Stargazer's World » Random musings

Five good things I learned playing D&D 4th edition (or… How I learned not to care about diagonal movement!)

Posted by Sunglar | Posted on 12-03-2010

Category : Advice, D&D4e, Feature, Just my two cents, RPG, Random musings

Some of you might have gotten the idea from a previous post that I don’t like Dungeons & Dragons 4^th edition. Nothing could be further from the truth. I played the game for the better part of a year and had fun with it. Ultimately my players and I sat down to talk about it and decided to play something else, in this case Pathfinder. But I think 4^th edition had many things to teach, lessons I’m applying to my current Pathfinder campaign, and will benefit others systems I play in the future. Let’s look at them…

1. The biggest lesson was to let go of my fear of “breaking” the game and get creative. When D&D 3^rd edition came about the system codified so many different elements, everything was so closely interconnected that sometimes I feared eliminating a certain part of the system without worrying about the cascading effect it would have on the game. Thought years of playing I felt pretty comfortable with winging things, but making sweeping changes to the rules was something I was reluctant to do! D&D 4^th edition’s simplicity meant I felt free to create modify and wing just about anything I could imagine. This gave me the confidence to look back at 3^rd edition, and now at Pathfinder, and shake off the false sense of strict adherence to the rules and feel freer to create, modify and learn from my mistakes. I now approach games with a more experimental outlook!

2. Reskinning, just taking the math and abilities of one creature and making up a new one from the foundations of that other creature, the whole idea is so simple I am amazed it took me so long to consciously do it. I owned tons of monsters book, a creature for every purpose. Now I can do so much with just one book just by describing a monster differently. I had fiddled with the details of monsters before, but now I just redress them and describe the effect differently, adding an ability here or feat there.

3. Making characters just a little bit tougher… Here is something I have tried to do for a long time, make those first levels more survivable and taking some cues form 4^th edition I now make characters a little bit harder to kill allowing them to survive longer and face tougher challenges.

4. Making terrain an integral part of combat! I’ve always drawn detailed maps, and even had an adventure where the party fought in floating pillars above an underwater lake, but these instances were the exception not the rule. After playing D&D 4^th edition I now plan my combats and challenges with an eye for how terrain can be integral to the situation, hindering or helping combatants as they interact with the terrain. I think this has been the change that has caused the biggest shock to some of my players. It adds another wrinkle to the tactical element of combat that some who are more interested in just getting their character close to the monster and beating it down resent. Still I think it creates a much richer and diverse combat experience.

5. Diagonal movement… Here is something I embraced when they changed the rules from D&D 3.0 to 3.5 but added unnecessary complexity to the game. If I’m willing to forego things like facing or other “realistic” elements why insist on this? Now calculating effects and movement is quicker, true it changes the rules, but hey it’s my game, I learned that lesson!

Theses are just five examples, but there were many little things I learned form playing D&D 4^th edition. I still read reviews and rules for the system and talk with friends that play the game so I may learn more and keep growing as a gamer and a Game Master.

What have you learned for playing this or other games? Let us know…

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Lazy Friday Video Post: A Gentlemen’s Duel

Posted by Stargazer | Posted on 12-03-2010

Category : Fluff/Inspiration, RPG, Random musings, Video

I found this great short movie on Geeks are Sexy the day before yesterday and I thought this is something I have to share with my readers.

The movie is not only extremely funny but also great inspiration for everyone thinking about running a steampunk RPG! The duel (and the resulting destruction) is truly inspiring!

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The Importance of Dice

Posted by Youseph Tanha | Posted on 08-03-2010

Category : D&D4e, Feature, RPG, RPG tools, Random musings, Video

Tags: Dice, Dungeons & Dragons, Gamescience

Dice are a very important part of most role playing games. Without out a good set of dice you would not be able to roll up your character, let alone slay a dragon. They are just as important to people who play roll playing games as the story they are playing through. Some people take this very seriously. I remember reading a story some time back about a player who buried his dice in the back yard after a bad roll that resulted in the death of his character. Yet others are more than willing to share their game dice with a new player. It all depends on the person.

As important as dice are to players, the way they roll their dice is just as important. Some people give them a quick shake in the hand and let them fly. Others will spin their dice high into the air and let them drop down right in front of them. Yet, others will blow on their dice casino style before they roll. Each person is hopping that these little rituals they do with their game dice will improve the out come of what they roll. You can witness this first hand by watching Chris Perkins and the writers from robot chicken playing Dungeons & Dragons. Each person (most of which are new to roll playing and have never touched a d20 before) has their own roll style.

When I was looking at getting into Dungeons & Dragons last year I started by picking up the Dungeons & Dragons Foruth Edition RPG Starter Set. When I got home and opened the box one of the first things that poured out into my hands was my first set of dice. Up till this moment I had never owned my own set of dice. With the six multi-colored dice in my hand my mind exploded with possibilities of the other kinds of cool dice I could get. I think I spent hours that first night searching the internet for dice. That should show you how important dice are to me.

After looking though all the Steel, Bone, Hematite, Opaque, Translucent, Glitter, Speckled dice the internet had to offer I settled on a set of Green opaque dice with white numbers. Green being my favorite color and opaque making it easy to read the white numbers. Sometimes settling on the simplicity of just being able to read quickly what you have rolled is more important and time-saving then getting a crazy translucent yellow dice with elvish print that takes you way to long to read after it’s stopped rolling. That’s just my preference. Everyone has their own and that is what makes this topic so fascinating to me.

Recently my views on dice all came crashing to the ground thanks to a company called Game Science. One of the things Game Science states about their own dice is:

“My company makes polyhedral dice closer to casino specifications” (casino dice must be exact to a tolerance of .005″ – Gamescience dice have been measured with a side to side variation of .002″ to .006″)

So with a sharp edge on the Game Science Dice, your roll is truly random since their are no curvature variations. The sharp edges also allow for better stopping power.
Now, is all this true? I honestly don’t know. I think casino’s have have sharp edge dice for a reason and I think that holds some weight. Game Science has two videos on their website with the owner talking about his dice and why they are better then all other roll playing dice on the market. After watching the videos the guy lays down a pretty convincing argument. But he is such a good salesmen I also think he could sell sand to a guy living in the desert.

After watching these videos it’s hard for me to know if one brand of dice is truly better then any other brand on the market. I just don’t have enough validated facts to say one way or the other. As important as dice are to me and to roll playing games in general the biggest reason I play D&D is to have time set aside in my week to meet up with my friends and socialize. I don’t need casino grade dice to do that.

With all that said I drank the Kool-Aid and ordered a set of Lime Green Game Science dice.

You know…

So I can review them…

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The State of the Game: Puerto Rico

Posted by Sunglar | Posted on 05-03-2010

Category : Feature, Just my two cents, News, Reviews & Culture, RPG, Random musings

Hello readers, I’m going to ask your indulgence for a moment because I intend to write about something very personal, gaming in Puerto Rico.

Recently I’ve become interested in the wellbeing and growth of the role playing community in the island. In a way I feel like it’s the least I can do for a hobby that has brought so many good things to my life. I had a lot of contact with the local gaming community while I worked in comic book/hobby store, but after I graduated college back in 95 and got a full time job I lost contact with the community. I never stopped playing and have longstanding friendships with people I met at the store. Heck, half of my gaming group hails from that time! For years I played with my group and some players came and went but I had little contact with what happened beyond my group.

Then about five years ago the gaming group grew and we integrated two smaller groups into one larger group with more than one GM running games. Some of us even made the trek to GenCon and I was really fired up. But then as it often happens we had scheduling conflicts, personal situations and back in 07 the group was again six of us playing by ourselves. Then I got invited to a group in Facebook, Puerto Rico Role Players and it changed how I relate to games.

A lot can be said about social networking, good and bad, but for me the group was a blessing. I came into contact with old friends from way back when I used to work in the comic shop and made new friends from all across the island. Through the group a new player joined and I came in contact with other groups. Puerto Rico Role Players became a place to exchange information, keep in contact, share news, and little by little we began recruiting more people, even some players who had moved away but still had ties to the island.

Through contact with other fans of RPGs I formed a better idea of the state of RPGs in. I am sure there are many much role players in Puerto Rico than members of the group, but a trend becomes obvious. Most of use began playing in school or college, played extensively during that time but once we grew older real life became increasingly complicated and regular gaming became harder. Most long lasting groups usually flock around one or more regular GMs that are often the glue of the group even when there is some player turnover. A complain often voiced among members of the Puerto Rico Role Players group is the lack of GMs or at least what many of them consider “good” GMs. I realize that is a matter of taste but the adjective is often repeated.

There are no locally published role playing games, so most of us began playing with quintessential game, D&D, some players I know have been playing since the late 70’s. In the 90’s World of Darkness became the “in thing” and most players you ran into were playing in some chronicle or other. I got to play in session with 12 and 14 players. I know of may people who used to play Rifts as well. I guess while I worked in the comic shop those were the three big sellers.

Another interesting phenomenon I experienced and have seen in other groups is that groups are usually LARGE. I have had anywhere from 8 to 12 regular players, and know of similarly sized group. There are many war gamers and people playing CCGs. Thought the group I’ve become aware of LARP groups as well!

There is a death of gaming stores and they don’t always stock all the latest games, so many players rely on the big book chains or online shops these days. What few shops there are usually don’t have areas where players can gather to game. The one store I used to visit that had space to game in, sold few new items and mostly dealt in reselling minis and getting special order merchandise or collectibles. And they are no longer in business… Most people played in schools, universities or at their houses. I believe this is one of the elements that make meeting new players difficult. There are no communal gathering places where you can go to and participate in a game.

This fact as well as the obvious generation gap among gamers were issues I thought the group could help address. Our hobby shrinks everyday we don’t reach the younger generation and teach them the joys of role playing. I know of at least one parent who runs adventures for his teenage son and his friends, but there is more we all can do. In the group we came up with the idea of gathering at the small cons and trade shows that happen around the island.

At first we just got together to meet and exchange ideas. Eventually we decided to participate in a local con as a group. We set up a table, handed out literature about the group, what RPGs are, and did gaming demonstrations for various systems. One of the group’s members builds incredible models for his games and we had them on display to show many of the things that can enhance the role playing experience. We even ran a game for new players that had NEVER tried out an RPG ages 12 to 20!

We had great fun, and the pictures you see in this post are from this activity. We have many more photos in the Puerto Rico Role Players group. While the discussion is mostly in Spanish I invite you to visit us, we speak English there. If you know any Puerto Rican who doesn’t know about us, please share this information with them, even if they are no longer in the island. They are all welcome.

As a group we have many great plans for the future and I’m convinced that the group can do much more to create awareness about RPGs and share the joys of the hobby with others…

So what is gaming like where you live? What do you do to let others learn about RPG?

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Gears: Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Posted by Stargazer | Posted on 04-03-2010

Category : Game Design, Gears, Other Systems, Random musings

While developing Gears I have encountered many situations where I was not sure if the direction I am taking with the game is the right direction. While working on the combat section of the Gears rules I have the problem that the basic mechanic, which I love, is getting in the way all the time. I sometimes wished I had chosen a different base mechanic. There a moments, where I believe changing the system to something like “3d6 roll higher” or even a dice pool system, would make the game much better.

While this change would force me to come up with new solutions to problems I’ve already solved, it would make combat and perhaps even my planned powers system much, much easier to design. There are quite a few things that currently just don’t work as I hoped. The problem is that I have already put quite some work and effort into the current version and changing something basic like the dice mechanic will probably force me to start from scratch. On the other hand struggling with something I am not entirely happy with seems like a waste of time.

What would you do? Would you try to keep with the current mechanics, no matter what? Or would you change the game’s basics in order to give it a fresh start? I have to admit I am pretty much torn at the moment. One thing is sure, I want to finish that project and release a product that not only I am happy with but which will be picked up and played by at least a few other gamers.

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What about the review? Revisiting Pathfinder…

Posted by Sunglar | Posted on 04-03-2010

Category : Feature, News, Reviews & Culture, Other Systems, Pathfinder, RPG, Random musings

For those of you that read my previous post about the Pathfinder RPG and are scratching your heads, no my player’s characters did not go up in level SO fast that I’m ready to revisit Pathfinder and discuss game play at mid to high level. What has happened is I’ve gotten some great reaction and feedback to the previous post and would like to address a couple of issues.

First of all let me thank all of you who had kind words for the review. I’m glad you liked it, found it useful or maybe shared some of my experiences. I also received some feedback from close friends and players and some comments in the Puerto Rico Role Players Facebook Group (the discussion is mostly in Spanish but you are more than welcome to drop by) where I provided a link to the post.

Two friends talked with me or wrote with some excellent points and while I invited them to come over and post here in the blog neither were inclined to do it, so asked them if I could address their opinions on this follow up piece.

My group’s resident rules-lawyer and official hobbit accountant, both honorifics he carries with pride, disagreed on various points with my review. He pointed out that even when I say that save or die spells have been eliminated from the game there are various spells, such as Sleep and Color Spray that while not killing you outright, failing a save likely means the end of your character.

This is true, but in most instances not all characters will fail the saving throw and while the spells may incapacitate some players, their allies will have a chance to protect them. Even if all players are unconscious or fall asleep due to a spell the GM is not obliged to kill them outright, there are all sort of options, capturing them for example, that create interesting situations in the game. It was harder with spells where the survival of the player rested solely on the roll of the die. So there is still the potential for deadly spells there but I think they have been greatly reduced.

He also thought that D&D 4^th edition combat can be as complex and tactical as Pathfinder, and even more so. I think there might be some truth to this. While Pathfinder retains some of the complexities of D&D 3^rd edition in terms of math and recalculating bonuses with buffs and effects, D&D 4^th edition with marking, sliding, pulling and all sorts of other things you can do with powers may provide more tactical options during combat. For some people this may be a strength of that system….

But another player when we were talking about Pathfinder, the review and comparisons I might have made with 4^th edition said “I don’t want to know all the details of how, where, when I hit him and how much I shifted him or teleported him, I just want to know if I hit him and get on with the story”. I was surprised because this particular player is also a big war gaming fan. When I asked him why he felt this way despite liking tactical game so much he said something to the effect that he played RPGs for a different reason that war games.

He summarized his feeling about Pathfinder saying that while there may be many different rules, once you know them the game runs smoothly. He felt that when playing D&D 4^th edition there was one rule with endless different exceptions and variations and it exhausted him. So I guess I can say that it’s a matter of taste and what you want out of your game.

I still stand by my appreciation that the Pathfinder RPG is an excellent option if you want to keep playing in the spirit of previous D20 editions of the world’s most famous fantasy RPG. It was not meant to be a disparaging comment on D&D 4^th edition, which is a great game on its own right. Different strokes for different folks!

Thanks for your opinions and comments!

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