How much character development, particularly of the pre-first-level backstory variety, is typical for your gaming group?
My gang is a bit of a mixed bag – some are willing and capable of creating personal histories that would fill a small book, before they ever set out on their first adventure. There’s some good reasons for this [...]
Yet again I have risked my very sanity to plum the depths of the world wide web and brought forth treasures from it’s depths…
OK, so by now you must realize that I am not a fan of the new edition and prefer the older games. This is not to say that I haven’t had fun with the new version. One of the current groups I game in likes the same time period I do (late 1970s sci-fi/fantasy) and [...]
Last weekend Random tagged me (offline) as having drunk the 4E Kool-Aid. Ouch! As a reflexive (but recovering) cynic, the gist of his words hit me hard, and it’s taken a few days to consider my response. Here it is:
First, I really do like game systems, the mechanics and the relations thereof. While Wizards’ motives [...]
Here is a critical look at the races (and a brief glance at the classes) and how they apply to the next character I create…
In which MetalJim discusses a few of the finer points of the 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons rules…
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. [...]
Happy things about 4th Edition
Ever hit your players with a really good once-in-a-lifetime freebie wish spell and they end up stuck for what to wish for?
Okay, I have the books in hand. Now for some playtesting…
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 [...]
here is a look at what i hope to get out of the new system…
An early look at the new 4th edition alignment system and some comments.
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 [...]
Charisma: n. A rare personal quality attributed to leaders who arouse fervent popular devotion and enthusiasm. Syn: Charm, Personality, Allure, Appeal, and Magnetism.
This week, the folks at WotC previewed the new town of Fallcrest, which will ship in the 4th edition DMG as a sample “starter” town for a campaign in the new “points of light” setting. Honestly, I wasn’t too impressed, so I designed my own town instead.
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 [...]
But not for the reasons you might expect…
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 [...]
Apparently, MetalJim has been reading too much history lately…