D&D: Challenge vs. Peril

This is the first of a few D&D related posts I'm going to be making, looking back on last week's experiences while they're still fresh in my mind. I'll be making liberal use of the cut tag, for those who aren't interested in such. Don't worry. I'll be getting back to other topics tomorrow, after I do the day's writing and then tackle my email inboxes.

Preamble:

In the oldest of old school D&D, of the style championed by Gary Gygax (may he rest in peace), a balanced combat was one where the party might win, if the dice went their way.

In most of the intermediate incarnations, a balanced fight was one where the party would win, unless the dice went against them.

In the newest edition, a balanced fight is one where the party can win, if they're willing to fight for it.
/Preamble

( Cut for full frontal nerdity. )

DM-PCs

This is more of a general roleplaying/GMing post than specifically a D&D or 4E one. It's about my players getting me to do something I never thought I'd do. :P

( But it's still being cut. )

Screen Monkey - Great Name or Greatest Name?

So, I've been talking about getting together an online gaming group pretty much since 4E was launched, back when the Virtual Game Table was looking a lot less like vaporware. After our recent marathon of marathons came to an end, I was pretty much ordered to find an alternative so we can keep playing at a more moderate, reasonable pace instead of going months without gaming and then cramming a frantic amount of it in.

My criteria were pretty simple - I wanted something I could just pick up and go with. An actual D&D branded program with full integration to their compendium and character generator would have been perfect for that purpose. With that unavailable... well, there are lots of programs out there that have complex scripting and such that could be used to simulate such things, but my second choice would be something simple that's quick and easy to use.

One of my players mentioned Screen Monkey, and I checked it out. It's definitely simple. The game master is the only one who needs to install a program... players use a web browser instead of downloading a client program. The interface on their side is very simple: when they put their character into the game, they fill out a field for HP, one for Armor, and a big long text field where they can post character info. After that, they just click where they want to move. The system doesn't regulate or officiate or moderate... that's all up to the DM, who can thereafter look at their sheet and modify their HP and set custom status flags as appropriate.

On the DM's side, mousing over a character or NPC pops up their full info. It's a very easy thing to copy and paste a monster stat block from the compendium or the monster builder, and if a player takes the plaintext summary from the character builder and puts it in their character info, you can see all the relevant stats (defenses and skills in particular) at a glance.

Movement can seem kind of kludgy on the players' side until you get used to it... because it needs to refresh the view every time you move, it's better to use the mouse cursor to count out squares and then click on the destination then to try to move your character square by square. Because it doesn't snap to grid, it takes practice to get your token centered on the square. It's a little bit easier on the DM's side, since things are running on my end... I fully expect to be getting some requests that just say, "Move me to the door." or "Put me just south of the priest." When we game tabletop, that inevitably happens as not everybody can reach the whole board comfortably, anyway.

All in all it's not the most robust gaming solution, but I basically need two things from it: a way or marking everyone's position relative to each other where we can all see it, and a way of doing "dice rolls" that everyone can see, and it does that. It's as quick to draw up and save encounters in it as 4E will let you, which is very quick indeed. We don't need a board and miniatures and rule simulators for non-combat situations, just a chat solution. It has one of those, but we'll probably also be using Ventrilo.

I'm saying "we" meaning my gaming group that includes people in Kansas, but now that I've located and like this tool, I'm looking to do more gaming. I'm still going to have to work around my friends' work schedules, which are less flexible than mine. I know some of you have expressed interest in playing D&D with me, so, here it is: I want to do this as much as I can. This is my favorite hobby. I have a lot of time and money invested in it compared to how often I've been able to indulge in it. It's great for me in terms of keeping my creativity flowing and giving me a framework in which I can interact with people. Who's interested? We may be starting with some one-shots to give people a chance to get used to the interface, my style, and the system... they may turn into campaigns. It may depend on who's available how often.

Participants will need a web browser (duh), a Ventrilo client (free) and a microphone and speakers/headphones, and access to the D&D Character Builder... the demo version that covers levels 1 to 3 is currently free. If you've got that, you don't even strictly speaking need the books, especially if you've got any familiarity with 3rd Edition. I don't believe in penalizing players for not knowing the rules.

Let me know if you're interested, and then I'll start getting things organized.

Homebrew Race: Wildkin

So, Dragon Magazine released a new race, the Wilden. The first time our group saw it was the picture in the character generator, on a laptop with not the best screen, and we thought the artwork looked a little cat-like, like a lynx or something. Then we read the description and saw that it was basically Swamp Thing via the Feywild: plant creature made to save the environment from aberrations from the Far Side Realm.

...thus continuing a 4E trend none of us in our group really like of having new races who seem to be entire breeding populations of people with an origin that better fits a unique being like a superhero.

But before we read the description, gamingdragon came up with a character and in fact a whole background and tribal society for a Fey race of cat people. I liked her idea better, so I took the existing race's stats and tweaked them, and we came up with the Wildkin.

Wildkin are a "short medium" race... i.e., they count as medium sized creatures but they're shorte than humans. Like Dwarves. Because her character is a falchion-wielding Barbarian and the image of a tiny catgirl wielding a sword as big as herself and charging down the plains amused us.

Here are the basic traits:

Attributes: +2 Con, +2 Dex

Skill Bonuses: +2 Nature, +2 Stealth

Languages: Common, Elven.

Origin: Fey.

Untameable: +1 to Will defense. +2 to save vs. the Dominated condition or any power with the Charm keyword.

Prairie Runner: Add +1 to Speed when charging or running (total running is thus speed +3) in combat, though running still grants combat advantage and a penalty to their own attacks as normal. Out of combat, Wildken may run for prolonged periods without ill effects... figure overland movement as if their run speed were their base speed.

Encounter Powers:

Once per encounter, Wildken may use either Springer's Strike or Uncageable Spirit (not both in the same encounter)

SPRINGER'S STRIKE: Trigger - You hit a target with a melee or ranged attack. You teleport three squares. You and one ally within line of sight gain combat advantage against that target until the end of your next turn.

UNCAGEABLE SPIRIT: Move Action. If afflicted by an immobilized or slowed condition, it is ended. Teleport 3 squares.

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I think they stack up pretty well balance wise. I just tweaked the attribute bonus from Wis and Con to Dex and Con and modified the defense bonus. Springer's Strike is basically a version of one the Wilden's three racial encounter powers, Voyage of the Ancients, but modified to make it better for strikers than controllers (previously it was triggered by area powers). Uncageable Spirit started from the same template but came out of the way gamingdragon roleplayed when her character kept getting hit with ice shackles and caustic glue. Unlike the Wilden, who have to choose one encounter power when they wake up, Wildkin have both but can only use one per encounter, like the Drow's Lolth-touched abilities. The Prairie Runner ability is less powerful than either an Elf's extra speed or an Orc's extra two squares of charging speed, but the "overland movement" component adds a bit of flavor. We pictured this race as nomads charging across the plains of the Feywild... and she consistently declined to ride a horse.

The Dex bonus and high mobility obviously disposes them well to be strikers.

I may play with the balance more as I go. There's another variation of the encounter power we came up with: using Springer's Stride in place of the movement of a charge. I was thinking that would require a feat called Springer's Pounce... there's a similar feat for Eladrin. If I go in that direction, I might make it so that you only get one version of the teleport encounter power and Uncageable Spirit requires a feat, as well.

We also talked about a Forest Stalker variant of the race, that replaces the run/charge bonus with extra speed when climbing and jumping.