Dungeons & Dragons 4e Review

This past weekend I participated at the public launch of Dungeons  

Dragon 4e at the D&D Experience here in Virginia. 

I'm a bit disappointed to report that it was a bit of a
mixed bag. I had been looking forward to 4e since it's
announcement. Most of the Design & Development articles
really resonated with my own (current) philosophies
towards the game. There were a few causes for alarm
(specifically, some racial powers and premature death of
the magic-item christmas tree). But all in all, I have
been thrilled. I even really liked the two preview books
(especially Worlds & Monsters, which will remain useful
even once the rulebooks come out).

But my first 4e game was kind of lame.

Let me state up front that I think it was mostly poor
GMing and the nature of the demo scenario. The GM ran the
encounters and disjointed miniatures fights and had
substandard table-management skills. He failed to really
make use of the cool new kobold tactics and made no effort
to inspire roleplaying.

But, seeing through the poor presentation (and after
talking to other folks with better experiences), I did
come away from the event with my high hopes for 4e
*largely* intact. I do still have some concerns. I'm
worried that the new save mechanic will be cumbersome for
area-of-effect attacks. And I'm not sure how I liked the
defender's "sticky" maneuvers (though, in fairness, these
have been supposedly fixed). It was stated up front that
minions weren't completely worked out yet (a worry, since
the game is so close to shipping). And while I'm ok with
the healing surges, I don't like that *everything* is
healed/reset after 6 hours of camping. I may need to house
rule that.

Let me just say that I *loved* playing the first level
wizard. I used magic in almost every round. Granted, most
of my spells were blast effects (aside from a few spells I
didn't use). I really hope that more utility spells are
available during character generation. And I can't wait to
see the rules for rituals. That could make our break my
enthusiasm for the game.

The others classes seemed cool (other than the now-fixed
fighter/paladins). I like the new trtun undead mechanic.
The Eladrin Ranger really pulled some cool Legolas stunts.

As first level characters, we seemed as tough (if not
tougher than) 3rd level characters. Monsters were equally
tough and I worry that combats will take about the same
time. True, more cool stuff seemed to be happening, so
that is ok.

Wild Wild Western Halloween

Just a quick note regarding Halloween. Ever since Santa retreated into the realm of myth, Halloween has been my favorite holiday. I have this pre-Halloween ritual where I pick a Halloween-appropriate movie (typically The Nightmare Before Christmas or more recently Sleepy Hollow) and carve one or more pumpkins. Maybe it's my lingering gothic sensibility, but I can't enough of the Halloween mood. I wear more black than usual, I listen to gothic music that I haven't touch for months, I tramp through fallen leaves, and I read spooky stories.

This year I was able to really introduce my oldest son to the pleasures of Halloween. He was here for the last two, but was far too young to really appreciate them (even though last year's costume - a little devil - embodied the holiday in a way that seemed more appropriate). In addition to an amazing trip to the pumpkin patch at Cox Farms, we allowed Finley to pick out his own costume. Of course, being absolutely bat-shit horse crazy (thanks to pony rides at the Maryland Renaissance Festival) he picked a horse costume where he is both horse and rider. Cool costume, though way to cumbersome for my tastes. Still it was a big hit and he had a ball trick-or-treating. His brother, appropriately enough, was a cow. Here are some pictures:

Catching Up

And here I thought that having a new computer in a clean office (my "cave") would give me more time to blog. Alas, my iTunes rating didn't transfer (funny -- comments and other info did) and I've been waaay too distracted rearranging my image library for iPhoto's Event-based system. In addition to regular photos, I have literally thousands of gaming-related images that I have scanned or ripped off the Internet in recent year. To all copyright police --  I use them inspiration for my games and for the occasional player handout (and maybe an image or two for my neglected websites).

Where was I?

I yes, it's been a while since I blogged. In my last post, I mentioned that we had another double gaming session coming up. Well, we had it and it was fabulous. My Dragonspire game was good, but Greg's season finale of Slaying Solomon was amazing. I simply can't recall ever having such a powerful gaming experience as a player. Emotions we running high in Nazi world. I was starting to tear up when I mentioned that Erik would be showing up at Juanita's door with flowers at the end of the episode. Slaying Solomon is one of those special games where the characters take on a life of their own. They go waaaay  beyond the combat stats you see in most games. The characters are defined by their quirks and relationships. Powers and abilities are definitely secondary. I can't wait for the upcoming 5th season. Greg's running the main arc, but I will definitely be directing several episodes.

On My Own

The wife and kids are in Michigan for another week or so and I've been scrambling to complete a long list of "honey do's". These are mostly husbandly tasks that have slipped for a variety reasons (such as completing the second nursery) due to the numerous distractions of family obligations. While my wife is mostly happy to be spending time with relatives in Michigan, I know she's going to expect that I get some work done as payment for my having three weeks without having to help with the kids.

That being said, I'm also taking the opportunity to catch up on some personal stuff. Last Saturday, we had a double gaming session with Dragonspire in the afternoon and Slaying Solomon in the evening. We'll repeat this extraordinarily rare full day of gaming next Saturday as well. It's good to be gaming again, though I do wish I had yet more time to devote to it. I had high hopes for lots of down-time to plan future adventures and campaigns. Alas, with all my other activities, that ain't gonna happen.

One of those other activities is assembling my new basement office and adjusting to a new computer. Yes, I just ordered a new iMac today. Hopefully, it will arrive in time for me to play around with it before the family gets home. It sure is a beautiful machine. And with Boot Camp, I should have no loss of PC functionality. I'm hoping to high heaven that I can get the sucker online with minimal fuss, as I still need to spend time on getting our web photo gallery working as well. Sigh... I'm not looking forward to that mess.

Finally, I had hoped to get a lot of gym time in. Alas, Finley gifted me with yet another nasty cold just as I returned to Virginia. Now that I seem to be on the mend, I'll try to resume my workouts tomorrow.

So Much for Vacation

Ok, that big trip to Hilton head that I was so excited about turned out to be real disappointment. It is hard to do long car trips with young children, but we knew this going in. What we didn't expect is that we wouldn't have any time to ourselves down there to swim in the ocean, sip foofy drinks by the pool, or take long walks on the beach. Uh uh. No way. Our kids weren't going to allow it and out relatives had too much on their plates to give us a break. As it turned out, we spent most of the trip cooped up inside watching the toddler watch TV. We did make to the pool a few times, but our one attempt to hang out at the beach was an absolute disaster. I was totally afraid that someone would call child services due to one of the most inconvenient toddler tantrums that we have yet experienced.

Fortunately, we managed to spend some quality time with Professor Pope and his family on the way back. Unfortunately, my wife, oldest son, and myself all came down with seriously nasty colds on the final leg of the drive. We're still recovering right now. Thank goodness that the infant was spared.

So here I am trying to adjust to going back to work after not really having much of a vacation. And instead of focusing on work, I'm thinking about what computer to buy after events have forced me into purchasing a new one about 3 months earlier than I anticipated. I had previously stated that I had had it with Dells. My current Inspiron laptop has been nothing but problems. But the more I price out options, the more I am leaning towards a new Inspiron model. They are highly rated, they are the right price, and they have all the specs that I need. I had considered switching teams to buy a Mac, but I'm having a hard time convincing myself that the added expense and hassle of installing Boot Camp will be worth it. I haven't ruled it out yet, but it's looking less and less likely.

Update: friends have been giving me more reasons to select a Mac (the fact that I already own a license of Windows XP is one). We'll see...

I know it's probably stupid, but the proposed D&D 4e Game Table is kind of driving my decision. The few games that I want to play are generally available on the Mac. I wouldn't have to retain my ties to the PC world if it weren't for the fact that I think that Game Table has the potential to be a sweet tool. Of course, it could easily blow chunks and leave me afflicted with bad case of buyers remorse (the most likely scenario).

Water Bottles

Ok, I've totally been on an anti-bottled water kick lately. I must have reach some kind of tipping point because I'm now kind of sickened by the wastefulness of buying something that is essentially free in a package that seriously harms the environment. My wife and I have certainly been guilty of the wastefulness (especially on car trips and such). Part of simply came down to the convenience of having an container available to drink the stuff. Sure, I have a Nalgene bottle for hiking in my basement somewhere. But I don't like drinking out of it, mostly because the opening is too big and I imagine the water tasting differently when it has been sitting in plastic for a while.

So I was very pleased to discover these totally awesome reusable aluminum water bottles. I'm hoping that having a practical and stylish water bottle will help me kick the plastic bottle habit AND drink more water (something I desperately need to do anyway).

Missing GenCon

GenCon Indy is this weekend and I'm a little bummed, especially since I'm missing my long lost (due to baby) EN World friends and all the D&D 4e madness. Instead I'll be spending the week with the family in Hilton Head. Since I'll be visiting my good friend Professor Pope on the way back, I'll get my D&D fix talking with him. And D&D 4e won't be released until next year anyway.

Actually, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the new edition. I wasn't much of a D&D fan until Third Edition came along. But I've got over my anti-D&D bias and have learned welcome our Munchkin overlords. Fourth Edition may improve the game. It may even introduce some really kick-ass tools to facilitate player over the Internet. The economics of it bother me a bit, and I'm a bit annoyed at the prospect of shelling out for yet another set of rulebooks.

Anyway, I suspect I'll be blogging more on 4e in the future.