Brave New World
Next column I’ll get back to the Land of Nine Swords. I also have a brand new direction for this column which I’m really excited about. I talk more about that at the end of today’s column.
Dragonslaying
Dragon and Dungeon magazines are cancelled. I was published for the first time in Dragon and I’m going to miss the paper version of both magazines. The cancellation triggered a crisis of faith for many, many D&D players including myself.
I know the magazines are gone now and they aren’t coming back. I am overjoyed at the way Paizo has handled this crisis (and I can hardly call it anything else based on the way Wizards handled it). I’m looking forward to Pathfinder from Paizo and mourning the death of my favorite Dragon.
Wizard’s response is finally starting to make sense. Scott Rouse, senior brand manager for D&D, finally posted online. He said two things that make me want to believe that Wizards is not completely losing direction in the publishing of D&D.
One, he said “... yeah it sucks to be getting your butt chewed off on the boards but at least people care enough to complain. Not to sound crass, but in certain respects the day fans stop complaining is the day I pack up my desk because it means people no longer care. It's easy to armchair QB the PR but the only thing I would have changed not letting this situation be the thing that finally got me out of lurkerdom and into posterville ...”
Perhaps the first honest response to the outrage so many readers have been feeling.
Two, he said, “We knew they would slingshot off the announcement to promote a new product (Pathfinder) and our goal was to stay out of the way for a while and pretty much be the silent meat shield.”
Now, this confession actually got my attention. In D&D the meat shield is the fighter or barbarian with a lot of hit points who stands in front of the wizard and takes hits for him. The wizard is good at what he does but can’t survive the punishment a meat shield can take.
Scott appears to be a multi-classed gamer/suit who has finally awakened to the idea that he should post more often online and post more honestly. Is this spin? Of course it is. The difference is that it is finally good spin. Instead of a crappy looking-back article or corporate double speak Scott actually sounded like a real person.
So I’m closer to accepting that Wizards may be taking the heat on purpose to allow Paizo time to replace Dragon and Dungeon. Whether Wizards volunteered to be the meat shield or not, they are in that role and I want it to be true. So the spin is finally good.
But I still think the cancellation is the wrong decision. So, here’s a heavy metal ode to Dragon’s passing:
“Small gods with electrical hearts
And it all will end
Time to be killing the dragon again”
--Ronnie James Dio
Switching gears, I want to talk about what actually makes D&D good.
Basic D&D Theory
Why do up to eight guys show up at my house every other week to play D&D? And why do another five volunteer to get involved in a play by post game? What draws a dozen plus guys, who range from lawyers to cops to engineers, to want to play D&D?
Especially when some posters here at RPGnet wear their hat of d20 hate or whatever they call it so proudly? Lean in here, I have a secret to tell you.
We know something they don’t.
D&D is fun.
Not even crazy bad fun. Just fun.
Am I saying that a game that doesn’t model reality, that forces players into roles and doesn’t allow free form skill choosing, and that uses level is fun?
Yeah. And not just yeah, but hell yeah!
But, but, but…it doesn’t model reality. It limits choice. By all that is holy it uses hit points!
Yeah. And not just yeah, but hell yeah!
When I had my first crisis of faith, I got all hung up on monks, druids, and Vancian wizards rubbing shoulders together. I worried about caster level stacking and if my fly is zipped. Okay, I made that last one up, but it illustrates my original point.
Who cares about all the fine details? D&D is fun.
Advanced D&D Theory
See how after all these months I finally managed to work both Basic D&D and Advanced D&D into section headers? Finally used my college degree as written.
Okay, so D&D is fun. Well if it’s fun, then what is up with the three editions of Crisis of Faith?
Well, let me revisit the total party kill. Ultimately, what happens in the game is my responsibility. I’m the DM.
I stopped the fun. That’s where the TPK and the crises of faith started.
I forgot my responsibility to my players and I forgot to have fun. I started trying to script adventures and worlds or write rules that made the game fun. Neither approach works for me.
When I stop the fun I end up buying new game systems hoping some author out there will write up the fun for me. Raise your hand if you’ve ever done this. It never works though, at least not for me.
So back I went to the idea that D&D is fun. D&D is fun because everyone wins and everyone laughs.
Not very advanced theory?
Okay, let me put it this way. If a player shows up to play D&D and his character survives, he gets more power and more toys. Every single time.
Imagine if every time you went to work and worked hard you were rewarded with a party, a promotion, and fun toys to play with while you worked. That’s D&D.
Third Edition D&D Theory
Okay, I promised theory so let me deliver this time.
What makes the Land of Nine Swords so special? Why are this campaign and this world going to work after all the other attempts I’ve made?
First, no guarantees. But I will continue to act as if I know what I’m doing until I succeed in getting a campaign to Epic levels.
Let’s take a look at the D&D 3.0 and 3.5 rules, then and now.
In August 2000 D&D 3.0 exploded onto the scene. It reworked and revamped 2nd edition in a way that 2nd edition didn’t quite do for 1st edition.
What followed became what is now a predictable pattern. Splatbooks. A few cheesy dungeon crawl adventures. And a few stabs at creating something truly new, like Savage Species.
Then, Wizards came up with the D&D miniatures game, which in my opinion is what truly drove the change to D&D 3.5. What followed was years of chaos, both in the gaming company world and around the table.
I had players that had 3.0 books and couldn’t get 3.5 books. We struggled with new rules.
And Wizards went right back to the formula of splatbooks. This pissed a lot of us off. Rehashing 3.0 material and in a few terrible cases not even bothering to convert it to 3.5 before reissuing it. Man, what a mess.
I don’t know what happened at Wizards or who woke up, but all of that started really changing in 2005. The Dungeonmaster’s Guide II, Magic of Incarnum, and the Spell Compendium were departures from both splatbooks and 3.0. All three showcased the value of using the 3.5 rules.
In 2006, The Red Hand of Doom heralded the return of great adventures and Wizards started putting out even more books other than splatbooks. Books like the Tome of Magic, the Player’s Handbook II, Tome of Battle, and Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells. Books that included not just feats and classes but also roleplaying ideas and interesting concepts from which whole campaigns and worlds could be built.
What really helped me enjoy D&D again was the release of the Magic Item Compendium in 2007. While I like the Spell Compendium, it is still mostly a re-release of spells with innovations like the new polymorph spells not appearing until later books.
The Magic Item Compendium, on the other hand, took magic items and went back to the drawing board. Repricing, new powers, and new items were all created to actually get in the hands of PCs of all levels and stay there. It is one of the great books written for 3.5.
Wizards is finally taking ideas and concepts mostly ported in directly from second edition like spells and magic items and improving them and evolving them. The results are a better level of play.
Now, of course, they just had to cancel Dragon and Dungeon magazines.
Paizo is also going in a new direction with the Pathfinder adventure path products coming in August. More suited to my style of DMing, these adventures build roleplaying and background right into the setting. I can’t wait to see what evolves in their new world.
Meanwhile, I continue to try to evolve and improve my DMing style. Books like Dungeonscape and Pathfinder help me do that, by providing me not only with rules but also ideas, advice, and concepts to use in game. The books help my players get even more fun out of the game as well.
All of which makes D&D both a detailed, complex engine of gaming goodness. And fun.
The New Greyhawk
Paizo is writing the new Greyhawk. Through Pathfinder, a monthly 96-page gaming book, they are continuing to write adventures and provide new rules and background. All the Adventure Paths and modules they are writing now, however, are in a new world they are creating. As Greyhawk is remembered for Vault of the Drow and other classic modules, so too will the world of Pathfinder grow and evolve.
I think this move to supporting a world by writing adventures and building world-specific crunch is the way to go with the open game license. Whether Wizards keeps the next edition of D&D closed or not, it will be hard to undo the world building going on now.
I, for one, cannot wait until September to get my first Pathfinder book. The art is stunning and the ideas are awesome. I’m bound to find some monsters to unleash in the Land of Nine Swords as well.
Next Column
Starting next column I’m starting something new: A Complete Campaign Setting in One Column. I’ll include complete chapters from my Land of Nine Swords campaign setting. Each month I’ll add another chapter or two. After a few months the whole campaign setting will be available for anyone who wants to give the Tome of Battle a test ride. Along the way, I’ll include the results of actual play in the setting and how it affected the design.
Drive On (The Remaining Steps of the Sublime Way),
Charli
