About ten days ago, the final D&D Next playtest packet was announced and released.
What a wonderful, unique opportunity it’s been to playtest and provide feedback to the designers of D&D’s upcoming 40th anniversary edition. It’s been up and down for everyone, as playtesting is even more chaotic than I anticipated, but ultimately, we all had our fun as we test drove different rules and evolutions of the rules as the playtest went on.
Hey everyone, Johnn and I have been plotting and plot twisting away on the follow-up course to our highly successful Faster Combat course and we’d love your opinion on the next exciting offering in our GM University series: Beginner GMs.
Like Faster Combat, we’ll take you step-to-step through your first session as GM, with an initial focus on how best to prepare for your very first game as the storyteller-in-charge! Best of all, you’ll master this course in record time: 30 days. That’s “turn efficiency” Faster Combat would be proud of!
After the focus on prep, then you’ll be ready for the next two 30-day micro-courses which focus on in-game and post-game success for Beginner GMs.
So what do you think fellow GMs? Do you think this course would be helpful for new GMs? As a smart way to introduce players in your playgroup to GMing? As a focused refresher for existing GMs? What do you think of the 30 day goals? Share your ideas in the comments section and vote on the poll right here. Thanks for your help!
Loading ...-Tony and Johnn
Miss out on the newly released Faster Combat book by Johnn Four and I last week?
Good news – we have a special offer going on through Friday, April 5th for loyal Leonine Roar and Roleplaying Tips readers, fans and followers, right here. (Go ahead and click, the Perception check DC is easy, I promise!)
Our special offer includes three different feat chains options between the book and course to help you crush your combat grind.
Now wouldn’t that be great?
A HUGE thanks to all our fans and readers across all our sites! I’ve loved writing and talking game design and storytelling with and for all of you since February of 2011. You help make our favorite hobby and game greater and better every day.
Remember, special offer ends this Friday, April 5th.
::Rolls a natural 20:: Yesss!
Here’s to your faster combats and sweeping stories!
Tony
Remember all those times you’ve been at one hit point or sprawled all over the dungeon floor, bleeding out, moments from oblivion?
And then, at the last moment, a friend (hopefully!) swoops in and jams a healing potion down your throat? Or casts a cure wounds spell – or the holy grail of healing spells, heal. Your eyes fly open, your consciousness powerfully aware of your near-death experience, of your very real mortality.
Or those times where there were no spells or potions left, or they weren’t strong enough. So your friends did what they could to buy time – bandages, setting bones and so on while you slept, hoping you would wake up, frantically carrying or dragging your body to help.
Now that the focus is being pulled away from time-devouring miniatures wargaming marathons (a.k.a. typical 4e combats), the smooth transitions in and out of D&D Next combats are pleasantly noticeable.
Or should I say, you don’t notice them. That whole awful standard of “set piece encounters” that 4e encouraged is being turned and destroyed in a flash of white light – and not an edition too soon!
This means more time for storytelling and roleplay. More time for more encounters – and more types of them. Smooth transitions throughout the game’s action and scenes. Isn’t that what your D&D game needs? Isn’t that what we all want?
Our D&D Next Playtest games continue and the December packet brought a breath of fresh air – high level play and (more importantly) MONKS!
I always loved the theme and style of the bard and monk throughout D&D’s editions, but in actual play, they failed spectacularly until 4e.
But as we all know, for all 4e’s strengths, the weakness of “supercrunching” the game with rules and too-long combat took away from a classic, balanced D&D RPG experience.
Well, I created this blog because I love D&D and RPGs because of that fine balance of crunch and flavor, story and game, strategy and roleplay. D&D Next is doing a commendable job of bringing that essential D&D feel back, and I love that quality more than any other.
Last night, I got my first chance to play as a PC since my first D&D Next experience at a cozy and comfortable gaming event, and I jumped at the chance to play the new-to-Next-playtest monk. I loved the 4e monk, and was left wanting to play more – what a delightful opportunity! So my brother kindly offered to DM a 14th level game for us, and we had an absolute blast.
There I was, playing Dragon Age, my freshly created Antivan rogue – a brawler and knife-thrower – waiting (im)patiently for his turn. We were 9th level now, and much as I tried to hope against hope, the decidedly smoother Dragon Age RPG finally started to approach levels of complexity that were drawing out turns.
Any of the following sound familiar in your games?
Yep, that’s exactly where our typically faster, smoother Dragon Age combats had gone, much to my lament.
This is where the fun begins to wane for me. What about you? I hate than anyone gets so bogged down or overwhelmed by options and steps that it wastes time. That it creates 5, 10 or even 15-minute player or GM turns.
I mean, obviously I hate that. I did write for FasterCombat.com after all, with this as a core issue we teach you how to tackle. Or more appropriately, slay!
Even the best games can fall victim to Complexity Syndrome. Don’t let your game get there!
Here’s a few quick and dirty ways to save your game before the increasing complexity of rules and actions overwhelms it: (more…)
This weekend I played as Gor, a dwarven cleric and knight of Moradin, wading through goblins, kobolds and owlbears in the Caves of Chaos, and it was a blast!
Rivendell Books and Games, our local gaming store, hosted Free RPG Day, and everyone involved was tremendous! Pleasant, friendly and knowledgable people, GMs and players. D&D Next playtest sessions and Pathfinder games. And cool free and discounted RPG stuff! I grabbed the free heroic tier D&D module, Dead in the Eye, plus a discounted Waterfront Tavern full-color poster map.
And while the freebies were nice, the main event for me what I was most looking forward to all week: the D&D Next Playtest session!
It was a couple of days before the recent and lovely Hit Points, Our Old Friend article hit the D&D site. I had actually been experimenting in my 30th level D&D tribal campaign with hit points and morale, blending them together like a fine, time-saving… erm… wine? Cheese? Taco?
Whatever! I’m actually a little suprised that Mike Mearls’ definition of hit points in that article didn’t include morale. It includes just about everything else – all good stuff, too. What gives? Morale seems obvious to me. It should be there!
We’ve seen a lot of class and race tidbits, and DM options when it comes to setting our D&D Next complexity slider right where we want it.
Modular D&D is on its way so we can play whatever style or complexity level of D&D that suits our playgroups best for any particular game or campaign – and that’s a great thing!
And yet there’s one other important thing when it comes to complexity that’s really ramped up in 4e: magic items are very much styled like powers, and like powers, have a large range of complexity as well.
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