It should come as no surprise that I’ll be starting up a D&D campaign soon. It’s a given. I’ve even got some players lined up for the big show. And that got me thinking about the classic conundrum of D&D: where do these guys meet, and why do they adventure together? You could simply say that they’ve known each other for a while, but what if you don’t want to do that? These guys are all going to be new to 4th Edition, and some of them don’t actually know each other that well in real life. So it would make things a little bit easier and more natural if the characters, themselves, were just getting used to each other, both in terms of personality and abilities. So how do you do that?

One way you can go–and the way I plan on going–is via an organization of some kind that the PCs are working for. The organization that I’ll be using is a somewhat loosely-governed group of elite troubleshooters and professional adventurers known as the Queen’s Wardens, or just the Wardens to most people. Their mission is basically to keep the Demesne–that’s the territory that the PCs will start off in–safe and prosperous. In order to do this, they need a wide variety of character types, from diplomats to treasure hunters to lawmen to assassins. They’re also willing to overlook quite a lot if you pull your weight and get the job done. Thus, the players can still make pretty much any kind of character they want, and still be members (because I promise you, they’ll be pulling their weight).

Starting all of the PCs off as Wardens grants a couple of nice benefits to me as the DM. One, I can easily provide them with a reason for adventuring together without telling them that they already know each other. Simply put, they’re a newly-formed company of fairly green–but very promising–recruits. Two, it gives me an easy way to introduce quests. Ideally, I’d like many of the quests to be player-driven, in that they indicate through behavior at the table the kinds of things they’re interested in investigating, and I plan for that for the next session. However, when they’re at a loss for what to do, or for when there really aren’t any loose ends to tie up, it’s nice to be able to have the chain of command hand them something to do. Three, if (Pelor forbid) one of the PCs die and they don’t feel like raising him (or if that option simply isn’t available), or if one of the players gets tired of his character or feels its time to retire him, it gives me an easy way to introduce a new character, and to give that character a reason to join the party.

I really like the idea of using the Wardens in this way, and I hope my players are receptive to it (a few of them read this blog, so I’m at least giving them fair warning (I’m looking at you, Chris, Dean, and sometimes Tad)). I think they will be when I explain that Wardens have a measure of authority and respect above and beyond what a freelance adventurer would be likely to receive, and that they are compensated for their troubles with a monthly stipend, mission bonuses, and good sale prices on valuable magic items that the party may have acquired in their travels. That’s always nice, right?

I’m currently playing Tomb Raider Legend, and so far it’s been pretty good. When it’s doing what a Tomb Raider game should be doing (that is, presenting you with cool puzzles to figure out), it’s really very enjoyable. There’s a bit too much combat in it for my tastes; if I wanted to fight things, I’d play a shooter, and the controls and camera in this game do not lend themselves to fast and furious combat the way shooter controls generally do. That said, now that I’m at the end, I’ve run into an instance of staggeringly bad game design, and it’s really ruining the game for me.

In general, I’m not a huge fan of boss fights in video games. Sometimes they can be fun, a refreshing change of pace, and when they’re handled well I don’t mind them so much. Tomb Raider Anniversary (a superior game, by the way) had boss fights, but they were all designed so that each boss was pretty much a puzzle, and once you figured out what you were supposed to do, they weren’t that hard. When a boss fight is just a slugfest with something that can take way more punishment than you can, though, I don’t find them particularly fun. And that’s what I’ve run into. It’s a boss that I basically have to beat four times, and its attacks not only do lots of damage but also knock me down. And it’s really freaking fast. And we’re on a kind of island, and if I fall off, I die instantaneously. And I have to constantly aim upward in order to target the only part of this huge creature that I can target, which means I can’t see the ground (making it easy to fall off). And it’s really repetitive, and hard, and not particularly fun. And there’s not even anything particularly intelligent about the fight; there’s very little to figure out, except that you have to keep on pounding on it, and stab it when it falls down.

So anyway, I’m taking a little break from Legend, because it’s really annoying me right now with this instance of monumentally bad design in an otherwise very good game. It’s a shame, really.

[Edit: categories and stuff.]

I finally finished reading Keep on the Shadowfell today, and I thought I’d write up a quick review. Again, I have only read the material, I have not actually run the adventure; that will come later, after 4th Edition launches and I’ve read those books, and I’ll likely amend this review or cover it in a separate post once I’ve run the thing. At any rate, here we go.

I’ll start by talking about what you get when you buy this product. KotS comes in a very attractive, very sturdy-seeming pocket folder, which might even make a good impromptu DM screen if you paper clip some notes to the inside. Not quite as wide as a screen should be, but a decent stop-gap until Wizards releases the real thing. In the right-hand pocket is the 4th Edition Quick-Start Guide, which contains the rules that the players need to know as well as five pre-generated characters, complete with rules for leveling them up to 3rd level. Also in this pocket are three double-sided poster maps in the standard 1-inch miniatures scale; a good number of the encounters in KotS use these maps, and they’re a nice inclusion. In the left-hand pocket is the actual adventure booklet. It weighs in at 80 pages, though the first 15 pages include the cover and copyright page, an introduction to the adventure and to monster stat blocks, and the DM’s quick-start rules, which include things like conditions, types of attacks, and other things that the players don’t necessarily need to know from the outset. Both booklets are in full color, and the artwork is, in my estimation, very attractive.

I’ll mention the not-so-good stuff up front, and move on to the good stuff (of which there is more). Ok, the paper used in the product is not exactly sturdy. It’s about on par with what you’d find in a magazine like the recently-migrated Dungeon or Dragon; the paper doesn’t stand up that well to continued handling, and the ink tends to smudge, particularly on the covers of the two booklets. There are also a few editing mistakes throughout both booklets. Mostly these are things like using the term “attack of opportunity” instead of “opportunity attack”, or typos, or other fairly innocuous things. The only mechanical snafu I spotted was that a certain elite monster has two action points instead of one, but I hardly think this is game-breaking, given that only one action point can be used per encounter (assuming that rule applies to monsters, of course, which it may not). Finally, the quick-start rules are a little lean; they’re a sort of bare minimum required to run the adventure, but there still might be some gaps. Some rules (like the rules on bull rushing, which don’t appear until the second level of the Keep, and the rules on tremorsense, which don’t appear until the third encounter with a monster that has that ability) are a little hard to find, too. And that’s really all the bad stuff I can think of; everything else is great.

The adventure is laid out well. Each encounter is given a two-page spread that includes a setup for the encounter, a map of the area, a tactics section, a section on special terrain features, a section on treasure, and full stat blocks for every monster in the encounter. This is true even for encounters that repeat monsters previously used; the stat blocks are repeated, making it extremely easy to reference everything you need for the encounter, save the rules of the game, itself. The only encounter that breaks this rule is the final one, which spills out onto a third page. I don’t really know how they could have done it in two, though, as there’s a lot of information to disseminate in that encounter.

The encounters, themselves, are fantastic. Each one seems like it will be exciting to run, and some of them make the evil DM inside me cackle with glee. The encounters toward the end seem particularly difficult (as you’d expect), but bear in mind that the PCs will be of higher level by the time they hit them. Encounters generally include a large number of creatures, and minions are used frequently to boost the numbers. There are, however, no encounters that include only minions, and all encounters (except for one against a solo creature) include a variety of different kinds of creatures with different abilities. A word of warning: swarms are scary. So are jellies and slimes. And wights are pretty nasty, too. And gnomes. And a lot of other stuff that the PCs will be fighting. It’s all very, very cool.

Besides the combat encounters, there is also a section on the town of Winterhaven, as well as some FAQ-style question-and-answer sessions that allow the players to gather information between forays into the dungeon. Mention is made of the kinds of things that the players can buy in Winterhaven, but specific prices are not given; for that reason, it might be best to run this as an actual 4E adventure with the core rulebooks, rather than as a preview. At least, that’s what I plan to do.

We also get a glimpse at skill challenges; there is one encounter that has the potential to be solely a skill challenge-based encounter, and there are other encounters in which minor skill challenges are used to bypass obstacles. In fact, skills are used frequently throughout the adventure, lending credence to the claim that they will be more important overall in 4th Edition.

Finally, while I don’t want to spoil the story for any potential players out there, I would be remiss if I did not at least mention it. It’s good. It’s not great, but it’s perfectly good and easy to adapt to your own setting. In particular, I like the use of quests (complete with experience and treasure rewards) as hooks to get the players involved in the adventure in the first place. Nothing gets players ready to go an adventure like dangling 1200 experience points in front of them.

The Good: Great layout, good encounter design, awesome monsters, interesting story, attractive artwork. Overall a very good product.

The Bad: Some editing mistakes and, more importantly, very flimsy paper and smudge-prone ink. Handle with care.

The Bottom Line: A solid introductory adventure for 4th Edition, which I plan on running as my first 4E adventure. It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely good. The retail price ($30) seems just a little steep (isn’t that about the cost of one of the core rulebooks?), but you can get it on Amazon for just under $20, and that price is much easier to swallow. I hope to see more adventures of this quality (or better) in the future, with the proviso that the paper quality is a little bit higher.

Yeah, I just got my copy from Amazon. I’ve glanced through it briefly (and red through the entire quick-start guide), and I like what I see so far. The product comes in a very nice pocketed folder. The books themselves have paper similar to what you’d find in a magazine; not terribly sturdy, but if you’re careful they should hold up fine. It’s a little odd that the books have no back cover. They are in full color, though, with plenty of artwork. So far, I’m really digging 4E’s art style, as well as the new cover designs. Very nice. I also like that the adventure comes with three double-sided poster-sized battle maps, for a total of six encounter maps usable with standard 1″ minis or counters. I think I would have preferred it if Wizards had included counters for all of the creatures instead, but I’m hardly going to complain since Fiery Dragon already did that for us.

Also, while there are three pregens in the quick-start book, Wizards has released a sixth on D&D Insider. Nice.

[Edit: Five pregens. There are five pregens in the quick-start booklet.]

May 10th?! Sheesh, it sure has been a long time since I’ve posted. Bad blogger, bad! At any rate, I thought I’d post with some random stuff that’s been on my mind lately, some of it 4E-related, some not. We’ll start with the not.

Zombies. Who the hell doesn’t love zombies? Besides the unfortunate people who can’t outrun them and get their brains eaten, I mean. Zombies are awesome. It is for this reason precisely that Left 4 Dead looks freaking awesome. For those who know nothing about it and can’t be bothered to click on the Wikipedia link provided, let me sum it up for you. You and a band of three other survivors are miraculously immune to a new and extremely virulent form of rabies that has turned 99% of the world’s population into ravening, bloodthirsty (brainthirsty?) zombies. These zombies are fast, they’re smart enough to dodge attacks, and they’re accompanied by a number of mutated super-zombies with special powers like the ability to scale walls and jump really high, 50-foot tongues, super strength and endurance, or a belly full of gas that allows projectile vomit and the ability to explode like a grenade when shot. Not interested yet? What if the other three survivors were played by other human beings via the Internet? No? Well, that’s not all. You can also play against human-controlled boss zombies for extra challenge. Still not enough? All of the zombies are spawned procedurally, in response to the perceived stress levels of you and your compatriots, to make sure you get the optimal experience each time and to ensure that it’s never the same experience twice. Trust me, it’s made of awesome.

And speaking of zombies, I just saw 28 Days Later (yeah, I know, that’s been out for a while), and absolutely loved it. Great zombie flick, even if the infected are never actually referred to as ‘zombies’ within the film.

Oh, and games. I’ve recently downloaded GameTap, and even if you don’t want to pay for the service I suggest that you go out and download the free version and give it a whirl. Even for free, GameTap provides you with access to some pretty good games, such as Tomb Raider: Legend, Psychonauts, and the first two Hitman games. I’m currently playing through Legend and loving it, and I plan on diving into Psychonauts next. The sheer brilliance of GameTap, though, is that even though I get access to these great games completely free, I still want to sign up for a gold account and get access to even more games. And heck, a gold account is only about $60, slightly more than the cost of a brand new PC game, for an entire year’s subscription.

And finally, 4E. Ah, 4E. I don’t believe I’ve mentioned this, but I ordered the Core Rulebook Gift Set for myself a while ago, so it should arrive shortly after launch. I also recently pre-orderd Keep on the Shadowfell, and Amazon just sent me an email today letting me know that it had been shipped, and that I should expect it sometime around Saturday. Once I’ve digested that material, you can expect a review of it on this site (probably sometime in the next two weeks or so). Similarly, I’ll likely be reviewing the Core Books as I read them. I must admit that my excitement has been amped up to a fever pitch lately as the release date draws closer, in a large part because Wizards is releasing excerpts from the core books every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on D&D Insider (which is, for the moment, free). Everything I hear about the game makes me excited. I’m serious. I haven’t heard a single thing about the game that has made me want it less. Admittedly, some of this may be the novelty factor, and only time will tell if that is the case. But all signs indicate that 4E is going to be a very, very good game.

And speaking of 4E, I designed a 4E D&D Character Sheet in .doc format. Cute PDF does strange things with the table headers, so if someone else would like to convert it to PDF using something a little more robust, I’d gladly host it here. I’ve also been messing around with the character creation rules (those that I know at this time, at least), and I’ve created a couple of 1st-level characters: a human rogue with some warlock multiclassing, and a dwarf warlord. Both of these use the format for my character sheet. I should warn you that I’m not completely sure that all the math for attack bonuses and defenses is entirely kosher, since I don’t have access to the full rules. In particular, I think it’s a little weird that the rogue’s Reflex is higher than his AC. If someone wants to give them the old hairy eyeball and correct them for me, feel free and I’ll update the links.

Later.

If you like to kill hordes of zombies–and really, who doesn’t?–you might want to try out The Last Stand 2. Contradictory titles aside, it’s a great little zombie game, and all it requires is flash player. Good stuff.