The Future of Dungeons and Dragons Keynote Speech

Its that time of year again, when gamers from all walks of life and around the world descend on Indianapolis to attend Gencon, the gamers paradise.

This year also marks the first ever Keynote from Wizards of the Coast regarding the state of Dungeons and Dragons, their ongoing public play test for the future revision of the game along with attention to how the entire process is going.  As soon as the replay of the Keynote is posted I will attach a link here, but in the meantime here’s a summary of what they announced.

• Wizards expects at least a two year play test process before the next release, so far 75,000 fans have given feedback and they would like more people to join as time goes by.
• The design team feels that its better to give full attention to one campaign setting rather then a little bit to all their various settings. therefore the focus will be on The Forgotten Realms with a new six book series called “The Sundering” to set the stage for the future of the Realms.

• The series of novels for “The Sundering”

• The Companions by R.A. Salvatore
• The Godborn by Paul S. Kemp
• The Adversary by Erin M. Evans
• The Reaver by Richard Lee Byers
• The Sentinel by Troy Denning
• The Herald by Ed Greenwood

• Two Forgotten Realms adventures will be made available next year that the Wizards of the Coast team will collect results from the adventures played at home and the aggregate results will officially happen in the Realms.

• Starting today (Aug 17th), they will be releasing levels 1-5 of the Sorcerer and Warlock classes to highlight two more magic systems.  This will allow players who like all traditions of magic to have a chance to play the way they want.

• The entire back catalog of Dungeons and Dragons products from all editions will be made available again on PDF.

All in all the speech was entertaining and informative.  Greg Leeds, President of Wizards of the Coast gave a nice speech and introduced the Master of Ceremonies Kevin Kulp of Enworld who then brought on the three main speakers, Mike Mearlis (pretty much the face of Dungeons and Dragons these days), John Schindehette (main art designer) and Ed Greewood (author and creator of the Forgotten Realms).  Each speaker was passionate about the game, design world and their parts in the process.  This along with the attention being made to the response of the gaming community itself has me really excited about the end result of D and D Next.

Todays Surprise

So I get home from work today and whats awaiting me on my front steps but none other then the Hackmaster 5th Edition Players Handbook!  I’m a huge Knights of the Dinner Table fan and Hackmaster has always been a game I’ve longed to play.  From their parody of Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition game released in 2001, Hackmaster went on to win Game of the Year for 2001.  Now after their license with Wizards had lapsed and still maintaining a strong following to Hackmaster the game has been retooled and updated for a 5th edition standing apart from its satirical source and holding its own amongst the powerhouses of RPG in Wizards the Coast and Paizo.   My only problem…I have to go out and run a Star Wars game tonight and I have no time at all to read the Players Handbooks until tomorrow night.  Ugggh…I so want to spend time with my new book!  I mean, check out the size of this beast.

Oh well, at least I can do the “I got my Hackmaster Players Handbook Dance” for the remainder of the evening.

Dungeons and Dragons Infestation #1

Publisher: IDW
Written: Paul Crilley
Art: Valerio Schiti
Colors: Scarletgothica
Letters: Chris Mowry
Price: 3.99

IDW begins its newest monthly Dungeons and Dragons title based in the Eberron Campaign setting this month as part of the Infestation 2 event.  For those of you who may not have read last years Infestation, IDW took the idea of having a zombie invasion erupt throughout their multiverse of licensed titles with the primary story book ended within their Robots vs Zombies world.  The crossover spanned from GI JOE, Transformers, Ghostbusters and Star Trek all with self contained stories involving zombie attacks and turned out to be fun enough and successful enough for a sequel event, but this time around instead of zombies the threat comes from the mind of H.P. Lovecraft and the Elder Gods.  Spanning the worlds of GI JOE, Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dungeons and Dragons, Danger Girl and 30 Days of Night this sequel will be bigger and potentially have license cross over characters this time around instead of the self contained stories of last year.

But enough of Infestation 2, thats a review for a later date.  Today I’m here to talk about IDW’s newest title in the Dungeons and Dragon universe set in the world of Eberron.  Eberron is a high magic, high adventure campaign setting designed to give game masters access to any sort of storytelling level they desired in their gaming group.  The world setting could sustain Dark Magic, Pulp Adventure, Advanced magic, space and extra dimensional adventures, whatever the Dungeon Master wanted and was a very successful setting for a number of years for players around the world.

The Dungeons and Dragons: Eberron comic is set in the city of Sharn, a sprawling metropolis known as the City of Towers created with high magic and elemental air ships commonplace and focuses on the adventures of an elf named Abraxis Wren, a Inquistive (Eberrons version of a private detective) and his assistant Torin the Dwarf as they solve those mysteries too much for the common guards to hands.  If you’ve seen the modern retelling of Sherlock by BBC you’ll be right at home here as Abraxis and Torin are very much the Sherlock and Watson of Eberron.  The story opens up with Abraxis doing what private detectives of old pulp novels do best, gather together all your suspects, explain how the crime was done and point out the villain for justice to do with as it must.  I get the feeling right away that as an ongoing series I’ll be treated to some fun mystery adventure but for a comic meant to tie in with the Infestation event there is little that feels like its tied in at all.  Yes, I understand that the asylum setting is the link and we do see a glimpse of the Elder Gods in the last page but for those people buying the book for a Lovecraft tie in may be a little disappointed.

Paul Crilley does a good job giving the main characters life and making me dislike Abraxis just enough to still be interested in his antics as opposed to being set off by him.  And Valerio Schiti goes a great job showcasing the architectural range of Sharn with the wealthy living in gothic splendor, the middle class living in the alleys a bridges of middle ages style and the dark underbelly with long winding stairs and forbidding tunnels into the darkness.

If you’ve been enjoying the regular ongoing Dungeons and Dragons comic then this new addition should find a welcome place in your collection.  Give it a try.

Battle Tech Introductory Box Set

Classic Battle Tech Introductory Box Set
Catalyst Game Labs
Price:  39.99

This anniversary release of Battle Tech from Catalyst Game Labs brings back so many memories.  Originally released by FASA in 1984, this science fiction miniatures combat game is centered around the theme of giant humanoid shaped Battle Mechs waging warfare for various factions in the 31st century.  Using images from popular Anime series at the time helped promote the image of the Mechs and for me was a draw into the game.  Being able to pilot huge Mechs with cannon arms against my friends sounded like a win win to me and it was.  Now its 2011 and Battle Tech has seen many changes in ownership and presentation but now with the release of the Classic Battle Tech Introductory Box Set brings everything back full circle.  Once again we have a set that not only includes the time tested and sound rules set of Battle Tech but also includes not 4, not 8, not 10, but 24 ready to play plastic miniatures.  How awesome is that.  Heres what you get.

The Classic BattleTech Introductory Box Set thrusts you onto the battlefields of the 31^st century. This box contains everything needed to play:

• 24 unpainted, instantly ready-to-play plastic BattleMech miniatures
• One 12-page full-color quick-start rulebook will have you into the action in minutes
• One 32-page book of pre-generated BattleMech Record Sheets
• One 80-page full-color rulebook
• Inner Sphere at a Glance, a 48-page full-color book containing universe background and BattleMech technical data
• One16-page full-color Painting and Tactics Guide
• Two heavy-duty cards of compiled tables
• Two 22″ x 27″ full-color mapsheets, with two different maps printed on either side
• Two six-sided dice
• One full-color, poster-sized map of the Inner Sphere circa 3067

If you’ve never tried Battle Tech nows a great time to get on board.  The community is strong and always has a big showing at game conventions like Gen Con each year.   Its time to climb into your Mech and show em what your made of my friends.  See you on the battlefield!

Battle Tech Website

Dungeons and Dragons Fortune Cards

A few months ago Wizards of the Coast released a new option for 4th Edition Dungeon and Dragons Players in the form of Fortune Cards.  These cards are sold in booster pack, each pack contains 1 instruction card 5 common cards, 2 uncommon and 1 rare for a total of 8 playable cards per pack.  Please note that these cards are not needed at all to play Dungeons and Dragons but meant to be an optional addition to the game, giving players an edge in their traditional 4th Edition game play. The set contains 3 different card types, Attack, Tactic and Defense.  These cards are RPGA Legal for those of you who participate in RPGA events.

 How they are played.

Please note, deck construction rules are found on the Wizards of the Coast Website.  Its only a 2 page rule sheet but not included in pack purchases.  The following is copied directly from the rule sheet.

 “A custom Fortune Card deck can contain any multiple of 10 cards (10, 20, 30, and so on).  For every 10 cards in your deck, you must have at least 3 cards of each of the three categories (Attack, Defense, Tactics).”

Now this of course means a player needs to purchase at least two booster packs to make a deck, and even then to build a deck by the rules you might not have enough cards. Welcome to the world of collectible card games my friends.

Once you have your deck built, players have the option of drawing a card during combat to form a one card hand that they can play as a free action.  If for any reason the player doesn’t want the card they can discard and draw another the following round.  Sort of a rinse and repeat action here.

General Thoughts on Game Play.

While the concept of giving players an option to enhance their gameplay is nice, this plays out and feels like something that is tacked onto the Dungeons and Dragons line in order to perhaps draw in the Collectible Card Game crowd.  Sort of like the general class construction of 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons felt like it was attempting to appeal to the MMO crowds out there.

But I will also say that as far as game balance goes, this isn’t that bad.  Each card gives the sort of bonus or enhancement that either a feat or magic item of low to mid level would give.  Nothing too far fetched that would make the cards unplayable.  So in closing, if your looking for something to add to your Dungeons and Dragons game and you have about 15 bucks burning a hole in your pocket pick up three packs and give it a go.  Or you could do what I did and hunt down retailers at conventions like Pax East handing the stuff out as promos.  That Wizards of the Coast seminar helped me build out my small deck enough to make me happy!

Keep on rolling twenties my friends!

A Challenge

This week marks the start of my venture into “THE TOMB OF HORRORS”

Ok, this isn’t the classic D and D module but instead the updated fourth edition release.  Should I be afraid?  I think not.  In fact, I scoff at the thought that this delve will result in the death of ANY of my adventuring companions.  So the gauntlet has been thrown 4E.  Prove to me that I should be afraid in this edition of the game that gives players more changes at healing then ever while somehow bringing the cleric class down to the bottom of the barrel as playable classes.

4E, I say you WILL FAIL!!!

more updates as the campaign continues.

Dungeons and Dragons Comic

Publisher: IDW
Writer: John Rogers
Artist: Andrea Di Vito
Colorist: Adurtov and Graphikslava
Letterer: Chris Mowry

As of this writing issue 4 of this series has been released and with each month this title gets better and better.  For us gamers our there (you know who you are) IDW’s release of both this title and its Dark Sun title are a welcome return of the Dungeons and Dragons license to the comic industry.  In the 90’s TSR had licensed a series of comics though DC comics publishing titles based on the Forgotten Realms, Spelljammer and Dragonlance, now as part of IDW’s deal they have the rights to reprint the old series along with bringing us some new ones based on the 4E rule set.

Dungeons and Dragons follows the adventures of a group named Fell’s Five, led by a human named Adric Fell (fighter), Varis the elf (ranger), Bree the halfling (thief), Tisha the tiefling (sorcessor), and Kahl the dwarf (cleric).  Fells Five find themselves involved in a supernatural zombie attack plaguing the town of Fallcrest, leading them through the wilderness and down into an ancient dwarven stronghold to find an item called The Dark Forge.

John Rogers does a fantastic job bring each of these characters to life.  Each member of the Fells Five is compelling and the banter between the members makes the reader feel that this tested company of adventurers has seen much in their time together.  The pacing of the action is also something I’m really enjoying.  Each issue feels like we’re being dropped in at the high point of a gaming session amongst great friends.  If you’re a gamer or a fan of fantasy based stories give this title a shot, i’m sure you’ll be as surprised as I was at just how good its been.