Gaming Tonic
Explorer
Happy Halloween to all of you. This week Wizards of the Coast has seriously left the candy bowl on the porch for you to just help yourself. There are so many offerings that I am just going to get started.
- [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Vaults-Underdark-Pack-RPG-Team/dp/0786960469/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320076270&sr=1-1"]Vaults of the Underdark Map Pack[/ame] has appeared on Amazon.com. It is slated for a July 17, 2012 release.
- Finally! Shan Zi of Kara-Tur by Claudio Pozas in Dragon 404 gives you some more support for the runepriest. This continues with the Kara-Tur theme for the month of October but can easily be adapted to almost any game. New powers, feats, and a new runic artistry, The Serene Blade, really give some options to your players who want to play runepriest.
- Feywild Items, a Heroes of the Feywild Excerpt by Bart Carroll gives you a glimpse at some of the treats that players can look forward to acquiring for their characters. There are more than a half dozen presented here including two Fey Magic Gifts, Scent of Gold and Speak With Sentinels.
- Rule of Three by Rich Baker delves into the thought behind the marking mechanic, crunch vs. fluff in products, and what is up with racial feats. The crunch vs. fluff question really makes you stop and think about how products are produced.
- The Map Gallery Archive has arrived for Dungeon 195. I store all of these in a map file on my pc and when I need a map for an adventure I am writing I have many to choose from. You can look over the archive and gather them all.
- The artwork in Dungeon 195 has been gathered for your convenience in Art Galleries Archive. It is easy to stash these away digitally and have them at your disposal when you are running an adventure out of the issue or creating your own adventure.
- Epic Campaign #9 by Aaron Williams will give you a great laugh as usual. The mechanical traps line just slayed me. I have actually heard that same question asked in a game before. The answer in case your curious is Gygax says so.
- D&D Outsider by Jared von Hindman takes a look at Heroes of Shadow. Just in time for Halloween this is the kind of review I like, one that has had time to actually use the product before reviewing it. This is a great look at how you might use Heroes of Shadow in your game from someone who actually did, extensively I might add.
- Another excerpt from Heroes of the Feywild brought to you by Bart Carroll gives us a look at the Fey Beast Tamer. One of the four themes in Heroes of the Feywild. I have always loved the beastmaster style character so I am sole. Check out what gamers are saying about it on EN World here.
- An early look at the new green dragon sculpt from the Dragon Collector's Set releasing November 4th is here for you. Green Dragons are my favorite and I want this mini bad.
- Counter Arguments by Stephen Radney-McFarland in Save My Game discusses how to deal with arguments and counter arguments to keep the pace up at your game table. The section titled That's How I Thought It Worked! is funny and had to be said and hits close to home.
- The Seven Styles by Logan Bonner and Derek Guder in Dragon 404 gives you a look at martial arts schools and the grandmaster training that players can have their characters learn there. These can be used by any class an powers source and the article includes ways to use them outside of a Kara-Tur campaign.
- Rules, Rules, Rules by Monte Cook in Legends and Lore takes a look at how we let the rules influence our game. Are you a fan of more or less rules in your D&D game? Make sure to answer the poll in this article every week. You could be directing the future of the game.
- Bart Carroll offers advice and insight on some classic movie monsters just in time for Halloween in D&D Alumni: Halloween Monsters. Great take on the werewolf and the mummy fire eyebrow loss story was hilarious.
- Monk Basics by Jim Auwaerter and Galen Mullins in Dragon 404 examines what the monks powers mean and some interesting ways to look at those powers when playing a monk. I am not a fan of the monk but definitely took a second look at the class after reading this very in-depth and useful article that includes some new monk powers.
- Chris Perkins says Boo Hoo in The Dungeon Master Experience this week. Some great examples of ways to give your players a little bit of torture, although they suggestions are delivered very comically and you are warned to take them with a grain of salt.
- That Which Never Sleeps in Dungeon 195 written by Daniel Marthaler is set in Neverwinter and is for levels 3-5. You can use this a follow-up to The Lost Crown of Neverwinter adventure from D&D Encounters or you can just use it as a stand alone. Keep the Neverwinter support coming!
- Terrors of the Silt Sea by Rodney Thompson in Eye on Dark Sun in Dungeon 195 gives you a couple of new beasties to challenge parties with in your game. These baddies are a great challenge in any setting, not just Dark Sun.
- Creating the Banderhobb by Steve Townshend in Design & Development takes a look at the evolution of this creature and how it came about in a campaign that used an earlier edition of D&D.
- The Ecology of the Banderhobb by Steve Townshend in Dungeon 195 gives you an in-depth look at the monster and some excellent suggestions for bringing them to life in your game. These are the little things that can make the monster really stand out in your game and not be represented by just a mini and a stat block.
