4e Forever Issue #1 Wrap-Up: Submissions, Q&A, and a THANK YOU!!!

Well, issue one of my fanzine 4e Forever has come and gone, and all I can say is that the response blew my expectations out of the water. This is obviously a niche product: a zine focused on a recently "cancelled" edition, and one that centers on high-level play, traditionally the least played "tier" of all editions. It also incorporates a lot of old-school elements, which, if you believe everything you read, is diametrically opposed to 4th edition. Well, the response proves that was a lot of bunk. I have had die-hard OSR guys congratulate me, and people that have only played 4e tell me I peaked their curiosity for classic editions. It seems a lot of the loud voices on the internet do not represent gamers as a whole.

I want to give a special thanks to those that shared this with others. Several people blogged about it, shared it on websites that I had never heard of, and some generous soul even took the time to index the issue on RPG Geek. Thank you. If anyone liked it or knows others that might, please continue to share it.

I thought I would give a short Q&A regarding some questions that arose from readers.

How often will 4e Forever be published?

There is no set schedule. A lot of it depends on real life and how many submissions I get (see below). It will be irregular, that's for sure.

Can classes other than Arcanists use spell research?

Yes. I left it as Arcane classes only in the mag for old-school flavor, but in retrospect, I should have clarified that.

You mentioned the rate of pay for hirelings based on level, but there was no list of hirelings.

A list of hirelings will appear with the stronghold rules, whenever I get them completed. In the meantime, a DM can just improvise based on common sense. For example, a blacksmith is a very common occupation, and even small villages like Hommlet will have one, so assign them a low level. In contrast, a sage that specializes in ancient astrology might be incredibly rare and command a higher wage. The less common the occupation, the higher the level. This also applies to supervisory roles, like in the mag example.

Does a Savage's extra attack on its initiative +10 work like some of the more recent 4e dragon designs? Do they get one action or a full set?

Yes, it is basically the same thing. How many actions is up to the DM. Note that a Savage is not required to use all of the features listed, but it will typically have many of them.

Who controls henchmen? Hirelings?

A DM should control hirelings, while the players control their henchmen.

What happens if the PCs level up and they are in an area with no henchmen to be attracted?

If the PCs are unable to be approached, then no henchmen are attracted, but if the PCs are in any location where populations of Humans or Demi-Humans are nearby, henchmen should find them.



I am THRILLED that I have already received a few submissions. I want to talk a little bit more about them. I am COMMITTED to making it smooth and easy as possible for you to submit material. Therefore, if you need help converting monsters to the new stat block, I will do it for you. I you have questions about the world or need guidance on any of the rules, I have an open line of communication. If you have "system neutral" material, such as random tables, by all means, send them in; not everything has to scream 4e. You might have something you submitted to Dragon or Dungeon that didn't get printed. Consider reflavoring it and sending it in! If you want to contribute to the zine, I promise I will do everything in my power to make it happen. So please, consider sending something in, or tell a friend that you think might be interested about it. Again, you can email submissions to frothsof@gmail.com .

Well, I just want to once again thank everyone for checking out the zine, even if it wasn't your thing. It is now my most popular blog post by a million miles. If anyone runs any of the adventures, let me know how it goes! I know that at 150+ pages, many of those who downloaded it may not have had a chance to finish reading it, so please keep sending me feedback. Thanks again!

DOWNLOAD MY FREE 4E FANZINE!!! 4E FOREVER ISSUE #1 IS UP!!!

So the wait is finally over. It has been a loooong road, but I am happy to say that I followed through and finally got it done. I hope you have enjoyed the "spotlights" on contributors yesterday and over the weekend. I again want to thank the Crypt Thing Robert Waluchow, Timothy "Morpho" Reynolds, and Will "Beholder Pie" Doyle for all of their help.

When the end of 4e was announced, I felt it had a lot further to go. I was cynical for a minute, thinking about all of the stuff that I felt was still needed or that was never accomplished. I decided that instead of bitching, I would do my own thing. After all, there are tons of awesome 'zines out there for out of print games...why not start one for 4e?

So I can finally spoil the contents for you now! What is in the first issue of 4e Forever?

-The framework of a new shared world that 4e fans can build together
-The best alternate and additional rules from my blog, re-organized, edited, and compiled into one easy to use document, the 4e Forever Grimoire
-Revamped trap rules for 4e with 15 new tricks and traps
-Over 30 new high level creatures
-Two full-length adventures, including part one of a massive megadungeon adventure path
-Exciting rules for a 4e mass combat system designed by WOTC published author Will Doyle
-All the info you need to submit your own writing, artwork, and/or cartography

This magazine is and always will be free, but I will ask one thing of you, Gentle Reader. Please pass this link along to any and all 4e fans that you know. I need help to keep this going, and I will be relying on submissions. So please, send to your gamer friends, forward to your friend lists on forums, tweet it, email it...anything you can do to help spread the word would be greatly appreciated.

And so, without further ado, I hope you enjoy the mag!

DOWNLOAD 4E FOREVER ISSUE ONE

COUNTDOWN TO THE 'ZINE-CONTRIBUTOR SPOTLIGHT-WILL "BEHOLDER PIE" DOYLE

Wow, it is just one more day til I drop my 4e fanzine! Over the weekend we took a look at some of the awesome talent that contributed to the first issue. Saturday we checked out the Crypt Thing, Robert Waluchow. Yesterday, we spoke with the multi-talented Timothy "Morpho" Reynolds. Today we shine the spotlight on Will Doyle of Beholder Pie.

Will and his girlfriend Stacey operate the blog, a truly amazing mix of great 4e design and world-class artwork. Someone on a forum somewhere mentioned it to me a few years ago, and when I checked it out, I was pretty overwhelmed. "How has nobody heard of this guy?", I wondered, as his blog is really heads and tails above a lot of what you see. Well, it seems WOTC took notice as well, because in the year since I first asked Will about contributing to my zine, he has had not one, not two, but three adventures appear in Dungeon, with another possibly on the way. All of his adventures have gotten rave reviews for their creativity. I am not surprised in the least.

When I approached Will about printing one of his articles in the mag, he was total class. He let me make edits, answered questions, and he is really a super-nice guy who deserves all of the success he is getting. You will be seeing a lot more of this guy, I promise you that.

Will was nice enough to answer some questions for me:

1. How did you get into gaming?

I was first introduced to roleplaying games in 1984, when a relative gave me and my brother a boxed copy of Call of Cthulhu. I was nine, so it was way above my head, but I remember liking the pictures! Eventually one of my brother's friends ran a short campaign of Dragon Warriors, and we finally understood how it all worked - and were pretty much hooked. That led to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Paranoia, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, D&D and dozens more. Nowadays I mostly play D&D and Call of Cthulhu, with occasional forays into other systems. My girlfriend is a keen player, and we both work in video games, so there are plenty of opportunities to game!

2. Can you talk a bit about Beholder Pie? How did you get started with it?

Beholder Pie was born when my 4th Edition campaign began developing lots of housebrew content: a mass combat system, unique monsters, magic items, and artifacts. Most blogs seemed to focus on GM-advice, so I thought a "crunch-heavy" site could stand out from the crowd. I also played with a group of video game artists, who were always drawing pictures of their characters, so I had lots of original artwork available. Over the months the blog has become less crunch-based, but I still try to provide something mechanical every once in a while.

3. I know you have had some stuff published by WOTC recently. Anything else on the horizon you want to share with us?

Over the last year I've written four Dungeon adventures for Wizards of the Coast. The first two - "Tears of the Crocodile God" and "Glitterdust" have already been published, and there are two more in the pipes. I can't talk much about them until they're been announced, except to say they were a real blast to write and playtest! Two of the adventures I've written have been based on concepts they've asked me to develop (rather than ideas I pitched to them), which in some ways I prefer - it's more of a challenge, as it puts you out of your adventure-writing comfort zones!

I am not going to spoil what Will contributed to my zine. All I will say is that it is a game changer, plain and simple. You do NOT want to miss it. Thank you SO MUCH for your help Will!

You can pretty much click at random on Will's blog and find something awesome, but I think I will leave you with a link to some of his recent ultra-creative stuff, "The Drowned Kingdoms". This is a killer new campaign setting, a world completely flooded...kind of like Waterworld without the urine drinking and cigarettes. Here are the posts about it, scroll down to start at the beginning.

One of the awesome locales of the Drowned Kingdoms, Fathomdeep

COUNTDOWN TO THE 'ZINE-CONTRIBUTOR SPOTLIGHT-TIM "MORPHO" REYNOLDS

Today I continue to shine the spotlight on contributors to my upcoming free 4e fanzine. Don't forget, it comes out this Tuesday, June 11th! Yesterday, we took a look at cartographer extraordinaire, Crypt Thing Robert Waluchow. Today we spotlight Timothy "Morph" Reynolds!

I first met Timothy Reynolds about three years ago, gaming online. We played (and still play) on the RPGTO; this is the virtual table that Wizards developed but discontinued. It is still going strong, but that is another story.

Tim aka "Morpho" aka "MorphoPractix" aka "SarialMorphoPractix" is the consummate gamer-the exact person you want playing at your table. Courteous, friendly, creative...anyone that has played with him remembers what a cool person he is to game with. I am lucky enough to have played dozens of sessions with him. Everyone likes Morpho.

Slowly but surely we got to know each other a little bit, and I began hearing more about his real life. "Morph", as I prefer to call him, alluded to the fact that he is a stage actor. Didn't surprise me at all, as he is a great roleplayer. I started hearing more about his parts in productions; he mentioned "Penny Dreadfuls" and "Varney the Vampire" one session, and I felt hip to know that I knew what the hell he was talking about. Anyways, I had let people know that I was working on a 4e fanzine, and Morph ended up emailing me about it. It turns out that he is a Renaissance man, and that drawing and painting are also among his many talents. Again, not really surprised. Turns out Tim is many things: an actor, playwright, poet, designer, and a visual artist. He is also my place to crash next time I am in Brooklyn, NY (half-kidding).

I am not a fan of modern RPG art. I love the classic stuff: Sutherland, Trampier, Otus...I don't like anything that feels overwrought or tortured. I want to feel an artist's character. I don't know if that makes much sense, but you can probably still appreciate how awesome it was when Morph sent me these images that he drew for a storyboard/treatment of a friend's upcoming outer-space sci-fi film. This is exactly the kind of art that I wanted to see in an RPG. It is visceral, fluid, and most importantly, it has character.

Slime on the foot? That's a BAD THING in outer space.

Space jealousy? That's even WORSE.

Uh, yeah, but space cutting is worst of all...

How awesome it is to have an artist with that kind of talent contributing to my little fanzine. Thank you so much Morph!


I asked Morpho a few questions in a vain attempt to unravel the enigma. Here are his responses:



1. How did you get into gaming?

I first began with Basic D&D in 1977, moving quickly onto AD&D.

2. I know you are a creative guy, you act in the theatre, you paint, etc. How do these tie-in to your gaming?

RPGs tend to attract actors and artistic types.  I always have drawn during game sessions - characters, combats that were happening, etc.  It has always fueled the game for myself and for my fellow players, as I tend to do character portraits for my companions and the DM.

3. Any projects or plans for the future with your painting? 

I will always do artwork and I am contemplating a tarot deck series of paintings.



The tarot thing sounds amazing. Morpho is a true talent, with an incredible knack for interpreting text and conveying it in an image. Everything I gave him was like a sentence or less, and he did incredible things with it. You will see for yourself soon enough. I do not want to publish his email, but if you want to contact him let me know and I will pass on the information. I can see him doing a lot of OSR work, as his artwork is perfectly suited for it. I will certainly be hitting him up for issue #2.

The Tuesday release is creeping closer! In the meantime, you can check out this awesome sneak peek at an original Morph image from the 'zine. I asked him for "zombies". No detail or anything. Look at how awesome this is! (Note the dude in the bottom left...super-creepy!)

"Zombies" by Timothy Reynolds

COUNTDOWN TO THE 'ZINE-CONTRIBUTOR SPOTLIGHT-"CRYPT THING" R. WALUCHOW

As I countdown to the release of my free 4e fanzine this coming Tuesday, I wanted to shine the spotlight on some people that helped make this first issue everything it could be. Today we take a look at the Crypt Thing, Robert Waluchow.

I first became aware of Robert's blog ( http://cryptthing.blogspot.com/ ) by way of 4thcore. I really appreciate the 4thcore movement, as it incorporates a lot of my own philosophy into its design. I like challenging combat and old-school adventures, and 4thcore delivers both. I started checking out other 4thcore affiliated sites and came across Rob's. I had an instant appreciation for his blog; unlike many sites, it is primarily focused on cartography. I really liked his style; it feels like a mix of hand-drawing and technology, an interesting balance. 

One of Rob's awesome creations

Over time, Rob started sharing some of his artwork as well. I love the style. Check out the Vrock Seer below!

Vrock Seer, Crypt Thing style

As I started work on my magazine, I took the chance of approaching Rob about him helping with the mag's cartography. I thought, "What do I have to lose?". The worst he could tell me is no, but if he helped, I knew I would have a real up-and-coming talent in the world of D&D cartography helping me. Thank the gods that he said yes. Over the last year+, Rob has shown amazing patience with me, making edits, and taking on a LOT more work than I originally gave him. I am eternally grateful to him for his help. I can't imagine what it would be like if he hadn't helped me. I wholeheartedly recommend designers out there hiring Rob to help with your work. He is a pro and a great guy.

I decided to ask all of the contributors a few questions to help shine the light on how they got into the hobby and about their work. Here is my Q&A with Rob:

Q: How did you get into gaming?

A: I got into role playing games in the mid 90’s playing AD&D 2^nd Edition. Unlike many other role players, I didn’t have anybody to shepherd me into the hobby. I had a vague general impression of Dungeons & Dragons, but had never been exposed to it. The catalyst for my entry into the hobby came (appropriately enough) from mapping. One day while I was daydreaming during class, I spied a fellow class mate drawing. My interest perked, I leaned in to see what he was drawing and saw a map of a sprawling fantasy kingdom. He was fleshing out a homebrew setting for use in Dungeons & Dragons. I marveled at the audacious free-form creativity employed for use in a game. The idea of creating a unique world whole-cloth and having a group of people interact with it and experience it was too alluring for me to ignore. I rushed out, picked up the core rulebooks, and began blundering my way through learning the ropes of running a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. I’ve never looked back since.

Q: Can you tell us about Crypt Thing?

A: Crypt Thing is a blog I started up a couple of years ago in order to share the maps I create for my home games with a wider audience. There is a myriad of blogs out there that deal with Dungeons & Dragons and role playing games in general, but I found that most of them discuss game theory or offer advice on running games. Precious few offered concrete tangible tools that Dungeon Masters could use and drop right into their games. So I decided to create a venue to showcase my maps and offer them up unlabelled so that readers culd take them and use them in their own games however they saw fit.

My greatest joy as a Dungeon Master stems from when the players discover a new location: that moment when I drop a lavish new map down on the table. Their eyes light up as they pour over the map and begin to explore the nooks and crannies of the creation. It is my hope that I can help others foster this experience in their own games.

Q: Can you tell us about your ties to Fourthcore?

A: My tie to fourthcore is chiefly one of rabid fanboyism. I love the incredible works of SVD Press and Dungeon Oracle. The way these designers have eschewed the appeal of a wide audience to fearlessly bend the game and create adventures the way they want to play has been eye-opening and inspiring.

I've been playing Dungeons & Dragons for 17 years, and Revenge of the Iron Lich remains my favourite adventure I've ever run.

I'm also quite active with FourthcoreTeam Deathmatch. Created by C Steven Ross, (author of such great blogs as DMG 42 and Triumph and Despair) FTDM is an amazing pulse-pounding team-based death match that utilizes the 4e ruleset. In addition to playing it every chance I get (lookout Gencon 2013!), I've designed two of the maps, E4M1: Court of the Storm Lord, and E4M1: Vault of the Spider Queen.

Also on the fourthcore horizon, I'm currently working on the illustration and cartography of a new fourthcore module by Anthony Franchini, called "Pit of the Void Locust". Privy to the design process, I've been able to look under the hood of this one. If you are fan of fourthcore, you're going to love this module; it's evocative, deadly, and ludicrously difficult.

Q: You mentioned on your blog that you were working on an adventure; any progress on this?

A: Sadly, my ambitions always seem to outpace my reality. Between professional and personal obligations, I have found precious little time to work on it. As I'm sure you are aware, there is a mountain of work involved in taking an idea from a form that you yourself can run at the table and turning it into something you can share with a wider audience. I'm committed to seeing it through, but I have no set timeline for doing so.

Still, I've got some work coming down the pipe, including Pit of the Void Locust, more maps and a tutorial on how I draw and colour my settlement maps.

Thanks again Rob, for everything.

I am proud to leave you today with a juicy sneak peek of Rob's work in the magazine. (Why yes, that IS the first level of a 4e megadungeon!!!)

Told you he was a bad-ass!

COUNTDOWN TO THE RELEASE OF MY FREE 4E FANZINE!!!

If you have been wondering "Where's Froth?" lately, please forgive my absence, but I finally decided to buckle down and finish my free 4e fanzine! I didn't want to post again until it was done. I first mentioned it over a year ago, and it feels great to finally be able to get it out there.

Why did it take so long? Well, I GROSSLY underestimated the amount of work it would be for one thing. Secondly, the thing just kept growing. I thought it would be a little 30 page deal (and it might be in the future, lol), but it grew to over 150 pages. Between working full time, raising a kid, and running multiple campaigns, it was just a lot of work. I am not like some other writers that can just turn it on and off. At a lot of points, I just didn't feel like writing or didn't feel creative. Getting the last little bits done was the hardest. I also struggled a bit with the layout; it is a little on the crude side, but I did my best. I am proud of myself for following through.

Now that its done, I can't just post up a link right now. That would be too easy. No, I want to celebrate this sucker. As a result, I am setting the release for this Tuesday, June 11th. Over the weekend and on Monday I will be featuring a series of blogs spotlighting contributors to the first issue. I think you will all enjoy it. I don't want to spoil who helped just yet, but rest assured that they are all bad-asses.

I had several goals in setting out to create the mag. For one thing, I wanted to help keep 4e alive by giving fans an outlet that they could use to create and share their own material. I wanted to support high-level play exclusively. I also wanted to continue the work I have done on my blog, bringing old-school, classic edition design elements into 4e. 

So what is in the zine? Well, without spoiling too much, I can tell you that there are two full adventures, over thirty new high-level monsters, over fifteen new tricks and traps, tons of alternate rules for 4e, and a bunch of other stuff that I don't want to spoil just yet.

So, check out the blog over the weekend and be sure to download the mag next Tuesday!

Footprints is back!!!

Wow, after a two year absence, the good folks over at Dragonsfoot have compiled a new issue of Footprints! If you haven't heard of it, Footprints is a free OSR e-zine that first appeared all the way back in 2004. You will find adventures, original monsters, fan fiction, cartoons, and more in each issue. What a wonderful thing to see that Footprints is still "kicking"!

Check it out!

OSRCon

Hey everyone. If you have wondered what the deal is with no updates, I have been sick and my daughter has been sicker. Preschool is a dark and dank cesspool, as grim as the darkest dungeon. I apologize for it, but only parents will probably understand it. Anyways, I just wanted to quickly point out how awesome this convention will be to attend if you are in the Toronto area. Hang out with Mentzer and Greenwood? What else is there to say? I wish I could be there. There is a push to get word out about it, because some folks involved in the OSR have fallen off of the face of the earth. So if you are in the know or have friends and fam in the area, please repost! Ok?!

Dungeons and Cthulhu

Though Dungeons and Dragons will always be my first love, a close second is Chaosium's classic horror RPG, Call of Cthulhu. Although these games are distinct and have many differences, there are still some ideas from CoC that you can port right over to your D&D game. Lets take a look at some ideas.

CoC-ESQUE CLUES IN SANDBOX PLAY

One of my favorite adventures of all time is Masks of Nyarlathotep. I cannot say too much about it because I will be running it soon for my home group. The reason I bring it up is that it is in a "sandbox" style; players can follow clues literally to all corners of the world, and it doesn't matter in which order they pursue them. Some are related, some aren't. Each chapter presents a little table of the clues in that chapter, and where they lead. That is the part I want to focus on.

Some DMs aren't ready to run a true "do what thou wilt" sandbox, or they simply don't want to do that in the first place. A DM sometimes makes a "pseudo-sandbox", where they have prepared several scenarios or adventures, and the players basically choose which one they pursue. It feels like a sandbox to the players, but it is actually under DM control. Other times, the DM has a specific adventure or scenario he/she wants the players to play, and all roads point there.

Whichever your style, consider using a "clue drop" to give your players options. In Masks of Nyarlathotep, investigators might discover 4 or 5 seemingly unrelated clues at once. They then have the freedom which to follow now and which to follow later. There are innumerable ways to do this. Maybe they find several disparate leads in the pockets of an assassinated lord. Maybe they return to collect a fee for a deed, and the benefactor's house is burned to the ground, with just a few smoldering clues. Clues could lead them to the ends of your "earth", to remote libraries, shady traders in dangerous port cities, or to dangerous ritual magic. Think of a few locales and scenarios that you think will be fun for both you and your players, and then drop a few clues leading there. Those apparently unrelated clues could eventually fit together into a complex plot line.


INSANITY

Ah, insanity. Perhaps the most ground-breaking mechanic of CoC. For the uninitiated, Cthulhu investigators slowly (and sometimes rapidly) go insane. It is really just a matter of time, as the more crazy stuff they discover, the more sanity they lose. Fun stuff. The Ravenloft campaign setting of 2e "stole" this a little bit, and added its own twist to it. I am suggesting using a totally simplified version.

Basically, if a PC encounters something truly weird, alien, and horrifying, you might check their sanity. In D&D terms, seeing creatures from the Far Realm or the Abyss might qualify for sanity checks. Have a PC roll a saving throw. On a failure, the PC might suffer some slight effect...at first. They might automatically miss their next attack roll, be stunned temporarily or immobilized, be forced to run a few feet in terror, etc. PCs will only have to make a check once per creature or group of creatures. If they fail numerous sanity rolls over a short period of time (multiple encounters), they might have a more permanent insanity or disorder. You can get funny or stark with this depending in the tone of your campaign. They could maybe develop something as silly as a fear of dwarves, or something as depraved as fecalphilia.

ATTRACTING THE ATTENTION OF LAW ENFORCEMENT

In CoC, the investigators might be armed to the teeth, but treating 1920's New England like the wild west is going to quickly draw the attention of local police. Consider making certain towns and cities in your milieu to be very anti-weapon/violence. Maybe PCs cannot even wear armor. This immediately adds an interesting pressure to the PCs; maybe they have no problem tracking down a villain, but with the risk of attracting 100 soldiers or constables, they have to get creative with how to take the villain down. Not every town appreciates having the hell blown out of it by adventurers.

DARK RITUALS

In CoC, using spells and magic gradually drains an investigator's sanity. It also costs "magic points", which are derived from an investigator's "power" or force of will. To keep this simple in D&D without requiring a lot of mechanics, consider dropping a few powerful ritual scrolls in a treasure parcel. While the power might be tantalizing, what the players do not realize is that the power comes with a price. Casting the spell might prompt a sanity save, and failure could cause temporary insanity, possession or whatever else you can think of.

UNKILLABLE FOES

One of the first things you learn playing CoC is that you stand no chance in hell of taking on a Great Old One with your little pea-shooters. It is best to run as fast as you can, but if you have already seen the entity, it may already be too late. I have talked before about players' sense of invulnerability, primarily in later editions of D&D. Fleeing an encounter is a completely foreign concept for many D&D adventuring groups. On rare occasions, consider presenting the PCs with a truly unkillable foe. This helps them keep perspective about their place in your multiverse.








OTHER IDEAS

Other ideas you can port into your D&D game from CoC include conspiratorial adventures, encouraging research (libraries, government records), and perhaps even designing your own Cthulhu-related themes (Professor, Antiquarian, Private Investigator).

CONCLUSION AND UPDATES

I hope you got a few ideas from this article. Those of you still waiting on the conclusion of my stronghold rules, I have made progress but I am still not done perfecting the costs and construction formulas. I am, sad to say, not the fastest writer in the world. It will be done eventually. For those that have followed me in anticipation of my 4e fanzine, I swear I am getting close. I am waiting on some material from others, maps, illustrations and the like, and as they are being provided free, as favors, I am just letting everyone take their time. It has blossomed to over 150 pages, and it will be worth the wait in my estimation.

At any rate, I hope everyone has a good weekend. If you have any ideas on how to bring some CoC goodness into D&D, please leave a post!

Hilarious D&D Vid

So this has been floating around on multiple sources, but as I almost missed it, I am re-posting in hopes that others get as big a laugh out of this as I did. These guys take an episode of the old D&D cartoon and overdub their voices over it as if they are playing D&D. Some brilliant stuff on here:

WATCH IT!!!

Tracking "Turns" in 4e

Howdy all. I am a big fan of the old-school "turn". The term has wargaming roots, and while I have seen some old games assign different amounts of time to a "turn", in all of the classic editions, a turn is ten minutes. In my upcoming zine, I bring the concept into 4e, and I thought I would encourage you do to the same.

Why? Well, it has nostalgic, old-school flavor for one thing, but it also gives some added versatility to DMs. You can track "in-game" time more accurately, and you can utilize the turn for everything from wandering monsters to rewards with random durations. You can use it in your adventure design in creative ways; perhaps the PCs are in an area that is patrolled once every 1d4+1 turns, adding a chance the PCs will get caught, depending on how slow they move through the area. Tracking turns gives the DM a good, rough sense of the time passing, and this is a good thing.



How? Take a page from the old editions. It doesn't have to be (and never will be) exact, and it isn't meant to be. It is a tool. In B/X, your "turn" speed was three times your "encounter speed". So you might see a speed listed as 120' (40'). Your turn speed (120 feet in this case) was about how far you would typically move in a dungeon in ten minutes, assuming you were being somewhat cautious. So for 4e, I take the slowest party member and multiple their speed times three. This is roughly the distance the party can travel in a dungeon on foot in ten minutes, assuming they are watching their step, mapping, or what have you. You can pretty much just eyeball this; it is a rough measure. I count an encounter plus the following short rest together as one turn, even though it isn't quite that long. If a party member announces they are searching a room, disabling a trap, reading runes from a wall, or anything else requiring real concentration and skill, it takes a turn. For any other scenario, judge as needed.

The next time you are putting an adventure or scenario together, consider trying to use turns as a tool. I really like giving alternative rewards that last for a few turns; you can afford to give them something really powerful, as it will not last very long at all. On the flip side, you can give PCs debilitating short-term conditions. Instead of an effect ending at the end of an encounter, perhaps it lasts 2d4 turns...long enough for the condition to make its presence felt without overstaying its welcome.

Any other "turn" lovers out there?

Something Presumably Awesome Is Going On With The 4thcore Site

Quick post just to note that the 4thcore site has looked a little odd the past few days...like there is at minimum a site re-org going on, at most perhaps a peek at the enigmatic Sersa V's new RPG that he/she (it?) has alluded to be working on in the past.

I must say, I am a huge 4thcore fan. I will be watching the site in anticipation for what this might mean.

Let's Clear Up A Few 4e Myths

Howdy. I had a few disparate blog ideas running thru the head, and I realized they all could be used to dispel a few 4e myths, so I have combined them together. First off, don't get me wrong, 4e isn't perfect and I don't claim it to be. Readers of this blog know that I constantly tinker with 4e to make it something I like more. That's sort of the essence of D&D after all: making the game your own. But I am undoubtedly a huge fan of 4e. Anyway, here are some common 4e myths and my response:





"It is difficult to convert old modules to 4e"

I don't now who started this one, but it simply isn't true. I've mentioned before that I drop Skill Challenges from my games. One of the reasons for this is that, on its own, the 4e skill system is very smooth, intuitive, and covers pretty much anything that comes up (and if something else comes up, you can roll with Ability Checks). Anyway, in my experience the 4e skill system works like a charm in updated adventures. I updated Ravenloft (I6) for 4e. There are all kinds of roleplay moments, exploration, etc where skills came up. I just rolled with it if the players wanted to use one, or called for a check if it was really needed. So there is really no conversion necessary for an old modules' out-of-combat material. It can be handled on the fly quite easily.

The monster conversion is where the real challenges would appear to begin. Now, I am not going to say converting monsters from 1e to 4e is as easy as 1e to B/X or 2e, because it isn't. But 4e does have a strength that those games lack: 4e monsters have specific formulas to work from. This can help DMs determine difficulty fairly accurately, but more importantly, it is very easy to make 4e monsters.

Confronted with the need to convert a monster in an old module, the first step I would encourage is to see if there is a 4e version within your party's level range. If so, check the source and see if it is post MM3. If it isn't, try these tips to upgrade old crappy monsters on the fly. If the monster isn't in your party's range, it is fairly straightforward to adjust. The design remains the same, you just plug in different numbers. Make sure you are using the DMG errata though.

If you can't find the monster in a 4e source, or if you don't like what 4e did the monster, build your own. This doesn't have to be laborious. Use this guide to make quick 4e monsters. Try to distill the essence of the original monster and keep it simple.



The last step is to make sure the adventure doesn't run like a sloggy mess. There are several ways to do this. You could drop the wandering monsters from an adventure and just run the prepared encounters, or you could drop a lot of planned encounters and instead just use the wandering monster tables. Or you could drop a little of both. This isn't just in response to 4e combat length (more on that below); the fact is, some old modules feel like a grind to begin with. You should also use Morale and Reaction Tables. If you are using an old module that has Morale scores, just port them over. Otherwise you can check my 4e Morale rules. Ok, so that leads us to the next myth.

"Combat was fast in old editions, never approaching 4e length"

This is simply not true. It is true that classic edition combat COULD be quicker, but it wasn't always. I know this because I DM and play old editions. At even moderate levels, old edition spellcasters could have a ton of choices, and adjudicating their effects was often not a cut and dried proposition. A typical PC's percentage chance to hit was often lower, so there are more misses. There were also huge throngs of monsters in old adventures, like all the time. I am reminded of one of my faves, Descent Into the Depth of the Earth, which was a combo module of D1-D2. There are like 20 Drow here, 40 Kuo-Toa there, 30 Troglodytes here. Heck, even in the Village of Hommlet, you will have 16 or more enemy combatants!

Now I KNOW combat can drag in 4e. I have tried to provide some tips and ideas to help with that. Simplifying monsters, using groups of the same monsters, using Morale, lowering hit points-all of this helps. But it is simply disingenuous to act like old combat couldn't take a while, especially when casters had some actual spells to cast. This has also been true of my experience with 5e so far. We had a two hour combat last week and we just hit level 2. Combat often takes an hour or more at level 1. I am not saying it isn't fun, or that this is too long, I am just saying that combat length can drag in multiple editions; it isn't only a 4e phenomenon.

"It is harder to houserule 4e than other editions"

I am tempted just to say "read my blog" as a response to this one, because there are dozens of houserule examples on here, but just to expound on it a bit, 4e is no different from any other edition of D&D. You can houserule it and make it your own with ease. The difference between 4e and classic editions is that the mechanics in 4e are "on display". The math is predictable and easy to grasp. This is already sort of covered above with monsters. This makes houseruling and homebrewing very easy. Since you have clear expectations for damage, defenses, DCs, etc at all levels, it becomes very easy to slide the scale towards "easy" or "hard". See Fourthcore. I have tweaked monster design, traps, disease, combat, and on and on, and I have only scratched the surface of the possibilities. 4e does not deviate from D&D's proud history of homebrewing and houseruling, it embraces it as much as any other edition.

That's all I have for you today. As always, I welcome comments! Take it easy!

Wednesday Grab Bag: Monster Tips and Random Thoughts

Howdy all. I have been busy busy busy lately, but thought I would post a few of my recent ponderings. Rather than stretch these out into separate blog posts, I figured I would just mix it all together in a bucket.

Simpler Monsters = More Flavorful Monsters

I have posted a bunch of monster tips over time, but thought I would emphasize something that I have mentioned before but never really focused like a laser on. In 4e, it is very easy to overdo monsters. I think part of this is bc it is so easy to design 4e monsters. I remember the first game of 4e I ran. I was starting a new campaign, and I came up with this location-based adventure set at these mines. Anyway, the first bad guy that the players ran into was "Scalpel Jim", along with his entourage. Jim used-you guessed it-a scalpel as his weapon. I had built him out with four or five different scalpel powers, some encounters, some rechargeable, I spent some time on it, and ended up with what I thought would be a very memorable villain. Anyhoo, prior to the encounter, Scalpel Jim made a two-fingered gesture at the party's female Monk. The Monk promptly won initiative and walked over and critted Jim with "Open the Gates of Battle", killing him before he ever even acted.

I learned a valuable lesson that day. Two actually. Don't cross bad ass Monk chicks, and do not over-design 4e monsters. Ask yourself what the essence of a monster is, and design accordingly. The more powers and doo-hickeys you add to a monster, the more diluted the flavor. You want monsters to be memorable. You want their flavor to come through in obvious, unmistakable fashion when PCs encounter them. Ask yourself what the monster does, then have it do that and nothing else. You might not have time to do much, so make it count.

Learning from Lareth the Beautiful

As you might be aware, I am running the Temple of Elemental Evil using the 81' B/X rules. It is going swimmingly. One thing that I must admit I like quite a bit about old editions that is missing from the 4e game is that the PCs encounter spellcasters that use the same spell lists and character creation rules as PCs. Now don't get me wrong; in most cases I much prefer to just build every NPC off of a monster template. 4e character creation is just a little too complicated for building NPCs from actual character classes, especially since they are usually going to get killed pretty quickly. You will spend more time building it than it will ever see on the battlemat. But what if you want that classic edition feel, where evil spellcasters, such as the ToEE's Lareth the Beautiful, have a juicy list of spells? I also love having classic edition spellcaster adversaries cast some spells in advance, like Guards and Wards, or Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound, etc. This way the "table is set" prior to an encounter. How can we get this feel in 4e without wasting a ton of time working through a grueling character creation process?

Turns out it is pretty simple. Give the bad guys rituals! And let them cast rituals ahead of time. As a player, I have hardly ever seen this done in 4e. You might have to stop a bad guy from completing a ritual, but it is rare indeed to see a list of rituals on a monster stat block. So, the next time you have your 4e PCs encounter a "spellcaster" (Cleric, Mage, or otherwise), give the caster a list of rituals. See if it would be advantageous for them to have cast one or more of the rituals already. This will add a nice layer of unpredictability to the proceedings. It can also serve to make an encounter much more difficult, emphasize flavor, or simply just allow you to use a ritual in your game for once. A party can trigger an alarm from a warding ritual, encounter odd summoned creatures, be teleported away, heck who knows. You can also make up new rituals, or use an old spell as the basis for a new ritual. Like Lareth the Beautiful's "Continual Darkness" spell. Anyways, I hope that this doesn't read too "rambly" and makes sense. Use the 4e Ritual Index from the mags, and see if you can't get something resembling that old-school caster flavor going for some bad guys in your game.

4e is Ideal for One-Page Dungeons

I spoke before about making tweaks to 4e to help it work better with megadungeons. Yet, no matter what you do, 4e will still never be the best system for megadungeons (in my opinion). However, the more I think about it, 4e is perfect for one-page adventures.

Not familiar with the one-page dungeon phenomenon? Man, you are going to love me then. They have a yearly contest where people submit their one-page creations. The winners over the years can all be downloaded for free from this website. There is some really awesome stuff to be discovered there. At another site, someone has put up some templates that can be used for one-page dungeon creation. Just look at the column on the right for the free downloads.

Anyway, I find that you only need one or two encounters for a good one-night 4e adventure. Thus, you do not need a lot of space. I never much cared for long, drawn-out, over-described encounter scenarios for 4e. I don't need everything spelled out. With a one-page template, you can describe a locale, give it some flavor, then go. Instead of trying to fit a stat block on there, just reference the book a creature is found in, or keep stats on a separate page. I think you will agree that 4e is really suited to this format. It is no wonder that the Dungeon Delve book was (and still is) so popular. Although the outdated monsters need to be boosted, and I would probably drop the first or second encounter from many of the book's mini-adventures, it does show you that just a little 4e adventure design goes a long way (partly because 4e combat lasts a little longer than other editions). Anyway, I found it inspiring, and I will be calling for some one-page 4e dungeons/adventures once I start taking submissions for 4e Forever.


So that is it. Just some ideas that have been bouncing around. Sorry for the rambly feel! As always, I would love to hear comments/thoughts. See you next time!

Non-Mechanical Conditions

I was motivated to write this post whilst reminiscing about my campaign that recently ended. I was recalling how much I enjoyed running Tegel Manor updated for 4e. I have posted before about the good times to be had with funhouse-style alternate rewards, but I felt the need to emphasize how great non-mechanical conditions can be.

 What do I mean by "non-mechanical"? Well, instead of players having to track any specifics, or worry about mechanical details, the player is affected by a condition that really only demands role play. For example, an enchanted painting made a player in my game feel incredibly brave for like an hour and a half. I swear to you that some of the funniest moments in my entire gaming history came from this.

There are endless possibilities for this sort of thing: a player could become itchy, thirsty, starving, frightened, romantic, violent, paranoid, dim-witted, narcissistic, or simply think they are a chicken. And on and on. Any extreme/exaggerated characteristic will work wonderfully. Don't make assumptions about how your group might react to something like this; a little silliness has an odd way of engaging players!

Basic Fantasy RPG Blog Appreciation Day!

Tenkar from Tenkar's Tavern has no shortage of cool ideas, and his latest idea is no exception. Today, several blogs with old-school leanings are putting up posts of appreciation for Chris Gonnerman's Basic Fantasy RPG. Tenkar referred to it as the "red-headed stepchild of the OSR", and I think that is a fairly apt description. It simply doesn't get as much attention as the more well-known clones like OSRIC and Labyrinth Lord. Today, we shed some much-deserved light on it.

So what is BFRPG? Well, it is a free, well-supported game system that emulates classic editions of the world's greatest RPG. But, it is more than that. While the majority of the text feels much like OD&D + Greyhawk, there are all sorts of mechanical tidbits thrown in that make it feel like its own unique "take" on the game. There are "modern" sensibilities (ascending AC, no group initiative), and creative houserules (charging, ranged attacks when within 5' of enemies, etc). What you end up with is a clean, coherent system that feels familiar yet unique at the same time.

There are also multiple free adventures on the site, so you can get right into playing. I love the little touches in the adventures, like the little boxes to tick off hit points, and the classic TSR-era fonts. There are also a lot of other extra goodies, such as alternate classes, all for a free download.



The name Chris Gonnerman might already be familiar to you through Dragonsfoot. He has done considerable work over the years with the wonderful Footprints ezine. With BFRPG, he has given a gift to the OSR community and gamers in general, and for that he deserves some praise. Be sure and check out the post I linked above to Tenkar's Tavern; he will be putting up links for the various blogs taking part in this. Thanks for the game Chris!

The End of the Campaign: Lessons Learned and New Beginnings

Well, I just wrapped up my Saturday campaign last week. I am so thankful that I got to play it to the end. I started with a vague storyline in mind, and over a year and a half of weekly play the campaign built to a fantastic finale in Gloomwraught, complete with a large scale battle, gargoyle mounts, grell galore, and a psychotic deva. I learned a lot of lessons, and many of the ideas on my blog were partly developed through running the campaign. As many of you out there have no doubt experienced, finishing up a long term game kind of leaves you a little sad, but also excited about what comes next.


Anyway, here are the main lessons I learned, or re-learned:

-Never railroad if you can help it. I rolled with every spontaneous idea that my players had, and what they wanted to do was inevitably better than what I had planned.

-Provide closure for each character; this felt a lot like the end of Animal House, where it says what each character did in the future. Tie this to their backstories; the players really loved this.

-Pick your battles. Not every encounter needs to be a big set-piece blowout. This is true for all editions.

-Use inherent bonuses if you are running 4e.

-Get to the good stuff. You never know how long a campaign will last, so don't save your "good stuff". Bust it out asap.

I plan on enjoying a few Saturdays off from running games, but I will not be able to withstand the call for very long. I am having a hard time deciding what to run though. I already do the B/X thing on Fridays; one of those games will switch to Call of Cthulhu shortly, when they finish the adventure. I am leaning towards a 1e game, perhaps starting with Gygax's Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, just since I never got to play or run that back in the day, and I think it is arguably the best 1e adventure. But then I feel pulled this way and that; an OD&D game that is just a straight-up random and organic hex crawl, the 1e or 4e Baba Yaga's Dancing Hut adventures, a B1 one-shot since it has come up so many times recently, a Ravenloft campaign (gotta put all those box sets to use someday!), a Hollow World campaign, Night Below, Dragon Mtn, one of the billion homebrew world ideas I have bouncing around, arggghhh! There are truly so many options, all of them good. Still, when you think about all of the work and effort you will be putting into running something, it makes the choice very important.

So how about you? If you were starting a new campaign today, what system would you use? Would you use a published setting? Published adventures?

Get The Most Out Of Your Free Copy Of B1!!!

If you are one of the many folks that have downloaded B1 for free from DNDCLASSICS.com this week, you must check out this fantastic B1 resource page at the Zenopus Archives! Anybody getting ready to run this module should be eternally grateful to have this put together! Here is the original post over at the Zenopus blog.

Seems like a great time to take the BLUEHOLME retro-clone for a spin!

Treasure in 4e Forever, Part 2: Electric Boogaloo

A few things have changed since I first wrote about how treasure is presented in my upcoming 4e fanzine. The main development is simple; I am now completely sold on inherent bonuses. The zine is all high Paragon and Epic tier, so I was ready to just roll with +5 and +6 items, but now I have just completely stripped "plusses" altogether. Everything else is pretty much the same: no prices or rarity for items, few items for sale, narrative descriptions of items as opposed to stat blocks, etc. There are however a few new wrinkles that I thought I would share. I probably should call them "old wrinkles", because these rules hearken back to the classic editions.

First, some items will have charges. I think this is a much better way to deal with powerful items as opposed to item rarity. I particularly dislike the concept of "rare" items, items supposedly so interesting that you don't mind playing 10 levels with the thing. I am sorry, I am in the process of wrapping up a 4e campaign that took almost 2 years to get through 10 levels. You can't tell me it would be fun to use the same sword for that long a stretch, even if it gives you foot rubs and cooks you Filet Mignon every night. Items with charges are a much cooler way to introduce powerful items into your game; they have a built in "self-destruct" button, a fail safe that makes sure they don't last forever. For example, I might have a staff that automatically crits whenever it hits. Super-powerful. Not something you want in the game for very long, but tolerable if it is limited to a few charges. Of course, don't tell the recipient how many charges it has, that adds to the fun (the DM could roll a d6 or d8 and track separately).

Second, we get away from telling players an item's properties right off the bat. Require them to use the item to find out. This was how you could get a PC to use a cursed item or drink poison back in the day. If they find a potion, they have to take a tiny sip to know what it does (this doesn't waste the potion). Is it dickish to poison your PCs, or to give out cursed weapons? Hell no. It's tradition. It is flavorful. You don't do it every time, or even often, but in rare instances it is totally within the bounds of fair play. In fact, I always remember cursed items as actually adding a lot of fun to the sessions they appeared in.

So that's it. Nothing too groundbreaking. If you hate item rarity as much as I do, yet still want to use powerful items in your 4e games, try items with charges. Also consider requiring the PCs to use trial and error to find out the properties of their items. Oh, and poison them every once and a while.

DNDCLASSICS.COM Confirmed!

Well, once again the OSR blogosphere was the first to bring you some exciting D&D news. Classic-era TSR PDFs are up and for sale. This week, you can download the classic introductory adventure "In Search of the Unknown" for free! Check it out!

http://www.dndclassics.com/