Shadows of Heroes.

WotC published a new supplement for D&D 4e/Essentials this week. It probably won't surprise you to find that I've been eagerly awaiting it's arrival since hearing of it a few weeks back. Heroes of Shadow contains a host of character options for the players who want something darker. New classes like Vampire, Blackguard, Executioner (a rework of Assassin) and Binder (a warlock variant), new options for Mages to dabble in or master Necromancy, and a bunch of other stuff to fill out your anti-heroes.

One of the things that disappointed me most about D&D 4e was the limit on building darker characters. Sure, you could have a pact with Infernal entities (Infernal Warlock), and/or you could play the descendant of an empire whose leaders did the same (Tiefling), but besides a handful of items, that was pretty much it as far as creepy trappings of supernatural evil are concerned.

I love creepy trappings of supernatural evil on my (anti)heroes.

It seemed part of the design of the new edition--player characters were explicitly banned from taking evil alignments. Rules for more monstrous races were not (originally) included. And worst of all from my perspective, no Necromancy! Diabolism seemed one thing, but fooling around with dead things was somehow beyond the pale these days. Really? So I've been relegated to playing a series of unsatisfying neutral-to-good adventurers in one campaign, trying to find something that really catches my interest. No more!

So I've been drawing up characters left, right, and beyond using WotC's online Character Builder, seeing what makes these new classes and options tick. My all-time personal favorite fantasy concept--the heroish necromancer--is leading the pack. Death is just an evocative subject, even in settings where it can be reversed. I don't think of myself as emo or anything--I just recognize that death fascinates or scares the shit out of anyone who gives it any thought.

Nobilis tie-in: One of the Properties of the Estate of Death in my 3rd edition Nobilis game is "Death fascinates or terrifies." /nobilis

A tradition that began with D&D 2e and Planescape, the Red Dragon Inn free-form RP chat-room and numerous home-brew necromancy spells posted on AOL in early high school continues in D&D 4e with Hygelak the Necromancer. He's clearly the favorite to be introduced into whatever campaign I can get him into--I kept the the old screen name from my AOL days, and played a number of iterations (never very long--unfortunately, DMs and friends don't seem to want me to be happy in this specific way). I've been waiting for the chance to bring him back for a campaign full of creepiness, ambition, and dedication.

I'm crossing my fingers.

In yet another game--the one my fiance runs, the D&D 3.5 Planescape game--I play a vampire spawn with anmesia, and nothing but a peculiar black sigil on his forehead to give him any idea as to his true identity. They call him "the black-runed man," which he quickly adopted and shortened to "Blackrune." So, with the new supplement, I got to try my hand at recreating him for 4e. The Vampire class is pretty damned (pardon the pun) linear, with a choice in powers at 2nd level, a choice of two vampire-focused paragon paths, and another power choice at level 22. But the paragon choice is pretty sweet...do you want to be a charming, hypnotic noble of the night, or do you want to hunger, hunt and kill? I build the Stalker variant to stay faithful to Blackrune (I find the Hunger aspect of vampirism more compelling than the hyped sexuality--I prefer Stephen King to Anne Rice, thanks).

World of Warcraft didn't have an option for Necromancers when I started playing (shortly after the game went live), so I settled for a Warlock--wielding demonic minions and energies to lay waste to the enemies of the Alliance. Since then, Death Knights became a playable class, and declared that Hygelakus the Warlock had been captured by the Lich King and transformed into a Death Knight, only to escape and seek revenge. I haven't taken a serious look at the Blackguard class (a damage-dealing Paladin variant), but mayhap I should. I've definately enjoyed wielding dark magic via a really big sword recently.

Enough for now! I have characters to draw up, and a game tonight. Who knows--maybe my Artificer will be horribly slain?

Introducing: The New Guys.

It’s been my experience that the party never stays stable—there always comes a time when someone has to drop out, or wants to change characters, or someone is added to the group.

To be fair, as a player I’m the guy who seems to want to change characters all the damn time.  But party/coterie/familia rosters tend to change even when I’m not playing, or even involved with the game at all.  So there, it’s not just me.

When it is me, it’s usually two things.  Either I overestimate how much/how long I’d be interested in playing a certain character concept, or something else catches my imagination so completely that I form a new concept and have that stuck in my head so fully that I just need to play it.  Sometimes I see that the party needs some role filled, and I think about changing to meet those needs—but one of the above reasons is usually behind the change, too.  Sometimes what I’m playing just doesn’t fit the group.  This isn’t often an actual problem, though—unless, again, I’m bored or I’ve latched onto another concept.

I suppose I rarely come up with concepts that can’t work with most parties.  In D&D terms, I tend towards lawful, if dark, characters.  Even if the character has had problems working with others in their backstory, I try to write incentives to join the other PCs, and have ideas for how I’ll interact with each.

Changing rosters seems to be pretty easy in D&D games.  You get back to town, and someone bows out to settle down, or moves on to another region.  Sometimes they die, either by planned out fiat, or purely by the die rolls.  You find someone else in the dungeon—the last survivor of a lost company of adventurers, or a lone traveller captured for nefarious purposes.  Someone comes to town because of the local problems, hoping to make a difference or a least a few gold pieces.

In World of Darkness games, the issue is similarly easy.  The current plot/baddie has attracted another Vampire/Werewolf/Frankenstein/Wizard who wants to do something about it.  Or perhaps the plot/baddie has a hostage.  You lose characters when something else in the World of Darkness calls to one of you—it’s something they have to do alone.  Or someone falls to the current baddie—proof that this world is darker, and that drama over their death would be pretty interesting to play out.

Other systems and settings aren’t much different.  Mo matter if you’re running or playing a game about super heroes, pulp adventure, or a gritty cyberpunk future, chances are one of the situations above will work for your group—but this is yet again one of those areas where Nobilis stands out.  Since the PC group is supposed to represent the aspects of creation owned by their boss (Imperator), whether that’s an angel, devil, dragon or god, certain character changes can strain the framework of the game.  Characters can die, even in Nobilis, so it’s possible to retire one Power of Lies, and come up with another concept that uses the same estate—a brand new Power of Lies that is different in key ways.  Actually, I think this is one of the more intriguing aspects of the game, that an Estate can be served/embodied by completely different people.

And while that sort of character change works out well for the game, others have to be handled carefully.  What if a player wants to drop their current Estate and play something new?  What if a new player joins the group, but noone’s leaving?  Bring in new Estates to an established game leaves the imaginary audience (maybe the players and GM, too) wondering “How does that work, exactly?”  It’s up to the GM and player to work out exactly what’s going on in the continuity that makes these changes possible.  Did the Imperator always have these facets of creation, and just didn’t have servants for them?  Did they gain them in some way?  If so, how?  Did another Imperator die, or forfeit them?  Does the Imperator actually have the new Estates, or do they still belong to something else, something that is working with it—or at least alongside it?

These are issues I had to resolve in my newer Nobilis game recently.  I loved the opportunity to add a certain player, and I like the new characters, but when this sort of thing happens in Nobilis, you need worry about a lot of details ahead of time.  You need to know what’s going on in your Creation.

Of course, a roster change in Nobilis can be lots of fun, if you do have those answers and the characters don’t.

Lunchtime.

Hallos!

I'm on my break at the restaurant, and I got the urge to put down a few words about a few disparate topics.

The Champaign County Young Republicans came in for lunch today. They asked for a table for ten. Forty minutes later, there's still only 4 people here, and just one who could accurately be described as "young." Now you know everything you need to know about Republican voting in Illinois.

Bank lobbies open at 9 in the morning, and close at 5. I'd hate to have to go to one during the normal lunch hour. Fortunately, I'm usually here during that time.

It struck me how much I like 4th edition D&D as opposed to alternative systems. I'd rather not try to adopt it for Nobilis, but re-skin the powers and allow for more flexible selection, and it'd be a great super-hero game. With emphasis on the limited selection of abilities, it'd be a good system for a horror game. And for D&D...well, at the climax of 3rd edition, characters had spells (powers), skill tricks (skill powers), feats (some of which were basically powers), multiple attacks (powerspowers), wildshapes (pow-rawrs), invocations (see spells)...this list goes on. Put those together with discrete rolls to help players do what they thought classes should be doing anyway--certain classes were thought of as "tanks," even without any real mechanics to help them fulfill those expectations, while there weren't many flavors of "healer" around. Third edition unified the d20 die roll for the conflict resolution of the game, but the miscellany sort of...exploded. Forth edition picked up there, unifying the miscellany, though many classes still have class abilities that don't quite fit the power mold. With a broad selection of classes, character creation is really, really simple once you know what you want to do--and there are basic, useful rules for editing your character if you change your mind.

I've been trying to ramp up my general "web presence" recently. Besides this, and Matt Underwood's blog about being Death, I've been trying to be more active on Facebook, and on Google's Buzz service. I've also added a Twitter account (linked to Buzz), a Picasa account (linked to Buzz), and have dusted off my YouTube account (linked to Buzz). I'm using StumbleUpon to find neat things to share. It sounds like work, but I don't know that I've ever enjoyed relating this much before. It must be the blinking lights.

Time to get back to work. Until next time!

~j