Upcomming D&D 4E Products or My Budget Weeps

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

Running Iron Heroes 4E style

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.