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Dungeons, Cities, and Psionics
It's time to check in with the table-top scene, with a slew of products from earlier this year. With one exception, everything I have to discuss today is from Wizards of the Coast (WotC). The well-known maker of Dungeons and Dragons is having a banner year, a year they've been referring to as the 'Year of Dragons'. Their draco-specific products will get a look here on the site in a month or two, and later this month I should have a full report on the 4th Edition of the Shadowrun RPG. Today, though, we've got demons, psionics, epic-level play, and a second Player's Handbook. Oh yeah, and a 670-page, $120 sourcebook called Ptolus. Read on for my impressions of these great excuses to throw a d20.
Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss
James Jacobs, Erik Mona, Ed Stark
$29.95, 160 pages
The first in a series of sourcebooks detailing the denizens of the outer planes, Hordes of the Abyss is a title squarely aimed at the GM. Penned by some well-known alumni of Dungeon magazine, this text is a rare accessory, in that almost every D&D GM could make use of it at one point or another. Because of the popularity of the Abyss and its denizens throughout Dungeons and Dragons lore, after a certain point you can be certain your players will either be fighting, summoning, or visiting creatures from this horrific lower plane. It follows the same template as most location-specific sourcebooks; there are new feats, monsters, and spells, and a large section detailing the geography of the area. The most enlightening part of the book deals with the powerful, but fickle, demon princes that rule over the various layers. They're given statistics, but I find the material on who's squabbling with who much more interesting. If your players are even vaguely interested in traveling the planes, plot hooks like Graz'zt's war with Demogorgon or the machinations of Dagon are great ways to get players interested. This is a textbook example of what a great GM accessory should be; concise, specific, and heavily detailed.
Players Handbook II
David Noonan
$34.95, 224 pages
The Dungeon Master's Guide II (DMG II) gave GMs the tools they needed to run a better game. The Player's Handbook II (PHB II) aims to provide players with the tools to make and run a better character. There are some crunchy bits here, with new classes and spells filling out parts of the book, but even more space is spent on coming to understand your character and their place in the world. Every class is given a new look, examining not only what it can do but what role it should play in an adventuring party. How to act as an adventuring party is also explored, with game mechanics assigned to roleplaying elements like camp preparation and team-building exercises. Gamers familiar with White Wolf's titles will recognize the section on character backgrounds: archetypes that a player looking for a hook can exploit to get inside the head of his new avatar. While I'm very glad to have it on my shelf, I don't see this as a required text for every D&D player. There's nothing in here that a player absolutely has to have. New players are probably going to get more out of it than veterans; those who do purchase it will be getting a lot for their money.
Power of Faerûn
Ed Greenwood and Eric L. Boyd
$29.95, 160 pages
Power of Faerûn is a GM-specific text that offers reams of advice for dealing with players that are powerful enough to move mountains, found kingdoms, and win wars. Where many other WotC texts focus on mechanics, Power has almost no references to the D&D rules-set; consumers who like their sourcebooks crunchy should be advised. What Greenwood and Boyd fill the book with, instead, are hundreds of plot hooks and guidelines for running high level campaigns. If your players want to become nobility, build a keep, and tame the frontier, this book has exactly what you'll need. It's set in the Realms, of course, but many of the suggestions they make could be easily translated to other fantasy settings with a little work. I'm not sure how many DMs actually run epic-level campaigns, to be truthful, but it is still one of the more useful Realms supplements I've read. While the book is intended for epic play, every chapter is essentially a framework for an entire campaign. I highly recommend this to GMs looking for inspiration and a campaign workbook.
Complete Psionic
Bruce R. Cordell and Christopher Lindsay
$29.94, 160 pages
Unlike the other 'Complete' books, which provide variations on a theme for the core classes, Complete Psionic only increases options for campaigns which use the 'mind magic' introduced in the Expanded Psionics Handbook. With rules for psionics-using races, several new classes, abilities, and monsters, GMs that have a use for this material will be undoubtedly pleased. As far as I know, though, only a small percentage of campaigns actually use the obscure rules referenced in this book. Most campaigns stay close to the D&D world described in the core books, which have no mention of the sometimes confusing and often broken mechanics associated with psionics. Thus, for something like 99% of all D&D players and GMs, this book is completely useless. Considering the high utility factor of the other books in the 'Complete' series, or even the 'Races' series, the narrow focus of this text seems disappointing and wasteful.
Ptolus: Monte Cook's City by the Spire
Monte Cook, Sue Weinlein Cook, Todd Lockwood, et. al.
$119.99, 640 pages
A tour de force project from Malhavoc press, Ptolus is breathtaking (and backbreaking) to read. When I mentioned it earlier this year in connection to the freebie Player's Guide, I had no idea what I was getting myself in for. I sat down to flip through the book after last month's Gen Con, intending to skim enough to get an idea of the setting and pass on to you the salient points. Instead, I delayed this article by reading through the entire text cover-to-cover. The reason? It's special. Frustratingly, it's hard to pin down exactly what's special about it without doing a lot of arm waving. Ptolus isn't likely to bring many new players to D&D, being as niche and jargony as any other setting you're likely to encounter. I also don't think the well known settings that WotC publishes have anything to worry about; the Realms and Eberron are going to continue to outsell the books associated with the 'City by the Spire'.
Despite that, I found Mr. Cook's offering to be invigorating. A campaign setting built during the development process for the newer editions of Dungeons and Dragons, Ptolus is the hand-worn world used to test many of the concepts found in the Player's Handbook and Dungeons Master's Guide. Despite being so closely associated with core D&D, the setting still has enough deviation from the norm (guns, a few new races, technology) to make stale situations fresh. The book's astonishing size is due to the sheer amount of detail available. Each district of the city is described, as are important factions, several dungeons, the history of the world, technology, and magic. Probably the most surprising element of the text is its accessibility. Although there is a mountain of information available, each chapter is laid out in an intuitive fashion. Each district description contains only what's useful for running that area of the city; there are shops and streets listed, but no attempt is made to flesh out every single building. The book's utility is aided by sidebars on every single page (containing page references to key elements), several detailed glossaries and appendices, dozens of maps, and copious illustrations.
The book's extraordinarily high production value is breathtaking to behold. Not just the value of the layout, paper, and binding (although those are all amazing) ... the production value of the world has been polished to a mirror finish. That's really what makes Ptolus special; years of running characters through this setting has made Mr. Cook's vision crystal clear. His deep understanding of the 'City by the Spire', and his talent as a GM, is passed undiminished to the reader. As someone who runs games regularly, I found the book almost leaps from your hands with sheer potential. Some settings and sourcebooks leave you bewildered, wondering when you'll actually make use of the content you've purchased. Ptolus not only made me want to run games in the setting, it's inspired me to make other games and worlds better.
Given the cost, I expect few people will rush out and purchase this massive setting. Via DriveThruRPG, though, you can buy the entire book in sections in PDF format. Heck, if you're even vaguely interested the first chapter is free for the taking. At the end of the day, the Ptolus line is a testament to what a small publisher can do if with the proper inspiration. I don't think that this Mr. Cook's opus is going to change the way the industry works ... but I certainly hope it opens some eyes.
James Jacobs, Erik Mona, Ed Stark
$29.95, 160 pages
The first in a series of sourcebooks detailing the denizens of the outer planes, Hordes of the Abyss is a title squarely aimed at the GM. Penned by some well-known alumni of Dungeon magazine, this text is a rare accessory, in that almost every D&D GM could make use of it at one point or another. Because of the popularity of the Abyss and its denizens throughout Dungeons and Dragons lore, after a certain point you can be certain your players will either be fighting, summoning, or visiting creatures from this horrific lower plane. It follows the same template as most location-specific sourcebooks; there are new feats, monsters, and spells, and a large section detailing the geography of the area. The most enlightening part of the book deals with the powerful, but fickle, demon princes that rule over the various layers. They're given statistics, but I find the material on who's squabbling with who much more interesting. If your players are even vaguely interested in traveling the planes, plot hooks like Graz'zt's war with Demogorgon or the machinations of Dagon are great ways to get players interested. This is a textbook example of what a great GM accessory should be; concise, specific, and heavily detailed.
Players Handbook II
David Noonan
$34.95, 224 pages
The Dungeon Master's Guide II (DMG II) gave GMs the tools they needed to run a better game. The Player's Handbook II (PHB II) aims to provide players with the tools to make and run a better character. There are some crunchy bits here, with new classes and spells filling out parts of the book, but even more space is spent on coming to understand your character and their place in the world. Every class is given a new look, examining not only what it can do but what role it should play in an adventuring party. How to act as an adventuring party is also explored, with game mechanics assigned to roleplaying elements like camp preparation and team-building exercises. Gamers familiar with White Wolf's titles will recognize the section on character backgrounds: archetypes that a player looking for a hook can exploit to get inside the head of his new avatar. While I'm very glad to have it on my shelf, I don't see this as a required text for every D&D player. There's nothing in here that a player absolutely has to have. New players are probably going to get more out of it than veterans; those who do purchase it will be getting a lot for their money.
Power of Faerûn
Ed Greenwood and Eric L. Boyd
$29.95, 160 pages
Power of Faerûn is a GM-specific text that offers reams of advice for dealing with players that are powerful enough to move mountains, found kingdoms, and win wars. Where many other WotC texts focus on mechanics, Power has almost no references to the D&D rules-set; consumers who like their sourcebooks crunchy should be advised. What Greenwood and Boyd fill the book with, instead, are hundreds of plot hooks and guidelines for running high level campaigns. If your players want to become nobility, build a keep, and tame the frontier, this book has exactly what you'll need. It's set in the Realms, of course, but many of the suggestions they make could be easily translated to other fantasy settings with a little work. I'm not sure how many DMs actually run epic-level campaigns, to be truthful, but it is still one of the more useful Realms supplements I've read. While the book is intended for epic play, every chapter is essentially a framework for an entire campaign. I highly recommend this to GMs looking for inspiration and a campaign workbook.
Complete Psionic
Bruce R. Cordell and Christopher Lindsay
$29.94, 160 pages
Unlike the other 'Complete' books, which provide variations on a theme for the core classes, Complete Psionic only increases options for campaigns which use the 'mind magic' introduced in the Expanded Psionics Handbook. With rules for psionics-using races, several new classes, abilities, and monsters, GMs that have a use for this material will be undoubtedly pleased. As far as I know, though, only a small percentage of campaigns actually use the obscure rules referenced in this book. Most campaigns stay close to the D&D world described in the core books, which have no mention of the sometimes confusing and often broken mechanics associated with psionics. Thus, for something like 99% of all D&D players and GMs, this book is completely useless. Considering the high utility factor of the other books in the 'Complete' series, or even the 'Races' series, the narrow focus of this text seems disappointing and wasteful.
Ptolus: Monte Cook's City by the Spire
Monte Cook, Sue Weinlein Cook, Todd Lockwood, et. al.
$119.99, 640 pages
A tour de force project from Malhavoc press, Ptolus is breathtaking (and backbreaking) to read. When I mentioned it earlier this year in connection to the freebie Player's Guide, I had no idea what I was getting myself in for. I sat down to flip through the book after last month's Gen Con, intending to skim enough to get an idea of the setting and pass on to you the salient points. Instead, I delayed this article by reading through the entire text cover-to-cover. The reason? It's special. Frustratingly, it's hard to pin down exactly what's special about it without doing a lot of arm waving. Ptolus isn't likely to bring many new players to D&D, being as niche and jargony as any other setting you're likely to encounter. I also don't think the well known settings that WotC publishes have anything to worry about; the Realms and Eberron are going to continue to outsell the books associated with the 'City by the Spire'.
Despite that, I found Mr. Cook's offering to be invigorating. A campaign setting built during the development process for the newer editions of Dungeons and Dragons, Ptolus is the hand-worn world used to test many of the concepts found in the Player's Handbook and Dungeons Master's Guide. Despite being so closely associated with core D&D, the setting still has enough deviation from the norm (guns, a few new races, technology) to make stale situations fresh. The book's astonishing size is due to the sheer amount of detail available. Each district of the city is described, as are important factions, several dungeons, the history of the world, technology, and magic. Probably the most surprising element of the text is its accessibility. Although there is a mountain of information available, each chapter is laid out in an intuitive fashion. Each district description contains only what's useful for running that area of the city; there are shops and streets listed, but no attempt is made to flesh out every single building. The book's utility is aided by sidebars on every single page (containing page references to key elements), several detailed glossaries and appendices, dozens of maps, and copious illustrations.
The book's extraordinarily high production value is breathtaking to behold. Not just the value of the layout, paper, and binding (although those are all amazing) ... the production value of the world has been polished to a mirror finish. That's really what makes Ptolus special; years of running characters through this setting has made Mr. Cook's vision crystal clear. His deep understanding of the 'City by the Spire', and his talent as a GM, is passed undiminished to the reader. As someone who runs games regularly, I found the book almost leaps from your hands with sheer potential. Some settings and sourcebooks leave you bewildered, wondering when you'll actually make use of the content you've purchased. Ptolus not only made me want to run games in the setting, it's inspired me to make other games and worlds better.
Given the cost, I expect few people will rush out and purchase this massive setting. Via DriveThruRPG, though, you can buy the entire book in sections in PDF format. Heck, if you're even vaguely interested the first chapter is free for the taking. At the end of the day, the Ptolus line is a testament to what a small publisher can do if with the proper inspiration. I don't think that this Mr. Cook's opus is going to change the way the industry works ... but I certainly hope it opens some eyes.
I'm attacking the firstpost!
Wizards of the Coast bought TSR, the real maker of D&D.
In this advanced age geeks press a button on their random number generator, using the background radiation of the universe as a source of entropy, to provide an output in the range of 1-n where n is determined by the characteristics of the die placed on the optical scanner.
Beep beep.
They are hard and have sharp corners, I can think of a lot of reasons to throw them...
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel...
you can be certain your players will either be fighting, summoning, or visiting creatures from this horrific lower plane
I didn't realize they had MBA's in D&D... so much for escapism.
"If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
Gfft! Gbah! Pfft! Fffeh! Mvvt! Grrp!
I know, I know... The pedant in me _knows_ "Maker" != "Inventor", but I think it should be a law that either "TSR" or "Gary Gygax" be mentioned in any sentence introducing D&D, regardless of how many people have been at the helm since day one.
https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
FRPG table-top gameplay endures because something like "Never Winter Nights", is prohibitively expensive to develop a good adventure for.
There's an intrinsic worth to all the maps, the (often quite bad) art, the stories and the histories. And at the very core of things, interaction and story-telling take skill and it takes a human.
Perhaps as a father I'll start being the "sacrificial nerd" and running games for my kids. I am an accomplished GM, voice-actor, story-writer, and story-teller, and good enough illustrator. I have run games that lasted for months, even spanned years. In the time it takes a small army of people to craft a video game, I can create the beginnings of a world and populate it by incident and by design. I can't think of a better thing to do, in lieu of reading, than to teach through table-top role-playing games.
I've nearly finished reading "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" to them and once that's done I think it's time to start telling my own stories and having my kids play characters instead of having their brains poached by the dreck on Cartoon Network and Nickolodeon before they fall asleep.
They'll benefit immensely from having to think before turning in, and there's nothing like having something which will detour them from TV.
And maybe it'll justify a few trips to the local gameshop. I haven't been there in years.
Cheers.
Every new form of media has it's own Requirimento
I suppose it is survival against all odds if what you get out of roleplaying games is the opportunity to kill monsters. A computer game can do that better and with less hassle (and getting one's friends in one room can be a major hassle).
If what you get out of roleplaying games is the opportunity to hang around with your friends, it's not survival against all odds at all. Computers don't do that better.
If what you primarily want to get out of role playing games is the improvised co-creation of a story, it's also not too much of a surprise. Computers allow you to create a story of a kind, but you can only interact with the world in ways that the designers allowed for (I admit that some give you a lot of possibilities).
Basically, table top gaming scratches a different itch. When I play roleplaying games, I come up with an idea for a game, campaign or character and get an experience more similar to creating something. When I play a computer game, I use other people's pre-defined characters or character concepts, explore a pre-defined world and solve pre-defined puzzles.
As a small publisher of RPGs myself, I feel compelled to point out that there's much more out there than WOTC and White Wolf. There are a slew of small publishers putting out great, critically acclaimed material, both in PDF and print format. I draw your attention to the ENnie awards (complete list of 2006 winners can be found right here, which this past year rewarded not only big guys like Paizo Publishing and White Wolf, but smaller pubishers like Green Ronin and Guardians of Order, as well as really little guys like Atomic Sock Monkey Press (for the excellent super-hero game Truth & Justice and Dog Soul Publishing (for their Baba Yaga book, which I penned. Check us out. We may not be as well known as the other guys but we're just as good.
D&D is good if you want to play a kill them and take their stuff style of game... which isn't a bad thing if you enjoy it. D&D can be used for other things, but it's not the best tool for the task of many other styles of games. Check out Burning Wheel for one. It's a great system for fantasy RP similar to what you find in D&D setting, but with a different direction for what the game rules encourage players to explore. If you like to focus primarily on character's past, ethics, beliefs, goals and dreams, then this game suits that style of storytelling much better than D&D.
I got my twelve sided die and I'm ready
to roll with a wizard and my goblin crew.
My friends are comin' over to my mom's basement
bringing Funions and the Mountain Dew.
I got a big broadsword made out of cardboard
and the stereo's a pumpin' Zepplin.
It's that time of the night, turn on the black light.
Let the Dungeons and the Dragons begin.
IT'S D&D!
Fightin' with the legends of yore.
IT'S D&D!
Never kissed a lady before (Nope. Nuh uh)
Now the Lord of The Rings, the Dark Crystal and things
we use these as a reference tool.
And when we put on our cloaks and tell warlock jokes
we're the coolest kids in the school (No we're not. I know)
Now attack's a real bastard, but a fair Dungeon Master
has hitpoints and charisma to lend
I rehearse in my room or what I call the Dragon's Tomb
when I'm not out with my girlfriend.
IT'S D an... Wait wait, whoa, whoa. You got a girlfriend?
Yeah... Yeah... No.
IT'S D&D!
Warriors who terrify
IT'S D&D!
Virgins, till the day weeeeeeeeeeee DIEEEEEEEEEEEE!
"Dungeons and Dragons" by Stephen Lynch
If this signature is witty enough, maybe somebody will like me.
The simple fact that all RPG games are run by a HUMAN give RPG the edge it needs for survival. No computer run game will ever match the endless possibilities that a human DM can come up with. There are great tools out there which a HUMAN DM can use as an aide to his abilities and to allow for gaming between geographically separated players. One of the best out there is Battlegrounds: RPG Edition, an excellent tool from http://www.battlegroundsgames.com/.
I always thought computer game RPG's kinda sucked. Why even call them RPG's? My friends and I used RPG's (D&D, Shadowrun, Top Secret... Fuck Whitewolf and Magic) as an excuse to hang out, eat snack food, and generally goof off for a couple hours in a town where their was nothing to do. The whole point was that it was social and there was interaction with friends. It's a creative and social outlet -- something that PC RPG's lack in my mind.
Tabletop has declined greatly, especially compared to it's peak, probably in the eighties somewhere. But it will survive simply because it is not a video game. While finding a group to play in can be difficult depending on where you are, tabletop is a social activity. It is more enjoyable to see and hear how people roleplay their character, than to read text off the computer screen, or listen to a scratchy, tinny voice mumble (or scream) their part. You don't have to fuss with cables and IP addresses (assuming you've carted your pc elsewhere for a LAN party). And I have had times online where waiting around for the character types you need for your group takes more time than it would to gather the same five or six folks at your house... :P
Getting out of the house to travel to another person's house may be the most exercise some folks get. :P
Tabletop roleplaying also requires imagination, creativity, and improves both, as well as social skills. On an MMORPG, it's twitch, twitch, twitch to see who can click the mouse button fastest.
You can also buy the entire D&D line for the same price as moderately capable computer. A hundred bucks will get you the three main D&D books, and your imagination should be able to fill in the rest, really. Other table top games are just as good, with lower prices (less books required).
Tabletop won't go away entirely, as long as folks possess an imagination, and a desire to roleplay.
Julie Moult is an idiot.
I agree with the premise: Complete Psionic was a pretty bad book. So bad, in fact, that some denizens of the D&D Psionics board banded together and wrote an alternative supplement that is easily 10 times better.
But don't go bad-mouthing psionics in your review. The base system is clear and well-thought-out. It's not broken at all, although it is misunderstood. It's even part of the core rules and SRD, so there's no reason why you can't read about it for yourself. No, Complete Psionics is bad because it lacked anything good. Nearly all of it was recycled from Dragon magazines or other supplements. There were nearly no good PrCs or powers to speak of. There were a handful of good ideas in there, but 80% of it was drek that nobody would use. That's why Complete Psionic was crap.
On the weaponization of dice, we could spawn a sub-topic concerning piercing vs. bludgeoning damage. Now THAT is nerdy.
"You will pay for your lack of vision..." - Emperor Palpatine to Ray Charles
Later this month? It's been out for a year already, and you're just getting to it?
To be fair, the poster was probably talking within the context of GenCon, and SR4 (Shadowrun 4th Edition Core Rules) was just barely released last year at GenCon (limited number of copies, long waits in line, and a LOT of people didn't get one). Sure, you could have ordered it online or at a local gaming store, but they didn't receive the Core Rules book until several months later (which pissed off a lot of SR fans, not being able to get a hardcopy of the new Core Rules until, say, X-mas). A PDF has been available for purchase at DriveThruRPG.com for some time, though...
This year's offering from FanPro was the magic sourcebook for SR4, Street Magic. Basically, all of the homebrew Magic rules that folks had to retrofit from their current gaming group and books are in Street Magic. Not too exciting, but at least it's nice to have a canon source to work from, especially with spell creation rules and whatnot. There is also a substantial amount of brand new material, but most of it is an update of the old stuff into the new rules. Overall, a must-have book if you play SR4. Much more significant than Runner Havens, but that's my subjective opinion.
To reiterate, SR4 was first released last year at GenCon, and was followed by two sourcebooks over the course of this past year, Runner Havens and Street Magic.
This book has a very nice premise but I have one problem. The demon princes seem extrodinarily weak. Graz'zt for instance is listed and set up as a CR 22 creature. A Balor is what, CR 19 or 20? This means a half dozen Balors not happy with Graz'zt could come along and off him and then kill one another for rightful place on the throne. A ruler on a Chaotic Evil Plane better be powerful enough to shred the most powerful of his commanders without thinking twice because otherwise his Chaotic Commanders will turn on his sorry butt. Fear and power is how they would have to rule.
Why couldn't we all have parents like you.
My mother tried to ban me from playing D&D because it was the "work of Satan" and when that didn't work I would catch her praying over my RPG materials. Well, I didn't grow up to be a serial killer so I guess she figures her prayers must have worked. About a month ago I had to intervene when she started scolding my niece about her "Satanic Pokemon cards". Nothing drives me up the wall more than hearing religious parents extoll the virtues of this kind of zero-tolerance approach to anything "imaginative" and as evidence of the effectiveness they point to their quiet and well-behaved children. Quiet? I mean sullen and afraid to express themselves lest they invoke the wrath of one of God's earthly overseers.
Now that I'm a father I read to my six-year old daughter EVERY night. We play CRPG games like Morrowind and Diablo together and I hope that when she's old enough we'll be able to enjoy some classic table-top D&D too.
So yeah... the world needs more parents like you: ones that get involved with their children and nurture their imaginations. Keep up the good work.
Oh please,...how is that going to hurt? Get back to me after you've fallen on a 4-sided die.
"It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance." - Thomas Sowell
Good grief...we're in the middle of an RPG Renaissance, and the best we can get is articles about the latest splatbook from WotC??
l
How about some of these highly acclaimed and cutting-edge RPGs?
The Mountain Witch - http://www.timfire.com/MountainWitch.html
Don't Rest Your Head - http://www.evilhat.com/?dryh
Dogs in the Vineyard - http://www.septemberquestion.org/lumpley/dogs.htm
My Life with Master - http://www.halfmeme.com/master.html
The Burning Wheel - http://www.burningwheel.org/
Weapons of the Gods - http://www.eos-press.com/products-wotg.html
-PARANOIA is fun. D20 is not fun. The Computer says so.
-The Computer
I think we D&Ders sometimes forget: this is an open system. You should not just go by whats in the books but also use your imagination and make something that is truly yours. I have no problem with people using what WotC gives us, but they seem to give us a whole lot of stuff we really don't need.
https://secure.slickwebsitedevelopment.com/bunkerh illgames.com/description.php?II=1082&UID=200609121 7304471.41.111.22
Many of the support sections are computerized, leaving the fun parts for the Ref and the players.