This week, I’m GotW on RPG Geek. I’ll be answering questions about gaming – mostly my RPG gaming – thoughout the week. The thread is here if you want to visit. It comes as I’ve just finished up P3: Assault on Nightwyrm Fortress with a good session today; the group worked really well together, defeating the foes that were thrown at them. I slightly tinkered … Continue reading RPG Geek of the Week
I know the Essentials isn’t 4.5e… for one thing, the changes should be freely available for those of us with the 4e books (I hope!), but there are a few rules changes coming in those books and the related rules updates. Magic Item Daily Powers Possibly one of best “this is fiddly so we got rid of it” changes is this: Magic Item Daily powers … Continue reading D&D 4E Changes coming with Essentials
GenCon is on this weekend, and by some strange co-incidence, the Call of Cthulhu game I had planned for this weekend won’t be going ahead. So, it looks like a no-roleplaying weekend for me, while a lot happens over in the States. As DaveTheGame said to me on twitter: “There’s only a finite amount of roleplaying in the world, and it’s all being used elsewhere.” … Continue reading No roleplaying, but some BattleLore
I’ve recently been rewriting “MechMaker”, my version of a BattleTech construction program which can do all the maths for making a Mech and then print out a record sheet. The previous version died due to an USB drive crash (for some reason, I didn’t have a recent back-up), and so after a year, I’ve almost finished the new version. Why not use something like Heavy … Continue reading MechMaker Coding Woes
My recent Serenity campaign tossed aside the concept of advancement altogether after a couple of sessions. Why did I do that? Well, largely it was because when I run a skill-based game rather than a level-based game, I find that advancement tends to run very strangely. Then too, the characters are competent enough to do what they needed to do (well, as much as the … Continue reading No advancement – but some for D&D
My RPG book collection isn’t that big. Let’s face it, I mainly just play D&D. This is my D&D collection: From top to bottom you can see… SHELF ONE:* Dungeons and Dragons 3.5e SHELF TWO:* Dungeons and Dragons 4E* Battletech SHELF THREE:* AD&D Rulebooks* AD&D 2nd Edition Rulebooks and supplements* D&D 3rd edition* A very small number of d20 System publications SHELF FOUR:* AD&D 1st … Continue reading Not that many books…
Steven Moffat talking about the 2010 Doctor Who Christmas Special: “Oh, we’re going for broke with this one. It’s all your favourite Christmas movies at once, in an hour, with monsters and the Doctor and a honeymoon and – oh, you’ll see. I’ve honestly never been so excited about writing anything. I was laughing madly as I typed along to Christmas songs in April. My … Continue reading Oh, that Steven Moffat…
I’ve got this sudden desire to run some Traveller. This desire is particularly odd since the last time I played Traveller was back when I was about 13, and that was only for one session in any case. Then I’ve occasionally looked at the rulebooks, but the last time was over a decade ago. In fact, it’s getting closer to two decades. So, why Traveller, … Continue reading Traveller and other games
Well, the latest errata to D&D 4E has come out, and this time it’s targeted Nathaniel: Sorry, Nathaniel – Slashing Wake now only does damage once/turn, not every time you teleport in a turn. Your minion-destroying rounds are now reduced in effectiveness. Mind you, you still kill lots of minions if they’re surrounding you… However, there are some really interesting changes here. The Wizard and … Continue reading Latest D&D 4e errata… some power ups, some nerfs.
The D&D Essentials line will kick off shortly with the release of the Red Box, and Mike Mearls has written an article describing what we can find there. This is D&D 4e trimmed down – somewhat. It’s meant for new players to come into the game, and, from what I’ve read, it seems that some of the more complex areas are getting removed in the … Continue reading Oh my – Wizard encounter powers that deal damage on a miss!
