Feat Discussion: Harmless (not the face!)

Edit: Rephrased to clean-up meaning and intent

I’m starting a new blogtype on tenletter (and presumably it will just be me making use of it ). The Feat Discussion posts. The format is simple: one feat is presented and everybody is invited to discuss it. So, without further ado:

Harmless [General]
Prerequisite: Cha 13+
Benefit: Provided you wear light or no armor, you may add your Cha modifier to your AC as a dodge bonus, you retain this bonus to AC even when flat-footed, helpless or unconscious. Additionally, when you attack an opponent he is considered flat-footed to your attack. However, whenever you perform an offensive action (such as attacking a foe or casting an offensive spell) you immediately lose the benefits of this feat. You regain the benefits of this feat 1 minute after the most recent offensive action you performed. Aiding allies using the Aid Another action and casting buffing spells on yourself or allies and even positioning yourself in a flanking position do not count as offensive actions for the purpose of this feat.

pathfinder vs 4e

Upfront: I’m not really comparing oranges with apples here – this post is about my new love affair with Pathfinder. It’s no secret that I dislike DnD4e (an opinion that will only be up for re-evaluation once the 4e monk is released), so it isn’t fair for me to list advantages and disadvantages and declare a winner.

This post asks “Did WotC make a mistake?”.

In M:tG the WotC do it all the time: bring out a new core standard set that slightly redefines and improves the overall game – and the remainder of the time it is about new worlds, realms and abilities that are released in advanced blocks and subsets. Perhaps DnD (3.5) should’ve followed a similar route. New worlds, new abilities, and occasionally a new “standard” set that optimises and re-balances the overall play slightly.

Pathfinder shows to me that the basic core game is so much more fulfilling than the hash of hundreds of supplements.  The whole package is streamlined and improves the original game and its mechanics subtly. It isn’t without flaws – but a pure and beautiful elegance is shimmering through quite clearly. A whole host of fantastic and fun new options are introduced that make sense – without bloat.

What impresses me time and again is that the feats, prestige classes and even basic (new) equipment are fun. Not nearly as overpowered as some of the options available in 3.5 – but tremendously flavorful and varied. It is obvious that this new incarnation is run by fans first and a business second. The depth that Pathfinder is bringing back to the game is, to me, a revelation. It feels like, somewhere out there, is a group of people that are not bound by excessive red tape, bureaucracy and the need to make a hyped-up buck.

The Worst Gamer City in the World

Durban, South Africa, population 3.4 million, is not a gamer city. Currently, I find myself living there for at least 50 – 75% of the year. Most of this post will focus predominantly on me ranting and complaining about the situation. However, I shall also be listing some of the actions I intend to take to fix this problem.

First off, let me begin by stating that I’m going to be talking from a role player perspective. You’ll find several Magic: the Gathering and Warhammer players around. Also, I’ve recently discovered the details of a local board game enthusiast (but more on that in a later post). Right, so back to my tale of woe.

Durban is generally viewed (by other South African gamers) as being apathetic, insular and heavily clique-based. Initially, PB and I found it very difficult to even meet with other players (let alone join with other groups). Eventually, we did find a group of players that were willing to game with us (and with whom we were actually gaming-compatible). After much thinking, I believe that the issues we had could be traced to the following reasons:

• PB and I are gaming snobs. We would rather not game than game in an awkward or uncomfortable situation. There, I said it. Part of our problem was self-inflicted.
• There is no proper central hub for the community. The only store that provides any sort of gaming material only keeps the gaming stock on as part of the legacy left over from the previous owners.  For one of South Africa’s larger universities, it’s sad that there is no university-based gaming society.
• Not many people move to Durban (at least when compared to Cape Town or Johannesburg; or university towns like Stellenbosch or Grahamstown). So you don’t get that constant influx of gamers, new to the area, looking for  gamers.
• Following on from the above, many existing gaming groups do not change much over the years. You play with the same people you played with in high school. It’s known. It’s comfortable.
• On the other hand, many people (gamers included) move away from Durban, often moving to Johannesburg (economic center of ZA), for example.

OK, so what can be done? Here follows a list of few things I want to try out. In the future I hope to report back with a few positive results.

• Cultivate new players. It’s not that difficult to spot a potential player (Warhammer and Magic players!). It’s a completely different matter trying to convert a person from potential player to actual player. I’ve had some success in Durban, but more on that later.
• Play in public. Thanks to the guys at Subcultures, NL, I am now the proud owner of WWDNDGD 2 adventure (including the maps and minis). I think the self-contained adventure is well suited for such a purpose. Note, South Africa actually has pretty poor product support and many, if not all, of the ‘official’ game day events had to make do without the maps and minis. So, expect to see reports about me playing in public (coffee shops etc.) in the near future. This is how I recruited a lot of players back in my university days. I hope it works here.

Forseeable problems:

• I don’t stay in Durban for 100% of the year. Work has me travel quite a bit.
• We don’t intend to stay in Durban indefinitely.

Well, wish me luck. I hope to have good news in the near future.

If you have any other suggestions, please share.

This post was inspired by the Gamer Traveler’s post about the best gamer city.

- jatori

Gender Portrayal through Writing

Recently, I discovered GenderAnalyzer – a site that, apparently, can determine a writer’s gender based on a sample of the writer’s, well, writing. Now, gender (portrayal, perception, understanding) and gaming  happens to be one of tenletter’s favourite topics, so it’s only natural (for me, at least) that I see if GA can accurately determine the genders of the tenletter authors (or which of the manly men on the team write like little girly girls). Here’s the list (real gender in parenthesis):

Jatori (Male): Male 67%

Peasant Butcher (Female): Male 57%, but quite gender neutral.

TrashCondor (Male): Male 70% [As expected from resident author and expert on cleaving]

Etufo (Male): Male 68%

rolery (Male): Male 58%, but quite gender neutral.

Zeneofa (Male): Male 80%

Endraca (Female): Male 65%

Avianfoo (Male): Male 87%

And here’s a sampling of five of my favourite RPG blog authors (note: this time, I decided to look at authors that I didn’t analyze with the Myers-Briggs test).

Evil Machinations (Female): Male 57%, but quite gender neutral.

Vulcan Stev (Male): Male 66%

MacGuffen (Male): Male 78%

Sanastar (Male): Male 74%

Uncle Bear (Male): Male 65%

- jatori

[DDM] DnD Miniatures Skirmish – First Impressions

Recently, I had the privilege to play in two limited DDM Skirmish tournaments. For those not in the know, the Skirmish rules mimic DnD combat, with a number of notable differences: Skirmish is a game for two players, each in control of their own warband of several individual miniatures.

WotC no longer provides official support for the Skirmish game (though they continue to produce new miniatures). The Skirmish community, however, still wanting this aspect of the game to carry on, managed to secure a non-profit licence to continue the game (including organising and running DCI sanctioned tournaments).

Whilst I was based in Utrecht, I heard of an upcoming limited Skirmish tournament. In a limited DCI event, part of your entrance fee goes towards purchasing some product. During the tournament, you may only make use of the product purchased when you entered. In this way, the composition of your warband is ‘limited’ to whatever you opened on the day (perfect for new players, like me). The same concept applies to a number of other games, including Magic: the Gathering. Normally, product purchased as part of a limited tournament tends to come with a slight discount. Since I use miniatures when GMing DnD, I thought that this would be a great way to increase my collection and get to meet some more Dutch (role) players. Plus, there’s always the chance that you win the tournament and get to walk away with some added prizes.

Dwarf-on-Boar vs Gith-on-Dragon. The Dwarf won.

During my stay in the Netherlands, I managed to play in, as mentioned above, two limited tournaments. In the first, I managed to secure two wins out of four matches. In the second tournament, I netted two victories and one loss. This has made me (as of writing this) the number one South African player! (OK, and also the first and only South African player to be ranked by the DCI).

Caught between a Marilith and Giant Beetle!

Not wanting to go into too much mechanical detail, here’s a short pros/cons list of DDM, based on my first impressions of the Skirmish game:

What I liked:

The game is easy to learn, especially if you’re comfortable with either DnD 3.x or 4e combat.

It gives you something else to do with your miniatures.

A game runs fairly quickly and requires minimal preperation.

A strong online community and DCI support.

What I didn’t like:

Since WotC no longer officially supports the game, new products aren’t shipped with the necessary stat cards for the miniatures. These need to be downloaded and printed.

Perhaps it was just the layout of the playing area, but my opponent’s stat cards were not easily readable from my side of the table. The game had to be frequently paused whenever we had to stretch over to read cards or asked for them to be passed over. I haven’t really had any experience with other table top wargames, so I’m not sure if this is a DDM issue or a common problem found in other games too.

The battle maps aren’t too exciting. They promote fast play, but just seem a little boring.

If you’re interested in finding out more, you can find the official community site, the DDM Guild, here. If looking to contact the Netherlands chapter, you can reach them here (they’re a really nice bunch of guys, not minding the noob, which didn’t print out the stat cards before the tournament, too much – I hope). Unfortunately, there is currently no South African chapter. Maybe I can fix that.

- jatori

pathfinder / 3.5 monk variant

Edit:  some changes and clean-up

• Monkey Style harmonic bonus now gives the Spring Attack feat
• Viper Style harmonic bonus now the Improved Feint feat
• Viper Style insight modifier now only applies to unarmed strikes
• Viper Style speed modifier now only applies to light weapons
  
• Viper Style offense modifier now allows the monk adds her Dexterity modifier to Intimidate and Bluff checks made in combat (instead of adding the Dexterity modifier to damage rolls)
• Viper Style insight modifier now only applies to light weapons
• Shadow Style impact modifier now first staggers, then dazes, then stuns
  
• Ascended Style soul modifier is coupled with an  penalty: other modifier types become inactive
  

This post is long. Seriously long. And introduces a full-fledged monk variant suitable for Pathfinder (and in a slightly modified form) DnD 3.5.

This monk variant focuses on stances and styles, and aims to give the monk class more choices and relevance to the average party of adventurers. The charm of this variant for a player is the balance of choices she has to make: the monk can easily excel in one particular field, but doing so can seriously hamper her performance in other areas. The drawback of this variant is that it can be very memory intensive, as most decisions come coupled with numeric changes as well.

Before I describe the monk variant class, a short digression to detail the rules regarding stances and styles:

Styles and Stances: The Rules This monk variant makes use of stances and styles to affect her impact on the game world. At level 1 the monk gains access to all basic stances and styles. Additionally, at level 1 she may have any three stances active at the same time as well as one style. The monk may change stances as free actions during her turn (though she may not change a particular stance more than once a round – thus she cannot disable and re-enable the same stance in the same round) and she may change styles as a swift action. At level 11 the monk gains access to advanced stances and styles. A stance conveys inherent benefits to the monk, as well as giving access to a style’s modifiers. For example the Stance of Speed increases the monk’s movement speed, and additionally allows her to make use of Speed modifiers of styles. Each style is associated with three modifiers, for example the Monkey style makes use of Defense, Offense and Aid modifiers. If the monk makes use of the Monkey style and additionally makes use of the Stance of Defense, then she may use the Defense modifier of the Monkey Style. Should the monk have more than one style active at the same time that share modifiers, then she must usually decide which modifier to make use of. For example, if the monk is in the Stance of Defense and uses both the Monkey and the Iron Tower style (which both have the Defense modifier), then she has to chose which styles’ Defense modifier to use – she cannot use both unless other powers or feats allow her to do so. The monk can change which modifiers are used as free actions in her turn, but (similar to stances) she cannot change a particular modifier type more than once a round. A style, additionally, possesses a harmonic bonus. The monk gains this harmonic bonus if she is making use of the style as well as the stances that constitute that style. She does not need to make use of the styles’ modifiers to gain the harmonic bonus – it is sufficient to have the appropriate stances active. Thus if the monk uses multiple styles she may gain the benefit of multiple harmonic bonuses provided that she is making use of the appropriate stances. This is particularly relevant to monk’s that make use of the Buddha style, as the Buddha style’s harmonic bonus grants the monk an additional active stance. However, a monk immediately loses the benefits of a harmonic bonus when she does not qualify for it anymore.

Monk Variant Class

Hit Die: d8

Base Attack: 0.75 (progression as a cleric)

Saves: All good

Alignment: Any lawful

Armor Proficiencies: A monk is not proficient with any armor and wearing armor restricts or prevents the monk from using some of her class abilities.

Weapon Proficiencies: A monk is proficient with all simple weapons. Additionally she is proficient with all martial weapons or one exotic weapon.

Skills Ranks Per Level: 4 + Intelligence modifier

Class Skills: Acrobatics, Climb, Craft, Escape Artist, Heal, Knowledge (Arcana, History and Religion), Perception, Perform, Profession, Sense Motive, Swim – and additionally any two of the following: Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate.

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Class Powers	Monk Weapon Damage
1	0	2	2	2	Chosen Weapon (Unarmed), Basic Monk Stances and Styles	1d6
2	1	3	3	3	Bonus Monk Feat	1d6
3	2	3	3	3	-	1d6
4	3	4	4	4	Style II	1d8
5	3	4	4	4	-	1d8
6	4	5	5	5	Bonus Monk Feat	1d8
7	5	5	5	5	-	1d8
8	6/1	6	6	6	Stance II	1d10
9	6/1	6	6	6	-	1d10
10	7/2	7	7	7	Bonus Monk Feat	1d10
11	8/3	7	7	7	Advanced Monk Stances and Styles	1d10
12	9/4	8	8	8	Style III	2d6
13	9/4	8	8	8	-	2d6
14	10/5	9	9	9	Bonus Monk Feat	2d6
15	11/6/1	9	9	9	-	2d6
16	12/7/2	10	10	10	Stance III	2d8
17	12/7/2	10	10	10	-	2d8
18	13/8/3	11	11	11	Bonus Monk Feat	2d8
19	14/9/4	11	11	11	-	2d8
20	15/10/5	12	12	12	Stance and Style Mastery	2d10

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the monk.

Chosen Weapons (Unarmed): The monk possesses a list of chosen monk weapons. Initially, at level 1, the monk gains Unarmed Strike as a chosen weapon, but she may add additional weapons with the Monk Weapon Training feat. Any weapon that the monk possesses in her list of chosen weapons may make use of the Monk Weapon Damage progression instead of the weapons’ innate damage. Thus, for example, an 11th level monk that has whips in her list of chosen weapons may deal 1d10 damage using whip attacks. Furthermore a monk may chose to deal Monk Weapon Damage as either lethal or non-lethal damage without taking a penalty to her attack roll.

Basic Monk Stances and Styles: At level 1 the monk gains access to all basic stances and styles. She may have upto three stances and one style active at the same time. The details of basic stances and styles are given below. A monk cannot use any stances or styles while wearing any armor or carrying a medium or heavier load.

Bonus Monk Feats: Starting at level 2, and every 4 levels after that, the monk gains a feat from the list of monk feats. This list includes all the fighter feats, as well as Lightning Reflexes, Iron Will, Great Fortitude and Endurance. Furthermore the list includes a selection of special monk feats that are described in detail below.

Stance II: At 4th level the monk may use an additional active stance.

Style II: At 8th level the monk may use an additional active style.

Advanced Monk Stances and Styles: At level 11 the monk gains access to all advanced stances and styles. The details of advanced stances and styles are given below. A monk cannot use any stances or styles while wearing any armor or carrying a medium or heavier load.

Stance III: At 12th level the monk may use an additional active stance.

Style III: At 16th level the monk may use an additional active style.

Stance and Style Mastery: At 20th level the monk is able to switch between stances, styles and modifiers  as free actions during her turn without restrictions. In addition she may wear light armor without restriction to her stances and styles.

New Monk Feats Additional Stance [Monk Feat] Requires: Access to basic monk stances and styles Benefit: Grants the monk one additional active stance Additional Style [Monk Feat] Requires: Access to basic monk stances and styles Benefit: Grants the monk one additional active style Monk Weapon Training [Monk Feat] Benefit: The monk may chose any one weapon that she has proficiency in and add it to her list of chosen weapons. Chosen weapons may make use of the monk weapon damage progression Special: This feat may be acquired multiple times, each time a different weapon is selected Monk Armor Training [Monk Feat] Requires: Able to use two active styles Benefit: The monk may wear light armor and still make use of stances and styles, however she loses the use of one active stance and one active style while wearing the armor. Monk Stance Training [Monk Feat] Requires: Base attack bonus 4, Additional Stance Benefit: When gaining this feat the monk chooses one style modifier type. The monk may use two style modifiers of the chosen type simultaneously; thus she could, for example, gain the benefits of both the Defense modifiers of the Monkey Style and the Iron Tower style Normal: A monk may only use one style modifier of a particular type, even if she may chose from multiple style modifiers Special: This feat may be acquired up to three times. Each time a different modifier type is chosen Monk Style Training [Monk Feat] Requires: Monk Stance Training Benefit: The monk may change styles as free actions during her turn, but (similar to stances) she may change a particular style only once per round

A list of basic stances

Basic Stances

Stance of Defense the monk can gain defensive modifiers from styles the monk gains +1 to AC for every 4 monk levels

Stance of Offense the monk can gain attack modifiers from styles the monk gains one additional attack at her highest base attack bonus when performing a full-round attack

Stance of Impact the monk can gain damage modifiers from styles the monk’s melee attacks bypass hardness equal to the monk level

Stance of Aid the monk can gain aid modifiers from styles when utilizing the Aid Another action the monk may add her Wisdom modifier to the roll, if successful the monk may convey her Wisdom modifier rather than a +2 bonus to the target of the Aid Another action

Stance of Insight the monk can gain insight modifiers from styles the monk gains +2 to her Combat Maneuver Bonus

Stance of Speed the monk can gain speed modifiers from styles the monk gains 10 movement speed for every 3 monk levels

A list of basic styles

Basic Styles

Monkey Style The Monkey embodies curiosity and nimble agility – deftly avoiding danger and swift to take advantage of opportunities. Defense modifier: the monk adds her Dexterity modifier to AC (this is in addition to the normal Dexterity bonus a hero receives) Offense modifier: the monk adds her Intelligence modifier to attack rolls Aid modifier: any enemy that is adjacent to both you and an ally is considered to be flanked by you and that ally Harmonic bonus: the monk gains the benefits of the Spring Attack feat

Viper Style The Viper is dangerous and fast, striking with precise and swift moves at the vital points of enemies. Speed modifier: when wielding light weapons the monk uses her Dexterity modifier instead of her Strength modifier to calculate attack bonus Offense modifier: the monk adds her Dexterity modifier to Intimidate and Bluff checks made in combat Insight modifier: when wielding light weapons the critical threat range of the monks melee attacks becomes equal to her Dexterity modifier (a Dexterity modifier of 2 corresponds to a threat range of 19-20, a modifier of 5 corresponds to a threat range of 16-20). This cannot reduce the threat range of the monk’s attacks below 15, and it does not interact with any other threat range modifications such as the Improved Critical feat or the weapons natural threat range Harmonic bonus: the monk gains the benefits of the Improved Feint feat

Iron Tower Style The Iron Tower is the symbol of steadfast determination – a bulwark that can face wave after wave of enemy assaults. Defense modifier: the monk adds her Constitution modifier to AC, reduces the monks movement speed by 10 Insight modifier: gain DR X/- where X is the monks Constitution modifier, reduces the monks movement speed by 10 Impact modifier: when the monk deals melee damage to an enemy, that enemy’s movement speed is halved until the start of the monk’s next turn. This slowing effect does not stack with itself or any other effects that reduce movement speed. This modifier reduces the monks movement speed by 10 Harmonic bonus: when the monk uses a full-round attack action she may chose not to move at all (including 5 foot steps) – if she does, then she gains +5 foot reach for that round

Buddha Style The Buddha is well balanced, intuitively understanding that challenges require both a gentle as well as a firm touch. Defense modifier: the monk adds her Wisdom modifier to AC Aid modifer: when making a full-round attack action, the monk may additionally perform one Aid Another action Impact modifier: the monk’s CMB is calculated as if her base attack was equal to her monk level Harmonic bonus: the monk may have one additional stance active

Open Palm Style The Open Palm is gifted in the arts of showmanship, sporting flashy and exotic maneuvers designed to thrill rather than destroy. Speed modifier: the monk gains a +10 bonus to all Acrobatics checks. Additionally the monk is always considered running for the purposes of jumping Offense modifier: enemies hit by the monk’s melee attacks are Dazzled for one round Aid modifier: whenever the monk or an ally within 10 feet of the monk makes a Bluff, Diplomacy or Intimidate check, they may add the monk’s Wisdom modifier to that roll Harmonic bonus: the monk gains +2 to all saves and gains the benefits of the Evasion feat (or Improved Evasion if she has access to advanced stances and styles)

Shadow Style The Shadow is powerful, emphasizing surprise and stealth to deal debilitating attacks to foes. Speed modifier: when the monk uses the Charge action she may make a DC 20 Stealth check, if she succeeds she gains the benefits of Invisibility until the start of her next turn Impact modifier: when the monk successfully uses a melee attack to hit a flat-footed target, the target is Staggered for one round. If it was staggered already, it becomes Dazed instead. If it was Dazed already, then it is Stunned instead. This can only be used against enemies that are at most one size-category larger than the monk Insight modifier: the monk may add her Wisdom modifier to her Stealth checks Harmonic bonus: the monk may add her Wisdom modifier to her Initiative

A list of advanced stances

Harmonic bonus: the monk gains a +1 bonus to AC, attack rolls and reflex saves

Advanced Stances

Stance of Body the monk can gain body modifiers from styles the monk gains one additional attack at her highest base attack bonus when performing a full-round attack when the monk does not make use of body modifiers from styles, she gains a +2 insight bonus to Strength and Constitution

Stance of Mind the monk can gain mind modifiers from styles the monk does not immediately lose the benefit of harmonic bonuses when she loses the qualification for the bonus; instead she can chose to maintain the bonus for up to 3 rounds. If she regains the harmonic bonus during that time the effects do not stack. She immediately loses any harmonic bonuses she does not qualify for when she is not in the Stance of Mind when the monk does not make use of mind modifiers from styles, she gains a +2 insight bonus to Dexterity and Intelligence

Stance of Soul the monk can gain soul modifiers from styles the monk gains spell resistance equal to 10 + monk level when the monk does not make use of soul modifiers from styles, she gains a +2 insight bonus to Wisdom and Charisma

A list of advanced styles

Advanced Styles

Undying Style The Undying captures the essence of immortality, offering potent powers of renewal and defense. Body modifier: the effect of the Undying style harmonic bonus increases by 10 Aid modifier: allies adjacent to the monk receive +1 to AC and saves and if dying become stabilized Offense modifier: whenever the monk successfully hits an enemy, she gains +1 to AC until the start of her next turn Harmonic bonus: at the start of her turn, the monk gains 10 temporary hit points until the start of her next turn, these cannot make her life total exceed its normal maximum

Karmic Style The Karmic focuses on redemption and retribution – gracefully taking advantage of enemy attacks. Mind modifier: when the monk is successfully hit by an enemy melee or ranged attack, she may gain an attack of opportunity against that enemy. She may only gain this attack of opportunity if the enemy has not been the victim of this ability in this round Speed modifier: when the monk is successfully hit by an enemy melee or ranged attack, she may move a 5 foot step that does not provoke attacks of opportunity – this counts as a use of an attack of opportunity Defense modifier: whenever the monk is successfully hit by an enemy melee or ranged attack, she gains +1 to AC until the start of her next turn Harmonic bonus: the monk gains a +4 bonus to attack rolls on attacks of opportunity

Ascended Style The Ascended emphasizes the possibilities that come with great insight and a gift for intuition. Soul modifier: the monk may, until the start of her next turn, gain the benefits of every style modifier of one type of all active styles, however the effects of other modifiers do not apply during this time. Activating this modifier is a swift action Insight modifier: the monk may add her Wisdom modifier to both her attack and damage rolls Impact modifier: the monk’s attacks bypass the first 5 points of any form of damage resistance or hardness Harmonic bonus: the monk may have one additional style active

Media assigns nickname to member of Steve gang

Once again, the High Adventure Adventurers Club drug saga has taken yet another surprising turn. Last week, we revealed that the once upmarket Copperpot Street tavern had acquired a large number of exotic frogs. These frogs, hailing from the deep jungles of the South, secrete a toxin when frightened. Though the toxin is lethal to the frog’s natural predators, a small dose can have a powerful hallucinogenic affect on most humanoids. Some even claim that the toxin acts as a powerful aphrodisiac when ingested. Squeezing a frog in your hand will provide the necessary scare. The toxin is then normally licked directly off the skin of the frog. Overeager users are known to actually squeeze too hard, killing the frogs. Due to our ‘exclusive’ interpretation of the law, as some activists have described it, the practice of frog-licking is currently not illegal.

Late last night, a group of five individuals stormed the High Adventure Adventurers Club. At first, patrons and staff thought them to be costumed eco-terrorists from the local druid circle. “They looked like giant costumed frogs!” one witness reported. Only after the invaders had broken a third keg of ale and made off with 17 of the frogs, did the onlookers realize that they may have, in fact,  encountered the infamous Five Bullywugs Named Steve Gang, rather than a bunch of irate tree-huggers.

One of the Steves, according to witnesses, was definitely larger than the other four and appeared to be in charge.  He was far more aggressive than the other four and, allegedly, was responsible for the destruction of two kegs of ale and one barstool. This has proven to cause some excitement amongst the local science community and bullywug fanbase, as the Steves now appear to be displaying some sort of social structure amongst themselves, evident in the emergence of an alpha male. Bullywug fans have already named him ‘the Alpha Steve’ or ‘Steve Alpha’.

Have you seen this Bullywug?

The local druid circle has proclaimed this as a victory for oppressed amphibians everywhere.

One High Adventure Adventurers Club patron, who claims to have punched the Alpha Steve in the upper thigh, said that it felt “kind of nice”.

This post forms part of the mini Five Bullywugs Named Steve blog carnival. Thanks to Greywulf for creating the imagery. Click through to read about Steve Gamma, Steve Epsilon, Steve Omega and Steve.

[4e] Power System Inhibits Creativity v.2

Last month, I wrote a short post entitled ‘Does 4e Hamper Creative Play in Combat‘. Of course, through the comments and follow-up posts, several fixes, suggestions and critiques of the original post popped up. One of my favourite comments on the matter suggested that it was perhaps not the system at fault, but rather the presentation of the system. So, today, I offer up an alternative method of introducing the concept of class-based powers to players.

A quick scan through the PHB reveals no real definition for the concept of  class powers (at least, not before we get to the chapter on classes). I may be mistaken and, if so, feel free to correct me. In lieu of a proper PHB definition, I offer the following:

Powers are those special spells or maneuvers, which your character has mastered in ADDITION to anything a normal human can do.

OK, so that probably still needs a bit of work, but hopefully the gist of what I’m trying to say still comes across: Powers are those truly exceptional things that help make your character heroic, but your character is always more than just a collection of powers and attributes.

- jatori

Extra thought: Ever notice how frequently the word ‘power’ is used in the PHB when not referring to class powers? Quite often, actually. I wonder if should count how many times. Nah, probably not.

[Travel] Return to Africa

Today is my last day in the Netherlands, and, once I get back to South Africa, I’ll be taking some offline time. So, expect things to quiet down from my side for the next few days.

In other news, I am now the number one Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures player in South Africa. I am also the only South African with a registered DCI tournament result. Expect my first impressions review of DDM 2 sometime within the next week or two.

Recent IM chat with f00:

f00: what R DDM?

j: dungeons and dragons miniatures

f00: should that not be DnDM? or DnD Minis?

j: DDM!

f00: DDM is like… dance dance madness

j: i’m also number one at that

- jatori

Age and Ageism amongst Players, Player- and Non-Player Characters

Last night, while bored (and dreading having to get up early this morning, but not actually making any attempt to get to sleep early), I clicked around the internet until I stumbled upon the Jurassic Park theme song on YouTube. Jurassic Park is one of my childhood favourites, I watched the movie way back in ‘93 – when I was 10 – at least once a week. So, wanting to get others to share in the warm, glowing nostalgia, I hopped on to twitter, interrupting another DnD edition war, and told everybody on the net that I thought Jurassic Park was the absolute coolest thing to come out of 93. So then, of course, some of my followers decided (after the obligatory ‘that was so long ago’ talk) to share their age (at least their 93 age). And that got me thinking…

We, here at tenletter, have looked at gender as the concept pertains to the role playing hobby. I am also currently looking into the concept of race and its influence on RPGs. Coupled with this, one cannot ignore other related concepts such as culture or, perhaps, class (think socio-economic, not DnD) too. However, there is one concept that I haven’t really looked at yet: the concept of age.

Now, it might be because I came into the tail-end of an edition war and had just been thinking about dinosaurs, but the concepts of age (how we perceive it and how we present/project/enact it) and ageism had kept my brain active for long after my scheduled bedtime last night and through most of today (that’s why I’m dumping the thoughts out here). Here are my preliminary observations on the matter:

• Experience (and thus age) counts for a lot in many different activities. However, can we use a player’s role playing experience and/or age as a measurement of their role playing skill? Many a player, even when not explicitly asked, will brag about the number of role playing years she has under her belt. It’s as if time is the most important validator.
• Just as we have difficulty playing a race or gender other than our own, can we properly role play a character from a different age group? What about long- or short-lived races? Does the 40-something old guy at the table inadvertently insult or otherwise irritate the 20-somethings when he plays an 18 year old character?
• Are there strong ties between style/school of play and a player’s age? Can a 14 year old really old-school it with the grognards?

- jatori