Man, I’m sitting here in the shadow of my wife’s d20 collection, thinking that the odds of me dying from an open source avalanche are far greater than dying from a transportation accident or health-related issue (especially now that Harvard says fat butts guard against disease!). I’m looking at a very large bookshelf that has approximately 700 d20 books on it, as well as a shelf with boxes and bags full of dice, stacks of rubber banded cards (probably Paizo’s adventure cards), and a bunch of tech, language, and world-building books. Next to it is a half shelf with every issue of 3e Dragon and Dungeon magazines. Stacked on top are some heavy board games (Descent and Battue).

Upstairs we just built two new shelves to hold books, and most of them turned out to be overflow gaming books from downstairs. I think our entire run of GURPS 4e and the Conan RPG are up there, along with all of the duplicates I brought to the marriage. There’s also my Battletech collection and a ton of other game books and boxes up there as well.

Looking at this shelf (really looking UP at the shelf, sweating as it looms like a monster) I suppose one could say it was inevitable that we weren’t going to make the switch to 4e, but especially her. She’s never played any edition previous to 4e (other than a 1e game I ran at Gencon), and so wasn’t ready for a change. My stacks of 1e and 2e didn’t stop me from switching to 3e, so I’m not opposed to change. Open Gaming is really what attracted me to 3e, and the sheer volume of awesome, playable material really has done its job on me. I think if the OGL had never existed I probably would have been able to get past 4e’s flaws and give it a shot, but the can’s been opened, and for me there’s no going back forward.

Update: Apparently I offended my wife by not mentioning the two shelves of adventure modules and box sets that completely dominate the storage in our entertainment center. I’ve hauled and stacked those several times when the apparatus needed to be moved, and let me tell you…that’s a whole lotta adventure. I’d guess there are easily 200 modules there and a dozen or more box sets.

So, everyone says that 4e was a step in this direction already, but I’m talking about a house rule that can be applied to any edition of D&D to make it feel more like the Baldur’s Gate/D&D Heroes type games on consoles. It’s a simple rule, and it might not work (I haven’t had a chance to playtest it), but I have a feeling it might be the most satisfying in 4e, ironically. Here’s the rule:

All attacks automatically hit until a creature falls below a certain hit point threshold.

I think the threshold should depend on the average damage caused by a hit from a party member, and in 4e it could conveniently be divvied up by tier. So, let’s say 10 hp at heroic, 15 hp at paragon, and 20 hp at epic.

This rule fits in well with 4e’s focus on gamism (to use the trite GNS term). Why shouldn’t all meaningless attacks from the PC’s hit? After all, doing something is always preferable to not doing something, and it even might throw a little bone to those who want combat to be more descriptive rather than coldly mechanical (*raises hand*). After all, if you know you’re going to hit, you can worry less about fiddly bonuses and crap and give more attention to describing exactly what you want to do.

DM’s already give subtle hints to their players about the condition of their enemies, and doing so strategically can be a way for the DM to subtly weight a fight in the players’ favor without seeming like a deus ex machina. You know, if the PC’s are struggling, they’ll usually benefit from focusing attacks on a creature that’s about to go down, so it can’t attack them any more. This system is more explicit about it…if the DM is calling for an attack roll, then you know the creature is close to a goner.

The downside to applying this to 4e is that lots of the powers in 4e have to do with giving bonuses on attack rolls to your fellows. Those, obviously, would have to change or simply be avoided. An easy fix would just be to apply the same bonus to damage instead.

Damage would be the variable component, so all die rolling wouldn’t be taken out of the equation. You could even simulate the excitement of a critical hit by making damage dice explosive: if the player rolls the highest number on the die, he gets to re-roll that die and add the result to the original roll. This has the added benefit of making such hits more common the more [W]’s you have. Since those are most often Encounter or Daily powers, making them more exciting is never a bad thing.

Then, of course, landing that final blow would actually require a successful attack roll. Because of this, those “grant a bonus on attack rolls” powers might actually still be useful. In that case, how about we just flat out add bonus damage to them equal to the attack bonus? Or make them an either/or case…”you grant your allies a bonus on attack or damage rolls equal to X until the end of your next turn,” etc.

Another benefit to this system is it would alleviate some of the grind that many 4e players have experienced with the game. Combats will be quicker because damage will be meted out more efficiently, and since quick, non-deadly combats are the goal of the 4e ruleset it’s just getting rid of some of the middle man (in 4e’s case, healing surges). This system should allow even more combats in a single adventuring day.

You could also modify the system to say that a certain class of creature…solo, elite, boss…always had to be hit with a roll. That would add a sense of trepidation in the first player who started planning his damage roll only to have the DM say, “wait a minute…gimme a roll.”

Whaddya think?

After a long and grueling season, one owner has guided his team to victory:

Aaron Acevedo’s Doomgrinders has won the 1st Annual RPG Bloggers vs. RPG Industry Fantasy Football League!

You can send Aaron congrats, or just check out his incredible art, at his website: Talisman Studios

The final standings are as follows:

1st - Doomgrinders
2nd - Uther’s Rectifiers, Captain: C.A. Suleiman, Website: Code Monkey Publishing
3rd - The Gamer Dome
4th - Red Dragons, Captain: Yax, Website: Dungeonmastering.com

5th - Goff’s Gunslingers, Captain: John Goff
6th - Critical AnkleBiters, Captain: Graham, Website: Critical Ankle Bites
7th - Chatty’s Minions, Captain: Chatty DM, Website: Musings of the Chatty DM
8th - Shreveport Steamers, Captain: Jonathan Thompson, Website: Battlefield Press

Sirs not appearing in these playoffs:

Buda Pests, Captain: Scott Haring
The Fighting Jesuits, Captain: Richard Iorio II, Website: Rogue Games
Gamer Zer0’s Her0s, Captain: Mike Lescault
Critical-Hits FTW, Captain: Dr. Scotto, Website: Critical Hits

Thanks to everyone for making it a great season, hopefully we’ll convene again to do it next year!

I’m very pleased to present an interview with a fascinating man today on The Gamer Dome. I was introduced to Mr. Traffler’s work while perusing the website of the New World Science & Engineering Commission. I wasn’t quite sure what Traffler did, so I decided to contact the Commission and see if I could schedule a meeting. I was in luck, as Mr. Traffler was about to embark on a research mission that would have him likely out for several weeks, if not months. I was fascinated to find out about his current research as well as what he was planning to do next.

I’d like to thank the NWSEC and Mindstorm Labs for this great opportunity.

Thanks for doing this interview Mr. Traffler. Would you explain to my readers what you do for the NWSEC?

Thanks for having me. I fill a number of roles at the NWSEC, but I’m most active as a field reporter. I specialize in creature discovery and documentation. Basically I operate a small team of scientists and explorers who roam the Wilds in search of new plants and animals. On a day to day basis we plan exploration expeditions which often last upwards of a month. We try to venture out into unexplored regions or areas from which the NWSEC has received reports of unusual animals and do our best to locate and learn what we can about the new plants and animals we share the world with. I’ve also assumed a communications role for the NWSEC and spend a fair amount of time with our numerous field offices and take part in PR activities.

You are about to go out on an expedition. Where will you be going?

This is going to be a big trip. We’ve pulled together a team of select specialists from around the world, people I’ve worked with many times in the past. We’re headed in the American Rocky Mountains. We’re starting off in the former American State of Montana and moving north west before crossing over to the Pacific side as we venture up into what was British Columbia. Along the way we’re going to visit at least one Field Office, but we’re keeping this expedition’s plan and route flexible since research suggests our targets are extremely mobile and move throughout the Rockies.

And what do you hope to find?

As crazy as it sounds, we’re after sasquatch. We know they’re out there. There have authenticated reports and at least 3 deceased specimens recovered in the last 40 years. I doubt these are the sasquatch of old, if you will, but a new species which has emerged since since the years of Mother Nature’s Revenge, which isn’t a term I’m comfortable with, but it gives us a frame of reference. We’re also hoping the expedition will hold a few surprises as well. The range we’re exploring is rarely traveled and hasn’t been surveyed by the NWSEC so chances are good we’ll stumble upon at least one exciting distraction.

Do you believe they are hostile?

Only a few Freezone communities have reported more than one encounter with what we’re calling sasquatch and the only reports of attack came from a group we know aggressively pursues animals for capture and sale. The assumption we’re working with, but by no means depending on, is that these animals, in spite of their size and strength, are timid and rarely come down from the rugged terrain we suspect they call home. If they turn out to be hostile or we run into trouble, we’ll be prepared.

Seems a dangerous job for scientists. What precautions do you take against threats, both known and unknown?

Creature discovery is indeed a dangerous job, but it is incredibly rewarding and exciting. We devote a significant amount of our planning and lead time to mitigating dangers and we do our best to ensure we are well-equipped and prepared for any danger. We also take great care to maintain frequent communication with NWSEC HQ where a mission coordinator is always on watch and able to deploy aid should it be needed. Everyone on the entire team is a veteran field worker and has dozens, if not hundreds, of Wilds expeditions under their belt, so we’re an experienced and skilled crew. Of course, you can’t plan for everything and we often run into danger, whether it be Freezone pirates, Remnants or the very animals we’re studying. That’s part of the job and we accept it.

Do you have military support?

The NWSEC has good relations with most city states and hundreds of Freezone communities so we’re able to request military support should it be needed, but my team tries to travel quick and light, drawing as little attention to ourselves as possible while we work. A large military accompaniment would damage our chances of getting close to the creatures we study.

Let’s take a look back into history for a moment…do you consider yourself more a descendant of Charles Darwin or Ethan Haas? In other words, are you a cataloger or a visionary?

I’ve been accused of being more P.T. Barnum than legitimate scientist, but part of what we do is marketing. It takes someone with an adventurous spirit to head out into the Wilds in search of never before seen creatures. It takes a little vision to see it is worthwhile as a scientific pursuit given the world we live in. Most importantly, I think people have to remember that we do what we do because we have endless curiosity and need to know what’s out there waiting for us.

Some people believe the Wilds aren’t worth exploring, that we should just defend our cities from mutants and monsters until such time as we can reclaim the Earth entirely. What do you say to them?

They’re fools. Plan and simple. The greatest threat to our cities could be out there right now, watching us, waiting and learning, preparing to attack and the only way we’ll ever know is if we get out there and explore for ourselves. Look at the Evolutionaries. They’ve been here for thousands of years. If we had listened to Ethan Haas and others like him in the past we’d be in a very different situation. Same goes for a group like the Scag. We can’t afford to be caught off guard by an organized and advanced species that views us as competition.

Well, we’re all looking forward to the results of your expedition, Mr. Traffler. We will follow your online updates with interest. Thank you. Any last thoughts?

Thank you very much for the opportunity to chat. I’d like to invite your readers to follow our expedition on Twitter and to check out the NWSEC online. I’ll be posting news on our progress as frequently as possible and responding to questions from readers. You’ll soon be able to hold the NWSEC’s first large scale publication The Encountered Volume One, so keep your eyes peeled. There is an amazing, terrifying and fantastic world out there waiting to be discovered. Join us out there and help build the NWSEC. Thanks very much.

* * * * * * *

Want to learn more about Alpha Omega? Read on…

• Atomic Array: Episode 012: Alpha Omega
• Gamer Dome: Interview with Roger Traffler of the NWSEC
• Mad Brew Labs: AO: The Evolution of Sci-Fi Roleplaying
• Gnome Stew: Alpha Omega: How to GM this New RPG
• RPGAggression: Rudis Review: Alpha Omega
• Mind Storm Labs: Previews of AO Products

Special Offer from Atomic Array: $15 off Alpha Omega when you enter the coupon code “Atomic” during purchase. Drop by Mind Storm Labs to pick up your copy today!

A discussion going on in the comments section of my most popular post ever brought my attention to an amazing new site for downloading customized, print-ready power cards for your 4e character.

The site is basically a huge checklist of every power card you can think of (although he’s still adding, and by request, so ask him in the comments here or over there if you don’t find what you’re looking for), and you can add them to your own personal “deck,” and then the site gives you a printable sheet with all the cards you need. Much better than the static PDF’s we’ve seen before (no disrespect to any of those guys, who provided an incredible service to us right out of the gate).

The great thing about this is now you can print out sets of cards by class, or for a character you’re playing for a one-shot or convention game, or whatever. They look great, too.

So, if you’re in the market for 4e D&D power cards, I suggest you head over to 4epowercards.com before Wizards’ legal team sees them using all those trademarks.

Just a quick reminder to everyone that the four stories are there and waiting for your votes. The poll closes tomorrow morning when I get up.

We’ve had close to 20 voters so far and the race is neck and neck between the Vanik Slade story and the Death of Robin Hood. If you’d like to see one or the other of them continue over Christmas, get on over to The Gamer Dome, read the four excerpts, and vote!

We had two semi-final matchups happening this week, and the results are somewhat unexpected!

The #6 and #5 seeds will be battling it out in the RPG Fantasy Bowl. Uther’s Rectifiers took down a short-handed Red Dragons team, while I scored my lowest point total of the season (by 50%) against a surging Doomgrinders, who, with 50 roster moves on the season, paid attention and worked his way to the championship. Way to go!

Of course, you may notice that means all the bloggers are gone and that the league champion is guaranteed to be from the industry side of things. After a great year for the bloggers, it seems we just ran out of steam…isn’t that always the way it is when you pit volunteers against professionals?

Yax and I will be battling it out for third place…let’s hope my guys don’t let me down yet again!

The 5th place game is between Goff’s Gunslingers and the Critical Anklebiters, the #2 and #4 seeds respectively. It’s good to see Goff get a win after suffering so heinously at the end of the season.

the 7th place game is between Chatty’s Minions and Shreveport Steamers, #3 and #8. So, as you can see there’s still some Industry vs. Blogger action to be had this weekend.

Good luck everyone!

The four story snippets are posted, and the poll can be found at the top of the sidebar.

Note: You can vote for more than one story if you like.

I put in the multiple selection option if you happen to like more than one of the stories and wouldn’t mind either being fleshed out.

There are basically four different types of story in the poll, and I’m definitely interested to hear people’s thoughts on each piece and the reasons they voted the way they did. The stories are:

Death of Robin Hood - Literary legend

The Legend of Kai - Fantasy western

Hench - Humor fantasy

One by Torchlight: A Vanik Slade Tale - Fantasy espionage

I’ll leave the poll up until Tuesday evening and then start the pre-writing work on whichever story has garnered the most votes! If you want to pimp for your favorite story on your blog or a message board, feel free to drive traffic votes on over here.

This is the final post in Fiction Week here at The Gamer Dome (see Excerpt One, Excerpt Two, and Excerpt Three), so read on and enjoy, and then come back each day this week to read a new excerpt from a different story. Now, let your voice be heard as you vote for your favorite story in the poll in the sidebar, which one I’ll continue to write, hopefully substantially, over the Christmas holidays.

Thanks!

Propagandroid

* * * * * * *

Sorry this took so long, but it’s freshly written and so I had to find the time to finish it up. Fantasy and espionage really are two great tastes that could go great together, and I’ve been talking about writing some stories along those lines for a year or so. Over the past two months, I’ve read all the Ian Fleming James Bond novels, except Live and Let Die, which I don’t own. I started to get excited about my idea again while reading them, and so decided it was time to create my own leading character and throw him in a fantasy milieu. Thus Vanik Slade was born.

This is the most D&D-inspired fantasy piece I’ve posted this week, so if you’re looking for something like the Salvatore novels, Dragonlance, or whatnot then this is your huckleberry. If you’re a fan of James Bond, or “cool-character” driven two-fisted tales, you’ll also like this one. Another advantage is that this is the only one of the three that might turn out a completed tale by the end of winter break.

So please enjoy the teaser to One by Torchlight: A Vanik Slade Tale.

* * * * * * *

It isn’t often one finds oneself at his own funeral, but that’s exactly where Vanik Slade appeared to be.

He seemed to be floating about five feet above the volcanic soil of Mount Rizentree, slowly climbing upward away from Rizentree town. The hard jostling told him he was merely being carried…and by slaves, at that.

Though vertical, he was not standing. He was bound in the traditional funerary wrappings of the Hunters Guild, broad swatches of coarse white cloth interwoven between his “dead” limbs and the canes that made up his bier. The cloth stretched his skin and pressed his flesh into the bier so that he could feel the bruises forming across his neck, back, arms, and legs. His skull felt like it would crack at any moment from the strip of knotted cloth holding his head in place.

He would soon be transferred from this into a coffin cage the size of an ogre (Guild members were of all shapes and sizes) and lowered down into the burning heart of the mountain. The cage’s metal had been mined from the center of the world in ages past, and was impervious to the lava’s burning kiss.

Vanik wasn’t. He had to do something, and fast.

He was just thanking fate for the cool breeze that made his prison of cloth bearable when the first wave of heat from one of the mountain’s glowing cracks swept across his face. The mildness of the day had given him a minimum of relief, but now the sulfurous fumes scorched his lungs and focused his mind on the helplessness of his position.

Cough, damn you, cough. Vanik Slade willed his body to comply, but even the simplest reflex was beyond him.

Around him, the scene could be described as…professional. Groups of guildies stood at the green-spotted base of the mountain, still and silent like a poorly painted parade. The hunters stood apart in their “forest, cave, and castle” gear, which always seemed out of place when they weren’t on a mission. Most of the gathered busied themselves trading wit and maneuvers, since they hadn’t even known Vanik. Only his team bore any resemblance of mourning…if it was an act, as he suspected, it was a surprisingly good one.

The Administrators stood apart, wearing the fine clothes and draping sashes of their positions. Vanik had never liked them. They weren’t hunters, yet they controlled the guild. The elections that appointed them were shams, he thought, since none of the hunters gave a damn about politics or the false achievements of electioneering and stuffing handbooks full of rules and procedures.

Vanik’s mind gave a short, barking laugh. He wouldn’t have minded them writing a new burial procedure! But no, that would never happen. The guild was bound by law to respect local traditions, and one such tradition was the drowning of the dead in the lake of fire beneath the mountain. Vanik never did understand how an Ankwai ritual had survived the coming of the Great Mystery, but it had. Damned inscrutable religions! Six feet of earth would be easier to escape than a lava bath.

Dotted about the area alone or in pairs were the guild’s support staff. Vanik saw them as those without skills or ambition, but with an interest in the world outside the normal routines of farming and keeping shop. They were well paid, Vanik had to give them that, and safer in the guildhouse than out on their own, but he’d never been able to conjure much use for them beyond the services they provided him.

Carrying him were slaves—not Guild slaves, since the charter forbade them—whose owners had been compensated for their time. Aside from the other hunters, Vanik liked the slaves better than anyone else in Rizentree. He ate, drank, gambled, and went on missions at the pleasure of the guild, who he often referred to as “master.” He’d often wondered if the slaves had it better in some ways…there were no laws to protect guildies from abuse like there were for the slaves, for example.

The heat continued to grow as they approached the lip of the mountain’s crater. The assembly below were barely visible through the fumes rising from cracks in the black crust. Now his vision swung up to the gray skies above as he was tilted forward and laid on the ground. Good thing his restraints were treated, else the heat would have caught them like dry tinder and set them ablaze.

No need to burn early, Vanik thought.

He could hear the chains of the coffin cage being unraveled when a whisper of hope flashed across his thoughts. Was he capable of sweating? Would the slaves notice the drops on his face and bring the news to the Administrators below? Surely he must be sweating by now, but his face felt dry.

Of course…a preservation spell. How wonderful of them to care.

Before long he would be transferred and then lowered down into the mountain. Would it hurt? Was there any way of breaking his paralysis and crying out? Hallowed Lords of the Great Mystery, how had he ever gotten into this?

Hey folks, after keeping you updated all season, I shouldn’t drop the ball come the playoffs, even in the middle of Original Fiction Week. Speaking of that, sorry for the lack of a story snippet yesterday…it’s a true original, being written as we speak, and I had a hectic week that saw it drop in priority. I will finish it tonight by hook or by crook and post it, and then put the poll up and leave it running through Monday when more people will see it (hopefully…I have this nightmare of having a poll with three votes on it).

Ok, on to football. Thank goodness for the fantasy playoffs, since so many of our teams are finishing the season in dreadful fashion and looking to miss the playoffs or squeak in without any momentum whatsoever. You guessed it, I’m a Cowboys fan. But I could just as easily be a Jets or Vikings fan, eh?

Round 1 of the fantasy playoffs around here were pretty intense. I played Westbrook this week, thankfully, and was able to hold off what looked to be an incredibly strong #8 seed in the form of the Shreveport Steamers. In fact, there were few teams I wouldn’t have rather played last week, and going into it I was pretty nervous. My instincts turned out to be right, too, as the Steamers would have steamrolled any other team in the league other than me. Yeah, it sucks to lose as the second-highest scorer, but that’s what happens down in 8-Town.

In shocking news, a severely shorthanded Red Dragons team upset league powerhouse Goff’s Gunslingers, whose slide reminds me of last year’s Cowboys team…awesome to the very end, except the end came more quickly than anyone expected. That’s the good news for the bloggers.

The bad news is, Chatty’s team couldn’t hold up against a strong #6 seed in the Uther’s Rectifiers, who rode a bunch of no-names and Matt Forte to victory…hm, sounds like the meatspace Bears. Nor could the Critical Anklebiters, who I thought were a lock, hold off the Doomgrinders. What a week for MJD to go off, eh?

For those playing at home, that makes me the only favorite to win this week. The remaining teams are the 1, 5, 6, and 7 seeds!

At least that makes for an exciting Round 2, as we’ve got two bloggers going head to head with two industry types. This week could be for all the marbles…can the league pull of a playoff coup after being crushed in the regular season? We’ll see, so let’s take a look at our Final Four:

The Gamer Dome vs.
Doomgrinders

Uther’s Rectifiers vs.
Red Dragons

For new readers, Doomgrinders is captained by Aaron Acevedo, artist extraordinaire, and Uther’s Rectifiers is helmed by C.A. Suleiman of Code Monkey Publishing and many fine roleplaying products. Red Dragons is Yax from Dungeon Mastering, and I’ll let you figure out The Gamer Domes.

I’ve made a habit of not directly alerting owners to fix their lineups, but have mentioned a few here, so I don’t feel bad saying that I wish Yax would at least swap out the player he’s got that’s on IR. Do it for the bloggers, man!

I’ll keep you updated as usual, and sometime next week we’ll have our fantasy bowl matchup!