Not much posting lately!

I really hate to read blogs that say that. However, it’s true, and I owe an explanation.

I’m now working on upcoming projects for Margaret Weis Productions’ Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, so that’s taken time away.

In addition, I’m running things over at Plot Points (though taking a small hiatus to meet deadlines with MHR), and it turns out that having more contributors keeps you busier, not less busy. Who knew?

In addition, I’m moving in two weeks, back to Spokane, WA. Expect posts to be scarce until I can get things going on back there.

I’m finishing up the details on SIR, so that I can start a Kickstarter at the end of June. Things are on track there.

That’s about all! What have all you been up to in gaming? Let’s talk about that!

I’ve been back to playing 4e after a few month absence, and I forgot how much I love this game.

However, one thing that’s been bothering me is the immense number of hit points both heroes and monsters have. When I attack, as a monster, I feel like I’m doing nothing. When I attack, as a player, again I feel like I’m not doing anything. After playing Pathfinder and other versions of D&D, I feel like everyone’s too tough to feel like we’re doing anything effective.

When, as a DM, you knock players down until they’re almost out of action, only to have the Cleric boost them back up instantly, it’s frustrating, feeling like you’ve wasted rounds of combat.

I put out, on Twitter, the idea of chopping all HP in half. Right down the middle. However, as pointed out by Eric Paquette, you’ve just made Clerics that much tougher, as they’re able to give massive amounts of HP back in comparison, as well as making Healing Surges hugely powerful. His suggestion? Double all damage.

This may just work. I’ll use my Goliath Fighter I played with the other night as an example: While still maintaining his 62 HP, he’s now dealing 1d10 + 8 x 2 damage with an at-will, or an average of 26 points of damage on an attack. This is a massive amount, sure, but the monsters are dealing it back just as bad. This keeps players on their toes, as well as forcing the DM to plan out his attacks better. Combat is deadlier, moves faster, and you’re ready to move on to more important things rather than spend 3 hours in a single combat (this happened the other night).

As a result of my playing again, I got inspired to get back into running 4e. I’m hoping the new group in Spokane is receptive to this. We’ll see.

My Simple, Intuitive Roleplaying game has actually gotten a bit of  buzz! I’ve been getting some really positive feedback, and I’m participating in a play-by-forum game of it, letting someone else GM it to see how it plays.

With that, I decided that a Kickstarter may be in order. My rules, while simple, allow for a lot of flexibility and expansion. I’ve begun fleshing out the rules a bit more to give more weight to them, while maintaining the simplicity. Also, I’m going to add some genre specific rules, such as mass combat and starship rules. In addition, I’d like to include a few different one to two-page settings in different genres, similar to how True20 did it.

I’ve got an artist lined up for the cover and internal art, and I’ll be handling the layout and design duties. My goal, once we’re funded, is to get this thing out on the digital shelves around November or so. If we get enough funding, at certain stretch goals, the book will become large enough that I may do a print run or a Lulu thing. We’ll see. My current plan is to start the Kickstarter on the 28th of June, then run it through the 28th of July.

If you’re interested in playtesting the rules, let me know!

That’s right, people! Very, very soon, you too will be able to play the game that everyone’s been wanting to talk about, but have avoided due to their NDAs! D&DNext is coming. There’s lots of D&D news this week. Tomorrow I’ll talk about the 3.5 reprintings and Monte Cook stuff, but for now, here’s the official press release on it.

Wizards of the Coast is thrilled to announce that the excitement surrounding D&D Next continues with the next phase of public play testing, which will kick off on Thursday, May 24th.

This next phase in the project is the single most important part of D&D Next – the chance for fans to help shape the future of Dungeons & Dragons by sharing their creative vision for the game.

Additional information can be found in this Legends & Lore post from Mike Mearls, Senior Manager of Dungeons & Dragons. In the post, Mike also confirmed that Monte Cook has decided to leave the D&D Next design team.

In the coming weeks, the Legends & Lore column on Wizards.com will provide further insight into the materials in the playtest and additional plans to roll out content.

Welcome to D&D University. In the posts to follow, I’d lke to talk about what D&D is, what it represents, and why it continues to be the most popular roleplaying game year in, year out.*

Once a week, I’ll be talking about what makes D&D D&D, and, more importantly, why RPGs have such an appeal.

This series isn’t about D&D. I mean, it is, but it’s really about the hobby, with D&D as the framing, it being the RPG most people know best. These articles are meant for those who aren’t familiar with RPGs at all and wish to know more (feel free to point your non-gamer friends over here), as well as people who have been playing RPGs for decades. I want to cover all bases here, and have something for people to be able to find common ground on.

I’ll see you here next week for our first class in D&D University.

*Yes, I know that Pathfinder is cutting into D&D’s territory, but Pathfinder is based on the 3.5 OGL.

I thought up an idea, which I put out on Twitter this morning: “What if RPGers had their own io9-like site?

You would have one central site, updated multiple times a day, with mostly news and rumors from around the web, with some occasional original content. You would have a post talking about D&D’s latest offerings or D&DNext rumors, alongside news of the release of the Savage Worlds Deluxe Explorer’s Edition.

As Quinn Murphy pointed out, you would end up with a lot of backlash from fanboys of any game, raging against either the underrepresentation of their favorite game, or the overrepresentation of their least favorite. That’s what a Banhammer is for.

The site would have strict comment policies, in order to keep negativity low. This would be a place for people who loved games and wanted a positive discussion about them.

Now, could devote hours and hours to run this site? No. I’ve got this blog, as well as Plot Points, and fiction writing to do.

I could design the site (using WordPress stuff), and be one of the editors, but I certainly can’t be the sole guy in charge. You’d want about 10 guys willing to post things as they saw them come up, and not have any one central main dude. You’d probably want three editor-in-chiefs.

Is there anyone interested in this concept, giving it a try?

I came up with a new RPG today. A bit more complicated than Awesomesauce, but not too much.

Here’s the rules:

Choose a race. This can be any race that exists in the world you’re playing in. In Star Wars, it could be human, wookiee or droid. In D&D it’s elves, dwarves or dragonborn.

Choose a class. This also depends on the setting. You can choose anything you feel best describes your character. Wayward Knight, Jedi Master, etc.

Choose Race and Class Traits. Now, choose three traits for your class and race that you think best defines them. A Wayward Knight may be “Impulsive”, “Strong” and “Gallant.”

Choose your Race and Class proficiencies. Mark down a D6 or a D8 in your Class and Race. If you want your race to be more important, you would have a D8 there. If you wanted your class to be more important, you’d place a D8 there.

Choose Skills. Choose two skills your character has. This can be something such as armorsmithing, playing a particular instrument, trapfinding or swordplay. Be sure to be specific. Mark these two down, and give them both a stat of D6.

Choose a Talent. This is a short phrase that says something about you. It can even be as short as a single word. “Impulsive.” “Never backs down.” This is a D4.

Choose equipment. You now can choose what type of weapon you carry, or anything else you have on you. Your primary weapon is a D4.

Bump up your stats. You now have two points to spend. You can spend 2 points to bump a skill up by one die size, 2 points to bump your trait up by one die size, or 1 point to bump your equipment up by one die size or 2 points for two die sizes. For example, if you wanted a broadsword, that’s likely not a D4 weapon, so you bump it up to a D8 with 2 points. On the other hand, if you carry a broadsword, but just aren’t very good with it, leave it at D4.

Let’s look at some examples of Character Creation.

CROM!

Human D6
     Cruel
     Tough
     Bullheaded

Barbarian D8
     Good with a Sword
     Brutal
     Warrior

Skills
     Skinning D6
     Warfare D6

Talent
     A taste for bloodshed D4

Broadsword D8

And that’s a barbarian for you.

Now let’s look at a Wizard.

Elevan the Magnificent

Elf D6
     Noble
     Graceful
     Haughty

Archmage D8
     Practitioner of Wizardry
     Teacher
     Aged

Skills
     Spellcraft D8
     Potion Making D6

Talent
     Intuitive knowlege of the arcane D4

Weapons
     Wand D4

You’ll see that I spent the two points in Crom to give him a D8 weapon, while I spent the two points in Elevan to give him a D8 in spellcraft.

Let’s adventure!

Rules of the game

As your heroes move throughout the world, interacting with their environment, they’re going to get to the point where they’ll need to roll dice. Whether its fighting a monster, solving a puzzle or avoiding traps, dice will be thrown at some point. The rules for this are simple: Add in any dice that are applicable to that moment. If you can use your sword, roll for that, along with your race and class. If there is a trait you’ve chosen within the class or race that also can apply, add a D4.

The person defending themselves does the same, choosing any dice that are important at the moment in the scene. If you can describe it, you can use it.

If the scene is not combat related, and the task is of average difficulty, they will roll the same dice the player rolls. If the task is simpler, they will roll one less die, removing the highest numbered die before the roll. If it is difficult, they will add 1d6 or 1d8 depending on the difficulty. If it is very, very difficult, they may roll more dice as they feel is necessary.

In the case of damage being done, if the attacker succeeds, then they may choose to drop their opponents die down on either their race or class, attacker’s choice. If the defender wins, they ignore the attack. If you are reduced past D2 to 0, you fall unconcious, or are dead, depending on the needs of the story.

Initiative Order

The GM determines who goes first in the round. The active player, once they have moved and made an attack, must choose an enemy to go next. The enemy must then choose one of their enemies, until everyone has gone. The last person in the turn can choose anyone to be first in the initiative order.

Experience

After each session, the GM should award the players 1 XP. If the session was particularly strenuous, the GM can award 2XP.

You may increase any die on your character by spending a number of XP equal to the next highest number. For example, if I wanted to bump up a D4 to a D6, I would spend 6XP. I couldn’t spend 8XP to bump a D4 to a D8. I would need to spend 6, then 8, or 14 points at once to do so.

You may gain a new Talent or Skill at D4 by spending 4 XP.

That’s all there is! Those are the rules to the game! Does anything need clarification? Should more rules be implemented? Let me know in the comments!

This is the second Fantasy Flight Games post I’ve written in the same week, but it’s worth mentioning.

Descent: Journeys in the Dark 2nd Edition is coming! I own the 1st Edition, though none of the expansions. This game is fantastic, perfect for a super-simple RPG-style board game. It’s like D&D, if the DM was actively trying to kill the characters (which is some D&D games I’ve played in.)

The elements within the game make for fantastic D&D pieces too. The dungeon tiles interlock, allowing you to build some great cavern systems, while the minis, once painted, make for fantastic monsters. I’ve used the giant spiders to great effect. There are also some great tokens, which I’ve used in D&D as well.

You can see from these pictures, that the game is going to be even more beautiful than before. The minis look much more detailed, and very cool.

I don’t think I’ll be able to resist picking this one up when it releases.

More details here.

Over on Character Generation, Liz talks about what five games influenced her. I’d like to talk about the five games that influenced me.

1. Star Wars D6. Like Liz, this was my first RPG. It introduced me to a world where anything was possible. I had a blast with it, even if I only played it (back then) about 10 times. It inspired me to make my own terrible RPGs with my brother as we sought to discover more about what this whole roleplaying thing was. I’ve recently rediscovered this game, and it still holds up as a fantastic ruleset for simulating the Star Wars universe. Perfect.

2. Star Wars D20. This was the first game I ran. This system is one of the best systems I know, but only on a personal level, because I know that I could run this game into eternity without ever looking at a book. I know it that well. It also taught me how to run things completely on the fly, and knowledge of this system allows me to run any other d20 system (including 4e) on the fly. I’m still playing online with my players from 11 years ago, in a modified version of this system, with the same characters, and hope to continue on until the end of time.

3. Savage Worlds. This game blew me away when I first played it with its simplicity, but also its familiarity. This game is my preferred universal system, even over d20. It really allows you to play anything you could imagine playing. If you want a game where your characters are mundane, and also sort of badass, this is where you’ll want to look. It’s Necessary Evil campaign is pretty incredible. Up until Marvel Heroic came out, it was my go-to when someone would want to play Superheroes. Speaking of…

4. Marvel Heroic Roleplaying. I know I shout its praises, but it’s for good reason. The Marvel Heroic RPG is one of the best things I’ve seen in a long while. It allows for some really dynamic and interesting games, with a wide variety of roleplaying opportunities. The “rules-lite” approach is very indie in flavor. This isn’t Champions, Mutants and Masterminds of Necessary Evil. This is a game that replicates the action that takes place in a comic book, without any further need for rules bloat.

5. Burning Wheel. This game is my unicorn. I’ve never, ever run a game of it, but I love it completely. I’ve tried, I’ve tried so hard to run it, but without much interest from anyone. The ability to scale-up or scale-down the rules for your group, the simplicity of the dice rolls, and the lifepaths. Oh, the lifepaths… I love them so much. If every game in the world had lifepaths like this game, I’d be so very happy.

What are your Five Games? Tell me here, or on your own blog, but make sure to link back here and to Liz’s post over at Character Generation, so that we can come visit and see what your five are.

I wasn’t pointed over to their site by anyone. I was just swinging by Fantasy Flight’s website, looking for any details on when the Star Wars RPG is finally going to get around to being announced, when I saw this!

“Fantasy Flight Games is thrilled to announce the upcoming release of Only War! In this all-new standalone Warhammer 40,000 roleplaying game, players take on the roles of soldiers in the Imperial Guard, the galaxy-spanning armies of the God-Emperor. Fully compatible with FFG’s other Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay titles, this comprehensive game system explores a previously unseen side of life in the Imperium of Man.

In Only War, each player takes the role of a Guardsman, a member of the Imperial Guard and one of the countless billions of hardened conscripts constantly fighting on myriad fronts at the whim of the Adeptus Terra. In control of this martial alter ego, players go forth at the behest of their officers to fight the eternal and implacable foes of the Imperium – the foul xenos, the mutant, the heretic, and the dark forces of the Ruinous Powers.”

I’ve got a whole unassembled Imperial Guard army sitting in some containers right now, so the idea of an IG RPG is very, very exciting. Being able to play with the other RPGs they’ve released means that I could run a game where one (or more) players is a guardsman, one player plays the inquisitorial agent (Dark Heresy) with a Deathwatch Space Marine working for him (Deathwatch), who are transported to their missions by a Rogue Trader (Rogue Trader) and they would all work together! Throw in a priest who’s secretly working for the Ruinous Powers (Black Crusade) and you’ve got all the games together! That’s really cool.

I’m looking forward to this. They say “Third Quarter”, which, based on their track record, means GenCon.