Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle GenCon Exclusive

If you have not already heard, at this year’s GenCon GaleForce Nine is offering an exclusive book containing some pre-generated characters, and four adventures intended to run you from level 1 to 10, and the winning sheet from the character sheet contest.

Oh, and if you pre-order it you also get a free mini.

A lot of people are understandably miffed that this is going to be a GenCon exclusive. I do not see any reason for it, as people might be able to afford a $30 book, but not the ticket prices, possibly travel fees, and/or the ability to skip out on work for a few days. Really, all GaleForce Nine is doing is missing out on more money.

Though I am interested in the book, as with the aforementioned others I do not live anywhere close to Indiana, and I also cannot afford to set aside time to go. What I am able to do is pay the price of the book, plus shipping and handling, plus something extra for the effort.

So if you are going and do not care one whit about the book, or knows someone that is going that does not care about the book, and want to do me a favor let me know in the comments. Heck, if you want to go and cannot afford to I would even be willing to pay for a one-day badge (which I think is $30-40).

Future of D&D Keynote Speech

For those of you that missed it (which is likely no one), you can watch the entire thing here (skip ahead eight minutes).

There was a bit on art that I liked, and the statement “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” got used, which hopefully will not mean “we are not going to change things, even if we find a better way of illustrating/doing it”. Peter Adkinson–a pretty funny guy–also pitched his web series The First Paladin. Oh yeah, and Ed Greenwood’s voice is pretty bad ass. Like, Morgan Freeman quality. Mearls mentioned that some 75,000 people have participated in the playtest, and provided some examples of how feedback has shaped the playtest thus far (and also said that they go through forums, reddit, and blogs for ideas and additional feedback).

 It was a good watch, but I wanted to write at length on how they were going to handle supported settings, and the pdf backlog.

Since the backlog is the quickest to explain, I will just get it out of the way: In early 2013, WotC is going to re-release the entire backlog of D&D products. All of it, from every edition. Given that Next is not slated for release until sometime in 2014, this could be a nice revenue stream. Not sure if this will a subscription model, of if you will have to buy them individually. I would like to see something like Steam or Barnes & Noble, where you buy them and they become linked to your account. It will not circumvent piracy, but it is low-hassle, which helps.

As for supported settings, they are going to start with Forgotten Realms, as they always do, but are going to put a lot of energy and focus into it so we get something fully fleshed out. Likewise, it will yet again see another big change that Ed assures us will not be another Time of Troubles or Spellplague. It is called the Sundering, which Ed states will “right the realms”. Judging by the name and symbol I take it to mean that they will split Abeir and Toril, which will allow them to fix whatever it is they feel needs fixing. They are also going to launch a six-part novel series starring Drizzt, Elminster, and some others that takes place during this time, though the actual setting will be set in the era that takes place after the event. The idea is that, while Drizzt and Elminster will continue to do their thing, it will be their thing.

They are going to avoid issues of numerous high-powered NPCs and second-fiddle PCs. As part of this philosophy, in 2013 Ed and Salvatore are going to help write two adventures that, depending on the majority feedback, will affect the final product. Some possibilities mentioned were toppling a kingdom, burning Zhentil Keep to the ground, and unleash a horde of demons.

I have not been a fan of the Forgotten Realms since early 3rd Edition, and did not really care about the whole Spellplague controversy. My issues were the massive amount of established history. When planning an adventure, I felt like I had to do a lot of homework to avoid stepping on the “canon”. It is not that I dislike the Realm’s style as a kind of pretty vanilla setting with a lot of renamed real-world cultures. That it fine. My problem is that there is so, so much “official” lore to muddle through, and it creates a pretty high bar of entry.

I loved how Eberron approached things. There are not high-level NPCs, except for a few high-level threats (which tended to cap out at level 16 in 3rd Edition), as well as lots of vague adventure hooks that the writer himself left open to the individual DM to hammer out (like the Dragon Prophecy, the layout of Xen’drik, what caused The Mourning, etc). If the writers give us a word with some history and themes, but largely leave the rest open to the DM to decide, I will be happy.

Regardless, it was stated several times that other settings will get support, including past stuff. While I am also not a Greyhawk fan (having like, never played it), I take it to mean that Planescape, Ravenloft, and Eberron will get support. Heck, might even see some Spelljammer in the mix, which I also never played but always wanted to.

GenCon 2011 Summary

Here is some stuff that I managed to cull from forums that have been heard at GenCon that was not already dropped elsewhere:

Dragon Content

• September and October: Oriental-flavored articles. Specifics mentioned were oriental themes, a ninja-assassin and kanji runepriest build, and an optional honor system in Unearthed Arcana.
• November and December: Support for Heroes of the Feywild. Specifics were fey themes, an article on the Moonshaes, an adventure with Baba Yaga’s dancing hut, and an Unearthed Arcana article on arcane duels.
• January and February: More Forgotten Realms stuff, such as Cormyr, Channel Divinity articles on Forgotten Realms deities, elemental themes, and monsters from Fiend Folio.

Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Emporium

• Older items are supposed to be tagged as per the rarity system.
• No new rituals.

Madness at Gardmore Abbey

• Many encounters are purported to have non-combat options, and it is supposed to have sandbox elements. It was also mentioned that they are moving away from linear adventures. 

Heroes of the Feywild

• Wandering skald, an Essentials-style bard build.
• New druid build.
• Barbarian build that is both a defender and a striker; you start out in defender mode, but when you rage transition to striker.
• Character themes mentioned were agent of the unseelie fey and fey lord, the latter of which gives you a permanent companion character.
• Races mention were dryad, satyr, and pixie (which can fly at 1st-level).
• Supported with D&D Encounters season Beyond the Crystal Cave (supposed to have lots of social roleplaying) and Fortune Card set Fury of the Feywild.

Power of the Plane Below

• Essentials sorcerer build.
• Shaiir build.
• Supported by D&D Encounters season Elder Elemental Eye (focus on exploration) and Fortune Card set Spiral of Tharizdun.

Miscellaneous

• September’s Lair Assault is called Forge of the Dawn Titan. The DM will have a menu of monsters to choose from, and it is supposed to be highly adversarial. The next adventure is pirate themed, and in the third you defend and island from dinosaurs.
• Lords of Waterdeep boardgame in March, which will involve sending adventurers on quests to try and rule the city.
• New Dungeon Tiles sets: Shadowgast Manor (haunted house theme) and Cathedral of Chaos (with diagonal corridors).
• A new map pack product was announced, and will be priced the same as Dungeon Tiles.
• Book of Vile Darkness is supposed to “allow” for evil campaigns, but not be as “bad” as the 3rd Edition one.
• In April there will be an Undermountain dungeon crawl adventure with 80 encounter areas, a dungeon generator, plot hooks, and a big-ass poster map.
• The seeker was mentioned as not being played very much at all, so they are thinking of changing it up to make it better. 
• Pdf book releases are being considered (working on pricing).
• Eberron themes planned.
• Themed minis sets will be announced next year, along with a minis boardgame that uses them.

GenCon Announcements

A lot of stuff rolled out at GenCon this year. They opened up with the announcements by mentioned stuff that was already released before moving on to the new stuff (as well as “super secret stuff!”). I’m going to skip all that and move to the new releases.

Now, we already know a lot about The Essentials, and the “Red Box” releases next month along with Rules Compendium, Dungeon Tiles Master Set: The Dungeon, and Lords of Madness. Rules Compendium is going to be a 6″ x 9″ soft-cover book that will have all the current rules updates, while Lords of Madness is a DDM expansion that I will be pre-ordering an entire case of.

In October we’ll get the next Essentials product, Dungeon Master’s Kit, which has a starter adventure (of course) and monster tokens. I’m curious if they will start releasing token packs instead of minis, which would be easier to carry and cheaper to produce. We’d also be able to quickly get tokens of all the monsters from the game instead of waiting for them to make specific models. On the downside, I do like being able to freak out my players with a sense of scale. Additionally (and more importantly to me), there’s Gamma World. I never played it in the past, but I did play Rifts (which sucks ass), and Gamma World looks like a funner romp in a post-apocalyptic world. As has been said in the past, chargen is purportedly random and faster, with mutations being presented as randomly drawn cards (including card booster packs to be released later).

Two Essentials products debut in November: Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms and Monster Vault (which I guess is a boxed set that also includes tokens). There’s a Dungeon Tiles set cleverly named Dungeon Tiles Master Set: The City that I’ll by a few of and shelve, a beholder minis set that has four beholders (sold as a limited quantity deal, so I need to snag two of them), and a Gamma World expansion: Famine in Far-go. According to the product catalog, it’s a 160-page adventure with new mutants, monster tokens, and a fold-out map.

Finally, at the end of the year we’ll get Dungeon Tiles Master Set: The Wilderness. Yawn.

Aaaand in a similar vein, next year starts off pretty sparse as far as I’m concerned: Dungeon Tiles: Caverns of Icewind Dale is one of two products that interests me, and only because I don’t have ice Dungeon Tiles. Double-yawn.

I’m really excited for February because of Deluxe Dungeon Master’s Screen. Deluxe Dungeon Master’s Screen will sport badass Wayne Reynold’s art and (hopefully) accurate tables. There’s some of other stuff, too: Gazetteer: Nentir Vale is, like Rules Compendium, another 6″ by 9″ softcover that details (dun dun duuun!) the Nentir Vale. If it’s good I might actually want to run adventures there. Legion of Gold is the second Gamma World adventure (more tokens and another map, of course). Good month.

The last mentioned product that’s also on the catalog is Heroes of Shadow, which will be about more than just races and classes that hinge on the shadow power source (though the hexblade and necromancer are in there): you’ll be able to give new and existing characters a shot at tossing around some shadow-goodness. In other words, its designed to, “appeal to lots of players,” and I fully endorse that movement. 

After that it’s kind of a crap shoot as to when other mentioned products are coming out.

• Fortune Cards are for groups that want to inject more randomness into their games in a similar manner to mutations from Gamma World, just without the added side-effect of permanently mutating your character. I’m envisioning them possibly akin to all those bullshit critical fumble/critical hit charts from older editions (just without the bullshit). It’s slated for 1st Quarter, but not mentioned in the catalog.
• Mordenkainen’s Magical Emporium will be another magic item book, except that it will have lots of story elements for each item and will list items with their rarities. I guess common and uncommon items can be purchased and made by characters, but rares can’t. At least they won’t be sold in boosters.
• Shadowfell: Gloomwrought and Beyond is the next of the planar books, except that it will also have a “Despair Deck” that lets the DM afflict the characters with various mechanical and roleplaying effects while they’re touring around the place.
• Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale is a “monster book” that comes with tokens and poster maps. Nifty.
• Conquest of Nerath is a strategy wargame, board…game, that is similar to Risk or Axis & Allies taking place on the ruined kingdom of Nerath. This, along with the Castle Ravenloft board game will give my group some more things to do instead of delves on nights when no one feels like running, or when we’re missing a player or three. I recently got Liz into Inn-Fighting as a short analog game to play while we watch TV or need to kill some time, so I got high hopes. Also curious to see what Nerath looks/looked like.
• Player’s Handbook: Champions of the Heroic Tier will introduce (among other things) themes for core D&D, so you can get your theme on outside of Athas, in addition to new options, feats, and “non-combat options” that I guess will be like professions but wont cost you anything to pick up. One of the non-combat options has been stated multiple times is the blacksmith.
• Neverwinter Campaign Guide is for Forgotten Realms, so the only reason I care is the bladesinger class.
• Hero’s Builder Handbook is for players that want to heavily emphasize a concept. I love building characters around a concept, so am looking forward to what this will bring to the table.
• Madness of Gardmore Abbey is a super-adventure that’s build around a scattered deck of many things that will come with a deck in the box.
• Ravenloft Roleplaying Game slated for release in the fourth quarter of the year. It’s designed to be stand-alone, yet compatible with the rest of D&D (whew!) that let’s players play werewolves, vampires, and other monsters. Like Dark Sun and Gamma World, I’m looking forward to running a game with an officially made, updated setting.