Burrowowl

It looks like WotC is at it again, working hard to make my D&D articles less relevant. After all the hard work I put into my Milking the Sneak Attack article back in September, they have posted a Rule of the Game article named “All about Sneak Attack.” In it, the able and competant Skip Williams begins to demystify the Sneak Attack class ability, when it applies, when it doesn’t, and how to go about using it. So far there is only one article in what appears to be a series, but this more authoritative look at the rules authored by one of the co-creators of D&D 3.0 and published under the auspices of Wizards of the Coast will likely serve to marginalize the trickle of D&D-related search engine traffic to this site even more. Good. Keep up the good work, folks!

Privateer Press has intensified its keeping-the-customers-tantalized campaign, and appears now to be making good on EIC Joe Martin’s promise to give us glimpses of the upcoming Iron Kingdoms Character Guide and Iron Kingdoms World Guide until such time as they are actually printed and distributed. The most recent installment includes a look at the names and prerequisites of new feats, as well as a chart of class skills for classes unique to the Iron Kingdoms. This is, I must admit, exactly the kind of information that doesn’t terribly interest me, but it is good to see that real progress is actually being made. I look forward to the next installment of the “Behind the Iron Curtain” articles.

Those wacky folks at Mozilla are at it again. First it was Phoenix, then it was Firebird, now it’s Firefox. Firefox as in the Clint Eastwood movie? Anyhow, unfathomable name associations aside, Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox/Firefight/Don’t Play With Matches 0.8 is now available for download. It behaves much as 0.7, but with some incremental improvements (sorry, no neural-link interface available at this time). Go get it already. You know you want to.

It looks like the fine folks at WotC have a clear understanding of what people find confusing about their ruleset. In what I must say is a far more exhaustive and clearminded article Does it Stack? they take the same look at bonuses and penalties that I took in Stacking – Types of Bonuses a year ago. They have released three installments so far, and if you don’t get the point by the end of part two, well… There’s more.