PAX East 2012 DM Challange

Pregame setup

PAX East 2012 has come and gone in a whirlwind of activity. Among my favorite events this year, as was last year, was WotC's DM Challenge. Although I found many of the same troubles and frustrations as before, this time around proved to be at least a little more fruitful, in no small part to hard work done at Dungeon Oracle.

Halt, human female!

Normally, I never bother to fully read the adventures that come out of Dungeon Magazine (call it DDi if you really must). As a whole, they're insipid, uninspired and worthless. My usual modus operandi with these sorts of things is to simply skim the article in question for anything useful for me to use in my home game, generally technical or crunch material, and then just ignore all the drivel and fluff surrounding it. I don't mind flavor text, fluff pieces, and the like. But for the overwhelming majority of DDi content, that aspect of the articles is simply not very good so I ignore it.

Today was a little different. Today I took the time, slowed myself down a bit, and decided I would really sink my teeth into an article. In my list of PDFs to get around to reading I still had an epic tier adventure, Flame's Last Flicker, by Shawn Merwin. This adventure was hyped up quite a bit, with a Design & Development article preceding it, and the adventure itself being a sequel of sorts to a verified classic Dungeon adventure about as historic as they come.

By Page 3, however, I was already sorely disappointed. Again. The writing in this is simply terrible. I haven't even had time to absorb the linear plot or stale, safe, by-the-numbers combat encounters. No, this was some froo-froo roleplaying bullshit that tanked it for me. The following line is what really grinds my gears, something that many D&D authors throw into their writing that is one of my pet peeves (emphasis mine):

"Amid the destruction lies the crumpled form of a human female in plate armor."

Human female? Is that how the author describes a woman? Who the fuck talks like that? "Hey guys, let's go down to the bars and see if we can pickup some females!" It's as though the author was an alien zoologist studying human beings from afar, never having actually interacted with them, and now must describe them in detail.

Some may say I'm being too harsh and judgmental, that I'm kind of an asshole who tramples on a lot of people's D&D picnics. This is just throw away fluff text, right?

Well, fuck you, I demand better. The authors of these articles get paid, not a lot by any stretch of the imagination, but pretty good compared to the writing industry at large. I would think that a paid author would know better than to write something so boring, dry, and technical. This also isn't just throw away text that doesn't matter. This is, by the adventure's own description, part of the first paragraph of text the players will ever hear at the table. This is the adventure's first and thus most important impression, and the author sets the tone to that of a car alarm installation guide.

Add Mystery in Your Dungeon

Just the other day I had the great pleasure of playing in a game of D&D, as a player, and having an amazingly fun time. If you're the kind of person who spends their free time looking through the internet to read obscure D&D blogs like DMG 42, then you're probably like me and don't often get the opportunity to be on that side of the screen. So, you understand well what an opportunity it was just for me to be in that seat. The campaign I'm in is set in Dark Sun and we're almost out of Heroic Tier. I've only been involved with the group for a short while, I'm really just filling in for a missing player that had to be out of town for a few months, so I don't know a lot of the background or story details. Although, honestly, I don't very much care to know the story details.

One of the other players, surprisingly not myself, had privately mentioned to the Dungeon Master that they would appreciate a little more challenge. A little more Fourthcore, if you will. The player, Matt, has quite a mastery of the 4E system, he's a "min/maxer" type with a reputation for simply annihilating standard issue combat encounters with ease. It's quite something to watch, really. He goes by Bohrdumb on the Fourthcore Team Deathmatch Play-by-Posts and the WotC boards, for those who care. Thankfully, our Dungeon Master happily obliged. This is something that shouldn't just be glanced past. It takes a little bit of guts to do something like this, from both the player and Dungeon Master. Both are making the game more stressful, more thoughtful, and less reliant on easily obtained DDi adventures. Things go out on a limb, things go past the prescribed ways to setup combat encounters. Of course, this is done because things also get fun!

Up On A Soapbox - Apathy

Apathy runs rampant in my generation, and especially among gamers. It sickens me.
How often do you talk with someone and they describe their feelings as "meh"? A lot, right? Meh is worse than a negative feeling. Meh is boring, and boring is the absolute last thing I want creeping into my game. I'm going to guess that I'm not alone in this regard. This  kind of non-comittal attitude permeates far too much in our dealings, and intrudes far too rudely into the RPG world.

Rule #7: The skill challenge goes on as long as it has to.

Fight Club (1999)

The 7th Rule of Skill Challenges is the same as that of Fight Club: it goes on as long as it has to. I'm talking specifically about the Complexity of a skill challenge, the number of successes that it takes to win.

Many of you are doing your skill challenges wrong. Bad fun wrong. This can be easily felt at the game table as a wooden, forced experience during skill challenges. Internet trolls and the haters on forums love to bash 4E's skill challenge system because of this feeling of artificial construction that so often rears its ugly head.

The subject of improving skill challenges has been gone over extensively the last few years. There's a lot of great information and advice out there, and that should certainly be taken in. The Trump/Fold mechanic of Fourthcore (as shown in adventures S1: RotIL and C1: CotG) springs to mind as a great addition to any skill challenge. This post, however, aims to change a more fundamental aspect of how skill challenges should be presented and run at the table.

4E Modern - Experts

4E Modern - The Complete Series

During my Modern campaigns, I've consistently run into a category of player I like to refer to as an Expert. Experts can take a variety of forms, and have both positive and negative impacts to be wary of. A shrewd Game Master would be wise to look for the signs of The Expert(s) in her group, identify what type of Expert is at work, and use that information to enhance the campaign.

A common problem that plagues many Modern campaigns is the too-strict adherance to the functionality and practicality of the real world. It's very easy to fall into this trap, playing in a Modern campaign by its very nature leads to all sorts of implied assumpptions that only seem reasonable at the time. However, the Game Master must always be careful not to let too much of reality into her campaign. Why? Because reality sucks.

4E Modern: Vehicles & Chase Scenes

rendering of what Baltimore will look like in about 24 hours

Most of my readers are probably blissfully unaware; but now, right now, downtown Baltimore has been transformed into a Grand Prix race track. Yes, I'm serious! It is then only fitting that I delve into the last major piece of 4E Modern: Vehicles & Chase Scenes.

4E Modern – Mundane Equipment

Heroes in the modern world typically have access to a wealth of readily available goods and services that are unavailable to their medieval fantasy and post apocalyptic counterparts. Instead of random rolls on a the ancient junk table, Heroes in 4E Modern are able to take the maximum result (1d4+1) or the mundane items roll, and shop for what items they wish, in addition to picking out mundane armor and weaponry. In a modern industrialized world, characters can choose to buy literally anything they need for their current assignment. Anything prohibitively expensive (such as a car), or restricted by military licensing (such as a grenade), however, must be bought with a Wealth Roll. Wealth Rolls will be covered in a later post and are related to Omega Tech. Ammunition, gas, food, travelling expenses, etc. are not tracked and are assumed to be bought and taken care of “off-screen”, unless it is significant to the story.

Weapons

Gamma World provides a great framework with which to base weapons off of. For a modern game, however, I thought a lot could be gained by providing more granularity here, although keeping far far clear of the kind of pointless detail that d20 Modern, and to a much greater extent Weapons Locker, provided. I split up each generalized category of basic weapon into three different components. I then fiddled around with the proficiency bonuses and damage types to give a bit of range and interesting choices to make for the players involved. Lastly, I chose different ‘Ammo’ effects based on the ammo rules, which really opened up a lot of possibilities and variance amongst the weapons, while at the same time satisfying the immersive aspects of having weapons act as the would in real life (or at least Hollywood). For example, assault rifles tend to have area burst ammo effects, in line with the autofire option of d20 Modern; whereas shotguns attack in a close blast.

You’ll notice many staple armaments, fragmentation grenades for example, are noticeably missing. They will be covered later as I have moved consumable items into the Omega Tech category.

4e Modern – Origins

Rewriting Gamma World Origins was conceptually the easiest part of this project for me, the generic class system of d20 Modern meshes pretty well with the Gamma World framework, however it required quite a bit of effort just due to sheer volume. Doing the final layout with the original artwork was pretty rewarding for me, as seeing all those old images brought back some nostalgia for me from the last decade.

For those of you not in the know, Origins represent your core background, training, and party role and fill in the same function as classes do in 4^th Edition D&D. 4E Modern Origins function identically to Gamma World Origins, except that all Origins are chosen by the player. Each player chooses two different Origins for their character, gaining the benefits of both. Some Origins, such as "Gunslinger", imply a specific skill-set whereas other Origins, such as "Fast", imply only a generic descriptor and leave all the details up to you.

4E Modern Origins do not provide a bonus to any skills or overcharge. Skills in 4E Modern are identical to those in Gamma World, however, each character simply chooses any three skills to receive a +4 bonus in. Overcharge has been removed from 4E Modern Omega Tech.

Here’s everything in one convenient PDF!

4E Modern – Basic Rules Changes

To facilitate the style of game I want to play, I've incorporated a number of changes into the base Gamma World system. As with any kind of House Rule, care has been taken such that rules are not added in unnecessarily. Each new House Rule adds its own bit of complexity, coming in with a certain amount of negative impact to the game just by being there, by being a potential source of confusion and one more link in the chain that could break and send the whole system crashing.

4E Modern – A Sorbet (Introduction)

from planetmartha.blogspot.com

In elite culinary circles, a sorbet is often used in between courses of a meal to cleanse the palate of any lingering flavors. Sorbet is so often used because of its sweetness, its tartness, its lack of being a substantial meal. It is a brief, mindless indulgence. The tongue is cleared and ready for a fresh start of the next course’s flavors. When indulging in a certain dish, say a fatty duck or a salty soup, one’s senses can become accustomed and dulled by the relentless assault of that courses flavor, muddying the waters of subsequent courses. When one enjoys a high quality meal, it is not mere sustenance that one is seeking. It is to experience all of the subtle sensory nuances that can be had, to enjoy the food to its fullest extent.

So, too, are our role-playing games; namely Dungeons & Dragons. My thinking about D&D has become quite saturated and a little stale. My creativity has been sapped, and I’m burned out. The chaos surrounding GenCon certainly didn't help. It happens to everyone eventually, really. To help cleanse my palate, I chose a game both dear to my heart, and also containing the same visceral qualities as a delicious sorbet. I chose d20 Modern, produced by WotC back in ’02. Being very familiar with the rules, and not content with a great many of its minutia, I chose to create a Modern day, action-adventure role playing game built on the 4th Edition/Gamma World chassis. All this, in the end, I do to make my D&D game that much better when I inevitably return to it. I'll have a fresh palate, ready to savor the new tastes coming in.

Behold, the fruits of my labor! My most verbose blog post to date.

PAX East DM's Challenge: The Adventure

from http://www.jengajam.net/2010/03/157-d-and-pax-east-preview.html

UPDATE! I fixed the links.

This past weekend, I attending the mega gaming convention: PAX East. I signed up to run quite a few delves for WotC, and in doing so met a lot of really cool people. One of those events was the PAX East DM's Challenge. I've wrote about it before, which you can see here and here. The game was a ton of fun, I felt like I had a great group, and it was well-received. The following are my thoughts on the whole matter, the adventure itself, as well as what I'm planning for the future.

(A note to my regular players: Do not read this until we’re done with ‘Iron Lich!)

PAX East Dungeon Master's Challange PreGens

from saundby.com

PAX East is barreling down on me ... fast! I feel like I'm under considerable pressure, and for me , that helps kick my creative juices into high gear. I work great under pressure. The largest threat looming on my mind is the DM's Challenge. However, today I've crossed off a considerable hurdle: pre-generated character sheets.

Revenge of the Iron Lich / PAX East

I've been totally blown away this week, overwhelmed, by the Revenge of the Iron Lich fourthcore adventure put out this week by Save Versus Death. It is all-encompassing, so much so, that I had to add in a little bit of something ... here.

On a related note, I'll be the Dungeon Master to at least one group of dungeoneers attempting to plumb the utter depths of darkness and despait of the Iron Lich at PAX East (March 11-13, Boston). Get in touch with me if you'll be there and want to sign up, I'm taking names!

And related to that, I got an email last night from WotC's RPGA Manager, Willi, reminding me that I had signed up for the PAX East DM's Challenge and telling me of the details of said challenge.

Wow, talk about a wake up call!

I had not spent one iota of thought on that thing, and now I need to design the best adventure (and related pre-gen PCs) of my life, competing with other DM's from around the country. I can't just crap out a quickie delve and be done with it. This thing has to be good. Good as hell. The theme is a "dragon BBEG and its lair". I plan to have a lot of tricks and surprises for the players. I plan on breaking the standard Encounter mold. I hope I didn't bite off more than I can chew.

If only the theme was "Artificer-Lich"!

I'll be posting all my notes and pregens after I get back from PAX East. Hopefully, it will be something I can be proud of.

I hate this guy.

One of my regular D&D game sessions (alternate Tuesday nights) is coming to an end. Like most groups that dissolve, we have a key player that is going to have to drop out of gaming for an extended period of time due to life changes. It's sad, but the changes are a very positive development for him, so pretty happy at the same time.

With this in mind, I went out to the forums of the internets in search of a new gaming group to join up with soon. I'm getting a little burned out with DMing one and a half sessions per week, so I really wanted to sit back, relax, and be a player for a little while. During my search, heres a post I found on a popular site used to find RPG players and groups:

I'm looking for a first edition AD&D game that could use another player. It's been a while since I rolled dice in anger, and I am itching to get involved again. I could even DM if there's enough interest, but I'm a little rusty. Don't be too surprised if it takes a session or two for me to get back up to speed.

I fucking hate this guy. He embodies so many of the bad habits and poor attitudes that make me consider throwing out all my dice, books, and minis and forsaking this social hellhole of a hobby.

Let me break it down, point-by-point:

+ You're looking for a specific style of a specific genre of a specific niche of a relatively little-known hobby. AD&D 1st Edition? Are you fucking with me? Because there are only about, I don't know, 0.0001% of the people in the world who even know what the fuck that is.

+ Here's my biggest peeve, this is a guy posting to the world that he is ready to joing a group. Newsflash, asshole, the whole world was not waiting with baited breath for your stunning announcement that you would do humanity a favor, come out of your mother's basement, and roll some dice with us. Jesus Mary and fucking Joseph. This is a word of warning to all you D&D gamers out there: if you really want to play a game, but no one is running a game, RUN YOUR OWN FUCKING GAME.

+ He does say that he'd be willing to DM. This very passive statement isn't great, although it bears noting that this guy ins't a complete toolbag.

+ Oh yeah, a caveat: this guy sucks at the rules for the game he's insisting on playing!


D&D is a social game, and you need to bring something to the table each and every session. Find something you're good at, something that people enjoy. Being great at the rules, easy to get along with, providing extra snacks/sodas, telling funny yet appropriate jokes, being a good host, being the goddamn DM, buying minis, having extras dice and pencils, printing character sheets and helping the DM with printing, buying supplements books. You get the idea, there's a lot you can be good at. Pick one.

Also, be accomodating. Don't close off yourself to a particular system or game element or way of playing just because you're a little unfamiliar. Embrace the new, or in some cases, the retro.

Lastly, take the bull by the horns. In fact, in every aspect of your life, D&D especially, stop being such a passive observer and get in there and do something. Make it happen, don't wait for change to stumble into you. Have the attitude of a heroic adventurer instead of a fucking ponce.