Numenera: A Glimpse of the Ninth World

“I am a satisfied backer who enjoys running Numenera.”

HELLO NINTH WORLD

Its got monoliths.

Given how critical I was about Monte Cook’s rules proposals for Dungeons & Dragons Next I am not sure exactly why I backed Numenera. Maybe it was the pitch of a world that exists impossibly far in the future, or maybe it was because he worked on Planescape, one of my favorite Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings of all time. Maybe I just had a good feeling? At this point, over a year later, I could not tell you.  At any rate I even went so far as to pick a backer level that gave me access to playtest rules, and though I never got a chance to run a game I was surprised at how mostly simple the game was.

From what I can tell aside from extensive portions of flavor material and art, the game has not changed much from playtest to publication (which kind of made things worse because I kept thinking that I was mis-remembering a rule from the playtest packet): characters are built like you are filling out a mad-libs: [name] is a [descriptor] [type] that [focus], there are only three “classes”, three stats, six “levels”, weapons and armor come in three types, task resolution involves a d20 roll with maybe a small bonus, players always roll the dice, and even spending points from stat pools to modify the difficulty of a task is pretty straightforward once you do it a few times.

EXPLORING THE NINTH WORLD…

…is awesome.

Numenera takes place on Earth a billion years in the future that somehow still exists. In that time eight previous “worlds” have come and gone, leaving behind remnants of their existence. While previous worlds were said to have flourished, this one is built upon the ruins of the past, and that is kind of the style of Numenera: discovering the history and wonders of the previous worlds.

While a lot of fantasy settings feature some previous golden age, Numenera is different in that there are at least eight, and that the world is both a product of technology and saturated in it: not only has the ground been process, reshaped, and re-processed, but the very air is filled with countless nanites (which is how nanos use their “magic”).

Thankfully there are several chapters that give you an overview of the Ninth World and its people, about one-hundred pages of a closer look at one region of the world, adventure writing, advice on running the game, ways to shake up the overall feel of the Ninth World to better suit your preferences and style (including my personal favorite, weird horror), and dealing with technological types (nanotech, machines, genetics, etc).

If you still need some help or inspiration, page 402 has a list of nonfiction, fiction, and movies–including Adventure Time, The Fifth Element, and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind–to get you going.

SURVIVING THE NINTH WORLD
Let us talk task resolution. As I said above in this game players always roll the dice, and it is always a d20: whenever you want to try something the GM assigns a Task Difficulty (TD) from 0 (automatic success) to 10 (impossible in almost every instance), which you multiply by three to get your Target Number (TN), and try to meet or beat that on a roll. So if you try to bash open a wooden door (TD 2), then you have to roll a 6+ in order to succeed. There are a variety of ways to gain a bonus/reduce the TD, such as by spending points from your stat pools (I will get to this in a bit), skill training/specialization, and/or devices.

This is how everything in the game works, whether you are trying to talk down the price of some supplies, sneak past someone, discern what a numenera can do, climb the fallen crystals in the Cloudcrystal Skyfields, dive out of the way of a callerail’s crushing fist, outrun a raging jirasker, skewer a broken hound with your spear, and so on. I like it because it is simple, straightforward, consistent, and I think players will like getting to manage their stat pools as they try to figure out how much they want to hedge their bets.

While initally I was put off by the whole “pick a number, times it by three, and roll against that number” model, when you interact with people, creatures, and devices their level sets the base TD, hit points, and damage, so in the long run it is probably simpler than using a 1-30 range for level and trying to work out hit points and damage backwards from that.

One last thing are special rolls, which are kind of like critical fumbles and hits from Dungeons & Dragons mixed with Dungeon World’s miss and 10+ move results: when you roll a natural 1 the GM can intrude in some way, while a natural 17+ lets you trigger minor or major benefits. One of the most common benefits is a scaling damage bonus, but some focuses can let you do other things, like make an extra attack on a nat 20, and there are also plenty of examples for intrusions and minor/major effects scattered throughout the book in relevant sections (most notably monster entries).

THE RULES OF THREE
There are three stats: Might, Speed, and Intellect. By themselves they do not determine how hard something is, but instead you spend points from them to make a task easier. So if you are trying to hit a monster, force open a door, jump across a pit, or climb a cliff you can spend points from Might to reduce the Task Difficulty: one point gives you a +1, two points gives you a +2, and three points just reduces the TD by 1. You can reduce the TD by an amount equal to your Effort.

Each stat also has a corresponding Edge value, and when you spend points from that pool the cost is reduced by your Edge. Yes, this can reduce it to zero, meaning that glaives can constantly use their +1 damage maneuver, and nanos can blast people with lightning at will.

You recover spent points by resting for a variable period of time. The first one just takes an action (think second wind from 4th Edition), but each subsequent recovery takes longer: 10 minutes, one hour, then finally ten hours. How many points you regain depends on your tier–1d6 + 1 per tier–so the higher your tier the more you get back. There is also a damage track that is based on how many stat pools are at 0: if one is depleted then it is harder to apply Effort, if two are depleted then you can barely crawl, and once all three run out you are dead.

“_________________ is a __________ _________ who __________________________.”

Creating a character is essentially a matter of filling in three blanks, and once you do it a few times will probably take about 5-15 minutes depending on what you pick.

The three types are glaive, nano, and jack, which are analogous to fighter, wizard, and rogue respectively. Each type determines your base stats and Edge rating, gives you a handful of abilities, choices of gear, and a choice of two things from a list of five or so abilities. Most of the starting abilities cost 1 point, if they cost anything at all, which is offset by your Edge. This means that glaives can choose to daze an enemy, deal +1 damage, or add a +1 to their attack roll without draining Might, but they can also choose to add all of it together at the cost of only 2 Might points.

Your descriptor gives you a set of benefits like a bonus to one of your stats, one or more skills, a contact, the ability detect “magic”, a bonus to Armor, etc. Interestingly some can also penalize you with an inability, increasing the TD in certain situations, like when you are trying to focus or talk to people. Each of them also comes with four sample links to get you in the starting adventure.

Finally, focuses give you additional abilities on top of what your type does. These range in complexity from a nice weapon and small damage bonus, to transforming you into a horrifying monster during a full moon. Each comes with some minor and major effect suggestions, as well as a sample connection to tie you with another character.

FLEXIBLE, SIMPLE SKILLS
Skills remind me 13th Age (and how they unfortunately used to work in Next) in that they are not tied to any one stat, and the player makes a case as to whether it applies to the current situation. If it does you reduce the Task Difficulty by one (which in turn reduces the Target Number by three). If you are specialized, you instead reduce the TD by two. You cannot get any better than specialized, but you can still spend stat points and/or use other assets to make something even easier.

GEARING UP

Weapons and armor have static damage and armor values based on whether it is light, medium, or heavy (think the 4th Edition-esque Gamma World). This is nice because you have more descriptive control of what you are wielding and wearing, instead of having to worry about specifics or optimization.

Light weapons make it easier to hit something, but otherwise the only difference is damage. Armor reduces the damage from most attacks, and while anyone can wear any armor it drains your Might pool and reduces your Speed maximum (thankfully glaives and jacks have built in features that reduce these).

You also start with a number of random devices called cyphers and oddities. Cyphers are typically one-use devices, while oddities are just random trinkets that have no mechanical impact. Each type has its own table, and while I guess you could pick what you want I find it more interesting to give players items not necessarily suited for their characters and see what they can come up with.

EXPERIENCE AS CURRENCY
Where some RPGs like to heap on the XP, Numenera is one of “those” games that keeps things to a minimum as well astreating them like Fate Points. Gaining XP can happen in a variety of ways, such as discoveries and other events, but one of the more common suppliers is GM intrusion. This is when the GM tries to mess with the character in some way. You can do this whenever, but you have to give the player 2 XP for her troubles (one of which she must give to another player).

So what can you do with it? Well for starters you can burn a point to refuse an intrusion. You can also spend a point to reroll a check for anyone, even another character. Two points gets you a limited training in a skill, like being able to pick locks in one area of a city, or mountain-climbing in a specific mountain range. The upside is that you can gain these skills at any time at half the cost it would take to gain full training in a skill. There are a variety of options for the three-point package, from a +1 to a skill, a useful contact, cash, or even an artifact.

Finally the most expensive use for XP is the best: character advancement. Each time you spend four XP you get to improve your stats, increase one of your Edges or your Effort by 1, or become trained in a skill (or specialized in a skill that you are trained in). You can buy only one of these per tier, and once you have them all you advance to the next tier (so basically each level costs 16 XP). There are also some special options that you can nab once, like reducing the cost for wearing armor, or buying a new ability based on your class.

OPTIONAL RULES
For those that like homebrewing content or hacking games, there is an entire chapter on optional rules, like reducing your damage for an effect (such as tripping or disarming), adding in last/permanent damage, giving weapons damage types, using minis (normally the game uses variable band ranges), guidelines for customizing types and focuses, other races (that unfortunately are still humanoid), and mutations that range from beneficial to merely cosmetic.

CONCLUSION
Before I get into the bad part–because there is a bad part, but it thankfully has nothing to do with the setting or rules–I really enjoyed what I have read and what little bit we got to play. The art is mostly good, and the pdf has links in the sidebar for when one section references another (making it easier to navigate, and one of the few pdf products that I do not mind viewing on a computer). The game is very simple to learn and runs fast, but gives enough meaningful choices that even a party of glaives could have plenty of diversity. Not only that, but between all the advice and optional rules it should be able to easily cater to a variety of group tastes.

Again, to be absolutely clear, I really like this game. The rules and presentation are great, and the only time where the game seemed to drag was…

…ADVENTURE TIME
I did not get far into The Beale of Boregal before I wanted to scrap the whole thing and just make it up as I went along. My players encouraged me to try and at least use part of the adventure and tweak it so that it could work, and try I did. Try being the key word here, and ultimately the experience was a combination of frustrating, confusion, and boredom, and since misery loves company let me recount the events as best as I can recall them for you, the reader:

The adventure starts out with the characters walking along a road called the Wandering Walk. The length of it is unknown, but due to terrain and bandits it is too dangerous and unreliable to be useful as a trade road. Even so people still walk it for religious or spiritual reasons, or just a lapse of judgement. They call themselves Peregrines and scar their hands and arms to show off how long they have been walking (because self-mutilation is both reasonable and reliable). It mentions that the “rewards are few”, but does not actually specify any, and so for the life of me I cannot figure out why anyone would spend so much time wandering on a dangerous, never-ending road.

I guess sometimes you just gotta Walk Hard.

That bit of flavor is bad, but a lot of adventures suffer from this sort of thing so I could forgive it if the rest of the adventure was entertaining, but things got worse as soon as I hit the read aloud text. As a courtesy I am not going to reprint it in its entirely, but will merely subject you to a choice tidbit that really made me cringe:

“…My mother saw it with her own eyes, says another, younger man, who points at a woman sleeping along the edge of the hollow and then makes the circle of augmentation with his fingers. She has mech eyes, and trust me, she sees everything. There is nervous laughter from the group. Most everyone has a mother, after all, and remembers her impossible eyesight, augmented or not.”

That is taken directly from the book. My first complaint is that there are no quotation marks to call out dialogue, it is just italicized. My second, greater complaint is the quality of writing, particularly the last line, “Most everyone has a mother, after all, and remembers her impossible eyesight, augmented or not”. I have literally never head anyone refer to their mother’s eyesight as “impossible”, and honestly when I was a kid my friends and I were able to get away with all sorts of things.

Anyway, a boy and girl ride up on a giant centipede. The boy explains that his family is being attacked by pallones (flying light disks), and that he is riding to find help. Oh, and his sister needs protection, though he will not say from what…except that a paragraph down it says that he will divulge it to one character, and one only. The reason is that he is very protective of her secrets, so of course is willing to spill it to a complete stranger with no guarantee that he will not just tell everyone else.

To recap the plot summary so far is that the players are asked by a complete stranger to escort his sister somewhere else for reasons that may not be clearly divulged (except to one person), so he can go back and help his family despite the reason for leaving them was to find help in the first place. But wait, it gets better: the forest where his family lives is about thirty miles away, and that is if you venture off the road and head straight there.

We did not get much further into the adventure before it was time to pack it in. I had them fight off a group of pallones that I decided had followed her just so we could see the actual mechanics in play (which again are a lot of fun). As of this post I am working on my own intro adventure. Given years of playing Dungeons & Dragons and similar games it will an interesting exercise for me to see how I handle the material.

Faster Combat Review

One of the biggest–and to me, more legitimate–criticisms about Dungeons & Dragons is the length of combat. I remember how, back in 3rd Edition, combat was often resolved pretty quickly, allowing us to plow through a good chunk of dungeon in a given sitting.

When 4th Edition came out, though we were excited by all the options and changes, we saw immediately that combat could drag, especially if monsters took reduced damage or could heal. The kobold ambush at the start of Keep on the Shadowfell? That could eat up 30-60 minutes of game time, and that is just for kobolds.

Faster Combat is just over 260 pages of advice and methods on how to speed up combat in your game. Some of it are things that you probably already know, like pre-rolled initiative charts, average damage results (which is featured in D&D Next‘s monsters), and reducing monster hit points by 25% or more, but there is a lot of other stuff in here, like noting how long individual players take (along with a variety of ways to establish a time limit, as well as a reward system), ways to identify character strengths and weaknesses (along with ways to challenge or pander to them), and combat terrain to use/not-use.

Even better is that is is not just about combat efficiency; there are sections on how to design more exciting encounters (along with a list of 20 random and fantastic encounter locations), run “cannon fodder” and boss monsters, 50 monster quirks, numerous linked resources relating to whatever it is you are learning about, and more.

It is, in a word, extensive, which is good because even if a DM is not willing to invest much time in an attempt to resolve any of the issues mentioned (which not every group suffers from, or even identifies as such), there are still other things that he or she might find useful, like the aforementioned random encounter and quirks, and encounter building advice.

The ebook runs $20, but whether or not it is worth it depends on what kind of games you play (it is intended for Dungeons & Dragons and D&D-related games), and if you have any issues with running combat and/or building encounters. If so I think it is worth the buy, though even experienced DMs might learn a thing or two. You can preview the book’s mind map, but this is where I think a few preview sections would help gamers on the fence.

Ultramodern4 Review

Ultramodern4–or U4 for short–is a rules supplement that reminds me of D20 Modern in that it provides rules for a modern-to-futuristic game without an implied setting

Since it lacks rules on character building and advancement, skills, and combat it is really more of an attachment to the core Dungeons & Dragons rules instead of a stand-alone game, though at almost 240 pages it is quite a massive attachment.

Chapter 1: What is Ultramodern4 

This short introductory chapter prepares you by explaining some deviations from the “normal” rules (such as no magic and non-combat powers), compatibility with Dungeons & Dragons content (which ironically could include wizards), the lack of an official setting, mention of the setting that was supposed to be here (NeuroSpasta), the purpose of this book, new rules and keywords, and a brief rundown of the ladders and classes.

Chapter 2: Ladders 

Unlike Dungeons & Dragons and Amethyst, classes are not your only means of features and powers. Currently there are seven ladders, including the juggernaut, runner, veteran, and warrior. I guess the best comparison is that ladders are like bulkier themes in that they not only give you benefits at 1st-level, but continue to do so throughout your career more frequently and flexibly. To top if off you still get to choose between ladder and class powers, though ladders also feature attack powers (including level 1 at-wills).

For example at 1st-level the born leader ladder sans class lets you generate an aura effect that grants bonuses to attack rolls, hit points, defenses, and more, use Charisma or Intelligence in place of Wisdom for powers, and gain a bonus to three Charisma- or Intelligence-based skills. At 3rd-level you gain a +1 to attack and damage rolls, a +1 bonus to Will, and gain other What a Guy (healing surge as a minor action to extend aura effects based on your Charisma or Intelligence modifier) or gain a bunch of cash.

All of that before you even pick a class. Speaking of which…

Chapter 3: Classes

There are eleven classes, which in addition to coming with all the usual trimmings and being compatible with any ladder, also come with standard equipment packages that include weapons, armor, vehicles, contacts, and other more. You can also opt out of any of those things in exchange for cold, hard cash. The only part where classes skimp on is power choices; you only ever get 1-2 choices, instead relying on your ladder for additional options.

The faceman is interesting in that none of the attack exploits deal damage, but instead impose status effects and/or grant allies bonuses. Biting taunt, a level 1 at-will, marks a target, grants you an AC bonus against its attacks while it is marked by you, and it is considered weakened when making attacks that do not include you. Oh, and it is also dazed if you crit with this “attack”. On the other hand commanding presence, a level 29 daily, dominates two creatures (save ends).

Chapter 4: Paths & Destinies 

There are 22 paths and 5 epic destinies.

The paths remind me of advanced classes from D20 Modern in that they represent a character becoming better at a given thing; driving, sniping, talking, etc. None of them have ladder or class prereqs. Instead when they require anything at all, it is training in specific skills, feats, or proficiency with weapons. The paths seem somehow slimmer than their Dungeons & Dragons counterparts, offering the same amount of content but taking up about a half-page each.

Rather than representing an ascension to god-like power, epic destinies just mean that you are part of the “top 0.01% of the world’s population specialized in your field”. These are are things like master (being the best on the planet at a given subject) or respected (the highest military rank, or someone like Commander Shepherd I guess). The team destiny is odd in that its benefits only affect others that also have the team destiny, so your mileage may vary.

Chapter 5: Skills & Feats 

Though the game assumes the skills from Dungeons & Dragons, the only ones featured are five new skills that one would expect in a modern game–Computer Use, Demolitions, Engineer, Sciences, and Vehicle Operation–with the expected uses of hacking devices, finding information, setting/disabling explosives, fixing things, sabotaging things, etc.

Vehicle Use gets a lot of real estate, with rules for sliding, crashing, accelerating, decelerating, evasive driving, flying, jumping, drifting…basically every stunt you could expect to see in an action flick. Thankfully it comes with a table.

As for feats, though it says you can nab them from Player’s Handbook, I figure anything is free game (especially for players that want the better Expertise stuff), though there are plenty of new feats here that you probably will not bother, especially given that they pertain to modern armor and weapons. For example, Deck Fire lets you waive the penalty for making ranged attacks with small arms while prone, while Deflecting Shot lets you reduce the penalty for firing ranged weapons against an enemy in cover by 1.

Quite a few feats give you new powers (including at-will stuff), such as Curb Stomp (deal Strength modifier damage to a prone enemy automatically with a move action) and Duct Tape (you never run out of duct tape, and as a standard action can use it for a variety of purposes, including Engineering and Heal bonuses, attach flashlights to guns, create rope, etc). Two of the feats, Explosive Specialty and Checkered Past, can be taken multiple times, giving you a new power with explosives and vehicles each time respectively.

Though neither feats nor skills, the chapter wraps up with a small section on contacts. Contacts are basically a wild card NPC that becomes defined when you use them for a bonus on a skill check or to help locate a black market item; once you use them for a skill, they get a name and can only ever be used for that skill in the future. Classes can offer contacts as starting resources, and you can buy and upgrade them later.

Chapter 6: Equipment 

In keeping with the idea of a generic modern RPG, this game has Tech Levels. If you played Alternity (and probably a bunch of other games I have not played), then you are familiar with Tech Levels, though these start at a “modern” level–stated to be the familiar technology of modern day–before scaling up to magnetic vehicles, nano-technology, antigravity technology, plasma weapons, and complete body reconstruction.

For weapons you get a bunch of new weapon groups (heavy weapons, one- and two-handed small arms, super heavy weapons, etc) and properties (augment, auto, conceal, gauss, guided, laser…nuclear), which serve only to prepare you for the tables upon tables of actual weapons that include pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, and flamethrowers for the “lowliest” of tech levels, ranging up to lasers, particle beams, plasma cannons, and more at the other end of the spectrum.

While it mentions that you can utilize “archaic” weapons, pointing you to Player’s Handbook, personally I would advice against bringing even a fullblade to a minigun/pulse rifle/particle beam/plasma cannon fight (though magical weapons gain Armor Piercing, which is kind of nice).

Armor adds in rules for Hardness (ie, non-elemental damage reduction) and Threshold (damage that the armor’s hit points can absorb from a given attack). Some armor requires power, using an abstract mechanic of six-encounters-per-energy-cell.

Light and heavy “modern” armors include synthetic weave, nanotech armor, tactical body armor, dragon-mail, and similar things that are largely comparable with what we have now (some of the best light stuff is Tech Level 1-2, such as that nanotech). The advanced powered armors are all not only limited to Tech Levels 2 and up, but are only suited to mid-paragon tier and higher.

The rest of the chapter is a pretty extensive list of gear, including your typical run of supplies and tools that you would expect to find; gas masks, binoculars, computers, a laser sight, pillows, kits that boost skill bonuses, and more. There are also drugs, musical instruments, a pretty impressive list of land and air vehicles that include mecha, and equipment modifications.

Chapter 7: New Age of Warfare
More in-depth rules on using loadout for games in which the characters belong to an organization and tend to rent-rather-than-own, more information on advanced armor, explosives, and vehicles (including simplified vehicle rules), and optional rules for emulating grittier movies or being more compatible with Dungeons & Dragons.

Chapter 8: Antagonists & Enemies
Power armor, cyborgs, and robots I had expected. I even figured that there would be more mundane types like gang members, trained soldiers, and the like.

I did not expect the names: Bell-Tower Bastard (a sniper type), Man With Pipe Wrench (a man with a pipe wrench), Ammo Waster (who, ironically, does not waste ammo), and Out of Place Kung-Fu Guy (a minion version of the level 14 solo Misplaced Martial Arts Master). There are even some somewhat silly attacks, such as the Seriously, Katana’s katana, seriously attack, as well as some pop culture references like the Big Boss’s groovy gauntlet attack.

Personally I think it lends it a campy, sarcastic style that you see in action flicks. Given that my preferences for a “modern” game would generally fall more into the vein of sci-fi, urban fantasy, or survival horror I probably would have never thought to run a kind of Evil Dead and/or Metal Gear Solid campaign until I saw Big Boss.

Chapter 9: Adventuring
Alternative methods on handling rewards instead of just looting the place (though you can still do that if you wanted to do a post-apocalyptic setting like Fallout), sample encounters, and set pieces to go along with them. Not a very big chapter, but the samples maps might come in handy.

Chapter 10 & 11: Adventure Time
The last two chapters, Biohazard and Invasion Proxy, are level 4 and 14 adventure modules that allow you to build characters and just try it out.

This book feels like a good spiritual successor to 3rd Edition’s D20 Modern. The lack of an implied setting or time period, coupled with the fact that you can mix and match content from either book makes it easy to do an Urban Arcana game, and I could see rolling in Gamma World to get something a lot meatier if that is your thing. Heck, why not lump it all together and have your very own 2nd Edition of Rifts, if even by name only?

Ultimately I can see people that actually played D20 Modern and preferring 4th Edition really enjoying this game. If you like Gamma World, then you might like it depending on if it is for the setting and flavor, or perhaps the simplicity: this game is even more complex than Dungeons & Dragons is, so if you were already feeling strained by the tracking of conditions, hit points, and out-of-turn actions, then this might not be the game for you.

Of course, you could try porting over some of the gear and add robots and high-tech weapons to your Dungeons & Dragons games, or even try developing your own fantasy ladders.

Dungeon Survival Handbook Review

Dungeon Survival Handbook is a 160-page supplement—counting the ad in the back—that gives players specialized character options for dungeon-delving, and Dungeon Master’s the dungeon-centric resources to kill them anyway.

Chapter 1: Dungeon Delvers is the meatiest, featuring seven themes, racial writups for the goblin, long-awaited kobold, and svirfneblin, and seven organizations (complete with their own powers).

The Character Themes include the bloodsworn, a grim-dark mega-brooder that is dedicated to wiping out a specific type of monster or an organization, kind of like the 3rd Edition ranger’s Favored Enemy class feature, and the trapsmith, which can be either the Sherlock Holmes or Iron Man version of  Robert Downey Jr., with the ability to quickly create traps, as well as notice and disarm them.

Each of the races gets either an Essentials-style writeup, complete with physical qualities, attitudes and beliefs, communities, adventurers, role-playing tips, racial feats, and racial utilities.

• The goblin is pretty much unchanged from the Monster Manual version, except that they can opt between Wisdom or Charisma for a bonus and Thievery gets swapped out for Bluff.
• Kobolds have already been previewed, but can opt between Dexterity or Charisma, gain darkvision, and lose shifty for shifty maneuver, which lets them and allies within 2 squares shift.
• Svirfneblin—aka deep gnomes—gain a bonus to Wisdom and either Strength or Constitution, can ignore difficult terrain that is stone, can always pick Dungeoneering as a trained skill, and can gain concealment and some temp hps as a racial encounter.

The chapter then wraps up with Dungeon-Themed Powers. These are grouped by organization, each of which have a page or so of flavor content, thematically appropriate themes and classes, and both class-based and skill-based powers.

Chapter 2: Strive to Survive is basically an adventurer’s guide to dungeons and the monsters that likely were legitimately squatting there, before you and yours kicked in the door to rob them. It starts out with the five rules of dungeon delving, as well as delving tactics that pertain to climbing, darkness, secret doors, sneaking, clearing rooms, resting, and more.

Dungeon Types focuses on the potential dangers presented by common dungeon settings like caves, crypts, mazes, and mines, as well as some more unconventional backdrops like an ice palace and floating castle. Each type has a section on variations, exploring dangers, inhabitants and rewards.

Where the previous section emphasizes the place, Dungeon Denizens is about the “people”, from ankhegs to umber hulks. Each monster gets a paragraph of dialogue from a NPC, followed by a couple paragraphs of flavor text.

Veterans of past editions might get a kick out of Infamous Dungeons, which provides a page or two of information on eight dungeons from past editions, including Castle Ravenloft, The Lost City, and White Plume Mountain. While there is not nearly enough to run the adventures, the information, sidebars, associated backgrounds, quests, and feats might be enough to coerce DM’s to pick up the originals to convert (or at least inspiration to make your own).

Almost three-quarters of the way through, Chapter 3: Master of the Dungeon changes gears to the other side of the screen. It starts out giving some pointers on how to run the dungeon. Cold, ruthless, let the dice fall where they may? Cheat in order to help the players win? It is more of the stuff that we have been getting for basically the entire time we have been getting advice on running dungeon crawls, but at least its a solid-and-short repetition.

Like Neverwinter Campaign Setting, this book also has a section on Involving the Characters. It goes beyond simply hooking them by the theme, also providing ideas on how to give the players a “tough choice”, drop clues to lead them on, introduce new characters that oppose them, and more. I really like this format, and hope that it continues beyond the edition. There is also just over a page of advice on exploration, choices, mazes, and puzzles.

If you are up for Creating an Underdark Adventure, there is a six-page primer with an overview, the Underdark’s “role”, ways to get the feel right, developing a plot, building encounters that use cavernous terrain features, a small glossary of underground terms, and “An Underdark Trek” skill challenge. It is kind of like the poor man’s Underdark supplement, but it fits and does not take up too much space.

Dungeon Makers goes over a combination of eleven races and organizations that commonly dwell in dungeons, from cultists to kuo-toa to cliche’d wizards. It talks about key locations within the lairs they might build, as well as what they might look like. I particularly like the sidebar on cultists: Ten Trappings of a Cult’s Dungeon.

The Power Word Kill and Wish Special Rewards were previewed already, and unfortunately there are only two other scrolls: Mass Heal and Polymorph. Mass Heal restores all hit points, healing surges, grants temp hps equal to your bloodied value, cures all diseases, and renders everyone immune to fear. Polymorph transforms the target into an Elite monster of its level + 2, but only for the encounter. Still kind of neat, though I would have liked to see a ritual or something that lets the player change her race.

First you get the dragon, then you get the money.

Dungeon Companions features four example companion characters (Dungeon Master’s Guide 2), including Meepo of 3rd Edition (I think) fame.

Appendix 1: Build Your Own Dungeon is four and a half pages of dungeon-building advice. Again, standard stuff; figure out the dungeon’s purpose, theme, and location, consider changing up the way “known” monsters look and act, etc.

Appendix 2: Random Dungeons is a collection of sixteen tables that help you determine the maker, dungeon type, location, the reason why the dungeon was built, its defenses and weakness, motifs, and more. If the characters are using the themes from this book, there are a pair of tables to randomly determine how you hook them in.

Even though I enjoyed most of this book, it is kind of a hard sell. Players get the lion’s share of content, but have no use for the content on adventure- and dungeon-designing. At only about 40 pages, I can understand DMs not wanting to shell out thirty bucks—or whatever the Amazon discounted price is—for basically a quarter of a book. If you dug Halls of Undermountain, this makes a great companion book, though.

Halls of Undermountain Review

Halls of Undermountain is a hardcover supplement that presents just under a hundred pages of pre-made dungeon, and oddly still sets you back just under thirty bucks.

For those not in the know Undermountain is a dungeon built underneath Waterdeep, which is a city in Forgotten Realms. It originally started a dwarven mine before an insane wizard moved in and stockpiled the place with monsters and straps…kind of like a meta-Dungeon Master. While personally not a fan of Forgotten Realms (though a huge fan of Neverwinter Campaign Setting), the dungeon is exceedingly easy to drag and drop basically anywhere.

The first 13 pages are dedicated to the dungeon’s history and various entrances that include the Yawning Portal, an inn built on top of a well that leads directly into the dungeon. Again even if you do not run in the Realms you can use or lose the inn backdrop, NPCs and all. The rest of the book features three adventures, but there are also tips on running, pacing, and making your own adventures, as well as tables for random room generation/encounters.

Given enough time and/or players I would not mind running my players through this. While on the surface you can run it simply as a theoretically never-ending dungeon crawl, the DM advice and adventures make it clear that there is room for an overarching story and social interaction. I consider it a good buy despite the page-count to price tag ratio. If nothing else in the interim I am sooo going to use the random tables.

Heroes of the Elemental Chaos Review

Heroes of the Elemental Chaos is the third planar-themed character book, in a similar vein to Heroes of Shadow and Heroes of the Feywild. I really dug Shadow and Feywild because the planes and concepts they focused on were parallels of the natural world, and thus easy–or at least easier–for characters to access early on.

The Elemental Chaos has been largely pegged as a paragon-tier stomping ground, so a lot of the book is options and story ideas on how players can take the chaos out of the Chaos or how it can affect the natural world and its inhabitants: you can basically use any of it without having to give two shits about the Elemental Chaos, though there is a lot of information to help you brainstorm some ideas and hooks.

On another note I really dug the art; the cover is by Wayne Reynolds and thus rules by default, but the interior is of a similar quality as to what we got in Heroes of the Feywild (though it lacks the random background generator). It is a pretty cool book. I’d nab it if you like elemental stuff, though most of it is for arcane classes (meaning, yes, more spells and subclasses), or actually mine these books for ideas.

Chapter 1: Into the Maelstrom
Thirty-one pages of elemental flavor, this chapter has information on the nature of elemental magic, how it can influence the world and some races, a roster of primordials, how it works with other powers sources like divine and primal, primordial cults, planar breaches, how a character might gain it (such as exposure, primordial shards, or just by hitting the books), and more. Of interest to DMs are the last handful of pages, which provides information on choice primordials (including some free ones), and gives you ideas on how–and how much of it–you can work it into your campaign.

Chapter 2: Character Themes
I won’t go into detail here since it would just be me talking theme mechanics, which I do in the next section, but this is a sweet and short chapter that adds ten elementally-themed themes to the roster. A lot are tied to specific elements such as fire and water, though one is synced to metal and another associates you with demons.

Chapter 3: Classes
This 62-page chapter provides new options for druids, monks, sorcerers, warlocks, and wizards. Yes, this includes new features for subclasses as well as a pair of new subclasses, so que whiners bitching that this is an “Essentials” book or what the fuck ever.

The druid class can choose Primal Wrath, which gives you an attack bonus with energy attacks when not in heavy armor, while the sentinel subclass can pick Druid of the Wastes, which gives you a zephyr companion, bonus to AC and Reflex when using a spear or staff, a bonus to Endurance, and level 13, 17, and 27 features. There are also thirteen new evocations that range across all the levels.

There are two new monk traditions; Desert Wind and Eternal Tide, keyed to Charisma and Strength respectively. Desert Wind gives you scaling fire resistance, and its flurry lets you deal fire damage, as well as impose an attack penalty if the target was not the triggering target. Eternal Tide lets you resist forced movement, as well as shift for free after being moved, and its flurry has a Melee range of 2 and lets you pull the target, slowing it if it was no the initial target. There are also a lot of new thematic disciplines to choose from.

In addition to a bunch of new spells, sorcerers get their own subclass, the elementalist. It uses Constitution as a secondary ability score, dealing bonus damage and able to derive its AC based on it. You have to choose an elemental focus, which modifies the energy bolt spell that they all get, as well as determining the other at-will spells you get and other features; energy resistances, saves, and abilities like at-will flight at higher levels. They also get an elemental escalation, which is an encounter spell that triggers when you make an attack, and basically gives you a nice kicker effect. Even better, you can use it more as you level up.

New pacts for warlocks and hexblades. Yay. The warlock pact has you roll for a random energy type (which you can freely change after using a second wind), and at any time you can swap out various non-elemental keywords on warlock spells to your affinity. The pact boon lets you impose an energy vulnerability on the next creature you curse (oh, and it stacks), so being able to swap damage types freely lets you capitalize on the boon.
Hexblades gain the blade of chaos, which deals 2d4 damage and has High Crit. The boon here gives you energy resistance and lets you shift, while the at-will melee attack lets you choose an energy vulnerability to slap on the creature for a turn. Even better, the level 1 encounter lets you deal energy damage of your choice, strip away any resistances or immunities on the target, and generate an auto-damaging energy aura.
The downside is that there are not a lot of new warlock spells, so while most are tied to primordials there just are not enough to tie the theme together.

Last but not least oh hey it is another wizard subclass, the sha’ir. It is based on Intelligence and Constitution, and its main schtick is that it summons a gen servant that as part of the class flavor provides you with elemental energy to cast your spells. Mechanically you gain Arcane Familiar as a bonus feat, but you do not have to take a gen. Some of the gens have kickers based on your Constitution mod, but I guess the main thing is that you and allies next to your familiar gain energy resistance of your choosing based on your Con mod. Otherwise blah blah more spells blah blah.

Chapter 4: Elemental Options
We get ten new paragon paths–including one for each of the new subclasses, such as the boringly-named Legendary Hexblade–a pair of epic destinies, feats, rules for elemental companions (that anyone can pick up with a feat), and elemental magic items and gifts. The best part of this chapter, to me, is the elemental companions. You need to have Born of the Elements and then take Elemental Companion, which basically gives you a kind of familiar that anyone can have (not just arcanists). I would like to see this extended to other options, allowing characters to run around with a golem or undead companion.

Back to Basics

In light of a looming edition, others are giving older editions a shot, so I figured I might as well subject mine to them as well. Partially because I wanted to see if there really was anything about them that I actually liked, partially because the only edition that some had played before was 3rd. So scraping from the bottom barrel, we started with OD&D, including the adventure In Search of the Unknown.

They managed to get through the first hall, swing a left, and run into an auditorium where they were gang-raped by six kobolds. The game ran roughly a half hour, and most of that was me rummaging through pdfs trying to figure out descriptions and rules (I guess I had heard that doors had a variable chance of being stuck or some shit).

Ultimately, their final opinion was that they “fucking hated it”, though I found elements of the play style to have some positive aspects. Let me break it down.

The Bad
My complaints have largely not changed in execution: the classes are very cookie-cutter and “samey”, and the premise of going through bizarre dungeons to loot the place for gold because it somehow gives you XP seems very “video-gamey”. The rules were not really complete, and I found myself having to keep a copy of Swords & Wizardry on hand to compare and contrast rulings. Basically, it was a fucking hassle and I felt like that I could have done a much better job if I had just made up rules the game myself (which for all I knew I was).

The players were likewise displeased that their characters had changed from competent heroes to paranoid murder-hobos. When you are able to take a few hits before going down, the game is not as swingy; you can get hit by something and usually have a chance to react to it, as opposed to instantly dying. With the characters having between 2-3 hit points each, the odds were better than half that they were going to die in one hit (and almost certainly the first encounter).

The other downside was the rolled attributes. Having complete control of your character, being able to play what you want and how you want is appealing. Personally I would rather use the Gamma World system (rolling for not directly-important stats), or at least have rolled stats be an option rather than the standard.

The Good
For the first time since I ran D&D, one of the players used a mirror to peek around corners. He also used a 10-foot pole, a practice which largely well out of use at some point in 3rd Edition. I think it was more of a nostalgic kick than anything. The player didn’t particularly care for it, stating that he only did it because he was afraid of getting randomly killed by…well, anything. To be fair that mind-set made things seem more immersive, I guess, as I would imagine people going to plunder their first trap- and monster-infested tomb being pretty damned paranoid.

The other perk was how quickly combat could start; you just roll a d6, highest goes first. Since everyone can really only make what amounts to a “basic melee attack” it is more of a factor of if the monster you want to hit is within hitting range. They largely did not care for this, as they felt it stripped away any variety and tactical decisions that could tip the odds in their favor; getting bonuses to hit, keeping the kobolds away from the magic-user, etc.

Something that was kind of a plus was the kind of a lack of minis. With no real tactical decisions to be made, terrain to be utilized, or opportunity attacks I could basically just describe the room, let them tell me what they want to do, and have them roll. The real plus was that if a monster popped in the room there was no delay between rolling initiative and setting things up, which in practice kind of drains the suspense.

Would I Play Again?
Heeell no. Not enough variety when making a character, not a lot of note in in terms of advancement. In its favor the lack of hit points helps lay on the paranoia really thick, but honestly I want players to make characters with backgrounds and personalities and go through a story. While I could tack on houserules to make it easier for them to survive, the end result would look more like 3rd Edition without feats, at which point I might as well be playing at least 2nd Edition. Hell, why cannot they re-release 2nd Edition instead of 1st?

Anyway, next week we are going to give 1st Edition and Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun a run. They will be 5th-level, so we’ll see if we can eke out another 10 minutes of game time with this one. 😛

Heart of the Scar Review

Looks like whatever the Chaos Scar was supposed to be is finally wrapping up. At least with Blackdirge on the job it will go out with a bang.

Literally.

If you are going to play in this adventure, stop reading and go make your DM run it now. Bribe him or her if necessary. If you are a DM then you are probably already running it, or preparing to murder the characters in your current campaign to pave the way for this one.

SPOILERS

The adventure backstory reveals that the meteorite that carved out the Chaos Scar was actually the heart of a Far Realm entity known as Shoth-Gorag. After it landed a group of Banites ascertained that it was a gift from their god, and decided to built a fortress around it that would become known as Hallowgaunt. After construction was complete the heart began attracting monsters and influencing the Banites–who named themselves the Brotherhood of the Scar–forcing them to help build it a new body using the flesh of captured victims. Not all of the Banites were affected, but while transporting a weapon highly effective against denizens of the Far Realm most were captured.

Fortunately one managed to make it to the King’s Wall as the characters are passing by…

The adventure assumes that the characters help out the fleeing Banite, who is then more than happy to divulge the truth about the meteorite, as well as the hidden passage he used to escape. After that it is an action-packed killfest of taking on crazed Banites, foulspawn, mimics, and finally Shoth-Gorag.

This adventure was fucking awesome to read. In particular I loved the encounter with the mimic: when the characters find Farbane, it is on top of a mimic disguised as a basalt slab. When they approach it transforms and eats the hammer if they don’t remove it before hand. A mimic disguising itself right beneath a magic item is pretty rad, but the best part is that once it is dropped to 50 hit points it spits the hammer out and reverts to its slab form in the hopes that the characters just leave it alone (meaning that it could come back later).

The grand finale is the best part, though. Shoth-Gorag is a minion-spawning, triple attacking solo brute with threatening reach, an auto-damaging aura, and a very painful recharging blast. To make matters worse when he is bloodied he spawns minions for free, and can have more than usual active at once. If the characters manage to defeat him and shatter his heart with Farbane, they are rewarded with a collapsing base skill challenge worthy of any action flick.

Tile Trek: A Knight in Shadowghast Manor Review

For a dungeon delve designed to showcase the Shadowghast Manor tile set, this adventure sure tries to pack in backstory content.

The short of it is that the ironically named Shadowghast family used to be big-ass heroes. One of their sons suffering from Elric Syndrome makes a deal with the devil so that he too can be a hero, until they pull a Darth Vader and demand that he tries to turn his family to the dark side in order to keep his power. Possibly praying that they do not alter the deal further, he somehow succeeds and the family begins recruiting stock mid-Heroic tier fodder.  He then repents and the family fades into obscurity for awhile. Anyway fast-forward, someone named Arcturas is doing more bad stuff, and the characters have to go through the delve-standard in order to win.

Basically I found this delve to be pretty damned boring. It sucks if the author was instructed to work with what he got, but frankly I think I would have preferred some example tile layouts–both with just the one set and with others–to give people ideas on what they can do (given that the adventure uses just the two layouts out of the pack, I cannot even say that I get that). Instead it is a forgettable string of encounters against a forgettable villain. My advice is that if you just want to use the tiles to run a delve just whip up your own encounters, you would be hard-pressed to do worse.

Book of Vile Darkness Review

“Bound in human flesh and inked in blood, this ancient Sumerian text contained bizarre burial rites, funerary incantations and demon resurrection passages. It was never meant for the world of the living.”

While that would be a pretty rad product, that is the description for another book. I’m here to talk about the Books of Vile Darkness. For $30 you get almost 130 pages divided into two books–one for DMs and the other for players–and a double-sided map, packaged in a sleeve featuring some sweet Wayne Reynolds art featuring Kyuss (or maybe just a run of the mill worm that walks).

This product is not for everyone, especially groups with players that like to use evil alignments as an excuse to be douchebags. You know the type; “I only kicked your unconcious body into the pit of lava because it is what my character would do!” (Which actually happened in a 2nd Edition game.) Even so DMs will get a lot of nice, crunchy content to throw at their players, along with lots of advice on making “vile” encounters and villains. Oh yeah, cursed items. More specifically, the kind you cannot use Arcana to fix.

So if you are a DM I would pick it up even if you are not interested in running an evil campaign (the player’s book accounts for about a fourth of the package). If you only play I wouldn’t, as there is just not enough for you that you couldn’t just get out of DDI.

For Players
While the player’s Book(let) of Vile Darkness barely peaks the 30 page mark, it contains a lot of useful flavor and crunch content on playing the bad guys: some considerations for running an evil game and ideas on how to keep the party tied together, villainous archetypes, themes, feats, paragon paths, and an epic destiny to top it off.

The advice is pretty sound; don’t steal from, maim, or murder each other, make sure everyone is on the same page, and try not to use an evil alignment as an excuse to just go apeshit and be a complete asshole (I am looking at you, Chaotic Neutral). They also replicate the section on role-playing from the Player’s Handbook, just modified for evil, and break up some of the ideas based on power source (including an evil primal spirit and some brief information on tailoring psionic content for a more sinister angle).

My favorite theme is infernal slave. While I like the infernal pact, your boon does not have to be arcane power; material wealth or other good fortune are all fair game for a Faustian bargain (and any race and class can benefit from it). Of course being able to use hellfire is a nice bonus. Two of the features act like double-edged swords, benefiting you but also potentially harming you, which is nice.

I am also a fan of the vermin lord which makes a re-appearance as a paragon path for evil druids. You start out by being able to deal automatic damage and shield allies when you spend an action point, represented by swarms of insects bursting from your body, gain scaling poison resistance, and unleash a torrent of maggots that cause each target to grant combat advantage and impose vulnerability 5 to everything for a turn.
I dug the level 12 daily, which lets everyone communicate telepathically, prevent enemies from gaining combat advantage by flanking, and let you use your move actions to move them instead.

Divine characters will be happy with the new Divine Devotion and Divinity feats; Asmodeus’s Fiery Command causes an ally to gain scaling temp hps if they hit a target, or take damage as well as damaging each adjacent creature if they fail, while Disciple of Darkness grants you a massive Stealth bonus as well as causing you to become invisible if you use a second wind when in dim light or darkness.

For the Dungeon Master
The DM’s book is three times as meaty and features advice for creating “evil” adventures and encounters, example ideas, campaign arcs, new monsters and monster themes, organizations, magic items (including cursed and sinister items), and an even an adventure tied into the movie.

The infamous NPC dialogue featured in each section ranges from campy to good, and I can actually envision Robert going up to each of them with a clipboard and pencil, grilling them with questions about the nature of evil.

Robert: “So Azalin, what can you tell me about curses?”
Azalin: “Do not speak to me of curses!”
Robert: “…”
Azalin: “Just…look, look, I’m sorry. It’s just that, man, I have seen some shit.”

Chapter 1: Evil Unearthed
A very short chapter, you get a product overview, lots of dialogue from Vecna (including his origins and upbringing), an in-depth description of the book of vile darkness, and the facets of evil in D&D.

Chapter 2: Evil Campaigns
As with the player’s booklet, the advice on evil campaigns is helpful for ensuring a party that slays well with each other regardless of alignment. I like that in addition to suggesting having a patron keep them in line, it points out that they are still playing a cooperative game. There is also the notion of a common enemy and positive connections like love and friendship, which evil people can still have.

The section on evil adventuring gives you some ideas for running evil adventures–like ambushing a caravan or performing an evil ritual–in addition to a sidebar on running a reverse dungeon (which was an actual D&D product an edition or two ago). A section on campaign themes gives you some ideas of the bigger picture, such as the tried and true deicide and/or destroying the world, and there are even a couple campaign arc examples in case you needed some more to work with.

Chapter 3: Vile Encounters
This chapter opens up with guidelines on making encounters more, well…vile. The main factors that stood out to me were to ensure that there were consequences extending beyond the encounter (such as a demon going on a rampage if they failed to stop it) and using a combination of the new terrain features, traps, and curses. I guess some of the other stuff could work to, like making sure that the players know where the undead minions came from (slaughtered village), or get to see sacrifices being executed to power a fell ritual.

Chapter 4: Villains & Monsters
This chapter opens up strongly with an extended look at villain construction; concept, scope, archetype, motivation, etc. Advice that has been seen before, but good for newer DMs or those that want it packaged in a current source. There is also a lot of monster themes like Moilian Dead, and some new monsters like hordelings (a level 11 elite swarm that can spawn level 11 minions once per round when it gets hit).

Chapter 5: Dark Rewards
This chapter comes in two flavors: cursed and sinister. Unlike the items in Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Emporium, the bad parts of these items cannot be removed. In fact you cannot remove them either without slamming them with Disenchant Item, Remove Affliction, or something similar. For example, a cursed weapon acts normal until you hit someone, after which you take a -2 to attack rolls if you attack anyone but the original target until it dies or the encounter ends. Sinister items sometimes have good or bad effects, or just do “siiiinister” things. Bracers of suffering reduce your hit points by 5, but give you a bonus on saves against charms, stun, daze, and dominate, while a girdle of skulls lets you summon skeletal warriors.

Chapter 6: The Vile Tome
A paragon-tier, four-encounter romp that features the book. Since it is an adventure I’ll go into this more in another review.