Gaming Tonic
First Post
This week there was a little commotion with the departure of Monte Cook and you can read about that here. The open playtest was announced and lots of great articles on the direction of D&D Next, the board games, and even 4th Edition adventures, and materials were published on the website for fans and DDI subscribers. I am all signed up for the open playtest and have now been partially released from my NDA to share with you that I have been playtesting the next edition for several months now as a Friends & Family playtester. Since i was under an NDA I stayed clear of anything specific about the new edition and kept my opinions to a minimum here. If you are curious about any of the next edition you should sift through my D&D posts since December on my website where I have clandestinely been talking, after you finishing spending lots of time here at EN World.- Fighter Design Goals by Mike Mearls lets you in on some of the plans for the classic class. The fighter is such a part of D&D and the next edition has some excellent ways to represent the versatility and reliability of the fighter. When the open playtest comes up in a few weeks you will see for yourself what I mean. Strong opinions are being batted around by the fans here.
[*]Face of the Moon by John “Ross” Rossomangno is not a side trek but a 27 page upper paragon level adventure. The maps are excellent and the story is easily set in any campaign world. I hate villains that eat my brains when I am player but love them when I am the DM. Several new items are included that are really cool, and I need to go and get some Greater Sleep Grenades soon.
[*]Michael E. Shea serves up epic tier baddies in Far Realm Fiends for your players to test their swords and spells against. Threats to challenge epic tier heroes is a challenge for lots of DMs so it is always good to have more especially from the far realm. The Geometric Impossibility is a cool hazard that seems to work easily but effectively.
[*]News D&D Next by Mike Mearls has really set off a shockwave of reaction. His lead off of saying he is shocked seems to have alarmed a lot of fans. The boards have been bombarded with posts about this and D&D Next, check them all out here. The announcement of the open playtest May 24th may have been planned or damage control. Either way it is exciting for the fans to get a look at the game.
[*]Tavern Profile: The Old Skull Inn by Brian Cortijo is an excellent description of the venerable inn where so many adventures have begun. This update is a feature which I hope to see a lot more of in the future and is excellent to slide into a story when I don’t have the time to devote to this level of detail. The Places to Stay section has a lot of great ideas to use in any inn as is the map of the inn by Kyle Hunter.
[*]Randall Walker takes us on a journey to the stars and beyond in Unearthed Arcana: The Truth Is Out There. Randall reveals the grays, what they are about, and full descriptions of three different types, the gray trooper, gray researcher, and the gray abductor. Some interesting ideas are presented for adventuring in the Far Realm as well. The section on Missing Time gave me several ideas for use in my own game.
[*]Tracy Hurley has a Board Game Edition of Joining the Party, and it is quite informative and enjoyable. As usual she has provided a list of cool links for things to spice up your games or perhaps learn about a game that you were unaware existed. The rpg links are there and the Kobold Quarterly Blog link about running a chase scene with a deck of cards is a great idea and I might try the next time I am DMing a chase.
[*]Howl at the Moon by Robert J. Schwalb is all about lycanthropes. The werebear, wererat, and werewolf are presented as themes for your character. How to handle shifters, some lycanthrope lore, and a history of lycanthropy in D&D are also presented. Even if the crunch presented is 4E this article has a lot of great fluff to use in your homebrew campaign.
[*]The Blog: Resilient Heroes by Bruce Cordell brings up the subject of self-healing by characters again. There is a poll and it looks like the majority of voters believe that healing surges are not the way to go in the next edition. I liked the idea of self-healing in 4E but the surge was a bit clunky for me and I disliked a dwarf with a Cloak of the Walking Wounded and a couple of surge feats out healing the cleric.
[*]Robert Schwalb pens a new Blog: Tone and Edition and examines his feelings, history, and perhaps what you will see in the next edition, when it comes to races and classes. The common, uncommon, and rare listings have been mentioned again and what we may see as the core races are hinted at again. I can do without the shardmind and wilden but the tiefling and dragonborn have worked their way into my D&D. Check out the boards here for all the chatter.
[*]Shelly Mazzanoble talks about her experience at PAX East in the Boston D&D Party for Confessions of a Full-Time Wizard. The relationship between D&D and computer games has always existed. Geeks tend to be drawn to both rpgs and video games. I think Shelly always has amazing experiences and feel better after reading her columns. They may be a little fantastic from time to time but so is D&D.
[*]The Dungeon Master Experience by Chris Perkins takes us to the Ice Capades this week. We get some wisdom in lessons learned from the regular game that Chris runs but you also get a massive list of polls about nearly every 4th Edition product. Some of the things Chris talks about are really excellent points about making your game and villains stand out and be memorable, but I had to go back and re-read the article after exhausting myself on the polls.
[*] Rule of Three this week by Rodney Thompson talks, you guessed it D&D Next as well as Rise of the Underdark campaign. Just to set people straight how are going berserk and since Rodney mentioned it, in all the playtesting I have done you get to move before or after your action, not just after you act so please calm down. The uproar and calm response both can be found here.
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