Having talked to a few people on the SomethingAwful 'Traditional Games' forum, a lot of people have been recommending RP Tools, so I plan on checking it out in the near future when I run a campaign for some WoW friends of mine.
I'm interested in getting into a game. Would anyone be willing to let me join one of theirs? 
It works for us, but we're hoping WOTC will do for DnD what they did for Magic the gathering. Looking forward to the DnDinsider. I'm actually playing dnd with rptools right now. Its not my turn so I'm browsing the intarweb.
A new thing with rptools that our group only just found out is you can make macros on the chits themselves. Stuff like attacks, spells, saves, and just right click the chit to do the macro. It will show the chit with the roll in the chat window. Really makes the game go faster.
Here is a pic to show an example of what I'm talking about. It is zoomed way out to show the whole map, but you can see the macros for my kwalish, and some of the macros rolled in the chat window.
This is just to show off the chits I made for my gnomish decopoda squad. I'm seeing the kwalish was a poor choice given how big the map is and how slow the kwalish is...
3. Any good links or suggestions for dungeon tiles, miniatures and gridded map thingys?Needed a chillout break at work today and did a quick Google search for stuff. There is some really cool stuff available for free from WoTC...
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x...
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x...
If you're playing at home and you're an off-the-cuff group, all you have to have is a battlemap (battlemat? They're rubber and you roll them up afterwards) and dry-erase markers. If you don't have a FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store), you can order them online. (I was going to point you somewhere here, but I don't seem to see any... anybody know where you can order battlemats and markers?)
True, it can be nice to print out custom maps, but battlemaps are easier if you're just throwing stuff together...
Now if you want cheap minis, look at the FLGS for cheap Mage Knight figures, or random other plastic figures. Just about anything with a plastic base can fit it those square grids. If you go to a con plenty of sellers will have knockoff junk you can buy for this purpose.
If you get a little more cash together there's always D&D Minis or Dwarven Forge sets. But those are more expensive.
Anyway there's a variety of ways to solve the problem. Whatever works out for you and your friends is good. Just make sure to use dry-erase and not wet-erase markers, I've made that mistake many times.
Just make sure to use dry-erase and not wet-erase markers
I thought it was the other way around... Just checked my Chessex battlemat and it says on it to use wet-erase markers.
Yes, it's wet erase. I have one of those big, honkin' battlemats and we accidentally used Expo markers the first time around. I thought I was going to have a permanent lake on my mat until I scrubbed it off. Some really simple Crayola wet-markers were perfect for adventure 2, though. Just wax on with wet towel, wax off with the dry one. Simple, Danielsan. 
I can't add more regular commitments at this point now, so I'm actually going to back out from DM'ing one of the GWJ D&D games. I'm sorry, and don't worry, I feel like an ass about it already.
Maybe in a few months if things change, but for now it's just not feasible for me.
LockAndLoad wrote:Also, I haven't looked into it yet but a friend of mine recommended the Lord of the Rings edition Risk game if you want hordes of goblins and other figures very cheaply.
That's a good idea. I'm going to be doing the same thing with the War of the Ring boardgame, with the added bonus being that they have figures for the Fellowship in that game as well, so the PCs can use the Gandalf figurine for a wizard character, Aragorn for a ranger character, etc, etc.
Why didn't I think of this? Bloody game is sitting on the shelf next to me!
No worries FS, we have some games and I think we'll be ok. Try and play some time if you can make it.
Is there anywhere that will walk you through rolling up your first character?
If you haven't rolled one up by the time of Wanderer's S&T, we'll help you there.
SirRockford wrote:Is there anywhere that will walk you through rolling up your first character?
If you haven't rolled one up by the time of Wanderer's S&T, we'll help you there.
Awesome, that would be cool. I'll probably try it myself before then, but if not, that will be a great help.
Anyone else see the artificer class?
Artificers treat mastery of magic like a technical skill. They see a pattern in energy and matter, and they develop an understanding of how to manipulate the flow of arcane energy in and around material objects and creatures. Artificers learn to channel magic into items by using complex chains of sigils and diagrams or by using magical materials. With their skills, they can assemble the perfect magical object for any situation.
Dibs!
Artificer's in a vacuum don't really capture the coolness of the Eberron magic system. I think this implementation is a bit thin for my tastes.
Another random question that you folks might have a lead on. I am trying to figure out how big to make my map of a small village of 500 (my question on WotC is here). It raises the broader question, though: do any of you have any cool links for worldbuilding as it relates to creating towns and cities.
And I don't mean one of those many generators that spits a bunch of useless stats at me. I do not need to know how many barbarians are wandering around, not washing their loincloth, or how many 0-level pseudodragons call the town home. I think you know what I mean - what's the rough size, how many buildings should I draw up within its walls; the basics - enough so I can hand a map to my players and say, "this is a map of the town" and have it somewhat believable.
the basics - enough so I can hand a map to my players and say, "this is a map of the town" and have it somewhat believable.
I sort of use whatever I have on hand. Cities from other games, templates from handbooks. Heck, one time, I was really lazy and used the layout from the capital city in Final Fantasy 1. Found a great Nintendo Power map with everything marked on Google Images.
Heck yeah, use what's out there already. I'm the same way. In this case, I haven't found anything that was a believable size/makeup for my town. However, the note I posted on the wotc board has had a few great posts. I have to pass along this one which is a great resource for those of us trying to construct fantasy towns/cities. Good guidelines and short/to-the-point about things.
Harvesting the old WotC Map a Week has given me a few good tools, too.
Has anyone here tried the Keep on the Shadowfell module yet? I think its the one the Penny-Arcade/PvP Online podcast is using. I was peer-pressured to run my own 4th edition campaign this Sunday and we're leaning towards using it just so we can get everyone in and playing with a minimum of fuss & cost.
Has anyone here tried the Keep on the Shadowfell module yet? I think its the one the Penny-Arcade/PvP Online podcast is using. I was peer-pressured to run my own 4th edition campaign this Sunday and we're leaning towards using it just so we can get everyone in and playing with a minimum of fuss & cost.
I am actually going to be running it tonight. From my read through of it, it does make it very easy for people to pickup the rules as you play. Through the use of the "quick start guide" to the pre-made characters. On top of that, it appears to be a very solid adventure. I'll let you more once we get through some of it.
I hope they release it for the D&DI tabletop, once they get that up and running... or have an online version you can play if you've bought the module.
BTW, some online shops are offering the PDFs of the books at a discount now.
Has anyone here tried the Keep on the Shadowfell module yet?
Part of the Dungeon (or maybe Dragon) magazine that they have up in PDF form for free at D&DI has a couple of bonus encounters, as well as ways to modify the adventure to fit it into Eberron or Forgotton Realms. Should give you a good feel for what they are doing there.
Supposedly, you'll get access to anything you bought in the real world in the virtual world, but I haven't looked and seen if there's some sort of code that would make that actually work.
I have KotS (hope to run it for the online group once I get accustomed enough to the whole thing) and am not finding any unique identifiers a la serial #'s. Maybe they'll make it free or only make future modules available.
Another random question that you folks might have a lead on. I am trying to figure out how big to make my map of a small village of 500 (my question on WotC is here). It raises the broader question, though: do any of you have any cool links for worldbuilding as it relates to creating towns and cities.
And I don't mean one of those many generators that spits a bunch of useless stats at me. I do not need to know how many barbarians are wandering around, not washing their loincloth, or how many 0-level pseudodragons call the town home. I think you know what I mean - what's the rough size, how many buildings should I draw up within its walls; the basics - enough so I can hand a map to my players and say, "this is a map of the town" and have it somewhat believable.
Would this work for you?
Also found this
LockAndLoad wrote:Has anyone here tried the Keep on the Shadowfell module yet?
Part of the Dungeon (or maybe Dragon) magazine that they have up in PDF form for free at D&DI has a couple of bonus encounters, as well as ways to modify the adventure to fit it into Eberron or Forgotton Realms. Should give you a good feel for what they are doing there.
Just started tonight and as mentioned, grab the bonus stuff from the Insider. So far it seems a great introductory adventure and the second part comes out this month sometime.
Atras wrote:LockAndLoad wrote:Has anyone here tried the Keep on the Shadowfell module yet?
Part of the Dungeon (or maybe Dragon) magazine that they have up in PDF form for free at D&DI has a couple of bonus encounters, as well as ways to modify the adventure to fit it into Eberron or Forgotton Realms. Should give you a good feel for what they are doing there.
Just started tonight and as mentioned, grab the bonus stuff from the Insider. So far it seems a great introductory adventure and the second part comes out this month sometime.
I also started this adventure tonight. The group I'm running through it got through the first couple encounters. While they haven't gotten into anything too deep yet, I can see things starting to work out well. I'd explain some things, but I don't really want to give away any spoilers for people who might be play it.
I'm also interested in hearing how the Keep adventures go for people. Though the PA/PvP podcasts reveal much about the fun-level, I don't really have a good perspective on how the adventure itself is run. How smoothly, etc.
You rock, Brizahd. Those are two great links that I hadn't come across. After I do some domestic stuff, I'm going to look at both of those intently. Goodjer's solve yet another problem I'm having. I'm glad you people don't charge for the service.
Did Wizards' D&D Insider site/features finally go live? Their site has been in the toilet since at least 9 AM CST this morning.
Are you sure it isn't just the crush of people downloading the first installment of the new 4th edition adventure path? The site was a bit slow for me when I went to download my copy this morning.
Got together and played this some today. Two encounters with 15th level characters. The session was initially built for 6 characters and we had five, so the DM was making some off-the-cuff adjustments as we played. 15th level characters (of any class) have quite a few powers accumulated, so there was always the time spent searching for the most applicable (less time as the encounter progresses, as the per daily and per encounter ones are used up). A very strong WoW vibe from the experience.
A very strong WoW vibe from the experience.
The world of sword & sorcery brain crack started in the world of Gygax. The WoG if you will...hee hee.
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