Day 212 - No post yesterday, but there was an Epic Reason... Required 583000, Achieved 560371

Because for the first time in a long time, two utterly epic days of writing have been done, and while I'm still a number of thousands behind where I need to be, I feel significantly better than I had been doing.

So this is John Dodd, happier than Roy Batty on a roof in the rain, and Goodnight England, turn the heat down tonight...

Flatpack Vampires - Open Playtest Call

I’m needing playtesters for a game that I’m planning on putting out there next year in the first quarter, it’s a card game based on an idea that I had a few years ago that never came to fruition before now, got a lot of interest when I first put the idea together, but never got around to putting it out there.

It’s a game of hunting and hiding, with a lone vampire hunter running around England trying to root out the master vampire before he manages to build covens in every city and turns the place into a hopeless pit of darkness. Running time is between five minutes (if the vampire hunter gets lucky in the first few turns), and half an hour (presuming the Vampire gets to build some of their empire), complexity isn’t high at all, and all the counters and cards can be printed out for this particular version. I’m looking for playtesters for this, not only those who play board games, but also for those who don’t normally play board games, to see if it’s light enough in complexity and tone for them to find interest in it as well.

So, Let me know if you’re interested, it’s a two or more player game to begin with and can be played with as many as four which changes the gameplay significantly depending on how many Hunters and how many Vampires are in the mix...

For all those with imaginations: Why don't we all make games...? Required

Some years ago, I was headed up to Edinburgh for the first time to go to Conpulsion with two of my good friends,  Benedict and Graham, and we stopped off at Banburgh Castle on the way up the A1.  Lovely place Banburgh, just across the way from Holy Island, indeed how was I to know that three years from then, I’d be up that way again, but this time taking my new wife on our Honeymoon to Holy Island.

But I digress, while we were sitting on the green looking down towards the crowds below, I saw a 4x4 down on the grass with a huge roof box on the top of it, and the thought occurred.

How better would a vampire move around during the day.

And the thought occurred that that would make a brilliant game, so in the manner of all things, I put a few rules together, got some artwork on them, did the cards, did some playtesting, and then as things often do, the world smashed me a number of times and I lost the impetus for it, put it to the back of my mind, and never thought again about it. 

Until now

The problem back then was that I didn’t have a sense of my own worth in the world, I figured (like so many others) that nothing I did would ever amount to anything, and as a result, didn’t consider that other people might find it interesting, even though all the playtest groups were interested and wanted to see it released and there’d been a lot of work done on the rules and art and quotes and everything else.  So, I’ve still got all the rules in place, still got the card listings, and now I’m considering releasing it to the world at large, as things have moved on significantly from where they were originally and I can see now that there’s space in the world for all sorts of games, particularly those that have an idea and a committed team behind them.  I’m already working on an RPG and I’ve got several conventions to organise, but I also get a lot of time off in the week, and a lot of that time is spent by myself because Jude works through the week and Mark has his own life to lead rather than just playing games with his dad.

So I have to keep busy...

The other thing is that when you’re trying to write as many words as I am through the day, sometimes you need new subjects to work on, because the words won’t come for the thing that you’re working on and you can’t stop, not for a second, because if you do, you’ll fall behind, and while I’ve made a lot of progress towards that in the last few days, I’m still short, and there needs to be more.

So this is the first of two posts this evening, with the second being the call to playtest the game. 

So I’m doing what I can to keep myself busy, and therein lies the point for today, which is that I can’t be alone in the world when it comes to game ideas and thoughts for things which would be good to play, and that begs the question, in the age of Kickstarter, crowdfunding, and so many ways to get publicity out there that the mind boggles, is there any reason why all of us shouldn’t be living the dream, getting our game out there, and at least trying?

One at least...

What If...

What if it’s no good...

What if people laugh...

What if it doesn’t work...

What if it’s not as good as I think it is...

What If...

Well, there is no what if, there is only what is, and hopefully here’s where what is starts...

I’ve got intentions of putting this out in the first quarter of next year when the million word challenge has been completed.  I’m finding that while I have good days and bad days, it only takes a few bad days in a row this year and suddenly the whole world looks like it’s come to get me, which is never good, and I have intentions on making this as good as it should be, rather than just adequate for purpose...

But the other thing is that I want to be telling other people it’s alright to put their idea out there, that it’s alright to dream, to reach higher, to do things that they didn’t think they could do.  I’ve been trying it with this blog all year in telling people that they can write and they don’t have to worry, because at least one other person is doing the same.

So tomorrow, after I’ve made sure that I can offer it, I’m going to put something up, and that will run until the end of the first quarter of next year, when everyone reading this blog will get the chance to make a difference to at least one person in the world...

More tomorrow

This is John Dodd in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire, and Goodnight England, Wherever you are...

Day 210 - On the testing of new games - Required 577500, Achieved 537951

Been a hellish weekend, and very little sleep, but when I got home today I found a preview copy of the new D&D scenario in the Inbox to take a look at, which brightened my day immensely.

Beyond that, many things to do in the coming week, and little time in which to do them, but there's going to be a lot of updates in the very close future, including the production of a card/board game and requests for playtesters (if anyone's interested that is.).

There was an idea way back in 2005, when I and two friends were heading up to conpulsion, that idea grew into a game, and one thing and another happened, and it never got further than testbed.  No longer I say, about time I branched out into other things, because clearly I'm not doing enough as it is...

More on that tomorrow...

This is John Dodd in the socialist republic of South Yorkshire and Goodnight England, wherever you are...

Hoard of the Dragon Queen – D&D Adventurers League introduction

I got home this evening and found something in my Inbox, the introductory scenario of Hoard of the Dragon Queen, the first release in the new D&D Adventurers League (the 5^th edition equivalent of organised play) for the Tyranny of Dragons storyline.  I need to disclose that I have not paid for the aforementioned product, although the question of whether I would have done will be resolved by the end of this particular review.  With it being prerelease, I can't show any of the interior pages, which is a shame, because it's really worth the look.

Weighing in at 37 pages long, it’s comparable in size to the Pathfinder Organised Play modules/scenarios, and it’s designed for three to seven players, with the optimum number being four.  There’s clear guidelines on how the program is going to work and links in the document to the free rules online and the extended network that is now in place for the Adventurers league.

So what about the product itself...?

First impressions are that a lot of work has gone into the artwork and layout, there are a number of maps to cover the different encounters and then an overall map of the Sword Coast that ranks as one of the better maps I’ve seen in recent times.  Each chapter is prefaced by a full colour image that presents an idea of the events of the chapter and interspersed throughout the book are other images, mostly of characters that are encountered and creatures to be fought, all of it to a high standard. It is noted that some of the artwork in the scenario can be found in the starter set, but only two images, with the rest being original for the scenario.

The writing is crisp and clear, lots of explanation in there as to options the characters have, possible difficulties the GM will have and potential ways around both, which is very useful for those just starting out in the game.  In the opening writing, there are guidelines on the different parts of the scenario, together with what can be expected of the players in each one, a good touch for beginning GM’s.

The scenario itself presents in three sections, Greenest in Flames, Raiders Camp, and Dragon Hatchery, with the characters starting on their way past the town when a Blue Dragon and several members of the Cult of the Dragon attack the town.  From there, they have to find out what caused this and finally track down and finish the threat to the village.  There’s a lot more to it than that and the scenario has been designed with beginners in mind, so there aren’t many complex issues to deal with, the rules required are easily to hand, and there are no moments where the GM has to break plot to go and find a reference.  The primary differences between this and the Pathfinder scenarios are the increase in artwork and the lack of creature stats by the side of the encounters in this scenario.

The three parts to the scenario won’t take long to get through, but I’m presuming that they’re being pitched at the same level as the Pathfinder organised play which will give you a number of hours per product. In itself, this whole scenario is only part one of three that are going to be released for this storyline, all of which will be available at the same time as the players handbook.  There’s an indication at the beginning of when the seasons will run from and to and the number of support links within the document is massive.  As part of rolling out the new shiny, WoTC are giving this out for free to all stores that stock D&D, together with a DM’s kit, faction folders, magic item cards and the starter set itself.

Overall, very polished, very professional, and above all...

Fun...

It’s a very good start to the Adventurers league and something that is certainly going to get some dice time here, so in the matter of did I have to buy this?

No...

In the matter of would I buy this?

Absolutely...

Day 209 - This heat better knock it off and that right soon... Required 574750, Achieved 537963

Because Sleep is something that is sorely needed...

Still, thanks to ENworld for reading, there'll be more to come in not so very long, but for now...

Sleep

This is John Dodd in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire and Goodnight England, Wherever you are...

Is normal Pathfinder product not as shiny as the Beginner Box - Scenarios

Continuing on with the cross examination of the pathfinder product line, rather than look at the newest modules and just take the example from there, I decided to take a look at several different modules and see what, if anything has changed.

For those who don’t know, Pathfinder modules are organised into Seasons, with special events in between.  I know nothing of which are popular or indicated as being particularly good, so I took one module from each of the seasons and one of the special events and here’s what I found.

I’ll only be putting in the briefest description of the scenario as I don’t want to ruin it for anyone who hasn’t played them before, and I’m working from the PDF’s of each of these, so the amount of images from the modules will be limited to the cover.

Season 0 – Mists of Mwangi

Not a million miles off a haunted house scenario, the scenario involves the players contacting an ex pathfinder who owns the Blakros museum and there ending the threats therein.  It’s not a complex scenario, being a map and a number of encounters within the map, culminating in a final battle and a resolution which rewards the players depending on what they did and didn’t do.  There isn’t much art in the PDF, a number of maps and handouts, and the image of the ape on the front cover is reused in the book.  Far less images than the larger releases, but quality of writing is good and it’s an easy scenario to run.

Season 1 – Voices in the Void

Interestingly enough, although chosen completely at random, this scenario is also centred around the Blakros museum with the same characters from before.  However in this scenario, the players are going down into the basement and below.  The premise is that someone has gone missing and the players need to find them and bring them back, hopefully solving the puzzle of the museum again.  Very little artwork in the module, and the artwork that there is has already been used on the front cover.  There are a number of clear maps and handouts, but nothing else to look upon, the scenario is easy to run and it’s well described, but the lack of any substantial artwork might disappoint those drawn in by the beginner box.

Season 2 – The Midnight Mauler

In a marked change from the previous two scenarios, Midnight Mauler is a classic hunting scenario spread across several different encounters, all of them with full maps and details and a lot of background notes for what is going on in the scenario.  The interesting thing about this is that there’s a lot of material in the module regarding how to run things through, all the way down to one part of the scenario having a flowchart diagram at the end that shows how the rolls that players would need to make to get through that part in its entirety, thereby saving the GM the need to come up with that particular part of it.  It’s very well written, but again, beyond maps and handouts, lacking in original artwork, with the cover art being used inside once again.  A trend may be emerging here...

Season 3 – Sewer Dragons of Absalom

This scenario can be played several different ways, with the players being sent to investigate a number of incidents involving creatures in the sewers beneath Absalom (one of the larger cities in Pathfinder), rather than the earlier offerings, which were very much wander around the map till the bad guys are cleared out, there’s a sense of being able to do things different ways in this scenario, it’s not just clear the way to the boss fight and then collect the treasure, and it’s clear that things have certainly progressed from where they were in the earlier seasons.  There’s new artwork throughout, maps and handouts as usual, briefings from the different factions that make up the Pathfinder world, and at the end, there’s the sense that what the players have accomplished has had a real effect in what goes on in the world, not just another cleaned out dungeon.

Season 4 – The Cyphermage Dilemma

The scenario is a hunt and kill/bring to justice mission against an enemy of significant resources.  Artwork is once again somewhat absent, there’s plenty of maps and handouts, but barring a few creatures, and a repeat of the cover image, nothing in the way of spectacular panorama’s though.  The writing is crisp and clear, the encounters are sensible and scaled to the level of the players going up against them, and all the reference materials needed are to hand from the start.  The faction missions are clear and the conditions for success in them are included at the back, so a good module, but not Shiny. Two PDF’s enclosed with this scenario, one colour, one plain, clearly listening to some people not bothered with shiny and more interested in using less printer ink.

Season 5 – The Glass River Rescue

In marked contrast to the previous scenarios, this is a rescue mission that has the players using intelligence to approach the target, judging the various risks, and then getting the captives to freedom while keeping themselves alive.   Artwork beyond that found on the front cover is mostly absent, some images of the NPC’s, a number of maps and handouts, but nothing in the way of full colour shiny.  The adventure is well written and nicely thought out from a tactical point of view, just charging in will not be a good match at any point and it’s good to see that the challenges being written in can’t all be solved by a blade or spell. 

Special Event – Race for the Runecarved Key

This scenario is a special event, by which several groups of pathfinder players play the game at the same time, and as well as the GM for their individual tables, there is also an overseer GM for the entire room keeping the games on track and indicating when to move to the next part of the adventures.  It starts with one of the Pathfinder (in game) venture captains giving a briefing for an important auction for the Runecarved Key and then the adventure kicks into high gear, with a raid on the opposition, scouting out the others who are trying to bid on the key and getting whatever advantage they can over them, and then finally to the endgame.  There’s very little artwork in the product, most of it is instructions, timescales, details of who needs to be doing what and when, and the inevitable maps and handouts.  From a purely shiny point of view, it doesn’t do it at all. 

That said, this particular scenario would take a lot of planning and a lot of skilled GM’s to pull it off properly, but properly done, I think it would be a lot of fun.

So in summation, the point made was that a lot of the pathfinder books don’t have the same level of shiny in them that the beginner box does and that in some way, that might be deluding those who buy the beginner box into thinking that everything they get will be to the same level of artwork and presentation as the beginner box.

Every one of the modules, from the season 0 beginners things all the way to the last season and the soon to be released season 6 are very well written, the details for the monsters and NPC’s in the encounters are always present, and in most cases, also include modified details to account for different player levels.  The direction given for the GM to follow is clear and is always expanded upon where necessary, and I’m reminded by a number of comments that the D&D set is functional and gives you a lot to play with, even if the amount of art and shiny is lessened as a result. 

In this particular matter, the two systems are not so very different, these modules all have the functional level of artwork in them in the form of maps and handouts, but all of them are well written, not expensive (averaging a few bucks apiece) and can be picked up and run by anyone, which should be more than enough for most.

But in the question of are they as shiny as the Beginner Box, the answer has to be no.

Day 208 - Massive Pathfinder reviews tomorrow - Required 572000, Achieved 535129

In the interests of being fair with the beginners box test, I've picked up a number of modules from the Pathfinder society, starting way back with the season 0 stuff and moving through every one of the seasons.  It's taken me a while to get through them all and put reasonable notes together on each, but they're nearly done and the details will be on tomorrow.

I'll be doing the same for D&D when I get my hands on it, but in the meantime, from a person who doesn't play Pathfinder, it's an unbiased view on the evolution of the game from where it started way back to where it is now and the steps that have been taken to get from one place to another, particularly when it comes to the design and implementation of scenarios for the world.

This is John Dodd in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire and goodnight England, Wherever you are...

Day 207 - I was in less pain when I competed... No change in word count

Hard day at work today, didn't manage to stand up once with the number of calls coming, so 12 hours later and feeling battered beyond all reasonable hope, haven't counted the words done, will do that tomorrow if things improve.

And they'd better improve

This is John Dodd in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire and goodnight england, wherever you are...

Day 206 - Wishing I was at Continuum or Paizocon - Required 566500, Achieved 533004

Because I so wanted to make that convention this year, but then I also wanted to make Paizocon this year as well, and as it turns out they're both on the same weekend and i'm working anyway...

In the quiet words of Jack Bauer

DAMMIT!

But there will be other conventions that I don't organise, and I will get to play at some point this year...

Perhaps...

But not today

This is John Dodd in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire and Goodnight England, Wherever you are...

D&D and Pathfinder, on the question of beginner sets being misleading...

Recently I put out a post regarding two different beginners sets, Pathfinder and D&D, and to say I got a little feedback from the post is like saying the Titanic took on a little water...

Overwhelmingly though, the D&D faithful put forwards two views on the matter.

1    1) They too were disappointed by the starter set

          2) Quite a few (not all by any means, but enough to make me wonder) believed that Pathfinder were selling a slightly more expensive product with a lot more production value than their normal offerings, in an attempt to get more people into their game and thus cheat D&D of their rightful following.

So, considering that this might indeed by the case and that the Pathfinder box set may indeed be “Gamer Crack” to get people in before giving them something inferior, I took a look at a few different pathfinder modules, campaign settings, and general bits.  I also put them forwards for the beginners to take a look at, because at the end of the day, while I may like them or be willing to read through a million words of text to get to the shiny at the end of the rainbow, a lot of beginners really aren’t...

Todays offering is the Inner Sea World Guide, which (reading the introduction) is the latest incarnation of the world guide to Pathfinder and the third edition of the same.  They note that they’ve made changes, removed things that people didn’t find interesting or useful, or added things that people thought were missing.

So, from the top, Production values are excellent, good hardcover with excellent binding, full colour throughout with images on almost every page, I found a few pages that didn’t have artwork, but the key point here is that I had to go looking to find pages without artwork, so from the point of view that this is one of the core books that beginners will pick up, the level of art provided and the production values therein appear to be a constant.

The book is divided into seven different sections, each of which details a particular part of the world.  Part One is the races of the world, each with a sample illustration of a member of that race, sample names, details of cultures and traditions, and enough to get a grasp without being swamped by details.

Part Two is the descriptions of the Inner Sea regions themselves, from Absalom to The Worldwound, again, for the most part a single illustration detailing something of what you might find in the area, then details on what goes on there, the races that live there, religions that are practised. It’s not a massive amount of detail, but it’s enough to give you an idea of what you want to do and where you want to go.

Part Three deals with Religion, Deities, Gods, Philosophies and the like.  Given that the world is one in which various gods are seen to grant powers and abilities, this section gives you enough to get a concept of the gods, but not enough that they seem in any way familiar.

Part Four is the section on daily life, and interestingly enough, this is the shortest section in the book.  It touches briefly on currency, day and month cycles, travel and living expenses, but covers each only in small detail, presumably because most characters will be out adventuring for the most part, but still...

Part Five details various factions that exist in the world, from the Aspis Consortium to the Pathfinders themselves, together with what each faction does, what they are good with, their allies and enemies, and why you might want to join (or avoid) each faction.  There are ten minor factions and five Major factions presented, with the full detail going to the Majors, each of which has worldwide influence in the setting.

Part Six covers Adventuring, and is more the details of what the characters might need and what they might come across in day to day travels across the realms.  It’s a short section, second only to the Life Section, and the information is densely packed in for ease of reference.

Part Seven covers Monsters, new monsters specifically that aren’t covered in the Bestiaries that form a part of the core set.  Not a long section but colourful and interesting.

Which brings us to the summation, it’s a worldbook, not a campaign book, so the basic details of everything about the world are what I was expecting from this book.  It needs the Pathfinder basic rules to work from and if you’re going to get out there and hit things, you’ll need one of the Bestiaries as well.  It’s well presented throughout, the amount of art through the book is consistent with what was found in the beginners set, and the images have clearly been commissioned with a particular thing in mind, it’s not used multiple times, and the writing throughout is consistently clear and evocative, which is good for experienced players, but great for inexperienced players, giving them a good impression of the world, the good, the bad, and the ugly within, and the nature of the world that they’re intending on adventuring within.

The final part of the book is a massive map enclosed at the rear.  While not as detailed as the map found in offerings like Numenera, it does the job required well and without any issues.

In all, I can’t say that I found this lacking when it comes to the level of presentation given, and this is one of the main books for this particular system, I’ll be reviewing the modules and MRB separately, but this certainly sets a strong precedent that the beginner set does actually have the same production values as the regular products.

Day 205 - Endeavouring to be true to both D&D and Pathfinder Faithful... - Required 563750, Achieved 529788

Following the conclusions drawn by the beginners a few days ago, there have been a few comments, and in the interests of fairness to both sides, there's going to be a few things going on over the next few days.

Couple of Pathfinder things for review in the near future because of various comments from the D&D faithful regarding unfairness of reviews regarding Pathfinder and the box set not being indicative of normal Paizo offerings, so in the interests of redressing the balance, I'm going to be looking at the regular pathfinder offerings and considering if the beginner box is indeed just Gamer Crack, or if it's a fair representation of the offerings from Paizo in general.

That said, I've also had a number of comments from the Pathfinder faithful indicating that there's nothing D&D has to compare with Pathfinder, so I'll also be looking at recent D&D offerings and will be reviewing the new rulebooks when they come out.

For myself, things are improving, mark has had the lump removed from his back and is healing well (if in some pain), and his good lady is helping him through this (amazing how brave men can be when not wanting to show weakness in front of ladies), the bathroom is gutted and just needs putting back together again.

Keeping up, but only just, and not making any headway on the outstanding, just too many things to do...

This is John Dodd in the socialist republic of south yorkshire and goodnight england, wherever you are...

Day 204 - It's just the catching up that does me in - Required 561000, Achieved 526906

But a lot has been done today, two conventions reaching a turning point today thanks to a number of very good conversations, and then the rebuilding of a bathroom, which I was not much involved in, but still seemed to eat a lot of my day in the meantime...

Not to worry though, I think I've done enough to set the internet on fire with the D&D vs Pathfinder starter for now, from a normal daily view count of something near 300 to over 2500, so I'm letting it calm down for a second before I say anything else.

But there's an article on the Ennies, a few things about Pathfinder following comments on this blog (I really do read everything said), a few things on D&D to follow shortly, and then more on Quest, which has been somewhat absent recently due to my fault entirely.

This is John Dodd in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire and Goodnight England, wherever you are....

Adventures in Pogonotomy - Shark Super Chrome Blades

When you’re dealing with something that names itself after a Maneater, you expect that it’s going to be a bit of a beast.  Interestingly enough, this really wasn’t the sort of thing that struck me upon using it.

Usual protocol, Shave after the shower, four days on the stubble, same razor, same brush, same Alum...

It’s got a reasonable edge on it, not brilliant to be sure, two passes to get down to reasonable levels and then a few upstrokes to get rid of the lingering stubble.  What struck me immediately is that the shave wasn’t as smooth as the Wilkinson or the Derby, there were a few points where I stopped short of the full stroke because I had the sense that the blade was going to cut in rather than sliding over.  I tend to favour short strokes that take a reasonable amount without clogging things up, but I found that even on short strokes, this was catching quite a bit. I got through the shave, but it wasn’t enjoyable in the way that I’ve come to enjoy shaving in the last few months, and I couldn’t place my finger quite on why till the last stroke when I was finishing off the lower lip and got to that little point between the chin and the lower lip which is always the most fun to shave...

One hair left, and you all know how much fun that point is, when you’ve got everything except that one last hair that’s sitting there showing you that you can’t shave, so you try everything to get to the little bugger, but it takes a delicate touch, you can’t press down hard on that one, you can’t hack away like you would with a cartridge, you’ve got to be real careful in case you push too hard and spike yourself.

So there I am, trying to get to this solitary little hair, and not a thing I tried would get it, a few nicks, a few slices, actively considered pulling it out with tweezers, but we all know that it becomes a question of pride in these matters, so it took me a few minutes, but I got most of it...

And I stress most of it...

And this was not really what I was after in a shave...

But then I thought back to what else you associate with Sharks, Blood, and this one had certainly had its fill from me...

In summation, shark by name and shark by nature, if you’re looking to use one of these, consider feeding it an offering before feeding it your face...

Day 203 - Very Hard couple of days - Required 558250, Achieved - 524079

Got a bunch of written words done, but the last few days have been really hard in a number of ways, don't know about everyone else, but the lack of sleep from the humidity is killing me...

But, three days off, so all is well, damn shame I'm not making it down to Continuum this year, one con I missed last year that I really would have like to get this year, but couldn't get the time due to my oppo being ill :(

Some announcements in the near future and hopefully getting back on top of the word count in short order, but we'll see...

This is John Dodd in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire and Goodnight England, Wherever you are...

The Beginners Choice, D&D Next or Pathfinder?

Spent the last few days collecting the feedback from a few absolute beginners regarding the beginner sets of D&D 5^th and Pathfinder, (Swift disclaimer, bribes may have been levied in the form of various sweets in return for their attention to the subject matter).  I also got the opinion of a few people who don’t actually play fantasy games, as I figured that asking someone who already has a take on the games would probably have a level of Bias involved that I’m trying to avoid.

Starting with the general layout of the box and the artwork within, Pathfinder scored heavily for being full colour all the way through, and not just the colours of the artwork, but the backgrounds and the way that the images were put together.  

Everyone noticed that the front cover image of the D&D box set was used repeatedly...

Whereas the pathfinder art was only repeated on the stand characters and only then to identify that the stand was that particular creature or character.  The other thing noted was that the D&D box set felt cheaper, more due to the lack of things within the box (and the filler space), whereas the pathfinder box was quite literally crammed to the top with usable accessories.

The absence of the percentile die was noted by a few of the beginners, with some of them looking at it from the point of view that a single die removed from a million units would probably save some money, but at the same time, it also gave the impression that the game had been looking to cut corners, particularly when you came to the demonstration characters and the addition of various leaflets, assistance, and other pamphlets in the Pathfinder box.

Who would have thought that one extra die was such a big deal...?

So we moved on to rules, and with both of the systems sharing at least some common ground from the previous editions, it was more a matter of how things had evolved since the time of Third Edition.  Spell usage and casting requirements on both sides were viewed as a little confusing, with one particularly enterprising rogue figuring that if you steal the mages box of components, you effectively reduce them to casting things that aren’t that powerful, which isn’t strictly true, but it means that they were at least giving it some thought.

That the Pathfinder had character sheets clearly laid out with the various actions that could be done was both noticed and appreciated, with the D&D sheets seeming somewhat bare by comparison.  All agreed that characters should be rolled up to see if the difference was still apparent when it wasn’t all singing all dancing, and so they were...

There was more back and forth glancing with the Pathfinder than the D&D, but with the way the blank characters were laid out, back and forth element took less time than the few bits of checking that the D&D required.  While I thought that the addition of the character generation rules for free as a download was a good move on the part of D&D, I was almost universally disagreed with by the beginners, all of which were much happier to have a book in their hands to flip through and considered the lack of said rules to look through in the box to be a dreadful larceny.  

I shall not repeat the exact commentary given, but it was spirited...

While they did do the character generation in the end with a printed out version of the rules, they did say that they would have found it far more tedious to have to do it by screen.

Which brings us to the adventures given to run through and both adventures offered getting a run through the first scenario only, rather than try and run through the campaign (and therefore delaying this review another month...), it was agreed that the board and the stands made it easier to visualise things, but it also added an unwanted dimension of turning any combat situation into a skirmish wargame which removed some of them from the feeling that they were playing something in their heads.  Somewhat counterbalanced when the board was removed while talking was going on.  Some liked, some didn’t, but the fact that the option to use the board with the starter set was appreciated.  With the D&D maps on the A4 size paper, the book had to be passed around to get the same impression as in the middle of the table, it wasn’t large enough for everyone to look at.

Adventure done, the Advantage/Disadvantage mechanism was talked about quite a bit, and while the Pathfinder rules were better laid out and clearer for the most part, there was little variance in the actions the characters could take, and most players didn’t feel confident attempting something not on the sheets.

That brought into play the GM’s sections of each box, a lot more ways around using things and tricks for new GM’s to try to get things working in the Pathfinder box, whereas the D&D box contained a few pages and skimmed over most of it.  It was generally agreed that while it would take longer to play through the D&D mini campaign, you’d have nothing to do at the end of it, whereas the Pathfinder instructions gave you ideas on what to do when you were done with the material that you were given.

That brought us on to the Monster Manual and creatures listed within...

From an experienced GM point of view, I’m happy to work with what I have to make something different, I know how to vary the hit points or attack bonuses to make things more or less difficult, and I’ve been doing that for years, so it’s second nature to me.          

From the beginners point of view, it did not go unnoticed that the only things listed as monsters in the D&D box were those that were in the provided adventure, many of them without artwork to accompany them, only a written description.  Very much the feel of “If you want more, there’s a monster manual coming out soon”. 

On the other hand, the pathfinder had all the creatures in the scenario and more, all in full colour with their own images. 

More than that though, when the creatures were encountered in the D&D book, there was the comment of “Go look it up”, whereas the Pathfinder stats were listed next to the creature in the scenario.  More monsters to play with in Pathfinder swung that particular vote decisively.

Small touches to be sure, but all the difference that needs to be made when it comes to people just starting out, both players and GM’s. 

This in particular was the thing that made the difference to all of the beginners, the D&D set expected that if you needed a rule, you went and looked it up, the Pathfinder saved you the time and put the rule there for you to save you that half minute of looking.  Everything was geared towards keeping you in the game and not in the rulebooks, and even though I hadn’t picked up on that (knowing most of the rules anyway...), it is a good way to start people playing, keep them as much in the game as possible, which isn’t possible if you have to break game every few minutes to check on something.

In the end, the beginners said that even though the pathfinder is more expensive by a small amount, the additional expense is more than worth it.  While they would play both games given the choice, they found the Pathfinder more interesting in presentation and ease of use, they liked the options that it gave them and that you could play for a long time with just the basic set without having to buy anything else. 

So in the Game of Games, D&D may indeed be Tywin to Pathfinders Tyrion, and both sides will have those that prefer them for different reasons, but in this test, Tyrion has certainly caught Tywin with his pants down...

And that’s never a good thing...                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Day 202 - Very hard day - No change in word count

And the beginners comments are now all in, so the comparison between new D&D and pathfinder will be written up for tomorrow evening.

With my apologies...

This is John Dodd in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire and Goodnight England, wherever you are...

Day 201 - The world improves - Required 552750, Achieved 522720

It's still a long slog and the weekends are always grim, but at least the book words add up once a week, which is how I'm getting by now, if I put enough words in through the week, it gives me nearly a free day (that is once I've caught up with everything else...)

So things are going better, couple of interesting debates started and continued in various places and everyone is getting involved which is really quite pleasant.

I'm putting up the notes from the beginners from the three different starter sets recently reviewed tomorrow, the results show a particularly strong bias towards one of the products, but more on that tomorrow.

This is John Dodd in the socialist Republic of South Yorkshire and Goodnight England, Wherever you are...

Pathfinder Beginners set review

So, following the review of the D&D beginners set a day or so back, I’m now looking at the Pathfinder box set to see if the young pretender has what it takes to take on the crown prince.

First thing to consider is that it’s more expensive than the D&D set, accounting for free delivery on both, you’re still seven quid more to pick up the pathfinder set, so the question is, is the additional cost justified.

First impressions are that the box is a lot heavier, the box itself is heavier card than the D&D set and better construction.  Then it’s on to the contents...

A small page at the top of the box that asks you what you’d like to do straight away, so the first thing you’ve got in your mind is that immediately you’re being asked what you want to do with the game, there’s a number of options from running straight in and playing solo to making characters to just running in with characters that have already been prepared for you.

The production values are excellent, everything is good stock, glossy covers, clean printing, proof read well, the characters have a front page that gives you an immediate indication of what each type of character is about.  

It’s simplistic if you’ve been playing the games forever, but for those who’ve never touched on it, it’s a fantastic addition, letting you throw the characters down on the table and have brand new players immediately get a handle on what the characters can do and why they’d want to play that character. 

You get a normal set of dice, but the difference between this and the D&D set is that the D&D set asks you to throw the D10 twice for the percentile, this set gives you the percentile, it’s not much, but in the eyes of at least one of the beginners I handed the set off to, it made a lot of difference in the outlook, they’re not asking you to stretch to anything else, you literally have everything you need to play right off the bat.

There’s a battleboard, double sided, dry wipe compatible, measuring three feet by two, dungeon map on one side, plain grid format on the other, folds neatly down to fit in the box.

There’s a ton of stand up pieces to be used on the board, ranging from characters and larger monsters.

To a variety of smaller monsters...

 There’s sufficient stands to be using them all at once, and the map lends itself well to the size of the stands, allowing players to get right into things once they’ve started.

The insides of the books are well laid out and clear in their presentation, there’s never any suggestion that you should know something, everything is explained and made clear so that anyone unfamiliar will have no problem picking up the game and running it.

There are character generation rules included in the box, no need to go looking anything up, and they’re equally clear and colourful, it’s clearly designed to suck you in to the game and the system and it does a really good job of doing that.

There are three books included with the set, the first is the Hero’s Handbook, with all the details in it required to create heroes, the rules of playing the game, and not a single thing about running it or anything that’s unessential for you to know as a player.  It also includes a choose your own adventure game at the front that allows you to jump straight in and get an idea of the rules before you’ve even showed the box to everyone else.

It’s nothing complex, merely a swift dungeon crawl, but it doesn’t pull any punches, it’s reasonably easy to get killed if you’re reckless, but it sets the scene nicely, puts points in where people who have read the scenario and the background will do better than those who haven’t, and gives you an idea that this isn’t one of those games where you endlessly respawn when you die... 

Then there’s the transition guide, which gives you the details of what to expect when you go from the beginners set (which will get you to around 6^th level) to the worlds beyond as detailed by the main rule book.  The book is pitched towards reassuring beginners that the enormous main rule book isn’t something to be scared of, and that they don’t have to read the whole damn thing, just the bits they need at the time. 

Final book is the Games masters guide, with all the details to run the dungeon adventure on the dry wipe map and then the details of how to provide a fun environment to the players, it doesn’t sugar coat things, and to my cheerful surprise, provided a whole set of instructions that outlined what is expected of a good GM, most of which echoed my thoughts from a few posts back.

In all, it’s excellent, there’s a clear sense that the producers of this box want you to play the game, they’ve given you enough in the box for a whole bunch of adventures before you ever have to go and buy any other books, and that includes free download links to other products on the website should you not feel ready to run things just yet.

I’ll post the commentary from the beginners regarding both this and the D&D starter set tomorrow, but for anyone thinking of introducing people to a fantasy roleplaying game, they really can’t go wrong with this set. 

Rights and Wrongs of Campaign Gaming at Conventions.

Over on UKRoleplayers, the question was asked if campaign games have any place at Conventions, and if so, what place that might be?

Thought to post my response up here :)

For myself, it’s become an evolving discussion that ties into the future of both Expo and games in general.  There’s both good and bad in the idea of campaigns being run across several conventions (and indeed in several slots over the larger conventions), and I think that there is a place for campaign games within conventions, but I also think that the one shots and isolated scenarios have as much (If not more so) place at conventions and here’s why.

A campaign is an excellent thing to be involved in, you meet the same people all the time, you have the same adventures together, you get to know those people and that’s one of the primary reason for roleplaying around a table, the adventures you have become part of your characters legend and in times to come, you can all fondly reminisce about the things that you got up to.  The thing is that with increasing numbers of us getting older (I speak for everyone else, I’m still 18), and as a result no longer able to devote whole weekends to catching up with everyone else and playing, the conventions that we go to are the only chance we get to meeting up with our old adventuring buddies and remember those times when we were young.

It all sounds a bit Take That really doesn’t it…?

The problem of course, from a convention point of view, is that you’re not getting new people into the hobby, and as a result, it’s never going to expand and you end up running a very large hall full of the same people for twenty years, and when you all get too old to make the trip, the convention dies and the hobby does not notice because it’s only those people who were there who lament the loss of the hall…

There are some who consider that Pathfinder and similar living games are the equivalent of running campaigns at a convention, when really anyone who’s ever played pathfinder knows that it’s anything but.  Sure, you get a number of the same people who follow the games from point to point and you get the familiar faces that are always first through the door every time, which would be very much like the way a lone adventurer would occasionally team up with others to tackle a larger problem.  The reason why a lot of Pathfinder consecutive scenarios run in slots that follow on from each other is in the hope that the same people will book into the game and allow continuity for the players who are going through that scenario, because while they can always do the scenario again, they’ll never again get the points, items, or bonuses from that scenario and their character will be recorded as going through it with a different team, which I would have thought could have made for a reasonably jarring experience, particularly if you started the three parter with one party, did the second part with another, and ended up completing it with yet another.  Now to be sure, after a while on a limited convention scene (such as England), after a while you know everyone and that’s great because Eventually Zog the Barbarian will meet up again with Blackhawk the swordsman and they’ll reminisce about the time they went searching across time and space and by then, the time inbetween will be things that they can talk to each other about and it’ll serve the same purpose as having players drop in and out of long campaigns over time.

But that takes time, and most people don’t devote that much time to it…

The other problem is the question of exclusivity, and the very real problem that when you’re running a campaign game for a particular group of players, you’re only really looking for those players, and anyone else who turns up will not really have a space at a table.  I played in one such game last year on the great convention trek, and I was the only person at the table who had not had a prior slot at the table, one person had already walked out of the game because they’d looked at the characters on the table (none of which had been already chosen) and was told that the only character they could have was the one I ended up playing because all the other characters were reserved. They went back upstairs, scrubbed their name off the sheet and vowed, loudly, to never again look for a game by that particular game.  This of course got my interest so I took her space and wandered down to play that character.

Good scenario, Good GM, Good Players…

Not good game…

It was apparent from point one that I was very much an outsider, there were expectations placed on the character that I had to play, by all accounts the previous player had been a bit of a cowardly b’stard who had staggering levels of incompetence, and so when I started making reasonable decisions in the vein of what I thought the character would do, the group started rebelling against the nature of their comrade doing such things.  I would certainly have enjoyed the scenario in other circumstances, and I have made a point of inviting the GM back to a number of conventions I do because they’re clearly good at what they do, but on the run up to Expo, I saw the same thing happening with a number of the really good GM’s, the game would go live and the spaces would lock out instantly because one of the friend network was camping on the go signal and would immediately have all the places.

This year I have a quandary, all these games are run by the best GM’s, the ones I prefer to call Professional GM’s, because I know when they’re running a slot, they guarantee to deliver excellent games and have players coming back every time.

The very people any convention depends upon to grow and become bigger and better…

But if all the very best games are being snapped up immediately, what we’re left with are the GM’s who don’t put in all the prep time, who don’t turn up with extra dice and crib sheets, who run exactly what they need to to get the rewards and nothing else, and while they deliver a reasonable game, they don’t deliver the masterclass that the Professional GM’s do, and so the chance of the players coming back again and again is reduced.

I believe there’s a place at conventions for campaign games, I believe wholeheartedly that there should be games where the players are already booked in because that’s their game that year, that’s the instalment of their campaign that they’re playing. 

I believe that in my heart, campaigns are the reason most of us play, and there should be no bar to that at any point. In years to come, I’m certainly going to be directing that as part of Expo policy.

However…

I also believe that those who can deliver those games, who can have a whole table of players rapturously waiting their every word, who play the table like an orchestra, I believe those people are needed now more than ever on the front line of convention play.  There are some who believe that those of us who’ve paid our dues should have the chance to enjoy all the good games because we sought out the good GM’s in advance, and while I can’t argue the sentiment, I can say that if I’d never had a good convention game when I was younger, I wouldn’t have the passion for conventions that I have now, and if we the few, the proud, the grognard, take all the good games for ourselves, it’ll be fine for us, but we’ll be the yuppies of roleplaying, and those that follow us will have nothing left but the dark future that cyberpunk never delivered.

Some of the most popular games that were delivered at Expo this year were the one hour taster sessions, designed specifically with the beginner crowd in mind, allowing people to jump straight in, not lose four hours to a game they might not have liked, and still get to play something new.  It’s certainly something we’ll be repeating, but we still need to have games that are slightly longer and run by the Professional GM’s so when the beginner comes back with “That was excellent!” we can immediately point to another available game and say, “Good, now try this…”

They go to the next game, have an even better game, come back bouncing and wanting to play more and behold…

They look up more conventions to go to and everyone wins…

TL:DR?

Campaign games have a place at conventions, and it’s excellent to catch up with friends, but if all we succeed in doing is making conventions places where most of the rest of roleplaying society stays away because they’re not part of the crowd that’s “Been there forever”, we only end up hurting the hobby…

And that’s never good…