News Archive #19 February 2001 News from February 2001: February 28, 2001 March and April 2001 D20 System Releases: Here's a revised schedule of D20 System products coming out in March and April, along with notes on products that had a February release date but haven't appeared yet. As I scoured the various publisher websites I noticed a number of release date changes, which have been posted here and the D20 System Guide. Keep in mind that the announced dates may change. Still Listed as Coming in February but actually Not Yet Available: Dark Tower (Judges Guild); Demons and Devils (Necromancer Games); Blackwater (Nightshift Games). March: The Tide of Years (Atlas Games); Tomb of Abysthor (Necromancer Games); Black Powder Gods (Nightshift Games); The Blood Reign of Nishanpur (Paradigm Concepts); The Longest Night (Privateer Press); Scarred Lands Gazetteer: Ghelspad (Sword & Sorcery); Dragon Lords of Melniboné (Chaosium); Madness in Freeport (Green Ronin Publishing); The Silver Summoning (Fiery Dragon Productions); Grande Temple of Jing (Hammerdog); Into the Darkness (OtherWorld Creations); Dzeebagd, Beneath Inzae (Troll Lord Games). April: Slaves of Fate (Chaosium); Rappan Athuk II: The Middle Levels (Necromancer); Creature Collection II: Dark Menagerie (Sword & Sorcery); eight more Adventure Keep modules (AEG); To Stand on Hallowed Ground (Fiery Dragon). Green Ronin's Madness: Green Ronin's Chris Pramas dropped me a line to say that their next D20 System adventure, Madness in Freeport, ships next week. They've also posted a new Focus on Freeport -- this month it's a free mini-adventure for 2nd-4th level characters written by Mr. Pramas himself. 0onegames Releases General: D20 System publisher 0onegames has released The Legend of the Steel General. This 116 page adventure is for characters level 1-4, and is available only in PDF download format for $9.55. Wizards Battered by Earthquake: No it's not a headline from a fantasy newspaper. Here's what's currently posted on the main page at WotC: Hello, this is Wizards of the Coast. We have had an earthquake here in Renton,WA on Wednesday morning February 28th, 2001. Thankfully there were no personal injuries, but the building sustained significant damage. For safety reasons, we have closed the offices until further notice and have no phone staff on duty. We hope to return to normal operation as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience. I offer my best wishes to all at the company and hope for a safe return to work. (thanks to Arilon for the scoop) Super Genius -- Or Just Super Bored? Scooper Michael Wallack writes: I purchased a copy of Diablo II: To Hell and Back yesterday. I was looking through it last night (while watching "The Mole") when I discovered a "secret" code on the bottom of page 119. The code is: ZTA MFV BVYAVM YTQ JVOVJ, IJVHBV KT MT QQQ.QXEHACB.YTL/CXHWJTXX. The code is a relatively simple replacement code (with some letter duplication). Translated it says: FOR THE SECRET COW LEVEL, PLEASE GO TO WWW.WIZARDS.COM/DIABLOII. Note that the link does lead to a WotC page about Diablo/D&D products, but it's quite a bit out of date. Here's hoping they add something special for bored geniuses like Michael to enjoy as a reward! :) D&D News from Germany: According to a news article found here, the distributor of the German D&D 3E rules, AMIGO Spiel&Freizeit GMBH, has yet to receive an official release contract from WotC. Due to recent changes in WOTC's hierarchy, AMIGO had to stop in midproduction (the PHB is already in print) until further notice. (thanks to Berandor for the scoop) Community News: The Combat Reference Sheet from "angramainyu" has been updated with some info from the Psionics Handbook. He's also created a handy dandy form for keeping track of your psionic character's powers. A new spell and a poll at These New Dark Ages. RPG Planet has posted a preview of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, a Forgotten Realms game for PS2. The Creature Catalog has posted new conversions for the Disenchanter and the Vampire Rose. Reviews: Korath's Keep has posted a review of the Hero Builder's Guidebook. Role-Play News has posted a review of Crucible of Freya (Necromancer). I neglected to mention yesterday that there are reviews of D20 System mini-adventures from both AEG and Fantasy Flight Games at RPG.net. You'll find extremely brief reviews of Forge of Fury and Sword & Fist, as well as Thieves in the Forest (Atlas), at Games Unplugged. February 27, 2001 Reviews: Tuesday's reviews at RPG.net include two for the Psioncs Handbook (WotC), one for Last Days of Constantinople (Avalanche), and one for Keith Strohm's The Dead of Winter (WotC, PDF adventure that appeared on the CD-ROM that came with your Player's Handbook). New in the Conversion Library: Molydeus demon, and Cabalist and Shadow Mage prestige classes, plus an update to I2: Tomb of the Lizard King. Monsters in FR Campaign Setting Book: WotC's Rich Baker reveals what monsters will be included in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting book. (on REALMS-L,thanks to Joseph Carriker for the scoop) The dracolich The shade template The death tyrant beholder The kir-lanan gargoyle (a new one) A composite animal entry including the rothe, tressym, winged snake, two-headed snake, the pack lizard, and the riding lizard. D20 System News: Mystic Eye Games has posted a brief guide to their The Hunt: Rise of Evil campaign setting. RPG Action has posted a review of Crucible of Freya (Necromancer). Community News: Jamis Buck has posted Jonathan Jacobs' latest software on his site, an NPC Equipment Generator. You specify the class and level, tell the program whether or not you want exotic weapons included, hit generate, and you have your instant list of equipment! It will work on Windows and Linux. Jonathan has started a thread on the message boards if you'd like to discuss the software. Updates to Vincent Darlage's Conan D20 site, including new monsters, NPCs, and a map of Conan's world. The From the Ashes campaign website has been updated with new character information and new journal entries. February 26, 2001 Official Updates: What's new at WotC? The Business of RPGs is a new series. The first entry, "Focusing the New Forgotten Realms," is from Anthony "Zulkir" Valterra, who talks about the direction of D&D's flagship campaign setting. The final chapter of this month's Cliffhanger has been posted. Scoopers: Donald Backa, CylentWolf, and Pat. New Hosted Site -- RealmsCrafters: I am pleased to announce that Robert Kozak of RealmsCrafters has moved his site to RPG Planet as my third hosted site. RealmsCrafters is developing RPG Companion, RPG software for PalmOS. According to today's news on the new site, "RPG Companion CharGen edition should be released RSN (real soon now)." I'm sure that those of you who use this technology will want to keep your eyes on RealmsCrafters. The address for the RealmsCrafters site is http://www.rpgplanet.com/dnd3e/rpgcompanion/. Be sure to stop by his new forums and say howdy, as well! New D20 System Publisher -- Agatha Blades: Agatha Blades is a new D20 System publisher, and right out of the gate they're ready to offer you a free adventure, Shades of Yesterday. "The module is based in a new D&D campaign world setting being developed here at Agatha Blades called the Lands of Drel, and the module is designed for first level characters. Every one of our modules and other supplements will be designed so that you will only need the D&D Core Books in order to use it." Read more about this company at their website. Community News: Fighter's Handbook kit equivalents for 3E have been posted at Korath's Keep. New creature conversions at the Creature Catalog. Neurozombie's D20 Destination has added a 13 page core rules for a superhero setting and game he's working on called The C.O.R.E. Directive. OpenRPG 0.8a has been released. Defenders of the Muse has posted some materials pertaining to dwarves of that campaign setting. EN World Site Announcement: I just came out of a really long chat with the other Boardmembers (over two hours) while we thrashed out the Fiendlords/Patrons. The resulting decision was that we will be using ALL of the submissions, although some may need tweaking a bit to fit in. Examples of the superb efforts that you came up with include colorful entries such as The Queen of the Rattling Races, The Lord of Blades, Aenharos, The Lord of Pitch and . . . Bugaboo. Yes, Bugaboo is now a deity (in a 'manifestation of belief', Santa kind of way!). We have now moved on to the next topic - Prestige Classes. So, if you feel like taking a stab at the seafaring Elven Windmasters, the airship-piloting Gnomish Airmasters, Bugaboo's Helpers or something of your own devising, please feel free to drop by the EN World Site to find out how to submit your entry (and sign up for our weekly newsletter while you're there). The Daemonforge World is really taking shape now, and that is all thanks to you, the regulars of Eric's Site and his messageboard forums. Thank you for all your efforts, and please, keep the ideas a'coming! One final thing - we still need artists to help us out. The website itself needs sprucing up, and the Daemonforge sourcebook is going to require lots of quality illustrations. If you have a bit of time on your hands and any artistic talent at all, please email me at morrus@lineone.net! February 25, 2001 Dark Portal Releases Dead Fire: Here's a press release for you, sent in by scoopers Daniel Thingvold and Matthew Mosher: The first D20 release from Dark Portal Games entitled Dead Fire is now available as a free download at our website www.darkportalgames.com. It is presented in .pdf format for ease of viewing and printing. Dead Fire is a low level adventure intended for 4-6 characters of levels 1-2. Defenders of the Faith Rumor: I picked up an interesting tidbit regarding the cleric/paladin class book, Defenders of the Faith, set for release in May. Apparently there's a section on "new uses for energy" that includes a neat trick you can do if you have the ability to turn the undead: by giving up one of your "turn undead" tries you can turn a critical threat against an undead creature into a critical hit. This is especially nifty given that undead are usually immune to critical hits! WotC Message Boards? Well, it's nearing the end of the "weekend of the 24th" -- what are the chances that the official boards will be up in the next few hours? Psionics Handbook Sightings: Several scoopers have written in today saying they've seen stores selling the Psionics Handbook. I'll probably mark it as "Available Now" starting Monday or Tuesday. Community News: The Star Wars RPG Database has posted a review of WtoC's Living Force Campaign Guide for D20 Star Wars. Vaults of Pandius, the official Mystara site, has started a Mystara News Server. Point your news reader to news.dnd.starflung.com and subscribe to the starflung.dnd group. Vaults of Pandius also has a poll similar to the one run on Planewalker.com recently -- if you're a Mystara fan, you might want to participate to support this setting. New in the Conversion Library: A monster (glacier snake), plus an update to the Tomb of Horrors conversion from Scott Greene. February 24, 2001 Psionics Chat Log: Psionics Handbook playtester Piratecat particpated in a chat about psionics earlier today. We had upwards of 75 people in the chat room at one point, far more than I'd anticipated! Once we got organized, it went very well. Thanks to all who joined us! View the edited chat log if you missed it. Related: Take a look at this character sheet for an evil psionic NPC created by Piratecat. There's a lot of good information there, but a lot is also unexplained -- some of this info was referred to in the chat. Jagged Edge Releases Shadowlands D20: Jagged Edge Games has released Shadowlands, a D20 System campaign book, as a free 100+ page PDF download. Grab it right here. Community News: New monster conversions at the Creature Catalog. You can read a new review of Three Days to Kill (Atlas) at Korath's Keep. Korath says if you are interested in writing reviews but have no place to post them, he'd be happy to host them for you. Relics & Rituals (Sword & Sorcery) is reviewed at The Alcove of Leenar the Green. DnDFiles.com is back online after a brief hiatus. D&D Chat: "mechtn" has set up a place for people to chat about D&D and D20. This page has the information about where the chat server is, and this page is a web interface for joining the chat without having special chat software. Official Updates: A lot of new stuff at WotC... Part 2 of the Read Bruce's Mind psionics quiz. Character Closeup: James Wyatt presents a yuan-ti "tainted one," a sorcerer/rogue from Skullport. Fight Club: Mix it up with an ettin barbarian/sorcerer who takes advantage of a new feat, Multiple Head Casting. Another peek at the Celebrity Game Table. The Instant Tavern Generator can produce a daily menu, interesting tavern patrons, and juicy rumors. This press release indicates that WotC is opening an Australian office. "The establishment of this new office will ensure Wizards' ongoing focus and support of the Australian and New Zealand consumer and retail markets." Scoopers: Dalenthas, Eldar, Magus Darkwind, Eric Duprey. February 23, 2001 Chat with a Psionic Cat: Need a little Psionics Handbook fix? Message board president/moderator (he's multiclassed, dontcha know) Kevin "Piratecat" Kulp was one of the playtesters on the Psionics Handbook, and now that he's free of his NDA (since the book is now out, at least to reviewers) he's ready to spill the beans! Piratecat will be in the chat room eager to discuss psionics on Saturday, February 24, at 3pm Central. I'd guess he'll be there for 45 minutes to an hour, so be prompt. :) Master Tools Update: Fluid Entertainment's Wayne Cline provides this week's update on the progress of Master Tools. Nothing particularly earthshattering this week. You can read it on the message board. D20 System News: Madness in Freeport (Green Ronin) is at the printer, and is expected to ship to distributors on March 7th. White Wolf/Arthaus's D20 Ravenloft core rulebook is apparently being delayed until October 2001. On RAVENLOFT-L, Andrew Hackard of Kargatane says, "We've received updated word from White Wolf; they're now shooting for an October release of the core book, with two more releases (a DM screen and a monster book) by the end of the year." (thanks to Kevin Harrison for the scoop) Port City Games has released Expanded Level Advancement Tables for free download. Over the past couple of weeks I've mentioned forthcoming D20 System products from Reaper Miniatures and Monkey God Enterprises, companies that are not represented in my D20 System Guide. Because these companies either don't have a website, or their website contains absolutely no information about their D20 System products, there's not much point in listing them there. Scooper Bertman4 has tracked down information on forthcoming D20 System products from these two companies and provided scans of the blurbs and covers from a distributor catalog: Reaper Miniatures: Eldest Son, first adventure in the Dark Heaven Legends series, April 2001. Monkey God Enterprises: Caravan of Hope, first in the Tales from the Blood Plateau series, April 2001. Mask or Marruk, second in the same series, May 2001. Community News: Updates at ThirdEdition.net -- Our site now has the ability to allow our contributors to go back and edit any of the material they have contributed to the site. A login protects their submissions from tampering but allows them to make changes and updates. Also we have had 20 new submissions this week including new unique magical items and some interesting clerical feats. Updates to Vincent Darlage's Conan D20 site -- Thoth Amon, a prestige class, and a magic item. Also a conversion by T. Patrick Rooney of a monster from one of the old D&D Conan modules (Against the Darkness). Michael's Imagination is a D&D resource site with a new monkish prestige class. OgreCave is an RPG news site. Site founder Allan "Sven the Ogre" Sugarbaker was the first unplugged gaming editor for Gamers.com. Gene-enkainen's Fan-Bastich Adventure in D20 has been updated with a new monster. Creature Catalog Moves to RPG Planet: I am pleased to announce that Scott Greene of Realms of Lore fame is moving his Creature Catalog to RPG Planet as one of my hosted sites! Scott has produced scads of high-quality conversions of monsters from AD&D and older sources to D&D 3rd Edition, and it's my hope that Scott will soon be known as the "3E Monster Man" on the net. Creature Catalog is currently featuring some brand new conversions as well as a history section detailing the printing history of the core monster books from AD&D. You can drop Scott a welcome message on his new message board as well. Treasure Generator 2.01 at Jamis Buck's: Jamis Buck has prepared an updated version of his recently revamped Treasure Generator. It includes data from Dragon Magazines #274, #275, #277, #279, #280, and Dragon Annual #5 and potion descriptions and LOTS of gems. Also, Basilisk 1.01 has been released, and fixes a few minor bugs. Reviews: Another positive review of the Psionics Handbook has appeared, this time at About.com. Hey, About.com's 3rd Edition D&D section calls my site "The best gathering of D&D3E news and rumors on the web" -- so they must be good. :) While you're there, you may also want to check out reviews of Sword & Fist and Monsters of Faerun. (thanks to sk0766 for the scoop) Psionics Tidbits: Anthony Roberson, editor of Role-Play News, scored a copy of the Psionics Handbook and was kind enough to share a couple of tantalizing tidbits: ...the 160-page book is absolutely CRAMMED with stuff. It is almost like a Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual, all rolled into one for Psionics fans. Psionic Item Example: Brain Lock Pearl: When hurled at a target, this tiny pearl-like sphere bursts into a shower of yellow sparks. Treat this as a ranged touch attack. A target that is hit stands dazed as if by brain lock for 4 rounds. Brain lock pearls are greandelike weapons (see Chapter 7 of the Player's Handbook and Chapter 3 of the Dungeon Master's Guide), so a miss can potentially deal splash damage against all creatures within 5 feet, affecting them for 1 round. The burst destroys the item. Manifester Level: 4th; Prerequisite: Craft Universal Item, brain lock; Market Price: 1,000 gp; Weight:-. List of Monsters: Astral Construct Blue Brain Mole Caller in Darkness Cerebrilith Crysmal Folugub Githyanki Githzerai Intellect Devourer Neothelid Phthisic Psion-Killer Puppeteer Temporal Filcher Thought Eater Udomot New in the Conversion Library: Grab the conversion notes for Assassin's Knot (module L2) to go along with WotC's free download of the original; the Clockwork Mage from Al-Qadim; Battlesystem rules converted; revisions to Planescape Conversion Notes. February 22, 2001 Official Updates: What's new at WotC? The Forgotten Realms Guidelines for the RPGA's Living City campaign have been updated. What's surprising is that there's less information in the newest version than in prior versions. For instance, the entire section on new domains is missing. A new Map-A-Week has been posted. Scoopers: Eric Mukogawa, Gish Makai, WolfJack, Matthew Mosher. D20 System News: James Bell of Fiery Dragon Productions has sent a scan of the cover and a collage of some of the interior artwork for their forthcoming adventure, The Silver Summoning. James says, The Silver Summoning is a 44-page, fully illustrated adventure, featuring town, wilderness and dungeon settings, which further develop the West Wood Barony, as introduced in NeMoren's Vault. Once again, we've included a full-color counter sheet and handouts, as well as a mini-encounter grid to help with combat. Ths Silver Summoning was written by Jason Kempton and features a cover by Fiery Dragon artist Todd Secorcd. Bertman4 has been doing some digging and discoverd another D20 System publisher. Monkey God Enterprises (apparently no website available) will be producing two adventures, Caravan of Hope (April 2001) and The Mask of Marruk (May 2001), and you can read about them here. As soon as I can come up with a website for this company I'll add them to the D20 System Guide. Write D20 Stuff: A message from Chad Corrie -- I am looking for some writers to work on various D20 System adventures and supplements, etc. This would be a paying job. Please send all inquieres to Vheem@aol.com with the word "Writer" in the subject field. Deadline is March 1. Scooper Kenny Lewis has spotted the following new "Adventure Keep" modules from AEG in his local game shop: The Last Gods, Bring Him Back Alive!, The Heart of Amun Khonshu, The Murder of the Seven Points. Psionics Handbook Review: Pen & Paper has posted a very positive review of the Psionics Handbook, slated for a March release. Community News: D&D and d20 System Review Index at Korath's Keep is a guide to all of the posted reviews of D&D and D20 System products. Trying to find a review of Death in Freeport or Monsters of Faerun? This is the place to go. Updates at 3ednd.com -- We're hosting Matt Warren's 3E D&D ESS (Economic System Simulator). The 3ednd Auto-Calculating Character Sheet has been updated, as well as the 3ednd Encounter Table Generator and the 3ednd Population Generator. Updates at Luthyr's Unofficial d20 WFRP Website -- The site has been updated with variant rules for 0-level characters and Career templates for Character Classes. Current contents of the site include Prestige Classes (Chaos Warrior, Runesmith, Troll Slayer (2 versions), and Witch-Hunter), a Religion section including a complete list of the Gods of the Warhammer World, and a Bestiary section that has statistics for Skaven. There is also a discussion board and mailing list for people that want to take a more active role in the whole d20 WFRP conversion. Updates at Dwarven Axe. February 21, 2001 Wyatt's Update: WotC's James Wyatt has updated his personal 3E page with tales from campaigns he's playing in. (Thanks to Sheldon and Irda Ranger for the scoop) New in the Conversion Library: Chapter 1 of Scourge of the Slave Lords (AD&D 1E compilation of modules A1-A4). Community News: Athas.org, the official Dark Sun site, has posted a FAQ for their 3E conversion efforts, and has released preliminary monster PC rules for the Half-Giant. (thanks to Trent for the scoop) Planescape Poll: Would you like to help determine the future of Planescape, bloods? If so, please help out both Planewalker.com and Wizards of the Coast by completing these three simple questions. Thanks so much, cutters, and ya can be assured that ol' Ashy'll keep ya lanned to the darks, suren! SpellJammer Monsters of the Void: There's a new electronic book under construction at SpellJammer 3E. We're basically compiling SpellJammer monster conversions and putting them together in a more 3E format. You can see a preview of the cover. We've got a lot of content that we're currently assembling, but we're looking for artists and content converters who would like to help out. Netbook of Shadows Announcement: The Netbook of Shadows now has a full compliment of contributors for the time being. This is not to say that it is now completely closed to new contributors, but I'd like to get a feel for how all these new people who've joined up before I consider taking on any more. In the meantime, I'd like to say a big 'thank-you' to all those who emailed me so promptly -- your response has been both overwhelming and encouraging! I'll be sure to get back to you all soon, and no doubt we'll be seeing the names of everyone who's expressed interest in, if not the first edition of the book, then certainly the second! In the meantime, I urge anyone who's interested to join the netbook of shadows yahoo group and to have a sniff around the D&D Community Council because there are lots of projects out there awaiting the input of such enthusiastic fellows as yourselves. Shadybrook Adventures is a D&D campaign site. Dragons Lodge is a D&D resource site. Updates to Charles Greathouse's stat block generator and dragon stat block generator. D&D 3E Glossary defines all the key D&D terms. Gene-enkainen's Fan-Bastich Adventure in D20 has posted a home-brewed enhancement for James Wyatt's The Speaker in Dreams. Realmswatch: What's new with the Forgotten Realms at WotC? A sneak peek at Shar, evil goddess of night. Another look at deities in the Realms Roundtable. Scoopers: Tanis Half-Munchken, Sonny Mendoza, Bertman4. February 20, 2001 Reviews: Tuesday's reviews at RPG.net include two reviews of James Wyatt's The Speaker in Dreams. Official Updates: What's new at WotC? New PC Portraits. Chapter 3 of this month's Cliffhanger Adventure. Official White Wolf/Ravenloft press release. Scoopers: CylentWolf, Dread. Nexus is Official Dragonlance Site: Dragonlance Nexus, the brainchild of Dragonlance co-creator Tracy Hickman, has been selected as Dragonlance's official home on the net. (thanks to Nexx for the scoop) White Wolf/Ravenloft FAQ at Kargatane: Kargatane, long the official fan home of Ravenloft on the net, has posted a FAQ regarding yesterday's announcement that White Wolf's affilate ArtHaus would be producing Ravenloft D20 System materials. For more information, visit Kargatane's message boards. February 19, 2001 Ravenloft Lives! I just received a very exciting press release announcing that Arthaus Inc., a White Wolf affiliate, has acquired the rights to continue publishing the Ravenloft campaign setting using the D20 System rules. Jim Butler of WotC confirms the deal, adding, "It will just be using the D20 logo" and not the D&D logo. Here's a link to the press release at WotC. (thanks to cbwinfo for the scoop) Arthaus Inc., White Wolf's small press publishing affiliate, is pleased to announce that it has acquired the rights to continue publishing the Ravenloft campaign setting using the D20 rules, published by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Well known for its horror offerings, Arthaus promises four books a year for Ravenloft's loyal fan base. Their first release, the Ravenloft Core Rulebook, will be chalk [sic] full of ground-zero setting material which will offer new fans easy access to the Ravenloft world and bring plenty of new surprises and a wholly revamped setting for hard core Ravenloft fans. The Ravenloft campaign world will use the D20 rules and be fully compatible with the latest edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game. "This ain't your momma's Ravenloft" says Mike Tinney, Publisher for Arthaus and White Wolf's VP of Licensing. "Ravenloft is a great world to work with and we're excited to be able to bring this setting roaring into 3rd Edition D&D." "We're very excited to have the masters of horror genre RPGs taking up the banner of Ravenloft," said Jim Butler, Brand Manager of D&D Worlds for Wizards of the Coast. "We're quite confident that the future of Ravenloft is in good hands." The Ravenloft Core Rulebook is schedule for a Summer release, with supplements releasing quarterly thereafter. New in the Conversion Library: Monsters (buckawn, eye of the deep, quickling, crag cat, demons), gnome/halfling kits, and a knight prestige class. Community News: Korath has posted 3E equivalents to kits for Gnomes & Haflings. RPGAction has posted a review of Monsters of Faerun. Black Falcon Aerie has been updated -- you can now view a list of all feats from WotC and third-party publishers, or just WotC, and lists of spells from various resources are available too. ThirdEdition.net has been updated with new submissions including races, classes, feats, and magic items. Rolegamer.net has a bit of a new direction to it. Webmaster Michael Wimeholt says, I have been providing graphics to various websites (primarily rpg sites). I provide graphics at no cost for those who wish to add a little spice to their page. Anything from a simple button to banners, to designing of page layouts, I do them all. Graphic design has been a hobby of mine for sometime, so creating these images is quite easy, and fun (not to mention, it keps me from getting rusty). My site also has information about my homebrew world Caebius. Netbook of Creatures has been updated. Spencer "The Sigil" Cooley says, The netbook is now OGL compliant and has grown from 22 pages to 68 and we are still looking for contributors. There are two versions - a "full-graphical" professional-looking version and a "mostly text" version for those concerned about the amount of printer ink the "professional version" will eat up. D20 System News: Fiend Games has overhauled its website. Scooper Kenny Lewis says the Legend & Lairs adventures from Fantasy Flight Games are available. The 3rd Edition has posted a review of Diomin (OtherWorld Creations). D&D Review Council: Miffed about errors and unclear rules in recent D&D products such as Sword & Fist? WotC hears you. WotC's Keith Strohm reacts to calls for better consistency in future products: To help insure that future RPG products blend seamlessly (and are balanced) with the core rules, R&D [D&D Research & Development] has instituted a review council that will evaluate new feats, skills, and other evolutions of core mechanics for playability and quality. Sword & Fist Errata -- Red Avenger Ki Save Ability: In the description for the Red Avenger prestige class in S&F, there's a discrepancy between Table 2-16 and the text description regarding how many times per day the Red Avenger can use the Ki Save ability. WotC's Keith Strohm passes along the correction: According to Skip Williams, the Sage, you should use the table rather than the textual description for this power. February 18, 2001 Community News: Updates at Castle Steelstone (a new "racial template") and Sleeping Imperium (rules for "alienist magic"). Realm Overseer has announced plans for City Overseer, a program to convert Campaign Cartographer city maps to 3D environments. Announcement -- Netbook of Shadows: The Netbook of Shadows is looking for new staff. If you have some ideas concerning the Plane of Shadow and would like to be involved in the project, get in touch with Phil Smith at cythron@btinternet.com. The weekly newsletter is distributed at the netbook_shadows_news yahoogroup at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/netbook_shadows_news/ while the home page for the product (such as it is) is at http://www.dndcommunitycouncil.org/~nboshad/. Announcement -- EN World / Daemonforge: We would like to thank all those who took the time to vote in our recent 'Races' poll. The poll was concluded on Thursday with 66% of you voting in favour of the 'liberal' races draft. Robert 'Burned Man' Riissanen, a member of Eric's messageboard community, has kindly agreed to edit and rewrite all 'official' material in order to maintain a consistent tome throughout the project. We would like to thank him for volunteering to undertake this task, which will be very time consuming. We have now moved on to a fun topic - Fiendlords & Patrons. The Fiendlords and Patrons are the rulers of this world. The Broken Lands are inhabited by the powerful Fiends and their minions, ruling over territories large and small. The Patrons rule the mortal strongholds - some with benevolence, others with an iron fist. Your entries should include details of the Fiendlord or Patron (with stats), their lair or stronghold, their territory, and their minions. Head on over to the EN World Site for details. Eric has renamed the World Creation Forum. It is now called the EN World Forum, so as not to confuse it with his newly created Whereabouts Forum. We feel that this is a beneficial move that will prevent confusion within the messageboards. Eric has also agreed to write the foreword to our final product, the Daemonforge sourcebook. Although this is a while off yet, we asked Eric to do this in order to show our appreciation for the assistance he has given us on this project - namely, the creation of a specific forum for discussion on Daemonforge, and for the exposure he has given us by posting our news items here on this page. We have set up a mailing list for the EN World Site, which we will use to write a short weekly newsletter and for occasional one-off announcements. If you would like to receive this newsletter, please head on over to the site and sign up. And, finally - thanks to those who havevolunteered to help us with artwork. We look forward to seeing your work! February 17, 2001 Official Updates: What's new at WotC? A new opening screen for the official D&D website touts the soon-to-be released Psionics Handbook. The first of three quizes about the Psionics Handbook. Look, mom, I got an A+! As noted below, the Master Tools page has been updated with sample monster graphics and sounds from the mapping portion of the program. You'll need an MP3 player to listen to the sounds. A look at the gods in Pool of Radiance II: Ruins of Myth Drannor. Master's Touch is a new spell in the Spellbook. Tricks for Tackling Ettins in Monster Mayhem. In a web enhancement for Monsters of Faerun, James Wyatt expands on the "In the Realms" information for the Ghour Demon and Stinger. Scoopers: CylentWolf, Spearhavoc, Reign Darkwind. Master Tools Update: Right on schedule is Fluid's Wayne Cline with Friday's Master Tools update. Among other things, it announces that the Master Tools page has been updated with sample monster graphics and sounds from the mapping portion of the program. Howdy all. The big news this week is that we’ve hit another milestone delivery for Wizards. What that means is that everything continues to move forward, as planned. The deliverable included the next group of figures, with the goblin, gargoyle, celestial-solar, dire rat, Ember the monk, lizardfolk, rust monster, displacer beast, black pudding and the iron golem. Along with the characters, we delivered a large portion of the wall and floor art, which our artist Michael has been doing a fantastic job on. We also delivered a whole slew of new sounds. Many of the sounds are the generic dungeon sounds that we had asked you all about and we did quite a few of them. For example, gates creaking open and closed, troops marching by, the distant drip of water in a cavern, raising a portcullis, a torch burning, etc. A lot of good stuff by Paul! Also, the overall “version” is really starting to come together. Andrew has continued tightening up the previous portions of MT (Treasure Generator, Race Generator) and has fully dived in to the Character Generator, which is our next month’s big milestone. Supporting all of the various ways to create characters, including monster characters and then allowing them to equip the various weapons along with their natural attacks is posing quite a challenge, but don’t worry, Scott and Andrew are meeting many hours to figure this all out. Eric continues to refine the Mapper. He has added most of the art, so we are now beginning to use the Mapper exactly as you will in the tool, and it’s all looking fantastic. Hopefully, we can start posting screen shots soon. And speaking of screenshots, check out the WotC website, Master Tools section. They’ve got cool screenshots of the beholder, bugbear, ettin, fire giant, and umber hulk along with their sounds. Hope you like them! February 16, 2001 Community News: Updates at the Sanctuary Diablo/D&D site include changes to the magic system, and a magic item generator. Defenders of the Muse is a D&D campaign site with a Celtic flavor. February 15, 2001 WotC Message Boards: You've probably noticed that it's been over a week since the WotC message boards have been working. Here's an announcement about the situation. Long story short -- they'll be switching over to a UBB system and hope to be online with it around February 24th. (thanks to Reginald for the scoop) Official Updates: The Forgotten Realms goddess of magic, Mystra, is detailed at WotC. And a new Map-A-Week has appeared. (thanks to Christopher, Dweomer, Joseph Carriker, and Bertman4 for the scoop) New in the Conversion Library: Eladrins from Planescape, plus updates to Slave Pits of the Undercity and the Gamma World D20 conversion. Netbook of Feats 2.0: Here's an announcement from the D&D Community Council: Version 2.0 of the Netbook of Feats has been released. This new version has a very different look from what you have seen before. This version is a much slimmer netbook containing only about 40 feats that have been authorized for release under the OGL. What's that? We went from over 800 feats to just 40? That is correct. But this version is far more useful to gamers. 1st) It is a fully compliant D20 guide, meaning that you can use the feats any way you want (in accordance with the Open Gaming License). 2) Every feat in this book has been through the rating and review process...every feat has a balance rating assigned to make it more useful to you and your campaign. 3) This is only the beginning. I have already received about 20 additional submissions in accordance with our Community Council publications process. I also have another 40 of my own feats that I will be adding at a later date. That's 100 feats that should be out in the March release. All fully rated and released under the OGL. We will be back up to 800 feats in no time! So what happened to all of the old feats? They have been completely removed until the contributors complete the submissions process and resubmit their materials for use under the OGL. This is necessary so the netbook can remain a legal entity and remain available for all of you to use. So, I invite everyone to take a look at the new netbook of feats and tell us what you think... Download the new submissions guidelines and join us in making history! The new netbook can be found at www.dndcommunitycouncil.org/~nbofeats. Questions should be addressed to feats@dndcommunitycouncil.org. Community News: angramainyu's Combat Reference Sheet has been updated. New in this version: Light sources, Spell access, some combat variants, bonus types, healing. Nightwing's Lair has a new address at http://www.angelfire.com/rpg/dnduk/. Erth: Return of the Wizards has a new address at http://www.geocities.com/wizardfj/. Beholder's RPG Zone has a new address at http://rpghost.com/rpgzone/ and new content, including new monsters for the world of Arlos, added prestige classes, a race, the blood elves, important characters and magic items. Northern 3E is aimed at the community of D&D players in the Melbourne, Australia region. The Northstar Campaign is a D&D campaign site. February 14, 2001 Enter the Basilisk: Jamis Buck's highly anticipated Basilisk Engine is ready for the world! This means the ability to create custom data for things like his new Treasure Generator 2.0. Head over to Jamis Buck's RPG Generators to take it for a test drive. D20 System News: Gaming Outpost has posted a review of Diomin (OtherWorld). Port City Games is a new D20 System publisher. Like Shadowcraft Studios, they plan on Electronic-only Products. Initial products will be offered free of charge. Some planned products include Expanded Level Advancement Tables, New Core & Prestige Classes, and New Monster & Template Creatures. Community News: Earth: Third Millenium is dedicated to building D20 materials for a near-future Sci-Fi game. Also has a forum. ThirdEdition.net is a D&D resource site driven by fan submissions. Add your material! Gene-enkainen's Fan-Bastich Adventure in D20 is a D&D resource site. The D&D 3E Hârn Guide is just what it the name implies. You can download a 40-page PDF guide, and view information on the Hârn setting. Agartha has moved to http://www.rpghost.com/agartha/. "Agartha is a new D&D campaign, frequently updated, with a new adventure available for download every month." You can read an interview with post-WotC Peter Adkison at Fandom Shop. (thanks to Emiliano for the scoop) Speaking of Peter Adkison interviews, for comparison you can read this interview of Mr. Adkison by French D&D fan "PA" way back in August 2000 at GenCon. February 13, 2001 Reviews: Tuesdays mean new reviews at RPG.net. This week you'll find reviews of The Last Days of Constantinople (Avalanche), Relics & Rituals (Sword & Sorcery), Terror in Freeport and Death in Freeport (Green Ronin), Rappan Athuk (Necromancer), Thieves in the Forest (Atlas), and Diomin (OtherWorld). (thanks to Bertman4 for the scoop) Sage Advice: Michael J. Eshleman recently wrote to Skip "The Sage" Williams and received answers on a few questions: Does a character who is not flatfooted, but is still denied their Dexterity bonus to AC due to a successful feint or other circumstance threaten the squares around him? No. Can he take AOO's if they are provoked? No. For example, in the scenario above does a character provoke an AOO if he attempts to disarm his Bluffed opponent? No. Table 8-8 Attack Roll Modifiers lists the defender prone condition as providing a +4 to the attacker's to hit roll. Is the defender also denied his Dexterity bonus to AC? No. Official Updates: New on the official D&D website... Chapter 2 of this month's Cliffhanger Adventure. New PC Portraits. Not really an update (rather, one that needs to be made but hasn't been yet): The Sorcerer article up on the website has an error. In the Blood: Choosing a Race indicates that dwarves gain an AC bonus when in fact they don't. WotC Game Support confirms the error. Scoopers: CylentWolf, John Carney, Gerard. February 12, 2001 Community News: A review of Sword & Fist can be found at RPGAction. A review of Monsters of Faerun has been posted at AtFantasy.com. A review of Secrets of Naboo (for D20 Star Wars) is up at the Star Wars RPG Database. Charles Greathouse has posted a Dragon Stat Block Generator. Pick a color, pick an age, and presto -- instant dragon stat block. Updates at Strategem Ideaware and Dwarven Waraxe. A new version of The New Arabian Adventure netbook for Al-Qadim has been posted. Realms of A'dohn has been updated and is seeking submissions and fellow world-designers. 3E Feats List: a master list of feats (and where they came from) from Dragon Magazine, core rules, and rule accessories. News from Daemonforge: We have a couple of announcements to make regarding happenings at the EN World Site. The development of the Daemonforge setting is steaming ahead and we have now reached a crucial stage: it's time for you, the D&D community to decide how we will be treating races in Daemonforge. We have looked at all of the excellent submissions received, reviewed the opinions posted in Eric's World Creation Forum, and created two drafts - a liberal and a conservative approach. The conservative draft basically contains the PHB races (with cultural tweaks) plus one extra NPC race. The liberal draft includes rules for creating 'hybrids' (including the standard half orc and half elf) plus a couple of NPC races and a slew of fiend-created evil NPC races. Please head on over to the official EN World Site and make your mark on this world by voting for your favored approach. Secondly, the logo competition has closed and we now have two excellent logos - one for the EN World Site, and one for the Demonforge setting. Both were created by Imperialus of Eric's messageboards, who beat off stiff competition. Finally - after deliberation, we have offered the post of Legal Officer to Jonathan Reichman. He has graciously accepted, and we look forward to welcoming him on board. Jonathan's duties will include d20/OGL issues, copyrights, disclaimers and so on. He is also taking his bar exam this month, and so we all wish him luck. The next theme for your contributions will be the Fiend Lords, their strongholds and their minions. This one should be fun to do! Thank you for all your creative input, and for your opinions. Even if you don't have the time to contribute to this world, we still value your D&D experience and opinion - so please head on over and vote. It will only take a couple of minutes! Remember, this world will be nothing without you - the online D&D community. Dragon #281: The March issue of Dragon Magazine arrived in my mail today, and what a treat it is! This month's theme is psionics in honor of the imminent release of the Psionics Handbook (which has a cover we haven't seen before -- view 190kb jpg). Here's what's inside: Goodies: This issue contains more Instant Dungeon Tiles. This set features outdoor terrain and caves. Cover: A delightful painting of several githzerai monks meditating in Limbo. Letters: Among the typical letters is an entertaining war of words between WotC's Monte Cook and Tracy Hickman of Dragonlance fame. Cook feels that Hickman's advice in his recent article, "How You Play the Game," is mostly harmful to healthy player interaction; Hickman defends his advice as a shake-up for complacent players. Spotlight: James Wyatt is on deck this month. From his days in the ministry to landing the big job at WotC, James is at heart one of us -- a player who dreamed of "doing D&D" for a living. Countdown to the Realms: We learn about organizations of the Realms, from the Harpers and Zhentarim to the Lord's Alliance and the Fire Knives. Psionics: Yeah, baby, this is the good stuff... Mind Lords of Talaron: Stephen Kenson introduces us to a strain of psionic humans from another plane. They're divided into six noble houses, and would make a good basis for a campaign or serve as a power group in a campaign world. Psionic Tidbits: The four psionic prestige classes from Psionics Handbook are metamind, pyrokineticist, slayer, and soulknife. This article introduces a psionic artifact known as a psigate (an extra-planar portal). Calm Amid the Storm: An overview of githzerai monasteries and monastic orders by Bruce Cordell. Psionic Tidbits: Two psionic prestige classes are introduced. The Zerth Cenobite, over time, gains the abilities of Sense Fate (perceive and alter the future), Combat Foresight (insight bonus to attack rolls), Danger Sense (Reflex save bonuses against traps), Insight (a bonus that can be used on any check or saving throw, a limited number of times per day), Ki Strike (like a monk), Time Step (move forward a few rounds in time), Discerning Attack (an extra-damaging attack based on being able to "see" past wounds), Timeless Body (like a monk), and Timeless (a kind of time stopping ability). The Arcanopath Monks are wizard-slayers, and their powers include Clap of Deafness (a deafening strike), Chip of Muteness (a muting strike), Strike of Confusion (strike that causes mental disarray), Deflect Spell (deflect ray spells or "energy missile" spells), Ki Strike (like a monk), Allseeing Eye (permanent see invisibility), Slap of Forgetfulness (can cause the victim to lose prepared spells), Empty Hand (strike ethereal creatures), Reflect Spell (aim a deflected spell back at the caster), and Sundering Strike of Oblivion (cause spellcasters to permanently lose access to some known spells until they go up a level). The Splintered Mind: Former members of the Scarlet Brotherhood in Greyhawk formed this faction of rebels seeking to destroy them. We're introduced to three new exotic weapons (bladed staff, double scimitar, and panther claw) and a new Psionic prestige class called Truth Seeker. The Truth Seeker gains power points and psionic powers from a select list, and gains access to psionic combat modes as he progresses. In addition, powers include Share Mind (a kind of telepathy that allows the sharing of thoughts at low levels and increases in power), and free access to the Psychoanalist and Psychic Inquisitor feats. Also presented are "class combo" charts for Scarlet Fist (monk/psychic warrior), Crimson Blade (fighter/psychic warrior), and Truth Seeker (monk/psychic warrior/truth seeker prestige class). Psionic Tidbit: We're given six new psionic powers -- which gives us the layout of what the powers entries will look like! See below for a sample power from this article. Vs. Psions & Psychic Warriors: Advice from David Noonan on how to defeat psionic opponents in combat. Includes a very brief overview of psionic classes, powers, combat, and manifestations. Psionic Tidbits: The five manifestations are visual, auditory, olfactory, mental, and material. Manifestations are clues that psionic activity is going on. Class Acts: Monte Cook presents the Psi-Hunter prestige class. Psi-Hunters are arcane spellcasters who are adept at defeating psionic opponents. They gain Mental Defense and the ability to Detect Psionics right away, and develop abilities like Psychic Stab, Hamper Psionics, become Invisible to Psionic detection, Power Resistance (like Spell Resistance), create a Null Psionics Prison for incarcerating captured psionic foes, and Mete Out Mental Justice by placing a curse on a psionic creature. The Psi-Hunter has its own spell progression and spell list. Name Generator: Generate names for derro, duergar, illithid, kuo-toa, and svirfneblin characters. 101 Wondrous Whereabouts: Plot hooks based on fantastical locations. Bazaar of the Bizarre: Magical masks with neat histories and curses. Bestiary: Okay, these subterranean critters are just plain WEIRD. Sage Advice: Here's an official piece of errata for you: Color Spray: The effects [of this spell] don't occur in order; they occur together. The list of effects should read: Up to 2: Unconscious for 2d4 rounds, also blinded for the first 1d4 rounds, and also stunned for the first round. (Only living creatures are knocked unconscious.) 3 or 4: Blinded for 1d4 rounds and stunned for the first round. 5 or more: Stunned for 1 round. The usual: Role-playing advice, comics, Fool Wolf fiction, etc. Sample Psionic Power Distraction Telepathic (Compulsion, Mind-Affecting) Level: Psion 1 Display: Vi Manifestation Time: 1 action Range: Short (25 ft. + 5 ft./level) Target: One creature Duration: 1 round/level Saving Throw: Will negates Power Resistance: Yes Power Points: 1 This power affects the mind of the target, clouding his anticipation of attacks and disrupting his ability to focus on an attacker. Any creature attacking the target gains a +2 circumstance bonus to hit and characters with the sneak attack ability add their extra damage when attacking the creature if it can be affected by sneak attacks. Distraction can only affect creatures with an Intelligence score. February 11, 2001 D&D Top 25: The D&D Top 25 Sites list has reset recently, so be a dear, won't you, and vote for me? Consider it a Valentine's Day gift to me. :] The link is at the bottom of this page. Polyhedron #145: I received my copy of the December 2000/January 2001 issue of the RPGA's magazine yesterday. Inside... RPGA memberships will increase in price. Starting March 5th the membership fee will be $30 ($75 for 3 years) for United States, Australia, Continental Europe, and UK; and higher for other areas. So you might want to get on the stick and renew in the next couple of weeks. If you haven't noticed already, the RPGA now charges $10 per scenario title ordered. Living City (Forgotten Realms) Conversion Guide. Living Force (Star Wars) Character Creation Rules. Monsters from the Members: includes a conversion of the Cifal from the Fiend Folio, plus other odd creatures such as the Death Lion, Iron Maiden, and Living Door. D&D Brigands and Thugs: presents two different brigand groups with stats for typical members and tactics. Rogue Gadgets: unusual missile weapons, devices and surprises rogues might want to use. Elminster's Everwinking Eye: A tour of the town of Oparl. Reviews: D20 System products reviewed include Creature Collection from Sword & Sorcery (scores 12/20, "hit-or-miss, but worth picking up"), NeMoren's Vault from Fiery Dragon Productions (scores 16/20, "Classic low-level dungeon crawling ... [with a] surprisingly complex plot"), and The Horror Beneath from Nightshift Games (scores 5/20, "easily the worst d20 product to date"). Community News: I've taken a somewhat big step with my message boards -- I've split off D&D Rules discussion from the General Discussion area. Take a look at the new descriptions and try to pick the correct forum when posting. Hopefully, with this in place, we'll get fewer instances of really off-topic stuff getting in the way of rules discussion (and vice versa). NeuroZombie's D20 Destination is a D20 System resource site and also houses materials for his Skyrealms of Taelaat campaign setting. NeuroZombie is the soon-to-be former webmaster of Community: 3E. Dwarven Axe is a D&D resource site. DNDMovie.com has a survey about a potential D&D TV show. (thanks to Alan for the scoop) Speaking of the D&D Movie, The 3rd Edition has posted a review of said movie. DNDFiles.com (no point in making a link here, but check the Links page in the future) -- is currently down but should be back up at some point in the future. February 10, 2001 Relics and Rituals Magic Item Prices Project: If you've picked up Relics and Rituals (from Sword & Sorcery Studios), you probably have noticed that the new magic items don't have prices listed. While this lack is explained in the book as a setting-specific consideration, some people still would find that information helpful, particularly when attempting to place "balanced" amounts of treasure. Apparently SSS has given "Irishman" the go-ahead to try to round up a few volunteers to whip up prices for these magic items. Once this project is done, SSS will post the list on their website. Here's the note from "Irishman": If anyone wishes to help create the magic item price list for the Swords and Sorcery book, Relics and Rituals, and has the time to compute a page or two of the magic items values based on the rules in the Dungeon Masters Guide, please contact dharman07@yahoo.com. Feat Requirement Diagram: Adrian Read has created a diagram showing feat requirements, including feats from Sword & Fist. It's a small .pdf file, and you can grab it right here. Be sure to let Adrian know how you like it or if you find anything that needs to be corrected by writing him at Adrian.Read@facs.gov.au. Note that some people have trouble viewing .pdf files from the RPGPlanet server; to save the file instead of viewing it in the browser, right-click and choose "Save Target As" [Internet Explorer], or SHIFT-click the link [Netscape]. February 9, 2001 Master Tools Update: What would Friday's be without Jim Bishops updates on Master Tools? I sneaked the latest build out of Fluid's offices last week and have been playing with the race generator a lot, and using the newly-working mapper. Most of the features aren't enabled yet, but it's a promising start. The mapper works a lot like Photoshop, in terms of interface. You have a free-floating toolbar with two kinds of options present: Tools and Objects. The tools allow you to switch between several drawing options, like "line" and "square" for easy drawing. Objects allows you to draw floor tiles, walls, treasure, encounters, and so on--basically anything that could appear in a dungeon. These buttons correspond to free-floating palette windows. I'm looking at two now that have various flavors of dungeon walls and floors, and that will soon contain all the monsters and treasure icons the artists are cooking up. There's a view toggle that makes switching between top-down and isometric views fast and easy. I find it's easier to build hinky bits (like walls that double back on themselves, or complex corridors) in overhead, but I like to set the overall terrain and tinker in iso view. It's nice to be able to switch between the two perspectives. We also spent part of last week talking about our options for a Master Tools expansion, or series of expansions. Based on our notes and discussions, and listening to the boards and 'list, I came up with eight broadly-detailed options, listed below. I would be very interested to hear opinions on these--ideally I'd like to see them in order of preference, so we can keep a chart of the votes. Also, if there's an idea I haven't listed here, please post it or send it to me at mastertools@wizards.com. Expansion idea #1: "100 monsters, 100 tiles" Release strategy: a series of low-priced expansions Description: more art, sounds, tiles, objects, including outdoor and town map elements. Expansion idea #2: "Session Tools" Release strategy: a single moderately-priced expansion Description: tools to manage at-table play: calculating and dispensing xp, treasure, wounds, etc.; Game-time/calendar manager for months, weeks, days, hours, rounds; combat manager. Expansion idea #3: "Tons of Adventures" Release strategy: series of low-priced expansions Description: dozens of famous old adventures, converted to 3E and in MT format. Expansion idea #4: "Super Customizer" Release strategy: a single moderately-priced expansion Description: Many customization interfaces: class generator; prestige class generator; equipment generator; spell generator; god/domain generator; template generator; skill generator; feat generator; door generator; trap generator, etc. No Access required. Expansion idea #5: "Worldbuilder" Release strategy: a single moderately-priced expansion Description: build your campaign world from the ground up, both as a collection of maps and a suite of custom rules ("my world uses bricks as currency"); output as a standard campaign setting. Expansion idea #6: "Storybuilder" Release strategy: a single low-priced expansion Description: tools to structure an event- or story-based adventure: flowcharts, lists of dramatis personae, tons of plot ideas and ways to connect them. Expansion idea #7: "Some of this, some of that" Release strategy: a single moderately-priced expansion Description: town generator; some session tools; some customization interfaces; some new art and tiles; some prebuilt adventures; some worldbuilding tools. Expansion idea #8: "Internet play" Release strategy: a single premium- to moderately-priced expansion Description: all the features of "Session Tools", wedded to an IRC chat client and a bunch of at-table goodies built around internet play. Official Updates: The newest additions to the WotC website... Sorcerer's Scroll -- advice for creating sorcerer characters. New PC Portraits. Teeny tiny preview of Monsters of Faerun. "Join Regdar" Contest Winners were announced. Miniatures Playhouse -- I'm not even going to try to describe it. Thanks Three Million! As you can see by the counter below, I've hit the 3,000,000 mark! Unofficial D&D Third Edition News hit two million back on November 9, 2000, so that's (does some math...) over 10,000 hits per day on average since then. I want to thank you all for helping make the site a success. *Gives a big group hug to the message board folk especially* -- you guys and gals are the best! FR Guidelines Updated: Alert scooper Jason Saving points out that the version of the Forgotten Realms Guidelines for the RPGA's Living City campaign currently available is different than the one originally posted back in November. The current version (dated December 18, 2000, though it certainly could have been posted later than that) is now 35 pages (up from 23 pages), and includes some new material on deity symbols and portfolios, among other things. Click here to download. D20 System News: Chaosium will be publishing an adventure to go along with their D20 System Dragonlords of Melniboné. Set for a March release, Slaves of Fate is a low level adventure. Here's a description: Far out to sea, captive on an Vilmirian slave ship, the adventurers' troubles are just beginning. If judged worthy they are destined for the slave markets of corrupt and terrifying Pan Tang, If not, they will be callously slaughtered at sea, their souls left for the dread undead galleys of the god Pyaray, Tentacled Whisperer of Impossible Secrets. While struggling to escape before matters get any worse, the Chaos goddess Eequor, Blue Lady of Dismay, takes an interest in the adventurers' plight. Their fates are forever changed. RPGAction has posted a review of The Last Days of Constantinople (Avalanche). The 3rd Edition has posted a review of The Cruicble of Freya (Necromancer). (thanks to Bertman4 for the scoop) As a preview for their forthcoming adventure, The Tide of Years, Atlas Games has posted a new clerical domain of Time, and a few new time-related spells. (thanks to Bertman4 for the scoop) The Longest Night from Privateer Press will be 64 pages instead of 48 pages. It will still sell for $9.95 and is still slated for March. (thanks to NeghVar for the scoop) Combat Reference Sheet: Okay, I know I point you to a lot of fan-created downloads, but this one takes the cake. Check out angramainyu's Combat Reference Sheet. In five short pages, he condenses tons of the most used D&D rules for your quick reference. I personally used the previous version of this sheet last week in a game and found myself cracking open the core books a lot less frequently. It includes weapon charts, poison DC tables, lists of which skills provide synergy bonuses to other skills and under what circumstance, brief NPC stat charts, combat maneuvers, condition summaries, wall and door properties, the CR/XP table ... this thing is packed with D&D goodness. RPG Planet News: One of my sister-sites, Planet Neverwinter, has posted an interview with Brent Knowles, co-designer of Neverwinter Nights. NWN is a CRPG with multiplayer capabilities set in the Forgotten Realms and using 3rd Edition D&D rules. (thanks to Silverdawn and Lazarus Long for the scoop) Hasbro Job Cut Reports Were in Error: A couple of days ago I pointed you to a news report indicating more job cuts were on the way for Hasbro. Not so, apparently. Here's a scoop from inside WotC: According to a memo circulated today around Hasbro, this news story is inaccurate and the AP has made a correction. The "headcount reductions" mentioned in the article are the same ones announced in December, though the number is slightly higher. No new job cuts. February 8, 2001 Community News: As reported over at Jamis Buck's site, RealmsCrafters Palm Software now has their own website. Read the news over at Jamis' place. New Order of the Raven Chapterhouse (formerly "King Chicken's web page") has posted some new material. By request, I've created a new forum just for sharing bare-bones adventure plots. The new Plots forum, along with the Rogue's Gallery forum, are grouped together in the Bits N Pieces category over on the message boards. Sage (and Sage-Like) Advice: WotC's Skip Williams and Sean Reynolds recently clarified a couple of rules-related questions (thanks to Pat and John for the scoops): Cost for Advanced Golems: You make bigger golems by increasing the XP and GP costs by the same rate as the hit dice increase. For example, a flesh golem has 9 hit dice and costs 1,000 xp and 50,000 gp to create. If you build a 12 HD golem instead, it has 1.33 times the hit dice, so it costs 1,334 xp and 67,000 gp to create (round the XP costs up to the nearest whole number and the GP costs up to the nearest 1,000). Can You Multiclass Two Wizard Specialties (Necromancer/Abjurer, for instance)? No. You can only take a class once. Material Component for Greater Planar Binding Not Specified: In-house consensus is that that's an error, and no versions of planar binding need M components. Does Fortified Armor Cancel Vorpal Weapons? I'd say yes, as would Monte [Cook]. Official Updates: What's new at the official D&D website? Realmswatch: Ten Dozen Gods is a Lotta Gods Ed Says: Gods of Faerun New Map-A-Week: Tower of Deception Elminster Speaks # 15: Serving the Dark Sun Character Name Generator Scoopers: Bertman4, Neomorte. More Hasbro Job Cuts: Sounds like Hasbro, parent company of Wizards of the Coast, is still having financial trouble. This article indicates that more job cuts are on the way. How this will affect WotC is unknown. D20 System News: Necromancer Games is seeking submissions for a forthcoming product called Treasure Maps and Lairs. We want short adventures tied to a treasure map like the old Judges Guild product Book of Treasure Maps. It would be a good way for new writers to try to get published. Visit their website for submission guidelines. (thanks to Steve Vogel, Pat, James Morris) Shadowcraft Studios is a new group producing D20 System materials. You might remember the Class Construction Engine (rules for constructing new core classes using a point system) announced in the Community News a few weeks ago? That was them. We plan to release supplements and systems that are low-cost to no-cost, but high in value and quality. Shadowcraft Studios only has a tenative release schedule at the moment. D20 Reviews: AtFantasy has posted a review of The Spear of the Lohgin. February 7, 2001 Community News: Luke Jones is creating a DM assistant program and would like some feedback about it. Here's his web page, and here's a thread on my message board where he talks about what kind of feedback would be most helpful. By the screenshots on the page, this looks to be a very interesting tool once it's ready to go. Erth: Return of the Wizards is a D&D campaign setting site. Pen & Paper, an RPG site, has moved to http://www.pen-paper.net. ADZO's D20 page is a D20 System resource site, currently focusing on a home-brewed campaign setting called Mondus Fumus. DnDCode is a mailing list for D20 and D&D programmers. New Reviews: RPG.net's weekly Tuesday reviews postings include new reviews of The Spear of Lohgin (Paradigm), Forge of Fury (WotC), Death in Freeport (Green Ronin), Galal's Grave (Fiend Games), Crucible of Freya (Necromancer), and Crypt of St. Bethesda (AEG). Be warned that some are not particularly positive reviews. (Thanks scooper -- as soon as my mail comes through I'll indicate who sent this info my way.) D20 System News: A couple of alert scoopers have noticed a new D20 System product in stores from a company that wasn't previously on my D20 System Guide. Assault on Darkspyre from Hammerdog is one in a series of "building block adventures." Grand Temple of Jing is another such adventure, and is scheduled for a March release. (thanks to David Blizzard, Chatty, and Daniel Thingvold for the scoop) OtherWorld Creations has posted the cover art for their next product, Into the Darkness. It was painted by Kieran Yanner. They've also posted supplements and an errata page for their Diomin world book. Nightshift Games has released "supplemental rules" for their D20 superhero game, The Foundation. (thanks to Jaldaen for the scoop) Sword & Sorcery Studios has added a forum to their company website. (thanks to John Kubisz for the scoop) February 6, 2001 New in the Conversion Library: Conversions of the Chronomancer class, monsters (ulitharid, per), plus updates to other files. Community News: Community 3E is looking for a webmaster. Read the relevant thread on my message board. News from Daemonforge: The EN World Board has determined a need to appoint a Legal Officer (on a voluntary basis). The role of this individual will be to deal with d20 license/OGL issues, copyrights, disclaimers and so on. Although it will not be a particularly demanding position timewise, commitment to the role is important. For this reason, we are advertising the position - ideally, we would like somebody with some legal background/experience or experience in a publishing industry. Basically, somebody who has a reasonable grasp on the legal issues of publication. If you are interested in the position, please email me at morrus@lineone.net, detailing your experience in such matters. We hope to make the appointment by the end of the week. Just to clarify - you don't need to be a lawyer, just somebody who feels capable of doing this job and making the committment. Even if you don't meet the above criteria, please feel free to apply. We are looking forward to hearing from you! RPG Action has unveiled Gaming Underground, a new section that is devoted to small press RPGs. Right now they have a feature on Green Ronin and Chris Pramas. Updates at Realms of A'dohn include new races and a new deity. The Sundered Sky is a D&D campaign site. Jamis Buck's RPG Generators is experimenting with user-selected color schemes for the site. Neat gizmos: Hero Machine lets you create portraits of fantasy and superhero characters. And I think I've mentioned this one before, but Dungeon Crafter is a tile-based mapping program. Scoopers: Gerard, Wired_Nerve. Some Dark Sun Freebies Yanked: Confused because you can't find some of the formerly-free Dark Sun products that were on the Classic Downloads page at WotC? They're not there anymore, and WotC's Jim Butler explains why (thanks to Hugo for the scoop): The only free products that we had planned to release for Dark Sun were: The Will and the Way 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 All other products were scheduled to come out as pay-for ESD products. Something happened, and some of the pay-for products were released for free over the website. They're working to correct that now, which is probably why the current slate of downloads scheduled to be made available on 2/2 were delayed. D20 System News: Dragonlords of Melniboné (Chaosium) is apparently at the printer's right now; expect it no earlier than late February. Flying Buffalo (of "Grimtooth's Traps" fame) may be adding some D20 System stats to future reprints of Grimtooth books. I've received word on sightings of Last Days of Constantinople (Avalanche), Rappan Athuk (Necromancer), and Relics & Rituals (Sword & Sorcery). Privateer Press has posted a map of the city of Corvis to go along with their forthcoming Iron Kingdoms campaign setting for D20. To promote their War of the Thorns release in June, Fiend Games is offering sneak peeks every month. February's preview includes new feats, a new monster, and a new deity. Scoopers: Prof.Dogg, Fred, Lothaire, Mark Craddock, NeghVar. February 5, 2001 Official Updates: What's new at WotC? One Last Riddle is this month's free downloadable adventure. The Proper Count is this month's Cliffhanger. James Wyatt and Rob Heinsoo (Monsters of Faerun) are in the Spotlight. Pre-register for GenCon. Thanks to Bertman4 and Gerard for the scoops. New Official Planescape Fan Site: Planewalker.com has been named the new official fan site for the Planescape setting. You can read the official announcement there. (thanks to Buzzregog for the scoop) February 4, 2001 New in the Conversion Library: New monsters (seducer demons, snyad, faerie dragon, ki-rin, qullan, plus a bunch more "missing monsters"), Al-Qadim conversion document, and revisions to other files. Community News: Zakhara.com has posted "Arabian Adventures: Third Edition," a substantial conversion document for Al-Qadim. Congrats to Scott Greene and Realms of Lore for achieving 10,000 hits! Sneaky Rogue Tricks is a website with advice for those playing rogues. The 3rd Edition has posted a review of Thieves in the Forest (Atlas Games). (thanks to Bertman4 for the scoop) Squirrel-related updates on Squirrel Nutkin's RPG Home Page. New Procedure for Submitting Netbook Materials: Bradley Bemis of the D&D Community Council, asked me to share the following announcement: This message is directed at every contributor who submitted their thoughts and ideas to the Netbook of feats as it was initially being created. First I want to thank all of you for you involvement in this momentous project. We have received and published over 800 feats in the last volume... now, the time has come to move forward. The netbook of feats project is now sponsored by the DnD Community Council. For those that have not followed the development of the DNDCC, it is an organization of role players dedicated to building on the DND Game by creating and releasing freely distributed netbooks. We currently have over 30 projects (such as the netbook of feats) in the works and have released 6 different netbooks and demo's to the public to help cement our commitment to the development of new products and create a realization within the RPG community that this organization is a worth-while effort. Over the next 6 months, we plan to have released over 40 different netbooks ranging from feats, to magic, to monsters, to dragons, etc. You can find more information about the community by visiting www.dndcommunitycouncil.org or by visiting Eric Noah's website and checking out the Vital Links posted on his main page. As you are all aware, our original intent with the netbook of feats was to produce a work of material that would be released under the Open Gaming License and D20 System. We tried, but quickly found ourselves embroiled in a legal discussion with negative connotations. We had to remove all mention of the OGL and D20 from the netbook and move forward as a fan created work. Under the DNDCC, that is no longer the case. The next version of the Netbook of Feats will be released as an OGL production. All materials published will fall under the rule of Open Gaming Content. The DNDCC offers a simple and effective process for meeting the legal requirements of the OGL and the D20 system. In essence, it is a three part program that allows you to become a contributor for ANY netbook project (not just the netbook of feats). Let me give you a quick idea of the process, then direct you to some locations where you can get more information. I HIGHLY encourage each of you to take the time to review ALL of the material before making a decision to resubmit your work (see more below). 1) Read the Statement of Understanding. This is a document that explains the entire process in detail and answers your questions. You can find this statement of understanding here. 2) Download and fill out the permission agreement. You grant the DNDCC a non-exclusive, world-wide, royalty free license to publish your materials as OGC. You still get to own all of your work and have a COPYRIGHT NOTICE incorporated into the text of every submission you make. 3) Send in your materials with a Statement of Authority to Contribute that references your permission agreement. The ENTIRE submission process and a complete Q&A can be found here. The best part is that once you follow this process for JUST 1 DNDCC sponsored publication, you can submit to ANY project without having to go through it again... it's a one time shot! As for the netbook of Feats itself, the next version (scheduled for release in FEB) will only include materials published using the above system as it applies to the OGL. We will no longer be able to accept materials unless they are submitted through the above process. By using this system, we have a world of opportunity to gain. As an OGL released product, the new Netbook of Feats will be useable in home games and published products. There is no greater feeling than seeing one of your ideas (with your name in the by line) published in a world-wide freely distributed product compilation. So what does this mean to all of you who have already submitted your ideas? We would ask that you review the process, follow the instructions for the system, and resubmit your work under the new system... yes, resubmit. We will not be using any of the material from the previous versions of the Netbook. You also need to make sure that you only submit work that is YOURS, not stuff pulled from various resources. This will result in a much slimmer version, but one that will be built up with time. In addition to the OGL process, materials will only be published AFTER they have gone through the rating and review process. Materials with a balance rating of 3-5 will be published in their finalized format. Feats with a balance rating of 2.9 or lower will be introduced in an appendix as "Ideas for Further Development". Rather than posting these feats in their entirety, Feats for Further Development will be base ideas for new feats and hopefully will encourage new and different ways of accomplishing a specific function within the feats framework. The new version will be published in .doc, .html, .rtf, and .pdf. The DNDCC is also working on a massive database initiative so that you can build your own netbooks from the massive database of materials (as if using a shopping cart function to pick and choose a spell here, a new feat there, and a new monster over here). This is an amazing initiative! So, I ask each of you to review the new process, then go to the new feats webpage and pull down a copy of the new submission guidelines. Once you get your contributor ID (see the documentation for info), resend all of your feats to us so we can get them into the new book and get them released under the protection of the OGL. Please let me know if you have ANY questions about this system of process... Thank you again one and all for being such a HUGE part of the most awesome movement ever conceived under the RPG community.... With your continued effort and support, we see nothing but success ahead, success to be shared by ALL! S&F Clarifications: Scooper "Gerard" wrote to WotC customer service looking for an official Sword & Fist errata list. Since there isn't one available, what he received was a chat transcript (one would presume with S&F designer Jason Carl), which is presented below minus some questions that have previously been covered. Take it as you will. How is the ghostwalker's painful reckoning power supposed to work? If the ghostwalker finishes an encounter and has lost 50% or more his hit points during that encounter, he forever after gets his painful reckoning bonus against the foe or foes he faced in that encounter, provided the ghostwalker is alive when the encounter finishes. The DM has to decide when the encounter is "finished," but if one side or the other flees, that's pretty much the end of the encounter. The bonus does not automatically apply whenever the ghostwalker's hit points fall below 50%. Once a ghostwalker gains a painful reckoning bonus against a particular foe, he can't gain it again against the same opponent (though if the ghostwalker goes up a level his Painful Reckoning bonus goes up against all foes). He does not, however, have to wait until his hit points fall below 50%, he gets the bonus whenever he faces the foe again. A painful reckoning bonus applies to Armor Class, attack, and damage rolls, as noted in the class description. It stacks with all other bonuses except itself. Note that the Armor Class bonus applies against touch attacks and when the ghostwalker is caught flat-footed or otherwise denied his Dexterity bonus. The ghostwalker's Etherealness and Shadow Walk powers are supposed to be extraordinary abilities. Shouldn't they be either spell-like or supernatural? If not they are completely capable of using these abilities within an antimagic area, right? What about the ghostwalker's other powers? The etherealness and shadow walk powers should be supernatural. Feign death should be spell-like. Resolute aura should be extraordinary. The prerequisites for the Pain Touch feat are base attack bonus +2 or more, the Stunning Fist feat, and a Wisdom of 19+. The Stunning Fist feat itself requires an attack bonus of +8 or higher, so aren't the Pain Touch prerequisites in error? In this case, no. The monk's stunning attack counts as a "virtual" Stunning Fist feat and any monk with a base attack bonus of +2 or more and a Wisdom of 19 or higher can qualify for Pain Touch. How does the Dirty Fighting feat work with multiple attacks? Just as with Circle Kick (see previous question), a character using Dirty Fighting makes one attack and adds an extra 1d4 points of damage if the attack succeeds. Dirty fighting is not effective against opponents that are not subject to critical hits. Dirty Fighting isn't a bad deal if you're only allowed one attack a round, but it's not a great option for high-level characters. You might consider an Improved Dirty Fighting feat: Improved Dirty Fighting [General] You are a master of the brutal and effective fighting tactics of the streets and back alleys. Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +6, Dirty Fighting Benefit: When you perform the full attack action, you can give up your regular attacks and instead make one melee attack at your full base attack bonus. If successful your attack deals extra damage, as follows: Base Attack Extra damage +5 to +9 +2d4 +10 to +14 +3d4 +15 to +19 +4d4 +20 or more +5d4 Can a rogue use Dirty Fighting in the same round as a sneak attack? No. Both rely on the ability to smack the foe where is really hurts. How does the Lightning Fists feat work with multiple attacks or flurry of blows? Can you combine Lightning Fist with a flurry of blows? Lightning Fists works exactly like a flurry of blows, except that you add two extra attacks and you suffer a -5 penalty to all your attacks. Lighting Fists actually isn't a very good option unless the opponent is really easy to hit or you can expect to deal a lot of damage with each hit (or both). You cannot use Lightning Fists and flurry of blows at the same time. Say my monk has the Snatch Arrows feat and the Throw Anything feat. Can I catch an arrow or bolt and throw it back at the attacker? No. The Throw Anything feat allows you to throw a weapon. Ammunition is not a "weapon" for this purpose. Nor can you throw something that is not a melee weapon, such as a bow or crossbow. How often can you attempt Feign Weakness against one opponent? Does the Bluff check take a standard action or is it a free action? You can use Feign Weakness often as the DM lets you. You might want to add a +5 to the foe's Sense Motive check for the second and further attempts against the same foe on the same day. Using Feign Weakness is a standard action, just like a feint (see the Bluff skill description on page 64 of the PH), expect that if you succeed you get to make your attack immediately. Does the Fighter with the Knockdown feat get a free attack, from Improved Trip against a creature that he trips due to a knockdown? No. If you have the Prone Attack feat, can you regain your feet as a free action if you don't attack? Technically, Prone Attack only lets you get up free if you make a successful attack. I suppose you could claim to attack the floor (using the strike an object rule) and then get up if you hit it; remember that any attack automatically fails if you roll a 1. In any case, you have to at least use the attack action to get up, so you can make only a single move after getting up. What classes from the Sword and Fist book, if any, can combine their attack bonus with monk attack bonus for purposes of getting multiple unarmed attacks? Only the classes that let you freely multiclass with monk (the red avenger and the weapon master). Is there any limit to how many 5-foot steps a master samurai can make when using the supreme cleave ability? The Cleave feat says you can attack another creature in the immediate vicinity when you drop a foe with a melee attack. What is the definition of "immediate vicinity"? How does that change when using supreme cleave? A character can take only one 5-foot step each round, and then only of the character has not otherwise moved during the round. Supreme cleave lets you step between cleave attacks, but you still can step only once. In the case of Cleave, "immediate vicinity" means within melee reach. A character using supreme cleave can first take a 5-foot step to determine who is within melee reach before choosing a target for a cleave attack. February 3, 2001 ESD News: Prices on ESD products will go up by about $.50 starting February 15th. Most ESD downloads, then, will cost $3.49 rather than $2.99. I've also received updated product listings, as shown below: (thanks to Pat for the scoop) Dark Sun ESD Schedule Dragonlance ESD Schedule Forgotten Realms ESD Schedule (including Maztica, Kara-Tur and Al-Qadim) New in the Conversion Library: Dragonlance, Dark Sun, and Spelljammer conversions, plus a conversion of the Dragon Fist game. Community News: Couple of new conversion sites for you: a Spelljammer Conversion site and a Dark Sun Conversion Site. Longbow's Greyhawk Adventures is a D&D campaign site. Troy Gomm of Spelljammer 3E would like to mention that there's a discussion group dedicated to 3E Spelljammer. There's been a lot of discussion about compatibility with d20 Star Wars. Anyone interested in d20 Star Wars and/or D&D is more than welcome to join in and help shape the future of Spelljammer. Charles Greathouse has created an online stat block generator. February 2, 2001 D20 System News: The Guild Companion has an article that, among other things, provides an overview of the D20 System. (thanks to Isidorus for the scoop) About.com has posted a positive review of Mike Mearls' In the Belly of the Beast (Atlas Games). (thanks to sk0766 for the scoop) Notes from John Nephew of Atlas Games: Thieves in the Forest" is now out of print; the last copies we had shipped out in a re-stock order to a distributor yesterday. We do not plan to reprint it, but I imagine copies will be available in the distribution channels for a while yet. We're also getting close to sending the next adventure, "The Tide of Years," to the printer, on time for March release. We formally announced Touched by the Gods as a May 2001 release. Click the image to the right for a larger view of the cover mockup. Notes from Chris Pramas of Green Ronin Publishing: A new issue of Focus on Freeport is up on the website (which has gotten a bit of facelift). This issue previews some material from Madness in Freeport, namely the history of the Captain's Council. I'm also going to be a guest of honor at two great conventions this month. First, I'll be at CONspiracy in Mission, British Columbia from February 9-11. I'll be running a 3E game called Fury in Freeport, and probably doing some demoing of the D&D skirmish game too. For more info, point your browser to: http://www.longshotsystems.com/CONspiracy/. I'll also be at Dundracon XXV in San Ramon, CA from February 16-19. In addition to running the Green Ronin booth, I'll be co-hosting several seminars, such as "How To Break Into the Industry" and "So You Want to Publish an RPG." For more info, click here: http://www.dundracon.com/. Official Updates: What's new at WotC's D&D site? A number of RPGA members are indicating that they've recieved a Living Greyhawk D&D adventure called The Fright at Tristor. Here's the blurb: "Orcish barbarians harry the northern trade routes through the cold north of the Theocracy of the Pale, serving a mysterious lord known only as The Watcher. Plagued by a series of bizarre animal mutilations, the terrorized folk of the village of Tristor turn to adventurers to help them where hunters, vigilantes, and soldiers could not. Someone, or some thing, is sending a message to Tristor, and all fear the inevitable -- when the gruesome murderer claims its first human victim. This classic tournament has been revised and updated for use in the RPGA Network's exciting new Living Greyhawk campaign. The actions of your group of heroes will influence the international campaign storyline!" This adventure is apparently available exclusively to Guild-level RPGA members. (Hey, that's me -- where's mine?? ;) February's theme is Sorcerers at the D&D site. We're promised a look at the Gods of Faerûn in Realmswatch. So far nothing really to go with either theme, except a new Map-a-Week. Scoopers: Steve Vogel, Danile Thingvold, Chatty, Tanis Half-Munchken, Bertman4, Nobody. Master Tools Update: We have a special guest for the weekly Master Tools update: Hello everyone. This is Andrew, the lead programmer of MasterTools at Fluid, and I'll be doing the .plan update this week. So, let's get started. First, let me cover some topics I've seen discussed on the old mailing list. 2d vs. 3d --------- MasterTools is ALL 2d! The mapper is NOT a 3d engine and you will NOT need a 3d video card. The artists use 3d tools to create content, but they then just give us 2d sprites for use in the mapper. Windows Interface/Full Screen ----------------------------- MasterTools WILL be a "standard" Windows application, NOT a full-screen, custom GUI application like the Character Generator was. But, to be useful, you'll probably want to be running your desktop in at least 800x600x16-bit mode. Direct X -------- Yes, the mapper portion of MasterTools will require DirectX. DirectX is currently only used for creating video buffers and drawing to them. It doesn't impact the interface, but the mapper will require that you have a video card with DirectX support. Database -------- MasterTools uses a Microsoft Access database for storing "standard" information such as Spells, Weapons, Armor, Skills, Feats, etc. It also uses it to store various tables such as those used in random treasure creation. MasterTools uses ODBC to communicate with the Access database. You will NOT need MS Access to use Master Tools. However, you will need Access if you wish to "get under the hood" and customize the things that are kept in the database. We know this isn't a great solution, but allowing complete customization of everything is outside the scope of this version of the product. So, rather than locking everything down, we are providing you the database to play around with. The database does NOT contain the things that you as a user will build, such as Races, Monsters, Characters, Treasure, etc. These things are all saved out as custom binary files. We will do our best to support some sort of export such as TXT and XML for those of you that want to use the files outside of MasterTools. Fluff vs. Functionality ----------------------- MasterTools will have both. As a programmer I definitely lean toward less bells and whistles and more core functionality. So, all I can say is that we feel we are NOT significantly sacrificing functionality for the "fluff". We ARE going to have a visually pleasing mapper and there ARE going to be some sounds in the product. That's not going to change, so if you don't like it, sorry, but boo hoo for you. Beta Testers ------------ We're not to that point yet, so hold tight. We'll let you know, really, you don't need to ask everyday. ;^) "The sky is falling, the sky is falling" ---------------------------------------- This is a shout out to all those who like to give their "constructive" criticism about how much we suck. Thanks for making me laugh, I've missed Beavis and Butthead since they took them off MTV. Okay, now let me cover what we have done so far in the realm of programming. We have an alpha version of the Treasure Generator. It lets you create random treasure following the methods in Chapters 7&8 of the DMG. You can also add/remove/edit specific non-random items to your treasure. We had alot of work done on the Monster Generator before we decided to split it up and approach it differently. We didn't lose work, its just getting split into different modules. Instead of a Monster Generator and a Character Generator, there will now be a Race Generator and a Character Generator. The Race Generator, which is near Alpha, will be used to create Races describing the core attributes associated with a Race such as base size, type, hit die, sub types, racial adjustments to abilities, saves, skills, special abilities, advancement, etc. The Character Generator will then be used to create Monsters, Player Characters, Player Monster Characters, and NPCs. You'll be able to create a Character based on any Race created with the Race Generator. We'll be pre-building all the Monster Manual Races/Monsters to ship with the product. I've started working on the Character Generator, and alot of code will be re-used from the original Character Generator Demo. Other than the mapper, the Character Generator is the biggest tool and will take the most time to implement. For the Dungeon Mapper, we licensed the code from Arcanum, a game developed by Troika Games. Their level builder was a good starting point for what we wanted in our mapper. Eric, the other programmer here at Fluid, has been working with the code base to strip out what we don't need and add features such as the different wall and tile types that we do need. We are also changing the interface from the one they used in their level builder. We'll soon be approaching the point where the various "generators" and the mapper meet up so that you can place the monsters, treasures, etc. that you build into your dungeon. Well, that about sums things up so far. I'm not sure what else you would want to know from the programming point of view. So, until next time ... February 1, 2001 New in the Conversion Library: Elven war wizard prestige class, equipment and magic from Dragonlance, Tomb of Horrors, rules for piecemeal armor, plus updates to several files. Monsters of Faerun Available: I've gotten several e-mails today indicating that Monsters of Faerun is widely available. Here's what Mike Mearls, author of In the Belly of the Beast (Atlas Games) had to say about it on my message boards: The book is set up exactly like the Monster Manual and is in full color. Each entry is formatted like the MM ones, except for an "In the Realms" section at the end of each monster that gives some FR specific info, mainly setting info and "news" about monster sightings and activity. Cool stuff that leaps out at me: Beholder mage prestige class! This looks pretty neat, a game mechanic to handle spell casting beholders. The best part is that I bought the new beholder mini just last week. Guess what the PCs in my game get to deal with in the very near future... A few new templates, including rules for alhoons (mind flayer lichs), Yuan Ti (as a template), good-aligned liches, and revenants. My first impression is quite positive. I can't wait to start tinkering with the yuan ti templates. Official Updates: What's new at WotC's D&D site? A flashback to the beginning of the Forgotten Realms with "Secrets of the Sages," a FR newsletter from 1988. "Perilous Gateways," by Roger Moore, is a new series of articles about portals in the Realms. Another free Dragonlance download is available on the Classic Downloads page. The conclusion to January's Cliffhanger Adventure has been posted. Scoopers: Tanis Half-Munchken, Bertman4, Kevin, Mark. Community News: Material is beginning to appear on Tracy Hickman's Dragonlance Nexus website. (thanks to Nobody for the scoop) Speaking of Dragonlance, Palanthas is a 3E Dragonlance resource site you might want to visit. Can't remember if the flumph is in the Fiend Folio or the Monster Manual II? Calliope Comics has a Monster Database that lists the locations for most of the monsters featured in AD&D (and now D&D) over the years. D20 System News: Doyce Testerman, who recently won a grand prize in my Adventure Contest, has been added to the list of talent working for D20 System publisher Dark Portal Games. DPG's Darrin Drader says, "We feel he has a great deal to offer anyone in this new industry, and we feel lucky to have him aboard." Atlas Games has posted a combat chart from their recent adventure, In the Belly of the Beast. (thanks to Bertman4 for the scoop) Eden Studios has announced substantial changes to their release dates for their Eden Odyssey D20 System products. See their entry in the D20 System Guide for details. Paradigm Concepts sent a preview of the cover of their next D20 System adventure, The Blood Reign of Nishanpur, which is due in March. The painting is by Brom. Click for a larger view. Dungeons & Dragons, D&D 3E and AD&D are all property of Wizards of the Coast.