"Wizards of the Coast are just out to make money!" "They just completed 3.5 Edition, why create 4th edition so soon?" "[Wizards] has killed the spirit of the game."
The time has come for someone to say it... QUIT YOUR BITCHING!!!
Time to face facts:
1. Wizards is a corporation... they need to pay their employees if they plan to continue releasing quality gaming products.
2. The second quote defeats itself... they COMPLETED 3.5 edition, the time has come to look at the new. If you prefer 3.5 edition, STICK to it... no one said you had to buy 4th ed.
3. 4th edition IS a quality product, well thought out, and better balanced than any other edition I have seen yet, and I have played them ALL. If putting out a quality product and making a competitive wage while doing it is destroying the spirit of the game, then perhaps. I somehow don't see it that way.
4. From DM / Fair Play player perspective, 4th Ed is ANTI power-gamer, and anti-munchkin… not flawlessly so, but you can spot the problems and NERF them pretty fast.
I, for one, was a little skeptical at the time that 4th Ed was announced, but grew to like it after a week of being mildly upset. I realized I was put off when 3.5 came out, and came to enjoy the changes made... I have read, cover to cover, the 3 source books released so far, and found that I REALLY love the new power system, as well as the simplified aspects of the game.
As an example for those of you who have access to the 4th ed sources (or a lenient bookstore), you have to admit that they have finally done with ranger what they have been trying to do for YEARS. They managed to create a focused fighter with EITHER two-weapon OR ranged focus and superiority (as opposed to the attempt in 3.5 which was defeated by taking a few feats and allowing you to do BOTH pretty easily)... 2 distinct paths, but same character flavor.
Bad news, though for those 3.5ed clerics whom have like to have 20+ different sourcebooks open each day to pray for spells, please don't buy this game, it's not like you'll miss the fact that you're no longer a healing battery nicknamed "Energizer Bunny Priest"
Energizer the Healer
http://www.thetangledweb.net/forums/profiler/view_char.php?cid=13785
*Belch*
*Toss* The Dragon has picked this one over well enough for today.
Want to add a bone to the pile? Email chaosmainline@gmail.com
Plenty of bones left, check back often, I plan to update as often as Real Life (the bane of my existence) allows, sooner if I get enough submissions to get me thinking.
--DM_Kincaide
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Sangresfer
Time to go into detail about another campaign world, which will be the scene for my next game, set to begin the Sunday after next from 8 pm to midnight, if there are no problems (hint: cue to alert me of problems).
Atriosfa is a new world, formed near the edge of existence. Existence and Nothingness persist in an eternal battle; they fought here too, and Existence won. The blood that fell from each pooled into puddles on the fabric of time, two suns, one light, and one dark. Both serve as conduits, the light sun, Daystar, bringing light, warmth, and positive energy to the world. The other sun, the Nullstar, a dark and malevolent violet, likes to the plane of negative energy and death, and brings nothing but shadows and pain.
And from the mixing of Nothing and Existence came raw energy, raw magic, that permeates the fabric of reality here like water in a sponge. From the magic, four old, great gods were formed; the Elementals. The Elementals were as siblings, born out of the same magic, and all sought to create something as a testimate to their true father, Existence. Earth, Air, Fire, and Water each created a portal to their home planes, and they channeled their resources into the creation of a new world, a perfect world, to exist upon. Once the world was made, they populated it with grand beings, titans, that could appreciate their work.
These beings, most elementals themselves, but many in the form of man and beast, existed in relative peace for some time, creating many wonders and building great cities before their works attracted the attention of the dieties of the planes. The other dieties, eager to expand their worship and power, fell upon the planet like locusts; even the benign gods were, at best, polite invaders. The Elementals and their titans at first welcomed the gods, but soon war erupted. The Elementals retreated to their portals, where each built a gigantic palace, to guard the realm from. These mammoth spheres took the form of the moons, which still circle, casting elemental light upon the planet. They were built unassailable, by both god and mortal, impervious to even the attacks of beings able to navigate the spacial void.
On the planet, the Elementals sent aid to their titans, and they drove out the gods from the world. The titans, almost destroyed, retreated to the poles of the world to regain their strength in seclusion, and the world was left to the wilds.
The Elementals took sympathy on the gods, and issued an edict; that no diety may ever set foot on the planet again, but that the works of the gods shall be left to the creations of the gods, and that they might use the world to build and shape for themselves. The titans would not interfere in the affairs of the god's mortals. The gods were allowed to create followers, and those followers created temples to their gods, and existed under their own accords, until this very day.
This is the history of Sangresfer.
Raw Data:
Radius: 4,280.25 miles
Surface Area: 230,215,476.14 square miles
Oceanic: (60%) 138,129,285.68 sq. mi.
Terrestrial: (40%) 92,086,190.46 sq. mi.
Atriosfa is a new world, formed near the edge of existence. Existence and Nothingness persist in an eternal battle; they fought here too, and Existence won. The blood that fell from each pooled into puddles on the fabric of time, two suns, one light, and one dark. Both serve as conduits, the light sun, Daystar, bringing light, warmth, and positive energy to the world. The other sun, the Nullstar, a dark and malevolent violet, likes to the plane of negative energy and death, and brings nothing but shadows and pain.
And from the mixing of Nothing and Existence came raw energy, raw magic, that permeates the fabric of reality here like water in a sponge. From the magic, four old, great gods were formed; the Elementals. The Elementals were as siblings, born out of the same magic, and all sought to create something as a testimate to their true father, Existence. Earth, Air, Fire, and Water each created a portal to their home planes, and they channeled their resources into the creation of a new world, a perfect world, to exist upon. Once the world was made, they populated it with grand beings, titans, that could appreciate their work.
These beings, most elementals themselves, but many in the form of man and beast, existed in relative peace for some time, creating many wonders and building great cities before their works attracted the attention of the dieties of the planes. The other dieties, eager to expand their worship and power, fell upon the planet like locusts; even the benign gods were, at best, polite invaders. The Elementals and their titans at first welcomed the gods, but soon war erupted. The Elementals retreated to their portals, where each built a gigantic palace, to guard the realm from. These mammoth spheres took the form of the moons, which still circle, casting elemental light upon the planet. They were built unassailable, by both god and mortal, impervious to even the attacks of beings able to navigate the spacial void.
On the planet, the Elementals sent aid to their titans, and they drove out the gods from the world. The titans, almost destroyed, retreated to the poles of the world to regain their strength in seclusion, and the world was left to the wilds.
The Elementals took sympathy on the gods, and issued an edict; that no diety may ever set foot on the planet again, but that the works of the gods shall be left to the creations of the gods, and that they might use the world to build and shape for themselves. The titans would not interfere in the affairs of the god's mortals. The gods were allowed to create followers, and those followers created temples to their gods, and existed under their own accords, until this very day.
This is the history of Sangresfer.
Raw Data:
Radius: 4,280.25 miles
Surface Area: 230,215,476.14 square miles
Oceanic: (60%) 138,129,285.68 sq. mi.
Terrestrial: (40%) 92,086,190.46 sq. mi.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
A Bone From The Pile
A quick intro, I'm Kincaide, (name changed to protect the guilty:) a veteran player of many campaigns including the one Gnome mentioned in his last post. (It flopped, and the DM was NOT the issue) I have also DMed a great many campaigns (DnD 1st-3.5ed, d20 modern, Vampire, Hackmaster, Shadowrun 3-4, and Alternity) online and in real life, and one thing I can't help but notice, being the Greybeard that I am, is this:
People nowadays can't seem to commit to ANYTHING.
The following is a rant comprised of observations of gaming culture that will probably cause the people I have played with lately to hate me, but does Kincaide CARE? Nope!
Gone are the days of setting a time (and place if in real-life) a day of the week, and sticking with it, regardless of what comes up. "I have a prior commitment" is a perfectly acceptable response to "Hey, come do THIS [insert gaming time/day here]!" Instead, I find my gaming tables sparsely populated by the one or two diehards like myself.
Am I saying a man should ignore his family member's birthday, or his own Wedding?(Contrary to the sad popular belief that gamers don't have social lives, there ARE married gamers out there, I promise, I AM one.) No! Gaming is not LIFE! (though for some of us it IS a major part of it) That being said, not showing up, particularly without prior notice just causes a group to fall apart... No one likes to come to game and find they were the only one who cared enough to show. It is awful when they realize that THEY turned down something to be there for the other members of the group- the same group of people who didn't have the common courtesy to return the favor.
I can't help but notice this is even more prevalent in online play, when the players have the benefit of a certain amount of anonymity and protection granted by not having to face those they have wronged.
"Those they have wronged..." that seems a very harsh wording, but when you really think about it, that is what it is... not caring enough for your fellow human beings to return the common courtesy that they give to you.
Online, I am forever encountering people who swear they can't find people to DM for them, and considering the discouraging results I have had with attendance, I can't blame those who hesitate to do so. Who wants to waste all their time preparing for a campaign when some "players" are unwilling to even give up enough of their time to show up to play.
I am aware that some of you out there are YOUNG gamers (like 12-17), and that parents can be a pain in the behind when it comes to YOUR schedule vs theirs... for you, all I can say is don't give your parents lip, it'll only result in you being kept from gaming longer (I'd know), make sure your party members know that your parents are the issue, and have a contingency plan (such as someone to play for you when you are gone).
I'll get off my soapbox now, for my anger has been given voice, but check in another day, this is just the FIRST bone I reached for in the pile, this dragon has many more bones I have yet to pick.
----DM_Kincaide
Game Over (basically)
So my last campaign is basically dead, we haven't played in like 6 weeks ago and not since. I was running an evil campaign in a homebrew knock-off of Waterdeep, I think I might just drop the city into the sea. It's a nice deus ex machina to wipe out a party and a disaster of a campaign from the memory of my campaign world.
Speaking of campaign worlds, I have about 3 of them, and I'm of the belief that they're all pretty good. I'll synopsize one of them for you now:
- Atriosfa -
Atriosfa is a dyson-spherical world, which, for those who aren't into theoretical astrophysics, means that it is a sphere approximately the radius of the distance from the Sun to Mars. It's really fucking big. The world is basically like a shell with a star contained inside, it's an impossible structure in the real world, using physics you'd assume a completely closed dyson sphere would get blow apart, but that's where the conveniently placed divine artifacts deep inside the rocky shell come into play. They hold the entire world together.
The shell itself is about 5 to 10 thousand miles thick, and the 'habitable world' is on the inside of the the shell. This world is huge, a world of extreme, with something (I forget the exact math) like 4 1/2 quadrillion square miles of surface. About 65% of it is covered in water, which can't easily escape the system since it's so enclosed. Since the sun is always shining, most plants grow huge, and the land is sharply divided between bleak desert, towering forests, vast tropical seas, huge plains, and marshes. Mountains and mountain chains are relatively rare, but they can grow huge. The atmosphere is thick, and most beings subsist on little sleep; 4-5 hours a day. (Elves meditate for 2-3 hours.) There are several moons and planetoids flying around the inside of the vacuous space inside the shell. The atmosphere only extends a half dozen miles, and so space-like conditions are prevalent in many places, although some moons are habitable.
Outside the shell is less so, it's a bleak, near-zero, near-vacuum occupied by giant space worms and other hostile lifeforms. All the best parts of sci-fi exist in the crazy areas, and all the best parts of D&D thrive in the more 'normal' regions inside the shell, although there is still plenty of craziness to be had. Anyone interested in playing comment, please.
Speaking of campaign worlds, I have about 3 of them, and I'm of the belief that they're all pretty good. I'll synopsize one of them for you now:
- Atriosfa -
Atriosfa is a dyson-spherical world, which, for those who aren't into theoretical astrophysics, means that it is a sphere approximately the radius of the distance from the Sun to Mars. It's really fucking big. The world is basically like a shell with a star contained inside, it's an impossible structure in the real world, using physics you'd assume a completely closed dyson sphere would get blow apart, but that's where the conveniently placed divine artifacts deep inside the rocky shell come into play. They hold the entire world together.
The shell itself is about 5 to 10 thousand miles thick, and the 'habitable world' is on the inside of the the shell. This world is huge, a world of extreme, with something (I forget the exact math) like 4 1/2 quadrillion square miles of surface. About 65% of it is covered in water, which can't easily escape the system since it's so enclosed. Since the sun is always shining, most plants grow huge, and the land is sharply divided between bleak desert, towering forests, vast tropical seas, huge plains, and marshes. Mountains and mountain chains are relatively rare, but they can grow huge. The atmosphere is thick, and most beings subsist on little sleep; 4-5 hours a day. (Elves meditate for 2-3 hours.) There are several moons and planetoids flying around the inside of the vacuous space inside the shell. The atmosphere only extends a half dozen miles, and so space-like conditions are prevalent in many places, although some moons are habitable.
Outside the shell is less so, it's a bleak, near-zero, near-vacuum occupied by giant space worms and other hostile lifeforms. All the best parts of sci-fi exist in the crazy areas, and all the best parts of D&D thrive in the more 'normal' regions inside the shell, although there is still plenty of craziness to be had. Anyone interested in playing comment, please.
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