Tag Archives: RPG

Wizards Presents: Worlds and Monsters Review

Posted on April 3, 2008 | 2 comments

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.

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D&D 4e In Mainstream Press!

Posted on April 2, 2008 | Leave a comment

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.

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Why 4e Doesn’t Feel Like D&D

Posted on April 1, 2008 | 1 comment

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.

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WotC Rethinking Open Gaming Update

Posted on March 31, 2008 | 1 comment

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.

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Goodman Games Launches “Eldritch Role-Playing System”

Posted on March 30, 2008 | 1 comment

Goodman Games, heretofore mainly notable for their huge “Dungeon Crawl Classics” line of 1e style D&D adventures for 3/3.5e, are launching their own fantasy RPG.  It hits in 1.5 days, if the countdown on the Web site (http://www.eldritchrpg.com/) is any indication.  Their main differentiator is that it’s a classless, and claims to be more narrative and share interpretive power with characters (implied: at least more than D&D).  Check out the character sheet and the forums. 

This is the first I’ve heard of the game – more as I discover it!  It’s at the printer and should be in stores in April.

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Mongoose Traveller at the Printer!

Posted on March 29, 2008 | Leave a comment

The new version of Traveller, which will be OGL and had an open playtest, is at the printer!  Look for it to drop in a gaming store near you soon!

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The Economics of Open Gaming – An Open Letter To WotC

Posted on March 29, 2008 | 6 comments

Why Open Gaming Is Good For Business

The OGL was largely single-handedly responsible for reviving the RPG industry overall and it and 3e took D&D from a bankrupt and largely irrelevant position back to its current state of RPG primacy and pop-culture relevancy.

Let me note something about real world economics. A healthy market sector means more for everyone. My IRL company has been posting record revenues for many consecutive quarters. Our stock took a big hit lately. Why? Because our major competitors posted big losses. This cast the entire sector in a bad light. Doing well in a bad sector isn’t any better than doing poorly in a good sector, and is arguably worse, to investors.

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WotC Rethinking Open Gaming

Posted on March 29, 2008 | 3 comments

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.

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D&D 4e – A Board Game?

Posted on March 27, 2008 | 5 comments

In a post on his blog, John Wick makes some very good points about the differing goals of a board game (victory) and a roleplaying game (character development) and argues that D&D, especially 4e as it’s cast, is more of a board game than anything else.

Now, a lot of the people in my gaming group hate John Wick with the fury of a thousand suns, because he is an asshole.  I concede this point; however, he’s an asshole who frequently makes good points.  I see their point too, however – his anecdote about his thief named Rav seems to be an example of people who “roleplay” as a thinly veiled excuse to make the other gamers’ lives more difficult.  Although perhaps he would have stuck by his ideals and, if the rest of the party had caught him stealing and decided to lynch him for it, applauded the resulting story.

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Malconvokers Rock

Posted on March 25, 2008 | Leave a comment

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.

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More Gygax Retrospective

Posted on March 25, 2008 | Leave a comment

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.)

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The Good Old Days (?)

Posted on March 25, 2008 | Leave a comment
Thanks to Grogtard for this – someone on the ENWorld forums found this little gem about the WOTC purchase of TSR.  It’s Ryan Dancey talking about what he found and the new tack of Wizards of the Coast – “listening to the customer.”  It’s ironic in that the new Hasbro WotC seems to be falling back into the error tht caused TSR to fail.  Everyone keeps saying “Oh, it’s D&D, the 900 pound gorilla – they’ll always dominate the market.”  These people must be less than 14 years old, because D&D nearly hit the shitter once before, and could do it again.
Dancey commented on 4e last year – his comments about a open variant of 4e seem to predict the Pathfinder RPG – note he even assumes it would “crush” the official pretender. 

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