Tag Archives: RPG

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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4e Compilation PDF

Posted on March 22, 2008 | 2 comments

“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:

  • Teleporting elves
  • All point buy stats
  • Dumping half-orc and gnome for tiefling and dragonborn
  • Shoehorning “roles” for PCs and monsters
  • Movement in “squares”

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Pathfinder RPG Review

Posted on March 19, 2008 | Leave a comment

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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Paizo Forks D&D!

Posted on March 18, 2008 | 1 comment

It’s official!  Paizo Publishing is the gaming company that was publishing Dragon Magazine and Dungeon Magazine for  years until WotC pulled their license.  Since then they’ve been publishing the best D&D adventures on the market (and Dragon and Dungeon are languishing in low-content electronic-only hell on wizards.com). 

Well, Wizards screwed around and screwed around; even after announcing that they’d get the license and rules to third party publishers (for $5k a head) they never executed on it.  So now Paizo has decided to fork D&D by creating a RPG called the Pathfinder RPG based on 3.5e via the OGL.  The “alpha” version of it is freely available – in fact, they say once they start selling the beta sometime around Gen Con it’ll still be available freely as a PDF.  The beta will be an open beta for a year and the “final” version will launch in August of 2009.  They are also launching the Pathfinder Society, which sounds like a competitor to the RPGA.

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Relative Class Power in D&D 3.5e

Posted on March 17, 2008 | Leave a comment

There’s a thread on the Wizards forums I refer to from time to time – The Base Classes as Rated by You. The community voted on relative class power and the results are interesting.

Rated 1-10, with “10” being “most powerful” and “1” being “least powerful”.
*= not enough responses to mean much
D= highly debated – the ranks were widespread
C= consensus – the ranks were often the same

9.4 Druid C
8.6 Wizard C
8.6 Cleric
8.6 Artificer *C
8.1 Psion C
7.7 Wu Jen * C
7.5 Psychic Warrior
7.5 Favoured Soul
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The Old Grey Lady on the Elder God of Gaming

Posted on March 16, 2008 | Leave a comment

The New York Times, in last Sunday’s edition, published a nice article from Adam Rogers of Wired about D&D, E. Gary Gygax, and how D&D informs so much of modern geek culture (which is steadily taking over mainstream culture).  They have a big fun flowchart to follow your own journey of geekiness, too!

Geek Flowchart

(click to enlarge)

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What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Am I?

Posted on March 15, 2008 | 1 comment

I ran across this online survey while surfing.  It’s a comprehensive questionnaire that determines your D&D class, race, and alignment!  Here’s me.  Appaently I’m a goon because who would go bard/wizard?!?  I assume the bard part is for my strength in leadership, but bah!  Other than that, it’s about right.  And since clerics are “leaders” in 4e, and I scored pretty high on cleric, maybe I’m really a Wizard/Cleric.  Mystic Theurge, here I come!!!

I Am A: Neutral Good Human Bard/Wizard (3rd/2nd Level)

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Monster Manual VI: The Politicians

Posted on March 14, 2008 | 1 comment

There’s a hilarious writeup of the three major US presidential candidates as they’d appear in the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual (first edition!) courtesy of British scifi author Charles Stross.  McCain is “Demon Prince of Republicans”, Clinton is “Demon Queen of Pork Belly Futures,” and Obama is “Demon Prince of Upsetting Applecarts.”  The pictures, from FreakingNews.com and GuysFromArea51.com, are mind-numbingly beautiful.  My fave:

Hillary the Devil

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First Runelords “Stone Giants” Session Summary Posted

Posted on March 14, 2008 | Leave a comment

It’s been a long haul, but we’ve now started Fortress of the Stone Giants, the fourth installment in the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path! Nothing subtle about these bad boys. Also, some more full character sheets are up on the main campaign page.

Fortress of the Stone Giants Part I

Our special Spring Break adventure follows the standard format of a Spring Break vacation. A road trip, gossip, shopping, violence, assessing the damage, and fleeing the scene.

Drop a line or comment on the blog if you’re enjoying these!

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DriveThroughRPG GM Day Sale

Posted on March 6, 2008 | Leave a comment

In honor of “GM’s Day”, DriveThruRPG.com (aka RPGNow.com) is having a pretty decent sale.  If you haven’t used them, they sell a huge variety of RPGs in PDF – you can get old out of print D&D, Traveller, etc. as well as the newest releases from a wide variety of game companies.  Goes through tomorrow, March 7th.  What did I get,  you ask?

  • Issues of Buccaneers & Bokor, a zine for Skull & Bones and/or other semi-historical piracy games, from Adamant Entertainment
  • Against the Reich, for the indie game octaNe – the “psychotronic game of post-apocalyptic trash-culture America”

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The Turku School

Posted on March 6, 2008 | 1 comment

You’ve gotta love those crazy Nordic types!  I was reading through some links on roleplayng theory and came across the “Turku School of Roleplaying!”   It uses quotes from the Communist Manfesto!  It has a Vow of Chastity!   I expected it to mention Swedenborg Space but it didn’t.

I generally sympathize with its aims, which is the promotion of immersive roleplay and simulationism over the dramatist and gamist approaches.  (I personally am simulationist with a side of dramatist, but find gamism gauche).   If you don’t know what I’m talking about, these are terms from the Threefold Model of roleplaying developed by John Kim and others.

My favorite quote: “In the United States the gamists are trying to de-evolve role-playing back into moving little pieces of plastic on a board, but even in that world of darkness the Turku School sheds light to the eläytyjist movement.”

True, so true….

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