Review: Grain Into Gold
Posted: January 3, 2010 Filed under: Campaigns, D&D, D&D 4e, Fluff/Inspiration, Houserules, Products, RPG 6 Comments »The winter is a slow time for blogging. Traffic goes down, posting gets slower, Wyatt freezes in his little forest and can barely muster the energy to flex his brain muscles. I barely read any blogs this week, and the only post I found interesting was Greywulf’s Strongholds and Henchmen for 4e post. So that’s your hymn collection for this week. But that’s not all for this post.
Using Alternate Monster Maths
Posted: October 30, 2009 Filed under: Campaigns, D&D 4e, Homebrew, Houserules, NPCs, RPG, Spirits Of Eden 3 Comments »I wrote once that I use alternate monster maths when designing my 4e monsters, which means when designing the vast, overwhelming majority of my encounters. I believe I have used a monster manual monster exactly once and it was zombies. Because I couldn’t be arsed to come up with a bold new take on shambling corpses that punch you to death. Maybe I will someday. But mostly, I make my own monsters in D&D 4e.
One of the things about 4e that grated slightly on my nerves was the fact that a lot of the monster math was tied to these immutable monster roles. Brutes would always have the wimpiest attack bonus. Soldiers would always have overwhelmingly high attack and defense values, good HP and good initiative bonuses. After a while I stopped using 4e’s monster math and decided to make my own, as I say in the article above.
Of course, making your own monster math is dandy, but the problem comes in applying it. If you break open the monster roles, how do you design a monster anymore?
Combat Styles Post Part 2: Combat Boogaloo
Posted: October 2, 2009 Filed under: Campaigns, D&D 4e, Homebrew, Houserules, RPG, Spirits Of Eden 2 Comments »It’s still taking me loads more time than should be possible to write, mildly playtest and then format these combat styles I’m doing for Spirits of Eden. To sate your insatiable appetite for content, I’m posting two more of the ones I have done. Both of these styles are particularly egregious in being abstract in every way that 4e turns people off, and I love it for that.
The first one is a distillation of the Warlord’s schtick into a both more convenient and less convenient package. I wanted it to be possible for a Warlord to have his at-wills ALL be “I command you to do my work for me!” but I didn’t want it to be the same as Commander’s Strike. But then I got my idea for combat styles, so I decided to make the Prodigal Strategist style that anyone could buy into (including “that other leader”, the Cleric) and the rest is history. Warlords can take this to be supreme masters of never doing anything themselves, and other classes can take it to play at being Mini-Warlords for a while.
A design note – if I feel a style is cribbing too much into a particular class’ style, or if the style’s attacks are really “4e” (by which I mean abstract and awesome as hell), I give it a Daily instead of an Encounter as its second power. To make myself feel better.
The second one is just that I thought we needed some way to get everyone with the Diplomacy skill to be able to screw with people’s minds. Even if only for a little bit. Actually, I just really, really wanted a deadly diplomat, but Deadly Diplomat seemed like a really stupid name that I just couldn’t take seriously. So I made them into “mind control maids” instead.
There’s your deep look into my design process.
Homebrew Character Backgrounds
Posted: September 27, 2009 Filed under: Campaigns, D&D 4e, Fluff/Inspiration, Homebrew, Houserules, RPG, Spirits Of Eden 7 Comments »I just added this to the Eden Player’s Guide, it’s the character backgrounds I’ve been promising for a while. They’re NOT like normal 4e backgrounds. They aren’t just an additional skill in your list or a small bonus. They’re (mostly) out-of-combat benefits usually pertaining to skills, items or rituals. From here on, all new edits will happen on the Eden PG page linked above.
A better explanation is in the Player’s Guide version of this post, but suffice it to say, the Class field is not a restriction, it is a suggestion. The star means that the ability is unorthodox and DMs can use the alternative or ignore the whole background. I would advise that PCs don’t all decide to take the same background, both on conceptual and balance basis. I’m a strong believer in that no two PCs should be the same in areas like these.
If I come up with more backgrounds, I’ll add them to the list. So if you have any ideas on any that I’ve missed that might be important or ubiquitous archetypes, do let me know!
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Creative Skill Use In 4e
Posted: September 14, 2009 Filed under: Adventures, Campaigns, D&D 4e, Fluff/Inspiration, Houserules, RPG, Spirits Of Eden 9 Comments »I’ve recently been running a game, as I have told. In this game I have tried very hard to encourage players to be creative with their skills and I think I am succeeding. But I think one obstacle I have found is setting knowledge. Of course, it is a homebrew setting (Eden) and so far players have found themselves doing well in it.
But there is a tendency that a DM’s suggestions are the word of God, even more so in a homebrew setting. I have a tumultuous relationship with this status. I like to be surprised and to see creativity, but running a homebrew sometimes requires me to make suggestions in order to ease play. These suggestions will be done. There is no question about it. If I suggest a skill, it will be used.
So with that thought in mind, I decided to go through every skill in D&D 4th Edition, and write about ways I can see them being improvised in skill challenges and the like. These skill uses of course have a very Eden slant and are very abstract. They will not fit all campaigns like a glove, but I feel they can fit many campaigns nonetheless and that given this blog’s general biases and themes, it fits extremely well with the Spirits of Eden.
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