In my earlier blog entries I dared WotC (no, I believe I DOUBLE-dared them) to pull off a flawless launch of the second playtest packet. I have to say that, in my experience and in those around me, this was certainly achieved.

I just wanted to stop for a moment and say a huge WELL DONE AND THANKS to the WotC staff that made this possible. Now I can forget the horror of the first playtest packet launch....[shudder]

Keep it up for phase 3. 

So, as most of you reading this will have known WotC put out the second playtest packet a few weeks ago and they (thankfully) managed to avoid the mess with the distribution that dogged the release of the first playtest packet. Dutifully - no, EAGERLY, I downloaded the new packet and planned the next playtest session with the intention of seeing just how 'pick-up-and-play' the game could be. What follows is an overview of the players, the game session and some of the more important feedback that my playtest session created. Much of this blog post will be broken down and placed in the relevant forums later.


These second phase of D&D Next playtests have spanned several sessions with a group made up of players with disparate histories with D&D and with RPGs in general. Some were part of my normal gaming group and some were not. It’s important to help contextualise the feedback they give later in this post that you have a feel for where some of these players are coming from. So, by way of introduction, here are the players for my playtests:

Sanjion is a long-standing D&D 2nd edition player that has been involved in my 4E campaign for the last 12 months. He has limited exposure to other RPG systems and prefers magic using classes. He likes to feel unusual and powerful as a character and loved the fact that 4E made you a hero from the get go rather than a weakling that was getting squished with a bad dice-roll. For the playtest he played a Human Wizards with the Necromancer specialty.

Wayward is an experienced player and DM of several iterations of D&D (3.0 and up) and he runs a couple of systems of his own devising as well as playing n my current 4E campaign. An experienced DM, Wayward likes to inject a healthy dose of story driven material into game sessions and feels 4E works well as a skirmish wargame. For the playtest Wayward chose a Wood Elf Sun Cleric.

Dicemaiden is a keen roleplayer and occasional DM for the 4E version of the rules. She’s been exposed to 3.5E but not much before that. She hates Pathfinder and likes sessions that have to make you think creatively to advance the story and overcome obstacles. She prefers the story-driven aspects of D&D. For the playtest Dicemaiden choose a human rogue with the commoner specialty.

Tiamatters is an expert gamer. His command of rule systems (particularly 4E) is frightening and he very much falls into the power gaming archetype of player. Also an experienced DM and a player of Pathfinder, Exalted and other systems besides D&D, Tiamatters loves the definite rules as presented in 4E. He much prefers the tactical options presented in 4E and the lack of DM bias 4E games usually have as a result. Tiamatters usually plays in my regular 4E campaign as well as attending other game groups during the week. For the playtest he chose a Human Fighter with the Survivor specialty.

Darksider is the youngster of the group at only 14 years of age. He is a 4E player and an occasional 4E DM. Bright and witty, Darksider takes a more adult attitude when it comes to roleplaying and isn’t one to just go for a womanising murder death kill machine like other teens I’ve had in my group previously. Although his attention can occasionally wander he has so far taken everything in his stride and thrown himself into the experience with inventiveness, enthusiasm and open-mindedness. For the playtest Darksider chose a Dwarf war cleric with the survivor specialty.


Character Creation


The first session of character creation was very much a ‘in-at-the-deep-end’ affair. I simply handed out the materials and without any guidance beyond, “pick a race, class, background and speciality” I deliberately left the players to it. The only absentee was Darksider, who joined us for the 2nd session. 

The character creation was a little chaotic with a lot of cross-referencing and some head-scratching as to why we’d gone back to rolling stats and where were the skill scores? 

All in all the character creation session took longer than a 4E creation session would (assuming core PHBs used for powers only) but it was shorter than 3E/3.5E creation. While this is partly down to the fact I did not guide the character creation as the DM I wanted to see if character creation was intuitive to returning players from other editions. Once the characters were created we took a break to discuss the process then moved on to play the 1st session. We returned to discuss this more later on after the game. Here’s some of the commentary gathered from the players during this part of the playtest:


Tiamatters:

• * Character creation as presented isn’t intuitive
• * Cleric seems to be the best class by a long way
• * Fighter looks like it may become the Wizard’s henchman again
• * Artisan background is open to abuse. Having a ‘masterwork item’ from your profession allows for people to start with masterwork weapons, expensive jewellery and other such items.
• * Rolling for stats and hit points is a silly idea.
• * At-will magic needs to return for Wizard type classes
• * Clerics way of handling spells better than the Wizards
• * Why wouldn’t you pick a human with all its stat upgrades?

Wayward:

• * Specialties seem limited in scope. Will they only ever get two benefits?
• * Racial options with subraces work well as presented. This needs expansion for next playtest.
• * Humans will become a power-gamers choice
• * Character creation could be shorter
• * Need to have bonus spells for high ability scores

Dicemaiden:

• * Humans not interesting
• * Had to cross-reference a lot between sections of the character reation rules
• * Not clear what backgrounds worked best with what ability scores
• * Character creation takes too long

Sanjion:

• * Rolling for hit points again will be rubbish – a few bad rolls and you’ll have an unlucky death somewhere along the way
• * 4D6 drop lowest better than the old method i or ii from 2nd edition but it’s still rolling for stats
• * Character creation takes too long despite having fewer options to choose from
• * New spell descriptions suggest alternative things to try unlike 4E’s stat-heavy approach
• * Need alternative magic classes with at-will magic available from the start
• * Specialties could do more to help fire the imagination

When we gathered again for the next session of the phase 2 playtest our resident 4E guru, Tiamatters, dropped out of the playtest and was replaced by Darksider. Unlike the 1st creation session where I went fully hands-off to see what would break, with Darksider I walked him through the process carefully. This brought the creation time down to just less than 4E levels. This was partly as Darksider decided on his concept early on and we selected options to fit that – the worst time waster here was trying to explain spellcasting mechanisms in 4E terms so he would have an easier chance at understanding how Next’s spell ‘powers’ worked.
Wayward and Dicemaiden both helped Darksider understand what was going on and how things worked in play so after the creation of Darksider’s character we sat about and discussed the guided process from his point of view. Here is some of the feedback Darksider gave me at this stage:

Darksider:

• * It’s nice that character creation is no longer all about the powers you pick. You can concentrate on a character as a whole now.
• * Character creation is simpler than 4E
• * Lack of ‘option overload’ is refreshing. Keep things simple!
• * Not being able to select individual skills reduces flexibility in character setup
• * Backgrounds should list the ability scores that are needed to get the best out of the associated skills
• * Backgrounds and specialties are helpful as they are in neat packages
• * Although different to 4E, character creation still felt like D&D, just without the confusing array of options to choose from

Session story set-up

The playtest session was still based on the Caves of Chaos module that came with the first playtest packet. The set-up was that the Prince and his retinue were visiting each of the kingdom’s provinces in advance of his coronation and the local lord was worried about some messengers and merchants being taken near to a known bandit encampment that the standing militia had cleared some months earlier. With all the militia and regular guardsmen deployed for the Prince’s security at townsteads and villages, it fell to mercenary types to go in and clear out any threats from the previous bandit hideout – whatever that may be. 

In the first playtest the adventurers had gone in, encountered an Ogre, set about it with 4E aplomb and god their backsides handed to them. In the story I used this as a failed excursion where the Lord’s retainers didn’t know if the previous group had joined the bandits, been defeated by the bandits or had simply fled with the advance payment. As such an order to capture and return the previous group to the local Lord was also handed down for good measure. 
Time was limited – the Prince was due in the area in 3 days. Better get to killing nasties and making the world a safer place.

Gameplay – 1st session

The adventure opened with the adventurers already having been recruited and summoned to the Lord’s mansion. Details of times, places and local areas were kept light so we could just let things come along during gameplay. The Lord’s chamberlain joined the party, obviously worried and otherwise harassed, and he arrogantly proclaimed that clearing these caves is what was expected of the group. After some argument the party role played their way to scoring some transport and a tracker from the last incursion to quiz about what they might find.

With the adventurers given their mission and clued in to what they might find (and where the main dangers might still be) the group set off and got the lay of the cavern complex from the outside. Choosing a ground-level cavern entrance they started to explore some caves on the right – in this case, the Kobold lair. Handily, this was a nice easy area to begin with.

After switching from roleplaying to planning to exploring quite quickly I was expecting a few questions and pauses but none were apparent as the party set up a stealthy exploration tactic. This was quickly ruined by Tiamatter’s fighter whose exceedingly low wisdom meant he marched on in once the party had established a safe perimeter inside the carven entrance to get their bearings. Needless to say, Tiamatter wandered right into a Kobold ambush and so started an all out battle where the Kobolds kept drawing the party further and further in to the lair, ambushing and trapping along the way.

Two items of mote took place during this chase through the lair (which was essentially Tiamatter’s fighter charging on to kill more kobolds and Dicemaiden’s rogue hiding not far away to snipe with her hand crossbow). The first was the wizard’s use of a sleep spell to fell the chieftain’s guards (which threw up questions about targeting the kobolds that were out of the line of sight) and the second was the point where the party broke into the kobold common area which I’d populated with women and children with a couple of guards.

Where we left the session Tiamatter’s fighter had killed he guards quickly with Sanjion’s Wizard using a ‘readied’ shocking hands spell to have lightning dance along his fingers to frighten the others into compliance. The party then marched the children out but before they could get the teens and the women to leave the angered kobold women decided to take their chances and jump the wizard before the children could be harmed. 

We left the session here with the Wizard becoming the centre of a mass Kobold pile-on.

Throughout the first session I deliberately changed between drawing a general map and actually drawing out a scale battlegrid for minis combat using 5 feet to a square. As all of the group were 4E players not one person questioned the fact that we were doing his and nobody seemed to notice that the minis rules were missing from the playtest packet. Switching between illustrative methods quickly and fluidly between description, map and grid was easy and didn’t slow the pace at all. If anything, being able to do this at need sped encounters along. This is something easily forgotten in a 4E game. 

The other ‘mode change’ that was going on throughout the session was the break between roleplay, investigation and combat gameplay. Like with the illustrative methods the switch between these three methods was smooth and natural allowing us to sweep through every action like it was one unified whole rather than distinct and separate game modes. Something that isn’t easy at all in 4E due to the minis focussed nature of combat and the tactical-heavy powers cards.

After the session ended I sat with my group and we discussed how the play had felt to them as players. Here is some of the feedback they gave me from the first session:

Tiamatters (Human Fighter): 

• * Movement and action feel like D&D but, ultimately, feel bland in comparison to 3E or 4E
• * Glancing blow is no good with only working on a 10+. When fighting lower level creatures a 10+ would normally hit anyway and on higher level creatures the damage it would give would be not much help.
• * Playing the fighter is dull. Unlike 4E there’s no strategic options for a fighter to take that can help the party (such as maintaining a fighting front line or breaking through an enemy line or even, simply, flanking).
• * All you seem to be able to do is walk forward and hit something
• * Can’t use powers often enough on any classes (or they are too situational)
• * DM fiat seems to have made a big return
• * We’re in danger of going back to awkward effect tracking during combats. This would slow the rate of play
• * A fair DM will now be essential as the rules don’t enforce that clarity of purpose for DMs and players alike
• * If I want a standard fantasy role playing game there are games out there that do it better

Wayward (Wood Elf Cleric):

• * You get through rounds a lot quicker than in 3E or 4E
• * Kobolds seem to be the new minions
• * Cleric class seems to be the centre of the party
• * Minor magic seems quite powerful
• * Specialties don’t add anything significant to play yet

Dicemaiden (Human Rogue):

• * Initially it feels like an old ‘choose your own adventure’ book (DM note: After I started monkeying around with the adventure, this feeling went away. This is likely a comment about the adventure module than the gameplay)
• * There seem to be few interesting actions a player can take at 1st level
• * Sneaking/stealth works really well
• * Adventuring day will revolve around the party healer (Cleric class as it stands)

Sanjion (Human Wizard):

• * You now have more out-of-combat spell effects to use
• * It no longer seems like everything is about fighting – more of the game can be taken up with more interesting things to do
• * Specialty feats currently not very good/inspiring
• * Minor magic extremely useful
• * Nice to always have at least some magic at your disposal

Gameplay – 2nd session


For the next session, Tiamatter left the playtest group and was replaced by Darksider. After we’d created Darksider’s character we started from where the last session finished, simply retconning Tiamatter’s fighter for Darksider’s Dwarf cleric. As this was only a playtest and not part of our normal campaign game this posed no real issues.

We started the game in a combat frame with Sanjion’s wizard being overrun by kobold women and teens. Although I had played most kobold encounters with a battlegrid I started this one as a simple descriptive combat and as the players started to try and extract the wizard I placed some minis on the table to show the mass of kobolds and the player’s respective positions in relation to it.

The party were intent on not harming the kobolds with the rogue grabbing a teen and trying to shake a cleaver from his grasp to the wizard using shocking grasp to shock people out of the way to the elf trying to use his staff to sweep kobolds out of the way. All was going well until the party cracked a kobold too hard, then there was blood in the air and frightened kobolds with nothing to lose in the room. A couple of party members went down and much healing magic was expended in an effort to not suffer an ignoble death at the hands of such weak opponents.

The party fought free and stated a fighting retreat down the corridor. As speeds were now important I quietly drew out a battlegrid again to help with the chase. Again, the players didn’t seem to notice and naturally used the grid to plan their moves. Clever use of lamp oil and a ‘shield wall’ helped the party extract and they ran for the woods to rest, heal and allow the elf to trance so he could refresh his healing spells. An assault would come under the cover of darkness into a different cave.

As the party planned only to rest long enough for the elf to trance, nobody else regained powers or hit dice. At least the party now had more access to healing magicagain so they pushed on to the 1st cave entrance on the left, away from where the kobolds were now patrolling in the night.

A stealthy approach got the party in to what turned out to be a goblin lair and everything was fine until the (heavily armoured) dwarf failed to keep quiet. Goblin sentries started calling for help and the party ended up fighting a battle on two fronts as goblins rushed from various rooms inside their cavern complex. Again, for this section I used a battle grid but as he players started to kill off their assailants and flee into the caverns to find a secure place to hide and rest to spend hit dice. 
The party secured a guard room, using furniture to barricade cave corridors. After healing and leaving the remaining goblins still waiting in ambush for them (“dear Gobbos. BRB. x x. Lol &rdquo the party pushed on into the upper cavers where they ran into hobgoblins debating whether to answer the goblin alarm cry.

The first combat with the hobgoblins was crucial as, by now, the party had become very aware of the lethality of any blows that land. Gung-ho tactics were not the order of the day. Sanjion’s wizard used Magic Missile like a sniper-shot to disarm the lead hobgoblin (not usually possible under older editions but what the hell, the hobgoblin heavy crossbow was huge in its own right) and the rest of the group used the narrow, bendy stairwell to their advantage. This forced a stalemate with hobgoblins not willing to rush down the stairs around a corner into their deaths and the party unwilling to do the same against readied hobgoblins.

The battle was resolved using Next’s move-act-move mechanics in a creative way and the party moved on. I switched back to describing the area and drawing a small map rather than a battlegrid and the party explored further, stealthily entering a torture area and freeing a hostage in a superb bit of trickery using the rogue to sneak attack at the right moment and the wizard’s magic missile to solve a hostage ‘meatshield’ situation. 

Again, after the session the group sat around and exchanged further thoughts and feelings on how the gameplay had panned out. With this session, healing, resting, gridded and non-gridded combat, negotiation and exploration all featured so we were beginning to get a better feel for D&D next.

Here is some of the feedback from the players after the second session:

Darksider (Hill Dwarf Cleric):

• * Much more reliant on basic melee attacks
• * Simpler combats
• * Less automatically available healing is better (hated surges after playing with Hit Dice and healing magic)
• * Healing now feels a little more realistic
• * Advantage/Disadvantage system is much easier to play with than trying to remember all the stackable bonuses for a given situation
• * There is now a greater lethality to the game. It forces you to look before you leap
• * Still feels very much like D&D despite the loss of all the powers. 

Wayward (Wood Elf Cleric):

• * D&D Next feels much more dangerous than 4E. In 4E, you never really feel like you’re in danger, even when you’re downed and making death saves.
• * Clerics definitely need more channel divinity
• * Need to introduce bonus spells for high stats 
• * Battlegrid may be needed for new players or those coming from a purely 4E background
• * Seems to fly through rounds

Dicemaiden (Human Rogue):

• * There’s now a real risk that you can’t get to someone to pick them up when they fall
• * Clerics are essential in a party now
• * Non-battlegrid combat works really well with a good DM (DM: I’ll take that as a compliment!)
• * Seems like a big deal when a player goes down

Sanjion (Human Wizard):

• * You worry when your character gets reduced to 0 hp
• * Definitely more lethal than 4E
• * Glad we haven’t returned to the 2nd edition style healing (which was too slow)
• * Without a cleric, parties will not be able to take on multiple areas confidently
• * Bonus spells for the wizard if you have a really high intelligence would be useful

Gameplay – 3rd session


Our third session kicked off after the party escaped from the caves with their freed captive. They rested, levelled-up, hid the captive and prepared re-entry to the caves. By the time they’d started back to the caves the hobgoblins had discovered their killed brethren and the goblin caves were on high alert (after the hobgoblins enforces a change in goblin leadership for their incompetence – violently).

Choosing the other side of the valley the players decided that a climb up to the upper caves was probably best. They took great pains to not get noticed during their climb and almost made it up to the Orc caverns. Unfortunately, the party dropped Darksider’s Dwarf Cleric during the climb and he fell to earth with a clatter that the Hobgoblins definitely noticed. 

Working against the clock with Hobgoblins marching over to take a look at the noise, the party hauled the Dwarf up the rock face and they dashed into the Orc cavern before they could be pursued. Once inside, the game mode switched to a battlegrid as I described strange almost-zombie orcs, purple light that sapped the willpower and dusty ‘mummified’ heads that weren’t really mummified (it’s fair to say I left the module behind a little in this section).

After battling through several rooms of orcs, stranding enemies in the bottom of a mine and trying to bring Wayward’s Wood Elf Cleric back from his ‘hypnosis’ under the strange purple light (all the while being attacked by almost-zombie mining orcs) we brought the game to a close and discussed the game further.

This third session was a lot shorter then the preceding two but the game still moved at a fair pace with the party levelling up, clearing 5 rooms, having exploration time and trying to remain undetected by sentries. All players agreed that the system was still working and that the advantage/disadvantage mechanic was certainly something that they vastly preferred over situational bonuses. All in all, my players still thought that they were playing D&D.

GMs feedback

Sitting behind the screen as the all-powerful narrator, adjudicator and plotter is always a very different experience from being in control of just a single character forging the story through your actions. While I agreed with most of what my players had to say I also had my own thoughts as we were playing. Here are some of my thoughts and feelings about Next:

• * Next’s character creation is somewhat limited at present, but that is to be expected while the complete roster of backgrounds, specialties, races and classes are missing. 
• * Well-flavoured backgrounds and specialties can help fire a player’s imagination and customise a class to have a different ‘feel’. This should eliminate the need for the multiple filler classes that 4E was generating and the various sub- or prestige-classes of 2E and 3E.
• * Specialties and background designers will have to be careful not to over-do things or we will end up with too many options and options that effectively duplicate or contradict one anotherCore classes need to be kept to classic D&D selections with proper support from specialties to make them stand out from one another. The number of 4E classes was getting silly and by the time essentials arrived there was definitely class overload with various classes effectively doing the same jobs.
• * A familiar group should be able to rattle through character creation in around 20 mins
• * Some backgrounds are open to abuse. When designing ‘flavour’ backgrounds designers will need to be especially careful not to open up loopholes for enterprising players to get an unfair advantage unexpectedly. Examples included the soldier’s rank, the artisan’s masterwork item and the commoner’s land/trade equipment.
• * Ability scores don’t really come into play at all, with the exception of Constitution (for death thresholds). The ability modifiers do come into play often but if we’re going to have those only then why have ability scores of 3 – 20. Why not just roll a D6 and take one away, for instance? (before anyone says, yes, I’m aware that changes the odds and eliminates minuses. It’s just a quick example). We need to make the ability scores matter more than just their modifiers.
• * Poorly rolled characters are going to get thrown at danger really quickly to get them eliminated. With a return to rolled ability scores the worst powergamers in the community will be tempted to roll up lots of score arrays or keep killing off characters until they hit good scores.
• * The difference between a really well-rolled character and a really badly rolled character can be quite stark. 
• * It will be easier under next to effectively provide ‘support’ for all character classes through associated specialties and backgrounds. No class needs to be left out.
• * It’s now possible to have a character that’s good at almost everything with a bit of luck and a bit of gaming know-how. This may push average characters to one side and will need to be watched for my DMs.
• * Cleric is definitely the most important class now. Need other healing classes ideally.
• * Splint and banded mail can occupy a single slot on the equipment table
• * Unusual armours need a separate table in equipment
• * Game play can switch modes seamlessly from exploration to role-play to combat and back again far better than in 4E
• * Combat works really well with a battlegrid set at 5 feet per square. Earlier edition players naturally latch on to such a set up and only really notice the lack of flanking or the 5-foor step/shift.
• * 4E players struggle with the lack of apparent tactical options inherent in the available class abilities 
• * 3E players struggle with having to pick packages of feats by way of specialties. They naturally want a list of feats to select from to effectively ‘build-your-own-specialty’
• * Spellcasters definitely have the greatest amount of options again. Why play a single class fighter when you can have cool options? (Rhetorical)
• * Fighter expertise dice are an interesting way to limit ‘spamming’ of fighter powers but are they really necessary?
• * Disengage action can technically be used to move past enemies as 10 feet can take you beyond an enemy’s reach. Disengage should really be used to move directly away from a threatening enemy – a fighting retreat, as it were. Clarification may be necessary.
• * Combat is far faster and flows really well. Average combats were 7 rounds. I can now get 5 combats into a short session where in 4E that was barely 2.
• * Combat options now revolve much more around the environment and supporting actions of the team rather than around dishing damage or status effects in the correct order to maximise party efficiency. Next is less of the strategy game that 4E can be.
• * Background skills should list the character abilities required on the skill itself to prevent excessive cross-referencing between ability scores and skills descriptions
• * Next does feel a little light on interesting/engaging actions to take during combat. While this does speed things up it is certainly noticeable by 4E players in particular.
• * The fighter feels like it will definitely play second fiddle to all the other classes
• * Charisma is the dump-stat again. With limited gameplay uses for it, players will rely on what they say in role-play encounters rather than the charisma of their characters. DMs will need to be careful to integrate Charisma checks into such encounters or call for Charisma saves enough to make players think again.
• * Toughness seems a little over-powered and its description requires clarification. My group interpreted this 3 different ways between 5 players.
• * Gamers (as opposed to roleplayers) will select the human 9 times out of 10. Having all your ability scores go up by one where one can go up by two is too good a game-effect to pass up
• * Next will work best with an experienced DM who isn’t afraid to change things and make off-the-cuff rules calls. 
• * This feels more like 2E with a dash of 3E thrown in to give the players more power despite the presence of some 4E style mechanics. The biggest ‘losers’ as things stand will be 4E players.
• * Without a source of healing, players may find themselves losing more characters in combat
• * Next is definitely more lethal than 4E. My players feel threatened again and(surprisingly) they like that
• * Fighter class has no ability to keep combat centred on him. As such, the biggest Ac/HP totals in the party can be largely ignored by the monsters (kill the squishies first!).
• * I have real concerns about potential ‘specialty/background/spell overload’ and of play balance between them beyond the initial PHB. I don’t want to see lots of errata’d paragraphs as players get too inventive.
• * Stat blocks and such need to be clearer and more concise as later playtest packets arrive. The less cross-referencing players and DMs need to do, the better.
• * Spell descriptions being more descriptive rather than stat-prescriptive (as in 4E powers) is a good thing. It allows players to come up with inventive uses. 
• * Spell descriptions need to be crystal clear on damage types and targeting. We had examples where Magic Missile was being used as a magical auto-sniper and where Sleep was used to target creatures unknown to the caster outside of the line of sight
• * Death saves at low levels will take, on average, three failed saves to kill a character. As levels rise, this will get longer unless damage being applied to carry a player below 0 HP has also increased exponentially.
• * Getting to your feet doesn’t seem to cost enough movement. Being knocked prone isn’t a huge deal at the moment.
• * Advantage/disadvantage is a great mechanic and has to stay. It’s so flexible and easy for players to argue for it adds another element of inventiveness to the game as the players try to justify it. 
• * Single-class parties are now possible again. I see no reason a party would have to include members from each archetype as long as at least one healer was among them.
• * Level ups don’t feel very special at the moment. One of the good things about 4E was that players felt like their prowess grew every single level. 
• * Fighter attack progression seems a bit slow at the moment.
• * As a DM I feel like I have more control of the game again. In 4E I often feel like I’m there just to set up a map full of creatures for the players to knock down.
• * Play balance between the classes currently feels like it won’t be possible. There’s a chance that spellcasters will be the most powerful again.
• * Classes are no longer homogenised – each class now has a different feel again. This is welcomed by my group. Any extra classes need to ensure they retain a unique mechanic and a separate niche in the adventuring party.
• D&D Next is not as much a 'pick-up-and-play' game as 4E. This is partly down to the character creation but mainly down to the huge differences in playstyle required for the different classes. I think this will improve with time as the playtest rolls on and more rules/options are revealed.
• * This still feels like D&D. In fact, it’s arguably more D&D than 4E was.

Conclusion:

All in all D&D Next has me excited. It suits my style of play and while I see issues with some aspects of it I certainly remain positive and eagerly anticipate the next playtest packet.

Most of my players want to continue with Next and get through the caves of chaos with the current playtest rules. My 4E hardcore players don’t see much to be excited about while my older 2E or story driven players see lots of promise.

So, 5469 words to say just this: It’s not perfect yet but I like Next.
Bring on phase 3 of the playtest!


I hope you are all having as much fun with the playtest as my group seem to be. Until I crawl out of the caves of chaos again, 

Play the game, not the rules.

Doug Lochery


ADDENDUM: Please accept my humble apologies for the formatting in this post. Try as I might I can't get the damn blog editor to behave. I've clearly rolled a 1 on my Internet Lore skill check  

I'll keep this short and sweet tonight.


I last blogged about the reaction to the D&D Next playtest and defended WotC, asking gamers to effectively 'grow up' and stop giving us a bad name, lest we, as a community, suffer. Tonight I want to turn the tables in true devli's advocate form and give the same treatment to WotC themselves. I hope they're listening.


ANOTHER DIRE WARNING

While it is no excuse for the recent behaviour of some of the RPG community at large, the D&D Next playtest launch wasn't handled with expert execution. I'm sure there will have been an incident report produced by now and that the reasons for the issues felt when the playtest packet was released will be well-known within WotC.

Regardless of the actual problem felt, be it unexpected visitor numbers on the day, technical issues with server hardware, bandwidth or circuit problems, permission issues on the accounts or with the files, capacity on ancilliary systems, human error or what-have-you, Wizards of the Coast must be seen to handle the next packet launch more effectively. The community that buys WotC products needs to see that lessons have been learned and that the company can do it right.

So, here's the warning:

WotC run a very real risk of alienating potential players of D&D Next before it's launch if it does not now demonstrate the will and the expertise to get the playtest right.

Everyone was expecting me to say this, right? Right. I don't mean to be patronising at all and I'm sure execs within WotC already said this (or something remarkably similar). If not I firmly believe someone in WotC needs to get this on the corporate risk register - that's how grave I think this warning is.


MORE TRUTH, CONSEQUENCE AND A LITTLE DARE FOR GOOD MEASURE

The truth of it all is, people screw up. Tech fails. Gamers do the unexpected (for instance, how many players only signed up on the day of release? How the hell do you plan for those sorts of numbers??). All this is OK. It comes under Murphy's Law and it happens to us all.
Unfortunately this isn't the only truth - the other truth is the one that hurts and it's the one that hastens gamers to whine factor 9 and into the arms of the ever-waiting spider that is Paizo. This truth is: WotC has a reputation for less than stellar performance in the internet arena.

However fair or unfair the criticisms are the consequences of the difficult launch means that less people are excited, some people are turned off and faith in WotC has been damaged. There is, however, a good way to turn this to the advantage if WotC will just take the dare.


THE DARE

So, WotC, here we are after a problematic playtest launch. The packet was good but the taste soured somewhat for a lot of people. The feedback will come at a high price. I want to se you succeed in this. Many of us do. To this end I want to dare you, no - DOUBLE dare you to pull a flawless launch of the next playtest packet.
Bear in mind that communication is key and that with good communication a problematic situation can seem like no problem at all to your users. Go on, prove to us all that you do learn - the playtest itself seems proof of that in itself. Prove you can work with the internet effectively and make us hope that the electronic support for Next will follow an equally learned path as a result of your turnaround success.

There's a lot to be gained here - don't drive players off before Next is even ready because you let a few tech problems get in the way. For every challenge, there are many solutions. If D&D taught any of us anything, surely it was that?

Er.....and maybe that kicking down a door can result in stealing treasure or getting your face eaten off. I always mix those two up.




EDIT: Oh, by the way, NEVER sack Trevor. If not for his efforts and those of his team, you would have had more damage caused than you actually suffered. Communication is key, and Trevor was our only real line of it. Well done, Trevor!
 
 

So here I am, back to my blog after a long silence while I was getting well. What brings me out of blog retirement early? The D&D Next playtest of course.

Like everyone else here I eagerly anticipate the playtest packet. My link doesn't work, the community servers seem to be performing inconsistently and all does not seem wwell with the tech at WotC tonight.

Still, I wait. Unfortunately my patience is tested by my fellow gamers rather than with WotC themselves. In fact, I'm downright disgusted by some of the reactions I have seen so far.


A DIRE WARNING

The reactions on the community forums and around the RPG sites on the internet has been a mixture of the excited, the calm and the furious. Unfortunately the furious are the voices making themselves heard the loudest right now and this reinforces a dangerous assumptive observation that is made about all of us. That observation is:

Gamers are petulant whiners that have an unreasonable sense of entitlement.


We know this isn't true. The vast majority of us are reasonable, calm, thoughtful and intelligent. We understand and appreciate the work others in our community do for our hobby. We get how much effort producing a game or a suppliment can be. We buy our gaming materials. We support our shops and sites. But still, the vocal minority manage to bring the community low and give us all a tarnished image.


So here's the warning: If those of us who love to be keyboard warriors don't grow up a little and start being a little more reasonable we will find less and less players joining our ranks, less producers making stuff for us to play with and we'll become the laughing stock of the hobby world. Think what happened in the 80's with all that D&D = satanism rubbish. Mud still sticks, and these days it's much easier to sling it.


TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCE

The ubiquity of the internet has spawned a generation of players who are predisposed to instant gratification, instant feedback, and faceless interactions where consequences do not appear to exist. The computer gaming world suffers terribly for these people and our own hobby is far from immune to their poison.

The truth is, the only cure for this is consequence.....before the consequences to all of us become irreversible. The time of the troll among our community must end if we are to truly stave off oblivion from the more immediate electronic interactions of the computer gaming arena. Problem is, a few flaming globes and a fireball or two won't help us win this one.

Together we must stand against the trolls, the furious entitled, the keyboard warriors and the internet munchkins. We must shield one another somehow and bring calm and reasonableness to our online arenas. Sure, it's OK to disagree and to argue your point. Hell, it's even OK to be upset about something and to have an opinion. Just don't belittle the effort of others or bring your fellow gamers into disrepute just so you can throw a tantrum or make yourself feel beeter by abusing other gamers with different opinions.


I hope I'm simply dabbling in the Doomsayer theme here but these days I feel that if trollish keyboard warriors don't think twice, they could be the failed saving throw of us all. I sometimes with I could cast 'Calm other' over our forums and help people just get on with enjoying the debate and discussion rather than engaging in fury and bile.


I'm sure this post will leave me in need of a 'protection from fire' spell so I'm off to find my old spell scrolls while waiting for the Next playtest package. I hope you all enjoy it once you've got it and urge you all to be patient and not add to WotC's problems - that way we'll all see it faster.



 

In my blog series Returning to RPGs after a long absence, I explored some tips and tricks to make it easier to re-enter RPG gaming. This time I'd like to move the focus squarely to the player's side of the screen and talk about the things that could make the biggest impact for players starting to play Dungeons and Dragons for the first time or for players returning to Dungeons and Dragons after a time away from the hobby.

I'm a long-time DM and don't really play on the other side of the screen. I was worried that my DM bias may have affected the way my original blog articles were written so to get a true player's perspective I interviewed my players about what made it easier for them to game again. The rest of this article is built up from their commentry and I hope that by sharing their thoughts with you I can help DMs understand the things that could have the biggest impact on making their players more comfortable with starting or re-starting a game and also to help players realise what to look out for when getting into, or back into, D&D gaming.　

The players

My gaming group is currently made up of only 4 players, 3 men and a little lady. They all have different histories and backgrounds as far as RPGs are concerned so to help you understand the relevance of some of their commentary I'd like to quickly introduce them to you. So that any blushes are spared I've used their common Internet tags to identify them instead of their real names.

Dee is a long standing AD&D 2nd edition player who has dabbled in Call of Cthulu and many tabletop wargames. He's been a part of my gaming group since I began and is very used to my methods as a DM. He's recently been involved in World of Warcraft and started with 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons at the same time as me. His gaming style favours powergamer tendancies.

Troll is also a long standing player from my past groups who started with AD&D under another DM. He's a keen Munchkin and Baldur's Gate fan but has little other RPG experience outside of D&D. He dropped in and out of my gaming group for a number of years before becoming a full-time member and has played with me for many years now. As with Dee, Troll has started on 4th edition D&D at the same time as me and is used to my DMing style by now. In-game, Troll is usually a force of chaos who rarely reads up on rules, instead leaving the mechanics to the DM to let him get on with having fun within the game. Many of our most entertaining (and some of our most frustrating) moments have come directly from Troll's actions over the years.

Yvos is relatively new to Dungeons and Dragons and hasn't played with my group for long. He played a little with me on AD&D 2nd edition before my enforced break and has rejoined us for 4th edition now. Like me, he has skipped 3rd edition altogether. He is a Xbox RPG and Heroquest player who has been teaching his kids the basics of tabletop RPGs. Yvos loves to have character concepts and tries to find the rules that fits the things he wants to do. He's quite vocal as a player and is always game for something a bit different.

Wigfried is the newest member of my group. She's had a history with a serious MERP group around a decade ago and is a very keen World of Warcraft player and Neil Gaiman fan. My return to gaming is largely her fault. Wigfried is an enthusiastic (but sometimes impatient!) player who is still getting her head around some of the core concepts with the Dungeons and Dragons game. Whereas my other players have a grounding in D&D lore, Wigfried hasn't and her insights can remind me that not everyone understands D&D instinctively - we all started somewhere. Wigfried is not used to my DMing style yet but is getting there fast. Despite being totally new to all this she plays a full part in every game we have and contributes to the success of the group.

Now that's done let's get to some of the things these four players have said when discussing getting back into gaming with me.

Character creation

It's fair to say that character creation is usually the first part of the game players will run into when starting or returning to an RPG like D&D. When asked about how the character build and creaton process went for them my players had many interesting and insightful comments to share. Here is a selection of them:

Dee: "The online D&D tools are great to help you get into the game. The character creator is a big help in particular"

Yvos: "Yeah, it's good to be able to create and compare character options quickly and easily using the character creator. This actually helped me understand poswers and other mechanics"

Troll: "Why do you need to be on the Internet to use the tools? You should be able to download these. Couldn't you do that before? I loved Dragon magazine. Where's that gone?"

It's fair to say that all my players were impressed by the character creator tool and that they found it an aide to not just getting a character up and running but in actually understanding the process and the rules behind some of the powers. As far as I'm concerned the character creator is as close to an essential tool as you'll ever get for D&D - it really is an awesome product. This leads me to my first player tip: Get at least one DDi subscription for your group. Access to the Character Creator in particular will make your group's life a lot easier in a lot of little ways and the extra options in the online Dragon magazine are always welcome in a player's repetoire.

Off the back of this I do have another tip, aimed really at WotC's designers. I know you may be sick of hearing this but bring back the offline character creator and other tools. We don't all have access to our Internet connections at our game tables, guys. We're paying the subscription and this is obviously possible as you had it before. Personally I'd like to see the Characetr Creator's full functions restored to it. It really was a great tool and kudos to those that created it.

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Wigfried: "I liked having characters created with the group in mind. Creating characters as a group helped make a more effective party"

Yvos: "Knowing what character roles the party were missing helped me to create something that the party needed. It's good to have my character useful to the group."

Wigfried: "Creating characters together made ist easy to communicate intentions to the others in the group so other got what your character was about"

Yvos: "The DM really should be involved in the character creation. Having the DM assist players in getting the concept for their character right really does help make a better character"

My players all agreed that creating their characters as a group rather than as individual players with competing ideas really helped them not only build a cohesive party but wade through the multitude of choices that 4th Edition seems to throw at the player. They said that their party was more survivable because they created the characters with the whole group in mind and at least one of my players liked the social occasion of everyone getting together to hammer out characters together.

This gives me my next tip: Create your characters with your group (or at least with the group in mind)

For character creation, try and get the players together and build the group as a team from the start. 4th edition can punish poorly built groups so if you aren't mindful of this fact players survival rates may drop. Use the first session as a creation exercise. Make it a social event. If you can't do this, at least share the character roles that have been covered with players when they are creating character to drop into the group.

One final tip here for the DMs among you: Get involved with the character creation. Steer your players to the options that work for their concepts. Understand what they want to do and get active in helping them get it. The benefits are three-fold:

1) You understand what their characters can do before you begin

2) The player gets a character they really want

3) You build trust with your players

All of these benefits are worth having and can be yours for very little effort as a DM. Get involved in this process and you won't regret it.

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Troll: "The power sources were a little confusing at first. I didn't quite get their significance while I was worrying about the roles and classes"

Wigfried: "I like the power types. It helped me choose the type of character I really want"

Another tip aimed for the designers here, but thankfully one they've already followed to some degree. Organise the classes better so that the differences in power types is not just apparent but provides a clear definition between one group of character classes and another. Instead of these being just a line on the class description they should be really up front, like the old 2nd edition archetypes used to be.

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Wigfried: "Really love the ability to change your powers if they aren't working for you"

Dee: "Power and feat retraining rules are very handy indeed. They make sure you always get the character you want, even when you make mistakes with choices as you level up"

My players liked the addition of the retraining rules to 4th edition. This has already had an impact for them and it's particularly important for beginning groups who don't always see the way a power or skill can be called upon until they've used it for a while. My players tip here is: Don't worry so much about your choices. Simply retrain what doesn't work for you as you rise in level. For DMs I'd say: Make sure you let your players know that they can swap powers as they rise in levels. Don't let them think that they are stuck with bad choices so they don't lose interest in their characters.

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Yvos: "It's great to be able to come to the DM with a concept and let him take the ideas and suggest the correct character class and power setup to achieve the concept"

Dee: "The wealth of power and feat selections helps you to customise the classes and adapt things to your play style"

While I wouldn't say that anything is buildable with 4th edition's rules it's clear from the reactions of my players that they enjoy the number of options available. My tips here are: Don't let the wealth of power options overwhelm you, and never turn down a good idea.

4th edition's PHBs and 'power' suppliments have pages and pages of power descriptions. It can easily make you think that building and running a 4th edition character is more effort than it really is. Don't let the volume put you off - there isn't as many items to wade through as you may think.

On the good ideas front, this tip is really aimed at the DM's among you. Get familiar with the class flavours and the effects of the main powers in there. That way when players come to you with their character ideas you can point out the correct class/power combo to fit the concept. If a players has a whacky idea that cuts across classes look at the PHB multiclass feats or the PHB3 Hybrid rules to get what the player wants. Reflavour existing powers appropriate to the style the player wants and almost any concept is possible.

Learning to play

Once a character is created or at least once a concept is thought up most players will learn the basics of the game system. This is sometimes through reading (as with Dee) and sometimes through play only (as with Troll) but usually it's a little of both. All of my group had to learn to play again as for some it was a new system and for others it was an entirely new game. Here's some of what my players had to share on learning to play again:

Dee: "New rule books are easy to follow. They are laid out in the order that you'd most likely encounter the items in each chapter"

Although this has always been true of D&D rulebooks to some degree, 4th edition is arranged in an easy to follow, sequential format that reads perfectly when taken front to back. I do remember having to skip around rules chapters a lot more when playing 2nd edition and am thankful that 4th edition has improved this.

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Troll: "Having everything on the D20 rolling the same way for all checks and attacks helps get to grips with the game easier. You don't have to count up for one thing, down for another and roll different dice depending on what you're doing"

Dee: "Having a single type of roll for averything is easy and helps learning the game. Counting up is a lot easier than subtracting [note: see the old 2nd edition THAC0 rules for attacks. I changed those rules for my home games anyway]"

The single 'core' mechanic is a joy in play, especially with beginners in the group. Don't underestimate how easy this makes 4th edition to learn. My tip here is simple: Know the core mechanic by heart. Drill it into your fellow players and if you are playing a previous edition consider taking a cue from this mechanic in your own games.

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Troll: "I love having power cards. This makes it easy to have all of my abilities to hand so I can choose what to do next"

Wigfried: "I agree. Power cards are a great idea. They aren't always clear on what you need to do though"

Troll: "And the cards help me get used to my character's abilities and learn as I play"

My players like their power cards. The old school players among us were sceptical at first but during play they really do help make the game easier to play and give the DM an instant resource to look up. The tip I have here is simple: Use power cards.

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Yvos: "Having all the rules and mechanics for powers and feats on the character creatior is really good. I can look stuff up and learn appropriate rules as I create characters or explore customisation options"

The DDi compendium and the integration to it from the character creator certainly helps players pick up on rules relevant to their character. Again, I'd urge any group to have at least one DDi subscription available to them.

Gameplay

As my group and I have been getting used to D&D 4th edition and getting on with the game, we've discovered a few things that have worked and a few things that haven't . While much of any commentry around gameplay is subjective there were some very interesting points raised by my players that would apply to any starting, or re-starting, game. Here's a small selection of what they had to say:

Wigfried: "It's difficult to choose your targets in combat as you have no real way of gaguing the relative power of creatures on the battle map or of seeing their HP totals"

Wigfried doesn't have a grounding in D&D lore so she doesn't know that a Goblin is typically more powerful than a Kobold and that an Orc is typically more powerful than a Goblin and so on. I battle she finds herself struggling to choose targets as she can't guage health status or threat levels. This can be resolved to some degree by the DM so my tips here are: Be descriptive about your monsters and use some method for marking bloodied characters and creatures on the battle map.

As the DM be clear on describing the relative power of creatures on the map. Do this from the character's viewpoint when you can (ask youself, "Does the Party fighter feel that he could take this nasty on himself?" or something similar to give you some idea on what to say). Also, use bottletops, coins, markers, counters or any other method to clearly denote models that have 'bloodied' status. This gives players like Wigfried a clear indicator on who's injured and who isn't. It isn't a health bar or HP total, but it's better than having to remember who's hit and who isn't.

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Dee: "With powers really being just a dice roll, then damage and maybe an effect, sometimes it's easy to just choose a power on damage and roll the dice to announce hits and damage. This 'roll-playing' detracts from the game"

Dee and I had both spectated and played in games at a local hobby store and have seen a tendancy in long combats for players to simply look for the stats on their powers. This has the effect of degenerating combat encounters into this:

• Player 1: "Reaping strike. I hit AC 18"
• DM: "Hit"
• Player 1: "11 damage"
• Player 2: "Curse him [points]. Eldritch blast. Hit 20"
• DM: "Hit"
• Player 2: "8 damage"
• DM: "Bloodied"

Although that's quick and efficient it doesn't tell a story or help suspend the disbelief. To me, that isn't exciting and my players seem to agree. Players just become dice rollers and stat selectors. DM's become stat comparison machines. There are better ways to play.

To avoid this pitfall and keep your players fully engaged in what their powers can actually do (rather than the stats and effects they pull with their powers) start with actually printing the power descriptions on the power cards (or power listings if you don't use cards). Next, make sure you reference the effect of your power as you use it or, as a DM, be descriptive about the combat going on around the players. The PHB and DMG go into detail on this topic so I won't go into depth here.

Of course, there are many ways to play D&D. If your group prefer to play the stats game during combat then that's absolutely fine as long as it works for your group. Playing combat like this turns D&D into more of a strategic skirmish wargame and less of a role-playing game, however.

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Dee: "Weapon groupings [e.g Simple melee, military melee, simple ranged, military ranged] are a great idea. Managing proficiency in seperate weapons was a pain in earlier editions"

Yvos: "Yeah, it's good you don't worry about what type of weapon you can swing unless it needs some combat training to be effective."

Wigfried: "Surely if I can swing a big stick to hit someone it's no different to swing a club or a mace?"

All of my players used to 2nd edition's weapon proficiency rules agreed that 4th edition's take on who could use what was easier to manage and made more sense. At least one of my players questioned where the class flavour of allowed weapon selections had gone. My tip here is for older edition DM's: Consider making weapon group proficiencies the norm in your games or at least use the familiarisation rules (see The Complete Fighter's handbook, the weapon proficiencies chapter of the PHB and Players Option: Combat and Tactics for more on this subject).

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Yvos: "It's good you don't have that massive list of skills [read: non-weapon proficiencies] to pick from any more. It was annoying when you needed one but you hadn't taken it."

Dee: "Especially for things like, 'Reading/Writing' and 'Swimming'!"

Troll: "Why have we got an 'Intimidate' skill? Surely you can try and intimidate someone anyway? Why do you need to train this to be good at it? Surely it's better just to look mean and threatening? [Note: Troll plays a very tall Dragonborn with a spikey Greatsword and a flaming attitude to match his breath weapon]"

Similarly with skills as with weapons, my players enjoyed the simplicity and universality of the 4th edition system. My tip for players here is simply: get to know the standard uses for each skill and get inventive as often as possible with your skills - they can do more than the letter of the rules suggest.

For early edition players consider having certain additional related class skills as free proficiencies or even on having all NWPs for your archetype that you haven't selected to have a base score related to the key ability score. Think of it as non-weapon proficiancy familiarisation.

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Wigfried: "I like the fact that you don't have to be in-character the whole time. I want to play a fantasy game, not do acting all the time"

Wigfried's comments were echoed by my other players. Wigfried has been involved with LARP, with MERP and with WoW domains where you were expected to always be in-character or you were penalised. Now, this is legitimate play when trying to build a fully immersed atmosphere but it doesn't work for all groups. Most players will play-act the important bits but they want to get on with the business of being social and having fun as players the rest of the time.

My tip here is: maintain a comfortable balance of in-character and out-of-character interaction throughout your campaign. Don't get hung up on the whole in-character piece, even if you're playing seriously in-character most of the time in your game. Always keep in mind that this is a social game and allow the rest of the group freedom to enjoy the experience with you.

The levels of in-character play you have will always vary from group to group and that's perfectly fine. There is no limit to how much you should or shouldn't do here. Find the balance that's fun for you and don't blow a gasket if other players in your group don't strictly adhere to that level on in-character roleplaying during a session. Agree a general level of role-play all members of the group are happy with, provide a bit of leeway and have fun with it.

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Dee: "Player versus player conflics are bad!"

Dee is getting at something I do sometimes introduce to the story as a DM. I include it here as there's perhaps a lesson to be learned for beginning groups here.

What Dee is talking about is that I sometimes set player objectives at odds to introduce some tension and some conflict that players have to work to resolve. While this can work really well when done sensitively and with thought, for players trying to learn a new system all it really did was introduce an additional layer of stress they could do without at that stage. The tip here is clear: make sure character's goals are aligned while players are (re)learning to play your RPG. I'd go one further here and say that you should only put player's goals at odds once you're really comfortable with the system, your player's personalities and trust that the players will have fun resolving the internal conflict that you've created.

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Troll: "I don't wanty to hear about the game mechanics - please hide them!"

Although Troll really loves his power cards, he doesn't like 4th Edition D&D's more wargame-like aspects. He wants to see the cut and thrust of the battle in his mind's eye, not sit comparing dice rolls, working out distances in squares and looking up stats all evening.

The tip to keep those like Troll who crave interesting combat instead of strategic play with the mechanics of the game is: Keep your combats descriptive. As a player, describe what you want to do instead of picking powers and riolling dice. As a DM describe the outcomes of players actions and react with the monsters accordingly.

The PHB and the DMG both have plenty of tips about this and I wrote an article for Roleplayingtips e-zine many years ago on this subject (Johnn Four, bless you, sir) - it's easy and worthwhile.

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Troll: "The battle map is a good idea. It helps me visualise where everything is in relation to one another"

Yvos: "The battle map is a great aide to memory. It's easy to get lost in combat. Also, for me seeing things on the map suggests my character has battle awareness of his immediate surrounding. Makes me feel like he's an experienced adventurer"

My players are getting used to using a battle map for all encounters. I have maps, tiles and a dry-wipe play mat with squares on it. I used to simply describe what was going on but all my players feel that the map helps speed play up - you can plan as people are playing.

The tips here are obvious: Get into the habit of using the battle map to represent evyone's positions. Plan your next move while other players are taking their turn. That way you're ready to act and you keep the speed of the game high so combat doesn't become a boring chore.

Game systems

All of my players have had some experience with other game systems, both tabletop and computerised. here's a small selection of the comparisons they made between D&D 4th edition and the games they had been exposed to already:

Wigfried: "I liked the World of Warcraft descriptions that you [read: the DM. In this case, me] put to the roles. That helped me unsderstand what the 'job' of each class was."

The tip here is pretty straight-forward: Don't be afraid to use World of Warcraft analogies.

As WoW has become so prevalent in fantasy RPG culture feel free to use terms from the game if it helps people understand concepts. For instance, use the term 'Tank' instead of Defender, 'DPS' instead of Striker, liken encounter and daily powers to cooldown rates, threatened spaces to aggro circles, and threat generation to marks. Lots of paralells can be drawn if you're used to D&D 4th edition and World of Warcraft - just because the designers couldn't use Blizzard's terminology doesn't mean you can't at your own gaming table.

WoW isn't the only place you could draw comparisons with. Use any comparison with any other game system or computer game to help orient the players in your group. Help your fellow players to understand the game a little better and the whole group becomes more effective. Less downtime explaining stuff means more time for fun, too.

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Wigfried: "D&D was certainly easier than MERP to learn and play"

Yvos: "It was easier than 2nd edition to learn, too"

Troll: "Yeah, definately easier to get into at first than early D&D even though there's a lot more you can do"

Dee: "Easier than Storyteller and Cthulu. Seems a lot more balanced, too. Especially at starting levels"

No tips here, just a statement. The designers worked hard on balance and ease of play and my experience is that it paid off. D&D 4E is a good choice for starting players and returning players, even in it's non-essentials format.

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Wigfried: "Feels a lot more free than games like Warcraft and MERP"

Yvos: "I like all the different ways you can build your characters in comparison to earlier D&D games. It's certainly more free in that way"

Dee: "I think the DM's willingness to let us have freedom makes it really easy to play"

Wigfried: "My previous group always railroaded the party to fit to the story and events that were supposed to happen. This made it feel like what we wanted to do didn't matter"

My players certainly felt that D&D's new cosmology and design methodology behind building published adventure modules allowed them much more freedom than they'd been used to on other systems, particularly the big MMORPGs and subject specific game systems. My regular players (Dee and Troll) commented heavily on my own methods for weaving the current published materials into the ongoing campaign but that's more to do with my approach and less to do with the actual D&D system itself.

What I will add here is some of my own commentry about the quality of the published adventure modules I've seen so far. The design ethos is such that most modules I've seen have been easy to change a few item in and drop into an ongoing campaign without the players noticing they were on a pre-published adventure. This is no mean feat of design and is to be applauded. Unfortunately I've come across more than a few modules that totally waste oppertunities for making things more than just a series of linked combat encounters. My tips for the DMs out there on this are simple: expand upon the details in any published module to draw the players in more fully. Most players aren't here for just hack 'n' slash so 6 rooms with different monsters to kill doesn't stand up as a real adventure. Allow your players the freedom to roam and to investigate whatever takes their fancy. If the module makes nothing of the path they take or the item they've fixated upon, make something up or prompt them to move on to keep the game moving.

I'll probably return to this subject in a later blog and will expand upon what I mean here and the techniques you can use to make this easy. For now, just remember to give the players their freedom.

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Wigfried: "I think I'm spoiled by the amount of damage I can cause in World of Warcraft"

Wigfried's comment points out a danger with playing D&D when you're used to other games. You may find youself a little confused when things don't work the way you're used to or when terminology is different. Don't worry about it - it's natural.

Although it is the progenator of most RPG systems remember that D&D is different to other games. If you are used to other games ask your DM or fellow players for comparisons that make sense to you (for instance, Level 85 WoW is really level 30 Epic tier D&D and where WoW has thousands of points of damage D&D has tens). Relevant comparisons can help you get comfortable with the game a lot quicker than normal.

Summary

From what my players had to say, I was able to draw out a few hints and tips to help other groups make it easy to get back into their game or to start a new game. Here is a quick summary of the points I took from my player's commentry:

• Get at least one DDi subscription for your group.
• Bring back the offline character creator and other tools.
• Create your characters with your group
• Share the character roles that have been covered with players
• As a DM, get involved with the character creation
• Don't worry so much about your power or feat choices - you can swap these later.
• Don't let the wealth of power options overwhelm you
• As a DM, never turn down a good idea
• Get familiar with the class flavours and main powers
• Reflavour existing powers to fit a character's style
• Know the core mechanic by heart
• Use power cards and put power descriptions on them
• Be descriptive about combats and your monsters
• Use some method for marking bloodied characters/monsters
• Get to know the standard uses for each skill
• Be inventive with your skills as often as possible
• Maintain a comfortable balance of in-character and out-of-character interaction throughout your campaign
• Make sure all character's goals are aligned
• Use a battle map
• Plan your next move while other players are taking their turn.
• Don't be afraid to use World of Warcraft analogies.
• As a DM, expand upon the details in any published module and allow your players freedom!
• Seek comparisons with your normal game system that make sense to you

So here we are at the end of another mammoth blog post. Thanks for joining me again and I hope that my players insights and opinions help you to make things easier for yourself and your gaming group. As always if you want to add your experiences to my group's own, please feel free to message me or add comments to this blog.

I'd like to give a huge THANK YOU! to all my players for allowing me to interview them on their experiences with our return to D&D. Their insights will help me to build a better game for them and I feel genuinely honoured to be their DM.

Until next time, happy gaming!

Play the game, not the rules.

Doug 'Wraith' Lochery

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dlwraith is a DM with many years of suffering under the tyranny of players Dee and Troll. He desperately needs the artifact, 'DM screen of chatotic player action deflection +5' but has so far been unable to find one.

dlwraith also denies the charge that he is 'slimey' in his DMing or that he likes to mess with his player's motivations. The warpriest could have got his powers back, the Rakasta didn't really need to look hard to find his No Dachi, the Duke was never responsible for the Black Robes and Razorclaw shifters are supposed to be pincushions.

 

 

Over the years RPGs have been consumed with greater frequency on computers and games consoles. These computer RPGs have grown exponentially in complexity and are now at a point where they are often the first taste of RPGs that a role-player may get.

With the rise of the computerised RPG formats has come an incentive mechanism generally known as 'achievements'. Examples of where achievements are used include big 'triple-A' titles like World of Warcraft, Dragon Age, Elder Scrolls, and Final Fantasy, as well as smaller RPG games and games with RPG elements such as Torchlight, Castlevania, and Costume Quest. This incentive mechanism aims to make a game more fun, provide greater playability and other linked benefits adding value to the game itself.

 

The question I want to cover in today's blog is: What are achievements and are they relevant to today's pen and paper RPGs? In short, can achievements improve Dungeons and Dragons? 

 

What is an achievement?

In relation to the current generation of computer gaming, achievements are little awards given to a player for a variety of actions during a game. Achievements are given out for completion of quest goals, side quests, reaching a certain level of wealth, defeating a set number of enemies, learning a skill, collecting certain items, finding secret areas and all manner of other things in between. They act as a badge of honour or as a trophy of sorts, allowing the player to say "I did this!" and they never have an impact on the game or the story within the game.

Achievements fall into a few broad categories:

• Those that you get for progress through the game
• those that you get for finding secrets
• those that you get for 'powering up' your character
• those that you get for collections
• those that you get for playing the game a different way

Different games use these categories in different ways to keep you playing and to provide extra value to your experience with the game. 

 

What does an achievement do? 

Achievements are placed within games to provide a reward to encourage players to keep playing the game that contains them. Achievements within games are a method of increasing the amount of perceived game play in any particular title or as a way to drive a player to persevere with a game in order to obtain them.

 

The psychology behind why achievements work this way has been likened to collection hobbies (like collecting numbers off trains or planes and CCGs in general) or to various skinner-box style techniques for reinforcing game behaviours (see psychology.about.com/od/sindex/g/def_ski... for a quick explaination of a skinner box and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._F._Skinner for an overview of the man who pioneered the technique. I particularly like the pigeon guided missile - maybe the Orcs in your campaign could develop such a fearsome weapon?).

 Aside from providing encouragement to play, achievements typically do nothing else but with the likes of Blizzard, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 all using achievements to great effect nobody can deny that they do have an impact on the player. Players simply love to get achievements and it typically gives them a sense of progress and can be a source of much personal pride in their abilities as a gamer.

 

Achievements within pen and paper RPGs

When faced with a comparison between pen and paper RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons and computer games carrying achievements you'd be forgiven for thinking that achievements don't work for pen and paper RPGs. In reality, they do, it's just that they aren't as noticeable as achievements in the sense that you see them on your computer screen.

 

The best example of an achievement system with Dungeons and Dragons is the levelling system. At its core, the levelling mechanics of D&D are just a variation on a skinner-box technique - by being offered the reward of a new level, title and some abilities or stat increases, you are conditioned to keep playing and chasing sources of experience points. There are many players within the D&D hobby whose main aim is to get their character up through the levels rather than to engage in an interactive story. They aren't better or worse at role-playing than anyone else, they've just latched on to a sort of reward to motivate them to keep playing.

Many computer games ape D&D's levelling system and it has easily become the single most recognisable form of achievement in modern gaming. Name me an RPG in any medium without a levelling system of some sort. Now name me 10 that do. I'll bet the 10 were easier to list.

 

Levelling up isn't the only notable achievement system in modern D&D. Sitting on the back of many player's character sheets is a box that shows which adventures a player has completed. This too is a form of achievement system and it serves the same purpose as the achievements your favourite computer game gives you for finishing a level, completing a major quest or defeating a boss enemy. How many of you give a little cheer when your DM asks you to put the name of a module into that space on your character sheet? Just like computer gamers, RPG gamers all love a good achievement.

 

Bringing achievements into Dungeons and Dragons

As achievements have the effect of providing a player with positive feedback about their progress and of encouraging them to keep playing there is no reason why they shouldn't be incorporated in a much more obvious way into games like Dungeons and Dragons. Fortunately this is an easy thing to do and it can provide a lot of fun and entertainment for any gaming group.

 

First, decide on some items to give out achievements for. To make this worthwhile you should avoid the trap of lazy achievements. These are achievements that the players would just receive for playing the game anyway. If you look back at the general categories I gave earlier on the sorts of achievements you need to avoid giving are:

• Those that you get for progress through the game
• Those that you get for 'powering up' your character

The reason to avoid these two types of achievements is simple - D&D already covers these by the methods I mentioned in the previous section. Levelling is powering up and that has its own reward. Completion of quests should be considered as progress through the game and again, should be it's own reward and noted on the character sheet.

 

Of the other achievement categories, the easiest one to create achievements for is those that you get for collections. Collections could be quite literally collecting items, spells, rituals, wealth or followers, or it could be defeating a certain number of creatures of a given type, visiting so many cities or delving a number of dungeons.

These sorts of achievement should be independent of quests or story goals and bear amusing or witty monikers, for example you could have an achievement called "How low can you go?" for any character reaching the bottom level of 10 different dungeon complexes or one called "I can haz  CheezBugbear" for a character who dispatches 100 Bugbears over his adventuring career. 

 

Collection achievements can be far-ranging and need to be tracked on a group or a character level by a DM as part of the game session admin (such as calculating XP and dishing our treasure packages). Too many or too complex achievements like this can add to a DMs workload so keep them simple, easy to track and fun.

 

The next two categories of achievements to create should be quest based and not created in advance to save on a lot of work. Remember, computer games designers know exactly where a player can go and what a player can do making achievement planning easy but a DM simply doesn't have that luxury.

When you are writing the adventure (or reading through a pre-published adventure) choose a few secret items for which to give out some achievements. These could be as literal as finding a trapdoor or hidden treasure or for uncovering a bit of secret information through a successful role-playing encounter or skill challenge. Once these are planned look to encounters that can be solved or bypassed by players thinking outside the box and create those achievements that you get for playing the game a different way from those. Good examples of this could include:

• dropping an iron gate onto a large monster (as in Luke's fight with the Rancor in Return of the Jedi)
• wrapping a rope around an enemy to use them as a counterweight to escape in true swashbuckling style
• Leaping a trap laid by the party and catching the pursuing enemy in it

 

As with the collection achievements give these names and award them as they come up during an adventure. Have players record these achievements on their character records as they would a quest completion or a skill, feat or power. Publish a list of some of the achievements you've created but only hint at some of the others so the players are surprised when they are awarded to increase the fun and sense of achievements form receiving such an award.

 

When done properly you should find that players will start to seek alternative ways to play to capture possible achievements. It could help to drive them to explore (2 more cities and I have my 'Tourist' achievement! I wonder what's in Autumnreach?) to create character goals for themselves (I'm going to raise my Charisma and Diplomacy scores to raise an army of followers!) or to simply try interesting tactics during combat instead of simply choosing powers and rolling dice.    

 

Improving on computer gaming achievements

So if you create achievements and use them within your games you can have a bit of a laugh and encourage players to play in different ways. All we've done there is emulate the methods of the computerised RPG so how do we as tabletop or pen and paper role-players improve upon that approach? Again, you'd be forgiven for thinking this is something new to our hobby but it isn't - we already provide 'improved achievements' that really matter within our games.

Let's go back to the quest completion idea and the way some players record completed quests on their character sheets. Within many Living Forgotten Realms game modules you get asked to include certain rewards and reward codes on your character sheet. These rewards can modify actions and reactions in other game modules. It is here where the computer game achievements fall down at the moment - earning them has no additional effects beyond having them. In the world of a fully-flexible RPG, additional effects are easy to provide and are the best way to make achievements memorable.

 

To take this approach, choose any achievement you've created and think of the ramifications behind the actions a player took to earn the achievement. Then, simply come up with a way to weave the completion of that achievement into the story or into a character's abilities. Examples of how you could employ this are:

• For visiting 10 cities and getting the "Tourist" achievement, a character might be recognised as widely travelled and offered special dangerous courier or escort work.
• For killing 100 Bugbears and getting the "I can haz CheezBugbear" local people might grant the character the title of Goblinbane or present him with an honorary banner depicting his achievement.
• For jumping from tree to tree to get the drop on a group of Orcs and earning the "Flying Squirrel" achievement, a character may get a +2 bonus to athletics or acrobatics checks when climbing around on trees.
• For flirting successfully with the Queen of the realm and not having the King cut off his head earning the "Romancing the Throne" achievement, a character may always be welcome at court and can call in an important favour in the future.  

The methods of using achievements are only as limited as your imagination and can vary wildly from fun and useless to epically significant.

 

Conclusion

Achievements already exist in RPGs and are a tried, tested and proven way to encourage players to explore the game more fully. It needn't be limited to computer gaming and can be introduced easily and seamlessly into a game like Dungeons and Dragons.

 With computer gaming and traditional RPGs taking on ideas from one another more and more playing with achievements in your D&D game won't feel out-of-place as it once would have and could add to everyone's fun.

Why not create a few achievements for your gaming group and see how your players react to them? If you do, please make sure you come back and let us know your experiences with them.

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That's all for this time. Next time out I'll be returning to my earlier blog series, 'Returning to gaming' and giving you a look at the subject from my players' perspective.

I'll see you again soon. Until then, chase those achievements!

 

Play the game, not the rules.

 

Doug 'Wraith' Lochery 

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dlwraith busied himself with his Xbox 360 while he was away from RPGs and may have taken one too many phoenix downs from the state of his writing. If only someone could find that Sword of Mana and put him out of his misery.  

 

      

I've been lurking about on various RPG forums recently (such as www.enworld.org, www.ukroleplayers.comand, of course, community.wizards.com/go/forum/viewcateg...) and I've noticed that the edition wars haven't quite faded away yet.

Whilst the fires aren't raging like a Balor stepping out of his molton lava shower onto the upturned plug from his iPod charger the embers do still seem to glow brightly.

I've been giving the whole edition war subject a lot of thought and I believe that I may be able to answer that firebrand of a question, "What am bestest game plz?" (or, for those of you who didn't waste language slots or feats learning to read Internet Goblin, "What is the best game system please?").

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First, a little background. Those of you who have read any of my ramblings here at Wizards or on my old Internet haunts (I've had the tags of dlwraith and dl_wraith on the web since 1998) will know I'm old school role-player who started with a system of his own devising and worked up through AD&D 2nd edition to the Players options systems to 4th Edition, skipping 3rd Edition entirely. I've played various systems outside of the TSR/Wizards fold and am 99% of the time a DM, GM, Narrator, Referee, Storyteller or what have you. When I came to the 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons I wrote a comparison article to help various older edition players here decide on whether 4th edition was for them and whether it was still D&D. This article was received well at first then decried as some sort of propaganda or sales pitch (it wasn't). Balanced opinions and calming words were poured into the rising flames by the likes of veteran blog-lizard, Wrecan (check out his blog at community.wizards.com/wrecan/blog/?pref_.... I recommend it), but despite this things were still a bit livelier than I'd have thought for the type or 'article' I wrote. I say all this so that you know that I appreciate many systems, love AD&D 2nd edition despite it's warts, currently play 4th edition and am aware of the rampant defensiveness that topics like this can generate. I'm not here to start a flame war, so please don't start filling your super soakers with kerosene just yet.

 

Right now that's done, where to start? Ah, that's right......

 

Most of us don't give the 'edition wars' much thought until differences between them are highlighted and opinions true, inflated or false, are thrown at us. We all have our preferential game system and some of us play our preferred system most of all. None of this will be a shock or a surprise to any of you. Recently I was going through some interesting blogs and I came across this gem by Xa05: community.wizards.com/xa05/blog/2011/04/... and it got me thinking again about the differences between my preferred system and 4th edition. Xa05's blog also made me think about how the differences between 4th edition and the new Essentials products were perceived so I went on a forum hunt and was taken aback by the sheer vitriol being spouted across the pages of the Internet.

Now, I'm a gamer. I play (mostly retro) computer games when I'm not prepping my RPG sessions. My platform of choice is the Xbox 360. It used to be the PS2. Before that, Nintendo. Before that, Sega. I'm well used to fanboy passions and flame wars but even so, I had to look again. I couldn't quite grasp why a few relatively small changes to a core ruleset could generate such anguish among an intelligent community such as ours.

To understand a little more I dug deeper and I kept seeing on old topics and fresh ones the same general question asked time and time again in different ways. Players want to know if they should switch to Essentials. They want to know what the 'best' D&D experience is. Many players pointed out the D20 was still alive and well and that Pathfinder or retro 3.5E was the way, some leapt to the defence of 4th edition as a pure and balanced evolution, others pointed out the retro leanings and elegance of the Essentials products as being the right way to do things. Amidst the clamour of opinion, conjecture and information overload I'd be very surprised if the answers sought by questioning players were ever truly answered.

While pondering on the information and discussions I was struck by the realisation of something I knew when I chose to leave 3rd edition well alone and continue with the 2nd Edition campaign I was running. Within my realisation I glimpsed the answer to this conundrum and possible help for all those voices asking "What is the best game? Which edition do I play??"

 

So here we are back at the question posed in the title. What is the best game? The answer to me is almost too simple but it's an idea I touched upon in my earlier forum writings when comparing 2nd edition to 4th edition. You all know what I'm about to say already if you would only look inside yourselves. The answer is: Your game is the best one.

 

Yep. Your game. Not the game you made (although it could certainly be that) but the game you play. It is the best game and always will be.

At its heart, regardless of game system, we're all playing an interactive story. Years ago when I made my first game system as a teenager there were laughably few rules, but it still worked. We still had fun. We bought D&D because we craved a bit more structure, a ruleset to work within and build upon. We continued having fun. I used the rules presented as a base to build upon. Anything that didn't work for me I threw away. Anything that worked, I kept. Anything missing, I built and added in. By the advent of 3rd edition my game already incorporated many of the improvements made in the new edition and didn't have some of the items I disagreed with. So I kept my game. Because my game was the best game (for me).

 

A gaming group will usually modify their game as they grow with it - no two gaming tables run games in exactly the same way anyway so why should we get upset when editions are compared and changes debated? Play the rules that match your style of play and if you don't like them, no problem, tell your interactive story within a different framework. Use the rules that appeal to you and go from there.

Let's take Essentials as the current example. Don't like the way classes are built but like all of the Errata'd 4th edition mechanics? Fine. Get the books, use the rules and create characters your way. Preferred the old school D&D feel but hate the new mechanics? No problem, many game stores still stock older kit (the Internet is your friend). Want to stay current on rules but play it old-school? Again, have it your way. Use the 4th Edition rules and port the bits you loved about old-school D&D into your new edition.  

 

I hereby call upon all players within these halls to lay to rest the ghosts of vitriol, bile and hate. Nobody but us can ruin our hobby, no game is forced upon us. We are creators, storytellers, worldbuilders and fantasists. This hobby is, and always will be, ours. The rulesets we use will change and we many prefer or dislike changes to those rulesets but as long as we remember that the best game is our own and are bold enough to change what we need to and share that experience honestly (rather than defensively) we will always push the boundary forward and make it ever easier for new blood to enter our arena. Remember, the game designers we rely on are gamers too.

 

Or, to put it much more succinctly, as my signature always says:

 

"Play the game, not the rules"

 

Go forth and game

 

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dl_wraith is a DM with the Encounter power "Summon soapbox" and the extra feat "Use 1373 words when 12 would do"

As he's forgotten to spend an action to maintain the power this round he'll have to stop here. To the collective sigh of relief of the RPG community.

 

So far in this blog series I've talked about gaining the confidence to play RPGs again and also preparing for your first session. This time I want to explore the first session itself.

 

Those of you who have been following this blog will have noticed a long gap between the previous part of this series and this blog. First up I'd like to apologise for the wait and secondly I'd like to offer the reason for the delay. The reason is this: My own first session couldn't have run much better than it did and as a result between work and D&D preparation I haven't had much time to write the third part of my blog.

Believe me when I say all of the advice and commentary I'm giving is from experience! So, without further a-do, let's get to it.

 

If you have been following in my footsteps by now you should have regained a measure of your confidence around your chosen system and should be ready to play with all your required materials, having met or talked to your gaming group and generating any characters or encounters you need for the game. What happens next is usually the scariest part of it all: the dreaded first session. So, how do you survive this ordeal? As a returning player, what do you need to do to make it an enjoyable experience?

 

Fortunately, if you've been following the advice in preparing to play, the actual first game session is the easiest part of returning to the game. Even the best prepared among us will still find this bit a little frightening so the first piece of advice I'd give is expect to be nervous. Look up tips on coping with anxiety or nervousness before the game and if you're the GM any resources that help with public speaking hold many gems of advice that will help. Sites like 'Succeed Socially' (www.succeedsocially.com/nervous) and 'E not alone' (www.enotalone.com/article/19292.html) might provide a few tips for coping with your nerves but for me, all I needed was to slow down my breathing, stay hydrated and make sure I started my game organised and relaxed (well, as relaxed as I could get with a bunch of new faces staring across the gaming table at me waiting to be entertained!).

 

My next tip for playing the first game is a simple piece of advice that applies to all game sessions, as many of these tips do. It is simply to turn up at the game venue in plenty of time. Leave yourself time to relax, gather yourself to play and to carry out the third tip: socialise with the other players.

 

Socialising in advance of game time will help you relax and will distract you from your nerves at playing or running your first RPG session in a while. It will help the group gel in advance of play and will prevent distracting conversations and sidelines during game time. Lots of GM mastery articles have referenced this tip and even the 4th edition Dungeon Master's Guide for the Dungeons and Dragons game gives this as a tip for play (chapter 2, page 19 under 'Settle in'). There is a reason this little snippet does the rounds so frequently - it's a universal truth of role-playing and tabletop wargaming. We are playing a social hobby after all so show up a little early and don't be shy of socialising. It will do you the world of good and you will enjoy the game far more as a result.

 

So far, things should be going well for you. You've arrived a bit early, distracted the butterflies in your tummy by chatting to the rest of the group you've come to the game prepared with all your dice, characters and whatnot and then the appointed hour strikes - it's game time. What do you do next? Simple. Sit down and play. Although it may sound a bit flippant that is the best thing to do. When it's time to game, get gaming. Don't carry on chatting or organising yourself or doing anything else. Just sit down and start to play. Listen to your GM or gather in your flock and start your adventure. Be mindful of the game's appointed start time so you are ready to play when it comes around. You'll only annoy the other players and fluster yourself if you aren't ready for it when the time leaps upon you like the inky Black Panther of Time on the Deer of Gaming.

 

Being ready for the game start time is only one piece of the puzzle, you also have to navigate the game itself. As with getting ready to play there are many little tips and tricks to help you through to a fulfilling first session. Some of these are below.

 

 

First, relax. Stay calm, you're playing a game and it's going to be fun. Next, introduce your character or adventure. Say a few things about the role you want to play so everyone remembers from the creation session what your character is like or, as the GM, tell the assembled group the synopsis for the adventure you want to play. Once players have a short overview of who's who around the table and what's going on the stage is well and truly set.

 

With the stage set you need to get the game underway. As the GM, be bold and just go for it. Set your scene, open your adventure confidently and try to be as descriptive as you dare. Talk to your group as if you're reading the opening few pages of a really good book. Invite them in with a smile. Don't worry if you stumble, because your players won't care as long as you pick yourself up and carry on painting the scene. Once you have set your scene, or if you start to flag a little during your opening, change your tactic and ask the players to describe what they are doing as the scene opens. As the player, listen carefully to what the GM is saying and absorb the scene s/he's painting. Imagine your character in that scene and prepare to get involved – remember an RPG is a collaborative story so you'll get your chance to build on what the GM is saying now.  

 

With the opening scene set and control handed to the players, as a GM you should do what your players have just done for you: listen. As a player it's now your turn to be bold...but given it's your first time back you may not want to act first. That's understandable so if you're still nervous, allow another player to describe what they are doing first and simply follow that with your actions. Regardless of whether you are bold and act straight away or are still nervous and simply let the others take a lead you should always try and be confident and enthusiastic. If you say something wrong or try an impossible action or roll the wrong dice, have confidence that the other players will not bite your head off or eject you from the group. It's much better to try and do something that you aren't allowed to do than not try to do anything for the fear that you don't know what you're allowed to do.

 

As the game progresses as the player or the GM all you have to do now is continue the cycle that you've already started. Confidently set the scene or state your actions, then listen to the player or GM responses, describe the results or your next actions, rinse and repeat. Always stay engaged; always speak your mind on what you'd like to do or how the scene has changed. The greatest things you can do with your first session are listen and involve yourself. You really don't need much more than that to begin with.

 

While your role playing game is in essence a game of scene, response and reaction that's easy to latch on to even when you're nervous or shy, the game changes somewhat when game mechanics come into play. These most typically are when a player needs to use a skill their character has or when combat is entered. It's at this stage that, as a returnee to the game, you might feel a little out of your depth, particularly if you're playing a new or upgraded system. Again, you needn't fear as the very things you will have been doing already will help you here.

 

When faced with game mechanics you can add a single trick to the 'listen' and 'involve yourself' tips. That is: ask the others. It may sound easy but it can be simple to forget that while you might be fresh to the game the others probably aren't. Even if they were, there's more wisdom and knowledge in the group than there is in any individual. Together, you are stronger so ask away.

 

To give you a quick example, imagine you've come to your first skill challenge. You need to remember what dice to roll and what statistic to use but despite preparing for the game you just aren't confident you know. Take what you think you're supposed to do and simply ask: "So, to use this skill I have to roll this dice? Remind me, what score do I add to this?" The players around the table will immediately help as any convention attendee that's seen the hordes of newbies at a game table will attest to. Asking, "How many squares am I allowed to move again?" only becomes annoying to your fellow players if you do it for weeks on end because you aren't listening (there's that word again!). It's OK to forget and it's OK to ask.

 

The concept of asking the players can be taken just a small step further as long as you're getting involved with the game. When you're taking any action as a player, particularly in combat, state your intention before you do it and ask, "is that OK?" You'll soon feel positive about the game as your GM nods his approval and you will find that your fellow players will not just remind you of the dice and statistics used but they might just give you hints on what you might want to do to make your action more effective. Again, as an example you might say, "So I'll go down the stairs and engage this Orc here, Is that OK?" and a player might pipe up "Why not use the chandelier to swing behind the Orc and get the drop on him?" The other players around the table are a big asset so why not use the players as a sounding board? It will pay dividends.

 

As a GM you might find yourself being asked lots of questions, particularly if your players are following the above advice. To keep your game session running smoothly there's a simple trick you can use to keep it all together and it's something you do every day: use common sense. Is a player asking about a rule you can't quite remember from your session preparation? Don't stop the game and look it up, simply use common sense to rule on the situation, make a note and look it up later. Be honest with the player about what you've done and get on with playing. Be like a freight train and don't stop unless you really have to. There's also nothing wrong with asking your players what they think when you don't know the answers. They might know the game better than you so why not use their collected knowledge? Remember that together you're stronger - that wasn't aimed at just the players, you know.

 

There are two final tricks I'd like to share to help your first session run smoothly. These are: observe and be respectful. During the session keep an eye on what other people are doing. Watch the tactics they use in combat, the skills they rely upon, the dice they roll, the modifiers they use and the sheets they look at. All of this helps you get familiar with the mechanics of the game and the habits of your group. As a player this helps you get up to speed with your rules and processes of the game much more quickly. As a GM this helps you figure out favourite tactics of the players and who might be able to answer questions on any rules that crop up. Either way it helps make you comfortable with the game which will make you relax and enjoy yourself as the game sessions roll by. While observing and throughout the whole game be mindful to pay your fellow players respect. Annoyed players are players who aren't having fun so it pays to make sure that you're treating the others around your table with the respect you would like for yourself. This is as simple as turning up on time, not messing with their things and not talking over them or arguing with them. The simple courtesies are easy to keep and make a game table a pleasant place to be. These sorts of courtesies don't change from game to game and have been the same as long as you have been playing so in returning to the game after a break you should not have forgotten these.

 

Remembering these few simple tricks can help you enjoy a smooth and hassle free first game session back in the fold. The best thing of all is that a smooth first game session is a reward whose bonus stacks with itself - you get a fun game session AND the confidence boost that allows you to have a great second session! That's a win-win situation for you and your group.

 

Summary

So, in summary of todays tips to play your first game session when returning to play after a break you can:

• expect to be nervous
• start your game organised and relaxed
• turn up at the game venue in plenty of time
• socialise with the other players
• Sit down and play when it's game time
• Stay calm
• Don't worry if you stumble or make mistakes
• introduce your character or introduce you adventure setting
• be bold - just go for it
• If you're still nervous, allow another player to describe what they are doing first
• be confident and enthusiastic
• describe the results of actions - don't just rely on the statistical outcome of the dice alone
• listen to the players and the GM
• involve yourself - you'll only get out what you put in
• try and do things - 'tis better to try and fail than not to try at all
• ask the others - whether you're a player or the GM
• Speak your mind
• state your intentions
• use common sense to arbitrate
• Be honest
• don't stop the game unless you really have to
• Observer other players at the table
• Be respectful

 

As with my other blogs in this series this really is only the tip of the iceberg and if you'd like to discuss this more in depth, either message me or post your comments below. If you want me to expand upon any of the topics in the article above feel free to drop me a line and I'll be happy to put something together in these pages.

 

So that's it. You've made it from not having gamed for a long time through prepping for play and beyond your first successful game session. Congratulations and welcome home, we've missed you.

Thanks for listening. 

 

Play the game, not the rules.

Doug 'Wraith' Lochery 

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Intead of my usual blurb about myself here I thought I'd take the time to say that I'll put together an overall summary of these three parts shortly and will interview my players to see how our first session ran as a result of me following these tips. That way you can all see the impact it had for us and potentially use this for your own ends later in life. Want to know something specific? No problem, drop me a line.

After last night's post about touching up my D&D minis I though I'd poll the community on the subject of repainting D&D miniatures. What do you do?

 

 

Just before I put up the third part of my 'returning from....' blog series, I sat down to basecoat some of my minis and looked over the plastic pre-painted D&D 'Players handbook characters' minis I have in my collection. The paint jobs on them were universally awful, many of the details had just been swabbed over with a single uniform colour and it seemed a real shame.

 

Unfortunately this led to me touching them up instead of painting my actual minis. Now, despite the poor moulding and wobbly weapons they actually look quite good. I wouldn't be embarassed to put these on the table now.

 

I wonder - how many D&D players end up doing what I've just done and re-paint their pre-painted minis? Do you? If so, do you just neaten it up or do you just go for broke. What techniques do you use? Ink and drybrush or do you go further and feather and wetblend? 

 

As I type this i've caught sight of my mini's case and I can see many Ral Partha 25mm AD&D minis from when 2nd edition was still relatively new. These all look a damned sight better than the plastic 'toy soldiers' we're getting now. Wouldn't it be nice if teh older style D&D minis hit the game shops again? I loved getting two characters in each blister (one male, one female) so that my players gould play their class and race with a mini that properly represented them. In this day and age of battlemaps and mini's battles I think a return to the old metal minis would shift a few units for WotC and make a lot of gamers happy.

Bring back metal D&D minis!