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One of the newest things I like about 4e is the layers of it. At first it lays down the ground work of the physics of the game world. Here is your move, minor, standard. Here are your basic attacks, here are your special attacks. Here is the leveling system, and here is how many powers you have, here is how you swap powers and feats. Now go out there and kill some goblins!

But then powers come along and screw with the whole system. People call it the exception based game. In a way it makes the characters even more powerful. It's as if they said "Hey this is reality, and here is this ability that makes reality not apply to you."

However, because of this type of game one must be very very concise on what they write about anything when it comes with rules. You must leave no room for interpretation.

So I've been busy.

I've spent much of my hard earned working compensation; which is actually just all the money I've been saving lately from cigarettes since I quit smoking; on all sorts of new books. Namely the PHBII, DMGII, MMIII, Psionic Power, Primal Power, Divine Power, Metallic Dragons and the Adventurer's Vault 2.

I've been pouring through it  and all the errata. This is a lot of reading. At first it didn't seem like much, but then I realized I have this whole full time job, and wife and kids, and school, and all sorts of other things, like this week, in-laws.

Oh, and it's spring in Vegas, which makes me want to go outside and see real things like scantily clad women on the strip.

It makes for slow going. But looking over these things I have found that in order to do what

I recently took a sick day from my regular Dark Sun Tuesday-night game.  I fully planned on continuing my work on Netheril 3-2 when I got home, coughing and hacking all the way to weird, shadowy-Netherese goodness.

And then I got home to find my computer dead.  Dammit.

Thankfully I had a copy of my latest proposal, proof of concept map, and sample encounters in my email inbox.  At least the work isn't completely gone, right?  Well, so much for that too - my backup system isn't fully reliable at the moment so I've actually been exploring how to write and edit my document from my iPhone.

That's right: NETH3-2 may actually be completed via iPhone - not iPad, 'cause those are expensive - but iPhone.  At least, the final proposal.

After finishing two encounters save

So in honor of a discussion I had with an editor of mine, I'm doing what I promised/threatened to do, which is this:

Halfling + Human romance. Icky?

Discuss!

Cheers

My good friend Andrew (a.k.a. Wulf Waters) runs the Faerun-RP website, a play-by-post roleplaying website devoted to stories told in the Forgotten Realms setting, and he's in the market for more members.

The site is unique among its peers in that it focuses not on mechanics or gameplay, but rather on STORY. What determines how effective your characters are in F-RP stories is your writing ability, not your strength with numbers or randomized die results. It's almost pure storytelling, where the DM and players work together to write what turns out to be a fantasy short story, novella, or even entire novel. Seriously, this is an EXCELLENT place to practice and hone your skills, and the people are extremely welcoming.

I highly recommend you go check it out, and see about getting

Hero Archetype: The Savior
This post is taken from my shiny new website at SeriousPixie.com.

When you need help picking out new shoes, or with your left hook in kickboxing, or with figuring out what your opinion about the new health bill should be, the whole world wants to help. But when you need help the most–when you’re being attacked, robbed, or victim to another agented crime–no one wants to help. In the world’s eyes, the problem is that you have a problem–you are disrupting the field of white picket fences–and you will be held to blame. Like with consumption, it’s a problem of containment. Contain the victim, and your world is most likely to go back to normal the fastest.

That’s when the savior steps in. Saviors help when no one else

Announcing the official release party for Timid Pirate's latest zany superhero anthology, Cobalt City Timeslip, in which my story ("Vengeance on the Layover") appears:

OCTOBER 9, 7-10 p.m., Wayward Coffeehouse, Greenwood neighborhood, Seattle!

Come join me, Rosemary Jones, Nathan Crowder, and a whole lot of other awesome authors for the release of our latest little scrappy insurgent superhero anthology. :D

nathancrowder.com/2010/08/09/cobalt-city...

We have three hours to fill with all sorts of readings, Q&A, stand-up comedy, and other sorts of release partying. Come one, come all!

Wayward Coffeehouse
8570 Greenwood Ave N
Seattle, WA 98103
(206) 706-3240

Cheers

A story is only as good as its ending, its middle, and its beginning, because that's basically what a story is. And if those three don't match, then your story's gonna collapse like a house of cards soaked in white wine vinegar.

Whether you're outlining a novel, plotting out ideas for where your characters are going to end up 3-4 books from now, or sculpting a conclusion to your latest D&D campaign, you have to practice a little bit of foreplanning.

Don't fool yourself into thinking you'll come up with an ending on the way: if you don't have a sense of where your story's going, then it's going to meander and lose itself.

3+ Steps of Story

When I conceive of a story, my process usually follows a set form.

First, I see a few scenes: what defining moments do my heroes experience, what terrible

And now, as promised, here's a snippet of a thing I wrote for my players to highlight how awesome their intended foe truly was...and how truly frightening in ability. Keeping with my previous post, in where I discussed what makes a memorable villain, the villain presented here is perhaps one of my most memorable.

His name is the Grey Shadow, and he's an assassin of the highest order, a fearful whisper in the darkness of night. His trademark: Every kill of his is beheaded, and the head is never found. His mantra: Do it with style.

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The BorderCity of Baraden

Istus, Continent of Ashra

            Baraden didn’t exist on the maps of Ashra; it was a township held only in rumor, preserved in secrecy. Of course, that had everything to