Total. Nerd. Collision.

So I happened to be reading enWorld this evening - checking out the front page as I often do - and I saw some summaries of playtests for the new 4e D&D posted. One of these was from Ari Marmell - a freelance D&D writer whose opinion I've come to respect on enWorld, if not always agree with. He has some interesting things to say about the new edition speaking as a playtester and, if even half of his reports on the new edition hold true it sounds like it will be a great upgrade.

Then I saw the next playtest report. A guy named John Rogers who I've not seen around enWorld. I mean, the name John Rogers is familiar - writers of DC's "Blue Beetle" comic (possibly the best superhero book DC is publishing right now - or at the very least in the top 3), writer of television, and general observer of politics and popular culture over at his blog Kung-fu Monkey. But that's not...

Wait - it IS the same John Rogers?

And that's when my head exploded in a convergence of nerdity. A total nerdshift - a "nerdularity" if you will.

And if even half of Rogers's claims about the system are true then 4e just moved from a "curiosity that I'll need to check out" to a "must upgrade" for me:

Less prep time for the DM, with no loss of versatility in combat, and plenty of added value and unexpected strategies. Monster design is superior for what I need, which is versatility in the service of storytelling. Trap design in particular made me want to kiss Dave Noonan on the mouth. While roleplaying, we had more freedom, because when you actually need a roll in the roleplaying you're working off a cleaner system, rather than page-hunting for one of the independently designed subsystems.

That, combined with my recent perusal of the "Worlds and Monsters" Preview Book now has me officially excited for 4e. Which sucks. Because word just came out that Wizards is taking over Heroscape and will be releasing the highly anticipated next wave of figures in ... June. And since Wizards is targetting the small game stores they probably WILL hit the shelves in June too - unlike previous Waves which took a while to move from distribution to the shelves at Target.

Budgets suck. But I'm certainly not going to complain that a game company is selling "too much fun", so I'l just have to budget my fun in accordingly. At least this summer won't be boring.

D&D Fourth Edition - Elves

So apparently during the Christmas holiday Wizards posted an article about the new 4e Elves over on their website. Since that link requires an account, here's a brief summary of what the new elves look like:

Elf - Racial Traits
Average Height: 5' 7"-6' 0"
Average Weight: 100-130 lb.
Ability Scores: +2 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom
Size: Medium
Speed: 7 squares
Vision: Low-light

Languages: Common, Elven
Skill Bonuses: +2 Nature, +2 Perception

Elven Weapon Training: You gain proficiency with the longbow and the shortbow.
Wild Step: You ignore difficult terrain when you shift (even if you have a power that allows you to shift multiple squares).
Group Awareness: You grant non-elf allies within 5 squares a +1 racial bonus to Perception checks.
Elven Accuracy: You can use elven accuracy as an encounter power. Reroll an attack roll. Use the second roll, even if it's lower.

Wild Step, Group Awareness, and Elven Accuracy made me think "hey - they're making the game more like Heroscape." This impression is only enhanced by the Speed being given in "squares" instead of feet. Generally, I like the approach though it slides D&D one step closer towards being a "miniatures game with roleplaying" instead of a "roleplaying game with miniatures". As I've said before, I have no intention of jumping to 4e anytime soon, but these previews do pique my interest.

(Also I quite like the fact that they've eliminated racial penalties for attributes. As long as they balance things appropriately this is a good thing. I'm curious to see what kinds of perks the humans get since they don't generally get ability bonuses though.)

I am totally making my own post out of this instead of putting it in the comments of Jer's post in order to make it look like I actually blog here too

My co-blogger ("Jer", you might not recognize the name because I totally dominate him, number-of-postswise) appears to be underexcited about the extraplanar cosmology of the upcoming D&D 4th edition.

Going with the theory that more is better, how about we just add a few more planes?

The Plainscape: a boring reflection of the natural world.

The Kisscape: Dark, hellish and totally rockin'.

The Ke'istone: Eerily silent except for the ever-present song of the demonic Calyopee, adventurers traveling to this realm my find themselves pastry-faced and depantsified following an extended chase involving the local militia, an out-of-control rations cart, and , say, a living statue in a porkpie hat.

Modokspace: A short, squat, and big-faced reflection of the natural world.

Officescape: Yeah, we're gonna need you to put covers on those character sheets, ok?

Teh Sy'b'rplanes: Fashioned much like a highly complex series of tubes, most adventurers to these worlds find themselves trapped at the unmagnificent Theater of Yutoob for seemingly weeks on end, unable to summon any sort of will for mounting an escape other than to make inane, irrelevant and offensive comments about the actors on stage. Exists astrally opposite Teh Meatscape.

The Azfinctersezwat: Shyeah, right!

And, others. Hey! Maybe someone could think of some funny ones.

4e D&D Cosmology

Okay, so yesterday evening they did post the promised Design and Development article on the 4e planar cosmology over at Wizards' D&D Insider website.

The article describes four planes that are going to be a part of the 4e cosmology:

• The Astral Sea - A vast plane containing the various planar domains of the gods


• The Elemental Chaos - A plane of vast elemental energy


• The Shadowfell - A dark reflection of the "natural world", tied to undead and shadows


• The Feywild - A wild reflection of the "natural world", tied to the fey

I hate to say it, but I'm a little bit underwhelmed.

Read More

The ideas aren't bad in and of themselves, but they're - somewhat predictable. In fact, they feel an awful lot like the old World of Darkness cosmology - you have a Shadowlands, a "Near Umbra", and a "High Umbra" in the Shadowfell, the Feywild, and the Astral Sea respectively. Not that these breakdowns are unique to WoD either - it's basically an Underworld, a Spirit World, and a Heaven - a formulation that many us who have thrown a lot of different myths and pantheons into our games have probably come up with independently of any particular game design.

Now, generic isn't necessarily bad. In fact, a strong argument can be made that this actually sets up some iconic places for adventures to take place - moreso than some of the current locations in the D&D cosmology. The Shadowfell is probably going to be a more interesting adventure site than the Ethereal, the Plane of Shadow, or the Negative Material Plane - the three planes it looks to be replacing. The traditional D&D cosmology is certainly distinctive, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a natural place for setting adventures.

In fact, the one bit of this cosmology that has me kind of interested is the "Elemental Chaos". Even if I never use the rest of the cosmology - even if I never buy 4e - that little bit can already be considered stolen for my games. I've never really liked the pure elemental planes - they're an interesting metaphysical construct for explaining magic, but as adventure sites they're kind of tough to handle. This new suggestion - with all of the elements thrown together into one primordial tempest and powerful entities able to exert their will to carve out portions of the chaos to their own ends - that sounds really cool. It takes the current elemental plane breakdown and gives it a twist. I like that. And I really wish I had thought of it a decade ago - once you see it it's obvious but I never thought to do it myself. I also have to admit that I really, really like the idea of the Abyss being a scar in the Elemental Chaos and demons being corrupted elementals. That's not in this article but it was in the previous Design & Development article, and I think it's a cool idea.

So in the end I guess I'm in the "net positive" camp for these ideas - they don't seem like bad ideas. At worst, some of them are kind of unimaginative. At best, some of them are really quite good. Since I don't expect game designers to constantly bat a thousand, I think I can keep my wait and see attitude to what they're developing.

Short post

No big rambling post today - I just wanted to point out to anyone in my gaming group that isn't following the whole "4th edition upgrade" stuff over at Wizards' website that there's an article up on changes being made to Demons and Devils in the new edition.

(You may need to get a D&D Insider account to read the article. They're free accounts, though.)

I've got to say I'm intrigued by all of the changes that are being floated around for 4e - specifically the "shared world" changes like this one. I know that AD&D has always had this distinction between Demons and Devils that was purely alignment based - and that carried over into D&D 3e. The distinction seemed kind of arbitrary to me primarily because the distinction between Chaotic and Lawful in D&D is so arbitrary.

Anyway, on these particular changes: I like the symmetry between the Devils and the Demons being proposed here. Devils are "fallen angels" who betrayed their master and murdered him. Demons are corrupted elemental spirits seeking destruction and ruin. I like this - I like it a lot actually. And it looks like this confirms something that the developers have been hinting about - changes to the way the "Inner Planes" (elemental planes) work as well. The Abyss is now part of something called the "Elemental Tempest" while the Hells float among the realms of the gods in the Astral Sea. The cosmology changes intrigue me - mostly because they sound somewhat like the cosmology of the B/X/C/M/I D&D sets that I played D&D from.

Every post that the D&D developers have made so far has piqued my interest a bit more. They're changing a lot of stuff - the question is whether they will end up throwing out good stuff when they add the new stuff. To a degree, this is subjective. Some folks would argue that just these proposed changes to demons and devils throws a lot of good stuff out. The developers really are having to walk a fine line here, and it'll be interesting to see how it all turns out in the end.

EDIT: Bart Caroll has a blog post up with some more hints about 4e cosmology. There's apparently going to be another Design & Development article tomorrow with information about "the feywild, the shadowfell, elemental chaos and astral sea."