So, in my all-things-related-to-sports ignorance, I failed to notice that this Sunday is Superbowl Sunday.  The same day as our D&D game.  However, in my defense I have to point something out.  In our society, I've noticed that there is just a little bit of social stigma directed towards gamers and geeks.  I found this really ironic especially when one looks at sports fans.  Oh well, c'est la vie.

 

On the websire front, it looks like I will keep the podcasts up.  Most people find them to be somewhat beneficial -- especially if they missed a game.

 

A couple of interesting turn of events happened during our last game.  As the party cleaned up the tower in Spellgard and returned to the monastery, they happened upon a large fire.  In fact, the whole monastery was on fire.  Being the heros they are, the party managed to get everybody out of the burning structure (including the head of the monastery) and, in doing so, impressed Sister Cherra (a local genasi).  Most of this encounter took place through a successful Skill Challenge.  This became especially favorable since, from the get-go, their whole reason for being in the Realms was to "recruit" more genasi and persude them to journey to the City of Brass.  They also learned (from the oracle of the tower) that they should journey east in order to better fullfill their mission. 

 

I have an interesting rules related issue.  During our games, I've noticed something in regards to movement.  According to the Rules As Written (RAW), it states: "You normally can’t move through an enemy’s space unless that enemy is helpless...  Moving into a nonhelpless enemy’s space provokes an opportunity attack from that enemy because you left a square adjacent to the enemy."  Often times during our games, players don't move through an enemy's occupied space because they think that they can't.  Well, it looks like they can -- but that enemy gets an oportunity attack. 

 

 

 

So, this came up during our last game.  A Dark One (Dark Stalker to be exact) used his Dark Cloud power.  This effectively darkened the whole room.  Justin's wizard, Cain, was going to cast a Light cantrip to counteract the effect.  However, I ruled that since the Dark One was more powerful (level 10), that the Light Cantrip wouldn't work.

 

In an effort to not waste a lot of time looking up the rule, I pulled a DM fiat, suggested we look up the rule after the game, and we moved along.  Well, I scoured the PHB and couldn't find any rules for counteracting spells.  In 3rd/3.5 a Light spell counters a Darkness spell.  It doesn't seem to be that clearcut in 4th edition.

 

So, I turned to EnWorld for an answer.  This is what I found:

 

 

I particularly liked frankthedm and Starfox's responses: "...CoD wins over sunlight, so I'd definitly say it will take much more potent light than a cantrip" and "...if the light power does not specify its effective against darkness powers, it only affects mundane darkness."  Therefore, I think I ruled correctly.

 

Not much new on the 4th edition front.  However, on the regular book reading front, I did find a couple of interesting books.  First, I'm just about done with Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress   I know, I know... its a "girl's guide" to D&D.  I'm reading because I like Shelly's sense of humor and how she describes her gaming group.  Although, at times it does go over the top with the "girly metaphors."  I think its a little silly how she relates D&D adventures with going to the mall.  My next book is The Elfish Gene.  This one should bring back all those crazy high school D&D memories.

 

Well, it looks like we have another game this weekend... Yay! :)

Greetings!  I'm going to start doing something a little different.  Normally, right before our games, I take a few minutes and go over a few game related itmes.  To save a little time, I've decided to combine these Opening Remarks with this little blog thingy.  With that in mind, let's go!

 

First off, our games have been on a short little hiatus as some of the player's are on Winter Break (from college).  In the iterim, I've been collecting 4th edition pdfs. Some of these pdfs are  from the online Dragon and Dungeon magazines.  Others are third party products (3PPs) I purchased from RPGNow. I've decided to print out some these pdfs and put them in a Player's Notebook.  These will be addition rules items or Appended Rules (as noted under IV.1. of the House Rules Section).

 

So far, the Player's Notebook is divided into three sections (more may follow): Races, Classes & Rituals.  Under Races, I've included the Minotaur and the Gnoll from Dragon magazine.  I also included a 3PP from Alluria Publishing called The Oakling.  In the Realms, these races are a perfect 4th edition substitute for the Volodni (as detailed in the 3.5 Unapproachable East sourcebook).

 

Under Classes, I included the playtest Barbarian as well as multiclass Noble (which I discussed earlier).  Finally, under Rituals, I included a bunch of new ones I found in Dragon magazine.

 

I also compiled another notebook for players.  This one has copies of character sheets, powers sheets and blank paper in it.  It also has a storage pocket for any handouts (notes, maps, etc.) the players receive in the game.  Also, each player now has a clipboard for their character sheets and scratch paper.  During one of our games, we had a heck of time locating some missing character sheets.  Therefore, I decded to organize these a little bit.

 

On the book front, I just finished reading the new Manual of the Planes.  Let me just say, I am completely sold on the new World Axis Cosmology.  Way more streamlinded then the Realm's World Tree Cosmology and way more negotiable then the former Great Wheel cosmolgy.  This month, Open Grave: Secrets of the Undead comes out and I already have my copy pre-ordered :)  Also, we see another of Mongoose's 4th edition Quintessential line--the Quentiessential Fighter.   While Quintessential Wizard got both some good and bad reviews, I kinda liked it.  Its not nearly as broken as the 3rd edition version.