Recently, something funny has happened. Sam has finally agreed to try gaming with us. She bought her own dice, and we’ve been discussing what she might want to play as a character,

How did we get her to this point? Well, it’s been some work, but let me tell you my strategy for getting someone into the game.

Choose Your Target Wisely

When I was a kid, I tried to convince my Mom to play D&D with us. I cajoled her, bribed her, badgered her…she just wasn’t interested. I’d try to explain the rules to her, and she would lose interest way too quickly. After a while, I determined that my Mom just wasn’t going to be interested in D&D.

Over the years, I’ve learned to sift good targets from bad. Some people just aren’t going to enjoy RPGs no matter how badly you want them to. Others just need the right RPG to spark their interest. People who tried before and didn’t like them are worth a shot, for example. It may be that the game they were playing, or the people they were playing with, didn’t serve to help them get interested.

Sam was a good target. She’d never played before, so she didn’t have a negative opinion of gaming other than her own thoughts on the subject. She loves most things that’re geeky, and her husband likes to play, so it’s something that’s theoretically relevant to her interests. Although she kept saying that she wasn’t interested, she kept being curious about what was happening in the game. That’s usually a dead giveaway.

Use Logic

Although Sam professes a lack of interest in RPGs, she loves board-games, and she’s played a number of games that really skirt the edge. I noticed this when we were playing Betrayal at the House on the Hill. She would be joking, but she’d say something like, “Can’t I use the rope to tie up the stunned monster?” or “Could I try and push the zombie down the stairs?”

I would grin and say, “You could if we were playing D&D.”

Also, I noticed she would read the little details on the character cards. “Sorry,” she’d say. “My character is afraid of bugs. I’m not coming in that room.” She was role-playing in a non-traditionally RP game. I pointed this out to her, and I think that got her thinking about playing.

Start Off Small

The ultimate offer in tabletop gaming is, “Come try a game. We can make it a short one, and, if you don’t like it, you don’t have to keep playing.” I always encourage people to at least try it. If they don’t enjoy it, then I leave them alone. But, just like your Mom used to say when you were balking at trying a new food, “How do you know you don’t like it, if you’ve never tried it?”

When they do agree to play, don’t overwhelm them. Most people, when they think of these games, assume that, by agreeing to play D&D, they’re in for hours per game, and months or years of gaming. Reassure them that this isn’t so with some really short one shot experiences. Even if you hand them a pre-generated character and run a single encounter, you’re still getting them to try playing.

My nephew, who is kind of a jock and who can be a little “too cool for the room”, agreed to try the game. I wrote a 3 encounter scenario, where each encounter had an obvious way forward. When the first encounter was over, he frowned. “We didn’t find the big bad guy?”

I shook my head. “No, but there’s a door leading out of the room.”

“Well,” he said, “we need to keep going. We’ve got to get that guy, or we won’t get paid.”

We ended up playing for about 4 hours, at his instigation, because he didn’t like the idea of not getting the big bad guy, and because he was having fun. But if he’d said at the end of the first encounter, “Okay, I’m done,” I wouldn’t have fussed. He would’ve tried the game and made a decision. As it is, he’s played with us a couple of other times since then. He doesn’t love it, but he likes it.

Choose Your Ammo with Care

If the prospective player you’re working on gives you an opportunity to have them play a game, don’t squander the opportunity. Try and figure out something they’ll enjoy and play a game that revolves around that idea, or that relates to something they really love.

Sam really likes zombie movies. You can bet I’m planning on having a zombie attack during the game of D&D she plays with us. If I was trying to convince a Star Wars fanatic to try an RPG, I’d probably start with the Star Wars Saga Edition. A superhero fan might get DC Adventures or Mutants and Masterminds. Someone who likes Lord of the Rings might get The One Ring RPG, or a D&D game with orc attacks.

With the monster scaling rules of D&D, you can move any monster up or down to where you need it. Does your prospective player think your beholder t-shirt is awesome? Make sure to include a beholder in the scenario you’re running, even if it’s just a gauth. Does the player love dragons? Work one into the scenario…or if they love unicorns, maybe a unicorn gives them their quest. There’s always a way to tie in something they love. And by tying in something they feel strongly about, you can help link the game to that thing in their minds.

If at First You Don’t Succeed, Stop

I’m fully prepared for the possibility that Sam will play the game and then say, “It’s okay, but I don’t have any interest in playing again.” While I don’t think that will happen, I know it could.

If it does, I’ll smile and say, “Hey, at least you tried it. Now you know what it’s about.” And that will be that. I won’t keep digging at her, because I know D&D isn’t for everyone…like my Mom.

If I keep pushing, it’ll just alienate her further from the game. If I leave it alone, it might be that down the road, she’ll express an interest in trying again. And I’d rather have her decide that on her own than have me badger her about it.

In Conclusion

Sam was the most die-hard non-gamer I know, and she’s agreed to try gaming. If she hadn’t been into things like Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and so on, I probably wouldn’t have wanted her to try the game, but I think she’s going to really enjoy it when we play. I’ll write a scenario that won’t take all night, and I’ll give her the option of stopping after each encounter…while continuing to dangle the possibility of a big ending if she does finish. I’ll definitely be using things I know she likes (e.g. zombies) when we play, to reinforce to her that D&D is a fun game. I’m confident that this will lead to Sam liking the game, and, if she doesn’t, it’s no big deal.

Your Turn

Do you think my plan is doomed to failure? Do you have a tried and true strategy for getting people to try RPGs? Do you have a funny story about how you started playing reluctantly? Let us all know.

This stereotype is so prevalent that it even finds its way into humor about gaming, like the song D&D by Stephen Lynch and the Dead Alewives audio sketches about the game. It’s funny; I actually don’t even like Doritos all that much, and I can’t tell you the last time I had Mountain Dew. I am overweight, but I’m taking steps, via Weight Watchers, in losing this extra tire. Well, okay, my extra tire came from a monster truck, but still!

With food on my mind, I thought this was a good time to tackle the subject of alternative gaming snacks. So put down the potato chips and read on.

Why Junk Food?

First off, why do we eat junky foods during games? Well, many habits are those that we picked up early on and simply continue to enforce on ourselves. A lot of people, myself included, started gaming in their younger years, and games may have afforded a chance to snack on things that wasn’t always available at other times.

When I was a kid, I mostly ate healthy snacks at home. Games and summer camp were two of the only times I got to eat chips, drink non-diet soda, and so on. If my example isn’t unique, others were probably in the same situation, leading to a gamer population that fits our stereotype.

Even as an adult, until I really started paying attention recently, I ate junk food during games. It would not be unheard of for me to drink an entire 2-liter of soda during a game (hey…DMing is thirsty work! And at least it was diet.) And I shudder to think how many bags of chips, cookies, candy, and so on has been consumed around my gaming table.

But how to we fight this? Well, read on.

Insight Check

To borrow one of the core concepts of Weight Watchers, the most effective way to tackle eating more healthily is to figure out your habits, consciously change them, and then reinforce the good new habits. Diets don’t work; the reason Weight Watchers works is that it’s not a diet. And the way changing our eating habits begins is to figure out why we have them.

Do you snack at games because you’re hungry? If your game takes place at or after your dinner time, and you don’t eat dinner because you have a game to play or run, then you’re asking for it.

Do you snack at games as a kind of splurge, the way I did? This can be a powerful motivator.

Do you snack because the food is there? It’s as valid a habit as any other, honestly.

Change of Hobbit

Once you’ve figured out what your habits are, the next step is to make a change to them and stick with it.

If you snack because you’re hungry, the best solution is to make sure you eat before you game. You could make it a point to get your players together before the game and share a meal. Make something that the whole group can share, like a big casserole or a slow cooker meal. You can make something healthier than random snacks and give everyone more time to socialize.

If you snack as a splurge or just because the food is there, try to channel things in a healthier direction. Rather than chips, have something at your game that’s healthier. Cheese (usually low-fat), celery, fresh fruit, and nuts or trail mix tend to show up on our table far more often than chips or cookies these days.

Alternately, you can change your splurging habits. I often forgo snacks on game night, but, once a week, we go out and have a nice dinner. Weight Watchers gives bonus points to use every week. I’d rather use them to sit down to a steak than use them for cookies on game night.

Unconventional Eating

Counting calories (or points) is always more difficult when you’re away from home. I’m going to be at PAX East (in fact, when you read this, I might very well be there!), and I have no intention of letting all my hard work go down the drain.

Cataloging what you eat is a big part of Weight Watchers. It forces you to think about what you’re putting in your mouth, especially in comparison to how much you’re supposed to eat over the course of the day. I carry my iPad with me everywhere, and I have an app on it to keep track of what I’m eating and its Weight Watchers points.

Something else I do on a regular basis when I go into work is to brown bag my lunch. While I’m not planning on bringing lunch with me, I will definitely be bringing snacks in the form of little individually packaged cookies, chips, and so on. I do this when I’m working in the office, and it lets me enjoy a snack without blowing what I can eat over the course of the day.

Your Turn

Do you have anything you like to eat when you’re gaming that goes outside of the norm? Do you have a good eating habit to suggest? A favorite recipe for feeding your gaming buddies? Share with us.

He kind of blinked at me. “What’s a Speed Factor?”

In no time, we were pulling out old D&D books, showing off charts, and talking about things like Racial Level Limits, Saving Throws vs. Petrification & Polymorph, and the Grand Master of Flowers.

He grinned at me. “I think you know what your next GeeksDreamGirl article should be about. You need to educate people like me, because this is fun stuff to know about.”

So here we go. This article will be about some phrases, concepts, and terminology from D&D’s past that you may not be aware of if you only came on board during 4E…or even 3rd edition. And for those who know D&D’s past, maybe you’ll read, get a nostalgic smile on your face, or say, “Hey, I think System Shock rolls got a bum deal!”

Speed Factor

It only seems fair that we begin with the inspiring piece. Once upon a time, gentle readers, it was apparently not “realistic” enough to simply roll dice to see who goes first and add a Dexterity modifier. Actually, as I recall, Dexterity had nothing to do with how fast you went in combat. Instead, what you were doing determined how quickly you did it.

Every weapon, spell, and some actions had a Speed Factor. When you rolled the D6 for your party’s Initiative (yes, that’s right…1 D6 roll for the whole party), and you tied with the monsters, you used Speed Factor to determine who acted in what order. Someone with a dagger went faster than someone with a longsword. Someone with a longsword went faster than someone with a flail, and so on.

Second edition brought the die roll for each side to a d10, and also added an optional rule. With this rule, for more realistic individual initiatives, you added the Speed Factor of your weapon or spell to your initiative roll, as well as modifiers for things like size, whether you had a Haste spell cast on you, and so on. The DM would then go through the various segments of the battle, figuring who was acting in which order. So you might have everyone going on different segments, much as the DM counts down the initiative today. The trouble was, if you switched weapons or cast a different spell, that changed everything, so there was often new initiative rolled on every round of the battle.

Think your battles take a while now? Yeah.

D&D Immortals Rules

So you probably know that D&D was once called Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, or AD&D. There was a reason for this. When D&D got its first major face-lift, going from the small brown chapbooks to the original hardcovers, there was a concern that the new game would be too hard for first-time players to penetrate. It was decided that they would have Dungeons & Dragons, a boxed-set, and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (or AD&D), which would be what people would graduate to.

This proved popular, but it had some flaws, for a very odd reasons. The two rules systems didn’t actually agree on certain things. For example, in D&D, if you were wearing no armor and had no benefit or penalty based on your Dexterity, then your Armor Class was 9. In AD&D, it was 10. Not a major difference, but odd, you must admit. The original “Basic” D&D Boxed set was only for levels 1-3, and folks seemed happy to graduate thereafter.

A little down the road, however, something odd happened. After the re-released of “Basic” D&D, TSR released an “Expert” boxed set. This followed the same rules system as “Basic”, but extended the levels limits up to 14. So now…wait…which is better, Expert or Advanced? To compound this weirdness, they followed up with Companion D&D (levels 15-25), Master D&D (levels 26-36), and Immortals…rules for characters who have literally transcended into Immortality and become gods.

So now what’s better? A game that didn’t limit your levels, like AD&D, or a game which culminates in you becoming a God, like Immortals D&D? I played AD&D, but my friend Joe liked Immortals. We used to debate about it endlessly, even as we played each others’ games. In a way, it was D&D’s first Edition War!

Ironically, in 3rd Edition and 4E, we seem to have come full circle, as Epic play allows players to get up to Godlike powers, even while maintaining levels.

THAC0

Okay, it’s the elephant in the room…something you might well have heard of but have no idea of the meaning. Allow your GGG to explain.

In original D&D and 1st Edition AD&D, you had to consult a table to figure out what number you needed to hit any given Armor Class. Because AC started at 10 and went down as it got better (an AC of -3 was really quite good!), you would consult a chart based on your class and level, roll your attack, and, based on what you rolled, be able to tell the DM what AC you would hit…or, well, you could’ve if all the combat charts hadn’t been in the DM’s Guide. The DM actually would have to hear your number, then look at the chart and figure out if you’d hit his monster or not.

Thankfully, this was revolutionized in 2nd Edition with the concept of THAC0, which stood for To Hit Armor Class Zero (0). You would have a number, based on your class and level, as well as factors like your bonus for high Strength or Dexterity, whether you were using a magic sword, and so on, that would be the number you needed to hit AC 0. You could then roll a D20, consult your THAC0, and figure out what AC your roll would equate to hitting. For example, if your THAC0 was a 19, and you rolled a 17, then you’d know you hadn’t rolled high enough to hit AC 0, but you would hit AC 2. Man, this made it so much easier for the poor DM!

Ugh. Seriously. Ugh.

Whether you love 3rd Edition, Pathfinder, 4E, or whatever, let us all bow our heads in thanks for a moment, for the concepts of Armor Class numbers that represent what you actually need to roll to hit, and for numbers that go up instead of down. These are things I take for granted nowadays, and I can’t help but chuckle ruefully when I look back on how tightly TSR clung to its sacred cows. Thank goodness WotC held a sacred cow barbecue with the advent of 3rd Edition.

Alignment Language, Druidic, and Thieves’ Cant

I can’t resist slipping this in, because it’s one that I just can’t believe ever existed. Against any logic, it was decided that there were languages for every alignment…secret languages that everyone of that alignment shared. So if you were Chaotic Good, you could drop a few words of the Chaotic Good alignment language and, if anyone understood you, know they were on the up and up.

Well…unless they were that stomper of alignment language collusion, the Assassin. The Assassin, once he reached a certain level, could learn the languages of other alignments. It’s a shame, really, since Assassins are exactly the sort of people you’d be trying to screen out by dropping words in your alignment language.

Besides your alignment, another factor might influence if you knew a super-secret language or not: your class! Certain classes had secret languages of their own, specifically Druids and Thieves (the precursor to Rogues). Druids spoke Druidic, naturally enough, presumably to keep people from learning their awesome recipes for beer, and Thieves spoke Thieves’ Cant, presumably so they could plan their operations in public.

I actually remember an article in Dragon, many years ago, where they came up with a little pull-out section in the middle that folded down into a lexicon of Thieves’ Cant. I loved it, and I used it with the Thief in my game, making him scramble to look up words. It was very funny.

Vancian Magic

Ah, Vancian Magic, the main reason that D&D parties used to have a “Five minute work day”. There are still elements of Vancian magic in D&D today…in fact, every character in D&D 4E owes a little something to Vancian magic.

Sci-fi and Fantasy author Jack Vance wrote a series of books referred to as the “Dying Earth” stories. In these books, wizards would memorize spells from their spell-books at the beginning of every day. When they cast these spells, the spell would erase itself from their minds, forcing them to re-memorize their spells the next day.

Sounds familiar, yes? Yup. Daily powers.

Originally, all spells for clerics, wizards, druids, and so on, were good for only 1 casting. When that spell was cast, the spell was gone until the next day. This meant that, every morning, a cleric or wizard would look through the list of spells they had in their spellbook (or their deity granted them access to), and decide which ones they would memorize (or pray for) for the day. At mid-levels, this wasn’t a problem, but at low and high-levels, it created some oddness.

In the early days of the game, a 1st level Wizard…errr…Magic-User…would be able to memorize one spell. Seriously. One spell of 1st level for the whole day. This literally meant that in every combat, the Magic-User would have to decide if this was the combat to throw his Magic Missile spell in to unerringly do 1d4+1 damage to a single target. Also, his combat tables were the worst of all characters, so his options outside of that spell were essentially to stay back and not get killed, or run in, make a single attack with his staff, and then get killed by a kobold with a stick, since the 1st level Magic-User had 1d4 hit points.

So what would happen quite often is that a party would charge in, unleash all their spells, and then rest. They’d explored 1 room, but they weren’t going any further, because they were probably still wounded (since the cleric was likely to have only a couple of healing spells…at least they got bonus spells for a high Wisdom), and now their Magic-User was essentially useless.

At high-levels, the trouble was that, even though the odds of them needing to cast 1st level spells when they had access to 9th level spells was pretty low, they’d still need to decide what they were memorizing. And the party would have to wait while they decided which spells to take. And that could be literally dozens of spells. A 29th level wizard had 59 spells to decide on, and a 29th level cleric had at least 61, and probably more due to high Wisdom, even if the odds stated they would only need the top few levels worth of spells.

This lasted all the way through 3rd Edition and only went away with the idea of At-Will, Encounter, and Daily powers for every class. Now everyone made their decisions as they leveled and worked with what they had til they leveled again.

I am *REALLY* hoping there’s going to be a module for D&D Next that sticks with the At-Will, Encounter, Daily structure. I don’t want to go back to the old days.

In Closing

This nostalgic look back is really a nervous look forward. There are sacred cows of D&D that I hope stay well and truly slaughtered, or, at least, are left optional. I’m sure there are people who love the realism of Speed Factors, but I’m not one of them. I’m sure some folks would love to get back to Vancian magic, but having played a campaign up to level 20, I can say that I’m happy with what 4E changed. And while even I would prefer a return to the days of 9 alignments, there are more rules than not that I’m happy to see stay in their crypts.

Your Turn

What’s your favorite crazy old term or rule that I missed? Do you think there’s a place in D&D Next for THAC0? Am I off-base on Vancian Magic? Let us all know what you think.

Dungeon Bastard Bill Cavalier (Image provided by Dungeon Bastard)

 GDG: Why were you inspired to bring your gaming wisdom to the community in video form?

BC: Whenever a new supplement or rulebook comes out, invariably some second-rate armchair rules lawyer logs on to rec.games.frp.dnd and starts barking “THIS GAME IS TOTALLY BROKEN!” I tried arguing with those guys for many years until I realized the REAL problem: The PLAYERS are totally broken. And that’s when I found my calling: to use my 18 Intelligence and 20 Charisma to build a better class of gamer. The kind of gamer who doesn’t go anywhere NEAR a dungeon without a ten-foot pole and bag of rats.

As for the videos — look, when I was a kid, if you wanted to learn how to play guitar, you had to go to a teacher and take lessons. Nowadays, kids sit down in front of a computer and watch YouTube videos, and the next thing you know, they’re Joe Satriani. So I decided, if these kids are going to learn to slaughter orcs and backstab their fellow party members from some crappy YouTube video, I want it to be MY crappy YouTube video.

Plus, there’s not enough time in my day to do one-on-one consulting. It’s the burden of being an expert, really. I’m like the Brad Pitt of gaming. Okay, maybe not THAT big. Maybe more like the Richard Simmons of gaming. Yeah, that’s more like it. Don’t think I can’t rock those shorts, either. I may not be Brad Pitt, but I definitely have Angelina Jolie’s legs.

GDG: Everyone’s heard of half-orcs. What do you think would be the ultimate D&D race combo?

BC: Easy: half dwarf, half minotaur. DWINOTAUR! It has “win” right there in the title! (I considered “minotwarf” but that sounds like the word you’d use to describe one of those reflux vomit burps you get if you eat a whole bunch of cranberries real fast.)
The other great combo is half gnome, half sphere of annihilation. I haven’t gotten it to work yet, but that’s not going to keep me from trying. PERSISTENCE, PEOPLE! PERSISTENCE.

GDG: How should players respond when a member of their game is constantly distracted by their cell phone?

BC: I firmly believe there should be a complete ban on technology at the game table. Look, this is a very tactile hobby. You have to FEEL it in your hands. We use books. Books made from dead trees. And dice. Weird, arcane dice. And paper. And pencils. Typically, mechanical ones. One dude DESCRIBES what you see, and then someone has to draw a map in a dog-eared quadrille notebook they last used back in Mr. Nouldey’s 8th grade science class.  Part of the charm is how LOW FI it is. Fidgeting with your cell phone or laptop? NOT CHARMING. Technology actually detracts from this game. It’s like using a Zip-Loc bag to do origami: seemingly modern and clever, actually quite stupid.

Worse, if you’re heads-down in your phone, you could miss one of the QUINTESSENTIAL moments of the game: the part where the DM says “Roll for Initiative.”  Man, you don’t want to kronk that one up.

So please, PLAYERS, for the love of Wee Jas, check your phone and laptop at the door. Otherwise, I hereby authorize your fellow players to make you wear a large grocery bag on your head that says “-2 CHARISMA” for the duration of the session. (Note: I did not authorize cutting eye holes!)

Besides, do you know how many times I’ve had to tell some civilian “No, it’s NOT a computer game!!” ? You kids with your smartphones? YOU’RE NOT HELPING.

GDG: What do you do to prepare for a session of D&D?

BC: Warm up my dice, look through my notes and decide which plot hooks to ignore, pump up the jams with some REO Speedwagon. (A lot of old-school gamers will tell you they like to put on the Gladiator soundtrack or Zeppelin’s “Misty Mountain Hop” but trust the Bastard: nothing gets a room party rockin’ like “Keep On Lovin’ You.” You laugh — it’s happenin’.)
Also, I like to do something Olympic athletes call “pre-visualization.” So before a race, they PRE-VISUALIZE themselves cutting the tape or leaping over that hurdle to help them perform better. I do the same thing, but with monsters.

So I will pick a certain monster and then I PRE-VISUALIZE killing it and stealing its loot. And then I incorporate this pre-visualization into the session.

Say I pre-visualize slaying a carbuncle. Throughout the session I will say to the DM, “I check for tracks, does it look like a carbuncle?” or “Guys, I’m pretty sure this is the work of a carbuncle.” Or, “Seems PRETTY definitive, people: that evil priest was dominated by a psionic carbuncle.”

You’d be surprised how well this works. A good 60% of the time, we end up fighting a carbuncle.

That’s powerful.

GDG: Anything to say to your legions of adoring fans?

BC: THANK YOU. It’s truly flattering that people enjoy my work. It takes a tremendous amount of upkeep to feed my gigantic ego, but the responses have been great — whether that’s on my website (http://www.dungeonbastard.com) or the comments on my videos, or the people who follow me on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dungeonbastard Really, fan response has been key because, hey, let’s face it — there’s not a lot of money in being a professional adventure coach, especially one who has a YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/epicleveltv or a whole Facebook fan page at http://www.facebook.com/dungeonbastard

Number two: GAME MORE. Go out and introduce new people to the hobby. I’m just one guy, I can’t adventure coach the world. Have some fun with your non-gamer friends! It’s good for you and it’s good for the hobby.

GDG: Bonus Question: Is there any truth to the rumor that Monte Cook eats pixies for breakfast?

BC: Hey Monte Cook, you know what goes great with pixie wings? A sphere of annihilation!

Have a cherished Dungeon Bastard video? Ever shown them to your gaming group? Leave your tales of laughter (and Bill Cavalier sightings) in the comments!

It’s nonsense, of course, on one level. My world doesn’t actually go on living when the players aren’t there. But I’ve managed to create the illusion of the world changing and evolving through a series of tricks I’ve learned over the years.

I thought I’d share some of the tips I’ve picked up with you, my gentle readers. These are some tricks for making your players feel that, contrary to the world shutting down when they’re not there, it keeps going without them.

Rumors from Afar

Back in the days of 1st Edition D&D, we got the first Oriental Adventures handbook. While I wasn’t hugely interested in running a campaign set in a fantasy Asia, there was something in it that fascinated me and got lots and lots of use. There was a table of events that you could roll on for each region of your campaign world. You could use this to develop stories, to help with characters asking for news from abroad, and so on. I embraced this concept wholeheartedly, developing huge calendars of events for all the regions of my campaign world and keeping track of them in a notebook that looked something like a database spreadsheet.

While I no longer feel bound to do a ton of random table rolling, I do think about what’s happening in those parts of the world that are relatively close to where the characters are, or where they’re likely to be. Then, when my players meet travelers on the road, or are listening to rumors in a tavern, I can speak about rumors, even having the travelers contradict one another. “I’ve heard that the orcs are massing in the south due to an insult given by the southern barbarians.” “Well, I heard they’re seeking something down there, and the insult is just an excuse.”

In the “Sandbox with Benefits” model I’ve described in previous articles, the rumor mill is a tremendous tool for me. I can throw out tidbits that might be stories and see which ones the players are interested in. Right at the beginning of my campaign, the player character were hearing rumors of a brewing war in the south with orcs. Now, months later, they followed up on these rumors, and the orcish war is currently the central storyline.

Changing Roles

In real life, people don’t stay static. Relationships change. People take on new jobs. People move away. People die, and new people are born. If the NPCs in your game stay static, then they seem more like the NPCs in a computer game…always there, waiting for the PCs to come and talk to them, with no life of their own.

I’m a huge fan of the Ultima series of computer games, and I’ve played them all. In Ultima 1-4, the NPCs stay static, with no movements. They are, literally, only there for the PCs to talk to. In Ultima 5, they added a little touch that made a huge difference. NPCs were given paths and locations based on the time of day. An NPC might be sleeping at night, go to visit her husband in jail in the morning, go into a shop to run it during the day, head to the tavern for dinner, then visit her husband again, then go home and go to sleep.

This little element made a tremendous jump in the reality of Britannia for me. The people suddenly seemed so much more real to me, because they weren’t just standing in one place, waiting for me. They seemed to have their own lives, which I imagined were still going on when I left town.

NPCs in your campaign should feel the same way. When the PCs have been away from a town a while, I do a little thinking about what might be transpiring there after they leave. Did I hint that the town cobbler was romantically interested in a barmaid? I might have the two more obviously involved when the PCs come in next time, or I might go the opposite route and have the barmaid flirting with the blacksmith while the cobbler watches, broken-hearted. Maybe the PCs will step in and encourage the cobbler to be brave, or encourage him to find a new interest. Are these details significant? Well, no. But they will make things feel more real.

Weather Or Not…

It’s funny…there’s something in our culture so basic and prevalent that talking about it has almost become a watch-word for having a banal conversation. But despite this, it’s pretty rare to hear it mentioned in a game, unless it’s to illustrate an extreme. I’m speaking, of course, about the weather

While it’s all good to set an exciting battle during a thunderstorm, or to talk about a blinding blizzard, these tend to be extremes. Most days are straightforward, with average weather, but it’s nice to know when it’s average and when it’s not.

I use a random weather generator to jot some notes about what the weather is in the area the PCs are traveling in. While I don’t tell my players the weather every moment of every day, I can say things like, “Your journey of a week is mostly overcast, punctuated by occasional showers. It’s unusually warm for this time of year.” Once again, it’s not a crucial detail. It’s just a little thing, but it enhances the reality of the game world.

Economically Sound

I’m not going to suggest that you should be aware of the intricacies of a world economy, but it doesn’t hurt to know some sweeping details. I don’t know the in-and-outs of supply and demand in my world, but I can tell you that the Dwarves of Kurdenheim trade coal to the halflings of Dalenshire for swamp pepper along a series of rivers that’re referred to as the Pepper Route.

Not only does a little detail like this make the place feel real, it also makes for possible story fodder. If there’s a bad year for swamp peppers, then the halflings might be in for a cold winter. This could lead to all kinds of stories, as the PCs try to help their halfling friends, or the halflings move further south along their rivers, causing them to come into conflict with the yuan-ti who live in the bayous.

In Closing

It doesn’t take a ton of effort to add a few details that can make the difference in your campaign world feeling real. If it seems like a world with real world details like an economy, weather, a calendar, a history, and people who live and grow, your players will come to appreciate it for itself and not just a tableau that waits for them to come in and experience it.

Your Turn

Do you think I go too far in what I do to make my campaign live? Do you have your own tricks to make your campaign world come alive? Share your thoughts with all of us.

Way back in his introduction to the original Dungeon Master’s Guide, Gary Gygax wrote, “The game is the thing, and certain rules can be distorted or disregarded altogether in favor of play.” He understood that the ultimate point of the game is to have fun, and he knew that the rules were simply a structured guideline to give everyone a basic foundation on which to stand.

It’s clear that the D&D Next team understands this as well, because they’ve described a version of the game in which the system is boiled down to its vital essence, and modules can be plugged into it to make it the game you want to play. I truly hope that this can be the One Game to Rule Them All that they’re suggesting. I truly do.

In the meantime, however, my game of choice is D&D 4E. Every Thursday, as the dictates of Real Life allow, I get together with 6 friends and try to tell a damned exciting story, full of exciting adventure, memorable scenes and characters, and chew-your-fingernails-to-the-cuticle combats.

One thing I’ve found in my 32 (shortly to be 33) years behind the DM’s Screen is that one of the most important things a DM can know is when to disregard the rules in order to make things more fun. I’m going to offer some of the tricks I use to make my campaigns the kind that folks talk about in war stories afterwards. Specifically, I’m going to tell you certain ways in which I break the rules.

Kill the Critter Early

The ranger brings her Frostbrand kukri down against the Carnage Demon. She’s using an Encounter power…she rolls a natural 20! Critical hit! She calculates her damage and announces it to me proudly. Twenty-five points of damage. I look down at my monster’s stats…it has twenty-seven hit points left. I look at the monster’s stats. Does it have any cool powers left the players haven’t seen yet? Nope. It’s a pretty straight-forward critter.

I look up and smile. “You slay it! Describe the kill!”

What?! Did I just let that monster die with 2 hit points left?

Yup. Without a single qualm.

I mean, what’s the critter gonna do? Probably absorb one more attack from the players and then die anyway. This way, that Critical Hit means even more, that player feels triumphant, and the players are left to go pursue other monsters on the battlefield. I mean, nothing feels worse than rolling a hit, doing a ton of damage, and being told “Oh…well, it only had one hit point left.”

I try to telegraph this a little. “The monster’s wounded…it looks like a stiff breeze might knock it over.” But still, letting a creature die when it’s down to a couple of hit points speeds things along and means the players can get on to whatever’s next.

What Power Is That?

The party knows they’re about to go into a really tough battle they’re ill-equipped to handle, but they’re trapped on an island as the sahuagin come up out of the sea. They’ve spent most of their Daily powers. Two of them are very low on Healing Surges. The Warlock in the party looks at me and says he’s going to ask for help from the various entities that grant him his powers.

I smile. I’ve had an idea in mind for a bit now. I adopt a slinky, sinister voice. “I can offer you something.” I tell him it’s a voice he’s never heard before. “I can offer you an ally in the battle to come. We have no love for those who worship demons! All I’ll ask will be a simple favor…nothing that will violate your moral code, I’m sure. We can discuss it later.”

The player is torn, but he finally agrees after trying to wriggle out of the infamous “Favor to Be Named Later.” When the battle is joined, there’s a waft of brimstone, and a Spined Devil appears. “How may I serve thee, my lord?” it whispers to him.

Now, obviously, this isn’t something the rules cover. My player isn’t playing an Infernal-Pact Warlock. He is, however, apparently being sought after by a number of various entities. He plays a Vestige-Pact Warlock, but he’s dealt with other entities that have given him aid, either in the form of magic-items (chosen from the parcels at various levels), various favors (in the form of Feats and Powers the player himself has chosen), and advice.

With so many entities vying for his attention, and after the player took The Dark One’s Luck, I started pondering on who The Dark One might be. Although the description of the power mentions stars, I liked the idea that it might be some infernal power influencing my Warlock subtly. “See? I’m not so bad. Have a reroll!” And I thought it might be time to have The Dark One offer something more substantial in exchange for the favor to be named later.

I had spoken with my player in the past about the idea of something nasty offering him a boon, and he said he’d look forward to the inter-party RP that would likely result from accepting it. And it was clear the other players loved it, even if their characters are likely horrified. Will he be able to convince them that the end justified the means? The Spined Devil was very helpful in the fight, to be sure. I’ll be curious to see what happens next…especially if they find out what he agreed to in order to get the help of the Devil…

I’ve made other little similar calls in various situations. Is the Cleric of the Nature Goddess hiding in undergrowth? Let’s give him a +2 to his Stealth check as the plants try to aid him. The Halfling doesn’t want a horse…he wants a riding goat. Why not? The Warden wants to get some aid from the Primal Spirits in leaping over a chasm. Let’s have him make a Nature Check to get a +2 on his Athletics check. Maybe the wind spirits are buoying him up.

Last Man Standing

All of the sahuagin are slain except one. It’s bloodied. It just succeeded on its Saving Throw against being Dominated by the party’s psion, but on the last turn, he had it throw its weapon away. Now its turn is over, and all the PCs are going to get a chance to smack it. They’ve seen all its cool powers, and it used all its encounter powers already.

“No worries,” I tell the players. “You’re able to overcome the last foe without much more trouble.”

Yes, I could run the rest of the fight. But I know there are no more encounters after this. I’d rather simply reward my players and get on with the game. If they take a few more hit points in the fight, it’s not going to really matter. At this point, I’d prefer to go on to the next exciting bit, rather than making them throw dice just to finish things.

Now, if I had a plot-based reason to make the creature fight on, or if there were more encounters down the road, or if wants to try and escape, I’d happily finish the fight. But if there’s no real excitement to be milked out the rest of the fight, why bother? Save your gaming time for something more fun down the road.

In Summary

These are three little tricks that I’ve employed just in my game this evening. I’ve done similar “Rule-breaking” in the past, and I’ve no doubt I’ll do it again in the future. In my mind, the one true rule is “Have fun!” Everything else is secondary to that.

Your Turn

Do you have any specific little tricks you’ve used to make the game fun, even though they’re not exactly by the rules? Do you think I’ve gone too far with any of my own “rulebreaking”? Let us all know.

With the advent of 4E and its mythology of the Gods fighting the elementary powered Primordials at the dawn of time, a natural question has always lingered: If the Gods grant Divine magic to their clerics and the like, is anyone channeling the Elemental magic of the Primordials?

We need wait no longer, as the question is finally answered in Player Options: Heroes of the Elemental Chaos. Now the opportunity arises for players to create characters who’re more tied to the Plane Below and who wield magics of elemental power. Thanks to the good folks at Wizards of the Coast, I got a copy of this book and began perusing it, and I’m happy to offer my opinions of it now.

What This Book Isn’t

Before I really delve into this book, I want to point out that, like its predecessors in the Player Option books, this book doesn’t try to be a travel guide to the Elemental Chaos. The previously published Plane Below already does a fine job of this, and, other than offering some hints, this book doesn’t try to duplicate what can be found therein. This book is strictly concentrating on what characters can do when they ally themselves with the powers of the elements.

Foundations of Stone

The book begins with a chapter about the nature of Elemental power. Just as Heroes of Shadow had Evard as its poster child, Heroes of the Elemental Chaos sometimes features the wisdom of Emirikol. Not a familiar name? Get your hands on a 1st edition DM’s Guide and look in Appendix C in the section on city encounters. Through the ideas of Emirikol, we learn about Elemental power and how one can truly wield it. A hint: those who want to master Elemental power may find themselves with more in common with the Primordials than they might wish.

This chapter looks at how the different Power Sources interact with Elemental magic, rather than trying to make Elemental a Power Source of its own. It also is a great source of inspiration on Primordial Cults (including a look at the mysterious Elder Elemental Eye, which is the focus of the just starting D&D Encounters season), Planar Breaches, and the Primordials themselves, including the most comprehensive listing of these mysterious entities to date.

As a long-standing player of the game, the names in this section made me grin ear to ear. Cryonax, Castanamir, Eclavdra…these are names that resonate with me and my nostalgia factor. It’s always nice to see WotC nodding to that which has come before.

Give Me Theme!

By now, the concept of Character Themes is familiar (And something I truly hope they carry into D&D Next.) The 2nd major chapter in the book adds new themes tied to the powers of the Elements. This really runs the gamut from Demons Spawn (since the Abyss is part of the Elemental Chaos) to Elemental Initiate (a monastic initiate that follows an elemental theme), to Watershaper (which will more than resonate with fans of a certain recent animated series like yours truly.)

There are themes for those who are tied to the powers of Earth, Air, Water, and Fire, as well as Metal. There are also themes that suggest a character’s allegiances, such as serving genies, being a priest of a Primordial, and having been born in an elemental realm.

Keeping It Classy

As all the other Player Options books have, this book picks several classes that fit nicely with the Elemental concept and brings in new powers. This time, the classes that get love are primarily the Arcane power-source classes.

The Sorcerer gets the Elementalist sub-class. As might be obvious, the Elementalist specializes in drawing magic from the Elemental Chaos, and its spells do a great deal of damage. There are some very interesting class features for the Elementalist, but its powers are pretty straightforward and blasty.

The Warlock, predictably, gains the chance to forge a pact seemingly with the Chaos itself in exchange for power. The type of Element the Warlock is tied to varies from rest to rest and adds a random element to things, almost making a Wild Mage/Warlock. Beyond some rather beefy powers that draw on specific Primordials, there are also powers that let a Warlock summon Elemental Allies. A very spiffy idea.

The Wizard section brings back a classic subtype: the Sha’ir. Sha’ir get an auto-familiar in the form of their Gen servant. During extended rests, the Gen will go to the Elemental Chaos for their master and seek out magics the Master wishes. This grants a tremendous level of flexibility to what the Sha’ir can do with his Daily and Utility powers. We also get some great older spells returned to the fold, like Dig, Melf’s Minute Meteors, and Reverse Gravity!

In the non-Arcane class division, we have a new concentration on powers relating to the Elements, of course. Druids can now call Elemental Warriors, and they get all kinds of powers related to the untamed wastes. There are also some powers returning that put a smile on my face, like Chariot of Sustarre.

I was a little baffled by the decision to include powers for the Monk…until I remembered the animated show referenced above. If you’ve always wanted to play an Airbending Monk, good news! This section could actually be used to run a very decent Last Airbender campaign.

Options of All Sorts

No Player Options book would be complete without lots of new num-nums to consider. In Chapter 4, players can look at new Paragon Paths, Epic Destinies, Feats (including a robust chunk on Elemental Companions, a version of the Familiar rules), and Magic-Items.

Players can now consider Paragon Paths like the Speaker of Xaos, or the Prince of Genies, or an Epic Destiny like the Emergent Primordial or the Lord of Chaos. They can have a magmin companion, or carry an Earth-Splitter Axe! Good times!

In Summary

This book offers a lot of new material for existing campaigns, as well as some ideas that could be used to create a whole new campaign focusing on the Elementals and those they’re interacting with. If you have a character from one of the 5 classes above, or if you want to play a character tied to the Elemental Chaos, this book is clearly invaluable. Any of the Primordials described within would make an excellent Epic level confrontation for a campaign, and it might be interesting to play a game in which PCs use the powers of the Primordials against them.

While reading this book, I imagined a campaign in which 5 heroes, empowered with Air, Earth, Water, Fire, and Cold, have to defeat the five Princes of Elemental Evil and prevent them from unleashing the Elder Elemental Eye! And what if the PCs are meant to be the Champions of the Primordials, but choose instead to fight back against those that would Unmake the world? I think that’d be a very interesting campaign, especially if most ordinary people assumed they were allied to the Primordials and would not help them. This book inspires a lot of new ideas, and that makes it valuable to me.

Your Turn

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts about an Elemental bent to the campaign? Let us all know.

Sometimes, you just have to be the bad guy. Whether it’s an NPC foil to write or a swan dive into villainy as a player, the dark half of the story is never far from the table. When your turn towards evil has come up, you can take a moment to consider how to make it one towards quality villainy.

My First Villain

Think back to the first villain who honestly scared you. For me, there’s one that comes before all others.

Judge Doom.

He doesn’t ring a bell? Let’s take a fast stroll down memory lane. In 1988, I’m a cartoon loving little kid sitting in her mother’s lap, watching Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Judge Doom captures a sweet little toon shoe, and lowers it slowly into a substance he’s discovered can harm toons. It struggles, but is soon nothing but a colored smear on top of the “Dip.”

I had my hands clapped over my mouth the whole time. Doom wasn’t just a scary guy with incredible authority, he murdered a toon. It’s pure visceral horror for a child. I saw him as the embodiment of evil. Killing that toon was as easy for him as asking for the time of day.

Think back to your first villain. Think back to the first character that made you experience fear and horror. That made you utterly convinced that evil existed. We fear and hate villains for many reasons, and some of those might make you squirm to contemplate. Still, you have to dig deep. The villains you find down there, the reaction they bring out in you, that’s what you want for other people when faced with the villain you put in front of them.

“Protagonists and loved ones are the wadded-up pieces of paper the baddie is throwing at the wastebasket to kill time.” –Logan Bonner

What Villains Do

Villains don’t just indiscriminately nuke planets (hi, Vader), or program supermodels to kill (oh, Mugatu!); they can make the life of their enemy go from sunshine and rainbows to a veritable living Hell. When you create a villain, or suddenly finds your hands full with one, how they react is as important as tactics and resources. The leader of a gang may respond differently to pesky do-gooders than a well-off, corrupt politician. Do they react out of anger to the people that get in their way? Fear? Do they go straight for the source, or wait for things to escalate? Are they content to scare off the competition to their master plan, or do they prefer a campaign of violence against the loved ones and allies of their foe? With some villains, it’ll develop naturally through the course of play.

Yet others can require pre-scripting to give you the confidence and surety required when you step into that skin; the moment when you become a villain.

What story is your villain the hero of?

Heroes have a set of goals we can easily rattle off. Rescue the kidnapped heir. Save the Kingdom. Get together (or back together) with their One True Love. Become the master and not the student. Kick the ass of the people opposing you. Go on a quest or exciting adventure. Make the world one they want to live in.

If we pull from the life story of one of my favorite movie villains of all time, some of those are goals of villains as well. Imhotep, in The Mummy movies, is a simple Egyptian Priest with some goals. Stay together with his sweetie, make the world the sort of scary ass Paradise he’d dig living in, and wipe those damn adventurers off the face of the earth. Imhotep is the hero of a story where he and his true love, persecuted and killed, must overcome death and some assholes stealing their shit to make a new life for themselves.

Freaky, huh?

If you’ve got a favorite villain related memory to share, leave a comment or drop me a line.

Thanks be to Thor and whatever other gods are controlling the weather; we made it to Ft. Wayne this year! It’s 12:33 am and since I haven’t gone to bed yet, I’m going to say it’s Thursday. (It’s technically Friday.) I wanted to be sure to get the news out to all the folks who don’t follow me on Twitter, so here’s the excitement of the first full day of DDXP and the introduction of the new edition of D&D.

Seminar:  Charting the Course: An Edition for All Editions

Loads of folks turned out for this! Of course, everyone is excited/interested about the new edition, but part of the good attendance also is because the seminars were nicely nestled in the time slot between game slots, so you didn’t have to choose between seminar or a game. Sweet!

The panel was moderated by Greg Bilsland and featured Monte Cook, Mike Mearls, and Jeremy Crawford of Wizards of the Coast. We were told we could blog everything except if someone took of their shirt. (Nobody did. Darn.)

Goals for the New Edition

The first thing they spoke about was what they were hoping to achieve with the new edition:

Monte wants to distill down what’s best about all the editions of D&D. He also mentioned the importance of the DM/player relationship; it’s a core part of the game that the player and DM should be able to communicate and be creative together. Also, fireballs.

Mike mentioned the importance of offering a wide variety of options for players to explore the world the way they want to explore. The shared language of D&D is also vital; keeping the culture and stories of D&D alive so that everyone can understand the story of the dread gazebo.

Jeremy wants the new game to be a toolbox for creating worlds and stories and hopes to see a rebalancing of the game between story & mechanics.

How It Will Work

Regarding how the game will be designed, Monte said that they are creating an underlying foundation or core game, which is D&D distilled to its essence. The core game can be played by itself, or you can build your own game using the different modules.

If you like a tactical game with lots of maps, miniatures, attacks of opportunity and the like, you can use modules to have that game.

If you want extensive skills and ways to customize your character, you can have that game.

If you want BOTH, you can have that game.

Modules & Balance

Achieving balance in a game that is so modular and flexible is a challenge, but Jeremy said that their vision is that the core game has seeds for each module. Using the modules just builds on that seed.

Monte’s example was of a fighter.

In the core game, a fighter does more damage and takes more damage than any other class. (As a fighter tends to do!)

If you prefer the fighter of 4e, where you have different fighting powers that allow you to move monsters around, push them, etc, there will be a module that will allow you to build that kind of fighter and play him at the same table as the core fighter. And they’d be balanced.

Monte also pointed out that as a DM, you could say up front, “I’m running X kind of game,” where X is tactical or X is political intrigue or X is exploration, and your players will then be able to create characters that will interact well with the world you want to build.

3 Pillars of D&D

Mike mentioned that they see the three pillars of D&D as Roleplay/Interaction, Combat, and Exploration. That covers about 90% of what goes on in D&D, minus the rules lawyering (that last one was pointed out by someone during Q&A at the end). They think a lot about how they can incorporate all the things that people want to do at the table, without making a rule for everything.

Monte recognized that some PCs will be good at exploration and not so good at combat, and vice versa. But it’s important to have a firm role for each class. If you have a player who just wants to kick ass, you can help that person create that PC.

Continuing on the classes discussion, Mike added that you can be a stabby rogue (more combat-heavy) or a sneaky rogue (more exploration heavy). Monte added that bards can still kick ass.

High / Epic Level Play

High level play was the next subject and Monte spoke about how fans of D&D often say that the game breaks at a certain level. That level depends on the edition and whether or not the game actually breaks or just becomes drastically different is up for debate. He said that 4e did a good job of making epic level play a different experience.

After admitting they haven’t done much work yet on high level play, Monte said they want to keep the game manageable at high levels. Maybe swap a bunch of abilities from low levels for a single, high-level ability and make things a little less complex. (As someone who hates having pages and pages and pages of character sheet, I can appreciate this.)

Of course, Monte added, there are things you want to do at high levels. You want to build your own castle, you want to have followers, you want to mix with royalty. These are things they hope to include. Mike added that you can still keep going into dungeons and killing monsters, or maybe gods.

Monsters

On to monsters! A lot about monsters ties in to player advancement. Monte said they’d like to keep the iconic monsters like orcs, goblins, kobolds and the like in the game for a long time. But they don’t want a level 1 orc, level 2 orc, level 3 orc. They want a group of orcs to be really scary at level 1 but still significant at level 8, albeit in larger numbers.

So instead of the fighter’s attack bonus going up, up, up every level, maybe it goes up every few levels and he gets other things at the other levels. So you can go back to that orc and know that this is the same exact orc that nearly slaughtered you at level 1. It gives you a bar to see your character advance.

One of the big pushes for the new edition of D&D is putting out an amazing DungeonMaster’s Guide. Mike had the best quip on this (it may be a paraphrase, live-tweeting is hard!): “We don’t need rules for everything. We need good DM advice.”  The DM plays such a huge role in how the game is shaped and if the system supports the DM with advice, it empowers the DM and makes the game better without adding more rules.

Playtesting & Your Feedback

Jeremy spoke a bit about playtesting, which has been going on for about 9 months. One thing that has come up again and again is how diverse people’s tastes are about D&D. Clearly, D&D players love their game, but everyone has a different idea about what the optimal D&D game is. This is something that’s gone all the way back to 1st edition.

When playtest feedback comes back, two people at the same table might have opposite opinions. Player A wants more combat while Player B wanted more interaction.

Monte said that because of these factors they’ve been focusing on the story of D&D. What is a fighter? What is a wizard? What makes the D&D wizard different from say, Gandalf or a spellcaster in Skyrim? Figuring out whether you get a +2 or +3 is the easy part, he said. Making a D&D ranger that feels like a D&D ranger is harder. Is that class more Aragorn or more Drizzt?

Monte said that the most important feedback you can give if you’re able to playtest the new edition is “Does this feel like D&D to you?” and “Does your class feel like it should?”

What’s Your Game?

The final question before moving into the audience Q&A portion was “What kind of campaign would you play in the new D&D?”

Monte said he’d use minis, but without the super tactical stuff, mostly just to visualize where things are when needed. There’d be lots of social interaction and exploration that relies on the ingenuity of the players, not die rolls. Players should think about where to search in a room, rather than just rolling a die for Search. He likes to reward his players for being smart.

Mike would start with the core game and then introduce modules later, adding them on a session by session basis. For example, if there was a large scale war, there’d be a module to help run that particular gaming session (or series of sessions). Mike doesn’t want a lot of rules, so he’d move modules in and out depending on what was happening for that particular game.

Jeremy agreed that he’d be the same as Mike. He doesn’t want to pick one game and stick with it. One night he’d do no minis, no die rolls, all talking. The next game might be the full on tactical game with the grid, minis, and tons of dice.

Audience Q&A

Q: To what degree will multiclassing be available? Or will that be mainly about skills/feats/etc?

A (Monte): We want both to be an option. So you could be a fighter that is okay at interaction. Or you could make a bigger commitment to multiclass.

A (Mike): The rogue could learn some stuff about Arcane Lore, but he wouldn’t be able to cast spells unless he multiclassed into Wizard.

Q: How does the new edition appeal to the new player who has no attachments to a previous edition?

A (Mike): The core will be simple enough for a newbie to try out because it focuses on the story first and interacting with the DM.

(E’s note: I started with D&D 3.5 and for me, looking at stat blocks and all the numbers intimidated the crap out of me. Coming into D&D with a more streamlined system – even say, Essentials – would have been easier. Of course, that’s me. Everybody is different!)

Q: What steps are being taken to give creativity back to the players?

A (Monte): Players can be empowered to have more answers to the DM’s question: “What are you going to do?” There are limitless answers and everything is very open now. Fewer rules means that the DM is empowered to handle imaginative players, too.

Q (ChattyDM): Will there be random charts and tables to help the DM?

A (Monte): Yes, for the DM who likes the chaotic nature of rolling to see what is living in the Temperate Swamp, you’ll be able to roll to find out. We don’t need tables for everyone, but the DM who wants them will have them.

Q: Say everyone shows up to the DM’s place and they want to kill shit, but the DM had planned a RP-heavy session… is it easy to switch up?

A (Mike): On the fly, it’s pretty easy to slide in a module to change things. Use minis, don’t use minis, big fight, little fight, no fight.

Q: How are you addressing the needs of organized play?

A (Mike): We’ll have an agreed-upon standard so folks know what they’re getting into for each session. There aren’t any specifics yet, though.

Q: Will one player really have fun with the stripped down rules while another one has a more complex character if they’re at the same table?

A (Monte): I ran a game for two 4e guys, two 3e guys, and one who hadn’t played since 1982. The 1e guy didn’t want a complex character sheet; he liked it simple. He wanted to know which orc to hit and then he hit it and had fun. With this system, if that guy eventually wanted a more complex character, we could change it for him and build one.

A (Jeremy): If you have two fighters, for example, one fighter might prefer to just do a lot of damage while the other might want to do less damage but be able to slide monsters around the grid.

Q: At higher levels, won’t the complex characters take way more time to do their turn?

A (Monte): We really want to keep combat moving quickly, so it will prevent that guy from spending 10 minutes on his turn.

Q: Do you think D&D will start to take itself too seriously?

A (Mike): I think D&D needs chaos in it, whether it’s a funny moment, something totally silly, or something very serious.

A (Jeremy): Art in the new edition will have a more grounded approach and PCs that appear real, not like superheroes. We have some halflings that look like they ate a few too many muffins and adventurers that barely survived their last battle. Very diverse art.

Q: How will the 3 pillars compete in this edition?

A (Mike): Balancing each class is important. We want to be sure that everyone at the table feels useful in some way and has something to contribute to the party.

The Playtest

Immediately after the seminar, I went to my mustering station and was assigned a table for the WotC Secret Special adventure, which was a playtest of the new edition core rules. I didn’t know anybody at my table (at least until Mike of SlyFlourish sat down!) but we were all excited to try the new iteration of D&D.

While waiting on our DM to arrive, I was scrolling through my Twitter stream and saw a tweet from Baldman Games that if any table yelled “THE BALDMAN RULES” they’d get Monte Cook as their DM. Since I hadn’t heard any tables yelling, I showed the tweet to my table and we all sounded the chorus. Sure enough, Monte himself came to our table to run our game!

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed my silence for the next few hours. Here’s why:

1. Monte Cook. Srsly, do I need more reasons?
2. I couldn’t publish any crunchy details about the game, including any pics that might show character sheets. (Sorry!)
3. Our game was pretty freakin’ awesome.

Now, you don’t need your very own Monte Cook to make the new D&D great. Of course, having an awesome DM helps, but that’s true for pretty much every game out there.

Here are some of the things that struck me about this game:

There was a LOT of talk at the table. In character at times! I’ve never been at a D&D table where players were more invested in figuring out their next move.

On that topic, your next move isn’t on your character sheet. You don’t go paging through all your stuff thinking, “Well, I could Bluff this guy.” Nope. We were doing what we thought our characters should do, even if that involved our very NOT charismatic half-orc fighter trying to be a charismatic leader of a band of skeptical savage orcs.  Multiple times. In other games, it’s “Okay, who has the highest Charisma? You? Okay, you go talk to those orcs and get them to help us.”

Everything was fun and fast and fluid. I didn’t feel like the game got bogged down at any time during our session, even when we had a few rules questions for Monte. Things just happened and they flowed with the story and the story was awesome because we made it that way.

Thanks again for an awesome game Monte & friends!

…and thank you, intrepid Reader, for making it to the end of this marathon post.

Before you comment, understand this: This is my house and we play by my rules here. If you have negative things to say, they won’t make it past moderation. If you’d like to be a dick, please go do it elsewhere.

(Sorry, Dave.)

I love Dungeon Bastard. His videos are well-written, impeccably done, and downright hilarious. If you don’t subscribe to his channel on YouTube, go do that now.

His newest “Ask The Bastard” is on Edition Wars and he echoes my feelings on the subject:

“Does it have dragons? Does it have dungeons? I want to play it!”