Larry Elmore, R.A. Salvatore, and Ed Greenwood play D&D using the essentials rules with Chris Perkins DMing.

Parts 2 to 10

It’s still in its shrink wrap.  It’s an RPGA reward that I got some time ago and I just haven’t had time to play it.  Since I have a standing invite from a couple of groups to play it, and the DMs of those groups already have a copy, I figure I might as well give it away to a lucky reader.

The blurb on the back reads:

“Hommlet has grown up around a crossroads.  Once far from any important activity, the village became embroiled in the struggle between gods and primordials when the Temple of Elemental Evil arose but a few leagues away.  Luckily for the village’s inhabitants, the Temple and its evil hordes were destroyed a decade ago, but Hommlet still suffers from incursions of badits and strange monsters….

The Village of Hommlet is designed for five characters of 4th level and is inspired by Gary Gygax’s classic adventure of the same name.  This Dungeons & Dragons adventure includes a full-color battle map, ready-to-play encounters, and information on the Village of Hommlet-and excellent base of operations for heroic-tier characters.”

Rules:  Respond to THIS article in the comments section and tell me a gaming or RPG related joke or funny incident.  I’ll pick a winner randomly from all the people that comment.  All responses must be in by the end of August, midnight PST.  I’ll do the random selection Sept 1st and email the winner for a mailing address.  One entry per person please.

Feel free to forward this to your friends or whatever forums/newsgroups you belong to.

Oh, and feel free to let me know what you think about the comic! 

***Dungeons & Dragons is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast LLC, and they are not affiliated with Familiar Ground.

Congratulations to Adam D. of Owing Mills, MD!  The patron deity of d100 rolls have looked upon his entry with favor and he won this giveaway.

It’s called Drums of War.

A great accessory for your 4e games.  It can store characters, prepare encounters and helps run combats!

It really has too many features for me to do a proper review right now, so go check out a full list of features at the itunes store.

Currently they’re ranked 8th in the MMO market, but they’re hoping to capture more players by moving to a free play model.  Turbine has had earlier success with such a move for Dungeons and Dragons Online.  Since DDO moved to a free model, they’ve roughly doubled their player base and increased their profits by a large margin, and now LotRO is thinking to capture some of that success.

It seems people like to get free stuff and are willing to pay a premium for convenience or luxury items.

As for the game itself, I tried it over a year ago.  It was fun and I played for several months.  But I simply preferred WoW’s easier interface, graphics, and more polished tools (not to mention that most of my friends were still in WoW rather than the handful that tried out LotRO with me).  Still, the game has beautiful scenery and unique game play.  Healer Minstrels, for instance, heal their allies by hitting their enemies.  That’s much more dynamic in play than the heal bots we see running around in other MMOs (though that style of play is still available).

But WoW had been around for years earlier and simple things like the Auction Houses, Mailboxes, Banks, and similar things were just easier to use simply due to having had more development time (they were similarly clunky when I first started WoW).  The crowd was also certainly more mature back when I played, which was a significant enough difference that one of my friends opted to switch away from WoW for it.

LotRO definately had some things that’s unique to it and probably done better than WoW.  The central quest storyline is very engaging, weaving in and out of Tolkien’s original story.  I would say their quest log is much better organized than WoW’s and allows you to scroll back through all of your completed quests.  The lore is certainly captivating.  Nothing quite describes the feel of visiting Bag End, seeing the party tree or standing in Bilbo’s living room.  The roleplaying angle is also emphasized a lot better.  You can actually RP to be a simple farmer with a hut and never adventure if you felt like it.  There are musical instruments that you can actually play improvised music with.  The list goes on and on.

But WoW had a better interface, battlegrounds, PvP, and just plain more content which affected my decision.  Even now, with Cataclysm coming, I’m still tempted to play more WoW than LotRO.

I haven’t been playing much MMOs these days, but you never know.  If you catch sight of an elderly female hobbit guardian named Granma, say hi! 

If you haven’t played it yet, here’s your chance.

It’s free until May 24th.   http://store.steampowered.com/freeportal/

Do you know where the phrase “the cake is a lie” came from?  Now is your chance.

160 pages, softbound, list price $14.99. Color cover, B&W interior.

ISBN 978-0-9841127-1-5

About a year ago I was browsing the enworld forums and on a whim decided to peruse the industry news section. I came across an announcement from Goodman Games. It was an open call for authors for a new product, a book of rituals for D&D. I thought, ” Neat! maybe I should submit something.”

Then I looked at the deadline.

All submissions must be sent in via email by midnight that day. It was 9pm.

So I cranked out four submissions, with a careful eye for balance. One of them was accepted (Radiance Infusion), and here we are almost a year later with a review copy in my hand.

Things I didn’t like:

I think a  few of the rituals in the books are somewhat unbalanced.

Armor of the Blessed (pg 7) for example is a 2nd level ritual that has the potential to grant armor of up to +3 quality. An 11th level item doesn’t really belong with a 2nd level character.

Sun’s Renewal (pg 106) is an 18th level ritual that allows the party to gain the benefits of an extended rest in only one hour by standing in sunlight. Oh, and since it isn’t technically an extended rest, you get to keep any action points you’ve accrued. At 18th level, the cost is hefty at 5,000gp and an action point. But since there’s no level limitation, there’s no reason an epic level character can’t cast this spell over and over again after every encounter. Of course, there’s the hour long casting time, but if time is an issue, then thankfully epic characters have access to a 5 minute version, Time Compression. Granting back daily powers outside of long rests is just a bad idea from a balance perspective in my opinion.

There’s also a couple of editing mistakes I came across, but they’re minor and overall the book was well put together.

Things I liked:

This book is filled with 300+ rituals! Players can finally customize their casters with unique and varied spells. You can find a ritual for any occasion. The Batman build is back!

DMs can also benefit since a lot of the rituals are custom made to spark adventure ideas. Seriously, I came up with several potential adventure ideas by just reading the first chapter on creation rituals.

The art is pretty good. Certainly better than anything I can do

Azagar the hobgoblin introduces each chapter with a short story and he’s one entertaining dude. I’d certainly be interested in hearing more about him.

Overall, I’d give this book a thumbs up.

Probably 95% of the book can be used as is, with the rest needing DM adjudication due to balance or campaign issues (Defile Soul for example should be an NPC only ritual…unless you want PCs harvesting souls to make residuum).

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/UpdateJuly2009.pdf

A few of the changes include:

• Rain of Blows – two attacks at 1[w] with a third attack if you meet the prereqs (no need to hit).
• Righteous Rage of Tempus – only adds the crit bonus damage rather than treat the next hit as a crit.
• Battlerage Vigor – gains temp HPs when you hit with a melee/close attack rather then when you’re hit.

• Guileful Switch – Is now a free action, but must now be used by the warlord before he acts and takes his normal turn.

A few others, but those are the important ones in my opinion.

What does that mean?  It means you can visit most game stores around the country and they’ll have free swag for you provided by various game companies, including WotC.

http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4news/20090617

WotC’s contribution is an Eberron adventure by Keith Baker.

Here’s a list of participating stores:

http://www.freerpgday.com/stores.htm

Kublacon at the Hyatt Regency in Burlingame.    http://kublacon.com/

I’ll be running the WotC 4e MM2 delve all day Saturday.  Come on over and play.  Pregen 5th level characters are provided or you can bring your own.  I’m not sure exactly where it is, but more info should be available in the RPGA area.  I’ll also be at the con Monday just hanging out and playing (slight chance of attendance for Sunday afternoon/evening).

Come on by and say hi!  I’m not attending as an exhibitor, so I’m not bringing anything to sell, but come and catch me if you want to chat about the comic or want a free sketch or something.

I was excited when I ran across this.

It’s a 40 minute indie film that someone made detailing the hunt for Gollum. For those of you that watched the movies, but didn’t read the books, this mainly concerns Aragorn as he tracked down Gollum (Gollum left his caves to look for Bilbo, was caught, but escaped from the Elves) and takes place just before Aragorn was sent to meet up with the Hobbits in Bree.

It’s got great production values, especially considering they did all of it for only $5000.

I want to see Tom Bombadil next. On the other hand…after seeing him in the Lord of the Rings Online Game…probably not. I can’t describe how annoying it is for someone to be constantly dancing and singing while you’re trying to talk to them.