Green Ronin has unveiled their licensing scheme for True20, their own variant system. It’s OGL-based, yay!
Man, check out the long ol’ list of OGC sources in their Section 15! That’s pretty cool actually. That’s open gaming at work!
Geek Speak
Tag Archives: RPGs
D&D Fourth Edition License Unveiled!
After much hullabaloo, the open licensing for D&D Fourth Edition (4e) has been unveiled – kinda.
D&D 4th Edition Game System License
Wizards of the Coast is pleased to announce that third-party publishers will be allowed to publish products compatible with the Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition game system under the new Dungeons & Dragons 4E Game System License (D&D 4E GSL). This royalty-free license will replace the former d20 System Trademark License (STL), and will have a System Reference Document (SRD) available for referencing permissible content.
Three Games I’ve Avoided
Well, to be fair and balanced, now I’ll vent some bile at some non-D&D games. I own literally thousands of RPG products and will play nearly anything, but there are three pretty major games/game systems that I’ve avoided like the plague. And the reason why boils down to the general player base for those games. Some games have better or worse mechanics etc. – FUDGE dice are the worst idea ever – but that doesn’t spur active avoidance in me. I’ll go as crunchy as GURPS or as light as a pure storytelling game. But here are the three big problems for me…
World of Darkness. I am happy there’s a game for out there for goths experimenting with their bisexuality but that’s not me. I don’t want to hear a cute little story about how your cat Crowley was trying to drink from the chalice while you were trying to get your pre-game blessing done (true story). I avoid life situations that would tend to get you in jail/in trouble and the average WoD group rings all kinds of alarm bells for me. (I’m sure many WoD players don’t fit this mold, but the crowd of black-and-hat-wearing teens choking the sidewalks outside every con I’ve ever been to do. And why always outside the con out on the street? Not enough allowance for actual admission? Clove cigarette smoking not allowed inside? What?)
Third Runelords “Stone Giants” Session Summary Posted
Our brave party forges deeper into the Fortress of the Stone Giants in Paizo’s Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path.
This time, my character Valgrim the Summoner finally gets to bind a demon! Frequently talked about in D&D but infrequently done, binding a demon to your will has its pros and its cons. He got a bar-lgura (from Fiendish Codex I), or as my party calls it “The Hellutang!”
And we get a little too much excitement – after a boring fight with redcaps, and our dragon shaman browbeating a kobold barbarian into joining us, we meet Xanesha the lamia matriarch for the last time! Ravno the Varisian takes his revenge on her for her abduction of his sister – but perishes himself in the process.
All of this and more awaits you – here’s the newest summary!
Posted in session summaries
Tagged 3.5e, adventure path, D&D, rise of the runelords, RPG, RPGs, runelords
Eldritch RPG Web Site Live
The Eldritch RPG Web site is live and the game should arrive soon.
The Eldritch designers responded to a bunch of my questions about the game on the Goodman forums – why a new system, why not OGL, what the target feel is…
So far I like what I’m hearing. Looking at their DM’s screen and character sheet downloads is probably the best view into the rules. I like the skill successions. I’m not as thrilled with the acronym-heavy approach that makes it sound like Palladium.
Innovative new game or D&D/Palladium FRP heartbreaker? Can’t tell until we get a chance to play it!
Celebrity D&D Stats
Wired Magazine decided, in honor of Gary Gygax’ death, to host a gallery of reader-submitted D&D adaptations of real life celebrities from Paris Hilton to Mr. T. What’s up with the improperly formatted stat blocks though? Why, Rick Astley’s special ability should read:
Rickroll (Ex): As a standard action, Astley can rickroll a target for 5d6 points of humiliation damage.
Second Runelords “Stone Giants” Session Summary Posted
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
Intergalactic Cooking Challenge
I was just in my FLGS and saw this, it looks hilarious! It’s an indie game (originally a 24 hour RPG) in which the PCs are engaged in comedic Iron Chef-like antics with aliens.
Intergalactic Cooking Challenge
I’m glad it was in the store – RPGs are fringe enough; people who rely on Lulu or whatever instead of putting their books in game stores – sorry, but I’ve never bought a POD without looking at it and not sure I ever will. Of course I’m not a big fan of buying PDFs either, unless it’s something I can’t lay my hands on otherwise (like the list of things I bought at RPGNow recently) or unless I can check it out first (not that I’d know how to lay my hands on RPG PDFs for free…).
Wizards Presents: Worlds and Monsters Review
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.
D&D 4e In Mainstream Press!
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.
WotC Rethinking Open Gaming
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
Geek Related 