On March 21st, the Player's Handbook 2 is being released in coordination with World Wide D&D Game Day. Someone at Wizards of the Coast must have realized the growing importance of the RPG blogging community because I was offered a free copy of the book - weeks before it is released - in exchange for reviewing any one of the character classes included in the PHB2. How could I say no? I was already anticipating the release of the Invoker because, from what I had already read online about the class, it seemed right up my ally.

The Invoker is a bad ass.

Plain and simple.

The whole idea behind the Invoker is that they are a divine caster, much like an Avenger, Cleric, and Paladin -- but unlike those classes, the Invoker does not rely on the trappings of a divine focus (i.e. holy symbol) for their abilities to function. They do not pray for spells and are not granted them from some agent of the gods. Instead, the power wielded by Invokers is cut from the very fabric of universe. They channel immortal powers of the gods directly -- and use their power to lay waste to anyone who stands in their path.

Invokers are controllers.

Much like Wizards, in combat Invokers can cast their "prayers" against multiple opponents as early as first level. What I find interesting is that many of their abilities have burst effects that are not simply aimed at damaging foes. These are not the specialist-wizard invokers of AD&D, whose power lay entirely in dishing up massive amount of damage. 4E Invoker prayers include involve plenty of pushing, pulling, sliding, slowing, dazing, and immobilizing. And that's just up to Level 5. Like I said -- they are controllers.

Invokers are summoners.

This is likely the biggest departure from the AD&D version of the Invoker. Whereas invocation and evocation schools of magic were juxtaposed to that of conjuration, the 4E Invoker gets the best of both worlds. Starting at Level 1 they have access to a daily prayer, Summon Angel of Fire, that summons "an angelic figure wreathed in fire." Yeah... and it burns you to a crisp if you stand next to it. The conjuration / summoning abilities of Invokers don't end with angels either: the list of things include magic walls of light, dancing blades, angels with dancing blades, walls of blades, and walls of angels with dancing blades. OK, the last one was a joke -- but you get the idea. As an Invoker, the forces of heaven got your back.

Oh, and at Level 19... you can summon the Tomb of Magrym. Yeah. It's a tomb that pops into existence on top of your enemies. The sorry souls who are stuck inside are in for a confusing experience and have to hack their way out. Did I mention the tomb was made of stone?

Paragon Paths
The Invoker also features four Paragon Paths: Angelic Aspect, Blightspeaker, Flame of Hope, an Hammer of Vengeance. I'll leave it to you to be the final judge of these paths - but in my estimation they are all top notch and provide highly flexible options for your end-game Invoker. My favorite? The Blightspeaker.

I've always had a soft-spot for classes that blend the dark elements of death, pestilence, and decay. Some of my earliest posts here at The Core Mechanic were in fact a 4E conversion of the 3.xE Forgotten Realms Talontar Blightlord prestige class and the blightspawn monster template - both of which were core to my campaign at the time. The Blightspeaker makes their enemies vulnerable to necrotic damage, and then uses the same energy type to harvest the life from their victims to fuel their own power -- but that's not the best part. These foul characters heal themselves every time they score a critical hit.

PHB 2: More Options, No Creep
The Invoker is a welcome addition to what is now a huge variety of classes that are available. For one -- it provides you with a new controller character type for players looking for something a little different than the wizard class. Secondly, the Invoker is substantially different from the 2E wizard-specialist class -- it feels like something entirely new. It is a flexible controller class that can easily play into a secondary role of striker or leader. And, for those looking for options to use during role playing scenes (i.e. non-combat encounters), the Invoker also includes a number of utility prayers to boost your PC's diplomacy and intimidation skills.

All in all I don't feel like the Player's Handbook 2 suffers from any "power creep" -- that is, the Invoker class and the other new classes, are on par with what was offered in the PHB1. It just might take a while to get used to all the core options - but options are good in my book, and I'm very satisfied with the way they are presented in this new member of the D&D family.

---

Want to learn more about Player's Handbook 2? Read on...

• Atomic Array: Episode 018: Player's Handbook 2
• Game Cryer: Player's Handbook 2 Review
• Gnome Stew: A Veteran GM's Take on GMing and the PHB2
• Critical Hits: The Avenger
• Campaign Mastery: The Barbarian
• Uncle Bear: The Bard
• Critical Ankle Bites: The Druid
• Kobold Quarterly: Review: Player's Handbook 2
• The Core Mechanic: The Invoker
• Flames Rising: The Shaman
• Stupid Ranger: The Sorcerer
• Musings of the Chatty DM: The Warden

Drop by Wizards of the Coast today!

I just read Donny the DM's post "Old School vs. New School - Or how to properly destroy something all profess to love." and ... well.. I've decided to make a Universal Grognard Feed. (copy the link into your feedreader...) It's even better than the RPG Blogger's Network because it picks up on EN World and all the millions of RPG forums out there.. wohoo!!!

OK... to be fair...

I also made the Universal New School RPG Feed.

YOU

MUST

CHOOSE...

oh wait... they are strangely the same... hmmmm....

I haz it...

Itz aweshum...

Open Game Table, The Anthology of Roleplaying Game Blogs will be released for intergalactic sale on March 23rd, 2009. It will be available directly from Lulu Marketplace, Indie Press Revolution, and Amazon.com for the retail price of only $22.95. Look for it on March 23rd, trust me... you'll love it.

And I'm serious... it really does look amazing in print. After slaving over the electronic form in draft, the physical book (galley proof) is far far better than I expected. Even by looking at the PDF, some people seem to agree -- check out the pre-reviews already hitting the blogosphere at The Fine Art of the TPK and A Butterfly Dreaming. (thank you!)

More details coming...

In the last couple of days, I've seen read some disturbing news and blog posts about the independent hobby game store business. You know... your FLGS.

Today, Nicholas over at DungeonMastering.com posted "Requiem for a Game Store" where he laments the slow decline of his own FLGS. This stood out to me because just yesterday I read Aoen's foreboding satirical forcast of 5E D&D ("Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Review") at GameGrene.com. Their point was the same -- FLGS are becoming a thing of the past and there is little we can do about it.

I disagree, there is a ton the gaming community can do to help the FLGS industry survive these tough economic times. All it takes is a bit of creativity and initiative. (I should preface this post with a warning: I have nearly zero understanding of how the actual RPG industry works from the ground up -- so, to many of you this may make you chuckle.)

1. Get to know your store. Set aside at least one-day per month to attend a gaming event at your FLGS. By visiting the store regularly you will get a vibe on how they are doing and get to know the "locals" as well.
2. Meet the Owner. Make a point of introducing yourself to the owner of the store. Putting a face on the store will help you remember that, when you shop at Amazon or Barnes & Noble, you are making a choice that doesn't include this person.
3. Make A Suggestion. Your a gamer, therefor you have strong opinions. Make them known to the guy behind the counter, let the store owner know, talk about it in the aisles of the store. Once your idea is out there, you never know what kind of impact you can have. Unrelated to gaming -- I made a suggestion to my FLB&WS (that's beer & wine in the middle there) about a certain Chilean wine I recently had enjoyed at a local restaurant. A few weeks later I noticed it was on the shelf, and it turned out to be one of their best sellers.
4. Special Order Something. Instead of click click ordering with Amazon, stop by your FLGS (or better yet call them) and ask them to special order what you are looking for. By ordering through the store, you are likely to pay a similar price as you might find in a big-box store like B&N, but will also be supporting them as well.
5. Order Online. Addicted to purchasing stuff online? Then make sure your store doesn't have an online ordering system. Many FLGS have online stores - some even with Instant Pick Up service (it's in the store waiting for you the minute you order it). If they don't have an online store set up -- see #3 above.
6. Bring a Friend. Two customers are better than one, so the next time you are going to drop in to your FLGS ask a friend to come along. The two of you can geek'out together, and the store owner might even be able to offer up a small discount if you buy two copies of that gamebook instead of one.
7. Try a New Game. The best way to spend money wisely on gaming (is that possible?) is to branch out and try something entirely new. Whether it is a new RPG, a new card game, strategy game, or something else -- your FLGS can guide you in making the decision as to what you might like to play best. I mean... do you REALLY think the stooge at Barnes & Noble is going to be able to tell you that Dominion is awesome and you definitely will like it? No.
8. Volunteer to Lead an Event. See #1 above, if that doesn't float your boat -- then see #6 above and repeat as necessary until you have enough people to run your own event in the store. Not all FLGS have the space for tons of concurrent games, but check their schedule. Ask them if you can host an event in their store. Got a regular gaming group? Depending on the location, you may even opt to host your regular gaming group at the FLGS.
9. Write About Your FLGS. Are you a blogger? Frequent forum poster? Then write a review about your FLGS. Provide links to their online store or their calendar of events. You will help them get some free advertising and through an honest review you will also give them straight-talk advice on what you like and don't like about their business (which is a good thing). Then send the link to the review to your FLGS by email and let them know about it.
10. Join Their Mailing List. All hobby shops have mailing lists - or at least email lists. Give them your contact info so that you can be informed whenever their is a sale, event, or other tidbit worth knowing about. By volunteering to be part of their marketing pool, you will stay in the know and sometimes even get coupons / discounts on items only available to people on the list. Its a win win.

The economics of hobby gaming is definitely changing. I too have seen my local store become somewhat more sparse than I remembered it to be. And while the digital initiative push by WotC certainly can not bode well for most FLGS owners, I'm sure this is not the only thing in their threat zone. We are a digitally centric group of people (gamers), but we need to remember that there is value to your FLGS that Amazon, DDI, and big box stores cannot give you: a connection with your local gaming community. Start thinking of your FLGS as a community center for gamers, and maybe it will follow that you'll remember them before you click "Checkout" at Amazon.

My local store? It's Dream Wizards in Rockville, MD. -- a 30 year icon of the region. I'm interviewing the owner in the next week or two, so hopefully I'll be able to complement this post with an insider's view of the business.

OK.. lunch break over... back to work...

This post is in reference to this other (excellent) excellent post over at Jeff's Game Blog. So, please jump over their and read up on what I'm reacting to. My comment just got too long, and decided to house it here since it was somewhat off topic anyway... and for the record I am not singling out any one blog or blogger -- it just seems that something troll'ish has emerged from the depths of Forumland and is invading our blogs...

....

Regardless of what game system I've played, its the GM/DM that makes the biggest impact on whether I had fun playing. Sure, as a player I can decide my own characters actions, but without the support of a DM who works with you, things get boring / frustrating fast. And when I'm the DM, which is often in my circles, the game system we are playing doesn't matter -- call me static, tired, old, or stuck in my ways, but there is a certain way I like to run a game regardless if it is D&D, Shadowrun, or Teddy A. D'Ventures -- loose scripting with tons of room for player direction and development. It hasn't changed in any of the versions of D&D I've used.

The edition or the game we choose does not determine whether or not we can play how we want to play.

I'm increasing convinced that many people are choosing "sides" and picking a banner to follow because it is just easier that way.

"I'm Old School! Check out my badass tattoos!"

"I'm Pathfinder! Check out my arty style!"

"I'm 4E, Look at my Rinestones! Aren't they purty?"

It's really sort of funny.

I would argue that people might not judge a book by its cover. the book being the DM behind the screen. What DM's do off the clock, planning for the campaign/ adventure/ encounter is their business. What they do behind the screen during play is their business. Fudge a roll? Sure! Roll dice and just ignore the results all the time because they just want to? Sure! Use / Don't Use Random Encounter Tables? Sure! ... what do I care anyway?

As a player all I should be worried about is one thing:

Are we, as a group, having fun?

Sry if this comes off as sort of a rant -- its just beginning to be funny to me that so much time and wind (ink?) is spent arguing about the good ol'days and how people should / should not play the game. Are they having fun? Great!

So many excellent blogs are devoted to fighting the good fight against the armies of Paizo, WotC -- I would much rather be reading game content from those authors. Have we lost our way?

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.