Is Dark Sun Worthwhile?

I've been talking with the people over at the official Dark Sun website and there have been some mixed reviews about the new world. This has caused enough of a discussion that I figured I'd talk about it here.

To begin, I love this re-image of Dark Sun. I really believe that it boils down to this...it is a re-image of the world. I've been hearing things like, "where are the pterrans?", "Why are the descriptions so vague?", etc etc etc.

Well folks there are many reasons to bitch if you loved Dark Sun in second edition and don't want it to change. But it has changed. Dark Sun is a huge world and people who are obsessed with the original version of the campaign world are going to be like Star Trek geeks, they nit pick on everything. Grow up, move out of your mother's basement and accept that change happens.

This new image of Dark Sun is more vibrant than its predecessor. Is it a little less detailed? Sure. The first book is a campaign intro book. It's purpose is to describe the world of Dark Sun. In short, it is a summary book. This book is supposed to introduce new people to Dark Sun without overwhelming them with details that will just make them think, "you know what? I already know Forgotten Realms, I don't need to cram all this shit into my brain."

However the new Dark Sun has things in it like themes and details on new races and new ways of handling old races. It has more customization and lets face it, if you've played 2nd edition you know that customization was in short supply in that edition of D&D.

What does 4th edition Dark Sun offer? It offers a chance to bring Dark Sun into mainstream D&D again. It was a side world that few people played in 2nd edition, much like Spelljammer or Birthright. It was so unpopular that it was never reprinted in 3rd edition. However, the devoted fans of Dark Sun kept it alive and its now in 4th edition. So let's stop bickering about what this version doesn't have and focus on what it does have. Not to mention that it's been out for like 2 weeks now and it took 2nd edition Dark Sun several years to get all the books out. Stop expecting miracles.

If you haven't checked out Dark Sun yet, now is the time to do so. The world is rich and has lots of unique ways to play D&D. The books are new and there's lots of room to grow with the world without being overburdened with too much cannon. For the veteran Dark Sun players out there this is an opportunity. This is the chance to change the cannon and create entirely new things that will only add to the greatness that is Dark Sun. I recommend going to your local gaming store and participate in the monthly D&D game day. The one for Dark Sun has already come and gone, but there's plenty of opportunity to talk up the world and to show players how great this campaign is.

So stop bitching, accept change and roll with it. Change is good, and we're in a great position to affect the change in Dark Sun.

Until next time...

Quick Hello

Hey guys, I wanted to say hello and that I am working on some fun adventure ideas. Right now my mind is consumed with thoughts about Dark Sun and the world around it. It's such a vast and exotic world. I made a post earlier about burning out and how it is important to keep things creative and different. If you don't, then things can quickly fall apart.

That's the reason I love Dark Sun so much. It's D&D in every sense of the word, but at the same time it is something completely different. This world where the oceans are made of silt, and even surviving in the sun and finding water is a challenge. Most players don't think about their food or water rations in normal D&D worlds. They just shovel 50g every few dungeons and don't think about it. Here it is the difference between life and death. This is a great world to use to spice things up and really get the party excited about the game again.

I hope in the coming weeks that I can provide encounters and adventure arcs that will be inspirational so that everyone can have a good time and great ideas for their Dark Sun campaigns.

Until next time...

Encounter: Silt Horror

Encounter Level 12 (3,500 XP)

Introduction The party is traveling along the silt sea. This encounter can be easily adapted to fit whatever mode of transit the party is using. The party is moving along when they are attacked by a Silt Horror, waiting for prey beneath the sand.

The Silt Horror can be found in the Dark Sun Creature Catalog on page 86. I used the Deserts of Athas tiles for this battle map. (Don't ask me why they used blue to represent the silt sea, I guess they underestimate the intellect of their players.)



Read the following to the party:
The sun sits at it's zenith, and the hot wind blows softly from the west. As you move across the silt sea, the sand beneath you begins to rumble. Suddenly large, white tentacles burst from the dunes, swinging with precision, as if some unseen force is driving them.

This battle is separated into two phases. The first phase consists of the tentacles while the second maintains the tentacles but the body of the silt horror emerges. Place the tentacles during phase 1, but hold off on placing the Silt Horror until phase 2 begins.

Phase 1

Tactics
The tentacles come in groups of 4 or 5 (Dungeon Master's discretion) and continue to regenerate until 20 tentacles have been destroyed. They attack with purpose, trying to cause the most harm to as many of the players as possible.

Once 20 tentacles have been destroyed, read the following to the players:

The tentacles vanish beneath the sand and for a moment all is calm. Then the silt beneath your feet starts to rumble and shake violently. Suddenly a great behemoth bursts from the depths, it's gaping maw filled with sharp teeth. The tentacles stream from its body, moving right for you.

Phase 2

Tactics
In this phase the body of the Silt Horror is visible. The horror will regularly move beneath the sand to get closer to its food. It will try to bite any grabbed character. When bloodied the silt horror will attempt to flee, flinging away any character currently grabbed.

Features of the Area

Sea of Silt - The ground in this area is part of the silt sea and as such cannot support the weight of the characters if they stand upon it. Treat the ground as a Silt Sink hazard (found on page 140 of the Dark Sun Creature Catalog).

Scorching Sun - It is mid-day and the sun is at its worst. Players without proper protection should roll against Gray Death and Sun Sickness.

Until next time...

Adventure: Caravan Runners

The purpose of this adventure synopsis is to provide the dungeon master with an overall story arch with which to pit his players against. I am an old-school DMso my adventures are wrought with danger. I'm sure some DMs have the fear of a TPK (total party kill) but if the players fear that their precious character might actually die, then they are more likely to run from the fight when you present them with a battle they can't win, rather than foolish try to beat the bad guys.

The setting for this adventure is Dark Sun. I enjoy epic story archs that lead from one thing to another creating an ever expanding story. This adventure is designed for levels 1-6 and is used to introduce the players to the world.

Synopsis The desert sun scorches the unwary, and travel between the seven cities can be perilous at the best of times. You brave that peril on a daily basis. You are a dune trader, sworn to the Balican merchant dynasty of Rees. Your job is to guard the caravan from raiders and others who would disrupt the trade route. You also act as a Retriever. Along with a small group of elite tomb raiders, you set out into the desert to plunder the ruins and add to the coffers of your House.

All the players in this adventure must take a theme. The preferred theme is Dune Trader (DSCG Page 42) and at least 2 people in the party really should take it. However, the Athasian Minstral, Gladiator, Wilder and Wasteland Nomad all make sense here as well. Try not to let more than 1 player use each theme to allow for a nice variety. Other themes can easily be fit to work in this adventure as well.

In this first adventure, the characters begin by protecting the caravan from raiders. I'll post a series of encounters over the next week that provide challenging and different ways to guard the caravan. Once the caravan makes it to the destination, there is intrigue in the city. And on the return trip the adventurers are sent to retrieve an item from a ruined village off in the desert.

I would love to hear other people's ideas. I know I'm vague in this post, but it is a summary post and the details will be laid out over the next few weeks. I'm always adapting and changing my ideas, so if anyone has one to share I'd love to hear it and see where it goes.

Until next time...

What the Hell is this?

Alright, so I'm reading through the new Dark Sun Campaign Setting and I came across a new character creation concept: themes.

Now themes are an overlay on your current class. Want to be a gladiator? Sure! No problem. But what if you want to be a magic using gladiator, or a warrior gladiator, or a sly rogue-like gladiator? With the theme, you pick your class; mage, fighter, rogue, etc. and then overlay the gladiator theme on top of it. I like this concept and think it adds some amazing layers of customization to classes.

One of the themes is the Athasian Minstrel. This theme is best for bards and rogues, but it has its uses in other classes. However, it wasn't the minstrel theme that really grabbed my attention. It was the minstrel paragon path known as the Arms-Troubadour. This paragon path is sick. Whenever an enemy misses you you get combat advantage against them (WHAT?! fuck ya!) and that's at 11th level. At 16th level you can reroll certain skill checks and never fail in specific skill challenges if you miss by 5 or less. And seriously, how often do you fail a skill challenge by more than 5? But what REALLY grabbed my attention was this...



Sorry about the blurry picture. Below is the description of the power.

Poetic Flourish
Level 20 Daily Martial, Stance, Weapon
Free Action
Requirement You must be wielding a light blade or a heavy blade and use it to attack with this power.
Trigger You hit a creature and deal damage to it with an at-will melee weapon attack.
Target Creature you hit.
Effect You deal 2[W] extra damage, and the target is dazed (save ends). In addition, you can assume the stance of the arms-troubadour. Until the stance ends, you can make the following attack.
Free Action Close Burst 3
Trigger You hit with a melee weapon attack.
Target Each ally in burst
Effect Until the end of your next turn, the target can reroll one damage die, using either result, each time he or she hits an enemy with an attack.

Ok so this is a little complex, but let's break it down. What this says is that if I use an at-will power I can trigger this daily. So suddenly my mediocre at-will does an additional 2[W] in damage...that's nice. It also dazes my enemy. This is also nice. But is it awesome? Not so much. Then it gets into the stance.

Stances end when the encounter ends or when the player chooses another stance. So for the rest of this encounter, whenever I hit an enemy (which let's face it, at level 20 you're going to hit a lot) all my allies within a burst 3 of me get to roll their damage twice and pick the higher number.

This is legen....wait for it....dary!

Why would I ever leave this stance? I'd start taking extended rests after every battle and use this every time. This is fucking awesome! (ok I know you can't take extended rests after every battle, but christ I'd want to)

I've only gotten about 45 pages into this campaign book and I'm already loving the new classes and abilities. The arms-troubadour is seriously powerful AND it has an entertaining flourish on it for role-playing purposes. WoTC really did a good job with this one.

Until next time...

a Dark Sun arises!

I picked up copies of the new Dark Sun campaign world today. I am SO excited about this world. It was my favorite during second edition and I was very sad it didn't officially come back in 3rd edition.



This desert world is a unique way to play D&D. Expect me to post many interesting things about this. Well it's interesting to me, and if you read my blog it's probably interesting to you too. So there we go.

Until next time....

What Makes a Good Campaign

As a dungeon master I find that I spend a lot of time trying to make sure my players are having a good time. It's vital to ensuring that everyone keeps coming back. But what makes a good campaign? Truth be told that's a pretty fluid concept. What make a good campaign will change based on who the players are. However, in the 20+ years I've been playing D&D I've found there are several themes that make the players constantly wanting more.

1. Epic stories. While the players may think for the first 5-10 levels that they are doing random dungeons, they soon discover that the customs official they helped when they were level 3 ends up helping them smuggle an artifact into the city at level 12. Or the teenage assistant of their employer is actually an evil genius plotting world domination and they don't discover his plot until level 18. When things come back to the party they realize their actions have consequences and it helps create a richer story and a more compelling universe.

2. Compatible players. If you have four players that are all getting along and working together, and player number five is constantly getting killed, or attacking the Tiefling because his character hates demons, then there's going to be serious conflict. Tell him to get his shit together and stop being a chode burger. If he continues to steal from the party, and just make everyone bitch after or during the session then it's best to kick his belligerent ass to the curb.

3. Location. Your mom's basement is not a good location. Depending on your group, the local gaming store may or may not be a good location. If you want women to play D&D with you then the gaming store is probably a bad idea....it smells of feet and Mountain Dew. I like to use coffee shops that have a hip appearance. You can buy food and drinks, plus you can lounge around on cool couches. There's a bar I used to use in New Orleans that had a bunch of hanging vines overhead. It was a great place with open air and a relaxing atmosphere.

If you prefer to use the home of one of the players, I recommend picking the home of the one with the nicest place. Something with windows and sunlight. You'd be surprised how much this can energize the party. I know as gamers we fear the day-star, but suck it up. It's worth it and your pasty skin needs vitamin D anyways. If your party is mostly non-smokers I would recommend picking the house of one of the non-smokers. The smoker in the group can suck down his cancer sticks outside. I currently play with mostly smokers so we're chain smoking during the game. Which doesn't bother anyone in my group, but it can bother some people so it's worth keeping in mind.

4. Mix it up. If the game is nothing but kill monsters, move to next area, kill more monsters then it's going to get stale fast. Entire sessions dedicated to skill challenges can really mix things up. At the very least throwing in 1 skill challenge out of combat and one skill challenge during combat in every session will really keep things excited. I'll post in the near future a more detailed description of various skill challenges that I find really liven up the game.

5. Betrayal. Throw in an NPC that betrays the party in some way. Or if one of the players has betrayal in his back story, make sure that character comes back to bite the party in the ass. Nothing gets the blood flowing than making the players mad at an NPC and eager to kill him. My party recently learned that their employer is building a machine that will end the world and they've been inadvertently helping him. Since the party is made up of good characters, they are rather eager to find their employer and stop him. Of course he's packed up shop and moved.

6. Back story. Players should have detailed back stories for their characters. If your character is just a human rogue then there's really nothing exciting about him. Oooo, I roll to hit...I hit...I do 24 damage. Whoopie. There's no spark. The character is two dimensional. Even if you're not a roleplayer, knowing that your character is a living, breathing entity really helps add to the campaign. It determines what skills he uses, and what feats he takes. It determines how he interacts with the rest of the party and whether he chooses to fight or talk.

And seriously...this is important, and I can't stress it enough...but the "my parents were killed when I was a child by " is SO cliche it is actually retarded. Don't use it.

Making a good campaign will vary largely based on who is playing and who is running the campaign. Trial and error is really the only way to go, but keep an eye out for the temperament of those around you give some of my suggestions a try. It'll make the difference between a fun time and a failed campaign.

Until next time...

Character Creation and You

What? Who? Where the fuck have I been? So I promised a blog within 24 hours, and then 3 months later I finally post. Things got a little out of control in my world. Lost my job, then got a new one. But the new one worked me during nights and split shifts during the day so by the time I could blog I just wanted to sleep. But enough excuses...onward to character creation!

So a friend of mine was making his first character the other day and I was beating my head against a wall for a few hours helping him out. Experienced players know what I mean, and if you're a new player I don't mean any disrespect. It's just frustrating to those of us who already know what we're doing. But we're patient because we know you are learning. And if your teacher isn't patient, then shame on him.

Regardless, there are a few things to keep in mind when creating a character that makes the process go a lot quicker.

First is to try to keep things straight in your mind. Don't confuse your skills with your feats with your powers. Skills are things your character does out of combat (mostly) like athletics, or knowledge checks, etc. Feats are enhancements to your character and rarely require a dice roll, while powers are your combat abilities. This isn't overly complicated and if it's tripping you up then I would consider LARPing instead. It requires less thought.

A tip for more experienced players would be think of what you want your character to be like before you even start rolling up the sheet. I know not everyone is a role-player, but let me say that even for the power gamer or loot-whore out there it's a lot of fun to think of how your character would react to things. Take for example a rogue. You are a power gamer and want to pick a rogue that will roll tons of damage and dodge everything the mobs send at him. That's not a problem, but you can make a halfling who is extremely forgetful, or a gnome who is so obsessed with the shiny that he jumps headlong into conflict without even thinking about consequences. These things can affect how you make your character.

A rogue who is forgetful may have a high acrobatics, but won't need any points in insight. A rogue who jumps headlong into conflicts would want improved initiative or quick draw but wouldn't need any training in perception. This allows you to make a more interesting character that still does enough damage to make your dungeon master cry himself to sleep at night.

I have to admit, I was both frustrated and impressed with my friend as he made his first character. He was making a dwarven barbarian and one of the barbarian trained skills is perception and any experienced player will tell you that perception is one of the most oft used skills in D&D 4th edition. Yet my friend decided he didn't want it. In my head I was screaming at him that he was being a moron for not taking the most useful skill in the game. But then I also knew that he was going for the type of barbarian that jumped headlong into the fray with no concern for life or limb. A barbarian like that may not need perception.

Really what makes for a good character is foresight. You have to plan your character. It's not all about stats but how you play the character. Even a power gamer gets bored when his character isn't interesting. Flaws and quirks make for a good character. Sometime in the future I'll lay out a list of flaws and quirks I enjoy using for my characters.

Until next time...