Gaming Tonic
Explorer
This week was a lot of polls of the fans, a lot of attention paid needlessly to trolls, and some new products to keep you gaming. The blogs are alive with talk of D&D playtest and Monte levels his high level thoughts. You can even check out a new rules set for the Lords of Waterdeep Board Game. Now get to seeing it all for yourself.- The Challenge of High Level Play is examined briefly by Monte Cook in his weekly Legends and Lore article. I don’t want to call anyone out but this is a wide spread problem and not “only if you look at it a certain way” to quote Monte. Are the majority of the fans that wrong and Monte has the secret? Great talking points in this piece and make sure you take those polls. EN World fans are talking here.
[*]Jeremy Crawford gives insight into what went into Developing Heroes of the Elemental Chaos for Design & Development. I enjoyed seeing the thought that went into the book and which elements the designers chose to focus on. The EN World fans are talking about the new supplement here.
[*]Rulebook: Lords of Waterdeep provides you with the downloadable rules for the new board game. You can check out a couple of the Lord cards in the article as well. To let you get a look at this much of the game shows that WotC has confidence in the quality of their new game. I can’t wait to give it a try.
[*]Keith Baker focuses The Eye on Eberron on Baator in Dragon 408. This prison for rebellious immortals is written with any edition of D&D in mind and adds some higher level adventure ideas for your game. I found the section on using Baator in the world extremely useful for any campaign.
[*]Rule of Three by Rodney Thompson answers questions about adventures, the magazine content, and the future of rituals. The breakdown between spell and ritual in 4e is something that I think the designers of the next iteration need to keep in mind.
[*]Check out Broken NDA’s and Elaborate Trolls here at EN World by Morrus for the official word about the supposed leaks of the new playtest material. Trevor Kidd debunks one of these posts. I am glad that people are sticking to their NDA’s (myself included) and you shouldn’t buy in to what anybody who says they give their word and then goes back on it anonymously has to say.
[*]If you think you know your D&D then check out the +5 Crossword of Slaying Part 5 by Chris Perkins. Finishing one of these without resorting to resources to find the answer is now going on my bucket list.
[*]With the re-design of the website, From Wardukes to Websites by Bart Carroll for D&D Alumni shows you that it isn’t the first time the site has changed. I had totally forgotten about some of these changes to the site over the years. So far I am pleased with the redesign.
[*]The Circus Is In Town from Chris Perkins in The Dungeon Master Experience delves into what a party and campaign can really look like after the players select from a thousand bizarre options for their characters. We have to keep in mind that heroes aren’t always like everybody else and options are great if they are balanced. The editor in chief and the fans are taking about race in D&D here.
[*]If you need some D&D swag then check out this list of where you can purchase D&D Merchandise thanks to Bart Carroll. I have always thought that the Gale Force Nine stuff was pretty amazing. I saw the Dungeon Master’s Keep at Wizards of the Coast and was blown away. This is a great list to shop from so beware.
[*]Greg Bilsland delivers Blog: D&D Playtest News to catch you up on where we stand with the playtest and what we can expect next for the new edition. The rest of the blogs from the Wizards of the Coast crew that we can expect this week are also listed for your convenience.
[*]Cover art has finally appeared for Ed Greenwood Presents Elminster’s Forgotten Realms. Check it out on Amazon [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Greenwood-Presents-Elminsters-Forgotten-Realms/dp/0786960345/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329757428&sr=1-4"]here[/ame]. I hope this is a glimpse of the style the artwork will take moving forward.
