Jonathan Jacobs of The Core Mechanic is moving forward with Open Game Table Vol. 2 and is asking the online gaming community to nominate articles they’d like to see included in this anthology. OGT2 is scheduled for a Summer 2010 release and will be available in as an eBook and in hard copy.
Category: Editorial
This weekend is the grand opening of HairyT North & 3rd Quadrant Comics, and to celebrate this exciting event they’re having a huge sale on just about everything, including gaming stuff. This is the third Hairy Tarantula location in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). This time they’ve joined forces with the recently resurrected 3rd Quadrant Comics to open one new super-store dedicated to everything gaming and comic books.
The Harry Tarantula has a reputation for being one of the best gaming store franchises in the GTA. They carry an incredible variety of gaming products. They’ll also order in just about anything you can think of (at least that’s been my experience).
The new store is in what used to be a pool hall and it’s gigantic. If you’re looking for a gaming-related gift for a friend or yourself, you have to check out this sale this weekend. Here’s the email announcement they sent to their mailing list explaining all the details.
The first chapter of the 4e Players’s Handbook references Dungeons & Dragons as a roleplaying game. Of course, this is correct, but is D&D more than a roleplaying game? Let’s take a look at what these two words mean. To roleplay is to assume the attitudes, actions and mannerisms of another in a make believe situation. A game is an amusement or pastime. Putting these two words together we certainly see that they define D&D well, but is that all D&D is? Is D&D just a simple roleplaying game or is it really much more?
When we prepare for and play D&D is it really just a game we are playing? What is really involved in playing a game of D&D? To your surprise, it might be more than you think.
Categories
The Holiday Dungeon Contest Is On
The Dungeon’s Master Holiday Dungeon Contest is currently accepting submissions. Read all the details at the official post for the contest:
We are looking forward to reading all the entries and wish everyone the best of luck with their submission!
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Categories
Playing Against Type
When it comes to character creation you have a lot choice. If you take into account the current number of races (35) and classes (22) presented in character builder you can create over 770 different possible combinations. If you throw the Hybrid class into the mix the number continues to grow exponentially. And as more classes and races are introduced, the number of variations continues to increase. So if there are currently 770 different possible race/class combinations, why do we keep seeing the same ones over and over again?
“What would the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise look like if they were D&D characters?” I’ve asked myself this question numerous times over the last few weeks as I’ve watched old episodes of Start Trek: The Next Generation. It’s an interesting exercise, and it got me thinking about what it would take to play these archetypes in an ongoing camping.
Over the years I have participated in games that borrowed famous characters from familiar stories. It was an interesting way to create new characters and the games were a lot of fun.
Categories
Design a Holiday Dungeon Contest
It’s that time of year when elves and gnomes come out from hiding and begin mingling with the common people. This active participation in our world keeps them safe during the other 11 months of the year. As these creatures of the fey mingle with us common folk, we thought we would invite you to design a dungeon centered on this joyous time of year.
The Dungeon’s Master team presents the Design a Holiday Dungeon contest.
We want to see what you can do with fat men in red suits, elves, gnomes, goblins, trolls and anything else that might fit in with the holiday theme. After all, the milk and cookies are really a greed trap… aren’t they?
Today we complete our interview with Eberron author, Don Bassingthwaite. In this installment Don talks about The Tyranny of Ghosts, the third novel in the Legacy of Dhakaan trilogy, inventing the goblin language and who he would cast in the movie versions of his books.
Although the interview is presented in print and in multiple parts, we’ll make the complete interview available as an audio download in November’s Month in Review article.
You can read all about Don and follow him at his own website DBassingthwaite.com. You can also visit the Don Bassingthwaite page at Wizards of the Coast. It has a mini bio as wells as a list of the Forgotten Realms and Eberron books he’s written. They also provide sample chapters of his recent works for download.
If you missed the other installments, be sure to check out An Interview with Eberron author Don Bassingthwaite (Part 1) and (Part 2).
A few weeks ago my regular gaming group began a short-term, four week campaign. Our characters started at level 7 and at the end of each week we level up. This gave us a great chance to jump right into some of the new classes and give them a try.
By keeping just below the Paragon tier we’re at the heroic “sweet spot.” We’ve got a few powers and items to choose from on our turn, but we’re not bogged down with so many choices that it slows play. It’s been a fantastic ride (with one more week to go). I highly recommend trying this approach to gaming. But that’s an article for a different day. Today I want to again express my admiration for the character builder.
For the mini-adventure described above I choose to play a Barbarian. And since I had my brand new copy of Primal Power I thought it would be a good idea to try out one of the new builds. The character I made was a kick-ass, dual-weapon wielding, Razorclaw Shifter, Whirling Slayer Barbarian. The problem was that most of the powers I wanted were from the new book, and until today they weren’t available in Character Builder. So I improvised.
Categories
Should Players Suffer When PCs Die?
Death. Until this week, I’d never witnessed the death of a PC. It can have serious short-term and long-term ramifications on your campaign. In a world without easily accessible magic to raise a dead PC, death is final. Your guy dies and it’s time to create a new PC. But in most D&D campaigns magic is readily available (for a price) and you can revive a fallen comrade easily enough. Chances are if a PC dies as part of a long-term campaign you’ll bring him back from the dead, but what about a one-off game?
In a recent Living Forgotten Realms (LFR) game I played at my friendly local gaming shop I sat down with six complete strangers to play a level 4-7 adventure. During the first combat encounter one of the PCs was killed. Dead, dead. We had to decide what was more important, making the best in-game, role-playing choice or making the best out-of-game, real life choice.