For this weekend’s RPG schedule, we’ll be hosting several games starting at 10 a.m. with a Paragon level adventure for Living Forgotten Realms. (This adventure will take the place of our usual Pathfinder Society game, which will be back as usual next week. For newer players, there’s a level 1-4 Living Forgotten Realms adventure at 3 p.m. If you’re interested, just show up a little early – we have folks who are happy to help you make a 4th Edition character, as well as pre-generated ones!

Finally, for our Sunday Demo Day, Clint Bell will host a game of Paranoia XP. – the latest and greatest edition of the classic from Mongoose Publishing! Clint will be hosting a custom scenario designed to give players a feel of the game, as well as many, many character sheets… If you’ve never heard of Paranoia, expect to die. Often. And, hopefully, gloriously, in service to the System!

Because killing and collecting can be fun. That’s why thousands of people play those games.

A lot of the gripes about similarity between classes and general meh-ing of 4E are valid. It’s fun, but it’s a very particular kind of fun, and doesn’t really support any other kind.

Here’s what I’d like to see in my killing and collecting games: a system whereby the characters face greater and greater challenges, which they can overcome not just through increased character power, but primarily through increased player skill. Increased character power is not the only way a character can change, but it is a valid one. But maybe getting *stronger* is less interesting than getting *broader*, and having more options. Knowing how to best use those options only comes through PLAYER experience.

Also, finding a magic item should be 1) Rare, and 2) Freakin’ Awesome. It should not happen every level, or every game, or even every campaign. When I find a magic sword, it should be a major event. And that sword should be 1) A plot device, and 2) Freakin’ Awesome. A +1 vs Undead is not a bonus. I do not give a rip about a 5% or even a 10% bonus against one type of enemy. That’s not a magic item. I want the White Hammer of Aarda to VAPORIZE the undead. And I want Vrrgonath the Dark Lord of Kittens to sit up and take notice and realize he’s got a problem, and set about making my life difficult.

4E is essentially a WoW clone converted for tabletop play. And that’s fine. It does that well. And I’d rather sit around a table with minis and a pizza and my friends than in front of a screen knowing I pay 15$ a month for this experience.

But it’s definitely not the only game I’m gonna have fun playing.

Wow, that was… almost completely incoherent. Sorry ’bout that. There’s a point in there… somewhere. I think. =\

A terceira sessão na campanha Echoes of Heroes foi a 7 de Novembro. Pode encontrar os links para os relatos anteriores aqui.

Na última sessão:
Depois de deixar o Lord Major Bren ir’Gadden a salvo em Oakfields, o grupo separou-se, cada um prosseguindo com as suas vidas. Anos passados depois do Dia de Mourning, os quatro que salvaram o Lord Major das garras dos Dolgrims recebem um convite do Lord Major para um pequeno memorial do quarto aniversário do Dia do Mourning. Reunidos no local, Bran d’Deneith, VII, Sariel e Vril Dox testemunham o aparecimento de um monstro que começa a matar os convidados. O Lord Major pede o seu auxílio para descobrir a origem do monstro e o grupo desconfia do seu antigo assistente, Aric Blacktree.

As pistas levam-nos até à Lower City, onde rufias e bandidos se podem encontrar a cada esquina. O que mais irão encontrar?

A história até agora

Mikal tinha recebido o convite para o Memorial de Lord Bren ir’Gadden, mas atrasou-se, talvez devido a trânsito nos céus de Sharn. Quando lá chegou, halflings estavam a transportar corpos em discos mágicos flutuantes, tapados por lençóis, para fora da casa do Major. Este monitorizava a situação.

Bren ir’Gadden reconheceu Mikal, informou-o do sucedido e indicou que os Marshals tinham descido até à Lower City no rasto do monstro. O Major chamou um skycoach, cujo condutor era um humano amigável de bigode chamado Mário, para que Mikal pudesse reunir-se aos seus companheiros.

O skycoach seguiu pelo caminho indicado, aterrando num largo entre a base das torres. Mikal avistou os outros facilmente, com corpos de bandidos aos seus pés, e decidiram usar o skycoach para os voar para outro acesso da Lower City, já que receavam ter dado demasiado nas vistas com a morte dos bandidos que os tentaram assaltar. Mário, feliz por ajudar os Marshals assim o fez.

Desceram pelo lado oposto, tentando meter conversa com os locais, indicando que procuravam fantasmas (don’t ask) e casas com ruídos estranhos ou qualquer indicação da presença de Aric. As suas investigações levaram-nos até uma habitação na base da torre Dalannan, cujas janelas estavam barradas por longas traves de madeira. Ouvia-se um som “Hmm” vindo de dentro.

Convencidos que tinham encontrado o sítio certo, pararam por uma taberna resguardada, chamada Dragão Azul, onde o barman não era muito simpático e os tremoços pareciam ter qualidade duvidosa. Aproveitaram para planear a abordagem a esta situação. O plano era bater à porta e entrar rapidamente, evitando chamar muita atenção. Mas a execução foi ligeiramente diferente…

Eles bateram à porta, mas ninguém abriu. Então bateram de novo, e de novo, e de novo… Até que Vril, com a sua força “imensa” decide arrombar a porta, indo aterrar perto da ponta da short sword de um goblin.

A porta dava acesso a uma divisão, que seria uma espécie de sala de estar. Havia uma lareira e um sofá gasto. Dois goblins esperavam-nos atrás de uma esquina da parede. Os goblins dão o alerta e surgem dos corredores e portas que existiam para aquela divisão, um half-orc de arco esticado apontado aos nossos heróis, dois shifters de pêlo pintado de vermelho, identificados como sendo Red Jackals, um clã conhecido e violento da Lower City, e mais dois goblins, tão ou mais feios que os dois primeiros. Da luta que se seguiu apenas restaram os corpos dos seus adversários, podendo o grupo descansar e resgatar o desejado “loot”.

Enquanto recuperavam o seu fôlego, um ruidoso “crack”, forte como trovoada fez-se ouvir do andar acima, seguido de um tremer do chão e da torre em volta. Alguém gritava lá em cima “O que raio se está a passar?!”.

Por momentos o grupo pensou em esperar que os senhores lá de cima descessem para os encherem de porrada, no entanto, os tremores continuavam. Decidiram então, lenta e silenciosamente verificar o andar de cima. Após dois lances de escadas, avistaram uma estranha cena: uma criatura horrenda, sem olhos, que identificaram como sendo um Dolgaunt, inclinava-se agitadamente sobre uma bancada cheia de tubos, globos, gemas encrustadas, ossos secos e pedras que irradiavam energia arcana. De vez em quando, raios de energia purpura, eram libertados na direcção de dois corredores.

Dolgaunt: talvez já tenha sido humano?

Aproveitando a distracçaõ do monstro, Vril pode observar e perceber que o dispositivo estava a armazenar energia, de tal maneira forte, que poderia destruir toda a torre se fosse libertada de uma só vez. E a ideia de que nem o monstro percebia o que estava a acontecer não era propriamente tranquilizadora. Decidiram atacar, evitando os raios de energia, e outros atacantes que surgiram entretanto dos corredores. Vril, depois de analizar mais de perto, conseguiu reduzir a intensidade da energia libertada em cada um dos raios negros e purpura e explicou a Sariel como ela poderia, com o seu jeito de mãos, desactivar o dispositivo.

No fim da luta, a geringonça tinha sido totalmente parada (havia ao todo quatro dispositivos) que pareciam comunicar entre si e trocar raios arcanos. Capturaram também um doppelganger, que tentou disfarçar-se de mulher para lhes trocar as voltas, mas sem grande sucesso.

De tesouro debaixo do braço, doppelganger do outro, sairam da casa. Não tinham encontrado quaisquer vestígios ou pistas que os levassem ao assistente Aric Blacktree, tendo decido voltar para a casa do Major.

Coincidência ou não, o skycoach de Mário encontrava-se por ali a entregar um cliente. VII estava com vontade de voar de novo e a sua sugestão foi aceite pelos outros para irem de boleia de skyacoach. A carruagem aérea elevou-se nos ares, por entre as torres de Sharn e os olhos rápidos e perspicazes de Vril, Bran e VII detectaram um brilho azul estranho pelo canto do olho. Tratava-se de um goblin, que voava numa espécie de disco voador azul e lhes apontava o seu arco. Bran apenas disse “Eu mato!”.

O Jogo

Os Personagens em jogo foram:

- Sariel, Eladrin Bard
- VII, Warforged Warden
- Bran, Human Ranger
- Vril Dox, Human Artificer
- Mikal, Human Wizard

Logo no princípio da sessão, um esclarecimento de regras:

Immediate Action

Trigger: Each immediate action—usually a power—defines its specific trigger. The one type of immediate action that every combatant can take is a readied action.

Once per Round: You can take only one immediate action per round, either an immediate interrupt or an immediate reaction. If you take an immediate action, you can’t take another one until the start of your next turn, but you can’t take an immediate action on your own turn.

Interrupt: An immediate interrupt lets you jump in when a certain trigger condition arises, acting before the trigger resolves. If an interrupt invalidates a triggering action, that action is lost. For example, an enemy makes a melee attack against you, but you use a power that lets you shift away as an immediate interrupt. If your enemy can no longer reach you, the enemy’s attack action is lost.

Reaction: An immediate reaction lets you act in response to a trigger. The triggering action, event, or condition occurs and is completely resolved before you take your reaction, except that you can interrupt a creature’s movement. If a creature triggers your immediate reaction while moving (by coming into range, for example), you take your action before the creature finishes moving but after it has moved at least 1 square.

As Immediate Interrupts não estavam a ser usadas correctamente, sendo que eu estava assumir que interrompiam de todo a acção que fez trigger, mas, como diz a regra, a acção que faz trigger pode ser continuada, se ainda houver condições para tal. Explicada a regra, pode ser usada com a perícia de Bran e VII em combate com toda a segurança.

Nesta sessão tivemos finalmente os cinco jogadores presentes. Foi necessário novamente pôr o jogador que tinha falhado a sessão anterior rapidamente em jogo, algo que funcionou bastante bem e deu-me a oportunidade de introduzir o skycoach (táxi voador).

O segundo encontro, colocou os jogadores em cena com uma máquina de destruição (Eldritch Machine), que disparava aleatoriamente raios nos vários lados de um quadrado. Neste encontro, funcionava como uma espécie de armadilha que para ser desarmada requeria Thievery Checks, sendo que em caso de falha, o personagem corria o risco de levar dano. A execução não foi perfeita da minha parte mas creio que o sentido de urgência conseguiu passar para os jogadores.

A sessão terminou com a party reparar que vinha na sua direcção um goblin de arco na mão, preparado para os atacar, deixando o combate pendurado até à próxima semana. A técnica de deixar o grupo num cliffhanger é engraçada e gostei da reacção do grupo, no entanto, para quem corre aventuras pré-feitas, como está a ser o caso, nem sempre é possível ou fácil. Por outro lado, de vez em quando devemos dar a hipótese de terminar a sessão num ponto estável, para os jogadores terem oportunidade de efectuar coisas off-session (por exemplo, loot costumo deixar para vender entre sessões, para não demorarmos tempo com a minha fraca matemática).

Like the particle/wave duality of light, this week’s rules adjustments come from the understanding (or lack thereof) of how 4e swarms can act as both a single creature, and a series of tiny creatures acting in concert. The issue began when the party attempted to explore a web-covered chapel to a dragon god, buried deep in the caverns of the  kobold lair behind the waterfall in H1.  Turns out I wasn’t the only one who thought the provided map indicated a more extensive cave system – our DM has set us on his first completely original series of encounters exploring those caverns.  And with webs covering the ceiling, it’s no surprise that we were attacked by spiders and ettercaps and scorpions (oh, my!).

Ignoring the annoying fact that those creatures could just pop out of the sky without warning, drop 80 feet and attack before we could respond ($%^& arachnids!), we had the most trouble with the accompanying swarms of spiders… well… swarming  us!  Forced to retreat after three straight encounters in the temple chamber, we adjourned until our next session.  In the meantime, we realized we had been running the swarm attacks incorrectly, and the DM tried to be more literal with the rules as written on our return engagement.

At first.

But he was soon embellishing those with a few… questionable judgments.  The first occured when our eladrin warlock tried to curse the nearest enemy, which happened to be one of the swarms.  Nope, not allowed according to  the DM.  But he didn’t then count the swarm as the nearest enemy, so the warlock was allowed to curse a different ‘nearest’ enemy.  In the middle of battle we didn’t take time to ask why, or at least our warlock, who is a pretty easy going guy, didn’t.  The same wasn’t true for our avenger, when he later tried to declare an Oath of Enmity on a swarm, and was similarly rebuffed by the DM.  At that point we discovered he wouldn’t allow any class ‘add-on’ to work against the swarms.  Not the curse, nor the oath, or even the paladin’s Divine Challenge – or any sort of marking.  He explained he just couldn’t justify in his mind marking, or selecting a ‘group’ creature like a swarm.  You could mark an individual creature in the swarm, but that would be essentially useless.

Okay…

How this meshed with allowing any sort of martial attack, even at reduced efficacy, I don’t know.  And it was pointed out that adding immunity to those powers as well as the normal resistances a swarm receives to the types of attacks those classes tended to use was a potentially powerful boost.  It essentially keeps a defender from being… defender-y.  And the strikers were kind of gimped without their normal bennies against the collective creature.  Of course, as usual, there were some offsetting rulings.  Such as that the swarm only threatening the actual square it was in.  Although the aura 1 still caused problems for those beginning their turn adjacent to a swarm, being able to move past it without getting an Opportunity Attack made for a more mobile battle than it otherwise might have been, and gave most of us an easier time escaping from them.  Except for the paladin, ironically enough, weighed down by her plate armor.  More than once she found herself standing on three swarms.  I’m not positive, but I think the DM may have missed the part where Aura of the same type don’t stack, but regardless, our defender actually managed to defend us by being the slowest in the group in this particular battle.

One final point.   As I said, sometimes our DM does listen to our objections.  So when we managed to take out the the reskinned spider-beholder (and it stopped HEALING everything creature we got close to taking out), the remaining swarms rushed towards the slayer to take revenge – right past my wizard.  I took my first Opportunity Attack, and missed.  The DM was moving all three remaining swarms at once to save time (since as many do, we run similar creatures at the same Initiative), so I prepared to try an attack on the other two as well.  Denied!  The swarms were moving as a group, so only one attack, I was told.  I retorted asking if he had rolled only one attack for the three swarms when they occupied the paladin’s square.   Of course not, so I was allowed to continue, missing once more, but hitting with my druidic Grasping Claws, slowing one swarm and leaving it in range to be attacked by my Thunderwave on the next round.  Awesome!

A campanha de D&D “Echoes of Heroes”, ou Ecos de Heróis, se preferirem em português, teve a sua segunda sessão a 31 de Outubro. A primeira parte da aventura dos nossos heróis pode ser lida aqui. Segue a segunda parte:

Na última sessão:
Quatro anos atrás, perto de Saerun Road, quatro aventureiros foram reunidos para resgatar um Lord Major de Breland. Depois de batalhas com foulspawns e undeads, foram testemunhas de um estranho evento que pintou os céus de laranja e cobriu a terra de nevoeiro, incluindo quem lutava na batalha de Saerun Road e o acampamento para onde iriam voltar. As palavras auspiciosas de uma marca dracónica ressoam nas suas mentes: Four at the brink of the desolation stand as one against the tempest’s roar.

O grupo pretende voltar ao seu acampamento, mas aquele estranho nevoeiro não transmite muita segurança. De onde vem esta névoa? O que aconteceu às pessoas que lutavam em Saerun Road?

A história até agora

Pouco depois de despacharem os soldados da Emerald Claw e os seus zombies, Marshal Luk, Bran d’Deneith e um outro soldado cujo nome não ficará para a história, os companheiros do grupo Sentinel Marshals de VII, chegam perto do grupo que recuperava do seu combate. Também intrigado sobre o nevoeiro, Marshal Luk decide ir investigar, pedindo ao grupo para ir também caso ele não voltasse no espaço de uma hora.

Aproveitaram para descansar, recuperar de algumas feridas, passar algum tempo com itens mágicos que tinham recuperado do corpo dos inimigos. Mas hora passada, não havia notícias. O grupo desejava voltar ao acampamento, que estava situado para lá do limite do nevoeiro, e seguiram nessa direcção.

Ao aproximarem-se, era como se andassem para uma massiva parede branca que se extendia para ambos os lados. A vida em seu torno parecia ter parado. Não havia vento ou som. Cheirava imensamente a morte.

Não encontrando o rasto dos seus companheiros, decidiram-se por uma experiência: entrar na névoa. Bran d’Deneith atou a si uma corda e deu a outra metade a VII, pedindo para adicionar outros pedaços de corda quando essa acabasse, e entrou. Viu-se rodeado por um manto branco. Não estava escuro, mas não era possível ver mais que alguns metros à sua volta. Andou, andou, andou. As árvores pelas quais passava estavam mortas, assim como outra qualquer vegetação. À medida que andava, surgiram os contornos de tendas e barracas, um pequeno posto avançado. Havia corpos no chão. As pessoas estavam imóveis, mortas, sem ser perceptível o que lhes tinha tirado a vida. Mas este não era o acampamento de onde tinham partido. Procurando orientar-se e seguir nessa direcção, passou por uma liteira em que os homens que a carregavam pareciam ter morrido antes de tombarem no chão, e por outros que ainda tinham a espada na mão.

Foi quando um sentimento de desespero o atingiu. Num instante, foi como toda a esperança do mundo tivesse sido engolida pela névoa. Bran puxou a corda, assinalando que queria regressar.

Voltaram atrás procurando o rasto de Marshal Luk e o outro colega, seguindo as suas pégadas até uma rocha grande, onde encontraram Luk de volta do outro soldado, que tinha desmaiado após uma breve incursão pelo nevoeiro. Concordaram em seguir para Oakfields, uma pequena aldeia transformada em posto militar, onde souberam de relatos que toda nação de Cyre tinha sido devastada, ninguém sabia como ou porquê.

O grupo acabou por se separar, cada um seguindo o seu caminho.

Quatro anos depois

A guerra acabou. Muitas páginas se podiam encher, e foram de facto escritas sobre o que se passou entre estes dois momentos.

Os nossos aventureiros de uma forma ou outra foram parar a Sharn, a Cidade das Torres. Sariel em busca de qualquer coisa de misterioso, Bran e VII encarregues de entregar um prisioneiro à prisão de Sharn e Vril que trabalha na Universidade de Morgrave, verificando artefactos que chegam das expedições a Xen’drik. Eles recebem um convite de Lord Major Bren ir’Gadden para um pequeno memorial do quarto aniversário do Dia do Mourning, com a nota do agradecimento por lhe terem salvo a vida.

O encontro era na Dalannan Tower, perto da Morgrave University, Sariel e Vril vieram vestidos para a ocasião, Bran e VII mostraram os seus distintivos de Marshal quando o empregado lhes fez uma careta ao olhar para a sua indumentária de aventureiro.

Foi uma batalha complicada, a névoa tornava difícil acertar no monstro, Vril teve de pedir um crossbow emprestado a uns jovens fidalgos que incentivavam o grupo e VII chegou a ir ao chão dos danos causados pelas dentadas da criatura. Mas depois de vários (muitos) golpes, a névoa desapareceu, e poderam ver a verdadeira forma do monstro, um gorila branco, que não resistiu aos golpes fortes do grupo e tombou, desfazendo-se em fumo.

Lord Major, e o seu assistente ruivo chamado Roger, surgem depois da luta e agradecem ao grupo a derrota do monstro. Ele requisita os seus dotes de Marshals para o ajudar mais uma vez e descobrir de onde veio aquela criatura e quem a teria enviado para ali para matar os seus convidados. Eles reparam no novo assistente, e perguntaram o que acontecera ao antigo, Aric Blacktree, que estava catatónico a última vez que o viram, no dia do Mourning. Desentendimentos com o Lord Major levaram a que seguissem caminhos separados, e Aric já não trabalhava aqui. E isso despertou desde logo as suspeitas dos Marshals e companheiros.

Depois de entrevistar alguns dos funcionários da casa do Lord Major e os convidados sobreviventes em busca de pistas, descobriram o rasto da criatura, pequenos tufos de pêlo branco que se desfaziam em fumo ao toque, que descia para as zonas mais baixas de Sharn, até ao distrito de Center Bridge.

This week’s change is short and sweet.  Which is appropriate, since it concerns Minor Actions.  Before the start of play this past week, our DM announced that if we wanted to trade all of our actions down to Minor Actions in a round, he would grant us a bonus of an additional Minor Action for our trouble.  In other words, instead of a maximum of 3 Minor Actions per round, we now potentially could use 4.  I expect this was in reaction to having a few of us unable to grab and drink potions fast enough to keep up with the beat down we had taken the week before (once our Second Winds were gone).  The increased threat level born of unbridled rules changes begins to rear its ugly head!  But nothing another rules tweak can’t fix, eh?

No one availed themselves of this option during play, and to be honest, I don’t see what effect it will have for now, other than that rare occasion when you want to be able to drink two potions in a single round.  Or 4, maybe, if you have a Potion Bandolier, which we all have.  Since it was a favorite of the DM from 3.X, and he gave us rules for the Free Action Potion belt before the official ones came out in Adventurer’s Vault 2, he has decided to keep it as a mundane item costing 50 gp, not an 8th level Waist Slot Magic item worth 3400 gp!  Which in and of itself gives us a HUGE advantage in downing those potions, but fits in with his plans for us using them more often than is supported in the standard 4E rules.  But while our Paladin complains (not entirely justly) about the lack of Minor Actions she can use, as we get more powers, Feat combinations and Magic Items, there are an increasing number of options for our Minor Actions.  So I can envision a time when this slight increase in the Actions available could prove more unbalancing.

Of course, before we had gotten into our first scene of the night, the DM had expanded this even more, declaring that on our Surprise round, we could choose to take a Standard Action or a “MoveMinor”.  In response to our questions on what he meant, he said he considered a Standard Action to be roughly equivalent to a Move and a Minor Action, so he’d let us do a combo of those instead.  He wasn’t sure he believed what I called the ‘Action Conversion Tax’ was necessary.  Again, no one took him up on it, but I find this much more troubling than a theoretical 4 Minor Action round.  Though he didn’t say so, I can see this snowballing into allowing a Standard to be traded in for a Move and a Minor during a non-surprise round as well.  Or to have an Action Point grant an extra Move plus a Minor Action.  All of which could compound to greatly expand the possibilities of unintended consequences when combined with various Feat and Power combos.  And even if we don’t take advantage of these bonus Minor Actions, we may have to content with oppents who do.

Given the fact that we had the devil of a time breaking the DM of the habit of taking the old 3.X ‘five foot step’ as a Minor Action, I see this as just the start.  I need to gather my ammo now, in case he springs further Action expansions on us.

Depois de várias semanas de atrasos (incompatibilidade de horários) e personagens feitas, Echoes of Heroes pôde finalmente começar. Eberron aguarda pelas nossas aventuras.

A história até agora

Estava uma manhã cinzenta no acampamento de apoio do exército de Breland perto de Saerun Road. Havia alguma comoção devido ao desaparecimento de Lord Major Bren ir’Gadden que diziam ter sido raptado e a notícias de espiões do Cyre nas redondezas.

Um grupo de Sentinel Marshals tinha chegado ao acampamento, liderado pelo Marshal Luk, e o comandante da guarnição decidiu aproveitar para usar as habilidades dos seus homens. Marshal Luk e alguns dos seus homens seguiram em busca dos espiões, deixando um warforged amante da terra e da natureza a quem chamavam VII para reunir um grupo entre os homens (e mulheres) do acampamento para ir investigar o desaparecimento do Lord Major.
Após reunir um grupo composto por Sariel Rivenport Thuranni, uma Eladrin Bard que acompanhava um grupo de artistas da casa Thuranni, Vril Dox, um Artificer humano da casa d’Cannith, e Mikal Nietsiar, um Wizard humano orgulhoso da sua barba e por VII, partiram segundo as indicações do comandante. Batedores tinham avistado um rasto que parecia ir na direcção das ruínas de uma torre e era para aí que se dirigiram.

Um trilho desgastado pela vegetação levou-os até à torre, donde se aproximaram cautelosamente. Detectaram buracos no chão junto da entrada desmoronada da torre e não tardou que um bando de Kruthiks lhes viesse dar as boas-vindas.

Os Kruthiks não eram assim tão grandes, ou eram?

Ouviu-se uma voz humana que gritava “Aqui! Estamos aqui!” seguida de uma pancada seca, e uma criatura da altura de um anão, com 4 braços e 2 bocas juntou-se ao molho e começou a desancar neles. Mikal reconheceu a criatura como cedo um Dolgrim, um foulspawn que aparenta ter duas mentes.

Duplamente Feio, Quatro vezes mau!

Escolhendo cautelosamente as suas armas e poderes, o grupo tentou eliminar os insectos e abominação, aproveitando os feitiços de área complexamente colocados por Mikal, o canto curativo de Sariel, a atenção de VII aos seus adversários, a Scythe mágica de Vril.

As criaturas acabaram por puxá-los na direcção da torre. Ao entrar eram esperados por um novo grupo de Kruthiks, facilmente despachados, e descobriram outro Dolgrim na sala ao lado, juntamente com uma estranha marca no chão, uma dragonmark, um homem que estava cata-tónico sobre ela e outro homem que estava preso à parede por grilhetas de metal. Evitando pisar a marca, receando os seus efeitos nefastos, e ponderando incenerar completamente o sítio, derrotaram o Dolgrim e soltaram o homem que provou ser nada menos que Lord Major Bren ir’Gadden. Mal o foulspawn caiu, correu para o seu ajudante, Aric Blacktree, tentando removê-lo de cima da zona da marca.
A marca tinha estranhas formas negras e azuis, como as dragonmarks que surgem na pele de membros das dragonmarked houses. Os peritos nas artes arcanas estudaram a marca, enquanto VII e Sariel acompanhavam o Lord Major e Aric para apanhar algum ar. O seu estudo revelou um verso na profecia dracónica:
Four at the brink of the desolation stand as one against the tempest’s roar.

Preparados para partir, depois de Vril fazer “a sua cena” lá dentro, seja lá o que a cena for, ao mesmo tempo que flashes laranjas surgiam no horizonte, zombies abriam caminho por entre as árvores acompanhados de soldados de escudos verdes: Emerald Claw!

Mikal usou a sua energia destrutiva para explodir com os zombies, Vril tentou encurralar uma inimiga com aspecto de feiticeira, Sariel tentou safar-se de entre os zombies, ajudando os seus companheiros, VII bateu nos seus adversários, e até o Lord Major deu uma ajuda.
Aric Blacktree continuou onde o deixaram, enrolando-se como um bicho de conta no chão.
Enquanto combatiam, estranhas explosões enchiam os céus e um nevoeiro nada auspicioso desenrolava-se cobrindo montes e campos, incluindo o campo de batalha vísivel da torre. Incluindo também o acampamento para onde iriam voltar, terminada a batalha e agarrados os itens mágicos adorados.
Bren ir’Gadden, auxiliando o seu ajudante de campo, olhava o horizonte preocupado.

O grupo pretende voltar ao seu acampamento, mas aquele estranho nevoeiro não transmite muita segurança. De onde vem esta névoa? O que aconteceu às pessoas que lutavam em Saerun Road?

O Jogo

Os Personagens em jogo foram:
- Sariel, Eladrin Bard
- VII, Warforged Warden
- Mikal, Human Wizard
- Vril Dox, Human Artificer

Depois de alterações de última hora aos personagens e chegada dos jogadores mais atrasados pudemos finalmente ter a primeira sessão desta campanha.
Um dos objectivos que me tinha proposto era tentar juntar os backgrounds dos vários personagens para tentar que a party fosse unida nalguns pontos comuns, mas a verdade é que nem toda a gente me quis dar backgrounds (!) pelo que preparei para cada um que me deu informação uma pequena introdução (a que eu chamo “For Your Eyes Only”) em como o seu personagem foi parar àquele local. Funcionou mais ou menos, I guess…

O primeiro combate decorreu com bastante lentidão. Sendo a primeira vez a jogar quarta-edição, ou a jogar D&D de todo para alguns, ninguém estava seguro das regras ou dos poderes e acções que o seu personagem pode fazer. A maior parte dos jogadores estava a usar a character sheet impressa a partir do Character Builder, incluindo os cartões de poderes, mas creio que ainda não estão habituados a lê-los e ainda há algumas dúvidas em como os poderes funcionam.

Do meu lado, também tentei algo diferente que foi usar o Computador em jogo. Peguei na spreadsheet do OpenOffice e tentei organizar a informação dos jogadores e dos monstros, continuando a usar cartões de iniciativa. Não funcionou tão bem como eu esperava. É dificil alternar entre janelas a meio do jogo, pelo que tenho de tentar arranjar uma melhor maneira de tomar nota de condições dos monstros e dos jogadores. Ideias?

O segundo combate já foi mais rápido, como já tenho lido na net, o combate em quarta edição não é assim tão mais rápido como os senhores da Wizards anunciam, mas com a prática deverá acelerar bastante.

Outra coisa que reparei é que a curta descrição que é dada aos poderes parece limitar as pessoas: “Ah, eu uso o Poder da Cena número 2, d20+6 vs Will. 10 de dano.” É importante usar um bocadinho a imaginação para dar vida à cena. Do it!

Vamos ver como será a segunda sessão.

This week’s bone of contention turned out to be how Temporary Hit Points are handled in 4E.  During the last session we ended up getting Temporary Hit Points from several sources.  In addition to Clerical and Avenger powers which grant Temp HP, the scenario itself had a magical source for Temporary HP that the party tapped – a magic circle outside the kobold waterfall campsite.  Those of you familiar with the Keep on the Shadowfell as published will notice some customization here, as the original magic circle only gave a slight attack bonus. Since the party was third level at this point (and had previously completed the original waterfall scenario when I ran my truncated campaign), the DM had to change things up and increase the opposition.

One way he did so was to make sure the second encounter was automatically triggered by having a hidden kobold slinger which could run from concealed cover outside and into the caves to rouse the rest of the tribe before we could act (grumble, grumble, trying for a TPK, grumble) or consequently take a short rest.  Another change was to have the magic circle able to grant bonuses to the allies of the arcane user ‘controlling’ it. These bonuses included allowing certain Minor Actions to be taken as Free Actions (really annoying when dealing with shifty kobolds) and a one time grant of 5 Temp HP when control over the circle was established.  All fine and good, though by the ’start’ of the next encounter we figured out the only way we could hope to survive was by commandeering the circle ourselves and had managed to give ourselves these Temp HP 2-3 times (twice if you were one of the 3 PCs who attempted to control the circle, and 3 times for the rest).   At the time, we were under the impression that Temp HP were stackable, which is a good thing, as we needed every one of them (and no doubt the DM was counting on us having them when he formulated his double encounter).  But in the week since, I had a chance to review the rules, and pointed out the rules as written in 4E had Temp HP as not stackable.

If we had run it as written, without a 10-15 HP bump before the second wave of kobolds, several of us would have had to drop and start making Death Checks we had not made during the session.  When I pointed this out, so that the DM could adjust his changes for future scenarios, he didn’t like it (and neither did the Avenger, who had been benefiting from multiple Temp HP for a few sessions now).  So after giving it some thought, he proposed a compromise – what he called ’semi-stackable’ Temp HP.

What he meant by this is that he would be allowing Temp HP to stack up to twice the max value of the source.  So if our Avenger was at full HP value, and got 5 Temp HP from drinking a Fire Beetle Potion, and then struck with an Avenger power that would grant 4 Temp HP, he could benefit from an additional 3 HP from that 4 (for a total of 8 Temp HP – twice the amount he could get from the Avenger power).  This adds a little calculation to figure out how much you can benefit each time Temp HP are applied, but it isn’t onerous, so I don’t see much of a downside to this aspect of the ‘Semi-Stackable’ nature of Temp HP in our game.

What may have potential ramifications is the second adjustment our DM made.  As part of the new ’semi-stackable’ definition, he’s decided that he doesn’t want to track Temp HP separately from HP.  So they are lumped together.  As a consequence, if a character is wounded when receiving Temp HP, we have been instructed to treat the Temp HP essentially as healing, and it brings our HP total back up by that amount, up to our normal total.  So it is only the amount of Temp HP over the normal HP total that is limited by the 2x max value limit – so that same Avenger, once wounded, could potentially benefit from several applications of his Temp HP power before it is limited.

And to top it off, our Cleric specifically asked if he then could add his Healer’s Lore to the Temp HP he gave to a wounded Ally.  The answer was no, so the DM doesn’t intend for the powers to gain the Healing Keyword, even though they have, for all intents.  I’m not that familiar with Healing powers, so I don’t know what downstream consequences this might have.   The situation we had between a double encounter, gaining multiple Temp HP while being otherwise healed is going to be a pretty uncommon situation (I hope!), so perhaps it isn’t a big deal.  Once one of us gets Temp HP, it’s seldom long before an attack reduces our HP anyway that was certainly true this week.   So the actual effects might not change all that much, in general, other than give those with Temp HP powers the feeling they are getting more bang from their powers.

It’s time for Saturday RPGs at the store – here’s the blurb for both games being played this weekend – one 4th edition, one Pathfinder. Both games have openings, so feel free to come on down! Estimated time on both is four hours.

The first kicks off at 10:30 a.m., hosted by Ken Austin. It’s part of the Pathfinder Society campaign, and uses the Pathfinder ruleset (otherwise known as 3.75). If you’re at all familiar with 3.0 or 3.5 D&D, you’ll have no problem getting accustomed to the rules system! Here’s the description for the event:
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Come one, come all! This Saturday, October 24th! For one day, and one day only! The Organized Play Pathfinder Society of Knoxville presents, “The Frozen Fingers of Midnight!” Don’t miss this tour de force of derring-do by the Rambling Scribe himself, Craig Shackleton!

Listen to what the reviewers had to say!

“Good time had by all!” – 5/5 Robert Moyer

“Great fun!” – 5/5 – Acev

“The best at GenCon!” – 5/5 Douglas Hirt

“Gamers are losers!” – 0/5 – Lorraine Williams (Yikes! Who let HER in here? SECURITY!)

Be at Organized Play in downtown Knoxville at 10:30 AM this Saturday. Character creation starts at 10 AM.
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The second one’s hosted by Jay Anderson, and kicks off at 3 p.m. – so you can play both, if you want! It’s part of the RPGA Living campaign called Living Forgotten Realms, and it’s a great way to get involved in 4th Edition. Here’s the details:
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Your party is sent to investigate allegations of Netherese activity near the city of Arabel: A dark rider commanding legions of shadow. Can you turn back the tide before it’s too late? A Living Forgotten Realms adventure set in Cormyr for characters levels 1-4.

As many of you know, the PMBOK has a new edition, numero Four!

PMBOK 4th Edition

For test takers and those that like to further their PM knowledge I will breifly lay out the changes to this new edition.

For those of you that have been studying the PMBOK 3rd Edition in order to take the test, I have bad news for you. You took to long and it’s time to order up the 4th edition, study it instead, because you can no longer take the 3rd Edition based test. For those I will briefly go over all of the changes (but you still need to read the new edition, I’m sorry).

I will start with the changes that I think further PM knowledge for those who are only interested in seeing what PMI as added. I will layout the two or three of the greatest areas of impact for your reading pleasure. Also it’s a smaller list than the other.

So let’s begin.

5.1 Plan Scope is now 5.1 Collect Requirements

Plan Scope has been eliminated, deleted, or Terminated, if you will. I never liked PMI’s definition of Plan Scope anyways which says,

“Creating a project scope management plan that documents how the project scope will be defined, verified, controlled, and how the WBS will be created and defined.”

To me this says you already know many of the end details of a project. Hello, we barely have the high level statements at this point!

PMI seems to realize this and takes a step back by eliminating the Plan Scope process and replaces it with the new and improved, Collect Requirements.

5.1 Collect Requirements – The process of defining and documenting stakeholders’ needs to meet the project objectives.

Yes! Yes! Yes!

This also introduces the Stakeholder Register for the first time. This is really important aspect on the 3rd Edition exam which, ironically, was not directly mentioned in the 3rd edition PMBOK. So the inconsistency between the text and the exam is now eliminated.

Now you have what I think are the two most important foundational aspects of ensuring that a project management plan is complete, now directly contained within the PMP methodology.

Notice I didn’t say the two most important aspects that make a project is successful.

Tune in next time as I cover the new process 10.1 – Identify Stakeholders.

Michael

PMBOK 4th Edition pg 105 and pg 246

As I related in my previous post, our old DM from a multi-year 3.0 homebrew has taken over running a regular 4E game for my Thursday night gaming group, and being who he is, can’t help but change things.  Last time I discussed identifying magic items, and withholding their abilities until worn for at least 24 hrs.  This time, I’m going to try and figure out how replacing Milestone refreshes of Daily Magic Item uses with Magical Surges changes things around.

Since the DM took over just as I was having the group remake their characters at level 2, we stuck with the new level, but the past was ‘wiped clean’.  As such we got level appropriate money to buy gear, and started over with magic items.  I pointed out the standard distribution of magic items (which was actually much better than they had had, anyway, since we were dealing with published adventures, which seem kind of understocked), but the DM decided to go with a single lvl 2 item each, and several potions (healing, resistance, clarity and a gravespawn or two).  We got to choose, with approval, and I was pleased with my +1 Mnemonic Staff (and I love the fact that as a Wizard MC Druid, I get to use it for both classes – even if MC druid has some peculiar limitations).  When we discussed the potions to take, the DM discovered the limits on magic item use per day – a concept he didn’t care for at all.  I know it was an idea it took me awhile to wrap my head around, but I think I understand why it was done (to keep the character from being a magic item delivery system as could occur at higher levels in 3.x), and the exceptions to it for reaching milestones and the like.

Our DM decided to take a different route, proposing the idea of Magical Surges that refresh like Healing Surges do, after an Extended Rest.  The idea being that one could use a Magic Surge to activate a Daily Item Power (only once per day per power, he didn’t change that concept), or drink a Potion (letting us replace a Healing Surge in that case with a Magic Surge, if called for) and then be able to activate another, different, Daily Power (or Potion, Elixir, etc.) as long as you had magic Surges left.  And the number of Magic Surges was determined by class pretty much as the inverse of what that class got in the way of Healing Surges.  If your class gets a lot of Healing Surges, you get a few Magical Surges, and so on, modified by your Charisma Bonus.  Which makes sense, since he always saw Charisma as the power source for magic in his 3.0 game.  Of course, that throws the attribute choices for each class out of whack (not that we changed our scores since this was added later, as we were equipping), and some (like the Warlock) benefited more than others (such as my wizard ).

Overall, though, except for that, I didn’t see any immediate reasons to fight back, and we agreed to try it out.  So far, it’s been OK.  We haven’t been consuming more potions than I think we would otherwise, and since we don’t have a lot of magic items to start with, the difference hasn’t been great.  It benefits us by leaving us with more Healing Surges to spend on non-potion healing, and we have the crutch of extra potions (assuming we can find them) if a battle goes bad.

Where we could get into trouble, I think, is at higher levels, since this Magic Surge doesn’t scale like a Healing Surge does.  We have lots of unused ones at this level, but at some point, when the number of encounters we struggle through increases and we have more powers to activate, we may see the unused ones dry up without a chance for a refresh before taking our Extended Rest.  I can see the kernels of this issue in the way our DM has been customizing the magic items he passes out.

To wit, our initial 2nd lvl magic items were pretty much straight out of the book, the exception being the warlock’s rod. This he modified to have a daily druid power instead of the usual arcane one, since he had a notion to group the players into ‘divine’ (paladin, cleric, avenger) and ‘elf/nature’ (eladrin warlock, wizard/druid, elf ranger NPC) groups on two separate quests and this fit.  Swap one Daily for another (not normally available to the warlock, but no big deal).

Fast forward to after our initial fights with the Keep goblins, and an ambush by kolbolds on the way and we make our first visit to Winterhaven.  Being old school D&Ders, and low level, we brought back as much of the enemy’s gear as one of my Floating Discs could carry, and dumped the lot on the local smith.  We had planned to get the smith to make a nice fire-resistant sheath for the magical hot poker we liberated from the hobgoblin torturer we slew at the keep, so the Teifling cleric would have a decent close combat weapon, but the DM gave us another option.  Trade.

The dwarven smith was taken with an everhot poker, and gave us a deal on a magic sword he had no use for these days – a +1 thundersword which had TWO daily powers (besides the enhancement and crit) – daze and a +1d10 thunder damage.  This was telling, and the start of a trend.  I’ve since found ‘Bracers of the Beast’ which give me more options in beastform (thankfully) in the form of a property, an Encounter Power, and two Dailies.

Throwing out the limits on the number of built in powers will probably cause us to gravitate towards the walking magic store syndrome, especially once our ritual casters hit 4th level (and Enchant Item), and since we have Magic Surges, we’ll get more use out of multiple powers than a standard 4E party, but it means the DM will have to up the opposition to compensate. Which is NOT something he has an issue with.  We have yet to have a TPK under him, but we’ve come close a few times.

With the finely balanced level system as it is, I wonder what the cumulative effect of all of these changes will be.  So far I am having fun, but it is interesting (and necessary) to try and exploit these changes, as it will undoubtedly affect our opposition as well.