From Fred Hicks, via Amagi Games, is a cool Setting Creation Session form. It looks fast, with the freeform just structured enough to ensure that everyone was a chance to provide input regularly.
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Month: July 2008
I recently read a pair of books, each a little off from my norm. Mad Drew: Beyond Coffeedome was a very fun read, humorous and zany– everything lampooned seemed to have been exaggerated for effect. Given the size of the whoppers, it’s a little scary that it just felt like exaggeration. The core is that drew is called up to go to work… which is something that he doesn’t quite believe when it’s presented. Once he’s there, he falls into the hands of management and makes wry observations about company life. The book was good throughout; drew makes no effort to redeem his character or make him more sympathetic. The situation’s absurd… but clearly believable. A lot of the side rants are fun. Jennifer had to put up with my laughing as I read through it.
The Sleeping Beauty Proposal was interesting. It’s a modern, low key romance, with strongly drawn characters. I wolfed it down quickly; it was compulsively readable. The heroine’s struggles were low key but real, and all of the characters she interacted with were well drawn. I was frustrated when the author had our typically perceptive heroine miss obvious clues to further the plot, but sometimes the clues that had been telegraphed to the reader turned out to be red herrings. The rivalries and bog of settled life were well portrayed. In the last few chapters the author gets silly, resolving all of the outstanding issues, slathering cash and rewards on the central characters, and more. It wasn’t enough to undermine the book as a whole, but it undermined the low key beginning that I’d enjoyed so much.
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5 Blades of Bahamut
Chris Chinn is creating a beautiful 4e setting with his players that he’s tagged 5 blades of Bahamut. The setting they’re building has a dash of myths from India and a lot of twisting stock 4e concepts to match a more stylized setting. It features airships, cults of Tiamat and Bahamut, a reason for the monsters (with a twist that makes killing them with impunity work out very well), interesting interpretations of the gods in the PHB (with a history that makes them tightly interwoven, with more Greek god like rivalries and relations), and more.
It’s a compelling read so far; I can’t wait to hear what happens when the PCs start wandering this wide world.
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Next Game: Friday July 18th?
When do we want to game this week? Friday and Saturday both work for me. I’ll call around on Wednesday (remind me if I don’t)– but if one day or the other doesn’t work for you, please let me know by phone or comments.
Mike Mearls wrote Solo Monsters and the Risk of Boredom, which Chris Chinn amplified with his post
Rob Donohuge has a cool idea: Have a character worksheet (like the current character sheet) and a minimalist in play character sheet.
Asamor built a cool 4e item finder that includes Dungeon and Dragon items.
Dragonborn details, a new Ecology of X styled article for the new race. Go to town!
How to make a 4e Catfolk Ninja
Ten Things You Can Do In Fourth Edition ….. that you couldn’t (easily) do in Third Edition. (Part Two)
Excerpt from the DMG about skills.
dndcharactersheets.com has only a few sheets so far. I’m curious to see if the landscape sheet works well as an in play sheet.
Thinking about parking: A DC blog discusses how dedicating fees to local improvements instead of the transportation fund gains a lot of support from local businesses, etc. The article also includes a discussion of how to set fees in congested areas and more.
On a happy note: The Olive Press (which closed on May 1) is now open and serving lunch inside the 2039 Ultra Lounge. Unfortunately, the waitresses don’t seem to have made the transition.
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Next Game: Friday, July 11th
Works schedules seem to be OK this week, so we’ll game on Friday unless someone has trouble making it. Please let us know if you’ll have any trouble– otherwise, we’ll game Friday.
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Cube Farm by Bill Blunden
A very quick read (about 3 hours), this is one man’s tale of getting buried in the depths of a corporation. The story is funny, often ironic, and moves along quickly. It feels like a book version of Office Space, though with a larger cast of shallow characters. The “lessons learned” bullets at the ends of each chapter fit a pseduo-business book, but they rarely contribute much. The book is strongest as an indictment of corporatism and a personal tale.
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The Deep by John Crowley
I read it indifferently; the book starts off somewhat slow and very stylized, making it hard to really engage. The viewpoint character is decidedly strange and begins with amnesia (so that we can learn the world beside it).
In the end it’s a decent book– easy to set aside, a good intrigue (though hard to follow with the character names/relations so similar), and it has an interesting twist on the population explosion and containment.