Cape of Games

Dark Sun Previews

2010-05-29T01:38:00.000-07:00

So,

For those of you who don't know by now, Wizards of the Coast are re-releasing the Dark Sun Setting in August.

Here is a primer to introduce the setting:

Welcome to Athas: A Quick Player’s Primer

The world of the DARK SUN Campaign Setting is unique in several ways. Many familiar trappings of the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game are missing or turned on their heads. Athas is not a place of shining knights and robed wizards, of deep forests and divine pantheons. To venture over the sands of Athas is to enter a world of savagery and splendor that draws on different traditions of fantasy and storytelling. Simple survival beneath the deep red sun is often its own adventure.

Newcomers to Athas have many things to learn about the world, its people, and its monsters, but the following eight characteristics encapsulate the most important features of the DARK SUN campaign setting.

The World is a Desert: Athas is a hot, arid planet covered with endless seas of dunes, lifeless salt flats, stony wastes, rocky badlands, thorny scrublands, and worse. From the first moments of dawn, the crimson sun beats down from an olive-tinged sky. Temperatures routinely exceed 100 degrees by midmorning and can reach 130 degrees or more by late afternoon. The wind is like the blast of a furnace, offering no relief from the oppressive heat. Dust and sand borne on the breeze coat everything with yellow-orange silt. In this forbidding world, cities and villages exist only in a few oases or verdant plains. The world beyond these islands of civilization is a barren wasteland roamed by nomads, raiders, and hungry monsters.

The World is Savage: Life on Athas is brutal and short. Bloodthirsty raiders, greedy slavers, and hordes of inhuman savages overrun the deserts and wastelands. The cities are little better; each chokes in the grip of an immortal tyrant. The vile institution of slavery is widespread on Athas, and many unfortunates spend their lives in chains, toiling for brutal taskmasters. Every year hundreds of slaves, perhaps thousands, are sent to their deaths in bloody arena spectacles. Charity, compassion, kindness—these qualities exist, but they are rare and precious blooms. Only a fool hopes for such riches.

Metal is Scarce: Most arms and armour are made of bone, stone, wood, and other such materials. Mail or plate armour exists only in the treasuries of the sorcerer-kings. Steel blades are almost priceless, weapons that many heroes never see during their lifetimes.

Arcane Magic Defiles the World: The reckless use of arcane magic during ancient wars reduced Athas to a wasteland. To cast an arcane spell, one must gather power from the living world nearby. Plants wither to black ash, crippling pain wracks animals and people, and the soil is sterilized; nothing can grow in that spot again. It is possible to cast spells with care, avoiding any more damage to the world, but defiling is more potent than preserving. As a result, sorcerers, wizards, and other wielders of arcane magic are generally reviled and persecuted across Athas regardless of whether they preserve or defile. Only the most powerful spellcasters can wield arcane might without fear of reprisals.

Sorcerer-Kings Rule the City-States: Terrible defilers of immense power rule all but one of the city-states. These mighty spellcasters have held their thrones for centuries; no one alive remembers a time before the sorcerer-kings. Some claim to be gods, and some claim to serve gods. Some are brutal oppressors, where others are more subtle in their tyranny. The sorcerer-kings govern through priesthoods or bureaucracies of greedy, ambitious templars, lesser defilers who can call upon the kings’ powers.

The Gods are Silent: Long ago, when the planet was green, the brutal might of the primordials overcame the gods. Today, Athas is a world without deities. There are no clerics, no paladins, and no prophets or religious orders. In the absence of divine influence, other powers have come to prominence in the world. Psionic power is well known and widely practised on Athas; even unintelligent desert monsters can have deadly psionic abilities. Shamans and druids call upon the primal powers of the world, which are often sculpted by the influence of elemental power.

Fierce Monsters Roam the World: The desert planet has its own deadly ecology. Many creatures that are familiar sights on milder worlds have long since died out or never existed at all. Athas has no cattle, swine, or horses; instead, people tend flocks of erdlus, ride on kanks or crodlus, and draw wagons with inixes and mekillots. Wild creatures such as lions, bears, and wolves are almost non-existent. In their place are terrors such as the id fiend, the baazrag, and the tembo.

Familiar Races Aren’t What You Expect: Typical fantasy stereotypes don’t apply to Athasian heroes. In many DUNGEONS & DRAGONS settings, elves are wise, benevolent forest-dwellers who guard their homelands from intrusions of evil. On Athas, elves are a nomadic race of herders, raiders, peddlers, and thieves. Halflings aren’t amiable river-folk; they’re xenophobic head hunters and cannibals who hunt and kill trespassers in their mountain forests. Goliaths—or half-giants, as they are commonly known—are brutal mercenaries that serve as elite guards and enforcers for the sorcerer-kings and their templars in many city-states.

Anyone else as excited as me?

Addendum: Rodney Thomsan will be doing a monthly article in Dungeon Magazine on Dark Sun, starting in June

Game Inspiration - Creatures

2010-03-13T12:02:00.000-08:00

So,

More websites to provide inspiration for gaming. This time focusing on the monsters your valiant adventurers will be facing.

The first one, Creature Spot, features artwork of fantastical and futuristic creatures, including concept art from games and movies. Lots of interesting images to base creatures off and the commentary by the artists is very insightful. I found this site via Dark Roasted Blend

The Second, RPG Creatures, features the work of illustrator Nicholas Cloister along with stats and powers for the creatures he has drawn. These stats can be fairly easily converted to your favorite system. I found the site via NewbieDm's twitter feed.

So, which blogs do you follow for interesting creature and monster art?

Help WotC Improve Their Adventures

2010-03-04T10:42:00.000-08:00

So,

Rodney Thomson, one of the developers at WotC (Wizards of the Coast), has approached the roleplaying community with a request for ways for WotC to improve the quality of their adventures.

WotC have been plagued with a generally poor public of their published adventures and Rodney is looking for suggestions and insight to what is lacking or substandard in their adventures. You can give feedback on his blog at rpg.net or Enworld.

Game Inspiration - Dark Roasted Blend

2010-02-28T10:45:00.000-08:00

SO,

There are many wonderful websites where one can go find inspiration when putting together a session, a campaign or even homebrewing a setting.

One of my favourite websites to find such inspiration is Dark Roasted Blend which provides a daily posting of related or unrelated images of the weird both real and imagined.

Whether you are looking for surreal futuristic cityscapes, abandoned buildings for a post apocalyptic or cyberpunk game, weird ancient ruins for a fantasy or pulp game or more go have a dig through their archives.

Which sites do you look at to provide inspiration for your games?

Upcomming RPGA Cape Town Events

2010-02-11T02:19:00.000-08:00

So,

Sorry about the silence over the last while, Mass Effect 2 has been eating my free time, and alongside Dragon Age Origins. Both these games are master classes in setting design, which I am planning to blog about later today.

I am involved in the RPGA in Cape town and we have some events coming up that I would like to highlight:

20 Feb 2010: Intro to D&D 4th Edition

This event is aimed at people who are interested in D&D and have never played before, or who are interested in seeing the 4th Ed ruleset in action. Modules with pregenerated characters will be provided, see the Facebook event for more details.

20 March 2010: Word Wide D&D Game Day: Players Handbook 3 Launch.

After having 3 successful Game Days last year, the PHB3 day features new classes and races from the PHB3, including the new Psionic power source. The module, Beneath the Lonely Tower, offers an opportunity for new and current players to test the abilities of the new classes, as well as affording roleplaying opportunities.

More details in the Facebook event.

RPGA Cape Town has a group page on Facebook where we keep event details up to date, as well as a group in Wizards Community.

Upcomming D&D 4E Products or My Budget Weeps

2010-01-28T12:27:00.000-08:00

So,

The 2010 roundup for Wizards of the Coast has just finished.

Some of the upcomming products and highlights:

February:

Martial Power 2, will contain 2 new ranger and warlord builds as well as a new one eachfighter and rogue, weapon style feats and martial practices (rituals for martial characters)

March:

Players Handbook 3 introding Psionis and the full Hybrid rules as well as skill powers.

The Harrowing Halls tile set includes 3d elements

June:

Monster Manual 3, more fluff heavy than the previous 2 with flavour text and story hooks.

August:

Psionic Power, giving new builds and more options for the psionicclasses introduced in PHB3

Dark Sun , consisting of a Campaign Setting Book as well as a monster book this will see the return of one of my favourite settings

Castle Ravenloft Boardgame, another item high on my radar, featuring modular tiles and a variety of scenarios this is a co-operative game for 1 – 5 players. 13 Adventures, 13 tiles sheets and 42 minis.

October:

Gamma World, using a modified D&D4e system this is a return to a future world which has been blasted back into the middle ages, of intrest is a random mutation card deck, with boosters coming out later.

D&D Essentials – released at various times

The D&D Essentials line is designed to ease new players into the game, but also includes new builds and feats for existing players.

Red Box (September): Based off the classic “Red Box” including a solo introductory adventure is designed to introduce new players to D&D

Rules Compendium (September): Collects all the rules into one book, includes the errata.

Players Essentials (September): Builds off the Red Box and covers the basic classes – Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, Rogue, Ranger with new builds not in the PHB, the Feat chapter is all new.

Dungeon Masters Kit (October) Includes the Rules Compendium, Monster Tokens, 2 postermaps, sample adventures and more

Players Essentials Heroes of forgotten kingdoms (November:) new builds for paladin, druid, ranger, rogue and warlock. Another Essential book. Also focusses on the lost empires of old:Human, dragonborn, tiefling, half-orc, drow, half-elf.

Essentials Monster Vault (November): Boxed set with new monsters and tokens for the monsters

Master Tile Sets

Master Tile Set (July) Basic dungeon tiles and group should be able to use, will remain in print

Master Tile Set The City (October) Basic city Tiles, with the dungeon set provides a nice baseline for a Dm to build a tile collection.

So that is a brief overview of what is coming up in the next year from WotC, lots of interesting things, nice to see some effort being putting into putting out product to attract new payers to the RPG hobby

Patrons

2010-01-07T11:16:00.000-08:00

So,

WOTC have released the second part of their articles looking at using a Warlock’s Patron in a campaign to help provide and move plot points. Very interesting reading if you have a DDI subscription. The articles are available here and here.

This got me thinking into other classes in 4e which don’t have the built in Patron. Here are a few ideas for both a player and a Dm to look at when designing a character.

Here are a few ideas for Patrons:

Guild – An organisation that takes in youngsters and trains them, they typically require some kind of loyalty in return for this training as well as assistance where they have influence. A guild will also generally have allies and enemies where it is situated, as well as competitors. Benefits for staying in the good books of a guild can include influence within an area, access to goods and services as well as information, help in quests and extra manpower for specific missions. However, falling afoul of the guild can make life difficult where they have influence, higher prices, ambushes, refusal of service. Also not all guilds are too happy to see people leave and might exact vengeance. Fighters, rogues, wizards might typically come from a guild.
Master – A powerful person might take on apprentices to teach and provide help with his work. Apprentices will be treated similarly to the master, respected if he is or possibly despised and loathed if the master has a particularly loathsome reputation. Similarly to guilds the master might expect services from his apprentices. Depending on the master, there might be several apprentices who might be encouraged to cooperate of compete for his attention. Wizards, rogues, rangers, sorcerers and bards might be trained by a master.
Noble Patron – A rich noble might hire talented young artists, warriors, woodsmen or arcanists and provide them training. This might be purely philanthropic in nature, looking to provide for talented youngsters, or for the gain of the noble, being able to show off a particularly talented bard or have a well stocked and protected hunting area. Does the noble consider the character to be his slave or property, owing him for the elevated status? There might even be something more sinister at work. If the character leaves the employ of his sponsor is it on good terms? Would the sponsor harbour a grudge believe the character not to have shown enough gratitude, or might he even be paranoid, worried that his onetime shining star might sell information about his estate and affairs to rivals? Bards, rogues, rangers, druids, wardens or fighters might have a noble patron.
Cult – A cult might take in promising youngsters to train for their own purposes, which might not always be nefarious in nature, a cult dedicated to the old religion might train druids, wardens, rangers and seekers. Cults tend to have both public and hidden agendas and the character might not be aware of the true nature of the cult. Depending on the cult, most character types could be trained by one.
Church or religion – A church could act like a guild or cult in training a character with a divine power source. The allies and enemies of the church or sect within the church can be used to help or hinder the character. Divine characters are obvious scions of a church, but fighters and rogues are also a possibility. IF arcane magic is under the political control of the church then arcane characters might also fall into their domain.
Primal Spirit – a primal character could have a close association with a specific spirit who manifests in his powers or as his spirit companion, this kind of bond might be interesting to do as a boon from DMG2 or as an artefact with a concordance rating. The happier the spirit the more it will give the player.

Having a patron in the characters back story come into the game can help give a player a sense of belonging to the campaign world. The patron can help by providing quests or hints. Where the patron has influence things might be easier with access to rare and expensive goods. Allies, enemies and competitors to the patron can involve themselves in the affairs the of the characters, either helping or hindering them.

If the characters find themselves at odds with their patrons there should be repercussions, depending on the patron, can they come to an amicable agreement? Will the patron be overbearing and demand the pcs tow the line? Will the pcs have enough influence with the patron to be able to convince the patron that they are in the right? Will this lead to a falling out with more dangerous repercussions? Previous allies becoming active foes or just hindering or refusing to aid the characters?

Dragon Age uses patrons and organisations in your companions backgrounds in their personal quests, which helps bring the world to life.

Many thanks to Rechan from Enworld for some inspiration

How have you used patrons in your games?

LFR Weekend in The Realms

2009-11-04T00:38:00.001-08:00

If you are in Cape Town over the coming weekend and looking for something to do, may I recommend coming through to Outer Limits in Cape Town and joining us for Weekend in the Realms.

Pregen characters will be available.

The Icy Queen’s Crossing: In a region so dangerous that even the most savage of Nar tribes fear trespassing there, a group of heroes has a chance to change the face of a war-torn land. This adventure has locations and characters from the Forgotten Realms novel The Fall of Highwatch. A Weekend in the Realms exclusive adventure set in Narfell for Living Forgotten Realms characters of levels 1-4.

More details on facebook

Sanctioning #: 09-11-2081106
Coordinator: David Muller, DCI# 1213167532

Dragon for DMs 365

2009-10-21T14:37:00.000-07:00

So,

The second issue of the 4e run of Dragon has some nice bits ready to steal for a homebrew. Including 1 article that caught me by surprise.

Backdrop Cormyr

I will admit that Cormyr is one of my favourite kingdoms in the realms, full of realmsian flavour, but still generic enough to transplant into a homebrew if you need a standard faux European kingdom. This article brings some nice flavour to the realm, with some really nice plot hooks in the descriptions of the nobles and military. Well worth a look if you going to be designing a chivalrous state.

Ecology of the Dragonborn

What looks like an article for players is full of ideas for a Dm to plunder,especially in the Dragonborn culture section. Nice way to bring a dragonborn tribe, town or kingdom to life.

Codex of Betrayal Beleth

This article discusses Beleth, the spymaster for Glasya, daughter of Asmodeus, a powerful demon who excels at being overlooked while keeping his fingers in as many plots as possible. More plot hooks and adventure ideas for a high paragon/low epic adventure than you can shake an imp at. This article is definitely going to see some use in my campaign as Asmodeus might just be involved somewhere...

Roll vs Role Snake Tongue: The Coils Below
A neat article looking at a typical cult of Zehir. Suitable for a low paragon campaign as written you can easily stretch the cult out as a long running for into mid paragon.

Dolruths Dawn
An unexpected treasure of an article, a town populated by reincarnated epic NPCs who remember nothing but their names. I could easily see this being used as a setting in itself for a short epic tier campaign, the characters waking in the village, with no memories of their past. Plenty of opportunities for social intrigue as well, as the npcs cover the full range of alignments.

Not as many articles as 364 to highlight, with 2 aimed solely at characters (The Artificer playtest and Character Concepts). Bazaar of the Bizarre is worth looking at as a DM for ideas for giving magical items back stories and histories.

Till next time good gaming and may the dice spirits be kind.

Dragon for DMs

2009-10-13T11:59:00.000-07:00

So,

A little project from my side.

I am currently putting together a 4th ed campaign, based in a points of light world. One thing I have been doing is going through the Dragon and Dungeon magazines, looking for articles which can be used to enhance a homebrew campaign. So, I will be posting a review of each edition on a weekly basis, starting at Dragon 364, looking at which articles I have found useful from a dming perspective.

Dragon 364
Demonomicon of Iggwilv; Yeenoghu Demon Prince of Gnolls

Interesting article, although I am not planning to use Yeenoghu as a main adversary in my campaign the information on his cults and followers might make their way into gnollish adversaries that the party run into.
The adversaries covered in the article are best used for the epic tier, with the exception of Crocottas which make for a nice variation in Gnoll encounters for upper heroic tier encounters.

Vor Kragal City of Ash
Another good article, detailing the ruined city of Vor Kragal, the capital of the Tiefling empire of Bael Turath. Awesome article if you are looking for a creepy demon infested ruined city to include in your campaign, especially at early Paragon. I will keep this bookmarked as an adventure site, a hidden library could yield knowledge of ages past.

The Ashen Convanent
This article details a cult of Orcus with a particularly sinister motive. The article includes the cults leaders, magical items and new undead mosters. I will be using this article extensively, as reference to what a powerful cult might look like.

Wolves of Maldeen
This article provides the information on a mercenary guild which fights against evil, protecting the innocent. It has a slightly underground, feel, more like Robin Hood than knights in shinign armour.
This article has already found its way into my campaign world. My players have suggested some kind of fighters guild within the starting area. Unknown to them, the guild which hires out mercenaries to guard merchant traffic in the valley has links to the Wolves, keeping an eye on the valley and its inhabitants and watching for the rise of evil. They may take note of a new band of heroes in the area, and react depending on these heroes actions.

Creature Incarnations; Kobolds
More kobolds than you can shake a sword at, including a kobold swarm. The article also goes into some details on designing kobold lairs. As a bonus there is a chart to roll against in the unlikely event that a kobold manages to drop a pc. Very amusing, and going to be useful.

Alchemical Imbalance
This article featuring an alchemically altered goblin tribe, shows how with a few simple changes you can create a unique encounter for your players. Useful as is, or for reference for modifying monsters to a theme.

Expeditionary Dispatch Forest of Flesh
This is an Eberron article featuring a creepy, haunted forest. Ripe for steeling for homebrews if you are looking to create an area where the terrain is as dangerous as the creatures inhabiting it and clearly designed to keep the curious out.

Summary
All in all many interesting articles for a dm to steal and use in his campaign, several of the articles are likely to see extensive use in my homebrew Enemy of My Enemy, all in all a strong and promising start for the 4e edition of Dragon.

Till next time good gaming and may the dice spirits be kind.

World Wide D&D Game Day: Dungeon Masters Guide 2

2009-09-17T02:09:00.000-07:00

So,

If you are in Cape Town with nothing to do this Saturday morning, feel free to join us at UCT for the 3rd WWDnDGD.

Details here:

Date: Saturday, 19 September 2009
Time: 09:00 - 15:00
Where: Room L, RW James Building, UCT (This is where we were for the MM2 Launch)
Cape Town, South Africa
RPGA Sanctioning #: 09-09-2025099

In the spirit of Dungeon Mastering, we're giving you the opportunity to create and show off your very own adventure! Work as a team to build encounters using the materials provided. After your team has finished, play another team's adventure or DM the one your team created. We provide you with everything you need -- maps, miniatures, monster stats, and how-to instructions. Just bring your imagination, a pencil or pen, and some dice!

This is a very special activity that has never before been a part of Worldwide D&D Game Day! But don't worry if you just want to play; you can participate in as much or as little of the adventure-building activity as you want. Nothing, however, beats the satisfaction of hearing another team howl in terror as they fight the foes and traps you placed for them!

A Passage Into Mystery is a special team-created 6th-level adventure that uses tiles from DU3 Caves of Carnage and monsters from the Monster Manual: Legendary Evils miniatures expansion. Come out on September 19 and be a part of the adventure!

Date:	Saturday, 19 September 2009
Time:	09:00 - 15:00
Where:	Room L, RW James Building, UCT (This is where we were for the MM2 Launch) Cape Town, South Africa

Till next time good gaming and may the dice spirits be kind.

Running Iron Heroes 4E style

2009-09-12T01:24:00.000-07:00

So,

I have an Iron Heroes game set in the L5R setting coming up shortly. While we are going to running the system fairly untouched for the players side, on the DMs side of the screen I am importing some 4E elements which should hopefully help me minimize prep time.

Please note the following is still a work in progress and is subject to change as the game progresses.

These are my initial thoughts, which will be modified as they are playtested in the campaign.

The biggest issue I have with running D20 games is preparing npc and monster stat-blocks for sessions. Iron Heroes immediately helps simplify issues, by not relying heavily on spell casters on either side of the screen. I am looking at totally redesigning the monster stat-blocks.

The first thing I am stealing is monsters and npcs have the stats, ac, hit-points, skills and abilities I as the dm feel they need to have. I am not going to spend time tweaking equipment, feats and class abilities and levels to get them where they need to be.

At the moment I will be looking at my player's attack bonuses and setting npc/monster ac according to the following guidelines: Hard will require a 12 to hit for the highest attack bonus, medium will require a 10 to hit for the average attack bonus and easy will require a ten to hit for the character with the lowest.

Saves will be set similarly, looking at the DCs of characters abilities.

As for hit-points, I will be using minions to bulk out fights, standard npc's should be able to last 2 rounds of focused attacks by the party and leaders should be able to last 5.

When it comes to npc attacks, I will be using an at-will/encounter/recharge system similar to that of 4e. Attack bonuses and damage will be appropriate the strengths of the party. Spell casters will be given 5 to 8 spell like powers, depending on their level and the role I want them to fulfill in the encounter.

Thoughts?

Till next time good gaming and may the dice spirits be kind.

ROLPUNK: Reject attitudes, not games.

2009-09-10T04:05:00.000-07:00

So,

Berin Kinsman posted the Rolpunk manifesto on his blog last night. If you haven't read it yet, take a few moments and go do it.

Roleplaying games are about fun, if you are having fun you are doing it right! It does not matter which edition of which system you are playing. It does not matter how you have houseruled the system. It does not matter how much combat you have in a session. If you and your group walk away from the end of a session talking about how awesome it was and how much you are lookingforward to the next game, then you are winners.

It is ok to disagree with random people on the forums. It is ok to disagree with bloggers and game designers. It is even ok to disagree with the way Gary Gygax designed and played games if it doesn't work at your table. But, and here is the important thing, even if you do disagree with the way someone does something it does not make them wrong if it works for them.

Till next time good gaming and may the dice spirits be kind.

Local is Lekker Link List

2009-09-01T03:37:00.000-07:00

So,

Welcome to the first Cape of Games Local is Lekker Link List

For this installment I will be looking at some of the South African Blogs you should be aware of.

First up is Tenletter, this a collaborative blog focusing on role-playing, computer gaming, board gaming, anima and related geek topics. Jatori and his crew of loons can be relied on to provide interesting insights into varying aspects of geek culture.

Focusing more on role-playing, Awesome Gaming, contains interesting fluff for worlds, cities and NPC's as well as interesting rules ideas.

Next up, Kev's Lounge, contains various boardgames reviews and house-rules, as well as a growing collection of free dungeon-tiles (well worth looking at).

Finally Pfangirl Through the Looking Glass, provides a look at pop and geek culture in South Africa and is also the home of the Girlz 'n Games webcomic.

Please feel free to point me towards any South African blogs which I have missed!

Till next time good gaming and may the dice spirits be kind.

Greetings!

2009-08-29T02:10:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Cape of Games

Unknown to most there is a small but vibrant role-, board-, war- and cardgaming community hidden within the shadows of Table Mountain. There are even more gamers who are not aware of the community. Cape of Games is aimed at reaching out these poor lost souls and bring them into the community, as well as promoting various gaming events happening in Cape Town.

Please come check the calendar regularly for new events which will be updated as I get the information. Feel free to send me information on events, either via comment, twitter or email via my profile.

I will also add new links to South African gaming related websites and blogs as they come to my attention.

The blog will include previews and announcements of upcoming events, reviews of the events and some of my thoughts on various aspects of the hobby.

Upcoming events to take note of: Warhamer and Warhammer 40K regional tournaments, as well as the Worldwide D&D Games Day Dungeon Masters Guide 2 Launch, details here and here.

Till next time good gaming and may the dice spirits be kind.

Just a test post

2009-08-26T04:36:00.000-07:00

So,

Welcome to Cape of Games

This is just a quick test post to check some of the settings. I will be doing a full introduction blog by the end of the week. In the meantime, letme know of any upcomming gaming events in and around Cape Town so I can give the calendar something to eat.

Later!