Kobold Quarterly just posted an interview they did with me a while back. Check it out!

So, after many years of attending the Origins Game-Fair in Columbus, OH, I won’t be going this year: time and money just do not allow for it. Green Ronin will be ably represented by Art Director Hal Mangold, with products available from Adventure Retail (Booth #133). I am planning on attending GenCon in Indianapolis in August (as this will be my 21st GenCon and my 20th in an unbroken streak — don’t want to miss that).

My apologies to convention attendees and my various friends in Columbus; I’m sorry I’m not going to be seeing you. Have some extra fun this week on my behalf!

I turn to the geek expertise of you, my friends list: what is the best Twitter client for the iPhone 3G (preferrably simple and easy to use without a lot of extra features) and what is the best social networking app for doing simultaneous updates to Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc.? I need your wisdom!

Many thanks to everyone who offered good wishes and congratulations on my 40th birthday. It was a fun day out in Burlington, VT, doing some shopping and dining. Combined with the fun and festivities of Pride Weekend in Boston and a celebratory brunch with my family, it has been a whirlwind few days. Now I’m looking forward to settling back into a regular routine for a while. Thanks again!

... until my (gasp!) 40th birthday. For those who kindly wondered:

“Today, on a very special episode of Keep on the Shadowfell...”

Yes, it’s life lessons from D&D. Seriously, though, this past game I retired my human rogue/warlock and replaced him with an eladrin wizard/ranger ... what a difference! D&D 4e wizards rock the house! Funny thing is, I like playing magic-users (dating myself here) but went with the rogue character (with just a touch of warlock) for a “change of pace.” Turns out sometimes you’re better off just going with what you know you like and enjoy, which in my case with is the cool magical guy with lots of explodey.

In the space of one game, my new character got to waste a whole bunch of hobgoblins with a perfectly placed burning hands (once the tiefling paladin slid to out of the way; “When the wizard says ‘you might want to move,’ you move!”) and seriously thinned the ranks of a horde of zombies with fire shroud (fantastic because it only targets enemies). He teleported across a chamber out of melee range to pepper the hobgoblin soldiers with magic missiles and blocked one nasty attack with shield (which is fun because it’s an interrupt you can use after you get hit).

Plus, I discovered that while the rouge/warlock multiclass was kind of weak, apprently the way you do a “fighter/magic-user” in 4e is play an eladrin, because not only is my guy a kickass wizard, but he wears leather armor (Armor Proficiency) and is as good with a longsword as a fighter (thanks to the Melee Training feat and his eladrin proficiency), so he fights with wand in one hand and sword in the other. Eventually, I want to pick up Eladrin Sword Wizardry, letting him use his blade as his arcane implement, and I think Wizard of the Spiral Tower will be a pretty clear paragon path for him (although it has a version of Sword Wizardry as one of its features, so I’d want to retrain the feat at that point).

So, in short, eladrin wizards rock!

It’s good, go see it.

( possible spoilers behind the cut )

We took a break this weekend to see X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Overall, it’s a light fluff piece with a few decent performances wrapped up in a mediocre story with some moments that will bug comic book geeks and purists like myself.

Hugh Jackman at least showed up to work on this film, although he brings a bit of an odd leading-man quality to Wolverine. Sabertooth and Gambit were also handled well, but beyond that ... well, there are lot of pretty explosions and action scenes.

Overall, the key seems to be keeping your expectations fairly low. Fortunately, after X-Men 3, they couldn’t have been much lower, so I found the film modestly entertaining. The eye-candy of Hugh Jackman, Ryan Reynolds, and Taylor Kitsch (as Gambit) didn’t hurt, either.

I have higher hopes for Star Trek this week. We’ll see if that turns out to be a mistake or not.

One thing I’ve noticed from our recent D&D 4e game is a phenomenon that’s not unique to D&D but pointed out somewhat by the game’s lack of a “do-over” or “mulligan” mechanic like the various Hero/Action/Fate points of other RPGs (since D&D action points have a different use).

Generally, RPGs have an action resolution structure along the lines of:

1. Player describes desired action/outcome.

2. GM applies appropriate game rules and calls for whatever resolution roll/mechanics are appropriate.

3. GM interprets results and tells player(s) what happened.

This leads to a certain amount of “wow that action sounded really cool when you described it, too bad you bricked the roll and there’s no way it’ll happen.” It can create a certain amount of anticlimax, in the sense that the “big reveal” of the cool action comes first, and then it either succeed as-described (no real increase in “wow” factor other than “yay, it worked!”) or it fails to succeed as-planned (kind of a let-down). D&D 4e seeks to mitigate this somewhat by having daily abilities do something even on a failed roll, so the effort isn’t totally wasted, but it doesn’t apply much beyond that (as I learned from my rogue’s streak of failed Thievery rolls to overcome locks, traps, and basically to do all the roughish things expected of him).

I wonder about mechanics wherein success or failure, or good/bad dice results, instead grant a degree of narrative control to the player/GM to then make up some action(s) that justify the result. So, if a combat conflict results in a “setback” (but not an outright defeat) for the PC, the GM gets to say, “in a clash of blades, the Count sweeps your sword to one side and it becomes stuck in one of the wooden support beams!” or something like that, rather than having to decide up-front that’s what the Count was going for, and then rolling to see if he succeeds or fails. It seems like it would fill some of the “negative space” of conflicts that just end in “nope, that attempts fails”.

On the other hand, such a nebulous mechanic would make it more difficult to bring quantified game traits into play unless you could do so after the fact. That is, test first and see what kind of roll/result you have, and then decide what trait(s) to apply to it. An interesting outcome of this would be the ability to either play to strengths (high value traits able to fill-out lower results or push higher ones over-the-top) or apply less valued traits to unexpectedly good results, provided the player has a story reason for it.

This inverts the usual formula of:

Task = appropriate Trait + Randomizer = Result

to

Task = Randomizer + chosen Trait = Result

Maybe even doing away with the “Task” portion. So, “figure out how to get past this locked and booby-trapped door” might be the task. The player gets to roll and, based on that roll, choose the trait or traits to apply to the task, explaining to the GM how they apply, to provide a particular outcome.

it’s an approach I’d like to play around with it a bit more. Anyone know of games that apply this approach, or something like it, to good effect?

So after our latest installment of D&D 4e, I’ve decided to try a different character for a bit. My rogue/warlock is a bit too much rogue and too little warlock; he really lacks some of the oomph of the other characters and I miss having “kewl p0werz” – his Eyebite warlock power is, frankly, kind of lame and never works (although that’s more bad die-rolling than anything). Plus I seem to have terrible luck with my Thievery rolls; just a couple adventures and the character is already getting a rep for not being able to disarm traps or open locks.

So I’ve mostly worked up an eladrin wizard. As things progressed, he has become more warrior-like, building on the automatic eladrin longsword proficiency to add the Eladrin Sword Wizardry feat from Arcane Power that lets him use the sword as an implement (a tool for casting his spells). I also wanted to give him training in Stealth (I still want some sneakiness in my character) but it’s not on the wizard class list. So that meant spending a feat and, if I was going to do that, then why not a multiclass feat, giving him the skill and something else? (Seriously is there any reason not to multiclass vs. taking Skill Training, if the class happens to provide the skill that you want?) So I added Warrior of the Forest and Armor proficiency (leather), since the character is 2nd level, making him a halfway decent fighter (albeit one with a low Strength score) along with his wizardly powers, kind of an eladrin “special forces” war wizard.

Naturally, I had to tinker with said powers a bit. I made all of his flame-based spells a ghostly green “faerie fire” and his Flaming Sphere more of a fey “fire salamander” he summons to bedevil his foes. (Yeah, joke all you like about “flaming fairies”...) I’ve just got to run him past our DM for approval. I’m looking forward to the prospect of giving him a try, since we haven’t had a controller character in our party thus far. It should round things out nicely with our two leaders (cleric and warlord), striker (ranger), and defender (paladin), possibly a warlock as another striker, if an absent group member joins in.

So, Amazon basically acknowledges the problem and says they’re fixing it. I’m sure I won’t be alone in keeping an eye out to make sure that happens, but, so far as I’m concerned, that’s an end to it (and a successful one, at that). Hopefully, if it was a glitch or an outside hack, Amazon’s IT dept. has learned a valuable lesson, and if it was a company decision somewhere along the line, hopefully Amazon has learned a valuable lesson.

So Amazon.com’s customer service reply to my complaint e-mail was:

“Thanks for contacting us. We recently discovered a glitch in our systems and it’s being fixed.”

So they seem to be sticking to the “it was a glitch” story for the moment. We’ll see how long it takes to “fix” this particular “glitch”. I imagine they “recently discovered” it when angry calls and e-mails began pouring in and over ten thousand people signed the petition about it.

Got to watch the Doctor Who Easter Special (second of the five specials slated for the rest of the year).

( thoughts behind the cut to mitigate any spoilage )

So, Amazon.com has apparently decided that any book with gay or lesbian content is “adult” material and should be stricken from their sales rankings “In consideration of our entire customer base” (emphasis mine, but words from Amazon.com member services). Because we certainly wouldn’t want to create the impression that fiction or non-fiction portraying gay or lesbian people in a positive light (or, you know, at all) is popular or anything, and I’m sure every Amazon.com customer appreciates being protected from such “adult” content.

Needless to say, Amazon needs to continue to get an earful (and an inbox full) about how such censorship is unacceptable. You can find the petition to protest Amazon’s new “adult” policy on thepetitionsite.com.

All packed up and set to head off tomorrow to the Burlington, Vermont, area for the Northeast Wars convention. I attended last year and it’s a nice little con. I’m slated to run some M&M games, do a seminar, and a podcast interview. This year’s con is held at a hotel associated with the New England Culinary Institute, so there should be some good eats to go along with the weekend of geekery.

So, for folks who might not know (or care), 2009 is the 20th anniversary of the Shadowrun RPG. Shadowrun remains one of my favorite RPG worlds of all time, as expressed, I hope, by the amount of writing I did for it. Writing for SR got me my start in the RPG industry, and the game itself gave me a lot of fun memories.

It’s hard to believe the game is twenty years old: I remember quite well cutting across the Royal Ridge Mall from the camera store where I worked my post-high school/pre-college job to the small hobby shop and seeing the full-color rulebook for the first time. FASA’s promo fliers for Shadowrun were brilliant, tantalizing pieces of marketing, with their hints about a crazy mixed-up fusion of cyberpunk and Tolkien-eqsue fantasy. I bought the rulebook right away (scandalized at the time that it cost 28 dollars, the most I’d ever paid for a new RPG at the time) and that weekend convinced my friends to play it. We plunged into the Sixth World and never looked back.

Now, twenty years later, it’s fun to look back on things like this:

Pocket Secretary: The pocket secretary is an office for the businessman on the go. The compact unit functions as a portable phone, a computer (100 Mp), and filing system. Standard software performs call screening, answering-machine functions, automatic teleconfirmation of credit transactions, word processing with standard letters on file and stenographer functions. Pocket secretaries are never equipped for jacking into the Matrix. Cases are shock- and water-resistant for durability and long service. (Shadowrun, First Edition, 1989, page 125)

Which pretty much describes the iPhone sitting on my desk to a “T”, except the pocket secretary weights about half a kilogram versus the iPhone’s 133 grams and we still have no idea how much a “megapulse” of memory is versus my phone’s 16 gigabytes (indeed, “megapulses” were specifically chosen to avoid later embarassments like the starship computers from Traveller with 16 kilobytes of memory). Plus the idea of wireless connectivity and the things you can use it for is barely a glimmer back in the pre-WiFi/pre-Web Dark Ages. Shadowrun has made efforts to update its tech over the years, up to and including the current edition’s wireless and omnipresent Matrix (the name of which SR was using years before the film, by the way).

So, happy anniversary, Shadowrun. Hope your dark future’s so bright, you’ve gotta wear shades...

So we played the first session in our new D&D 4e game this past Sunday. It was a really nice change, playing on a weekend afternoon rather than a weeknight; much more relaxed, with everyone more rested and in a gaming mood.

The “plot” was pretty classic D&D: our intrepid adventurers reponded to a call by the Lord Warden and hired-on to investigate raids on caravans coming to Fallcrest. We headed out on horses supplied by the Lord Warden and the aid of a halfling lad named Finnan, son of the stablemaster (our first hireling!). A band of kobolds attacked us on the road, and our elven ranger tracked the survivors back to the ruined manor known as “Kobold Hall”. There we overcame some guards, tripped a rockfall trap (stupid failed Perception check...), fought kobolds in a ruined temple, rescued a prisoner of an earlier raid, and confronted the kobold wyrmpriest and his followers. All in all it was a good time, although we couldn’t seem to roll above a “4” at the start of the first couple encounters. The highlight of the final encounter was probably the tiefling paladin’s critical hit with Radiant Delirium, blowing up the wyrmpriest quite spectacularly.

We’re just shy of 2nd level, but had to break before the final encounter. My rogue/warlock has scored a frost brand shortsword thus far. I’m also planning on getting him a ritual book, since I want Ritual Caster as his next feat. We’ll return next session to finish clearing out Kobold Hall and then there is the dire news we’ve heard about sinister goings-on in the nearby town of Winterhaven.

Fun game, I’m looking forward to our next one!

So ... when we finished designing our characters for the D&D 4e game Lyle is going to run starting this weekend, he brought his copy of Martial Power along. So naturally, I flipped through it to see if there were any good alternative 1st level rogue goodies for my character.

The Confounding Attack daily ability caught my eye. Basically, it lets you trick a foe into hitting one of his own allies. Suits the kind of trickster-rogue I want to play. I very nearly dropped Easy Target for it. Then I glanced to the end of the description.

No “Miss” listing.

You see, many, if not most, Daily abilities in D&D 4e do something even if you brick the attack roll, not as much as when you hit, naturally, but if you use your precious one-a-day ability, it will do something. This is good design, because it alleviates the inevitable player frustration of spending that one-time ability and getting... nothing.

No such option for Confounding Attack, whereas Easy Target still does half damage and grants combat advantage for one round on a miss. Given that, it was no contest.

The lesson: the coolest ability isn’t worth that much if you only get one shot with it and there’s a reasonable chance that it won’t work at all.

Looking forward to playing this weekend!

So, having replaced my poor, dead iMac G5, I’m looking to do salvage, mainly of the 250 GB hard drive in the old machine (since I can always use more storage). So I turn to the readership of my blog: what are the best resources for do-it-yourself info on removing an internal HD and getting and setting-up an enclosure to use it as an external drive?