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.

August and Beyond

Only one month down the road?

Despite my vehement apathy towards Forgotten Realms, I am ironically kind of looking forward to Neverwinter Campaign Setting, as I could see myself doing a short heroic tier campaign arc there depending on how accessible it is. I find it interesting that while the red wizard theme is intended for mages, the level 5 feature could be easily houseruled to apply to specific spells that the DM and player agree on, or even spells with a certain keyword (effectively mimicking what it already does). The rest of the stuff just swaps out Apprentice Mage and Expert Mage features, so it is not like they lose anything, there. If nothing else there is always the bladesinger class, which if replaced with swordmage is my attitude towards Forgotten Realms Player’s Guide.

Though Madness at Gardmore Abbey looks fun–especially considering how it is centered around the Deck of Many Things–my weekday group is not normally up for starting mid-tier for short-term adventure arcs, so this might be something I run with my weekend group, but will probably end up collecting dust next to Tomb of Horrors. Of course I recently tried running Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, so maybe in five years I’ll get around to it.

Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Emporium is the leading contender for Product I Am Mostly Likely To Actually Use. More magic items are always nice, I suppose, but this book purports to add more superior weapons, mundane gear, henchmen, hirelings, and cursed items, the last of which most of this preview is actually devoted to. Cursed items function normally until the curse is triggered, can have the curse removed by fulfilling some sort of requirement, or can be disenchanted for half price. I do not really like being able to make a simple Arcana check to strip a curse, but could see a ritual being used to fix it (though I prefer the quest/task method).

January and Beyond

There’s really nothing coming out in January besides more Dungeon Tiles, and despite having a four-product lineup next month we only get previews for two—Legion of Gold and those fortune cards that everyone’s bitching about–and Heroes of Shadow (which sucks because I was hoping to see what the new DM screen looked like on the inside).


Legion of Gold
Legion of Gold is another Gamma World expansion that adds the usual content mix–new origins, monsters with their respective tokens, some information on new regions, and an adventure–but like Famine at Far-go also adds some new rules by way of vocations.

Vocations are kind of like a poor man’s theme from Dark Sun, telling you what your character does for a living. Unlike themes they grant you minor benefits starting at level 4, which are kind of like underpowered D&D feats. Bounty hunter is one example, giving you the ability to knock a target prone that you have combat advantage against at level 4, gain a +2 damage hunter’s quarry feature at level 7, and roll initiative twice at level 10. If you want, at level 7 you can opt to pick up a new vocation’s feat instead of gaining the second one from your current vocation, and at level 10 you can either gain the first feat from a third vocation, or gain the second from one you already have.

Also previewed are two of the origins: photonic and vampiric.

Photonics are Intelligence (Dark), gain a bonus to Science, AC, and Reflex, have resist 10 laser, and when they crit grant temp hp to allies. Their novice attack is a ranged attack that deals force damage, pushses the target, and grants a defense bonus to an ally. Their utility grants temp hp to themselves or an ally, and boosts hit points on a second wind if its used before your next turn ends. Finally, their expert attack conjures a wall that damages adjacent enemies, lets allies through, and protects your allies if they are attacked.

Vampirics are Charisma (Psi), gain a bonus to Interaction and all defenses. When they crit, they deal extra damage and gain combat advantage against the target. Their novice attack is an area burst that deals psychic damage, slows, and imposes a Will penalty. If you kill or bloody a target? You gain temp hps. The utility grants you temp hp, a bonus to Speed and Reflex, and causes you to daze targets you hit for a turn. Finally, the expert attack lets you dominate a target and deal ongoing psychic damage once they save.

Fortune Cards: Shadow Over Nentir Vale
Fortune Cards get further exposition, and might seem to reek of a bit more power creep that I’d previously thought because you are limited to using one per round as opposed to encounter. See, I’d been basing them off of Alpha mutation cards, which are harder to grind through. With these, you draw one when combat starts, swap it or keep it when the round starts if you haven’t already used one, or draw a new one if you’ve played one already. The previewed common lets you omit a target from an AoE attack, while the uncommon lakes you take one for the team, and the rare grants you a free reroll.

In light of the fact that players can now throw down randomized situational benefits constantly, I’m going to have to give these more consideration…or draw one for myself. Though I wished Fortune Cards weren’t just about giving players bonuses without any drawbacks (except monetary), this might be a good compromise: I get to draw a card and apply it to any one of my own monsters.

Player’s Option: Heroes of Shadow
On an ironically brighter note, Heroes of Shadow looks to have a lot to offer: assassins, paladins, warlocks, new options for clerics, warlocks, and wizards, a vampire class, and the revenant, shade, and vryloka races. Its unfortunate that we’re getting the assassin and not executioner, as I greatly prefer the latter. At any rate from the sounds of things this book will offer a mixed bag of content, as some of it will use the Essentials progression, but some won’t. In a reasonable world, this would help put to rest whether Essentials is the “new” D&D (or compatible, or better supported, or whatever).

Not much is said about vryloka, except that they’re an “ancient human race” that have been infected by vampirism. Hopefully they get better support than the dhampyr. I do find it interesting that WotC is making a vampire class. While I’m not a fan of how monsters-as-PCs was handled in 3rd Edition, I’m confident that it’ll turn out a lot better.

Now, shades are featured. They’re humans who trade part of their souls for slivers of Shadowfell-stuff, kind of like how the assassin class works, only they don’t get to form shadows into nooses or conjure fog. Instead, in exchange for a healing surge and their natural origin they get a bonus to Charisma and either Dexterity or Intelligence, darkvision, a bonus to Arcana and Stealth (plus free Stealth training), can opt to swap out utilities from their class for more shadow-powers, and the one with shadow racial power (an at-will that grants concealment and lets them use Stealth even from behind allies). Not a bad deal, I’d say.

A trio of their exchangeable racial utilities are also previewed: fleeting shade is a level 2 encounter that turns you invisible, but only until the end of your turn. On the plus side, you get a +5 bonus to Stealth until the end of your next turn. Twilight torch is a level 6 at-will that lets you create dim light around you, but it only lasts for one turn. Finally, shadow monsters is a level 10 daily that lets you summon a quartet of, well, shadow monsters that impose attack penalties to adjacent enemies, and also deal necrotic damage if they end their turn next to one or move through them.

Previews for December and Beyond

The previews open up with a reskin of the dehydrated man that you might have gotten from Gamma World Game Day–which I did not. It does basically the same thing, but gives bonuses to other skills.

Next month there’s Caverns of Icewind Dale, a winter-themed Dungeon Tile set. I’ve already got a lot of tiles, but I like the boxes that they’re coming in: easier to sort through them all for something I need.

Also next month, Dragon will feature a Channel Divinity article for Vecna. I’m glad to see that they are doing evil deities, as I’d like some more support with my tiefling paladin of Asmodeus. The feat Command Undead is previewed, which grants you a +1 to all knowledge skill checks and replaces turn undead with command undead. The feat power targets all undead in a Close burst 2 and targets Will. On a hit, you slide the targets, immobilize them, and cause them to deal necrotic damage to enemies adjacent to them. On a miss it instead dazes the undead. So, something either way.

Both the new Dungeon Master’s Screen and Legion of Gold debut in February. Here’s a shot of the screen:

Legion of Gold will–of course–add new origins, including demon, vampiric, and octopoid. Shit yes. During my dark times of playing Rifts, I really dug Splynn Dimensional Market, which had an octoman race that looked badass. If nothing else, there ya go for those wondering how to make the octopus-chick on the Gamma World box. There’s also options for vocations, such as soldier of fortune, mad scientist, and bounty hunter.

For monsters, we’re going to get more cyborgs, haunts, robots, saurians, and the lornak (a giant land squid). Never played any of the older Gamma World editions, so I don’t know if they are throwbacks from an older age.

As for the adventure…well, you start on Gamma Terra, but at some point its bang, zoom, right to the moon. It’s both habited and hospitable, assuming you don’t count all the monsters that dwell within crystalline ruins, wrecked habitation domes, and “forests of weird plants”. Characters start at levels 6 or 7, and should end up at 9 or 10, so combined with previous adventures it would be a simple task of getting from 1 to 10.

The preview for Heroes of Shadow, which comes out in March, gets quite a bit of coverage. The bit on Shadow Magic assures us that, despite all the villainous cliches that typically wield it, its not evil, just easier to get ahold of. Of course, they then preview some flavor text for the new paladin build: the blackguard.

In 3rd Edition, blackguards were a prestige class designed to emulate a fallen paladin. Sith Blackguards are no different, described as shadow warriors that focus divine power through a dark vice or dark emotion, cultivating dominance and fury to fuel their might. “Heroic” blackguards, on the other hand, stem from paladins who tried to exemplify a virtue, but were unable to control their anger (or some other emotion).

Necromancy and nethermancy will also be presented as two new magic schools. Necromancy seems to be more about animating physical undead, while nethermancy focuses more on spirits and ghosts. The spell summon shadow servant is featured, allowing you to conjure up a shadow skeleton (Necromancy) or shadow beast (Nethermancy). 

July And Beyond

Its a good thing I’m out of school, because the next few months have a lot of shit coming out.

July sees the release of a novel I wont read, Demonomicon, and Tomb of Horrors. I intend on getting a copy of the latter two, but will unfortunately likely only use the last (anytime soon, anyway). I’ve never played Tomb of Horrors with the exception of a half-hearted attempt in 3rd Edition, which resulted in a clutch of exalted half-dragon kobold monks getting trapped in the first goddamned room. Of course, that was back in the day when mechanics existed that would randomly force a reset, so we’ll see how 4E actually, you know, legitimately challenges players.

August is also a big month: both Dark Sun books (instead of one, as it was for Forgotten Realms and Eberron), the Dark Sun adventure Marauders on the Dune Sea, and Psionic Power. Dark Sun by itself is already more than enough badass for the entire month. In addition to it being a very far stretch from your typical fantasy setting, we’ll also get the rules on themes. I generally always build characters around a cohesive theme, such as a wizard with mostly fire-keyword spells, or a minotaur with a lot of charging/mobility exploits, but themes give you a granted power as well as serve as prereqs for certain feats and paragon paths. What with all the existing stuff I’m curious (but confident in R&D’s capabilities) as to how it will work out.

There’s a small chunk of preview info for Psionic Power: a level 29 psionic attack called ravenous singularity, a level 11 attack for the alienist paragon path (GLEE!) called far realm gift, and some features of the grandmaster of flowers epic destiny. While the name probably wont strike fear into anyone without allergies, it does have a lot of movement kickers (never provoke opportunity attacks, and you can move your full speed whenever you are allowed to shift).

Oooh, another minis expansion in September? And its called Lords of Madness? Sounds like I got a good starting date for my Eberron campaign.

Previews for April and Beyond

Like, next week Arcane Power is coming out, but that wont stop Wizards from dropping a preview for a pair of magical tomes to get me even more worked up to the point where I want to abandon my dwarf shaman in favor of anything-that-is-a-wizard. I already like the new summoning rules, and it looks like a tome wizard is going to be the build of choice: tome of binding lets you add your Con modifier to damage when the summoned creature attacks.
Plus, magic tomes let you augment your summons even further. The tome of forty steps auto-boosts your summon’s Speed, but you can also burn an item daily to get an extra move action. This is likely the tip of the iceberg, and I’m eager to see whatever nifty bonuses tomes can roll onto summons.

Tomes arent just for summoners, however. Tome of readiness lets you store a wizard attack power that you can swap out once per encounter, and the book of undeniable fire looks great for fire-using wizards (as if they dont get enough love with Hellfire Blood and Irresistible Flame). Its logical since last time I saw fire ranked up at the top for “monsters that resist/or are immune to me”. The book reduces fire resistance by 10, up to 30, and contains extra fire-themed wizard spells that you can to your existing spellbook. The main benefit of this, however, is that you can burn an item daily to swap out one of your prepared wizard spells for whatever one is in the book of an equal or lower level. Its even more versatility on-the-fly.

Other than that there are a couple of epic-tier adventures that I dont care about since I’m not high enough level to use them, and a few previews for Arcane Heroes and Monster Manual 2. I dont care for the bonded summoner reprint, mostly cause I dont like yellow, but the other two look alright to me. I like the “normal” green slime (as in, not an elite or solo), and I plan to drop a couple of those into my first few heroic adventures for my group when I start Songs of Erui, mostly because most of my group will have no fucking clue what they are.