The city...

Some setting information before the big game this week. 

The game will start in an unusually large city, (40,000 people,) with a huge amount of attached land.  There are numerous merchant guilds, a large contingent of soldiers patrolling the outside roads, plus a large city watch.  The city wasn't as ruined by the gnoll attack the destroyed the rest of the empire.  That said, it's not chock full of modern, (to us,) amenities.  However, life there is a little easier than some other places. 

The city has a port if you're interested in being some kind of sailor or wharf rat type. 

The government is set up with a hereditary lord ruling over the whole area.  Under him is the city council.  They make most of the laws with the Comte reserving the right to veto any bill he does not agree with.  The council is made up of all the local guild lords plus a wizard from the university and a representative of the watch.  Also on the council is the lord mayor, who is responsible much of the day-to-day administration of the city. 

If you want your character to be a part of a certain guild, I'm purposely not saying what guilds exist because I don't want to limit you.  (If you want to be the scion of the family that leads the duck picklers' guild, I'd like you to be the scion of the duck picklers' guild.  If it's something as out of left field as someone who pickles ducks, I'd like to know why you'd do that, but it's perfectly cool to be that.) 

A few other things that you might want to know: the climate is temperate, there are mountains nearby where there are mines, actually, anything else you'd like is probably around too. 

Here's kind of my idea of what the area might look like from a distance:

See you all on Tuesday,
Michael

The D&D Character Builder...

If you're building a new character, and using the character builder, here's my quick walkthrough. 

Go here.  It's the link to the D&D Tools page.  Click, "Launch," under D&D Character Builder.  It'll open a new window.  (If it asks you to install Silverlight, go ahead.  You need it and it weirdly won't screw up your computer as badly as Flash does.) 

It'll then take about forever to load.  (I have fast internet and it takes a while.) 

The options are 1.  New Essentials Character.  2.  New Custom Character.  3.  Load a character. 

Three is sort of self explanatory, but I'll go over the difference between one and two. 

D&D Essentials is a new way to build characters.  It's very light on options, (six races and basically four classes,) but supposedly, (not really having played D&D for more than six months,) makes characters closer to the older D&D editions.  The custom character will let you build any class from any book with any race ever mentioned by anything Wizards of the Coast has done in 4th Edition ever. 

Being essentials does all the work for you, I'll walk you through a custom character. 

Click, "Custom." 

The first option is setting.  If you were playing in an Eberron, Dark Sun, or Forgotten Realms campaign, you'd choose those, but I'm using the D&D core world so it's a home campaign.  (The Essentials choice here is if you're playing in an organized by WotC campaign.) 

The next screen is to pick your class.  If you want a specific role, you can start with that, or if you pick, "all roles," you can look at each class and see which you'd rather be. 

I have something specific in mind, so I'm going to choose controller.  (Because it'll make the class I want show up nearer the top.)  I picked Wizard. 

It gave me the option of which arcane implement I want master of.  Often after picking a class, you'll get an option of which weapon/implement you'd rather use.  I picked Staff of Defense because wizards suck at taking damage.  This would give my wizard a little bit of an edge. 

It also asked me which build I wanted to use.  I picked War Wizard because the coolest thing a wizard can do is hurl a fireball. 

I picked Human as my class because I'm not creative.  Also, I wanted to show racial options and humans have one.  As a human, I get to pick if I want an extra at-will power, or an ability to get a huge bonus on a saving throw.  Being my wizard will focus on elemental attacks, (and knowing focusing solely on fire will screw me if I have to fight something with resistance to fire,) I'd like more options. 

I made my character male and clicked on Random Name.  I got Mikal.  Seems oddly fitting, but I'm going to rename him to Boukephos Manilow.  (A more appropriate name for a bard, but I still like it a lot.)  I filled in his details for height and weight with my own information, (because I don't have a lot of imagination,) but I added 30 years to my age.  I'd like my wizard to be a grumpy old man.  (Forty years of people asking if he was related to, "that singer guy," grates on his nerves.) 

I picked Pelor as my character's god because, meh. 

I picked a picture and put in the rest of the nuance details.  (Feel free to load him up and read him.)  You need to be concise because you only have a few lines of text you can put in. 

There is an option for background.  It's pretty cool.  There are a lot to read through so I suggest playing with the search option if you're looking for something specific. 

Next is abilities.  The easiest way to do this is to choose an array.  The 16, 14, 14, one is probably the best.  It automatically assigns you skill points in different areas.  Because my guy is really old, I'm making his dump stat strength.  Because my guy is a human, I got to add two points to a skill of my choice.  I choose INT because it's something a wizard uses for everything. 

Next, choose skills.  It might be a good idea to pick things you already have high numbers for.  When your guy is doing something that requires a skill check, you want the higher numbers.  (Also, you might want to accept your guy can't be all things to all people.) 

Next, choose your powers.  The suggestions you get are pretty good, but it might be worth flipping through them all if you want to really make sure you're getting what you want. 

Also, wizards get a second daily power they can swap out for their normal one after an extended rest so I got to pick a second one. 

Next you choose feats.  Feats are powers that are always active.  I chose Far Spell, (increases the range of my spells,) and Human Perseverance, (+1 to all saving throws.) 

Next is Marketplace.  The best way to start this is by hitting, "add gear for me."  Here's where it gets dicey.  Wizards get a spellbook for free, but not a ritual book.  So I need to buy that.  I go to Marketplace, then gear.  I then click on the ritual book, and click, "buy." 

Wizards are also supposed to get two free spells at level one.  So I go to magic items, switch the dropbox to rituals, and change the max level that is shown to one. 

I click on a spell I want, and click add.  (They're supposed to be free.) 

After I click next, I have options for more background information, or to save my person.  I click save and I'm done

Characters...

If you're feeling like using pre-generated characters, I have them here for you. 

If you want to download and look at them all, here's the .zip for file that. 

The first character is Orsik, a dwarf knight.  His ability is distracting enemies from attacking his allies. 

Next is Tordek, a dwarf warpriest.  He's a basic healer who would be great to have if you're ever underground fighting undead. 

Next up is Anastrianna, an eladrin mage.  She's a sort of basic wizard class.  Her spells seem to be based on the idea of screwing with people's minds.  They deal mostly with illusions or stuff you'd see in the movie scanners. 

Heian is an elf mage.  His spells are mostly elemental in nature.  He throws fire and ice at people. 

Adrie is an elf warpriest.  Her powers seem to be really useful if you're in the wilderness fighting undead. 

Bree is a halfling thief.  She is great at sneaking up on people in combat and beating them from behind.  (Stabbing actually.) 

Samm is a human mage.  He seems like a cross between the other two wizards.  He also has a quarterstaff which he can hit people with if they get close to him. 

Brandis is the human slayer.  Looking at his powers, of the realistic people, (nobody throwing fireballs,) he's probably the character you'd least like to run into in a dark alley.  He can rush into you doing bunches of damage, or take a penalty to hit you, but get a big bonus to how much it hurts. 

I should probably throw out a quick rundown on what the different races do. 

Dwarves are what happens when you take a person, and smoosh them.  If you've seen Lord of the Rings, you know what they look like.  In D&D, they have a higher defense against Will attacks.  (Attacks against your brain.)  Also, when they're poisoned, they recover much quicker than anyone else.  Finally, probably the most powerful thing, they can use their second wind, (self-healing power everyone has,) they do it as a minor action instead of a standard action.  (Attacks are standard actions so you can still attack, but heal yourself.) 

Eladrin are one of the three kinds of elves.  They're the ones that stayed in the Feywild.  They're good at magic and swords.  They can also teleport by skipping through the feywild and showing up somewhere else nearby.  (Think of Lord of the Rings, what the elves would be after they left for Valinor.) 

Elves are the kind of elf that left the feywild for the world.  They are good with different kinds of bows.  They can shift through difficult terrain.  (Difficult terrain is land that takes twice as long to cover.  Shifting is moving through a square near an enemy without that enemy hitting you.  (Think parrying and moving.))

Halflings are the hobbits from Lord of the Rings.  They are typically river folk.  They are good at resisting fear attacks and they are good at being missed.  (They have a once an encounter power that makes an enemy retry an attack after they hit.  (i.e., You're hit by an attack, you make they try again, possibly missing.) 

Humans are the last race.  (In the pre-gen characters.)  They can be good at whatever they want.  (They're adaptable to any class.)  They have the racial ability to get a huge bonus to any one saving throw.  (Saving throws are for when, (for example,) you're poisoned.  At the end of your turn, you roll a d20.  If you roll a 10 or higher, you're free from the poison.  Humans can add 4 to whatever they roll.) 

Also, if you're using a pre-gen character, feel free to change the name/sex/alignment. 

A little more on classes...

I was thinking about my last explanation of classes, and I think I made it way too complicated.

So, to fix that, I'm going to explain the pre-generated characters I'm bringing to the game.  (You don't need to use them, but if you're new, it might be a good intro for a few sessions.)

The first one is a character called the human slayer.  (He's a human that slays.  Not a person that slays humans.  He might slay humans, but he doesn't seek them out specifically.)  Slayers are basically what old D&D used to call Fighters.  They walk up to things, and hit them until they stop moving.  They're a great class to start with.  They're pretty basic.

Next up is the thief.  This is a character that's good at sneaking around, and also at sneaking up on people.  They can't be hit a whole lot, (or they can, but don't stay up.)  They do a lot of damage though.

The knight is a variation of the slayer, except this character focuses on defending their teammates.  They do an average amount of damage, but can be hit the most of any class before falling over.

The mage is a wizard.  They can do a little bit of damage to a large area, or a lot of damage to a very specific person.  They can also put enemies to sleep, or push them around the battlefield.  They typically are the weakest regarding their ability to be hit.  They're also fairly complicated.  If you're brand new to D&D, you might want to shy away from this class.  Then again, you might be all for them.

Finally, the warpriest is a healer.  Everything the mage does to enemies, this character does to the players, but the opposite.  They give health and bonuses to their teammates.

Also, an off topic thing, I updated the site with some other stuff for tracking our game.  It probably doesn't make sense now, but it will once we play.

Fluff & Crunch...

D&D is a game composed of two writing styles.  They often are called, "Fluff," and, "Crunch."

Fluff is anything story related.  Crunch is the actual mechanics.

Here's a good example:
Fluff:  Darrien shifts his stance, jumps 20 feet and kicks this guy.  He uses his momentum to kick off of him, and into this guy.  He does this same trick again to kick these other four guys.
Crunch:  Darrien uses Spinning Leopard Maneuver to shift six squares, and roll +6 vs Reflex (18), and dealing 2d6 + 8 damage.

It's actually not the best example of fluff, but it sort of points you down the right road.

So, in this spirit, you'll notice two new links on the right.  One is House Rules (Crunch) and the other is House Rules (Fluff).  The crunch is any mechanical changes from the basic rules presented in the book.  There's just one now.  The fluff is any changes/additions/subtractions to the story as presented among the however many books they've put out.

I'll try to make Fluff an interesting read.  Also, before I add any house rules, I'll have a post here.  Feel free to discuss your thoughts on stuff.  If you point out why a rule is a particularly bad or good idea, I might modify it.

Creating a new D&D character...

If you're new to D&D, (or 4th edition,) this applies to you.  To be in a game, you need a character.  Looking at the on-line compendium, there are 55 possible classes right now.  That's a lot to think about, so I'm going to break it down.  (Or let the folks at Wizards of the Coast do it for me.)

Of those 55 classes, each is one of four roles.  This is what you do in combat.  (A huge part of D&D.)  These roles are, striker, controller, leader, and defender.  During combat, each has a particular thing they do particularly well.

Controllers tend to be the hardest to define.  They can hurt enemies, and tend to do a little bit of damage, over a large area.  They can also do things where they move enemies around.  Finally, they can make certain parts of the terrain harder, (or more dangerous,) to move across.

Defenders are the, "meat shields."  They do a decent amount of damage, but their greatest strength is getting enemies to attack them, and not their comrades.  Each defender has a power that, "marks," an enemy.  (Or a group of enemies.)  When an enemy is marked, they have a harder time hitting people that aren't the defender that marked them.  Also, if they do attack someone else, there is usually some kind of consequence involving damage.  (If a paladin, (holy warrior,) marks you, and you attack someone else, the paladin's god does damage to you.)

Leaders are healers.  They each have an ability that gives hit points back to hurt characters.  They can also buff their teammates.  Usually this is through a free action or some kind of bonus to skills.

Strikers do damage.  They tend to do a lot of damage to one enemy, but some of them, (the monk,) can attack multiple enemies in a turn.

Of these roles, defenders usually have the most hit points, followed by leaders, then strikers, and finally controllers.

In a typical, well thought, tactical combat the following happens.

The defender marks the strongest enemy and stops it from attack the party.  The striker goes in for an attack and usually is the one to kill it.  The leader keeps everyone alive while the controller keeps the smaller enemies away.

Now that the roles are taken care of, another way to subdivide the classes is power source.  These are primal, arcane, martial, shadow, psionic, and divine.

Arcane characters channel the power of the feywild.  (The place where fairies come from.)  Basically, what they do is flashy magical effects.  It lets wizards toss fireballs, bards to mock people to ill health, and warlocks to... also throw fireballs.

Divine characters use the power of the astral sea.  (Where the gods hang out.)  They channel the power of their god on the material plane.  Their effects tend to be biblical in nature.  (Either healing or smiting.)

Martial characters use only their own natural toughness and conditioning.  It allows fighters to intimidate people into ignoring other people on the battlefield, rogues to use athletic and acrobatic skills, and warlords to yell at their teammates to do better.

Primal characters use the primal spirits to grow stronger.  They commune with the earth and the planet gives them strength.  They can summon nature spirits to help them or draw strength from the earth to damage their enemies.  Primal characters also tend to have more hit points.

Psionic characters use their brains to harm others.  Think of Scanners.  With the exception of the monk, they all seem pretty complicated in how they work.

Finally, shadow characters use the power of the shadowfell, (world of the dead/opposite of the feywild.)  They have sold a piece of their soul to gain greater power in this world.

Those two things taken into account should give you an idea of what each class is, what they do, and how they do it.

New player survey...

If you're new to my game, (or old really either,) I have a survey for you.  It's only 3-1/2 questions, but it'll help me considerably.

Here you go.  (survey link)

Adventuring supplies

So you're new-ish to D&D and you're wondering what to get.  Here are my tips on what new players need.

1.  Weird dice.  You can get packs of seven of these in most game stores.  They tend to run somewhere between $4-10.  Just a warning, make sure you can read the numbers off of them before you buy them.  Also, don't buy cheat dice.  You might get stoned, (or diced,) by the other players or the DM if you do.  When you get these, you'll get seven dice.  You'll get a d4, (four-sided die,) d6, d8, 2d10, d12, and a d20.

Also, a quick word on notation.  nDo.  n = number of dice.  D = die/dice.  This is a constant for this notation.  o = how many sides the die has.  As an example, Monopoly comes with 2d6.

You'll need these to determine the outcome of just about anything your character does.

2.  Paper and a pen/pencil.  This is useful to keep track of how much life you have left.  Also, there is other stuff you might want to write down.

3.  A mini.  This is a three-dimensional representation of your character.  You can buy the official D&D ones, (about $11 for three,) or get metal ones for about $4-6 each.  Or you can borrow one from me.  (I have tons.)

The metal ones look much better if they're painted.  If you're good at that kind of thing, everyone else may love you.

4.  Books.  Here's where my instructions may get kind of dicey.  (No pun really intended.)  There are a ton of rulebooks out there intended for players.  If you have access to the on-line character builder, you really only need one or two of them.

I recommend the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Compendium.  The price on the back is $19.95,  but if you look around, you can find it cheaper.  It's all of the rules you'd ever need for combat or beyond.  However, there is no information on character creation.

So for that, I'd recommend Heroes of the Fallen Lands or Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms.  These books have most of the rules from the Compendium, and all the information you'd need on how to make a character.  They're very player focused.  Specifically, they're very new player focused.  They teach you all the rules you'd need to know, and each have four or five classes and six different races to choose from.

Finally, there's the Player's Handbook.  It's way bigger than any other book I've talked about, but it's also very outdated.  I mentioned the on-line character generator and you probably want to skip this book and use that instead if you want any of the classes inside.

Any of the large books that has a blue binding is made for players.  It's mostly fluff information, (which is good,) but none of them are really worth it for the mechanics on how to do stuff.  Being a DM, I'm usually biased towards fluff, but if you're creative, you can make most of the stuff up as you go along, and your DM will probably fill in world details for you.

So, if you're new, my verdict is to get one of the Heroes of the F... books, and possibly the Rules Compendium.

Welcome new players!

If you're just joining us, welcome!  This is the site where I post updates on how the game went the week before.  (It also was apparently a great place to argue too.)

If you scroll through the archive, you can see what the heroes from the last game did.  If you have suggestions, there is a place on the right where you can do that.

This site is sort of transitional right now so it might not look like it does now later on.

Still, welcome!