There seems to be a feeling out there that 4E is based to much on abilities and powers, what the pc can do rather than the story. This trend by players and DM's worries me for the future of D&D. Do we really need rules for emphasizing story aspects of an RPG?

I have been playing and running a number of demos over the last month and have not found this to be true. However, I have found that if the DM lacks imagination or does not clearly state that the demos are showing off combat rules or some other subset of the rules the players react with statements like, “this is just monster bashing...”

My understanding is that a rule set for RPGs should focus on conflict resolution, primarily combat. I for one as DM don't want the game to dictate how my story is told or what I should or should not emphasize in my campaigns. These are aspects of the game that, in my opinion should be left to the real life people involved in the game, the DM and players. For example I run very different games for my 11 year old son and his friends than I do for my adult group. They are just different! There are very different levels of role play and plot complexity.

With that in mind it seems very reasonable to me that the forthcoming PHB should lean heavily towards the powers of the characters. This is balanced by a DMG that leans heavily toward creating encounters (both combat and non-combat), adventures, settings and worlds... This will allow those DM's that are creative the flexibility to develop original campaigns and ultimately place the role playing back in the hands of the participants rather than the rules!

I am very interested in other views on the subject. Please comment!

I also wonder how much of this could truly be attributed to the difference between late babyboomers, GenX'ers and GenY kids? I am a very early GenX'er (1968) and am really seeing dramatic differenecs between myself and the kids born post 1980 (GenY). And yes I know some of you are aproaching 30yrs old...

Well tomorrow I am running a 4E demo at one of our FLGS's. I am running "Escape from Simbia". It should be fun I have had plenty of time to prepare and get ready. There are a number of plot holes as well as rules holes but it is a demo/intro.

The only problem I have is that the players wont be able to count this mod for RPGA unless they go through it again but that would not be right. Oh well... I might just take down thier RPGA numbers and schedule it and report it later. I hope that does not violate any RPGA rules.

I will blog about how it goes tomorrow. Till later, Keep the Game Going...

Tags: 4E RPG D&D

I am planning on converting “Keep on the Boarderlands” to 4E D&D. Here is my basic outline for my update. Yes I have changed a good bit and this is only a working outline. If you are interested in working with me please contact me. Let me know what you think!

 

Background

The pc's are a young group of friends from the Keep. The players will create there own backstories based on a brief history of the Keep that I will provide. They will not be allowed to be related to any of the major NPC's but will be able to be from families with some prominence.

Brief History of the Keep

The Keep was build about 150 years ago as a small outpost to provide some additional security for the city state of (insert whatever fits...). Over the years the Keep has gained much independence, but still has continued trade their parent state. Most of the inhabitance have lived their entire lives within the high walls of the keep as the pc's have.

There have always been raids on the Keep but nothing that their standing guard has been too troubled by. However, the raids have been dramatically increasing over the last year and are beginning to worry the leadership. There have been rumors of the areas monstrous hominoids gathering in a ravine about a days journey to the northeast.

The Keep will serve as the base of operations and the pc's. I am going to add a community around the Keep by adding an additional outer wall and increase the size of the motte to accommodate the larger community. Other than that change the Keep should remain the same.

The Region

The original module has 4 additional encounter areas, Mound of the Lizard Men, Spiders' Lair, Bandit Camp, and The Mad Hermit besides the Caves of Chaos. I plan to take each one of these and expand them into individual one session 4 hr. adventures with independent plot hooks.

1. Mound of the Lizard Men

“The streams and pools of the fens* are the home of a tribe of exceptionally evil Lizard men” (Gygax 12) These Lizard men will be updated to have a community of them living in that area. The plot hook will be determined based on the new version of Lizard men.

2. Spider's Lair

I think the original module was inspired by a similar seen in The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. However, I am going to modify the seen so that it will not be quite so reminiscent of the for mentioned book. Not sure at this point exactly how I plan on modifying it yet. But I am leaning toward a small cult devoted to the spiders. I know that sounds a bit Loth'is but it will not be when I get finished with it, unless I drop this into the FR's.

3. Bandit Camp

I plan on tyeing the bandits to the Shrine of Evil Chaos (Caves of Chaos K). The bandits will actually be freelancers that periodically kidnap folks from the keep and sell them to the Evil Priest for sacrificing and turning them into his undead minions.

4. The Mad Hermit

The Mad Hermit will be changed to a kind of orical.

The Caves of Chaos

The Caves will go through a dramatic rewrite. They will be the base of operations for the evil power that is trying to take over the region.

The Evil Powers

There will be two primary powers first will be the Evil Priest, the theological power behind the military power. There will also be a military power that officially holds the power over the all the minions. However, he is beholden to the priest.

Unknown Cave

Not yet developed...

 

Works Cited

Gygax, Gary. Dungeon Module B2 “Keep on the Borderlands Lake Geneva, WI: TSR Games, 1980.

Tags: D&D 4E Conversions

After reading laby67's blog “D&D insider” I got to thinking about my concerns about this new features impact on D&D as a whole and specifically on the RPGA folks.

First off I am a regular D&D gamer, I both play and DM games. I am also an RPGA GM (Harold Level) and as such I run a number of RPGA sanctioned games here in Lubbock. It “D&D insider” is going to have a major negative impact I see that happening here within the RPGA.

There are a number of articles on the WotC website that tout the glorious coming of “D&D Insider” all clearly claiming that all the information within “D&D Insider” is supplemental and will not be need for D&D. However that is always followed up with how much better your game will be with it.

There is also mention that the information within DDI will be RPGA compatible. My fear is how will as a GM run a game in which players have powers, feats, and the such gotten from a tool that I may not have access to. Also how will they balance. WotC claims that they will make sure everything is balanced. But we all know what a great job they have done with that in the past.

I see two solutions to this. First is that the players that have characters utilizing information from DDI will have print out verifying power, feat or whatever. The second solution I see is that there will end up being two track for RPGA players a track for those with DDI and one for those without DDI.

The first solution is somewhat akin to what has been done within the Expedition to Xendrik campaign. I is not an inharently bad solution it just requires that GM's either have all the books or take the time before the slot begins to read and attempt to fully understand all the ins and outs of the of each feat, or item the players have at their disposal. In my experience this is not done, the players word is taken if it sounds reasonable and then if there are questions the documents are checked. I think this is where things will end up, primarily because it appears that WotC will be taking a much stronger role within the RPGA.

I also can see a situation where there end up being multiple slots for the same adventures, one with DDI access and the other without. Given that WotC is out to make money I don't see this happening.

Now for my greater concern with DDI... What will happen in a couple of years when the bean counters at Hasbro notice that the cost to profit ratio is much higher on virtual recourses than it is on printed material. I see a point when our books begin to get smaller and smaller and less and less useful because most of the good stuff is accessed via DDI. WotC will not have gone back on their word that “All you will need to play is the PHB and to DM all you will need is the PHB, DMG and MM.” However, you will end up with nothing more than a very expensive and very pretty copy of the Open Game License material.

All that said I am going to participate in the DDI Beta testing before I decide if I ma going to be a “Have or Have Not...”

Now what do you all think?

Tags: 4E D&D D&D Insider DDI

Well I stumbled into this site today and really like what I see. It got me thinking about the WotC version of the same thing. Let’s do a bit of a Compare and Contrast...

What are the similarities? 
First and foremost they both are competing for the same users both individuals and companies. They both allow users to create profiles and post information about themselves as MySpace and Facebook.

What are the diffences?
So far the big difference that I have found is that RPGBomb really allows you to customize your page. This is a big plus!

The one thing that I suspect will be a problem for RPGBomb is that it doesn’t get impute from WotC staff. That said ENWorld has done a great job getting the scoops on all the new 4E info sometimes even before it hits the WotC boards.

I would really like to see this site be real success so how do we make this happen… I am adding a line to my signatures on both my ENWorld and WotC profiles.

Tags: Glemax WotC