Questing GM

{Quest Log} There comes an age....the Dragon Age

2011-07-12T03:15:00.004+08:00

Hey all! It's been months since I last updated and real life has been tumultuous along the way. Since my last entry, I was employed into a new job and work basically took over my life again. In the meantime, my group had stopped roleplaying but continued playing boardgames. However that soon also fell through as they seem to lose the enthusiasm for it and got busy with other commitments. After long periods without any gaming activity, I thought that it was about time that I started the urge again to roleplay as characters and roll some dice.

It was coincidentally that I was about to launch into new plans of gaming when Free RPG Day went by and some of the print offerings (which I missed because there's no store that participates in Free RPG Day here) had been put up as free PDFs by their respective publishers. So I thought that it was a good time to check for any quick-start rules of new games that we could try.

So it was there I decided to pick up Green Ronin's Dragon Age quick start rules and have browsed through it several times over the past weeks or so. What I really liked about the AGE system is because it uses an abundance of d6s, which means that it's open to new players who don't have their own set of polyhedrals.

Now I'm eager to try running it with the sample adventure attached at the back and I plan to do my prep notes and thoughts on the quickstart rules and the adventure here. Just so that readers here will have something new to read again at the Questing GM.

On the other side of things, the RPG Herald is almost 3 months old now and I barely noticed how time flies as I try to keep posting on the latest news in the RPG industry. There's been some times when it was hard to keep up, but at this point in time, I'm glad to say that I'm happy with how diversified my news items are and how much it has expanded my knowledge about the RPG industry along the way.

Although the hits are still very low, but I would encourage any gamer to check it out if they want to know on the latest news and products that are available on the market. It's definitely the news site to watch if you are into multiple RPGs rather than just being a loyal fanboy to one system.

I'd also appreciate it if you would spread the word around about the RPG Herald because it needs the hits that it can get.

In the meantime, I've already had some ideas of new features to be added in this blog for months but haven't been able to really implement them yet. Just thought that I should mentioned it so that I can remind myself to give this blog a new revival of content.

Keep reading the Questing GM on my prep for the Dragon Age Quickstart Rules

Announcing the RPG Herald

2011-04-21T00:44:00.003+08:00

Things may seem to be going quiet on this blog but my blogging has been taking up a notch lately.

I believed that I have mentioned before that aside from maintaining this blog, as a personal journal about my gaming activities in where I live, I'm also a contributor to the Purple Pawn, which is a general gaming news site which covers boardgames, miniatures, RPGs and card games.

Since I've been mainly contributing RPG news that I come across to the site, I've been blogging more and more about RPG-related news and have got my blogging pace back again. However that meant that I have less time invested on this site, since I've been trying to keep track of RPG news (and believe me, sometimes there's so many things that can happen in the RPG world in one day).

So I've been tinkering with the idea about posting more RPG news on this blog but feeling that RPG news did not really mesh well with what I have intended to do with this blog, I thought that I should start another site, dedicated just for RPG news.

After some giving it some thought, I finally decided to create a new blog, the RPG Herald, which aims to be a one-spot supplier of RPG-related news for RPG gamers.

The site would be mainly focused on RPG news, previews of upcoming products and hopefully score some interviews with designers, developers and industry players to discuss about RPG-related issues.

At the moment, I don't know what would the launch of RPG Herald mean to this blog, but it is clear that RPG Herald would be more inclined towards informing readers while this blog would remain as a personal space to talk about my personal gaming life.

Although I don't intend to post up reviews of RPG products on the RPG Herald, to maintain some integrity on the reporting, but I am open to review those products on this blog since I would be more comfortable in expressing my biased opinions here.

To any game publishers, bloggers, podcasters etc who are reading this, I welcome you to send any press releases or information that you have about game products, contests, conventions or game news that you need a free shout-out for to me at my email.

My email address is questinggm@gmail.com.

For gamers and readers of this blog, I encourage you to check out RPG Herald. I try to cover all sorts of news regardless of system and genre, so you might read something new about what is going on in the gaming scene (perhaps near you) and would thank you for your support.

I will be planning to apply the RPG Herald into the RPG Bloggers Network in the future since the application requirement says that the blog has to be active for at least 3 months.

In the meantime, you can keep up to date with the latest postings of the RPG Herald through my Twitter account if you haven't already followed me.

Once you've checked out the site, feel free to drop any comments or feedback on how you would to like to see the site improve here, and I'll see what I can do.

I like to thank you all for your support throughout these years of my blogging journey and hope that you would continue to do so for my new endeavor.

{Quest Log} Gamma World is Crazy Whacky Fun!

2011-02-20T22:59:00.008+08:00

Last Friday, I had my first taste of Gamma World when a group mate of mine, Bryan, who bought the boxed set, decided to let us have a go at it. So me, and four others of various levels of experience with 4E would be playing as characters while the group mate who bought the game took the honours of being the ever dutiful GM (I guess you call them the Gamma-Master?).

When I arrived, the group were already in the early process of character generation but I managed to pick it up quickly due to the similarities it had with 4E. It was interesting to see that some of the other players who had only relied on the Character Builder when they started playing 4E, was having a hard time understanding the process.

I rolled an Empath Felinoid (which I named Mind Catrol) on the origins and had below average stats except for Wisdom and my origins ability scores. It was pretty nostalgic to roll random stats with 3d6 again. The whole process took us about an hour and a half, as we went through the 'eehh' and 'ahh' moments when trying to figure out how the process works.

Our gaming group for the session. That's me at the far right, in white. Bryan, our GM for the night, is the one in orange on the left.

After that an Empath Felinoid, a Seismic Giant, a Speedster Yeti, an Electrokinetic Telekinetic and an Android Cockroach were on their way to investigate the source of some robots rumbling down a hill to fire missiles at our homes before self-destructing for good measure.

It was here that me and everyone on the table knew that this game was not to be taken seriously even by chance. So we just had our fill of making quirky quotes, roleplaying our characters in the funniest way we think it would be appropriate and just went along with the weird whacky fun.

Combat encounters started easily enough outside the tower where the robots were coming from but once we got in, it showed that we weren't the toughest party except for the Giant who was taking most of the hits unscathed thanks to her Resist 5 to physical damage.

It was probably the first time that I saw the players didn't plan their strategies and tactics in-combat than while playing 4E, so we were just going with the flow of what we wanted to do and combat moved pretty fast. The game was so random, especially with the Alpha Mutations and Omega Tech cards, that we just wanted to try out what we had instead of planning to best ways to attack the enemies.

Unfortunately for our Speedster Yeti, he suffered a terrible irony where the only thing he was fastest at was dying (he also rolled the lowest initiative for all combat). But he was able to quickly generate a new character while we were still in combat and wade in a few rounds after that.

Our Speedster Yeti died the fastest in the group. At least he has fast at *something*

The session ended after the group managed to destroy a machine at an underground level underneath the tower and killed a group of crossbow wielding badgers with a couple of them having psychic fear inducing abilities which managed to knock most of us bloodied with one hit. My character, the Seismic Giant and the Speedster Yeti were dead after that encounter but we had our fill of crazy whacky fun during the game.

Overall, I like the randomness of the game as it feels like a different pace of the 4E rules. The random Alpha Mutations and Omega Tech at every encounter is the cause for all kinds of laughter we had that night and it just pushed us to go for that whacky idea in combat. In my mind, those cards alone were good motivations to roleplay in combat than I could ever achieve with D&D 4E.

This one just opened a whole can of laughs when one of us drew this.

However, I don't know if I can see myself running this in the long term, or if it was meant to be used for a long term campaign. It's a good break after all the sometimes stressful math crunching and combat tactics of the 4E system and it's definitely seems to be meant as a more humorous and lighter tone of 4E.

I will admit that I'm still pretty unclear about some of the rules after the session, other than the ones from 4E but with my character dead, I'm not sure if I really want a second dose of this. Still, it was a fun game nonetheless and some of the other players are eager to continue on with the adventure. I would recommend this if you want to have a some crazy whacky fun game night.

{Quest Log} Happy Valentines, Gamma World and Need Some Advice on Session Recordings

2011-02-14T23:50:00.008+08:00

First of all, happy Valentine to those who are celebrating the day (hmm...it just passed a few minutes here as I'm writing this) with their loved ones. Just wanted to take this opportunity to post a little of what I've been doing on the gaming front these past weeks.

Gaming
My first one-shot session of the year went well, although the player we had it for didn't manage to have his last game before he upped from town and moved to the capital for work. I wish him all the best, though we will miss him.

The one-shot ended up being a two-shot session since the first two encounters took a little longer than expected. So we saved the climatic last encounter which lasted for the whole of the second session. It was a blast, but had no much to mention about, except for that it showed how rusty I have been with GMing.

I regretted not taking photos of the session, so I could show you guys our gaming group and remember the great moments we had during the session. Recording my gaming sessions has been something on my mind for a while. I do know there are sites that do live-stream or keeping voice recordings of their games but I wonder if anyone here who has done this before would be willing to share their experience, and what equipment do you use for recording your session?

This week, my gaming group invited me over for a game of Gamma World during the weekend. I'll admit that I'm not as hyped for this 'boardgame-RPG hybrid' (at least from what I've heard) but am willing to try it none the less. Any tips anyone would like to share while playing this game?

Silver Marches Wiki
Progress of my Silver Marches wiki is going slowly but steady, I'm already starting to get into the city entries. Once I'm done with that, I still have the regional history, organizations and NPCs to deal with. But overall, things are going well at the moment.

Blogging
Only in the second month of the year and I'm already not being able to keep to my new year resolutions. But I haven't been completely absent for the past weeks in the bloggersphere, it's just that I've restarted seriously contributing RPG-related news to the Purple Pawn, so my posts were mostly there than here.

I'm still playing with an idea of putting up my notes for the one-shot I did if I sorted them properly, would anyone like to see them?

{Quest Log} New Year Resolutions for 2011

2011-01-02T21:41:00.002+08:00

2010 has generally been a year where my gaming has taken a big hit. New job, new life, new priorities means that gaming has been taking a real backseat for the past year, as you can tell with this blog going really quiet compared to in the past.

It's hard to imagine sometimes that this blog has been around for more than 2 years and looking back at some of the old posts, it does show how the quality and quantity over the years has been a dead drop.

While I won't say that these resolutions that I have in mind for this year are the sure things that I want to keep due to real-life circumstances, I think this post should be a good reminder of what I plan to do with my gaming life for this year.

Game More
Since I started my new job, I've only had a handful of sessions last year. This is due to scheduling conflicts with my day offs with my player's (I work during the weekends).

But things are looking slightly brighter at the end of the year as work is starting to stabilize and it's easier to plan ahead for gaming sessions. So, this year, I plan to run or play in a gaming session at least once a more, if not on a weekly basis.

So far, my Eberron one-shot is coming out really well and I should be running it soon sometimes during January 2011, which makes me excited. Probably would do a post about how it goes.

Finish My Silver Marches Wiki
Progress on this has been slower than I like. I admit that procrastination is among the faults of why it is still undone. At this point, I'm almost done with the wilderness aspect of the wiki and am making headway into databasing the cities of the region.

I hope to get it done as soon as possible within this year, so that I can run a 'Western Marches' style sandbox campaign with it that will sustain my gaming life for a very long time to come.

Blog More
I've told myself many a times that I would get this blog back up to speed to whatever glory days it had, if any.

Unfortunately, my detachment from 4E has been so long that I've gone completely out of touch and have little interest to support whatever WoTC does with the IP.

While I claim many a times that Pathfinder is my new love, I have yet to really take a deep crack into the rules system and decipher them.

At the moment, I'm forseeing that this blog will be filled with more personal posts about my games and session preps than actual 'real' content for gamers to share. My plan is to increase my frequency back to a weekly, if not twice monthly basis.

I'm still open to do reviews but I doubt that I'm really the right person, with the right experience to say anything reliable. I've also been playing around with an idea of including more RPG news into this blog but I think it would be more appropriate if it was in another blog. What do you think?

That's all really, these gaming goals/resolutions are simple and intentionally abstract since they do collide with my personal and real-life resolutions.

I don't need overly complicated ones like learn and play a new rules system, a new genre or introducing the game to new players when I know full well I can't maintain or achieve those goals.

Maybe those will come later when real life circumstances permit. Do feel free to share what are your gaming resolutions this year and how you plan to go about them.

Happy New Year and keep on rolling those dices!

{Quest Log} The news of my death have been greatly exaggerated...

2010-12-18T11:51:00.003+08:00

Just wanted to post some thoughts and update which doesn't fit into a tweet and to remind the RPG Bloggers Network undertaker that this blog is still alive and is not waiting to be raised yet.

So after nearly a six month hiatus from gaming except for a sprinkle of one-shot sessions, I've finally managed to end up getting back into the DM's hotseat once again.

The main reason for this isn't because my work schedule has settled down somewhat but because one of the players would be leaving us for about a year, due to work, and he wanted to get his hands dirty with some dice before leaving. Plus, I was offered to run a game since our resident GM wants to play again.

This was a fine opportunity to get back into DMing but not the more permanent basis which I had hoped for.

The plan is to run the sessions in January and would probably last for two weekly sessions. So modules are out of the question and I'm thinking of going for an extended delve or two separate delves each week.

The game would be 4e and I'm looking to set the players at 5th level with the default party size of five, probably set in Eberron.

At the moment, I'm really not sure what sort of adventure I would like to run, so I'm soliciting for any kind reader to throw me a bone so that my dog-brain will have something to gnaw (though I've been looking up at the Order of the Emerald Claw a lot last night).

That's all to say that the news of my death have been greatly exaggerated...

Questing with Shadow, Sword & Spell

2010-10-02T01:21:00.000+08:00

When I first heard about Shadow, Sword & Spell on an podcast episode of Atomic Array, I was intrigued enough to get a review copy of it even though I've had no clue what 'humanistic pulp fantasy' means. I'll admit that I've never heard of the names of the authors and their works which inspired the system but the rules itself were easily flipped through (144 pages if you discount the 13 pages of Table of Contents), despite having a busy work schedule.

Shadow, Sword & Spell is the fantasy incarnation of the 12 Degrees system by Rogue Games. The core mechanic of task resolution is centered on 2d12s where rolling a number lower than the target number indicates a success and vice versa. One interesting thing of note is that players are always aware of their target number which can be calculated from their sheet.

However, the key here is the degree of success with each point difference away from the target number producing a gradual differences in the results of success or failure. The rules also rewards Dramatic Successes (rolling 1s on both dices) and punishes Dramatic Failures (rolling 12s on both dices). How wide the differences in the results should happen is mostly 'impressionistic', as the book says, and is left up to the GM which is commonly the case for most parts of the game.

Except in combat where every degree of success really counts and it could potentially end an opponent's life with just a few hits. This would certainly fit right into the alley of someone who loves their combat to be fast and gritty and healing wounds between combat is time consuming. Another interesting form of 'combat' is the social interaction where players would have to 'attack' an NPC's 'social hitpoints' with social skills before they change their attitudes towards the PCs.

The point-buy based mechanics of character creation for Shadow, Sword & Spell is relatively easy and straightforward which can be modified by backgrounds that works like alignments; by combining two keywords that produces various modifiers to the character's abilities.

It also incorporates a system that requires players to to think more about their characters in order to gain Hooks. Hooks are character traits that can be used at opportune moments during the gaming session that reflects their character's background, training and personality. Hooks can be used to earn Action Points, which is the currency that players could use gain some narrative control such as to modify target numbers, gain re-rolls to a test and even edit a scene that the players are currently in.

There is no level-up system as players spend experience points to buy more ranks to improve their character's skills and abilities.

Spellcasting can come with a hefty price which has a physical cost with each casting while more powerful spells can cost the sanity of the spellcasters.

Shadow, Sword & Spell also dedicates a large section to poisons and diseases which I admittedly ignored for the most part but it also has rules for creating them which means that it plays a significant role in the game.

For the gamemastering section of Shadow, Sword & Spell, it comes with a setting which gives you an idea of what are the sort challenges that you can find in pulp fantasy but the ruleset by itself is pretty self contained that it isn't tied to the setting to be functional. Running your first session of the game shouldn't take much prep because it also comes with a complete sample adventure and a mini-bestiary.

Overall, I'm not so sure if Shadow, Sword & Spell is really meant only for humanistic pulp fantasy although it has the rulesets that supports that genre well. Especially the 'humanistic' part because I could very well add 'races' as backgrounds and it will work fine.

I think what we've got here is a decent and relatively easy toolkit with removable parts that can twist into something else altogether. I really like the 12 Degree system but while leaving the decision of each degree up to the GM, I hoped that the guys at Rogue Games could give a clearer and slightly more stricter guidelines on what each degree of success and failure can be.

Don't forget that this is only just the basic core rulebook and from what I head in the Atomic Array episode, the Advanced rulebook will have something interesting rules to expand an already potential ruleset.

Want to learn more about Shadow, Sword & Spell? Read
on...

Atomic Array: Episode 045:Shadow, Sword & Spell

Apathy Blogs: Shadow, Sword, & Spell Character Creation

d20 Source: En Garde! It's Shadow, Sword & Spell

Is there an authentic experience?

2010-09-20T22:30:00.000+08:00

Recently an old groupmate of mine has just returned from his studies in England and has shown an interest to start DMing again. Back then we used to play 3.5 but he's eager to try his hand at 4E this time. So he's been gathering up some players to run a one-shot this week.

One of the players that will be playing in the game is a friend of mine who has observed us play 4E on many occasions before but this would be his first try at any form of RPG.

While I think this is a great thing since a potential new player is entering into the fold but I do have some little qualms. Mainly because I have played under my old groupmate as a DM before and he has an....'unorthodox' way of running his games.

What concerns me the most is that my DM groupmate is a real rules hacker. I remember when we played in one of his 3.5 campaigns, he had hacked the rules with his own houserules that it felt like we were playing a different game altogether.

I know every DM is bound to have their own houserules and it wouldn't really bother me if it was minor rule changes for the sake of running the game smoothly. But I'm starting to worry what sort of effect this would have on the new player, seeing that this will be his first impression of the game where he gets his hands dirty with the mechanics.

If his first impression is wrapped into something that doesn't have any resemblance to what is being played by RAW, he might fall into the trap of 'one wayism' and it would be harder to 'undo' the damage rather than preventing it in the first place.

So my real question is, is there really such a thing as an authentic gaming experience that should be introduced to new players? Should there be some kind of 'base model' of gaming, so that new players will eventually learn what he likes and dislikes about each DM's style that he plays under and will choose accordingly? For the benefit of the greater gaming community?

Another question would be what makes an authentic experience of gaming (or in this case, 4E)? Do you think it's possible to run any RPG system without any houserules, whether from the trivial to the outrageous? Or there's another way to teach RPGs to a new player where he learns to tell the difference earlier on?

Tell me what you think in the comments.

Burning Question - Mastery or Bestiary?

2010-08-23T09:49:00.000+08:00

In my last {Quest Log}, I mentioned that I was going to buy the Pathfinder Bestiary and I was about to take the plunge and place an order when something else came up and is vying for the cash that would be spent on the Bestiary.

I've read a couple of good things about the Pathfinder Gamemastery Guide and these are coming from people (Greyhawk Grognard, NewbieDM) who don't even play Pathfinder, which goes to show how useful the book is.

However, what I'm more interested in, as someone who is planning to run Pathfinder, is definitely the crunch elements in it. This review from Stargazer's World certainly shows that it isn't really lacking in that department as well.

From what I gathered, it's a book that is choked with great advice from a plethora of the best GMing books out there together with useful mechanical tools for running the game. So, it's a good book to have for some casual reading (and what more appropriate time to be doing that when I'm in the middle of a gaming drought) and I'm sure I would get a great deal of use out of it when I'm running a session.

On the other hand, the Bestiary has monsters...more than 350 of 'em.

Although I haven't seen any reviews about this one but you don't really need any convincing, as a GM, to buy a monster book. Crunch-wise, a book like the Bestiary is as crunchy as a box of breakfast cereals made out of dead PCs for evil GMs. It's a book that you damn sure know what's going to be in there and you know how much you need it.

Then again, there is the promise of finding gorgeous artwork in a book that comes from Paizo.

Although at this point, I'm going to put the Bestiary into the backlog since I can still peruse the Bestiary SRD in the meantime but I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on which book would you prefer?

If you had to pick one, would you prefer a book of GMing advice and tools or a monster book to pounce on your players?

Hooray for Pathfinder and Catching Up on Gencon

2010-08-09T13:06:00.004+08:00

Being busy with work for the past few days, I've been out of touch from the daily updates for the best four days of gaming at Gencon. So, I have been reading the posts of the guys from Stargazer's World, RPG Blog II, Dice Monkey and The Bone Scroll backwards, starting from their last day to their first at gaming Mecca.

I don't know when will I ever get the chance to go to my first Gencon but it's nice to see that there are people who are nice enough to give you a bunk in case the hotel rooms are fully booked or too expensive.

Anyway, I was really delighted that I saved the ENnies results for the last because it is probably the highest point of the whole event for me. When I first read that Paizo had won almost all the categories that they were nominated in, I was delighted.

After confirming with several sources (here and here), I'm happy to say that it was definitely Paizo's and Pathfinder's year and, as their new fanboy, I think they deserve it. I know I was very bias in my voting this year (and also the fact that I've never heard about 70% of the products nominated this year).

Once again, well done, Paizo!

I will be making that purchase very soon. By the way, I've decided to change my previous purchase decision to get the Gamemastery Guide instead of the Pathfinder Bestiary. A little more on that in a later post.

I would also like to congratulate Obsidian Portal for their golden win this year and thumbs up to Gnome Stew for winning Silver.

A shoutout also to fellow RPG Bloggers Network members, Critical-Hits and NewbieDM too.

{Quest Log} Some Stuff I'm Planning to Buy

2010-07-15T20:23:00.010+08:00

Since I've started working less than a year ago, I'm finally earning my own cash to spend more on RPGs than I had before as a kid.

One thing about being an adult is that you become a little more cautious on how you are going to spend your hard earned money and purchase decisions are made more carefully after serious considerations and research.

After months of budgeting and savings (I don't earn that much), I'm ready to make my first splurge on RPGs products that I've had my eyes on since I got my first paycheck.

Here's my current wishlist of stuff that I've been wanting to buy:

1. Dungeon Tiles & Minis
2. Pathfinder Bestiary
3. Fantasy Craft
4. Pathfinder Chronicles: Campaign Setting

Minis and Dungeon Tiles, in my opinion, have a much higher reuse value than supplements, considering the rate that they go 'obsolete' nowadays. You can always reuse an old mini or tile for a different system but you can't really do it with a supplement for another system, unless you convert it.

I was going to go ahead with Fantasy Craft and Pathfinder Chronicles but after doing some digging, I've read that both of them will be having a second print run soon so they got pushed down the priority list.

Fantasy Craft will be adding some major erratas and changes and I've read that the second print run books will be out by GenCon. In the meantime, if you already have a PDF copy of the first print, you can get the updated second print for free.

Meanwhile, the Pathfinder Chronicles is going to be replaced as the Pathfinder Campaign Setting World Guide - Inner Sea which was due out in September but Lisa Stevens has confirmed me that it would be out by 2011.

The Bestiary is currently in its second print run and from the sounds of it, if I purchased it now, it should have the erratas printed in it.

So it looks like I'll be waiting for Fantasy Craft and Pathfinder Chronicles which gives me more money to spend on minis and Dungeon Tiles.

{Quest Log} Writing Campaign Wikis isn't easy...

2010-07-13T01:37:00.006+08:00

So I have decided to build my Silver Marches sandbox and have reactivated my Obsidian Portal account, thinking that it was the right tool for the job.

Well, it is but right now at this moment, I'm getting a little frustrated about the formatting and all the information crumpled together looks like an unorganised mesh, which wasn't what I had in mind when I started writing in the wiki.

I think I have ran straight into my first brick wall about writing this sandbox which is how am I going to put the information from the books in such a way that it makes it easier to reference. Bear in mind, the reason why I wanted to take the information out of the books is so that I can put them somewhere where they are cohesive and linked properly.

I think I need to draft a template which list down the significant information for adventurers in a certain order. I'm starting with the town of Quaervarr, which is really a simple town that only has one landmark (but more of my own creations will be added later) but it's already giving me a headache as I try to rearrange where and how should I present each information about the town's defenses, government, people, food source, important NPCs and plot hooks.

So far my template would include in order;

Overview - A brief overall look of the location, perhaps one or two paragraphs just to give a general feel of the place.

History - The complete history of the place, somehow I tend to get a better idea of a place when I know where it's coming from that led to its current position

Population - A rough estimate of the populace but combination of what races inhabit the place is more important. Should I mention where each race comes from?

Law & Order - A breakdown of the location's enforcement, defense and judicial system just in case the players want to get smart in looking for trouble.

Economy - The important imports and exports that the location and what sort of goods that can be found there.

Points of Interest - A list of places that might interest adventurers, each with their own wiki entry.

NPCs of Note - A list of NPCs and personas that the adventurers would most likely meet, each with their own separate wiki entry along with a short description to mention any titles or positions.

Plot Hooks - For GM information. What could draw the adventurers to the location and what adventurers are afoot in the location?
Somehow I feel something is missing and there's where you guys can come in. Do you think this list of information is complete for a sandbox? What would you include in your list of information for a sandbox-type wiki entry?

If you have a different approach of organising sandbox information, I would like to hear them too!

What Have I Been Up To...

2010-07-03T16:53:00.008+08:00

It seems my promised return from absence has been harder to keep than expected and gaming has once again taken a back seat in the daily to-do list.

Despite my lack of activity on the blogging front, it doesn't mean that I have been completely detached from any semblance of gaming activity or thought. Even when I get a single minute out of my daily routine, the next thing that my mind wanders into is something related to my next game.

I think I've come to realize and acknowledge that gaming is in my blood and I don't think anything, short of life-changing, would ever take the gaming out of this gamer.

While most people might dread the prospect of not rolling dice for few months, as a DM I see it as an unplanned reprieve. One good thing about having a dry stretch before the next gaming session is that you have plenty of the commodity that prep-based DMs, like me, would always ask for; time.

So here's some gaming-related stuff that I'm working on or planning to do in the future, call it Questing's Guide to Doing Gaming Shit When Life is Tough (and a very late entry to May's RPG Blog Carnival).

Building a Sandbox
With plenty of time to prepare for your next game, you can use it to create something worthwhile to impress your players....like, say, a sandbox!

Without knowing when the next gaming session would be in sight, it's good exercise to divert all that creative energy into somewhere where every encounter, adventure, magic item, NPC idea that you have every now and then can have a cohesive form.

I have been beating the dust out of one of my favorite supplements from my favorite setting to try and build a sandbox out of it. I've even reactivated my Obsidian Portal account and am currently trying to lay down some groundwork for my sandbox.

Somehow seeing the sandbox grow bit by bit gives me the same sense of satisfaction, accomplishment and excitement after running a good game.

Reading up on GMing Advice
In Chinese classical martial arts literature, it is common to see the young and naive hero making a pilgrimage to a secluded mountain where they would meditate and train alone for years only to return as a seasoned and skilled master for the final showdown.

During a gaming drought, no one is expecting you to run a game and that is a good time to go into hiding and find new ways to brush up my GMing-fu.

Ever since I subscribed to gaming advice sites (Gnome Stew and Roleplaying Tips are my recommendations), I have to admit that I haven't really read through every issue carefully. It's just that when I'm in a hurry to find a quick solution for my gaming needs when running regular sessions, a two-page worth of words is one of the last places that I'll be looking.

Now that the pressure is off my shoulders indefinitely, I can really take the time to go through and appreciate every word of wisdom that was written about the science and art of GMing from people that I have no doubt are much more experienced than I am.

You'll never know where you'll find something useful in between those gigantic blocks of net tomes that can easily fix that gaming problem you've had for years, after it has sat in your inbox for that same amount of time (yes, I have a really long backlog to catch up with).

Even with those two sites I recommended alone, there is plenty of stuff to learn but if you are feeling ambitious, I bet you can find thousands of sites ready to pour advice on your like an unwanted ad. Just type http://www.rpgbloggers.com/ on your browser address bar.

Not forgetting those hardback DMGs from every edition. It surprises me that flipping through them over and over again and reading the same passages could reveal a different insight about GMing with each reading.

Stay Connected
While I don't have as much time as I like to write a post which consumes a lot of time and brainpower, it's still easy to stay connected with the gaming community with forums, Twitter and the RPG Bloggers Network.

Although I don't check on them as often as I used to, it's still stays as my daily readings that I do once or twice a day. In fact, with a busy working life, I've learned to filter stuff that would make a good read which is relevant and useful than just another thread on Why I Dislike the term Railroading.

I now only keep up-to-date on major gaming news related to my systems of choice and have given up on news just for the sake of being in 'the know'. The last Wizards layoff isn't going to affect how I run my next NPC that is intended to cream my PCs' ass in the next encounter.

Listening to gaming podcasts is another quick and easy way to keep in touch with the gaming community. They help to get a quick pulse check of what's going on in the gaming world in one place because that's what people tend to talk about.

Investing for your next Game
Have you ever felt awkward when you had to use the same miniature to represent the orc, zombie, wolf and kobold in the same night? I know I do and getting my hands on the miniatures I need for a game is time consuming because it requires me to scour the web for the right singles with the best deals.

Guess what, even if time doesn't permit you to game, you've got plenty of spare cash from the snack money, fuel and other necessary spendings that you saved from the session that can be used on something other than gaming books and supplements. So now it's a great time to invest in some plastic crack that you are missing.

I recently bought my first Dungeon Tiles while I was on a outstation working trip and now I'm getting the urge to build my own miniatures and tiles empire so that everything will look neat and shiny when I finally run my next game.

At least something is growing in my absence of gaming.

Gaming Droughts are Good
All in all, I think gaming drought doesn't mean it should be a gaming slump. On the contrary, it's a great time to come out stronger, better prepared and buffed up for your next game/adventure/campaign/whatever as a GM.

March 2010 RPG Blog Carnival: How to be a Better GM? Roundup

2010-04-12T01:39:00.001+08:00

First off, I would like to thank all the contributors to the March 2010 RPG Blog Carnival that was brought to you by Questing GM; the gamer in search of gaming enlightenment.

I'm truly humbled that you all have taken your time to do your respective posts and I'm sorry that I wasn't able to comment on all the posts that came my way as work caught up with me.

To be honest, I was expecting the RPG blogger community to come up with complex and long posts on their elaborate ways of improving their GM but was indeed surprised that some of the advice that I found were really simple things that we, as GMs, may have taken for granted and need to be reminded of them.

For this blog carnival, I received a total of 13 links to posts from old bloggers that I have known during my early days in the RPGBN as well as new blogs that I've read for the first time.

I was hoping that some of the big names (especially those who mainly deal with the subject of GMing) in the RPGBN would have made an appearance but it seems they have moved on from the RPG Blog Carnival festivities and are doing something higher in the geekierarchy.

Nevertheless, it was good to see the new names and hopefully their participation in this and the forthcoming blog carnivals would do well to their geek cred and blog traffic and keep the flame of the blog carnival alive for some time to come.

Without further ado, I'll try to summarize my thoughts on each and every post that have graced this blog carnival for March 2010.

Initiative or What? and Evil Machinations shared the same idea that not even the best GMing guru can solve your GMing woes if you don't get any feedback from your players.

In fact, the best people to judge your GMing skills are most probably your players instead of other GMs.

So getting the feedback is very important which you can get either by just talking to your players or have them fill a questionnaire.

Geek Ken follows the same idea but also adds that one of the best ways to improve your gaming is to take your ass off the hotseat and play something that is not D&D for a while.

Or just learn to take it easy while your doing it like taking a swim in The Astral Sea.

Then again, practice does make perfect, says Sunglar from Stargazer's World so all is not lost if your players has glued your said ass to the DM's seat and cast some kind of geas spell that compels you to improve your GMing there.

You just need to know the secret... (no, this has nothing to do with New Age philosophy)

Back Screen Pass stresses the importance of playing to your strength as a GM and make it your selling point to your players. It's better to get comfortable while you are GMing instead of trying too hard to impress them when you are not at your best.

If all else fails, Butler, Wolf and Bowman have a better solution. Throw everything at the wall.

Since he started DMing in 2008, Newbie DM's blog has become one of the more visited ones among the rest of us. After a little pestering him on Twitter, he kindly did a post about how he was improved his GMing over time with a fair share of his own tips and perhaps a sign of a new breed of GMs?

And what other classical GMing advice would be left out if it wasn't Late To The Party for mentioning that one of the easiest way to be a better GM is to steal (and stretch).

On the other hand, one of the more peculiar GMing advice that I've read came from Fame & Fortune who described the way of the snow in GMing.

Not every GM always have good advice but the good ones are the ones that usually ask questions on how they can improve like the one asked by Paths of Adventure on how to describe damage differently.

I liked tenletter's post because it makes me look smart but I think there is an important lesson to be learned from organizational theory because it is can be applied on gaming groups. Don't let the title of his post fool you.

Lastly, The Action Point takes an extra action to relate this quote with GMing.

“Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.”

It's a great post especially for new GMs (albeit a little on the long side) because it nails down some of the most basic ways of improving your game and recognizes what GMing boils down to.

That's all for March and I hope that readers would find one of these posts helpful in making them a better GM one way or another. I can only apologize for the slight delay of writing this round-up.

In the meantime since we're nearing mid April, it's still not too late to contribute to this month's RPG blog carnival which is undergoing an Exchange of Realities with the topic of Let Me Show You My (N)PC.

March 2010 RPG Blog Carnival: How to be a Better GM?

2010-03-05T13:53:00.010+08:00

Wow, time really flies and it's already March. I remember signing up to host the RPG Blog Carnival back sometime last year and now the RPG Blog Carnival is pitching their tents for the first time at the Questing GM.

As for this month's topic, it is something that I have chose much earlier because it is something that is close to my heart and one of the reasons why I started this blog; Gamemastering.

I started GMing the same time I started gaming and even after more than 10 years of so-called GMing experience, I still think that I haven't learn all there is to GMing.

Not all GMs are not made perfect to handle every kind situations that comes out from the chaos that is called roleplaying and every day we might encounter a new situation that we have never been in before. Even with the same group of players that you've been playing for decades.

As GMs, I not only have to keep running the game smoothly, I also have to find new ways and ideas to keep my games fresh so that my players would keep coming for more. I always want my players to have fun in my game and that is one of the greatest rewards that I can ever have as GMs.

The reason why I chose the name Questing GM was because I believed that as a GM, I'm always finding out new ways to improve my game for me as a GM and for my players whether it's the way we run combat or how the setting was designed.

It's a learning process that never ends and I believe that we can all learn from each other.

So for this month's blog carnival, I invite, fellow bloggers to do a post on;

How to be a better GM?

Shares your anecdotes, your advice, your own reflections on whether you have improved as a GM, how do improve your game or any other posts that can be helpful to your own or someone else's game. There's just so many aspects in GMing that I'm sure you can chime in on something.

Once you have posted up your post, kindly leave a link at the comments section so that I can do a roundup at the end of the month.

Let's keep the flame from dying, people. I don't want this to be the last blog carnival.

Getting back on track

2010-03-05T09:39:00.003+08:00

It's been ages since I've last posted here and I'm putting this post to remind myself that I need to start getting back to blogging. To explain my absence, I can only say that I've started a full time job in the past few months and, as expected, it has taken its toll on my game and blogging time.

Now that I'm gradually getting used to the fast-pace and long hours of the job and knowing what to expect out of it, I'm finally able to settle down and try to strike a balance between my personal life and gamer life.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to refurbish the furniture around here, so I hope you also like the new theme I've put up.

Another reason I'm putting up this post because during my hiatus, it has given my plenty of time to reflect on what I want to do and set new directions.

When I started the blog 2 years ago, I already had in mind a few things that I wanted to focus on, particularly about GMing, my personal styles and preferences with the occasional sprinkle of gaming news to inform my local gaming community.

After joining the RPG Bloggers Network, that focus shifted to almost the opposite direction. There I read numerous posts with great content that contained pieces of advice on gaming that it had become almost like every gamer blog should be done this way.

That's where I made my mistake, I conformed; conformed to the high standards that is the RPGBN that was just too high for me to reach with my limited experience, both as a GM and as a gamer.

To be honest, I took it like it was a competition amongst bloggers to produce the best content or to attract the most readers when you are surrounded by peers that emphasised on these things.

Over the course of time, I realized that I don't have the financial, skill and knowledge to make the cut which lead to the slow death of my enthusiasm and attachment to the community.

During my hiatus, I still continued lurking around forums and other blogs and I came to a realization. RPGs is not a game where everyone can have an equal opinion, the same goes with every arguments about editions, old school vs new school and or what rule is broken or unbalanced.

Every gaming experience on one table is unique for its own existence. We can discuss similarities between our games but we don't necessarily share them.

There were many things I wanted to say about various subjects but was too afraid that I would be disagreed by my fellow RPG bloggers, I was too careful with my opinions which partly became a barrier to express myself.

I don't intend for that to happen again.

So I hereby set a new course for the blog and what you can expect to see more and less in my future posts.

The direction will be more personal than communal from now on, which means that you'll see more 'I's and 'my's than 'We's and 'our's. Every post that I make from now on is more likely to be a personal opinion, despite how controversial or stupid it may sound and is not trying to conform itself to any kind of acceptable standard (if there was any). What I say is my own and only applies to me.

Post schedule is, at the moment, still uncertain but will try to stick along the lines of once weekly.

Due to my work schedule, I'm planning to drop some features namely the Questing's Readings because my time to read, decide and compile which post makes it to the post is limited.

On the other hand, I want to see how my personal and gaming life is progressing, so features such as the {Quest Log} might be back more often. New features are also in the works but you can be sure it's something more personally relevant.

I'm adding a rant label so to anyone who wish to avoid the occasional bile that comes out from a rancid gamer, I have placed the labels at the top of my posts so that you won't be caught unaware. You have been warned.

I'm adding comment moderation. Partly to have control over the spam that I'm starting to get, partly to avoid all out war in my blog based on my discretion.

Gaming news might appear once in a while but as far as I'm concerned, Word of Wizards is dead in the water from now on (if it wasn't apparent months ago). This has something to do with my severed detachment with 4E in terms of news (I'm sure Wyatt will understand).

I might get really frustrated at times and might incline towards trolling. If I make any rude remarks with links or mentions to names, blogs, forums, organizations and thereof, please be ensured that all is done in good faith with tongue in cheek. You don't have to take my personal opinions too seriously (.......yet).

That's all for now and I will inform you if I do add more but I think these are sufficient to inform my fundamentals and the expected change of tone and content that this blog is going to have from now on.

So now that this is off my chest, it's good to be back and roll some initiative.

Questing's Readings - 22/11/09

2009-11-25T00:00:00.000+08:00

There has been so little readings that I found interesting from last week (one, in fact) that I've decided to include some posts from yesterday which explains for the late post.

This would probably be my last Questing's Readings for the year since I'll be leaving for holiday season. Once I'm back though, I can't promise that I can keep this feature up since I'll be entering into a full-time job and the hours aren't kind. Hopefully, you've enjoyed every post that I've recommended and I'll be able to settle down with work pretty soon to bring you more great post from the RPGBN.

Musings of the Chatty DM
Cross-Class Training: GMs, Teachers & Managers
Phil giving a lesson on 3 traits that can be used in the workplace and also as a GM. There are certainly more real-skills that can be applied to GMing but those 3 that he mentioned I agree wholeheartedly.

Newbie DM
NewbieDM Tutorial: The Battlemap Part III
The final installment to this very cool series on making maps and how to print/use them for your real/virtual game. I really enjoy the series and would try to find the time some day to try it out.

Worlds In A Handful of Dice
The RPG Course – A Session of Praedor
An interesting read about a session of Praedor, a Finnish RPG.

What is My Gaming Community Like

2009-11-19T02:40:00.001+08:00

More than a week ago, I asked a Burning Question about your gaming community for this month's blog carnival. Since I haven't been getting the response that I was hoping for, I thought maybe I should start off first, describing what the gaming community is like in my hometown in Borneo.

Where is your gaming community located?
I live in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. On the world map, we would be the northern part of Borneo where the tallest mountain in South East Asia is located. Our state is sometimes known as the Land Below the Wind.

How big would you say it is?
There is barely what I would call a community in KK. Everyone that I've played with were introduced to the game by me or had heard about it in passing but haven't actually played it, even that is a rare breed to be found. If I really had to count the handful of us, I would probably put it somewhere between 30 to 50 people at most.

What games are being played? Are there any games more predominant than others?
If anyone who has any inkling of what a P&P RRG is, the second name that comes to mind is probably Dungeons & Dragons. I've only heard someone mention Talisman once so that's an exception. Besides us who play Dungeons & Dragons (4E currently), I don't think there's anyone else playing other games. Some of my group mates have played White Wolf games before but we're sticking to 4E.

Is it easy to find other players and GMs outside your gaming group?
Easy but only because all the DMs I know that already playing in my group.

For players, there are many that have shown interest but we are unable to fit them into our group. We are suffering from a huge gap between the player/DM ratio with probably 10 willing players for each DM (and in my count there's only 4 of us who has DMed before).

If I was looking to join another group outside my own, I probably have a much better chance just starting my own again.

Are there any community activities being run like conventions or something to attract new players?
No, it's a gaming desert here in terms of community activity or conventions. There just isn't enough people to make any sort of these activities worthwhile. One of my group mate is keen on bringing up the community but so far any semblance of community activity would be this Facebook Group page that we started for D&D gamers in KK.

Hopefully by next year, we'll have something more concrete.

How many game stores are there in your community? Do they run any RPG-related activities?
I used to work in the only one in town until it was closed a few months ago although it mainly sells just Magic: The Gathering. The shop didn't participate in any of the D&D related activities for retailers from the beginning.

The only other place that I would call a game store is where my current group plays at. It's a boardgame cafe where you order drinks while playing the boardgames they have available at a certain rate. The boardgames are for sale too. The reason why we're playing there is because there is this nice, big round table that is big enough to fit our battlemats and group together.

Is there a LARPing community?
Nope but there's a cosplaying community if that counts for anything.

How does the wider community look at the gaming community?
I would say that we are pretty much an alien group. People here give us the weird stare and curiosity glances when we are playing. I've never encountered the satanic scare when I was playing in a catholic school so it seems like we are relatively left alone.

Alright. Now that I've done my part, don't be shy and tell me about your gaming community.

Questing's Readings - 15/11/09

2009-11-18T22:00:00.000+08:00

Sorry for the really late post. This week's highlights we have a series on making battlemats, making interesting villains and finding more uses for your minions.

In other news, the RPGBN Advisory Panel Election polls has just ended and Micheal Wolf from Stargazer's World will be representing the community from now on as the voice of RPG bloggers in the network. Congrats and may his role make a better RPGBN.

Campaign Mastery
Increase game attendance with great session reminders
What to put in a session reminder? Let Johnn answer your questions. I think session reminders are really a great tool to pump your players up before the game, especially if the session only happens once or twice in a month or longer.

GamesTopica
There's Fun in Table Chatter too
Although most DMs like to reduce game chatter as much as possible on the table, this post shows how it could actually be conducive for your game.

Greywulf's Lair
More Creative Uses for Minions
A more out-of-the-box approach to enhancing the use of minions, adding on to what Sly Flourish has done (see below).

NewbieDM
NewbieDM Tutorial: The Battlemap, a guest post by Jonathan Roberts
NewbieDM Tutorial: The Battlemap Part II

A great guest post series on how to make sweet looking battlemaps using GIMP and some design thoughts of what makes a good map.

Sly Flourish
Creative Uses for Minions
Some ideas on how minions could do more other than just acting as fodder for the PCs.

The Spirits of Eden
Thinking Up An Interesting Villain
Wyatt giving advice on how to create villains with depth. I mostly agree with his philosophy of thinking them as characters instead of just some evil guy that the PCs need to defeat.

Worlds in a Handful of Dices
The RPG Course - Lecture Seven
A very interesting read on RPGs in social life and how RPGs are being used in the real world and some issues related with RPGs in the context of social life (e.g, sexuality).

Burning Question - What is Your Gaming Community Like?

2009-11-10T17:00:00.002+08:00

In conjunction with this month's blog carnival on Community, I thought this would be an appropriate question to ask.

What is Your Gaming Community Like?

Here's some follow-up questions to guide your answers.

Where is your gaming community located?
How big would you say it is?
What games are being played? Are there any games more predominant than others?
Is it easy to find other players and GMs outside your gaming group?
Are there any community activities being run like conventions or something to attract new players?
How many game stores are there in your community? Do they run any RPG-related activities?
Is there a LARPing community?
How does the wider community look at the gaming community?

Hopefully we can also get some answers from those who are outside of the US, I'm really curious to know how is gaming like in other countries.

Questing's Readings - 8/11/09

2009-11-09T03:00:00.000+08:00

This week's highlights would be on a couple of post on free softwares that are useful for creating props for your game.

Critical Hits
Pain of Campaigning: Literature and Adventure Planning
As GMs, we've all had our moments when we read/watch a great piece of media entertainment and tell ourselves that we want to run a campaign just like it. Here's some advice on how to adapt your favorite books into a campaign but I think the best advice is the last one. Never be afraid to admit that you stole your ideas from somewhere.

Game in the Brain
Some Open Source Tools for Game Material Production
A list of free open source softwares for from simple writing to 3D animation. Useful to say the least.

Geek Related
Preparing Image Visual Aids For Your Game
A step-by-step tutorial on how to extract images from PDFs to use them as visual aids.

RoleplayingPro
Your Prefect D&D Character: Part 1
My group hasn't use the first technique and I personally would like to see it being used in my group once, I think it really helps to build characters that are easier to fit into the campaign feel and can potentially increase the fun the players are having with their characters.

The RPG Anthenaeum
Eight variations on the standard pit trap
Getting tired of the old pit trap where a character simply just falls into? Here's some ideas to modify or add more uses for the pit trap than just a hole on the floor.

Worlds in a Handful of Dice
The RPG Course – Lecture Six
I'm so envious that this guy gets to study in a RPG course at uni and it's really nice of him to share his thoughts about what he learns. It's interesting to see what are being taught in a RPG course. In this post, he talks about pervasive games.

Questing's Readings - 1/11/09

2009-11-02T23:45:00.004+08:00

It's November and the former board of the RPG Bloggers Network have made their decision. Dave Chalker has made an announcement, after deliberating through the 6 proposals that were submitted, they have trusted the reins to Duane O' Brien from A Terrible Idea.

You can read what the future holds for the RPGBN in Duane's inauguration post but it doesn't seem to imply much drastic changes. Time will tell and we'll see in the first month.

Of course, a new month means a new topic for the blog carnival. This month, the carnival is hosted by Uncle Bear where he ask bloggers to share their thoughts on community; a fitting subject since he started the Role Playing Media Network and with the recent transition of the RPGBN.

Not only does this topic comprised on the online community but to the off-line as well. It would be interesting to see some post that describes their gaming community outside the US.

This week's readings has been pretty fruitful as there are good advice in various areas from GMing, adding elements into your game and some RPG-related history.

A Buttefly Dreaming
Adding Fear to Your Game
Since last weekend was Halloween, here's some pointers on how to instill fear into your game and how not to.

Campaign Mastery
Legendary Achievements: Colouring Your Campaign with Anecdote and Legend
How the Guinness Book of Records can help to improve your description.

Ask the GMs: PC Choices and Consequences
Great advice, especially if you are running a sandbox (some of the advice even points to that direction), on how you should decide how your PCs' actions have an impact on your setting.

Critical Hits
5 Tips For Running Dungeon Delves
Although these advice are aimed for running short delves, it is still good advice for any DM who is running a long-running campaign.

Purple Pawn
Dr Thomas Radecki’s List of D&D Related Deaths and Violence
An interesting link to murder cases during the 80s scare that this insane psychiatrist claims that D&D was the cause of it.

The RPG Anthenaeum
Five ways to recycle an old D&D campaign
Some elements in a campaign that can be reused even in the same campaign.

Level up your creativity with an 'imaginary bank account'
Few GMs underestimate the power of carrying a notebook in your pocket when an idea pops in. Here's another way you can organize your inspirations and ideas that comes to mind.

The Spirits of Eden
Creating Controlling Powers
Although aimed at developing new controller powers, this is a very good insight into the mechanics of controller powers. While useful for homebrewers, I also think this is useful for min/maxers.

Wyatt's Advice On Play-by-Post Recruiting
I don't play-by-post but these advice should be useful for anyone who plans to start. You obviously shouldn't take advice from a guy who has predominantly played online for 5 years *wink*.

Whitehall ParaIndustries
Looking Back: Elements of Complexity
Groups and Complexity

A breakdown listing different types of game complexity and how groups relate with game complexity. I admit that I do have my own taste of complexity and this could explain why I'm also adverse to some others.

Questing's Readings - Wave Edition

2009-11-02T23:45:00.001+08:00

So the Wave has hit and making waves across the RPG bloggersphere. If you don't know what this new trendy topic is all about, well, you're almost as clueless as I am when I first heard it.

For a short explanation, it's a Google platform that combines IM Chat, forum and wiki functionality into one, consequently, called a wave. For an hour long explanation and demonstration, you could watch this video.

Needless to say, such an innovative piece of technology is surely being fiddled with by the hands of those who believe that Wave could be used for gaming purposes. In this edition, here's what bloggers, who were lucky enough to get invites to test out Wave, have to say about using it for running games.

Ars Technica
Google Wave: we came, we saw, we played D&D

At-Will
The Wave's the Thing: Google Wave, 4e D&D, and You
The Wave's the Thing: Running a D&D Wave Game

BoingBoing
Google Wave as an RPG environment

By Decree of the Czar
Using Google Wave with online D&D sessions

How to Start a Revolution in 21 Days or Less
Early Thoughts on Wave and Gaming

Neitherworld Stories
Using Google Wave for RPGs

Pen and Paper Portal
Google Wave + D&D = Do Want

Stargazer's World
Surfing on the Wave

The Spirit of Eden
Playing Online: Google Wave

Winning in RPGs

2009-10-29T22:00:00.001+08:00

It has been a common question asked. How do win in a RPG?

This could be seen as a misconception that since RPG has the word game in it, there is a winning objective. Through skill, imagination and wit you have beaten the game, you have defeated every challenge thrown against you and you are the champion.

While traditionally you can't 'win' in a RPG but instead of saying 'no, you can't', we could embrace the spirit of 'yes, you can!' This is where I think as GMs, we can actually use the word 'winning' to our advantage.

After giving it some thought, if I'm ever asked 'how do you win in a RPG', my answer now would probably be, 'you decide as a character'. There are so many things you can do in a RPG that it isn't a question of a lack thereof objectives but a matter of which one you think gives you the greatest satisfaction as if you have 'won'.

Think about it, would you feel like a winner if you character has accomplished the following?

Your fighter becomes a king/warlord with his own army to command and a land to rule over.

Your wizard has gain ultimate power, a tower with a hoard of powerful artifacts and is the undisputed mover and shaker of the land, kingdom and universe.

Your rogue has overthrown the thieves' guild leader and now you are an influence in the underworld, feared and respected by everyone in the streets.

Your character has reached epic levels, has learned all the feats, skills, spells/powers and a combination that he/she could ever learn to become the perfect character.

Your character has found a powerful artifact and used it to save the world.

You avenged the death of your village by destroying the BBEG, rescued the damsel in distress and fulfilled your destiny as written in your background.

After living as an adventurer for 25 years, you safely retire with limbs in one piece and enough a fortune to last you and your family for a lifetime. Your children are born in a world that you know is safer by your hands and they themselves grew up to be heroes of their time.

Your character ascends into godhood, dictating the lives of mortals and your name has been uttered in legends and myth.

Your character went into the dungeon and slew the dragon and took their stuff.

As mentioned earlier, there isn't a lack of objectives. On the contrary, the sky is the limit and beyond. It should up to your players to decide how do they want to beat the game. Not everyone has to have the same winning condition and this is where motivation comes into play.

As a GM, letting your players choose how they want to 'win' a RPG is telling you what is the motivation of their character and you can be sure that they are willing to give it their all in order to reach that objective, it's their end goal. It not only gives their character a purpose but also your player to come to your table every game day.

So how would you win in a RPG?

Questing's Readings - RPG Bloggers Network Edition

2009-10-27T02:00:00.002+08:00

When Dave Chalker, Danny Rupp, Graham Poole and Phil Menard have announced that they will no longer be in charge of the network, it did send shockwaves across the blogging community.

Their labor of love and passion has benefited many bloggers (including yours truly) and may have even been the reason why some roleplayers started blogging in the first place. We cannot deny that without them there wouldn't be a network to wrestle over with today.

Although some harsh words were thrown before they came to that decision, not all have been criticism against the founding members of the what I called the next best thing since ENWorld. Perhaps there were some regrets of what's being said about these gentlemen but that's not what I'm trying to point out here.

In this special edition, I have compiled a list of posts by bloggers who show their gratitude for the (apparently, thankless) job that Dave, Danny, Graham and Phil have done for the past year. Although it was a sadly short run, it was a good run.

This is my gift to them and I bid them good luck in whatever the future might bring for them.

Dungeon's Master
On the RPG Bloggers Network

Geek's Dream Girl
Oh Captain(s), My Captain(s): To The Men Behind The RPG Bloggers Network

Rule of the Dice
To Dave, Phil, Graham and Danny... Thanks for creating the RPGBN

Stargazer's World
The RPG Bloggers Network won't die ...

Symptoms of Madness
Dave Chalker, I salute you

The Geek Gazette
Goodbye RPGBN, it has been fun

The Spirits of Eden
A Round of Applause

Questing's Readings - 25/10/09

2009-10-27T02:00:00.000+08:00

It is one heck of a week with ups and downs. This will not be your regular Questing's Readings as nothing has caught my eye for this week for some reason. One reason could be that the events that had transpired this past week.

The whole RPG Bloggers Network debacle from last week has escalated and climax into an ugly controversy. After discussing among themselves for a few days, it has been decided that the administrators (Dave, Danny, Graham and Phil) will be stepping down from their respective positions and are looking for someone that can bear the torch.

They have delivered an ultimatum that if no proposals are forthcoming or to their liking by the 27th of October, the RPG Bloggers Network will be shut down.

Factions have emerged with their own differing views of how they would run the network but we will find out the future of the network on the 31st when the former committee will make their decision on who they will handover the network to.

But in the aftermath of this, Uncle Bear, Berin Kinsman, who was one of the contenders for the RPGBN withdrew his campaign and started something else. The Roleplaying Media Network is a social network very much like Facebook and 'Wizbook' but it is growing very rapidly and has seem to gain more traction with the members of the RPGBN.

It is not a feed aggregator and is not a replacement for the RPGBN but a place where members can interact through forums, groups and share videos and photos.

At the same time, there's still some good things going on between bloggers who are still giving back to the gaming industry. Zach from RPG Blog II had this idea of a Small Press Week where he and a few gathered bloggers went out to interivew, review and post about anything done by small game publishers and their games. You can read find a compilation of the links made during Small Press Week here.

Who knows in the future, there might be more Small Press Weeks in the future.

Questing with Kobold Quarterly 11

2009-10-26T02:00:00.001+08:00

I was lucky enough to receive a review copy of Kobold Quarterly 11, courtesy of Wolfgang Baur and I can safely say that it is a mixed bag of articles for anyone playing 3.x or 4E. Being someone that is interested in both, needless to say I was enjoying the best of both worlds.

Out of the 13 articles, I have selected several articles and separated them based on interest in 3.x/Pathfinder and 4E.

For 3.x/Pathfinder readers,
Howling Werebeasts and Ecology of the Vampire are articles that touches on the aspect of becoming a lycanthrope and being a vampire respectively. Both are great articles that talks about how one becomes their respective new forms and what sort of processes do they go through like the physical trauma experienced and how to live as one.

Although the mechanics are in 3.x, I would say that the main attraction of the articles is still the fluffy details. It really helps to get into the minds of a lycanthrope or vampire. Players will find it a useful guide on how they should roleplay as these characters and GMs are given a few pointers on how to handle them.

Spell-less Ranger is a Pathfinder variant for the ranger class as the title speaks for itself. This is probably the first Pathfinder incarnation of the same variant for 3.x in Unearthed Arcana.

Torture and Fear on the Tabletop is a very short and simple method of implementing the fear of torture into your 3.x game. It introduces three tables varying in the degree of torture implemented on the character with devious effects from straightforward damage (lethal and non-lethal) to permanent ability drains. The best part of this is that it makes the player roll the result rather than staining your hands with the pain you are inflicting on them.

For 4E readers,
Most articles I feel are crunch heavy and to be honest, I think the design of their crunch is not as strong as their 3.x/Pathfinder counterparts. In Wishing Well, they tried to put wish spells back into 4E but what they did in the end was just make it an abstract magic item. It is an interesting idea but I don't feel that it takes any radical steps to make them game-moving as wish spells had always been which cheapens the spell.

Monstrous Paragons are racial paragon paths for the minotaur, kobold bugbear and hobgoblin. I felt that the designers jumped the gun a little since the minotaur will be appearing in the Player's Handbook 3 and most likely be overlapped by the racial paragon paths that will be in that book.

What I do like about these paragon paths is that some of its features builds upon the racial powers or traits when you use them as playable races from the Monster Manual. One small nitpick for this article is that the color coded powers were a little confusing at first until you've read them properly.

Don't be fooled by the Mysteries of the Philosopher's Stone which is actually about an artifact that leads you to create the philosopher's stone with a ritual. This will be an interesting artifact to drop into your game with a heavy alchemist theme like Full Metal Alchemist.

For everyone,
The Howling City is an evenly fleshed out derro city (with a nice map) with 3.x and 4E stats but the next article that I'm going to recommend sold me for this issue.

Other than the crunch and fluff presented, I feel that the best article of the whole issue is Running Across the Screen where they asked 16 game designers/writers on various questions about gamemastering. You are not going to find any place else where they've gathered the most diverse selection of people from various companies and game systems that share their thoughts and style of gamemastering.

From Jason Bulhman (Paizo), Monte Cook (Malhavoc Press), Chris Perkins (Wizards), Mike Mearls (Wizards), James Jacobs (Paizo), Chris Pramas (Green Ronin) to Robin D. Laws (Laws of Good Gamemastering) and some folks from White Wolf, they talked about what is the job of the GM, running encounters and sandboxes. Reading this article just emphasizes the point that there is no 'one true way' and that every GM has their own style.

I've already reviewed 9 out of the 13 articles (not including the editorials) so if you find that this issue is going to fit your bill, you can find it at DriveThru RPG as a PDF for $5.99. Don't let the kobolds scare you.

Questing's Readings - 18/10/09

2009-10-19T03:50:00.001+08:00

There's been some heavy (and sometimes heaty) discussions going on between bloggers of the RPG Bloggers Network on the evaluation criteria of accepting blogs into the network fold. You may have read this post by Chogwiz which sparked the discussion after a nasty retort by a blog that was rejected by the people who form the network.

I'm staying out of the whole politics mostly other than just being a spectator but I do commend to the founding members (Dave, Danny, Graham and Phil) for being very open to criticism (and flak) even if everyone had not been too happy with their transparency in running the network.

I really don't like to see these sort of things happening within such a noble endeavor but things like this happen when love and passion boils over into something less pretty.

I hope this mess gets sorted out soon and peacefully. Perhaps this will make the RPG Bloggers Network a stronger community because of it.

In the meantime, the highlight for this week's readings is a couple of post on giving narrative control to players.

Back to (Role-Playing Game) Basics
Hey, you got your story in my game!
A very charming way of introducing narrative control to your players. While I do the first methods introduced but I've never thought of giving out treasures when the players are on to something. I think the 4E treasure parcel system would work nicely with this idea.

Campaign Mastery
Ask the GMs: Giving Players The Power To Choose Their Own Adventures
A really great article on sandboxing and how to design rumors as plot hooks.

Life and Times of a Philippine Gamer
Learning a new RPG: a Step-by-Step Process
It is not very often that I read new RPG systems and the task can be pretty daunting at time. Although I might do things in a different order than what he suggested but it might help to speed up the learning process.

LivingDice
DM Resource: Warscholar.com
A useful link if you are researching for a wartime campaign. It has a timeline from the ancient to modern wars, information about equipments used and other military technologies.

Questing's Readings - 11/10/09

2009-10-11T23:23:00.000+08:00

It seems to be a pretty slow week and there hasn't been plenty of good advice posts so I've been picking up some interesting posts rather than those that contain any real advice. Also, it's already been more than a week and I have yet to see a single post for this month's blog carnival. I guess Morality is a really hard question to answer.

Bard of Valiant
Elements of a Good Treasure Map [Advice]
Some useful questions to ask yourself when creating a treasure map. Honestly, I haven't give it much thought so this is quite helpful.

Campaign Mastery
Ask the GMs: “Let’s Split Up.” – “Good Idea, we can do more damage that way!”
Comprehensive recommendations on how to handle party split ups of various length and frequency.

The Literary GM: Expanding your resources for a better game
A list of different types of books that will be useful for DMs to have around. It looks pretty daunting and an overkill for me but it is helpful if you are running a sandbox campaign.

GamesTopica.Net
Reading D&D 4E: Concerning Combat
A dissection of the combat system in 4E and how does a rules-light and mainly narrative-based GM sees this. I do agree that with his points mostly that the 4E combat system can be a hit-or-miss for some GMs despite the credits given to it.

Jonathan Drain's D20 Source
A Wizard Did It: Patching 3E to 4E Continuity
There has been some notable changes between 3.x and 4E. Here's a a list of narrative explanations that could justify the mechanic changes if you are transiting your 3E campaign to 4E.

RetroRoleplaying
Three Solitaire Role-Playing Games Using Regular Playing Cards
Some really interesting links to card-based solitaire RPGs. I haven't check them out yet but the idea that these kind of games exist is intriguing.

RPGCentric
Update on Burnt Offerings: "We Be Goblins, Ye Be Food!"
A school in Portland, Oregon is doing a play based on the first Pathfinder module. This is just some little information about the school, the students and the roles that will be appearing on the play. I would really like to see the play.

Theo Dudek, Ultimate Game Master
Gamer Outing: Robin Williams
Some first hand accounts of Robin Williams's gaming activity.

The Spirits of Eden
Review: Jones DND Soda
Wyatt being a connoisseur and doing some soda tasting reviews on a range of D&D themed sodas. Want to know how Illithid Brain Juice taste like?

Uncle Bear
I Have a Home Ga,e Why Do I Need a Game Club?
Several reasons how networking can help build a gaming community. Although not everyone seems to agree with him but I would be taking this as a reference.

Burning Question - RPG Books: Precious Gems or Just Dead Trees?

2009-10-08T03:31:00.002+08:00

I had just recently receive my hardcopy of the Pathfinder Core Rulebook a couple weeks ago after waiting over a month for it to arrive. Since I bought it though, I haven't even opened the wrapping around it. This is probably the most extreme case of how I treat my books but when I do get a new book, it is put into caring hands.

I don't put them on dusty surfaces, wash my hands before reading them, try not to crack the book too wide and I'm hesitant to even fold a page that I'm reading. One of my players share this trait of mine saying that books are too previous. To him, each book is also part of a collection that needs to be well taken care of.

Conversely, my brother doesn't give any respect to the dead trees. He cracks, rubs his boggers off the pages and does other things when reading the book that would make a book lover commit murder. To him, a book is just a book and doesn't deserve any kind of special treatment.

So I decided to ask this question to other gamers and see how do they treat their books.

RPG Books: Precious Gems or Just Dead Trees?

Here are some quotes of those who believe that they are gems.

precious gems, some of my books are kept in sealed plastic. I still have some books from the early 80's with little sign of wear - jonathanshade (via Twitter)

Precious gems. Honestly, I treat all of my books that way. I don't write or highlight, and do my best to keep them in pristine condition. If there's any damage, it was usually there when I bought the book. - karlindel (via ENWorld)

I treat them well. I don't write in them, I don't bend them, or toss them around. I treat all my stuff well it's just habit. I like nice things. - Crothian (via ENWorld)

Some were taught that books are not only gems but sacred.

I've been instilled since a young age to treat all books as sacrosanct, e.g. not write in them, fold pages, etc - asmor (via Twitter)

Heh, my mom's a librarian. She'd whack me with a shoe if she saw me writing in my books. I've always treated my books with a heavy dose of respect. - Hussar (via ENWorld)

There are gamers who believe in treating their books well but are not above writing on them.

All of my books are precious gems to me! I keep them all in the best shape I can. I only write my name in the books I know other players in the group have to keep them seperated. - DEP (via ENWorld)

Well, you can definitely tell which of my books have seen heavy use. I also don't mind making notes or applying errata right into the books.

But they're still precious to me in a way. So far I've never thrown away a single one even if they're in tatters. - Jhaelen (via ENWorld)

If a book is broken then fix it.

I will admit that I do write in my books, but that is because I treat them as working books; I treat them them very well otherwise (people are often impressed with how well the bindings of my older rpgs are holding up, but I am a Master of Marginalia. Must be the medievalist in me. - Wombat (via ENWorld)

I don't treat em special. If they start falling apart, Glue, staples, wire, drills and duct tape will be used to keep them in functional condition. - frankthedm (via ENWorld)

On the other end of the spectrum, books are just dead trees.

I freely write, highlight, and annotate them. I carry them around on occasion, and they get banged up. I don't really worry about them being damaged, until they start falling apart.

More or less, I treat them like I treated my college textbooks... except I open them more. - Obryn (via ENWorld)

And can have multipurposes...

dead trees. non water proof dead trees. My rpg books have been coloring books for my son lately. - kaeosdad (via Twitter)

I treat them like pooh-pooh.

Write notes in the margin, do math in the margins, highlight important parts, fold pages for place holds, put sticker tabs on all the chapter pages for easy access. I even used a book to coral a spilled drink from splashing over the table onto the floor/rug once or twice. I mean it's just a book, not a newborn. - Woas (via ENWorld)

I know I won't be lending him any of my books. But overall, I think it's important to strike a balance to how we see our books. It's good to take care of them to maintain their fine condition but it is meant to be used so don't be too cautious.

This guy gives a good idea.

I'm generally a bit anal when it comes to my RPG books. Most of my books are still in excellent condition. The two exceptions to this is the Magic Item Compendium, which has slightly frayed corners and my Shackled City Adventure Path hardcover which has started to wear along most of the edges of the hardcover. I think this damage has come as a result of them travelling in my backpack (the SCAP book has seen a lot of travel with me as I prep on the train to and from work). I have considered buying another SCAP hardcover to keep on my shelf since this first one has really started to get trashed but I haven't been able to justify the cost to myself just yet.

I never write in my RPG book, not even just putting my name on the inside of the front cover. I've used post-it-notes and post-it-flags in them before though. At the table I'm happy for players to use my books as I like to see them get used. However if they've just been eating something greasy or sticky I won't hesitate to ask them to wash their hands first. I do ask nicely though!

I am very, very reluctant to lend my books out to anyone due to a couple of bad experiences. When I lent my 2E AD&D core rulebooks to a friend back when I was a teenager they were returned with 2 of the spines cracked. On another occasion a few years later I lent a friend the Kingdom of Kalamar Campaign Setting. The spine of that book isn't quite right either now. As a result I almost never lend out my books. If I do I make sure the person borrowing them knows of my previous experiences with lending my books and that I would be very unhappy if I got books back in that condition again.

Overall though I don't mind if my books get damaged due to wear and tear from using them. I just try and take precautions so that they stay in excellent condition for as long as possible. - Olaf the Stout (via ENWorld)

Thanks to all who took the time to answer the question but let's get more answers.

What about you? How do you treat your books?

Questing's Readings - 4/10/09

2009-10-05T21:30:00.001+08:00

October is Halloween Month.

Although, this month's blog carnival has nothing to do with ghost stories or other horror themes, it does raise significant questions about what justifies our own and our PC's actions.

Bring any thoughts that you might have on morality in this month's blog carnival hosted by the Games of State.

This week is a great week if you are stumped for ideas. There are a couple of series to be looking out if your creative juices are running low to help you find inspirations or ways to overcome creative barriers.

For DMs, there's also a couple of post which talks a little about DM responsibility as a reminder. But the most must-read for this week is an interview with Robin Laws on a new investigative system that sounds really interesting.

abstract XP
Coming up with original adventure ideas (Part 2)
Original adventure ideas (Part 3)
Ideas for original adventures (Part 4)
Adventure ideas (Part 5)
Generating adventure ideas (Part 6)
Adventure ideas (Part 7)

A series on where to find sources of ideas for creating adventures. The series is still running on the idea gathering part but it should be interesting to see how to weave these ideas into an adventure.

Dungeon's Master
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
An outline of responsibilities of the DM that I agree with but might want to add on a few of my own.

Gaming Brouhaha
More from D&D Camp
A sharing of what happened in a D&D camp in 1982. Reading this makes me feel that I could experience something like this when I was a kid.

Jonathan Drain's D20 Source
When Things Go Wrong
When things goes wrong, it's time for the DM to step up. Here are some simple things to keep in mind when you are in the hot seat to solve a problem.

Musings of the Chatty DM
Creativity and the RPG Mind: Part 1, Introduction
The start of a new series based on a book on creativity and learning what sort of barriers gamers face. It is a very strong introduction and it would certainly be very interesting to see how this series develops.

Stargazer's World
Robin D. Laws interview
A very long interview with Robin Laws about the GUMSHOE system and some bits of his RPG writing career.

Questing's Readings - 27/9/09

2009-09-29T03:01:00.002+08:00

This week's readings has been slightly on the dry side but there were a couple of interesting posts on taking 10.

Chad Perrin: SOB
Passive Skill Checks, Consistency, and Taking 10
Why we don't allow taking 10 more often than we should and how it can benefit our games.

Elthos RPG
GMing: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
I agree with everything that he says about what makes a good, bad and ugly DM. A good summary of pointers for any would-be DMs to take out there.

Geek Ken
DM Tip: Taking 10 and passive skill checks
An interesting take on how taking 10 could be used for skills other than Perception and Insight.

RoleplayingPro
The Healing Surge: DM's Little Helper
Some extra application of healing surges outside of combat or to speed up play.

Whitehall ParaIndustries
Flaws of GNS- Part IV: Conflict with Reality
Flaws of GNS- Part V: The Big Model
Flaws of GNS- Part VI: Conclusion

Winding up the series on the flaws of GNS.

Questing with Fantasy Craft

2009-09-25T14:01:00.006+08:00

When I heard about FantasyCraft, it had piqued my interest for some reason. It was one of the few names that were mentioned during the GenCon season that was not Parhfinder. I was curious of what FantasyCraft could be and gladly volunteered to review a copy that I had managed to acquire.

FantasyCraft, if the name hadn't given it away, was build by the team that brought you SpyCraft. This was Crafty Games' attempt into trying to fit their MasterCraft rules for a fantasy-based setting. Although I had not read SpyCraft before, I had heard of its reputation for being a daunting and overly complex rules system. However, while daunting might be the impression at first, I find FantasyCraft a ruleset worth mastering.

FantasyCraft places a heavy emphasis on concept and the strength of roleplaying over its mechanics. The mechanics are more towards reflecting the benefits of roleplaying as a character rather than having sub-systems that appear to look smart for the sake of it. The foundation of these rulesets are built by creative processes on the player's part than his mathematical crunching ability.

Coming from a D&D background, character generation seems lengthy at first. In addition to the usual picks of races (or species) and classes (career), FantasyCraft also wants the player to consider his specialty (and talents if you are playing as humans). Each specialty is very much similar to an occupation from D20 Modern which grants its own mechanical benefits but it also adds flavor to the career level that you picked.

This removes class defined functions of each character base on their choices and wants the player to consider what type of character he really wants to play as. Although there may be the archetype combinations to make the perfect rogue or fighter or spellcaster, the amount of specialty available to you encourages you to go for a more diverse and unique character.

There is more to that as well. While D&D might incline players to play a more combat worthy sort of character, FantasyCraft doesn't make that discrimination by giving players careers and specialties to play as social or skillful types of characters. Effectiveness is not always proven on the battlefield as there are more areas to excel.

This is where the second strength of FantasyCraft comes in. It has a sandbox approach in dictating characters' abilities. Every specialty and career choice is rewarded with mechanical backing that would come into play eventually. A soldier might strive to gain the feats and combat abilities to take out the enemy but the courtier seeks greater renown so that he could call in more favors.

In fact, there is a resource management element in the ruleset that mostly happens outside of combat. Characters have to think about what do they want to do during their downtime and this can be used to pursue different sorts of resources by using non-combat related skills and abilities. Gold and treasure which are the staple rewards for defeating monsters in their lairs cannot buy the reputation and renown that may be needed to call in a few favors for the next adventure.

It should come as no surprise that for a ruleset that puts quite on emphasis outside of combat has quite a simple combat system. However, the deadliness of the field, is far from friendly. Using the WP/VP system for tracking combat damage, it also does track for serious damages that could cripple characters which will be reflected to mechanical penalties. This could range from battered limbs to head trauma or injuries that have to be treated during downtime.

Combat is also not boring with the amount of basic actions that a character can perform, further expanded if the character can do combat tricks which are granted by combat feats.

Now all this extensive rules would be for nothing if it doubles the load of the GM running it. Under the GMing chapter, you would mainly find great advice that are generic enough to be used for other game systems. The GMing chapter refocuses the emphasis that a good concept/story from the GM is more important than the rules. Under the worldbuilding section, you will be asked a series of questions of how each element in the world interacts with the world populace and the PCs.

It also tells the GM that the rules are flexible and it should be up to the GM to use the ones that he wants accordingly. A GM can decide what rules he wants to use by deciding on his campaign qualities.

Want to run a gritty world with no spellcasting? Then don't put in the sorcery and miracles qualities and add Fragile Heroes to make your PCs have half their vitality point.

You can even run a speed campaign by adding in all the Fast qualities which grants your PCs a much faster rate of leveling up, getting feats and attribute bonuses.

One of the few mechanics that I really love in GMing FantasyCraft is the shared narrative control. Players and GM are given a certain amount of action dice per session that they could use to enhance or set a certain tone for an encounter/scene during an adventure. A GM may use his action dice to 'fudge' the defenses of his NPCs while a PC could use his action dice to gain double XP from completing their character's personal subplot.

FantasyCraft takes a more tool-kit approach and it is not for everyone. I would take FantasyCraft and compare it with True20 rather than Pathfinder. The amount of sandboxing preparation, creative work and rules mastery that usually comes with these kind of systems equals to an amount of work than some GMs and players might not be able to cope with.

However, the kudos that I give it to is because it is a very self-sustainable system contained within its 402 pages which is less than the Pathfinder Core Rulebook anyway. FantasyCraft provides you with all the tools suited to a fantasy RPG that can translate into many years of fun.

If the day of Fantasy RPG apocalypse ever comes, I will be taking FantasyCraft into the underground bunkers and leave my 4E D&D books to the nuclear holocaust any day.

Want to learn more about Fantasy Craft? Read on...

Atomic Array: Fantasy Craft (Atomic Array 032)

Game Cryer: Review by Chris Perrin

Questing GM: Questing with Fantasy Craft

allgeektout: What Fantasy Craft Has to Offer

Campaign Mastery: Mine Fiction for Campaign Qualities

Emerson's Bookshelf: Fantasy Just Got Crafty

Critical Hits: Critical Review

Fear the Boot: Fear the Review

Gnome Stew: What Fantasy Craft Brings to the Table

Uncle Bear: Fantasy Craft Chargen

Flames Rising: Dark FantasyCraft Review

Questing's Readings - 20/9/09

2009-09-20T21:15:00.000+08:00

This has been a great week of readings, generating a greater amount of good content than the usual week.

I would just like to give a small shoutout to what is going on between the Chatty DM and the Newbie DM who are starting a new series to examine questions about DMing from their respective point of views. The former being an experienced and well-loved DM with his own captivating style while the other is just starting to learn the ropes on sitting behind the screen.

I think this would be a very enlightening series which could give some interesting perspectives on different approaches to GMing. Keep it up, guys. I'll be anticipating for this series more often.

Other than that, we have more interviews with the designers from Wizards and a deconstruction (or should I say destruction) of the GNS theory which have seem to reemerge into the bloggersphere again.

CriticalAnkleBites
CriticalAnkleBites and ChattyDM pretend to be journalists
The second part of the interview with Andy Collins which discusses about improving the old classes, erratas, how Wizards take in player feedback, house rules and Andy's gaming preferences.

Critical Hits
In Depth: 4E Assassin and Q&A with Mike Mearls
If you're not a DDI subscriber, you might not have seen the new Assassin class that they previewed at Wizards. This piece gives a great summary about the new class that uses the Shadow power source, followed by an interview with Mike Mearls on the design process and ideas of this class.

Game in the Brain
GMing Style learned with a bit of a Scientific Approach
A managerial approach to seeing the relationship between GM and player and the game from a project standpoint.

Gaming Brouhaha
Constructing a Game Table (part 1)
A step-by-step look into building your own game table.

Greywulf's Lair
Everything you need to know about Skill Challenges but were afraid to ask
10 things to know about skill challenges as a DM and a player.

Musings of the Chatty DM
This is Why I’m Not a Journalist: Andy /Collins Interview
The first part of the interview with Andy Collins on DMing and how 4E has changed the job of DMing.

Something Old, Something New: What Makes a Great GM?
Let's hear it from Chatty DM on what he thinks makes a great GM. As an experienced DM, his best advice is always strive to be better.

NewbieDM
1d12 questions with James Wyatt
12 random questions with James Wyatt from DMing, skill challenges, DMG 2, Sigil to some interesting bit of information about Dark Sun.

Something Old, Something New: What Makes a Great GM?
The Newbie DM sharing his thoughts on what makes a great GM. They both share one similarity; communicaton.

RoleplayingPro
Why Verisimilitude
Why is verisimilitude important and how it can actually contribute to your game for players and DMs.

Whitehall Paraindustries
Flaws of GNS- Part I: The Appeal
Flaws of GNS- Part II: Devil in the Details
Flaws of GNS- Part III: Plan Meets Need

A very critical examination that discredits GNS.

Questing's Readings - DMG 2 Edition

2009-09-20T20:59:00.001+08:00

Since the Dungeon Master's Guide 2 has been released for the 4th edition, there's been nothing but praise for the book as a great contributor to the game itself. From the reviews, it seems to be choked full of advice instead the crunchy add-ons that the Player's Handbook 2 and Monster Manual 2 have been.

It also addresses earlier issues that DMs may find hard to handle such as skill challenges by dedicating a whole chapter on it. The book also has a chapter for paragon campaigns which is just about the where most groups would likely be if they have been playing since the launch of 4E. It looks as though the DMG 2 is really filling up the gaps that were left in DMG 1.

I'm really interested to read the DMG 2 for myself and I have to say that I impressed to see what the designers have decided to put into this book. Even if you are not planning to get PHB 2 or MM 2 for the crunch fest that they are, I would believe that DMG 2 is a great successor to its predecessor.

If you can't take my word for it, then read the reviews of it by bloggers from the RPG Bloggers Network. Add these voices in and see if you hear an echo.

Critical Hits
Review: "Dungeon Master's Guide 2"

Dungeon's Master
Dungeon Master's Guide 2: Skill Challenges

Newbie DM
What's cool about the DMG2?

Stupid Ranger
DMG 2 Lessons

The RPG Athenaeum
Product Review: D&D Fourth Edition Dungeon Master's Guide 2

Questing's Readings - 13/9/09

2009-09-10T12:56:00.003+08:00

For this week's readings, we have some posts on GMing advice, gaming with significant others and a resource page for Pathfinder.

Campaign Mastery
Types of Combat Hazards - Traps
Some pretty extensive advice on how to place traps in combat terrain and consider the what, where and why of traps in the battlefield.

GamesTopica
Scaling Social Conflicts
Some interesting thoughts on social conflicts and how other game systems up the stakes to make them as consequential as combat.

Mad Brew Labs
Pathfinder RPG Resources
A good list of resources, official and unofficial, including the PRD, wikis, character generators and character sheets.

RoleplayingPro
The Gamemaster's Arsenal: Shifting Paradigms [Part 1]
A very well written article on thinking how DMs should design NPCs that are not only reactive to the PCs but should be reacted by the PCs.

Stupid Ranger
I Don't Want To Decide Anything
A sharing of how different playing styles can affect a marriage. A good read for those who are into gaming with a significant other who is not.

Questing's Readings - 6/9/09

2009-09-08T15:18:00.002+08:00

It's September and more than third of a quarter of the year has gone by. Now it's a good time to start looking back at your achievements and mistakes for this year and planning for next year's resolutions.

Speaking of looking back, this month's RPG Blog Carnival is being hosted by Johnn Four in his Campaign Mastery blog where he asks bloggers to think back about GMing mistakes that they have done and reflect upon it.

If you missed any of last month's blog post while you were away at GenCon, the roundup for last month's conventional carnival is also up at Chogwiz's Old Guy RPG Blog.

In the meantime, these are some of the readings that I've enjoyed this past week for the start of September. We have a couple of great interviews coming out of GenCon, a guide to an online gaming program and a look at monster maths in 4E

A Butterfly Dreaming
Character Development: Flashbacks
A repost on flashbacks and how to run a flashback session for your characters.

Dungeon's Master
Keith Baker Answers 13 Questions
An interview with Keith Baker on his thoughts about Eberron and some of the changes made in 4E (particularly about dragonmarks). There's a couple of juicy inside information about his upcoming novels and who Keith thought was the most worthy candidate to be sitting on the throne of Galifar.

Mike's Mind
Digital Dungeon Master: RP Tools Part 1
Digital Dungeon Master: RP Tools Part 2

A simple guide to installing MapTools, an online gametable. With instructions on how to host a game and creating tokens for combat.

Robertson Games
Differences & Direction in Dungeons and Dragons
A list of spectrums and how each edition of D&D stands between them. It's an interesting list to consider and it can be used to judge other game systems. Other DMs have already used it to judge their own personal preferences (RPG Blog II and Spirits of Eden)

RoleplayingPro
The DM's Call: Consequences
A good article that shows why everything the PCs do should have a consequence. Whether causing negative impacts to them or presenting opportunities for the DM.

Stupid Ranger
Interview: Bill Slavisek and Andy Collins from Wizards of the Coast
The Stupid Ranger crew asking them about their gaming history and career, dispensing some campaign advice and what are their favorite classes and villains. It's a little long and builds quiet a text block. I think it could have been better if they split it into 3 parts.

The Spirits of Eden
Wyatt Does Attack Math (This Can't End Well)
Wyatt Does Defense Math (Oh Lawd)
Despite his bile-filled speech about some 4E products, he does love 4E. Loves it so much that he is willing to do the math to study Monster defenses and attacks on an average PC.

Some interesting findings to be had for sure and maybe these will be addressed in future 4E products?

UncleBear
What is a Campaign?
Uncle Bear giving some definitions of what a campaign is. I really like mine to be the second one but it works out more like the third.

This could be useful in planning future campaigns to give it some structure.

Questing's Readings - 30/8/09

2009-08-30T20:49:00.002+08:00

After about 2 weeks of hiatus, I'm slowly starting to find my stride back into blogging. After spending some time to think and looking back at some of my older posts, I might decide to experiment with a few ideas, ditch some of my regular features and go for an entirely different direction with this blog. That might be up in a future announcement if I find it worth mentioning.

In the meantime, I've tried not to miss anything that is happening in the RPG Bloggers Network and enjoyed some of the readings that I wanted to share. This week we have some insight in party composition and combat length in 4E, an interview with Erik Mona and some other general advice.

Campaign Mastery
Types of Combat Hazards - Environment
This post makes you think your combat environment in three dimension instead of just visualizing it on the flat battlemat.

Dungeon's Master
Playing In An Unbalanced Party
A demonstration of what happens when you play in a party mainly filled by one of the particular roles in 4E. While the results are not entirely surprising but it does raise the question of whether roles play an important role in effective party composition.

GamesTopica.Net
Who hold the Responsibilities for Effective Characters?
An interesting examination of defining character effectiveness and whether it's the rules or the DM which should give the PCs a situation to shine in. There are some interesting thoughts on character effectiveness and I agree that it is up to the DM to make it worthwhile for PCs to be effective in some situations other than combat.

Inkwell Ideas
Final Results of the RPG Blog Readership Survey
The final results of the RPG Blog Readership survey are out. Although it can be a little hard to digest especially the ones with subjective answers but this is surely useful for any RPG blogger who wants to know how other bloggers respond to their content.

Life and Times of a Philippine Gamer
Pacing your Game
Some really good advice on how to set the pace of your game with good pointers of do's and don'ts. There are also some useful examples to learn how to set your pacing for different situations.

Musings of the Chatty DM
Friday Chat: The Issue(s) of Combat length in D&D 4e
The Chatty DM talks about the problem of combat length in 4E, what contributes to it, his own solutions and some other alternatives. While my group doesn't seem to feel the Grind (yet), this is quite a good read nonetheless.

RPG Blog II
Erik Mona Interview: Pathfinder, Customer Service, and Old School
An interview with Erik Mona on the topics in the title. The most interesting part that I find in this interview is about his thoughts about the Old School Renaissance.

Sly Flourish
Four Tips for Running Solo Creatures
Some DMs might find that solo creatures aren't working as they thought it should and they have been know to contribute to the grind that some people feel in 4E. These are some good tips that demystify that expectations and how to use solo creatures for effectively in combat.

Questing GM Going on Hiatus

2009-08-14T15:16:00.002+08:00

If you noticed that for the past two weeks, I haven't been doing any updates and all the weekly features that should be up are not. As to all my readers, I truly and sincerely apologize if you were expecting a more timely update. I'm not trying to make any excuses, especially to datelines that I set for myself for my readers but I've been going through some rather hard times of late.

I wouldn't normally take this place to talk about my problems but I've decided that I owe everyone, at least, an explanation for my sudden absence.

Some of you may have noticed from my Twitter several weeks ago that I've cut my internet connection recently due to horrible connection problems which has greatly affected my accessibility and time that I can spend going online on a daily basis. I'm sure that I've missed out a lot of what's happening in the past weeks, not only at Wizards but also in the RPG Bloggers Network. Catching up (if I ever intend on doing that) will take some time.

However, I've managed to find a solution, in between the weeks, that would hopefully put me back online on a more regular basis.

But more importantly, which I believe is the greatest cause of the sudden drop and lack of updates, is that I'm going through gaming and blogging delirium. It's something that every gamer and blogger goes through at some point and after religiously blogging about gaming for the past year almost without stop, I'm quite surprised that it has only hit me now rather when everyone gets discouraged in the first few months of starting their own blog.

I'm starting to have doubts about my own content and effort in producing them which are starting to deviate from the purpose of this blog. I have to rethink and reevaluate the direction of this blog and where I'm going with this.

As of now, the Questing GM is going to be on hiatus. Every adventurer needs some downtime to go through some character development, when not hacking at monsters for XP and treasure.

How long will I be away? I can't really give a good estimate. I could be bouncing back next week, next month or, god forbid, next year. I just some time to regather my thoughts on what am I doing and take care of the other more important things in my real life. I might still chime in once in a while, just to say a thing or two but they won't be on a fixed schedule.

I'm very sorry to disappoint you all but I'm really grateful to all my readers, the RPG Bloggers Network, my followers in Twitter and the gaming community for making this a good run while it lasted.

Hopefully I will see you all again very soon. Perhaps in a new incarnation.

For now, I bid you all sweet water and light laughter, until we next meet.

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Preview #13

2009-08-06T21:15:00.003+08:00

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Preview #13
Now that we're done with the base classes, Paizo is giving us a taste of how they have worked on the prestige class. Enter Seltyiel, 20th level fighter/wizard/eldritch knight.

Seltyiel
Male half-elf wizard 5/fighter 5/eldritch knight 10
LE Medium humanoid (elf)
Init +9; Senses low-light vision; Perception +21
DEFENSE
AC 25, touch 19, flat-footed 20 (+6 armor, +4 deflection, +5 Dex)
hp 174 (15d10+5d6+70)
Fort +18, Ref +17, Will +12; +2 vs. enchantments, +1 vs. fear
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee +2 keen axiomatic shocking burst longsword +24/+19/+14/+9 (1d8+7/17–20)
Ranged ray +22 (by spell)
Special Attacks force missile (9/day), intense spells +2 damage
Spells Prepared (CL 15th)
7th—grasping hand, prismatic spray (DC 23), spell turning
6th—chain lightning (2, DC 22), disintegrate (DC 22), form of the dragon I, greater dispel magic
5th—cone of cold (2, DC 21), polymorph, teleport, wall of force
4th—dimension door, ice storm, stoneskin, wall of fire (2), wall of ice
3rd—dispel magic (2), fireball (4, DC 19), fly (2), haste (2)
2nd—invisibility (2), mirror image, scorching ray (3), see invisibility
1st—magic missile (3), shield (2), true strike (2)
0 (at will)—detect magic, mage hand, mending, ray of frost, read magic
Prohibited Schools: enchantment, necromancy
STATISTICS
Str 14, Dex 20, Con 16, Int 23, Wis 8, Cha 10
Base Atk +17; CMB +19; CMD 38
Feats Arcane Armor Training, Critical Focus, Critical Mastery, Disruptive, Empower Spell, Greater Weapon Focus (longsword), Improved Initiative, Improved Vital Strike, Lightning Reflexes, Penetrating Strike (longsword), Power Attack, Scribe Scroll, Skill Focus (Diplomacy), Spellbreaker, Staggering Critical, Tiring Critical, Vital Strike, Weapon Focus (longsword), Weapon Specialization (longsword)
Skills Diplomacy +26, Fly +28, Intimidate +23, Knowledge (arcana) +29, Knowledge (planes) +29, Perception +21, Spellcraft +29, Stealth +25
SQ arcane bond (bat), armor training +1, bravery +1, diverse training, elf blood, spell critical, weapon training (heavy blades +1)
Combat Gear cube of force, potion of cure serious wounds (4), quicken metamagic rod, rod of cancellation, scroll of limited wish (2), staff of evocation, wand of lightning bolt (CL 10, 50 charges); Other Gear +2 keen axiomatic shocking burst longsword, +4 etherealness leather armor, belt of physical perfection +2, boots of teleportation, cloak of resistance +5, hand of glory, headband of vast intelligence +6, orange prism ioun stone, pearl of power (two spells), ring of protection +4, ring of regeneration, ring of wizardry (III), vibrant purple ioun stone (dimension door, shield)

Some highlight notes and changes from the 3.x Eldritch Knight

Eldritch Knight gains a bonus feat on 1st, 5th and 9th level.

A 1st level Eldritch Knight gains Diverse Training which allows him to add his Eldritch Knight levels to his wizard and fighter levels for the purpose of determining level to qualify for feats only.

A 10th level Eldritch Knight gains Spell Critical which allows the Eldritch Knight to cast a spell that targets or include the target into the area of effect as a swift action that does not provoke an AoO on the target that is hit by a critical hit.

Form of the Dragon I allows the caster to change into a medium-sized dragon of any color which grants its attacks, breath weapon and other resistances or abilities.
Polymorph allows the caster to become a humanoid, animal or elemental.

The Arcane Armor Training feat allows the character to spend a swift action to reduce the chance of arcane spell failure by 10%.

Critical Mastery (a fighter-only feat) allows the character to apply the effects of two critical feats when hitting with a critical hit.

Staggering Critical causes the target to be staggered. Tiring Critical causes the target to be fatigued.

The Disruptive feat (fighter-only feat) causes any arcane spellcaster adjacent to the character a +4 to DC when casting defensively.

Spellbreaker (fighter-only feat) allows the character to make an AoO when an adjacent spellcaster fails a defensive casting check.

Penetrating Strike (fighter-only feat) allows him to ignore 5 points of DR (except for DR/-) which increases to 10 points with Greater Penetrating Strike (16th level fighter-only feat).

An Evoker gains Intense Spell at 1st level which gives a bonus to damage spells equal to 1/2 of the wizard level.

Evokers can also cast Force Missile which acts like Magic Missile, once per turn.

Half-Elf gives +2 to one ability score of his choice, the Skill Focus feat for free and pick two favored class.

Ring of Regeneration regains 1 hp per round and makes the character immune to bleeding damage.

Although this preview is all about the Eldritch Knight but I'm more impressed by the fighter-only feats. I'm curious as to what they have done with Polymorph but this preview does not seem forthcoming with the details other than the shapes that the caster is allowed to assume.

After the tidbit from the Wizard preview, I'm quite delighted to see the special abilities that specialist wizards get which seems interesting to play.

Any thoughts on the new Eldritch Knight or feats?

Burning Question - What Do You Look Forward to the Most in a New 4E Supplment?

2009-08-04T21:55:00.004+08:00

Although splatbooks and supplements are not necessary to run a game but they have been one of the mainstay in the D&D product line, often expanding the horizon of players and DMs to further improve their game. Since the launch of 4E, these are the supplements that have released for DMs and players alike

Players

Martial Power
Arcane Power
Divine Power
Adventurer's Vault
Forgotten Realms Player's Guide
Eberron Player's Guide

DMs

Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons
Open Grave
Manual of the Planes
Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide
Eberron Campaign Guide

Each of the player supplements have offered new builds, powers, paragon paths, feats, equipments and the occasional new rules which is mainly mechanics and crunch.

On the other hand, DM supplements are usually packed with useful information that is mostly comprised of fluff, new monsters, ideas and advises for encounters, plot hooks and one or two new features with rules to be implemented into their game.

So this week's Burning Question is;

What Do You Look Forward to the Most in a New 4E Supplement?

Do you prefer new feats over powers? New builds over paragon paths? Or always watch out for any new rules options as a player first?

Similarly, if you are buying a DM supplement what are looking forward first? New fluff about the setting (even those for the generic setting) or new crunchy monsters? Advice and ideas over plot hooks? Or you rather like seeing new rules that you can use or bend to suit your game?

Personally, I prefer DM supplements than player supplements because I'm a fluff addict. I love to read more about my favorite settings and try to devise plot hooks out of them. While I don't mind the occasional advice and ideas, the thing that I look at last are the monsters and new rules.

As a player, the first thing that I'll probably want more is new builds. New rules would probably come second before powers and feats.

Share your comments whether as a player, a DM or both! What do you think makes or breaks the new supplement for you?

Questing's Readings - 2/8/09

2009-08-03T21:04:00.001+08:00

July is gone and the month's blog carnival roundup is already up over at 6D6 Fireball where bloggers give their thoughts on all things related with D&D. From how it has change their lives to its well being and the future.

Now we're in August and that can only mean one thing in the gaming world. It is that time of the year where gamers would make their annual gaming pilgrimage to gaming mekkah; GenCon!

In line with this month's major convention, Chgowiz from the Old Guy RPG Blog will be hosting this month's blog carnival with the topic on conventions, Ren Fairs, carnivals and festivals whether in-game or out-of-game.

Readings has been a little slow but this week we've got good posts on worldbuilding, DMing tips and even a useful initiative trackers.

Beneath the Screen
Learn To Say "Yes"
Good advice on how to improvise and how to handle moments when players have derailed your plot. It even mentions a mistake that DMs tend to make to put their players in line.

Dungeon's Master
Condition Tracker
A very simple yet useful initiative and condition tracker pdf to use on your table.

Inkwell Ideas
10 Ways to Vary Your Game World's Cultures
10 aspects of culture for worldbuilders to consider when they are creating a new race or society. It is really a good list of things to consider and it can really differentiate each culture from the next.

GamesTopica.Net
Social Rewards in RPGs
Some thoughts on why social rewards in RPGs are not popular and some ideas on how to implement them mechanically.

Not just in Character, but in Style too
How hard is it to get your players to roleplay the way you want them to so that it suits your campaign genre or style. Is there a way to encourage roleplaying in style.

Mike's Mind
Turn by Turn: IniTracker
An introduction and step-by-step on how to use a free online initiative tracker.

NewbieDM
Beginner tips for effective narration
Some very good advice for DMs who are having trouble with their narration. It even gives you some pointers on what makes an effective narration, what should you describe and what are the common pitfalls that leads to boring or confusing narration.

Sly Flourish
Four Questions with Robin Laws
An interview with Robin Laws asking 4 questions about how he runs his 4E game. He's got some unique and specific advice about running 4E combat and skill challenges.

UncleBear
The Why of Worldbuilding
Why asking yourself questions like an annoying four year old could help create a better world.

Worldbuilding 101: Designing a soundtrack
Uncle Bear giving some great ideas on how to use music in your game for more than just setting the mood for your encounters.

Gary Gygax Statue for Lake Geneva

2009-08-02T19:40:00.004+08:00

Gail Gygax, wife of the late E. Gary Gygax will be proposing to the Lake Geneva Park Committee to place a statue of her husband at Library Park in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

Gail supposedly had discussed her desires to have a statue of Gygax before his death and wish to turn this dream into a reality.

"Gary gave millions of men and woman a reason to open a book - I discussed my desire for the statue with Gary just before he passed - he was pleased. I hope I can make the project a reality."

Gail will be approaching individuals from the film, computer and gaming industry for the project.

Members of ENWorld, where this news was posted on, have speculations of what the design of the statue should look like.

Do you think a statue of Gygax himself is the best way to immortalize him? How about a statue of an adventuring party, equipped for dungeon exploration? The human in the party could be given Col Pladoh's face.

Come on now, what Gary really deserves is a 25mm lead miniature. I'd buy one of those.

A stone table with Gary seated at it as if DMing would be cool, especially if no one minded groups coming and using the table for games.

If they should base the design of the statue based on [the cover of AD&D First Edition PHB] with Gygax being one of the "thieves" and the idol's eye being a d20.

Taken from this thread.

Word of Wizards - 1/8/09

2009-08-02T16:17:00.004+08:00

Excerpts from this week shows a couple of new magical weapons suited for the primal classes and a couple of rods useful against undead and formorians from Adventurer's Vault 2.

For miniatures, we get to see the Remorhaz, Adult Brown Dragon, Hezrou and a couple of new draconians and goblins. Although the previews series concludes this week, but watch out for the remaining miniatures from the Legendary Evils set in this month's upcoming Preview for August and Beyond.

The cleric's role as the healer in the party is now but history in 4E. With the recent release of Divine Power, take a look back at the evolution of the cleric through the editions to see what has changed and what has not.

Other than the usual goods, Wizards have also made a couple of announcements.

The winners have been decided for the Don't Split the Party contest which reunites a gaming group that has been playing together since highschool and college but have been separated by circumstances since 1993. Wizards will be awarding them with badges and all expense paid accommodations to this year's GenCon which is happening in August.

The beta version of the D&D Monster Builder is now available to DDI subscribers which allows DMs to access and modify any of the published 2,500 monsters including ones from Monster Manual 2. This tool is the first in an array of future tools from DDI's online D&D Adventure Tools but, unlike the Character Builder, will not have a demo version and is exclusively for anyone with a DDI subscription account.

If you have a copy of Elder Evils, you might want to check out the 4E conversion for the encounters in the book by Wizards which includes a separate pdf for statblocks.

As for the monthly magazine wrap-up, Wizards have posted the art and map galleries for this month's issue of Dungeon and Dragon. One remarkable difference in this month's gallery is that Wizards have included marked and unmarked versions of their maps which is hopefully something that they would continue to do for future issues.

This week's rundown.

Monday (27/7/09)
Adventurer's Vault 2 Excerpts: Weapons

Tuesday (28/7/09)
Legendary Evils Preview 5

Wednesday (29/7/09)
Never Split the Party Contest Winner
4th Edition Conversion: Elder Evils
Dungeon 168 Art Gallery
Dungeon 168 Map Gallery

Thursday (30/7/09)
D&D Monster Builder Beta Launch
Legendary Evils Preview 6

Friday (31/7/09)
D&D Alumni: The Cleric
Dragon 377 Art Gallery
Adventurer's Vault 2 Excerpts: Implements

The editorial calendar for August is out and next week, we'll be seeing more excerpts from Adventurer's Vault 2. Insiders who are also fans of psionics would be delighted to see the Githzerai making its 4E debut as a playable race this coming Monday.

{Quest Log} Pre-Campaign Blues

2009-07-31T21:00:00.000+08:00

After going through the disastrous TPK during our one-shot session, the group has decided that they like to move on to a long term campaign.

I proposed to the group that we should go through all the published modules from Wizards and so we are picking up H1 Keep on the Shadowfell this coming weekend. From there, I intend to move along through each module and tie them together as an episodic campaign.

It's been a while since I've run a campaign so I've been a little rusty in trying to get things organize and remember what should you prepare during the pre-campaign.

I've wanted to run a pre-campaign session where I could get the players together and discuss a little about how are we going to tie their characters into the setting. Unfortunately, work called up and I had to cancel the pre-campaign met.

So we had to do most of the char gen and discussion over a local forum where most of my players are members of (it even has a sub-board for D&D so it was appropriate to have them there anyway) and would go straight for the session this Saturday. While I would have much prefered a face-to-face meetup because then ideas could be bounced back and forth between the players and the DM on the spot but through the forum, we managed to most of the character generation process, questions and answers done.

Despite the hassles that we had with the character builder, our group once again decided to give it a second-shot and it was important that I lay down some houserules of how should the character generation process be done.

On the day of work, I managed to bump into one of my old players and he mentioned that he was interested in trying some 4E. That's quite a nice blessing in disguise as our group had only 4 players and an addition would make it an ideal 5-man party.

Eventually, I asked the other group members and they were ok with the new player (which most of them happen to know the guy IRL). I passed him my char gen houserules and a link to the free version of the character builder. Hopefully, there won't be any mishaps again this time.

While the Character Builder really does make generating a character a really quick process, I don't think that it really reduces the amount of time spend on creating a character in a campaign. What the Builder does is that it gives players more time to spend on deciding their character backgrounds (which is probably where all the time should be spent anyway).

Since this was going to be a campaign with episodic links, I figured that it would still be best if the players could come up with background information for their characters so that I could tie them into the Nentir Vale.

I think my biggest mistake at this point is that I forgot to give them any information about the setting that they would be play in but I expect that they would be able to come up with some generic ones and I can work the details in with them after that.

Although they have already chosen their backgrounds from PHB 2, so far only 2 out of my 5 players have fully fleshed out their character background and I'm only wondering do the remaining players need a little information to help them with their decision. What I can do to rectify this problem at the moment is post up some little information about the setting that they playing in on the forum and hopefully we can flesh out the details on the session itself.

I'm starting to feel my way into running and organizing a campaign but it feels like I'm back to square one and have lots to do at the moment.

Do you think that I should have done the pre-campaign face-to-face meetup or should have posted up the information much earlier to help with their character background process?

Let me know as I enjoy the feedback.

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Preview #12

2009-07-29T21:00:00.000+08:00

Pathfiner Roleplaying Game Preview #12

The last base class preview is reserved for what can be one of the most complicated class to play since 3.x. Let's take a look at the wizard with Ezren, 10th level male human wizard.

Ezren
Male human wizard 10
NG Medium humanoid (human)
Init +3; Senses Perception +12
Defense
AC 15, touch 11, flat-footed 15 (+4 armor, +2 deflection, –1 Dex)
hp 57 (10d6+20)
Fort +8, Ref +4, Will +11
Offense
Speed 30 ft.
Melee +3 club +8 (1d6+3)
Special Attacks hand of the apprentice (9/day, +11 ranged), metamagic mastery (2/day)
Spells Prepared (CL 10th)
5th—cone of cold (DC 21), teleport, wall of force
4th—dimension door, enervation, ice storm, stoneskin
3rd—dispel magic, fireball (DC 19), fly, haste
2nd—bull's strength, invisibility, mirror image, scorching ray (2), web (DC 18)
1st—alarm, magic missile (3), ray of enfeeblement, shield
0—detect magic, light, mage hand, read magic
Statistics
Str 11, Dex 9, Con 12, Int 22, Wis 15, Cha 9
Base Atk +5; CMB +5; CMD 21
Feats Arcane Strike, Combat Casting, Defensive Combat Training, Empower Spell, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Scribe Scroll, Silent Spell
Skills Appraise +19, Fly +12, Knowledge (arcana) +19, Knowledge (engineering) +19, Knowledge (geography) +19, Knowledge (history) +19, Knowledge (planes) +19, Perception +12, Spellcraft +19
Languages Common, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Halfling, Orc
SQ arcane bond (cane), cantrips
Combat Gear potion of cure serious wounds, scroll of dispel magic, wand of magic missile (CL 9th, 50 charges); Other Gear ring of protection +2, cloak of resistance +2, bracers of armor +4, cane (treat as a club), bead of force, blessed book, headband of vast intelligence +2 (Perception), pearl of power (3rd level)

Some slight changes to the wizard class features, spells and feats.

Specialist wizards gain bonus spells as in 3.x but universalist wizards now gain a couple of powers; Hand of the Apprentice and Metamagic Mastery.

Hand of the Apprentice allows a wizard with a standard action to make a thrown weapon attack with a melee weapon within a range of 30 ft. The wizard uses his Intelligence modifier instead of his Dexterity to make the attack roll but still uses Strength modifier to determine the damage. It cannot perform a combat maneuver and can only be used 3+intelligence modifier times per day.

At 8th level, a universalist wizard gains metamagic mastery which he can use 1/day and gains an additional usage for each 2 levels beyond that. With metamagic mastery, the wizard can augment a spell he has prepared with a metamagic effect without increasing the spell level. The wizard must spend one usage of his mastery for each level increase the metamagic feat would normally cost. A wizard cannot use metamagic mastery to augment a spell that would normally become beyond his highest casting spell level.

Specialist wizards can still cast spells from their prohibited schools but it cost an additional memory slot to memorize the spell.

The Scry & Teleport combo is now much riskier since Scry only counts as 'view once' for the purpose of teleportation which means there is a 25% chance of something going wrong.

Wall of Force (and other force barrier spells) have 30 hardness and 20 hitpoints per caster level.

Fly comes with a bonus to the Fly skill which means that untrained flyers won't be performing aerial acrobatics.

Web grapples any target within the area of effect if they failed their saving throw. Those that succeed can only move if they make a successful Grapple or Escape Artist check. Those who enter the area of effect are grappled and stopped on the first square they enter if they failed their saving throw and those that succeed move through the area as difficult terrain.

Ray of Enfeeblement allows the target to make a Fort save to reduce the Strength penalty by half.

Arcane Bond allows a wizard to get a familiar or to bond with a weapon. A bonded weapon allows the wizard to cast one spell that he knows and capable of casting without preparation, once per day. He can also enchant the weapon as if he has the feats as long as he meet the minimum prerequisite level of the feat.

However, the wizard must make a concentration check to cast spells if he does not have his bonded weapon in hand.

Combat Casting gives a +20 bonus to Concentration check.

Arcane Strike uses a swift action to give +3 enchantment bonus to his bonded weapon for one round and it stacks with Hand of the Apprentice.

Defensive Combat Training uses the character's level as the base attack bonus to calculate his CMD.

Although most of the arcane spells in Pathfinder seems to have been nerfed for the most part but I think this gives a better fighting chance for PCs and NPCs by removing the one-spell kill deadliness.

I like the balance they have done for the universalist and specialist wizard which makes both of them an equally powerful options for anyone who is playing as a wizard.

What do you think about the Pathfinder wizard?

Burning Question - And We All Met in a Tavern...?

2009-07-28T22:46:00.003+08:00

My group will be starting our first 4E campaign soon and campaign openers are still something that I haven't found my niche yet. Other than having each character write a little background about themselves, the second step is usually determining how the party get together which I have been wondering about this these past few days.

So for this week's Burning Question.

During your campaign opener, how do you get the party together?

Do you just handwaive it and say 'You all met in the tavern' and proceed with your first plot hook or do you have a session that plays out how the party gets together, giving them a more underlying purpose other than just happening to share a few rounds of drinks together.

For me, as a DM, I would try to go for the latter (which is what I'm trying to do when the campaign starts) because I want the characters and players to have a real reason to be together. While the 'everyone met in the tavern' is a simple way, I feel that it is a little cheap since the players worked a little on their background.

So what do you do? How would you introduce your party members to each other and bring them together?

I would like to hear your thoughts or stories about your most memorable campaign opener.

Questing's Readings - 19/7/09 & 26/7/09

2009-07-26T23:00:00.000+08:00

First of all, sorry for not posting last week's Questing's Readings. Not having a permanent internet connection sucks right now and I'm still considering alternatives of getting a different ISP. On the other hand, that's not too bad a thing since I will be compiling posts that I've enjoyed last week together with the ones from this week. So that you would will enjoy the double goodness coming from the RPG Bloggers Network.

Before we move on with the readings, some news of what's been happening in the RPG bloggersphere. Critical Hits and Mad Brew Labs from the RPG Bloggers Network have been nominated for the Best Website alongside with websites like Dungeon-a-Day run by Monte Cook, Kobold Quarterly by Wolfgang Baur and Obisidian Portal, the campaign wiki providing service.

Although it probably isn't fair to have blogs and commercial websites in the same category but it is still quite a big achievement for the network to have 2 of its members listed out of the 5 nominees. I have featured both of these blogs in Questing's Readings before and it will be a hard choice to make between the two for the content that they have generated over the past year.

Critical Hits has been pretty much my go-to website for any RPG-related news which has a crew of writers that have good connections with the industry. These are the guys that I look up to in regards to gaming journalism and they have also produced some indepth analysis especially in the 4E mechanics.

Not to mention that Dave Chalker, Danny Rupp and Graham Poole are part of the founding members of the RPG Bloggers Network which has been the next best thing for the online RPG Community since ENWorld (who award the ENnies), in my opinion.

Mad Brew Labs has always been about thought provoking posts. Although I don't share all of his taste but we both share an interest in understanding RPGs from an academic point of view. In fact, his blog was the first that came into mind when I first posted up what is still one of the most commented post I've done for this blog.

Outside of his blog, I have known Micheal Brewer to be very active in the RPG/Blogger community with his most recent participation as the host of the June RPG Blog Carnival, the RPGBN Shared Setting and co-founding NeverMet Press.

So I would ask you to go over to both of these blogs, read through what they have to offer to make up your mind and give your votes to these guys to support the underdogs. Hopefully this will win us some recognition among the judges in charge of the ENnies to give bloggers their own category the next year.

Now let's head over to what is going to be a long post ahead of us with lots of link love to posts (and blogs) that weren't nominated but are equally deserving for their great content. Throughout both weeks, we have some bloggers sharing topics on dealing with character deaths,, staging the 'epic' and character development.

A Butterfly Dreaming
What are the Best 4E Ability Score Arrays?
A very good look and thought about the possible combination of scores you can get from the 22 point buy and the ability score arrays from the PHB. This is interesting if you are a bit of math geek and useful for the min/maxer.

Advanced Gaming & Theory
Creating a Meaning Festival
Some ideas on how to run and roleplay an archery and jousting contest with some ways of implementing them into your campaign as potential plot hooks.

At Will
Is it a Fight or a Skill Challenge?
A good reminder that DMs should not be too rigid in deciding how PCs should overcome an encounter and let the players decide. This plays against the argument that 4E does not encourage roleplaying and it is something to keep in mind.

A boss in parts
An attempt to implement into 4E an often seen monster design concept in console JRPGs with a few examples. This is certainly an interesting approach to monster design for 4E.

Beneath the Screen
A DM's Dilemma: Dealing with Deadlines
5 advice on what you should do if you are having less time to play with your group or are moving away from town. Even if you are not in this kind of situation, I think it is still good advice for DMs in order to run a fun game.

5 Tips for Dealing With PC Death
5 advice on how to handle PC deaths and how they can sometimes be an opportunity for more roleplaying.

Campaign Mastery
Ask the GMs: An epic confusion, or how to stage a blockbuster finish
Someone asks the GMs whether their epic-spellcasting villain should go all out with his powerful arsenal at first when going against the PCs in the climatic final encounter. See what Johnn and Mike have to say. It's long but it has really good advice.

Fame & Fortune
staging epic conflict
Sort of a follow-up to Campaign Mastery's post on epic fights but this focuses more on how to make epic campaigns without being cheesy.

Inkwell Ideas
Game Design Tips from the Paizo RPG Superstar Contest
Some general advice and guidelines given by the judges of the Paizo RPG Superstar content in designing magical items. Most of these advice are not system specific and it would be good reference for those who are intending to join in next year's contest.

Jonathan Drain's D20 Source
Five Ways to Make Your Player's Life Easier
This could be summarize into talking with your players, giving them the spotlight and be willing to compromise which are generally good practices as a DM.

You're Dead!
A look into death throughout the editions and why death should not always be a harsh penalty because of the level, financial and equipment loss that it incurs.

Beyond "You Hit": Describing Damage
A very interesting way of describing damage based on ability scores, monster type and character class.

The Art of the One-Shot Adventure
The benefits of one-shot adventures and how to implement them into your ongoing campaign.

Life and Times of a Philippine Gamer
A Discussion on Trust
An interesting look on the concept of trust, trustor and trustee and how it can be applied in-game between NPCs and PC with a few examples from his current campaigns.

Newbie DM
Don't make the PC's ride your newbie railroad!
5 ways to improvise when your PCs goes off the track. This is normally good advice for new DMs who tend to railroad but it's good advice all around.

RoleplayingPro
Addressing Metagaming
Distinguishing lesser and greater metagaming with the latter being more destructive to the game. There are some advice on how to handle greater metagaming.

Building Memorable D&D Characters: Race & Class
Building Memorable D&D Characters: Backgrounds

A very good list of pointers to think about when developing your character background based on your class, race and the backgrounds from the Player's Handbook 2.

Sly Flourish
Four Tip's From Robin's Laws
4 general tips taken from the GMing bible by Robin Laws if you haven't read it before.

Four Tips for Kings of the Trollhaunt Warrens
P1 King of the Trollhaunt Warrens is the first paragon tier adventure module from Wizards and it is the first chance for the PCs to experience high level action and exploration. The four tips here recommend doing some groundwork much earlier before adventure begins to increase the satisfaction when the players go through it.

Stargazer's World
Interview with Wolfgang Baur
An interview with the man behind Kobold Quarterly, his nominations in this year's ENnies, his career, his future plans and love for the pesky buggers.

A Gamer in Japan Pt 2 - Location, Location, Location
Ever wondered where do Japanese gamer meet to play? I'm surprised to read that Japan has a gaming retail chain that also caters to RPG gamers.

Stupid Ranger
Developing Your Roleplaying
DM Your Way To Better Roleplaying

Dante and Stupid Ranger giving out simple ways for players and DMs to promote more roleplaying on the table.

tenletter
Maslow's Sandbox Game (Or Needs-Based Player Hooks)
An interesting idea of how to create plot hooks based on the character's needs according to the Maslow pyramid.

The Gherkin Patch
The Iron Triangle of Game Design
A very interesting article based on the constraints of software engineering and how it can also be applied to game design with playability, simulation and universality as the three points of the triangle.

It's a little long and can get quite heavy at times but it does paint an interesting portrait of the limits of designing the 'perfect' system.

Word of Wizards - 25/7/09

2009-07-26T21:00:00.002+08:00

This week, Wizards has started the preview excerpts from Adventurer's Vault 2 by showcasing a new type of magical items called Immurements. Each immurement is practically a portable terrain that can be unleashed onto an area until the end of the encounter.

There's a couple of new armor and shields previewed as well that comes with a backstory and possible plot hooks to implement them as treasures in your game.

With the release of the Eberron Campaign Guide and Seekers of the Ashen Crown adventure module, Wizards has also posted up their respective art and map galleries.

On the miniatures preview, we are shown a range of Foulspawns miniatures that will be in Legendary Evils as well as the huge Ultimate Tyrant.

Voting for the ENnies has already started and Wizards are looking for your votes for their nominated products that will be competing for Product of the Year, Best Game, Best Rules, Best Monster of Adversary, Best Aid or Accessory, Best Adventure, Best Miniature Product and Best Cover Art and other categories.

So if you really want to support Wizards, head on over to the ENnies voting booth and place your vote before August 1st.

This week's rundown.

Monday (20/7/09)
Adventurer's Vault 2 Excerpts: Immurements
Eberron Campaign Guide Art Gallery
Eberron Campaign Guide Map Gallery

Tuesday (21/7/09)
Legendary Evils Preview 4
2009 ENnie Award Nominees

Wednesday (22/7/09)
Seekers of the Ashen Crown Art Gallery
Seekers of the Ashen Crown Map Gallery

Friday (24/7/09)
Adventurer's Vault 2 Excerpts: Armor - Story Items

Next week is expected to have some interesting content with more excerpts, a podcast episode and a D&D Alumni article.

{Quest Log} Let's This Party Started Part 5

2009-07-23T23:53:00.003+08:00

In my previous entry, the players were just ready to go into the final encounter. Last week, we finally wrapped up that encounter with a session that took a good chunk of 1 to 2 hours. The following is a summary of what happened and my thoughts on the session.

The Final Showdown
At this point since it was intended to be a short session and a couple of players were running short on time, all the plot had been thrown out of the window and the PCs just wanted to get their weekly dosage of 4E combat. In case, you had forgotten who the PCs are, here's a little recap for you.

Zed, level 1 human rogue
Durnkash, level 1 dragonborn fighter
Narakh Nukem, level 1 dragonborn warlock
Chant, level 1 tiefling bard

The PCs burst into the final room with a tough climatic fight ahead of them. This was what they were up against;

EL 4

1 Hobgoblin Commander (Level 5 Soldier/Leader)
1 Bugbear Warrior (Level 5 Brute)
4 Hobgoblin Grunt (Level 3 Minion)
1 Hobgoblin Warcaster (Level 3 Controller/Leader)

Once initiative was rolled, the rogue and fighter went in first and wrecked havoc on the enemy lines, heading straight for the warcaster. This was followed by the warlock who hurled his dragon breath but it only managed to kill one minion while the rest of the enemies made their save.

The PCs were getting a big head start and things were looking well for them when I saw that they have penetrated the enemy lines, breaking their formation which ruined my initial tactical plans, separating the hobgoblins to benefit from their Phalanx Soldier ability. I certainly wasn't expecting the PCs to break through the lines and head straight for the warcaster which they assumed was the easiest to take out.

Then things turned out for the worse once I started moving my minions around, followed by the Bugbear Warrior and the Commander flanking the dragonborn and knocking him down in a single round.

The warcaster held up pretty well on its own despite being engaged in melee combat early on. Shock Staff was a real pain and I was surprised to see that it could deal so much damage.

Things pretty much went downhill for the PCs after that with them rolling badly and my dices were getting hot. Sad to say, despite the PCs efforts, the session ended with a TPK.

Post-Session Wrap Up
At the end of the session, I talked to the players about what went wrong and here are some of the reasons which I felt were the main factors of their defeat.

Initiative Mess Up

Bad Dice Day

Taking a Breath

It was still a great session in the end despite the TPK. I think the players have learned a thing or two about combat in 4E which seems to be more tactical than cinematic in the sense that the PCs would have to think more in numbers than in dramatic effects.

I certainly learned a bit more too and would think that the warcaster would make a good melee opponent without the commander.

After this one-shot, the group decided that we would like to play in a long term campaign. I proposed that we go through the WotC modules as I try to string them together into a campaign and we would be char gening this coming weekend.

So stay tune for our next adventure starting with H1 Keep on the Shadowfell!

If you have any thoughts about how this session went or have any suggestions on correcting any mistakes that we have done, please feel free to drop a comment! We would love to hear your thoughts!

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Preview #11

2009-07-22T23:11:00.003+08:00

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Preview #11

This week's preview, we have Merisel, 6th level female elf rogue sneaking in to bring us the new rogue.

Merisiel
Female elf rogue 6
CN Medium humanoid (elf)
Init +4; Senses low-light vision; Perception +12
DEFENSE
AC 20, touch 15, flat-footed 15 (+5 armor, +4 Dex, +1 dodge)
hp 42 (6d8+12)
Fort +4, Ref +10, Will +4; +2 vs. enchantments
Defensive Abilities evasion, trap sense +2, uncanny dodge
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee +1 rapier +9 (1d6+2/18–20)
Ranged dagger +8 (1d4/19–20)
Special Attacks sneak attack +3d6, surprise attack
STATISTICS
Str 12, Dex 18, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 13, Cha 10
Base Atk +4; CMB +5; CMD 20
Feats Dodge, Mobility, Nimble Moves, Weapon Finesse
Skills Acrobatics +13, Climb +10, Disable Device +18, Knowledge (local) +9, Perception +12, Sleight of Hand +13, Stealth +13, Swim +10
Languages Common, Elven, Gnome
SQ finesse rogue, trapfinding +3, trap spotter
Combat Gear dust of tracelessness, potion of cure moderate wounds, potion of invisibility (2); Other Gear +2 studded leather, cloak of resistance +1, +1 rapier, daggers (8), handy haversack, masterwork thieves tools, ring of feather falling, rope of climbing

Some key changes made for the rogue.

Rogues now gain Rogue Talents which are something similar to the Rogue's Special Abilities in 3.x but they get a scaled down version much earlier starting at 2nd level and every 2 levels after that. Once they reach level 10, then do they rogue talent which function similar to the Special Abilities in 3.x.

Examples of rogue talents available and what they do;
- Finesse Rogue grants Weapon Finesse as a free feat.
- Surprise Attack causes enemies to be flat-footed during the surprise round even if they have already acted.
- Trap Spotter allows the rouge to make a Perception check when she moves within 10 feet of a trap.
- Slow Reactions causes an enemy that is damaged by the rogue's sneak attack not able to make AoO for 1 round.
- Some other talents gives a bonus to balance and sneaking checks and even allow the rogue to cast certain spells.
Sneak Attack now works on construct and undead.

Trapfinding grants a bonus to Perception for spotting traps and a Disable Device bonus equal to half the rogue's level. It also allows rogues to disarm magical traps

At 20th level, rogues gain the Master Strike class feature which lets the rogue kill, paralyze or put to sleep a target hit by her sneak attack.

Dodge now grants a +1 bonus to AC and CMD against all targets.

Nimble Moves allows a character to ignore 5 feet of difficult terrain each round while moving.

Traps are now scaled up to CR 20 with higher level traps dealing damage over a longer duration and/or multiple targets.

Poison now deals damage over a certain duration (call its frequency) and has a cure condition which indicates the number of saves that the character has to make to stop further damage.

The rogue seems to have gone through the least amount of change since the changes that were introduced in the beta. I like the change they have done to Dodge which makes things much easier to track than having a 'mark' to get the bonus.

What do you think of the pathfinder rogue?

Burning Question - Your Eberron Campaign Idea?

2009-07-21T22:30:00.004+08:00

The 4E Eberron Campaign Guide is released today and no doubt Eberron DMs who have been able to get their hands on it are planning their next campaign.

One major shining point of the setting is that can accommodate different types of campaigns from high action, pulp adventures to dark political intrigued campaigns or a mixture of both.

So for this week's question,

What is your next campaign idea for Eberron in 4E?

While I won't be able to get my hands on the Eberron Campaign Guide anytime soon but the setting does not seem to be greatly affected by the transition to 4E, unlike the Forgotten Realms. So most of my 3.x campaign ideas still remain intact.

For me, I much prefer the political aspect between the Five Nations and would like to try running a campaign where the PCs are hired as freelancers by the Breland King's Citadel, acting as black ops agents to do the dirty work of the Crown or counter-espionage against rival nations.

Would like to hear what are you planning for your Eberron campaign.

Word of Wizards - 18/7/09

2009-07-18T21:00:00.001+08:00

Although there's barely been any new excerpts coming out this week, Wizards have not been lax at all to leave the website high and dry. There's still been great content, previews and interviews on the upcoming miniatures, novels and encounter stat blocks to use for your game.

First up, Wizards have posted up the Eberron adventure that was given out on Free RPG Day, Khyber's Harvest as a free download. So if you missed out on getting a hard copy of it or none of your FLGS were participating on the event, at least you can now get a soft copy of it. What better time to use it, now that the Eberron Campaign Guide will be released next week.

At the same time, the art gallery for Divine Power is also up. Despite there being a few recognizable reused art, it still has a great range of new art that will be useful as character portraits and illustrations.

This month's Vicious Venues is centered on the Sunfields, a patch of land owned by a jealous farmer. Although it might sound harmless at first but wait till the PCs cross the farmer and his not-so typical bees which can lead to a brutal encounter.

If having bears and bees tearing you apart isn't really your thing, then you might be interested in some pulpy encounters from Seekers of the Ashen Crown, the Eberron module that will be released next month.

This week's miniature previews was mainly blue. The color blue that is shared by the Talon Slaad, Slaad Spawn and the Storm Titan followed by the Frost Titan, Chillfire Destroyer and Rimefire Griffon.

There's even something for novel readers. This month's Spotlight Interview is centered on the novel department of Wizards which discusses about the process of creating storylines for D&D worlds such as Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance and Dark Sun and how game products and novels can influence each other. There also some hints on what is coming up in future novels like The Ghost King, the final book in Drizzt's Transistion trilogy and what will be in the newest Dragonlance novel, Dragons of the Hourglass Mage.

Speaking of novels, if you've read The Stowaway, written by Geno and R.A. Salvatore, you might be interested in finding out the 4E D&D stat blocks for the Stowaway's Stone and the half-demonic Asbeel.

One surprise that came out this week was the 4E conversion for the Exemplars of Evil which may be understandable since it was one of the products that was released during the limbo period when 4E was first announced. Hopefully there will be more conversion articles in the future.

But the biggest surprise (which I've saved for the last) is the screenshots of the Monster Builder. This feature that will be available for D&D Insiders will contain more than 2,000 monsters and 10,000 powers from all published materials by Wizards. It will also allow you to edit them such as adding levels to certain monsters and it will help you recalculate the attack bonus etc.

Find out all these and more from the rundown below for this week.

Monday (13/7/09)
GenCon 2009 Schedule
Divine Power Art Gallery
The Stowaway: Demon & The Stone
D&D Monster Builder

Tuesday (14/7/09)
Legendary Evils Preview 2
Khyber's Harvest

Wednesday (15/7/09)
4th Edition Conversion: Exemplars of Evil
Vicious Venues: The Sunfields
Seekers of the Ashen Crown Excerpts

Thursday (16/7/09)
Legendary Evils Preview 3

Friday (17/7/09)
Spotlight Interview: Novels

Next week will be the release for the Eberron Campaign Guide, Divine Power, Seekers of the Ashen Crown and the PHB Heroes 2 miniature set. Other than that we'll be starting to see the excerpts from Adventurer's Vault 2 and possibly another miniature tips and tactics for a monster from Legendary Evils.

This is the first week since I'm using this new format so if you have any thoughts on this week's rundown or the new format, feel free to drop a comment.

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Preview #10

2009-07-17T21:43:00.002+08:00

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Preview #10

This week's preview is on the Barbarian with Amiri, 17th level female human barbarian.

Amiri
Female human barbarian 17
CN Medium humanoid (human)
Init +2; Senses Perception +21
DEFENSE
AC 26, touch 14, flat-footed 24 (+9 armor, +4 deflection, +2 Dex, +3 natural, –2 rage)
hp 252 (17d12+136)
Fort +19, Ref +10, Will +14; +4 vs. enchantment
Defensive Abilities improved uncanny dodge, indomitable will, trap sense +5; DR 4/—
OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft.
Melee +4 frost keen adamantine greatsword +31/+26/+21/+16 (2d6+19/17–20 plus 1d6 cold)
Ranged +2 frost composite longbow +21/+16/+11/+6 (1d8+9/x3 plus 1d6 cold)
Special Attacks greater rage (41 rounds/day), rage powers (fearless rage, increased damage reduction, intimidating glare, knockback, powerful blow +5, renewed vigor [4d8+6], superstition +6, terrifying howl [DC 27])
BASE STATISTICS
AC 28, touch 16, flat-footed 26 (+9 armor, +4 deflection, +2 Dex, +3 natural)
hp 201 (17d12+85)
Fort +16, Will +11
Melee +4 frost keen adamantine greatsword +28/+23/+18/+13 (2d6+14/17–20 plus 1d6 cold)
CMB +24; CMD 40
Skills Climb +27
STATISTICS
Str 24 (30), Dex 14, Con 16 (22), Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 8
Base Atk +17; CMB +27; CMD 41
Feats Bleeding Critical, Blind-Fight, Critical Focus, Greater Vital Strike, Improved Iron Will, Improved Vital Strike, Iron Will, Power Attack, Toughness, Vital Strike
Skills Acrobatics +22, Climb +30, Intimidate +19, Perception +21, Survival +21
SQ tireless rage
Combat Gear potion of cure serious wounds (6), potion of haste (2); Other Gear ring of protection +4, amulet of natural armor +3, cloak of resistance +3, +4 frost keen adamantine greatsword, +2 frost composite longbow (Str +7), +5 moderate fortification hide armor, bag of holding (type II), belt of giant strength +6, cube of force, ring of freedom of movement, scarab of protection, winged boots

The barbarian is one of the classes which had gone through some considerable changes since the beta. Here are some of them highlighted.

Barbarians no longer have a number of rages per day but instead have a number of rounds of rage per day which can be spend throughout that day. They start with 4+Con mod and gain an extra 2 rounds for every 2 levels beyond the first.

Barbarians no longer have rage points from the beta and rage powers are limited to once per rage or day which they start gaining from level 2 onwards.

Fearless Rage which can be gained at level 12 makes the barbarian immune to shaken and frightened conditions while raging.

Increased Damage Reduction increases the barbarian's DR to DR 5/- while raging.

Intimidating Glare is a move action that causes an adjacent foe to be shaken for 1d4 and one additional round per 5 points exceeding the DC.

Knockback allows the barbarian to make a bull rush attempt in place of a standard attack which deals damage equal to her strength mod and push the target back without having to follow it if successful, once per round while raging.

Powerful Blow allows her to add +5 damage to one melee roll (the bonus damage increases at higher levels) as a swift action, once per rage.

Barbarian can use Renewed Vigor to heal 1d8+con mod hitpoints starting at level 4, once per day. The amount she heals scales at higher levels.

Supersition gives the barbarian a morale bonus to save against spells, supernatural and spell-like abilities while raging. However, she can no longer be a willing target so that means she has to resist spells cast even by allies.

Terrifying Howl can only be taken at 8th level and the barbarian must have Intimidating Glare. As a standard action, she causes all shaken enemies within 30 feet to become panicked for 1d4+1 rounds if they fail their saving throw. After that, those that made a save are immune to this power for 24 hours.

The barbarian still gains higher damage reduction, greater and mighty rage, uncanny dodge and trap sense at higher levels.

Acrobatics and Knowledge (nature) are now class skills for the barbarian.

Critical Focus gives a +4 bonus to confirm a critical hit.

Critical Bleeding causes 2d6 points of bleed in addition to the critical.

Improved Iron Will allows the character to reroll one will save per day before the result is revealed.

Toughness grants 1 hitpoint per level but has a minimum of 3 hitpoints which means that level 1-3 PCs get 3 hitpoint and 4 when they hit 4th level.

Power Attack grants a +2 bonus on damage rolls for each -1 to attack rolls. If using a double-handed weapon, the damage bonus increases by 50% while off-hand weapons only get half of the benefit. Starting at base attack +4 and for every 4 base attack thereafter, the bonus damage increases by 2 while the attack penalty increase by 1.

I like the idea of rage powers but I cringed when I read about Rage Points in the beta so I'm glad that they have simplified it for the final print. I also liked that they've added Acrobatics and Knowledge (nature) to the class skill which I thought were missing in 3.x.

Changes done to Toughness, Improved Iron Will and Power Attack is overall really nice which makes them much more worthwhile to take than before.

Any thoughts on the pathfinder barbarian?

{Quest Log} Let's Get This Party Started 3 & 4

2009-07-16T20:57:00.003+08:00

First of all, sorry for not updating last week. I'm still trying to balance my life between play time and work time and working at a game store doesn't help very much because priorities can get a little mixed. It has not only affected my biological clock but also my blogging routine which some of you may know has been greatly reduced.

So, to make up for last week I will be making this entry doubly long for your reading (or despairing) pleasure.

Final Prep
After two weeks of bad planning and schedule clashes on my part, we confirmed 4 players and set a date for character generation using the free character builder and discuss on when and where should we be playing. The party consist of:

Zed, Human Rogue
Chant, Tiefling Bard
Kurndash, Dragonborn Fighter
Narakh Nukem, Dragonborn (infernal) Warlock

After char gen, we agreed on a date and location for the game to be held. Seeing that neither of the players' houses would be convenient to have us in, we agreed to play in a boardgame cafe called Carcaseon.

Normally, the cafe is meant for people who wants to play any of the boardgames they offer but after speaking with the owner, he was alright with us bringing in our own grinds, miniatures, dices and the whole lot as long as we paid for drinks.

For the adventure, in between procrastination and working hours, I planned out 5 encounters with a goblinoid theme. As I said in my previous post, goblins are a very versatile monster race. With the right mix of minions, lurkers, soldiers, controllers and leaders, you could easily make encounters ranging from EL 1 to 4.

I was having the most trouble designing a skill challenge. My initial approach was trying to scientifically build a skill challenge that would present a challenge at the same time allowing the PCs to shine. Although it would be rewarding for the characters, it actually places a limit on your imagination when you are thinking of matching both criteria. In the end, I went with designing a skill challenge that matches with the narrative of the adventure than matching it with the characters.

With the framework of encounters and skill challenge laid out, all that was left is to create a narrative to tied them up together. I was actually stumped for ideas that wasn't cliche at first until the very last hours before the game was about to start. After writing some general notes and sketching out the battle grinds for each encounter, I was prepared enough for the game.

Character Builder FAIL!
What I am about to say about the Character Builder may seem like I'm blaming it but I believe it's more of a matter that the character builder just doesn't sync with our group style. It might actually be because we are just not used to it or expect too much from it.

Nevertheless after this one-shot, we pretty much agreed that we won't be using the Character Builder again until something convinces us otherwise. In terms of usability and convenience, it actually created more hassle for us than solve them.

One issue that I have about the builder is during the equipment stage. When Chant's player double clicked on the equipment that he wanted, the builder added it into his character list at no cost. Without realizing at first that he was 'buying' equipment for free and when we later found out that he was not being charged for it, we sold the items which caused a great imbalance in the amount of cash he was having.

Although it didn't affect the one-shot game since they didn't had to spend anything for the adventure, it was still weird that double-clicking an item in the equipment stage, adds rather than buys the item.

Another minor complaint that I have for the builder is that while giving us the character sheets filled in is very nice, it isn't transferable if the other computer doesn't have the builder. This made printing out the sheets a problem for us since the group didn't have a printer connected to a PC that has the builder in it. In the end, we had to borrow the cafe's printer and plug it into my laptop.

It would have been better if there was a way to turn the completed character sheets into a pdf file or something that doesn't require the builder.

After the character generation, I asked one of the more experienced players if they prefer using the builder or doing things with good old pencil and paper and his answer reflected my sentiments exactly about the builder. While the builder is really fast, our style of character generation is more to planning the progression of the character than to simply put them together.

On the other hand, the inclusion of the power cards in the character sheet was very handy to the extent that it feels like a must-have for the 4E table. However, a couple of the players who were completely new to the system found it a little confusing to understand the numbers.

One of them in particular didn't understand how the builder could calculate out a certain number for his powers and it was hard to deduce the modifiers since it doesn't state out the exact calculation. The other player who was playing the rogue, thought that the formatting of the numbers made it harder to understand how much damage he dealt including his sneak attack and didn't realize that he had made a mistake until after the session.

That basically sums up our experience with the builder and we probably won't be using it again to generate characters except for filling in the numbers and printing out the sheets after we have made our choices on paper.

The One-Shot Session
The gist of the adventure is that the PCs have to track a warband of goblins that raided a heavily armed caravan, looting everything particularly magical items which belonged to the town wizard who hired them. After following them to the nearby marsh, they find the goblin encampment beside a half-sunken eladrin keep and enter it to find the stolen goods.

Combat was generally fun with some good laughs at the 4E mechanics like the warlock giving the enemies the finger as his way of cursing them. I didn't feel the grind that some complained about combat. In fact, I, as the DM, was having more fun during combat than I was in 3.x because the battle changes almost on every turn when monsters and PCs throw powers at each other.

I managed to see forced movement in play with the bard using Shout of Triumph and my goblins using Goblin Tactics which really adds a tactical dimension to battles. I noticed that there's quite a large disparity between the damage being dealt by PCs and monsters with the latter doing much less when they are fighting toe-to-toe against the PCs.

When the PCs reached the skill challenge which was to find a way into the half-sunken keep whether by swimming or climbing to the top of the battlement, I used the DC in the rules update and it was easily overcome when the PCs simply decided to just take 10 on them. It wasn't a real challenge at all and the PCs didn't even notice that they had just went through one.

Maybe I'm doing it wrong. Maybe the DC was just too low or I shouldn't have allowed them to take 10 for skill checks in a skill challenge.

I didn't even bother counting successes and I'm not sure if there's a point of doing that. I just let them through as long as they came up with a solution that sounds reasonable enough to overcome the skill challenge.

Anyone has some suggestions or something to point out about running skill challenges?

Wrapping Up and Post-Session
We didn't manage to finish the one-shot after 5 hours but we ended with a good cliffhanger at the entrance of the last encounter. Everyone had a great time despite moments in between encounters where I slipped due to lack of detailed preparation.

We are currently planning for the next session which should be a short one just to go through the final encounter. I'm thinking whether I should add in another encounter to extend the gaming hours. What do you think about putting two EL4 encounters back-to-back with a short rest in between? Do you think the PCs (they are level 1 by the way) would be able to hold it up?

Overall, 4E seems to stick well with me and the new players despite the technical stumbles we had before the game. It would be interesting to see whether this game would be our system of choice for a long term campaign which we might do after we finish with this delve.

Pathfinder Core Rulebook Preview Video

2009-07-14T21:00:00.007+08:00

Those who attended Paizocon have most likely taken their first glimpse at the final printed version of the Pathfinder Core Rulebook. For those who weren't that lucky, Paizo has just posted up a preview video in the Paizo blog that flips through the content of the Pathfinder Core Rulebook.

For you convenience, you can watch the video below or you could head over to the preview video link to watch it at a larger resolution.

Needless to say that Paizo's production value is top notch and it is making me drool. In fact, the layout reminds me about the 3.x Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide which is a good looking book too.

Burning Question - Walking Off the Beaten Path

2009-07-14T21:00:00.005+08:00

Today's question is taken from this week's 'Ask a Pro' column from the Paizo blog and I think it is one question that many DMs would have face once when running a published adventure/campaign.

You are running an Adventure Path, and one of your players is ignoring the obvious hook. Do you gently nudge him in the planned direction, or do you go with the flow and see where this digression might take you?

As the DM, I usually try to make my plot hooks as interesting as possible for the characters to go my way. But in the event of a derailment, I eventually try to tied their current course of action back into the main plot, skipping or replacing missed encounters if I have to.

Another method which is a last resort and I'll only use it when I'm really stumped for ideas of steering things back into the right direction or when things are getting out of hand, is directly telling them what the plot hook is. Normally my players would take a hint but this could not be fulfilling if the characters seem to be enjoying what they are doing now than being forced to go on the tracks.

What would you do?

Questing's Readings - Psion Edition

2009-07-13T11:40:00.003+08:00

Wizards have released the complete version of the Psion class from Player's Handbook 3 for DDI subscribers which introduces a different type of power mechanics that has no encounter powers but giving them power points to augment their at-wills.

Psion and psionics in general has always been one of those hotly debated topics in D&D because some either loved it or hated it. One thing's for sure, Psions and psionics has always been an exception rather than the rule in D&D and even though I was certain that 4E has streamlined it when they announced a psionic power source. It seems that the designers has managed to carry on that tradition.

So in this special edition of Questing's Readings, these are the posts that bloggers from the RPG Bloggers Network had to say about the new Psion class and what are their thoughts about psionics in general, now that its arrival into the game is inevitable.

It also has some good spoilers (or teasers) for those who don't have a subscription for DDI to read the full psion class.

A Hero Twice A Month
A new class and new mechanics

At-Will
Beneath the Surface" Has anyone played the Psion yet?

Critical Hits
4E: Psion - by the Numbers

Dungeon's Master
Psionics Suck!

GarGamer
Psion Review/General Stuff

Geek Ken
Preview: the Psion Class

Ideamancer
Psion: How to multiclass?

Points of Light
Debut: Meet the Psion
Angra, Tiefling Psion

WeeBeeGamers
New D&D Class: The Psion

Questing's Readings - 12/7/09

2009-07-12T22:59:00.000+08:00

This week is an invaluable week for DMs. There's a bunch of posts with great advice on DMing, a couple design tips, resource links and even business tips coming out from the RPG Bloggers Network. So without further a due, let's get on with the readings.

Examiner.com
A wealth of RPG worldbuilding advice
If you haven't been following Uncle Bear's excellent worldbuilding series, then here is the one stop post to catch it all compiled together.

Gaming Brouhaha
Want to inject more roleplaying in to your 4E game?
Some ideas of using characters' personal goals and beliefs and rewarding descriptive play as good ways to bring the roleplaying that 4E seems to be 'missing'.

JavaWorld's Daily Brew
10 Business Lessons I Learned from Playing Dungeons & Dragons
A demonstration of what you learn from the gaming table can be applicable and, in fact, sometimes useful in real life. This post is taken via The Escapist on Life Lessons from D&D.

Inkwell Ideas
RPG Resources of the Day: 101 Fantasy City, Town and Village Maps
RPG Resources of the Day: Two Sites with Hundreds of Real Historical City Maps

The first post contains maps of fictional and fantasy maps while the second one contains real and historical cities from different periods. This is really a great list to mine from.

Jonathan Drain's D20 Source
Golden Rules of Game Mastering
Two very important rules that every GM (and player) should know about GMing.

Life and Times of a Philippine Gamer
New Players in Old Campaigns
Inserting new player into an ongoing campaign with veterans can be a pretty delicate task. If not done properly, it can slow things down tremendously. So here's a 3 question checklist to ask yourself if you have done your part as the DM to make them comfortable not only to the rules but to the ongoing campaign.

Player Advice: Information Management
The only post this week that is for players. A list of really good questions to ask yourself when playing your character to make informed decisions. This is particularly useful for espionage themed games and it can be useful for DMs as well.

Musings of the Chatty DM
4e Lessons: The Penny Arcade/PvP D&D Podcast, Part 1
4e Lessons: The Penny Arcade/PvP D&D Podcast, Part 2

Chatty's observation about 4e classes and DMing from the three D&D podcast sessions with the Penny Arcade/PvP crew and Wil Wheaton. There's some pretty interesting points brought up in the second part of the series, especially the one differentiating the types of DMs that Chris Perkins and James Wyatt are from Chatty's perspective.

Newbie DM
The DM binder, folder, or notebook
What is a DM binder and what should it contain in it. He even shows what is in his own DM binder. I'm starting to believe that you can actually run a game with this alone without having to do any prep at all.

RoleplayingPro
Back Behind the Screen , and in Front of the Computer
4 things you can do when you are suffering from gaming withdrawal or just aren't getting enough out of your gaming.

Sly Flourish
Four Skill Challenge Tips
Designing and running skill challenges has always been a challenge for DMs who are new to it. So here are four simple tips to make it easier to run and things to keep in mind when designing them.

Word of Wizards - 11/7/09

2009-07-11T21:00:00.000+08:00

There's been so much update this week at Wizards that I haven't been able to catch up with them at all. So some of this week's links might be directed straight at Wizards' website rather than my own posts on them.

This week, the excerpts from Divine Power and Eberron Campaign Guide have concluded which will open way for the next batch of excerpts. This time sadly, it will only come from one book which is Adventurer's Vault 2. However, on the other end, the previews of the Legendary Evils monster miniature line has started.

The features of this week has been mainly centered on Divine Power which were covered by this month's Steal This Hook! and the D&D Podcast. In addition, Wizards have also introduced a new feature called Out-of-the-Box Encounter which teaches you how to effectively use your miniatures in-game.

There's also a video interview with R.A Salvatore who has just released the second book in the Transistion trilogy, The Pirate King.

So if you haven't really been able to catch up with these updates, like me, here's the rundown.

Monday (6/7/09)
Previews for July and Beyond
Divine Power Excerpts: Virtuous Paladin
Eberron Campaign Guide Excerpts: Drooam & Encounter

Wednesday (8/7/09)
July 2009 Character Builder & Compendium News
Success Along the Adventure Path 8
Steal This Hook! Threats of a Divine Nature
Out-of-the-Box Encounter: Aboleth Slime Mage
Book Nook: R.A. Salvatore

Thursday (9/7/09)
Legendary Evils Preview 1

Friday (10/7/09)
Eberron Campaign Guide Excerpts: Q'barra & Table of Contents
Divine Power Excerpts: Avatar of Death

Next week, there will only be one excerpt from the Eberron adventure module, Seekers of the Ashen Crown. Other than that, we can expect to see this month's Vicious Venues and Spotlight Interview. There's also a conversion article for Exemplars of Evil from 3.x which might be interesting

Subscribers will have a lot to look forward starting with a Class Acts article and Design and Development: Psionics on Monday followed by Familiars of Eberron on Friday.

Also, I have a little announcement to make. After considering the feedback that I asked in last week's Burning Question, I've decided to reduce the Word of Wizards feature down to a weekly one. Which means that I would no longer be posting single post on each and every update that appears on the Wizards website as soon as their up. Instead what I'll do is something much more like these weekly compilations on every Saturday with direct links to all the items that were added to the Wizards website during that week.

Although this changes are effective starting next week but I don't mind listening to any feedback that you might have on these changes (or if you missed the Burning Question from last week, be sure to drop some feedback). Of course, I will like to thank everyone who has supported me for doing this longest running feature of the blog.

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Preview #9

2009-07-10T21:39:00.006+08:00

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Preview #9
This week we look at the new monk with Sajan, 8th level human monk.

Sajan
Male human monk 8
LN Medium humanoid (human)
Init +3; Senses Perception +3
DEFENSE
AC 23, touch 21, flat-footed 19 (+2 armor, +1 deflection, +3 Dex, +1 dodge, +3 monk, +3 Wis)
hp 63 (8d8+24)
Fort +8, Ref +9, Will +9; +2 against enchantment
Defensive Abilties evasion, slow fall 40 ft.; Immune disease
OFFENSE
Speed 50 ft.
Melee flurry of blows +9/+9/+4/+4 (2d6+2 plus 1d6 fire) or mwk shortsword +9/+4 (1d6+2/19–20)
Ranged shuriken +9/+4 (1d2+2)
Special Attacks stunning fist (8/day, stun, fatigue, or sicken, DC 17)
STATISTICS
Str 14, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 8
Base Atk +6; CMB +10; CMD 29
Feats Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Extra Ki, Greater Disarm, Improved Disarm, Improved Unarmed Strike, Scorpion Style, Stand Still, Stunning Fist, Weapon Focus (unarmed strike)
Skills Acrobatics +14 (+30 jump), Climb +13, Sense Motive +14, Stealth +14, Swim +13
Languages Common
SQ fast movement, high jump, ki pool (9 points), maneuver training, purity of body, still mind, wholeness of body
Combat Gear oil of greater magic fang (+3), potion of cure serious wounds (2); Other Gear mwk shortsword, shuriken (20), ring of protection +1, light fortification bracers of armor +2, flaming amulet of mighty fists, headband of inspiring wisdom +2, monk's robe

Some changes highlighted for the monk

Flurry of Blows uses the monk's level as its base attack bonus.

Monks get the Stunning Fist feat for free and can apply different effects other than stunning at higher levels such as fatigued until rest or sicken for 1 minute at 8th level, stagger for 1d6+1 rounds at 12th level, permanently blind or deafen at 16th level and paralyze for 1d6+1 rounds at 20th level.

Monks can use Quivering Palm once per day.

Monks add their level to their CMB and add their Wis and Monk AC bonus to their CMD.

Monks now have ki points equal to 1 per two levels plus their Wis mod which they can spend to get certain benefits like adding extra attack to their flurry of blows at 4th level, gain +20 to a single check at 5th level, heal themselves by spending 2 ki points at 7th level and can eventually use ki points to use dimension door or become ethereal.

As long as the monk has 1 ki point remaining, his attacks are considered magical for overcoming damage reduction, lawful at 10th level and adamantine at 16th level.

Amulet of Mighty Fist now add melee weapon properties to the unarmed attacks of the monk with a reduced price.

Bracers of Armor now also add armor properties such as light fortification.

The introduction of ki points is quite interesting and would make an otherwise dull class fun to play. I didn't had any problem with the attack bonus of the monk in 3.x before but using the monk's level for determining flurry of blows attack bonus is going to make them even more deadly.

Overall, I think they've added more stuff to the monk than really improving or adjusting the flaws of the class which doesn't get me overly excited.

Any thoughts on the pathfinder monk?

Word of Wizards - Excerpts: Avatar of Death

2009-07-10T21:00:00.006+08:00

Divine Power Excerpts: Avatar of Death

The Avatar of Death is death incarnate who has temporarily taken mortal form and have come to realize her true form when she reaches 21st level and has the Death Knell feat. With this knowledge, the avatar knows no fear for death and can only wait to rejoin with the eternal essence of the Raven Queen or some other deity of death.

Upon realizing her true destiny, the avatar gain Foresight of Morality (21st level destiny feature) which increases her intelligence and wisdom by 2. She makes certain that Death Comes to All (21st level destiny feature) which makes her powers ignore 20 necrotic resistance.

Woe to those who would attempt to bring death to avatar before her time. When an avatar dies, she returns with a Deadly Revival (24th destiny feature) if she dies for the first time on that day. She regains hitpoints equal to her bloodied value and all enemies within 10 square of her are vulnerable 15 against necrotic damage until the end of her next turn.

She is the Harbinger of Demise (30th level destiny feature) bringing certain fatality to those who are on the verge of death. When an enemy ends their turn adjacent to her with 25 hitpoints or less, they immediately die.

To those that would try to avoid death's embrace with spiritual and physical healing, she brings Inevitable Death (level 26; daily). Each enemy within close burst 5 gain 10 vulnerability against all damage and cannot regain hitpoints through regeneration or healing powers (save ends).

Any thoughts on the Avatar of Death?

Word of Wizards - Excerpts: Q'barra & Table of Contents

2009-07-10T21:00:00.005+08:00

Eberron Campaign Guide Excerpts: Q'barra & Table of Contents

The final excerpt from Eberron Campaign Guide details on the monsters and the natural resources that can found in Q'barra revealed through Nature checks. From this excerpt, Q'barra might be the new de facto homeland of the dragonborn in Khorvaire.

Finally, there's the table of contents of the book which has altogether 7 section, not including the introduction and the appendix which contains the sample adventure. Here are the following sections to expect;

Introduction
Adventures
The City of Towers
The Five Nations
Greater Khorvaire
Beyond Khorvaire
Dragonmarks
Gods and Cosmology
Appendix: The Mark of Prophecy
Index
New Monsters

I'm pretty excited about the campaign guide because it has a whole section on the City of Towers. It might only be 8 pages which won't be enough to compress all the info from the Sharn: City of Towers supplement in 3.x but it's one of the hallmark location that I would start all my Eberron campaigns in.

Another section that makes me happy is that they have included the King's Citadel under Breland in the Five Nations section. The section on dragonmarks might be interesting since it dedicates about 2 pages to each of the dragonmarked houses.

Word of Wizards - Legendary Evils Preview 1

2009-07-10T21:00:00.004+08:00

Legendary Evils Preview 1

The preview for the second set of monster miniatures, Legendary Evils has started and it will be the first set featuring huge-sized miniatures since they changed the format of distribution for D&D Miniatures. Each booster will come with 1 visible huge miniature, 1 large rare, 1 medium or small-sized rare and 2 commons.

This set will have 8 huges, 12 large rares, 12 medium/small rares and 8 commons.

Now onto the miniatures in this preview.

Elder Green Dragon

It might not look much but I'm assuming that it'll look awesome since it's has to be a huge miniature. It's good that they have updated the new 4E look for the green dragon but to me it doesn't matter as long as its green.

Githzerai Mindmage

Githzerai Cenobite

This set second set finishes up on the githzerai appearing in Monster Manual. One major spoiler revealed in this preview is that the githzerai will be appearing as a playable race in Player's Handbook 3 so these guys can definitely be used to represent your characters as well.

Hoard Scarab Larva Swarm

Useful as a three dimensional representation of a pile of gold for the unsuspecting player.

Psychic Sentinel

Based on the Psion-killer monster from the 3.x Psionic Handbook, it is now a servitor for the githzerai and is a Level 12 Elite Soldier. This could also be used to represent a large fire elemental monster.

Any thoughts on these minis?

Word of Wizards - Out-of-the-Box Encounter: Aboleth Slime Mage

2009-07-09T21:00:00.004+08:00

Out-of-the-Box Encounter: Aboleth Slime Mage

Wizards is introducing a new feature that will look into the story elements of each miniature and making the best use of it with effective tactics and terrain recommendations. To start it off, they decided to show how you create an encounter with the Aboleth Slime Mage.

It has some really good advice and nice suggestions which makes this a very useful feature. This is especially good for DMs who are using these monsters/miniatures for the first time on their PCs. I will be looking forward to more of these article in the future.

Word of Wizards - Steal This Hook! Threats of a Divine Nature

2009-07-09T21:00:00.002+08:00

Steal This Hook! Threats of a Divine Nature

Wizards have come up with 3 divine-themed plot hooks with sidebars to give you some ideas on how to tie them in with the new mechanics of Divine Power and Eberron Campaign Guide, both that will be released this month.

Sudden Retirement
Rumors that the dwarf priest of Moradin is retiring with no successor apparent or named is raising concerns in a town.

This plot hook can be expanded in two ways. First, the PCs could be hired to investigate the underlying reason for this sudden announcement. Could the priest be running from a past or is a doppleganger involved? The second way is deal the aftermath of this announcement. With no heir apparent named, potential successors are scheming to gain power. This could result in mysterious disappearances of candidates, candidates trying to prove their worth or maybe one of the PCs is nominated?

This plot hook doesn't necessarily have to be happening to the church of Moradin as long as its any other church that could be badly affected by the sudden retirement of their high priest.

The Dread God
The PCs have an appointment with someone who they are close to and somehow she never turned up for the meeting which is unusual. Later they find out that the body of their friend has been found....drained of blood.

A cult is possibly involved that could be led by a vampire or a monstrous demon that requires blood sacrifice. Finding out the identity of its members and the location of their gathering spot will be the main challenge.

But why is their friend victimized? Was she simply a coincidental victim or maybe she was a member of the cult?

Hidden Blessing
The PCs hear about the tale of Praxus, a noble paladin who went to war and never returned. There is a statue of him in the town center and a farmer insists that she saw the statue moved.

Could the statue really be Praxus petrified by a medusa? An animated statue placed by some mysterious sculptor? Or Praxus trapped in the stone form by other powerful beings?

What will happened if Praxus is released from the stone form? Will he want vengeance or bring destruction to the town where he is revered as a saint?

Word of Wizards - Success Along the Adventure Path 8

2009-07-09T21:00:00.001+08:00

Success Along the Adventure Path 8: Beyond the Mottled Tower

In the encounter with a pair of green dragons (Anthrosk and Calauxin) there are 2 recommended miniatures to represent Calauxin. So I've marked them with an asterisk to indicate that they are interchangeable.

Dungeon Tiles

Against the Giants
Arcane Corridors
Dungeon Tiles
Hidden Crypts
Ruins of the Wild
Streets of Shadows

Miniatures
Against the Giants

1 Thunderblast Cyclone (#9)
1 Young Adamantine Dragon (#52)*

Blood War

1 Centaur War Hulk (#15)
1 Bluespawn Stormlizard (#30)

Dangerous Delves

Deathknell

1 Spectre (#42)

Demonweb

Desert of Desolation

2 Shadar-kai Assassin (#35)
2 Fire Archon (#50)

Dungeons of Dread

1 Immolith (#15)
2 Warrior Wight (#17)
8 Magma Brute (#19)
2 Ascendant Hellsword (#21)
1 Wyvern (#42)*
1 Emerald Orb Wizard (#44)
1 Spectral Magelord (#46)

Giants of Legend

4 Githyanki Renegade (#16)

Night Below

1 Berserk Flesh Golem (#46)

Underdark

1 Duergar Champion (#35)

War of the Dragon Queen

1 Large Green Dragon (#38)
1 Redspawn Fireblecher (#52)

Word of Wizards - July 2009 Character Builder and Compendium News

2009-07-09T21:00:00.000+08:00

July 2009 Character Builder and Compendium News

The new batch of updates for the Character Builder and Compendium is up and it has the content of all the books and magazines released up to the month of June including the Eberron Player's Guide and Dragon 375 which has the Wilden and the updated hybrid rules. The Insider version of the updated character builder will also include the Psion class from Player's Handbook 3.

Other fixes, adjustments and enhancements have also been added to the compendium such as including traps and hazards into the database.

Burning Question - Are You Still an Insider?

2009-07-07T23:28:00.002+08:00

On July 2, Wizards have raised the subscription rate of the D&D Insider by a couple of dollars on average partly because of the exclusive content and early previews of completed sections from future products a year ahead.

So for this week's Burning Question.

Are you still planning to be an Insider with the new subscription rate?

While a couple of dollars probably isn't much but some have considered that the exclusive content doesn't justify the price increase.

If you are not a subscriber, are you planning to subscribe for the exclusive content despite the increased price?

Word of Wizards - Previews for July and Beyond

2009-07-07T22:39:00.002+08:00

Previews for July and Beyond

This month's preview is quite a short one and it only previews the releases up to August.

July
Martial Heroes 3 which was not previewed is shown here.

It's nice to see a good dragonborn miniature for clerics, paladins, fighters and warlords and the paintjob looks excellent.

An alright looking eladrin ranger despite the plain looking pose.

A gnome rogue-like miniature which should be useful.

An extra excerpt from Divine Power features the Avatar of Freedom which is a mortal incarnation of Avandra or Melora or any other deity of freedom and liberation. When becoming an Avatar of Freedom, they have Freedom of Mind and Body (21st level destiny feature), they get +2 to Dex and Wis. They can also Liberate the Mind (21st level destiny feature) which gives an ally a +2 bonus to saving throws dominated, immobilized, restrained and slowed.

When an Avatar dies or is dying, they return with a Liberating Revival (24th level destiny feature) which lets him regain hitpoints equal to his bloodied value and allies within 10 squares are freed from slowing, restraining and immobilizing effects. At level 30, the avatar becomes an Agent of Freedom (30th level destiny feature) which makes him immune to domination, immobilization, restrain and petrification. They also ignore difficult terrain and can shift their speed as a move action.

Broken Chain (level 26; daily) is a stance that allows all allies that starts their turn within 5 squares of the avatar to make a saving throw against each effect that can be ended by a save.

August
A couple of magical items from Adventurer's Vault 2 is shown.

The Rat King's Cloak is a magical armor that grants resistance against swarm attacks and they can move through a swarm without provoking opportunity attacks. Space-Bending Weapon allows you to hit an enemy 5 squares away as though they are adjacent to you.

Finally to kickstart the preview for the Legendary Evils monster set, they have given some mouth watering pictures along with their stat cards.

Balor (back, front)

War Troll (back, front)

Salamander Firetail (back, front)

Yochlol Tempter (back, front)

Human Rabble (back, front)

Word of Wizards - Excerpts: Virtuous Paladin

2009-07-06T21:00:00.001+08:00

Divine Power Excerpts: Virtuous Paladin

While the excerpt reveals that there would be two new builds for the paladin in the book, it only showcases the Virtuous paladin which helps to remove harmful effects from his allies.

The build's class feature, Virtue's Touch can remove blinded, dazed, deafened, slowed, stunned or weakened conditions once per round which can be used number of times equal to his Wis mod (minimum 1).

There were also 3 daily prayers shown in the excerpt.

Majestic Halo (level 1; daily) deals 3[w]+Cha mod radiant damage and imposes divine sanction on enemies that start their turn adjacent to the paladin. This is most probably the new divine challenge for the virtuous paladin but what does it actually do is not revealed.

Failure is No Option (level 22; daily) teleports all allies within close burst 3 a number of squares equal to the paladin's Cha mod to be adjacent to an enemy. The allies also regain 15+cha mod hitpoints.

Name of Awe (level 29; daily) deals 5d8+Cha mod thunder damage to enemies within 5 close blast and makes them immobilized and weakened (save ends). On a miss, it deals half damage and slows the targets (save ends). The targets are also put under Divine Sanction.

Any thoughts on the virtuous paladin?

Word of Wizards - Excerpts: Drooam & Encounter

2009-07-06T21:00:00.000+08:00

Eberron Campaign Guide Excerpts: Drooam & Encounter

Drooam is a savage nation inhabited by monstrous races like harpies, medusas, gargolyes, ogres and minotaurs. Under the leadership of beings called the Daughters of Sora Kell, the nation is surprisingly showing not only persistence but also progress. This poses a threat to their civilized neighbors like Breland who are vigilantly keeping a close eye and at the same time nervous of a monstrous army swarming into their borders.

With successful Streetwise checks, it will reveal the currency used and other forms of trade that in Drooam and also what is the best way to keep in safe company when traveling through the streets of its cities.

There is also an encounter from the sample adventure in the Campaign Guide.

Questing's Readings - 5/7/09

2009-07-05T21:00:00.000+08:00

Here comes July and we're only a month away from GenCon. But before that, Origins has just wrapped up and we have a few good coverage on the events and seminars coming from Critical Hits.

A new month also means a new blog carnival for the RPG Bloggers Network, this time hosted by 6d6fireball. While last month's carnival, hosted by Mad Brew Labs on Steampunk and Klokweorks is not really my cup of tea but this month topic could potentially lead to an explosive buzz. You can't get more controversial or fired up when talking about D&D.

For this week's readings, we have a couple of blog posts trying to differentiate P&P RPGs and CRPGs and a sharing of the worst DMs and player. Other than that, we have a speckle of advice for GMs and players along with some innovative ideas to think about.

Advanced Gaming & Theory
Natural Conflict
Some camping lessons to bring to the gaming table on how natural hazards can be a great challenge and danger to players such as water, rain, animals and the weather. There's also a simple table to determine the effects of these outside hazards.

Open For Business
Why adventurers should own a business and a simple table that determines how much a PC makes per month.

Myth as Adventure
Creating an invulnerable monster with an Achilles's Heel and how to let characters find out that weakness and exploiting it by special attacks and spells.

Critical Hits
Origins 2009: Ultimate Dungeon Delve
Origins 2009: D&D 4e Villains Seminar
Origins 2009: Monte Cook "Designing A Better Dungeon"

The remaining coverage on Origins 2009.

DND Corner
Dungeons and Dragons Thru The Ages: Character Creation
A look at the character generation process through the editions that is pretty humorous.

Gothridge Manor
The Worst Player I Ever GMed
A cheating player that hides his dice rolls, plays out of character and slips in extra equipment in his character sheet.....and his untimely end.

Jonathan Drain's D20 Source
Five Ways To Make Your DM's Life Easier
Good advice on talking about your character and being an active and team player.

Life and Times of a Philippine Gamer
Dealing with GM Burnout
4 things you can do when going through a GM burnout.

Mike's Mind
Player Shopping List
A good list of recommendations of mundane and low-leveled magic items to buy in 4E.

RoleplayingPro
The Future of PDFs in the Roleplaying Industry
Another good look at the facts of PDF piracy and an examination of some of the possible solutions.

Why Pen And Paper Are Better Than World of Warcraft
A reaction that you won't get from playing P&P RPGs. Maybe he should give it a try.

RPG Blog II
The Worst GM I Ever Had
What happens when you are stuck with an inconsistent, GMPC-loving, railroading and cheating GM. Maybe someone needs to be a player for once.

Tankards & Broadswords
The Future of the FLGS?
A video of an interesting machine that could be a staple device in FLGS and probably a great way to revive the PDF market?

The Spirit of Eden
Narrative Units: The Adventure (And The Day)
An interesting concept for duration that can be used for diseases and ritual effects.

Wondrous Imaginings
How to grow the hobby, and compete against MMORPG: Great DM's.
A great article on how DMs make the difference between traditional RPGs and MMORPGs with a couple of video samples of great DMs and how important are DMs to the hobby.

World of Alidor
4e Extreme Basic or 4e Very Fast Play
An interesting way of playing 4E characters from the Monster Manual instead of the Player's Handbook.

Word of Wizards - 4/7/09

2009-07-04T21:00:00.000+08:00

This week, it's all about the paragon tier from Divine Power with the Miracle Worker paragon path and paragon feats. For the Eberron Campaign Guide, we were introduced to the formation of the theocracy in Thrane, the political basis of dragonmarked houses such as House Cannith and the secrets behind Xen'drik and the Blood of Vol.

The week, Wizards also wraps up the preview for the second set of Player's Handbook Heroes miniatures with the third Arcane and Divine heroes. The most unexpected happening this week is that Wizards has released another rules update for the Player's Handbook, Martial Power and the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide with a new format that is much better.

So here's the rundown of what was up at Wizards site this week.

Monday (29/6/09)
Divine Power Excerpts: Miracle Worker
Eberron Campaign Guide Excerpts: Thrane & Dragonmarks
Dragon 376 Art Gallery

Wednesday (1/7/09)
Arcane Heroes 3

Friday (3/7/09)
Divine Power Excerpts: Feats
Eberron Campaign Guide Excerpts: Xen'drik and Religion
Divine Heroes 3
July Update Letter

Next week, we'll be seeing the last of the excerpts with Divine Power showing a new paladin build and an epic destiny while the Eberron Campaign Guide will feature Drooam and Q'barra along with a sample encounter and the table of contents. We'll also get a Steal This Hook! and maybe a podcast too.

It's going to be a big week for Insiders when they will finally reveal the Psion class from Player's Handbook 3 and an article on githyanki capital city of Tu'narath.

Word of Wizards - July Update Letter

2009-07-04T01:38:00.005+08:00

July Update Letter
Wizards have added another rules update for Player's Handbook, Forgotten Realms Player's Guide and Martial Power on certain powers, feats and the battle vigor build feature with a new format that makes things far much easier to read and print out to stick over your book. They also included explanations of why they made some of those changes in the individual book updates which is a really commendable effort.

The new updates will be implemented in the Character Builder and the Compendium on August 4 which is also when these changes will be official for RPGA events. So you'll only need to adjust your RPGA character to reflect these changes on that date.

Word of Wizards - Divine Heroes 3

2009-07-03T21:00:00.007+08:00

Divine Heroes 3

In this box, we have the male Genasi Paladin, female Human Cleric and male Human Invoker.

Genasi Paladin
The first and only genasi miniature in the set so far and it is looking very fine. With the armor and shield, he can easily be substituted to be an armored martial class. This miniature can land a Forbidding Strike (Level 1? At-will) that grants an adjacent ally damage resistance until the end of your next turn.

Human Cleric
Even though it's a reused sculpt, this is still a very good looking miniature and the paint job looks pretty. While it seems to be more suited to be an invoker than a cleric but it could equally be used as any other spellcaster like the wizard, warlock and sorcerer. It could also be used to represent an eladrin or elf too.

As a cleric, she can create a Healing Circle (Level 16; Daily) that not only lets each ally within burst 5 to regain 15 hitpoints but anytime they spend a healing surge within the zone that last for the end of the encounter, they regain an additional 5+Cha mod hitpoints.

Human Invoker
This is the best looking miniature of the lot and with this to top it off with the previous two miniatures, I say it makes getting this box very worthwhile. Just like the previous one, it can also easily be used to represent arcane spellcasters but for half-orcs and shifters.

As an invoker, he can blow you away with an Astral Wind (Level 1? At-will) that pushes enemies away and makes them stay there.

Well that wraps up all the previews from this set and I have to say that this is the best box of them all, in my opinion. Not only it has nice sculpts but it also has a great amount of versatility too.

Any thoughts on these miniatures?

Word of Wizards - Excerpts: Xen'drik and Religion

2009-07-03T21:00:00.004+08:00

Eberron Campaign Guide Excerpts: Xen'drik and Religion

The excerpt shows the lore on Xen'drik which can be reveal through Arcana checks. Nothing new there in terms of fluff but it's good for someone who is unfamiliar with the history of that continent. The map is really nice though and I'm quite surprised that they have page space to include it in (but it can only mean that there is less page space for something else).

For the religion section, the excerpt sheds a little light on the Blood of Vol. There has been some small confusion among Eberron fans when the religion was listed as being unlaigned in the Player's Guide. Whether this a change of the direction and the feel of the cult is unlikely but there are no spoiler information to be found here either.

Maybe the secret lore and stats of Lady Vol is a big hint otherwise. Although I'm a little surprised that she is only a Level 19 Elite Controller.

Word of Wizards - Excerpts: Divine Power Feats

2009-07-03T21:00:00.001+08:00

Divine Power Excerpts: Feats

This excerpt showcases the paragon tier feats for the Avenger, Cleric, Invoker and Paladin which is a good thing. For one, it's probably the level range where most characters are by the time the book is released. Secondly, it's boring to always look at the Heroic tier which is most likely filled with Channel Divinity feats anyway.

Here are some noticeable ones which perked my interest even though my games are no where near the paragon tier, so my choices might miss the better ones.

Pervasive Light Enemies vulnerable to radiant take extra damage when you don’t use a radiant power

Pledge of Retribution (Avenger, Censure of Retribution, oath of enmity) Gain +1 to next attack against oath of enmity target after you miss that target

Extended Healing (Cleric, Healing word) Add 5 to the burst of your healing word

Greater Fortune (Cleric, Divine fortune) Change divine fortune from personal to close burst 1

Honored Foe (Paladin) Gain temporary hit points when a marked foe damages you

Persistent Challenge (Cha 15, divine challenge) Maintain divine challenge even if you don’t attack target

{Quest Log} Let's Get This Party Started Part 2

2009-07-02T21:16:00.004+08:00

The bad news is that the game didn't happen because I had forgotten that I had another commitment which clashed with the gaming schedule. The good news for that is that I've got more time to prep for the adventure and I finally know what I would like to be playtesting for 4E.

I've managed to get 3-4 interested players but would like to have one more to try out the new default number of 5. I think having just one more player than usual could change the feel and the pace of the game while at the same time it would be interesting to see how the math adds up to affect the balance. In the meantime, having a system that can accommodate more players is always good when you have too much players.

I'm planning it to be a 5 encounter one-shot delve that could be finished in one evening session with a big bad solo to wrap it up. I've pinpointed two specific mechanics that I would to see my players use and challenge them.

Skill Challenges
Forced Movements

For Forced Movements, I would probably be needing a large combat map sprinkled with traps and terrain obstacles to be exploited against the big bad. I'm not sure what skill challenges I would want to implement though but considering that it's most likely in a dungeon, it might be used to bypass a deadly trap.

Another problem that I'm facing is what monsters to throw at them. My first choice would be the kobolds but seeing that they appear on almost every published adventure there is for first level characters, I think I should mix things up with something else.

My second choice would be goblins which has a good range of weak to strong challenges for first level characters and has some tricky abilities up their sleeves (Goblin Tactics and Hobgoblin Resilience) to conuteract the PC's powers.

Any suggestions of what else I could/should be playtesting to get a proper feel of 4E? Any ideas of the skill challenge and the adventure synopsis would also be much appreciated.

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Preview #8

2009-07-01T21:00:00.002+08:00

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Preview #8

This week, we take a look at Lini, 8th level gnome druid and Droogami, her snow leopard animal companion.

Lini
Female gnome druid 8
N Small humanoid (gnome)
Init +5; Senses low-light vision; Perception +15
DEFENSE
AC 18, touch 14, flat-footed 17 (+4 armor, +2 deflection, +1 Dex, +1 size)
hp 71 (8d8+32)
Fort +9, Ref +3, Will +10; +2 vs. illusion
Defensive Abilities defensive training
OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft.
Melee mwk sickle +7 (1d4–1)
Ranged +1 sling +9 (1d3+1)
Special Attacks wild shape 4/day
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 8th):
1/day—dancing lights, ghost sound, prestidigitation, speak with animals
Druid Spells Prepared (CL 8th):
4th—cure serious wounds, flame strike (DC 18), freedom of movement
3rd—call lightning (DC 17), dominate animal (DC 17), greater magic fang, poison (DC 17)
2nd—barkskin, bull's strength, flame blade, lesser restoration
1st—cure light wounds (2), entangle (DC 15), longstrider, obscuring mist
0—create water, detect magic, know direction, stabilize
STATISTICS
Str 8, Dex 12, Con 16, Int 8, Wis 18, Cha 16
Base Atk +6; CMB +4; CMD 17
Feats Combat Casting, Improved Initiative, Natural Spell, Weapon Focus (claw)
Skills Acrobatics +8, Fly +10, Handle Animal +10, Knowledge (nature) +8, Perception +15, Survival +13
Languages Common, Gnome
SQ nature bond (snow leopard animal companion), nature sense, resist nature's lure, trackless step, wild empathy +11, woodland stride
Combat Gear wand of cure light wounds; Other Gear mwk sickle, +1 sling, +2 leather armor, amulet of mighty fists +1, boots of elvenkind, druid vestments, elemental gem (air), headband of inspired wisdom +2, ring of deflection +2

Droogami
Male snow leopard
N Medium animal
Init +6; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +8
DEFENSE
AC 22, touch 17, flat-footed 15 (+6 Dex, +1 dodge, +5 natural)
hp 45 (7d8+14)
Fort +7, Ref +11, Will +3; +4 vs. enchantment
Defensive Abilities evasion
OFFENSE
Speed 50 ft.
Melee bite +9 (1d6+4 plus trip), 2 claws +9 (1d3+4)
STATISTICS
Str 18, Dex 22, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6
Base Atk +5; CMB +9; CMD 26
Feats Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Stealthy
Skills Acrobatics +10, Climb +9, Perception +8, Stealth +13
SQ devotion, link, share spells, sprint

Some highlight changes done to the druid.

Druids can now Wild Shape starting at 4th level and gain 2 additional uses each 2 levels after that.

Assuming shape grants the druid bonuses similar to ability stat boosting spells and it is considered a size bonus which means it can still stack with those spells and magic items.

Animal companions now follow a standard progression for hit dice, skill points, feats, natural armor bonuses, Strength and Dexterity bonuses. For other stats like attacks, speed and special qualities, it depends on the animal type which acts as a template.

Resist Nature's Lure applies to effects that target plants and wood such as Entangle and Warp Wood.

Entangle only entangles targets that fail their save and those that succeed move through the area as difficult terrain.

Boots of Elvenkind now only gives +5 to Acrobatic checks, made redundant by the Stealth skill.

The Fly skill allows the character to perform stunts and maneuvers like Ride. The skill is modified by size and maneuverability.

To be honest, I've never been a real druid fan which in my opinion is one of the hardest classes to play and it can be quite complicated at times with spells and animal companions. I hope that the new streamline rules for animal companion stats might make things easier but then again, it might just make things more complicated.

I'm glad that they explain what the Fly skill is for and it might be interesting to see the full list of aerial maneuvers that you can do with it.

So any thoughts on the new druid?

Word of Wizards - Arcane Heroes 3

2009-07-01T21:00:00.000+08:00

Arcane Heroes 3

This box contains a male Human Swordmage, female Human Wizard and a Warforged Artificer.

Human Swordmage
A pretty neat looking miniature based on Geran Hulmaster from the Forgotten Realms novel; Swordmage. This miniature looks like it could be a substitute for a martial class or a gruff-looking bard. This swordmage wields a Frostwind Blade (Level 1?; At-will) with deals damage to one enemy and another marked enemy.

Human Wizard
At first when I saw the mask, I didn't quite like it but on second thought, since the mask hides the face of the miniature means that it can be used to represent other races like elves, eladrins and devas.

After casting a spell that is in her spellbook, she could Refocus (Level 6; Daily) to use an unexpended utility or daily spell of the same level to cast that spell again with a +1 power bonus to attack with that spell until the end of her next turn.

Warforged Artificer
I'm very disappointed with the warforged heroes that they have produce in this set. Although this one is not as abysmal as the Warforged Cleric in the previously previewed Divine Heroes 2, it isn't a great looking miniature as well. The artificer can cast an Unbalancing Force (Level ?; Encounter?) that allows an ally to push a target when they hit it.

Any thoughts on this box?

Burning Question - Questions from the Questing GM

2009-06-30T21:00:00.002+08:00

Last sunday, this blog just reached its first year and it has been quite a bumpy ride along the way. This blog first started simply as a simple place to drop rants and ramblings about gaming as an Asian gamer but after joining the RPG Bloggers Network, I've added features to try and find my own voice from the distinguished numbers of bloggers that have far better content than mine.

Since then, I've managed to fill up my weekly schedule and have been trying to meet them consistently so that you, my readers, have always something to look for from the Questing GM.

Here's the basic schedule that I'm working with at the moment and for the benefit of my readers who don't know what I'm doing:

Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays: Word of Wizards (reports of any news posted on the Wizards' site)

Tuesdays: Burning Question (a weekly question for readers to answer and share their opinions)

Thursday: {Quest Log} (a weekly slot for me to share my ramblings or experiences related with gaming and other miscellaneous content that does not fit in other features)

Saturday: Word of Wizards Weekly Roundup (weekly compilation of all Word of Wizards posted that week)

Sunday: Questing's Readings (a link list of all the blog posts from the RPG Bloggers Network that I find interesting or recommend from that week)

While it can be stressful at times to try and make things interesting, I've always told myself that what I do is for the fun and my passion for RPGs and my readers. I hope you feel the same way too.

After a year, I need your help. I would like to hear some feedback on the features that you like or don't like from the Questing GM. Is there anything that I need to improve on or maybe there's something that I should remove entirely?

I would also want your thoughts on some plans that I'm thinking of implementing in the future.

Would you prefer me to turn Word of Wizards into a weekly feature or stick to my current schedule. It's not hard either way for me but I wonder if you find daily coverage on Wizards' news redundant to you?

Do you like the name Word of Wizards or prefer something else? I initially gave it that name as a deliberate play of WoW but I've received complaints that it is very misguiding and confusing, especially when I update it on my Twitter.

Any there any content that you would like to see me produce for the Questing GM? Encounters? Random plot hooks? Articles?

What, in your opinion, were the best content you've read on the Questing GM?

What do you think of the current schedule?

Any other general thoughts and comments of what you really think about the Questing GM, whether positive or negative and any changes that you might suggest to make your experience with the Questing GM better are also welcomed.

Thanks to all your support for the past year.

Word of Wizards - Dragon 376 Art Gallery

2009-06-29T21:00:00.005+08:00

Dragon 376 Art Gallery

In this gallery you will find pictures of an otyugh, a goliath barbarian, a beautiful landscape with a city, an anatomy of the rust monster, a volcanic dragon, a map of Sarifal, revenants and plenty of Far-Realmish aberrations like this one.

There are also quite a few diorama pieces that might inspire an encounter or two, especially ones that involves rust monsters.

Word of Wizards - Excerpts: Thrane & Dragonmarks

2009-06-29T21:00:00.003+08:00

Eberron Campaign Guide Excerpts: Thrane & Dragonmarks

This excerpt gives a very detailed and interesting history of Thrane and the Dragonmarks.

Under the Thrane section, the lore, which can be revealed through History checks, explains how the Silver Church was formed and came into power as the ruling class that turned the nation into a theocracy. There is an interesting political situation in the nation that can be the basis of an entire campaign which has been one of my main attractions towards this setting even though I was surprised to see this in Thrane.

Under the dragonmarks, it explains the origins of the dragonmarks and the dragonmarked houses. The history also briefly tells about the Twelve and the Koth Edict which also forms the political scenario of the dragonmarked houses.

For the dragonmarked houses, the excerpt focuses on House Cannith which details about the Guild of Fabricators and Guild of Tinkers and the stats of a Cannith Magewright which is a Level 6 Artillery that throws Alechemical Explosion (standard; recharge 5,6) and escapes with Lightning Withdrawal (immediate reaction, when an enemy enters an adjacent square; encounter)

Word of Wizards - Excerpts: Miracle Worker

2009-06-29T21:00:00.002+08:00

Divine Power Excerpts: Miracle Worker

The Miracle Worker is a master healer that not only is able to mend the wounds of his comrades more effectively than most clerics but can also pay deadly retribution to those that dare to harm them. It has a simple requirement of being a cleric and must be trained in the Heal skill.

Once the start their career as a Miracle Worker, their Healing Word is upgraded to Word of Life (11th Path Feature) which heals additional d8s rather d6s worth of hitpoints whenever he uses it.

As a Healing Action, every ally that is adjacent to the Miracle Worker whenever he spends an action point regains 1d6+Wis mod hitpoints. This increases to 2d6+Wis mod at Level 21.

Powerful Miracle Workers emits a strong Aura of Health that gives 3d6 additional hitpoints whenever an ally spends their second wind action 5 squares within the Miracle Worker.

In combat, the Miracle Worker can cause a Reversal of Fortunes (Level 11; Encounter) for his enemies. When an enemy within 5 squares hits an ally adjacent to it, you deal it 2d10+Wis mod damage and that ally can spend a healing surge and regain additional 2d10 hitpoints.

Their Miraculous Grace (Level 12; Daily) can be a lifesaver. When an ally within 5 squares is dropped to 0 hitpoints or less, they can immediately spend a healing surge and regain an additional 2d6 hitpoints. They also make a saving throw against each effect that can be ended with a save.

When an enemy deals great harm to a Miracle Worker's ally, they make sure that they Reap What You Sow (Level 20; Daily). On a hit, the Miracle Worker transfer all effects that can be saved from allies within a burst 5 to a enemy within the burst. On a miss, the Miracle Worker still transfers one effect that can be saved to that enemy.

This is a very powerful paragon path but in my opinion it is mainly because of its powers rather than the healing dice that they throw. However, one barrier I can see to playing this paragon path is that it brings back the age old question of who wants to be the party medic.

Any thoughts on the Miracle Worker?

Questing's Readings - Origins 2009 Edition

2009-06-28T21:00:00.001+08:00

Origins 2009 was on 24-28 June this year and several bloggers are attending it to bring back some coverage on the convention including the main highlight event, the Origins Awards.

So in this special edition, here are the blog posts on Origins so far if you are not attending it and what to know what's happening there.

Critical Hits
Origins 2009: Monte Cook “Being A Better Game Master”
Origins Awards 2009

Geek's Dream Girl
E’s Con Travels: Origins 2009 – Part One

Living Dice
Advice for Gamers Attending Origins Game Fair 2009

Mediocre Tales
Off to Origins

Nuketown
What is Origins 2009?
Origins 2009: Day 1
Origins 2009: Day 2
Origins 2009: Day 3

Purple Pawn
Origins Day Two

Questing's Readings - 28/6/09

2009-06-28T09:00:00.001+08:00

This week, there has been some interesting discussions going on about alternative reasons for rewarding XP other than combat. There's also some advice for GMs in various issues when it comes to players and a few posts about gaming in other parts of the world. Overall, it has been quite a fruitful week of readings.

A Butterfly Dreaming
4E from One Year In
Some deep look and thoughts on the 4E system after it has been released for one year.

At Will
Complicated Goals: Making Memorable Encounters
How to create memorable encounters with opponents, goals and complications.

Campaign Mastery
Shadow Levels: A way to roleplay the acquisition of Prestige Classes in D&D 3.x
An interesting houserule of holding character advancement before they enter into a prestige class.

Capturing Fantasy
Why You Should Explore Your Character's Past
Revealing some hidden opportunities in having a character background.

Dungeon's Master
Skill Aide: Dragonmarks
A simple houserule for all the dragonmarks that gives a small bonus to skill checks.

Character Motivation
Some thoughts on why your character should have a motivation.

GamesTopica.Net
Meta-Plot Special! Why XP is the Ultimate Meta-Plot Device
How XP can be the best tool to promote your meta-plot.

Life and Times of a Philippine Gamer
Roleplaying Games in the Philippines: 2009 Edition

Newbie DM
Table Drama: Handling PvP & angry players
5 ways to handle a situation when your players at are each others throats.

A couple of free mapping and landscape visualization tools for new DM’s
A couple of free tools to create stunning maps and landscape pictures.

Sly Flourish
Three New Ways to use the Monster Manual 2
Three simple ways to transfer the new mechanics of MM2 to MM1.

Stargazer's World
Gaming on the cheap
A list of free or cheap RPGs for different genres.

A Gamer In Japan Part 1: The Group
The 3 types of gaming groups that you can find in Japan.

tenletter
The Worst Gamer City In The World
Jatori explaining where is the worst gaming city in the world and can he do about it.

The Dump Stat
Fitting the way you DM into combat Roles classification
An interesting observation of GMing types according to the class roles of 4E.

The Recursion King
Experience points for class goals (revised)
An interesting houserule for rewarding XP for accomplishing class-related tasks.

The Spirits of Eden
Wow, There’s A Lot Of Unearthed Arcana Stuff In 4e
An interesting observation of how much of 4E's rules are similar to the variants in Unearthed Arcana in 3.x.

Uncle Bear
Worldbuilding 101: Holidays
Some guidelines on how to create a holiday for your setting.

Unofficial Games
Meeting interesting and stimulating people of an ancient culture... and NOT killing them
Some suggestions on rewarding XP for exploration.