4th & Dragon : Dungeons and Dragons...and stuff

Wizards has released the first adventure in the promised Scales of War adventure path in this month’s Dungeon Magazine. The first part of the path is Rescue at Rivenroar.  The adventure is set approximately a decade in the future from the 3rd Edition adventure The Red Hand of Doom.

In all, I like how this adventure is structured.  Using the new landscape layout, David Noonan has managed to craft a fairly detailed entry point for 1st level characters.  The setting of Elsir Vale is geographically unchanged from the Red Hand, although the social landscape has shifted dramatically.  The Red Hand’s uprising has psychologically and emotionally scarred the Vale’s residents, particularly those living in the capitol city of Brindol.  The monsters and NPCs presented are pretty well fleshed out, and the adventure itself reads like a fun game.

I do have one complaint though--the adventure starts in a tavern in Brindol with a bar brawl and ends with a mission to rescue some citizens from a location named (ready for it?) Rivenroar.  The rescue mission is a stage-setting to envelop players into the machinations of Sinruth, a hobgoblin chieftain with dreams of raising the Red Hand again, and ultimately leads to the larger threat behind Sinruth.  The adventure itself looks like it will play out enjoyably, but the trope of a tavern fight as a way to introduce player characters to each other is something that I know I’ve deliberately tried to avoid since I started Dungeon Mastering.  It’s a shame to see it here.

The art, all done by Jason Engle, is nice but quite frankly there just isn’t enough of it.  The cartography by Mike Schley is decent enough, but the pixellation as you zoom in means you really can’t use the maps for table-top.  It’s one of the few things I really thought might come out of Dungeon being online, and it is a disappointment to find that I will still end up having to recreate the maps in third party software to use in face to face games.  A few hi-res maps to print and use with miniatures would be a welcome change to gaming.

Alberto from Spain sent me these pictures of what looks to be a hand-made D&D storage book.  I asked for more details and haven’t heard back.  Figured I share the pics anyhow.

Update: I finally heard back from Alberto who adds “It’s made of wood, leather cover, lead, and 2 photos.”

Some kind soul out there has created a browser based character generator for 4th edition.  Sure, it’s simple, but it works and is a quick way to hack out a character (like in 60 seconds). 

Props for being the first out the door with a simple and effective character generator.  Of course, I’m pretty sure this violates the OGL, but I think it’s harmless.  Any bets on whether WotC will do anything about it?  I sure hope not.

Roger has created Points of Conflict, a series of ready-to-run encounters that a DM can drop into any adventure. They are designed to be easy to use as improvisational aids and random encounters.  Two encounters are available.

Encounter 1: The Charnel Pit is an underground room that contains elven skeletons, carrion beetles, and a tactically-important trench.  Encounter 2: The Dancing Bridge is where a mutant harpy and her deaf quickling henchmen keep watch over a bridge of floating, moving platforms.

Although the maps aren’t great, they are functional.  Overall, both encounters are professionally done, creative, and worthy of use at the game table.

Wizards has announced that they will be offering 4th edition products as PDF downloads through DriveThruRPG and RPGNow.  Whoa.  Color me shocked.  I never though Wizards would adopt the digital medium for distributing their products.

RPGNow lists each of the core rules at $24.95, with the bundle at $74.95 $74.85 - reasonable if you ask me UPDATE: OK, the fact that the PDFs are more expensive than the real books on Amazon ($23.07) is ridiculous.  Their profit margins on the PDFs are huge in comparison as well, so I retract my statement about the costs being reasonable.  I think $15 would more in line. They are DRM free, but each PDF is watermarked with your name and order number - so be careful sharing.

Wizards of the Coast announces that digital versions of D&D 4th Edition roleplaying game products and supplements will be available for sale as PDF downloads at DriveThruRPG and RPGNow. The products will be DRM-free and watermarked.

“We are excited to align our efforts with DriveThruRPG and RPGNow, the official licensees for D&D 4th Edition PDF sales. There has been a call for digital versions of these products, and we want to meet that need.”

Dragon issue #365 features Bazaar of the Bizarre: Ashardalon’s Hoard.  The article features almost 40 new magical treasures of all types including weapons, armor, and wondrous items. 

The items presented here include some of the more famous treasures recovered from his lair at one time or another. Of these items, many Ashardalon seized during his life, but most are the leavings of those adventurers who sought to test their mettle against the beast . . . but were found wanting.

One particularly interesting one is the Dragonscale Shield:

Power (Daily): Immediate Interrupt. Use this power when you are in the area of a blast attack. One ally in the area gains cover against the attack.
Level 29: All allies in the area gain cover.

Chris Young’s editorial for Dungeon issue #156 talks about an upcoming revamping of the submission guidelines along with some insight into what their looking for.

You want your villain to be compelling. That often means he’s a hateful SOB that the PCs just can’t wait to nail to a wall. But sometimes it means he’s a surprise. Sometimes he’s a former ally. Sometimes he’s a misguided fool. There are lots of viable options, but give your villain something fun and unique—a compelling personality, a stylish mannerism, a unique ability or signature item. Give him (or her) something that sets him apart from the crowd.