In all sincerity I knew what the quote was about, I remember hearing it back then. The link to Wikipedia above explains that the origin of the “thousand points of light” is from the Magician’s Apprentice by CS Lewis. But the D&D points of light campaign is another matter entirely. When I first read of the concept in the run up to D&D 4th edition I was intrigued. But I have a long running campaign and the idea of the points of light style game really did not mesh well with the world I had created over 20+ years.

Every edition change entails some mechanical changes in ongoing campaigns. If you consider my world was first played in D&D Basic, and then went on to be adapted in AD&D 1st and 2nd editions, D&D 3rd edition and 3.5, you’ll see I’m no stranger to change. However I don’t like hand waving stuff that is an integral part of the campaigns consistency. If dwarves could not be magic users before, why can they be now?

So I like to create in game rationales for this type of changes. The change from AD&D 2nd edition to D&D 3rd edition was easy since the games where set in the same world but in distant continents. Still I created in game explanation for many changes. When D&D 4th was coming out I was fully on board and while I was unsure how the whole points of light concept would carry though I was ready for other changes, tieflings were already in my campaign since 2nd edition, they looked different but that was not a problem per se. Dragonborn where another matter, so even before I made the rule change I began to work a rationale of where the race would come from. I was set! All that was left was for D&D 4th ed to come out.

And then I read the books. Don’t get me wrong I liked D&D 4th edition, I still do. It’s a game with a clear purpose, delivers well what it’s intended to be, and it certainly dared to sacrifice some sacred cows I thought they’d never touch. But I could tell this was a different game, that its feel and game play would be different from what I was used to, so I decided NOT to jump in into my campaign right away and instead do a trial run using the points of light idea.

That turned into our 7+ month D&D 4th edition campaign. We played weekly during that time and went all through the heroic tier and into paragon. Those where some turbulent months, with rebellions at the table over the system, some players disliking it so much they quit the game they have been playing with me for decades, exploring the tools the system provided, and telling a pretty entertaining story along the way. Ultimately we decided the system was not for us and moved on to Pathfinder.

With D&D Next coming up I’m suddenly thinking about adaptations all over again, I am not sure I will switch my campaign if I play it. IF I get to participate in the playtest (WotC pick me, pick me! I only bash you semi-regularly!) I will most thatn likely create a mini-campaign just like I did for 4th edition.

This all gets back to MY points of light eventually… My ruminations on the matter made me dig out the little document I created as an introduction to the campaign when we started playing D&D 4th edition. Coming from a game where I handed out a LOT of long documents and complex handouts I tried to keep it short and simple, asked each player for a two sentence description of their character and to bring an image to the game. I then handed each of them a piece of paper with a secret their character knew. Nice and simple…

Here is the text of the handout I gave to the players that fateful night in 2008. I’m not reproducing it exactly as I gave it to them since back the I used some art I found out there in the Internet and I have NO idea who the artists are. But there is a small old-school map I made for the game. Hope you enjoy it and find it useful, or at least fun. Let me know what you think…

The Town of New Crosspointe

The town of New Crosspointe was founded upon the ruins of the old town of Cross Point on the 84th year of the rule of the Osterios Family, settled by missionaries from the Temple of Dawn on a crusade to retake the northern half of the valley from the goblin and orc tribes that controlled it since the Autumn of No Crops. The walled town sits north of the Aumvell Forest; bordered on the north-west by the Istir River, over sixty miles north of the ruined Wall of Forts that once demarcated the northern border of the Duke’s Holdings.

Built upon the ruins of the old settlement, it receives its name from the large bronze plaque set by the cross roads near the old market square, marking the place where two ancient roads of empires long past meet. The remains of these roads still form part of market road and hunter’s way the two main streets in town. The plaque itself is round and some 15 hands across. Carved upon its old faded surface is what seems to be an astrolabe and runes of unknown origin or meaning. Some four paces from the plaque there is a pedestal, overgrown with ivy, weatherworn and cracked, traces of a statue remain, a leg and pieces of a foot, and a lonely single inscription in Draconic. Those that read the language say it simply says “Cross Point”.

New Crosspointe has thrived and over the last 28 years it has grown as many pious pilgrims, those who seek their fortune, and those who want to leave their past behind, move to the frontier of the civilization in the valley. Brisk trade with the elven hunters from the Aumvell and solitary trappers further north has benefited the town. Most goods are traded with the various Halfling families who dare the dangers of the lower Istir River and the occasional merchant caravan from south of the valley.

The recent establishing of the Dougren Forge and Ironworks in town, by descendants of one of the clans that ruled over Griffon’s Cliff before the goblins took control of the fortress city, has been a boon for New Crosspointe. Loggers have recently been attacked and some have disappeared, causing great concern. The lord mayor has sent emissaries escorted by his men and some elven scouts into the deep Aumvell to negotiate with the eladrin of the Fey Pool and has assured the Town Council no further incidents shall be tolerated.

The northwestern part of town sits upon a small cliff overlooking the Istir River and flanked by two ancient towers dating from the original settlement of Cross Point. Upon the cliff as well stands the Temple of the Dawn rebuilt to its original glory. The town slowly slopes down to the south east towards the more populated districts and the Temple of Dusk where the original town cemetery still stands.

The town’s defenses are an amalgam of old and new stone walls connected by wooden walls covering the areas were the old walls crumbled, or where new construction has yet to begin. The southeast wall is itself composed of smaller wooden portions connected with wooden watchtowers, as the broken terrain in this area has made the construction of more permanent battlements difficult. The lord mayor keeps his dwelling, as well as the barracks for most of his men in a fort with its own wooden walls built upon the face of the southwestern wall.

Environs of New Crosspointe

A small branch of the Istir veers off south towards the cliffs of the town and forms a small bog there. Most halfling families traveling the river berth here when trading in town. Beyond the Istir River to the north various farms dot the landscape slowly giving way to the wild. There are some old manors from the time of the original settlement and further upriver a large riverside tower with diverse buildings around it in various stages of decay. According to legend and rumor the tower has been the seat to local lords, home to dark cults and hideaway to bandits at various stages in its history.

To the south, beyond the Hunter’s Gate, hunter’s road becomes the Duke’s Way, bordering the Aumvell Forest and descending into the south of the valley. The road is dangerous and fraught with peril. Many bandits and brigands plague this area. West are the wilds were goblins and other dangers still abound while east the wild gives way to the Ice Peak Mountains that surround the valley and the other myriad dangers that lurk there.

People of New Crosspointe

The population of New Crosspointe is composed mostly of humans; dwarves and halflings are present in considerable numbers, many living permanently in town. Elves from the Aumvell Forest trade often in town and some have settle for some years. While they seldom stay for long, a few of their offspring, half elves, can still be found in town. Two families of tieflings, related by blood to the Airenai, one of the five remaining bloodlines of the Seven Lords who support the Duke, live in town. One family is dedicated to the mystic arts, masters of Cilder Tower, renowned arcanists and seers. The other family is heavily involved in commerce and trade.

No dragonborn lives in town, one renowned member of the Duke’s Cresthelm Guard retired some years ago to a cabin half a day northeast of town. He frequently travels to town to trade on market day. While he always comes alone, rumors abound of others of his kind visiting, or training with this old warrior. Eladrin are seldom seen in town but loggers in the Aumvell Forest have seen them and on some full moons, when it is said that the Fey Pool can be found by all who seek it, some eladrin wanderer have left the Feywild and come to town.

Faith and the Pious

While all benevolent faiths are worshipped in New Crosspointe, only two large temples are present in town. The Temple of Dawn, whose missionaries resettled the town, is located north in the small cliffs. There the faithful of Pelor, Bahamut and Moradin gather to honor their deities. The Temple of Dusk is an older temple, still not completely restored to its former glory, which stands in the same grounds as the old town’s cemetery. Originally dedicated to the Raven Queen, it now has altars to Ioun and Erathis as well. It is not as well manned or attended as the Temple of Dawn, a fact that has not escaped the Lord Mayor who worships here.

A stone shrine, much more ancient than old Cross Point, is southeast of town, beyond the walls and overlooked by Cilder Tower. The shrine is dedicated to Avandara, Corellon and Sehanine, and many who travel into the forest stop here for a prayer. The dragonborn living near town is said to be a devout follower of Kord and willing to share his knowledge with the pious and brave.

The Tenedal Valley

The Tenedal Valley, usually simply called the valley by its inhabitants, has been the ancestral holding of the Osterios family for over two hundred years. Located in the northern regions of the Norath Empire in what used to be considered the frontier. At one time or another, the region was claimed by the empire of Bael Turath, the dragonborn of Arkhosia, and other older empires. The valley is surrounded by the Ice Peak Mountains, with only two viable accesses, Ghost Wail pass to the west and the Raven Hills to the south. While there are other routes these are small, inaccessible, or both. There are tales of tunnels running from Griffon’s Cliff beyond the Ice Peak Mountains, but if they exist, they are in control of the goblins who rule the former dwarven stronghold.

The valley was once covered in wild forests but was slowly cleared by logging and farming in the southern half. The north was less populated and remained inaccessible for many years until the headway made by the establishment of New Crosspointe and others that have followed. In the north reaches of the Ice Peak Mountains an active volcano bellows dark foreboding smoke and has in recent memory trembled twice, the tremors felt as far south as New Crosspointe.

The Sual’Li who live in the desert south of the valley have reestablished trade with the Duke after his father’s actions almost cost the valley their sole remaining ally beyond the mountains. To the west of the valley by the Boiling Lake there are still ruins of a dark ancient empire whose name no one seems willing to acknowledge, except to speak of its follies and the dangers that lurk in the ruins they left behind. Beyond that little is known, some merchants arrive to the Duke’s seat with tales both grandiose and often contradictory, and if rumor is to be believed, as dangerous as the valley may be, beyond the mountains things seem to be much worse.

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The theme this issue is archers and its well served. Let’s see, it opens with the Elven Archer, a race specific class for the Pathfinder RPG. It’s an interesting mix of the ranger and the rogue that fits a traditional fantasy niche. The article has some typos (and you all know I’ve got plenty of those, so I shouldn’t be nitpicking), but I found it interesting and it’s a perfect fit for my long running campaign. The notes on adapting the class for other races, cultures, or even weapons make it useful in other contexts. There is also an article on magic arrows, which again provides what in my mind are some archetypical magic arrows. These two articles seem plucked from my adolescent love for RPGs updated for Pathfinder.

What else is there? Read on to find out…

Other Pathfinder articles include a collection of ooze themed spells and familiars, including the ooze magic school. Four new terrifying low to mid-level creatures that range from the creepy to the terrifying, a fifth level adventure, which begins with some railroading, but this a is a short adventure and due to length I’m willing to overlook it, since the rest is really entertaining. An article on older adventurers, including feats, which makes me reconsider the possibilities of my concept for the old hero and another one on Midgard themed fey hunters, with lots of campaign flavor BUT easily adaptable to any campaign.

But my favorite Pathfinder article (even more than the archery themed ones simply because this one is just so much more useful for me as a GM) was the article on four fully fleshed planar allies, with details on what negotiations with them would entail, personalities. Kudos! The weird article award goes to magical fish one for Pathfinder. You eat the fish and get some magical effect, from removing curses to permanent ability boosts, weird, interesting but weird…

For AGE you have 5 new specializations for the game’s classes. I love to see Kobold Quarterly expand the possibilities of this terrific system.  For D&D 4^th edition there is a bard themed article, new utility powers for gomes, tieflings and minotaurs (a race near and dear to my heart), and an article on nature spirits, dual-statted for Pathfinder. The recent announcement of D&D Next/5^th edition has made me take another look at the rule set, wondering what will be part of the new game. Whatever happens I hope in the future Kobold Quarterly gets to support all the games they already do and the new D&D!

There are systemless advice articles, like Monte Cook’s on the role of the GM. It might not be the most original, but there is some solid advice in there and he did bring up some interesting issues to consider. The mechanic for time sensitive adventure, called haste points, seems interesting, but I would have to test it out, I’m not sure how it will play out. The idea is solid and well presented, but they are something else to track in game and I’m not totally convinced I need that. The regular cartoons are here, funny as usual, I love Stan!’s humor, and I particularly liked D20 Monkey’s this issue, juvenile but funny. Read it, you’ll see. And of course, the closing one page article on the City of Zobeck by the one and only Jeff Grub!

The magazine is 84 pages long, full color, with terrific art, great layout and an appropriate ratio of articles to adds. I’ve said it before, it’s reminiscent of the old Dragon Magazine, but this is not a magazine just for the grognards like me, but for all fans of the major fantasy games out there. You can get the PDF of Kobold Quarterly #20 for $5.99 or the PDF+ Print bundle for $8.99, or better yet subscribe, well worth it in my opinion. Thank you for the makers of Kobold Quarterly for providing a review copy!

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See, I’ve had a couple of rough weeks and we had to cancel our weekly game twice (sacrilege I know!), so we planned this as a way to catch up, see each other and spend some quality time together. Needless to say at dinner with gamers I had to bring up the topic everyone’s been talking about in recent days D&D Next/5th edition…

I wanted to get their take on the news of the development of a fresh version of Dungeons & Dragons. Here in the blog we recently posted our thoughts, but we are bloggers, keep abreast of news and interact with a different community of gamers than some of the gamers I was sitting with. The reaction was interesting, mostly predictable if you know the group, but telling considering this quote from Monte Cook:

“I’m the lead designer of a project that will likely evolve into a new iteration of the Dungeons & Dragons ruleset. It’s meant to be a set of rules that unites all the previous editions, and the players of those editions.  It’s a big project, and we plan on involving all comers to playtest and voice their opinions, because really, what’s the point of designing a game no one wants to play? And who knows better what D&D players want than, well, D&D players.”

(Thanks to EN World for collecting this and other quotes and information on the development in their D&D 5^th edition info page!)

What did they say? Read on…

This is a varied group, running the gamut from their mid-twenties to forties, all longtime role-players and as a whole we’ve all played D&D, some of us more than others, but we all cut our teeth on the game. Some of them have played at my table for nineteen years, and for the longest time all I ran was D&D. Many where there when we switched from AD&D 2^nd edition to 3^rd edition, and later when I dragged them (some kicking and screaming) to D&D 4^th edition, some even ran the game, so we’ve all experienced edition change.

In the midst of a conversation about movies, critical hits and the selection in the buffet I dropped the bomb, “So what do you think about the fact they are developing a new edition of D&D?” My favorite response was, “What?” There was actually someone at the table who had no idea. It’s been days since the announcement, this is not a person who lives under a rock, he uses the internet, but obviously despite WotC’s attempts and all the media coverage this was the first he had heard of it.

The general consensus seemed to be disinterest. One of the most vocal haters of D&D 4^th edition in my group actually threatened to hit me with the book if I “wasted” (that’s what he called it) my money on a new edition. More moderate voices insisted they were happy with the fantasy RPG they have, Pathfinder, and that it would have to be a pretty amazing system to get them to go back to D&D.

When someone pointed out that planning for sessions is an intense experience for a Game Master, I made the faux pas of actually defending 4^th edition and singing its praises, such as ease of prep time for Game Masters, and the GMs around the table insisted they have the same ease of prep with Pathfinder. And while I agree Pathfinder made many strides in these regards, and making it easy when creating NPCs, specifically by providing short cuts and samples of them, I believe there are still some issues with high-level play, but nothing that bothers me. I can navigate this hurdles and I think the other GMs at the table have mastered the system and thus feel very comfortable with the game.

I think this may be the biggest obstacle Wizards of the Coast faces when they try to attract lapse players back to the fold, they feel that when WotC published 4^th edition they were left behind (no pun intended!) and that they have moved on, they have found other games that fit their style. Another of my players never played 4^th edition and did not understand the vitriolic reaction against D&D 4^th edition, but also felt Pathfinder fulfilled her needs for fantasy gaming and has no desire to change systems.

The most surprising reaction came from one of my oldest friends, he works at a FLGS and is the only player at my table who still actively plays D&D 4^th edition (albeit not with us). He said he has NO interest in a new game, that he would continue playing D&D 4^th edition and Pathfinder. He distrusts (I don’t recall his word choice exactly, but this was the impression I got) WotC’s corporate policies and had little hope on what they plan to do, he was also underwhelmed by the design team. He admitted he was excited about 4^th edition, not so this time around.

I remain positively optimistic. I want to see where this goes, look forward to the open play test, which I believe is a step in the right direction, and think the stated design goals are laudable. From this conversation I know there is NO interest among my players to playtest the game. Since writing the last post on the subject I’ve decided I DO want to play the game as part of the playtest and know people who are interested, so I hope I can cajole some members of Puerto Rico Role Players to try this out.

All this is anecdotal; still I wonder how much of this type of attitude is out there… Is it too late? Has the ship sailed? I certainly hope not. I want to see what the next version of D&D is all about, I want the granddaddy of games to thrive, whether I end up playing it or not. So I invite you dear reader to keep an open mind, I really think it’s too early to say what the game will be like. Don’t write it off, if it ends up not being what you want to play, other will. Let’s all be more tolerant of what other people want to play, we are all gamers, no matter under which system we roll our dice! It’s those diceless heathens we need to worry about! I’m joking, no hate mail please…

I apologize in advance if I misinterpreted or misquoted anyone on this post, know that these are my interpretations of the opinions I heard. Thanks Enith, José F, Luis A, Fernan, Luis L, Pierre, Sara, José D and Nilda for a wonderful evening!

PS- Yes, we are going back to out regularly scheduled Tuesday game this week, there is nothing to fear!

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These books where provided by the publisher for review and even if I took my sweet time to get to them I am always really flattered that publishers will submit their products for review. Thanks, that doesn’t mean I’ll pull my punches!

So without further ado, the reviews…

What about Kobold Quarterly #19?

Issue 20 of Kobold Quarterly just came out, and I plan to review it much faster than the previous issue, but the issue at hand (pun intended) is 19, the Fall issue. I’ve reviewed previous issues and the wonderful people at Open Design have made me a fan, with a mix of nostalgia for the old Dragon Magazine coupled with great new content for some of the most popular fantasy RPGs in the market right now, D&D, AGE and Pathfinder. So what’s good in this issue? Glad you asked!

Pathfinder goodness: The White Necromancer, a fully fleshed out non-evil necromancer option; Druid archetypes; an article on magic shops, and making them more than simple wholesale magic warehouses, giving them flair and turning them into role-playing opportunities; and death themed archetypes for Druids, Barbarians, Monks and Summoners. There is a preview of the new Paizo’s Dragon Empire and Dragon Empire themed Arch-Devil. Overall, great content for all Pathfinder fans!

Then there are the AGE articles. I love that they are supporting this system and adapting Midgard content for it, in this case ten backgrounds for the game. A system less article on court adventures, including the power players and adventure ideas is a great source of inspiration for role-playing. There is another system less article on traps; the winner of the Relics of Power is published in this issue; a solo adventure; Mont Cook’s balance free bonuses ideas, bonuses that don’t impact game balance, adaptable to any edition, was my favorite article of the issue.

There is just one D&D 4^th edition article, with rules to play werewolf characters. It seems interesting enough, and I’m sure this will be popular. I was surprised that this was the only article written specifically for the system. True there are many excellent articles that can be adapted, but I was surprised. I guess they can only publish the articles submitted and wonder if this is a sign of the popularity of the games. Even if I don’t play the game, I know many D&D 4^th edition fans that love the magazine and hope to see continued support for the game in future issues.

All the usual suspects are here, the cartoons, book reviews and Free City of Zobeck closing article. Overall I loved this issue; it was full of Pathfinder articles which makes me personally happy. But I know fans of other games read the magazine and I hope to see more balanced content in the future. If you love a system, be sure to check out their Writer’s Guidelines and try to get published.

What about Divine Favor the Inquisitor?

Here is the final installment of the Divine Favor series; this time around it’s the Inquisitor’s turn. The cover is a little drab, just an Inquisitor in a battle pose, I am a fan of Christophe Swal’s art and I think using the same Inquisitor from the Advanced Feat cover was the right choice, but the art seems off and the ocher background left much to be desired.

Inside its 17 pages of content, with clear layout, the use of stock art, most of it appropriate, but there are a couple of odd choice, nothing that is terribly distracting. The new abilities and new inquisitions are refreshing and thread some interesting ground, expanding the possibilities of the class. There are some interesting archetypes, feats and spells. They all play well of one another and Stefen Styrsky provides a good closing to the series.

What about the Book of Drakes?

This is my favorite of the three books, and this is my favorite one. Drakes in Midgard are fascinating creatures, the idea of dragon-like creatures that are not as powerful and can appear in the game in very different roles than traditional dragons are an excellent option.

From the cover by Kieran Yanner, to the layout, to the interior art, this is a beautiful book to look at. And the writing is top notch too! Kudos to the design team… The ecology of the drake that opens the book is reminiscent of the old ecology articles of Dragon Magazine and a great introduction to the creature in Midgard. There are rules for drakes as companions, feats for them, class features, prestige classes, spells, and equipment, mundane and magical. I was NOT a fan of the rules for playing drakes, I think they are better allies or opponents that a playable option. The bestiary is great, providing drakes from CR 1 to CR 14, and rules for creating new drakes.

This is a great book that while officially a Midgard setting book, can be used in any Pathfinder game. The book is available in PDF and a print+PDF. I recommend the latter; this book is just too pretty not to have in print.

There you have it, three great books that have been out for a while now, but you can’t go wrong getting them. I hope you enjoy them!

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So, what the news at WotC? What the community suspected for quite some time now, is actually true: WotC is already working on a new edition of D&D.  If it will be called D&D 5th Edition or something else is still unclear, but Mike Mearls obviously likes the idea of just calling it “Dungeons & Dragons” and drop the edition number altogether.

This time they want to do it right and bring back the highly fragmented D&D community. This also more or less proves that D&D 4th Edition wasn’t as successful as the decision makers at WotC and Hasbro hoped for. I suspect the success of Paizo’s Pathfinder and probably even the Old-School Revolution are responsible for that.

While their goals are laudable I fear they are doomed to fail. They plan to create a new edition of D&D that shall please both fans of the recent D&D 4E but also bring back the OSR crowd. They intend to manage this by creating a modular ruleset and community involvement during the design and playtest phases. I have to admit that a highly modular D&D game could be quite interesting. The Unearthed Arcana book for D&D 3.5 was one of my favorite books back when I still played D&D. Being able to pick and choose the rules options you like in your D&D game might be pretty nifty, but in my opinion it’s very hard to pull off.

Community involvement in the design phase may also be pretty problematic. Only a small portion of gamers does participate in online communities or attend gaming convention. How do you make sure that the game appeals to this silent majority and not only to the quite vocal minority that actively participates in the design process?

I have to admit that I’m not that invested in that topic as I was a couple of years back. I wish WotC all the best and if the next iteration of D&D is a roleplaying game that sounds fun to play, I might give it a try. But if it’s not my cup of tea I’ll just play something else. There are so many interesting games out there, so that I am not dependent on Dungeons & Dragons.

Before I let the team speak their thoughts, let me share you some interesting links for you to check out later:

• Charting the Course of D&D (Mike Mearls, Official D&D site)
• Players Roll the Dice for Dungeons & Dragons Remake (NY Times)
• Wizards of the Coasts announces new edition of ‘Dungeons and Dragons’(CNN)
• Gamers React To New Dungeons And Dragons (Forbes)

So, what are my fellow team members’ thoughts on that topic? How do you feel about WotC’s announcement?

Roberto:

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I was a D&D fan boy for the longest time! Now with full disclosure out of the way let me summarise how I feel about D&D next, or 5th edition, or however they decide to brand it. Forecast: Positively optimistic!

I’ve written about it before, after playing D&D for most of my gaming life, from Basic to 3rd edition, I was in the 4th edition bandwagon. I can’t fault a company for wanting to make a profit, or attempt to improve their game, and for the longest time I believed the success of the brand was important for the continued existence of the hobby. I tried to play 4th edition, ran a 7+ month campaign and realized this iteration of the game was not for me. I embraced Pathfinder and have not looked back.

While I always played other games, I kept going back to D&D at the end of the day. And you may make the argument that Pathfinder is not far from D&D, but by cutting the D&D umbilical cord I ended up playing and discovering many games I might not have if my gaming money was tied up to the latest WotC release.

I know I am not the only one who’s made this comparison but its worth mentioning again, deciding to give up D&D was like a break up. That’s how invested I was in the game. They’ve put together a great design team, I want to see what they come up with. Their stated goal behind the new edition is laudable, bringing together the community seems like the way to go, and learning from the fiasco of not supporting the OGL I believe is important.

I even applied for the playtest… Looking back I realize it was a spur of the moment decision, my gaming time is precious as is and I don’t see myself giving up my current or future campaign to playtest the new D&D. I want to keep abreast of the process and may just do some special sessions to try out the rules with my peeps from Puerto Rico Role Players, so we’ll see.

On the flip side, I wonder if its too little too late. I believe there is the possibility of life in the hobby beyond D&D, and It would have to be a truly great game to get me to play D&D again. I’ve healed the wounds from the break up and I’m not completely convinced I want to get back together.

I think community participation, with its inevitable pitfalls, it still a great idea. So I believe this is a step in the right direction. I don’t want an MMO like board game, but I’d love for them to integrate the DDI tools into a game I like, I liked the DDI when I was subscribed, not the game it supported. I’d love to see PDFs priced right, online support, the building of a true community. Let’s see if WotC can manage that!

Again, I’m optimistic and will follow what they do, hopefully participate in the discussion. Realistically I will most than likely get the book (books?) when they come out and read them, whether I end up playing it is another matter. Here is me wishing the best to the design team, they’ll need it. To misquote Bette Davis in All About Eve, “Fasten your seat belts, its going to be a bumpy ride!”

Michael Garcia:

I’m not sure what to think of this announcement. As a lover of the OSR I like the fact that they are taking opinions from the community. I’m fairly positive that the alpha and beta of Pathfinder from Paizo has a lot to do with this.

My fear is that they will be taking the opinions of the gamers that are vocal. My experiences show that most gamers are not. Not every gamer is a member of the Wizards Community, they don’t all have blogs, and we all know how forums go. Sigh, I’m afraid that the input is only going to be by whiny 14 year old 4e loving twitter folks. Long story short, I opted for the playtesting, which I have a feeling is only going to be Encounters, which I do not participate in. I’ll read it over, may play it, but I’m happy with my retro clones. I doubt they win me back, but I’m hopeful as D&D was what got me into the hobby in the first place. I would love to be proven wrong.

My hopes:

• Pencil, paper, dice only. I don’t want inclusion of electronics by any means.
• I don’t want to have to buy minis from a company that doesn’t even sell minis anymore.
• No subscriptions.
• The OGL to come back in one form or another.
• My wish, 1e with better art and layout.

Youseph:

I woke up Monday morning to a hopeful sounding Wizards of the Coast (WotC) post announcing the plans for the new version of Dungeons & Dragons.

Dungeons & Dragons is the granddaddy of all role playing games (RPG). Anyone who thinks of role playing games, weather they have played any or not, thinks of Dungeons & Dragons. There is a lot of power behind the name and the brand. I cut my teeth on RPGs with Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition and it has proved to be a gateway drug of sorts for me by opening doors to many other RPGs that I have enjoyed and invested in. But the grand daddy has been and will always be Dungeons & Dragons. I would love the chance to come back to it again at some point.

After reading the WotC announcement I immediately started searching twitter for any other posts regarding the new edition of the beloved game and found a couple of really good ones, including posts at CNN, The New York Times, and Forbes. each one of them seemed to have a little bit more info to add to the announcement than the last.

The biggest positive thing I have seen since the announcement of the new Dungeons & Dragons game is that WotC has been way more active with the community on Twitter (and I assume Facebook). It’s like someone with in the company read a copy of Gary Vaynerchuk’s ‘The Thank You Economy’ and realized the people they are selling Dungeons & Dragons to are people with feelings and opinions and need to be heard if they wish to keep making money.

As for the stacks of 4E books I have bought? Well you know. I find that all these books from all these other RPGs I have invested in prove to be a great resource of ideas and adventures when I am planning out a game. I think they will prove themselves useful for years to come.

Jay:

D&D Next is an interesting direction in which to take the D&D brand, given that Pathfinder has managed to make an abandoned ruleset successful.  Perhaps this is just a case of WotC trying to emulate a successful model, but ultimately I think that if done with sufficient care, this approach might result in a good product.

While it 4e wasn’t the success that Hasbro wanted it to be, I still felt that it was a valid game.  In fact, it introduced new ways of playing the game that were genuinely interesting, and I still hold the opinion that if it had been marketed as a different RPG instead of having the D&D name on it, it would not have experienced the severe backlash that it did from the fans of older editions.

I await the results of D&D Next with cautious optimism.  On one hand, they started on the right foot.  They found a way to make their announcement across multiple channels, and supported it with a strong social media presence.  They seem dedicated to keep those who were intrigued interested in the material by starting off with something as early as this month.  The talk about listening to the players is very encouraging, though it will take a strong design hand to stick to what works, after listening to what are possibly the most passionate (and outspoken) fans in the industry.

WotC is taking the right steps with promotion, and I’m hoping that the results of their design work will continue to show promise.  If this is Hasbro’s last attempt to make a commercially viable D&D, then they’re certainly going about it the right way.

Related posts:

1. My thoughts on the new D&D “red box”
2. My thoughts on the D&D Essentials Starter aka “Red Box”
3. My thoughts on OGL, GSL and beyond

For many years I have been collecting roleplaying game rulebooks. If I said I had dozens of RPG books this would probably be an understatement. And the number of books I bought on RPGNow over the years is quite impressive. Of course I have not yet read all of those and I will probably never use all of them, but there are a few I really would love to run one day.

Let me list a few of those:

• Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space RPG
  I got a copy of this fine game as a review copy from Cubicle 7 a while ago. I haven’t had the time to write a proper review yet, but from what I’ve seen so far it’s an awesome game. The mechanics are pretty nice and the designers managed to grab the essence of the series and put it into their game. Marvelous!
  I am a big fan of the new series and I even managed to get my girlfriend fall in love with it, too. Now I need to find a few more players and the time to run that game.
• Shadow, Sword & Spell
  For quite some time I wanted to run a Sword & Sorcery game. And if I should ever find the time to run one, I will probably use Rogue Games’ SS&S to run it. The game uses Rogue Games 12° System which I like a lot. That reminds me I should write a review of SS&S at some point in the future. I have to admit I was unsure whether it was ok for me to write one, since my name appears in the credits of several Rogue Games products since I have done some proofreading for them.
• Dark Harvest: Legacy of Frankenstein
  Dark Harvest is one of the most impressive games I’ve ever read. The setting is extremely awesome and if you are looking for a unique horror game, you should check out this game. Alas the unique setting makes it complicated to find players interested in playing the game. But I totally love it and I am looking forward to all the new stuff coming out in the future.
• Atomic Highway
  Since playing Interplay’s Fallout back in the day I love the post-apocalypse genre. And Atomic Highway is one of my favorite pen & paper roleplaying games of said genre. My plans to run a Fallout-inspired game using the AH rules utterly failed but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to run Atomic Highway anymore. But perhaps next time I will use a setting more fitting to the rules. As the name of the game implies vehicles play a significant role. If your vision of a post-apocalyptic world looks much like the Mad Max movies, AH is the perfect game for you. In the Fallout world modern vehicles are almost non-existent, which caused a few issues. But I digress.
• Gamma World
  Yes, you read that correctly. Even though I am not too fond of D&D 4th Edition I am quite excited about that game. I have to admit I haven’t picked it up yet, but from what I’ve heard it’s awesome. For some reason I am in the mood for some wacky post-apocalyptic game with anthropomorphic animals and weird mutants with improbable powers. And it seems Gamma World is the perfect remedy for that itch.

But of course this list is far from being exhaustive. I could go on for pages listing all the cool games that I would love to run. My collection is full of exciting games and there are even more out there I haven’t picked up yet. If you ask me, it’s a great time to be a gamer. There are more games out there than ever and the community is more active and vibrant than ever before. Don’t let them tell you everything was better back in the day. I highly doubt it was the case. The only thing that was better was that when we were young, we had a much more free times on our hands we could use for playing RPGs. But I digress.

Now that I have answered Lon’s question let me ask my readers: What is the one RPG that you have never run, but have always wanted to? As always every feedback is appreciated!

By the way, if you have a question you want to ask the Stargazer, send an email to askthestargazer@stargazersworld.com!

Related posts:

1. Guest blogger wanted!
2. Stargazer Games
3. Stargazer’s World presents Gears

But for some reason I am still intrigued by a D&D-based game: Gamma World. The new Gamma World introduces another element I usually don’t like in RPGs and that are the collectable power cards, but the more I think about it, the more I believe that this game could actually be fun. From what I’ve seen it could be a great beer & pretzels game that you can play with a group of friends when you’re taking a pause from your regular campaign or when you are just in the mood for a wacky post-apoc game with anthropomorphic animals and weird mutations.

The game box is not particularly expensive and most of the reviews I’ve read indicate that it’s actually pretty good. A few people even suggested that Gamma World is actually the better D&D.

But before I make a decision I wanted to ask you, my trusted readers, what you think about Gamma World. Have you played it? If so, did you like it? Is it possible to run a game in a bit less wacky setting if you wish to do so? What are your experiences with Gamma World? Please share your thoughts below!

Related posts:

1. Review: Gamma World
2. World Building Part 3 – Getting Started with World Tone
3. World Building Part 9 – The Don Draper School of World Immersion

Sometimes I think about what would I have done if I was in charge of the development of D&D. Luckily I am not in that position so I can freely think about what I would like to design and play instead of worrying about what the fans would like to see. Because – you can trust me on this – I love to slaughter sacred cows.

Let me start by a disclaimer: I haven’t been a fan of D&D before third edition and while OD&D in form of the retro clones has a certain charm for me, there are many other games I prefer.

So while I would probably base my “Stargazer Edition” of D&D on OD&D, I would include a lot of the changes from D&D 3rd Edition. Or let me rephrase that. I think I would take D&D 3rd Edition and remove all the meat from the bones so that something as light as OD&D or perhaps Microlite20 remains.

At first I would remove the feats and streamline the skill list. The D&D 3.5 skill list was already a great improvement about the one in it’s predecessor. When I think about it, the way the skill system works in D&D 4th Edition is not so bad. Your skill rank is always half your level plus 5 if it’s one of your “trained” skills.

As the next step I would get rid of attributes but keep the attribute bonuses. In my opinion the attributes in D&D 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0 have just been kept for nostalgia’s sake. It worked great in games like Mutants & Masterminds and True20, so why not in my “Stargazer Edition”.

The three Saves and the Base Attack bonuses actually worked well enough, so I’ll keep them around. See, it wasn’t so bad, it almost didn’t hurt.

Ok, let’s start slaughtering some sacred cows now, let’s change the way armor works. I always didn’t like the idea that armor makes you harder to hit instead of reducing the damage your character takes. So let’s fix that. This is actually done quite easily. Each character gets a Defense value which is 10 plus your Dexterity (remember, we replaced the attributes by their bonuses). This is what your opponent needs to roll to actually hit you. Armor worn reduces damage and heavy armor may even reduce your Defense making you easier to hit.

The next sacred cow to be killed are classes. Instead of classes I would prefer the players to be able to pick and choose from various background options. These can grant you access to certain abilities, magic etc. – they are basically your build-your-own-class toolbox. This allows for much more organic characters.

Magic is another touchy subject. I never was a friend of Vancian magic and I didn’t like the way D&D 4th Edition made use of Powers either. I would probably try to design a spell-point based system or follow an even more radical approach.

Back when I was still in school I read many of the Dragonlance novels by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. In these novels casting magic always drained sometimes even hurt the caster. So why not design a system in which spellcasters use their hitpoints to power spells? Of course this limits the power of magic and might feel out of place in high fantasy settings but I like the idea a lot.

My edition of D&D would probably use feet and yards instead of squares and move away from tactical miniature combat. And instead of including rules for every situation I would prefer to keep things light and encourage GMs to come up with their own solutions.

Last but not least I am actually not sure if levels are even needed. But I might actually keep them around just for nostalgia sake. Yes, even I can be nostalgic.

The result of this thought experiment, the so-called Stargazer Edition of D&D would probably almost be unrecognizable for some, but I believe it would still retain a lot from D&D. I haven’t actually started working on something like that, but it’s one of those ideas that crop up from time to time again.

So what do you think about my ideas. Am I sacrificing too many sacred cows? Am I totally nuts or do you believe I am on the right track?

Disclaimer: No cows (sacred or otherwise) have been harmed during the production of this post.

Related posts:

1. Edition Wars in levels
2. D&D 4th Edition – is it D&D?
3. And I thought D&D 4th Edition cosmology was less complicated than this…

It’s good. You should get it.

Now, with my review out of the way, I would like to discuss the reason we are all here: Oghma’s Faithful.

Oghma’s Faithful is one of thirteen new themes presented in the book. Each theme ties into the setting in a far deeper way than its predecessors in the Dark Sun Campaign Setting. These are not simply occupations or random circumstances; they are reasons to be involved in the story at hand. In addition, each theme provides a power, item, or other benefit at 1st level, with a handful of other boons rolling in at 2nd, 6th, and 10th level.

At 1st level, Oghma’s Faithful gains the encounter power understand language.

Choose a language you have heard or seen within the past 24 hours. Until the end of the encounter, you can read and understand that language.

If you had chosen to make your character a Harper Agent, he would receive a magical pin with the blessing of one of three goddesses. An Iliyanbruen Guardian can drag a friend along when she uses fey step. The Pack Outcast can turn into a wolf.

The 1st-level feature of Oghma’s Faithful is not only substandard when compared to the other themes but also when taken on its own. As I have previously mentioned, language is a tricky business in RPGs. Any fantasy game worth its salt tries to have at least half a dozen, yet few if any provide a sensible, meaningful implementation of the difference between languages. Typically, languages in role-playing games offer an additional level of complication for a minimal return in entertainment.

Oghma’s Faithful manages to be useless on two levels. If the gaming group does not deal with the different languages in the game, then the theme’s ability is pointless. If the group does care about having Elven, Giant, and Supernal exist, then Oghma’s Faithful pulls a fast one and renders those differences null and void. Naturally, the DM can always construct a horribly contrived encounter where the character is faced with several languages at once, but it will quickly become old hat if repeated.

It breaks my heart to read the two-page spread of the theme. My dark secret is that I love Oghma’s Faithful. It is without a doubt the theme I find most appealing. I would like to think… no, I really do believe that whoever designed it put a lot of heart into it and shares my own love of learning and language. He wanted to say “See, here is a theme for those of you who want to play a badass scholar driven by divine visions.”

Unfortunately the horrible truth is that it just doesn’t work, because languages in RPGs don’t work. Oghma’s Faithful is just another heart-wrenching reminder.

Related posts:

1. “Spanish, Spanish, Spanish saving throw, Spanish”: Role-Playing in different languages
2. Communication Breakdown: Language in RPGs
3. Gears: Skills

The upcoming Midgard Campaign setting will come with full support for that game system, Kobold Quarterly regularly has interesting articles for fans of the system and they recently released a Midgard Bestiary for AGE.

They latest release is “Who Watches the Watch Fires”, a complete free adventure for beginning characters written by Jonathan Roberts and converted to the AGE system by Josh Jarman.

The watch fires of Friula warn against invaders, because Friula’s small army relies on the surrounding badlands to defend the city and its sparse farmland. Any attackers must cross treacherous hills and travel a road rife with blind gullies and steep canyons. Even a modest force can bleed aggressors white long before they reach the city gates—but only with enough warning.

 

A line of watch fires stands along the southern road to Starlight Keep and the Sticks of Trombei. At the first sign of an invasion, the guards light the fires, the city locks its gates, and the banners of Friula ride out to thwart the invading army.

But now, the watchfire keep has been taken by treachery, and your heroes discover the betrayal by chance. Can your heroes retake it in time—and light the watch fires?

You can download this free adventure for the AGE system set into the Midgard campaign setting at the KQ online store. A D&D 4th Edition version appeared in KQ #18.

Related posts:

1. Freebies: Renaissance
2. First Look: The SKETCH System
3. [Freebies] FU: the Free, Universal Roleplaying Game

So, what do you think? Is he right or does he totally miss the point? Discuss!

Related posts:

1. WHFRP 3rd Edition Seminar by Jay Little
2. DMs Should Join Other Games
3. Lazy Friday Video Post: PAX East 2010 Keynote

First I got home to a work week of unforeseen dimensions, then the con-crud hit! The combination kept me down for two days. Then last night when I finally sat down to write my laptop crashed, and apparently my smart phone followed in a sign of support. I had about half of my pictures and a smattering of videos on the smart phone. I restored the laptop and solved that problem, the smart phone proved another matter. I lost pictures and videos, never to be recovered. So if I took your picture at Gen Con and you never see it, I apologize.

But you didn’t come here for the sob stories; you came here to read about games, specifically role-playing games which are the main topic of this blog. You’ve probably read about some  of the big news which I’ll link to in case you only read this gaming blog (and we can’t fault you for your impeccable taste!). Margaret Weiss Productions announced their deal to produce a Marvel superheroes RPG. Sounds like a well planned project, and while I am not currently on the market for a new supers game (more on this later) I will take a look.

Fantasy Flight Games actually announced they have the Star Wars license for board games, card games and role-playing games just before Gen Con. They were running demos of their card game and X-Wing games at Gen Con both seemed interesting and I spent some time looking at people play. However I am mainly a role-player, while I dabble in the occasional board game, I would rather spend my time role playing. Will I buy a new Star Wars game? My knee jerk reaction is no, I have D6, and Saga, but the Warhammer 40K RPGs have tempted me, I’m just not that big of a 40K fan. Star Wars is another matter. I just might…

Wizards of the Coast had their Neverwinter campaign, D&D Encounters and a contest both at Gen Con and for those playing in encounters. The promo video looks really cool, and some of my friend interested in D&D 4^th edition seem stoked about it. Since I don’t play 4^th edition and I never played any of the Neverwinter computer games I was not terribly interested. I feel little bad that I can’t bring you more news about this but there is plenty of reports out there and while I was covering the convention for the blog I did want to focus in things that would be of interest to me. I hope there is some commonality with our reader. So what did I go for?

There were a few things I knew I was getting. Savage Worlds Deluxe was big on my list! I posted about the book and the pre-order, which I took advantage of and picked up at Gen Con, along with the Action and Adventure Decks. I had downloaded the PDF version that came with the bundle and printed it out, so I had “seen” the book before actually getting it, but even that did not take away from the sheer joy of holding the book in my hands. It is a beautiful thing, gorgeous to look at and sturdy. I ended up getting the official bennies as well as I am decided to run this game.

As I try to learn to better run Savage Worlds that was one of the games I wanted to play during Gen Con and thanks to my good friend David I did. I mentioned it on my previous Gen Con post, we played what was supposed to be a short game for over four hours and I got to experience firsthand how the game flows. I have a debt with David for showing me the way, thank you sir!

I got some other Savage Worlds books while in Indianapolis. From what I read of Suzerain it is a supplement to play deity-like characters using the Savage Worlds system. It gave me and Amber (the books, not the game) vibe and I couldn’t resist. Another book I was not looking for but discovered at Gen Con was The Day After Ragnarok. I had read about it but was not interested until someone talked to me about it, I held the book in my hands and I could not put it down. It’s a delicious blend of pulp and post apocalyptic goodness in the middle of the 20^th century that fired my imagination.

I also got another book by Ragnarok’s author Kenneth Hite, Cthulhu 101. While not strictly a role-playing game, who can say no to Cthulhu? Certainly not me! I got both books while on my way to the Green Ronin booth, as it seemed they were sharing the space. I was there to get some Mutants & Mastermind goodness. The system powers my weekly game and I wanted a copy of the 3^rd edition rules of the game, the new DC Adventures Heroes & Villains Vol. 1 book and the GM Kit. Getting to meet Steve Kenson (who I interviewed for the blog when ICONS came out) and having him sign the book was just the cherry on the sundae. I just love this system; it has become my favorite superhero game and the reason why I said earlier I am not really looking for a new game of this genre.

My other must get book was Ultimate Combat by Paizo. It is a terrific book, with a new class that uses the firearms rules in the book, the Samurai and Ninja as well as options for all combat classes, a truckload of feats and even some spells. The book continues the tradition of great books for Pathfinder and it fuels the fire of my desire to go back to playing Pathfinder. Getting the PDF copy of the book for just $5 was just a bonus. I think the PDF copies at $10 are priced just right point and being able to pick it up for half the price was a big win.

Pelgrane Press had Ashen Stars and the Esoterrorists, both using the Gumshoe system. Michael had told me so much about Ashen Star that I snatched it up and have not been disappointed. It is a beautiful book and the system is so elegant. The big surprise was Esoterrorist, I had read about it and was intrigued but I like it so much I have put down Ashen Star and I’m currently devouring this dark modern game, I highly recommend it! To me it’s not so much about the conceit behind Gumshoe and making investigation adventures easy, but simply such an entertaining read.

The Cubicle 7 booth was busy, busy, busy! They had The One Ring, and I got to meet Gareth Michael Skarka there. He is a terrific guy and I’m sorry I did not get to spend more time talking to him. They had a lot of the Adamant books there, I got what I want form them already, the already have my money, and I am glad they do.

I got some other goodies for my games, like the products of Dark Platypus Studios, including their magna maps, effect markers, pillars, clings, initiative tracker… Well let’s just say my biggest purchase at the con was from them! I got another customizable GM screen from another vendor, I already own two, but they had magnetic receptive inserts and I can do so much with them, not necessarily use them in the traditional screen function. The last thing I got was Gaming Paper’s Mega Dungeon and accompanying adventure. Amidst all the post con reading I have NOT gotten to the adventure but the map is MASSIVE and it just tickled my geek fancy!

There were plenty of other things I saw, demoed and almost purchased, but as it was I returned with over 50 pounds (about 23kg to you metric folk) in extra weight in my luggage (which I suspect made the airline very happy) so I could not get everything. So let me tell you about the other games. Amaranthine by Machine Age Productions seemed intriguing, a game of immortals and social interaction, right up my alley. As far as my players go, well not so much… Still the production quality was terrific and it was hard for me to put it down.

The idea of Dungeon Decks, sets of cards to create old school type adventures intrigued me. They are a cool way to generate ideas and get your creative juices flowing. WEGS Old Skool seemed like a tribute to old school gaming but integrating elements like cards into the game to make it more accessible for newer games. It looked simple and fun and I almost got it. This is one I am sorry I did not go back to the booth to get. I may yet order this.

The booth for tiltfactor was play testing a zombies in the office game which seemed promising if a little rough around the edges. Their Pox board game caught my eye specifically because they have lessons plans to use it in the classroom. But these are not strictly role-playing games and I am going off topic here. I hope to tackle other types of games and other goodies I found at Gen con on my next post…

See you then!

Related posts:

1. Gen Con 2011, a retrospective… Part 2: Other games and minis too!
2. Time to Speak Out with my Geek Out… Role-Playing Games in my case!
3. Five Great Blogs About Role-Playing Games @ GeekDad

I review a lot of Open Design books, and I make no qualms about admitting how much I enjoy their products. I am a Pathfinder fan true and true, and well they simply publish so many awesome books for my favorite fantasy RPG I can’t help myself. The 18^th issue of Kobold Quarterly does not disappoint. This issue weights in at 100 pages with content not only for the Pathfinder RPG but to the other two big players in the fantasy RPG field, Dungeons & Dragons 4^th Ed and the newcomer AGE system from Green Ronin. I am a fan of AGE as well and I am happy to see more options for fantasy RPG lovers out there and I applaud Open Design for supporting it. It’s chock full of goodies…

Want to learn more? Read on…

The first thing that jumped at me was the cover. Wow! Dragons fighting mid-flight, one a very traditional looking red dragon and the other an exotic yellow spotted specimen, it just screams action, and I love it. Kieran Yanner provides a great opener for this issue. The art inside does not disappoint, excellent art and layout all around. There is a good mix of articles, mostly are for D&D or Pathfinder, some are for both (Heresy! Just kidding…) but AGE is well represented.

Gift of the Gods, divine talents for AGE, brings divine magic that may be superficially more familiar to fans of other rule sets to this game. An excellent article, which makes me want to play AGE so much more. The Savant is a new class for the Pathfinder RPG, which is intriguing because it lets you do a little bit of everything, and while it may fill the needs of some players it struck me as a little out there. An interesting concept, not one I would play but that’s just me, I can imagine some of my players being really intrigued by it. I liked the Dragon Hunter prestige class much more. There is a Midgard specific article on the ecology of minotaurs. One of my favorite non-traditional fantasy races, it was a great read, even if the rules where D&D specific.

This issue has a lot of adventures. A solo adventure for a halfling thief, which requires no previous knowledge of the rules reminiscent of the “choose your own adventure” books of old, and excellent short adventure ideal to show someone who wants to learn about RPGs what it’s all about. The Exorcist is an intriguing Pathfinder adventure for 1^st level characters and last but not least a short and fun adventure for 4^th level D&D characters, Who Watches the Watch Fires. And how can you just NOT read an adventure with that title.

There is plenty of more Pathfinder goodness like rules for combining spells for extra effect, for Midgard Cavaliers, and Leadership feats that allow you to have beasts as followers. There is a piece on building mystery adventures, geared to D&D 4^th edition but good for any GM. And then there are the columns, advice, rule clarifications (Ask the Kobold), I was particularly impressed by the Heroic Flaw mechanic by Philippe-Antoine Menard (aka Chatty DM) simple concept, easy to use but full of possibilities, very nice…

There is much more this issue has to offer. I just scratched the surface; there are book reviews, a primer on Asian cinema for gamers. I did tell you it’s 100 pages long right? The book is available electronically and in print. It is a steal for all the goodies you get. Congratulations to the kobold on another great issue.

Related posts:

1. Review: Kobold Quarterly Issue 14
2. Spring is here… Can’t you smell the kobold? The Kobold Quarterly that is!
3. Kobold adoptions going on right now! Free Kobold Quarterly #11…

Crime Pays: A Godfather’s Grimoire, brought to you by Goodman Games, is exactly what every aspiring Godfather needs to run a mob. The book is designed to be used with 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons; it contains a lot of game system specific content, such as numerous stat blocks for made men and specific NPC’s. However, much of what is covered in the book could easily be applied to virtually any fantasy style game system; hell, a lot of it could be applied to virtually any system that you could come up with.

Crime Pays adds an extra level of play to the standard D&D game through a level of play which steps back from the direct, hands on activities of the godfather himself and looks at the actions of his mob as a whole. The Godfather commands his family of rogues, thieves, and thugs across his territory. This style of play adds something very interesting and strategic to the game; I could see myself sitting behind a chessboard managing the movements of my many pawns and generals as I play out the mob turn. Although the rules in Crime Pays add this extra domain level, they don’t try to replace the actual roleplaying side of the game with this management side of things. Although most of the mob based stuff you get to do with the rules are very cool, and offer a fantastic amount of story and plot based elements to add content to your campaign, they don’t tend to be so profitable, even across the many tiers of play. The consequence of this being that you will still need to actually roleplay your character. Sorry! No easy mode for you.

I don’t want to just repeat all of the things on the back of the book. Crime Pays really does have everything you need to run your own Mob. When I say everything, I mean everything. The only thing this book doesn’t have is any more feats or magic items that you can throw into the never ending stack of feats and magic items that already exists, never to be used again. The quality and quantity of the varied content in this book is gnarly. Instead of talking about all the cool stuff in the book, which could take ages, I want to just breeze over my top five – I’m actually going to do this in countdown order; skip to the end if you want to know the big #1.

#5 – Crimes
What would a mob be without all the dirty jobs. Crime Pays offers a great section on all the different crimes that your mob can and will likely commit during its reign. The section is well organized (alphabetically) and each crime is given statistics in a manner similar to skill checks/skill challenges. It is a fairly all inclusive section as well, containing everything from bribes to smuggling.

#4 – The Made Men
What would a mob be without the family; every mob is made up of a group of skilled made men. This supplement offers a terrific wealth and variety of different made men who act as the muscle for your mob. There is even a great table for rolling randomly and finding out what made men you hire, if you want to work it out that way. I particularly liked how deep this section went; I didn’t expect to see something like a Junkman or a Beggar Master make the list, but they certainly have their place here in Crime Pays.

#3 – Random Events, Law Events, and Underworld Events
Crime Pays offers a plethora of story based events that you could use even if you are not running a strictly mob campaign. In fact, a lot of the random law and underworld events tables would be an awesome addition to any campaign set in a major city where law enforcement clashes with seedy side of the city. Even if the characters in your game aren’t directly involved in this world, having events moving along in the background could offer some very cool story possibilities that might get in the way, or perhaps even accelerate a city based adventure that might have nothing to do with mobs or their dealings.

#2 – Chapter 5: The Crime Campaign
Running a Crime Campaign might be something very new to a DM. This chapter offers great advice on how to run it right. I have never tried running a campaign like this, but I think, after reading this section of the book, that I would be prepared enough to try it.
OK folks, what you have all been waiting for, my favorite part of the book…

#1 – The Vulgar Tongue, A Dictionary of Thieves’ Cant

OK. This appendix is awesome. At the end of the book, the author was nice enough to provide an entire dictionary (almost 4 pages long) entailing all the special, unique dialect which is specific to thieves and rogues. This section of the book is simply fantastic. It offers the potential to add SO MUCH flavor to the actual roleplaying experience around the table. I will have a copy of this appendix in my DM’s binder and it will be at every single game I ever play in, forever! Awesome. I would like to see a dictionary like this in every book or supplement I see for the rest of time. If somebody made a dictionary, an actual dictionary, like this one, I would probably buy it.

So, if you want my opinion, buy Crime Pays. It’s quality and worth the $21.95. You can get the PDF version of this book at DriveThruRPG for $9.99, too. Whenever you find yourself needing to make an offer that your player’s can’t refuse, pull out this book and go to town.

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We have cons, but they are a different affair. For the longest time they would be dealers of collectibles gathered in one location, it would be purely commercial. Then they became affairs where they would bring some famous (or semi famous guests) to draw people in and there would be a dealer room. Things have evolved and currently we have at last three established cons, two are really centered round cosplay, anime and manga. Including dance routines, skits and competitions, with various other hobbies represented in the mix, from CCGs, to model builders, Star Wars and historical re-enactors, and now role-playing enthusiasts. There is another convention more centered on comics and media (movies and TV) but I have never participated as a presenter.

This past weekend the latest Kaisen convention, Kaisen: Infinity, was held, the eighth the organizers have put together. I have gone to five of those, and on the last two the Puerto Rico Role Players Facebook group has participated.  I have written about the group before, and specifically about one of the games we played this week. One of the things we do is spread the word about just what RPGs are and encourage people to game. This weekend was no exception, we ran two demos games, Sailor Moon (yes we did, I guess it was the right venue for it) and a Weird West game. I had also planned a Resolute, Adventurer & Genius game I did not get to run due to time constrains.

We showed newbies what an RPG is; some have joined the group afterwards. We also told people what RPGs are even if they did not sit down and play. It was refreshing to talk with parents of kids there to play CCGs who had never heard of role-playing, and to meet people who had not played since high school. It felt like time well spent.

And it’s not easy on your weekend taking a day to man a booth, talk to people and run games. Mind you I was not alone! I had some of the Puerto Rico Role Players crew with me, kudos to them. Despite the hard work I would do it again in a heartbeat. So, after this entire ramble, on to the title of this post, what are the pros of conventions?

You get to meet new people. No matter how big or small your gaming community you can’t know everybody. A booth or table at a con, specially a con NOT geared exclusively to games lets you educate people about RPGs. There is always the concern of running into people, who disapprove of games, but the crowd at these cons is pretty accepting and I am yet to run into any negative reaction.

But handing out information is not enough, you need to show just what an RPG is and there is no better way than actually sitting down and playing. We have tried running Pathfinder, D&D 4^th edition, with some success, but these games a little more complex. I really think simple, pickup games lend themselves better to learn what the game is and picking it up quickly. MicroLite, Weird West, Warrior, Rogue & Mage have been excellent games to play at cons. Sailor Moon were a great choice for the crowd. I may not know what Sailor Moon was about never having seen it, but people playing it certainly knew all the details and nuances and they had great fun.

And the best part of cons? Well it’s the gaming of course! Once upon a time I dreaded the prospect of playing with strangers, not anymore! There are people I only game with at conventions (or the Geeknics we put together), friends who don’t sit regularly at my table who I get to play with. And then there are new gamers. I just love the look on a newbies eyes when they “get it”.

So I would publicly like to thank the organizers of Kaisen for giving us a place to game, looking forward to the next Kaisen, and come June we will also be participating at the Central Fan Fest. So if you live in Puerto Rico, are planning to come down this way, join us and let’s roll some dice.

I tweeted something like this the other day, if every role-player shows at least one person how to game, we would double the fan base. Simple mathematics! It’s a little tongue in cheek but I mean it… So in closing and I have made this point before, spread the word. Share your love for RPGs with whoever will listen. A convention is a great opportunity, but it could be a local library, hosting a game in your FLGS. Go other there and game!

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Kobold Quarterly #17 is a 76 page full color magazine, including ads. The collection of articles in this issue covers the gamut of fantasy RPG systems, the typical D&D 4^th edition and Pathfinder, while adding the increasingly more popular Dragon Age system, and includes some non system specific articles, such as advice columns and book reviews.  The issue’s theme is villains and they certainly deliver. Its chock full of goodies! I have said it before and will again, Kobold Quarterly is the spiritual successor of Dragon and Dungeon magazine. All in all this is a great issue, so don’t tarry, get you copy.

I do have more to say, if you are interested read on…

After the table of content, the introductions and other such formalities we get to the meat of the issue. The first article is called So We Meet Again! and it offers game mechanics for antagonists, both for the players and the villains. I love the idea, I am a big proponent of recurring villains and enjoy letting them escape to return and fight another day. Sadly players are not so keen on the idea. They would rather kill the villain now to avoid future complications. The idea of rewarding players for developing a hero-villain relation is a great concept; it dangles the reward carrot in front of them creating the incentive for them not minding the villain escapes. A great way to open the issue!

The other Pathfinder specific articles are an article on cons and swindles, magical fireworks, an inn and tavern with some secrets (including maps), and to top it all off, there is an official Pathfinder Society Quest! My Pathfinder loving heart is content, but what about the other articles?

There are articles on magical afflictions, organizations and items for monks, and magical foods specific to 4^th edition, articles about group concepts, magical heads, alternatives to death in games, lackeys, hirelings and henchmen, advice by Monte Cook, book reviews, Ask the Kobold, like the Sage Advice column of old in Dragon.

Then there is the Dragon Age content. I was really looking forward to this since I have taken an interest in the system. I am yet to play it but it is on my GAMES TO PLAY list! There is an article on chases and research scenes in the game and another on integrating the stunts concept form Dragon age to other systems, like D&D 4the edition and Pathfinder. I love Dragon Age and hope to see more content for this game in future issues.

Kobold Quarterly is available both in print and PDF, so whether you like dead tree or digital (or both), this is another solid issue of the Kobold. You won’t regret paying the entrance price! Enjoy…

A parting thought… As the summer issue approaches, will the cover be a bikini clad kobold model? Inquiring minds want to know!

PS – The link to the t-shirt in the picture on this post is here, I just love that t-shirt!

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Over in the Paizo Blog I’ve been reading with some interest their proposed changes to the Pathfinder Society Organized Play program. I have never participated on such programs. When I began role playing I was intrigued by the RPGA, joined and got their Polyhedron Magazine. I still have the laminated card and the pin somewhere, but besides reading the magazine I never took any advantage of belonging to the RPGA.

Fast-forward to the days of D&D 3^rd edition and the changes they made to the RPGA. I loved the idea of Greyhawk being the default setting, the idea of regions assigned to geographical locations, etc. I even knew friend who were very active, but I never really joined. I had little free time, my campaigns, my adventures; I did not want to switch to a new campaign. I found all the excuses in the world, so that was that…

I took the DM tests the RPGA offered at one time (and passed), and when 4^th ed. came along I wanted to be part of that, until I became disenchanted with the system and gave up on DDI. The Pathfinder Society had no presence where I lived so I didn’t pay much attention to it when I began playing the game.

Much has changed since then, I have been blogging for a while now, became active with promoting games in Puerto Rico, and wonder if I should try to participate in some of these organizations that promote and support gamers. I wonder, what have been your experiences? Did you benefit in any form from belonging to them? My inquiring mind wants to know.

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I have not posted about it but, recently I’ve been getting more and more Pathfinder RPG books that are Golarion specific (that’s the name of the campaign world for the uninitiated). While I am a confessed Pathfinder RPG fan I have stayed away from the Golarion specific books. I did get some of the original Adventure Paths but as part of my “more is less”/spend less in games philosophy I stayed away from a lot of fluffy books and stuck to the rules.

So that means I missed both previous incarnations of the Golarion campaign setting. I had heard excellent things, and the bits and pieces hinted at in the core rule book and other supplements, really enticed me. I have seen the promos and when my friend and fellow player called me to let me know the Inner Sea World Guide had arrived at the FLGS I gave in and said “hold it for me!”

I tweeted my very first impressions after leafing through the book and later after spending about half an hour looking it over, but I could not put it away and this led to this post. Mind you this is still VERY preliminary, I have only read bits and pieces, but I’ll share my first impression.

I am very impressed. Very happy I got this book. The price tag is by no means small, $49.99, and while I could have gotten this at a discount online I am trying to support my FLGS now that they are carrying more Pathfinder products.  But you know what? This is a beautiful book, full color, with the quality art I’ve come to expect from Paizo and its simply HUGE, 318 pages! (A friend of mine complains about reused art in Paizo books, of course he gets ALL the Adventure Paths so that may be the case, I really have NO idea, for me this is all mostly new art, your experience may be different.) So I am not sorry I spent the money!

And, what about the content of the book you say? Well let’s dig in… The first part are races, all the traditional fantasy races are there, as well as specific human cultures. Each gets their one page description with common names, appearances, and mostly rules free, the one exception being a very powerful human culture with inordinate bonuses which can only be used with GM approval, which seemed to me a poor choice in an otherwise fine chapter. There are brief discussion of other races that can be player characters and references to where you can find the rules to play them.

If you are not a fan of the type of campaign worlds with lots of fantasy races the plethora of races may turn you off. But I believe lots of fantasy fans like this hodgepodge that gives them many options to choose from, it may offend your sense of verisimilitude, but you can downplay certain races in your campaign. This is one thing I get from the book, this is a large catalog of options and ideas, which work together as a whole, but put in your hands to shape as you see fit. I appreciated that each human “race” or ethnicity is given their own page. Oftentimes in other campaign settings you’ll get discussions on elves and dwarves and their myriad sub-races, and humans get lumped together as a whole. Here I got a very different feeling. True dwarves, elves, gnomes and such get their own one page write up, but each major human culture gets a separate description. You know who’s emphasized here!

The next chapter is an overview of the Inner Sea region, its history and a four page write up of each country or region. I have only read a couple, but I love the combination of details and broad strokes. The write ups open with a short phrase that summarizes what the region is and specific details (alignment of the region, population, language, a crest or symbol of the region), and an image evocative of the place. I love the page layout; the opening page has a small detail on the header that includes a small version of the map of the region, with a proper map later in the write up. It covers history, government, and a gazetteer.

What did I mean when I said “details and broad strokes” on the previous paragraph? Well when I read a description of a kingdom I get enough details to feel what makes the place unique and to plan a game there, but room to tell my own stories. I am sure that if you have played the Adventure Paths you’ll know more about the regions, but this is a great primer for the uninitiated.

I don’t have a proper grasp of how all the culture come together, haven’t read enough, but there seems to be something for everybody here. There are pirate islands, Middle Eastern themed kingdoms, more traditional European themed fantasy kingdoms and their inevitable variants, unexplored jungles, something for everybody.

The wide spectrum of diverse cultures may not be for everybody, it reminds me of Mystara in some ways (And I’m a Mystara fan, so this is a plus in my book!) but it seems there was more thought put into why each culture is where, not simply a new culture across each mountain range that seems to have been the case with Mystara.

I love the hints and details on what’s beyond the Inner Sea and the discussion of planar cosmology. There is even a discussion on the solar system. It immediately made me want to run a Spelljammer campaign in Golarion.

Then there is a chapter on religion, including major deities, minor ones, even cults. Then one chapter on life on the Inner Sea, calendars, flora, fauna, and then comes a chapter on faction of the Inner Sea. I have really not much to say on this since I have not read much, but it seems a great source of possible groups the players can join, or antagonists, depends on how you play it.

The 6^th section is called Adventuring and there is a lot for me here. Rules I can pillage for my campaign: prestige classes, feats, magic items, spells, and equipment, including the firearm rules recently presented in the Gunslinger playtest in the Paizo website. The firearm rules are interesting; I need to use them to see how they work. I had adapted Monte Cooks technology rules to my game and I’m not convinced I should switch to this new ones.

The feat list even has a feat that mimics the D&D 4^th edition healing surge, Godless Healing, available only to characters without a patron deity. I like the idea and the implementation, but the similarity to D&D 4^th edition threw me off at first. The book closes out with a short monster section, just a few but I liked them. In case you are wondering, yes there is an index, another big plus for me.

I’m sure I missed a lot of details on this preliminary reading, but I like what I see and I want to read more. Golarion seems to be the spiritual inheritor of settings of old likes Greyhawk and Faerun. Yes, yes, I know the Forgotten Realms is still in print, but when I read the Inner Sea World Guide I get the same excitement I got when reading the original Forgotten Realms gray box.

Will I play in Golarion? Probably not… But I want to read more about this world. So I may just get a couple of more Pathfinder books. There goes my saving on RPG games resolution! If they are as good as this one, well, then it will not be a bad thing.

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What do you think? Will this change what we think about D&D? Do you intend to give 5th Edition a chance? As always all your comments are highly appreciated.

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Also, many of my players like some crunch in their game, and as a GM I like some myself, so the idea of going too indie or experimental, while maybe appropriate for a one shot, will not work for a long term campaign. To add to the complications I want to homebrew. I am not playing a pre-existing setting, but instead creating a new campaign.

I have become a fan of reskinning. I had done it before without using the term, repurposing spells or monsters for an alternate effect in AD&D and D&D 4^th edition with its simplicity and the ease for doing this really brought the point home and I have integrated what I learned about reskinning playing D&D 4^th edition in my Pathfinder campaign and even more in Mutants & Mastermind, which has proven incredibly easy to reskin with.

Thinking about possible sci-fi RPGs and reskinkning has led me down another train of thought. Repurposing systems to play another type of game, I won’t call it reskinning since it’s a larger endeavor, in extreme cases its redressing the system to support a different genre that the rules were intended for. I call it filing off the serial numbers.

I have done it before; I once used RIFTS to play a homebrewed fantasy game and used the same OCCs, the equipments, but described it all in different ways. A good friend and longtime fellow player used AD&D to play Mutant Chronicles, and I tried to use Mutants & Masterminds 1^st edition to play a sci-fi game… As you can see I have struggled with sci-fi games before.

Since I aim to please and some of my players have inquired about the possibility of adapting the Star Wars Saga System to a generic sci-fi game, I feel compelled to at least consider it. I posted about this on twitter and got some great feedback. The easiest one: call the Jedi psychics and move on. I don’t what to keep the laser sword wielding monks around, even if I were to call them Cheddar Monks (shout out to the excellent Darths & Droids webcomic), and some have suggested to simply drop Jedi but keep the skill (Use the Force) and the feats to gain powers, thus allowing any of the other classes to gain “powers”. I would also need to weed out certain powers that may be to over the top for traditional (i.e. stereotypical) sci-fi psychics. I have been working over ideas for the past couple of days…

With all this in mind I come to you dear readers. I played Star Wars Saga System for about seven months, but this was back in 2008. Some of our readers may have more experience with the system. What are your house rules and your fixes to the system? Any thoughts on filing off the serial numbers… Anyone adapted it to other settings? I know about the fantasy and horror/pulp adaptations. What else is out there?

I know there are generic or easily adaptable systems out there, GURPS and Savage Worlds to name just two, but I want to explore the feasibility of the adaptation they have suggested. Your thoughts and ideas are appreciated. I hope everyone has a great week!

PS – I was unaware of this use of the filing of the serial numbers concept; still the concept works for the purposes of this post so I’ll go with it. Here hoping no one is terribly confused!

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“Dear d20 System, we’ve had a good run you and me… No, no relax, this is NOT that conversation. I am not breaking up with you! I just think we should see other people. You have your legions of adoring fans, and that shiny new 4^th edition, you can see whoever you want, I have met some new systems, Indies mostly, and I want to explore my options. You can understand right? And we’ll always have Pathfinder…”

All kidding aside, I am not giving up on the d20 system, heck at least 70% of my gaming collection is d20 or earlier iterations. My currently on hiatus fantasy game uses the Pathfinder RPG rules and the current supers game is Mutants & Masterminds. I am happy with both systems, and probably will continue using them for these specific genres. Looking back over the last 6 years, all my long lasting campaigns have used a variation of the rule set: D&D 3^rd ed., then Star Wars Saga System, D&D 4^th ed., Pathfinder and now M&M. There have been intermittent one shot games using other system, Savage Worlds, Don’t Rest Your Head, Lady Blackbird and others, but my gaming group is firmly entrenched on their ways.

I recently began mentioning possible rules for a future sci-fi game. I threw around Alternity, Savage Worlds and Stars Without Number and got a less than enthusiastic reaction. They in turn suggested d20 Future, Star Wars Saga system or even adapting Pathfinder.  Mind you, I did not speak with all my players and I know one player will be up to trying new systems and another is more interested in the story than the rules, but do you see what their suggestions have in common? If you said they are all d20 you are correct.

I was in the d20 bandwagon when it began. The idea of having one system for all games seemed like a great idea at the time, but in implementation, the rules that work for a fantasy game are not always a good fit for other genres. I think Mutants & Masterminds is a stellar example of adapting the basic mechanics into another genre effectively. I can’t say I am impressed with the sci-fi adaptations out there!

Now that I have expanded my gaming horizons and tried out so many new games I want to play with another rule set. I can’t put all the blame on my players, I have been a big influence on the games we play, after all I am the Game Master full time for the group and I have preeminently chosen d20 over all systems. Also we are a pretty crunch intensive group. My players like complex rule systems that allow creating detailed character, so rule light or too far out there indie games are not their cup of tea.

And I’m not proposing a great departure, Alternity was almost a preview of what was to come for D&D 3^rd edition with a really unique dice mechanic and Stars Without Number is definitely inspired by old games and there is a lot of the old school gaming goodness in it. Savage Worlds is perhaps the greatest departure, but it retains things like tactical combat and detailed characters, both things they like.

So I find myself in the conundrum, should I go the d20 route and try to adapt what I have to the campaign I want to develop, like filling off the numbers of Star Wars Saga system to make it a generic sci-fi game, or using the Infinite Futures (sci-fi rules based off the Pathfinder System) I recently purchased?

Again, I don’t want to stop playing with the d20 system, I just want to expand my horizons. I know many of you have gone through similar situations. What did you do? Do you play any d20 sci-fi game you think I should explore? I don’t want to simply say “this is my game and you’ll play what I want”, but I also want to run a game that challenges me as a GM. What was your experience, any advice?

PS – To my players, if you read this, this is not a slam on you. I want to hear your opinion and ultimately this is a decision we’ll make together as a group. I just want to hear what others have gone through. Thanks for playing the game week after week, you are the best!

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But I don’t want to talk about piracy today. Recently there were several posts about WotC’s SF roleplaying game Alternity here on Stargazer’s World. The comments on these two articles show that people still hold this game in high regard and quite a few people regret not having picked it up while it was still in print. If it were available as PDF on sites like DriveThruRPG, I am pretty sure WotC could still make some money off of it. But the way it is now, only second-hand book sellers make the profits now.

It would be so much easier if I could go over to DriveThruRPG and get a PDF copy of Alternity, one of the old D&D books or whatever suits my fancy there. With the new POD service even books which have been out of print for decades could find their way back into the hands of today’s gamers.

The way  I see it, it would a win-win situation. Wizards could make some money off some of their older products with minimal effort and we gamers could easily get our hands on legal copies of out-of-print products. If Alternity for example was available as a legal PDF I would definitely buy it even though I already own it in print. In this day and age with tablet computers and smartphones in almost every home, PDFs are getting more and more popular. Why WotC ignores this whole market is beyond me.

The costs and effort involved in bringing old products back into the hands are minimal. In most cases they should still have the PDFs, in other cases they could scan the originals and use some OCR software to create proper PDFs. I am sure a lot of fans would even offer to help with this for free. If WotC doesn’t want to run its own download store, they can easily go back to OneBookShelf’s sites.

If anyone from Wizards of the Coast reads this, please talk with the people responsible and try to convince them to bring the PDFs back. And if it’s at all possible make Alternity available as well.

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Click here to view larger version.

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This week’s Free Stuff is: Save Versus Death‘s Saturday Night Delves #1: Revenge of the Iron Lich

I love materials that can provide inspiration for my own home brew campaign. Save Versus Death‘s Saturday Night Delves #1: Revenge of the Iron Lich is just that. An adventure that has provided me with great inspiration for my own personal game. Just keep in mind this is not your normal everday run of the mill adventure. Save Versus Death set out to create an adventure that was designed to kill your party. It truly is something to be taken very seriously if used.

On Save Versus Death’s website they wrote this stuff up: Saturday Night Delves are a series of fourthcore dungeon adventures designed to be played in a single 4-hour session. Published quarterly, Saturday Night Delves feature extremely difficult encounters, a variety of challenges ranging from combat to puzzles, and evocative adventure sites that are both memorable and sinister.

Packaged with a complete suite of materials for DMs and players, SNDs are a great way to throw down an evening of high-energy, high-stakes, tournament-style Dungeons & Dragons.

So what are you waiting for! Head on over to Save Versus Death’s website and download the first (of what I am sure will be meny) Saturday Night Delves! Just make sure you take a moment to thank Save Versus Death for all their free stuff!

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Without  further ado, I’d like to get into what I liked and disliked about the supplement.

Soldiers of Fortune focuses on the above in great deal.  It provides links to the Midgard setting and discusses war and mercenaries in that setting so a small degree (not so much that the book is setting specific though).  The book offers great stuff for both players and DM’s: there are some new Monsters and NPC’s, which the DM will love, but there are also smattering of new feats, as well as new items, paragon paths, backgrounds, and a new template, which can be applied to any character.  Chances are, there will be something you will like in this book, if, of course, you are interested in mercenaries and the stories in which they are involved.

Apart from all the crunch, for which there is a fair amount, the book is filled with lots of fluffy goodness.  I really liked the first few sections of the book.  Section one provides some great intro material.  You get some fantastic plot hooks which could easily be used in even a non-mercenary game and you also get a host of other good ties for any good war story.  Section two provides a very brief setting specific overview, but doesn’t get too involved.  It does however provide some very good descriptions of the various races of the setting and how they view war.  Part 3 of the book was especially juicy; this section discussed the Midgard Strategems (essentially a fantasy version of The Art of War), which I found easy and inspiring for NPC personalities and story plots.

One of my favorite sections in this book is the adjudication of wars as massive campaign long skill challenges.  Those could be very, very awesome.  Though they might be a bit difficult to keep track of without a very well-kept and organized DM’s notebook (or Obsidian Portal) they seem like they would be a lot of fun to run and would also make nation spanning conflicts easy to handle.

The latter half of the book is where you start to get into all the crunch.  Section 4 offers up the mercenary “Theme” which you can apply to virtually any character out there.  It also gives you a bunch of new powers, feats, and paragon path opportunities.  Section 5 gives a few new magic items, but spends most of its time talking about war-related rituals and martial practices (these were great!).  I especially liked the “Mass Burial” ritual and everything that entailed.

Section 6 provides a short adventure which has some nice little encounters that you can run if you are so inclined.

Section 7, is by far the longest in the book; it provides a bunch of new NPC Templates, which you can slap onto an existing NPC or apply to a character to make anything from a Bodyguard to a Saboteur.  This section also offers of bunch of new monsters and mercenaries which you can use.  The End of the section also give you a few Siege Engines and accompanying rules.  Yummy.  Siege Engines.

I really liked most of what I read here.  I thought the adventure was interesting and well designed, which holds true of most of the other content as well.  However, the book was not all gold and cupcakes.  I do have some bones to pick with it, most of which has to do with choice of direction rather than design.  I liked what was included, but if I had to choose between having an adventure which spans only 12 pages and a bunch of other new feats and powers, I would much rather have had the other crunchy bits.  Since this book is working with a very slim page count, I would have cut that to make room for more content in the sections which needed it.  I got all the fluff I would want out of this book, but I felt like I could have gone for some more powers.  The feats, while good, were not very far reaching.  You don’t get many here.  I also thought that the powers section could have used some better balance.  Though you do get a variety of powers over each of the tiers, you don’t get any Martial Powers in the Epic tier at all.  I thought that was pretty lame considering the classes that I would most likely play in any mercenaries style game would be the fighter, warlord, or rogue, none of which could benefit from the powers here without multi-classing.  Although the book says that you can use any of the powers in the book for a character in a Soldiers of Fortune game, I could see that getting shot down pretty easily by a DM since some of the powers would obviously not be available to martial characters who don’t put in the arcane (or primal, divine, psychic) study.

Apart from that though, I don’t have much else to say.  I liked the book a lot and I will get a lot of value out of it for my future games, which all tend to take some type of war bound twist.

If you like D&D 4e and you enjoy stories which involve mercenaries, you will most likely enjoy reading through this book and get a good amount of use out of it for your game.

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