Has an improvised rule ever stopped your game table cold?

Sometimes players and DM's alike can be easily frustrated when the rules-as-written don't include specific rulings on some unexpected condition, effect, or situation in the game. At times like these, you have to improvise a ruling - but often the answer is right under your nose.

My wife is currently the DM for our weekly 4th Edition Dungeon & Dragons game, and on Friday she improvised (quite well, I might add) a set of 4E rules for when your players catch on fire. It made me think: are there really no 4E guidelines for burning things? like PCs? What did previous editions of the game recommend?

In fact, the Player's Handbook only includes rules for breaking things - no burning. The Dungeon Master's Guide includes rules for damaging objects, in general, but nothing specific for flaming shirts and pants.

But if you look closer they do.

The trick is to tap into the vast number of existing powers, items, and abilities. In terms of "what happens when I catch on fire?", Flame Strike would be a good place to start. You'll note that (obviously) when you are on fire you take ongoing fire damage.

Our situation, however, was a bit different from the exploding power of Flame Strike -- we had decided to light a pair huge thick curtains on fire as a means to prevent the goblins from entering the room. The improvisation of some rules came into effect when the goblins (and later the PCs) wanted to dive through the flaming curtain to reach the other side. How should that be played out?

Look no further than Wall of Fire. Adjacent to the flaming curtain? You take damage (1d6+3). Pass through it? You take more damage. Also, since the curtain was a physical barrier as well, so making it challenging terrain was appropriate - thus requiring an Athletics or Acrobatics check to successfully pass through it. Checking p.42 of the DMG again -- the DC's were considered Moderate, so Athletics or Acrobatics were against a DC 15. Success means you avoided the flaming parts of the curtains. Failure means you got caught up in the curtain... causing "Limited Damage Expression" damage (3d6+3).

 What about catching on fire? Is there a risk of that? We ruled -- yes. The wall "attacks" you like a trap if you pass through it or next to it; its bonus vs. your Reflex defense, success means your on fire (save ends) like Flame Strike. Now, the PCs in our game are still a bunch of light weight lowbies. So, the bonuses, DCs, and damage levels needed be adjusted somewhat. Plus, there's a big difference between a flaming curtain and a Wall of Fire. This is where the DM's tool box came in handy again -- page 42 of the DMG. In end, she rightly decided the attack would be +5 vs. Reflex and a hit would be 1d6+3 ongoing fire damage (save ends). If you spent your next standard action rolling around on the ground, you would get a +2 bonuses to your save. This happens to be right inline with d20 SRD as well. There, now we have some quick "rules" for flaming curtains and catching on fire for 4E. Easy.

Of course, this was not intended to be a walk-through of something as simple as catching on fire. What then is my point?

The main thing here is that, when you are sitting at the table and don't want to slow down the game, improvising a ruling is required. Also, jump right to p.42 of the DMG and think about some similar effects in the game that you might use as a guideline: in this case Flame Strike and Wall of Fire. Stick to these rules and won't get burned...

I am very happy to report that Open Game Table has been picked up by Indie Press Revolution, probably the leading online retailer of independently developed games, comics, and other -physical hold in your hands- hobby products. You should really check them out... there are some simply amazing books available at IPR.

Thank you IPR!

One of the really good things about IPR is that they are not only a direct online-retailer, but they also operate as a distributor for thousands of independently owned hobby, game, and book shops across the U.S.. This makes it possible for these retailors to connect with Open Game Table and stock a few copies on their own shelves. In otherwords -- this is a big win for Open Game Table, since one of the biggest goals of the project was to place the anthology on the bookshelves of game stores thus bringing the RPG blogging community into the realm of "the casual gamer" who may not be scouring the web to find us.

IPR will be carrying Open Game Table soon. I've just signed the contracts with them, and once I receive an ISBN number from Lulu - I'll be placing an order to have a few dozen copies of the book shipped off to IPR's warehouse. I'll keep you posted.

Wohoo!

[ sry my blogging hasn't been about much other than OGT lately -- all my creative energy is focused on getting this out the door and getting the ball rolling for a successful launch. No worries though, my ramblings about RPGs will return soon. ]

Yes. I was one of the lucky ones. Wizards of the Coast bestowed upon me a copy of the Player's Handbook 2 weeks before it comes to print.

Don't worry though... I'm not going to keep all the awesome goodness to myself for long. And... this is not just some media blitz brain washing thing (OK, maybe it is) but... in all seriousness, the PHB2 looks amazing and from what I have read thus far (about an hour flipping through it) -- its top notch. Power creep is to a minimum and there's lots of juicy bits beyond just the "new classes, new races" part.

I'll bring you the noise in a few days... because I know you want to know.

The Open Game Table cover design is finally finished. We all have James Keegan and Crystal Frasier to thank for this excellent - and clever - concept! Check it out!

... its awesome!!!

don't forget... we have a LOGO CONTEST in the works too... check it out here.

The day is soon approaching when Open Game Table: The Anthology of Roleplaying Game Blogs will be published. A final draft was sent out over the weekend to the 40 or so authors who contributed to the anthology. Check out the bad ass cover design by Crystal Frasier & James Keegan...

The book layout? Done.
The cover design and artwork? Done. See above.
Last minute copy-edits? Done.
Galley-proofs? Soon to be ordered, and once approved - the book will be assigned an ISBN# and go into distribution at Lulu Marketplace and on Amazon.com.

The anthology weighs in at 137 pages (~85,000 words) and features 47 blog posts from the very best blogs in the RPG blogging community. To make things even sweeter, 60 illustrations created by a team of seven very talented artists adorn the pages of the anthology - packing tons of original content between the covers. I am truly amazed at how this has all come together - the interior and exterior of the book looks awesome! Here is what some people are already saying:

"... the book looks great, and I'm proud to be a part of it. You've really
done something great here, and I hope that you hear that loudly from the others
as well..." - M.L.

"...Simply Outstanding! Jonathan, you and your crew of artists and editors have done some amazing work in a very short period of time..." - M.B.

"...Let me say, I became almost nostalgic as I was reading through it. It reminded me of the days of Dragon magazine, when it would be led by page after page of letters, then one of the few ways gamers could exchange best practices. This anthology has much the same feel. It took me back to those days, when I could read letter after letter of how people tried to make their roleplaying games better..." - T.T.

"I was really impressed with how great this looks... you've done an incredible job!" - T.D.

LOGO CONTEST
So... to help promote the anthology I'm opening up a logo contest beginning today. The winner of the contest will receive

1. recognition for their contribution in the book's credits,
2. a free copy of the anthology once it is published, and
3. a $25 gift certificate at RPGNow.com.

The logo must clearly represent Open Game Table as an anthology of RPG blogs -- a whole community of dedicated writers waiting to be discovered by the greater gaming community. Your logo design will be used to promote the anthology through Google hosted advertisements across the web and by fellow RPG bloggers looking to promote the anthology. So, don't delay -- send me your logo design* today at jonathan DOT jacobs AT gmail DOT com.

* logo's should be 250 x 250 pixels in size. If you are selected as the winner, I'll also be interested in obtaining two additional versions at 125 x 125 pixels and 234 x 60 pixels.


SPONSORSHIPS
We have received some financial sponsorship in the past from some very generous individuals willing to toss their coin in to support this project. Why do we need sponsorship? Well, for one -- this is an all volunteer effort on a shoe-string budget (mine). And secondly, every volunteer, author, artist, editor, and review judge will be receiving a free copy of the anthology once it is published - this is something I wanted to do to reward people (in some small way) for their efforts. Altogether, I am quickly approaching 100 copies of the book that I will be printing and mailing out to each of them. The costs add up substantially as a result.

I've made several calls for individual sponsorships in the past - this is that last time I will ask the community to step forward and support this project. Sponsors will be acknowledged for their support in the credits of Open Game Table, and all the sponsoring funds will be used to cover the costs of printing the complementary copies of the book for volunteers. My goal was to raise $500. Thus far, I've raised just over $325 from many small individual donations (THANK YOU!) - so we only have $125 to go!

So, if you feel that this is an important, grass-roots project to support then please voice your support by donating to Open Game Table using the PayPal link below. Any amount will be greatly appreciated.

PLEASE DONATE TODAY

When I started working on Open Game Table I asked for people to choose what categories of posts they would want in the anthology. New maps and monsters came out as one of the top categories, but the problem was that these were one of the least blogged about topics. We had virtually no submissions on these topics, save for a very few excellent posts. So, when it came to be my turn again to host the RPG Blog Carnival for February I naturally chose Maps & Monsters to be the topic. I'm very pleased to report that we had some excellent contributions as a result.

1. The Art of the Near TPK not only features a regular new monster or other crunchy bit for your 4E game... but Jennifer Weigel (one of the artists contributing to Open Game Table) usually adds in her own illustrations of these Weekly What the Heck creatures. Last month we saw:
1. The Demodracosauralisk (L15 Elite Artillery)
2. Triclops Manipulator (L20 Soldier) and the Ultimate Dungeon Master (L35 Solo Brute) LOL!
3. Shellsong Siren (L10 Lurker) and the Archaic Gastropod (L2 Soldier)
2. Project Valient also contributed -- but sadly their site has vanished (anyone know what happened?).
3. Newbie DM delivers again, this time with his first post to be included in the RPG Blog Carnival -- Rufus Drunkbeard and a map of his tavern for 4E D&D.
4. Vulcan Stev comes out swinging with three new NPCs and creatures for Pirates of the Spanish Main RPG. If you like Pirates of Caribbean and want the stats of a whole host of characters and creatures from those flicks for your PotSM RPG game -- drop by his site and check out all his hard work. Anytime someone includes a Monkey, a Kraken, and a dead guy in the same post -- he's on my A-list
5. Compromise and Conceit's author wants you to use your camera as a automatic map-maker in "Map-making the easy way…" He also posts "Infernal Constructs: The Myrmidon" along with some amazing artwork -- click through to see it.
6. Bob over at The Dice Bag jumps into the carnival with some excellent musings on "The Value of a Good Map". So -- do you loath mapping for RPGs too?
7. RPG Brouhaha reviews the online "E-Adventures Mapping Tool". Individual experiences may vary -- but Harnish's review is worth a look if you are looking for something useful for quick, easy mapping.
8. Chgowiz from Chgowiz's Old Guy RPG Blog throws his name into the carnival hat with a PDF download of his WinterWar campaign adventures - "The Kobold Caves of Terror".
9. Fame & Fortune also adds some maps to the mix with "Undead Maps for the Carnival".
10. Mad Brew Labs also shows up to the carnival, post in hand, with "Map Tutorial from the Cartographers’ Guild". Mad Brew links to an amazing tutorial that -- if anything -- should top your reading list to check out in depth.
11. Spirits of Eden shows up as well with 4E D&D stats for Utsuho, the final boss of Subterranean Animism and Kuannei, a world-ending "Scourge" monster. RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!
12. And finally, Mike Bourke of Campaign Mastery contributes to the carnival with a MASSIVE 3 - part series (!) with "The Flói Af Loft & The Ryk Bolti"; which is quite possibly the weirdest blog post title I've ever seen too. Go get a cup of coffee... and enjoy this lengthy read; it will be well worth your time.

That is it! Excellent work by everyone involved... my only wish is that I had more time to participate in my own way other than hosting it. Hopefully, once Open Game Table is published... I'll have more time to just get back to blogging. =D

NEXT MONTH's CARNIVAL IS HOSTED BY REVEREND MIKE at THE BOOK OF REV... the topic? WAR!

It had been a while since I've included an "Around the blogs..." update on my readings of RPG related goodness. Here's the list!

• Warning! Warning! Reveal, an author over at RPGCentric, cracked me up with their post "Be careful with that scroll: Warning labels in D&D!". Lighthearted posts like this just come along often enough.
• Don't Argue with a Wulf. Once again I find myself largely in agreement with Greywulf's "Why 4E D&D is Old School". There's a feisty discussion tagged on this post as well, 46 comments as of this post. Although I agree with most of what Greywulf's point about playstyle - I still think that the goal of 4E is very different from what the focus of old school D&D was all about.
• Gygaxian what? Purple Pawn author shadejon tries to define what Grognardia's "gygaxian" exactly is with "What is Gygaxian?". Some nice links that might also drop you in ForumLands (you have been warned).
• Skill Challenge Design. At-will's gamefiend continues his series on How to Design a Skill Challenge with Part 3 (Nesting) and Part 4 (Sequencing). The whole series is worth a read - and considering I'm collaborating with him and Mad Brew Labs on a project, I'd better be reading it too.
• New Skill Challenges. Speaking of SC's -- Dungeon's Master.com released "Skill Challenge: Rightful Heir" recently. With no comments, would someone stop by and tell him 'hello!'?
• Map Generation. Although Stargazer's website always crashes my browser at work, I still glad I was able to read "Roleplaying City Map Generator" at home on my trusty Mac. Hopefully the creator of that software is OK with him hosting it for download... so grab it quick!
• Pimp My Ride. Berin Kinsman rules. He rules so much that he recently pimp'ed the Open Game Table anthology project over at PulpGamer.com's podcast "PGOC 070: More On Mechanics"!
  

Well.. that's about it for this Saturday. Have a great weekend! See you back here soon!

Wizards of the Coast will be kicking off its annual Worldwide D&D Game Day on March 21st, 2009. These events are cast as a hybrid mini-con / new release party / gaming event. It's good marketing for WotC too, as it brings together people into their local hobby, game, and book stores to play D&D, win free stuff, and buy the new releases.

My FLGS is Dream Wizards in Rockville, MD, and I'm planning on "covering" the event. I mean covering as in how the press media covers events as they happen. I doubt I'll be live blogging it, but I will be posting a story about my impressions of the event at Dream Wizards later that day or the following day.

I want to ask the rest of the RPG blogging community to do the same. Visit your local hobby or game store and cover the event as a blogger, player, DM, or simple observer; whatever suites you best. Need to know the closest location where the event is going to be hosted? Use the WotC Store & Event Locator service.

Now... Why would you want to do this?

Well, for one, I'm not proposing we do this as a means to prop up WotC in the blogosphere. I'm suggesting we do this ... for us. By visiting your local game stores, and connecting with the owner and operators of those stores, you increase your own presence in your community. You will make a new connection between the ether of the blogosphere and your physical local community. You can gauge the intrest other gamers have in "RPG blogging" or, if they didn't know or hadn't heard about our community, you can challenge them to visit your blog and check out what our community is all about.

Oh, and don't forget to prop up the RPG Bloggers Network. This is the proverbial firehose of the RPG blogging community.

If you are a blogger, and plan to cover the event then leave a comment here. A few days after the event I'll post a blog carnival round up of the event with links to everyone's blog and their coverage of their local scene. I'll also post a reminder about this carnival the week prior.

If you are NOT a blogger, but plan on attending... then let me know what you think of the event once it happens.

I think it will be very interesting to see how each different locale varies from one another. Where are the best game shops? Who had the most fun?

The "adventuring company" is distinctly different from "the party".

It is, however, a common misconception that these terms are in fact synonymous.

They are not.

"Old School" is to Stronghold Building as "New School" is to Hero Building.

... there, I said it.

The meaning behind the phrase "adventuring company" has drifted away from its original intended meaning. This is likely due to a similar change in play-style (in general) over the more than three decades D&D has been around.

Our beloved hobby started with dynamic groups of players, sometimes as many as 10 or even 20, mingling and mixing between different Dungeon Masters and different campaigns -- all in a shared world. Characters moved around with their players too, from game to game, sometimes even between campaigns. Player characters had henchmen. Players would often play more one character, although not at the same time.

Nowadays, the focus is on the "the party". This likely started in the mid- to late-phases of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. The game started to shift its focus away from stronghold building and toward being heroic and playing "epic campaigns". I suppose this is what people wanted - I mean... just look at the success of the Dragonlance modules. Both 2E and 3E Dungeons & Dragons defaulted to a 4-person group of "heroes", making most viable games requiring 5-players (including the DM). In 4th Edition the default part has been expanded to five PCs. Other than for the obvious commercial advantage, the reasoning for the subtle increase in the default party size somewhat escapes me. To be fair - the 4E DMG does do a fine job of offering a very scalable system. You could easily play with fewer PCs without much house ruling, in terms of DM planning, etc. But I digress... the point is that it is easier to be heroic and epic if each player invests all their time into a single character's development. The more emphasis you place on Tim the Wizard, the more you want Tim to be a (super) hero. Whereas, if you have a whole entourage of characters to worry about then you just might be more interested in the development of the group over time (stronghold building) instead of just one of your PCs (hero building).

Your hero requires ever increasing challenges. Your epic gear must be upgraded to even epic'er gear. Your foes must become even more eliter than the eliterists. Your gold must become even biggerer. In the end, you become a god.

The funny part is that this is finally in the core rules. It's no longer implied, its explicitly the goal of the game. It is the RAW.

Now, you all know I play 4E D&D. I don't see that changing any time soon as my gaming group is somewhat in the middle of things. However, the next game that I run I'm planning on steering it more towards a stronghold building campaign - as a basis from which to have a fun time, etc. I just think I've realized something though -- this sort of game is going to be difficult, or extremely house ruled, if I stuck with 4E D&D as the rule set.

4E is to Hero Building as 1E/2E/CC/S&W/etc is to Stronghold Building.

Maybe if I run a stronghold building campaign I should use a different rule set? Maybe... because you know what they say...

"Always use the right tool for the job"

Share you comments, and I'd love to hear what game system is best suited, in your opinion, for a stronghold building game.

Like a train headed towards frontier country, work on Open Game Table: The Anthology of Roleplaying Game Blogs continues unabated. Yes, my blogging frequency has dropped precipitously to near zero posts -- but I'm not "going dark". There's lots going on behind the scenes. New artwork continues to flow in from our dedicated team of artists and the cover design is coming along VERY nicely. Once it is done, I'll be sure to give you a sneak peak here (hopefully by next week).

The other turn of events is that we've also been in discussions with several distributors. Most of them have, thus far, been very positive but ultimately turned me down simply because 1) the economy blows, and 2) I'm an untested publisher with only a single book to offer. For most distributors this is a non-starter. But all these discussions were not without some benefit.

For example... I was put in touch with Mark Easterday, the VP of Purchasing at Alliance Games, and although they turned us down in the end, he provided me with some excellent advice on how I might "get the word out" for the anthology. He also put me in touch with Aldo Ghiozzi, the owner of Impressions Advertising. Impressions is a distribution consolidator -- basically they take small press publishers and bundle them up for larger distributors to purchase (such as Alliance). So I contacted Aldo, who had very supportive words, but also ultimately turned me down citing the fact that -- since Key20 (another consolidator) went out of business -- they have a warehouse full of new, untested, and small publishers they are trying to clear out. So, they too are not looking for any new material to stock at this time. He did, however, refer me to Steve Chenault at Troll Lord Games. Apparently, they own their own presses and, according to Aldo, occasionally do printing for other folks as well. I made a pitch to Steve a few days ago - and I'm just waiting to hear back.

I've also been in touch with a number of other small presses and distributors, but haven't heard back from most of them. Indie Press Revolution, a direct retail / distributor, is currently the best fit for Open Game Table. As far as they are concerned, I've exchanged a few emails with IPR and they seem to be very accommodating thus far. I'll be sending them a PDF galley proof for them to evaluate as soon as I have it ready. Hopefully they'll continue to be as positive once they receive it and I'll be able to announce an agreement has been reached.

Why do I need a distributor?

(IPR, by the way, has its own RPG industry blog at The Voice of Revolution)

Well, its simple really -- the whole point of Open Game Table, from Day One, was to bridge the gap between the gaming community and the RPG blogging community by placing a book on the shelves of game and book stores that showcased our best talent. By working with a distributor, with established retail channels, this will become a real possibility. Without the use of a distributor such as Indie Press Revolution, we will have to rely on Lulu Marketplace and Amazon.com, which sounds fine... but in reality will likely be somewhat lackluster in its execution. A specialty distributor would be able to target those retail outlets that share our audience: GAMERS. There's no telling, once listed on Amazon.com, how likely Open Game Table would be picked up by anyone or if any retailer would even think to order it for their stores.


Now for some new art spots that will be included in Open Game Table (click for bigger versions)...

illustrations by Hugo Solis

for Jonathan Drain's Invisible Dungeon...

for Scott Schimmel's 4E Monk Project

Wow, it seems that these updates have left their usual Monday morning slot... and the rate at which I've been blogging has definitely slowed. I can honestly say that I'm looking forward to the day when I can return to "just blogging about RPGs" instead of putting together an anthology of RPG blogs. Its really amazing how much time I spend daily on this project -- between contact artists, authors, editors, and other contributors to fiddling with the final layout and design, editing, etc. I would say I'm averaging about 10 - 15 hours per week for the last two months -- there are just so many issues to deal with, its no wonder my blogging has dropped so much. Nonetheless, its been a real pleasure to work with everyone who has touched the project thus far - and we are currently set for having 100% done galley proofs by the end of the first week of March. The manuscript is looking awesome (at least to my eyes) - and I am really looking forward to seeing it in print. So, this is supposed to be a weekly update... what's happened in the last week?

Foreword
Well, if you remember, last week we had announced that Wolfgang Baur, from Kobold Quarterly and Open Design, was on board and is going to write the foreword for the anthology. I'm still stoked about this -- so I need to announce it again! Wohoo!

Artwork
The artists had been given a deadline of Sunday to send in their final inks. While I'm still waiting on a few last outstanding pieces, what I have received in the last seven days has been amazing. To quote my wife, "Wow, the anthology is really turning out to be a beautifully done project!" Thank you Very Much! But don't thank me... thank the artists! Here's a sampling of the work that we've received thus far.

An illustration by Crystal Frasier for Scott Schimmel's "4E Monk Project"

An illustration by James Keegan for James Maliszewski's "Gygaxian Naturalism"

An illustration by Lee Barber for Stephen Dewey's "Extreme Makeover: Tavern Edition"

Matt Lichtenwalner for Erika Hoagland's "0 and 1, or The Problem With RPG Combat"

Jennifer Weigel for Phil Ménard's "Mini Crunch: Fun with D&D 4e Action Points"

That's about it for this week. Stay tuned though... some very big news about the project is in the works, hopefully next week I'll be able to provide you with some concrete details.

Saturday means its time to review this past week's readings on the tubes... wow time flys... So, in no particular order.

1. Your Party as Company. Kinslayer, a guest blogger at UncleBear.com, kicked my week of reading off with a thought provoking post titled "Getting the Troupe Together". The author basically asks the question: why is the party together? and makes some good suggestions that help with the good ol' "suspension of disbelief" issue. I particularly liked this post because it fits very well with entourage campaigns with a large number of rotating players.
2. FONTS GALORE. Neitherworld Stories returns from the dead with a short post a great font making tool in "Great gaming tool: YourFonts". Apparently, Stargazer's World also posted about the same service a few days prior in "Create custom fonts for free". Suffice to say -- this is real cool for anyone looking to tinker around with custom fonts for there game. Along these same lines - I recieved an email from Crystal Frasier just yesterday pointing me to an extremely nice font company, Blambot.com, where many many of the fonts are free to use for non-profit purposes (like in your RPG campaign.
3. 4E Rituals. A Hero Twice a Month posted the first in an upcoming series on ritual magic in 4E, "The Promise and Problems of Rituals (Part I)". I'm glad to see some people in our community are finally getting around to deconstructing this aspect of 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons, because the existing rules as written could definitely use some tweaking. Actually, he inspired me to create some new ritual feats for 4E to address some of the issues raised in his post.
4. Copyrights, Trademarks, and Patents Oh My! One of my favorite blogs, Mad Brew Labs, posted "RPGs as Intellectual Property". This extremely in depth post (for a blog) is a must read for anyone interested in getting into the (self) publishing field. Chad Perrin SOB followed up on Mad Brew's post with "RPGs and Intellectual Protectionism", once again a somewhat humorous take on the RPG industry. What's better is... he quotes Thomas Jefferson. It doesn't get much better than that.
5. GET RICH QUICK WITH RPGS. I was going to post about this myself, but Purple Pawn beat me to the punch with "Mongoose Money". Mongoose Publishing just released a $30 PDF that apparently will show you how to get rich publishing roleplaying games. Go ahead, buy it. You'll .. um... get rich! [chuckles]

Have great weekend!

I moved my RSS feed to Google/Feedburner this morning and I noticed the address is different from my old Feedburner address.

Please update your subscriptions / feed readers / blog rolls etc.

The new feed is located at http://feeds2.feedburner.com/TheCoreMechanic

Yesterday I posted some excerpts from the Hasbro Q4 2008 financial summary -- reading between the lines you might have seen that the motivation for 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons was to provide a new game that Wizards of the Coast could produce to fit in with their parent company's vision of "digital gaming". Now, this get's a bit tricky because Atari games (as far as wikipedia knows) still owns the rights to the Dungeons & Dragons brand for 'interactive games'. Atari acquired these rights, along with many other Hasbro brands, when Hasbro Interactive was sold off to Infogrames in 2001 - the parent company of Atari. Hasbro later bought back the digital gaming rights to many of its brands in 2005, some of which are published by WotC (such as Magic the Gathering). However, the digital gaming rights for D&D are still owned by Atari - as far as I can tell. But I digress...

Yesterday, Bill Slavicsek published the monthly editorial "state of the union" post, D&D Insider: Where We Are. In his post he writes:

"It was three years ago that we merged our plans for the 4th Edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game with a new digital initiative. It was two years ago that we announced these plans to the public, and then last year we launched the new game and laid the groundwork for D&D Insider."

OK, so that puts it in 2006 when WotC decided they were "going digital" with the pen-and-paper Dungeons & Dragons game - the same year they ran the D&D Fan Film Contest [chuckles]. It's becoming clear to me that the emphasis for Wizards of the Coast is on the digital side of things - digital products like PDFs and online character gizmos are likely cheaper than books to produce. The books require a huge upfront printing investment, and might just sit in a warehouse if they flop. Digital products probably have the same development costs, but don't have the tail end printing costs - its a lot cheaper to provide server space and bandwidth than print 200,000 copies of Monster Manual XXVI.

Thus, is it possible that in the coming years we will see the printing of new D&D books go by the wayside?

Core rule books such as the PHB 1, 2, 3 etc probably will always come to print. Putting these books on the shelves of bookstores and game stores is nothing short of advertising for the game. Get them hooked, then they'll become subscribers! But, I would not be surprised if we saw supplements, accessories, and even most published adventures go all digital in the coming years. I mean... do we really need a print version of the Adventurers Vault 2 when a searchable online version is really more useful?

Another thing to notice about Bill Slavicsek's post is the following (chopped) excerpt:

"...We’ve learned a lot over the past twelve months. Now we need to take a moment, evaluate where we are and where we want to go next..."

(emphasis mine) Wait... didn't they have a plan already? I called vaporware once before, I'm hoping they don't prove me right on this.

"...D&D Insider, like the D&D brand itself, is a living, growing, ever-expanding experience. It expands every month as we update the Compendium and Character Builder, and as we release new content via the online magazines. And it will expand beyond that, eventually adding new features and functionality. We won’t release any component, however, until it hits or exceeds the level of quality we’ve established with the Character Builder."

(Wow... D&D sounds alot like a cult) So, is this basically saying the map maker, the online tabletop gaming system, the character 'visualizer', etc etc won't be released until... when?

"...I don’t have a ton of new information to pass along on a weekly basis. So, this will be the last regularly scheduled installment of Digital Insider..."

But didn't Mr. Slavicsek just say D&D was a "living, growing, ever-expanding experience". This seems like marketing parlor tricks. Basically, D&DI is "going dark" unless something leaks out on the forums. I just hope they don't cut any more jobs from the WotC development staff.

Sorry if this has been a bit of a ramble. So, I'll leave it on a positive note - earlier I mentioned the PHB 3... this had me a bit stoked to be honest. Mr. Slavicsek also wrote:

"In May, come aboard to help playtest a class from Player’s Handbook 3… the monk!"

Wohoo! That will be cool! I just wonder how similar it will be to Scott Schimmel's version at A Butterfly Dreaming. We shall see...

Well... I don't know if any of you own Hasbro stock (HAS), but ... last year they kicked tail and blew the doors down on profits DESPITE the recession. Today their Q4 2008 Earnings Call Transcript was released. Here's some excerpts as it pertains to our favorite game:

David Hargreaves : ... Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization were $654.3 million compared to $653.5 million a year ago...

Margaret Whitfield - Sterne, Agee & Leach : You mentioned the spending on emerging markets, digital, etc. Can you quantify the spending in Q4 and for the year?

David Hargreaves : I’m not sure we have added it all up exactly like that but we have certainly indicated in the earlier quarters it was running around $20 million a quarter and it was to tail off towards the end of the year. So I would say in the aggregate somewhere between $60-70 million of investment spending behind these various strategies which include the emerging markets, advancing our in house force to support our EA initiative where revenues only start in the fourth quarter but we had people on board all year, included our Wizards of the Coast digital initiatives which is Dungeons and Dragons Insider which if you go to the internet and see now and so there was a whole bunch of initiatives that were included in there and the aggregate spending over the year was probably in the region of about $70 million...

... In the U.S. and Canada segment we also had increases in product
development and marketing expenses related to the investments we are making in
our core brands as well as our Wizards of the Coast digital initiative ...

Drew Crum - Stifel Nicolaus : Can you say what the games and puzzles business did in the fourth quarter in terms of year-over-year growth or decline?

Brian Goldner : Games and puzzles for the full year was down slightly while board games was up a few percent.

Drew Crum - Stifel Nicolaus : How about in the fourth quarter?

Brian Goldner : In the fourth quarter games and puzzles were down a bit more significantly as were board games.

Take home message? Hasbro is an 800-pound gorilla. They love D&D Insider as it fits into the Hasbro wide initiave to get into "digital gaming".

Maybe the executives at WotC pitched a new edition of D&D, along with D&D Insider, to Hasbroas a way to keep the D&D brand alive and fall in line with their parent company's desire to get into the "digital gaming space".

Wolfgang Baur has offered to write the foreword for the RPG blog anthology! Well, I suppose this has been the biggest development in the last week for the Open Game Table project. We are very excited about this news! Wolfgang's contribution will certainly give the anthology a major boost in credibility and exposure. I'm looking forward to his thoughts on the future of table-top roleplaying games!

Oh, maybe you don't know who Wolfgang Baur is? Well, check out his website site here or hop over to Kobold Quarterly. A list of his contributions to the RPG community for the last ~20 years or so can be seen at Pen & Paper here. Monte Cook also interviewed him as well. Let's just say -- I'm stoked.

In other Open Game Table news -- all the chapters have been put through a first draft and I'm in the process of assembling the final manuscript into one document. So far, it's looking to be about 120 pages in length (~85,000 words) at 8.5 x 11. The artists who are contributing have until the end of the week to send in their final inks, so as I receive them I'll be adjusting the layouts as needed. Also, I'm hoping to have made a decision about the cover art by the end of next weekend - that, along with Baur's foreword, will be one of the final pieces needed for the book.

Some of you have emailed me asking about a timeline - well, since this is a self-published book there's really no hard and fast deadlines. However, I do not want to get too far into 2009 before the book is published. That being said, I'm expecting to have galley proofs around the first week of March and the book to be available for purchase about two weeks after that. Stay tuned!

Sponsorships
In the past I've put out a call for individual and corporate advertising sponsorships of this project to help offset the costs for printing the copies of the book that will be provided to the 50 or more contribute rs to the project. I was surprised when this call for sponsorships was so well received, and thus far nearly $300 in personal and corporate sponsorship funds have been donated. Donations have been made by individual readers of this blog, as well as by Otherworld Miniatures and Rogue Games. THANK YOU!!!

My own goal for sponsorship funds was $500, which is enough to cover most of the printing & shipping costs of 50 or so copies of the book. So, once again, I need to ask the community for their goodwill. If you are interested in sponsoring the project as an individual, please do! Any amount, no matter how small, will be deeply appreciated and you will recognized in the book as an Individual Sponsor of the project. Simply use the PayPal.com link below and donate what amount you feel comfortable giving. Thank you!

Furthermore, corporate advertising sponsorships are still available as well. If you would like to feature a full page or 1/2 page advertisement of your company, website, or blog - please contact me directly at jonathan dot jacobs at gmail dot com for details.

Inspired by this post over at A Hero Twice A Month, I've decided to offer up something that might help DMs who are looking for a fix to rituals in 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. First off, to use these new homebrew feats - you need make two changes to your game:

1. The Ritual Caster feat is dropped and replaced by other feats listed below.
2. Classes that normally gain the Ritual Caster feat as part of their design (clerics, wizards) gain, instead, three other feats (shown below).

The feats below are aimed at addressing some of the "issues" people are having with 4E rituals in that 1) money is the main obstacle towards gaining new rituals; and 2) anyone can be a ritual caster as easily as a wizard or cleric - thus devaluing the the importance of the ritual caster class feature.

Epic Ritual Caster
Prerequisite: Trained in Arcana or Religion, Paragon Ritual Caster Feat.
Benefit: You can master and perform rituals of your level or lower. These rituals are limited to those of level 30 or below. See Chapter 10 for information on acquiring, mastering, and performing rituals. Even though some rituals use the Heal skill or the Nature skill, the Arcana skill or the Religion skill is required to understand how to perform rituals. Clerics and Wizards automatically gain this feat as part of their ritual caster class feature.

Heroic Ritual Caster
Prerequisite: Trained in Arcana or Religion.
Benefit: You can master and perform rituals of your level or lower. These rituals are limited to those of level 10 or below. See Chapter 10 for information on acquiring, mastering, and performing rituals. Even though some rituals use the Heal skill or the Nature skill, the Arcana skill or the Religion skill is required to understand how to perform rituals. Clerics and Wizards automatically gain this feat as part of their ritual caster class feature.

Natural Study [Wizard]
Prerequisite: Int 13, wizard.
Benefit: You gain a +3 bonus to all ritual casting checks that rely on the Arcana or Nature skills.

Paragon Ritual Caster
Prerequisite: Trained in Arcana or Religion, Heroic Ritual Caster feat.
Benefit: You can master and perform rituals of your level or lower. These rituals are limited to those of level 20 or below. See Chapter 10 for information on acquiring, mastering, and performing rituals. Even though some rituals use the Heal skill or the Nature skill, the Arcana skill or the Religion skill is required to understand how to perform rituals. Clerics and Wizards automatically gain this feat as part of their ritual caster class feature.

Ritual Mastery
Prerequisite: Heroic Ritual Caster, Paragon Ritual Caster, Epic Ritual Caster.
Benefit: You automatically gain mastery in two rituals of your level or below. You may take this feat multiple times to gain mastery in additional feats.

Scholar of the Sacraments [Cleric]
Prerequisite: Int 13, cleric.
Benefit: You gain a +3 bonus to all ritual casting checks that rely on the Religion or Heal skills.

Hopefully these rituals might provide a quick fix to anyone who is looking to make clerics and wizards the _real_ ritual casters in the game once again. At the same time, these changes don't prevent anyone else from learning how to cast rituals.

Comments? What do you think?