It’s a bit late, but here’s the newest Rise of the Runelords session summary; the second game session of the fourth (of six) chapters overall, as we approach the Fortress of the Stone Giants!
Part III is happening today. I will be binding a creature from the outermost Hells and forcing it to serve me by helping to slay whatever weird semi-giant is in charge of all this nonsense!!!
Posted in session summaries
Tagged 3.5e, adventure path, D&D, rise of the runelords, RPG, RPGs, runelords
My review of the second 4e preview book is up at RPG.net. As a work unto itself, it’s fine; as for what it reveals about 4e, it sucks.
I’ve been letting this 4e stuff, especially the fiasco where Wizards is trying to renege on open gaming while FUDding the masses for spin control (see many of my recent posts), get to me too much. The novel openness of 3e had briefly distracted me from the truth, which is that D&D is the ghetto in which the uninspired of roleplaying languish. So no more going on about 4e from me. I’ll definitely follow the variants like Pathfinder inasmuch as they’re creative, but now I’m remembering why I had previously moved away from D&D towards other RPGs.
Maybe some of the other posters on ENWorld are right – maybe D&D being open brought designers whose creative talent would be better spent on other games into the fold. When I think Ray Winninger I think Underworld; when I think Robin Laws I think Feng Shui, when I think Jonathan Tweet I think Over the Edge, all of which stand head and shoulders above the battle-matted abortion that D&D has been transforming into especially with 3.5 and what we hear about 4e.
There’s a very well written MSNBC article on the new version. It’s actually full of non-distorted facts, which is unusual for media reporting on RPGs. It talks about the MMO flavor of 4e, the rift in the community, and quotes Chris Pramas! What more could you want.
Don’t take my word for it – read what JD Wiker has to say. In the comments there’s some good points from other notable game designers – Sean K. Reynolds, Stan!, Monte Cook – who have basically been kept away from the 4e rules. Why is this? Wiker wrote Sandstorm and contributed to the 3e PH, MM, and DMG. So did Stan!, as well as developing Ghostwalk, Player’s Guide to Eberron, etc. Sean did lots of 3e FR stuff, and the Big Three too. Monte did the 3.5e Big Three.
Why is WotC keeping them out of 4e? Morons.
So it’s the work week now. Discussion rages on ENWorld, the Wizards forum, and other places (e.g. Chris Pramas’ blog). Response from WotC? Jack! I guess their attitude is “you can suck it!”
If any of the links go bad it’s because the ENworld mods are trying to bury the discussion by moving them to disused forums. (Vote here to ask them to quit it.) Update: 90% of voters say they should move the discussion back into the main forums, but no action has been taken yet. I assume it’ll just get delayed until WotC finally puts the nails in the coffin of the GSL to save them some embarassment.
Go and let your opinion be known, pro or con! In this day and age, companies ignore their customers at their own risk.
In a post on the ENWorld boards, a WotC rep says that they’re still reviewing the basic premises behind the GSL. Has Paizo’s Pathfinder RPG play scared them into thinking that any degree of openness isn’t the way to go?
To me, this is one of the largest decisions that Wizards could make regarding D&D 4e. The prior OGL was a huge moment in gaming and helped catapult D&D back to the top from being a bankrupt and irrelevant little thing. In my opinion, any decision to go back on it would be both stupid and ultimately harmful to D&D/WotC. I’ve played D&D a long time and would love to keep playing it. Even if 4e has retarded stuff in it, I can houserule it, heck, publish my own “nonretarded” variant, and keep going. If they choose to make it not open however – then I won’t bother, I’ll go with Pathfinder or something else exclusively.
Posted in talk
Tagged 4e, D&D, gaming resources, GSL, licensing, OGL, open gaming, RPG, RPGs
So how many of you have actually had a character that does some honest old school demon summoning? Well, wait no longer. Complete Scoundrel has a prestige class called the Malconvoker, which is a good person who tricks demons into fighting the other evil critters they face. Here’s Treantmonk20’s thread on the Wizards Character Optimization board on “Mastering the Malconvoker.” I chip in on good Planar Binding options. I have a related thread on all the legit 3.5e Summon Monster targets. My current character, Valgrim the Summoner, in the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path from Paizo, is a malconvoker and loving it.
A couple fun things in the wake of Gygax’ passing. One, this huge D20 on the MIT campus (courtesy FARK).
Also, an unexpected place for retrospectives on Gygax – various Presbyterian pastors! (Thanks to the Mad Doctor for these.)
“Verys Arkon” has compiled all the info about 4e revealed so far into a preview “Lite Edition” PDF. Check it out here. It appears to only include the stuff from DDXP, not the various things designers have revealed on blogs or whatnot (marking, etc.).
As I read it I get back to my familiar ambivalence with 4e. The initial changes in terms of simplification and encounter powers – basically all the stuff they showcased in Star Wars Saga Edition and Book of Nine Swords – I love. All the other crap they piled on top of it – I hate. Alas.
The Stinky Cheese:
RPG.net has posted my review of the new Pathfinder RPG Alpha Preview 1. Word! Game came out yesterday, I reviewed it last night, they posted it this morning. The Internet at work!
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