I have not got round to checking out 4th Ed yet… I am practically foaming at the mouth with enthusiasm but again and again I’m coming across little items online that really, really worry me! Greywulf says here that it’s as if “they’ve stolen our first three levels to get to that much-vaunted ’sweet spot’ right from the start” and that there’s no sign of “starting heroes with single-figure Hit Points and their father’s rusty sword”. That would be a real shame! I have always loved the “starting mook” feel of D&D and AD&D. You are the cowering kid hiding behind the bar for your first few fights (if you’re a mage) or a bravo who has more guts than go if you’re a fighter… You don’t start off with butt kicking abilities, you start off just learning the ropes and survival is a struggle! People who don’t want to go through that have always been able to accelerate and bump their starting characters a level or two in character generation (DM approving of course).
That said – even as starting mooks with little or no oomph you’re still harder than the average group of city watchmen (NPC: soldier – 1HD Thac0 20, AC 9 or to modernise a bit 1st level soldier CR2) who have on average 4HP and can just about beat up a dock worker. That brings me to another point that terrifies me however – the idea of scaling the NPCs so that the same NPCs get harder as the players progress… Why would you want to do that? (I’ve heard speculation but have no basis to assume this is in 4E – I’ll just keep hoping it is not until I get myself a copy!)
Cabal-o-vision experts have been looking at the white division with interest, as the draw just seems not to favour certain teams. The dark elves, the Dodgers, for example, have been drawn into their first two matches against Dwarf teams, noted for their specific training at dealing with dodging opponents. 90% of our viewers responded to the question “What team would you least like to oppose if you were called the ‘Dodgers’” with “Dwarves.”
Underland Team Portrait (before the match)
On the other hand, the mysterious head coach of the dodgers seems unfazed by the stunty challenge, as his team heads into tonight’s match against Underland with a squad of only 11 players and having only had one team training session before the match. Standard tactics seem to be to “Elf this one up.”
As the teams line up on the pitch, Underland, fresh from their victory against the chaotic Friendly Chaps look unimpressed by their agile elven opponents. The weather is clear, and the kick is good… Very good, the looks like it’s landing in the Dwarven End Zone! The dwarves short legs are going to be a hindrance there, but they do seem very dangerous over short distances, as they get the half moving with a Quick Snap. The Front line begins to do what they do best, hammering into the Elves. The Dwarven Runners hustle back, but it’s going to be the Blitzers who have to man-up and take charge of the ball. Read the rest of this entry »
Another nice piece from bloggergundam here about rules he’d like to see in more RPGs. I’m not entirely convinced – I think a lot of RPGs already have rules from this list that are appropriate and have left out a lot that they feel don’t fit 100% with the setting / the feel they want the game to have.
As a pretty hard nosed GM, I have no qualms about telling my players how we’re going to handle something (for example trade negotiations). I’ll allow some discussion before we really get into using them and if someone can show me suitable rules from another system I’ll be more than happy to use them but once the house rule is in place – we use it and are happy with it…
I don’t personally think any game can “legislate” rules for every eventuality (FASA gave it a good old “school try” with Shadowrun and I ended up with a stack of books almost as tall as me) and I think that a flexible GM should be able to cater for everything (and not let his players get too rules lawyer-y about it all…
That said – bloggergundam has some really neat ideas for rules in his post and I’ll be throwing together some new home brew rules over the weekend (to surprise my players with next week). Maybe a book is in order bloggergundam! “The book of nasty rules” (system independent of course)…
We at Cabal-o-vision always strive to bring you, the viewer, the best insight into the minds of the players you watch and adore. Today, we managed to sneak a scrying ear into the Underland dressing room for Rhy Khín’s pre-match pep talk. Visual proved impossible after our warlock burned out his third eye and rolled around screaming “the Horror, the HORROR!”
[Khin] Right, lads, I have a plan.
You know the way our opponents are 8-ft high Chaos warriors?
[chorus] Aye?
[Khín] And we’re 4-ft high dwarves with horns on our helmets?
[chorus] Aye!
[Khín] And we’ve checked that there are no Slaaneshi warriors on their team, who’d enjoy that sort of thing?
[chorus]AYE!
[Khín] I think you know what to do, lads.
[Magnus Magnusson, Blitzer] They do not like it up ‘em, sir!
[chorus of cheers]
Shane Carr (see sidebar for link) has written an interesting post here on some of the bigger Fantasy RPGs (D&D 3.5, D&D 4.0, Exalted and Dark Heresy). He has some interesting things to say – well worth the read! I have included a few exerpts below:
In much the same way 1st edition was defined by its adventures and 2nd edition by its plethora of campaign settings, 3rd edition will mainly be remembered for all those broken feats and prestige classes that made making a character so much fun and made playing a character so annoying.
I have to say (without really playing it but after owning the game and reading the core rules several times) I agree in the main with what he has to say about Exalted:
I CAN’T FIGURE OUT HOW THE MOVEMENT RULES WORK. As near as I can tell, everyone gets a free move action every second of combat whether its their turn or not, but that just strikes me as both retardedly complicated and unrealistic even for a hyper-kinetic martial arts RPG: Why would anyone stand still for even a second?
Many people outside the gaming subculture do game nights occasionally (family at New Years, friends looking for something new to do, team building exercises in the corporate world, get to know you gatherings etc etc) without much planning and then wonder how it didn’t go off exactly as they had envisioned. Surely playing games is simple? More surprisingly, even among gamers, it is interesting how often a new game group will get together and break apart almost immediately; a games night or convention might be arranged and not happen (or go off like a damp squib). One of the reasons for this is that, even among gamers, it is often not appreciated how much planning and thought needs to go into arranging any event.
Over the next week or two I’m going to do a couple of pieces on some suggestions for setting up different types of gaming event / game group. This article s going to cover the basics and issues common across the board. Also I have been specifically asked about ideas for setting up a games night (possibly once off) so I shall include my suggestions for that. If I seem overly simplistic at any point please bear in mind that firstly, I want this to be accessible to anyone including kids and secondly, I am probably going to be drawing largely from my own experiences and mistakes I have made… (I can be simplistic too *grin*)
I can’t get off YouTube! Someone quick I need an intervention!
I don’t know how newsworthy this is (most people have probably seen it) but I haven’t seen much of the 4th Ed stuff yet and there are a few classic moments, like when they show the GM Screen made from heavyweight gameboard stock “capable of stopping thrown dice and bullets”!
I especially like the look of the special editions and the idea of the starter set – brings back the whole “Red Box” concept where you buy a cheaper less complicated version of the game to get people started. I just hope the starter set is really fully playable unlike some starter sets we have seen in the past…
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[Khin] Right, lads, I have a plan.