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		<title><![CDATA[Loremaster - Blogs - Mind Flayer's Snack Time by D'karr]]></title>
		<link>http://www.loremaster.org/blog.php?14-Mind-Flayer-s-Snack-Time</link>
		<description><![CDATA[World Building and Storytelling for D&D and Beyond!]]></description>
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		<lastBuildDate>Sun, 19 May 2013 00:16:42 GMT</lastBuildDate>
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			<title><![CDATA[Loremaster - Blogs - Mind Flayer's Snack Time by D'karr]]></title>
			<link>http://www.loremaster.org/blog.php?14-Mind-Flayer-s-Snack-Time</link>
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			<title>Little Time - More Sculpting</title>
			<link>http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?75-Little-Time-More-Sculpting</link>
			<pubDate>Fri, 01 Mar 2013 18:06:54 GMT</pubDate>
			<description><![CDATA[I was inspired over the last week, and I took it out with my sculpting.  I can see improvements in what I'm doing now, which is really cool because I...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote class="blogcontent restore">I was inspired over the last week, and I took it out with my sculpting.  I can see improvements in what I'm doing now, which is really cool because I can see progress.  Stuff is still not finished so some of this is still a work in progress.<br />
<br />
For our weekly game one of the players is playing a hengeyokai ranger.  His idea was explained to me as something like Usagi Yojimbo.  I remember reading some Yojimbo in the mid 80's maybe, but I did not remember much of it.  The initial pictures I found were not really what I was looking for.  So I settled on one of the pictures provided in the article on hengeyokai.  I was not about to do a full sculpt, with the little time I have, so I went for a conversion to an existing miniature.  <br />
<br />
Here's the inspiration:<br />
<a href="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=287&amp;d=1362158292" id="attachment287" rel="Lightbox_75" ><img src="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=287&amp;d=1362158292&amp;thumb=1" border="0" alt="Click image for larger version.&nbsp;

Name:	Hare.jpg&nbsp;
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<br />
And here's the initial WIP for his hengeyokai:<br />
<a href="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=288&amp;d=1362158475" id="attachment288" rel="Lightbox_75" ><img src="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=288&amp;d=1362158475&amp;thumb=1" border="0" alt="Click image for larger version.&nbsp;

Name:	Kuotoa2.jpg&nbsp;
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ID:	288" class="thumbnail" style="float:CONFIG" /></a><a href="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=289&amp;d=1362158476" id="attachment289" rel="Lightbox_75" ><img src="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=289&amp;d=1362158476&amp;thumb=1" border="0" alt="Click image for larger version.&nbsp;

Name:	Kuotoa1.jpg&nbsp;
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<br />
Unfortunately, as I was doing the conversion work one of the pins I'd used to put the head in place perforated it all the way to the base of the ear.  Not to worry, not to fret.  The hare just needs wider ears - so I can hide that pin.  That'll be the next part of the work.<br />
<br />
Then, I finally found a good picture for Usagi.  I might end up doing 2 sculpts instead of just one, I'm not sure yet.<br />
<br />
Work continues on the displacer beast.  I'm finding the curing characteristics of &quot;ProCreate&quot; a bit annoying.  It seems to lose its tackiness rather quickly, or maybe I'm just not working with it enough to get used to it.  In any case, you might remember the first wip picture which was mostly a frame.<br />
<br />
Initial frame:<br />
<a href="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=291&amp;d=1362159410" id="attachment291" rel="Lightbox_75" ><img src="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=291&amp;d=1362159410&amp;thumb=1" border="0" alt="Click image for larger version.&nbsp;

Name:	frame1.jpg&nbsp;
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ID:	291" class="thumbnail" style="float:CONFIG" /></a><a href="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=292&amp;d=1362159411" id="attachment292" rel="Lightbox_75" ><img src="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=292&amp;d=1362159411&amp;thumb=1" border="0" alt="Click image for larger version.&nbsp;

Name:	frame2.jpg&nbsp;
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<br />
Well, I've had a bit of time to slowly work on it, and I'm liking how it's turning out.  It's not complete yet, the head will be the last thing I start spending detail time on after I'm sculpted the rest.<br />
<br />
Shade the displacer beast:<br />
<a href="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=293&amp;d=1362160375" id="attachment293" rel="Lightbox_75" ><img src="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=293&amp;d=1362160375&amp;thumb=1" border="0" alt="Click image for larger version.&nbsp;

Name:	displacer1.jpg&nbsp;
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ID:	293" class="thumbnail" style="float:CONFIG" /></a><a href="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=294&amp;d=1362160376" id="attachment294" rel="Lightbox_75" ><img src="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=294&amp;d=1362160376&amp;thumb=1" border="0" alt="Click image for larger version.&nbsp;

Name:	displacer2.jpg&nbsp;
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ID:	294" class="thumbnail" style="float:CONFIG" /></a><a href="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=295&amp;d=1362160377" id="attachment295" rel="Lightbox_75" ><img src="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=295&amp;d=1362160377&amp;thumb=1" border="0" alt="Click image for larger version.&nbsp;

Name:	displacer3.jpg&nbsp;
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ID:	295" class="thumbnail" style="float:CONFIG" /></a><a href="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=296&amp;d=1362160377" id="attachment296" rel="Lightbox_75" ><img src="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=296&amp;d=1362160377&amp;thumb=1" border="0" alt="Click image for larger version.&nbsp;

Name:	displacer4.jpg&nbsp;
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ID:	296" class="thumbnail" style="float:CONFIG" /></a><a href="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=297&amp;d=1362161199" id="attachment297" rel="Lightbox_75" ><img src="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=297&amp;d=1362161199&amp;thumb=1" border="0" alt="Click image for larger version.&nbsp;

Name:	displacer5.jpg&nbsp;
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<br />
For the displacer beast head I might go back to green stuff for the details.  I'm not sure yet.  I've also enlisted a good friend of mine, and awesome miniatures painter, to paint it when I'm done.  I'll definitely put some pictures of that when it's done.</blockquote>

]]></content:encoded>
			<dc:creator><![CDATA[D'karr]]></dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?75-Little-Time-More-Sculpting</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title>More Insomnia - More Sculpting</title>
			<link>http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?71-More-Insomnia-More-Sculpting</link>
			<pubDate>Mon, 24 Sep 2012 02:47:25 GMT</pubDate>
			<description><![CDATA[Once again I couldn't sleep last night.  I hate sitting there just looking at the ceiling.  So I went to the basement and started getting things...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote class="blogcontent restore">Once again I couldn't sleep last night.  I hate sitting there just looking at the ceiling.  So I went to the basement and started getting things prepared for our next game.<br />
<br />
Since I'm running the classic modules A1-A4 (Slavers Series) converted to 4e, I needed some minis that I have not seen mass-produced.  So I got a bit busy.<br />
<br />
These are the modules that were converted to 4e<br />
<a href="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=282&amp;d=1348487006" id="attachment282" rel="Lightbox_71" ><img src="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=282&amp;d=1348487006&amp;thumb=1" border="0" alt="Click image for larger version.&nbsp;

Name:	SlaversCovers.jpg&nbsp;
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<br />
Aspis Warrior - First Attempt - Super Sculpey<br />
<a href="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=272&amp;d=1348452376" id="attachment272" rel="Lightbox_71" ><img src="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=272&amp;d=1348482377&amp;thumb=1" border="0" alt="Click image for larger version.&nbsp;

Name:	Untitled.jpg&nbsp;
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<br />
Aspis Cow &amp; the larval aspis<br />
<a href="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=273&amp;d=1348452520" id="attachment273" rel="Lightbox_71" ><img src="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=273&amp;d=1348482377&amp;thumb=1" border="0" alt="Click image for larger version.&nbsp;

Name:	Untitled.jpg&nbsp;
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<br />
I didn't like how the super sculpey worked for the aspis warrior (broken nose), so I got one of the epoxy based compounds called ProCreate.  I'm still not sold totally on it as it cures too quickly and does not stick to the armature easily, which I need to work on this stuff.  Maybe it is that I'm still not very used to the material or that I have an old batch.  In any case I started on some other sculpts.<br />
<br />
Aspis Warrior 2 - ProCreate Epoxy<br />
<a href="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=275&amp;d=1348453053" id="attachment275" rel="Lightbox_71" ><img src="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=275&amp;d=1348482377&amp;thumb=1" border="0" alt="Click image for larger version.&nbsp;

Name:	Untitled.jpg&nbsp;
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ID:	275" class="thumbnail" style="float:CONFIG" /></a><br />
<br />
Aspis Warrior 3 - ProCreate Epoxy<br />
<a href="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=276&amp;d=1348453154" id="attachment276" rel="Lightbox_71" ><img src="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=276&amp;d=1348482377&amp;thumb=1" border="0" alt="Click image for larger version.&nbsp;

Name:	Untitled.jpg&nbsp;
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ID:	276" class="thumbnail" style="float:CONFIG" /></a><br />
<br />
Aspis head and nose test - ProCreate Epoxy<br />
<a href="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=279&amp;d=1348454300" id="attachment279" rel="Lightbox_71" ><img src="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=279&amp;d=1348482379&amp;thumb=1" border="0" alt="Click image for larger version.&nbsp;

Name:	Untitled.jpg&nbsp;
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ID:	279" class="thumbnail" style="float:CONFIG" /></a><br />
<br />
So I have until next weekend to get those two aspis warriors ready for the game.  I hope I have time, or some more insomnia.<br />
<br />
Sometimes I get the urge to sculpt some interesting monsters.  For example, I've been playing a Ranger with the Fey Beast Tamer theme during our dungeon delve for the Against the Giants series.  For that character the fey beast is a displacer beast.  Well, nobody makes a medium sized displacer beast.  For the past few months I've been using a shadow mastiff miniature for representation.  I got inspired to change that after this past Friday's game.  My character was dominated and the RBDM had me attack my &quot;kitty&quot;.  Needless to say at Paragon level the cat was toast, quickly. He survived, but I felt bad that I had such a poor representation for him.  I've decided that I need a better representation.<br />
<br />
Medium sized displacer beast - wire armature.<br />
<a href="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=277&amp;d=1348453746" id="attachment277" rel="Lightbox_71" ><img src="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=277&amp;d=1348482379&amp;thumb=1" border="0" alt="Click image for larger version.&nbsp;

Name:	Untitled.jpg&nbsp;
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<br />
And here's how it looks with some more detail sculpted on it.<br />
<a href="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=278&amp;d=1348454111" id="attachment278" rel="Lightbox_71" ><img src="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=278&amp;d=1348482379&amp;thumb=1" border="0" alt="Click image for larger version.&nbsp;

Name:	Untitled.jpg&nbsp;
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ID:	278" class="thumbnail" style="float:CONFIG" /></a><br />
<br />
Hopefully I'll have that one completed before that RBDM has me kill my kitty again.<br />
<br />
And here's an old sculpt that I have not had a chance to use yet.  It had lost a &quot;tooth&quot; so I took the time to use the ProCreate to do a root canal.<br />
<br />
Tendriculous - Sculpey &amp; wire armature - Kneadtite Blue/Yellow (green stuff) and ProCreate tooth.<br />
<a href="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=280&amp;d=1348454694" id="attachment280" rel="Lightbox_71" ><img src="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=280&amp;d=1348482379&amp;thumb=1" border="0" alt="Click image for larger version.&nbsp;

Name:	Untitled.jpg&nbsp;
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ID:	280" class="thumbnail" style="float:CONFIG" /></a><br />
<br />
Here are pictures of the inspiration for these sculpts<br />
<a href="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=283&amp;d=1348487836" id="attachment283" rel="Lightbox_71" ><img src="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=283&amp;d=1348487836&amp;thumb=1" border="0" alt="Click image for larger version.&nbsp;

Name:	SculptInspiration.jpg&nbsp;
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ID:	283" class="thumbnail" style="float:CONFIG" /></a><br />
<br />
Now I need to go get some sleep.</blockquote>

]]></content:encoded>
			<dc:creator><![CDATA[D'karr]]></dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?71-More-Insomnia-More-Sculpting</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title>Figmentia attacks - Insomnia Parries</title>
			<link>http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?54-Figmentia-attacks-Insomnia-Parries</link>
			<pubDate>Mon, 19 Dec 2011 01:27:40 GMT</pubDate>
			<description><![CDATA[I've always been a fan of miniatures, even before I bought my first Grenadier Boxed Set in the early 80's. Since then my "collection" has just...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote class="blogcontent restore">I've always been a fan of miniatures, even before I bought my first Grenadier Boxed Set in the early 80's. Since then my &quot;collection&quot; has just continued to grow. Some (my wife) might call it an obsession, though my time being able to do anything with them has continued to diminish. My friends just call it what it is, <a href="http://paintingguide.tripod.com/pp/id8.html" target="_blank">figmentia</a>.  Go ahead look it up, I'll wait.<br />
<br />
So it has been with great despair that in the last couple of months I've had very little time to dedicate to my &quot;stuff&quot;; gaming and miniatures. This has lead to great periods of wackiness, as I can't get my gaming fix. When I don't game I feel like <a href="http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=11888" target="_blank">Tyrone Biggums</a>...  <br />
<br />
But honestly, I can quit whenever I want to... :D<br />
<br />
One of the side effects of figmentia is that you are either painting, or modifying miniatures at all times. Other's minds might think about how great a miniature looks, but in your mind you've already cut off both arms, repositioned them, and sculpted something on top. <br />
<br />
My foray into sculpting has been slow, but fun. It started several years ago when a friend of mine, <a href="http://loremaster.org/member.php/17-Frylock" target="_blank">Frylock</a>, started describing his character during one of our gaming sessions. Since we are such &quot;serious&quot; role-players we immediately concentrated on the description, and renamed him Frolock because of his big <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kid_%27n_Play" target="_blank">Kid-n-Play Afro Hairstyle</a>. Hey, it was his description not mine. <br />
<br />
This description gave me an idea, and several months later I presented him with his own custom made version of Frolock, Afro and all. It was made by converting a Warhammer Wizard, and sculpting a new head, and hair. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of the miniature at the time to demonstrate my newly found sculpting powers.<br />
<br />
Sculpting is fun, but time consuming. So in the last few years I've only really made time to sculpt a few times.<br />
<br />
Like most DMs would do, I quickly turned my new-found powers to &quot;evil.&quot;  The first &quot;monster&quot; I sculpted was used for one of my long running 3.5 campaigns. I needed something creepy for this thing. I had no miniature that would do it justice, so I decided to sculpt it.  In the end only one of my players ever recognized the actual creature. Which meant that the sculpt wasn't so bad as to be completely unrecognizable. See if you can identify this 3.X era monster:<br />
<br />
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/Dkarr/monster.jpg" border="0" alt="" /><br />
<br />
My second sculpt was done as a sculpting challenge on ENWorld (sorry can't find the thread).  A group of us, suffering from figmentia, decided to do a one month challenge in which we'd sculpt something having to do with Wizards.  One of the guys running the challenge was going to cast, in pewter, a copy for each participant's entry, and distribute to all. This was an interesting challenge and my entry was this Warforged Wizard, and a bunch of small wizard laboratory pieces.  The lab pieces were simply too small to gravity cast, so they remained uncast.  The wizard came out well enough that one of my very talented painting friends did it more justice than I would have by painting it.<br />
<br />
<img src="http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/9821/tablestuff1zj.jpg" border="0" alt="" /><br />
<br />
<a href="http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/200/tablestuff0124dr.gif/" target="_blank"><img src="http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/2047/tablestuff0124dr.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />
<br />
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/Dkarr/warforged.jpg" border="0" alt="" /><br />
<br />
Since then my sculpting has been way too sporadic, or limited to very small pieces for conversion. I want to sculpt more, it's that sometimes I just don't feel like it.<br />
<br />
As is usually customary, last night I was up at 3:00AM, don't ask insomnia is a bitch. Without much to do, and not able to go back to sleep, I sauntered in a dreamless stupor into my basement.  Sitting there, beckoning me was a block of Sculpey at my table. For some reason inspiration struck me. I normally don't use Sculpey for sculpting because IME it is much harder to &quot;push putty&quot; using it.  But what I was going to sculpt was large enough that I didn't want to waste &quot;green stuff&quot; on it.  All in all I think it came out pretty well, except for the left eye that simply reminds me of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marty_Feldman" target="_blank">Marty Feldman </a>.  So the next step will be to paint it green and put it in front of my players so they can haphazardly explore the nothingness contained in the mouth.  Let's see how that goes.<br />
<br />
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/Dkarr/demonface.jpg" border="0" alt="" /><br />
<br />
So it's at times like this that insomnia is not such a bad thing. The fact that I barely get 4 hours of sleep on good days means that there are times when it's 3:00AM, I can't get any sleep, and I have an idle mind.  Some have said that an idle mind is the devil's playground.  So I think that from now on when the insomnia strikes, the figmentia will be fed, one way or another.<br />
<br />
I think my next project will be something equally recognizable, a certain idol with large gem eyes.</blockquote>

]]></content:encoded>
			<dc:creator><![CDATA[D'karr]]></dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?54-Figmentia-attacks-Insomnia-Parries</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[My Harkenwold - Stealin', the DM advantage]]></title>
			<link>http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?53-My-Harkenwold-Stealin-the-DM-advantage</link>
			<pubDate>Sun, 06 Nov 2011 18:02:39 GMT</pubDate>
			<description>*The well runs dry* 
There are days when the creative juices are just not flowing. As a DM there are simply days when you run out of ideas. Like...</description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote class="blogcontent restore"><font size="4"><b>The well runs dry</b></font><br />
There are days when the creative juices are just not flowing. As a DM there are simply days when you run out of ideas. Like spice* the ideas must flow, if you are to have a fulfilling game. Thankfully, unless you are publishing your works, you always have a backup - steal from any available sources, profusely.<br />
<br />
Not so long ago I was going through one of those creative slumps. I had a new campaign starting and didn't know where to go with it, specially as the last campaign had ended with a great Epic conclusion. Now the players are starting a new game in a world which their previous characters helped save. This was a daunting task, as some of the information I might have given them earlier is now clashing with my new ideas. So I decided to &quot;move&quot; the campaign to an area none of the players had ever explored. The problem was that I had no such area.<br />
<br />
<font size="4"><b>Larceny to the rescue</b></font><br />
You see, I've been running this home brewed world for a very long time. Baledar started as the world for my Basic D&amp;D game in late 1979. This was way before I'd ever heard anything about &quot;world-building.&quot; The world started as a small village near a river and a swamp. In that swamp was an unnamed city lost in time. That was the extent of my writeup for the first few games. Adventures for the first campaign happened all around this small village of Hoch, as I pulled ideas from any possible source. A lot of the first few adventures where gonzo affairs with all kinds of creatures pulled directly from the monster manual, simply because they looked cool.<br />
<br />
The Keep on the Borderlands and Caves of Chaos were just a few days travel away. As new adventures started to take form, they were always placed in relation to that initial village. The entire campaign saw the players find out about the cult that was building at the &quot;Caves of Chaos&quot;, the players fought the slavers, visited Averoigne and met the Ambervilles, found the Temple of Elemental Evil, and even challenged the giants.<br />
<br />
Over time our &quot;brand&quot; of D&amp;D was a hodge-podge of rules from both the Basic/Expert game and AD&amp;D. We had a psionicist monk (AD&amp;D), played in the same group as a halfling (rogue - D&amp;D), and an elf (fighter/magic user - D&amp;D), a dwarf fighter (AD&amp;D), a human ranger(AD&amp;D), a human fighter(AD&amp;D), and a Human Wizard (AD&amp;D). We didn't care about rules, we just cared about how much fun we were having. We didn't care about being exclusive either, at one time I had 14 players playing at one table, ranging in age from 10 years old to mid 30's. All this with a 16 year old DM.<br />
<br />
Those were very fun times for me, I didn't have to tortuously abide by the rules in a book. If I thought it was cool, and the players were having fun, who cared whether the halfling was now a race, and was supposed to get a class from another book. We played to have fun, not to slave over the details of the rules.<br />
<br />
This taught me one crucial &quot;truth&quot; about this game, if the idea is cool go with it. It really doesn't matter if the idea is your original creation. Plots from Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, Conan the Barbarian, Dune, Star Wars, The Six Million Dollar Man, Marvel Comics, etc., they all found their way into some part of my adventures.<br />
<br />
That original group of players disbanded shortly after I left for college, as there was no longer any time to meet. After having played two days a week for almost 5 years it was very sad to part, but eventually all things must come to an end.<br />
<br />
Decades later, when 3.x rolled around, and I'd found a new group of players I decided to dust off some of those old adventures. Man were they crappy, but for that &quot;old&quot; group they were gold. Comedy gold, but gold nonetheless. To this day we still laugh about some of the adventures, and mishaps of those &quot;original&quot; heroes.<br />
<br />
What I did find of use were some notes about Baledar, the game world. Those were the spark for a new campaign that lasted for almost 9 years. The adventures started with that same small village of Hoch. Near it was the lost city of Tendarra. The Keep on the Borderlands was still about a days travel. The world now had a growing empire, enemies at its borders, and mercantile houses. From these sparse notes grew the new campaign, and at the end the heroes had defeated the usurper god king, opened a gateway to the gods again, and ascended to a form of epic reward themselves.<br />
<br />
<font size="4"><b>What was old is new again</b></font><br />
Now I'm starting a new campaign, and I'm going back to that world. The players for this campaign are mostly the same as for the 3.x campaign so I'm not going to thread on the same ground as before. But for this campaign, the previous campaign is &quot;historical&quot;. I get to &quot;steal&quot; from myself. I will find it interesting when they reach Paragon Level and meet their &quot;old&quot; characters. To keep it fresh, my campaign has to &quot;move&quot; to a different area than before. Though they will eventually visit some of the &quot;old haunts&quot;. I want this campaign to &quot;feel&quot; different. So I'm once again on the prowl for &quot;new ideas&quot;.<br />
<br />
I've always loved maps, and there is a huge swath of maps out there. My campaign needed a new beginning, and I found it in the village of Tharbensford. But Tharbensford is not a &quot;published&quot; setting, and there is no map of the village, or its surrounding area. No problem, take another map and modify it to taste. So was born the village of Tharbensford, the westernmost village in the community known as Harkenwold. This time I'm using resources I didn't have 30 years ago. So with a little bit of &quot;work&quot; in Campaign Cartographer 3, here's the community of Harkenwold, and the village of Tharbensford on it's western border. The original map of Harkenwold is from the 4e Dungeon Master's Kit. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/Dkarr/maps/Tharbensford_mod.png" target="_blank"><img src="http://loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=164&amp;d=1320523498&amp;thumb=1&amp;stc=1" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />
<br />
It took me a bit of time to &quot;convert&quot; the map, but in 20 minutes I came up with a short writeup of notable NPCs, and a short list of adventures in the Harken Forest are just around the corner.<br />
<br />
<font size="4"><b>Find inspiration wherever </b></font><br />
If as a DM, you ever feel the pressure to come up with original ideas, that is simply self imposed stress. Your players will most likely not know the difference when you file off the serial numbers of last week's episode of CSI, and use it as the basis for your game.<br />
<br />
A month ago, the player characters all perished in the initial adventure of the campaign. So much for the myth that there are few, if ever any, deaths in 4e. This past month, the new characters were sent on an adventure to find a lost paladin. They arrived at the location. Fought the creatures, and recovered the paladin who was about to die at a sacrificial altar. As they were fighting the opposition they mentioned that this was familiar in a weird sort of way. When they finally recovered the paladin they were surprised to find one of the PCs from the first expedition (the TPK). It finally hit them that they had been fighting the exact same creatures as on the first adventure. The locale was the same, the setup was the same, the travel to the place was pretty similar, and they never knew.<br />
<br />
So much for the myth that gamers are of above average intelligence. :p</blockquote>


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			<dc:creator><![CDATA[D'karr]]></dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?53-My-Harkenwold-Stealin-the-DM-advantage</guid>
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			<title>Legolas was a warlord</title>
			<link>http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?46-Legolas-was-a-warlord</link>
			<pubDate>Sun, 23 Oct 2011 02:01:30 GMT</pubDate>
			<description><![CDATA[*More thoughts on Extended Rests* 
I think that in my previous writings (http://loremaster.org/entry.php/43-Look-Ma-no-wounds-%28Part-1%29) I've been...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote class="blogcontent restore"><font size="4"><b>More thoughts on Extended Rests</b></font><br />
I think that in <a href="http://loremaster.org/entry.php/43-Look-Ma-no-wounds-%28Part-1%29" target="_blank">my previous writings</a> I've been quite clear about my opinions on the nature of healing surges, and ways to make the game mechanics better fit your &quot;narrative&quot; space. I've included examples of how to make recovery harder, or easier depending on your mood and the needs of your game.<br />
<br />
After some consideration I started thinking about why some of the mechanics don't seem to fit, or are inadequate for the &quot;narrative&quot; space that DMs and players might use. I usually don't have a problem modifying to meet my needs, but I'm a pretty laid back gamer too. The main disconnect is that each group of gamers wants a different thing from the Fantasy RPG (FRPG). No game is ever going to fit ALL these needs. Some become &quot;irrational&quot;, and I'm being hyperbolic here, when the game doesn't fit their needs. Even though some other game might fit their needs better, they instead want a particular game to provide for their experience right out of the box, even if it is not the right fit. This way lies madness, but such is the way of the internet, and Veruca Salt.<br />
<br />
To avoid confusion I will define in very general terms what I perceive to be the main purpose of an FRPG. That way all my discussions are framed within that context. <div class="bbcode_container">
	<div class="bbcode_quote">
		<div class="quote_container">
			<div class="bbcode_quote_container"></div>
			
				The primary purpose of the FRPG is to provide an entertaining way for imaginary characters to go &quot;adventuring&quot;.
			
		</div>
	</div>
</div> If your definition of the primary purpose of the FRPG is significantly different from mine then most of what I write will make no sense, or will probably clash with your needs. In that case the context of what I write is not for you. However, if that context seems to jive with your needs from the game then maybe I can offer some additional insights.<br />
<br />
Some of the complaints leveled at 4e are that it does not provide a mechanical way of representing &quot;serious wounds&quot;. I've already addressed that in previous writings, and have even provided multiple &quot;mechanical&quot; ways for DMs to do so if they choose. There is a pretty strong game reason why those things are not something the game provides out of the box. They interfere with the primary purpose of the FRPG, which is to go adventuring, not spend your time on bed rest.<br />
<br />
Since the game focuses on adventuring, not on the minutea of recovery, there's a clash with the expectations of some DMs as to the replenishment of adventuring resources. Let's make this clear, healing surges, and hit points are adventuring resources, not just health resources as the name might imply. Some would argue that their narrative is being impacted by the &quot;rules&quot;, because ALL Healing Surges and ALL Daily powers are replenished after an extended rest. I would argue that this is an artificial limit placed by the DM on the narrative and the mechanics, not something that the game does on its own. Because the game is &quot;mute&quot; in that area. All areas of narrative are pretty much left to the DM and players to &quot;invent.&quot; <br />
<br />
If the game has &quot;rules&quot; that don't fit your narrative then change the rules, or drop them. Don't be a slave to the rules. I like to take a page from the musings of Tom Moldvay - &quot;In a sense, the D&amp;D game has no rules, only rule suggestions.&quot; However, I recognize that these particular rules are somewhat intrinsic to the game. So dropping them is not an attractive option. Then let's look at how the narrative, or the rules clash and see how we can make this work.<br />
<br />
<b><font size="4">EXTENDED RESTS, WHY?</font></b><br />
One of the design goals of 4e was to reduce the need to stop adventuring each time the magic-casters ran out of spells. To that end the game provided more varied resources that could be replenished for each encounter. If the DM and players wanted, they could continue using just encounter powers, and at-will powers indefinitely. However, the game also &quot;recognizes&quot; that at some point the characters should rest. So the resource that now &quot;forces&quot; you to stop adventuring is healing surges. When you are low on them you recognize that it's time to hunker for the night. Previously, I have already shown several way to &quot;simulate&quot; short term and long term wounds. Though the idea might seem attractive, the side effect is that you start losing adventuring resources. Exactly the opposite effect you would want if you keep in mind the primary purpose of the FRPG. So the reason for FULL replenishment after an extended rest is specifically tied to the main purpose of the FRPG, to continue adventuring.<br />
<br />
<b>So why does the narrative clash?</b><br />
It seems to me like a matter of perspective. I'll give an example to try to demonstrate.<br />
<br />
In the way to your destination you encounter the enemy and engage in a heated battle. He is overrunning you, and their forces are decimating your allies. You spend quite a bit of your encounter powers and even some of your dailies. You are badly wounded, then something happens and you are completely taken out of the battle (HP Loss). You are unconscious and dying (0 HP) and you are even removed from the field of battle by circumstances. Now your friends don't even have a clue of where you are, and left on your own you will probably die. But you are a hero, the hand of fate intervenes and you recover enough (roll a 20 on death save) to get back up. Battered and bruised (spent healing surges) you make your way to your comrades position. You spend some time assisting with the defenses at their station. With some bandaging of your wounds, and only a few hours of &quot;rest&quot; (extended rest - FULL RESOURCES) you don your armor, and are once again ready to face the onslaught that is the main forces of the enemy.<br />
<br />
Some say that narrative clashes. How can someone that was &quot;dead&quot; a few hours ago now be ready, with just a few hours of rest, to take on the onslaught of the enemy?  Because he is a hero, I say. Let's take the same situation and put it into &quot;narrative&quot; context.<br />
<br />
You are headed to Helm's Deep when you encounter a force of worg riders. You engage them in a heated battle. Their forces are overrunning you, and decimating your allies. In the battle you spend quite a bit of your encounter powers and even some of your dailies. In the heat of battle you are badly wounded. Your arm is caught on the bridle of a worg and he careens off a cliff knocking you unconscious in the fall. Now your friends don't have a clue of where you are, and left on your own you will probably die. But you are Aragorn, the hand of fate intervenes and you recover enough to get back up. Battered and bruised you ride your horse to Helm's Deep and your comrades. Legolas, your friend, meets you in the keep. He teases you about being late, and comments that you &quot;look terrible&quot;, which inspires you(LEGOLAS WAS A WARLORD). After tending to the defenses of the keep, you take a rest, don your armor, ready for the onslaught of the enemy forces.<br />
<br />
If Aragorn had to spend a week recovering because he went to 0 HP or lower, how is that assisting the narrative?  If &quot;magic&quot; is the answer, how does the narrative advance if magic is not common in your world? If you don't like extended rests replenishing adventuring resources what would you like to use?  How would you pace if the PCs get the crap beat out of them first thing in the day?<br />
<br />
So there is no clash, except the one you choose to create for yourself. What some call rules inconsistencies I view as opportunities to extend the narrative. Hit Points have always been defined as this &quot;weird&quot; mix of physical and metaphysical reserves. 4e is the first D&amp;D system to actually treat them as such, and provides mechanical ways of healing both, therefore supporting the definition. When a warlord inspires you, he can be restoring your metaphysical reserves. Just like a sergeant yells at the private that has just been knocked on his ass with a wound and tells him, &quot;come on, do you want to live forever?&quot; Inspiring him to great deeds of heroism. When you dig deep inside to see what you're made of, you &quot;second wind&quot; and are able to reach those reserves of &quot;guts.&quot; Is &quot;magic&quot; necessary for any of that? IMO the answer is no. The characters are heroes, they have reserves of guts that normal human beings can't comprehend. When the Cleric is using his Healing Word, the magic of his divine avatar might be actually closing your physical wounds. When the Warlord uses his Inspiring Word and tells you, &quot;If you're not a hero, then go home&quot;, he is challenging you to dig deep and give another measure of heroism, he &quot;closes&quot; the metaphysical wounds.<br />
<br />
The real wear and tear you are taking is accounted for with healing surges you spend. If you, as the DM, want to say that a wound is physical go ahead. But what prevents you from saying that during a short, or extended rest the characters are cleaning, bandaging and treating their wounds?  Therefore, making the negative effects of the wound not affect their main purpose, adventuring. Those that complain that 4e limits the narrative usually fail to extend the narrative to cover the treatment of the wounds after the fact. No wonder the narrative clashes.<br />
<br />
<b><font size="4">Did you feel that shock and awe</font></b><br />
Did you know that the majority of soldiers killed in battle do not die from their wounds, but from shock? The treatment for shock usually means that someone is reassuring that person and making them feel comfortable, inspiring them to keep their bodies functioning. Most medal of honor recipients received their medal posthumously, their deeds of heroism in the face of overwhelming odds, and wounds that would have killed &quot;lesser&quot; men are &quot;epic&quot; in the telling. Some of them lived, and fought, for many hours and even days before finally dying. Most living medal of honor recipients note that they kept fighting because of their comrades and their duty. Determination won the day, without one bit of &quot;magic&quot;. Keep that in mind next time warlord healing seems &quot;unrealistic.&quot;</blockquote>

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			<dc:creator><![CDATA[D'karr]]></dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?46-Legolas-was-a-warlord</guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[Look Ma' no wounds (Part 3)]]></title>
			<link>http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?45-Look-Ma-no-wounds-(Part-3)</link>
			<pubDate>Fri, 21 Oct 2011 16:43:01 GMT</pubDate>
			<description><![CDATA[* 
Serious injury in D&D* 
 
In part one I discussed some of the "historical" game basis for wound recuperation.  Part two continued the discussion...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote class="blogcontent restore"><b><br />
<font size="4">Serious injury in D&amp;D</font></b><br />
<br />
In part one I discussed some of the &quot;historical&quot; game basis for wound recuperation.  Part two continued the discussion and how to make the healing surge mechanic more palatable for those that have issues with it.  This article will cover how to actually sustain serious injury in 4th edition D&amp;D. Several methods will be discussed to expand the &quot;injury&quot; design space of the game, and make recuperation times more &quot;like the past&quot;. I say &quot;like the past&quot; because I hate the use of the word &quot;realistic&quot; to handle anything in a fantasy milieu, specially when the past didn't handle anything more &quot;realistically&quot; either.  What I will discuss here is designed for long term campaign play and probably inappropriate for one-shot games or even short adventures, though it is easily incorporated.<br />
<br />
A word of caution is appropriate here.  There is a very good reason why the game was already moving away from long term recuperation. If you recall 1e had a very long recovery time.  So long that most game tables were completely ignoring the &quot;rules&quot; for it.  3.x had moved away from any penalties and was already making long term injury a thing of the past, by making magic cheaply available.  There are repercussions when you &quot;fiddle&quot; with the resources that a character will have to go adventuring.  Those repercussions might inject more &quot;realism&quot; into your game but you will pay with less flexibility of outcomes.  In addition, you will pay with more &quot;paperwork&quot;.  Each player or the DM will have to manage one or more resources to inject wounding into the game.<br />
<br />
<b><font size="4">Pay me now, or pay me later</font></b><br />
Healing surges are a daily resource that allows a player to manage the level of risk his character will take in a given day.  In 1e and 3.x the resource was spells from the wizard or cleric, when you were running low on those you knew it was time to start looking for a campsite.  In 4e the resources are healing surges and daily powers.  Daily powers determine the amount of kick you will have in an encounter, healing surges determine if you will even survive the encounter.<br />
<br />
As I mentioned in the first article, D&amp;D has never had a death spiral mechanic per se.  You are either combat ready (1+ hit points) and able to kick ass, or you are not (0 and lower hit points).  There is never a penalty to your combat readiness if you were injured in the same fight, or even the previous fight.  As long as you have at least one hit point you can kick ass.  I'm not going to introduce a death spiral mechanic into the game, as I believe it really does not make the game any better, all it does is add more mechanics for the sake of mechanics.  However, there are consequences to getting injured in fights.  He who has the last hit point wins, and you can't do that indefinitely if you continually deplete your healing surges.  A combat at the beginning of the day might be a piece of cake because you have all your resources.  What would happen if you did not begin the day with your full complement of resources because you were injured the previous day?  The adventures start taking a different challenge flavor when you already begin the day injured.  Usually you can't go as long as you thought.<br />
<br />
This is the challenge and danger of messing with the healing surge mechanic, your adventuring day can turn out to be very short indeed, but you are forewarned.<br />
<br />
<font size="4"><b>Kick them when they're up, kick them when they're down</b></font><br />
Imagine if you will a combat that is hard fought, but inconsequential.  Your group of adventurers dispatched the opposition handily and with little injury to themselves, no one was even dropped to bloodied value.  In this case nothing changes.  After an extended rest your group recovers all their healing surges as normal and life goes on.<br />
<br />
The next combat doesn't go as smoothly as planned.  Half your group is bloodied at some point during the combat, and your striker went down into negatives, not once but twice.  This combat was definitely a challenge and you have the scars to account for it.  After an extended rest your group recovers all their healing surges but your striker is having some aches and pains from the previous day.  He is showing some signs of wear and has a chance of not recovering all his healing surges.<br />
<br />
The next combat is brutal, you encounter a force that is much stronger than you initially thought, and their reinforcements caught you unawares.  Your entire party was at least bloodied, the striker went down again, this time failing 2 death saves before being stabilized and the defender went down and failed one death save.  The leader went down but was brought back before he failed any saves.  After a well deserved extended rest your group is a little worse for wear.  The defender does not recover one of his healing surges, the leader failed to recover one of his, and the striker does not recover 2 of his.  It is very possible that today is a good day to head back to town.<br />
<br />
What I've narratively described above is a system that I've used to simulate <b><i>short term injuries</i></b> attributed to aches and pains, etc.  This &quot;system&quot; changes the availability of the healing surge from a Daily resource to an adventure resource, <b>use with caution</b>.<br />
<br />
The system is rather simple but requires some paperwork overhead.  The DM, or player will be keeping track of two additional resources Wounds, and Injuries.  On any combat that a character goes into negative hit point territory he receives a <b>wound</b>.  Wounds represent a chance of not recovering healing surges after the next extended rest.  To determine if a character does not recover a healing surge, after the next extended rest, make a Hard DC Endurance check using the level of the encounter as a base target DC.  For example, creatures in a 2nd level encounter drop a character into negative hit points once, but he does not fail any death saves.  He receives one wound, and will have to make one DC 20 (hard 2nd level challenge DC) Endurance check, after his next extended rest, to not lose a surge.  If he went down twice in the encounters but did not fail a save he will receive 2 wounds and would have to make 2 checks.<br />
<br />
The endurance check can be assisted by up to 2 other characters that are trained in HEAL, the DM should also assign modifiers as he sees fit.  +2 modifier for keeping a clean wound, -2 penalty for being in filth, etc.  Get as creative as you'd like.<br />
<br />
If on the other hand he fails a death save, he receives an <b>Injury</b>.  Injuries represent a wound that cannot be recovered.  The character will not recover as many healing surges as saves he failed (injuries received).  Fail one, don't recover one.  Fail two, don't recover two.  Of course, if you fail three in a row without a rest you will be dead so usually you will only lose 2, but if you fail 2 in combat 1, and fail 1 in combat 3, you will not recover 3 healing surges.<br />
<br />
One day of FULL REST (no activity) replenishes all lost healing surges due to wounds or injuries.<br />
<br />
This can get brutal rather quickly because the longer you adventure the greater the chance of getting dropped.<br />
<br />
You can modify the system to be easier or harder as you see fit.  Change the DC to moderate rather than hard to make it easier.  Increase the number of checks to make it harder.  Only make a check when you fail saves instead of when you get dropped to negative HP to make it easier.  Have everyone that goes bloodied make moderate checks to go harder.  Increase the number of days of FULL REST needed to fully recover to make harder.  Tweak the system until you are satisfied.<br />
<br />
I've used this system twice and it worked well for the desired intent, but as I mentioned one of the side effects is that your adventuring day can get much shorter the longer the characters adventure.  So I use it very sparingly now, limiting its use to major battles.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=155&amp;d=1319213733" id="attachment155" rel="Lightbox_45" ><img src="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=155&amp;d=1348482371&amp;thumb=1" border="0" alt="Click image for larger version.&nbsp;

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ID:	155" class="thumbnail" style="float:CONFIG" /></a><b><font size="4"> Why won't you die?</font></b> - Austin Powers<br />
<br />
Some sadistic bastards will also want to include a way of &quot;simulating&quot; <b>long term injuries</b>.  This was handled completely by DM fiat in previous edition, which would still be my preferred method if I was to do something like this.  Unfortunately some need rules for everything so here you go.  Fortunately for you RBDMs, 4e introduced a very good mechanic to use in these cases, diseases.<br />
<br />
The following system presents a way to represent long term injuries, such as broken limbs, dislocated shoulders, broken ribs, concussions and worse.  I will present 3 entries and include a document you can use to expand this for your own sadistic campaign.<br />
<br />
<b><font size="4">LONG TERM INJURY</font></b><br />
When a creature is exposed to an Injury as described in the RBDM manual they risk a long term injury.  Injuries of this type work exactly as diseases see DMG pg.49.  One thing you might want to do is to have everyone cured after 4 weeks of rest.  Why 4 weeks? Because that is what 1e did and I'd like my system to be at least as arbitrary as that one.<br />
<br />
<b><font size="4">Example Long Term Injuries</font></b><br />
<a href="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=152&amp;d=1319213590" id="attachment152" rel="Lightbox_45" ><img src="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=152&amp;d=1348482371&amp;thumb=1" border="0" alt="Click image for larger version.&nbsp;

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<br />
<a href="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=153&amp;d=1319213619" id="attachment153" rel="Lightbox_45" ><img src="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=153&amp;d=1348482371&amp;thumb=1" border="0" alt="Click image for larger version.&nbsp;

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<br />
<a href="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=154&amp;d=1319213646" id="attachment154" rel="Lightbox_45" ><img src="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=154&amp;d=1348482371&amp;thumb=1" border="0" alt="Click image for larger version.&nbsp;

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<br />
<b><font size="4">Conclusion</font></b><br />
I have presented in this series several ways to tweak the system to represent short term, and long term lasting injuries.  Sometimes you want to pull the stops and go full hog with things like this, I'd advise against it.  As a matter of fact I'd go very easy with any of this system.  Even though you might want to challenge your characters, any system that inherently screws with the characters chances of defeating encounters will eventually become a drag on the game.  Think carefully about the repercussions, long term injuries are simply designed to sideline the characters.  I'm sure that most of your players would rather have their characters immersed in the action than spending time on bed rest.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=156&amp;d=1319214884"  title="Name:  LongTermInjuriesTemplate.zip
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			<dc:creator><![CDATA[D'karr]]></dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?45-Look-Ma-no-wounds-(Part-3)</guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[Look Ma' no wounds (Part 2)]]></title>
			<link>http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?44-Look-Ma-no-wounds-(Part-2)</link>
			<pubDate>Fri, 21 Oct 2011 00:07:48 GMT</pubDate>
			<description><![CDATA[* 
Serious injury in D&D* 
 
In part one I discussed some of the "historical" game basis for the discontent with the healing mechanics of 4th Edition...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote class="blogcontent restore"><b><br />
<font size="4">Serious injury in D&amp;D</font></b><br />
<br />
In part one I discussed some of the &quot;historical&quot; game basis for the discontent with the healing mechanics of 4th Edition D&amp;D.  In this part I'm going to continue showing some of the historical background for the issue, and cover what can be done to &quot;improve&quot; those mechanics and make them &quot;better&quot;.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://loremaster.org/entry.php/43-Look-Ma-no-wounds-%28Part-1%29" target="_blank">Click here if you prefer your character to spend his time recuperating rather than kicking ass and taking names. (previous article)</a></b><br />
<br />
As discussed previously 1e D&amp;D had a very draconian recuperation mechanic, and any substantial healing was entirely left to magic.  This made recuperation an issue that was entirely handled by the DM, as he was the source of any magical items, etc.<br />
<br />
Third edition went in a similar direction but started to change the recuperation paradigm and eliminating the long wait times. First by removing the &quot;penalties&quot; of going into negative hit points (3.5 PHB p.145-146).  Second by making natural healing, after stabilization, easier.  Every day after an 8 hour rest you could naturally recover hit points equal to your level (3.5 PHB p. 146). Third by making magical healing extremely commonplace.  Healing Potions and wands of cure light wounds were the healers kit of this edition.  In reality what 3.x did was shift the burden of healing from a time resource into a financial one, or one of having the right class in your party (cleric/druid/bard).  If you could afford the magic you had no penalties for getting whooped in combat, or the cleric could spend all of his spells after every rest to recover everyone.  BTW, if you had no stabilization from outside forces you were pretty much guaranteed to die.<br />
<br />
These solutions might seem to promote a more &quot;realistic&quot; game.  Unfortunately, they are just as arbitrary as saying that you need to spend 10-60 minutes in a coma after getting to positive hit points, and a minimum of 7 adventuring days (a week) out of commission.  The solutions in 3.x were put in place to make the game play &quot;better&quot;.  But &quot;better&quot; is a value judgement that can only be made by the players.  Essentially they were put in place to keep the players playing, instead of wasting time recuperating.<br />
<br />
Healing became a speed bump, and by 5th level not even a significant one.  The only way to make recuperation times &quot;realistic&quot; was to restrict access to potions and &quot;heal sticks&quot;. These resources were so cheap that not allowing them always seemed like a strained solution. Even though the paradigm was starting to shift you pretty much still needed a cleric in the party.  As healing was mostly a divine caster exclusive ability.<br />
<br />
<font size="4"><b>Enter the Warlord</b></font><br />
One of the significant changes brought forth by 4th edition was discarding the dependency on magic for healing.  No longer was healing something that only the cleric could do or that could be only achieved by spending money on magical items. This change opened up an entire spectrum of classes that did not require magic to &quot;heal&quot; their comrades.  However, the game did not go to the same lengths to decouple hit points from physical and metaphysical damage, which still created some problems.<br />
<br />
One thing that 4th edition really pushed is the abstract nature of Hit Points, putting it at the forefront.  The description in the PHB, still uses the &quot;classic&quot; definition of Hit Points, but the healing paradigm forces them to be almost completely abstract.  Unsuccessfully, I might add or I wouldn't be writing this.<br />
<br />
Where this  becomes &quot;problematic&quot; is in the &quot;healing&quot; of the &quot;physical&quot; aspects of the &quot;wounds&quot;.  Do wounds all of a sudden close up because the Warlord gave you a pep talk?  No of course not, but the problem is more in the narrative getting to the wound. We are still crowding the hit point &quot;game space&quot; with a dual purpose and it is still not working appropriately.<br />
<br />
So what can be done?<br />
<br />
<font size="4"><b>Semantics</b></font><br />
<b>The problem is not what you say, but how you say it</b><br />
Healing, healing, healing....  One of the problems stems from what WotC decided to call their &quot;healing&quot; mechanic.<br />
<br />
Your DM narrative about wounds can be entirely clashing with  the mechanics.  If I describe the hit that took you down as one that  ripped into your side and broke your ribs, it's kind of hard to get you  to &quot;heal&quot; because the warlord said, &quot;get up you bum, do you want to live  forever?&quot; This is where the pedantic in me comes out, remember  when I mentioned that in 1e the recuperation time did not seem to take  into account the &quot;metaphysical&quot; damage.  In this case the warlord's  inspiring words can be completely accounted for as &quot;healing&quot; your &quot;metaphysical&quot; hit points and since these all come from the same pool, there is no &quot;real&quot; dissonance except the one we want to make for ourselves.  Your physical wounds are not being healed, you're just getting a shot of &quot;chutzpah&quot; to propel you to bigger and better things.<br />
<br />
The real problem that causes a clash is the semantics of <b><i>healing</i></b>.  If instead of <b>Healing</b> Surges they had decided to call them &quot;Visceral Reserves&quot;, or &quot;guts&quot;, or &quot;candy-stripes&quot; the majority of &quot;suspension of disbelief&quot; problems go away.  Because &quot;healing&quot; has a language value that means restoring health, the &quot;game terms&quot; are colliding with the &quot;language terms&quot; and this creates a dissonance that is displeasing to some.  Because if you got &quot;hit&quot; and there is no real physical damage, then what is there to &quot;heal&quot;?<br />
<br />
<font size="4"><b>It's only words</b></font><br />
Because the semantics are causing the most heartache, let's try an example by changing a few things.  Any mention of &quot;Healing Surge&quot; will be called a &quot;Visceral Reserve&quot;, any mention of healing will be called a recovery or restore, and any mention of unconscious will be called &quot;out of it&quot; and you are simply drifting in and out of consciousness.  We will also remove the &quot;unaware of surrounding&quot; from the unconscious condition.  If you want to allow Magical Healing to be &quot;different&quot; then any mention of healing from magical means is not a RECOVERY but a HEALING keyword and remains just the same.<br />
<br />
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				<b>CONDITIONS</b><br />
OUT OF IT (formerly unconscious)<br />
While a creature is OUT OF IT, it is helpless and drifting in and out of consciousness, it can’t take actions, and it takes a -5 penalty to all defenses. It also can’t flank. When a creature is subjected to this condition, it falls prone, if possible. See also helpless and prone.<br />
<br />
POSSIBLY DYING (formerly dying)<br />
When your hit points drop to 0 or fewer, you are OUT OF IT, you are drifting in and out of consciousness and are POSSIBLY DYING. Any additional damage you take continues to reduce your current hit point total until your character dies.<br />
<br />
Death Saving Throw<br />
When you are POSSIBLY DYING, you need to make a saving throw at the end of your turn each round. The result of your saving throw determines how close you are to death.<br />
Lower than 10: You slip one step closer to death. If you get this result three times before you take a rest, you die.<br />
10–19: No change.<br />
20 or higher: Spend a visceral reserve. When you do so, you are considered to have 0 hit points, and then your visceral reserve restores hit points as normal. You are no longer possibly dying, and you are conscious but still prone. If you roll 20 or higher but have no visceral reserves, your condition doesn’t change.<br />
<br />
Death: When you take damage that reduces your current hit points to your bloodied value expressed as a negative number, your character dies.<br />
<br />
<b>POWERS</b><br />
<b>Inspiring Word</b><br />
<i>You call out to a wounded ally and offer inspiring words of courage and determination that invigorates your comrade.</i><br />
Encounter (Special)        RECOVERY, Martial<br />
Effect: The target can spend a visceral reserve and regain 1d6 additional hit points.<br />
<br />
<b>Majestic Word</b><br />
<i>You utter words laden with preternatural inspiration, restoring your ally’s stamina and making wounds seem insignificant.</i><br />
Encounter (Special)        Arcane, RECOVERY<br />
Effect: The target can spend a visceral reserve and regain additional hit points equal to your Charisma modifier. You also slide the target 1 square.<br />
<br />
<b>Healing Word</b><br />
<i>You utter a soothing word that mends wounds of the body and spirit.<br />
</i>Encounter (Special) HEALING<br />
Effect: The target can spend a visceral reserve and regain 1d6 additional hit points.<br />
<br />
<b>ITEMS</b><br />
Potion of RECOVERY (formerly potion of healing)<br />
<i>This simple potion draws on the body's natural RECOVERY ability to cure your wounds.</i><br />
Power (RECOVERY) Consumable (Minor Action)<br />
Drink this potion and spend a visceral reserve. Instead of the hit points you would normally regain, you regain 10 hit points.
			
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	</div>
</div>By those very simple semantic changes the &quot;healing&quot; issues start to dissolve away.  Because we are not calling it HEALING, which has somehow become a loaded word.<br />
<br />
Don't get me wrong, as I've mentioned throughout, I understand where people are having a cow about healing surges.  I don't particularly agree, but I understand the discontent. <br />
<br />
 In previous editions only MAGICAL healing would allow you to recuperate at an &quot;accelerated&quot; rate, but as I've already demonstrated 1e had a very &quot;draconian&quot; recovery.  So much so, that I remember specifically doing away with those type of recovery times for my games.  I found that having the heroes involved in the game seemed to be better than having them on bed rest.  3.x made it a game of finances.  You could completely remove the challenge by simply using the cheap magic.  4e finally gave us something that does not REQUIRE magic and can work.  Unfortunately it used the wrong words, and confused the issue.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://loremaster.org/entry.php/45-Look-Ma-no-wounds-%28Part-3%29" target="_blank">Click here if you prefer your character to get kicked in the shins. (next  article)</a></b></blockquote>

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			<dc:creator><![CDATA[D'karr]]></dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?44-Look-Ma-no-wounds-(Part-2)</guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[Look Ma' no wounds (Part 1)]]></title>
			<link>http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?43-Look-Ma-no-wounds-(Part-1)</link>
			<pubDate>Fri, 21 Oct 2011 00:07:18 GMT</pubDate>
			<description><![CDATA[* 
Serious injury in D&D* 
 
*It's only make believe* 
For a game that is supposed to be based on the imagination, I find it fascinating that some...]]></description>
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<font size="4">Serious injury in D&amp;D</font></b><br />
<br />
<b>It's only make believe</b><br />
For a game that is supposed to be based on the imagination, I find it fascinating that some people don't seem capable of getting their heads wrapped around the concept, design space, and implementation of Healing Surges in D&amp;D.  Even though I can't agree with the &quot;lack of vision&quot;, and sometimes the obtuseness of the arguments about this topic, I can somewhat empathize.  For some the Healing Surge mechanic simply breaks their suspension of disbelief.  And suspension of disbelief is something crucial when you are sitting in a game room with your friends, pretending to slay dragons while being wizards, warriors, elves, dwarves and halflings.<br />
<br />
Let's face it, nothing says, &quot;that is not possible&quot; or breaks the suspension of disbelief more than to have the dragonborn warlord yelling at your character to &quot;suck it up, and get up&quot; as a form of inspiration when you're character has been &quot;wounded&quot;.  If he does that when you have been dropped into negative hit point territory that is a complete abomination...  I know, I'm being facetious but some of the claims seem absurd to me, though I understand completely where they are coming from.<br />
<br />
<font size="4"><b>Why we &quot;simulate&quot;</b></font><br />
<b>To simulate or abstract, that is the question</b><br />
Though D&amp;D is a role-playing game, from the very beginning it has always provided a way to &quot;simulate&quot; <i><b>heroic</b></i> combat between the protagonists (the PCs), and the antagonists (the NPCs and monsters).  Whether that &quot;simulation&quot; is adequate or not is not the purpose of this article.  But I think most would agree that &quot;simulating&quot; anything as chaotic as combat is really a tall order.  However, the game has always made it manageable by simply abstracting combat to a very high degree, and allowing the DM to inject his particular level of &quot;realism&quot; as needed.  If D&amp;D combat was a &quot;realistic&quot; combat simulation the combat system would probably have been designed very differently.  Armor would reduce damage rather than preventing you from being &quot;hit&quot;, and other &quot;realistic&quot; nuances would have to be designed around the combat system.  But it is not realistic, it is abstracted to simulate &quot;heroic&quot; events.  Heroes do extraordinary things.  So the game has to &quot;simulate&quot; extraordinary circumstances.  Sometimes you would be hard pressed to do that with a &quot;realistic&quot; system.  So at least let's agree that combat in D&amp;D is very <i><b>abstracted</b></i> to simply create a way of determining who won in a fight.<br />
<br />
<b>I &quot;Hit&quot; you. No you didn't.</b><br />
For better of worse due to this level of abstraction, D&amp;D combat has always had a binary measure of combat effectiveness.   Until you are dead, you are at full combat effectiveness.  D&amp;D has never tried to &quot;simulate&quot; a death spiral in which getting &quot;wounded&quot; made you less capable to continue fighting.  As long as you are in positive Hit Point territory, all your capabilities for kicking ass are at full.<br />
<br />
So the &quot;Hit Point&quot;, has always been an abstract measure of &quot;kick ass potential&quot;.  In a war of attrition, which Hit Point damage clearly is, the one with the last hit point wins.  Hit points serve the purpose of &quot;ablative armor&quot;.  The more you have the more you can sustain combat.  If you have a lot of Hit Points you can sustain combat effectiveness for a lot longer.  Meaning that you have a greater chance of depleting the Hit Points of the opponent before he depletes yours.<br />
<br />
The &quot;problem&quot; is that Hit Points have NEVER &quot;simulated&quot; actual wounds very well.  However DMs have been trying to fit that square peg into the round hole for a very long time.  So the DM has made a &quot;narrative&quot; change to his game to account for actual physical wounding.  <br />
<br />
It also doesn't help that even the &quot;source&quot; materials attempts to do &quot;too much&quot; with one solitary resource. <br />
<br />
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					<img src="images/misc/quote_icon.png" alt="Quote" /> Originally Posted by <strong>1e DMG pg. 82</strong>
					
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				<div class="message"><b>Hit points</b><br />
It is quite unreasonable to assume that as a character gains levels of ability in his or her class that a corresponding gain in actual ability to sustain physical damage takes place.  It is preposterous to state such an assumption, for if we are to assume that a man is killed by a sword thrust which does 4 hit points of damage, we must similarly assume that a hero could, on the average, withstand five such thrusts before being slain!  Why then the increase in hit points?  Because these reflect both <b>actual</b> physical ability of the character to withstand damage - as indicated by constitutions bonuses - and a commensurate increase in such areas as skill in combat and similar life-or-death situations, the &quot;sixth sense&quot; which warns the individual of some otherwise unforeseen events, sheer luck, and the fantastic provisions of magical protections and/or divine protection.  Therefore, constitution affects both actual ability to withstand physical punishment hit points (physique) and the immeasurable areas which involve the sixth sense and luck (fitness)...<br />
<br />
... Beyond the basic physical damage sustained, hits scored upon a character do not actually actually do such and amount of <b><i>physical damage</i></b>.</div>
			
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</div>That right there is a mouthful but it starts to put into perspective the crux of the problem.  Hit points are being given dual purpose within one resource.  This makes differentiating between an actual physical wound (cut, bruise, abrasion), and a purely metaphysical wound (luck) a matter of great confusion.  In addition, how are we to determine what percentage of the wounds are actual hits that do physical damage, when the situation is further exacerbated by the rules for recovery of hit points?<br />
<br />
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					<img src="images/misc/quote_icon.png" alt="Quote" /> Originally Posted by <strong>1e DMG pg. 82</strong>
					
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				<div class="message"><b>Recovery of Hit Points:</b><br />
When a character loses hit points in combat or to some other attack form (other than being drained of life energy levels), there are a number of different means by which such points can be restored.  Clerics and paladins are able to restore such losses by means of spells of innate abilities.  Magical devices such as potions operate much the same way, and a ring of regeneration will cause automatic healing and revitalization in general of its wearer.  Commonly it is necessary to resort to the passage of time, however, to restore many characters to full hit point strength....<br />
<br />
...Regardless of the number of hit points a character has, 4 weeks of continuous rest will restore any character to full strength.</div>
			
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	</div>
</div>Why the 4 week cap on healing?  Maybe because being out of the action (playing) for over 4 adventuring weeks was boring?<br />
<br />
In addition actual long term physical injuries are only sustained if you get into negative hit point territory.  And even those don't diminish your ability to continue fighting.  If you later decide to go adventuring.<br />
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					<img src="images/misc/quote_icon.png" alt="Quote" /> Originally Posted by <strong>1e DMG pg. 82</strong>
					
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				<div class="message"><b>Zero Hit Points:</b><br />
When any creature is brought to 0 hit points (optionally as low as -3 hit points if from the same blow which brought the total to 0), it is unconscious.  In each of the next succeeding rounds 1 additional (negative) point will be lost until -10 is reached and the creature dies....<br />
<br />
...Any character brought to 0 (or fewer) hit points and then revived will remain in a coma for 1-6 turns.  Thereafter, he or she must rest for a full week minimum.  He or she will be incapable of ANY activity other than that necessary to move slowly to a place of rest...   This is true even if cure spells and/or healing potions are given to him or her, although if a heal spell is bestowed the prohibition no longer applies.<br />
<br />
If any creature reaches a state of -6 or greater negative points before being revived, this <b>could</b> indicate scarring or the loss of some member, <b>if you so choose</b>.</div>
			
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	</div>
</div>All of a sudden this recovery completely discounts the fact that you have &quot;metaphysical&quot; hit points, not just physical ones (keep this in mind as I'll be mentioning this later). It seems like the intent of the rules was that if you went into negative hit point territory you were screwed.  Understandable, but ultimately boring.  In addition, long term injuries can be assigned by the DM is he chooses.  These long term injuries really had no &quot;mechanical&quot; penalties unless the DM also deemed it so.  So why the long recuperation times?  <br />
<br />
This was simply a measure of game balance (campaign realism).  In the same way that level limits existed for non-human characters, there were ability score prerequisites and alignment restrictions for certain classes, and female characters had ability score penalties, etc.  All these &quot;rules&quot; were as arbitrary as the damage rules.  They were put in place because someone thought that the game would work better that way.<br />
<br />
The truth of the matter is that most of these &quot;rules&quot; were completely ignored or heavily modified by the majority of players and DMs.  Honestly, how many times did your character spend 1-6 turns (10-60 minutes of combat time) out of the fight when you went into negative hit points and were revived by a potion or a spell?  How many actually used these recovery rules?  Four weeks of &quot;game time&quot; could be an eternity if the giants are invading in two days.<br />
<br />
So as you can see many of these things were modified or ignored because they did NOT make the game better, for the only people that matter, the players at the table.<br />
<br />
In part 2 I'll continue this discussion with 3.x D&amp;D, and talk about ways to make the 4th edition D&amp;D healing system &quot;better&quot;.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://loremaster.org/entry.php/44-Look-Ma-no-wounds-%28Part-2%29" target="_blank">Click here if you prefer your character to be kicking ass and taking names. (next article)</a></b></blockquote>

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			<dc:creator><![CDATA[D'karr]]></dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?43-Look-Ma-no-wounds-(Part-1)</guid>
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			<title>Getting ready for the storm</title>
			<link>http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?25-Getting-ready-for-the-storm</link>
			<pubDate>Sat, 27 Aug 2011 13:29:29 GMT</pubDate>
			<description>Last night while sleeping I had a dream, no not like that Luther King character, more like Stephen King.   
 
On the TV, I saw the newscaster talk...</description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote class="blogcontent restore">Last night while sleeping I had a dream, no not like that Luther King character, more like Stephen King.  <br />
<br />
On the TV, I saw the newscaster talk about how Jersey Shore was deserted.  The entire cast had walked out into the ocean during this &quot;Storm of the Century&quot; never to be seen again.  A single incoherent word written with self-tanning lotion like blood spattered on a wall &quot;CROATOAN&quot;<br />
<br />
<img src="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=119&amp;d=1314451075&amp;stc=1" border="0" alt="" /><br />
<br />
I knew then the horror.<br />
<br />
So this morning I went to the store and bought me a 36 pack of Dr. Pepper, some Moon Pies, and microwaveable popcorn.  I know I don't want to be unprepared for this storm.  If Andre Linoge comes knocking tonight I'll already be incoherent with a sugar high to rival Cornholio.  He will then see the horror.<br />
<br />
<img src="http://loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=118&amp;d=1314449875&amp;stc=1" border="0" alt="" /><br />
<br />
Bring the cat in, grab a Moon Pie and suck on a Dr. Pepper.  Keeps the bad juju away.</blockquote>

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			<dc:creator><![CDATA[D'karr]]></dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?25-Getting-ready-for-the-storm</guid>
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			<title>The stuff right in front of you</title>
			<link>http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?20-The-stuff-right-in-front-of-you</link>
			<pubDate>Thu, 12 May 2011 23:57:57 GMT</pubDate>
			<description>*When the answer is simply staring at you* 
 
Attachment 73 (http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=73) 
 
When it comes to game...</description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote class="blogcontent restore"><b>When the answer is simply staring at you</b><br />
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<a href="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=73&amp;d=1305301683" id="attachment73" rel="Lightbox_20" ><img src="http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=73&amp;d=1348482365&amp;thumb=1" border="0" alt="Click image for larger version.&nbsp;

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<br />
When it comes to game rules, I'm an incorrigible tinkerer.  I like to figure out why some game rule might have been designed in a particular way and how modifying it, or eliminating it can make my game play better.  By better I mean more in tune with what I like in a game.<br />
<br />
I've been going at this for a while which is good.  It makes me aware of my biases and preferences.  I like games that promote a certain level of heroic action, the kind you see in action movies.  I also prefer fantasy rather than modern or futuristic games.  Though I have a soft spot for those that combine both fantasy and futuristic elements.  As a DM/GM, I like not being constrained when I'm trying to create something cool.  I kind of like that freedom too, as a player.  Basically, I want the game rules to give me what I absolutely need and then get out of the way.  I also like playing in games that are popular because they let me have a built-in audience that I can more easily tap into.  So it was with great excitement that I plunged into 4e when it came out.  <br />
<br />
I almost immediately saw gains in each and everyone of those preferences, from both the DM and Player side of the screen.  However I started to notice a weird side effect of the game play at the table.  I was doing gonzo stuff all over the place both as a DM and a Player and I was totally loving it.  What I started to notice was that other players around the table where much more &quot;reserved.&quot;    Each player had a character with abilities, powers and feats with equivalent &quot;power level&quot; to mine, so it was not a balance issue that I was seeing.  The DMG had a really &quot;nifty&quot; table (page 42) to adjudicate those things that the game did not explicitly handle, and it was fantastically liberating.  It just didn't seem to liberate everyone equally.<br />
<br />
There were some &quot;issues&quot; with it.  First of all a DM had to be willing to use it.  It doesn't make any sense to come up with this fantastic idea of what your character is going to do, if the DM's stock response to your idea is always NO.  So a DM had to be willing to <b>say YES</b>.  A point that is very well exposed in the DMG.  Then he had to take the time to define how he could make it work. For me sometimes the effects were awesome, at times they were just satisfying, but they always felt like the things that <b>I wanted to do</b>.  Then, almost like a flying cow or a brick falling from the sky, it hit me.  I was thinking of that particular table mostly because I DM, a lot.  A player that has never experienced the &quot;openness&quot; of a role-playing system might be looking at his character sheet and wondering where does that stuff appear?<br />
<br />
So what I hit upon was that some players looked at the stuff on their character sheets as the <b>ONLY</b> thing they could do.  They never looked outside the stuff that was right in front of them.  If something was not spelled out then it couldn't be done.  I had noticed a similar phenomenon in the previous edition where some played with the idea that if there was not a &quot;rule&quot; for something it could not be done.  I know that is not the way it was supposed to be but it was what I had encountered on several occasions.<br />
<br />
I had a problem with that entire &quot;concept&quot; but I didn't have a simple solution to fix it.  At first I would go through inordinate amounts of effort to let players know that they were not constrained to the character sheet.  This seemed to work for a short period but if it was not reinforced it eventually fell by the wayside.  All of a sudden the game that I had found so liberating was starting to &quot;feel&quot; stifling.  <br />
<br />
It finally occurred to me that I was going about it the wrong way.  Instead of fighting the phenomenon it was best to adapt to it.  The current edition relied heavily on powers that are best displayed as cards.  So, I started to experiment with how to break the reliance on the &quot;stuff right in front of you&quot; by giving the players something to have right in front of them.  Having something in front of them was the best way to remind players to &quot;break&quot; the mold.  The power cards became a &quot;simpler&quot; way of expressing the &quot;rules&quot; than having to keep telling players that they could do something different.<br />
<br />
After several iterations I settled on two cards that could fit in almost every situation.  They are <b><i>Do Something Cool</i></b>, and <b><i>Do Something Cooler</i></b>.  I ended up play-testing these at DDXP this past January in my 4e adaptation of I6-Ravenloft.  I knew I had finally hit the right balance between rules and fun when the Eladrin Wizard used his <i>Do Something Cool</i> as a minor action to break the top of his staff and his <i>Do Something Cooler</i> to chuck it at Count Strahd.  When he rolled a natural 20 and impaled the vampire, there was a cheer that thundered from the players at the table.  After a very tough fight the players had earned a well deserved break and were able to finally defeat Strahd in the crypts below the castle.  It was one of those moments of triumph that will probably stay in the players' memories forever.<br />
<br />
I had mentioned the idea of the two cards to Greg Bilsland and Chris Perkins at the DDXP - Expert DM Seminar (<a href="http://thetome.podbean.com/2011/01/30/tome-ddxp-special-expert-dm-seminar/" target="_blank">download here from The Tome Show</a> - thread starts at 47:14) they both nodded sagely and said, &quot;that is a really cool idea.&quot;  If that is not an awesome endorsement I don't know what is.  :p<br />
<br />
So there you have it.  Don't fight the system, embrace it.  Give the players something to do besides using At-Will, Encounter, and Daily <b>Attack</b> powers and they might totally surprise you with their incredible creativity.  Put it right in front of them and you can't go wrong, they will not forget to use them for totally awesome heroic action.<br />
<br />
Grab the cards here.  Use at your own peril.<br />
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			<dc:creator><![CDATA[D'karr]]></dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?20-The-stuff-right-in-front-of-you</guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[Dude, where's my craft? (Part 2)]]></title>
			<link>http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?10-Dude-where-s-my-craft-(Part-2)</link>
			<pubDate>Fri, 31 Dec 2010 23:22:05 GMT</pubDate>
			<description>Almost imperceptibly, Orugan hammered  the metal with a gentle caress.  The strokes varied in intensity  depending on where he hit.  His muttered...</description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote class="blogcontent restore"><span style="font-family: Arial"><i>Almost imperceptibly, Orugan hammered  the metal with a gentle caress.  The strokes varied in intensity  depending on where he hit.  His muttered breath still rang with the  strange utterances of magic.  He started to notice that parts of the  metal where changing color and he placed the blade back in the fire,  shifting it from side to side.  It was at these times when he sprinkled  iridescent powders over the metal and the fire.  Flames leapt and  sparkled, it was as if he was channeling the forces of the Elemental  Chaos directly into the metal.</i><br />
<br />
</span>      <span style="font-family: Arial">In a sense, previous crafting rules kind of read  like an IKEA instruction manual, or the instructions for building Noah’s  Ark, “forty cubits, by forty cubits, etc”.  There were lots of details  obfuscated by more details. I guess that this  was to provide some form of verisimilitude to the rules.  Unfortunately, it was mostly unsatisfying.  If I had to go  looking at rules for more than 2 minutes to try to figure out what was  supposed to be done, the rule was simply not serving its purpose. It mostly boiled down to pay X amount in raw materials and roll your  skill against DC Y.  This was not exciting.<br />
<br />
</span>      <span style="font-family: Arial">When I was thinking about crafting for 4e the same  thoughts were going through my mind.  I didn’t want a lot of work  (rules) for an unsatisfying result (roll DC Y).  I knew the end result  was that the character would end up crafting an item, but that was the  “destination”.  I didn’t want the “journey” to be just some unsatisfying  skill checks and a payment of resources.  I don’t recommend doing this  kind of “work” for simply mundane stuff.  If a player has a background  as a weaponsmith and he wants to craft a dagger, simply let him.  There  is no benefit in making it a big deal to do something routine.  If you  don’t force your players to make Athletics checks to go up a set of  stairs or raise a tankard to their lips, there is no need to  overcomplicate other aspects of the game either.  Where games falter and  become “humdrum” is when they become routine.  In other words the  journey is not exciting.  But when the player wants to craft  “Excalibur”, then we’re talking a different level of excitement and the  journey is where it counts.  So how do you turn it on its head?  With a  challenge.<br />
</span>   <span style="font-family: Arial"><font size="3"><br />
<b>Then there was the challenge of the “craft”</b></font></span>   <span style="font-family: Arial"><br />
</span>   <span style="font-family: Arial">I’ve been an avid proponent of Skill challenges for some time.  I think the mechanic itself  provides a good basis for incorporating roleplay and mechanics into a  unified framework.  The way the concept was described you had an awesome  framework to build on.  However, the implementation of skill challenges  is a challenge in itself.  Unfortunately, the way that the examples  were originally described and implemented in the books left a lot to be  desired.  A lot has been written about them so I won’t rehash those  things now. BTW,  Skill Challenges have “evolved” somewhat into better mechanics with the  advent of the Essentials Line. Go check out the Rules  Compendium for a better description including a play example.  So how do  we build an interesting Skill Challenge for crafting an item?<br />
<br />
</span>      <span style="font-family: Arial">This is not a typical or conventional  Skill Challenge.  In addition, we need to keep in  mind that Skill Challenges are usually designed for an entire party.  In  the case of crafting we are usually dealing with a single player.   So for the duration of this event, there is a chance that the other  players can get bored.  So, you either find a way to incorporate them  into it, run this challenge as a VERY SHORT side trek, take this event  completely offline with the player that is going to do this, or you come  up with a reasonable amalgamation of all.<br />
<br />
<br />
A</span><span style="font-family: Arial"> Skill Challenge “works” when it doesn't “feel”  mechanical.  It has to bring those roleplaying elements to bear, even if  it has mechanical components attached to it.  In the same way that  combat becomes boring if it degenerates to simply rolling attacks and  damage, a skill challenge that does the same fails to meet its intended  “purpose”.  Skill Challenges should be exciting, just like combat.  So it is important for the DM to really push those  “roleplay” elements to the front. What I prefer  doing is breaking Skill Challenges into smaller parts and introducing  additional elements like building blocks.  The best part about Skill  Challenges is that they can be included and integrated almost anywhere.   So let’s take a look at crafting “Excalibur”, which would probably be a  campaign spanning Skill Challenge.<br />
<br />
</span>      <span style="font-family: Arial">Decide on a goal, but like I mentioned earlier the real excitement is  not the destination but the journey.  We are going to break this Skill  Challenge into much smaller pieces and integrate them into an existing  campaign.  One piece will be the research involved in crafting one of  these swords of power.  Then comes the collecting of raw materials,  which in their own right should be special.  Then comes the journey to  the place the sword can be crafted, you didn’t think they could do this  in their backyard, right? And finally it gets to the actual crafting.   As you can see something that could have been “humdrum” can be turned  into something much more exciting and even more campaign driven.  In  most campaigns, Excalibur, the sword of kings, is probably an  appropriate reward for a Paragon Level or higher character so that also  comes into effect as you are planning for this.  This doesn’t mean that  some of the “subgoals” can’t be accomplished during the Heroic Tier.<br />
<br />
</span>      <span style="font-family: Arial">So each of those smaller goals can be turned into a  skill challenge of their own or be incorporated in to a much higher  complexity challenge.  Personally I prefer the former.  Below is a  preliminary mapping of the Skill Challenges.  This needs more details  but you can see the very basic structure.<br />
<br />
</span>      <span style="font-family: Arial"><font size="3">GOAL: Craft “Wonderful Sword”</font><br />
</span>   <span style="font-family: Arial"><b>Subgoal 1</b>: Research Swords of Power (Heroic Tier (8-10))<br />
</span>   <span style="font-family: Arial">Level: PC Level +3 (Moderate)<br />
</span>   <span style="font-family: Arial">Complexity: 1 (4 Successes / 3 Failures)<br />
</span>   <span style="font-family: Arial">Skills: Arcana, Religion, Diplomacy, Bluff, Thievery<br />
</span>   <span style="font-family: Arial">Consequences:</span><div style="margin-left:40px"><span style="font-family: Arial">Success – You have found the secrets to crafting a sword of power<br />
</span> <span style="font-family: Arial">Failure – You have found the secrets to crafting a  sword of power (unfortunately the player does not know that he’s got the  wrong information making the next challenges more difficult)<br />
</span></div><span style="font-family: Arial"><b>Subgoal 2</b>: Locate the Raw Materials to craft  (Heroic Tier / Low Paragon (10-12))  This goal can also be integrated  with subgoal 3 as some of the raw materials could be at that location.<br />
</span>   <span style="font-family: Arial">Level: PC Level (Moderate)<br />
</span>   <span style="font-family: Arial">Complexity: 1 (4 Successes / 3 Failures)<br />
</span>   <span style="font-family: Arial">Skills: Arcana, Bluff, Diplomacy, Dungeoneering, Nature, Religion, Thievery<br />
</span>   <span style="font-family: Arial">Consequences: </span><div style="margin-left:40px"><span style="font-family: Arial">Full Success – You gather the raw materials needed to  craft the sword.  In addition, if they failed in the previous challenge  they may discover that some of their research was wrong and can  “correct” it.<br />
</span> <span style="font-family: Arial">Partial Success – You gather the raw materials needed to  craft the sword.</span><span style="font-family: Arial"><br />
Failure – You fail to gather the materials and need to try again at next level<br />
</span></div><span style="font-family: Arial"><b>Subgoal 3</b>: Travel to the Island of Glass (Setting – Elemental Chaos) (Paragon Tier (11-12))<br />
</span>   <span style="font-family: Arial">Level: PC Level +1<br />
</span>   <span style="font-family: Arial">Complexity: 2 (6 Successes / 3 Failures)<br />
</span>   <span style="font-family: Arial">Skills: Arcana, Acrobatics, Athletics, Bluff, Diplomacy, Dungeoneering, Endurance, Nature, Streetwise<br />
</span>   <span style="font-family: Arial">Consequences:</span><div style="margin-left:40px"><span style="font-family: Arial">Full Success – You arrive in Avalon without a scratch.  In addition, if they failed in their research they have a way to correct it.<br />
Partial Success - You arrive in Avalon without a scratch.<br />
</span><span style="font-family: Arial">Failure – Events in Avalon are going to be tougher<br />
</span></div><span style="font-family: Arial"><b>Subgoal 4</b>: Craft the sword (Setting – Avalon) (Paragon Tier (11-12))<br />
</span>   <span style="font-family: Arial">Level: PC Level<br />
</span>   <span style="font-family: Arial">Complexity: Variable (1, 2) The complexity of this challenge is driven by the results of the Research and Travel subgoals.<br />
</span>   <span style="font-family: Arial">Skills: Arcana, Athletics, Endurance, Religion<br />
</span>   <span style="font-family: Arial">Consequences:</span><div style="margin-left:40px"><span style="font-family: Arial">Success: You have crafted THE magnificent sword of kings (Quest XP, Sword, Treasure, Renown, and you get the girl too)<br />
</span> <span style="font-family: Arial">Failure: You have been unable to craft the sword.  Though you may try again later.  You do not receive Quest XP for a retry.<br />
</span></div><span style="font-family: Arial">As you can clearly see this approach is obviously more complicated than what was done in the previous edition, and you wouldn't want to use this for crafting insignificant items.  However, this approach is more satisfying because it makes the entire process more integrated with the campaign.  Instead of having Orugan sequester himself for 3 months to craft the sword, you can include this as part of the ongoing adventures and make it organic to the campaign.  You can segregate each skill challenge to one adventure, take it out of &quot;adventure time&quot; entirely and have it as something that happens between adventures, or you can make them something that happens across several adventures and is integral to them.<br />
<br />
I hope you enjoyed the articles and I look forward to your comments and ideas.  How would you integrate an event such as crafting items into your 4e games?<br />
</span></blockquote>

]]></content:encoded>
			<dc:creator><![CDATA[D'karr]]></dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?10-Dude-where-s-my-craft-(Part-2)</guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[Dude, where's my craft? (Part 1)]]></title>
			<link>http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?9-Dude-where-s-my-craft-(Part-1)</link>
			<pubDate>Fri, 31 Dec 2010 23:21:08 GMT</pubDate>
			<description>The early morning crowing of the rooster was interrupted by the sharp hammering Orugan was performing on his anvil.  The brightly colored metal...</description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote class="blogcontent restore"><span style="font-family: Arial"><i><span style="font-family: Arial">The early morning crowing of the rooster was interrupted by the sharp hammering Orugan was performing on his anvil.  The brightly colored metal released sparks with each successive strike as Orugan kept a feverish rhythm like none other.  He had been at it for countless hours.  As the thick sweat accumulated along his brow it would drip on the heated metal and sizzle like fat over burning embers.  All along, beneath his breath, he muttered the arcane words of power.  The arcane energies would bend to his will and make this blade his latest masterpiece.  Few left in the world knew the secrets of this most valued method of arcane crafting; even fewer had performed it successfully even once.  Orugan was practiced like no other; he was a master craftsman with no equal.</span></i><br />
  <br />
  <span style="font-family: Arial">Over the years I've often heard the complaint that 4e relegated any skill that is not involved in combat to the sidelines, or didn't even bother including them in the game.  Some go so far as to assert that the game provides no rules for performing any actions outside of combat.  On the surface, I would tend to agree.  From an objective standpoint it is pretty easy to look at the list of skills and come to that conclusion.  However, I tend to agree with the design decision to keep those things either out of the game, or loosely “quantified”; some of these things don’t really need rules.  I believe that this decision really freed the DM to improvise in ways that were hard to do when everything was strictly spelled out.</span><br />
  <br />
  <span style="font-family: Arial">From the DM's vantage point I might be looking at it with rose colored glasses.  I started playing this game before there were such things as Non-Weapon Proficiencies or even skill lists.  In the &quot;primitive&quot; editions of D&amp;D if you wanted to perform a particular action, you'd ask the DM about it.  He'd give you an answer based on his &quot;arbitration&quot; of the action and situation.  Sometimes you'd make an ability check, at other times you'd make a percentage roll, and sometimes the DM would completely make something up based on the circumstances.  This worked for some, but it is obvious that it had the potential of becoming a game of &quot;mother may I&quot; with the DM.  So as the game started expanding some of these &quot;rules&quot; were included as part of the game.  We started to see Non-Weapon Proficiencies and eventually actual skills with quantified results.</span><br />
  <br />
  <span style="font-family: Arial">Up to that point I didn't see much of a problem.  However, the more you quantify, the more you start to &quot;prevent&quot; expansion.  If the &quot;rules as written&quot; say that I can do X on a roll of Y then that is pretty much what most games are going to use, even if the particular situation doesn't totally fit.  This “stifled” way of playing and interpreting the “rules” became glaringly obvious to me when some started looking at the 4e Skill Challenge framework detailed in the DMG, and using the examples provided there as if that was the ONLY way to do things.  A common complaint was that in the example for the Negotiation with the Duke, &quot;Intimidate&quot; could not be used to achieve a success.  As a matter of fact it was an automatic failure.  Some would argue that it meant that you could never use intimidation in these types of interactions.  All of a sudden the written example had become a &quot;preventative&quot; to expansion; it had “walled” people in.  Some were unwilling to go beyond the written page and see the examples as a framework to be expanded by the DM.  From a skills perspective there were also some things that just didn't sit well with me.  As you looked closer at the game needs, did we really need to have a particular skill to have a profession, or even to tie a rope?</span><br />
  <br />
  <span style="font-family: Arial">Some of the changes that came with 4e were very well worth it.  In the previous edition there were succinct rules for crafting weapons, armor, and even magic items.  One of the &quot;problems&quot; I had with the quantification of some of these &quot;rules&quot; is that the “rules” started to straight-jacket the DM.  In addition, some of the &quot;magic&quot; was lost.  You lost some of the “mystery” when you had a strictly mechanical way to create the items by simply investing some coin, some XP, and making a few rolls.  I heartily believe that there was a valid &quot;balance&quot; reason for removing these &quot;rules&quot; from the game.  In my experience, these &quot;rules&quot; were often abused as you could create items for a fraction of the cost.  After all, the cost was supposed to be the balancing and limiting factor to the introduction of items into the game.  Even though the “rules” were removed for balance reasons, there is no reason for the CONCEPT of crafting to be anathema to the game, <b>if the DM and players want to make it so</b>.  The great thing that 4e did was give us some robust frameworks to improvise, so I started to tinker.  Here are some examples of how to “do it.”</span><br />
  <br />
  <font size="3"><b><span style="font-family: Arial">It’s all in the background</span></b></font><br />
  <span style="font-family: Arial">Introduced in the campaign settings and in many of the expansion sourcebooks, character backgrounds can serve to “ground” your character more immersively into the particular setting.  They usually also provide some form of slight mechanical benefit.  In my own campaign I have no restriction to the number of backgrounds a character can choose, as long as they are willing to justify them in their backstory.  To avoid abuse of these, the actual backgrounds and what the players can do with them are discussed during character creation.  Usually, instead of selecting a particular background from the books I’ll sit with the players and come up with tailor made backgrounds for them.  With a bit of work, a DM could easily adapt or create whole-cloth character backgrounds.  These can include professions, or even “crafting” elements.  Here are a few very simple examples:</span><br />
  <br />
  <b><span style="font-family: Arial">Sea Legs:</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial">  You’ve spent much of your time seafaring aboard ships, and have a good understanding of ship operations and navigation.  Many would consider you a sailor.  You gain a +2 bonus to checks related to ship operations, or navigation.</span><br />
  <span style="font-family: Arial">Associated Skills: Athletics, Insight, Nature</span><br />
  <br />
  <b><span style="font-family: Arial">Riddle of Steel:</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial">  When the lord of your lands wanted weapons made for his men, it was you he would seek.  Before choosing an adventuring life you were a weaponsmith.  You gain a +2 bonus to checks related to weapons, and how to craft them.  This bonus cannot be used for combat maneuvers.</span><br />
  <span style="font-family: Arial">Associated Skills: Athletics, Endurance, Perception</span><br />
  <br />
  <b><span style="font-family: Arial">You are the Desert Storm:</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial">  Your upbringing among the Badu of the Crystal  Sands Desert makes you a master of living among the unforgiving desert terrain.  You are proficient in riding the gilthak, operating a sand skimmer, and crafting the wicked hawk hatchets.  In desert terrain, you gain a +2 bonus to Endurance checks, a +2 bonus to checks for finding food and water, and a +2 bonus to checks for navigation.</span><br />
  <span style="font-family: Arial">Associated Skills: Endurance, Nature, Perception</span><br />
  <br />
  <span style="font-family: Arial">These backgrounds didn’t take a lot of time to develop and are very simple.  I prefer to create these with my players in mind.  That way the backgrounds can be tailored to fit the “backstory” of the characters, and even made to fit some of the upcoming events of the campaign.  They can be very helpful in immersing the players into the “mythos” of the campaign.  In reality, for my players, the backgrounds can be much more varied, specific and include many more mechanical and story elements, which open up a world of possibilities for a campaign.</span><br />
  <br />
  <span style="font-family: Arial">The character backgrounds can be used as an approach to the issue of not having professions or a crafting skill.  However, the backgrounds alone don’t specify anything of how to craft.  For that the DM can once again get creative.</span> <a href="http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?10-Dude-where-s-my-craft-%28Part-2%29" target="_blank"> I'll cover that in Part 2</a></span></blockquote>

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			<dc:creator><![CDATA[D'karr]]></dc:creator>
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