Randy's Gaming Links Episode 5

More skill challenges than you can shake a stick at.

Actually, I guess you could shake a stick at them.

I'm just not sure why you'd do that.

GANAKAGOK (or "let's break from D&D for a moment")

Picked up this game last week and I'm dying to try it out. It's a small indie RPG that plays as a hybrid between storytelling and roleplaying. Kevin, are you familiar with it? It's very much along the lines of the high-concept indie games we talked about last week.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

Its setting and premise are extremely specific. It concerns a mythic era for an Eskimo-like people (the Nitu) who've hunted and lived all their lives on a giant island of ice called Ganakagok under an eternal night of stars. But Dawn is coming, for good or ill, and the players' characters are the ones who sense it. It's like being part of a creation myth where the first appearance of the sun is the final act, and the players are charged with determining whether that final act is inspiring and adventurous or dark and tragic.

In each session (and it always runs as a single session only), the players draw cards from a tarot deck and use the wildly varying themes on them as inspiration for everything from character creation to the role of their character in the story. The game's mechanics create loves and hates between the characters and their allies, produce monsters to fight (like the dread Cannibal Ghouls), and even helps the players produce a kick-ass map of the mythic lands of the Nitu!

What I like best is that in the end you've built a STORY. And it doesn't rely on the players adventuring together - in fact, a key aspect of the story may be that they're at odds. But everyone is constantly contributing, even when it's not their turn. The main goal is to build a MYTH, and because myths are filled with tales of both greatness and sorrow, even a tragic turn in Ganakagok can be exciting (consider the rise and fall of Achilles).

At the very least, it is WILDLY DIFFERENT. And I'd like to run it. Soon. I know I can wrangle my brother into it, and I mention it here to put a bug in your ears. If anyone's interested in joining in, let me know.

Skill Challenges

Great (and funny) article on skill challenges by Austin local and Wizards writer Ari Marmell. He uses footnotes! My favorite one?

"If you’re anything like me, you get at least a faint twinge of dislike any time your DM brings in an NPC to save you from a bad situation.4"

"4 If you're a lot like me, you're sitting at home in your underwear right now, writing a column about player agency in RPGs. But please don't tell me if you are; that's just creepy."

Other uses for Healing Surges

Great overview of alternative ways to use Healing Surges. http://www.roleplayingpro.com/2009/09/22/the-healing-surge-dm%E2%80%99s-little-helper/

That being said, we've yet to encounter heavy usage of Healing Surges. I'm not sure if it's because we are resetting between gaming sessions and so they really don't have as much time to run down or if it's because the player's just really aren't taking that much damage. In fact, the damage department seems either feast or famine.

I've heard that defender classes should feel like they are being knocked down and pop right back up, but the one time we've seen that the players felt the encounter was much too hard. I'm still struggling to get the feel of the combat just right.

role playing in 4e at last!

I'm really glad this guy took to time to write this up. I have a feel this is really going to rock our weekly game TO THE CORE.

http://www.stargazersworld.com/2009/09/24/breaking-news-roleplaying-finally-possible-in-dd-4th-edition/

The Assassin

I'm not a big fan of the class from the past, but I kinda like the new take on it, especially for a more morally ambiguous campaign. Dungeon Mastering has a pretty good rundown of the philosophy of the class and how it contrasts with the rogue.

More random goodness

This morning I found this link from Gnome Stew.

http://www.trovetokens.com/4e-npc.html

It is a quick NPC generator. Unfortunately not background or story, just stats, but if you need something like this it does a great job. I'm still looking forward to finding a really loosely defined NPC background generator that is compelling and yet not a wall of text.

Random Treasure Generation

Here is a random treasure generator that I find incredibly helpful when running a game. Pick the level and number of characters and all the various types and groupings of treasure and magical items. From there the web app will generate a treasure package tailored to your world and characters.

http://www.asmor.com/scripts/4eMagicItems/randomTreasure.php