So I absolutely understand that you're all chomping at the bit to see the D&D Player's Handbook review, but alas, 'tis a mighty tome and a beast of a read.  I've thoroughly skimmed it and read approximately the first third of the book in depth and, to quench your thirst for opinions, in lieu of a proper review for now I will say it's excellent.  It's simple, clear, and presents a large amount of variety and is absolutely worth getting.  I may even make it mandatory that each player in games I run have one.  That having been said, on to what this article is really about!

The D&D Basic Rules (which can be found here) were a major hit.  They present all the rules a player needs to create a simple character that's playable in a session of D&D and the good folks at WotC even made them absolutely FREE!  It's a brilliant idea and a wonderful way for prospective fans or those who're just curious about tabletop RPG's in general to poke their noses in, get their feet wet and see what all the hubbub is about without spending a cent.

Following the success of the Basic Rules PDF release (which, as of 8/12/2014, has been updated from it's 0.1 version) they have now released the Dungeon Master's Basic Rules v0.1 which  is essentially a 100% free mini Dungeon Master's Guide.  I just finished reading through it and it is coooool!  And with that, we're gonna break it down right now so you can get an idea of what's so cool about it.

Monsters

The monsters section is, I feel, one of the most looked-forward-to things they've released since the limited release of the Player's Handbook this past week.  Up until now, there has been very limited information on monsters that weren't part of the play test.  Now, quick disclaimer, it is noted that these rules are a work in progress, and as both the Monster Manual and the Dungeon Master's Guide have not been released yet (expected releases are in October and November of 2014 respectively) changes can still be made.  That being said, these can be expected to be very close to the expected results, if not 100% the final product.

The beginning of this section opens with a rundown on monster-based terminology.  Some of these things are very simple, such as size categories spanning "Tiny" (which can occupy a space of 2.5" x 2.5") all the way up to the largest size "Gargantuan" (which occupies 20" x 20" or larger).

They then go into "Type" which covers what kind of creatures will exist in the world, hitting all the expected categories with verbal elaboration of a small paragraph apiece.  I learned a few new things, one of which was that Ogres and Trolls are also technically under the "Giants" category.

After hitting other small things such as movement types, how hit points are dealt with, special traits (Innate Spellcasting, Spellcasting), etc, they did talk about Challenge Rating (CR) and it helped me understand a deal about it. (Note: this does include some info that was included after the monsters were actually listed, but I wanted to put it all together)

Challenge Rating: "A monster's challenge rating tells you how great a threat a monster is.  An appropriately equipped and well-rested party of four adventurers should be able to defeat a monster that has a challenge rating equal to it's level without suffering any deaths."

So, monsters all have a CR number in their individual description.  This number goes from 0, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 and then 1-30.  This means that, ideally, a party of four adventurers should be able to take on one monster of that CR.  An example is an Adult Red Dragon, which is a CR17.  This means that a normal sized party of 4 level 17 adventurers should be able to take one on and reasonably expect to tackle it without character deaths.

CR also factors into encounter building (this is the portion where they specifically make note of these rules being a work in progress).  They recommend building encounters in 4 steps:

1. Note Encounter Difficulty Thresholds - Using the Encounter Difficulty XP Per Character table.

The table has character levels (1-20) running down the left side, with 4 columns labeled with difficulties (easy, medium, hard and deadly).  Each column has a suggested XP amount which is equal to approximately how much "XP-worth" of monster will give a character of a given level an easy, medium, hard or deadly time.

An example is level 1.  Easy = 25 xp, Medium = 50 xp, Hard = 75 xp, Deadly = 100 xp.  So, a monster worth 25 or less xp should be easy for a single level 1 character to deal with.  In contrast, a monster worth 100 xp or more would almost definitely kill them.

2. Add Up Encounter XP - Total the XP values of each enemy in the encounter to get the encounter's XP value.

3. Adjust Encounter XP based on the Number of Monsters - (This is an interesting one) - Based on the number of monsters in the encounter, multiply the encounter's XP by the matching multiplier from the Encounter XP Multipliers table.  Note: This doesn't change the actual XP award for the encounter, it simply helps to show the real difficulty.

1 Monster - no multiplier, 2 = x1.5, 3-6 = x2, 7-10 = x2.5, 11-14 = x3, 15+ = x4

4. Compare the Encounter XP Value to Party Encounter Difficulties -  So, you get the levels for your party and find the recommended XP value for however difficult of an encounter you'd like to build.  (For example, if you want a medium encounter for 4 level 1 characters, your target is 200, because medium for one Level 1 character is 50).  You then add up the XP values of each monster you've selected for your encounter, multiply that by the appropriate multiplier, and see how they compare.  If it's too hard or too easy, adjust accordingly.

It's a relatively simple system when you see the charts and gives a good guideline for building meat-grinders to throw the adventurers into.  They do make a point of noting that these are merely guidelines.  When you play, you'll gauge how your players handle certain things and you'll get a feel for just how to challenge them appropriately.

The Monsters Themselves

The monsters themselves are well done and varied.  They look easy enough to run and many come replete with some cool features.  Each monster has it's AC (and in parenthesis what their AC is coming from), their HP and Speed.  This is followed by their 6 ability scores and modifiers, any skills / senses they have, languages, and their CR.  After that, it's just simple abilities (like the Goblin's nimble escape) and then their Actions, which are made up of their attacks, followed by a sentence or two of flavor.

In comparison to 4th ed, these are very tight, no more powers that won't get used!  The attacks are simply that, attacks.  The amount to hit, range, amount of targets and damage.  This makes monsters much easier to manage, as they're all organized the same way.

The monsters also run the gamut of levels (or CR's), from less than 1 - 17.  This makes me think the Monster Manual ought to be jam-packed with some big baddies!  Also included are stats for NPC's such as Commoners, Knights, Guards, Acolytes, etc.
Magic Items

The last portion covers Magic Items very briefly with a few examples.  We get a look at +1 Armor and Weapons, which very simply add +1 to your AC and +1 to attack and damage rolls respectively.  The other items, however, were a deal more interesting.

There are items now, such as the Amulet of Health.  This item, in past editions, has awarded additional HP or the ability to heal a small amount, etc.  Now, it very simply replaces your constitution score.  It states that when you're wearing the item, your Constitution score becomes 19, but if your Constitution is higher than that, it has no effect.

This, to me, is a very interesting way of dealing with items like this.  It stops a player from over-stacking items of a certain type to push beyond certain boundaries and helps maintain an even balance.  One issue with some past editions were numbers getting out of control.  This edition shows evidence of things being reigned in, for the better, in my opinion.

One aspect I noticed related to Magic Items, also, was the idea of attunement.  Certain items will state that they require attunement to use.  To do it, you take a short rest and concentrate on the item, and they make an explicit note that it cannot be the same rest it takes to identify the item and what it does.  The concentration period must be uninterrupted.  An item can only be attuned to one person at a time and you can only be attuned to up to 3 items at once.  Also you can only attune to one item per short rest.  Attunement ends if you've been more than 100 feet away from the item for 24 hours or if you die.

Conclusion (or TL:DR):

This is a great little document, coming in at 61 pages.  It's choc full of monsters, some solid rules for them, and good encounter guidelines, as well as a thorough explanation of challenge rating, which was confusing me up until this point.  On top of that, we get our first good peek at magic items which should allow the DM's out there to hand out just a bit more phat loot, and who doesn't like that?!

So recently myself and a few friends have been playing the D&D 5e Starter Set at our local game store, as well as just starting a private game which included our wives, which was a blast.  When getting them set up for the game, we ran into the issue of a brand spanking new player grabbing, of course, the Wizard.

As I looked it over, there were some simple things and some things that, at least to some extent, weren't as clear.  I wanted to take a moment to clear up how spell casting works to help those who may have questions.

1. Spell Levels - Spells have levels ranging from 0-9.  The higher the level, the higher the number.  Note that spell level does *not* correspond to character level.

2.  Spell Slots - This can be something that confuses players but I'll try to make it easy.  The basic idea is that spells take a physical toll on the caster.  The less experienced [read: lower level] the caster is, the weaker their casting ability is, allowing them to only cast a certain amount of spells per day.  The higher the spells level, the more taxing it is to cast.  Makes sense, right?

Referencing the D&D 5 Basic Rules (found here) we'll use the level 1 Wizard for ease.  The Wizard leveling chart shows that a level 1 Wizard has two Level-1 slots (Level-0 spells are considered easy enough to not be taxing and as such don't have slots).  This simply means that the Wizard is able to cast two spells at Level-1 power each day (the time period between 8-hour rests).  As the Wizard levels up, he gets more spell slots, for example:

Level 1: Two Level-1 slots
Level 2: Three Level-1 slots
Level 3: Four Level-1 slots, Two Level-2 slots
Etc.

This shows the caster's ability to control more strong magic as they grow in experience.

3.  Spell Preparation - This, I think, can also cause a bit of confusion, mainly because its execution is accomplished mainly through role-play.  Essentially the caster can prepare an amount of spells per day equal to the caster's key attribute modifier + the caster's caster class level (this is to say, if your character decides to level up in another class, like Fighter, the levels they have in Fighter don't count).  So, to show it simply:

Amount of spells able to be prepared each day for a Cleric = Wisdom Modifier + Cleric Level
Amount of spells able to be prepared each day for a Wizard = Intelligence Modifier + Wizard Level

Also, a note worth clarifying, when preparing spells, you're preparing spell *types* not specific spells to be expended.  This means your caster is essentially making mental notes on how to cast X, Y and Z spells.  The spells you have prepared are what you choose from when picking spells to cast that fill your slots.

4.  Spell Casting - Casting the spell itself is easy; you simply read the description of the spell in the rules.

So, to break it down, this is what spell-related actions could look like in a day:
-Your character wakes up
-Your character thinks of spells he likes
-Your character is a level 1 Wizard with 16 Intelligence (giving him a +3 modifier), allowing him to prepare 4 spells he can choose to cast from later.
-Your character can only cast level 1 spells right now so he decides to prepare (make mental note of): Magic Missle, Shield, Mage Armor and Sleep.
-Your character gets in a fight and doesn't want to get hurt too bad, so he casts Mage Armor, a Level-1 spell, using up one of his two available Level-1 spell slots for the day.
-Your character then wants to shoot the bad guy, so he casts Magic Missle, another Level-1 spell, using up his last Level-1 spell slot for the day.
-He now must resort to using the level-0 spells he knows (which he can do as much as he wants because level-0 spells are easy), or get a solid rest in to restore his spell slots.

Easy peasy. :D

Edit: Due to an obscene amount of spam comments, I've disabled comments for this post.

So the head of development on 5th Edition, Mike Mearls, has just released in his latest Legends and Lore article (found here) a bit about a topic near and dear to my heart: Feats.

In 3rd Edition they were at times very strong, but, as the article above mentions, you also needed to string them together, or there were some that were so specific or almost useless that they'd never see the table unless in very obscure circumstances.  In 4th I felt as if feats in general took a backseat, becoming minor advantages.

5th Edition's take on them is a bit along the lines of what I thought in terms of impact.  The only time you can take a feat is as a replacement for an ability score increase when leveling up.  As this is generally a very large power increase, that means that feats need to have a large impact as well, and it appears they do.

The view on them leans (as do other mechanics in the system) heavily towards the RP side of things, making feats things primarily designed for fleshing out a character concept better than the normal classes (or multi-classing) might allow.

In the article, Mike lists every single feat that will be in the Player's Handbook, which I thought was amazing.  Aside from the fact that we just get a clean sneak peak at the entire list, I think the thing I found most intriguing was that the list was small.  Counting the list, it comes in at a tight 42 feats.  To put this in perspective, the feat count in the 3rd edition Player's Handbook was a whopping 119!  4th ed's was also large with 81 feats, meaning that this edition is significantly smaller, but potentially much more impactful than previous editions.

You can see Mike's full list of feats in his post, but I'll list a few of my favorites (or ones that look like other's will really gravitate towards them):

• Actor
• Defensive Duelist
• Dual Wielder
• Dungeon Delver
• Grappler
• Healer
• Inspiring Leader
• Lucky
• Mage Slayer
• Mounted Combatant
• Savage Attacker
• Shield Master
• Skilled
• Spell Sniper
• Tavern Brawler
• War Caster

Hey everyone!  I mentioned a little while ago that I would do a review of the Basic Rules released for D&D 5th Edition once I finished reading them, and I finally finished (what a hefty read!) so here we go!

First things first, if you would like to check out the basic rules for yourself (which you absolutely should), you can find them here.

Wizards of the Coast (the developers of D&D in general) had an interesting time with 4th edition, released back in 2008.  The issue was mainly due to the significant alterations made to what was the traditionally accepted way of doing things [Please note that the bulk of my experience started with 3rd edition].  To my knowledge, the mechanics of old revolved around a few things:

• Leveling up based on a table unique to your class.
• Having your attacks represented as simple, generic equations (like 1d20 + Strength Modifier + any additional special things you may have added, like a Feat bonus).
• Feet-based movement.
• Flavor heavy rules / book text.

So it's been a darn long while since I've posted but I've recently been really pushing myself to do some Dungeon Mastering and, in turn, it's got me thinking about these kinds of things again.  So with that, I'm back! :D

What I'd like to tackle in the article (I'll keep it brief, to the best of my ability) is RPG's and kids, and how darn awesome it can be!

First, for those who don't know, a Role Playing Game is a game where the players take on a specific role, usually of a character they create themselves, but sometimes games will use pre-made character for ease-of-play.  It's the same thing an actor does in a play!  Every person at the table is a player, and has a Player Character (referred to as a PC), all except for one person.  This person is referred to as the Game Master (GM) or, when playing Dungeons & Dragons, the "DM" (but they're the same thing).

The DM is what you would consider the narrator in the story.  They control the world and all the things the players interact with.  Any Non-Player Characters (NPC's), monsters, etc are all played by the DM.  This gives the DM tremendous creative power.  The DM is also the person who governs the rules of the game.  If they feel that a change to the rules would be more fun for all at the table, it's absolutely within their power to change it.  Their role is that of the Storyteller.

So, a Role Playing Game is, at its core, interactive storytelling.  This can be AMAZING for kids, as it allows their imaginations to run wild and it fosters a huge deal of creativity!  They get to imagine themselves as an awesome hero defeating a dragon or hunting for hidden treasure (or doing whatever other kind of story things the DM might come up with).  It's also very social.  It involves playing with your friends (and hopefully a parent or two!) around a table, having a great time (and generally sharing a bunch of awesome snacks lol).  One other thing it does is help with math skills, as the game involves simple addition of dice rolls (which are super fun).

Most RPG's have rule-books that can be quite large, with very detailed rules that the DM can choose whether or not to use (things like rules for if a character ducks behind cover in a fight, or rules about how far a character can go before eating or something like that).  Most of these rules are optional.  If the DM thinks they're too complicated or unnecessary, they can choose to just not use them.  One thing I found, that's great for kids, can be found here:

 https://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/MS_HeroesHesiod.pdf

That is a link to a specially made, self contained, RPG for kids based on Dungeons and Dragons called "The Heroes of Hesiod" and it's for kids 6+!

The rules in it are dead simple and very friendly.  It has fun character cards the players can cut out, and a few little monsters.  They get to go into Adventurer Training against some young monsters (like a little dragon).  They get to move their characters around the room and try to defeat the monsters, so they can be strong enough to defend the village when they grow up!

It's a well put together little game for kids and I highly encourage anyone interested who has kids to give this a shot.  There's a ton of fun to be had and there's no other game like it.  Happy adventuring!

Greetings all!

Here's the info for next session:

This session will be entirely player driven. You have reached the town of Silverton, entered the tavern, listened to a young man named Gregory lament his current predicament. In order to prove his prowess as a young man to the father of the woman he loves, he must win the King's Purse at the tournament to be held at the capital of Jorath's March, Jorath's Hold. The young man is adventurous and excited to take on the challenge but needs training. He also needs supplies and provisions, as does anyone else who will be participating in the tournament.

The town is open to you and you may explore at your leisure. I will facilitate as needed. This session will be free form and player driven, meaning that any movement in the session will be determined by ideas you all come up with. How he trains will be up to you, how you get supplies will be up to you, as will everything else.

I hope this will be interesting and fun and I'm excited to see where things go. =] Glad to be back.

Hey hey!

Hey all!

Hey all!

I know I haven't posted in a while but I wanted to throw this out there. I know in the past, we've had discussions about 4th ed; lots of them good, some of them bad (as in what's wrong with the system). There were things like the lack of important, powerful feeling feats, classes that felt too similar, languages were a bit funky, ect.

Well, I just recently picked up the new Red Box which is heralding the release of the D&D Essentials line. This is a the beginning of a new direction in 4th edition's design. Now, that's not to say that the old 4th ed books are worthless, they're not. They'll be fully compatible, and usable in any 4th ed game you play, so all that hard-earned cash you (and I) spent on building up a big fat 4th ed library was not in vain.

That being said, 4th ed is now being taken over by Mike Mearls, who is overseeing the bulk of design on D&D and I, for one, am glad he is. He holds a reverence for 1st edition D&D and what D&D actually "IS". What it "is" is a bit of an odd concept, at times, but bear with me.

To me, I think D&D is an experience that evokes a certain feeling. Sometimes when you play an MMO, your character feels like a stack of numbers meant to do a job and there's nothing organic or lifelike about it. It doesn't pull you in, it doesn't engage you and it doesn't make you sit up and pay attention, hanging on the edge of your seat. I know there's been the talk that D&D 4th ed is trying to be an MMO (on paper) and I still disagree, but I do see the things that are similar and why people gripe about it. Some of the things in there, while balanced FANTASTICALLY, do seem to play very closely to one another and you don't feel like your character is really their own person. It more tends to feel like "Uh... I'm a fighter and I do a d8 worth of damage with my sword... My buddy is a wizard and does a d8 with one of his 'spells'." It felt ridiculous in that regard.

Essentials is bring about new things and I will put links so you can all go check out the neat things involved. One example is the fighter in "Heroes of the Fallen Lands." HotFL is the first class book to be published in the Essentials line. It will cover the fighter, the cleric, the rogue, and the wizard (all the iconic classes). They offer new builds with new options.

The fighter, for example, gets stances. These can be used instead of dailies. This is a quoted part off the website explaining stances:

"Level 1: Fighter Stances

Fighters learn a number of stances, special powers that combine positioning, footwork, and combat tactics to maximum effect. A stance allows you to customize your approach for fighting different enemies. Against a massive ogre, battle wrath allows a knight to overcome that creature’s impressive hit points more quickly. Against monsters that gain advantage from flanking you, measured cut lets you stay in motion to keep them out of position."

There are more things too but that's one of them.

I, for one, am very excited and can't wait to see the rest. I have the Red Box and for $20, it's a dang good deal and the perfect thing for introducing someone new to the wonderful game we all know and love. Here are some links (Check out the one at The Escapist for sure, it's an interview with Mike Mearls and answers a lot of questions about the design choices in the past and the direction going forward).

Escapist Article

Fighter 1

Fighter 2

Cleric

Wizard

Rogue

Hope this was interesting for you guys!

~Andrew

Hey all! I'm really sorry for the long hiatus. I'd like to explain the reason(s).

1) Just plain busy - My life has been a bit hectic since I wrote last. I've gone through some major life changes, from family events and instances to work related things and other personal stuff. Barring getting into to much detail, lets just say they should be taken care of, one way or another, within a few months.

2) Work - I've been searching and searching for work in a game-industry related capacity since I've been out of school. That's taken me to points where I just had very little energy and it drove a lot of inspiration out of me. The job search for anyone to get ANY job right now is hard, not to mention finding one in a specific industry, let alone one as small and tightly knit as the game industry. That being said, on June 14th, 2010, I succeeded! I am now a professional Game Master on an online free-to-play MMO called Luna Online. It's a super-cute little anime themed MMO and I love my job. That's one distraction out of the way. =]

3) Lack of Inspiration - Through all this, I was just feeling more and more drained. I was feeling like readers were tapering off and that the interest that was there or at least that I was hoping would be there, wasn't. It was my goal to make a site where issues about the game would be discussed and I just, at times, didn't feel like there was much discussion. Also another big culprit was that I'd been trying to DM, just to have SOME vestige of D&D in my life when at my core, I'm much more a "player" type. My own personality goes more towards knowing what it takes to DM and assisting a DM when they're doing it, versus doing the whole GM task myself. My mind tends to gravitate much more towards creating a player with a solid, well crafted backstory, who plays well and is interesting and exploring the mechanics of the game through that form of play versus overall direction. I understand DMing, but when it's all I do, I feel drained and like a vital area of me is not being satisfied.

ALL THAT BEING SAID....

I'm looking into moving nearer to work and once I do, I'll be joining up with a D&D game that is in progress here at work. The game involves a lot of players new to the game, which is very exciting, we they can really be taught the right way of things right off the bat, and made into some great players. Also, god willing, I'll be able to join back up with some of my old gaming buddies and be involved with a second game in that regard. I miss having a few games going at once. We'll see how it goes. I plan on trying to restart this blog and post more thoughts on my experiences as they come. I hope you all start reading again!

~Andrew

Hey all, the Take is back! I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years and got tons of great gamer gifts because, lets face it, you can never really have enough, eh?! Anyways, lets hop to it.

Hey all,

Hey all, I was doing some thinking on a new post and I thought of the idea of character archetypes and the idea of "categories" in characters that so many of us players seem to fall into. This was brought to mind for me when I was playing Dragon Age: Origins and I looked at the way they did their character classes. There's three of them. The warrior, the rogue and the mage. So, rather, the way I've been looking at it, "The strong one", "The agile one" and "The one that uses magic."

This kind of brought me back to thinking about how we are about character creation and how we tend to design around a character's function in battle. "How is my character going to down the bad guy?" (or at least contribute to it).

After giving it a little thought, I don't really think there's anything wrong with that. As things are, combat is a big part of the game, like it or not. If your character can't cut it in a fight somehow, no matter how much you like role playing, he's probably dead-man-walking. Encounters are much more the "game" part of the game.

Note: As of 4th edition D&D, more focus has been put on Skill Challenges and making some role play situations more like encounters, but that's an instance that is a maybe, from what I've seen. Skill challenges tend to require some contrivances from what I've seen and done in my DMing and what I feel to be true role play feels much more organic. When it comes to a situation that's dire or intense, I'll use skill checks, but designing a skill challenge for role play feels like too much focus on dice, using a difficulty system for something that I feel should be more organic. That's not to say that I don't like skill challenges, but I feel it's much easier to think on your feet and ad-lib without them, more often than not.

Anyways, as I was thinking, the thing that occured to me was that those three things really do seem to encompass all the functions of "action" in a D&D game. I couldn't figure out how I really felt about that. Was it good that things could be broken down so simply or was it bad? I like to think that there is so much customization available in role playing games when really, when I look at it, it's rather simple, with lots of little options; which seems to be 4th editions modus operendi.

I suppose that when it comes down to it, I just like when there is variety. I like when you can pick something that can really and truely be different from the eight previous things you've played. It all changes with role play but it really forces you to rethink "I hit it with a sword." There has to be flourishes. There has to be embelishment. There has to be all sorts of things to differentiate things from your old characters.

I just look out at the RPG landscape right now and find myself unable to wait for a revolution where there's a breakthrough instead of all of us treading on ground that's been walked a thousand times over.

When I look at Dragon Age, it comes off, to me, as a refinement of a refinement of a refinement of what's been done already. Is it good? Yes. It's exceptional. Does it break the mold? Not really. The origin stories, I think, are the biggest point. That's moving us in the direction of real organic pen and paper RPGs. You have 6 completely separate starting stories that contain a few hours of content that set you apart from the other stories available. It's not cookie cutter, where you'd just plug your generic character into a plot that isn't really going to change no matter what you do, you're an individual with craftable motivations and choices that all relate to where you are and where you've been.

I can't wait to see video games expand to do what a pen and paper RPG can do. It won't replace the fun you have with your buddies around a kitchen table with books all over the place, but it'll be awesome none-the-less.

Thanks for reading!

~Andrew

Alright, so, I realize that I could probably play Dragon Age for 150 hours before actually thinking I've played even remotely close to everything so here's my review.

First off, I'm just going to get this out of the way. Dragon Age is awesome. Like, no-holds-barred fantastic. This is, bar none, the best RPG experience I've had in only God knows how long and if you can get your hands on it, do so.

[Some SPOILERS ahead but I'll try to keep them to a minimum]

So, were my hopes realized? Yep, for the most part. The character creation offers enough variety to make characters look different, but it's not so deep that you'll sit there for hours upon hours. That said, it's good. Quite good. The character development is really neat too. Do you craft your own story? Yes and no. You will play one of 3 races, each having 2 backstories possible, depending on class. You play through a unique intro depending on what you choose and then you, by some way or another, end up playing a Grey Warden fighting against the blight.

You'll run into a BUNCH of different characters and creatures, eacg of whom have unique backstories and histories to explore, depending on your relationship to the characters and the choices you make. The moral choices in the game are interesting too. It's quite possible to make a choice that you think is really and truely correct and still a member or two from your party will disagree with your actions. It's at the same time awesome and frustrating because on the one hand, it'd be nice if all your party members liked you and you could really get to know each and every one of them but at the same time, having that uniqueness and individuality makes each playthrough interesting. "Which characters am I going to explore this time?"

The voice acting is stellar. All the actors play their parts well and you really feel the characters. They don't seem like famous actors behind some computer animation, you really feel as if they're a real being, within the bounds of the game. The other sound work is excellent, and it's what you'd expect from a top notch fantasy game.

The thing I'm very impressed with is the actual presentation. They make heavy use of cut-away scenes but not in an annoying way. They utilize in-game graphics to create the scenes that display huge battles, political machinations between nobles and other plot events and the voice acting and shots are so well done that it's just really awesome when one comes one and you get to sit back and go "Oooh cool, what's this?"

So, graphics and audio are great. Story is great, as is character development. How about the game? Exceptional as well (surprise, right?). I'll tell you this much though. Dragon Age will kick your butt. I was in one particular boss fight where a party member had been disarmed earlier in the dungeon. He used a 2 handed sword and all his moves are based around that. So, I gave him two regular swords so he had something to fight with, but it just didn't cut it. I got trounced over and over for a good couple hours, trying strategy after strategy, maximizing health potions, spell use, using the pause-delegation strategy, everything. Later, I finally loaded up a slightly earlier save, grabbed a different character that had the right equipment and it went a lot easier. This is all on normal mode and there are two difficulties higher than that.

Beyond that, I just want to say that my favorite part of the game has got to be the conversations. The role play choices you can make are really cool and sometimes just laugh out loud funny. The story is dark, mature and heavy and what's more, it's long. It's full of monsters, treachery, intrigue, laughs and violence.

This sets the bar quite a few notches higher for fantasy role playing games to come and I think it's ripe with ideas for any D&D game, both plot wise, strategy-wise and character-wise.

Again, if your computer can run it well, I would recommend the PC version. All the reviews I've read say that the console versions don't look quite as good (namely the textures are a bit compressed and muddy) and they don't offer the top-down strategic camera view, like the PC does. Also if you have the PC version, the toolset for creating your own levels complete with a lip-synching tool, cinematic creator, etc, is available.

So, all in all, go get Dragon Age and explore Ferelden. It's great!

~Andrew

In D&D we look for a lot of things. We expect many things that a video game can't deliver, at the moment and in that, it gives video games a lot to aspire to and try to emulate. I would wager that it will be some time before a computer can create a compelling story and allow as well as adapt to any player's choices; BUT, that said, there are a lot they can do. In the upcoming Dragon Age: Origins created by the folks over at Bioware (makers of Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect, etc) it appears that they will take yet another stab at a great fantasy epic that will raise the bar for all role playing games to come. I have it pre-ordered and plan to give it a run and these are some of the things I'm hoping to see:

Story: In a game like this, story is always paramount. It's just something you can't get away from. A shooter usually doesn't need much story to be great (look at Borderlands), but with an RPG (or any good one, if you ask me), everything is centered around it. I've talked with lots of friends and colleagues and most, if not all, agree that an RPG is different in that it's one of those kinds of games that really isn't about winning. In fact, with an RPG, "winning" is usually the worst part, because that means (sadly) that it's over. It's about the journey, the character development and the events and interactions you have along the way. So, my first hope is that the framework in which the game takes place and the events that unfold, are memorable. I hope that real care has gone into crafting a story that will draw in the players time and time again and that this be one of the new classics that any fan of RPGs or even just good story, should own.

Character Development: Variety. I hope that the variety of the game is huge and that it's possible to really make your character stand out. To a point, that's not really the aim of this game. There is obviously a story to be played through and they make it plain that you're set on a path, at least by some point in the game. That said, I hope that everything is done in such a way where you feel your character is unique and original and has impact on the setting.

I hope there is excellent character interaction as well. Bioware has done a good job of making their characters interesting and I hope things get kicked up a notch.

Gameplay: I just hope that things are crisp. It would be good to see an RPG that handles tightly as a game, espescially with combat, as it does with physical interaction. From what I've read, it's very strategic and that watching a fight play out is really great to watch. I hope the animations are smooth, the combat options are robust and that the interface works smoothly so that it's painless to direct the action in front of you.

Replay Value: I'm already confident in this one but I want to make a note of it all the same. From what's reached my ears and eyes via previews and interviews, there are three races to choose from as well as 6 different backgrounds. You're talking 18 possible combinations just with race and class. Throw in gender (if they really make that matter, which I hope they do), that doubles it to 36.

On top of that, I've heard they have a passive alignment system. Some of you might be asking "What the heck do you mean?" Well, in games such as Knights of the Old Republic (also made by Bioware), you had a meter that told you how "light side" or "dark side" you were. This allowed you to make decisions to lean yourself one way or another for whatever reason you had. Dragon Age takes what sounds like a much more subtle and intriguing go at this. The system is completely background. You never see it. On top of that, you're given choices that tend to be much more morally grey than "Kill him or don't kill him?" This gives some time for anxiety and some beard-stroking as you contemplate your actions and the impact they will have on the world and try to pick the dicision that will have the smallest likelyhood to turn around and bite you in the rear.

Overall: I hope that Dragon Age does role playing games proud. I think we need more great RPGs and if this succeeds it could have a distinct influence on future RPGs to come. It can be a shining example of what to do or a glaring example of what not to do. I have a feeling it will be the former and I hope it won't be the latter.

What this means, in relation to D&D is that they will keep making video games based on D&D and this is also a dark fantasy epic. This will most likely have some impact on how developers go about the next video adaptation of our beloved pen-and-paper game. So, in a way, I hope it does fantasy role playing games justice and points us in the right direction.

As a final thought, beyond all that stuff up there, I just hope that it's fun!

Dragon Age: Origins releases Nov 3rd and is available from your local game stores. It is available for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

Dragon Age: Origins is rated M for Mature. The game will contain a healthy dose of combat related mess and much more mature themes. Parents, if your kids are small, do them a favor and look into it before buying it for them.

Happy Gaming!

~Andrew

So I just had a thought. D&D is a paper role playing game (that wasn't the thought). As a role playing game where the players design the experience, I think it's valid to look at other games that enhance (or possibly ruin...) our views and the way we design, run and play our D&D games. As such, I'm making an "RPG Tangent" set of posts to discuss other games that approach our genre and possible things we can pull from these experiences.

So, the game in question today?

Borderlands

Borderlands is an awesome little gem of a video-game created by Gearbox. It's being marketed as an "RPS" or a role-playing-shooter. Their entire goal was to take elements of popular games of late such as the likes of Doom3, Fallout 3, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Mass Effect, etc (popular shooters and role playing games in the video game market) and make a game that blends the features of these games into one insane, awesome, shoot-fest with integrated gameplay elements of a role playing game.

Essentially, what Borderlands feels like to me is a first-person Diablo with guns and less role play. Now, usually, I'm all for RP and think "the more, the merrier!" but in the case of Borderlands, I never felt I needed it. It wasn't a world I felt like impacting with words and the sheer absense of friendly NPCs around (save your home bases scattered about) makes the player not really mind being unable to chew the fat with the locals.

The game takes place on Pandora which is some weird kind Mad-Max rip off with a stylized western feel. Most of the local friendly NPCs are backwater-yokle types with a country twang that really works. The vast majority of the dialogue cracks me up all the time and the NPCs do their job of serving up missions (or quests, if you must) and spicing it up with some good-ole, down home plain talkin'.

The story is baseline at best. You're one of four mercenaries, Mordecai - the scout, Lilith - the siren (the stealthy one), Roland - the soldier and Brick - the.... well, Brick. You're hunting for "The Vault", a rumored cache of alien weapons and technology. That's about it. You start in a town made of ramschackle tin shacks and blown out barracks, etc. You check the bounty boards, the claptrap robots (who are hilarious) and the NPCs talk "redneck" style to ya and it's great.

So, the story is shallow / simple, the role-playing is nonexistent, so what's so great about Borderlands? The combo of the things they put in the game.

You know loot? PHAT loots, even? Yeah, this game is riddled with it. There are literally hundreds of THOUSANDS of guns, if not more. The trailer actually advertizes 87 BAZILLION guns! This is really sweet, in that they actually went to the trouble of developing a separate AI purely for procedurally generating guns. There are fictional gun manufacturing companies that make all these guns with varying stats such as damage, accuracy and fire rate. There are also variables and bonuses that some might have such as increased clip size, improved rate of fire, increased damage, elemental damage (caustic acid, explosions, fire, etc), etc. Every gun has rarity color taken straight from WoW (white-green-blue-purple-orange). One of the things that makes this a blast (pun very much intended) is getting a new gun and testing it on some of the crazed maniac bandits and beasties that roam the wasteland of pandora. You go out with your new shotgun, sniper rifle, machine gun or what have you, and blow-stuff-up!

One other thing that makes this a great game is the upgradable elements. You upgrade the weapon slots you have. You start out being able to only carry two weapons at a time, but as things go on, you unlock slots to be able to cary up to four. You have slots for class ability upgrades, shield upgrades, grenade upgrades (the grenades in the game are normal and you purchase or find upgrades that apply properties to them such as sticky, bouncy, proximity mines, health-stealing, etc), etc.

There are also the skill-trees. Like Diablo and WoW and many other games now that give you "skill paths" to follow, you've got that in Borderlands too. Playing Brick, I was able to go with either a brawler tree (where you beef up his special ability to go crazy and start beating the living daylights out of everything in sight), the tank tree (where you beef up his ability to take damage, thereby triggering great offensive abilities when in the thick of things) and the blaster tree (where you upgrade things that beef up his explosives, usually). You can put points into any tree you like, mix 'n' match, etc and it's great. All the skills are useful and what's more, they're really fun. One of the ending blaster skills even allows Brick to regen rockets for his rocket launcher, 2 every minute! Yes, some of the skills are silly, but the entire game is over the top and it's pure and total entertainment.

The style of the game is awesome as well. The graphical style (which they're calling "concept art style" *yawn*) is, as Peter Griffin would say, "freakin' sweet!". Everything is done with a mix of colors and browns and greys so things seem dusty, but not "un-vibrant". Everything is also given heavy, black linework throughout the textures, giving it an almost sketchy and comic-bookish style. I thought, going into it, that roaming a desert would be boring, but it's far from it. The art is varied and the characters are interesting to look at and everything just feels great.

The sound quality is great and the gameplay is tight and responsive. Borderlands makes no bones about what it does and it does it all really well.

The one gripe I have about this game is the multiplayer. When it works, it works great, but getting your networking to work well (and this is just on PC) can be a bit of a pain. You usually have to open some ports on your computer's router and make sure the connection is working right. That said, it's not THAT hard to work and what's more, not everyone has to do this. From what I've heard, they're working on fixing the networking problem as well. If you don't want to futz with that, it's also available for 360 and PS3. This is NOT a game breaker by any means, just a minor annoyance.

What can we learn from this? Sometimes a brawl really is a fun part of the game. RP is great and has its place for sure, but sometimes it's nice to just whip your sword or axe or magic impliment out and go crazy on some bad guys. Sometimes RP can be its own reward but sometimes it's a blast to just wade through a pile of gold and weapons and get all decked out. Sometimes seriousness is great and can set an awesome mood, but so can humor and hysterics, if done right. Borderlands is a shining example of this and I think everyone should pick this up and enjoy it. I, having seen game design, learning it and trying it, can tell that this is a massive labor of love, with an approach where the creators unabashadly took inspiration from other games in the industry by name, instead of keeping it all a secret, not caring that something might look like a rip-off. Their goal here was fun and I have to say, they succeeded with flying colors and a little (ok, a lot) of blood-spatter!

It's rated M for crazy shooter violence, some language and over-the-top Mad-Max fun!

I hope this gives you guys some fun ideas and also gives ya something to pick up and play with on your computers (or your PS3 or 360). HAPPY GAMING!

~Andrew

Hey all; I was doing some thinking and I realized that I haven't written in a while and what's more, it's been a REALLY long time since I made a post that wasn't "Ohdd" related. This stems from it a bit but it is, I promise, a genuine, bona-fide, real deal post. Enjoy!

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So I was doing some thinking and the idea of "open-ended-ness" was on my mind. In my recent game I was able to run with some of the players involved, just to get the ball rolling, I discovered something. Well, in truth, I knew already, but more I ran into an obstacle I had thought about but one I hadn't actually coped with in a game situation.

That thing is an open ended setting.

In my mind, I really dislike railroading characters. I don't want to force them into anything and I sometimes would like to see them really run around with the setting and have some fun with it. I see settings such as Forgotton Realms and Eberron and even Dark Sun (the new setting being published by Wizards of the Coast) and I want to build that. All told, I have the basis for that with Telain and it's well on its way. That said, trying to build a campaign while having some things planned and at the same having some other things not planned at all can lead to problems.

Firstly, it's very important to have all players on the same page. There was a point in the game, for instance, where a player was unable to make it for the first section of the game, which is fine. I was told to run the player's character as an NPC, so I did. Things went fine but one problem I encountered was that a DM can play a PC very differently than a player has in mind and there can be conflict there. When the player was able to show up, he took over the character and there was a drastic shift in said character. The way I played him and the way that the player played him was hugely different and threw off some players who quickly got used to my way, and then switched. This was a large learning experience for me, and thank you to the players involved for helping me learn this. It was a good experience.

For other sessions, it's fine if a player can't make it for some or all of it. For first session (or a character's first session) they need to be there to establish the character in the way they want them portrayed. Once the DM can see how the character is supposed to be portrayed, the character can be DM run in certain circumstances without a continuity problem. That said, things managed to get on track.

Secondly, having a major plot hook for the group to follow is also very important. This may seem like a "No Duh" point, but it's slightly more complicated. Being the type of player and overall person I am, I love great story. This means I love great backstories. Therefore, I push players to have great backstories themselves. The problem with this is that sometimes the player's backstories are so far from one another or they are so deep or have so many details that impact the character in a large way that bringing the party of characters together can be very difficult or may even seem impossible.

The problem I think I've run into is this. I think I have a problem with the term "backstory". I like backstories. I like backgrounds where characters have done things or things that explain why they are the way they are. The problem I've faced is when backstories lack the ability to adapt to many situations. I think what I really like to see are players who just understand their characters.

So often I see players (I've even been this player many times) who roll up a character, see the numbers and whatnot and think it's go time, but when they get to the table, it's just the player and the character itself seems absent. It seems like "John" and not "Regvemar the barbarian". I think that this stems from certain players having little interest in the character side of things or possibly just not knowing how to go about figuring out the "What's my character like as a person?" question.

Also, it's my fault, as a DM. A lot of times, I push for backstory. I push for role play. A lot of times, I feel I can come off as elitest and force things from players that I want when it may not be things that the players want. Granted, sometimes a DM has to say "no" when it's appropriate and saying "yes" all the time can lead to problems and frustration, and it also doesn't make anyone happy.

So, to kind of sum up my random thoughts, open-ended-ness and open world is great. But that means being open to lots of things and sometimes being too open can cause problems. Guidelines are ok and having a target to hit or a destination to go to doesn't make a game poor in any fashion.

Also, certain players like certain things. Certain players don't want to come up with huge backstories and role-play til their eye's bug out, and other players don't want combat after combat, sometimes they want to talk and role-play and enjoy themselves in that fashion.

So, from here on out, I'm going to make an effort to be a better and different DM.

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This is a note to my Ohdd players:

Guys, first of all, I want to tell you you're all great (whether I've gotten a chance to play with you yet or not, believe me, I want to). I've gamed with almost all of you at one point or another and I see value in each and every one of you. I know that there have been some conflicts and and there have been some miscommunications and I know that I've not shared my vision as best I can because I wanted to keep a sense of mystery about my plans. I realize that I want to do that now.

My desire for the Ohdd game's set-up was something of an MMO style set up, in that I wanted to have an open city in which the character party could go around, see tons of neat things, and run into characters, sometimes "average joes" on the street, talk to them, and find things out about the people and gain quests that way. I wanted quests to come up from exploration, instead of the more traditional exploration steming from quests.

The city was designed with many buildings and I don't believe that I showcased it very well. I have a world map and I have a city map but those don't do the city literary justice and I did a poor job of portraying the city and I want to remedy that.

Players, I also want to say this. I am sorry if you feel that I forced you into making a backstory or forced you into playing in a way that you didn't want to, that isn't fun for you. This is a game and it should be fun. If you are unhappy with your character or if you'd like to make some changes, please talk to me. Send me an e mail at -andrew.geertsen[at]gmail[dot]com- (put those in to avoid net-trolling spiders lol).

So, as a final treat for you guys putting up with all this, here is a description of Ohdd that I hope does it justice. Enjoy!

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"Ohdd is a city that was named after it's quality. In this city, there really is a bit of everything. If you were to walk across The Bridge to Away, into the city, you would see things that would amuse, baffle and intrigue you. There are places within Ohdd that bend the mind, incite booming laughter and sometimes just simply raise an eyebrow in confusion.

"Surrounding the city is a massive towering barrier called 'The Shifting Wall'. The shifting wall was designed by the most powerful wielders of magic in the city (who are quite powerful indeed) to protect the city from any possible outside threats for as one of the aforementioned magic-weilders was quoted as saying "There's gotta be some out there somewhere, right?" The Shifting Wall is just that, a magically shifting wall. It towers fifty feet in the air and is ten feet thick. The wall magically shifts every once in a while to another "kind" of wall, every time remaining within the dimensions of fifty feet tall and ten feet thick. Sometimes it might be solid, seamless stone and other times it may be a massive sheet of iron. Other times the space may be filled with roiling fire or churning water or possibly an ever undulating mass of vines. There are many forms the wall can take, all of which inspire a new feeling of awe and adds something interesting each day to the lives of the residents of Ohdd. 'What's the wall going to be today?!'

"The powerful magic users mentioned above are called 'The Sparklers'. If you were to ask one of them, most would tell you straight out that they hate the name. They take themselves very seriously and it was because of this that, sometime a ways back, a bard in posession of some great mass of nerves, decided to dub them something rather less than intimidating. He called them 'The Sparklers'. Try as they might to convince everyone they were 'Mages' of the highest order and 'Wizards' who defy the elements and bend reality to their will, alas, to their chagrin, the name stuck and whenever someone mentions them, it's not uncommon to hear a giggle or a stifled chuckle come from somewhere nearby.

"The Sparklers reside inside what has been dubbed, accordingly, 'The Sparkling Hall'. This is a place where those of the magic occupation study and hone their craft. It is a place of class and intelligence and, at some points, some eccentricities. It is crafted of beautiful stone, carved wood and inlaid stone. It rises about three stories on the outside, but who can speak for the inside but those who are, in fact, inside?

"Another main facet of the city is its greatest and, indeed its only tavern, the Nervat. The Nervat is run by a half-elf named Severius Wilkins. Wilkins is known to most to be a wonderful host who is not above getting to know his patrons and sitting down for a drink or two... or three... or four... after all, it's his place, eh?! The Nervat is a place laced with magic. All the tables sport a small flame in a brass bowl, sitting in the middle of the table, and next to it, a small stack of papers and a pen of some sort. All a patron need do is write their order on a slip of the paper, toss it into the happily dancing flame and it burns away. Shortly thereafter, they can expect their order to be brought out to their table by hand, with expedious service.

"The Nervat is constantly growing as Wilkins indeed loves to see his place expand. In constructing The Nervat, he built a bottom floor that anyone would consider large, but not massive by any stretch; but as time went on and he kept building, the Nervat took on a look and presence all his own. Enlisting the assistance of The Sparklers (you hear a giggle coming from another room), the buildings floors expand outward to points where they would most assuredly collapse if it weren't for the help of enchantments placed on the building materials to support the structure. The Nervat is indeed one of the wonders of Ohdd.

"Also there is the "No Way Out Current" that surrounds the city. Folk from outside Ohdd tend to find it rather bemusing when they come that there is, in fact, this large waterway that, in the end, doesn't go anywhere but.... well, around. An inlet from the sea lets water in and it is carried in via a current. The current, however, simply comes in one way and it goes in a large circle, reconnecting at the origin and feeding into itself. The current is rather strong so once on it, a boat would not be able to leave through the inlet. In order to stop ships from entering, a gate was built over the inlet so that boats would not be trapped within the current. Boats have been built in Ohdd, though, and they're used for mass trasportation to other sides of Ohdd, as there are four major docks.

"If one was to look at Ohdd, they would see many things. At night, they would run into small groups of zombies roaming the streets, during the day, large groups of bustling people running hither and thither, going about their days. You would see cobbled streets, houses leaning over the major thoroughfares as if to try to get a really good look at the action. You would see vendors on The Trodden Way, hawking their goods to one and all. You would see performers from large stilt walkers to jugglers, to fire spitters, to sword swallowers. You would find races unique and common, interesting and not. You would see amusing, confusing, interesting and troublesome types all. Ohdd is a place of strageness, wonder and absolute personality. One does not go to Ohdd to find experiences. One comes to Ohdd to experience Ohdd itself."

Welcome =]

~Andrew

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P.S. - I'm currently about to acquire a new computer and as of Thursday, Oct 22nd, I'll be switching over my system. I'll be copying files and whatnot and just settling into it. On top of that, I've got some games I've really been wanting to try and plan on putting some time in to get my inspiration going. Some of the games I plan to try will include Borderlands and Dragon Age: Origins. They look great and like they merit some checking out. I mean, a game that actually says, in their trailer, that The RPG and the FPS just made a baby and that they have 87 bazillion guns has gotta be fun! Dragon Age is from Bioware, who are the makers of just about all the classic D&D video games made to date, including Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights and Neverwinter Nights 2 as well as the new Sci-Fi franchise, Mass Effect (whose sequel is coming early next year, if I heard right). I plan on checking these games. Also my birthday is coming up on the 27th, I've been getting about 20 hours a week at work and I've got plans on the weekend to celebrate my birthday, as I work during the week and so does the woman I plan to celebrate with. On top of THAT, the holidays are approaching so I know we'll all be busy and I just want to forwarn everyone that there may be large stretches where an Ohdd game may not be possible. I'll do my best to work something out, I just wanted to give all of you my status. Thanks again, all of you, for your vigilence and support with The D&D Take. It's alive and well and has really been awesome so far. I plan on posting more perspectives and thoughts on the game in general and hopefully we can all find ways to become better gamers! Thanks again!

Alright all, we're running into an issue with Ohdd and that issue is scheduling.

I, myself, have a random schedule as per what Starbucks needs on a weekly basis. It varies and there really isn't much I can do about it.

Chris' schedule is:
Mondays: Class @ 6pm, unable to play
Tuesdays: Free
Wednesdays: Free
Thursdays: Free, but not preferred (morning class next day)
Fridays: Class from 8:30 AM - 5 PM, evenings are okay
Saturdays: Not an option.
Sundays: Free

Lincoln can usually play whenever assuming it's after 4pm or so.

Magus, I've not received a schedule from you. If you could provide one, that would be excellent.

Adam, from what I read, you can't do Thursdays but do you think you could provide a schedule for your weeks, just so we can get a good look?

From what I'm seeing, our available days right now are tuesday and wednesday unless someone can make some changes.

Thanks for all your help,

Andrew

Alright guys, it looks like we're about ready to roll out Ohdd. We've got maps, we've got back-stories, we've got ties, we've got the characters themselves, we've got a city with all sorts of neat stuff to see, we've got a pantheon and we've got 5 players chompin' at the bit to get their game on and who would I be to say no? Well, the DM, but thanks to the DMG, I know one of the first fundamental rules of running is "Say YES!" =]

So, in this final big post before the game starts, I'd like to know some expectations you guys have for the game. I have some ideas as far as theme goes that I'm going to attempt to work into the game to the best of my ability and I want you guys to have fun. The main things I'm going to go for are:

-Humor
-Adventure
-Exploration
-Tinge of randomness

Humor - In Ohdd, I plan on having stuff that'll make you laugh or at least cock your head to the side and go "Whaaaat?" I plan on the city popping stuff up that you'll at least chuckle at and things that aren't too overtly serious. This is much easier done than said but suffice it to say, I'm taking this game with a smile on my face and I think a little laughter will be good. That said, I'll want some serious moments too.

Adventure - Everyone likes a little action and I plan on giving that to you, the players. I plan on giving you choice with, most likely, a bit of guidance if it comes to that. The only thing I'm going for at the moment, is keeping things within the city.

Exploration - That said, while I want the game taking place in the city, the city is very large with lots in it (some things I may not even know about) and there's lots of room to go around and see things. You don't normally have to stick to the story either. There are lots of things to do and if you guys think of something else you want to go off and try, there's no problem.

A Tinge of Randomness - I've found in the recent past that I have a bit of a talent for coming up with off the wall stuff and I want to integrate into the game, making for memorable moments and things that'll make you laugh, jump or just smile and enjoy. I like throwing stuff into the mix that will give you something to talk about even years later. "You remember that time when we...?" I want lots of those.

Anyways, all, The Gates of Ohdd are about to open and I'm glad you're here to share this with me. This will be my first truely home-brewed campaign, Ohdd being the first city in the wide... wide... wiiiide world of Telain (a much more serious place than Ohdd, itself) and I hope it's a treat for you all. Thanks again for all your help, I think this'll be a blast!


With the most sincere gratitude to all my readers and my team of players,

~Andrew

"Play fair," whispered the dark elf to himself, "that's what I say. You don't cheat me. You cheat me and you're stealing. You steal from me, and I do you one better; that's just how it's gotta be."

Clothed in black, he shimmied up the drainpipe alongside the house. Holding on with one hand, he found the edge of a window into the upstairs hallway and nudged it up, pushed it open and slunk inside. Staying low, he crept down the hallway. The carpet on the floor was actually rather nice. Not rich by any means, but not bad certainly; comfortable. The hall was dark and all was quiet. Outside he heard some footsteps going by down the cobbled road. Someone always seemed to be up in this city. Not much different from home or, well, what was home.

He moved along the wall to the first door on the right and put his ear to it. He tested the doorknob and sure enough, not locked. He eased the door open, creaking gently but not loudly, peering into the room. Pitch black. He slipped into the room, clicking the door shut behind him quietly. His eyes adjusting even more so to the darkness, he began to see even more clearly. There was the cheating scum, snoring away sleeping deeply. Dirzjra crept up alongside the bed and slid out a knife.

"Payment with interest..."

He leaned over the sleeping man, snoring away. He took the knife, and put it to the cheater's throat. His arm tensed and-

BAM!

The door splintered apart with a crash and a sunrod flew through the door illuminating the room.

"FOUND YOU, YOU B-"

A figure was standing in the splintered doorway, dressed in leathers, long cloak rustling around it, mask covering its face. It had a small, yet menacing crossbow in each hand pointed straight at the man in his bed. The eyes above the mask went wide, seeing more in the room than she expected.

Dirzjra looked at the figure in the doorway, eyes equally wide.

"What the?"

"Who are-?"

The man was lying in the bed, now quite awake, looking at the knife over his throat, eyes bugging out of his skull in surprise, mouth hanging open. He looked at Dirzjra, then at the figure in the doorway. Dirzjra looked at the man. The figure looked at the man. Dirzjra and the figure looked at each other, surprise being the only prevalent feeling in the room. Everything was still for a split second.

Snapping out of it, Dirzjra slashed the bedded fellow's throat, pulling the blood-gushing corpse towards him just as the two crossbows twanged. A bolt blew through the body's shoulder and thudded into the wooden headboard, splinters flying. The second crashed into the dead body's head with a crack and splatter, right where Dirzjra's head was a moment earlier. Dirzjra jumped back from the body looking towards the shooter in the doorway. He pointed his dagger threateningly at the figure. The figure dropped it's bows and pulled out a dagger as well and pointed it in an equally threatening manner.

"Who're you?!" asked the drow.

"Who're you?!" asked the figure in the door, voice appearing to be female.

"I'm settling a debt, what're you here for?!"

"I'm here to take him out, on a job!"

The both looked at each other, eyes narrowed. They both looked at the dead body on the floor, blood pooling under the head, and gaping shoulder wound. They both looked to each other.

"I'm not here for you, whoever you are," said the woman.

"Then put your knife down," said the drow

"You"

"You"

More staring.

They both slowly lowered their knives and sheathed them. Dirzjra looked the woman up and down, then back to the body and finally relaxed a bit. "Bit of a mess, eh?"

"Yeah, gotta say I wasn't expecting that... How'd you get in here so well, I've been staking out the place for about twenty minutes?"

"Through the window just down the hall, just snuck in."

"Ah..." She looked around at the debris by the door.

Dirzjra went over to a bureau and rifled through the man's belongings and found a purse with some gold coins. "We're square" he said to the shocked looking body on the floor.

"Well," he said brightly to the woman "Have a pleasant evening." and left before she could reply. He shimmied out the window and up onto the roof. He waited a while until he saw a dark figure leave, quietly and quickly. She walked through a few alleys, wound through town between houses and entered an abandoned, rundown house. It was large, once very nice but now old, moss covered and boarded up. There was an iron fence around the place, the gate barely hanging on it's old hinges.

He followed the woman inside. She heard voices coming from inside.

"So you got him?"

"Of course. Have I ever failed you?"

She was speaking with a guard in bright plate.

The drow sat just outside the room on the upstairs landing, shifted his weight just a bit and creeaak, the old wood cried into the darkness. The conversation stopped and he heard footsteps come across the floor. Before he realized how close they were, a metal covered hand reached around the doorway, grabbing him and throwing him into the room.

The room was lit by a fire in a small fireplace and over him stood the woman from the man's house and what seemed to be a member of the Shiny Guard who was looking rather grim. "What the?!"

He was about to start whaling on the startled drow when the woman said "DON'T! Don't, Korban, he's alright. I actually ran into him on the hit. He must have followed me. He could have come after me several times, I imagine, but he obviously didn't. Let him be, let him be."

The man called Korban let the drow go, as Dirzjra fell to the floor gasping. "What's your name, dark elf?"

"Dirzjra, my name's Dirzjra. Who in the name of the night are you people? What the Hells is this?"

She looked to the man called Korban, looked at the drow, looked back and went off aside and started whispering and gesturing wildly. Korban looked worried, stuck his fingers up on his ears and jerked his thumb across his throat. The woman looked like she was trying to calm him down. He heaved a sigh and nodded. The woman came over and offered the drow her hand to get up.

"My name is Eliza and this fellow is Korban. We do bounty work. He's a member of the guard. We act as somewhat of a vigilante group within the city. We're not really known to anyone, he simply brings bounties to me, I track them down. Sometimes he helps but that's about the gist of it. Here's the problem though; we like to keep this quiet and honestly, we don't so much know that you'll keep this to yourself. If the guard knew he was assisting in favor of a bounty hunter before the guards got wind of it. So long as the targets get taken care of, though, all is well. So, I'm going to pose a proposal to you. You help us and join our team or we, well, you can imagine the alternative."

Dirzjra thought for a moment. Might be a good way to bring in cash. Bounties are usually for people who've got it coming anyway and out here things seem pretty legitimate, way more so than home at least. What've I got to lose?

"Sure, I'll help you out. I get a cut of the action?"

"Yeah, in more ways than one."

They all shook hands and the deal was made.

------------------------------------------

A few weeks later, Korban came into the old house with news. "You guys, you may want to hear this. So you know the old art museum place? The Galleria Eternia? Yeah, well that old oddball Barrochio's gone missin'. I know, crazy right? He's been there for ages, but so's that guard of his. I think her name's Minli. A few of the boys in the guard fancy her a bit. Odd enough is that she hasn't seemed to take to any of em. Seems to keep to herself. Just look out if you want into the gallery. She seems rather picky sometimes.

"Anyways, one day he was there, next day, gone. Minli says she went to look for the guy but he wasn't there. The courts don't know what to make of it. They think Minli's the prime suspect. No one else was around and a lot of people could testify to her seeming less than happy with her post. Problem is, no one can actually prove she got rid of the bastard. The word around the guard is they think she did the poor guy in and ditched the body in the night but who knows. No proof, no blood, no notes, no clues, nothin'. Just gone without a trace. This half elf fella who I've not seen before, name of 'Rho' took the case and got her off on the pure fact that there's no evidence she did it. They didn't totally let her off the hook, though. They let her off with the condition that she's not the responsibility of Rho. They said 'You go with him or come with us.' You can imagine what she picked.

"So, here's where we come in. Sounds like they want to find out what happened to Rockio and could use a hand and I imagine the guys that find out what happened might get a hefty reward, especially if he's alive. I mean, the guy made priceless artwork and was divinely empowered, though if you ask me, I dunno where that went. I think if we help these two, it might just lead to some good stuff, for sure. What do you guys think?"

Eliza and Dirzjra looked at Korban, then each other.

"We have any other contracts?" asked Eliza

"It's bone dry right now."

"Hmm... No reason not to, then, eh? Dirz?"

"Sounds good to me. Should we go find this guy?"

"He's over at the Galleria. Lookin for clues I'm guessin'. Shall we?"

Nothing more needed be said. They three headed out and found Rho and Minli.

"We here you're lookin' for help with your search." said Korban.

"Well well, I do indeed! This troubles me and I'm smelling something here that's not right." Said Rho "I don't know much about the gods but from what Minli here tells me, Barrochio was a special favorite of Folio, the god of art himself. Just disappearing out of nowhere, seems unlikely but all the same, he's not here. Hmmm...."

"Barrochio was a conceited, vain and stuck up snob. To tell the truth, between us, I don't know if I'm so disappointed he's gone... We should look but... well... I don't know. Do you know how long I've been a guard here? For EVER!" She screamed and smashed a sculpture with no discernible form. "The bastard treated me like I was uncultured, and beneath him. He kept me around because he knew that if it came to it, he couldn't defend himself to... well... save his life. I'm not sure what I want to do about all this..."

"Well," said Rho, "I think I've got something here. I knew something smelled odd, just couldn't think of what. Now I'm realizing what it is. It's this energy in the air. When you're around magic, you can sometimes get a sense of electricity in the air when something happens and I've seen this before. Some two-bit wizard I defended a ways back accidentally botched a trick with an assistant. He used portals in the tricks and lets just say his volunteer was none too happy and is sans one foot now. Ah well. She's alive. Anyway, Portals leave this energy behind and that's what I'm getting here. I don't know if he did, but I'm thinking he," and he looked at the group around him, "might have left..."