Thursday, August 6, 2015

RPG News & Other Notes

I don't usually do RPG-type news, but a few things caught my eye this morning:

5E Adventure Review: The Fall of Cahokiantep (Merric's Musings)
The adventure is presented as an 11-page pdf, and consists of seven “scenes”, some of which might potentially have several encounters. It’s a wild, fantastic adventure, which should appeal to those wanting more than “just another dungeon” to explore. I mean, how many adventures are there where you get to fight an astral dragon turtle?

I love the imagination of it all...

If you missed it, I put out "The Fall of Cahokiantep" on Tuesday.  For what it's worth, I always try to do my D&D-type content on Tuesdays.  As of this writing, over 400 people have read "Fall of Cahokiantep," making it one of the most successful posts I've put out.  Readership is way up in general, though, and I've been especially gratified to note that more roleplaying folks seem to be coming by for other posts, like "5 Things on a Friday."   Thanks for that!

As an aside, I badly need a cover image for "Cahokiantep".


Mike Mearls speaks! (Tome Show interview; Merric's Musings) 
The feedback they’ve got from reading reviews on Amazon or on blogs is that instead of people just playing one or two sessions (as in the 3rd or 4th edition launch), Wizards are more consistently seeing that they’re still playing Tyranny 3 months later. The utility of running the published campaigns is huge for people in their 40s with kids who don’t have enough time to prep their homebrew games. So more people are playing, more people are playing more often, and because the accessibility is higher, they’re getting a greater numbers of younger people playing the game...
Yikes!

D&D Movie still has legal issues...

The plans [for 3rd party licensing] are big and complex. Mike is excited about it, but it’s not ready yet. It’s probably not what people are thinking of. One of the things they really wanted was for people to be very familiar with the rules before doing more material. (If someone tries to sell you something that ignores the concentration rule, they haven’t played the game enough to be familiar with what the rule does, as it’s a very important balancing tool.)

My thoughts:

  • Simplifying the game was a brilliant, counter-intuitive idea.  Growing the game means making it so kids can play with Mom & Dad or big brother/sister.
  • Calling the movie "Dungeons & Dragons" is a huge mistake.  Call it "The Keep on the Borderlands" and put the D&D logo somewhere on the poster.  D&D by itself isn't a story.  It's a storytelling medium.  Adventures are stories.  This point seems lost on Hasbro's brass, unfortunately.
  • This thing with 3rd party licensing has already gotten out of control.  It'll be fascinating watching them try to put the genie back in the bottle after over a year of laissez faire Internet game design.
***

This thing with Trump is getting embarrassing.  I hope his campaign finally flames out tonight.


Having just said that I hope Trump flames out, I agree with him that we need a cheaper dollar, not one that's more expensive.  The problem, though, is that everyone wants a cheaper currency, which has filled the world with cheap paper money.


Yes.  In fact, it was important to drop two in order to prove both willingness and capability for future operations.  It's that second bomb that has prevented a major world war for the last 70 years.


Poor TJ popped hard after two excellent weeks at the Tour de France.  I thought he was going to finish on the podium, but then he didn't even finish.  Still not sure what's up with that, but apparently it's been a sustained issue...


Holy shit!  I realize that this kind of thing is probably necessary for 21st century recruiting, but man...  I cannot believe how much shit has changed since I was at the Academy.


Bucknell is Army's opponent for Homecoming.  It's an FCS team, so assuming that we beat both the Bison and the Fordham Rams, still only one of those victories will count towards bowl eligibility.

I'm excited for the season, but it's gonna be a tough one.

***
That's all I've got, folks.  Enjoy the day.  I've got to go do the dishes!

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