My 4E D&D  gaming group, which includes Roo and the Commodore, is finally coming to the end of the Heroic Tier this Labor Day Weekend.  If this campaign were a trilogy, and it is, this would be the dramatic ending of the first book, which leaves the reader, or player satisfied with the ending, but hungering for a little more.   I've got to conclude the first first "book", but also set up the next "book". 

For most stories, this is the moment that screams "climax". I won't bore you with the details of the campaign, but a brief outline may be worthwhile. For the entire campaign to this point, the party has been wrongly accused of crimes against the church and hunted by the church or it's agents.  They've been a kind of A-Team, staying on the move, and slowly uncovering a world-altering conspiracy, and confronting various agents of the church and other groups.  Now, they've secured evidence that can vindicate them. At the same time, many threads of a tangled web of story are converging and it's time to confront the spider that spins the web.

Ever seen Ladyhawke? the DaVinci Code? or Angels and Demons? That's sort of what I'm aiming for. But there's a problem:

System Mechanics.

I wish my cat could do that...

Those of you playing 4th Edition D&D know that WotC publishes regular errata. Well, there's recent errata that fixes a niggling problem and restores it to classic glory: Magic Missile.

For as long as this little spell has been in the game, the draw has always been that it doesn't do alot of damage, BUT it NEVER misses. With 4E that was changed. *grumble*

But it's been "fixed" now to restore the simple spell to it's wonderful classic glory.

Other MAJOR changes include a complete recalculation of monster hit rates and damage...which really make one wonder about the quality of the original playtesting. As you may know, this system was touted as having rock solid math. But since release, they have now altered skill challenge difficulties, skills, monster hit rates and damage, stealth rules, and a host of nits. One wonders if there will be anything left in the first run of the books that is correct...

I rather enjoy the anime series, Bleach, and I found some time to watch the series this weekend. The story arc had the characters running around and solving puzzles (think Die Hard with a Vengeance) while friends and team mates are disappearing.  In the end, the whole thing turns out to be a game, planned by Kisuke Urahara. When confronted he says:

"Games can cultivate various senses. Stamina, of course, intellect, team work, the ability to cope in an instant, judgement...It even strengthens your bonds to your friends. And most of all, it is a good chance to take a look at yourself." -  Kisuke Urahara

There's a bit of truth there, and I want to hear from you how this resonates with your own experiences. I find that people reveal a lot of themselves while playing games. The fun in games is disarming, and the competition is revealing.  As another example, poker, as I understand it is as much about NOT revealing yourself as it is about betting strategy.

I ran a 4E solo encounter against my party for the first time, and it sucked. The idea was basically to have them encounter a powerful draconic guardian to strike fear into their hearts and make them think carefully about using The Ways in the future. What are the Ways? I'll save that for another column.

*Original story from NPR*

Dan Myers of Notre Dame University talks to Robert Siegel about his claim that he's figured out what theoretically the shortest possible game of Monopoly would be. That is: If everything went just the right way, with just the right sequence of rolls, Chance and Community Chest cards, and so on, what is the quickest way one player could go bankrupt?

Edit by Roo: I read about this the other day, and seeing the video below in action gives you a new appreciation for just how quick a session this is.  :)

I've been thinking about combat encounters in my game alot lately, and after nearly two years of 4E gaming, I'm still unhappy with 4E combat. It's an improvement over previous editions, but I think there's plenty of room for improvement. Combat is a slog. I've tried nerfing the monster HP while buffing attacks. I've tried putting my players on a timer. I've tried adding more interesting terrain. I've examined my DMing and table management critically...no matter what, a combat takes at least an hour and isn't exciting enough to keep all the players focused on the game.

I blame, in part, the fact every combat ends when the bad guys are dead or dying, or have run away. Those of you who read the column regularly know I'm ex-Army, so thinking about combat in tactical terms is an old job-skill of mine. Some of my other Veteran readers know that the military has precisely defined terminology for specific tactical actions in FM 3-90: Tactics. And I've been inspired by this favorite old manual to try and change the focus of combat encounters by using these well-defined terms, and redefining them for RPG Combat.