4th & Dragon : Dungeons and Dragons...and stuff

In a surprisingly open post, Randy Buehler talks about the plans for D&D Insider as well as the current status of the things they’ve been promising for some time now. 

I applaud their willingness to share some inside details about what’s going on and what we can expect.  We have always known about the “wizard behind the curtain” so there’s no need to hide behind the curtain anymore.  Keep the honesty and open communications coming!

The Game Table is the biggest, most complicated piece of the whole package and it’s going to take the longest to get right. The good news is that it’s far enough along that it’s being used by a Tuesday night campaign being run at the office. The bad news is that the players take bets on how many times it will crash each week.

There are two new excerpts up at Wizards.  First is a series of several PDFs (why it’s not just one is beyond me) that preview H3 Pyramid of Shadows, an adventure for character levels 7-10. 

The first PDF previews the adventure synopsis (BBEG wants out of prison), provide a couple of adventure hooks (discover a map, dream vision, crazy dude (who provides a map), and ye olde wanted poster).

The second details an artifact (yeah!) - a talking head a la Bob from the Dresden Files.

The third, fourth and fifth PDF files provide a preview of three entire encounters (2 pages each), maps and all. 

So what’s new about this preview?  NO ART.  Yep, not a single piece of artwork in the previews outside of the maps.  Technically, there is a low-res piece of artwork of the pyramid amidst the jungle on the website.  Not exactly inspiring.

I posted this in the forums but thought it deserved front page treatment, too.

Per Clark Peterson (co-founder of Necromancer Games) on his own forum, Necromancer Games is not joining the 4th Edition push of third party publishers right now.  It appears that unless Wizards of the Coasts makes a few changes to the Games System License, he might be out of 4E altogether.

Now we have the GSL. Right now, in my view, the GSL needs some major reworking or clarification to be usable. The bottom line, in my view, is that the GSL is a total unmitigated failure. And that is a shame. I have been one of the biggest vocal proponents of Wizards and I love Scott and Linae. I still do, big time. I am hopefull (sic) that we can find a way to change or clarify some of the issues with the license so that we can use it and create 4E products. You know that philsophically (sic) I believe in supporting the current version of D&D.

Since Necromancer was one of the first 3PP to voice support for 4E, it’s a shame to see that the overly restrictive GSL might force them away from the new game.

Please dont take this post as bashing Wizards. I am not doing that. I support Wizards.

Just something to note for those who don’t like 4E.

So now will you release all that stuff for 3E? Doubtful. The market for 3E is not there. I expect Pathfinder to revive it, but that isnt going to be a full, public supportable system for some time...We are trying to work to be able to get a usable GSL or other arrangment (sic) with Wizards to bring you the awesome 4E content we have planned. If that wont work, you will see us fully supporting Pathfinder.

He does intend to support Pathfinder at some point, either with the GSL changes he wants, or else he’ll just move in that direction when Pathfinder is released, but at least for now, there won’t be anything going either direction.

Dungeon 156 had a few updates on the 30th - a side trek and a Forgotten Realms conversion, both for H2: Thunderspire Labyrinth, and last but not least an update to Ari Marmell’s Last Breaths of Ashenport which came out for 3.5 in December.

Dragon 365 had a few updates this week.  Expeditionary Dispatches about Dolurrh’s Dawn in Droaam (Eberron) and Roll vs. Role about snaketongue cultists (generic).

There was a new Steal This Hook about the Nentir vale where both Keep on the Shadowfell and Thunderspire Labyrinth are set, another entry in the Converting Your Character series (a misleading name since you can’t really convert from 3.5 to 4), and a new article on the Goblin Language of Eberron by author Don Bassingthwaite.

I just want to say a few things about all these updates.  The Last Breaths of Ashenport may have been one of the last 3.5 adventures, but it was one I wanted to run as soon as I saw it.  Ari Marmell did a fabulous job of trying to keep a Lovecraftian feel to the encounters and succeeded pretty well in the conversion, although a few errors have poked up at the Wizards boards.  The Forgotten Realms conversion of Thunderspire Labyrinth bothered me not because of anything it did, but because there was no similar treatment for Eberron, although I do have to say I’m happy that Eberron is still getting support, with an article each from the creator (Keith Baker) and the author of the second published novel in the series (Don Bassingthwaite), so I’m feeling the Eberron love.

Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide previews continue with the latest installment covering the Great Dale. The usual description of sites is present, but of particular interest is the inclusion of plots and adventure sites. 

These locations contain specific plot hooks and give DMs a quick at-a-glance view of how to motivate PCs in that area.  This is useful when Dungeon Masters want to move the plot from one place to another.

Say goodbye to Gleemax. “Goodbye Gleemax.”

Important bits-

Wizards of the Coast has made the decision to pull down its Gleemax social networking site in order to focus on other aspects of our digital initiatives, especially Magic Online and Dungeons & Dragons Insider. We continue to believe that fostering online community is an important part of taking care of our customers, but until we have our games up and running at a quality level we can be proud of, it will be the games themselves that receive the lion’s share of our attention and resources.

It took this long to come to this conclusion?

Our plan is to shut down Gleemax completely sometime in September. (I can’t give a more exact date because the timing depends on what’s going on with other projects.)

The correct strategy at this point is clear: we need to focus. We’re not going to abandon the vision, but we are going to put large chunks of it on the backburner until we prove that we can succeed at the most important pieces. Those pieces are Magic Online and D&D Insider.

Wizards of the Coast remains committed to online community, but instead of trying to grow a new website for a brand-agnostic community, we need to focus on keeping our own house in order. We have the two best games in the world, and we need to take care of them before expanding into new digital arenas.

Thanks to Talae for the scoop.

Where was this product years ago is all I have to say.  The System Operational Reference Digest ("S.O.R.D.") looks to be one of the simplest, yet coolest 3.5 products to come out in a long time.

Are you tired of…

• Players searching through books at the height of your encounter, just to Demoralize an enemy?
• Determining the AC mods of a character Fighting Defensively?
• Reading through a super-long description of Stable Characters and Recovery, just to find the DC for that Heal Check he needs?
• Searching for all the details of one rule across four or five pages spread all over the place in your handbook?
• Spending 45 minutes running a 4 round combat encounter?

If so, then this product looks like it just might be the answer you’re looking for.  Basically, it takes the 3.5 rules and presents them in a consolidated, organized way.  Check out the two pages below to see how cool this is:

S.O.R.D. is available on RPGNOW.