This Treasure Tables post got me thinking about what I do. I’ve never really used prepared dialog in my adventures; I don’t like to read off what an NPC says, just because my PCs would tend to interrupt and I’d have to start ad-libbing, anyway. However, I find myself often playing potential scenes in my head and imagining the dialog, creating a sort of dialog rehearsal that I think helps me to be better prepared for what my PCs might say or ask. It also helps me to find the voice of a particular NPC, and stay in character during the actual game so as to project that NPCs personality rather than just making him/her a generic dialog output device.

I’d suggest that other people do the same thing, but honestly I don’t think that this kind of preparation arises from any conscious decision; it certainly didn’t on my part. It’s just in my personality to imagine how things might go in the future; it’s my ‘GM gene’, I guess. So, if you already do this, good for you. I think it definitely helps your game. If you don’t, you could certainly make the effort to give it a try if you wanted to. You might feel a little silly at first, but it’ll probably become second nature with enough practice.

If you love killing hordes of zombies (and really, who doesn’t?), then you’ll love Box Head. Basically, you’re an Ash-style badass, and you’re mowing down lots and lots of zombies, and the occasional demon. Oh, and you’re all made of boxes. There’s a sort of level-up mechanic, too, in that the higher you push your score multiplier (which goes up by killing lots of zombies in quick succession and goes down over time), the quicker you gain access to new weapons and upgrades for your weapons. All in all, it’s a wonderfully fun little time waster.

I just installed a plugin on my website that links to a service called Socialize. What Socialize does is it links you to a page with a bunch of links to various social bookmarking sites (like digg, Rojo, and StumbleUpon), whereupon you can socially bookmark my posts. If you want to do it, just click on the ‘Socialize This’ link down in the footer of my posts. Thanks in advance!

In general, I like the stuff that gets posted over at the Treasure Tables. It’s a good site full of useful information for GMs. This article, in particular, embodies a large part of my GMing philosophy. I like to give my players as much power and freedom as possible (in fact, this is one of the fundamental design goals that went into creating Gamecraft 2.0), and I really couldn’t agree more with what TT is saying. Give it a read.

This is sort of a double-purpose post. First, I just wanted to let everyone know that Gamecraft 2.0 is pretty much done (though it needs some playtesting yet), and that I’m working on the setting that I’m going to bundle with it, which I’m calling Wild Blue. Wild Blue is a setting that I initially explored in my NaNoWriMo novel (which I’ll try to get published eventually), and one I’ve been toying with in my head for a while. It has various influences, from traditional fantasy to western to high seas adventure. At any rate, one of the things that I’m going to include in the setting is a list of some common idioms of the Demesne (the name of the territory that the game takes place in).

Which brings me to my second reason for this post. An idiom that I’ve recently come up with for the setting is “walking widdershins”. Originally this term referred to a ceremony used to get into a Quick, a sort of pocket sub-reality that the Folk dwell in (more on the Folk in a later post, possibly). In that ceremony, you find the Folktree bonded to that Quick and you walk counter-clockwise–or widdershins–around it thirteen times. Upon completion of the thirteenth revolution, you step into the Quick. Now, I said that this was the original meaning of the idiom; common parlance has distorted it significantly. The train of thought goes that the only people who would want to get into a Quick would be those not in their right mind or the Folk, themselves (who are, according to the people of the Demesne, not in their right mind). Over time, the term “walking widdershins” came to mean that someone was not in their right mind, and is now used to describe anything from mild eccentricity to full-blown dementia, depending on context and tone. Usage: “I wouldn’t go up to Faircroft Manor. Lord Faircroft’s been walking widdershins since his wife died.”

What do I mean? I mean I’d like this to be a two-way form of communication. Sure, I’ll probably be posting more than anyone else, but I’d really like to open the floor up for other people to share things. The most obvious way to do this is, of course, by posting comments. However, you can all feel free to send submissions in, should you want to. News, reviews, game mechanics, links; if there’s anything you want to share with the rest of the class, email it to me. You can find my email address over on the right-hand side of the page, or here:

I stayed up late last night playing Neverwinter Nights 2, and I have more thoughts on it. I’m still really, really enjoying it (though I sort of regret the little bout of multiclassing that I went through earlier; I picked up a level of bard so I could qualify for the red dragon disciple prestige class, then picked up a level of that. I think I would have been better served focusing solely on the warlock class.), and I’ve managed to get to chapter 2. A couple of things have struck me about the game.

1. It’s incredibly detailed. Every named NPC has an accompanying description if you right-click on him/her. Most items also have individual descriptions, and many of the magical items are uniquely named: rather than having a +1 flaming morningstar, you get the bone phoenix. Same effect, but you get a unique name and a unique description, which really does make a difference. Further, many incidental NPCs have interesting little bits of dialog. I’m thinking in particular of a certain kobold shopkeeper in the Merchant Quarter who, although he doesn’t seem to tie to any quests or anything (that I’ve discovered yet, at least), has pages and pages of interesting dialog. It’s that kind of attention to detail that makes this game such an immersive and atmospheric experience.

2. The game casts you in the starring role. I know this sort of sounds like a no-brainer, but I’ve always felt that this is a difficult thing to do in a place like the Forgotten Realms, where you’ve got Elminsters and Drizzts around every corner. The game is certainly not short on movers and shakers, but the game always makes you feel like an important person without making you feel like some sort of ‘chosen one’. Right in the tutorial, you become the winner of the Harvest Cup and, therefore, something of a local celebrity. Then you save the town from danger. Later it becomes clear that you’ve really gotten on the bad guys’ radar, and they go to great lengths to not only destroy you, but to completely discredit you and give you a bad reputation. Right from the beginning I’ve felt like, even though my character has sort of been caught up in events somewhat beyond her control, she’s taken ownership of those events and people are responding to that. What’s also great is that the game makes you feel like you’ve earned the reputation you’re getting, rather than just being important because you’re you.

3. The game is just plain fun. I got kind of bored with the first Neverwinter Nights, and the second game doesn’t change a whole lot about the formula. What it does change, however, counts, and makes all the difference. The story is tightly woven and keeps you guessing. The characters are interesting and varied, and seem like real people. The combat is fun and very challenging at times. The carrot-on-a-stick mechanic of levelling up and getting loot is just as potent as ever. I almost can’t wait to finish the game, so I can start downloading fan-made modules and checking them out, with completely new characters. I’m also actually playing through the game twice at the moment. I have my main game, my single-player game, in which I’m in chapter 2, but I’ve also got a multiplayer game in which my fighter/wizard is in the beginning of chapter 1 with his rogue companion. And you know what? Playing through the game with another person makes it a whole new experience. It’s great.

Anyway, my recommendation of this game still stands. It’s fantastic, despite its flaws.

I saw two movies for the first time this past weekend (both were on DVD, so there’s a good chance you’ve already seen them).

Superman Returns: I liked this movie, but not as much as I thought I would. The story was pretty good and the action was well-done, the acting was good, the special effects were good. Technically speaking, it was a pretty good movie (if a little long). I think my main problem with the movie is actually a problem that I have with Superman as a character, not the movie, itself. I’ve never really liked Superman that much, mainly because he’s very difficult to relate to. He’s an alien, he’s practically invulnerable, and he never really seems to have any kind of crises of conscience or moral dilemmas (at least, not in my experience). As a character, he just doesn’t seem that human. I understand that that’s part of what makes him Superman, that he’s both more and less than human at the same time, but to me that sometimes rings false, like it’s an excuse for bad characterization. Anyway, decent flick, but far from the best superhero movie I’ve seen.

Cars: Conversely, I actually liked this movie more than I thought I would. I was not that excited about seeing it, and I still think that it’s not Pixar’s best work (I liked The Incredibles quite a lot more), but I did like it. It’s got an interesting cast of characters, some good comedic moments, good animation, and a pretty solid (if very predictable) storyline. Not bad, but not great. Seems to be a theme as far as movies of last weekend go.

Alright, let’s get this out in the open: Monte Cook’s Ptolus is a massive, massive book. So massive, that I think a single review of the entire tome would stretch the limits of convenient readability on this website. Also, I wouldn’t be able to post anything for another month or so, if that. So anyway, I’m about 230 pages into the book which, if you’re keeping track, is just about a third off the way through. As such, I’d like to give my overall impressions of the book so far.

1. Ptolus is dense. What do I mean by that? I mean that there really is a lot of information in here. The font size is pretty small (though it doesn’t strain my eyes at all), and it’s tightly packed. Major NPCs are given about a page each, and districts of the city are given entire chapters. The first chapter is basically a player’s guide, meant to be read by the players so that they know all the general, common knowledge type stuff, but not all of the DM-only secrets that get revealed over time. In fact, the book’s CD-ROM comes with an electronic version of just this chapter, so you can easily print it out and give a copy to each player, for them to read at their leisure. The segment of the book contains a number of chapters detailing history, cosmology, geography of the surrounding region, and other such background material. The third segment (which I’m currently in) gives a district-by-district tour of the city, with each district getting its own chapter, prefaced by an introductory chapter that gives you general information that’s true of the whole city.

2. Ptolus is extremely well-organized. The table of contents spans (if memory serves) five or six pages, is incredibly detailed, and is even color coded (there are colored marks on the pages so that you can look at the book sideways and easily distinguish segments of the book). Ptolus is also the closest thing to a hyperlinked book that I’ve ever encountered. What do I mean by that? You’ll be reading along about, for example, Rastor’s Weapons in Delver’s Square, and some important NPC or item or spell or location will be mentioned. That thing, whatever it is, will be in bold (in the chapter’s signature color), and in the margin of the page there will be either a short blurb explaining something about that thing, or there will be a page reference for the main entry on that thing. Neat, huh? The book is extensively cross-referenced in this way, so that you can always find the information you’re looking for pretty quickly. There are also three bound-in cloth bookmarks which, in addition to making it easy to read the book and never lose your place, also make it easy to mark specific parts of the book for later reference. In addition to these bookmarks, there’s a page at the back of the book with four punch-out cardboard bookmarks, each one labeled for use on a specific type of information. That gives you a total of seven bookmarks that you can use to easily get to what you need quickly in the middle of a session.

3. The production values in Ptolus are extremely high. The text is clean and attractive and the graphic design is both elegant and functional. The full-color art that graces the pages very, very good, and almost always relevant to what’s being discussed currently. The binding is strong and the book is sturdy. As I’ve said, I’m about 230 pages in, and I’ve noticed maybe six or seven typos so far. Six or seven. Granted, I’m not really giving the stat-blocks the old hairy eyeball; I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt for the most part. Despite that, though, I’d say that the ratio of errors it text is extremely low, especially when compared to most of the products that come out of bigger companies, like WotC (not that I have anything against them). Also, the book comes with an envelope chocked full of player handouts, adventure maps, a full-sized, double-sided poster map, and a CD-ROM that includes bonus content like the aforementioned player’s guide, Monte Cook’s Chaositech, the Night of Dissolution mega-adventure, The Banewarrens (another adventure), character sheets, and even the first issue of the Ptolus comic book.

4. Ptolus feels just a little bit generic. Let me qualify that a little. I’m certainly not saying that there’s nothing original in Ptolus; far from it. There are lots of interesting locations and characters, and plenty of cool adventure hooks. But it feels kind of generic in the same way that D&D is generic. I suppose this is because 3E D&D and Ptolus grew up together, and had profound influences on each other. Ptolus could be accurately described as D&D: The City. It also suffers a bit from Forgotten Realms Syndrome: there are lots (and I do mean lots) of very high-level NPCs. Most of the lower-level NPCs that are statted out are at least 8th level, and it seems like Ptolus plays home to more than its share of characters of 15th level and above. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it means that it’s going to take a lot of time for the PCs to distinguish themselves from the throng of PC-classed characters in the city. I mean, when the owner of the weapon shop in Delver’s Square is an 8th-level fighter, is there really a need for a new group of 1st-level characters to start plumbing the depths of the Dungeon? High-level-itis is kind of a pet peeve of mine, as is the generecism present in this book. The reason I fell in love with Eberron was that it did away with both of these; it had a fresh take on old D&D tropes, and it cast the players firmly in the spotlight from minute one. Ptolus doesn’t do this, nor does it really seem to seek to.

So far, I’m enjoying the book. It’s a good read, and it’s full of useful stuff. I probably won’t be running a Ptolus game any time soon. I had originally thought, when I got the book, that I’d drop Ptolus into Eberron, possibly replacing Stormreach. The more I read, though, the more I think that I’m not going to do that without extensively modifying the city. More likely, I think, I’ll wind up mining the book for cool bits and pieces. The Necropolis, for example, could probably be dropped whole-cloth into any major city on Khorvaire. I might put it in Sharn, or possibly somewhere in Karnath or even Thrane. We’ll see. Anyway, those are my thoughts thus far. I’ll probably post another mini-review in another 200 pages or so.

First off, I’ve recently discovered a program called VASSAL via Board Game Geek that allows me to play BattleLore online with other people. Sweet. After trying it out and playing an entire scenario (which I lost), I have a few thoughts.

• The overall design is pretty good. The graphics are clean and attractive, and they convey everything they need to fairly well.
• That said, playing BattleLore via VASSAL is a little bit clunky, when compared to the real thing. Sure, the setup time is significantly reduced, but space constraints apparently necessitate your command and lore cards being kept in a separate window from the actual board, making it very, very difficult to see both your options and the battlefield at the same time. When playing BattleLore, I like to be able to get the whole picture, and that’s very difficult to do in VASSAL.

So, all in all, while VASSAL does provide a good alternative to playing the actual game when you can’t find a physical opponent, it’s really no substitute for playing with the actual product. I should mention that, while VASSAL and the accompanying BattleLore module are free downloads, they do not come with the rules for the game. So, unless you already know all the rules, the program doesn’t actually allow you to have the game for free, as all rules adjudication is left up to the players, not the game engine.

In related news, I just received my Earth Elemental figure for BattleLore. The package comes with the actual Earth Elemental figure and creature flag (a blue one), a terrain tile depicting a Circle of Summoning (which you use to summon the Elemental), and three reference cards displaying rules for using both the Elemental and its accompanying Circle. The whole thing cost me $4.00 in shipping, and is free to anyone who already owns BattleLore (though there is a one per game limit). So, now I’ve got two creatures in my game. Cool!