Sunday, May 27, 2012

Fifth Edition Dungeons and Dragons

Ah.  Hi there.  Good.  I'm glad I got your attention.

Some of you may recognize the image over there as the one created as an April Fool joke back in 2011.  The reason I reposted it is really to just mess with your head.  Calm down everybody.  ;)

I've just finished reading through the D&D Next Playtest files.  I was planning to write a breakdown of my feeling about each and every bit of it.  I've got the notes right here - all my little scribbles and chicken scratching.

I'm not going to post them.  

Why?  Well, First off, I'm not sure exactly what I can say with the NDA - I need to read over that again as well - but honestly, It doesn't matter. No one really cares about all that minutia, anyway.  So, I'll keep to larger, more sweeping observations.

In reading the rules, and taking a peek at other peoples' writings on the matter, I think it goes like this:
  1. If you want to like the rules presented in the D&D Next Playtest, you will, and
  2. If you do not want to like the rules presented in the D&D Next Playtest, you won't.
It's really simple as that.  The ruleset is so basic, and the actual rules that would evoke interest or disgust are so absent from this playtest, that I think your mind will probably try to fill in the blanks with what it is expecting, for better or worse.

I'm not sure whether that is by design, or by accident.

So what do we really have here with the D&D Next playtest?  I see this is an attempt to emulate old school style play using the 'language' of modern role playing games.  There are a few mechanics that offer a different flavor - but none of them are too repulsive.  The whole Advantage/Disadvantage mechanic intrigues the hell out of me.  The en masse move of virtually all saving throws and checks to the Abilities appears to be wonderful.

I could see running the kind of D&D games I like to run with this very ruleset.  I could see sitting down with a bunch of young punk gamers in a book store get-together, playing with them, and not projectile vomiting all over their manuals.

The big thing that worries me is the creeping in of character customization and specialization.  Race - okay.  Class - sure.  Background - umm . . . well . . . hmm.  Theme - umm . . huh?  The character creation rules are absent from the playtest, so this minefield of a subject is just hinted at by the pre-gen character sheets.

Of course, I haven't playtested yet, so all my thoughts are worthless until put into action.  Since one of our GM's games is on hiatus at the moment, I'll be running a playtest starting Wednesday.  Crazy Ass Tim has got the lineup over on his awesome blog.  

One thing I'll remind ya'll is that you must sign the NDA to playtest.  This includes children.  The boy is under 13, so of course he can't sign anything at all legally - but WOTC has provided something for me to sign, which allows his to play and give feedback to them.

If WOTC keeps on going in a good direction with this, I see 5e as something I would play.  Not as my go-to game or anything, but as a game I could sit down with some kids and play without feeling the need for a shower. And really that what I am hoping for - a game that can get the punks and the grognards in the same room together - for at least a little while.  Of course, I am filling in the blanks with my hopes and expectations (and fears) - as we are wont to do with anything in life.

- Ark

P.S. - WOTC, if you are listening right now, why not take this simplified ruleset and publish it as BASIC D&D, then throw the kitchen sink in and publish that as ADVANCED D&D.  Completely foreign and bizarre idea, I know, but it just might work!

Friday, May 25, 2012

A Call to Arms

These are doll arms, not maggots. I think.
Despite the sinking feeling that I've been getting over the past month when reading Mike Mearls' columns, I'm surprised that I'm pleasantly surprised by the contents of the D&D Next Playtest Packet.

I'm torn right now. We've got a hole in our gaming schedule, and I've been prepping to run a Champions game. But Next is staring at me in the face.

Now, I'm already playing a version of D&D I like, a version that I see no need to toss away. So why am I interested in D&D Next?

THINK OF THE CHILDREN.

Okay, this is where I'm coming from. I'd like to be able to plop down with any group of random whippersnappers playing D&D and not get violently ill and projectile vomit all over their ruleset. How does this happen? Well, the easiest way is for WOTC to put out a game that doesn't upset my stomach.

If new players are introduced to a ROLE-PLAYING GAME, rather than a miniatures based skirmish simulation system, well, that's a whole crop of people who will be that much closer to 'getting' old school type play. That makes more people who are prepped to come to my table and play a proper game of D&D.

WOTC really needs feedback to make that happen. They need feedback from grumpy old bastards who can identify the steaming piles and point them out. They need US, the Guardians of Grognosia (or something like that, since the term 'Grognardia' is already taken.)

In the end, WOTC will make whatever game they want to. Will they pour a bunch of crap on this simple ruleset and turn me off? Yeah, probably. But we have the opportunity to steer them, even if it's slightly, into the kind of game we prefer. The very fact that the adventure module in the playtest packet is the CAVES OF CHAOS points to the fact that they are at least listening a little bit.

Is all that worth three or four nights of learning some new old rules, killing orcs, and filling our some questionnaires? Right now, I'm thinking yes.

- Ark

P.S. Of course, I have a track record of being horribly wrong at important times, too. So get out your grain of salt. :)

Thursday, May 24, 2012

His Were Pink Too


You know, I really didn't think that I'd get this finished today, what with work being such a pain and me lately obsessing over the mega-picture of Glacia.  But I did it!  Well, not exactly 'on time,' because I shoot for before 7:00 AM CST, but heck - I got the day right at least.

Hey, do you mind doing me a favor?  I know there are a handful of people that actually read this strip on occasion from the stats, but I really don't know who.  If you read it, could you comment below? Just a Hi or a MEEP or UTINI will do.  I'm just curious.

THANKS!

- Ark

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Weird West Miniatures

Stuart Robertson has got a Kicksta^H^H^H^H Indiegogo project going.  He's putting together some minis for his Weird West game, which could lots of other uses.  Reenacting Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter immediately comes to mind.  Check it out and throw him some cash!

[Regretfully, I've been BANNED from giving any more money to projects for a while, so all I can do is be a cheerleaders for cool stuff at this point. 8) ]

- Ark

Monday, May 21, 2012

Fivey

You know, at the beginning of all this D&D Next stuff, I was mildly optimistic that WOTC's design guru's were on the right path to making a game I might enjoy - you know, old school in a new can.

However, the more I read from Mr. Mearls, the less warm fuzzies I get.

A lot less.

J. Geils comes to mind for some reason:

My blood runs cold
My memory has just been sold
My angel is a Centerfold
Angel is a Centerfold

:sigh:

- Ark

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Glacia's Smiley Farm


This is Glacia, my barbarian character in our 2e game.  I haven't been as productive as I'd like to have been this weekend.  I've got most of the basic line work down, though I still have to do the clothes sketch for the 'PG-13' version.  I've gone through quite a few poses - that's where most of the time has gone - lot's of redraws.  But I think she is shaping up well.

Enjoy - if you like this kind of thing. :)

- Ark

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Dungeonspiration: Glacia


Meet Glacia.  Yeah, she's not done yet.  She's ending up to be less cartoony and more comicy-realistic, which is taking me a bit more time to get right.  Glacia is my replacement character for Chartreuse in Crazy-Ass-Tim's 2e campaign.

During the campaign, the party acquired a flying boat that only spellcasters could pilot.  One day the cleric blew his piloting roll, and we ended up in the frozen northern wastes.  While there, we attacked by some Yetis.  We killed one and captured the other, then hauled it aboard the boat and lugged it around with us.  Some of us were wanting to train the Yeti to dance while wearing a top hat and a monocle, and others had even more interesting plans.

Well, Chartruese died on me, so I needed a new character.  We had a distinct lack of tanks (or people who were actually willing to get into the front line,) so I decided to make a fighter.  I wanted a kind of wildling type fighter, so Tim pointed me to some splat books.  After much though, I settled on a Barbarian Ravager, dispite my loud oath to never use, or even touch, a 2e splat book ever ever ever.  Let's just call it scope creep.

Since Chartreuse's death had left me all 'coitus interruptus' in pursuing my Beard and Boobs Badge, I decided to make a lady barbarian.  Glacia is of the Ice People, a tribe of the Frozen Northern Wastes that had intermarried with Yetis generations ago.  That's right, Glacia is a half-Yeti.

Note - these are not the stupid looking gorilla yetis in the Monstrous Manual.  In my mind, at least.  The Yetis all look like Bumble, The Abominable Snow Monster of the North in  Rankin/Bass version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.  The half-Yeti offspring have a varied feature set, ranging from almost human to very Yetish.

Glacia is 6'2", pale skinned, has light-blue eyes, and miles and miles of bright white Yeti hair.  Enough hair to make another person, in fact.  And as a ravager, she can't wear armor, so the whole fur bikini thing makes sense finally!  All those poor baby seals.  So sad.

So, some moths ago, Glacia saw a flying kayak steal away with her very hairy half-Yeti brother, and she's been chasing after it ever sense.  Come to find out that it wasn't a giant kayak filled with birds - but the PCs in their flying ship.  But instead of killing all of the PCs, Glacia found out that her hairy brother (who was actually the smartest half-Yeti in the tribe,) actually has been enjoying his adventures as a captive, exploring new lands and learning new things.

Glacia is not really thrilled about cavorting around in a flying ship with an abundance of small, hairy children (i.e., dwarves,) but it's something to do other than brain baby seals to death.  Or eat her fellow tribe members when they die - a socially acceptable and tasty alternative to burial.

On her first outing into a dungeon, things got weird.  She very muchly enjoyed killing the Stone Giants.  The Carrion Crawlers fought unfairly with their tentacles, which she did not like.  The Mummies concerned her, as the concept of the undead horrifies her and is clearly the reason why the proper thing to do is to eat anything that you kill.  But the thing that really confused her was the whole Deck of Many Things that Crazy-Ass Tim rolled up in the loot stash.

She took a card for fun, which let her pick two more.  Suddenly, Glacia's charisma shot up to 18 and she acquired possession of a keep somewhere.  The next card brought into being a 4th level fighter to serve her.

While she's much more charming now, she still insists on coating herself in the blood, juice, or ichor of anything she kills.   And that keep?  She doesn't understand the concept of property that you can't eat, or that kills things so you can eat them, so her Yeti brother will probably have to explain real estate law to her.  But the 4th level fighter?  She very much understands the concept of slavery, so she's got a 4th level one now - whether the fighter agrees of not.  The card said so.

However, she did watch the deck rip the soul right out of the dwarven thief, and just kill poor old Torvalds outright.  (Remember good old Torvalds the useless magician everybody?  Yup.  Toast.  Go read all about poor Torvalds' convoluted and painful death here.)  So Glacia will not be touching any more cards.  Ever.

Glacia, the half-yeti girl has been most inspiring to play.  She wild and crazy and psycho brave - exactly the opposite of cautious and cowardly Chartreuse.  It's kind of nice to completely reverse gears, and helps to inspire whole new avenues of creativity.

- Ark