As if a raging berserker charging headlong at you with his axe upraised weren’t bad enough, this one’s possessed by a demon! While a typical berserker knows how to use ritual and adrenaline to achieve nearly superhuman levels of combat prowess, this individual is possessed by a demon of fury and carnage with one simple drive: to compel its host to greater and greater acts of wanton slaughter. While fighting this opponent, there is a sense that, while nearly uncontrollable, he is holding onto what little control he has left. When badly injured, though, this last shred of restraint slips away, unleashing the beast within. Nearly doubling in size and might, the newly-unleashed creature is a hulking, raging mass of unbridled destruction, leaving broken bodies in its wake.

I’m a big fan of Hellboy, both the movie and the comic (though I haven’t read any of the comics lately). Hellboy II had some things to recommend it, though it wasn’t as good as the first one. I liked the villains a lot, though; they were pretty much all fey creatures, and fey done right: alien and scary. One of these creatures I present to you in D&D format here: the Tooth Fairy.

A recent blog post got me to thinking about the state of D&D miniatures as a product. Evidently, the line isn’t doing to well; WotC is making about as much money as they can off of randomized boosters and limited print-run figures and sets, but it’s not enough to keep the line afloat. Not enough of the RPGers are buying the minis for their home games, and since the miniatures wargame, itself, is no longer officially supported, quite a few potential customers have gone away, and while there may be a few left playing the community-supported version of the game, it’s still simply not enough.

I think that WotC is keenly aware of two things. One, it’s no longer really viable to pursue the current miniatures model. They may launch one or two more lines of random booster sets, and they may release the odd limited edition fig or set of figs, but I don’t think we’re going to see the minis line continue in the same way that it has up to this point. Two, I think they also realize that this is a very bad thing for D&D. There may have been a dwindling support of the minis line, but there’s still a very strong perception (and a well-founded one) that D&D is a minis-heavy game, and not being able to get the minis you want for your game is going to hurt the game as a whole, particularly when it comes to new players.

What’s interesting, though, is that WotC seems to be coming up with some very cool solutions to this problem. First of all, they’re releasing minis-based D&D boardgames like Castle Ravenloft and Wrath of Ashardalon. These are stand-alone games that serve a couple of different purposes. For non D&D-players, they’re still perfectly playable and enjoyable, and they may serve as an entry point to the game and the hobby as a whole. To people who already play D&D, they serve as a way to get your D&D fix in less than an hour with a small group or even alone. There’s another benefit for both groups, though: each of these games gives you more than forty minis and more than forty tiles that you can easily use in your D&D game.

This is of particular benefit to those who may just be starting out with D&D. Not only do the games introduce you to some of the mechanics, but they effectively give you a starter kit of minis and tiles for the RPG. It’s true that the minis are unpainted and that the tiles, because they are interlocking tiles and have boardgame-specific elements on them, are not completely compatible with standard Dungeon Tiles, but it’s still a cost effective way to get a bunch of stuff that you can use in your game. I think that this is very deliberate on WotC’s part; it’s a way to keep the minis line alive, while providing added benefit for existing D&D players and a big benefit to those who are not interested in role-playing but like crawling through dungeons.

Another thing that they seem to be doing in future releases is including cardstock counters for monsters included in the product. 2011 seems to be the year of the box set, and I think that this is one of the reasons for that. The upcoming Monster Vault and Dungeon Master’s Kit both come with counters, and future monster box sets will likely do the same. In addition, I can easily see WotC selling sets of counters in a way similar to how they sell sets of Dungeon Tiles: grouped by theme, set on the shelves with the books to maximize shelf space, and set at a low price point. Minis booster packs were never on the high end of the price range, but I always had a little bit of trouble paying $12-$25 for five minis, particularly if I didn’t know if I’d get anything I was going to be able to use anytime soon. A pack of counters, on the other hand, could provide you with large groups of commonly used monsters as well as a few big, special ones. Further, you’d likely know the kinds of things you’d be getting if they were grouped by theme, and the price point would likely be similar to Dungeon Tiles. Not only that, but storage solutions would be easier.

At any rate, I’m interested to see what WotC does with this kind of thing in the future. I’ve already pre-ordered Castle Ravenloft (as an aside, I’m a very sad panda after finding out that the game was delayed from the 17th of August to the 31st), and after reading the rules that WotC kindly posted, I’ll likely enjoy it and buy Wrath of Ashardalon, too. Heck, if nothing else, I’ve just gotten eighty tiles and eighty minis, many of which are mutliples of commonly used creatures. And if WotC goes full-bore with the counters idea, it’ll save me quite a lot of prep time, since I spend a lot of my prep time making custom counters for the monsters in my home game.

There is a new session report up.

Overall, the game went really well. I tried a few things that I’ve mentioned on this blog. The first encounter included a variant of wild magic rules; unfortunately, I forgot to utilize them as often as they should have been, but when I did it was interesting. During that encounter, one I got a chance to make use of two house rules that I’ve posted on the site.

First, when Chance was dominated, he made use of grit. It worked pretty well. The dominated condition still affected him somewhat, and he deliberated over the choice for a little while before deciding to do it; he was only going to be dominated for a turn, after all, and damage equal to your healing surge value is a lot in the middle of a fight. I think that, if it had been a save ends effect, the decision might have been easier, but still not a foregone conclusion.

Then, when Kraygin was dropped to negatives, he made a last-ditch effort. This one I’m still not entirely sold on. I think it might have been more dramatically interesting if he had dropped in the middle of the fight rather than being effectively staggered, running over to the rest of the party, and getting some healing. I think that, if you’re going to get that extra turn to save your bacon, the urge to heal yourself (or even for others to heal you) is pretty strong. I might balance this by making any healing you get during a last-ditch effort temporary hit points instead of real ones, but I’m not entirely sure.

Finally, I ran a combat that was partially a series of skill challenges, used for pacing. This worked really well, prodding me to change the dragons’ tactics as the fight progressed, making for a more dynamic and interesting encounter. I don’t think I’ll use this technique a lot, but certainly it has some merit when you’re doing a solo encounter that might not otherwise be all that interesting.

Plants vs. Zombies just updated to the Game of the Year edition on Steam, and one of the features it adds is the ability to make a Zombitar. Here’s mine.

My wife and I had a barbecue yesterday, and it was a blast. After most of the guests had left, those of us who remained decided to play a board game. We decided on A Touch of Evil
because it was one of the only games I owned that would accommodate enough people for everyone to get to play.

This was, perhaps, the third or fourth time I’ve played this game since picking it up. For those who are unfamiliar with it, it’s a game in the same vein as Arkham Horror
, except that it’s shorter and simpler, can be played in either cooperative or competitive mode, and has a colonial-era horror theme (less Lovecraft, more Ichabod Crane).

Overall I think that, for what it is, A Touch of Evil is good. It’s not great; given the choice between the two (and the time, and people who also enjoy the game), I’d probably rather play Arkham Horror. I think that game does what it does a little bit better than AToE does. AToE is, however, much shorter to play, and easier to teach, than Arkham Horror is, which is good when you’ve got a larger group with mixed experience levels in gaming.

I’m glad that I bought A Touch of Evil. It’s not Flying Frog’s best game (I like Last Night On Earth
quite a lot more), but it is a good game, and I can see myself playing it again.

Some of you may be familiar with my home campaign. I’m running this campaign in my own setting, and though I’m incorporating quite a bit from the core D&D mythos (deities, some place names, the cosmology, and so forth), a lot of what I’m using is my own creation. I call this setting Wild Blue; it’s just a name that sticks in my head, probably because airships are a common mode of transportation in the setting. At any rate, I’m starting a recurring column on this blog, in which I’ll share a piece of my setting with you. Anything I share under this column will also likely go up on my campaign wiki, for those who read it.

The organization known as the Queen’s Wardens started off as a religious organization, back before the Demesne had a name. Back then, the territories now known as the Demesne were colonies of the Ludannese Empire, a vast empire across the sea that the people of the Demesne have long since lost contact with. The Queen’s Wardens were formed by Queen Fariah, one of the Emperor’s many queens, and–more importantly–the one who had been entrusted to oversee the colonization effort.

The original purpose of the organization was twofold. The first was to tend to the spiritual needs of the various colonies. Each Warden was a fully ordained priest of Bahamut, Pelor, or Avandra, regardless of that Warden’s particular skill set; investiture was part of the ceremony of joining. The second purpose of the Wardens was to protect the colonies from outside threats, such as monsters, pirates, and bandits. The Wardens were very much a militant organization, and most Wardens were trained far better than the average soldier, though there were considerably fewer of them.

Eventually, Queen Fariah rebelled against the Ludannese Empire, seceding from it and creating the Demesne. The Empire showed a token effort to reclaim the colonies, but they had more pressing matters to attend to on the homefront, so the Demesne was largely forgotten and left to its own devices. The Queen began relying more and more on the Wardens to keep the peace; not everyone was happy with her decision.

Over the years, the nature of the organization shifted. Pragmatism forced the Wardens to accept skilled individuals of different faiths, or even people who did not follow any particular god. As more and more of these individuals were inducted, the Wardens became less and less a religious organization. At the same time, they were given the authority to enforce local and royal law, as well as to hunt down and detain criminals. Eventually, some Wardens were given missions to recover important relics or powerful magic items, to root out the lairs of powerful monsters, or even to perform covert missions such as theft or assassination. The Wardens became a multipurpose organization, though the organizations overarching goal was always to further the goals of the Queen and, by extension, the Demesne at large.

As it stands now, the Wardens are a sort of state-sanctioned adventurer’s guild. They still have the authority to enforce laws, and they are still given assignments and are expected to comport themselves in a manner befitting their station. They are, however, given an extremely long leash, and nearly all Wardens are free to accept private contracts whenever they are not actively undertaking a mission for the Queen.

As a tool for running a game, the Queen’s Wardens make for a great way to start a campaign off. If all of your players belong to the Wardens, then there’s a built-in reason for them to be adventuring together. In addition, you can use the Wardens to occasionally introduce and incentivize adventure hooks, while still allowing your players free reign to do what they want to most of the time. You can also grant benefits based on their standing within the organization, and based on their level. For example, the PCs in my home game are all Journeyman Wardens now, and I’ve told them that this entitles them each to requisition a potion of healing once per level. As they increase in level, this benefit will as well. During the paragon tier, you could increase the value of the potion, and you might consider giving each PC one free casting of the Raise Dead ritual during their career. As you move into epic tier, they’ve likely outgrown the organization somewhat, if they don’t run it outright by that point. If they do run the Wardens, feel free to give them commensurate benefits (such as the ability to send other people on missions).

My husband has kindly agreed to let me do a guest post here on his blog.

First thing you need to know about me. Before meeting Brian in college the only games I played were minesweeper, solitaire and Oregon Trail (the original). I am not a hard core gamer, and when I play games I play them over and over. When I met Brian I used to sit with him in his dorm while he played on his computer. The game he was playing most often Freshman year was StarCraft and I asked him to teach it to me. Soon after I surpassed him in StarCraft and became totally addicted. Since then I have played many other real time strategies and have loved most of them.

It just makes sense that Brian would come home on Tuesday with a copy of StarCraft II just for me! I installed it immediately and proceeded to play whenever I have time. I have to admit I was worried. I thought that Blizzard was going to go the route of World of WarCraft and make the focus on massively multi-player, but I was pleasantly surprised. They were able to keep the old StarCraft feel while still introducing new features. I love that you can now choose which missions to do and in what order. I love the idea of mercenaries and the fact that you can choose your own upgrades and research projects. I love the single player game play in general.

That said, I completed the game this morning and am a bit disappointed to find that the time spent in single player is no where near as long as you’d expect. It took me longer to finish the original StarCraft and I was in college – aka had tons of free time – then. I was re-playing StarCraft before this release, and it took me less time to finish StarCraft II than it did to finish the Terran campaign in StarCraft. So my fears that Blizzard would put the focus on multi-player were not unfounded. Apparently they were hoping that you’d be online playing so much that you wouldn’t realize that you just paid $60 for 3 hours of game play (maybe I’m exaggerating, I didn’t keep track of how long it took me – I will the second time through).

Let’s top all of that with the DRM that Blizzard thought they’d add to the game and I’m wishing there was a money back guarantee. What DRM? Well apparently in order to play offline you must authenticate (don’t ask me to define this) your game on Battle.net. I signed up with Battle.net and registered my game. I signed in and played single player for a hour or so. Then the next day I took the computer with me on the road (with the disk in the drive) and tried to play offline. This was no possible. The game kept telling me to authenticate my copy in order to play offline – but no where does it define ‘authenticate.’ I checked the support forums and the web, everyone says you should only have to sign into the game once while online and then be able to play – but I did this and got no where. I wrote to support and got a form email telling me that I had to authenticate my game every 30 days in order to play offline – once again no explanation of what ‘authenticate’ means. I tried to call support but it was a 45 minute wait and I was not going to waste my minutes on that.

So – final verdict. The game play is pretty darn cool and the improvements well done without losing the real StarCraft feel. The price tag is an insult – and an obvious ploy to get us to play $180 for a full game instead of $60 for all three campaigns in one. The DRM is nothing but trouble and there are plenty of hacks out there I can use to bypass it (legally I might add) but should I have to do that when I paid for the game? Maybe I would have paid $30 for the game and been perfectly happy, but as I said earlier – I’m wishing I had a satisfaction guarantee and could return it.

I’m a big fan of the fey. There, I said it. I like faeries. I like the way the fey are portrayed in games like Changeling: The Dreaming or Deliria, or in books like The Dresden Files series. I like fey, but I like my fey vicious, unpredictable, and alien. It should be no surprise, then, that I quite like what 4th Edition has done with fey. They have moved from being somewhat trivial window-dressing to being a significant part of what makes the world of D&D dangerous, mysterious, and fantastical.

So, what do I mean by making your fey “more fey”? Traditionally, fey have a number of traits that aren’t really translated into D&D to my satisfaction. First, fey are often portrayed as being vulnerable to iron (or cold iron), and resistant to the magic of mortals. Second, there’s the whole idea of the fey bargain. Some of this is captured in the fey pact warlock, but what about fey bargains that don’t involve pledging your eternal servitude in exchange for power? I like the idea of fey bargains that are binding to both parties. Further, fey are often portrayed as being tricky, duplicitous, and deceptive but, paradoxically, there is often a prohibition on lying placed on these creatures. The idea is that a fey creature cannot actually lie to you, but that doesn’t mean you should take what he, she, or it says at face value. Lies of omission are, of course, fair game, as are misleading turns of phrase.

So, since I like to follow the mantra of “show, don’t tell”, here’s something I whipped up. A note to players in my game: this is an NPC that you have met. The fact that I statted her up as a monster doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll fight her (I frequently stat up major NPCs, even if I don’t plan on any encounters with them any time soon). Also, if you do wind up fighting her, you shouldn’t necessarily expect her to have these stats. They’re subject to change. So, if you want to read it, go ahead. If you want to remain spoiler-free, stop reading now.

With relative frequency in published adventures, you see stat blocks that represent multiple named individuals who are statistically the same. While not that interesting on its own, this gave me an idea. What if you were to design a single stat block that represented two combatants, and you designed that stat block in such a way so as to make the two combatants work in concert with each other? As I thought about it, I came up with this idea of twin assassins who are psychically linked. I decided that these twin assassins would be represented as a single, solo creature, and that they’d have abilities that played off of each other.

Further, I had the thought that the two assassins becoming bloodied would change the state of the encounter, effectively killing one of the twins but making the survivor considerably more dangerous by sending her into a rage. After dinner, I sat down at the monster builder for a while and came up with Khala and Shari, a pair of twin eladrin assassins with a psychic bond that allows them to work perfectly together.

Note that this is a pretty long and complicated stat block. If you’re going to run Khala and Shari, I’d run them as a solo, or maybe with some minions. There’s a lot to keep track of, though, and I’d appreciate any thoughts on this encounter.