Dennis Harry's page

Hey Jerry. It is hard to say this early on. As I have not played 4E I am not sure if the elements I have seen are similar to it. If they stay on this track I think it could happen but 1E & 2E were noticeably different from 3.0/3.5 (at least in my opinion) as you went higher in levels. In 1E/2E things leveled out whereas in 3.0/3.5 power escalated and the rules became more complex.

I ran a 3.5 game with a group of characters to 36th level. Each combat round had several sub rounds of quickens and swift actions. It was fun but it was tiring, NPC's took a LOT of time to design and combats could take a full session.
1E/2E on the other hand after 15th level while still fun to play had few options, hit points capped out, the THAC0 system closes the loop at level 20.

Personally I liked both of these versions but I see it hard to reconcile them with one another. Again having no experience with 4E I am not sure if there was a middle ground between the prior systems at high levels.

While things are streamlined at the lower levels thus far, it remains to be seen if they can keep things streamlined at higher levels. I think that would be the key to creating an "edition for all seasons".

Jreyst that sounds like it was a lot of fun. Did Bruce Cordell run a packaged module of some kind or a home brewed adventure?

Hey John, low levels.

Hey Matt. Yep that is why everything I post is vague because I can't get into details. I guess the point I am making by discussing my experience (not the game or the mechanics) is that this new edition has potential to be something that may not draw all of the hate that 4E seemed to. (Of course there are a lot of haters out there so that is probably unlikely).

Personally I was neutral on 4E though I was not crazy about the Forgotten Realms 100 year time jump in fact once that was announced I pretty much stopped lurking and posting on the WOTC message boards, it didn't seem to me to be a constructive way to spend time any longer. Now if I want to see what people have to say rearding the Realms I just pop into Candlekeep.

My friends and I did a draft of Dark Ascension this weekend. It was the first draft I have won since I started playing with this crew. The best part was that while drafting I pulled the new Sorin and went in a different direction to include him in a Red/Black Vampire deck. I got him out 3 or 4 times and he kills in that block, especially with a Stromkirk Captain or two out.

In the prize packs I pulled him a Second time on top of that. Great way to end the weekend.

Call of Cthulhu is a great game. Once I am done with D&D (which won't be for a while) I hope to run In the Mountains of Madness a 450 page superadventure for this game.

Actually Turin Horro on the Orient Express could be adapted for an Eberron Homebrew, wish I had thought of it when my players Worldwalked there. That would have been amazing.

LOL KGM, I thought the same thing about pulling some cards from the Deck except I thought about it afterwards!

Snorter the DM is someone who has connections at WOTC not a developer or a company rep so he had the same time to digest the rules as the rest of us (well more than me as I am pretty busy at work). One of the players from my 3.5 group knows the DM so these are not the people I normally play with.

You are correct Digitalelf, the packets come directly from WOTC. They also provided the encounter to be used with the playtest.

I can't really say a lot (as really saying anything would be explaining everything) except that the skills are also very streamlined.

Over the next few months there should be more packets being released. I will update this thread afer the next playtest session.

One player got the 50,000 XP card and he was very excited as I let him shoot up a few levels. Of course now he is so much higher than everyone else that he earns 20% of what they earn, so in six months they will all be the same level again anyway, I told him to be careful what you wish for :-)

Initially 6 PC's (a 7th one came halfway through and we took a break so he could make a character). The opponents per encounter ranged from 4-12!

I playtested D&D Next last night. Obviously with an NDA I can't say a whole lot about it but I wanted to share my initial impressions.

Currently I run a 3.5 Forgotten Realms game (with some Pathfinder tweaks). I have never played 4E because I had so much invested in 3.5 I did not see the point in switching over so I don;t have a handle on what 4E was like. I played 1E (briefly), 2E, and the Basic Red set from the late eighties.

Character creation for D&D Next was very simple and you could get the character up and running very quickly. This early on options are limited and rules are fairly basic so we had few issues where the DM had to step in and house rule things. We played a dungeon crawl classic so a lot of combat and the combat rounds were very fast. We probably had 5 or 6 combats with over 50 different opponents and with a lot of commentary and breaks in between it took about 4 hours.

My opinion a lot of fun to play and it had a very old school feel.

I pretty much reworked the links between adventures in every single chapter (I go into detail on the links in The Three Faces of Evil Thread that Smarnil linked above). I also went into some detail on the new links for the Encounter at Blackwall Keep adventure. Blackwall Keep Plot Tweakings.

Spacelard's idea for the Faceless One went over very well, my players absolutely hated him.

The one thing I did that also went over very well was bringing back NPC's (when possible). The characters encountered Theldrick, The Faceless One, and the Mind Flayer at least twice each. I introduced Darl Quethos very early on too by tying him into the backgrounds of one of the characters.

There is also a thread discussing the use of other modules in AoW which has a lot of good ideas as well for incorporating outside elements in the campaign. Other Modules in Age of Worms.

My campaign is just about to reach the Spire of Long Shadows (I added a ton of outside stuff and side character development quests) and I am looking forward to seeing how deadly this visit to Kyuss' old haunt will be.

Good luck!

I have become soft in my old age but recently my players made the mistake of drawing from a deck of many things. Two PC deaths just from drawing cards, they gave me that "can't you fix this DM" puppy dog look. I let them know it was not gonna happen, they tempted fate - and lost.

Looking forward to the next ToH session KGM, though I forsee less death this time around I mean how do you top 11 kills in one session!? I have run Cthulhu games with less character death.

I have been sick will post today.

Not a problem. Have fun!

I am also interested if you have room for a sixth Kindred.

It looks like the only thing your PC's kill is trees with all these new characters they have to draft each game :-)

That is exactly my point. 1st to 2nd edition was more like the transition from 3.0 to 3.5. Similar games upgraded over time.

3rd edition was a major change, but only after the game had been going for over 26 years and drifted into bankruptcy.

4e came less than 10 years after 3.0 was released, while the system was still popular and successful. 5E is now coming out 5 years after 4e.

WoTC is not TSR, and even TSR is just a company. Dungeons and Dragons is a brand name that was purchased by a company that made magic cards who was bought by a toy company.

If I had the money to buy the Dungeons and Dragon name, and I announced I was putting out 5E, what would that mean?

So what does it mean that a company that bought a company that bought a company that created a product in 1977 called dungeons and dragons is putting out a table top game?

I am glad we are in agreement then! That is what I get for rushing through what I read and responding!

3.0 was released in 2000. It was revised in 2003 to 3.5, a revision that built on rather than replaced the prior product, just as 2nd edition more or less built on rather than replaced basic.

I don't agree with this assessment. The 3.0 d20 mechanics are very different from the 2ed THAC0 mechanics.

In fact the d20 mechanic reminds me of the game Gemini a Swedish RPG released in 1998. The attacks were based on a d20. For a higher difficulty you could target specific portions of a foes anatomy, ie. add +10 to the roll to strike at the foe for a head shot.

While 2ed did not have the same level of power creep and difficulties to hit stayed within the realm of 2-20 (for the most part).

I did not play 1E but I believe the THAC0 mechanic existed there as well so 1E to 2E you have a similar system whereas 3.0 had a very different mechanic. I have also never played 4E so I am not sure how that is differnt from 3.0.

Rawr! I'm really, really, really convinced my opinion is the right one, so that must make it count as a fact, right?

Sounds right to me!

Essentials was more of a marketing strategy than a reboot (though I could be wrong about that). Didn't they use the same 4E rules set? It seems that it was geared to a "casual" board game type player who would be willing to do a one off night and not a campaign.

I did play the Ravenloft board game and I thought that was pretty decent though if the 4E rules are similar I was not that crazy about them.

I have 4 Shelves, 2 feet wide. And no more room for books. Its mostly 3.x and Pathfinder, with some 2e (particularly campaign settings) and a shelf full of WoD books.

There a couple odd one-off books on there as well, like Conan 2e d20, Angel: the RPG (Unisystem), and some more unusual d20 books, like d20 stargate, and d20 WoW, and Everstone: Blood Legacy,

Nice! I have two six foot tall shelves crammed with all kinds of goodies. D&D 2ed, 3.0 and 3.5 (with a sprinkling of 1E and the 4ED Dark Sun core book), OWD White Wolf products from each line, Cthulhu, Conan, Star Wars, Warhammer, plus a dozen other random RPG's and of course the Pathfinder core book.

Back on topic
I wonder if 4th Edition really performed THAT badly. I know a lot of people who play it and like it. I am sure that Paizo siphoned off a chunk of the players who would not have necessarily had an alternative (for new material the old stuff is still out there) but I am sure it was not a complete failure. After 5 years perhaps it was simply time for a reboot and core books are always a major source of revenue for an RPG, so why not reboot?

DDI seemed to be a bit of a failure though as much as the people I know like it, it was not quite what it was advertised to be I don't think.

Well its been 4 not 3 years and by the time it is released 4th edition will have been around for 5 years. In 1997 or 1998 3.0 went into development, 3.0 was released in 2000, in 2003 3.5 was released, in 2008 4E was released. This decision seems to be in line with their strategy based on what we have seen for the last 10+ years. Personally I still play 3.5 (with some Pathfinder modifications mixed in) and I did not look at 4E nor will I look at whatever this is. Look for 6E in 2016/2017 :-)

You think the Saints can win in Green Bay Aberzombie?

Heh, "Say Uncle".

Do you mean the new Expidition to Castle Greyhawk. I own it but never read through it completely.

I say Maure Castle. Either way I am sure I will be thoroughly enjoying following the exploits of your doomed PC's. :)

I plan on running a one shot Star Wars Saga game next spring which will be PVP. Looking forward to some players killing each other!

I find I can't do that, since I'm running an adventure path, and in the military, so there is no guarantee we'll be able to finish it if we don't play every chance we get. The fact I have 6-8 players at any one time also makes it hard to avoid someone being gone each week.

Same here. Years ago when I had 4 players and we played every week I would cancel a game if players could not make it. Now we play twice a month, not at all in the summers and I have 9 players. If I canceled every time a player missed we would almost never play.

If this passes and an American citizen is detained under the statute who exactly is this citizen supposed to appeal to? Their constitutional rights will be non-existent. There is no one phone call to a lawyer. In fact the likelihood is that this citizen will be sequestered in a facility where no one will know where they are or how to find them (this person may not even be in this country after they are picked up). This is scary stuff.

The original Maure Castle or the 3.5 revisions?

Interesting topic. I run 3.5. I give XP to all players who attend a session. I rarely give bonus individual XP awards unless a player does something exceptional .

If a player does not attend a session I give them the option of allowing another player to run their character and gain XP on one condition, they may perish like anyone else at that session. If a player does not attend I find a way (via the plot) to keep their character out of the action so they will not perish. So if a character does not share an "experience" with the other players, they don't get any experience.

This policy (among other things) has resulted in the characters at varying levels. However, characters who are lower level actually gain more XP than their counterparts who are higher level because the dangers they face are more difficult for them. Over time the characters should all even out provided the ones who fall behind do not continue to miss games.

I have made exceptions for players who miss large chunks of time for personal reasons bringing them a level behind the rest of the group in such instances.

The news here is that there was time when anyone thought we had freedom. Remember so long as you do everything you are told you will be free.

Male. Never in the military. I am 35 started with the D&D Basic red box set in 1988. I have been playing some form of table top RPG ever since.

Dotting for interest.

He has been on rotations before where he was out of contact. Perhaps he is just somewhere with no access. Hopefully he comes back soon.

My character sheet is also fully updated.

This situation in game could turn ugly fast...

Great. I will have my profile completed tomorrow (work is busy and I have plans tonight). As I do not need to take Latent Old Blood I will take Improved Initiative since I have a -1 modifier to Initiative at the moment.

After that Amorial Suth will finally be complete!

Hmmm. I did not read that section thoroughly enough. I was using the every 3 levels system if 3.5 for feats plus I did not take any traits. So I need a little more tweaking after all. I will take Latent Old Blood as I need it for the Master Treesinger PrC.

Edit: I will take Resilient +1 fortitude saves and Stealthy Escape use sleight of hand instead of escape artist to slip manacles or ropes and get +2 bluff to appear still tied up.

That build looks pretty solid Valegrim.

Good luck with school. Looking forward to starting up again!

Yeah that pic is pretty close to an Ogier :)

Well we have 2 Ashaman and me. An Aes Sedai would be interesting in this group (not sure if the other characters took healing weaves but no doubt we could use them) or maybe a straight up Armsman.

Array 1
4d6 ⇒ (3, 1, 4, 3) = 11
4d6 ⇒ (1, 4, 4, 5) = 14
4d6 ⇒ (3, 2, 1, 1) = 7
4d6 ⇒ (1, 3, 4, 6) = 14
4d6 ⇒ (4, 1, 6, 5) = 16
4d6 ⇒ (5, 1, 1, 3) = 10

10, 13, 6, 13, 15, 9

Array 2
4d6 ⇒ (2, 2, 6, 2) = 12
4d6 ⇒ (4, 2, 1, 4) = 11
4d6 ⇒ (1, 4, 5, 4) = 14
4d6 ⇒ (3, 5, 6, 6) = 20
4d6 ⇒ (2, 5, 1, 1) = 9
4d6 ⇒ (2, 6, 5, 2) = 15

10, 10, 13, 17, 8, 13

I will take set #2.

I think Shanosuke has had posting problems.

I can't finish the character by 2 but I will have it done by the evening. I am thinking Ogier Wanderer/Noble. He was tired of the lifestyle of the steading and took to wandering to see the world. It is a dangerous and exciting time and my character fears and loves the experience all at once.

Just came across this thread. If there is room for one more player I will whip something up tomorrow.

Congrats on the engagement my 3 year anniversary is today.

Thanks for your well wishes everyone.

Between a heavy workload and a death in the family this week I am not going to be able to post again till Monday. Sorry for the invonvenience. I will go with the majority on the options above.

First – How do you feel about my GMing style?
Works for me. I prefer roleplay with combats that make sense in the storyline not just random slugfests for the sake of combat and XP awards. I like the ability to think outside the box and take the campaign in (almost) any direction we want. The flow of game will move easier with soem of the rules you have in place.

Second – How do you feel about the campaign you are in?
Good. I like the plot so far and the mix of PC's is good.

Third – How is my ability to communicate details?
I believe I understand the rules you proposed so I would say ommunication skills are fine.

Fourth – Is there any advice you can offer in regards to running online games?
I have played in a number of play by posts and I think what makes a really good DM is someone who can (i) set the scene in a way that does nt make the layout confusing in combat situations and (ii) responds to each playersquesries before moving forward in the scene. PBP's where DM's do these things well are usually good to very good games.

Fifth - Is there any other comments or concerns, or advice?
Nope.

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Kregen the blue letters are ooc comments. They can be done with the format [ooc] with data in between [ooc] but this latter ooc requires a / between the [ and the first o.

$110K plus whatever my wife makes in a given year, she is in sales so it goes up and down.

I have been working on something for about two years now.

Will fix the weapon DM Keddah to a base +1 with no Keen and adjust the profile.

Is he? I'm a big fan, but what I know him best for is adventures and settings.

How is he not an innovator? He was one of the designers of D&D 3.0 whether you like or don't like that version is irrelevant, it was innovative.

Hey Shanosuke, I will make revisions to my sheet based on the above.

No worries DM Locke Congrats to everyone who got in!

Oh man this is a crazy cliffhanger for the next two weeks!