Category Archives: DnD

First 4th Edition Thoughts

Chapter 7, page 218

OK, so I’m a big boy. I’ve been in this hobby for a long time. Things have changed over the years. New ideas come, old ideas go. Some good decisions are made, and a few bad ones. Moving on can be daunting, and there’s always going to be a learning curve.

But putting the weapons on page 218? What the hell was Wizards of the Coast thinking? Page 100 (or thereabouts) is where player character equipment belongs in a Players Handbook, damn it! </nerdrage>

I’ll surely have some more coherent observations to share after things have had a chance to settle in a bit more.

4th Edition's Competition

The second major overhaul of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise is hitting mid-year, but the grand old flagship roleplaying game is far from immune to competition.

Dungeons & Dragons version 3.75

Like a woman scorned, Paizo has decided to push on with 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons, recently publishing a playtest version for what amounts to version 3.75 of the system. Paizo used to publish Dragon and Dungeon magazines, was a spin-off company of the D&D franchise really, and didn’t get special consideration for early exposure to the new hotness. Clearly there were some sour grapes going on here. That said, the Pathfinder RPG looks pretty good.

With an anticipated release date of August 2009, it looks like it’ll be about a year late. That’s fourteen months after 4th edition hits the shelves, and a full year after 3rd party early-adopters will start peddling their supplements and campaign materials for it. The success of the Pathfinder adventure path series and revenue from their online store may help pad the shock a bit, but I’m rather pessimistic about this endeavor.

Exalted

Another attempt to horn in on 4th edition FUD is the Graduate Your Game initiative by White Wolf. Maybe they just have a lot of 2nd edition Exalted rulebooks lying around, or maybe they’ve done some serious market research, but they’ve made a bold offer: give them your v3.5 Player’s Handbook and they’ll give you a shiny new copy of the Exalted core rules. A lot of long-time D&D players are upset that their beloved basement-dweller pastime of choice is getting a major overhaul, and I’ve seen a lot of talk about switching to Savage Worlds or True 20, or keeping on with 3.5 indefinitely. Hanging on to 3.5 sounds reasonable, as these gamers already have their books and can run them forever without having to spend a dime on new rules. The problem them becomes new players: how do you get a new player up to speed on the system when the rules are no longer in print? Ask anybody who has looked for the Iron Kingdoms Campaign Guide on Amazon lately, and you’ll find that out-of-print RPG titles can fetch a pretty penny. I wonder if White Wolf intends to open up an eBay shop in a year or two? Hmm…

Anyhow, to a lot of folks, their v3.5 players handbooks are full-color glossy toilet paper once 4th edition comes out. They’ll be adopting the new system or otherwise abandoning the old. Unless you’re chronically-nostalgic, it may be a good chance to pick up a pretty good fantasy RPG.

Assassin-themed Khador

They make wives into widows, hence “Widowmakers”

I don’t care for the whole Khador == Soviet Russia oversimplification, but with the release of the Kayazy Underboss unit attachment and Yuri the Axe, there’s a rather solid cold-blooded-killer army available now for the Motherland:

Faction: Khador
Army Points: 750/750
Victory Points: 26

Kommander Sorscha Kratikoff
– Destroyer
Yuri the Axe
– Manhunter
– Manhunter
Doom Reavers
Kayazy Assassins (8)
– Kayazy Assassins Underboss
Kossite Woodsmen (6)
Widowmakers
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios
Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist
Kell Bailoch
Croe’s Cutthroats (6)

Each model is directly associated with assassination, Kommander Sorscha being renown in WARMACHINE for her “woosh” tactic, leading to the quick demise of many enemy Warcasters over the years. The Destroyer has traditionally played the role of Sorscha’s assassination-partner for the Wind Rush to Icy Gaze combination along with Eiryss. Each of the other mercenaries is explicitly a professional assassin, as are the Kayazy ally unit. The Widowmakers are snipers, not assassins, but this is a rather fine semantic point from the perspective of Khador’s enemies. The only models that are a bit of a stretch thematically are the Doom Reavers (a penal unit of berserkers driven mad by their enchanted weapons). I included them due to the criminality of their background. The Kossite Woodsmen are treated as mercenary near-criminals in the background information, and add to the “hired gun” flavor of much of this list.

It’s also almost entirely Advanced Deployment, which is big fun. Line your little gaggle of murderers up against precisely the assets you mean to. A variation is also possible for 500pt games, but doesn’t quite have the punch and lacks the thematic overkill.