Horror Month returns at A Hero Twice A Month

In honor of Halloween, Lord Soth and I would like to welcome you to Horror Month here at A Hero Twice A Month.  This month will be devoted to incorporating an element of the macabre into your RPG experience.

Expect tips for incorporating different flavors of horror into your fantasy RPG gaming, looking at some classic White Wolf games, stories of horror at the table, tips for bringing out the horrific in your monsters and much, much more.

Because really, who doesn't like a good scare every once and awhile?

Spoiled by computers?

The Lords of Tyr has always been pretty technologically savvy group of gamers.  The original lords were all IT professionals who met through work.  While the group soon grew beyond the founders, we still tend to use technology into our games liberally.  For character creation we use tools like the D&D Character Builder.  Rather than a battle map and miniatures we use RPTools.  We even broadcast our games using UStream and allow remote players to join using Skype.

I am starting to wonder if this is a good thing.

This is a concern I have had for awhile, but it really came to the forefront a few weeks back when we were playing a Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 game.  One of the lords had been gone for a few sessions and didn’t realize we were running a new game.  He didn’t have a character so he had to make one up on the spot.  After awhile it became obvious that he couldn’t.

The problem was that he generally used E-Tools to create characters for D&D 3.5, but he didn’t have it loaded on his laptop.  After I noticed he was struggling, I helped him load PCGen to help get him started.  Once he had a character creation program in front of him, even an unfamiliar one, he was up and running.

This feeling was only exacerbated when I heard my fellow lords talk about the Heroes of Hesiod game Tyrwench ran on September 11th.  The game was run without any of the technological tools we normally use.  Everyone present talked about how nice it was to play old school with pen, paper, and tokens.

On the other hand, our embracing of technology has provided us with many benefits.  Despite my comments above,  the Character Builder does make character creation much simpler.  The Rules Compendium has allowed us to run games without lugging around a backbreaking amount of books.  Using electronic maps and initiative trackers has sped things up at the table.  More importantly, the remote capabilities of these tools have allowed members who might not be able to attend the session otherwise to at least be able to attend virtually. 

In fact, the success of these tools have lead to a Wednesday night game which is entirely remote.  The Lords of Tyr are scattered throughout the Greater Chicagoland Area.  There is no way we could get together on a Wednesday night to game for three hours if we had to include travel time.  Without the technology, that game wouldn’t even be possible!

I am not suggesting that the Lords of Tyr abandon technology completely.  Maybe we just need to step back from the edge from time to time, similar to the Heroes of Hesiod game.  Throwing a low tech game in every so often might be a nice change of pace.  More importantly, it might remind us why we fell in love with pen and paper gaming in the first place.

So how has technology affected your gaming?  Do you loathe it when someone cracks open their laptop or are modern gaming tools a convenience that you would not want to go without?

Forgotten Realms Issue 17 – Fallen Idols (Part 3 of 4)

The issue begins with Agrivar deep in thought.  He is troubled by Labelas Enoreth’s plan to retrofit the Realm’s Master and turn it into a weapon with which to storm the heavens.  He is also suspicious of the god’s motives.  Although Labelas does not detect as evil to his paladin senses, he realizes the god is not all that concerned about their little mortal problems.

The rest of the Realm’s Master crew seems to have fallen in line though.  Even Minder, who watched Labelas destroy her god just last issue, seems to have come around to Labelas’ point of view.  This change of heart seems mostly to be because of Labelas’ healing of Captain Omen, who Minder has always been shown as especially close to.

Labelas does little to earn such trust though.  When a clumsy dockhand almost drops a beam on Labelas’ head, he prepares to take his horrible vengeance on the sap.  Agrivar intervenes and prevents Labelas from disintegrating the dockhand on the spot.  This doesn’t keep Labelas from doing it once everyone’s back is turned though.

Before this can be discovered, Venus Flytrap Men attack the town.

Concerned that these aberrations may damage the ship, Labelas demands everyone clamor aboard while Minder gives it the old heave ho.  Once they are out to sea, Labelas decides that it will cost him too much magic to save the town.

The Realms’ Master crew seems fine with leaving the people of Ruathym to die until Agrivar realizes Foxy is still back there.  When Labelas refuses to go get him, Agrivar strips down to a loincloth and swims to shore.

Agrivar arrives in the nick of time to prevent Foxy from being eaten, but soon the situation begins to look grim for the both of them.  Ishi begs Labelas to help, and ultimately appeals to Vartan who still exists deep within the god.  Rather than fight a psychic battle with himself, Labelas chooses to use his powers to wipe out the Flytrap Men.  Labelas arrives just in time to save Agrivar and Foxy, although it is pointed out that all of the villagers are dead at this point.

Labelas unceremoniously deposits the pair on the deck of the Realms’' Master before paying a visit to Ishi.  Since he saved them at her request, he feels she owes him a little “sexy time” below decks in return.

Agrivar attempts to intervene again, but is casually slapped away by the deity.  This gives Ishi a chance to scratch Labelas’ face.  This enrages the god, who uses his power to put Ishi into “a dreamless sleep”. 

Agrivar then challenges Labelas to a sword fight.  Not wanting to expend more godly energy, the god agrees.  Agrivar briefly gets the upper hand, but Labelas shows Agrivar a bit of Vartan which causes the paladin to hesitate.

In a moment of pure maliciousness, Labelas uses his powers to amplify Agrivar’s addiction to alcohol.  This causes Minder to intervene, which is bad news for Minder because the annoyed god shatters her golem form!

Thoughts

• Vartan’s god is named Labelas Enoreth.  In the previous two issues of this arc, everyone referred to him as Enoreth.  Starting with this issue, everyone refers to him as Labelas.  Jeff Grubb is still listed as the writer, so I wonder what caused him to make this change?
• Speaking of the creative team, this is the first issue not drawn by Rags Morales.  No offense to Tom Raney, but I definitely miss Rags art style.
• This issue contains the first reference to the Demiplane of Fear, the pocket dimension where Captain Omen cosigns his artifacts, in awhile.  This is obviously setup for next issue.
• I like the concept that Labelas is less evil than uncaring, but it is not really borne out by his actions.  His vaporizing the dockworker even after he was calmed down and his increasing Agrivar’s addiction to alcohol both seem purely malicious acts.
• I am a bit disturbed by the treatment of the poor people of Ruathym in this.
• Next time I play a halfling, I am going to use the curse “Sweet Bandobaris on a Bender!” if I can.  I don’t care that the god no longer exists in D&D 4E.
• Not a fan of the Agrivar the Barbarian look.

Looking at the Essentials Assassin

When I first weighed in on Dungeons &  Dragons Essentials, I wondered if we would start seeing revamped “Essentials” versions of existing classes.  With a couple of days left until Heroes of the Fallen Lands and the Rules Compendium hit the shelves, the revamped Essentials Assassin has hit Dragon Magazine.

Well that certainly didn’t take long.

Nevertheless, the Essentials Assassin is especially interesting to me because it provides both a first look into both the Essentials format and into the kind of changes we will see to the existing classes.

The New Format

It is obvious that a lot of effort went into making class descriptions much more friendly for the new player.  In the new format, at each level the player is walked through exactly what choices they need to make.  This is a small change, but one that should make leveling up substantially easier for the newbie.

On the other hand, it will lead to a lot of repetition in the books.  For example, every class description will tell you that at 4th level you need to increase two ability scores by 1.  In the Dungeons & Dragons 4E Player’s Handbook, this information was only mentioned once.  Multiply this by the rest of the redundant leveling information and you have a lot of additional pages per book.

Also interesting is that the class description refers you to Heroes of the Fallen Lands rather than the Player’s Handbook or any other source.  I suppose this makes sense since Wizards of the Coast sees the Essentials line as their new evergreen product.  Still, it seems a bit like they are trying to pretend that the older books never existed.

Changes to the Assassin Class

The changes to the assassin class are more substantial than I was expecting.  The class is much more focused on martial weaponry and poison use.  The shroud mechanic for striker damage is gone.  It has been replaced with the Assassin’s Strike encounter power, which is like a more powerful Sneak Attack which is more limited in use. 

Similar to Essentials martial characters, the assassin lacks encounter and daily attack powers.  Instead, the assassin gains special abilities which make their at-will and basic attacks more effective.

While the assassin still uses shadow magic, its use is limited to certain utility powers.  In fact, depending on what utility powers you choose, it is possible to completely avoid using shadow magic at all until ninth level.

These changes actually give the Essentials Assassin a more classic feel.  The Essentials Assassin seems like a direct descendent of the AD&D 1E Player’s Handbook assassin with a few elements from subsequent editions thrown in.  I can definitely seeing this version appealing to certain people who were turned off by the previous 4E version of the assassin.

Final Thoughts

It is hard for me to separate my thoughts about the new assassin from my thoughts on the Essentials line as a whole.  The changes it makes to the assassin class are pretty substantial, much more than I would expect out of a new “build”.  It does nothing to allay my fears that D&D Essentials is a stealth edition and that all new content we will see out of Wizards of the Coast will have an Essentials bent to it.

Still, I can’t argue that I don’t find the new build to be an improvement over the original.  I am much more interested in making an Essentials Assassin than I ever was in making the previous version.

I figure that says something.

When do you write your character background?

I discovered something interesting about myself.  I can no longer create a character without creating a character background.  The background may change significantly during the character creation process, but it informs so many of my choices that I simply cannot continue unless I write something up.

This really became clear to me a couple of weeks ago when I had to make up a character for a D&D 3.5 game that a friend of mine was running.  I had already decided I was creating a Crusader/Cleric of Wee Jas who would be aiming towards the Ruby Knight of Wee Jas prestige class.  That is a pretty strong direction from the start, so I decided that I would skip writing my character background until after I finished the character.

Well, it seemed like a good idea.  I soon found that my character creation stalled when I was trying to determine skill and feat selection.  There seemed to be a number of equally good choices, so I waffled between them.  I then began to second guess ability score placement.  Finally I stopped the character creation process and decided to focus on the character background instead.

After I finished the character background I was able to finish the rest of character creation easily.

I know I tend to be a bit more into character background creation than some of my fellow Lords of Tyr, but I have to admit I was surprised how important character background had become to the overall character creation process to me.

So I was wondering, when do you create your character background?  Do you find it essential to the character creation process or is it jotted down as an afterthought?  Are your backgrounds elaborate or is “I was an orphan who took up the sword to make his fortune” sufficient?

Random Reviews: Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths is a direct to video animated movie featuring the Justice League versus their counterparts in the Crime Syndicate.  It has a bit of an odd history as it started its life as an entirely different direct to video animated movie called Justice League: Worlds Collide. 

Justice League: Worlds Collide was part of the DC Animated Universe continuity and was intended to bridge the gap between the Justice League animated series and its replacement series Justice League Unlimited.

Ultimately, Justice League: Worlds Collide was never produced because they lacked the staff to produce both the movie and the television show simultaneously.  The storyline was too good to leave on the shelf indefinitely though, so references to the television show were removed and it was released as a stand alone movie with a different animation style.

This unusual history does make Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths a bit of an odd watch for fans of the DC Animated Universe Justice League though.  While there are no overt references to the show, several plot threads carry over.  Specifically, the expansion of the Justice League and the origin of Wonder Woman’s Invisible Plane are addressed.  On the other hand, the league lineup is somewhat different, so it can’t be viewed as a lost episode either.

Despite this, the important question is how does Crisis on Two Earths hold up on its own?  Thankfully, the answer is very well.

The basic premise of the movie is simple.  The Crime Syndicate is a group of evil doppelgangers of the Justice League from an alternate earth.  Ultimately, the evil Crime Syndicate comes in conflict with their heroic counterparts in the Justice League. 

Despite this simple premise, it is the little details that make this movie.  One nice touch is that each member of the Crime Syndicate is the head of their own criminal organization.  Each of these organizations is filled with evil versions of existing DC heroes.  For the DC Comics fan, this provides a ton of Easter Eggs as you try to determine if that is really an evil version of Vibe that just came on screen.

Another highlight is that James Woods puts in an amazing performance as Owlman (a Batman analogue).  Cold, calculating, and utterly nihilistic, Owlman is more chilling than an animated character has a right to be.

If you are a fan of the DC Animated Universe or simply a fan of DC Comics in general, Crisis on Two Earths is definitely worth taking a look.  With a story as good as this one, I can see why Warner Brothers decided not to let it sit on the shelf forever.

Divorcing role from class

Dungeons & Dragons Essentials is bringing many changes to fourth edition.  One that I had not heard about until recently is that the concept of role is being divorced from class.  Builds like the the slayer fighter (striker), the hunter ranger (controller), and the sentinel druid (leader) will break from the traditional role associated with each class.

To be honest, I am not sure how I feel about this.  I am normally a big fan of more customization, but to a large extent I saw the classes in Dungeons & Dragons 4E as defined by the role they played.  Both the paladin and the cleric are holy warriors.  To me, what kept the paladin from being simply another cleric build was the fact that paladins are defenders.  Almost all of the primal classes seem to be the druid as seen through the lens of a specific role (the seeker being a notable exception).

It seems like the addition of these options may dilute the entire concept of role in Dungeons & Dragons 4E.  A sentinel druid will be able to pick up a lot of controller focused powers if he chooses.  A hunter ranger might still be more striker than controller based off power choice as well.  Similar to what occurred when hybrids were introduced, this will allow the creation of more generalized characters who don’t fit well into any role.

Now I know some people will argue that this is a good thing.  They found the concept of roles distasteful and antithetical to character choice.  Personally though, I came to enjoy the freedom that came with well established roles.  Prior to roles, there was a strong belief that each adventuring group needed to contain the iconic four classes (cleric, fighter, magic-user, and thief) in order to be successful.  Other classes were often seen as second class citizens in the party, only to be added in once the iconic classes were covered.

In Dungeons & Dragons 4E, a lot of design focus was placed on making sure characters with the same role from different power sources were still equally good at fulfilling the role.  It was never a problem that our Scales of War game lacked a cleric because we had a warlord.  Roles allowed for viable groups that might lack any of the iconic four classes.

Allowing the creation of characters that are only “weakly” attached to a role is not the end of the world, but it does mean players will will have to be even more conscious of how their power choices affect the group.  If a sentinel druid is the groups only leader, then filling up on controller focused druid powers is probably a bad idea.

Nevertheless, I expect class builds that cross role lines to become more prevalent in the future.  I would not be surprised if there are some classes introduced which don’t have a single role associated with them at all.  Instead role will depend on what build you choose.  At which point the class build will become a “mini-class” which determines role much like class used to. 

Which I suppose would bring us full circle.