Gencon in Review
I was treated to a short adventure of my own on my way home from Gencon: my return flight was evidently booked for September 16, instead of August 16. Of course, with a hundred thousand gamers leaving Indianapolis on Sunday, all of the flights out were fully booked. Fortunately, a ticketing agent for Continental went beyond the call of duty and managed to get me on a flight out on standby. I regret to say that I didn’t get his name. I can only say that I was a bit stressed at the time. Still, I’m very grateful and will definitely keep Continental in mind for next year. I’ll also keep a certain ticket-brokering website in mind, in a less favorable light.
Enough about me, though. I’ve got a couple of impressions about the convention to report about. Some of them might merit further discussion later on, but best to get the bullet points down now, while it’s fresh.
This post is part of August’s RPG Blog Carnival, hosted by Chgowiz.
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Off to Gencon
As of this afternoon, I’m on my way to Indianapolis for Gencon. I’m traveling light again this year and won’t have a computer along, so there most likely won’t be any posts until I return next week. (Build up a post buffer? That’s crazy talk!)
If you’re going too, you can recognize me by the red Looney Labs flower on my black backpack. Speaking of Looney Labs, let me give them my usual plug: If they’re at the convention, drop by and ask for a demo or two. They make some great games, like Fluxx and Zendo. (There’s often a late-night game of Are You a Werewolf? going on in the convention hallway, too.) They’ve had a room at the con in the past, although last year they didn’t make it, and I’m not sure about this year. Worth taking a look, though!
And if you want a preview, you can play some of their games, including Fluxx, online.
One other thing of possible interest: It seems that Wizards of the Coast is offering a special on the 4e Player’s Handbook at Gencon. Buy another book, and you get the PHB for $5. This is a loss-leader, sure, but it’s a pretty good deal if you haven’t got a book yet and you’re at all interested in trying 4e. Hell, I’m thinking about maybe picking up a spare, if the deal’s good with Star Wars Saga Edition.
Anyway, see you next week.
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Review: Divine Power
Divine Power
I was previously pretty happy with Martial Power and Arcane Power, and based on my initial reading, Divine Power
As I mentioned in earlier reviews of the Power series, this sort of class-focused supplement has been pretty common in D&D’s history, with varying levels of quality showing in the finished products — but the Power books tend to fall toward the top of the quality scale. This is still true of Divine Power.
I should mention, perhaps, that I’ve had a long-standing fondness for the cleric class, and that I’ve found avengers and invokers equally attractive since their introduction to 4e D&D. So maybe I’m a little biased. After looking through the book, though, I’d have to say even paladins come off pretty well now. This might be my favorite Power book yet.
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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.
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Wizards’ Monk Playtest
Although I’m not a D&D Insider subscriber, I got a look at the playtest version of the 4e monk — a class that is dear to my heart. I’d speculated previously that the PHB3 classes would be more complex than their earlier counterparts, and the playtest document seems to confirm that, to an extent. At least, this particular class seems fairly complex.
What I didn’t expect: The monk is a Psionic striker. Evidently the designers felt that the Ki power source was too limited, and have more or less stricken it from development. Psionics, as a power source arising from inside, was the next-best fit. Although it caught me off guard, it makes sense — although I’m sure the “use the Force” jokes at the table will proliferate. But I can live with that.
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