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I have to say that I never thought I'd make the transition from 3rd Ed to 4th. However when I did, one of the things that I looked forward to most was the Forgotten Realms publications. I had purchased all the 2nd and 3rd edition FR stuff, so was eager to see how Wizards progressed things post Spellplague.

I wasn't disappointed, initially. Both the Campaign Guide and players guide were well put together with just enough information for a basic grasp of what was going on in this wonderful setting. Then nothing. With 3rd Ed we had the wonderful area guides, with great city maps, NPC backgrounds, adventure hooks and some really good historical information. Where are these books for 4th Ed? I don't see anything in the pipeline so I've taken it upon myself to flesh out an area myself.

After

An old complaint that continues to dog 4th Edition is that is all about combat. While the game is as much or as little about combat as your DM wants to make it, the game is all about adventuring. A party could be dumped in the wilderness at first level and continually adventure for three tiers and the game would play just fine. But, if anyone ever stops to try and paint a picture or blacksmith a weapon or horseshoe and the game suddenly hits a wall.

The Older Professions

There were no skills in 1e. At all. Some were tacked-on in later expansions and splatbooks, but for the most part the PCs were assumed to not have useful skills beyond killing monsters. The exception being thieves who could climb walls. 2e cemented skills, adding the optional proficiency rules from the splatbooks into in

Small blog this morning (I'll get a lengthier one up later this afternoon). But, at this point, I wanted to quickly beat the dead horse that is the battlemind some more. 

I've discussed this twice before, first here where I criticized the lack of fluff or in-world reason for the battlemind's existence. And again here where I tried to think-up some fluff for the class.

What's New

At this point, there are enough review copies floating and enough threads/ posts/ blogs to get a semi-accurate picture of the contents of PHB3 (at the time of this writing, 5 days from the stores and likely a couple weeks from my hands). This includes the battlemind and its yet unseen second build. 

The first build, the one I based my refluffing around, has daily powers related to extra actions on its opponents

This week the party continued towards the area they suspect is a temple, rather than continue the skill challenge for finding where the magic items they are searching for are likely to be, and getting their bearings, they said they wish to dispense with the skill challenge altogether cause they think its too much like an mmo (quite confused over that one, i never played an mmo where there was anything like skill challenges but whatever, i am supposed to keep 'em happy)  So on to more combat!

A bridge stood between them and the temple complex, but kobolds were gaurding the bridge, and a visejaw crocodile seemed to think the party's paladin was quite tasty.  The fight was tough, the rogue went down twice and the dwarf was out of his depth in the river where the crocodile had dragged him

With Arenon presumably searching for books, the party restocked and re-equipped with Zathe re-enchanting some items for them. While travelling north then encounter a wandering cleric of Amaunator who blesses them with Vigor and mentions that he has heard much of undead in this area which seems uncharacteristic.

 Karad decided to go and fetch Arenon him (or his corpse!) from the ruins of Ulcaster agreeing to meet with the rest of the party in Waterdeep. Travelling unmolested they reach the town of Daggerford south of Waterdeep. Entering the town they hear rumours of the court, undead abroad, a mysterious stranger buying alchemical reagents, a missing party of adventurers and a new 'lighthouse' appearing along the coast in the swamp-marsh. Highlights included Marina annoying a duke's guard

New version 1.0.12.0 is released.

The version contains:

• Simple informational Welcome screen
• Condition multiselection for assigning to one trigger
• Context menu for combatant grid with all actions available
• Combatant reordering in the grid (doesn't affect battle initiative).
• Action shotcuts (check hints in combatant grid context menu)
• New expression 's+X' for faster entering healed HPs
• Confirmation dialog for re-importing monsters and players with same names

PMs! I checked your wishes and suggestions and will need some time for organizing myself and picking next candidates for tool improvement. Keep leaving your ideas and proposals. I read them! Don't feel ignored if I don't reply on them - last weeks are quite busy for me.

Concerning DDI Compendium, I see that the most valuable feature

In my last 4e session my players spontaneously added a Skill Challenge to the game. I hadn't planned on a Skill Challenge. The situation didn't warrant one. It wasn't in the xp "budget". But we had one anyway.

The Rockslide Incident

Here's the background. The players were travelling from point-A to point-B. I didn't want them to just move uneventfully from place to place, tracking their progress with a swiftly moving red line, Indian Jones style. The game is Points of Light and I wanted to emphasise again that things happen on the road. Adventures and incidents occur outside the safety of towns. It was essentially a travel adventure, a series of interesting and noteworthy events on the road trip.

Their progress along the map stops as a crossed-sword icon appears. "Random" encounter time.

Old news now, but they're updating the after the bomb campaign world of Gamma World into 4e... kinda.

The big news that really caught the community's attention is that the game will include a small deck of cards, and that after the initial release there will be randomized booster sets of cards. Yes, collectible cards being added to a role-playing product.

Gamma World? Huh?

Gamma World dates back to the late '70s. It owes much of its origins to pulp science fantasy set in wasteland dystopian futures. The game was remarkable for its mix of comedy with gaming, with kooky and silly mutations being prevalent. This allowed campaigns in the game world to run the range from Tank Girl to Road Warrior to The Road. This is both the blessing and the curse of the game: it's sharply divided audience.

I've played a number of different MMOs including EQ, UO, and WoW. But I've also dabbled quite a bit in City of Heroes and its related games. After a year away I returned to CoH last month to try out its new content and additions.

For those who've never played the game uses a level system but doesn't rely on it for hitting and missing, and recent content – mostly world events – does away with levels for enemies. CoH assumes a 75% hit-chance for even levelled opponents, which can be modified by gear to a maximum of 95%.

World of Warcraft has a similar system. No matter how much weapon skill you have, a certain percentage of your attacks will miss, be parried, be blocked, and be dodged. This overlaps with critical and other attacks and reduces damage, so you need to increase your Hit.