Dragon Avenue Forums

News: UI Improvements made to the Coat of Arms Visual Designer

2008-11-10T11:04:38-08:00

I’ve made a few major recent updates to the Coat of Arms Visual Designer I’ve been creating, particularly to the user interface.

If you haven’t seen it yet, the software allows you to easily and quickly create a coat of arms.

For a game setting, you may want to create a coat of arms for the key nobles in the game or maybe for each government or for other key organizations. Players of knights or other noble characters may want to create that character’s arms. Outside of gaming, you may want to create a personal coat of arms as an avatar for the forums or you want to recreate an ancestor’s coat of arms.

If you are interested, take a look at the examples to see what’s possible, then open the instructions in one tab/window and then open the software designer in another web browser window.

Main Page: http://www.inkwellideas.com/heraldry/

Please send me feedback (see the link on the website) or post constructive criticism or positive reviews here. Thanks! I’m planning on adding to it and making improvements every week or so for a while yet. I’ll definitely be adding more creatures, symbols, and objects to include in a coat of arms.

Latest changes:

* You can now re-position and re-size the creatures (like Lion Rampant, Dragon Statant, etc.) and symbols (such as many crosses, Cannon Balls, etc.) by dragging them or dragging the corners of the images.
* You can also quickly create several copies of a creature or symbol in a chosen pattern. You can tweak the locations of these copies individually, but changes to the colors change the colors of each copy. This makes the software more consistent with the rules of heraldry.
* The design graphic updates more quickly and uses less memory.
* And a bunch of minor enhancements.

Expeditious Retreat Press Sale

2008-11-03T14:05:46-08:00

For those of you who are looking for solid game products for a bargin, XRP is having a clearance sale on their products which bear the d20 logo. Of particular interest are A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture and A Magical Society: Silk Road. While I don’t have these books in particular, I do own a copy of the first edition of A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe which is an absolute gold mine for DMs interested in fleshing out their campaign setting. That particular book isn’t part of the sale since it has a second edition out now which doesn’t have the d20 logo on it, but from everything I’ve read Ecology and Culture and Silk Road are supposed to do for world building (in the literal sense) and trade routes what Western Europe did for communities and in a way that can survive the edition change. I know that Western Europe is actually usable in 4e.

Besides at just $8 for the pair (plus $3 for shipping to the continental US), it’s really hard to say they aren’t worth it. I’m going to be picking these up shortly. I’m just checking to see if my FLGS can get the clearance prices first so that I can support it in the process if possible.

A Magical Society: Beast Builder is also on sale, but is far more bound to the mechanics of 3.5 creatures (again, so far as I know, I don’t actually own the book). As a result, it’s not going to be as useful to those who are playing 4e.

From Behind the Wall

2008-10-20T07:56:06-08:00

Today’s Dragon release is an article about using gladiators and the arena as an encounter, adventure, or campaign. While it doesn’t require the gladiator mechanics released last week, it would go well with that material.

The first part of the article centers around designing arena combats and the considerations that a DM has to take into account in both Duel, Teams, and Grand Melee formats. It also mentions variant victory conditions in case you don’t want to introduce death into your bloodsport. This section then goes on to describe how one might expand the idea into an adventure or even a whole campaign.

The second part of the article focuses on the gladiatorial arena itself. Three different arena types are presented (the Fighting Pit, the Fighting Ring, and the Arena) as well as examples of each.

The third part of the article moves on to discussing the crowds. Since it’s the interaction with the crowd that really sets apart a gladiatorial match from a combat with unusual conditions, this is, in my opinion, the most important section of the article. Interactions with the crowd are presented as a skill challenge and the Helpful/Hostile Crowd is presented as a Hazard and as a Gargantuan creature: the Angry Mob. Helpful crowds take actions that harm the party’s foes. Hostile ones take actions that harm the party.

The fourth part of the article provides the DM with traps and hazards which are appropriate to the arena. Even if you’re not running a gladiatorial game, these could be useful.

The fifth, and final part of the article provides monster statistics for five type of foes that PCs are likely to encounter in the arena: Grand Melee Gladiator, Common Gladiator, Veteran Gladiator, Arena-Trained Ogre, and Arena Champion.

Overall the article is fairly decent. There are a few typos here and there, but hopefully they’ll be fixed before the final issue compilation (the one that really jumped out at me was Unfriendly and Hostile crowds being referred to as indifferent in their descriptions, clearly a copy/paste error). The one thing I don’t like is the interaction rules. In particular the setting of the crowd attitude on a single scale that ranges from Helpful to Hostile. Two particularly bad gladiators should both have the crowd working against them. Two particularly good ones might both have the crowd working for them. That’s a fairly easy fix, however, by simply setting the match up as having “two” crowds and having each crowd’s attitude being manipulated separately.

If you’re subscribed to D&D Insider, I highly suggest giving the article a read. If you’re not, I don’t think this article will tip you into subscribing unless you’re planning a Gladiator Campaign.

End of Month Features and Digital Insider

2008-10-30T07:32:10-08:00

As Cameron has already posted on the front page, the bulk of this week’s Digital Insider was dedicated to teasers for the Character Builder. Personally, I’m going to reserve comment on that until I see the actual product (which, as a D&DI;subscriber should be sooner rather than later).

However, there was another thing of note in the Insider that I think bear’s mentioning: Dungeon and Dragon issue compilations will have a rolling download model. That means that when a new issue compilation is posted, last month’s will come down. Now, this rolling model officially starts with October (the first month with subscription only material) so we won’t see the effects of this until the end of November, but one thing is clear already: there will be no buying a one month’s subscription in order to obtain all the back issues of Dragon and Dungeon. Individual back issues of the magazines are supposed to go on sale at some point, but since there are no real back issues yet, there are no details on this yet (all issues that were released during the free trial period will remain available for download for free).

Of second note were the end of month features: the Art Gallery and the Map Gallery for Dungeon. While neither are exactly new, WotC has published Art Galleries and Map Galleries for their physical products for a long time, the Map Gallery does contain something of interest: untagged maps. These maps have the start positions of the monsters removed so that they can be printed out and used at the game table without the DM extracting them from the magazine themselves and altering out those positions. Unfortunately the set is not complete (I counted 4 maps that didn’t have an untagged version posted), the maps still contain meta-information like room numbers, some also contain spoiler information (i.e. information that PCs should acquire via skill checks or trial and error), and the posted resolutions aren’t that much better than what is in the mags themselves, so when printed to scale there will be noticeable pixelization. Still, it’s a step in the right direction and one can only hope that WotC will listen to these criticism, which have all been aired on their own boards.

D&DI;Subscriptions go on sale.

2008-10-14T08:45:41-08:00

It’s time to fork over the money.

However, before you do, it pays to read the EULA that you’d be agreeing to. Of note:

Unless stated otherwise, Wizards may change the Member Terms at any time and the changes will become effective upon the earlier of (i) your acceptance of the revised Member Terms when prompted to do so, such as by clicking an “Accept” button, or (ii) thirty (30) days after we provide written notice to you, such as by email (in either case, the “Effective Date”), however Wizards reserves the right to change the Member Terms effective immediately upon posting the revised Member Terms in the event Wizards determines it reasonably necessary for such change to be effective without delay. You can review the most current version of the Member Terms at http://www.wizards. com/tos.

The first part is mostly standard boiler plate in regards to changes to EULAs, but the last part (about making immediate changes) is a bit unusual (at least it’s the first time I’ve seen such a disclaimer). I think it’s obvious why it’s there, but it’s still worth noting.

Fees. Wizards reserves the right to charge fees for the Service, or any part thereof, and to change its fees from time to time in its discretion. If Wizards terminates your Membership because you have breached the TOU, these Member Terms, or any other applicable agreement between you and Wizards, you shall not be entitled to the refund of any unused portion of subscription or other fees.

As I read that, there’s no provision for WotC reducing your subscription time if they later up the price. However, it also doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be granted access to the new client applications as part of your subscription if you sign up now. Your current subscription doesn’t include access to them (since they aren’t available now) and they can change the pricing of “any part [of the Service]” at any time, so they could initiate additional pricing for them as they become available.

3) You have to agree to an equivalent of the GSL regarding any content that you post. Though they do “soften” it by the following:

It is not the intention of Wizards to commercially exploit User Content through the foregoing license grants. Rather, our lawyers tell us that this license is necessary to protect Wizards in those rare circumstances where Wizards has ideas or business plans similar to User Content.

The use of the word “intention” however means that this clause doesn’t have much legal force. Of course, given that the whole blog and wiki part of Gleemax is off the table (at least for now) this shouldn’t really be much of a concern.

Playtest 4e Barbarian

2008-10-05T21:35:52-08:00

Barbarian is currently free and ready for us to playtest.

It comes with 1 option, a few powers for each level and 1 paragon path. you can play the barbarian till level 30.

It is a high hitpoint melee striker.

it has the hit points of a fighter and the mobility of a striker.

Rage is based on daily powers. You use a daily power and then you gain a benefit that puts you in rage till you use another daily power or you reach 0 hit points or less or the encounter ends.

This class is heavily based on Str and Con.

Ampersand: What Happens In Vegas

2008-10-03T07:44:19-08:00

Graz’zt
Demons aren’t subtle, but then every rule has its exception.

Graz’zt is the schemer of the Abyss, and he constantly plots against Demogorgon and Orcus from his realm of Azzagrat. Graz’zt uses seduction, guile, and trickery as his weapons, launching demonic hordes only after his intrigues leave enemies in disarray. Known also as the Dark Prince, Graz’zt appears and acts more human than other demon princes. However, he is capable of atrocities to rival even the most sadistic demons. Graz’zt has black skin, six small horns atop his head, and six digits on each hand.

Graz’zt was once a devil and a trusted advisor to Asmodeus, who charged Graz’zt with invading the Abyss and seizing the evil seed that created it (see “The Birth of the Abyss” sidebar, Monster Manual, page 52). Graz’zt’s initial invasion was successful, and he managed to seize three layers of the Abyss. However, pressure from Orcus and Demogorgon stalled Graz’zt’s descent toward the heart of evil. Graz’zt eventually rejected his heritage and turned the conquered territory into his own kingdom. Today, he is one of the most powerful demon princes. And whether he truly spurned the Nine Hells or is secretly colluding with Asmodeus is known only to Graz’zt. Regardless, that doesn’t preclude a change of allegiances later.

Graz’zt cultivates an atmosphere of indolence and lassitude within his horrid palace. The outward decadence of his court masks the truth, though: The palace is a nexus of schemes that extend throughout the planes and across the centuries.

Graz’ztLevel 32 Solo ControllerMedium elemental humanoid (demon) XP 135,000 Initiative +27; Senses Perception +24; darkvision
HP 1,430; Bloodied 715
AC 48; Fortitude 45, Reflex 48, Will 48
Immune charm; Resist 20 variable (3/encounter; see Monster Manual, page 282)
Saving Throws +5
Speed 6, teleport 6
Action Points 2

Wave of Sorrow (standard; at-will) Acid, Teleportation, WeaponReach 2; +37 vs. AC; 2d10 +10 damage, and ongoing 10 acid (save ends), and Graz’zt teleports to an unoccupied square adjacent to the target.

Sorrow Cyclone (standard; recharge ) Acid, Teleportation, WeaponRequires Wave of Sorrow, close burst 1; targets enemies; +37 vs. AC; 2d10 +10 damage, and ongoing 10 acid damage (save ends), and Graz’zt teleports to an unoccupied square adjacent to a creature hit by the attack.

Overwhelming Domination (standard; recharges when no enemy is dominated by Graz’zt) CharmRanged 20; targets two enemies; + 35 vs. Will; the target is dominated (save ends), and saving throws against this effect take a -4 penalty. Graz’zt can force a creature he has dominated to use encounter attack powers. A creature dominated by Graz’zt counts as his ally and is not considered dazed (as per the dominated condition) for the purpose of flanking. Aftereffect: The target takes a -4 penalty to Will defense until the end of the encounter.

Unholy Blight (standard, recharge ) Area burst 5 within 10; targets enemies only; +35 vs. Reflex; 2d10 +10 damage, and the target is weakened until the end of Graz’zt’s next turn.

Change Shape (minor; at-will) PolymorphGraz’zt can alter his physical form to appear as an attractive Medium humanoid of any race or gender (see “Change Shape,” Monster Manual, page 280).

Combat Advantage Graz’zt deals an extra 4d6 damage against any target he has combat advantage against. Vicious Twist (free, when Graz’zt hits a creature with an attack that has the weapon keyword; encounter) WeaponThat creature takes an extra 20 damage.

Alignment Chaotic evil
Languages All

Skills Arcana +27, Bluff +32, Diplomacy +32, History +27, Insight +29, Intimidate +32 Str 27 (+24) Dex 33 (+27) Wis 27 (+24) Con 22 (+22) Int 22 (+22) Cha 33 (+27)

Equipment Wave of Sorrow
Wave of Sorrow Level 30Wave of Sorrow is a massive, black greatsword that Graz’zt wields in one hand. The serrated blade undulates when wielded by the Dark Prince.Lvl 30 +63 125,000 gp
Weapon: Greatsword
Enhancement: Attack rolls and damage rolls
Critical: +6d8 damage
Property: This weapon deals ongoing 5 poison damage (save ends) on a successful melee attack.
Power (At-Will Teleportation): Free Action. Use this power when you hit an enemy with a melee attack or a close attack that uses this weapon. You teleport to a square adjacent to the target you hit.
Graz’zt Tactics

In combat, Graz’zt usually uses overwhelming domination first. He makes enemies into allies and then sets them up to help flank opponents with him.

Due to Graz’zt’s overwhelming domination power, one or more characters will likely be dominated through much of the fight against Graz’zt. If your players are amenable, allow a person to retain control of his or her character if the player agrees to fight faithfully on Graz’zt’s behalf.

Graz’zt is elusive on the battlefield, moving from flank to flank, teleporting when appropriate. If the PCs are intent on maintaining their distance, then Graz’zt employs unholy blight. If the battle turns against Graz’zt, he flees and leaves his allies to die.

Graz’zt Lore

A character knows the following information with a successful Arcana or Religion check.

DC 20: Graz’zt is the Dark Prince, a demonic patron of tyrants and despots. Evil schemers swear obeisance to him.

DC 25: Graz’zt’s greatest rival is Demogorgon, and Graz’zt would like nothing better than to destroy the two-headed demon prince and claim the title of “Prince of Demons.”

DC 30: Graz’zt rules a three-tiered realm in the Abyss known as Azzagrat. Within the twisted streets of this landscape dwell hordes of demons and deadly elementals.

DC 35: Graz’zt was once an archdevil in the service of Asmodeus. Graz’zt was sent by Asmodeus to retrieve the shard of evil embedded in the heart of the Abyss, and though he did not succeed, Graz’zt did conquer three levels of that plane. He established his own kingdom there, rejecting Asmodeus to instead reign over his newly conquered territory.

DC 40: Graz’zt carries a massive, serrated greatsword called Wave of Sorrow. He wields the sword in one hand, and the blade moves like a wave when he brandishes it. In addition to fighting with the sword, Graz’zt is a master of dominating his enemies, whom he directs to fight on his behalf.

Ampersand snuck in some nice Graz’zt Crunch with its article this week.

October Release Schedule

2008-10-01T07:30:24-08:00

For those of you keeping track of what’s coming out when, WotC just put out their planned release schedule for October.

They say it’s a “living document” and that “Content may be added, article titles may change, and articles may shift dates for scheduling reasons.” Something we’ve already seen in the past. They are promising to keep the calendar updated, however.

Any bets on when the first change will be made?

News - DI #8 Feedback

2008-09-29T08:28:46-08:00

First off let’s cover the big picture status update, which is largely unchanged from last week:

1) We intend to start charging for access to D&D Insider at some point in October. When we do, you’ll need to sign up for a subscription if you want to continue to access Dragon and Dungeon Magazines, the Compendium, and the Bonus Tools. For more details, check out last week’s Digital Insider.

2) We are hard at work finishing up the beta version of our Character Builder. The free public beta test will include all the content and functionality necessary to build a level 1, 2, or 3 character. At first, access to the beta will be restricted to subscribers and other specifically selected playtesters, but it will be opened up to everyone who wants to participate well before we begin charging for access.

Now a couple of clarifications and then I want to turn the tables and ask you guys some questions:

I know a lot of folks are looking forward to the upcoming playtest of the 4E barbarian… we inside the company are looking forward to it too! We had initially thought we would have it ready to go in the September issue of Dragon Magazine, but Player’s Handbook II is still being actively developed by R&D and so we moved it to October. The idea behind this playtest is that we’ll be publishing a sneak preview of a character class that won’t officially appear in a book until next March. R&D wants to get feedback from players about what they do and do not like about the current version of the class; once R&D digests that feedback they may change various aspects of the class before the final version of the book goes to press.

This playtest is a perfect example of the kind of “Insider” access that you’ll get as a subscriber. Our current free trial is designed to do everything we can to get that word out to potential subscribers, and thus we’re including this playtest as one of the last free articles. It will be one of the first articles that we publish in October.

I’ve noticed a lot of frustration in some circles around the details of our magazine article release schedule, and I’d like to open up a dialog on the subject. This free trial is also a beta-test for our web content, especially the online magazines, so we’re quite interested to learn what we could do better in order to improve the product. Our plan has been to publish a Table of Contents for each magazine at the beginning of the month and then update the website by publishing at least one article (be that a feature, a column, an adventure, or whatever) from at least one of the magazines at some point on each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of the month. At the end of the month we would then compile those articles into an official issue.

I’m not super interested in arguing about whether we’re actually doing what we said we’re going to do. If a lot of you are either confused or frustrated, then there is clearly something we could be doing better. Are the updates too hard to find? Is our schedule too difficult to follow? Is it good to see the Table of Contents ahead of time because it promotes interest and discussion, or is the tease a net negative? Is our website navigation so confusing that you didn’t even know there was a Table of Contents or thrice-weekly content updates? From my seat, I remain convinced that the quality of the content we’re generating is quite high, and I want to avoid any issues of presentation and expectation becoming a problem for us where one doesn’t need to exist.

Please do jump on this week’s forum and let me know whether you agree and what you think we should do to make things better. These are issues that we’re actively debating right now as we plan for the medium and long-term future of our website.

In closing I want to give an update on our 5-week old Facebook application, D&D: Tiny Adventures. (That link only works if you’re already logged in to Facebook. Alternately you can navigate to Facebook at your leisure and then just search for Tiny Adventures.) The app was designed to provide a fairly light and easy D&D experience that could be enjoyed by both new and experienced players. Our goal with Tiny Adventures is pretty much a marketing goal: we want to expose more people to D&D in general and we want to drive more traffic to D&D Insider in particular. Since we launched it, we’ve gotten overwhelmingly positive feedback and over 130,000 folks have already installed it (a number that’s now going up by about 6,000 per day like clockwork). At first we did have some trouble handling the bigger-than-expected load, but those problems vanished completely with the update that happened two weeks ago. In addition there was a nice batch of feature additions that went live yesterday.

Anyway, if you haven’t checked the game out in the last few weeks I do recommend it. And be nice to the new folks that are just now learning what D&D is actually all about.

That’s it for this week’s update. I’ll see you on the forums.

Randy Buehler
Vice President of Digital Gaming
Wizards of the Coast

Article taken from D&D News

6 Dragons

2008-09-27T00:51:57-08:00

Greetings,

6 Dragons is a MMO text based game written in C language. The game is medieval fantasy based, simular to major MMORPG’s WoW or Everquest, but no graphics, it’s text. It is still loads of fun with features like tradeskills players can learn to craft their own equipment, multiclass ability you may chose to be a warrior/priest/mage if you would like to spend the time leveling 3 classes at once. This project has been worked on for many years, and has players, and Staff currently. It is a free game due to liscense restriction of the code base. Sorry we are not allowed to pay Staff either, however there are many perks to being Staff here.

The game storyline can be viewed here..... http://6dragons.org/bin/story.html

A few game screen shots of maps can be seen http://6dragons.org/bin/wild.html

You can play this game with game clients as simple as telnet, or as elaborate as some paid game clients people buy, like zmud, cmud. Play from this link....
http://6dragons.org/java/

or telnet://6dragons:4000/

A new player guide of the game can be found http://6dragons.org/bin/guide.html

Currently we are seeking to fill the following positions: Player Relations, Area Architects, and Game Events. I will elaborate on each position more so you understand what is required.

Player Relations - This council involves interacting with players, assisting Game Events council with running game events. Updating helpfiles for players, enforcing game rules, and really helping the players have a good time.

Area Architects - This council involves making the areas/zones that players walk through. You make the rooms, monsters, objects, and quests players encounter. It is all done through text.

Game Events - This council involves running game templates that we have already created for players to enjoy, and creating new game event templates so players keep enjoying new eventgs. Such as quests, trivia, contests, etc.

Come by and check us out

Vladaar
http://6dragons.org