Typical conversation, one week after the D&D 4E launch:
Other person: “Well, from what I’ve heard, it sucks.”
Me: “Oh? What have you heard?”
Other person: “That it sucks.”
All right, then! I’ve been working my way through the PHB, and have gotten to the end of Feats, so at least I now know how the new multiclassing works. [...]
Secrets, mysteries, deceits, deceptions, red herrings, misdirections, hidden motives, outright lies – these are great drivers of plot and narrative, as most of us know. But we seem to have trouble getting such elements into our D&D gameplay and have it turn out as fun as we’d hoped for. We’re adventurers, gosh darn it, not [...]
We seem to be on a roll with this “what bad things can you do with very high and very low non-physical abilities (Int, Wis, Cha)” thing, which we all recognize as a timeless piece of flame bait and thus speaks to very reasons why we just love playing this crazy D&D game in the [...]
Try as we might, Random and I just can’t seem to work ourselves up to a frothy flame-war on most gaming subjects; let’s just say this is due to an abundance of mutual respect rather than a lack of talent for such artifice. Yea verify, too many years of face-to-face banter with all our gamer [...]
Well, it’s the end of May, and the D&D 4th Edition release draws ever nearer. Sixteen days or so as of this writing. I’ve been on the case since April 1st, and am eagerly awaiting for my lovely pre-ordered package of goodness to arrive from Amazon on that fateful day. Then comes a lot of [...]
We’ve got a Wii. And, my dearly beloved has never seen a single Star Wars movie in her life, not even one. But she’s seen our friends’ two little boys having a great time playing Lego Star Wars on their Xbox. So we got LSW: The Complete Saga for the Wii.
It’s a great, fun, game, [...]
Yet another Iron Man review…
As some of us give consideration to campaign world design, it’s a good time to look for ideas and inspirations. I personally tend to err on the side of too much realism, and must look to find ways to get more fanciful in my outlook while still feeling at least a little grounded. One route [...]
In which MetalJim looks forward to playing a lot of different games…
With all the past and present games in our collections, which ones are worth revisiting and which ones are we willing to ditch for the next best thing?
MetalJim started off what’s fast becoming the season of springtime ranting with his post about the difference between a game and a hobby, in defense of his seriousness and dedication in such manners. Since I have the power (bwah ha ha!) to write a whole new post rather than just tack on a reply to his, [...]
Chalk my household up as one of the latest additions to the Wii Nation. The very first game you get to play is the one where you try to locate a unit for sale and actually buy it. It’s not too hard if you’re persistent: you choose a close retailer like Wal-Mart and call them [...]
Somehow I’ve managed to read three Robert A Heinlein books in the last year, for a new grand total of, um, three. Credit Random for being my personal library.
Sadly, it’s been a downward trend: The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress (1966) is a classic that’s truly earned that credit: it’s a brave narrative supporting strongly reasoned ideas [...]
MetalJim gave us an early look, back in November, at some of the changes coming with 4th-edition D&D. Now the 95–page splatbook “preview” versions of the Player Handbook and DMG are out, respectively titled “Races and Classes” and “Worlds and Monsters”.
There is an excellent Slashdotted review here that I would encourage all you D&D-ers to read. [...]
D&D doesn’t do a very good job of representing and using character talents beyond those defined by class. How typical does the following scenario sound? You put a lot of time into developing your character and persona at first level, sink some skill ranks into knowledge and/or professions if you can, then watch as this [...]
William Gibson’s latest novel, Spook Country, came out in August 2007. It is set in the same more-or-less recent-past real world as his previous work, Pattern Recognition. This puts it immediately at odds with some of Gibson’s more recognizable works set in the cyber-future (Neuromancer) or steampunk past (Difference Engine) – the ones for which [...]
As I sit here listening to Devo singing “Freedom of Choice” I’m not thinking about the media blitz for the 2008 presidential election, but I am contemplating (re-)starting a completely new project for the year. Sure, I’ve had my hands on more projects in 2007 that I knew what to do with, but I never [...]
So here I sit in my corporate cubicle; life is more grand than bland, so no complaints about working for the Man. Like your typical coder, I move through periods of deep concentration, followed by the need to surface, stretch, unwind, and relax a bit before diving back in. That’s part of the general culture [...]
For the past week I’ve been watching a lot of Futurama. Read on to see what I’ve discovered…
When D&D 3E came out, fighters became cool again. After years of being “just” fighters and paling in comparison to every other class – especially their special friends such as paladins, rangers, cavaliers, etc. – they finally got their own identity and reason to exist: the long, longer, ever-growing list of fighter-feats.
Our group started up [...]