World of LEGO

I was a LEGO fanatic as a kid, always wanting more of the little coloured blocks and building everything my imagination could desire, from spaceports to castles, dinosaurs or anything in between. My enormous LEGO collection was passed onto my half-brothers and has dispersed from there to other kids.

Having kids myself means I get to re-visit my childhood and re-enter the world of LEGO, this time with a more discriminating eye and the aim of getting the best value for my kids that I can.

Things are certainly different from when I was a kid, and yet the basics are the same. There is a greater selection of bricks/parts than ever before, and even small models come with unique parts that offer interesting re-build possibilities. The basic streams of city, space and castle LEGO are still there, but there are new lines that target specific media licenses (such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Speed Racer, etc.). There is a far greater prevalence of friction and pull-back motors that give kids all sorts of vehicle possibilities, but there are less lights and battery operated pieces than when I was a kid. Technics is still around, but there is also MindStorms, the robot building kits.

Being a one-time LEGO junkie there is nothing better than sitting with my kids and helping them build an X-Wing launcher, monster truck or other fun toy. In fact there are still a good number of adults that still build LEGO models, it's just that they are either aiming to look more like models than toys (e.g. see the spacecraft below) or they use them for other purposes like wargaming or roleplaying games. There is even LEGOuniverse, the upcoming massively multiplayer online game from LEGO.

With the newer editions of D&D emphasising the use of square map grids for combat maps, the LEGO world starts to make some sense, particularly given the additional minifig personalisation options now that we have aliens from Star Wars, Dwarves and Trolls (OK, Ogres and Orcs) in the LEGO range. Unfortunately by the time you collect enough bricks and minifigs you might as well have spent the cash for good old fashioned wargame miniatures, especially if you are just a player who wants a single (if highly customised) minifig.

Fortunately it turns out that the bricks aren't the only thing that's changed in the last 20 years. You can now find sites online where you can buy single bricks/parts and get hard to find items that might not even be in production any more (can anyone say Pirate LEGO?). There are even sites where people make custom parts compatible with LEGO, for example farm animals, wizard's capes, etc. In fact there is a plethora of sites out there, many of which are just copies of each other.

Here is a short list of the sites I've been most impressed with:

• Bricks to the World
  First up, an Aussie company that gives you access to the whole LEGO range, including some kits that are no longer available elsewhere.
• FindMyBrick.com is a great site to go to find individual bricks/parts. The ability to buy individual parts (usually for less than a US dollar) makes it easy to build a minifig to match your elven fighter-mage. They also have some modified bricks.
• Official LEGO Store
  Of course there is an official online store, but prices may not differ much from your local toy store (and with shipping are usually more). However there are pieces for sale there that are not available elsewhere, such as this huge LEGO chess set.
• BrickQuest
  In the spirit of HeroQuest comes BrickQuest, a fantasy boardgame that uses LEGO pieces and settings. There are even fan sites with ideas for monsters.
• MOCpages
  This site gives LEGO enthusiasts a place to showcase their models. I particularly like DARKspawn's range of historical building models.
• Brickshelf
  Like MOCpages this gives the enthusiast somewhere to show off their latest models.
• Minifig.co.uk
  This is not an eCommerce site, but it has a nice selection of custom models for the Viking and Castle ranges.
• The Brick Testament
  This is a fun retelling of the Bible using LEGO bricks and minifigs.

Enjoy LEGOing and let me know if you find any other good sites out there!

Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition

This is my review of the 4th Edition rules for Dungeons & Dragons. Basically I like them, although I think they have been marketed at a mature audience and I would not recommend them for anyone younger than 15, and with parental guidance for any older teenager.

 

I was surprised this weekend when I managed to get an hour or two free from the family to browse my FLGS and found that they had just got their first delivery of Dungeons & Dragons, 4th Edition (D&D 4e). Another pleasant surprise was the price, AU$39.95 each for the Player's Handbook (PHB), Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG) and Monster Manual (MM). After perusing the books for 10 minutes or so I was sure that whilst interesting, this might not be the future for my gaming group, so I only plunked down the cash for the PHB and DMG, as the MM could come later if I actually DMed anything.

 

Dungeons & Dragons was one of the first pen-and-paper roleplaying games (RPGs) that experienced a huge growth in the 1970's and 1980's before first collectible card games (CCGs), and then massively multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPGs) ate into their customer base, especially the important new players (who tend to spend a lot on new rule books).

 

Here are the major differences I've noticed in my first few reads:

1. Core Classes: Cleric, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Warlock, Warlord, Wizard.
2. Core Races: Dragonborn, Dwarf, Eladrin, Elf, Hafling, Half-Elf, Human, Tiefling.
3. Alignments: Lawful Good, Good, Unaligned, Evil, Chaotic Evil.
4. All classes are as complex as each other now. Cleric/Wizard have simplified a lot, the rest have become more complex, especially Fighter.
5. Skills have been greatly simplified and streamlined, but still offer interesting abilities.
6. Healing is still important, but more of it is available via 'natural' means (resting, skill-checks) than ever before. Healing powers are more spread about the classes too.
7. Lots of development choices, whilst all random elements in character development have been removed (no rolling for abilities, hit points or starting gold). This makes it possible for people to create characters without a DM present.
8. There are no conversion rules, or references to old versions of the game, except for a brief History of D&D sidebar at the start of the PHB.

There are some elements that are worrying as core rules for a game that has traditionally been pitched at pre-teens on up:

1. Tieflings are more definitely infernal than before, with the devil-inspired characteristics very plainly displayed in the artwork (horns and thick tails) and flavour text that suggests a real struggle to overcome their darker natures.
2. The artwork in general is much darker than ever before, with violence and horror graphically depicted (PHB: p.122, massive slice through lizardman's side; p.297, blood running from Regdar's nose; DMG: p.11 bruised and bloody heroes; p.130-131 a far too realistic horror piece).
3. The Warlock class is a dark parody of real-life witchcraft and plays up the darker emotional aspects of the role and the 'selling your soul' element. For example Hellish Rebuke says that "You point your finger and your foe is scoured in hellish flames stoked by your own anger and pain." If you take the Feytouched paragon path then you have been "driven slightly mad" and "relish the madness and can control it, but those you unleash it upon can do nothing but crumble in the wake of the unparalleled majesty of the Feywild." If you take the Life-Stealer paragon path then "Your pact with infernal powers has given you the ability to steal and utilize the life energy of your enemies. This life energy provides you with a new avenue to power, and you hunger for it as a vampire craves blood." Lovely.

As a result I would not recommend these rules for anyone younger than 15, and parental guidance even then, given the interest in the occult that this could easily foster. This is a shame as the artwork could easily have been toned down, and the Tiefling/Warlock rules left out for a darker add-on supplement. In particular it clashes with the (rather glib) advice that if "you choose an alignment for your character you should pick either good or lawful good."

 

I suspect the decision has been made (at some level) to go after an older age group, as the average online gamer is in their 30's and can afford the subscription model that D&D 4e seems to be heading towards. However, I can't help wondering whether this shoots themselves in the foot as many parents I know would be even less likely now to invest in D&D 4e for their kids. I certainly would now steer my children, nephews and nieces towards other softer games for their first pen and paper roleplaying experience.

 

Now, some people might reflexively think I am overreacting, however please bear in mind that I would not recommend many online RPGs to younger players for similar reasons. I recognise that my own exploration of RPGs started with the very benign Basic D&D rules, and it was only later that I was exposed to ideas that required more mature filtering than I had as a young teenager. Giving a young teenager D&D 4e would be exposing them to occult ideas, horror elements and graphic violence - there are undoubtedly parents who do not have a problem with this, but personally I'd like to save my kids the nightmares and unnecessary perversity of the thoughts behind ideas such as selling one's soul for power. If I was going to do it, then I would make sure I guided them through it in order to help them place these ideas properly in their place.

 

So, perhaps I am unusual, but it does make me wonder if this sort of marketing blunder indicates that someone at Hasbro (owners of Wizards of the Coast, publishers of D&D 4e) has taken their eye off the brand?

 

For mature gamers, who have perhaps been around the block more than once with White Wolf's World of Darkness products (Vampire, Werewolf, etc) there is little in these rules that you will not have seen before, and the main issues you would have are with the decision to change the core classes and races, yet again. In particular the admission of Dragonborn and Eladrin races seem spurious, given how many other races have been left out.

 

I've heard people openly criticise this edition as going after the MMORPG crowd, and whilst a sell-out could be on the cards, to me this looks more like a genuine attempt to re-visit the core rules and bring some much needed balance back into the game - albeit by removing many of the 'realistic' rules that have been around since D&D's early wargaming days. Personally I look forward to sitting down with the boys, opening a few beers, swapping stories about the kids and then seeing just what we can do with a few heroes of old.

Gary Gygax dies

Gary Gygax, a co-creator of the original Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game (and afterwards his own series of games, Lejendary Adventures) died yesterday. NEWS.com.au has more details and there are tributes from Wizards of the Coast and Penny Arcade, amongst others.

It is a shame he has died so young (69), when many of his contemporaries have another 10, 20 or 30 years of gaming ahead of them. My commiserations go to his family, as well as my thanks for his contribution to my many days and night of fun gaming.

Dungeons & Dragons: 4th Edition

Wizards just announced the impending release of D&D 4th Edition at GenCON. Here are the videos of the major announcements:







Here is a better version of the teaser shown in the first presentation:

Tomb of Horrors: Revisited

The Tomb of Horrors is a venerable old lady of adventure modules, the grande dame of horror-themed 'no one gets out alive' adventures, as Wikipedia puts it:

The Tomb of Horrors is infamous among players of the game as a "killer dungeon," filled with all manner of extremely deadly traps and monsters that are capable of easily wiping out high-level parties of player characters. Indeed, some players consider Tomb of Horrors to be "unfair"; many of the traps within largely ignore game mechanics and story logic in their operation.

I got to delve into this pit of dead PCs with my gaming buddies this weekend. We were playing good old 'Advanced" Dungeons and Dragons, the ruleset that was for so long king of the castle, until it was toppled by the (now) ever-present d20 System that lies behind D&D 3rd Edition (or '3e' for short).


Personally the weird mix of Egyptian-themed tomb that should not be opened and typical AD&D dungeon crawl makes this a deliciously scary adventure to play. Getting to do it with my suitably paranoid gaming group made it all the more fun - especially as two of us had read the module at some point (>2 years ago).


It helped that we had player characters that were at the upper end of the recommended level range (14) and in fact far beyond the 'typical' strength of such characters (too many late nights playing find-the-artifact or other examples of extreme-adventuring. We've survived the first level through judicious use of Limited Wish, some well applied thieving skills and disposable gargoyles (thanks to a Ring of Gargoyles). Now I'm really looking forward to getting back into it and cleaning up the next level!

Roleplaying Groups/Cons in Sydney

To clear up my browser tabs here is a brief list of some of the roleplaying conventions and groups in Sydney, Australia:

SydCon
Only con I ever roleplayed at, won an award ...

MacquarieCon
Good con, great location, had fun wargaming ...

UNSW Gameplayers
I used to belong to these guys when I was at uni ...



RPGA Asia-Pacific
The 'official' roleplayers group - IMO does not carry much weight compared to local groups ...

GenCon Oz
Not due to happen until 2008 - but if it is as big as the North American one, then it will be HUGE!!!

Necronomicon
I've only ever played CCGs at this event, was good fun though ...

The DM of the Rings

Shamus Young had created a most excellent comic interpretation of how a 'normal' D&D party would tackle the Lord of the Rings. If you've ever played D&D (or any of its many siblings) then this is sure to cause you to lose it, so do not read this whilst drinking, eating or in a place where loss of composure could be seriously embarrassing (like work).


In the words of the creator of this misadventure:

Lord of the Rings is more or less the foundation of modern D&D. The latter rose from the former, although the two are now so estranged that to reunite them would be an act of savage madness. Imagine a gaggle of modern hack-n-slash roleplayers who had somehow never been exposed to the original Tolkien mythos, and then imagine taking those players and trying to introduce them to Tolkien via a D&D campaign.

That sums up the comic nicely, and explains why I kept having flasbacks to the various times when I tried to get my hack-n-slash friends interested in my latest campaign, based on {insert seriously good scifi/fantasy novel, film or comic name here}.

Setting and Source Material

There is a great discussion about Setting and Source Material at the anyway blog. The most interesting bit for me was:

Last summer sometime Ninja J and I spent a whole afternoon walking all the heck over Northampton. Among many other things, we talked about a beloved old game he'd GMed; particularly, we talked about how rich and alive its setting was, how detailed. His players ate it up, he said, they'd go on and on about how compelling, complete, fully realized the setting was.

Then he told me how he'd done it. He'd taken three principles - I wish I could remember them in particular, J please step in here, but they were like "nobody thinks that they themselves are evil," "the Grand Galactic Empire is procedurally conservative," and "nobody really enjoys their job" - three principles something like those, and whenever any of his players asked him about anything in the setting, he'd simply apply those principles to create the answer.

Now that is a cool tip. it basically fits the idea that Ron Edwards pushes for Setting, which is to take a leaf from the dramatic writing how-to's and determine your game's premise - i.e. the philosophical idea it is wrestling with.

The punchline is: most RPGs' setting material (along with all primary source fiction, like Firefly or The Lord of the Rings) is the end product of a creative process. What do we roleplayers need? We need the starting point of the creative process instead.

Later in the comments Ninja J steps in to clarify his rules, and adds:

It's how I've run games ever since. Characters have motivations and anytime the protags do something, I ask myself what the NPCs would do in this situation, given their resources. Sometimes it's simple: "Queen Elizabeth's agents will never betray her because she's got something on them." "Jean-Renard is a coward and will funnel his resources into violence only as long as it will keep him out of danger." Along those lines.

I've found that you wind up with NPCs that seem really real because they're not prescripted. You have a world that seems real because, even when you don't know what's under every rock, you know the kind of thing that should be there.

Sydney summarizes with:

I'm really wondering now if the Technique we're trying to isolate from various specific instances actually involves combining

(1) seed crystals: highly specific, concrete, vividly visual images -- but with plenty of complexity and ambiguity to stimulate and allow growth in multiple directions [Angus: Characters, Ideas, Gadgets, Locations, Organisations]
(2) generation rules: simple, clear, abstract principles that guide how new specifics are derived from existing specifics.

This gives me some things to think about, I'm not sure what these should be for my own game, but I'm sure thinking about them will be more fruitful than working out yet another set of NPCs (and maps, and plot points, and ... etc) that my players never go anywhere near!

Character Names

Names, names, names ... such important little things, especially when describing an imaginary character to an unknown person.

I have some favourite names. Falkayn is one. Drake is another. Both have been used by authors I like to describe characters I enjoyed. Both could be re-used, but that takes some of the fun out of the creative act.

Hermes is an interesting name, currently used for branding feminine accessories, yet a male name from Greek myth. Even then, the name is one from a story, one already tied up with an interesting character. Of course, many interesting names do have stories attached to them (often more than one) and that shouldn't stop us using a name that is a good fit with a character idea.

Sometimes a common name is good, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sir Nigel Loring merges a common name with a more interesting one. His Sherlock Holmes merges two interesting names, and the way it felt when spoken was surely part of his reason for choosing them (Sir Nigel was from his more serious historical fiction).

For me, finding good names is always a difficult task. Most parents have wrestled with this problem, there are so many name books, and so many names to choose from. As parents you usually are restricted by your family name, which can be helpful. Although the advantage of a work of fiction is that you don't need to agree on the name with your spouse!

The other problem is the old chicken and the egg paradox. Do you start with the character or the name? For me it is a mix of both, a character idea will spark a name, which will help mold the character idea, which may end up requiring a different name.

I was planning on putting some sample names up here, but now I think of it, I want to explore some character, story and world ideas a bit more first.