D&D 4th Edition Game Design Goodness

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54823876073960252882011-07-26T10:23:38.883-07:00D&D 4th Edition Game Design GoodnessMy thoughts concerning D&D 4th edition and Game DesignNortainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402001330376788822noreply@blogger.comBlogger141100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5482387607396025288.post-18201075725183533022009-12-29T07:03:00.000-08:002009-12-29T07:10:58.798-08:00December Update has Been Released

For those of you who like to keep in 'know' on the current D&D updates WotC released their December revisions a couple of weeks ago. If you haven't already checked them out you can find them here: http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/updatesOne high light that I was over joyed with is that they finally 'fixed' careful attack so that it wasn't a waste of space. Luckily character builder

Nortainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402001330376788822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5482387607396025288.post-23202301182370883002009-08-15T17:31:00.000-07:002010-09-20T10:39:31.701-07:00New Mini Adventure: The Temple into the Abyss (levels 5 through 9)

One of my favorite aspects of being a DM is coming up with adventures. In this case I made a mini adventure which is just like a normal adventure but it allows for more modular game play. For those of you not familiar with this idea, its basically creating small groups of tightly coupled encounters that are ultimately loosely coupled with the main storyline going on in the game. The true role

Nortainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402001330376788822noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5482387607396025288.post-15502837564136628432009-07-09T18:03:00.000-07:002009-07-11T20:36:18.370-07:00Design patterns among D&D 4e Skill Challenges

Being that I have a healthy phobia of using other peoples adventure and campaign material, published or not, I find myself constantly working on new encounters and skill challenges. (Hey I gotta fill those down hours at work between 8 and 5) Over the course of creating skill challenges and seeing some others that have been created I have decided to boldly try and classify a good number of

Nortainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402001330376788822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5482387607396025288.post-18649445744123803642009-07-09T10:59:00.000-07:002009-07-14T11:31:05.792-07:00Why 'Careful Attack' is broken by design

For most this is probably old hat, but for those of you who are unaware or just plain terrible at math, the ranger's at-Will power Careful Attack is one of the worst at-Wills in the game. The reason I bring this up now is in light of the recent update where WotC took the 'nurf bat' to some obviously overpowered class features and powers. As I had mentioned in that post, it's a good thing that

Nortainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402001330376788822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5482387607396025288.post-32833010470277912612009-07-07T16:41:00.000-07:002009-07-08T10:45:55.585-07:00New DnD 4e Psion Class Released

Part of the new psion class was released recently. It offers a new mechanic called augmentation that uses a new resource called power points. Rather than have encounter powers psions can use their power points to strengthen their at-will powers to increase their effectiveness. At level three the psion gets an additional at-will but after that has the option to swap out lower level at-wills

Nortainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402001330376788822noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5482387607396025288.post-10054924995347901492009-07-06T21:03:00.000-07:002009-07-07T10:02:36.916-07:00The Art of Social Skill Challenges part II

The Art of the Social Skill Challenge:1) Backgrounds are key! Yes this is step 1 and although some may think it's optional if you are considering creating a social skill challenge then there needs to be some piece of information that is useful to the players. A quick story board perhaps leading to an over arching theme can do wonders to provide various NPC motivations. Or you could have

Nortainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402001330376788822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5482387607396025288.post-43553875315890581152009-07-06T05:35:00.000-07:002009-07-09T20:28:13.269-07:00The Art of Social Skill Challenges part I (introduction)

Skill Challenges seem to constantly be a discussion among players of D&D 4e since the framework adds a layer that was never previously there. It adds a system to reward player's who successfully perform difficult tasks outside the normal realm of combat. Logically it makes sense to offer such a reward but often the actions of the player character's can easily fall outside of a designed skill

Nortainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402001330376788822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5482387607396025288.post-33906995397875486032009-07-04T10:48:00.001-07:002009-07-04T23:35:26.617-07:00Putting the Beast in Beastmaster Ranger

So back when Marital Powers came out I was thrilled to hear the Ranger was going to get a Beastmaster ranger build. I was both anticipating a major change to the core class along with an interesting way of keeping it balanced. I remember from the days of Yore working hard to obtain some pet that was easily your equal in combat, some fierce beast that the mere sight of made enemies second guess

Nortainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402001330376788822noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5482387607396025288.post-41120465160005991262009-07-03T12:54:00.000-07:002009-07-05T00:37:54.555-07:00Minions, Monsters and more Minions, Oh My!

So I have had the joy for several months now of building some of the craziest adventures I could think of and seeing how player's in my games fair against them but have come to notice that the threat presented by minions typically seems to fall short when looking at their experience cost. I can completely understand the purpose of minions and their use as general 'creature fodder' but if I take

Nortainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402001330376788822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5482387607396025288.post-34643448624059959462009-07-03T09:47:00.000-07:002009-07-09T13:48:53.077-07:00It's About Freaking Time!

Quick side rant from what I would typically consider the norm, but WotC recently released a 'small update' to FIX issues that were considerably over powered when compared to other builds. Long have many of these powers been topics for heated debate as people on one side claim they are too powerful and on the other side are the blind followers of WotC will, afraid to stray from the rules set

Nortainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402001330376788822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5482387607396025288.post-72232538418424213692009-04-25T05:27:00.000-07:002009-06-17T12:50:36.671-07:00The Dreaded Rules of the House

I have had a whole host of experiences with house rules and their impact on various games. Some of these experiences have been good some have been bad. The most common place where I have encountered house rules have been in the world of table top RPGs. Systems of themed rules established to allow players to control characters to interact in some kind of fictional settings have room for any

Nortainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402001330376788822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5482387607396025288.post-32971007589004560182009-04-19T09:06:00.000-07:002009-04-19T10:01:48.625-07:00Group makeup or group breakup?

Designing a game or a component for an already existing game is a creative process. It requires one to put forth something that is both realistic and fun within the constraint of the rules imposed by the game. However, in such a design process the designer cannot forgot or over look the importance of the makeup of the group. I think I personally experienced this lesson on it's most brutal

Nortainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402001330376788822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5482387607396025288.post-4333069243436672832009-04-17T06:13:00.000-07:002009-07-03T11:32:36.701-07:00Getting into the specifics

One of the biggest things that had been holding me back from making a blog for a long time was the name. Yes, the name of the blog has always seemed an impossibly daunting task to me. It requires one to know what is going to be written long before thoughts or concepts of the to be written material ever existed. In this respect, the name for a blog would need to be vague. Something that is

Nortainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402001330376788822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5482387607396025288.post-46948967338698245692009-04-10T19:57:00.000-07:002009-04-10T20:11:07.663-07:00Setting the ground work for what makes a great game

At an abstract level a game is merely a situation that involves actors that have a set of rules imposed on them. Generally the rules apply across the board to the actor(s). Games also usually present some sort of objective or state in which a particular actor may win either against the game as an abstract entity or against other actors. In following the objectives of the game and adhering to

Nortainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402001330376788822noreply@blogger.com0