What am I reading?

It has been a very long time since I even finished a novel, let alone finished it in three days. For that reason alone, I have to recommend Old Man's War, the Hugo Award finalist in 2006 by John Scalzi. To say it was influenced by Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers would be a gross understatement since the novel is a virtual rewrite of the classic. However, if the plot is borrowed more-or-less intact, the universe envisioned by Scalzi is quite different. The galaxy is literally overflowing with life, while planets suitable to support it are rare. Thus competition is extreme among the various races seeking to claim some lebensraum for themselves. People of Earth are largely ignorant of life in the colonies, as indeed are most colonists. The real power lies in the hands of the Colonial Union and the Colonial Defense Force, the civilian and military branches of the authority responsible for administration of the colonies. Because they routinely engage in contact, both hostile and friendly (ok, mostly hostile), with the wider galactic community, the Union and the CDF have the most advanced technology. Earth is a backwater by comparison and the Union seems content to keep it that way.

They still need a steady supply of recruits, however, and they have a unique way of acquiring them. Humans who reach the age of 75 are allowed to sign up to the CDF, enticed with the implied, but not quite confirmed promise of a healthy, young body. After their tour, which may be from 2 to 10 years, they may muster out and settle down to live another lifetime as a colonist. They can never return to Earth, but for many, the trade-off is worth it.

Old Man's War was Scalzi's first novel and three more books in the same setting have been released, The Ghost Brigades, The Last Colony and Zoe's Tale. They promise to reveal more of the motivations of the Colonial Union, which seems to be more than it appears. I will definitely be looking for the rest of the series.

-Rognar-

Avatar...yeah, go see it.

I'm not sure if there's any point to reviewing James Cameron's new blockbuster, since everyone is going to see it. If for no other reason, everyone will want to see what half a billion dollars buys these days. The visual effects are like nothing you have ever seen before. Take the best of The Lord of the Rings and turn it up by an order of magnitude. They are reason enough to see it on the big screen in all its 3D glory. Good thing, because there's not a lot else to recommend it. The characters are rather one dimensional, the tone is preachy and annoying (with an obvious visual shot at the Alberta oilsands) and it was as much fantasy as sci-fi with floating mountains and pseudo-magical effects. Still, Avatar is crystal meth for your eyes. If you don't see it in the theatre, you're missing out, big time.

-Rognar-

What's wrong with game balance? Part 2

While I think that Game balance can go too far. I laughed when I saw this YouTube Video and since the old post was just that, I made a new one.

Linky

What's wrong with game balance?

Spend any time in the "old-school" blogosphere and you will read plenty of reasons why modern versions of D&D are crap. Some criticisms are valid, some seem a tad contrived, but the only one I've seen that really seems completely out in left field is game balance. Apparently game balance is bad. Personally, I would have thought the desirability of game balance would be self-evident, but apparently not. I have strived to understand the argument, although I don't feel I'm there yet. However, I have acquired a few insights, so I thought I would write them down, in hopes that some old-school reader would further enlighten me. Some believe the pursuit of game balance places too much emphasis on combat. This is probably a fair criticism of D&D 4e in which the pursuit of combat balance has introduced a dreary, mechanical sameness to all the classes. For 3.x/Pathfinder, however, I'm just not buying it. The designers of these editions never attempted to make all classes equal in combat. Fighters and their ilk are clearly superior at low levels, while spellcasters (especially arcane spellcasters) have an undeniable advantage at higher levels. Yet, people still play rogues or clerics because they bring other talents to the game that are just as important as combat power. Having said that, few people want to play a character that is useless in combat and few groups want such a character in their party. So, some level of combat effectiveness is essential for all character classes.
Furthermore, the skills and feats in 3.5/Pathfinder make it easy to balance character classes based on criteria other than combat effectiveness. Rogues and rangers, for example, have a lot of skill points, relative to fighters and sorcerers. This makes these classes more versatile. The ranger can track and survive in the wilderness, has finely-honed senses and is fairly stealthy, giving him a lot of capabilities that the more combat-oriented fighter lacks. Likewise, the rogue has many options. He can concentrate on stealth, climbing and acrobatics and be a cat burglar. Alternatively, he can go for opening locks and disabling traps and be more of a safecracker. He can even specialize in forgery and bluff and be a con artist. This level of versatility certainly never existed in AD&D. Every thief had more-or-less the same skills as every other thief of the same level, with only minor racial variations.

-Rognar-

Spelljammer was cool...there, I said it.

For some reason, I've been thinking a lot about Spelljammer lately, that AD&D 2e campaign setting with space-faring orcs and interstellar mind flayers terrorizing the space lanes and battling the elven navy which strives to make the spheres safe for trade and exploration. It never really caught on back in the day and I suspect that's because no one knew quite what to do with it. I loved Spelljammer. The thought of beautiful elven man-o-war ships battling the menacing mind flayer nautiloids was simply awesome. It wasn't all cool, I'll grant you. Space hippos, the Giff, were pretty lame, as were the gnomish sidewheelers (indeed everything gnomish back then sucked, Spelljammer or not). Also, I felt some races, such as ogres and beholders, really had no business taking to the stars. Even the space orcs (Scro, get it, it's orcs backwards...lame) seemed out of place to me. The highly-organized and militaristic hobgoblins seemed a much better fit as the interstellar fascists. It would seem a fairly trivial effort to convert the best bits of Spelljammer to Pathfinder. Maybe the next time I find myself behind the screen, I will incorporate some Spelljammer elements into the game. Hmmmm, let me think....interstellar war between the mind flayers and the elven navy....things not going well for the elves....githyanki pirates....neogi slavers...a ghost ship....yeah, that's the stuff!

-Rognar-

Axis and Allies Minis - Early War list

Finally, the official list for the much anticipated Axis and Allies Miniatures Early War set is posted over at the WotC forums. Here it is:

AUS U Carro Armato M11/39
BEL U Belgium Bicycle Troop
BEL C Belgium Infantry
BEL U Belgium Officer
BEL R T-13B3
FRA C Canon de 75 Modele 1897
FRA R FCM 36
FRA R Morane-Saulnier MS.406
FRA U P107 Half-Track
FRA R Somua S-35
GRE U Greek Cavalry
POL R 7TP
POL U Polish Officer
POL U TKS Ursus Tankette
POL C wz.36 37mm ATG
SA R Marmon Harrington Mk. II AC
SA C South African Infantry
SA R Valentine II
UK C BEF Infantrymen
UK R Cruiser Mk III A13
UK R Matilda II
UK U Morris Reconnaissance Car Mk 2
SOV R BT-5
SOV R MiG-1
SOV U Mongolian Cavalry
SOV C Soviet Conscript
SOV R T-28
SOV U T-38 Light Amphibious Tank
FIN C Finnish Ski Troop
FIN R T-26E
GER R Junkers JU 87B Stuka
GER U Kubelwagen V
GER C Motorized Schutzen
GER U Panzer IB
GER U Panzer II Ausf. F
GER R Panzer III Ausf. F
GER U Panzerjager I
GER R PzKpfw IV Ausf. A
GER U Sd Kfz 2 Motorcycle Half-Track
GER U Sd Kfz 231
ITA U Autoblinda AB 41
ITA C Cannone da 75/27 Modello 11
ITA R Semovente L40 da 47/32
JPN U Japanese Bicycle Troop
JPN U Jungle Spotter
JPN R Nakajima ki-43 "Oscar"
JPN R Type 89B Chi-Ro
JPN C Type 99 LMG
SLO U Motorcycle Recon
SLO R PzKpfw 38(t)

I would have to say the aircraft interest me the most. The early war Stuka, the MS.406, the Oscar and the MiG-1 will all be great additions to the game. Also nice to see them add a couple more Finnish units and the long-awaited Japanese spotter.

As far as reprints go, we're getting another Kubelwagen V (groan), another Morris Reconnaisance Car Mk.2 (groan), another Somua S-35 (may be ok with a better paint job than the last one), another Carro Armato M11/39 (a captured unit used by the Aussies, i.e. cool), a PzKpfw 38(t) (Slovakian, suck it, Czech Republic!) a Sd Kfz 231 (groan), another Matilda II (not Australian, despite the rumour) and another Valentine (South African Valentine II). As far as the Valentine goes, we've had a UK Val I and a Soviet Val VI. They looked like the same sculpt to me, so I'm guessing the South African Val II will be the same. Still, an interesting addition.

-Rognar-

First Thoughts: The Summoner

I am really digging the Summoner but I am rather worried it's just too good. I've only built test builds so far since they released it Monday instead of Friday. Without even looking at the summoner himself the eidolon is very strong. I built one at level 6, 10 and 14 since we usually cap out around 14. All are Quadrupeds

Level 6:
At level 6 he's a real monster. With large size and sinking a few points into more str you can get it up to 28. throw a few more points making the bite better and you get +15 to hit for 2d6+13 damage. Throw Power Attack, vital strike, and Improved natural attack (bite) in there at that is pretty ugly - +13 6d6+19. Only 55 hp but still pretty decent. That's excellent damage against CR6 mobs.

Level 10:
At level 10 the fun begins. Much the same as before but shift a few points from Str to Con, and add the Con poison. His physical stats are now 30/16/21. +20 to hit and 2d6+15 for damage. Again with power attack and Vital strike we have +17 6d6+24. Not a big difference but we now have a nasty poison that does 1d4 con damage every round. Add the ability focus feat and your poison has a DC of 22. Fairly tough for a CR 10 encounter.

Level 14:
At level 14 there is a bit of a problem. While huge size is tempting its often tough to drag a huge pet through a dungeon with you. Which is a shame since a huge critter continued from above is pretty awesome. It is made out of HPs (average 193) and a poison DC of 26. Around this point you start to fight lots of high fort save bad guys and I'm not sure if Poison is still a good way to go. I'm thinking a grappler might be better.

One of the things I dig the most about the Eidolon is you have the option to completely rebuild him every level. You can try out lots of different options to see which is most effective. Its fine to make the eidolon over specialized since its really only half your character and if you encounter a situation where your pet is useless you can just summon something else.

The transposition ability is great. The battlefield tactics it opens up are impressive. I'll probably try building up some humanoid eidolons tommorrow. I suspects that do even more damage.

Two Handed vs Two Weapon Fighting

As I fiddle with my back-up character (the last session came really close to a tpk) I have been investigating the differences between 2 handed and two weapon fighting.

Two Weapon Fighting
Pros: Looks cool. Good for many opponents with no DR and low AC. Exceeds damage of two handed style only at higher levels (14+). Many changes to land crit feats if you are using a high crit range weapon.
Cons: Requires a ton of feats to out perform 2-Handed. Requires both a high dex and high str to be effective. Lower chance to hit and low damage on each swing means DR is a problem. Only decent on a full attack.

Two Handed Fighting
Pros: Only need high str. Works best against 1 or 2 opponents. DR less of a problem. The Vital Strike feats make even attack standard actions good damage. Effective with few feats (Power Attack essential). Higher chance to hit for much bigger damage.
Cons: Large weapons cannot be used in a grapple/confined spaces. Fewer swings mean less chance to land critical hits.

Rippin' on Traveller

It loses steam near the end, but there's some funny stuff in Zack and Steve's latest bit. If you were ever a Traveller fan, some of this will make you laugh out loud.

Traveller art

-Rognar-

The Night the World Walked Home

Ok so this is a gaming block but tonight was just too weird for it not be told somewhere.

Here is the breakdown of events:
16:30. Cold, Snowy. Windy. Buses backed up downtown. Wanting to catch the bus that will drop me off right at my door I began walking along the route looking for the 109.

16:45. I have walked about 4 or 5 blocks. The buses are not moving and I am getting cold so I hop on the first bus that will drop me off near my house. The 116. I brush the snow off myself and pop open my book.

17:30. The bus finally leaves the downtown core area going north on center street. Keep in mind I usually get home between 17:15 and 17:25. I am not too worried as this has happened before when they were doing some bridge work. Back then once we had left the core it was smooth sailing.

18:00. We have gotten as far as 16th avenue. For those of you that don't know Calgary, this is about a 15 minute walk from where we were 30 minutes ago. Traffic is not moving.

18:30. I have by this point read over 100 pages of my book and taken a 15 minute nap. The roads are literally ice. Cars are sliding everywhere and emergency vehicles are struggling to get by. Accidents are everywhere. We've passed two abandoned buses and there are lots of people on the side walks. The bus is roasting hot and has only moved a couple car lengths in the last 10 minutes. 4 of us at the back of the bus have had enough. One woman's husband tried to come get but discovered that the roads have been blocked off by the cops. There will be no rescue. We decide to walk.

I used to be a big runner and am built for it. Tall and thin. I do lots of walking and my pace is very fast. My wife hates hiking with me. I quickly lost the 4th person but the other 3 of us made good time as we marched north. Luckily the snow had stopped and it was actually quite nice out although still a bit cool.

19:00(approx.) We discover the source of the trouble. There is a big hill just before McKnight Blvd. Every single bus that had left the downtown area after 4pm was pulled over on the side of the road. None were moving. cars were smashed into each other and nothing was getting through. Why hadn't anyone told us this? We were now glad that we had decided to walk. It would be many many hours before any of the buses were going anywhere. There is a steady stream of people walking north. A few going south as well.

19:30(approx.) We run into another group of refugees, err I mean walkers. The guy I am walking with knows one of the women in the other group and stays to chat. The woman and I carry on.

20:00 We reach Beddington and the roads are now open. The woman calls her husband for a pick up (she lives in Coventry, the community north of where I live) and thanks me for walking her this far. She offers me a ride home but I decline. I can can catch a bus here to take me home but I decide to finish what I started. The night is lovely and I feel alive. The other walkers seem strangely content as well. I pick up the pace.

20:45 I get home. I even stopped at the liquor store near my house to pick up some Rum. I've had a carton of Eggnog for a week and it was getting lonely with out its wild and crazy pal.

So for some perspective I live just north of 96 Ave and I got off the bus around 30th Ave so I walked almost 70 city blocks in about 2 hours. Crazy fast. Extrapolating that out I estimate I could walk to work in about 3 hours. I think the total distance is 12-13km. Interesting since I had guessed that it would have taken 4+ hours before.

Anyway. I had a great walk home, met some interesting people, got lots of exorcise and got lots of fresh air. So despite all of the traffic misery I had a nice evening.

Not that I wish to repeat it anytime soon.

Oh Mongoose, I can't stay mad at you

Was it all a big understanding? Maybe. Anyway, Matthew Sprange has apologized:

Deepest apologies for that, it wasnt meant how it sounds (Canada is one of the places RPG publishers print if they don't go to China - only reason it was mentioned). The offending line has been removed.

We like Canada at Mongoose. We all want to live there. One of us does!

Ok, we're cool.

-Rognar-

Screw you, Mongoose!

In his annual State of the Mongoose address, Matthew Sprange threw in this little nugget of economic nationalism:

We also made a promise this year that we would only be printing books in the US – not China, not Thailand, not even Canada, but the good old US of A.

Which has since been changed to:

We also made a promise this year that we would only be printing books in the US. Mongoose is part American, with offices and our main warehouse situated in Ohio and in these times of economic woe, we wanted to do ‘our bit’ to keep our own nations going, rather than feeding the Tiger Economies.

Cowards.

In truth, I didn't know Mongoose even printed books in Canada and had they not decided to pump up the "America First" crowd, I would likely have remained none the wiser. But they did, so screw you, Mongoose! I will continue to not buy any of your products, especially since you lost the distribution rights to CthulhuTech.

-Rognar-

Rejoice! The embargo is lifted.

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but there hasn't been many updates to the new releases page of the Sentry Box website this month. Before today, no new rpg products had been received since Nov.2. WotC, Catalyst, Paizo and Mongoose had all been "no shows" until today. Finally, someone has run the blockade and delivered our much-needed game supplies to us. At last, I can get my copy of Scavenger's Guide to Droids...and maybe a copy of Poo: The Card Game.

-Rognar-

The seal is broken.

I love cool miniatures and I am an obssessive collector. The only way I can resist throwing myself into the many awesome minis out there is to never start buying anything. Sometimes sticker shock is enough to keep me at bay. This is why I never leapt into Warhammer. Other times, it requires sheer force of will. Most of the time, my interest fades over time or the quality of the product becomes so atrocious, I just can't justify the expense anymore (talking to you, WotC). But there is always a shiny new hotness from which I just can't stay away. And so, I come to AT-43 (You bastards!). I did it. I walked through the door. I broke the seal. Rackham did what Games Workshop and Wiz Kids could not. They hooked me. May God have mercy on my soul.

-Rognar-

Magic item creation in D&D and other strangeness...

The manufacture and trade of magic items in D&D has always been problematic for designers of the game, at least it appears so to me. In 1e/2e AD&D, the demands that had to be met to make magic items made them prohibitive. XP expenditures and permanency spells ensured that no PC would ever make a magic item. In the two decades that I played these editions, not once did I ever see a single magic item produced. As a DM, this was troubling for me. After all, I had to assume the same disincentives that apply to PC magic-users would also work on NPCs. Aside from the XP costs, which no red-blooded adventuring spellcaster would tolerate, magic-users and clerics have a virtual monopoly on magical power in a world where magic items are scarce. Why would they jeopardize that priviledged position? True, there would be exceptions. Liches, for instance, have all the time in the world. They could probably find time in their busy schedules to forge a few magic blades for use by their minions. Also, there would likely be a few potent items created at the behest of powerful nobles who have the authority to demand such items from their magic-wielding courtiers. However, this doesn't seem to be enough supply to furnish the multitude of +1 longswords circulating within most D&D campaign worlds.

D&D 3.5 included a somewhat more complete set of rules for magic item creation. Some items, such as scrolls and potions, could be created by low-level spellcasters and the XP costs for such items was low enough to entice at least some non-adventuring NPCs to give it a try. The permanency spell requirement for permanent magic items was dropped, however XP costs were still involved and the same disincentive was there. Supply should still be miniscule in comparison to demand. Further adding to the problem was the weird D&D economics of magic items. It costs half the list price of a magic item to make it and you get half the list price of a magic item when you sell it. So, there is literally no profit margin at all and no compensation whatsoever for the days or weeks it takes to make magic items. Obviously, a DM who wants some sort of commerce in magic items could step in and rationalize the magic item economy, but a game that has such clear and complete rules on so many other aspects of adventuring life seems to have a curious blindspot as far as the magic economy is concerned.

Pathfinder made some progress in making sense of the magic item creation system. The biggest and most far-reaching change is the eradication of the XP cost. I have seen more magic item creation in the last year as we started playing Pathfinder than in my previous quarter-century of playing D&D. The availability of magic items for purchase has also been tackled. In D&D 3.5, it was a free-for-all. Adventurers would return from their dungeon crawls loaded down with perfectly suitable magic items, but knowing they could buy any item they wanted at Ye Olde Magick Shoppe, they would happily liquidate their massive hauls to get that +2 flaming burst keen greatsword for which they'd been pining. Those days are past. The availability of powerful magic items for sale on the open market has been dramatically reduced. If a character wants a particular item, he must acquire it through adventuring, commission its construction from a willing spellcaster or make it himself. And make it, we do. Now we happily liquidate our massive hauls in order to buy the raw materials needed to make the items we want. Item creation feats, once seen as pointless rule bloat, are now highly desirable. Still, the irrational economics of the magic item trade have not been abandoned. It is still not possible to make a living making magic items. Maybe in some future Pathfinder supplement, they will finally correct this oversight.

-Rognar-

Pathfinder campaign - moral crisis grips the team

Our new campaign is heating up. We have Damius, the sorcerer with a taint on his soul, Alphonso, the pure-hearted paladin with a strange past, Haer, the bard on a slippery slope of moral decay, Shadowstalker, the elven ranger who is drawn to human cities as a moth to a flame and Mugden, the brooding cleric of the god of death. We find ourselves entangled with a nascent rebel movement in the decaying city of Westcrown, former capital of Cheliax, the empire of devils.

So here we are, facing the first internal crisis in our new campaign. We have uncovered an amulet, which our paladin has determined to be some sort of evil magic item. Our "morally-flexible" bard has informed us that the item is a "brain cylinder", a device which stores a human mind. He goes on to tell us that the mind is probably imprisoned and that there is a way to free it. The sorcerer, no genius to be sure, wants to destroy the item, figuring the trapped mind will simply move on to its just reward. Although the sorcerer has little reason to trust him, the bard is almost supernaturally persuasive and no one else has any means of verifying the bard's conclusion. The bard seeks to take the item for a couple of days so as to facilitate his intentions for it, whatever they may ultimately be and no one can come up with a suitable justification to argue otherwise. Is this the start of the eventual unravelling of the group? We shall see.

-Rognar-

What am I reading? The Black Company

This book lived up to its reputation and I quite enjoyed it. Unlike most of the books sitting in my "To be Read" pile this one doesn't clock in at over 700 pages but a much more manageable 320. I love reading big books but I've noticed a tend that fantasy books are increasing in length. 300 pages is a good size, I don't want to read a monster each time.
The book is written from the point of view of a single character which seemed a bit odd at first but I got used to it pretty quickly and it works well. I knew something of the plot going in and elements that I expected to be a bit cheesy worked just fine for me - even the silly wizard duels. All of the characters are painted in lovely shades of grey. Even the "good guys" in this book are black hearted villains. The only character that can be described as an innocent has a future foreshadowed. This future will obviously play a big role in future books and it will be interesting to see what the future holds for them.
I've got work to do so I'm just going to sum it up by saying that I really enjoyed it and look forward to borrowing the rest of the series.

Power to the Droids

Next Tuesday, the Scavenger's Guide to Droids makes its long-awaited debut and if early reviews over at the SWSE forums are any indication, it has the potential to be one of the best supplements yet. Droid characters are getting a complete overhaul. Different droid types, like astromech droids, medical droids, battle droids, are being presented as races. This sounds interesting. In the past, droid statblocks included a statement as playable or non-playable. It tended to be rather arbitrary and not always very intuitive. I don't know how the new rules will play out, but the thought of playing a droideka (previously verboten) will be sure to excite every red-blooded Star Wars fan. Sentry Box, here I come.

-Rognar-

By the way, fan support from WotC for the Star Wars RPG is reaching new lows. Less than a week before a new release and there is still no mention of this product on the website, except from fans in the forums. Fans have to get their info from Amazon.com. I'm beginning to think rather than seeing a new edition of the game next year, they may simply stop publishing new products, the d20 Modern model of product line support.

Lest we forget...

Heartfelt thank you to all Canadian servicemen and servicewomen, past and present, who sacrifice so much for the freedoms we enjoy. You are all heroes.

-Rognar-

New Pathfinder playtests coming soon!

Oh happy day, new Pathfinder character classes are being revealed by Paizo for playtesting. The cavalier and the oracle start on Friday, followed later by the summoner, witch, alchemist and inquisitor. I'm as giddy as a schoolgirl.

-Rognar-