What are the Best 4e Ability Score Arrays?
I’ve been following an interesting thread about 4e ability score arrays at ENWorld. Poster 77IM calculated all of the possible arrays on a 22-point buy, and posted the list. Turns out there are 121 unique arrays, in case you were wondering.
Then the analysis began.
Categories: Philosophy and Rants, Player Advice | Comments (2)
Deep Psi
Side note first: I fixed a problem that might have been keeping comments from working correctly, so if you’ve tried to leave one lately and failed, you should be able to now.
On to the main post. Recently, I decided I’d try a subscription to Insider. Although I didn’t see a lot of purpose to it when I first got the core books, and I’m not terribly moved by promises of exclusive content, I figured it would be worth a try, and if nothing else there might be some interesting stuff in Dungeon that I could lift for my game. Plus, I’d get access to stuff like the Swordmage, a class printed in a book I have no intention of ever buying. And the Monk, in which I have something of an interest, if you hadn’t noticed…
I haven’t played around with Insider enough to really comment on it yet. I can say that I find the character builder fun to tinker with, and probably pretty useful (although I’ve never had problems with creating characters in 4e using pen and paper, either). Dungeon and Dragon look promising enough that the subscription might be justified, although the Dungeon content looks a little lighter than I’d like.
But the main thing that’s caught my attention is the Psion class, recently revealed.
Categories: Industry News, Philosophy and Rants, Reviews | Comments (0)
The Lighter Side
Last Saturday’s post wasn’t just a bit of silly fun. It’s an example of something I might actually drop into my game on any given night. Maybe that sounds strange — if you’ve been reading my blog, you know that I prefer heroic, cinematic games. So how does a groaner like the Grape Jelly possibly fit in?
Surprisingly well.
Humor is a good way to enhance the feel of your game, in fact. Some moderation is necessary — going all-humor, all-the-time tends to ruin the drama factor — but a little lightheartedness in the right places breaks the tension, aids the flow of the story, and helps create memorable experiences. Puns, a little less so, but Dungeons & Dragons has a long tradition of them. Consider the tarantella, a spider whose bite causes the afflicted to dance — and the sight of that dance may cause others to join in. This blends an awful pun with folklore to create a nemesis for the party that’s silly from a metagame perspective yet still dangerous from an in-character standpoint.
Categories: Advice | Comments (1)
(Super)Heroes are Made
There’s a bit of a stir in the RPG community lately over a certain product, Carcosa, by one Geoffrey McKinney (to which I choose not to link — I’m sure you won’t have much trouble finding it, if you care to). It seems this unofficial OD&D supplement contains descriptions of various sorcerous rituals, some of which include rather nasty elements… one of them involving the multiple rape and murder of an eleven-year-old. Cue flames from many people, some of whom have never seen the product, followed by counter-flames from other people, who feel for whatever reason such an element is justified as part of their game.
I’m not going to say much about that, directly… ultimately, the game’s theirs. I wouldn’t want my PCs playing out such a ritual “onstage”, as Geoffrey’s PCs did — but I run heroic games in the first place, so it wouldn’t even come up. How about NPCs? Maybe, offscreen. I’ve had evil societies deal with slavery, human sacrifice, and crimes of all sorts up to and including outright genocide. The key thing, in my mind, being that these are things for the characters to oppose and perhaps, at least on a small scale, prevent, rather than to wholeheartedly participate in.
Leaving aside the campaign report (which I find in poor taste, but… it’s not my game), I can’t muster up a whole lot of righteous indignation at the inclusion of such things. Encouraging PCs to engage in them, that’s creepy, but it’s your business what you play out in your private fantasies. As far as the product itself (which I have seen a copy of, and which I will not purchase): the only thing I really found at all offensive about it was the decision to subtitle it Supplement V. That’s chutzpah. It’s also ultimately minor.
The cynic in me wonders whether that, and the child sacrifice, might not have been planned. No such thing as bad publicity, after all — and it’s certainly got publicity, now. But anyway, on to the main point.
Categories: Advice | Comments (6)
Alignment Explained via Superheroes
These motivational posters are surprisingly apt. I like the conceit here: the superheroes (and villains) are, for the most part, pretty well-known figures, which makes this an easy encapsulation of the D&D alignment system. The one prior to fourth-edition, at any rate.
My favorite part is the quote chosen for each one. He’s a superhero; he’s a political philosopher. They Fight Crime.
It’s kind of an old post, but I just stumbled upon a link to it.
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