Free D&D stuff at GenCon

The most recent GenCon email newsletter detailed some of the goodies that Wizards will have available on the con floor.

First up, people who sign up for D&D Insider at the Wizards booth will receive a free D&D backpack. For those of you who really want to let your geek flag fly, I suppose!

They'll be pre-selling Adventurer's Vault 2 and the Dragon Magazine 2009 Annual, 100 copies per day, limit one per person.

Wizards is also heavily promoting their new free version of D&D Online, their Eberron-themed MMO. The game has changed to a free-to-play model, where you instead purchase special items and unlocks with real money, similar to many Japanese MMOs now. The GenCon promotion is that, when you buy any D&D product at the Wizards' booth, you get a free $5 DDO store gift card.

There's certainly going to be some nice incentives for the D&D fan at the con!

WotC Fansite Kit

Wizards has posted an official fansite kit. I haven't decide if I'll use any of it for this blog, but I'm going to look through the ZIP file.

WotC Catalog 2010

A few weeks ago, I was at a local gaming store and noticed something curious: a Wizards of the Coast Spring/Summer catalog... for 2010! Someone had left it unattended on top of some books that were being prepped for the shelves, and none of the employees were around.

I pulled out my crappy cell phone and managed to snap a couple pics before I heard an employee coming around the corner. Only two of them turned out, and for some reason my phone won't transfer one, so I've just got the one shot of the Table of Contents:

From WotC Catalog 2010

As you can see, lots of planar-related stuff here.

GenCon is next week, and I'll be attending the Wizards' seminars. I'll post any news I get from there on this blog!

Scribblings

Been a busy week. In addition to my normal three 12-hour shifts, I volunteered to do a fourth on Thursday. We're a touch short-handed right now, and I could use the extra money, so it was worth it. Of course, that afternoon the night shift person decided to call in.

Well, not so much "call in" as "come in to pick up her check and then tell us she's not coming in while she's at her workplace." x.x

Anyway, they couldn't get someone on short notice, so I volunteered to say a few extra hours until someone could come in. Wound up doing a 14 hour shift. On my day off.

Needless to say, I was basically useless on Friday. Lazed about, played some Rock Band 2. Finally got my (single player) band up to earning a jet plane, so I can play gigs outside the USA. Also decided to try drumming a bit... and basically got my ass kicked. Drumming is harder than I expected.

This morning, I've been doing a little writing. I've had a plan since last August to write out my own D&D campaign setting, but my typical lethargy crept in and I kept putting it off. I'm finally getting myself sorted out, and seriously working on this stuff again.

My first project is a new racial write-up. The plan is to create a 4-8 page PDF, which I'll sell online under my Bluegrass Geek label. Following that will be a new class, which is a bigger investment in time & effort, and will require some friends to do some playtesting. The final move will be to write out the campaign setting itself, which will include the new race (and a bonus "bloodline" race) & new class, plus feats, a few Paragon Paths & Epic Destinies, new "gods" and the actual world setting itself.

Depending on how well the race & class PDFs do, I'll either make the campaign setting a simple 32-64 page overview, or a full-sized Campaign Setting book & separate Player's Guide book.

I do plan on commissioning some artwork for these PDFs, but I'm going to have to read up more on creating my own company & the legalities involved (especially the D&D GSL).

"What is it with this guy and eels?"

So a couple weeks ago I ran the second adventure for our D&D side-group. This was one of the few Dungeon magazine adventures adapted for Living Forgotten Realms play.

I had woven a few plot hooks for this adventure into the last one, so no one was too surprised when I described the scene. Though it is Midsummer, the air in Loudwater carries the chill of harvest time. Woodsmen have reported seeing strange, blue-skinned creatures and even blizzards in the deep woods. If the unnatural weather continues, the crops will die before they can be harvested, leading to famine. Some believe the cold is tied to the warlock Draigdurroch, who disappeared 30 years ago...

Spoilers for Menace of the Icy Spire!

The players were all too eager to go adventuring. In fact, I had to slow them down a bit to make sure they got all the information they needed! The town leader (who made a show of hitting on the tiefling warlord), asked that any magical tomes be brought back to her after the threat was averted. Once they were ready, the party set out for the tower they were told of... and ran right into a blizzard.

Luckily, the players had some good ideas of how to use their skills, so this skill challenge was a breeze for them. The group soon made it to the tower, a gigantic spire encased entirely in ice. The tower's stone itself was carved into the images of demons, completely encircling the building as if it were a funnel of devils ascending into the sky. Clearly, the owner was not putting out a welcome mat.

As the PCs approached the front entrance, one of the statues turned to look at them. Then, so did a few of the froglike, smaller statues lining the walkway to the front door. Needless to say, the tower's guardians were not happy with trespassers. The frog-guardians were little trouble, but the clay guardian that lept from the building proved dangerous: not only did it have some nasty attacks, but it could redirect attacks, tricking the characters into hitting their allies.

A brief rest, and the dwarf fighter hacked away some of the ice in front of the door. The main foyer was equally decorated in a demonic theme, with many evil-looking statues adorning the walls. Some of the statues had glass eyes which, upon inspection, proved to use a series of mirrors to show anyone looking in them the outside of the tower. Not only was the previous owner demented, he was apparently paranoid.

A pair of staircases led upwards, but the players elected to explore the ground level first. The first room off the left of the foyer was a simple office with some bookshelves. Everything inside is also coated in a thin layer of ice, keeping the contents perfectly preserved, if somewhat brittle. The only odd things of note in the room were an exquisite crystal statue of a demon lord and the fireplace, whose flames had frozen into an unusual blue ice.

The next room off the foyer was apparently a servant's quarters. Unfortunately, the servants had been home when the ice struck, their corpses frozen beneath the blankets as they lay on their cots. Another single fireplace, filled with blue frozen fire, sat in the corner.

Behind the foyer staircases was the kitchen. Like in the other rooms, everything was frozen, right down to the... jars of pickled eels? That threw my players for a loop. A small door in the kitchen led to the larder, which was full of freezer-burned stores... including a barrel of pickled eels. This led to my players wondering how many eel-based things they would find in this tower, and a lot of funny commentary. (Note: At some point, I'm going to start making audio recordings of these things.)

Off the right of the foyer was a large dining room. Of note, this room had two of the frozen blue fireplaces, but nothing else that seemed important.

Deciding to be cautious, the players proceeded quietly up the stairs. Our shadar-kai rogue poked his head up to peer into the next room. It appeared to be a large arcane laboratory, and had several icy elemental creatures standing about. With a signal to his comrades, the rogue burst into the room, surprising its occupants. Two of the ice creatures were large brutes with ice-mauls; one was a jagged thing with shards of ice it could throw; and the final one was off to the side, surrounded by a cloud of freezing mist and whirling ice shards.

The rogue made short work of the ice lancer, while the wizard kept the dangerous misty creature locked down in place with various spells until he could blast it to death. By now, however, several smaller ice creatures came scampering up the stairs into the room! While the other players kept fighting, the rogue quickly ran over and did a flip over the stair railing, dropping down to the first floor. Figuring the strange fireplaces were to blame, he ran into the dining hall and quickly disabled the first fireplace in it. By then, one of the maulers had come down the stairs after him, and another small ice creature emerged from the icy flames at the other end of the dining hall.

With some quick moves, the rogue dispatched the new creature and disabled the other fireplace. One swift dodge later, he avoided the mauler and ran across the foyer into the servant's quarters. He managed to disable this gateway-fireplace as well, but the mauler was now blocking the door out.

Luckily, shadar-kai can teleport short distances by making a short jaunt into the Shadowfell. He simple teleported into the nearby office room, leaving the mauler quite confused, and disabled the final fireplace.

By this point, the second floor had been cleared of enemies, and short work was made of the last mauler. Curiously, while all the ice creatures melted away, one of the mauls remained on the ground. This frost maul was claimed by the dwarf fighter, who was quite eager to put it to use. A quick inspection of the second floor made very little impact on their adventure, as most of the material was damaged by the ice. Also... there were no stairs. Instead was a small stepping disc just big enough to hold the party, which magically lifted up in the air and through an opening in the ceiling.

The room they lifted into was simply adorned with a desk & bookcase. In fact, there was no door... but there was a secret door hidden behind a badly damage tapestry. Stepping in, they discover a very luxurious bedroom & library, with a large central desk. Luckily, the wizard spots the magical ward on the desk and quickly disables it. Inside, the party discovers the journal and magical notes of the warlock Draigdurroch. It appears he was researching a new pact to forge with a being of darkness, and had upset the local fey. He scoffed at the fey's threats of retribution, which he had apparently underestimated.

Another secret door led to a small room with another lift-disc to the roof of the tower. The roof was flat and unremarkable except for some patches of ice... and a large, blue, glowing sapphire in the center. With a few insightful deductions, the party determined that this gem was the center of the icy curse, but that its power had become unstable. It would appear the unnatural cold drew the attention of icy things from the Elemental Chaos, who had tampered with the magical stone to spread their cold across the land. Being heroes, the characters couldn't let that happen. The dwarf used his maul to smash at the sapphire, putting a small crack in it.

That's when the gem flared brightly and a large, white-furred creature appeared in front of them. With a roar, the beast began attacking. The battle was furious and I would give a better description if I could remember the details anymore. ;) I do recall the wizard using a spell to knock the beast prone and keeping it pinned while the others struck it. At one point, they tried to knock it off the tower, but it didn't budge. Finally, after pounding on it long enough the party defeated the creature. As it gave out a last wail of pain, the sapphire also went dim and shattered. The curse broken, the icy shell around the tower collapsed with a thunderous roar and the clouds departed the skies.

Once the characters returned to Loudwater, they were regaled as heroes. The harvest was saved and the people were eternally grateful. Loudwater's town leaders were eager to go over Draigdurroch's journals and promised a grand celebration in the character's honor, as well as many rewards.

That takes care of Menace of the Icy Spire. Sunday, I'll be running the main group through an adventure in the Dalelands. Our small group will continue their journey in a couple weeks, where they'll venture into the Scepter Tower of Spellgard!

Kicking in the door

So, this past weekend I ran D&D for a few folks. I haven't DMed before, so this was a new experience for me.

We're all in the RPGA, so we're playing in the Forgotten Realms setting for D&D 4th edition. runs a game with all of us, but he also wants to level up a character before GenCon in August. So, I volunteered to run a "side-group" just for that purpose.

My friends all made up new characters, and we elected to start a campaign based on some pre-published modules: first, the intro adventure in the back of the Forgotten Realms Campiagn Setting book, followed by the Scepter Tower of Spellgard mega-adventure.

"Spoilers ahead for "Barrow of the Ogre King"

Our group consisted of a shadar-kai rogue, a dwarf fighter and a tiefling warlord. We only had three players, but RPGA rules specify a minimum of four… so we fudged it with a communal PC (human wizard).

The PCs begin in Loudwater, a frontier town surrounded by woods and ancient ruins. The midday market is in full swing and our characters are milling around the various shops… when the city wall suddenly erupts in an explosion!

Goblins pour through the breach, attacking townsfolk. Without hesitation, our heroes leap into action. Our dwarven fighter does what fighters do best, wading right in and pounding goblins into the dirt. The warlord was good at forcing the goblins around the terrain and keeping the fighter alive. And the rogue was… well, being roguish. Ducking through doorways, throwing shurkien and backstabbing everything in sight. And the wizard was blowing up minions left and right.

Soon, it became apparent that the goblins were trying to reach the local magic shop for some reason. Between the wizard's grasping shadows spell and the shadar-kai rogue's ability to teleport, that got shut down real fast. The PCs subdued two of the goblins & finished off the rest, then set about saving the injured citizens of Loudwater.

A brief interrogation of the goblin leader ensued, whereby they learned the goblins were trying to retrieve an object stolen from them: a dagger carved from the horn of a large humanoid being called the "Ogre King." These goblins live in the Ogre King's burial mound & worship its body… and their leader claims to have a ritual that will allow him to ressurect the Ogre King.

This doesn't sound like a good thing, so the leader of Loudwater asks the heroes to put a stop to the ritual. And, thus, we have our plot hook! ;)

A brief trip leads everyone to the outside of the barrow. The path leads through a stone dwarven face, carved so that you walk through its open mouth. Beyond this gate is an open courtyard. Some investigation led the PCs to a secret door in one corner of the courtyard, exposing a ladder leading into the earth. One short climb later, and they found a door underground. This door opened to a rubble-covered chamber, its roof supported by very weak rotting timbers. Turns out, the center of the courtyard was trapped, designed to collapse into this pit and drop unsuspecting victims painfully into the barrow.

Just up a short flight of stairs from the rubble-strewn floor were more goblins in a stone-tiled chamber (with a neat "trap" involving a magic teleportation disc… that the PCs avoided like the plague). With surprise on their side, the PCs launched an attack. These goblins were no minions, however. In fact, two of them were extremely tough & equipped with heavy battleaxes! At least two heroes were nearly killed during this battle, but a combination of the warlord's inspiring words and the dwarf's "hammer CPR" kept them going.

Disaster was neatly averted when the dwarf spotted yet another pit trap in this chamber before he would have stepped into it. This pit was a shorter drop than the other, but contained four starving dogs that would've ripped him apart! With that out of the way, they were able to take down the last few goblins and catch a brief rest.

As a DM, this was a tough battle to handle. I screwed up by not sizing down the encounter for the smaller number of PCs, and I did have to fudge at least one roll to prevent a PC from certain doom. I generally didn't pull punches though, including when one of the battleaxe-wielding goblins nearly dropped the warlord to instant death. One of the real things that confounds a DM, though, is when PCs do exactly the opposite of what the adventure suggests.

For the next chamber, the adventure suggested that if the PCs tried to sneak through using Stealth, they could potentially slip past the enemies entirely, or at least get a surprise round. So, of course, they all elect to have the dwarf bash down the door with his hammer. o.o

This was a burial chamber that doubled as a shrine for the goblins. Two goblins were at a small statue making offerings when the door went ka-boom, so they came out swinging. That's also when the dwarf zombies came shambling out of the antechamber. And this is where the dice come in.

See, most of the zombies are minions (one hit kills a minion). The one "real" zombie was pretty tough, but had a special zombie-weakness: a critical hit kills it instantly. (Think "head shot.") Guess what the wizard rolled with his scorching burst spell?

So, that combat went shorter than I expected. They even managed to force one of the goblins to surrender with a good Intimidate skill check, and had him take the dogs from the previous rooms' pit with him when he left. This time, they didn't bash in the door to the next room…

This room was a bit interesting. Another teleportation disc, plus a large open pit with a set of stairs down into it, and several hobgoblins assisting the goblin hexer (a spellcaster). There was one goblin hiding by the doorway that smacked the first PC that stepped in, and the hexer actually had another goblin "stored" inside the teleporation disc that he brought out as reinforcements. Again, though, the heroes were smart and managed to shut down the enemy's most dangerous tricks. They almost managed to knock one of the hobgoblins into the pit, too.

Finally, they descended the stairs into the pit. At the bottom, they find the goblin shaman in front of the Ogre King's sarcophagus. Remember what I said about "not going by the adventure's recommendations" earlier?

The adventure was written with the idea that the PCs would at least try to talk with the goblin, and get some information from him. They could even attempt to negotiate with him. So, what do they do?

The shadar-kai rogue says, "We want to help! Here, I'll give you the horn!" He makes an insanely high Bluff skill roll, walks up and stabs the shaman in the neck… with the ritual horn-dagger! Preventing an anti-climax, the shaman had over 200 HP, so the final battle ensued. Which effectively meant bashing the shaman into a corner and beating him to death, while he tried to blast them with area-effect spells.

In the end, the heroes subdued the shaman and dragged him back to Loudwater. And there was much rejoicing. (< Monty Python > Yaaaaay. < /Monty Python >)

Overall, I think everyone had a good time. We'll have to run one more adventure next time before we can dive into Scepter Tower of Spellgard, and I think this extra adventure will be just as much fun.

Weekend Reverie

I've neglected this blog far too long. Things have been crazy at my day job, but that's no excuse for a writer! *shakefist*

This weekend was a great break, though. I got to participate in the Weekend in the Realms event with some great folks. We got the cooperation of Page 3 to use their store to play in. We did get stuck in the basement and had to leave after a few hours, though. Moved the game to our friends' place and played for hours.

It was a lot of fun, and we got to try some things in-game we hadn't done yet. Overall, it was worth it!

GenCon Day 2, Part 3

Day 2 was so busy, it took three posts to cover!

After the "Ways to Play" seminar, we took a bit of a break. We missed the Ennies and a Paizo seminar, instead retiring to our room to check out some of our loot. That will be a separate post, probably next week.

We returned that evening for the D&D Miniatures seminar. As we came in, the folks giving the presentation showed off a few of the upcoming minis they had with them:





Once everyone got settled, they began the presentation. There was talk about the current starter set and available minis boosters. Then, they talked about the next booster set coming out:



Oooh, baby. Yes, that's a mind flayer sketch on the left, and a stirge mini in the upper right! They did say they learned their lesson from the last time they put out a stirge (and it was hard to get), so it'll be a lot easier to get them now.

They talked about last year's championship winner, who got to help design a new figure. It's an elf ranger, with a crow companion on his arm. They did let slip that, yes, the Martial Power sourcebook will have rules for animal companions in it.

Next was Legacy support.



The plan is to pick up posting new stats for the old sets starting in October. They'll publish downloads for the cards once per month, except for months where a new booster set comes out. They'll do this all the way back to Harbinger. They also said they were looking into making sure that old Chainmail minis that had an equivalent DDM figure would be allowed in league play.



The next discussion was what they wanted to do in 2009. Yes, that's another beholder, an aboleth (which they gushed over, saying they didn't think it could be done until they saw the first sculpt), and a rust monster. The rust monster is apparently going to be a critter in MM2.



Yes, they still want to publish a colossal Orcus figure. They're having some issues finding a way to make it economical and affordable to gamers at the same time. They did cite that the Colossal Red Dragon didn't sell as well as they'd hoped due to the price, and some people mentioned they saw them for sale in some of the discount booths at the con for as little as $25, while the Gargantuan Blacks and Blues were going as low as $15. (Apparently those sold out quick, as I didn't find one at that price the next day.)

During the Q&A, someone brought up the lower quality of recent sets, and the Wizard reps agreed. Apparently they had changed companies, and weren't happy with some of the figures they got out of the last few sets. However, they said that this has been worked out, and they were really happy with Demonweb.

There was also a question of playing the minis game online through DDI. This is something the Wizards reps said they wanted to support, but the RPG side was first priority, so this would be further down the line.

After the minis seminar, it was time for one of the more expensive things I had bought tickets for: the "Haunted and Historical" tour of downtown Indianapolis.



The lady in the green cloak was our tour director (I forgot her name by the next morning, unfortunately). She was working in cooperation with an actual "ghost hunter" society that operated in Indiana, and took us to some of the more famous "haunted" sites in town.



Our first stop was the Indianapolis Grand Central Station, the first Grand Central Station in the USA. Supposedly, this is haunted both by a conductor, as well as a "ghost train" of President Lincoln's funeral train. And, yes, that's a full moon in the sky. I was happy with how this picture turned out on my little camera.



This is the bar "The Slippery Noodle." Originally, the building was a storehouse with a hidden tunnel to Grand Central Station, which was used to conduct escaping slaves for the Underground Railroad.



As our guide was telling us about the stories, this guy came out to listen. When she was talking about one of the night managers who heard footsteps when no one else was there, this guy said "That was me!" The manager told us a few of his own experiences, as well as other stories he had heard about the building, which was a great little bit of lucky timing.



This is the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, dedicated to all the service personnel who died in the Civil War. Supposedly this used to be the site of the mayor's mansion, but the mayor never lived there. His wife didn't like hanging her laundry in the middle of the downtown square, so they lived outside of town. Shortly after they moved out, there were rumors of a headless man seen inside the house, which persisted for years. One day, a young man went inside on a dare, and caught a turkey that was walking around inside the house. After that, the headless man was never seen again. ;)

We stopped by what is now a bank building, which used to have a restaurant in the upper floors. I don't remember the story well for that one.



This was the Indianapolis Athletic Club. Supposedly it was not built with fire in mind, so of course a bad fire broke out one night. The firemen couldn't get to the water line inside, people couldn't get out easily. They got some of them out, but one firefighter went back in to save a man trapped inside. The firefighter died of smoke inhalation later. After that, people say they can still hear a fireman banging on doors at night, warning people of a fire that went out years ago.

Finally, we stopped by the local arts theater. One of the owners apparently liked to jog around the upper levels on days where it was too rainy to do his jogging outside. He was unfortunately killed near his home one day while jogging, after being struck by a car. Folks report they can still hear someone running upstairs late at night.

Also, a homeless man apparently fell down an open window into the basement during the depression. He was badly injured and no one could hear him. When they finally found the body, they found bloody scratches on the wall, and the rock he had been using to bang on pipes, which he ultimately used to kill himself with. Apparently people can sometimes still hear banging on the pipes, or see a figure in the basement shadows.

So, that finally brings us to the end of day 2! We were absolutely exhausted after this one, let me tell you.

Days 3 and 4 will be much shorter, so they will likely be combined into one post. Then I'll have a final post, showing off some of the stuff we bought/won at the con, plus a bunch of cosplayers we saw!

Gencon Report: Day 2, part 2

Work was hell today, and I've picked up the sinus bug that's going around, so I really don't feel well. However, I'm going to get up at least the second part of day 2 here. I'll try to get days 3 & 4, as well as a special wrap-up post, but those may be delayed until next week when I'm off work again. Yes, I have to work through the Labor Day weekend.

After the D&D Seminar's presentation ended, they took questions from the audience for the second half of the event. Unfortunately, I didn't get a recording or notes, so I'm going by rough memory here.

A question was brought up about how well D&D 4e was selling, and the team was obviously enthusiastic. My impression was that they were happy with the sales, not just in marketing-speak mode.

People asked about DDI stuff, some to do with compatibility (the guy asked about Linux, but the Wizards folks mostly focused on the possibility of a Mac port "when it makes sense"); some about the virtual mins (you get a default set of 3D "minis," can buy more random sets of "minis," and there is a set number of times you can "clone" the 3D mini; cloning it onto your game table more times than that results in 2D tokens instead for the rest); getting a group together (yes, there will be a "waiting area" where you can set up Pick-Up Groups); and how the app handles your numbers (it will auto-calculate the results of rolls, which you can drag & drop into place, eg. you roll 2d6+3 for damage against a player, get a result of 13, and can drag that "13" to their HP, which will deduct the damage appropriately).

There were questions about specific rules issues, which I can't remember the details of. Sorry.

Someone brought up the OGL and how useful things like the Hypertext d20 SRD were for DMs. This got a direct answer: the OGL was bad business for Wizards. They still wanted 4e to be open, but not so open that it cost them the way the OGL did for 3e. They realized that there were concerns about the GSL, and they're working with other companies to fix that. Finally, they recommended that anyone who needs an electronic resource for looking up rules either subscribe to DDI for the Rules tool, or purchase the PDF versions of the books and take advantage of its search functions.

After the Q&A was over, we went to lunch at Steak & Shake. The local one had experienced GenCon before and was well prepared. They had separate lines for pick-ups and dine-ins, and a staff that was both efficient and very friendly. If you just want a fast-food meal at GenCon, I recommend hitting this place.

Then, we went to the Fantasy Flight Games PR venue.



These guys were very friendly, and had some great insights into the board games market. Also talked about their relationship with Games Workshop, and their issues getting the Confrontation game to market. They also mentioned they had a new Arkham Horror cardset out at the con, Black Goat of the Woods.

We had some time after that, so we went shopping in the exhibition hall. More on that later, but I did pick up Hunter: the Vigil and its brand new book Witchfinders, while my partner picked up the Arkham Horror expansions Kingsport Horror and the aforementioned BGotW.

Next was the "Villains of Eberron" seminar, by none other than Keith Baker, along with his assistant.



He had a lot of great insights into how to use the various groups in Eberron as antagonists in your game, as well as a few hints at the 4e version of the setting.

We had to cut that seminar short to make it to the next one: "Ways to Play D&D," aka the RPGA seminar. A few of the guys from the Q&A seminar were back to discuss the new Living Forgotten Realms and how it was going to affect ways people play D&D.

One of the main things talked about was the new Wizards Play Night. This is the group that does the "Friday Night Magic" stuff for Magic: the Gathering, and now they're doing something similar for D&D: the Delve Night

Essentially, Delve Night is a monthly adventure broken up into four major encounters (with accompanying roleplaying opportunities). The idea is that you can play once a week for a couple hours, so folks who want some casual D&D can get together regularly to play. They'll also support bi-weekly or monthly play for folks who can't get together as often. It's fully supported by the RPGA, so it counts towards your points and such.

Also, there's going to be a special event October 24-26: Weekend in the Realms. It's an LFR event where you basically find a shop, library, bookstore, etc. that agrees to host you, and play a special D&D adventure all day. It's a mega-adventure broken into three parts, each part taking approximately 3 hours to play. They really want this to be a public event, rather than something you roll at home, so that other people get exposed to LFR and D&D.

You can read more about the Delve Night and Weekend in the Realms on the Wizards site.

We all recieved a little postcard-flyer for the WitR, and also the con-exclusive LFR player option card:



Normally, characters cannot play RPGA events with the new "spellscarred" rules in the upcoming Forgotten Realms Player's Guide. This card is the exception to that rule, so GenCon attendees will have an extra option unique to them. I expect most folks will keep theirs, so I doubt many will show up on eBay or anything.

Then, we were asked what we wanted to see out of Living Forgotten Realms. Adventure styles, rewards, etc. Some of the rewards suggested were: player option cards with unique feats or powers, not found elsewhere in the rules; exclusive battlemaps or Dungeon Tiles, including spell effects; exclusive minis, which may be too expensive to pull off, but they were willing to look into it; a branded d20 die (with an RPGA or LFR symbol for the 20); free DDI time and other "virtual rewards."

That prompted some questions about online play with the DDI. We were assured that yes, you will be able to play RPGA sanctioned adventures using the online game table app. There's still some discussion about how to use player option cards online, and possibly awarding things like alternate virtual minis and such.

... this post is running long! Okay, I'm going to stop here, and post a Part 3 for day 2 for the last two events, which are rather photo heavy: the D&D Minis seminar, and the "Haunted and Historical Downtown Indy" tour!

GenCon report: Day 2, part 1

Sorry for the lengthy delay. Things have been a bit weird for me this last week, but I should be able to get this GenCon report finished up in short order.

Day 2 began with a brief stop at Starbucks on the way to the D&D 4th Edition Q&A Seminar! Lots and lots of information here, including a ton of pictures, so this seminar gets a whole post to itself.

I'm afraid I lost track of exactly who was giving the seminar, as I didn't have a chance to note their names down. Plus, I had my camera set wrong, so the first few pictures came out too blurry to keep. Once things settled down, they started talking about developing 4e and things that had recently come out & were coming out. The FRCS was mentioned as being on sale at the con (and sold out later that day), and they talked about the upcoming FR Player's Guide...



... and they had a copy to show!

After that, they started into the slide show presentation, discussing things that would be coming out over the next year:



Scepter Tower of the Spellguard is an adventure coming out in September, which will be made to work in a Forgotten Realms campaign or a basic D&D campaign.

October is going to be a busy month for D&D!



Martial Power will be out. No real surprises here, except that there will be more racial feats in this book.



King of the Trollhaunt Warrens, the first adventure in the P-series of Paragon-level adventures. Maybe featuring trolls? ;)



Streets of Shadow Dungeon Tiles, for your city-based adventuring needs. Also has some spell-effect tiles.



November brings us the new Draconomicon! Of course, it has new dragons and dragon-monsters; plus treasure, rituals and other player-goodies.



D&D Starter Set also comes out in November. This will have the usual stuff: pregen characters, adventure, tiles... but will not have plastic minis. Instead, Wizards is using tokens for the PCs and monsters, to cut down on production costs and keep the price down.



Manual of the Planes 4e comes out in December. Note that this is not the final cover art, just a mock-up with some filler art. Not much else to say, here. It's a MotP, you know pretty much what it's going to focus on.



We'll also get P2: Demon Queen's Enclave in December. Again, not the final cover, but expect to deal with a lot of drow in this one.



January 2009 will bring us a book I'm really looking forward to, Open Grave: Secrets of the Undead. Obviously, not the final cover. I always love these undead splatbooks, no matter what system they're for.



February will begin the Dungeon Delve. I'll go into this in more detail in a later post but, basically, this is an RPGA function where a DM can run a single encounter for players. It's designed to be like the "Friday Night Magic" leagues, where people can just drop in once a week and play for a couple hours. If you want, you can save them up to do bi-weekly or monthly games, but it's a great set-up for folks with less time to play.

Also, another set of Dungeon Tiles: Caves of Carnage. Lots of natural underground terrain. They specifically mentioned working on more non-linear features, like an underground stream that winds around on one side, with a natural winding tunnel on the opposite side.



March of 2009 is when we finally get to see the Player's Handbook 2! As the speakers were talking, they let slip that Bards are in, as well as Sorcerers (and that Sorcerers are Arcane, not Primal). They also said that we could tell what some of the new races are by the cover, so I got a closer shot:



Unfortunately, I don't recognize them a bit. The big guy looks giant-ish, while the druid gal looks fey/elvish.



There's a ton more stuff coming in March:

• P3: Assault on Nightwyrm Fortress finishes out the P-series of adventures.
• Player's Handbook Power Cards and Martial Power Cards: Wizards said they've heard people's requests for power cards. While you can print them out from the DDI Character Creator app, these are going to be nice, heavy cardstock prints of powers from the PHB and Martial Power books.
• Feywild miniatures set.

Arcane Power comes out in April 2009, with all sorts of extra stuff for magic-types to play with. This will include the Arcane classes from PHB2! A question came up later about how they'll support the Martial PHB2 classes, since Martial Power comes out before PHB2. There wasn't a solid answer, just that they do plan to offer more things for each class in future products "as it makes sense," ie they're not going to put out an "extra" product or delay another one to add extra features for classes; but, they're not going to leave them hanging either. Most likely, this will become Dragon magazine content, and show up in other products.

Also, E1: Death's Reach becomes the first Epic-tier adventure published this month.



Monster Manual 2 debuts in May 2009, along with PHB2 Power Cards.



June 2009 brings us the next campaign setting, with the publication of the Eberron Campaign Setting book. Note that this is proposed art for the cover, but nothing's final yet.

We'll also see the Arcane Towers Dungeon Tiles, said to feature the first round terrain available in Dungeon Tiles.

Finally, we get E2: Kingdom of the Ghouls. Hopefully we'll find out why Yeenoghu no longer has control of this realm!



The Eberron Player's Guide comes out in July, and the proposed cover art matches up nicely beside the ECS4e cover.

Also out that month, Divine Power for the cleric-y/paladin-ly types; Seekers of the Ashen Crown adventure (which I'm guessing is E3); and an untitled Huge set of D&D Minis.



And that brings us to August 2009. Here we'll see Adventurer's Vault 2, for even more treasure!

The big news this month is the "super adventure" Revenge of the Giants. This is going to be a "boxed set," featuring tokens instead of minis, just like the Starter box.

Finally, we get Arcane Power Cards to go along with the other power card sets published so far.

Note that there was no DMG2 mentioned anywhere in this. I'm guessing that they either don't feel it's necessary, or plan to wait until they have enough new stuff to talk about to publish one.

At the end of the presentation, they talked a bit about their online DDI stuff, and showed off from stills from the gameplay app. No pictures, as there didn't seem to be anything new to that. However, we did get a special treat: we got to watch (after some audio troubles) the upcoming new D&D animation video! Without spoiling too much, folks should enjoy this shot:



The second half of the day will be written up and posted either tonight or tomorrow!

A fresh start

Welcome to the blog for Bluegrass Geek Creations*. This will be my blog for posting updates on my writing, gaming and general nerd-itude. Be sure to also check out my MySpace and LiveJournal accounts, and feel free to follow me on Twitter.

The basic gist is that I'm an aspiring game writer. I'm working on some concepts for Living Forgotten Realms, as well as my own homebrew D&D 4th Edition campaign setting. The latter will eventually make its way onto RPGnow as a series of PDFs while I test out the new races, class and various other goodies. Eventually, I plan to release a full Campaign Setting and Player's Guide. More details will be forthcoming.

* Tentative name for my one-man company. Still looking into if I can/need to make it formal as of yet.

Keep on the Shadowfell, part 1

I really don't want to be awake at 4 am... but that's what happens when you get a midnight shift at work. :P

Anyway, today we started playing the new Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition adventure, Keep on the Shadowfell. The adventure is designed to show off 4e's new combat systems and player character abilities, as well as some of the new setting fluff for the game.

Overall, I'm impressed. Combat is a lot more fun, compared to the 3.5e Greyhawk campaign we've been playing. There's a lot more maneuvering, a lot less "spend a turn healing and do nothing else" for the druid/cleric, and everyone just has a lot more options. The Paladin was actually very useful, and kept everyone alive through the first half of the night. Later, we added a 5th player who picked up the cleric (which saved our butts later on). Even my wizard was useful the whole time, usually dropping lots of fire on the enemies.

Unfortunately, our dice hated us. Lots of poor rolls all around, but even then we only came close to having characters die on the last big encounter we ran. The game is much more survivable, but still takes a lot of tactical consideration.

As to the role-playing, we didn't get much chance to run that, but what we did was fun. Mostly, we just focused on learning the new rules and just having fun.

If you're trying to decide whether or not to buy 4e, this adventure's a good way to test the waters.