(split out from original discussion) As we discovered last session, Use the Force has some problems when it gets used against PCs – especially with Move Object. (10+d6 damage? Ouch). What gets me is the weird scaling of these powers. Trained/Skill Focused UTF (which is what any decent Jedi should have) and a 16 Cha goes from +13 at 1st level to +23 at 20th … Continue reading Star Wars – Fixing Use the Force?
Our stop-start Star Wars campaign “Dawn of Defiance” continued last session with my character, Miles, demonstrating that his Persuasion and Deception skills are excellent, especially when backed-up with good roleplaying (woohoo! +15 toeach at 4th level), and Greg’s Jedi and an NPC Jedi demonstrating exactly how broken Use the Force is. It’s really a pity that all the balancing that has gone into 4e hasn’t … Continue reading Star Wars Blues
John Farrell has added me to his page of Extended Stats from Boardgamegeek. It’s a really cool page that has a bunch of stuff, including “Games I should play soon”.Fun list. 🙂 There’s a couple of games there that I’ve actually played recently, but I hadn’t marked them down as played on BGG. Need to do so, I guess. More fun from BGG is the … Continue reading Gaming stuff
In 4e, if the DM wants to have a succubus have the king under her control and rule the kingdom through proxy, the DM can do so, without needing the monster’s statblock in the Monster Manual to back up that decision. From what I can see of 4e, this is a huge shift from earlier thinking of D&D (especially 3e), where every little ability of … Continue reading D&D 4e Monster usage philosophy
JeDi Wiker recently made the point on EN World that he finds the new D&D 4e monster names ((“kobold skirmisher,” “hobgoblin warcaster,” “deathjump spider”) too similar to D&D Miniatures naming conventions, which thus lessens the D&D feel of the game for him. I do think that the CMG and new D&D names are very similar, but I don’t think the design decision was “let’s make them … Continue reading D&D Monster Naming Conventions
At present I have two D&D groups. One is halfway through Savage Tide, the other is moving towards the conclusion of my homebrewed County of Ulek campaign. Most of us are very interested in 4th edition. One “advantage” that I have is that the groups meet every fortnight. Why is this an advantage? Well, if I use published adventures, it gives them a chance to … Continue reading D&D Adventures – What I’m waiting for
In my last article, I discussed how adventuring in a “megadungeon” allows the players to choose their own difficulty level. It’s a very useful style for new DMs and players to use in their initial play of D&D. To a large extent, the megadungeon provides the training wheels of D&D, an environment that allows the players and DM to come to grip with the rules … Continue reading Dungeon Design: Tailored to Distraction
This post is actually a couple of weeks late – we’ve now had two sessions of the Star Wars Saga edition Dawn of Defiance campaign. For those who missed my musings on the character I’m playing, I’m playing a human noble based on Miles Vorkosigan. Of course, as soon as you get me playing a PC, you get lots of elements of my personality rather … Continue reading Star Wars: Dawn of Defiance is underway!
If you want to go back to the purest form of D&D, the form in which it was developed, you need to understand the megadungeon environment and its implications for the game. The design of D&D using the megadungeon made a few assumptions that may be incorrect for the modern game, but the legacy issues are important to know about. Of course, I am speculating … Continue reading D&D: Understanding the Megadungeon
Well, the latest change to 4e is making the rounds of the message boards, and it’s one that will probably be really embraced by my players – especially Bradford. The change I’m talking about is the chance to the movement rules: diagonal squares count as 1 square, rather than the 1-2-1-2 scheme we used in 3.5e. Or rather, I used, for many of my friends … Continue reading Diagonals in D&D 4e
