted for each critter. For example, the Homunculus' sound
was described as "Saliva, awkward breathing patterns. A diseased pug."
From the first recording, it was clear Roger had the perfect talent for
this job. While doing the Ghoul sound, we thought his mastication
didn't sound "wet" enough, and tossed him a green apple to chew on. He
produced sounds that made us crawl in our seats. Where he needed to
improvise, he did wonderfully. Where we had lines to recite, he nailed
them cold. At the end of four hours, Paul had at least a hundred sound
clips to work with, and I was hooked.
It's true: sounds aren't linked to game mechanics. But neither are
pictures, or even a monster's text description. A monster's battle-cry
can do several things: it can cast a different light on an old monster
("I've never used the Grimlock before, but since it sounds like _that_
. . ."), give roleplaying tips to a new DM ("What exactly does "Ignan"
sound like?"), and make some of the new monsters more familiar (Paul
recorded a horribly vicious Grick sound last week.) There's also the
at-table use: we've focused on battle cries to the exclusion of
"atmospherics" because we felt they were more dramatic, and also more
useful to the DM who brings a laptop to the game.
If sounds cost us any other development resources, we wouldn't include
them. But they're the audio engineer's sole responsibility--we don't
take a significant hit against art, design, or programming by going
this route. And for very little cost, we're adding a tremendous value.
We want to make adding new sounds into the library easy, both to
encourage fan-creation and to make sounds part of future product
expansions. Imagine downloading a D&D module that included the war
cries for each new monster, a sampling of spell sounds, or even had the
"read-aloud" text narrated by a professional.
In other news, the treasure and item generators are very close to
completion, the monster art is looking incredible (Kevin's
Drider-from-scratch is awesome), and Mike is busy solving the problem
of diagonal wall sections. Wayne referred to the new packaging sketch
from Henry Higgenbotham last week, but I like it so much that I wanted
to reiterate: it is the coolest concept for any packaging I've ever
seen. I can't wait to see it come together as a piece of sculpture.
Last, I've seen a few questions about the Hasbro/Infogrames deal on the
message boards and I should make it clear that the deal will have zero
impact on Master Tools development. It's certainly an interesting news
item, but it doesn't change our plans for D&D utilities in the
slightest.
FR Updates at WotC: New material from the Realms has been
posted at WotC. You can find a new epidsode of Elminster Speaks
complete with a new NPC (I guarantee some of you good spellers will be
saying "a 10th-level what???"), plus Ed Greenwood talks about
regional feats, and Realmswatch describes two such feats in detail.
(thanks to Dark Blackshield and Brett Lambrix for the scoop)
Community News:
- DNDHelp.com is back after a break.
- Return to the Dungeon has a new reviews section.
- RPG.net has posted reviews of The Heroes & Magic
Sourcebook for 0onegames' "Seven Avengers" line of D20 System products;
Atlas Games' second "Penumbra" D20 adventure Thieves in the Forest; and
WotC's Hero Builder's Guidebook.
New in the Conversion Library: Lupins as a PC race,
conversions of the cooshee (elven dog) and yeti, and ranger kits
converted as variant ranger classes.
Yet More Palm Software: Here's a note from "Plane Sailing"
about Palm software he's making available just for you...
I've written a couple more
bits of palm software that are available to help with D&D, and
which are available for download from my website.
They are both simple utilities: The first one quickly creates rolls the
attributes for an NPC (or character) of any of the main races, using
the "4d6 drop lowest" method. Suitable characters can be saved to a
memo.
The second utility (due to be uploaded tonight) is a Jumping skill
calculator. In two or three taps you can select a characters speed and
the type of jump they are doing, and either see the DC needed to clear
a particular obstacle, or the distance that they will travel from a
given skill roll.
2001 Release Dates Adjusted: As pointed out by WotC's
James Wyatt and a couple of other scoopers, there have been some
corrections posted to the WotC product catalog recently. The following
products have newly-revised release dates:
- Defenders of the Faith moves
from August to May 2001.
- Tome and Blood moves from May
to July 2001.
- Wheel of Time RPG moves from
May to August 2001. (Also now listed as a D20 Campaign rather than a
D&D Campaign)
Official Updates: More portraits, plus some new
Dragonlance stuff including a Mage Hunter prestige class and info DL
religions. (thanks to Dark Blackshield for the scoop)
Submit Your Character Sheets: Do you have a great
character sheet you've made for D&D? Submit it to RPGHost.com and
they'll post it in their archive for others to download and enjoy. I
don't have a character sheet archive of my own, but this is the next
best thing, and it's where I intend to point people who ask about
character sheets. For future reference you can find a link to RPGHost's
D&D Character Sheet Archive in the Vital Links area to the lower
left on my main page.
PHB Correction -- Druids and Ironwood:
WotC's Sean Reynolds indicates that you might want to get out a pen and
change a word in the "Weapon and Armor Proficiency" section for the
Druid class (thanks to Gerard and James Hoover for the scoop):
Jonathan Tweet says the reference to ironwood in the druid
Weapon and Armor Proficiency section was supposed to refer to "armor,"
not "items."
Community News:
- Bryan McRoberts has created PCGen, a free downloadable
character generator. You can download it from his site.
- The 3rd Edition has posted a review of Dragon #277.
- The Rokugan D&D website has been updated. "I'm up to 3 races, 6 core classes, 9 prestige
classes, 6 items, 2 monsters and 4 feats. I also have just released how
I'll be handling martial arts and their respective schools of training
(it works much like the Tracking feat and Wilderness lore skill)."
- RPGGateway, an RPG links mega-site, has a new D&D 3rd
Edition section.
More "Penumbra" from Atlas: Here's a press release on the
future of Atlas Games' "Penumbra" line of D20 System products:
In the Belly of the Beast, the third title in the Penumbra line, is
now at the printer. This adventure by Mike Mearls is on schedule for
its release in early January.
A fourth Penumbra title now is officially on the schedule: The Tide of Years,
by Michelle A. Brown Nephew. This book will up the "production values"
ante of D20 materials by printing in two colors throughout its 48-page
text.
Finally, a short PDF file, "The Black Amulet," is now available as a free download from
Atlas Games.
Atlas Games president John Nephew also provided some insight into
Penumbra plans for the rest of 2001 (subject to change). "In the coming
month or so we will provide details on the first hardcover Penumbra
sourcebook, expected to be entitled Touched by the Gods
and released in April. A second hardcover book, a collection of
monsters, is expected as a summer release." He added that "The Black
Amulet," which he wrote, is itself a preview of a hardcover magic
sourcebook which is tentatively planned as an autumn release. In
addition to the three hardcovers, 2001 will see a steady continuing
release schedule of adventures in the other months, maintaining a
supply of fresh Penumbra adventure titles as the older ones go out of
print.
More D&D Palm Software: Apparently RealmsCrafters
isn't the only game in town when it comes to D&D software for Palm
computers. Here's info from "SaiZai."
I am working on a program for
Palm, called SaiD3U (sigh-dew). It is in beta now, and I'm mainly
working on perfecting the UI, adding various nifty features such as
beaming, conduits, IR printing, etc. I'm doing it jointly with Jamis Buck; he's doing
most of the data background, and has promised to make a completely
flexible system. Supposedly, he'll have his part done by around
Christmas (maybe a bit later).
In the meantime, you can check out my website, http://www.saizai.com. [Note that parts this
site may not work correctly for Netscape users.] Click the SaiD3U link at the top. I post new
builds of it quite often; the current version is a 95% functional UI
demonstration (although the DM portions are not accessible), and fully
functional dice roller. If anyone does download it, I'd love to hear
any suggestions on how to improve the UI or dice roller; rest assured
that every other feature they could want is in the works. [On a side
note, for those concerned with feature bloating, these extras will be
OPTIONAL.]
As for price, I'm planning on making SaiD3U nagless shareware, being
fully accessible except for the DM portions. My guess at a [negotiable]
registration price would be ~$10.
Palm Character Software: Do you have one of those little
hand-held computer thingies? If so, read on...
RealmsCrafters is working on
D&D software for the PalmOS. It features a Character Generator and
can handle multiple characters. Characters can be beamed to another
Palm user such as another Player or a DM.
Our software uses the Palm at its best. There are drop downs for
anything that has a limited selection. All modifiers are calculated so
if you don't need to enter it you don't have to. Also any score that is
made up of multiple multiplers such as Initiative can be displayed and
edited in
another screen.
There are also additional screens for Class detail, Equipment, Feats,
Skills, Spells, Armor, Combat resolution, Treasure and a Notes page.
There is also a simple chat screen that allows you to beam notes and
info during a game to another play (or DM) that also has a palm device.
No more writing notes on paper or having to leave the room when you
have some secret info you don't want all of the players to know about.
Through a unique plugin system you can add new screens to interact with
the total system. A Dice Roller and a Familiar Info screen are supplied
with full source as examples on how to create and add your own plug
ins. We encourage this and we believe the addition of campaign specific
plugins and plugins for other D20 systems such as Star Wars.
We plan on releasing Q1 2001 for $14.99. We are also planning on
releasing a free version of just the Character Gen without the extra
plugins.
Unfortunately, we don't have a webpage yet since we are a small company
and all of our efforts are going into the product. We are planning on
having a closed beta so if any of your readers are interested they can
contact us at our email address. For more information please email RealmsCrafters@email.com.
More screenshots: Armor, Notes
Dancey and Noonan in the Spotlight: WotC's Ryan Dancey
and David Noonan (my DM at the Dungeon Delve at GenCon -- killed my
sorcerer with a pile of rocks!) are featured in this month's
Personality Spotlight. They, along with John Rateliff, designed the Hero
Builder's Guidebook, and that's basically what they talk about in
this interview. Here's a snippet:
Wizards: The dedication of the book reads "All for
one! One for all!" Can you clue us in on what that’s all about?
Ryan: That is "the official motto of the Wizards
of the Coast Tabletop Roleplaying Game business." It reflects the fact
that we are a large, diverse group, and that we represent
constituencies beyond the physical boundaries of the Wizards office
building, including the fans, all of our own old gaming groups, and the
many, many people who have worked on the D&D game down through the
years and who have all given something of themselves to enrich the game.
Dave: "All for one! One for all!" also speaks to
one of the things that makes D&D (and roleplaying in general)
special. Unlike almost every other kind of game out there, when you sit
down with your friends to play D&D, you're all on the same team.
Even the DM isn't really the adversary -- he or she just pretends to
be. The cooperative nature of the game gives D&D its spark.
Hasbro Interactive Acquired by Infogrames: Hasbro
Interactive, a division of the parent company that owns Wizards of the
Coast, has been acquired by Infogrames, as revealed in this press
release posted at Infogrames.com. "The agreement
is comprised of three main elements, including the Infogrames
acquisition of Hasbro Interactive; a long-term licensing agreement
giving Infogrames exclusive rights to develop and publish digital
interactive games based on current and future Hasbro properties on all
existing and future digital interactive formats; and the acquisition of
Games.com." It appears at the moment that this has no impact on
WotC, except the possibility of Infogrames publishing computer games
related to their intellectual properties (for instance, "The massively multi-player game DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS"
is mentioned in the press release). (thanks to Fyrie for the scoop)
New in the Conversion Library: The Battlerager revised,
and some Forgotten Realms spells converted.
Community News:
- Community 3E now has its own domain:
http://www.community3e.com/
- Nexx has posted an alternative psionics system for
your (mind) reading pleasure.
- Blurred Vision is a D&D campaign site.
- RPGHost has started www.RPGShop.com -- "it has a lot of reviews and we have a large review
staff and we're trying to get more reviews done for 3rd Edition."
- World of Dunandralis Call for Volunteers: "Dunandralis is a fan-run, not-for-profit
group in the process of developing a d20 fantasy world. We want it to
be Open using the OGL, with only a few parts kept closed to keep our
name out of the gutter. We also are planning on producing and then
selling a product, in order to finance a $500 scholarship for players
of roleplaying games. If this sounds like something you'd like to help
out in, please do! Dunandralis needs volunteers to help with the
creation of the content, as well as web savy folk to help with the web
site and detail-nuts to help edit everything and to keep everything
consistent. If you haven't got a lot of time, that's fine--neither do
most of us. (Drat, that "non profit" thing...). If you aren't creative
but want to help, we need trustees for our non-profit incorporation.
The best way to reach me is, of course, e-mail which I check on a
regular basis. If you're more savy, you could skip me and join
Dunandralis-l@oracle.wizards.com (where we do all of our open
development) or apply to dunandralis@egroups.com (for the semi-closed
development... the part that will fund the scholarship.) Doug Meerschaert, World
of Dunandralis Content Manager."
D20 SRD Updated: As many scoopers have pointed out, there
have been several updates to the current draft of the D20 System
Reference Document at the Open Gaming Foundation website. Recent
additions include more monsters (vermin, animals, templates) and magic
rings from the DMG. You can keep up on the changes by viewing the SRD
Change Log.
Wheel of Time -- D20 or D&D? All indications
-- from the initial press release, to the name of the product -- have
thus far indicated that the Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game is a
stand-alone D20 System game. But then why does it say "A D&D
Campaign" under the title in the Product Catalog? Don't know. But WotC
Associate Business Manager Anthony Valterra says,
"It will be d20 and it will contain all of the rules needed to play (so
it will stand alone)." I'll see if I can get more information.
(thanks to Charwoman Gene for the penetrating questions)
OtherWorld Ships Diomin: Here's a press release from D20
System publisher OtherWorld Creations:
Diomin: Worldbook has shipped! Diomin, a world governed by myth and magic and
developed for use with the D20 system has arrived at the Wizard's Attic
(http://www.wizards-attic.com). This 112
page sourcebook contains everything needed to roleplay within the world
of Diomin. Diomin introduces five new character races as well as a
completely new class (the Shaman) and the magic system (Spirit Magic)
used by that class. Included in the book is the introductory adventure
"To Save a Nation," part one of the epic campaign "Unto this End."
Diomin retails for $19.95 and can be found at hobby shops nationwide.
Community News:
- The Third Edition has posted a review of Three Days to
Kill, a D20 System adventure from Atlas Games.
- Alex Wilson has posted a combat reference sheet with useful
tables and charts to compliment the DM's Screen. Download it in Word or
pdf format at his site.
- You can download a D20 psionics system called "Craft of the
Mind" at Castle Steelstone.
Adventure Contest -- One Month and Counting! Hey all you
aspiring adventure writers -- just a reminder that you've got a month
left to enter the D&D Adventure Contest. Win one of 10 prizes and
become famous the world over.
D20 System Guide Updates: I've updated the D20 System
Guide with entries for WotC's Dune RPG
and a new publisher information for AEG's
line of D20 products. (thanks to Daniel Thingvold and others for the
scoop)
Treasure Generator: Treasure Tool 2.0 is a random
treasure generator program you can access online. It was created by
James Gray.
New in the Conversion Library: Rakasta and avariel as PC
races, and the winter wight from the classic Tomb of Horrors.
Official Updates: WotC has posted the first part of a new
Cliffhanger Adventure as well as a bunch of D&D Movie related
stuff. (thanks to Dark Blackshield and Gerard for the scoop)
WotC Product Lineup for May through August Unveiled! You
can now see what D&D and D20 System products are on the lineup
through August 2001 at the WotC Product Catalog. (Thanks to Styx for
the scoop.) Here are some products of note:
- May 2001:
- Tome & Blood: A Guide to Wizards and Sorcerers
(D&D Class Book)
- Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game (D20 System Game)
- Dune Roleplaying Game (D20 System Game)
- June 2001:
- Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (you knew about this
one...)
- Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil (D&D Mega
Adventure)
- Voice from the Outer World (Dune Adventure)
- Neverwinter Nights (Forgotten Realms Novel)
- July 2001:
- Nothing except novels... weird...
- August 2001:
- Defenders of the Faith: A Guidebook to Clerics and
Paladins (D&D Class Book)
- Heart of Nightfang Spire (D&D Core Adventure)
- Magic of Faerun (Forgotten Realms Supplement)
- The Dark Side (Star Wars Accessory)
- And of course the coup de grace, Elminster in Hell
(Forgotten Realms Novel)
New D20 System Publisher: There's another publisher
entering the D20 System market. Here are the details, which have been
worked into the D20 System Guide.
Mystic Eye Games:
Produces "The Hunt: Rise of Evil" campaign setting for the D20 System.
Also a CCG based on the same setting.
Official Website: http://www.mysticeyegames.com/
Product Information:
- Free downloads, including a mini-adventure called "Good
Friends and Fine Spirits," a new class called "White Witch," and a
Witch Ward "template."
- The first world book for the campaign setting will
apparently be a free download.
- The Pit of Loch-Durnan, an adventure for low-level
characters. Available January 2001.
- Mystic Warriors, a collection of prestige classes.
Available January 2001.
Treasure Generator: Jonathan Jacobs has created a random
treasure generator program for download. This one has treasure tables
that can be edited so you can add new items. It's been posted over at
Jamis Buck's D&D Generators page.
Dungeon #84: The January/February 2001 issue of Dungeon
Magazine arrived in my mail today, and it's packed full of evil
monsters, diabolical traps, and glittering treasure, as always. Here
are the highlights:
- The Harrowing (Monte Cook):
A high-level extra-planar romp through the sticky layer
of the Abyss known as the Demonweb. This 42-page beauty includes
several pages of illustrations for the players by Stephen Daniele, a
conversion of the Yochlol (a creature from Drow of the Underdark
and Planescape), and a new spider-lovin' prestige class known
as The Arachnemancer. More drow, spiders and demons than you can shake
a stick at.
- Demonclaw (Peter Hopkins):
Characters look for a missing paladin in a wizard's tower. For
5th-level characters.
- The Dying of the Light (Chris
Doyle): Vampires! Lots and lots of vampires! For 10th-level
characters.
- Dungeon of the Fire Opal (Jonathan
Tweet): An adventure designed around the sample dungeon map
found on p. 127 of the Dungeon Master's Guide. Heroes search an
ancient monastery for a valuable gem.
- Armistice (Peter Vinogradov): Set near the lands of the Frost Barbarians in
the Greyhawk setting, heroes confont unusual werewolves.
Master Tools Animated Minatures: You may recall that
Master Tools will be using 3D scans of WotC's D&D miniatures for
use with the mapping tool. You can download four zipped .avi files of
scanned minis here. (on the Master Tools discussion group, thanks to
Pat for the scoop)
New in the Conversion Library: Monsters, including faerie
dragon, shadow dragon, and more Cthulhu critters from Deities &
Demigods.
D&D Comic from Kenzer: Here's a little press release
about the current state of production for the forthcoming D&D comic
book series, to be produced by Kenzer & Co. (thanks to Richard Pace
for the scoop):
Kenzer & Company is pleased to
announce that it has finalized the creative team for their first
Dungeons and Dragons comic book. Jay Donovan has signed on to script
the first eight issues, Tyler Walpole will be the lead interior
illustrator and Hung Mac will provide his outstanding painting talent
for the covers....
The planned release date for the first issue of Kenzer's Dungeons and Dragons: In the Shadow of Dragons comic is March 2001. Fans should then expect 24-32
pages every other month of intriguing stories and fantastic full color
art. This title will be an eight-issue mini-series. Expected cover
price is $2.95. Further plans for additional D&D mini-series lines
are in the works.
ESD News: WotC has posted a schedule of future ESD
product downloads from AD&D which will be available for $2.95 each
at the Wizards Online Store. Which is great because keeping my charts
up to date was kind of a pain. :) (thanks to Dark Blackshield for the
scoop)
Miniatures News: WotC's Chris Pramas speaks up on the
current state of miniatures (thanks to RBB for the scoop):
Well, as you've no doubt noticed,
we've had several delays in our releases. This had to do with, among
other things, a change of leadership in the division and the
implementation of a new inventory control system at WotC. Things are
now getting back on track. Last week the nine latest D&D minis
shipped from the factory. You should be seeing them in stores soon. In
January the Black Dragon will be coming out. Then a mix of D&D and
Star Wars figs for the rest of 2001. More news as it develops.
Community News:
- The Sleeping Imperium has a new address:
http://rpghost.com/sleepingimperium/.
- New prestige classes at DNDWorld.
- Realms of A'dohn has added a message board/forum.
- Rolemancer is a Russian-language RPG website with D&D
and D20 System information available. Here's a review of Three Days to
Kill. I'm told an English version of Rolemancer is coming shortly.
Dune Miniseries: Okay, so you've been following
the rumors that Dune may be made into a D20 System game by
WotC. But what the heck is Dune anyway? You'll find out if you
catch the new Dune miniseries premiering on Sunday, December 3,
on the SciFi Channel. Read more about it at CNN. (thanks to Airwolf for
the scoop)
Baker on Red Wizards of Thay: WotC's Rich Baker addresses
concerns that the Red Wizards of the Forgotten Realms setting have been
relegated to manufacturing and selling magic items, effectively making
them merchants instead of evil schemers in the new campaign setting due
in June (on the WotC message boards):
I'll take the heat for that
decision. I'm the Creative Director for D&D Worlds, and the person
who bears the primary responsibility for safeguarding, developing, and
advancing the Forgotten Realms as an intellectual property. The 3rd
Edition of the FR Campaign Setting gives us a great opportunity to
update the world. It also gives us a mandate to make sure that 3rd
Edition D&D fits in the Realms.
The Red Wizards are changing for several reasons. First, we need some
explanation of how and why magic items are bought and sold. 2nd Edition
D&D treated this topic as anathema, but 3rd Edition embraces the
notion. The Red Wizards provide us with a great "in-world" explanation
for who's trading in magic items and why.
Second, the Red Wizards need "reach." They're relegated to a distant
corner of Faerun, and any time you take them out of Thay, they stick
out like a sore thumb. This development gives them a plausible reason
to be almost anywhere. The notion of the "concession" -- a walled
quarter of a city considered territory of a foreign power -- means that
there's a little bit of Thay a lot closer to you than it used to be.
These steps will help the DM to use these great villains in his game.
Third, and maybe most significantly, we have a mandate to present
something *new*. Regurgitating everything you already know about the
Realms is not a great way to get you excited about what we're doing.
This is an exciting new spin for the Red Wizards, something that is
subtle, widespread, and still fraught with the potential for all kinds
of mischief and evil.
D20 System Guide Update: Added information on the D20
System product line coming from Eden Studios.
Master Tools Update: This week's status report for the
D&D Master Tools is from producer Wayne Cline. It's posted on my
message board, so if you'd like to respond or comment, feel free to do
so.
Howdy all. Big happenings
this week on MT. First off, Andrew's got the Treasure Generator up and
running. While it's still unpolished, it does allow you to generate
random piles of treasure based on the tables in chapters 7 & 8 of
the DMG. You choose the level of the treasure you want, hit Generate,
and BAM! ? treasure! The list is sorted by Art, Coins, Gems, Magic
Items, and Mundane Items in a collapsible tree (just like Windows
Explorer) so you can view as much or a little of the list as you'd
like. Each heading has a total gp value for all items of that type and
all items (even identical gems, for example) are listed separately with
their gp value. There's also a total gp value for the entire list. Once
you have your list you can also highlight objects and remove them.
Intelligent items are listed with their abilities, alignment, ego,
powers, etc.
Next up are the sounds. Our sound guy, Paul Gorman, is getting started
on the monsters' war cries and such. We're doing around 200 sounds,
many of which will be unique sounds for individual creatures and some
sounds will be more generic for types of creatures (squishy sounds for
an ooze-type or flapping sounds for flying creatures) so we can cover
the 500+ monsters in the MM. Next week we've got a voice actor coming
in to record some of the humanoid sounds. Should be fun! Hopefully
we'll be able to post some of the sounds to the web.
And yesterday I saw some new sketches for the MT box. In the same style
of the books, it looks like a metal plate with a hole in the middle.
Underneath are some gears and there's a slider thingamajig that looks
sort of like a temperature slider on a thermostat. It's very cool and
it conveys the sense of a device or mechanical artifact.
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